Cues That Will Fundamentally Change The Way You Lift

In writing my upcoming book, Hard Gains, I included some lifting principles, which I believe can put an end to debates regarding how to perform certain exercises. This is not an exhaustive list of principles contained within the book, so be sure to look out for it, once it is published.

Stacking Joints

Stacking joints is an important concept, particularly when it comes to compound movements. This principle refers to how we find our footing for a squat, or how we grip the bar on a bench press, for example. This principle applies to any movement involving taking a load upwards.

On the bench press, for example, adopting a grip that involves stacking the elbow directly under the wrist at the bottom of the movement. This seems counter intuitive, as somehow a wider grip has this mental association with targeting the chest, but in fact, the opposite is true.

Stacking joints in this manner facilitates better performance, as power is not leaked, prior to the muscle reaching failure. Breaking this alignment, leads to micro-movements to compensate for leaked power, leading to failure, prior to maxing out on the target muscle’s potential.

Wider Grips do Not Equate to a Wider Look

This is a mental association that I see so many lifters become guilty of. Whether it is a lat pulldown, or a bench press, excessively wide grips actually impeded your range of motion, limiting the involvement of the target muscles. For example, an excessively wide grip on the bench press, actually results in a shorter range of motion, limiting, the stretch exerted on the pectoral.

Conversely, a narrow grip will change a chest focused exercise to a tricep dominant exercise. The answer lies somewhere in the middle where a moderate grip, not only leads to better performance on the exercise, but is also the correct way to target the intended working muscle.

The Law of Gravity

What goes up, must come down. This is one of the earliest laws of physics, anyone will learn, with even the most basic of childhood education. Yet this is a principle we forget all the time when it comes to discussing form, and exercise variations. Let’s first take form.

When performing the overhead press, squat, deadlift, barbell row, dumbbell row, etc, the most resistance will be placed on our target muscles, by moving the bar in a vertical up and down fashion. Any deviation from this, will take us out of an efficient bar path. The one exception to this is the bench press, where a slight angle is added to the bar path, to compensate for a back arch.

But then what about exercises like dumbbell flys, lateral raises, etc where the path of the load is in a more circular fashion?

I would argue that when you have access to free weights, cables and machines; only vertical load paths should lead to free-weight exercises. For movements like flys, lateral raises, reverse flys, etc, these movements should ideally be performed with cables and/or machines.

On these variations, the cable and machine can move in any path it wants, whilst the weight stack moves in a strict vertical fashion. On cables and machines, the law of gravity is constantly observed, leading to constant tension. Any free weight variation of a fly, lateral raise, etc, will involve moments of lost tension on the target muscle.

Additional Cues

These cues are just some of the lifting principles I outline in my first fitness book, Hard Gains. Simplifying muscle gain for the Hardgainer.