Yoke

…a big yoke = instant respect. No one wants to screw with a guy that has a big neck and a thick yoke. A massive yoke smells of hard work, strength, fighting and toughness. Every other muscle can be small if a big yoke is present.

Jim Wendler is yoked. Substantially. And he wrote a little guide on achieving an impressive yoke. The gospel according to Wendler says that yoke is an expression of the traps, rear delts, and neck. Developing this area is simple, yet the method requires hard work in heavy deadlifts, cleans/snatches, specific neck work, and shrugs. Only you can prevent the shame from an underdeveloped yoke. Read Jim’s article for specific tips and quality amusement.

Here’s a quality display of Jim’s yoke framed by the most confusing syntax Dave could muster:


The interesting thing about yoke is that it’s not one of those things that are only visible without a shirt on; it stands mountainous regardless. The yoke is an indicator that someone actually trains. When a guy has a big chest or arms, yet lacks a yoke, you know he’s merely tanning and using machines as opposed to using chalk and iron. Then there’s an even smaller percentage of guys who might have tall traps, but no width on their upper back; they merely hit hundreds of DB shrugs while wearing gloves.



I do think that Jim leaves one muscular area out of his definition of yoke, and it’s the shoulders (deltoids specifically). Look at that picture of Jim and you can clearly see he has boulder-sized deltoids. As an aside, delts are necessary if you’re NOT gonna look like a pussy wearing a tank-top (an article of clothing I highly recommend). So read Jim’s article and get to work on establishing that yoke lest you get confused with effeminate, glove-wearing douche bags.

Happy PR Friday — post your training updates and weekly personal bests to the comments. No dick pics.
Thanks to Yosh for linking this article to me