Lift Bigger on the Big Lifts You are only as strong as your nervous system allows you to be. Explosive exercises and plyometrics are central nervous system (CNS) primers. When programmed strategically, they can unlock your power and strength potential in the big lifts. And if you’re an athlete, they’ll increase your explosive performance and make you neurologically efficient. Here’s what to do before bench pressing, squatting, and deadlifting. These moves will activate the muscles you’re about to use, prepare your body for explosiveness, and reveal your true strength potential. Bench Press Primer Twitchy Seal Jack + Explosive Medball Press A1. Twitchy seal jack, 3-5 reps A2. Explosive bentover medball press, 3-5 reps Do 2-3 total supersets with 30-45 seconds rest between bouts. Many lifters struggle with barbell bench pressing because it causes shoulder pain. But if bench pressing causes pain, it’ll also hinder your power and strength under the bar. You’d perform better without the pain. The first thing lifters often do is try to gain mobility. But more mobility isn’t going to fix your achy shoulders. What will? More activation and central nervous system stimulation. Before bench pressing, do an explosive CNS primer superset. Pair the jack with an explosive medball press. It’ll activate postural stabilizers of the core, hips, and shoulders AND trigger the type of heightened neurological state that produces powerful, pain-free presses. How to Do It The jack is a game changer for your performance. Don’t overlook it because of its old-school PE class history. It’s a safe and effective preparatory movement you can do anywhere. For the horizontal press, using the seal jack variation (arms in front of the body) is better because it moves the shoulders in and out of an end-range stretch. This slight stretch revs up the nervous system, especially when executed fast and with precision. Start with your arms elevated up so they’re about parallel to the ground with your palms facing one another and your thumbs up. Explosively complete 3-5 seal jacks, really focusing on moving in and out of that end range quickly and changing direction as fast as possible at the shoulders. These are about quality, not quantity. After a few twitchy reps of seal jacks, move directly into the medball press. Using a lighter medicine ball between 6-12 pounds, hinge at the hips with a neutral spine and engage the glutes and core to stabilize. You’ll be exploding the ball into the ground as hard and fast as you possibly can for 3-5 reps. Try to press with rhythm on these to elicit a heavy neural response that happens with quick repeat bouts. Keeping the total reps low and the quality high, shoot for 2-3 supersets with 3-5 reps of seal jacks and another 3-5 reps of medball presses, then hit the bench. You’ll enjoy the carryover to explosive performance. Deadlift Primer Twitchy Jumping Jack + Medball Slam + Horizontal Jump A1. Twitchy jumping jack, 3-5 reps A2. Explosive overhead medball slam, 3-5 reps A3. Depth broad jump from box, 1 rep Do 2-3 total supersets with 30-45 seconds rest between bouts. Because the deadlift is a relatively “slow” movement to the naked eye, it’s easy to forget that this lift needs to be one of the most explosive in your arsenal if you want to get stronger. But since the deadlift is notorious for being a backbreaker of an exercise, people gravitate towards doing passive prehab work on their spine, hips, and shoulders to prepare for pulling, which is exactly what NOT to do when trying to train explosively with maximal torso stiffness. Instead, match the deadlift with a neural primer that helps create maximal stiffness at the core while generating an immense amount of force output and fiber activation. How to Do It The first movement in the giant set is the old school jumping jack that’s performed with twitchy explosiveness in and out of a lat stretch in the overhead position. Why the jumping jack for deadlifts? Easy. The lats are some of the broadest muscles in the body with huge splaying attachment points throughout the back of the rib cage, lower back, and pelvis. You need them for deadlifting. By tapping into their activation you can help achieve better stiffness in the shoulders and torso during pulls. Stick with 3-5 fast reps, coordinating the feet with the arms up overhead. The deadlift is based on a hip extension movement pattern, so you’ll also need to train it with CNS primer movements. The overhead slam is the perfect way to train triple extension (hips, knees, and ankles extending) in a coordinated fashion. The slam also requires you to be explosive in the overhead position, which places an emphasis on both the lats and torso. Focus on fully extending the ball up overhead with the entire body and coming into a powerful flexion to slam the ball as hard as you can into the ground for 3-5 reps with maximal velocity. The final step is to do a depth broad jump. This is a hip-dominant jump
Origin: 5 Ways to Unlock Your True Strength Potential