Is Your Squat Stuck? It's Not Why You Think.

Do you have an odd sticking point in your squat? Let’s fix it right now.

Odd sticking point? What do you mean?
On your descent, you reached back with your hips, you pointed your chest at the floor, and you shoved your knees apart. You’ve gotten a bounce out of the bottom of the squat, you’ve started your ascent, and you’re driving your hips upward as you do so.

You’ve maintained that nice, leaned over back angle, and then, when you’re past what is the typical sticking point of a heavy squat - around one third to one half of the way up - right when things should start getting a bit easier, suddenly, your squat is still extremely difficult. In fact, it might even get harder and actually slow down.

If you want to see a demonstration of this, watch the video below - specifically the squat that starts at the 0:43 mark.

What did I do wrong?
You maintained your back angle and drove your hips up out of the hole initially, but because the barbell feels awfully heavy and you’re worried about missing the rep, your brain reverts to “Oh-my-goodness-I-need-to-stand-up-right-now,” and you start raising your chest too soon.

This kills your hips drive, the bar speed dies, and the squat gets much harder than it should be at this point in the ascent.

The Fix
There are a couple of different cues to help you solve this problem:

• Keep driving the hips.

• Stay in your hips.

• Stay leaned over.

• Stay in your lean. (my personal favorite, and the idea is to stay in that leaned over position longer than you think you should)

Tyler does an excellent job staying in his hips, - staying leaned over - on his ascent.

When panic sets in - when you really want to raise your chest and try to get your torso vertical (which will make your squat miserably hard) - stay in that lean just a bit longer . . . and you’ll reach the top without making the squat any harder than it needs to be.

To see this “staying in your lean” executed well, go back to the video above and watch the squat at the 0:56 mark.

Stay in your hips, stay in your lean - and you’ll be just fine.

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?

Bench Press Cue: Pull Your Fists Back!

Jordan’s arms are straight, but notice the position of her fists in the picture on the left versus the position of her fists in the picture on the right (i.e., with shoulders retracted).

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 04/30/21)

When we set up to bench press, we retract our shoulder blades before we start the movement. We do so as this process creates more stability (i.e., it creates a wider base of support on the bench itself) and puts us in a stronger and more efficient position from which to bench. It also has the added bonus of reducing the distance the bar has to travel throughout the lift.

However, lifters occasionally have a bit of trouble pulling their shoulders back into the proper position. Sometimes this is due to a lack of understanding of what this position looks and feels like, and sometimes it’s simply an inability to exert conscious control over something they can’t see. Either way, if you struggle to retract your shoulders blades, try cueing yourself to pull your fists back instead.

Compare the height of the barbell in the photo on the left (incorrect: fists not pulled back) with the height of the barbell in the photo on the right (correct: fists pulled back). For a reference point, look at the “Exit” sign in the background.

The cue “Pull your fists back” implies that - when you’re set up on the bench with the barbell locked out overhead on straight arms - you’re going to try to pull your fists back toward you as far as possible (i.e., as close to you as possible) without bending your elbows.

You can try this with or without a bar, and either way, you’ll find that you can actually pull your fists back toward you at least an inch or two, and having done so, you will have successfully retracted your shoulder blades into the correct position without having ever thought about your shoulders.

Pull your fists back the next time you set up on the bench - it will help you develop a stronger and more efficient bench press, and that’s always a good thing. If you’re interested in more tips to help your bench press, check out the included videos.

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?

BEST Strategy for a Stronger, Smoother Deadlift (6 Simple Tips)

Quit trying to yank or jerk your deadlifts off the floor.

Heavy weights cannot be yanked off the floor. Light weights can, of course, but in doing so, you’re accidentally practicing something that won’t work when things get heavy.

With this in mind, let’s cover six ways to fix this problem along with a bonus tip at the end to tie it all together.

The Mistake
The error of trying to yank the bar off the floor is usually caused by poor execution of step four in the five-step deadlift setup process. Here’s a quick recap of that process, and you can watch the video below for a more in depth treatment:

1. Stance - shins one inch from the barbell

2. Grip - bend over and grab the bar (don’t move the bar)

3. Shins - bend your knees slightly (i.e., drop the hips slightly) until your shins lightly touch the bar

4. Chest - squeeze your chest up to set your back

5. Pull - drag the bar up your legs as you stand up

When you squeeze your chest up in step four, you should be putting a significant amount of tension on the bar, and lifters who don’t do this tend to then yank the bar off the floor when they try to execute step five (i.e., pull).

Here are six cues to ensure you put tension on the barbell when you set your back.

Cue #1: Bend the bar.
With this cue, you are reminding yourself that when you squeeze your chest up with long, straight arms, there should be enough tension on the bar at this point that the bar starts to bend upward in the middle. In other words, you create a bit of a hill with the bar. 

Figure 1: The difference in bar shape between no tension (left) and tension (right) is very noticeable, and it’s even more noticeable when watching it in person or on video.

Cue #2: Bend it before you break it.
The same concept applies here, but this is a bit catchier. It’s the “try it before you buy it” cue of smooth pulls.

This cue also has the benefit of illustrating the timing needed - you bend the bar before you break it off the floor. You don’t bend the bar and try to break it off the floor at the same time.

Think “set the back, pause, then pull.”

Cue #3: Flex the bar.
This is another cue that emphasizes the change in the shape of the bar that should happen when you set your back. You should see and feel the bar flex upward when you squeeze your chest up to set your back.

Witness the noticeable difference in bar shape (between tension and no tension) at the 1:02 mark in the video below.

Cue #4: Pull the slack out of the bar.
Every bar has some slop (i.e, some gap or distance) between the shaft and the collars, and you also have slop between the sleeve of the bar and the plates themselves. When you squeeze your chest up - applying tension to the bar - you should make this slop disappear.

You can see this happen on video, so watch the video below at the 1:55 mark.

Cue #5: Pull the click out of the bar.
This is the same idea as cue #4, but you’re focusing on the audible aspect instead of the visual aspect. When you put tension on the bar, you’ll hear the barbell click as the shaft moves upward against the collar of the bar, and you’ll also hear some noise as the plates rattle a bit.

Make some noise when you set your back (you can hear this at the 2:29 mark of the video above).

Cue #6: Heavy in the hands
Before you squeeze your chest up and consciously apply tension to the bar, you probably aren’t supporting much of the weight of the bar in your hands. You shouldn’t be resting on the bar, but you’re not pulling upward much either.

However, when you squeeze your chest up to set your back, you should absolutely be supporting a significant portion of the bar’s weight in your hands. If it’s a 400 lb deadlift, you might now be applying 100 lb, 200 lb, maybe 300 lb of upward pull at this point. The specific numbers aren’t important (and they’re made up in this example, anyway) - the point is that you should feel significant weight in your hands because your hands are now supporting that weight (and correspondingly, the floor is supporting less of that weight).

Bonus Tip: Squeeze the bar off the floor.
Some lifters will do a good job of setting their backs with proper tension on the bar, and then they’ll make the mistake of slightly releasing that tension and then trying to yank the bar off the floor. This is usually a subconscious effort to get a bit of “down-up” movement out of the lift akin to the bounce you see at the bottom of the squat.

However, the floor prevents this movement as the bar can’t actually go downward, and as a result, slack is created in the arms, which then is “yanked” back out again as the lifter tries to jerk the bar off the floor.

Cue yourself to squeeze the bar off the floor.

As you squeeze something hard, you grip it tightly, then tighter, then tighter yet.

Likewise, this reminds you to pull harder, then harder, then harder yet as you pull the bar smoothly off the floor. An efficient start to your pull is analog - not digital. It’s not a switch, but rather a dial. You turn that dial up when you set your back with tension, and then you smoothly turn it up further to start the pull.

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?

5 Mistakes That DESTROY Your Lifting Warm-up

You want to warm-up effectively and efficiently, so let’s eliminate five mistakes that lifters commonly make when warming up.

Mistake #1: Using a Percentage Chart
Percentage charts are the diapers of the lifting world - they can be useful when just starting out to keep you from making a big mess of things, but in the long run, your life will be much better if you outgrow them.

There’s nothing wrong with using a percentage chart at first - you’ve got a lot going on in your head - technique, rest periods, weight jumps from session to session, etc. - and a warm-up chart makes for one less thing to think about.

with practice, warming up is simpler, easier, and quicker without a chart like this one.

However, with experience and some trial-and-error, you’ll learn that - after you do a few sets of five reps with the empty barbell - you’ll select the rest of your warm-up weights by simply taking two to four roughly even jumps in weight, and you’ll be at your work weight.

The longer you train, the more your warm-ups will remain mostly the same from session to session, and this is a weakness of charts as the percentage-based warm-up weights change each time your work weight changes. For an experienced lifter, on the other hand, the first few warm-up sets tend to remain the same, and he only has to deal with making subtle changes to the last warm-up set or two.

If you want to use a chart for the first few weeks, go ahead, but try and wean yourself off of it pretty quickly. Your warm-ups will be simpler and quicker when you do.

Mistake #2: Using a Warm-up App (or Spreadsheet)
I see what you did there.

A warm-up app is just a percentage chart shrouded in technology, so all of the same logic from Mistake #1 applies here as well.

With practice, warm-ups are easier, quicker, and simpler without these items.

Mistake #3: Using Plates That Are Too Small
Don’t use 1.25 lb plates in your warm-ups.

These plates (and smaller ones) are very useful for work weights, but you generally don’t need to be that precise for your warm-ups.

Make all your warm-ups end in either a zero (e.g., 80, 90, 100) or a five (e.g., 85, 95, 105), and you won’t need the 1.25 lb plates for warming up. As you get stronger, you can make most (if not all) of your warm-ups end with a five, and at that point, you won’t need 2.5 lb plates for your warm-ups either.

don’t use 1.25 lb plates in your warm-ups, and as you get stronger, you won’t use 2.5 plates (like this one here) as often either when warming up.

Remember - fewer options for warm-up weights means less to think about, which is generally a good thing. Warm-ups weights should be intelligently chosen, but you generally don’t need razor-sharp precision, and if you do, it won’t be until your last warm-up.

Mistake #4: Taking Too Much Time Between Warm-up Sets
Don’t rest between your warm-up sets.

Perform a warm-up set, load the weight for the next warm-up set, then perform that warm-up set, and so on.

Ample rest is very important between work sets, but we’re talking about warm-up sets. Since they are warm-ups, they’re not heavy yet, and the act of changing the weight between sets will provide enough rest for your next warm-up set.

If it’s a warm-up, there’s no need to rest - the act of changing the plates provides enough rest time.

It’s worth nothing that you want to rest a few minutes after your last warm-up set since you now have a work set coming up, but beyond that, you don’t need to rest between warm-ups.

If you want to rest several minutes between your warm-up sets, you are welcome to do so, but if you’re looking to save some time in the gym (and there are far more interesting things to do in life then spend all day in the gym), this is where to look first.

Mistake #5: Too Many or Too Few Warm-up Sets
Warming up should both prepare you for the work set and not exhaust you by the time you get there, so you want to find a reasonable middle ground in terms of how many sets to perform. After the empty bar, you don’t need seven more warm-up sets (i.e., too many warm-up sets), and conversely, you don’t want to jump from the empty bar right to your 275 lb squat (i.e., too few warm-up sets).

As mentioned earlier, after the empty bar (except the deadlift), most people can simply perform two to four more warm-up sets with gradually increasing loads on the bar to prepare for the work sets. A useful approach is to perform a set of five reps, then three reps, then two reps, and any sets after that would be 1 rep sets (i.e., singles). Here are a few examples (weight x reps x sets):

Example 1
45 x 5 x 2 (empty bar)
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—————
235 x 5 x 3 (work sets)

Example 2
45 x 5 x 2 (empty bar)
65 x 5 x 1
85 x 3 x 1
105 x 2 x 1
—————
115 x 5 x 3 (work sets)

Example 3
45 x 5 x 2 (empty bar)
135 x 5 x 1
225 x 3 x 1
275 x 2 x 1
315 x 1 x 1
—————
345 x 5 x 3 (work sets)

For the deadlift, start with full-size plates, so you’ll either use bumper plates or 45 lb metal plates. Here are two examples:

Example 1
75 x 5 x 1
105 x 3 x 1
135 x 2 x 1
155 x 1 x 1
—————
170 x 5 x 1 (work set)

Example 2
135 x 5 x 1
225 x 3 x 1
315 x 2 x 1
355 x 1 x 1
—————
390 x 5 x 1 (work set)

Note that with this 5-3-2-1 scheme, the warm-up sets are tapered, i.e., you perform fewer reps as the weight on the bar increases. This allows you to prepare yourself for your work sets by increasing the load while not exhausting yourself in the process (since you’re doing fewer reps as the weight goes up).

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?

3 Obvious Gym Tips…That No One Follows

Evan demonstrates a handy trick for loading and unloading your deadlift.

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 04/16/21)

In Part I of this series, we discussed several tips and tricks that might help you as a new lifter, and now, in Part II, we’re back with a few more. With practice, using these tactics may seem obvious, and you might wonder why you didn’t think of them earlier, but when you’re starting out, these types of tips are often anything but obvious.

Easy Loading for Deadlifts
When you’re loading (or unloading) your deadlift with more than one 45 lb plate per side or more than one bumper plate per side, roll the plate (on the side you’re currently loading) up onto a 2.5 lb plate. This will raise the 45 lb plate or bumper plate off the ground just enough that it makes it easier to slide on the next plate (see the photo above).

Of course, using a deadlift jack is makes things even easier, and we have a video on how to make one (click here or scroll down to the end of this article), but in lieu of that, using a 2.5 lb plate works quite well.

Holding Valsalva for Multiple Reps
You can hold your Valsalva (i.e., your tightly held breath) for multiple reps on the bench press. Holding your Valsalva for 2-3 reps is pretty common on the bench press, and as long as you aren’t running out of oxygen, doing so works very well as you don’t have to get tight again before the next rep.

Two warnings, though: first, don’t take it as a personal challenge to see how many reps you can get on one breath - this may not end well - and second, holding your Valsalva for multiple reps doesn’t usually work very well for lifts other than the bench press.

Easy Unloading for Bumper Plates
If you’re finished snatching, cleaning, or deadlifting (even rowing), and you have multiple bumper plates on each side of the bar, here’s how to unload your bar: first, take the collars off both sides of the bar. Second, unload all of the plates from the left side of the bar. Third, raise the empty left side of the bar - walking it upward (the right side of the bar remains on the ground) until the bar is sitting vertically inside the stack of plates on the right side of the bar. Finally, simply lift the bar out of the stack, put the bar away, and then put the plates away.

Evan shows how to easily remove multiple bumper plates at once.

We hope these tips help you get stronger and live better, and perhaps we’ll be back with a Part III in the future.

-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?

I Didn't Notice This Mistake Until It Was Too Late

Watch the single at the start of the video below.

Pay attention to when the plates come off the floor, and specifically, pay attention to when the plates on the right side of the barbell come off the floor as compared to when the plates on the left side of the barbell come off the floor (if you watch long enough, it’s shown a few times in slow motion).

If you watch closely, you can see that the right side of the bar (i.e., the plates on the right side) leaves the ground a bit later than the left side.

Public Service Announcement: Check your bar.

Before starting your set - the last thing you do - check your bar to make sure the weight you want is what you actually have loaded on the bar.

I knew exactly what I wanted to have on the bar, so I didn’t make a bar math error in the usual sense. You’ll notice that on the near side (i.e., the right side), I have a 10 lb plate and a 5 lb plate on the bar - that’s exactly what I wanted.

However, I forgot to add the 5 lb plate on the left side (look closely and you’ll see it sitting uselessly on the floor).

I didn’t realize it until it was too late, but I wondered about it the moment I pulled that bar off the floor. As I pulled, the thoughts in the back of my head ran along these lines, “That’s weird - the right side came off a bit late . . . right side feels a bit heavier . . . oh well, keep pulling.”

No doubt about it, by lifting the incorrect - and lighter - weight, I had made my job harder. The weight was 5 lb lighter than it should have been, but since it was asymmetrically loaded, it would have been easier had it been 5 lb heavier and correctly loaded.

Many of the things we coaches teach and repeat over and over again are learned from situations like this - situations where we’re ticked at ourselves for doing something stupid like not checking the bar before lifting it.

With this in mind, check your bar loading before you lift. Don’t just double check your bar math - check to ensure that you actually loaded what you meant to load as well . . . on both sides.

In short, don’t make the same stupid mistake I did.

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.)

---

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?