Mirror Training
I think everyone involved today in bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and sports specific training today all started out the exact same way-mirror training. When you started to lift Weights, it was most likely to impress someone else and you were wanting to look better. Today, even at ten years later, these muscular imbalances can still be a "detriMental factor to your training and your goals.
Mirror Training
Mirror Training
Mirror Training
Mirror Training
I remember the first time I tried to teach someone the Olympic lifts. The guy came into the gym and wanting to focus on a higher vertical leap. I put 100lbs of bumper plates on the bar and asked him to power clean it. This was all after we had spent several hours practicing the jump and pull with a broomstick. His form was all wrong and that moMent is when therealized something-a lot of people can't perform the Olympic lifts because they are weak in too many areas.
This guy had started out just like the rest of us: focusing on bench presses and barbell curls. He wanted to get a big chest and big biceps and spent 2-3 years doing nothing but benching and curling. The guy that completely overdeveloped his internal rotators and scapula protractors, and his back and posterior chain muscles were weak as hell.
I figured at this point, we needed to fix those years worth of imbalances before he would be able to have proper form with the Olympic lifts. The power clean is an explosive moveMent; it is pulled from the ballistic and ground recruiting sufficient motor units from the posterior chain muscles. The power clean is one of the mostuseful exercises for speed strength, agility and functional activity. Most people who cannot perform Olympic lifts, cannot perform them because they are too weak in their which hamstrings, glutes and erector spinae.
I told this kid at this point to look in the mirror and he did. I said "every muscle that you cannot see, right now, we are going to hit harder than an angry Mike Tyson". I set the guy up with a routine involving high frequency training of the "mirror" muscles and the muscles "mirror" we only trained one day per week. The routine looked something like this.
Non-mirror day
Squat
Bent over row
Pullup
Stiff-leg deadlift
Dips
Mirror Day
Front Squat
Bench Press
OH Press
Incline Bench Press
Bicep Curls
Non-mirror day
Hang Cleans
Deadlift
Bent over row
Pullup
Dips
As you can tell from this program outlined his upper back muscles, triceps and legs were worked much harder than his biceps and pushing muscles. As we continued this workout, he noticed not only was his lower body lifts dramatically improving, but so was his pushing exercises.
I remember it like it was yesterday, his bench press when we walked into the gym that day was tested at 175lbs 1RM. We spent nine weeks on this program, and his bench had improved to 235lbs in that short period of time. He asked "how come I spent two years lifting and could only get 175? Then when we train opposite muscles my bench goes up? " I asked him with a simple answer "because you got stronger."
Getting stronger is notabout exercising one particular focused exercise and none others. When you progress on one lift, you will progress on another. This guy trained his scapula retractors and external rotators and improved his shoulder health; he also trained his lower body and core strength, increased his nervous system activity, and overall systemic conditioning. His core strength and confidence alone enhanced with the additional compound movements could have attributed to this success.
When you train the lower body, the upper body improves. When you train the back muscles, the pushing muscles improve. Your body is a unit and strength is determined by the body as a whole instead of the body as a muscle group. While you are performing "chest", I am performing a total body workout, increasing my abilityto perform efficiently in all of the basic compound lifts.
After about four more months of this particular style training, the guys had to deadlift went from previous 250lbs to 325lbs. His squat went from 225lbs to 275lbs and his overhead press went from 105lbs to 140lbs. By the sixth month, he was able to perform power cleans like you had never seen.
Those "hidden muscles" that you don't see in the mirror is the bread and butter to your success as an athlete and overall strength competitor.
Mirror Training
