one exercise to banish in 2022
Hey omorfe,
I was at the pharmacy waiting to get self-tested.
In front of me was an older gentleman who tested positive. The pharmacist immediately stepped away from him. The poor guy insisted he had recently gotten the third dose and couldn't understand why this happened.
I put my arm on his shoulder and told him not to worry and that everything will be OK. He thanked me and left.
The pharmacist asked if I had recently been hospitalized. Supposedly, if you have, you're less likely to get Cobitch-69. I told him no. He commented that I was brave for going near a "sick" person, but I ignored him. I wasn't in the mood to explain why it's moronic to call asymptomatic people "sick."
However, I felt sad for the gentleman. I hope his wife, kids, and grandkids will treat him as a human being...not a sack of disease-transmitting shit they should run away from.
Anyway, let's move on with today's topic.
In the past I've talked about "exercise traditionalism". As you may remember, you have E.T. when you're absolutely adamant about performing exercises that disagree with your body.
You might not feel the muscles working, your anatomy might mess up your progress (long arms + barbell bench = no bueno) and you might even get joint pain.
So I asked myself:
"Oh, you sexy man, if there's one exercise you'd prohibit everyone from performing in 2022, what would it be?"
And the answer came to me immediately:
Conventional barbell deadlifts
Keyword: conventional. I prescribe the Romanian and single leg variations a lot in my programs. But if I'm coaching you, you're prohibited from performing conventional deadlifts.
Why?
Because I said so.
And that's that.
Your Greek buddy,
.
.
.
OK, I'm kidding.
Unlike the buffoons who rule us, I don't mind explaining my suggestions. And from there, you're allowed to do as you please. I won't fine you nor put you in prison while pretending we live in a democracy.
Let's start with the one word to rule everything we do:
Context.
I train professional men who don't use steroids nor do they have amazing genes. They don't have a lot of time to train. They also don't want to compete. They just want to look great with their shirts off and be strong enough to carry their wife/girlfriend/mistress without pulling their back or dislocating a shoulder.
So conventional deadlifts are a bad exercise for them.
First of all, have you ever done heavy conventional deadlifts? The darned things take a lot of time to recover. You can waste 30-40 minutes warming up and performing the working sets. If you can train for 90-120 minutes you won't mind. But my clients have 60 minutes max most of the days. We ain't gonna waste more than half of their available time on one freaking exercise.
Burping along, conventional deadlifts are kinda bad for muscle building.
Why?
Because they don't target one muscle effectively. They *kinda* hit your lats, *kinda* hit your hams, *kinda* hit your glutes, *kinda* hit your traps, *kinda* hit your rhomboids, and *kinda* hit your forearms.
Yes, that's the point of multi-joint exercises.
I won't dispute this.
But unline the barbell bench press and squat, the conventional deadlift spreads itself too thin.
The reason I prefer Romanian (̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶w̶o̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶u̶t̶i̶f̶u̶l̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶f̶e̶m̶i̶n̶i̶n̶e̶)̶ is that we can shift focus to fewer muscle groups and not waste a lot of time doing so. Two to four sets of Romanian deadlifts, done for 8-15 reps will hit your glutes and hams pretty darned well. Try the same volume with conventional and you'll be disappointed.
"But it's a great exercise for building strength!"
Omorfe, never forget:
Strength is specific.
The strength you gain with deadlifts will transfer primarily to movements that have you pick stuff off the ground. It doesn't matter if you use conventional or Romanian.
And sure, you'll pick up more weight with the conventional. It's not a huge difference though. It's definitely not enough to justify the extra time spend to get a training effect, the lack of targeted muscle growth, and the increased chance of injury (most guys have terrible flexibility and need a looot of preparation)
"But So-And-So build an amazing physique deadlifting!"
Um, did he just perform the conventional deadlift?
Of course not.
He performed a bunch of other exercises.
I always get a kick when Feetness Eggsperts insist that you need to deadlift if you want an amazing back.
They forget about, um, I don't know, pull ups?
Chin ups?
Lat pulldowns?
Rows?
Straight arm pulldowns?
Pullovers?
Lat-pull ins?
What about all those phenomenal, time-saving, joint-friendly back builders?
Anyway, I won't keep beating a dead horse. Like everything I write in these emails, you're welcome to disputing me with your own actions. Switch to Romanian deadlifts for a few weeks while also following a progressive overload plan and get back to me. Methinks you'll be pleasantly surprised.
And if you'd like more tips and strategies on transforming your smexy body, grab my one sentence muscle building plan at:
Your Greek buddy,
Fotis Chatzinicolaou
Comments
Post a Comment