I had the pleasure of being a guest on The Strategy of Fitness podcast this week and they asked me a simple question: what are your top 3 favorite squat, bench and deadlift variations? In all the years I’ve been lifting and coaching, I don’t think I’d been asked that before.
On-the-spot questions tend to get the most honest answers, and it didn’t take me too long to come up with my three variations: pin squats, close grip bench press and Romanian deadlifts (RDLs). You can listen to the full podcast below, but I also wanted to give a more in-depth explanation of my choices.
A Lifter’s Individual Needs
I clarified on the podcast that when choose supplementary lifts for any lifter, you want to make sure the exercise accomplishes at least one of a few things:
- Has measurable carryover to the competition lift (you need to be tracking data in some way to be able to say that supplementary lift is working)
- Improves technique via positional awareness
- Adds muscle mass to the muscle groups responsible for moving the bar during the competition lift
You can’t truly be sure of any of these things without some trial and error. It takes time to figure out exactly what a lifter needs, and in the beginning, you have to make some educated guesses and then wait and see. You can refer to previous videos of a lifter, take note of body type and leverages, and ask the lifter what THEY think they need (an underrated exercise selection tool).
Then, the lifter has to put in the work and the coach has to sit back and objectively look at the results. If the lifter’s competition lifts are improving, keep the supplementary lifts you’re using. If they’re not improving, reconsider:
- Where the lifter’s technique breaks down under heavy loads
- What their leverages are (i.e., how can you force them to overcome things like short/long arms, short/long torso, etc.?)
- What muscle groups are lagging in size
In my experience, the aforementioned supplementary lifts work for a large majority of lifters I’ve worked with. Here’s why.
Pin Squats
A good supplementary lift provides instant feedback on technique and allows the lifter to self-correct rep-to-rep without verbal or visual coaching. Pin squats do exactly that.
Specifically, pin squats work on midfoot balance: keeping the bar over the middle of the lifter’s feet throughout the lift. This, along with keeping a good core brace, is what we call an attractor: something that all good squatters do, regardless of the other individual variations in their technique.
The lifter lowers the bar down to the pins (which are set at a specific height to target the lifter’s weak point), pauses when the bar is motionless on the pins, then drives back up. Because the pins break up the eccentric and concentric parts of the lift, it exposes bar path errors and foot pressure errors. If the lifter…
- Leans forward too much
- Arches their back too much
- Shifts the weight too much onto the toes
- Sits back too much onto the heels
- Tilts/twists the bar to one side
- Lets the knees cave in
- Loses their core brace as they stand back up
…something will feel off as they try to stand up off the pins. Usually, the bar will roll horizontally along the pins before the lifter is able to stand up. Or they’ll get stuck on the pins entirely. Powerful feedback.
We’ll often program these as a working warm-up before competition-style squats. The lifter will perform their warm-up sets to pins until they’re a set or two away from their working sets, then switch to regular squats. Or we may use them as the main squats during the second squat training session of the week, performing multiple sets of 1-5 reps.
Close Grip Bench Press
Over the past two years, I’ve relied heavily on the close grip bench press with many of my lifters. Whether we’ve used it to build the wider, competition-style bench press or whether we’ve aimed to make their competition grip narrower, close grip bench is batting nearly 1.000 when it comes to increasing bench PRs.
The narrower grip does a couple crucial things:
- Increases the range of motion (more work = more strength gains)
- Improves bar speed (much like you can jump higher with a narrow stance)
- Adds muscle mass to the triceps (never a bad thing)
- Challenges the lifter to keep chest up and shoulder blades pinned (because narrower grip naturally draws should blades apart)
Besides the above points, you’ll notice many of the biggest benchers in the world gravitate toward a narrower grip. Success leaves clues. They may say it’s due to a previous injury or it just feels better on their shoulders, which are as good of reasons as any, but I truly believe at the highest levels of powerlifting, bar speed on the bench press is the difference between good and great. Great benchers are fast and violent, and a closer grip makes that possible.
Romanian Deadlifts
I’ve often said that almost all deadlift issues can be traced back to technical errors off the floor. I still believe this to be true, so why RDLs, which start from the top instead of the floor? Because I’ve found that a lifter’s inability to keep the back flat and hips from popping up as the break the bar off the floor can be attributed to a lack of hamstring strength in their starting position.
When you see a deadlift fall apart as the lifter breaks the floor, you usually see a combination of:
- Back rounding
- Hips shooting back/knees straightening too early
A lifter’s back rounds at the start of the movement because their body is reorganizing into a position where it subconsciously believes it’s more mechanically advantageous to move the bar. The typical hip hinge position with a flat back relies heavily on the hamstrings to extend the hips, but if your hamstrings aren’t strong enough, the back will round, putting the hamstrings on “slack” and putting the spinal erectors (back muscles) in the driver’s seat.
By doing lots of RDLs, you’ll build both the strength and muscle mass needed to keep your hips where they need to be at the start of a deadlift. You need big, strong hamstrings to prevent unwanted hip movement at the start of your deadlift. And if you can get into a good deadlift starting position but no matter how hard you try, you can’t keep your back flat or prevent your hips from shooting back when the weight gets heavy, you may just need to pack on some more muscle on the back of your legs.
I picked RDLs here because they’re much more useful for hypertrophy. The emphasis on the eccentric (lowering) portion of the lift increases time under tension, and you can gradually increase the range of motion over time as you get more comfortable with them. Wear wrist straps and a belt so you can push them heavy. Sets of 5-10 reps near muscular failure are strong medicine.
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