It’s coming up on the one year anniversary of launching The Skinny-Fat Solution. Right now, I’m working on the third upgrade, and I’m pretty excited about the changes—enough so that I’m giving you some of the sauce behind the scenes. (Yes, yes — when you buy you get free upgrades.) Most of my experience, prior to the [...]
It’s coming up on the one year anniversary of launching The Skinny-Fat Solution. Right now, I’m working on the third upgrade, and I’m pretty excited about the changes—enough so that I’m giving you some of the sauce behind the scenes. (Yes, yes — when you buy you get free upgrades.)
Most of my experience, prior to the online world, came with athletes. Since harking back to my skinny-fat past though, one of the things that I think is lacking (and tremendously) is simply understanding the basic execution of some exercises. And I’m not talking about uberstrict form either, just good enough form—understanding what’s supposed to happen and trying to make it happen. For this, I used Dan John’s fundamental human movements as my backbone.
I fully believe that two different people can “squat” or “chin-up” and get entirely different results based on execution of the movement.
The next version of The Skinny-Fat Solution is going to focus a lot on this, and what I chose to highlight has huge implication on skinny-fat syndrome, the X physique, and even posture (of which there’s a newly created section within the new version about). It’s quite simple really: understanding how to maximally contract the back for the biggest growth and shoulder health potential.
Let’s dive in.
Excerpt from the upcoming revised guide within The Skinny-Fat Solution
Alas, we’ve made it to the final movement: the pull. The pinnacle of the pull is another Dan John favorite known as the bat wing. Much like we added the Romanian deadlift to the hinge, however, I’ve added another “advanced” progression at the end of this, and it’s one that I think everyone should solidify. Unlike the Romanian dealift though, the final progression is tough in both practice and principle. Most people that go to the gym don’t do it, but it will make your back explode if you do.
All of the movements we learned start with problems. The problem with the squat is the mobility. The problem with the push-up is torque and anchoring. The problem with the hinge is that you’re working in a different plane of resistance than gravity. The problem with the pull?
Neglect.
For most of our lives, our shoulders sit there, dangling from their sockets, controlled by mean old mister gravity. The muscles of our back oblige to such pressure. They stretch and weaken over time. This is the whole phasic-tonic problem.
Compounded on this is that our back is . . . our back. When we check out magazines, we see faces. Faces are front. With faces and front we see chests, biceps, and abs. When fateful souls get into training they want those things.
Alas, a develop back is a sign of a true warrior, and it’s an area that I’ve taken great pride in developing. Long ago, I made the conscious choice that my back was going to be my baby. While everyone else was popping man bobbies atop on a disproportionate body, I was going to have a wide back. There’s an old saying that says the back is the true weightlifter’s biceps. Where everyone else obsesses over the guns, an Olympic weightlifter obsesses over the back. And by all means, if someone has a developed back, you know how to take care of business.
Because of the neglect, most are totally out of feel with the muscles of their back. You can pop the biceps on in a second. Pecs, too. But the back? Do you have conscious control? What does it feel like to contract the lats? Rhomboids? Do you even know what the rhomboids are? (You should.) If the extent of your back knowledge is shrugging, boy, you have a lot to learn. (We don’t even shrug. We’re anti-shrug!) Clearly, there’s work to be done.
The pull: retract and back pocket
Lie face down on the ground. Put your hands by your side as if you were going to do a push-up. Lock your ribcage down, and squeeze your glutes.
From this position, think about . . .
(a) Thumbs to armpit
(b) Putting your shoulders in your back pocket
(c) Always keeping the ribcage locked down and squeezing the glutes
If you toy around with these things are start to feel your back cramp up, well, you know you’re on the right track. Note the picture above.
So with this exercise, your hands should elevate from the ground. If you don’t have the back strength for this, straddle your bed or a couch at first so that one arm is on the bed, and the other is off. This will give you a bit more movement freedom.
Since this is such a small range of motion, we have to get a little more detailed here and talk about what exactly is going on.
When people are often given the cue to row or do any kind of back work, their shoulders usually hunch forward. There are many reasons why this happens—tight pectoralis minor, weaknesses (most of which are addressed fully in the posture chapter). For now, we’ll just say that it needs fixed, and you fix it by learning how to retract and depress the shoulders. (It’s also worth mentioning, once again, that you shouldn’t default through the lower back and into an anterior pelvic tilt. You want the shoulder blade doing the movement here.)
So starting from our ground position, and make squeezing your shoulder blades together your first goal. Pretend like there’s a pencil in between your shoulder blades that you’re trying to crush with your scapula. After you do that, think about putting the shoulder blades into the back pocket. All while keeping the butt squeezed and ribcage locked down.
Do these two things right, and you’re probably going to get some nice cramps along the middle of the spine. That’s your rhomboids saying hello. Say hello back . . . to your back.
Because this is a rather taxing drill, stick to “pulses.” Set up in the bottom position, follow the cues:
- Thumbs to armpits, shoulder blades together
- Shoulder blades in back pocket, butt squeezed and ribs locked
Hold this position for 3-5 seconds and then rest. That’s one repetition. Try to get around five before getting up and shaking things out. If you’re doing this on the bed, after you get good, move to the floor. Once you get good on the floor, you’re onto bat wings.
The pull: bat wings
Bat wings are more or less the same drill above, only with some added weight. There are a few ways you can do this. If you’re doing them in a gym, you can lay flat on a bench with two very very small dumbbells in each hand. Five pounds is the ticket here. (You remember how hard they were without weight, right?) You can also use weight plates.
You can also grab the friendly milk jug filled with a little bit of water (or anything else you can hold), and straddle the couch or bed again. If you do this, you’ll only have the weight in one arm, which is fine. Simply mimic the motion with the free hand.
With the bat wing, you’re more or less allowing the arm to drop a little bit, but not fully. Always keep a bend in the elbow. Bring the weight or jug up to that same position.
- Thumbs to armpits, shoulder blades together
- Shoulder blades in back pocket, butt squeezed and ribs locked
Hold this position for 3-5 seconds and then rest. That’s one repetition. Try to get around five before getting up and shaking things out. Don’t be hero here. Soup cans might be enough weight to make your back muscles to cramp. (And that’s something worth trying. Go back to the original, on floor variation, and hold soup cans in both arms.)
Learning in reverse order
If you recall back to the start of things, I mentioned teaching in reverse order. That’s essentially what the pull is. You’re getting the feel for the finished position of upper body pulling exercises. This isn’t about strength so much as it is developing feel. You want to feel what muscles are contracting. You want to feel what it feels like to have those muscles contracting so that when you move into the barbell stuff, you know you’re doing the exercise correctly.
That’s why this exercise isn’t about weight. Honestly, I’d just cram away at the first variation. Over and over and over. Understand what that feels like. Understand how the shoulder feels when it’s not hunched forward and when it’s actually back and down with the rib caged locked into place and the glutes squeezed. This is the top position of any row exercise that you decide to do, so it’s important to learn
The problem is that we do more than rows. Vertical pulling hugely important (remember our focus: deadlifts and chin-ups, those are your masters now), which is why we move on to the last of the pulling movements.
The pull: rocket wings
You might remember hanging from a bar for no reason in elementary school. You’d hike yourself up to the top of the pull-up and the gym teacher would time you to see how long you could stay. If you go back in time and check yourself out, there’s a good chance you’d be exhibiting all of the bad things we talked about to this point. No worries. We’re here to fix that.
I’m not going to lie. This exercise is tough. If you can’t yet do a pull-up, it’s going to be even tougher. You’re going to have to develop some basic strength, of which there are guides within this resource for.
But much like the bat wing solidifies the row, the rocket wing solidifies the pull-up and chin-up. Consider it a vertical bat wing. With the bat wing, you body is horizontal and you learn to retract and depress your shoulder—you fly horizontal, like a bat. With the rocket, your body is vertical and you learn the same thing—you fly vertical, like a rocket. (Naming isn’t my strong suit, OK? Cut me a break.)
For this exercise, I need you to be smart. If you don’t have the strength, don’t ingrain bad habits.
Take a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip on a bar with a pull-up grip. It would help if you didn’t have to pull yourself up into position, so if you have any kind of box or stepping platform to get you to the top position, that’s ideal.
Once you’re in the top position, think bat wing. Shoulders back and down. Drive your elbows into your torso. When you’re hanging and follow these cues, you do something way beyond a chin-up or pull-up.
The standard for a successful chin-up is built into the name: get your chin up over the bar. With a rocket wing, you’re way beyond that. You’re more in the realm of touching the chest to the bar.
As I said, this is a tough movement. Only hold for five to ten seconds. That will be one rep. Before you do more reps, rest until you’re fresh again. Do not ingrain bad habits.
Conclusion to the back jack plan
These are more learning tools than exercises. You learn what it feels like to be in the best position, which makes getting there much easier in the exercise itself. The goal isn’t to load these up beyond comprehension. It’s all about feel. Feeeeeelllllll. Like when your girlfriend says, “Tell me how you feel.” And you’re like, “K sry bye.” I get it. This stuff isn’t sexy. But it just might save your butt (or shoulders?) in the long run . . . and grow your back to a level you just aren’t quite used to.
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