PR Friday — Post your training updates, PR’s, and questions to the comments and the 70′s Big crew will respond.
Weekly Q&A gives you a chance to ask anyone from the 70′s Big Crew a question in the comments below, on Facebook, or Twitter. Follow 70’s Big on Instagram.
Recap: On Monday I posted an article that discussed the benefit of “External Hip Rotation in the Squat” and why a wide stance is not conducive to doing so. Chalk Talk #3 came out Wednesday and was a quick word on the importance of preparation in training, nutrition, and rehab.
In other news:
USAW finally increased the qualifying totals to its two national meets, the American Open and Nationals. This is due to the significant increase in lifters in the past few years (thanks CrossFit) and will allow more efficient meets as well as increased standards for American weightlifting.
Thor AKA The Mountain AKA A Large Man
Thor — AKA Hafþór Julíus AKA the giant man who played Gregor Glegane AKA The Mountain That Rides AKA The Mountain on Game of Thrones AKA the TV show of A Song of Ice and Fire AKA another chance for me to use AKA — won Europe’s strongest man.
Some people want to be bigger. Some want less body fat. Everyone wants to be stronger. There’s a recurring theme with all of these goals: they can’t be accomplished by merely going to the gym. Performance, aesthetics, fitness, or health are all optimized by doing more than just a training session.
Today’s Chalk Talk briefly touches on the importance of preparation. How can you better prepare your nutrition? Training sessions? Mobility? Sleep? Relaxation? Post your answers to comments along with what you’ll do to improve.
Friday I put the image to the right in the PR Friday post and asked people to explain what was wrong with it. There were a variety of good points, but I wanted to focus on the thing that stuck out to me. Before we begin, let’s all agree that the fact this girl is squatting is more important than not squatting; this concept always trumps any bickering that follows. With that being said, I teach that if you’re going to spend the time doing something, do it in the most efficient manner possible.
For the sake of giving this girl credit, she’s got a decent bar positioning, is trying to apply force with the lateral part of her foot (to prevent a navicular drop AKA collapsed arch which medially rotates the knee and hip), and she is probably at an appropriate depth (this picture is a weird angle). It’s possible she’s doing this weird-ass squat on purpose, but we’re gonna talk about it anyway.
As a lifting coach you’ll see many things wrong with a given lift — feet, knees, hips, trunk, shoulders, chest, elbows, grip, neck, etc. — and you can’t and shouldn’t try and correct all of them at once. Fix the thing that will have the greatest effect on the gross movement. In this case I’d start with the stance.
A wide stance inherently does not allow significant external rotation relative to foot position. External rotation allows the following:
1. It contracts the external rotators.
2. It lengthens, and therefore creates tension on, the internal rotators.
3. Therefore it creates greater tension about the hip. Tension around ball and socket joints means more stability therefore strength.
This is a what a pooping dog looks like. As a man.
4. It maximizes the musculature used about the hip. In this case, assuming a good foot-to-ground interaction, force is more easily distributed across the lateral portion of the thigh on both the front and the back. Valgus, or knees in, knee positioning removes this area of musculature and emphasizes the medial quadriceps. As I explained last week, external rotation also allows greater posterior chain involvement, even in the high bar.
5. Externally rotating the hip prevents impingement of the femur against the anterior portion of the acetabulum (i.e. the leg bone from impinging on the hip socket). Avoiding this impingement facilitates squat depth as well as maintaining proper trunk positioning while achieving depth; squatting with knees forward will impinge the hip and posteriorily tilt the pelvis, which makes the person look like a pooping dog. Rippetoe’s “Active Hip” (it’s a pdf) article talks more about this.
When I see poor external rotation, I see a number of ways a squat can be improved, so it’s something I want to focus on. In her case, I’d narrow her stance to about shoulder width and emphasize the external hip rotation. Chances are I would not have to change much else with her, but it would be the first thing to make a habit before worrying about anything else. The first Chalk Talk episode briefly talks about cuing external rotation, but I’ll get into in a later post.
PR Friday — Post your training updates, PR’s, and questions to the comments and the 70′s Big crew will respond.
Weekly Q&A gives you a chance to ask anyone from the 70′s Big Crew a question in the comments below, on Facebook, or Twitter. Follow 70’s Big on Instagram.
AC and The Law Dragon will be in town, so we’ll be creating some material and taking specific questions if you have them pertaining to collegiate strength and conditioning, law and gun control, and pretending to be the “Tuna King of the South”.
Recap: This week had “Low bar vs. High Bar Squat, Part 2” and “Chalk Talk #2“. The squat article was an update on the original article, mostly with updated thoughts about the high bar squat as well as addressing the argument that there isn’t a difference between the squat variations. Chalk Talk #2 is just a quick look at two anatomy references I use frequently and how they can help you conduct soft tissue work for rehab.
This week’s discussion: tell me what is wrong with this picture.
Chalk Talk is a new little show on the YouTube channel where I’ll try and take advantage of the video format to teach.
I got the idea for this episode because I pulled these two books out to investigate about a mild pain I had in my sacro-iliac joint. Whenever someone presents with pain or an injury I’m not familiar with, I’ll open up available resources, review the anatomy, and see if I can add any information to my thought process.
Additionally, when someone is new to the coaching or training realm, I recommend these books because they are a great way to learn or sustain musculoskeletal anatomy knowledge.
Discuss the topic, ask questions, and make requests in the comments.
