Yoke

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…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

53 thoughts on “Yoke”

  3. Pressed 155 for seven doubles. Not an all time PR but certainly the heaviest presses in a long long time. (also my WL coach has me pressing from a high elbow jerk rack position, which knocked a lot of pounds off my press initially lol)

  8. Okay, open question, related to the topic: my neck is growing, but my shoulders are not growing in an outward direction (ie they are growing in a kind of upward direction) so I still look like a 6’4 stick figure from the front at a distance. It’s not so bad from the side, but still – annoying.

    Amazingly helpful tips, beside ‘keep pressing’ which obviously I’ll be doing anyway.

    Deadlifts, pressing, rows, and pullups. Rinse and repeat. You won’t know this till it’s already happened, but when the lats are bigger the arms will kind of sit on them (more specifically pushed out a bit). When the back is wider, you’ll be wider.

    –Justin

  10. Justin would it be stupid to overhead press twice a week along with benching twice? Keep the regular TM press/bench rotation setup setup. But on saturday I do some overhead pressing again? For those who lack the boulders?

    Which one has the emphasis? I’ll chat you up about this — I have some ideas.

    –Justin

  12. No PRs to report yet on this new program, just lots of bench ladders and stuff. Today I’m going to do speed squats and RDL, then row the 130lb dumbbell until my arm falls off.

  13. @Behemoth

    A lot of people swear by BTN pressing for growing shoulders, but personally they make my shoulders asplode.

    I don’t like the internally rotated position in this exercise.

    –Justin

  14. New PR: This is my single’s week for 5/3/1 : 385 squat, and 450 DL.

    After Deadlifting today I did the barbell complex that you posted the other day. I was surprised at how taxing it was. I’m going to mix in one session of those at least once a week with some variances in exercises and loads. Thanks for all you guys do.

    Generally speaking, conditioning is harder than it looks on paper, and that’s why I always recommend crawl-walk-run instead of being Billy Badass and jumping into the hardest version of things.

    –Justin

  15. Behemoth,

    You may want to give the GSLP a shot. It put some good size on my shoulders. You are pressing twice a week and benching once, or vice versa.

    Ryan

  16. Squat PR – 103 kg
    Behind the neck jerk PR – 2 x 75 kg

    PR for not dying on squats today. 5x20kg, 1x60kg, 1x70kg, 1x80kg, 2x90kg, 1x95kg, 1x100kg, 1x105kg (fail, PR attempt), 4x80kg. And then, 1x70kg, 1x80kg, 1x90kg, 1x90kg, 1x90kg, 1x90kg. Still alive.

    I’ve been on the ice cream, bourbon, and squat diet, and I weighed 159 lbs this morning. It might be true that I need to be a 69 kg lifter after all. We shall see.

    NC State Weightlifting Championship tomorrow. I have three lifters competing.

  17. my physical therapist said I could start squatting/deadlifting again in a couple of weeks. One of the best ACL repairs she’s ever seen. I’m looking forward to joining in on the PR Fridays

  21. Not a great week overall, but on Monday, after a weighted chin-up with 2x bodyweight (+175lbs), I almost nailed one with +180bs. Didn’t nail the 230 overhead press standing today, but still got 225 standing and 245 seated.

    I have a 15 inch neck.

  28. 12 weeks ago, when I first started lifting, I set myself a goal of getting to this point of the 5×5 LP I’d chosen without missing a rep (and therefore, not stalling on any of the lifts). So today is a PR in that I’ve achieved that goal. Yay for me.

    SQ: 303×10 (ezpz), Press: 160x5x5, DL: 353×5 (DOHG, not hook), Pendlay Row: 180x5x5, BP: 210x5x5.

    I’m going to stay on 5×5 for another week and a half and then swap across to SS 3×5 after a week off (motorcycle trip).

  30. Bit of experimenting for me. Got to 320×5 on LBBS but my elbows were getting majorly agitated. Backed off the weight and focused on bar positioning and realized that over time my bar position had gotten lower and lower. Up to 305 now without elbows hurting but I’m going to back off again as I’m not used to sending my butt back and getting all goofy at the bottom of my squat.

    Went for 425×5 for deadlifts and only pulled it once. Mental block or whatever, it’s time for a reset.

    Bench 252.5 x 5
    Press 150 x 7

  33. Still progressing linearly on most of my lifts, with the exception of deadlifts (fuck). Looking to up the weight again next week

    Press 145 3×5
    Bench 245 3×5
    Squat 345 3×5
    DL 440 1×2 (fuck)

    Hit 435 1×5 on DL two weeks ago and tried to bump up the weight the following session but haven’t made any progress.

  35. PRs from intensity day today…

    Squat: 365×5*PR hella easy
    Dead: 415×5*PR
    Bench: 222.5×4

    Pretty bummed about that bench. I missed the 4th rep by pushing it towards my belly about mid way. I miss having an actual bench press setup and not just a adjustable bench in a squat rack like I do at PDCF. Excuses. I know.

  36. Started Justin’s Simple yet Effective program this past Monday, just slid my previous 3×5 stuff right into the template. It’s great to have a format to follow finally.

    I don’t have a rack or a bench so I’m limited in squatting and have to sub in ring pushups right now, but I’ll make do. Prob start wearing a backpack with some plates or something similar.

    My bar felt a bit light, so I weighed it: 40.5# Bummer, just lost 4.5 lbs on all my current PR’s…
    Unlike Brent, I wish I didn’t care.

    Today – DL 1×5 @245# (or 240.5)

  37. CFFB total: 980 lbs

    Power Clean: 215 (+10 PR), 220f
    Squat: 285 (tied PR), 295f
    Bench: 175 (+10 PR), 185f
    Deadlift: 305 (+30 PR old 1RM, current 5RM 290), 310f (came up a few inches, I was too tired to finish the pull)

    I wasn’t paying attention to the time and the gym owner informed me on my last squat attempt that I had 15 minutes left. Ended up having no rest between reps. I’m pissed I didn’t break 1000.

  38. @Behemoth

    Maybe try some Yates rows, mate? JP suggests them as a warm up to the DL, instead of power cleans or more deadlifts. I’ve just started using them last week, so I’ll wait and see how they go.

  43. Finished first week of school. Thats my biggest fucking PR.

    Joined a weightlifting club, learning technique. Pr.

    Squatted 275 (pounds, im a pussy) for a single at first night at weightlifting club. This was easy and I know I have 300 in the tank.

  44. Also 70’s big is what got me to join a weightlifting club with a coach to learn technique,and is also what made me make one of my goals competing as soon as possible another goals, so thanks.

  47. Squat: 255lbs 3×5
    Bench: 165lbs 3×5
    Deadlift: 305lbs 1×6 5 hook grip, one reverse grip.

    Food: 1×5 Joey Chestnut YouTube videos before hitting the chow hall.

    PR’s, but they will be beaten next Wednesday.

  48. The lack of definition in the delts could be because of a shoulder injury he had, I think it was a SLAP tear and he wasn’t able to put anything overhead consistently, if at all. I remember he talked about this briefly on one of the roundtable vids posted over at SS. Could be wrong though.

  50. Bench- 115kg x 1
    High bar ass to ankles back squat- 135kg x 1, 122.5kg x 3
    power clean-105kg
    I’m training squats everyday and alternating power clean and jerk with power snatch/ bench pressing. Throwing in some curls, weighted pull ups and deads when I feel like it.

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