The deadlift and squat are staples in most strength and conditioning programs. 

Our friends at Achieve Fitness have been putting together some killer content regarding how to approach and improve certain types of movements. Here they demonstrate ways to finish your deadlifts and properly warm-up for your squat sessions.

Enjoy! 

How to properly finish your deadlift:

SHOULD YOU DROP THE BAR AFTER YOU DEADLIFT?? - Unless you’re a very advanced, high level lifter, we think it’s really important to lower the bar down to the floor under control, rather than dropping the bar or letting it come crashing down. We prefer this for a few reasons: 1️⃣It gives you more practice learning the groove of the deadlift. The more you can practice the pattern going up and down, the more efficient you will become! 2️⃣It has more functional, real-life application! In real life, you will likely pick things up and put them down gently. If you pick up a heavy box, you’re not going to just drop it when you reach your destination, you’re going to carefully lower it to the floor so you don’t break anything! 3️⃣The eccentric (lowering down) portion of an exercise has a lot of carryover to strengthening the concentric (lifting up) portion. Taking time to get stronger at lowering the barbell down to the floor will actually improve your strength in being able to lift it off the floor! - Thanks for watching, and if you found this helpful, give it a like! ✌️????????

A post shared by Achieve Fitness (@achievefitnessboston) on Oct 2, 2017 at 5:38am PDT

How to set up for your squat:

????️‍♀️HOW TO SQUAT LOWER!????️‍♀️ ••• If you're having difficulty getting lower during your squats, it might be because your ankles are restricted. This can happen for any number of reasons whether it's the type of footwear you wear on a regular basis, a lack of core stability, previous ankle sprains, calf tightness, the list goes on and on. ••• One super simple exercise we like to use to try to restore some of this lost motion is a wall ankle mobility drill. Here are the steps Achieve owner @jasonlpak shows in the video: 1️⃣Place your foot directly against a wall 2️⃣Glide your knee over your pinky toe (this is important to help maintain an arch in your foot) and attempt to hit the wall 3️⃣If you can do that easily keeping your foot straight and without letting your heel lift off the floor, scoot your foot back about a half inch or so and repeat the process. 4️⃣Keep moving your foot back until you can just barely reach the wall with your knee 5️⃣From here you can go back and forth in repetitions, oscillate at end range, or utilize an ISO hold in end range. Try to go for about a minute or two on each side and do this a few times throughout your day and prior to squatting. ••• It's important to note that this isn't a miracle exercise! It needs to be combined with a sound strength and mobility training program to elicit maximum benefit. It would also help to be barefoot or in some form of minimal footwear (we really like @pedestalfootwear socks) for as much of your day as possible. ••• We hope this helps and please give this post a quick double tap if you enjoyed it! Comment below if there are any questions you have for us, or if you have any video suggestions! ✌️????????

A post shared by Achieve Fitness (@achievefitnessboston) on Oct 13, 2017 at 5:45pm PDT

Big thank you to our friends at Achieve for always crushing in their Pedestals!

Much Love,

The Pedestal Guys