8/8/2017 5 Primer Exercises to Boost Your Big Lifts | T Nation

5 Primer Exercises to Boost Your Big Lifts

Tricky Ways to Safely Deadlift, Bench, and Squat More Weight
by Dr John Rusin | 06/15/16

Beyond the Warm Up

While a good warm up plays a pivotal roll in physical preparation and injury prevention, it's not the most important training factor. What
you do directly after the warm up and before you hit the big lifts is what matters most. Chances are, you're not doing it!

The Most Effective Way to Order Your Exercises

It's not set in stone that you need to do your big compound movement like squats, deadlifts, and bench press first in your training day.
Sure, in some cases, doing the multi-joint exercise that also requires a high level of central nervous system response first is appropriate.

But for most lifters who have goals of building muscle and getting progressively stronger over time, pushing the big lifts back in your
workout can drastically enhance the feel and function of those big movements.

The most effective way to order your exercises is to include a "primer movement" between your warm up and your first big compound
movement of the day. This primer movement serves as an extended "warm up" and lubricates joints, activates specific musculature, and
hones movement patterns before challenging your body with near maximal effort sets.

Here are the best primer movements for each type of training day. If you're training full body, pick one. Or hell, incorporate all of them
into your primer routine in giant-set style.

Lower Body Primers

The posterior chain is the most common weak point for lifters. For one, we spend hours sitting on our asses, placing occlusive pressures
over the gluteal and hamstring groups, along with functionally shortening the anterior structures of the legs, hips, and pelvis.

This is the exact reason why we need to prime the hamstrings and glutes. Posterior chain primers also help to further lubricate the hip
and knee joints while activating stabilizing musculatures that play a key role in clean and crisp compound movements like the squat and
hip hinge.

Since the hams and glutes don't get enough credit for their roll in stabilization of the hips, pelvis, and knees, placing a "first things first"
mentality into your leg day can be a game changer. The go-to movements for lower body primers are the hamstring curl on an exercise
ball and the hip thrust. (https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-hip-thrusts-for-better-glutes)

Hamstring Curl on Ball

VIDEO

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Do these movements with a slow tempo and higher reps. It's not necessarily the exact exercise that's important but rather the intention
you execute these movements with. Tap into your mind-muscle connection and work these tissues hard with some volume and minimal
rest periods to get your lower body training going for the day.

Pressing Primers
The best way to start your push-emphasis training days such as bench press day is to prime the stabilizers of the shoulders, rotator
cuffs, and upper back.

The rotator cuff stabilizes the true shoulder joint as well as positions the gleno-humeral joint for maximal centration so the bigger prime
movers can do their jobs more effectively.

Since many lifters are spending hours sitting with a forward and rounded posture, the anterior cuff and internal rotators of the shoulder
usually aren't in need of priming. As such, we need to go to the backside of the body.

The banded pull-apart (https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-band-pull-aparts) and cable face-pull work well here. The key is to train a
stable shoulder blade with a dynamic gleno-humeral joint, which is usually one hell of a challenge for lifters, especially those with
banged-up wings from years of pressing.

Cable Face-Pull
VIDEO

The cable face-pull trains both the static and dynamic stability of the shoulder blade, along with the gleno-humeral joint, which makes it
more of a "catch all" movement. Also, it involves more moving parts, which makes it a higher-level skill acquisition movement, and that's
exactly what we want when re-learning how to position and stabilize the shoulders.

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Program the face-pull with higher set and rep schemes of around 10-15 reps with minimal rest periods. This will go a long way to provide
the active joints with the motor oil they need to function properly while making sure the prime stabilizers are all active. Stay smooth on
the execution. Work the pump and "feel" the muscles working.

Pulling Primers
Place a stretch-based back movement before any big pulling movements on back day or any pull-emphasis lifting. This primer reverts
your body into a normal posture by getting you into the opposite positions you most likely spend most of your day in.

The single most effective movement to prime the back is the straight-arm pulldown and its variations. This movement involves isolating
the latissimus dorsi. In most cases, it's functionally shortened. Doing both an end-range stretch along with a peak concentric contraction
works wonders.

Doing a static hip hinge hold to pre-stretch the lats and practice one of the most butchered foundational movement patterns is also highly
advantageous. Hinging over at the hips also allows for a greater overhead range of motion to really tap into the end range for the lats at
the top of the movements.

Straight-Arm Pulldown
VIDEO

The straight-arm pulldown is based on internal tension. If you're using a cable stack, it's less about the external load you're placing on
the tissues and more about how you're building and bracing your tension throughout a full range of motion throughout the set.

As you'll see, this movement will be humbling, so make sure you set your ego aside and train this exercise for the feel and pump.

Related: The Most Intelligent Way to Warm Up

(https://www.t-nation.com/training/most-intelligent-way-to-warm-up)
Related: The 6 Best Warm Ups for Big Lifts
(https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-5-best-warm-ups-for-big-lifts)

Dr John Rusin

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Dr. John Rusin is an internationally recognized performance and fitness expert specializing in injury prevention and rehabilitation. He
is also the author of Dr. John Rusin's 12-Week Functional Hypertrophy Training Program (https://drjohnrusin.com/fht-program/) .
(https://facebook.com/drjohnrusin)

Follow Dr John Rusin on Facebook (https://facebook.com/drjohnrusin)

06/15/16

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