“Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
I try to keep things simple when I coach. Lifting can be intimidating and this anxiety can interfere with the learning process. The worst thing I can do is muck it up with lots of complicated words and explanations.
Everyone learns differently, but over the years, I’ve narrowed down what I believe to be a handful of the most important coaching cues to use with the majority of lifters when they squat, bench press and deadlift. If I were forced to use only one coaching cue per lift, here’s what they’d be.
Squat: Breathe into the Back of Your Belt
I believe the number one thing that determines squat success is creating and maintaining a solid core brace. I’ve seen countless big squats successfully completed with a wide array of technical variances: stance width, torso angle, bar placement, descent speed, etc. But the common thread among all world-class squatters is that they never lose their core brace.
The most effective way to brace under a heavy squat is to wear a belt and aim to fill the back of the belt with air when you inhale. Breath holding while lifting is called the Valsalva maneuver, which increases intra-abdominal pressure. Think about shaking up a beer can and what it does to the pressure inside: the liquid now pushes out harder against the edges of the can, helping the can maintain its shape. When you do this while lifting, it helps create a rigid torso so that you don’t get unwanted movement in your spine. When you maintain your spinal position, you control the path of the bar so you don’t get stapled.
Breathing into the BACK of the belt specifically helps utilize the entirety of your core musculature by expanding your midsection in 360 degrees. If you only breathe into your belly, you’ll shortchange your ability to get tight. Watch his video for a full tutorial on how to wear and use a belt:
Bench Press: Squeeze the Bar as Hard as Possible
Lifters from all strength disciplines utilize the principle of irradiation: squeezing the implement you’re lifting as hard as possible to create tension throughout the rest of the body. In no powerlift is this more important than the bench press. It’s the only lift where you’re lying down, which makes the body want to relax rather than tense up. It’s paramount that you create as much tension throughout the body as possible to help move the bar, and it all starts by squeezing the living shit out of the bar.
There are tons of cues that work to help the lifter create a strong upper body position: arch your back, bend the bar, spread the bar, tuck the elbows, etc. But the one thing that seems to give the most lifters an “aha” moment is squeezing with the hands, specifically from the pinky fingers. I got this cue from bench press legend Jen Thompson who notes that if you just squeeze the bar normally, the tension will usually come from the index and middle fingers. But if you squeeze from the pinky, your entire hand will clench up for a tighter hold. This also creates (via irradiation) more engagement at the forearms, triceps and shoulders to help stabilize and move the bar.
Finally, almost all bench press errors stem from a loss of the lifter’s back arch. As soon as you cue a lifter to squeeze the bar tight, they almost always automatically lift their chest high toward the bar and regain their arched position. If we simply cued them to arch, it wouldn’t necessarily create more tension at the hand and shoulder, but cueing them to squeeze the bar checks several boxes all at once.
Deadlift: Be a Rocket Ship, Not a Cannon
This cue is more metaphorical than the others, but it’s critical that lifters learn how to create tension into the bar at the start of a deadlift and maintain it without trying to jerk the bar off the ground. It is, in fact, possible to try to be too fast when initiating a deadlift, and this metaphor gets the point across.
The idea is this: a cannon shoots a cannonball with a quick blast of energy, but the cannonball ultimately doesn’t go that far. And what happens to the cannon itself? It recoils back violently, getting knocked out of position by its own shot. A rocketship, however, takes a long time to get going. The thrusters engage, fire and smoke billow out from under the launch pad. But once it gets going, that rocket can travel hundreds of thousands of miles.
When we deadlift, we want to take the slack out of the bar to lock our body in place. Then, we want to maintain that tension while pushing our feet into the floor to grind the bar off the ground, NOT jerk the bar off the ground with our upper body. This slow, steady and powerful analogy helps lifters appreciate that if the bar doesn’t move right away, that’s OK. As long as they keep their tension and keep pushing, the bar will eventually move (as long as it’s not too heavy). It’s way worse to yank the bar and get out of position than to grind slowly while staying locked in place.
One Cue to Rule Them All
This blog is just one coach’s opinion. There are countless cues that jive with different lifters. These are simply the ones I find to consistently be the most effective. What cues would you add to the list? Join the discussion on Instagram!