How Angles Greatly Affect Your Lifts & Results

Yesterday, I talked to some of you about foot angles during heavy exercises and how it shifts the focus of the lift to different muscles. In short, flared toes shift the focus of a deadlift or squat to activate more glutes (butt), which should be the strongest muscle group in the body, and hamstrings; toes pointed forward uses more quads and lower-back to make up for the more limited hip rotation and greater knee flexion. One of Utah’s best lifters, David Herrera, who squats almost 800 lbs. at 181 lbs. has made a living off of this toes-pointed-forward stance and no one is quite sure how he does it. He is a rarity and few people deadlift or squat over 700 pounds without angling their feet/toes outward. 

To get the best of both worlds, it is good to train both toe/foot positions but to train your weaker stance with lighter weights. Use your stronger stance for max-efforts, that’s not the time to toy with it.

David Herrera is an anomaly as very few people can lift a maximal weight without some degree of toe flare

​Last week, we did a pretty taboo lift rack-pulling a lot of weight above the knees. It’s taboo because a lot of people disqualify it as an ineffective showoff lift. However, we have practical reasons to do it and it is, in fact, effective. The angle of the lift allows for the added use of the thighs (which are not as involved in a normal deadlift), traps, rhomboids, and lats with greater weight. This week, I programmed rack pulls at a lower height (second rack height) which shifts the focus to the hamstrings, glutes, lower-back, and spinal erectors (as with a normal deadlift) while also allowing the aforementioned muscles to help more.

This is the same for when you alternate between flat bench presses, decline bench presses, and incline bench presses. The emphasis shifts to other muscles in the movement. Flat bench will work more triceps and chest evenly. Decline bench presses will emphasize the powerful lower chest. Incline presses will emphasize the upper chest and deltoids.

Incline bench press .vs. decline bench press

We will work all angles to create greater overall strength, functionality, and aesthetics. It will also help to reduce the risk of injury due to imbalances. One of the most common is having strong thighs but weak hamstrings. Work all your angles but be very careful in your weaker ones. Reduce the weight and put in your reps. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and we need to bring up all your weaknesses as best as possible without injury.

The angles of different rows (bent-over, upright, Pendlay, and Yates rows) work different muscles to varying degrees