The most wonderful time of the year—when everything is on sale and your inbox is flooded with promos and each time you click “purchase”, you can feel your bank account groan. 

But man, there is some cool stuff out there. And who doesn’t love giving a unique gift to someone important in their life? 

It’s time to #treatyoself (or actually shop for others)

Honestly, most gift guides kind of suck. They include silly stuff that doesn’t make sense, gifts that are too expensive or utterly useless. For the kind of Type-A personalities that train in Crossfit, powerlifting, bodybuilding, and Olympic weightlifting, you want to make your gift count.

Gifting Tip: When it comes to finding the right gift (especially for the bros), it’s a good idea to replace something old/used that your giftee already has, or give them something to enhance an activity they already do every day, like training. 

We hunted down some of the top-gifted gear, apparel, equipment, and accessories for the athlete who has it all. We also tried to keep things realistic here. You won’t find any $5k investments (you already know if you’re looking to commit to a big gift anyway) or random dumb stuff. Enjoy!

We’re all wishing for a visit from Lift-o Claus this Holiday season. But even the big guy might need some help with gift ideas. 

Jump to Any Section:

Fitness Gift Guide for the home gym warrior

Fitness Gift Guide for the mobility-challenged

Fitness Gift Guide for the strong ladies in your life

Gift Guide for the crossfitter in your life

Nutrition and Supplements

Bonus badass gymwear

If you struggle with explosive power, be it in sprinting, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics movements, or any sport that requires quick footwork, here’s a question for you—do you actually train that explosiveness? Are you missing out on superior speed by doing the same drills over and over again?

Killer Strength Training Combinations for Explosive Power

The idea of pairing two or more exercises together with minimal rest, known as supersetting, has been around since the dawn of bodybuilding and strength sports. Working multiple exercises at the same time is nothing new, going back to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s days in Muscle and Fitness and Flex magazines.

But supersetting can be useful for more than just bodybuilding. Sports performance athletes can see some potentially massive strength and power gains as well. I like to call it “combo-ing”—combining two exercises together back-to-back. In the CrossFit world, it’s often called a couplet.

Whatever you call it, alternating between opposing OR similar movements can both maximize your training time and supercharge your workouts for a given goal (like hypertrophy or explosive movement).

When we combine movements at Alpha Human Performance training facility, we perform a set of one exercise, then perform a set of a totally different exercise with little rest time between. After both sets are complete, then you can pause for recovery.

This combo-ing goes back and forth for however many sets prescribed until you complete all sets for both exercises.

Combining movement patterns

When combining exercises, you can go one of two directions: 

1. Aim to train the same movement pattern in two different ways or 
2. Work on two opposing movement patterns

These are the basic movement patterns and some examples of the exercises associated with them.

• Explosive: hang clean, DB snatch (Olympic lifts)
• Knee Hinge: squat, lunge, box step-ups
• Horizontal Push: bench press, push ups
• Vertical Push: push press, DB military press, dips
• Horizontal Pull: bent over row, inverted rack row
• Vertical Pull: DB high pull, bodyweight pull ups
• Hip-Hamstrings: single-leg RDL, glute-ham raises

Sample movement combos for training explosive power

Get ready for a classic bodybuilder pump when training the same movement pattern with two different exercises. The goal here is to really gas the muscle group you’re working on. This is one of my favorite combos for horizontal push movements:

Set 1. Bench press

Set 2. Push ups

After the last rep of bench press, go immediately to the floor and perform a set of push ups. After the push ups, recover for 45-90 seconds, adding weight to your bench press bar. Repeat the combo with one less rep on the bench, but the same amount of push ups.

If you’re aiming for a more full-body approach, perform two exercises back-to-back that involve two totally different movement patterns. A great example of this is combining a knee hinge exercise like a front squat with a horizontal pull exercise.

Set 1. Front squat

Set 2. Bent-over row

After your front squat set, rack the bar, pick up a DB and immediately perform a set of DB bent-over rows. The best part about this particular combo is that once you rack the bar from the front squat, you can let your legs recover as you work a totally different movement pattern (horizontal pull). By the time you finish both arms on the row, your legs are ready for the next set of front squats.

Add These Couplets to Your Fitness Arsenal for Explosive Strength Training

Let’s say our goal is to build explosive power using the combo technique. Now our training arsenal is not just limited to certain exercises, but we can use a ton of different combination drills (sprinting, shuffling, etc) as well.

In combining our exercises with drills for explosiveness, I like to consider a couple factors:

1. Are the two exercises/drills within your learning curve? Can you perform both correctly?
2. Are the two things being combined exercises that are effective by themselves? 

Coach’s Tip: Ineffective exercises combined together don’t EVER work.

Here are some combos that we pair up to work on explosive strength. We pair both strength training movements and sprinting in some examples to give you an idea of how to create these couplets. 

In some examples, the second exercise/drill in the combo is done immediately, in others there is a momentary pause before you move onto the second piece.

Squats and box jumps

1. Perform a set of back squats. 
2. After racking your weight, immediately perform a set of 5-10 box jumps.

Box jumps and sprints

1. Perform a set of linear box jumps on and off a single box.
2. After landing your last jump, immediately explode into a 10-yard sprint. Alternate sets sprinting to the right and left of the box.

Hex bar jump shrugs and box jumps

1. Perform a set of hex bar jump shrugs (use dumbbells if you don’t have a hex bar) for good height, pausing 2 seconds between each jump.
2. After your last shrug, step out of the hex bar and perform a set of box jumps on and off a plyo box.

Hang cleans and lateral jumps

1. Perform a set of hang cleans—power or full clean with good form.
2. After your last clean rep, put the bar down and step forward to a 12” hurdle and perform a set of lateral jumps over the hurdle. You can also use your barbell on the floor as your hurdle.

Lateral jumps and sprints

1. Perform a set of lateral jumps over a 12” hurdle.
2. Upon landing your final jump, explode into a 10-yard sprint.

You can get creative combining exercises and drills like this into some seriously heart-pounding explosive work. Thank me later when your legs are sore and it hurts to walk upstairs.

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Listen, we get it—barbell training is fun. It’s more fun than like, anything else. But what kind of other training could you be doing to support your barbell work? Could adding more bodyweight movements get you that much closer to a new back squat PR?

Heather and Katie own Barpath Fitness LLC, an LGBTQ+ friendly online/remote coaching business dedicated to helping people get strong as hell and living pain free. Katie is a bodyweight master with years of practice in calisthenics, gymnastics, olympic lifting, and powerlifting. Heather is a 15-year fitness veteran and competitive powerlifter who has provided continuing education workshops for hundreds of trainers. 

In this blog, Heather and Katie outline their top bodyweight exercises for making serious gains in your lifting program: the horse stance squat, single leg good mornings, decline push ups, and arching scapula pull ups.

Simple Calisthenics Movements for More Well-Rounded Strength

If you’re skipping bodyweight exercises in your programming, you’re missing out. Competitive athletes and recreational lifters can all benefit from bodyweight training. Being able to manipulate your limbs in space takes a ton of core strength, balance, and motor control. And we could all use more of those pieces to the fitness puzzle. 

Not all bodyweight movements are optimal for every goal, but specific bodyweight skills can have massive carryover to your overall strength. Even if you’re not trying to become an elite gymnast, it doesn’t hurt to add some of their tricks to your arsenal. 

Bodyweight skills aren’t just for beginners! In fact, some of them are still challenging for advanced athletes. (L-sits, anyone?) These movements have a ton of value and, if trained properly, can boost your main compound lifts. 

The most important thing to remember when training with your own bodyweight is the intent behind the movement. Training with intent is key to getting the most out of these movements.

Use These Bodyweight Exercises for Maximum Strength Gains

Horse stance squat

The horse stance squat is a hidden gem for hip joint health.

Have tight hips? This should be a go-to movement for you. The horse stance squat strengthens the hips while stretching the hip flexors, adductors, and general groin area. 

Start with your feet together. Walk them out to the sides 5-8 steps so you have a wide stance with toes pointing forward. As you squat down, make sure your torso stays as upright as possible. This is important to really work your groin mobility. If you can’t get your hips down to parallel at first, don’t sweat it! You’ll be able to increase your depth as your strength improves.

Having strong hips leads to stronger and more stable squats, deadlifts, and accessory lower body movements. Stronger hips also means less back pain and a better quality of life.

Single leg good morning

Think your hamstrings are tight? They might be, but they’re also probably weak, which causes the “tightness” you feel. 

The single leg good morning involves stretching and strengthening the hamstrings under load one at a time.

Start by pouring your weight into one leg, while using the other foot as a kickstand. Keep your spine neutral as you lower down into each rep. We like to cue our athletes to arch their low back right before starting the rep, so they feel a big hamstring stretch. 

As you grow stronger with this movement, you can hold a weight on your upper back, but we recommend starting with just your bodyweight for at least 3-4 phases of your training program. It’s more intense than it seems! Especially when your intent is to maintain that pelvic position and only hinge as deeply as you can without losing stability.

If you want a stronger deadlift, you should definitely work on these.

Decline pushups

This movement is highly underrated! It’s a great exercise to make your push ups harder if you are low on equipment. The decline push up has high carryover to your main lifts like bench press and overhead pressing movements. 

Setup with your feet elevated on a bench, box, or your couch. Lower down to the floor, keeping your arms in an “A” shape with your body, then press back up. As you lower to the bottom of the rep, you’re taking your shoulders through a greater range of motion, putting more stress on the pecs and working shoulder extension. So, this is a great strength AND mobility movement. 

If you’re not quite at the level of performing full decline push ups, build up your regular pushup capacity so you can work your way up. Start adding in eccentric decline pushups (see the video) as you build to full decline pushups.

Arching scapula pullups

Who doesn’t love a strong looking back? This exercise will get your upper back jacked while securing your positioning for a ton of different movements.

Strong scapula go a long way. Want a better bench press? Make your upper back strong. Want a more stable front squat? Make your upper back strong. Want better posture? Make your upper back strong.

Grab the pullup bar (thumbs wrapped around the bar) and make sure your arms are locked out and your feet are hanging off the floor (bend your knees a little if needed). Pinch your shoulder blades back and down as you arch your upper back/thoracic spine, keeping your arms straight the entire time. 

Make sure you master regular scapula pull ups before moving on to the arching variation. Follow the same steps above, just take out the arch part.

Can bodyweight exercises really make you stronger?

Yes! While progressive overload is key to gaining strength, it can be done in so many ways. 

Progressing bodyweight exercises usually means adding tempo, increasing reps and sets, using pauses, or increasing the range of motion. Think of how insanely strong those calisthenics buffs are—they can often pause and hold crazy movements like the planche and make it look easy.

Your bodyweight training will progress over time as your balance, stability, and mobility improve. These improvements lead to strength gains with the barbell and better control overall. Don’t skip out on using bodyweight exercises as excellent tools for supplementing your weight training program.

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Bench Press: To Arch or Not To Arch?

TOPIC:

Everyone online seems to have a strong opinion about arching your back in the bench press. The reasons and schools of thought vary around the hows/whys, so what’s a novice athlete to do?

Anthony Cuevas, an NCSF Certified PT based out of New York started lifting at 14 years old, so he knows a thing or two about our favorite staple, the bench press. In this piece he talks about bench press mechanics and the differences between holding your back neutral and arching it, along with tips on how to program bench for yourself. Spoiler alert: like most things, it depends on your goals!

Arching vs flat-back bench: what’s the difference?

To arch or not to arch? That is the question. It’s a common argument among fitness influencers and strength enthusiasts concerning the bench press. And the answer often depends on personal preference—some choose to lay flat when benching, and some (like myself) choose to arch their backs for leverage.

The bench press is an important and effective exercise regardless of which variation you take, because it works most of your upper body muscles. Emphasis on effectiveness, because that’s what exercises are meant to be at the end of the day, effective.

Different versions of the bench press put emphasis on different parts of your upper trunk. Incline bench works your upper chest, while close grip bench uses more triceps and forearms. But the mechanics behind the standard bench press are worth exploring, especially when it comes to the age-old argument of whether or not to arch your back.

Which version is right for you?

It isn’t as one-sided as IG fitness influencers want you to believe. There are actual benefits to both methods of benching.

If your goals are aesthetic, the strict method of benching helps develop your chest more since you’re using a full range of motion (ROM) by stretching the chest muscles at the bottom of the movement and squeezing at the top.

Arching your back in the bench press is commonly used in the powerlifting and weightlifting communities because their goals are more strength-focused. This method of benching helps boost your numbers due to the shorter ROM and leverage of the bar.

I choose to lean more towards the arch due to shoulder injury issues. The shorter range of motion makes the press easier and pain-free. The arch also helps me to be more aware of planting my feet, creating leg drive and spreading my lats on the bench. This added tension uses my whole body to move the bar.

Depending on your personal training goals, experience, and shoulder health, it’s worthwhile to explore both methods.

How to bench with and without arching

The classic way to bench press for bodybuilders:

Lie flat on the bench and grip the barbell just outside shoulder-width. Keep your shoulders back and chest up with your spine neutral.

Keep your lower back and butt down on the bench with your feet planted to create leg drive. Breathe in as you lower the barbell to your chest and breathe out as you press the bar up.

Using the arch for strength:

Create an arch setup by pressing your shoulders and butt down into the bench and allowing your mid-back to bend, engaging your lats.

Keep your feet planted to create leg drive. Take a breath to brace your core before unracking the bar. The pressing motion is the same: inhale before you lower the bar to tap your chest and exhale as you press the bar up.

Coach’s Tip: Maintaining your lumbar spine’s natural curve is different from arching deeply into your back! With practice, you should be able to feel the difference between the two techniques.

How to Program the Bench Press

I highly recommend programming some form of bench press to develop a strong chest. Here’s an example on how I program my bench press days.

1a. Bench Press

Warmup Sets

Empty bar (45lbs) 2×15

135lbs 1×8

165lbs 2×9

175lbs 2×5

Working Sets

195lbs 3×5

205lbs 4×3

225lbs 3×2

Rest Time

Warmup Sets: 1:00 to 1:30

Working Sets: 1:30 to 4:00

This might seem like a lot of volume for one day, but in order to adapt and make strength gains, I focus on volume one day and technique drills on another day.

The rest period is vital to your success. Don’t skip it! Instead of sitting on the bench looking at social media, I suggest you focus on injury prevention by stretching your upper body muscles during your rest periods. This will help you stay in peak performance while pressing weight.

Bench press variations

If you want to truly build those bench numbers in the weight room, you’ll need to add different variations of the bench press using a variety of equipment. Unilateral work (using one arm at a time) helps you focus on creating proper form and addressing imbalances in your barbell bench press.

Here are some common horizontal pressing variations to add to your bench program. Try one of each variation along with your barbell benching to help boost your numbers and grow your chest.

Dumbbells

Flat Bench DB Press

Incline Bench DB Press

Single Arm DB Chest Press

Floor Press

Cables

Cable Chest Press

Seated Cable Chest Press

Single Arm Cable Chest Press

Kettlebells

KB Chest Press

KB Push Ups

KB Floor Press

The final verdict

Whether or not you choose to arch depends on your own personal goals at the end of the day.

If you’re looking to build an aesthetically pleasing chest—try to bench without arching.

If you’re looking to build compound strength and boost your bench numbers—use the arch.

Whether or not you use the arching method doesn’t need to be some huge argument to determine the right or wrong way to bench press. 

It’s mostly a personal choice depending on the goals you’ve set for yourself.

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Rowers are a super common piece of exercise equipment these days. You can find them everywhere from CrossFit gyms to your corner rec center. Whether you’re a rowing machine fan or foe, knowing how to use one properly just adds to your fitness arsenal. Are you getting the most power out of your stroke?

James Needham is a certified personal trainer since 1995 with a bunch of letters after his name to lend credibility to his years in fitness (USAWL1, CFL3, CSCS, NSCA, ACE, AFAA). He’s the head coach for a private strength club in the eastern Connecticut wilderness. In this piece, he provides the ultimate guide to rowing technique, breaking down the catch, the stroke, and the return. Plus, he outlines his best tips for rowing strategy to balance your stroke rate and speed. He even gives you a quick overview of how to calibrate your machine for the most accurate measurement of your fitness. Don’t miss out on learning a thing or two here about rowing efficiency.

The ultimate guide to maximizing your rowing power output

Never underestimate the power of a good rowing machine. 

After clocking thousands of rowing meters myself and coaching so many athletes over the years on the benefits of using a rower, the gains that come along with a rowing machine are crystal clear.  

Whether you’re a rowing machine fan or foe, you likely have some relationship with it.

My goals here are to help you optimize your time on a rower and to give you insight on how to incorporate the rower into your training.

The Concept 2 Rower is the most widely-used indoor rower in gyms and boat houses around the world due to its simple design and user-friendly stats. Your technique—good or bad—will be revealed on the monitor in the same way your technique (good or bad) becomes evident on the water.

What makes the rowing machine so special?

A few things give the rower its maximum bang for your buck that can lead to some serious love-hate feelings among athletes.

• It delivers intense, low-impact cardio training.
• It’s easy to use (getting in and out of it).
• You use both your lower and upper body to elevate your heart rate.  

A common misconception is that using the rower involves a lot of pulling with your arms. The movement is actually more akin to a deadlift, where the back is isometrically contracted while the legs do most of the work. 

I often tell my athletes, “Your arms and legs should never be bent at the same time. If they are, you’re doing it wrong.”

Breaking down your rowing technique

Understanding the Catch

The starting position is referred to as “the catch”. It’s where your blade would get dropped into the water if you were rowing on a lake. When the handle is closest to the fan and your legs are bent, your posture should be locked in. As soon as you start to slide the seat back, the handle should move back while your arms stay straight. It’ll look as if your hips, spine, and arms are welded together.

As you start to drive with your legs, you want that leg power to transfer to the handle. This part gets overlooked sometimes, but it’s important not to lose that power somewhere in your kinetic chain by letting your form sag.

As you start your stroke, watch the seat. If the handle starts to move and the seat doesn’t (or if the seat slides closer to your heels as you start to pull with your back) you’re pulling early and NOT using your legs. This is where a lot of rowers lose power. 

Now that you have your catch on the right track with an efficient and powerful leg drive, let’s get into the rest of your stroke. 

It is all about your stroke

Coaches often describe the stroke as “a straightening of the legs, followed by a slight lean back, then a bending of the arms to finish the movement.” 

The return or recovery position back to the starting point is described in reverse order: straightening of the arms, followed by a slight lean forward, then a bending of the knees to return to the catch.

This does describe what a basic good stroke looks like, but it doesn’t describe why. The reason you don’t bend your arms at the same time as your legs is due to power transferability. Sometimes, when an athlete hears “lean back and bend your arms,” they understand it as “pull!” 

But during the leg drive, the main responsibility of your arms and back is to stay tight and transfer as much power from your legs to the handle as possible.

I like to think of the “slight lean back, then a bending of the arms to finish the movement” as just that—a finishing of the movement, allowing your residual energy from the leg drive to continue and not just stop at your waist.

Coach’s Tip: Sometimes athletes put too much attention on having a LONG stroke. Yes, the longer your blade is in the water or the longer you’re pulling on the handle, the more power you get. But this kind of distance is actually determined by your height and leg length, not by how far you can lean back and “PULL” the handle to your throat. This is a totally unnecessary method for a rowing machine, since you can’t fake being taller.

. . . And Your Return

Your catch was perfect, your leg drive powerful, and everything was SUPER tight, so that’s it. You’re done. Not so fast (per Lee Corso).

The return to the start position can be thought of as the beginning of your next stroke and if you’re not careful, it’s a place you can waste a lot of energy.

Make sure the return path of your handle is as short as possible. What is the shortest distance between two points? I can tell you it isn’t going up and over your bent knees. 

Keep your knees straight while you unbend your arms, lean forward so that handle is now past your knees and then bend your knees. This might not seem like a big deal for one stroke but over the long haul it makes a HUGE difference. 

On the water an inefficient return to the starting position with the oar going up and over your knees is obvious as your blade hits the water and the entire shell (boat) tips to your direction. Then everyone else lets you know you’re an idiot. 

One more quick tip on the return: watch your knees. 

Usually an inefficient return involves the knees coming together. Your knees need to be in line with your feet before every stroke, so it takes power from your technique if you have to constantly readjust that alignment. 

Again, not a big deal with one stroke, but 1000? If you struggle with this, have your coach (or a buddy) put their fist between your knees so you have to work to not touch their fist. Eventually this should become an unconscious part of your stroke.

Rowing strategy

A lot of rowers feel they need to stick to one course of action during a race when the truth is the opposite. Adjusting your stroke rate and speed intelligently will net you the most power for the least amount of work. 

When a strong rower loses power but maintains the slow stroke rate they started with, they lag behind. Similarly, when a less powerful rower shoots out with a high stroke rate and tries to maintain it, they eventually lose steam and slow down, too. 

I suggest you start out with a balance: a good powerful stroke and a moderate to low stroke rate. When you start to lose power, focus on increasing your stroke rate with a faster return to the start position. 

It’s important NOT to focus solely on a faster knee bend, but rather a faster return with the perfect form discussed earlier: “a straightening of the arms, followed by a slight lean forward, and then a bending of the knees to return to the catch”. I like to cue athletes with “fast hands” so they waste less time holding the handle near their torso. 

Coach’s Tip: A quick return comes down to a conscious activation of your hamstrings and hip flexors to assist in getting that seat back to the catch position. Usually this is an automatic rowing movement, but when your drive power decreases and you need to shift focus to your stroke rate and return, your hamstrings are still fresh enough to help out.

Stroke Rate & Speed

Even though a powerful stroke is probably the single most important factor in determining your speed, stroke rate is a close second. 

Your stroke rate measures how many strokes you pull in a minute. A not-so-powerful individual with a high stroke rate can be just as fast as a more powerful rower with a slower stroke rate.

Once you’re on the water, a few things (not counting teamwork) affect your speed:

1. How hard you move the blade (the oar) through the water 
2. Your stroke rate
3. The size of the blade or oar

Some of these things can also aid you on your indoor rowing machine. Plus, in this setting, you don’t have to worry about teamwork and balance.

Get to know your rowing machine

Few things are more motivating than having results. If you run a 5K in 28 minutes, then you run it 6 months later in 21 minutes, that’s progress—proof that you’re fitter than you were. If you’re like me and you like measuring progress, it’s important to measure apples to apples and not apples to oranges. 

The best way to do this is to make sure the equipment you’re using is the same and try to eliminate as many variables as possible. If you’re in a commercial gym setting with lots of indoor rowers, the data you get today might not be the same data you get tomorrow. All Concept 2 rowers are not the same and it usually comes down to maintenance and damper setting. 

The damper is the adjustable lever on the side of the fan that opens or closes to allow more or less air into the rower. Think of the damper as determining the drag factor and the size of your oar. If you were on the water with just a stick, you wouldn’t displace a lot of water, but you sure would be able to move it fast with almost zero resistance. 

But if you had an oar with a big flat 4×4 square piece of plywood attached to it, you’d be able to displace a TON of water and your boat would shoot through the water with every stroke. That is if you’re able to move it at all. The point is: your damper setting makes a difference. Use it wisely. 

Adjust & Calibrate

Without getting too deep in the weeds here, I recommend adjusting or calibrating your rower every time you get on it unless you know it’s the same machine. Even though the damper may be set to 5 every time, the rower could be dirty as hell and blocking a ton of air from getting in.

To adjust for this, open your damper by moving it down to a 3, 2 or 1, then:

1. Hit the “Menu” button to turn it on
2. Click “More Options”, then click “Display Drag Factor”
3. Do 5-10 strokes with good form but not all out effort. You’re looking for consistency. 

I don’t want to tell you what to look for or what number your damper should be on, just know that if you have your damper on 5 and your drag factor says 150 after 10 strokes, the next time you use a rowing machine you should set it up properly with this same drag factor.

The indoor rower measures your fitness

The rowing machine is a low-impact, easy-to-learn, impossible-to-cheat cardiovascular machine. Athletes should love the results it brings and coaches should love the versatility. I hope after reading this blog, you walked away with a couple of tidbits you can use with your training.

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Squats are a hot topic in the strength and conditioning world, and that fact isn’t going away any time soon. With so many resources out there on squatting, how does a novice know where to start? Cory Caruthers is a trainer and ACSM certified Exercise Physiologist who’s been an athlete himself for 15 years. As a dad, it’s hugely important for him to model a healthy lifestyle for his kids. And that means knowing how to squat well into old age. In this guide, he outlines proper squatting mechanics (including the function of each joint) and how to work up to barbell back squats using technique progressions and kettlebells.

Stronger Legs & Glutes Just Make Life Easier

Squatting is a fundamental movement pattern for human physiology. We do it on a daily basis every time we sit down or pick something up off the floor. The ability to squat well helps your performance in sports and increases your mobility and quality of life as you age. A full range of motion squat counteracts the chronic musculoskeletal problems we see so often in our society—weak glutes, hunched-back posture, a weak core and torso. 

Everyone should have the ability to squat, but for many people that means relearning how to squat properly. 

The barbell back squat is considered the king of all leg exercises, but beginners whose squat form needs work shouldn’t necessarily start with a barbell back squat. When done properly, the back squat improves your overall strength and power, but when you lack ankle, hip, or thoracic mobility, squatting with a bar can be more harmful than rewarding.

A good coach will encourage progressions that lead up to the barbell instead of just jumping right into the deep end with it. Get ready to build up your strength, stability, and mobility before squatting with a barbell.

Anatomy of the squat

First, let’s review basic squat mechanics. The squat is known as a leg exercise, but if you look at the joints and surrounding muscles, it’s essentially a full body exercise. 

Here’s a breakdown of which joints are involved and what they do during the squat.

• Foot: stability 
• Ankle: mobility
• Knee: stability
• Hip: mobility 
• Lumbar spine (low back): stability
• Thoracic spine (upper back): mobility 

Your joints alternate between stability and mobility. When you lack stability in a joint, the joints above and below it will have to compromise their mobility to be more stable. Similarly, when you lack mobility in a joint, the joints above and below will try to compensate.  

Think of the joints in your body as a chain. When one link in the chain can’t do its job, it makes the whole chain weak. 

Many people new to lifting weights have tight hips and stiff ankles—putting them under a barbell is usually not pretty. It pays to address their mobility issues and find a squat variation that works best for them, then progress from there. 

A good squat will look about the same in your body regardless of the variation. The difference will be what kind of weight you’re using and how you hold it. 

Basic squat points of performance

Position your feet just outside shoulder width, toes straight forward or slightly pointing out. Use some trial and error here. Play with your stance to find your best position that allows full range of motion. Brace your core, keeping your ribs stacked over your pelvis. Don’t let your low back arch.

With a neutral spine and tall chest, hinge back slightly at the hips. Bend your knees to descend into the bottom position of a squat. Keep your feet flat and knees pushing out. 

Go as low as you can while keeping a neutral spine. I like to use a box to help determine how low I can go or use a camera to record yourself. 

Drive your feet into the ground and squeeze your glutes to come up. As you stand up from the bottom position, stay braced in your core and keep your chest up. 

How to Progress From Unweighted Squats to Barbell Squats

Air Squat (bodyweight)

For newer athletes who haven’t really lifted weights before, I always start by assessing their bodyweight squat. A standard air squat readily shows your balance abilities and joint mobility issues.

Use a box to help determine your squat depth before your form breaks down. Place a box just a step behind you and try squatting down to it. Tap the box with your butt and come back up. This way you’ll learn to push your hips back when squatting and get a feel for your depth.

Use a pair of 5lb plates, a slant board or something else to elevate your heels if you have ankle mobility issues. Squatting with your heels elevated gives you access to a greater range of motion in the joints up the chain, which increases hip mobility and muscle recruitment.

Goblet Squat

The next progression of the squat is the goblet squat. This variation is great for building your squat pattern because it changes your center of balance, allowing you to sit back in your hips while keeping your chest upright. The weight acts as a counterbalance. 

With the weight being held at your chest, your core has to work harder, keeping your spine neutral. The goblet squat also doesn’t compress your spine like supporting a barbell does, which makes it a safer option for athletes with back injuries. 

The limiting factor of the goblet squat is the upper body. Your hands are holding the weight at chest level, so your upper body will determine how heavy you can go. Heel-raised goblet squats are an awesome option to account for ankle mobility issues and to focus on your quads.

Double KB Front Squat

This next progression helps you load your lower body more than a classic goblet squat, since you’re holding a kettlebell in each hand. You’re still avoiding spine compression, but working your legs, glutes, and core harder. You also get the counterbalance effect to improve your squat movement pattern.

Double KB front squats also work on shoulder stability—you need to hold and balance the kettlebells while squatting. Eventually you’ll experience some shoulder fatigue, so your upper body strength is somewhat a limiting factor.

This is a nice transition between goblet squats and front squats, especially since the front squat requires more mobility in your lats and wrists. 

Barbell Front Squat 

To do the barbell front squat, you’ll need to balance the bar in the “front rack position”—on the front/top of the shoulders, supported by your hands. You’ll need to drive your elbows up in order to secure the bar, so this movement can be demanding on your wrists and lats if you have mobility issues. 

Take time to warm up your wrists and shoulders so you can feel confident holding the bar in your front rack. Keep in mind you don’t need to grip the bar with your whole hand to balance it in the front rack. Most athletes just support the bar on their fingers. 

With this squat variation, you will be able to hit your quads a little more. Your upper back also works hard to prevent flexion. Front squatting builds strength in your squat pattern and a foundation for power cleans, while putting less demand on your spine/low back. 

Barbell Back Squat

Looking back at the other squat variations, you can see the progression of the weight from being held in front of you to supported on your back. Each progression leading up to the barbell back squat is reinforcing the movement pattern and building the required mobility and stability to handle the barbell on your back. 

A barbell on your back puts some stress on your spine, specifically your lower back. Which is why it’s important to build yourself an effective foundational squat pattern for core, leg, and glute strength.

Bonus Hard Mode: Overhead Squat

After you’ve made significant progress on your coordination and mobility, and you can handle a solid barbell on your back, try the barbell overhead squat. Supporting the bar overhead in a wide grip is just as challenging as it sounds!

Common Faults of the Squat Pattern

The squat can sometimes get a bad rap over causing knee pain and the idea that letting the knees drive over the toes can be harmful. I’m here to say that is a myth. I fully support the “knees over toes” philosophy.  

Letting your knees come over your toes as you descend into a squat actually builds more stability in the knee joint and allows you to get into a full range of motion with your hips. A better range of motion with your squat will engage more muscle fibers, meaning better opportunity for muscle growth. 

Again, the squat pattern is a fundamental movement pattern. We’ve been squatting since we could learn how to stand and walk as toddlers—if you actually watch a toddler squat, they have their knees over their toes. The issue is often when someone lacks foot stability and ankle mobility. 

With these issues come overpronation of the foot causing the knees to cave in (called knee valgus). This knee cave stresses your knee joints in an awkward direction. Another issue with lack of ankle mobility is the heels coming up in the squat. This is the body’s way of searching for mobility, again putting a lot of strain in the knee joint. 

Other common issues in the squat pattern:

• Overextension in lumbar spine (arching your low back, also called anterior pelvic tilt)
• Hip shifting to one side or the other
• Upper back collapsing forward (lack of thoracic mobility or strength)
• Excessive forward lean
• Hips rising faster than torso

Some of these issues are either mobility or stability problems in one or more joints. Motor control is also a factor, but that comes with time and practicing the squat pattern. Learn about your weakness, work on correcting these issues and you’ll be moving better and stronger than before. 

Be smart with your training

This goes for lifters of every level: learn how to progress your exercises in an intelligent way that’s optimal for your body. This doesn’t just apply to the squat but with all exercises. Instead of jumping right into the hardest version of a movement, it pays to use gradual progressions.  

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Your hamstrings can be easy to ignore since they’re just “back there”, but strong hamstrings are the foundation for a meaty and symmetrical posterior chain. Neglect them to your peril. Aja Campbell is a CSCS/CrossFit Coach with a decade of fitness experience. She’s the founder of ATTAGIRL, a coaching and lifestyle brand committed to empowering women+. She also oversees the S&C program at a high school in Queens with over 240 student-athletes. She knows a thing or two about hamstring strength. In this piece she outlines your anatomy and her top three go-to hamstring exercises: Romanian deadlifts, glute-ham raises, and hamstring box curls. That last one is a real burner.  

Set Your Hammies on Fire for Serious Gains

Did you know 2022 was just named Year of the Hamstring? No? Well, that’s because I made it up.

But now that I have your attention, do you know why healthy hamstrings are so important? I work closely with athletes and clients to mitigate injury and become as physically resilient and strong as possible. But one of the most common injuries to the lower extremities is… a hamstring injury. 

Hamstring injuries can be incredibly debilitating for two reasons:

1. They can happen relatively easily.
2. The hamstring muscles typically carry a long recovery period.

This results in missed workout sessions, stunted progress in the gym, and obvious setbacks for competitive athletes. The good news is that we can reduce the risk of injury by properly and consistently training the muscles of the hamstrings. 

Build strong, resilient hammies at home or at the gym with my top three hamstring exercises. 

Hamstring anatomy refresher

There are three muscles that make up the hamstrings group: biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus. These three muscles run down the posterior (back) of your leg originating from different points along your pelvis and inserting into points of your knee. 

These muscles are responsible for knee flexion, as well as helping with hip extension and rotation of the thigh and leg. The noticeable “pull” or “stretch” you feel in the upper back of your leg as you send your hips back to take a bow are your hamstrings lengthening (eccentric contraction), and the tension you feel when you bring your heel towards your butt are your hamstrings concentrically contracting.

Top 3 hamstring exercises for strength

Romanian Deadlift or 1 leg RDL

One of the most popular hamstring exercises is the Romanian Deadlift. The RDL places higher demand on the hamstring group compared to other deadlift variations due to the fixed position of the knee and the primary hip-hinging motion. 

I like using both the bilateral (double-leg) and unilateral (single-leg) versions of this exercise in training—unilateral exercises can recruit more muscles for stabilization and challenge the working leg to balance.

Perfect Your RDL

• Keep the weight close to the body.
• Stand up tall, but don’t lean back at the top of the lift or hyperextend your back.
• Push “through” the floor, keeping your big toe, little toe, and heel connected to the ground. 
• Look to feel a deep stretch in the hamstrings and only go as low as you are able to maintain a flat back with good form. 
• Read this in-depth blog on single-leg RDLs.

Coach’s Tip: If you’re a beginner, consider starting with free weights (dumbbells) and graduate to the barbell variation once you’re completely competent in the movement. 

Glute ham raise

The glute-ham raise is another one of my favorite hamstring exercises. This is a more intermediate/advanced hamstring exercise but can be easily modified to meet an athlete where they’re at. 

The GHR is so effective at targeting the hamstrings because of the large range of motion required for the movement. GHRs allow you to load your hamstring muscles at both their shortest contraction and longest extension.

Evidence supports that training through full (or as close to full) range of motion plays a key role in reducing injury risk. 

Perfect Your GHR

• On a glute-ham developer machine, be sure to fully extend your hips at the top and squeeze those buns, hun. 
• Lower down slowly and with control. If you can’t hold your form, grab a band to help take some of the resistance away.
• Be sure to push the ball of the foot against the footplate and make sure the back of the foot is secure against the foam pad. This will make sure the knee flexors in the calves are helping throughout the movement. 
• Try Nordic Curls as a modified version of this movement. 

box hamstring curl

Box hamstring curls are a killer alternative to the curl machine at the gym since you can do them almost anywhere. You can make these more challenging by adding a tempo, weight, or performing the single-leg version. 

I like to program these with a slow tempo first, then progress to weighted, and then single-leg. Remember the effectiveness of unilateral exercises! 

The fact that your core works harder with the BHC than with a hamstring curl machine is a nice double-whammy for strength gains.

Perfect Your BHR

• Use a box or surface that puts your feet in line with your knees and your knees above your hips.
• Use the back of your feet to push ‘through” the box, squeeze the butt to extend the hips as much as you can.
• SLOWLY lower your hips back down, ride that eccentric wave. 

Coach’s Tip: Don’t sleep on the single leg version of these for extra glute recruitment and one of the best hamstring exercises out there!

Watch your movement patterns!

Before I leave you to go out and build the strongest posterior chain of your life, I want to touch on one of the greatest limiting factors for strength: hasty movement mechanics. 

Poor movement quality will almost always lead to injury. 

Read that again.

When you work on your hamstrings (or any muscle group for that matter), aim to start working at a tempo with a longer eccentric phase and faster concentric phase. The rule of thumb I use with athletes while resistance training is “slower down, faster up”.

This will make sure the movement is executed with proper mechanics, stability, and control, but it also places a higher demand on the working muscles by forcing you to slow down and be intentional with your movement.

Consider yourself well-equipped with a small arsenal of hamstring builders to help you perform better in the gym, reduce injury, and promote longevity! 

Go you! 👊

See you on the training floor. 

Sources:

1. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21904-hamstring-muscles#:~:text=How%20are%20the%20hamstring%20muscles,when%20your%20knee%20is%20bent.
2. https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2014/06000/Muscle_Activation_During_Various_Hamstring.11.aspx

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We know deadlifts help make up the meat and potatoes of posterior chain training, but there are so many underutilized ways to pick something up from the ground. How do you know which variation to work on for maximum strength gains? Daniel Yalowitz has a background of 15+ years in martial arts and personal training. He interned at one of the best sports performance facilities in North Alabama working with athletes from middle school to collegiate. In this piece, he outlines different deadlift styles—conventional straight bar deadlift, trap bar, Romanian deadlifts, sumo style, and rack pulls—and why you might want to mix them into your training.

Deadlift variations: Mix Things Up With Some New Pulling Protocols

Let me paint a quick picture for you: the gym has eight platforms with a straight barbell at each one. There’s only one trap bar in the whole gym that mostly sits in the corner collecting dust.

Most athletes who walk in the gym doors never even think about trying different deadlift variations even though their back starts to ache after every set. They don’t consider elevating the bar or adding a deficit or changing their grip.  

This prompts me to ask this question, “which deadlift variation are you married to and why?” 

Are you a diehard straight bar deadlifter? Do you ever work with a trap bar? Maybe you don’t even deadlift because it’s “bad for your back.” Some of my clients never intend to touch a straight bar or a trap bar. I also have clients who alternate between deadstop deadlifts and top down deadlifts (RDLs). 

There isn’t one perfect way to deadlift, but there might be a more ideal variation for your body based on different factors: your goals, equipment, and physical capabilities.

Anatomy Refresher

The main muscle groups working in a standard deadlift are the glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, quads, core, and lower/upper back. Clearly deadlifting is a foundational functional movement that requires serious muscle recruitment from most of your body.  

You may feel more or less of each muscle group working depending on which style of deadlift you choose. For example, a deadstop deadlift (using a straight bar or trap bar) you will get more quad recruitment versus a top down deadlift (or RDL), in which you’ll use more hamstrings and glutes.

Conventional Deadlift Points of Performance

The points of performance are slightly different for each deadlift variation, but all of them follow some similar cues.

Setup

Make sure the bar is at the proper height for your capabilities. If you lack mobility in your hips and hamstrings, elevating the weight may alleviate some unnecessary back pain.

Hinge down to grip the barbell at around shoulder-width. Keep your weight over your midfoot and your shoulders over your knees. Head and neck in line with your neutral spine—eyes forward and slightly down in front of you. 

Set your spine to neutral. Your spine has natural curves in it, but attempting to extend or flex your spine for a “straight back” could lead to poor form and injuries (or at the very least hold you back from getting the gainz).

Pull

Engage your lats, take a breath to brace, and use your legs to press into the ground as you stand up with the weight. Keep your arms long like cables attached to the bar. Lock your hips at the top of the lift, then hinge back down to reset the weight on the floor. 

Deadlift variations

Straight bar deadlift

This is the most popular deadlift variation and what we usually refer to as “conventional”—it’s also the version outlined in the points of performance above. 

For straight bar deadlifts, the weight is held in front of you. Your shin is primarily vertical, which means that a lifter who lacks mobility or even taller lifters could potentially stress their low back. A simple fix to this may be to elevate the bar on a platform or stack of plates. 

You’ll still get more quad recruitment than an RDL, but not as much quad recruitment as a trap bar deadlift. Another benefit to straight bar deadlifts is that there are several different grips you can try (mixed grip, hook grip). This lift is also easily substituted with other weights like kettlebells or dumbbells.

Trap bar or hex bar deadlift

I may be a little biased here since the trap bar deadlift is my jam (and for good reason). Trap bar deadlifts are another deadstop variation you can elevate if needed—a plate under each side should help with most mobility issues. 

The main difference between this lift and the straight bar deadlift is that since the weight is distributed differently it makes the lift a little more “squatty” which is simpler for beginners. This version can also be substituted with KBs or DBs.

Romanian deadlift or rdl

People looking for pure backside lifts, here you go. The barbell RDL is a top-down deadlift meaning once you pick up the bar, it doesn’t touch the ground again until the set is finished. 

Instead of setting the weight back on the ground every rep, you lower the weight (imagine shaving your legs with the bar) hinging at the hips until you feel the hamstrings and glutes. For a lot of athletes, the bar comes to just below the knees.

This variation is considered a pure hinge because there is very little knee bend and the shin stays vertical. 

Coach’s Tip: Don’t sleep on the single leg version of these for extra glute recruitment!

sumo deadlift

Sumo deadlifts are another popular variation for people with spine injuries or back pain, since the wide stance allows for a “squattier” pull from the floor. The sumo style also lends itself well to using kettlebells and progressing to more complex movements like sumo deadlift high pulls. 

Check out TrainHeroic’s full guide on sumo deadlifts here.

Hip-injured folks take note: this might not be the deadlift version for you. If you have trouble maintaining load under external rotation of your hips, go easy on the sumos. 

barbell rack pull

I personally consider this halfway between a straight bar deadlift and an RDL. It’s still deadstop, but you can put your focus primarily on lowering the weight like an RDL, emphasizing your hamstrings and glutes. 

Set the safety bars of the rack so that the bar rests just below your knees. As you pull, keep the bar on your body and drive into the floor with your feet through the movement. You should feel your traps and mid-upper back working. Rack pulls can be loaded heavy—think 1RM deadlift for sets of 5. 

Programming deadlift variations

I like to start general fitness clients with a KB or DB deadlift on one day and a top down (RDL) on another day. Once the athlete can own the proper positions and handle a little more weight, they graduate to trap bar or straight bar (depending on their needs). 

Give yourself time and experience with each deadlift movement to own their individual positions. This way you can hit your entire posterior chain from different angles and evolve into a more well-rounded athlete. 

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Your power clean capacity says a lot about your weightlifting technique—speed, explosiveness, timing—it’s all there. What should you be focusing on to dial in your power clean skills and claim beast status? Justin Barchus, owner and head coach at Kraken Strength out of Oregon, is a CF-L2, collegiate baseball coach, and USAW certified strength coach. He breaks down your body’s ideal positions in the setup, first pull, second pull, and third pull. His cues will have you conscious of your hamstring tension and hip extension timing. Be sure to use his Points of Power in your next session and check out the Kraken Blog for more training tips!

Nail these cues, and hit a new power clean PR

The Olympic lifts have long been known as some of the most dynamic and complex lifts in the strength and conditioning arena. It takes years of training to become an elite weightlifter, and even the elites continue to drill their form.

When you’re looking to add these lifts to your training repertoire, two of the key objectives you want to prioritize are positioning and core-to-extremity muscle engagement. 

To really nail down one or both of those technical goals, we need to simplify a complex lift. Let’s break down the power clean into three basic positions to achieve a safe and powerful movement pattern.

Setup

When setting up for your power clean off the floor, any good coach will look for a couple of key points in your positioning. Prepping your body to pull a heavy weight means tension. It’s important that your setup position isn’t relaxed or lazy.

If you’re able to lock in your hamstring and lat tension in your setup, you’ll have a solid starting point to lift the bar off the floor.

Hamstring Tension

Your hamstrings are the catalyst for your power clean, so it’s tremendously important to create tension before you lift the weight off the ground. 

There are two distinct cues we can use if you’re having any issues creating that tension: raise your hips slightly until you feel it, or my favorite, “press your knees back”. 

Pressing your knees back in your setup will get you out of a quad dominant “squat-like” position, and into a better pulling position with your posterior chain at the ready.

Lats Engaged 

A cue that’s often forgotten when lifting heavy weight off the ground—engaging your lats (latissimus dorsi) stabilizes your upper back and keeps your shoulder blades retracted. This subtle movement is key to keeping your upper back in a good position when pulling the bar from the ground to your hip. 

One cue we use to create lat engagement is to think about rotating your hands outward, like you’re pulling the bar apart or turning a door handle.

Another valuable cue is “elbow pits forward”. If your elbow pits are facing inward then your lats are most likely not engaged. If they’re facing forward, we’re getting the external rotation in the shoulders necessary for lat engagement.

First & Second Pulls: Passing Through the Knees 

The next positions are where we start to build momentum towards the explosive part of the power clean. It’s extremely important to keep your back and core tight through this segment of the lift, so try to think about a couple of cues.

Shoulders Over the Bar

A fatal move for any Olympic lift is letting your shoulders rise at a faster pace than your hips during the first pulls. Aim to have both your shoulders and hips rise at the same time. 

Focus on keeping your shoulders perpendicular to the bar when it reaches the knees (this is considered the end of the first pull). That way you’ll maintain hamstring/posterior chain tension and keep your lats engaged right before your explosive hip extension.

When you pass your knees, raise your chest aggressively for the second pull, driving the bar back toward your hips. This portion of the lift leads us to our final key position…

Third pull: the trigger

The third key position in the power clean is the point where your hips make contact with the barbell. I like to refer to it as “the trigger” due to the nature of the hip explosion that happens afterward. 

A few specific points of power will help you get the most out of your hip extension, resulting in a strong power clean.

Be Patient in the Hip

As the weight gets heavier or fatigue builds during Olympic lifts, we tend to let our trigger fall from our hip (the target) down to the upper, or even mid-quad. 

By exploding too early, you lose a ton of energy that comes from your hip extension. You’ll also have issues keeping the bar path close to your body as you get ready to receive it in the catch. Be patient with your third pull, let the bar come all the way up to your hips before shrugging upward to catch. 

Get Your Chest Vertical

To combat the temptation to pull from your quad instead of your hip, fight for a completely vertical torso position. Getting your torso vertical will help you drive the bar upward while keeping it close to your body. 

The lower your torso angle, the further away from you the bar will travel during the lift, which makes catching it that much more difficult.

If you’re able to get to a great body position with the bar in the third pull trigger, your power clean catch will be smooth and solid. 

There are 10,000 ways to break down the Olympic lifts and their variations. Some of the best athletes in the world train every day for years just to master the snatch and clean and jerk technique. 

Nobody expects immediate mastery from you—the important part is taking small steps to improve your lifts over time. The key to improvement often lies in a little simplification of a complex process. 

Next time you plan on attacking some power cleans in the gym, keep these three Points of Power in mind. Even if you focus on just one cue and drill it for the day, it’ll make a huge difference in your training progress!

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What goes on in your brain before you attempt a big lift? Are you fighting off anxiety demons? Thinking about dinner? Or are you zoned in on the task before you. Turns out, a little mental strategy goes a long way. Joseph Lucero, owner of Harvesting Strength, is a powerlifter and strongman coach with years of practical S&C experience in high school, collegiate, and professional settings. In this article, he talks about the importance of mental imagery and how to use your mind to set the scene for your big lifts. Try his methods before your next 1RM and don’t be surprised if you PR.

Let your mind be your ally

In our youth we’re told by coaches and authority figures, “if you can believe it, you can achieve it”. It’s been a running mantra for the longest time, especially in any motivational sports drama that celebrates the underdog. 

When I was told to dream big and think of success, those words inspired me to do my best and give it my all. But now, as an adult I feel that saying can’t truly improve my performance. The concept doesn’t really have the same effect…

But could it?

Even if it sounds like folklore, the fact of the matter is weird—what they say is true. If you can believe and imagine your own success, you can produce success. 

But it takes more than just thinking to be successful. You have to put your thoughts into action. For athletes, this usually relates to nailing a complex series of movements. When it comes to exercise performance, whether through traditional sport or strength sports, “thinking” of success means placing yourself within a mental framework.

If you want to run a 40-yard dash in four seconds or squat 600 pounds in your upcoming competition, you need to think of yourself in that situation as vividly as possible. This mental trickery gets you feeling like you’re actually in that moment in real time.

Using a mental imagery practice could mean the difference between a successful lift and a failed one.  

What is mental imagery?

The human movement systems consist of the skeletal system, muscular system, and nervous system. Your bones and the musculature of your anatomy are what generate movement, but only through the instruction directed by the nervous system. 

The science of human movement supports the use of mental imagery. When my mind tells me to type the words on this screen, my nervous system sends the signals for my hands to engage with the keyboard to form the words in this article. 

If we practice imagining ourselves doing something with the highest intent and as vividly as possible, our body receives the same signals from the central nervous system that engages our muscles to fire as though we’re performing the movement in real life. 

Even though you’re not exerting any force on the bar, feeling the sensation of successfully completing a lift fires off the same impulses you need to produce that movement. It’s a fraction of the system usage you actually need, but you still get a tremendous benefit from using your brain. 

Why using your brain is important

Studies show that working with mental imagery results in fractional engagement from your movement systems that can make difficult athletic feats feel “comfortable” and “familiar”. 

Mental imagery works on connecting your nervous system with the muscle fiber recruitment you need when actually performing the lift, making the shot, or taking the jump. This is one of the strongest tools for competitive athletes to help elevate their training to a new level.

It also translates to learning new movements—getting enough mental repetitions to understand and break down the individual components of an exercise. Think of it as a way to refine your technique without having a heavy load in your hands. It also relates to the concept of “watching film” on a Saturday morning with your youth football team. 

But for mental imagery to have an effect, you want to experience those ideas and thoughts in detail from within, not just watch them on a screen. Athletes who practice mental imagery tirelessly say that they can feel the barbell in their hands, smell the iron and chalk before attempting a massive personal record. 

Even though performing mental imagery for a 700-pound deadlift won’t necessarily give you a 700-pound deadlift, the more time you spend in the mental space of locking out that heavy lift, the more familiar you and your body become with the idea. 

How to practice mental imagery

Practicing mental imagery concepts doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Just spend 5-10 minutes a day in a secluded environment and rehearse what you’re about to lift in vivid detail. The more of your senses you recruit, the more realistic the experience and the better your focus.  

Start in a controlled and calm environment. Or try being physically in the gym where you plan to train or compete. I’ve experienced several instances in a competition setting where I would train at the venue to mentally prepare myself and live the competition before it even started. I’d go to the platform, imagine myself in front of the crowd, and see myself lifting with success. 

When I engage in mental imagery before I approach the barbell, I think about the weight already in my hands, the knurling scraping against my calluses with my explosive speed. I focus on one or two cues and feel the tension in the dominant muscles I’m using for the lift. 

My mind and body fire off like they’ve already made the lift, so why couldn’t they do it again?

Are you going for a heavy squat this week? Are you trying to hit 225 for 10 reps on bench next week? Before your performance, spend some time working on your mental imagery. 

Give yourself the best shot at making the lift by helping your mind better anticipate the situation and find more comfort in the challenge. Because ultimately, your body doesn’t easily go where your mind hasn’t already been.

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