How to Warm-Up for Squat, Bench, and Deadlift
Last post outlined a framework for a general dynamic warm-up that, if you follow it, will give you a pretty decent bang-for-your-buck. If you perform a dynamic warm-up before you lifting sessions, you'll be ahead of the game and prepared to slam some weights around. However, we can tweak your warm-up to make it more specific to the Big 3 (squat, bench, and deadlift).
Re-inventing the wheel is inefficient, and I loathe inefficiency, and so is re-writing a blog post. I wrote a piece for Breaking Muscle last year about how to warm-up for the Big 3 and you can read that HERE.
How to Write a General Dynamic Warm-Up
Last week’s post was about the importance of warming up before a training or practice session. A quick review:
- Increase core temperature
- Unglue “sticky” joints
- Activate nervous system
- Prepare body for activity
Today’s video is about how to write a general dynamic warm up prior to training session. (Pardon the random pause I take about halfway through. I chalk it up to my mouth moving faster than my brain.)
Key Points:
Four main areas that I try to hit in every warm-up are: core activation, glute activation, T-spine (thoracic) mobility, and hip mobility.
If you have specific areas, i.e. tight ankles, that need either mobility or strength, you can add 1-2 drills for said area(s).
General movements such as skipping, light hops/jumps, or side shuffle are great to put at the end of a warm up to encourage blood flow, get your heart rate up a bit, and continue to ramp up your nervous system.
You want to start on the ground and work your way to standing/locomotion.
Examples of Drills
Core activation
Breathing drills are a great start to a warm up because not only do they help reset/train breathing patterns, they also activate the little-thought-of core muscles that are close to the spine. This can help prevent spinal mishaps in the weight room since those little guys are on and primed to protect.
90/90 Breathing Drill
For a little more of a challenge you can do a side plank (with deep breathing) or, if you have trouble with a full side plank, a short-levered side plank
Glute activation
Since your glutes are used in just about everything and are a prime mover in most athletic movements (squat, deadlift, sprints, jumps etc.) you want those guys firing efficiently.
Think about crushing a walnut between your cheeks as you perform the glute bridge.
Want two birds with one stone? Bird dogs are great for core and glute activation.
Hip Mobility
A lot of people have really gnarly adductors (inner thigh muscles) and Adductor Rockbacks are a great way to unglue those bad boys and loosen up your hips.
Bull Dogs are another double-dipper because they hit hip mobility (especially if you’re making decent sized circles) and glute activation from multiple angles.
T-Spine Mobility
We hunch over waaaaay too much (at work/school, driving, watching TV, surfing the interwebz…) and Bench T-Spine mobility will work on extending (un-hunching) your T-spine as well as stretch out the back of the triceps (which also get notoriously tight).
Adductor Rockbacks w/ Extension and Rotation are a two-for-one punch for hip and t-spine mobility.
Bonus drills to get all the things: Spiderman with Overhead Reach
General Movement
Skip, side shuffles, lateral hops, high knees, and butt kicks are great examples.
There you have it! It’s a pretty simple formula for creating an effective and quick warm-up. Hit main things: core and glute activation, hip and t-spine mobility, and throw in some general movements and you’re set!
Pump Up Dem Hamstrings!
I (Kelsey) like to regularly look back in time and remember where I was, what I was thinking, and also reflect on what I've learned/experienced since then. I will typically look back one year ago from the current day (or three, or eight, etc.). Today's post is from 5 years ago and it was written by Steve and it still applies today. We may not use band-assisted sissy hams (we now have a sweet GHR to use) but hamstring strength is crucial for both athletic performance, life performance, and picking heavy junk off the ground. You'll also see our old facility and a smooth-faced Steve. ;)
On a personal note, I chose 5 years ago because on this day, October 21st, 5 years ago, I was preparing to marry Steve the following day and was all a-flutter. Following our wedding we shot up to Boston to train at Cressey Performance in Boston (yes, we made CP the destination for our honeymoon), you can read about it here. It's been a pretty sweet five years since and I'm looking forward to what's next!
Confession: I have very weak hamstrings. As such, I've needed to ensure that my training includes exercises that will bring up the strength of those stubborn muscles on the back of my legs. In the process of solving this dilemma, I came up with an exercise that will also help athletes improve their performance via stronger hamstrings. Now, one of the last exercises we would have one of our (healthy) athletes perform to increase their hamstring strength is the leg curl.
For most, they’re a terrible waste of time (yes, they certainly have a place in rehab settingsand with older/deconditioned individuals, and bodybuilders could make an argument for them). While the majority of people understand that hamstrings function to flex the knee - which is what the leg curl trains - they often neglect that the hamstrings play a CRITICAL role in hip extension. The hamstrings are the body’s second most powerful hip extensor – just behind the glute max! (pun fully intended) For athletes, strong hamstrings can be invaluable as they play crucial role: resisting (eccentrically) knee flexion during sprinting. Take home point: stronger hamstrings make you faster!
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Enter the Band-Assisted Sissy Ham (or “Russian Leg Curl”). I came up with this exercise as I was helping some of our athletes perform pullups with band assistance. I had an “ah-ha” moment and decided to find a way to give myself (and others) band assistance during the sissy ham. In the video below, the first half will show me performing the sissy ham without the band. Then, I perform it with the aid of a band (attached above me). Notice there is now no arm push needed to help on the concentric (the “up”) portion of the lift.
(Note: Yes, upon looking at this video in retrospect, my pelvis is slightly tilted anteriorly and there's a bit of excessive low back arch. If I could travel back in time a year I'd go kick my own arse. Comon' Stevo! Get it right. Geez....)
This is such a fantastic exercise as it trains, simultaneously, both functions of the hamstrings: knee flexion and hip extension (which is how our hamstrings are utilized in athletics, anyway). It also makes for a more tangible progression than the regular sissy ham/russian leg curl. As you get stronger, you can lessen the band tension (as opposed to subjectively measuring "how fast you fall" during the regular sissy ham).
If you don't have a power rack that makes it easy to set up something like this, you could either just have someone manually hold your ankles, or latch your ankles under the pads of a lat pulldown apparatus (your knees would be resting where your butt normally goes). Then all you need is a sturdy 1/2" or 1/4" resistance band, which can be purchased through companies like Iron Woody, Perform Better, or EliteFTS.
As strength coaches, our mission (behind keeping people healthy) is to improve movement quality, performance, and strength and power. We also have only, roughly, 150 minutes a week to do this. This being the case, you won't find us filling 10 of those 150 minutes wasting time on an isolated leg curl. I could think of a million things athletes would be better off spending their time doing (placing their hand on a heated frying pan being one of them). Even if you're not an athlete, this exercise will still be wayy more beneficial for developing your hamstrings than the leg curl. It will also work well for the long-distance runners in the crowd!
This exercise isn't appropriate for everyone, as it's EXTREMELY difficult, even though it may not appear so if you haven't tried it. I definitely recommend a healthy dose of glute walks, slider hamstring curl eccentrics, and hip thrusts before attempting something like this.
Why Should I Warm-Up? Warm-Ups are...
Really, really important. I know they are not exciting, they're not sexy, they're certainly not they topic that most people gravitate to when they're searching for work out information- which I believe is a disservice that our industry provides- but it's one of the essential components to a productive (and SAFE) work out.
Today's video lists out the main purposes of a warm-up.
Key points:
Warm-ups reduce the risk of injury by...
1. Increase core body temperature
2. Unglue "sticky" joints
3. Activates nervous system
4. Prepares body for physical activity
Conveniently, those are also the same factors that play into making your work out more effective. So, not only do warm-ups help reduce the risk of injury, but now your work out is more likely to bring you that much closer to superhero status (or Jedi status, depending on your nerd-level)
Most people just take a wild stab at what they should do to warm-up, that is if they warm-up at all. Therefore, dear readers, subsequent posts will offer ways to a) create a general warm-up, b) how to warm-up specifically for the Big Three (bench, squat, and my fave, deadlift), and c) how to actually warm-up once you're under the bar for the aforementioned lifts, a common area of muddled thinking.
"Get Smarter" Links for the Weekend
Here are some great articles that I came across this week and will, undoubtedly, increase your knowledge.
Since I wrote about being fat-adapted early this week, I thought I'd stick with that theme for the links this week.
Mark Sisson wrote about how being fat-adapted boosts performance, which was pretty cool. I think, especially in the long-distance/runner community, it's all about the carbs and carb-ups, and did you eat your carbs? I'm not anti-carb, but I think that athletes out there should know they can try the fat-adapted route without conking out on a long run. I personally go for a long run once a week and I feel totally fine without eating carbs before or after.
In the same vein, authoritynutrition.com had a post that rounded up a bunch of studies of fat vs. carb fueled. Again, I'm not saying everyone should eat this way, but the "conventional wisdom" doesn't fit every body's metabolism.
In case you didn't read the link from the NY Times article on junk food, you should READ IT. It's really fantastic. In fact, Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know (my absolute favorite podcast) did a whole show on junk food that was pretty interesting, I highly recommend it (and all their other shows...). Anyone who talks to me for an hour or more will at some point hear a fact from their show.
That's it for this week. If nothing else, you have a whole archive of podcasts about stuff you should know (seriously, it's pretty awesome).
How To Eat Healthy: The Most Common Fitness Question
“What should I eat to get healthy?”
This is a common variant of questions I receive on an almost daily basis about nutrition. Generally I answer:
"It depends."
Here is the full video post about how the answer to most fitness-health-related questions is “It depends.” (with a mild shoulder shrug).
Now, in the realm of nutrition, the answer is “IT DEPENDS!” (with arms enthusiastically thrown up in the air).
Individual body chemistry, emotional state, past experiences, activity level, definition of “healthy,” and lifestyle are just a few of the plethora of factors that play into the eating style that works best for someone achieve “healthy” status.
That said, I thought I’d share my experience with eating a high-fat, low(er) carb eating style for the past year; it’s pretty fantastic, actually.
The decision to try it out was driven by an increasingly upset GI system and since what I was eating at the time (wide range of vegetables, meats, fruit, beans/lentils, etc.) wasn’t helping, I figured it was time for a change.
I am NOT on a ketogenic diet (which is starting to gain steam and popularity in the health/fitness world) because I found that it doesn’t make me feel great. Most ketogenic diets require pretty high fat content (~80-90% of intake), moderate protein (~10-15%) and minimal carb intake (~2-5%). Because I like iron and picking up heavy junk, I need more than the standard definition of “moderate” protein as well as a touch more carbohydrates to help me recover.
There are a LOT of resources out there that can help if you wanted to try a higher-fat eating style- all of which a much better than me. I will list out below what I changed and my experiences but I highly recommend the folks I link at the end of this post since they have more information than I can cram (or want to cram) into this post and, honestly, are much more knowledgable than me.
Granted, I started with a pretty healthy base, like I said, I was eating a whole-food based diet with all the stuff you’re “supposed” to eat so the change in eating habits wasn’t terribly difficult. It really came down to changing the proportions of what I ate, taking out a few foods that were problematic (some fruits, for example, were wreaking havoc on me) and adding in a bunch of tasty ones (chicken thighs, higher-fat beef, bacon, cocoa butter, more coconut oil etc.)
I don’t count macros (carbs, protein, fat) specifically, but I can give you a rough estimate of my daily break down before and after so you can see the difference.
Before:
Carbs- 40%
Protein- 40%
Fat- 20%
After:
Carbs- <10%
Protein- 25-ish%
Fat- 70-80-ish%
Eating this way has pushed me into a fat-adapted state, meaning I’m generally burning fat for energy as opposed to glucose (carbohydrate) throughout the day. It took about 2 weeks for my body to shift (and it was a weird two weeks, let me assure you) and once I did, I noticed the following:
1. I dropped about 10 pounds unexpectedly. Some of that was water weight, but it was a bit of a shock to drop that much that quickly (about 2 weeks). It took me about a month to gain it back and figure out what my maintenance intake should be. I’ve found it’s also easier to stay on the leaner side without much effort or change in training.
2. My meals, because they are much higher in fat, are much for satiating. I don’t feel over-full, but it’s a good stick-to-your-ribs feeling that sustains me much longer between meals than before, which ties into my next point:
3. I don’t get “hangry” any more. You know the feeling, you turn into the velociraptor from Jurassic Park after going a few hours without eating. I used to have to eat something every 4-6 hours, I would get headaches or shaky or just straight-up hangry; now I can go 8-10 hours without eating if I wanted and without experiencing any of those other things either. I feel hungry, but it’s a much calmer hungry. It’s really, really helpful on days where I’m really busy or we’re traveling and I don’t want to pack a lot of food. I can just have my regular breakfast and last most of the day without having to eat if I don’t want to.
4. Now I actually crave fats and protein more than carbs. I think that’s a big hurdle for a lot of people trying to lose weight or maintain a weight loss is the craving for carbs that can sometimes take over your brain. Typically, large quantities of carbs are pretty easy (about half-way down, read about the “bliss point.”) to consume in one sitting (chips, cookies, etc.) but it’s often weird/hard to eat a large amount of either fats or protein all at once so it’s much hard to overeat your caloric needs for the day.
You don't usually eat a whole tub of this...
5. I still get a decent amount of vegetables in my daily intake, and I stick to the lower carb ones (like kale, sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, etc.) which also tend to be nutritional powerhouses. Yay for antioxidants and indole-3-carbinol!
6. My meals are WAAAAAAAY tastier. Chicken thighs, coconut oil and cream, 85% beef, and bacon… need I elaborate?
So, what is healthy eating?
Moving to a higher fat eating style has been really good for me, is it good for you? It depends.
Lots of people do well with it, and others don’t (my husband is one who needs a higher carbohydrate intake). Give it a try and see how you feel.
Your foundation, regardless of what your body composition/health goals are, should be whole-foods based diet: lots of veggies and fruit, lean protein sources, and minimizing the amount of junk you consume. That stuff doesn’t change; the proportions are the things that you can tinker with to optimize your daily intake for your health goals and desires.
If you are interested in trying it out I recommend Leanne Vogel's site, Mark Sisson's site, and Amber Romaniuk's site.
