Atlas Stones
Trains the Spinal Erectors.
- Equipment
- An atlas stone and either a box or a barbell in a rack
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Advanced
How to do it
- Stand over the stone with your feet a little wider than the stone and hinge down to wrap your arms around it, hands underneath if you can reach.
- Pull the stone into your chest and lap it: sit back and roll it up onto your thighs, sitting deep so the thighs make a shelf.
- Reposition the hands around the front of the stone, hugging it tight to the chest.
- Drive the hips forward and stand up hard, letting the stone roll up the chest.
- Extend onto the toes and push the stone over the top of the platform or bar, following through with the arms.
- Step back and reset before the next stone.
Common mistakes
- Trying to lift the stone in one movement. The lap is a separate step; lifting from the floor straight to the platform is a rounded-back pull with nothing to hold onto.
- Rounding the back on the pick. The first pull off the floor is the hardest position on the spine, and the chest stays as close to the stone as possible with the hips doing the lifting.
- Lapping too high on the thighs. The stone sits deep in the lap, close to the hips; a stone that is perched on the knees rolls off.
- Leaning over the platform. The hips drive forward and up; if the trunk bends over the platform to place the stone, the hips have stopped early.