Part 6: Your Squat Called. It Wants You to Stop Doing This.

This is part 6 in our series of common mistakes lifters make in the squat. Want to catch up with the previous articles? Check out the links below:

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

• Part 5

Are you trying to descend with a vertical back angle?

That’s silly. Don’t do that.

such silliness (and a silly focal point)

When you descend, reach back with your hips, point your chest at the floor, and shove your knees apart. In other words, purposely lean over when you squat.

this . . . is much better.

Because you lean over when you squat, you also reach back with your hips since that’s how you counterbalance – you do this naturally every time you bend over to pick something up from the floor. You also shove the knees apart to make room for your torso and to achieve depth more effectively.

Silly people – both at the gym and on the internet – may have scared you with ridiculous comments like “Don’t lean over! You’ll hurt your back that way!”

It’s not how you hurt your back; your back will be tight, rigid, and straight. You know how to brace correctly (check out the video below), so every muscle in your trunk is contracted hard. Your back won’t always be vertical, but it will always be straight.

As a quick side note and for comparison, you have a more horizontal back angle in the deadlift than in the squat, and most people deadlift more than they squat.

Remember, this isn’t how you hurt your back – it’s how you strengthen your back.

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.)

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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?

Squat Tip: Hips Back AND Chest Down

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/14/22)

Here’s a quick squat tip: When you initiate your squat by reaching back with your hips (i.e., your butt), you need to also point your chest at the floor (i.e., lean over). The converse is also true - when you point your chest at the floor, you need to reach back with your hips. 

Note that Tyler’s hips are traveling back while he points his chest at the floor.

These two movements - hips back and chest down - go hand-in-hand with each other, and if you briefly think about it, it will seem rather obvious why this is so. On one hand, if you reach back with your hips while trying to maintain an upright torso, you’ll fall over backward, which is rather unfortunate in any circumstance and especially when squatting with a barbell on your back. On the other hand, if you lean over (i.e., point your chest at the floor) without reaching back with your hips, you’ll fall over forward. Again - preposterous.

So remember, when you initiate your squat, if you’ve got a cue like one of the following running through your head . . .

• Hips back

• Butt back

• Reach backward

• Sit back

. . . it can be useful to also tell yourself one of the following cues . . .

• Chest down

• Lean over

• Point your chest at the floor 

This will help your balance, and it will also help you get into a position where you can effectively drive your hips out of the bottom of the squat.

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:

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

• 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.

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

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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?

Part 5: Your Squat Called. It Wants You to Stop Doing This.

This is part 5 in our series of common mistakes lifters make in the squat. Want to catch up with the previous articles? Check out the links below:

• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

Are you breathing when you’re moving?

Don’t.

Throw your 80s fitness magazines in the trash and stop breathing in on the descent and breathing out on the ascent.

Instead, simply take a big breath before you start your first rep, tighten every muscle in your trunk (don’t say “core” . . . ever) hard as if you’re about to be punched, and hold that breath all the way down and all the way back up again.

As a side note, be sure to hold your breath in your throat – not in your mouth. This is known as a Valsalva maneuver, and if you’re not sure how to do it correctly, check out the video below.

At the top – when you’ve locked out your rep – release that breath. Take a new breath and repeat the process for the next rep.

Remember, if the bar is moving, you’re not breathing.

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.)

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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?

Use THIS CUE to PR Your Lifts!

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/26/24)

Looking for a cue to help improve all of your lifts? Try this one out:

“Speed.”

Admittedly, it’s not a very technical cue, but it can be very useful for heavy singles, heavy doubles, and even the last rep of a set of five. Why is “speed” a useful cue?

Reason #1:
It’s a productive cue for two reasons; one - when you hear or think “speed,” it reminds you to try to make the bar move fast. Granted, with a heavy single or the last rep of a challenging set, you won’t actually be able to make the bar move quickly, but when you cue “speed,” you will simply push (or pull) a bit harder in an effort to make it move faster.

In short, you’ll try harder. If that seems a bit anticlimactic to you, no worries - the key is that it often works very well.

Reason #2:
The second reason I like the cue “speed” is that it changes your mental approach when performing a heavy single or double. At these weights, you might not know if you’re going to successfully complete the rep(s), but when you think “speed,” your thoughts tend to shift from “Will I get it or won’t I get it?” to “Can I move it fast or can’t I move it fast?”

Jason squats 170 kg (375 lb) for his third attempt.

In other words, the possibility of missing the rep is no longer front and center in your mind since you’re focused on trying to make the bar move faster. As a result, you tend to have a more aggressive approach to the rep, and this is always useful.

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:

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

• 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.

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

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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?

Part 4: Your Squat Called. It Wants You to Stop Doing This.

Is the bar rolling up your back or sliding down your back when you squat? 

If so, there’s a solid chance you’ve got the bar positioned in the wrong spot on your back.

In Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3 of this series, we covered common mistakes lifters make with their stance, focal point, and setup, respectively. Today, we’re talking about the bar’s position on your back.

Figure 1: The bar is too high on the back.

In short, if the bar is rolling up your back (i.e., toward your neck), you probably have the bar sitting too high on your back (Figure 1), and if the bar is sliding down your back (and your wrists are probably hurting as you try to prevent this), you probably have the bar sitting too low on your back (Figure 2).

figure 2: the bar is too low on the back.

You want the barbell positioned just below the spine of your scapula so that it’s resting securely on your bunched up delts. You can most easily find the bony ridge that is the spine of your scapula by feeling for the very tip of it on the back of your shoulder (see Figure 3).

figure 3: My right thumb marks the lateral aspect of Becky’s scapular spine.

Remember, the bar sits below that point. Notice where I’m pressing my thumbs into Becky’s back in Figure 4 – that’s where the bar goes.

figure 4: my thumbs mark where the bar will sit on becky’s back.

Watch the included videos in this article, then record yourself when squatting and compare your bar position to what you see in those videos as well as the photos below. Doing so will help you dial in the correct position, which then allows you to achieve the correct back angle on the descent and effectively utilize your hips on the ascent.

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.)

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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?

Deadlift Tip: Quit Bending Your Arms!

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/07/22)

Here’s a quick deadlift tip: Don’t Bend Your Arms.

Ever.

don’t be like this fool when setting up to pull.

This will seem rather obvious to many people - after all, who would voluntarily try to pull a heavy weight off the floor with bent arms? Nonetheless, this problem shows up in the setup for some lifters, and interestingly enough, it will occasionally rear its ugly head on the pull itself.

If you have this issue in your setup, remember that, when you bend your knees slightly to touch your shins to the bar, the knees go out (i.e., sideways) slightly and touch the inside of your elbows. Don’t shove the knees out so hard that you end up causing your elbows to bend. This is what we like to refer to as . . . ridiculous.

This . . . is much better.

Whether you’re setting up or pulling, remember - keep your arms straight. Bent arms are highly inefficient when pulling heavy weights off the floor . . . and they just look so silly. Don’t be silly.

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:

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

• 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.

(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?