Squats, deadlifts, strict press, bench, and pull up. They often are (and should be) staples in your routine around which the rest of your program should circulate. This article isn’t about that. It’s about the parts you don’t notice, the weaker points that you have allowed to atrophy.
It’s helpful to remind ourselves that no two bodies are created equal. On top of this, every single strength coach is yet to see a body that’s in “perfect balance.” Whether it’s something as particular as a set of weak inner thigh muscles, to something as straightforward as poor posture, everyone has weak links. Much worse, too many people sidestep those weak points by continuing to use the big movements although their form slowly worsens to compensate for their imbalances.
The big stuff is fun and important, but it’s about time an article that takes level headed view on weak links training hit the mainstream. Here are 3 common areas that present problems to the average lifter.
Problem 1: Bad Knees
Training on bad knees can be painful, uncomfortable, and usually results in the practice of limited range of motion for lower-body exercises like squats or leg presses. There are many angles to take to assign a fix to knee pain, but here are the tools that I assign the most value to.
Corrective Solution
First, look at the tissue quality of your quads and hips. Foam roll and stretch the muscles so that their tightness isn’t contributing to undue stress on the joint they attach to. Used strategically, foam rolling and stretching can go a long way in making squats, and knee-dominant patterns like it, take on proper form and technique with emphasis away from the quads alone.
Beyond that, however, it would be a good idea to look at the strength of the knee joint itself through flexion and extension.
Peterson step ups: This step up variation helps strengthen the knee and can incorporate the VMO muscle on its medial side. Use a low box to start, and instead of adding weight to this movement, think of adding range of motion by raising the box. Like I show in the video, don’t use the free leg at all to help, and feel free to roll onto the ball of the working foot.
Terminal Knee Extensions: This is a great primer for bigger lifts like squats, to train knee extension and VMO activation in the lockout. Remember, press through the ball of the foot to make sure the quads are doing most of the work. Keep the hips facing forward also, and not on an angle. Disallow the rest of the body from becoming involved.
Big Lift Solution:
Add more deadlifts than Squats. This tip means more of both Romanian and conventional deadlifts. The angles you create in a deadlift variation compared to a squat variation create far less stress on the knees due to a more vertical shin position, and they also engage the posterior chain with much less chance of error. Having strong, actively firing glutes and hamstrings will only help reduce knee stress since more surrounding muscles are involved to take on forces and bare load.
Problem 2: Bad Shoulders
The shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint that’s usually more susceptible to injury than other joints. Shoulder pain during pushing exercises like the bench press shouldn’t be left unaided. Chances are, the pain is a product of poor posture and front-side tightness that prevents the shoulder from moving pain-free through a full ROM.
Corrective Solution:
Resisted Wall Slides: Chances are, you’ve heard of the classic scapular wall slide. This exercise is a good introduction to mobility and posture. I like taking things up a notch by staying seated and going through the same motion with light resistance. This keeps the rear deltoids and scapular muscles lit up through the entire pressing ROM. Check out the video below for an example. And remember: It doesn’t take much weight for this to be effective. It defeats the purpose if your arms drift forward.
Big Lift Solution:
Always pull more than you push. Much more. It’s that simple. I like to recommend a 2:1 ratio of back to chest training. And this goes without saying—but use good form and make sure your back is being activated on every pull exercise you practice.
Problem 3: Tight Hips
As we learned in section 1, there can be a linkage between bad hips and bad knees. With that said, immobile hips can dictate ROM and also knee health. In many cases, it’s better to nip things in the bud at the early onset of knee pain by examining hip flexibility and mobility early.
Corrective Solution:
As is the pattern, using dynamic mobility drills to open up the joint capsule can be essential.
Spiderman walks: This move should be a go-to mobility drill for the hips.
Big Lift Solution:
The cool thing about certain exercises is the fact that they can actually act to make muscles more flexible, if you allow them to. Take the example of the rear foot elevated split squat. Having the weight stretch the hip (specifically the rectus femoris muscle) of the trailing leg under load on the negative phase can pay big dividends on other movements that look for similar hip mobility and flexibility. No one loves this exercise, but everyone should do it.
Using light loads and aiming for complete ROM is the golden ticket to a better hip tissue quality, and a deeper squat.