19 Squat & Deadlift Variations

http://www.t-nation.com/training/squat-deadlift-variations




by Bret Contreras 

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Here's what you need to know...

• Variety is good for both strength and hypertrophy and it helps prevent overuse injuries.

• Every body is unique, and the best form for a lifter is the one that best suits his unique anthropometry and injury history.

• Contrary to popular belief, there's no standardized perfect form, only what form is best suited for your body and goals.

Strength training gurus love to say there's only one way to perform a lift, and that all other techniques and variations are either wrong or ineffective. Such a philosophy is shortsighted, and this article will show how intelligent variation can build a bigger, stronger, bulletproof body.

First, every body is unique, and the best form for a lifter is the one that best suits his or her unique limb lengths, body segment proportions, tendon attachment points, muscularity, and injury history.

Second, the form that a lifter uses is heavily predicated on his or her overall goals. These goals might include hypertrophy, in which case it's possible to accentuate tension on a particular muscle; strength, in which case it's possible to perform a lift in a manner that maximizes leverages; or transference, in which case it's possible to execute an exercise in a manner that best transfers to another lift or sporting action.

And third, all lifters should purposely perform lifts in a variety of ways in order to build well-rounded and maximal strength.

Stubbornly sticking to a particular form or variation that isn't right for you, no matter how popular it is, will eventually lead to injury. It's akin to forcing a square peg through a round hole.

Top Athletes Vary in Exercise Form

All my powerlifting and strongman friends look markedly different when they squat, deadlift, and bench. Hell, take a look at the various powerlifting world record holders, strongman champions, top Olympic weightlifters, and even the best bodybuilders on the planet – you'll see that their techniques with the big lifts vary markedly.

They've all taken the time to figure out the style of each lift that caused the least pain and injury, maximized their leverages and performance, and/or allowed them to best reach their particular goals. What's hilarious is that many of these top strength and physique athletes "break the rules" according to various experts, making it difficult to find merit with any hard rules in lifting mechanics.

The top lifters have also taken the time to figure out their favorite exercise variations. The top bodybuilder might prefer rack pulls over full-range deadlifts because they're safer on his low back, but still might hammer his entire posterior chain.

The top powerlifter might perform low bar squats and sumo deadlifts in competition, but prefers high bar squats and conventional deadlifts in training until a month out before the meet since they better build his lifts.

The strongman might tell you that he gave up low bar squatting years ago to preserve his shoulder health, but that he still front squats every week. Lastly, the top Olympic lifter may prefer the Romanian deadlift and high-bar full squat as assistance lifts, whereas the top powerlifter might prefer the deficit deadlift and high box squat. You get the picture.

Useful Barbell Variations of Squats and Deadlifts

I realize most don't have access to specialty bars, so I only included traditional barbell variations. However, there are dozens of incredible variations that use the rackable cambered bar, safety squat bar, or Dead-Squat™ Bar, to name a few.

Deep Back Squats: High Bar Versus Low Bar

Though the difference might appear subtle, the high-bar squat exhibits less forward trunk lean and therefore places more stress on the quads. Conversely, the low-bar back squat increases trunk lean and places more stress on the hips.

Strong quads are critical for proper squat performance, as are strong hips. You should incorporate both types of squats into your training arsenal.

High-Bar Back Squat

Low-Bar Back Squat

High-Bar Versus Low-Bar Parallel Squats

With sufficient training experience, most lifters will find that they're stronger with squats when they use a low-bar placement and take a wide stance. However, there are lifters who discover that they're indeed stronger with high-bar squats.

Usually, high-bar squats are performed with a moderate stance as opposed to a very wide stance. Again, the high-bar squat emphasizes the quads, whereas the low-bar squat will emphasize the hips. Both variations are great for squat training.

High-Bar Moderate Width Parallel Squat

Low-Bar Wide Stance Parallel Squat

Front Squats: Wide Versus Narrow Stance

Most of the time, when you see someone performing front squats they're using a narrow stance. But there's no reason why you can't perform front squats with a wider stance. Again, both should be used in your training regimen.

Narrow Stance Front Squats

Wide Stance Front Squats

Box Squats: Low Box/High Bar Versus High Box/Low Bar

Most lifters are familiar with high box/low bar squats where they sit back and keep vertical tibias, thereby maximizing stress on the posterior chain. However, it's also a good idea to perform low box/high bar squats from time to time. This variation places considerable stress on the quads and is quite useful depending on the purpose.

High Box/Low Bar Squat

Low Box/High Bar Squat

ZercherSquats: Hip Emphasis Versus Quad Emphasis

Most lifters only employ one style of Zercher squats but it's a good idea to occasionally perform two different styles. To stress the hips, take a wider stance, keep the shins vertical and sit back more, descending to parallel. To stress the quads, use a moderate stance, keep the torso more upright, sit down, and descend below parallel.

Hip-Dominant Zercher Squat

Quad-Dominant Zercher Squat

Deadlift: Conventional Versus Sumo

You should perform both conventional and sumo deadlifts from time to time. They build each other, especially if you have a huge strength discrepancy between the two variations.

Conventional Deadlift

Sumo Ddeadlift

Block or Rack Pulls: Conventional Versus Sumo

The same logic applies to block or rack pulls. You can and should use a conventional and sumo stance throughout your training year.

Conventional Block Pull

Sumo Block Pull

Sumo Deadlifts: Quad Versus Hip Dominant

When you pull sumo, there's a sweet spot for trunk angle and joint ROM that enables you to hoist the heaviest loads. That said, sometimes it's a good idea to use lighter loads and practice your sumo deadlifts using a quad-emphasis or a hip-emphasis. With the quad-dominant style, sink deeper and keep a more upright trunk. With the hip-dominant style, raise the hips and use a greater trunk lean.

Quad-Dominant Sumo Deadlift

Hip Dominant Sumo Deadlift

Deficit Deadlifts: Clean Grip Versus Snatch Grip

When pulling from a deficit, you should employ a traditional grip width as well as a snatch grip width. The snatch grip deficit deadlift increases joint ROM and is a brutal yet useful variation.

Deficit Deadlift

Snatch Grip Deficit Deadlift

Hack Lift

The hack lift is a nifty way to build quad strength in a deadlift. Just place the bar behind the back and try to mimic your typical deadlift form. This variation stresses the knees and should be used only occasionally. The lockout can be tricky, but most lifters can learn to perform the movement correctly with practice.

Hack Lift

The Spice of Training

Variety is good for both strength and hypertrophy and it helps prevent overuse injuries. Through tremendous effort and experimentation, accomplished lifters determine optimal positioning and technique for their bodies as well as figure out the movements that transfer best to their particular goals.

The takeaway point is that the best do what works best for them, not what some guru tells them to do. Contrary to popular belief, there's no standardized perfect form, only what form is best suited for your body and goals.

There's more than one way to skin a cat... or squat or deadlift a weight.

Self-Myofascial Release for Shoulders

 http://www.musclemag.com/pressing-issues/

Clear up creaky shoulder issues and start pushing more weight over your head with these simple moves.

63

By Jeff Alexander

Have you ever wished you could take your arms off when you sleep? If you train hard, you know what it’s like to have stiff and painful shoulders, and maybe even a full-blown injury. Shoulder joints are tricky. They get hurt easily and heal slowly.

Self-myofascial release (SMR) can help clear up mobility issues in your shoulders that lead to impaired movement and eventual injury. Be aware that SMR can border on being painful. On a pain scale of one to 10, SMR should feel like a six to eight (a “hurts so good” feeling). The best part of SMR is that it provides near-instant feedback. If you’ve done it right, you’ll immediately feel a little better. If you’ve done it wrong, you’ll know it, too. Your muscles will be tighter instead of being more fluid. If you do feel worse after a bout of SMR, get a medical diagnosis to avoid further injury.

Practice the techniques shown here to relieve knots and restrictions so you can more easily raise your arms overhead instead of fighting limitations in your muscles in addition to the bar you’re lifting. After performing these moves you should notice a greater ease when raising your arms, and your elbows should get closer to your ears when you’re in an overhead position.

Always do a “systems check” after performing an SMR technique. Take your arm or neck through some long, slow, full-range stretches. If you have greater ease with movement, you’ll know you are on the right track. If you were too aggressive with the amount of pressure, then you will likely feel even tighter. If that’s the case, back off to lighter pressure with more of a stroking movement.

Addressing your muscular discomforts with five to 10 minutes a day of SMR is like brushing and flossing your teeth. If done regularly, it prevents little issues from becoming big problems.

Delts Roll

>>Begin by pinning a foam roller or ball between your shoulder and the wall. (Rumble Rollers are firm but flexible, and the bumps are very effective.)

>>Slowly turn your hips so you’re facing the wall, then slowly turn away from it, but keep the SMR tool pinned between your shoulder and the wall at all times. When you find a spot of increased tension, hang out there until it dissipates or for one whole minute. Then slightly squat up and down to massage that spot.

>>After 30 seconds, repeat the forward and backward rotations to find another spot. Repeat the squatting massage for each area of tightness you find.

Lats Roll

>>Lie on the floor with a roller under the back of your armpit.

>>Slowly rotate your body so your chest turns toward the floor, then slowly rotate back so your chest faces upward.

>>Repeat for 30 seconds up to two minutes.

Neck Roll

>>Lie down on your back with a roller under your neck.

>>Slowly tilt your chin toward one side and gently nod up and down.

>>Lay one or both forearms on your forehead for a deeper massage.

>>After a few minutes on one side, do the same for the other.

Chest Full of Junk

 http://www.musclemag.com/chest-full-of-junk/

If you want bigger, stronger pecs, you need to clean out your cluttered tissue.

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By Jeff Alexander

Muscles are complicated. Made up of countless fibers that should seamlessly slide back and forth as you contract and extend them, muscles are like any complex machine that gets overused: They get junk in them.

Sure, “junk” isn’t a highly clinical phrase, but it’s actually the perfect description for the various metabolic waste products, scar tissue, adhesions or trigger points that accumulate in muscles and gum up motions that should be pliable and comfortable. You change the oil in our cars, you blow out your computers with compressed air. It’s time to do the same kind of maintenance for your muscles.

Junk that builds up in the pecs, and especially the pectoralis minor, can lock your shoulders and arms so that your range of motion (ROM) is compromised. Restoring proper ROM means that more actual muscle fibers are stimulated during exercise and your pecs can experience greater growth. Your rhomboids do the opposite of the pecs since they are attached between your shoulder blades and pull your scapula toward your spine. It’s important to work the junk out of them, too. Packing these two techniques together can really open up the shoulders and help you better stabilize heavy loads.

In athletes, junk usually results from overtraining and dehydration. Regular stretching, adequate fluid intake and Epsom-salt baths can stave off the buildup and inhibited movement, but there’s a good chance you’re already experiencing some grinding gears in your muscles. These strategies can help.

Pec Wall Press

Step 1: Begin by standing with your chest pressed against a ball that’s pinned to a solid wall. (I like the Beastie ball.) If your pecs are highly developed, you can use a yoga block to add a little additional leverage.

Step 2: Experiment with the exact spot you need to apply pressure to. It may take a few pick-up-and-place attempts before you find the spot that needs attention. You’ll know it when you press on it.

Step 3: When you find that spot of increased tension (it’ll probably hurt a little), apply heavy pressure to it for 20 to 30 seconds by leaning in and using your legs. Breathe deeply and slowly and relax so you can really sink into the ball. Use your legs and hips to regulate and manipulate the pressure you apply.

Step 4: Decrease the pressure slightly while you take a couple recovery breaths.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 through 4 for four to six rounds for each side. You should notice decreased tension in your pecs with each successive round.

Step 6: Slowly remove the ball and take your arm through a full range of motion to test improvements in stabilization and ROM. Perform these steps up to three times a day to improve chest function and strength.

SMR Butterfly

Step 1: Lie flat on your back with a ball under your rhomboids, the muscles between your shoulder blade and your spine.

Step 2: Flex your shoulders and elbows 90 degrees so your upper arms are straight out to the side of your shoulders and your forearms are off the floor. Make sure that your elbows and head are resting on the floor, because lifting either one activates the very muscles you are trying to massage.

Step 3: Bring your wrists and elbows as close together as possible over your face and then slowly return them to the floor. Breathe deeply and regularly as you relax into the pressure.

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for five to 10 rounds, then test the ROM in the side you just worked. Repeat for the other side.

A little daily maintenance work goes a long way. If you spend five to 10 minutes once or twice a day addressing your tight pecs and rhomboids with focused SMR and stretching, your bench press numbers and your recovery will show it.

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Jeff Alexander is an expert on self-myofascial release who teaches his style of functional therapy all over the world. He and his wife own Network Fitness in Irvine, Calif.

Calming the Calves

 http://www.musclemag.com/calming-the-calves/

Your feet and lower legs take a ton of abuse. Roll them out to treat them right.

 By Jeff Alexander

We seem to want to destroy our feet and calves. Women buy shoes that look hot but ruin the function of their feet, while guys just abuse them without a second thought. It’s no wonder that all of the muscles in the calves and in the feet sometimes decide to engage in a painful revolt.

Aside from wearing different shoes and getting a foot massage every day, what can you do? Below are two quick stops along the way to making your dogs happy. Digging into the knotted-up flesh in the back of your lower legs can unlock tremendous power and unleash your progress. Better function and circulation lead to faster recovery and bigger muscles. Take five to 10 minutes a day to ensure your gym efforts result in muscle building and recovery rather than couch sitting and injury.

Calf Roll

1. Sit down with your lower legs across a foam roller (the bumpy roller is preferred). Do not hold yourself up on your hands and roll length-wise (forward and backward) on your calves. This is the most common mistake people make when treating their lower legs. When you do this you must support your weight with your lower-leg muscles. That means you are activating the muscles you are attempting to massage, which is counterproductive. Instead, simply relax and let your calves sink into the roller.
2. Slowly rotate your legs left and right. Find a tight spot that doesn’t want to relax and hold on that spot.
3. Make three slow clockwise and counterclockwise circles with your foot. Feel the bumpy knot in your calf rolling over the knobs on the roller as you move your foot. It should feel like thumbs working on your leg.
4. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 for three rounds. You should notice decreased tension in your calves with each successive round.
5. Afterward, get up and take a few steps on your toes and then your heels to check function and stability.

Foot Press

1. Take off your shoes and gently place the arch of your foot on a hard and preferably knobby ball. (I like the Beastie Ball by RumbleRoller.)
2. Keeping light pressure against the ball, raise your toes while you inhale deeply.
3. Exhale as you slowly wrap your toes around the ball and lean as much pressure as you can tolerate onto the ball.
4. Repeat for three rounds, then move the ball to another spot. Go through this process on two or more spots on the bottom of your foot.
5. Walk and grab the floor with your toes to test the range of motion and stabilization for your feet and toes.

This simple routine can work wonders for your aching feet, toes and calves. Add a soak in a hot tub to the mix and you have a good self-care therapy program for functional and high-performing feet.

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Jeff Alexander is an expert on self-myofascial release who teaches his style of functional therapy all over the word. He and his wife own Network Fitness in Irvine, Calif.

Waking Up The Dead

 http://www.musclemag.com/waking-up-the-dead/

If you move like a zombie, try the supported corpse exercise to restore life to your hips.

 By Jeff Alexander, NASM-CPT, CF-L1

All movement begins in the core, and your hip flexors are at the center of that important nexus. These muscles tend to grow short and tight on most of us due to the sheer amount of time spent sitting in the car, at work or on the couch. You won’t feel it in your hips, but the back muscles that must fight the tightness will start to revolt. Once you restore normal length to your hip flexors, your posture will be better, back tightness will be minimized, and you will notice an easier time standing up with a heavy deadlift or squat load because your back, glutes and hamstrings are not fighting your tight hip flexors as well as the weight on the bar. One of the best ways to regain hip mobility is the supported corpse.

1. Lie flat on your back with a roller or block under your buttocks to support your hip bones, remaining motionless for up to five minutes. If you can’t relax, use a smaller support like a yoga block.

2. If your lower back  gradually begins to grow tighter while you lie on the roller, bend both your knees. When your back relaxes, straighten your legs again.

3. After five minutes  of lying on the support, keep your shoulders on the floor (this is extremely important) and gently lift your hips off the roller or block. If you experience any pain when practicing the supported corpse, you are using a support that’s too high. Start with a shorter lift and gradually work your way to a 6-inch lift. You’ll know you’re ready for a taller lift when you don’t feel any “funkiness” as you get off the support.

Gently drop your knees to either side and lightly stretch your legs before you sit up and load your spine. It should take only 15 to 30 seconds to be ready to stand.

Get up and walk around. Your back should feel less stiff, and you should be able to stand up a little straighter, with your hips a little more open on the front and moving a little easier through all normal ranges of motion. If you feel stiffer or tighter when you get up, that means the support you were using was too tall.

Practice the supported corpse every day that you feel tension in your lower back or tightness across the front of your hips while lying on the support. When you no longer feel any tension in any muscles along your hips or back after five minutes on the support, add one inch. When the 6-inch support no longer feels like a stretch, then go to an assessment schedule of practicing the supported corpse once every two weeks. Return to the supported corpse whenever your back aches or you feel tightness in your hips.

Extra Credit: Practice the “marching corpse.” Slowly pull one knee toward your chest while you keep the other leg straight for 30 seconds to get an even deeper stretch in the hip flexors of your extended leg.

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Jeff Alexander is a renowned expert on self-myofascial release who teaches his style of functional therapy all over the world. He and his wife own Network Fitness in Irvine, Calif.