Back Workout of the Week – Winter 2013 Week 2

Week 2: you’re back after the punishment from week 1? That is a good sign!

Training Goals:

  • Maintain high volume training for both back and biceps to build a solid foundation for future training, and other lifts.
  • Improve pull-up strength by performing pull-ups prior to rowing exercises.

We keep up the massive volume for week 2, but have made some small changes to let you bump some of the weight up slightly. Some portions of this weeks training are the same as last week – this is on purpose.

Week 2: Volume Training

Warm-ups: Warm up your upper body to prep for your back session

  • Light shoulder dumbbell raises (front, lateral, rear) – 3×15
  • If you need more warm-ups, do a few light sets of lat pull downs

Pull-ups: One of our goals this training cycle is to increase your pull-up strength. If you can already complete 10 pull-unassisted, you might want to change the program order and do your pull-ups after barbell rows.

  • If you cannot get at least 5 pull-ups on your own, use assistance
    • Assisted pull-up station
    • Resistance bands, set up for reverse resistance
    • Use the minimum assistance required to get at least 5 reps
  • If you can get at least 5 reps on your own, add weight to your first set
  • Use double overhand, wide grip
  • Perform 4 sets to failure

Barbell Rows:

  • Weight: Select your 10RM for barbell rows
    • Increase the weight slightly from last week (5-10%)
    • Should still be a weight you can get 10 reps without using rowing cheat technique
  • You should be somewhat warm after pull-ups, but if you need a couple of warm-up sets to get to your working weight, take them
  • Perform 3 sets of 10 reps at this weight
  • On your 4th set, complete rows to failure, using some cheat technique to get as many reps as possible
  • On your 5th and final set perform a drop set: perform rows to failure, rack the weight and have training partners peel off weight and continue to failure again without resting.
    • Complete 2 drops, for example, if your starting weight is:
      • 315: drops will be 225, then 135
      • 225: drops will be 185, then 135
      • 135: drops will be 115, then 95
    • Keep your hands on the bar while your partners remove the weight
  • Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes) except during the drop set
  • Equipment: Use wrist straps for this exercise, you will not be able to hold the bar without them to effectively work your back

Dumbbell Rows, Unsupported:

  • Weight: Select your 10RM weight dumbbell
    • If you did not get sets of 10 last week, keep the weight the same, and try to get more reps (10)
    • If you did get sets of 10 reps last week, bump the weight up this week
  • Perform 3 sets to failure
  • Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)
  • Equipment: Use wrist straps for this exercise

Hammer Curl/Lat Pull-down Superset: You completed this superset last week. We are going to pre-exhaust your biceps so that your lats have to do more of the work

  • Weight: Select a weight you can get the sets and reps in the appropriate ranges. You should be able to move the weight up slightly from last week
  • Start with hammer curls, complete all reps with proper form
  • Complete lat pull-downs after your hammer curls
  • Rest:
    • Take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and lat pull-downs
    • Perform hammer curls immediately after lat pull-downs (no rest)
  • Complete a total of 3 supersets

Hammer Curl/Cable Row Superset: You completed this superset last week also. We continue with the bicep pre-exhaust, and perform high rep cable rows to engage more of your back muscles in the rows (rhomboids and lower/mid traps)

  • Weight:
    • Continue the superset with the same weight for hammer curls
    • Select a weight you can get 20 reps with on the cable rows
  • Squeeze each rep on the cable row tightly at the top, pinching your shoulder blades together
  • Rest: same as for the previous superset
    • Take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and cable rows
    • Perform hammer curls immediately after cable rows (no rest)
  • Complete a total of 3 supersets

Assessment:

  • Intensity was slightly lower than last week, but volume remains high. Because of the lower intensity, you should be able to perform each exercise with slightly greater weight than week 1. Back and biceps should be completely fatigued when done.

Workout Plan: 2013 Winter – BWOW Week 2 v1

BWOW workouts this cycle:

 



A Perfect Setup Leads to a Bigger Squat

A perfect squat setup can be the difference between a successful lift and a failed lift. As a powerlifter, I train to make this portion of the squat as efficient as possible. These powerlifting techniques can help any strength trainer not just powerlifters, take advantage of them.

Don’t rush it. There is no excuse for your setup to not be perfect on every set you do from your first warm-up to your last working set. You have more control over the setup than you do over the actual lift. You have time to think about what you are doing every step of the way. Take advantage of this fact, and make it perfect every time.

  • Hand placement: Hand placement is of course somewhat dependent upon your flexibility, but the closer you bring your hands in, the tighter you will be able to keep your upper back, providing more support to the bar.
  • Bar placement: Bar placement can be affected by a number of factors (muscles targeted, individual body proportions, upper body flexibility). Generally speaking, however, placing it across the back of the delts versus on top of the traps allows you to generate the greater power.
  • Foot placement: Place your feet under the bar in a standard conventional deadlift stance (approximately hip width apart, toes pointed forward); this will give you the most stability as you lift the bar out of the rack.
  • Breathing: Take a deep breath and tighten your core before unracking the bar (Squat Breathing Technique). This creates a very solid, stable core and allows you to support the weight of the bar. Continue to hold your breath until you have walked the bar out.
  • Rotate your hips under the bar: Keeping your back flat, shift your hips forward by rotating at the bar and your shoulders – do not flex your lumbar spine to push your hips forward.

Rotate at the shoulders to shift your hips forward

    • Unrack the bar: Lift the bar straight up using your legs, primarily your quads; if you have not properly rotated your hips under the bar, this looks like a good morning, making the bar feel much heavier.
  • Walk the bar out:
    • After unracking, pause briefly allowing the bar to settle briefly before stepping back.
    • Watch your feet as you walk out so that you can place them exactly where you want them.
    • Your first step should be straight back. This will allow you to clear the rack so that you don’t bump it on the way out. It should be a short step, your toe should not move much farther back than the heel of your other foot.
    • Move your other foot back into your squatting position.
    • Shift your first foot straight out into your squatting position.
    • Practice this walkout to minimize shifting and shuffling once you’ve walked out.
    • Let the bar settle briefly again, begin breathing again and your are ready to squat.


Practice these steps from your very first warm-ups, and make them automatic. Done right, the correct setup can make the weight feel much lighter, giving you greater confidence in your lift!



Power Recipe: Sweet Potato – Tuna Mash

Ok, diet isn’t my specialty, but here is a tasty concoction I’ve developed that is easy to throw together, tastes phenomenal, and is a great balance of carb and protein. It makes for a powerful lunch on your heavy lifting days!

Doesn't that look tasty!

 

Ingredients:

  • 5 oz canned tuna
  • 1/2 cups chopped sweet potatoes
  • 1/4 cups chopped onions
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1 slice bacon (hey, I’m a powerlifter, be happy it’s not a donut!)

Directions:

  1. Fry up bacon over medium high and drain off bacon grease
  2. Add potatoes and onions. Cook 15-20 minutes until sweet potatoes are cooked through and softened.
  3. Add spinach and tuna and continue cooking until spinach is fully cooked

If you want a leaner option, you can remove the bacon, or replace it with turkey bacon.

Nutrition:

Calories

304.7

Protein

30.1

Carbohydrates

37

Fat

4.7

 



Barbell Rows: ‘Cheat’ Technique for Massive Strength and Size Gains

If you train with me you quickly learn that I am religious about lifting with proper technique. As a matter of fact, Brute Force Strength Rule #1 is: Perfect your technique on every lift; regardless how long you have lifting, continuously look for ways to improve your form. When you lift with proper form, you will generally lift more weight and reduce your chance of injury.

The barbell row, however, is an example of an exercise that you can effectively use some cheating to increase your strength and size. When done correctly you can lift more weight and complete more reps than you can with strict form without significantly increasing the risk of the exercise.

When should you use the cheat technique?

  • At the end of your sets to complete additional reps that you could not otherwise complete
  • To finish off your workout with a set at a weight that you cannot complete with strict form
    • Should be a slight, incrementally higher weight increase used to prepare you for heavier lifts

When should you avoid using ‘cheat’ techniques?

  • If you’re new to the barbell row, first learn and perfect proper technique without using any cheating
  • If you have issues with your lower back or similar physical limitations, I’d recommend against cheating on barbell rows

Barbell Row ‘Cheat’ Technique:

  • Set up for the lift just as you do for your proper barbell row
  • Perform as many reps without cheating as you can – keep your upper body stable, minimize use of momentum
  • When you need to employ the cheat technique, just as you start to bring the bar up, bring your upper body upwards slightly to start the bar moving (rotation is at your hips)
  • Once the bar is moving, use the bar’s momentum to help complete the lift as you simultaneously lower your upper body back down to the starting position

 

Using cheat for additional reps:

 

Using cheat for additional weight:

 

If the end of your set starts to resemble a combination of a shrug and an upright row (a ‘shrow’), it’s time to set the bar down and step away.

Safety:

  • Do not use a weight you are unable to safely support in the rowing position
  • Make sure you are able to maintain a flat back and straight spine throughout your set

    Shrow Factor 10...

 



Back Workout of the Week – Winter 2013 Week 1

I introduced the Brute Force Back Workout of the Week (BWOW) a while back (Brute Force BWOW 1). I had bombed out of the USA Powerlifting Open Nationals in 2010 because I couldn’t successfully hit any of my bench press attempts. What does that have to do with back training you ask? That entire training cycle I didn’t work my back or biceps at all, two huge stabilizers for your bench press. I was unable to control the bar as it got to my chest, and couldn’t complete a single bench press.

After that I went on a rampage for a year and a half, punishing my back and biceps with a different high intensity workout every week. My back size and strength exploded. So did my bench press, earning me the bench press gold medal at the International Powerlifting Federation Masters World Championships in 2011 and 2012. BWOW grew out of this training success.

 

I’m resurrecting BWOW with the idea of applying a periodization scheme to my back training, just as you would for your other core lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift). Week 1 will be a very high volume back workout.

Week 1: Volume Training

Warm-ups: Warm up your upper body to prep for your back session

  • Light shoulder internal and external rotation – 3×15
  • If you need more warm-ups, do a few light sets of lat pull downs

Pull-ups: One of our goals this training cycle will be to increase your pull-up strength.

  • If you cannot get at least 5 pull-ups on your own, use assistance
    • Assisted pull-up station
    • Resistance bands, set up for reverse resistance
    • Use the minimum assistance required to get at least 5 reps
    • If you can get at least 5 reps on your own, add weight to your first set
    • Use double overhand, wide grip
    • Perform 4 sets to failure

 

Coffee getting through it on beard power alone

Barbell Rows: This will be a very high volume set of lifts!

  • Select your 10RM for barbell rows
  • You should be somewhat warm after pull-ups, but if you need a couple of warm-up sets, take them
  • If you are training with a partner with a similar 10RM, use the lower of the two 10RMs
  • Set a timer for 15 minutes
  • Alternate sets, performing barbell rows to failure
    • If you have a training partner, you will alternate with no rest, as soon as your partner finishes you will begin rowing; your total rest should be 30 seconds or less
    • If you do not have a training partner, take no more than 30 seconds rest between sets
    • I recommend using wrist straps for this exercise; you will likely not be able to hold the bar without them to effectively work your back

Dumbbell Rows, Supported:

  • Select your 10RM weight dumbbell
  • Perform 3 sets to failure
  • Use wrist straps if necessary (again, for dumbbell rows I recommend using straps to effectively work your back)
  • Rest until you are fully recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)

Hammer Curl/Lat Pull-down Superset: We’re going to pre-exhaust your biceps so that your lats have to do more of the work

  • If you’ve done the rest of your workout correctly, your rep maxes on these exercises will be relatively meaningless; select a weight you can get the sets and reps in the appropriate ranges
  • Start with hammer curls, select a weight you can (still) get 8-12 reps with proper form
  • Take 1-2 minutes rest and continue the set with lat pull-downs, using a weight you can get 10-12 reps
  • Take 2-3 minutes rest between each superset
  • Complete a total of 3 supersets

Hammer Curl/Cable Row Superset: We’re continuing with the bicep pre-exhaust, and performing high rep cable rows; this allows us to engage more of your back muscles in the rows (rhomboids and lower/mid traps)

  • Continue the superset with the same weight for hammer curls
  • As with previous superset, take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and cable rows
  • Select a weight you can get 20 reps with on the cable rows
  • Squeeze each rep on the cable row tightly at the top, pinching your shoulder blades together
  • Take 2-3 minutes rest between each superset
  • Complete a total of 3 supersets

BWOW Man Down!

Assessment:

  • Coffee: Rated the workout at about an ‘8’ on our Smokdedness Scale. It was a challenging workout, but we have gone through tougher sessions. That being said, he did text me ‘Curse you Ken Gack!! My back and biceps are destroyed’ the morning after, and biceps were burning for a few days.
  • Gack: Rated the workout at about a ‘7’ on our Smokdedness Scale. It was a challenging workout, but the conditioning component of the core lift (barbell rows) eclipsed the strength and hypertrophy component.

Workout Plan2013 Winter – BWOW Week 1 v1 – Web

BWOW plans for this cycle:

 



It Doesn’t Matter how Heavy it Feels!

We don't lift it because it's light...

“It doesn’t matter how heavy it feels!” If you’ve trained with me long, you have undoubtedly heard me say that (as well as ‘Stop shaking your head, if you can argue, you can finish the **** lift’, but that’s for another article).

I once (inadvertently) went from 490 lb to 650 lbs, 60 lbs over my max at that time, on consecutive squat attempts in a competition. Even walking it out 650 lbs felt impossibly heavy. Oh, wait, yeah that squat attempt crushed me, bad example.

More to the point, I recently had a trainee fail on a deadlift in training. It was obviously far too heavy, and wouldn’t even budge off the floor. So with the utmost concern for the success of her training, I removed a 10 lb plate from each side of the bar…and replaced each of them with two 5 lb plates. Encouraged by my ‘lightening’ of the weight, she easily completed the pull.


How to use Wrist Straps to Lift Heavy Weights!

Be a man! Strengthen your grip, you don’t need to use wrist straps!

Right? Not necessarily.

To maximize the effectiveness of the exercise sometimes you just have to set your ego aside and use assistance. In this case that assistance is the wrist strap.  For example:

  1. The target muscle group is much larger and stronger than your forearms. Your upper back (lats, traps, rhomboids)  is one of the largest muscle groups in your upper body. Without assistance, your grip will give out long before you are able to properly tax your back in either volume or weight.
  2. You are unable to use an alternating grip to prevent the bar from rolling. Unlike the deadlift, where you can alternate your grip (one pronated hand, one supinated hand), when performing exercises with both hands either pronated (overhand) or supinated (underhand), or when performing heavy dumbbell lifts such as the dumbbell row, without grip assistance the barbell or dumbbell will simply roll away from you when the weight starts to get heavy.

As simple as the wrist strap appears, they can be tricky to get the hang of and use properly. Let me show you how:

For a quick recap:

  • The mouth of the strap’s loop faces your hand
  • When laying across your palm, the strap points in the same direction as your thumb
  • Plant your hand on the bar and start wrapping the strap under and around the bar from the base of your pinkie finger towards your thumb
  • Hold the strap to the bar so it will roll with the bar and roll it towards you to tighten your straps