Can't Do Pull Ups? We Have 7 Tips to Get You There

Pull ups are a basic movement in CrossFit, yet in and of themselves they are an intermediate gymnastic movement. Starting out pulling your bodyweight can seem like an insurmountable task.

Don’t fall prey to the mistakes of progressing too fast, kipping before you’re ready, or skipping over the fundamentals. There are tons of strategies and methods of assistance to get your chin over that bar, but not all of them are helping you to get stronger.

Here we will learn where to begin and which alternatives are worth your time. Here are seven tips for achieving that beautiful, dead-hang pull up:

1. Work Your Mobility

Pullups begin as all movements do - with proper mobility. Work on being able to maintain a proper overhead position exactly as described in my article The Safest and Smartest Progression for Building Your Overhead Lifts. If you start with tight lats, chest, or spine you’re already in a compromised position. This will put more stress on your shoulder joint and spine. For a pull up, you must start in a deadhang position with active shoulders. Once you can hang in this position in a controlled manner, then you can start pulling motions.

If you are unable to achieve a proper active hang position, you can still start building strength while working on your mobility. Work on grip strength using heavy deadlifts along with farmer’s carries. Both will stress the forearm and hands in a similar way to a pull up. To begin building pulling strength, you can do bent over barbell or dumbbell rows. Both are effective at building pulling strength and require less mobility to perform correctly.

2. Get Some Hang Time

Once you open up the mobility to dead hang properly, then you need to start spending time on the bar. Dead hangs for time are an effective way to build shoulder stability and grip strength. Make sure you never let your form suffer during these.

3. Avoid Jumping and Rubber Bands

Jumping pullups and banded pullups are popular in the CrossFit world as a way to get in a workout, but I’ve found little success with these methods and little direct translation into actual pull up strength. Strict banded pullups can be decent for building strength, but during a metcon they get abused and people begin to kip, bounce out of the hole, and squirm in all sorts of ways to finish their reps. If you’re after metabolic conditioning, switch to rows, deadlifts, rowing, ring rows, or some other variation.

4. Build Strength

To get your first pullup what you want to do is build strength. This means operating at 80%+ of your max effort at a minimum. Ring rows are one of the most effective methods to build strength and are easily varied in intensity by changing your positioning. Mark your foot positioning each workout and begin to creep your body closer to parallel with the floor each time. This will increase the load by involving a greater percentage of your bodyweight.

Negative pullups are also effective at building strength. Start with a five-second controlled descent and build to longer durations of time. Eccentric work can be very taxing and leave you sore, so start conservatively and add on as your body tells you. Don’t combine a lot of eccentric pulling work and then a hard metcon involving similar movements.

5. Stay Focused

Remember the body can adapt well in one way at a time. It’s hard to increase strength and endurance at the same time. This is why we cycle our training and have times when we focus on strength and times when we focus on conditioning. If your goal is to do a pull up, then focus on getting that first one now, and then multiple reps later.

6. Resist the Kip

Don’t kip until you can do at least five strict pullups. Kipping is the translation of horizontal momentum to vertical force and allows you to do a greater number of pull ups. Kipping is more efficient, but it also loads the shoulder dynamically, putting more force on it. If you are unable to control your bodyweight, there is no reason to add momentum on top of that.

7. Climb a Rope

Another movement great at building pulling strength is rope climbs. Rope climbing with efficiency involves using your legs to hook the rope and push yourself higher. Your arms hold you in place as you bring your legs up. So for a rope climb you only need to be able to hang on, not just pull your way to the top. Therefore, this is a great tool for people still working on building their pulling strength. If you’re a beginner, though, remember to let your legs help you so you don’t just focus on your arms and get burned out.

Respecting the pullup, training for your current ability level, and listening to your body will yield long-term results. If you’ve never done a pull up, then it’ll take time to get there, but the long smooth road always beats the ups and down of overtraining and progressing too quickly.

The Female Guide to Getting Lean

So many times women ask me, "How can I lose this?" while they're pinching whatever area they want gone. While no one is exactly the same, there are a few general tips that I can throw out there for you that do the trick whether you're leaning up for aesthetic or performance reason.

Calorie Intake

If you weigh 200lbs and are only eating 1,200 calories, you are not eating enough. That doesn't mean break out the donuts, that means increase your protein consumption – to start. A general guide for calorie intake is your bodyweight times ten to twelve. Example: 200lbs x 10 = 2000 cal.

You may be thinking this is a lot of food, but it is not. Women have been taught that starving themselves will make them lose weight. In reality, we don't just want to be smaller do we? Don't we want to be leaner, too? I'm not saying bodybuilding lean, but enough to see a little definition in your arms and/or abs. Most women would answer me with a very loud, “Yes!”

Calorie intake is just one component of many that go into this machine we call our body. The body is much smarter than the average person. You may trick it once or twice, but it will learn how to overcome what you are trying to do to it. The body will combat under eating by hording everything you feed it. Then you jump on a piece of cardio equipment and pedal your little heart out for extensive amounts of time, and still - nothing. Why is that? Keep reading!

Drop the Carbs Down

You don't have to completely eliminate them; doing so would only set you up for failure. Do you even know how many you get in a day? Do you have a food log? Are you logging on a site like Fitday.com or MyFitnessPal.com? Do you know what foods are considered high in carbohydrates?
          
The foods to reduce in this category would be sugar, which includes candy, cakes, pies, etc. But it also includes fruit. I hear so many people say how healthy they eat and then proceed to tell me they load up on fruit. Fruit is mostly sugar. Natural sugar is still sugar, and it still makes you fat if you eat too much of it. Okay, so we have sugar clarified. More foods that are sugary: pasta, potatoes, some other veggies - research those. Don’t forget rice and bread are sugary, too.

Another misconception is that brown rice and pasta and whole grain breads don't do the same thing as their regular white counterparts. Truth is - they do. They just have a little more fiber and digest more slowly, so you don't get quite the same insulin spike, but they are still a carb and they can still cause fat gain if you overeat them.

So what we have learned is to drop carbs down. In general, I start people out at 25-30% carbohydrates in their diet and assess from there. How are you going to do that if you don't know how many sugars and carbohydrates are in what you're eating? Start logging your food on one of the sites I mentioned above. Take responsibility for what goes in your mouth.

Increase Your Protein and Don’t Fear Fat

Beef, chicken, turkey, fish, etc. There are studies out now that are proving our governments “lean meat only” consumption isn't necessary.

For example:

• CLA is a substance that accumulates in the fat of grass-fed ruminant animals-fats like butter and tallow-that has anti-cancer effects.
• Industry apologists have now done an about-face and are campaigning against the trans in favor of the liquid oils - while using this opportunity of heightened public interest to continue demonizing the fats we should all be using, the natural saturated animal fats in animal foods and tropical oils.

Increased protein helps maintain the lean mass (muscle) you already have. You want to keep this, as it increases your metabolism. Adding a little more lean mass is usually a good thing. As a general starting point, I think 40% of daily food intake should be protein. I have seen great results with this.

Resistance Training

Ladies, listen very closely: you will not bulk up from resistance training. If you start getting bigger, it is most likely because you are also eating more. You may put on a little lean mass, but it should not cause you to outgrow your pants. In fact, if you clearly know what foods are acceptable, watching your nutrition, and doing resistance training, you should be getting smaller and leaner.

Just because you workout doesn't mean it's time to go get a pizza because you “just worked off the calories.” It's simple, if you have a high body fat percentage, you are eating too much, unless there are medical reasons surrounding your weight in which case you should be even more attentive to your food intake.

Resistance training has some proven benefits:

• Improved muscle strength and tone
• Weight management
• Prevention and control of health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis
• Pain management
• Improved mobility and balance
• Improved posture
• Decreased risk of injury
• Increased bone density and strength
• Reduced body fat
• Boosted metabolism
• Improved sleep patterns
• Increased self-esteem
• Enhanced performance of everyday tasks

A Little Cardio Goes a Long Way

Women today go way overboard with cardio. I have a simple explanation for what this does to your body. It is well known to those of us in the industry that excessive cardio (meaning more than 45 minutes steady state or 30 minutes of high intensity interval training) is too much for the average person. After this amount of time, your body will start to become catabolic, which means it starts to eat muscle for fuel instead of food recently eaten and fat stores. All those ladies you see on the cardio equipment day after day, who always look the same, are actually eating up their muscle.

Do you realize what this means? They are lowering their metabolism because now they have less lean mass. Basically, if you would give them a body composition test, they would be fatter.

Becoming catabolic also happens when we don't eat enough. Starving yourself will only make you carry more fat. When you can't stand starving yourself anymore and go back to “normal” eating, don't expect a positive result. All the scam diets that tell you to drink nothing but shakes or eat only five hundred calories a day, they make you catabolic and set you up for failure. Don't be lazy. Take control of your body.

All of it comes back to being balanced and approaching your health and fitness from a variety of angles. While these guidelines are general, they work and they are a great place to start whether your goals are athletic or aesthetic. Cardio, strength, and nutrition are all important and all build upon each other. Focusing too much on any one aspect while leaving others at the wayside won’t have you be the best athlete you can be

10 Strength Training Principles That Will Make All the Difference

1. Start with Bodyweight

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” - Leonardo da Vinci

Let’s start with an admission. My name is Chet Morjaria, and I am a barbell addict.Don’t get me wrong; I love strongman and odd-object training too, amongst other forms of lifting heavy things. But for me, the barbell is where it is at.

However, underneath this mentality is a deep foundation of bodyweight training. No matter how much you can squat, pull off the ground, or get over your head - if you cannot pull yourself up to a bar there is a fundamental and functional strength concern that needs to be addressed.

In addition to the impressive levels of strength that can be built through bodyweight training, it requires an understanding of where your body is in space and where it is in relation to itself - kinaesthetic awareness and proprioception. These are crucial elements of any form of strength training. It can also be argued that the carryover from bodyweight strength training to barbell strength training is greater than the other way round, in the majority of cases.

2. Address Weak Links

Whether you like CrossFit or not, there is one aspect of the way CrossFitters train that you cannot deny - addressing weak links will make you stronger, quicker. Whereas CrossFit does this in a generalist fashion, you can be a little more specific when it comes to your strength goals. Work out which movements or body parts let you down when the going gets tough and the weights get heavy. Then address these elements systematically and specifically.

If you don’t know what your weak links are, go to see a good strength coach and find out. Even better, get them to provide you with a program that will bring these up to scratch. Working on your weaknesses will have the biggest carryover to the rest of your life.

3. Utilize Carryover

We’ve seen this concept of carryover mentioned twice now. Time to drag it out from the back of the stage and give it a mic and a spotlight. You have limited time, energy, and other such expendable resources. To get the most out of your training, you need to work out what works for you, in terms of movements, reps, sets, tempo, and more.

There is only one way to truly work out what does work for you. Get yourself under the bar and experiment. Record your experiments and learn from them. You can also speed up that process by learning from those who have been there before.

4. Train with Strong(er) People

There are plenty of ways you can find strong(er) people. Seek out the strongest person in your gym and ask to train with them. Look up a club specific to the type of lifting you do and get yourself down there to train. Find people who eat, sleep, breathe, and compete in it at a high level. You think these people haven’t learned something along the way?

If you don’t think you can learn from such people, you are wrong. Leave your ego in your gym bag and soak up the inspiration from people who have been there, done that, and got the blood-stained T-shirt.

5. Build a Base with the Basics

So far we’ve looked at strategies to employ in order to get yourself stronger. Now let’s make sure you have the strength basics down.

It doesn’t matter what form of strength training floats your boat or what you are lifting - barbells, odd-objects, or kettlebells to name a few. Ensure that you are pushing, pulling, squatting, hinging, and carrying on a regular basis. These are basic human movements and foundational to building a solid base of strength. Make sure none of these are missing from your training.

6. Find the Missing Piece

Listen to your body. ‘Niggles’ or worse, full-blown injury can be your body’s way of letting you know what’s missing from your training program. A good sports therapist will supply you with a prehab or rehab program. Often the pieces in this program are a good indication of what is missing from your fitness routine. Or you could just let me shorten the process for you: You need to do more rows and rotational work.

7. Be Coachable

Whether you are lucky enough to be coached regularly or not, be open to any coaching you receive. There is a difference between being coached and being coachable. Coaching is a two-way process, and those that give the coach something to work with allow the coach to learn about how you work and how you respond to different styles of coaching. A good coach will use this information to help motivate and improve you in a way that works best for you.

8. Choose Your Flavor

Let’s say you are already doing almost all of the points this article lays out. You have the basics down, are conscious of the gaps, and have the right people around you. Yet you do not seem to be getting much closer to your goal.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s likely you are going about your strength training the wrong way. If you are working towards specific strength goals, you need to build the appropriate kind of strength. The foundation is that of absolute strength, but there comes a point where you need to make sure your style of training is a good fit.

Take the Olympic lifts as an example. These are fast lifts. Training in slow and steady movements will not prepare you as well as explosive and powerful ones in terms of developing the flavor of strength required - in this case, speed-strength.

9. Less is Better

We have discussed a number of strength training principles here, and a number of them involve assessing the way that you train. However, do not confuse this with continually adding stuff to your training schedule. We are talking about efficiency of training. Make sure that as you develop your training, you also streamline your approach to optimise virtuosity, recovery and, of course, intensity. Keeping your program sharp in this way will also allow you to simply assess exactly which of the modifications you are make are working and which are not.

10. Test the Mind

Who sets your limits? The body will give up long before the mind does. Find ways to challenge your everyday training principles and push past perceived boundaries. Here are three ways to do so:

• Competition: Put yourself into a competitive situation in your chosen field of play. Anyone who has done so will attest that lifting in a competitive situation is worlds apart from lifting on your own in your favorite corner of the gym. Some people seize up. Others revel at the chance. Whatever happens, you will learn more about yourself and the way your work (or don’t work).
• Coach: A good coach should know you better than you know yourself. Putting yourself in the hands of such a person can help you take yourself to places that you didn’t think possible, knowing that you are still within the realms of safety whilst doing so.
• Change: Mix it up from time to time. I advocate having one play session a week, where you can do whatever you want. Always do combinations of 5s and 3s for squats? Try 20 reps. Always lift with a barbell? Pick up an awkward object and lift that instead. Trying something new removes any notion of a reference point in terms of personal bests, or limits.

(By the way, the answer to the question at the start of this section is there are no limits.)

In summary - be considered about what you train, how you train, and who you train with. Yet sometimes, throw this consideration to the wind and dive head first into unfamiliar territory. Ingest, understand and adopt the strength training principles outlined above to drive your strength to the next level, and beyond.

How to Grow a Pair

The title says it all. Here’s how you grow a pair of biceps, hamstrings, shoulders, and quads, as well as a good hefty pair of mental muscles, too.

Grow a Pair of Biceps

Simple guidelines:

• Elbow flexion exercises (barbell, dumbbell, machine curl) done with extreme effort
• The best - seated incline dumbbell curl with the forearm supinated (palms turned up)
• The best - standing pronated grip bicep curl (palms turned down)
• Work each set to volitional muscle fatigue
• Perform a reasonable number of sets (one to three)
• Repetitions can vary from 6 to 20

Grow a Pair of Hamstrings

There are three hamstring muscles - the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus. They flex the knee (heel to butt) and extend the hip (pushing the thigh back).

Simple guidelines:

• Perform lying, seated, and standing leg curls along with hip-extending stiff-leg deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, and glute/ham raises
• Work each set to volitional muscle fatigue
• Perform a reasonable number of sets (one to three)
• Repetitions can vary from 10 to 25

Grow a Pair of Shoulders

First, I am uncomfortable when the shoulder joint is discussed. Many believe the shoulder is only the visible top of that body part. This would be the medial deltoid. However, in reality we know the shoulder joint as a whole is comprised of a number of muscles that move the upper arm and scapula (shoulder blade) in various directions. Therefore, multiple-angle pushing and pulling exercises work the shoulder joint, strengthen it, and enhance its stability.

Here is a list of shoulder fortifying exercises:

• Wide or close grip pulldown
• Wide or close grip pull up
• Pullover machine
• High row
• Face pull
• Seated/Bent-over row
• Plate-load row
• Low row
• Upright row
• Rear delt machine/bent-over fly
• Rotator cuff internal and external rotation
• Overhead press
• Incline press
• Chest press
• Decline press
• Dip
• Lateral raise
• Chest fly

Simple guidelines:

• Incline and overhead press, upright row, face pull, lateral raise, rear delt/bent over fly
• Work each set to volitional muscle fatigue
• Perform a reasonable number of sets (one to three)
• Repetitions can vary from 8 to 20

Grow a Pair of Quadriceps

The four quadriceps - the vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris - make up the “quads.” The quads primarily extend the knee. To grow large quadriceps, it takes more than simple knee extensions on a knee extensions device. The quads, collectively, possess a lot of muscle mass. They need to be overloaded via heavier exercises that involve knee extension (squats, leg presses, and deadlifts).

Simple guidelines:

• When squatting, leg pressing, and deadlifting, work each set to volitional muscle fatigue. Yes, it's going to hurt, but that is how you stimulate your quads to grow.
• Perform a reasonable number of sets (one to three)
• Repetitions can vary from 10 to 30

Working the legs (and quads) can be discomforting. That is a good thing. Any exercise that is physically and mentally challenging is a productive exercise. Learn to love those exercises that manifest themselves in a lot of huffing and puffing.

And while we’re at it, let’s grow that pair.

Grow a Pair - Mentally

Ultra-high intensity 12-exercise circuit:

• Minimal (<:20) rest between exercises
• All exercises to volitional muscular fatigue at 10 to 14 repetitions
• Use four different upper body push, upper body pull, and multi-joint lower body exercises each
• Perform upper body push 1, upper body pull 1, multi-joint lower 1, upper push 2, upper pull 2, lower 2, upper push 3, and so forth until all 12 exercises are completed
• Remember, all-out effort on each set and minimal rest between exercises

Five rounds for time

• 10 dumbbell burpees with a plank row (right and left) and overhead press
• 20 dumbbell squats
• 10 chin ups (bodyweight or assisted)
• 30 mountain climbers
• Record the time of your initial workout. Attempt to better it in future workouts.

Fitness Gauntlet:

• Intervals (running or exercise machine) of :30 all out effort/:15 easy pace x 20 bouts
• 2:00 rest
• No more than one minute rest between these events:
• 50 bodyweight burpees
• 200 bicycle crunches
• 150 bodyweight squats
• 20 dumbbell bent-over rows + 20 dumbbell overhead presses x three rounds
• Push ups x maximum reps

Attempt to complete the following exercises in under 20 minutes:

• 300 bodyweight squats
• 150 push ups (males) 100 (females)
• 50 dumbbell burpees + one-arm plank row (R & L) + squat + overhead press

Understanding the Shoulder and Bulletproofing It From Injury

A few weeks ago I wrote on the importance of addressing the upper back musculature to develop a stable and functional shoulder joint and shoulder girdle. Because of all the popular pushing exercises (i.e., bench press, military press, jerks, push presses), which primarily address the anterior (front) musculature of the torso, many neglect the posterior (back) muscles. These muscles are expressed primarily in pulling exercises (i.e., pulldowns, high rows, and low rows).

The balance of front and back shoulder strength is one thing, but attention must also be given to the other movements that occur at the shoulder joint and girdle. Neglecting a muscle group or movement can create potential issues over the long term.

As compared to another vulnerable joint - the knee - the shoulder joint/shoulder girdle is unique because of the wide range of articulations at the glenohumeral (ball and socket) and scapular-clavicular (shoulder blade and collar bone) areas. The knee involves mostly flexion (heel to the butt) and extension (straightening the leg). Pretty simple. The shoulder area is more complex and thus requires attention to properly strengthen and develop all the musculature surrounding it.

Let's begin with the shoulder (glenohumeral) joint. These are the gross movements that occur there:

With the arm at your side:

• Raise it forward out in front (flexion), then back to your side (extension).
• Raise it laterally to the side (abduction), then down to the side (adduction).
• With the arm moved out in front (flexion):
• Move it backward parallel to the ground (horizontal extension).
• Move it forward from horizontal extension (horizontal flexion).
• Combine all of these movements by rotating the upper arm in a circular manner, clock-wise and counter clock-wise (circumduction).

With the arm held statically down at your side or abducted (raised laterally):

• Rotate the upper arm inward, turning the thumb to the front or downward (internal rotation).
• Rotate the upper arm outward, turning the thumb to the back or upward (external rotation).

Let's now look at the shoulder girdle (scapula and clavicle). Movements there possess a shorter range of motion. Think "shrugs."

With the arms down at your sides:

• Shrug your shoulders upward (elevation).
• Shrug your shoulders downward (depression).
• Shrug backward, pinching the shoulder blades together (retraction).
• Shrug forward, spreading the shoulder blades apart (protraction).

Because of the multitude of articulations at the shoulder, a greater risk of trauma exists. Don't think so? Check out the list of shoulder joint/girdle potential malfunctions:

• Acromial-clavicular (AC) joint separation
• Adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder)
• Arthritis
• Biceps tendon tear (where it originates at the shoulder)
• Bursitis
• Chronic shoulder instability
• Clavicle fracture
• Dislocated shoulder
• Labrum tear
• Rotator cuff strain
• Rotator cuff tear
• Scapula fracture
• Tendonitis
• Winged scapula

Gosh! A lot can go wrong here. So, what can you do to eliminate or at least minimize shoulder issues? The primary controllable precaution you can take is to implement a sensible shoulder joint/shoulder girdle strengthening program. Employ these movements and applicable exercises:

Glenohumeral joint:

• Flexion - front raise or front press.
• Extension - close grip pulldown, pull up  or pullover.
• Abduction - side lateral raise or overhead press to the front (not behind the head).
• Adduction - wide grip pulldown or pull up to the front (not behind the head).
• Horizontal flexion - chest/bench press or chest fly.
• Horizontal extension - seated/bent-over row or rear delt fly.
• Internal rotation (upper arm down at the side or raised [abducted] to the side) - cable, band, or dumbbell internal rotation.
• External rotation (upper arm down at the side or raised [abducted] to the side - cable, band or dumbbell external rotation.

Scapular-clavicular joint:

• Elevation - dumbbell, barbell, or machine upward shrugs.
• Depression - dip bar downward shrugs.
• Retraction - seated or bent-over row shrugs (move the shoulders backward to pinch shoulder blades together).
• Protraction - chest or bench press shrugs (move the shoulders forward to increase the distance between the shoulder blades).

A program that incorporates the aforementioned movements and exercises should at the least minimize debilitating or nagging shoulder issues and allow you to train and compete consistently for a long time. Therefore, for a sturdy and functional shoulder joint/shoulder girdle, do this:

• Work all joint articulations - if it moves that way, strengthen it.
• If you do a pushing exercise, counter it with a pulling exercise.
• Always use proper exercise form - control the resistance.

And don't neglect the smaller stabilizing shoulder muscles that make up the rotator cuff. Spend time fortifying them via internal and external rotation exercises with the upper arm at various positions.

The 3 Biggest Mistakes in Developing Fitness Programs

Every workout has a weakness, to combat this problem coaches unfortunately tend to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Minimizing the weaknesses of various methods isn't challenging if we better understand powerful training principles. As coach Charles Staley has said, "everything has a cost, not everything has a benefit." You can easily apply this to workouts as well. Understand the weaknesses of a workout helps you better construct an entire program.

The lack of success of many fitness programs can be directly traced to not altering training variables. Even those that do try to cycle the various training concepts still miss big on three important ideas. Implementing these methods can enhance the strength of your workouts, easily periodize your programs without having a degree in Soviet sports science, and most importantly give you the opportunity to achieve long-term success.

Mistake #1: Not Altering Load Placement

I have spoken in previous articles in regards to altering holding position and how this principle plays a paramount role in loading, stability, and overall effect of an exercise. That may sound like a justification for only sandbag training, but the truth is that it applies to all forms of strength training. However, very few coaches actually systematically manipulate holding position. Why is this important?

Let's apply this concept with a barbell to get rid of any assumed biases. Front squats and back squats are favorite exercises for many lifters. However, which one do you choose and why? I have always heard of interesting ideas such as front squat works more quads and back squats works more hamstrings. The reality is most coaches do not understand why they are using specific variations of a movement. What does the research say?

In a study by Gullett et al, front and back squatting was directly compared. The researchers concluded, "The front squat was as effective as the back squat in terms of overall muscle recruitment, with significantly less compressive forces and extensor moments." This was also with lighter loads used during the front squat. Digging deeper, one could see some differences, but overall this is very intriguing. Now before you go run off and just start performing front squats, I want you to think bigger picture than just the exercise. This study ultimately demonstrates the value of load placement changing the impact of a movement.

Remember, both are squatting patterns, but it is where the load is applied that changes the outcome for both effectiveness and safety. Seeing such results with lower weights also has to make us wonder how other implements that are strategically placed on the body can also create positive effects even though the loads appear much lighter.

Examples:

• Kettlebell Single Arm Front Squat
• Sandbag Shoulder Squat
• Bear Hug Squats
• Front Loaded (Zercher Squats)

Mistake #2: The "Big Lifts" Are Your Keys to Success

The number one rule of strength training dictates that you perform cleans, squats, presses, and deadlifts, and that you do those lifts first! After all, whatever you place first in the workout does receive priority. I know, I know, the big lifts are all you need to get stronger, but what if that wasn't true?

"Typically these players (NFL players) over-emphasize the two-legged lifts and pulls like squats and power cleans without considering single leg loading. In other words, the pelvis must not drop laterally with high load or high-speed single leg support." These are not my words, rather, those of renowned spinal expert, Dr. Stuart McGill.

Are cleans, squats, deadlifts, and all the other "big lifts" good and important? Of course, but when was the last time you didn't put them first? When was the last time you prioritized other drills where you challenged stability or leverage over load? After all, many of these drills we are referring to may require more neural activation to coordinate the movement than simply high loading.

Examples:

• Lunging in All Directions Under Various Loading Positions
• Bench Pressing or Push-up Single Arm Leveraging
• Step-ups of Different Patterns and Loading Positions
• Single Arm Clean and Presses from Variety of Body Positions
• Carries: Farmer's, Single Arm Farmer's, Shouldering, Front Hold, Single Arm Overhead, Various Overhead Positions

Mistake #3: Not Paying Attention to Tempo

The fitness industry has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. For a long time, performing any type of "quick lift" was almost unheard of in fitness and only reserved for well-qualified athletes. Now, just about everyone is using explosive lifts as part of their program, for both good and bad.


The good? Explosive or quick lifts do help our neuromuscular system and fast-twitch muscle fibers. In fact, one of the fastest qualities we lose as we age is power and this can be related to aging issues such as falling. There definitely is no arguing that fast can be good, if used correctly, but so can slow.

"Slower tempos with lighter weights are an especially useful tool for novice trainees because such protocols produce neuromuscular and hypertrophic adaptations without being dangerous or compromising technique with loads that are too heavy. They are also a staple of programming when recovering from injury to increase blood flow to the injured area, gain strength, and focus on getting to the muscles to fire effectively."

These are the words of renowned strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Since many lifters spend a high volume of work performing quick and/or heavy lifts, I believe the same benefits can be found for the more advanced trainee.

An additional benefit of slower tempos may be in the energy systems. Coach Poliquin cites a study showing how excess post-exercise oxygen consumption was lower for lifts with a faster tempo than slower. Additionally caloric expenditure was shown to be less with the faster than slower tempos. The moral is to vary tempos over the course of training cycles to obtain the benefits of both.

Understanding how to apply these principles can dramatically change the outcome of your programs without having to perform overly complicated exercises. Where do you start in using these concepts? If you have never varied how you hold your weight, start to plan a cycle of one major exercise in which you do so. If you have never prioritized asymmetrical lifts, use that as a secondary movement in your program. If all you have ever performed are highly explosive lifts, try a finisher movement where you focus largely on slowing down the speed of the movement. These principles are easily integrated into any training program and can add motivation for new training goals.