Deadlift and PT eval with Nic Norwood

I put my personal trainers through semesterly evaluations on approach, exercises selection, demonstration, programming, etc. Today I was able to work with Nic Norwood, who has set 6 national records, 4 still standing, through USAPL and has competed in 7 national competitions. He was able to help me some with my deadlift form, and given his experience, a great source for info.

Being such an accomplished powerlifter, I was expecting to deadlift with him... so I wore my dealift'n shoes

Some highlites from the session were:

1) Be patient with the pull. It isn't like squat where you can go in there and zip through it. You have to set up and drive at the right time.

2) Shoulders and head up first

3) Release your grip with one hand once the weight is on the floor after each rep to make sure you aren't bouncing the weight

Excellent pointers... I also got another cue from a video I watched this weekend... make sure your shoulders start in front of the bar when the weight is on the floor.... it really helped me get in the correct position.

T-nation also did an article with Andy Bolton http://bit.ly/43Ojdk who has pulled over 1000lbs TWICE... 1003 and 1008lbs... completely inhuman. I listened to Alwyn Cosgrove's interview with Mike Boyle (http://bit.ly/RVBGn) about the state of the fitness industry and something that stuck out was to "the essence of getting better is to be around people better than yourself."

Of course I would listen when these three individuals either spoke with me or wrote an article... it would be crazy not to. I'm going to get stronger, what are you going to do???

Lift for you

As I was in between sets on flat bench today, sweating, it hit me. I lift for me. I don't lift to beat Bill Bench or Scott Squat. Right now, I could honestly care less what they hit on anything. I don't care what they weigh, what they can push, what they can pull.

I am lifting to get better than I was before. I have been on a self-improvement project the last three weeks. I wanted to fix my shoulder problem (pressure building up on heavy bench and shoulder press). I decided to set a barbell next to my desk and stretch whenever I thought about it. I also took chest and shoulders presses down to once a week each ( I still completed straight arm lifts for shoulders and flying movements for chest).

Flat bench today was painless and I am optimistic about getting 295 for 6, 5, 4. I told myself three weeks ago that I would hit back twice a week and streetch my shoulders out for five weeks and I will stick to that.

Why lift if you don't want to improve? Why do something with less than total effort?

Before my last set I couldn't have cared less about anything else but pushing as hard and fast as I could. I set a goal to help my shoulder problem and approached it with a program that I thought would have a good chance at working and it has so far been helpful.

I lift for me. I sweat for me. I push myself for me. I get better for me. What are you doing for you?

Crippling Leg workout

One of my staff members came up to me today and wanted a new leg workout, said he was tired of being bored. I gave him the following program for the day:

Superset 1 -4 times through
A) Quad glute squat on smith machine- feet awkwardly out in front of you so if the bar moved, you would fall. normal bar position, drop your butt and keep your hips back at the bottom of the range of motion and explode up. the smith machine keeps the movement of the weight fertical and make sure your spine stays perpendicular to the floor. I told him to focus driving through his heels, and to complete 2x15, 2x12
B) Leg extension- 4x10
Rest period before repeating superset 1 is 60 seconds

Superset 2 - 4 times through
A) Leg curl- Bring the weight up with both legs (flex the knee joint) and slowly resist the weight with one leg on the way down. Repeat but lower with the other leg and do each leg 6 times. then do the same weight 6 more times with both legs.
B) Stability ball leg curl- 4x10

Superset 3 - 4 times through
A) One-legged leg press- 4x12 each leg
B) Barbell Hip thrusts- Seen in this article at the bottom of the page

Know that I would never recommend soley performing smith machine squats, there is a huge advantage to using a free weight bar in that you involve a lot more stabilization and core muscles that aren't needed as much with a smith machine. I advised him to use the smith machine to really focus on his quads.

Importance of Busting Through Plateaus

You can't progress without getting stronger, faster, leaner, more muscular... essentially, you don't make any gains if you don't get better. A lot of people have been coming up to me and sending me emails about how to break through their plateaus that they have ran into. This is a physical and mental roadblock on some exercises for a lot of people.

I have even seen people build up to their plateau weight several times in a semester and instead of brainstorming ways to blow past it, they let that muscle group drop off of their workout for a little while out of frustration in what they think is a concrete ceiling... "Man, I just can't push past 225 on bench"... Rob, my squat only gets up to 315 and then stalls"

calling them out... BS

If they want to continue in the cyclic pattern of adequacy, fine by me. If you don’t mind staying at the same level or you aren’t consistent in any of your workout -- i.e. one workout a month this month and then three weeks straight at 4 times a week and repeat—try crossfit, I hear it’s great. But if they want help pushing through it so they can actually push toward a new goal, a new challenge, more weight on the bar, they need to bust out a notepad and listen.

The property of overload states that you need to do more weight, reps, sets, and/or volume to put additional strain on your body to cause it (or force it, if you like that better) to adapt and GROW. In order to have progression in your workouts you must always be trying to overload your neuromuscular system.

I blogged briefly on breaking plateaus before here, but now I'll give you some new ideas.

Drop Sets

You can try drop sets. On your last set you are going to hit it for as many reps as you can and then drop it to a lower weight and repeat. Before starting tell your lifting partner what weight to drop to after your set is over to minimize time between sets. So if you were doing 225, you should put a 45, 25, and two tens on each side so you could hit 225 and then drop to 185… dropping from 225 to 135 would be too much of a drop to make because you would easily get 10-15 reps at 135 if you were shooting for 225 for 6 or less.

Rest-Pause

You can also try the Rest–Pause technique. This training technique allows you to get more reps with a higher weight than you would usually be able to get. No magic supplement, no gear, no extra lifting equipment is needed… just you, your balls, and a stop watch or clock. You pick a weight that you have been stuck doing 6 reps for (insert time period here). You complete just three reps and rack it. Start your stop watch and wait 20 seconds. Repeat three reps. Wait 20 seconds. Try to get another three reps.

I did this a couple of weeks ago on deadlift and ended up getting 9 reps on a weight that in a normal set I would have only been able to get to around six reps. I also felt like I was going to puke after it. IF you are doing deadlift and have straps on, don’t unwrap bc that will add time between sets which isn’t the point. You want 15-20 seconds between sets, but not one minute... one minute would be almost before another set. You are playing to the advantage of your ATP-CP system. This system is responsible for producing explosive power and energy from your muscles for activity lasting less than thirty seconds... ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is also replenished very quickly so you are allowing your muscles to partially replenish their ATP supply to get another three reps... or one or two reps.

Go out and bust through a plateau…. Or stay the same. You really just have those two options.