Some great variations to try

Hey Fitness Friends,

Today we're going to look at a couple of variations that you can use to add a little spice to you training. Here we go:

1-1-2 lifting:

1-1-2 lifting is great for movements like bent rows, bench press, floor press, overhead press, military press, push press, jerks, non-barbell cleans, non-barbell snatches, non-barbell high-pulls, etc. I wouldn't use it on lower body based movements like your squats and deadlifts, simply because the resistance as you switch between 1's and 2's wouldn't be enough to challenge you. But, on the other lifts mentioned, this is a great variation.

Lets' say you are going to bent row and you decide to use either kettlebells or dumbbells. Grab a pretty heavy weight in each hand and set your self up to perform a 2 handed bent row. Now, for the right arm only while keeping the left arm in the starting position (not touching the ground), then row the left, then row both arms at once, then row the right, row the left, row both arms, row the right, row the left, row both arms, row the right, row the left, row both arms, row the right, row the left, row both arms. There's a simple set of 10 reps. Even though there are 15 movements in this sequence, you've only performed 10 reps with each arm (5 reps on their own and 5 reps together).

This is a great way to train a number of these lifts as it forces you to move between uni-lateral and b-lateral movements, meaning your stabilizing muscles will get a sheet-ton or work, your primary and auxiliary muscles will work hard as heck, and your nervous system will also get a great amount of work.

Give it a try and I think you'll love it.

Various Position See-Sawing:

This is a wonderful method that will pre-fatigue your muscles, give you more time under tension during the movement and make you all around tougher.

Let's use the 2-dumbbell o 2-kettlebell overhead press as an example. For a normal see-saw variation you'd bring the bell up to your shoulders. You'd press your right arm to overhead lockout while keeping the left one at the shoulder rack position, lower the right arm down and then press with your left while keeping your right in the shoulder rack position. Makes sense, I hope.

For this variation though you're going to either snatch or jerk the bells to the top lockout position. From there you will lower your right to shoulder rack and then press it back to lockout while keeping your left in the overhead lockout position. when you're finished pressing the right to overhead lockout, you'll lower the left to shoulder rack position and then press it back to overhead lockout while keeping the right locked out over head.

This will require a great isometric lockout on the non-pressing arm, varies your movement between uni-lateral an bi-lateral movement, and will basically work the sheet out of you.

Again, give it a try and I think you'll love it.

Bottom Position Starts:

Anyone that's been reading these tips for a while knows that I love bottom position squatting and bottom position bench pressing. And here's why:

Both the squat and the bench press start from the top, locked out position. You then lower down to the bottom position, building up stored elastic energy and momentum. Once you hit the bottom position you drive up to the top lock out. The stored elastic energy and momentum that you build as you lower will help to give you a boost of power as you start to return to the top position.

When you start either of these two movements from the bottom position you take away this stored elastic energy and momentum. This makes the bottom position variations of these movements that much harder. How much harder, you may ask? I currently can squat over 500 pounds when I start from the top position, however my best bottom position squat is 335 pounds. That's quite a difference.

You may now be asking, if that's true, why on earth would i want to start from the bottom if I can use so much more weight starting from the top? Great question. Because forcing yourself to be strong from the weakest part of a movement is going to make you much stronger in the long run. Plus, when you start from the top of the movement, it's very easy to cheat by not using a full range of movement. Check out most people when they squat and you'll see a lot of 1/4 squats and 1/2 squats being passed off as "full range" movements. When you start from the bottom, you can't cheat, you're already at the bottom position.

How do I do these movements? Simple, for the squat simply set the safety pins in the power rack at the point where they'd catch the bar while you were in the bottom position (or the safety bars if you're using squat stands). Now, place the bar on the pins, load it up and get your self underneath it.

for the bench press, do them in the power rack and set the pins so the bar is just brushing your chest when it's resting on the pins. Load the bar up and get underneath it.

It should go without saying that either of these moves should only be used after you have good, solid technique in the lifts. If you don't have a good squat or bench, work on your technique more before doing them.

Alright, there are some great variations. Throw them into the mix and I think you'll love them. Now, go train smart, hard and heavy and create your greatness.

Yours in strength and health,

Brett