The 14 Best Resources for Strength – May 2016 Edition

1. Stabilize Your Deadlift With Straight Arm Pulldowns – John Rusin

   This is a great in depth article covering all things straight arm lat pulldowns. Dr. John Rusin goes into a variety of different variations of the movement, and how this exercise can help benefit your deadlift and trunk stability. I’ve found myself using and programming this more and more with clients, as I have yet to find a better exercise to cue “lats tight”. Not only will this help develop strong trunk control (via anti-extension), but also keeping the bar in tight on the deadlift.

2. Training Through Injury: How To Overcome Disc and Lumbar Issues – C.J. Murphy

   For those of you that don’t know Coach Murph, this is a guy you certainly need to be taking advice from. Not only a strong dude, but he’s been in the game a long time and runs one of the best gyms in the country (Total Performance Sports). This article doesn’t directly get you strong, but it is a great resource of how one can train around low back issues and still continue to yield progress in the gym. Hopefully you don’t have to encounter low back issues, but if you are pushing your body to the limit as a competitive strength athlete, it’s likely you’re going to run into some kind of low back issues at some point in your career. Give it a read, and keep this bookmarked.

3. WATCH: Table Talk – The Best Accessory Exercises for the Squat, Bench, and Deadlift – Dave Tate

   Dave’s Table Talk Series has been one of the better YouTube video series to come out. Getting the chance to sit down with Dave and talk shop is just beneficial at any point in your life (whether it be business, training, nutrition, or life). In this video, Dave goes into his opinion on best accessory movements for the big three, and why he thinks they are vitally important for most lifters. Bust out the pen and paper and take notes.

4. Build a Resilient Set of Glutes with the Pull Through – John Rusin

   John with another excellent exercise breakdown, this time going over the pull through. This is an awesome exercise for not only bringing up the glutes, but also helping develop the squat and deadlift. I find myself using this exercise with many of my clients (online and in person), and there is not a better exercise to teach the hip hinge properly while also getting the glutes to engage properly. It’s definitely a powerlifting staple, but I think this is one exercise that can be placed in any training program, regardless of goal or sport.

5. 3 Intangibles You Need for Powerlifting Success – Tony Bonvechio

   While this article isn’t exactly how to great stronger at any one movement or exercise, Tony goes into great depth of things that can help you increase your powerlifting total come meet day. Powerlifting is just as much strategy and mental focus as it is strength. How you approach these three aspects can help you display all that hard earned strength on meet day.

6. Rack Pulls: Helping or Hindering? – Brandon Morrison

   This is an excellent quick article covering the rack pull by Brandon. It’s not uncommon to see lifters go to performing rack pulls if they miss a deadlift at the top. It must be a weak lockout, right? Not so fast. There could me a multitude of other issues at play (positioning, speed, technique, etc.). If you are going to be using the rack pull, make sure you’re not only doing it correctly, but that it does in fact address the issues you are having with your deadlift, not just stroking your gym ego.

7. Bottoms-Up Training: Fix Your Shoulders and Pressing Technique Today – Joel Seedman

   While Joel might be an IU guy (cough), this is still a fantastic article. Bottoms-up training is old-school, and it’s often something that is forgotten about in the strength realm. Joel shows a plethora of bottoms-up movements and implements you can use to keep your shoulders happy, but also building some strong pressing and a vice-like grip to accompany it. This definitely opened my eyes, as I do very little of this and we all know my grip could use the helping hand.

8. 3 Reasons You Can’t Lock Out Your Deadlift – Joe Schillero

   Elitefts teammate, Joe Schillero, goes into three ways to help fix your deadlift lock out. Any lift can have issues from a mental, physical, or technical aspect and I’m glad Joe brings this up and covers this. None of these points Joe addresses are really earth shattering, but just little things we also seem to forget. With just a little practice and emphasis on each one, you can expect this to help clean up your deadlift lock out without having to do a billion different things.

9. 7 Bodybuilding Lies That Are Keeping You Skinny and Weak – Alain Gonzalez

   This article doesn’t cover everything strength related, but there are some good take home points. Don’t listen to all the fitness dogma that is out there, as the bro-science is strong and with full force to anyone that has the ability to look good without a shirt on. Just make sure that you aren’t falling into any one of these camps, and you’ll be setting yourself up for a good road of success.

10. Is Your Warmup Preventing Progress? – Mark Woods

    The warm up is something that is often debated upon in the strength field. We know you need to get moving and get things “flowing” but what constitutes a good warm up? I’ll be the first to tell you that I used to make my warm up drastically longer than it needed to be. Correctives? Sure they can help, but honestly, just getting moving and working on the main movement for the day and slowly progressing into working weights tend to be the best approach. Some older lifters, or those with drastic issues movement wise may need a bit more, but the warm up sets leading into the work sets, set the tone for the rest of the training session. Warm up good and thorough, but drill your main movements with intent, as it will be a good indicator of how the rest of the training session will go.

11. Training Through Injury: The Edema Press – C.J. Murphy

    Murph back with another great article, and a movement that is probably hardly ever done. Continuing on his theme from the previous article, the Edema Press is going to let one continue to bench press even with lower back issues or pain. Teammate Vincent Dizenzo used this, and he’s benched 600 raw and 900 equipped. So if it works for him, it’s likely going to work for you.

12. Technique Issues in Female Lifters – Kayla Goyette

    Kayla is a stud of a coach out of JL Holdsworth’s gym, The Spot Athletics, and this article she wrote was excellent for the female population (although some men could benefit as well). Kayla goes over how to fix some common technical issues that plague women and beginner to novice lifters and clients, and how to fix them. There are a lot of great videos and points presented, and surely something everyone can benefit from to help their clients.

13. WATCH: Table Talk – How Should a Powerlifter Use a Sled or Prowler? – Dave Tate

    Dave discusses how to use a sled or prowler with a training program, something that is commonly asked and easily overlooked or misunderstood. While the sled or Prowler is GPP (general physical prepardness), this can greatly benefit recovery and provide extra work to the glutes, hamstrings, quads, or any upper body part you can think of. Being in better shape will let you hand more training volume, and in return become a stronger athlete or person. That’s a huge win. Plus, there is nothing quite like the Prowler Flu.

14. Why Train the Posterior Chain? – Zak Gabor

    The posterior chain is talked about A LOT. And for good reason. It not only makes you a killer athlete, but it also builds a great backside and helps prevent a host of low back issues. With our world being based upon so much sitting, make sure you train the posterior chain is pretty damn important. There is a host of great videos, examples, and knowledge in this article that is useful for beginners all the way up to the most advanced athletes.

That’s all the great content that I enjoyed over the course of the month. Check back next month for all the great things from June.