The Skinny Fat Lifter | Robert Santana

[stef]

"One of the most common concerns shared by clients is aesthetics. 'Coach, I want to get strong, but I want to lose my belly.' The issue is visible on both the 5’10” 220 lb untrained male and the 5'10” 170 lb untrained male. The common misconception both have is that they need to 'go on a cut.'"

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Part 2 is up: Read part 2

[Soule]

Santa writes a good article. Very informative

[Robert Santana]

Thank you

[Sherm Churlish]

Hello!

Would it be a good idea to deload the squat in order to push the DL up? I'm definitely an example of what you're describing.

Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Why would this be necessary?

[Robert Santana]

Hello!

Would it be a good idea to deload the squat in order to push the DL up? I'm definitely an example of what you're describing.

Thanks

How much are you squatting and deadlifting?

[Sherm Churlish]

@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.

[Sherm Churlish]

@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.

[CommanderFun]

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

[David McClelland]

For those who cannot perform unassisted chin-ups, the supine-grip lat pulldown should be incrementally loaded by 2-2.5 lb per workout after the first 2-4 weeks. I even prescribe these after every workout for as long as that can be tolerated. The standard lat pulldown progression is:

3 sets of 10 repetitions
4 sets of 8 repetitions
5 sets of 5 repetitions
5 sets of 3 repetitions

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.