What is a meathead gym owner doing talking about what you wear to the gym? Maybe I have been dating Jen Sinkler for too long and all the spandex fumes have affected my brain.

Stereotypes be damned, I am going to write about it, because this is important.

Your state is the most important, and most under-appreciated factor in training. If you walk into the gym well rested with 8 hours of sleep (physical), having eaten a solid meal some time beforehand (chemical), and a positive state of mind (mental) then I’d be prepared to wager money you’re going to have a good lift.

If you’re missing a leg (or more) of this three-legged stool, you stand a good chance of having a crap session. I wouldn’t bet on you.

One of the factors that will affect your mental state is clothing. I don’t think many women will need to be convinced that when you look good, you feel good. Guys, I’ll let Bobby Wade do the talking: “You play how you look and how you feel, so when we’re looking good, … guys are bouncing around a little bit more, ready to play.” Indeed, as new jerseys seem to have helped the 2006 Titans to a six-game winning streak and a shot at the NFL playoffs.

My favorite gym shorts brand, HYLETE (use code ‘Movement’ for 25% off your first order), has a constant stream of social media posts like this one:

First run with my @trainhylete hoody. iPhone stayed put in the pocket, perfect fit, cool feature. 2 PR’s too! twitter.com/rook403/status…

— Rook (@rook403) January 6, 2013

Jen Sinkler has experienced the same phenomenon with her  Lift Weights Faster t-shirts. In fact, she started a Facebook album with all the pictures people have sent in and their stories of feeling great or setting PRs in the shirt. A few guys have even mentioned that they’ve proved to be, ahem, productive conversation starters with women.

It’s not just coincidence at play. When you feel good, you perform better. When you look good, you feel good. Why wouldn’t you perform at your best when you walk into the gym in fresh clothes and a little swagger?

Every time you set foot in the gym it’s an opportunity to perform. If you’re just showing up to check the box quit and join a different gym. Or start a new program. Or do a completely different activity. Life is too short to just go through the motions of anything. Either change direction and do something different or attack every session like the the opportunity it is to do better and better.

How you look when you train is something you have absolute control over, why not take every advantage you can get? You don’t need to go out and buy the latest, most expensive Lulu gear but pick up some threads that fit and make you feel like you’re about to do something awesome. Throw away your gym shirts and get a couple performance tees that are cut a little more flatteringly. Stay within your comfort zone, by all means, but are you currently looking as good as you could when you show up to the gym?

 

It’s no secret that I am the world’s biggest advocate of the Jefferson Deadlift (or Jefferson Lift, or Straddle Deadlift, or Jefferson Squat). In 2012 I set the IAWA world record for the Jefferson at 605lbs. I have personally taught hundreds of people how to do this lift, and written several articles on the topic. I want you to at least try it, because it’s a fantastic lift.

My obsession with the Jefferson started a few years ago when Adam T. Glass suggested that I might have good natural leverage for it. We looked up the lift in the record books, and realized I could probably break the world record, which I later did in a training lift in 2011 and officially in a contest in 2012.

When I first met Jen Sinkler, she couldn’t conventional or sumo deadlift without pain. The Jefferson was one of the main lifts I prescribed for her to test out, and sure enough she was out of pain and back to traditional deadlifting for a PR in just a few months. Since then I have used this lift to help get countless people out of back pain. Plus, the total-body strength you develop with this lift is awesome.

Why?

Let’s get the reasoning for doing this awkward looking lift out of the way first. Here’s the short version: because you’re weak. Maybe that’s not entirely fair, but I’d be willing to bet it’s true that you are weak outside the ranges of motion that you’re accustomed to. For most people, these are very saggital-plane dominant squats and deadlifts. There’s no rotation, there’s no anti-rotation, and there’s no strength in asymmetry. Before you tell me how those are good things, let me warn you that I have a roster of people who can speak to how Jefferson lifts played a starring role in taking them out of back pain. Further, I’ve personally seen people tweak something conventional deadlifting, and I have never (knock on wood) witnessed anyone hurt anything doing a Jefferson.

The Basics

More Advanced Tweaks

One of the neat things about the Jefferson lift is that it’s already so weird and awkward, it’s impossible for anyone to pin down what “perfect form” is for it. As such, people default to finding what actually is the strongest leverage for their own body.

However, it’s worth discussing what features of alignment make for the strongest pull. In my experience, the more like a trap bar deadlift (with a rotation) you can make it, the stronger you’re going to be. Alignments that favor one leg significantly don’t work as well.

In this comparison photo, you can see in the second photo Abbie’s hips are starting much higher, her back is flatter towards the ground, and the angle between her back and legs is much greater. She is also leaned forward heavily over one leg. For her in particular, to correct this, I asked her to take a position with more external rotation of the feet as in a plié. Being a dancer, this is a position that is strong and comfortable for her.

This resulted in an immediately stronger pull that felt much better for her.

Here is a checklist to use to find better alignment:

1. Are your heels staying planted throughout the lift? If not, adjust so that they are.
2. Are your hip starting in a high position, that you could lower by adjusting your feet? (Hips high is relative, the question is, can I get lower?)
3. Are you fighting rotation on the way up? Could you start in such a way that the bar is already rotated to where it’s going to end?
4. Is the bar hitting the inside of a leg? Adjust your position, sometimes it helps to rotate a little more along the hip axis, so that the bar travels smoothly up in between your legs.
5. Are you mixing your grip on one of your hands? This typically helps, and most people are more comfortable in a mixed grip with the front hand turned palm facing out (supinated.)

 

Curious about how to integrate the Jefferson deadlift into your training to make your pulling strength downright impressive? This and dozens of other variations in my deadlift book, Off The Floor, will catapult your strength into another dimension. In addition you’ll learn to use biofeedback, giving you an unprecedented blueprint for success in your training. This is the exact template I used to skyrocket my deadlift from a measly 245 pounds to not one but three different 600+ pound deadlifts in 3 variations, including a world record.

There is a famous Jim Rohn saying that goes: “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Well, yes, probably. Maybe. Sort of. But, it’s misleading.

Certainly, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of your friends (we’ll call the 5 people you spend the most time with friends) will affect you. If they are successful and driven people, you are probably going to have that in common with them and also be successful and driven. The opposite, of course, is also true. Whatever the profile of the individuals, what you really have are a set of behaviors. Indeed, we are little more than the sum of our behaviors.

Which begs the question, which comes first, the behaviors or the friends?

Let’s ignore for a moment that it seems nearly impossible to change your group of friends without changing what you DO on a daily basis. Changing your friends or peers might have some leverage over your habits and behaviors, but would it be enough to change a lazy sloth into a high-powered executive? I doubt it.

On the other hand, if you were to change the majority of your behaviors, do you think your friends group would change significantly? Absolutely.

So through the magic that is logic, we see that the greater lever that you can exert control over is that of your behaviors. Actually changing behavior is another topic, but first it helps to recognize what they actually are.

For now I just have questions for you:

1. Outside of working hours what are the top 10 things you’ve spent your time on in the past 5 days?
2. Are those things aligned with your wants and goals?
3. If you have a goal lift, how many times have you trained it (or a variation) in the past 5 training sessions?
4. How much TV have you watched in the past 5 days?
5. How many books have you read in the past 30 days?
6. How much time have you spent moving or exercising in the past 5 days?
7. What have you eaten the most of in the past 5 days?
8. If you’re an entrepreneur, or otherwise work for yourself, what have you spent most (top 3) of your “work” hours doing?
9. If you took an inventory of the things you did in the past 5 days, and you were told you’d have roughly the exact same 5 days six months from now, would you look forward to it?
10. Are the behaviors you do most often aligned with how you view yourself?

These are pretty broad questions, to get you started and get you thinking. Come up with your own, better, questions that are more narrow in focus and apply to you. The takeaway is this:

[Photo Cred: Aristotle quote on the wall at Cressey Performance]