Not lifting as much as you wish you were?
I am going to show you today why the focal point may not have to be your upper body,
or your lower body but the area in-between, and not your abs.
[Music Intro]
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere here Athleanx.com.
Today we are going to talk about something that often gets overlooked.
Even when we talk about core training: the low back.
Now I talked about it in the intro.
If you want to lift weights, you might want to focus on something more than your upper
body strength or your lower body strength.
I am going to show you today how that area
You might want to be focusing on is your lower back.
There is a major major problem with most guys, not so much with females.
Females have a little more intuitiveness in this area.
To be able to move it.
Guys struggle here, and the fact of the matter is:
They don't have the ability, to consciously contract the low back.
We are going to talk about why that is so important in a second.
Now you can try this now, and stand up from the computer, and do this with me.
Can you consciously get into an anterior pelvic tilt.
What that means is can you get your pelvis down by consciously contracting the muscles
in your lower back.
Like that, from here down.
There are so many ways to describe how to do this.
It could be: dip down closer to you knees, the raunchier the better.
Or getting your sacrum-tailbone-closer to your mid-back, pulling it up.
Or you can look at your hips like a glass of water, so here is the whole glass here.
Can you take your hips and pour the glass out?
Without tilting forward, because what is going to happen, is you are going to do all kinds
of compensations to think you are doing that, when really
That is the whole motion, controlled by the low back.
Now why is that so important?
Here is why.
Every single lift you do depends on the stability of the low back
To the core to create an efficient power transfer
From the lower body up to the upper body.
So if I am pressing, this all has to be stable so I can direct my force that is generated,
on my feet grounding in through my press.
Every bit of looseness that you have back here, or the lack of the ability to contract
here, to keep it tight.
You are going to have this dispersion of force
And you are not going to be able to transfer that force.
You can literally increase your dumbell press by 10-15 lbs overhead if you have a strong
lower back.
So what do you focus on?
First being able to get to that position.
Secondly If am going to do a row, every time I come out here, the first thing I do, is
get into my position here, actually contract my low back.
OK?
So when I am down here, it hasn't moved: it is tight, it is contracted.
All the power generation now is going up through my arms, into my upper back.
OK?
If I couldn't hold this position, and I started doing that on different reps, or I can't even
get in it in the first place,
How am I supposed to lift heavy weights like this
And get the work done the way it is supposed to on the muscles
I am trying to target.
Come on down here, I will show you another example.
Same thing with a kettle bell squat, or any kind of squt.
If I get myself in position here,-again
If I can't consciously contract this area
This area right here-if I can't consciously contract that
Then I have no stability during any of my other exercises.
It is going to cut down everything I can do.
So in the squat it is the same thing.
From here I set up the low back by contracting it
Now that it is tight and I drop straight down.
The transfer of force isn't dissipating.
It is going straight from the ground up through my legs
Allowing me to squat more.
Lastly, even the upper body stuff, I am talking about pressing.
Here and tight here.
I always pre-set it.
You are not going to find me pressing from this position.
You don't have the strength that you do when you are in here, back is tight.
Now press over head.
Throughout the rep, I am able to maintain that.
OK?
So it has always been the most overlooked area of most programs.
99% of all programs will never tell you, or make you aware of where you are losing your
strength.
I think it is really important.
Being a physical therapist, you want to protect the back at all times.
Or also do it for functional reasons, to be better in the gym, to be stronger
And ultimately translate all of that out onto to field
Or whatever it is you are going to use your muscles for, right?
Be strong functionally, but do it right in the gym first.
Guys, if you want to start following a training program, that does the smart things, like
the things that get you ready the right way
And get you as strong as you possibly can be from your toes to your fingertips
Then I highly suggest
That you check out Athlean-X.
You can go see it right now: AthleanX.com.
In the meantime I will be back here again in 7 days.
I mentioned the YouTube live coming again.
See you guys over here again, and I'll see you at AthleanX.com.