Maintaining Balance, Part One

Keeping the development of the various muscle groups in balance is a never-ending challenge for those who strive to get stronger. Most start out on the correct course, doing a few basic exercises and making certain they’re building a solid base. They emphasize a routine built around the major muscle groups, pay close attention to their nutrition and are conscientious about getting enough rest. They’re rewarded with steady gains.

During the intermediate stage of training gains don’t come as easily, and that’s when trainees start losing the battle of balance. They begin deviating from the original plan, hoping to overcome the sticking points with some methods of their own. In some cased they change course because they’re discouraged about some exercise that just won’t improve, at least not enough to suit them.

On the other hand, some of the exercises in the program are progressing nicely, which prompts them to put more time and energy into improving those movements even more. Unfortunately, that causes them to neglect the exercises that aren’t going so well. Since they’re making alterations, they decide to eliminate a couple of exercises they really don’t like to do at all. Good mornings and stiff-legged deadlifts tend to head up that list. They figure back hypers work just as well, right? And since they never got the form down on shrugs, they switch to dumbell or upright rows.

You can see where this is going. Another version of the same theme is when beginners, particularly young beginners, are influenced by some article in a magazine or by other members of their gym. No need to go so low in those squats, they’re told. Good mornings serve no purpose other than maybe to hurt your back. What good are power cleans? You’re not planning on entering a weightlifting meet, are you? Why not spend more time of your chest and arms?

And that’s exactly what so many do – concentrate on exercises for their arms and chest. The lure of a big bench press is another factor that causes trainees to slip away from a balanced routine. The lift they want to improve the most, the bench, is the one on which they gain the slowest. That bothers them because it’s the only lift their friends ever ask about. They’re read that the muscles of the upper body always develop more slowly than the others in people their age, but it does little to satisfy them. They stop doing all the basic exercises for their back and legs so they can put all their effort into benching and exercises to help their bench.

For a time they think they’ve made a smart decision. The bench press does start to climb upward. They don’t mind the fact that their back and leg strength have diminished completely or that their physiques have become decidedly top heavy. Only when the aches and pains in their shoulders and elbows become too severe to even consider going to the gym do they stop and reexamine their programs.

Those who neglect or avoid the balance factor in strength training always run into problems eventually. For some the trouble is simply snickering about their ridiculous physiques, but for most it ends in injury. It’s certainly not an original idea, but a chain is really no stronger than its weakest link.

I’m not addressing these remarks to those who don’t really care about complete, balanced development. If people only want arms and chest, that’s certainly their choice. This discussion is for those who want to improve their overall strength in order to perform better athletically. That includes collegiate football players and also weekend tennis enthusiasts because all sports require a balanced strength. No sport involves only one or two bodyparts. The entire body must be made stronger.

A question I’m frequently asked when I discuss this idea is, “If my squat is climbing steadily butt my bench and pulls are stuck, should I cut back on leg work and spend that energy on the other lifts?” Figuring out how to pull up a weaker lift is hard for trainees who set up their own routines as well as for coaches who are responsible for guiding the programs of many athletes. The answer is a little involved but not all that complicated. The first thing to understand is that it’s advisable to stay on the basic program for no less than six weeks, regardless of how fast one lift may be progressing in regards to the others. After that, changes can and should be made.

The best method of altering a program to help improve a weaker area is to change the sequence of the exercises. That’s much more effective than eliminating basic movements or cutting back on the workload too much. I start everyone on a routine that emphasizes full squats – for a couple of reasons. The core of strength is in the center of the hips, and there’s no other exercise that can strengthen the region better than full squats. The full squat is also the most demanding of all exercises, including the deadlift. If beginners can discipline themselves to always do their squats first, they’ll always include the lift in their programs. If people squat, they’ll stay strong, even into their 40s and 50s.

The squat is the priority exercise for all strength athletes, and I want them to make marked gains from the beginning. I spend much more time coaching technique on this exercise than I do on power cleans and benches. Because they do it first in their routines, the athletes have more energy for it, and their form is better than when they do the other basic exercises. As a result, their squats move up much faster than the other primary lifts.

After six weeks, just before spring break, we test them. The break serves the program well because the athletes are all on the brink of overtraining. That’s where I want them to be.


When they return, I shift the emphasis to the power clean. Power cleans, along with related back work, are essential to any athlete participating in contact sports such as football and lacrosse. Elevating a heavy weight in an explosive manner carries over perfectly to blocking, tackling and checking. A strong back also helps prevent serious injuries so I want to bring the lift in balance with the squat.

I do that by moving the power clean or hang clean to the front of the workout. I also lower the reps from 5’s to 3’s and 2’s. That enables them to use more weight right away. I have them move through their pulling routines at a faster pace than they used in the first six weeks. I’ve found that back work should be done more rapidly than leg or upper-body work, with short rest periods between sets. I start honing technique on the pulling platforms the same way I worked with the squats at the beginning. In nearly every case the problem on the power clean is at the finish. That’s the reason I add hang cleans to the program. I always have them do a few full-range movements before doing hangs, however. Most pick up the motion of the hang clean more readily than the full movement, and I don’t want hang cleans to become the primary exercise. The full movement works more muscles; therefore, it’s better.

So what happens with the squat? Do I have them do less work and lower the weights? I do call for less work on the squat, but I don’t lower the poundages because I believe it sets a negative mental standard. The procedure takes care of that. Since they expend lots of energy on the pulling platform, there’s less available for the squat. (Keep in mind that I am referring to beginners. Advanced strength athletes, who have established a wide base, can often set personal records on all three lifts in the same session.)

Since doing heavy pulls tires the lower back and squatting heavy weights is totally dependant on the lumbars, I make one other change in the routine at this time. I have everyone who can rack the bar on his shoulders correctly do front squats twice a week. They’re certainly not easier than back squats, but as the athletes use less weight on them, the total amount of work being done for the legs is somewhat less. Nevertheless, the amount of effort being put into the lift is the same – or more – and that’s a major consideration. In the long run front squats help to elevate the back squat because they strengthen the muscles of the legs and hips somewhat differently, which is mostly due to the fact that the lifters have to go extremely low on the front squat.

They continue to maintain their back squat by working it hard on Friday, doing a max triple followed by a demanding back-off set. I don’t mind if their squat doesn’t improve during this period, but I don’t want it to lose ground.

My goal is to hold the squat at its highest point and move the weaker lift up. When the pulls get to a high level, I try to hold that and shift emphasis again to improve the weakest area, in this case the upper body.

This is the method nearly all Olympic weightlifters used when the overhead press was still performed in competition. We knew that balance was the key to winning. A
huge press and a weak snatch or clean and jerk seldom won a major contest. The three lifts needed to be in some sort of balance. Some, naturally, excelled at one of the lifts, but they seldom overtrained on that lift. They spent their training time trying to improve their technique and strength on the weaker lifts.

After we give priority to the back for six weeks, there’s another break for finals, and then most of the athletes go home for the summer. After that it’s time to give the upper body more attention. That situation takes care of itself in most instances because once the athletes get out of my sight, they’re going to do a great deal more upper-body work. That’s fine, just so they try to maintain their highest levels of strength in the back and legs.

I give less attention to the upper body in a strength routine because those muscles are the least important to athletes. I’m not talking ego here but performance. With regards to upper-body strength what I am interested in, again, is balance. If the various groups that form the upper body – arms, shoulders, chest and upper back – have proportionate strength, then the risk of injury is greatly reduced.


That’s also the reason I have athletes do a variety of exercises for their upper bodies and not just the bench press. The incline is a very useful exercise for athletes, in my mind much more so than the flat bench. Overhead presses, push presses and push jerks have great value but are often neglected. Dips are extremely beneficial because the deltoids are involved in all physical activities. Many of the strongest men and best bodybuilders in the country used weighted dips as their primary upper-body exercise, and they built amazing shoulder strength as well as head-turning physiques.

After athletes have spent time giving each of the major groups priority – and, I hope, moving all of them upward in a balanced manner – they’re ready to approach the problem in a different way. Once the lifters have graduated to the intermediate or advanced stage, they have to use the concept of balance in terms of all the muscles that make up the major groups. They need to learn how to identify weaker parts of groups, down to the smallest muscles, and then do something about them. That’s a rather involved process, which I’ll take up in my next article.