How To Increase Strength: Ultimate Guide To Getting Big And Strong Part 7

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Injury Prevention​

How to Warm Up​

The process of warming up before a weight training session involves 3 different phases:

• Mild cardio – 5 to 10 minutes of non-taxing cardio.
• Stretching – Several minutes of full body and workout specific stretching.
• Working warm up sets – Prepare your body and mind for heavy lifting.

Step 1 – Mild cardio. It is not uncommon to feel stiff, tight, or sore when heading into a workout. The goal of this stage is to raise your body’s core temperature. You will get the blood flowing, and warm up your stiff joints and muscles.

Perform 5 to 10 minutes of very mild low impact cardio, such as walking on a treadmill. This warm up period should not tax your body in any way. Save your energy for the lifting session to come.

Step 2 – Mild stretching. Now that you have raised your core body temperature with mild cardio, take the time to stretch at minimum the muscle groups you are about to work out. No need to overdo it – 5 to 10 minutes of stretching is enough.

Step 3 – Working warm up sets. Most exercises require anywhere from a single working warm up set, to multiple warm up sets. Use the following guidelines when trying to determine how many warm up sets are required.

Heavy compound exercises. Heavy compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench press and overhead press place a great strain on the body. For these lifts it is recommended that you perform several working warm up sets.

Warm up sets should not tax the body or leave you feeling fatigued. The point of warm up sets is to prepare your mind, muscles, joints, tendons and central nervous system for the heavier sets to come.

If you fatigue a muscle during your warm up sets, you will handicap your performance during your working sets. This is not an effective method of muscle gains.

Sample warm up. What follows is a sample warm up session for the bench press. In this example, the first working set will be performed using 225 pounds.

• Warm up set 1 – Bar x 10-15 reps.
• Warm up set 2 – 135 pounds x 5-8 reps.
• Warm up set 3 – 185 x 3-5 reps.
• Warm up set 4 – 205 pounds x 1 reps.

Foam Rolling​

Foam rolling is a form of massage. It involves the use of a cylindrical piece of foam that is placed upon the ground. Athletes will “roll” upon the foam to stretch a specific muscle to help relax the tissue.

There is some disagreement between coaches as to when the best time is to use the foam roller. Some prefer pre-workout, and some post-workout of off training days.

Rotator Cuff Health​

The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that function to stabilize the shoulder. The rotator cuff is heavily involved in maintaining shoulder stability, and a strength athlete can benefit from performing “pre-hab”, or strengtening work.

How to Avoid Training Injuries​

Most training injuries are caused by one of the following:

1. Training too heavy, too often.
2. Training too frequently.
3. Training with poor exercise form.
4. Not listening to your body.

Train too heavy. "Heavy training" is a relative term. Simply stated it means performing too many reps each week above 90% of my one rep max. Prilepin’s Table, which provides rep, set and volume guidelines based on what percentage of your one rep max you are working with, recommends no more than 4-10 reps on the 90%+ range.

For most lifters, performing over 4 reps at 90%+ of your one rep max on a given week is too much. If you continue to train in this range, using a high volume of reps at 90% plus, it’s only a matter of time before you pick up a major strain or injury that prevents you from performing at your peak.

Training too frequently. Frequent training can also lead to injury. It is imperative that the strength training athlete make gradual additions to training volume and frequency. When these changes are make, allow for an adjustment period. A strength athlete can train more frequently, but the transition can often take years and not weeks.

Poor exercise form. It goes without saying that the combination of poor exercise form and heavy weight is dangerous. Never assume your form is perfect. Make efforts to constantly refine your form, and seek out more experienced lifters to help you with pointers.

Listening to your body. Always listen to your body. If you feel extremely stiff or tight, add a few more warm up sets.

In cases where the weight seems unusually heavy, use caution. When a weight feels heavy it is a sign that your central nervous system is not performing up to speed. You have two options at this time:

1. Use a slightly lighter training weight for the day.
2. Perform a few more single warm up sets in hopes that your CNS will “wake up”.

Assistance Training​

Information on common assistance was presented previously in this guide. This section will focus on helping you to better structure your assistance work based on weaknesses, and to provide you with quality exercise choices to address those weaknesses.

Assessing Weaknesses. What follows is a list of common sticking points and there associated weaknesses. Keep in mind that a sticking point may be the result of several weak muscle groups, so you may need to make additional adjustments if these suggestions are not working.

Bench Press Weaknesses​

• Weak off the chest. If you are weak off the chest, focus on improving your back strength through rows and/or pull-ups. It may also be beneficial to perform speed work (dynamic effort), and to work on improving overall shoulder strength. Also, don’t forget to work on your leg drive.
• Weak middle. If you are weak in the middle of the press, this is most likely caused by lack of shoulder and tricep strength. Work on these areas using exercises such as close grip benches, board presses, or with the use of bands or chains.
• Weak lockout. A weak lockout is almost all about triceps strength. You will need to find creative ways to overload the lockout, such as 3, 4 or 5 board presses, and with the use of bands and chains.
• Uneven Lockout. This is a common problem, especially with beginning trainees. An uneven lockout is almost always die to lack or tricep strength. During the early stages of lifting it is often cause by a general lack of stabilizer strength. If you are an experienced lifter with an uneven bench, add a few extra reps using a single arm movement each training session.

Squat Weaknesses​

• Trouble “Going Deep.” A good percentage of the time poor depth can be attributed to “knees in” squatting. If the angle of your knee is inside the angle of your foot, you are squatting knock-kneed and will be limiting squat depth. Poor depth can also be caused by lack of hip flexibility.
• Weak Lockout. The squat is locked out by pushing the hips forward. If you have a weak lockout you are either not concentrating on moving the hips forward to complete a rep, or your hips are a weakness. You can improve lockout strength via the use of bands or chains, or by working the hips directly with pull throughs or kettlebell swings. Speed work (dynamic effort) will also be beneficial.
• Weak In The Hole. Keep in mind that a squat is not merely a leg press with a bar on your back. Form the hole, a squat rep is initiated by bringing the hips up. If you are weak in the hole, focus on building some explosive power via the use of speed work (dynamic effort).

Deadlift Weaknesses​

• Weak lockout. A weak deadlift lockout can be corrected via the use of heavy rowing, power shrugs, speed work, and through the use of bands and chains. Also remember that a deadlift lockout is driven with the hips and glutes, so remember to push your hips forward when trying to complete each rep.
• Weak Off The Floor. Many times the deadlift is treated as a leg press while holding a bar. This is wrong. The best way to initiate a deadlift rep is by leading with the head. Where the head goes the body follows. If you are an experienced lifter and this is a weak area for you, try using speed work (dynamic effort) and deficit deadlifts.

Common Assistance Training Exercises​

There are certain exercises that have become assistance training essentials because of their effectiveness. These exercises include:

• Squats. Good mornings, glute ham raises, speed squats, box squats, front squats, heavy ab work, barbell hip thrust/glute bridge.
• Deadlifts. Deficit deadlifts, good mornings, speed deadlifts, rack pulls, Romanian deadlift, front squats, heavy ab work, heavy rows, power shrugs.
• Bench Press. Close grip bench press, board press, speed bench press, pause bench press, heavy rows, face pulls, overhead press, dumbbell bench press.

Olympic Exercise Variations​

There are numerous Olympic lift variations that are beneficial for improving overall strength, explosive strength, and that can help with athletic performance. Popular variations include:

• Power Clean
• Hang Snatch
• Power Snatch
• High Pull
• Power Shrug
• Overhead Squat
• Snatch Grip High Pull
• Dumbbell Snatch
• Push Press

Using Bands and Chains​

The popularity of the Westside Barbell system of strength training has made the use of bands and chains commonplace.

Chains can be attached to the squat, deadlift or bench press, making each lift more difficult as you reach lockout. Bands can be attached either from above or below, making a lift harder at lockout, or more difficult at the beginning of a rep.

Bands and chains are often used concurrent with speed training (dynamic effort work), but are also used with heavy weight to train weak points.