CST Free Weight Exercises By Scott Sonnon

Rif pointed this out. Look at this guy’s lower back musculature. Absolutely amazing.

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I’ve been thinking about deadlift form and wanted to note down a few things.

There are some good points here, especially Mistake No 10 - Starting with the Hips Too LOW:

This is the king of all mistakes I see. Too many times lifters try to squat the weight up rather than pull the weight. Think back to the number of times you’ve seen a big deadlift and thought to yourself how much more the lifter could’ve pulled if he didn’t damn near stiff-leg it. I see it all the time. Someone will say, “Did you see his deadlift?” Then the other guy will comment, “Yeah, and he stiff-legged the thing.” Am I telling you to stiff leg all your deadlifts? No, not at all.

All I want you to do is look at your hip position at the start of the lift when you pull and watch how much your hips move up before the weight begins to break the floor. This is wasted movement and does nothing except wear you out before the pull. The closer you can keep your hips to the bar when you pull, the better the leverages are going to be.

Once again, next time you see a great deadlifter, stand off to the side and watch how close his or her hips stay to the bar throughout the pull. If you’re putting your ass to the floor before you pull, your hips are about a mile from the bar. You’re setting yourself up for disaster when the lever arm is this long. This is also the second reason why lifters can’t get the bar off the floor. (The first reason is very simple: The bar is too heavy!)

That got me thinking about Pavel’s advice on deadlifting:

Look up towards the ceiling, and *not* at the mirror. This will keep your back from “rounding”.

Reach back with your butt, like you’re trying to sit in a chair that’s too far behind you.

In addition to this, try to imagine your spine stretching out. This will further straighten your back.

Tighten your abs as if bracing for a punch, and *then* inhale. This will protect your back.

Somewhere in Power to the People Pavel also talks about keeping your shins near vertical. So you hinge at the hips, pushing your butt way back.

It struck me that this is like the hamstring stretch position described in Relax into Stretch and which appears at about 1:35 in the video below:

Talking of high hips, Bob Peoples (best deadlifter ever!) lifted that style:

Consider then, Bob’s following statement, made over 20 years ago. “On October 4 I finally made a new world record deadlift record of 700 pounds. At this time I was lifting on normally filled lungs. However, I then started lifting on empty lungs and with a round back - that is I would breathe out to normal, round my back, raise the hips, look down and begin the lift. I feel this is much safer than following the customary advice of the experts. By breathing out you lessen the internal pressure and by lifting with a round back you lessen the leverage - all of which adds many pounds to your lift. I have used the reverse grip and also the overhand hook grip but I have now changed to the palms up or curl grip (with hook) and will experiment with it for a while to see if it helps.”

While I’m on deadlifts…..here is a video of Lamar Gant. If you have realy long arms it makes this easier!

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Tomorrow is marathon day here in Boston.  On one hand, it’s a great day in our city, as loads of money is raised for charity and quite a few high level, well-prepared athletes come to town to compete for a Boston Marathon crow.

Unfortunately, it’s also a day when hip replacements become reality and 140-pound dudes [...]
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The full study is available for this one, not just this abstract (which is below) but this is interesting - the effects of a 12 hour fast on physical abilities, specifically balance.

What is not clear from either is whether the participants abstained from all liquids - even water. Anyway it seems that fasting diminished balance skills, which is a concern.

Fasting is always easier if you are on a low carb diet and running on ketones, so I wonder if that would be an issue - the average person running on sugars needs constant topping up or else blood sugar issues can have effects. I wonder if hypoglycemia affects balance?

In any case it is something to bear in mind if you are experimenting with intermittent fasting.

The effects of dietary fasting on physical balance among healthy young women.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The study examined the effects of dietary fasting on physical balance among young healthy women.
METHODS: This study undertaken involving 22 young healthy women (age=22+/- 1.5) using a within subject counterbalanced 2-week crossover study design. Participants were asked to refrain from consuming any food or beverage for 12 hours prior to the fasting trial and to maintain their regular diet for the non-fasting trial. Measures included: a background questionnaire, 24-hour dietary recall, and functional reach and timed single-limb stances. RESULTS: Fasting resulted in significant declines in functional reach (p<0.01), and ability to balance in a single limb stance with eyes open, on both the dominant and non-dominant legs (p<0.01 and p<0.01, respectively), and with eyes closed on the dominant leg (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The findings have implications for athletic performance in younger individuals as well as emphasizing the need for health education for young women to avoid skipping meals

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1. Yesterday was tax day.  And, since you’re all probably feeling like Uncle Sam took a dump in your favorite shoes on the taxes front, this uplifting video couldn’t be more appropriate to kick things off.

2. Yesterday also marked the end of the introductory offer on our new Optimal Shoulder Performance DVD set.  Some of [...]
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Years ago in Iron Man magazine (the old Peary Rader one, not the soft pron thing it became) and latterly in McRobert’s Hardgainer there was a great writer called Bradley J Steiner. He focussed on simple straightforward routines. No fluff, jsut progression the basics.

I recently found out that he is still writing, now on the web and lots of the material is also about reality based self defence.

It is good stuff. Check out Seattle Combatives

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Got this excellent comment:
“alright so here it is. I weigh about 180 lbs and I am High Bar squatting 225 lbs for 3 x 5. I do this 3 times a week as per the Starting Strength program (yeh I am going against Rippetoe with the High bar squat, but I like [...]

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Just a friendly reminder that the introductory price of $97 on Optimal Shoulder Performance: From Rehabilitation to High Performance ends tonight at midnight - when the price goes up by $30.  This DVD set has been getting some awesome feedback, so don’t miss out on this last chance to get it at a an awesome [...]
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hat tip to Mark

All this for some crap food

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