Get the most out of your workout

A lot of people don’t realize their potential when it comes to strength. Many times you may miss a rep or you may feel that the weight you want to put on the bar is just outside your limits. In some cases that may be true. You just aren’t there yet. But ask yourself this. Is your warm up sufficient and are you activating the right muscles to boost the potential of a given movement? If there a better technique you could be utilizing to allow you to add more weight? The following are a few techniques and drills that you can do to “turn on the lights” in regards to certain muscles to help give you that boost in a desired movement.

Boost Your Chin up/Pull up

The first thing to bring up about this humbling exercise is that it is a movement for the back and not specifically the arms. This would indicate that you should start the initial pull with arms fully extended as opposed to the ever so popular 90 degree start. The start is key as it will allow the trainee to develop strong retraction and depression of the scapular region. This scapular cue is also the same as the bench press which is why it can be a great supplemental movement.

With that being said, the strength of the scapulothoracic region is paramount to allowing you to get the most out of your vertical pulling exercises. These muscles include the middle and lower fibers of the trapezius, along with the rhomboids, and lats. There are several ways to strengthen and activate these muscles for increased potential of this movement. Here are a few movements you could add to your warm up are workout in order to do so.

Activate

Wall slides

(activation of lower trap)

Isometric Holds

(reinforces scapular retraction/depression)

I's and T's

(activation of lower and mid trap)

Strengthen

Prone Row to External Rotation

(Forces retraction and depression w/ load)

Band Pull Apart

(Direct strengthening of rhomboids)

X Pull Down

(Strengthen Scapular retraction and depression)

Boost Your Squat/Bench

Many general fitness people will blindly walk into a gym and step up into a rack and just go right into their first set immediately setting themselves up for failure. For those who already have a solid warm up of mobility and activation there is an acute adjustment you can make to boost performance.

Keeping the peak contraction principle in mind it is known that the highest requirements for force are at the deepest point of knee bend. This is also the position where your stretch reflex is required to produce a strong concentric contraction to propel you out of the hole. This also is the case for bench press. Pressing the weight off the chest will require the highest amount of force. Here are a couple of pre-workout exercises that can immediately increase the potentiation of the stretch reflex. One thing to keep in mind is not to fatigue during these movements. a few sets of 3-5 with at least 3 minute rest would be ideal

BW Squat Jumps

(Be sure to go full range of motion)

Depth Jumps for those qualified

(Reduce contact with ground AMAP)

Plyo Push up

(Absorb force and initiate press as fast as possible)

Lying Med ball Press

(Do on a bench so that ideal elbow position and set-up can be achieved)

Boost your Cable Hold

A very popular and extremely beneficial core exercise for anti rotation and stabilization is the cable hold. There is really no way to strengthen this movement besides progressing to it and then actually performing the movement itself but there can arise some benefits from making sure you use a good set up.

Most instructions will tell you to bring the band/cable to your chest, press out and hold. This is not bad, but personally I have come across problems with the breaking up of the movement and my arms not allowing me to hold position without the weight dragging me back toward the stack. Personally I like one synchronous movement which allows my core to do the work for my arms. This also gives you a high contraction immediately in preventing recoil of the weight.

There is never a substitute for hard work and just getting after the exercise itself. But, if any one of these drills are foreign or missing from your program hopefully they can serve as great supplementary exercises to help progress your physical preparedness to higher levels!

My Gym Bag

I am very fortunate to lifts in a fairly good sports facility here my college. We have a Glute Ham Raise, plenty of platforms and racks, and loads of weights and dumbbells. There are 3 essential things that I bring along that are critical to my training that are not provided and I can't do with out.

Bands
I personally think that these are one of the most versatile tools ever. With all the variety of resistances you can get ones for dynamic work, activation, prehab, and they come heavy enough that you can use them for an intense workout. You can also attach the minis around your back and add accommodating resistance with DB work.
Sample Band Movements
Act-Lateral Band walk
Act-Standing hip Ext Rotation
LB-Band Good Morning
LB- Band Pull Through
UB PUll- Bent over Rows
UB Push-Push ups

Heart Rate Monitor/Stop Watch
This device I utilize for my own training in regards to whether I am over anaerobic threshold or not. This is also a great gauge to see how you are recovery between bouts of exercise. For example: Track the peak heart rate following an exercise, lets say the squat. If you do 3 reps and HR is at 140 and then in the following weeks your 3 reps peak HR is above or blow that you can track whether or not your work capacity is increasing. The stop watch is to keep honest with rest intervals and keeping track of how long certain bouts of exercise take.

Nike Frees
This is my personal shoe of choice because they are so dang light and comfortable. I also like the "bare-foot" feeling you get from them. Personally it doesn't really matter the shoe as long as the heel isn't to big. Also the more feeling you have in relation of foot to ground contact, you seem to get better proprioception and awareness of foot position.

Things you may want to consider that you might not have provided: Foam Roller, Tennis ball, Tiger tail, Lifting Straps, Airex pad, Boards (for board press), TRX.

Interesting Reads

Been pretty busy lately. With midterms coming to an end and working with a couple athletes on a individual basis has filled up a majority of time. I plan on posting my progress on my new block tomorrow or by the end of the week. But here are some things I have read over the last few days that I thought were interesting reads and thought provoking.

Science
Fundamentals of the Theory and Adaptation of Sports Training - SE Pavlov
This Article gives a great picture of what adaptation is and how important of a role physiology plays in planning sports training. Mind the syntax due to the translation.

Training
Dispelling the Glute Myth - Bret Contreras
This article is a great library of some solid posterior chain lifts that have been around for a while (noted in Siff) but are often neglected. The significance of some of these are the change in load vector. Also some great activation exercises.

Nutrition
Greens Taste Test - Ryan Andrews
This was a fun read basically because it was to see which greens products taste best. If you have ever had a greens supplement they usually don't coincide with each other. So if Greens supplement are your thing you might want to have a look.

Exercise
Broad Jump onto box
This is a great explosive exercise variation to the typical broad jump. Basically you need a 24"-36" box depending on your skill level. Gradually work your way back until you feel like you have reached you maximum distance. Mark that distance and do sets from there. Progress weekly further and further back. After a 3-4 weeks, re-test your broad jump and smile at the results! The significance of jumping onto the box changes the trajectory requiring a high amount of power to complete. This can be used for P.A.P training or any sort of dynamic lower body work.