Put Your Barbell, Not Baby, in the Corner…

Cause Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner…

Except Swayze….he can

But you can and should put your barbell in a corner.

I do

Often.

Angled Barbell training (sometimes they call it the Landmine training, but that’s all not cool anymore even though it was fine for a long time)

THANKS PC POLICE!

Any who, angled barbell training is one of those things that looks super douche(y) but it’s actually kinda cool.

Why I likes it a lot:

• It gives common exercises a slightly different feel
• It’s easy to switch exercises
• It’s easy to change weights

How to do It: <—-pay attention. Getting the setup correct is imperative..

 Jam a barbell into the corner of a power rack.

Seriously,

It’s that easy.

You can buy a landmine, they’re Roy approved, but you could just jam a bar into the corner of a rack  or wall too.

That’s what I do and it works fine.

Favorite Landmine Angled Barbell Exercises:

Lumberjack Squat:

The Hard Part here is the set up, it’ll take a few reps to find the “Sweet Spot” with the feet and the angle of the torso.

The best way to put it is that you want the feet to be “away” from you and behind the torso.

• Grasp the barbell sleeve with both hands and have the hands on or just in front of the upper chest.
• Elbows should be tighter to the body than not.
• Toes pointed out slightly
• Pressure in the back half of the foot.
• Sit back into the hips, NOT down
• Push the knees
• Keep the chest up
• At the bottom drive the hips through the top into lockout.

Half Kneeling Corner Press:

How to:

• Grip the sleeve of the bar with one hand
• Stand tall with a neutral or slightly offset (non loaded foot forward) stance
• Wrist straight
• Wrist, elbow, shoulder in line
• Press the bar without overreaching at the shoulder
• No twisting at the torso.

Rainbows:

The keys here are to limit movement at the core and keep the arms long throughout the movement.

Don’t “break” or unload always keep tension.

How To:

• Setup with a wide(ish) stance, feet outside hips.
• Have a slight forward lean.
• Never let the hips rotate. Think,” crotch, belt buckle and shirt buttons in line”.
• Arms always long

Grappler:

First time I ever did this my lifting partner at the time went,

“What, you think you’re in like MMA now?”

That was 8 years ago and it stuck with me, just makes me laugh.

I guess that’s why it’s called the “Grappler”, until about 2010 you only saw it in those training montage videos for UFC fighters.

 How to:

• Focus on maintaining a tight core
• Open and rotate through the hips
• Mostly watch the video, cause I can’t really explain this one well.

Beware, this will SMOKE you.

I was totally winded after filming this video.

I had to take a 5 minute break, I know, that’s sad…just saying, it’ll wreck ya.

Meadows Row:

I had never heard of this until I saw John Meadows do them

Many people had never seen them, I gather because it’s now known as the Meadows Row..

How To: 

• Get into either a 3 point stance or an offset stance, you can use a bench or your knee for support.
• Row through the ribs bringing the hand anywhere from about 2 inches above the nipple line to 2 inches below the nipple line.
• Try not to let the shoulder “fall” out of the socket at the bottom.
• But reaching all the way down and stretching the lat can help with lat activation.
• Minimize torso rotation but try to retract (pinch) the scapula as you row.

T-Bar Row:

A back training staple.

Look in any of those off the rack muscle mags, you know, the ones that are 60% supplement ads,

20% “Training Programs” which are usually just fluff variations of the same thing that ran 2 years ago,

10% ridiculous hot fitness chicks with lots of assets,

and 10% sketchy classified ads for things like horse semen from Mexico and the “legal” almost steroid that the “Pros” use

this exercise is in them often, cause unlike the horse semen, it works. <—-unless we’re talking about impregnating horses, then the reverse is true.

No more imaginary lat syndrome for you.

How To:

• You’re gonna need a D-Handle
• Put it under the bar right up against the sleeve.
• Sit into the hips (knees out, butt turned on)
• Chest up, have some forward lean, but don’t be parallel to the ground.
• Row through the ribs.

YOU MUST have your hips loaded and maintain a neutral spine through this lift.

Shovel Press:

When you see someone do this you kinda go…

WTF?

Then you try it one day,

by yourself,

in your garage,

just to see what happens…

And you’re like WTF just hit me?

How To:

• Set up offset to the barbell with a wide(ish) stance
• Start at the floor with both hands gripping the sleeve.
• Lift the barbell, keeping it close, using the hips, abs tight.
• Once you pass the mid-point transition from lifting into pressing with one arm.
• Rotate through the hips and pivot on the toes of the outside (farthest from the rack toes)

This takes some coordination and practice.

Squat to Push Press:

It’s a Lumberjack squat…then you press.

Really that’s about it.

It’s probably better with a fancy-dan attachment, but I ain’t got one, so I don’t know no better and this works just fine.

It’s kinda like how your first car sucks (mine didn’t, sorry) but in most cases.

But you don’t know any better. All you know is that you can get all the slurpees a quarter tank of gas and $10 can buy….ahhh, sweet freedom….so it’s totally cool. I think this is one of those things.

First world meathead problems Bro….

You can do it with one arm too.

How To: 

• Start with the Sleeve of the bar close to the shoulder and tight.
• Squat down as low as you can maintain technique.
• Drive up aggressively out of the bottom extending the arm into the press.
• Use the momentum of the squat to help press the weight.

 Offset Deadlift:

I’ve never seen this before therefore, i invented it, it shall henceforth be known as a

“Dead Roy”

<—JK, but not really. 

I’m sure someone someplace has been doing this for like 20 years and is going to somehow get this sent to him and he’s going to be totes pissed.

In YO’ face SUCKA..

Full Disclosure:

I did this the first time, lets call it Alpha Test with 90lbs and it was awful.

Too, easy, awkward, not much in my hips..

Beta test with 135lbs..

It wasn’t so awful.

Really challenging for the grip and core because of the thick sleeve and offset loading.

So I guess it’s a keeper.

Just remember when I become internet famous you were here, my adoring fans, at the beginning.

How to:

• Plates on the outside of the inside most shin
• Crush the end of the sleeve
• Stay tight and don’t rotate
• Pull the hips through, just like any deadlift.

There are lots of other stuff that you can do with a Landmine Angled Barbell besides what’s here.

In fact Ben Bruno does like a million variations of exercises with it, some I like, some I don’t,

But give em a go..whatcha got to lose?

You can get an actual Landmine here: Landmine

Or the post that fits into a weight plate, it’s smaller, more affordable and works just as well, here: Post Landmine

Full Disclosure: virtually ALL the equipment manufacturers have a version of the Landmine, so if you have a hard-on for a particular one go to their website to find it.