Bench Pressing as a Skill

In coaching my powerlifters and other athletes where the bench press and one’s performance on such a movement is judged by either rep count, relative strength or maximal strength, I had to do a whole paradigm shift on how I prescribe for the old standby exercise (point in fact before the popularization of the bench [...]

FYI: Weight Training Ratios

*this comes to us courtesy of speedendurance.com What does this chart tell us? 1-3 reps: Max and Relative strength 3-5 reps: Max strength and low end hypertrophy 5-8 reps: Best combo of max strength and hypertrophy 6-10 reps: Good strength, better hypertrophy 10-15 reps: Excellent hypertrophy (for bodybuilders), average strength, lots of fatigue 15-20 reps: [...]

Daily Tip: 5 Types of Barbell Grip

Daily Tip: Upper Arm Development

Typically, you have to gain 15 pounds of overall body weight to add an inch to your upper arm measurements.

Daily Tip: Squats before Deadlifts

Everyone is familiar with powerlifting competitions order of strength events being; first: squats, second: bench press, and third: deadlifts. Whether or not this had some grand design built into it or not, EMG studies show that there is more low back activation in the squat than the deadlift. In fact, over the years Iv’ve been [...]

Daily Tip: Chocolate Milk and Recovery

Chocolate milk for recovery! After a fatiguing bout of exercise lasting nearly 2 h and finishing with intervals, 10 trained cyclists (5 M and 5 F) recovered for 4 h while drinking chocolate milk or an isocaloric carbohydrate drink in a crossover fashion before a 40-km time trial, which they performed an astonishing 8.4% faster [...]

Strength Tip – Pressing Power

A great plateau buster in pressing exercises is to train the external rotators eccentrically. The stronger your external rotators, the faster you will make progress in pressing exercises. Make sure that the eccentric lowering are of at least 8 seconds duration – Poliquin

To all powerlifters: What do YOU think is the best way to standardize squat depth for ALL federations?

Wilcox Jack – jeff, if we can figure that out, it should be bottled and given to MLB homeplate umpires! Abraham Harrod – should be pretty easy using a camera at knee level and some software developed by a high schooler… Tim Durrett – just break parallel I’m tired of seeing 1/2 squats getting passed [...]

Jeff Green’s Article in the Hammer Strength Newsletter!

2010HS_Newsletter_Q2

Workout of the Month: Internal Contrast Method

Internal Contrast method (example) Bench press 2 reps at 85-95% 3 explosive reps at 60% X number of slow reps to failure with 60% 3 explosive reps at 30% X number of slow reps to failure with 30% slow static hold 2 inches off chest for 3 minutes! Jeff Green MS,CSCS,USAW,USATF,CES,PES,NSCA-CPT Exercise Physiologist Owner-ICON Performance [...]