Bodyweight Isometrics for Improved Strength

(No, Really!)

by Adam Vogel and Michael Campanella – 1/20/2012

We already know what you're thinking.

"Bodyweight isometrics in my strength program? You've got to be kidding me!"

If we were trying to come up with an article topic that would simultaneously draw the ire of the entire strength and conditioning world, destroy our credibility, and raise the estrogen levels of anyone unfortunate enough to lay their eyes upon it, bodyweight isometrics would hit the bull's-eye.
Hear us out. We're not suggesting that you trade in your Chuck's for stretchy yoga pants and soy lattes. We're not even suggesting that you change a single repetition in your weight-training program at all.
This article is about leveraging the benefits of an extremely powerful training tool that's been used by bodybuilders, Russian power athletes, and Olympic gymnasts for centuries. So wipe out any preconceived notions you might have of what bodyweight training is all about.

Enter the World of Isometrics

Bodybuilding legend Charles Atlas first introduced isometrics to the fitness world in the 1920s under the term, "dynamic tension." Atlas seemingly did quite well for himself with isometrics, earning both a reputation for being the best-built man in the world and a small fortune from sales of his program detailing how to use them.
The popularity of isometrics surged again in the 1950s after a study by Hettinger and Mueller showed that a small dose of daily isometrics could increase strength by 5% per week for up to 10 weeks. But somewhere between the 1960s and today, isometrics seemingly disappeared from mass circulation.
Although isometrics have managed to maintain their popularity among power athletes, their role has been significantly downgraded to the rehabilitative setting and breast enhancement programs for flat-chested women.

The Way of the Isometric

Adequately defining isometrics can be problematic; the best we can do is to say that it's a movement. As such, it occurs when the force produced by a muscle is exactly equal to the external load imposed on it. But that's not to say that there's no movement at all.
I think the Bee Gee's said it best when they observed that when an "irresistible force meets an immovable object... blood starts to flow." And it does, as do nerve impulses, calcium ions, sliding actin, and myosin filaments, as well as all the other internal processes that must occur to produce a muscular contraction.
The carryover benefits of isometric training on dynamic lifts have been well documented. For decades, Russian coaches have advocated a strength regime that consists of 75% concentrics, 15% eccentrics, and 10% isometrics.
Why would the Russians devote so much time to this style of training?
Because they knew (and we know) that isometric exercises can be more effective than dynamic ones for building strength movements that require muscle contractions of large magnitude during particular stages.
Where would that fit into weight training? Perhaps at the bottom of a deadlift, the midpoint of a bench press, or the lock out in an overhead jerk?
During a dynamic exercise, the application of maximal force that can be achieved at any one joint angle is transient at best. Static contractions, on the other hand, allow you to focus on a specific joint angle and blast it with the type of sustained stress necessary for neuromuscular adaptations to occur.
As an additional benefit, many claim the strength that's produced at any particular joint angle has a 10-15% carryover above and below that position.

Iso-Methods

There are many different ways you can add isometrics into your program, depending on your goals. Powerlifters and strength athletes have used chopped-up versions of their competition lifts to perform static holds with maximal weight in a position of emphasis.
This is usually accomplished by performing overcoming isometrics, in which the bar is pushed or pulled against an immovable object like a squat rack, or yielding isometrics, where a maximal weight is prevented from falling to the ground.
While these methods can be an incredibly effective means for building strength and power for these particular patterns, the lack of a need for body awareness or strategic placement makes them less applicable for non-strength athletes like football players, MMA fighters, or for general physical preparedness.
One method to address this is to pair static gymnastics-based holds with our athlete's dynamic exercises. Using these types of holds allows for similar levels of muscle activation as standard isometric movements, but with the added benefit of improving overall body control, core activation, and body awareness.
If you have any doubts, spend two-minutes watching a collegiate level or higher gymnastic meet and you'll quickly come around. Not only do they look like bodybuilders, with well-defined muscles and incredibly low body fat levels, they're also some of the strongest pound-for-pound athletes in the world.
The weightroom exploits of gymnasts are legendary. Consider 140-pound gymnasts who could crush 300-pound + bench presses and triple-bodyweight deadlifts without ever having touched a weight in practice before. Conversely, there aren't many 300-pound bench-pressers rocking iron crosses their first time out.
Below are three gymnastics-based exercises that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

L-Sits and Front Levers

L-Sits

The L-sit is a staple exercise in gymnastics core-conditioning programs, forming the basis for the more advanced parallel bar and ring maneuvers. It includes elements of active posterior chain flexibility, static abdominal strength, and a remarkable level of shoulder girdle and upper arm support strength.
L-sits are probably the most humbling abdominal exercise on the planet. No amount of sit-ups, bent-leg raises, or front planks can ever truly prepare you for the feelings of feebleness that accompanies most people's first attempt with this exercise.
The L-sit is pure badassery. Along with forging a set of Kevlar-coated abdominals, working the L-Sit position can do wonders for your front squat, deadlift, and any other exercise that relies on hip flexor and knee extensor strength.
Here's a great progression that will get you started on your journey toward building a strong and functional midsection:

Phase One: Tuck Hold

Support yourself between two benches with your arms straight, and torso in an upright position. Raise both legs (bent) to at least parallel, if not a little higher.

Phase Two: Low L-Sit

Using the same setup, raise both legs (straight) to a level just below parallel. This will pull the quadriceps more into the mix, setting you up for the next variation.

Phase Three: Full L-Sit

The full L-sit is usually performed from the floor. The goal here is to keep both your legs off the ground, at or above hip height for 5-10 seconds. Once you've mastered the L-sit, make sure to congratulate yourself as this is no small task – you've officially earned the privilege to refer to your abs as a "Situation."

Note on progressions: The goal is to accumulate 60 seconds in each hold. This could be 10 sets of 6 seconds, 6 sets of 10 seconds, or 3 sets of 20 seconds – it doesn't really matter. Once you can hold the position for 30 seconds straight, continue to the next progression.

Front Levers

The front lever is the gold standard in total body strength development, requiring upper body pulling power, core control, and the ability to subjugate the physical properties of the universe by sheer force of will.
It involves holding your entire body in a rigid horizontal plank on a pull-up bar, with your arms straight and your back parallel to the floor, giving you the Jedi-like appearance of floating on air. Achieving this position requires a Herculean effort from your lats, abdominals, hip flexors, and scapular stabilizers.
This is one of the hardest total body exercises out there, so a tight progression that works up to the final product is a must. Before you jump into hanging variations of the front lever, it's helpful to get a "feel" for the exercise by practicing the basic positions on a bench or the ground first.

Tucked Front Lever to Single-leg Lever

Beginning from an inverted hang position, slowly lower your body until your back is parallel to the floor. Consciously tense your armpits and pull downwards (towards the bar) while retracting your shoulder blades. Once you're able to maintain this position for at 5-10 seconds, begin to reach one leg out in an alternating fashion.

A word of caution, these are tough, demonstrating the power of disadvantageous leverages and bodyweight isometrics. If you can't get one leg out, follow the L-sit progression until you're comfortable in the tuck for 30 seconds straight and try again. At this point, you should have enough strength to attempt the movement.

Full Front Lever

Assuming you've already turned a few heads at the gym with your single-leg lever, get ready to start blowing people's minds by extending your other leg out straight to complete the full front lever position. This is an extremely difficult position to get into, and you only need to hold it for 1-2 seconds to officially claim it as yours.

Conclusion

As you can see, bodyweight isometrics aren't all wall squats and front planks borrowed from a geriatric training program. Applied correctly, they can be powerful training tools with multiple benefits that go well beyond increasing muscular endurance.
They may even be a more effective means of developing overall strength, power, and body control than traditional weight-based movements. Just don't tell anyone at the gym we said that, okay?

Wikio

Mastering the Snatch

by Eric Auciello – 1/19/2012

The snatch is arguably the most complex weightlifting movement around. This makes it a formidable challenge to learn on your own when armed with just a textbook or a high-ranking YouTube video or two.

Yet in spite of the long odds, every day thousands of determined lifters give mastering the mighty snatch the old college try.

Often these lifters will scour the internet in search of the ultimate "one size fits all," step-by-step approach to learning the snatch, preferably in 30 minutes or less.

Unfortunately, it doesn't exist.

Fact is, most do-it yourself snatch tutorials found online are rigid, if not dogmatic, approaches designed for a very specific type of athlete – the type that possesses certain attributes that have preordained their success in performing the classic lifts.

Sadly, the average gym rat doesn't physically, mentally, or biologically resemble this athlete. So when he tries to follow this program, he ends up feeling like he's pounding the proverbial square peg into a round hole, leading to average Joe-lifter becoming frustrated, disheartened, and eventually quitting the snatch.

This is a shame, because the snatch offers serious bang for the buck in terms of improved body composition, increased muscle mass, and explosive strength. It also improves coordination and connective tissue strength while offering an incredibly efficient way to train by targeting every major muscle group in one single quick-lift.

The ideal way to learn the snatch is under the tutelage and supervision of an experienced, qualified, Olympic lifting coach. Considering that for many gym rats this simply isn't an option, this article aims to provide some basic guidelines to help you on your quest to become a snatch-master.

50% of the Snatch Occurs Above the Shoulders

The snatch should be "like water making its way through cracks," not like ice cracking stone. Let that be our first lesson when it comes to the snatch. The movement should feel smooth and naturally athletic; it should never feel overly rigid, contrived, or cause pain.

The second lesson in learning the snatch involves getting past the common roadblock of paralysis by analysis. It's important for new trainees while in the actual act of lifting to stop running through the processes they've memorized from videos or textbooks. After all, the lift is completed in less than a second, leaving no time to take cognitive corrective action once the sequence of events is set in motion.

The snatch is like hitting a baseball. When you take a swing, you don't think about hitting the ball – you just hit it! You can ponder all the intricacies of the lift before stepping onto the platform, but once you grip the barbell, it's gotta be go time!

As there are many commonalities between snatching and hitting, I'll build on this analogy because I think it's an easy one for most to digest.

Hitting and snatching both take into account the body-type of the athlete. Both require a high level of training to become proficient, and both have been studied extensively in an attempt to build a better mousetrap.

Due to this type of communal effort, certain norms regarding set up and execution have been established. However, the actual acts themselves should be largely open to interpretation.

You may be wondering why and what does interpretation have to do with the snatch? The answer lies in the fact that both snatching and hitting are considered "sport."

If we agree that sport is essentially problem solving through kinesthetics, then the actual interpretation of the problem and the application of a solution are largely up to the individual athlete. This is what differentiates all athletes: their movements, methods, and ultimately their results are what separate the wheat from the chaff.

For example, Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky were both great hitters. However, Pesky was a half-foot shorter than Williams and not as talented. But he excelled at his brand of hitting (bunts, walks, and base hits) and despite his shortcomings, had a lifetime batting average of over .300.

On the other hand, Williams was the greatest hitter of all time, and to help Pesky, offered him some advice on his swing. Williams wanted Pesky to adopt a more upward swing when at bat.

He argued that if Pesky adopted a swing similar to his that, upon contact, it would create a higher ball trajectory, naturally leading to more home runs and less line drives. Ultimately, Pesky refused to change his swing, arguing that he was paid to get base hits and not hit home runs.

This example highlights two successful, yet divergent, solutions to a common problem encountered in a sport based on individual goals. Weightlifting is no different from hitting in this regard. Each athlete will have different goals and attributes and ultimately it's up to the athlete (or coach) to solve their own sport-based problems.

I'd argue that it's the coach's job to "coach" an athlete, not homogenize, dictate or control an athlete's movements, methods and/or interpretations of their sport-based problems.

This takes us to the big question: How do I solve the snatch?

You Are a Special Snowflake

Getting a heavy load from the platform to overhead in one explosive, fluid movement presents the human-body machine with a complex neurophysical problem. To solve it, we need to approach the process like an art, not a science.

When new lifters learn the movement in this way, it's infinitely more enjoyable and effective. That said, there really is no right or wrong way to snatch, you just need to explore every possible solution, one-by-one, until you find "your path." This is an extremely important concept to understand because each individual athlete is biologically, neurophysically, and mentally very different.

However, as an athlete gains experience in solving sport-specific problems like the snatch, he'll develop his own techniques and strategies, which is a critical step in the problem solving process. A coach can provide direction, but ultimately it's up to the lifter to make it happen.

As in hitting, athletes should be encouraged to master the basics of the snatch through repetition. This would include segmenting full-lifts into partials, such as a hang-power snatch to an overhead squat.

After all, a batter needs to learn to hit a fastball before he takes on a curve. If you need more technical information regarding grip, setup, and overhead positioning I'd encourage you to reference my previous article Optimizing the Overhead Squat.

There are three concepts integral to learning the snatch:

1. The best place to start is from the high hang.

I teach the snatch from the hang because it puts the trainees in a position to easily feel proper hamstring tension. This tension acts as a powerful physical cue, signaling a trainee to accelerate the barbell by violently opening the hips.

To get familiar with this cue, begin with a snatch grip on a barbell in the high hang position. Extend the spine and hinge forward at the hips without bending the knees. Once you feel tension in the hamstrings,slightly bend your knees and return to the high hang. Repeat 8-10 times.

This is the most important physical cue for the snatch. It's your firing indicator. When you're ascending from the floor with a barbell you'll hit this position, whereupon you'll explode upward with everything you've got.

2. Don't be afraid to fail. Trainees often get bogged down in the technical aspects of the lift and never challenge themselves to lift heavy weight. You can often learn more from a missed lift than a made one, but only if it's real weight. PVC pipes don't apply!

Don't be afraid to get mad! Snatching should be an exercise in controlled rage. Stomp your feet, take a deep breath, and go! Don't make a spectacle out of yourself but you should feel like you're about to punch someone in the face or, in Donny Shankle's words, "Rip the head off God!"

3. Hips and shoulders must ascend in unison. If there's one technical cue that you should take away from this article, this is it. Most new lifters try and rip the barbell off the deck with everything they've got and their hips/butt inevitably shoot up in the air while their shoulders stay put. This creates poor mechanics by causing excessive leverage through the torso, leading to a pendulum-like bar path, resulting in a missed lift.

If you're experiencing this issue, there are several corrective efforts that can be made:

1. To prevent this from occurring, lightly pull against the bar before initiating your actual pull. This will allow you to create tension in the hamstrings, glutes, and back.
2. Don't try to accelerate the bar from the floor with all your force initially. The first part of the pull will be slower than the second. Think of a car accelerating from 0-20 mph then 20-60mph. When you try to go "0-60 mph" your position will be out of alignment.

Some examples of what it looks like when a lifter's hips do and don't clear early are shown in these videos. The first is a proper snatch and the second...well, not so proper:

Two birds...One Stone

Now that you've been exposed to a more relaxed approach to the snatch, it's time to put your newly acquired knowledge into action. How and when you implement the lift in your training regimen is largely based on your individual goals and training schedule.

With that said, I'd recommend adding the lift to your current workload incrementally. This is done to assess how the new training stimulus will affect your body's ability to recover.

When it comes to snatching frequency and loads, a team sport athlete's protocol will differ from that of the bodybuilder. However, I'd recommend that both types of athletes use segments of the snatch once or twice a week, initially.

Power athletes should implement this protocol in the off-season while omitting the lift during the season to avoid overtraining and the risk of a training injury. The power athlete should start with a power snatch and snatch high-pull protocol, while the bodybuilder can use the same movements and simply add the muscle snatch to the mix.

If you're experimenting with the lift by following my recommendations above, it's advisable to use a density-style format to develop proficiency, power, and muscle mass.

Always perform the snatch first when training but only after an initial warm up. Your non-technical training should be done secondarily.

Here's an example of this type of training:

Power Athlete

Day 1

	Exercises	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	Power Snatch (PS)	10	1	1 min.**
	EMOTM for 10 min. at 85% of 1RM (PS)*
B	Back Squat	5	5

Day 2

	Exercises	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	Snatch High Pull	10	2	1 min.**
	EMOTM for 10 min. at 110% of 1RM (PS)*
B	Bench Press	5	5

* EMOTM = Every minute, on the minute
** rest 5 min. between exercises

Bodybuilder

Day 1

	Exercises	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	Power Snatch (PS)	10	8	1 min.**
	EMOTM for 10 min. at 65% of 1RM (PS)*
B	Back Squat	5	10

Day 2

	Exercises	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	Muscle Snatch	10	8	1 min.**
	EMOTM for 10 min. at 50% of 1RM (PS)*
B	Bench Press	5	10

* EMOTM = Every minute, on the minute
** rest 5 min. between exercises

Wrap Up!

In summation, this article is largely a conceptual piece designed to help novices without a coach. These trainees should embrace the subjective methods presented here and marry them with the myriad of technical approaches available online. This hybrid approach will allow each trainee to develop a uniquely individual snatch.

It should be understood that this article is not meant for advanced athletes; however, the concepts presented here are rooted in athletes' lifting on the world stage. If you watch world-class Olympic lifters snatch, you'll see an array of different styles and techniques. This was instrumental in my belief that there's no "one" way to lift.

The approach offered here is a nontechnical way of developing a functional snatch. My goal with this approach is to present trainees with a flexible method of lifting that will encourage them to discover their athletic potential through trial and error. That said, this type of freedom comes with a great deal of responsibility and honest self-assessment plays a large role in this process.

Due to the technical nuances of the snatch, there's an increased potential for injury, so please be responsible and start with relatively light loads and focus on the snatch as a "sport." Don't fixate on the tiny technical aspects of the lift and have fun lifting in a new realm.

Above all, be patient and open-minded, and enjoy the process. Who knows, if you stick with it, maybe your gym buddies will declare you the reigning snatch master!

Wikio

Control Leptin and Control Your Leanness!

by John Meadows CSCS, and Bill Willis PHDc – 1/16/2012

Leptin – you've probably heard someone mention it at one time, but aren't really sure what it is. I remember when I first heard a bodybuilding coach mention it, saying that managing leptin was crucial to keeping the metabolism humming. I had no clue what he was talking about, but it did intrigue me.
Leptin wasn't even discovered until 1994, but research into the mysterious hormone has been increasing. Scientists certainly don't know everything about leptin yet, but let's discuss what we do know.

What is Leptin?

First, it's important to understand that fat isn't simply just a storage tank for excess calories or "potential energy." Fat is actually an endocrine organ, like a thyroid or adrenal gland, for example. This means that fat – in this case white adipose tissue – secretes hormones, and leptin is one of them.
Leptin is a polypeptide hormone produced by adipocytes (fat cells). The more fat the adipocytes contain, the more leptin is released. Think of leptin as a metabolism controller and a hunger regulator. It links changes in body fat stores to CNS control of energy homeostasis (1-4).
Here's a simple example:
You eat above maintenance calories over a period of days or weeks.

• As you eat more, fat cells fill with triglyceride, which increases the release of the hormone leptin into the bloodstream.
• The hypothalamus in your brain has an intricate system of communication with fat cells which include leptin receptors. When leptin levels increase, leptin binds to leptin receptors in the hypothalamus, sending the message that you're "fueled up."
• The hypothalamus then sends signals to the brain and the rest of the body, decreasing appetite and turning up your metabolic rate.

OR
You eat below maintenance calories over a period of days or weeks.

• Your fat cells shrink as you diet, not eat, etc., and fat cells release less leptin.
• Your brain senses that leptin levels are low, and that you are no longer "fueled up."
• The hypothalamus senses the decrease in leptin levels, lowering metabolic rate and decreasing energy expenditure. It also sends a "hungry" signal, increasing appetite and encouraging you to eat.

Leptin action isn't confined to just the hypothalamus. There are leptin receptors all over the body. This allows leptin to precisely coordinate appetite, metabolism, and energy expenditure.

Location	Leptin mode of action
Pancreatic islets	(-) Insulin production and secretion (5, 6)
Adipose tissue	(+) Fatty acid oxidation (7) (+) Lipolysis (7) (-) Lipogenesis (8)
Liver	(+) Lipolysis (7) (-) Lipogenesis (8)
Skeletal muscle	(+) Fatty acid oxidation (9)

This is nature at its finest. Your body is programmed to survive. On one hand, when food is available, leptin keeps you from adding too much fat mass, which would have been a liability back in the caveman days (or today, for that matter).
On the other hand, leptin responds to and defends against excessive body fat loss that might threaten survival or reproductive ability (10). Eat too much and metabolism speeds up to keep up. Don't eat enough and it slows down to keep you alive.

What if the Hypothalamus Stops Receiving Messages?

Check out the picture below of the fat mouse. Let's call him Jumbo. Jumbo is unique – he's an ob/obmouse. This is a mouse that becomes a type II diabetic, can't stop eating, and packs away body fat like crazy. No matter how much you feed him, he won't stop.
Poor Jumbo has a mutation in the gene coding for leptin – he's totally missing it! His fat cells can't properly communicate with his hypothalamus because he has no leptin. If you inject Jumbo with leptin, he'll stop eating and lose weight, but the solution isn't so simple for us non-mutants.
Most obese people don't have missing or mutated leptin genes – they can make plenty of it. The problem is that in spite of leptin still finding and binding its receptors all over the body, no downstream message is sent. The system that senses leptin is broken.

This is called leptin resistance, a condition in which the brain can't determine when body fat is at an okay level. The fat cells are sending leptin out to the hypothalamus to signal that fat stores are full. Leptin binds the receptors, but no downstream messages are sent. It's like knocking on the door when nobody is home. In spite of all the extra body fat mass, the brain perceives starvation and orders fat storage. The kicker is that you're also very hungry, and continue to eat more and more.
If you know anyone who just can't stop eating like Jumbo, as tempting as it may be to instantly judge them, it's likely not entirely their fault. Many obese people have metabolic systems that are simply broken. You can't outrun Mother Nature, and if the leptin signaling is messed up, you can only control yourself so much.
But it's not just the clinically obese who must be concerned. You permabulkers, take note: as you continue to overeat, triglyceride stores increase, causing fat cells to produce more leptin. With so much leptin around, leptin receptors become desensitized. Eventually they just tune out, which has big consequences. You have plenty of fat but your brain doesn't know it.

How Do We Become Leptin Resistant?

Reduced blood-brain barrier transport. The idea that leptin levels were higher in obese people was a surprise. When scientists tested the ability of various tissues from leptin resistant animals to respond to leptin in vitro, most of the time leptin receptors isolated from the hypothalamus were still somewhat sensitive.
This was a big puzzle until it was discovered that part of the body's response to high leptin levels is to shut down leptin access to the brain. For leptin to travel from fat cells to the hypothalamus, it travels through the bloodstream but has to cross the blood-brain barrier to gain access.
The blood-brain barrier is extremely selective as far as what it lets through, and it was discovered that an early response to high leptin levels is to shut down transport across the blood-brain barrier. This allows the body to preserve leptin sensitivity in the hypothalamus as long as it can, holding out until leptin levels drop back to normal.
Reduced leptin receptor sensitivity. Like the insulin receptor, when leptin receptors are constantly bombarded with high amounts of leptin, they become resistant. The mechanism of reduced leptin receptor sensitivity was partly discovered by accident, when scientists were studying the role of a protein phosphatase calledprotein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) in the regulation of insulin receptor signaling.
It's been known for some time that insulin receptor sensitivity is controlled by a number of kinases and phosphatases, and in this case, scientists hypothesized that PTP1B was limiting insulin sensitivity. This would be great news for diabetics.
To test this hypothesis, they created a group of knockout mice that lacked the PTP1B protein. As the researchers predicted, these mice became very sensitive to insulin when they were given a glucose test. The scientists also noticed something else. These mice got ripped, and lost considerable body fat.
The mice had incredibly fast and efficient metabolisms, the cause of which came as a big surprise – eliminating the PTP1B gene was also massively upregulating leptin sensitivity (11). It was later found that the PTP1B protein is a negative–feedback inhibitor to leptin receptor signaling. When the leptin receptor is stimulated with high amounts of leptin, PTP1B kicks in to reduce receptor sensitivity.
Another protein called suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is also a negative feedback inhibitor of leptin. When the leptin receptor is activated by large amounts of leptin, SOCS3 increases which reduces leptin receptor sensitivity (12, 13).
You might have noticed that insulin and leptin resistance appear to be inseparable. This isn't a coincidence; like PTP1B, SOCS3 is also a negative regulator of insulin signaling, so insulin resistance and leptin resistance are linked at the molecular level.
Inflammation also activates PTP1B and SOCS3, which explains why it affects both insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity.

Dieting and Leptin Resistance

Let's take a guy in perpetual bulk mode, we'll call him "Beefcake." First, Beefcake eats a ton of calories and puts on some body fat in his quest to get hyoooge. This causes an increase in leptin release. Leptin tells the hypothalamus that fuel stores are full, and the response is a reduction in appetite and increase in energy expenditure.
In this way, leptin restores the metabolism to homeostasis by matching appetite to food intake – but this came at a price! The continual pounding of food and garbage calories more than likely caused a degree of leptin resistance. This means he now has increased the amount of leptin needed to just maintain energy homeostasis.

Key Point: Leptin resistance causes a new "set-point," which leads to the defense of a higher level of body fat storage and slower metabolic rate than would otherwise happen if Beefcake were still leptin sensitive! In other words, your body is smart, and if it thinks a "diet" is coming, it immediately holds on to fat as much as it can.

The more leptin resistant you are, the more your metabolic set point will shift towards "fat" and away from "lean." Have you ever dieted down and got lean, then after a Beefcake-inspired bulk up, had a really hard time leaning out again? Now you know why. This is one major reason why "bulk ups" aren't recommended.
Let's continue. In Beefcake's leptin resistant state, when he decreases calories, his super-enlarged fat cells start to shrink, causing a reduction in leptin levels. The problem is, the leptin resistance caused a new "set point," which prompts his screwed up metabolism to defend his increased fat stores, for survival purposes!
Think of it this way: under normal circumstances, the leaner you get, the harder it is to lose body fat without burning muscle. Your body eventually goes into "survival" mode – you become more tired, lethargic, and your appetite increases. When things are working correctly, this only happens when body fat levels are extremely low.
But when you start a diet in a leptin resistant state, you lose some weight at first but quickly get into the same survival mode, only now you're nowhere close to being in shape as you were before.
This leads to no man's land real quick. You're eating less and less, feeling worse and worse, weak and stringy, but still can't lose weight. Your leptin receptors are resistant – at a higher set point – so even small decreases in leptin are perceived as starvation. Start a diet in a leptin-resistant state and reduced calorie levels will simply put your body into perpetual starvation mode.
This is the ugly side of dieting for many, and the main reason why many popular diet books suggest that simple calorie restriction does not work long term. The reality is that calorie restriction isn't the problem, it's leptin resistance.

Leptin and Insulin

Leptin and insulin signaling have a very close relationship. When insulin increases, so does leptin. It makes sense – you eat a big meal, your insulin levels go up, and then leptin goes up, signaling to the brain that you're full and to keep the metabolism chugging.
The insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas also have leptin receptors, where leptin is a negative regulator of insulin release. So there's a tight intertwined relationship between these two hormones.
Here's how it looks:

• You eat some wild salmon and a big sweet potato. The beta cells in your pancreas produce insulin in response to your blood glucose level.
• Insulin stimulates leptin production in your fat cells.
• Leptin levels go up, triggering the hypothalamus to decrease appetite.
• High levels of leptin also tell your pancreas to stop making insulin.

But here's how it looks when you have leptin resistance:

• You eat some wild salmon and a big sweet potato with some pop tarts, as you're in "permabulk" mode. The beta cells in your pancreas produce insulin in response to your blood glucose level.
• Insulin stimulates leptin production in your fat cells, overwhelming your body.
• Leptin levels go up but leptin resistance starts to set in.
• High levels of leptin try to tell your pancreas to stop making insulin, but you're leptin resistant so the pancreas doesn't get the message to stop!
• We now have chronically high levels of insulin, leading to insulin resistance.

Leptin and Inflammation

As mentioned in our inflammation article, the fatter you are, the more inflammation you probably have due to extra fat (30% of cells in white adipose tissue are immune cells) causing more immune signals to increase IL-6 and TNFa.

• Hyperleptinemia is associated with an increased pro-inflammatory response (14).
• Leptin is capable of increasing TNFalpha production and increasing macrophage activation (15).

It's a good idea to try to calm inflammation as best as you can. You can greatly reduce inflammation and increase glucose utilization by replacing some of your fat and refined carb sources with essential fatty acids. Omega 3 and Omega 6 supplements are excellent in this regard.

Leptin and Your Thyroid

It's common knowledge among meat heads that when you diet, your thyroid slows down the conversion of T-4 to T-3. What isn't so commonly known is that leptin is a major player in keeping this conversion going.
When your brain senses correct levels of leptin, it tells your liver to convert the inactive T-4 to active T-3 (the active version of thyroid hormone). Your liver will stop this when your brain perceives starvation, which is exactly what happens when you have leptin resistance.

How Can We Fix Leptin Resistance and Perceived Starvation?

• Insulin resistance and leptin resistance are inseparable, and driven by "metabolic inflammation." Fixing insulin resistance improves leptin resistance and vice versa.
• Reducing inflammation, improving liver health, adrenal health, etc., all help.
• Recent research has revealed that this is intertwined at the molecular level, but science hasn't evenscratched the surface. The research on leptin is still in its infant stages.

Do this!

Get and stay leaner. This is the obvious one. Don't "bulk" up. Stay close to target weight, and minimize body fat gain during offseason. The harder you make your diet by "bulking up" excessively in the off-season, the more you're going to make the leptin rebound a challenge down the road. You'll likely have to resort to extremes that put your body into survival mode to get lean.
Add in periodic refeed/cheat meals. There have been some very good articles posted on T Nation about cheat meals. When you go sub-maintenance calorically and get into a depleted state, adding in a cheat meal or two can stop you from entering "perceived starvation." This will help prevent leptin resistance. Some advocate a full day or weekend, but in our experience 1 to 2 large meals per week are sufficient for most.
Limit inflammation. Fat (white adipose tissue) doesn't only produce leptin, it also houses extra immune cells that generate inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNFa. Reducing inflammation increases leptin and insulin receptor sensitivity by limiting the effects of PTP1B and SOCS3.
Don't go carb-crazy. High insulin levels cause insulin resistance, which causes increased inflammation. Insulin and leptin resistance are so intertwined that fixing one helps the other. Since insulin increases leptin production (16), those in perpetual "bulk mode" are also generating metabolic inflammation.
Sleep. Chronic (17) and acute (18) sleep deprivation reduces serum leptin levels. In the acute sleep deprivation study, 11 males were subjected to sleep deprivation (4 hours of sleep) for six nights. Compared to the control group that slept for 8 hours, this reduced mean and maximum levels of leptin by 19% and 26% respectively.
In another study, those who habitually slept for 5 hours had 15.5% lower leptin levels than those who habitually slept for 8 hours (19). Sleep deprivation also increases inflammation, and has been linked to increased IL-6 secretion (20, 21). Even mild sleep loss (2 hours/night lost for 7 nights) results in a significant increase in TNFα levels in men (21). In some cases, dysfunctional sleep can also increase leptin levels, leading to leptin resistance.
Sleep apnea is associated with high leptin levels and leptin resistance (22). Leptin is a powerful stimulation of ventilation (23), so leptin levels can increase during sleep apnea. If you're a hard-core snorer, talk to your doctor about getting a sleep study.

Diet/supplement intervention: Supplements to fight leptin resistance:

Dietary Ca2. Increased dietary calcium intake helps overcome leptin resistance. Although the mechanism is unknown, it was recently hypothesized that increased calcium intake may decrease the levels of calcitriol (1,25-dihyroxyvitamin D) in adipocytes. In a leptin-resistant state, fat cells seem to have more calcitriol, which has been linked to decreased fat burning and increased fat storage.
Increasing dietary calcium suppresses adipocyte calcitriol levels and puts leptin-resistant fat cells back into "fat-burning" mode. This reduces leptin resistance, resulting in increased weight and fat loss in leptin resistant people (24, 25).
Take Taurine. If you're leptin resistant, supplementing with the amino acid taurine can help. Taurine reduces leptin resistance by reducing ER stress (26, 27). Possibly related to the effect of taurine on ER stress, it's also been shown to be helpful for the prevention of several other metabolic disorders including obesity, insulin resistance, and atherosclerosis (28, 29).
ALCAR. While this hasn't been established in human studies, animal studies suggest that supplementing with acetyl-L- carnitine (ALCAR) may also help overcome leptin resistance (30).
EFA's. EFA's hammer down inflammation! Enough said.

And We're Out!

Whew! This article has been a workout! Post any questions or comments you may have in the LiveSpill.
Thanks everyone for reading!
Regards,
Bill and John

Reference List

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2. Schwartz MW, Woods SC, Porte D, Jr., Seeley RJ, Baskin DG. Central nervous system control of food intake. Nature 2000;404:661-71.

3. Rosenbaum M, Leibel RL. The role of leptin in human physiology. N Engl J Med 1999;341:913-5.

4. Ahima RS, Saper CB, Flier JS, Elmquist JK. Leptin regulation of neuroendocrine systems. Front Neuroendocrinol 2000;21:263-307.

5. Emilsson V, Liu YL, Cawthorne MA, Morton NM, Davenport M. Expression of the functional leptin receptor mRNA in pancreatic islets and direct inhibitory action of leptin on insulin secretion. Diabetes 1997;46:313-6.

6. Morioka T, Asilmaz E, Hu J, Dishinger JF, Kurpad AJ, Elias CF, et al. Disruption of leptin receptor expression in the pancreas directly affects beta cell growth and function in mice. J Clin Invest 2007;117:2860-8.

7. Wang MY, Lee Y, Unger RH. Novel form of lipolysis induced by leptin. J Biol Chem 1999;274:17541-4.

8. Jiang L, Wang Q, Yu Y, Zhao F, Huang P, Zeng R, et al. Leptin contributes to the adaptive responses of mice to high-fat diet intake through suppressing the lipogenic pathway. PLoS One 2009;4:e6884.

9. Minokoshi Y, Kim YB, Peroni OD, Fryer LG, Muller C, Carling D, et al. Leptin stimulates fatty-acid oxidation by activating AMP-activated protein kinase. Nature 2002;415:339-43.

10. Myers MG, Jr., Leibel RL, Seeley RJ, Schwartz MW. Obesity and leptin resistance: distinguishing cause from effect. Trends Endocrinol Metab 2010;21:643-51.

11. Zabolotny JM, Bence-Hanulec KK, Stricker-Krongrad A, Haj F, Wang Y, Minokoshi Y, et al. PTP1B regulates leptin signal transduction in vivo. Dev Cell 2002;2:489-95.

12. Bjorbak C, Lavery HJ, Bates SH, Olson RK, Davis SM, Flier JS, et al. SOCS3 mediates feedback inhibition of the leptin receptor via Tyr985. J Biol Chem 2000;275:40649-57.

13. Bjorbaek C, Elmquist JK, Frantz JD, Shoelson SE, Flier JS. Identification of SOCS-3 as a potential mediator of central leptin resistance. Mol Cell 1998;1:619-25.

14. Loffreda S, Yang SQ, Lin HZ, Karp CL, Brengman ML, Wang DJ, et al. Leptin regulates proinflammatory immune responses. FASEB J 1998;12:57-65.

15. Bjorbaek C, Kahn BB. Leptin signaling in the central nervous system and the periphery. Recent Prog Horm Res 2004;59:305-31.

16. Ahima RS, Flier JS. Adipose tissue as an endocrine organ. Trends Endocrinol Metab 2000;11:327-32.

17. Mullington JM, Chan JL, Van Dongen HP, Szuba MP, Samaras J, Price NJ, et al. Sleep loss reduces diurnal rhythm amplitude of leptin in healthy men. J Neuroendocrinol 2003;15:851-4.

18. Spiegel K, Leproult R, L'hermite-Baleriaux M, Copinschi G, Penev PD, Van CE. Leptin levels are dependent on sleep duration: relationships with sympathovagal balance, carbohydrate regulation, cortisol, and thyrotropin. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2004;89:5762-71.

19. Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med 2004;1:e62.

20. Vgontzas AN, Papanicolaou DA, Bixler EO, Lotsikas A, Zachman K, Kales A, et al. Circadian interleukin-6 secretion and quantity and depth of sleep. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1999;84:2603-7.

21. Vgontzas AN, Zoumakis E, Bixler EO, Lin HM, Follett H, Kales A, et al. Adverse effects of modest sleep restriction on sleepiness, performance, and inflammatory cytokines. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2004;89:2119-26.

22. Campo A, Fruhbeck G, Zulueta JJ, Iriarte J, Seijo LM, Alcaide AB, et al. Hyperleptinaemia, respiratory drive and hypercapnic response in obese patients. Eur Respir J 2007;30:223-31.

23. O'donnell CP, Schaub CD, Haines AS, Berkowitz DE, Tankersley CG, Schwartz AR, et al. Leptin prevents respiratory depression in obesity. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999;159:1477-84.

24. Nobre JL, Lisboa PC, Santos-Silva AP, Lima NS, Manhaes AC, Nogueira-Neto JF, et al. Calcium supplementation reverts central adiposity, leptin, and insulin resistance in adult offspring programed by neonatal nicotine exposure. J Endocrinol 2011;210:349-59.

25. Zemel MB. The role of dairy foods in weight management. J Am Coll Nutr 2005;24:537S-46S.

26. Nonaka H, Tsujino T, Watari Y, Emoto N, Yokoyama M. Taurine prevents the decrease in expression and secretion of extracellular superoxide dismutase induced by homocysteine: amelioration of homocysteine-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress by taurine. Circulation 2001;104:1165-70.

27. Gentile CL, Nivala AM, Gonzales JC, Pfaffenbach KT, Wang D, Wei Y, et al. Experimental evidence for therapeutic potential of taurine in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2011;301:R1710-R1722.

28. Haber CA, Lam TK, Yu Z, Gupta N, Goh T, Bogdanovic E, et al. N-acetylcysteine and taurine prevent hyperglycemia-induced insulin resistance in vivo: possible role of oxidative stress. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2003;285:E744-E753.

29. Petty MA, Kintz J, DiFrancesco GF. The effects of taurine on atherosclerosis development in cholesterol-fed rabbits. Eur J Pharmacol 1990;180:119-27.

30. Iossa S, Mollica MP, Lionetti L, Crescenzo R, Botta M, Barletta A, et al. Acetyl-L-carnitine supplementation differently influences nutrient partitioning, serum leptin concentration and skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in young and old rats. J Nutr 2002;132:636-42.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Anyway, moving along, I put together another video compilation for you to kickstart the week with a bang. I said last week I’d limit these posts to 20, but when it came down to it, I just couldn’t do it because there was just too much good stuff. I actually wanted to wait til midweek but the list was just getting too long. I guess that’s a good problem to have, right?

I decided again not to include any of my own videos, but I have uploaded a few new ones so be sure to check out and subscribe to my You Tube page for those.

Also, don’t forget to see this weekend’s Good Reads list. A lot of people probably missed it in the hustle and bustle of the weekend, but it’s got 65 articles of goodness to feed your mind. Between today’s post and that one, they should keep you busy all week.

Enjoy!

Barstarrz gone wild. I can’t get enough of this stuff.

Sam Giguere gets after it. This is some really impressive stuff.

Donnell Boucher shows his guys at the Citadel doing a 3 man pull-up. This is freakin cool and the energy is just awesome!

Big boy pressing at Defranco’s Gym. Here 8 out of 12 guys bench press 315 plus 80 lbs of chain for between 1 and 5 reps. I’d say that’s pretty darn strong.

Brett Roy benches 315×13. Now that’s just crazy strength. Wow.

Marianne Kane crushes some deadlifts, dips, and weighted chins. Gotta love this.

Smitty Diesel gives two great tips for a bigger bench. Pay attention to these and put them to use.

Tony Gentilcore discusses box squats vs. squats to a box. Very good info here from Tony.

Max Shank shares his planche progress. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me.

Robert “Coach Dos” Remedios shows some great single leg squat progressions. If you are looking to work up to a full single leg squat, start here.

Michael Keck squats 510×3. Nice and deep on these with good solid form. Great stuff.

Bret Contreras hip thrusts 495 lbs for 3 reps. That’s a strong posterior chain right there.

Kellie Davis and Bret Contreras share a promo video for their Strong Curves training guide to come out this summer. I’m looking forward to this already.

Jake Pudenz squats 500. That’s an awesome milestone and this is a nice looking squat. Congrats!

Jen Grasso shows band single leg reverse hypers. I like the way this looks. This is actually really similar to what I showed a few weeks ago attaching ankle weights to the rear leg of a single leg RDL. I will have to try this one soon. Good stuff.

Keith Williams does a 54 inch reactive box jump. Talk about explosive!

Mike Mahler presses the 88 lb kettelbell for 15 reps. Very strong!

Graham Carpio does a brutal pushup finisher. This is some really impressive work done at the end of a workout, making it even harder.

Elsbeth Vaino shows various things you can with a single leg squat stand. I wrote a little bit about this piece here, and Elsbeth does a good job of showing it’s versatility.

Anthony Donskov talks about managing stress. Really interesting stuff here.

Shyam Soin shows a Pallof press/band walk combo. This is a cool variation off the Pallof press that introduces some hip stability work into the picture.

Hope you enjoyed the list. Please remember to pass it along! Also, which one was your favorite? Let me know below.

Have a great day!

Wikio

The Front Squat/Back Squat Debate: Part 1

The Front Squat/Back Squat Debate: Part 1

Jim Reeves

Leave it to Mike Boyle to get people's juices flowing. It's not enough for him to come out and confront the industry with the stance that strongman and power lifting techniques do not make for great sports performance training options. Or that running athletes have a real disconnect with their sport and injury patterns. Next, the guy blows the top off the sports training world saying that he's taking all squats entirely out of his programming. Shocking statements at the time for some, but not without merit for Mike. His "Death of Squatting" stance certainly caused quite an uproar and has obviously progressed in the time since as Mike continues to search for the most effective way to train his athletes.

On Strengthcoach.com, a discussion developed about the safety of performing double leg loading exercises and Mike Boyle was very front and center in his belief that front squats are a safer option than back squats. As the discussion progressed, many points were raised to support the performance of both lifts by other contributors and the discussion really morphed into a debate over which lift was better to incorporate into a strength training program.

There were passionate contributions on both sides of the debate and it really struck me that the issue of choosing back versus front squats within a program was a confusing collection of thoughts coming from a number of different directions. The issue had many people with distinct perspectives bringing their opinion into the discussion and that this was part of the problem in and of itself.

So to clarify the issue as well as streamline the debate to a very narrow and purposeful focus I decided to put together a couple of articles which looked at double leg loading within a strength training program and give the reader my perspective on how I have come to the decision of safely loading the athletes in the facility where I work.

Before we look about the squat itself, I think it is important to define what correct technique parameters I evaluate the motion. These parameters, regardless of the bar loading position are:

• Maintenance of leg and foot alignment (prevent valgus position at knees, maintaining a neutral/non-internally rotated femur, no rotation of foot) throughout the motion.

• Posterior displacement of the hip joint relative to the feet throughout the lift.

• A 1:1 ratio of head to pelvis vertical displacement in the squat motion.

• Maintaining extension through the lumbar and thoracic regions of the spine and neutral cervical positioning. In other words, not allowing the back to flex or the neck to hyperextend at any point in the movement.

• The upper thighs (femur) must achieve a parallel to the floor orientation at the bottom position of the motion.

To give some perspective on my arguments, I, along with eleven other staff, train athletes in a facility that has a high volume of athletes attending every day (120+), all year long. The facility attracts athletes from many different team and individual sports and these clients range in age from 10 years old up to full grown adults. We have a number of long term clients who have been with our program for five or more years, but the majority of our athletes have been training with us for less than three years.

Most of the athletes we work with are seen at our facility in group situations. Very rarely do we get any time with less than 6 athletes in a group and most of our programs run back to back throughout the day or evening. Due to these time and staffing restrictions, we do not have the luxury of extended time periods working exclusively with one athlete on very technical components within a program on a consistent basis.

Also, athletes attend our facility usually for limited time periods throughout the year, such as an off-season program or an in-season team training situation. We have very few athletes who train with us year round due to the demands of their in-season sport schedules.

Of the thousands of athletes that our facility works with each year, no athlete attends our program to solely improve their performance in the weightroom. Not one. Every athlete is in attendance to improve their performance in the sport where they participate in on a competitive basis, in a sport where they earn a paycheque based on their performance or to improve their health and daily functioning.

This discussion point is one of the key areas where the squat debate really seemed to show the different points of view for everyone who contributed in the forum. Many times contributors to the discussion seemed to be relaying their own personal training experience or relayed that their scope of practice is with training clients who workout only. These contributors were referencing clients who do not play sports at a provincial, state, national or professional level.

For athletes who play at these levels, training is a means to an end, not the end goal itself. We do not have athletes in our facility whose primary sport is weight training, so the measuring stick for success is found on the field of play, not in the poundage lifted. Specific exercises for our athletes are just the pathway that each person will travel upon in their pursuit of their sport specific goals.

Married to the Exercise

Many times I have referred to various types of trainers that will work with athletes in our industry during our staff training sessions. One of the examples I give is the "Married to the Exercise" trainer that many people will no doubt have experience with. "Married to the Exercise" trainer is simply someone who is unconditionally devoted to the performance of a specific exercise.

Obviously in our debate on the subject of double leg loading, there were many opinions given where the arguments had their roots in a 'Married to the Exercise" mindset. No matter what is said to the contrary, the person offering the comments has an unwavering devotion to an exercise and I definitely saw this tendency in comments about people's preference for front versus back bar loading.

With this in mind, one pet peeve of I have as a strength coach is another coach who does not keep an open mind about the use of various exercises within their programming. I am a firm believer in the ability to match the exercise to an individual athlete's ability or situation. Whatever the situation, I hate to hear when someone expresses their opinion and backs it up with "because that's what you do when you are have a (insert genre here) background", or "I do it that way because (insert guru's name) does it", or "because that's what I've always done, and it works just fine".

I hate when people blindly follow a philosophy, style of lifting or a specific coach, using exercises that are clearly contraindicated. It just bugs me. I really have a hard time respecting the opinion of anyone who doesn't clearly think for themselves.

Classifying Exercises

I do agree with the intention of comments that were made in the discussion on-line that there is no "bad" exercise, but I think there has to be some clarification on that point. Not all exercises are bad, but are not all are created equal either. Some exercises are common but not the best available. Just because an exercise is used commonly, does not justify its application if the athlete cannot perform it with the best of technique.

This point I need to be clear on. Let perfect technique dictate the prescription of exercises. A complicated exercise performed badly is not justification for it continuing to be prescribed. Exercises need to be performed with strict technique guidelines and movement patterns in order to obtain the desired results.

I find exercises fall into a designation of first, second or third degree. Exercises categorized as first degree are those exercises that I will use all the time with most athletes. An example of a first degree exercise would be a push-up. For most athletes, the push-up is a safe and effective exercise to include in my programming.

Second degree exercises (not to demean or demote the exercise) are simply exercises which have a limited scope or use within my programming. An example of this type of exercise would be the "Y" of the shoulder and scapular stability exercises "T/Y/J/W's". It's an exercise that too often is butchered by the athlete and needs too much teaching time to be an effective exercise choice in our program.

Remember, limitations such as staff availability or maintaining the regular flow of athletes through our programming can restrict the time and opportunity our staff has to work with an athlete on an exercise. I need to identify the goal of the exercise, scapular stability and find a better, faster and easier to teach variation to give our athletes. I'm not knocking the "Y" exercise, it just isn't a good fit. So, you will not find it in my programming unless I see a specific need for the use of it with a targeted athlete.

Third degree exercises are exercises which I feel have a high risk of injury or promote adaptation in the athlete which is not consistent with my philosophy of training. A perfect example of this type of exercise is the Seated Medicine Ball Russian Twist. This classic exercise has the athlete seated on the floor, upper body leaning back, a flexed lumbar position, feet elevated off the ground and the athlete swinging the medicine ball from one side of their body to the other.

In performing the exercise, the Seated Medicine Ball Russian Twist promotes rotation of the athlete's lumbar spine while under load in a flexed position. Knowing what I do about the anatomy and biomechanics of the back, loaded rotation in a flexed position places undo stress upon specific structures within the back that these structures are not designed to handle. Injury to these structures is very likely. This is an example of an exercise which is a non-starter for me. This exercise has no modifications that I can work with and so has no place in my training program.

The goal of any sports performance program should be to produce the greatest physical gains in an athlete with the least likelihood of injury during the program, as well as in the athlete's return to their sport situation. I need to include as many first degree exercises as possible for my athletes and their training programs. I firmly believe I must always try to find ways to load the athlete with the least physical cost or toll on their body, yet still produce maximal gains and results in the programs they participate in.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series where we will look at a direct comparison of the front and back squats when it is performed by the same athlete.

Wikio