Showing posts with label quick fixes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quick fixes. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Pulling with the Quadriceps

http://nbbehring.photoshelter.com/image/I00006iTEmffItxw
2008 silver medalist Li Hongli and his developed quads
"For whatever reason, there's a tendency in this country at this time to think we have a dearth of hip extension strength (glutes and hams) and a wealth of knee extension strength (quads). That wasn't the case in 1998 when I first got into this profession. There was no big emphasis on hip extension.

Somehow, somewhere, the emphasis changed from triple extension to emphasis on hip extension and this new thing emerged: the posterior chain.

And what great timing it was, because suddenly we had become a nation of quad dominant, dysfunctional people, plagued by gluteal amnesia.
"
- Excerpt from "That P-Chain Thang"
by Physical Therapist Tracy Fober

When I started lifting weights in 2006, I had to take in a lot of new information. Technique was stressed repeatedly and it's still important to this day. While performing movements with good form minimizes risk of injury, it also makes exercises easier and allows us to derive more benefit from them for our goals.

It's training efficiency - getting the most bang for your buck in the training you do.

In my social media feeds, several training videos tend to show up. I watch a good number of them and it's apparent there's a disconnect in understanding technique. Technical deviations are common near maximal efforts, but most videos I see are submaximal.

The most notable issue I notice is pulling a barbell off the floor using the quadriceps muscles.

The popularity of gluteal training has cause the hips and glutes to be heavily emphasized in training. This is especially true for recreational exercisers who sit for long periods throughout the day. In many lower body movements, most people are taught to focus on their hips, such as sitting back when beginning a squat. Unfortunately because of this, the quadriceps muscle group gets overlooked. Remember the function of the quadriceps - to extend the knee.

When the mistake happens in deadlifts or weightlifting pulls, it's easy to observe. The hips are high and the movement ends up resembling a stiff legged deadlift where the legs are almost straight.

http://www.powerliftingtowin.com/powerlifting-technique-deadlift-setup
Notice the high hips and vertical shin

Sometimes trainees set up correctly, but either due to lack of knowledge or strength, their hips shoot up, the torso becomes almost parallel to the floor, and they end up pulling with their hamstrings, glutes, and low back. This doesn't make use of the quadriceps and ends up fatiguing the other areas sooner in the movement.

In a good pull that utilizes the quadriceps, the barbell and hips rise at the same speed. This is the quadriceps initiating the movement as it extends the knee. When done correctly, the back angle remains constant at the start of the movement.

Depending on whether a deadlift is being done by powerlifters or pulls by weightlifters, there are things to consider when looking at the technique and incorporating corrections.

Powerlifters

Powerlifters have a lot of freedom in their deadlifting styles. Conventional, sumo, low hips, high hips, narrow stance, rounded upper back, and any other number of variations or combinations of them. Pulling style will be up to the individual's build and preferences, especially if the person has a history of injury.

For reference, take a look at the following conventional and sumo deadlifts. Both show good pulling technique.


 

However, there are exceptions and this isn't the only way to deadlift. An experienced lifter won't necessarily have the same deadlifting style if they know what works best for them. For instance, Bob Peoples was well known for deadlifting with his legs nearly straight and a rounded back. It would generally be considered bad form and ill advised to perform deadlifts in that way, but it suited him the best based on his own build and experience.

For beginner and intermediate trainees, they have less time under the bar. More often than not, they unintentionally deadlift with their hips high. The issue tends to reveal itself at heavier weights.

A quick correction is to give a point to look at for the person to focus on as they straighten their knees or think about pressing their feet into the ground. However if a little more assistance is needed, guiding them with hands on their hips and low back can also do the trick.

If the quadriceps are lacking strength in this specific position, hack squats (previously discussed here) can be used as a correction.


Begins at the 3:35 mark

Done properly, a hack squat has the bar lifted without any issue. If the hips come up first, the bar will hit the hamstrings before it reaches lock out. It teaches to begin the lift from the knees by using the quadriceps and requires maintaining good positioning of the torso before finishing with the hips.

Fortunately for weightlifters, there is less range in pulling styles and simplifies the issue.

Weightlifters

Alex Lee at 2015 World Championships

Weightlifting should be straightforward, but for whatever reason lifters make the classical movements more complicated than necessary. The first pull is described as the portion of the lift from the floor to the knees.

Similar to powerlifters, for weightlifters the issue may be lack of awareness. Some simply pull too fast off the floor and lose their position. This is especially true if the main thought is to stay over the bar and emphasize hip extension after the second pull. Sometimes the quads are not taken into consideration.

Corrections for this were discussed in last year's FuBarbell + Training Geek seminar review. To recap the relevant section,
"From the start position, we were told to go straight up as if we were trying to draw a straight line from a pencil sticking out of our ear. Visually, a PVC can be held adjacent to the lifter. Keeping the ear in line to the PVC will force the lifter to pull straight up. If the lifter still needs further feedback, Diane demonstrated by having her hand on the upper back and told Lester to press her hand upwards. This achieves the correct pulling action.

They provided excellent cues to understand how it should feel. I particularly liked the emphasis on feeling the quadriceps contract in the start position and in extension. In the start position, "feel your heels float" gave the right idea of how far you should start over the bar - the weight is shifted forward just enough to have your heels stay lightly on the ground. If done correctly, the quadriceps muscles can be felt."
These cues are great for shifting the trainee's idea of the set up and execution without being overly analytical and verbose.

To exaggerate feeling the quadriceps, I learned a very good drill from Stephen Powell. When I reached out to him for coaching, this was one of the first exercises he introduced to me. It's a modified set up to perform pulls called Sex Pocket Pulls.


Demonstrated by Carlee Acevedo-Fuller

In the video above, Carlee is doing pulls on plates, but with her heels hanging off the back. This forces her to slow down and pull with the quadriceps. She has to find the right balance so her heels do not touch the floor. By ensuring her heels don't touch the floor, her pull is smooth and fluid.

These can be done with a snatch or clean grip or even a grip width in between the two.

Closing Thoughts

The quadriceps are strong and should be used to our advantage. By not using all our muscles, progress will be slow and the workload will be transferred to other muscles. Those muscles have to do more than required during a set and limits what we are capable of.

Whatever sport you apply yourself to, working hard is one part of the equation and can only take you so far. It's also important to work smart. Working smart makes our hard efforts all the more worthwhile and beneficial in the long term.

‘’Technique is the ultimate expression of strength in weightlifting.’’

- Robert Roman
Further Reading,

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Hand Pressure in the Bench Press

When it comes to an exercise, hands tend to take the back seat and are out of mind.  Often an individual focuses more on the muscle tension throughout the set. I've written about gripping before, however it can be more specific than that.

You can give attention to the bar pressure in your hands. In the bench press, I've found it to be in the following areas in red below:


If you've positioned the bar at the bottom of your hands near the wrist, these red areas are more or less where you can get a feel for the bar pressing into your palms. While I titled this post with bench press, this isn't exclusive to that movement. Most horizontal pressing exercises have the same feeling such as the push-up for example.

Test it out, see how it feels, and if necessary, adjust however you see to fit for yourself.

Related articles,

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Quick Fixes: Chairs

"I love chair."
No. Bad Brick.

It's the return of quick fixes! Yes yes, I know you're ecstatic like myself but calm yourself so we can proceed.

Odd choice, huh? Out of everything to choose, chairs? It would make sense since in the last quick fix, I mentioned how we do a ton of stuff while sitting.

And what do we like to do most while sitting? Sit
comfortably. I know I do and if it's really comfortable, I'll fall asleep in class. (not really, I'll fall asleep even if I'm uncomfortable)

The lower-body's glutes become inactive and we get tight hips. That's been covered, so now all that remains is the upper-body.

What happens is we hunch over, protrude our necks excessively forward, and the worst part is we do it for extended periods of time. This causes our body to keep these negative postures outside of the environments where we originally had them.

Just like the lower-body, our plan will be to:
  • Stretch
  • Activate/regain mobility
  • Strengthen
  • Not sleep in class
Obviously we won't be able to accomplish all of these.....

For stretching, it's specifically the pecs which can be done against a wall.




While pulling your shoulder blades back and down, simply push forward then twist to the opposite side to deepen the stretch. Start out with short durations - 10 seconds - and then either increase time or do multiple sets.

In mobility, our goal is to get movement in thoracic spine - the upper back with all the trap muscles - to get that stiffness out from all the hunched leaning. I've posted t-spine movements here and there before (or not, I can't remember), but here's a list of some good ones to use:
1 set of 6-8 reps for either one or two movements listed above should suffice.

As for strengthening: deadlifts, overhead barbell shrugs, face pulls, any type of row, lat-pulldown, and pull/chin-ups go a
long way. Not much to it, right?

I left out foam rolling because I figure most of my readers don't do it but if any do have a roller, then foam roll and stretch after.

Since the posts in this series are to be short and packed with the basics, for those interested in learning more specifically about posture, check out this article at Rearick Strength. For those who are really serious about improving their posture, the Neanderthal No More series (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5) is just for you.

With lower-body and upper-body now covered, you should be able to stand tall like a fine statue. Now all that's left is to go do it.


Or look like Igor.
He's all kinds of jacked up.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Quick Fixes: Your Butt

Flat pancake booty or a huge badonkadonk, chances are, your glutes are inactive. This includes men.

Don't use something and it becomes less efficient, right? You end up a bit "rusty" when you don't do something for a while, like running. If you stopped for a few weeks, that first run after a long break isn't going to be as easy as it was before.

Driving, working, reading, on the computer, or anything else in the majority of our lives typically results with us sitting. A lot.

The work your glutes can be doing is transferred elsewhere on the body. That means, other muscles need to compensate for the lack of work being done by your ass. Literally.

Think about it like this. If you're working in a group on a new project and one person slacks off, everyone else has to pick up the slack. If you're like me, you probably don't want the extra work.


"What you gon' do with all that junk?"

So we need to counter that, y'know, get that junk in the trunk working again. Hm, what do we do?

Drumroll please.

*cricket chirps*

Yes folks, exercise! But, there are also some stretches and warm-ups in our bag o' tricks.

To keep this post short as possible, I'm going to list & hyperlink a few things.
Do the first bullet point plus one of the others, not all of them. For amount of reps and sets, check out the chart in the bottom of this article.

For actual exercises, the list is endless. You should aim to make a strong lower body using a variety of squats, deadlifts, lunges, split squats, glute-ham raises, good mornings, step ups, sprints, and kettlebell/dumbbell swings.

Notice how slow long distance running isn't mentioned? Just make sure to get complete hip extension. That means at the end of each rep, be sure to lock and pop your hips out, you should be able to squeeze your glutes hard. (see here & here to get an idea)

To get that rump in shape, you need to work it.

For any of you interested, here are the articles I used.
Hope you all enjoyed this post, feel free to leave questions and/or comments.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Quick Fixes: Purses

Let's start with a story. Back in elementary school, I was sent to my pediatrician after a scoliosis check. I didn't have scoliosis (luckily), but my doctor asked how I wore my backpack. Of course, I had it slinging on 1 shoulder like all the other cool kids. What I didn't know was of the muscle imbalance I was creating. He said all I had to do was wear my backpack normally, easy enough to do.

That was years ago. But, I see women nowadays with gargantuan-looking purses like they're trying to rob a bank. It's fine to a certain extent, but I also see they carry
a lot of things with them. I once remember my friend coming by my dorm and inside her purse was a laptop, bagel, notebook, pens, a spare tire, toaster, fish tank, etc. (maybe not the last few). That's simply way too much to be carrying all at once, especially when the load is not evenly distributed on your upper body.

Huge purse, suspect in 8 bank robberies.

So how do we fix this? Easiest way is to lessen the amount of items you have or do some type of resistance/weight training. The latter option makes you strong. Your muscles become able to handle the weight being applied to one side. Don't like the idea of lifting weights? Well, either way, if you want to have kids, how are you going to hold a crying baby in the future? Can't make that baby weigh any less no matter how many diapers you go through. In fact, they only get bigger, and uglier in the teenage years.

This post isn't just for women; it also applies to the one-strap bags men wear. Keep your body in good shape, it's not hard doing a change here, a change there.
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