30 Days
30 tips, insights, and suggestions on the deadlift.
3 articles.
I want to thank T-Nation.com (in particular Chris Shugart) for taking the time to edit this series and for making me look and sound competent.
Dare I say, this series deserves a PULLitzer?…;o)1
Here’s Part III. Enjoy.
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.2
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:
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.
To start I thought to myself:
“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:
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:
I’m Gandalf.
This workshop will piggyback on the material Dean Somerset and I covered in the original Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
We just returned from Slovenia where we taught the course to 40+ fitness professionals from across nine different countries. We received amazing feedback
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
All who register will:
1. Receive free access to the digital version of the first series.
2. Receive 1.4 continuing education credits via the NSCA.
3. You also get a super secret bonus we won’t reveal until the weekend of. HINT: Attendees are blown away by how cool is is.1
To register and for moe details go HERE.
I’ll be back in the city that never sleeps this Fall to put on my popular Coaching Competency workshop. Albeit this will be condensed version (five hours instead of seven); a fitness amuse bouche if you will.
Honestly a better title for this workshop would be: From Assessment to Clients.
I’ll go into detail on how to create better “buy in” with potential clients, in addition to creating a better (current) client experience starting with the assessment to programming suggestions.
Full details (itinerary, location, and cost) can be found HERE.
I’ve been coaching clients/athletes for upwards of 15+ years now. If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that I’d rather they consistently leave a session wanting more and feeling refreshed than feeling as if a bulldozer ran them over. Quality matters. Ability to recover matters.
— Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) October 30, 2018
Are compound sets the same as super sets?
Nope.
Is this is an awesome article by my boy Lee?
Yup.
He sees stuff many of us mere mortals overlook. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can see SOULS.
Nonetheless, per the usual…Eric is smart and provides some great insights in this latest installment of Assessments You May Be Overlooking.
And, you totally are. Me included.3
I’m a little late in getting to this article (it was written in August), but that’s par for the course when you have a toddler at home.
EXCELLENT stuff by Sam here.
This edition of Exercises You Should Be Doing puts a little spin on a similar iteration I stole from Joel Seedman a few years back.
Or maybe it was John Rusin?
Either way, my brain doesn’t work the same way their’s does and I gladly borrowed the idea.
It involved adding resistance bands to KB/DB Rows while in the hinge position. The pull of the bands really (and I mean REALLY) added another element to the exercise I wasn’t expecting.
Because I had to resist the anterior pull of the bands, the exercise hammered my lats, and I loved it.
Well, here’s the same exercise, albeit with a little bit of a twist.
Who Did I Steal it From? – Doug Balzarini of Iron Village Strength and Conditioning in Beverly, MA.
What Does It Do? – A lot.
As Doug noted in a recent post of his:
“This one checks off a lot of positive boxes. The accommodating resistance of the super-band, the constant tension from the active hinged position, the big range of motion from the scapula, the muscle squeeze at the top…goodness.
And the wall support allows you to “sit back” a bit and really focus on the squeeze of the mid/upper back.”
Key Coaching Cues – It may take a little trial and error to get the setup juuust right, but when you do:
There are many things in life I enjoy:
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.
Here’s Part II (or Days 11-20).
I’m always asked what’s the main difference between training professional athletes and those who think they’re still an athlete.
Not much, really.
I still very much prefer to treat my general population clients like athletes – encouraging them to lift, hoist, push, toss, and drag things every which way – if for no other reason than they can.
However, part of my job as their coach is to know when to pump the brakes and to keep their ego in check. In today’s guest post, California based strength coach Scott Hansen discusses some subtle nuances and tweaks that can be made to a strength & conditioning program catered to the more “mature”” crowd.
Enjoy.
When I was 20 years old, I could do just about anything.
Squat 10×10, sure.
Hell, we did that a for a few months out of each year back then.
Deadlifts so heavy you could feel your soul cracking?
Check.
And with ugly technique that would make the Diesel Weasel blush.
Note From TG: 10 points to Gryffindor for the Diesel Weasel reference.
With time, experience, injuries, and spending a solid percentage of my yearly income over the last decade plus on learning from people smarter than me, I’ve come to realize a few things:
1) Young athletes need load and stress to build strength and physical resiliency.
I.e., Full ranges of motion and big lifts that require a lot of work. Cleans, snatches, barbell bench presses, chin ups, front squats, deadlifts, etc.
Planet Earth is trying to make you small, frail, and weak from the time you turn about 20 years old onward
Unfortunately, after you’ve spent a couple of decades on the planet, you’ve accumulated some wear and tear.
It’s kind of like an apartment: You might take pretty good care of it for the most part, but every now and then you throw a ripper and the carpet gets stained. Over 20 or more years, there are lots of little stains and dings on the walls.
The stains and dings aren’t necessarily bad enough to knock the building down, but it’s certainly not in the kind of shape it was in when you first moved in.
Well, that beat up apartment is more or less your body.
The way we trained when we were young might have been the best possible way to train then, but we probably need to make some modifications to it as we get a bit older. I’m not saying to train solely with resistance bands and shake weights in group exercise classes. I’m just saying that we can train hard and more intelligently to respect how our bodies have changed over time.
The same qualities still have to be trained, mind you. We still need to get strong and train to build and maintain muscle. We need to be mobile, athletic, and not gas out walking down to the mailbox. As a matter of fact, we can still thrive and be better than we were in our younger years, as long as we’re smart.
Here are my favorite lifts for each movement pattern/quality for those under 25 years old, and how things should be modified for the slightly more, uh, mature crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbg7sxs_Auc
I love Olympic lift variations.
From creating power to absorbing force on the catch, hang cleans can be a great tool for a younger athlete. They also require a ton of wrist and thoracic mobility, and an awkward catch might just make you have to call out of work the next day.
Replacing cleans with box jumps means you get a huge percentage of the pros, and none of the cons, so I use it as a main power exercise in my adult athlete programs.
Just make sure to do them right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xzNc–18as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bx9IP49B-w
I’m a big front squat fan.
You really can’t do them wrong, you have less shear stress on the spine, and you get a ton of good stuff expressed: thoracic spine mobility, upper back and core strength, hip mobility, and of course lower body strength.
Similarly to cleans, you need solid wrist mobility, and since the majority of adults have spines that look like question marks, I don’t love front squatting for most adult athletes, most of the time.
Rather, I like hammering double kettlebell front squats.
Similarly to box jumps and cleans, I feel like you get a huge chunk of the benefits of front squatting without the learning curve or discomfort on the wrists, and you can keep the spinal loading down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_1CdItspHk
Note From TG: That time when I thought it would be cool to grow a beard.
Trap bar deadlifts are a great full body lift, and I tend to prefer them over conventional pulls. With the weight evenly distributed around you, you can load these up pretty heavy and get a huge training stimulus without having such high prerequisites as barbell deads.
I certainly employ these for my adult athletes, and heavy, but I’m even more diligent on technique than I am with any other exercise, which means I tend to progress it a little more slowly. Wendler’s 5/3/1 works great here, just stop on the top set at 10 at the most.
Otherwise, you’re liable to take a nap for 3 days.
For the much older athlete, I just go back to the question “how strong is strong enough?” If I can get that with a kettlebell instead of a trap bar, then I’ll go with that, but that might come down to how heavy your bells go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_4AoHwncBI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJxBWyfc1Iw
RFESS have a special place in my heart after coaching them at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning for so long, and because getting brutally strong on these is vital to being able to perform on the court, field, ice, or mat.
By elevating the front foot as well, you get an even bigger range of motion, and moving big weight through big ranges of motion is how you get strong.
Adult athletes can certainly do these as well, but sometimes are a bit limited with ROM for the front foot elevated version. I also like to keep them with split squats to allow for some extra big toe mobility work built into the lift, as so many people tend to get stiff there over time, and stiff toes lead to balance issues and falls.
By front loading it, we can get more core work in and reinforce thoracic extension as well.
I’m a big advocate on narrower grips on presses for most people, so naturally I love close grip benches. They’re a little easier on the shoulders and you still build the same upper body strength as with a wider grip.
I like index fingers on the edge of the smooth part of the bar, so not crazy close.
The wrist and shoulder issues with the aging athlete play a role here, and I prefer to see them doing more one-arm pressing, and on a low incline. This is more shoulder friendly, brings a bigger core component into the mix, and allows for asymmetries to be worked through, rather than around.
I know, I kind of copped out here and picked two.
Sue me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9yVuAfeiY
I know a lot of people love the press done traditionally with a barbell, and I do too. If you put a gun to my head and ask me what my favorite vertical press for athletes is, I’m going with the dumbbell version, though.
Again, I don’t have any problems with barbell pressing, I just like the more natural rotation in the shoulders with dumbbells, and as we see more and more young athletes developing nasty forward head postures and stiff thoracic spines from all the phone and video game time, the dumbbells just seem to be a better fit.
Most adult athletes would benefit from spending the majority of their “overhead” work in a more “high incline” space, which the landmine allows. It all comes back to shoulder and thoracic spine health, and life just tends to cause us issues over time.
One caveat to this is the half kneeling bottoms up kettlebell press. The bottoms up bell triggers the rotator cuff to work to a greater degree, and the half kneeling position keeps from being able to use lower back extension as a replacement for the arm to move overhead.
I’ve seen a lot of people who couldn’t go overhead without pain, but the bottoms up press felt great, so it’ll depend on the individual here.
Chalk this up to cop out number two.
DB rows should be a staple in every program, and especially so in those of our athletes. Building a big, strong back helps us obviously in sports, and helps to keep our shoulders strong and healthy as well.
I have no problem with doing these with adult athletes at all, I just like to slow down the tempo and try to get more out of less load. Body English tends to be a factor in these as the weight goes up, and even a little bit with someone who’s got a history of lower back crankiness can cause issues.
This is why I love TRX inverted rows for this population. They allow for a natural rotation on the shoulders, you can load them up with vests or elevate the feet, and people can generally do them more frequently than more traditional heavy rows.
Mike Boyle has talked in the past about how he likes athletes to have at least a 1-1 strength ratio of chin up strength to bench press strength to mitigate shoulder injuries, and I concur on that wholeheartedly.
When we start getting older, though, shoulder issues can lead to elbow soreness on chins, so if people have the ability to go overhead, I prefer they do their chins on rings for better shoulder mechanics, and if that’s still too much, X pulldowns are a great solution.
Much like landmine presses, they aren’t 100% overhead, but still get a lot of the benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYslVkCzvUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON54UuYBycc
Loading rollouts takes some creativity.
Sure you can use a vest, but eventually, when you’re wearing 2 or 3, they can get cumbersome and they’re a pain in the ass to take on and off between sets. I’ve found that using a heavy slam ball is a great way to continue challenging rollouts and it’s become my favorite variation.
Much like a lot of the other modifications, the overhead movement for the aging athlete can be problematic, so hammering bodysaws is my preference.
Carries are great, and there are a ton of variations on these, all of which are great. Farmer’s walks, suitcase carries, overhead walks, and the like all have their benefits, but I don’t think any of them quite give the same bang for the buck as heavy ass sled pushes.
There’s no eccentric component, so they’re great for people with knee issues, and give a huge single leg strength benefit. And since there’s no eccentric, they don’t need a ton of recovery, and can be used more frequently.
I’ve found that farmer’s walks, when done really heavy, can kind of fry people’s nervous systems more, so, while I use them frequently, if I had to choose, I’d go sleds.
Obviously, the issues that tend to limit our adult athletes are things that we want to address in our programming and improve upon, but we can still be safe and train hard given the circumstances, and not be relegated to endless hours of correctives and foo foo exercises.
Don’t stop challenging yourself or your clients, but keep them challenging in ways that make sense so they can keep excelling for many years to come.
Scott Hansen is a Bostonian transplanted in Southern California, a strength/fitness/wrestling coach, educator, sub par surfer, and die hard New England sports fan.
Today I wanted to share some quickie thoughts with regards to pull-up/chin-up programming. I firmly believe possessing the ability to perform a pull-up, if not multiple pull-ups, is one of the most rewarding and worthwhile achievements to accomplish in the weight-room.5
When it comes to programming the pull-up/chin-up here are some things to consider.
I think where a lot of trainees (and even coaches) go wrong is falling into the trap that in order for someone to perform their first pull-up/chin-up that they have to do pull-ups/chin-ups.
My friend Meghan Callaway did a great job of extolling why this is not necessarily the case in THIS post.
That said, I think all rowing movements count and should be utilized in this scenario.
Yes, specificity matters and takes precedent.
However, building pulling strength in general – incorporating row variations from varying angles with varying implements with varying set/rep schemes – is going to have a profound carryover for pretty much everyone.
What’s more, and as my other good friend, Bryan Krahn, has noted on several occasions…building a muscular physique can take years (if not decades).
As such, “its best to use joint friendly exercises as your training “cake” with other effective yet potentially problematic moves serving as “icing.”
When it comes to back training:
Cake: Rows (ALL FORMS <— seriously, use them all)
Icing: Pull-ups
Pull-ups can (not always) beat up people’s elbows – particularly when volume is cranked up and someone’s not prepared for it.
To that end, be intelligent and don’t downplay your rows.
Now, forget what I just said about volume.
I think one of the biggest mistakes I see most people make with their pull-up/chin-up programming is that they simply don’t train the pattern enough.
Most people will train their pull-up once, maybe twice per week.
This isn’t enough.
Strong First coach and pull-up badass, Artemis Scantalides, will often advocate a frequency of 4-5x per week.
To mirror what I mentioned above, though, when Artemis says 4-5x per week that includes a hodge-podge of ground based drills like push-ups and hollow holds, pull-up assistance drills such as band-assisted pull-ups, eccentric pull-ups, and flexed-arm hangs, in addition to TRX row variations or even hybrid drills like a Rack Pull-Up.
So, not just pull-ups/chin-ups.
Starting to catch a theme here?
One day may include nothing but Hollow Hold drills; the next Flexed Arm Hangs for time; and the next Band Assisted Pull-Ups.
Later in the week you toss in some high-rep TRX Rows.
All told that’s four separate “exposures” during one training week that either hit the pattern itself or have a favorable carryover. You can bet this will be a far superior and time efficient manner to finally conquer that pull-up/chin-up conundrum.
I’ve championed this saying before, but it bears repeating. I’d rather my clients leave the gym feeling refreshed and wanting more than feeling like the lost an arm-wrestling match to a tank.
That doesn’t even make any sense, which is precisely my point.
Neither does it make sense to train to failure every…single…set…of…every…single…day.
Missing reps routinely does you no favors. Straining, fighting, and clawing for every rep does you no favors.
By contrast, hitting your reps helps you. Ensuring the bulk of them are clean, “fast,” and performed with pristine technique helps you.
With regards to increasing the total number of pull-ups you can perform this is key. It’s called greasing the groove, and it works.
Lets say you can currently perform four pull-ups and you want to be able to do more. Stop TESTING the total number you can do and actually BUILD it.
Every few hours, perform HALF that number; in this case two.
This will ensure each rep is textbook. Jesus himself will weep because these reps will be so immaculate.
You will be able to perform more than four pull-ups after all that.
And you won’t feel like a bag of dicks either.
If you’d like more similar insights on the topic I’d encourage you to pick up Meghan Callaway’s fantastic resource.
It’s impressive, thorough, and something she put a ton of work into. I can’t say enough good things about it.
Whether you’re a male, female, beginner, or elite lifter…this manual will have something to offer you. It’s currently on SALE for half-off the original price and the sale ends TONIGHT (10/27) at midnight.
Soooo, you need to act fast.
Go HERE.
This workshop will piggyback on the material Dean Somerset and I covered in the original Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint.
We just returned from Slovenia where we taught the course to 40+ fitness professionals from across nine different countries. We received amazing feedback
With this iteration, though, we’ll be going a bit deeper into the coaching and programming side of things:
All who register will:
1. Receive free access to the digital version of the first series.
2. Receive 1.4 continuing education credits via the NSCA.
3. You also get a super secret bonus we won’t reveal until the weekend of. HINT: Attendees are blown away by how cool is is.6
To register and for moe details go HERE.
I’ll be back in the city that never sleeps this Fall to put on my popular Coaching Competency workshop. Albeit this will be condensed version (five hours instead of seven); a fitness amuse bouche if you will.
Honestly a better title for this workshop would be: From Assessment to Profits.
I’ll go into detail on how to create better “buy in” with potential clients, in addition to creating a better (current) client experience.
Full details (itinerary, location, and cost) can be found HERE.
Think of “novelty” exercises as the cherry on top of a sundae. Basics (squat, hinge, row, press, single leg, core, carry) = the ice cream. The ice cream is great. The ice cream is delicious, and will almost always get the job done even without the cherry.
— Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore1) October 24, 2018
If you’re someone who’s been struggling to get over the first pull-up conundrum, or someone who’s looking to take their pull-up prowess to the next level, to be blunt…
….the program is…the….shit.
Meghan has gone into superb detail with this resource and has added 40+ pages of additional content to the original version. I’ve used it with my own clients and I can vouch that it works.
It’s currently on SALE at 50% off the original price and it ends tomorrow (Saturday, 10/27).
You’ve got a little over 24 hours to take advantage.
YES!
This article rocks.
Anything that encourages women to STRENGTH TRAIN is cool in my book. Plus, I know Sivan, and she’s an excellent coach.
More people need to hear her message.
I respect the message Tim conveys in this article. Rest is rarely going to be the sole answer with regards to addressing nagging injuries.
I get invited onto a lot of podcasts.
Some are fun to do, while others make me want to voluntarily commit myself to Azkaban Prison. This most recent one I did with Vermont based strength coach, Casey Lee, definitely falls under the umbrella of the former.
I like a more casual, conversational approach. Sorta like two people hanging out and talking about whatever happens organically.
I also like chats that are short and to the point. I’m cool as shit, but no one – not even my mother – wants to listen to me talk for an hour.
This episode of “3 Things” is less than 30 minutes and Casey and I talk about everything from building a brand to dad life to Tiesto.
Enjoy!
To listen on iTunes go HERE (episode # 38)
To listen on Stitcher go HERE.
To listen on Google Play go HERE.
It’s common practice to think the only way to get better at performing pull-ups (especially more of them) is to only do pull-ups.
While specificity is important, there’s more than one way to Rome.
It’s today’s guest post by The Ultimate Pull-Up Program creator, Meghan Callaway, dives deep into some alternative exercises to add to your exercise repertoire.
If you’re looking for a baller (<— who isn’t?) program to help turn you into a pull-up Terminator than Meghan’s your coach. It’s incredibly thorough and has already helped thousands of people. It’s on SALE at a heavily discounted price this week and now includes 40+ pages of new content and material.
When it comes to excelling at pull-ups, many people have fallen prey to the mindset that in order for them to get better at pull-ups, they have to do pull-ups, and literally nothing but pull-ups. A lot of coaches even dole out this unhelpful advice.
Unfortunately, this shortsightedness has led countless people down a path of endless frustration, and has definitely driven a lot of extremely capable individuals to abort their pull-up mission before they have achieved their goal.
Make no mistake, pull-ups are an extremely technically demanding full body exercise that involve so much more than simply propelling the body to and from the bar.
In order to excel at pull-ups, you need to possess a strong upper body, be able to control the movement of your shoulders and shoulder blades, and generate enough tension and stability in your lumbo-pelvic region and lower body so you can maintain a body positioning that will help you travel to and from the bar as easily as possible.
Even if you aren’t able to perform a regular pull-up just yet, do not despair. There are many other components of the pull-up that can be trained.
The exercises I am about to describe are absolutely beneficial for individuals who can already perform one or many pull-ups. Without further ado, here are 5 of my favorite exercises for improving pull-up performance that don’t involve performing actual pull-ups.
While some of these exercises are unique, they are very effective.
Key Points:
This innovative horizontal rowing exercise is more challenging than your traditional TRX/ring rows, including when the feet are elevated on a bench, box, or other surface. Like all inverted rowing variations, this exercise develops upper body strength, shoulder and scapular controlled mobility, and lumbo-pelvic stability.
Regression:
Make this exercise easier by walking your feet lower down the wall so your body is in more of a horizontal position, or by performing regular feet elevated rows, or rows where your feet are on the floor.
Progression:
Make this exercise more challenging by walking your feet higher up the wall so your body is in more of a decline position, or by performing negative reps and taking 3-5 seconds to lower yourself.
This exercise combines dead bugs with single arm landmine presses, and develops lumbo-pelvic stability, shoulder and scapular controlled mobility, and to some extent, upper body strength. With the landmine presses, I was using a negative speed so I could maintain the slow tempo of the leg lowering.
Key Points:
Regression:
Make this exercise easier by using less resistance, by decreasing the range of the leg lowering, or by bending your knees.
Progression:
Make this exercise more challenging by using more resistance, by increasing the range of the leg lowering, or by lowering the non-working arm towards the floor versus keeping it in a fixed vertical position.
This unique loaded carry variation develops shoulder and scapular stability (both remain in a fixed position for the duration of the exercise), lumbo-pelvic stability, and to some extent, grip strength. With the addition of the band and the scapular retraction, you should really feel the muscles around your shoulder blades more than during traditional overhead loaded carries.
Key Points:
Figure out what breathing works and feels best for you.
Regression:
Make this exercise easier by using lighter weights, or by using a band with less tension.
Progression:
Make this exercise more challenging by using heavier weights, or by using a band with more tension.
Scapula pull-ups are a great pull-up specific regression that develop shoulder and scapular controlled mobility, lumbo-pelvic stability, and grip strength. Adding in the band resistance challenges the muscles that control the movement of the shoulder blades even more.
Key Points:
Regression:
Make this exercise easier by using a band with less tension, or by using no band.
Progression:
Make this exercise more challenging by using a band with more tension, or by performing negative reps and taking 3-5 seconds to perform the lowering component of the movement.
This extremely challenging exercise develops shoulder and scapular controlled mobility, and lumbo-pelvic stability.
Key Points:
Regression:
Make this exercise easier by performing the exercise in a regular plank position, or by performing the modified variation where the body is in a regular plank position and the hands are elevated on a box, bench, or other surface.
Progression:
Make this exercise more challenging by adding band resistance, by performing negative reps and taking 3-5 seconds to perform the lowering component of the movement, or by performing the single arm variation.
If you want to become an OG of pull-up badassery you’d be hard pressed to find another coach more knowledgable on the topic than Meghan Callaway.
In short: she’s the shit.
Plus, you know, she’s a little bit obsessed with pull-ups. My brain doesn’t operate like hers and another reason why I appreciate her so much is because she’s willing to challenge conventional wisdom and think outside the box.
Her Ultimate Pull-Up Program is excellent and a great fit for anyone – XX chromosome or not – looking to either perform their first pull-up or many.
I’ve used the program with several of my own clients and have seen excellent results. This is an UPDATED version of the program and Meghan’s added 40+ pages of additional content and upgrades.
It’s currently on SALE and you’re silly if you pass on this; especially if you’re a coach interested in getting your clients results.
