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The Reeves deadlift involves an inordinately wide grip (much wider than a snatch grip) so much so that the lifter is actually gripping the edge or handles of the weight plates on the collars rather than actual bar itself. Although this deadlift crushes the upper back and lats due to the wide grip placement it’s also quite awkward and has multiple downfalls. Fortunately these issues can be remedied by performing the Reeves Deadlift (and similar movement variations) with a trap bar. Here are a few variations I’m demonstrating along with two of my awesome athletes Leslie Petch and Nick Croawell. There are 7 reasons why Reeves Trap bar deadlift variations are so effective and also far superior to their traditional counterpart. Read more HERE.

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MAIN OPTION

Am I a big believer in foam rolling? No, not at all. Do I like the foam roller? Yes I love it, but not for the same purposes most individuals use it for. In fact the foam roller is one of my favorite tools not necessarily for soft tissue work but for teaching proper lifting mechanics on a variety of movements particularly chest presses, pullovers, and chest fly variations.

There are several benefits of using the foam roller for chest presses.

1. The foam roller allows the scapula to move freely without being encumbered or fixed to the bench. As a result this optimizes natural scapulohumeral rhythm and glenohumeral joint mechanics similar to how a pushup or landmine press allows optimal scapular movement.

2. The foam roller forces the lifter to create heightened spinal rigidity and natural curvature as anything but proper posture will literally feel miserable on the back. However with proper positioning it actually feels quite therapeutic on the spine.

3. The foam roller provides significant instability thereby forcing the lifter to use strict form and eliminate momentum. The foam roller has a tendency to roll and move unless the lifter remains tight and locks their core in. This creates significant rotational forces that the lifter must resist to keep from falling off the foam roller. Any wiggling, cheating, asymmetrical pressing, or shifting will cause the lifter to lose their balance.

4. The foam roller requires the lifter to aggressively activate their feet and ankles to help grip into the floor. In fact, screwing your feet into the floor is almost a prerequisite when performing foam roller chest presses as anything less will result in loss of balance and extreme instability. In addition, the feet and ankles are forced to assume straight and proper alignment as misalignment will produce further deviations to the movement.

Most lifters fail to use proper alignment and activation of the foot and ankle complex during chest presses. Unfortunately this results in decreased neural drive up the kinetic chain including reduced signaling to the upper body pressing muscles. In contrast activating the feet and ankles increases neural drive, full body tension, and motor control via irradiation and concurrent activation potentiation. In other words you’ll increase force production and your 1RM. If you have trouble driving with your hips and legs during the bench press more than likely it’s related to poor foot and ankle activation. The foam roller press helps to resolve this subtle yet significant recruitment issue.

ALTERNATE OPTION

The incline barbell bench press with legs up using band assistance (reverse bands) is a great chest, shoulders, and triceps exercise that deloads the weaker bottom position and overloads the stronger top position. Raising the legs further isolates the upper body and core

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Want to maximize growth in your upper back and lats? Then take advantage of eccentric training. Eccentric overload has consistently been shown to be one of the most effective training protocols for improving functional strength and hypertrophy as well as helping with injury prevention. The Bilateral Assisted Negative Accentuated (BANA) method, also known as the 2:1 Eccentric Accentuated Method, is an incredibly effective yet simple way to implement eccentric overload with a variety of movements. Unfortunately most lifters when performing the 2:1 eccentric protocol don’t control the negative to the degree they should. They also tend to let the weight jerk their arm as soon as they release one hand rather than locking the movement in and providing ample resistance. Here’s one of my awesome clients Todd Weiland showing how to properly execute it on the lat pulldown. Notice how he controls the negative and the release phase by incorporating a slight pause in both the contracted and stretched positions. If you’re going to perform the BANA method this is the most effective way to use it. By There are several benefits to this strength training method.

1. It provides a unique contrast for stimulating strength and hypertrophy. Essentially the concentric phase is relatively light allowing the lifter to focus on smooth mechanics and text book form with a strong contraction and muscle mind connection in the upper back and lats. However, the unilateral eccentric phase improves maximal strength and recruitment of the highest threshold fast twitch fibers ultimately inducing significant muscle damage and mechanical tension.

2. The BANA technique also promotes symmetry throughout the upper torso as both sides are forced to perform unilateral work throughout the set.

3. The degree of core activation is unusually high for a vertical pulling movement as each time you release one arm there will be significant anti-rotation and anti-lateral flexion elements attempting to pull your body out of alignment.

4. The bilateral assisted negative accentuated protocol is quite versatile and can be applied to a variety of movements. This includes seated rows, leg extensions, leg curls, bicep curl machines, chest press machines, and any bilateral variable resistance machine.

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This next exercise is a combination cross body suitcase hold & single arm overhead press. In the video my client is using 120 lb dumbbell in the suitcase hold arm & 60 in the pressing arm. I'd recommend a similar 2:1 ration when performing this exercise. This exercise provides 4 benefits.

1. Most athletes struggle to maintain a tight core & rigid spinal integrity when performing single arm overhead presses oftentimes resulting in excessive lateral flexion of the spine & tilting/shifting to one side rather than maintaining neutral alignment. For instance if an individual is pressing with their left arm they’ll often allow their right shoulder & hip to tilt to the right (a fairly precarious combination). This variation helps cue the lifter to avoid that tilt due to the heavy loading on the opposite arm as they’re now resisting lateral flexion forces in the opposite direction thereby reinforcing a neutral & rigid spinal position.

2. This is a great 2 in 1 exercise as one side is getting the shoulders & delts torched (the pressing arm) while the other is getting significant overload & stretch to the traps, upper back, lats, & grip (suitcase arm).

3. Besides acting as a strong functional strength & hypertrophy move this is also one of the best drills for releasing tension in the neck & traps. That’s because as you press one arm overhead, the other arm (suitcase side) is pulling downward towards the floor as a form of contralateral & reciprocal muscle activation. In other words whatever one side does, the other side does the opposite. Because the non-pressing arm is heavily loaded the combination of heavy weight combined with the pulling down towards the floor sensation creates an enormous stretch in the neck & upper traps. If you have a tight neck on any given day, try this drill as it will provide immediate release.

4. The heavy suitcase hold helps promote intense grip activation which has been shown to produce concurrent activation potentiation & full body tension resulting in greater neural drive to the working extremities. Aim for 90 degree eccentric isometrics which is optimal for muscle growth & joint health.

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NOTE: The 2+2+2 rep protocol indicates the lifter should perform 2 rows per every RDL. For example, one will perform 2 rows followed by 1 RDL, followed by 2 rows and 1 RDL, etc. for a total of 6 rows and 3 total RDLs per set.

This next exercise is a landmine trap bar row and RDL. Several reasons why this is such an effective functional mass builder for the upper back and lats as well as posterior chain.

1. Most T-bar rows don’t provide much versatility in terms of grip width. For instance you’ll most likely end up using a standard v-grip handle from the seated cable row station. While there’s nothing inherently wrong this this, the close grip position (typically 4-6 inches apart) can make it difficult to fully retract & medially rotate the scapula as the shoulders can have a tendency to feel crowded. The trap bar provides the lifter with a number of different options as they can use the outer portion of the bar where it gradually tapers. This allows the lifter to use a grip placement anywhere from approximately 12-24 inches apart.

2. One of the most common issues on T-bar rows is the semi-awkward & uncomfortable placement of the bar between your legs while performing rows. Besides acting as a slight distraction that can quickly cause form to degrade, many lifters will contort their body & excessively rotate their feet and hips to keep the bar away from their groin and torso. This can also lead to a scenario where the lifter stands too far back and away from their hands to avoid having the bar run into their body which can place further tension on the spine and make it difficult to depress the scapula. The trap bar remedies this.

3. Most trap bars are approximately 2 feet shorter than traditional Olympic bars. As a result, using the trap bar for landmine exercises slightly exaggerates the arching motion of the bar as it moves. Ironically, this ends up feeling incredibly natural while also helping to depress the scapula to a greater degree as the hands end up traveling slightly back (i.e. posteriorly towards the hips) towards the lifter when moving into the contracted position. On a side note, most lifters will need to decrease the load by approximately 20-25% to make up for this change in leverage, as the closer you stand towards the pivot point the more challenging it is to move the weight.

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To properly perform eccentric isometric glute bridges (with the feet and torso at the same height) requires the athlete to anchor their body onto 2 benches as shown in the video tutorial. This allows the eccentric portion of the repetition to be emphasized while achieving a full stretch in the bottom position. Read more HERE.

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Here’s one of my favorite pullover exercises that incorporates several of my go-to training protocols including the head off position, hollow body leg raise, kettlebell loading, and alternating eccentric isometric protocol. And just in case you were wondering, yes, you’ll need to summon every muscle fiber in your body to keep yourself from flipping off the bench. Besides crushing your upper back and lats, triceps, chest, shoulders, and core, here’s why this exact combination is so effective when applied to pullovers. Read the full article HERE.

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Here's the best method of performing the cable pull-through as the load vectors match with how the hips hinge and function optimally for maximal muscle activation and ideal movement mechanics. See the video tutorial for detailed instructions and visual cues.

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When it comes to maximizing muscle growth, emphasizing the eccentric phase of the movement by slowing down the negative is one of the most effective techniques you can do. Overloading the eccentric phase of the movement by performing heavy negatives with supramaximal loads (heavier than 1RM) further enhances the hypertrophy-inducing stimulus. Over the last several years I’ve discussed quite a few of these techniques in some of my articles highlighting protocols such as the bilateral assisted negative accentuated method (BANA a.k.a. up with 2 down with 1), the power rack eccentric potentiation protocol (PREP), the pivot press, kBox training, the eccentric accentuated push press, compound isolation movements (i.e. skull crushers to chest press), partner accelerated kettlebell swings, and more.

With that said I like to experiment with a variety of exercises and combinations by overloading the eccentric phase of the movement when possible. Sometimes this is impractical without the aid of a competent spotter or fancy machinery. Other times it simply takes a bit of strategic muscle manipulation. One such movement I’ve recently been tinkering with to optimize eccentric overload is the dumbbell squeeze press. The dumbbell squeeze press is one of the most effective chest pressing exercises you can perform to induce functional hypertrophy in the upper body particularly the pectorals. By overloading the eccentric phase of the movement we can further enhance the potency of this chest building exercise. I refer to this as the dumbbell squeeze and spread press.

Besides providing a unique way to eccentrically overload the pressing muscles, the squeeze and spread press also provides the additional benefit of contrasting muscular contractions. Simply put, the squeeze portion of the movement with the dumbbells pressed together creates enormous levels of intramuscular tension particularly in the inner chest fibers due to the strong adduction component. In other words the tension is similar to that of a press and chest fly combined.

However, the squeeze press doesn’t provide the same degree of stretch as a traditional dumbbell press due to the hands being kept closer together. This also tends to minimize stimulation to the outer pectorals as this area typically responds better to a larger stretch. For a larger stretch to take place, the hands have to move around the torso. Fortunately the squeeze and spread press provides both types of contractions as there is both a strong adduction component as well as a strong stretch component (when the dumbbells spread apart). In other words it presents the best of both worlds for targeting the inner and outer regions of the pectorals.

While some research now suggests that it’s not possible to target the outer or inner portions of the pectorals, most bodybuilders and experienced lifters would disagree with this as it’s quite apparent when performing certain movements that the outer or inner portions can be more easily emphasized depending on the modality of the exercise. In addition, certain movements can produce more soreness on the outer or inner regions of the pectorals based on whether or not they emphasize the stretch or the contracted/adduction method. Unfortunately many researchers base this rationale purely on EMG findings which oftentimes only provide a very limited illustration of what is occurring within the muscles.

Similar to the eccentric squeeze and spread press, the pivot press also allows the lifter to maximize eccentric overload by adjusting their body positions during both the eccentric and concentric phases of the lift. However by combining the pivot press with the eccentric dumbbell squeeze and spread press and turning it into one seamless movement we can maximize eccentric overload a step further. Essentially we're producing a double eccentric overload effect. Because the intensity of the eccentric overload is so high during these I recommend keeping the reps to no more than 5 per set.

QUICK NOTE ON THE TRANSITION PHASE

While the majority of the eccentric squeeze and spread chest press feels quite natural and self explanatory, the transition from the bottom of the squeeze press into the traditional press (the spread phase) can be a bit tricky at first. I recommend taking a session and performing several sets using significantly lighter loads (50-60% of traditional dumbbell loads) to familiarize yourself with the transition/spread phase. After a bit of practice it should become fairly automatic and transfer over to heavier working sets. One of the keys to locking this transition in involves keeping the core incredibly tight so you don't lose control of the weights.

Finally, don’t spend too much time transitioning during the spread phase. Instead, use a bit of momentum to help transition from the squeeze press into the traditional press as this tends to feel more natural. In fact, the transition should almost be one continuous motion rather than trying to pause in the bottom as this can cause the movement to stall out. In other words, attempting to transition too slowly and smoothly can cause the dumbbells to feel as though they get stuck in the bottom position. If it still doesn't make sense, watch the videos of Ben and I performing these as this provides the proper illustration of how they should look visually.

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NOTES: The 2+2+2 rep protocol indicates the lifter should perform 2 rows per every RDL. For example, one will perform 2 rows followed by 1 RDL, followed by 2 rows and 1 RDL, etc. for a total of 6 rows and 3 total RDLs per set.

In terms of this particular squat these not only reinforce proper squat mechanics is it forces the athletes to keep the core incredibly tight with max full body tension but it’s also a great way to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Periodic arm training can be beneficial for athletes particularly throwing athletes as it improves elbow health. Unfortunately athletes often have limited training time. Periodically combining arm isolation with functional lower body movements is a great way to practice your squat pattern while also blasting your arms.