The zercher squat is an amazing strength exercise that can build solid muscle throughout your body and turn your hips, thighs and trunk into bulletproof walls of strong steel.  With the zercher squat, you rest the bar across your elbows and up against your body.  It is a brutal lift and because of the bar position, it forces the lifter to engage the abs and low back to a great extent and also builds great hip drive if done correctly.  It can be done through full range beginning standing or can be done out of the bottom off of a rack.  Zerchers can also be done with a cable, which is a great way to work the legs while deloading the spine.  They will force you to learn how to squat correctly because if you don't, both the bar and you are going forward.  They can be used for a max effort exercise for heavy sets of 1-5 reps or with the cable can be done for higher reps on a deload or high rep workout.  

So, walk up to the bar, get your elbows right under it and get the bar up against your body (usually around mid abdominal region); unrack it and set your stance (usually just outside shoulder width).  Keep your elbows tall, take a big breath of air in and sit back through your hips while pushing out to the sides of the floor that you are gripping with your feet, and engage your glutes.  When you hit depth (below parallel with a stable low back), drive up through your glutes while pushing through your heels.  Get ready to get strong.  Heres a vid of me hitting 335lbsx5 after pulling heavy rack deads a few weeks ago followed by Corri hitting a set of cable zerchers a while back.  These will build your competition squat and dead real nice.  If you are looking for a nice big bang variation to put into your program, definitely give zerchers a shot.  (Note: these are harder than a back squat and pretty close to front squats; you'll definitely do much less weight than a back squat and less than, a little more than or similar to a front squat depending on your individual strengths and leverages. Get these up and watch your other lifts rise.)

A common mistake people tend to make with their lunge, or single leg squat variations in general, is caving or falling over as they go down or come out of the bottom.  This can be due to abdominal, low back or hip weakness, improper breathing or just poor neuromuscular coordination.  Whatever the reason, it is important to stay tall during the lunge (looking at the reverse lunge here) while driving through the hip.  Here is a great exercise to help teach proper hip drive while staying tall.  It is also just a killer exercise in general that can be loaded real easily and also hits the entire core real nice.  Peep the vid.

When is the last time you hurt your back? Yesterday picking up a grocery bag? Helping your buddy move last month? Getting up off the toilet wrong as you were reading the latest Mens Health magazine? Picking up your girlfriend to twirl her around until you dropped her when you spasmed up? Well if you answered yes to any of these then you better keep reading this article. If you didn't answer yes to any of these, you still better keep reading this article. If you are here for any reason at all, you better keep reading this article.

Building upon the last question, when is the last time you hurt your back intentionally? I'm going to go ahead and guess that for many of you, the answer to this question is never or not recently. I don't mean when is the last time you hurt your back as in intentionally injured yourself. I'm saying when is the last time you straight up went to war in the weight room and made a solid effort to train, strengthen and bulletproof your back muscles. If you don't know when that time was, then perhaps you deserve all of the aches, pains and injuries you sustain with mundane little tasks like picking up a grocery bag to get out your crap food that you don't need or the crap food that you think is good for you because some garbage magazine said that it was but it really isn't and is in fact, in all reality, crap.

Now, before going further, let me make it perfectly clear that hip mobility and stability, glute function, abdominal endurance and stability, lumbopelvic stability, proper movement patterns, good thoracic spine mobility and solid control all around the pelvis and spine is of huge importance and should always be developed for optimal back health. McGill's stuff, Sahrmann's stuff and all of the movement impairment and corrective stuff out there is all awesome and needs to be addressed. What I am going to write about today is something that, at least in my eyes, you don't hear a whole lot about anymore. Actually training the heck out of your low and mid back and developing bulletproof muscular support, strength and endurance all around your spine and back region. There are tons of muscles to be developed and while glute work, abdominal work, etc. are all important, the back needs to be trained and trained hard. It seems to me that many have almost become scared to train their back because of all of the info that is now out there about stability, hip function, etc. Iliocostalis, longissimus, spinalis, multifidus, rotatores, semispinalis, quadratus lumborum, lats, trapezius and even the deep little intertransversarii and interspinalis muscles make up just a general summary of the many muscles that make up the lower region of the back (many of which continue up into the rest of the back on up into the neck). Want to be freakishly strong? Better train these muscles. Want to get big and muscular? Better train these muscles. Want to get lots of chicks (or, umm, good looking guys)? Better train these muscles. Want to prevent unnecessary episodes of back pain? Better train these muscles.

More commonly than should occur, I have clients “alert” me that their backs hurt or were sore after certain workouts. Now, “pain” as in bad pain that occurs from a tear or passive tissue injury is not something we want and if this is in fact occurring, the program needs to be modified for that individual or you need to learn how to use proper form. However, muscular soreness from training hard with solid exercises like deadlifts, back extensions, reverse hypers and good mornings is something that we need to push through with. Now, if your back is completely torched all the time and you don't feel much in your glutes or hamstrings, then you should probably reevaluate your technique or program. But if your back is sore or hurting sometimes after a hard training session, then maybe your building up some tolerance in those tissues where it needs to be built up. Maybe your toughening those tissues up so that next time you want to pick up that bag of groceries or carry that piece of equipment across the yard, you won't curl over and use three forms of the “f” word. Because when it comes down to it, if you never train those muscles and tissues and are afraid to put some positive stress through those muscles and tissues, when you do put some unexpected stress through them, you can easily run into problems.

If you look at some stuff out there by guys like Louie Simmons and Chuck Vogelpohl, some of the strongest men to ever walk the planet, they even go as far as to say you should do some exercises with a “bad” or rounded back position to build some tolerance in the tissues so that if you do catch yourself in that position, nothing “bad” will happen. When I worked at a corporate wellness center in La Crosse, my boss at the time, Cori Cripe had general population clients do some exercises with “natural” form (which often was not textbook like) so that if they found themselves in a bad position in a real life situation, their body would be prepared for it. I think that this is an interesting concept because while we can train proper body mechanics as much as possible, there will usually be some odd situation where we might not be able to use picture perfect form. Look at some strongman activities or warehouse jobs. While I don't think doing tons of sets and reps with “less than perfect” positioning is a good idea and that people absolutely need to learn and train with proper mechanics first and foremost, I think this idea has some value for certain people. The main point that I am getting at is that we can't be afraid to train the low/mid back and put it through some work.

Deadlift heavy, do your back extensions, perform reverse hypers, do good mornings all morning, row and pull heavy, swing plenty of kettebells and do things like these until you have some nice steaks on each side of your spine. (Of course learn proper form and use good hip drive w/ a good back position) Train each side and get the deeper fibers with side holds, side bridges, cable chops, heavy carries and windmills. Get a little dirty with it. Build a fortress. Get rolling. Have a little soreness? Good!! Get stronger. Build some endurance in those fibers (research shows back extensor endurance is a huge part of preventing back issues). The more tolerance you have in the wide array of tissues back there, the easier everyday activites will be, the stronger your body will be as a whole, the more muscle you will build and the more members of the opposite sex you will attract. A strong, endurable, muscular and well developed back is the cornerstone of a fit and strong body (talking mainly about low/mid back in this article but upper is just as important; i.e. do your rows and face pulls:). That goes for males and females. While pecs, arms and abs get all the attention in many “circles,” the back is where its truly at. It is the base for everything else. So train it and reap the rewards.

Having trouble getting you lifts up?  Well, my training has been going great as of late and I wanted to share a little of what I have been doing.  Today, I am going to focus on my bench/upper body training. 
I have been doing max effort 5-3-1 cycles.  As an example for one cycle, I have done a 2board bench press w/ mini bands.  Week 1- work up to 2-3 max sets of 5 reps
Week 2- max sets of 3 reps
Week 3- max singles
Week 4- no heavy barbell work, rep work with pushups or dumbbells

Next cycle- Medium Grip Floor Press w/ chains
Week 1- max sets of 5 
Week 2- max sets of 3
Week 3- max singles
Week 4- reps

This type of max effort cycling has been working great for me over the last 3 or 4 months and I have been hitting some nice PR's.  This past Thursday, I worked up to 275lbs+~40lbs of chains for a triple on the floor press.  I have been training with a medium/semi close grip as well to build my weaker point and get my triceps into my bench stroke more.  If you don't know, floor presses are harder than regular bench since you have no leg drive and you pause on the floor.  The closer grip I have been training with also makes it more challenging for me.  So pressing what equals out to 315 at the top for a triple in this exercise makes me happy right now!! If I were to test my max in the regular bench right now, I am 99% sure I would set a real nice PR. 

While this max effort cycling has worked well, the assistance work I have done has made a huge contribution as well.

First, I have made a big effort the entire year to bring my triceps up.  It was something I hadn't particularly focused on for awhile and I realized needed to be done.  Exercises I have hammered to bring them up and in turn raise my bench include rolling db extensions, elbows out extensions, incline extensions, overhead extensions, chain extensions, pushdowns, one arm tricep pushups and jm presses.  Pressing with bands and chains with a closer grip has helped as well.  If you read anything by any huge bencher, you will see that strong triceps are key to a big press.  I hit them hard at least twice a week, doing 2 to 4 exercises of 3 to 5 sets each depending on which workout day it is. (One day, I might focus on triceps early on.  On a max effort day, they are usually trained specifically later in the workout)  I cycle from as low as 5 rep sets to as high as 15 rep sets for different exercises.

Second, I have done a lot to bring up specific upper back muscles, particularly my lower traps.  Heavy chest supported rows, chest supported db rows and pullups to hit all of the major pulling muscles have been huge.  For the scap musculature as a whole, face pull variations have helped.  For specific lower trap work, I have hammered out lots of chest supported "I's," "Y's", and band "W's."  While my back as a whole has been a strong point for quite some time, specific areas such as the lower traps lagged behind.  After focusing on bringing things up to par, I feel much more stable when I press and my shoulders feel much better.  When you bench, your upper back should be nice and tight so that you have a solid base to push from.  You should be able to feel yourself almost rowing the bar down as your scapulae pinch.  This makes you much stronger coming out of the bottom. 

Heres how my workout from Thursday looked:
Floor Press w/ chains (add ~40lbs) 225lbsx3 245lbsx3 255lbsx3 265lbsx3 275lbsx3 PR 225lbsx10


High incline db press w/ pause 70lbs 3x8-10 55lbsx12

Chest supported db row 70lbsx6 80lbs 3x5 60lbsx8

Pullups 3x8

High to low face pull 110lbs 3x8

Incline elbows out extensions 45lbs 3x6-8/chain extensions 4x8-15

Incline hammer curls 45lbs 3x6-8/chain curls 3x8-15

Face pull x20




Extra workout:  Chest Supported I's  15-20lbs, 3x8-12
                       Chest Supported Y's 10-12 lbs, 3x8-12
                       High to Low Face Pulls 3x15
                       Light db flies
                       Grip Work

I was amped up the entire workout and after I hit some solid floor presses, I was rolling the rest of the workout.  I should note that I've been doing lots of db pressing with a pause at my chest, both flat and incline.  This is helping me to be much stronger off of my chest.  The weights drop down quite a bit to do them with a pause but it has been paying off. 

My other upper day which will be done Sunday will focus on triceps early on and will have a larger emphasis on shoulder work as well.

Hope this gave you some ideas.  Train hard!!!!

So I have received inquiries about exercises I do/have done with Dan, the marathon runner who had hip issues, that I train.  I've been working on getting more videos taken.  If you haven't already done so, be sure to read the hip impingement blog from months back.   Here is a vid explaining some basic progressions I like to use to get the glute medius functioning better. Check it out.

One thing I want to point out.  As you saw in the video, he flexed his hip when he first did the side leg raise.  I then cued him into extension.  He could be extended better than what we finished with; he was fatigued since we did this after his entire workout.  When the hip flexes, that means that the tfl (abducts the hip just like the glute med, tends to become more dominant) is trying to do the work.  So always be sure that the hip is extended fully when raising the leg up.  The side leg raise is done against the wall first while actively pushing back into the wall with the heel to ensure that the glute is doing the work.  The side leg raise shown here is done after.

As I said, it is very important to do multi joint exercises to get the muscle working in a "real time" environment.  Single leg exercises Dan has done and progressed with include split squats, stepups, reverse lunges, forward lunges, and progression from dumbbells to barbells with each.  Bulgarian split squats and one leg squats would be the next that I would use.  Hip dominant exercises include one leg glute bridges, one leg rdl's, hip thrusts, band stomps and single leg reverse hypers.  These all get the glute max nice and strong as well, which he lacked. 

When we first started, his left glute med was much weaker than his right so extra sets were done for the left with the clam shells.  I also used a band to teach him to keep his knee straight during single leg movements. 

After a couple of phases with all unilateral movements, we added in some bilateral movements including plate squats, back squats, front squats, yoke bar squats, pull-throughs,  rdl's, sumo rdl's, good mornings and reverse hypers (in different phases obviously). 

On top of all of the glute work (his glute was not extending the hip like it was supposed to so the femur rubbed against the socket, hence the reason for so much glute work), his tfl, rectus femoris and psoas needed length (psoas actually needed some strength too).  So plenty of stretching and mobility work has been done for these muscles.  The hip flexor stretch I have previously shown has been a mainstay.  It should also be noted that specific abdominal muscles play a role in what goes on at the hip and pelvis as well.(  We will save that for another post. 

He now has hardly any hip pain or clicking and has actually begun to get into some light running drills without issues.  Doing what needs to be done in the weight room to help running performance and prevent injury is HUGE and hopefully more runners will begin to realize this.  In a future post (hopefully soon future), I will discuss some of the energy systems training Dan has done to maintain and build his endurance while simultaneously strengthening his hips and fixing his problems.  Stay tuned!!

Really?!

Performing exercises on an unstable surface such as a bosu ball or stability ball has been a "popular" practice over the years for some trainers and exercise enthusiasts.  The claim is that performing exercises on an unstable surface such as a bosu ball will activate more stabilizers and train the "core."  It is supposed to be more "functional."  I hate to tell you (actually I love to), but there is absolutely nothing that is functional about doing an exercise standing on a bosu ball. 

In the latest Strength and Conditioning Journal, there is a great writeup by Daniel Hubbard on whether or not unstable surface training is advisable for healthy adults.  Looking at all of the research and a little bit of common sense, it is clearly not advisable at all.  When a movement is performed on an unstable surface, some extra stabilizers are activated, yes, but the prime movers that are ever so important for real time functional activity are unable to produce the optimal force that they usually do, and have to contribute more to stabilization instead of doing their normal job.  Why in the world would anybody want to inhibit the prime movers during an exercise?  This makes one more susceptible to injury, hurts performance and can ruin movement patterns.  It has also been shown that training on an unstable surface can alter neuromuscular recruitment that can conflict with normal training and activity on a regular surface.  During exercise on an unstable surface, antagonists are actually activated more as the agonists produce less force.  During normal exercise on a stable surface, antagonist activity usually stays the same or decreases.  There is no logic or good reason to do this.

The one time that training on an unstable surface would be advised is to train proprioceptive awareness and balance, and reactive ability right after an injury or in certain individuals with specific balance or awareness issues.

I do like the stability ball for use in certain exercises such as stability ball leg curls and rollouts.  However, this is a different story.  I would never advise someone to stand on a stability ball to do an exercise as this can lead to injury and completely destroy proper motor control and firing patterns. 

Don't believe me? Here are some published research studies to back this stuff up. 

In a 2004 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by Anderson and Behm, it was determined that neuromuscular recruitment was altered and that force output was diminished during unstable surface training.  (1)

In a 2007 study by Cressey et al. it was shown that unstable surface training actually hurt performance improvements in young, healthy athletes.  This is because there is no carry over from doing things on something like a bosu ball or inflatable disc (used in this study) to doing things in a real time activity.  Like I said earlier,  force output is less during this type of training which also hurts performance such as shown in this study. (2)

In a 2008 study by Nuzzo et al. it was shown that trunk muscle activity (or "core" activity) during stability ball exercise was less than progressive squat and deadlift exercises performed normally.  The so called added "core" activity was supposed to be one of the magical benefits of doing these types of exercises. (3)

These are just a few studies.  There are many many more that have consistently shown the same types of results. The fact of the matter is, progressing in the tried and true big bang exercises such as squatting variations, deadlift variations, chinups, etc.  will make you stronger, hammer your core, improve proper neuromuscular control and movement patterns and improve performance and body composition better than any bosu ball, stability ball or disc will ever do. 


References
1. Anderson KG and Behm DG.  Maintenance of EMG activity and loss of force output with instability. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 18: 637-640, 2004.

2. Cressey EM, West CA, Tiberio DP, Kraemer WJ, and Maresh CM. The effects of ten weeks of lower body unstable surface training on markers of athletic performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 21: 561-567, 2007.

3. Nuzzo JL, McCaulley GO, Cormie P, Cavill MJ, and McBride JM.  Trunk muscle activity during stability ball and free weight exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 22: 95-102, 2006.