Back when I was young and dumb, I got it into my head that my squat and deadlift weren’t moving in an upwards direction due to a lack of abdominal strength.
It was not an incorrect diagnosis, but it was an incomplete one.
Moreover, the thinking that led me to this incomplete picture also resulted in me doing something stupid (and literally potentially lethal) to try and fix it.
That “solution”?
Front squat holds.
If you are not aware, this involves walking out a heavy weight in the front rack position and then standing there for as long as you can manage.
Obviously because I was a nugget eager for a quick fix, I decided more was better, figuring I could skip the “walk out” bit and just stand up with as much weight as my frame could take while trying to stop my insides from falling out from all the pressure.
And so, I loaded the bar with something like 250kg (I was front squatting about 100kg for sets of 5 at the time) and barely managed to move it maybe an eighth of an inch out of the pins where I stood for all of about three seconds before I collapsed unconscious.
Not my finest hour.
Witnesses told me I was mere centimetres away from the plates spraying my brains up the mirrored wall like yoghurt from a tube squeezed by an errant child, so it is only by divine providence that I’m even alive to share this story with you today.
The lesson?
Remember how I said mine was an incomplete picture of what the problem was?
My abs were indeed weak, but so was basically everything else at the time.
The reason for that was a total and complete lack of the basic “general physical preparedness” work that ought to feature in every routine to a greater or lesser extent.
For example, up ‘til that pants-on-head experiment, I’d not done ANY ab work at all for probably two years.
No leg raises, planks, not even one measly little situp.
Why?
‘Cuz I decided I was “beyond” all of that stuff because I was doing squats and deadlifts and presses and using a calculator and fancy spreadsheet to manage my workouts like a “real” athlete.
Hence, when I finally decided to do some ab work, my first thought was not to do something sane, sensible, and fundamental like situps and instead look for something “advanced” and “hardcore” (and then take that thing to a ridiculous extreme).
For the record, I am not saying front squat holds are necessarily a bad exercise (unless you do them as I did that day I nearly died).
Although they’re not something I would ever recommend to the sorts of people I work with (“ordinary” folk who are looking for sustainable ways to get and stay strong and in shape) nor use in my own training.
But I am sure there is a use case for them somewhere for those who are truly advanced enough or have some other specific reason to do them.
Whatever the case.
If you’re interested in doubling down on the fundamentals so you can get stronger and in better shape year after year instead of busting a gut only to watch helplessly as age ravages your body despite your best efforts, I recommend subscribing to my obnoxiously titled Real Paper Newsletter.
To learn why I think that, listen to the audio, read the letter, or both at the below URL:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman