[Adam Bishop]

Arms session today all went to plan and that finished off my 12 week off season. Prep for the 2022 strongman season starts tomorrow.

Here’s how today went – all exercises consisted of 2 work sets.

Long rope Pressdowns
Bent over Pressdowns
Reverse grip Pressdowns
BB Curl
Seated DB Curl
Standing DB Alt Curl

[Adam Bishop]

Without seeing you lift it’s obviously a bit of guess work but from seeing how a lot of people use the hack and the pain you’re describing my educated guess would be that you’re allowing your hips/lower back to come off the pad and “butt winking” at the bottom (rounding through your lumber spine).

A lot of people get into this habit when chasing depth and relaxing into the lift due to it being a machine.

My advice would be treat the hack squat as back squat – brace hard every rep with your breathing. I like to force my whole midsection out and feel my lumbar spine actively pushing into the back pad of the hack. Also try using your normal squat stance as I know a lot of people will go narrower than usual on the hack which can increase the chances of lower lumbar flexion during the lift if you’re not looking out for it.

[Adam Bishop]

It depends on what sector you want to work in.

Let’s assume you want to coach people. If you want to coach professional athletes as an S&C coach you would be best getting a sports and exercise science degree or the like. Most positions in the professional sporting world require this. Be warned – the hours will be long and the pay will be lower than you expect!

If you want to help general people in the fitness industry (ie the public) achieve their sporting or physique goals and build your own business then an PT qualification is a good option.

You can obviously do both of you have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning.

My final advice: get coaching people straight away in any way you can. While working as an S&C coach I interviewed hundreds of people fresh out of uni with degrees and even masters but many of them had little to no physical coaching experience and did not know how to connect with athletes face to face. The lost art of coaching is a real problem in the industry as things become academic driven and coaching moves online.

Hey Adam hope you’re having a great day.

In the first case, where you need a degree. Does a physical therapy degree covers this “degree requirement”?

I’m about to study physical therapy school. My thoughts are that it gives you a deeper understanding of the body and you can have a wider scope of practice to chose from.(do you agree?)

Sports Science in my country, unfortunately because of not so good school PT teachers has a bad reputation and isn’t taken seriously. That, and you can’t help people dealing with pain or readapt to training again (am I right?), and generally (if not always as far as I’m aware) in my country you can’t live off that paycheck if you do my have free housing,water,electricity,etc. because the payment is too low.

I’ve got time to think because during the first year and most of the second year the courses they take are the same.

What are your thoughts on this[/quote]
Hi Roberto

What country are you from please?

Yes of course it will vary country to country as the education system varies.

My comments above refer to how it works in the UK trying to get a job as a Strength Coach in professional sport. I’m sure the requirements are different in the americas for example.

[Adam Bishop]

Rest day for me today before an arms session on Sunday.

Honesty so excited about seeing where my strength is at on competition movements now.

I feel like I’ve added some decent tissue in key places over the past few months and from Monday it’s time to put that tissue to work on a strength focused phase

[Adam Bishop]

Birthday Deadlifts

Terrible sleep last night unfortunately but took a big old hit of JPre Stim and got on with it.

Deadlift 400×2
CG Pulldowns – 2 work sets
Seated row – 2 work sets
WG Pulldown – 2 work sets
Pec Dec Reverse Fly – 2 work sets
SA DB Row – 1 set to failure

The goal was 3 reps on the deadlift but a 3rd rep just want there today unfortunately. Big positives in that I held a good position throughout the lift even when the bar stalled on me. This was a stiff bar PB so I’m looking forward to moving back to the deadlift bar next week.

[Adam Bishop]

Happy birthday adam ????

Thanks Nick.

Another day older another day slightly more broken haha.

I get to celebrate my birthday with some heavy heavy deadlifts later so watch this space ??

[Adam Bishop]

Had a trip into Guildford today to put my truck in for a service so I made a return to my former place of work to train in the Quins gym and catch up with the guys. Had an awesome session as well which was a bonus:

Military Press 140×4 125×3 112.5×3
Paused Press 100x3x3
DB Lateral Raise – 2 work sets
SA cable lateral raise – 2 work sets
Cable red Delt fly – 2 work sets
Seated DB Press – 1 set to failure

[Adam Bishop]

Terrible night’s sleep last night unfortunately but luckily it was a rest day today so I could afford to take a longer than usual nap which helped me out a bit.

Spent the day catching up on some financial paperwork and spent some time in the hot tub this evening.

Hopefully I’ll get a better nights sleep in tonight as I want to hit a good press session tomorrow.

[Adam Bishop]

Ok so we are into the final week of this wave where we’ll be hitting a heavy triple on our main movement each session. As such I dropped a bit of the volume from my squats today as I want to save a bit for a big goal of mine on Friday – Deadlift 400×3 on the stiff bar.

Here’s how it went down today:

Back squat 280×3
Leg Extensions – 2 work sets
Hack squats – 2 work sets
Seated Leg curls – 2 work sets
Prone leg curls – 2 work sets
Seated calf raise – drop set to failure

Really excited to finish this phase off and change my split up as I move into prep phase for the strongman season. Not long to go now.

[Adam Bishop]

Costco for me. I go through a lot of their rib eye steak and chicken thighs. Very good quality.

[Adam Bishop]

Hit some good numbers to finish off this phase of incline pressing today. Looking forward to seeing what I can press when I push it more in the coming weeks

Incline Bench Press 180×3 162.5×3 145×3
Paused Incline Bench 127.5x3x3
DB Fly – 2 work sets
Hammer strength Chest Press – 2 work sets
Banded decline press – 2 work sets

[Adam Bishop]

Hi Clark

So your form overall looks good to me with some small work ons:

1. I’d like to see you sit back a little more to bring your shoulders directly above the bar instead of being out in front. At the moment with your shoulders in front of the bar on some reps you’re causing your hips to rise early in the lift. Sitting back a little bit more will take some pressure off your lumbar spine, allow you to lead with your hips rising first and bring in more drive from your legs.

2. It’s tough to see on the video but are you lifting with a bent elbow? Work hard on keeping those arms long. I like to flex my triceps hard at the start of the lift to force them straight.

3. I’d actually bring the bar further forward in your stance as I feel it’s a little bit too close to your body for a guy of your build. (This should also help with point 1). Imagine the bar is a saw and as you look down place your feet under the bar so that all your toes would be cut off.

I have a full deadlift tutorial on YouTube which might be helpful – just search “Adam Bishop How to Deadlift”

As for your pain towards your upper lat it does look like you are working hard to engage your lats which is great. I sometimes get a burning sensation towards the top of my lat/into my armpit when I am bracing hard. It usually settles down quickly for me. This is just my personal experience though – if the pain persists I would seek the advise of a physiotherapist for sure.

[Adam Bishop]

Little to nothing going on today.

Ate my meals, spent some time in the hot tub and watched the rugby on tv.

Back to a normal training week tomorrow, the final week of this block before we take things up a notch.

[Adam Bishop]

Saturday arms session

Body was feeling it from the pull session yesterday so happy to be training a less stressful bodypart. Still making progress on all movements so I’m happy.

The usual 2 work sets for all of the following:

Long rope Pressdowns
Bent over Pressdowns
Reverse grip Pressdowns
BB Curl
Seated DB Curl
Standing Alt DB Curl

[Adam Bishop]

Felt a bit fatigued today, unfortunately my lack of quality sleep seems to be catching up on me so I really need to sort the ACPAP for the new year. It’s on order.

Anyway still got my work done today, I just decided to put all my energy into my top set of pulls before moving onto my accessory work.

Deadlift 380×3 (proper grinder today!)
CG Pulldowns – 2 work sets
Seated row – 2 work sets
WG Pulldown – 2 work sets
SA DB Row – 2 work sets
DB monkey shrugs – 2 work sets
DB CSR – 1 work set (6/5/4/3/2/1)