Q: Hi Shane... Following our discussion 6 months ago in which you suggested I work on good eating habits and to try to make better bad food choices when I can't make a really good food choice, I've dropped probably about 10 lbs of fat, and gained pretty close to that in muscle weight as the scale hasn't budged, but I've dropped two pants sizes. Before my goal was just to drop all the extra weight I was carrying, and just get healthy. But as I've been progressing, my goals have changed, and now I'm interested in really getting leaner. A six-pack would be great!
The problem is that I can't seem to lose any more bodyfat. I'm training with weights 3 times per week for one hour, and I'm doing 3 cardio sessions per week of walking for 1 hour on the treadmill.
My diet is as follows:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1 fruit
Mid-morning: 1 fruit, handful walnuts, 1/2 cup Liberte organic yogurt
Lunch: spinach salad w/chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, carrots
Mid-afternoon: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup blueberries
Dinner: 4 oz meat, loads of veggies, 1/2 cup brown rice or 2-3 oz potato/sweet potato
Evening: 1 cup plain popcorn, 1 glass milk, 1 cup grapes
I have tried cutting out the popcorn and grapes at night, but I didn't feel like it was helping me lose any more bodyfat.
What can I do?
Thanks!
Chris B.
A: Chris, your diet is great! And dropping two pants sizes, while maintaining scale weight is evidence that you're boosting your metabolism with strength training.
The reason you're not dropping any more weight despite your "sometimes" efforts at cutting back a bit more on carbs at night is because you're reached a new equilibrium where your body has matched it's energy expenditure with your energy intake.
So you have two options now. You can either cut back a lot more on your energy intake, which would result in further fat loss, but it would also cause you to lose some muscle mass as well. The drop in muscle mass would then help your body to reduce its energy demand to your new lowered energy intake.
So the better option is to use a carb-rotation. This is a modified version of what I do with my competitive athletes.
When you reduce your carbohydrate intake (keeping protein and fat unchanged), for a time your body will burn more fat. But after a short while it adjusts the metabolic rate to compensate for the drop in carbohydrate and overall energy. So a carb-rotation diet simply keeps your body's compensation mechanism off guard slightly by giving you carbohydrate and calorie boost every 3rd or 4th day to prevent a reduction in metabolic rate.
So here's how your menu above might look. I've listed the changes as to the base food plan you've been following:
Day 1 (no change)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1 fruit
Mid-morning: 1 fruit, handful walnuts, 1/2 cup Liberte organic yogurt
Lunch: spinach salad w/chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, carrots
Mid-afternoon: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup blueberries
Dinner: 4 oz meat, loads of veggies, 1/2 cup brown rice or 2-3 oz potato/sweet potato
Evening: 1 cup plain popcorn, 1 glass milk, 1 cup grapes
Day 2 (change in evening only)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1 fruit
Mid-morning: 1 fruit, handful walnuts, 1/2 cup Liberte organic yogurt
Lunch: spinach salad w/chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, carrots
Mid-afternoon: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup blueberries
Dinner: 4 oz meat, loads of veggies, 1/2 cup brown rice or 2-3 oz potato/sweet potato
Evening: glass milk
Day 3 (change in both dinner and evening)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1 fruit
Mid-morning: 1 fruit, handful walnuts, 1/2 cup Liberte organic yogurt
Lunch: spinach salad w/chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, carrots
Mid-afternoon: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup blueberries
Dinner: 4 oz meat, loads of veggies ( yeah.. just meat and veggies)
Evening: glass milk
Day 4 (change in breakfast, mid-morning)
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1 fruit
Mid-morning: 1 fruit, handful walnuts, 1/2 cup Liberte organic yogurt
Lunch: spinach salad w/chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, carrots, 3 small red potatoes
Mid-afternoon: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 2/3 cup blueberries
Dinner: 4 oz meat, loads of veggies, 1/2 cup brown rice or 2-3 oz potato/sweet potato
Evening: 1 cup plain popcorn, 1 glass milk, 1 cup grapes
Repeat...
So beginning with Day 1, where you follow your normal meal plan, you move to Day 2 and Day 3 where we remove successively more carbohydrate, and then on Day 4 add back all that was removed and then give you some extra to help boost your metabolic rate.
Now even if the average calorie load was to be exactly the same over the four days as the original meal plan, the work required to store the additional calories would create a deficit of some sort. So even at worst, you'll be ahead by staggering your caloric intake.
This is a fairly straight-forward example of rotating your carbohydrate intake. But it would be a good starting point for you Chris.
I would also suggest changing up 1 or 2 of your walks on the treadmill for some interval sessions. Originally when we first spoke, you had some pain in the arches of your feet, and hence my suggestion for easy cardio. But with that cleared up, moving into cardio intervals will help increase the number of calories you burn over steady state cardio.
Essentially it's the EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) that we're interested in raising. When you engage in very rigorous exercise you create a large oxygen deficit. The restoration process is costly from an energy standpoint, consequently with your goal of increased fat-loss, I strongly recommend it.
Write me back in a few months. I'd love to hear about your progress!!
:)
Shane
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
I just got an email from yet another client who is experiencing DOMS, and is a little confused as to why he is so sore, when he didn't feel like he was really working that hard.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is the type of muscle soreness that sets in usually 24-36 hours after your training session, and it can last as long as 7 or 8 days depending on the severity.
Many trainees as they progress their workouts associate DOMS with workouts in which they are really pushing themselves to the limits. In these cases the DOMS occurs because they have passed a certain threshold for work capacity or muscle tension that has caused the DOMS. They have basically given a stimulus to the muscle that it isn't used to.
In my clients case today, he was surprised because he had felt DOMS on a number of occasions previously after some pretty tough leg training sessions that I put him through. However in this case, he didn't feel like he had worked that hard that he would be feeling so sore.
What led to the DOMS in this case was that although he was only lifting about 80% of the weight lifted in the previous few workouts, he had missed about ten days of training, which reduces the threshold at which DOMS is achieved.
So even though it felt a little easier than the previous workout, relatively to his muscles there was a greater stress.
DOMS is not something to be overly concerned with unless it interferes with your day to day activities. In most cases recovery is spontaneous, but ice, soft tissue work, sufficient calories, and lots of sleep can help speed the recovery.
Many people believe that they will not progress with their training unless they feel DOMS after their workouts. While anecdotally this has been reported, there is very little research to back up this theory. Those who train hard enough to feel DOMS, may progress in their training despite the DOMS, not because of it. If you are a drug free athlete, and you are trying to build muscle, if you can only train a bodypart once every seven or eight days because of DOMS, you will not likely progress as quickly as you could with a higher training frequency.
There's always more to write, but I'll leave it here for now.
Hope this clears up any confusion surrounding DOMS!
:)
Shane
"Train to Stimulate... Not Annihilate" -- Lee Haney - 7 Time Mr. Olympia
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is the type of muscle soreness that sets in usually 24-36 hours after your training session, and it can last as long as 7 or 8 days depending on the severity.
Many trainees as they progress their workouts associate DOMS with workouts in which they are really pushing themselves to the limits. In these cases the DOMS occurs because they have passed a certain threshold for work capacity or muscle tension that has caused the DOMS. They have basically given a stimulus to the muscle that it isn't used to.
In my clients case today, he was surprised because he had felt DOMS on a number of occasions previously after some pretty tough leg training sessions that I put him through. However in this case, he didn't feel like he had worked that hard that he would be feeling so sore.
What led to the DOMS in this case was that although he was only lifting about 80% of the weight lifted in the previous few workouts, he had missed about ten days of training, which reduces the threshold at which DOMS is achieved.
So even though it felt a little easier than the previous workout, relatively to his muscles there was a greater stress.
DOMS is not something to be overly concerned with unless it interferes with your day to day activities. In most cases recovery is spontaneous, but ice, soft tissue work, sufficient calories, and lots of sleep can help speed the recovery.
Many people believe that they will not progress with their training unless they feel DOMS after their workouts. While anecdotally this has been reported, there is very little research to back up this theory. Those who train hard enough to feel DOMS, may progress in their training despite the DOMS, not because of it. If you are a drug free athlete, and you are trying to build muscle, if you can only train a bodypart once every seven or eight days because of DOMS, you will not likely progress as quickly as you could with a higher training frequency.
There's always more to write, but I'll leave it here for now.
Hope this clears up any confusion surrounding DOMS!
:)
Shane
"Train to Stimulate... Not Annihilate" -- Lee Haney - 7 Time Mr. Olympia
Friday, May 23, 2008
What To Do If you only have 5 minutes...
It's Friday afternoon, and I was supposed to leave at 5:30pm, but not having had time to train as much this week as I'd hoped and I have to be at home by 6:30pm... I realize opening my blog and putting this up here is taking extra time, but at 5:30pm I decided I couldn't leave without doing a short workout. In only 5 minutes I wouldn't have time to warm up to heavier weights on bench press and I had decided that I wanted to do a blast for my upper body. So here's what I did.
3 sets of these two exerices:
Pushups 30
Chin-ups 10
I know it's not much, but I did it in just about 3 minutes.. which is all I could really afford to do time-wise.
So now I'm leaving.. Chest/Back/Arms.. all nice and happy!
It's not a big workout.. but i made the decision NOT to do nothing!
Hope you have a great weekend!
:)
Shane
3 sets of these two exerices:
Pushups 30
Chin-ups 10
I know it's not much, but I did it in just about 3 minutes.. which is all I could really afford to do time-wise.
So now I'm leaving.. Chest/Back/Arms.. all nice and happy!
It's not a big workout.. but i made the decision NOT to do nothing!
Hope you have a great weekend!
:)
Shane
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
How To Get a Bigger Bench - Part II
In part 1 of How to Get a Bigger Bench we discussed the required bench press technique. As mentioned, without correct technique, none of the tools for increasing your bench press strength are going to help because as soon as the weight gets heavy you're going to lose your technique and fail the lift.
So presuming you've got the technique the next thing to do is figure out where you're weak. To do this, work up slowly towards a 1RM.
Depending on how strong you are your warm-up set-up may be a little longer or shorter on sets but this will give you a sample to follow.
Let's say the best you've done lately is a set of 5 reps with 250. So your warm-up will look like this:
8x45, 5x135, 3x185, 2x225, 1x245.
Then you will attempt 1x265, 1x275, 1x285 and possibly 1x295.
Wherever you fail, your previous best is your 1RM to work from.
With a new 1RM of lets say 285, now we're going to drop back down to 250 and work on your sets of 5.
Do 5 reps, and then continue to attempt sets of 5 reps until you fail.
Where do you fail?
Do you fail to get the bar past the sticking point? Do you manage to get past the sticking point but fail to get the lockout? Or do you generally just find it tough all the way through without either point being more difficult than the other.
If you just generally find it tough, in other words both the sticking point and the lockout are tough for you, then you'll need to work on both areas. Otherwise if you only have one weakness, then you'll focus on that area mostly.
Sticking Point Solutions:
Due to the joint angle geometry, the point at which you have the least mechanical leverage during the lift is at what is called the sticking point. So clearly if you're getting stuck at the sticking point, getting stronger is going to help, but if it's where you fail, and you can't lift any heavier to get stronger, then how do you train to beat the sticking point?
Momentum = Mass x Velocity
So as you may recall from Physics 101, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. What this means to us is that if you put an object into motion (say a bar moving from the chest towards the sticking point), to a certain degree it will continue to move upward so long as the forces acting upon it allow it to continue.
Gravity is working against you, and your muscles are working for you. Since at the very bottom of the lift, just off the chest, your joint leverage is stronger than at the sticking point, it is at the bottom where you can potentially apply more force to the bar than at the sticking point.
Again from Physics 101, Force = Mass x acceleration.
So if you can accelerate the bar from the chest towards the sticking point, while your joint leverage is strong, the bar will have a greater velocity when it reaches the sticking point. If the bar has a greater velocity at the sticking point, it will have more momentum and a better point of making it past the sticking point. Essentially what we're looking at is combining our maximum force at the lower leverage sticking point along with the momentum gained from accelerating the bar from your chest to the sticking point. This combination helps you push "through" the sticking point that you previously failed at.
To help you learn how to accelerate the bar, the use of accommodating resistance is most helpful. Either chains or bands can be used to help you practice accelerating the weight.
Lockout Solutions:
If your main problem during bench press is the lockout, essentially you need to work on handling heavy loads in the top portion of the movement.
Board Presses and Rack Lockouts are the best tools for this purpose. Rack lockouts allow you to practice maximum poundage elbow extension over a very small range of motion. Board presses also allow for heavier elbow extension, but they also have the added advantage over rack lockouts in that they allow the weight to come down and transfer to your body, which you then transfer back into your push against the bar.
Triceps Strength:
If you usually finish your workout with 1-arm overhead triceps extensions, or kickbacks.. STOP!
These exercises are a waste of time if you're looking to get stronger.
In my opinion the top triceps exercises are, in no particular order:
1. Tate Triceps Press (flat to high incline)
2. Decline Close Grip Bench Press
3. Lying dumbbell/barbell triceps extensions
4. Heavy tricep pressdowns (maybe!)
Spend more time finishing your pressing workouts with these exercises and you'll notice more benefit on your bench!
Back Strength:
Everybody in the gym does pulldowns. Lots of variations of them exist, and while I think they're a good mass builder and they're good for beginners to get their shoulder joints accustomed to loading, in terms of strength carryover to bench press, they suck! Wide pull-ups, chins, and other variations are far better for helping develop strength that will carry over to the bench. But if your number one goal is a bigger bench, then keep your chinning and pull-up work to a minimum, and put most of your efforts into developing your strength with Rows. Bent-over barbell rows are probably the best, but bent-over dumbbell rows and T-Bar rows are good too. Essentially you want to load the muscles while they're in the same anatomical position as when on the bench. Rows are perfect for this.
For balance, be sure do some High Rows as well where the upper arm is at or above 90 degrees to the body. This will help avoid rhomboid dominance and ensuing problems.
To recap then, first figure out where your weakness is. A test of your 1RM is always a good idea so you have an idea of what kind of weights you should be using. Then a few good sets of a relatively heavy weight (5RM or a little less) and you should have a good idea of where you fail.
Work the sticking point by developing explosive strength and accelerate the bar off the chest towards the sticking point. Accommodating resistance with chains or bands can be used to help learn how to push fast!
Work the lockout with board presses and rack lockouts. Stay way from pansy triceps exercises and stick to what works, and finally do tons of rows!
In future articles I will discuss full set-up for chains and bands with pictures and video so you'll have a complete understanding of exactly how to set it all up!
:)
Shane
Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but ain't nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights!
- Ronny Coleman -
To recap, the first thing is to find out
So presuming you've got the technique the next thing to do is figure out where you're weak. To do this, work up slowly towards a 1RM.
Depending on how strong you are your warm-up set-up may be a little longer or shorter on sets but this will give you a sample to follow.
Let's say the best you've done lately is a set of 5 reps with 250. So your warm-up will look like this:
8x45, 5x135, 3x185, 2x225, 1x245.
Then you will attempt 1x265, 1x275, 1x285 and possibly 1x295.
Wherever you fail, your previous best is your 1RM to work from.
With a new 1RM of lets say 285, now we're going to drop back down to 250 and work on your sets of 5.
Do 5 reps, and then continue to attempt sets of 5 reps until you fail.
Where do you fail?
Do you fail to get the bar past the sticking point? Do you manage to get past the sticking point but fail to get the lockout? Or do you generally just find it tough all the way through without either point being more difficult than the other.
If you just generally find it tough, in other words both the sticking point and the lockout are tough for you, then you'll need to work on both areas. Otherwise if you only have one weakness, then you'll focus on that area mostly.
Sticking Point Solutions:
Due to the joint angle geometry, the point at which you have the least mechanical leverage during the lift is at what is called the sticking point. So clearly if you're getting stuck at the sticking point, getting stronger is going to help, but if it's where you fail, and you can't lift any heavier to get stronger, then how do you train to beat the sticking point?
Momentum = Mass x Velocity
So as you may recall from Physics 101, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. What this means to us is that if you put an object into motion (say a bar moving from the chest towards the sticking point), to a certain degree it will continue to move upward so long as the forces acting upon it allow it to continue.
Gravity is working against you, and your muscles are working for you. Since at the very bottom of the lift, just off the chest, your joint leverage is stronger than at the sticking point, it is at the bottom where you can potentially apply more force to the bar than at the sticking point.
Again from Physics 101, Force = Mass x acceleration.
So if you can accelerate the bar from the chest towards the sticking point, while your joint leverage is strong, the bar will have a greater velocity when it reaches the sticking point. If the bar has a greater velocity at the sticking point, it will have more momentum and a better point of making it past the sticking point. Essentially what we're looking at is combining our maximum force at the lower leverage sticking point along with the momentum gained from accelerating the bar from your chest to the sticking point. This combination helps you push "through" the sticking point that you previously failed at.
To help you learn how to accelerate the bar, the use of accommodating resistance is most helpful. Either chains or bands can be used to help you practice accelerating the weight.
Lockout Solutions:
If your main problem during bench press is the lockout, essentially you need to work on handling heavy loads in the top portion of the movement.
Board Presses and Rack Lockouts are the best tools for this purpose. Rack lockouts allow you to practice maximum poundage elbow extension over a very small range of motion. Board presses also allow for heavier elbow extension, but they also have the added advantage over rack lockouts in that they allow the weight to come down and transfer to your body, which you then transfer back into your push against the bar.
Triceps Strength:
If you usually finish your workout with 1-arm overhead triceps extensions, or kickbacks.. STOP!
These exercises are a waste of time if you're looking to get stronger.
In my opinion the top triceps exercises are, in no particular order:
1. Tate Triceps Press (flat to high incline)
2. Decline Close Grip Bench Press
3. Lying dumbbell/barbell triceps extensions
4. Heavy tricep pressdowns (maybe!)
Spend more time finishing your pressing workouts with these exercises and you'll notice more benefit on your bench!
Back Strength:
Everybody in the gym does pulldowns. Lots of variations of them exist, and while I think they're a good mass builder and they're good for beginners to get their shoulder joints accustomed to loading, in terms of strength carryover to bench press, they suck! Wide pull-ups, chins, and other variations are far better for helping develop strength that will carry over to the bench. But if your number one goal is a bigger bench, then keep your chinning and pull-up work to a minimum, and put most of your efforts into developing your strength with Rows. Bent-over barbell rows are probably the best, but bent-over dumbbell rows and T-Bar rows are good too. Essentially you want to load the muscles while they're in the same anatomical position as when on the bench. Rows are perfect for this.
For balance, be sure do some High Rows as well where the upper arm is at or above 90 degrees to the body. This will help avoid rhomboid dominance and ensuing problems.
To recap then, first figure out where your weakness is. A test of your 1RM is always a good idea so you have an idea of what kind of weights you should be using. Then a few good sets of a relatively heavy weight (5RM or a little less) and you should have a good idea of where you fail.
Work the sticking point by developing explosive strength and accelerate the bar off the chest towards the sticking point. Accommodating resistance with chains or bands can be used to help learn how to push fast!
Work the lockout with board presses and rack lockouts. Stay way from pansy triceps exercises and stick to what works, and finally do tons of rows!
In future articles I will discuss full set-up for chains and bands with pictures and video so you'll have a complete understanding of exactly how to set it all up!
:)
Shane
Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but ain't nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights!
- Ronny Coleman -
To recap, the first thing is to find out
What's Your Excuse??
I got an email this morning from a colleague whom I have been a judge with for the Ontario Physique Association for more than ten years. The email was in regards to another colleague of ours, Brent Felstead, who has sat beside both of us as a judge, but unlike us, Brent is also a competitive bodybuilder.
What's so special about being a competitive bodybuilder? Well apart from the massive discipline required to maintain a strict diet, there are hours upon hours of grueling training routines. But then that's the easy part for Brent. The hard part for Brent is that he's does all this while suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Read more about Brent's story here... http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/05/13/pf-5547021.html
So in closing, I ask myself, "What's your excuse?", if I don't feel like training as hard today or tomorrow.
I think we can all ask ourselves that question in light of the amazing accomplishments of people like Brent!
Chomp on that one for a bit!
:)
Shane
What's so special about being a competitive bodybuilder? Well apart from the massive discipline required to maintain a strict diet, there are hours upon hours of grueling training routines. But then that's the easy part for Brent. The hard part for Brent is that he's does all this while suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Read more about Brent's story here... http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/05/13/pf-5547021.html
So in closing, I ask myself, "What's your excuse?", if I don't feel like training as hard today or tomorrow.
I think we can all ask ourselves that question in light of the amazing accomplishments of people like Brent!
Chomp on that one for a bit!
:)
Shane
Monday, May 12, 2008
How To Get A Bigger Bench! - Part I
I've been asked frequently about how to get a bigger bench press. A guy by the name of Steve, a member at Trueform (where I train many of my clients) in particular asked me why in four years he's never been able to do more than 6 reps at 225 lbs. To answer a question like this and really give an answer that will help him increase his bench required more information. I asked Steve what his warm-up sets and sets x reps x weight looked like for his workout. I also asked him how long he'd been following his current routine and how many times a week he trains bench.
His answers were sort of what I expected. A good guy, strong, but just not someone who's had very much guidance or direction. He said his bench workout starts off like this:
Bench Press 12 x 135, 8x185, 1x6x225, 1x5x225, 1x4-5x225 He said no matter how hard he tries, he just doesn't seem to get past 6 reps and then his reps drop off on subsequent sets. He says the bar goes up off his chest but always gets stuck about 4-6 inches off his chest.
There's other dumbbell work, presses, flyes, cables, and pec deck, which is sometimes replaced with dips. Steve made it clear that he wanted to work the muscle from all angles to make sure all opportunities for increased strength were used.
I went over briefly with Steve in the gym some of what I'm going to say here, but for the record Steve, there's more info here than we talked about so give this a good read.
The first thing you should understand about the bench press is that it is a highly technique dependent exercise. I would suggest that you start off by practicing technique with nothing more than an EMPTY bar. EMPTY!!
With that in mind, here's the technique that I suggest:
1. Lie on the bench and position yourself so that your chin or mouth is directly beneath the bar.
2. Alternate between a narrow (17"), medium (22"), and a wide grip (27") from set to set.
3. Slide your heels towards your butt on the floor until they come up off the ground a little. Now dig them into the ground hard. Keep them firmly planted throughout the whole set. This will take practice. You will likely find that your heels pop up unless you actively think about it. So keep that thought in your mind throughout your set.
4. Tighten your back muscles and pull your shoulder blades towards your butt so that the distance between your butt and your shoulders along the bench is as short as possible.
5. Squeeze your shoulder blades as tightly together. Along with pulling your shoulders towards your butt, try to visualize the shoulder blades pulling along a V shape from where they would normally rest on the bench down towards the centre of the base of your spine.
6. Squeeze the bar tightly with a closed thumb grip and lift the bar up and straight out to a position as vertical as possible above the bottom of your chest.
7. Continue to squeeze the bar tightly, and bring the bar down under control to just below your chest, but not past the bottom of your ribcage. Where you bring the bar down to depends on how wide your grip on the bar is. The narrower your grip, the lower you bring the bar. So if your grip is fairly wide, the bar won't come down as low on your ribcage. It may touch somewhere around the nipple line. Rarely during bench press training will we bring the bar down to touch the chest at a point higher than the nipple line.
8. Continue to squeeze your shoulder blades tightly together and maintaining the pull of the shoulders towards your butt along the bench, drive the bar up to a point as vertically as possible until the elbows lock out.
That's your bench press technique Steve.
Unless you've got your technique down perfectly, none of the things you can do to increase your bench matter at all. So work on this, and I'll post a part II where I'll discuss what you can do to get your bench up.
REMEMBER: With Bench Press.. you focus more on staying tight than you do on the push. So until you've got it perfect.. forget weight and focus on staying tight!!!
His answers were sort of what I expected. A good guy, strong, but just not someone who's had very much guidance or direction. He said his bench workout starts off like this:
Bench Press 12 x 135, 8x185, 1x6x225, 1x5x225, 1x4-5x225 He said no matter how hard he tries, he just doesn't seem to get past 6 reps and then his reps drop off on subsequent sets. He says the bar goes up off his chest but always gets stuck about 4-6 inches off his chest.
There's other dumbbell work, presses, flyes, cables, and pec deck, which is sometimes replaced with dips. Steve made it clear that he wanted to work the muscle from all angles to make sure all opportunities for increased strength were used.
I went over briefly with Steve in the gym some of what I'm going to say here, but for the record Steve, there's more info here than we talked about so give this a good read.
The first thing you should understand about the bench press is that it is a highly technique dependent exercise. I would suggest that you start off by practicing technique with nothing more than an EMPTY bar. EMPTY!!
With that in mind, here's the technique that I suggest:
1. Lie on the bench and position yourself so that your chin or mouth is directly beneath the bar.
2. Alternate between a narrow (17"), medium (22"), and a wide grip (27") from set to set.
3. Slide your heels towards your butt on the floor until they come up off the ground a little. Now dig them into the ground hard. Keep them firmly planted throughout the whole set. This will take practice. You will likely find that your heels pop up unless you actively think about it. So keep that thought in your mind throughout your set.
4. Tighten your back muscles and pull your shoulder blades towards your butt so that the distance between your butt and your shoulders along the bench is as short as possible.
5. Squeeze your shoulder blades as tightly together. Along with pulling your shoulders towards your butt, try to visualize the shoulder blades pulling along a V shape from where they would normally rest on the bench down towards the centre of the base of your spine.
6. Squeeze the bar tightly with a closed thumb grip and lift the bar up and straight out to a position as vertical as possible above the bottom of your chest.
7. Continue to squeeze the bar tightly, and bring the bar down under control to just below your chest, but not past the bottom of your ribcage. Where you bring the bar down to depends on how wide your grip on the bar is. The narrower your grip, the lower you bring the bar. So if your grip is fairly wide, the bar won't come down as low on your ribcage. It may touch somewhere around the nipple line. Rarely during bench press training will we bring the bar down to touch the chest at a point higher than the nipple line.
8. Continue to squeeze your shoulder blades tightly together and maintaining the pull of the shoulders towards your butt along the bench, drive the bar up to a point as vertically as possible until the elbows lock out.
That's your bench press technique Steve.
Unless you've got your technique down perfectly, none of the things you can do to increase your bench matter at all. So work on this, and I'll post a part II where I'll discuss what you can do to get your bench up.
REMEMBER: With Bench Press.. you focus more on staying tight than you do on the push. So until you've got it perfect.. forget weight and focus on staying tight!!!
Friday, May 9, 2008
To Squat Deep or Not to Squat Deep
I get this question a lot. People always notice that I squat deep and all my clients squat deep, and the subject always comes up about the safety of deep squats.
There are many factors that contribute to knee health, and certainly if you can't squat deeply without pain, then you shouldn't (immediately) do it. The causes of knee pain need to first be identified and addressed. Things such as muscle length-tension relationships with regards to the lateral quad and rectus femoris muscle. Often when either of these two muscles is too tight, there can be some associated knee pain. Another cause of knee pain is poor patella (kneecap) tracking, which is often caused by vastus medialis weakness.
Further, the quality of all the soft tissues of all the muscles that act upon the knee during squats should be assessed. If movement is restricted in the hamstrings or adductor muscles, or if the glutes aren't firing properly, these are all issues that can cause knee pain.
So clearly, just because you can't squat deeply without pain doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but rather that you have some other problems that need to be solved first.
With that in mind, let's look at whether a deep squat is actually dangerous or not in an otherwise healthy pain-free knee.
First, when you squat to a height above parallel hamstring involvement is limited. Without sufficient hamstring involvement, the primary anterior translation restraint becomes the ACL or Anterior Cruciate Ligament. What this means is that when your squat depth ends while the hips are still higher than the knees, as the quadriceps pull strongly to deccelerate you and then push you back up, the ACL bears significant stress.
In contrast, when you squat to below parallel, so long as you make an effort to avoid forward knee travel past a vertical line (approximately) above the toes, the hamstrings come to the end of their functional range of motion, and the pull tightly on the back of the tibia, thus becoming the primary source of restraint to tibial anterior translation. This relieves the ACL of such associated shear stress.
There is a mechanical truth that the greater depth you squat to the higher the compressive forces on the back of the kneecap, and this is often taken out of context in locker room discussion. Firstly, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world at any given point who are deep squatting 600-700 lbs, and their kneecaps are doing just fine. Folks who have premature deterioration of the posterior patellar articular surfaces would know early on that squatting deep was not good for them. But this group of pe0ple is small compared to the general population.
The number of people I see at the gym who are squatting above parallel with far heavier weights that are quite risky at best to their low backs as well as to their knees would be much better off at the very least halving the weight they lift and working on performing a correct deep squat which involves the hamstrings, glutes, adductors, and quads as opposed to their current high-risk quad squatting.
All you have to do is see for yourself. The people who complain the most about knee pain are above parallel squatters. Those who squat full depth rarely have knee pain because all of the muscles that act upon the knee joint are being used together to compress and support the knee joint properly.
Finally, if you are someone who has trouble squatting deep and you want to learn how, there is a method to learn the movement. You should speak to a qualified trainer who knows how to teach squatting correctly.
Bottoms Down!
There are many factors that contribute to knee health, and certainly if you can't squat deeply without pain, then you shouldn't (immediately) do it. The causes of knee pain need to first be identified and addressed. Things such as muscle length-tension relationships with regards to the lateral quad and rectus femoris muscle. Often when either of these two muscles is too tight, there can be some associated knee pain. Another cause of knee pain is poor patella (kneecap) tracking, which is often caused by vastus medialis weakness.
Further, the quality of all the soft tissues of all the muscles that act upon the knee during squats should be assessed. If movement is restricted in the hamstrings or adductor muscles, or if the glutes aren't firing properly, these are all issues that can cause knee pain.
So clearly, just because you can't squat deeply without pain doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but rather that you have some other problems that need to be solved first.
With that in mind, let's look at whether a deep squat is actually dangerous or not in an otherwise healthy pain-free knee.
First, when you squat to a height above parallel hamstring involvement is limited. Without sufficient hamstring involvement, the primary anterior translation restraint becomes the ACL or Anterior Cruciate Ligament. What this means is that when your squat depth ends while the hips are still higher than the knees, as the quadriceps pull strongly to deccelerate you and then push you back up, the ACL bears significant stress.
In contrast, when you squat to below parallel, so long as you make an effort to avoid forward knee travel past a vertical line (approximately) above the toes, the hamstrings come to the end of their functional range of motion, and the pull tightly on the back of the tibia, thus becoming the primary source of restraint to tibial anterior translation. This relieves the ACL of such associated shear stress.
There is a mechanical truth that the greater depth you squat to the higher the compressive forces on the back of the kneecap, and this is often taken out of context in locker room discussion. Firstly, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world at any given point who are deep squatting 600-700 lbs, and their kneecaps are doing just fine. Folks who have premature deterioration of the posterior patellar articular surfaces would know early on that squatting deep was not good for them. But this group of pe0ple is small compared to the general population.
The number of people I see at the gym who are squatting above parallel with far heavier weights that are quite risky at best to their low backs as well as to their knees would be much better off at the very least halving the weight they lift and working on performing a correct deep squat which involves the hamstrings, glutes, adductors, and quads as opposed to their current high-risk quad squatting.
All you have to do is see for yourself. The people who complain the most about knee pain are above parallel squatters. Those who squat full depth rarely have knee pain because all of the muscles that act upon the knee joint are being used together to compress and support the knee joint properly.
Finally, if you are someone who has trouble squatting deep and you want to learn how, there is a method to learn the movement. You should speak to a qualified trainer who knows how to teach squatting correctly.
Bottoms Down!
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