Latest Articles from Strength Ambassadors

In my last blog, we detailed how and why the snatch was so important in Olympic Weightlifting. 

In this blog, we’re talking about its Olympic Weightlifting sister exercise: The Clean and Jerk.

The snatch and the clean and jerk are the two most iconic power exercises there are. Whilst the snatch is all about your form and your finesse, the clean and jerk allows you to use full, unleashed power (within reason). 

Both exercises build muscle and make you faster, stronger and more powerful. Both exercises require your glutes, hips, hamstrings, quadriceps and shoulders to have a range of flexibility. And most of all: both exercises are a lot of fun to do!

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If you’ve followed Strength Ambassadors for any length of time, or you’ve read a couple of our blogs, you will have probably heard me mention “the Snatch”.

For the experienced lifters among us, this will be common terminology. For those of you who are just starting out with lifting of any kind, you might be thinking… Wait. What are we snatching?

Technically, we’re snatching increased strength, stability and power, but this will all mean very little out of context.

So today, we’re going to talk about an Olympic weightlifting movement that is enjoying a recent surge in popularity: the snatch.

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Deadlifts. We all know they’re good for you – after all, they’re touted as one of the staple exercises in any strength training routine.

But ask any gym goer, fitness fanatic or exercise enthusiast which specific muscles deadlifts work and I guarantee the responses will be haphazard guesses about the back, the biceps and the abs.

In actual fact, deadlifts work around 9 different muscle groups! Different muscle groups also become more or less engaged depending on which variation of the deadlift you perform.

So that you can revel in just how beneficial deadlifts are for your body, here’s the complete run down as to what muscles deadlifts work.

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If you’re looking for a brand new workout that will give you brand new results, it’s time to consider a strongman workout.

Beginners – don’t panic! You don’t need to have muscles that bulge like Eddie Hall’s or Donna Moore’s. 

Strongman training is for everyone. After all, the primary movements of strongman: Pushing, pulling, and carrying are built into all of us! What’s more, performing these exercises in the gym can transfer over to when we use them in the real world.

Through strongman training we develop our functional strength, condition our cardiovascular system and increase our speed, all whilst getting stronger.

If those sound like the benefits you’re looking for in your workout regime, then step up to the plate and try this 6 exercise strongman workout.

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When it comes to strength training and achieving our fitness goals, we all have one common aim: to keep getting better. 

Part of that challenge is achieving Personal Bests. You’ll have often heard people refer to “Smashing their PB”, and there’s nowhere you’ll have heard that more than from lifters!

When it comes to achieving one of these PB’s, all fitness lovers know that it is unrealistic to think that performing the same lifting workout day in day out will break records. To grow stronger we have to consistently challenge ourselves every time we’re in the gym. 

One way of doing that is to add deadlift accessory exercises to your routines. Accessory exercises are variations or more focused additional movements that help you perform the primary exercises better. This helps you improve your form and ultimately achieve better results.

Below I’ve compiled 5 of the best accessory exercises to use when pushing for your own deadlift PB.

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Squats are a little like marmite. Some people love them, some people groan once it comes to that time in their workout routine. In strength training circles however, they’re a necessity component of being able to lift. 

Squats are praised as lifting royalty because they give you a full-body workout, and help develop full-body strength, stimulate muscle growth and improve stability for your upper and lower body.

Many of us will have been taught to squat until our legs were parallel to the ground. But a recent fitness trend is encouraging us to squat deeper. Much deeper.

(Source)

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Just the mention of strongman training often instantly conjures up images of bulging biceps, truck pull competitions and Arnold Schwarzenegger style lifts.

If you’ve heard of the sport of strongman, you’ve probably heard of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (most commonly known as “The Mountain” in Game of Thrones), or Stoke resident Eddie Hall. Or perhaps, unlike its pronoun, you’ve heard of the World’s Strongest Women like Donna Moore or Andrea Thompson.

However, it’s this type of imagery that often dissuades beginners from pursuing the sport, fearing they lack experience or the full body capability to undertake what is a fantastic form of strength training.

Sure, whilst strongman training isn’t for complete gym newbies, it is for everyone – provided you’ve done some weight training before and can at least competently lift a barbell.

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When you first begin to learn how to deadlift, you’ll encounter a number of different types of grip as your legs and back begin to lift more weight off the floor than perhaps your hands can either hold onto or are used to!

Most people will start with a double overhand grip, which is a grip where your fingers wrap around the bar and your thumbs rest on the sides of the bar. But as you begin to get stronger and lift more, your deadlift could become too heavy and your original double overhand grip might start to fail.

If that’s the case, there is another grip that you could try: The Deadlift Hook grip.

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