The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [141]
For foot and down knee alignment, as seen in the diagram, I put my knee down on one side of the imaginary half-way line, and my foot on the other.
The hips don’t need to face exactly at a 90-degree angle from the weight stack, but I found this easiest to remember and replicate.
Hand positioning: For hand positioning in both the chop and the lift, I placed the hand farthest from the machine exactly three hand-widths up from the dangling end of the rope “bar.” My hand nearest the machine grabbed the rope as close as possible to the cable.
Head and shoulder rotation: The head should not rotate independently of the shoulders. If we imagine the hips and shoulders square with each other in the starting position, you shouldn’t rotate the shoulders more than 15–20 degrees off the hips. More rotation will not get more activation out of the abs, and it could force you to lose the proper lower back and “tall spine” position.
Let the Testing Begin
Finding imbalances in the C&L is done by testing the four quadrants: lower left, lower right, then upper left, upper right. The goal is to identify your single weakest quadrant. The chop is always done before the lift, as you will use heavier weights for the former.
TESTING
Chop down to left knee × 6–12 reps
Chop down to right knee × 6–12 reps
Lift up to left knee × 6–12 reps (be sure to move slowly for the lowering portion of the lift, or the weight will pull you over)
Lift up to right knee × 6–12 reps
The test is best done at the beginning of a workout. For the lift portions, subtract half or even two-thirds of the weight used for the chop. Choose a weight for both movements that you believe you can perform for no more than 6–12 repetitions, and then look for discrepancies in quality and your ability to hit maximum repetitions on either side.
It should be a mild struggle. You want to do a complete “rep-out” within 6–12 repetitions, so that you test to the point of loss of appropriate posture and/or smooth movement, or to the point where a struggle is demonstrated that compromises technique.
Thus, you’re lifting to “failure” of posture or technique, not muscular failure.
Keep the back straight, the hips neutral, and your head as tall as possible. “Loss of posture” occurs when you cannot maintain this tall position and your head drops or moves to the side. Stop your repetition count when you can no longer correct this. Though not required, it is helpful to have someone watch you or record the test on video.3 For both sides, count the maximum number of repetitions until the movement is no longer smooth and fluid.
If you happen to miscalculate the weight and exceed 12 repetitions, keep going and record the repetition when posture fails. Just use the same weight on both sides.
Once the test is complete, you should have an assessment of four quadrants—the right and left chop and the right and left lift. Imbalances are defined as a greater than 10% difference in weight (if the same number of reps) or number of repetitions (if the same weight) between left and right sides.
Find the weakest quadrant and work there until symmetry is restored.
Here are the results from my first day of testing:
Chop down to left knee:
20 lbs × 7.5 reps
Chop down to right knee:
20 lbs × 15 reps(!), and I could have done 3–4 more
Lift up to left knee:
10 lbs × 13 reps
Lift up to right knee:
10 lbs × 14 reps
I tested again two days later, as I wanted to confirm my imbalance before planing an entire program. I did confirm it, but you can already see an incredible motor control improvement, which is reflected in the strength gains:
Chop down to left knee:
20 lbs × 16 reps
Chop down to right knee:
20 lbs × 20 reps, and I could have done 7–8 more (I stopped, as the first test had been confirmed)
Lift up to left knee:
15 lbs × 6–7 reps (the heavier weight made the weakness on this side clearer than in the