6 Best Exercises for Strength

by Mike Robertson

Here's what you need to know...

1. Use power cleans to increase explosiveness on the field and court.
2. Do front squats to strengthen your quads and improve your vertical jump, help you decelerate, plant, and cut.
3. Use the trap bar deadlift instead of the conventional deadlift which requires more mobility. Strengthen your posterior chain.
4. Do close-grip bench pressing. Keeping your arms in tight translates better to the strength an athlete will need on the field.
5. Use resisted push-ups. They're similar to sporting movements that require you to control the upper back.
6. Chin-ups balance out all the pushing and pressing athletes do when they train.

Strength + Athleticism

Everyone can benefit from getting stronger. But for an athlete, there's a lot more to physical success than being strong in the weight room.

If you're a powerlifter, then squat, bench, and deadlift until the cows come home. If you're an Olympic lifter, snatch and clean and jerk repeatedly.

Related:  5/3/1 and Athletes

But if you're an athlete who wants to get strong while maintaining other critical qualities like power, speed, mobility, and general athleticism, these are your exercises.

#1  The Power Clean

Olympic lifts are fantastic for developing power and explosiveness. Can you develop it with med ball throws or jumping exercises? To a certain extent, sure. But these exercises belong more on the "speed-strength" side of the continuum.

The power clean is a great way for an athlete to improve or maintain explosiveness and power. If you're comfortable with it, make it a staple.

#2  The Front Squat

If you're an athlete, you need strong quads. Quads are critical not only for improving your vertical jump, but your ability to decelerate, plant, and cut as well.

However, quads are just the starting point. The front squat is an amazing anterior core exercise. You know how you can get totally caved over and still manage to finish a back squat? You can't do that with a front squat.

If your abs are weak, do a 2-3 month front squat cycle and you should walk away impressed with how much stronger and more stable your core and trunk are as a result.

The front squat also helps mobility. Front squatting ensures that you maintain ankle, knee, hip, and thoracic spine mobility. Make it a mainstay in your programs.

#3  The Trap Bar Deadlift

There's no way to downplay the deadlift's importance. For athletes, though, mobility could be a concern. Or they may not have adequate strength in the posterior chain to do conventional deadlifts safely and effectively.

The sumo deadlift doesn't work either as it doesn't get you into a very athletic position. This is why the trap bar deadlift is perfect.

When you use the high handles you can get into a very vertical tibia/inclined trunk position. This combo gives the trap bar or Dead-Squat™ Bar deadlift the potential to be very posterior chain dominant.

Related:  The Best Damn Posterior Chain Exercises

Trust me, if you work with enough athletes, you know they often have the posterior chain strength of Gwenyth Paltrow. They need stronger backsides, period.

Also, if you're an athlete who lacks mobility, the trap bar deadlift is a great starting point. It allows you to load your hips while addressing other mobility needs.

#4  The Close-Grip Bench Press

If your hands (or elbows) are out really far from your body and someone is coming to push you off your spot, you're going to lose.

But if you have your elbows and arms in tight to the body, you can maximize leverage, as well as effectively tying together the legs, trunk, and upper body.

The close-grip bench is an ideal exercise for building upper-body strength. I know the bench gets a bad rap, but there's something to be said for being flat-out stronger than your competition.

#5  Push-ups

As awesome as the close-grip bench press is for developing the upper body, it does have limitations. The biggest issue when benching is that even if your core and lower body are tight, they're rarely the limiting factor in your performance.

While close-grip benching is great for developing upper body strength, it doesn't tie that strength together by unifying the upper and lower body. Heavy, resisted push-ups do.

A well-executed push-up with the core stable and in neutral spinal alignment will absolutely crush your anterior core.

Try this little trick to get even more core development:

• Set up in the top position of a push-up and before you start moving.
• Exhale hard.
• Pull your head and neck back to get into a more "neutral neck" position.

Getting into a more ideal position through the neck and core will crank up the intensity.

The other huge benefit you get from performing a push-up versus a bench press is scapular stability. When you're doing a bench press, the goal is to "pin" your shoulder blades back and down. The scapulae are stable, but it's a very static kind of stability.

But a push-up is similar to actual sporting movements since you're forced to actively control the position of the scapulae.

Instead of simply pinning them back and down behind you, make sure they're moving appropriately and in the right place at the right time.

Finally, the push-up is a closed-chain pressing variation, meaning it's awesome for developing rotator cuff strength and stability.

Next time, instead of doing 3x15 shoulder external rotations with a Theratube to crush your rotator cuff, bang out 2-3 sets of high-quality push-ups.

You'll get more out of the exercise, and look infinitely more awesome to boot.

#6  Chin-ups

In most sports (and strength training programs), there's a ton of emphasis on pushing. All you have to do is observe the posture of someone who "presses" all the time, without balancing it out with upper back work, to see why this is an issue.

These athletes are a disaster waiting to happen. Chin-ups, however, will help balance out the equation.

Chin-ups also develop the lower trapezius. The lower trap is not only a key shoulder stabilizer, but (along with the upper trap and serratus anterior) constitutes one-third of the upward rotation force couple.

Related:  The Chin-Up Project

The key with chin-ups is that you need to focus on getting your chest to the bar and actively depressing your scapulae down.

Bottom line, if you only have a limited amount of time to strength train, at least some of that needs to be geared towards strengthening the upper back.

The chin-up will give you a ton of benefits and should be a staple in your athletic strength program.

Top 10 Exercises to Achieve an Athletic Build

An athletic build is desired by many, it is similar to that of a bodybuilder but they are not the same. While a bodybuilder is built for size and strength an athletes body is built for power, speed, quickness, explosiveness and agility. Typically the body of a bodybuilder is more bulky, sometimes VERY bulky. The body of an an athlete is usually more slight. Then there is a grey area where some athletes look like bodybuilders. If you want an athletic build you need to train like an athlete does. These are the top 10 exercises athletes do to give you an athletic build.

1) Power Cleans

Power cleans and other types of cleans are a mainstay in most athletic programs. Cleans are a total body exercise that use  your quads, calves, hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, deltoids, traps, and forearms, as well as the core muscles that come into play to stabilize your spine throughout the movement. Cleans develop power and explosiveness essential to an athlete. If an athlete could only do one exercise this would probably be it and if you can only do one exercise to achieve an athletic build this should be it as well.

2) Squats

Squats are the king of the lower body exercises. Any athlete who needs power in his lower body is doing squats. Don’t be one of those people with a built upper body and chicken legs. Squats  target a number of different muscle groups all over the body: the core muscles including the abdominals and lower back, the glutes, and the thigh muscles. Hit the squats hard and hit them often.

3) Bench Press

If the squats are king of the lower body the bench press is the king of the upper body. Athletes that need upper body power use this as a mainstay of their training. The bench works the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even the abs are used to help generate power and stability. Whether you do it with a barbell or dumbbells the bench press is a must.

4) Sprints

Sprints are another biggie in an athletes training, athletes not only want power and explosiveness but as the old saying goes “speed kills!”  Speed can be a huge asset to to many athletes, whether it is going deep on a  passing route, a fast break in basketball, or stealing second base in baseball, having speed is essential. Not only does sprinting build speed but doing sprints in interval training will burn fat like crazy which we talked about in this article. If you haven’t noticed pretty much all sprinters have athletic build.

5) Core Training

Athletes need to have a strong core and I am sure you are looking to have a six pack with your athletic build so you will need to do core training. Hanging leg raises, planks (both front and side) and crunches will get your core tight and strong.

6) Chin ups

Chin ups are common exercise for many athletes as part of their training to improve pulling movements, they will also help you get that nice  V-shape we all love.

7) Shoulder Press

Strong shoulders are a must in many sports for pushing movements. Shoulder presses not only work the deltoids but the triceps, lats and traps as well,  they are also a must for an athletic build.

8) Rows

Rows build strength for pulling movements useful in wrestling, football and other sports. They work primarily the lats and traps as well as the biceps and shoulders. Doing rows add thickness to the back muscles.

9) Close Grip Bench Press

The close grip bench is used for athletes to strengthen pushing movements, unlike the bench press the close grip bench press focuses on the triceps as the primary muscle rather than the chest.

10) Lunges

Lunges are widely used to build strength in the quads, glutes and hips. They will also help you get a nice round butt we all like.

Honorable mention- Plyometrics

Plyometrics are very popular with athletes to build explosiveness, quickness and agility. They involve many different jumps and other movements. The most common type of plyometrics you see a conventional gym is usually box jumps. Use caution when doing these as they can lead to injury if you are not in good shape or do them incorrectly.

There you have the top 10 exercises you need to get you an athletic body. Notice all the exercises on the list are compound movements that use multiple muscles at the same time.  Athletes generally do not do isolated movements like bicep curls or calf raises as part of their every day training, you can feel free to mix in movements like that if you desire however.

Ryan Douglas

The Truth about the Bench Press for Sports Performance

by Nick Tumminello
Date Released : 20 Nov 2012

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover why the bench press may not contribute significantly to improved athletic performance.
2. Learn why the force generation and muscle activation patterns are different when performing the bench press vs. performing the common upright pressing actions of sport.
3. Understand the difference between “Specific” (Functional) exercises vs. “General” exercises, and how both types of exercises can have positive functional performance benefits.
4. Learn 3 functional alternatives to the bench press to improve upright (standing) pushing strength.

The bench press is widely considered one of the “BIG” lifts. It has reached a credibility status that provokes many lifters to include it in their exercise program as a staple exercise.

The bench press is a lift many enjoy and it is also a must-do for power lifters since it is 1/3 of their entire sport. Additionally, while competing in a combine – an event where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of coaches, managers, and scouts - the bench press is a required test, which calls on the athlete to train with the bench press in order to prepare.

This article will explain why the bench press is one of the most over-emphasized and misunderstood exercises in the world of sports performance training because the benefits are very limited when it comes to improving the standing pushing actions needed for optimal sports performance. This article will also detail 3 bench press alternative exercises, which can be applied in training routines to improve performance.

Let’s be clear…

This article is not recommending any exerciser to stop using the bench press, especially if you enjoy using it!

This article is simply sharing a particular training approach, which utilizes exercises other than the bench press to prepare for the standing pushing forces needed in sport. It is also about providing some new insights on the bench press so one can better understand how it could best fit into an individualized sports strength program.

How Can You Challenge the Bench Press? 

How can you challenge the bench press when it has helped so many high school, college, and pro athletes? The bench press is an exercise that has not been challenged or analyzed below the surface by most. Perhaps this is because it has a great history in weight lifting, or because the bench press has been widely accepted for a significant amount of time, dating back to the 1930's.

That being said, the bench press is an exercise that has aided in athletic performance from high school to pro sports. However, there are numerous other contributing factors that have a much larger impact on athletic success. Listed below are a couple of the contributing factors to athletic success:

The high school athlete on nature’s steroids

High school males, ages 12-17, will likely get bigger and stronger no matter what they do (or don’t do) in their strength training routine because they have the anabolic advantage. When teenaged boys go through puberty (especially the later stages), they experience what is called the “strength spurt” in which their body drastically increases testosterone production, bone thickness, muscle mass and motor unit recruitment while decreasing body fat. Within a few years, this happens rapidly.

A good strength program can certainly teach teenagers good lifting habits and help them to build a solid work ethic. A resistance-training program can in fact accelerate their strength gains. However, it’s likely that any good strength-training stimulus will have the similar effects for the teenager experiencing this “strength spurt” filled with nature’s steroids.

Best at the sport, not best in the gym
Field, court and combat athletes (from high school to pro) excel at their sport because they are the best at playing their sport, not because they are the best in the gym.
The NFL combine results are proof of this. Out of the “Top 5 bench press records in NFL Combine history,” which actually consist of 8 players, only 1 athlete, Brodrick Bunkley (Florida State, 2006), experienced success in his sport. The other players either went undrafted, remain bench players, or displayed a poorer performance compared to their teammates.

The 2008 article titled, “Few recent combine stars have become productive NFL players” stated that:

“Seventeen of the 128 very best combine performers since 2000 went undrafted. Twelve of them never played in an NFL game. Forty-three weren't in the NFL last season. Ninety-five have started fewer than half of their potential regular-season games since they shined at the combine.”

In addition, out of the “10 Greatest Scouting Combine Performances in NFL History,” only half of the names on the list excelled in the NFL.

All of these athletes had some “raw” physical ability. The thing that separated the NFL heros from the other players was their ability to use their physical talent as a platform to express their skill to perform during the game.

In other words, physical ability, for example the amount that one can bench press, is irrelevant if you are not skilled at your sport.

What Strength & Conditioning Can and Can’t Do for an Athlete 

It’s for the above undeniable realities that make it completely unrealistic to credit any particular workout program, much less a specific exercise like the bench press, for the success any athletes achieves.

Put simply, strength and conditioning helps to give you the physical platform (i.e. fitness) to do what you already know how to do (i.e. perform your sport). Even teams that do not excel are including strength and conditioning in their workout routines. However, a player who can run fast is not beneficial if they are running to the wrong spot on the field, and a player’s strength does not help if they are pushing the opponent in the wrong direction.

If there is any credit to be given to a strength and conditioning program, it is for aiding in injury prevention and simply helping an athlete to get more gas in the tank (the conditioning) to express their skill throughout the entire competition.

Does the Bench Press Improve Standing Pushing Strength?

In 2007, Coach Juan Carlos Santana and Dr. Stuart McGill conducted a study titled,  "A kinetic and electromyographic comparison of the standing cable press and bench press."

“This study compared the single arm standing cable press (SASCP) and the traditional bench press (BP) to better understand the biomechanical limitations of pushing from a standing position together with the activation amplitudes of trunk and shoulder muscles."

Here are 2 findings from the study that are relevant to this article:

1. “Pushing forces from a standing position under ideal mechanical conditions are limited to 40.8% of the subject's body weight.”
2. “Our EMG findings show that SCP (standing cable press) performance is limited by the activation and neuromuscular coordination of torso muscles, not maximal muscle activation of the chest and shoulder muscles."

Both of these results reveal what we may have discovered already

First, unless a field, court or combat athlete is training for a combine, or any competition that includes the bench press, it is unneccesary to focus on maximal bench press strength. The principles of mathematics and physics make it impossible for anyone to come close to matching the bench press type of pushing force from a standing position, regardless of the stance the exercise is performed in.

Secondly, the limiting factor when pushing from a standing position is the stiffness of the torso muscles to maintain body position and to coordinate the hips and shoulders, while stabilizing the forces that the extremities (arms and legs) create. In other words, the standing pushing action is more of a total body exercise, whereas the bench press is more of an upper-body exercise.

Note: Although powerlifters use their hips and lower back to aid in their bench press, they are lying down and have their shoulders anchored on the bench.

Specific (Functional) vs. General Exercises

For the purposes of this article, the exercises can be classified as either "specific/functional" or "general". These terms are not an official classification of the exercises, however it is important to focus on the concepts rather than the terms. A combination of both functional and general exercises can be utilized in a sports performance workout in order to ensure that the program is fully comprehensive. Both types of exercises can contribute to improved performance.

General Exercises

"General" exercises, such as the bench press, incline press, and dumbbell press can be performed to indirectly help performance by increasing muscle mass, motor unit recruitment, bone density and connective tissue health. Exercises in this classification tend to involve more use of machines, or fixed exercises, to perform the exercise and isolate muscle groups.

Specific (Functional) Exercises

"Specific" exercises, such as those shown in the pictures below, can enhance the specific force development patterns involved in standing pushing movements, and improve the neuromuscular coordination involved with performing those patterns. These exercises mimic the specific movement of the skill required in the sport and most often incorporate total body strength movement, rather than an isolated strength movement.

According to Dr. Everett Harman in the Essentials of Strength & Conditioning, the reference book for the NSCA,"The concept of specificity, widely recognized in the field of resistance training, holds that training is most effective when resistance exercises are similar to the sport activity in which improvement is sought (the target activity)."

"The simplest and most straight forward way to implement the principle of specificity is to select exercise similar to the target activity with regard to the joints about which movement occurs and the direction of the movements. In addition, joints ranges of motion in the training should be at least as great as those in the target activity."

3 Functional Pushing Exercises for Athletes

Below are 3 “functional” pushing exercises, which incorporate a total body training stimulus and can train an athlete more effectively for a standing pushing motion, as compared to the bench press.

One Arm Push-Up

The one arm push-up is often considered the king of upper-body pushing exercises for sport. Although it is not performed from a standing position, it has a heavy involvement of the core, hips and lower body.

The one armed push-up promotes unilateral strength, recruits left/right side muscle balance and significant core activation. Generally speaking, a larger athlete that completes 4-6+ full range one arm push-up reps is performing exceptionally well. For a smaller athlete, completing at least 7-10+ one arm push-ups is excellent.

Figure 1 - One arm push-up.


Once the client has become proficient at completing one arm push-ups from the floor, they can progress to using a weighted vest and/or the foot elevated version as demonstrated here:

Figure 2 - One Arm Push-up - Feet Elevated (progression). 

Standing One Arm Cable Press

The standing one arm cable press is a training option for clients who are unable to perform a one arm push-up and is also a great complement to the one arm push-up.

If the client can perform the cable press exercise with correct form, it is beneficial to utilize a weight that provides enough of an overload to serve a strength routine.

Figure 3 - One Arm Cable Press


Angled Barbell Press

The Angled Barbell press (specifically the Landmine press in the photo below) is a complement to one arm push-ups or standing cable presses because the pushing angle can be performed in various angles.

Often times in sport, the athlete is required to push in various directions. Rather than pushing straight ahead, they may need to push slightly upward - for example, to control your opponent’s shoulders in MMA or to get underneath someone's shoulder pads in Football. This is a great exercise to improve strength while performing those actions.

Figure 4 - Angled Barbell Press (Landmine Press)


Conclusion

The bench press can help athletes as a general strengthening exercise and when applied properly, has many benefits. However, it is not a significant contributing factor to improving sports performance and athletic success. The majority of athletes possessing the top NFL Combine bench press results have not demonstrated to perform as top athletes in their sport, therefore, one can assume there are other significant contributors to success. Studies conducted by JC Santana and Dr. Stuart McGill have highlighted the important role that the torso and other muscles have when performing standing pushing motions similar to the movements required in sport. This indicates that athletes may greatly benefit when including "specific/functional" exercises such as one arm push-ups, one arm cable presses and angled barbell press in their strength routine to complement the "general" exercises, such as the bench press.

Below is a sample of how one can incorporate both general and specific exercises into a fully comprehensive, upper-body pushing strength workout to improve an athlete’s performance:

    1. One Arm Push-Ups  5 x 3 reps (per arm)
    2. Angled Barbell press  4 x 6-8 reps (per arm)
    3. Bench Press  4 x 6-10 reps
    4. Cable Flys  3 x 10-15 reps

Note: These exercises could (and should) be integrated with exercises that incorporate additional muscles and alternate movement patterns. To include all of these scenarios along with warm up and cool down protocols is far beyond the scope of this article.

References:

1. A kinetic and electromyographic comparison of the standing cable press and bench press. Santana JC, Vera-Garcia FJ, McGill SM. J Strength Cond Res. 2007 Nov;21(4):1271-7.

2. Essentials of Strength & Conditioning, By NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association, Human Kinetics, 2008

Fillers: Pairing Strength with Mobility

by Todd Bumgardner – 6/20/2012

I grew up in powerlifting gyms and played football into my early twenties. As reluctant as I am to admit it, this upbringing trained me to be a meathead.
I'll give you an example of my problem solving logic as a nineteen year-old. Every problem could be solved by getting stronger.
Can't squat deep? You're weak. Get stronger.
Low back hurt? Stop being soft. Get stronger.
Can't pick up chicks? It's because they think you're a pussy. Stop wearing your t-shirts tucked in. And get stronger.
Over the past few years, however, I've changed my focus a bit.
I'm still a big strength advocate, and I think toughness is something most people could use more of. But after some time, education, and experience, I've found there's a lot more to getting stronger than stacking plates and hitting more reps. Clean movement is just as important for continually gaining strength.

Fillers: An Introduction

A few years back I was reading an Alwyn Cosgrove article when something clicked. He explained that making a distinction between strength and mobility training is pointless. They're inseparably paired, each contributing to the other.
Around the same time, I was reading Eric Cressey's programming and noticed the mobilizations he used during rest periods. He, and several other established coaches, called them fillers.
These days, the term 'filler' is part of training vernacular. Back then, however, I was blown away. What a great idea! Fill time, keep sessions dense, and feel better.
At that point, though, I didn't understand how to pair the right lifts with the right mobilizations. And I didn't understand the dramatic effect mobility has on improving strength.
Observation, experimentation, learning more about biomechanics, and reading up on the nervous system gave me the insight to develop a pairing process.

A Match Made in Rehab

Matching mobilizations with activation exercises started in sports rehab and has been adapted to fit in the strength world.
I've made friends with chiropractors that specialize in rehab – not just cracking necks and cashing checks. When they describe their treatment process to me it usually goes as follows:

Find the faulty movement pattern and re-teach it while alleviating restrictions and improving mobility and stability.

That, of course, is my summary, most likely grossly over generalized. But it offers a simple template that we can apply for our own purpose – building mobility into our strength training sessions to add training density and improve big lift performance.
The treatment template above works from broad correction to narrow correction. That's how we can apply mobility exercises to serve as active rest between sets of strength exercises. Applying a specific mobilization will be narrow, but will improve our overall movement for a given strength movement.
Three principles will guide our mobility exercise selection for each strength lift:

• Improving sequencing
• Improving patterning
• Alleviating tension created by the strength exercise

Improving Sequencing

Muscles work in 'force couples' around a joint – agonists and antagonists, extensors in contrast to flexors, and vice versa. This arrangement allows for full joint range of motion with stability, but it can be limiting when trying to generate as much force as possible.
A tight, or short, antagonist limits the function of the agonist for a given movement. Not only will the tension in the antagonist limit joint range of motion, it'll also divert neural drive away from the agonist. Recruited before the agonist, synergists are bumped from the supporting cast to the main roles.
Relaxing the antagonist while improving its extensibility will improve sequencing and function of the agonist for a given movement.

Improving Joint Positioning and Patterning

I use the Joint-by-Joint approach to picture joint movement during lifts. If you're unfamiliar, it is the system of understanding mobility and stability developed by Gray Cook and Mike Boyle.
Here's a quick and dirty synopsis:

Joints are stacked in an alternating pattern moving from bottom to top. Joints that require stability are adjacent to joints that require mobility.

That's simple enough. We give joints that require mobility more range of motion while improving the stability of joints that move less. By doing so, we can better position our bodies at the beginning of the lift and through its completion. You move better within a given lift and put more weight on the bar.
However, you won't perform optimally if you can't put your body in good positions. The key is matching the right mobilizations with the right lifts to improve specific function.

Alleviating Tension

Joint and segmental stability require a lot of tension. During the lift this is good – it means that you're tight enough in the right places. Unfortunately, this tension can hang around even after the given lift, or session, is over.
Include drills that alleviate the tension during heavy lifts and you won't have to buy slip on shoes and look like Herman Munster when you turn in your chair.

A Grand Interplay

The grand interplay between strength and mobility is facilitated by several factors: joint range of motion, joint positioning, patterning, and sequencing. These qualities are inseparable – they affect each other at all times, improving or impairing performance for each lift.
For example, poor thoracic mobility while squatting mars hip positioning. Sequencing is skewed, the wrong muscles fire at the wrong time, and the squatting task is unevenly distributed. Performance on a given lift is both affected acutely and over time because of sub-par mobility. Tragically, the story ends with a lot of shoulda-coulda-wouldas.
To avoid this, address joint limiting factors between sets of your big movements. Below is a chart that I put together to help with predictable limiting factors for each movement.

Movement	Limiting Factors
Squat	Ankle dorsiflexion, thoracic spine mobility, hip mobility, anterior core strength
Bench	Upper-back strength/scapular stability, anterior hip mobility/hip stability, shoulder stability
Conventional Deadlift	Thoracic spine mobility, hip mobility, hamstring extensibility
Overhead Press	Thoracic spine mobility, shoulder stability, shoulder mobility, core stability

These are typical limiting factors – you may have one or more, you may have none. This is where training partners and taping your lifts come in handy. If you don't have access to a camera and lift alone, it's easiest to address them all.

Make the Match

Based on the potential limitations of each lift, and in the spirit of hoisting superior iron, here are solid strategies for adding mobility fillers to the big four lifts. Remember, the goal is performance. Pre-habilitation is great, and necessary, but we're here to kick ass.

Deadlift

Since the deadlift is all about starting strength, pre-lift positioning is big for promoting a successful lift. Check the chart above and you'll find thoracic spine mobility listed first as a limiting factor.
Poor t-spine mobility devastates positioning, so train thoracic movement frequently before and between sets. Here's how.

T-Spine Strategy:

• Train t-spine mobility, extension and rotation
• Before starting deadlift sets, train t-spine extension using bench t-spine extension mobilizations.

• As a filler during your deadlift sets, train thoracic extension with rotation. The quadruped extension rotation series works well to meet this end.

Train extension before pulling to prepare for a neutral set-up. I like to avoid stretching the lats during deadlift sets – even if the stretch is active, I'd rather not take the chance and lose lat tightness. That's why we use extension rotations as the filler during sets.
We also want the glutes to fire like a cannon. Screaming tight hip flexors limit glute recruitment, so we'll use active hip flexor mobilizations to quiet them down.

Hit sets of five to eight between all of your deadlift sets. If you have a side that doesn't extend and rotate as well, do more reps on that side.

Squat

The squat is a tricky vixen. Since the movement starts with full-body eccentric movement and reverses into a strong concentric movement, the mobility and stability needs change constantly. It's not as simple as grabbing a bar and standing up with it.
Though the squat starts with top-down movement, I like to insert fillers starting from the ground and moving up.

Ankle Strategy

Poor ankle dorsiflexion turns a squat into a grotesque good morning hybrid. It's always the first limiting factor I address during squatting. Active mobilizations, such as ankle rocks and wall mobilizations, work well as fillers because weight bearing is required. But I also like to pull the ankle into dorsiflexion while it's relaxed.

Pick a dorsiflexion move and hit five to eight reps between each squat set.

Avoiding the Knee Cave

Caving knees turn a powerful squat into something resembling the Carlton dance. Limited glute strength is a big player, but poor adductor extensibility also plays a role.
Pushing the knees out while 'spreading the floor' tracks the knees while creating tension and recruiting the posterior chain. As you sink into the squat, tight adductors will pull the knees in, causing them to cave. I use two strategies to avoid the knee cave.

• Simply foam roll your adductors between squat sets, as it's often enough to calm those bad boys down enough for your knees to track well and get better drive.

Sometimes, however, rolling isn't enough and mobilization is warranted. You need a great adductor mobilization drill. Here's one I picked up from Steve Maxwell. It trains adductor length and internal rotation simultaneously.

Bench Press

Most great benchers have a great arch. It looks like the bench is the only thing stopping them from rolling completely into a circle. I've worked for years, training myself to arch this way, but it just won't happen. Scoliosis is a mean bitch.
An impressive arch requires spinal extension out the wazoo. But it also requires something many lifters forget, namely glute drive. This is especially true for those of us without an impressively mobile spine.
Benching with rigid glutes facilitates your arch by giving you better leg drive. As a result, you'll set up higher on your shoulders. Activated glutes also keep you stable on the bench.
For these reasons, I like to include glute activation in between sets of bench, especially when a lifter is learning to arch.
Typically, I use lateral activation drills or glute bridging variations. See the videos below.

Upper-back tightness necessary for heavy bench efforts locks up the t-spine. To perform well on squat and deadlift efforts, you have to keep your t-spine moving freely about.
Including thoracic mobility drills between bench sets is the best strategy I've found to keep heavy bench training from affecting squat and deadlift training. The drills included during the deadlift section work well, but standing thoracic mobilizations are great in concert with glute activation drills because they alleviate tension in the lower back.

Overhead Press

The rest between overhead pressing sets is free time. Rather than spend it updating your Facebook status about your latest PR attempt (you know who you are), this is a great time to address mobility and stability weaknesses that can pay dividends in the rest of your training.
If you press at the beginning of the week, use t-spine mobility drills and glute activation exercises as your fillers. T-spine drills keep your scapulae moving well, and glute activation sets anchor your hips and core so you can press with optimal force.

Conclusion

Mobility fillers help improve patterning, improve sequencing, and keep unnecessary tension from affecting future lifts. Pairing strength with mobility is a no brainer – even for this meathead.