06 October 2010

Yet Another Exercise You Should Already Be Doing: Back Squat to Press

There appears to be a massive amount of confusion surrounding my recommendations for lifts like the Reverse-Grip Clean and Press, or the exercise I'm highlighting today- the Back Squat to Press. These exercises, as I thought I'd made clear, are hardly intended to be the cornerstone of your program. Unless, of course, you've some keen interest in the lift and happen to want to do it fanatically, you're awesome at it and want to get awesomer, or you simply like scaring the shit out of random passers-by by doing a lift not seen within the confines of a gym since men wore unitards and roman sandals as part of their regular gym attire.
With that caveat in place, allow me to introduce the lift that eventually gave rise to the BTN Push Press in my workout- the Back Squat to Press. This lift is essentially a complex that combines a push press with a back squat, though I prefer to do this as a strength movement rather than the ultra-light cardio sentiment with which it's generally regarded. The full squat will generally limit the amount of weight you use, as it's difficult to get the hip pop at the top of the movement that one can generate in the BTNPP. You can, however, cut down your rest periods and go reasonably heavy on this lift as a nice departure from your normal routine that isn't akin to ambling about the gym with some pink neoprene dumbbells and then hitting the elliptical for a rousing 20 minutes of bullshit steady-state cardio.
As to form, you can see that it's fairly simple- do a deep full squat, power out of the hole and drive up onto your toes, and press the weight to lockout. I'll generally do these for 5-10 sets of 3-5 reps, and it's a nice way to get in a fast full-esque body workout when you're pressed for time. Additionally, I find these help my hip flexibility, improve my lockouts on BTNPPs, and are like I stated above, a nice departure from the same old, same old.

28 comments:

  1. Oh my god...you squatted below parallel!

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  2. Jamie, post some shit we should be doing to C&P calves, do it.

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  3. Jamie mentioned jumping rope with a weighted vest once, and any cleaning movement, high pull or snatch you should be using your calves some.

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  4. Anonymous, do some donkey calf raises with your mom on your back.

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  5. I've been doing these a lot recently as any pressing in front of my head hurts my left shoulder but from the back is no problem, any got any ideas why this is?
    Jamie, I saw you wrote you read the strain when you did the pl meet, have you started the fall yet?

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  6. Nomad- To be honest, I wasn't much of a fan. I doubt I'll read the rest. Reading a biography on Caligula next.

    ... and what dray said.

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  7. Jamie, not to turn this into Oprah's Book Club, but you turned me onto "Gates of Fire", you may like "World War Z", if you haven't read it already.

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  8. In your video you bash front squats- what gives?
    I thought you enjoyed them.
    I found them to be okay every once in a while.
    I like back squats way better, though.
    And "World War Z" is good.

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  9. World war z is awesome and its being made into a movie by plan b, brad pitts company. I've got doug hepburns biography and do androids dream of electric sheep lined up next to read. Where do you find out about the old school lifts jamie?

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  10. I found an actual canvas of that old Louis Cyr poster. Fucking $3,600 ...shit would go great in living room

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  11. What, no more front squats for you?

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  12. I was talking about on the Squat to Press- no thrusters.

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  13. This is totally unrelated, but I think you might like this guy's remixes of deathcore.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-6bDQDIZAQ&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUabSwbPfx4&feature=related

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  14. Oh, and WWZ was awesome. It's been optioned as a movie.

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  15. petition for blog post on some decent fiction!

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  16. I second the motion..

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  17. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Get round that shit RIGHT NOW!

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  18. Is it better than the road cos that book was a waste of my time.

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  19. If you didn't like/understand The Road you won't like/understand any of Cormac McCarthy's other work.

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  20. You shall all bow down to my forearms.

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  21. Can't resist making the comments section about me again, eh? It doesn't even matter what Jamie writes about anymore since all you want to talk about is me.

    World War Z was a good book.
    The Beast that was Max and Road To Hell by Gerard Houarner are both really good too.
    Narrowback was good. I can't remember the author but it's probably not hard to figure out.
    I'm in the middle of Everville by Clive Barker right now. Not his best work but decent nonetheless.

    I'm amazed any of you can even read anything more advanced than Dr Seuss. Although I doubt even one of you is capable of reading Fox in Socks out loud.

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  22. You're tired because you're a loser. Life is wasted on somebody like you. Your skin should be made into a coat

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  23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1HSHjeJ4w

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  24. Clive Barker is one of my favorite authors. I actually think his directed work is pretty decent as well.

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  25. I read Blood Meridian when I was an undergrad. That was definitely a badass book. I'll definitely get a blog up about fiction sometime soon.

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