Tag Archives: squat

How to Warm-Up, Part One: The Squat

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Today’s post is a collaboration between Matt Skeffington and I on how to warm-up for the squat. It is Part One of a three-part series we’ll be doing on how to warm-up for the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Enjoy!

It’s your big squat day. Trust us, we know how you feel. All day, you’re jacked up, ready to get to the gym to move some serious weight. In fact, you’re so excited you get out of your car and immediately head over to the squat rack. You get under the bar and begin your first warm-up set. Big mistake.

Your hips couldn’t be tighter from sitting at your desk all day so you’re only able to get into a quarter squat without your adductors ripping in half.  Your shoulders are stiffer than a board and you grimace in pain as you try to get your upper back and hands into a solid position. As you descend into your squat, you tip forward, putting a ton of stress on your low back because your ankles won’t move. Nothing feels good, nothing feels loose, and that 135 lbs. on your back feels more like 500 lbs.

Let’s back things up for a minute. Let’s say you decided to take the extra 10-15 minutes to do a comprehensive warm-up dedicated to getting you ready to squat. You would probably start by doing a little research, because after all, we exercise geeks love research. If you did a few searches on PubMed or the Journal of Strength and Conditioning you would find a variety of studies on various dynamic warm-up protocols and how warm-ups:

Of course the warm-ups done in these studies are very general in nature. We need all the benefits of a sound warm-up listed above, but also want something specifically designed for getting us ready to squat some big weight! Before designing our warm-up it’s important to understand what exactly our joints are doing during a squat so we can target those areas.

Take a look at the video below:

Feet

The first thing we want you to notice is foot position. As you can see, Conor sets up with his toes pointed out. Getting into the proper bottom position of a squat takes a considerable amount of hip flexion and internal rotation. Starting with your toes pointed slightly out allows your hips to start the squat in a position of external rotation. This allows gives your hips some freedom when descending into your squat. If your hip external rotators and extensors (glutes, hamstrings, etc.) are tight, we will not be squatting very deep or very safely. Don’t worry though; we will get your hips nice and mobile in the warm-up.

Ankles

Next up are the ankles. Notice in the side-view how Conor’s ankles allow his knees to slightly glide over his toes as he descends into his squat. Old school bro-science would tell us this is bad for our knees. It’s not.

We need a good amount of dorsiflexion in our ankles to allow us to squat deep while maintaining a solid neutral spine position. In fact, we need about 20 degrees of dorsiflexion to squat properly. If our calves are too stiff, we cannot properly dorsiflex, and we will compensate by either tipping forward or going into lumbar (low back) flexion. OUCH! Have no fear my squatting friends, we will get those calves ready!

Knees

Our next stop on the kinetic chain is the knees. Since the knee joint is mostly a hinge joint (we do have some medial/lateral rotation), the positioning of the knees is determined mostly by the hips. Let’s take a look at Conor’s hips as he squats. From the front you can see how Conor abducts his hips and his knees track out over the toes during the descent of his squat. This keeps his femur and tibia in a strong, neutral position. To get into this position, we need adequate adductor and hip flexor length as well as glute strength and stiffness. In this warm-up, we’ll get your glutes working double time!

Diaphragm

Let’s continue up to Conor’s abdomen. We’re going to let you in on a little secret. The key to moving big weights is not in your legs or your back. It all starts with proper functioning of the diaphragm. Notice how Conor finishes each rep by returning to a neutral spine position. What we mean by that is as he finishes each rep, he doesn’t lean back, look up, or over-arch his low back. He finishes each rep by squeezing his glutes and bracing his stomach, leaving his body in a perfectly neutral position. By maintaining a neutral position and keeping his ribcage down, Conor can exhibit good breathing mechanics and preserve a favorable Zone of Apposition.

With this optimal alignment, he can demonstrate rock-solid core stability from the inside-out. Conor now has 360 degrees of stability around his core, kind of like an invisible weight belt. Don’t worry, we’ll be practicing some diaphragmatic breathing in our warm-up.

Upper Back

Finally, we end our journey at the upper back. Watching the video from the back-view, you can see how Conor’s back is tight and engaged. This is due to a couple of things.  First, Conor has great extension through his thoracic spine, unlike most of us who are overly kyphotic because we sit all day.

Secondly, Conor’s ability to externally rotate his shoulders and posteriorly tilt and retract his scapulae allows his chest to stay tall and for his elbows to stay down during the squat. This is due to adequate length of his muscles involved in internally rotating his humerus and anteriorly tilting his scapulae. These include subscapularis, pec major and minor, as well as his lats. This is a huge part of a solid squat. Without the ability to keep his chest tall, Conor would be putting a lot more stress on his low back and would be constantly falling forward. And you thought the squat was a just a lower body lift! We’ll attack shoulder and thoracic spine mobility as well as upper back activation in the warm-up.

Squat Warm-Up

Foam Roll

  • If possible, use an elevated surface to foam roll your adductors
  • Include Supine Diaphragmatic Breathing (hips/knees flexed, feet flat) x 10 breaths

Mobility/Activation (*If you have a lot of joint laxity, only perform the standing drills below*)

1. Kneeling Glute Mobilization x 8/side

2. Single-leg Glute Bridge w/2 sec ISO at top x 6/side

3. Split-stance Adductor Mobilization x 8/side

4. Side-lying Extension Rotation x 8/side

5. Standing Hip Internal/External Rotation w/mini-band x 10/side

6. Knee-break Ankle Mobilization x 10

7. Forearm Wall Slides at 135 degrees w/OH Shrug and Lift-off x 8

8. Bowler Squats x 6/side

9. Walking Spiderman w/Hip Lift and OH Reach x 5/side

10. Alternating Lateral Lunge Walk x 5/side

Pre-Work

A1) Box Jumps – 3×5

A2) Wall Hip Flexor Mobilization (Back Knee Elevated) – 3×8/side

Now let’s say you’re planning on performing your first working set of 5 reps at 315 lbs. Your warm-up sets and reps might look like this:

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

135 lbs. x 5

185 lbs. x 5

225 lbs. x 3

275 lbs. x 2

315 lbs. x 5 (first working set)

Wrap-Up

Give this warm-up a try before your next squat session. It will keep you feeling good, injury-free, and it will improve your performance so you can continue to get stronger and squat those big weights.

Check back soon for Part Two on how to warm-up for the bench press!

ADFPF Nationals Meet Recap

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Last Saturday, Chris, Jay, and I headed down to the Holiday Inn in Rockland, Massachusetts to compete in the ADFPF Nationals. We all met up at Dynamic shortly after 7:00am and promptly hit the road. Despite the heavy rain, we made it to Rockland in an hour flat, the same amount of time it took Chris and I to get there for our last meet in December. The playlist this time consisted of Dark New Day and some early Flotsam & Jetsam.

I woke up early Saturday morning feeling good, not great. I was hoping that as the day went on, and as the meet commenced, that I would feel a bit better. Sure enough, once the meet got going, I felt better and was able to turn my focus completely to my performance on the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Before I begin telling you about the meet, however, I’d like to let you all in on a little “snafu” that took place. As Chris, Jay, and I arrived at the Holiday Inn, we proceeded to go through the typical check-in procedure common at any powerlifting meet. We had to choose our opening lifts, get our rack heights for the squat, weigh-in, and get our equipment checked. After submitting my opening lifts and having my rack height measured, I got in line to get all of my equipment checked. As the gentleman in front of me was going through equipment check, I heard the meet official giving him some grief about his underwear. Apparently, due to ADFPF regulations, no spandex underwear is allowed in a raw meet, since it may provide the lifter with an unfair advantage. How much of an advantage is certainly very questionable, but that’s their rule. Well, somehow I must have glossed over this rule when I signed up for the meet. I was wearing spandex briefs and had not brought any other form of underwear. Standing there next in line, I thought to myself, “Shit…I’m screwed!”

When I stepped forward, I put all my stuff on the table. Everything passed inspection: belt, wrist wraps, shoes, socks, t-shirt. As the official was inspecting my gear, I hoped he would just forget about checking my underwear. But, of course, the very last thing he asked to see were my underoos. “Are those spandex?” he asked. I was busted. Turns out, only cotton briefs are considered legal. It wasn’t just me, though; many participants were showing up in spandex, and I heard that someone was actually making a Wal-Mart run to pick up a value pack of whitey-tighties. The official turned out to be good about the situation and passed me anyways, so long as I made sure to get a pair of cotton briefs before my first lift.

I should’ve worn my Jockeys!

I weighed-in quickly and made a mayday call to my dad for some underwear. Luckily, I caught him just before he was leaving, and he graciously brought me three pairs of his underwear. He literally saved my ass! More on this later, unfortunately…

For the time being, my dad had saved the day and I was now sporting a comfortable pair of Hanes boxer briefs. There was a sizable field at this meet and it was organized by weight class into four waves, A through D. I was in wave D, so I had plenty of time to relax, foam roll, go through some mobility/activation work, and warm-up before my first squat attempt. My warm-ups on the squat looked like this:

*Note: the weights in the warm-up area during my last meet were in pounds, but this time there were only the actual kilogram plates that were used in the meet itself. Total pain in the ass for trying to convert to pounds for all of my warm-up sets!

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

143 lbs. x 5

188 x 5

232 x 3

298 x 1

331 x 1

353 x 1 w/belt

My warm-up sets felt really solid. I was opening at 386 lbs., and when my name was called, I went out there and nailed it as expected. As I was walking off the platform, the side judge, an older man from the ADFPF clad in a nifty blue blazer, grabbed my arm and began what I perceived to be him staring at my junk. “WTF?” I thought in my head. What happened was that at the bottom of my squat, due to my singlet “riding up” on me, my underwear had poked out ever so slightly. The judge, noticing this, declared it a rules infraction and I was charged with a missed lift. I was obviously a little pissed off, and thought this was a little nit-picky, but I guess rules are rules, and your underwear length cannot exceed the length of your singlet. So now, as if retrieving a pair of cotton underwear wasn’t enough, my underwear was too long (in the grand scheme of things, technically “missing” this lift didn’t really matter, as I was still allowed to go up in weight as I had planned).

Once this debacle was over, I walked back to the warm-up area and stared blankly into Chris’s face.

“Dude, I’m gonna have to go commando.”

As Chris was cracking up at the thought of my nugget pouch popping out during my next squat attempt, Bernie, a Dynamic client with an extensive history in powerlifting who had accompanied us at the meet, blurted out, “Just cut them!” He immediately ran to find a pair of scissors. Back in a flash, Bernie then handed the scissors to Chris, who was thus charged with the duty of cutting a pair of underwear that my dad had supplied. Under Bernie’s instruction, and my watchful eye, Chris shakily made the cut, and this is what resulted:

My first pair of Bernie Briefs!

Chris suggested that I show the side judge my makeshift briefs to ensure that they were legal. As I presented them to him, he laughed and said that they were fine. Crisis averted! I went out back, slid them on, and was able to proceed with the meet and focus on my next squat.

For my 2nd squat attempt, I took 408 lbs., a PR weight, and it flew up! I was psyched, and decided to stick to my plan of achieving a near mid-400’s squat, and went with 435 lbs. for my 3rd and final attempt. Here it is:

After getting 435 up, and after looking at the video, I think I had another 15-20 lbs. in me! I was definitely happy walking away with 435, though, a 33 lb. PR from my last meet.

Next was the bench press. As I mentioned in my meet preview, I finally hit 300 lbs. on the bench press at the end of March. I was happy with the progress I had made on the bench in 5 months of training for the meet, and I felt confident that 303 lbs. was a lock. Unfortunately, on Saturday, this turned out not to be the case. Here were my warm-ups:

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

99 lbs. x 5

143 x 5

187 x 3

232 x 1

254 x 1 w/wraps

My first attempt was at 287 lbs. My best bench in the last meet was 281, so it was encouraging to already be opening with more than my max bench from last time. Take a look at 287 below:

As you might have noticed, and as Bernie pointed out to me, I began to decelerate the bar even more as it approached my chest. The goal is to lower it evenly, and I probably expended a little more energy than I had to in getting the bar to my chest. The lift felt heavier than I expected, but nevertheless, I decided to go with my meet goal of 303 for my 2nd attempt. Here’s how it went:

F***!!! It felt like I was waiting forever for the press command on this lift. The “competition pause” can be absolutely killer. Regardless, the weight on the bench press just felt plain heavy on this particular day. Once you attempt a certain weight, you’re not allowed to go down for a subsequent attempt, so I had no choice but to go for 303 again. I ended up missing on my 3rd attempt as well. I was definitely a little bummed, but I had no time to feel sorry for myself; the meet wasn’t over, and my favorite lift, the deadlift, was up next.

There’s a little saying in powerlifting that goes, “The meet doesn’t start until the bar hits the floor.” I had to get my mind right after missing twice on the bench, but that wasn’t too hard, since I love deadlifting and naturally, it’s my best lift. I was determined to take out my anger on the iron and pull something very heavy. At this point in the meet, I began feeling a little fatigued, so I used the ample time between lifts to rest and relax. With that in mind, I made sure to limit my warm-up sets and pick them carefully. They looked like this:

165 lbs. x 5

221 x 3

276 x 1

342 x 1

419 x 1 w/belt

My opener on the deadlift was 502 lbs. It felt awesome, so that was a good sign. My 2nd attempt was at a PR weight of 535 lbs. This, too, went up just fine. For my 3rd attempt, I chose to go with 551 lbs. Check it out below:

Like the squat, I feel like I might have had another 15-20 lbs. in me on the deadlift, too! My best deadlift at my last meet was 524, so I’ll definitely take a 27 lb. PR.

All in all, it was a great meet across the board for Chris, Jay, and I. Chris went a perfect 9 for 9, with PR’s on each lift, and came in 1st in his weight class and 1st in his division. Jay went 8 for 9, only missing an attempt on the bench press, and came in 1st in his weight class and 1st in his division. Because of the underwear incident, I ended up going 6 for 9 (although, in my mind, I was 7 for 9) and placing 4th in my weight class and 2nd in my division. My final total was 1273, a 66 lb. increase from the 1207 that I posted last December. Of course, I was pretty happy about this, and it’s something I’m excited to keep building upon.

Big congrats goes out to Chris and Jay on an outstanding meet. Not only are they two of the strongest guys for their size that I know, but they are also two of the hardest workers in the weight room that I know. Also, big thanks to my dad, Angela, Bernie, Boule, Kelly, Kris, Mike, Rich, Kyle, and Kristen for attending the meet to cheer us on. Thank you as well to Tony, Chris, Greg and all the staff and clients at Cressey Performance, my family, my girlfriend and her family, my friends, and all the staff and clients at Dynamic for the support and encouragement. Everybody’s support was truly overwhelming and it meant so much to me. I can’t express my thanks enough!

I’ve been taking this past week off from training to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break. I’m excited to get back in the gym this weekend and begin preparing for my next meet, though! Right now, I’m not sure exactly when my next meet will be. If I apply for and am accepted onto Team USA for the ADFPF World meet this October, I will participate in that, but if not, I’ll plan on doing another meet by this December at the latest. Tony Gentilcore will continue to program for me, and the primary goal of my training will still be to increase my bench press. Also, I’m hoping to hit a 600 lb. deadlift and 500 lb. squat in the near future. Based on my numbers, a 600 lb. deadlift should come first, but hopefully a 500 lb. squat isn’t too far behind! Time to hit the iron hard again and get stronger!

By the way, be sure to CLICK HERE and check out Chris’s excellent meet recap.

Oh, and one more thing…if you watched the videos, you may have noticed that I was donning a well-styled Mohawk at the meet. This was my first-ever Mohawk, and I’ve been wondering whether I should get rid of it or let it rage…what do you think? I kind of like it, to be honest…

ADFPF Nationals Meet Preview

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Tomorrow morning, I will be competing in my second-ever powerlifting meet, the ADFPF Nationals in Rockland, MA. My buddy and coworker, Chris Martin, will be competing with me again, as well as our friend and Dynamic client, Jay, who is participating in his first powerlifting meet. All three of us have been training our asses off and working hard to get stronger in preparation for this day. I think I can speak for all of us in saying that we’re ready to get on the platform and lift some heavy weight. That being said, I wanted to briefly share a few thoughts and goals for the meet tomorrow morning.

  • I decided not to drop weight and will remain in the 242-275 lb. weight class. Tomorrow’s meet is a qualifier for a world meet being held, by chance, in Massachusetts this October. If you reach a certain total for your three lifts, you can apply to be on Team USA for the world meet this fall. I learned of this opportunity at my meet last winter and was immediately intrigued at the possibility of trying to qualify. My total in my first meet was just shy of the required total to qualify in the 220-242 lb. class, so I figured I might drop down a class and give it a shot. While I love training and have found a great, new hobby in powerlifting, I have several other important priorities outside of the gym, too. Considering that fact, even though I am much closer to the 242 lb. end of the scale, I elected not to stress about making weight, but rather focus my attention on training hard and getting stronger. If I go into the meet tomorrow and simply meet or exceed my goals, I will be very happy!
  • Speaking of goals, I’m going to be much more aggressive with my approach this time around. In December at my first meet, I was pretty conservative. I set goals of a minimum 400 lb. squat, 300 lb. bench press, and 500 lb. deadlift. While I came up just short on the bench press, I felt that I might have been able to push the weight a little more on the squat and deadlift. I walked away with a 402 lb. squat, 281 lb. bench press, and 524 lb. deadlift that day, which I thought was a good first showing, but I wasn’t satisfied and have been determined to improve upon those numbers. In talking with Tony Gentilcore, who has been programming for me in preparation for the meet, my attempts are going to look like this:
  • 1st attempt: For my opener, I’m going to do a relatively “easy” weight that I know I can get. On the squat, I plan to open with around 380 lbs. For the bench press, about 285 lbs., and deadlift, 500 lbs. Part of my training sessions in the last two weeks were to hit each of my openers. On Monday, May 21, I squatted 375 lbs. and deadlifted 475 lbs., each for a solid single. They both felt good, but in talks with Tony, I feel that I can be a bit more aggressive on the deadlift and open with 500 lbs. Last Saturday, following the excellent “begin, press, rack” commands of Greg Robins, I did a single on the bench at 285 lbs. with the “competition pause.” That pause can be a killer, but the lift went up well.
  • 2nd attempt: For my second attempt, I’m going to go for a PR on each lift. Seeing how I feel on my opening lift will help me gage exactly what weight I go for on this attempt, but right now, I’m thinking of around 420 lbs. for the squat, 303 lbs. for the bench press (which I missed on my third attempt at my last meet), and about 535 lbs. on the deadlift. I’ll be especially pumped if I nail 303 lbs. on the bench. The primary goal of my training for this meet was to reach a 300 lb. bench press, and back in March, I finally put it up in the gym. I’m hoping 303 goes as well as that 300 went in March!
  • 3rd attempt: For my third attempt, assuming I hit all my previous lifts, I’m simply going to go for broke and try to get an all-out PR. Like I said, the numbers for my 3rd attempt will be largely dependent on my 2nd attempt and also on how I’m feeling tomorrow, but a mid-400’s squat, 310 or so bench press, and mid 500’s or so deadlift would be very nice.

I’ve been feeling good this week and have just been doing foam rolling and mobility/activation work since Tuesday. I got a thorough ART treatment on Tuesday afternoon and have been trying to get plenty of rest at night, along with good nutrition and hydration. I’m really excited for this meet, as I’ve been training for it since Christmastime; I’ve put in lots of dedicated work and gotten excellent programming from Tony, so I’m ready to get out there and set some new PR’s. I’m confident that Chris, Jay, and I will do well and have a blast.

Check back next week for some videos from the meet, as well as my meet recap. In the meantime, have a great weekend everyone!

How American Idol Sends the Wrong Message About Fitness

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What’s up with all these singing shows that are on TV these days? I don’t watch a lot of television, but it seems like every time I’ve turned on the TV in the past few months, one of these shows has been on (at the very least, I’ll see a commercial for one of them): American Idol, The Voice, X-Factor, The Sing-Off, and probably others that I don’t even know about. Now, as I’ve confessed on the blog before, I did fall prey to a few episodes of the first season of The Voice last summer. I admit that. In retrospect, I’m not very proud of it, but I will say that I did NOT watch a single episode of Season Two.

With all these singing competitions on the tube now, a slew of questions inevitably entered my mind. Why are so many Americans interested in singing, of all things, and why do we continually have to find America’s next singing sensation? Why can’t we search for America’s latest Chess sensation?

I’ve noticed that the “stars” these shows aim to find always seem to be pop singers, too. Why pop singers? Why couldn’t we look for the best new metal band? Why can’t we find the next Pantera? HA! Trick question; there will NEVER be another Pantera!

Alright, I think I’ve posed enough questions for now. And I do understand that Chess and heavy metal probably don’t appeal to the majority of people.

As I was contemplating all of these questions, I finally realized something. Before I reveal my thoughts, however, let me bring your attention to American Idol for just a second. American Idol, a show meant to find America’s next singing superstar, is currently in its eleventh season on TV. Let me repeat: eleventh season. That’s a lot of seasons, and there aren’t any signs it’s slowing down. From this I can draw one major conclusion: that we, as Americans, are obsessed with finding the latest and greatest thing. This is certainly true when it comes to pop singers, and unfortunately, it’s also true when it comes to fitness.

Too often, I see people seeking out the latest and greatest fitness craze. You know, the type of training that everyone and their cousin are doing right now or the system or piece of equipment that’s being advertised all over TV. The truth is, these things don’t last very long, and rarely pass the test of time. And with the entire buzz that surrounds the “hot” modes of training, sometimes we tend to lose sight of the basics, or “classics,” as I like to call them. One of those “classics” that immediately comes to mind is the lowly barbell.

These days, the barbell is getting a bad rap in certain fitness circles and is being used inappropriately in others. The barbell has been around for a long time and is a tried-and-true piece of equipment. It’s a very simple tool that, when used properly, can help you achieve many of your fitness goals. Want to get stronger and gain muscle? Enter the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Want to lose fat? Enter complexes and the famed 8 x 20:10 (8 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest; widely referred to as “Tabatas” but not quite the same as the strict definition). All you need is a barbell and some weights and you can put together a fantastic training session.

Perhaps one of the best qualities of the barbell is that it’s a simple tool, and simplicity is a notion that I can’t emphasize enough. I know I’ve talked about it before and I’m sure I’ll talk about it again in the future. More times than not, the way to attain your fitness goals is very simple. Dan John talks about many of his strength training programs being “so simple, you won’t even do it.” The same is true here; many of the principles, methods, and exercises that are a key to fitness success are so simple, most people won’t even utilize them.

Don’t follow the fitness fads that may be getting attention in the popular media and don’t stray too far from the path of simplicity. Don’t let simplicity fool you; in fitness and in other areas of life, it is often the most simple, direct approach that works best. Unless you’re a contraindicated lifter, always revert back to the barbell in your strength and conditioning program and the simplicity it exudes. Coincidentally, as my buddy Greg Robins stated in his post yesterday, “Simple isn’t always flashy, but simple works.” So grab a barbell, throw some weight on, and get after it. And don’t watch American Idol.

Awful.

Master the Fundamentals

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A couple months ago, I happened to drop-in on a local college basketball game. I wasn’t planning on going, and I didn’t even know about the game, but I’ve always missed my days of playing competitive basketball so I decided to stop and watch. It turned out that I was about 30 minutes early and neither team had taken the court to go through their pregame warm-up routine. However, as I was arriving, the home team was running out onto the court to shoot around and get some shots up. Since the away team was still in the locker room, the players on the home team made use of all four hoops that were available (the two main hoops and two side hoops). As I watched this, I noticed something very interesting. Only ONE player of at least ten that I saw on the court went over to a hoop and took shots inside of the foul line.

Huh?!

Almost every player ran out and began shooting three-pointers with maybe a few players taking shots a few steps inside of the three-point line. This was surprising to me not only because these were college-level players, but because this was such a blatant disregard for the fundamentals.

Back in high school, I became extremely committed to the game of basketball. I had always played many sports growing up, but during my freshman year, I decided that I wanted to focus all of my efforts on basketball. I loved the game and I wanted to play in college, so I became obsessive with my workouts. For most of high school, I wouldn’t feel right if I wasn’t working on my game every single day. In the off-season, I went through meticulous individual workouts to improve my skills. During the season, I would put myself through abbreviated versions of these workouts before or after practice, before games, or on off-days. I really enjoyed all the work that went into improving my game and I took a lot of pride in doing it. I like to joke that I almost preferred the off-season to the actual season because of this fact. The thing about my individual workouts, though, was that they were rooted in the fundamentals.

When I walked out onto the court with my basketball, I would always begin my workouts with form shooting. I’d start no more than one step out from the basket and shoot with only one hand, concentrating intently on proper mechanics. I would gradually work my way out farther from the basket, but I’d have to make AT LEAST twenty-five shots within the paint (inside of the foul-line) before I moved on in my workout. Sometimes I would force myself to make fifty shots and sometimes even more if I was struggling with my shot.

JJ Redick was my idol

After that, I would go through a rigorous routine of dexterity and ball-handling drills. During the first part of these drills, the ball wouldn’t even hit the floor, as there was no dribbling involved. Then I would progress to dribbling with one ball and then with two balls. As you can see, all of these drills would always progress from simple and relatively easy to difficult and more complex.

The same thing goes when it comes to strength training. You should ALWAYS begin your workout by performing an adequate number of warm-up sets of the first exercise, or main lift, in your training session for that particular day. The purpose of this is to “groove” proper technique and to prepare your body for the heavier weights that it will be lifting so that the risk of injury is decreased. It is important, however, to choose the appropriate number of sets, reps, and weight for your warm-up sets, as they are not intended to tire you out before you begin your actual working sets. It is good to come into your workout having an idea of roughly what weight you’ll be using for the first working set of your first exercise. This not only allows you to select your warm-up weights accordingly, but also gives you the opportunity to use these warm-up weights as indicators of how you’re feeling that given day. If the iron is flying up or if gravity seems to hate you that day, you can adjust the weight for your working sets accordingly.

Typically, a strength training workout will begin with a big, compound movement like the squat, deadlift, or bench press. Let’s say you’re squatting today and you plan on starting your working sets at 225 lbs. When it comes to the squat and the bench press, I always begin with AT LEAST two sets with just the bar. Obviously, this can’t be done with the deadlift, because the height of the bar would be way off. I know for a fact that some people, like strength coach Mark Rippetoe, begin their squat workouts with four sets with the empty bar. So, with your first working set planned at 225 lbs., your warm-up sets might look something like this:

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

185 x 3

205 x 1

I don’t like to go above five reps with my warm-up sets because I feel that this number really allows me to hone-in on my technique while keeping it tight. Furthermore, it keeps fatigue to a minimum, as I don’t want my muscles to get too tired before my working sets.

This better not be your first ”warm-up” set

Practicing and mastering the fundamentals is what allowed me to play college basketball in arguably the best Division 2 basketball conference in the country. I wasn’t the most gifted or most athletic player around, but I never lost sight of the fundamentals and they were always a part of my workouts. I took a great deal of pride in being more fundamentally sound than any other player I knew, and while I was playing, I would’ve put my fundamental skills up against any other college player in the country, regardless of level. The bottom line is that the fundamentals will get you places. If you’re not fundamentally sound in what you do, it’s only a matter of time before it catches up with you. To get stronger in the gym, the fundamentals are a must; you need to practice and perfect your technique through a proper warm-up. Not performing warm-up sets in the weight room is like running out on the court and shooting three’s: you’re doing yourself more harm than good. Constantly practice and strive to master the requisite fundamentals of what you’re doing, whether it’s playing basketball, lifting weights, or accounting (yuck), and you will almost certainly find success.

Powerlifting Meet Recap

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On Sunday, December 11, my brother in iron, Chris Martin, and I competed in our first ever powerlifting meet. The meet we entered was the Big Iron Christmas Challenge at the Holiday Inn in Rockland, Massachusetts. Chris and I met at Dynamic at 7:15am that morning, threw some Down in the CD player, and promptly headed out at 7:20am. We had an easy ride to Rockland with no traffic and pulled into the Holiday Inn parking lot right at 8:20am. Lifting started sharply at 9:30am, so we had to get weighed in, get our equipment checked, give our rack heights for the squat (the first lift of the day), and get warmed up.

Coming into my first meet, I wasn’t very concerned with what weight class I’d be competing in. I simply wanted to get my feet wet in the sport of powerlifting, have some fun, and throw around some heavy steel while weighing whatever I happened to weigh that day. I signed up for the 242 lb. weight class, but ended up weighing a few pounds heavier (damn you, Holidays!).

My strategy for the meet was very simple. I wanted to get a 400 lb. squat, a 300 lb. bench, and a 500+ lb. deadlift. My max squat and deadlift had been very close to 400 lb. and 300 lb., respectively, in the gym, and I had already deadlifted 500 lb., so I thought these numbers were pretty doable. The only one that I was a little worried about was my bench, as that has been my weakest of the three lifts. Anyways, you get three attempts in each discipline to lift the most amount of weight possible. So, I wanted to open with a weight that I knew I could get. You should never miss your first attempt at a powerlifting meet, so I made sure to choose weights that I knew would fly up. For my second attempt, I wanted to match my current PR in the gym. If that felt good, I would increase the weight for my third attempt and go for a new PR. Here’s how it turned out!

Squat

The first lift of the day was the squat. After foam rolling and going through a light mobility circuit, my warmups were as follows:

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

95 x 5

135 x 3

185 x 2

225 x 1

275 x 1

315 x 1 (belt)

315 x 1 (belt)

My warmup sets felt pretty good. They actually felt pretty good all day for each lift, which I was definitely excited about, since I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I wanted to open with 350 lb. on the squat, but since the weights were measured in kilograms, I chose to go with the next closest, which was 353 lb. This felt awesome, so I went up to 380 lb. for my second attempt. Again, this felt pretty good, so I decided to go for a PR and attempt 402 lb. Here is the video:

I thought that this might have been my best lift of the day. On my first two attempts, I was going well below parallel just to be sure the judges would count my lift. I knew that I didn’t necessarily have to get that low, as the crease of the hip needs to get just below the top of the knee for the lift to count. There’s a saying about squatting in competition that goes, “Squat as high as you can,” meaning squat as high as you can get away with so that you can lift as much as possible. On my third and final attempt, I cut my squat a little higher, stayed nice and tight, and came out of the hole strong for a good lift. It felt great and I think I could’ve pushed my squat numbers a little higher, but I was very happy to have achieved my goal of a 400 lb. squat for the competition.

Bench

Now onto the bench press. Here were my warmups:

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

135 x 3

185 x 2

225 x 1

225 x 1 (wraps)

As I already mentioned, the bench press is my weakest of the three lifts. Walking away with a 300 lb. bench was going to be tough, but based on my training and my warmups, I thought I had a good shot at it. I opened with 254 lb. and it felt awesome; my form was solid and I had some good bar speed. However, I almost missed the lift on a technicality! During the bench press, there are three commands: start, press, and rack. This being my first powerlifting competition, I wasn’t used to waiting for a command to rack the bar. Luckily, the judge said “rack” at just about the same time I started to rack the bar, and the lift counted. I was a bit conservative on my next attempt, however. I’d gotten 285 lb. in the gym, but I chose to go with 281 lb. to see how that felt. It ended up feeling good, not great, and gave me some confidence that I had a shot at 300 lb. Due to the kilogram conversion, my choice was between 296 lb. and 303 lb. Wanting that 300 lb. bench, I took a risk and chose 303 lb. Go big or go home, right? Well, that didn’t turn out so well! I lowered the bar to the highest point on my chest just fine, and then…MAGNETS! I got the bar a couple inches off my chest and that was as far as it would go. I’m glad I gave it a shot, but I had to regroup and get focused on the next lift in the competition, the deadlift. Below are videos of my 281 lb. bench and my failed attempt at 303 lb.

Deadlift

As I’ve said many times before, I love deadlifting. There isn’t much else like lifting hundreds of pounds off the floor. I was pretty excited to deadlift, as this is my strongest of the three lifts, and I was pretty confident that I could set a new PR. Here were my warmups:

135 x 5

225 x 3

275 x 2

315 x 1

365 x 1

405 x 1 (belt)

I opened with a fairly conservative 474 lb. This went up fast, so I chose to go with 502 lb. for my second attempt. 502 lb. also felt really good, so for my final attempt, I went with a PR weight of 524 lb. This ended up feeling good, too. I had to grind it out a little bit at the lockout, but all in all, it was a pretty good lift. Chris thought I should’ve went with 530 lb. for this attempt, but I was very happy walking away with a 524 lb. deadlift. Check out the video:

Summary

I had an absolute blast at my first powerlifting meet. The atmosphere was awesome, as everybody wanted the best for everyone else. The other lifters, the staff, and the entire crowd cheered everyone on. That, I thought, was pretty damn cool, and something you just don’t see very often.

I was very happy with going 8 for 9 on the day. The only lift I missed was my final bench attempt at 303 lb. While I was disappointed that I didn’t achieve my goal of a 300 lb. bench, I did set two new PRs on the squat and the deadlift, so overall it was a good day. The great thing about a powerlifting meet is that it tells you where you are as a lifter. Right now, I am a competition 402 lb. squatter, 281 lb. bencher, and 524 lb. deadlifter. By competing, I was able to see where my weaknesses are and what I need to do to get better. For example, I learned that I need better bottom-range bench press strength, as I failed off the chest on my last attempt. Also, I need better lockout strength in the deadlift, as that is where I ran into the most trouble on my final attempt.

I think it’s fair to say that I’ve caught the “powerlifting bug.” I can’t wait to get stronger and compete again. I’m planning on entering my next meet in June 2012, in which I’ll have the opportunity to qualify for a world meet to be held in October 2012. I’m extremely excited about this opportunity and am going to give it my best shot to qualify. Since I hate programming for myself and since I would like an objective view of my weaknesses, I’ve enlisted the help of Tony Gentilcore in preparation for my next meet. Tony is someone with a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience, and he is someone that I look up to in our industry. Tony will be programming for me up until my meet in June 2012 and I’m excited to see what we can do together.

Before I end, I have to give a HUGE thank you to my buddy and co-worker, Chris Martin. If it weren’t for Chris, I probably never would’ve entered this meet. I’d been thinking of entering a powerlifting meet for awhile, but kept putting it off time after time. Chris got on my case and made me commit to the meet, and as you know, I had a great time. Thanks, Chris, I really appreciate it my man (by the way, check out Chris’s website for his recap of the meet by clicking HERE). Also, I want to thank Kelly, Eric, Kris, Angela, and my dad for making the trip to Rockland to support Chris and I. Big thanks to Eric for videoing all of our lifts and making the video that you’ll see below. Big thank you’s also go out to the staff and everyone at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, my family, friends, and girlfriend for all their love and support. I couldn’t have done it without you all!

Happy New Year everybody!