A couple of year’s ago, I put up a post here called, How to Turn the Glute Ham into the Modern Day Torture Rack.

In that post I combine the Glute Ham Raise with other forms of training in order to bring about some very challenging and fun movements.

The combinations in that post are also awesome. They are challenging and hit your posterior chain HARD!

However, when I put that video and post up, one of the common questions I got from the Diesel Universe was how to employ this sort of training if you do not have a Glute Ham Bench.

Well, I came up with something that works pretty well to bring about this Full Body tension concept.

The Camel Clutch

The Camel Clutch is the submission move done by the Iron Sheik and several other wrestlers. I called this movement the Camel Clutch because you will put yourself into the position that the Iron Sheik would put you in if you challenged him to a match.

Iron Sheik will make you humble.

As you’ll see in the video below, I hook my legs under the bench and lift my torso up off the bench in order to perform flyes.

This reduces the support offered by the bench and taxes the erectors, glutes, and hamstrings more than just performing regular posterior flyes in a bent-over position.

This actually feels great on my back and seems to strengthen the lordotic curve without causing too much hyperextension.

I call this type of training Full Body Tension Training. Close to the entire body is under tension. There could be some other name for it. You can call it what you will.

I feel practicing lifts such as this can help you to more efficiently use Radiant Tension to improve your lifts, especially 1-Rep Max lifts and other lifts where you have to stabilize the body with coordinated tension for best performance in a lift.

Aside from acquainting you with full body tension, there are several other benefits to using movements such as this in your training:

Benefits:

• Improves Posture – Trains the Delts, Rhomboids, Erectors, etc.
• Increased Musculature Involvement – Burns more Calories than the conventional movement
• Increases Demand on the Cardiovascular System, Due to Increased Muscle Involved
• Correct Imbalances in the Hip – Strengthening Glutes and Hip Extensors while Stretching Flexors
• Strengthens the Hamstrings at Knee and Hip Joints

Other Possible Combinations:

This sort of training can be used with many other tools and many other movements.

• Instead of Flyes, set up in front of cable stack and do Face-Pulls, Scarecrows, etc
• Instead of Dumbbells, use bands and perform Pull-Aparts, or Band Bench Press
• Instead of using both legs, hook only one leg (This is so freakin’ hard, I can’t even do it, by the way)
• Instead of performing a lift, perform a feat such as ripping a phone book or bending a nail

Napalm Approved

I LOVE THIS LIFT. I feel like I am getting more benefit out of performing Dumbbell Posterior Flyes by doing them in this manner. I feel overall more challenged by doing the lift in this manner, and by applying this technique to other isolation lifts for the shoulders, those lifts feel more beneficial for me.

Incidentally, I would like to one day try this form of lifting with a decline bench, hooking my legs in at the top and arching away from the bottom of the bench. I think this would remove even more support from the lift and increase the difficulty even more, but I don’t have a Decline Bench, so it might be a while before I try it.

Give this a try with some light weights and let me know how you like it.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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Lower Back Health

I’ve recently been doing a lot of discovery around lower back strength and health.  We will be exploring this research more into 2010.  Lower back health is not reserved just for strength athletes, it is a must for everyone.  Muscle building programs found online miss this boat completely.   That is why I made it a focus in AMD and that is why it is a complete muscle building system.

How prevalent are injuries?  Just one look behind the scenes at Elite Fitness Systems you’ll see that approximately 80% of the questions (just from my observations) are injury related.

Do NOT miss this post!

• How to rehab a knee injury
• How to rehab a ankle injury
• How to rehab a back injury
• How to rehab a shoulder injury
• How to rehab a hip injury
• and the list goes on and on…TONS of questions.

With back and shoulder injuries probably at the top of the list.

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts go too hard and too fast WITHOUT attention spent to warming up and longevity.

It is a balance!  Remember that!

You create tension in the weightroom.  This tension weakens the soft-tissues and muscle fibers and rebuilds them to a stronger state.  This adaptation occurs at a cost.  Tension is stored in these structures in the form of shortening, adhesions, trigger points, inflammation and long term compensations accumulated over the course of a lifetime.

It is a daily fight, not only from recovering from the workout, but also high repetition, short range of motion postures throughout the day.

I wanted to give you five quick movements you can do everyday, in addition to your comprehensive warm-up and recovery that you normally perform (or should be performing), to ensure that you lower back feels great and you start moving better again.

Fast Five to Lower Back Health

Side to Side Shoulder Bridging

This movement is a combination of a glute bridge AND a thoracic mobility drill.  Opening up the upper back while activating the glutes (this is important for maintaining neutral pelvic alignment and which releases tension in the hamstrings and abdominals) and stretching the hip flexors (also important for improving posture).  A very powerful movement.

Birddogs

This coordinated movement transversely activates (the way the body moves) the hip and opposites shoulder.  The glutes, hamstrings, erectors, rhomboids, traps, delts and a ton of other muscles are fired with this movement.  It reestablishes spinal stability and can be used in conjunction with plank variations.

Full Body Circles

This movement is pretty simple.  Soften the knees and move your upper body in full circles all the way down to your feet and extend as the circle comes over the top.

Seated Hamstring Stretch

This stretch is perfect for those who try to gain range of motion while stretching their hamstrings by rounding their back.  This doesn’t improve your hamstring flexibility it irritates your lower back.  Do not lift the leg, but rather drive the knee downward.  Lengthen the spine and extend the back into neutral posture.

Glute Stretch

This stretch is brutal but highly effective.  It gets a deep stretch in the hamstrings, glute and IT band.  More tension can be created by elongating the muscles even more by passing the leg outward into a 90 degree angle.

Sample Mobility Workout

1. Side to Side Shoulder Bridging – 1 min
2. Birddogs – 8 each side
3. Full Body Circles – 8 upper / 8 lower
4. Seated Hamstring Stretch – 5 each leg
5. Glute Stretch – 10 sec each leg x 3

After improving your mobility and flexibility of your upper back, hips and hamstrings you must begin to strengthen the lower back.  Here is the right way to perform good mornings.  We used a safety squat bar which is much more difficult than a typical barbell because of the extra loading on the neck.

Safety Squat Bar Good Mornings

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