Power Lifting
Power lifting is what most people think of when they consider becoming Strong instead of Big. It builds maximal strength, the max you can lift regards of how long it takes you to do it. Power lifting muscles are denser than body building muscles, thus heavier and smaller even if they are stronger. Power lifters can be chubby because their exercise routines make them very, and naturally, hungry. There is little downside to being heavy in power lifting, so they don't watch their waistline as much as their chest size. The three competitive lifts are the bench press, the deadlift, and the squat.
The bench press is how much you can press off your chest. When someone asks you how much you bench, they assume you are performing the motion with a weighted bar, however if you perform the motion with dumbbells, you can gain wider range of motion and probably over all better development.
The squat is the most technically difficult and least natural of the three lifts. Essentially, you put the bar on your shoulders, squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor while keeping your back as straight as possible, and stand up again, and again, and again. If your lower back hurts more than your legs, your back isn't keeping straight enough, and you might be leaning forward too much. Consciously keeping the weight over your heels can help. Some shoes incidentally encourage leaning forward, so some lifters exercise with flat soles or barefoot. My constant focus on proper form is why I rarely know my max for the squat. I don't plan on going to competition anyway.
Since my knees aren't as young as they used to be, I do a light warm up set of squats of 95 pounds 15 times, focusing on squatting low and perfectly, before I jump to the heavy sets with few repetitions.
The deadlift is my favorite of the three. All you are doing is lifting the bar off the floor, which is what most of us need strength for. We lift backpacks, furniture, our children - we lift things a lot more often than we push things or squat with stuff on our shoulders. A good, solid deadlift also provides a good foundation for Olympic Weight Lifting.
The deadlift position is squatting down behind the bar, keeping the bar close to your legs, rolling back on your heels, and looking up to help keep your back straight. Then you lift with your legs first, then push your hips forward, and finally roll your shoulders back. This exercise works all the muscles in the backside of your body, from your calves to your shoulders.
In the regular deadlift position, your feet will be between your hands. In the sumo deadlift, your hands will be between your spread legs. In the stiff legged deadlift, you perform a regular deadlift once, and the bend over and straighten up multiple times. These three versions place the focus on different muscles, but they all still work together. When going heavy, I prefer the sumo deadlift, because of the stability.
There are two more non-competitive but important lifts to round out this program, the military or overhead press and the pull back. The overhead press is pushing the bar up over your head. The standard overhead press lifts the weight up from your pecs, while another option is to start the bar from behind your head, which prevents your chest muscles from helping your shoulders. The pull back is for your upper back. There are many versions of this motion, but the important thing to remember is to mentally command your back muscles to start the motion, otherwise it is tempting to start the motion with your arms (which puts the work on your biceps instead).
Almost all other lifting exercises in the gym are secondary to these, except for Olympic lifting.
The bench press is how much you can press off your chest. When someone asks you how much you bench, they assume you are performing the motion with a weighted bar, however if you perform the motion with dumbbells, you can gain wider range of motion and probably over all better development.
The squat is the most technically difficult and least natural of the three lifts. Essentially, you put the bar on your shoulders, squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor while keeping your back as straight as possible, and stand up again, and again, and again. If your lower back hurts more than your legs, your back isn't keeping straight enough, and you might be leaning forward too much. Consciously keeping the weight over your heels can help. Some shoes incidentally encourage leaning forward, so some lifters exercise with flat soles or barefoot. My constant focus on proper form is why I rarely know my max for the squat. I don't plan on going to competition anyway.
Since my knees aren't as young as they used to be, I do a light warm up set of squats of 95 pounds 15 times, focusing on squatting low and perfectly, before I jump to the heavy sets with few repetitions.
The deadlift is my favorite of the three. All you are doing is lifting the bar off the floor, which is what most of us need strength for. We lift backpacks, furniture, our children - we lift things a lot more often than we push things or squat with stuff on our shoulders. A good, solid deadlift also provides a good foundation for Olympic Weight Lifting.
The deadlift position is squatting down behind the bar, keeping the bar close to your legs, rolling back on your heels, and looking up to help keep your back straight. Then you lift with your legs first, then push your hips forward, and finally roll your shoulders back. This exercise works all the muscles in the backside of your body, from your calves to your shoulders.
In the regular deadlift position, your feet will be between your hands. In the sumo deadlift, your hands will be between your spread legs. In the stiff legged deadlift, you perform a regular deadlift once, and the bend over and straighten up multiple times. These three versions place the focus on different muscles, but they all still work together. When going heavy, I prefer the sumo deadlift, because of the stability.
There are two more non-competitive but important lifts to round out this program, the military or overhead press and the pull back. The overhead press is pushing the bar up over your head. The standard overhead press lifts the weight up from your pecs, while another option is to start the bar from behind your head, which prevents your chest muscles from helping your shoulders. The pull back is for your upper back. There are many versions of this motion, but the important thing to remember is to mentally command your back muscles to start the motion, otherwise it is tempting to start the motion with your arms (which puts the work on your biceps instead).
Almost all other lifting exercises in the gym are secondary to these, except for Olympic lifting.