Weight training exercises are essential in the development of specfic strength. The front squat is one of these and should be an important aspect of your programming

When performing the front squat you must learn to ‘rack’ the bar on the front of the shoulders and hold the bar in the ‘Olympic’ position.

This is a key technique, especially as it is a foundation exercise needed before to transition into the full Olympic lifts such as the clean.

The exercise starts by sitting down into your heels by pushing your hips back. Maintain a tight core by engaging your abs and keep your elbows high as you go down.

Now the depth to which you go will depend upon a number of factors that you may or may not be able to change (but that’s for further discussion at another point).

The important thing is that you do not go so deep that your ‘tail’ bone starts to rotate under you, the risks to your lower back are just too large to any benefits you could gain.

The picture to the left is the lowest I am willing to go before I start to compromise my spinal position.

Everyone is different and you need to keep with in the safe zone to be safe…some people will undoubtedly tell you that you are not squatting deep enough but until you address the causes of your lack of range the most prudent thing to do is be cautious…you’ll still get some great gains from doing it any way.

Especially as most people are trying to be fit for daily functioning not fit for weight lifting competitions.

It’s important in the bottom posistion of the front squat to keep your weight back into the heels and the elbows as high as you can.

You initiate the up movement by driving the hips forward keeping you weight into the heels and generating as much power from the glutes and hamstrings as possible.

The beauty of the front squat is that recent research suggests the loading on the hips and the thighs is similar as to that of the back squat. Also the lumber spine forces are also of fairly equal loads.

The major advantage the literature reports is the reduced knee compression forces in the front squat compared with the back squat.

This can be incredibly important in reducing the amount of wear and tear in the knee joint and is especially pertinent to the heavier people who’s knees are forced to bear increasingly larger loads.

Of course don’t forget the main reason for lifting this way is to learn one of the key components of the Olympic clean.

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I have recently just joined one of the big gym chains, here in the UK.

One of the things that I am surprised about is the number of people who still go and do their cardio training and then go and lift weights, when it should really be weights before cardio.

I’ve talked about this before but it is worth reiterating.

You really are better off doing your weight training first as by definition lifting weights is a high intensity task and doing cardio is a low intensity task.

By doing your cardio first you are using up the valuable and limited sugar supplies that the body needs to lift weights.  You can do cardio on either sugar or fat but only sugar can be used for the weight training element.

Also it takes 15-25 minutes (depending on fitness level, the fitter the quicker) to move fat from where it’s stored to the muscles where it can be burnt up.  So by warming up and lifting weights first you are releasing the fat and then have it available to start burning as soon as you start your cardio training.

Until next time, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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It is important to stress, that this program is for some one
who is an elite athlete rehabbing from a long term (18 months plus)
hamstring injury.

Eccentric training programs are only ever conducted with
people that are experienced in all types of training and all types of
exercise lifts.  In my eyes someone does not automatically become
advance after 18 months of training (although this should
be used a s a benchmark) but when they can execute all the
exercise with correct form and proper technique.

If you’re wondering on how you do things correctly then
check out my 10 trial of my Weight Training Technique Program.

So here are the exercises:

Resisting Partner Pushing – as your partner pushes you
backwards for 10-12 reps on each leg.  It is your job to slow them
down and resist the backwards movement (the partner
should offer medium to high resistance as you warm up and get
used to the process – I’ll hopefully be recording all the exercises soon.

Partner Pulling – this time wrap a towel or strap around your partner,
stand face to face and try and pull them backwards for 10-12 reps
on each leg.

Stiff Leg Deadlift/Romanian Deadlift – use a stiff leg technique for the
downward eccentric phase, lowering the weight down in about
8-10 seconds.  Bend the legs and complete a concentric
Romanian deadlift to return the bar to waist height. 4-10 depending
on load.

Split Squat Lunge Drop.  Starting in a split lunge position, raise up on
your toes and then rapidly drop your heels to the ground and dropping
into a deep lunge, slowing the acceleration as the back knee drops
to the floor.  Allow the backknee to come to rest on the ground before
standing back up.  5-8 each leg depending on load.

Eccentric Split Zercher.  Although have made a small change in this case and
allowed the back leg to stay on the floor – due to including two other
exercise next, the basic premise of the exercise has stayed the shame – you
cansee this exercise in the post I did here
- http://alexpoole.tv/blog/zercherzercher

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift – technique on WTT site.

Single Leg Stiff Leg Deadlift – technique on WTT site.

Single and two legged box drops.  Stand on a box and jump off controlling the
landing and slowing the deep squat to focus on the hamstring breaking potential.
20-30cm single leg and 40-60cm two legs – 10-12 each.

So there it is, I am not in a position to share the actual
make up of the program yet until I have completed the 12 week exercise
protocol, butI will share in the end my overall periodization and use of the
superstition of training effects to elicit the greatest potential for improvements.

Until next time, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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A couple of weeks ago I told you about some great new
research I was looking into that advocated the use of eccentric training protocols
for rehabilitating or helping prevent hamstring injuries.

Now know piece of research will be able to prove that this
reduces injury in any one individual, but what they do say is that the reoccurrence
rate and incidence rate drop significantly in soccer teams over a number of
seasons.

What this means is that the teams that used eccentric training
exercises had far less hamstring strains than in pervious seasons and in
relation to teams that didn’t implement the eccentric training protocols.

So in the video below you will see the Zercher Romanian
Deadlift, I actually do it through one leg and the most important part is the
eccentric part where I fight the body being taken slowly forward.

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Check out my latest favourite training footwear, they’ve been around for a couple of years but I’ve only just found out about them and had my new training footwear for about a week.

Here’s the US site from the manufacturer – www.vibramfivefingers.com

They’re alot more expensive over here in the UK unfortunately!!

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Bench Press has to be one of everyones favourite exercises and one of the lifts I get asked to explain alot.

Most people get some sort of bench press plateua at some point in their training.

Discovering if you have a bench press sticking point and why this can occur is essential to keep you moving towards the maximum lift possible.

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If you compete in any sport you probably would have
experienced a hamstring strain.  It hasbeen
quoted in research to have one of the highest injury rates in all sports, that
is for non contact injuries…knee ligament and cartilage injuries from contacting
someone or something else are even more common.

I have been pretty quite over the past few months as I’ve
been working on completing my Masters degree…to do this I just need to do my thesis.

I have to admit that it has been really difficult getting back
into the academic way of writing (it looks so different to how I ‘chat’ here)
but I have really enjoyed delving deeper in to my chosen piece of research.

I could off completed this a few years ago if I’d got involved
with some of the current research the university was doing but I really wanted
to do something that was useful to me.

So I started looking at some of the people I had dealings with
and what I could do for them as a piece of research….it’s really a case study
as it only involves one person but you get the point.

As an ‘in the trenches’ fitness professional, I had worked with
people in the rehab of many injuries and one person in particular had a problem
that I thought we could really look to put right.

As I said hamstring injuries are wide spread in sports and this
guy, who was a 200m sprinter, has had a long term hamstring strain that stops
him performing at the level he was (i.e. he is slower) and gives him some mild
pain when sprinting.

So I got to work looking at all the research on long term hamstring
strain and also how to try preventing hamstring injuries.

Now to be more precise for any techies out there he has a chronic
tendonopathy of his left hamstring at the origin.

In other words he has a problem with his hamstring tendon at
the bottom of his butt and it has been around for a long time.

With out doubt the most amount of positive research out there
has been designed around protocols that used a lot of eccentric training.

An eccentric muscle action is described as when a muscle is lengthening
under tension.  So an easy way to remember this is to think about gravity –
every time the weight moves towards the floor is an eccentric movement.

So when you squat your hamstrings and bottom eccentrically
lengthen (if they didn’t you’d just collapse the floor) as you move down.

If you are doing it on a machine where you have to put a pin
in then again it is when the weight stack is moving down.

So here I had a problem with my research.

Finding a training protocol that could be carried out in a gym,
and not need specialist pieces of equipment costing tens of thousands, was extremely
hard.

I did it finally and really think I have put something special
together.

Next time I’ll be sharing with you the exact make up and look
of the particular program.

Until then, remember,

Train hard, train smart, make every rep count!

Alex

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I’ve been a little quite recently as my physical business
has been through a tough time which eventually lead me to close the doors on my
gym.

The good news is it gives me more time to write and post on
my blog, so you should be seeing a lot more of me.

I have also been working with a college of mine on a
training regime called The Hardcore
Workout – 4 Week Training Program.

We’ve had loads of questions about what to do and how to
best use the program to get long term fat loss results and try and get in shape
for the summer.  So we decided to run a
free webinar to tell everyone what it’s about and how to ‘read’ the program.

If you haven’t yet downloaded your free 4 week program (or
seen the videos that go along with it) don’t worry, you will get immediate access
when you register for the free webinar.

Click here to register now.

Any way if I don’t see you tomorrow night on the webinar
have a good couple of days and make sure to check back soon for my latest rant….I
can feel it brewing.

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I went to see the knee surgeon Mr John Hardy yesterday for the two week post op consultation. He removed the stitches and we were both extremely happy with the results considering only two weeks had passed.

I have excellent range of motion and great quad tone. I have a little swelling in the knee still but that’s to be expected since I have been trying to stay active and doing as much rehab as possible.

I warmed up with a cross train for five minutes in my Fat Burn In 30 workout.

Today I decided to do a big 10 exercise circuit of 10 reps for two sets.

It looked something like this:

Romanian Deadlift 85kg x10
Incline Chest Press (DB’s) 20kg x 10
Lat Pulldown (neutral grip) 50kg x 10
Shoulder Press 15kg x10
High Seated Row 25kg x 10
Squats (Kb’s) 12kg x 10
Supine 90 Crunch & MB Toss 5kg x 20
Single Leg Single Arm Biceps Curl ** 12kg x10LR
Single Leg Single Arm Triceps Press (overhead) ** 10kg x10
Single Leg Hamstring Bridge Foot on Med Ball x 10LR

** Both these exercise I used as rehab for the knee by balancing on a unstable surface.

Finished off with 10 minutes on the cross trainer doing intervals of one minute high intensity, 1 min easy.

Quick and simple completed in 32 minutes.

Knee feels good, look forward to some extended intervals for my cardio training tomorrow.

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Thanks to Bob for asking this question in the comments section.

“It sounds like an excellent routine, but in will not allow most people to use heavy weights. If that is true what % on 1RM would you recommend 50%???”
1RM refers to one repetition maximum. This is the heaviest weight you can lift and only complete one rep.

Now Bob refers to 50% 1RM which means that if you can maximally bench press 100kg for one rep then, 50% 1RM would mean you would use 50kg.

For the programme I wrote in this post Super Charge Your Body
Bob is probably not far off with his 50%.

The basis of this programme is that as time passes and you rack up more sets, you will naturally fatigue and the weight will become more fatiguing so that by the end, when you’re doing 8 or 6 reps, it is becoming tough to complete the last few.

Selecting weight for this type of training needs a certain amount of knowledge of your own abilities and I certainly do not recommend testing your 1RM on a lift if you do not have the correct tuition and ‘spotters’.

There are ways of testing yourself with lighter weights and doing something like a 3RM (most weight you can lift for 3 reps and no more) or a 5RM. Again as this is a maximal test it is certainly a no no if you don’t have people to spot and help you should you fail (you are looking to fail when you test a RM).

So if you don’t know what is roughly 50% of your 1RM then I recommend this process.

Select a weight you can definitely do 20 plus reps with. If you complete the whole programme and do not find that the last two reps at each level are challenging (i.e. you feel you are fatiguing quickly), then next time go up.

You will eventually find a level that is probably between 40-60% 1RM but it does not need to be exact, it is just a general way of fitness professional prescribing a load.

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