Trivium's Q&A

Training Powerlifting
61

[quote]trivium wrote:
17. I have heard a few people in the last few months make the statement that double overhand deadlifts use a slightly different form than mixed grip deadlifts. Can anyone explain this to me?

I feel a bit different when I do them, but in the end aren’t you still doing the same exact thing?[/quote]
Double overhand generally puts you in a longer position. But it is harder for most people to hold the bar that way.

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  • Close Grip Floor press with a pause for reps, pause and explode up.
  • 3 board CG Bench, high rep and that limited ROM gives your tris a direct beating.
  • Floor Skull Crushers - performed with a slight pause, laying on the floor and once again limiting the ROM for me left me elbow pain free. I like to do these relatively heavy for 6-8 reps
  • Spoon Press from an incline - moderate DB weight find your sweet spot when you feel tris working, nice and fast with no lockout
  • Tri Ladders on the smith start at the top for ten reps and work down to the bottom, SS with pushdowns, a great tri finisher.
  • Heavy Pendlays is a go to upper back staple for me, direct translation for the dead add lots of size to my upper back, try to be as strict as possible but a little hip English when the weight gets heavy for you isnt gonna hurt.
  • Snatch Grip High Pulls - have made me drop any type of shrugs totally the explosive nature will bring some big ass traps, and I feel they aid the second part of the pull
  • Hang Cleans - since for the time being I cannot strict OH press I started incorporate Hang cleans. the tension on the upper back and traps for me is excellent. Excellent total body exercise, but love how they hit the rear delt, upper back and traps.
  • Seated DB Cleans - high rep with light weight will also really have a lasting effect on the above
    I have found for me, with all the deads and Olyish type work Im doing, traditional shrugs just aren’t necessary any longer and, for me (really trying emphasize this) translate better to my pull.
63
  1. Is clean grip better than California/genie/bodybuilder grip when front squatting?

My regular squat has me falling forward a bit when I get further into my set. I am going to try to remedy this with form corrections, working with slightly less weight, and doing corrective exercises (stretching, stiff legs if I can, goodmornings, etc).

Dan Green seems to have this idea of a technical max, or a point at which your form has to break for you to get a rep. I plan on finding mine, and implementing that in my training with more sets than I usually do for practice.

Also, Dan Green and a few others seem to think that doing front squats are the shit when it comes to fixing this problem because you must stay upright when you do them, and they train the quads more.

I plan on doing beltless paused front squats and I suck at them horribly.

I personally believe that this will work and that the reasoning is solid. What do you guys think?

64
  1. Are face pulls really that beneficial for preventing shoulder problems?

I have been doing them as heavy as possible for a while now, and I am wondering if that is really all that necessary. Maybe someone with more experience could weigh in?

65

I don’t like heavy face pulls. I always do them for high reps with light weight and often with a pause at peak contraction. I can’t use the form required to target the muscles and movements that’s so beneficial with facepulls when I do sets of anything less than 10. That is scapular depression, scapular retraction, and external rotation. That’s what’s so great about them, you get all 3 of the those vital movements in one exercise along with a good stimulus for the lateral and rear delts and middle traps which can be difficult to hit with the big exercises. Now if you do them incorrectly, no they’re not going to be all that great. I’ve found it’s definitely not something I can just go through motions and get anything out of them.

66

[quote]trivium wrote:
19. Are face pulls really that beneficial for preventing shoulder problems?

I have been doing them as heavy as possible for a while now, and I am wondering if that is really all that necessary. Maybe someone with more experience could weigh in?[/quote]

I love them. I had a slight front deltoid tear after collar bone surgery a couple years ago (benching too soon), and face pulls were one of my go-to exercises for recovery.

Now I try to get 100-200 total reps a week in, usually in sets of 10-20 with a fairly light weight. On Saturdays, I’m currently doing 10x3 bench press, and I’ll superset that with sets of 10 face pulls using a triceps pushdown rope/weight stack. First set with the rope set above my head, second set at eye-level, third set at the floor, then back to the top setting, etc.

67

Thanks for the input guys. I may reexamine how I have them implemented in my programming.

  1. What is the longest layoff you have ever had, and how long did it take you to make a PR when you came back from it?