The beauty of fillers is that, much like tv shows based in the city of Chicago – Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, Chicago Sanitation, Chicago Teacher’s Union1 – there’s an endless array to pick and choose from.
What follows isn’t close to an exhaustive list.
What’s more, fillers can serve as a splendid opportunity to individualize someone’s program to hone in their unique injury history or their unique mobility/stability deficits.
QUICK ASIDE: When it comes to writing training programs for people, there are more similarities across the board than there are differences.
Far too often I find coaches/trainers making things more complicated than they have to be. Mike Boyle spoke to this not too long ago on social media:
People really want training to be complicated? Same group today 1 Euro BBall, 2 MLB pitchers, 2 position players, 2 national caliber female lacrosse players, 1 national level field hockey player, 1 NCAA female ice hockey player. 90% same. #sportspecific ?
Training programs, more often than not, revolve around these movement patterns, and the individualization generally comes down to what iteration of said movement pattern best fits the goal(s), injury history, and ability level of the athlete/client.
More to the point, instead of focusing on the facade of “sport specific training,” the better moniker should be centered on “people specific training.”
But that’s a hefty conversation for another time.
In the end, like I said, fillers are an ideal way to provide some semblance of customization into a program.
Fillers For Squats
Much like the deadlift, there are many moving parts to a squat which the body requires access to.
Starting from the bottom-up:
Ankle Dorsiflexion
Hip Flexion, in addition to Hip Internal Rotation
T-Spine Extension
Shoulder Mobility (specifically glenohumeral external rotation with regards to back squats)
Here are a handful of fillers for your consideration:
1) Hip Flexor Mobilization with IR/ER
The plain ol’ vanilla Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization is still one of my all-time favorite fillers, but this variation, which I stole from my boy Dean Somerset, adds another level to it.
Squatting requires hip flexion, and deep(er) hip flexion also requires hip internal rotation. Adding this in between sets of squats will make your hips feel nice-n-juicy.
The key, though, is to actually get motion from the HIP and not just crank through your lumbar spine. I like to put my hand on my ASIS and then “drive” that towards and away from my opposite (up) knee. In short, I think about opening and closing my pelvis.
There isn’t a ton of range of motion with this drill, but serves as a nice way to “unglue” the hips.
5 reps per direction/side is money.
2) Seated 90/90 Hip Switch (Progressions)
What I like most about this drill is that it hits both hip INTERNAL and EXTERNAL rotation simultaneously. The objective is to keep your chest up as best you can, along with your feet staying cemented to the floor.
1st Progression = Supported (hands)
2nd Progression = Unsupported (no hands)
3rd Progression = Adding in additional end-range Hip IR on the trail leg (be sure not to crank through your QL).
4th Progression = I don’t know, blindfolded? A new Bird Box challenge?
Shoot for 5-8 repetition per side (depending on which progression you’re doing). Hands Supported = high(er) reps. End Range Hip IR = you’ll hate life.
3) Side Lying Open Book
This one is pretty self-explanatory, and a great drill to help open up the chest and work on mid-back mobility.
Lie on the floor with a foam roller (or yoga block) underneath your top knee to prevent you from falling into excessive lumbar rotation. With your hips & shoulders starting stacked, “open” your top side by following your hand with your eyes.
BE SURE YOU’RE BELLY BUTTON DOESN’T GO ALONG FOR THE RIDE (it should stay put).
I had a gentleman come in for an assessment recently who, upon arriving, provided me with a laundry list of injuries and maladies that have hampered his ability to workout for quite some time.
The list he handed over would have prompted fist bumps from Tolstoy or Tolkien from its grandiosity in description and length.
Some were legitimate – an old athletic injury to his shoulder, along with some nagging low back pain.
Some were, shall we say, a bit of overkill – “my left Sternocleidomastoid gets a bit tweaky whenever I rotate my head more than 17.22 degrees. It’s even more profound when the Dew Point dips below a certain level. Or if I wear red on Thursday.”
Okay, that last part did NOT happen. Rather, it was meant as an allegory of sorts, an attempt to showcase how some people can often fall into a trap of believing they’re broken and that the only way to “fix” themselves is to put under a microscope every tweak, niggle, and bump that rears its ugly head.
To be clear: It’s NOT my bag to discount people’s past or current injury history. I respect and take into account everything (injury history, goals, ability level, favorite Transformer3) and use that information to ascertain what will be the best, safest and most efficient path to dieselfication possible.
That said, I often have to play “bad cop” and help people come to an understanding.
That they’re not broken, that they can train, and that they don’t have to spend 30 minutes foam rolling and activating their Superficial Dorsal Fascial Line.
The drawn-out, overly complicated warm-up is my worst nightmare as a coach.
Actually, back up.
Kipping pull-ups are my worst nightmare. With a close second being anytime someone asks me about keto. Oh, and mushrooms.4
Sometimes when I start working with a new client – especially one coming in with an extensive injury history – they’re often riddled with fear and trepidation with regards to training. They’ve been stymied by an endless array of setbacks (and overly cautious physical therapists5) and are reluctant to push past the “corrective exercise” rabbit hole.
Their warm-up often takes longer than it takes to complete the Boston Marathon, to the point where every inch of their body is meticulously foam rolled and every muscle is painstakingly activated.
Yes, it’s important to activate “stuff.”
In fact, I’m often flummoxed some people still don’t understand the importance of taking themselves through a proper warm-up. Getting the body and nervous system primed for physical activity is kind of a big deal, and I won’t belabor the point here.
You should be doing it.
Don’t get me wrong: the warm-up is a splendid opportunity to individualize someone’s program and to have him or her dedicate some additional TLC to areas of the body that need it.
To that end, however, I do feel – at times – people baby themselves to the extent the warm-up becomes the workout.
This is where I find a lot of value in fillers and implementing them into my programs.
The idea is to address common “problem areas” by tossing in some low-grade activation/mobility drills during one’s rest intervals…as part of their training program.
The key point here is LOW-GRADE.
Filler exercises can be anything from glute activation and scapular upward rotation drills to, I don’t know, a particular stretch (hip flexors?) or naming all the members of Wu-Tang Clan. The premise is that they’re low-grade, low-demand, easy, and address something that won’t sacrifice performance on subsequent sets of iron work.
Performing 400m sprints or Tabata anything does not constitute as a filler, and defeats the point. We’re trying to turn stuff on and/or address common mobility/stability issues, not challenge Jason Bourne to a street fight.
All that said I wanted to share some insights on how I implement fillers into the programs I write, and in particular which ones I like to pair with certain exercises.
First up, deadlifts of course…;o)
Filler For Deadlifts
There are a lot of moving parts to the deadlift and to perform it in a safe manner requires “access” to a number of things:
Ample T-Spine extension
Ample hip flexion
Depending on the variation (I.e., sumo style) requisite adductor length
Scapular posterior tilt (hard to do if someone’s in excessive upper back kyphosis).
Lumbo-pelvic control/stability
The cheat code for unlimited lives in Contra (very important)6
If none of these things are in play or even minimally addressed many lifters are going to have a hard time staying healthy in the long run.
Alright, enough of my jibber-jabber. Lets get to the drills.
1) Split Stance Adductor Mobilization
Now, admittedly, if there was a Wikipedia page for “ordinary and unremarkable exercises,” this one would be right at the top. However, this has always been a staple filler exercise for me and one that I don’t forsee taking out of the rotation anytime soon.
What I like most about this exercise is that it targets the adductors in both hip flexion and extension. The key, though, is attention to detail with regards to anterior core engagement.
A common mistake I see people make is “falling” into their lower back when they walk their hands forward; it’s important to avoid this. Too, another common mistake is allowing the lower back to round as they sit back. The main objective should be to maintain as “neutral” of a spine as possible throughout the entirety of the set.
One other teeny-tiny thing to consider is scapular position. This drill can also be a nice opportunity to work on a bit of Serratus activation by actively “pushing” into the floor so that there’s a bit of protraction and the scapulae “set” or adhere to the ribcage.
Aim for 5-8 repetitions/leg during rest periods.
2) Monster Walks
All I can say about this exercise is that when it’s done properly it’s Glute O’clock.
In the video above I’m using Nick Tumminello’s NT Loop which I have found work really well for this drill.
FYI: I receive zero kickback from Nick – maybe a tickle fight? Fingers crossed – in recommending his band.
The idea here is to lock the ribs down and to keep the hips level so they’re not teeter-tottering back and forth during the set. Walk it back using the hips/glutes until the band is fully stretched and then control the return (again, making every effort not to let the hips teeter-totter).
I prefer to use anywhere from 5-8 repetitions here.
3) Bench T-Spine Mobilization
This is a money filler for those people stuck in flexion hell all day, in addition to those who have chronically tight/short lats.
Some key things to note:
Holding onto a stick (or anything similar) helps prevent the glenohumeral joint from going into internal rotation.
As you sit back towards your ankles, try to maintain a neutral back position throughout (keep those abs on, actively “pull” yourself back).
Perform a pseudo bicep curl at the bottom to help nudge you into a bit more thoracic extension.
Be careful not to induce excessive thoracic extension here. It’s easy to think the more ROM here the better, but that’s not necessarily the case.
4) Brettzel Mobilization w/ Exhale
Stolen straight from Gray Cook and Brett Jones this is easily one of my favorite fillers OVERALL, and not just for deadlifts. We’re locking down the lumbar spine by holding the bottom knee down (you can also place a foam roller here if you’re unable to get this low) in addition to adding a nice hip flexor stretch on the opposite side.
The goal, then, is to take in an inhale through nose and EXHALE (out the mouth) as you rotate and drive your top shoulder towards the floor.
Indeed, this is a fantastic drill to work on more thoracic extension, but again, be judicious with ROM here. More is not better. All I’ll say here is stay cognizant of your belly button (innie or outtie?) and where it’s pointing. As you extend back it should not point towards the ceiling. Instead, it should stay relatively motionless and pointing towards the wall your chest is facing.
As you exhale with each subsequent rep, you should notice you’re getting closer and closer to the floor.
3-5 repetitions per side should suffice.
And That’s That
There are a plethora of options here, but all I wanted to do was highlight a handful of my favorites. Choose ONE drill to perform during your rest periods. Also, depending on the total number of sets you have on the menu you could also alternate between 2-3 drills.
There’s no golden rule.
Hope this helped and gave you a few ideas to work with.
If you’re a personal trainer or strength coach you likely work with clients and athletes who 1) have glutes7and 2) are looking to up their glute game.
Today’s guest post by strength coach, Menachem Brodie, goes a bit further down the rabbit hole than just giving you a bunch of glute-centric exercises to consider. There are a plethora of factors to consider when trying to ascertain what exercise will be the best fit for any one individual’s derriere.
What is it about glutes that has made them the “back to the future” of strength and performance training?
Was it Bret Contreras creating the Barbell Hip Thrust and spreading the Gospel of Glutes?
Was it the invention of Yoga Pants?
Or maybe it was Mike Jureller going on his “International Tour of CrossFit gyms” that made them popular… The world may never know.
What is undisputed, is that glutes (and mid & lower traps) are signs that someone is an athlete, or at least training like an athlete.
Today we’ll grab our Glute Dolorean’s and head back to the past, to help us understand why glutes are so important, why squats are not enough, and what you need to consider when programming glutes for your athletes and clients.
The glutes, all three of them: Glute medius, Glute minimus, and Glute maximus, need to be developed in proper proportion to allow the hip joint to sit more properly. As the glutes lose strength they tend, like every muscle, to lose their optimal resting length.
This in turn affects performance, and in the case of the hip joint, can lead to the head of the femur sitting at a poor angle in the acetabulum, which as I found out, over time can lend to bone growth in paces we don’t want it, leading to impingement, or other mechanical issues.
One such issue that can arise, is what has been called “gluteal amnesia,” which simply put is the glutes losing the ability to execute hip extension, leaving the hamstrings to do all the work and can cause the head of the femur to clunk around in the acetabulum like a drunkard in a demolition derby.
Putting Down a Great Base
In order for us to have the best chance of fully expressing our athleticism, we have to have a solid base.
Now while (especially) the average client, cyclists, and triathletes tend to think of “core” as being the base, this is not the full truth.
The base involves the Axial Skeleton (Spine & rib cage) + the Pelvis. This is of critical importance, as failure to stabilize these two together can sap power and strength. There are of course sports that are exceptions to this, such as rowing, but it’s this author’s opinion that this is why we tend to see disc injuries in that population.
Butt, developing your glutes REQUIRES that you have a stable and strong midsection: the rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques, the pelvic floor, and quadratus lumborum all work together to stabilize the pelvis from the top & middle. I won’t go into these items in this post, but you can read more and learn a few exercises to help address your midsection in this great post from Sarah Duvall, DPT.
It’s often necessary to break down movement(s) into their respective parts to make certain we’re getting motion from the right areas and that we’re using/engaging the areas we want to use/engage to perform exercises well, which is what we’ll dial in on next.
Cycling and Sitting: The Bane of Gluteal Existence
When glutes are strong and full and the diaphragm, ribs, and pelvic floor all move properly for breathing, EVERYTHING works better: Squats are more full range, your back feels like a titanium beam, and jumping and sprinting tend to be out of this world (for a 6th grader).
Butt (<– haha, I see what you’re doing there Menachem) when one starts spending more time in a seated position where the glutes are partially stretched, but not used, and the diaphragm is out of alignment with the pelvic floor, these muscles tend to lose some of their abilities, as they are essentially being told to shut off in those static positions: We don’t need them to work because we are slouching and hanging off the ligaments/connective tissues instead.
Cyclists and triathletes also suffer this problem due to the inherent position of their sport.
You lose power potential in a muscle that cannot stretch, or is in a stretched position for so long. This is an issue many cyclists, triathletes AND our clients/ athletes face, due to the long periods of time that we spend sitting with our glutes in an elongated position, and “the rings” (pelvic floor + diaphragm) out of alignment.
Glutes Are a Keystone to Performance Oft Neglected
While the running joke is that “I got glutes cuz I squat a lot,” Squats actually are NOT enough to fully and properly develop the glutes. There is far more that goes into developing glutes than being able to perform the 30+ something squat variations.
I know what you’re thinking:
But this is important, as it relates to an oft-missed portion to training the glutes: PELVIC CONTROL.
Pelvic stabilization and control is extremely important if we are to get true hip extension, and not extension from places not intended to work “like that”, such as the lumbar spine.
If I had a dollar for every time I saw a trainer or coach working on “Hip extension” with a client/ athlete who was getting movement from the lumbar spine, I’d be a very rich person.
In order for us to build up the glutes properly, we have to begin by thinking about giving stabilization to the pelvis through teaching the hamstrings, internal obliques, the deep hip rotators (pelvic floor), rectus & transverse abdominus, and Quadratus lumborum to all fire in good sequence and with great strength.
This is a challenge for many, as we tend to perform our front planks by hanging off the hip flexors, we work our hamstrings by laying down on the machine, and often don’t include many anti-rotation exercises (although, you ARE reading Tony’s blog, so you’re officially “one of the smart ones” who does in fact train rotary stability).
Getting to Work
Glute work isn’t simply throwing a few exercises into your dynamic warmup and main routine, there is much more that needs to be done to maximize your athletes results.
We MUST think about the different positions the athlete will be required to perform in their sport:
Do they include deceleration and change of direction?
Is it a fixed motion similar to cycling or rowing, or is their sport more dynamic, such as basketball and rugby?
Is the athlete in anterior pelvic tilt for their sport, such as hockey, bowling, or cycling?
Each of these questions must be answered, as they help us understand the joint positioning of the hip….and as we all know:
JOINT POSITION DICTATES MUSCLE FUNCTION
If we’re actually to train the athlete and their glutes to perform in their sport, we MUST know how the muscles will be asked to work in the “real world”- that of dynamic movement and uncertainty required by their sport.
This is one of the things many of us forget as we write programming: What positions are the joints going to be in, and due to these changes in joint position, how will the muscles ACTUALLY be responding/used for movement?
Stabilizer?
Prime mover?
Prime mover through full range of motion?
Next we need to answer:
What kind of lever arm should you use for the athlete when training the glutes?
Weighted at the lower leg? (Reverse Hypers)
Weighted at the shoulders? (Barbell good mornings)
Weighted at the hip? (Barbell Hip Thrust)
Weighted long fulcrum? (Deadlifts)
Weighted medium fulcrum? (Sumo Deadlifts)
Resistance bands at the knees?
Resistance bands at the shins?
Resistance bands at the feet?
Resistance band at the crotch? (Band Pull throughs)
The answer to this can and should vary throughout the training year, but there should always be one or two lever arms which are staples to that athletes program, to help combat the movement deficiencies that their specific sport, AND POSITION in that sport, entail.
After all, you wouldn’t train a pitcher as you would train a shortstop.
Programming Glutes for Your Clients & Athletes
Every single warmup we do here at Human Vortex Training starts with some form of the hip series, depending on the athletes ability to recruit the glutes & stabilize their midsection. This doesn’t mean that these exercises are the only warmup, that would be poor planning. Rather, we should be looking to include at least 1-2 of these moves in our dynamic warm up to help the athlete/client connect with, and utilize their glutes.
Here are the foundational warm-up exercises which I’ve used a mix of over the years:
1) Side Lying Straight Leg Lift
1 @ 8-15 each
2) Hip Lifts
1 @ 15-30
3) Clamshell Variation
Side Lying Clamshells (beginners)
1 @ 8-15 each
Side Lying Half Clamshells (intermediate/advanced)
1 @ 8-15 each
4) Side Lying Straight Leg Adduction
1 @ 8-15 ea
5) Birddog Variation or Regression
1 @ 5-8 each
PLEASE Don’t butcher the Birddog exercise! Our affable, giant-triceped host, Tony Gentilcore, has a great video about this and how to better teach it here:
6) Single Leg Hips Lift
1 @ 8-15 each
7) Banded Lateral Walks
8) Banded Monster Walks Forward/ Backward
Along with 2-4 of the above exercises, we would get 1-2 breathing exercises, and 2-4 other dynamic warm-up exercises to prepare for that specific days session.
Burnout Session at the End of Your Lift for Glutes? No Problem!
At the end of a session is a great place to add in some more sport-related fatigued state specific glute training. These are usually done bodyweight only, as we’re looking to help improve the athletes resilience and strength-endurance in sport-specific positions, although it’s best to find what works for YOUR athlete….Some respond better, or actually need weighted or resisted variations.
Use your best judgement to find what’s best for your athlete at that time.
1) Back on Bench Single Leg Hip lifts (Rotary Stability) (Sprinters, Track and Field, Triathletes)
3) Frog Hip Lifts (Weighted or Unweighted) (BJJ, Hockey)
But It’s Not All Strengthening
As we all know, simply making a muscle stronger and better able to work in chorus with other muscles, doesn’t make it a rock star. We still need to ensure it’s able to work through it’s full intended range of motion, as well as to rest at its ideal resting length.
For this, we can do a few different exercises:
1) Brettzel
2) Half-Pigeon Stretch
3) Dynamic LAX Ball Glute Release with Mid-Trap Activation
I like all of these as they also help the athlete learn where the rest of his or her body is & what it’s doing as they get into the proper positions… a big win for Proprioception!
Give these a shot, and let the glute gains begin!
About the Author
Menachem Brodie, NSCA-CSCS, PCES, is a leading Strength Coach for Cyclists & Triathletes. In the health, fitness, & wellness fields for nearly 20 years, he has worked with professional & amature atheltes from around the world. He has authored 2 courses: Strength Training for Cycling Successand Strength Training for Triathlon Success, and has presented internationally on Strength Training for Endurance Athletes, including at the 2018 USA Cycling Coaching Summit.
We live on a busy street here in Boston so it’s more of less toddler catnip for him. It’s impossible to go for a walk and he not be transfixed with every Hyundai and Honda that whizzes by. Likewise, every book we read together he points out every car,
The concept of Controlled Articular Rotations is nothing new to the industry. Coaches like Pavel Tsatsouline have been singing their praises for decades.
However, there’s been a bit of a renaissance and cacophony of interest within the industry of late due in no small part to Andreo Spina and his Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) courses.
Full Disclosure: I have not taken any of the courses myself, and my only immersion with the concepts are through various colleagues of mine – Dean Somerset, Frank Duffy, Matt Crush, to name a few – who have taken the courses or who have been certified.
FRC is a system of joint health and mobility, and CARs are just one branch underneath the FRC umbrella. Or maybe I should use tree in this analogy?
Anyway, whatever, you get the idea.
CARs are active, rotational movements that explore the outer limits of articular (joint) motion. To steal a frame of thought from Long Island based strength coach Chris Cooper:
“Stretching and other mobility drills are great, but if you can’t control your body in that new range, then what’s the point.
Explore how your body moves, and then push its limits.”
Too, another component of CARs that’s important to respect is the idea of irradiation, which is just a fancy schmancy way of saying “tension.”
When CARs are done well they incorporate an immense amount of tension in the body so nothing else moves (spine, pelvis, etc) so you can capture as much range of motion possible in that one particular joint.
To borrow another scientific word, they fucking suck donkey balls when done correctly.
Here two of my current “go to’s” when it comes to how I’ve implemented CARs into my programs:
Scapular CAR
This is a fantastic option on upper body days before any heavy bench pressing. Moreover, in terms of overall shoulder health these are stellar. Many trainees have gotten into the unfortunate habit of “locking” their shoulder blades in place (most germane to the conversation: scapular downward rotation syndrome) and this drill is a great way to “unglue” everything.
Key Points to Consider
This is NOT a passive position. Glutes on, abs on, make a fist with non-working side.
Place side you’re working in scapular plane
Pretend as if there’s a glass of water on your arm you don’t want to spill.
Protract, shrug (elevate), retract, depress shoulder blade in a deliberate manner.
My cat is such a diva.
Seated 90/90 Hip Switches
I like this drill a lot because it trains both hip internal and external rotation simultaneously.
NOTE: After I posted this my boy Frank Duffy chimed in to say this:
“From a hardo FRC standpoint 90/90 transitions aren’t CARs because they’re focusing just on the IR/ER component of the hips in flexion whereas CARs address all the joint motions. What’s demonstrated is technically considered an Isometric Movement Path (IsoMP).”
Note to Frank: Don’t ever embarrass me on my blog again.9
This is also a good choice to get the hips nice a juicy before a squat or deadlift session. I prefer to start people ground-based (sitting) with hip CARs before I implement quadruped and then standing variations.
Key Points to Consider
My bad for the blatant crotch shot.
Make a fist with both hands – squeeze coal into diamonds.
Both feet must stay in contact with the floor at all times.
Try your best to stay as upright as possible.
If you need to regress, place hands on floor behind you.
The Warm-Up Blueprint For Lifting
Looking for some more ideas to spruce up your warm-up?
Listen, we all go through the motions when it comes to warming-up. I find most people fall into two camps:
Team “nope, I’d rather walk over broken glass.”
Team “the workout is the warm-up.”
You’re either someone who doesn’t do a warm-up (and likely always has achy joints and sub-par lifts), or someone who does warm-up, but then takes 45 minutes to go through a laundry list of “correctives” (and likely has achy joints and sub-par lifts).
It shows you how to design your own customized warm-up using the concepts I discussed above and then some. It takes you through soft tissue release, dynamic stretching, CARs, and targeted muscle activation techniques to better prepare you for squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, and overhead pressing.
What’s more it’s all done with a British accent.
Jack could read The Silmarillion or, I don’t know, the Wikipedia page for the Kreb’s Cycle and I’d pay to listen to it.
The best part is that this is a home study course. So you can go at your own pace.
It’s popular nowadays for people to brag about how hard their workouts are.
And I don’t mean “hard” as in “man, I’d rather jump into a shark’s mouth than do that squat session again” hard.
No, for whatever reason, it’s become more important to one-up each other, to champion shenanigans over actual progress in the gym:
Person #1: “I could barely walk to my car after my workout today.”
Person #2: “Pfftt, whatever. I threw up today during my workout. It was awesome.”
Person #3: “Oh yeah, well, after my workout I couldn’t feel the right side of my face.”
Progress, it seems, has more to do with how close to a medical emergency someone can get to rather than actually seeing tangible improvements in their lifts.
My hoity toity introduction wasn’t meant to imply I’m against trainees pushing the envelop in their training. I’ve often said, somewhat facetiously, that lifting weights isn’t supposed to tickle.
I love when people work hard in the gym.
But there’s a stark contrast between someone working hard during a workout and them going out of their way to routinely surpass their ability to recover from said workout.
In a very much watered down explanation, “progress” can be applied, measured, or attributed to the following factors:
Doing more sets/reps of a particular exercise.
Adding more load to a particular exercise.
Manipulating rest periods and/or tempo of a particular exercise.
Changing “mode” of an exercise (I.e., switching from Trap Bar Deadlift to Conventional)
Adding physics into the equation (I.e, moving center of mass further up and away from base of support. I.e., switching from Dumbbell Reverse Lunges to Barbell Reverse Lunges).
In Short: Are you making a concerted effort to “do more work?” What’s more, are you able to do so over the course of weeks, months, years?
Your ability to progress long-term is directly correlated with how well you’re able to recover from your workouts (via purposeful fluctuations in training volume, as well as ensuring ample sleep, calories, and hydration). It has nothing to do with one’s prowess at regurgitating their Quinoa & Kale power salad from a few hours ago.
But I’ll get off my high-horse and get to the point.
“Feel” Matters
Last year I started working with another local coach here in Boston. She’s co-owner of a KB-centric gym and Strong First certified, but she wanted to hire me to help her get more proficient with the barbell lifts (specifically the deadlift) as well as help her prepare for the Strong First barbell course.
Jessica was already pretty freakin strong when she started.
When we tested her deadlift she hit 300 lbs; a number many guys would love to hit.
However, it didn’t “feel” or look easy.
She had a few technical glitches I wanted to iron out.
We had ten weeks. During that time my only goal was to clean up her technique in an effort to make 300 lbs feel easier.
I knew that if we worked on cementing her technique, making each repetition look (and feel) pristine, and getting her into better positions to be able to express her (true) strength…we’d likely see an improvement when she re-tested her 1 rep-max at the conclusion of the certification course.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that in order to get her to lift more weight we’d have to focus on progressive overload – more sets, more reps, heavier load, did she destroy the back of her pants, etc.
That’s not the route I took.
Over the course of ten weeks we never touched a weight above 265 lbs.
35 lbs under her best lift.
Instead, like I said, we focused on improving position(s) and making sure we trained with loads that allowed her to marinate in impeccable and FAF reps.11.
Fast Forward Ten Weeks
Before she left for her certification weekend we re-tested 300 lbs.
Few things have made me cry – saying my vows to my wife during our wedding, holding my son for the first time, watching Rose let go of Jack at the end of Titanic, flipping my omelet and not breaking it.
Okay, I cry all the time.
Jessica’s deadlift brought a tear to my eye it looked so good.
What was originally a 19 on the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale, looked (and felt) like a 7/8 by the time ten weeks were over.
What’s more, she ended up hitting a PR of 35o lbs that weekend.
*drops the mic.
Progress = Feel, Too
Far too often trainees are quick to add more weight to the bar, or use the concept of more (more sets, reps, load, etc) as the sole metric to gauge progress.
All are important of course, and everyone should remain cognizant of them.
However, don’t be so quick to underestimate the value of staying put and getting more acquainted with a specific weight. If five reps of a certain weight is challenging, even if you can complete five reps, stay there.
Stay there until it feels less effortful. Many people are too quick to add weight at the expense of actually owning it. More to the point, I much prefer someone leave a session feeling refreshed and that they could do more rather than shit their spleen and miss reps on a routine basis.
First off: Yeah, that’s right I just put the slang version of “Gucci” into the title of a blog post about deadbugs.
Second: I promise I won’t ever do that again
Third: I’ve been swamped with travel the past few weeks (and the subsequent catching up on emails, programs, projects, and life shit-show) and I apologize for my lack of writing prowess. Thankfully I’ve had a handful of regular contributors to the site help to pick up the slack in my absence.
Thanks to Boston based coach, Lana Sova, for today’s contribution.
Fourth: Maybe I should have used “lit?” No? Okay, I’ll GFM.
When it comes to core training, people often fight over which exercises are the best, but that’s kind of like arguing whether Cardi B or Nicki Minaj is a better rapper.
In my opinion (which no one really asked for, but Imma say it anyways because #internet) there is space for both, much like there is a time and a place for different core strengthening exercises.
When people ask me which is the best core strengthener, I give the most boring answer — it depends.
There are many things I take into consideration when I include core strengthening exercises in a client’s program.
Things like goals, training levels, level of lumbo-pelvic control, and mind-body awareness all matter.
Much like the aging process, things are never the same with core training — what could be the best core exercises for a client today will not be the same a year or two from now because they’ve gotten stronger and advanced their skills.
Which leads me to today’s article.
For some reason, when it comes to core training, we go from zero to a hundred in no time. And by “we,” I mean personal trainers. I get it, often we’re tempted to impress clients and show them what we’ve got under our sleeves.
And, often, our clients swear by the fact that they are so advanced they can hold a plank for ten minutes while multitasking and doing 20 other things.
Cue *major eye roll*.
While it’s a good thing to keep your clients happy and help them fall in love with training and working out, there is also a thing called common sense, not to mention the art of giving a client not only what she wants, but also what she needs.
Enter Deadbugs
The deadbug exercise is my all time favorite core strengthening exercise.
When done correctly, it’s one of those exercises that looks easy, but isn’t when you do it yourself.
Progressions to this exercise are diverse and can be lots of fun. And while progressions are great and we do need them to help a client succeed, we also need not forget about regressions.
Deadbugs are one of the exercises where attention to the details matter. It’s easy to spot bad form on a deadbug when you see a client arch her back from the get go. But it’s much more challenging to notice incorrect form when things are not so obvious.
For example, ideally we want a client show us that she can maintain a canister position while performing a deadbug. What’s a canister position? If you live under a rock and never heard Tony speak about this concept, here’s a video for you.
But often, clients will cheat.
Like when I see clients bring their knees closer to their chest to help them with a posterior pelvic tilt.
Or maybe the second they begin to extend their leg out, they lose any core tension; to help them reach the floor, they’ll shift into an anterior pelvic tilt.
It’s our job as coaches to help a client succeed with this exercise without cheating, because the key to their success is doing exercises with correct form.
Happy client AND successful client = Happy coach.
Here are FIVE of my favorite deadbug regressions.
1) Deadbug ISO Hold with a Dowel
Deadbugs are a core stability exercise. This is where I often introduce the concept of an open or closed canister in relationship to the hips and rib cage.
Pssst: (Watch the video earlier in the post.)
Before we start moving the legs and arms and begin to resist any movement in the hip region, it would be a good idea to learn to own the closed canister.
The reason I love this exercise is it helps the client learn how to keep tension in the whole body while also feeling the abdominals working. Adding a dowel to the equation, with the client holding it above her chest while keeping her legs up in a tabletop position, helps her to learn what it means to activate her lats, which can translate to more advanced exercises like bench pressing or deadlifting later on.
I often use the cue ‘’Try to bend the dowel with your pinkies.” Go ahead and give it a try. This should fire up your lats like crazy.
2) Core-Engaged Deadbug ISO Hold with Band
Much like the previous exercise, this variation teaches the client to keep the closed canister position while keeping the tension in the entire body. However, she’ll hold a resistance band above her chest, which acts as a multiplier in creating the tension in the upper body.
3) Core-Engaged Deadbug March
This is an exercises I stole from Florida-based coach William Richards in one of his guest post for Tony on this site.
This is the exercises where, once your client learns how to control the canister position and knows how to create tension in the whole body, she can start moving her legs and making the exercise so much more advanced.
4) Deadbug w/ KB Overhead Hold
This exercise can teach your client how to maintain the canister position with her hands above her head. I like to use this exercise to build up the context for future exercises such as overhead presses.
5) Deadbug with a Pallof Press
This is probably more advanced than the previous exercises; nonetheless it’s still a great regression before you dive head first into all the glorious deadbug variations and completely destroy your client’s core.
It’s great to show your clients advanced movements and spice things up here and there. But before you do so, make sure your client is competent with the exercises and can perform them well. This will help your client show up at the gym more willingly and ultimately reach her goals.
About the Author
Lana Sova is a powerlifter and an in-person and online strength coach in Boston, MA. She helps women to change the way they look by making them strong.
The closest I’ve ever been to calling myself a “ranger” was when I used to watch Walker, Texas Ranger growing up and pretend to roundhouse kick unsuspecting (and imaginary) bad guys in the face.
Oh, and there was that one time I dressed up as the Green Power Ranger for Halloween.12
I am not, nor have I ever been, an Army Ranger.
I did stay up past midnight the other night, though. That’s kinda badass.
A big “thank you” to ACTUAL Army Ranger, Tom Coffey, for pinch-writing for me today as I make my way to Los Angeles this weekend to present.
Fate whispered to the warrior ‘you cannot withstand this storm.’ The warrior whispered back, ‘I am the storm.’
For thousands of years, before comfortable fitness centers dotted every corner, the world’s greatest warriors relied on a steady dose of bodyweight exercises—from building high levels of superhuman strength, to increasing cardiovascular conditioning, and even developing mental toughness bodyweight exercises accomplished it all.
In the rest of this article I want to briefly share with you what my experience as an Army Ranger taught me about getting strong, using only my body.
Life as an Army Ranger
The life of an Army Ranger is quite busy.
Between endless training and extended “business trips” to lands far away there is often more to do than hours in the day. Yet the job requires a certain level of what we’ll call “real world strength.”
Let me give you an example of what I mean: I weighed about 250 pounds in full military gear (+80 pounds above my bodyweight). Do you think you could also throw on 80 pounds of your own gear, pick me up, throw me over your shoulder, and sprint full out for 100 or 200 yards?
That’s what I’m referring to when I say real world strength.
But, no matter what elite military unit you’re talking about there is always a high premium placed on being functionally strong. Admittedly, as much as possible my Ranger buddies and I tried to workout in an actual gym. However, life liked to throw us curve balls and often times we were in situations with no iron around at all.
But not having access to a gym simply wasn’t an excuse to not workout and get weak. So, how did my Ranger buddies and I keep getting stronger when we didn’t always have access to a gym?
The answer: using the best only gym we had available—our body.
Are Bodyweight Exercises Better for Building Strength Than Barbell Exercises?
Ok, before we dive headfirst into this rabbit hole I know someone is going to ask if bodyweight exercises are better for building strength than barbell exercises.
The word “strength” can mean a lot of different things. And, depending on who you ask you’ll likely get a lot of different answers.
Listen, if you want to get strong AF there’s no arguing that picking heavy shit up and hoisting it over your head is the way to go. Unless you’re humongous, green, and your name is Hulk, you very likely won’t be joining the 1,500 pound club by using bodyweight exercises.While you probably definitely won’t build world class powerlifting strength with bodyweight exercise, they do offer tremendous value in building real world strength.
Bodyweight exercises strengthen the body and allow you to express that strength in ways which the barbell can’t.
They can humble even the most experienced of lifters.
I’ve seen, with my own two ocular receptors, guys who can easily squat four wheels crumble like dust when attempting a simple pistol squat (one legged squat).WTF?
How is that even possible?
Ok dude I get it, but how do you build strength using only your bodyweight?
I’m glad you asked.
And, I’m making the assumption here that you’re stranded on a desert island with no gym equipment in sight. This is only to hammer home the point that you literally need zero equipment to make this stuff work.
Obviously, if you start adding gym equipment back in the mix your strength building options skyrocket.
But, that’s easy.
If you learn how to manipulate your body for strength building purposes you become bulletproof. You can literally get strong from anywhere in the world.
Pretty cool, right?
Anyway, below are four ways you can turn lowly bodyweight exercises into serious strength builders.
Did someone order a serving of humble pie?
NOTE:I chose to demonstrate each of these ideas using the pushup. However, you can apply these principles to any number of bodyweight exercises.
1) Remove a Limb (Or Two)
Removing a limb (or two) creates a very unstable environment. Instability causes your muscles to tense harder, and tension is good for building strength. That’s just good science.
Also Useful For:
– Pistol squats
– Single leg hip bridges
– BW romanian deadlifts
– Free standing handstand pushups…if you dare.
NOTE FROM TG:For those watching Tom perform a 1-arm, 1-leg pushup and thinking to themselves “that’s a whole lotta nope,” I’d encourage you to check out THIS article by Nick Tumminello on how to progress towards it.
2) Remove a Limb, Slow Down the Rep, and Add Pauses
Speaking of tension, another great way to increase it is by slowing down your repetitions. This is also known as time under tension (TUT). Pausing at certain points in the rep ensures that you kill all momentum.
Again, this makes the exercise much harder because you have to be stay tense and in control through the entire rep.
There is an inherent difference between taking 30 seconds to perform 1 pushup vs. cranking out 30 pushups. Try a 30 second (or 60 second) pushup and you’ll see what I mean.
Also Useful For:
– Frog holds
– Human flag hold
– Single arm/leg planks
Be Explosive
To be explosive you must be powerful. And power is more or less strength expressed over a very short time. Paradoxically, you must first be strong before you can be powerful. Explosive bodyweight exercises are great for training you to express the strength you’ve built.
Also Useful For:
– Jump squats
– Jump lunges
– Muscle ups
4) The Kitchen Sink Approach
Have you ever opened the drawers under your sink only to find soap bottles, cleaners, yellow gloves, old sponges, bleach bottles, leaky pipes…etc.
I mean, it’s chaos.
The kitchen sink approach is our version of controlled chaos by combining many different strength building elements together. In the video below the spiderman pushup involves using slow reps, removing a limb, dynamic movement, abdominal bracing, and re-distributing weight.
Pro Tip: Make sure that if you’re doing Spiderman pushups in a field with fire ant hills that you don’t unknowingly place your hand directly on top of one. I did this once, and can safely say I’d rather get stabbed by a Nazgul (like twice) than ever do that again.
Desert Island Strength Building Workouts
Ok, now you know how to use bodyweight exercises for strength building. So, my challenge to you is try it.
Below are examples of two ways you can spin basic bodyweight exercises into tough little workouts. And the best part, you can literally do these anywhere, anytime—no equipment needed.
Sample Routine 1- “Destroyer of Legs and Core”
(1)
Three rounds of:
5 pistol squats, per leg → Pause for 1 second at the bottom of every rep
8 single leg hip bridges, per leg → After the 8th rep hold the top of the bridge for 8 seconds (ouchy)
20 second plank w/ left arm lifted
20 second plank w/ right arm lifted
30 second hollow hold
Sample routine 2- “Pushups Seem Harder Today”
(1)
Three rounds of:
3 explosive pushups→ focus on being fast off the ground
(2)
Three rounds of:
2 single arm/single leg pushups, per side
(3)
Four rounds of:
1 thirty second pushup w/ a leg lifted → take 10 seconds to lower, pause above the ground for 10 seconds, take 10 seconds to raise
*On sets 1 & 3 keep your left leg off the ground
*On sets 2 & 4 keep your right leg off the ground
Final Thoughts
Building strength is certainly a noble and worthy pursuit of one’s time. Yes, you’ll make the fastest gains when you have access to all the bells and whistles of a fully equipped gym.
However, when life throws you the inevitable curveball and you don’t have access to the iron, it’s an invaluable skill to be able to bust out a strength workout anywhere, anytime.
I appreciate your time, and I hope you enjoyed the read.
About the Author
Tom Coffey is a former Army Ranger, certified nutrition coach, and currently pursuing a master’s degree in Exercise Science.
Due to his last name, he is on a lifelong quest to brew the absolute “perfect” cup of coffee. You can follow Tom’s quest for coffee brewing perfection, or just read more of his other work, over at his blog: https://tomcoffeyfitness.com
Just to help calm the waters: I am not anti “corrective exercise.”
And I am not really going to throw my face into a brick wall.
I respect and can appreciate that, sometimes, our jobs as fitness professionals require us to pump the brakes and to venture down the corrective exercise rabbit hole.
Some people require a bit more TLC with regards to improved movement, motor control, and/or, and I’m paraphrasing here…”just learning to turn shit on.”
Some people will require a laundry list of additional mobility work, stretching, or positional breathing drills to point them in the right direction and to help them feel better.
What I am against, though, and what drives me bonkers, is when coaches and personal trainers go out of their way to:
1) Overstep their scope of practice and end up performing really shitty physical therapy with their clients and athletes.14
OR
2) Highlight every minor “dysfunction” with a client/athlete – excessive anterior pelvic tilt, kyphotic posture, left eye is lower than the right (you freak) – making him or her feel as if they’re walking ball of fail.
Here’s another gleaming example of how TRAINING is corrective and how, if we do our jobs as coaches, we can often accomplish a lot sans the brick wall.
My client, Emily, who’s a trainer herself, has been dealing with some left shoulder issues. I had her come in the other night to see if I could offer some insights and to listen to some sick EDM beats.
The latter has nothing to do with anything, but whatever….give THIS a listen.
Emily showed up and I took the picture below. It shows something clearly awry and that some sort of shoulder clusterfuckey was at play; namely lack of shoulder flexion on the left side.
What was the culprit?
It could have been a few things:
Capsular issue
Lack of scapular rotation (namely upward rotation).
Soft tissue restriction.
Lack of lumbo-pelvic control.
It was a Wednesday.
I don’t know.
What I do know is that I had to respect my lane and understand it wasn’t my job as a strength & conditioning coach to diagnose anything.
I could, however, assess her general movement capacity, use my knowledge of anatomy, and perform a little trial and error to see if I could improve things.
What follows is more or less a brain dump and an attempt to explain my thought process as I worked with Emily for the next hour.
I’m not gonna say that what ended up happening was on par with some Matrix level shit, but I will say I basically know Kung-Fu.
“What actions have to happen at the scapulae in order to get the arms overhead?”
– Upward rotation
– Protraction
– Posterior tilt
Emily wasn’t getting much upward rotation on that left side. When I asked her to bring her arms overhead it was as if her left arm hit a massive speed bump and came to an abrupt stop. She could push through it, but not without pain.
So I had to think about what muscles help with that action (upward rotation)?
– Upper and lower traps
– Serratus
Too, I noticed she also had a more depressed shoulder girdle as a whole; her clavicular angle was more horizontal rather than having a slight upward grade.
HERE‘s Eric Cressey discussing this in a little more detail.
I surmised her UPPER traps needed some attention.
The upper traps often get a bad rap and are avoided like a Coldplay concert. In certain populations (think: desk workers) and instances, the upper traps are OVERactive and can play a role in increased shoulder elevation as well as superior migration of the humeral head, and hence an increased risk for shoulder impingement.
In this scenario, it behooves us to not go out of our way to increase upper trap activation.
However, we often forget the upper traps are a major player in UPWARD ROTATION, not to mention help with scapular elevation…both of which, in my eyes, Emily could have used some more of.I didn’t get over corrective with Emily and start having her perform some voodoo like tapping her pinky finger three times while flossing her teeth with a strain of hair from a Hippogriff.
I didn’t have her perform a laundry list of “correctives” that, for all intents and purposes, would have likely made her feel like a patient and bore her to tears.
Nope, I had her TRAIN and just modified a few things.
We did:
1. Landmine Presses with a Shrug/Reach
2. Face Pulls in an upwardly rotated position (so the upper traps were more engaged)
3. And, instead of performing movements that would pull her into more shoulder depression and downward rotation (deadlifts, farmer carries, etc) we opted for Landmine Squats, Zercher RDLs, and Hip Thrusts.
In short: We turned shit on (upper traps) and trained movements that (likely) wouldn’t feed into the root causes of her symptoms.
Here’s the picture I took at the end of her session:
Filling my wife’s love tank by making the bed every morning.
Few things give me as much jubilation as deadlifts, though. I like performing them, I like coaching them, I like dreaming about them, and I like writing about them.
I did a series on Instagram not too long ago called “30 Days of Deadlifts.”
Each day, for 30 days, but not necessarily in a row, I provided a quick 60 second programming note, technique consideration, and/or general piece of advice on the deadlift.
It was a big hit.
So much in fact that T-Nation.com asked to repurpose the whole enchilada to use on their site; albeit I’d expound on things a bit more in exchange for them tidying up my prose.
Tom Coffey is a former Army Ranger, certified nutrition coach, and currently pursuing a master’s degree in Exercise Science.
