By
Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
While there are a lot of characteristics
and traits that define skilled lifting, I believe there are two
primary skills that truly separate experts from novices. The two
skills I'm about to discuss allow lifters to pursue their craft
for years without the troubling injuries that typically plague unskilled
exercisers and Bowflex collectors.
Skill #1: The Ability To Maintain
A Neutral Spine
I consider this to be the premier,
hallmark ability of a skilled lifter. In essence it's the one skill
that definitively distinguishes real lifters from gym wanna-be's
who spend most of their time on the leg press.
If you were to isolate one skill that
stacks the odds in your favor when it comes to keeping your spine
healthy and pain-free, it's the ability to keep said spine "neutral"
at all times, but especially when it's loaded. When you stand sideways
in front of a mirror, you'll notice a natural curve in your low
back. Maintaining that curve when you do squats, deadlifts, Olympic
lifts, etc., is the essence of the neutral-spine concept.
While the low back will inevitably
"round" during extremely deep squatting maneuvers, you
should be able to hold your arch while squatting to parallel, and
in the start position for deadlifts, cleans, and snatches. People
who cannot demonstrate this ability are prevented from doing so
by one or both of the following two conditions:
Insufficient Motor Skills:
Quite simply, being unfamiliar with
maintaining a neutral spine. For whatever reason, you've never been
taught how to do it, and you proceed with the assumption that you're
doing everything properly, even though you're rounding your low
back enough to make your chiropractor pee himself in sheer amazement.
If you're not certain that you've acquired this skill, it's a good
bet that you haven't. Seek out the services of a competent coach
or trainer. "Competent" being the operative word here.
My pet technique for teaching how to maintain a properly arched
spine is to imagine that someone is touching you on the low back
with a wet ice cube. If you vividly imagine this (or actually try
it!) you'll instinctively arch your low back. Now the trick is to
maintain that arch while you lift!
Above: Ed Grimley has very short abs
and hams - look how high the front of his pelvis is. Note: I often
see slightly less-catastrophic postural tendencies among male trainees
after years of high-rep crunches in an attempt to obtain the fabled
six-pack. The take-home lesson is that if you ask a muscle to maximally
shorten millions of times over a period of years, it'll oblige your
incessant requests by getting shorter- permanently.
Short and/or Tight Hamstrings and/or Rectus Abdominus:
Due to their attachment points on
the pelvis, both of these muscles, when tight/short, cause the pelvis
to tilt posteriorly (see diagram below). Here's a simple demonstration
that'll help you visualize the effect that short abs have on your
pelvic position: Standing sideways in front of a mirror, place your
left index finger on your pubic bone, and your right index finger
on your lower sternum. Next, make your fingers approach each other
by contracting your abs, and watch what happens to the arch you
used to have in your low back.
(Above) Left: Anterior tilt, or "arched" low back.
This is the position you're looking for.
Right: Anterior pelvic tilt - caused by poor motor skills and/or
tight hamstrings and/or abs.
While some people manage to lift with
a posterior tilt for years without apparent injury, a neutral spine
can safely withstand greater loads. Learn it and live it - or risk
permanently injuring your lumbar spine. It's your choice.
(Above): Check out
my low back position during these heavy deads.
I don't have the biggest deadlift in the World
but I do have good spinal mechanics!
Skill #2: The Ability
To "Seat" The Scapulae
I consider this skill the "little
brother" to the neutral spine skill just discussed. And as
it turns out, the ability to maintain a neutral spine also tends
to facilitate good scapular seating, and vice-versa.
Seating the scapulae is actually an
amalgam of two separate but similar skills:
Retraction:
This is the easier and more familiar
of the two skills, so I'll cover it first. Scapular retraction is
simply the ability to pull your scaps together behind you, as if
you were trying to pinch a quarter between them. Sometimes the easiest
way to understand a movement pattern is to first practice the opposite
of that movement, so try this drill: stand normally, and extend
your arms straight out in front of you. First, protract your scaps
by trying to extend your hands even further forward than they were
in a natural position. Next retract your scapulae by doing the opposite-
just pull your shoulder blades backward and try to see how close
you can move them toward each other. This is how your scaps should
be positioned during any type of bench pressing incidentally, and
in fact, benching is perhaps the primary application of this skill.
Depression:
Shrugging your shoulders is an example
is scapular elevation. Scapular depression, of course, is the opposite
of that. And while shrugging is a very natural motion (I do it instinctively
anytime my wife asks me anything) depression tends to be far less
familiar. Check out the video below for a great drill to learn what
it feels like to depress your scaps:
The good news is that the inability
to seat your scaps is rarely due to short muscles - usually it's
just a motor-skill issue. So practice those pull-aparts, and anytime
you're pressing (vertically or horizontally) remember that the bar
should move over the smallest possible range of motion, not the
longest. This is accomplished through scapular seating.
Oh, by the way, were you wondering
why I'm advocating this skill in the first place? It's because the
shoulder is in its most protected position when the scapulae are
kept snug to the torso during loaded activities.
Good luck with these two skills, and
if you find yourself perplexed, follow that link below and post
your questions!
About The Author
His colleagues call him an iconoclast,
a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The
Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches
miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled
in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’
methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious
results. His counter-intuitive approach and self-effacing
demeanor have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY
Show and The CBS Early Show.
Currently, Charles competes
in Olympic-style weightlifting on the master’s circuit,
with a 3-year goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
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