The Basic Lifts

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Steve

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Everyone always explains to the novice lifter, "stick with the basic compound lifts using free weights." As simple as it sounds, it's a very sound bit of advice. However, some of these movements come with a certain degree of difficulty. And while I'd love to say that we're all born, biomechancially, to squat... learned incorrectly can lead to a number of pathological problems down the road after chronic use.

That said, learning proper form in these movements from the very beginning is probably one of the most important aspects of a "routine" if not the most important.

There seems to be a recurring problem with many trainees that I notice. Once they decide to start exercising, they want to do it NOW. As if the last 15+ years of inactivity is going to be reversed THIS WEEK in the gym. Trust me, rushing into weight training is the last thing you want to do. Take your time, learn these exercises, get some outside help if possible, practice, and very very slowly add weight to the bar as your strength, ability, comfortableness adapt and progress.

The first few workouts, for some, may entail no use of actual weight. They could even be done from home. Once you feel ready, you can start with the bar which will provide enough resistance to understand the *feel* of the weight as it moves through the planes of motion and how your body responds to it.

For some this can all be done in the first workout. As with anything, we all learn at our own pace, so take your time and do things your way. Again, there is no race and no point to rush. The more time spent learning correctly, the less chance of injury and/or incorrect execution. And I always say, it's much easier to learn something correctly from the start than to have to learn over something learned incorrectly previously.

Once you feel comfortable, and better yet, if a professional has actually cleared you for proper form, it's time to add weight to the bar.

This is how I'd go about determining the weight used in each subsequent workout. I'd first pick my rep range that I will use for the upcoming weeks in the program. Something like sets of 5 reps is a nice starting place. This is NOT a workout/program thread. You will not find how to structure a workout here. At least not yet. It's main focus for now is learning the movements. Heck, you can print some of this stuff and take it to a trainer in your gym; have him/her clarify/demonstrate some of these points.

Starting with the bar, keep performing set after set, adding weight each time, until rep speed actually slows down or form actually breaks. This is the weight you should start with the next time you train this exercise.

How much weight you add this first workout is totally dependent on your starting/current strength levels. For some, you might jump 10 lbs each set. For others, you might jump 30 lbs. As a general rule of thumb, if you are unsure, start lighter. If anything, this will simply create more time to practice the movement while you work on finding your starting weight.

Once you find the weight that seems sufficiently difficult (this does not mean you fail the set/rep, it simply means it was heavy enough to slow down rep speed or cause a small shift/break in form), each subsequent week after that, you should focus on progressively adding more weight to each given exercise.

The idea is to force your body to adapt. This adaptation is quite involved, but essentially you are forcing your body to get neurally and locally stronger by making it perform heavier and heavier lifts each subsequent workout.

Many read into this too much and think, "Hey, I can lift a lot more than the bar, so I'll just throw a ton of weigh on the bar and start with that." This accomplishes two things.

1. Most likely your form will be off. In the beginning, it's most critical to focus/concentrate on proper execution of the lift. Really focus on the form throughout the entire movement. Later, once you are more comfortable with the movement and it's second nature, then you can start lifting *serious* weight which will call for focus on the actual movement of the weight. But hopefully you can see, in the beginning, learning the *how* is most important.

2. You leave no room for progressive overload. Progressively overloading the muscle is simply the process of consistently and incrementally adding weight to the bar each time you train a given exercise forcing the body to adapt as stated above. The biggest mistake I see young trainees make (not young in years, but young in experience) is lifting too much weight too fast. You really want to *milk* this time period for all it's worth. What I mean by that is this. You want to add weight to the bar at a very slow rate stretching out the length of time you have to get stronger in this linear fashion. Depending on your current strength levels, this might be 1 lb each time you train. Most gyms don't have .5 lb plates but you can order your own to take to the gym at or a similar site. I can't stress how important it is to add weight slowly. A general rule of thumb is, the more muscles involved in a given movement, the more weight you can jump each week. So for a young male who is athletically inclined, progressively loading an exercise such as the squat which involves a ton of muscles might include 10 lb jumps each training session. On the other hand, for an overweight mother of 3 just learning the movement with poor coordination, progressively loading the squat might involve 2 lbs jumps or less each week. In a nutshell, it doesn't matter how much you up your weight each training session.... it simply matters that you do it.

I think it's wise for me to say here too, that these words are directed at the novice. The novice can withstand linear progression, meaning, they can focus on getting strong on each lift multiple times per week. As you get more advanced, which I know we have a few floating around this forum, more *creative* programming must be utilized in order to manage fatigue properly.

So with that, let's jump into some of these core foundation exercises. I'll add/modify this post at time goes on and more resources are remembered of found.

ETA: PLEASE NOTE: THIS WRITE-UP WILL NEVER AND COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF IN-PERSON, HANDS-ON TEACHING. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND FINDING A TRAINER, COACH, OR INSTRUCTOR LOCALLY TO SHOW YOU THE CORRECT MECHANICS OF THE EXERCISE. WE ARE ALL ANTHROPOMETRICALLY UNIQUE WHICH WILL DICTATE PERSONAL “TWEAKS” FOR EACH OF US INDIVIDUALLY. ALSO, I CAN GIVE YOU ALL THE VERBAL/MENTAL CUES IN THE WORLD TO CONSIDER, BUT THEY WILL NEVER REPLACE YOUR PRE-CONCIEVED MENTAL PATHWAYS THAT’VE BEEN ESTABLISHED THROUGH YEARS OF NATURAL MOVEMENT PATTERNS. ONLY A TRAINED EYE CAN PICKOUT YOUR WEAK POINTS IN THE GIVEN MOVEMENT AND CRITIQUE.

ALSO, MOST TRAINERS, AT LEAST BY MY EXPERIENCE, DON’T THEMSELVES KNOW HOW TO SQUAT. YEA, I KNOW, IT’S A LOSE-LOSE SITUATION.

I THINK IT’S BEST TO UNDERSTAND THE WHY’S SO THAT YOU CAN MENTALLY TELL YOU STUFF NOT ONLY WHAT YOU MUST DO IN ORDER TO PERFORM THE EXERCISE CORRECTLY/EFFECTIVELY, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, SAFELY.

ALSO, IF ANY OTHER COACHES/TRAINERS HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD, PLEASE FEEL FREE. AS TEACHERS, WE'VE ALL EXPERIENCED DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND USED OUR CREATIVE SENSES TO TEACH THE VARIOUS LIFTS. THERE'S NOTHING CREATIVE ABOUT THIS THREAD. JUST STRAIGHT INPUT ON EXECUTION.
 
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Back Squat

Some of these recommendations are per Mark Rippetoe’s amazing book, Starting Strength. I usually don't hand our credit easily, but his books are definitly the most applicable and best I've read in a long while.

As Mark Rippetoe says, the squat begins at the rack. The height of the bar should be at about the trainee’s mid-sternum level.

Foot placement will really depend on each trainee’s individual anthropometry, however, in general, a little wider than shoulder-width will suit most with feet angled slightly outward at about 30 degrees.

Before you place the bar on your back, it’d be wise to feel what the “bottom position” should be, where you are squatted down. At the bottom position, your feet should be flat on the floor and your knees should be pointed outward, since they are supposed to follow the direction your toes are pointed on the way down. Your knees should be slightly in front of your toes at the bottom.

It’s important to understand where your body needs to be in space in this bottom position, and also, why you are doing the things that you are. Your knees need to go in front of the toes so that you maintain balance. If your knees did NOT do this, in order to stay upright, it’d be required for your torso to lean overly forward, which in turn, will place an unwarranted level of strain and torque on your lumbar spine.

It’s also important to understand that you don’t want your knees too far forward either, which would require you to raise up on your toes.

You want to find that sweet spot where you get deep enough down that your hips are lower than your knees, yet, the weight is still planted on a flat foot.

The squat is an exercise that utilizes the entire lower body. You’ll hear many people explain the squat as a quad dominant exercise. However, done properly, the hamstrings and posterior chain will activate nicely as well. And this is why it’s important to get deep in the bottom position.

Many people only understand the squat as a knee flexion and extension exercise. In order to squat down, you need to flex at the knee joint and in order to stand back up, you need to extend at the knee joint. Only focusing on this will really screw up the exercise. What people miss is the idea of hip drive. When you are in the bottom position, you come out of it with the hips first. Not by extending your knees first. The knees will follow the hips. As Mark says, don’t worry about anything… “Just drive your hips up out of the bottom and the rest will take care of itself.”

Think of it like this. At the bottom position, your torso will be leaning slightly forward to balance you. To get out of the “hole,” lead with your hips. Think as if you were using your tailbone to push up something above it… if that makes any sense at all. Many coaches will teach this by placing a finger on either side of the trainee’s lower back and telling them to push their hips/low back up against the fingers.

If you understand this stuff, it’s time to actually go through the motions with the bar on your back. It’s best to start with no weight on the bar. This assures that you learn the movement properly with no undue stress from added weight first.

For the novice’s purpose, especially those on this site, it’s best to find a comfortable place on your shoulder/traps/back for this bar to rest. Ideally, this is going to be midway down your traps resting on your posterior deltoids.

I’d recommending taking as narrow a grip as shoulder-flexibility allows. This will tighten the shoulder muscles creating some cushion and stability for the bar to rest on. It will also help in keeping your chest high, which I will comment on here.

Ideally, you want to “lock into” your position before taking the load on your back. This means you set yourself up to take the weight. You don’t take the weight first, then set up. Setting up involves a few mental cues that will translate into physical positioning. First, you want to really puff out your chest. In other words, keep your chest high throughout the entire movement. This should be accompanied, simultaneously with scapula retraction, or squeezing your shoulder blades together. Again, pinch your shoulder blades together while lifting your chest. This will most likely feel a little strange at first, but it’s very important.

You also want to keep your lower back arched. Nothing excessive. Our lumbar spines are naturally arched. We simply don’t want any back rounding. Seems simple enough, however, once you start getting down into the squat exercise, especially towards the bottom of the movement, many tend to round their backs due to posterior chain flexibily in order to offset the force pushing them backwards…. essentially preventing them from tipping backwards.

I'd practice getting down into the bottom position again now, knowing how, both the lower and upper body are supposed to be throughout the movement.

If it feels strange.... keep practicing.

Here are a few quick tips I’ve stated elsewhere in for forum to keep in mind. I most likely won’t spend as much time discussing the other exercises. Quite frankly, the squat is my favorite exercise. I think it’s the most critical for the novice to learn. It also requires the most understanding and is the most technical.

With a bar on your shoulders, here are the cues:

1. Chest up (don't cave in)
2. Shoulder blades pulled back together, which reinforces number 1
3. Hands gripping the bar are not wide, but closer. Not so close that it becomes uncomfortable for your shoulders though.
4. Pull your elbows under the bar. Make them point to the floor. This will keep you more upright.
5. Initiate at the hips (think about sitting down) and stick your butt out.
6. Keep a nice, tight arch in your lower back.
7. Keep your abs tight.
8. Stance should be feet slightly wider than shoulder width. This will vary from person to person.
9. You should point your toes slightly outward, maybe 30 degrees.
10. As you start to flex at the knees, your knees should follow the path (line) of your toes.
11. If you leaning excessively forward, you are using too much weight or you have flexibility issues. This is not an exercise for the lower back, do not make it one.
12. Your heels should stay planted on the floor at all times. Many people have flexibility issues and the squat is the exercise that uncovers the issues. Many people, in order to get deep in the squat, feel the need to elevate their heels from the ground. In this case, at the bottom of the movement, their weight is on the balls of their feet. Instead, the entire movement, you should keep your feet flat on the floor and drive the weight pushing through your heels.
13. Remember the hips!

At the bottom of the movement, your hips should be deeper than your knees. This is a full squat.

Here are some links that are certainly worth checking out. Actually, I will be updating this list as time goes on. I am currently running short of that commodity right now. Some of these are video links. Some of the vids are rather long. I HIGHLY recommend checking out every one of these links.
 
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Bench Press

The bench press is a much simpler movement relative to the squat. With that in mind, a lot less attention will be devoted to detail. Only the bare essentials to get you in the gym, executing the lift correctly.

First item I’d like to mention is grip. There is no universal concept of exactly where you should grip on the bar. Just with any other barbell movement, it’s going to vary due to the unique anthropometrical differences. This said, it’s best to simply grip the bar will you feel comfortable in terms of width, as long as you are not excessively wide or narrow, which will alter the exercise and muscle recruitment.

Also in terms of grip, I see many trainees using an open grip; meaning all of their fingers are on one side of the bar, including their thumbs. This is a no-no. Using a closed grip assures the fact that the bar will not roll out of your hands (unless your thumb snaps). Any exercise that involves lifting weight over the head or neck should use a closed grip. This means fingers wrapped around one side of the bar, thumb around the other.

Before unracking the bar from the supports, it’s also important to make sure the bar is placed properly on the hand. This entails supporting the weight with the heels of your palms directly over your forearms rather than up close to your fingers which would cause excessive wrist extension.

Once this is done, it’s time to unrack the bar. When you unrack, immediately go to a locked-arm position and get the bar over the body where it’s supposed to be. This is NOT over your head/neck. It should be over your nipple or mid-chest area.

Next point of importance are the elbows. The elbows are something I see a lot of trainees mess. It’s a critical component of the movement as all force generated by the chest is pushed down through the elbows. When discussing where the elbows should be during the lift, we consider the angle between the upper arm and the torso. In other words, there’s a spectrum beginning with the elbows in tight to the torso and ending with elbows flared outward creating a 90 degree angle with the torso. These extremes most likely won’t be used. I like to use something close to a 45 degree angle with the torso.

As you come down each rep with the bench, I suggest touching (softly) the bar to the chest… unless there is some pathological issue going on with the shoulder. Many trainees will take this to the extreme and use their chest as a trampoline to bounce the bar off of in order to lift more weight easily. Don’t be that guy or gal. For starters you look ridiculous. Plus, your diminishing the training effect of the exercise.

Shoulder and upper-back positioning is where most people mess up. Actually, most people don’t even think about this part of the exercise and believe it or not, it’s most critical in my mind. To put it easily, and this is from Rippetoe, when we bench we push both the bar AND the bench. What this means is, we use our backs to drive the weight by pushing our shoulders and upper back into the bench. We create this platform for stabilization by adducting (or pushing the shoulder blades together). This needs to be maintained throughout the movement too. I find many trainees relax this position at the top of the press. Don’t! Driving the back/shoulders into the chest will also help to elevate the chest which is a critical concept too.

An important point is to keep your butt and feet planted. You’ll see so many trainees in the gym using a weight well beyond their means. Sure, they can get the weight up with bad form but they don’t understand what the opportunity cost is. If a weight’s too heavy, the first thing you’ll see a trainee do is excessively arch their lower back, lift their butt off the bench, and possibly kick one of their legs out. Don’t do this. If you feel the need, you are most likely going to heavy. Remember, form before anything always!

Here are a few vids of properly performed benches. Remember; start with the bar only until proper form is learned. Once learned and comfortable, systematically/incrementally add weight to the bar until rep speed slows or form becomes shaky. Stop. That is the end of workout 1 and you’ve successfully found your starting weight for the next workout to build upon.


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Deadlift

The conventional deadlift is anther complex exercise dealing with a lot of various muscles.

First, with the deadlift is the stance. The stance for most trainees will be a bit narrower than their stance for the squat. Usually a stance as if you were going to jump in the air is about right. Something like 12-15 inches between the heels works best for me.

The bar should be resting on the floor about 3 inches in front of your shins.

Grip is a debated topic relative to the deadlift. I prefer to use a double overhand grip except for PR (personal record attempts). Your other choice is to use an alternated grip where one hand is pronated and the other is supinated. What this latter grip provides is more stability since the bar is perpetually rolling one direction out of one hand, and the opposite direction out of the other. You can mess around with both and choose what you are most comfortable with. At this stage in the game when strength gains are most easily realized as a novice, I’d recommend using the double overhand grip.

Grip width is simple. Your thumbs should be just outside your legs.

As Rippetoe so simply, yet perfectly states, “the main idea here is to get the trainee to pull the bar up his legs with straight elbows, with his back in an anatomically safe position.”

As much as I hate to say it, the deadlift is simply an exercise that mimics the action of bending down, picking something heavy up, and setting it back down on the floor. The exercise simply makes sure you do it with safe biomechanical movement.

Back position is the most important part of the lift. There are similarities here relative to the squat. For starters, you want to keep you chest up high throughout the movement which will promote proper extension of the spine. Secondly, you want to stick your butt out in so that the lumbar spine is properly extended. Keep your shoulders back.

So set this position before bending down to pick up the bar.

As you bend down, you are going to lose some of the lumbar extension which is fine. What you want to avoid, always during the deadlift, is rounding of the back!

There are 3 angles to consider during the deadlift. There’s the angle at the knee, the angle at the hip, and the angle of the torso relative to the floor. In the proper deadlift, the knee angle is the first thing to increase. The torso should stay at the same angle from the floor and the hips should open up slightly as shins and femurs become more vertical.

Essentially the quads initiate the movement by extending the knees. As the hips start to open and the torso begins to erect, the glutes and hamstrings take over as the primary movers.

Depending on anthropometrics, the starting position will be different for each person. A few things that will be common for all will be the knees and shoulders should be slightly ahead of the bar at the start of the movement. The bar should be touching the shins. The hips will be low enough so the legs can get some drive against the floor. However, this depth will not be equal to the depths reached during the squat.

Something to remember with the deadlift is this: The last thing that happens on the way up during the movement is going to be the first thing that happens on the way down.

So what is the way down?

You start the downward movement by flexing at the hips and pushing your butt back. The entire time keep the back LOCKED. Also keep the arms STRAIGHT the entire time. As the bar slides down the legs, passing the knee, start flexing the knee to help the bar down the rest of its journey down to the floor.

I could state a lot more minutia on this subject, but I’m starting to run out of time.


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Steve, a quick question...when do you bump up the weight? I'm starting out very small, because I have wussy arms. LOL! So ignore my weenie weights...I started out the first day with 5 lbs in each hand, just to see, and increased to 10 the next day. It made my arms shake a little, but felt good. Now, after 2 weeks I'm more comfortable with that. Should I increase to 15 now? Or wait a bit?
 
Steve, a quick question...when do you bump up the weight? I'm starting out very small, because I have wussy arms. LOL! So ignore my weenie weights...I started out the first day with 5 lbs in each hand, just to see, and increased to 10 the next day. It made my arms shake a little, but felt good. Now, after 2 weeks I'm more comfortable with that. Should I increase to 15 now? Or wait a bit?

As a novice, you should increase whenever you can. But make sure 'jumps' are reasonable. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to ramp up their weights to quickly, leading to a stall.

It's not how much you increase by that leads to positive adaptation. Rather's it's simply the fact that you applied a *new* stress to the body.

Exercises that use more muscles can go up 5lbs for women.

Exercises that use less, small muscles should probably go up less.

Simply as a guideline.... it will differ from individual to individual.
 
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