CategoriesStrength Training

4 Mistakes Women Make When Deadlifting

When friend and fellow Boston-based coach, Lana Sova, pitched an article shedding light on some common mistakes she see’s other women make with regards to deadlifting, it goes without saying she had me at deadlift.

Lana’s a great coach and strong herself, boosting a 300+ lb deadlift. She knows a thing or two when it comes to picking things up and putting them down.

Lets get to it.

Copyright: ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo

 

4 Mistakes Women Make When Deadlifting

Four years ago, I could spot one or two women in the strength area of my gym doing deadlifts, and one of them was a trainer. Now, the love for deadlifts has increased among women.

As a powerlifter and a coach, I love to see the change 99% of the time, but there is still that one percent that makes me want to throw myself into the wall every time I see someone deadlifting.

These days, it seems like deadlift technique is being preached from every corner of social media. And if you are not a fitness professional, you have no idea whether it’s good or bad advice.

Therefore, in true Wonder Woman fashion, I’m attempting to save the world, or at the very least to save you from getting injured while deadlifting, and potentially help you put 20 to 30 pounds — even 50 —on your deadlift instantly.

Here are four deadlift set-up mistakes I see women make.

Mistake #1. Bar and Shin Distance

There are two ways I see women approach the barbell. They either stand too far away from the bar, like it’s gonna bite them, or they step so close it tickles.

The thing is, in both cases, you end up pulling the bar with your lower back. Why? Because the bar is either set up too far forward or ends up being shifted there.

Feet too close.

Lets see what it looks like in action:

 

As you can see from the video above the initial set-up is awkward – namely, not allowing for any forward translation of the tibia – which then pushes the bar away, which then makes the DL more “squatty” and pushing the axis of rotation (hips) further away, which then places much more stress on the lower back.

Not cool.

Conversely, here’s what it looks like when the feet are set up too far away.

Feet too far (away)

And here’s what that looks like in action:

 

Again, not an optimal set-up. And a lower back that will end up pissed off.

So we gotta find the middle ground.

To avoid pulling the barbell with your back, set up so that your middle foot is right underneath the barbell.

Feet juuuuuuust right.

The end result is something that looks like this:

Mistake #2. Slacking to Pull the Slack

Did you know there are such things as Meggings? I might be late to the party, but damn those things are tight.

When you deadlift, you want your whole body to almost explode from the tension you created in your set-up.

Pulling the slack out of the bar means exactly that. Make that shit tight. Just like the meggings.

You want to create tension in your hamstrings, gluteus muscles, and lats.

Here’s how I like to teach my clients to pull the slack out:

  • We first make sure their heels are screwed into the floor – check.
  • Gluteus muscles engaged — check.
  • Then we squeeze the purses in their pits. Lats are tight — check.
  • And lastly, as they reach the bar, they “bend” it and shift their weight onto their heels. Bend the bar — check.
  • Impromptu dance-parry prior to set is optional – check.

 

Mistake #3. Head Position

Your body is like a chain that consists of segments. Your head is the last piece of this chain. If your head is tilted, turned, extended, or, I don’t know, rotated 180 degrees, it will change the position of the next piece of the chain — your upper back.

An excessively rounded upper back is a big no-no when deadlifting. If you’re one of the people who always has to watch herself in the mirror while deadlifting, you might want to stop.

I get you want to make sure your form is right, but you’re making it even worse.

Instead of looking in the mirror, look at the bottom of the mirror. This will help you to put your head in a position that doesn’t force your upper back into flexion, or excessive rounding.

Mistake #4. Mindset

For some reason, when it comes to deadlifting, every client turns on her lady-like operations, and treats the barbell like it’s a kitten.

But if your goal is to deadlift  your significant other’s weight (or triple that), you might want to be a little more aggressive.

You want to attack the bar.

So leave all your love for kittens behind the gym doors, and rip that shit off the floor, like you’re family’s life depends on it.

About the Author

Lana Sova is a coach at Shameless Strength Academy and a personal trainer at Healthworks Fitness Center in Brookline, MA. She empowers women to build and own their strength via powerlifting and strength training.
CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 10/6/17

It’s Lisa’s last day of work – wooooooooo hooooooooo. So proud of her and excited to watch her grow her private practice and consulting business.

We’re too busy celebrating so I’ll just get right to business.

Copyright: gregorylee / 123RF Stock Photo

 

CHECK THIS STUFF OUT FIRST

1) Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Boston

The Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint is finally coming to Boston. Not “fake” Boston, either, on the outskirts of the North or South shore, and we end up calling it a Boston workshop.

No, this sumbitch is going to be IN Boston, at AMP Fitness located near Government Center in the heart of the city.

This shindig goes down the weekend of November 11th and will likely be mine and Dean Somerset’s last hoorah presenting this particular workshop.

The early bird rate is currently in effect. Hope to see you there.

And by “there” I mean HERE.

2) Hardcore Kettlebell Clinic – at CORE (My Joint)

Mark your calendars.

Lets make sure your workout is safe and efficient. Just one simple clinic to clean up two important movements patterns: the squat and hip hinge.

Coach Justice Roe will be holding this at CORE soon. Spots will be limited.

For more information and to sign up contact Justice: [email protected].

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work

Gift of Injury: The Strength Athletes Guide to Recovering From Back Injury to Winning Again – Dr. Stuart McGill & Brian Carroll

Back injuries can be the worst, and if you’re something you likes to lift heavy things it’s almost inevitable.

Telling someone who’s livelihood is the iron to “just stop lifting” isn’t the right approach (not to mention woefully narrow-minded).

I received my copy of this book earlier this week and it’s really, really good. The way it’s written – Brian telling his story, with Dr. McGill chiming in to add his insights and knowledge – makes it an easy and entertaining read.

If you’re a strength athlete or someone who works with strength athletes, it behooves you to purchase this book.

The Primary Pattern Workout – Charles Staley

Always love Charles’ writing and approach to training.

Please read this.

Don’t Lower the Bar For Yourself – Georgie Fear

Selecting the wrong diet is not the problem keeping millions of people overweight and unhappy about it. What we need to be talking about is what a person can do other than go a diet to eliminate their weight problems. 

Social Media Shenanigans

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CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Standing Band Hip Thrust

They way I see it when your 8-month old is up most of the night coughing and battling his first cold, and you’re not really that inspired to write something “meaty,” there’s only one direction to take things:

The glutification of glutes.

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Standing Band Hip Thrust

 

Who Did I Steal It From: Who else? The Glute Guy himself (and the guy that every guys hates because they’re not him), Bret Contreras.

What Does It Do?: Makes your butt feel swole.

In more professional or scientific terms: it’s a fantastic exercise that trains the glutes in a more posteroanterior fashion.

It also serves as a “different” way to train the Hip Thrust with bands if you don’t have access to a Hip Thrust apparatus (or don’t feel like dilly-dallying with a cumbersome setup via a bench, band(s), and a bunch of DBs.

But, mostly, it makes your butt feel swole.

Key Coaching Cues: Using as thick of a band as you want, set it (or them) up by wrapping them around a pair of J-hooks on the squat or power rack. You’ll then reach for the far end of the rack and situate yourself far enough forward so you feel enough tension coming from the band.

Holding on, push your hips back until you feel a nice stretch in the hamstrings and then thrust those bad boys back home making sure to squeeze your glutes in the standing position with each repetition.

For added effect, you can match the cadence of each rep with some sort of quote:

Spar……..ta………Spar…….ta…….Spar……..ta.

Or, I don’t know…..

You……Don’t……Want…….None…….Of…….This.

Depends on how awkward you want to make things.

Nevertheless, I’ve been playing around with these myself and like them. I do prefer to use then for high(er) reps (15-20) and I think they’re best served as part of 3-4 exercise glute finisher.

Categoriescoaching psychology

Feelings vs. Facts: In Fitness It’s Important to Know the Difference

Feelings get in the way.

Feelings make things weird.

Especially when they hinder or cast a shadow over fact(s), making them less relevant or murky.

Copyright: flynt / 123RF Stock Photo

 

I’ll just come right out and say it: Feelings are a motherfucker.

NOTE: “motherfucker” in this sense can be used interchangeably here: good or bad.

“Did you just see how far I hit that baseball?

Motherfucker!

I.e., Good. You know, you’re happy and excited you hit the baseball a long ways.

“I had to take my car in, again, to get the transmission fixed.

Motherfucker! (punches the wall).“

I.e., Bad. Sucks, dude.

Hopefully you get the gist.

They (feelings), as we all know, encompass a wide range: from how we feel when we first fall in love to what happened a few days ago in Las Vegas. They cross a spectrum: from warmth, empathy, and unconditional positive regard on one end…to how I feel whenever I see someone perform a kipping pull-up on the other.

Annoyance peppered with spontaneous rage.

Feelings aren’t right or wrong.

How you feel at any given moment, under any given circumstance, is how you feel.

Who am I – or who is anyone, really? – to disregard or question how you feel?

That said, facts matter.[/efn_note]It’s not lost on me, given the current political environment we live in, that this point (facts matter), unfortunately, can (and is) debated. Climate change isn’t real, 3,000,000 people voted illegally, Unicorn tears are an excellent aphrodisiac…whatever. Who needs facts?[/efn_note]

I mean, I feel like leaving the toilet seat up is perfectly fine and no big deal. The facts – my wife’s dropkick to the side of my face – state otherwise.

I feel like early 90’s Mariah Carey and I were meant to be soul mates. The facts – hahahahaha – state otherwise.

Feelings vs. Facts In Fitness

A few weekends ago Lisa and I were in Toronto presenting our Strong Body-Strong Mind Workshop when one of the attendees, a local personal trainer, shared a story.

She went into detail on how a client of her’s, another female, had been giving her a hard time. You see the client was a perpetual pessimist and had a hard time deflecting negative self-talk.

This trainer even went so far to say that her client admitted to her that the only reason why she even signed on to start training in the first place was to prove to her that personal training didn’t work.

That she was a lost cause.

A failure.

As I was listening to the story I couldn’t help but think to myself, “man, that’s horrible. Who’s got time to deal with that? Fire the client!”

Lisa, to her credit, made a beautiful reframe and rebuttal:

Lisa: “How long as the client been working with you?”

Attendee: “Over a year.”

Lisa: “How many times per week?”

Attendee: “At least twice, if not more.”

Lisa: “And she’s making progress?”

Attendee: “Yes, although in her eyes she hasn’t.”

Lisa: “Hmm, interesting. She’s obviously getting something from her time with you. What she’s focusing on are feelings and not facts.

The facts demonstrate your client has been consistently training for over a year despite her initiate “goal” to prove to you personal training doesn’t work.

The facts state otherwise.”

*Smoke bomb, smoke bomb, exit stage left.*

We see this all…..the…..time in fitness and the strength & conditioning world: people allow their feelings to convolute the facts.

Take my client, Alexandra, for example.

I get that we’re all our own worst critic, but she’s made amazing progress since we first starting working together. Back when we first started working together she came to me with some chronic shoulder and low back pain, and was frustrated with her lack of progress in the gym in terms of some strength markers she wanted to hit.

Namely: deadlifting over 200 lbs and performing her first strict chin-up.

She’s been working her tail off.

She no longer has shoulder or back issues, she hit her DL goal (and then some), and she’s thiiiiiiiiis close to hitting her chin-up goal. Yet, sometimes, like everyone, she has a hard time with allowing her feelings to override the facts.

I posted this video in Instagram the other day:

The bulk of the female clients I work with almost always want to conquer their first strict, unassisted chin-up. And, if not, I kinda sorta “nudge” them towards it anyways. I use many of the same tactics most other coaches use: hollow holds, push up variations, rollout variations, straight arm hangs, flexed arm hangs, hanging leg raises, eccentric only chins, accommodating assistance chin-ups, and a metric fuck load (which is a shade more than a metric ass load) of horizontal and vertical pulling accessory exercises. It wasn’t until I read something from @fitness_pollenator discussing the advantages of PARTIAL ROM chin-ups not long ago that I started adding them as well. We use partial ROM squats, deadlifts, and bench presses all the time with clients/athletes. Why not chin-ups? They’re a great way to build confidence and to strengthen what’s often the weakest ROM where many people putter out. Here’s my client, Alexandra (@therealalexandrashow) demonstrating how they’re done.

A post shared by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on

The cool part was Alexandra’s response in the comments section:

“Thank you Tony!! It’s so awesome to see this cause in my head I’m not making much progress and then I’m ok like damn okayyy haha. 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💦 It’s so close i can taste it!”

Taking things a little further we can see the same parallel in other aspects of fitness.

  • Some coaches feel everyone should squat the same way – same foot spacing, same stance, same depth, etc – but the facts state otherwise.
  • Likewise, some coaches feel everyone must squat or deadlift with a straight bar, but the facts – not everyone is a competitive power or olympic lifter, you asshat – state otherwise.
  • You feel as if you’re 7% body-fat, but the facts, well, you’re not.
  • You may feel you’re better off jumping into a live volcano than eating any gluten, but the facts are against you my friend.

Feel the Feels

I am not insinuating you should avoid or disregard all your feelings. By all means love your spouse, enjoy that succulent steak, feel anger whenever someone performs a KB swing overhead, don’t be shy to cry it out when you binge watch This Is Us.

Let your feelings marinate.

However, when it comes to you and your fitness/health goals be cognizant of facts and learn to boycott your feelings when necessary. You’ll be better off for it.

Categoriescoaching

4 Things I Learned Shadowing Tony Gentilcore

One of the biggest honors for me is when other fitness professionals take time out of their schedule to come shadow me or observe what I do at CORE.

Truthfully I don’t feel what I do on a day-to-day basis is altogether revolutionary or going to win me any Nobel prizes in coaching badassery. I mean, I have people deadlift, squat, throw things, and carry stuff, all while listening to some sick techno beats.

No biggie.

However, this was pretty cool and a nice surprise.

Below is a nice write-up by UK based trainer, Stuart Aitken, describing his experience observing me for a few hours a few Saturdays ago.1

Copyright: prapass / 123RF Stock Photo

4 Things I Learned Shadowing Tony Gentilcore

I walked into CORE, Tony’s small private gym in Boston, for a day of shadowing a few weekends ago.

Here are a few of things I saw within the first 30 minutes of being there:

  • Accommodating resistance.
  • Accentuated eccentrics.
  • Advanced periodization.
  • Complicated exercise terminology.

Of course, this wasn’t what I saw and truthfully, there was was nothing special about the way Tony coached, what was special was HOW he coached.

I often think us fitness professionals can be a bit hypocritical.

We tell clients “play the long game,” “stay consistent and good things will happen” and “don’t search for the magic pill, it doesn’t exist,” yet we think we’re one book or course away from solving all of our career issues.

Tony doesn’t programme any differently than I’ve seen him write about, nor does he have a cueing roster that addresses every single movement issue a client has. He still has clients who don’t push their knees out and who need a quick reminder to squeeze their glutes at the top of a hip extension movement.

Perhaps this is what makes Tony, and really any other coach I know, excellent – the basics, done brilliantly.

1) Client-Centered Coaching

I’m a huge fan of constantly checking in with myself about whether I’m being client or philosophy centered.

Lisa, Tony’s wife, talks about this heavily in her work, but for anyone who is reading who hasn’t heard of this before, client-centered coaching would be where you’re taking into the client’s needs and wants into account.

Philosophy-centered would be where you’re putting your philosophies first and forcing square pegs (clients) into round holes (your programming). An example in my career would be when I started to enjoy some gymnastics and started to ‘push’ gymnastics onto the people I work with.

It’s so easy for us to start pushing clients towards what we think is best for them, but when we think about what encompasses effective coaching, this couldn’t be further from how we know clients are likely to respond best.

Think about someone telling you how to do something – how does that you feel? Yes, at times this type of coaching may be necessary, but for the most part, you should be focused on guiding clients towards the decision that is best for them.

Jenny, who is a mum of three and simply wants to feel better, might enjoy doing some deadlifts, but she probably doesn’t want that deadlift to be the only thing she does in her training. Tony loves deadlifting, but not every single one of his clients is going to deadlift, nor will they all “need” to deadlift.

2) Window Coaching

I learnt this off of Tony at a shoulder workshop he ran in the UK earlier this year. Essentially what it means is if you worked in a facility where everyone who walked by could look in and watch, how do you look?

Are you active or are you passive? Are your arms crossed and are you looking disinterested? Is it your tenth session of the day and you look like the last place you would rather be is in the gym?

At one point Tony was dancing to some 90s rap, and at other points, he was either laughing with clients or actively coaching, if you walked past it would look like the kind of environment his type of client would enjoy being in.

Potential clients are always watching.

3) “Move Well, Move Often, Move Under Load”

It wasn’t actually Tony who said this quote but rather my colleague at Lift the Bar, Gregg Slater, but it sums up how I viewed the way Tony has progressed his clients. All of them could hinge, they all knew how to brace, and breath and they all came in early and got on with their warm-ups.

Before you throw a barbell onto a new clients back for squats, do they know how to create tension in their body? Do they know how to disassociate between their hips and upper back so they can hinge effectively? Can they get even MORE out of their sessions by doing their own warm-ups?

Teaching clients how to move well before you start loading them up will not only have a positive effect on their results, but it’ll also decrease the risk of injury.

4) Communication Skills

One of the brilliant things I watched Tony do with each of his clients was the way he related to them. Whether that be in the type of language he used (swearing vs not swearing for example), how much he listened vs spoke, the type of feedback used or right down to the choice of music, his communication skills were appropriate to the client who was in front of him.

I think this is such an under-appreciated aspect of effective coaching; the ability to wear different coaching hats dependent on who you are communicating with.

You know how Susan loves knitting? Make sure you ask about that new scarf she’s working on.

You know how Jonny is a huge football fan (that’s not American football, by the way, that’s good old British football where you kick the ball with your foot)? Make sure you have a glance at the latest football scores.

This kind of stuff matters and to quote Seth Godin:

“A small thing, done repeatedly, is not a small thing.”

If you’re relating to clients, creating an environment that leaves them feeling great, keeping their goal in mind and delivering a quality service, you’ll do well in this industry.

Tony Changed My Life (<– Note From TG: I Wrote That)

Overall I had a fantastic five hours at Tony’s gym, and I can’t recommend doing this kind of thing more often.

There are always others coaches, who are often more experienced, and within a few hours of you, who you could go and shadow.

An afternoon spent with another coach can keep you fresh, allow you the space to level up your coaching and network with other trainers in and around your area, (and it doesn’t even cost anything!) I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be doing more of it.

About the Author

Stuart Aitken is the head of member support at Lift the Bar and host at the LTB Podcast, which are both educational services for Personal Trainers. He also works as a Personal Trainer out of Good Health and Fitness in Dundee, Scotland.