But we are still animals – our physical existence is, in the final analysis, the only one that actually matters. A weak man is not as happy as that same man would be if he were strong. (Location 48)
2 Strength: Why and How Why barbells? (Location 69)
The reason that isolated body-part training on machines doesn’t work is the same reason that barbells work so well, better than any other tools we can use to gain strength. The human body functions as a complete system — it works that way, and it likes to be trained that way. (Location 105)
Properly performed, full range-of-motion barbell exercises are essentially the functional expression of human skeletal and muscular anatomy under a load. (Location 114)
Strength: Why and How (Location 127)
After all, the bones are what ultimately support the weight on the bar. Bone is living, stress-responsive tissue, just like muscle, ligament, tendon, skin, nerve, and brain. It adapts to stress just like any other tissue, and becomes denser and harder in response to heavier weight (Location 133)
6 The Squat
Basic Barbell Training The squat has been the most important yet most poorly understood exercise in the training arsenal for a very long time. (Location 158)
Any squat that is not deep is a partial squat, and partial squats stress the knee and the quadriceps without stressing the glutes, the adductors, and the hamstrings. (Location 194)
The depth is the key: partial (high) squats are predominately quadriceps/anterior, and lack balance. (Location 204)
All over the world, weightlifters squat way below parallel safely, most often using some form of the exercise, either back squats or front squats, every day. (Location 237)
The squat begins at the rack, or the squat stands, whichever is available. Set the rack height so that the bar in the rack is at about the level of your mid-sternum. (Location 254)
Use your elbows to stretch into the correct position at the bottom. The femurs are parallel to the feet, feet are flat on the ground at the correct angle, hips are back, knees are just a little forward of the toes, and the back is at an angle that will place the bar over the middle of the foot, about 45 degrees. (Location 279)
your knees are shoved out to where they are in a parallel line with your feet, and your knees are just a little in front of your toes. (Location 283)
After the b o t t o m position has b e e n established, c o m e up o u t of t h e b o t t o m by driving your b u t t straight up in the air. U p , n o t forward. (Location 321)
Deadlift
The stance for the deadlift is about the same as the stance for a flat-footed vertical jump, about 12-15 inches between the heels with the toes pointed very slightly out. (Location 1986)
The bar should be about two or three inches from your shins. This is enough room for the knees to travel forward to a position just in front of the bar as you lower into the starting position, but not so much that the bar is too far away to pull. This (Location 1992)
Once this correct stance has been assumed, grip the bar, double-overhand, at a width that places your hands just wide enough that your thumbs clear your legs (Location 1995)
Basically, if you place the middle of your feet directly under the bar in the correct stance (this may take a second pair of eyes the first time), take your grip, drop your knees forward until your shins touch the bar without rolling it forward out of position, and then squeeze your chest up until your back is tight in extension, you should be in the right position to pull. (Location 2000)
the bar is touching the shins with the feet flat on the floor in a position that places the bar over the middle of the foot • the back is in good lumbar and thoracic extension • the spine of the scapula is directly over the bar • the elbows are completely straight This will be the correct starting position for everybody, (Location 2198)
The correct sequence off the floor. A. Starting position, B. Knees extend, opening the knee angle. C. Once the bar is above the knees, the hip angle opens, carrying the bar up to the finish position, (Location 2252)