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Well, I had hoped to get my video program up and running, but life sometimes has a way of getting in the way.
Last week my wife got ill from some virus going around at work. Then I picked it up, though not as bad as she had it. Last Thursday, ( Aug. 19th.), my stomach was a little off.
But the real problem was I had a molar beginning to cause me some problems. Thursday night I only slept about 2-3 total hours. I could not lay down as the pain would become pretty intense.
So, Friday I call my dentist and he happens to be gone for the day. The receptionist schedules me for an appointment on Monday the 23rd. No problem, I figure. I have some left-over Vicodin I had not entirely used up from leg surgery. So I start taking the Vicodin and it does ease the pain somewhat. But, off and on throughout the day and nights, the pain gets worse. Sometimes very intense. You know how it is with tooth problems.
Between Thursday and Monday I got maybe 8-9 hours of total sleep for those nights combined! I’m feeling loopy from Vicoden and lack of sleep. Maybe that’s why I put up this sale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf3ALknxheI&feature=channel
Yet, there is something I wanted to share with you about all this. I could have just whined and complained and moaned in pain about my predicament. I could have taken it out on my wife and friends who called. I could have taken it out on myself.
But I did not.
Whatever happens to us in this world, we have to realize certain things. Some things we bring on ourselves, either because we failed to act, failed to act soon enough or made the wrong decision.
Other things happen to us through no fault of our own. We are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stuff happens.
But, and this is always true:
We have free will. We have the capacity to determine how we will react to any given situation or circumstances.
It doesn’t matter whether we brought things down on our own head or they just happened.
If we brought it upon ourselves, learn from that mistake and don’t repeat it. Bear up under what your prior actions have set in motion and make the best of it.
If it is something that just happened to us that we did not cause, don’t beat yourself up about it either. Accept it and determine how to make things better or how you can turn things around for the better.
Treat those around you with respect and honor. Take a deep breath and smile.
I was hurtin from a bad tooth and a bad stomach. Fun? You bet!
So, Sunday, a day I usually spend with friends, I decided to stay away from others so I would not spread whatever bug was in my gut. Plus my tooth was hurtin!
So me, being the nut that I am decided to do a little training. Not too smart am I, ha ha.
I snuck outside while my wife was cleaning, and did 13 sets of military presses. Why? I wanted to see if I could exhibit a fair amount of strength while feeling pretty poor physically and dealing with sleep deprivation.
Hey, sometimes ya just gotta test yourself.
I paid for it that night as my tooth hurt even more and I got even less sleep.
Then Monday, I go to the dentist. He refers me to another doc, an endodontist (is that correct?) to look at the tooth more. Between the two of them they determine it is best to remove the offending molar.
Fine by me! It hurts.
 The offending molar. So, Monday late afternoon, my wonderful wife is home from work. She is busy talking to her parents so I sneak outside once again. This time I do 5 sets of whip-snatches super-setted with 5 sets of pull-ups. Then I do 5 sets of real heavy loaded cleans and 5 sets of heavy high pulls with each arm.
Why? I don’t know. Guess I didn’t learn my lesson from the day before.
Once again, that night my tooth hurts more than it should. I wonder why.
But for me, I had to do it. I couldn’t lay there crying about my predicament. I did not want to mentally self-talk myself down. I felt like doing something!
And even though I felt more physical pain from stirring up my blood pressure which affected my molar, I felt good because I did something, I proved I could train under such pain. I could push on.
Though when my wife finds out I did this, she’ll probably kill me, ha ha.
You know many times we say things to ourselves, in our own head, that we wouldn’t say to another person. We tell ourselves we’re stupid, or dumb, or can’t do anything right, that we are a loser, not fit to be alive, that no one cares, and on and on.
I call bull. It’s a load of mental defecation. Dump it if you talk to yourself like that. Flush it down the toilet where it belongs. Get it out of your head. Take control. No one is preventing you from thinking better of yourself except you. Everyone self-talks in their own head. No one is so uniquely different that they don’t do this. It is a human trait.
So, use that self -talk wisely. Thoughts eventually manifest themselves as things or speech or actions. Those thoughts draw other similar people or things or actions from others to us.
You ever notice how someone can be a great person? Then they start talking bad and unkind of others. The longer they think bad of themselves and others the more they become an anxious, upset, irritated, frustrated, angry individual. And after awhile, notice who their friends are. They begin attracting and hanging out with the very same people who reflect their inner thoughts and feelings. They begin to feed off each other.
That’s why one negative thinking person can influence a mate, family or group of people to think and act negatively too.
So get your thoughts squared away. Focus on good. Do good. Change your thoughts and you can change yourself.
You are and will become what you think of yourself. It takes just as much energy to think negatively as it does positively.
So, where do you want to be?
What kind of person do you want to be?
What kind of person do you want others to see you as?
Yeah, things happen to all of us. Some our own fault, others not our fault, but how will we react?
I got the tooth pulled Wednesday, August 25th.
I did not go to the dentist in a bad mood. I joked with the receptionist, joked with the oral surgeon. I teased my wife. I can’t train now for a week or two, because the pressure could cause the blood clot where the molar was pulled to pop out and create a dry socket.
There are all kinds of things I could say and think about that are negative, particularly since now I will not be able to get my video program up and running as fast as I wanted too.
But you know what?
I ain’t gonna do that.
This has made me even more determined to put out the best video program I can. I can’t wait to get started on it again. I have new things I am thinking about to make it even better.
Don’t listen to some little dude in your head telling you you can’t do anything right, telling you that you are a failure because…
Knock that guy out with a mental punch. Don’t listen to him. Don’t let him say another negative word. Take control of your thoughts. Direct your thoughts at what you want to accomplish, at the kind of person you want to be.
If you want to lose weight, get in better shape, change your diet, get stronger and tougher, then do it.
If you need motivation, create it in your own mind and heart. Motivation starts with just a thought. Build on it. Think: “I can” and you will. Build on that one thought until it wells up inside you and becomes an irresistible force in your life that nothing can stop.
Create a mental image of who you want to become and then work on stepping into that image.
Then you will become who you want to be.
Walter
It’s been a while since I posted a new article.
but I think you will be happy with this. I have been working extensively on a new video program. It is taking way more work and literal sweat than I ever imagined, ha ha.
 Yes, I'm sweating just for you. 110 F. I am learning a lot in the process in putting together this video program to help people get stronger and tougher. The process of filming, editing said film, formatting, etc. is an entirely new area for me. But the end result of all this hard work will benefit a lot of people.
I can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet and reveal what the program is, but it will be killer content that is in-depth and very detailed. I am leaving no stone unturned to make this the best program on video out there in this area of training. I am sick of the mis-information and terrible instruction others are providing on this.
I am tired of people telling me they know how to do a certain exercise because Mr./Ms. Personal Trainer taught them, and when they demonstrate the exercise for me, they are doing it wrong and will get injured.
I am tired of people withholding training info on this so you have to buy a bunch of books/DVD sets to gather all the parts together to make it work.
So, I am putting it all together in one shot.
 What's this guy doing? Trying to swim? After this video program you will not need to purchase any other program, book or DVD on the exercises demonstrated in order to learn them. The exercises contained and demonstrated here, in this program, will be complete, with every tool I can bring to the table to help you get these exercises dialed in to the “T”.
This is not a program with endless detailed information on how to lay out your training: how to set up sets and reps, what to do each day, etc. However, I will touch on those points throughout the program. I will give you enough to actually put the exercises to use in a routine.
Rather, this program is designed to teach you to become proficient at the exercises themselves. It is designed to teach you the skill of doing the movement safely and effectively. I will give you quick and dirty methods of learning the exercises for those athletically inclined. I will provide detailed information to trouble shoot the exercises and check your form for those less athletically gifted.
If, after watching this entire video series you can’t do these exercises properly, it will not be because necessary information was withheld from you. It will not be because the exercises were not explained in detail with a variety of methods to trouble shoot them. It will not be because multiple angles of view were not provided.
I will do my very best to give you specific, detailed information on the exercises, how to break them down, how to learn them on your own, how to help someone else learn how to do them, where common mistakes are made and how to correct those mistakes.
This is not a certification of any sort and does not qualify you to teach others, but it will seem like a certification because of the depth of material. It may even help you in acquiring a certification down the road, if that is your desire.
I will even take you to exotic locales (well, maybe not so exotic).
So, please don’t go away!
I think this might be just what the doctor ordered for many people.
I’m going out on a limb here, but:
I think this is what people want:
full disclosure on these exercises. I wish I had this when I first started training these exercises many years ago.
It took me years of reading, digging, buying multiple books and DVD’s and watching various videos online and digging through forums to gather this all together.
I have easily invested way over $3,000. on various products and spent countless hours reading, watching, being trained, taking notes and training myself and others so that I could learn all of this. I am going to share that with you.
I will lay it all out for you soon…
more details to come…
I will be off-line for a few days, the mountains are calling.
Walter
Just some thoughts on the bench press.
Once again, if you compete in power lifting or bench press competitions, you need to train this lift.
But for most average guys, there really is no need to do this lift. Too many people bench press the wrong way and end up hurting their shoulders or creating other muscular imbalances. For most people there are better options. And in most sports, if you are lying on your back, you are losing.
Now, I realize the bench press can be beneficial, if it is performed correctly. If you want to bench press, go learn how to do it from a power lifter who has been benching for many years. The reason? If he is still bench pressing after 30 plus years of doing it, he probably has pretty good form. Just be sure to have him scratch the back of his head first, before you have him teach you how to bench press.
If he can do that with his elbow pointing straight out from his side with the same hand he is scratching his head with, he still has pretty good mobility in his arm and knows what he is doing in his training. If he can’t do that, he has a severe musculature imbalance and shortened ligaments from years of improper training. Stay away from him.
And stay away from having some goofy bodybuilder in the typical gym teach you how to bench. If you do, you will kill your shoulders and create many problems that may bug you the rest of your life.
For most people, get strong first with push ups. Not the sloppy ones most people do. Get so you can do push-ups in good form for 50 reps or so in one set. No hips up in the air or sagging gut.
You should be able to do them well holding your body stiff and straight like a plank or board. Tuck your butt under and keep the glutes tight. Keep the elbows in closer to your sides. Flaring the elbows way out and doing push-ups with the hands way out to the sides is OK for young dudes (at least until they blow a shoulder out) but for anyone over 30 (or anyone who wants to keep having healthy shoulders) I would say keep the elbows close to your sides with hands under you so your shoulders will at least touch your thumbs in the bottom position.
Pause at the top of the push-up and hold it at the bottom for a second. Take about 2 seconds to go up and 2 seconds to go back down. Pull yourself down, don’t just drop down. Do them strong, with control and power; and do not do them as fast as you can pump them out. You will find them much more challenging this way. Once you can knock off several sets of 50 this way, then you can begin to explore the many other forms of push-ups.
Next, work up to doing feet elevated pushups. Then pushups with your hands on some suspended rings (like gymnastics rings). There are a lot of variations you can learn, but get the basics down first. Get strong with them and then the more challenging variations will be easier and you will benefit from them much more. Trying harder variations too soon (before you have a solid foundation of strength and control) will only frustrate you and possibly create an injury.
From there you can start working on doing one arm push-ups. But be sure you do them as out-lined in the book: “The Naked Warrior” by Pavel Tsatsouline. No other form of one-arm-push-up is acceptable if you want to get strong and protect your shoulders at the same time.
Once you can do that I would start adding in one arm bench presses (1ABP). Use either a kettlebell or a dumbbell. I think the KB is better. The mass of the KB hangs outside the arm and is not balanced so it forces you to use more muscle to control it, especially if you keep the forearm vertical during the entire range of movement.
Look for a new article on the 1ABP soon. I will lay out the proper way to do them.
If you are looking for further chest development, dips are another good exercise. But please don’t do them the way typical mullet heads do in a gym. If you go as deep as you can, “going for the stretch” you will definitely screw up your shoulders. Don’t go anywhere near that deep and you can get, not only stronger, but also keep your shoulders much healthier.
You may also mix in some crush curls with a rock or KB. Basically you pick up a KB by the bell, with both hands flat on the KB or rock, palms facing each other. Crush the object like you are trying to literally crush it to dust. Now simply straighten out your arms and re-bend them as if doing curls.
You will soon find you have to exert a very strong crushing power on the object to keep it between your hands as you curl it. At the botton position be sure to lock your arms out and really squeeze your triceps hard. Curl back up and keep the squeeze on the object. Of course the bigger the rock or KB the heavier it will be and the harder it will be to crush curl it. Do these for lower reps 3-8 and not too many sets. These are tough so do them sparingly, not too often and not too much volume or you may cause elbow problems. Start light and gradually build up in weight. If it bothers your elbows at all: don’t do them.
Once you can do 10 reps per arm in the one arm push-up and several sets of 1ABP’s with 100lbs or so, you will have all the chest strength you need for almost anything. If you want a further challenge, start stacking two KB’s on top of each other in one hand and bench press them. Try two 53 pounders, holding both handles in the one hand. Have fun! Just be carful you don’t drop a KB on your face.
You will find that when you are using a heavy KB in the 1ABP the weight on one side of your body will try to roll you off the bench. You will have to get all-over tight to prevent that. You will build great stabilizing power in your body as you build your chest/shoulders and upper back with this move. I’ll touch on this more in a future article, laying out the finer details.
So, stick with these exercises for a while and you will probably find you don’t even need to get near the regular barbell bench press. You will get plenty strong and tough and be able to handle your body way more athletically than someone who just does bench presses all the time.
Very few heavy bench pressers have the strength and control of their body to be able to do one arm push-ups.
Using the above training exercises will create a tough, flexible and powerful upper body without the typical bench pressing injuries that come from trying to bench hundreds of pounds. It may take you several years to master all the push-up variations, but at the end of that time you will be one lean strong, tough dude.
So, to sum up this three-part series on the squat, deadlift and bench press:
Sure, weighing 350-400 pounds and squatting 1000 lbs, deadlifting 800-900lbs and bench pressing 600-800lbs is cool, but not realistic for the majority of people. And not very healthy either.
So, when it comes to training, emulating what top powerlifters or body builders (who are not anywhere near as strong as they look) do is not the best course to follow if you are after a strong, tough, flexible and injury free body that can do nearly anything at anytime.
Specificity rules in the competitive sporting world, but in the real world outside the ring, the toughest men have many well rounded qualities physically. They are not one-trick ponies.
If you want to be a thoroughbred race horse train for that. After years of training you may find you don’t have the gentics to reach the top. Certainly the race horse will be faster on the track, but take him out of his element and what then?
I would rather train to be the mixed-breed gnarly-looking horse that can cover hundreds of miles in any kind of weather, pull and carry nearly anything and tough out any situtation, than some sheltered race horse that only shines when the track is groomed and the weather is fair.
Decide what your goals are and train for that.
Walter
Dead lifting barbells definitely builds a strong body all over. It’s an awesome exercise. Many consider it one of the best overall lifts a person can do.
But the question remains:
Should YOU do them?
Well, only you can determine that. Too many variables here that you must address personally. If you compete in power-lifting you have to do them. But what if you are not a competitive lifter?
Well, what is to follow may or may not apply to you. If your desire is to lift as heavy a weight as you possibly can in the deadlift with a barbell, I would suggest getting Pavel’s books: “Power To The People” and ”Power To The People Professional”. The second book is filled with great training info for those desiring to get the most out of the three powerlifts (squat, bench press and dead lift).
But that is not my goal, and thus I am sharing with you a different view or system to follow.
I feel much the same about dead-lifts as I do about squats. Now before we get too far, let me say I am talking about the competition style conventional or sumo style dead lifts. You know, where you bend/squat down to a loaded barbell in front of you and grip the bar with two hands and stand upright.
Building up to a 2 to 2.5 times body-weight dead lift is a great goal. That is, if you weigh 150 pounds you build up to being able to dead-lift 300-375lbs. If you weight 200 lbs. you build up to the point where you can dead lift 400-500lbs. Once you get to this point, dead-lifting ever greater weights has rapidly diminishing returns on your sweat investment. Once a person can dead lift about 2 to 2.5 times their body-weight they will have plenty of strength for most any task.
But, for many persons, the dead lift is a tough lift to master. First, you need to find a good trainer who really knows how to dead lift. Forget the typical gym trainer. If you really want to learn how to deadlift properly, seek out a competitive power lifter. Then you will get the real scoop on how to dead lift properly. If that’s your goal, awesome.
Second, you may not need to practice the conventional dead-lift. Especially if you have had a previous back injury.
Interestingly enough (if your back has been injured in the past and you have your doctors clearance) dead-lifting (but not necessarily with a barbell) coupled with proper training of the entire torso, can alleviate many back problems.
But having prior injuries can make the dead lift much harder to learn. There may be muscular imbalances, in-grained movement patterns to overcome and also a mental fear of getting re-injured that must be overcome.
So what to do?
I believe a person can get strong enough to dead lift 2 to 2.5 times their body weight by training on other lifts. By using a variety of lifts we can build strength throughout the entire body and help to bullet-proof the back. We can get strong enough to meet the above dead lift weights without ever doing a conventional dead lift. And we can stay healthier, become more mobile and flexible as we do this.
How?
By using a variety of lifts and rotating them through our workout routines. I would use exercises like;
one leg dead lifts performed in three variations:
done contra-laterally (weight held in hand opposite the one leg you are standing on, i.e. left hand holding weight, standing on right leg)
uni-laterally (weight held on same side of body as leg you are standing on, i.e. right hand standing on right leg)and
bia-laterally (weight held in each hand, dumbbells or kettlebells, while standing on one leg).
suitcase dead lifts, trap-bar dead lifts (much easier to learn and great way to dead lift) double bar dead lift’s (like suitcase deads but with one bar on each side of body, a poor man’s trap bar dead-lift), swings with a KB or plate loaded system done both with heavy and lighter KB’s. Double KB swings are great too.
Health lifts (basically just the top 1/4 or so of a dead lift and usually lifting the bar off pins in a power rack or blocks, so the bar is at mid thigh level when you start the lift) power shrugs, etc. can also help with this. Might I suggest doing double bar lifts off the pins set at a mid thigh level? Try it.
I know a lot of people look at the dead-lift as a natural movement, you dip down and grip the bar and rip it up. But in reality, when we squat/bend to pick objects up we try to get the object as close to our body as possible. We will hug it close to our body if we can. We take it into our circle of power you might say, trying to bring the object closer to our natural center of balance as we stand.
Grab a basketball or similar sized ball. Then grab one bigger if you have it. Now with a light object, like the ball, you probably picked it up with the palms facing each other. IF you picture a clock hanging on a wall, your hands would be at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions on the ball. That is the sort of grip we use for boxes and such that are not heavy.
Now if that box is heavier, or the ball is heavier, like an atlas stone, we would pick it up with our grip or palms at about the 4 and 8 o’clock positions. That gives us a much better grip on the object. We may even move our hands down into the 4:30 and 7:30 positions.
If we can we will hug it sort of toward the bottom or if not, we will bear hug it around the sides, like lifting someone up in a bear hug.
So what can we learn from this?
Well, dead-lifting a loaded barbell is not as natural a movement as some think. Many objects cannot be picked up this way. A barbell, if loaded with heavy weight, is usually picked up with straight arms. But in everyday life, many objects are picked up with arms that are bent to a degree and even wrapped around the object to get it right up against our body.
Another point:
in lifting most things in life we pick things up with our arms at our sides and our palms facing our body. Or if picking something up in front of us we have our palms either facing up or facing each other or somewhere in between that range. About the only thing we pick up that is heavy, with our palms facing down or toward our back, is a barbell loaded with a bunch of plates.
So how can we use this information?
We can dead-lift various objects using a more natural grip if we lift things like sandbags, kegs, rocks, etc. Doing Zercher style dead lifts (where the bar is held in the crooks of the elbow) is also a good way to get stronger.
Thus, in addition to using the various optional forms of dead-lifting outlined above, I would perform water or sand filled beer keg lifts. Dead lift sand bags. Get out side and find various sized rocks and logs to lift. This will create a much more natural movement pattern in your lifting. You can still test yourself with weights way heavier than a man can lift. Why is it a man can dead lift near 1,000 pounds but not even come close to that weight when lifting rocks?
Well, it is much easier to dead lift a balanced weight with its easy to grip bar compared to an unbalanced rock or even a smooth evenly shaped Atlas stone.
There are a lot of other reasons, but don’t fear that doing various deads like one leg deads, suitcase deads, trap bar or double bar lifts, rock lifts, etc. will make you weak. Chances are, if you practice such lifts you will get way stronger and have better movement patterns in everyday life than the guy who just does dead-lifts conventional style with a barbell.
Using these various measn of building your total body strength will also build strong forearms, hands and fingers. Lifting a weighted bar is surely a test for the grip, but grab a big rock and your forearm is tested to the max as your hands and fingers are splayed out trying to find a good purchase on that odd shaped object. This fires more of you CNS and helps you get tighter to lift the object. It helps you get all-over-tight and strong and tough.
You will literally have to wrestle the weight up when you try heavier objects. It has great carry over to every day life, especially if you are a hard-charging kind of person who isn’t afraid of jumping into things and getting dirty with work or sport. You might pick up some drums of various sizes and put weight plates in them. Or you could dump dirt or rocks in them.
By using weight plates or rocks in your metal drum you can easily change how much weight you are lifting.
Such lifting, coupled with sensible training for the rest of the body can go a long way in injury-proofing the body and getting way stronger and resilient than your pre-injury days.
Think about it.
Also, I must include one warning for anyone with prior back injuries or the desire to prevent them:
If you are going to squat or dead-lift with barbells, be careful with doing things like 10×10, you know, ten sets of ten reps. Young, injury free studs can get away with this, at least for a while. Older, beat up and wiser men do better with lower reps and sets.
High rep sets fatigue the back quickly, even with more moderate weights. Lose your concentration or get too fatigued and BAM! hellooo chiropractor! People usually focus much more when under a heavier weight because they know it can hurt them so they pay closer attention to what they are doing.
Keep your sets and reps lower. I would suggest things like 3×3 or 5 sets done for 5,4,3,2,1 reps. That is NOT 5 circuits of this. It is: 1st. set do 5 reps, rest, 2nd set do 4 reps, rest, 3rd. set do 3 reps, etc. Work your way down to one rep and you are done. You may or may not increase the weight each set.
Also, three sets done this way: 5 reps rest, 3 reps rest and finally 2 reps and you are done. You might only do one rep per set and 5- 10 sets; or try 5 sets of 2 reps. Lot of possibilities here.
Heavy swings can be done for higher reps, but that is another article.
With big basic exercises or lifts, go heavy, go hard and then go home to rest. Don’t try to get cardiovascular conditioning with big heavy weights for many reps. That is a sure ticket to injuries, sickness and burn out.
One of the great things about learning to lift all types of objects is the total all-over bodily power that it gives you. You know you can lift almost anything anywhere to get a great workout. You realize you don’t always need a nice gym or even barbells to get strong and tough.
And when you go to pick up that heavy dumped over garbage bucket, the motorbike you just dropped, your young nephew who is trying to wrestle you, that bag of golf clubs in the deep trunk of your car or the last armload of firewood: you’ll find it way easier than it was when you just did regular deadlifts.
Build your strength foundation gradually and progressively. Know when to back off and take a break from training these lifts. Learn how to cycle your lifts in and out of your routines and cycle them up and down in intensity and volume. You will enjoy the process much more, reduce the possibility of injury or irritating a prior injury and get the strength and toughness you are after.
Get all over strong and all over tough from every angle,
Walter
In many training circles these three exercises are a mainstay. Particularly for bodybuilders of the past (not so sure about the bloated machine training bodybuilders of today) and for power-lifters.
It makes sense for power-lifters to barbell back squat, dead-lift and bench. All three of these lifts are contested in competition.
Many trainees are taught that they absolutely need to do theses lifts if they want to get stronger and bigger.
So do you need to do these exercises?
Well, yes and no. It depends.
Certainly if you are a power-lifter you need to do these lifts.
But for the general man or woman trying to get tougher, develop great work capacity and speed and agility, these lifts are not a necessity.
Also, for some, these lifts may cause more problems than they are worth.
Have I performed these three lifts? Yes, in the past I did. But I have not bench pressed in over 15 years. I do not miss it for a second.
I haven’t done a back squat with a barbell in years.
Dead-lifts? Well, I do them occasionally. Out of the three lifts mentioned here, the dead-lift is the best. But, again, not all should do them. There are other options.
Now I am sure some will not agree with this, but hey, that’s OK.
I will outline why I don’t bench or do full back squats with a barbell. I’m even beginning to look at the dead-lift differently now.
So, to begin, we will take a look at the barbell back squat.
I use to do them religiously. I worked up to 315 pounds for 20 deep reps as outlined in the book: “Super Squats” by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. I put on some muscle and my legs started really growing. I was squatting 425 for reps and my legs got bigger around than my wife’s waist. I’m talking about one leg being bigger than her waist.
But I noticed something. This did not make me run faster. It did not make me jump higher. My legs got to the point where they would rub together at the inner thigh as I walked, and in the summer it was uncomfortable. Also, I noticed my lower back was sore a lot.
At this point I started learning the Olympic lifts. So I learned to do overhead squats in the snatch position and front squats. These two forms of squatting actually helped my back feel much better, even though I couldn’t lift as much weight in them. And a nice benefit was I did notice my running and jumping ability improve. I felt more athletic.
Then at one point I injured my back moving a 600 lb. air compressor. Took months before I could squat again pain free. After that I was acutely aware of how each exercise I performed impacted my back. And the barbell back squat was not good. I had perfect form as I had several qualified trainers and a competing Olympic lifter critique my form. So I knew it wasn’t bad form that was creating the back stress, it was the very nature of doing back squats, especially on top of an old injury.
With a back squat with a barbell, as you go deeper into the lift, your upper body will lean forward. All the stress of carrying the weight on your shoulders pushes your upper body down. You resist that primarily with your lower back, bracing your abs tight to help provide support.
But a lot of that stress is directly on the lumbar region and it is not a dynamic move for the lower back. It is basically locked in an isometric contraction for many seconds as you perform a heavy back squat. Try that for several repetitions and you can see the recipe for disaster. Even with a lighter weights, couple that with poor form or the occassional laspe in focus and BOING! there goes your lower back.
Prediction for the immediate future?—— Lot’sa pain.
So for me, and many others, it is not the best exercise for the legs or back. The risk/benefit ratio falls heavily on the side of risk, of hurting your lower back. So I stopped doing barbell back squats.
There are many other ways to train the legs that offer great benefits without the high risk of lower back injuries or aggravating existing lower back injuries.
If a person has access to proper training to learn how to do Olympic style overhead squats, these can actually build better posture in the back. Even when done with just a bar they can have great benefits. Front squats as practiced by Olympic lifters is another great form of squatting, yet many do not want to do them as they are hard on the wrists during the learning curve.
But once again you don’t need to learn to do these exercises. So what do you do?
For most trainees (especially those in their mid 30′s and up, and anyone with a prior back injury) I would suggest the following forms of squatting:
Goblet squats, front squats with one or two kettlebells, hack squats with a kettlebell, split squats with the rear leg elevated, tactical lunges, step ups with weights, body-weight squats, dragon walks, twisting dragons, one arm overhead KB squats, etc. to build powerful springy legs that are strong but can also move the body rapidly.
A mixture of these various leg exercises will give you way more benefit than just doing back squats, if you are interested in getting tough, agile and fast. These exercises will help you become much more athletic.
However, if you absolutely feel you must do barbell back squats, I would do a few cycles of 1/4 squats with heavy weights several times per year and the rest of the time focus on these other leg exercises that I mentioned. I would follow some of the ideas for singles training or partial movement training as outlined in Steve Justa’s book “Rock Iron Steel”, which by the way is a great read.
The 1/4 squats with a heavy weight will give you the ability to support heavy loads with your body. Since you are not going real deep it is less stressful on the lower back even though the weight is way heavier. You remain much more upright. You just need to remember to stay real tight through-out the short movement and build the weights up gradually so your body can adjust to the heavier weights. It is possible to work up to over a thousand pounds this way.
But you really don’t even need to do this if you don’t want to.
I would say for most, start learning to do body-weight squats and goblet squats with good form. For those who may scoff at goblet squats I offer the following challenge:
If you think goblet squats are easy, try grabbing a 150 pound dumbbell or a 106 pound kettlebell and knocking off 5 sets of 5-10 reps. You can call me in a week and tell me how well you are walking. Most people who do back squats, other than Olympic lifters, never go very deep in their squat. Including power lifters, who do not squat that deep. A set or two of goblet squats done properly will have their legs screaming for mercy. They will find the true meaning of deep squats.
Once you can do a triple digit goblet squat I would start doing front squats with Kb’s. After you have the front squat nailed down with good form I would use these two forms of squatting on different days.
And for the front squats with a kettlebell, you can work your body asymmetrically with one KB in one hand. After a set switch hands. Do the same amount of sets and reps for each side. This is a killer for the core with a heavy KB. Work up to 70-100+ lb. KB to really experience what this move does.
Or you can load up a KB in each hand. These are double Kb front squats. Using the KB is much easier on the wrists than using a barbell for front squats. If you think this is easy, work up to a 106lb. KB in each hand and knock off 5 sets of 5 reps. You will be squatting 212 pounds in this front squat. I doubt you could walk into most gyms in this country and find someone who can do this. Get to this level and you will have legs strong enough for any task you wish, except competing in power lifting.
So, if you are worried about injuring or re-injuring your back, ditch the barbell back squat. Learn to do goblet squats with a kettlebell. Work up to doing triple digit (100+ lbs.) goblet squats and you will save your back from a lot of wear and tear. And you will get the leg power you are after.
Then jump into the front squats with kettlebells. Your back will greatly appreciate it. Find someone who knows how to teach these lifts. Preferably someone who has their RKC certification and is actually using that cert to train people.
Goblet squats and front squats with a KB take a great deal of the stress off the lower lumbar region. There are better ways to build that part of your body. As the weight gets heavier you will feel it in your torso, but the body positioning makes it much easier for most people to tighten up there entire body and control the movement.
Next time around we’ll discuss the dead lift…and I have some new thinking even on this lift.
Walter
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