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I thought it'd be a good idea to see what everyones favorite articles are on here. Post 'em up



2R4U

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Motivation from DC (figured I'd start out with some of my favorites)



I get alot of emails and hear alot of personal stories from guys that are bummed out, depressed, feeling like they wont ever be that bodybuilder they want to become. I also see some personal accounts on these boards and I want to respond to some of the guys who are 140 to 210lbs and are really trying in bodybuilding but that I see are giving up hope. DONT EVER ****ING DOUBT YOURSELF! DONT YOU EVER ****ING DOUBT YOURSELF! If you put your nose to the grindstone and be persistent, consistent, and driven my promise to you is that you will make it to a very elite bodybuilder in the not to distant future. I went 3.5 years once without missing a meal (6 a day)--if i did miss a meal i set my alarm clock at 3am and got up even when i was dead tired and cooked it and ate it. If you really want this bad, and have that "im going to get this shit done" attitude, I guarentee you that youll end up where you want. Will you be a pro? No and neither will 99.99% of everyone else out there. But if you push the limits and do what I have been trying to do with everyone for the last 4.5 years on the net (turn yourself into a fat burning, muscle building, blast furnace) you will get there.
I am noone special but I had people calling me "stickboy" and laughing how skinny I was in the beginning when I told them i was "trying to become a bodybuilder" with my ever present shopping bag with all my meals in it so I could eat every 2.5 hours. Screw those people! Guess who kisses my ass now when I go back to my old home town on the East Coast and go into my old gym. I dont want to see anyone in this forum thinking "man im never going to make something out of myself as a bodybuilder" BULLSHIT!!!! Yes you will and dont let anyone tell you otherwise! Prove them wrong. Pick the bodyweight you know you need to be at and eat up to that bodyweight while doing cardio and carb cuttoffs to keep lean. Eat like a massive 300lb monster and cardio like a guy who is 8% and your going to end up at 250 jacked!
This is your life, dont listen to those people doubting you, they are going nowhere themselves and want to keep you at their level. Shore up all holes in your regimen. Training, supplementation, diet, sleep, stretching, consistency in all of those is the key. There is no doubt in my mind that I can turn anyone (and i mean anyone) into something special if they are willing to be meticulous, steadfast, and stay the course 100%. Alot of you keep jumping around and doing different things but if you really sit back in your chair and think it all out--YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO! Almost every single guy reading this right now can turn themselves into one of the 5 best bodybuilders in their gym. DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER! I had a pack of freinds when I was 20 years old I used to hang with. They dwarfed me. I had by far the worst genetics but I had 50 times the willpower of those guys. One was muscular and naturally shredded, one had incredible genetics and looked like a bodybuilder anyway but when he lifted he got pretty incredible looking, one was 250lbs and a big monster with very limited lifting (lazy), one had slightly better genetics than me and he was also pretty determined. I bypassed all of them in spades, every single one of them because I have a "no ****ing way am I going to fail" drive to this sport. The next time you look in the mirror and doubt yourself and get bummed out because your not where you want to be, I want you to remember this post. If you want something bad enough and go at it with the best of your abilities and smarts, you might not become the best, or pro, or top of the class at it, but you will become PRETTY DAMN INCREDIBLE at it, because of your fortitude and hard work. Dont let any son of a bitch tell you otherwise--this is your life-Get in that freaking powerack, make that logbook your bitch AND GET IT DONE!


2R4U

[2Ripped4U]

How to SQUAT for HUGE ARMS
By Stuart McRobert

To build muscle mass, you must increase strength. It’s that simple. You will never get huge arms, a monstrous back, a thick chest, or massive legs without lifting heavy weights. I know that probably doesn’t come as a revelation to anyone. But despite how obvious it seems, far too many people (and not just beginners) neglect power training and rarely make increasing the weights lifted in each successive workout a priority. You must get strong in the basic mass building exercises to bring about a significant increase in muscle size. One of the biggest mistakes typical bodybuilders make is when they implement specialization routines before they have the right to use them.

It constantly amazes me just how many neophytes (beginners), near neophytes, and other insufficiently developed bodybuilders plunge into single-body part specialization programs in the desperate attempt to build big arms. I don’t fault them for wanting big arms, but their approach to getting them is flawed. For the typical bodybuilder who is miles away from squatting 1 1⁄2 times their bodyweight for 20 reps (if you weigh 180 lbs., that means 20 reps with 270 lbs.), an arm specialization program is utterly inappropriate and useless.

The strength and development needed to squat well over 1 1⁄2 times bodyweight for 20 reps will build bigger arms faster then focusing on biceps and triceps training with isolation exercises. Even though squats are primarily a leg exercise, they stress and stimulate the entire body. But more importantly, if you are able to handle heavy weights in the squat, it logically follows that the rest of your body will undoubtedly be proportionally developed. It’s a rare case that you would be able to squat 1 1⁄2 times your bodyweight and not have a substantial amount of upper body muscle mass.

This is not to say that you don’t need to train arms, and squats alone will cause massive upper body growth. You will still work every body part, but you must focus on squats, deadlifts, and rows—the exercises that develop the legs, hips, and back. Once you master the power movements and are able to handle impressive poundages on those lifts, the strength and muscle you gain will translate into greater weights used in arm, shoulder and chest exercises.

In every gym I’ve ever visited or trained in, there were countless teenage boys blasting away on routines, dominated by arm exercises, in the attempt to build arms like their idols. In the ‘70s, they wanted arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the ‘80s Robby Robinson was a favorite and currently Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, has set the standard everyone wants to achieve. Unfortunately the 3 aforementioned men as well as most other top bodybuilders have arm development far beyond the reach of the average (or even above average) weight trainer. But arm size can be increased. However, not in the way young trainers, with physiques that don’t even have the faintest resemblance to those of bodybuilders are attempting to make progress. Thin arms, connected to narrow shoulders, fixed to shallow chest, joined to frail backs and skinny legs, don’t need body part specialization programs. Let’s not have skewed priorities. Let’s not try to put icing on the cake before the cake has been baked.


Priorities
Trying to stimulate a substantial increase in size in a single body part, without first having the main structures of the body in pretty impressive condition, is to have turned bodybuilding upside-down, inside-out and back to front.

The typical bodybuilder simply isn’t going to get much meat on his arms, calves, shoulders, pectorals and neck unless he first builds a considerable amount of muscle around the thighs, hips and back. It simply isn’t possible—for the typical drug-free bodybuilder, that is—to add much if any size to the small areas unless the big areas are already becoming substantial.
There’s a knock-on (additive) effect from the efforts to add substantial size to the thigh, hip and back structure (closely followed by upper body pushing structure-pecs and delts). The smaller muscle groups, like the biceps, and triceps will progress in size (so long as you don’t totally neglect them) pretty much in proportion to the increase in size of the big areas. It’s not a case of getting big and strong thighs, hips, back and upper-body pushing structure with everything else staying put. Far from it. As the thigh, hip, back and upper-body pushing structure grows, so does everything else. Work hard on squats and deadlifts, in addition to bench presses, overhead presses and some type of row or pulldown. Then you can add a little isolation work—curls, calf raises and neck work (but not all of this at every workout).


The “Driver”
The key point is that the “engine” that drives the gains in the small areas is the progress being made in the big areas. If you take it easy on the thigh and back you will, generally speaking, have trouble making gains in the other exercises, no matter how hard you work the latter.

All this isn’t to say just do squats, deadlifts and upper back work, quite closely followed by some upper-body pressing work. While such a limited program will deliver good gains on these few exercises, with some knock-on effect throughout the body, it’s not a year after year program. Very abbreviated routines are great for getting gains moving, and for building a foundation for moderately expanded routines. They are fine to keep returning to on a regular basis. The other training isn’t necessary all in the same workout but spread over the week. This will maintain balance throughout the body and capitalize upon the progress made in the thigh, hip and back structure.

Just remember that the thigh, hip and back structure comes first and is the “driver” (closely followed by the upper-body pushing structure) for the other exercises. These other exercises, though important in their own right, are passengers relative to the driving team.


Big Arms
To get big arms, get yourself on a basic program that focuses on the leg, hip and back structure without neglecting the arms themselves. As you improve your squatting ability, for reps and by say 100 pounds, your curling poundage should readily come up by 30 pounds or so if you work hard enough on your curls. This will add size to your biceps. While adding 100 pounds to your squat, you should be able to add 50-70 pounds to your bench press, for reps. This assumes you’ve put together a sound program and have worked hard on the bench. That will add size to your triceps.

If you’re desperate to add a couple of inches to your upper arms you’ll need to add 30 pounds or more over your body, unless your arms are way behind the rest of you. Don’t start thinking about 17” arms, or even 16” arms so long as your bodyweight is 130, 140, 150, 160, or even 170 pounds. Few people can get big arms without having a big body. You’re unlikely to be one of the exceptions.

15 sets of arm flexor exercises, and 15 sets of isolation tricep exercises—with a few squats, deadlifts and bench presses thrown in as an afterthought—will give you a great pump and attack the arms from “all angles”. However, it won’t make your arms grow much, if at all, unless you’re already squatting and benching big poundages, or are drug-assisted or genetically gifted.

As your main structures come along in size and strength (thigh, hip and back structure, and the pressing structure), the directly involved smaller body parts are brought along in size too. How can you bench press or dip impressive poundages without adding a lot of size to your triceps? How can you deadlift the house and row big weights without having the arm flexors—not to mention the shoulders and upper back—to go with those lifts? How can you squat close to 2 times bodyweight, for plenty of reps, without having a lot of muscle all over your body?

The greater the development and strength of the main muscular structures of the body, the greater the size and strength potential of the small areas of the body. Think it through. Suppose you can only squat and deadlift with 200 pounds, and your arms measure about 13”. You’re unlikely to add any more than half an inch or so on them, no matter how much arm specialization you put in.

However, put some real effort into the squat and deadlift, together with the bench press and a few other major basic movements. Build up the poundages by 50% or more, to the point where you can squat 300 pounds for over 10 reps, and pack on 30 pounds of muscle. Then, unless you have an unusual arm structure, you should be able to get your arms to around 16”. If you want 17” arms, plan on having to squat more than a few reps with around 2 times bodyweight, and on adding many more pounds of muscle throughout your body (unless you have a better-than-average growth potential in your upper arms).

All of this arm development would have been achieved without a single concentration curl, without a single pushdown and without a single preacher curl. This lesson in priorities proves that the shortest distance between you and big arms is not a straight line to a curl bar.

2R4U

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Cutter, Bulker, Cutting, Bulking-WHAT A CROCK OF BULLSHIT
-DOGGCRAPP-

If i never hear these words again in my life it will be too soon. I cringe everytime i hear someone (straight from bb.com) say "im coming off a bulker and now im doing a cutter"..What the hell is that?..that is the most idiotic concept ever! So what your doing is taking 2 steps forward for 4 months and then 1.5 steps backward for 4 months and repeating over and over? Talk about a waste of valuable time! Half your freaking year is gone to hell because your cutting for half of it and gaining no muscle. How bout a novel concept for you? How bout getting dramatically larger over time with huge food (protein) intake and super heavy training but adhering to carb cuttoffs and doing cardio (for increasing hunger and keeping bodyfat at bay reasons) so that you stay lean!!!!!!!!!! Gee whiz, might that be a better way?!

Bulker: An Excuse to become a fat **** for the sake of beleiving your putting on muscle mass to others and yourself (and you probably are but at a 50/50 ratio of muscle to fat--wow thats awesome!)

Cutter: 3-5 months of wasted muscle building time (trust me youll be building very little muscle mass during this) in the quest of turning yourself back from a fat slob you turned yourself into to someone presentable.

THINK ABOUT IT!!!! Your 200lbs, eat like a 250lb guy to get freakshow bigger, and train like a rhino with heavy weights to get larger but also do everything in your power (green tea, cardio, carb cuttoffs) to keep at a bodyfat percentage that your proud of or can live with. This is all about turning your body into a muscle building fat burning blast furnace!
If you do bulking and cutting for the next 2 years and with all those "cutting cycles" adding up to a years time, guess what you just gave up a year of lifting--one year of nonexistant muscle mass accumalation. Thats like lifting for the next 6 years and you only get 3 years of productivity out of it. See the problem is, alot of people try to stay lean year round while also tryng their hardest to put on muscle mass and they do it all wrong. They eat like a 190lber trying to get to 250lbs and think that--by some miracle that will get them there. This is all about becomeing a food processing machine here. Take in a surplus (protein/food), create a demand to put on muscle (seriously heavy lifting/DC training) and then taking care of excesses and burning them off (carb cuttoffs/cardio/thermogenisis)----eating and training like a 300lbs offseason behemoth but doing everything else in your power to be that guy walking around at 7-14% bodyfat (whatever floats your boat)....See its not that hard, just think it out....but most of all dont waste your freaking time taking 2 steps forward and 1.5 steps backward....this is about constant forward progress. If I hear anyone say "cutter" or "bulker" again on this board, you get the official title of "bodybuilding.com guy", like a scarlet letter. This is constant bulking and cutting at the same time and you dont forsake one for the other unless your competing for a show.
You turn yourself into a machine and you keep that machine evolving. Does anyone in this forum actually beleive that if you are 200lbs and doing cardio 3-4x a week at 30-45 minutes a pop but eating 400-500 grams of protein and a shitload of food to get bigger that - YOUR ACTUALLY NOT GOING TO GET BIGGER BECAUSE OF THAT CARDIO? If your not getting bigger then your either not eating enough or your a young guy whose metabolism is so fast that your one of the lucky ones who doesnt have to do cardio. Thats another story I have to write about one of these days--Cardio. Every time I hear a guy tell me...."I just cant eat enough"....I ask him "are you doing cardio?", and he gives me that puzzled look and thinks "why should I do cardio? I have trouble gaining weight and eating enough".....BINGO!!!!! What do you think cardio does? You get up in the morning and start your day with some cardio I guarentee youll be starving the rest of the day and be eating like a damn horse. IT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME. Cardio is a two way street--increases hunger and keeps you lean. You have trouble getting bigger? Add cardio first thing in the morning after 30 grams of protein in water and some bcaa's and watch yourself eat the rest of the day! You wont be missing meals, youll be starving. Which leads me to getting off this computer because im starving.I wrote this very fast because im late--so sorry bout that

2R4U

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Juanca

Train Brutally Intensely, why?
What if i told you that you could easily get three times the progress (from your current workouts] with half the time in your gym? sounds impossible? its not! its called "intensity". Either youve got it, or you dont. That doesnt mean you cant, however, learn how to be much more intense and turn your routines into gut busting, electryfying, results producing workouts. In fact, once you apply intensity to your workouts, youll trigger new muscle growth in the first four weeks then you probably ever have before....
Heres how...
First, spend less time chit chatting. idle gym gossiping between sets is a big no no. to keep your intensity high, you should be resting no more than 45 to 120 seconds between sets (depending on the size of the body part of course-legs would require a little more time, whereas biceps might only require 30 to 45 seconds). But notice i said "a little more time". How many times have you seen guys or gals sitting around between sets talking, walking by the cardio deck to check out the women, or sitting on a bench wrapping there knees, getting them selves psyched up for their next set? heck, on many occasions, ive walked in the gym, performed my entire workout, and left while some guy is still sitting on the same bench press on his eight or ninth set. Look, the fact is, about 90% of all weight trainers spend there entire lives struggling like this in the gym.
Second, remember when i say that you cant build new, stronger muscle fibers unless you damage the muscle fibers allread in place...Well, damage doesnt come in the form of wimping out at the end of your sets. You want to push yourself beyong your limits to cause serious damage to those muscle fibers. And you can do this each and every set by simply following this rule: "when you cant do any more reps, do two more!"
Say your shooting for ten reps, and you hit it......what are you stopping for? push through your pain barrier and crank out a couple more reps. even if you dont have a person spotting you, just do partial reps. Anything. just get two more. During these "extra" reps, you will seperate yourself from all others and pass them all up in record time!
Last, the shortest route to massive, unlimited muscle growth is to stick with the basic, hardcore exercises. like barbell rows or deadlifts for the back; squats for those massive, sweeping legs; chest press' for a thick powerful looking chest; and that goes for the smaller muscle groups too. dont be afraid to do heavy BB curls for your bis or heavy military press' for your delts.
Most guys never discover a routine or technique that will give them the constant, sustained growth they desire. thats because any program that simply skips out on the basic, fundamental exercises is horribly incomplete- it ignores all of the lifts ( like squats and deads) that signal the body to send surges of growth boosting hormones and cause you to grow- to gain both size and muscle.
You know, in your heat, this is true. yet, most of the time you might want to skip over these hardcore lifts and techniques because they seem to dificult or too painful. some guys will flounder like this for years. DONT be one of them.
Enjoy,
JC

2R4U just a couple I could find...

[2Ripped4U]

This thread was a dud 'eh?

[Flowsybaby]

Good read thanks.

[2Ripped4U]

yea sure thing , I will post some up later

[2Ripped4U]

bump... anyone?

[nextteenamateur]

HERE IS ONE I LIKE FROM IRONADDICT

Whenever I go on the road for a seminar, I have to find a place to train. Most of the time this isn't a problem because I have to secure a gym to run the second half of my seminar anyhow, and usually they have the basic training needs. I always try to fly out on a Friday afternoon, after my dynamic-squat workout, and then get back home Sunday night so I can get to the gym Monday morning for my max-effort squat and deadlift training session. This way, all I have to do while on the road is catch a dynamic-bench workout.

This session doesn't require very much so I usually don't have any problems.

But, there was one time I had to fly into a location on a Wednesday afternoon. This meant I'd have to find a place to squat on Friday morning. While this may not seem like a big deal to some, to me it would present a major change. When I got to my hotel I pulled out the yellow pages and turned to the health-club section.

I was looking for something like "Iron Pit" or some other hardcore name. It didn't take long to see I wasn't going to find such a place in the phonebook, so it was on to my second choice. I started looking for a Power House, World Gym or Gold's. I found one about ten minutes away and thought I was set.

During breakfast on Friday morning I was going over my workout in my head. I was planning on using 405 with the strong bands on the box squat. Then I'd move on to speed deadlifts, lower back, and abs. I already knew I was going to have to find some way to rig up the bands and probably find something to sit on instead of the box. After I finished my breakfast I gathered my bag and headed to the gym.

When I pulled into the parking lot I began to feel this was going to be a long day. From the outside the place looked too nice. Those of you who train in a hardcore gym know exactly what I mean. I entered the club (after being blinded by the neon) and spoke with the front desk girl. I signed my wavier, paid my dues, and headed for the one and only power rack.

This is when I saw something I couldn't believe. The bar was loaded with a dime on each end and some guy was doing barbell curls in the **** power rack! Not to be a dick, I waited until he finished what seemed to be ten sets and then made my way over to the rack.

I started by setting up a few dumbbells on each side of the rack to attach my bands to and then picked out the best bar I could find. They actually had an Okie Squat Bar. This made my day because it's very difficult for a big man to use a standard Olympic bar for the squat. I found a set of aerobic steps to use as a box and started my warm-ups.

The warm-ups felt pretty good, considering the environment I had to train in, but I did notice about a thousand eyes on me trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. A few people even came over to ask. As I began to explain, I realized they were cutting into my timed rest intervals so I pulled out the back-up plan. I put on my headphones, cranked the DMX and got to work. The squat session went very well. The speed was good, my form stayed in check, and all and all it was a good session. So I stripped the bar, took off the headphones and began to set up for my second movement.

I'd planned on speed-deadlifting 405 for five or six singles. This is mainly to work on deadlift technique, so I really didn't need any type of psyche-up. I just had to pull fast with good form. I learned from Louie a long time ago that to get a good deadlift you don't need to train the deadlift heavy all the time. At first I thought he was full of ****, but in time I put 40 pounds on my deadlift and became a believer. Now that Westside has a ton of lifters pulling in the 700s and six lifters in the 800s, I have very little doubt it works.

My first set felt like crap. The bar was too far in front of me and I didn't keep my shoulders behind the bar. This was no problem as I'd adjust on my next set. The second set felt great. I hit the groove and the bar felt about a hundred pounds lighter. I try to keep the rest periods on these sets to 45 seconds at the most and was about to pull my third set when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw some 20-something kid who was wearing a polo shirt and looked to be about 165 pounds dripping wet. I motioned him off like a annoying mosquito and pulled my fourth set.

After my set I asked the kid if I could help him. He asked a question I'll never forget. "What are you doing?" he said. I thought to myself, "What the hell does it look like I'm doing?!" Out loud, I replied very kindly that I was doing deadlifts. He then informed me that they didn't allow deadlifts in this gym. Now I was getting a little pissed. He told me that the weights hitting the floor are too loud and it bothers the other members. So I told him the sound of the treadmills and Stairmaster motors are too loud and that bothers me. Why doesn't he go over and tell the other patrons to get off the machines?

At this point I must've pissed him off because he said under his breath that I wasn't even doing the deadlifts right. I asked him what he saw wrong in my technique. (You never know, he could've seen something I was missing.) He told me that I needed to sit lower to the ground and pick the weight up with good form and not use my back. He also told me my shins had to stay close to the bar and I should be using a wider stance.

While not being a dick, I asked him where he'd learned this information. Then I saw it. I couldn't believe I'd missed it the first time, but there it was right in my face: a gold name badge with his name and "head trainer" right underneath it. At this point I asked him if I could finish my last set at which point I'd love to sit down and discuss his training concepts with him. He was cool with that so I pulled my last and by far best set. Maybe it was the added geek aggression that made the difference.

As I tore the bar down I started up a friendly dialog with Mr. Head Trainer. I let him know I was in town to work with a few ball players on their strength-training programs. He told me he'd been in the personal training field for three years, has been to several conferences, had done a few internships, and this was where he learned how to lift. Out of curiosity I asked him how much he could deadlift. He told me he could pull 315 for five reps. I spent the next hour going over with him what I felt were the ten biggest mistakes in the deadlift.

The first thing I told him was the old deadlift motto: The meet doesn't end until the bar hits the floor. To a powerlifter, the deadlift can be the end-all or the end-of-it-all when it comes to closing out a total or placing in the competition. In short, we have to know how to deadlift the most weight in the safest manner or we'll have a very short career.

I also told him that most people never read a whole lot about the deadlift because of one reason: it's very hard and demanding to train and perform the deadlift. To be frank, most in the strength training/fitness training/bodybuilding field would rather come in the gym and train their back with various pulley machines, talk to the girls, and go home with their carb drink in hand. They like to live on the light, easy side of the game while avoiding the dark side.

Well, get ready to enter the dark side as I share with you what I told my new personal-trainer buddy.


The Top 10 Deadlift Mistakes

Mistake #1: Training the deadlift heavy all the time

Very few people can train the deadlift week after week and still make progress. I feel the only ones who can get away with this are the ones who're built to deadlift. If you're built to pull, then the stress on your system is going to be less than those who aren't built to deadlift.

The deadlift is a very demanding movement and it takes a lot to recover from. This is compounded if you're also squatting every week. The squat and deadlift train many of the same muscles and this is another reason why you don't need to train the deadlift heavy all the time. Years ago the only deadlifts I did off the floor were in meets. The rest of the time was spent training the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. While my deadlift increased 40 pounds over the first few years, I did run into some problems with this approach.

The major problem I had was when I'd go to a meet I didn't know where to place my feet and if I got stuck I didn't know how to adjust. Since I'm not built to deadlift, these things aren't natural to me. I had to find a way to put some pulling back in the program without taxing the system. What we came up with was a session of speed deadlifts with a moderate weight pulled for five or six singles. This way the weight was heavy enough to teach good form and not too heavy to tax the system. This worked out to 45 to 50% of max to be trained after the dynamic or speed squat workout. These don't need to be done every week but should be used as the meet or test day get closer.

I still suggest letting the box squat train the deadlift muscles with dynamic squat training of eight sets of two reps in a wave-like sequence. (For squat training details, see the following articles: Periodization Bible Part II, Squatting from Head to Toe, and TNT Part II for cycles and percentages.)

Let the max-effort day be for training the heavy deadlift. Try to pull off pins, off mats, or with bands one out of every four to six max effort days. Let the other day be some type of medium or close-stance good morning or low-box squat.


Mistake #2: Pulling the shoulder blades together

This is a mistake I made for years. Stand in a deadlift stance and pull your shoulder blades together. Take a look at where your fingertips are. Now if you let your shoulders relax and even round forward a little you'll see your fingertips are much lower. This is why we teach a rounding of the upper back. First, the bar has to travel a shorter distance. Second, there's less stress on the shoulder region. It'll also help to keep your shoulder blades behind the bar. You'll read more on this later.


Mistake #3: Rounding the lower back

This is another mistake I see all the time and most lifters know better. It happens most of the time because of a weak lower back or a bad start position. While keeping your shoulders rounded you must keep your lower back arched. This will keep the shin straight and the shoulders behind the bar and keep your body in the proper position to pull big while keeping the back under minimal stress.

If you pull with a rounded back, the bar is going to drift forward away from the legs, thus putting you back into a very difficult position from which to recover. When the bar drifts forward, the weight of it will begin to work against your leverages and cause you to have a sticking point just below the knees or mid-shin level. When you pull you can either arch your back in the beginning standing position before you crouch down to pull or once you grab the bar. Either way it's important to keep the lower back arched and tight.

There are many ways to strengthen the lower back for this. Good mornings, reverse hypers, and arched back good mornings are a few. You can also use a band around your traps and feet for simulated good mornings. With this technique you only use the bands and train for higher reps (in the 20 to 30 rep range) for local muscular endurance.


Mistake #4: Not having enough air in your belly

As with most exercise you must learn how to breathe. Stand in front of a mirror and take a deep breath. Do your shoulders rise? If so, then you need to learn how to breathe. Learn to pull your air into your diaphragm. In other words, use your belly! Pull as much air into your belly as possible, then when you think you have all you can get, pull more. The deadlift isn't started by driving your feet into the floor; it's started by driving your belly into your belt and hips flexors.

One note on holding air while you pull. You do need to try and hold your air as long as possible, but this can only last for a few seconds while under strain because you'll pass out. So for a long pull, you're going to have to breathe or you'll hit the floor and people will stare. While there are several people out there who may think this is a cool thing, I disagree. It's much cooler to make the lift!

So when you reach the point where you begin to really have to fight with the weight, let out small bursts of air. Don't let it all out at one time or you'll lose torso tightness and cause the bar to drop down. By letting out small bursts you can keep your tightness, continue to pull, and lock out the weight.


Mistake #5: Not pulling the bar back

The deadlift is all about leverage and positioning. Visualize a teeter totter. What happens when the weight on one end is coming down? The other end goes up. So if your body is falling backward, what happens to the bar? It goes up! If your weight is falling forward the bar will want to stay down. So if you weigh 250 pounds and you can get your bodyweight to work for you, it would be much like taking 250 pounds off the bar. For many natural deadlifters this is a very instinctive action. For others it has to be trained.

Proper positioning is important here. If you're standing too close to the bar it'll have to come over the knee before you can pull back, thus going forward before it goes backward. If your shoulders are in front of the bar at the start of the pull, then the bar will want to go forward, not backward. If your back isn't arched the bar will also want to drift forward.

For some lifters, not being able to pull back can be a muscular thing. If you're like myself, I tend to end up with the weight on the front of my feet instead of my heels. This is a function of my quads trying to overpower the glutes and hamstrings, or the glutes and hamstrings not being able to finish the weight and shifting to the quads to complete the lift. What will happen many times is you'll begin shaking or miss the weight. To fix this problem you need to add in more glute ham raises, pull-throughs and reverse hypers.


Mistake #6: Keeping the shins too close to the bar

I'm not too sure where this started but I have a pretty good idea. Many times the taller, thinner lifters are the best pullers and they do start with the bar very close to their shins. But if you look at them from the sides they still have their shoulders behind the bar when they pull. This is just not possible to achieve with a thicker lifter.

If a thicker lifter with a large amount of body mass — be it muscle or fat — were to line the bar up with his shins, you'd see he would have an impossible time getting the shoulders behind the bar. Remember you need to pull the bar back toward you, not out and away from you. So what I believe happens is many lifters look to those who have great deadlifts to see how they pull, then try to do the same themselves. What they need to do is look to those who are built the same way they are and have great deadlifts and follow their lead.


Mistake #7: Training with multiple reps

Next time you see someone doing multiple reps on the deadlift, take note of the form of each rep. You'll see the later reps look nothing like the first. In competition you only have to pull once, so you need to learn how to develop what's known as starting strength for the deadlift. This is the strength needed to get the bar off the floor without an eccentric (negative) action before the start.

In other words, you don't lower the bar first and then lift the weight as you do with the squat and bench press. When you train with multiple reps you're beginning to develop reversal strength, which isn't needed with the deadlift.

These two reasons are enough to keep the deadlift training to singles. If you're using multiple reps with the deadlift, then stand up in between each rep and restart the lift. This way you'll be teaching the proper form and be developing the right kind of strength.


Mistake #8: Not keeping your shoulders behind the bar

You've already read this a few times in this article and it's perhaps the most important thing next to hip position in the execution of the deadlift. Your shoulders must start and stay behind the barbell when you pull deadlifts! This will keep the barbell traveling in the right direction and keep your weight going backward. The deadlift isn't an Olympic lift and shouldn't be started like one.

I did a seminar with Dr. Mel Siff at one of his Supertraining camps (one of the best investments you can ever make!) and we showed the difference between the two positions. For the Olympic lifts you want the shoulders in front of the bar; for the deadlift you want them behind the bar. Period. The amount of misinformation out there about this is incredible.




Mistake #9: Looking down

Your body will always follow your head. If you're looking down then the bar is going to want to travel forward. At the same time you don't want to look at the ceiling. Focus on an area that keeps your head in a straight up and back position with the eyes focusing on an upper area of the wall.


Mistake #10: Starting with the hips too low

This is the king of all mistakes I see. Too many times lifters try to squat the weight up rather than pull the weight. Think back to the number of times you've seen a big deadlift and thought to yourself how much more the lifter could've pulled if he didn't **** near stiff-leg it. I see it all the time. Someone will say, "Did you see his deadlift?" Then the other guy will comment, "Yeah, and he stiff-legged the thing." Am I telling you to stiff leg all your deadlifts? No, not at all.

All I want you to do is look at your hip position at the start of the lift when you pull and watch how much your hips move up before the weight begins to break the floor. This is wasted movement and does nothing except wear you out before the pull. The closer you can keep your hips to the bar when you pull, the better the leverages are going to be.

Once again, next time you see a great deadlifter, stand off to the side and watch how close his or her hips stay to the bar throughout the pull. If you're putting your ass to the floor before you pull, your hips are about a mile from the bar. You're setting yourself up for disaster when the lever arm is this long. This is also the second reason why lifters can't get the bar off the floor. (The first reason is very simple: The bar is too heavy!)

You need to find the perfect spot where your hips are close to the bar, your shoulders are behind the bar, your lower back is arched, your upper back rounded, your belly full of air, and you can pull toward your body. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but then again, what is? (Definitely not training in a commercial health club….)


Conclusion

After I'd discussed my pulling concepts with my new trainer friend, he was a little set back. He'd never heard these things before and didn't really know what to believe. After this I took him back out on the gym floor and started guiding him through a few deadlifts. A few corrections here and there and in no time at all he pulled 405. This wasn't an easy lift for him but he made it and with that his confidence grew.

Next, I let him in on the best training advice he'd ever hear. I told him the first thing he needed to do was spend more time under the bar and suggested he find a real gym and start training with those who were much stronger than him. The best training secrets come from the small garage gyms with very strong lifters, not the spandex driven, neon-machine warehouses. This, I told my friend, would be his introduction to the dark side, and with hard work and proper training, he may one day even enter the Dead Zone!
__________________
THERE IS IN THIS WORLD NO
GREATER FORCE THAN THE FORCE
OF A MAN DETERMINED TO RISE.

[Peaked_18]

I believe that's Dave Tate.

[nextteenamateur]

It is, but I got it from the IA article page.

[Peaked_18]

LOL