Back Angle Off the Floor

Spencer Arnold recently did a series of posts on preserving back angle off the floor. This is something I clearly struggle with.

As he writes:

One of my biggest struggles is not engaging my back muscles and keeping them tight throughout the entire movement.  I tend to tighten my back at the start and allow it to flex as the bar leaves the ground.

This is exactly the same problem I run into as well. Getting the back set is all well and good, but if you lose that angle from the moment you begin your first pull, it’s not doing you much good.

So what can we do to correct this problem?

Spencer lists five corrective exercises to try, including pauses at the knee, high pulls with tempo return, and some others.

I especially like the pauses because they reinforce the proper positioning while giving you time to make sure you’re in the right position. For desk jockey’s like me who aren’t as naturally athletic as more gifted lifters, really feeling those positions and being able to see how they look in a mirror at the pause is very helpful.

Additionally, the isometric hold and additional time under tension help build strength and hypertrophy, an added benefit for those of us who, as Jacob Tsypkin once put it, “figured out that you’re more likely to look like Klokov than lift like Klokov”.