Don't Hyper-extend at the End of Your Deadlift

Originally posted on www.totalhealthperformance.com.au

Don’t Hyperextend at the End of Your Deadlifts

January 11, 2016

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Nathan Waters

A problem I have seen more often with most deadlifts is hyperextending at the end of the movement. A lot more athletes, when they first train with me, have this problem. I think they do it because that is how they think the movement is supposed to be done and haven’t been shown the correct way and don’t know any better or they have a weakness. I often ask “do you get a sore back when you deadlift?” and 9 times out of 10 the answer is yes.

When you finish a deadlift you want to drive your hips forward as explosively as possible, finishing the movement by squeezing your glutes as hard as you can, with your hips fully extended, and your shoulders slightly in front of the bar. The problem comes when athletes are unable to drive with the hips and contract the glutes, they hyperextend their lower back to finish the movement instead of contracting glutes. They are actually very weak in the finished position, if you poke the butt it is soft and they often have a slight bend in the knees as well. All the load in this poor position is transferred to the low back.

Now this won’t necessarily cause an immediate injury but over time you will definitely develop one if you continue to hyperextend at the end of the deadlift. It is like tooth decay, you don’t feel it happening but you know it once you have a hole in your tooth.

If it is a bad habit that someone has developed then it is a matter of making them aware of the problem and just teaching them to stand tall, not lean back. You can give them a slap on the back once the hips are fully extended to let them know they are there. This doesn’t take very long to teach once they feel how much more solid they are in the end position and especially when they realize how much energy they were wasting before.

I like to teach my athletes to finish their deadlifts with the shoulders slightly forward for a couple of reasons. First of all is so they don’t overextend and ruin their lower backs, as spoken about above, and I also like them to finish in this position so that it teaches them a good position for when we do more explosive movements like snatch pulls, clean pulls, power snatches, power cleans etc. In these movements you don’t want to purposely drive your hips under the bar, you want your shoulders slightly in front of the bar until the point of contact where you explode.

A small change in technique like this could save you from injury and also increase the amount of weight you can lift. If you have to regress a little to get your technique right I suggest you do so it will be we worth it in the long run.

Here is a clip for some inspiration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpyCRMwlE5Y

Originally posted on www.totalhealthperformance.com.au

Train for Performance

January 8, 2017

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Nathan Waters

Training for performance is the number one goal here at Total Health Performance. We train many athletes so the goal is to improve performance in their chosen sports. Looking good isn’t our main goal as we are not bodybuilders. This is not to say that our athletes or general population clients don’t gain muscle mass and get lean. We just use a different approach than that of the bodybuilding community.

Being as strong as you look is important to us. It amazes me how often I see big puffed up blokes who can’t lift nearly as much as I think they could or should be able to. While being strong may not be their goal to me it just doesn’t make sense. The same goes for guys who are lean and look like they are athletic but then you see them run, jump, or play a sport and they look like a baby giraffe. Performing like an athlete while looking like a bodybuilder would be the perfect mix.

Even if your goal is to become a bodybuilder I believe your early training years should be focused on performance. Too many lifters walk into the gym and begin doing endless amounts of isolation work. They would be better off spending the first few years performing mostly compound movements and increasing their numbers in these lifts. This would give them a solid foundation to progress from. Also athletes tend to learn a lot quicker than non-athletes and they also have a much better mind-muscle connection. This would then carry over to a bodybuilder or someone training for aesthetics as they would be able to focus on using a certain muscle when they do decide to do isolation work and get the most out of the exercise.

I believe training for size and performance together gives the best results. In fact training to be lean, strong, big, and being able to perform well all go hand in hand. You can train for it all if you know your goal and plan accordingly. Christian Thibaudeau summed it up well when he said “With nutrition and supplement plans dialled in, the more strength you gain, the more muscle you'll put on, the better you'll perform, and the leaner you'll get. There's no doubt about it.”

Now you don’t want to try and achieve all things at once. You can’t be in a severe calorie deficit trying to get ripped and performing huge amounts of volume and expect to grow and hit massive 1RM’s all at the same time. If you have a sensible diet plan and train with big compound movements you can definitely stay lean and put on some good solid muscle mass. I like to use all squat variations, deadlifts, presses, chins, rows, dips, and with more advanced lifters the Olympic lifts and their variations. Adding in some jumps, throws, and strongman exercises such as farmers walks and prowler sprints, are also good to improve athletic performance and they are also a great conditioning tool.

Keep Your Dreams

Originally posted on www.totalhealthperformance.com.au

As kids we all have dreams of becoming something great in life whether it is being a professional sports player, an actor, a singer, a dancer, or even your favorite super hero. Somewhere along the way though many people lose this ability to dream for bigger things or lose the desire to continue to pursue their dreams.

For me this is a sad thing to see. Some people may be able to just settle with where they’re at but I can’t do this. I want to be the best I can be each day in every aspect of my life. It doesn’t matter if it is work, training, or relationships with family and friends, I want to improve and grow in all areas of my life, I don’t want to get caught in a rut and just go through the motions at a job I hate for the next 50 years. To me that’s not living.

Now I may never reach any of my goals or dreams but it doesn’t really bother me. It is about personal betterment to me. If I aim high and fall short I will still be a better person than I was yesterday. If I aim too low and achieve it, well I may be slightly better but that is all I will ever get to.

If you feel you are stuck in a rut or could be pushing harder to be what you want to be you can always look to successful people and see what they do on a regular basis and you may find some things you can implement in your life to get back on track. Here is an article that speaks about 6 qualities successful people have in common:

http://www.success.com/article/6-qualities-of-wildly-successful-people

I see so many people with the ability to reach greatness but sadly a lot of them will never come close to where they could be because they have listened to the world tell them “it’s too hard” or “it’s never going to happen, there are millions of people trying to achieve that, why can you make it to the top?” They hear this, it creates doubt, and they stop working. The people who achieve their dreams are the ones who believe in what they are doing, have a passion for it, and will do whatever it takes to succeed.

I saw this great quote from Conor McGregor the other day “There’s no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that’s that. I am not talented, I am obsessed.”

https://www.facebook.com/strengthsensei/photos/a.1413268325554552.1073741833.1410196235861761/1692528994295149/?type=3

Whatever you’re your goal is, rip in and don’t let anything stop you. You will be happier and better for it.

A Few Things About Coffee

Originally posted on www.totalhealthperformance.com.au

I had never realised how many people drank coffee until about 3 years ago when I started drinking it myself. Over 4 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year. It’s not something that I crave every day and I have a few guidelines I tend to follow. I really only drink it before a training session and I have one on a Saturday morning after work. It is always a long black as I don’t do well with milk, and I don’t drink it after 12pm so that it doesn’t disrupt my sleep. These are a few things that I do personally but there are many other things about coffee that you may want to know.

When you are purchasing coffee, whether it be out at a café or some for you to make your own at home, it is important to make sure that the coffee is organic. This is because coffee is one of the most chemically sprayed crops in the world. Many of the companies that produce conventional coffee will say that the pesticides are burnt off during the roasting process but I don’t believe this to be true. I would rather buy organic and not ingest these dangerous chemicals.

Even organic can have some problems with it but at least it minimizes the risk. If you get really into it you may want to find a company that produces coffee that is mycotoxin free and fungal by-product free. Mould often contaminates coffee beans and is one of the reasons you may feel jittery after having a coffee sometimes if you are not sensitive to coffee in the first place.

Another thing is to avoid drinking your coffee out of the take-away cups. The plastic from the lid actually ends up in your body. If you get a take-away regularly then take your own glass cup with you and get them to fill that up. Gemma Smith has written about this in a previous article that you can find here.

Coffee drinkers have been shown to live longer than non-coffee drinkers in many recent studies . Consuming 1 cup of coffee per day reduced the chances of dying from all disease by 6% and by 10% in those that drank 2-3 cups of coffee per day. This seemed to be the threshold as drinking 6 cups or more per day still only reduced the risk of dying by 10% compared to non-coffee drinkers. This has been put down to the antioxidants and certain polyphenols that are found in coffee beans. For some people coffee is the only source of antioxidants they get. Dark-roast coffee will help improve your antioxidant status and coffee can help speed up detoxification.

Coffee also has positive effects on blood vessels which can improve heart and brain health. Coffee can increase the production of nitric oxide which helps blood vessels dilate and it also has anti-inflammatory polyphenols that protect the cardiovascular system. A cardiovascular disease risk reduction of 11% was found in those that consumed 1.5 cups of coffee per day over non-coffee drinkers. A reduction of total cholesterol and triglycerides has also been shown in those that consume coffee.

Coffee has also been shown to help improve brain health reducing the risk for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. Caffeinated coffee has been shown to increase a growth factor that increases the growth of new brain cells. Interestingly caffeine has also been shown to help with depression.

Drinking coffee may also decrease your risk of developing diabetes. Drinking 1-3 cups of coffee a day was shown to reduce the risk of having high blood sugar by 49%. Consuming coffee can increase fat burning and has been associated with lower triglyceride levels.

Coffee has more than a thousand beneficial compounds but a lot of these benefits are being related to chlorogenic acid. It is a polyphenol that has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Chlorogenic acid can also lower blood glucose and reduce the risk of cancer.

These are a few of the benefits to consuming coffee. If you feel jittery or get anxious when consuming coffee, then it may not be for you. If on the other hand you enjoy your coffee then try to buy organic to stay away from pesticides and other harmful chemicals, don’t over-do it, and drink it at the right time of day to get some of the above benefits.