Improve your deadlifts and squats with these five steps!

Do you practice squats and deadlifts? And do you feel them more in your spine than in your muscles? That's not good! Below we offer you 5 steps to create more tension in the back of your body and strengthen the spine.

And don't worry! You can include these exercises even when the gyms are closed! Because they require nothing but your time and a little space.

1. Learn to breathe into your lumbar spine

• Sit on a ball or roller and hold onto something solid.
• Press your knees into your chest and round your back.
• Now inhale through your nose and inflate the back of your diaphragm.
• Exhale through your mouth.
• Concentrate on breathing into your lumbar spine. This will teach you to clench the center of the body better (create tension here).
• Practice this in 1-2 sets and 6-10 breaths.

2. Learn to create tension in the middle of the body by resisting the movement of the limbs

One of the best exercises for mid-body stability? Deadbug! However, people often practice it wrong.

Here's what an effective execution looks like:

• Start lying down, with your back flat. You can lift your head and pull your chin to your chest. This will relieve your neck and allow you to push your ribs down towards your hips. If you don't know how to do this, just exhale forcefully. This will push the ribs downwards.
• Since your lower back is on the ground, you're rounding your pelvis. The next procedure Tony Gentilcore describes is trying to touch your chin with your belt buckle.
• Keep an angle of about 90° at the hips and knees.
• Now try to move your limbs without losing tension in the middle of your body.
• The main thing is to keep the centre of the body in a contracted position.
• Alternate stretching the opposite arms and legs, exhaling with each stretch. You're after quality reps, not speed.
• The center of the body is always contracted.
• Aim for 1-2 sets and 6-10 reps.

Another excellent exercise for spinal and pelvic stability is the Bird Dog exercise (bird dog).

• Position yourself on all fours, keep your spine neutral and clench the centre of your body.
• You have two tasks. Don't allow your back to hyperextend and don't allow your hips to drop as you move your arms and legs.
• Practice 1-2 sets and 6-8 reps.
• Exhale with each repetition.

3. Practice half bridge to improve neuromuscular connection

By increasing the activation of the hips, you learn to separate them from the movement of the lumbar spine. This is how any variation of the half bridge or thrust exercise works.

• You can put either your legs or your upper back on the box.
• Push into the heels and concentrate on clenching the glutes.
• Practice 1-2 sets and 8-12 reps.

4. Practice breathing squats and deadlifts to discover neutral spine position and fixed position

Most people have trouble keeping their spine in a neutral position. Sometimes they aren't even sure if their center of the body is clenched during squats and deadlifts.

Breathing at the bottom of squats and deadlifts - in through the nose, out through the mouth - creates tension in the middle of the body. When you become aware of this tension, you learn to keep your spine stiff.

In other words, you learn to hold the clench and breathe underneath the clench, which increases mid-body strength and reduces the risk of spinal problems.

This is demonstrated below on the squat.

• Assume your favorite squat position, dig your feet into the floor and squat down.
• Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• You should feel your center of your body tighten, and you shouldn't feel anything in your lower back.
• Stand up and repeat.

How to do it in a deadlift.

• Take your favorite position for the deadlift. Most of your weight will be on your heels and mid-feet, pushing your hips back.
• Keep your shins relatively vertical with the floor.
• Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• You should feel your mid-body clench, and you shouldn't feel anything in your lower back.
• Practice both breathing squats and deadlifts with a weight that allows you to complete 6-12 reps in 2-3 sets.

5. Reduce the load in working series

It sounds obvious, but a lot of people overlook this point.

• When you lower the weights, you are able to curl better and allow the muscles of the lower body to take over the work.
• Most people overdo it with the weights on complex exercises, and their lumbar spine has to take the strain off their hips and legs.
• Make sure you have excellent technique before adding weight.

Source: www.t-nation.com - Tip: 5 Simple Steps to Better Squats and Deads
By Sivan Fagan
Translated by: Jaromir Uhlir