“All the pieces needs to be so simple as doable, however not easier.”
Albert Einstein
I attempt to hold issues easy after I coach. Lifting might be intimidating and this anxiousness can intervene with the educational course of. The worst factor I can do is muck it up with numerous difficult phrases and explanations.
Everybody learns in another way, however through the years, I’ve narrowed down what I imagine to be a handful of crucial teaching cues to make use of with nearly all of lifters once they squat, bench press and deadlift. If I had been compelled to make use of just one teaching cue per elevate, right here’s what they’d be.
Squat: Breathe into the Again of Your Belt
I imagine the primary factor that determines squat success is creating and sustaining a strong core brace. I’ve seen numerous massive squats efficiently accomplished with a wide selection of technical variances: stance width, torso angle, bar placement, descent pace, and many others. However the widespread thread amongst all world-class squatters is that they by no means lose their core brace.
The simplest method to brace below a heavy squat is to put on a belt and goal to fill the again of the belt with air if you inhale. Breath holding whereas lifting is named the Valsalva maneuver, which will increase intra-abdominal strain. Take into consideration shaking up a beer can and what it does to the strain inside: the liquid now pushes out more durable in opposition to the perimeters of the can, serving to the can keep its form. If you do that whereas lifting, it helps create a inflexible torso so that you just don’t get undesirable motion in your backbone. If you keep your spinal place, you management the trail of the bar so that you don’t get stapled.
Respiration into the BACK of the belt particularly helps make the most of the whole thing of your core musculature by increasing your midsection in 360 levels. In case you solely breathe into your stomach, you’ll shortchange your capability to get tight. Watch his video for a full tutorial on find out how to put on and use a belt:
Bench Press: Squeeze the Bar as Laborious as Doable
Lifters from all energy disciplines make the most of the precept of irradiation: squeezing the implement you’re lifting as arduous as doable to create stress all through the remainder of the physique. In no powerlift is that this extra necessary than the bench press. It’s the one elevate the place you’re mendacity down, which makes the physique need to loosen up fairly than tense up. It’s paramount that you just create as a lot stress all through the physique as doable to assist transfer the bar, and all of it begins by squeezing the dwelling shit out of the bar.
There are tons of cues that work to assist the lifter create a robust higher physique place: arch your again, bend the bar, unfold the bar, tuck the elbows, and many others. However the one factor that appears to present essentially the most lifters an “aha” second is squeezing with the fingers, particularly from the pinky fingers. I bought this cue from bench press legend Jen Thompson who notes that when you simply squeeze the bar usually, the strain will often come from the index and center fingers. However when you squeeze from the pinky, your complete hand will clench up for a tighter maintain. This additionally creates (by way of irradiation) extra engagement on the forearms, triceps and shoulders to assist stabilize and transfer the bar.
Lastly, virtually all bench press errors stem from a lack of the lifter’s again arch. As quickly as you cue a lifter to squeeze the bar tight, they virtually at all times routinely elevate their chest excessive towards the bar and regain their arched place. If we merely cued them to arch, it wouldn’t essentially create extra stress on the hand and shoulder, however cueing them to squeeze the bar checks a number of packing containers unexpectedly.
Deadlift: Be a Rocket Ship, Not a Cannon
This cue is extra metaphorical than the others, however it’s vital that lifters discover ways to create stress into the bar initially of a deadlift and keep it with out making an attempt to jerk the bar off the bottom. It’s, in reality, doable to attempt to be too quick when initiating a deadlift, and this metaphor will get the purpose throughout.
The concept is that this: a cannon shoots a cannonball with a fast blast of vitality, however the cannonball in the end doesn’t go that far. And what occurs to the cannon itself? It recoils again violently, getting knocked out of place by its personal shot. A rocketship, nevertheless, takes a very long time to get going. The thrusters interact, hearth and smoke billow out from below the launch pad. However as soon as it will get going, that rocket can journey a whole lot of hundreds of miles.
After we deadlift, we need to take the slack out of the bar to lock our physique in place. Then, we need to keep that stress whereas pushing our ft into the ground to grind the bar off the bottom, NOT jerk the bar off the bottom with our higher physique. This gradual, regular and highly effective analogy helps lifters recognize that if the bar doesn’t transfer straight away, that’s OK. So long as they hold their stress and hold pushing, the bar will ultimately transfer (so long as it’s not too heavy). It’s means worse to yank the bar and get out of place than to grind slowly whereas staying locked in place.
One Cue to Rule Them All
This weblog is only one coach’s opinion. There are numerous cues that jive with completely different lifters. These are merely those I discover to persistently be the best. What cues would you add to the record? Join the discussion on Instagram!
