This article describes an innovative approach to an old exercise. The "old" version of this exercise is call the dumbbell swing, an "old school" movement for the lower back. The grip angle and shape of the dumbbell make this an inconvenient movement to execute however. Until recently, I had been satisfied with the cable or sled pull-through version ala Westside Barbell.

Every once in a while however, a more novel approach comes along. Such was the case when I traveled to Arizona recently to attend a seminar there featuring Canadian Olympic Lifting coach Pierre Roy.

Coach Roy has trained more than 50 athletes to the Canadian Championships. Under his coaching and supervision, he had 2 athletes go to the Olympics in 1984. One of these athletes was Jacques Demers, a silver medalist who snatched 150kg and clean and jerked 195kg. In 1992, Pierre Roy participated as a coach to the Olympic record-holder in the Clean & Jerk of 222.5kg, Denis Garon. In between, he coached three athletes to the World Championships. He has now "gone back to his roots" and is training young athletes and teaches others his methods of instructing the technical movements in weightlifting. He is the author of many texts and was an advisor on "How to teach Olympic Weightlifting".

Coach Roy was inspired to come up with the tool as a way of developing lower back power in his world-class Olympic lifters. The need for lower back power crosses across multiple sports of course, as seen in sprinting, jumping, and virtually any sport requiring explosive hip extension. The design is elegant in its simplicity. It is composed of the sleeve of an Olympic lifting bar, removed from the rest of bar so that only the hollow sleeve is used. The overall length is cut down to 10". Then a notch is cut into the flat end of the thick inner end piece of the sleeve. A standard, metal V grip handle, is placed into the notch and welded in place. It has the advantage of being plate loadable and extremely safe. The parallel grip greatly increases ease of use. Every device should have several holes drilled through the loading pin to accommodate an additional safety pin in the event that the standard collar were to give way as a result of the forces generated during the pull. This exercise should never be done without the supplemental safety pin in place. Standard collars, even the premium names, are not designed to withstand the powerful outward forces generated during this lift. I have found that a 3 inch x 1/4 inch "cotterless" lynchpin does the job quite nicely.

The result is an ingeniously simple tool which observers will identify immediately as being useful to train any of the following: Olympic lifting technique, lower back power, total body muscular endurance work, virtually any event or lift requiring lower back and/or hip strength, caber toss and 56 pound Weight for Height, sprint starts, initial movement of down linemen in football. I personally visualized the transfer to stone lifting for the sport of Strongman. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this tool is the single most effective method I have seen for gym training for the caber toss and weight for height, particularly important for those in the colder regions where we usually get a late start on outdoor Highland Games technique work. In addition, when teaching athletes how to effectively use the hips for sports preparation or instruction of the Olympic lifts themselves, this device simplifies the entire process due to its ease of handling.

The lift itself can best be described as a cross between a Westside Barbell style pull-through and a power snatch. This movement has been given the unique name "lumberjacks". The movement starts with a preliminary swing out in front of the athlete and then a long back swing between the legs. The spine remains straight and the back arched. The shortened loading post allows for a free swing between the legs without much fear of striking the ground. The elbows should be roughly even with the inside of the thighs in this deep back position. From the bottom position, the athlete pulls the on the handles in much the same way as seen in any Olympic lift, that is, driving forward forcefully with the hips and shrugging the shoulders. As the implement moves forward, the athlete drops under the load in exactly the same fashion as the catch in an Olympic lift.

The focus is on an explosive hips drive and powerful shoulder shrug as the load swings forward with straight arms. The finish position is unique from actual Olympic lifting in that the load is stopped at roughly an 80 degree angle in front of the athlete's head. This is done because the close V-grip makes the load unstable in the complete vertical position. Hence, you have the long pull on the erectors found in the Westside pull-through combined with the dynamics of the power snatch, all without the need for an area for a pulling sled, a belt squat unit or even a decent Olympic bar. Its compact area requirements add to its usefulness and practicality.

I have played with this movement a bit and can see an even more direct transfer to Highland Games caber tossing and Weight for Height gym work as well as general sport movements by removing the recovery "catch" position used in the Olympic lifting and make the movement more of a simple high pull to the top position and then an immediate return to the long "between the legs" pull position. One major plus of this device is the natural instinct to keep the arms straight throughout the lift. Most trainers and coaches can tell you that pulling on the bar prematurely with the arms is a very common error with beginners and experienced lifters alike. That habit does not seem to develop when doing lumberjacks.

I worked this movement into training routines immediately and it has been greeted quite well, with users almost universally commenting on the smoothness of the movement and motioning to the spinal erectors as the most used muscle involved. As with any weigh room lift, the lumberjacks can be included in the training routine at any time of year simply by varying the sets and reps to suit the training cycle.

Sample programs:

As a warm-up:
3 x 8-10 reps at < 40% of 1RM in the snatch.*

Lower back strength movement:
4 x 5-7 reps at between 40-60% of 1RM in the snatch.*

As part of a lower back "complex" (Advanced trainees only)*
1-3 reps bottom position good morning 10 seconds rest
5 reps at <50% 1RM in the snatch lumberjacks.
3 minutes rest between complexes.

* These percentages will vary significantly with Olympic lifting proficiency. These percentages may increase as the athlete becomes more experienced with the apparatus as well.

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