Tips for bigger lifts
Bench Press
1 – Push Your Feet Into the Floor
You won’t believe how much stronger this will make you. Since power comes from the ground up, learning to push your feet into the floor with all forms of pressing will increase stability and overall power.
There are two ways to do this: with your feet out in front of you, or tucked below your knees.
Both work, and the key with each is to think about driving the heels down into the ground.
2 – Chest Up!
Given the desk posture adopted by many, the chest up cue will help correct shoulder position and place the back in the correct alignment.
For example, when incline dumbbell pressing, thinking about lifting the chest up to the ceiling will create a slight arch in your back and pull the shoulders back where you want them.
Deadlift
1 – Protect Your Armpits
The next time you deadlift, think about someone tickling your armpits. Your goal is to try to stop them without using your hands.
That means you should tighten up in general and pull your lats back. This will create tension in the lats, stabilize your spine, and help straighten the back into position.
2 – Keep Your Head Neutral
Whether you’re squatting, deadlifting, pressing, or pulling, keep your head neutral so that the body stays in the right position. In other words, don’t try to look up or down.
With deadlifts, arching your neck too much makes you struggle to keep a neutral spine. By positioning the head correctly, you’ll automatically fire the right muscles and maintain a safe posture.
Squats
Proper Alignment
When squatting focus on having a neutral spine, as well as making sure your knees track in line with the direction your feet are pointing. Don’t let your knees buckle inwards on the way out of the hole.
Aim for depth
We know from EMG analysis that as squat depth increases, the muscles of the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings) perform more work. But load is important too. When comparing the effect of load with depth on the quadriceps when squatting, depth was most important.
Koben Moore
TEAM ASF