August 2010: The Squat and Deadlift

Before the squat (during your warm-up!)

Stretch your Hip Flexors and Quads with the Bench Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch for 2 minutes each side (Notice that said 2 minutes, not 30 seconds!):

Keep your lower abs tight, lean over to one side.

Then stretch your calves for 2 minutes each side:

During the rest of your training career (which of course is the rest of your life!), keep doing these stretches as part of your warm-up until they don’t feel like they are stretching anymore (i.e. when these muscles are no longer tight, and will no longer have a negative effect on your technique). This may take a few weeks, in fact if you sit at a desk all day then it is best if do them permanently and on a regular basis!

Tight quads and hip flexors are major causes of back pain and bad posture so learn these stretches well and do them regularly. Not only will you burn more fat from all the perfect squats you will be doing, you’ll also have the perfect posture to match your new physique!

SQUAT SETUP

You’ll have to think about a lot of things at first. Study the tips below, start with an empty barbell, focus on your technique.

• Set the bar at the correct height on the squat rack. The best height is anywhere between your collar bone and the bottom of your sternum. Any lower than this and it will be too hard to un-rack, any higher and you will be on your tippy-toes!
• Always be in your correct squatting stance when you lift the bar off the rack. Lift-off and then take one step back.
• Correct Stance: Heels should be shoulder width apart or slightly wider. Toes are pointed out at around 30 degrees.
• Position the bar safely on the muscles of your upper back (traps). Make sure it isn’t on or near your spine!
• Always keep your CHEST UP. This is the biggest mistake with squats!
• Always keep a TIGHT UPPER BACK. Squeeze your shoulder-blades together. Tightening the upper-back gives the bar a solid base to rest on.
• Grip the bar just outside the line of your shoulders. This will make it easier to tighten your back.

Keep your elbows under the bar, squeeze the back, chest up.

• Keep your elbows under the bar and your wrists straight. Point your elbows directly down, keeping your forearms perpendicular to the floor. This will help you keep your chest up!
• And FINALLY, Keep the WEIGHT ON YOUR HEELS! Curl your toes up if needed. Never let your heels lift up. Push from the heels, this is where the strength comes from! If you can’t keep your heels down, stretch your calf muscles and quads/hip flexors again for 2 minutes each and place a small weights plate under each heel. Eventually the plates won’t be needed!

 Plates under the heels will help until flexibility improves.

PERFORMING THE SQUAT

• Un-rack the bar and take one medium sized step back, get into your squat stance. Taking too many steps back can be dangerous so one decent step back is all you need.
• Focus your eyes on something directly in front and slightly down. Keep focused on this spot for the entire set. This is one of the tricks to successful squatting! Moving your eyes around while you squat messes with your balance which makes you weaker. Keeping your eyes fixed on the one spot makes you more balanced noticeably stronger and also allows you to focus on feeling what your body is doing.
• Before you move, contract your LOWER ABS really tight. This is to control your pelvis. Keep your lower abs tight and your pelvis still throughout the entire squat. Remember, your spine attaches to your pelvis so the more the pelvis moves the more damage you are doing to the discs in your lower back.
• Initiate the squat movement by breaking at the knees first. The main purpose of this type of squat is to strengthen the quads (front thigh). Breaking at the knees first ensures these muscles activate correctly from the beginning of the movement.
• Now, keeping your chest up and elbows under the bar, slowly push your hips down and slightly back, and push your KNEES OUT in the same direction as your toes. Do not let your knees go inside the line of your feet, this is very important. When learning the squat it should take 3 or 4 seconds to reach the bottom! This will mean that your muscles are working hard the whole way down and not just completely relaxing. Do not bounce at the bottom. Besides being very dangerous for your lower back it also means your muscles aren’t working hard enough on the way down.
• BOTTOM POSITION: Keep going down in the squat until your thighs are below parallel. In other words, make sure your hips sink lower than your knees. Try not to lean forward too much. If you can’t go this deep, do more stretching and reduce the weight.

Keep sinking until your hips are below your knees.

• Using your legs and lower back simultaneously, push your feet hard into the floor and drive your hips up and forward until you return to the start. If you are in front of a mirror, think about keeping your chest up and driving your hips towards the top of the mirror. You will notice a huge improvement in strength.  

The deadlift

Alongside the squat, the deadlift is probably the most important exercise in the gym. You would think that grabbing a barbell with two hands and standing up with it is quite simple yet unfortunately it is one of the most poorly performed lifts. Luckily there are a few easy cues you can focus on which will fix pretty much all the mistakes you can make with this great exercise. Like the squat, there are a lot of things to thinks about so get out your highlighter and mark out the most important points because memorising these points and mastering this lift will produce fantastic results.

BEFORE THE DEADLIFT

As part of your warm-up, perform the Bench Quad and Hip Flexor Stretch described above for 2 minutes on each side. Also stretch your pecs (chest) and lats (the wings down the side of your back. The pec stretch can simply be done by placing your forearm on the edge of a doorway with the elbow at shoulder height. Turn your sternum away from your elbow until you can feel a good stretch in your chest. Hold for 2 minutes each side. For the lats, the easiest stretch is to place one arm over your head with your palm in between your shoulder blades. Grab your elbow with the other hand and pull across to the other shoulder. This will stretch your triceps. To stretch your lats, keep stretching and lean your body to the same side that you are pulling the elbow until you can feel a good stretch all down the side of the rib cage. There are better stretches for both of these muscle groups but these are simple to describe and still effective. If you would like to know more stretches please consult with a performance coach.

DEADLIFT SETUP AND ACTION

Getting the setup right eliminates 90 percent of the common problems with deadlifting. When the bar is in the right position on the floor, and when your body is in the correct position above the bar, performing the perfect lift comes easy. If done correctly, the path that the bar takes will be almost perfectly vertical. What you commonly see though is an incorrect setup which leads to having to move the bar around the knees. For every centimetre the bar moves away from that vertical bar path the stress in the lower back is increased drastically, and the same goes when you let your chest drop instead of keeping it up. So remember, if you can lift the bar without your knees interfering or without dropping your chest, you’ve pretty much nailed it:

• Start with the barbell on the floor, use the wooden trainer plates with clips to keep the bar at the right height for deadlifting. You’ll see the white trainer plates on the weight pins around the squat racks.
• FOOT POSITION: Place your feet under the bar shoulder width and so the knot in your laces isdirectly beneath it.  This will mean your shins will be about 1-1½ inches from the bar when standing. Very important, if you are too far away you will have too much angle on your shins and they will interfere with the movement of the bar.

moving the bar, bend your shins forward until they touch it and then bend forward and grasp the bar firmly about a thumb’s distance outside your legs. This is important as a grip too close in will push your knees inwards. Your arms should be wide enough so they don’t interfere with your knees at all. Remember the angle that your shins are at now and keep them there every time you lift. Basically, your knees, elbows and shoulders should all be directly over the bar.

• Drop your hips and lift your chest. Your hips must be below the level of your shoulders and, like the squat, you must keep your chest up. Pretend that you are wearing a name tag, if someone was standing in front of you you want them to be able to clearly read your name instead of it facing the floor. This will automatically make you lower your hips and lift your chest. Your lower back should be slightly arched and definitely not rounded. One mistake people make here is they unknowingly move the bar forward with their shins when they lower the hips. Make sure this doesn’t happen, keep the correct shin angle and keep the bar back towards the ankle and away from the toes!
• Without moving the bar, bend your shins forward until they touch it and then bend forward and grasp the bar firmly about a thumb’s distance outside your legs. This is important as a grip too close in will push your knees inwards. Your arms should be wide enough so they don’t interfere with your knees at all. Remember the angle that your shins are at now and keep them there every time you lift. Basically, your knees, elbows and shoulders should all be directly over the bar.
• Drop your hips and lift your chest. Your hips must be below the level of your shoulders and, like the squat, you must keep your chest up. Pretend that you are wearing a name tag, if someone was standing in front of you you want them to be able to clearly read your name instead of it facing the floor. This will automatically make you lower your hips and lift your chest. Your lower back should be slightly arched and definitely not rounded. One mistake people make here is they unknowingly move the bar forward with their shins when they lower the hips. Make sure this doesn’t happen, keep the correct shin angle and keep the bar back towards the ankle and away from the toes!

 Chest up, hips down, squeeze the shoulder blades together.

 Keep your elbows straight and squeeze your shoulder blades together and down. Now you’re ready to lift.

• Making sure your chest moves upwards at the same speed as your hips (even slightly faster), drive the weight off the floor with your legs by straightening your knees out until the bar is at mid-thigh level.

Push with the legs, then squeeze the glutes and drive the hips forward.

• Once the bar reaches mid-thigh position, squeeze your glutes and thrust your hips forward. Don’t forget to keep your shoulder blades squeezed together and your chest must stay up throughout the whole movement – no hunching

Squeeze the glutes at the top and pull your shoulders back.

• To lower the bar back to floor simply reverse the technique.Push your hips back and once the bar is past your knees, bend your knees and drop your hips so you are back at the starting position. Pay special attention to place the bar back towards your ankle and not towards your toes!
• Finally, re-set your hips, chest and shoulders ready to go again.

So there you have it, undoubtedly the two best exercises in the gym. There is a lot of detail there and for good reason; these exercises are worth doing and worth doing well!     Dan Tewson