Stop Fighting Your Knee Sleeves. There's a Better Way. (shhh…it’s a secret)

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 08/13/21)

Oooh . . . secrets! We love us some secrets!

Not everyone knows this - and this is especially true if you’re a new lifter or at least new to using knee sleeves - but when it comes to putting on your knee sleeves, there is one method to rule them all. Anything else is a waste of your time and energy, so let’s take a look at how you should put on a sleeve (watch the included video for a quick demonstration):

Step 1: Turn the sleeve inside-out.

Step 2: Grab the sleeve with both hands so that it’s upside down and backward (i.e., the front of the sleeve - the part that will cover your kneecap - is facing backward).

Steps 1 & 2: The sleeve is inside-out, upside down, and backward . . . and this is a good thing.

Step 3: Before you put on your shoe, pull the sleeve over your foot until it comes up just past your ankle.

Step 3

Step 4: Spin the sleeve around so that it’s facing forward again (i.e., the front of the sleeve is facing forward).

Step 4

Step 5: Pull on the uppermost part of the sleeve - sliding the sleeve upward until it reaches a point a few inches below your knee. (If you like, you can perform step 5 before step 4.)

Step 5

Step 6: Grab the lowermost part of the sleeve (it’s actually the “top” of the sleeve, but it’s still upside down right now, remember?) and pull upward so that that portion of the sleeve starts sliding over the rest of the sleeve. As you continue doing this, the sleeve will be turning right-side-out again.

Step 6

Step 7: Feel free to make some minor adjustments, but really, at this point, you’re done.

Step 7 - done!

Now, go out and tell your friends because - after all - this is a secret that everyone kneeds to know.

If you’re looking for some knee sleeves, below are links to a few knee sleeve options that are popular with a number of our members at Testify:

• Rehband knee sleeves (my personal knee sleeves)

• Stoic knee sleeves

• Iron Bull knee sleeves

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?

What "Internet Fitness" and "Trainers" Get Wrong About Lifting Weights

We get some good questions in the comment sections of our YouTube videos, and recently, one of them was (paraphrased), “In the squat, should I be using my quads on the way up? Should I be feeling my quads when I squat?”

This question boils down to an even more basic - and important - question that covers all of the barbell lifts, and that is, “Should I be cueing and/or thinking about my muscles when performing a lift?”

(If you’d rather watch a video on this topic, check out the short one below.)

Movements - Not Muscles
In short, no - you don’t think about your muscles when lifting weights. You think about movements - not muscles.

If you’re shooting a basketball, you don’t cue muscle groups since that would be ridiculous. You’re ready to shoot, you’re elevating, and your train of thought goes to “. . . glutes-hamstrings-quads-gastrocs-flexor-carpi-radialis-flexor-carpi-ulnaris-palmaris-longus!”

Again, ridiculous. There is simply too much going on and thinking about individual muscle groups will only slow things down and make the movement more difficult. Instead, you think about a specific movement, and the muscles “come along for the ride,” in a manner of speaking.

This is true in sports, in general movement, and it’s certainly true in lifting.

In the squat, you cue yourself to “drive your hips upward,” and as you drive your hips upward, your knees gradually straighten, which means your quads are doing their job (i.e., the job of knee extension).

In the deadlift, cue “push the floor away.”

In the press, cue “reach with the hips.”

In general, cue movements - not muscles, and you get the muscles automatically since they create the movement.

Any Exceptions?
To almost every rule, there is an exception, and we see that with the “cue-movements-not-muscles” guideline as well.

We generally cue movement, but when we are trying to prevent movement, cueing a muscle group can indeed be effective. For example, tell yourself to “flex your bicep,” and you’ll immediately lock your elbow into a frozen, flexed position, and thus, you are preventing movement. Here are some other examples:

In the press, you reach forward with your hips, but you don’t want your knees to bend (since we’re not performing a push press), so you might cue “tight quads” or “flex your quads.”

In the squat or deadlift, as you prepare to get tight and brace, you take a big breath, perform your Valsalva, and then cue “tight abs” to help transform your wiggly column of vertebrae into one long, rigid, steel beam.

In summary, if you’re specifically trying to prevent movement, you might find cueing a muscle group to be quite useful, but other than that, you want to cue movements rather than muscles.

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?

7 Ways You're Ruining Your Press: Part 2

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/01/23)

You’ve read Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, you’ve watched the videos, and you are endeavoring to press correctly. Yet . . . you still have problems. Let’s fix them.

In Part 1 of this series, which went up last week, we covered several common press mistakes. In today’s Part 2, we wrap things up by addressing a few more errors as well as how to fix them.

Mistake #5: Ridiculous or Nonexistent Focal Point
When pressing, pick a spot on the wall directly in front of you (at about eye height) and stare at that point the entire time. Stare at it before your first rep, through and between each rep, and until you’ve racked the bar.

Don’t let your gaze wander, and certainly don’t press with your eyes closed, no matter how hard you’re struggling through a particular rep. Focal point contributes mightily toward balance, and the press is very balance-dependent.

Mistake #6: Awful Knees
Don’t let your knees bend when pressing. This is the press, not the push press, and if your knees bend, the lift doesn’t count. To fix this issue, flex your quads before starting the rep and keep them flexed during the entire rep. You can cue yourself to “pull your kneecaps up” or simply tell yourself to “keep your knees tight,” but don’t let your knees get loose when pressing.

Mistake #7: Comically Bad Hip Timing
Remember, the timing is “hips-then-press” - your hips reach forward and then slam back into place, i.e., it’s when you stand back up that you launch the bar upward. The mistake we’re talking about here happens to almost every new lifter when learning the press at some point, especially if you are teaching yourself how to do it.

Here’s what happens - you get a few solid reps, and then you simply get the timing wrong on the next rep. You accidentally reach forward with your hips and try to press the barbell upward at the same time. It feels awkward, and if you record yourself on camera and watch afterward, it makes you want to throw up mentally - just a bit - because something isn’t quite right.

The timing is the issue - you did “hips-and-press-at-the-same-time” when you meant to do “hips-then-press.” And, in fact, that’s exactly how you solve the problem, simply tell yourself “hips-THEN-press,” and you’ll do just fine.

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.

• 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 Using a Vertical Bar Path. The Correct Bench Press Technique

Want to change your life? Two suggestions.

First, get a bidet. Once you bidet, you never stray. (Check out the Luxe Bidet Neo 120 if you’re in the market - basic, but oh-so-glorious.)

Second, quit performing the bench press with a vertical bar path.

We aim for as vertical of a path as possible on the other major barbell lifts - but not the bench press, and there are two types of error that lifters commit when it comes to benching with a vertical bar path.

To see these errors in action as well as how to solve them, check out the video below.

Error #1: Vertical Descent
The barbell starts at lockout directly above your shoulders, but don’t take the bar in a straight, vertical path down toward your shoulders. Instead, the correct touch point is on your sternum a couple of inches lower than the level of your shoulders. 

figure 1: 90° of abduction - this is no good.

Looking at Figure 1 above, you don’t want 90° of abduction (i.e., you don’t want a 90° degree angle from your torso to your arms) when the bar reaches its touch point. Instead, you’re aiming for something closer to 70° of abduction (Figure 2), and as a result, the touch point is lower on the sternum.

figure 2: roughly 70° of abduction - this is much better.

The bench press sometimes gets a reputation for being rough on the shoulders, and it gets that reputation because lifters perform it incorrectly. However, we don’t get to drive a car purposely into a concrete wall and then claim that driving is therefore dangerous, and likewise, we don’t get to bench press incorrectly and claim that benching is dangerous.

Let’s be sensible, and with this in mind, aim for a point on your sternum a couple of inches lower than the level of your shoulders, and this will greatly reduce the likelihood of any shoulder impingement when benching (setting your arch and pinching your shoulder blades back helps as well, but those are topics for another day).

Error #2: Vertical Ascent
Lifters will sometimes perform the descent correctly but then proceed to drive the bar straight and vertically upward.

This is no good.

We want to finish the bench press with the bar in the same place that it started, and this means you need to drive the barbell up and slightly backward so that it finishes above your shoulders.

Don’t watch the barbell (since it’s a moving object); instead, before your start the rep, choose a focal point on the ceiling. You can see the barbell (at lockout) in your peripheral vision, and you remind yourself that the bar will finish in the same place in your peripheral vision each time.

To help with this, remember to drive the bar slightly backward as you drive it upward. The bar path will still feel mostly vertical if performed correctly, but it needs to be slightly backward 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?

7 Ways You're Ruining Your Press: Part 1

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 08/25/23)

Let’s cover several mistakes you might be making with your press, and then let’s fix them fast. We address a few issues this week in Part 1, and we’ll return next week and wrap things up with a few more errors in Part 2.

Mistake #1: Poor Stance
When you unrack the bar, don’t walk a mile back from the rack, and don’t take a narrow stance. Simply take two small steps back - right, then left - that’s it. Two half-steps, if you will - i.e., stay relatively close to the rack. When you do so, set up with a nice, wide stance. Your squat stance will serve as a good approximation of the stance you’re looking for, and you can even stand a bit wider than that, but don’t take a narrow stance.

Mistake #2: Atrocious Grip Width
Don’t take a wide grip. When pressing, the grip is fairly narrow - when taking your grip, simply reach out in front of you like you’re Frankenstein’s monster, and that will serve quite well for your grip width. Don’t use a grip width that looks even remotely as wide as your bench press grip.

For a lot of guys, this will place the grip right on the edge of the knurl, and for a lot of gals, this will place the index finger on the smooth part of the bar and the rest of the fingers on the knurl. These are very general approximations, so to check your grip width, remember that - when you’re setup and ready to press (i.e., at the bottom of the movement) - you want vertical forearms as seen from directly in front of you.

Mistake #3: Terrible Elbows
Don’t let your elbows be situated behind the barbell when you’re set up and ready to press. When unracking the bar, do so with your legs. Dip down far enough (with your legs) so that you can move your elbows into the correct position, which is slightly in front of the bar as viewed from the side. Every single rep should start with your elbows in this position. If the elbows are behind the bar, you will tend to press the bar forward, which makes for a miserable pressing experience.

Mistake #4: Hideous Wrists
Your wrists should not be bent back in extreme extension. Go ahead and make a tight fist - yes, right now . . .while you’re reading this . . . seriously. Notice the amount of wrist extension you see, i.e., notice how much - or rather how little - your wrists are bent backward. We’re looking for that position when pressing as well - about 10-15 degrees of wrist extension.

We want the base of the palm to support the bar so that the bar is situated directly over the bones of the forearm. On the other hand, if the wrists are bent back in extreme extension, the bar sits up near the pads at the base of your fingers with your wrists in a very floppy and inefficient position (see the video above).

Your wrists shouldn’t be totally straight (although we may sometimes use the overcue “straight wrists” when setting up), but they definitely shouldn’t be in extreme extension, so get your elbows in the correct position (see Mistake #3), and that permits you to achieve the correct wrist position as well. As the weight gets heavier, you’ll find that a decent pair of correctly worn wrist wraps will certainly help this positioning, but most of the solution is up to you.

We’ll see you next week in Part 2 of this series, and 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?

Why Do So Many Lifters Press with Their Hips Wrong?

There are three mistakes that lifters often make with their hips when pressing, so let’s identify them and fix them quickly.

To see these three errors in action as well as how to solve them, check out the video below (as they say, a video is worth three billion words.)

Mistake #1: Winding Up
At the start of the press, you might be committing the error of reaching back - or “winding up” - with your hips.

Remember that at the start of the press, the first movement of the hips should be forward - never backward. Reaching back with your hips causes the barbell to go forward, and you don’t want any unnecessary horizontal movement of the bar when pressing.

To fix this, take a big breath and get tight as usual, then pause for a very brief moment in that upright position. Cue yourself “push the hips forward” and then do exactly that.

A final note on this error - if you’re making it, you probably aren’t aware of it, so be sure to video yourself the next time you press and check for this mistake.

(To see this error and its solution demonstrated, check out the short video below.)

Mistake #2: Reaching Back with Your Shoulders
When pressing, you push your hips forward, but you might be throwing your shoulders backward instead. If you are committing this error, your balance shifts to your heels and you don’t get a nice bounce or “throw” from the hip movement, and as a result, you have a weaker, less inefficient press.

Make no mistake, when you push your hips forward, your shoulders and head will automatically move backward slightly as part of a natural counterbalancing movement, and an advantage of this is that you clear space (by getting your head out of the way) for the bar to travel in the correct path. However, you should not try to throw your shoulders back as it will ruin the hip action (i.e., the bounce) in the press.

You’ll notice this error on camera, but you’ll also notice it by paying attention to your feet. If you feel your weight shift onto your heels as you start the press, you are incorrectly throwing your shoulders backward. If, on the other hand, you feel your weight shift briefly to the balls of your feet when you push your hips forward, you’re performing the lift correctly.

With this in mind, to correct this error, you can cue yourself to “get onto the balls of the feet” as you prepare to push the hips forward.

(To see this error and its solution demonstrated, check out the short video below.)

Mistake #3: Timing
If you press the barbell upward at the same time you push your hips forward, your timing is off, and you’re losing out on the bounce (i.e., the “throw”) provided by the hip action.

The bar should not go up when you push the hips forward - rather, the bar should momentarily dip downward when you reach with your hips. This is the beginning of the bounce created by the movement of the hips.

To correct this error, remind yourself to “make the bar dip” or that “the bar goes down” at the start of the press.

(To see this error and its solution demonstrated, check out the short video below.)

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?