Above the Rest Training Systems

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Above the Rest Training Systems Training Facility focused on building athletes of all kinds through the Strongman, Powerlifting, and

10/18/2026

A successful rep is not always an efficient rep.

At submaximal weights, small technical faults often have very little consequence. You can let your hips drift during the dip, lose tension in the rack position, or allow the bar path to move away from its ideal line and still complete the lift.

The problem is that completing the rep does not mean you performed it as well as you could have. Those small deviations can cost you pounds when the weight gets heavier, and the margin for error gets smaller.

Your best possible lift requires more than strength alone. It requires the best technique you can execute under load, consistently and reliably. The goal is to bring your technical ex*****on as close as possible to that standard.

This is why training cannot be based entirely on outcomes. If you only judge a rep by whether you completed it, you can reinforce technical habits that limit your performance. Instead, evaluate how you lifted the weight and identify the gap between the rep you performed and the rep you were capable of performing.

Choose a technical cue, apply it under a challenging load, and film your sets to assess whether you executed it correctly. If you did, continue reinforcing that pattern until it becomes your default. If you did not, adjust your approach and keep working on it.

The standard you establish with lighter weights influences what you can produce when the weight gets heavy. Every rep is an opportunity to build the technique you will eventually need to perform at your best.

Training Your car deadlift PR belongs to one apparatus. The contest is running a different one.Lever length, handle o...
10/15/2026

Training

Your car deadlift PR belongs to one apparatus. The contest is running a different one.

Lever length, handle orientation, arc, slack in the stirrups, rep demand- all of it moves from show to show. Specialize hard on the frame in your gym, and you build a skill that only works there. That's the specificity crisis.

The fix isn't to abandon specificity. It's to sequence it. Cover the range early: grips, heights, rep ranges, implement families. Then narrow onto the real apparatus in the last four weeks, once you actually have information.

Wide early. Narrow late.

Save this before your next car deadlift event, and send it to the training partner who only pulls on one frame.

Want programming built for the apparatus you'll actually face? DM us COACHING.

She chased rep 10 and lost rep 9.The tenth rep was never really there. The ninth one was overhead, one held lockout away...
10/13/2026

She chased rep 10 and lost rep 9.

The tenth rep was never really there. The ninth one was overhead, one held lockout away from being hers. But the clock was running; she wanted the number, and the good rep got short-changed so she could get down to a clean she was never going to finish.

This is the part athletes miss: overhead isn't the finish line. The down signal is. Locked, still, judge's call, controlled back down. Anything less is effort you paid for and got no credit for.

And the miss is never the only cost. A rushed rep at the buzzer eats the clean, drains the brace, and takes the rep before it with it. It's the same principle we coach on vipers: when the fast technique starts getting risky, switch to the safe one before the risk turns into a failed rep.

Worth noting where this happens most: not the brutal events. The ones where the weight felt light, and the number got greedy.

Ten seconds left, three questions. Is the next rep in the tank or is it a hope? Can I finish it and hold it for the signal? Does one more rep actually change my placing? Anything short of three yeses, bank what you have.

Save this for your next reps event. Send it to the training partner who always goes for one more.

Want your event decisions mapped before the meet instead of during it? DM us COACHING.

She chased rep 10 and lost rep 9.The tenth rep was never really there. The ninth one was overhead, one held lockout away...
10/13/2026

She chased rep 10 and lost rep 9.

The tenth rep was never really there. The ninth one was overhead, one held lockout away from being hers. But the clock was running; she wanted the number, and the good rep got short-changed so she could get down to a clean she was never going to finish.

This is the part athletes miss: overhead isn't the finish line. The down signal is. Locked, still, judge's call, controlled back down. Anything less is effort you paid for and got no credit for.

And the miss is never the only cost. A rushed rep at the buzzer eats the clean, drains the brace, and takes the rep before it with it. It's the same principle we coach on vipers — when the fast technique starts getting risky, switch to the safe one before the risk turns into a failed rep.

Worth noting where this happens most: not the brutal events. The ones where the weight felt light, and the number got greedy.

Ten seconds left, three questions. Is the next rep in the tank or is it a hope? Can I finish it and hold it for the signal? Does one more rep actually change my placing? Anything short of three yeses, bank what you have.

Save this for your next reps event. Send it to the training partner who always goes for one more.

Want your event decisions mapped before the meet instead of during it? DM us COACHING.

10/11/2026

In Strongman, the scoreboard only cares about the outcome. If you lock the rep out, you get the points. If you stand the weight up, you get the points.

That can create a problem in training. We can start accepting poor technique simply because the rep was successful.

You finish the press, so you count it as a good rep. But if your dip was poorly timed, your feet were moving everywhere, or your lockout position was inefficient, that is still something you need to address.

Technique is not about making a lift look better at the expense of performance. Good technique is what allows you to use your strength more effectively, move more weight, and manage unnecessary fatigue and risk.

That means a successful rep can still be a bad rep.

You do not need to get frustrated or beat yourself up when that happens. You just need to recognize it and make sure your brain does not start treating that movement pattern as the standard.

What you repeatedly accept in training becomes easier to repeat under pressure.

So pay attention to more than whether the rep counted. Ask yourself whether the rep looked like the version of the movement you are trying to build.

The goal is not simply to complete more reps. The goal is to become better at completing them.

10/09/2026

If you are struggling with clean and press away events, the problem might not be your pressing strength.

A press away is different because you do not get to treat every rep like a fresh rep. You have to hold the axle in the front rack, absorb the previous rep, and get yourself ready for the next one without putting the implement down.

That transition matters.

If you lose your position in the rack, relax too much between reps, or take too long to get into the next dip, you are using energy without getting anything extra from it.

This is why some athletes can have a strong push press but still struggle when they have to perform continuous reps.

The front rack becomes part of the event. Your ability to stay tight, support the axle, control your breathing, and transition smoothly all affect how many good reps you can produce.

So when you train for a press away, do not only train the press.

Train the part that happens between the presses.

Practice continuous reps. Practice staying in the rack. Practice getting from one rep into the next without losing your position.

The goal is to make every rep easier to transition into, so your pressing strength actually gets used.

The car deadlift isn't a straight pull, and almost nobody trains it like the arc it actually is.The handles are bolted t...
10/08/2026

The car deadlift isn't a straight pull, and almost nobody trains it like the arc it actually is.

The handles are bolted to the end of a lever. Levers travel in circles. That means the bottom of your rep sits forward in space and lockout sits behind it, closer to a lever squat than a barbell pull. You don't finish by going straight up. You finish by traveling backward with the implement.

How much backward depends entirely on the frame. A long apparatus is a huge circle, and your rep is a small slice of it, barely noticeable. A short apparatus is a tight circle, and that horizontal displacement is enough to put you on your heels at lockout. Same event on the entry form. Two different lifts.

Straight handles compound it, because the bar can't pass through you. Set up slightly behind it rather than trying to hold a lean under load. And remember the handle doesn't roll like a barbell — your feet have to be right before you take your grip, not after.

To train it: lever deadlifts, working both close to the fulcrum and far out at the end. Rehearse a big arc with almost no lean and a tight arc with a lot of it. Then use your warmups to find your stance, not your opener.

The car is the spectacle. The apparatus is the lift.

Save this before your next car deadlift event. Send it to the training partner who thinks the car is the hard part.

Want coaching that reads the apparatus before writing the block? DM us COACHING.

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1408 E 13th Street
Cheyenne, WY
82001

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+13075140994

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