Assistance
Squat ... Bench
By Wade Johnson
I guess the first thing I should do is kind of introduce myself. For those
of you that don't know me, I'm Wade Johnson. As far as credentials, I play a writer on the Internet and in a couple
of magazines. I'm not a real writer, just someone that loves the sport and wants to give everyone a perspective
that matches your own, because I am like you. I'm not one of the legends, or have a super huge total, or anything
of the like. But I have been around sports pretty much all my life. To give you a bit of background on myself,
I'm a former working musician that has traveled the planet, working just about every type of job conceivable to
make a living to support my playing habit. Sound familiar? Many of you do much the same to support your lifting
habit. I'm also very lucky. I've been blessed with a little talent and the drive to achieve. There is not much
more a person could ask for. So there you have it. I got started in power lifting when I was young and would actually
see it on TV. So yes, I'm a bit older. When I went out on the road, I stopped lifting for some time. As I was approaching
30 years of age, I decided I need to start exercising much more and stay in better shape. I got a bit bigger and
stronger and was talked into entering a bench press meet by a good friend. I went and lifted, place and decided
I really liked the sport. And it was a sport that I might excel at. That was back in 1997. So you can see, I'm
not quite the grizzled veteran, just yet. Just quickly becoming grizzled. That being said, now you know a little
about me. I've been lucky and blessed to have won a few titles and break a few records. What does that mean in
the long run? Probably not much to anyone but me. But then again, that's why we do this, the sport, for ourselves.
My goal here is to, hopefully; offer you some information that is useful, fun and helpful. So, here goes my first
installment. As always, feel free to contact me for input or comments. I certainly appreciate them.
What I would like to start with is a movement for each of the lifts that I think are very useful in assisting the
lifts. This time, I’ll start with the squat and work my way through with each article. AS I can, I'll also include
some pictures that might be helpful as well. For most lifters, especially beginners, the squat is such a difficult
lift, not only to master, but to even perform. To overcome the fear and difficulty, we use box squats, wall squats
and handle squats. Most of you are familiar with using a box to a certain degree. We use them a bit differently.
I have lifters use a box that gradually descends to the point of actually breaking parallel. Now gradual, doesn't
mean within one workout. It could take a few weeks. I also urge lifters not to go too heavy too soon. Strength
will come. Learning to get down in the hole with the squat and being balanced and control is the most difficult
thing I've seen lifters try to do. Bench press seems to be easy enough to work with and deadlift seems to come
more natural to most lifters. That being said, that doesn't mean that any one lift is easier than the other. It
does mean, in my experience, that the squat has the most difficult initially getting over the fear of the lift
and the control and balance issues.
Now, back to the box. My goal with the box is to teach lifters to break parallel and allow them to learn the feel
of getting down deep enough into the hole. If you will use a light enough weight, you can also get down to the
box and feel where you are and, push the knees out as opposed to letting the knees cave in. It also helps the lifter
to sit back and opposed to leaning down to the box. Having that safety of the box under you, makes the lifter at
ease and generally they don't feel the need to lean too far forward.
Another movement we use is the wall squat. It's very simple. Lean against the wall and squat down letting the friction
of the wall hold you in place. Once you get down below parallel, we have them do a static hold. Then after a 2
count, they squat back up. Again, this teaches the lifter the feeling of sitting back and upright, feeling the
depth need in the hole and strengthens the hips. Without weight on your back, you can spot weakness in the body
and potential trouble in form. For instance, the biggest issue most have with squatting, is allowing the knees
to cave in. When you are squatting with a bar on your back, that's not the time to look down at the knees and try
to correct it. But with the wall squats, you can see the knees safely and you can use the hands to push the knees
out. Most times, it's not a strength issue. It's usually a feel issue. You have to feel what it is like to be in
the hole, break parallel and sit back. Once you get comfortable with this movement, it usually translates to the
bar squat. I will have lifters start with 1 sets of 10 reps of the wall squat. Then work up to 3 sets of 10, or
whatever you are comfortable with. Some of my lifters use this as a warm-up prior to squatting with any weight.
If you have sore knees, this is also a good movement to prehab and rehab the knees. It's a great stretch and a
good way to get the knees warm. One of my lifters used this movement for 3 weeks when she had a knee injury and
then came back to the weights. She showed no signs of significant strength loss and her knees are progressively
getting better.
Lastly, I will have lifters do a handle squat. What I mean by handle, is using something that you are gripping
to help you pull back up. Let me explain. I will have lifters work on this daily when they are learning to squat,
and do them away from the gym after they have had a little rest. You can use anything. A door knob, and door way,
or the squat rack. Anything that is secure and you can grasp easily. Simply hold onto whatever is secure around
you and lean back and sit down. Leaning enough if you let go, you would fall back on your fanny. This is another
movement the lifters use to warm-up. Another female lifter, used this to learn the feel of getting low enough to
break parallel and it was great rehab for her after training. Her legs always felt looser and she learned the squat
quickly. To give you an example, this particular lifter, Kris, never squatted until mid-September. She used the
handle squat every day at work to learn the feel of the movement. Kris is a former national/Olympic level soccer
player who is tall and lean and squatting wasn't something she ever did. So stretching the knees and teaching her
depth was crucial. At a bodyweight of 155, she recently squatted 170 for 3 reps. She rarely cheats depth on a squat
as well. She has only used knee wraps. We have yet to use a belt or a suit on her just yet. Granted, Kris is a
gifted athlete, however; it also shows that someone that has never performed a squat, can do it and learn and excel
quickly.
Now here is the coolest thing. All of the movements are low budget and low cost. You can lean against any wall
and grab any thing with a secure surface on it to the wall squats and the handle squats. Also, lumber is fairly
cheap and you can build boxes for next to nothing. You can use 2x4’s to frame the box and last time I bought them
at Home Depot, an 8’-2x4 was under $3. You can also get a sheet of pressboard, 4’x8’, for less than $20.00. So
the investment is minimal. Yes, you can buy boxes from equipment companies, however; that is much more expensive.
Hopefully, this information will be of some type of help, or maybe some interesting reading. Next time, we will
look at a few bench type assistance movements to help that bench press. Until then, lift heavy, train smart &
eat more pizza.
Wade
I hope that you found the assistance movements for squats helpful in the
last article. This time, we'll take a look at the bench press. These are movements that our training group have
used to a good deal of success. Hopefully, it can do the same for you. Again, I encourage any debate or input on
any of these articles. This way, the more we talk about it, maybe the more we all learn.
For many of us, the biggest trouble for bench press is form and stability. One of the difficulties that we have
to overcome, is unlearning what we do wrong. Bench press seems to be the easiest of the big three in powerlifting,
but many a lifter comes unraveled come meet time for several reason, form being the biggest issue. Stability is
a huge issue as well. For any of you that do any type of overload movement, like a rack lockout, you soon see how
strong or weak you are when you hold a weight that is beyond your bench max. You are all over the bench just trying
to keep the weight locked out. This brings me to a few movements that we use to help with these issues.
When we are doing a powerlifting cycle and getting ready for a meet, we will use board presses as an assistance
movement. I learned this from Bill Crawford and Bob Youngs. As opposed to the Westside style of doing this as your
main movement or ME movement, we do these after we bench press. Generally, when we finish our bench sets, we will
go to a 5-board or a 4-board, medium to close grip, press. I'll get into how the boards are made and used a bit
later. We will do a light set of 3 and then do singles until failure. We do use the ME theory from Westside when
doing these. We try to set a pr each time we do these. After that grip fails, we will use our competition grip
and do singles until we fail. Now, here is what we hope to accomplish by doing these. You are working the top part
of the movement. When using bench shirts, lock out becomes more crucial than ever. And the more radical cut shirt
you use, the bigger issue that lock out is. The main reason we use a 5-board is that it has the smallest stroke
and you can go really heavy. Not only does this improve lockout, but it also makes you work those stabilizer muscles
as well. For instance, with a double denim I have bench pressed 490, but with no shirt on the 5-board, I can go
well over 500. But the overload makes stability a huge issue. As I get more stable with an overloading weight,
it carries over to when I attempt a big bench press. Also, by handling a bigger weight than you could probably
bench, you get you body and nervous system prepared for that big bench press attempt. How many times have you felt
it or witnessed it at a meet? You see a lifter attempting a weight that they have never felt and you see the fear
in their eyes. I have witnessed it and felt it as well. This prepares you for those types of moments. If you are
going to bench 500 in your next meet, but have never attempted it or held that kind of weight in your hands, the
board presses are a good tool for this. Also, always wear your wrist wraps when doing this movement. The stress
is huge on the hands and wrists. So take care of them. We generally leave these out of the workout about every
3rd week and 2 weeks from the meet, stop them altogether to allow for rest. And if we are a little beat up, we
will only do the competition grip to give the wrist a little break. The 4-boards are used in the same manner, save
that you are adding roughly two inches to the stroke and you won't likely go as heavy as the 5-boards. This movement
is everything to lockout power.
Something I learned from Collin "pooh bear" Rhodes for benching power, is shrugging. I know, sounds strange.
But, you can't argue with results and we are finding results with this method as well. We set aside a day for assistance
movements on Wednesday. On this day we have a few movements to choose from when shrugging. We generally only do
the bench shrugging once per week. The movements will be called by the name Pooh gave. As a side note, a lot of
this was learned from Paul Kelso who has wri> tten a book that is no longer in print, but have heard that another
book is due out soon-look for it. Paul is a master with this stuff. Okay, let's start with cable shrugs. We perform
this on the cable crossover machine. Use straps as needed. Grab the handles and step away from the machine a step
or two. With as wide a grip as possible, shrug the weight back and then pull the arms in slightly by making the
chest as big as possible. Use a static hold of about a 2 or 3 count. Go as heavy as you can while maintaining form.
Another exercise is Williams shrugs. This is performed much in the same way as the cables, however; in a different
position. Using a chest supported row, use as wide a grip as possible and shrug straight up pinching the shoulder
blades together and then making the chest as big as possible by pulling the arms in slightly to the sides. We've
also used a cable row machine in the same way with varying grips. Collin also does a chin shrug that is performed
the same way using a chinning bar. I can't pull my big self up to do that. We generally will perform 4 sets of
8 reps and use a static hold on each rep. We will follow up with some type of traditional shrug for the traps as
well.
On the same day, I'll follow shrugs with straight arm pull downs. Yes, I do lat work primarily on bench days, but
I have found this movement very handy in building stabilizing strength. So I don't overtrain, I do these very light
for 4 sets of 10 reps. We finish this up with neck work. Pick any movement for neck and do 4 sets of 10 reps and
that finishes us with our assistance work for the bench. Also, we see added stability in our deadlift as well.
I hope this will help all of you. Our beginners, many of which are women, are seeing good results with this type
of training. So try these movements out and let me know what you think. Next time, we'll look at form and speed
training for bench.
Until then-lift heavy, train smart & eat more pizza.
Wade