Baker Strength Coaching

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Meagan Moore
5 years ago
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1 4 Assistance Exercises That Can Transform Your Training While there are many useful assistance exercises, I have narrowed down my list to 4 that I think will have the most carryover for the widest range of lifters. Why 4? Well, the focus of all my programs, and all other good strength programs, revolve around The Big 4 : The Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, and Standing Press. These four exercises are the primary movements we always want to be in the process of trying to strengthen and improve. So basically, I picked one assistance exercise that I felt would be the most useful for each of these lifts. The list of useful assistance exercises certainly isn t limited to the four I have chosen to explore here. However, if you have never trained the lifts I have listed below, you WILL benefit by incorporating them into your routine at some point in time.

2 Let s get going: Exercise #1: Goodmornings Assistance for: The Squat & Deadlift Muscle Groups: Hamstrings, Glutes, Erectors The goodmorning is essentially a hybrid exercise that is a combination squat and deadlift. It is carried like a squat, but uses the mechanics of a deadlift. Either way, nothing hits the posterior chain quite like a goodmorning. For the purposes of this report, goodmornings are our squat assistance exercise, but in reality, it is equally effective for driving up the squat or the deadlift. Any exercise that drives up two primary lifts at once gets a gold star in my book. Performance: Set the bar across your traps in the high bar squat position. Set a hard arch in your lower back and keep it there for the duration of the lift. Begin to push your hips/butt backward and lower the bar down by hinging at your hips, not bending your trunk. Continue to push your hips back until your torso is roughly parallel to the ground. Come back up by pushing your hips forward and returning to an upright position. You should have a slight bend in the knee during the lift.

3 Tips: I have always preferred to do these by setting up pins in the rack to gauge my depth. I will set the pins to a height that has me stopping when my torso is right at parallel. Without the pins, it can be difficult to tell how far down you are and you will wind up cheating the movement. Don t bounce off the pins. Briefly pause the weight on the pins, but do not relax. There are plenty of examples of guys going very heavy with these for a very short range of motion. I would rather see you use a manageable weight and sink them deep. The stretch you can put on your hamstrings is incredible, and no other exercise quite puts the stress on them that a deep goodmorning does. If it s your first time with the exercise, you may have some trouble walking for a few days. Sets & Reps: I prefer to do my goodmornings for sets of 5 repetitions. I generally do 3 to 5 sets pyramiding up in weight each set until I hit a top set of 5. When to do these: I generally do goodmornings right after my squats. For two reasons: (1) I m already warmed up. GMs take the hamstrings

4 through a very long range of motion and going into this exercise cold could be a little risky. Especially for guys over 30, it s better to do this exercise when you are thoroughly warmed up, and nothing does that better than squats. (2) The exercise is already set up. If you train with me you know that I am big on logistical efficiency in the gym. That means I like to do as little set up as possible while I train. Right after squats, it s an easy transition. The bar is right where it needs to be in the rack. All I have to do is set the pins up where I want them and adjust the weight on the bar. Exercise #2: Dead Stop Rack Bench Press Assistance for: The Bench Press Muscle Groups: Chest, Triceps, Delts Performance: Slide a utility flat bench into a power rack. Set the pins up in the rack so that the barbell sits about 1 inch over the top of your chest when you are in the bench press position. Once the bar is loaded you will slide in under the bar and do each rep from a dead stop, STARTING from the bottom position. You must learn to EXPLODE from the bottom position to get good at this exercise, and that in turn, is the primary reason for doing it.

5 Tips: Make sure when you start your rep that everything is tight and there is no slack in your chest, shoulders, or arms. Starting this exercise with slack around the shoulder girdle is a recipe for a pec tear or strain. This is NOT a rack lockout. Starting with the bar halfway up or more will not have the same effect as starting from the bottom. For lifters who do not train with bench press shirts, the weak point in the lift is generally right off the chest, by no more than an inch or two. Some taller lifters with long arms may also benefit from lockout work, but it must be understood that the Dead Stop Rack Bench and the Rack Lockout are NOT the same exercise and they each have different purposes. A good indicator is the weight you are able to use relative to your regular bench press weight. A rack lockout should be substantially higher and a dead stop bench press should be substantially lower. Sets & Reps: Singles, singles, and more singles. Doing this exercise for reps won t have the same benefit as starting every single rep from a dead stop. Even if you pause the weight on the pins after lowering it, you will still get some stored energy from your body s stretch reflex. We don t want that here. We are forcing

6 the chest, delts, and triceps to work WITHOUT the benefit of the stretch reflex. I recommend doing 5-10 singles with as much weight as you can handle. Because this exercise is so demanding, do it in place of your regular bench press workout, as the first exercise of the day. Exercise #3: Triceps Extensions Assistance for: Standing Presses and Bench Press Performance: I was intentionally vague in the description of this exercise, because it is actually an exercise category more than a specific exercise. Triceps exercises can be performed in many different ways with several different implements. However, they are all basically the same in that the triceps basically serve to straighten out the elbows, and that s pretty much it. You can choose to do these lying down with a straight barbell, an EZ Curl bar, a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells. Additionally, you could do these standing or seated with an EZ Curl bar. The standing and seated versions gives a little longer range of motion than the lying versions, but the lying versions typically allow a little more weight to be used. A third variant would be the triceps pressdowns using cables. Rotate through different variations to find the one that you like the best. The main point

7 is to work your triceps hard if you want your Presses to progress optimally. Heavy presses generally stall somewhere in front of the face or forehead as the weight is being transitioned onto the triceps and off the upper chest and delts. Keeping your triceps strong through the use of heavy extensions will keep you blasting through those sticking points. Like the goodmornings, triceps extensions are a two for one exercise. This is technically our Pressing assistance exercise for the purposes of this article, but getting the triceps stronger will get your bench moving too. Sets & Reps: Train the triceps once or twice per week with around total repetitions per session. Triceps tend to respond well to higher reps in the rep range, but don t be afraid to occasionally drop down and do some heavy work for sets of around 6 reps. Be careful of going heavy too often, just for the sake of protecting your elbows. Chronically heavy tricep training can lead to inflammatory conditions like tendonitis, so use your best judgement on how often you should be handling the super heavy weights.

8 Exercise #4: Deficit Deadlifts Assists in: Deadlifts Muscles trained: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Low Back, Upperback, Traps, Grip/Forearms Deficit deadlifts are probably the most demanding exercise on our list. We have essentially taken the hardest exercise in the gym (the deadlift) and made it harder, by adding a few inches to the range of motion. Deficit deadlifts help to strengthen your initial drive off the floor. By getting stronger on deficit deadlifts you will find yourself moving weights faster between the floor and approximately knee height. No more misses 1 inch off the floor! Performance: Basically the deficit deadlift is a normal deadlift, performed while standing on a slightly elevated platform. You will want to use a platform that is about 2-4 inches high. Set up just like a normal deadlift, but force yourself to sit back into a slightly deeper squat position than you would with a normal deadlift. Tips: The trick in getting the most out of your deficit deadlifts is to force the quads to work in the initial part of the movement. The

9 lifter must be very focused on keeping the chest up, the back arched, and really making the first portion of the lift looking like a squat off the ground. It is very easy to turn a deficit deadlift into a straight legged deadlift by going too heavy and not paying attention to the mechanics of the lift. Do not let this exercise become a stiff leg deadlift!! The point of the exercise is to stimulate more quad activity than in a normal deadlift. If you don t force yourself down into the deep squat position and come straight up with the bar, you won t be getting the benefits of the movement. Going too heavy will prevent good mechanics so use a weight that challenges you, but does not break form. Sets & Reps: Deficit deadlifts are very taxing, and it doesn t make sense to do them for more than 1 all out set. Rep ranges can range from heavy singles to sets of 8. Sets of 8 on a deficit deadlift will have the quads screaming for mercy. Where to perform: Deficit deadlifts work well in place of your regular heavy deadlift session (generally for sets of 1-5 reps) OR as a back off set AFTER a set of regular heavy deadlifts (generally 5-8 reps). So in this instance a lifter might work up to a heavy single on a regular deadlift with 495 lbs and then drop down to 405 lbs and do a set of deficit deadlifts for a set of 5-8 reps.

10 What to stand on? It is common to see a lifter stand on a pair of 100 lb plates to create the deficit. This works well, just make sure the surface you are standing on is flat. You can also create your own platform by stacking up cut out squares of ¾ inch rubber horse stall mats. 4 squares makes a 3 inch deficit and this is perfect for most lifters. You could also create your own platform out of plywood or 2x4s. Just make sure your deficit platform is sturdy, stout, and flat. There you have it: Four exercises that will increase your Squat, Press, Deadlift, and Bench Press, and are suitable for just about any advanced or intermediate lifter. Next time one of your Big 4 primary lifts hits a snag, look at spending some time on one of these lifts to get you going in the right direction again. For more free training information or for personalized online coaching services, please visit If you are in the North Houston area, you can contact me at my training facility Kingwood Strength & Conditioning located in Kingwood, TX.

Barbell Good Morning. 2 sets 10 reps

Barbell Good Morning. 2 sets 10 reps Back(1) Back, Shoulders AP AT P. Begin with 30-45min of cardio Barbell Deadlifts Barbell Good Morning Machine Assisted Pull-ups / Pullups 2 sets 20 reps 10 lbs Start with 10lbs on each side of the bar.