Smoke out weakness
So here’s an idea. Let’s use all sorts of movement patterns, all sorts of loads (volume, weight, speed, range of motion) and see where we start to break down–expose the weakness in other words. Then find some way to correct the weakness. In this way we should truly raise the ceiling on how strong we can be.
How do we do expose our weaknesses? First, I think it’s extremely important to have someone watch you or find a way to video yourself. Very often we may be moving poorly yet we don’t know it and it helps to have another set of eyes on the problem. Then, we need to work to the point of some sort of exertion in order to draw out the poor movement pattern. That is, we need to a) do enough reps, b) lift enough weight, c) move fast enough, or d) move far enough into a particular range of motion such that we cause a movement fault to appear. By the way, the load that’s needed to cause this movement fault may not be very severe. We may see a movement fault with just one half-range body-weight squat for example.
- Squat
Pullups
Pushups