3 KILLER "Weak Point" Exercises to Blast Your Bench, Squat and Deadlift

 



You're only as strong as your weakest link...and nowhere does this apply more than to the "Big Three" lifts.

Because once you eliminate weak points, you will unleash MASSIVE gains in strength in those target exercises.

Your body becomes capable of lifting MORE weight through the entire range of motion of the exercise once you attack and destroy your weakness.

Check out the exercises below and give them a try!

 

 

 

Power Through Your Sticking Point
With the Flat Bench "Floor" Press

 

 

TARGET WEAK POINT: Sticking Point of the Bench Press

If you have trouble getting past the sticking point of the bench press (which is normally a few inches off the bottom of the press), this is a great exercise to help you power through it.

The range of motion is shorter than a regular barbell press...the positioning of the arms at the bottom of this exercise is generally right AT the sticking point of the bench press where the leverage in the shoulder changes.

And yes, you CAN do this exercise on the floor...in fact, it's normally done on the floor. This version brings you up off the floor but works in exactly the same way.

I developed this one because I didn't have a good way to safely perform barbell floor presses with my rack...the bottom rails were too high off the ground to allow me to do the exercise effectively.

THIS version is just as effective...more so, I think, in that it allows you to drop the hips and open up the rib cage, as well as being better able to use your legs to generate additional power for the press.

Set your flat bench in the rack, parallel to the bar. You'll want to set the safety rails to just below the bottom point in the range of motion here (try it with just the empty bar the first time you do it to get a gauge of the setup).

Sit on the bench.

Now move your hips forward off the bench and squat down, resting your upper back (across the shoulders) on the bench. Unrack the bar as you normally would.

Lower the bar until your upper arms are resting flat on the bench. Take tension off the pecs, letting the bar be fully supported by your forearms and bench.

GOOD TIP: I like to actively press the elbows into the bench to help activate the muscles of the upper back. This gets the shoulder blades back, which puts the body in perfect position for pressing.

Re-engage the pecs, then press up out the bottom with a smooth, powerful movement. Don't try and pop it off the bottom...squeeze it off the bottom.

Perform your reps, then re-rack the bar. I would recommend 4 to 6 reps for this one. Start light the first time you do it, to get an idea of how it's done, then move up in weight until you're getting close to failure (but not TO failure) in that rep range.

As you can see in the pics, my hips are down a bit below the level of the bench with the knees bent a little past 90 degrees. This helps lock the body in a good position for pressing...better than the floor, I find.

 

 

Stiff-Legged Deadlift Partials for
ELIMINATING Lockout Issues

 

 

TARGET WEAK POINT: Deadlift Lockouts

This exercise is INCREDIBLY effective for developing lockout strength in the deadlift. The movement and tension pattern it hits will help you basically destroy lockout weakness in your deadlift.

This exercise is just the top 1/4 of the Stiff-Legged Deadlift movement, done in the power rack but with a very important focus...instead of focusing on the hamstrings, you'll instead be pulling your upper back into a highly-contracted position THEN performing the movement.

This is going to put the majority of the tension on those upper back muscles so that they get worked with about double the weight (or more) that they normally would with a rowing exercise. And as you can imagine, this works VERY well.

The position at the shoulders resembles the top of a row (shoulders back) even though the arms stay straight.

Now, what targets the LOCKOUT is that once those upper back muscles are contracted and locked in, they don't contribute to the lockout movement itself as you lift the bar off the rails.

That is going to be ALL lower back, glutes and hamstrings....you're basically using the "lockdown" to take the upper back out of "movement" part of the exercise and just hit it isometrically.

One of the problems with rack pulls is the tendency to (1) leverage the bar off the thighs and (2) use the upper back and traps to shrug the bar up. This exercise takes BOTH of those tendencies away.

I have to say, I just LOVE this one because in addition to targeting lockout strength, it's great for building upper back thickness and for developing strength in the deep, stabilizing muscles of the back (upper to lower).

So first, you should be comfortable with the Stiff-Legged Deadlift exercise in general before doing this.

Set the pins in the power rack to just above knee height and load the bar. Use a weight you could do for at least 3 to 5 full reps on the full range stiff-legged deadlift when you try this for the first time. You can increase this once you get comfortable with the exercise.

Now here's the important part...once you've gripped on the bar, lock your elbows then pull your chest towards the bar. Pull your shoulders back, contracting all your back muscles HARD and lock them there.

You want to strive to keep this shoulders-back position through the entire movement as that's that real valuable part of this exercise.

Now lift the bar off the rails - squeeze it off, don't blast it off in one shot. You want to basically pull some bend into the bar then squeeze the bar off the rails.

Keep your shoulders BACK and TIGHT. You'll feel the tension of the weight trying to pull your shoulders forward...do your absolute best to keep them back using those muscles of the back. This will force a strong contraction in your upper back and will force your lower back and glutes to kick in to perform the movement.

Here's a closer view of the back contraction. The first picture is with arms locked out and upper back rounded over. The second picture shows me pulling my chest in towards the bar (with arms locked straight), which forces the shoulder blades back. Then lock and lift.

This exercise is also going to help your regular deadlift in that it'll help prevent your thoracic (upper) spine from curving forward too much, especially at the lockout. By building upper back strength, you can help minimize that curving and make heavy deadlifting safer. This is actually the reason I originally came up with this exercise...I was finding when I was doing deadlifts and hitting 550 lbs or more, my thoracic spine was rounding more than I'd liked.

Set the bar fully on the rails on each rep. This is important because you'll want to reset your upper back "contraction" position on every single rep, before you go again.

The first time you do this one, you'll feel exactly how it's supposed to work. Pull your chest towards the bar, lock your shoulders back, then lift. Keep that lower back arched the whole way, too and keep your core tight. I also recommend holding your breath during the first part of the movement to keep your torso solid and stabilized.


This is a GREAT exercise for lockout strength and building thickness in the upper back. I'm actually kind of addicted to it, to be honest.

This is also a great exercise for increasing your bench press...after all, the thicker your back is, the shorter the range of motion the bar has to go in a bench press.

Primarily, though, a strong back that can keep the shoulders pinned tighter behind your back, forming a more solid platform to press from and keeping your shoulders in the optimal pressing position. The strength you build here means that even when heavy weight tries to flatten your torso out, you'll have the upper back strength to maintain that shoulder position.

 

 

Develop STEEL-GIRDER Core Strength
With One-Shoulder Barbell Squats

 

 

TARGET WEAK POINT: Core Strength on Squats and Deadlifts

This exercise addresses core stability and strength by utilizing a single-side load on the body during a squat. This immediately activates the deep muscles of the core (obliques and transversus) to lock the torso into position.

This exercise is EXTREMELY effective at targeting the stabilizing and core strength functions of the abs. You'll be doing a barbell squat but instead of supporting the bar across your back in a "normal" fashion, you will instead be resting it on one shoulder, standing perpendicular to the bar.

It's going to primarily hit one side of the abdominal wall and hit it in conjunction with a squatting movement, which means this is a VERY functional exercise. More so than most abdominal exercises, in fact!

As you can see, I'm facing sideways in the rack. The safety rails are set at a moderate position (not a full depth squat). You'll be starting off from the bottom of the movement with the bar resting on the rails and, for best results, you don't want to be starting at the bottom of a full squat - it's low, but not too low.

I would recommend using a bar pad for cushioning or a rolled-up towel.

Your shoulder is set as dead-center on the bar as you can manage (you'll be able to feel the balance point on the first rep and adjust from there).

You want to have your hands out in front of you and locked onto the bar to help control it. You can use upwards or downwards pressure to adjust the balance as you stand up.

Do you reps on one side, rest, then repeat on the other side. Aim for 4 to 6 reps on each side. This isn't endurance training - you want to use a challenging load to really develop core strength.

It's a very straightforward exercise that will have a HUGE impact on not only your entire abdominal area but your entire BODY as well. Supporting the weight in this off-center fashion challenges not only the abs but the shoulder girdle and legs as well.

It's truly a total-body ab exercise!

 

Love these exercises! So how do I work them into
a program to build MONSTER strength FAST?