What would you rank the king of all lifts?

I’ve heard many...but I am sure we can all agree that one of the most dominant lifts amongst society would be the bench press. What better way to exert your alpha dominance amongst your frat brothers than to load 45’s on the bar and press those bodacious pecs towards glory. I mean, you go to the gym and the busiest location is the bench press, am I right? I am sure there are many that would argue this point, but like I said…it’s hard to ignore the impact the bench press has had on the world of strength. But besides the admiration we have towards this movement, we also admire those who have had an impact on the history of bench press by conquering this lift with tremendous gains. We see many 300lbs bench pressers…

During my last semester at UT Arlington, I had to fulfill an internship of my choosing. I went on a few interviews and found my way to interning at the University of North Texas as a volunteer Strength Coach. During this semester, I would wake up three times a week at 330am, pull up to the parking lot at 430am and set up the weight room in order start lifting our cross country athletes at 5am. I would repeat this process with the staff until noon working all the track and distance athletes.

I think one of the more cringe worthy things I have noticed is that when someone tries to steal the squat rack only to do bicep curls. ARE YOU SERIOUS! Taking up a fine piece of equipment to engorge your biceps to only satisfy your peers for a short window of time? The pump doesn't last forever! But besides this crisis, the next thing that is frustrating to listen to is the loosely defined concept of having a fatigued CNS....central nervous system. Here is the deal, there are many scientific facts that support this concept, but also support a shorter duration of recovery desired to be able to commence with maximized strength and ability. The central nervous system is the heart of movement. You of course need to have a compatible system of levers and muscles to execute movement, but if the CNS is impeded due to fatigue or disease (example-multiple sclerosis), movement might not work in your favor, or it might not work at all!

A few months ago, I was talking with a client about his workout and how well he performed. He had sent footage of his lifts and as always, I was extremely impressed with his ability. Ever since day one, this athlete showed growth in what he was already good at: everything. He not only had great conditioning and could withstand a fair amount of cardiovascular torment, but he also had the ability to lift some thick heavy weight. To understand, this individual weighs around 200 pounds and is six foot tall, portraying an athletic build that would intimidate any school yard bully. Although his weight was on the leaner side, during our programming he was inching his way to a 500 pound deadlift, catching a snatch of 255 pounds and a split jerk of 315 pounds

When you first begin training, you adopt some of the more popular trends of weight lifting such as lifting super heavy, and lifting to full max effort each day possible. I mean, the law specificity states you train for the desired outcome! But these early misconceptions of training can be detrimental, and if done long enough, develop bad habits that are hard to break. I have had a chance to work with many lifters and some of them feel that if the workout isn’t at least two hours long and requiring the heaviest of weight, it is a waste. This is by no means realistic but sometimes teaching an old dog new tricks requires heavy effort, thankfully science has progressed and allowed us to have a much smarter approach.

When it comes to human performance, I am a proponent for corrective feedback, corrective movement, and having a proactive approach with programming. What I mean by this is making sure that before I work with a client, I understand not only their strengths but their technical and physical deficiencies as well. One of the biggest areas of deficiency in performance is the hips. Whether you are a Division 1 running back, or a part-time powerlifter, the hips are the number one weapon for any athlete. If you struggle with development of the hips, your performance will suffer. So, how do we fix this issue?

Whenever I was young, I was proud of my strength. I felt I could press a mountain, but obviously the mindset of a young post-pubescent man has an altered reality. My world was shook the day I stepped into freshman year of Chemistry, though. To be technical, it was “Introduction to Physics and Chemistry”, I’d hate to be a bad story teller! Our teacher was known for her direct manner of communication, and after meeting her she told me...

“Joey, you have a big chest and I am sure are strong! But your arms are tiny, seems very disproportionate”

...WHAT?! I mean, yeah she is right and I totally support that notion. But I mean, come on, I am 14 years old, no need to destroy my manhood yet! Regardless, though, it was true. My bodacious pecs were beyond superior to my inferior arms, it needed to be addressed and surprisingly didn’t come easy. I would work all the movements necessary for growing my arms, but I still was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until my 20’s did I realize some of the mistakes I was making.

It’s Saturday morning and you have the day off. You’ve been itching to finally get a workout in, but you know that at 9am your family wakes up with the expectation of pastries, mountains of bacon and some of the finest scrambled eggs you have to offer. You have limited time to blast the iron, so what do you rely on?

You don’t have to be a calculus teacher to be strong, or do you? Well, not really, BUT math is a big part of our success with the iron. You can discuss the anatomy, physiology, and cellular level focus on generating movement, but in addition to these topics it’s also import to understand the biomechanical aspect of lifting which in this case, we will focus on the levers of the body. These levers are the bones of our body, but if you were to get really technical, it would be the appendicular skeleton we would be discussing. For the focus of this topic, I would like to discuss how the lever distance of the femur can have an effect on your squat. In other words, why do some people seem to squat better than others?