No.

Exercise Sets Reps Notes

1 Eliptical 1 10 min

2 Dynamic Stretch 1 5 min 10 per arm followed by 10 together

3A Close Grip Lat Pull-down 3 10 Last Set Drop Set

3B Single Arm seat low row 3 10

4 Deadlift 5 10 Last Set Drop Set

5A Wide Grip Lat Pull-down 3 12,10,10

5B Lat Pull-overs 3 12 to 15

6 Bent-over Rows 4 12,10,8,6

7 Single Arm DB Rows 4 6 to 8 Last Set Drop Set

8 Hyperextension 3 20

9 Planks 4 30s 30s rest

10 Stretch
Close Grip Lat Pull Down Instructions
1. Attach a wide grip handle to the lat pulldown machine and assume a seated position.
2. Grasp the handle with a pronated grip (double underhand) at shoulder width.
3. Initiate the movement by depressing the shoulder blades and then flexing the elbow while
extending the shoulder.
4. Pull the handle towards your body until the elbows are in line with your torso and then slowly
lower the handle back to the starting position under control.
5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Close Grip Lat Pull Down Tips

1. Keep some tone through your abdominals as you pull the bar into your body to ensure you don’t
arch excessively through the spine.
2. Don’t allow momentum to dictate the movement, control the weight throughout the entirety of
each rep.
3. If you feel your biceps being overused and your back remaining under active, consider utilizing a
false grip (i.e. don’t wrap the thumb around the dumbbell).
4. Don’t allow the head to jut forward as you pull.
5. Similarly, ensure the shoulder blade moves on the rib cage. Don’t lock the shoulder blade down
and just move through the glenohumeral joint.
6. Allow the shoulder to internally rotate and shrug slightly at the top of the movement. You will
obviously reverse the movement and depress the shoulder blade before you pull with the arm
Single-arm cable seated row Instructions
1. To get into the starting position, first sit down on the machine and place your feet on the front
platform or crossbar provided making sure that your knees are slightly bent and not locked.
2. Lean over as you keep the natural alignment of your back and grab the single handle attachment
with your left arm using a palms-down grip.
3. With your arm extended pull back until your torso is at a 90-degree angle from your legs. Your
back should be slightly arched and your chest should be sticking out. You should be feeling a nice
stretch on your lat as you hold the bar in front of you. The right arm can be kept by the waist. This
is the starting position of the exercise.
4. Keeping the torso stationary, pull the handles back towards your torso while keeping the arms
close to it as you rotate the wrist, so that by the time your hand is by your abdominals it is in a
neutral position (palms facing the torso). Breathe out as you perform that movement. At that point
you should be squeezing your back muscles hard.
5. Hold that contraction for a second and slowly go back to the original position while breathing
in. Tip: Remember to rotate the wrist as you go back to the starting position so that the palms are
facing down
6. Repeat foragain.
the recommended amount of repetitions and then perform the same movement with
the right hand.

Variations: You can perform this movement with a high pulley as well and standing up. You can also
perform it doing a full rotation of the wrist. In other words, at the starting position you will have
the palms of the hands facing down and at the end of the movement they will be facing up. Great
movement to perform for a variety of purposes.
1. Starting with the Hips Too Low
This is the king of all mistakes I see. Too many times, lifters try to squat the weight up rather than pull the
weight. Think back to the number of times that you’ve seen a big deadlift and thought to yourself how much
more the lifter could’ve pulled if he didn’t damn near stiff-leg it? I see it all the time. Someone will say, “Did you
see his deadlift?” Then the other guy will comment, “Yeah, and he stiff-legged the thing.” Am I telling you to stiff-
leg your deadlifts? No, not at all.

All I want you to do is look at your hip position at the start of the lift when you pull, and watch how much your
hips move up before the weight begins to break the floor. This is wasted movement and does nothing except
wear you out before the pull. The closer you can keep your hips to the bar when you pull, the better the
leverages will be. Once again, next time you see a great deadlifter, stand off to the side and watch how close his
or her hips stay to the bar throughout the pull. If you’re putting your ass to the floor before you pull, your hips
are about a mile from the bar. You’re setting yourself up for disaster when the lever arm is this long.
Consequently, this is the second most common reason why lifters can’t get the bar off the floor. (The first reason
is very simple: the bar is too heavy!)

You need to find that perfect spot—where your hips are close to the bar, your shoulders are behind the bar, your
lower back is arched, your upper back is rounded, your belly is full of air, and you can pull toward your body.
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but then again, what is? Definitely not training in a commercial health
club...

2. Where to Look When You Pull

Your body will always follow your head. If you’re looking down, then the bar is going to want to travel forward.
At the same time, you don’t want to look at the ceiling. Focus on an area that keeps your head in a straight, up,
and back position, with the eyes focusing on an upper area of the wall.

3. Dimel Deadlifts
This exercise helped Matt Dimel increase his squat from the mid-800s to over 1000 pounds in a two-year period.
To perform this exercise, grab a barbell with an overhand grip, hands about shoulder-width apart. Pull the bar up
to a standing position.

At this point, arch your back and get your abs tight. Keep your back as arched as possible, push the glutes out,
and keep the knees slightly bent. Lower the bar by pushing your body weight back onto your heels while pushing
your glutes out. Try to lower the barbell to a position just past the knees. At this point, you should feel a
tremendous stretch in the glutes and hamstrings.

4. Dumbbell Holds
There are very few things that I’ve found to work when it comes to helping with dropped deadlifts due to grip.
Dumbbell holds, however, are one movement that’s shown great results.

Grab the top of a hex dumbbell, making sure that you don’t touch the numbers. Grab, stand, and hold for as long
as you can. If you can go over 20 seconds, then up the weight.

5. Binder Clips

One easy thing that will help your grip for pulling is to use binder clips. These are the big paper clips that have a
black end on them (and other colors). Use these like you would use grippers, but only use your thumb and little
finger. You can work all fingers, but the little guy is the first to go.
Ed Coan told me this one a few years ago at the SWIS conference.

6. Get Strong(er)

If you drop your pulls, one solution is very simple—get stronger! Let’s say you always drop 700 pounds, but you
can pull 650 pounds easily, and pulling 700 pounds with straps is no problem. Well, get strong enough to pull 750
pounds with straps. Then, 700 pounds will feel like 650 pounds.

7. Get Your Head Right

Training isn’t easy and won’t always be a walk-in-the-park. There’s more to getting strong than just lifting
weights. You have to get an attitude with the weights and bust your ass. Louie once told me that he would
NEVER train with anyone who didn’t scare him in one way or another. This is some of the best advice I’ve ever
heard. I’m not saying that you should be a dick, but there’s a HUGE difference between “training” and “working
out.”

8. Multiple-Rep Deadlifts

Next time you see someone doing multiple reps on the deadlift, take note of the form of each rep. You’ll notice
that the later reps look nothing like the first. In competition, you only have to pull once, so you need to learn
how to develop what’s known as starting strength for the deadlift. This is the strength that is needed to get the
bar off the floor without an eccentric (negative) action before the start.

In other words, you don’t lower the bar first and then lift the weight as you do with the squat and bench press.
When you train with multiple reps, you’re beginning to develop reversal strength, which isn’t needed with the
deadlift. These two reasons are enough to keep the deadlift training to singles. If you’re using multiple reps with
the deadlift, stand up between each rep and restart the lift. This way, you’ll be teaching yourself the proper form
and developing the right kind of strength.

9. Not Pulling the Bar Back

The deadlift is all about leverage and positioning. Visualize a teeter-totter. What happens when the weight on
one end is coming down? The other end goes up. So if your body is falling backward, what happens to the bar? It
goes up! If your weight is falling forward, the bar will want to stay down. So if you weigh 250 pounds and you
can get your body weight to work for you, it would be much like taking 250 pounds off the bar. For many natural
deadlifters, this is a very instinctive action. For others, it has to be trained.

Proper positioning is important here. If you’re standing too close to the bar, it’ll have to come over the knee
before you can pull back—thus, going forward before it goes backward. If your shoulders are in front of the bar
at the start of the pull, then the bar will want to go forward, not backward. If your back isn’t arched, the bar will
also want to drift forward. For some lifters, being unable to pull back can be a muscular thing. If you’re like me, I
tend to end up with the weight on the front of my feet instead of my heels. This is a function of my quads trying
to overpower the glutes and hamstrings, or the glutes and hamstrings being unable to finish the weight and
shifting to the quads to complete the lift. What will happen many times is that you’ll begin shaking or miss the
weight. To fix this problem, you need to add in more glute ham raises, pull-throughs, and reverse hypers.

10. Shin Placement

I’m not too sure where this started, but I have a pretty good idea. Many times the taller, thinner lifters are the
best pullers, and they do start with the bar very close to their shins. But if you look at them from the side, they
still have their shoulders behind the bar when they pull. This is just not possible to achieve with a thicker lifter.
If a thicker lifter with a large amount of body mass—be it muscle or fat—were to line the bar up with his shins,
you’d see he would have an impossible time getting the shoulders behind the bar. Remember, you need to pull
the bar back toward you, not out and away from you. So what I believe happens is that many lifters look to those
with great deadlifts to see how they pull, then try to do the same themselves. However, what they really need to
do is look to those who have great deadlifts and who have similar builds as them and follow their lead.

11. Pulling with Big Air

As with most exercises, you must learn how to breathe. Stand in front of a mirror and take a deep breath. Do
your shoulders rise? If so, then you need to learn how to breathe. Learn to pull your air into your diaphragm. In
other words, use your belly! Pull as much air into your belly as possible, then when you think you have all you
can get, pull more. The deadlift isn’t started by driving your feet into the floor; it’s started by driving your belly
into your belt and hips flexors.

One note on holding air while you pull: You do need to try and hold your air as long as possible, but this can only
last for a few seconds while under strain because you will pass out. So for a long pull, you’ll have to breathe, or
you’ll hit the floor... and people will stare. While there are several people out there who may think this is a cool
thing, I disagree. It’s much cooler to make the lift!

So when you reach the point where you begin to really have to fight with the weight, let out small bursts of air.
Don’t let all of it out at one time, or you’ll lose torso tightness, and that will cause the bar to drop down. By
letting out small bursts, you can keep your tightness, continue to pull, and lock out the weight.

12. Rounding the Lower Back when Deadlifting

This is another mistake I see all the time, and most lifters know better. It happens most of the time because of a
weak lower back or a bad starting position. Even though your shoulders should be rounded, you must keep your
lower back arched. This will keep the shin straight and the shoulders behind the bar, allowing your body to be in
the proper position to pull big while keeping the back under minimal stress.

If you pull with a rounded back, the bar is going to drift forward away from the legs—putting your back in a very
difficult position from which to recover. When the bar drifts forward, the weight of it will begin to work against
your leverages and cause you to have a sticking point just below the knees or mid-shin level. When you pull, you
can either arch your back in the beginning standing position before you crouch down to pull or once you grab
the bar. Either way, it’s important to keep the lower back arched and tight.

There are many ways to strengthen the lower back for this. Good mornings, Reverse Hypers®, and Arched Back
Good Mornings are a few. You can also use a band around your traps and feet for simulated good mornings.
With this technique, you only use the bands and train for higher reps (in the 20- to 30-rep range) for local
muscular endurance.

13. Pulling Your Shoulder Blades Together when You Deadlift

This is a mistake I made for years. Stand in a deadlift stance and pull your shoulder blades together. Take a look
at where your fingertips are. Now, if you let your shoulders relax and even round forward a little, you’ll see your
fingertips are much lower. This is why we teach a rounding of the upper back. First, the bar has to travel a
shorter distance. Second, there’s less stress on the shoulder region. It’ll also help keep your shoulder blades
behind the bar.

14. Pull the slack out of the bar

Even if you are not using a texas deadlift bar, you still want to make an effort to pull the slack out of the bar
before accelerating the bar to lockout. What this basically means is to begin pulling until you feel the bar get
tight against the plates and begin to bend. Once you reach that point—where you feel the bar bending—THEN
begin the pull off the floor, thinking of accelerating the speed more and more with every inch the bar moves.
Wide Grip Lat Pull Down Instructions
1. Attach a wide grip handle to the lat pull down machine and assume a seated position.
2. Grasp the handle with a pronated grip (double overhand) as wide as possible.

3. Initiate the movement by depressing the shoulder blade and then flexing the elbow while extending the shoulder.
4. Pull the handle towards your body until the elbows are in line with your torso and then slowly lower the handle
back to the starting position under control.
5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Wide Grip Lat Pull Down Tips

1. Keep some tone through your abdominals as you pull the bar into your body to ensure you don’t arch excessively
through the spine.

2. Don’t allow momentum to dictate the movement, control the dumbbells throughout the entirety of each rep.
3. If you feel your biceps being overused and your back remaining under active, consider utilizing a false grip (i.e. don’t
wrap the thumb around the dumbbell).
4. Don’t allow the head to jut forward as you pull.
5. Similarly, ensure the shoulder blade moves on the rib cage. Don’t lock the shoulder blade down and just move
through the glenohumeral joint.
6. Allow the shoulder to internally rotate and shrug slightly at the top of the movement. You will obviously reverse the
movement and depress the shoulder blade before you pull with the arm.
How to Do the Dumbbell Pullover

Test Your Overhead

A proper dumbbell pullover requires getting into a good overhead position without overarching your back,
according to Samuel. Test your ability to do so by putting one hand on your ribcage while raising your other,
with the goal of keeping your rib cage down while not allowing your back to arch. If this cannot be
accomplished without holding any load, you may want to try another lat-friendly as an alternative, as adding
any additional load to the pullover would yield negative results.

If you’re able to get in a good position, it’s time to focus on one of the muscle groups working here: In this case
shoulder extension, which is the responsibility of the lat muscles.

The Dumbbell Pullover Setup

In this ab-intensive exercise, start by getting your shoulder blades onto the bench, putting your shins in a
perpendicular position with the bench, knees at a 90-degree angle. Focus then on squeezing your abs and
glutes to create tension, while keeping a parallel line from the shoulders to the knees, maintaining this position
for as long as possible during the movement.

“I also want you to think about keeping your ribcage down,” Samuel says. Finally, raise the weight overhead,
setting your shoulder blades and driving them into the bench.

The Dumbbell Pullover Movement

A key thing to remember in the next stage is getting the most out of your lats, which become more powerful
when the shoulders are externally rotated. Do this by driving your elbows forward, maintaining the position
and tension as you lower the dumbbell backward.

You want to drive your elbows up toward the ceiling as you’re going down as far as possible for the maximum
safe range of motion.

Dumbbell Pullover Mistakes to Avoid

There are few other points to be aware of while doing dumbbell pullovers. Don't bend your elbows—you'll
take away the lever for your lats and offload the work to your triceps. Avoid flaring your elbows and instead
focus on allowing keeping control of a tight, externally rotated position. Also, think about pulling the weight to
a top position of a 91-degree angle relative to torso. And don’t forget to concentrate on keeping your ribcage
closed the entire set, which keeps the pullover not only a back move but an abs exercise as well. Finally,
because there is so much to focus on, high reps are not necessary, think three to four sets of eight to 10
quality reps.

“Take your time as you're doing them and make sure to really squeeze those elbows,” Samuel says. “Especially
if you want to really grow those lats you're gonna have a ton of fun with these.”
How to Do the Bent-Over Row

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1. Grab a barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
2. With your legs slightly bent, lock your core, keep your back straight and send your hips behind your
heels so that your torso is almost perpendicular to the floor.
3. Row the weight upwards in an arc shape towards your hips.
4. Pause and squeeze the shoulder blades together for a beat whilst keeping the shoulders away from the
ears.
5. Slowly reverse the rep back to the beginning position.

Bent-Over Row Tips

Good technique in the bent-over row starts from the top, as you begin to bend. Celebrity PT Scott
Laidler recommends you bend over by pushing your hips backwards, instead of folding forwards. 'Pushing
your hips back encourages you to keep your spine neutral throughout the entire exercise,' says Laidler.

Next, make sure when you lift the weight, you’re moving up and down, not out. 'You see a lot of people
throwing the weight slightly forward,' says Laidler. 'This brings your anterior deltoids (shoulders) into play,
when the exercise should be focusing on your lats.' Want that cobra back effect? Keep your bent-over row
straight.'
One Arm Dumbbell Row Instructions

1. Assume a standing position while holding a dumbbell in one hand with a neutral grip.
2. Hinge forward until your torso is roughly parallel with the floor (or slightly above) and then begin the
movement by driving the elbow behind the body while retracting the shoulder blade.
3. Pull the dumbbell towards your body until the elbow is at (or just past) the midline and then slowly lower the
dumbbell back to the starting position under control.
4. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions on both sides.

One Arm Dumbbell Row Tips

1. Experiment with head position and see which option (looking forward vs. packing the neck) works better for
you.
2. Fight the urge to use your opposing arm to brace against your leg or any other implement.
3. Keep some tone through your abdominals as you pull the dumbbell into your body to ensure you don’t arch
excessively through your spine.

4. Don’t allow momentum to dictate the movement, control the dumbbells throughout the entirety of each rep.
5. If you feel your biceps being overused and your back remaining under active, consider utilizing a false grip (i.e.
don’t wrap the thumb around the dumbbell).
6. Don’t allow the head to jut forward as you pull.
7. Similarly, ensure the shoulder blade moves on the rib cage. Don’t lock the shoulder blade down and just move
through the glenohumeral joint.
Hyperextension Instructions

1. Setup in a hyperextension machine with your feet anchored and torso roughly perpendicular to your legs at a 45
degree angle.
2. Begin in a hinged position with your arms crossed and initiate the movement by flexing your glutes.
3. Extend the hips and finish with your body in a straight line.
4. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Hyperextension Tips

1. Keep in mind that there are two ways to do hyperextensions. For the vast majority of folks (outside of a sport specific
application - ex. Gymnastics or Olympic weight lifting), they stick with the first rather than the second option.
Glutecentric: Slightly flex your upper back and extend your hips until your body is in a straight line and focus entirely on
gluteal activation.
Erector-centric: Arch globally through the spine and focus entirely on erector activation.
2. If you can’t seem to feel your glutes activating, palpate the musculature with your hands and focus on pausing the
movement at the peak of contraction.

3. If you find one glute has less contractility than another, perform twice as much volume on that side relative to the
other with unilateral variations until you have established an efficient mind/muscle connection.
1. Get into pushup position. For a high plank, your arms should be fully extended. If you’re a beginner, you can
start by doing a plank on your knees. If you’re more advanced, you can try one on your forearms for more of a
challenge.
2. Keep your palms and toes firmly planted on the ground, your back straight, and your core tight.

3. Make sure your body is in a straight line while you’re in plank position. Don’t let your back or head sag.
4. Hold your plank for the predetermined time. If your form begins to go at any point, drop to your knees or stop
until you’re ready to return to plank position.