The truth behind wraps, bands, belts, shirts, gloves, and all other assisting devices

Being forced to workout at a commercial gym these past few months, I have seen a ton of things. Some good, most bad. One thing I see a lot of is the use of assisted devices such as wraps, belts, shirts, etc. I see guys coming in wrapped up like a Christmas present from head to toe. The issue I have with that is nobody in my gym is a power lifter or strong man competitor.

A power lifter is someone who lifts extremely heavy weight usually for reps between 1-4. They focus on something called "the big three." The big three included the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift. Competitive power lifters are extremely good athletes moving upwards of 3-4 times their body weight at times. Since these men and women, yes women, are lifting this extreme weight they sometimes require assisted devices such as wrist wraps, knee wraps, belts, and more.

The issue comes in when the average Joe who is just looking for a good beach body starts using all these assisted devices for every workout. Things like wraps and belts and gloves, are doing some of the work for you, so you are not getting the full benefit out of it. Take for example the weight lifting belt. Some people use it for every lift. I once saw a guy use a belt for bicep curls. The issue with that is when you put the belt on your core does not need to be activated. So, you are never developing your core. You should have a strong enough core to stand their and curl without requiring a belt. The same applies with gloves and wrist wraps. Everyone complains that they don't have the grip strength to hold the bar. Well, you will never develop that grip strength unless you ditch the wraps.

Now, I want you to know, I am not suggesting that these assisted devices be taken off the market. There are select people who should be using these devices. However, if you want to develop a strong core, a strong grip, and a strong body, you need to lift the weight yourself, not with wraps, straps, and all that other crap.


Disagree? Let me know. Please let me know if you have any questions or blog topic ideas.

Best,

Doug Spurling
Spurling Strength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu

10 uses for a smith machine

Tonights workout was amazing. However, as usualy I saw kids messing around, thinking there doing their bodies good. Using the smith machine to bench 275lbs with 2.5inches of total range of motion does not make you look cool, it destroys your shoulders. Here is a throwback article that Eric Cressey did for T-nation a few years ago. He discusses 10 uses for the smith machine(none of them include bench pressing). Click here for the article

Art of the squat..Part 3

Tonight I want to talk about single leg movements. Now I know, single leg movements are not technically squats, but I like to group them together sometimes because you can do these in place of squatting and get the same, if not better results.

Like I mentioned before, not everyone is suited to squat, whether that be traditional, front, or whatever, some bodies just should not be squatting. The good things about single leg movements is that they put less stress on the whole body, the surrounding joint, and don't require a lot of weight to see results.

Some of the single leg movements I love and use often include:

Bulgarian split squat (rear foot elevated lunge)
Reverse Lunge
Lateral Lunge
Single Leg Deadlift
Single leg hamstring tuck

The Bulgarian split squat is my favorite. It allows you to isolate one foot at a time. It requires a lot of core strength and balance. It works your entire lower extremity while improving flexibility in your hip flexors.



The reverse lunge is similar, but doesn't require as much balance as both feet are plated on the ground.



The lateral lunge focuses more on the glutes, and can be a bit more awkward for someone who has not done them before. You have to think of sitting back on your but, not going to the side.



Single leg deadlift is another great exercise focusing a lot on the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back).



Finally, the single leg hamstring ball tuck. I am sure you all know the traditional hamstring ball tuck where your laying down on your back, lifting your hips up, and bringing the ball into your butt. This is the same thing, just know you elevate one foot, so you isolate one leg at a time. Again, similar to all single leg activities, this requires a lot more balance and core strength.

Unfortunately, not a lot of people do the single leg hamstring ball tuck so I don't have any pictures of it. I am however beginning the process of taking pictures of each and every exercise I can think of, so I am not forced to use cheesy, no shirted, google images.

I challenge you to give these single leg movements a try. They are a lot more challenging then they look. You have to remember your goals, and how your body works and reacts to certain exercises. There are some people who can squat great, and see great results from it, others not so much. You also have to look at program goals. If your goal is to develop power for a sport. You may see benefit from doing a single leg movement for some functionality and strength, but your not going to develop power.

If you have any questions on program design, and what exercises are appropriate for your goals feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Also, I am always looking for feedback on my blog, and any advice or criticism you may have, so please let me know.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Spurling Strength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu

The art of the squat....Part 2

The first part of this blog discussed basic squatting and the box squat. Today, I want to briefly talk about front squatting. Like I mentioned, not everyone is designed to do a traditional back squat. For some, a box squat, front squat, or single leg lunge variations are going to be easier on their body.

A front squat is a great squat to work on maintaining proper back arch and not having too much forward trunk flexion. The bar is placed on your anterior deltoids, or right on your collarbone. When you do the squat with the bar there, if you bend forward too much, the bar will literally roll of your arms and onto the floor. So, you are forced to maintain good body position. Because the bar is supported by your shoulders, you are not able to do as much weight as a traditional back squat. So, the front squat is great for building leg strength, especially in the quads, but it also a great exercise for learning the proper squatting motion, assuring that the first motion is your hips back, not bending your knees.

There are two different types of grips for the front squat:

The clean grip:



The cross grip:



Whether you choose the clean grip or the cross grip, it doesn't matter. As far as my preference, I use the cross grip. With the gross grip the weight of the bar rests on your anterior deltoids, and you just have to assure your elbows stay at the same level of your shoulders.

The clean grip is also good, but tends to cause a lot of stress on the wrists. If you look at the picture, you can see how extended his wrists are. You have to have great wrist flexibility in order to do that.

So, remember this is a humbling exercise. You will not be able to toss around the same weight with this exercise as a traditional back exercise. But, this is a lot more challenging, requiring a lot of core strength and good body position.

Look forward to part 3, the final part of the art of the squat later this week when I talk about single leg variations.

Any questions, shoot me an e-mail.

All the best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Spurling Strength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu

Everything and anything about squatting part 1

Squatting is a basic human body movement that we have done since we were a baby. Yet over the years of development, people lose the ability to do a proper squat. I am just talking a body weight squat, forget when they decide to throw some weight on the bar.

Don't get me wrong, squatting is a foundational movement and should be a part of most everyones program. However, not everyone is made to do traditional back squats. For example, a person like myself. Being 6'6" tall I have many disadvantages when it comes to lifting. The two main lifts that are difficult are benching and squatting, simply because my extremities are so long. So, I tend to do more box squats and front squats.

People sit way to much. They sit at work, sit in the car, sit when they get home, and so on. As a result, sitting caused extremely tight hamstrings. On top of that, they think there doing good by going to the gym, and they go do 60 minutes on the elliptical. Well guess what? That also shortens and tightens your hamstrings. Because so many people have tight hamstrings, they tend to compensate when their lifting with there lower back. That is when you see a lot of forward trunk flexion and kyphotic movements, which then causes pain and injury.

As you look around at college strength and conditioning programs and the leaders in the field like Mike Boyle and Eric Cressey, you will notice that they are doing more and more non-traditional squatting. These include things like front squats, box squats, and lung variations.

The box squat is one of my favorite exercises to do. It really emphasis the hips and glutes while working on your form on every rep.

Here are some great lines from Dave Tate, one of the strongest and most intelligent men in the field.

1) Training on a box will allow you to sit back onto the box to a point where your shins are past perpendicular to the floor. This places all the stress on the squatting muscles (hips, glutes, lower back and hamstrings.) When you can increase the stress on these muscles and lower the stress on the quads, then you'll be ready to see your squat poundages start moving.

2) Restoration is another major advantage of box squatting. You can train more often on a box when compared to free squatting. According to Louie Simmons, the original members of Westside Barbell in Culver City, California, used to perform box squats three times a week. Currently at Westside we train the box squat every Friday for our dynamic workout and occasionally on Monday's maximal effort workouts. If you're new to box squats, I suggest you do them once per week.

3) When performing box squats you never have to guess how low you're squatting. It'll always be the same. Think about it: when most people start adding weight to the bar, their squats get higher and higher. You see this all the time in any gym you go to. They look good with the light weights, then begin doing quarter squats when the weight gets heavy. With box squats, you'll always go low enough.

4) The last reason to box squat is to reinforce good squat technique. Many times for the intermediate or beginning squatter, the hamstrings aren't yet developed and "sitting back" into a squat is impossible without falling over backward. To teach these athletes how to free squat properly would take months. The squat wouldn't look right until the hamstrings and glute strength increases. Why wait two or three months? Put them on the box and you'll have them squatting properly within five minutes. Within one month the hamstrings will begin to kick in because of the added stress of sitting back on the box.

So, today I focused a lot on box squats. My next blog I want to focus on front squats. A squatting technique that puts more focus on the anterior part of the leg, but a very humbling exercise.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

$3 cardio

I just recently wrote about High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in a previous blog, so I hope you had a chance to try it. Like I mentioned, interval training can be done on any piece of cardio equipment or by simply using your own body weight. Today, I would like to give you some insight on one of my favorite pieces of cardio equipment. The best part is, you can pick one of these up with a few bucks pretty much anywhere.

Have any idea what it is?

Yeah, you probably didn't guess a jump rope. Jumping rope is one of the best forms of cardio you can go. On top of building foot quickness and light feet, it burns massive amounts of calories. Not to mention, it is huge time saver. 10 minutes of jumping rope burns the same amount of calories as running on a treadmill for 30 minutes at 7.0mph. In addition, it won't put all that pressure on your joints like a treadmill. The best part is, you can use one of these suckers just about anywhere. The problem is, have you ever tried jumping rope for ten minutes? Yeah, it is not easy.

So I challenge you, next time when you head towards the treadmill or elliptical to do you HIIT or steady cardio, make a detour and pick up the rope instead. Your body will thank me.

Questions? Shoot me an e-mail.

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Spurling Strength & Speed

dspurling@une.edu

Warm-up 101

This blog was prompted by a viewer who asked me about the proper way to prep the body for a workout. So, I decided to answer it so that everyone can view my answer.

Far to many people walk in the gym, throw down their keys, and hop on a treadmill. They then precede to lift a few weights, maybe do some crunches, and then walk out. Well, there is a lot of issues with that, but for now lets just tackle the warm-up.

The warm-up is just that, a warm-up. You are trying to warm up the body, heat the body, and prep it for exercise. So, why in the world would you just jump on a machine right away and start lifting. Think of it this way. Spaghetti, when dry you can crack it in half without trying. Warm the spaghetti up, and you can move it any way you want. That is how you have to think of your
body.

There are two MAJOR parts of a warm-up

1. Foam Rolling
2. Dynamic Movement Prep

Foam rolling is the start to every single one of my workouts. I find it enjoyable. Similar to a self massage, I loosen up the muscles while going through my workout in my head. I always hit major muscles with the foam roller including, upper traps, hamstrings, calves, quads, abductors, glutes, IT band, and hip flexors. I have mentioned Eric Cressey before, but if you don't know him I suggest you do. He has some great videos on YouTube and his website on all these foam rolling exercises.

Dynamic Movement Prep is where you really warm the body up. You should have a good sweat by the end of it. You want to do a full body warm-up, but really hit the muscles your going to be emphasising hard. For example, if your going to be doing heavy squatting your going to want to make sure your hips, glutes, external rotators, lower back, quads, and hamstrings, are just like that piece of cooked spaghetti.

Here is a sample dynamic warm-up:

Knee to chest pull
Knee to chest pull with drop to lunge
Walking Leg Raise
Spider man Crawl
Backwards Hurdle
Side leg Raises
Ankle Rocks
Scapular Retractions
External Rotations/No Moneys

Again, thanks to the work of Eric, he has videos on most of these.

So, next time you get a workout in, attempt some of this. It is all body weight stuff, so you really can't hurt yourself. Try new things, and keep it mixed up. Remember it is called a warm-up for a reason, you should be sweating before you even start your workout.

If you have questions on any of the exercises I mentioned, would like a full foam rolling and dynamic movement prep program, or have any comments, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

All the best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Spurling Strength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu