2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic

Last week, I attended the 2017 Juniata College Strength and Conditioning Clinic. Of all the years I’ve attended, and I’ve been to I think ALL but 2 since it first took place in 2000, this was one of the best, in my opinion!

Today, I went through y notes and compiled a list of all my biggest take-aways from the clinic, and shot a video covering them all.

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics I cover, and of course let me know if you have any questions.

I hope you enjoy it.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Coaches: This Program Will Help You
Reduce ACL Tears and Other Knee Injuries: Deceleration Training

I have a few sayings I’m known for.

One of them is, “It’s not about how much you lift, It’s about how much you LOVE Lifting.”

What that means is, lifting is about being passionate about something and doing it with fire.

Lifting is about setting goals to always be improving.

Lifting is about feeling good, and feeling good about yourself.

So, a couple months ago, or so, when I really took a look at some of my training, I came to realize I wasn’t following my own advice.

The whole idea about that saying is that you should be pushing yourself because you love lifting.

It has nothing to do with pushing yourself so hard that you reach your goals at the expense of everything and everyone else.

But, there I was, trying to reach some goals related to the Barbell Bench Press, and instead of getting closer, I was coming further and further away each session because the exercise was tearing my shoulders up, and leaving me in pain.

It’s now been the better part of this year, that I have quit Benching with the Bar, and moved exclusively to Dumbbell Bench Press. And although my numbers were completely embarrassing at first, I now feel like I’m living more in tune with my beliefs.

And, after a couple months, or however long it’s been, I’m starting to see some good increases, feeling better in the shoulders, and I think even seeing a bit of growth.

I LOVE LIFTING, but I think I was coming severely close to having the majority of my training SHUT DOWN due to the pain I was feeling in my shoulders.

I encourage you to do the same as well – by all means train hard – don’t just go through the motions in the gym.

But, if there’s a movement that is tearing you up inside, don’t feel the need to push through pain and suffer because of it.

Remember…It ain’t about how much you lift. It’s about how much you LOVE lifting.

All the best in your training.

-Jedd-

P.S. Along these lines, I want to help you out as much as I can, to get you to your goals. And that means helping you learn to do your goal lifts properly and as safely as possible.

Check Out the the Special Offer I’ve Got Going On This Week:

Get Introduction to Strongman Training AND Stone Lifting Fundamentals TOGETHER and SAVE $20! CLICK HERE or click the images below …

I had the amazing opportunity to put together an article for sponsor, Onnit’s magazine, Onnit Academy.

It’s called “The 7 Deadly Sins of Strength Training.”

Here’s a picture of the magazine:

Here’s what you’ll learn from the article…

No matter what your main objective in your training is, it takes a LOT more than just getting your workouts in, to be successful.

There’s other stuff you’ve gotta do to support your training and recovery in order to ensure you see the results you want.

Whether you’re trying to build a massive yoke, excel at strongman, or training to close bigger grippers, when you get these 7 things right, you see better results in your training.

As my sponsors, Onnit has sent me a special link so that my readers can get a copy of this issue, and all you need to do is pay the shipping charges.

Special Onnit Academy Link for my DIESELS

This is a complete STEAL of a price, too.

This is easily the highest quality fitness magazine I’ve ever seen. The cover and pages actually feel more like catalog quality than cheapo magazine stock.

Plus, the information is top notch. This issue alone features contributions from:

Mark DeGrasse, me, Lance Brazil, Joe Defranco, Jim “Smitty” Smith, Travis Stoetzel, Travis Janeway, Trey Hardee, Doug Fioranelli, Evan Brand, Luke Hocevar, Marcus Martinez, Joe Daniels Ryan Mortensen, Ken Blackburn, and Matt Wichlinski

Plus, I flipped through the thing and found just ONE ADVERTISEMENT in the whole issue.

So you’re not staring and endless supplement ads as you go through it like most magazines that are out there.

Instead, you’re getting solid information.

So, get yourself a copy for as cheap as you possibly can, by just paying shipping:

Onnit Academy Magazine – pay just $4.95 to cover shipping costs

I hope you pick it up and let me know what you think of the article!

Thanks and all the best in your training.

Jedd

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Learn the Basics of Stone Lifting Today:
Stone Lifting Fundamentals

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First off, a BIG THANKS to everyone who took action last week during the huge Black Friday Sale I ran.

If you don’t know what I am referring to, then you need to put your best email address in the box below, because you are missing exclusive content that I send out ONLY to my email subscribers.

Today, I have something else that’s very cool for you.

I was recently interviewed by Ray Toulany on the Super Strength Show => http://superstrengthshow.com/jeddjohnson

In my opinion, this show was one of the most professional I have ever been a part of.

I have gotten to know Ray very well over the last year, and it was my pleasure to be on the show.

You’re gonna see that the shows that Ray conducts are quite different from the majority of them that are out there.

They don’t just cover training information, but they talk about mindset, they talk about overcoming challenges, and they talk about what it truly takes to be successful.

I think you’re gonna really like the show,so PLEASE take the time to LIKE and RATE the interview on iTunes.

Here’s to spot to listen to the show on Ray’s site: Super Strength Show – Ray interview Jedd

Or you can look it up on iTunes, if that is what you’re used to doing.

Me, I don’t even know how iTines works, and I used to actually do podcasts from time to time…

Have a great day and all the best in your training.

Jedd

This is Part II to the Epic Upper Body Workout that I started at the tail end of September when my good friend Chris came up to train. This is the Pulling Work we did.

I wanted to show him some new stuff he add into his training to not only build muscle, but also to balance out his shoulder training, as well as be better prepared for physical altercations in his line of work as a Corrections Officer.

Part IV: Bigger Back and Stronger Grip with Pull-up Variations

This video shows several variations for Pull-ups that will not only build your back muscles, but will also balance your shoulder strength and build better grip strength. Having a strong set of hands is very important for Chris in his line of work as a Corrections Officer.

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Part V: Build a Big back with Low Cable Row Variations

We split these sets up with both wide and narrow rows. I showed Chris a correction to keep the emphasis on the lats and other big back muscles and to reduce the level of upper trap involvement. The set-up we used made the range of motion much shorter than normal, but this was because of the seat we used, due to my left lumbar area being very touchy. You can see once Chris adjusted, it began feeling totally different.

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Part VI: Upper Back Postural Strength with Bodyweight Training

The Inverted Row is a great exercise and it can be loaded with chains draped over the body to make it more difficult. On top of that, we also held the concentric for a 3-count pause. I also used some mental distraction tactics to mimic the sound of an alarm going off due to a prison riot. This may sound annoying, but it is something that would be real during an actual emergency in the jail.

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Part VII: Odd Object Loaded Hyper Extensions

Since Chris occasionally runs into situations where an inmate will get physical, instead of loading the Hyperextensions with normal dumbbells or barbell plates, we bear-hugged sandbags and heavy bags. This feels much more like actually having to control an inmate than just gripping some weights.

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Get a FREE Strength Training Magazine When You Buy Any DVD.
Find out more here: October Special Offer

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I still have several clips coming your way from this workout. Stay tuned in a couple days for the Arm Training that we did. My arms were blown up like water balloons after what we did. It was AWESOME.

Sign up for updates to make sure you get notified every time a new article or video is posted here at DieselCrew.com:

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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A few months back, I was talking with an old friend of mine from college, Chris Christian.

Chris was one of my main training partners when I was in college between 1999 and 2001.

Unfortunately, he had been through an extended stint of “training vacation” and he wanted to get back into it.

He asked me for some guidance, and I asked him what he was currently doing.

He began to tell me about all this Beach Muscle work he was doing – each workout was filled with all this Pushing work and very little Pulling work.

Multiple Bench Variations, Shoulder Isolation work, Arm Training, but barely any Pulls.

Oh man…

So, we began working on that right away, because when you do too much Pushing and not enough Pulling, you run the risk of serious shoulder issues. Any doctor, physician or therapist will tell you that.

I laid out some new routines for Chris and shot him this video on balanced shoulder training guidelines.

He set forth following these new guidelines and said that once the Summer was over and his weekend job working security at an amusement park was done for the season, he would be up to hit a Big Workout, just like Old Times.

This past weekend, Chris made it up, and we had an awesome training session.

The way I laid it out, I wanted to give him plenty of new options for his training that were balanced between Pushing and Pulling movements for his entire upper body: Chest, Shoulders, Back, and Arms.

What this meant was that we would be hitting three upper body movements all in one day.

DISCLAIMER: I would not normally recommend training sessions like this on a regular basis. We trained for a solid 2.5 hours with very little rest. Doing this on a routine basis will almost definitely result in undue soreness and most likely over-training. That’s your warning, DIESELS. Don’t try this at home.

Part I: Intro Video, Warm-ups and Pressing

In this video, you’ll get to meet Chris. I immediately got him going on some warm-ups for his hips since he spends much of the day sitting on his ass and had just driven nearly 2 hours to my place. Even though we weren’t going to be hitting much lower body stuff, I still wanted everything to be limbered up well so that he was feeling right and performing well.

As I mentioned in the video, Chris’s job has recently been pretty intense. It was a long week filled with altercations, so I decided to add in some Odd Object Training along with the conventional barbell and dumbbell work. The idea behind the Odd Object Training is to get him better prepared for the altercations he sometimes sees in his job.

Part II: Log Incline Press, Incline Flies and Shrugs

Since Chris’s gym’s equipment selection is limited at best, I wanted to give him a treat of working the Incline Press with a Log. He said he loved it.

Also, since Chris is limited to a 30-minute workout since he trains at work, we threw in a nice super-set combo of Incline Flies and Shrugs. There’s no reason why Chris can’t get back into awesome shape. Even with 30-minute workouts, he can build muscle and burn off fat if he keeps his sessions intense, by including back-to-back pairings like these.

Part III: Pull-up Variations for Back and Grip Development

One of the ruts Chris and many people get into is they abandon Pull-ups and instead do all kinds of work on the Lat Pull-down Machine. I told Chris to start working Pull-ups back in because they are the Ultimate Back Builder.

You’ll also see in the video that we varied the grip and hand position throughout this section of the workout. We did this because I want Chris to start training his hands harder in order to be ready for anything on his job. You will see several different grip implements you can use.

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This doesn’t even scrape the surface of what we did that day. Here it is almost a week since we trained, and I still haven’t got all of the footage edited and uploaded.

Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you get to see all of the footage from this awesome workout.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

There’s been a HUGE surge in people wanting to learn Nail bending recently. If you do too, start out with the two best resources available today:

The Nail Bending eBook and the Nail Bending DVD

Jon Bruney, Submit Strength

DIESELS! Today I have an interview with one bad-ass son of a gun, Jon Bruney. This dude is FREAKISHLY STRONG. Easily one of the overall strongest Performing Strongmen on the circuit. I know he can out-lift most other performers in more conventional lifts like the Squat, Deadlift and Pressing movements. He’s built like a freakin’ FIRE PLUG, and he gets the guys he trains strong as hell too.

Now, he is teamed up with Dragondoor to write a new book called Neuro Mass. I managed to get a few minutes of his time for an interview about his brand of Strongman Performance, the way he approaches the rest of his training and what Neuro Mass has to offer.. Check it out below.

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Interview with Neuro-Mass Author, Jon Bruney

Jedd: Jon, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule being an absolute MASTER OF IRON and SLAYER OF STEEL for the interview today. For those who may not be familiar with your exploits of strength and power, please tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.

Jon: Jedd, thanks for having me on today. I’m a performing strongman, motivational speaker, pastor, trainer, and author. I am also co-owner of Submit Strength Equipment and have designed cutting-edge training equipment that is now in use around the world. I am a Battling Ropes level two coach and certified in Controlled Fatigue Training. My brand new book Neuro-Mass was just released.

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Jedd: How did you get so involved in super human strength and conditioning, brother?

Jon: I have always been interested in strength. I saw some strongmen performing some feats like breaking stacks of concrete with their hands, and I knew that this was something I wanted to pursue. I was privileged to have the legendary John Brookfield become my mentor. He really got me my start in the world of strongman performance.

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Jedd: Awesome. John Brookfield is one of my biggest influences as well. Tell me this, what sets you apart from other performing strongmen out there? What feats do you do in your shows that other strongmen, quite frankly, just aren’t strong enough to perform?

Jon: Jedd, there are definitely athletes out there who are much stronger than I am. But, what makes me unique is the diversity of my strongman feats. For instance, I have had great strength endurance feats, such as pulling a semi-truck and trailer with John Brookfield for the distance of 1 mile.

In my shows, some of the feats include: dead lifting the back of an SUV, breaking stacks of concrete set on fire with my fist, bending steel bars over my head, breaking drill bits, bursting pop cans with my hands, pressing steel logs overhead, and laying down under a bed of nails while my wife jump ropes on top of it.

My favorite strongman feat of all time was performing the human link. I held back to Harley-Davidson motorcycles attached to my arms and let them try to pull me apart.

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Jedd: Those are NEXT LEVEL strongman feats right there, my man. RESPECT. But I know that Strongman Performances are not the only gig you do. I also know you work with athletes. Tell us about your training approach with athletes.

Jon: My goal with athletes is to help them to build smart muscle. The focus isn’t just on getting bigger, but better. Smart muscle is muscle that can multitask.

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Jedd: Niiiiice! Smart Muscle. Awesome, brother. And aside from your feats of strength, what other kinds of training do you do in your own workouts? When you aren’t destroying steel and piles of bricks.

Jon: In my training, I try to combine three distinct types of exercise into something called a Neuro-Set. This involves the following:

• Grinds: slow controlled exercises that place resistance on large muscle groups
• Dynamic Power Drills: movements that require power and speed
• Isometrics: this type of exercise is performed while maintaining a static position and joint angle remains constant for the duration of the contraction

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Jedd: That sounds like a combination that is different from just about any system I have ever heard of, especially with the Isometrics thrown in, which I know are HUGE Strength Builders. I also know this is the kind of training you write about in your new book, Neuro Mass. Tell me about this book that is currently sweeping the world and is nearing Best Seller Status on Amazon.

Jon: Absolutely, Neuro-Mass is a cutting-edge training system that…

• Teaches the nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers
• Teaches the body to adapt to multiple forms of resistance
• Teaches the body to bypass genetic performance roadblocks

Jedd: It is funny you bring up Road Blocks, because my last post on this site is about overcoming plateaus in your training. Well, let’s just cut to the chase. Who should pick this book up and why?

Jon: This book is for anyone who wants to become more strength, endurance, and power. The book also includes cutting-edge mental preparation techniques, physical preparation techniques, and recovery techniques. It is an entire system.

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Jedd: Jon, it sounds like this book is PACKED with Information. Could you give us a sample routine from the book that we could try to actually experience why this book is so awesome?

Jon: Sure. Try this great bodyweight routine that I recently shared in an article on Dragon Door’s site. It is a Shoulder Blasting Bodyweight Neuro-Set:

Shoulder Blasting Bodyweight Neuro-Set

• Handstand push-ups – 8 to 12 repetitions
• Hummingbird – 15 to 60 seconds
• Towel isometric shoulder pull – 7 to 12 seconds

How To Perform The Handstand Push-up:

The technique we will use to get into position for the handstand push-up is called “wall walking.”

To begin, place both feet flat against a wall, while your hands and knees are on the floor. Now, driving your hands into the floor, begin to walk up the wall using your hands and feet. Be sure to contract the abdominals throughout the movement.

When you reach the top position, slowly lower your body until your head is a few inches away from the floor. Pause for a moment and raise your body up to the top position.

How To Perform The Hummingbird:

Begin by placing your arms straight out at your sides and lower into a semi-squat position. Now, explosively move your arms up and down within a 6-inch range of motion. The range of motion is extremely small. You’ll find that this innovative exercise has the ability to fatigue shoulders very quickly.

How to Perform Towel Isometric Shoulder Pull:

I first saw this powerful isometric exercise performed by my friend Ori Hofmekler. Begin by grasping the end of a heavy towel with one hand extended straight out to your side. Now, with the other hand grasp the towel at chest level. The position looks like an archer getting ready to pull a bow backward.

Try to pull the towel apart. As you continue this pulling motion contract the muscles of the back as hard as possible. As you increase the tension, power exhale through the mouth.

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Jedd: That is a Crazy Combo, bro. Where can the Diesel Universe get Neuro Mass?

Jon: Just click this link to Get Neuro-Mass and the Awesome Bonuses. If you order today, there are $789.00 in bonuses available.

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Jedd: Jon, thanks for the awesome interview. I know you are super busy, so thanks for sneaking this in for my readers.

DIESELS, Jon Bruney is no joke, man. This guy trains for real and doesn’t mess around. You need to pick this thing up, and right now, you can click the banner below and pick up Neuro Mass and get the $700+ in free bonuses. But it’s got to be today to get the whole package.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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The Missing Part of Your Strength Training – Extensor Work – A Must for Any Serious Lifter – Hand X Bands

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When it comes to strength training, fat loss, flexibility and athletic development, the last thing you want to encounter is the nasty P-word.

Plateaus

What is the definition of a Plateau? I checked out the dictionary and here are the first two definitions.

1. a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.

2. a period or state of little or no growth or decline: to reach a plateau in one’s career.

Definition 2 is the one we want to avoid – the point in your training where your growth and development ceases.

No More Training Plateaus

Today, you’re gonna learn two ways to demolish your training plateaus and to keep them from ever showing up in the first place.

The primary cause for plateaus is lack of variety. People get in the habit of doing the same stuff all the time in their training, never varying from the norm, and as a result, their results drop off and they see the same numbers going up in their lifts, the same movement quality in their sports, and the same body in the mirror every day.

What I’ve got for you today are a couple of examples of how you can slightly modify the Deadlift, and more specifically in this case, the Trap Bar Deadlift, in order to break through plateaus and enjoy continuous Gains, PR’s and Progress.

What’s cool is, you can use the same exact amount of weight on the bar, but make that weight feel more challenging in your hands with just a couple small changes.

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Straight Weight

Here are some clips from a recent Trap Bar Deadlift training session. I am using Fat Gripz on the handles because I am preparing for a Deadlift and Hold in an upcoming Grip Contest, the Holdfast Gauntlet.

So, nothing out of the ordinary. Just pulling straight weight and going for 5 sets of 2. With the Fat Gripz added, this was a bit too heavy to get all the doubles I wanted.

But let’s imagine that I completed all 5 sets of 2 reps.

Now, let’s look at a couple of ways to modify the lift in order to make it slightly harder.

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Chains

With Chains attached to the Trap Bar, the weight in your hands gets heavier as you lift the bar further. This allows you to hold heavier weight at the top, as if someone is throwing a couple on 10’s on each side once you hit lockout.

So, what you could actually do is perform your first few sets of, say 300lbs, with straight weight. Then, you could do a few more sets with chains added to make the lift target your lockout strength more and make it even more taxing on your grip.

Trap Bar Deadlifts Pulling Against Band Tension

Now, let’s look at a way to make the same movement, with the same weight, even harder – Bands. With these giant rubber bands placed over the bar, the challenge to keep hold of it all the way to lockout is increased even further for both the hands nd the lower back and glutes.

Now, these videos were all taped during different sessions with different weights used, but the potential is there for you to incorporate all three techniques in the same workout to gradually increase the difficulty of the sets, and to help you plow through plateaus in your training.

Where to Get Chains and Bands

Chains and Bands are available in many places, and many of these suppliers operate through Amazon.com. In fact, here is an entire page of various Lifting Chain Suppliers

That page will give you a whole variety of options, including different chain sizes, and packs of various chains so you can save on shipping and get a better value.

Training Bands are available there too. There used to be only on good supplier of exercise bands, but now there are lots of them. Go to this page, Fitness and Strength Training Bands, and you will find all kinds of different bands to choose from.

Where to Get Fat Gripz

Naturally, if you don’t have Fat Gripz yet, I consider them a must. These thing stake up no room at all and they go on so fast, you waste no time at all. They are a fraction of the price of thick-handled dumbbells and barbells, and make more sense for the person who is just looking to increase their hand strength but not interested in accomplishing world-class feats of Grip Strength.

Grab your set here => Get Fat Gripz

Screw Plateaus!

With these kinds of tactics, you’ll never have to worry about Plateaus in your training again. Any time you start to see stagnation in your training, you can start adding chains and bands into your training in order to shock your muscles and your mind into additional growth and strength increases.

And, you can head these plateaus off before they can even set in by including this type of work in your training on a regular basis. It is very popular to throw in band and chain training once a month to your target movement, and every 3 weeks of training is what Josh McIntyre highlighted in the recent interview I did with him.

You are going to feel like a MACHINE when you start including these things in your training. Especially, the chains, due to the awesome mechanical sounds they make. Its like training inside a Strength Building Factory.

All the best,

Jedd

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Pick up the Card Tearing eBook Today

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Upper Body and Grip Training Workout 8/29/13

Lots of people love the idea of building a Big Bench Press, but have little idea how to go about doing it.

Often, the type of Bench Press training we learn about is what we learned in our High School Gyms, which are most likely recycled information that the coach learned when he was in High School and has never changed one single bit. It often ends of becoming a vicious cycle of bad, out-dated information.

My suggestion for people who want to bring up their Bench is to find someone who actually is a Powerlifter and is seeing some success in their training. When you train with someone who is successful in the Big Three Lifts (Bench Press, Squat, and Deadlift), Strength becomes Contagious. Just by lifting with them, you get stronger, and all awhile learn the proper way to train.

Last Friday, I had someone visit who has done just what I am suggesting. He went from having very little structure in his training a few years ago, to following one of the most popular Powerlifting Programs that is out there. As a result, he has seen impressive gains from the new-found structure and is enjoying the design of the program and the increased numbers, for sure.

This lifter is Josh McIntyre. I first met Josh through the Diesel Crew website in January of 2011 when I started the Weekly Grip Strength Challenges. Josh won many of these challenges during the year and has gone on to perform lots of Elite-Lever Grip Strength Feats since then, although these days his primary focus is Powerlifting with a little Strongman and Grip thrown in, a great mixture for developing incredible strength.

We hit an awesome workout this past Friday, about 2 hours and 15 minutes of Upper Body Training and then about an hour and a half of Grip Training, with a little break in between for a short interview.

Below is the video, which contains the entire session.

I asked Josh to send in a little write-up about himself so you could get to know him a bit better. I think you will also see that once you get some programming into your routine, you can expect to see some increased strength levels across the board. Here you go.

Josh McIntyre Interview

Jedd: Who the hell are you and how did you end up getting into Powerlifting?

Thanks Jedd for having me up to your place. My name is Josh McIntyre, I’m 32 and have been lifting off and on since I was 14, but with goals in mind since 2010 and most seriously since 2012. I’ve competed in both Powerlifting and Strongman. My best lifts to date are a 565 squat (raw w/ wraps,) a 390 raw bench and a 635 raw deadlift (no belt) but I’m seeing now that I’m capable of a lot more.

I never did anything more than a set of curls and some push up’s right after highschool. I thought I was strong back then. It’s amazing to look back at pictures and see a guy who thought he was the man. In 2007, I moved to NC from NJ and found myself with a spare room to fill. So I assembled my rusty old H.S. weight bench and got some cheap standard plates from craigslist ads and used sporting goods stores.

Around the same time I spent a lot of time on Youtube looking for workout routines. I found your channel and was floored by the feats I was witnessing. I had a “monkey see, monkey do” mentality like many others, and trained until I could replicate whatever it was that I was training for, like a 5 dimes pinch (have still to get 6 without a pipe through them,) pinching two 45’s, levering a 45# plate (still sloppy,) hubbing a 45# plate, closing an Ironmind #3 etc etc.

I also started to train the powerlifts. I use the term “train” loosely here because I had no idea what the hell I was doing and ended up with a lot of shoulder pain. For a while, since I had no squat rack and it hurt my shoulders to bench a lot, I focused primarily on the DEADLIFT. To this day, it’s still my best and favorite lift. (long arms)

Once I scored a power rack off of craigslist for $100, it was on from there. I read up a bunch on rehab and prehab for shoulders here on DieselCrew.com and Elitefts. I watched a lot of video’s and inched my DL up over 500 in 2009.

Jedd: Tell us About Your Early Competition Days

I competed in my first powerlifting meet in 2010 in the APA. I entered Deadlift only, weighed in around 235 and competed in the 242’s. I opened at 505, went 565 for my second and 585 for my third. Unfortunately they called me for hitching (rightfully so) and I was credited only for my opener. I learned a lot that day and I was hooked!

Since then I’ve competed in 6 powerlifting meets and 1 strongman contest. I’ve learned so much from each one. I really enjoyed the strongman contest but PL is where my passion is. I’ve also trained with a lot of brutally strong PL competitors I’ve met at meets and gained a lot of strength and knowledge from them.

Jedd: When I first learned of you, you were training mostly at your house and from time to time in a gym where they wouldn’t even let you bring in chalk. These days, I have seen you have been training at Raleigh Barbell.

Since March of this year, I began training with a PL team at Raleigh Barbell. I’ve seen my best gains ever just in the last 5 months since training there. We trained 2 cycles of Brandon Lilly’s Cube Method with some success. The guys are great, supportive, serious and very goal motivated. If I squat high, they let me know. If my back started to round a little there, or my ass rises off the bench slightly, they’re right there to correct it for me. Having an extra set of eyes is really helpful when you can’t see where you’re screwing up.

5-10’s Pinch for Grip Specific Warm-up – NO PROBLEM!

As far as the gym, Raleigh Barbell is an 864 square foot training facility located in the heart of downtown Raleigh which is owned and operated by Elite Strength and Wellness Coach Jackson Williams. He’s been a great coach and he’s strong as hell! I’ve seen him pull 650 raw like it was 315. Training with guys stronger than me has been exactly what I was missing. Coach Jackson and Teammates Mason, Hunter, Chris, Keven and Justus are great lifters and training partners, and I’m lucky to be training along side of them. For more info on Raleigh Barbell or to contact Jackson, check out Raleighbarbell.com or hit him up on the Raleigh Barbell facebook page, if you’re on the book of faces.

Recently we’ve started a 10 week training template written by our coach leading up to a PL meet in November in Richmond, VA followed by a Charity Push/Pull the following weekend that I’ve done for the past 3 years.

Jedd: Josh, I’ve gotten some questions asking why we chose the exercises we did during our workout and what exactly the bands are for. Could you explain these points please?

The bench workout you and I did was from our Raleigh Barbell week 2 speed bench. It focused on practicing the bench press movement over and over by doing 8 sets of 2 as fast as we could WITH GOOD FORM. We incorporated band tension to make the lockout more difficult. That forced us to generate momentum from the start to get us through the increasing resistance. We also added volume by going for max reps up to but NOT including failure. We don’t miss training lifts at Raleigh Barbell. We only took another rep if it was there. The rest of the bench day was higher volume accessory stuff, o/h press, shoulders, rows, hammer curls, tri’s, all for hypertrophy.

Jedd: Now that you are several years into serious training, maybe you could talk a bit about major lessons you have learned, pitfalls you have run into along the way, mistakes you’ve made, etc?

I’ve seen up’s and down’s in my training but the more experience I got the more I realized the anecdote “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” is dead on. Also, enjoying the journey has been key for me. I lift ’cause I love it, that makes it easy to commit to. I see lifters so focused on their goal that they suffer through and end up hating their training. It’s ok to like what you do, it makes you easier to be around too.

Some of the mistakes in my own training over the years have been:

1. Sticking with a routine even after I stall while using it. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect to get a different result. My numbers were up and down, up and down for far too long

2. Not doing any kind of accessory work to bring up weak areas

3. Thinking one way was right and ALL other ways were wrong

4. Waiting until I thought I was “good enough” to enter a PL meet. I wish I had done it sooner. Your entire mentality toward training changes after a competition. And the friends I’ve made and the things I’ve learned have been valuable to me as a lifter and a competitor. Don’t wait, sign up today. It’s so much fun and you’ll walk away with more than you came with

5. Finding reliable training partners. More easily said than done. If you have an opportunity to join a PL gym, or a CF gym or a Strongman crew DO IT

6-10’s Pinch. Off the Ground 5 or 6 Times, but Not Quite Lockout

Jedd: Josh, great having you up here. Come back again when you make a trip up this way. I want to see you get the 6-10’s Pinch sometime soon.

Again, thank you Jedd for having me up to train. The grip feats I witnessed and failed at were humbling and motivating. I was smashed when I left your gym but mentally I was rejuvenated with the idea of grip training. I have an entirely new respect and appreciation for Grip sport and its competitors. I look forward to meeting up again soon!

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I got some feedback that the videos were hard to watch in the Playlist, and that you would like them separated out, so here you go…

Speed Bench Press Against Light Bands

Overhead Axle Training

Axle Rows for Back and Grip Strength

Tricep and Biceps Superset

Hammer Curls for Size and Strength

Josh McIntyre Interview

DIESELS – If you have any other questions about the training we did in the videos, leave a comment and I will do a follow up article to answer them.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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The Missing Part of Your Strength Training – Extensor Work – A Must for Any Serious Lifter – Hand X Bands

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A few weeks back, I attended the PA Strength and Conditioning Clinic at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. A few weeks prior to that, I had written some of my good friends who attend the clinic each year and told them I was really looking forward to meeting up with them and hitting a good, solid, hard workout.

The reason I did this is because I wanted to just go there and relax and just blow off some steam by putting one another through the ringers, challenging one another in a nice, conventional workout in the gym.

So, Jerry Shreck, from Bucknell and Bobby Fisk, from Hobart, all met up and just threw down for about 2 solid hours of lifting with no real plan except to leave everything we had in the weight room.

Here is what we ended up doing.

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Part I: Overhead Lifting

This portion starts out with some One Arm Snatch and One Arm Clean Clean and Press using Dumbbells. I was really looking forward to seeing how much I could do in these lifts, for two reasons.

First, the heaviest dumbbells I have in my gym is 110-lbs, and I seemed to remember Juniata’s going up to 150. Unfortunately, I remembered wrong, because they only went up to 120’s.

Second, there had been a post on the Gripboard talking about the heaviest One Arm Press people could do with no leg drive and starting with the dumbbell in contact with the shoulder. In training, I had gotten 100-lbs but kept missing with 110, so I was looking forward to seeing what I could.

The Snatches just happened because I figured I might as well start out with at least one fast lift, plus the Snatch takes nothing out of me for the Clean and Press so it ended up making sense.

For the Snatch, I ended up getting 120-lbs right handed. I was happy with this, but I know I could have gotten more, especially after Jerry cued me to keep my back straighter – everything felt more efficient after that and was much easier.

For the Clean and Press, I knocked out 110 without any leg drive whatsoever. On 115, I came very close, but I lost my balance a bit and had to move my feet to keep from falling over, so I can’t count it.

From there, we did some Pressing Ladders, where I started with 85 X 1, then 80 X 2, 75 X 3, 70 X 4, and then tried to reverse it back to 85X 1. I came close but didn’t quite finish it off.

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Part II: Rows and Chest Press

Sadly, this is the part of the workout that really messed Jerry up. He had a pretty significant injury to his left forearm that kept him from hitting the numbers he really wanted to so, I know that he will be going after some payback sometime soon. Maybe we will have to meet up at Bucknell sometime for another encounter.

This video starts of with some Low Cable Rows. We started out with the whole stack, level 20, and we performed 5 reps there, then we would drop one plate off the pin and hit 5 more reps. This is where Bobby jumped in with us and proved that they don’t mess around in their training at Hobart.

I really liked this exchange. It was awesome having a pin-selected stack to work with. At my place, my Low Cable Row machine has an actual loading pin, so if I want to drop weight from it during a set, I have to stand up, walk 4 feet to unload, and then get back in position. Being able to just sit forward and have someone else adjust the pins was awesome.

Next, we hit the Chest Press Machine. We started with the stack again, and then dropped two plate positions, hitting 5 reps at each stop. This machine proved to be fairly surprising in the area of difficulty. It had been a long time since Jerry and I had worked on a machine like this, and the bottom of the movement as well as the lockout were much more difficult than the regular Barbell Bench Press.

With this in mind, it could be a good idea to work some machines in every so often in order to shock the muscles a bit and keep them guessing. As I told Bobby, “It’s a different hard. It can still make you better.”

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Part III: Curls, Upright Rows, Side Laterals, Posterior Flyes

As I was walking around the gym warming up, I saw this freakin’ awesome angled handle barbell. I know Coach Smith from Juniata has all of the best equipment for his football players, so it didn’t surprise me that he’d have a barbell like this. Bobby and I jumped on it right away, throwing a 10-kilo plate on there and performing a few sets of curls. It felt awesome and there was absolutely no stress on the wrists or forearms whatsoever curling with this barbell.

After that we set up a combination for the shoulders. Lift A was Upright Rows, which I haven’t done in years, but have added in a bit recently using only the EZ Curl Bar. I have actually coached people NOT to do Upright Rows in the past, but with the form I use in the video, I think they are much safer than the regular form used with barbells. We combined that with a superset of Side Laterals and Posterior Flyes performed with Chains.

This was an AWESOME burner for the shoulders. What’s great about the chains is they are very light at the bottom and then KILLER HARD at the top. With the lighter resistance at the bottom, they do not strain the rotator cuffs like dumbbells would, and the difficulty only ramps up when you get out of the range where the rotator cuffs are doing all of the work.

I LOVED this workout. The only things that could could have made it any better were if my two regular lifting buddies, Mark Gannon and JT Straussner, would have been there, and if we would have thrown in some Grip at the end. However, I took a 3-week hiatus from Grip Training after nationals, so the only grip I did during that time was holding the weights in my regular Strength and Mass Building lifts.

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I hope you enjoy the videos. If you have any questions about the training, please feel free to leave a comment below, or right on the YouTube video pages.

Also, make sure to subscribe to my channel by clicking here.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

P.S. Be sure to keep an eye out for more updates from Juniata. I still have a few more training and learning tidbits I will be sharing from my time there. Stay Tuned.

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Start Strongman Training and Take Your Strength to New Levels

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Training Athletes for Explosiveness

We can all identify an explosive athlete. Explosiveness is very noticeable, but extremely difficult to train and incorporate into a traditional high school strength program.

As a coach for arguably the most explosive athletes on the planet, track and field throwers, and owner of a gym that specializes in building the most explosive athletes in Rhode Island, I have been able to incorporate explosive movement training in ways that are non-traditional but very successful. In this article, you will learn how to incorporate these methods into your own coaching and training to build incredibly explosive athletes.

The “As _____ As Possible” Mentality

High school and college strength coaches have traditionally been brought up to think of athletic training in terms of maxes. It is what I like to call the “as _____ as possible” mentality.

For example, strength is defined as moving a weight “as heavy as possible” one time. A great example of this is a one rep max in the squat.

Strength endurance is defined as moving a certain weight “as many times as possible.” The 225 pound bench press for reps test at the NFL combine is a perfect example of this.

Straight ahead speed like you see in track and field sprinters is defined as running a certain distance “as fast as possible.”

Endurance is defined as doing a movement “as long as possible.”

It is my finding through years of training young athletes and speaking to strength coaches around the country that we are taking the wrong “as _____ as possible” approach when we try to build explosiveness in athletes.

What Are We Doing Wrong?

More often than not, when a strength coach approaches me and is having trouble getting athletes more explosive, they are incorporating too much maximum weight into the equation.

For example, I recently had a coach email me his training template that consisted of Power Cleans, Hang Cleans, and Box Jumps to build explosiveness. While these are great exercises to build explosiveness in athletes, his approach was totally wrong.

He had his athletes jumping on to a box “as high as possible” 1 time for multiple sets. He has his athletes doing power cleans “as heavy as possible” for sets of 1 without varying the weight. He had his athletes doing hang cleans “as heavy as possible” for sets of 1 without changing the weight.

“Using a maximum weight for multiple sets
or jumping to a super tall box one time
is not building explosiveness,
it is merely testing explosiveness
over and over again.”

The thing to keep in mind when training explosiveness is that an athlete will rarely have a heavy external load on their bodies while competing. Using a maximum weight for multiple sets or jumping to a super tall box one time is not building explosiveness, it is merely testing explosiveness over and over again.

Finding the Correct Formula

With all of this being said, what is the correct formula for building explosiveness? What is the correct “as _____ as possible” approach to ensure your athletes are doing everything they can to become as explosive as they can be. In order to guarantee your athletes are training for explosion, you must make sure they are training certain movements with “as much force as possible.”

I believe this is why strength coaches have such a hard time training explosiveness. Unless you have extremely expensive testing equipment, measuring force is nearly impossible. It is a lot easier to measure the weight on a bar, the height of a box, or the time it takes to run a certain distance. Add to this the fact that athletes are asked to be explosive and produce force over and over again during the course of a game and the training difficulty multiplies.

Force equals mass times acceleration. So the easiest way to measure force, or for a coach to see if an athlete is applying more force, is to watch the speed that he performs a movement with a selected weight through 5 repetitions.

My favorite explosive exercise to do with my throwers is a one arm dumbbell clean and press for 5 reps per arm. It is a full body movement that incorporates massive force with the lower body, transferring that force through the core into the upper body, and applying that force to the dumbbell. Very similar to the way a track and field thrower applies force to a shot put, discus, or javelin.

The application is simple. Give an athlete a dumbbell you know they can easily clean and press multiple times. Have them perform 5 repetitions with each hand, starting with the non-dominant (non-throwing) arm. Watch the speed that the dumbbell moves. Ask yourself, is the dumbbell moving as fast (or almost as fast) on the 5th rep as it did on the 1st rep?

If the answer is yes, the athlete is allowed to increase the weight of the dumbbell by 5 pounds for his second set.

If the answer is no, the athlete should decrease the weight by 5 pounds on his next set.

When dealing with training explosion, the name of the game is speed. Being able to keep the same speed (or have a very slight decrease in speed) over 5 reps will ensure that an athlete is able to produce maximum force and replicate that force time and time again, similar to what they will be asked to do during a competition.

Sneaking Explosive Training into your Current Workouts

While I truly believe that having a separate day 100% dedicated to training speed and explosion is the most effective way of getting an athlete to produce more force, it is not possible in a typical high school setting. Let’s face it, practicing the actual sport is the most important thing a high school student will do and should take up the most amount of practice time.

If an athlete practices 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, they might only be in the weight room 2 days a week for 30-40 minutes at a time. How does a strength coach go about training explosion with a large team in a small weightroom while the athletes are also expected to be getting bigger and stronger at the same time?

Replace Slow Reps with Explosive Reps

One strategy is to combine the strength and explosive movement training into the same exercise. This is something I have done for the past few years and it works very well, especially with large groups. When an athlete is performing a strength based exercise on a typical linear periodization template, they will normally begin with a very light weight and gradually increase each set.

For example, an athlete with a 225 pound bench press will perform 5 sets like this:

• Set 1 – 95 pounds for 10 slow and steady reps.
• Set 2 – 135 pounds for 8 slow and steady reps.
• Set 3 – 155 pounds for 6 good reps.
• Set 4 – 175 pounds for 4-5 good reps.
• Set 5 – 195 pounds for 3-4 tough reps to failure.

Instead, why not add one more set, and work the first 3 sets for 6 reps as explosive as possible?

• Set 1 – 95 pounds for 6 explosive reps (plates should be clanging)
• Set 2 – 115 pounds for 6 explosive reps (plates rattling, bar speed never decreases)
• Set 3 – 135 pounds for 6 explosive reps (weight may slow down at the 5th or 6th rep)
• Set 4 – 155 pounds for 6 good reps
• Set 5 – 175 pounds for 4-5 good reps
• Set 6 – 195 pounds for 3-4 tough reps to failure.

The athlete is still doing the same amount of reps for the exercise in both templates. As you can see, the addition of one extra set of 6 reps makes this one exercise become a blend of explosiveness for the first 3 beginning sets, and strength for the last 3 sets.

Instead of moving the lighter weight slow and steady, he is now moving the bar with as much speed as possible. Every week simply increase the weight by 5 or 10 pounds and decrease the reps by 1. After 3 weeks, change the exercise slightly (move to an incline press or a dumbbell press) and follow this same template for another 3 weeks.

This can be done with all of your basic compound lifts like squats and bench press. You will see great increases in speed and explosiveness without a decrease in strength.

Replace a Slow Assistance Movement with a Fast Bodyweight Movement

Another strategy is to replace a standard compound or isolation movement with a similar exercise focusing on explosion. For example, on the days that you have your athletes squatting, you may have them also doing a lunge variation.

Rather than do the lunge in a typical slow and steady manner, why not change the exercise to a jumping lunge?

So rather than doing 3 sets of 10 reps per leg while holding a dumbbell in each hand, do 6 sets of 5 jumps per leg working on getting as high in the air as possible? Or to look at it another way:

• Walking lunges holding dumbbells – 3 sets of 10 reps – slow pace – focus is hypertrophy.
• Repeat Jumping Lunges – 6 sets of 5 reps – explosive pace – focus is producing massive force.

(Both are lunges, both very easy to teach, but two separate results).

The same can be done by switching a dumbbell bench press to an explosive push up, or exchanging a leg press or leg extension with a repeat jumping squat.

Superset an Opposite Explosive Exercise Immediately After a Strength Exercise

A third strategy that you can use that works great with larger teams or if you have limited time is to superset an opposite explosive movement immediately after a strength exercise. For example, if you have your athletes doing a typical 5 x 5 strength template and you have 4 athletes sharing one piece of equipment, you are inevitably going to have athletes taking a large amount of rest between each set while the bar is loaded and unloaded.

Instead of having the athlete finish his set and sit down for a few minutes of rest, have him do an explosive movement immediately after his set is complete.

Here is a great example.

Exercise: Squats – 5 sets of 5 reps – increase weight each time
Superset with clapping push ups – 5 sets of 5 reps – perform immediately after squats.

This is a great way to blend a strength based exercise with an explosive exercise. With this strategy, just make sure that the explosive exercise is opposite (uses a different movement pattern) than the strength exercise. So if the main strength exercise is a bench press, superset with an explosive jumping movement.

In my experience, supersetting an explosive movement with a strength movement that is too similar will be counterproductive. The athlete will be too tired to produce the energy necessary to lift heavy and the heavy lifting will prevent them from being explosive. Truly a lose-lose situation. Neither exercise will accomplish what it sets out to do.

Implementing These Strategies Properly

Properly implementing these strategies should be done gradually so you do not throw off whatever progress you have accumulated thus far. Don’t completely revamp your training templates and switch around what your team has been doing. Take one strategy from the three above and implement it for the first 4 or 5 weeks of the season. Test it out with your team (certain sports and athlete body types respond to each strategy differently) and see if the response is favorable when they play their sport. If it is, try to incorporate an additional strategy for the next 4-5 weeks and see how your athletes respond.

If your athletes show an increase of explosion in their sport, you know what you are doing is working.

If your athletes are looking lethargic and are gassing out during their weight room sessions, that is a sign to pull back and decrease the amount of explosive work.

Whatever is done in the weightroom should enhance what is done during competition. You are training athletes. They can’t be bodybuilders in the weightroom and athletes on the field. They can’t be Olympic lifters in the weightroom and athletes on the field. They can’t be powerlifters in the weightroom and athletes on the field. Train them like athletes by blending their strength training, explosive movements, and hypertrophy in the weightroom to compliment what they do in their sport. You will see over time that their explosion increases along with their strength and muscular size.

-Coach Matt Ellis-
PrimalATC.com

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DIESELS, Coach Ellis and I worked together on a project last eyar and we are about to release it. It’s called Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers.

You can get on the early bird list for this DVD release by adding your email to the box below. You’ll be the first to know about it when it comes out.

All the best in your training – Grip for Throwers comes out next week!

Jedd

 

What’s up Diesels?

I bet you are all kicking some serious butt in the gym and setting some huge PR’s – that is freakin’ awesome. Keep it up!

As I did last year, I went through all of the videos I uploaded to my YouTube Channel this year and picked out the top 10 most watched videos. They all appear below along with a little description and a link to their related article, in case you’d like to read more about the feat, drill, or Q & A.

Before you drop down and start watching and reading, I also want to say THANK YOU to all of you for helping me reach a goal of mine some time in November, of reach 1 MILLION views on YouTube.

In the Fall, maybe September, I noticed my views were up there pretty high and that 1 MILLION by the end of 2012 was a possibility, so I set that as a goal of mine. However, I never looked back to check my progress until just last week. To my surprise, I had reached and surpassed that goal, and I am now at 1,032,000+ views.

Also, one of my goals this year was to reach the mark of 2,000 subscribers. I was able to attain this in late Spring/early June, and I am not currently at 2500+ subscribers.

While you don’t get a prize for 1 Million view or 2500 subscribers, hitting these numbers does mean that I have been able to reach more people. I feel I bring very high quality information through my YouTube channel, plus it helps me spread the word about Grip Training and Grip Sport, two things I just love to do.

Going forward, I want you to know that I welcome you to share my videos with your friends, colleagues, and on-line contacts, whether you post them on your Blog or put them up on forums, Facebook, etc. In fact, when you do share or post one of my videos, send me a note and I will do my best to promote it as well, and bring more viewers to your site, blog, or other on-line place of interest.

The only thing I ask you not to do is to copy whole entire articles off my site and paste them on yours – that’s just not cool.

I will be setting some goals for next year very soon, and I will be sure to share them with you. Any help you can provide me, I appreciate it. If you have a YouTube channel and you would like to work together on a cross-promotion, or some other idea, please let me know.

Alright, Diesels – here are the Top 10 videos I posted to my channel this year, from 10th to 1st. First, I will post #10 through #6, and then tomorrow I will post #5 through #1.

I hope you enjoy them. All the best in your training, and Happy New Year to you all.

Jedd

#10 – Hardest Pull-ups Ever – 1369 Views

Rogue Fitness sent me a bunch of their equipment to use at my seminars, so I also took the opportunity to review each piece and put the video up on YouTube for everyone to see. Their equipment is all high quality, but the gear I have used the most this year has been the Pull-up Gear, especially the Globe and Dog Bone. Really cool stuff, and I especially like the ability to train a Pull-up style exercise and the Grip at the same time.

Related Article: Rogue Fitness Equipment Review Videos

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#9 – Instant Relief from Back Pain – 1388 Views

Earlier this year, I was experiencing some nagging back and glute pain. I tried a lot of things to get rid of it and was unsuccessful, but to my surprise, when I did a few sets of Dips, something adjusted in my SI Joint area which gave me instant relief. This is something I used to do from time to time years ago, but got away from it. Be sure to give this a try if you have lower back or SI Joint Pain as well.

Related Article: Relief from SI Joint Pain with a Simple Exercise

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#8 – Build Big Shoulders – 1504 Views

Earlier this year, I came to grips with the fact that the tightness in my torso, especially my pecs, was hindering my performance in various lifts. I did some research and tested out some nice stretches and mobility drills and found a few things that really benefited me. I am continuing drills such as these to this day and have been feeling much better, especially since reviewing Fix My Shoulder Pain.

Related Article: How Stretching and Mobility Work Helped My Overhead Pressing

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#7 – Number 1 Tip for a Safe Deadlift – 1509 Views

I have worked with several people this year on various forms of the deadlift, and from this experience I have seen that you can have a perfect set-up for your back and core and then screw everything up BIG TIME by pulling the bar from the floor incorrectly. I call this incorrect “yanking” of the bar off the floor “shot-gunning” with my guys. The video above will explain this, and the post below will give you even more detail.

I reviewed an outstanding product on Deadlifting this year called Deadlift Dynamite from Pavel and Dragondoor. For many people, the thing holding them back the most on their deadlift is their Grip Strength, so I put together a special bonus called “Never Drop Another Deadlift.” This is currently available, ONLY to those who pick up Deadlift Dynamite through my affiliate links.

Related Article: You MUST Do This When You Deadlift

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#6 – 1st Lift of Blobzilla – 1509 Views

Blobzilla was named by my friend Daniel Reinard, an excellent up-and-comer in Grip Sport. Earlier this year, we organized a group purchase of Blobzillas from the York Barbell Company and several of us lifted them. I was extremely excited to lift this Block Weight, as pinching is my favorite style of Grip Strength training.

Related Article: Blobzilla – Biggest York Block Weight Ever Lifted

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#5 – First 400+ Axle Deadlift – 1804 Views

Finally this year I was able to attain several lifts at or above 400-lbs on the IronMind Axle. Despite these lifts, I still failed to pull 400-lbs in competition, but I am happy to have seen some progress on this lift, both at the beginning and towards the end of this year.

Related Article: IronMind Axle – 400 Pound Deadlift

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#4 – Manus Grip Gear – 1997 Views

Some of my most popular videos on YouTube have been my equipment reviews. I always give my honest opinion on the equipment I review, and the Manus Equipment is no difference. I was very impressed with the Manus Equipment I got, especially the way it was all packaged, which far exceeds many other competitors’ products. I also liked the smoothness of their instant thick grip handles very much.

Related Article: Manus Grip Product Review

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#3 – Fat Gripz Extreme Review – 2020 Views

Fat Gripz Extreme took the number 1 spot of all the instant thick grip handles I have reviewed this year. The handles are very large. In fact, they are larger in diameter than a soda can, making them a great addition to your training arsenal if you are a Grip Strength enthusiast. My favorite drill to use them on has been 20-rep Shrugs with 100-lb Dumbbells. This exercise is so freaking tough, I generally have to perform rest-pause sets in order to hit my goal of 20-reps per set. If you want to get these, check out the Fat Gripz website.

Related Article: Fat Gripz Extreme, Wrist Developer, Manus Hand Yoga

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#2 – Fixing Elbow and Forearm Pain – 2905 Views

Many people have trouble with forearm and elbow pain like Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow. These are not just Grip Enthusiasts either. Everyone from Powerlifters to Strongmen, Office Workers to Manual Laborers, Athletes to Coaches. Rick Kaselj and I put together a program to help all of them out, called Fixing Elbow Pain, but I also wanted to put out this video showing one of the things I do to prevent Tennis Elbow, which combines the benefits of increased circulation and self myofascial release (SMR).

Related Article: Fixing and Preventing Forearm & Elbow Pain

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#1 – The Knee Driver – Innovative Glute Activation Exercise – 4282 Views

The biggest video of the year was something I stumbled upon while working with my buddy, Mike Rinderle, on our DVD called Braced Bending: How to Destroy Everything in Your Path. I was looking for a way to replicate the way you kink a steel bar over your knee, and I grabbed a heavy resistance band and could not believe the activation I was getting in my glutes.

Related Article: Simple But Effective Glute Activation Exercise

And there you have it, DIESELS! The 10 videos that you made the most popular over the course of last year. Thanks for watching and subscribing. And remember, always feel free to share my videos around with your friends, colleagues, and contacts.

To sign up for email updates on new Blog posts, add your info to the block below.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Want to Build Your Own Grip Equipment?

Check out Home Made Strength II – Grip Strength Edition by clicking the banner below.

I have a little saying that I coined about two years ago that goes like this:

Misses Are Just Warm-ups

This is a mental approach that you have to take when your overall training goal is STRENGTH.

You missed a new PR Lift? So What? Try it again.

You didn’t break your previous best mark on your first try? So what? Try it again.

If you set up your lifts right, you should always have at least three good attempts in you to set a new PR. And in some cases, even more.

It doesn’t matter what kind of strength you are going for: Grip Strength, Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Strongman Training – all of them require certain factors to be right.

If any of these factors are not right, then you might not complete your lift, even though in reality you are strong enough to complete it.

Here are just a few things that can be “off” when you go for a max and keep you from setting a new PR:
(more…)

Below you will see a video of one of my recent Upper Body Training Workouts.

The video has an audio track over it in which I explain a bit about my exercise selection and why I place the movements how I do.

A couple of other things I wanted to cover that did not get covered in the video…

Shoulder Pain

In the video I mention the shoulder pain that I have been having. I mention that Strict Press bothers it. I just want to clarify that my shoulder pain did not come from pressing or even any kind of weight lifting.

It actually came from rolling frying pans during my Strongman Performances in July. Rolling Frying Pans entails an appreciable amount of force coming from the chest and shoulder and I believe rolling 3 pans a day for close to an entire week just overwhelmed my shoulder and pec minor on my right side.

It is much better now, but at the time of shooting the video, the strict press motion at the bottom of the movement was bothering that region of my shoulder/collar bone, so I avoided that tension on this particular week by performing Push Presses. The catch and Lockout portions of the movement gave me no problems whatsoever.

Just wanted to add that in there, since it didn’t make it into the video.

Exercise Selection

For the last several weeks I have been working my Push and Pull training on the same days. I don’t always do that. Sometimes I will work Push on one day and Pull on the other. However, I always strive to work complimentary exercises for both Push and Pull – movements that are antagonistic movement patterns. I think this is described fairly well in the video.

Some people do both Push and Pull on the same day all the time. To me, I don’t think that is necessary if you are paying attention to the volume you are using in all the movement patterns. Some people might hit me on that. And that’s OK, but I personally believe my approach works well for me.

Whether or not I am working both Push and Pull on the same day generally comes down to the amount of available time I have to train and what else is going on as far as contests and other types of preparation I have to include in my workouts.

With all that said, please enjoy the video, and don’t hesitate in leaving comments, liking the video, or subscribing.

IMPORTANT: Notice the repeated theme – Balance. Balance between the opposing muscle groups in the upper back and torso which surround the shoulder and Balance between movement patterns. If you strive to keep this balance, whether you train Push and Pull on the same day, or if you split them up, your shoulders will feel MUCH better.

Check out my YouTube Channel: Jedd’s Strength Training Channel

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Are You Committing Errors That Could Lead to Shoulder Pain?

Check out this Shoulder Pain Quiz from the guys at Fix My Shoulder Pain:

Around here, the kids are all back in school and they have the whole year ahead of them.

There’s tons of excitement as they look forward to the many possibilities and potential for the year.

I still remember my Senior year, when I said I was going to not play basketball (which I pretty much hated) and just concentrate on baseball.

I wanted to go into the school weight room three days a week and put on some serious muscle, because I was 6-feet tall and about 200-lbs, but thought for sure with hard work I could put on some muscle and show up for my Freshman Year in college looking like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.

While I never ended up looking like Mark or Barry, I did end up putting on some muscle and planting the seeds that would grow into a life-long interest in weight training.

Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t realize some of the things these guys were doing and taking in order to get so freakish. I also didn’t realize that there was a difference between training for size and for training with strength. I just went in there and did what I read about in bodybuilding magazines and didn’t understand the importance of proper loading and rep schemes in order to get stronger. If finding a balance between muscle gains and improvements in strength levels is something that you struggle with, then today’s article is perfect for you.

Today’s post comes from Eric Cressey. Eric is probably best known for his work with professional baseball players at his facility in Connecticut, Cressey Performance, but he is also know for his work in the arena of fitness and especially the field of strength & conditioning. His knowledge blows me away and he is one of the few professionals in the field I subscribe to. Every article, video and product he puts out is GOLD. Possibly his most well-recognized work, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look Feel and Move Better is on sale for this week only for $50 off the regular price.

Enjoy today’s post from this world class author, speaker coach, and lifter.

5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Stronger

By: Eric Cressey

Like most lifters, I gained a lot of size and strength in my first 1-2 years of training in spite of the moronic stuff that I did. Looking back, I was about as informed as a chimp with a barbell – but things somehow worked out nonetheless. That is, however, until I hit a big fat plateau where things didn’t budge.

Truthfully, “big fat plateau” doesn’t even begin to do my shortcomings justice. No exaggeration: I spent 14 months trying to go from a 225-pound bench to 230. Take a moment and laugh at my past futility (or about how similar it sounds to your own plight), and we’ll continue.

All set? Good – because self-deprecating writing was never one of my strengths. I have, however, become quite good at picking heavy stuff off the floor – to the tune of a personal-best 660-pound deadlift at a body weight of 188.

Eric Cressey, 660-lb Deadlift

My other numbers aren’t too shabby, either, but this article isn’t about me; it’s about why YOU aren’t necessarily getting strong as fast as you’d like. To that end, I’d like to take a look at a few mistakes people commonly make in the quest to gain strength. Sadly, I’ve made most of these myself at some point, so hopefully I can save you some frustration.

Mistake #1: Only doing what’s fun and not what you need.

As you could probably tell, deadlifting is a strength of mine – and I enjoy it. Squatting, on the other hand, never came naturally to me. I always squatted, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it took the back seat to pulling heavy.

Eventually, though, I smartened up and took care of the issue – by always putting squatting before deadlifting in all my lower-body training sessions (twice a week). I eventually wound up with a Powerlifting USA Top 100 Squat in my weight class.

More interestingly, though, in addition to me dramatically improving my squat, a funny thing happened: I actually started to enjoy squatting. Whoever said that you can’t teach an old dog (or deadlifter) new tricks didn’t have the real scoop.

Mistake #2: Not taking deload periods.

One phrase of which I’ve grown quite fond is “fatigue masks fitness.” As a little frame of reference, my best vertical jump is 37.3” – but on most days, I won’t give you anything over 34” or so. The reason is very simple: most of your training career is going to be spent in some degree of fatigue. How you manage that fatigue is what dictates your adaptation over the long- term.

On one hand, you want to impose enough fatigue to create supercompensation – so that you’ll adapt and come back at a higher level of fitness. On the other hand, you don’t want to impose so much fatigue that you dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of without a significant amount of time off.

Good programs implement strategic overreaching follows by periods of lighter training stress to allow for adaptation to occur. You can’t just go in and hit personal bests in every single training session.

Mistake #3: Not rotating movements.

It never ceases to amaze me when a guy claims that he just can’t seem to add to his bench press (or any lift, for that matter), and when you ask him what he’s done to work on it of late, and he tells you “bench press.” Specificity is important, but if you aren’t rotating exercises, you’re missing out on an incredibly valuable training stimulus: rotating exercises.

While there is certainly a place for extended periods of specificity (Smolov squat cycles, for instance), you can’t push this approach indefinitely. Rotating my heaviest movements was one of the most important lessons I learned along my journey. In addition to helping to create adaptation, you’re also expanding your “motor program” and avoiding overuse injuries via pattern overload.

I’m not saying that you should overhaul your entire program with each trip to the gym, but there should be some semi-regular fluctuation in exercise selection. The more experienced you get, the more often you’ll want to rotate your exercises (I do it weekly). Assistance exercises ecan be shuffled every four weeks, though.

Mistake #4: Inconsistency in training.

I tell our clients from all walks of life that the best strength and conditioning programs are ones that are sustainable. I’ll take a terrible program executed with consistency over a great program that’s only done sporadically. This is absolutely huge for professional athletes who need to maximize progress in the off-season; they just can’t afford to have unplanned breaks in training if they want to improve from year to year. However, it’s equally important for general fitness folks who don’t have an extensive training background to fall back on, unlike the professional athletes.

If a program isn’t conducive to your goals and lifestyle, then it isn’t a good program. That’s why I went out of my way to create 2x/week, 3x/week, and 4x/week strength training options – plus five supplemental conditioning options and a host of exercise modifications – when I pulled Show and Go together; I wanted it to be a very versatile resource.

Likewise, I wanted it to be safe; a program isn’t good if it injures you and prevents you from exercising. Solid programs include targeted efforts to reduce the likelihood of injury via means like mobility warm-ups, supplemental stretching recommendations, specific progressions, fluctuations in training stress, and alternative exercises (“plan B”) in case you aren’t quite ready to execute “Plan A.”

For me personally, I attribute a lot of my progress to the fact that at one point, I actually went over eight years without missing a planned lift. It’s a bit extreme, I know, but there’s a lesson to be learned.

Mistake #5: Wrong rep schemes

Beginners can make strength gains on as little as 40% of their one-rep max. Past that initial period, the number moves to 70% – which is roughly a 12-rep max for most folks. Later, I’d say that the number creeps up to about 85% – which would be about a 5-rep max for an intermediate lifter. This last range is where you’ll find most people who head to the internet for strength training information.

What they don’t realize is that 85% isn’t going to get the job done for very long, either. My experience is that in advanced lifters, the fastest way to build strength is to perform singles at or above 90% of one-rep max with regularity. As long as exercises are rotated and deloading periods are included, this is a strategy that can be employed for an extended period of time. In fact, it was probably the single (no pun intended) most valuable discovery I made in my quest to get stronger.

I’m not saying that you should be attempting one-rep maxes each time you enter the gym, but I do think they’ll “just happen” if you employ this technique.

To take the guesswork out of all this and try some programming that considers all these crucial factors (and a whole lot more), check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look Feel and Move Better.

-Eric Cressey-

---

Around here, the kids are all back in school and they have the whole year ahead of them.
There’s tons of excitement as they look forward to the many possibilities and potential for the year.
I still remember my Senior year, when I said I was going to not play basketball (which I pretty much hated) and just concentrate on baseball.
I wanted to go into the school weight room three days a week and put on some serious muscle, because I was 6-feet tall and about 200-lbs, but thought for sure with hard work I could put on some muscle and show up for my Freshman Year in college looking like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.

While I never ended up looking like Mark or Barry, I did end up putting on some muscle and planting the seeds that would grow into a life-long interest in weight training.
Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t realize some of the things these guys were doing and taking in order to get so freakish. I also didn’t realize that there was a difference between training for size and for training with strength. I just went in there and did what I read about in bodybuilding magazines and didn’t understand the importance of proper loading and rep schemes in order to get stronger. If finding a balance between muscle gains and improvements in strength levels is something that you struggle with, then today’s article is perfect for you.

Today’s post comes from Eric Cressey. Eric is probably best known for his work with professional baseball players at his facility in Connecticut, Cressey Performance, but he is also know for his work in the arena of fitness and especially the field of strength & conditioning. His knowledge blows me away and he is one of the few professionals in the field I subscribe to. Every article, video and product he puts out is GOLD. Possibly his most well-recognized work, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look Feel and Move Better is on sale for this week only for $50 off the regular price.
Enjoy today’s post from this world class author, speaker coach, and lifter.

5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Stronger

By: Eric Cressey
Like most lifters, I gained a lot of size and strength in my first 1-2 years of training in spite of the moronic stuff that I did. Looking back, I was about as informed as a chimp with a barbell – but things somehow worked out nonetheless. That is, however, until I hit a big fat plateau where things didn’t budge.
Truthfully, “big fat plateau” doesn’t even begin to do my shortcomings justice. No exaggeration: I spent 14 months trying to go from a 225-pound bench to 230. Take a moment and laugh at my past futility (or about how similar it sounds to your own plight), and we’ll continue.
All set? Good – because self-deprecating writing was never one of my strengths. I have, however, become quite good at picking heavy stuff off the floor – to the tune of a personal-best 660-pound deadlift at a body weight of 188.

Eric Cressey, 660-lb Deadlift
My other numbers aren’t too shabby, either, but this article isn’t about me; it’s about why YOU aren’t necessarily getting strong as fast as you’d like. To that end, I’d like to take a look at a few mistakes people commonly make in the quest to gain strength. Sadly, I’ve made most of these myself at some point, so hopefully I can save you some frustration.

Mistake #1: Only doing what’s fun and not what you need.

As you could probably tell, deadlifting is a strength of mine – and I enjoy it. Squatting, on the other hand, never came naturally to me. I always squatted, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it took the back seat to pulling heavy.
Eventually, though, I smartened up and took care of the issue – by always putting squatting before deadlifting in all my lower-body training sessions (twice a week). I eventually wound up with a Powerlifting USA Top 100 Squat in my weight class.
More interestingly, though, in addition to me dramatically improving my squat, a funny thing happened: I actually started to enjoy squatting. Whoever said that you can’t teach an old dog (or deadlifter) new tricks didn’t have the real scoop.

Mistake #2: Not taking deload periods.

One phrase of which I’ve grown quite fond is “fatigue masks fitness.” As a little frame of reference, my best vertical jump is 37.3” – but on most days, I won’t give you anything over 34” or so. The reason is very simple: most of your training career is going to be spent in some degree of fatigue. How you manage that fatigue is what dictates your adaptation over the long- term.
On one hand, you want to impose enough fatigue to create supercompensation – so that you’ll adapt and come back at a higher level of fitness. On the other hand, you don’t want to impose so much fatigue that you dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of without a significant amount of time off.
Good programs implement strategic overreaching follows by periods of lighter training stress to allow for adaptation to occur. You can’t just go in and hit personal bests in every single training session.

Mistake #3: Not rotating movements.

It never ceases to amaze me when a guy claims that he just can’t seem to add to his bench press (or any lift, for that matter), and when you ask him what he’s done to work on it of late, and he tells you “bench press.” Specificity is important, but if you aren’t rotating exercises, you’re missing out on an incredibly valuable training stimulus: rotating exercises.
While there is certainly a place for extended periods of specificity (Smolov squat cycles, for instance), you can’t push this approach indefinitely. Rotating my heaviest movements was one of the most important lessons I learned along my journey. In addition to helping to create adaptation, you’re also expanding your “motor program” and avoiding overuse injuries via pattern overload.
I’m not saying that you should overhaul your entire program with each trip to the gym, but there should be some semi-regular fluctuation in exercise selection. The more experienced you get, the more often you’ll want to rotate your exercises (I do it weekly). Assistance exercises ecan be shuffled every four weeks, though.

Mistake #4: Inconsistency in training.

I tell our clients from all walks of life that the best strength and conditioning programs are ones that are sustainable. I’ll take a terrible program executed with consistency over a great program that’s only done sporadically. This is absolutely huge for professional athletes who need to maximize progress in the off-season; they just can’t afford to have unplanned breaks in training if they want to improve from year to year. However, it’s equally important for general fitness folks who don’t have an extensive training background to fall back on, unlike the professional athletes.
If a program isn’t conducive to your goals and lifestyle, then it isn’t a good program. That’s why I went out of my way to create 2x/week, 3x/week, and 4x/week strength training options – plus five supplemental conditioning options and a host of exercise modifications – when I pulled Show and Go together; I wanted it to be a very versatile resource.
Likewise, I wanted it to be safe; a program isn’t good if it injures you and prevents you from exercising. Solid programs include targeted efforts to reduce the likelihood of injury via means like mobility warm-ups, supplemental stretching recommendations, specific progressions, fluctuations in training stress, and alternative exercises (“plan B”) in case you aren’t quite ready to execute “Plan A.”
For me personally, I attribute a lot of my progress to the fact that at one point, I actually went over eight years without missing a planned lift. It’s a bit extreme, I know, but there’s a lesson to be learned.

Mistake #5: Wrong rep schemes

Beginners can make strength gains on as little as 40% of their one-rep max. Past that initial period, the number moves to 70% – which is roughly a 12-rep max for most folks. Later, I’d say that the number creeps up to about 85% – which would be about a 5-rep max for an intermediate lifter. This last range is where you’ll find most people who head to the internet for strength training information.
What they don’t realize is that 85% isn’t going to get the job done for very long, either. My experience is that in advanced lifters, the fastest way to build strength is to perform singles at or above 90% of one-rep max with regularity. As long as exercises are rotated and deloading periods are included, this is a strategy that can be employed for an extended period of time. In fact, it was probably the single (no pun intended) most valuable discovery I made in my quest to get stronger.
I’m not saying that you should be attempting one-rep maxes each time you enter the gym, but I do think they’ll “just happen” if you employ this technique.
To take the guesswork out of all this and try some programming that considers all these crucial factors (and a whole lot more), check out Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look Feel and Move Better.
-Eric Cressey-

---

Random pic of Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) never hurt anybody…

I was driving a few weeks ago and decided to give an old friend, Kyle Kintner, a call.

Kyle and I had known one another since at least the 5th grade, went to the same high school and college, and have always kept in touch here and there. He had moved away when he got married though and I had just recently heard that he moved back into the area, so I gave him a ring to see what was up.

We chatted for a few minutes and before hanging up I invited him to come up and lift with me if he ever was in the neighborhood and had the interest. Kyle’s job takes him all over the county and when I described where I lived, he said that he drives by multiple times a week, he just didn’t know where I lived or else he would have stopped in sooner.

I live in a small town and admittedly don’t get out much, nor do I really want to, since I’d rather hang around with my family, but that situation makes it hard to find a training partner. I thought I picked one up last Fall, but the Winter hit and he disappeared just as the Arnold Classic Mighty Mitts was coming up, so I was back to training alone again.

It’s one thing to train alone. It’s something altogether different to start to depend on somebody during a workout and then as the start time for the session approaches the guy is late every time or just plain doesn’t show up.

So, I had made the overture to Kyle, like I have done countless times to friends and people I meet who have a history of training, but wasn’t sure what to expect as far as a follow-up response.

To my surprise, however, Kyle texted me back about training the very next day. He said his rounds were bringing me back by my house and that he’d like to train and try out some of the stuff I was doing.

I was even more pleased that when Kyle showed up he came ready to throw down. Kyle was always an athlete, setting the Pole Vault record in high school and earning a scholarship to college for his track and field prowess, and he brought that same athleticism to the gym – it was an awesome workout right off the bat, and he said he hadn’t used free-weights in a workout for years because he owned a Bowflex, but it was hard to tell by watching him throw the weight around.

In a Grip sense, he was also very impressive, getting partial lifts on 5-Tens-Pinch and 2-35’s-Pinch.

For some reason, I wasn’t smart enough to film our first few lifts together (we’ve been hitting it for about a month now) but I did grab the camera last week and I put together a highlight video.

Some of the stuff we did:

1. Overhead Push Jerks and Presses

Kyle is a naturally powerful athlete. We would train together in college occasionally and he would almost always match me in the Olympic lift variations we would do. To this day he is still able to move the weight fast.

2. Incline Bench

Our previous two workouts, we hit flat bench, so we made sure to switch it up a bit. I don’t have an adjustable bench, so we sat one end of the bench up on a stack of bumper plates. Works great.

3. Grip Training

We did Adjustable Thick Bar and various forms of Plate Pinching. I got a good lift with either hand on 2-45’s-Pinch and Kyle got his first full lifts on film with 5-Tens-Pinch.

3. Biceps and Triceps

This was kind of a De-load Workout, if you can call it that, because we had been killing upper body so hard, but we made sure to stick some Curls and Push-downs in there for good measure. We hit some volume sets, and then I went for the “All important 1-rep maximum bicep curl,” aiming for as strict of form as possible i.e. The Vigeant Curl Challenge, and I matched my best ever mark of 75-lbs with either hand. I must say that this time it felt much better on my elbows, as the last time I had a touch of elbow pain, but my preventive work that I share in Fixing Elbow Pain has been working very well.

I didn’t film the Tricep work because my machine is in the storage room adjacent to the garage and it is scary in there.

Training with Kyle has been great. He is Intense and brings it hard every workout. He gets in my face, picks up on form and technique errors, and even has the balls to mention them, plus the biggest benefit of them all is that Kyle is supportive. You might not hear it in the video, but he gives the little cheers you want to hear before big attempts. That is the kind of thing I have been missing for years in my training.

I will close this post by saying this…

You don’t NEED a partner in order to have a good workout or to get stronger. Since 2008 when I began training alone, I have never had a steady partner for more than a few months.

So if you are using the excuse “I don’t have a partner, so I can’t train,” then that is complete hog wash. Get in there and get some work done, partner or not.

However, I do plan on getting Kyle fully immersed in the Grip Life, and I am hoping to get him to help me try some drills I have been meaning to try for some time with the Inch Dumbbell but haven’t had anyone with me strong enough to do them. It should go well.

Stay tuned for more developments, as I am sure Kyle is going to learn fast and with time progress nicely.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

P.S. I also plan on getting Kyle involved in some Strongman Training. I will of course work him in slowly.

If you want to introduce Strongman Training to your program, or that of your athletes, make sure to do it the right way with the right technique.

Our DVD, Introduction to Strongman Training will help nicely.

I have had a lot of incredible and unforgettable workouts in the past.

For instance, I’ll never forget the time I deadlifted 405-lbs one repetition every minute for about an hour and then ended up with a total of 100 reps in 75 minutes or so.

I remember marathon training sessions doing strongman training out in the yard with half a dozen or more friends on more than one occasion. These were the types of workouts where you just knew it was going to take two or three days to recover from them, but you were having so much fun enjoying training that you couldn’t stop.

And I’ve also had days where the lifting I did was no fun at all, in fact it was downright scary, like the time I found one of my long-time friends tipped over in her SUV after a car accident on Christmas Day a couple of years ago and had to pull her out to safety.

But the toughest lifting of my life, in fact the downright scariest lifting of my life, took place yesterday.

The Call

I got a call from one of my best friends in the world, Tom, from where I used to work. “Hey would you be able to help John (another guy from work I am friends with) move something this afternoon?”

“Sure,” I said, “Just tell me where to be and I will be there.”

Now, ever since I was 12, I have been known as the tall guy. I was almost as tall then (6 feet) as I am now (6’ 2”), so it wasn’t unheard of for a teacher to ask me reach something for her in a classroom or for an elderly person to tap me on the shoulder at a store, or even for my grandmother to call me to come to her house and grab something.

But now, as an adult, since I worked at a company with a 1200-employee roster where I met about 3000 people from 2001 to 2010, and I was practically the only guy there that lifted weights seriously, I was also known as the strong guy. There haven’t been that many requests to help move stuff, but there have been a few. And if it is someone that is a genuine friend, I always go help them out as long as I am not sick, hurt, or out of town.

The Lathe

This Thing is a Lathe

So, around 4PM, I drove to the spot where I needed to be and found that the thing that needed to be moved was a 600-ln lathe. If you not familiar with what a lathe is, or does, then you are not alone, because I barely know either, but I do know two things about lathes:

1. Lathes are capable of extremely precise work, able to work within ranges of accuracy of like .000002 inches

2. Lathes are very heavy

I soon found out that this particular lathe, which the original owner used to craft replacement parts for guns, and that it was also upwards of 600-lbs. In fact, when it was first purchased by the original owner, the factory wouldn’t touch it. They had it strapped to a pallet, lifted it with a fork truck in order to load it into the owner’s truck and then they said they had no responsibility for it whatsoever.

I also learned that this lathe was extremely unbalanced. Talk about odd object lifting, 400 of the 600 pounds were on one side and then the rest of it was spread throughout the rest of the nearly 4-feet of length of this piece.

Also, I’d estimate the head of this lathe stood about 2.5 feet in the air, making it extremely top heavy.

I chatted with the original owner for the first few minutes and he told me some stories about being in Kuwait during the most recent gulf war and also time he spent in preparation for Desert Storm, although he never went over. His tale of a trip from one city in the Middle East to another city 8 hours away just to test fire some equipment in an area with enough sand dunes for a good backdrop in 150-degree plus heat seemed to be an eerie foreshadowing of what was about to come as we embarked upon our trip to relocate this immense lathe.

The Crew

Not sure how good at lifting lathes these guys are…?

After a couple of his stories, I heard some cars pull up and I saw the new owner, another man of about 50+ years old and two other men who I know are in their 40’s. The original owner would be of no assistance in the move, as he has a very banged up knee from his time fighting. Also, the girlfriend in the car ended up never even touching the lathe throughout the whole entire day.

I knew right away that this move was not going to be an easy one. I knew all three of these men very well, and none of them did any sort of regular exercise aside from their day-to-day jobs. In fact, I think all of them were full-time smokers putting away at least a pack a day.

Let’s just say it was clear without stating it that I would be carrying the heavy end of the lathe.

The Planning

We began assessing the weight, bulk, positioning and other factors about the lathe and how it would be best for us 4 guys to move this thing off a 4-foot work bench, 5-feet to the doorway and then another 4 feet to the truck. At the same time, the heavier end of the lathe had some sort of a gear box in it that wasn’t very sturdy, so it would not serve well as a spot to hold it.

Instead, the holding spots were four 4-inch handles that could be pulled out. Unfortunately, they were almost completely even with the bottom of the lathe, meaning we could not get our fingers under the handles unless we tipped the lathe up using a sturdy object like a board. Of course, every time we did that, the top-heavy 400-lb end of the lathe would try to completely turn over so we had to be very careful.

We got into position, holding what we could, and attempted a lift. With these three guys, it would have been impossible. We stopped the job and two of the guys went to get another guy, a friend of theirs from a nearby bar.

Fantastic. Another helper whose the better part of a 6-pack into a Thursday night bender. Awesome.

That took about 45-minutes, as I believe the two guys that went and picked up the 5th guy had a can of Old Milwaukee inside the bar, but they finally got back and I was relieved to see the 5th guy in the equation was about as big through the belly as he was tall.

Again we planned and postulated the best methods for moving the lathe. This time, we decided that instead of crushing our fingers with the lathe’s actual handles, we would use ratchet straps wrapped around our hands in sort of a human-link type of fashion to support the weight of the lathe.

This was my idea as I had seen some sort of professional movers’ commercial on the Yankees Sports Network utilizing straps, and it seemed to work very well as we were able to pick the 600-lb lathe up and move it the 5 feet toward the doorway.

The Wife-Beater

Unfortunately, once we got to the doorway, we were in trouble. The doorway was just a regular-sized doorway and there was no way for me, the lathe and the guy across from me to all fit through the door at the same time. As we all strained to support rh weight of the lathe, I tried to let the guy across from me go through the door first. To my dismay, not only did his shoulder or elbow knock a phone off the wall (and I am talking one of those out-dated phones with the obscenely short spiral cord on it) but he also got one of the little “spinny-turny” (sorry, I don’t know the terminology) handles of the lathe caught inside one of the shoulder straps of his wife beater. Yes, he and his brother both were wearing the plain-jane white wife-beaters like Eminem, and matching faded black stone-washed jeans. I am not creative enough to make this stuff up.

Eminem

Incidentally, I think Eminem could out-lift all four of my partners, put together.

The Panic

So once this handle got stuck in this guy’s favorite wife beater, he started to panic, which in turn caused all the rest of us to panic, and before I knew it, the lathe was on the floor. I don’t know how it didn’t end up on someone’s foot or over on it’s side, but it was still in one piece, an unscathed lathe, if you will.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as now, we could do the unthinkable – push the lathe the rest of the way to and outside the door. In our rush and apparent Groupthink, we never even considered just lifting the table down carefully off the table and down to the floor in order to scoot it around. This was an important lesson that we built on later on this story though…

The Dog

Once we got outside, it was time for refreshments and recovery. I was given a Pepsi, while the other gentlemen somehow managed to score more cans of crisp, clean, Old Milwaukee. We took a break and I watched the original owner of the lathe throwing this mangled dog toy out into the grass and then his dog, which I am told is a cross-breed between a one sort of nice, peaceful kind of dog and a Dingo.

Dingo

If you don’t know what a Dingo is, they are these fierce, crazy pack-hunting dog-like creatures from the Australian outback which are famous for eating children. They get wild like an LSD Zombie. This dog would jet across the yard like a flash and would nearly catch the dog toy in the air, or sometimes on one bounce and I thought that it would probably be real tough to beat him in a game of Kickball 500, where you kick a ball back and forth to a guy and they have to catch it either in the air or after as few bounces as possible because they get fewer points after each bounce, and you go to 500. The original lathe owner told us that he was walking the dog one night around 10:30 PM and a pack of 6 coyotes came up along the trail and his dog, Mr. 500, killed 3 out of the 7 of them by gripping their bodies in his mouth and shaking them until their necks broke.

Would have been nice to have had
Dingo Warrior involved in this move…

After everyone finished their cold one, we tackled the lathe once again, utilizing the straps to the best of our ability. This time, the lift wasn’t nearly as hard, but somehow the original owner with the bad knee got involved and somehow crushed one of his fingers to a certain degree, but I am not sure how bad. We pushed the lathe further into the bed of the truck and they took one of our ratchet straps and harnessed it down.

The new owner drove very carefully with his new toy the entire 5 miles back to town where he lived. I am pretty sure I could have scored perfectly in the full first round of Angry Birds, playing one-handed during this drive, we were going so slow.

Then there were two surprises…

1. The two brothers, the girlfriend, and the guy from the bar all of a sudden took a mysterious detour. I was in the end of the caravan, and then they turned off the road and I was now driving behind the new owner. I followed him the rest of the way. He continued to drive very carefully throughout town, that is until he got to his driveway, at which point he decided to seemingly “floor it” and I saw the lathe wavering back and forth like a buoy out on the ocean.

2. Finally the two brothers with matching wife-beaters and faded black stone washed jeans came pulling in with a giant monster truck looking vehicle following them. To our surprise, they had enlisted the help from the brother of the 5th man in the equation, who had also been at the bar drinking as well. We were now 6 strong.

The Finish

The last part of the job would be to lift the lathe out of the truck and move it into the new owner’s machine shop, which was very dark and extremely hot.

The idea was to put this 2 by 6 board beneath the lathe and then carefully rock the lathe over the edge of the pick-up truck’s gate and then slide it down the floor. Good, efficient idea right?

Immediately upon trying this, the lathe started to slide all over the place and it nearly fell out of the truck.

So at this point, I am starting to get scared. Not only are these guys up in years, but they are also severely out of shape and now fatigued (not to mention some of them half drunk).

The Manager

When I was still at work at the company, I was in the Safety and Training field, so I had trained most of these guys on one or more occasions. I guess they felt used to listening to my guidance, because when my worry hit a climax I finally spoke up to them…

I said, “Wait guys. We need to make sure we’re doing the right thing here. That lathe almost fell off that board.”

We decided to get the 2 by 6 board out of the equation completely and we got extra straps, this time, legitimate 3-inch broad tow straps in order to lift it up from the bed of the truck, and then one of the women’s wives would pull the truck away and we would gently set it down.

Plus, at this point we had another extra guy added to the mix, the new lathe owner’s son-in-law, who thankfully had on what looked to be Spider Man sandals. We might not have noticed them, but thankfully the new lathe owner pointed them out to us under his breath, “Oh God, he’s got on sandals.”

The Work Bench

We were getting smarter with each step of the game and we were able to lower the lathe out of the truck very easily when the wife pulled the truck out from under it. Now it was a matter of pulling the lathe in through the door of the shop. I hooked the original ratchet strap under the heaviest part of the lathe and with both hands performed a partial deadlift and then scooted it backwards on top of the step-up leading into the building.

We then scooted it along the floor over to his work bench, when we got the final shock of the day…

There was no work bench.

Instead of a work bench, the new owner had a wobbly particle-board table. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like it would snap if I leaned against it, let alone if we loaded it with a 600-lb lathe. The new owner assured us it would hold, as apparently he had been storing something else of a comparable weight on that very same table.

The Lift

In our final lift of the day, we hoisted the lathe up onto that table. During this maneuver, I was clenching the straps that were wrapped around my hands so hard that I popped seemingly every blood vessel in my left hand. The lathe also was sat upon the new owner’s leg for a short time before it made its way fully to the table. All 6 or 7 guys that helped on this lift (I had tunnel vision at this time, so I don’t really know who all pitched in) were huffing and puffing, thinking we were done.

The Handles

I say thinking because we had made one critical error in our planning process – the “spinny-turny” handles were positioned facing the wall, and the back of the lathe was facing out. We then had to turn this thing all the way around in order to get it facing out the right way.

At that point we were done with this insanity, and I made my way home to be with the family. While the temperature never hit 150-degrees and the trip didn’t take 8 hours down and back, it still seemed like a nearly endless affair.

The Reason

Earlier, I called this the Scariest Lifting Session of my life, or something like that, and the reason is because it was downright scary how out of shape these men were.

I found myself not only worrying about my lifting form and how to keep this monstrosity balanced so it didn’t clip off one of my fingers or jack my back, but I was also trying to best situation these guys based on their height and abilities so they didn’t get hurt as well. All of these guys have manual labor jobs they do, so through my head was running all of these thoughts like how I could make it easy on them as possible, but there was no EASY about this at all.

It made me glad to be in good enough shape to carry the brunt of the work through many of the efforts but at the same time, I was just in disbelief.

I never want to be in that position. I started lifting all those years ago so that I could be in shape all throughout life. So that I could be the grandfather that all the kids talk about as the strong grandpa.

I hope this is why you train as well. Sure numbers in competition are impressive.

Of course it’s good to look great in a swim suit…

The Health

But the most important thing is about being healthy. The strong, the size, and the power should all be the by-products or the coincidences of being healthy.

Keep that in mind DIESELS. I don’t want to sound like I am preaching, but my eyes were certainly opened up yesterday.

All the best in your training and health.

Jedd

P.S. I am very thankful that we got the lathe to where it needed to be without any serious injuries and without damaging the equipment.

P.P.S. If you are looking to get back into the game, you might want to start with Bodyweight Bodybuilding Secrets from Zach Even-Esh.

This is a huge packaged program and it is on sale at a big discount until Midnight Tonight. SO if you need to get back to form, this is a resource you might want to check into.

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Click Below for Bodyweight Bodybuilding Secrets

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Inch Dumbbell Overhead (Photo by Joe Mugovero)

One of my main body strength goals for 2012 was improving my Overhead Pressing ability, so I really began to look at all the contributing factors to a big press. Things like a strong core, lockout strength and speed off the shoulders were some of the things I looked at most heavily, because when I was doing strongman training, those were the things I focused on most often for building the press.

However, one of the things I did not take a real close look at, at first, was my flexibility and mobility in my shoulders and torso. To my surprise, working stretching into the routine has proven to be the absolute biggest factor in my increase in pressing strength recently.

It’s kind of ironic that including the simple practice of stretching would have such a big effect. I remember watching Lee Haney videos on ESPN when I was a teenager, so it’s not like this is the first time I ever heard of the concept.

My absolute neglect for stretching and any kind of range of motion or mobility maintenance came when I started studying NSCA materials. The literature stated that if you performed exercises with a full range of motion, then there would be no worry for loss of it.

More recently, several proponents of Biofeedback/Gym Movement have even spoken of their lack of use of stretching and mobility work in their routines.

Well, here is the problem with all those organizations and belief systems, from Lee Haney, to the NSCA, to GM: they are only referring to lifting and NOT what is going on the other 22 hours in the day.

For me, and maybe some of you reading this, the most important factor for my flexibility and range of motion status (aside from sheer genetics), I feel, is my positioning during those 22 hours.

The amount of time I am in a seated position, whether it is working, driving, or just lounging around is staggering. Sometimes, it seems as though if I am not walking to or from my car, or if I am not training, then I am sitting on my ass, and getting more and more locked up.

In relationship to my pressing numbers, I posted a few weeks back how I was able to make incredible jumps in pressing strength with some stretching and soft tissue work prior to and during my pressing workout. That post is here: What’s Working Now – Improving Overhead Press.

Now, although the improvements I saw in that workout were impressive as far as the actual weight jumps from one workout to the next, the numbers were still not where I would want them because in the past I have been capable of much more.

So, I began going back through some old video clips of myself pressing, and one thing I noticed was that several years ago I looked much more fluid. These days in my videos, I walk like Frankenstein, as if my spine is fused and when I press, I have almost zero lean in the thoracic region of my back at all. In the past, my thoracic mobility was far greater and a real strength of mine, so I knew I had to do something to get back there. Once I began incorporating drills right into my workout, I began instantly seeing some good results, thus the post I mentioned above.

And once I started seeing progress, I began trying out even more movements to see what would work the best. I’ve come up with three movements that I have gotten continued good results from and I want to share them with you so you can try them.

Pipe Roll Thoracic Arch

Squat Cage Doorway Stretch

Squat Cage Shoulder Point

These three movements have proven to have the biggest benefit for me in my training, of the dozens I have tried. If you think you are lacking in the mobility department for your thoracic spine, or if you think your shoulders are inhibited in some other way, then you should give these a try.

If these drills don’t seem to do anything for you, then I encourage you to do some experimenting. We are all different and have different limitations, so in turn we will all need to do different things in order to address those limitations.

Results From 8 Weeks of Concentrated Mid Workout Stretching

Barbell Military Press – Recent PR

In recent memory, in the Barbell Press out of a cage, my best has been 215. I have gotten that number so many times I have lost count. That really irritates me, because it is about 40 lbs under my best strict press on a barbell.

Without stretching or soft tissue work, I was topping out at 215 whether I did overhead press first or if I did Bench Press first. And that little factoid irritates me because you would think that after benching the triceps would be too tired to match my best PR, but it has seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

So, here is a recent video of some new high water marks for the Barbell Press out of the cage.

Barbell Military Press – Old Working Set

I am not sure if you can tell in the video clips, but I am able to get a bit more extension in my thoracic spine in the new PR video (I could certainly feel the difference that day). In the working sets video from a few months back, I don’t get anything at all. The benefit to getting this fluidity in the thoracic portion of the spine is that each repetition feels better, and feel less like I have two baseball bats running from my shoulders to my glutes, restricting me. Being able to bend ever so slightly back near the shoulder area lets me press much easier.

Take note, I am not talking about bending the lumbar spine like a 1950’s Olympic Press, as shown above. That is something that you should try to avoid. I played Russian Roulette with that too often back in the day and have no desire to go back to it. What I am looking to improve is my thoracic spine, the mid to upper torso (shown below)

Dumbbell Military Press PR

My numbers in this had been so bad, that I was pretty much stuck at 50’s. Then with time working on my ROM and soft tissue, I was gradually able to work up to 70’s and now 85’s is becoming my new standard. Below, I hit a set of 6 with 85’s, a set which felt so easy up until the last set, it is hard to put it into words.

In the video above, I think it is a bit easier to see the extension I am getting in the thoracic spine. This video was shot two pressing workouts after the Barbell Press workout where I pressed 235.

To sum things up, although my upper back/torso issues are not so bad that I walk around with like Quasimodo or have scapular winging, I still have issues with tightness in the shoulders and lack of thoracic mobility. Like an addict with a gambling problem, it took my a long time to admit to having these issues, but now that I have owned up to them and begun addressing them, as well as seeing the results, I feel I will be able to continue to improve.

Look for more updates coming down the pike on this. Until then all the best in your training.

Jedd

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If you take out questions about Grip Training, one of the most common questions I get is how to set up a program in order to put on muscle.

With this post, I want to list a few principles I follow in my training. Next week, I will cover some how to select the right movements and how to program them.

3 Keys to Building Muscle

These are the three main keys I follow in my training when it comes to exercise selection. Now, of course there are other things that go into it, but these are the main three things.

1. Multi-Joint Movements

If you want to put on muscle and develop strength, then you have got to get lots of muscle involved in order to do so. The best way to get lots of muscle involved is to select exercises that involve movement over more than one joint. Examples are Bench Press, Overhead Press, Squat, Deadlift, Bent Over Rows, Clean, Snatch, and other movements that are similar in movements to these.

Now, if you take a look at the exercises I listed, you will see that there is often movement taking place at two or more joints. For instance, with the Bench, there is movement at the shoulder and at the elbow, plus if you approach the movement like a Powerlifter does, you are using even more muscle across other joints as well.

Movements such as the Squat, Deadlift, Cleans, and many Olympic lift breakdown drills involve even more joints. With these we are working over the knee, hip, back and possibly the ankle, shoulder and elbow, meaning even more muscle is being involved.

In other words, select movements that are working larger portions of your body and keep isolation movements to a minimum.

2. Train for Power and Speed

I like to incorporate exercises of increased speed in my training. What I am referring to is explosive movements that produce an increased power output, such as Cleans, Jerks, Snatches, Stone Lifting, and other movements where virtually the entire body is working together in order to move large loads very quickly.

Another way I like to accomplish this is with Accommodating Resistance using exercise bands. I have bands of many different strength levels in order to be able to use this concept on different movements.

The Bench Press is a good example of how to employ bands in your training. Remember when using bands that the purpose is to move the bar quickly against the resistance in order to train the fast-twitch muscle fibers to fire quickly. These muscle fibers need to be stimulated like this, but most guys are missing this aspect. I say this, because when I ask people who email me about this they say they have either never heard of this type of training or haven’t bought into it. I am a firm believer in it and have been experimenting with how to incorporate it in different ways aside from just with barbells in my training and with my clients (these guys kick ass).

3. Work in Balance

One of the recent times someone wrote in, they wanted to know how to put muscle on their chest and shoulders and I asked them what they were currently doing. Their answer? Bench Pressing two days a week and Shoulder work on another day. Essentially three Upper Body Pushing days and each one was balls to the walls intensity.

One of the things I always tell people is that if you are trying to fill out your shirt, you’ve got to remember there are two sides of it to fill. You don’t want to be like Tom Cruise in the movie Knight and Day and look like your back muscles are non-existent.

There needs to be a balance between your pushing and pulling exercises in order to pack on muscle on the upper body, and do it safely. Remember, we are doing something that is supposed to be good for us, not something in order to set ourselves up for imbalances, poor posture and pain down the road.

What I suggest people do is for every movement where you are pushing something, try to also incorporate a movement where you are pulling. If you can pick out complementary or contra-specific movement patterns, that is a bonus as well. For instance, a complimentary movement pattern for the Bench Press would be Bent Over Rows or Seated Cable Rows (although, I’d suggest the Bent-Over variety in order to have a Ground Based Movement – another post for another day).

One other thing to think about with Balanced Training, keep in mind that if you are going all out for maxes on the Bench every time you do it and then you do Bent Over Rows with a fraction of the weight, that doesn’t count as balanced. The loading and effort need to be similar in order to realize benefits.

One good way to do this is to perform your Upper Body Push and Upper Body Pulling movements on the same day and match up the loading and effort that way. If you do it like this, it is easier to monitor than if you do it on different days.

Do You Have Muscle Imbalances, Currently?

If you have been following traditional programs and have not taken things such as antagonistic balance into account with your program, you could be headed for some issues. Unfortunately, imbalances can develop from more than just the way you program you workouts and your exercise selection.

Time seated in a car, time at your desk, time at home in chairs, and other considerations that affect posture can really do a number on you.

If you think you run the risk of having imbalances because you slouched in your seat in high school for years (like me), spend a lot of time at a desk at your work (like me), or have muscular imbalances due to an injury or something else, you should consider checking out Rick Kaselj’s Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body Edition.

I recently made Rick’s acquaintance on-line and began following some of his work and he has an impressive background. A few months ago he came out with a 2.0 Program for lower body and now he has updated his Upper Body Edition as well.

The sizable clientele he has worked with and the expert backing he has gotten is unbelievable. I strongly suggest you give his program a look if you are a candidate for imbalances. Here is my link: Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj.

All the best in your training and look for Part II coming next week.

Jedd

This past weekend, I traveled to Slippery Rock University to speak at the 3rd Annual Pennsylvania Strength Clinic. The clinic was organized by Tony Tridico (Titusville) and the on-site organizer was Dr. Jonathan Anning (Slippery Rock).

The entire clinic was designed around the premise of how to build a solid strength and conditioning program and each speaker presented with this in mind… (more…)

Get Lean/ Get Strong

By John Alvino

It has been stated that a non-chemically enhanced lifter cannot get stronger while on a fat loss program.

The popular justification for this claim is that in order to lose fat, you need to create a caloric deficit through dieting and higher volume training. And caloric deficits are NOT conducive to gaining strength or building muscle.

This is why when most people want to get stronger and/or bigger, they go on a high calorie diet and reduce their training volume. Unfortunately, this usually results in unwanted gains in body fat. It’s a classic catch 22 scenario.

Then, when they try to drop their recently gained body fat, they usually follow a typical fat loss protocol (low carbs/low calorie diets, high intensity cardio, high volume resistance training), and although they may lose some fat, they can kiss their strength gains goodbye. And then they are right back where they started.

Does it have to be this way? Or can you lose your unwanted body fat while INCREASING your strength simultaneously? The good news is yes: you can (and should) increase strength while decreasing body fat.

In order to accomplish this, you must focus on three different aspects. Here they are:

1) Target the nervous system with your training – To a large degree, your strength is a function of the efficiency of your nervous system. This is because your nervous system is responsible for synchronizing and activating your motor units. For those of you who don’t know, a motor unit consists of a bunch of muscle fibers and a motor nerve cell.

Increased synchronization and activation basically means you will be able to utilize more motor units per contraction. This phenomenon will increase your strength dramatically.

How do you target the nervous system? Well, there are two ways to make significant neural gains.

The first is to lift heavy weights. In fact, the weights must be 85% or more of your 1 rep max. This will result in performing sets of 1-5 reps each.

The second way is to move the resistance at high speeds. Any type of explosive movement will do the trick here. Examples of explosive movements are jumping, plyo pushups, Olympic exercises and various med ball drills.

It is important to note that the nervous system can take up to 10 times longer to recover than the muscular system can. Therefore, in order to maximize this training technique, you should be sure to get near full recovery in between sets. For an experienced lifter, this could result in up to 4-5 minutes between sets.

2) Maintain or increase your lean muscle mass. This is critical, because even if you make neurological gains, you can still compromise your strength if you lose muscle tissue.

There are two things you must do to increase muscle mass during your fat loss program.

The first muscle boosting trick will involve your nutrition. The key is to NEVER stay sub caloric (below maintenance level of calories) or carb depleted for more than 3 consecutive days. Obviously you will need to reduce calories in order to lose fat.

Just don’t keep them low every day. Keeping them low everyday will result in losses in lean muscle mass. Instead, lower your calories and carbs on light training or off days and then INCREASE both carbs and calories on HEAVY training days.

The second trick is to include some hypertrophy sets in your routine. Hypertrophy sets involve using a weight which allows you to get 6-10 repetitions. The key is to keep the volume low on these sets.

Do not exceed more than 4 total hypertrophy sets for each movement pattern. More than that can result in overtraining and/or muscle loss.

Additionally, these sets should ALWAYS follow your heavier neural sets.

3) Stay hydrated and nutrient loaded. Training at high intensities while dieting can result in dehydration. This will decrease your strength and thus negatively impact your workouts and future gains.

The obvious way to try and combat this is to drink plenty of water. Be sure to drink a daily minimum of half of your bodyweight in ounces of water. Although drinking a sufficient amount of water is important, it is not enough all by itself to maintain a high level of strength performance.

Additionally, 30-45 minutes before your heavy workouts, consume a liquid meal consisting of 30 grams of protein, 500 mg of magnesium, ¼ tsp of salt, 5 grams of glutamine, 5 grams of BCAA’S and 60 grams of carbs.

This will help jam nutrients into the body, thus improving workout performance.

I have used this protocol with great success with many of my clients. But just recently, I put this protocol to the test on myself for 6 weeks. Here are my results:

Starting weight – 211lbs

Finishing Weight – 202lbs

Starting Body Fat% – 13%

Finishing Body Fat% – 8 ½ %

Trap Bar Deadlift Starting Max – 505lbs

Trap Bar Deadlift Finishing Max – 545lbs

I also did a Trap Bar Deadlift rep test. The test was simply 405 for max reps. At the beginning of this program, I was able to get 11 reps. After just 6 weeks, I was able to pull 20. Here is the video:

405lb Trap Bar Deads for 20 Reps!

I also performed a similar before and after test using a Military Press.

Standing Military Starting Max – 175lbs

Standing Military Starting Max – 205lbs

Those were the only two exercises I took maxes on. These are very good results. For strength athletes, the benefits of this protocol are obvious. But this is incredibly beneficial to anyone who looking to lose body fat as well. Give this protocol a try, You’ll be glad you did!

About the Author

John Alvino is a strength And Conditioning Coach, Fat Loss Coach, Vegetarian, Fitness Author, MMA Junkie, Ex Convict and Pit Bull Advocate from Morristown, NJ

Get his killer new FREE report at www.johnalvino.com

I got my butt kicked!

This past weekend was my family’s annual family clam bake to celebrate my parents’ birthdays. They fall within a couple days of each other, so right around that time we steam a bunch of little neck clams and drinks some assorted beverages and just enjoy each others company with a few other members of the extended family.
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I got my butt kicked!

This past weekend was my family’s annual family clam bake to celebrate my parents’ birthdays. They fall within a couple days of each other, so right around that time we steam a bunch of little neck clams and drinks some assorted beverages and just enjoy each others company with a few other members of the extended family.
CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP (more…)

Diesel Iron Masters

With Independence Day being here, today’s Iron Masters recognition comes at a perfect time.

Today we meet LTC Nathen Acree Jr, who retired from the Army in 1995 and was recently recalled at age 59.

LTC Nathen Acree Jr

The nomination for LTC Nathen Acree Jr was sent in by his son, Austin Acree.
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Hard to believe another year has gone by and the Annual Juniata Strength Clinic is in the books. It’s always great to see the other regulars. I have become extremely good friends with many of them and look forward to going every year.

Before I get going too far into this, I first want to thank Coach Doug Smith, the Juniata Strength Coach and organizer of the yearly clinic. This is the most cost-effective clinic I know of for the number of CEU’s that are available, and it is my pleasure to present or conduct a hands-on presentation each year.

Unfortunately, I was only able to attend on day of the clinic this year, as my fiancee got pretty darn sick on Friday night. I drove home to take care of her and missed Saturday’s agenda. However, I attended many presentations and hands-on sessions on Friday and I want to go over them here and share with you all some of the highlights the presenters shared.

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“We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.” – Winston Churchill

All I could think about yesterday was what I had to do to survive.

It was a beautiful and hot day. The thermometer was showing over 90 degrees, and although it was slightly cooler in the Garage Gym, it was still humid and everything we touched got covered in sweat.

We started out with about 10 minutes of warm-up that included Mobility / PVC Roller / General Warm-up. By the end of that, we had already sweated through our shirts. Each of us went through a giant glass of water just during this time

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MAN OF STEEL – COMING April 6th!

We asked you how bad you wanted to see the new Man of Steel Challenge and you responded big time!

Check out all of the comments!
READ THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP (more…)

I’ve just got to show you this piece that I recently added to my training equipment collection.

The Demolition Club

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I AM A CELLAR DWELLER

I am a cellar dweller. And while some people may take that to mean I am a hideous looking troll that stalks billy goats with a club, really all it means is that normally, I don’t go to the gym to work out – I train in my basement and garage.

That’s right I do almost all my training right on my own property. If I didn’t post videos on the internet, almost nobody in the world would know I train because I pay no memberships and don’t go into town to get my workout in.

To me, this is the way to go. I can use all the chalk I want, turn up the music as loud as I want, drop the weights if I want, and shoot snot rockets whenever I want. (I actually go outside to shoot the snot rockets)

Watch the Killer Video: Click here ==> (more…)

Some things in life are simple.

Like finding a good web designer or in our case for this article, building muscle.

How can building muscle be made simple?

Easy, just by applying some key principles and using the right exercises.

Key Muscle Building Principles That Are Easy to Apply

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Hips Don’t Lie?

Why is improving your hip mobility important?

Well, the most important reason is that you can get your own music video.  You’ll be shaking your mobile hips in waist deep water with a macrame bikini on.  Shakira made a career out of it.

There are a few other reasons that might be important to you as a lifter, or you as a coach responsible for athletes.

Importance of Hip Mobility (more…)

I don’t usually comment on videos for many reasons (everyone thinks their opinion is so important for others to hear haha).   When in fact, no one cares.

But sometimes I can’t help myself.  Because sometimes videos move me.  They validate many of my own opinions and I truly appreciate originality.  Something that has been lost in the fitness industry.

I mean tons of people have stolen my stuff.  Should I be flattered or enraged?  Or should I put my head down and continue to put out solid content focusing on trying to help as many people as I can?
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Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.

Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.

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