Anyone who has been following my personal deadlift saga might remember that I was on a mission to fix some errors in my form by dropping the weight right down and concentrating on technique. Finally, I am back to the weight I was at before I began this journey: 90kg (which is 150% bodyweight). It […]

This is the fourth article in my series of Top 10 Functional Strength Exercises. The aim of this series is to introduce some of my favourite strength exercises, that people may not be aware of or may not have tried.
Many of these exercises are never featured in the mainstream fitness magazines or taught by the […]

Commenting on a fellow trainee’s form seems to be the ultimate no-no in today’s fitness clubs.
Recently I’ve seen some poor deadlifting form in my gym. Basic stuff: rounding of the lower back, hyper-extending at the top of the lift, that kind of thing. But gym etiquette dictates that you can’t say anything to people if […]

I’ve had some useful comments on my deadlift form, on this blog and elsewhere. Today was another deadlift day and I tried to put this advice into practice.
Here’s a clip of my first set today, lifting 60kg.
The issues I am addressing are:

Back angle - i.e. the angle my back makes with the floor. In previous […]

I admit I am sometimes guilty of ‘ego lifting’, i.e. lifting more than I can manage with perfect form just to be lifting heavier. You see it in every gym in the land but it’s a bad thing to do in the long run. After all, how cool is it to pop a disc in […]

Deadlift is my favourite lift at the moment and I am aiming really to increase it over the next few months.
Here’s a clip of me doing some light deadlifts, trying to maintain good form throughout.
The deadlift is probably the simplest concept there is: pick a big weight up off the floor. I don’t need to […]

I saw a snippet about the Tactical Strength Challenge competition in Ultra Fit magazine. There are three events: deadlift, pull-up and kettlebell snatch.
According to the website, the purpose of the Tactical Strength Challenge is to test absolute strength (deadlift), bodyweight-relative strength (pull-ups), and cardiovascular endurance (kettlebell snatches). The three events test a trade-off between these […]