Key Takeaways

1. The rack pull is a barbell deadlift performed with a shortened range of motion. The strength you gain from the rack pull transfers to the standard deadlift.

2. The rack pull strengthens the lockout (or top half) of your deadlift by allowing you to pull heavy weights in that specific range of motion.

3. The shortened range of motion ensures your torso stays more vertical, reducing the stress placed on your lower back compared to full-range-of-motion deadlifts. 

4. Remember these cues when performing rack pulls: Keep your chest up, don’t round your back, and drive your hips forward—hard—to complete the lift. 

What Are Rack Pulls and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:27 in the video.)

The rack pull is a deadlift performed from the safety bars of a power rack in order to shorten the range of motion (ROM). The lifter starts the pull with the barbell set just below his or her knees, as opposed to the bottom of the shin, as would be the case with a deadlift done from the floor. Basically, you’re doing the top half of a regular deadlift.

Because the range of motion is shorter, and you begin the lift in a stronger biomechanical position, you’re able to use a heavier weight than you could deadlifting from the floor. Rack pulls, therefore, let you acclimate to handling more weight, and they train you to extend your hips more powerfully, strengthening the lockout portion of your deadlift. If you have a sticking point in your normal deadlift—that is, trouble getting the weight over your knees and to lockout—rack pulls can be beneficial. Using heavier than normal weights can also build up your grip, and that can translate to stronger deadlifts from the floor as well.

Additionally, the rack pull can be a friend to folks with an achy lower back, as the shorter range of motion allows you to stay more upright and takes some pressure off your lumbar region versus the more bent-over position of a conventional deadlift. If you’re trying to train around a back injury, you could use the rack pull in place of a deadlift for a while. This would allow you to train the same basic movement pattern and muscles, but with less risk of further injury.

How to Do Rack Pulls: Correct Form to Avoid Injuries

(See 01:55 in the video.)

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack to just below knee level. The barbell should sit just below your knees when laid across the bars.

Step 2. Stand in front of the barbell with your shins touching it and your feet about hip-width apart. Tuck your chin and push your hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and you can reach the barbell. Think: “long spine” from your head to your tailbone. Grip the bar firmly with your hands placed right outside of your knees. (If you perform conventional deadlifts regularly, set up just as you would for a conventional deadlift.) 

Step 3. Take a big breath into your belly, and contract your abdominal muscles. 

Step 4. Keeping your spine long and your core braced, pull the barbell off the safety bars, driving your hips forward until your hips are completely locked out and you’re standing tall. Squeeze your butt at the top of the rep. Slowly lower the barbell back to the safety bars by reversing the motion—don’t let it just crash down. 

Common Mistakes and How To Correct Them

(See 02:59 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Using different form than your deadlift.

“One of the most common mistakes I see with the rack pull is people altering their deadlift mechanics to perform it,” explains CJ McFarland, CSCS (@cjmcfarland17 on Instagram), a competitive powerlifter and the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the football program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

In an effort to lift as much weight as possible, people will often incorrectly treat the movement as a kind of shrug, or even try to squat the weight up by overbending their knees, when all they have to do is think of the exercise as a deadlift done from the halfway point.

“Replicate the position your body is in during the deadlift, where your shoulders end up over or slightly in front of the bar,” says McFarland, and begin the pull from there. That’s the strongest position and will help you lift the most weight possible.

Mistake #2: Choosing the wrong weight.

Go too light, and you defeat the purpose of performing the rack pull, which is (typically) for you to pull heavier weights than you can deadlift. By the same token, if you lift too heavy, you’ll round your back and risk injury to your lower and/or upper spine. McFarland suggests starting out with 100–110% of your deadlift max for one to three reps. (I.e., use the most weight you can deadlift from the floor, full range.) Take your sets to failure, or close to it (the point at which you can’t perform another rep with good technique, or stop one rep shy of that point).

Mistake #3: Not creating enough tension.

Before you begin the lift, screw your feet into the floor without actually moving them. Think of your legs as screwdrivers and tighten them down into the floor. If you do it right, you’ll feel the arches in your feet rise and you’ll feel very rooted into the ground. Your butt, hamstrings, and quads will tighten. This cue creates more tension in the active muscles, helping you produce more force when you begin the pull while maintaining good form. 

Mistake #4: Letting the bar drift away from you.

Keep the barbell tight against your shins and thighs as you lift and lower it. Maintaining a consistent bar path ensures your form stays intact. If the bar strays from your body, you’ll round your upper back and potentially tweak something in your spine. 

Muscles Worked By Rack Pulls

(See 06:59 in the video.)

The primary movers in the rack pull are the glutes and hamstrings. Secondarily, the traps, spinal erectors (lower back), forearms, and core will work hard.

Your glutes and hamstrings extend your hips as you lift the barbell from the safety bars to the lockout position, while your traps and lower back work to keep your back from rounding during the movement. Even if you’re wearing lifting straps (which improve your grip), your forearms will still get strong under the immense load of the barbell. And while rack pulls won’t chisel out a six-pack, you’ll develop a stronger core through the bracing required during every repetition.

Professionals’ Instructions For Setting Up The Rack

(See 07:45 in the video.)

The classic rack pull is performed inside a power rack with the bar set below your kneecaps. However, you can use various setups to mimic the rack and shorten or lengthen the movement’s range of motion.

“The closer to the ground the rack pull is, the stronger it correlates to your actual deadlift max,” says McFarland, but the harder it will be to perform. “The higher the height of the rack pull, the more weight you will be able to lift,” but the less it may transfer to your deadlift max.

Be sure to lift inside the power rack from the safety bars. If you set the bar on J-hooks outside the rack, you’ll risk banging the bar against the posts, interfering with your lift. Another tip is to check the weight capacity of the power rack that you’re using. Some power racks can only handle loads up to 500. If you’re a competitive powerlifter who can pull above 700 pounds (or you aspire to be one soon), you must ensure the rack can safely support the weights you’re using. 

It’s also worth mentioning that many gym owners and gym goers may frown upon you performing rack pulls on safety bars inside a power rack. For one thing, gym equipment is expensive, and repeatedly slamming a barbell against a power rack can damage the bar and the rack and wear down the barbell’s knurling (the cross-hatch pattern you hold on to that enhances your grip on the barbell). Also, depending on how crowded the gym is, people may not appreciate you hogging a rack that might otherwise be used for squatting.

Alternatively, you can elevate a loaded barbell to knee height by placing one or two 45-pound bumper plates under each end. Some strongman and powerlifting gyms offer 26-inch-diameter plates, which place the bar around the middle of your shins when loaded onto the barbell. (See below for more information about those variations.)

If your gym has stackable rubber mats, they provide another option for performing the rack pull movement with the added advantage of being movable and usually more adjustable when it comes to choosing a height. Rubber mats can also absorb the force of the bar when you lower it so that there’s less rattling and noise. Another option is wooden blocks, which work the same way.

How To Warm Up For The Rack Pull

(See 09:00 in the video.)

Use these exercises to warm up your hips and back before performing the rack pull in your workouts.

1. Bodyweight Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 2–3 sets of 5–15 reps.

2. Table Top With Reach

Step 1. Sit on the floor and plant your hands under your shoulders; place your feet flat. Extend your spine so it’s long from your head to your tailbone. Drive your shoulders down away from your ears.

Step 2. Raise your left hand in front of you as you extend your hips to lockout. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your hips (brace your core so you don’t hyperextend); keep your hips square as you squeeze your glutes.

Step 3. Reach your arm across your body to your right side, allowing your torso to twist but keeping your hips square and locked out. Feel your upper and middle back stretch. Reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side.

Alternatives To The Rack Pull

(See 11:30 in the video.)

The rack pull has two main limitations: it can damage the equipment you’re using (the barbell and power rack), and it can be difficult to set up when the gym is crowded (good luck getting a free rack at 6:00 p.m. on a weekday). Try these two variations to reap benefits similar to rack pulls. You can do them when a rack isn’t available, or sub them into your program for four to six weeks for variety’s sake.

Trap Bar Deadlift

Why Do It: The trap bar features elevated handles. This means you don’t have to bend over as far to reach the bar as you would deadlifting with a straight bar, and the reduction in range of motion is similar to what you get with a rack pull (for the sake of saving your low back). And, like the rack, the trap bar puts you in a stronger position so you can lift heavier loads.

How To Do It:

Step 1. Step into the center of a loaded trap bar (aka hex bar). Ensure that you’re using a trap bar with elevated handles. Place your feet in your normal deadlift stance.

Step 2. Keeping a long spine, bend your hips back and then bend your knees until you can reach the handles. Your chest should face forward. 

Step 3. Brace your core by squeezing your abs and imagine crushing some oranges in your armpits—drive your shoulders back and down. Now drive through your heels to stand up with the bar, pushing your hips forward. 

Step 4. Lower the weight back to the floor by bending your hips back. Maintain a straight back with your chest up. 

Banded Deadlift

Why Do It: Attaching a resistance band to a barbell helps strengthen your deadlift lockout similarly to the rack pull. As you pull the bar off the floor, the band will stretch, increasing the resistance where the deadlift is normally easiest—when your hips are approaching lockout.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Drape a loop resistance band evenly over the loaded barbell so both strands lie flat on the floor at the middle of the bar. Place each foot over both strands of the band at hip width (or your normal deadlift stance). Make sure the center of your foot pins the band down. If you cover it with only your heel or toe, the band may pop up while you’re pulling.

Step 2. Bend your hips back and hinge your torso over just like you’re doing a regular deadlift until you can grasp the bar just outside of your knees.

Step 3. Keeping your chest up and back flat, drive through your heels to lift the bar. Thrust your hips forward explosively to fight through the band tension and complete the rep.

Step 4. Drive your hips back and lower the weight to the floor under control.

Rack Pull Variations

(See 14:23 in the video.)

You can modify the training effect you get from the rack pull by adjusting how far off the floor the bar sits. The closer the barbell is to the ground, the more you’ll engage your glutes, hips, and lower back. The higher off the floor you start, the stronger the position you’ll be in and the more weight you can use, but the strength you build may not translate to your deadlift lockout as powerfully.

If you want to strengthen your deadlift lockout as directly as possible, set the barbell to just below the knees as we explained above; this is where most people run into issues finishing their deadlifts, and you can work to bring up this weak point. If you want to train your body to deadlift heavier weights, experiment with rack pull variations that have you start with the barbell closer to the middle of your shins. 

Sumo-Stance Rack Pulls

Why Do It: “Doing the rack pull with a sumo deadlift technique will allow you to train other muscles that will aid in building your conventional deadlift,” says McFarland, such as the adductors (inner thighs). Of course, if you do your deadlifts sumo style rather than conventional, the carryover to your sumo deadlift is obvious. Note, however, that because you’re pulling with a wide stance, you may need to lower the safety bars of the power rack even further to ensure the barbell continues to sit just below your knees.

How To Do It: 

Step 1. Set the safety bars of a power rack so the barbell sits just below your knees. 

Step 2. Assume a sumo stance by setting your feet wide, near the plates on the bar, and turn your toes slightly outward. Sit back into a quarter squat so you can get low enough to grasp the barbell with a shoulder-width grip, hands inside your thighs.

Step 3. Squeeze your butt and drive your hips forward to stand up with the barbell.

Step 4. Bend your hips back and lower the weight back to the safety bars under control. 

Who Should Do Rack Pulls?

(See 16:09 in the video.)

Anyone can perform rack pulls, but whether you should or not depends on your goals. Strength athletes—powerlifters and strongmen—or anyone looking to increase their one-rep maxes on deadlift variants will benefit the most from including rack pulls in their programs (see below for more details on how to do that).

Bodybuilders (competitive or hobbyists) can probably skip the rack pull. While it can build muscle in the glutes, hamstrings, and back, there are better exercises for targeting these muscles individually for maximum growth. The rack pull’s limited range of motion is one hindrance that makes it suboptimal for building muscle, as muscles seem to grow best when trained through a full range of motion, and possibly with specific emphasis on lengthened positions.

A 2023 systematic review published in the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning studied the effects of full and partial range of motion training on various outcomes (muscle hypertrophy, i.e. muscle growth, and muscular strength and power). The researchers found that training with a full range of motion was more effective than using a partial range of motion. 

Another 2023 study published in Sports had 19 women perform biceps curls in two different ranges of motion—from full extension to partially flexed (bottom-half reps), and partially flexed to fully flexed (top-half reps). After eight weeks, the bottom-half rep group saw greater biceps hypertrophy and strength gains, leading the researchers to believe that more muscle growth occurs in ranges of motion where the muscle is most stretched.

Another problem with the rack pull is the lack of focus on the eccentric, or lowering phase, of each rep. Muscles are stronger when they’re lengthening under load than when shortening (ever notice how you can control the weight easier on the way down than you can lifting it up?). That means that they don’t have to work as hard. So, in order to work the tissue maximally, you need to slow down the speed and emphasize tension as you lower the weight, so it gives your muscles the same stimulus on the way down as it did on the way up. This is why you often see bodybuilders lowering weights more slowly than they raise them up. While you can try to control your descent on a rack pull, the fact is that using heavy weights makes it impractical and dangerous to try for eccentrics that are two to three seconds long. Therefore, keep your rack pull reps controlled, but emphasize getting the weight up fast and explosively.

How and When To Incorporate Rack Pulls Into Your Training

(See 16:54 in the video.)

“Rack pulls are one of my favorite exercises to perform as a main movement, so perform them immediately following your warm-up,” says McFarland.

If you want to hit a new PR on your deadlift and have determined that your lockout is holding you back, McFarland recommends replacing your deadlift with rack pulls in three-week cycles. Gradually add weight for a series of warm-up sets, keeping your reps under 5, and work up to 100% of your deadlift max for a single rep. In Week 2, work up to a single rep with 105%, and then perform a single with 110–115% in the third week. For example, if you can currently deadlift 405 from the floor for one rep with good technique, use 405 on the rack pull in Week 1, 425 in Week 2, and 445 or more in Week 3.

In Week 4, deload by going back to your regular deadlift and working up to a single rep at 80–85% of your deadlift max. This will give your body a little break and keep your regular deadlifting skills sharp. The next week (Week 5), try for a new deadlift PR.

“Programming rack pulls closer to when you’re looking to max out will give your body the stimulation needed to prime the central nervous system [for greater strength],” says McFarland, “without fatiguing the muscles as much as the standard deadlift.”

The post How To Do Rack Pulls Like An Expert (The Complete Guide) appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The stiff-leg deadlift can be done with a barbell or dumbbells and it targets the hamstrings, with some benefit to the glutes, lower back, and adductors.

2. You should lower the weight slowly and ease into the stretch. Stiff-leg deadlifts put a lot of tension on your hamstrings, so warm up thoroughly and do them late in your workout.

3. Keep your knees slightly bent and try to maintain that angle throughout the lift. Your legs don’t have to be rigidly straight, but they shouldn’t bend so much that you turn the lift into a Romanian deadlift or squat.

4. The difference between the stiff-leg deadlift and RDL is the degree of knee bend. One focuses on the hamstrings and the other on the glutes.

What Is A Stiff-Leg Deadlift and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:28 in the video above.)

The stiff-leg deadlift, aka stiff-legged deadlift, or straight-leg deadlift, is a variant of the conventional barbell deadlift done with the intention of targeting the hamstrings as much as possible, with some added benefit to the spinal erectors of the lower back and the adductors (inner thighs). Some people start it from the floor, but we think it’s better in most cases to start standing, with the bar at arm’s length in front of you, and bend your hips back, lowering the bar while keeping your legs nearly straight (or stiff). Then you come back up to standing.

If you do it right, you’ll feel a tremendous stretch in your hamstrings. The stiff-leg deadlift isolates the hamstrings’ hip extension function—that is, your ability to push your hips forward and stand tall—as opposed to their other function, which is bending the knee. If you combine stiff-leg deadlifts with any leg curl variation, you’ve got a complete hamstring workout in just two exercises. (To learn about other deadlifts you can do at home with one or more kettlebells, see our guide to kettlebell deadlifts.)

How To Do The Barbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 01:16 in the video.)

Step 1. Deadlift the barbell so you’re in a standing position, or, if you have a power rack, start with the bar on the rack at about thigh height. Starting the exercise from standing is safer than pulling straight off the floor with stiff knees, and using a power rack will save you energy getting into position. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart, and stand with the barbell at arm’s length and your feet hip-width apart.

Step 2. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Now unlock your hips and tilt your pelvis back—think about pointing your tailbone up into the air.

Step 3. Unlock your knees so there’s a slight bend in them. Think “soft knees.” Now, keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone, push your hips back as far as you can, as if trying to touch your butt to the wall behind you. As your hips bend, try to keep your knees in the same position.

They’ll want to bend as your hips go further back, and it’s OK to let them move a little bit, but try to keep the same knee angle you started with. If you do it right, you’ll feel a very deep stretch in your hamstrings as your hips move.

Step 4. When your hips are as far back as they can go and your hamstrings are as stretched as you can stand, extend your hips to come back to standing tall.

Tips:

– As your hips go back, focus on keeping your chest up. If someone were standing in front of you, they should be able to see the logo on your shirt. This will help you to keep your lower back flat the whole time. NEVER let it round forward while holding a weight in front of you.

– As you bend your hips, feel your weight shift to your heels. If you feel your weight centered over your feet, or in your toes, you’re not moving your hips properly.

– Take at least two seconds to lower your torso and feel the stretch in your hamstrings. Again, it’s a BIG stretch, so give your body time to ease into it. Bouncing your reps can lead to injury.

– Don’t go any lower than your hips will allow. As soon as you feel they’re pushed all the way back, and your hamstrings are stretched, come back up. Going any lower than that will probably result in your lower back rounding forward, and that will increase injury risk as well as take the emphasis off the hamstrings.

– Keep your lats active, pulling the bar close to your body. It doesn’t have to stay in contact with your legs the whole time as with a conventional deadlift, but the bar should move in a straight line up and down. Relaxing your back would cause the bar to drift in front of you, and that can make you lose your balance.

– Note that if you have particularly tight hamstrings, your range of motion may be small (maybe around knee height), and that’s OK. Don’t stretch beyond where you can control the movement just for the sake of getting more range. As you get stronger and more practiced with the movement, your range of motion will increase.

How To Do The Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 03:42 in the video.)

If you don’t have a barbell, or you want to increase your range of motion slightly, you can perform stiff-leg deadlifts with dumbbells or kettlebells. The movement is the same, but the dumbbells will allow you to position the load at your sides rather than in front of your body, and you may find that that allows you to feel the exercise more in your hamstrings and takes pressure off your lower back.

Step 1. Stand with the weights at your sides and your feet hip-width apart. Brace your core.

Step 2. Unlock your hips and your knees, and drive your hips straight back. Keep your knees stiff. When you feel the stretch in your hamstrings, come back up.

Muscles Targeted With The Stiff-Leg Deadlift

(See 04:13 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift primarily works the hamstrings, but it will also train the spinal erectors, as they have to work isometrically to stabilize your lower back. Because you’re performing a hip extension, your glutes will get in on the job too. Finally, your adductors—the muscles that run down your inner thighs—also contribute to the movement.

Pro Tips: How To Avoid Common Mistakes When Deadlifting

(See 04:30 in the video.)

Mistake #1: Rounding your lower back

You’ll see some people in the gym and online doing stiff-leg deadlifts purely as a back exercise—sometimes intentionally, and sometimes not. They’ll bend at the waist instead of the hips, completely rounding their lower back. Or, in an effort to increase the range of motion, they’ll round their back toward the bottom of each rep. In either case, it’s usually a bad idea, as it can lead to a back injury.

The stiff-leg deadlift is meant to be done almost entirely by the hips. Once you can’t move them back anymore, extend your hips to come back up. Your body should form a straight line from your head down to your tailbone throughout the whole movement.

Mistake #2: Locking The Knees

Your goal should be to keep your knees from bending, but that doesn’t mean lock them out entirely. Locking your knees can cause too much tension in your hamstrings and lead to injury. Think “soft knees,” and let them bend just enough so that you get the best range of motion out of your hamstrings without losing tension in them.

Mistake #3: Bending The Knees Too Much

If you bend your knees the entire time you bend your hips, you’re going to turn the stiff-leg deadlift into a Romanian deadlift, conventional deadlift, or a squat. If at any time you feel your quads tensing up, you know you’ve bent your knees too much. Think about it like this, if your knee angle is totally straight, your knees would be 180 degrees, and if they were bent halfway, they’d be 90 degrees, so aim for roughly 160 degrees of knee bend.

Stiff Leg Deadlift Vs. Conventional Deadlift: Key Differences

(See 06:44 in the video.)

A conventional deadlift starts with the bar on the floor, and it allows you to bend your knees more so that your quads and glutes can contribute more to the movement. This makes the conventional deadlift a great overall strength exercise for the lower body.

In the stiff-leg deadlift, the goal is to take the quads and glutes out of the equation as much as possible to better isolate the hamstrings. To do this, you have to keep the knees nearly straight and focus on bending only at the hips.

For these reasons, the conventional deadlift is used more by powerlifters and weightlifters looking to strengthen the lower body as much as possible, while the stiff-leg deadlift is more popular among bodybuilders and other physique or figure athletes who are trying to develop each individual muscle group to its best potential.

Stiff-Leg Deadlift Vs. Romanian Deadlift

(See 07:25 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift looks similar to another deadlift variant that starts from the standing position: the Romanian deadlift. Some coaches argue the two movements are really the same, but we see some subtle differences. In a Romanian deadlift, your knees are free to bend so that you can push your hips back as far as possible. That shifts the emphasis from the hamstrings to the glutes, and it allows you to use heavier loads. You’ll see powerlifters and weightlifters using Romanian deadlifts often to strengthen their glutes for bigger squats, deadlifts, and cleans, while the stiff-leg deadlift is usually the better option for bodybuilders and other physique/figure competitors chasing hamstring gains.

Look at the two pictures below, which show the bottom position of each lift, and the difference should be pretty clear. The first one is the stiff-leg deadlift, and the second is the RDL.

Straight-Leg Deadlift Variations

You can train the basic stiff-leg deadlift with a little more isolation and range of motion if you do it one leg at a time. Check out this article for a whole guide to single-leg deadlifting.

Straight-Leg Deadlift Alternatives

If you want another option that’s a little easier on both the hamstrings and the lower back than the single-leg deadlift, check out our guide to the B-stance Romanian deadlift.

How To Warm Up Before Stiff-Leg Deadlifts

(See 09:50 in the video.)

The stiff-leg deadlift is NOT an exercise that you want to jump into cold. With all the stretch it puts on the hamstrings, you need to warm up thoroughly beforehand. Here are two moves that will warm up your hamstrings and open your hips before you get into stiff-leg deadlifts.

Bodyweight Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. REPS?

Hip Flexor Stretch

Step 1. Kneel on the floor with one knee. Both hips and knees should be bent 90 degrees. Now tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is level with the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Shift your weight forward, moving your front knee past your toe, until you feel a stretch in the front of the hip on the back leg. Keep your hips and shoulders facing forward. Your front foot must also stay flat on the floor. Hold for 30 seconds. REP?

It’s best to do stiff-leg deadlifts at the end of your leg days, preferably after you’ve done leg curls or another hamstring and/or glute exercise. Because the exercise puts your hamstrings under such an intense stretch, you don’t want to rush into them when you’re cold and not comfortable doing a full range of motion.

Who Should Do Stiff-Leg Deadlifts?

(See 11:39 in the video.)

If you’re someone who wants to slap some more meat on their hamstrings, the stiff-leg deadlift should be a cornerstone of your leg workouts. Also, if you’re a sprinter, other kind of track athlete, or anyone else who runs a lot in their sport, the stiff-leg deadlift will help you build strong hamstrings, which are key for fast, explosive running. Finally, if you compete in strength sports, like weightlifting or powerlifting, the stiff-leg deadlift will help strengthen the muscles you need to pick up big weights.

The post How To Do The Stiff-Leg Deadlift With A Barbell Or Dumbbells appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Pendlay row is a bent-over row where you let the bar settle on the floor for a moment at the bottom of each rep.

2. The Pendlay row builds starting strength, and develops the lats and upper back.

3. Make sure you keep your hips and torso in the same position throughout the whole set.

4. The Pendlay row can be done first in your workout or as an assistance lift after deadlifts or cleans.

What Is A Pendlay Row and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:21 in the video above.)

The Pendlay row looks something like a deadlift, but is executed more like a bent-over row. The bar is on the floor, you bend your hips back to reach it, row, and then return the bar to the floor each rep. Because you have to reset the bar on the floor, your lower back gets a bit of a break, at least compared to doing the basic bent-over row, where you hold the flexed-hip position throughout the set and lower the bar to arm’s length. This reset also allows you to lift heavier weights, which makes the Pendlay row a great strength exercise for the lats, upper and lower back, core, and grip.

The Pendlay row is named for the late weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay, who unwittingly invented the exercise in an effort to get his students to train bent-over rows more efficiently and with stricter form. It also carries over well to developing the explosive back strength needed for weightlifting and powerlifting movements such as the clean, snatch, and deadlift.

How to Perform Proper Technique For The Pendlay Row

(See 01:07 in the video.)

Step 1. Set up as you would to deadlift, placing your feet at about hip-width and just behind the barbell on the floor. Keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone, bend your hips back as far as you can, and bend your knees until you can reach the barbell with your hands about shoulder-width apart or a little wider. Your hips should be bent about 90 degrees so that your torso is parallel to the floor, and you must maintain this angle throughout the set.

Step 2. Draw your shoulders back and down, as if pushing your chest out and closer to the bar beneath you. You should feel your lat muscles contract. Now brace your core. Your neck should be neutral, with your eyes focused on the floor in front of you.

Step 3. Keeping the rest of your body as still as possible, row the bar—explosively—to the bottom of your chest/upper abs. Remember to maintain your hip position so your lower back stays neutral and flat.

Step 4. Lower the bar quickly, but under control, until it touches the floor again. Take a moment to reset the bar (especially if it wobbles), and begin your next rep.

Make sure the bar touches down in the same place it started. It’s OK to let the bar come down fairly quickly, as the movement is supposed to be explosive with an emphasis on the concentric (upward phase of the lift), but for the sake of safety and control don’t just let it drop.

The Pendlay row works well when programmed for lower reps, with sets of 5–8 reps being the sweet spot.

Muscles Worked In The Pendlay Row

(See 02:26 in the video.)

The key players here are:

– Lats (drawing the arms back)

– Rhomboids (retracting the shoulders)

– Rear deltoids (pulling the arms back)

– Lower and mid traps (retracting the shoulder blades)

– Spinal erectors (stabilizing your spine in the bent-over position)

– Biceps (bending the elbows)

– Core (the various ab muscles brace your spine)

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

(See 02:50 in the video.)

#1. Changing torso and hip position.

Coach Pendlay offered his version of the row to correct a problem he often saw in others rowing: raising the torso. A set might start off strict, but as the lifter tires, he/she tends to bounce the upper body, heaving the weight up with more of the low back than is necessary and pulling the weight to the stomach (thereby cutting off the range of motion).

In a proper Pendlay row, you must keep your hips bent 90 degrees and your torso locked in place. Only the shoulders and arms move.

#2. Rounding the spine

In any bent-over exercise where the chest is unsupported, there’s a greater demand on your trunk to stabilize the torso and spine. Rounding the back is the enemy here, and it invites the risk of lower-back injury. Remember to think “long spine” and keep your lower back in its natural arch. As you bend over into position, think about trying to touch your butt to the wall behind you, as opposed to folding over at the waist.

#3. Not letting the weight touch the floor between reps.

If you don’t touch the weight down between reps, you’re just doing a bent-over row. At the same time, if you bounce the weight off the floor too quickly, you’re likely to break form. The whole value of the Pendlay row comes from beginning each rep from a dead stop. By eliminating momentum, you develop more of what coaches call “starting strength”—the ability to get the weight moving. Relying on momentum to keep the bar in motion is a way to cut corners and miss out on the full benefit.

If you have trouble disciplining yourself to reset between reps, try counting to two after you touch the bar down and before you begin the next rep. Treat each rep like its own set.

#4. Pulling the bar to the wrong place.

Rowing the bar too high or too low on the torso can throw off the target muscles being used. For example, pulling the bar up toward the collarbone can end up working the arms and upper traps a bit more than the upper and mid back. Alternatively, pulling the bar to the waist can reduce the activation of the upper back.

Note the proximity of your body to the bar in your setup. Lining up the bar so it’s just over your shoelaces is a good starting point. Once you bend over the bar to pick it up, aim for your shoulder blades to be in line with the bar—not your deltoids or belly button. This will encourage you to pull in a straight line.

Pendlay Row Exercise Variations

(See 04:47 in the video.)

The Pendlay row can be customized for your needs and goals with a few simple tweaks.

Elevated Pendlay Row

If you’re especially tall, or lack the hip mobility to reach the bar when it’s on the floor without rounding your lower back, it’s OK to do a Pendlay row with the bar elevated on some blocks, mats, or weight plates. This will shorten the range of motion some so you can focus on rowing without worry about the safety of your spine position. An elevation of anywhere from 3 to 12 inches can be a game-changer.

Paused Pendlay Row

For variety, you can add an isometric hold at the top of each rep. That is, a pause when the bar is pulled to your chest. Most people have a habit of bouncing the bar off their chests, and the top of the rep is the weakest biomechanical position in the movement. Therefore, it’s a good idea to force yourself to hold the weight there from time to time, and it will not only strengthen your row but also help to clean up your form.

Pauses are also a good strategy to use if you’re injured or don’t have access to much weight. Taking an extra second or two to hold the top position with your back fully contracted will make lighter weight feel much heavier, and see that you get the best training effect from the weights you have access to or can handle.

Alternatives To The Pendlay Row

(See 06:15 in the video.)

Fisherman Row

While the Pendlay row requires only a barbell and plates, you may work out at home with just a bench and dumbbells. In this case, you might consider doing a single-arm dumbbell row variation. A fisherman row is a dumbbell row done with two benches. This creates a lot of stability and helps you keep your hips square to the floor, which encourages a long, straight spine.

Step 1. Place two benches parallel to each other, and rest a dumbbell on the floor in between them. (If you don’t have two benches, use a step or box to substitute for one.)

Step 2. Place your knees on one bench, shoulder-width apart. Rest one hand on the bench in front of you, and grasp the dumbbell with the other. Your hips should be square to the floor.

Step 3. Row the dumbbell to your side, straight up from the floor. Return it to the floor, pause, and repeat.

Using a dumbbell also allows you to train the row through a slightly greater range of motion, as well as utilize a higher rep range than would be practical with the barbell version.

Inverted Row

The inverted row is ideal for home workouts or anyplace else you have very limited equipment. In this case, you’re moving your own bodyweight and not a barbell, although you can set it up with a barbell on a power rack, or a suspension training system like a TRX or gymnastics rings. The inverted row spares the lower back and enables the lifter to pause at the top and/or bottom of each rep.

Step 1. Set the bar or suspension handles to around waist height, and hang from the handles with your feet on the floor. Extend your hips and position yourself so that you’re suspended above the floor and your body forms a straight line. Draw your shoulders back and down to engage the lats.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar or handles, and lower yourself back under control. It’s important that your body moves as a unit. That means no hiking the hips or bending the knees to help yourself out.

How To Warm Up For Pendlay Rows

(See 07:50 in the video.)

Hip Hinge

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 2–3 sets of 5–15 reps.

Cat Camel

Step 1. Get on all fours and brace your core. Your arms should be directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Step 2. Press your arms into the floor while you round your upper back toward the ceiling, spreading your shoulder blades. Hold for a second.

Step 3. Now retract your shoulder blades while you arch your upper back and drive your solar plexus toward the floor. Hold for a second. That’s one rep. Imagine the motion as having a string running through your solar plexus with someone pulling it up and then down—try to move at the upper back and not the lower back. Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

Who Should Perform the Pendlay Row?

(See 09:48 in the video.)

Lifters who want a break from the conventional barbell row, as well as those whose lower backs bother them, may have an easier time doing the Pendlay row. Resting the bar between reps can be a saving grace for the lumbar region. Pendlay rows are also a great way to check your form and ensure your torso stays in the correct position, so you could consider them a good pre-requisite to master before returning to regular bent-over rows.

They’re also a perfect accessory lift done after deadlifts, cleans, snatches, or other movements that some lifters compete in. The Pendlay row trains you to keep your hips and torso braced while you pull explosively—a huge component to all of the aforementioned lifts.

Additionally, any lifter who wants to build a strong back from the base of the neck down to their sacrum can benefit from working on the Pendlay row from time to time, especially if they train at home or in a gym where equipment is sparse.

Differences Between the Pendlay Row and Other Rows

(See 10:36 in the video.)

As we explained above, letting the bar settle on the ground is a key difference between the Pendlay row and the conventional bent-over row. Resting momentarily between reps gives the lower back and core muscles a break. Plus, having to explode the weight up from a dead-stop position builds power that can translate to weightlifting and other sports. It also lets you train heavier than a bent-over row and make it a more strength-focused movement.

Both Pendlay and bent-over rows require plenty of trunk stability, and that sets both movements apart from machine and chest-supported rows, which allow you to isolate the lat and upper-back muscles more completely. Subsequently, supported rows are probably better overall choices for pure muscle gains, while Pendlay and bent-over rows are, arguably, more functional movements that involve the whole body and build strength that more readily applies to other lifts and real-life activities.

The T-bar row, in which you straddle the barbell while one end is fixed against the floor, is another barbell-based rowing movement. The T-bar setup allows you to stand more upright and is a little easier on the lower back than both the Pendlay and bent-over row, and also lets you go heavier than these lifts, but it doesn’t offer the full-body challenge of the Pendlay or bent row.

Choose the row that’s most appropriate for your goals, and feel free to experiment with each variation over time. For instance, people who are interested in greater strength and power for weightlifting or powerlifting competition may choose to make Pendlay and bent-over rows their mainstay, while muscle-seekers may opt for chest-supported or T-bar rows. Furthermore, if you’re dealing with a back injury, Pendlay rows are a better choice than bent-overs, and chest-supported rows would probably be better still.

How to Fit Pendlay Rows Into Your Workout

(See 12:15 in the video.)

The Pendlay row is a demanding lift that offers the potential to move a lot of weight. For those reasons, it will ask a lot of the nervous system and grip strength of the lifter. Placing the Pendlay closer to the beginning of your back (or pull day) workout would be a smart choice to maximize the amount of weight lifted and the stimulus (it can also come second in line behind deadlifts, if you do those on pull day).

Performing Pendlays later in your workout will mean you’ll have to go lighter and may not get as much out of them, but it’s a good strategy if you want to use less weight so as not to aggravate a back injury or cheat form.

In general, it’s good to keep the reps on the lower end (5–8). You can complement Pendlays with other lower-back intensive lifts done for higher reps (10 and above), like the back extension, good morning, and bird dog.

The post How To Do the Pendlay Row for a Bigger Back appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The Larsen press is a bench press done with the legs extended.

2. The Larsen press takes the legs out of benching, which forces the upper body to work harder, strengthening it over time.

3. The Larsen press also removes much of the arch from the lower back, which can help relieve irritation if you’re injured in that area.

4. Make sure you set up with your feet on the floor first to get the proper arch in your upper back. Then extend your legs.

What Is The Larsen Press?

(See 00:23 in the video.)

A Larsen press is a bench press done with the legs extended. Your feet are off the floor and your whole body is relatively straight from head to heels.

The Larsen press takes its name from its innovator, Adrian Larsen, an American powerlifter and former world bench-press record holder in the 220-pound weight class. Most powerlifters use their legs to get extra stability and strength in their benching—after the bar touches their chest on the descent, they drive their legs hard into the floor to help press the bar back up—but due to being born with dislocated hips, resulting in multiple surgeries, Larsen wasn’t able to do this. Instead, he had to bench with his legs elevated. It didn’t seem to cost him strength, as he went on to press a motorcycle—and its rider—while lying on the ground on multiple occasions.

How to Do the Larsen Press Correctly

(See 01:04 in the video at the top.)

Step 1. Lie on the bench and set up for a normal bench press with your feet on the floor. Position yourself with your eyes directly under the bar.

Step 2. Grasp the bar with hands about shoulder-width apart and lift your body up off the bench so you can retract your shoulder blades and arch your back. Now lower yourself onto the bench. You should feel like your upper back has been pulled together tightly and your chest is pushed out—upward and closer to the bar.

Step 3. Unrack the bar and pull it into position directly above your shoulders. Now lift your legs off the floor and extend them with straight knees. This will flatten your ribcage and lower back against the bench.

Step 4. Gripping the bar firmly, pull it down to your chest, touching the middle of your pecs. Take a second or two to do this, so you lower with control. (Don’t let the weight free fall or bounce off your ribs.) Pause for a second or two, and then press the bar to lockout.

If you do it right, the bar won’t take a straight up-and-down path. Instead, it will drift slightly down your body as you lower it, and slightly toward your face as you press, following what’s called a J-curve. The bar should always stack directly above your wrists and elbows, but will only stack directly above your shoulders at lockout.

Perform your set to within one or two reps of form failure—the point at which you don’t think you can do another rep with good technique. As you get more experienced with the Larsen press, you can occasionally take your last set of the exercise to failure, under the supervision of an experienced spotter. Note that it’s best to have a spotter for Larsen pressing, and any other type of bench pressing in general, for the sake of safety.

Additional tips:

Make sure you set up with your feet on the floor, and don’t just skip ahead to raising your legs. “When you set up for the bench your upper back and lats need to be tight,” says Dave Tate, a former elite powerlifter and the founder of elitefts.com. “This is done by lifting your body up off the bench and tucking the shoulder blades down and tight.” This must be done on the Larsen press even more so than a normal bench press, because you don’t have the benefit of your legs providing stability.

When you raise your legs, your core should engage naturally, but don’t feel that you have to hold a hollow-body position like you were doing some ab exercise. Adrian Larsen actually let his legs dangle passively. If you find that holding your legs out is distracting or uncomfortable, you can rest them on a bench or box.

How To Stretch Before Doing The Larsen Press

(See 02:35 in the video at the top.)

Use these exercises to warm up your torso, shoulders, and elbows before performing the Larsen press in your workouts.

1. Cat-Camel Stretch

(See 02:40 in the video at the top.)

Step 1. Get on all fours and brace your core. Your arms should be directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Step 2. Press your arms into the floor while you round your upper back toward the ceiling, spreading your shoulder blades. Hold for a second.

Step 3. Now retract your shoulder blades while you arch your upper back and drive your solar plexus toward the floor. Hold for a second. That’s one rep. Imagine the motion as having a string running through your solar plexus with someone pulling it up and then down—try to move at the upper back and not the lower back. Do 2 sets of 10 reps.

2. Kneeling Elbow Circle

(See 03:21 in the video at the top.)

Step 1. From the same all-fours position as the cat-camel, turn your elbows to point out to the sides and then bend them, lowering your body to the bottom of a pushup.

Step 2. Turn your elbows toward your body and extend your arms to return to the starting position. That’s one rep. Alternate directions each rep, and do 2–3 sets of 6–12 reps.

What Muscles Does the Larsen Press Work?

(See 02:23 in the video at the top.)

The Larsen press is meant to strengthen your upper-body pushing muscles: the pecs, triceps, and front delts. Here’s a quick anatomy and biomechanics lesson to break it down. 

Pectorals 

Your pec major muscle flexes your shoulder and adducts your humerus toward the midline of your body. As you bench press, your shoulders flex and your upper arms converge toward each other. This is a little easier to visualize if you imagine a flye motion or a dumbbell press, but it happens when pressing a barbell too. 

Triceps

Your triceps’ primary action is to extend your elbow, straightening your arm. The upward portion of the bench press starts with a flexed elbow at your chest and your triceps extend your elbows to move the load toward a fully locked out elbow position at the top of the lift. 

Anterior Deltoids

Your front delts flex your shoulder, taking your humerus (upper-arm bone) from a position at your side (or behind your back) and elevating it toward the overhead position. If you think about your shoulder and humerus position and movement throughout a bench press, your arm goes from parallel to your torso to being pointed directly perpendicular from your torso. This motion is flexion of your shoulder, created by your front delt.

Though all three major pressing muscles work together through the entire range of motion of a bench press, your triceps dominate the top portion at lockout, while the pecs and front delts dominate the bottom portion when you’re getting the bar off your chest.

Numerous other muscles work to stabilize your shoulders and overall body position during a Larsen press, including but not limited to your obliques, serratus anterior, and rotator cuff, but we aren’t focused on targeting them directly here. If you want to target more of your upper chest vs. the middle of the pecs, see our guide to upper-chest workouts.

What are the Benefits of Doing the Larsen Press?

“The Larsen press can be great for intermediate to advanced lifters,” says Tate, “as it takes the legs out of the lift and will force them to keep tension through their core.” As much as the bench press is dominated by pecs, front delts, and triceps, a skilled powerlifter can squeeze extra force production from leg drive—the coiled tension of a low back arch and bucking the hips while elevating the ribcage. But as Larsen himself proved, training your body to press without the assistance of your legs makes your upper body take on all the load and learn to better stabilize itself on the bench. Do it for a few weeks and then go back to normal bench pressing. You’ll probably find that now that your upper body is much stronger, you can produce more force overall when you use your legs again.

“The Larsen press can also be a great diagnostic tool for powerlifting coaches,” adds Tate. Without the assistance of the legs, you can see how a lifter’s upper-body mechanics influence their pressing, and can troubleshoot any technique issues.

Here are some other reasons you may want to add the Larsen press to your routine.

Novelty

If you’ve been using the same limited array of basic exercises for months and you feel physically and mentally stale, making a small tweak like swapping out a regular bench press for a Larsen press can get you to re-engage with your training, as well as help you break through a plateau. As it’s similar to the bench press, the Larsen press will allow you to continue working the same muscles in a way that’s specific to bench press gains, but different enough to give your muscles, joints, connective tissues, and nervous system a bit of a break, as well as reduce the risk of injury due to repetitive use.

Reduced lower back stress

An aggressive bench press arch can stress and fatigue your low back tissues and structures. If you’re a powerlifter, you’re also doing other exercises that are hard on this area, such as squats, deadlifts, and good mornings, so it’s a good idea to get away from lifts that wear on the low back whenever you can. 

By keeping your legs straight, the Larsen press won’t let you arch your lower back while you’re pressing, neutralizing any stressful forces in the lumbar spine. If your pressing workouts take it easier on your lower back for a while, you leave more room for recovery and potentially better performance on squats and deadlifts.

Increased range of motion

The primary benefit of arching the back on a bench press is to elevate the base of your ribcage, shortening the distance the bar has to travel from chest contact to lockout. Shaving off some of the range of motion allows you to lift heavier weight, but it isn’t ideal for building muscle. The Larsen press demands that you lower the bar with only a minimal back arch, and that recruits more muscle in your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

(Incidentally, search for videos of small, hyper-flexible female powerlifters and you’ll see many of them using absurd, horseshoe-backed arches that let them lift enormous weights—the bar only travels a few inches from chest to lockout. This is within the regulations of many powerlifting federations, though due to controversy, some have begun to crack down on this “abuse” of the rules.)

Flattening out your arch and ribcage also means more time spent moving and controlling the weight at the weakest point of your bench press, when the bar is at your chest. Therefore, you will get stronger at pressing the bar up from the bottom.

Training with reduced weight

Though benching as much weight as possible is the goal of every powerlifter and motivated gym bro, you can’t bench with max weights all the time and stay injury-free. Because of its mechanics, the Larsen press will certainly force you to use lighter weight than your conventional bench press, to which your shoulders, elbows, and wrists will say “thanks.” Managing your loads over time will reduce your risk of injury and keep you from getting overwhelmed by fatigue, and that in turn should help you max out heavy weights when you choose to.

Larsen Press Alternatives

(See 04:20 in the video at the top.)

The goal of the Larsen Press is to take the legs out of the exercise and better isolate the pressing muscles. A secondary purpose is to preserve the low back, which is done by keeping the spine in a more neutral position. The biggest drawback to the Larsen press, as you may have guessed by looking at it, is the potential to fall off the bench. Without the balance and stability that comes from foot placement, you’re depending on your back and core to hold you in position, and that won’t work well for everyone. Fortunately, you can get most of the benefits of the Larsen press with less risk by doing one of these alternatives or variations.

Larsen Floor Press

(See 04:53 in the video at the top.)

Doing a Larsen press while lying on the floor takes away the effort of holding your legs out in front of you. They’re still extended, so you can’t arch your back much and your lumbar spine gets a break, but you won’t get the stability challenge that you would pressing on a bench. You may also find that your elbows touch the floor before the bar touches your chest. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it will shift more of the load onto your triceps, so it’s a good way to work lockout strength. Also, if you want to continue to press through a full range, you could stack some mats on the floor and rest your back against them, essentially raising the floor for your torso but not your arms and restoring the range of motion.

Feet On The Bench Press

(See 05:20 in the video at the top.)

Putting your feet up on the bench retains the spirit of the Larsen press while offering a little more stability. You may also get a little more lumbar arch and ribcage elevation. This is a great option for shorter lifters who have trouble keeping their feet flat on the floor anyway. Feet on the bench is often an ideal substitution for people who aren’t training for powerlifting but want to bench press without low-back tension. 

Dumbbell Larsen Press

(See 05:40 in the video at the top.)

Not everyone has a barbell and rack in their home, and some people only have access to gyms that ban compound barbell lifts—you know, the kind of place where an alarm goes off if you let out a grunt. While the dumbbell version may not be ideal for competitive powerlifters, it’s fine for the serious enthusiast who prefers to skip their gym’s pizza party and train hard. Find other ideas for training chest in our at-home chest workout guide.

How to Fit the Larsen Press Into Your Workout

(See 06:15 in the video at the top.)

The Larsen press can be incorporated into your training in two main ways.

1. As a primary strength lift

You can start your bench press/push/chest day with the Larsen press, training it the same way you would a regular bench press. Work up to 3–5 work sets of 3–5 reps, resting three minutes or more between sets.

2. As a chest-builder

If you want to train your chest with a bench press but take your legs completely out of the equation, the Larsen press is a fine substitute. Do 2–3 work sets of 6–12 reps, resting two to three minutes between sets.

Why The Larsen Press May Not Be For You

We like the Larsen press for its back-friendly feature and its ability to strengthen the pressing  muscles, but we don’t want to give you the impression that it’s a trendy new lift that you just HAVE to try.

Remember that Adrian Larsen used the Larsen press out of necessity. Those who have healthy legs and hips don’t need to.

Jen Thompson, an 11-time IPF world powerlifting champion and world-record holder in the bench press at 145.5 kilos says that the Larsen press makes a lifter unnecessarily unstable. “In my opinion, it’s not worth the injury risk, and I do not practice it,” says Thompson. The injury risk, in this case, being a shift out of position during the lift or outright falling off the bench due to the lack of stability. “If your goal is to build up your bench press, you should bench heavy in the most stable position.”

Many of the potential benefits of Larsen pressing, like upper-body isolation, low-back safety, and training through a greater range of motion can be gotten pressing with other exercises that don’t place you at risk of falling off the bench with a heavy load over your face.

The type of bench you have access to should also play a role in your decision of whether to Larsen press. Most gym benches are narrower than the ones used in powerlifting competition (competitors usually lift on benches that are 11.5 to 12.5 inches wide). Benching on a narrower surface makes you more likely to lose position, especially under heavy loads. It may be wise, then, to Larsen press only if you have a competition bench to practice on. The pressing skill you build also will transfer better to benching in competition.

The bottom line: the Larsen press isn’t a cure-all for a mediocre bench press, but it’s a good alternative for those who can access the right equipment and want to strengthen their pressing with a novel exercise. Furthermore, if you have lower body injuries or ailments like Larsen himself, the Larsen press may prove to be your ticket to amazing feats of strength that you may have previously thought impossible.

For more bench-press building tips, see our guide to the bench press.

The post How To Do The Larsen Press Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Key Takeaways

1. The Viking press is used in strongman competition and trains the shoulders and triceps.

2. The Viking press is joint-friendly and less stressful to the shoulders and low back than standard overhead presses.

3. You need two barbells and a power rack to perform the Viking press.

4. You can do landmine presses and dumbbell push presses in place of a Viking press.

5. Perform the Viking press for 2–3 sets of 5–8 reps to build muscle and strength. To build power, do 3–5 sets of 1–5 reps.

What Is The Viking Press and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:21 in the video above.)

Similar to a landmine press, the Viking press has you lifting the bar overhead in an arcing motion rather than straight up, as in a military press. Actually, if you want to do the Viking press in a public gym or at home, you’ll have to set it up with TWO bars that are parallel to each other in a power rack/cage. This is because most gyms won’t have the same kind of Viking press apparatus that strongmen train on—and that’s how the Viking press began.

The Viking press is often used in strongman competitions, and, while we can’t prove it, we suspect that that’s where the name comes from—since the sport has long been dominated by gigantic Scandinavians. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Viking press is a great way to build upper-body strength and muscle. (For more muscle-building tips and a training schedule, see our article on how often you should lift.)

The two-bar setup means that you’ll have to grip both barbells by their sleeves—the thick end of the bar where you load the weight plates. This will force you to use a neutral grip—palms facing in—and many people find that this position is easier on their shoulders than pressing with palms facing forward. The thickness of the sleeve also disperses the weight of the bar more evenly through your joints, so if your wrists, elbows, and shoulders tend to hurt doing normal barbell overhead presses, the Viking press may allow you to train pressing pain-free.

Yet another benefit is that the Viking press is safer for the low back. On the old-fashioned military press, the heavier the weight gets, the more people tend to lean back as they press, hyperextending their lower back, which can cause injury. With the Viking press, because you’re lifting the weight on an arc, it causes you to drive your body slightly forward. Doing so lets you keep your ribs down and your core braced, so your torso is one tight column that makes for stronger, safer pressing.

How To Do The Viking Press Correctly

(See 01:53 in the video.)

Admittedly, the Viking press is a bit complicated to set up. You need to have a power rack with safety guards and two equal-sized barbells to do it.

Step 1. Set the safety guards in the power rack. Place one at about shoulder level and the other one notch higher. Now place empty barbells on top of the guards. Set the ends of the barbells that you will hold to press on the lower guard so that the opposite end that serves as your fulcrum is higher. Now secure the higher ends of the barbells by loading 10-pound plates on the sleeves, and tuck the weights inside the safety guards so they rub against the guards. This is just to keep the bars in place so they don’t slide down the safety rods while you press.

Step 2. Now load the weight you’ll lift on the other side of the barbells. Grasp the ends of the bar sleeves and stand just behind the bars with your feet at shoulder width. Your wrists should be in line with your elbows. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 3. Press the bars upward to lockout until they’re straight overhead. Allow your bodyweight to shift forward as you press and push your head through so your arms end up in line with your ears.

You can also perform the Viking press the way strongman competitors do, which is more like a push press. You dip your knees quickly and use momentum to drive the weight up. This will allow you to lift heavier and it makes the exercise more of a total-body movement. Note that if you dip your knees you’ll need more room so that the bar doesn’t bang into the safety guard nearest you, so you may need to set that guard another notch lower.

What Muscles Does The Viking Press Work?

(See 03:15 in the video.)

The Viking press primarily strengthens the front and lateral deltoids, but the triceps will work hard too as you extend your elbows. Your traps and other back muscles, legs, and core will also get some activation.

How to Stretch Before Doing the Viking Press

(See 03:26 in the video.)

It’s a good idea to warm up both the shoulders and the thoracic spine before you get into any Viking pressing. Here are some movements that will prep both areas.

The Cat-Camel Stretch

(See 03:33 in the video.)

Step 1. Get on all fours and brace your core. Your arms should be directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Step 2. Press your arms into the floor while you round your upper back toward the ceiling, spreading your shoulder blades. Hold for a second.

Step 3. Now retract your shoulder blades while you arch your upper back and drive your solar plexus toward the floor. Hold for a second. That’s one rep. Imagine the motion as having a string running through your solar plexus with someone pulling it up and then down—try to move at the upper back and not the lower back. Do 2 sets of 10 reps.

Behind-The-Back Shoulder Rotations

(See 04:09 in the video.)

Step 1. Stand tall and place the back of one hand behind you and against your lower back. Place the palm of your other hand behind your head.

Step 2. Now pull your hands back an inch or so away from your head and low back, hold a moment, and then switch positions, rotating your shoulders to bring one hand to your head and the other to your lower back. That’s one rep. Do 2 sets of 10 reps.

Viking Press Alternatives

(See 05:03 in the video.)

OK, OK, so maybe the Viking press is a hassle to set up and you can’t monopolize a power rack and TWO barbells in your gym without getting dirty looks from your fellow gymgoers. In that case, you can try two alternatives that train the shoulders in a similar way.

Landmine Press

The landmine press is basically just a unilateral version of the Viking press done with the far end of the barbell on the floor. Lucky for you we recently shot a video and did a whole separate article on how to landmine press.

A really simple option B that anyone can do at home with a pair of dumbbells is the dumbbell push press. You won’t be able to go as heavy as with barbells, but the dumbbells will force you to control two weights independently, and they allow you to use that shoulder-friendly neutral grip.

Dumbbell Push Press

(See 05:35 in the video.)

Step 1. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart. Hold a heavy pair of dumbbells at shoulder level with your elbows forward so your forearms are vertical. Turn your wrists so your palms face in. Draw your shoulders back—think “proud chest”—and brace your core.

Step 2. Dip your knees very quickly while keeping your torso tall and straight, and then explode upward, straightening your knees to provide momentum as you press the weights straight overhead to lockout.

How To Fit The Viking Press Into Your Workouts

(See 06:14 in the video.)

If you normally do barbell overhead presses or push presses as your main strength lift in a workout, the Viking press can substitute for either and would be best used early on in your workout on an upper-body push or chest/shoulder day. Two to three sets of 5–8 reps are fine. If you want to do the strongman version where you dip your knees, which trains more total-body power, you could do 3–5 sets of 1–5 reps. Again, do this as your first or maybe second exercise of the day, after you’ve warmed up thoroughly, but are still fresh enough to be explosive.

Learn how to do another joint-friendly, strongman lift in our guide to the Zercher squat.

The post How To Do The Viking Press Like An Expert appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Are The Benefits of Doing The Zercher Squat?

(See 00:25 in the video above)

The Zercher squat gets its funny name from a strongman named Ed Zercher. The rumor is that Zercher didn’t have a squat rack in his gym, so, rather than squat with a bar on his back, he had to place the barbell on the floor and then bend down and hook his arms under it to lift the bar into position at his belly. Today, many lifters do Zercher squats using a squat rack, but they perform the same basic movement, holding the bar in front of their body, in the bend of their elbows.

A Zercher squat is very similar to a kettlebell goblet squat or a barbell front squat, in that it allows you to squat with a very upright torso, and therefore squat very deep. Because the weight is loaded on the front of your body, your core and upper back have to work really hard to stabilize you. The Zercher squat is much easier on the lower back than a back squat is, so it’s a good alternative if you’re dealing with an injury. In a back squat, your torso inevitably will bend a little toward the floor, and that places shear forces on the spine. If you have back problems already, this can make things worse. The Zercher squat allows you to keep your joints stacked, minimizing stress on the low back.

You could also argue that Zercher squats are a good choice for wrestlers and other combat athletes who have to pick people up from time to time, as they mimic that movement. They’re also applicable to strongman competitors who have to perform events like the Conan’s Wheel, or stone carries, as they more closely resemble those movements than other types of squats.

Of course, if you don’t have a squat rack but you want to do barbell squats at home, you can do what Zercher did and get the bar up to your chest from the floor—that is, IF you have the mobility to pick the bar up safely.

How To Do The Zercher Squat Correctly

(See 02:02 in the video.)

The safest way to perform a Zercher squat is to take the bar out of a squat rack.

Step 1. Set the bar in the rack at about stomach height. Now hook your arms underneath it so that the bar rests in the bend of your elbows. This can be very uncomfortable, so it’s a good idea to wear a long-sleeve sweatshirt when you do these, or wrap a towel around the bar to cushion your arms.

Step 2. Scoop the bar out of the rack, step back, and stand with your feet between hip and shoulder width, just as you would for a normal back or front squat. Turn your toes out about 30 degrees. Make sure your arms are close to the center of the bar, so it’s balanced. You can cup one hand over the other, or have your forearms parallel to each other with your hands in fists—whichever is more comfortable. In either case, your arms should look like they’re in the top position of a curl. Your biceps are fully shortened, but they aren’t really working against the resistance of the bar. You’re just using your arms as hooks to hold the bar in place. You shouldn’t feel your shoulders working. If you do, your elbows are probably too high.

Step 3. Take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Keeping your torso very tall and straight, squat as deeply as you can without losing the arch in your lower back (in other words, don’t let your pelvis tuck under). Think of the movement as being like a goblet or front squat. Push your knees apart as you descend so that your elbows fit between them.

Step 4. After you’ve descended to your safest squat depth, come back up and stand tall.

If you don’t have a squat rack, you can deadlift the bar off the floor and into your lap, and then hook your arms underneath the bar and stand up to get into position. Note that this approach will require a lot of hip mobility so that you don’t round your lower back, so it’s not appropriate for most people. However, if you’re sure you can do it safely, make sure you use a very light weight at first.

In strongman competition, the Zercher squat and similar exercises (such as Zercher carries, or the Conan’s Wheel) are typically done with an axel rather than a conventional barbell. Axel bars are available in some gyms, and their diameter is much thicker than that of a standard barbell. If you have access to one, the axel bar is a good choice for Zercher exercises, as it not only better mimics how you would do them in strongman but also offers the biceps and elbows some relief. The thickness of an axel spreads the load across your elbows, so it doesn’t bite into them the way a narrower bar does.

What Muscles Does The Zercher Squat Work?

(See 04:20 in the video.)

The Zercher squat works the same muscles that virtually every other squat works, including the quads, glutes, and adductors. Because the weight is loaded in front of you, it’s going to be even more demanding on your abs and obliques—your core muscles—than a back squat would be. Your upper back will also have to work really hard to keep the bar from falling. Yes, your biceps will help out as well just keeping the bar in place, but it’s an exaggeration to say that they really get trained by Zercher squats. If you want to get bigger, stronger arms, you’re better off doing curls!

The Zercher Squat Vs. Front & Back Squats

(See 04:55 in the video.)

The Zercher squat is very similar to a front squat. You’re just holding the bar in a different place, but it will work the same muscles and feel similar. If you have trouble doing Olympic-style front squats because they bother your wrists, the Zercher squat could be a good alternative. The Zercher squat is also easier on your lower back and shoulders than a back squat would be, but because you have to rely on your arms to hold the bar in front of you, you’re not in as strong of a position doing Zercher squats as you would be doing either the front or back squat. You will be limited by your core and back strength, as well as your arms’ ability to hold the weight. Therefore, you won’t be able to train Zercher squats as heavy as those other lifts.

How To Stretch Before Doing Squats

Try out these warmup and mobility moves from Onnit’s Director of Fitness Education, Shane Heins, before attempting a Zercher squat workout.

Alternatives To The Zercher Squat

(See 05:38 in the Zercher Squat video at the top.)

Again, because the Zercher squat is so similar to front squats and goblet squats, try those movements if you want to get the feel of Zercher squats but don’t feel up to actually doing them just yet.

Front Squat

(See 05:53 in the Zercher Squat video.)

Step 1. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart and point your elbows forward so that you can position the bar over the tips of your fingers (palms face up). As long as you keep your elbows pointing forward, you will be able to balance the bar.

Another way to do it is to cross your arms in front of you, holding the bar on the front of your shoulders (left hand in front of right shoulder, right hand in front of left). To do the classic front squat with the bar on your fingertips, you need a reasonable amount of flexibility through your shoulders and wrists to position the barbell correctly. If you don’t have it, the cross-arm version may be the better option for you at the moment.

Step 2. Lift the bar out of the rack and step back, setting your feet between hip- and shoulder-width apart. Turn your toes out slightly. Pull your ribs down and take a deep breath into your belly and brace your core. Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long line—your pelvis should also be perpendicular to your spine, and not tilted toward the floor. Focus your eyes on a point straight in front of you.

Step 3. Squat as low as you can while keeping alignment and maintaining your upright torso position. Remember to point your elbows forward, and raise them up if you feel them slipping downward. Ideally, you’ll be able to descend to where the crease of your hips is below the top of your thighs.

Step 4. Extend your hips and knees to return to standing, pushing through the middle of your feet and squeezing your glutes.

Goblet Squat

(See 07:30 in the Zercher Squat video.)

Step 1. Hold a kettlebell in front of your chest by the sides of its handle. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think: “proud chest”), and tuck your elbows in close to the bell—try to get your forearms as vertical as you can. Stand with your feet between hip- and shoulder-width apart, and turn your toes out a bit—up to 30 degrees if you need to.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone and draw your ribs down so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core.

Step 3. Keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis, push your hips back and squat down, as if sitting down into a chair. Squat as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned. Push your knees apart as you descend. You should feel most of your weight on your heels to mid-foot area. If you feel your lower back beginning to round, stop there, and come back up. Keep your torso as vertical as possible—you shouldn’t have to lean forward or work extra hard to hold the bell upright. Avoid bending or twisting to either side.

Step 4. Drive through your feet as you extend your hips and knees to come up.

How To Fit The Zercher Squat Into Your Workout

(See 09:26 in the video.)

The Zercher squat can be a good alternative to front squats, especially if you want to train more like a strongman or prepare your body for heavy carrying of any kind. It’s also a good substitute for back squats if you’re having lower-back issues. Understand, however, that you won’t be able to train as heavy with the Zercher squat as with other squat variations, and that can be detrimental if you want to build maximum strength or leg muscle. With that said, Zerchers have been around 100 years or more for good reason: they build very functional, real-world strength throughout your whole body.

Do them toward the beginning of your leg or full-body workout when you’re at your freshest. Since the Zercher squat has you squatting so upright, it’s going to let you squat very deep, and that places most of the emphasis on your quads. Be sure to balance it out with other exercises that work the hamstrings and glutes just as hard. Two to three sets of 5–10 reps is good to start, progressing the weight and rep numbers over time.

Try another front-loaded squat that saves the low back and strengthens the quads: the landmine squat.

The post How To Do The Zercher Squat Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Are B-Stance RDLs and What Are Their Benefits?

(See 00:22 in the video above)

First, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what regular old Romanian deadlifts are. The RDL is very similar to a conventional deadlift, but rather than picking the bar up off the floor, you start from a standing position with your hips locked out, and then bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a little bend in your knees.

The RDL trains the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, making it a great exercise for building muscle in those areas, as well as a good supplemental lift for the deadlift itself. Many lifters like to progress from the RDL to a single-leg RDL, where you perform the same basic movement but on one leg. Being able to do a single-leg RDL, or single-leg deadlift, demonstrates great balance and stability, so it’s arguably a good exercise for athletes to work on, but it takes a lot of practice for most people to achieve. It’s also not really a great choice for building muscle in your glutes and hamstrings, because you expend most of your energy trying to stabilize the movement—that is, keep from losing your balance and falling over. Single-leg deadlifts can’t really be loaded heavy, so there’s a diminishing return as far as gaining muscle and strength from them.

Now here’s where the B-stance RDL comes in. By taking your normal RDL stance and sliding one foot back and using it as a sort of kickstand, you can shift the load to your front leg, making the RDL more of a unilateral movement like the single-leg deadlift, but keeping most of the stability that makes the RDL such an effective muscle and strength exercise.

Therefore the B-stance RDL is a good progression from the bilateral RDL as well as a prerequisite or alternate for single-leg deadlifts.

Also, if you suffer from lower-back pain and find that regular two-legged RDLs are uncomfortable, the B-stance RDL may be a good alternative. You can’t lift as heavy with a B-stance as you can using a normal, two-legged stance, but in this case, that can be a good thing. Using lighter weight will place less strain on your lower back, but it will still be heavy enough to train one leg at a time effectively. The B-stance will also allow you to improve the mobility in your hips, one side at a time, so it may help to relieve the source of your back pain in the first place.

How To Do B-Stance RDLs

(See 02:20 in the video)

You can perform B-stance RDLs with a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, or a trap bar. We like the trap bar because it allows you to keep the weight very close to your center of gravity, which is easier on the lower back, so that’s the version that is depicted here. But the same mechanics apply to a B-stance RDL with any implement.

Step 1. Take the bar off the floor or a rack—if you’re going off the floor, you have to deadlift the bar up and into position, so be sure to do it with a flat back and lift with your legs. Now stand with your feet hip-width apart and soften your knees. From here, slide one foot back so that your toes are even with the heel of the other foot. Some people like to move the foot a little further backward or keep it more forward, but the toe-to-heel alignment seems to work best for most. Experiment and see what feels right to you.

Step 2. Brace your core, and bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a little bend in your knees. You want your front knee to stay soft and just bend as needed to give your hips the greatest range of motion. The knee on your kickstand leg will bend a little more, but don’t try to bend either leg like you would in a squat.

Keep a long spine from your head to your tailbone as you push your hips back. You’ll feel a strong stretch in your glutes and hamstrings on the front leg. You want that stretch, because that means you’re working the muscles, but it shouldn’t be really uncomfortable. You also shouldn’t go to where you feel your lower back is beginning to round forward.

Step 3. As soon as you feel a strong stretch, and you know your hips are as far back as they can go with that stance, extend your hips to stand back up tall. Watch that you don’t hyperextend your back at the top. You want to be standing tall, not leaning back in an effort to push your hips forward even more.

Complete your reps (sets of anywhere from 5–10 reps are generally fine), rest, and repeat on the other leg.

What Muscles Do B-Stance Deadlifts Work?

(See 03:54 in the video)

B-stance RDLs will primarily target the gluteus maximus, your main butt muscle. But they will also hit your hamstrings and spinal erectors (the muscles in your lower back). Your core, of course, has to brace your spine throughout the whole movement, so you could argue that any RDL is an ab workout too.

Finally, if you go heavy on B-stance RDLs, they will demand a lot of work from your upper back and grip as well, just in supporting the load.

How Do B-Stance RDLs Compare To Other Romanian Deadlifts?

(See 04:20 in the video)

We already said that B-stance RDLs are easier on the low back than conventional RDLs. They also offer more range of motion than a bilateral RDL, so you can bend your hips back a little further and put a little bit more stretch on your glutes and hamstrings. Of course, the B-stance RDL is also more stable than a true single-leg deadlift, so you can lift more weight and provide a better stimulus for size and strength gains.

With all that said, the B-stance won’t allow you to go as heavy as conventional RDLs, so they’re not an ideal choice for building up your deadlift like regular RDLs are when done as an assistance lift. It’s good to use B-stance RDLs as an alternate exercise for the sake of variety, or if you’ve been experience low-back problems and want to train around them.

How To Stretch Before Doing B-Stance Romanian Deadlifts

(See 04:42 in the video)

The B-stance RDL is really just a hip hinge—you bend your hips back as far as you can while keeping a straight, flat back. For that reason, any hip hinge motion can serve as a warmup for it. A basic bodyweight hip hinge can do the trick.

Bodyweight Hip Hinge

(See 04:55 in the video)

Step 1. Stand with feet parallel and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Now drive your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, or you can’t push your hips back any further without losing your spine position, come back up to standing. Do 3 sets of 10 reps.

Another warmup move that will stretch out the muscles you’ll use on the B-stance RDL is the reverse lunge.

Reverse Lunge

(See 05:21 in the video)

Step 1. Stand with your feet parallel.

Step 2. Now step back and lower your body toward the floor until your front knee is bent 90 degrees. 

Keep your torso upright and avoid twisting to either side. Perform 2 sets of 6 reps on each leg.

B-Stance RDL Exercise Alternatives

(See 05:38 in the video)

The B-stance RDL emphasizes the glutes when they’re at their most lengthened position—a deep hip hinge with your butt pushed all the way back. A nice complement to this kind of exercise is the B-stance hip thrust, another unilateral glute exercise that emphasizes the muscles when they’re in a shortened position—that is, they contract hardest when you’re near the end of the hip hinge and about to lock your hips out. Click HERE for a full tutorial on the B-stance hip thrust.

Another alternative exercise is the braced single-leg deadlift, as recommended by Bret Contreras, PhD, a glute-training expert and author of the book Glute Lab. Here, you hold onto something sturdy for support and perform a single-leg deadlift motion. The braced single-leg deadlift is a little more challenging than using the B-stance, and a little closer to doing a real, unassisted single-leg deadlift, so consider it a progression from the B-stance once you’ve got that down.

Braced Single-Leg Deadlift

(See 06:36 in the video)

Step 1. Set up a bench or other sturdy object so it’s at about arm’s length in front of you when your arm is at your side. You will hold onto it for stability. Now stand with your feet close and a light dumbbell in the opposite hand.

Step 2. You’ll start by working the leg that’s closest to the bench. Keeping a slight bend in that knee, push your hips back and extend your other leg behind you as you bend your torso toward the floor. Try to keep your hips square to the floor and maintain a long spine.

Step 3. Extend your hips to stand up tall again.

As you get more comfortable with the movement, you can reduce the support you get from the bench. 

For example, start the single-leg deadlift unassisted and then reach out and touch the bench only if you begin to wobble.

Want to conquer the single-leg deadlift next? See our guide to the single-leg deadlift in another recent blog post.

The post How To Do B-Stance Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The hang clean, however, is a highly technical movement that takes A LOT of practice to really get down. Follow the advice given here by Zack Telander (@coach_zt), Olympic weightlifting competitor and coach, to master the hang clean and use it to gain muscle, power, and total-body strength.

What Are Hang Cleans and What Are The Benefits of Doing Them?

(See 00:25 in the video above)

In the full clean exercise, as done in the sport of weightlifting, you start with the bar on the floor and heave it up to shoulder level (called the “front rack” position). In the hang clean, you start the movement already standing straight and then bend your hips back to lower the bar—usually to just below the knees. From there, you explosively extend your hips, knees, and ankles to get the bar up to the rack position. This is done right after you lower the bar, so the stretch reflex kicks in and helps you power the bar up. Because you start in a stronger position, says Telander, the hang clean is a little easier to control than the regular clean, and therefore a better move for beginners to work on.

The hang clean offers numerous benefits. The explosive extension of the hips, knees, and ankles (called “triple extension” by coaches) happens almost simultaneously, producing tremendous power. A football player’s ability to charge forward out of a three-point stance, a basketball player’s jump shot, and a track star’s sprint all owe their power to triple extension. Unsurprisingly, the hang clean almost always figures into the workouts of these types of athletes.

The hang clean also recruits pretty much every muscle you can think of, but particularly the glutes, hamstrings, calves, upper back, and core. Progressively loading the hang clean over time can get you big and strong and change your physique.

How To Properly Execute A Hang Clean

(See 01:23 in the video)

The hang clean is awesome… but it’s not as easy as doing a barbell curl or a dumbbell shrug. It’s an incredibly technical movement that’s going to require a lot of practice to do properly—so be patient. Telander recommends you break the hang clean down into its component parts and work them one at a time. Practice the following with an EMPTY barbell.

Part 1: The Front Rack

(See 01:40 in the video)

The first thing to familiarize yourself with is the front rack position—holding the bar at your collarbone/shoulder level. This is the last part of the clean movement—where the bar finishes—but Telander likes to drill it first because it’s the easiest part of the lift to get down. It also sets you up for presses and jerks, which you’ll want to progress to after you have the hang clean under your belt.

Step 1. Stand with your feet between hip and shoulder width and hold the bar at arm‘s length with your hands at shoulder width. Your hands should be about thumb length from the outside of your thighs. Now press the bar overhead.

Step 2. Lower the bar with control until it’s at shoulder level, and point your elbows forward as you bring it down. This should allow the bar to settle just above your clavicle in the front rack position. If you lack mobility in your wrists, upper back, or shoulders, you may have difficulty holding onto the bar. Your hands can open to allow you greater range of motion, but don’t let the bar roll all the way to your fingertips—you won’t be able to control it.

Repeat this motion for several reps and practice it for multiple sets. Your mobility should improve within a few sessions. When you’re confident in your front rack, move on to the next component.

Part 2: The Muscle Clean

(See 02:45 in the video)

The muscle clean is where you’ll work on popping the bar from your hips to your chest—the stage right before you finish in the front rack. It’s basically an upright row done with momentum.

Step 1. Start with the bar at arm’s length in front of you again.

Step 2. Row the bar straight up in front of your body, raising your elbows high and out to your sides. As the bar reaches your chest, push your elbows forward and under the bar so you end up in the front rack. Essentially, “as soon as you feel you can’t pull the bar any higher with the grip you’ve taken,” says Telander, “you’ll want to begin turning your elbows over.”

Be careful not to lift the bar too high so that it flops over and bounces into the front rack. You want to pull it fast, but don’t let momentum take control away from you.

Practice this for several workouts, and integrate it with the front rack. At this point, you’ll have two-thirds of the hang clean down pat.

Part 3: The Contact Drill

(See 03:50 in the video)

Now you’re ready to practice getting the bar in contact with your legs and beginning the explosion upward.

Step 1. From the same standing position, bend your knees slightly and then bend your hips in order to lower the bar to mid-thigh level.

Step 2. Let the bar drift away from your body and then, using only your arms, snap it back so it touches your thighs again. As soon as you feel it hit your thighs, extend your hips and knees and go into the muscle clean you learned in Part 2. You don’t have to raise the bar all the way up to your chest though. Keep the movement between your thighs and about sternum level so you can focus on that initial hip and knee drive. The bar should glide up in a straight line, just in front of your shirt.

When that feels natural, try integrating the contact drill with the full muscle clean and finishing in the rack position. Then, when that feels strong, you can begin to catch the bar in the front rack position by jumping and descending into a quarter-squat. As you come up in the muscle clean, use enough power so that your feet leave the floor and you come back down bending at the hips and knees to absorb the force.

Hang in there, no pun intended. You’ve got almost the entire hang clean movement now.

Putting It All Together

(See 04:40 in the video)

The hang clean can begin just above or below the knees, depending on how you want to implement it in your training. For those just learning the clean, Telander likes to begin from below the knee at about mid-shin height, as that’s the safest way to practice the hang clean and reinforces good technique.

Practice the integrated hang clean drills you’ve already worked on, but instead of beginning the contact drill with the bar drifting in front of you, you’ll begin with the bar in contact with your legs at mid-shin. Start from standing, take a breath in and hold it, and bend the hips and knees until the bar is low enough. As soon as you reach that position, begin extending your hips and knees and clean the bar to the front rack. Exhale, drop the bar back in front of you with control, and repeat.

When you feel good about your form, you can add weight to the bar. Start with 25-pound plates, and you may need to elevate the bar on some blocks or mats so that you can set up with the bar at mid-shin. When you work up to using 45s on each side, the bar will be high enough just sitting on the floor. (If you have rubber bumper plates, any weight you use will be the same diameter and therefore the same distance from the floor).

How To Choose The Right Weight For The Hang Clean (Plus, Sets and Reps)

(See 08:02 in the video)

The hang clean is meant to be loaded heavy, so you can build as much muscle and strength as possible. But when you’re new to the lift, you need to go light so you can master good technique. Start with no more than 45 pounds on each side (again, lighter weight with the use of bumper plates is even better, if you have access to them). “Go for 5–10 sets of 1–3 reps,” says Telander. As you get better, you can work up to sets of as many as 5 reps, but you should rarely go higher than that. The more reps you perform, the more fatigue you’ll accumulate, and fatigue causes form to break down and can lead to injury, or, at the very least, sloppy hang cleans that don’t have the desired training effect.

Five to 10 sets seems like a lot, doesn’t it? Remember, this is Olympic weightlifting, not bodybuilding, and the emphasis is on technique and power—not muscle failure. You want to do a fair number of sets to ingrain good form, so think of them as practice. A set of hang cleans should end when you feel you can’t do another rep with perfect form, not the point where you’re straining to even get the bar moving. It’s a different kind of training than most people are used to, and it requires a different mentality.

What Muscles Do Hang Cleans Strengthen?

(See 08:55 in the video)

The hang clean is truly a full-body movement, as it involves so many muscles to take the bar from near the floor up to your collarbone. With that said, weightlifters often sport impressive trapezius muscles, thick upper backs, and dense glutes and hamstrings. Beyond the changes you’ll notice hang cleans have on your physique, their main benefit will be to your athletic potential. Telander says hang cleans build the muscles and the neuromuscular coordination necessary to jump higher, run faster, and lift more weight, particularly on exercises that use similar body mechanics, such as the squat and deadlift.

How To Stretch Before Doing Hang Cleans

(See 12:45 in the video)

We mentioned above that the front rack position can be awkward for many people. The hang clean also demands a lot of mobility in the hips and hamstrings. Therefore, Telander recommends these two drills that can help open up the areas that allow you to control the bar better throughout the hang clean’s range of motion.

Front Rack Banded Stretch

(See 12:50 in the video)

Step 1. Grasp an elastic exercise band (preferably a loop band as opposed to a tube) with your right hand and stand on the other loop with your right foot.

Step 2. Get into the front rack position and then raise your arm overhead so your elbow points to the ceiling and the band pulls on your arm in a straight line from behind your back. Allow the band to stretch your arm—you should feel a strong pull through your triceps and back. Pull your ribs down so you don’t hyperextend your spine, and brace your core. Hold the stretch for 30–60 seconds, and then repeat for 2–3 sets, or until you feel that your front rack position has improved. Do the stretch on both sides.

Bodyweight RDL

(See 13:49 in the video)

Step 1. Stand with feet at hip width and bend your knees slightly.

Step 2. Push your hips back as far as you can while keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone—don’t lose the arch in your lower back. You’ll feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings. Do 2–3 sets of 10–20 reps. You can also use the exercise band you had for the front rack stretch to increase the intensity: stand on the center of the band while holding a loop in each hand. Yet another option: use a kettlebell.

Hang Clean Alternative Exercises and Variations

(See 09:18 in the video)

If you’re having trouble with the hang clean, back off to a less complicated exercise that shares similar mechanics but is less technically demanding. The Romanian deadlift and kettlebell hang clean build strength and power in the hips and will help you get familiar with the hip extension movement you need to be proficient at hang cleans when you go back to them.

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

(See 09:25 in the video)

See the description for the bodyweight RDL above. The exercise is essentially the same, but now you’ll add weight, performing the lift with a barbell. Perform 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps.

Kettlebell Hang Clean

(See 10:00 in the video)

While the kettlebell hang clean is easier to master than the barbell version, it offers a different kind of challenge and a unique array of benefits. You’ll use two kettlebells at once, which means your body will have to stabilize two weights independently, and this is helpful for simulating the chaos that comes in real-life sports play.

Step 1. Stand with feet outside shoulder width and hold a moderate-weight kettlebell in each hand.

Step 2. Bend your hips back and, when you feel a stretch in the hamstrings, explosively extend your hips and pull the kettlebells up in front of your torso. Drive your elbows back against your sides as you do this—this will help you avoid flipping the kettlebells over your wrists so they slam into the back of your forearms, a common (and painful) mistake. Then drive your elbows forward. The weights should end up just under your chin (basically the same rack position as in the barbell hang clean).

Perform 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps.

Tips On How To Avoid Mistakes and Getting Hurt

(See 11:10 in the video)

The hang clean isn’t any more dangerous than virtually any other barbell lift, but it can be trickier. You absolutely must pay attention to your form at all times. Telander says to think about the three parts to the lift that he described above as a spectrum—you’re free to go back and forth between them and revisit a section as needed when you recognize that one part needs work. “If you struggle with the full hang clean,” says Telander, “you might need to go back and work on the contact drill.” Likewise, if you feel off on your contact drill, go back and drill the muscle clean some more. Each part sets you up better for the one that follows it.

Telander also cautions not to think of the clean as a reverse curl with momentum—a very common mistake. You’re not heaving weight up with just your back and biceps. “Think ‘elbows high’ when you do the muscle clean,” he says, so you row the weight up rather than sling it.

It’s also a good idea to hire a coach to observe your form and correct it on the spot. USA Weightlifting can connect you with such a person (many CrossFit boxes have weightlifting-certified coaches as well). At the very least, video yourself so you can look at what you’re doing and gain awareness. Having a training partner is a good idea too.

Master another power-building clean variant with our guide to the One-Arm Kettlebell Clean exercise.

The post How To Do The Hang Clean Exercise Like A Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Let’s explore how to do the landmine squat for better squat technique, more quad development, and safer, user-friendly squatting in general.

What Is The Landmine Squat And What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:35 in the video above.)

The landmine squat is done with the barbell in a landmine unit, which is a metal cylinder that swivels on an axis. A landmine allows you to lift the barbell in various arcing motions rather than straight up and down, letting you perform a number of exercises with a less complex squatting technique that can be easier on your joints.

In the landmine squat, the weight is held in front of your body rather than behind it, so landmine squatting resembles the front squat as well as the goblet squat that many people do with a kettlebell. Therefore, it’s sometimes called a landmine goblet squat. One big advantage of the landmine squat over the kettlebell goblet squat is that it’s more stable, and the barbell allows you to load more weight, so landmine squats in general can be done heavier and are usually a better choice for building muscle than the goblet squat.

Like the goblet squat, the landmine squat reinforces good squatting mechanics that keep you safe—for example, sitting your hips back and keeping your chest up as you descend. If you have trouble squatting with a barbell on your back—that is, if it bothers your low back or knees, or you just can’t seem to keep form—the landmine squat can be an awesome replacement exercise. Use it to ingrain good squatting mechanics, and then go back to the barbell back squat or front squat. You’ll probably find that your technique is sharper, and you can squat deeper than before.

How To Do The Landmine Squat?

(See 01:35 in the video.)

The landmine squat is pretty easy to perform, making it a great move for beginners, or other people who don’t have much experience squatting with load. You want the bar right up against your chest, and keep your torso as upright as possible as you squat down.

Step 1. Load a barbell into a landmine. If you don’t have a landmine unit, you can wedge the end of the bar into a corner in your gym. It won’t be quite as stable, but it should still work. Set a box or bench on the floor in front of the bar, right next to where the barbell plates will be loaded. Pick up the end of the bar and rest it on the box and load the plates you’ll use. Now you have a platform to lift the bar off, making it easier to get into position for the start of the exercise.

Step 2. Squat down in front of the bar and wrap your hands around the end of it. Tuck your elbows to your sides. Keeping your back straight and flat, lift the bar off the box and step away from the box if needed so it’s not in the way of your squat. You should end up standing with the bar right at your chest. (Don’t hold the bar any higher; that will make your shoulders work harder than they have to, and you’ll fatigue your upper body before your legs.)

Adjust your stance so your feet are between hip and shoulder width and your toes are turned out a few degrees. Now you’ll have to play around with your position and see what’s comfortable. You can lean forward so your weight is more on the balls of your feet, or you can stand tall—whatever allows you to squat with the deepest range of motion and good form.

Step 3. Draw your ribs down, take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core. Keeping a long spine from your head to your tailbone, squat as deeply as you can, driving your knees apart so that they line up with your big toes. You should be able to go much lower than you normally could in a back squat without your heels rising off the floor or your lower back rounding.

Step 4. Extend your hips and knees to stand tall again. When you’ve finished your set, rest the weight on the box again.

What Muscles Does The Landmine Squat Work?

(See 03:05 in the video.)

Like the back squat, you can count on the landmine squat to work the following muscles:

• Quadriceps (front thighs)
• Glutes (butt)
• Rectus abdominis, obliques (core)
• Various muscles of the upper back (they act as stabilizers here)
• Deltoids (shoulders, again, working to stabilize)
• Spinal erectors (lower back)

The landmine squat is a perfect choice for people who want to emphasize quad gains. Because the range of motion is so great at the knee joint (greater than a hip-dominant back squat), your quads will work hard throughout each rep. It’s also ideal if you suffer from lower-back pain during back squats. Your torso stays very vertical on a landmine squat, minimizing shear forces on the lumbar. In other words, landmine squatting lets you train legs heavy and hard without undue stress on the spine.

How To Do The Landmine Hack Squat

(See 03:34 in the video.)

The landmine can also be used as a substitute for the hack squat—the squat machine you see in most gyms where the weight is held behind the body and your back rests on a pad. The landmine hack squat may allow you to squat even deeper than the regular landmine squat, making it a great tool for emphasizing the quads. That said, it’s a little more awkward to set up and, for most people, will take some getting used to.

Step 1. Set up the barbell in a landmine as you did for the regular landmine squat. You don’t have to use a box to rest the bar on if you’re using light weights that you’re sure you can control, but if you do, make sure that when you squat, the bar will be clear of the platform. Wrap your hands around the bar and lift it up, turn around, and rest the bar on one shoulder.

Step 2. Play around with your foot position until you feel balanced and stable. Your feet should be between hip and shoulder-width apart and a little in front of you, and you should lean your bodyweight backward into the plate on the bar—that’s right, let the barbell support your weight just like a hack squat machine would. In this case, the bar really should be in a landmine unit. A corner alone may not provide the stability to support your body—so be smart and stay safe!

Step 3. Lower your body into the squat, going as deeply as you can without your pelvis tucking under and your lower back rounding. You should be able to get your knees almost fully flexed.

Step 4. Drive through the balls of your feet to stand back up. On your next set, switch the shoulder that the bar rests on so you don’t develop an imbalance.

How to Stretch Before Exercising

Use the following drills from Onnit-certified coach Eric Leija (@primal.swoledier) to warm up your hips and knees for strong squatting.

Landmine Squat Alternatives

(See 05:15 in the Landmine Squat video at the top.)

If you don’t have a landmine or a barbell, you can perform a goblet squat with either a kettlebell or a dumbbell. Like the landmine squat, the goblet squat is an excellent movement for learning and refining good squat technique, as it automatically forces you to squat with your chest up while driving your knees apart and sitting back into your hips.

Step 1. Hold a kettlebell in front of your chest by the sides of its handle. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think: “proud chest”), and tuck your elbows in close to the bell—try to get your forearms as vertical as you can. Stand with your feet between hip- and shoulder-width apart, and turn your toes out a bit—up to 30 degrees if you need to.

Step 2. Tuck your tailbone and draw your ribs down so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core. Actively twist your feet into the floor, but don’t let them move. Think of your legs as screwdrivers, or that you’re standing on grass and trying to twist it up beneath you. You should feel the arches in your feet rise and your glutes tighten, creating tension in the lower body.

Step 3. Keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis, push your hips back and squat down, as if sitting down into a chair. Squat as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned. Push your knees apart as you descend. You should feel most of your weight on your heels to mid-foot area. If you feel your lower back beginning to round, stop there, and come back up. Keep your torso as vertical as possible—you shouldn’t have to lean forward or work extra hard to hold the bell upright. Avoid bending or twisting to either side.

Step 4. Drive through your feet as you extend your hips and knees to come up.

Learn more about squatting variations for different goals with our guide to Front Squats Vs. Back Squats: Everything You Need To Know For Building Muscle.

The post How To Do The Landmine Squat: Hack Squats, Goblet Squats, and More appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Is The Landmine Row and What Are Its Benefits?

(See 00:15 in the video above.)

The landmine row is a barbell rowing movement where one end of the barbell rests on the floor, or is anchored using a landmine apparatus, allowing you to row the bar in an arcing motion rather than straight up and down. There are many ways to row with this setup, and we’ll go over all of them in this article, but the most basic and popular version is to straddle the bar and row it with both hands using a V-grip handle (the kind you see on cable machines). To bodybuilders, this is called a T-bar row, and it’s a great, old-school exercise for the back, and the lats specifically. (Some landmine machines provide barbells that have a handle fixed perpendicular to the bar, forming a T-shape, hence the name.)

While it’s very similar to the classic bent-over barbell row, the landmine row has some big advantages. “The arc that the bar travels allows you to keep a more upright torso, which is easier on your lower back,” says Jonny Catanzano, an IFBB pro bodybuilder and physique coach (@jonnyelgato_ifbbpro). It also means that the weight will be closer to your center of gravity at the top of each rep, and that allows you to control it better, and even hold the top position longer than you could with a bent-over row, if you choose to. That can give you a better muscle contraction in your back, and makes the landmine row a good choice for hypertrophy (muscle-gain) training.

With one end of the bar fixed on the floor, the landmine—aka T-bar row—is also a more stable movement than a conventional barbell or dumbbell row, and that allows you to lift heavier weights. Flip through old bodybuilding magazines or books and you’ll see many lifters hoisting hundreds of pounds on T-bar rows, but super heavy bent-over rows are less common. The landmine setup simply allows for heavier weights to be lifted in a safer, more user-friendly movement, so it’s arguably the better choice between the two barbell rowing movements for physique development.

How To Do The Landmine Row

(See 02:55 in the video.)

Ideally, you’ll perform the landmine row using a landmine unit. They usually look like home plate (baseball) with a metal sleeve attached that swivels, but some have feet (like furniture) or are simply a sleeve that can attach to the base of a power rack or even fit inside the donut hole of a weight plate (this is shown above). You can see a number of landmine options on amazon.com.

Using a landmine will keep the end of the bar secure and stable, but it isn’t absolutely necessary to perform landmine training. A second option is to cut a hole in a tennis ball and ram the end of the bar in so that you have a cushion, and then wedge the bar into the corner of a room. At the very least, you can wrap a towel around the bar and push it into a corner (the towel will help protect the walls).

Now let’s discuss how to perform the classic landmine row/T-bar row.

Step 1. Grasp a V-grip handle—the kind you often see people do cable rows with. If you don’t have a V-grip, you can improvise one by attaching gymnastics rings or any other adjustable handles you can access. The point is only to have a comfortable, firm grip that allows your palms to face each other when you row (a neutral grip). Place the handle on the floor next to the front of the bar.

Straddle the bar with feet about shoulder width, facing away from the landmine, and hinge your hips back. Allow your knees to bend, and keep a long line from your head to your tailbone, until your torso is 30–45 degrees to the floor and you can reach the handle. Hook the handle underneath the barbell, close to end of the bar where you’ll load the plates. Pick the bar up off the floor and play around with your stance, torso height, and the distance between your feet and the front end of the bar until you feel balanced and stable with your arms fully extended.

Step 2. Keeping your back straight and flat, and your core braced, row the bar until your back is fully contracted. Your elbows should come up close to your sides and your shoulder blades should squeeze together at the top. If the bar hits you in the groin, adjust your stance!

Step 3. Lower the bar until your arms are fully extended again, but don’t let the weight rest on the floor. Allow your shoulder blades to spread as you go down.

*Use 25-pound plates, or smaller. While it may be less efficient than loading the big 45s, smaller plates will allow you the greatest range of motion on the exercise. Bigger plates, on the other hand, will tend to bump into your chest and/or the floor, reducing the range you can train your muscles, and thereby making the exercise less effective.

“Think about driving with your elbows, rather than your hands,” says Catanzano. That will help you get the proper range of motion. “And be careful to keep a tight core.” As with a bent-over row, deadlift, or any other exercise that has you bending forward at the hips, you need to protect your lower back at all times. Bracing your abs and thinking “long spine” are essential. Catanzano also cautions against “ego lifting,” where you bounce the weight up and round your back on the way down for the sake of lifting heavier or getting more reps. Your hip and back position should remain the same the entire set; only your arms move.

Incidentally, if you’re in a gym that has a proper T-bar row (a handle that forms a T-shape), you can use that for your landmine rows too. The wider, palms-down grip will recruit more of your upper back and rear deltoids, while the landmine row with palms facing each other and elbows tight to your sides emphasizes the lat muscles.

What Muscles Does The Landmine Row Work?

(See 01:25 in the video.)

The landmine row works the back about as well as any exercise can. The muscles it activates include:

– Lats

– Traps

– Rhomboids (middle back)

– Rear delts

– Biceps

– Forearms

– Spinal erectors (lower back)

– Core (ab muscles)

It should be noted that holding the bent-over position tenses your hamstrings isometrically as well. Probably not to the degree that it will build hamstring size, but don’t be surprised if you feel stronger and more stable on deadlifts, RDLs, or other hip hinge exercises after a few weeks of landmine rowing.

Single-Arm Landmine Row Vs. T-Bar Landmine Row Vs. Barbell Landmine Row

Just to reiterate (or, if you’ve been skimming the page and missed it), the T-bar row and landmine row are essentially the same exercise. If you use a T-bar, which allows you to raise your arms out wider so your palms are turned down, you’ll work a little more upper/middle back and rear deltoids than if you use a V-grip handle and row with your elbows close in (the latter emphasizes the lats). There are several other variations of the landmine row, including single-arm versions, which we’ll explore in the next section. Single-arm landmine rows allow you to isolate one side of the back at a time and can increase the range of motion you get, making them a good option for physique training. They also allow you to use your free hand to help brace your hips, which can add stability. You’ll have to use less overall weight when doing a single-arm row of any kind, but this can be an advantage if your lower back is recovering from injury and you don’t want to load it with a heavy bent-over exercise.

Landmine Row Alternatives

The landmine row can be done in different ways to suit your changing goals.

Single-Arm Landmine Row

(See 08:20 in the video.)

By stepping off to one side of the barbell, you can easily turn the landmine row into a unilateral exercise for the lats, similar to a dumbbell row.

Step 1. Set up as you did for the regular landmine row, but stand to one side of the bar and narrow your stance to between hip and shoulder width. Hinge your hips and grasp the bar with the hand nearest to it (grip it close to the end of the bar). Stand up with the bar, and reset your hinge so your torso is angled forward and your back is straight and flat.

Step 2. Row the bar, retracting your shoulder blade, and then lower it back, allowing your shoulders to spread. Avoid twisting your torso to either side. Keep your core braced and your shoulders square to the floor.

“You can adjust your position to affect the muscles in different ways,” says Catanzano. If you stand with your feet a little further forward so that you get into an even deeper hip hinge, and then lift the bar with your elbow out a little wider, you will shift the emphasis from the lats to your upper back. “If you set up to where your legs are straighter and your chest is a little lower, you can hit a little more lower lat.”

Meadows Row (Elbow-Out Landmine Row)

(See 09:50 in the video.)

Standing perpendicular to the bar and rowing it with your elbow flared out really shifts the work from the lats to the upper back and rear delts. This version was popularized by the late bodybuilding coach John Meadows, and has therefore come to bear his name.

Step 1. Stand so that the end of the barbell points to your side and spread your feet shoulder-width apart, or stagger them—whichever feels more balanced and comfortable. Hinge at the hips and grasp the end of the bar with one hand. Since the sleeve where you load the plates is thick in diameter, it can be hard to hold onto—especially with sweaty hands—so consider using lifting straps to reinforce your grip. Brace the elbow of your free arm against your leg for some extra stability.

Step 2. Row the bar, driving your elbow as high as you can. Again, avoid twisting and keep your shoulders square. Your upper arm should end up about 60 degrees from your side—much farther away than the landmine rows we’ve shown up to this point.

Bench-Supported Landmine Row

(See 12:20 in the video.)

If the landmine row (any variation) has a weak link, it’s that it requires a lot of stability to perform. Bracing your core and torso in the bent-over position takes a lot of energy and spreads the muscle tension over your whole body. That’s cool if your goal is to build total-body strength with a movement that works a lot of muscle at once, but it’s a bit limiting if you want to make your back muscles work to the max and get the best stimulus for growth. In the latter case, Catanzano recommends pulling a bench over to rest your free hand and knee on while you perform the Meadows row. “The stability the bench provides will allow you to lift heavier loads,” says Catanzano, “and that will recruit more muscle fibers in your back.”

Band-Resisted Landmine Row

(See 13:00 in the video.)

Catanzano has one other minor gripe with the landmine row, arguing that, as you row the bar closer to your body, your mechanical advantage increases and the weight gets easier to lift. This reduces the tension on the muscles. “In a muscle-building scenario,” he says, “we ideally want the resistance to stay the same or get even heavier throughout the range.” The fix is as simple as adding a resistance band to the bar.

Step 1. Set up a bench as shown for the bench-supported landmine row, and place a heavy dumbbell on the floor next to it. Wrap a mini band around the dumbbell a few times so there’s only a foot or two of slack end. Loop the end of the band over the sleeve of the barbell.

Step 2. Row the bar in the Meadows row style explained above. Because the band will be pulling the bar back down, and the tension increases the higher you row it, you’ll have to row faster and more powerfully. This will ensure that your back is giving its all throughout the exercise.

See more back training ideas from Catanzano in our guide to getting a lat spread like a bodybuilder.

And check out these back and biceps workouts for the ultimate pull day routine.

The post The Expert’s Guide To The Landmine Row Exercise appeared first on Onnit Academy.