What’s up UF! I hope your week has been off to a strong start.

Today I want to briefly talk about my personal favorite lift, the conventional deadlift. It seems that the deadlift has the reputation of being most people’s least favorite lift. However, I am one of those oddballs who loves it and how strong it makes me feel. To have a strong deadlift, you want to make sure that your form is correct, and that you leave little room for any error. Since I only use conventional form, I wanted to touch on the set up and the performance of this specific lifting form.

To start, when it comes to finding your stance on the platform, it is completely up to you. If you are unsure of where your feet should be placed, there are ways that you can test out what might feel right for you. One of these ways is the pullup bar test. This involves just hanging from the pullup bar and then dropping down from it to see where your feet land, and then using that measured distance as your deadlift stance.

Once you find that stance, you will need to find the correct starting position for the bar. Typically for me, I have the bar straight across the middle of my shoelaces. This seems to work out the best, because if you position the bar too far out in front of you, this will cause your hips to rise too quickly when you start, and you will fall out of your form immediately. If it is positioned too close to your shins, you will end up propelling the bar away from you when you reach down to start the pull. If the bar is positioned straight across the middle of your shoelaces, when you go to reach down for the bar, your shins should touch the bar, but they shouldn’t push it away from you.

When your stance and the bar are all set, next is finding out where to put your hands/arms and your head positioning. When it comes to the conventional deadlift, you want your hands/arms to stay close to your legs, but not directly up against them (right outside of the legs is a good spot and encourages you to keep your chest up throughout the lift). You will want to keep your head in a neutral position throughout the lift as well. You don’t want it facing down as that might cause you to round your shoulders and lose your positioning.

After your set-up is all good to go, it’s time to brace and pick that weight up off the ground. Once you brace, you will want to tuck your lats into your back pockets (in other words, pull the slack out of the bar and then think about pulling those lats together and down), keep that chest up, and your head position neutral. Push your feet down through the floor and pull yourself and that weight up while keeping that bar nice and close to you (my shins have bruises and scrapes on them from the many deadlifts I have done and that just means that I am keeping that bar close to my body throughout the entire lift). I like to think of my arms as hooks while deadlifting. You don’t want to bend them or move them throughout the lift, they are only there as hooks to hold onto the bar while you are lifting that weight off the ground.

And there you have it; this is a basic guideline for the setup to a conventional deadlift and how to execute it properly. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me directly or ask any of our other team members/trainers here at UF 🙂

Toria

Unioners, sing with me the classic box squat song!

Box Squats are rad, box squats are fun, remember that time you squatted a ton! All you do is find a box, bench, or a couple mats, then go ahead and slowly sit your buttocks back. You can use your bodyweight, kettlebells and even a barbell would be great. Go ahead and ask your friend to a box squat date. Box squatting with a friend is always so nice, with them at your back, go ahead and hit that weight twice. Beware the dreaded box squat plop, if you do this too long, you will feel like slop. Box Squats teach you to keep your position big and proud, so when you gently sit on that box, you’re floating on clouds. With the box beneath you you’ll always hit the depth mark. Keep on box squatting and you’ll have bigger glutes and hams than a shark. Set the box higher if you can’t go too low, then overtime your technique will grow. For all my Bill Nye science folks the box squat breaks the eccentric concentric chain which helps us have a giant jolt from the stop to start position. From beginner to professional everyone should try the box squat. So now come on over to Union and let’s rock.  Remember, I love the box squat and so should you, but please make sure you tie your shoe.

To learn more about the box squat, its variations, and the benefits, please swing down to Union and let’s get bumpy.

-CeJ

Hello everyone! We have our annual Push/Pull meet approaching on April 23^rd at 10am. Here are the rules if you are unfamiliar with how a meet is typically ran.

Bench Press Rules-

1. Feet must remain in contact with the floor during the bench press.
2. Butt must remain on the bench during the bench press.
3. Lifter will receive 3 commands. The first command will be the “start” command where the lifter will start the descent of the lift and pause on their chest to wait for the 2^nd Then the lifter will receive the 2^ndcommand of “press” where the lifter will then press the weight off their chest and lockout their elbows. Lastly, the lifter will receive their 3^rd command of “rack” where the lifter will then rack the weight back into the bench hooks.

Deadlift Rules-

1. Lifter will assume deadlift position of conventional or sumo.
2. Lifter will then lift the weight off the floor until they lock their knees at the top with their shoulders back. The lifter will then receive the “down” command where the lifter will then lower the weight back to the floor safely.

After each lift is done, 3 referees will give you a good lift or a bad lift. A bad lift will signify the color red and a good lift will signify the color white. If the lifter receives 2/3 good lifts from the referees then the lifter has a good lift and the weight will count towards their total. A lifter will receive a bad lift if they do not follow any of the rules stated above or does not complete the lift.

We hope to see you all there!

Team UF

I’ve recently been brainstorming new ways to keep my time in the gym and my training interesting. One of my current goals is to improve my exercise capacity (the maximum amount of physical exertion that a person can sustain) and be able to train harder and longer without quickly fatiguing. So, I’ve personally been thinking of ways to do this without becoming instantly bored. However, these are some generic ways that can also be applied to other goals and might even relate to your own personal goals:

• Add variations to your typical routine – change up your resistance by substituting exercises using kettlebells, medicine balls, your own body weight, etc. Other variations might include increasing the number of sets and reps that you do, decreasing rest times in between sets, using paused or faster reps, etc. Check out a HIIT session a few times a week just to see what it’s like. Trying to do at least one thing different is a good way to start and maybe find a new exercise variation you enjoy.

• Find a group fitness class to help inspire you to get to the gym and start moving. Sometimes training on your own just isn’t enough. Having that strong and supportive community is such a great way to increase motivation to come to the gym instead of dreading it. Check out one of our awesome group fitness classes here at UF. The first class is always on us, and we know you’ll love it! If classes aren’t your thing, finding a training partner and someone to help hold you accountable would also be beneficial.

• Compete with yourself. Try to get to the gym one more day than you did last week. Hit that lift that didn’t feel so great last week and challenge yourself to make it better. Maybe spend a little extra time warming up/cooling down or add a little bit of cardio to your session.

• Create a brand-new playlist. I was talking with April recently about what type of music that we listen to when we train, and the topic of becoming bored with listening to the same songs came up. Step away from your typical music taste and check out some new genres. It may take some time but creating a new playlist might get you hyped up for your next workout and help to keep it interesting.

• Go outdoors and take a hike, find, and climb some stairs, ride a bike or anything that might get your heart rate up and endorphins running.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas to add to the list, or if you get to try any of them out! I am always looking for ways to stay motivated and have fun while in the gym.

Toria

No matter what your goal is when you enter the gym you will always have to decide what rep range to train at. Today I want to spend a few minutes giving you an overview of rep ranges, and why they matter. A small disclaimer here is important, I will not really delve into every possible variable in training. We could spend hours reviewing rep speed, isometrics, and timed sets. Today’s goal will be to give you a basic overview of reps and why different rep ranges are important.

High Reps 15-25. 

In the realm of strength training this would be a high rep set. I have done sets of over 100 yet that is not the norm and generally 15-25 would be the highest one needs to train. I will give you a short list of pros and cons.

Pros.

Increase mydocondrial density. The mydocondria (as you may remember from HS science class) is the powerhouse of the cell. When we get stronger and add to the size of muscle fiber we reduce mydocondrial density. In order to increase mydocondria we must train in higher rep ranges.

Increased vascularization of the muscle. We want more blood pumped into the tissue so adding blood vessels is an easy way to do accomplish this. Adding more reps will add more arterials to the muscle you are training.

Less stress on the joint. Due to the lighter load that you must use during high rep training the stress on the joints will be less.

Great Pump. Everyone loves a great pump

Cons.

Limited strength gains. High rep training will not increase strength in a significant way over the long haul.

Adds fatigue with little benefit. When doing high rep work the first 10-15 reps will add stress without adding much else to the training session. You must be careful when using this style of training that you don’t overuse certain joints.

Hard to recover from this training. Depending on the movement high rep work can take a long time to recover from. If you are squatting or deadlifting and using high reps you will have to take many days to recover before returning to this movement. I’d generally recommend use high reps for smaller movements.

Mid Range Reps 8-12

Pick up any bodybuilding magazine and you will see a ton of work done using these reps. 3X10 is always popular.

Pros.

Load is heavy enough to make some strength gains. Weight can be 60-80% of your 1 rep max. With this load and rep range you can absolutely increase overall strength.

Easier to recover from than high rep training. Due to less reps the overall stress can be less.

Easier to get more sets in. You could do 3-6 sets and build more volume with this rep range than with the higher rep ranges.

Cons.

Still not heavy enough to be very specific for absolute strength work.

Not mentally challenging enough. Over the years I have met a ton of people that live in this rep range and are afraid to go for the heavy sets. Lower reps will add a little fear to your life and this can be a very good thing in training and in life.

Lower rep ranges 1-5.

This is the the rep range that you should earn in your training. What I mean by that is in order to do 1-5 reps per set you must prepare yourself by doing the work that leads you to heavy sets.

Pros.

Low rep and heavy load training will increase strength. The body will only adapt to the stress you place upon it. If you wish to be stronger you must do some low rep work.

Low rep training will teach you to brace. I’ve heard all the fancy words and phrases thrown around with no context. Brace, engage your core, tighten up, and many more. If you want to learn to brace unrack a heavy weight and you’ll begin to understand all of this.

Low rep training is a challenge. Overcome fear and hit a weight you have never attempted before.

Cons.

Stress! If you go the well too often you will either not make progress or get injured. Low rep training is hard on the body so shouldn’t be used more than once a month.

Low rep training is very specific to the movement. This means that some exercises are not made for low rep training. Large multi-joint movements are best, while uni-lateral, and isolation exercises don’t work well with lower rep ranges.

Chance of acute injury can increase in low rep training. Due to the extreme loads used during this style of training one must be careful. Use competent spotters (UF has a ton of these so ask), be mentally engaged with the lift, and don’t push too far beyond your current limits.

There it is a basic overview of rep ranges. Now I am going to challenge you in your own training. Do something different! It does not matter what you do different, just do something different. If you have been stuck with your 3X10 workout, try 5×5. If you have been doing singles, go for 4X8. Whatever change you make ride it out for a few weeks.