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My Top 3 Exercises for Back Strength in the Squat — Transcript

by Shethar Brothers · 4,028 words · 558 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00what's going on there fellas in my
0:02efforts to build and upload schedule for
0:05myself I put up the community post asked
0:07you guys what kind of series of videos
0:09you like that maybe I can tie to a
0:11specific day of the week to kind of take
0:13away a bit of that uh having to come up
0:16with the topic just I'm given a topic
0:18it's my job to do a good job with it I
0:20tend to work better that way some of you
0:22guys expressed you're concerned about
0:23being tied to an upload schedule trust
0:26me I think it's better this way if I'm
0:27just ah Sunday is the questions day
0:29that's a series that I like I feel like
0:31it's helpful it gets a reasonable amount
0:33of views all around good stuff my job is
0:37to answer the questions the best of my
0:38ability uh and in this community post
0:41where I was trying to build myself a
0:42little weekly upload schedule I
0:45mentioned that I like videos where the
0:47uh the kind of format is
0:49um my top some number of tips or
0:53exercises for XYZ task and I mentioned
0:57uh I'm sorry that sounds a little bit
0:58clickbaity and it for sure is it's very
1:01YouTube title e but I actually really
1:03enjoy that format of video I find it
1:05very easy to sneak in a lot of
1:07practically actionable knowledge uh kind
1:10of if then scenarios there's a lot of I
1:12think um
1:14information that I can squeeze into
1:15those videos in a pretty natural manner
1:17so while the uh the topic might seem you
1:21know pretty basic pretty entry level
1:23information uh I really think I can
1:25squeeze some good stuff into those
1:28um I think it's just a good format I
1:29think it's a good opportunity to provide
1:31my specific rationale for why I might be
1:33doing
1:34um popular exercises why I might avoid
1:36certain popular exercises or what kind
1:39of scenarios I would look for when
1:41prescribing a specific exercise so
1:42that's something we're going to get into
1:44every Tuesday on the Tuesday we're gonna
1:47do a top Tuesdays right where I give you
1:49my top XYZ things for XYZ task so that's
1:53what we're going to get into today
1:55now if you guys have any ideas for these
1:57please do not hesitate to let me know
1:59because now that I've got okay every
2:00Sunday I'm doing a question answering
2:02video that's simple enough I know how to
2:04keep doing that that doesn't require my
2:05creativity it requires your guises to
2:08ask the questions and then I do my best
2:09to give some helpful answers in your
2:11efforts to get stronger cool each
2:13Tuesday we're gonna go do my top things
2:15for whatever thing so if you guys have
2:17specific things you want to know this
2:18requires a little bit too much
2:19creativity on my part so let me know
2:21what you want to see uh today we're
2:23going to talk about my top three
2:24favorite exercises for developing back
2:26strength and specifically back strength
2:29as it pertains to the squat we're going
2:31to kind of get into why I feel that's
2:32very important to mention so in the
2:34question answering video
2:36um uh somebody mentioned how they liked
2:40my breakdown of deadlift assistance
2:42movements into a couple of General uh
2:44core categories and we can swap out
2:46different exercises Within These
2:47categories but we have uh four kind of
2:50General movements that we're looking to
2:52hit something for the midsection like
2:54whether that be a setup up whether that
2:55be a hanging leg raise whether that be a
2:57plank some kind of rowing motion for
3:01kind of that positional specific
3:02development of the upper back position
3:04specific strength as well as uh General
3:06hypertrophy of the upper back a little
3:07bit of extra time uh kind of gpp for the
3:10lower back then some kind of hip hinge
3:12and some kind of knee flexion and they
3:14mentioned they like that and they would
3:15like to hear kind of those General oh
3:18these are the categories I look for to
3:20fill for motions other than the deadlift
3:22in that video I mentioned that it gets a
3:24little bit complicated for some other uh
3:26lifts depending on the person's
3:27technique there might be some exercise
3:29slots that might not be there for other
3:31lifters and the squat was one I
3:32mentioned that gets a little bit more
3:34complicated if we go over to like weight
3:35lifting circles you'll often hear
3:37squatting broken into just kind of two
3:39general categories of assistance work we
3:41just have the quad extra the extra quad
3:43work so the knee extensors and then
3:45you'll hear this term back strength
3:46right because when we're doing a
3:48weightlifting style squat usually we are
3:50doing it from a pretty narrow-ish stance
3:53maybe shoulder width maybe hit way width
3:55so we're not requiring this huge
3:57abduction strength we don't need these
4:00ton of strength in these really
4:01lengthened position of the adductors so
4:03this General kind of idea we could have
4:04of a hip strength slot isn't necessarily
4:08needed and then we're also not calling
4:10Upon Our hip hinge very much because
4:12we're not very wide and we're not very
4:13leaned forward so we're not actually
4:15using very much hinging so the other
4:16category they'll talk about is quads and
4:18back and the back strength is very
4:20important we need to have strong enough
4:22spinal reactors to maintain that upright
4:24posture to effectively Express the
4:25strengths we built in the quads the
4:27secret guys have talked about this a
4:29good bit about how you need a lot of
4:31back strength to adequately Express and
4:33maintain an upright squat even if you
4:35have the quads to do so and especially
4:37because in a high bar squat we're
4:39lengthening that lever the bar has on
4:42this right in a low bar squat we get to
4:43take that bar lower and lower we get to
4:45shorten that lever arm so the demands to
4:48maintain our back position go down when
4:50we're doing a high bar that lever
4:51becomes quite a bit longer so the amount
4:53of strength to keep that line relatively
4:56straight goes up so they will often
4:58break it into just two general
5:00categories and the reason I mentioned
5:02earlier that we need to talk about back
5:04strength that is specific to the squat
5:06is uh because in a deadlift most
5:09people's best debt lifting is going to
5:11be done from a position of Greater
5:13flexion than their best squatting is
5:15going to be done or to be a little bit
5:16more extended for nine out of 10 10 out
5:19of 10 people's best squatting is going
5:21to be going to be done from a more
5:23extended position than their best
5:24deadlifting it's very common strategy to
5:26let that thoracic spine around a little
5:28bit to lengthen the arms to shorten that
5:30length from our hip to our shoulder
5:32socket right that's a very common
5:34strategy that's how most people's
5:35deadlifting is going to be done with at
5:36least a bit of round and the big
5:38difference there also is a deadlift you
5:40can finish a deadlift with your back
5:41compromising in position it's a lot
5:43harder to finish a squat right so when
5:46when it comes to back strength it's very
5:49much is position dependent right because
5:51strength is uh kind of position specific
5:54so we can get very strong in the length
5:56in position and have some carry over to
5:58a shortened position but it's certainly
5:59not one to one we get strong in the rain
6:01changes of motion we strengthen right so
6:03if we say back strength there might be a
6:06list of exercises that are extremely
6:08effective for developing back strength
6:09when it comes to the deadlift in the
6:11slightly more flexed position that are
6:13going to do a really good job carrying
6:14over the deadlift and they're not going
6:16to carry over meaningfully to the uh to
6:19the squat deadlifting itself depending
6:21on your Technique might fall into this
6:23category now if you do a clean pull in
6:25extension you might see some correlation
6:27between your deadlift and your squat
6:29even past just being a beginner but the
6:31higher level you get a lot of people
6:32will find their deadlift will go up and
6:33their squat will not follow sometimes
6:36you'll see the reverse is true where
6:37your squad will go up and your deadlift
6:39will follow suit again kind of this idea
6:41being we can do a squat from pristine
6:44positions but we can do a deadlift and
6:46we can still finish it from compromise
6:47position so if the squat goes up the
6:49deadlift very well might follow but the
6:50reverse is not always true so something
6:52like a deficit deadlift a pull from the
6:54floor any of these things were really
6:55strengthening this rounded over position
6:56might tremendously build our kind of
6:59erector strength relevant to the
7:00deadlift and we might not actually see
7:02that carry over to our squat very much
7:03we need to strengthen this more extended
7:05position that we are expecting to squat
7:07from now I'm not telling you to squat
7:08from extension I'm not telling you squat
7:09with your back arched we still want to
7:11lock those ribs that rib cage down get a
7:14good brace
7:15um you know we don't want to be have
7:17that anterior tilt of the pelvis we
7:18don't want to do any of these things but
7:20on average the optimal position is going
7:22to be more extended than it is on the
7:23deadlift
7:24so my massive Preamble out of the way
7:26what are my top three you say Sam I
7:28suspect that my back strength is holding
7:30back uh my squat I feel like I've
7:31developed pretty strong legs and I'm
7:33failing to express that maybe my torso
7:35is compromising as I stand up my torso
7:37is kind of folding up a little bit
7:39um
7:40what do you recommend that I do this is
7:43you asking me hypothetically here uh the
7:45first one the number one that I will
7:46often throw out there is if they have
7:48access the safety squat bar just the
7:51nature of the bar
7:52um it cambers the weight slightly in
7:54front of you so it places this
7:55tremendous Demand on our kind of
7:57thoracic extensors to fight to maintain
8:00that position because the whole time uh
8:02that thing is trying to bend you forward
8:04we can use pretty significant loads
8:05greater loads than we could on something
8:07like the front squat and it's a bit more
8:09specific than something like the front
8:10squat now if you don't have an SSB we
8:13could get some of those mid-back
8:14development gains from doing a front
8:17squat we'll probably expect to see a
8:19little bit less direct carryover because
8:20it looks less like a back squat uh it's
8:22going to be a little bit less tonnage
8:24but we can get some of those position
8:26specific strength benefits but the SSB
8:29is kind of King it's very specific and
8:30anybody that I identify to have a issue
8:33in their torso strength limiting their
8:35squat the SSB is absolutely one of the
8:37first things they'll throw at them and
8:39it's for this reason that if I've got a
8:40guy who's squats High bar as his primary
8:42Squad more often than not I'm going to
8:45throw an SSB at him as his secondary
8:47motion because the squad's going to do a
8:49tremendous job developing the quads but
8:52our erector strength is not going to be
8:54developed quite as much as someone who
8:56squats with a little bit more forward
8:57lean so we want to with our accessory we
8:59kind of want to pick up what our main
9:01lift misses right rather than double
9:03down on what our main lift does we kind
9:05of want to pick up those missing pieces
9:07so if someone squats low bar as their
9:09primary motion with a good bit of
9:10forward lean we're probably going to be
9:13doing enough low bar that we're kind of
9:14getting all the unique benefits of that
9:16I wouldn't necessarily make their
9:17secondary squat variation a good morning
9:19because it would be redundant I would
9:21rather make it a high bar squat because
9:22okay we really taxed our spinal Erectors
9:26or kind of hinging our hips but maybe
9:28the quads are not being sufficiently
9:30trained by this movement we're going to
9:31select a variation that picks up what
9:33that main lift neglects and following
9:36that principle I find an SSB squat
9:38supplements a high bar very very well
9:42now we're kind of going in order of I
9:44would say the magnitude I feel these are
9:46likely to help and the second biggest
9:47one in my book is going to be a good
9:49morning specifically a good morning with
9:51a pause in the lowest position now
9:53there's kind of two general ways that we
9:56can execute a good morning there's the
9:58way that Dr Mike does it uh as a little
10:01bit more of a bodybuilding hamstring
10:02movement where we keep our legs a little
10:04bit more stiff a little bit less Bend in
10:06the knee and you see some backwards
10:08travel of the knee as we push the hips
10:10back the knees will often fall behind
10:13the heels to get a greater stretch on
10:15the hamstrings and the other way you
10:17will see some athletes execute it is
10:18they actually will leave their knee
10:20right over their ankle or they might
10:22even push it Forward slightly so it
10:24looks like this really bastardized half
10:26squat Now by doing these we're going to
10:29kind of shift the muscular emphasis when
10:30our knee is a little bit straighter in
10:31the Dr mic style we're going to be
10:33biasing towards the hamstring and we
10:35have a little bit more Bend at the knee
10:37we're going to be biasing a little bit
10:38more towards the glutes now generally
10:40people are going to be able to do more
10:41weight on the version where their knee
10:43is their legs are less stiff
10:45um just a stronger position in general I
10:47wouldn't say that's necessarily A
10:49selling point or a cot I would say it
10:51depends on what you're doing them for if
10:52we're doing them for back strength you
10:54might find that at this point in the
10:55workout uh the more stiff leg version as
10:58a kind of self-limiting variation is
11:00what you need to do to get a little bit
11:01of weight off the bar or you might find
11:03some benefit from doing the heavier
11:05version with the knees traveling forward
11:07slightly more but I would say these are
11:10a very very very solid very specific
11:12exercise for developing that erector
11:14strength uh in the squat and I kind of
11:17fundamentally misunderstood the
11:19application of good morning in some
11:20specific use cases for a very long time
11:22for a very very long time I thought okay
11:24well a good morning is going to carry
11:26over to someone who squats with a lot of
11:28forward lean because there's going to be
11:29overlap there but it wouldn't be as
11:31helpful for someone who squats quite
11:32upright like myself and it was until
11:35later I had a better understanding of
11:36what exactly I was working on that I
11:38understood that that erector strength
11:40that I'm building is actually what
11:41allows me to to maintain that upright
11:43posture with very heavy weights a
11:45perfect example of this is how many guys
11:47in the multiply era were massive
11:50advocates for good mornings for
11:51developing the squad if you watch how
11:53they squatted with their feet Ultra wide
11:55toes super turned out a suit maybe a
11:58little bit of suspect depth most of them
12:00were squatting from a high-ish bar
12:01position they were actually quite
12:03upright through the Torso but they were
12:04still seeing tremendous benefit from
12:06training these good mornings and it was
12:08so that they could have the erector
12:09strength to maintain that upward upright
12:11posture and get the most out of the suit
12:13very similarly the secret guys made a
12:15video talking about how John hack is
12:17able to squat High bar very upright and
12:20you effectively utilize his quads
12:21specifically because of how strong his
12:23Erectors are they're kind of a requisite
12:25to express that and you can kind of see
12:26that in the Chinese weightlifting team
12:28when you have a lot of athletes with
12:30kind of a similar build shorter legs
12:32longer torso the leg strength is going
12:34to be developed relatively quickly the
12:36squatting strength is going to shoot up
12:37and the back strength will often lag
12:39behind and you can see in their program
12:41they are held back into not letting
12:43their athletes fall into that trap that
12:45is common to the build of having a weak
12:46back you'll constantly see a lot of back
12:48extensions and pulls following their
12:51squats always
12:52so in terms of how to uh how to apply
12:55these things there's a lot of ways like
12:56you're going to drive a lot of the
12:57benefit just from challenging the motion
12:58and working hard on it um but usually
13:00for the SSB I just usually make that a
13:02secondary squat day and apply a
13:04similarly a pretty similar approach to
13:06whatever I'm doing on my primary day
13:07maybe leave the Reps a little bit higher
13:10um maybe only Peak towards a triple
13:12rather than peek towards the top single
13:13because it's a variation I don't really
13:14care exactly what my one arm is on it
13:16but there's a lot of things we can do I
13:18just make it a secondary day in terms of
13:19how to apply these good mornings like I
13:21said you can select between uh this more
13:23stiff-legged version versus this more
13:26knee bent version
13:28um to fit your goals tons of different
13:30ways to do these we can do them with a
13:32belt we can do them without a belt as
13:33they get heavier we can put on the Belt
13:35to get a little bit of extra bracing
13:36practice very specific to our squat
13:38because the good morning has a lot of
13:40direct application if we want to get
13:42better at resisting our back rounding
13:45over with a weight sitting on our back
13:46in a high bar position that makes sense
13:49to just put a bar in a high bar position
13:51and lean forward with with it to as much
13:54forward lean as we get in the squat or
13:55preferably a good bit further than we
13:57get in the squats we get this greater
13:59Challenge on our Erectors uh we can
14:01practice different strategies of
14:02squeezing through the upper back
14:03different strategies of bracing and
14:05whatever leads to better performance in
14:07the good morning will also probably
14:09similarly be good strategies for
14:11maintaining your torso rigidity when you
14:13go to do a squat I like working them
14:15anywhere from about 5 to 12 reps that's
14:19my personal preference I know back in
14:22the day West Side guys would use them as
14:24a Max effort variation and work up to
14:25heavy sets of one to three I find that
14:29that is fatiguing enough on the Erectors
14:31that I would rather use that training
14:32economy towards my deadlift although if
14:34my goal if I was a squat only guy maybe
14:36I could mess around with that I find we
14:38can derive most of the benefits in that
14:405 to 12 range using a little bit less
14:42weight being a little bit more precise
14:43with our our positions because I find
14:46when people take them up to heavy one
14:47two threes
14:49um yeah it's a good strength stimulus
14:50but we're compromising our position
14:52we're rounding a little bit as we
14:53reverse the weight and that might be a
14:55very effective builder for the deadlift
14:56kind of like we talked about earlier
14:58we're going to be a little bit more
14:59strict with making sure that when we do
15:02these we're not fudging our position
15:04through our torso we're not kind of
15:05squishing with the weight to get it
15:07moving because we don't want to see that
15:08in our Squat and the whole reason we're
15:10doing these is to train resisting that
15:13squishing of the Torso now you might
15:15have guessed this um but my number three
15:17exercise for back strength for the squat
15:19is going to be back extensions
15:21specifically back extensions uh done
15:23from a back squat position so whether
15:25it's off a 45 degree back extension or
15:28off of a glued ham raise we're gonna put
15:30that bar up on the traps again because
15:33we want to be working all of this final
15:34rectors all the way up to the neck all
15:36of the positions that are going to be
15:37challenged when we're squatting in terms
15:40of magnitude yeah usually the first
15:41thing I would throw at would be the SSB
15:43Squat and the second thing I would throw
15:44at it would be some kind of good morning
15:46but the uh the the back extensions are a
15:49really good option because they're kind
15:50of spammable we can do them two three
15:51days a week and run up a bunch of extra
15:53volume and what is relatively specific
15:55we have this bar on a in a back squat
15:57position we come up into this like
15:59semi-extended position that might mirror
16:01where we might be in a squat and again
16:03in this very specific way we're
16:06practicing resisting the squishing of
16:08our torso you need a lot of these
16:10benefits from a back extension done with
16:11weight in the hand but I find that it's
16:13going to challenge the mid and upper
16:15back a little bit more if we do in a
16:17back squat position and that's where a
16:19lot of people their Position will start
16:20to compromise they'll show in the upper
16:22and mid back and it'll kind of bleed
16:24through the whole back so I like to make
16:25sure we challenge that if the goal of
16:27the back extensions isn't just general
16:29development of the posterior chain in
16:31which case you can kind of load them
16:32however you want you can hold weight you
16:34can hold a barbell you can hold a back
16:35squat position you can hold a sandbag
16:37all are fine for running up volume for
16:39the posterior chain because I'm a big
16:41fan of doing back extensions often
16:43there's a reason that many Russian
16:45athletes will talk about how they do
16:46just about no variations the training is
16:48hyper specific oh but I do back
16:50extensions four days a week right I
16:52think the back extension is to someone
16:54with strength goals what the curl is to
16:56the gym bro it's always a good idea
16:59whether it's light for active recovery
17:00or heavy for a bit of a strength
17:02stimulus kind of somewhere in between as
17:04a hypertrophy stimulus they're a very
17:07good idea most of the time you know
17:09maybe the range that we load them in
17:10needs to vary because it isn't always a
17:13good idea to do them Ultra heavy sure
17:15but I God damn I always warm up with
17:17some back extensions I always cool down
17:18with some back extensions I'm big on
17:19them and if you're going to be doing
17:20them to Aid your squat development I
17:23prefer doing them from that back squat
17:25position I did not get the carryover to
17:27my squat I didn't feel as though they
17:28were improving my positional maintenance
17:30until I started doing them the way
17:32weight lifters do from a back squat
17:34position with a barbell I had done tons
17:36and tons and tons of the the way Paris
17:38and many other athletes like to do them
17:39where you hold the weight in your hands
17:41and I found that gave me tremendous
17:43lockout strength in my deadlift but I
17:45didn't feel it was developing my squat
17:47until I started doing them this way so
17:49let me know if you guys guys got any
17:50ideas for this series uh thank you for
17:52watching as always I appreciate you boys

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