Above the Rest Training Systems

Missing a rep does not automatically mean you need more aggression. Sometimes the better response is to figure out exactly why the rep failed.

One of the most valuable skills a strongman athlete can develop is the ability to diagnose a problem quickly. Did you lose balance? Was the implement out of position? Did you lose tension? Did you rush the setup? Those questions give you something useful to work with before the next attempt.

Getting angry can create more intent, but it can also create new technical faults. You may complete the rep while moving farther away from the technique you actually want to reinforce.

Instead, take a few seconds and identify one thing you can change. Use a different cue, adjust your setup, correct the implement position, or change your strategy. Then take the next rep with a specific purpose.

This matters even more in competition. You will not always have familiar equipment, ideal conditions, or events that behave exactly like they did in training. When something goes wrong, you need to be able to process it quickly and make a useful adjustment.

Practice that skill during training. Miss the rep. Diagnose the cause. Make one correction. Execute again.

Do not chase the rep. Chase the cause.

When we're hitting rows, the intent of the row should be to build a massive back. We're trying to develop the musculature that moves the shoulder blades around on the torso and gets our arms back behind us so that we can pull ourselves toward other objects and pull other objects back into ourselves.

If we create a lot of movement in the torso to facilitate the movement of the weight, then that torso rotation is what we're training. We might see the muscles of the back work alongside the torso to some extent, but the only way to truly know that we're getting good hard work done with the back muscles is to isolate them away from the torso.

The rotation of the torso that we see in the video is one of the most common technical faults that I see giving athletes unilateral rolling movements. And it usually comes up as they try to force overload.

Try to have the discipline to keep the rib cage fixed in space and to make your body work to move the weight around that torso instead of moving the weight with that torso.

Give this technical change a shot for a block, and you’ll start to see your rows transfer to the rest of your game.

A lot of lifters are taught to press by forcing the elbows in, maintaining external rotation, and trying to keep everything as tight as possible.

The problem is that this can turn the movement into something dominated by elbow extension. Instead of using the entire pressing system effectively, you end up relying heavily on the triceps.

A barbell changes the mechanics because both hands are connected to the same implement. Once your hands are anchored to the bar, force produced by one side affects what happens on the other side.

This is where the scissor lift concept becomes useful.

When the triceps extend and the arms create force inward against the bar, the bar prevents the hands from simply moving toward each other. That force has to go somewhere.

The result is leverage that helps drive the bar upward.

Allowing some natural internal rotation can help create this position. You are not simply pushing with the elbows. You are using the shoulders, arms, and bar together as one connected system.

That does not mean shoulder position is irrelevant.

Scapular control still matters. The shoulders need enough stability to transfer force effectively while the arms produce the movement.

The goal is not to force your elbows into one universal position. The goal is to understand how your body and the implement interact so you can create the most effective pressing mechanics possible.

For some lifters, improving this coordination can immediately improve their press without any increase in strength.

Stop thinking about pressing as nothing more than extending your elbows. Learn how to use the entire system.

When coaches talk about creating tension, they're talking about something very specific. Tension is an isometric contraction. It's your ability to actively squeeze a muscle and hold a position without movement.

That muscle contraction creates stability and structure throughout the body. It helps you brace against external forces, maintain strong positions, and transfer force more efficiently during a lift or athletic movement.

The problem is that many athletes are told to "create more tension" without ever learning what that actually feels like. If you can't intentionally contract and hold a muscle, it becomes much harder to train that skill or improve it over time.

The good news is that tension is trainable. Practicing isometric contractions helps you build better body awareness, stronger positions, and more control when it matters most.

Remember this simple rule. Tension equals isometric contraction. The better you are at creating one, the better you'll be at creating the other.

A lot of athletes are quick to decide that an exercise does not work for them. Usually, that conclusion comes before they have learned how to perform the exercise well enough to actually judge it.

Every exercise in a program should have a specific objective. It might be there to improve a position, strengthen a weak range, build tolerance, develop coordination, or create a specific loading demand.

If the exercise is performed poorly, you are not really testing the exercise. You are testing your current ability to execute it.

There are legitimate reasons to make substitutions. An exercise may not fit an athlete's structure, injury history, equipment access, or current training needs. That is different from replacing something simply because it feels awkward or difficult.

Saying an exercise does not work implies that you have performed it correctly, given it enough time, and evaluated whether it produced the intended result. Most athletes have not gone through that process before deciding to replace it.

Technical mastery should come before exercise selection becomes a matter of preference.

Fix the rep first. Understand the objective. Then decide whether the exercise belongs in your program.

Box jump height is not the same thing as jump height.

A high box jump can come from several different qualities. Explosiveness off the floor matters, but so does how quickly you can flex your hips and pull your feet up underneath you.

That means two athletes can land on the same box without producing the same amount of vertical displacement. One athlete may actually move their hips higher through space, while another simply gets their feet up faster.

For strength athletes, the important quality is usually the force and explosiveness produced off the ground. That is the part of the movement we are trying to develop and transfer into sport performance.

The box still has an important purpose. It reduces the landing distance compared with a traditional jump, which can decrease the impact of each repetition and make it easier to accumulate quality jumping volume.

That can allow an athlete to perform more productive repetitions while managing fatigue and joint stress more effectively.

So the goal should not be to keep raising the box just to create a bigger number. Use the box as a tool to support better jump training, and pay attention to how much your body is actually moving off the floor.

A cramped deadlift setup is not always a mobility problem. Sometimes it starts with what your arms are doing on the way down to the bar.

When you bend your elbows during the setup, you effectively shorten your arms and reduce the amount of space available between your shoulders and the bar. That can make the bottom position feel tighter than it actually needs to be.

The bigger issue is that your elbows cannot stay bent once you start the pull. They have to straighten before the bar can move efficiently, which adds another variable between your setup position and the bar leaving the floor.

That extra movement can change your tension, shift your position, and make the start of the pull less consistent.

A better approach is to keep your arms long as you descend. Stay braced, push the hips back, and let your hands travel past your knees before you begin bending the knees more aggressively.

From there, keep lowering yourself until the bar naturally reaches your hands. You should not need to reach for it or manipulate your arm position to find it.

The goal is simple. Build a setup that requires as little correction as possible once you are ready to pull. Long arms give you more room to organize your position and reduce unnecessary movement before the bar breaks the floor.