The "Stripper Pull"

The "Stripper Pull"

Gwen Sisto recently wrote a blog about what she calls the "butt pull" and she describes it in much more detail than me. I read her blog and realized that the "butt pull" has to be among the number one issues a beginning lifter faces. It's almost like beginners are naturally predisposed to doing this type of pull, also I have another name for it. At my gym we have a saying for when a lifters butt raises up too soon in the pull, we call it the "stripper pull". Strippers do this maneuver at strip joints, they touch the floor without bending their knees and their you have it. It turns the pull into a Romanian deadlift. Consequently, this pull results in weights being lost forward. To correct this a lifter needs to concentrate on having his or her butt down, chest up and shoulders back helps too. Instead of that butt popping up, we want the knees to extend from the start and the butt to raise gradually. If you do the stripper pull something is going to be lost at the finish as well because the bar won't be tucked back into the hip as much as it should. When I find myself doing the stripper pull I feel like my finish of the pull was just a weak sliding instead of a powerful tuck and catapult. So remember, butt down! Chest up and Shoulders back! This isn't the strip joint and you're not going to get tips for showing your butt off.