Australian Strength Coach

Here I’m working with Australia’s number one weightlifter, Kyle Bruce during a light high bar squat session.

Kyle has squatted 272kg / 600lb high bar, so he’s obviously incredibly strong. But weightlifting and powerlifting are different sports, and that means different priorities.

In powerlifting, the squat is the sport. I want as much full body rigidity as possible to create the strongest structure under maximal loads. In weightlifting, the squat is an accessory. The goal is often just leg strength and leg development to support the sn**ch and clean & jerk.

Something I noticed with Kyle’s squat was that although he was strong, he wasn’t creating much upper back tension. The bar was almost just resting on his back rather than him actively creating rigidity through the torso.

A few simple adjustments made an instant difference.

Elbows back to improve thoracic rigidity.
Shoulder girdle down to engage the lats and create more stiffness through the torso.

Even though the weight was light, you can instantly see the difference. His upper back position changed, his spine looked more rigid, and the movement looked stronger.

We didn’t test anything heavy here, but I’m confident that when the Kyle goes heavy, this will transfer.

Different sport. Different objective. But good mechanics still matter.

Butt wink is the posterior rotation of the pelvis at the bottom of a squat.

In simple terms, this occurs when the upper thigh bone (femur) runs out of space to move inside the pelvis.

Once the femur reaches its limit of hip flexion, if you continue to squat deeper, the pelvis has to rotate underneath it.

This is what we refer to as butt wink.

So how do we avoid it?

The obvious solutions are:
1. Don’t squat as deep.
2. Elevate your heels.

Both can absolutely help.

But the best solution is to learn how to position your body and brace correctly.

This means finding the right stance for your hips, understanding how the femur moves inside the pelvis, and learning how to position your core and pelvis so you can achieve as much depth as possible without losing position.

Now, this is not a discussion on whether butt wink is dangerous or not. That depends on the person, and certain spine conditions may absolutely be aggravated by it.

But something I do know is this:
If you can squat to depth while maintaining a stable pelvis and spine position under load, it will be stronger.

This is where you are able to maintain maximal tension through all of the muscles surrounding the hips, maintain the strongest brace, and achieve your strongest squat position.

A few days ago, I made a post explaining why stronger athletes often need longer rest periods.

A lot of people laughed at the idea.

Now here’s one of the strongest athletes ever telling us exactly what he does…

10-12 minutes rest between heavy deadlift sets.

The point is not that everyone should copy Thor.

The stronger you get, the more recovery each set requires.

The heavier the weight, the more force produced, the more fatigue created, and the longer it takes to recover enough.

And that rule applies whether your goal is strength AND hypertrophy.

Most people are obviously not as strong as Thor.

I’m certainly not.

So I don’t typically rest 10-12 minutes like he does.

But I still rest around 8 minutes for many of my heavier compound lifts because I’m still lifting relatively heavy weights.

And when I’m working with less advanced lifters, that time gets reduced.

But it’s still often longer than what most people are used to.

Here are my general recommendations:

Heavy compound lifts
(squats, deadlifts, presses, rows)

• Beginner - 2 to 3 minutes
• Intermediate - 4 to 6 minutes
• Advanced - 6 to 8 minutes (sometimes longer)

Accessory/isolation work
(lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, hamstring curls)

1 to 3 minutes is usually enough.

For many people why say that they don’t have time to rest this long, you don’t need to take this advice.

But if your performance is dropping hard from set to set, there’s a good chance you’re not recovering enough.

For years, we were told:

• 1 to 6 reps builds strength
• 8 to 12 reps builds muscle
• 15+ reps build endurance

Then the research came out showing you can build muscle anywhere from 5 to 30 reps as long as you train close enough to failure.

Some people interpret that as “Reps don’t matter” but that’s not what the research says.

The best rep range depends on your goal, the exercise you’re performing, and how you’re performing the set.

In this 6 minute video, I break down how I think about reps for both hypertrophy and strength, why compound and isolation exercises usually follow a different set of rules, and the framework I use when programming for myself and my athletes.

Hopefully this clears up one of the most confusing topics in strength training.

Most people think a squat is just a squat.
Sit down, stand up, repeat.

But if your goal is to build quads, glutes, or to squat the most weight possible, your body position should change.

In this video, dinnyj🧿 demonstrates 3 different squat patterns to show you exactly how we can position the body to target different outcomes.

The key concept here is understanding moment arms.

A moment arm is the distance between the line of force, and the main acting joint. The longer the moment arm, the harder the muscles around that joint have to work.

Want to target the quads?
Stay more upright, allow the knees to travel forward and increase the moment arm at the knee joint. This places most of the demand on the quads.

Want to target the glutes?
Bring the feet in closer, push the hips further back, increase the moment arm at the hip joint. This shifts more demand toward the glutes and posterior chain.

Want to squat the most weight possible?

This is where things get interesting.

I use a low bar position while also opening the hips to reduce moment arms at both the hips and knees. The goal is to spread the load evenly across the joints and maximise leverage to move the most weight possible.

There is no universally “best” squat.

There is only the best squat for your goal.

At maximal loads, if the bar isn’t in line with your midfoot, it’s not leaving the ground.

At my seminar, Marat attempted a 180kg deadlift using an aggressive dynamic start. The goal of this technique is to create momentum before initiating the lift.

The problem was that the movement was so aggressive it pushed the bar forward, away from his midfoot and outside the centre of his base of support, and he missed the lift.

I understand why lifters use a dynamic start.

Unlike the squat or bench press, a conventional deadlift starts from a standstill. There’s no eccentric phase before the concentric to provide elastic recoil, so some lifters try to create their own by dynamically moving into the starting position.

Can it work? Absolutely.

Do you need it? No.

If you learn how to position yourself correctly, take the slack out of the bar and generate force from a standstill, you are not at a disadvantage.

My concern is that people see very strong lifters successfully using a dynamic start and try to copy it before they’ve developed the precision required to control it.

My approach is to learn precision first. Add speed later if you actually need it.

Marat reattempt the exact same 180kg immediately afterwards. This time, no aggressive dynamic start. He set himself precisely, kept the bar over his midfoot and got the lift.

Nice work, Marat 👊