Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength
Strength and Conditioning for Elite Athletic Performance - Free Articles, Videos for Coaches, Fitness Professionals, Personal Trainers, Athletic Trainers, Physical Therapists for All Sports
In December of 2022, I put together this Playlist of QnA Videos.
Feel free to watch them here, DIESELS!
Be sure to like the videos by hitting the thumbs-up button.
Subscribe and click the bell for notifications.
And I still plan on doing regular QnA’s if I have good questions to work with so, leave your best question in the comments.
All the best in your training.
NAPALM
Video #1 in the #3aDaysofQnA
After Nationals, I decided I want to work on my full-body strength more by following the Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program.
Free on the internet, the Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program was designed by Ed Coan and Mark Phillipi.
Aside from that, I don’t know much about the program itself, except that my partner, Luke, began BLOWING UP when he started following it, and his strength went up BIG TIME.
That’s what I wanted too! So I got started.
We jumped in on Week 3, because Weeks 1 and 2 seemed too light. I just finished Week 7 this past weekend, of the 10-week program.
What I’ve got for you below is footage from Weeks 7, 6, and 5 in reverse order, as well as a little Q & A I did recently on my YouTube Channel in an episode of Cooking with Napalm.
You’re gonna see, I do a lot of my Deadlift stuff with some version of Double Overhand Grip, whether Full DO, Monkey Grip, or Thumbless, depending on the weight. This is to strengthen my fingers & hands, as I don’t get as much grip work in on the days I’m deadlifting.
Look, I’ll be honest. I’ve only ever followed a Deadlift program once, and only for a few weeks. That one did nothing for me.
This Program however, I like. I’m feeling good and the weights are going up, so that’s cool.
I really thank my friends Eli Thomas and Jerry Jones for turning me on to this.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress. In a few weeks, we re-test our maxes.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
There’s lots of reasons I respect Eric Cressey as a strength coach.
First and foremost is the fact that he is STRONG. Guy deadlifts over 600-lbs, despite the fact that he’s not a genetic freak or anywhere near 300lbs. RESPECT.
But the biggest reason is his ability to see deeper, and analyze possible solutions to problems, ASIDE FROM what everyone else sees.
I don’t like to bag on the Fitness Industry. I think that happens far too often.
The problem is not the industry itself, but rather, the bad apples spread throughout it that tend to spoil the proverbial bunch.
Every so often, a new buzz word or catch phrase comes out, and you can just see the Johnny-come-lately’s ready to to swoop in, pick up on the new terms, and use them like they thought of them.
In the video below, Eric Cressey touches on one of these such buzz words, “Ankle Mobility.”
He’s a bit more diplomatic than me in the way he covers this topic, as you’ll see when you watch the video, and he may even make you question your previosu thoughts about ankle mobility and how it influences movement patterns, such as the Squat.
Like Eric points out, there’s more to it than meets the eye.
This attention to detail is why I trust him so much.
This week, Cressey has dropped the price on one of his most popular products, the High Performance Handbook, by $50.
So for the next few days you can add this to your library at a much lower investment.
Eric Cressey is one of the best strength coaches in the world. If you’re a budding strength coach and you’re looking for someone to follow, Eric is the man, and High Performance Handbook is a great place to start.
Get it today. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.
All the best,
Jedd
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:
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
I Love Strength.
I love training for it. I love testing it. I love displaying it.
I’ve aligned everything in my workouts to help me build more strength.
My obsession with strength has led me to turning even the lifts that you wouldn’t normally consider “strength lifts” into legitimate tests of strength and intestinal fortitude.
One such example is the Triceps Rope Pushdown. Generally an exercise used to pump up the triceps and make them grow, I’ve found it can also be used to test the strength throughout much of the upper body.
I don’t bother staying super strict with this. My arms move, I engage my lats, and there is a bit of throw in there, but I don’t care.
The objective is to move so much weight on this old-school cable machine of mine, that I hope to cause a failure in the device somewhere, so that the weight crashes down, cracking the concrete floor, and bits and pieces of shrapnel shoot out everywhere.
I hit this lift and variations of it countless times during the month of October, throughout the Yoketober program. But most of that work was for high volume to build mass. I decided I wanted to see just how heavy I could go.
During most of my Yoketober workouts, I was in the 75lb to 90lb area on this lift. It wasn’t until last week that I finally decide to go after triple digits, working all the way up to 125.
Build Strong Triceps: Heavy Triceps Rope Push-dwons
In the video above, I get 5 reps. That means it’s time to go up in weight, brotherrrr.
Also, take note, I don’t count the first one, where I throw it down to the bottom position. A little decorum, please.
It may seem crazy to do this, but to me it’s not.
I like ramping up the intensity, and I enjoy turning things like this into tests of strength.
What’s awesome is that since my Push-down is plate loadable, there’s really no limit as to how much weight I can use, whereas on most Push-down machines at commercial gyms, you’re limited to the weight stack, and I can usually stack those with no problem.
I will continue to hit these Heavy Push-downs until the weight I use totally destroys my machine, or until I shred the sleeves open on the awesome 3/4 length sleeve tee shirt I wear in the video.
Here’s to you causing serious damage this year as well.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
I hit a pretty big milestone for me this past week.
This is 455lbs for 5 sets of 2. I don’t recall ever hitting 455 or more all in one set for more than 3 total reps.
Also, these were all Double Overhand. I want to see how far I can get just going DO. I’ve also heard some people say that they help out with their Grippers, so we’ll see how it goes.
#Legtember is going great for me as far as strength is going up. I have been nothing but happy since starting it.
I actually had to miss a Deadlift session last month because I was so sore from 20-Rep Squats.
But during #Legtember, it has not happened, and I think my muscles have just been able to recover better because I am hitting some form of quad, hamstring or glute isolation exercise, plus I am doing mobility work and stretching.
I think the daily stuff is helping me recover and hit it harder by the next time I need to hit lower body.
As cool as #AugustOfArms and #Legtember have both been, the October promotion is going to be even more awesome.
Look for an announcement coming really soon.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
I recently wrote about Slaughter Sets here: Slaughter Sets.
Here is the latest installment in the Slaughter Set Legacy. Try this out if you dare.
Set up your own Slaughter Sets, by following the guidelines here => Diesel Crew Slaughter Sets
All the best in your training,
Jedd
This article will show you how you can pack a ton of training into a short time, resulting in an amazing pump to your muscles, better muscle gains, and more fun while you train. You will burn more calories in a short time and look forward to training even more because lifting becomes competitive. Enjoy!
I had seen Khali Muscle introduce these ultra-volume workouts where he was doing something like 500 reps, and I wanted to try them THAT DAY.
But I thought, how can you make these work if you have a partner? One dude is going to be standing around for a long time, and that sucks!
I thought about it for a bit, and I figured it out.
We gave the idea a try and it worked awesome. We started calling them Slaughter Sets.
Here is how to set up a Slaughter set with more than one person training, so both or all people get a killer workout WITHOUT having to stand around waiting while the other guy trains his ass off.
Slaughter Sets are comprised of the same number of exercises as the number of people lifting. So, if there are two people, there are two exercises. If there are three people, three drills, etc. We have done these with up to 5 people before and they work great.
The Dictator: Regardless of how many lifters and exercises you have, one of them is called the Dictator. This is because that lifter dictates the speed of the set, because he has to hit 100 reps. Once he hits 100 reps (or whatever desired number you select), you take a short break and switch positions.
An example of a Slaughter Set combination for two people is Push-ups and Barbell Curls. One lifter starts out on Push-ups and goes until he hits 100 reps. He can group the repetitions however he wants to and take as many rest-pauses as he needs.
While he is doing this, the other lifter is performing as many reps as possible in Barbell Curls. He can rest-pause as often as he wants, too.
This can become a competition between the two lifters.
You can time how long it takes each person to finish the repetitions and see who can do it faster. You can also keep track of the number of repetitions each dude gets in the non-Dictator lifts, to see who can get more reps there too.
What you end up with is between 5 and 10 minutes of super-high volume training, unbelievable pumps, and a very competitive atmosphere in the weight room that will bring out the best of you and your partners.
Here are a couple of examples of Slaughter Sets we have done recently:
Dictator: Banded Tricep Push-downs
Also Performed: Two Hands Pinch Lifts
Dictator: Banded Front Raise
Also Performed: Ab Wheel Knee Roll-outs, Band Pull-Aparts
These are just a couple of awesome Slaughter Sets we have done recently that we actually caught on tape, but we’ve done a few more. We even did one combo when we have 5 dudes here.
Freakin’ awesome.
When it is as cold as it is outside, and you don’t want to go for a jog, or pull the sled out in the snow, this is a great way to burn a ton of calories in a really short time, while also getting the benefit of the mean pump.
In short, they will change your life.
All the best in your training,
Jedd
It has become a tradition to do a run-down of the most popular videos I have uploaded each year.
For the next few days, I will be posting the Top Videos of the year, along with a little description of what is going on in each one.
One thing you are going to notice is that my Youtube Channel is pretty eclectic. It’s not just about one thing, like Grip Strength or Muscle Building, but rather about all kinds of different KILLER things you can do in the gym to not only get stronger but love the idea of training as well.
In short, I love training and love helping people with their training goals. So, without further ado, let’s look at videos 11 through 15 that were on the fringe of breaking into the top 10.
11. Bench Press Tips – Activate Lats for a Bigger Bench Press – 1266 Views
One part of the Bench Press Technique that is often overlooked is the engagement of the lats. Most lifters only think of the Bench Press as a lift for the chest, delts, and triceps, but if you can figure out how to get your lats more involved, you will no doubt see bigger lifts. This video shows a quick demonstration of how to do this as taught to me by Todd Hamer.
Related Article: Bench Press Tip – Activate Lats for Bigger Bench Press
12. Easy Way to Increase Pull-ups | How to Do More Pull-ups – 1139
Pull-ups are one of the best lifts for building strength and size in the upper back. The more you can do the better. Unfortunately, some people have trouble doing Pull-ups. This video will cover one way that you can train to perform more Pull-ups, and see better results for your back in your training.
If you like the Back Bull, here’s where to pick one up: Back Bull Equipment
13. Easy Tubing Warm-up Drill for Javelin Throwers – 1087
I was surprised this video ended up so high on the countdown. Earlier this year, I released a DVD called, Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers, and put this video out as a little sample of some of the stuff javelin throwers can do as part of their specific warm-up prior to throwing. Hopefully, this has helped out a few throwers in preventing injury and improving their performance in competition.
Check out our DVD: Grip Training for Throwers
14. How to Make Your Shoulders Feel Better with a Simple Stretch – 1034
This video shows an awesome stretch for the lats using bands. I have never felt a lat stretch that is as intense as this one. I love it.
15. Strongman Wrench Bend – 1000
I got a wild hair to bend a wrench earlier this year and ordered in about 25. Unfortunately, 20 or 3 of them stopped me dead in my tracks and a couple others snapped. This is the first one that finally bent. I am not by any means the best bender or braced bend specialist in the world, but I was happy to finally pull this off.
Learn feats of strength like wrench bending, bar bending, and rolling up frying pans, check out our Braced Bending DVD.
Stay tuned as I continue to update the list throughout the week.
Kick ass in your training,
Jedd
There are a ton of crazy workout gadgets out there that are absolute wastes of time.
I am sure you have tried a few now and again and can name some that were totally useless.
Well, one item that you might have seen at one time or another that is NOT useless, is the Globe Gripz handles.
I have been training with Globe Gripz off and on since 2012. I immediately was impressed by their packaging and the quality of the product.
For the last few weeks, though, Globe Gripz have been a weekly part of my training. In fact, I have had a resurgence in my Biceps training, especially in the Barbell Curl.
For several years, I did not do Barbell Curls because they hurt my wrists and forearms so intensely sometimes that I would feel the leftover pain for several days down the line.
However, with Globe Gripz on the bar, I feel ZERO pain in these areas when curling. I have been able to put several good, solid weeks of training in and have upped my 1-Rep-Max in the Barbell Curl to 160-lbs and have been increasing my repetitions with 135-lbs on the bar on a near weekly basis, nearly hitting 10 reps just yesterday.
Here some clips of some of the recent Bicep Curl training sessions…
Barbell Curl: 135-lbs X 10 (Almost) + Attempt at 170-lbs Barbell Curl with Globe Gripz
Strict Barbell Curl: 155, 157.5, 160-lbs
If you feel the same kind of pain in the Barbell Curl that I do, I strongly encourage you to check out Globe Gripz. Naturally, there are LOTS of other ways Globe Gripz can be used, just like Fat Gripz and the other Instant Thick Bar Handles that are on the market. Barbell Curls is simply what I use Globe Gripz for the most. Actually, that’s all I really use them for.
You can get Globe Gripz here => Globe Gripz
I am sure the Form Police will show up and say these curls ARE NOT STRICT. That’s fine. My response is “Show me your video with stricter form and comparable weight.”
Now, I am also aware that there are strict curl competitions, where people stand against a wall or some other structure to prevent swaying back or using the delts and back for assistance.
Awesome! I am all about competition and comparing my lifts against others, ESPECIALLY when there is a standard, so I tried them too.
I have seen a few clips of these competitions and an EZ-Bar is often used. So I gave this a try using an EZ Bar in an attempt to match the competition standard as closely as possible. Here is the video…
Strict Curl with Back Against Door: +/- 158-lbs
I really do not know where this would put me in the established competition lifts that exist. I am assuming that for my bodyweight (about 235 on the day of that lift), this would be pretty low, as I am sure the competitors have a much better grasp on the proper technique of the lift. For instance, I noticed some substantial stress on my lumbar during the first rep and had to adjust where I had my feet to reduce it. It’s definitely not just a vacation performing this lift, especially when you are going for a near-max.
So, here’s the deal. Some people think Curls are stupid. If you feel this way, that is fine.
I personally like to keep track of things like this. I have an idea of my PR in lots and lots of lifts and I like to push myself in this nature.
Plus, I love competition. Ever since I was a child and played baseball, I have loved the field of competition.
Over the years, that field turned from a diamond of dirt and grass with a fence around it to the Strongman and Grip Strength Platforms.
If I can find a Strict Curl competition nearby, I might add that to my Competition Portfolio as well. If anyone is familiar with them, I’d love to hear about them.
Now, if you are not into competition, but just want to get bigger and stronger arms, then be sure to check out Call to Arms, an ebook I put out last year with Joe Meglio.
Check out Call to Arms => How to Get Bigger Stronger Arms
Naturally, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you are not training your biceps with some intensity on a regular basis, then they could be your weakest link. At the least, they might hold you back on other lifts. At worst, you could run the risk of tearing a bicep and be out of competition and training for a while, waiting for it to heal.
Intense Arm Training, like what we cover in Call to Arms can help you erase that weakness.
Also, if you are Grip Enthusiast, you should consider adding Arm Training of some sort to your routine. Both Paul Knight and Steve McGranahan have made mention of the relationship between Grip Strength and their overall arm strength.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
The Nail Bending eBook and the Nail Bending DVD
When it comes to strength training, fat loss, flexibility and athletic development, the last thing you want to encounter is the nasty P-word.
What is the definition of a Plateau? I checked out the dictionary and here are the first two definitions.
Definition 2 is the one we want to avoid – the point in your training where your growth and development ceases.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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:
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!
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…
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
Some of the classic bodybuilding pairings for the upper body are Chest and Triceps, Shoulders and Triceps, and back and Biceps.
These are time-tested methods, of course, BUT sooner or later, you’ve got to mix your training up a bit.
Do the same stuff for too long, and you’re sure to become stagnant in your results.
Before you know it, your training split is actually holding your training results back.
And if you’re anything like most people, you get sick of doing the same stuff like that all the time.
Today, I am going to show you how you can mix your training split up. The guys who have tried this with me have loved it, and I think you will too.
Here’s how I do most of my upper body workouts with a “bodybuilding/muscle building” style workouts.
What you end up with is some of the most ridiculous pumps you have ever felt.
Chest and Biceps day blows up your chest and biceps until your shirt screams in agony. Throw in some shoulder work and its even more phenomenal.
On Back and Triceps days, your lats, posterior delts and traps get smoked, and when you throw in triceps along with it, you get the most interesting pre-exhaust sensations.
Here is an example Chest, Shoulders, and Biceps day that JT Straussner and I recently did.
Example Reverse Muscle Building Workout:
Note: Each letter signifies one training block, either a single exercise or a pairing. Each number shows the order of exercises done in pairings.
A. Bench Press: We worked up to 275 and hit it for 3 sets of 6 to 8.
B. Seated Dumbbell Military Press: We worked up to 70’s and we to failure or near failure on these, since we didn’t pair them with another exercise.
C1. Rock Front Raise: I saw the Rock doing these in a recent issue of Men’s Fitness. Good for an occasional use now and again, but I prefer Kneeling Landmines to be honest.
C2. Farmer’s Shrugs: This is my favorite way to work shrugs. Perfect way to go with heavy weights without straining the back. Find out more here: Heavy Shrugs Without Hurting Your Back.
D1. Push-ups : This is a great pushing exercise that builds your chest, delts, and triceps. We did a slight variation of the push-up with the feet elevated, since we also did Flat Bench Press.
D2. Pull-aparts: This is often used with a light band to work the smaller muscles that abduct the shoulders, BUT we used heavier bands here to work the bigger muscles and the triceps.
***Note: For the D1/D2 combination, we focused on 20 reps per exercise and for some sets, we had to do Rest Pauses in order to get the target reps.
E. Reverse Curls Stare-down: This was just plain INSANE. We loaded the EZ Curl Bar and hit set after set until our arms were about to blow up.
So, the majority of the workout was Push & Biceps. I added in Shrugs because I like to get those in a couple of times a week. Same with the Pull-aparts.
This workout provides some of the necessary ingredients for growth: multi-joint movements, isolation movements, varied rep-ranges, and varied loads. When you mix the variables like this up on a routine basis, you can’t help but grow.
My suggestion is to try one thing at a time though. First off, try the switch to Chest and Bi’s and Back and Tri’s using some of the exercises, rep-ranges and loading you like. Once you get a taste of these two non-conventional workout set-ups, then you can start tweaking with some of the other adjustments.
Enjoy the crazy pumps.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
What is the most common thing people ask me about with their training?
Grip Strength? Nope
Feats of Strength? Nope
Strongman Training? Nope – not even strength training.
It’s this:
Getting into better shape, Losing a few pounds, and Finding the time to train!!!
You’re BUSY, aren’t you?
I know what you are saying => Jobs, kids, classes, babysitters, fund-raisers, church, in-laws…the list goes on and on.
If you constantly feel like you get busier and busier and have less and less time to train, I want you to check out this new book that I put together along with several friends.
Click here => No Gym, No Time, No Problem: Simple Fitness Solutions for Busy People
We tailored this book, ENTIRELY for busy people who want to get back into better shape, without having to join a gym and without having to upset their already hectic schedule.
Look, all of us who put this project together run businesses, LOVE TRAINING.
BUT, we were fed up with people not knowing how to balance all of their many life demands while also getting into better shape, so we put this book together and right now, you can get it on Amazon for dirt cheap.
Just go to this link => No Gym, No Time, No Problem: Simple Fitness Solutions for Busy People.
I know it is going to help you out.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
It goes without saying that the Bench Press is one of the most popular lifts that are done in the gym.
And no wonder – it’s one of the best lifts for building upper body muscle, especially the chest, shoulders, and triceps. On top of the mass building potential of the Bench Press, it is also a great lift for building upper body strength.
In this post, I am going to cover a subtle adjustment you can make when you Bench Press to increase the weight you are able to press, the number of reps you can perform, and the safety of the Bench Press itself. When you can increase those three factors, your potential for size increases and strength gains is practically guaranteed.
Many trainees do not think about the lats when they Bench, because the lats are part of the back and are prime movers in rows and pull-ups, but the lats actually play a very important role.
Unfortunately, they do not realize that the lats are there to provide stability to the shoulder during the Bench Press. When the lats are activated properly, they provide a much better foundation for the shoulder, and this can be HUGE for your confidence under the barbell, when you are benching.
So, since the lats are so important, it makes sense to get them involved in the Bench Press as soon as possible, correct?
Well, many lifters miss the boat on that one as well. In fact their problems begin right from the moment they prepare to take the barbell out of the rack or hooks.
You can see exactly what I am talking about in the short video below.
I really want to thank Todd Hamer, strength coach from George Mason University, for showing me this technique modification. I met up with him at the Juniata Strength Clinic in June and asked him to take a look at my Benching Technique, and this has been a big help to me. It starts each new Bench Press set off with a completely different feel.
This way of un-racking the barbell may only be slightly different from what you are doing right now, but the way the bar feels in your grip and as you support it in the ready position is not. There is a night and day difference between these two techniques, and when you get this right, you can begin to see big improvements in your Bench Press.
And what’s great is, you can use this pulling lat activation method on your other Bench Press variations, such as Incline Bench and Decline Bench.
Let me know how you like this technique. Give it a try and leave a comment below.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
In Mid-June, I made the trip to Juniata College in Huntingdon PA for about the 11th year in a row. There, I had a couple of great training sessions, one of which I posted here: 1st Night Upper Body Workout.
During the course of the weekend, I attended many presentations from various strength coaches and other members of the strength and conditioning profession. Some of them I thought were very good and I would like to point to some highlights here today.
This one caught my eye in a hurry. First off, I know Cam well because he has spoken at Juniata for several years and I have attended his talks before, plus I have spent time with him off to the side and talked training with him. I knew he was a good coach and I also knew he was an accomplished Olympic Weightlifter. With this combined, I couldn’t miss his talk.
Oly Lifts Eat Up Training Time? The primary reason this talk interested me was because I have always been under the assumption that teaching the full Olympic Lifts to athletes could result in a great deal of time eaten up by the process due to the high levels of skill required for the full lifts. When there are so many things a coach must include in a complete strength programs for student athletes of various sports, in order to get them stronger and keep them injury free, it always seemed like the effort to teach these complex lifts could be put toward other types of training instead.
In fact, many strength coaches who work full time in the profession have said the same thing, that they do not bother with the full lifts in their programs because it eats up a lot of time when they could be teaching something else. Because of this fact, they often teach only parts of the lifts, such as Power Shrugs, Front Squats, and other common Olympic Weightlifting drills that still help train athletes to be strong, explosive, and powerful. These variations are less complex and you don’t encounter the same degree of limitations for some of the athletes, such as poor thoracic mobility or lack of wrist flexibility, both of which can make the full Olympic Lifts very hard to master.
Cadence Commands to Dictate Technique? However, I think Cam has developed a pretty good way to include the full lifts into the program. He uses a cadence, or a serious of numbers and other called commands that dictate the pace of the movement that each athlete executes.
If it is hard for you to picture what I am talking about, don’t feel bad. I had no idea what he was describing either, until he got to the section of his talk where he provided video. But let me try one more time.
Essentially, Cam breaks the lift down into several stages. So if they are doing a Power Clean from the Hang position, that lift is broken down into 4 or more stages. Stage 1 would be lifting the barbell out of the rack or off the floor. Stage 2 would be lowering the bar down the thighs slightly, engaging the hamstrings and glutes. Stage 3 would be firing the posterior chain muscles and cleaning the bar to the shoulder for the catch phase of the Power Clean and Stage 4 would be returning to the upright standing position. Cam has verbal cues that he uses for each Stage of each drill. As he calls each number or cue (in one case, he used the term “home” for the cue), the athletes move accordingly, all pretty much at the same time.
This is just one example of how he breaks down one drill, but he showed 4 or 5 drills that he applies this cadence to.
Cam Davidson has obviously found a way to make the Olympic Lifts work for his athletes. I don’t recall the number of teams he works with, so I can’t speak to that, but I know the athletes he had on tape executing the Cadence Training were women’s volleyball players, who obviously need to be able to explode off the ground to block and spike the ball above the net, and can benefit from training the full Olympic lifts.
One thing to take note of is that Cam stated the majority of the work they do is in the 80% to 90% range. I did not note however, whether this was done using the cadence-pause commands or simply with the full Olympic lifts done in the conventional matter.
This was quite an eye-opening talk for me. As someone who does not work in a university or college setting as a strength coach, I really have to take the word of other coaches when they tell me of their experiences, successes and struggles with the implementation of the Olympic lifts. If coaches are looking for ways to include the Olympic lifts in their programs, this could be one way to make them work, once they get past the initial stages of teaching proper technique.
I will have more to come from the Juniata Clinic later this week. Make sure to sign up for updates, so you are the first to know when knew posts go up on the blog.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
A common body part that lags behind other body parts is the traps. Many lifters I have spoken with have asked if I know any good ways to build the traps up besides normal shrugs. Today I will share that with you, but first let’s look at what the traps are designed to do.
The traps, or trapezius, (so-called because altogether the three sections of the muscle are shaped like a trapezoid) is a muscle with many functions. While they are most visible at the top of the shoulder, they also extend down the back.
There are 3 segments of the trap, each with a different responsibility.
1. Upper Trap: Primarily responsible for elevating the shoulders and shoulder blades. Secondarily responsible for pulling the shoulders and shoulder blades back.
2. Middle Trap: Primarily responsible for pulling the shoulder blades together.
3. Lower Trap: Primarily responsible for pulling the shoulder blades down.
Now, when it comes to “building big traps” most people think of the section of the traps above the collar bone and shoulders. Dave Batista, pictured in the image at the top of the page, had some of the biggest traps I have ever seen in all my years as a wrestling fan.
The classic exercise for building big traps are Shrugs and their variations. These are usually done with a barbell at the front of the body or with dumbbells at the sides of the body.
However, just because Barbell and Dumbbell Shrugs are what “everybody does” doesn’t mean everybody loves them.
Here are a few reasons why Barbell Shrugs and Dumbbell Shrugs fall out of favor with some trainees. Maybe you agree…
1. Barbell Shrugs, when done in front of the body, can be hard on the back if you have back injuries, especially when you start getting into serious weight.
2. Barbell Shrugs can also be done behind the body, but they can be uncomfortable on the shoulders and can force poor posture.
3. Dumbbell Shrugs are a fairly safe alternative, but some gyms are limited in their heavy dumbbell sizes and may not have loadable dumbbells that can be used to go heavier.
4. Because Dumbbell Shrugs are often done with lighter weights, you can find yourself doing very high rep sets in order to get the feeling that you have accomplished some effective muscle-building stimulation of the traps.
Because of all of these things, and possibly others you can think of, today I am going to show you one way you can intensify the Shrug to help build bigger traps.
In my garage gym, the heaviest matched dumbbells I have are 100’s. For anything higher than that, I use my loadable dumbbells and 25-lb plates. However, it is hard to do Shrugs with 25’s on loadable handles because the plates roll up your thighs, so to keep the movement legit, I have to stick with the 100’s until I get bigger dumbbell pairs.
I have gotten to the point now where I can perform upwards of 20 reps with my 100’s, and it doesn’t even feel like I have stimulated the traps unless I have already pre-exhausted them with another movement, like High Pulls. Unfortunately, those are tough on my back, so I don’t do them that much.
Instead, I have found a way to make the traps work even harder on every single repetition of the Shrug. You see, as listed above, the upper two portions of the trapezius are involved in pulling the shoulders back, as well as elevating them.
If you perform a shrugging movement, and then combine that with pulling the shoulders back, you will feel a much more solid contraction when you combine both movements. Even though the change is subtle, it has a big effect.
Try it now, even without weight in your hands and you’ll feel the difference.
Now, you can obviously just pull your shoulders back while you shrug in order to engage the traps differently, but I have found that there is a better way to accomplish this by combining bands with the exercise.
Watch the video below to see exactly what I mean.
So, as you see in the video above, the heavy band resistance makes you fire the traps and other musculature of the upper back intensely. This creates a movement that hits the traps in a much different way to help build them better.
If you try this, I encourage you to start out with light dumbbells and band tension. This way, you can get used to the feeling of this movement, which is much different from a normal Shrug. Then, over the course of a few short sets, work up in weight and tension.
Also, you can play with the point the band is rigged to the structure. Since shooting this video, I have movement my anchor point higher for an even better feeling with this movement.
I think you will be surprised how much harder it is to perform Shrugs in this manner compared to just holding dumbbells. To give you an idea, I can Shrug the 100’s for more than 20 reps, and have yet to hit 15 reps with the blue bands on without taking a rest period mid-set.
Barbell Clean or Log Clean – 6 Sets of 2
Overhead Lifting (Military Press, Dumbbell Press, or others) – 4 Sets of 3
Horizontal Band Resisted Shrugs – 4 sets of 10 to 12
Grip Training: Open Hand – Work up to a Max, then perform 10 doubles with 70 to 80% of Max
For more training tips, make sure to sign up for my free updates delivered right to your inbox, below:
All the best in your training.
Jedd
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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:
Instead, why not add one more set, and work the first 3 sets for 6 reps as explosive as possible?
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.
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:
(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.
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.
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
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
By Josh McIntyre
Check out Josh on his YouTube Channel
We were seated at a common table with a family we didn’t know. No problem, my wife is pretty social and I can fake interest in just about anything for 30 minutes. It was the German Bier Garten at Epcot, and $13 a beer wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying myself.
As I looked around the large auditorium like seating area, I noticed something troubling. At nearly every table sat a skinny, smug looking d-bag with either a livestrong bracelet or some kind of motivational running t-shirt. What was stranger, none of these “men” even had a beer in front of them.
One man with hair past his ears appeared even to be wearing a beret! As I turned to look at my wife in bewilderment, down sat a young guy in the vacant seat next to me. I watched on in horror as he opened his beardless face and a high, slightly pitchy and annoying voice screeched out. Thus spoke the Beta-male: “I can’t wait for tomorrows 5k!”
That last one hit my ears as I lowered one of the liter beer mugs from my face only to raise another with my other hand, and it made chills of rage run down my spine.
I turned to look upon the baby deer like runner, my neck creaked as scar tissue broke under the immense weight of my beast fur. My beard twitched as it parted the way like great red drapes for my mouth, reminiscing of Moses when he made the Red Sea into a nature path. Surprise and terror washed over this wuss’s face as I set my cold dead eyes upon his virgin baby blues. With sheer malice, the churning hell pit of my stomach sent forth a metric ton of gas. The terrible cloud left my face at nearly mach 2 and blew the club-friendly-rock fan’s head clear from his shoulders. His own family cried as they thanked me for what I had done. I responded with an aftershock.
Once I cleared out the entire left half of the buffet and broke a third of the dishes due to just how rough I eat, I decided that super lunch (the meal between lunch and 1st dinner) was over. I payed in red whiskers and tipped the waitress with 3 farts, which she graciously accepted.
As we walked out in search of more beer for my face, I couldn’t help wondering:
It wasn’t until much later when I sat down to release a school of brown trout into Walt Disney’s magical sewer system that it hit me!
A “race” To 5k (5000#)!
I flushed the toilet and immediately contacted Jedd Johnson. This is what I told him:
The 5k challenge will be as follows:
(Example: if DL is your best lift then it may look like:
SQ, B, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL = 5000)
Glory is just 3 steps away:
This challenge is for the Alpha-females as well! I know not every lady is sitting around the house reading 50 shades of Gray. Some of you She-Ra’s are doing power cleans and front squats with twice the weight that our beta-male could curl in any standard power rack. So Ladies, get your war face on, tie your hair back with some barbed wire and embarrass some of these guys.
The Top 10 Performances (men and women), using as few attempts as possible, will be posted here at DieselCrew.com
This is a new spin on the 3 classic lifts. Who can do this in 15 lifts? 10? 9? Less!? Give it a try and see where you stack up!
By Josh McIntyre
Check out Josh on his YouTube Channel
We were seated at a common table with a family we didn’t know. No problem, my wife is pretty social and I can fake interest in just about anything for 30 minutes. It was the German Bier Garten at Epcot, and $13 a beer wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying myself.
As I looked around the large auditorium like seating area, I noticed something troubling. At nearly every table sat a skinny, smug looking d-bag with either a livestrong bracelet or some kind of motivational running t-shirt. What was stranger, none of these “men” even had a beer in front of them.
One man with hair past his ears appeared even to be wearing a beret! As I turned to look at my wife in bewilderment, down sat a young guy in the vacant seat next to me. I watched on in horror as he opened his beardless face and a high, slightly pitchy and annoying voice screeched out. Thus spoke the Beta-male: “I can’t wait for tomorrows 5k!”
I won’t bore the masses with every feminine thing this little neophyte said, but here’s a run down:
That last one hit my ears as I lowered one of the liter beer mugs from my face only to raise another with my other hand, and it made chills of rage run down my spine.
I turned to look upon the baby deer like runner, my neck creaked as scar tissue broke under the immense weight of my beast fur. My beard twitched as it parted the way like great red drapes for my mouth, reminiscing of Moses when he made the Red Sea into a nature path. Surprise and terror washed over this wuss’s face as I set my cold dead eyes upon his virgin baby blues. With sheer malice, the churning hell pit of my stomach sent forth a metric ton of gas. The terrible cloud left my face at nearly mach 2 and blew the club-friendly-rock fan’s head clear from his shoulders. His own family cried as they thanked me for what I had done. I responded with an aftershock.
Once I cleared out the entire left half of the buffet and broke a third of the dishes due to just how rough I eat, I decided that super lunch (the meal between lunch and 1st dinner) was over. I payed in red whiskers and tipped the waitress with 3 farts, which she graciously accepted.
As we walked out in search of more beer for my face, I couldn’t help wondering:
It wasn’t until much later when I sat down to release a school of brown trout into Walt Disney’s magical sewer system that it hit me!
A “race” To 5k (5000#)!
I flushed the toilet and immediately contacted Jedd Johnson. This is what I told him:
The 5k challenge will be as follows:
(Example: if DL is your best lift then it may look like:
SQ, B, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, DL = 5000)
Glory is just 3 steps away:
This challenge is for the Alpha-females as well! I know not every lady is sitting around the house reading 50 shades of Gray. Some of you She-Ra’s are doing power cleans and front squats with twice the weight that our beta-male could curl in any standard power rack. So Ladies, get your war face on, tie your hair back with some barbed wire and embarrass some of these guys.
The Top 10 Performances (men and women), using as few attempts as possible, will be posted here at DieselCrew.com
This is a new spin on the 3 classic lifts. Who can do this in 15 lifts? 10? 9? Less!? Give it a try and see where you stack up!
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…)
DIESELS!
There are a lot of things that go along with a good, strong and safe deadlift, but in the video below I show you the one thing that you absolutely MUST do when you deadlift in order to perform the movement safely.
As far as the rest of the technique, I can not recommend highly enough Deadlift Dynamite from Andy Bolton and Pavel.
In case you don’t know, Andy Bolton has deadlifted over 1000-lbs on at least two separate occasions, and is just a monstrous powerlifter.
Pavel Tsatsouline is a renowned strength coach. Although his claim to fame is kettlebells, he knows a great deal about all forms of strength training.
Together, these guys have produced the go-to resource on how to Deadlift. It is perfect for anyone who is either looking to start the deadlift but is unsure of how to go about it, as well as the lifter who has been deadlifting but knows he or she needs to improve their technique.
As a special bonus, anyone that picks up this manual through my affiliate link will receive a 25-minute video I shot covering my Top 5 Grip Building Tips, specifically designed for bringing up your rip Strength where it needs to be.
It’s called, “Never Drop Another Deadlift,” because that is my goal for you when you try out the techniques.
To pick up Deadlift Dynamite and get my special bonus, just click one of the links here on this post and then email me your receipt and it’s yours.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
Note from Jedd: Many people have wondered whether the Version 2.0 of the Definitive Guide to Kettlebell Juggling covers the basic of kettlebell juggling. It does indeed cover that. Also, several years ago, I put up the following article covering the technique I started with in kettlebell juggling, the Kettlebell forward flip and catch. Check it out below.
Don’t forget – Logan has extended the contest for the free iPad through this weekend, so make sure to try to attain at least Level 1 amongst the Kettlebell Juggling Progression List and Ranking System.
If you’ve been around the NET at all, you’ve seen a lot of video clips where people juggle kettlebells. There are tons of different ways to juggle kettlebells. I’ve seen guys do it behind their back, going between their legs, and even juggling more than one bell at a time.
While you may also have the goal of mastering the art of kettlebell juggling, it’s important to start out on the right foot or else you could get very frustrated and maybe even injured by improper technique. The way I started out was by performing what I call the Forward Flip and Catch.
In order to get started with kettlebell juggling, it’s important to understand a few simple points.
In order to juggle a kettlebell, you have to be able to get the kettlebell up near the chest and neck area. Once the kettlebell is in this position, you have a window of opportunity to impart other forces upon it to make the juggling possible.
If you are dealing with a heavy kettlebell, I’m talking something over 50 lbs, then you need to get your whole body involved to get the kettlebell up high enough.
This should be done by performing a swing. If you are no good at kettlebell swings, then you should master that movement before moving on to juggling.
The swing looks like this.
The Swing
The bell is projected to this height not just by lifting it with the shoulder and arm, but rather it is propelled to that position by the lower body, especially the power of the hips and glutes. After the kettlebell is pulled through the legs, the hips are snapped and the bell travels upward in its trajectory. This hip power is also responsible for getting the flip going.
In the standard Kettlebell Swing, the arm is kept straight. Unfortunately, it is difficult to express any power into the kettlebell if your arm is straight, so it is necessary to transition the swing into a high pull.
The High Pull is performed slightly different from a barbell high pull, however. Instead of pulling the bell up in a primarily straight line, the bell comes up in the arc and then is pulled backward for the high pull portion.
It is this slight back pull that brings the bell closer to your body where you can then exert other forces into it and make it flip around so that you can juggle it.
In this example, we will perform the Forward Flip. Once the bell reaches it’s highest point, it is time to make it flip.
Hand Radially Deviated as Thumb Pushes the Handle Away
For a Forward Flip, the thumb is the part of your hand that will actually make the kettlebell flip, because it is the last part of the hand that contacts the kettlebell handle. With this in mind, you can also slightly shift your hand into radial deviation so that you can optimize the positioning of the thumb and propel the bell forward to initiate the flip.
It is important to understand that when flipping and juggling kettlebells, the axis about which the kettlebell spins is within the bell and not the handle. Grasping this concept will allow you to better predict where the handle will be when you go to grab and catch it.
Kettlebell Spinning 180 Degrees on its Axis, Falling Only Inches
As you can see in the series above, the kettlebell spins on an axis near the center. The handle flies forward and down, moving into position for the catch.
If your technique is dialed in you will catch the bell in almost the same exact spot you flipped it. You can even get your other hand into position beneath the bell ahead of time, as pictured above.
After you try the Forward Flip a few times, you’ll be able to predict where the handle will be. Once you get the feel you will be able to move your hand to find the kettlebell handle and secure it again in your grasp.
Once you figure out the tempo of the Swing / High Pull / Flip sequence, you will be able to rip off several Forward Flips in a row. However, just like any other kettlebell lift, efficiency is important in order to put together a string of Forward Flips.
Many beginner jugglers find it hard to put together Forward Flips in succession because once they catch the bell they fail to maintain an arc in the bell path. If they try to catch the bell and drop it straight down, they will lose a lot of momentum. Instead, you should try to catch the bell by the handle and then let the bell pass back down through the legs. By maintaining this arc, you can more easily explode back into another swing, high pull, and flip.
Here is everything put together in action. Notice the path of the bell upwards, the location of my hands, and the quick transition into the next repetition.
Hopefully, the sequences of still shots and the video help you understand the basics of kettlebell juggling.
Once you get that one down, then you can progress from there. Here’s the progression to work on for basic juggling.
That should get you started! All the best with your juggling.
Jedd
Learn How to Juggle Kettlebells with The G0-To Resource,
If you are on my newsletter, a couple of weeks back you saw that I asked you to tell me about your shoulder pain. If you are not on it, just use the box in the upper portion of the right hand margin to get signed up and get some cool gifts.
I couldn’t believe the dozens of responses I got when I asked about shoulder pain. It seems quite a lot of you have shoulder pain. Out of all of the responses, many conditions were brought up, including Bicep Tendon Tendonitis and Rotator Cuff issues, and many of you have had accidents, falls, and other traumas that have caused injuries like torn labrums and other issues.
The reason I asked for this information is because Rick Kaselj, the dude I produced Fixing Elbow Pain with, offered to put together a video on prevention and recovery for shoulder pain. I told him I would survey you all and let him know what the most common issue was.
Although many shoulder pain problems were reported, by far the most common shoulder injury was Shoulder Impingement. I’d say of all the responses about half of you are experiencing shoulder impingement, and many of you have had it either for years or off and on for years.
So, I sent this info to Rick and he came back with the following video, explaining what shoulder impingement is and some simple courses of action to start correcting it.
If you are suffering from shoulder impingement, those simple movements could be just what you need to get out of your pain.
I would suggest doing the Pull-Aparts several times a day. Even if you have a demanding job, you can find the time to do a set of 20 Pull-Aparts here and there. Keep the tubing in your work desk or in your locker, and start building them into your daily routine.
Along the lines of Shoulder Pain, Rick and Mike Westerdall have also put out a very quick 4-question quiz on shoulder pain that you should check out. It will only take like 1 minute to fill out and they have a bunch of other videos to share with you about taking care of your shoulders and preventing pain.
Just click on the banner below and it will take you right to the quiz.
Thanks and all the best with your shoulder pain.
Jedd
The first part of the title of this post might sound like the biggest oxymoron ever stated.
After all, what in the world can Curls possibly do for your performance?
I am about to line all that up for you right now.
You see, for the last few weeks I have been working on a project that will come out soon about arm training, and during all of the preparation, I have been trying out new things with my arm training, new lifts, new variations, and new modifications, etc…
Because I have been “studying” arms so much, I have been putting in more time training the arms, and also as a result, they have gotten stronger, and I have also seen excellent results in other parts of my training, especially my Pull-up work.
Now, I am not down there hitting arms for 2 hours straight, multiple times a week, but it is safe to say I am doing arm training at least once a week every single week for the past month and a half, AND on some occasions I have hit them twice in the same week.
Also, I am not just down in the gym banging away on Bicep work. The Triceps makes up far more of the upper arm than the Biceps, so a lot of my arm work has been Triceps based, but I am also getting my fair share of Bicep work in.
In addition to all of this experimentation and manipulating my arm training, there has been one additional training factor that seems to have been very beneficial, and that is, surprisingly enough, testing myself in the 1 Rep Max Dumbbell Curl.
I first started doing this when Josh Dale introduced the Rob Vigeant Dumbbell Curl Challenge, which was to lift 100-lbs in strict fashion on the dumbbell curl. I thought this would be fun, so I tried it out and to my surprise I was able to get a 75-lb Curl. It is hard to believe that it was almost a year ago when this challenge came out.
When my long-time friend Kyle trained with me earlier this summer, we tried out the Max Dumbbell Curl just for fun, and I was happy to see that I had retained much of my strength, even after several months where I did not try a max curl.
Two weeks ago, I tested myself again for a max lift, this time using a dumbbell with extra weight stuck to it with a magnet. During that workout, I was able to get 84-lbs left handed.
This week, I was able to move my mark up even further, hitting 85.5-lbs.
Again, the 1RM Dumbbell Curl is not some kind of major focus in my training. There just happens to be a fun challenge list going on right now, and it has served well as a tester for my current Bicep strength.
However, the most important thing about this is not the amount of weight I am putting up in the Bicep Curl – oooh, woopty-doo, right?
The biggest benefit I have seen, and this is where the “Performance” aspect comes in that is reference in the title, has been my Pull-up Performance.
Now, we all know, or at least we should, that the Pull-up is one of the best exercises for building the upper back. It is a great bench mark of strength for athletes, students (scholastic fitness tests) and even the Military incorporates Pull-ups into their testing and training protocols. The Pull-up is or should be a major part of your training.
I have stated before that I do all kinds of versions of the Pull-up, and most recently I have fallen in love with training on the Rogue Dog Bone <= See some of my recent training here. This thing is just a sick piece of training gear. When I started out, I could barely get 2 reps with this thing, but I have been seeing great increases here.
Also, my regular Pull-ups are kicking ass as well (I do my conventional pull-ups on Perfect Pullup Handles
I have been training my conventional Pull-ups with somewhat of a Ladder approach, especially when Kyle is here. He and I will start with one Pull-up apiece and follow one another, each time increasing our rep-count by one repetition, up to 5, and then back down. It looks like this:
Jedd – 1, Kyle – 1
Jedd – 2, Kyle – 2
Jedd – 3, Kyle – 3
Jedd – 4, Kyle – 4
Jedd – 5, Kyle – 5
Jedd – 5, Kyle – 5
Jedd – 4, Kyle – 4
Jedd – 3, Kyle – 3
Jedd – 2, Kyle – 2
Jedd – 1, Kyle – 1
Pretty basic, but also pretty demanding, given the fact that we only rest the amount of time that it takes for us to step away from the Pull-up Bar, and wait for the other guy to finish his reps.
The first time Kyle and I did this, which was in May, I believe, I needed serious spots from him to finish out many of my sets once I hit the 3-rep mark, and up until I got back to the 2-rep mark in the Ladder.
Kyle missed about 2 solid months of training due to a job change, but when he did return, I had only trained this ladder a couple of times on my own, but the day we did this together again, I only needed spots on my last rep during my 4-rep sets and my last two reps during my 5-rep sets.
I’d estimate that within 3 weeks I will be able to finish this ladder all by myself without any spots. This is a huge improvement and I think the increased arm work has played just as big of a role in this improvement as my recent concerted efforts toward improving my Pull-up abilities.
I will branch off a bit here and say this. If all the arm work has helped my Pull-ups so much, what could also be the effects if I focused a bit more on Log Cleans or Stones (I honestly haven’t been doing those as much as I want). It is possible I could see improvements in other Biceps-involved lifts as well. It’s also possible that you could too! Something to think about for sure.
I know there are a handful of people out there who either do not train their Biceps or do so half-assed. I know this because I have heard it said many times, especially by Strongman competitors and those who perform a great deal of Rowing movements. The reasoning, so they say, is that since they are constantly lifting Stones, Logs, and doing all the Rows, that they are getting enough Bicep work in already.
After these last few weeks of increased arm training and seeing the results it has brought, I encourage you to re-think your approach to arm training, especially if you have been skipping Bicep Training or if when you do it you only hit a few token sets just to “get some work in.”
If bigger numbers and more reps in Pulling movements is not enough to make you consider adding arm training back into your routine, I have two more things that I feel must be discussed about the benefits of specific arm training.
First off, even though Rows, Log Cleans, and other similar lifts work the Biceps through elbow flexion, you still are not getting the same intensity as if you are truly aiming for growth and strength increases in the Biceps.
Secondly, with Rowing movements and Log Clean, the forearm does not supinate, which is another movement pattern that the Biceps are responsible for.
My fear is not that if you neglect Biceps training that you will hold back your performance on Pull-ups, Rows, Log Cleans, or any other movement where the Biceps are involved (although to a degree, that will happen). Rather, I’m more interested in keeping all of you safe and injury free.
In August, I watched a Bicep tear take place right before my eyes during a Grip Contest, of all things. Competitor, John Wojciechowski, tore his Biceps Tendon performing a normally straight-arm-style event called the Adjustable Thick Bar Lift. I actually thought he ripped the seat of his pants, and it was so loud the camera even picked up the noise.
In no way am I saying the reason John got hurt due to lack of training the Biceps. I don’t know much about John’s past training except that he has put up some very nice general strength training videos as well as impressive gripper and bolt bending videos.
I am only saying that lack of training parts of the body, like the Biceps, can lead to weaknesses and imbalances. Weknesses and Imbalances can lead to injuries, and after watching Wojo tear his Bicep tendon, that was enough for me. I don’t ever want to see it again or learn that one of you had it happen either.
So, major take-aways from this post:
1. The Biceps assist in many other training movements, not just Curls. Pull-ups, Rows, Logs, Stones are all examples.
2. Having Strong and well-conditioned Biceps can lead to improved performance in other lifts which are very beneficial toward over-all strength and performance, especially Pull-ups, which I have seen in my own training.
3. Make sure to train the Biceps intensely. No need to go overboard, but don’t neglect them either. Although some of you may be turned of by “Show Muscles” or “Beach Muscles” remember to strengthen all links in the chain.
4. It’s not always about Strength. Sometimes Injury Prevention is even more important. My friend, Wojo, is going to experience some down time due to his injury. Down time SUCKS.
Keep these things in mind as you train. All the best with your training and stay injury free.
Jedd
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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-
DIESELS!
Today, I have an interview with John Gaglione, “Gags,” from GaglioneStrength.com. I first met Gags in April at a conference, but I have known him for many years. In fact, to give you an idea of how long I have known Gags, when we sat down and had lunch one of those days he reminded me that he picked up one of the first products we ever released here at Diesel Crew, The Shit You’ve Never Seen, a DVD containing training footage from way back in 2005!
Earlier this year, Gags teamed up with another great up-and-comer in the strength and conditioning field, Todd Bumgardner, to release Supreme Strength for Athletes. I wanted to learn more about Gags and his program, so I sent him some interview questions centered around assessment, because I wanted to know the kinds of things he looks for when training new individuals and how he changes things up to meet their specific needs.
If you are a Trainer or Strength Coach and are doing the same thing with all your clients and athletes, make sure you listen to what Gags has to say. Kids on your teams could have underlying weaknesses, imbalances, and other performance issues that could lead to injuries down the road, and nobody wants that to happen.
So sit back, turn up your speakers, and meet my friend, John “Gags” Gaglione.
Enjoy.
Question 1: Tell us about yourself. Training and sports history, why you got into personal training / strength and conditioning.
Question 2: What are some issues trainees commonly bring with them when they join your gym, i.e. injuries, imbalances, movement issues.
Question 3: Tell us about your assessment process you use with your athletes. What kind of assessments do you do? How do you decide upon a client’s individual needs in order to design their specific program?
Question 4: Tell us about the Supreme Strength System that you and Todd Bumgardner have developed and give us a rundown of what it has to offer.
Thanks for checking out the interview, and if you have any questions on the subject, feel free to leave a comment. I will make sure John sees the comments and has the chance to come back and answer your questions.
Thanks and have a great week.
Jedd
Thanks to Gags for doing this interview for us, and make sure to check out the program he designed with Todd Bumgardner: Supreme Strength: The Simple, Proven System for Building Strength, Muscle and Athleticism Faster Than Ever.
Some quick thoughts today on the Overhead Press. Some of these I have shared with you before, but they have been spread out all over the site and you might not have seen them. Hopefully these will help you improve at the overhead press.
Make sure you are doing some form of overhead lifting in your program on a regular basis, provided you are healthy enough for it, meaning you have no injuries that could get compounded or aggravated by doing the lifts. I like to overhead lift at least once a week, and sometimes I will get in two workouts within a 7-day period.
More Related Posts:
Improve Weaknesses in Your Press
Do not do only one type of overhead lift. Even if your main goal is to improve in one specific type of overhead lifting, other types of overhead lifting will serve to strengthen individual portions of the movement pattern as well as give your body a chance to work in different ways and not get beaten up by the same training stimulus all the time.
The reason I point this out is because in my personal experience if I do only Barbell Military Press week in and week out, my workouts seem to get stale and improvement is slower in coming. However if I mix in several different types of pressing as well as overhead lifts using different implements and speeds, then I see better results, like I have been throughout this year.
More Related Posts:
Thoughts on Exercise Selection Here
I have used the term Radiant Tension here on this site many times. Gross Tension throughout your body can help you lift more weight. However, some people go overboard with tension. Tension is a skill that must be learned and constantly improved, just like they tell you with your driving skills. To get started with this, try squeezing the barbell or dumbbell handles harder than normal from the time the barbell/log is at your shoulders until the point the implement passes your forearm. You may have to squeeze very hard at first in order to feel the effects of radiant tension, but later on you will understand when you have to squeeze harder than others.
More Related Posts:
Tension Management for Strength Training
How I Improved My Kettlebell Press
There are many more people out there to go into a full discussion on movement quality, assessment, and correction than me. However, I know enough about it to tell you that if your body can’t move right, you can’t get as strong as you want to. I have seen eye-opening results this year after I finally admitted to myself that I had to start improving my movement abilities. As soon as I put emphasis on this, my numbers started improving faster than I ever could have expected.
More Related Posts:
Results of Working Flexibility Between Sets
Upper Body Warm-up for Healthier Shoulders
Addressing Tightness for Increased Pressing Strength
The biggest change in my overhead lifting practices has been the inclusion of heavy dumbbells in my training again. I haven’t had a set over 70-lbs in my gym since I built it, so I didn’t get that individual arm stimulus. Dumbbells make each arm work individually. You don’t get that same synergy effect with dumbbells that you get from a barbell, log or stone. Since it is somewhat tougher to press heavy dumbbells, when you go back to barbells, you should see some pretty good improvement.
Those 5 points are the main points I have worked on for years and many of them are key factors I have been using recently. To illustrate how much these points have helped me, check out the video below, where I recently pressed two 100-lb dumbbells for a set of 3, the first time ever.
To recap the first 7 months of 2012, until earlier this year, the best I was doing was high-rep sets of 50’s. In February, shortly after beginning to work on my poor movement demons, I was able to get 3 sets of 10 with 70’s, and eventually I began testing myself on the 100’s, and I have gradually worked up in reps with them.
If you are looking for more information on Overhead Lifting, make sure to check out the links to other posts here on the site. If you need to bring up your Overhead Lifting Strength for the sport of Strongman, then check out our Introduction to Strongman DVD. The Log Press, one of the most awesome tests of overhead strength, requires excellent technique, and if you don’t know it, you will never reach your full potential and be completely competitive in competition.
Look for more info on Improving Overhead Lifting coming up in the future here at DieselCrew.com. Make sure to subscribe to the newsletter for more lifting tips and updates.
Jedd
This is a guest post from Joe Meglio. Joe is the head strength coach at the Underground Strength Gym in Edison NJ and works with athletes, strength enthusiasts, and fitness clients on a daily basis. Joe was voted #1 Rising Star it Fitness and deadlifted over 3 Times Bodyweight at the age of 20.
by Joe Meglio
I don’t claim to know everything in the world of strength training, but if there is one thing that I know best, it is the deadlift. While I am not the best deadlifter in the world, I have put up some respectable numbers. At the age of 20 and bodyweight of 196 1/2 I pulled 600, 3 X my bodyweight.
The deadlift is truly the king all lifts because it works every single muscle in your body. It is the ultimate test of raw strength. Before you learn how you can improve your deadlift, let’s go over how to deadlift.
If you want to learn how you can shatter personal records and earn the respect you deserve from other strength coaches, lifters and friends check out these 6 deadlift tips below to start deadlifting like a champion.
600-lb Deadlift at 196.5-lb BW
Dan John, once said if you want to get good at something then do it everyday. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating loading up the bar with 5 plates and deadlift every day BUT simply put, if you want to get good at anything start doing it more often.
This holds true especially for beginner and intermediate athletes who need to learn all the intricacies of the deadlift. The best results I’ve seen in the deadlift came while having one heavy deadlift day and on the second lower body day, focusing on speed deadlifts and learning to apply as much force as possible to the bar.
Generally speaking, the stronger you are the less often you can deadlift. Somebody who deadlifts 600, 700 + lbs will need a lot more time in-between deadlift workouts compared to somebody who is pulling 300 or 400lbs because their outputs are much higher and thus need more time to recover. Nonetheless, increasing frequency of the deadlift will help ingrain great technique and help you progressively get stronger over time.
Finding your sticking point in the deadlift is critical. There are 3 general areas when the deadlift will break down: off the floor, mid range and at lockout.
Weak off the Floor: If you are weak off the floor, focusing on the posterior chain, more specifically the hamstrings, will be critical to being strong off the floor because you need to be able to load up your hamstrings before you pull. If you fail to do this, your deadlift and strength off the floor will suffer.
Here are my top 5 lifts to help improve strength off the floor:
1) Deficit deadlifts
2) Speed deadlifts
3) GHR
4) Good mornings
Weak at the Mid-Range: If you are weak at the mid-range area, focus on training your back like a beast. Not just your upper and middle back but also your lower back is critical.
Here are my Top 6 back exercises for those who have weakness in the mid-range of the deadlift.
1) Chest supported rows
2) 1 arm rows
3) Barbell rows
4) Pull-ups
5) Barbell back extensions
6) Low rack pulls
Weak at Lockout: If you are weak at lockout focus on improving glute strength and grip strength. The glutes are critical to extending the hips and finishing the deadlift. Without strong and powerful glutes, you will have a hard time finishing the deadlift.
Here are my top 3 go to exercises to build strong glutes and finish the deadlift strong:
1) Barbell Glute Bridge
2) Barbell Hip Thrusts
3) RDL’s
A lot of lifters and coaches don’t like deadlifts because it takes too long to recover from them. Instead of scrapping the deadlift, try dropping the bar in-between reps. Most injuries happen during the eccentric part of the lift so avoiding it is a good way to improve your ability to recover from the deadlift.
If you are a competitive powerlifter you will have to lower the bar to the ground but you can start dropping the bar for your assistance exercises.
Learning proper technique is important for not only safety reasons but also performance. While there are many different ways to setup, just find what works for you best and something that you can repeat every time you deadlift.
Here is your 6 step process to deadlifting like a champion:
Practice your technique often. Make sure it is ingrained in your head and always try to improve it.
There are two different deadlift stances: sumo deadlifts or conventional deadlifts. Common knowledge would tell you that the sumo deadlift is easier because the bar path is shorter but this isn’t always the case. If you are built like me, longer arms, average legs and a shorter torso you are more built for the conventional deadlift.
Lifters who are good squatters and benches will lift with a sumo stance because generally speaking they have shorter arms and legs but a longer torso. The only way to truly know which stance you are stronger with is to experiment with both stances and see what works best for you.
One of the big things that took my deadlift from 500lbs to 600lbs was how much stronger my back got. The back muscles are critical for stabilization during the deadlift and it is almost impossible to deadlift a lot of weight without having a back built like a beast.
Here are 5 awesome back exercises that you need to be doing:
1) Pull-ups
2) 1 arm DB rows
3) Chest supported rows
4) T Bar Rows
5) Bent Over Rows
And there you have it, 6 killer deadlift tips. If you want to shatter personal records and skyrocket your deadlift, start using these tips right now. Remember, the deadlift is more then just a great lift, it is your ticket to earning your man card and earning the respect you deserve.
P.S You can have instant access to my ‘Lift Like A Man’ 12 Week Muscle & Strength Building Course along with 4 Killer bonuses for ONLY $27 (total value of $163). You have to act fast this sale ends in 3 days.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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 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).
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
I have been continuing my pursuit of improved pressing power as well as improved flexibility, range of motion, and thoracic mobility in my training.
As I have outlined before, as my movement quality improves in my upper body, my lifts continue to go up, which is no surprise.
However, I am used to having to put in hours and hours of intense training in order to see the awesome improvements I have been seeing the last few weeks.
Being able to move up in my overhead press simply by including simple stretches and other soft tissue and mobility work is really blowing me away. But I’m not complaining though!
Last week, I was able to “clean” two 100-lb Dumbbells to my shoulders and then press them overhead to lockout for two sets of singles.
I received a question in the comments on this video, so I thought I would address it here…
Question: I prefer doing those sitting down. I can do a couple of reps on 200lbs sitting down with supported back. Not standing up. I think I can do heavier weights sitting down. Don’t you like sitting? Any benefits standing up that I miss out on sitting down?
Answer: It isn’t that I don’t like performing my presses sitting down. My preference is to do them standing because it is more of an athletic position to be standing. My background is in athletics, so I prefer closed-chain lifts, where you are standing and the body bears the weight, rather than sitting.
As far as a “back safety” perspective, there is actually increased risk for some people to perform exercises seated, especially overhead work, because of compressive forces in the lower back. If I do seated press, I really feel these compressive forces. I do not feel them at all when standing.
As far as the supported back, to me that just gives an advantage to the lift. Stability is increased, so you probably can press more weight sitting down, but maybe that means your core is not as strong as it should be. Doing presses standing is a less stable movement, meaning it will require more out of you to perform them.
After the first set where I used my legs to get them to my shoulders, I just had to try to do a power curl and sure enough was still able to press them.
This is a feat that even at my very strongest when I was between 24 and 26 years old I was never able to accomplish. My best overhead lift with dumbbells that I can remember was either 120 or 125-lb dumbbells, but I had to Push Press them in order to lock them out.
In the past, a lot of my overhead work was marked with extreme backward bending. While the video may look like I am doing that above, it is nowhere near what I used to do. My glutes fire hard to help with stability, and that bring my hips forward, but the legs are not pushing and I am not actively arching myself under the weight like i used to do in the past.
I am still not getting the thoracic extension I want, so I need to keep working at that. I am sure it will come with continued focus on that aspect.
If you want to see the main flexibility and mobility drills I have added to my routine, then check out this post: Continued Improvement in Overhead Press. They are very simple and add very little time to your training. I mainly do them during my rest periods between sets.
On top of those drills, I have also gotten some horse liniment from Absorbine. This stuff smells horrid. It is so bad that I subconsciously forgot about it after using it just once, but other clients who visit the same massage therapist I do have claimed it has really helped them out with pain and inflammation reduction. So I want to keep trying it.
I had my second massage session targeted specifically for improving my shoulder/torso health today and we now have two plans of attack…
1. Root Cause of it All? I dropped a bar on my chest in January of 2009 that really did some damage to my sternum. Like an idiot, I never got that checked by a doctor, so I was never given a diagnosis of exactly what happened, but after talking about the last few years of training, my therapist and I have narrowed that down as one of the primary causes for underlying issues in my shoulder.
Again, that is only one underlying cause. The hours I have spent working at desks over the last 4 years have not helped, along with other postural behaviors. However, immediately after that happened, I remember feeling like if I puffed my chest out too far, my sternum would hurt, so it is reasonable to think this might be where the problems started.
2. Rotator Cuff: Today, before our session, I told the therapist my left lat was really sore at the insertion point. Unfortunately, I was wrong, because it isn’t my lat, it’s my rotator cuff. She discovered that some of the muscles in my left rotator cuff seemed to be extremely tight. I know that they were extremely sore when she stimulated them. So if I have an injury there, it could be that the prime movers, especially the pecs and teres major might be trying to safeguard the joint my immobilizing it.
I can tell you one thing that is for sure – when I try to lift the Inch Dumbbells in a suitcase deadlift, there is some intense pain in my left shoulder which burns like someone is jabbing me with a red hot fireplace poker, so I am going to add in some more rotator cuff work as well.
I am also continuing to powder my day with extra rest breaks from the computer and time in the doorway doing a variety of stretches. I have lots of doorways in the house and I just hang out in them while I do things like wait for coffee to brew or as I warm up my green eggs and ham in the microwave (just checking to see if you are reading).
Improvement has been a slow process, but I am still progressing forward. I like Instant Gratification and just want to wake up one day with super supple shoulders and impeccable posture, but I know that when something is allowed to get bad for many years, it is going to take some time for it to improve. I think this multi-faceted approach to improving flexibility, mobility, soft tissue quality, etc will all pay off for a great deal of improved performance in more than just my pressing.
And despite the slow progress in my flexibility, there is no arguing with the increases I have been seeing in my overhead work.
Despite the tweaks here and there, I am pumped. In January, I would have been happy to get the 85-lb dumbbells for a single. I have now done those for a set of 6 and the 100’s for two singles, so I am psyched.
I have to get back to work on some other posts I have planned for this week. make sure you are signed up for updates. You can do that in the form below.
All the best in your training.
Jedd
This is a guest post from Chandler Marchman, designer of the SWOLE System: The New Authority for Building Size, Strength, and a Lean Athletic Body
The Bench Press – the one lift in the gym that’s seemed to transcend beyond the realm of just meathead weightlifting enthusiasts, and solidified itself as the official lift that every man must know his number for. So pretty much, if an over eager Man-Crushing beckons the question, we as men must be prepared to respond proudly with a stout number otherwise risk getting asked to turn in our MAN-Card…
But what if you are a competitive Strongman, CrossFitter, or Olympic lifter that holds the Overhead Press in higher regard????
I for one can attest to this dilemma. However, instead of ditching the bench press all together, I have found a simple and extremely effective way to not only do both, but also utilize one of powerlifting’s most prominent training systems to do so. That’s right, for those of you afraid to expose your undying allegiance to the Overhead Press, you no longer have to shamefully explain to people that you prefer a different movement pattern than the King of Meathead lifts…So rejoice, and restore your MAN-Card to its rightful place in your wallet. You no longer have to just do Overhead, you can Bench Press too!!!
The solution I found to this meathead conundrum was birthed whilst training for my last Strongman Competition in which the pressing portion of the competition would be a certain number of reps on different implements for time. Noting that the weights for this event weren’t my limiting factor, I had to focus my time and effort on developing as much speed overhead as possible.
It wouldn’t be enough to just be able to lift maximal loads overhead, I had to lift them with a relative degree of speed. So taking what I have implemented successfully with my own interpretation of the Westside Method, I simply adopted the same principles utilized to build the bench press, only using the Overhead in its place.
Let’s examine.
If you know the Westside Method and the results this program produces you can expect to produce an athlete that can lift a hell of a lot of weight as fast as greased lighting. Pretty much, their power output rivals that of an angry bear with the munchies going after your picnic basket. Scary…I know…
How are they able to do this? Simple, their training goals (squatting, benching & deadlifting as much as humanly possible) are met by two different methods with two different objectives. The Dynamic Effort Method, which is put in place to increase the rate of force development in each core lift, and the Max Effort Method, which is put in place to be able to continually overcome the maximal load your body is able to lift.
***Because inducing hypertrophy and a greater degree of work capacity are important goals for my athletes and I, we also implement a Repetitive Effort day for our core lifts as well***
The objective of the Dynamic Effort Method is to increase the rate of force development in your core lift so that your max effort lifts will have greater bar speed. In order for me to take advantage of this training effect so that I could lift not only heavy weights overhead, but do so with speed, I would focus my efforts on the Strict Press, Push Press and Jerk as my core lifts instead of the Bench Press. I follow the same percentage (40% – 60%), rep (3 reps), and set (8 – 12 sets) range as the Westside Method, just with a different core lift.
The same principles apply to my approach to Max Effort Method training days. Three days after my Dynamic Effort Day, I would focus on hitting anywhere from a 1-5 rep max on the SAME core lift I did three days prior (it’s important to note that I’d rotate implements as well as the style of OH lift in order to continuously adapt to different stimuli).
By focusing on developing as much maximal strength as speed, I was able to develop tremendous power output in this movement pattern, insuring that on competition day, those lifting against me would soil themselves in fear! It worked… #Strength,Speed,&Stamina=Dominance
So where does the Bench Press fit in? Well, just like with the Bench Press, I found that focusing your supplemental work on the muscles involved in the core lift itself was the best way to improve the core lift. In this case, conveniently enough, the same muscles that are used in increasing your OH Press are the ones being used in the Bench Press (triceps, shoulders, and upper back to be specific). So my supplemental work was composed greatly of Bench Pressing.
As far as volume goes, I used the same protocol as that of many powerlifters using the Westside Method. On Dynamic Effort Method training days where the weight is submaximal, my supplemental work (on the Bench Press) would be relatively heavy (3-5 sets of 4-8 reps), whereas on Max Effort days when I’m lifting near maximal weights for my core lift, the supplemental work would be much lighter with far greater volume (3-5 sets of 12-20 reps).
So all I had to do was implement the Bench Press as my supplemental lift and BOOM, I could actively achieve my objective of increasing not only the weight I could put over head as well as how fast I could do it, but also answer the most important question any and every meathead could be faced with… HOW MUCH DO YOU BENCH?
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A: The SWOLE System is an all-inclusive training packet that focuses on a percentage based scientific approach to training and easy to follow diet guide, that lead to fast and efficient results such as increased size, strength, endurance, and a lean athletic physique.
