The 4 Mandatory Lifting Movements

The Functional Movement Patterns Sports rely on specific movements for performance. Those actions are derivatives of the four main athletic movements and the four main lifting movements. The four main athletic movements are jumping/landing, throwing/striking, locomotion, and rotation. But let’s focus on what you can do in the weight room. The four main lifting movements are: Pushing Pulling Knee Bend Hip Hinge This list of movement patterns should guide your training on a weekly basis. Now sure, the term “functional” is a buzzword, but think of these differently. Functional exercises give you the ability to carry out what you need to do on a daily basis. Having a functional body is about having physical freedom. This means building an all-around stronger, more adaptable body capable of performing at a higher level in any environment… not just inside the gym. That said, strength solves a lot of problems. It provides a better physical foundation to perform the four main athletic movements. So, a focus on the four main lifting movements is needed. Weekly Lifts: Your Checklist Every week do an exercise from each section. This will cover your bases. Since all exercises are merely variations of the main functional lifting movements, and since the categories they’re in are general, then select (and deselect) from each category what you’re capable of doing. Be discerning. Fit exercises to you; don’t fit yourself to exercises. Unless you’re injured, perform at least one of the following lifts each week: For Upper Body Vertical or Diagonal Pushing Lift Horizontal Pushing Lift Vertical Pulling Lift Horizontal Pulling Lift For Lower Body Double-Leg Knee Bend Lift Single-Leg Knee Bend Lift Double-Leg Hip Hinge Lift Single-Leg Hip Hinge Lift Let’s get into these variations and the top three exercises in each category. And if you’re training on the go, you’ll also see the top versions you can do using just bodyweight and bands. Pushing These exercises improve your ability to move something away from you like an object or opponent. These are the two specific types of pushing exercises you’ll want to do each week: vertical or diagonal pushing, and horizontal pushing. The Top 3 Vertical Pushing Exercises 1. One-Arm Dumbbell Overhead Press Overhead pressing with one arm increases core activation. You’re forced to maintain your torso position while dealing with the off-set load. There’s also less of a tendency to cheat by leaning backward, the way you might during two-arm overhead presses. 2. Dumbbell Rotational Overhead Press The rotation adds a little more coordination and control demand on both your shoulders and torso musculature. Plus, the foot pivot allows you to train some hip internal rotation, which is a key element to rotational power generation. 3. One-Arm Band Overhead Press This is a great option when you’re training with minimal equipment. You can increase the intensity by performing the reps fast, as shown in the video. The Top 3 Diagonal Pushing Exercises You don’t have to do both a vertical and a diagonal pushing exercise each week, though doing both can make your workouts more complete. But if time is a factor, choose either a vertical or diagonal exercise. If overhead pressing bothers your shoulders, then stick with diagonal pressing until you get your shoulder issues worked out. 1. Dumbbell Incline Press Incline presses train your pecs differently than horizontal pressing. Trainers often say “train movements, not muscles.” Here’s the reality: Muscles create movements. Muscles, along with your bones and connective tissues, respond to how they’re loaded. So, the only reason it’s important to push from a variety of angles is because they train the muscles differently. 2. Angled Barbell Press This is often called the landmine press. The landmine is really the name of a device (that you don’t even need) used for this exercise. But you just need a barbell and a corner. Because of the offset nature, this exercise also really hits your core musculature. 3. Band Incline Press No gym? No problem! Just pack some bands with you when you travel. And, even if you do have access to a gym, bands allow you to do dynamic effort (speed) work, as shown here. The Top 3 Horizontal Pushing Exercises When you do horizontal pushing exercises like bench presses, push-ups, etc., allow your elbows to go low enough to the point where you begin to feel a stretch in your pecs. Why? Because training at longer (stretched) muscle lengths not only causes muscles to be stronger at long lengths, it can also improves flexibility just as good as static stretching (1, 2). So the best way to prevent “tight” pecs is to do horizontal pressing exercises and other pec exercises in a way that creates some level of a stretch. 1. Barbell Bench Press Every meathead has a love/love relationship with the bench press. So I made sure to include it here because the bench press, to many lifters, is like a baby and its
Origin: The 4 Mandatory Lifting Movements

7 Things No One Tells You Before You Start Lifting

All of us who lift weights or bodybuild know things, painful things, about lifting that we normally don’t share with beginners because, frankly, no one ever filled us in on these secrets beforehand and we’re all still pretty chafed about it. But I’m feeling uncharacteristically nice today, so if any of you out there are thinking about taking up lifting, here are a few of the distressing truths you’ll soon come to realize. 1 – You’ll only really look good for a month or two a year… probably in summer. No one ever bothers to tell you that the guys pictured on bodybuilding websites don’t normally look all ripped. Most of the time, they look like Fat Thor, or that their high school nickname was Billy Bob and Coach Kilmer wanted them to play in the big game for West Canaan, even though Billy Bob has a concussion. It’s only when they get ready for a contest or, if they’re amateurs, when they get ready for summer that they start to get the body of pre-Thanos Thor. That’ll probably be you too, because walking around all year-round with body fat in the single digits is about as easy as running a marathon every day while wearing one of those goofy T-Rex suits and carrying a serving set of tea cups. But hey, two months of looking good is better than zero months of looking good. 2 – You’ll get to know what being old feels like, years before it actually happens. Let me clarify this a bit. You’ll feel fine, even great, once you’ve been lifting weights for a while… as long as you’re sitting perfectly still. If you are moving, well hello old guy who does commercials for those walk-in bathtubs! You won’t just “get up” in the morning. You’ll be so achy from lifting that you’ll actually have to unfurl yourself out of bed, once piece at a time like some cheap piece of mass-produced furniture from IKEA. Some parts will wake up faster than others, but until all your decrepit joints are in sync, you’ll do a kind of an answering-the-phone-with-your-pants-around-your-ankles walk that would cause an Elementary school administrator to pull over and offer you the custodial job recently vacated by the passing of Dale, the funny-in-the-head janitor who died last Tuesday. But it’s all worth it, of course. 3 – People will assume you’re stupid. Once you start filling out your T-shirt with muscle, people will assume your brain is inversely proportional to your degree of muscle. You’ll be regarded much the same way as Fran, the squeaky voiced, large-breasted but dim-witted hooker in that 80’s movie, The Man With Two Brains: Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin):I can’t. Fran:Can’t what? Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr:I can’t inject you with window cleaner. Fran:I don’t mind. Hey, what does it do anyway? Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr:It causes your brain to die. Fran: I don’t mind. No one will take you seriously about anything, unless it has to do with the bench press or protein requirements. And if you do say something smart, people will be thunderstruck. They’ll regard you the same they would if they met a chimp who learned how to use the toilet, or some four-year old who learned the lyrics to Itsy-Bitsy Spider. It’ll all feel pretty demeaning. 4 – You’ll start looking for any excuse to take off your shirt. There’ll come a time – probably a few months after you start training – that you’ll start feeling a little cocky about your new body. You’ll be like some fool who learned a few words of Spanish and then looks for any excuse to go to a Mexican restaurant to proudly exclaim “Muy bueno!” when the doesn’t-give-a-shit waitress comes to clear his plate away. But instead of showing off your linguistic aptitude, you’ll start showing off your torso by taking off your shirt in front of an audience whenever there’s any excuse to do so, whether the thermometer inched up to a sweltering 71 degrees or you just need to push the trash dumpster out to the street. It’ll take all your restraint not to strip off your suit jacket and shirt at a funeral because carrying that casket would really make your delts pop. Likewise, you’ll never again pass a mirror, window, or back of a shiny spoon without catching an admiring glimpse of your wonderfulness. It’s pretty sad, but like I said, it’s all worth it. 5 – You’ll never again eat anything that tastes good. You poor bastard. You’re now going to eat for both muscular size AND fat loss, a Houdini-like nutritional trick that, while not impossible, is kind of like going camping and trying to start a campfire underwater on the bottom of Lake Winnibigoshish. Besides that, your diet isn’t going to have a lot of variety. Let’s put it this way: You know how you’ve been feeding the family dog the same kibble every day for his whole life? Well, next to your new, bodybuilding diet, the dog’s diet is a wild, gastro-fusional delight that does the cha-cha on the tongue. Everything you eat from now on until you set down your last dumbbell is going to be from a painfully short list of standard high protein, low-carb,
Origin: 7 Things No One Tells You Before You Start Lifting

Stop Stretching, Start Lifting

Mobility matters. As many experienced lifters have learned, mobility restrictions have harmful repercussions when neglected. But remember when “functional training” began to take off? What started off as a good thing quickly became a circus act. Unfortunately, a similar trend is emerging alongside the rise of mobility training. It’s getting a bit goofy. Your goals are probably simple: you want to build muscle, lose fat, get stronger, improve performance, and feel better. Unless you’re trying to become a yoga instructor or make it as a contortionist, you aren’t going to the gym with the sole intent of moving like Gumby. Within the context of training and performance, the only “mobility” that matters is that which has a direct transfer to what you do in the gym, on the field, or throughout daily life. If your mobility enables you to move well and stay healthy while getting stronger, it doesn’t matter if you can touch your toes or do the splits. Stretching and mobility drills have their place, but there’s more to it. The reality is, if you want to improve your mobility and overall function, strength training reigns supreme. Without it, any transient changes that coincide with other modalities won’t “stick.” Let’s Look at the Facts Strength training is superior to static stretching for improving mobility and flexibility. Don’t fall for the antiquated notion that strength training will make you stiff. The research is clear: stretching is not superior to lifting in terms of improving mobility and flexibility. A plethora of studies show that lifting heavy loads through a full range of motion (ROM) is more effective than any other modality for increasing “functional” ROM in the hips, shoulders, hamstrings, ankles, lats, pecs, etc. One study compared the effects of strength training to static stretching in relation to mobility/flexibility in the hamstrings, hips, shoulders, and knees. The researchers concluded that lifting exercises performed through a full range of motion “can improve flexibility as well as, or better than, typical static stretching regimens.” (1) Another study conducted on a group of elite judo athletes looked at the effects of a 12-week strength training program on ROM. It concluded that lifting weights led to significant improvements in mobility/flexibility at the shoulders, trunk, and hips. (2) Greek researchers looked at a group of men who trained with loads at 40, 60, or 80% of their 1RM or one-rep max. The results showed that higher intensities were linked with greater improvements in mobility/flexibility. That is, the men who trained at 80% of their 1RM were the ones who saw the greatest improvements. (3) Strength training improves your ability to stabilize and control newfound mobility. A dead man can do the splits. Flexibility isn’t a physical limitation; it’s a neuromuscular state that helps limit your movement to prevent injury. The feeling of being “tight” when you stretch doesn’t necessarily mean you need to work on your flexibility. In reality, the “tightness” is a byproduct of your nervous system interpreting the stretch as a potential injury, thus shutting the muscle down. When you perform loaded exercises through a full ROM with a controlled eccentric descent (the “negative”), you’re getting a functional stretch within a stable position. At the bottom of a squat, for example, the muscles of the lower body are lengthened to their most optimal position while tension is maintained. Unlike static stretching, which is often performed with shoddy technique and compensatory movement patterns, a loaded exercise forces you to control the entire movement without exceeding your body’s natural range of motion. When you increase passive flexibility via stretching without being able to stabilize or control that extra ROM, you’re risking instability at the joints and increasing your likelihood of injury. If a lack of mobility is problematic, hypermobility paired with instability is catastrophic. Individuals with hypermobile joints are better off taking a jackhammer to their knees than they are getting under a heavy bar. Strength training, especially when performed with an eccentric focus, allows your body to find the ideal balance of stiffness, stability, and mobility. Strength training increases muscle length. Stretching doesn’t. The mechanisms that improve mobility and flexibility as a result of strength training are vastly different than they are for stretching. The notion that stretching increases a muscle’s length is completely false. Stretching is akin to pulling on a rubber band. Sure, it lengthens when you apply tension, but it returns to its normal length when you let go. During a stretch, temporary improvements in flexibility occur primarily due to an increased stretch tolerance and a decreased pain signal associated with reaching a specific muscle length. It’s a neurological process. Nothing within the structure of the muscle actually changes. You’re simply able to stretch
Origin: Stop Stretching, Start Lifting

Tip: Protect Your Wrists from Lifting Injuries

Passive Wrist Stretches These stretches will help you to create range of motion in your wrist flexion and extension by using the floor as assistance. If you have tons of wrist extension and zero flexion, your wrists aren’t balanced, and your elbows are going to get pissed off in the long-term. Never force any stretch and always listen to your body. If you notice that your wrists feel tender the next day after doing these, that’s your sign to back off a bit. If they’re okay then you can start to push a bit further the next time. If even using the floor is painful, then step it back a bit. These exercises can be regressed by using the wall. Try doing them after a session with a lot of grip work. You’ll notice forearm tightness practically disappear within minutes. As a side note, doing “shoulder rotations” in any of these positions also makes for a great warm-up addition. Radial and Ulnar Deviation Radial and ulnar deviation is the side-to-side motion of the wrists. It’s neglected by almost everyone. If you practice advanced hand balancing then this is absolutely crucial, and if you do overhead squats or snatch presses, this thumb-grab stretch is an awesome way to alleviate some of the pressure caused by heavy
Origin: Tip: Protect Your Wrists from Lifting Injuries

Tip: Fire Up Your CNS For Better Lifting

Use the Force This is a great way to begin any lifting workout. The idea behind “rate of force development” is to do an exercise that’s explosive in nature and that utilizes all of the body’s major muscle groups. Doing an explosive exercise prior to lifting fires up your central nervous system and gets your body physically ready to lift hard and heavy. Some lifters do rate of force development work by incorporating jumps, explosive push-ups, or variations of the Olympic lifts. While these are undoubtedly great ways to produce force, there are people that need less impact on the body. Heavier-set lifters and those recovering from an injury will have a hard time absorbing the impact from a jump. And beginners may not have the technical skills to perform Olympic lifting variations. If you’re one of these people, try out some of the exercises below before your next lifting session so you can still reap the power and strength benefits from force production. Medicine Ball Force Production Options Medicine Ball Chest Pass Similar to a basketball throw, step out with one leg while pushing off the other. Explosively extend your arms as you throw the ball to a partner or against a wall. This exercise goes well with any pressing day. Medicine Ball Thruster Make sure you drive your knees out as you squat down. Utilize the stretch reflex (the bounce you feel at the bottom of the squat) to rocket your body back into a standing position. Once you reach this standing position, continue to explode up while forcefully extending the arms. This exercise works great before squatting. Backward Medicine Ball Throw Keep a strong, flat back as you bend down towards the medicine ball. Explosively drive your hips forward as you go to rip the ball from the floor. Make sure you’re bracing your core the entire time and don’t hyperextend the back at the end of the throw. This exercise fits well on deadlift day. Jumping Force Production Options Banded Broad Jump This one is great for practicing a broad jump without as much impact. Placing a resistance band around your waist will greatly reduce ground impact as you land. Make sure you land with a flat back and knees tracking outward to prevent injury. Banded Lateral Single-Leg Hop This will feel awkward at first but it’s great for producing force laterally as well as activating the glutes and hamstrings. When you set up, remember to get your arms involved. Pretend you’re skating or running and hop using your opposite arm and opposite leg. Think of bringing your arms from your chin to your back pocket as you hop from side to side. Sets and Rep Scheme Remember that rate of force development is supposed to be explosive in nature. Don’t do these exercises as conditioning prior to training. Do 3-5 sets with no more than 5 reps per set. Give yourself plenty of time to recover between sets. These exercises are neural in nature which means you should be taking longer breaks between sets and should attempt to produce as much force as possible with each
Origin: Tip: Fire Up Your CNS For Better Lifting