Hips Position in the Deadlift

I mentioned how I was off in my deadlift set-up. I, being ignorant, finally realized what the trouble was.

Between the Romanian deadlifts I had done for an extensive period and the Olympic lifts, my hips were lifting at a high position regularly. This put me at a powerlifting pulling stance. While there isn't anything wrong with it, I'm not a powerlifter.

That wasn't the problem. The problem was I couldn't lower my hips and start in the way I previously was. A cue I tend to give others is to look at the floor in front of you. Funny thing is, I wasn't using it when I was going over my own form.

Let's break down the 3 hip angles. Low height, medium height, and high.

Couldn't find any diagrams decent enough to use, thus Paint to the rescue.
(click to enlarge)

The image above is what I'll be using to describe the different hip positions. It's a crude drawing and not everything is exact/to proportion, but is sufficient to serve the purpose of this post. Torso angle [indicated by the blue line] and line of eyesight [indicated by the dashed red line] are most important to note.

A) Low
This isn't an ideal pulling position. It's akin to trying to "squat" the weight up. Here we can tell the hips are too low due to the angle of the torso being almost completely vertical/perpendicular to the floor.

You can tell your torso is too upright if your eyes are staring directly at the wall in front of you - assuming your neck is in neutral position, meaning you're not craning it upwards but rather it forms a straight line aligned with your spine.

B) Medium
This is where I wanted to get back at. It was extremely helpful to look at the floor a few feet in front of me. My hips naturally fell into the correct position. Previously - coming up in picture C - I felt a tremendous emphasis on my glutes and lower back.

Another way to think of it, I picked up from Bret Contreras, is your body forms a "lightning bolt." If your eyes are looking in the right spot, your neck will be in neutral alignment and you won't be able to look at the wall straight ahead nor the bar under you.

C) High
This resembles a powerlifting deadlift. I simply didn't like my hips being higher up than I was accustomed to. I didn't feel my hamstrings as involved compared to before, and my lower back & glutes were pulling much more.

Here the torso is very close to parallel with the floor and your eyes will be facing the ground directly under you allowing you to see the barbell.

Position A isn't recommended because it's not deadlifting. B & C are fine. However if I'm coaching anyone I recommend B.

Why? Unless they're into powerlifting, I haven't seen a reason to advise it over the other position.

So, how's it feel deadlifting where I was at?

Amazing! I'm comfortably pulling heavy off the floor again with ease and I haven't even become sore yet.

The quest to a 400lb. deadlift begins now.

Have a good weekend everyone.

New Look

If you haven't seen already, I chose a different template for the blog over the weekend. I thought it was an upgrade to the previous default layout. Although there will be a day when there's a complete overhaul to make it more customized to my liking, hopefully you all like this one for now.

I don't ask for user feedback much. This appears to be an instance where I could use it. If the majority of folks aren't feeling this new look, I can always revert back to the other style.

Along the top are the previous pages [contact, resources, all that good stuff] and to the right-side I added a new widget that displays the most popular posts in the last 7 days. Aside from those two things, everything else appears to be the same.

So this isn't a complete waste of a post, I can give an update on the training goals I set in late August. November 7th was a perfect week to test my 1-rep maxes but due to being sick last week, I'll be pushing everything back 4-5 days later to finish my current cycle and deload sufficiently.

1) Front Squat: This is #1 priority compared to the other two. I originally planned 200, but I think I'll be able to do more.

I did front box squats previous month and now I'm debating on whether to do cluster training, wave loading, or one & one-quarter reps. Isn't so much as to which will prove effective, but rather the question is "do I want to use this now to achieve the goal sooner or wait until I stall when I really need it?"

2) Dragon Flag: I bumped this up over the deadlift because I feel like I should be able to do it by the time I'm ready to test. Currently using various RKC planks, front squat holds, and dead bugs.

3) Deadlift: 2 years ago I was deadlifting amazingly. Ton of weight and form was spot on. I then switched to Romanian deadlifts for around 6 months and when I went back to conventional pulling, I was all types of off on my set-up.

Right now I'm not sure if I want to keep this as one of the goals. It wouldn't hurt to try, but I also have tons of ideas to use in my programming for upcoming months. I won't fully know until 2-3 weeks later.

That's all from me today.

Anyone else have some goals to hit? How are they going?

1-Rep Max Testing Protocol

Most likely, that's
his warm-up set.

Around 3 years ago, I made the switch from trying to get "big" - which most guys still pursue - to focus on building strength.

So how do you measure strength? Typically you see what your 1-rep max [1RM] is for a lift. Although, I did little research on executing that. Instead I did a few sets and kept packing on the weight.

It comes off as sound in practice. However, the trick is the amount of sets you do. Too many sets and you become fatigued when you finally try hitting your personal record. Too few and you're not prepared enough to lift the weight you decided on.

From my internet perusing over the years, I haven't seen any set formulas or guidelines to go about testing 1RM's besides do a good number of sets and increase the weight accordingly. But, 2 years ago I asked over at Precision Nutrition and got great feedback.

The most helpful reply was from Coach Mike who provided the following response:

"When I certified with Poliquin, we used the following protocol:

4 @ estimated 40% rest 10 s

4 @ estimated 40% rest 10 s

3 @ estimated 60% rest 30 s

2 @ estimated 75% rest 60 s

1 @ estimated 80% rest 120 s

1 @ estimated 85% rest 120 s

1 @ estimated 90% rest 180 s

1 @ estimated 95% rest 240 s

1 @ estimated 100% rest 240 s

Rest another 240s before testing each successive max single

Fast twitch fiber types may end up doing another 5-6 singles before "maxing out," so limit to two lifts/wkt

Test quarterly max."

This isn't the only way to test your 1RM. This is the only written out formula I've seen to date.

To avoid fatigue, other users suggested to limit testing to 2 lifts per week with exercises that don't work the same musculature. When I checked my deadlift (hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull), I tested bench press (horizontal press) 2 or 3 days later. There's little hamstring involvement in the bench press and almost no pec usage in deadlifting.

Now if someone decided to do bench press one day then standing overhead press a few days later, they wouldn't perform to the best of their abilities due to the same muscles - delts & triceps in this case - used earlier in the week.

Now, go hit some PR's and then some.

Origin & Purpose

Take a moment to spot a few items around you. In my room I see hangers, a shoe box, a fully made bed, dresser, and other stuff I have yet to clean up.

Pick one of the things you've selected. I'm going to guess you know what it does and what purpose it serves. The hangers allow me to put clothes in my closest and keep them wrinkle-free. Now, think about this. Do you know the history of the hanger? If not that, at least why it was created?

I don't expect anyone to have that knowledge. But we take things for granted. For example, look at a door. There's the door itself, the doorknob, and possibly a lock. However, what about the hinges the door rests on? The door wouldn't move if they didn't exist. How many people even consider them?

My goal isn't to try and get you to Wikipedia everything. Rather, it's to make you think about your own training. A few questions to ask are,

• Why is this incorporated into my training program?
• What purpose does it serve?
• Is it conducive to my goals?
• Am I optimizing my efforts?
• Is there a more efficient way to go about this?
• Has doing this helped me or is everything still the same?
• Is it time to progress and choose a harder variation?
• Is is best to choose a regression/easier variation to better help myself?

There are a lot of questions you can ask. The objective is to refine your own tasks and really keep what is helpful to you. Figure out why it's worth your effort to even bother with it.

Lately, I've noticed a sort of dichotomy in some sports. The warm-ups are either completely unrelated to the actual sport or it isn't maximizing on preparing the body for movement.

Make sure there's a consistency in your own life. Warm-ups, recovery, training sessions, diet, lifestyle habits/behaviors, you name it.

If it's not helping, why bother?

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Mind Expounded

We all have those days.

Tuesday's quote was short, but stresses an important point. Let's examine the last line of it,

"Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence."

Where do negative thoughts originate from? Either poor performance/results or, unfortunately, other people.

I think one of the greatest challenges presented to many of us who find a comfort in a healthy lifestyle is at the juncture where we butt heads with everyone. Friends, family, or someone else: people quickly shun away from fitness. If not that, they sure seem to be a qualified expert for someone who reads and/or does little.

It finally hit me this week. Often I've been told you need to be friendly to clients or you won't make it in the industry. From professors, to working with random students, young kids, you name it, I've always had a pleasant demeanor where we've at least got along.

But, that quickly disappears if we bring up anything related to training or diet. I'm not quite sure what the exact reasoning is, but it does happen.

I recall in a recent FitCast episode, Kevin spoke about how Dave Tate explained he would go to a restaurant with friends. They all order their entrees then when it was Dave's turn, he asked the server for grilled chicken. His friends would change the conversation and get on his case.

That's a perfect example of what many of us deal with.

And you know what? The most popular post to date is the one where everyone said they experience the same situations.

So I'll say it again.

Have a little faith in yourself. You're not alone.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The Mind

"The mind is like a fertile garden - it will grow anything you wish to plant - beautiful flowers or weeds.

And so it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others.

Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence."

- Bruce Lee

Have a little faith in yourself.

Supplements, Part 1: Which?

As the women say,
"om nom nom nom."

While I'm still working on another post that's going to take much more editing than anticipated, let's talk supplements.

I've touched upon the subject before, but never discussed any specific supplements. Today I'll give my recommendations, why I chose them, and the reason I exclude others.

Protein

Gasp! Big shock, huh?

I used it when I initially started lifting then stopped - for whatever reason - last year and have now started using it again.

It's convenient. Plain and simple. When I wasn't using it, I would cook up a meal right after a training session to get my fill of carbs and protein. Sipping a shake is much easier and allows me to go about doing other tasks, such as working on my laptop.

There are times when I'm in a rush, tired, or don't want to cook for a 3^rd time in a day. Last night for example, I tossed whey isolate & greens powder into my shaker and chowed down on a piece of string cheese & walnuts. After a long day, I wasn't in the mood to clean dishes again nor was I hungry for a full meal.

At around 20g a scoop, I'll take it.

Greens Powder

My first hearing of it was a few years ago when I read Metabolism Advantage.

Again, I take it for the sake of convenience. It should be obvious that vegetables do the body good. I aim for a minimum of 5 servings of real veggies a day, but net around 7-9 since a teaspoon of Greens+ is 2 servings.

It tastes disgusting alone in water, but mixed with protein powder or in a shake it's flavorless.

Fish Oil

This one's been cropping up all over the place in recent years. I mentioned omega-3 fatty acids once.

I don't eat fish. Even for those who do consume it, I don't know how many of them eat enough of it in a week to get the healthy amount of EPA & DHA fatty acids.

Liquid or capsules: your choice.

Multivitamin

Not the most necessary, but it helps.

Between the fruits & vegetables I eat, I should be getting all the nutrients I need. But let's face it, a perfect diet is nonexistent. I ensure I'm getting the micronutrients I need by taking a multivitamin throughout the day.

However, it's not to the point where I'm going over the top and my urine is a bright neon highlighter yellow. I tend to go lower in dosage for a smaller boost.

While this post could be much more extensive, I'm not here to talk about the science of it all, but instead provide an overview of what I do take and serve as an introduction to part 2.

You'll also come across individuals who swear they don't need supplements. That's quite alright. No one says you have to incorporate them into your diet. Then there are those who take an array of supplements and drop a huge amount of cash on them. Let them be if they choose to do that.

But like in most topics, you should avoid the extreme ends and choose something more reasonable down the middle.

Likewise, this is a small amount of the supplements available in the vast selection found in stores or on websites. Certain supplements have little research to back up their efficacy and serve no purpose besides the illusion of providing you results (placebo anyone?). Others can be helpful, but are not necessary for the everyday individual. They should be reserved for those who can really benefit from their use, such as high level athletes or if one is debilitated with a condition.

Part 2 will be a bit more in-depth and cover a variety of topics such as different types of protein, when to use supplements, how to use them, and alternative choices.

Trust me, it won't be yo' granny's type of supplements post.