The One Tiny Adjustment That Will Determine Your Benching & Pressing Strength

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Think your bench and press are stuck? It might just take one tiny adjustment to unlock serious improvements. In this short video, Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers breaks down the small change that can make a big difference in your pressing power.

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If Wrist Wraps Could Talk, They'd Be Screaming at You

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

WHAT A FOOL.

Good heavens. Do not do this. Do not make these mistakes with your wrist wraps.

Problem #1: Forearm warmers are cute, but not useful.
Wrist wraps are not forearm warmers, so don’t wear them as if they are. If you wear your wrist wraps this low (as seen in Figure 1), they don’t provide any stability to your wrist.

Here’s your check - if you can easily bend your wrist backward (i.e., extend your wrist), you’re wearing your wraps in the wrong place.

figure 1: Addi is wearing her wrist wrap too low on the arm, so the wrap provides no support.

Problem #2: Gloves are swell, but not for lifting.
Wrist wraps are not gloves, either, so don’t wear them high up on the hand as if they are. Wearing your wrist wraps this high on the hand (as seen in Figure 2) creates the same problem as wearing them too low - the wraps can’t provide any stability to the wrists.

The check is the same as in Problem #1 - if you can easily bend your wrist backward, you’re wearing your wraps in the wrong place.

figure 2: Addi is wearing her wrist wrap too high on the hand, so the wrap again provides no support.

The Solution
It’s a wrist wrap, so it needs to cover the wrist. Profound, I know, but be sure to realize that since the wrist connects the hand and the forearm, the wrap needs to cover both the hand and the forearm - not simply one or the other.

figure 3: Starting higher on the hand and wrapping lower to the forearm

The job of the wrap is to stabilize the wrist - to provide a belt or a cast for the wrist, in a manner of speaking. With this in mind, start with the wrap on the hand, and as you apply the wrap (Figure 3), start wrapping slightly lower so that the forearm is covered as well.

Then . . . check. Can you bend your wrist backward easily? The wrap shouldn’t completely immobilize the wrist, but it should make it harder to bend the wrist, and if it does, you’ve done your job.

Of course, you need to apply the wrap with enough tension so that it’s rather snug, but that’s a topic for another day, so be sure to check out one of the videos in this article to learn more about where and how to correctly wear your wrist wraps.

As always, we hope these tips help you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

How to Bench Press: The Setup | STOP Doing This!

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Are you getting setup as well as you should be when you bench? In under 2 minutes, Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers a common error during the setup process.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 12/19/22)

Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

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When Benching Heavy, Don't Bench Vertically & Try This Instead

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Are you trying to push the bar vertically when you bench press? This seems counterintuitive, but trying to bench vertically is ruining your bench press. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains and demonstrates.

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The BEST Conditioning Tool NOBODY Uses (Starting Strength and Cardio?)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

What’s the best conditioning tool that nobody uses?

It just might be the rower.

You know what I mean - you go to your local globo gym, and there’s 15 treadmills, 20 ellipticals, 5 steppers, there’s a few bikes, and people are using all of them.

Then, over in the corner, you see one rower. And it’s lonely. It’s always lonely.

This is terribly unfortunate because the rower is a powerful and effective conditioning tool, so let’s quickly discuss why this is so, how to schedule it within the context of your strength training, and let’s cover some sample workouts as well.

Why is the rower such an effective conditioning tool?
The rower (AKA ergometer or simply erg) is effective because it does not have a loaded eccentric phase.

No worries if you’re not sure what that means - no one else is, either, so let’s quickly cover it.

Take an air squat (i.e., a squat with only your bodyweight for resistance), for example. If you do 100-200 reps of those, there’s a solid chance you’re going to have some significant soreness the next day or so, and this is because the eccentric phase (the descent of the squat) is loaded, i.e., gravity pulls on your body and thus pulls you downward. You have to resist the load of your own bodyweight - otherwise, you’d collapse down onto the floor.

It turns out that it’s this loaded aspect of the eccentric phase that causes the soreness. 

In rowing, the equivalent of the squat’s descent is called the recovery, and it’s when you pull yourself back to the starting position, or the “catch” position. Here’s the key part - unlike the squat, wherein gravity pulls you down, in rowing, you have to pull yourself back to this position. Thus the eccentric phase is not loaded, which means 20 minutes of hard rowing doesn’t wreck you the same way that 20 minutes of air squats does.

As a side note, both biking and pushing a prowler or sled are good options as well as they, too, lack a loaded eccentric phase.

When to schedule your rowing
Let’s make a few assumptions here. Not all of these will apply to everyone, of course, but they will help us understand the key concepts.

  1. You strength train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

  2. You plan to condition twice a week.

  3. You plan to row for both of those conditioning sessions (you can certainly have more variety here, but this is a rowing article, after all)

For starters, put one of your two conditioning days on Saturday. It’s separate from your strength training days, and you still get to rest on Sunday before hitting the strength training again on Monday.

You have a couple options for your other conditioning day:

  1. Row immediately after you perform your strength training on Monday or Wednesday. The upside is that you’re already at the gym, and the downside is that it makes for a longer training session.

  2. If you’ve reached the point where you have a light squat day on Wednesday, then you could row on Tuesday. The upside here is that it doesn’t add training time to any of your strength training days, and the downside is that you have to drive to the gym an additional day (unless you have a home gym).

Both options are reasonable, so you simply need to decide on the tradeoffs you’re willing to accept. The two principles in play are that you don’t want your rowing to derail your strength training, and you’d also like the schedule to be as manageable as possible from a time and convenience perspective (consistency is key, and most people will start skipping sessions if the schedule is too inconvenient).

Now, let’s dive into a few sample workouts, and if you’d like more workouts, you can head over to this article.

Workout #1
3 rounds of:
8 x 20 sec on/40 sec off
Rest 3 min between each round.

Score = least distance covered in any 20 second interval

For this workout, row for 20 seconds, then rest 40 seconds (thus the rowing and resting periods add up to 1 minute), and repeat this sequence for 8 minutes. These 8 minutes comprise round 1.

Rest 3 minutes, perform round 2, rest another 3 minutes, perform round 3, and you’re done. You are trying to cover as much distance in each 20 second interval, but your score is your lowest distance, so you are also aiming for consistency.

Workout #2
4 rounds of:
800m
Rest 3 minutes between each round.

Score = slowest time

For this workout, row 800 meters, rest 3 minutes, and repeat this for 4 rounds. You are gunning for fast times, but your score is your slowest time, so again, consistency is rewarded.

Workout #3
8 rounds of:
30 sec on/2:00 off

Score = least distance covered in any 30 second interval

For this workout, row for 30 seconds, then rest 2 minutes, and repeat this for 8 rounds.

If you are just starting out with your conditioning, be conservative at first - you don’t want your enthusiasm to derail your strength training.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger - or in this case better conditioned - and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

The Bench Press Truth No One Told You

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Here’s a simple tip regarding your bench press technique that - especially if you’re self-taught - you might not be aware of . . .

Retract your shoulders in the setup.

When you bench, you want your shoulders pulled back. Specifically, you want to pull them back and down (i.e., toward your rear end), but if you’re driving up the bench with your legs and properly supporting your arch by doing so, you’ll be taking care of the down aspect.

To see what this looks like in action, watch any of the short videos included in this article.

This retraction allows your shoulders to create a broader base of support on the bench, reduces the risk of shoulder impingement, and as an added bonus, shaves off the extra, unstable range of motion that is accidentally created with inefficient shoulder positioning.

Mike correctly has his shoulders protracted.

Thus, by retracting your shoulders, you create a stronger, safer, and more efficient position from which to bench.

sadly, mike does not have his shoulders retracted here and thus has a weaker and less stable position from which to bench press.

Pull your shoulders back before you unrack the bar and then keep them pulled back throughout the entire set. If you lose some retraction either during the unracking process or during a rep, make sure to re-retract them before your next rep.

Your shoulders - and your bench press PR - will thank you.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

  • Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

  • Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

  • Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

  • Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

  • Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?