It’s not lost on me there’s an easy Lord of the Rings reference to be had here, and I’m going to try my best to be professional and abstain and….
Fuck it.
One ring………..to bind them.
Okay, with that out of the way, what do I mean when I say “stacked rings?” and how how can that possibly help your squat?
I had to audit myself a few years ago when it came to coaching the squat. After being introduced to the concepts of PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) and listening to other strong dudes like Chad Wesley Smith speak on the topic, I wondered if cueing people to “arch, hard!,” and to” sit back” were the right things to be saying to the bulk of my athletes/clients when they were getting under the bar?
Very few were competitive powerlifters and even fewer were geared lifers. I.e., none wore squat suits when training (which require an aggressive arch and sitting back to reap the benefits).
To be clear: There are still many very strong dudes (and coaches) who advocate squatting with a hard arch, and that’s their prerogative. The thing to appreciate, however, is that what works and is ideal for a geared lifter won’t necessarily (read: rarely) ever translate well to a non-geared lifter.
If I were to balance the “I want to be brutally strong AND not shit my spine on this next set” teeter-totter, I’d opt for not arching (aggressively).
Like this.
The ribs & diaphragm are pointing in one direction (up) and the hips & pelvic floor are pointing in another (down).
Put simply, this is all sorts of fuckeduppery not a stable position.
We’re placing a ton of shear load on the spine.
What’s more, this will invariably force the lifter to initiate the movement by sitting back (rather than down, you know, like a squat). As a result, often, the chest will fall forward, and the cue we default towads is “arch, arch, arch, chest up, chest up, chest up, you crap you’re going to fall on your face, too late.”
This only feeds instability.
A better approach, I believe (again, for non-geared lifters) is to tone down the arch and adopt what’s been referred to as the “canister” position or to “stack the rings.”
Giving credit where it’s due, the first person I ever heard use this phrase was Dr. Evan Osar. A simple analogy he used was to think of your pelvis as one ring and your rib cage as a bunch of other rings.
We want all those rings to be stacked.
This will nudge us into a more stable, joint-friendly environment
Now, a minor glitch in this way of thinking is that some people think this infers going into posterior pelvic tilt, where we flatten out the lumbar spine.
This is not what’s happening. As you can see in the picture above, my hips are still behind the bar (still very important) but there’s less of an aggressive arch. Telling people to posteriorly tilt their pelvis towards spine neutral is different than telling them to flatten out their spine.
From there it’s a matter of owning the canister position and to squat down rather than back.
Maybe this quick 3-minute video will help:
Want More Tips Like This?
Yeah, I thought so.
My friends Dr. Sarah Duvall, Kellie Hart, and Meghan Callaway released a stellar product this week – Glutes, Core, and Pelvic Floor Online System – and it hammers home points like the one above. 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.
GCPF is a 12-week online course that will teach you how to assess movement and how to implement the correct drills and exercises to help you (or your clients) get stronger and to move better.
TODAY (6/29) is the last day to get it at it’s FULL sale price. You can still get it at a discount until Monday (7/2), however today is your last chance to get it at $200 OFF.
It’s a great resource and one I feel will help a lot of people.
I remember the first time I saw Eminem perform. I was at my apartment in between classes watching a little TRL on MTV. It was spring break, 1999. I was in my living room. Many of my friends were somewhere else, not in my living room, galavanting around on some beach in Cancun soaking up some rays and debauchery.
Customary during Spring Break week MTV was also in Cancun, and hoping to catch a glimpse of my friends – and Britney – I tuned in.
“Hi, my name is, what? My name is, who? My name is, chka-chka Slim Shady.“
Mouth agape with a spoon full of Fruity Pebbles I was like, “what in the what is this?”
Eminem something er other now? Trying to impregnate Spice Girls?
“Pfffft, whatever,” I thought. “He won’t last.”
Ten #1 albums, 45+ million records sold, and one not so sucky movie – 8 Mile – to his credit, I guess you could say I was an idiot.
Eminem didn’t do so shabby for himself.
And while I could sit here and reminisce over you1other past pop-culture snafus I made….
Chicks will always dig stone washed jeans.
Robert Downey Jr will never make it as Iron Man.
ABC’s What About Brian? (2006) will become the next Grey’s Anatomy or Lost. It’ll be a sure fire hit.2
…lets not bask too much in my ineptitude.
I mean, Adele?
She’s okay. I guess.
Speaking candidly, my “misses” can extend to the coaching side of the spectrum as well. I can think of a few things I used to think or say back in the day that, upon reflection, were pretty idiotic.
What are some examples you ask?
Good question.
1. Telling People to Arch…HARD.
Like many people interested in lifting heavy things I used to read – and still do – anything and everything by the likes of Dave Tate, Jim Wendler, and Louie Simmons.
All three are strong mofos and have, arguably, put out some of the best training advice on getting strong within the past few decades.
I mean, are you going to argue with this guy?
Or this guy?
Or him?
Uhhhh, no.
They’ve all contributed to the greater good of the industry and many of us owe our PRs to any number of articles or resources they’ve produced throughout the years.
That being said, I had to audit myself a few years ago when it came to coaching the squat. After being introduced to the concepts of PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) and listening to other strong dudes like Chad Wesley Smith speak on the topic, I wondered if cueing people to “arch, hard!,” and to” sit back” were the right things to be saying to the bulk of my athletes/clients when they were getting under the bar?
Very few were competitive powerlifters and even fewer were geared lifers. I.e., none wore squat suits when training (which require an aggressive arch and sitting back to reap the benefits).
To be clear: There are still many very strong dudes (and coaches) who advocate squatting with a hard arch, and that’s their prerogative. The thing to appreciate, however, is that what works and is ideal for a geared lifter won’t necessarily (read: rarely) ever translate well to a non-geared lifter.
If I were to balance the “I want to be brutally strong AND not shit my spine on this next set” teeter-totter, I’d opt for not arching (aggressively).
The ribs & diaphragm are pointing in one direction (up) and the hips & pelvic floor are pointing in another (down).
Put simply, this is all sorts of fuckeduppery not a stable position.
We’re placing a ton of shear load on the spine.
What’s more, this will invariably force the lifter to initiate the movement by sitting back (rather than down. You know, a squat). As a result, often, the chest will fall forward, and the cue we default to is “arch, arch, arch, chest up, chest up, chest up.”
This only feeds instability.
A better, I believe, approach (again, for non-geared lifters) is to tone down the arch and adopt what’s been referred to as the “canister” position.
Giving credit where it’s due, the first person I ever heard use this phrase was Dr. Evan Osar. A simple analogy he used was to think of your pelvis as one ring and your rib cage as a bunch of other rings.
We want all those rings to be stacked.
This will nudge us into a more stable, joint-friendly environment
Now, a minor glitch in this way of thinking is that some people think this infers going into posterior pelvic tilt, where we flatten out the lumbar spine.
This is not what’s happening. As you can see in the picture above, my hips are still behind the bar (still very important) but there’s less of an aggressive arch. Telling people to posteriorly tilt their pelvis towards spine neutral is different than telling them to flatten out their spine.
From there it’s a matter of owning the canister position and to squat down rather than back.
2. Knees Forward Instead of Knees Out
The “push your knees out” cue is something I’ve slide-stepped away from within the past year.
To defend my position I’ll need to piggy back off my comment above – the squat, for most trainees, is more about “sitting down” than it is “sitting back.”
I want the squat to look like a squat.
This means there will be forward translation of the tibia over the toes (but not so far that the heels come off the ground) and that there is equal parts knees coming forward and hips going back.
The net result = down.
My good friend, smart-as-balls physical therapist, and owner of Resilient Performance Physical Therapy (in NYC), Dr. Doug Kechijian, stated it best in a Tweet recently:
Cueing knees forward first then sit down in a loaded squat minimizes the need for the knees out “correction”. Vertical tibia days are #’d.
That’s right: it’s okay, nay, better?, for the knees to travel forward.
Cueing someone to break with their knees almost always negates the need to remind them to push their knees out.
They’ll do it automatically:
I’m all for using less coaching to clean up someone’s technique. The last thing most of your clients need is you barking a plethora of cues at them: “chest up, knees out, eyes forward, chin tucked, what’s the square root of 47?”
Play around with knees breaking first and then sitting down. My suspicions are that things will feel cleaner, more powerful, and the squat will feel like a squat.
Huh, weird.
ADDENDUM: NONE of this is to say I’m right. These are nothing more than cues and approaches that have worked for me in recents months/years with my clients and athletes. You may think I’m batshit crazy, and that’s cool.
I mean, to reiterate, I’ve been wrong on many things prior.
Amazon.com? Such a stupid idea.
I hope you’ll consider these suggestions however, and play around with them yourself. I think you’ll be surprised.
I guess before we dive into the cues it may be cogent, first, to discuss what the squat is…especially for those reading who may be hearing/learning about this for the first time.
Squat – noun [skwot]
1) A weightlifting exercise in which a person squats and then returns to an erect position while holding a barbell at the back of the shoulders.3
2) A place occupied by squatters. Not to be confused as a place occupied by people literally squatting – like a gym, or a really cool house filled with squat racks – but rather, a place where a person settles on a land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent. Basically, an a-hole.
3) Nautical. The tendency of a vessel to draw more water astern when in motion than when stationary. Huh, I never knew that!
4) Slang. As in, “you don’t know jack squat about squats.”
For the sake of this post, however, we’re going to stick with example #1. I.e., this:
What Is a Squat?
Squats were invented by bears (citation needed), and have long been a staple in weightlifting, strength and conditioning, and powerlifting circles for years and years and years. There’s a reason why most (if not all) successful training programs include squats. They work!
You’d be hard pressed to convince me otherwise that the squat isn’t THE king exercise (definitely top 3) out there that plays a role in helping to increase strength, increase muscle hypertrophy, as well as helping to improve athletic performance. Too, I’d make the case that the squat, when performed correctly to fit one’s unique anatomy, anthropometry, and goals, is one of the best exercises to help “bulletproof” the body and to help offset many of the postural imbalances many people accumulate on a day-t0-day basis from sitting at a desk all day.
Unless you work at the coolest place ever, like in the pic above. Or in space.
Think about what’s required and “needed” in order to perform an acceptable squat (and hit acceptable depth):
Depth (via Mark Rippetoe in Starting Strength) = anterior (front) surface of the thighs dips below knee level.
To help elucidate my point (regarding depth) lets use the ol’ tried and tested Mike Boyle method of coaching. The this-not this-this method.
This:
Not This:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfRacm6Jxc
This:
Of course many people can hit appropriate depth yet still have all sorts of things go awry.
Too much knee valgus (or in some cases, varus).
Too much rounding of the upper back (spinal flexion for the snobs out there).
Face planting the floor.
Also, we have to be cognizant of any pre-existing injuries or anatomical limitations that may prevent someone from getting to depth in the first place.
Without getting too deep into the biomechanics – if that’s your bag I’d suggest Starting Strength or heading over to Bret Contreras’ blog – lets just all agree (I hope) that there’s a degree of ample t-spine extension, shoulder external rotation, scapular posterior tilt, core stability, hip/knee flexion, adductor extensibility, ankle dorsiflexion, and attitude required to perform a good or “passable” squat.
Likewise, while this topic could easily spin into a I’m right/you’re wrong/my way of squatting is the only way to squat everyone, ever diatribe….I want to do my best to avoid the mental gymnastics involved with that. But mostly because it’s dumb.
A case can be made for low bar vs. high bar, wide-stance vs. narrow(er) stance, hands wide vs. hands close, arched back vs. “canister” position for the ribs, and zombies vs. vampires. Everybody is different and different shit is different.
Moreover we could also make arguments for foot flare, shin angle relative to the floor, torso angle, head-neck positioning, and where the eyes are pointing.
A good coach will always place what’s best for the athlete/client before defaulting to his or her’s personal biases with any one way of performing a lift.
With that out of the way…..
What Is Nota Squat?
To steal a train of thought from one of my new favorite books, Guys Can Be Cat Ladies Too, I feel it’s important to take things a step further and discuss what is not a squat.
Not a squat – noun [nat] [a] [skwot]
1) Anything that is not a squat.
2) A deadlift, a person, a cheese sandwich, a Ford Focus, a Blu-ray player, a baseball, a picture frame — none of these things is a squat.
3) Anything else that is not a squat.
I think that’s settled.
Lets Get To Those Cues
As much as my job revolves around improving the performance of the athletes and clients I work with (Example: lets squat a shit-ton of weight), it’s equally important that I play the role of educator and extinguisher of bad habits.
Read: I fix stuff and make it look better.
It’s not that hard to look at someone’s squat and think to yourself:
A) Does that look good?
or
B) My eyes! MY EYES! MAKE IT STOP!!!!
Step #1, oftentimes, is to put on the brakes and clean up someone’s technique before we begin to worry about increasing load or hitting some kind of tangible number.
What follows are cues that have worked for ME and the clients/athletes I’ve worked with in the past (and present). I am in no insinuating that they’re cemented as “all encompassing,” (for all I know I may very well change my approach next week), but I do feel they bode well for most people looking to hone their squat technique.
What’s more, I also find that if I’m able to get someone to “buy” into these cues that a lot of other things tend to take care of themselves without me even addressing them. Kinda cool.
1) Point Belt Buckle Towards Chin
Admittedly, this is the one cue I may get the most flack for and one which may make people shit a weight belt and un-friend me on social media…but whatevs.
Paying meticulous attention to the set-up is going to make or break your squat. More to the point, paying meticulous attention to getting and MAINTAINING tension is going to make or break your squat.
Getting people to appreciate the importance of a “canister” position with their torso and relying less on an aggressive lumbar arch is, in my opinion, crucial.
I don’t like seeing this:
You’ll notice how there’s an aggressive rib flair in tangent with an aggressive lumbar arch. In PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) circles this is called a “scissor position,” where the two are pointing in opposite directions.
This is not a stable position to be in (and, honestly, open’s up a box of other issues that may need to be dealt with down the road with regards to extension based back pain, Spondy, etc).
Ironically, for the majority of trainees/coaches who adopt this approach – and I used to be one of them – when someone inevitably begins to fall forward on the descent or out of the hole the cue always used is to “arch, chest up, arch, chest up, ARCH.”
Which just feeds into the problem. They’re not stable to begin with!
Now, I am not implying not to arch (nor am I implying not to keep the chest up) The lumbar spine has a natural lordotic curve to it, and I’d prefer to maintain that. All I am saying is that it often works in people’s favor to not OVERarch, cue them to posteriorly tilt the pelvis (belt buckle to chin), and then lock the rib cage down to help maintain anatomical neutral throughout their set.
If I can get someone to accomplish this out of the gate, it’ll make a lot of other things fall into place.
2) Rip the Floor Apart
Whether you’re a wide-stance squatter or narrow-stance squatter the cue to “rip the floor apart” applies.
Why?
Truth be told: it lends itself to a better and more efficient bracing strategy, which in turn helps with the whole “getting and maintaining” tension thing.
Not only does it help clean up technique for those who are hyper-mobile or lack motor control with their squat4, but it’s also a nice way to address that annoying “butt wink” or tuck under many people exhibit as they go into deep(er) hip flexion.
Cueing someone to “rip the floor apart” and to gain more external rotation torque in the hips is generally a good strategy for most.
Another way to cue people and get the same effect is to say “spread your sit muscles apart,” which is one I stole from Todd Bumgardner. This way people understand that they should be feeling tension in the hips.
Miscellany
Other ones to consider that I’m not going to elaborate on (because I’m hungry):
Point elbows towards the floor and “set” lats (which is really pulling elbows towards one another and attainting scapular posterior tilt. Cranky elbows generally mean you’re not moving through the scaps).
Push knees out. But not to the point where your feet come off the ground. Think: knees track in line with the direction toes are pointing (which is 15-30 degrees of ER). It helps to open up the hips more and allow for better depth.
Take some weight off the bar. It’s not a cue, but seriously, take the weight off. Try not to sacrifice technique for more weight.
For any ladies reading, as it happens, next week Jen Sinkler and Jennifer Blake (JVB) are releasing their Unapologetically Powerfulresource to help people learn the ins and outs of powerlifting and how accessible it really is for women.
All this week, to help build buzz, they’re releasing a bunch of FREE videos that are excellent resources in of themselves. Today’s video, coincidentally, is on the squat and three variations that can help make it more fail proof.
I just watched it myself and it gets the TG thumb of approval, which looks like this:
All you have to do is go HERE and enter your email (no spam) and you’re good to go.
The squat is undoubtedly one of the more popular exercises out there in the fitness world, and with good reason! You’d be hard pressed to find anything else that can trump what it can accomplish with regards to muscle gains, increased strength, improved athletic performance, and even less talked about benefits like increased bone density (staving off osteoporosis) as well as a litany of positive hormonal adaptations that come into play.
While there’s an endless abyss of information available discussing proper squatting technique – what’s the ideal bar placement, foot placement, how to groove a proper hip hinge (and by extension how to engage the hamstrings/glutes to a higher degree), not to mention all the different variations – more cogent to today’s post I want to discuss a factor that’s often dismissed or at best glazed over.
And that’s how not to destroy the back of your pants the set-up.
Quite literally, how you set up to squat can make or break your set, and thinking more long-term, your overall squatting success.
Many people just kinda haphazardly approach the bar, un-rack it without much thought or attention to detail, and then perform their set. And I hate to break it to you: it looks like garbage. And I can only imagine what it feels like.
Suffice it to say, there’s a bit more to it than just approaching the bar and performing your set. Like, a lot more. And in today’s video I briefly cover why taking the time to set-up properly (and yes, even learning how to un-rack and rack the bar without making your spine hate you) can pay huge dividends in terms of keeping your back healthy in addition to aiding overall squatting performance.
* Photo credit above goes to the peeps over at Elitefts.
2012 is about thiiiis close to coming to a close, and since we’re all still here (HA!….take that Mayans!) I thought I’d use the last day and highlight the ten most popular posts of the past year based off of the total number of visits/hits each received.
It was the best year yet for TonyGentilcore.com, and I can’t thank everyone enough for their continued readership, and more importantly, support.
If I could give every single one of a hug I would. But not only would that be weird, it’s pretty much impossible. Nevertheless, please know that I am repeatedly grateful to all of you and here’s hoping that 2013 bring us all happiness, love, and PRs!
Fixing the “Tuck Under” When Squatting Parts ONE and TWO
Almost resoundingly, by a few thousand visits, this was a very popular two-part post I wrote on how to fix the tuck under or “butt wink” at the bottom of the squat. I guess people like reading about squats!
I don’t know which is more controversial: CrossFit, the so-called “fiscal cliff” we’re about to nose dive off of, Hitler, or the three weeks worth of facial hair that’s currently on my grill (which is a record for me).
In any case, whenever you mention CrossFit, you can bet that the sirens are blasted, and people are going to come out in droves to express their opinion.
Here I take a firm (albeit fair) take as to why I’m not a fan of kipping pull-ups.
This was a topic of a staff in-service that I did where I discussed some of the (several) intricacies that exist between the box squat and the squat TO box.
As the title suggests, yes, there is a difference.
The impetus behind this post was an email exchange I had with one of my female clients and a discussion we had on the differences between weight loss and fat loss. It’s a topic I feel many people can glue themselves to because we’ve all been there.
The information and logic provides are sound, but if anything else, what’s most impressive of all is my use of the word flummoxed. Seriously, gold star for that one!
I heart deadlifts. So it should come as no surprise that one of the 317 articles (slight exaggeration) I wrote on it should pop up in the top ten. Here I breakdown some common (and uncommon) coaching cues that I often use with my athletes and clients to help improve their technique.
It’s a rhetorical question, because in the grand scheme of things any warm-up is better than no warm-up at all. Although, if I’m going to be a little biased I think this one is pretty money.
I got in a little hot water after posting this article earlier in the year. You would think, after reading some of the comments I received, that I made a case for why women shouldn’t be allowed to vote!
99% of the people “got” the message: how the fitness industry panders to women is a complete joke, and there’s a massive double standard: men should lift weight, women should take yoga class.
