Jan 9, 2012

Today I learned something new, a new way of using the pvc pipe to improve your technique. I usually use the pvc pipe to warmup with some basic mobility drills, and I have seen people start their warmup set with the pvc pipe if the barbell constitutes a moderate load. But I had not heard of using a pvc pipe to help teach a proper back position until I read this article from EliteFTS. This article does a great job of describing how to cue a tight, properly positioned, back by placing the pipe (or broomstick) against the back of someone who needs help finding the right position.

It’s a pretty simple technique that works by helping the trainee to feel what a good back position is. The ability to know where you body is and what it is doing during sport is a crucial skill for all athletes. Knowledge of body position is also a skill that many non athletes lack. The more athletic experience someone has, the more likely they are to understand what their body is doing. Sports like gymnastics done at an early age tend to produce athletes that are the most aware of body position. These types of athletes will learn new movements faster than others. This pvc pipe teaching method is great for those trainees who don’t have a large athletic background and therefore need a little help to find the right back position.

A common squatting fault, both in the front and back squats, is not finding the correct balance and weight distribution on your feet. In order to teach the proper technique, coaches will often use the cue “heels” to remind you that you should distribute your weight evenly across your feet. The ideal balance in a squat is to have the center of mass of you and the barbell over the middle of your foot. Why is the cue not “middle” or “balance”? There are several reasons, the first of which is that both of those are incredibly lame.

They also don’t help to correct the main problem, which is that you are attempting to balance yourself and added weight over the ball of your foot. In order to correct this, the best cue encourages you to over-correct and shift the weight to your heels. Hopefully you will try, and more importantly succeed in making a change that places the weight over the middle of your foot.

It may be hard for beginners to squat to full depth due to flexibility or strength imbalance. If flexibility is an issue, cueing may not improve squat technique. Instead it is more important to get into a good stretching routine that will loosen up hips/quads/hamstrings so that you will be able to reach the bottom of a squat easily.

If strength imbalance is the limiting factor, cueing may be a good way to solve the problem. usually people who squat on their toes are attempting to use their stronger quadriceps (the front part of the leg) to move the weight instead of engaging the hamstrings. Over time, and with constant reminders, cueing to place weight on the heels will strengthen the back of the leg enough so that the balance comes naturally. Other assistance exercises can be used to achieve this balance; however the squat, when properly executed, will usually the be most effective training tool for a begginer.

This will be a 2 part blog post about using cues effectively.

In an athletic context, a cue refers to a word or phrase given to you by someone who is watching you lift. The cue is used to correct technique without the need for a long explanation during a lift. As an athlete you are probably wondering how you can maximize the performance boost you can get from listening to cues.

The first step to an effective use of a cue is making sure you understand the movement that the coach is trying to correct with it. Let’s take the squat as an example. A common error made by novices in the squat is to not actively drive the knee outwards, causing the knees to buckle at the beginning of the ascent leading to a failed rep or injury. The cue that is usually given is simply “knees” or “knees out.” In order to get the most out of this cue the athlete must know what it feels like to be in the position of knees out. Here is where asking questions comes in.

If you have trouble visualizing, physically replicating, and/or understanding why the cue is used then it will not be as effective. Usually this can be cleared up by asking a coach how the movement should be executed and then doing the correct movement with no weight. After this, when the weight is heavy, the same correction made at a light weight will transfer over to the heavy. Do not be afraid to ask for a demo if you don’t understand the cue. Otherwise you just have lots of people yelling at you and no improvement.

The next step in cue use is…