Australian Strength Coach

In this video, was using a hand position that felt comfortable, but it was making it harder to create the upper body tension needed to hold the bar in place.

When your grip is too wide, as the weight gets heavier the bar can feel like it’s going to roll down the back. To compensate, many lifters pull their elbows back and shrug their shoulders up to stop the bar from rolling down.

When you shrug, you turn your lats off and your lats are one of the strongest muscles for bracing the trunk.

This is why I teach my lifters to hold the bar as close as your shoulder mobility allows. This wedges the bar on your back and stops it from rolling down, and to complete upper back brace, I teach the lifter to pull the elbows back to engage the mid back muscles which stop the upper back from rounding, and combine this with elbows down to engage the lats. The lats are one of the strongest muscles for bracing the spine because they cross such a large distance of the torso. When they are engaged properly the help prevent stops the lifter from folding in half when they squat.

Have a look at the final comparison video of Kelly to see how correcting her grip and upper back position improved her squat.

Tucking your elbows is the WRONG cue, if you don’t know why you’re doing it! 🤔

Of course there needs to be some degree of “tucking” but not too much.

Watch this video if you want to understand where you need to place your elbows when you bench press.

It’ll make your bench press stronger when you do it right 👊

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Taking the slack out of the bar in the deadlift.

One of the biggest mistakes I see is people gripping and ripping the barbell.

Can this work? Of course. Some very strong lifters do it this way.

But in my opinion, learning how to take the slack out of the bar leads to a stronger, more precise setup.

These are the 3 cues I use:

1. Reach down
Creates long arms, minimises range of motion and improves efficiency.

2. Armpits to pelvis
Engages the lats and creates upper body tension.

3. Crown of the head to the ceiling
Elongates the thoracic spine and helps create a more rigid position.

Before the plates leave the floor, create tension, STRETCH. You should feel the bar load into position before you pull.

Simple, but one of the best ways to improve your deadlift setup.

Same exercise. Two body types. Very different outcomes.

One lifter has long femurs. You’ll see more forward torso lean and less knee bend.
The other has short femurs. More upright torso, more knee travel, more quad involvement.

From a strength perspective, both squats are solid. Both can move big weight.

From a muscle development perspective, they are not equal.

Short femurs make it easier to load the quads through a large range of motion.
Long femurs bias the hips and posterior chain much earlier, which often limits quad stimulus.

This is why some remembering grow their legs easily from squats and others don’t, despite training just as hard.

The fix is not forcing someone else’s squat style.
The fix is understanding how your structure changes loading and then adjusting stance, heel height, bar position, and exercise selection accordingly.

Use this video to assess your own squat, then decide if your setup actually matches your goal, and send this to someone who needs to see it.

Most people are setting up too far down the bench when they bench press.

A very common cue is to line your eyes up directly under the barbell.

For me, that’s often too far back.

Why?

Because now you have to reach too far behind you to unrack the weight. The further you reach, the more likely you are to lose shoulder position by protracting the scapula (rounding the shoulders forward).

The problem is, once your shoulders come out of position, it’s hard to get them back where they belong.

When we bench press, we generally want the shoulders in a strong, stable retracted position. But because you’re laying on a bench, shoulder movement is restricted. Once you lose that position, it’s not so easy to reset under a heavy barbell.

Instead, I recommend sliding slightly further up the bench.

Rather than lining the bar up with your eyes, try lining it up closer to your mouth.

This shortens the unrack distance, keeps the shoulders in a better position, and reduces the amount of reaching required.

Now, there is an exception.

If you’re a beginner and your bar path is inconsistent or erratic, lining the bar up with your eyes can make sense. It gives you a little more room and reduces the chance of bumping the rack.

But as your technique improves and your bar path becomes more consistent, you usually don’t need that extra distance.

So next time you bench press, try this:

Line the bar up with your mouth instead of your eyes.

You may find it gives you a stronger, safer, and more efficient setup.