Tune in to today's show as Brad talks about the 4 big lifts that can help you build strength, better posture, and confidence. For each lift he speaks about the: 1.) Requirements 2.) Potential Restrictions or Limitations 3.) Benefit 4.) How to Perform See below on how to perform each lift. 

Barbell Deadlift: 1.) Walk up to barbell until your shins are just one inch away-this will place the barbell directly over your mid foot, which is the balance point for all barbell exercises. Your heels should be 6-8 inches apart. This is a more narrowed stance than the squat. 2.) Lean over with stiff legs, and take a grip that places your elbows just outside your knees. Be careful not to move or roll the bar from your mid foot. 3.) Bring your shins forward to touch the barbell-again without moving or rolling it away from your mid foot. Keep your hips in place, they are not supposed to move from this point forward. 4.) Squeeze your chest up to tighten all the muscles of your back. Avoid dropping your hips while you squeeze your chest up. This crucial step sets our lumbar spine in a normalized anatomical position (avoids excessive flexion) 5.) Drag the barbell up your legs while maintaining lumbar/thoracic extension until you are standing straight with chest out. 6.) Slowly lower the weight with the back still in the neutral spine position all the way back down to the ground. 7.) Reset and Repeat. 

Squat: With Barbell: The barbell should sit in the rack at the height of mid-sternum. Take a thumbless grip on the bar that is narrow enough to facilitate straight wrists by placing the heel of the palm against the bar and placing fingers on top. This is an important step to learn, because the hands don’t hold the bar on the back – our back muscles holds the bar on our back. The hands simply keep the barbell from rolling down our back. With grip and hands in place, walk under the bar and place it just below the spine of the scapula, on the meat of the rear deltoids muscles. Remember, we use the low bar position to allow us to bend over and use the posterior chain to stand up. With the bar in position, take a deep breath, and stand up with the bar on the back. Step out of the rack and take the same shoulder width stance as the stretch without the bar. Take a big deep breath with a closed glottis – the Valsalva Maneuver – to increase the intra abdominal pressure of our gut and provide stability for our back. As you prepare to squat down, remember two things: 1) you have to push your thighs apart – your elbows won’t do it for you and 2) don’t stop at the bottom; squat down to depth and come right back up. 

Barbell Overhead Press: With the bar in front of you, place your hands just outside shoulder width apart. Keep elbows and forearms in a vertical position, stacked upon each other. If your elbows are tucked or flared, your grip is either too narrow or too wide. Elbows should be approximately at 30 degree angle which helps to put the shoulder in the plan of scapula (explain this importance)Please adjust accordingly. Place the bar on the heel of your palm — this is where most force will generate from. Make sure your middle knuckles face upwards to ceiling. 

Pull-Up: Use step to get to bar, retract and depress (bring shoulder blades down and in) prior to pulling your chest up to the bar to get your neck above the bar. Your hand grip should be just outside your shoulders. You wan to avoid shrugging your shoulders at the top. You should be squeezing down and in. Lower back down slowly. Avoid locking arms out to avoid stress on joints.