The Skinny Fat Lifter | Robert Santana

[Robert Santana]

@rip Necessary might not be the term. Mr. Santana wrote

"because if the deadlift is artificially light due to an improper progression then what typically happens next is that the squat will eventually get legitimately heavy, taxing the weak low back and resulting in missed deadlifts that would have otherwise been completed."

I get spooked by the DL and have trouble grinding through reps while worrying about form. I thought setting the squat back and getting DL would strengthen lower back and give me confidence on my squat. Thanks for the response.

I'll answer very generally and see what Rip says but my line of thinking is that it would be fine to do that because the squat progresses so rapidly on NLP that you won't be lifting lighter weights for very long while the pull catches back up.

That being said, you should go see a coach and get that pull sorted (see below).

@Santana

I'm currently at 210 for squat and 235 for DL at age 45, 6'1", 245 body weight.

Thanks for the response. The "skinny fat" and "artificially low deadlift" are very useful.

Video? I bet that 235 was speedy. Chances are you could probably take a couple of 15-20 lb jumps and make the lift.

Any tips on progressing pulldowns is you're stuck with a machine that the smallest possible jump is 5 pounds?

I just made a video on this that I'll be posting soon. You hang the plate on the pin that goes into the stack.

Forgive me but I'm very confused by this. These should be started on day one and then progressively loaded by 2 lbs after 2-4 weeks (aka staying static until then) or they shouldn't be started at all (and thus progressively loaded) until after the first 2-4 weeks?

Also, is this 2 lb progression within all the set x rep schemes? What determines when you change the rep schemes?

I'm just curious as this seems very interesting. I was advised to do these pulldowns progressively by other SSCs when I restart my NLP, but yours is the first time I've seen set/rep/frequency mentioned.

I was writing in accordance with the recommendation to incorporate chin-ups/pulldowns after a couple of weeks of the novice program. This is covered in the Blue Book. Chin-Ups/Pulldowns are added on week 3 or 4 but I don't have anything against adding them right away. I also don't have an issue with starting out with larger jumps if you can make them. If you can make a bigger jump the first few workouts then do it but typically these end up slowing down after a couple of weeks of doing them much like the press and the bench press.

[Sherm Churlish]

"That being said, you should go see a coach and get that pull sorted (see below)."

That's for sure!

[David McClelland]

I was writing in accordance with the recommendation to incorporate chin-ups/pulldowns after a couple of weeks of the novice program. This is covered in the Blue Book. Chin-Ups/Pulldowns are added on week 3 or 4 but I don't have anything against adding them right away. I also don't have an issue with starting out with larger jumps if you can make them. If you can make a bigger jump the first few workouts then do it but typically these end up slowing down after a couple of weeks of doing them much like the press and the bench press.

Thanks for the insight as always. It was a great article. Think I'm just gonna read the whole book again.

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for the insight as always. It was a great article. Think I'm just gonna read the whole book again.

That is a good idea.

[sanmegrino]

"The end result should be a deadlift that is 50-100 lb ahead of the squat. Outliers with physical limitations exist (e.g. small hands, short arms in relation to height, etc.), but these are the exception, not the rule."

I fit in this group of outliers 🙄😄 I have shorter arms, small wrists and hands, long torso and short realitively massive quads and glutes. Also the muscular mass of my upper body is in disproportion with my stronger lower body due to rowing in my early years. This is what I want to change since ever. What should I consider regarding the ratio between Deadlift and Squat?

Thanks in advance!

[CommanderFun]

I just made a video on this that I'll be posting soon. You hang the plate on the pin that goes into the stack.

Not sure how applicable this will be on the machine I work with, but I'll wait for the video. For now I've been doing some 3 sets where I increase reps every session, and then upping the weight by 5 when the reps get to a certain point.

[Robert Santana]

Not sure how applicable this will be on the machine I work with, but I'll wait for the video. For now I've been doing some 3 sets where I increase reps every session, and then upping the weight by 5 when the reps get to a certain point.

Do you have to place a pin into a hole in the weight stack to change the weights?

[Robert Santana]

"The end result should be a deadlift that is 50-100 lb ahead of the squat. Outliers with physical limitations exist (e.g. small hands, short arms in relation to height, etc.), but these are the exception, not the rule."

I fit in this group of outliers ���� I have shorter arms, small wrists and hands, long torso and short realitively massive quads and glutes. Also the muscular mass of my upper body is in disproportion with my stronger lower body due to rowing in my early years. This is what I want to change since ever. What should I consider regarding the ratio between Deadlift and Squat?

Thanks in advance!

How much are you currently lifting on all of the lifts?

[CommanderFun]

Do you have to place a pin into a hole in the weight stack to change the weights?

Yeah, but I dunno if the pin will hold it there. Also, the stack of plates goes through a narrow sort of encasement on its way up, I'm not sure even a 2.5 plate pinned onto the front would fit.

[Robert Santana]

The encasement may be an issue but the pin will hold a 2.5, 5, or even 10 lb. I've done it on several different machines.