Under The Bar: Did You Miss This?

By no means is this what every child on the Autism Spectrum should do. I have been working with my son on sensory processing since he was 2 years old. He is also very high on the spectrum.

This is what we did the other day.

1. Run around the truck twice. This is around 200 total yards.

2. Walking, Marching and Skipping Drills - This doesn't last long because he doesn't like it but it also doesn't take much to accomplish what I want.

3. Med Ball Smashes on the floor. He likes to slam things and this is also a way to take some aggression/frustration out.

4. Med Ball Toss Against Wall. I have him throw the ball against the wall in the gym so he gets points for every time he hits the squatter dude in the face. The goal is the same as with #3

5. Planks on hands

6. Planks on forearms

7. Perfect push ups using the bar raised on the smith machine. As he progresses the bar will be lowered.I want 20 perfect reps before lowering.

8. Squat down to a med ball with perfect form and control

9. #8 while holding a stick over head (only 1 rep but done with control)

10. Standing on one leg

11. Kettlebell Deadlifts

12. Battle Ropes - single and double

13. Rice Digs

14. Bouncing while sitting on stability ball

15. Face wall - react and catch stuffed Angry Bird when tossed against wall

16. Rope Pulls - Pull rope down until Shrek hits his head and lower slowly

** While he would like these to fall in order, I purposely mix the order up on him. This is NOT to shock the muscle but to help him cope with change of structure. This is something kids on the spectrum have a very hard time with. I DO NOT keep records for him to try to beat. Another issue with him and many others on the spectrum is dealing with win and loss situations. I avoid this as much as I can. If he asks what he did last time I will say I do not know.

There will be many that will read this and wonder, "Why not let him break records to build his confidence?" These will be the same peoples who have never worked with these kids and therefore do not know that if they do think they lost, the session will be over and motivation to want to come back again could be gone for weeks or months. This is why I said that this isn't the same for all kids. You have to know where the line is and work on getting as close as you can without crossing it. The more you can do this, the more you can push the line back.

I would also say you suck as a coach or trainer if you need to have your clients/athletes break records to build confidence

I'm baffled! If you ask most football strength coaches what their #1 responsibility is they will say injury prevention. Now go watch some of the training compilation videos and tell me why (most - but not all of the time) you see one athlete squatting for a max or max reps with no spotter or at best one guy doing the reach under, meanwhile 10-15 other athletes 8-10 foot back (including coaches) cheering the guy on? THIS is injury prevention? The squats are bad enough but the lack of spotting is outright coaching negligence or plain ignorance. My hats off to all the coaches that have awareness and actually do their jobs. PLEASE keep doing what you do so these other nitwits will follow your lead.

Training Tips

MOST OF THESE ARE FROM MY TWITTER PAGE:

• Anyone who says they have a new method of training is full of shit.
• Weak Point Help: Floor press takes legs out and keeps lats in. Close-grip incline takes lats out and keeps legs in.
• Cluster sets suck for building a big bench unless your bench is really weak. They are great for BB, but not PL
• As for leg drive and foot position: a good rule is to always make sure your knee is at or below the bench pad.
• Board Rules: you stroke the 1-board, groove the 2-board, drive the 3-board and muscle f**k the 4-board
• You don't HAVE to arch. You can also bench with your feet forward and drive your toes into shoes and traps in bench
• I was just told a penis pump is the same as doing deads with bumper plates — just trying to make something small look bigger.

No pump required...

Hip Mobility

QUESTION:

Dave,

I was wondering about my leg drive on the bench press. I don't think I get any. I just read that this could be due to hip mobility. Do you think this could be the issue?

-Joe

ANSWER:

* Can't squat - need more hip mobility

* Can't lock out deads - glutes don't fire because of poor hip mobility.

* Can't Clean - poor mobility

* You got back pain - poor hip mobility

* Knee hurts - bad hip mobility

* Shoulder hurts - yep, poor hip mobility

* Can't lock out bench - once again, poor hip mobility

Hell, my poor grammar and spelling...

Let me rephrase that...

OUR poor spelling and grammar is 100% due to poor hip mobility.

You see this because we all sit on our asses all day using computers. Those who work manual labor jobs, factory jobs and other jobs where they are on their feet all day suffer the same poor hip mobility because they are on their feet all day. Is it just me or does everyone else see how stupid this has become?

I'm not saying that this can't be the case, but let me offer another reason. Maybe you just don't know how to f**king bench!

There are basically two ways to set your feet when you bench. One is with your feet out and spread and the other is with them tucked. You will either fall into one of these two extremes or somewhere in the middle.

Using the extremes as an example (wide spread and deep tucked): If you can have sex missionary, you have enough hip mobility to bench with your feet out. If you can have sex doggy-style you are good to go with a tucked position. It does NOT take a lot of hip mobility to f**king bench. Just look at some of the biggest bench pressers in the world and you will see what I mean. They would not be good examples of balanced or good hip mobility.

Here is one video series that can help: So You Think You Can Bench?

Here are some other tips.

* Maybe you do have good leg drive and don't know it. One way to tell is to compare your floor press to your raw bench. Benching on the floor keep your lats, chest, delts and arms in the movement but removes the legs. Your raw bench should be more than your floor press - actually by around 10%. If it is the same or more than your leg drive sucks.

*** There are some other factors that can sku this such as arm length and torso thickness - but it's a good rough guide.

* Regardless of style your knees should be even with or lower than the bench.

* Your body needs to be VERY tight from head to toe. If your torso is loose your leg drive will not transfer to the upperback - then to the bar.

* If your feet out spread you need to drive your feet into your shoes so you feel like you are jamming your toes into the front on your shoe and using the floor to push you body back and into the bench.

* If you are tucked you need to drive the heals down as hard as you can.

* You legs could be weak. If you do not train them, start now. Even if you are a bench only guy you need some leg work to get your bench rolling.

I'm sure I am forgetting some other things but thanks for asking this. I have a ton of questions about leg drive in my database I have yet to get to and I hope this answers most of them.

lastly, search the Q&A archives. There are some other great tips for bench press leg drive. Here is one of the better ones by Scott Yard:

Leg Drive to Some, Including Me, is One of the Most Important Parts of the Bench

I like to get my feet under me slightly, flat on the floor. Almost as if your were to be sitting on a squat box. I get my feet set, then I adjust my body to where my legs are tight but almost uncomfortable.

When I get the bar in my hand, I begin to drive my heels away from the ground. Almost like doing a knee extension while doing a leg press. By doing this, I can rotate my upper body up onto my upper back and traps. This immediately shortens my stroke and gives me great leverage to bring the bar down. Once the bar touches the chest, begin to push even harder, anticipating the press command. Once it is given, kick it up as hard as you can.

The best way to know if you're doing this right is to lay down with a t-shirt on, and bench with an empty bar. If you push away from the ground and towards the bench you should slide down the bench head first.

Now take your shirt off, put some Stickum all over your upper back and do it again, your upper back will stay planted but your torso will rotate and raise your chest.

Hope this makes sense.

- Scott Yard

Where did they go?

QUESTION:

ANSWER

Adam,

This is an interesting question that has many angles to it so I'm not exactly sure what the underlying question is? I can't remember the exact number but I know their has been over 100 people we have placed on the site over the years. Some have moved on to others things while others have just faded away.

I never have, will not, and never will rehash any of the reasons why we have parted ways with any of the people we have had on the site. I will say some have been our decision, some were their decision and others were mutual.

There are other ways to think of the question you are asking. One major one would be what did elitefts™ or myself NOT do to help those who have left? What did we not do to help those who were not able to get the market exposure of some of the others? What are we NOT doing for those who are with us now? Being a part of this site is a two-way street so as the leader of this company I personally take full responsibility for anything we were not able or not willing to do.

Another way I look at this is in awe and honor. Being a man who has build this business from a broken folding table out of a spare bedroom to what it is today gives me a different perspective then most. I know what it takes to build a name and company in this industry. To have a platform that can and has helped others do the same is a great feeling. As you noted, I do feel very strongly about giving back and to be able to help others launch and build carriers in this field falls right in line with this.

It should also be noted that not everyone who has been on the site has been able to build business, consultation services, products, etc. I would venture to say most haven't. It takes MUCH more than just being on a web site to do this. I would say this takes; personality, experience, intelligence, creditability and a lot of personal responsibility. Some of this can be faked or in the words of some of the Motivation Guru's "fake it until you make it" while others take time to establish.

Over the years we have built a very solid interview and screening process for those we bring on the &A and as Sponsors. This has developed over the years because we have made many mistakes in the past and want to avoid making the same ones in the future. We also know the potential to build a name off the site is there and need to take this very seriously because the hardest thing to determine is "WHY" do they want to be here. Do they truly want to help others and give back - or - are they just in it for self promotion. If the only reason is for self promotion it not only hurts the credibility of the site but everyone else associated with it. When all is said and done we are a company that educates and empowers people about strength training that just happens to sell products. We are not a product and service providers that happens to educate. There is a BIG difference between the two and keeping this balanced once again falls in my job description. When it falls out of line I am the one responsible for bringing it back to it's core.

To directly answer the question asked. Does it bother me that they don't give credit back to the site. My answer would be NO.  You need to understand I do my very best to run this company and site under the core values it was founded on. While they are part of this site - culture I expect these values to be understood and honored. This doesn't always means they share these same values. In many cases they do not and have their own set of values they live and work by. There is nothing wrong with this as it is how the world works - and should work. We are all different and this is one of the best things about this world. If our values are not aligned from the start or come apart over time then the relationship will not work for either party. They move on and we move on and if things work out for the best we both grow into the future. How they do this doesn't concern me as I wish them all the best because in almost all cases the time they did spend here with us they were an asset and did help the site and business to become better. They also helped many of you to become better.

If they are successful and we had anything to do with this in the way of providing a launch platform, education, guidance or the tools to build their own way then I'm more than okay with that because it means we empowered them to unlock their own passion and potential so they could go out and make their own mark on the world.