If you aren’t using the forums, here’s another example of the kind of dialog and advice people like Greg are getting for free: This is an excerpt from the thread http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/forum/the-big-7/s-leg-deadlift-as-a-variant/ Greg:

Darrin, Cameron, or others, I have a question.

How do you feel about straight-leg deadlift as a periodic variation and/or compliment to regular deadlifts?

Are they more suited for rehabilitation and/or weakness correction, or do they have worth as a muscle-building/ strength-improving movement?

If you think it’s worthy, how heavy should I go?

I know the lower back muscles are some of the slowest in our bodies to heal, so I’ve done these on a couple of workouts six days apart.  I get lower back soreness but it’s just mild, general soreness, just like one would get in his or her legs after a leg routine.

The thing that perplexes me most is that I seem to be nearly as strong for straight leg as I am for regular deadlifts.  I can go up to about 230 lbs. on trap-bar deads after months of training.  With straight leg, I do 185 very easily, making sure my back stays arched; I stick my but out; I stay extremely tight; with my knees slightly bent.  It felt very much like regular deads, yet not quite as tiring.

Hoping this is a good glute strengthener, but I think my lower back is the strong player here.

5:21 pm July 18, 2010 Cameron

A LOT of deads to begin with is lower back (erectors), personally I think more than is given credit for.  But anyways, Single leg deads are no different than any other unstable movement (see my post about the exercise progressions, I think it’s under the topic about single arm DB bench press).  There are pluses and minuses about every lift variation you do.  The thing you have to weigh and decide on yourself is:

deadlifts:  Target muscles are highly strengthened, however lot of impact and strain on other muscles.  I’m not going to go into a lot of depth on this because you know about them already… besides, you asked about single leg.

Single leg:  Unstable= less force is applied through leg.  Your core is divided into 3 separate parts: hips, tors, and shoulders.  I personally take it one step farther.  I say that your legs are part of your hips, and  arms are part of your shoulders.  Anytime you use your arms you transfer force through your shoulders.  Anytime the legs are used force is transferred either up or down through the hips.  Therefore, your legs can only get so strong (functionally speaking) without your hips getting involved, same goes for the arms/shoulders.  This is why compound movements are so critical.  Anyways, “core training” (A.K.A. balance training)  revolves around the progressions I mention in the other post, along with posture, muscle balance/imbalances, and joints; even if it isn’t always mentioned, the factors are there.

Now, to fully address your question.  When you do a single leg deadlift you are sacrificing vertical force, for horizontal force.  In other words, you give up the ability to produce downward force so that you can work supporting muscles along your leg/hips that are maintaining your posture.  By removing your second leg you are essentially ripping your base out from under your feet effectively making it go from about 2 feet wide to about 5 or 6 inches wide.  Technically it’s the same thing as doing a deadlift with your feet hip width apart instead of shoulder width apart, just more extreme.  The force you sacrifice gets sent from your larger muscles to your smaller ones, in particular, muscles around the hips, knees, and ankles.

One of the first muscles you will notice is that your chins will burn.  This is because most people have tight calf muscles.  In fact, 90% of lower back pain is caused from tightness in your calves…but that’s another post.  The tightness is caused from an external rotation in their feet.  Most people walk with their toes pointed out.  This is another reason why I NEVER advocate squatting with your feet pointed out.  Then your knees have to go out as well in order to stay over your toes, which causes more imbalances.  While you gain more strength, you also lose some safety in the end.  However if your feet are too far pointed in it causes tight hip flexors instead of tight I.T. bands.  So there is always a downside.  Hence variations of multiple exercises.  Usually whichever variation your do is based upon your everyday posture, but it takes training to assess it.  Anyways, case-and-point.  I recommend doing some of the single leg deads if you haven’t done much unstable movement.  It will also help you neurologically also helping overall strength.  If you have done some as of late, then I recommend just doing deads.  Up to you in the end.

Hope that helps.  I can probably elaborate more if you would like later, but i’m tired of typing for now ;)

6:24 pm July 18, 2010 Darrin

I think Cameron is talking about single-leg deads but I think Greg was asking about “straight-legged” deads, right?  Cameron’s stuff on single-leg is good though!

Before I respond, when you say “straight-legged” do you mean Romanian style (RDL)?  There are some subtle differences but the main thing is that with RDLs your legs are not locked out straight – they have a small bend at the knee which stays constant throughout the movement.

7:14 pm July 18, 2010 Cameron

HAHA go figure… well that was a waste of energy… thx tho darrin…:/

6:45 pm July 19, 2010 Greg (more…)

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Continue reading about Straight Leg Deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)

I bet you count your reps.

I do.

And all my programs that I design for clients or sell do.

But why?

Why Counting Reps Makes Sense

Counting reps can

• help you measure progress (ability to do more reps today than a few weeks ago means progress, right?),
• keeps you focused (if you are supposed to do 8 reps, and you are on #7, you are more likely to go to 8),
• ensure you follow a proven program, one written by someone who presumably knows more than you about how most bodies work and what will get results.

But counting reps can also deter progress because (more…)

Continue reading about Stop Counting Reps

If you aren’t using the forums, here’s an example of the kind of dialog and advice people like Greg are getting for free.  There are over 500 posts already – you need to join in.

This is an excerpt from the thread http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/forum/specific-routines/leg-presses-for-a-while/.

gregsfc:

I know free weights almost always trumps machines, but I’ve decided to do leg presses for a while, after many months of squats and an abductor pull.  Today, I was able to press 300.  I know that’s not impressive, but it sure beats my squats after four months of staying under 200.

I’m also doing lunges (which I suck at), front squats (only a set or two), straight-leg deadlift, and on another workout, I do regular deadlifts.

This is all I’m doing for lower body other than a few sets of calf raises every time I go in the gym.

Any comments, questions, or critiques?

9:30 pm
July 17, 2010
Darrin

Well, I’m not physical therapist, but I don’t think that just because your squat has problems that you should be doing leg presses.  Somewhere, you’ve got either form issues, or imbalances, or some other issue that is causing problems from the squat.  Moving to leg presses may (more…)

Continue reading about Leg Presses, Assessment, and Overhead Squats

In our continuing series on weightlifting for women, let’s today talk about

Fears Women Have About Lifting Free-Weights

This is Part 4 of 4 in the series.

Fears women have of getting bulky from lifting weights are unfounded

Click here for part 1, part 2, or part 3.

“I Don’t Want To Get Bulky!”

Way too many women are worried about “getting bulky”.

Holy Cow, you’d think that merely looking at free-weights would turn a woman into a she-man!  The biggest myth aside from the “muscle tone” myth is that women will get bulky from lifting weights.

Let me say this to those of you women thinking this:  unless you are a genetic oddity, meaning like 1 in 1000 or rarer, you are not going to get bulky from lifting free weights.

Last time we talked about ideal workouts for women.  Will they make women bulky?

Many men – who have far more natural growth (anabolic) hormones like testosterone – do everything they can to TRY to get bulky, and they can’t even do it!  Do you really think that with your higher levels of catabolic hormones and lower levels of anabolic hormones you are going to become muscle-bound?  No way.

And what is “bulky” anyway?  I guess some women (more…)

Continue reading about Should Women Train Like Men – Fears, Complaints and Excuses

Part 3 of 4

The past 2 articles (part 1 and part 2) in this series were lead ups to this part 3, which is probably what most of you have been waiting for!  Here is how (most) women should train.  This article is not a lifting routine in and of itself – routines like Full Body Attack and The 6x6x6 Routine are great for women, just like they are great for men.  But here are some modifications to keep in mind.

We’ve been asking the question “should women train like men”.  Well, the truth is, most MEN don’t train like men! “Training like a man” (more…)

Continue reading about Should Women Train Like Men – Modifying Lifting Routines For Women

Ramadan – a month-long holy time for Muslims – is starting soon.  This article will help those of you who practice Ramadan fasting (or actually, just about any intermittent fasting) understand how your eating, lifting, and cardio should be adjusted.

Important Note #1:  I am not Muslim, so am not qualified to discuss the spiritual aspects of Ramadan.  If I get something wrong, please forgive my ignorance.

Important Note #2:  I’m commenting here about body composition goals:  muscle building and/or fat loss.  I am not commenting on athletic performance or competition.  (A short summary of Ramadan fasting and sports performance is here and here but there are many studies on soccer/football performance impacts of Ramadan fasting if you search PubMed.)

What Is Ramadan Fasting?

From Wikipedia, on Ramadan:

The most prominent event of this month is fasting. Every day during the month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world get up before dawn to eat Sahur or Sehri or Sahari (meaning “something we eat at Sahar”), then they perform the fajr (or Sobh) prayer. They have to stop eating and drinking before the call for prayer starts until the fourth prayer of the day, Maghrib. Muslims break their fast at Maghrib (at sunset) prayer time with a meal called Iftar. Muslims may continue to eat and drink after the sun has set until the next morning’s fajr prayer call. Then the process starts all over.

For those of you non-Muslims, this sounds an awful lot like intermittent fasting, or semi-fasting.  Except for one important thing:  the timing is reversed.

When I’ve written about semi-fasted cardio and lifting, I’ve assumed (more…)

Continue reading about Ramadan and Working Out – Lifting, Cardio, Fasting

Part 2 of 4

If you missed Part 1, click here.

Muscle Tone is somewhat of a myth - lift heavy, eat right to build muscle and lose fat

The Myth Of Muscle Tone

Most women will say they want to

1. Lose weight, and
2. Improve muscle tone

Notice that these are not in the Ultimate Fitness Goals (UFG) list!  Why not?

Because you don’t want to lose weight.  You want to shed fat.  You could lose weight by losing muscle.  Or by cutting off your left arm.  What you really want is less fat.

And there is no such thing as “muscle tone”.  There’s muscle size and there’s the amount of fat surrounding it.  Those two qualities are the only things you control to give birth to the visual impact of your body that some people call “definition”.  (There’s also the genetic traits you have for body shape, bone-length & width, muscle insertion points, body part proportions, etc. but you don’t control those.)

Super-High Reps?  No

The muscle tone myth leads to the misguided workouts of super high repetitions.  You know, going for (more…)

Continue reading about Should Women Lift Like Men – Muscle Tone Myth

Women often find that they can keep their weight about the same over many years by just eating sensibly and light cardio.  But often, in their mid thirties or forties, they start getting “soft”.  By only looking at the scale they don’t notice it.  But what has happened is that they have slowly lost muscle and slowly gained fat.  Their shirts and pants still fit (for the most part) but their body composition is far less attractive.  And equally (or more) importantly, they are on a track to become helpless in their older age.  Muscle loss is equated to functional loss – and functional loss is a loss in quality of life.  Muscle loss in your 30s and 40s is slow enough to not be noticed but once you get to your 60s and 70s and 80s, you may be no longer to lift a milk gallon over your head.  Let’s make sure you never get that weak ok?

Should Women Lift Like Men?

This site is geared towards men.  After all, I am one.

But we all have women in our lives – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, etc.

So whether you are a woman, or know one, or just play one on TV, this post is for you.

Part 1 of 4

So Should Women Really Workout Like Men?

For the past few years, all the “experts” keep saying how a woman should lift like a man.  But is it true?

The answer is yes and no.  I’ll boil it down to one (long) sentence for you:

Women can and should do nearly the same exercises as men, but because women have different goals and different chemistry, the ideal program will usually be different than what a man would use.

I’m going to break this series down into 4 parts.  And if you post an intelligent comment to any of these, then afterward shoot me an email at support@worldfitnessnetwork.com and I’ll send you (more…)

Continue reading about Should Women Lift Like Men?