Barbell Shrugged - Top Accessories Movements and Core Training for Gaining Size and Strength w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash - Barbell Shrugged #445

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

In today’s episode, the crew walks through their favorite accessory movements for building size and strength.   Accessory Core training Should you put your spine under load in flexion Can you combine cardio and accessories for strength Why You need more sprinting Why the good morning is the best for low back strength Core concepts of hypertrophy And more…   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Travis Mash on Instagram   TRAINING PROGRAMS   One Ton Challenge   One Ton Strong - 8 Weeks to PR your snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench press   20 REP BACK SQUAT PROGRAM - Giant Legs and a Barrell Core   8 Week Snatch Cycle - 8 Weeks to PR you Snatch   Aerobic Monster - 12 week conditioning, long metcons, and pacing strategy   Please Support Our Sponsors   “Save $20 on High Quality Sleep Aid at Momentous livemomentous.com/shrugged us code “SHRUGGED20” at checkout.   US Air Force Special Operations - http://airforce.com/specialops   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   PRx Performance - http://prxperformance.com use code “shrugged” to save 5%   http://kenergize.com/shrugged use Shrugged10 to save 10%   ------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-ep445 ------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Snatch, clean jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench press. I have to give some shout outs to some really cool members on the One Ton Challenge program. Dixie Garber out of CrossFit Harrisonburg. She just PR'd her deadlift by 10 pounds. 335 pounds and that's from a 2 inch deficit. She's smashing it. We're about 16 weeks in with her. And then my dude Tim Duvall who I actually used to coach when I owned 16 weeks in with her. And then my dude, Tim Duvall, who I actually used to coach when I owned my gym in San Diego, is back on the program. And he just hit a 475-pound

back squat lifetime PR. Snatch 200, another PR. Clean 275. And another PR. Jerk, 280. And another PR. Bench press, 280. Another PR. Deadlift, 490. Another PR. Hitting 2,000 pounds.

Still a little ways to go because there's so much left in the tank. But, dude, 2,000 pounds. You hit the one- challenge so rad um we are talking about getting strong again today accessories of core training um we're heading back out to mashes in i want to say two weeks i'm gonna film another eight ten shows on just getting super jacked uh you guys love these things. So make sure you reach out to me on Instagram at Anders Varner. Screenshot the show. And I want to thank our sponsors over at Organifi for putting this radical green drink in everyone's hand.

The green, the red, and the gold. You guys love them. I love them. I had two today because I was at a chili cook-off. I was the head judge. Trust me, when you're at a chili cook-off, no one's getting you the vegetables. I was at the Dixie Deer Classic, and I was the head judge of the chili cook-off. It was so freaking amazing.

But yeah, no vegetables. Not the vegetables I need. No greens. No one's handing out the salads that's why I have my delicious green, red and gold drinks from Organifi to get all the micronutrients that I need to make

this body work you can get yours too and save 20% Organifi.com forward slash shrugged I really enjoy having these things around me all the time. You should get over there. Save the cash, the green, the red, and the gold. Organifi.com forward slash shrugged.

Save 20%. And if you want to get super jacked, super strong, just like my friends Dixie and Tim, setting all the PRs, get over to OneTonChallenge.com forward slash join. OneTonChallenge.com forward slash join. And you can get your first week of training for $1. OneTonChallenge.com forward slash shrugged. Or not OneTonChallenge. OneTonChallenge.com forward slash join.

One week, $1. Let's get into the show. There we go. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner. To my right, Mr. Doug Larson. Oh, yeah. Coach Travis Mash.

To the left. Yo, yo. Barbell Stories is on the camera. Look at the man. William Bro. Dude, we got to start branding your last name Bro. That's so much cooler. We're in Louisville, North Carolina.

That's where Mash Elite Performance is. At least for a little while till he goes to lenore ryan bringing it there bringing it to the university kids let's go um today we're kind of doing part two of how to get super jacked but we're talking accessory movements are going to walk through the hip the knee the shoulders and then we're going to talk about how little your core actually matters and being strong which is exciting we're going to start there how little your core actually matters in being strong, which is exciting. We're going to start there, actually, because that's where we were right before we turned the mics on. That sounds controversial. Controversial. People are going to be interested.

I've always lived under the assumption that your core really matters a lot when it comes to having a big squat. And then Mr. Travis Masters dropped the nugget that you don't really use them that much. So training them needs to be thought of a little bit differently. Well, you got to think of what is the core. That's the key right there. It's like, yes, the core matters, but not the core is what most people think. Like abdominals, not much at all.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what the science says. Mainly it's just the spinal extensors. You got to think about what you're doing. If we would just slow down for a minute and think about what we're trying to do. Does that make sense? If I'm trying to see an extension, what does that? It's the spinal extensors.

The abdominals are in front of you. There's no way it pulls you to extension. It would be impossible that that pulls that up. Your spinal erectors are also a very significant part of your quote-unquote core. Right.

That's the key. People think core, they think six-pack abs. No, no. It's all the muscles that surround your torso. Right. And many of those muscles are your spinal erectors. And if you're squatting and you're bent over, those are going to be by far more activated than any of your other core muscles. They might be activated a little bit, like your obliques and your rectus abdominis, et cetera, but not like they would be if you were doing hanging leg raises

or farmer's walks or one-arm farmer's walks especially, et cetera. I totally agree. I would dare say that the spinal extensors are more of the core than your abdominals is what I would say. Because if you think about the core keeping the spine neutral, if you think about what it takes to the core, you know, keeping the spine neutral, if you think about, you know, what it takes to, like, you know, keep your pelvis in a neutral state, which is I think is what most people think when they think core is all of this.

Everything that supports the spine and pelvis. I would say the spinal extensors are by far more important than the abs. I would say the abs are not very important except getting out of bed. If you really think about what, you know, we talk about going into flexing, the really only time you do that, I mean, maybe a few other times, getting off the floor, but it's when you get out of bed if you really think about what you know we talk about going into flexing the really only time you do that i mean maybe a few other times getting off the floor but is when you get out of bed otherwise you're trying to stay upright and so work your spinal extensions yeah do you do much uh core accessory work oh yeah do you oh totally what a savage dude like being the thing i hate the most, actually. I'm like, I can't breathe.

I'm holding myself in place. If you're siloing what's important to weightlifting or powerlifting, then you really have a very small number of movements that you're really doing. Like if you're a powerlifter, like you're bending forward for two movements, and that's about all the variety you're really getting. Yeah. But if you're, in my case, i fought mma for a long time wrestling jujitsu oh yeah well totally different you have no idea what position you're gonna end up in those sports

like you got to be strong at every angle and so um so i don't like overly prioritize core training versus any any of the rest of my strength training uh but i but i definitely think it deserves an equal role compared to like my upper body training my lower body training it's a big factor anytime i think about what i'm doing for core training i always just work on stabilizing more than flexion side bends totally um i think about it way more of like a unilateral unilateral like farmer carry suitcase carry absolutely Overhead walking lunges. Awesome. Done.

That's like the core training finisher for the day. And the stuff I feel like is way more athletic. Anytime I think about the core training specific, I just try to be more athletic in whatever I'm doing. So if you're doing a pull-up, like pushing away from the barbell at the top, or not the barbell, but the pull-up bar at the top so you're getting as far away and now all of a sudden or doing staying ice cream yeah ice cream makers on the rings those are always fun yeah super hard um but the more athletic you

could make the movement the tighter your abs have to be to be able to complete the movement but it's not really like doing a sit-up or a crunch. You're just really stabilizing as much as possible. That way you have the connectivity from your feet to your hands, your brain, whatever you need. Well, Rod, I went down the anti-rotation, anti-lateral flexion, anti-extension, et cetera, route there for a long time. Stuart McGill, Mike Boyle, all the people that really promoted that heavily

over the last 10, 15 years now. And I think it's a really good idea to really take in that line of thinking because there's a lot of application there from a sports performance standpoint and then also from a spine longevity health standpoint. And really, those people are mostly talking to the people that think that you should just do 600 crunches a day and that's how you get six-pack abs and whatnot. But I think I took it too far for a long time where I wasn't doing any actual concentric, eccentric contractions,

which I think, again, jiu-jitsu, MMA, et cetera, you need to do those things. If you're going to throw a knee, you need to have flexion. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Yeah. Yeah, and you need – like if you're kicking somebody, you need to know how to have hip flexion with a neutral spine at the same time where you're not compensating and all that.

But I think – I mean, look at gymnasts. Like gymnasts by far have some of the most well-rounded, strongest, most stable cores out of any athlete of any category. And they do a lot of strict hanging leg raises and things like that. I think there really is a place for those, in my opinion. I think when CrossFit first started, nobody was doing strict anything. It was all kipping toes to bar and whatnot. And now, years later, a lot of people have come around to to including strict

hanging leg raises in in their training amongst a million other things you know i would the only thing that of all the crossfit movements the only one that makes me like question and i'm not saying it's wrong is like the ghd setups and the way that people go back you know you go into hybrid extension into hyperflexion you know i just can't see where that's healthy. It's not necessary for almost anything except for competing in CrossFit. I know. Being part of the sport, I don't think it's good for you. I've really jacked myself up.

I'm not saying I actually tore all of my abs, but it felt like, and it took me about six weeks, maybe eight weeks to recover to the point where uh i did 150 of them in a day and it it basically crippled me like i i could not do any other movement for six to eight weeks like i was legitimately injured um and it was because i mean one there was way too many reps way too long a range of motion you're way too strong you're just hip flexors everything and so as just like not capable of handling that and I had to go all the way back to like a static hollow body hold create stability and then I was

like able to start moving but it was like the slowest healing process of any injury I've ever had of any just setback in training, because you don't realize how important all of that stuff is until it's just all shredded. I've heard a lot of people getting rhabdo from that, too. Here's the two things I would say that concern me. I'm not telling people not to do them, but here's my concern. One, I've heard a lot of people getting rhabdo from it.

That's from the crazy rep schemes that they do, which is the one i've heard a lot of people getting rhabdo from it that's from the the crazy rep schemes that they do which is you could say that for a lot of things most people aren't used to high tension yeah um under under that at that range of motion doing in full dynamic in full global extension high speed eccentrics high high deceleration like where your muscles all the way stretched and just never had tension at that which brings me to second makes people very sore. It's where it originates, which is in the lumbar spine. So you are really, I think, playing with fire when you go to such extreme hyperextensions, extreme.

Most people blow right past that range of motion where if you're doing them and you start to feel that low back kind of twinge tweak, I'll just blow through it. No big deal. That is where you get some seriously nasty injuries. I'll raise my hand. You can't see it on the radio right now, but I've been there. If you're taking CrossFit, there has to be, and I think they are.

I think they're really doing a good job of saying this is CrossFit for health and this is CrossFit for sport. If you're going to do the sport, I don't know of any sport that's truly healthy. MMA is sure as heck not healthy. Not good for you. Powerlifting, I mean, a lot of my friends are already dead. It's not healthy. But, like, so you've got to separate it.

So I wouldn't take if the coaches out there listening would just say, if a 40-year-old accountant, I don't know why, I always go with a 40 year old accountant comes into your gym very desk bound do you want to snatch maybe if he's the one in a million who just happens to have that great mobility you know just

in his genetics or would you want to do the GHD I mean I wouldn't but maybe there's a case we're speaking in generalities here for the most part. Like, for the most part, at a minimum, you want to show up and just be like, okay, well, we could do these things, but let's check a few things first. You know, like, if you just throw someone in there

and they don't have very good range of motion on something like a GHD setup and you're like, no, no, no, go all the way back. You got to touch your hands to the floor. And they're like a foot and a half away. And you're like, no go all the way back you gotta touch touch your hands to the floor and they're like a foot and a half away and you're like no further further it's like it's like it'd be like someone's squatting and they they get down to roughly parallel they start rounding their back and you're like no no no full depth all the way down down down down on ass to grass and then by time they get ass to grass they're they're all the way rounded over in a shitty position well

that's that's a bad idea you gotta apply that same logic to something like GHD sit-ups. Stats, anything. I think the best ab exercises I've ever done in my entire life is when I'm on a soccer field or on a football field and someone is chasing me. Because the only way that you're going to run is to stabilize your core as tight as possible. And now all of a sudden you've got your lungs and your abdomen. You're breathing as hard as you can and stabilizing as tight as you can.

And the next day you wake up sore as shit. And you just can't get there and feel that level of, like, breathing and tension in your core unless someone, in a way, is kind of chasing you. It's hard to get to that level of intensity but i feel like that if you if you ever wonder like what the role of your core actually is in creating stability right in your spine the best way to do it is just to go run because you'll start to feel like okay well if i were to let go now you're running your low back's exposed you got this flexion in your core it's no you'll slow down yeah it's a bad it's a bad place to be when you're running and then create that tension and all of a sudden you can feel yourself bracing yes and all that stuff's going to transfer over to understanding how to squat and snatch with bracing everything

and breathing yes um sprinting is great he's he hit the nail on the head because sometimes people forget that the diaphragm is actually a muscle and so the if you want to work the diaphragm go sprint yeah yeah you're getting sore it's partially your your diaphragm is actually a muscle. And so if you want to work the diaphragm, go sprint. Yeah. Yeah, you're getting sore, and it's partially your diaphragm is getting sore. Yeah. So now you're working the muscle actually is responsible for respiration. Yeah.

So, like, sprinting is something I feel like. Martin Rooney talks a lot about how every human should sprint because we were so designed to sprint. Yeah. I feel like that's one thing that will keep you young. Yeah. If you run sprints systematically, you know, once or twice a week, every week, and you just keep doing it, like, you'll just stay younger.

And you'll probably be more jacked. I mean, you know, look at every sprinter. They're always so jacked. And, you know, that brings me to one point before we go forward. It's like when people say, I want to feel like I did when i was x age what'd you do when you're that x age well i sprinted i jumped to play sports but what are you gonna do now well i'm gonna jog and i'm right it's not adding up like go do what you used to do and do bodybuilding jogging is the biggest waste of time i've ever seen in my whole life and i go sort of jogging i will go for a long run i was

just telling dog i want to go run 22 miles i just found this new trail i just want to go do it i'm definitely not sprinting the whole thing but yo when you see people jogging around the neighborhood you're like dude you're like walking fast and calling it a workout like yeah sometimes sometimes when i am standing on one side of the road and the car that's coming lets me go by, I'll act like I'm jogging across the street just to be friendly. I feel like that's the pace that most people go running at. Seriously. And you're like, what are you doing? You're waiting for the car.

You're trying to be polite to everybody else by not making them question how little they do in their life. Like, I'm jogging, but you keep sitting on the couch. I'm only 1% ahead of you. It would be better for you just to walk fast. It wouldn't be so much up and down pounding. All you're doing is kind of going. You're not doing shit, man. Walk fast.

It'll feel better in your body, and you'll probably burn more calories. You'll probably go faster if you walk faster. Yeah, right? I did go on for a trail run once a week. Trail runs are phenomenal. Trail runs are the best. You get outside. You get nature in the woods.

It's pretty. Oftentimes, I'll run, and then I'll do it where I basically am just jogging casually, and then I'll run as far and as fast as I can for about 10 or 15 seconds, and then I'll just jog as far and as fast as i can for about 10 or 15 seconds and then i'll just kind of jog casually until i feel more normal and then i'll just kind of run very very informal intervals like that that sounds fun pick a mailbox sprint to it yeah i do that that's if i run that's my that's my go-to me too if i have nothing to do i like well i'll just start walking like you know what i'm gonna run to that mailbox as fast as I can. That mailbox might be 20 yards away.

It might be 100 yards away. It might be around the corner. And then I go, okay, I'm tired. Got to the mailbox. Then I walk a little bit. It's the best. And you can always change it up. You can always have different speeds, different intervals.

You just pick a mailbox and roll. I guess anyway, probably get back to accessory work. We talked about gaining muscle. We went on core and then on cardio. I know. But I could definitely, since now I'm the cardio king, I'm doing bike all the time. I kind of did cardio for the first time,

so I could easily go down this rabbit hole. It's so fun. I can't believe I just admitted that. Edit that out. I think that sprinting is one of the best accessories you can do for everything. If you're on a prowler, yes. Like if you're on a prowler and you're sprinting, it's awesome. I seriously throw my daughter in her little thing, and that's my prowler push. Like 10 of those a night.

She's like a little slave driver. She won't let me stop. More, more. I'm like, no. Done. I'm tired. With hypertrophy, you can say getting jacked. I like sled pushing and sled pulling because you're going to get the metabolic stress.

You're going to feel that pump, but it's not going to damage you because there's not a lot of eccentric contractions going on. So I like it, especially towards the end of, say my athletes right now, the majority of them are like it's game time. They're either like three weeks or eight weeks out. They're either getting ready for junior worlds or the rest of them are doing Junior Nationals, the majority.

And even Jordan, my senior, is really good. He's getting ready. He's going to do universities too, just to mop up. But I just, that was bad. Other competitors. It's truth. But anyway, but my point being is that I start to

prescribe like those, you know, that I start to prescribe that kind of conditioning or that kind of accessory work so that it won't crush them, that they're still staying in shape, that their work capacity is still staying, at least staying, but preferably continuing to rise. We're also just putting their body under a very rigorous environment, like pushing, pulling, all of that stuff. You have to build a ton of muscle. It's not your standard contraction, sitting in a squat, standing up.

But you're still creating an environment where being strong is mandatory for survival, which I think is overall, in a good strength program, the thing that you want to be doing the most is just how do you create an ecosystem where you have to be strong. And it's something that we, you you know i don't know why we don't talk about it more it just makes things fun and let me tell you this is like after this last quad this is my second Olympic quad that i've coached in i have watched people start to hate the sport so coaches if you don't least consider like making it fun for your athletes they're

probably not going to last your stud studs I'm talking about. Go do some sled pushes. Do some carries. Don't just snatch, clean jerk, squat, pull. They're going to lose their mind. I saw it. I saw an athlete in Thailand lose her mind. She will never lift again. I have no doubt

she will never be back. She lost her mind. She's like, I'm done. I'm done with this sport. I saw it happen. Then I was like. At Worlds? At Worlds. She competed. It's a long way to go to lose it.

She competed. It didn't go well. And she's a sweet girl, you know. And, like, she's not even one that I'm close with, but I really like her. And she was like, I'm done. Yeah. She's like, I'm not. It's like, so you're going to get ready for the American Open?

Absolutely not. Well, when you get on the prowler, too, not only is it fun, but you get to go hang out with your boys. You're not pushing a prowler by yourself. You're out there with your bros. You're out there with your training partners. And you just look at it and you go, we've got to make a game up to make this thing happen.

It's either loading it up. Yeah. I'm going to go until you quit. And then now you've got a fun game. Now you're a kid again. Now you're back out playing. That's a great idea. Now you're back out playing. How much do you program, especially for your elite people,

you know, glute ham raises, reverse hyper, or even more obscure things like calf raises or, like, forearm training? Like, do you do any of that type of training? Definitely grip training. I wouldn't say necessarily, like, forearms to have huge forearms, but definitely, like, grip, which will inevitably be forearms, especially for, like, Sean Rigsby. He is so strong and moves so well for a big guy where the weak link might be

his grip. So we do a lot of grip work, mainly specifics like carries, like pinch grips, and some just regular. I love my favorite forearm training is like stick your hand in rice or or um rice or sand and open clothes open clothes yeah like our coach used to abuse us that's old school martial arts stuff right there oh yeah this is old school weightlifting because no this is ultra strict conditioning he used to put us this awful superset supersets sound fun right yeah it was not yeah i thought it was his body but we're gonna get a pump so he uses it for like mental

like abuse basically and so he would make us do this crazy like pull-up superseded with pull down yeah and he would put the weight on the bar on the on the pull downs he was in control and he would put weight you couldn't possibly do he's like if you go, you're starting completely over. I was an 18-year-old boy, and I cried like a girl. He's like, let go, Mash. I want you to let go. I'm like, oh. So then you get done. Probably we all have rhabdo, no doubt.

And he's like, you go do the? Yeah. And then you come back here. Let me check your forearms, and I'll tell you what you can be doing. So you're like – True. And you go to him. He's like, more. He's like – and then you're – I'm literally – I thought it was cool because, like, I was pumped for, like – I thought it was a pump.

Yeah. I was probably sick. But I was like, man, this is cool. I have a pump for four days. That's not normal. It feels awesome when you're done. like, man, this is cool. I have a pump for four days. That's not normal. It feels awesome when you're done. You feel your forearm. It's just fucking rock hard.

It feels awesome. That one vein runs through there. You heard Travis talk about this. If you've ever done really hardcore forearm training where you're doing very high reps, just endless gripping and squeezing, it is brutal brutal as far as like entering the pain cave goes. Oh, man. Like he taught us how to be tough. And he broke me off too because like earlier in the week he was like,

it was because I was a registered freshman. He's like, you got your first super set coming Friday and all in my brain because I was already, you know, I'd been lifting already. Yeah. I just assumed it was just like a fun get a pump, you know. He's like, oh, I'm going to break you off, man. I was like, you can't break me. I just, I learned a lesson.

I learned such a valuable, I'm still afraid of him. I'm a 46-year-old man. If he were to walk in the room, I'd be like, yeah. He's like, you can't break me, old man. I was just kidding. It was bad. He came after you, dude. Oh, it was, old man. I was just kidding. It was bad. He came after you. Oh,

it was bad. But then I love that guy. Mike Ken is his name, by the way. He's a great, he just, I needed a man like that in my life.

Guy's out of control. But, he broke me off. He taught me, he broke me. He broke me. I was his bitch. You know,

I'm going to be honest, after that. Anyway. In the last episode, we were talking about how to get strong. We went through the big six lifts. A lot of rep ranges, so go back and check that one out. bitch you know i'm gonna be honest after that yeah anyway uh in the last episode we talking about how to get strong we uh we went through the big six lifts a lot of rep ranges so go back and check that one out if you uh have not already but going into accessories how do you break some of this down um from hip to knee um shoulders we already talked about the core and a lot of the

exercise we're going to do there but um what are the favorite kind of accessories to go i mean we're already past squat dead bends snatch clean and jerk um and then getting into the accessories and the pieces that go on um putting on size muscle we look at it from a couple different ways you know you have the the actual the movements we're going to get a lot of like concentric eccentric contractions so like plate front raises plate lateral raises um we do then there's a difference in that versus like overhead carries you know we do a lot of that morgan is convinced that he does the bamboo overhead carries and maybe with some dangling kettlebells he's convinced that's helped him the most of anything because a long time ago he would clean anything and his jerk was like a big 50-50.

Now his jerk is as beautiful as it's clean. He relates it completely to that. We do a lot of things. It's hard to say. His shoulders are strong as hell. Getting there. His legs, I always tell him. I used to say his legs were like a grown man and his upper body is like a little boy pre-pubit.

He's getting there now, though. But now he's in puberty, I'm saying. He's in puberty. He's not quite as a grown man yet, but he's getting there. Do you think if you sent him to a gymnastics gym with a real gymnast and all they worked on was handstands, that he would make good progress there? Maybe. He's really good at that.

He can do handstand walks for days. He can do handstand push-ups for days. I just don't think it's absolute as strong as down. Maybe. He does because he started in CrossFit. When I met him, he's like, hey, I really love CrossFit. I want to do both. Deep down, I'm like, yeah, right, whatever.

Yeah, do what you want. But I knew eventually because the way he's built, he's built for weightlifting more. He's going to be big, you know. But he can do strict muscle-ups. Yeah. He can do all the upper body. But maybe if we went there, he would do even more. Yeah.

I think when people are putting their programs together, the accessory piece is oftentimes the most confusing and picking the right movements to do. If there was a process of simplifying what an accessory movement is, when you look at the clean, you can basically break those pieces down into all of the parts that go into that. So finding the lifts, snatch lift off if you struggle with your first pull. Second pull, getting things to the hang, getting to the power position,

and finding those areas is there a way that you're prioritizing maybe like strengths versus weaknesses sure I always like to think about combining the two I always like doing things like if I'm doing like a three position clean

I love cleaning from below the knee I hate taking things off the floor so if I can get if I can get, if I can put complexes together and build my accessory plans off of things I love, coupling it with things that I don't love. I've never heard you say that,

but that's a great idea. It always makes it more fun because I always have great success even though I'm working on stuff that I suck at. So it'll be, for example, it'll be like three snatch or three clean liftoffs to below the knee, and then I'll take it on the eccentric to below the knee and do the clean. So it's like a three plus one, but I get to do the thing that I really love to do

coupled with the things that I really hate to do that I need to work on and it creates a a nice way a nice little story for me to to go and work on the stuff that I need to work on I think that's great I think you can use um like if you can identify you know this in a pool if you're talking about clean or snatch you know you've got the back standing extension you know that's one you got the back standing extension. You know, that's one. You've got the hips, two. And three would be knee extension. Those are the three main, you know, groups of muscles and three joints that you really got to worry about. I mean, really the back has multiple joints. But, you know, we just look at it as one in reference to talking about accessory. So, like, you can do what you're saying.

So you can do it with cleans. You do a lot of isometric contractions really strengthen the joints at specific angles but you can also say look your back is weak and then you can use accessory movements such as like rows but preferably i i think i would say that um good mornings rdl do you do a lot of good mornings every single human on my team does good morning i think every loading that loading the hip and low back almost from that position. It's the entire back because we use the safety squat bar, so it puts the bar out in front of you. Even more.

So really the entire spine is being worked. Yeah, I feel like that's a tough one for many people. Yes. The ability to maintain tension in the glutes and keep a stable spine is very tough when you're loading from the top. Yeah. I always actually back it down to an rdl because it's the same movement it's just a different loading pattern and keeping the bar in tight but you're not gonna yeah with an rdl it's not going to work the you know the spinal extensors the what the way i'm at it's going to yeah but it's not going to work it near as much as a good morning. Totally. I would rather start very light on a good morning and, like, slowly over time, like

a year, work up. It was, in my career as a powerlifter, it was a huge changing point for me. Like, you know, when I first, you know, I think when I first did good mornings, I was like at a 600 squat, you know, which is, you know, pretty good. But my back, it was, that's what was giving. Yeah. Most powerlifters. It's always the back. It it's always that it's always like top abs and then round with the back so then what you know i started doing the good mornings i started super light like 135

pounds then over time a long time i worked to where i could do sets with 405 for five strict good mornings that took my squat from sixes to sevens yeah no doubt 100 that's what did it and that was the only accessory i added and so but then there was a point then that was a time it was vogelpool and i were battling and he was the king and i'm after him so i'd watch a video of him doing he would do crazy good mornings like six something so i got to where i would do over 600 good mornings that's where i went too far so there's a biological tipping point for every movement and that's what we all need to recognize especially with accessories there's no you're not competing so what i beat him in in a good morning and then i hurt my back that was dumb so like you know know what your biological tipping point is

and like once you get to like you know i was like at that point, I'm like 60%. I'm doing reps with over 60% of my true 1RM back squat. That was enough. You know, that was plenty. That made my back was super stable. So whether it was 700 or 800, when I walked out, there was no flexion happening. Yeah, do you actually do them for lower reps? Like I've always only done good mornings in 8 to 12, just significantly lighter.

It's interesting because that position to me has always felt really awkward, but RDLs have always felt really good. I don't know if it's something just with my limbs or torso or whatever it is, but good mornings have always felt very strange to me. And I probably never put all the time into it that I need to. Based on the things you've told me in the last two days, if I were your coach, I would for sure do good mornings because your pull is your weak spot.

Shit. And, like, now you're telling me that good mornings feel awkward and you don't like them. Yeah. Tells me there's a weak spot in your back. And so I would for sure have you doing good mornings. Now I'm on it. How do you progress me on it?

Normally we start with literally 25% to 27% of your back squat, so that low. So, like, you know, I'm teaching you to get used to the motion, getting your back to start to adapt. But, you know, there won't be a lot of adaptation until later. But I got to slowly working it because it is the low back. And, like, we're silly to think that that's not a delicate spot. Yeah. However, if you do it over time slowly and prepare the body properly, because it is the low back. And we're silly to think that that's not a delicate spot. However, if you do it over time slowly and prepare the body properly,

you learn to maintain a neutral spine. You learn how to hinge properly. Over time, it's the same thing. Matter of fact, I think that was the thing that, you know, I told you I hurt my back really badly, and they told me. With the box squats. Yeah. And so the good mornings was one of the things I started doing that actually helped me to never get hurt again.

Yeah. Well, in that documentary, Lou even talks about how he thought his back was unbreakable. And you can see him bending over with safety squat bar. I would agree. Good mornings for hundreds of pounds and tons of reps. When I see somebody in that, like, bent over squat position here and just basically squeezing their butt coming to full hip extension but only moving their back up um there's like a training age piece to it that i i'm like when i see louis do it i imagine if i saw you do it i'd be like they should totally do that exercise that

looks great right but getting somebody to mentally like go from a closed hip to an open hip with weight on their back is such a far progression in understanding kinesthetic awareness of where your body's at and how to squeeze your butt to get to hip extension. That's the biggest piece that I struggle with when I'm coaching or talking to people about it. I feel like an RDL is simple. In a way, because you're loading and the gravity is pulling that bar straight down. It keeps the balance over your midfoot. And now everybody has a better understanding of kind of how that movement works.

And it very much mimics a deadlift, which most people are comfortable doing. When you put it on your back, all of a sudden, how far back do the hips go? Because the bar is loaded on your shoulders. I'm really good at cheating that movement, too, where I do this fun little trick where I just roll the bar down my back. Oh, yeah. I imagine with the safety squat bar, I don't get to do that. Now you shortened that flexor moment, and that defeated the purpose.

That's why safety squat bar, there's no rolling. Yeah, there's no rolling the bar down. But, yeah, I feel like there's a real training edge to the good morning and being very safe with those and probably getting into the 12 to 15 rep range with just a 45-pound bar on your back is a great place to start just to actually be able to segment that hip joint and be able to feel what getting to a 45-degree angle

or lower in that position feels like. You see a lot of people do good mornings and I'm like, I mean, what are you doing? But, yeah, like being able to do it a really – you know, a lot of people can't hinge too. Like you'd be surprised. I mean, no, you wouldn't. You guys are coaches.

It's really harder than most people think to teach a hinge. So if you go to do a good morning with a rookie, someone who can't hinge well, you're definitely setting them up for failure. I'm really talking now about like people who are two or three years in, athletes, if they can snatch a clean and jerk, they should, in theory, be able to, over time, do a pretty good good morning and definitely add a lot of mass to your back and, obviously, your butt and hamstrings.

But your back will for sure grow. The spinal erectors will just, like, thicken up like crazy. Which is what, that's the ticket for weightlifting and powerlifting. You know you see people catching a clean, and every time it just bends them over. Like, safety squat, you know, good mornings is a great way to counter that. Even if you don't have a safety squat bar, it's not in the world. You know, a high bar good morning would work too.

Safety squats is a little bit better just because it distributes things a little bit. I think with safety squat bar too, you can move those handles out, and it creates a better position here. Yeah. Instead of, like, just down where you're staring at the ground. I just, the way it likes, you know, like, if you're really wanting to put stress on the spine, which this is one time I'm actually trying to, like, the further, you know,

the further up and out that it gets, the longer that flexor moment, the more stress it puts on the spine. Yeah. When you think about the spine, do you ever – I love incorporating like Jefferson curls. I don't necessarily recommend them for a lot of people. Right. But do you do a lot of loaded spinal flexion? I don't.

You know, it's just mixed reviews. And so like I err on the side of what Stuart McGill has told me. And I'm just – he's my go-to. And here's why. It's because of my experience, what he did for me. I feel like my back is unbreakable. I feel like I can do anything to my back. Not my hips so much, but my back is because of him

and because of what I did with my core. I feel like you cannot hurt me here. So I err on the side of him. Even there's times he'll say that if you really work, and I know a lot of people aren't agreeing with me even my friend aaron you know squat university doesn't necessarily agree with what i'm saying here but like if you do you know things in a neutral spine like always even when you get into flexion you've prepared your body more for being in flexion you know it's

like um sir mcgill would say that the spine is like you know you start your life with a full glass of sand and when you get to the end of that glass like you're hurt so you're pouring out every time you do something that's a bad movement pattern that's putting too much stress on the spine you're pouring it out so i'm going to go completely against you i think i do them all the time and i love them i'm a huge fan of jefferson girls i um so the way that i think about it whether stewart mcgill would i'm with you i'm crushing me yeah whether he would crush me on this thought process or not is there's so many tiny little muscles and tendons and connective tissue in there so what i want to do when i'm doing them one i move so slowly to be

able to feel the segmentation of the spine as you're moving down, tucking your chin, and literally being able to feel each vertebrae kind of slowly bend and fold over. I mean, Jill Miller, I think you guys did something with her in a yoga class. But doing it loaded, I feel like I'm preparing myself for getting into bad positions and still being strong in those bad positions. I'm not taking – I think the most I ever typically will go up to is like on a weekly basis somewhere in the 95 to 135-pound range, going down to a deficit.

So with a barbell or with two heavy kettlebells, dumbbells, whatever it is. But in the spinal flexion, i feel like i'm able to strengthen all the tiny little things that help me be a lot stronger when the inevitable happens which is me getting into a bad position whether it's in a squat somewhere like something gets off i'm still strong enough that i don't feel like i'm gonna like blow my back out if the barbell gets a little sideways on me it's only it's only really a bad position if you're under way too much load to maintain that position without tearing something yeah like if you're if you're reaching down to like to tie your shoes like you'll probably round your back but your back is plenty strong to to handle that type of loading because there's no weight on your back you're not doing good mornings with a

round back you're just tying your shoe so i think with the jefferson curl if you if you're loading it appropriately if you're if you're starting your jefferson curls with a 22 pound kettlebell well your back's probably gonna be just fine yeah and then you're you're building up from there and you're never you're most people are not ever going to be able to get to 400 pounds yeah on the jefferson curl like maybe if you're like really, really, really good, maybe you get to like body weight. That'd be really heavy. I don't think it's necessary to get to body weight,

but you probably could without hurting yourself. But if you look at it from a population level, if you had 100,000 people try to get to body weight, you're going to have a significant number of them that just don't feel quite right about it. They're back to the start hurting eventually because they're going to get achy. Maybe they don't blow a disc, some people probably will.

But it's just not necessary to go that heavy on Jefferson Crows. Another piece that I really love about it is that I get to feel my body relieving tension. So I'm actually strengthening at the end range instead of like when I'm always squatting or I'm always dead lifting or always cleaning, you're always in this like super tense position to stabilize everything as tight as possible

so you can lift the most weight. And then when I do Jeffersons, I'm actually strengthening by lengthening everything that's in my back. So I'm able to get to an in-range of motion. I can feel the breathing. And then instead of forcing myself down, which I think is where a lot of people get into trouble doing stuff like that, where they're like forcing this pass, you can just breathe your way into a better position. So it's a lot of stretching and just kind of a loaded stretch where you're just taking your body to an end range. I'm with it. You breathe through your abdomen.

You release a lot of that tension and now all of a sudden instead of being in just this static state with a super tight torso super tight core everything needs to be under tension now all of a sudden you can kind of put you can put your body under load in a loose and eliminate a lot of the tension that's stored in your body he would you say i mean like i'm going luckily i'm about i'm going to visit him with sean rigsby we're going up there he's invited us to come up. He's going to look at Sean's back because he's prepared. Sean wants to go one more quad, but he's older. So I think he's totally capable. We've just got to be smart. But I'll ask him more specifically.

But he's often mentioned the spine as being like a piece of plastic. So, yeah, you can do it. But every time you do it, it's like, whoop. Totally. You do it again. Yeah. You do it again, whoop. And then the capacity. Like that card analogy.

Yeah. You know, like, here's what I say. Here's why I'm going to err on this. I'm going to definitely, like, agree to disagree, and I'm okay that you guys do what you want. But, like, it's like the one thing on my body that's, you know, since that one injury and since I started listening to him that's never hurt me is my back because I've done everything he said.

I just got to go with him. You know? Yeah. That's why this is so rad. It's all context dependent. It's like what do you gain from doing this thing? Yeah. Like what is the risk?

Like if the risk is I don't go to the Olympics and I would have otherwise and this thing really is probably not going to help me snatch or clean and jerk more. It's definitely not going to help snatch or clean and jerk. Then there's really no reason to do it. Right. If you're just a normal person, you have no competitions, you're not like – it's not a part of your livelihood. You're not making your money on training,

and you want to incorporate something new into your training, you're doing it in a smart way, and if it ever hurts, you stop doing it, then I think it's totally fine. Well, then adding in things like strongman stone carries where you have to be strong in a flex position to be able to pick up the stone. Correct. But you don't move.

You don't go. You're bracing in a single position. You're bracing. You're not going. You're staying there. No, if you're picking it up and putting it over that barbell, you're definitely moving here. You're going to get the rock, and you're going to be here. You're not going to get to here with the rock.

No, you're not going to be here. You might pull into more extension, but you're not going to be actively loading a flexion. You're not going to get to here with that you might pull into more extension but you're not going to be actively loading a flexion moment if you're already even if you're going from like hyper extended to neutral if you're forcing a flexion moment then there's some risk there if you're going into more extension then

you don't have quite the same risk at all I actually have never had any back problems and I credit a lot of it to being able to move my spine under load I'm good with that I actually it never had any back problems, and I credit a lot of it to being able to move my spine under load. I'm good with that. Yeah. I actually, it's really funny because as you were saying these things, I'm like, well, I do that all the time,

and I feel like I could say the same thing. Not that you're wrong by any means. That's why this is fun. But, yeah, not only do I do Jefferson curls very regularly, loaded somewhere between 95 and 35 for, like, reps three to five ish, probably on a weekly basis. But I also try to do them at weird angles, not just flexing here, but to the side. I try and do like a lot of just general bending and maybe you should or shouldn't. I don't know.

It probably depends. I'll find out more when I go there. There's some questions, you know, I want to ask because I've heard people say that he said something on the contrary. But he's been in my gym, and he did not say, you know, that. He was there still. He's definitely the expert. And I will agree with this. You know, if you think about athletics and you think about fighting or anything,

like if you want to create a lot of force, the more tension that you can create around the spine, the more proximal stiffness will definitely lead to distal performance, speed, and power. I don't know. I think a lot of it probably is goal-specific too. If you're specifically interested, and he trains a lot of MMA guys. MMA powerlifters. Yeah, weightlifters that are trying to pick up 1,000 pounds off the ground. Specifically to that, the goal is to create as much tension as possible in the musculature and have as stiff of a back as possible.

I feel like for me, I'd like to be a little bit more fluid in the way I move. I see. So it becomes a relatively important. You're not going to catch wall balls the exact same way every single time. So if you can create a core and stabilize your spine and suboptimal positions, to me it makes sense to spend just a little bit of time. This needs to be at the end of your workout, three to five reps, where you're almost just practicing relieving the tension that you created

throughout squatting and deadlifting and doing everything else that you did in your training session and then just go over and close your eyes and breathe a little bit with some weight on your back and now you can stretch everything in your back out and kind of tighten or create strength that in ranges of motion which you were you're treating it more like a stretch yeah then an assistance movement that you're using for hypertrophy purposes. If you're doing like five sets of ten heavy to failure for Jefferson curls, I'd be like, ah, that's a fucking horrible idea. You could do it once or twice, but eventually it's going to catch up to you. The weight that I use on it is maybe incredibly heavy for many people.

It might be incredibly light for some people, too. It totally depends on the person. He would say the one muscle not to stretch is your back like you know he doesn't like people to do toe touches he would rather you lay on your back and like use a belt to pull your foot to you yeah i've always stretched like that and that's the way i teach it but you know but there are people and i really respect like aaron squad university i a university. I mean, he's my boy, and he's not quite there. So, like, and here's what I've learned. All right. Is that just because he said it, even though I know he's so smart,

doesn't mean that things don't change, people don't find out new information. So I'm not closed-minded to it. I'm definitely going to look more into it for sure to get the truth, you know. I mean, I definitely think, like, all the stuff that Greg Cook and Boyle, that joint-by-joint thing, for sure, to get the truth. I definitely think all the stuff that Greg Cook and Boyle, that joint-by-joint thing, that they really in large part, I wouldn't say

they all the way got it from Stuart McGill, but he was so instrumental in those concepts. But I think Greg Cook and Boyle kind of packaged it up in an easy-to-digest way with the joint-by-joint concept. There really should be 90% of your core training. Like all the anti-extension, anti-lateral flexion, et cetera,

that type of training I think should be the bulk of your core training, even though we're talking about these little nuances and whatnot. For CrossFitter, I can see doing that for sure. Because you guys got to move in such weird ways. Even football players or baseball players, because you get caught in such weird ways, even football players or baseball players because you get caught in such awkward positions. But then he would say that it's a capacity thing and that you're capable of getting in that position,

that your spine is capable, always capable of moving. He said, but the more you do it, the more likely the injury is coming. So that's where I'm just – i don't know the research to say different than you know it's like i just need to out it's one of the things i hope to do my own research on too which is one i can't wait to be in a lab where i can be like let's find out is it true is it not you know but when you think about speed and power and like throws you're going to be doing that and create going from a place of like creating that dynamic piece and then going right into the tension but that's going to be in an awkward angle too but then it's unloaded yeah

do you do a lot of throws for accessory stuff yeah we i definitely do throws you know we do we go out there you know we have a little turf area out back where we we throw all kinds of you know we have if you see all kinds of little apparatuses you know to um you know to throw med balls to throw we actually have some shots we actually have some actually some shots for shot puts yeah you know i love going out in the grass and doing kettlebell throws yeah just like strong just like strong men do they throw it over the over the bar oh that's the best you just you just swing a kettlebell and you you jump and you throw it as high and as far as you can it lands in the grass yeah it's a kettlebell it's going to be just fine fucking kettlebells survive a nuclear blast like they'll they'll survive anything so you you throw it as high and as far as you can and it lands in the grass. It's a kettlebell. It's going to be just fine. Fucking kettlebells survive a nuclear blast.

Like they'll survive anything. So you can throw that in the grass. They're totally unscathed. We have a unique culture here now. You know, I know most people know about weightlifters. But we have some actually the best throwers in the country. You know, we have one kid, Mason Ellis, who's going to Wake Forest. You know, he's about to throw the shot.

This is in high school. He's about to throw the shot. This is in high school. He's about to go over 70. So he's, like, ridiculous. I love going out there and throwing with him just because it's like squatting with Morgan. It just, like, baffles me that he's able to throw something that far. When we were in Jamaica and we got to go to Usain Bolt's track, all the throwers were there, like, the first night. I love it. They're freaks. Those are the guys I don't want to hang out with the sprinters are super rad too but the throwers

they create so much power in that little tiny circle like the hammer yes i want to see people throw the hammer that's fast and athletic boy like i just feel like i would i posted a video the other day of like somebody throwing a hammer and for somehow i got caught and they went with the hammer. Oh, no. That would be me. Like in the air? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll show you.

I will show you. I remember I was watching it. You know, you get caught scrolling. You're like, oh, you know. Drew, I got my wife. Look at this. You know, yeah. How often are you spending time doing a single leg or like just lower lower half accessories

and just building that out now this you know like i've always done single leg work but talking to kelly starrett that's who really got me because like weightlifters and powerlifters you know end up loading the hip inflection all the time and And so doing – here's the key, though, is how you do it. So we do a lot of lunges and a lot of single leg work, but we don't – the key is maintaining a neutral spine, a vertical. You'll see people doing like a lunge and leaning over it, so everything is staying flexed. We're trying to reach complete extension in the back leg, hip.

So you stay vertical, so you're loading that hip in extension. It really helps with back. If you have a lot of back injuries, and we were like, we weren't getting injured, but a lot of people were starting to say, my back. And so we started implementing a bunch of not just lunges. We would do a lunge, and you hold it right at parallel for X amount of time. Obviously, that's got to increase over time with periodization. like right at parallel for X amount of time. Obviously, that's got to increase over time, you know, with periodization.

But it really ended a lot of back issues. So, like, Kelly Starrett, he has helped me. He is probably, in my experience, one of the most generous people ever. Like, when I got my hip replacement, I've never met him. He reached out to me. He's like, how's your hip going? I'm like, you know, it was was surprising such an awesome dude yeah and he sent me um the his electric stem is i'm totally blanked out uh his he is yeah you know he's a part of the company uh gopro or not gopro uh what's the mark pro mark yes he sent me that which i still i my MarkPro. It was – I couldn't even sleep, you know, because it was hurting.

It was like day three, and he sent me that. It was the first bit. You know, you're taking pain meds. This is not helping. It was his MarkPro. It was the first time I slept. It was crazy. I put it on, and I was like –

When I woke up, I was like, man, I messaged him like, you are the best. Yeah. Anyway, but he's helped my team so much. So shout out to kelly stirrett like every time i have any uh somebody like tweaked i will ask kelly i will ask um aaron from squat university and normally they always yeah help me i the last like big training or strength training cycle i did like probably six months or so, like very heavy lunges, walking lunges specifically. It's the best.

Were a massive part of the weekly cycle. Yes. Lots of high reps, lots of heavy. There was a turf in the gym that I was training at that was like 25 yards long. I would throw 225 on the bar and just walk forever. It's the best. And it gets you jacked. Yeah yeah if you want to gain some size from here down lunch yeah guaranteed dude you ever use safety bar in a rack for split squats

or rear fairly split squats you can have the safety bar on your back and you can grab the uprights to kind of like put yourself in position and then you can do force reps if you want to like you go down and kind of just like pull yourself through we definitely do some of the try i mean i don't obviously do exactly try phaseic just because we have you know so many components in weightlifting but i definitely put there was two girls who had no eccentric control they were just i mean they're super mobile which is what you want but they were both getting tweaked all the time because there was no eccentric control and so we put them through the tri-phasic not only did they start to develop stability,

but it definitely was one of the things that shot them up. Like Hannah is one of them, you know, the little Hannah who is like skyrocketed now. But, yeah, so, yeah. So shout out to my boy. Like even though we debate, like I was totally for, I'm totally for single leg work. I'm just for bilateral too. I think the single leg deadlift is the single most important exercise i think that i've ever found in my life uh from coaching uh doing it on but i have this fun little issue that pops up in my hip every once in a while i don't really know why it pops up

probably more stress or something sleeping sitting i don't really know one day i'll just yep probably and then i'll just turn a specific, and it's like ice pick into the hip. You know what fixes it right away? Yeah. Good set of single leg deadlifts, and I'm good for the next couple months. I don't even have to think about it. I totally agree. Do them heavy.

Do them light. Do them in a yoga class. What do they call that pose? Warrior three? Shh. I call it single leg. If you're watching on YouTube, that was a baller warrior three right there. Yeah, if you do single leg deadlifts with a landmine, that's my favorite variation.

Oh, yeah. It's the best. You can load it heavy, but there's still some stability there. But you also have good freedom to move however you feel like you need to move. So it's not too restrictive. It's a happy balance of everything. I tell you a good way to progress people is like have them put their foot their back foot against the wall so you get glute engagement you know and there's some stability so it makes the movement a

little bit easier but you know there's yeah there's an advantage to the glute you know stabilization while you're doing and then go away from that you know once they get the movement down you can get away from it and do the full motion i like actually doing it myself with my foot against the wall because I really press hard into the wall, and then I'm getting my isometric glute work. Yeah, and I know Fisher does it where he'll just slightly elevate his back foot, kind of like you would for a river elevator split squat, but just like he'll put it on a small box which is on his toe,

but he's still doing a single leg RDL. So he has some stability. But I like the idea of pushing into the wall. I haven't tried that yet. You could probably load that a little bit more, which eventually, you know, like if you want adaptation, you know, I do it for the same reason you do it. It's because it's healthy for my hips.

Yeah. But if you're trying to be, like if we're talking about getting hypertrophy, that's probably a little bit better because you're going to load it more. Yeah, the more stability you have, the more you're able to tax your prime movers to the point where they'll actually grow. Right. When you get into the hamstring, are you a big hamstring curl,

banded hamstring curl person? 100% because here's why. Not necessarily do I think it's going to help weightlifting. Probably not. But here's what's going to help. It's going to help promote a good balance at the knee because we do so much knee extension, knee extension. You have to balance that out with some knee flexion.

Just the same as we talked about, external rotation, internal rotation. There has to be a balance at the joint. So yeah, we do normally with my athletes, we do some type of knee flexion at least twice a week. Every time I hear or we have somebody that writes in to us about knee pain, I ask them about, I'm like, well, how much hamstring work are you doing? How much accessory work do you do on your hamstrings? And it's virtually zero every single time. If they're on our program, then they're skipping stuff because it's in there.

Well, this is just a general question that we get. But, yeah, I feel like getting a couple on each side, banded hamstring curls for three, four of 25 on each on each leg is like just a surefire way to quickly fix knee pain yes um just as a very general prescription of something to do right away that you can implement just because we spent so much time squatting, so much time pulling. And if you're not doing the extra work to get in there, it's a very tricky problem because knee pain doesn't go away. My favorite is the TRX leg curl. Have you guys ever done that?

Yeah, laying on your back? Yeah, because you get that hip. Obviously, you know you're going to hit it. I've hated on the TRX thing for so long. Hold on. This is younger Anders when I was like, if you're not doing what I'm doing, you're stupid. Yeah.

And like, oh, you got those yellow bands that you're an idiot. Dude, I was on at the YMCA probably like a year ago, and they had a TRX. I was like, I'm just going to do it. I'm going to figure out all the accessory movements I can do on this thing, and I'm going to make it happen just so I can learn. That thing's badass. It's awesome. You can throw that thing in a door and do everything. It's awesome.

You're not going to get super strong, but you can be strong. You can do some really cool accessory stuff on TRX. That's an awesome tool. I love it. There's certainly stuff you can do with it. Yeah. Yeah, where it falls apart for me is where people think it's, like, the only thing you need.

Yeah. It's like, well, you could do that, but there's much better options than just using that one tool. Totally. And that goes for virtually any tool in this in this room like even barbells which can get you very far down the strength continuum yeah there's still other things that are good hence the whole topic of the show there's other things to do yeah so if you're if you're a one trick pony and like you just have like like i'm a kettlebell guy all i use is kettlebells it's like why you seem pretty smart

like why don't you use all this stuff too? There's more to this world than one tool. It's like being a carpenter and being like, no, I'm a hammer guy. I use hammers for everything. No saws. No nails. No screwdrivers.

Nope, I'm a hammer guy. What are you going to do with that hammer? Like all my YouTube videos about hammer and stuff. I have a big following. You can smash some holes with a hammer. That's about it. I'm with you. I don't know why people like to limit to one thing.

Or if you're a strength and conditioning coach, why do you have to be a powerlifting guy or a weightlifting guy or a strongman guy? Take from all those. I love taking. That's what makes it fun too. If you're a trainer you should be i'm a solve my clients problem guy yes and there is more than one way

to solve a problem period i mean that's i'm using that quote when you uh when you're building out uh i mean if we're doing all of our olympic lifts and that's in the one to three range for reps um three to five sets maybe seven i did your programming the other day with kendall she's like we're gonna do seven triples seven sets of three and i was like seven the fuck you think i'm doing here i'm here to hang out you're making me do seven sets jesus she's gonna be so good that's another story that's another poker that's why you're on the podium and i'm just hanging out with you she's about i'll do four and then cheer getting past that though then you get into the strength work and you're doing

you know fives eights tens depending upon kind of where you're at in the phase but when you start to get into actual uh that single joint stuff and hypertrophy uh or accessory movements towards the end where the rep ranges and how do you look at each joint? I rarely go below five. You know, sometimes, you know, with the triphasic, I'll go to threes because, you know, I kind of follow his protocol sometimes. But that would be it. Cal Dietz, yeah, he's amazing.

But that would be mostly, it's going to be five and above, somewhere between five and ten. And, like, you know, depending on how small of a movement it is, maybe 12s, maybe even 15s is super small. But, you know, I don't go below. It's mainly after hypertrophy. So I'm not after that, you know, the absolute strength, you know, component. This is the thing that we could probably spend an entire show on,

which we should do next, actually. When you're programming, like, a really good CrossFit class or a really good or just on your own programming for yourself or for other people i love thinking about the higher rep stuff as the accessory movements yeah it's actually made crossfit for me so much fun recently right after going from like this large strength block that i did last year to like i'm like two months into being in crossfit classes now and it's freaking awesome because what used to be like I have to go be a gangster and play this game and win every day, now I just look at it and I'm like,

I'm basically doing accessory work just with an elevated heart rate, and I take as much time as I need in between. I just move rather somewhat slowly. But if you're doing like a set of kettlebell swings, that's a phenomenal accessory piece. Absolutely. And you're getting into the 50-75bell swings, that's a phenomenal accessory piece. Absolutely. And you're getting into the 50, 75 rep range that you can just do the Russian swings, you feel great about yourself.

Yeah. But the ability to get a lot of high rep stuff, couple it with things that you enjoy, that you may have a metabolic conditioning effect at the end as well. Those are really like, that makes training super fun to me. I think there's something wise about that too you know i got most of that from louis simmons he's been preaching that forever is like why do people do you know the high rep hypertrophy then they go to strength they forget it this now then they go to absolute strength they forget the strength and the hypertrophy why not do it all all the time yeah you know mainly obviously the focus shifts but even at the end you if you go

watch the chinese you know hopefully will get to go to the world someday you'll see how they they are in they're about to do the world championships or the olympics and they're in the back doing high rep you know shoulder work dips uh crazy ab stuff they'll be holding each other's legs so they can do uh hyperextensions with the back. So, like, why go away from it? Just maybe, you know, be more wise in what you choose. Something that won't create a lot of muscle damage. You don't want to be sore. You want to save, like, your, you know, your body for snaps and cleans.

Or if you're power through your squat bench deadlift. But don't go away from, like, what got you where you are. At the highest level of weightlifting, if you're trying to podium at the Olympics, then in your opinion, is it wise to not your glutes or whatever it is where you're completely optimizing your body specifically to have to to to lift as much weight as possible i mean there's you know some people would agree i would you know now that i have witnessed and like been in it for a while i would say you want to you're definitely probably going to focus more on the legs for sure but i I think it's definitely not going to be the minimum. I think you're still going to want to develop the upper body. Because if you look at the Chinese, you just don't see them get hurt.

And they just keep going and they go and they win and they win. And maybe it is. Maybe it's genetic manipulation or whatever they're doing. Maybe. But they're not doing anything that those other countries aren't doing. And they're winning. They whipped everyone's butt. I saw it.

And when they walk in the room, it's a totally – it looks like a different breed of human when they walk in. And they just – they all look that way. So, like, then I'm like, it just seems like, you know, having a complete strong muscular structure from the tips of your fingers down to the tips of your toes, I your tips your toes i think that's a better way to go i think you can do it longer i think um you know you're probably the catch of the snatch the clean and the jerk will be more stable so i think you'll the key too is if you

can do it longer without injury you're going to win yeah so maybe that would be a great idea and you would do really well but then i just don't see how it works out long term because you're gonna your risk of injury especially if you're a female. I saw that in Muscle Driver. I saw it's really just focus on squats, pulls, and cleans and snatches, and I saw Rebecca Gurdon break her wrist simply from reaching the capacity past what she was capable of in the wrist. It just snapped.

She didn't do anything wrong. It was just she was able to heave more weight than her body was. We hadn't prepared her structure. You know, I was. But when she went to Muscle Driver, they didn't do any accessory work. And I'm like, so I would say no. I think you need to be – I would like to see you jacked from head to toe. You know, Ryan on my team, he's jacked head to toe.

Yeah. Travis Mash, where can they find you? Oh, Mash, that was a fun podcast. That was fun. Yeah, yeah. Mashleak.com. I think we have another one of these coming today because I feel like I already have many more things to talk about when it comes to this. I think Hyperdivvy is the most fun thing to talk about.

Everybody wants to be Jack. You're a liar. If you tell me you don't want to be Jack, you are lying. You got the angle you're working for some reason. Right, right. Masterly.com. Go to Instagram. You're signaling us.

That's right. You're personally signaling. Oh, hit me up on LinkedIn. Oh, yeah. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Good one. You're a professional.

He's out of TikTok now. He's no longer. Exited TikTok. I'm still. Nash just went from 18 to 48 all at once. I am preparing my strategy for TikTok. That's where I'm at. Because I'm still – That just went from 18 to 48 all at once. I am preparing my strategy for TikTok. That's where I'm at. Because I'm terrible.

You can find me on LinkedIn and on TikTok. TikTok, body rock. Do you beatbox on TikTok? No. Maybe I'll try it. I'll see what happens. It is. That's how you start.

That's how you start. Get it going. Today I'm going to beatbox. Doug Larson. Right on. Find me on Instagram at Douglas E. Larson. That's how you start. Get it going. Today I'm going to beat box. Doug Larson. Right on. Find me on Instagram at Douglas E. Larson. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We're the Shrug Collective at Shrug Collective.

OneTonChallenge.com forward slash stronger. 97-page e-book teaching you how to increase your snatch, clean jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench with a lifetime goal of 2,000 pounds, 1,200 for you ladies. OneTonChallenge.com forward slash stronger. We'll see you guys next week. That's a wrap, friends. OneTonChallenge.com forward slash stronger we'll see you guys next week that's a wrap friends one-ton-challenge.com forward slash join one week one dollar come hang out with us come get strong snatch clean jerk squat deadlift and bench i want to thank our friends over at organifi

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