Monthly Archives: June 2014

What is the best squat stance?

Squat technique is going to vary from lifter to lifter. Finding your optimal technique will take some experimentation.

I just wanted to kick this off with a video of me squatting so you can take a look at my stance and technique. This is a video of me squatting 600 at a body weight of 234.

Adam Pine 600 X 1

What is the best squat stance?

Finding your optimal squat stance can be difficult and confusing. You hear different advice from experts all the time. “Squat as wide as possible”. “Raw squatters should use a high bar narrow stance”. Then you see a video of Dan Green squatting raw, using a low bar wide stance. What do you do?

Things to consider when finding your squat stance: are you limited by injuries/mobility, what are you goals/what do you hope to achieve by squatting, your anthropometry. Here are some general guidelines renowned strength coach Dave Tate suggests to start you off.

Guidelines:

If you have shoulder issues, choose a medium to wide grip.

If you have a short back, choose a medium to wide stance.

If you have a long torso, choose a medium stance (the longer the torso, the closer the stance).

If you have long legs and a long back, choose a close to medium stance.

If you have long legs and a short back, congratulations. You can squat any way you want.

Beginning with these guidelines and doing what feels natural is a good starting point. Over time you will find ways to make your squat more efficient. The best squatters have years of experience finding their optimal squat technique. Spending time under the bar and learning your weaknesses and how to improve upon them will develop your squat.

Deciding what is your most optimal stance can be a challenging task. Using the appropriate stance for your body type and using the one that feels most natural is a great start. Through experience and repetition you will begin to develop the best squat stance for you based upon your individual needs.

If you are unsure where to begin: I like to begin with a medium stance, a moderate to low bar position on the back, with a close to medium grip on the bar depending on mobility. After some experience under the bar, adjustments can be made.

Learn to identify weaknesses.

Not only muscular weaknesses, but technical weaknesses too. Many lifters jump to the conclusion that they have a muscular weakness when they struggle in a lift, rather than a weakness in their technique. It is important to identify the difference.

Don’t assume because you pitched forward in a squat that you are weak in the lower back and abs. This might be the case, or you could have a technical flaw causing you to pitch forward.

Sometimes it’s a matter of fixing a simple technical issue.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting stronger, and bringing up muscular weaknesses. Exercise selection will be crucial for bringing up these specific weaknesses.

It’s important to work the areas you need the most help with. For instance, if you struggle getting out of the hole in a squat like many raw lifters do; paused squats, and pin squats can help. You will want to work movements that help you improve your strength out of the hole rather than towards the lockout.

Here are videos of some of the worlds best Powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and Strongman competitors, to take a look at how they squat.

Mikhail Koklyaev 687.5 X 9

Mikhail Koklyaev 638 X 1 (No Hands!)

Mart Seim 704 X 10

Sam Byrd 825 X 1

Igor Gagin 881 X 4

Idalberto Arranda 616 X 1

http://youtu.be/VcEsmhVag1c

Dan Green 847 X 1

Konstantin Pozdeev 881 X 1

Pat Mendes 800 X 1

Vytautas Lalas 770 X 5

http://youtu.be/Ha6J8O7sbJw

Kirk Karwoski 836 X 1

Mike Tuchscherer 705 X 4

Ray Williams 909 X 1

Don Reinhoudt 934 X 1

Chad Wesley Smith 937 X 1

Eric Lilliebridge 985 X 1

Derek Kendall 1005 X 1

Andrey Malanichev 1014 X 1

Takeaway:

– Hand position varies. Both neutral and extended wrist positions were used. A majority of lifters favor an extended wrist position.

– The hand width and finger position varies. Lifters go anywhere from as wide to narrow as possible and anywhere in between. Lifters will wrap all the fingers around the bar, all but the thumb, two fingers, and other variations.

– You want to pull your elbows in and forward to flex your lats. A relatively narrow grip on the bar is desirable for upper back tightness, it is not essential. Drive your upper back as hard as you possibly can into the barbell, creating as much tension on the bar as possible.

– Fill your entire torso with air, beginning with your lower back and flex your abs. If you are trying to beat Andre Malanichev’s squat, do you want to fill just your belly or chest up with air, or the whole torso?

– Move at your hips , like you’re sitting down on the toilet.

– Spread the floor apart, and drive up explosively.

– Bar positions vary from high, moderate, to low. Many of these squatters are moderate to low bar.

– Stances vary from wide, medium, to narrow.

– If you are new to squatting, learn and master a style, but don’t feel you are married to one technique if it doesn’t work for you. If your technique works well, stick with it; don’t feel you have to change it because others do something different. It is important to find what technique is optimal for you.

If you are serious about improving your squat looking for ways to better your program and technique, send me an email at: adamnpine@gmail.com and put “SQUAT QUERY” in the subject line.

3 Tips for a Bigger Deadlift

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Takeaway:

– The setup is the most important part of the deadlift. It will dictate the performance of your lift.

– Think of the deadlift not only as a pull, but a push too. Push your heels through the floor and stand up explosively!

– Practice the movement and perfect your technique. Choose accessory work that’s specific to strengthening your weaknesses.

The deadlift is arguably the ultimate test of strength. There aren’t too many things more basic than picking a heavy weight off the floor. While deadlifting looks easy, it requires a great deal of practice to master the technique.

Here is a video of my first 700lb raw deadlift:

The benefits of deadlifting include increased strength, hypertrophy, performance, and injury prevention when done properly.

Here are three tips that will help you improve your conventional deadlift.

The Setup

Try to make the setup automatic. Make a mental checklist for every set. Review the setup in your head and go through each part of the process. When this becomes automatic, focus on moving the weight as fast as possible.

There are many ways to setup and perform the deadlift. It is important to find what your strongest stance and setup will be. If you are unsure, I suggest following these guidelines:

Stand close to the bar. Your shins can be touching to an inch or two away from the bar. Feet remain flat on the ground, close together, hip width or narrower.
Let your arms hang by your sides and your hand rest by your hips, this is where you will want to grip the bar.
Get your arms as long as possible. Arms stay straight the whole time.

Take a deep breath into your entire torso, starting with the lower back and traveling up. Brace your abs HARD! Brace through the entirety of the lift. You can take your air at the top or in the bottom position of the setup. Hold you air until you finish the lift.

Push your glutes back into the wall behind you. Hinge at the hips. Push your glutes back as far as you can until your hamstrings prevent you from moving them any further. Don’t let your back round. Keep your legs relatively straight, bent at the knees just so they are not locked out (“soft” knees). Your shins should stay vertical the entire time. Your weight stays on your heels.

Choke the bar! Grip it tight using one hand over, one hand under.

Pull the slack out of the bar. Keep your lats tight and use them to pull the tension out of the bar. If you struggle with this, have someone tap on your lats while trying to pull the slack out.

Use the weight as a counter balance, drive your body weight onto your heels. Pull your hips down into place and drive your chest up. Everyone should be able to see the logo on your t-shirt. At this point, there should be a tremendous amount of tension on the bar. You should fall backwards if you were to let go of the bar. Don’t dip your hips too low, it’s not a squat.

Leave an imprint in the floor of each heel! Stand up through your heels explosively! You should push your heels so hard through the floor that they melt into it. Keep the bar close to your body the entire time.

Technique and Performance

Much of the performance lies in the setup. While this is true of many lifts, it is probably even more so with the deadlift. Because the deadlift is a concentric lift (just standing up with the weight), so much is determined by how you setup to it.

Once you have the setup down, think about being as explosive as possible. Your goal should be to get bar off the floor to lockout as FAST as possible.

While the deadlift is often referred to as a pull, I would like you to think of it as a push too. To break the weight off the floor you must stay tight and push your heels into the ground as hard as possible!

Pushing your heels through will prevent your hips from shooting up. Once your knees have locked out, you can no longer push your heels into the ground.

Keep pushing until the bar passes your knees. Lockout by continuing to push through the heels and pulling your hips through via your glutes – try to crack a walnut between your butt cheeks.

Stand tall with a proud chest. Do not hyperextend your low back through to lockout.

After locking out, put the bar down reverse how you picked it up.

Choosing Assistance Work

It is important to identify your weaknesses. Generally it’s off the floor or at lockout. Off the floor will refer to anything below the knees and lockout will refer to anything above the knees.

Regardless of your sticking point, I recommend a lot of submaximal conventional deadlifting. You need to practice the deadlift, hone your technique, setup, and execution. Errors in technique will make it more challenging to determine where your weaknesses really are.

If your goal is to improve your deadlift strength, you need to practice the movement itself. Give yourself a lot of opportunities to perfect your technique. Once your technique is on point determine what your weaknesses are and attack them.

“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombari

Make all your deadlift rep work like speed work! Pull each rep as fast as you possibly can. Practice pulling fast, warm ups too!

Here is a video of me doing 610 for a triple:

A video posted by Adam Pine (@adam_pine) on Feb 20, 2016 at 1:53pm PST

Off the Floor

If you can lock out pretty much anything, but have trouble moving it off the floor, take a look at [this article] I wrote.

Other movements that will help you move the weight off the floor are:

Romanian Deadlifts (RDL)

RDL’s are great for building up your hamstring, glutes, lower and upper back. They are great for improving your strength off the floor and at lockout.

The RDL will begin from the locked out position rather than the floor like a conventional deadlift. Setup for the deadlift with straight legs, bent slightly so they are not locked out. Hinge at the hip, driving your hips back to the wall behind you. Keep your back flat, your torso will be parallel to the floor in the bottom position. Accelerate through the lift by locking out your knees and pulling your hips through via your glutes.

Only lower the bar as much as you’re capable of without your back rounding. Your hamstrings will limit how far the bar will travel. You may only be able to go as far as the bar travelling to your knees or just below. This is considered a normal range of motion.

Rows

There are no secrets to building a big, strong upper back; barbell rows, dumbbell rows, and t-bar. These horizontal rows are basic and they work!

Building your back is good no matter what your sticking point is. A strong back will make it easier to keep the bar close to you. If the bar travels away from you during the deadlift it can cause your low back to round. If you experience this, it could be due to weak lats.

Lockout

If you are struggling at lockout give these movements a try.

Block Pulls

I prefer block pulls to rack pulls (bar sits on the safety pins of a power rack) because it feels more like deadlifting from the floor. You will have to pull the slack out of the bar unlike rack pulls. Both are great for building strong upper backs.

Put the weights on blocks (raised platforms) at or just below your sticking point. Try to pull the weight with the same technique you would from the floor.

Block pulls can be done from just about any height, so they can be done to improve either sticking point.

Deadlift vs. Chains

As you lift the load off the floor the chains will rise from the floor as well, increasing in weight as you approach lockout.

This movement will allow you to lift a lighter weight off the floor and overload the top of the lift. If you struggle at lockout this is helpful. It can also be helpful if you struggle off the floor as it teaches you to be explosive.

This is a great movement and is fairly specific to the deadlift. It is performed just like a deadlift from the floor providing great carryover.

Reverse Band Deadlift

Reverse band deadlifts work similarly to chains. The weight is lighter at the bottom and increases as you approach the top. The bands provide assistance at the bottom of the lift and little to none at the top.

You can overload this movement because the bands will provide assistance at the bottom of the lift. This is great for boosting your confidence. Just make sure you’re not adding too much band tension and performing this lift too often.

Attach the bands to safety pins in the power rack. The height and band strength you use will depend on how much assistance you want.

Want a bigger deadlift?

Send me an email at: adamnpine@gmail.com with “DEADLIFT QUERY” in the subject line.

How to Increase your Deadlift: Deficit Deadlifts, Snatch Grip Deadlifts, Paused Deadlifts

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There are many reasons you can fail at a deadlift. One reason might be your setup and technique needs work. That’s just one reason why it’s really important to practice actual deadlift. On my deadlift day I start with the conventional deadlift and then pick a movement to focus an area of the lift that is weak. Here are some exercises that will help you fix those weak points off the floor and increase your deadlift.

Deficit deadlifts
I love deficit deads for building strength off the floor. Stand on a 100 lb plate, or something lower, as low as an inch and pull. If what you’re standing on is too high, it can cause you to round your lower back, causing low back pain. I recommend something about 3” or less. When you do these, make sure you are stopping at the bottom, and letting the weight rest, if you let the weight rebound off the floor, you are defeating the purpose of the movement. Deficit deads will help you build strength through a lower starting point.

Snatch grip deadlifts
When doing snatch grip deadlifts, take a snatch grip on the bar, fingers outside of the rings. Get into a deadlift position and pull. Like the deficit deadlift, snatch grip deads will force your hips into a deeper starting position. This will help build strength in a low starting position, plus the snatch grip will really build up your upper back strength!

Paused deadlifts
Paused deadlifts are another exercise that can be used to improve your strength off the floor. Pull just like a deadlift, but pause for 2-5 seconds where you struggle the most in the deadlift. If you have trouble right off the floor, pause as soon as you break the weight off the floor, if you have trouble right at the knees, pause there. These will help you find your body’s strongest position during this portion of the lift. Make sure you pick a moderate weight so you can use good technique.

Give these variations a try if you are seeking to increase your deadlift strength!

If you have question on how to add these exercises into your program, email me at adamnpine@gmail.ccom and put “DEADLIFT QUERY” in the subject line.