I’m excited to announce that I’ll be one of 55+ industry leaders taking part in Kabuki Education Week that’ll be taking place February 1-7, 2021.
Kabuki Education Week – Hosted by Kabuki Strength – is a unique opportunity to attend 40+ live hour-long lectures (with Q&A) presented by the most respected and well established educators, coaches, clinicians, and athletes in the strength & fitness industry. This event brings together a wealth of knowledge across multiple domains; all condensed into week-long virtual format that allows you to attend as many courses as you choose with the added opportunity to purchase recordings.
You can register for my presentation (and save 50% through the end of the year) – The Hip: From Assessment to Badass – HERE.
Alternatively you can register for the ENTIRE event at the Early Bird rate – HERE.
This will undoubtedly be an event you won’t want to miss as the line-up, speaking as a fan boy myself, is one of the most impressive I have ever seen.
You can now purchase CORE @ Home for whatever you want to pay.
During the first quarantine I started a platform where I’d deliver 20-40 minute workouts that could be performed in everyone’s living room using minimal equipment.
In all I filmed 36 workouts using nothing but bodyweight, bands, and kettlebells and/or dumbbells. With many people still reticent to head back to their regular gyms (not to mention the scarcity of gym equipment out there to purchase) I figured this would be a nice opportunity to help.
Now that many parts of the US (and world) have started to implement a second wave of shut-downs, this resource is timely.
Whether you want to spend $1 or $99 (FYI: the latter enters you to win a 5×7 shirtless pic of me), the workouts are ready and available to start.
Also, it’s less about the destination and more about the process.
Oh, and also again: I was Eric’s personal bench press hander-offer guy for two full years, arguably when his bench was the best it ever was. Just sayin…;o)
I’ve always been painfully slow off the floor when I deadlift.
Like, you could be watching the movie Titanic and I’d juuuuust be getting the barbell off the floor by the time you got to the part where Rose lets go of Jack.
If this sounds like you, you may need some more squats in your life.
A few years ago I made a concerted effort to prioritize my front squats (and upping my squatting volume in general) and was finally able to conquer a 600 lb pull.
The additional squatting undoubtedly helped improve my quad strength and ability to push away from the floor when I initiated my pull.
Heed my warning, though. If your deadlift volume is up it’ll behoove you to opt for more front squats or high-bar back squats since both will allow you to maintain a more upright torso (less shearing on spine). If your deadlift volume is on the low end, feel free to implement more low-bar back squatting.
👇👇👇 Check out a sample training split below (after the video) 👇👇👇
Here’s a quick example of how I’d structure the deadlift to squat ratio based off deadlift frequency:
Deadlift 1x Per Week (2 Lower Body Sessions)
Day 1:
A. Back Squat: 5×2 @ 60%, 60s rest
B. Deadlift: 2×2 @ 85%
C1. Deadlift – For Gainz: 4×4 @ 70-75%
C2. Deadbug Variation 4×5/side
C3. Stab Someone in the Face 4×3
I hope each and every one of you had a splendid Holiday season – in whatever way (or iteration) you chose to celebrate – and that the start of this year serves as a welcome reprieve from the galactic shit show that was 2020.
The pandemic resulted in a proverbial “pause button” being pressed with regards to my writing prowess the past several months. My goal in the coming year – outside of telling myself I’m going to do more cardio – is to get back on track with my writing frequency.
And with that, here’s my first offering of the new year.
Exercises You Should Be Doing: Busdriver Hip Airplane
The hip airplane exercise is an exercise popularized by renowned spine researcher (and world’s #2 ranked mustache wearer) Dr. Stuart McGill.1
It’s a splendid exercise to help train the glutes, improve one’s sense of control & balance, as well as learning to dissociate hip movement from lumbar movement.
Another and often under-appreciated benefit is that it stresses a “rigid” (or stable) spine while performing a CLOSED-CHAIN movement where the acetabulum – hip socket – moves over a fixed femur.
It’s a sneakily difficult exercise to say the least.
I’m half convinced that the only people who can perform it well on their first try are 1) Dr. McGill and 2) Olympic gymnasts.
(Oh, and one-legged pirates. Those agile fuckers).
To that end, it behooves most people to start with a variation that’s a little less daunting on the balance side of things, yet still hits all the other notes.
Who Did I Steal It From? – Virginia Beach based strength & conditioning coach Vernon Griffith. I came up with the name, though. Just sayin…;o)
What Does It Do? – See all the above. Using the plate helps to offset any balance issues that may arise, but I do feel it provides a distinct advantage in that it helps drive better hip internal & external rotation.
Plus, it just looks cool.
Key Coaching Cues: Try to set the barbell at chest height (or just below) so that when you bend over to grab the plate your entire body will be in a straight line. To that point, the entire body (top of head to the feet) should move as one unit, or straight line, throughout the entirety of the set.
Moreover, another important point to harp on is to think about driving your contralateral hip toward the opposite knee as you transition from the hip externally rotated position toward the closed, or internally rotated position. Again, you want the action to come from the hip and NOT the lower back.
If you have a hard time with the leg completely straight, you can make the drill less challenging by bending your knee 90 degrees to shorten the lever.
I am truly fortunate that so many great coaches and trainers in the industry want to write for my site. My writing mojo waned this past year for myriad of reasons and I relied quite a bit on others to fill in the gaps.
Honestly, it got to the point where if someone wanted to submit an article on “Best Workout Songs That Start With the Letter D” or, I don’t know, “The History of Glue Factories,” I would have accepted it.
Nevertheless, it was hard narrowing it down to FIVE selections, but here are the top GUEST POSTS from the past year.
We tend to place most of our efforts on accelerating and becoming more explosive & powerful. However, if you’re unable to put on the brakes and DECELERATE (and land properly) you’re missing out on a lot of athletic potential.
Anytime the topic of “breathing” comes up people lose interest. However, I’d argue nothing has revolutionized our approach to strength & conditioning over the course of the past decade than optimal breathing mechanics.
Awesome, easily applicable stuff from Michelle in this article.
Ricky breaks a few things down that you may (or may not, but probably are) doing that’s hindering your progress in the gym.
Special Section For Justin Kompf Because I Know I’ll Receive a Text Message 5 Minutes After This Post Goes Live On Why I Included Ricky On This List and Not Him
Admittedly, this was a damn good article from Justin and one that will resonate with just about anyone who reads it. However, Ricky wrote a great article too and he’s just handsomer.
Yes, working out should be challenging. You don’t make much progress if you’re consistently UNDERtraining and not forcing the body to adapt.
Conversely, going out of your way to routinely make exercise harder just so you can come thiiiiiiis close to shitting your spleen doesn’t make much sense either.
It’s that time of year where I spend the next few days highlighting the best content of the past 365 days on this website.
SPOILER ALERT: This year suuuuuuuuuuucked (in case the picture of the dumpster fire didn’t give it away).
Everyone’s life was affected in one way or another because of the pandemic. Speaking personally, my business was shut down for three months (and is still running at limited capacity as I type these words), I had to renege on plans for a larger gym space in 2020, I was forced to cancel 10+ speaking engagements around the US and Europe, I ruptured my Achilles, and, to add a cherry on top of the shit sundae, I got so bored that my wife finally convinced me to start watching The Crown (THE CROWN!).2
(Not that the pandemic itself had anything to do with the latter two).
As a result, I was in no mood to write in 2020. Like most everyone, I was in a foul mood from early March onward and it no doubt affected me and my ability to remain productive.
This year saw the least amount of content I’ve ever written my entire career. However, I still managed to finagle some content; more than most I suppose, but still rather dearth comparatively speaking.
I’ll stop with the pity party though. Today I want to highlight those articles which resonated best with YOU, my loyal readers (based off web traffic).
I hope to bounce back in 2021. And, as always, I appreciate everyone’s continued support and attention.
In the early days/weeks of quarantine there was a seemingly endless barrage of bourgeoisie’esqe posts and Tweets from a people insinuating that if you didn’t pick up a new hobby or skill during that time – guitar, latin, cheese sculpting – you were lazy.
Coincidentally enough I choose the picture for today’s guest post before actually reading it.
Oops, a minor editorial mistake.
You see, as you’ll learn below, placing a barbell on your back during single leg exercises – while not a wrong strategy to partake – does have a distinct disadvantage.
HINT: More load isn’t always the “x-factor” with regards to making exercises more challenging.
Suffice to say, lesson learned (but I’m too lazy to go back and find a different picture).
I hope you enjoy this excellent piece by two colleagues of mine – Dr. Michelle Boland (a phenomenal local coach here in Boston) and Tim Richardt (a former coach at CORE who’s now located in the Denver area) – that gave me a few Ah-HA moments.
Quarantine have your legs and butt looking skinnier than Gollum’s?
An excellent example of commitment to a singular goal, but not of muscular development.
Get your quads, glutes, and hamstrings looking more bountiful than a post-Mordor-crumbling Shire feast with these single leg exercises!
We’re done with the Lord of the Rings references now, we promise.
We’ll explore loading options, body positioning, front versus rear foot elevation, and direction of center-of-mass (COM) movement to help you taste those sweet, sweet single-leg gains.
Let’s get right to it…
#1 Front Foot Elevated Zercher Split Squat
Load Position Advantage
Holding the weight in the crook of your elbows allows for more relaxation of muscles on the backside of your trunk, enabling increased depth WHILE circumventing grip strength as a potential rate-limiter for loading.
A barbell placed in the traditional “back rack” may rob you of comfortable hip range-of-motion (ROM) due to compression of muscles on the backside of your trunk.
Loading in the Zercher position lets you maintain more VERTICAL displacement throughout the movement, and more pure-up-and-down displacement means more stimulation of muscles that DO vertical displacement (i.e. glutes and quads), leading to more gains and more eventual jealousy from your high school ex after they see your jacked wheels on Facebook.
No barbell? We can accomplish a similar effect with 2 DBs.
Vertical displacement whilst keeping a STACKED position during a split squat, vital to loading muscle tissue (yay!) and minimizing joint strain (boo!), is reviewed, HERE.
Why Front Foot Elevation?
Elevating the front foot shifts your COM backwards, meaning the muscles of the front leg can relax to a greater degree to allow for more depth during the lowering (eccentric) portion of the movement. Additionally, raising the front foot shifts the trained range of motion into deeper degrees of hip flexion, leading to greater mechanical stress placed on the musculature that extends the hip (dat booty).
Bonus; Heel Up?
Try elevating your front heelto enable increased loading of the knee and hip whilst maintaining the “vertical stack” during this drill.
Be sure to maintain heel contact and allow your knee to drift forward over the mid-foot to allow for more hip and knee flexion.
#2 Staggered Stance Retro RDL
Why Backwards is Better…
The Staggered Stance Retro RDL allows you to use the front leg to push your COM backwards towards the leg that’ll be doing all the work. This exercise HAMMERS glutes and hammies, and is a great stepping stone towards an eventual unassisted SLRDL.
The KEY distinction between the conventional RDL (or Heels on Wall Variation) and the staggered stance retro RDL is the direction of your COM travels. In the rear foot single leg deadlift, your COM translates forward, whereas in the staggered stance retro RDL, your COM migrates backwards.
Going front foot supported allows for more of a sit “back” scenario encouraging a more advantageous orienting of the hips to access ROM (remember: more ROM, more loading, more gainz) as well as reducing the challenge of NOT falling forward onto your (pretty) face.
Why Single Arm Loading?
We love a single KB held in the opposite hand (in reference to the back leg), as this encourages rotation of the ribcage TOWARDS that rear leg. Rotation towards the side we’re loading means we’re able to load muscles of that hip to a greater degree, and the combination of an opposite hand reach AND a front foot support ensure we’re loading the back leg’s hamstrings and glutes as much as we possibly can.
Technique
Some pointers with the Front Foot Supported Single Leg Deadlift:
Position the non-working leg in front of the working leg and use the front (non-working) leg to push the back (working) leg backwards. This results in a hip “shift” TOWARDS that back leg.
The arm opposite the working leg holds the KB and maintains a path over the big toe of the back foot. That reach further supports the shift you obtained in step 1.
Sit your hips back in space, feeling loading on the heel, base of the big toe, and base of the little toe. Reverse this motion by pushing through this “tripod foot” back to the starting position.
#3 Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat
Jack Up That Back Foot
The Rear Foot Elevated (RFE) Split Squat is a variation that places greater emphasis on the front leg. This exercise is also a good progression towards a strict single leg activity, such as a single leg squat.
While performing a boring ‘ol split squat, the load is fairly evenly distributed between the front and back legs. However, elevating the rear foot shifts your center of mass forward, dramatically increasing the loading of the front leg. Train this sucker and that leg’s getting more yoked than a Marriott Courtyard omelette bar.
The RFESS is #3 on this list because it trains a little like a cross of exercises #1 and #2.
It’s a vertical movement (like our FFESS), but the forward lean created by the elevation of the rear foot enables some degree of forward/backwards COM displacement (like our deadlift variation). The result is an unholy cross of glute and leg destruction.
Placement of Load
To optimize loading with this drill, we recommend dumbbells in each hand- like THIS. As we mentioned previously, a barbell placed in the traditional “back rack” position tends to compress muscles on the backside of the body, robbing the body of hip flexion availability and trainable range of motion.
The distance between your front and back legs- your “stride length” during a split squat- also matters.
A short stride length (front foot closer to back foot) will bias hip musculature (glutes). If you elongate the stride length you’ll shift the loading to more quads, leading to more yoked legs with which to better fill out those new early-Christmas jeggings.
Bonus Yoked-Worthy Exercise: Walking Toe Touch Lunges
Muscle Recruitment
Walking Lunges with an opposite arm reach facilitate more high hamstring recruitment by biasing a posterior tilt of the pelvis. High hamstrings fix the position of the pelvis, enabling greater loading of the hip extensors (butt), making this drill an excellent choice for a “finisher” after your main exercises. To quote our good friend, the wise and powerful Tony, after performing a set of these, “I FELT it in my soul”!
DISCLAIMER; Michelle and Tim are NOT responsible for any Soul-Delayed-Onset-Muscule-Soreness (SDOMS) experienced after performing this drill.
Technique
Big pointers with the Walking Toe Touch Lunges
Maintain up/down motion by keeping your head stacked over your chest and stacked over your hips… put simply “mostly elevator, a little escalator”
Reach your opposite arm to your front big toe keeping your breastbone pointed straight ahead and letting your shoulder blade reach around your ribcage
“A little” hinge at the hips is necessary to stay moving FORWARDS, but “a little” is all you get
Be nice to your back knee, a soft surface is ideal with this drill
Focus on turning into your abs on the same side as the front leg
Stand up by pushing the ground away with the front foot (that same tripod foot as we discussed previously)
You get no bonus points for lunging LONG- keep your stride length short and controlled
Summary
Choosing single leg exercises that will allow you to achieve the greatest ROM while moving heavy loads are key to targeting more muscle mass. Gettin’ more yoked than a 12th century plow animal is all about moving load over ROM.
Intelligent holding positions, such as DBs at sides and zercher, beget more motion availability.
The positioning or elevation of your feet relative to one another is VITALLY important in ensuring we’re loading the target tissue through as large of an available range as we can muster.
Now go get those legs so HUGE that grandma’s gonna have to buy you new Christmas stockings.
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be one of 40+ industry leaders taking part in Kabuki Education Week that’ll be taking place February 1-7, 2021.
Kabuki Education Week – Hosted by Kabuki Strength – is a unique opportunity to attend 40+ live hour-long lectures (with Q&A) presented by the most respected and well established educators, coaches, clinicians, and athletes in the strength & fitness industry. This event brings together a wealth of knowledge across multiple domains; all condensed into week-long virtual format that allows you to attend as many courses as you choose with the added opportunity to purchase recordings.
You can register for my presentation (and save 50% through the end of the year) – The Hip: From Assessment to Badass – HERE.
Alternatively you can register for the ENTIRE event at the Early Bird rate – HERE.
This will undoubtedly be an event you won’t want to miss as the line-up, speaking as a fan boy myself, is one of the most impressive I have ever seen.
You can now purchase CORE @ Home for whatever you want to pay.
During the first quarantine I started a platform where I’d deliver 20-40 minute workouts that could be performed in everyone’s living room using minimal equipment.
In all I filmed 36 workouts using nothing but bodyweight, bands, and kettlebells and/or dumbbells. With many people still reticent to head back to their regular gyms (not to mention the scarcity of gym equipment out there to purchase) I figured this would be a nice opportunity to help.
Now that many parts of the US (and world) have started to implement a second wave of shut-downs, this resource is timely.
Whether you want to spend $1 or $99 (FYI: the latter enters you to win a 5×7 shirtless pic of me), the workouts are ready and available to start.
One of my favorite exercises is the 1-Arm DB Row. One way I’ll make it more challenging is to add an RNT effect with a band. This helps reinforce the forward-back arc (rather than straight up & down)…placing more emphasis on the lats.
Outside of the three workshops I got to teach earlier this year in Europe before 2020 turned into a HAZMAT commercial, the PPSC was the first time I had the opportunity to sit in a (socially distanced) room with “my people” and marinate in topics such as squat assessment, scapular kinematics, and protein powder.
More importantly, it served as an opportunity to network and see friends/colleagues I hadn’t seen in a while.
During the lunch break on Day #2, David asked myself and AMP Fitness owner, Steve Bergeron, to sit down and have a chat for his soon-t0-be-released Pain-Free Performance Podcast
I was perusing Instagram a few months ago when I came across my friend’s, Andrew Coates, feed. He had just posted a video of himself performing an impressive set of Supported Bulgarian Split Squats.
Or, Hatfield Squats for the meatheads in the house.
It was something like 365 lb for 5 repetitions.
As I said, at first I was like “huh.”
Then I was like, “damn, that’s strong.”
And then I was like, “pffft, whatever, I want in on this parade.”
At that point I was roughly 5-6 weeks post Achilles repair surgery and was training pretty aggressively in the gym. That said I was still looking for ways to expand or improve upon my Trainable Menu.
I.e., Focusing on stuff I could train rather than stuff I couldn’t.
A day or two later I posted a video of myself performing a set of close to 300 lb for 6-8 reps on my NON-affected leg. I tagged Andrew who then tagged a few other colleagues who were also inspired by his escapades; one of whom was Luka Hocevar, owner of Vigor Ground Fitness in Renton, WA.
Some good ol’ fashioned friendly competition ensued.
Each week we continued to post our progress and I enjoyed it, which was weird because, despite what coaches on the internet like to pretend, I fucking hate performing single leg work.
1. Nazi’s
2. Kipping pull-ups
3. People who wax poetic about keto.
.
.
.
44. Single leg work.
45. Talking about feelings.
Anyway, as it happens, myself, Andrew, and Luka teamed up to write an article for T-Nation.com that just went live today. In it we break down anything and everything as it relates to the Supported Bulgarian Split Squat and why you should consider adding it to YOUR training arsenal.
