Small Tweaks

Sometimes small steps will allow you to make leaps forward. Sometimes small steps will derail everything. Think about when you're benching- the barbell is maybe 2 inches from falling at all times- it's a small thing but it makes the difference between hitting a 1 RM and having a fully loaded bar drop on you.

Small things are meaningful only if they produce a big difference. Foot position is one thing that I personally don't pay much attention to- my sumo pull is a little bigger than my regular one. My wide squat and medium squat are a little different, but I get stronger doing either and sometimes both of them. Hand position on the other hand is huge for me- if I go too wide or too narrow on bench, I struggle with 335. If I get the right hand position I get 350 x2 on any day. For overhead press if I go too wide I have to take a month off to recover. If I go too narrow I can't get the bar to lock out.

Now, I'm not you. Foot position may be a huge thing for you and hand position may not be as important. Everybody has roughly the same mechanics, but there is variance, especially based on height. Weight makes a difference initially, but it takes quite a bit for that to make as much difference after a year or two.

This will come forth in a post later, but I'm really anti-weaknesses. I think if you have a weakness then overcoming it is important. I talked about assessing weaknesses, and soon I'll talk about how to overcome weaknesses. My general philosophy is for any weakness that isn't doctor-serious, you need to go at it in a couple different ways and preferably twice a week. Guess what? It's small changes to what you already do- you don't have to learn some new movement or spend thousands to get a piece of equipment.

Small things can make big differences, but only if you're smart about them.