4 ERRORS Beginners Make that Experienced Lifters NEVER Do | Part 3 - The Deadlift

In this multi-part series, we cover four mistakes that lifters often make when starting out. We covered the squat in Part 1, the press in Part 2, and today, we’re discussing the deadlift.

Let’s assume you’ve mastered the 5-step deadlift setup process (and if you haven’t, check out the video below). You move through the steps deliberately and efficiently – stance, grip, shins, chest, and pull.

Once the bar is locked out at the top of the pull, an extraordinarily common mistake lifters make is that of lowering the bar incorrectly and – as a result – inefficiently.

Your goal is to set the bar down back over the middle of the foot, i.e., the exact position you lifted it from in the first place. However, many lifters set it down well in front of this position (for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment), which means they have to make adjustments to get the bar back to the correct spot for the next rep. This wastes time, it wastes energy, and it often results in a bar that’s in the wrong spot for the next pull.

Lifters make this mistake because they allow their knees to get in the way of the bar on the descent (like the fool in Figure 1).

Figure 1: don’t be like this fool.

Don’t lower the bar by bending your knees. Lower the bar by bending over.

This is a bit of an overstatement as you do indeed allow your knees to unlock as you start to bend at the hips, and you allow them to bend a bit farther after the bar passes your knees, but the point remains – you lower the deadlift primarily by bending over.

If you try to lower the deadlift with your knees, the bar has to travel around your knees, which is inefficient, weaker, and far more uncomfortable on both your back and your knees.

With this in mind, the next time you lower a deadlift, cue yourself, “Butt back, bow to the floor, aim for the middle of the foot.”

Reach back with your hips as you start, point your chest at the floor, and look at the middle of your foot as you set the bar down. Making sure that you can see your midfoot will force you to keep your knees out of your line of sight and thus out of the barbell’s vertical path.

Watch the video below to see this solution to today’s deadlift error in action.

Once you set it down correctly over the midfoot, the mantra for the next rep becomes simply, “Shins, chest, pull,” and you’ll notice those are the last 3 steps from the 5-step setup.

Lowering the bar: Butt back, bow to the floor, aim for the midfoot.

Next rep: Shins, chest, pull.

Keep things simple, correct, and repeatable, and your deadlift will thank you for it.

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?

The FWYS Principle: If You Don't Change This, Your Press Will ALWAYS Suffer

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 12/24/21)

A common problem with new lifters and the press is achieving the correct start position for each rep - specifically, achieving the correct start position for every rep after your first rep.

After all, the correct start position for the first rep should be accomplished by correctly gripping and unracking the bar in the first place (watch the included video that covers this), but today, we're specifically talking about getting the correct start position for the rest of your set (e.g., your 2nd rep all the way to the end of the set).

Figure 1

The key is to finish the press where you start the press, so make sure that you start with elbows slightly in front of the bar, squeezing the bar tightly and with relatively straight wrists (technically, they will be slightly in extension) as you see in Figure 1. Then, after locking out the rep overhead, simply remind yourself to lower it back to this exact same position.

Figure 2: Don’t be like this fool.

Specifically, we do not want to lower the bar back to the position you see in Figure 2, where the lifter has his elbows behind the bar and wrists in severe extension. It’s a weaker position - it’s tough to support a heavy weight in this position, and now you’ve got to spend time and energy getting back to the correct start position.

Even worse, if you don’t spend that time and energy getting back to the correct position, it’s harder to press the bar overhead from this weak position. This poor position often contributes to a forward bar path on the next rep, which can easily be the difference between a successful rep and a missed rep at challenging weights.

Figure 3

Again, the key is to finish where you start (FWYS).

If you still find that lowering the bar consistently to the correct start position is difficult, try this mental picture (Figure 3) - imagine that you are standing very close to a wall with the bar locked out overhead. While lowering the bar, picture yourself dragging your elbows down the wall while keeping your fists (and therefore the bar) away from the wall.

Remember to aim for your nose with the bar on the way down as well as on the way up. This “elbows-dragging-down-the-wall” image is a slightly exaggerated picture of what we actually want to happen (watch the included video to see this in action), but a number of our members have found this very useful.

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?

7 Signs You're Using Your Lifting Equipment WRONG - Stop Making These Mistakes With Your Lifting Gear | Part 3

You might be making some mistakes with your equipment, and if so, you probably don’t know it.

Welcome back to the third and final installment of this series. We covered 7 common mistakes in Part 1, another 7 mistakes in Part 2, and not surprisingly, we’re covering 7 more errors today.

Error #15: Straps in Front
A common mistake for lifters who are new to using straps is that of placing the strap in front of the barbell when setting up (Figure 1).

figure 1: this fool mistakenly put his strap in front of the bar.

Used correctly, the combination of your hand and the strap acts much like an alternate grip on the deadlift. In the alternate grip, the pronated hand and supinated hand work with each other to keep the bar from rolling and slipping out of your grip. Each hand can only permit the bar to roll in the direction opposite of that allowed by the other hand, so no rolling occurs.

Your hand and the strap perform the same function, but only if you remember that your hand goes in front of the bar while the strap goes on the other side of the bar, i.e., behind the bar. Check out the short video above to learn how to use straps correctly.

Error #16: Knee Sleeve Thickness
Both 5 mm thick and 7 mm thick knee sleeves provide warmth and compression for your knees, and your knees will thank you for it.

However, once you’ve used 7 mm sleeves, you won’t ever go back to 5 mm sleeves, so do yourself a favor and simply buy 7 mm sleeves to start with.

Here are a few solid options, and you can learn more about knee sleeves by watching the included video below:

• Rehband knee sleeves: https://amzn.to/3QsBub3

• Stoic knee sleeves: https://amzn.to/40ec0RX

• Iron Bull knee sleeves: https://amzn.to/3RnUPs6

Error #17: Safeties Too High
Safeties, pins, crash bars, spotter arms (if you’re using a squat stand) – whatever you want to call them, don’t set them too high.

For squat and bench press, your safeties need to be set low enough that they don’t disrupt the execution of your lift. For the squat, this means you probably want to set the safeties a couple of inches below the bottom position of your squat (i.e., below the bar’s position at the bottom of your squat). If you set them just barely below your bottom position – say, a quarter-inch lower than your bottom position – then the moment you go a touch too deep on your squat, you hit the safeties, and this is very disruptive to your lift. Setting them a couple of inches lower than your bottom position makes this much less likely to happen.

For the bench, when you’re correctly driving with your legs and supporting your arch, this means your safeties are low enough that they allow you to consistently touch the barbell to your chest. It also means they are low enough that if you lower the bar in a slightly uneven fashion (e.g., the right side of the bar is a bit lower than the left side), you don’t instantly hit the safeties.

Error #18: Not Knowing Your Rings
There are two sets of rings (AKA score marks or knurl marks) for barbells - powerlifting rings and weightlifting rings. They are extraordinarily useful for determining grip width, but if you don’t know which set you’ve been using, you can create a grip problem for yourself if you ever train (or compete) on a different bar.

Powerlifting rings are 81 cm (roughly 32 in) apart from one another, while weightlifting rings are 91 cm (roughly 36 in) apart from one another. Some bars have both sets of rings (so it’s easy to figure out which set is which) while many bars have only one set.

Figure out which set you’ve been using (use a tape measure if necessary), and then if you ever train on a different bar, you’ll know whether or not you need to adjust your grip relative to the rings.

Error #19: Straps . . . Again
Don’t wrap your straps multiple times around the bar.

Wrapping the strap around the bar once provides everything you need for a secure grip. Wrapping it multiple times is a waste of time and energy, which is why the DIY straps we make at the gym for our members (see the video below) are made to a length that only goes around the bar once with a little length left over.

If you have extra strap length hanging down after wrapping around the bar once, it’s not a problem – just let it hang there.

Error #20: Safeties Too Low
As discussed in Error #17, setting the safeties too high is a mistake. However, setting the safeties too low is an even bigger mistake – they absolutely have to be set high enough to save you from trouble in the event of a failed rep.

If you set them too low in the squat, you might not be able to set the bar down onto the pins at the bottom of a failed rep. Worse, in the event of a failed rep on the bench press, you could find your throat or face trapped (and potentially crushed) if you’ve set the safeties too low.

The solution is simple – set your safeties and then test them out (with an empty bar or light weight) by performing a “failed rep,” i.e., practice by failing with the empty bar, set the bar on the pins, and make sure you can get out from under the bar while it rests on the pins.

Error #21: Slick Bench
Don’t bench on a slippery surface.

The bench itself might be slick, you might be sweaty, or you might be wearing a “tech shirt” (i.e., moisture-wicking) that is made from a slippery material. Regardless, you want to drive with your legs and keep your shoulders pinned back without any part of you moving out of position on the bench.

There are a couple of ways to solve this problem, and you can check out the short video below for a few options. Our most common recommendation is a small section of rug pad material – it’s cheap, it provides a very secure grip, and it easily fits in your gym bag as well.

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?

STOP Making This Deadlift Mistake With Your Legs!

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/05/24)

Are you “kicking” the bar away from you with your shins when you deadlift? It’s killing your pulls, so knock it off. Let’s fix it real quick-like.

There are a number of reasons a deadlift can swing away from you, and we’re going to discuss one of them today: the error of accidentally pushing the bar away from you with your shins (i.e., “kicking” the bar with your shins) during the setup process. Two versions of this error are quite common, so let’s address them both, and this is explained and demonstrated in the included video as well.

Version #1: Bringing Your Shins to the Bar Too Aggressively
This error occurs during step 3 of the 5-step deadlift setup process. You can watch the included How to Start Lifting: Learn to Deadlift video for a more in-depth treatment of this setup process, but the quick version is as follows:

Step 1: Stance - narrow with shins 1” from the bar

Step 2: Bend at the hips to take your grip

Step 3: Bend your knees to touch your shins to the bar

Step 4: Squeeze your chest up to set your back

Step 5: Pull - drag the bar up your legs

If you bring your shins aggressively and quickly to the barbell during step 3, you may inadvertently kick the bar away from you (i.e., it will roll forward a bit).

To solve this problem, simply use the cue “shins to the bar softly” or “shins lightly to the bar.” The idea is to bend your knees just enough to bring your shins in contact with the bar - and no more than that. Next, squeeze your chest up (step 4), and then pull (step 5).

Version #2: Dropping Your Hips When You Set Your Back
This error occurs during step 4 of the setup process - the “squeeze your chest up to set your back” step. If you set your back aggressively (and by the way, good for you if you do!), you might accidentally drop your hips, which causes your shins to move further forward, which causes the bar to get pushed forward.

It’s worth noting that this can be fixed after the fact; you simply raise your hips back up a bit and roll the bar back to its original location, but we’ve now added more variables and steps to our setup process, and it’s better not to make this mistake in the first place. What to do?

When squeezing your chest up to set your back in rigid extension, use the cue “chest up AND hips up.” Of course, you’re not actually trying to raise your hips - you’re just using the “hips up” part of the cue to make sure the hips stay in place and don’t move downward. We use this cue quite regularly, and it has worked wonders for a number of lifters.

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?

4 ERRORS Beginners Make that Experienced Lifters NEVER Do | Part 2 - The Press

In this multi-part series, we cover four mistakes that lifters often make when starting out. In part 1, we covered the squat.

Today, we’re covering the press, and specifically, we’re talking about the mistake of having to make unnecessary wrist and elbow adjustments. This error shows up in two different ways, so let’s identify and fix them.

Version #1: The Unracking Process
You begin to set up correctly – you take a relatively narrow grip and pronate your hands slightly to place the base of the palms firmly against the bar. Then, as you move to unrack the bar, everything goes to garbage, and you end up with elbows behind the bar and wrists bent back in full extension (Figure 1).

figure 1: Terrible elbows and terrible wrists . . . terrible all around.

As a result, you now have to fix these issues by making adjustments that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place – you have to move your elbows forward, and you have to straighten your wrists to the point where the bar is sitting in the base of the palm (and not way back on the pads at the base of your fingers).

Of course, this isn’t difficult to do with an empty bar, but it’s a big problem at heavy weights, and it’s also a waste of time and effort.

The solution is to make sure that your elbows and wrists are correctly positioned before you unrack the bar.

When you take your grip, squeeze the bar as tightly as possible – “crush the bar” is a useful cue here – so that the muscles in your forearms tense up, which makes it easier to keep your wrists fixed in one position.

Also, dip down with your legs farther than you think so that your wrists don’t have to bend backward as you get under the bar. Remember that you unrack the bar with your legs, so dip down a lot as you rotate your elbows forward.

Dipping down farther is supremely easy to do, but many people simply don’t do it. Don’t be them. Bend your legs – this is why you have knees.

Here’s your check – after you stand the bar up from the hooks and step back from the rack, if you have to adjust anything from the waist upward, you messed up the unracking process.

Rack the bar. Fix it. Then unrack the bar again.

Watch the video below to see the solution to this problem in action.

Version #2: Post-rep
After you’ve successfully locked out a rep overhead, it’s easy to lower the bar casually and lazily to the wrong position, and once again, as with version #1 of today’s error, the wrists are bent backward and the elbows are behind the bar (Figure 2).

Don’t be that guy. Or gal.

figure 2: This fool lowered the bar in a careless manner . . . and it shows.

The solution is to visualize the start position and then move your body and the bar back to exactly that position.

Lead with elbows as you start the descent (i.e., keep the elbows slightly in front of the bar) and keep your wrists relatively straight as you lower the bar.

Finish the lowering process precisely where you started the previous rep.

Watch the video below to see this in action.

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?

Antonio and the Deadlift

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 12/02/18)

Do you know about the Italian physician and anatomist Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666 - 1723)? Probably not, and that’s O.K., but every time you lift, you perform a maneuver - the Valsalva maneuver - that is named after him. To Valsalva is to hold your breath against a closed glottis, or perhaps more simply, to take a big breath and “bear down.”

You Valsalva instinctively when you are trying to push a stalled or stuck car, you Valsalva when you’re constipated and trying to poop, and fighter pilots Valsalva as part of their Anti-G Straining Maneuvers (AGSMs), which are performed to avoid passing out when subjected to high G-forces in the cockpit.

Now, let’s chat about the Valsalva maneuver and the deadlift.

You’ve been coached on the setup for the deadlift, so you’ve got the 5 steps down pat:

• Stance - take a relatively narrow stance with your shins about 1” from the bar.

• Grip - take a narrow grip on the bar (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Shins - bend your knees to bring your shins into contact with the bar (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Chest - squeeze your chest up to set your back in rigid extension (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Pull - drag the bar up your legs.

jill correctly holds her valsalva at the top of her deadlift.

Most people will Valsalva right before (or during the process of) squeezing the chest up. Excellent. They will usually hold that Valsalva all the way up to the top of the lift - the lockout. Excellent again.

And right here - right at the top - this is where we tend to see a hiccup in the process. Some lifters (especially newer lifters) have a tendency to release their Valsalva at the top of the deadlift, i.e., they blow out their breath at the top. If you are one of these lifters - if you tend to release your breath at this point of the deadlift - there is only one thing to do.

Stop. That. Now.

james (left) and Loren (right) both know how important breath is when it comes to stability.

The Valsalva, the holding of your breath against a closed glottis and with tightly contracted abs - provides stability to the lift. Put simply, breath is stability, and stability is a wonderful thing to have when pulling heavy weights off the floor and setting them back down again.

So, if you tend to release your breath at the top of your deadlift, work on fixing it. Specifically, start by focusing on keeping your Valsalva while warming up the deadlift. The weight is lighter at this point, so you can spare some extra mental energy for this endeavor. Breath only when the bar is on the floor - not while loaded.

And be sure to thank Antonio the next time you complete a successful set of deadlifts.

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:

• 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?