Ten tips for instant strength

June 12, 4:51 PMDenver Men's Fitness ExaminerRyan Patrick

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That's good form.                      Photo: figureathlete.com

 1. Anytime you are squatting you should be forcing your knees out. Another trick is to push on the outside of your shoes as if you were trying to spread the floor apart. This will activate your glutes and get you more drive out of the hole.

2. Also on for squatting, when coming out of the hole, pull your shoulders together and drive your elbows forward. Provided you don’t have an ultra wide grip (you shouldn’t anyway), this will engage your lats and create more stiffness and stability for lifting.

3. On the bench press, put your feet under your hips. Don't let them hang out and 'dance' while you lift the weights.  The hips will allow you to increase the arch in your back which is a more stable position than flexion, or a flat back. 

4. When the bar is lowering during a bench press you should pull your shoulder blades together. Doing so causes your arm bone (humerus) to move independently of your shoulder blades (scapula) which can create stress on the anterior capsule of the shoulder.  Save your shoulders!

5.  Pushing the bar up from your chest on a bench you should grip the bar as tightly as possible and attempt to pull it apart. The increased grip will fire the nervous system and the pulling apart will engage the triceps to a greater extent. You’re always better with a narrow grip than a wide one for shoulder health (hint, it won’t compromise pec development either).

6. If you have back issues you should switch to single leg exercises primarily and ditch the back squat in favor of a front squat.

7. During a chin up/pull up/lat pulldown you should always pull your shoulder blades down and back. The line of pull should be roughly to your clavicle.  Think of pulling yourself into the bar leading with your chest.  This takes a lot of strength compared to your old form.

8. The starting position for a deadlift always has the bar directly beneath the shoulder blades. If the back rounds, you are having trouble dissociating hip flexion form lumbar flexion. Try a pullthrough on the cable machine to learn the movement better. Even though this has it’s own set of problems, it’s easier to correct and there is no load on the spine.

9. Shoulder health is important, but make sure during external rotation exercises that movement comes from shoulder rotation, not shoulder retraction (crunching your shoulder blade to your spine). The rhomboids on your back can compensate, and do often.

10. On a reverse crunch the starting position should be knees to chest, heels to butt, and toes to shins. This tucked position takes all hip flexion out of the exercise and focuses on the abdominals to a better extent.

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