In part 4 of this 5 part series I am going to show you two questions that you must ask yourself when

choosing assistance exercises. Then I'm going to show you some great assistancemovements for the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift. -----------------------------------------------------------------Question 1: Will This Movement Help Build My Main Lift? -----------------------------------------------------------------If your primary focus is to build strength on the Squat, Bench Pressand Deadlift... then the assistance exercises you choose to use inyour training programs should help your poundages go UP on thosemain movements. If they don't then you are wasting a ton of energy on stuff that's a wasteof your time. Remember, you have a limited capacity to recover from your strength training and you must make sure not to exceed that recovery capacity.(The amount of work you can recover from can be increased overtime by building your work capacity, but we'll save that discussion for another time). For now, just understand that you should be doing as much work asyou can during your training sessions without exceeding your ability to recover. So, if your typical training session has 1 big movement and 3 assistance exercises, choose those assistance movements very carefully. And in order to choose them carefully, you must first ask yourself: Will this movement help build my main lift? Be honest when answering this question, because a lot of us like to do the assistance exercises that we are strongest on. This is the exact OPPOSITE of what we should be doing. Use assistance movementsto build your weaknesses that are holding your main movements back.

For example, if you are weak off the chest on the Bench Press, don'tdo a ton of high boards as your primary assistance movement on the Bench. Instead you may want to do some sets of 10 reps on the Wide Grip Bench to build your pec and delt strength. Get it? Use assistance exercises to build your main lifts. And the way to do this is to honestly work out what your weaknesses are on the main liftsand then find assistance exercises that bring those areas up. --------------------------------------------------------------Question 2: Will This Movement Keep Me Injury-Free? --------------------------------------------------------------There is a second type of assistance exercise. This movement is notin your training program to build your main lift, but rather to keep youinjury-free and let you train without pain. These are the least sexy kinds of movements, but they should be in your training program. I used to ignore this stuff myself and always had niggles and aches and pains in my shoulders. However, when I added in the correct movements, the pain went away. Nice. So, you must be thinking: what are these movements? Good question... glad you asked. These movements are pre-habilitation/rehabilitation movements... ie stuff that stops you getting injured and trains areas that can get neglected. External rotation exercises are one example. Low Pulley External Rotations will help your shoulders stay healthy.

Or doing high rep sets of leg curls. Light weights used for 3 sets of 30 reps can go a long way to building tendon and ligament strength. This is a great prehab movement. (Mel Siff talks about this in Supertraining... one of the greatest books ever written on sports training). Okay, so now you have 2 questions that you must ask yourself when choosing assistance exercises. Let me show you how this may look for an upper body training session and a lower body training session. Upper Body Training Session Main exercise: Bench Press: Work up to 3 rep max (use 6 to 10 sets) 1st assistance exercise (work lockout power): Close Grip 3 Board Bench Press: 3 x 5 reps 2nd assistance exercise (work the lats): One Arm DB Row: 3 x 10/side 3rd assistance exercise (prehab for the shoulders) Low Pulley External Rotations: 3 x 12/side Lower Body Training Session Main exercise: Sumo Deadlift: Work up to a heavy double 1st assistance exercise: (work glutes, hamstrings, quads) Leg Press: 4 x 12 reps 2nd assistance exercise: (work core) Weighted Plank: 4 x 30 seconds

3rd assistance exercise: (prehab for hamstrings) Band Leg Curls: 3 x 30 reps 4th assistance exercise: (prehab for quads) Leg Extensions with Ankle Weights: 3 x 30 reps *** Okay, so I've shown you 2 powerful questions that you should use to pick great assistance exercises for your strength trainingprograms. These assistance movements will help (assist) the main movements,build your weaknesses and keep you injury free. With that said,here's a list of some of my favorite assistance movements. The verysame moves that have helped me build a world class Squat and Deadlift. And the biggest British Bench Press of all-time. ---------------------------------------------------------------Squat and Deadlift Assistance Exercises --------------------------------------------------------------Note: the Squat and Deadlift assistance exercises are mostly the same because both lifts require monster Lower Back, Glute and Hamstring strength. 45 degree Leg Press: The higher you place your feet on the footpad, the more the Hamstringsare worked. The lower you place your feet on the footpad the more theQuads are worked. To perform this movement safely hold the handles and pull yourself down into the seat... this will stop your lower back from rounding when you are lowering the weight.

Leg Curls These can be done using a machine, bands or ankle weights. Leg Curls build the hamstrings. Hamstring strength is required for big Squats and Deadlifts and sprinting and jumping ability. 45 Degree Back Extensions These can be loaded multiple ways. You can use bodyweight for highreps, hold a weight plate on your chest or use a SSB to really go heavy. 8 to 20 reps seem to work well. This movement will work the hell out of your entire posterior chain. DB Side Bends This is my favorite Oblique/Core movement. Hold a DB by your sideand lower it down towards your feet until you feel a stretch down youropposite side. Then flex hard to stand up straight again. I like to go heavy on these. 3 or 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps works well. --------------------------------------------------------------------Bench Press Assistance Exercises --------------------------------------------------------------------For Lockout power (tricep strength): 3, 4 or 5 Board Presses done with a close grip, medium grip or pinkyon the ring grip work great. Go heavy, 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps. Reverse Band Bench Presses will also build tremendous lockout powerand some big horse shoes (for those of you that like to admire your armsin the mirrors... you know who you are). Set the band up so that you hold the entire weight in your hands around2 inches from lockout.

The reverse band method not only builds great lockout power by overloading the top end of your Bench; it also builds tremendous SPEED,by forcing your brain to make you accelerate the weight faster than youwould do with straight weight. For Strength off the Chest: Paused Benching can work but don't overdo this as it can weaken your stretch-reflex. A second option for starting strength off the chest is Wide Grip Benching.Just be sure to keep the reps up on this movement as it can be very stressful on the pecs. Go for 6 to 10 reps per set. Lats There are many ways to train the Lats. Here are some proven methods: One Arm DB Rows Machine Hammer Rows Low Pulley Rows (all attachments and grip variations) Pull Ups/Chins (for light guys) Pull Downs (for heavier/fat guys) 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps on any of the above movements works well. Traps Shrugs of all kinds. Don't make this anymore complicated than it is and go straight up and down... don't circle your shoulders when shrugging. It's a recipe for injury. Side and Rear Delts Side DB Raises

Bent Over DB Raises Pec Deck Rear Delts (Face the wrong way on the pec deck to perform this) External Rotation Movements (for shoulder health and injury-prevention) Low Pulley External Rotations Band Pull Aparts One Arm High Pulley Row DB Knee External Rotation

I hope this has given you some great methods for picking the right assistance exercises to help you get stronger. Just remember the GOLDEN RULE for selecting assistance exercises: If it makes me stronger and/or keeps me injury-free it's a good. If doesn't... get rid of it from my training program

Till the next time, stay strong Andy B