TNT 1

I’ve

titled this article TNT (Tips-n-Tricks) for a very good reason. Many times it’s

the small things that make the biggest difference. Usually when reading a new

book or article you walk away with one good idea. This one idea could’ve

been presented in a paragraph or two. So I got to thinking, why not just provide

all those great ideas in a format that cuts out the BS? What you’re left

with is pure TNT, the stuff great explosions are made of.

Through

my many years of training, reading and discussing training with other lifters

and coaches, I’ve collected a ton of ammunition. When an athlete is really

stuck and has tried everything else, I can pull a little TNT from this stockpile

and blast through the barrier. Some of this information has come about by pure

accident and some of it has been borrowed or stolen from others, but it’s

all worked very well for many athletes. If you find yourself stuck in any of

the following situations, add in a little TNT and get ready to blow up!

"My bench always seems to stall at the top; my lockout

really needs help."

This

is really one of the best problems to have and the easiest to fix. When you’re

dealing with sticking points in the bench press you have to remember that there

are several ways to correct the problem, but most won’t work for you. So

don’t beat a dead horse! In other words, if what you’ve been doing

isn’t working, then try something else. You have plenty of ammo. I’ve

had this same problem with my bench and sometimes it takes years to stumble

upon the right movement to fix the problem. Other times I hit the right movement

the first time out.

Get

stuck at the lockout? Here’s some TNT to help you blast that problem:

1)

Get your head right. This is true with all sticking points regardless

of the point at which you stall out. If you believe you always miss at the

top, then you’ll always miss at the top! Your mind has a lot to do with

your sticking points. I try to teach all the athletes I work with to visualize

their sticking point at a higher position and focus very hard on driving the

bar through it. In other words, when you bench you must focus on pushing the

bar very fast through your sticking point. Focus will make a big difference.

2)

Learn to use your triceps. This is done by keeping your body tight

and focusing on pulling the bar apart. This will involve your triceps

more throughout the movement and keep the bar moving in a straight line. A

good trick to teach you to do this is to use a mini band from Jump Stretch

Inc. You double the band up and wrap it around you wrists while you bench.

This forces you to pull the bar apart and grasp the barbell tight. If not,

your hands will be shot together. Pull the bar apart and watch that sticking

point disappear!

3) Start the bar where you want to finish. This is a very simple concept

but it’s very seldom practiced. Most lifters will unrack the bar and

lower it to the chest without setting the bar first. This is usually done

by habit and will cause you to lower the bar in a diagonal pattern that will

result in you pushing it back up in the same pattern. When you push the bar

back toward the rack there’s more rotation and less emphasis on the triceps.

You

need to unrack the bar, then "set it" in the same exact position in which

you want to finish. This should be directly above where you lower the bar.

If you bench to your lower pecs then the bar must start above the lower pecs.

This will create a straight line both on the eccentric and concentric. Remember,

the shortest distance between two points in a straight line. Set the bar!

4) Move the bar fast. You need to make sure you’re pressing as fast

as possible to bust through your sticking point. A slow press won’t build

enough momentum to bust past your sticking point. If you’re trying to

open a stuck door would you try to open it slowly or would you bust into it

as hard as possible? Speed is key!

5) Strengthen the top half. There are several movements that can help you strengthen

the muscles that lockout the bench. These are best done using the max effort

method. This is the method where you work up to a one or three-rep max on

the movement. For more information on the method, see the Periodization

Bible Part Two article.

The

best movement for a weak lockout is a three or four board press. A board press

is preformed by using three or four 2 x 6 boards placed on your chest. Lower

the bar to the boards, pause and press back up. In extreme cases you may want

to use a set of mini bands on the bar as well.

A

second movement that works very well is the floor press with the use of chains.

The floor press is performed the same as the bench press except you’re

lying on the floor. Work up to about 60 to 70% of your best bench, then begin

adding one set of chains on the bar with each additional set. You fail when

you can no longer add any more chains. The chains increase the weight at the

top of the lift while deloading it in the bottom. Check out the Accommodating

Resistance article for additional info on chains and bands.

"I can’t keep my ass on the bench."

This

is a very common problem with many lifters who don’t know how to stay tight

on the bench. This problem can range from a small lift of the butt to something

resembling the golden arches at Micky D’s. This can be caused by several

factors but all can be fixed with the right training. I’ve come across

several solutions to this problem:

1) Know your bench. This is probably the biggest reason most powerlifters miss

a lift at a meet. They train on a bench that’s somewhat higher then the

one they use in competition. So in training they know how to position their

bodies and stay tight on the bench, but when they go to a meet they find their

asses are one inch off the bench. In this case there are several solutions.

First,

get on the bench before the meet and see if it feels lower. If it does, then

tell your coach to remind you to get your feet out in front of you more; this

way, when you go to drive the bar with your legs most of the drive stays lower.

If you find this happens at every meet you go to, then you may also want to

find another bench on which to train. Another solution is to place a one inch

rubber mat under your feet when you train.

2) Know your position. You want to make sure you keep

your body tight throughout the motion. Some people like to use a tight arch

with their feet tucked back. While I don’t agree with this type of benching,

you still need to be tight and squeeze your inner thighs into the bench as

hard as possible. This creates an anchor to lock you down.

If

you bench with your legs out in front of you, you want to make sure you’re

driving your upper back and traps into the bench. You drive off your heals

and through your shoulders. This will give you more power. If you’re

only driving into your mid-back, then a lot of the force will be lost in the

hip when you press, thus your ass comes up.

3) Get the rope. This is a great trick I borrowed from Bill Gillespie. Bill is

the head strength and conditioning coach for the Washington Huskies who also

happens to have a 635 pound bench. He found many of his athletes couldn’t

keep their asses on the bench and had to find an easy and quick way to fix

it. He came up with one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time.

What

he does is attach a five or ten pound plate to a rope. He then has the lifter

position himself on the bench and then sticks the rope under his butt so the

plate is suspended in the air under the bench. If the lifter comes up, the

plate falls to the floor. This is a great feedback device that’s worked

very well for many athletes. Give it a shot!

"No matter what I do, I can’t bring up my hamstrings."

As

I’ve written many times, the hamstrings are one of the most important muscle

groups for athletes, if not the most important muscle group. The hamstrings

are what drive the squat and deadlift as well as determining how fast you’ll

run. Any coach you speak to will tell you the same thing, but most go about

training the hams the wrong way. You first need to dump the seated, lying and

standing leg curl machines and start training your hamstrings using movements

that hit the muscle from both the hip and knee joint at the same time. This

is how the hamstrings work in sport, so why not train them the same way? Here’s

how to do it:

1)

Get to know the glute ham raise and the reverse hyper machine. These

movements are the best I’ve found for training the hamstrings, but most

athletes are far too weak on them. I can’t count the number of Division

1 ball players who couldn’t do one single rep properly on the glute ham

raise. Then they wonder why their knees come forward when they squat!

I

see the same thing with the reverse hyper. Most people are afraid to use any

kind of weight on the machine. You should be able to do eight to twelve reps

on the reverse hyper with 55 to 60% of your best squat. Many of the gyms and

schools I go to will only have their athletes use 20 to 50 pounds on the machine.

This has always blown my mind. Our women at Westside use over 300 pounds!

These

movements should be staple items in any training program. I’ve actually

prescribed three to four sets of six to eight reps on the GHR (glute ham raise)

four times a week as a warm-up to many of the lifters and athletes I consult.

These would be performed as part of the general warm-up and then again later

in the workout with heavier weight as a supplemental movement.

2) Bring up the volume! As stated above, you can train the same muscle more then

one to two times a week if done properly (and especially if it’s a weak

point.) Whoever came up with this "one time a week" stuff never had to display

their strength or bring up a weak point. How are you ever going to get better

doing something only one time per week?

There

are many ways to change the parameters of a program to accominadate training

a muscle more than once a week. You can include a "feeder" workout the day

after training a muscle hard to help facilitate recovery. These feeder workouts

are light in intensity and medium in volume. For example, if you did heavy

glute ham raises on Monday and your hamstrings are sore as hell, then you

could do them again on Tuesday with no weight for a few sets of eight reps.

This will help to bring fresh nutrients and blood into the muscle. This is

also known as a form of active restoration.

You

could also try driving the volume of a certain movement up over two weeks.

For example, you could use a resistance band during an extra workout. Sit

on the end of a bench with one end of the band around your heel and the other

anchored to a power rack or other heavy object. Then do seated leg curls by

pulling the band straight in for five reps, off to one side for five more,

then off to the other side for another five. Performing two sets would be

a great place to start. This would be a total of 15 reps per set for a grand

total of 30 reps. Then each day for the next ten to fourteen days you add

one rep to each position. After ten days you’d have 15 reps per position

or a total of 45 per set. This is a great shock method for the hammies!

3) Learn to sit back on your good mornings. Most people don’t realize

a good morning is really a builder of the entire postier chain. When you bend

over, you want to try to keep a neutral back and push the hips back so you

feel the hamstrings stretch. You don’t want to just bend over because

as you work up in weight the movement will turn into more of a quarter squat.

This places too much stress on the spine and not enough on the hamstrings.

The next time you catch yourself stuck in one of the above situations, remember

that a little TNT will go a long way in helping you blast through your plateaus.

For more info on the special equipment mentioned in this article, visit Dave’s

site at EliteFitnessSystems.com

or call toll free at 888-854-8806. Dave can also be reached by e-mail at ElitefTS@email.msn.com.