Read how to use Biofeedback in Competition

It was the middle of last week and I was worried. I just happened to be walking by the door to the training floor at The Movement Minneapolis at the exact moment that my wife, Jen Sinkler, took a pull on a heavily loaded bar, barely broke it off the ground, and then knelt on the ground behind it. I did a double take, took two steps back into the doorway, and said: “What was that?”

“Oh, ahh, nothing, totally fine,” came her response.

It did not look fine to me.

One thing I know about Jen is that she doesn’t show, or even admit, for that matter, weakness when it comes to competition – and the powerlifting contest she had been training for was a mere five days away. I asked about it later and was met with more insistence that everything was fine and that her “hip flexors were just tight.”

I didn’t give it any more thought until six of nine lifts were in the books and Jen was going into the deadlift with a 2.5-kilogram lead against her arch rival. It’s also worth mentioning that because of a rule change in weight classes, any records broken at this meet would have their holder’s names in the Minnesota state record books forever. She already held the squat record and she was going for the deadlift and total record.

But her hips were in pain. She pulled a little over 138 kg (305 pounds) in her normal competition sumo stance in the warm-up area and it was suspiciously slow and effortful.

To even maintain her lead, she was going to have to deadlift something equal to or greater than her previous meet lifetime PR of 162.5 kg (358.2 pounds), and her rival was opening 7.5 kg (roughly 16 pounds) higher than she was. She needed big pulls, and she wasn’t looking to be in any kind of shape to pull big.

“It’s really hurting my hip flexors at the bottom of the pull now,” she said.

On a hunch, I asked, “How does conventional test?”

Even the best of us forget the basics sometimes, and Jen hadn’t considered questioning her premise that sumo was her best competition stance. She took a few seconds to run through the testing protocol and discovered that sumo tested terribly, while conventional tested extremely well. She went back to the 138 kg bar, pulled it conventional, and tested. Not only did the weight fly up, but it tested extremely well.

Jen walked out onto the platform and confidently pulled 147.5 kg (325 pounds), then 160 kg (353 pounds), and then 165 kg (364 pounds) to seal a lifetime deadlift PR, the state deadlift record, the total record, the middleweight win, and the meet’s best lifter award. Her rival pulled 162.5 kg (358 pounds), a pull that would have likely given her the win, resulting in her name in the record book, had Jen not switched her style of deadlifting that day.

Up to that point there were many factors to thank for getting her there. Chad Wesley Smith’s Juggernaut programming, which had a squat emphasis, put 15 kg on her total. Advice from some other badass female lifters helped her cut a few pounds and make her weight class. Her lifting partners provided encouragement and support to keep her training consistent.

But none of that would have mattered had she not tested her movement before stepping out on the platform. She had been doing too much of the same thing, she was in pain, and there is no way she would have pulled a lifetime PR deadlift in that condition. She may have even injured herself.

Biofeedback for the win, indeed.

You know, it’s funny, every once in a while some jackass, thinking they’re finding a flaw in the system, will ask me, “Well, what if something doesn’t test well on meet day, do you just tell them you can’t lift that day?” And the answer is, no, you step out on the platform and you do what you have to do no matter what – because it’s competition. But, if you can adjust your game and make better decisions because of biofeedback, then you’re not at a disadvantage: instead, you’re gaining a massive competitive advantage.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this play out, but it is certainly one of the most dramatic.

And, it came as a wonderful punctuation to last week’s Off The Floor anniversary sale that ended this weekend. (I extended it for a couple days because of Jen’s victory.)

Ultimately, if you’ve been on the fence about biofeedback testing, I want you to ask yourself if you’re going to question your premises or stay where you are.

If you already have been testing and following your body, then I have a challenge for you: what things are you not questioning that could get you better results?

The quality of your answers depends on the quality of your questions.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who picked up OTF last week. Your support means the world to me, and allows me to continue doing what I love and providing great information.

Ask almost any coach who has been around for a while how to do more pull-ups and they’ll likely mention Pavel’s Fighter Pull-Up program. And for good reason, because it’s a great program that hinges on a fundamental tenet of many good training programs: high-frequency of training at sub-maximal intensities.

For those unfamiliar with the program the idea is to take your best max pull-up set, do a maximal set, and then do about 4 drop-off sets of fewer reps each. You may only do 3 drop-off sets just dropping a rep each set, or you may do up to 5 more sets dropping 5 reps per set all depending on what your total rep max is. Someone who can do 25 reps is going to need more of a drop-off than someone who can do 5.

But, it could be better.

The problem with the Fighter Pull-up program is that it’s essential a linear progression distress training program. Another way to say that is that you have to hit a certain number of reps and you’re expected to always be increasing that number and if you don’t the whole thing falls apart. The instructions for what to do if you don’t hit the prescribed reps is literally: “If you run into a snag with this routine, back off a week and build up again. If you hit the wall again switch to another routine.” So if it doesn’t work, do something else. Duh.

I’d like to present to you the Better Biofeedback Pull-up Program. This program is both a great introduction to biofeedback training keeping it simple and to just one exercise, as well a more advanced and smarter way to approach pull-up training. I’ve used this exact method with countless clients, and myself, to increase my pull-up strength and ability.

 

P.S. If you want a full biofeedback-based training program you need to check out my deadlifting program, Off The Floor.

Bands are like shots of flavoring in your coffee. They should be used with extreme prejudice, but when the time is right they’re exactly what you want.

I’ve got 4 ways to use bands in your deadlifting, judiciously of course. Two of them you may have seen before, but I’ll bet you haven’t seen the other two.

1) Banded Deadlift

This is the most common form of using a band in a deadlift. It provides an accommodating resistance that gets progressively harder as you get closer to lockout due to the stretch in the band. As an aside, I’ve never liked the term accommodating resistance for something that sure as shit doesn’t accommodate and definitely makes it harder, but I digress.

The idea behind the standard band deadlift is that because the deadlift gets easier as you get closer to lockout but weight stays constant it may be useful to make the top range of the movement more difficult. In practice I have found this to be useful when used sparingly.

My preference is to use a setup where the majority of the weight is on the bar, but you get 100 to 150 pounds of additional resistance at the top of the lockout. My band of choice is usually a thin purple Iron Woody band (like I’m giving away to one lucky purchaser of Off The Floor) on each side of the bar. I’ve measured this out and it works out to be about 100lbs depending on the specific dimensions of your setup.

A word of caution. Be extra careful on the eccentric or lowering portion. The band is going to actively pull you down in a way that gravity alone does not, and if it catches you by surprise you may be on your way to snap city.

2) Reverse Band Deadlift

The reverse band deadlift, perhaps not at all surprisingly, is intended to have the opposite effect of the banded deadlift. Instead of making the lockout harder, you’re getting some help in the initial portion of the pull and as you release tension from the band the weight gets heavier and gets closer to the true weight on the bar. In other words, it makes the start of the pull easier but the lockout is the same. This could allow you more total repetitions at a difficult starting weight than if you had to complete the full rep. Another advantage may be that it teaches you to have a specific load in your hands, but you’re moving it more quickly thanks to the band assistance.

For the reverse band deadlift you’ll need much heavier bands if you’re hanging them from a typical power rack. The thick green Iron Woody bands are a good starting point. In this variation you need a pretty good amount of resistance to make a significant impact on a heavily loaded barbell.

3) Front Banded Deadlift

This variation can be incredibly hard and a fantastic teaching tool. One of the biggest and most common mistakes people make with their deadlift is letting the bar drift forward away from the body. Any separation between the bar and the shins is increasing the leverage significantly. As you can probably imagine, using bands to actually forcefully put tension on that vector is going to make things pretty exciting. If you have trouble getting your lats engaged then this variation is a winner.

This works best with very light band tension – the same thin purple Iron Woody bands as in the band deadlift and you’ll want to only pull a few inches of tension into the band by backing the bar away from the rack or anchor point. I like to loop the bands around the bar first, and then use rack pins if available.

4) Solo Band Deadlift

I don’t know what else to call this so as not to confuse it with doing a barbell deadlift with bands. I want to be very clear, this is not a go-to strength builder. You’re not going to get to a triple-bodyweight pull by jumping up band sizes doing this movement. But here’s an example of when it’s really useful:

We had been in Ecuador for 4 days. After an 18 hour travel day of multiple flights, many hours in the car, and several hikes my back was really bothering me. It wasn’t injured, just the kind of annoying tension and ache that I often feel when I haven’t done some resisted hip and spinal extension (aka deadlifts) in a while. Since there was no hope of finding a barbell and plates, I was glad I had packed a couple bands. A couple sets of 15-20 later and I felt good as new.

The solo band deadlift is a travel lifesaver. Bands take up very little space and are versatile exercise tools besides the use for deadlifts. Here’s how I set it up:

P.S. If you like this post, you should know that even more useful information just like it is in my book, Off The Floor which is on sale for HALF OFF this week only until Friday at midnight. It has been upgraded and expanded since the original release. If you’re serious about putting pounds on your deadlift, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of this opportunity!