Ladies Who Lift
“I want to get stronger but I don't know how! I’m new to the weight room and find it intimidating.”
You want to get stronger but you find the weights area in the gym intimidating and you are nervous about injuring yourself.
You are either new to strength training or you have tried to do some in the past but you don’t feel confident enough in your technique or your knowledge to train on your own.
You want to learn good technique and know exactly what to do in the gym to get the results you want. You want to feel confident in your lifting and know what to do to keep progressing.
Olympic Lifting
“I love lifting weights but I really need help with the Olympic lifts. I haven’t had enough time and coaching to learn the technique properly.”
You want to learn or improve your olympic lifting: the snatch and the clean and jerk. You may be doing Crossfit, a sport or just interested in adding olympic lifting to your training.
You want a confidence-building experience where you learn the movements properly and at a pace that suits you.
You need dedicated time to master the technique under the eye of an experienced weightlifting coach.
Building Strength
"I want to learn how to squat, deadlift and bench press properly, but I don’t know where to start.”
You are new to lifting weights and you don’t know where to start. You’d love to learn how to squat, deadlift and bench press with correct technique.
But you find the typical weight room off-putting and you are not sure who to trust.
You want to be stronger without getting injured. You want to know that you are lifting with proper technique.
And most of all, you want to be confident you’ll actually get results!
How to Nail Your Sumo Deadlift Form
Before we begin, you may be thinking any one of these things: What is the sumo deadlift? Is it like the sumo squat? Is this deadlift going to require a helluva lot more weight than I’m used to?
The answer is no and don’t panic. The Sumo Deadlift does not require any more weight than you’re comfortably used to training with!
Simply put the Sumo Deadlift is a variation of the deadlift. The difference is that in this variation, your legs do a little more work than your lower back.
Because of that, your sumo deadlift form requires good positioning and technique in order to be effective. Thankfully, that’s what we’re covering today!
Why Your Lifting Needs the Clean and Jerk
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!
Home Gym for Strength Training – Members Share Their Tips!
Jon’s weightlifting garden gym
During the Covid-19 national lockdown in early 2021, we asked our members to tell us about their home gym for strength training.
Pros and cons, what to buy, will they use it after lockdown?
Our members train in powerlifting, olympic weightlifting and strongman, so the ideal home gym is full of weights and strength equipment.
However, many members live in London in small flats. So home kit ranges from a couple of dumbbells in the lounge, all the way up to the full garage gym.
Therefore if you are wondering whether to get strength training kit for home, this will be a helpful read, whatever your situation. Read More
What do we mean by the Snatch?
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.
What Muscles Do Deadlifts Work?
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.
A 6 Exercise Strongman Workout
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.
5 Deadlift Accessory Exercises To Get A New PB
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.
What is a Deep Squat & Should You Try It?
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.
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How to Start Strongman Training
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.
The Deadlift Hook Grip: Everything You Need To Know
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.