Testify Bulletin - August 28, 2023
/THIS WEEK'S SUBMISSION
From our video How to Use Wrist Wraps for Lifting Weights (STOP Making these 3 Mistakes!) (click the title to watch):
Eric
How would someone know it’s time to consider wrists straps?
Phil
If someone’s been training for a few months, I would recommend them for use on the press and the bench press by then.
Eric
Thanks for the reply! I got proper shoes and a belt first thing when I ran SS LP. It’s been well over a few months since then so I think I’ll give wrist straps a shot.
Phil
You're welcome, and wearing them is much like wearing a belt for the first time. We could describe it as "uncomfortably tight" at first, but it will just feel correct after a few sessions. Using them on your last warm-up and then your work sets is a solid approach.
Eric
Picked up wrist straps for my heavy bench today. Did a new 5RM PR and the straps felt great! Took them off for back off sets and really noticed the difference. Felt like I spent extra mental energy trying to keep my naked wrists straight. Thanks again for the great video and advice!
Phil
Congrats on the PR, and I’m glad to hear the wraps worked out well for you!
ARTICLES & VIDEOS
When to Start Lifting Weights (and why THIS is the WORST idea)
When should you start training? Specifically, what day of the week should you start on? And what's the WORST possible thing to do? Click here to watch.
BEST Strategy to Squat More Weight (2 Simple Actions)
Want to squat more weight? Of course you do. Here's how. Click here to watch.
7 Ways You're Ruining Your Press: Part 1
Quit making these press mistakes! In Part 1 of this series, we cover 4 common press errors as well as how to fix them. Click here to read.
Blast from the Past: What NOBODY Tells You About Your First Lifting Meet!
Thinking about doing your first powerlifting, weightlifting, strengthlifting, or strongman competition? Phil gives the most important tip you'll ever get. Click here to watch.
Blast from the Past: Knee Sleeves: What, Why, Where, and When!
Phil covers the basics of knee sleeves - what they are, why you use them, when to use them, and how to use them. Click here to read.
NEW TESTIFY GEAR!
Baseball season is here, and so is Testify’s new 3/4 raglan shirt - in multiple colors! Get yours today and represent your favorite gym!
Click here to head to the Testify Store.
WHAT'S COMING UP
Congratulations to everyone who competed at this past Friday's Deadapalooza and thank you so much to everyone who helped out! Judges, loaders, table officials, those who helped set up and tear down - you all were great, and we couldn't have wonderful events like this without you!
Reminder: We will be closed for training on Monday, 09/04/23, in observance of Labor Day.
Below are a few of our upcoming events, and you can find out what else is on the calendar by heading to our events page at www.testifysc.com/events.
Women’s Strength Group
8 week class beginning on September 19, 2023. Meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Get stronger with Starting Strength Coach Barb Mueller and Testify coaches Jamie Morrissey and Stephanie Sharp.
NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! Open to all women who want to get strong!
Click here to register or for more information.
Starting Strength Self-Sufficient Lifter Camp
September 23, 2023
Spend the day learning the Squat, Press, and Deadlift and how to self-evaluate your lifts while training in your garage or commercial gym without a coach.
Click here to register or for more information.
Benching Bonanza! The Annual Testify Bench Press Jubilee
November 17, 2023
Benching Bonanza is a strength meet wherein the only contested lift is - you guessed it - the bench press. There will be one bar, and the meet will be conducted in a "rising bar" format, so the weight on the bar only goes up! It'll be a ton of fun, so come on out!
Click here to register or for more information.
THIS WEEK’S CONDITIONING
Option 1
Sled
Outdoors:
10 rounds of:
Push sled 100 ft
Pull sled 100 ft (hand over hand)
Indoors:
20 rounds of:
Push sled 50 ft
Pull sled 50 ft (hand over hand)
Compare to 2023.06.26.
Option 2
Bike/row:
4 x 3 minutes
Rest 3 minutes between each round. Score = lowest distance.
Compare to 2023.06.05.
Option 3
Outdoors:
5-10 rounds:
10 sledgehammer strikes (5R, 5L)
50 yd farmer carry (25 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute
Indoors:
5-10 rounds:
10 sledgehammer strikes (5R, 5L)
100 ft farmer carry (50 ft down-back)
Rest 1 minute
Compare to 2023.05.08.
Option 4
10 x 50 ft yoke carry
Each carry is 25 feet down and 25 feet back and is for time. Rest 1 minute between carries.
Compare to 2023.05.08.
BEST Strategy to Squat More Weight (2 Simple Actions)
/Want to squat more weight? Of course you do. Here's how.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Click the button below to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach and start getting stronger TODAY.
7 Ways You're Ruining Your Press: Part 1
/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 bar 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 these tips help you get stronger and live better.
(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. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?
What NOBODY Tells You About Your First Lifting Meet!
/Thinking about doing your first powerlifting meet, weightlifting meet, strengthlifting meet, or strongman competition? Phil gives the most important tip you'll ever get for your first competition.
(This is a Blast from the Past video originally published on 01/01/22.)
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Click the button below to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach and start getting stronger TODAY.
Knee Sleeves: What, Why, Where, and When!
/(This is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 07/16/21.)
What on earth are knee sleeves, and why might you want to wear them? Let’s chat.
What is a knee sleeve?
A knee sleeve is a sleeve . . . that goes on your knee. They are generally made of neoprene, and they should fit quite snugly. A reasonable approach is to make sure that they are snug, but not so snug that you need someone else to help you put them on. If they’re so tight that you need to take them off between sets, I’d recommend something a little less snug.
Why might you want knee sleeves?
The main reason is if you have the highly specific medical condition known as “cranky knees.” Now, if you have achy knees when you squat (and we’re generally talking about the squat here), there may be some technical considerations to examine as well as some programming considerations, and your coach can help you with that.
Nonetheless, to put it simply, knee sleeves simply help your knees feel better. They provide some warmth and some compression, and without getting into the weeds here, both of those factors generally make your knees more comfortable. It’s a nice, warm hug for your knees. One of our coaches, Mike, once accused me years ago of holding out on him because I evidently hadn’t suggested knee sleeves until a year or so into his training. Once he put them on, it was love at first squat.
Where can you get knee sleeves?
You can find some at your local sporting goods store, but your best bet is this thing they’ve developed called the internet, which they have on computers now. The usual suspects - Amazon, Rogue, etc. - will have a host of options, which brings us to . . .
What should you get?
5 mm and 7 mm are both common thicknesses, and having used both, I’d recommend the 7 mm option. There are a ton of companies that make them - some of the more popular ones are brands like Rehband, SBD, STrong (Mark Bell), Stoic, and Rogue.
There’s a big price range from about $35-$45 for a pair of sleeves to $35-$45 for a single sleeve (which reflects the prices of the brands listed above). The biggest difference seems to be simple longevity - the cheap ones tend to wear out and tear within a couple of years, whereas the pricier ones typically last quite a bit longer - to the point that I’d probably say you’ll spend less money in the long run by going with the more expensive pairs. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Below are links to a few knee sleeve options that are popular with a number of our members at Testify:
When do you use knee sleeves?
The short answer is - squats and Olympic lifting. You’ll appreciate them for squatting, and you’ll appreciate them for the Olympic lifts because of the squatting involved in both snatching and cleaning (there is probably some benefit for the impact of landing as well).
What about using them on the press and bench press? Go ahead if you’d like - they won’t help, but they won’t hurt either.
The deadlift gets a little more discussion. In the deadlift, the knee doesn’t go through a large range of motion (as opposed to the knee’s longer ROM in the squat), so if your knees ache while squatting, but they feel fine while deadlifting, I’d recommend not wearing sleeves. The thickness of the sleeve - while not huge - is still one more thing you have to deal with when trying to keep the bar close on the pull, so if you don’t need them, don’t use them. But if your knees also ache on the deadlift, and you find that the sleeves help, then go right ahead.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better!
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)