Video #1 in the #3aDaysofQnA

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic

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

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

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

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

I hope you enjoy it.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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

I have a few sayings I’m known for.

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

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

Lifting is about setting goals to always be improving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the best in your training.

-Jedd-

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

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

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

It’s been since January of 2004 since I set a regular Deadlift PR, when I lifted 545-lbs. 11+ years.

I was 26. I’m almost 37 now, so it’s been a lengthy drought, you might say…

2004 is when I started experiencing routine back injuries that would sideline me for days or even a week at a time.

Unfortunately, my young, idiotic brain, just wanted to keep pushing harder and harder, and that meant the pain I’d experience would get worse and worse.

I’d hobble around for a week after my Strongman contests.

I’d literally limp through the hallway at my old job, after hard weekend workouts involving Deadlifts and Squats.

Finally, in 2008, I think, I had enough.

Since Squats and Deadlifts were so bad for me, I decided I wouldn’t do them anymore.

From 2008 until 2012, I rarely did heavy Deadlifts or Squats.

Of course, I continued to do Axle Deadlifts, because it’s a staple in Grip Sport competition, and I’d dabble every now and again with Squats and Deads, but never got back into them seriously until June of 2013, when I decided I was finally ready health-wise to get back under the bar and pull some weight off the floor.

For Squats, I literally started with the bar, hitting sets of 10. That’s how much I lacked confidence and stability.

For Deadlifts, I decided I’d guard my back by only doing Double Overhand grip (I was afraid of tearing a biceps anyway).

The Coan Philippi Deadlift Program

This Summer, I decided I was ready to finally train the Deadlift with some conviction, and I started a run through the Coan Philippi Deadlift Program.

I gotta say, it was AWESOME to push myself on Deadlifts! It was the first time I’d EVER followed a Deadlift Program in my life.

When you start the Coan Philippi program, it asks you for your starting max and your goal max at the end of 10 weeks, and then it computes everything for you.

I stayed a bit conservative and put in a 500-lb Max to begin with and a 550-lb Max for the end. My partner, Luke Raymond, started out with the same numbers, and it worked out really easy training with him, because we didn’t have to change the weights around at all.

The weights at the beginning of the program were super light, so Luke and I started on week 3 or 4. Everything went smooth until like Week 7. That’s when the volume caught up with me.

I struggled through to Week 9, when I hit 535-lbs, but my body just wouldn’t cooperate with me for Week 10, and I decided against going for a new PR on 3 separate Saturdays, until this past week.

The conditions still weren’t optimal, as I was up at 2AM to take my parents to the airport, and I trained at 5:30AM with my buddy, Brad Martin, but my back felt fully recovered after the 3-week layoff from heavy work, so I went ahead with the Week 10 plan.

And, I’m happy to say I was successful in my 550-lb lift, with potential for probably a few pounds more, although I didn’t push it.

Here’s the video:

Jedd Johnson All-Time PR Deadlift – 550lbs

What an awesome sensation, to FINALLY feel somewhat strong again.

Thankfully, after staying patient, working back slowly, and using my brain instead of my ego, I have been able to break one of my longest standing PR’s.

I must also say, I LOVE the Coan Philippi Program. It made me feel like a monster, and sometime this Fall, I plan on running through it again, once Luke’s schedule evens back out and we get train it together again.

Look for more updates, especially on my YouTube Channel, once I start the program up again.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program

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.

Week 7 Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program

Week 6 Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program

Week 6 Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program

Q&A on Coan Phillipi Deadlift Program

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

August of Arms is Coming Soon!
Stay Tuned for Updates and Add Your Info Below:

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

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The High Performance Handbook Right Now $50 Off

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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

Have You Picked Up Cadence Based Gripper Training?

Last Thursday, August 14, 2014, I took part in the Pro Care Fitness Challenge, a multi-contest competition at Pro Care Physical Therapy in Athens PA.

I competed in the Strength meet, which included the Bench Press, Weighted Pull-up, and Deadlift.

Here’s a run-down of the rules:

(1) The scoring was all bodyweight based, since there were no divisions. I am not sure of the actual formula used in all the cases.

(2) The Bench Press was the most loosely judged of the 3 events. They didn’t require a pause and your butt could come off the Bench. The Pull-up allowed for standing on a box and then stepping off to get an eccentric load, or you could go from a dead hang. The Deadlift did not require a set-down. You could drop it once you locked it out. You could also use straps if you wanted to.

(3) There were 3 attempts on each lift for each competitor, if they wanted them.

Here’s the thing about the rules. This was not some kind of a professional powerlifting meet. This was a charity competition done for fun. So I really couldn’t care less about the looseness of the rules, and I really hope I don’t have to hear a bunch of complaining about them in the comments section, either here or on YouTube…

More Important…

More important than the rules was the fact that this competition enabled people do get up there and see what they had. If this was their first competition, they could set their baseline numbers, and they would get to feel what it was like to have to lift the weight up under pressure.

Plus, it enabled everyone to see where they stood against others. New lifters got a chance to see where their numbers were at in comparison to more seasoned veterans, and they got to see what else was possible.

Speaking of what’s possible – I was super impressed with one of the staff members of Pro Care. blew away the rest of the competition with a successful Pull-up with 140-lbs attached to his body and he was benching and deadlifting right up near me, and I out-weighed him by 60lbs. It just goes to show what intensity, hard work and consistency can produce over time.

My personal highlight was the Weighted Pull-ups. It was my first time competing at those. In fact, I haven’t even heard of one in the United States for about the last 10 years, so I was PUMPED to give it a try.

Here are the videos from the Strength Competition.

Bench Press

I was still feeling a bit of pain from my Bench workout during the week, but I went after this anyway. I started with an easy 315 on my first attempt. I then jumped up to 365, which I have hit once or twice in the past year, although I rarely train Bench hard. I left my belt on and it was way too tight and when I went to press, it felt like it strained my abs on both sides of my stomach, so I was super distracted by the pain. I thought I hurt myself bad, but I did not. I finished up with 335, and it was also pretty easy for me. I probably could have gotten 345 or 350 on that day.

I am contemplated doing an actual Push/Pull meet sometime in the Fall, so I tried to stay pretty strict on my attempts to see where I am at, with the exception of the pause at the bottom of the movement. To be honest, I forgot all about that entirely.

Pull-up Plus Weight

This was an event I figured I would do very well in, as I do Pull-ups all the time, and roughly 50% of the time they are weighted in some fashion, usually with chains. I started out with a safe 48kg/105/lbs kettlebell, which I smashed. I then jumped to a 120lbs Dumbbell. That was also easy, but I was so focused on the repetition, my ears shut off and I didn’t hear the call, so I ended up hitting a “double.” For my third attempt, I went for 130, and that started to get tough. I probably could have hit 140 fresh.

Deadlift

The alternated grip was allowed on the Deadlift, but I have not pulled with the alternated grip with weight over 315 in months and months if not longer, so I did not even bother trying it with the weights I was pulling. Instead, for my first two attempts, I went Double Overhand (no hook grip), then for my last attempt I went Double Overhand with straps.

I hit 455 on my first attempt. That was easy, and I wished I did more. I then went for 500lbs, which topped Eli Thomas’s current leading lift of 495. Both of those attempts were Double Overhand, no hook grip. I was very happy with how easy 500lbs came up DO. For my third atempt, I decided to try and all-time PR weight for the Deadlift or 550lbs. I used straps due to my fear of alternating and tearing a bicep. This was a pretty pathetic miss. With the straps, it just didn’t feel right. I don’t know if I had the back strength to complete the lift anyway, but I was glad I reached for the PR. I do kind of wish I would have gone for 520 DO No Hook, though, because that would have been an all-time PR for me, using that grip.

The only event in which I placed in the Top 3 was the Pull-up. I got second there. It doesn’t surprise me that I finished further down in the other events, since I have not been specializing in the Bench or Deadlift, however, the lower finishes does make me want to push my numbers up in those events, plus, bringing up my numbers there will contribute to my overall goals of more full-body strength.

I am really glad that I went to this competition. It was a good wake-up call. It was also nice competing with Eli Thomas at something other than Grip. I think the last time we did a comp together was 2005, and I kicked his ass handily. The tables have turned now though, brother.

By the way, if you work with athletes, there is a new DVD Set coming out this week called the Elite Athletic Development Seminar, by Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn. It is being sold at a special price right now. I am not familiar with Joe Kenn, but I have seen a lot of Mike Robertson’s products in the past and that guy is a very good instructor.

Check this program out today: Elite Athletic Development Seminar

Thanks for watching my videos, and all the best with your training.

Jedd

How to Prepare for Training in Cold Environments

A few weeks back, I put up a post about the Possible Benefits of Training in the Cold.

Shortly after that, there was a request on my friend, Elliott Hulse’s YouTube Channel about how to get better workouts when training in the cold.

Now, Elliott is from Florida and camps out in the Palm Trees with crocodiles, so cold weather training isn’t something that he has to worry about too much.

So I wrote him a quick note and let him know I’d be glad to help him out. So I put together a couple of videos for his channel.

Part 1 – What to Wear for Cold Weather Strength Training

Part 2 – How to Warm-up and Stay Warm for Cold Weather Strength Training

If you have any other tips, please leave a comment below. I don’t want anybody’s workout suffering because of these frigid temperatures.

More Resources on Cold Weather Training / Warming Up Better

Article: Benefits of Cold Weather Training

Killer Conditioning Combo for Cold Weather Training

MAKE it a GREAT Day!

Jedd

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I feel like I am Carson Daily, counting down the Top Videos or something. Man, what a terrible feeling. Someone, please help me.

Anyway, here are numbers 6 through 10 of the 10 most popular videos I put out this year, based on the number of views each video got.

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6. AB Wheel Basic Technique | Core Training | Core Strength – 1937 Views

I made this video for a friend of mine, Chris, who got back into strength training this year and got himself an Ab Wheel to work is core, but was using it totally wrong, and I was worried he was going to mess his back up big time. Since then, it’s been viewed about 2,000 times and I have been told by some that it is the best Ab Wheel Demo video they have ever seen, so that is pretty cool. You might be surprised to learn I do core training. Well, I surely don’t do crunches, but you’ve got to do some regular core work in order to be as strong as you can be, and I love my Ab Wheel.

Related Article: How to Use the Ab Wheel Correctly

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7. Pat Poviliatis Breaks a Bat over Mike Bruce’s Throat – 1468 Views

Yes, this is for real. Pat “The Human Vise” Povilaitis is probably my best friend in the small community of performing strongman, having known him for nearly 10 years now. In this video, he breaks a legit baseball bat over the neck/throat area of Mike “The Machine” Bruce, another one of my good friends, and the man with the strongest neck in the world. This took place at the Arnold Classic this year, right on the center stage of the event center. Awesomeness. Be sure to check it out.

Want to watch the whole documentary? It’s 100% free – just add your email to the box below:

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8. Build Bigger Traps – Horizontal Band Loaded Shrugs – 1396 Views

Earlier this year I was dealing with a slight back tweak (What else is new?) and I was trying to think of a way I could work my traps harder without having to load so much weight on the bar. Knowing that the Traps run down your spine, I thought about how I could get more than one section of the Traps to fire hard all during the same movement. That is when I came up with this Shrug variation that absolutely kicks your ass. Enjoy.

Related Article: Build Bigger Traps by Intensifying the Shrug

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9. Strength Equipment Review – Globe Gripz – 1384 Views

Let me be 100% honest with you. I have enjoyed my training SO MUCH MORE this year because my joints are not hurting all the time anymore. Part of that is because I improved my diet so much this year, but another reason is because I have been extremely mindful of the exercises I am doing and the equipment I am using, so that there isn’t so much unnecessary wear and tear. One BIG PART of that has been the use of Globe Gripz for Barbell Curls. What used to KILL me is now essentially pain free and I love it.

Get your Globe Gripz here => Globe Gripz

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10. My New Speed Bag Platform – 1273 Views

I used to hit speed bag all the time in the mid-2000’s. I did it as part of my warm-up to get my elbows and shoulders warm and get the blood flowing. And I did it at the end of the workout to constantly learn new combinations and techniques on the bag. Then, I change the gym location and put in a downstairs bathroom, and I lost my spot for the bag for several years. Earlier this year, I got a new one and have been digging it ever since.

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We are well on our way to viewing the Top videos of the year, DIESELS. Check back tomorrow for numbers 1 through 5.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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If One of Your Main Goals This Year is to Close the #3,
Then Get CRUSH: Total Gripper Domination, and Learn EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Gripper Training

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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Stay tuned as I continue to update the list throughout the week.

Kick ass in your training,

Jedd

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The Continental Clean

The Continental Clean is a technique for pulling a bar from the ground to the shoulder while utilizing the belly or belt for assistance. The “Continental” is very different from the Olympic Clean.

The term “Clean” from the Olympic Lifts is used because the original lift was performed without allowing the barbell to touch the body at all. These days, brushing the bar against the body is permitted, but to use the belly or belt for assistance is expressly disallowed.

The “Continental” is most often used in Strongman Competitions with the Axle, and is generally used prior to Pressing, Push-Pressing, or Jerking the Axle Overhead to finish off the repetition. With the level of weights that are able to be lifted overhead on the axle, the Continental becomes a necessity, since the Grip limits how much one can lift in the initial phase of the movement, pulling the Axle to the Shoulder for the “Clean.”

How to Improve the Continental Clean

The Continental Clean is a highly technical lift, so here are 6 tips that you use use to improve your technique and make your Continental more efficient.

1. Wrist Wrap Awareness

Wrist Wraps are important on this event because when catching the Axle at the shoulder, there is a chance that the wrist can get bent back. Also, with wrist wraps on, your grip will be stabilized for the overhead portion of the lift. However, one mistake that people often make is they leave the thumb/finger loops on their thumb. The thumb is very important in getting a solid grip on the Axle, and having the loops still on the thumbs will cause interference in gripping the bar.

2. Drive with the Lower Body

Once you have the bar on your belly, you must propel it up to the shoulders using your legs and hips. The harder and faster you can pop the barbell or axle the better. You will save time on each repetition and you will conserve strength and energy for the duration of the set/event.

3. Make Faster Transitions

If you analyze the movement, there are at least 4 individual parts:

• Pull to Belly
• Stretch Reflex (Lowering the Body)
• Popping Bar off Belly (Propelling Upwards)
• Catch at Shoulder

The quicker you can move through each phase and transition, the better. For instance, once it hits your belly, your aim should be to pop it up with your lower body to the shoulder, which requires a quick drop of the body, a rapid ammortization phase, and then the thrust to pop the bar up. If you need a breath between the catch and the press that is fine, but try to limit it to one. Standing there holding the bar on the belly is far too much of an energy leak and waste of time.

4. Alternate Hands on the First Pull

It is fastest to pull the bar from the ground with the hands both overhand, but this will be limited by your grip strength. If you find you can’t pull the weight you need to with a double overhand grip, feel free to alternate them. This will enable you to pull faster and with more strength, plus it might even allow you to pull the bar up to the perfect spot on your belly. Either way, the higher you can pull like this the better, because it will help you save energy. Energy leaks are the worst thing in strongman. If you can reduce them, you can become that much more efficient. Once you get the bar to your belly or shoulder, then transition to double pronated.

5. Keep the Bar Close

It is more efficient to have the bar stay close to your body at all times than to let it drift away. Pull it outwards only as far as you need to in order to pass your belt, and keep the transition from belly to shoulder nice and close to the chest as well. If it loops outward away from the body, it will be harder to control and you will have to move your body too much to catch and re-direct it.

6. Isolate, Train and Strengthen Each Phase

After doing your primary work, (and even including the press) go back and work each phase of the lift with heavier weight to strengthen each phase. In other words, if you max out with 200 on the full lift to the shoulder, you can perform the following drills:

• Full Pull to Shoulder: With light weight, practice pulling straight to the shoulder from the floor (like an actual clean)
• Belly to Shoulder: With heavier weight, practice popping the bar from belly to shoulder. Don’t return it to the floor every time. Just let it roll down to the chest and re-grip it. It should feel really good on the chest bones.
• Floor to Belly: Do some sets with double overhand and alternating grips. Put on heavier weight and just get the bar to your belly as fast as you can then go right back to the floor.

These are just a few bullet points you can start working on to improve your Continental Clean. If you take a video to the weight room with you, I can pretty much guarantee you will improve even more, because you will be able to iron out your technical bumps that much more quickly.

Improving the Continental Clean – Videos

Here’s a quick video showing some cues I was able to catch in my own training for instant improvement.

Just a couple of weeks later, I was able to improve even further on my Continental Clean.

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Get More Information on Improving Your Strongman Lifts

If you are interested in more information regarding the Strongman Overhead Lifts, be sure to sign up for email updates using the form below. Steve Slater and I will be shooting a new DVD that covers the Overhead Strongman Lifts in November, including the Log Press, the Axle Press, The Monster Dumbbell (One Arm Overhead Lift), the Viking Press, and more.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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Learn the Basics of Atlas Stone Training with our Definitive DVD
Stone Lifting Fundamentals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Part VI: Upper Back Postural Strength with Bodyweight Training

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

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Part VII: Odd Object Loaded Hyper Extensions

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

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Find out more here: October Special Offer

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

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

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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

Plateaus

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

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

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

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

No More Training Plateaus

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

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

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

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

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Straight Weight

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

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

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

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

Trap Bar Deadlifts with Chains

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

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

Trap Bar Deadlifts Pulling Against Band Tension

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

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

Where to Get Chains and Bands

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

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

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

Where to Get Fat Gripz

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

Grab your set here => Get Fat Gripz

Screw Plateaus!

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

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

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

All the best,

Jedd

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Feel the Sensation of Cards Disintegrating in Your Hands
Pick up the Card Tearing eBook Today

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Ab Wheel Training For Real

I have been continuing to experiment with the Ab Wheel. It is by far my favorite piece of equipment for training the core right now. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It Works a LARGE Portion of the Body

The Ab Wheel is similar to a dynamic plank – you must create tension from the shoulder area to the knee area. Because of this large amount of muscle that is working, I find basic Ab Wheel roll-outs to be a great warm-up, and I often use it at the beginning of workouts as a bridge from my general to specific warm-up.

2. It is not ONLY Hip Flexion

So many abdominal exercises involve hip and trunk flexion – sit-ups, leg raises, crunches – all of them involve drawing the hips and rib cage closer together, potentially causing shortening of the hip flexors. I sit down so much while I work and drive, my hip flexors are short enough, so I avoid doing that movement pattern in training as well. This is something to keep in mind if you sit down a lot and your back hurts – it could be due to tight hip flexors.

3. It Doesn’t Hurt My Neck

For whatever reason, in the past I have strained my neck doing ab movements. Whether it is from hooking my hands around my head, clenching my teeth together, or whatever – it has happened, and a strained neck is one of the most annoying things for me, so I look to avoid it like venereal disease.

With these three benefits considered, the Ab Wheel continues to be something I include in my training on a regular basis.

Plus, in the long-term, I want to be able to do a Standing Ab Wheel Roll-out. It seems to be an advanced feat for this simple device, and I think if I were to train to obtain it, it would be a “Gateway Feat,” in that my core would be so strong that the increased strength would assist in many other lifts as well.

With this in mind, I have been looking for ways to gradually increase the difficulty of the more basic ab-wheel roll-outs in order to progress more smoothly to the more advanced movements.

One drill I have come up with that I have not seen elsewhere is Decline Ab Wheel Roll-outs. For these, you set the Ab Wheel up on some sort of decline, instead of a flat surface.

There are two main strength building benefits to performing roll-outs on a decline:

1. The eccentric challenge level as you roll out is increased greatly, as you must stay engaged in order to control the descent. This gives you much better stability than the basic exercise does.

2. The concentric challenge level is BRUTAL as you must pull much harder to climb back up the hill. This teaches you to pull much harder with the shoulders, lats, and core when returning to the starting position.

Decline Ab Wheel Roll-outs

There are surely many ways you could set this exercise up. One way that I think would be perfect is with an inside pitching mound, such as the one below, to begin with.

However, instead of busting out the nails, hammer and circular saw, I just dragged an extra gym mat out to the hill beside the house and used mother nature to my advantage.

As you can tell by my screams and grunts, this version of Ab Wheel Roll-outs is no joke. Far harder than the basic exercise, this one will hit you hard.

Of course, before you try this, you need to make sure you have the Basic Ab Wheel Technique down first. For a quick video on how to do them right, click here => Basic Ab Wheel Roll-outs.

Even if you don’t go for the more advanced movements with the Ab Wheel, this piece of equipment is a great investment for those with home gyms. For about $10, it takes up no room and leaves every muscle in your core absolutely destroyed.

Get your Ab Wheel here: Valeo Ab Wheel

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Braced Bending DVD: Bend Everything from Steel Bars, to Frying Pans, to Hammers and Wrenches

Upper Body and Grip Training Workout 8/29/13

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

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

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

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

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

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

Below is the video, which contains the entire session.

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

Josh McIntyre Interview

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jedd: Tell us About Your Early Competition Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speed Bench Press Against Light Bands

Overhead Axle Training

Axle Rows for Back and Grip Strength

Tricep and Biceps Superset

Hammer Curls for Size and Strength

Josh McIntyre Interview

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

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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

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One of the biggest parts of strength training has nothing to do with how big you are, the loads you use, the volume you perform, or the time you spend in the gym.

Most people have those aspects pretty well covered.

This is something totally different that most people never give a bit of attention to…

The Mental Side of Training.

Today, I am interviewing someone who knows a great deal about that. Logan Christopher.

Interview: Get Better Results in the Gym Through Mental Training

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Jedd: Logan, thanks for doing the interview. Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got your nickname, the Physical Culture Renaissance Man.

Logan: I have to thank Geoff Neupert for calling me that in the first place. For those that don’t know, physical culture is an old term to describe all different aspects of health and fitness. And renaissance man is the term used to describe someone who is good at a wide range of things. The term is usually applied to people like Leonardo Da Vinci for his amazing work in art, music, sciences, invention and more. So basically this term refers to someone who is good in all different sorts of strength and fitness areas. If it’s related to strength I’ve probably done it. Some of the things I’m more or less regularly working on are heavy lifting, bodyweight training including hand balancing and gymnastics, oldtime strength feats, grip strength, kettlebells and more.

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Jedd: Logan, what does it mean to “Think and Grow Strong?” Your DVD Set is the first I had heard of this, and I think I have an idea, but tell us more.

I came up with this title based on the famous wealth and business book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Everyone has heard the stories of old ladies lifting cars off of their family. Well if a person has that amount of strength stored within them strength training isn’t really about getting stronger but unlocking the power already within us. As you mentioned proper physical training is crucial and there is soooo much information available on that. Many people reading this will be quite versed in how to train to get stronger.

But very few people pay attention to the mental side. What I have found with myself and clients is that how you use your brain will instantly effect the amount of strength you can put forth, thus you can literally think and grow stronger.

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Jedd: There have been some strength feats that I just knew right away I was going to attain and I did. Why is it that the way you think can have such a profound effect on something like strength training?

Logan: Just think about it for a second. When we’re exerting strength our nervous system is sending signals to tell the muscles to contract. If the CNS sends a stronger signal than you can contract harder and thus be stronger. And its not about trying any harder. In fact, with many of these drills you get better results with less effort. I recently did a simple experiment using hypnosis and curls. I saw a 27% improvement on reps using my weaker arm than what I could do with my stronger arm.

Basically you mind is going to direct EVERYTHING that you do. If it is optimized it just makes sense that you will see instant effects in performance. This stuff is actually easy once you understand how it works. But it only took me several years of studying it all to put it together 🙂

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Jedd: Are some people born better able to optimize this mental strength than others?

Logan: Yes, just like some people are born physically stronger than others. But they’re all trainable skills. Many people, when they see what I can do, assume I was always strong. That’s not the case. In fact I was a very weak and scrawny kid growing up. Although I was fairly smart I wouldn’t say I was mentally strong either. If anything what I did have was a strong will to succeed, and that too is a trainable skill.

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Jedd: Is this about repeating a mantra? Having motivational posters in the gym? What all is involved in this?

Logan: No, no, no. A mantra is a form of affirmations. While they can work mantras are the weakest of any techniques I’ve seen. The problem with them is that if you don’t believe what you’re saying you’re actually going to be affirming the opposite of your desire. You have to be careful of these limiting beliefs, but once you know how, they’re actually quite easy to change once you’ve identified them.

A motivational poster can do something but its not going to double your reps. Let’s talk about motivation. If you need to be motivated it means there is conflict between different parts of yourself. One part wants to achieve a goal and another wants to sit on the couch and eat cheetos. You can work to integrate these parts of yourself and then be congruent as you work towards what you want. And if you’re in this state than no motivation is necessary.

Some of the main techniques of what I teach come from Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis, Visualization and Energy Psychology. There are different ways to help you achieve whatever your strength training goals happen to be by using these methods.

Everyone knows about visualization but few people practice it, at least regularly. But even with that I’ve found there are much more powerful tools. As an example visualizing yourself doing an exercise may help. But if you change HOW you visualize in specific ways, which changes your mental programming, you will definitely see an improvement.

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Jedd: OK. So it’s not just about practicing Mental Programming, but also about How You Do it. Awesome. Another thing that caught my eye about your Think and Grow Stronger Master Course is that you talk about “manipulating your past, present and future.” How is this possible?

Logan: Time isn’t something that is real, in the sense that its not a physical thing. All it is is a mental construct that has many uses, but people also become trapped by it. All you really have is the present. In your mind you can go to the past and the future. Any exercise in goal setting is working towards a future time. You can also change how you frame the past. Just how much is possible with it? I think an example will show you what sort of manipulation you can do.

At the Wizards of Strength Workshop I led Matti Marzel through a drill. He was already quite strong in that he did two handstand pushups against the wall on just the index finger and thumb of each hand. At the time this was the best he could do. I led him through a little drill accessing how he programmed this exercise within in his mind. I had him step into the future where he had continued to practice this exercise. In this state he had more for a “feeling of owning the exercise”. I had him step back to the present bringing that feeling with him. He then did another set and was able to get 4 reps. He doubled what he could do by manipulating his mental programming and the future.

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Jedd: When I played baseball, my dad always said I “wore my emotions on my shirt sleeve.” What exactly do emotions have to do with all of this?

Logan: The emotions are intimately tied into your thinking processes. Psyching up is a form of mental training that is common among strongmen and powerlifters. To get into this state people use anchoring, even if they’ve never heard of that term. What are they doing? They’re doing something to trigger their emotions, usually anger, to enter an altered state where the can lift heavier things. And it works. BUT there are better methods and while it works for non-complex heavy movements, psyching up does not work as well for everything else. Different emotional states are more or less useful for different lifts and exercises.

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Jedd: Logan, I truly believe having your Mind right is a huge factor in success with strength training. I have seen people wrap up horseshoes and steel bars and then just before they attempt the bend they say, “I’ve never been able to get this.” And sure enough, they fail. I would love to put together a resource to help people improve this, but your Master Course is amazing. Please tell people about it and how to get it. I know you are planning on retiring it and it won’t be around much longer.

Logan: Limiting and empowering beliefs are such a huge aspect of success in any field. These not only directly responsible for your success or failure in training, but whether you even train and how you do it in the first place!

The Think and Grow Strong Master Course is a huge amount of information. It originally began as a monthly program but is now available all in one set. Ten modules cover all of the areas I’ve discussed and more. In total there is a binder full of written manuals, 12 DVD’s and 5 CD’s. The CD’s have hypnotic tracks that all you have to do is listen to in order to help you get stronger, gain muscle or lose fat. And they work.

But I’ve decided to retire this course and pull it off the market. I’m doing this to make way for new information in the future like my upcoming book Mental Muscle. So once this month is over it is gone for good. But right now you can get it for about one third of the price.

My guarantee is that with this course alone you’ll be far beyond any personal trainer and even sports psychologist out there in knowing how to properly use mental training.

I only have a few copies left and if they don’t sell out right away I’m pulling them off the market for good at the end of this month.

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Jedd: Think about this guys:

It’s likely that you have spent a decent amount of money in acquiring training information in the forms of books, videos, certifications, etc. The great thing about mental training is that it builds on top of whatever knowledge you currently have. Regardless of how you’re training or what you’re training for it can be added on top to act as an accelerator for your goals.

If you want an edge on your competition, whether you are in strength sports, more classic sports, are a coach, or just want to look better, this could be the final piece to the puzzle to make your preparation complete.

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Get it here while you still can for 1/3 the regular price:
Think and Grow Strong Master Course

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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Click the Banner Below to Learn Nail Bending

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Fixing Muscular Imbalances

My friend Rick Kaselj, with whom I worked on Fixing Elbow Pain and Fix My Wrist Pain, has a product which has become an ongoing series called Muscular Imbalances Revealed.

Every August, he puts out a new edition of this program, with new guest experts, and this year he has put out a new installment on correcting issues throughout the body.

The new edition this year focuses on unconventional training tools, and how they can help correct weaknesses and imbalances through the upper body.

Much of the features of this program entail the use of equipment I have talked about often here at DieselCrew.com.

Here are some samples of this Muscular Imbalances Revealed installment:

Sledge Hammer Training – Great for the Grip, Sledgehammer Training also gets your heart going while also training the core and glutes. It is also a great contrast training methdo for those who perform a great deal of kettlebell work.

Ring Training – If you have weaknesses in your shoulders, chest, or back, this type of training will find it and correct it. Much more chaotic that training with barbells, benches, and dip stations, Ring Training makes you learn proper stabilization.

Sled Training – If you aren’t including some type of sled work, they you most likely have not optimized your lover body recovery. This type of training has become a staple for many powerlifters and strongmen all over the world.

Tire Flipping – One of the Strongman events that creates the most power, this is a great exercise for strengthening the posterior chain as well. The hammies, glutes, andd lower back are much too weak for some people, and this can help correct that.

Reverse Stretching – Most people don’t stretch enough period. This section shows you how you can perform essential stretching to correct muscle and fascia issues to address flexibility issues that are hindering your strength development. If you have seemingly tried EVERYTHING in order to fix your imbalances and it has not worked, then this just may be the information you need.

Over the course of this week, the authors have put out samples of their portions of the program, and I have assembled them all here for you.

Sledge Hammer Training with Travis Stoetzel

Ring Training with Tyler Bramlett

Tire Flipping with Travis Stoetzel

Reverse Stretching with Isaac Ho

As you can see, this isn’t the same old boring re-hashed B.S. you’ve probably seen 100 times before. These guys are showing you how you can take unconventional tools and use them to improve your training in ways you might not have thought of before.

To get this program and start viewing it right away, click here = > Muscular Imbalances Revealed: Unconventional Tools.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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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

Building a Bigger Bench Press

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.

The Power of the Lats in the Bench Press

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.

Activating the Lats RIGHT AWAY for a Bigger Bench Press

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

Have you hit a plateau in your Bench Training?
Maybe it is time you switch it up and go for some VOLUME instead of just MAX WEIGHT. If so, click the banner below to learn the art of the
Bench Press for Reps.

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.

Cam Davidson, Penn State – Coaching Olympic Lifting to Large Teams

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

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The Top 5 Reasons You Should Use Kettlebells For Building Bad-ass Power

By Tyler Bramlett Creator Of The Warrior Workout System

Building massive strength and power are among the top goals of all athletes. After all, who doesn’t want a body that can generate endless amounts of explosive power on demand, right?

So what is the best way to go about safely building power in your workouts?

In this short article I am going to show you my favorite power building exercises as well as the top 5 reasons you should be training with kettlebells if you want to build a strong and powerful body that looks great and performs even better!

Let’s get started…

REASON #1 – Kettlebells Are Easy To Learn

I’ve been teaching kettlebells now for just shy of a decade and there’s one thing I know to be absolutely true. Teaching someone to safely use kettlebells is way easier than almost any other training tool.

Probably 9 times out of 10 I can get someone to swing a kettlebell correctly within minutes and with only a handful of simple coaching cues. Try doing that with a barbell clean or even a power clean and watch as you or your clients struggle to get it right.

Don’t get me wrong I love the O-lifts, however I rarely meet coaches who are truly qualified to teach these lifts and I even more rarely meet someone who has the requisite mobility to do the O-lifts safely.

Kettlebells eliminate these learning curves by making explosive style lifting easier to learn and easier to coach.

REASON #2 – Kettlebells Build Explosiveness In All Planes Of Movement

Unlike many bilateral movements done with barbells, explosive kettlebell movements such as one arm snatches and high pulls build explosive strength and power in all planes of movement.

You not only need strength of hip extension, but by doing these exercises unilaterally (with one arm) you demand more core strength to resist rotation and leaning.

It is this unilateral power which athletes and those looking to really boost performance need. Take a moment to think about many different sports being played… They involve running, throwing, catching jumping etc. Each of these movement patterns rely’s on unilateral power rather then bilateral power.

Mastering some of the basic kettlebell moves will aid you in boosting your unilateral power and resilience which will in turn make you a better athlete!

REASON #3 – Kettlebells Are “Different” Than Dumbbells And Barbells

Regardless of whether you are a coach, athlete or simply just a fitness enthusiast, you’ve no doubt seen or herd someone talk about how they were afraid or intimidated to use heavy weights in their workouts.

Being that I am the head coach of a large training program in the bay area I had to quickly figure out how to remove this “social conditioning” from peoples minds when they entered my training program.

The #1 technique I learned was most effective was by using kettlebell training as the root of my programming rather then dumbbells or barbells. Partly because they were “new” and thus attractive to new customers.

But even more importantly I could look someone in the eyes who was perhaps intimidated by using a 10lb dumbbell and tell them that kettlebells are totally different. Immediately these people picked up the kettlebell and had a different relationship then the one they had with other free weights.

BOOM!! Problem solved… They were now on an effective training program using weights and explosive exercises and I didn’t have to hear them bitch about using too heavy of dumbbells anymore. Now all I had to do was remind them that this is how you use kettlebells.

REASON #4 – Forge An Iron Core

By now you should have gotten wind that the “core” as they like to call it these days is responsible for stability of the spine. One of the major elements that high level trainers across the world are now focusing on is anti-rotation of the core.

This means rather then using your core to move an object you instead train the core to resist movement. This is extremely important in athletics and daily life as your ability to keep your midsection stable when getting jolted by the opposing team or bad misfortune in your daily life is critical for keeping your spine safe.

So what does this have to do with kettlebells?

Well, one of the coolest components of kettlebell training is their ability to be tossed from hand to hand. This act of kettlebell juggling is perhaps the best way to condition your core to resist rotation and lateral movement and to build massive amounts of power coupled with unpredictability.

A good friend and master kettlebell juggler, Logan Christopher attributes his great midsection strength and 500+lb deadlift (at 6’2” 180ish) to kettlebell juggling. It is truly a lost art that will help you to forge an iron core!

REASON #5 – You Can Safely Do High Power Moves For Reps

Although some training communities are doing high rep Olympic lifting, I strongly urge you to think twice before hitting a puke worthy set of 20+ barbell snatches. The bottom line is that the O-lifts are complex and when you add speed to complexity more things can go wrong fast. So what are you to do?

Kettlebell style lifts like snatches, push presses and jerks are much safer for reps and easier to learn and teach then their O-lifting counterparts. Why should you care? You should care because the development of strength or power endurance (i.e. repeating a strength move for reps is one of the best ways to boost not only power, but also to boost mental toughness, cardiovascular capacity and muscle gain.

Ok, so kettlebells are obviously a good choice when looking for the right tools for developing power safely. So, what now? What should I do and what exercises should I start with?

Which Kettlebell Lifts Should I perform to Build Power?

Stick to the basics… Do exercises like swings, snatches and if your up for it give a little kettlebell juggling a shot. Do these exercises for 10-30 reps and focus on the development of movement mastery or the ability to make the hard look easy. Over time, your skills will grow and you will develop unparalleled explosive power that will leave you with a body that looks great and performs even better.

==> Click Here To Check Out Tyler’s Progressive Training Systems And Save 50-70% Off His Programs For Today Only

Tyler Bramlett is a REAL Functional Training Expert located in Santa Cruz CA. He is the creator of the Warrior Workout System, a system of movement progression based training that you can follow to accelerate your performance and results.

When Matt Ellis and I released Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers, we knew that the information was killer, but we also wanted to see what other experienced Throwers had to say about it, so we sent out some complimentary copies.

Now, the feedback is coming in and I am excited to share what a truly great multi-talented athlete had to say about it.

Adriane Wilson Reviews Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers

“The Track and Field Grip Training DVD is outstanding. It is a complete collection of simple and practical exercises for throwers, lifters, and any person concerned with their hand and lower arm health. The preventive and strength building exercises can be performed in or outside of a gym, which is useful for those unable to travel to the gym on a daily basis.

In addition to grip tools already found in the gym, Jedd and Matt present easy and inexpensive alternatives to top rated grip equipment to further strengthen your grip. Their inventive program can apply to the novice gripper and challenge the elite crusher. With nearly two hours of valuable demonstrations, your grip training will stay exciting and strength will continue to impress.

Adriane Wilson

You have probably heard of Adriane before under her maiden name, Blewitt. She is a decorated Highland Games competitor, having won the Women’s World Championship on 3 separate occasions.

She also became the first woman to certify on the IronMind #2 Captains of Crush Gripper in the Fall of 2011.

Adriane also nearly became a member of the 2012 USA Olympic Team, as she competed for a spot in the Throws, but was ever so slightly edged out during the trials.

To get feedback like this from a truly gifted athlete such as Adriane is an unbelievable feeling. If you are a thrower, a coach, or an athlete, this DVD can help you get to the next level with your throws, as well as keep your hands, wrist, and elbows more resistant against injuries.

To pick up your copy, go here: GripTrainingForThrowers.com

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Training Athletes for Explosiveness

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

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

The “As _____ As Possible” Mentality

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Are We Doing Wrong?

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

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

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

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

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

Finding the Correct Formula

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sneaking Explosive Training into your Current Workouts

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

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

Replace Slow Reps with Explosive Reps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Replace a Slow Assistance Movement with a Fast Bodyweight Movement

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superset an Opposite Explosive Exercise Immediately After a Strength Exercise

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

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

Here is a great example.

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

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

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

Implementing These Strategies Properly

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

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

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

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

-Coach Matt Ellis-
PrimalATC.com

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

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

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

Jedd

This is a guest post from Jerry Shreck, co-author of Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears.

Can We Prevent ACL Tears?

Imagine for a moment this situation…

There he goes, sprinting down the field.

The ball is passed to him…

He cuts left to go get it…

POP!

Oh no, his right knee just buckled out from under him.

He is obviously in tremendous pain. The Medical staff is going out to check on him. A hush falls over the crowd. He is being carried off the field. This does not look good, hopefully he will not miss the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, this is an all too often repeated story for athletes in many of our stop-and-go sports, like Soccer, Basketball, Football, Field Hockey, and LaCrosse. Athletes can go years without injury and then in one cut, one quick slant, or in one quick deceleration, SNAP – there goes their ACL.

Why Does This Happen?

You have to ask yourself, “Why does this happen?” Why is it that the number of ACL tears increases each year? How is it possible that with all the advancements in training that this still continues to happen???

As I sit here and write up this article, I am not going to profess to have all the answers, I am not going to proclaim that I am the world’s leading expert in injury prevention, and I am not going to dazzle you with physiological terms that you will need to look up in order to understand everything.

What I am going to tell you about is what I have seen in my 10+ years working with athletes as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, and I will give you some of my thoughts and opinions as to why ACL injuries happen more and more each year and what just might be the biggest factor in preventing ACL tears.

What is the ACL?

First, let’s briefly explain what the ACL is and what its role is. ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. The ACL connects the femur (upper leg bone) to the tibia (lower leg bone) and prevents the tibia (shin) from moving forward when slowing down or stopping.

By controlling movement like this, the ACL helps to stabilize the knee. Understand that there are more structures and ligaments that support the knee, but we are going to focus solely on the ACL right now.

Types of ACL Tears

When an ACL tears, athletes will typically explain a “popping” sensation in the knee at the time of injury. There are predominately two ways the ACL gets torn: (1) through contact and (2) through non-contact.

A contact ACL tear is described as being the result of a collision or contact with someone or something violently. An example of this would be when a football lineman is involved in a pile-up and another lineman falls onto his knee. When the other player falls upon the compromised player, this is the contact that causes the ACL tear.

A non-contact ACL tear is when there is no apparent contact with anyone and the knee buckles under loading from the athlete him or herself. Many times this will occur when an athlete is sprinting and goes to cut on an angle. The knee buckles and you have the same scenario described in the first paragraph. Changing directions, landing after a jump or leap, and other types of movements that involve decelerating the body are what bring about non-contact ACL tears.

As a D-I Strength Coach, I train hundreds of athletes with weights each week, trying to strengthen the supporting muscular integrity of the body with the main goal of preventing injuries. Although we can get our athletes stronger, contact tears are almost impossible to prevent.

Changes in Reporting and Diagnosing

So why then are non-contact tears on the rise in athletics?

Well I think the obvious reason is that we have much better medical advances today for diagnosis. There are Athletic Trainers at sporting events, Doctors specializing on knees, better advancements in MRIs and surgical procedures, and more sports reporting with stats than ever before. So it would make logical sense that we would hear more about these injuries because we have more people actively looking for and diagnosing them.

Now ask someone in their forties, fifties, or sixties that played sports about how many ACL tears they saw or knew of when they played. Most of them will probably say it was not much of an issue back then or that they never knew of anyone tearing an ACL.

So why in the last 20-30 years have ACL tears become much more prevalent, particularly in the last 10 years?

Popularity of Women’s Sports

One reason has to do with the increased popularity of women’s sports. There are more women competing competitively than ever before. What does this have to do with ACL Tears?

As it turns out, there are many studies which show that women are at a much higher risk for tearing an ACL than male athletes. For instance, the hip to knee angle is different for women, due to childbearing purposes. This difference in angle can lead to a higher susceptibility for knee injuries. Studies also show that hormone differences in female athletes can increase injury statistics.

Although the studies support this, I truly feel that the reason we continue to see increases in the number of athletes’ in general with ACL injuries actually has much more to do with the practices of our youth these days.

Youth Athletic Practices – Specialization

Quick question: How many 3- and 4-sport athletes are we seeing today?

There are some still, but more and more I am seeing athletes specializing in just one sport at increasingly younger ages. My daughter plays soccer, and I know many of the kids on her team now play school soccer in the fall, then go into an indoor league over the winter, then straight into an AYSO spring season, and right onto a traveling club team in the summer.

No exposure to anything else.

I recently went to a clinic and listened to a Physical Therapist talk about this very subject and he explained the detrimental effects of sport-specific over-specialization for youth. He went on to mention that kids who specialize in a sport like this get very little time off from their sport and receive too much exposure to the same types of repetitive sports movements.

Without going to deep in detail, the Physical Therapist pointed out that specialization at an early age like this can make the neurological proprioceptors in the ligaments kind of “numb.” What he meant was, these receptors need to have tensile strength when stressed, but due to over-specialization, what can result is a ligament that is slightly relaxed, becoming more susceptible to injury, such as an ACL tear.

I had never heard it explained like that before but judging by what I have seen, it sure did make a lot of sense.

At this point, we know a couple of possible reasons why the stats on ACLs continue to increase each year. Now I would like to discuss what I think is the biggest contributing factor to this puzzling problem.

The Biggest Factor Leading to ACL Tears

When I was a kid growing up, I would go home and eat something real quick and then head out to practice (whatever sport I was doing at that time) and when I came home from practice I usually would run around and get involved in a game of kickball or capture the flag until my mother would call me in (by shouting to me, not with a cell phone) for dinner. Many times I would go right back out and play until I was called back in to shower up and go to bed.

I bet you can identify with this, if you think back to your childhood. We were always on the go and we were always doing different things.

Unfortunately I am not seeing this kind of thing anymore. What I am seeing is kids go to practice (and they give it their all), but at the end of practice coaches are telling their players to go home and recover, stretch, and take it easy to rest up for the upcoming game.

Now, I know this does not sound like a bad thing to say but I think it is being said too often. In reality, most young athletes are going to go home and do very little physical activity outside of their practices or games anyways. This is the biggest problem of today’s youth!

Our youth today sit all day at school, and then when not at practice sit down watch TV, texting, at the computer, or playing video games in all their free time. It is my belief that the increased levels of inactivity our young athletes are doing is actually de-conditioning them and setting them up for injuries down the road.

All this time in seated positions is shortening and tightening their hip flexors. Tight hip flexors often lead to inhibited and weaker glute muscles. The glutes should be some of the strongest muscles in the body, but due to lack of stimulation and inhibition, the glutes become weak and this is a huge problem when it comes to sports where landing, deceleration, and changes of directions are necessary.

Changes in Strength Levels in College Athletes

Ten years ago, my freshmen athletes were having strength deficiencies in the hamstrings in relationship to their quads. That is not what I see anymore with incoming freshmen. I am seeing a complete lack of glute firing when trying to teach any triple extension movement, knees buckling in when squatting, and the inability to straighten their legs and touch the floor without pain and discomfort.

In plain English, kids just don’t know how to use their glutes anymore! I am convinced that there is a direct relationship between shortened hip flexors and the inability to get the glute muscles to actively respond to athletic movements.

With this thought process in mind, I have designed a complete training system for re-educating the glutes and making them fire again like they are supposed to during athletic movements. Seeing that the glutes should be the strongest and most powerful muscles in the body, it just makes sense to come up with a way to neurologically get these muscles activated again.

How Athletes Move

Let’s take a look again at the example given at the beginning of this article to discuss what happens with most non-contact ACL tears.

An athlete is sprinting forward and decides to cut to the left. The athlete will plant the right foot and turn the body to the left and should push off the right foot and extend the ankle, knee, and hip (triple extension) to complete the cut and change of direction. If the athlete is not getting good gluteal activation, then he/she will be unable to properly decelerate into the plant or correctly accelerate into the cutting motion.

Because the glutes are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, the quads must take over. This situation is referred to as “quad-dominance” because the athlete is using the quads to decelerate and generate power instead of using their glutes.

The Problem with Quad Dominance

The quads are made up of 4 muscles that attach to the kneecap and run down over it and to the front of the tibia (shin bone). If the quads dominate during deceleration and acceleration, there will be forward pulling placed on the tibia and with the momentum of the forward sprint, you can easily see how this additional tension is placed on the ACL to keep the tibia pulling forward.

If the force pulling the tibia forward is excessive, then as the athlete starts to rotate, it can stretch the ACL to its breaking point. Game Over!

To the contrary, if the glutes remain the dominant muscle group when going into the change of direction, there will be less forward tension placed on the tibia and the knee will be kept in a position behind the toes. Aside from being safer for the athlete’s knee, this will also result in the athlete being able to cut more smoothly and with much more power.

The Basis of Deceleration Training

Knowing the importance of gluteal involvement in the stop-and-go sporting movements, I set out to design a way to build up the glute strength in all my athletes. I have had this Deceleration Training System in place for the past 8 years. Over that time, thousands of athletes have successfully gone through this simple but effective training progression. It is something we begin working on from the beginning with all athletes and continue to do so for many weeks.

The results have been extremely positive with a huge decrease in ACL tears at my University.

This system has worked so well for me and with my athletes, I personally believe that every coach should implement the principles of it. I know this will help many coaches and athletes.

So I go back to the title of this article. Can We Prevent ACL Tears? Yes I Think We Can! Although I don’t think we will ever be able to prevent 100% of ACL tears, especially those related to contact-scenarios, I am certain without doubt that this system has prevented knees from being damaged over the last 8 years!

To find out more about the exact System I use with my athletes, check out Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears.

Thank you,

Jerry Shreck
VarietyTrainer.com

Stay up to date on new posts and information on ACL Tear Prevention by adding your email to the box below and we will keep you posted on new information to help you and your athletes prevent ACL Tears

Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers

Last year, I met a great coach named Matt Ellis from Primal Athlete Training Center, at a seminar I attended. It was great meeting him.

We sat down for lunch one day between sessions at the workshop, and we started talking about a possible resource we could put out for track and field throwers to help them develop their hand strength in a way to both increase their performance AND to prevent injuries from taking place.

In the short video below, I talk about our project and what it covers for the throwing athletes of Track and Field.

The DVD Artwork features Adrian Wilson. Adrian is a highly respected strength athlete, as well as an Elite Track and Field Thrower, 3X Highland Games World Champion, and she became the first Woman Certified as Captain of Crush.

If you are thrower or are a coach that works with throwers, make sure to sign up for updates regarding this DVD. In it, we should dozens of way to strengthen and bullet-proof the hands. And don’t worry about having to take out a second mortgage on your house to buy all the equipment. Many of the drills we show involve using equipment you already have at your gym, or things you can easily make yourself.

Get ready for more coming soon.

Jedd

The Brutal 5K

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:

• Running 5k’s are his life
• 3 days grace is great running music, And…
• “Eewww, who could drink an entire liter of beer? I can’t stand the way that stuff tastes”

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:

What if there was a 5k for Alpha males?

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:

• Total 5000lbs in ONE day using the FEWEST singles you can
• Only Squat, Bench and Deadlifts will count
• One of each must be performed, but may be repeated as needed to reach 5k
• Lifts must be reasonably close to a good competition style lift (squat depth, paused bench, no hitched dl’s)
• knee wraps up to 3.5 allowed for raw
• Film it at your house, in a gym, in a garage, in a parking lot, wherever
• Gear allowed, just specify in the vid description

(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:

• 1. Upload your video submissions to youtube
• 2. Add the title: “Brutal 5K (and the # of lifts it took you)”
• 3. Post the link to: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Brutalsteelpowerandstrength/

The Ladies’ Brutal 3K

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!

The Brutal 5K

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:

• Running 5k’s are his life
• 3 days grace is great running music, And…
• “Eewww, who could drink an entire liter of beer? I can’t stand the way that stuff tastes”

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:

What if there was a 5k for Alpha males?

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:

• Total 5000lbs in ONE day using the FEWEST singles you can
• Only Squat, Bench and Deadlifts will count
• One of each must be performed, but may be repeated as needed to reach 5k
• Lifts must be reasonably close to a good competition style lift (squat depth, paused bench, no hitched dl’s)
• knee wraps up to 3.5 allowed for raw
• Film it at your house, in a gym, in a garage, in a parking lot, wherever
• Gear allowed, just specify in the vid description

(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:

• 1. Upload your video submissions to youtube
• 2. Add the title: “Brutal 5K (and the # of lifts it took you)”
• 3. Post the link to: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Brutalsteelpowerandstrength/

The Ladies’ Brutal 3K

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!

What’s Up Diesels?

As you may know from reading my bio on the site, my initial foray into strength training was the Olympic Lifts.

I had seen the picture of Vasily Alexeev performing his training against the rushing water of a stream and I thought it was so amazing that I wanted to train the Olympic Lifts too.

While I loved this type of training, and still love portions of it today, I soon transitioned away from it because the requirement for technical perfection was just too much for me to continue many of the more complex lifts, such as the full Squat Clean and the Snatch.

My flexibility and mobility was not where it needed to be in order to perform the lifts safely, and I was not interested in an injury, so I dropped the full lifts that are contested in Olympic Lift competitions.

This is also when I began transitioning into Strongman Training. You see, I was every bit as interested in training for a challenge as I was for the sheer strength numbers.
(more…)

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.

Imperative Part of a Safe Deadlift

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

I Love Overhead Lifting

Let me just say that you should ALWAYS be learning, or at least OPEN to learning if you are serious about your strength training.

The day you stop learning is the day you stop improving, as far as I am concerned.

I have never had a problem with taking opportunities to learn. I know that I don’t know everything and I go to seminars and clinics all the time.

If you think you know everything, then you probably aren’t putting up much weight in the gym.

However, sometimes it opportunities to learn and improve yourself come up unexpectedly.

I was recently talking with a good friend of mine, Paul Knight. He has one of the best crushing grips in the world and he told me some of the stuff he does in his training.

He incorporates a great deal of volume into his workouts. Volume that is higher than anyone I have ever heard of before, so I ended up applying it to my overhead work for a couple of weeks.

I don’t want to bore you with too much detail, so instead, I will just show you videos.

Here is last week, where I tried 225 for a double.

Miss: 225 X 2, Barbell Press from Rack

Now, I probably could have bent my lumbar spine way back and gotten the second rep, like I used to. But, I don’t force reps like that anymore. It just isn’t something I want to do anymore.

Oh, and by the way, it was less than 40 degrees that day when I was training, thus the ski-mask. The style police from YouTube tried docking me points because of it – Whoopty Doo. What’s next? Chicken leg jokes?

This week, I tried it again and the result was much different.

BAM: 225 X 2, Barbell Press from Rack

Diesels, the only thing I can point to here in regards to this improvement is the higher volume I have been doing. For the last few years, I have rarely gone beyond 3 reps in a set of Barbell Press. Dumbbell Press, yes, but I have never made a habit of it.

All I can say is the last few weeks I have felt stronger than I have in years. I am sure it is a combination of being healthy and finding some lifting strategies that my body is responding to.

It just goes to show you that you don’t always have to work near your 1-Rep Maximum. There is room for lower loads and higher reps. This is something that historically i would have had tunnel vision about and not considered.

Here is a later work-set from the same session where I got 225 for 2. I was doing 175 for sets of 7 up until this point. This was the last set and I decided I would go for a set of 10 and nearly got it.

175 for 10…Almost

Like I said, I have been feeling like a freaking Diesel-Powered Monster the last few weeks. All the big lifts I have been doing feel great and I am very thankful to be seeing these results.

Speaking of being thankful, I was watching a video by one of my idols growing up, Ultimate Warriror, and he said something that really resonated with me about how he encourages people to be thankful for the gains you get.

I know this is a long video…what you want to listen to is the section from 5:27 to 6:00, especially. Check this out:

Seriously, make sure you listen to what he says, DIESELS. He’s not doing an over-the-top wrestling promo. He’s speaking as somebody who has been training his ass off since he was a teenager and is now in his 50’s. This is golden insight from someone who has been tangling with the iron for decades.

As I have mentioned to the people on my Email Newsletter, I am throwing around the idea of putting together some sort of training program or course on Overhead Lifting. If this is something that you’d be interested in, make sure you are signed up for email updates as things progress, and don’t be afraid to leave a comment below.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Hey DIESELS!

As you know, the Shoulders are extremely important to us for our training, whether we are Powerlifters, Strongman Competitors, Strongman Performers, Steel Benders or Grip Sport Competitors. If you bang up a shoulder, it is going to affect you in many more ways than just when trying to push some weight overhead.

We’ve been putting out a lot of information this week about the Shoulder and how to prevent and begin to take care of beat up shoulders.

Something Cool, Coming Soon

Luckily, I was taught proper technique for the shoulder from the beginning, so I have never had too many issues. Mostly, the things I have had go wrong with my shoulders have been from some sort of trauma – falling while playing paintball, over-doing it in beer league softball, things like that. My training, historically, has not been rough on my shoulders.

However, there are a bunch of exercises that are very common in many people’s strength training programs that can be treacherous for the shoulders. Some of them I have examined in the past, and I thought I would bring them back to the forefront this week, since shoulder health is so important for all of us.

First, we will look at Upright Rows. I am sorry, but from all of the information I have read and heard about at clinics, I can not recommend these to anybody. One of my friends, Josh Dale, asked me for my thoughts on these last year and I shot a video on them, which appears below.

Upright Rows

The next exercise is Dumbbell Rows. These, I feel, are an excellent exercise, along with many other forms of rows. They are very effective at promoting that Antagonistic Balance that I look for so much in my exercise selection. However, if you perform them incorrectly, you can negate the strength balance aspect of this exercise by setting your shoulder up for some serious underlying trauma that you might not feel until a long while down the road, so I encourage you to check out these videos.

Side Rows

I realize I have a tendency to get long winded. The fact is, I feel very strongly about the information I am discussing and sometimes I just keep talking. I want to provide the best information I can and sometimes in my efforts to do so, the videos end up longer.

I hope these videos help you. I like getting notes from people talking about PR’s, not trips to the ER. Stay safe, stay strong and as always…

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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

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Learn Stone Lifting: One of the WILDEST forms of Strength Training there is, with the Stone Lifting Fundamentals DVD.

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

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

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

Shoulder Pain

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

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

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

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

Exercise Selection

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

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

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

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

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

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

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Are You Committing Errors That Could Lead to Shoulder Pain?

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

 

How to Prevent ACL Tears

DIESELS!

If you are on my email newsletter then the chances are you have already heard about the product I released this week with my friend, Jerry Shreck, called Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears. I used to know very little about the ACL, until last summer when I roomed with Jerry at a Strength Clinic I attended. I quickly came to realize that Jerry was like the Shaolin Master of ACL Prevention.

I have learned a tremendous amount of information from Jerry, and I thought I would share some of that info with all of you, because some of this stuff is pretty eye-opening.

What is the ACL?

First off, the ACL is a ligament in your knee that helps give your knee stability. ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. It literally crosses from your upper leg bone, the femur, down to the larger lower leg bone, the tibia, thus the name cruciate, meaning “to cross.”

Why Does the ACL Tear?

It turns out that one of the reasons that the ACL Tears has to do with the lower leg translating forward of the upper leg. Twisting of course does not help matters either. But the root cause has to do with positioning of the lower leg.

What Types of ACL Tears are There?

There are actually two main types of ACL Tears: Contact ACL Tears and Non-Contact ACL Tears. Let’s define these and go into a bit more detail on them.

Contact ACL Tears: In this case the athlete is hit by some sort of outside force. A very violent example is when a football player or soccer player gets tackled or hit by another player and the force results in the ACL injury. You’ve seen old footage of chop blocks in the NFL – that would be a prime example of how a Contact ACL Tear can take place. Less intentional examples are out there too, of course. For instance, if there is a pile-up when going for a fumble in football, a loose ball in basketball, or if there is brawl on the baseball field, it is always a risk that one player is going to fall on or roll onto the knee of another player’s knee and possibly do some serious damage to the ACL.

The thing that sucks about Contact ACL Tears is that you really have no control over the situation. Since pile-ups, aggressive play, and accidental falls are just part of the game when it comes to many different sports, you never know when someone might experience and ACL injury. Those are the kinds of things that are best not worried about, and just hope that it doesn’t happen.

However, Non-Contact ACL Tears are different…

Non-Contact ACL Tears: In these cases, a player is simply moving about the field or court during regular play, and the positioning or movement that takes place causes the injury. One second everything is going well and then out of nowhere the player is on the ground, holding their knee, cringing in pain because the ACL Tore.

Causes of ACL Tears

Often, what happens is one of several things:

1. Slowing Down: The athlete was sprinting and then has to slow down to a halt very quickly. This change in speed brings about the ACL Tear.

2. Landing: The athlete jumped or bounded and when they landed the forces of deceleration are too much for the knee to handle and the ACL takes the loading and pops.

3. Cutting / Angling: The athlete is moving quickly down the field of play and makes an offensive maneuver to get around another player and during the cutting motion the ACL fails and the tear takes place.

4. Changing Directions: The athlete stops and must change directions completely and in doing so the momentum is too much for the knee to handle and again, the ACL fails under the loading.

These are just four examples, but Jerry says he has seen all of these things take place over the years. And every single time there is a tear, the athlete usually misses the rest of the season, and in some cases their athletic career is very negatively affected and sometimes even brought to an end.

ACL injuries are not things that take place only at the University level where Jerry works. I’ve seen footage of baseball players who, in a rage to argue with an umpire, have tried to make a power move around their coach and in doing so have severely injured their knee.

This scenario is altogether too common in Girls’ Youth Soccer. The kids are moving up and down the field having a great time, when all of a sudden one of them goes to make a move and they fall down in a heap. Your heart sinks as they roll on their back clenching their knee to their chest.

You really have to wonder how many scholarships have been lost over the years due to injuries like this. Again, you don’t have to get a 300-lb Lineman dropped on your knee for these things to happen – they can take place at very innocent spots in games, even when doing things you have done hundreds or even thousands of times before.

Factors That Contribute to ACL Tears

Gender Descriminating Risk Factor: Unfortunately, in some ways, nature has set things up so that certain players are more at risk than others for an ACL Tear. Females, for instance, have a wider hip-to-knee angle than males. Because their hips are wider, it creates a different angle from their hip down to their knee which can lend a higher chance for an ACL to tear.

Quad Dominance: Many athletes are Quad Dominant when it comes to decelerating their bodies. If you look at the 4 main scenarios described above (slowing down, cutting, landing, changing directions), all of them have to do with deceleration. If an athlete is accustomed to achieving deceleration by engaging predominantly the Quadriceps musculature, they run an increased risk for an ACL Tear. The reason has to do with the fact that the Quads are pulling on the lower leg bone, the tibia, and contibuting to that forward translation of the lower leg, and putting more strain on the ACL itself.

Weak Gluteals: The Glutes are the most powerful muscles in the body. Although they are usually thought of as muscles that will provide the power for athletic movements like leaping and sprinting, they are often forgotten when it comes to deceleration. This is a serious problem, because if an athlete is not using their Glutes, they will more than likely HAVE to use their Quads to decelerate, which we’ve already established is a bad practice.

Tight Hip Flexors: Incidentally, another contributing factor to weak glutes is tight hip flexors. You see, in many cases, when a muscle or muscle group on one side of the body is overly tight, often, the muscle groups on the opposite side of the body suffer. This happens to the upper back muscles when the chest and torso are too tight, and it happens to the gluteals when the hip flexors are too tight. And what is one of the main causes of tight hip flexors? Inordinate amounts of time in a seated position. Many student athletes spend all day seated in class, seated on the bus or in the car, and often, once practice or games are done, they can be found seated watching TV or surfing the internet. All of this contributes to tight hip flexors, weak and inactive glutes, and poor deceleration mechanics which stresses out the ACL, potentially causing a tear.

How to Prevent ACL Tears

So, the question is, how do we prevent the ACL Tear from taking place? This question brings us back to the program Jerry has been using at his University for the last several years.

Once Jerry gets the incoming Freshman into a schedule, he immediately starts running them through his program. His program immediately targets the glutes, gets them to wake up from years of dis-use, a summer spent detraining, and begins corrective action with his specific drills.

Just like any scientist, he first establishes a baseline with each athlete. He does this by assessing their deceleration abilities. He does this with an exercise you have probably heard of, called a Box Jump.

Now, when most people think of Box Jumps, they usually think of one of two things. One is Plyo-Box Training and trying to jump on top of or over the highest box possible.

The other is the Crossfit Box Hop activity where they jump up and down on top of a box for a set number of reps as fast as they can.

These are not the types of Box Jumps that Jerry does with his athletes.

Instead, Jerry has a moderate height box that the athletes can reach without too much effort, because Jerry isn’t looking for Power or Jumping Mechanics, he’s looking at landing mechanics. The bottom line is if you can’t land on a box the right way, there is almost no chance in hell you can decelerate your body properly after jumping up into the air to spike a volleyball or when performing a powerful cross-over dribble on the basketball court.

Jerry’s program starts out with the Box Deceleration drill and progresses in a step-by-step manner to more demanding drills, all the while re-inforcing glute activation.

Then, after several weeks, the athlete has essentially transformed their deceleration mechanics so that they no longer are decelerating with their quads, and instead are doing so with the correct muscles.

Jerry says that many times his athletes are able to improve their power production on the courts as well, because their glutes are so much better conditioned once they go through the program, on top of having safer, stronger knees to work with.

It’s been a great learning experience for me, teaming up with Jerry on this project. I strongly suggest you pick up our program, Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears, especially if you or a family member participates in a stop-and-go sport such as football, rugby, soccer, basketball, volleyball, or lacrosse. All of these sports see far too many ACL Tears each year and many of them, sadly, are preventable.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

 

Bicep Curls for Increased Performance and Injury Prevention

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.

What Have I Been Doing

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.

Other Improvements I Have Seen

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.

If You Are Not Training Arms Seriously…

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.”

Another Reason Why Direct Bicep Work is Important

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.

It Happened Right Before My Eyes

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.

Conclusions

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

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I am pumped up to post today’s entry on the Blog. This one comes from Daniel Reinard.

This dude has made incredible progress within the ranks of Grip Sport in a very short time. His improvements in such a short time are comparable to some of the very best in the sport.

I think part of that progress is due to the fact that he is constantly looking to build overall strength and not just get good at Grip Lifts. This pursuit for all-around strength development was evident when he picked up our instructional DVD on Strongman Training. Considering Daniel’s background is in rock climbing, strongman work isn’t really the natural progression, but he understands the importance of full body strength and power to improving overall performance.

Check out his review of our DVD and our customer service, something I have always worked hard to be on top of:

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First thing’s first. Jedd’s customer service is nothing but top notch. I’ve bought several DVDs and pieces of equipment over the last couple years from him. His quick shipments and customer follow-up make for the most comfortable of transactions. He genuinely wants everyone to enjoy his products and to receive the maximum benefits they can achieve. I recently purchased the Intro to Strongman DVD and ran into a most unusual predicament.

I immediately watched half the DVD at home before heading to work. I proceeded to try watching the last half on my work computer. This did not fare well. The computer drive tore the hell out of that DVD, rendering it completely unreadable, even back at home. I sent Jedd an email thanking him for quick shipment and an excellent first half of the DVD. He was not content with me only knowing part of the DVD, particularly the fact I’ll never be able to revert back to watch it again because as a noob strongman I will need to focus on technique to stay injury free. Watching only part and then never again was setting myself up for an injury. Jedd sent out another DVD right away. I cannot thank him enough for this. He is really about making sure customers not only receive their purchase but can gain the most out of their journey.

The DVD Jedd Johnson and Steve Slater put together is packed with lots of technique instruction on core strongman lifts and also packed with prehab/rehab with an injury free focus on the lifts. What that says about these guys is that their concern is you will enjoy their product for as long as you wish. This isn’t a “how to be a competing strongman in 60 minutes” DVD, or any other fad how-to DVD that is all hype and no common sense. These guys spend a lot of time growing strength sports and they not only know how to get you into strongman, but they know how to keep you in strongman.

The DVD is broken down into nice segments that make it easy to pull up a chapter on a particular subject. Each segment moves quickly yet is full of information. Information covered includes prehab/ rehab work, personal gear, technique do’s and don’ts, common mistakes, and visual demonstrations. The experience showed when the don’ts and common mistakes of each lift were explained. This is extremely valuable information!

Overall the DVD is a great purchase if someone is looking to get started in Strongman. I’m very happy to have purchased it. I know I’ll be watching it many times as I take on the various lifts over the course of my strength journey.

Daniel Reinard

Rock Climber

Grip Athlete

Strongman Sport Trainee

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Thanks for the kind words, Daniel. Keep up the great work in all your strength endeavors.

If anyone else is looking for top quality information on Strongman Training, look no further, because Steve and I lay everything out for you that you need in Intro to Strongman Training.

All the best,

Jedd