I recently talked about using controlled cheating to get a rep started.
My point was not to advocate cheating where you do whatever contortions necessary to get the weight up.
If you cannot get the weight up after a slight body english, then dial the weight down.
The cheating must be controlled.
I also recommended not cheating at all for exercises like squats and dead lifts.
Yet these exercises have the same limitations as the others - namely that, you are weakest at the start.
With the full squat, you are weakest when you are in the deepest hole! The answer is half rep on a power rack.
Power racks are beautiful.
Admittedly, for those at home, power racks may not be an option but for those at a gym; you must use it and use it a lot.
The power rack is your path to getting freakishly strong (for you that is).
1.
Squat - Stand inside a power rack with an empty barbell on your shoulders; I want you to squat down about a foot.
From there, look at where the pins and adjust the safety pins to a hole about 2 inches below where you stopped.
The great thing about the power rack is that you no longer need to worry about racking the weights.
Where the safety pins are is where your barbell will rest.
Warm-up with a couple of sets and you can seriously half-squat a lot of weights.
2.
Dead lift - You should adjust the safety pins, so that the barbell is about knee height.
Again, your objective is to start the exercise past the point where you are weakest.
The weakest range is generally between your ankle and your knees.
So like the squat, from this half position, you can load the weight and reach deep into those muscle fibers.
3.
Bench Press - As with the squat, you should use an empty barbell to measure where the safety pins should go.
In this case, your start point should be when your upper arms are parallel to the ground.
On a side note, your forearms should be perpendicular to the ground when your upper arms are parallel to the ground.
You are very strong in this position.
You can use the power rack for almost any exercise to do half reps.
The key is to use the safety pins to move the start point past your weakest position.
Rationale is simply that to get strong, you must use the heaviest weights possible.
But, here is a very important caveat.
The goal is to get strong, not to stroke your ego.
In general, you should use these half rep movements every third or fourth workout.
The weights will be heavy and you will need to give your tendons and ligaments extra time to recovery.
Also, these exercises are not intended to replace full range of motion and development but to supplement it.
And that is a critical point.
My point was not to advocate cheating where you do whatever contortions necessary to get the weight up.
If you cannot get the weight up after a slight body english, then dial the weight down.
The cheating must be controlled.
I also recommended not cheating at all for exercises like squats and dead lifts.
Yet these exercises have the same limitations as the others - namely that, you are weakest at the start.
With the full squat, you are weakest when you are in the deepest hole! The answer is half rep on a power rack.
Power racks are beautiful.
Admittedly, for those at home, power racks may not be an option but for those at a gym; you must use it and use it a lot.
The power rack is your path to getting freakishly strong (for you that is).
1.
Squat - Stand inside a power rack with an empty barbell on your shoulders; I want you to squat down about a foot.
From there, look at where the pins and adjust the safety pins to a hole about 2 inches below where you stopped.
The great thing about the power rack is that you no longer need to worry about racking the weights.
Where the safety pins are is where your barbell will rest.
Warm-up with a couple of sets and you can seriously half-squat a lot of weights.
2.
Dead lift - You should adjust the safety pins, so that the barbell is about knee height.
Again, your objective is to start the exercise past the point where you are weakest.
The weakest range is generally between your ankle and your knees.
So like the squat, from this half position, you can load the weight and reach deep into those muscle fibers.
3.
Bench Press - As with the squat, you should use an empty barbell to measure where the safety pins should go.
In this case, your start point should be when your upper arms are parallel to the ground.
On a side note, your forearms should be perpendicular to the ground when your upper arms are parallel to the ground.
You are very strong in this position.
You can use the power rack for almost any exercise to do half reps.
The key is to use the safety pins to move the start point past your weakest position.
Rationale is simply that to get strong, you must use the heaviest weights possible.
But, here is a very important caveat.
The goal is to get strong, not to stroke your ego.
In general, you should use these half rep movements every third or fourth workout.
The weights will be heavy and you will need to give your tendons and ligaments extra time to recovery.
Also, these exercises are not intended to replace full range of motion and development but to supplement it.
And that is a critical point.