Clean Style Deadlift Technique
Having examined Bench Press Technique fairly recently, I wanted to cover another important (and usually improperly done) exercise and that is the clean style deadlift. And while deadlifts are certainly less likely to be seen at the average commercial gym, when they are seen it’s usually a biomechanical horror that makes your back hurt to watch.
Bench Press Technique
Now, let me say right up front that I am going to be detailing a very specific variation on bench pressing, which is the raw generic power bench press. Lemme explain those terms. Raw means no gear as in no bench press shirts. Yeah, a lot of guys belt but, unless you’re using the belt to hold down your bench shirt, it’s pretty pointless. And I guess you could consider wrist wraps gear, I can’t say I’ve seen many non-powerlifters use them. But raw in this context means no bench shirt.
Woodchop and Reverse Woodchop
The woodchop and reverse woodchop actually exist in two very distinct forms; perhaps more interestingly they do basically opposite things. This is probably some of the source of the confusion. That’s in addition to the fact that most people seem compelled on this exercise to use wayyyyy too much weight which makes their form awful.
Leg Curl with Hip Extension
A commonly made argument is that there are no isolation or machine hamstring exercises that also work the glutes/posterior chain. This is usually claimed in articles that describe the Glute-Ham Raise exercise (GHR) which is a semi-isolation movement that does both).
It’s also incorrect.
Shirted Benching - A Guest Article by Dan Montague
In Bench Pressing Variations, I talked about the three different ‘types’ of bench pressing and tried to talk about geared/shirted bench pressing. And while I had the basic concept right, I presented geared benching a bit wrong. The grip was a bit narrow, the tuck a bit much
Bench Pressing Variations
After my article on Benching with the Pecs, I got a follow-up question on a forum about pec activation, someone had mentioned looking for tips before and come across the old Vince Gironda bench press to the neck. This type of bench is often used by bodybuilders to ‘isolate’ the pecs. It’s also a great way to ruin your shoulders forever.
Benching with the Pecs
There are a lot of problems people have in the gym but one of the more common is the complaint of “I can’t feel my pecs when I bench”. In the majority of cases, this is simply because the person was never taught to bench press and use the pecs.
RDL vs. SLDL
Having looked a the clean style deadlift in detail in a previous exercise technique article, I want to compare and contrast briefly two related and often confused movement in this article. Those two movements are the Romanian Deadlift (RDL) and the Stiff-legged deadlift (SLDL). Many in the field tend to use these two terms interchangeably but they acutally describe two very different exercises.
