Diesel Crew - Muscle Building, Athletic Development, Strength Training, Grip Strength

Strength and Conditioning for Elite Athletic Performance - Free Articles, Videos for Coaches, Fitness Professionals, Personal Trainers, Athletic Trainers, Physical Therapists for All Sports

As Seen On
  • Home
  • Media
    • Video
    • Articles
    • Galleries
    • Interviews
    • GS Radio
    • Contact
  • Products
    • eBooks
    • Manuals
    • DVDs
    • Services
  • Team Diesel
    • Napalm’s Blog
    • Smiitty’s Blog
    • Spray Series
    • Testmonials
  • Resources
    • Links
    • Contact
  • Forum
  • Home
  • Media
    • Video
    • Articles
    • Galleries
    • Interviews
    • GS Radio
    • Contact
  • Products
    • eBooks
    • Manuals
    • DVDs
    • Services
  • Team Diesel
    • Napalm’s Blog
    • Smiitty’s Blog
    • Spray Series
    • Testmonials
  • Resources
    • Links
    • Contact
  • Forum

Productive Variety: Why I Tear Cards

This is a guest post by Joh Hanagarne. Josh Hanagarne is the World’s Strongest Librarian and a newly minted RKC. If you are interested in kettlebells, coping with Tourette’s Syndrome, buying pants when you’re very tall, guitars, strength, or you need an example of a truly unfocused blog, he’s your man. Please go say hi.

Productive Variety: Why I Tear Cards

We’ve all heard that in order to achieve your training goals, you have to stay focused. You think in terms of years rather than days, weeks, or even training cycles. The dedication is there, the will is there…often the obsession is there, and yet—it is still fun to try other things. It can be tempting to jump around to different tools and different programs.

The problem with that is that too much of this “fun” variety approach is that it will never get you anywhere.

I’m not saying I don’t get bored. I do. I have very specific goals and I still get bored and want to do all the fun things I tell myself everyone else is working on.

How can I get some variety and not lose sight of the goal?

At a Dan John workshop recently, he said one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever heard. It was also one of the simplest things I’ve ever heard, as is common among profound truths.

Dan said that the only goal that matters to your progress is this:

    The goal is to keep the goal the goal

In other words, don’t get distracted. Don’t do things that don’t help you achieve your goals.

This is the key to adding variety to your training and avoiding boredom: when you’re choosing your variety work, just make sure that it complements your larger goals.

Why I Tear Cards

If you’ve ever torn a deck of cards in half (or tried to), you probably remember the first time efforts you made. Pretty damn discouraging, but fun at the same time. I could not believe the workout I got from wrestling that first stupid deck through the course of an entire day at work.

When I was done, my hands were fried and freaked out, my pecs hurt from squeezing, my glutes were worn out from clinching and squeezing…you get the picture.

It worked my entire body and it was fun. I didn’t feel bad and think, “Oh, I could have used that energy for my kettlebell training.” I didn’t feel that way because to be honest, I had been hitting the kettlebells so hard that I needed something new. My goals had been in jeopardy because I was getting bored, even though my results had been fantastic and I was right where I said I wanted to be, progress-wise.

By adding tearing to the mix, my kettlebell training got right back on track and my progress was better than ever. Why? It gave me something to look forward to during some tedious (but always productive!) kettlebell work.

And when you try some tearing, it’s hard to ignore the carryover to your other skills. Tearing helps me link the chain of my body, and link it to my mind as well. A lot of little things have to go right in order to tear well. It takes focus and concentration and strength—as one improves, so do the others.

It’s fun

Most importantly to me: it’s fun. Tearing cards makes you stronger and it’s fun—every single time. I love to deadlift, but I don’t enjoy it every time. I love the 10 minute kettlebell snatch test, but it is the opposite of fun.

Tearing is a fun feat and it’s easy to measure your progress. You can either do it or you can’t. You can add a card or you can’t.

It fills in a lot of the gaps and keeps me on track with everything else I’m trying to accomplish.

Did I mention that it’s fun?

Josh Hanagarne is the World’s Strongest Librarian and a newly minted RKC. If you are interested in kettlebells, coping with Tourette’s Syndrome, buying pants when you’re very tall, guitars, strength, or you need an example of a truly unfocused blog, he’s your man. Please go say hi.

Learn Exactly How to Tear Cards with Your Bare Hands:


Articles You Might Also Like:

  • From The Mail Bag – Card Tearing Feedback
  • The Secret Key to Finishing a Deck of Cards – Adjustment
  • Classic Strongman Month – Week 2
  • The #1 Feat of Strength YOU Should Start With
  • Card Tearing Twitter Chat TONIGHT!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 6:49 am and is filed under how to tear cards, strength training workouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

About Jedd Johnson

Leave a Reply

Diesel Crew Newsletter


Get Diesel Blog Posts Emailed to You:

  



DIESEL DIRECTORY

Find EVERY Single Post Ever Written on DieselCrew.com.

Click Here: All DieselCrew.com Entries

Search DieselCrew.com

Upcoming Events

CONTEST: Grip Hogs Day, Wyalusing PA

Click Here


Motivation & Muscle Podcast

Featured Products

DC Grip Strength
how to train to lift the blob

bend steel, bend wrenches, roll frying pans




How to Bend Horseshoes








How to Bend Horseshoes
    How to Tear Phone Books
Card Tearing Ebook
     Bending Manual
Nail Bending DVD
Euro Pinch Two Hands Pinch Yraining
Nail Bending DVD
    build grip strength hand strength forearm strength
Diesel Strength Training Products

build strength strongman training information
Advanced Kettlebell Challenges Build Strength with Kettlebells
    improve strength conditioning recovery grip strength
home made strength training equipment
how to do strongman atlas stone training
Members Only
build grip strength and learn feats of strength

Stay Connected – Jedd

Friend me on Twitter!
Subscribe to my Youtube Videos!
Friend me on Facebook!
Check Out my Images on Flickr!
Join my Network on LinkedIn!
Check out my blog!

Training Center

FREE EBOOK - AWESOME

How to Build Muscle Articles

3 Insanely Effective Upper Body Warm-ups

Ultimate Lower Body Warm-up

Ultimate Pull-up Video

How to Shoulder Rehab

How to Bench Press

How to Squat

How to Deadlift

How to Train with Odd Objects

Top 7 Tips for Building Muscle

Massive Back Training

Massive Arm Training 1

Massive Arm Training 2

Massive Arm Training 3

Advanced Activation Techniques

Speed Training for Athletes

Perfect Workout for Travelers

Popular Videos

Shoulder Rehab Protocol

Ultimate Two Minute Warm-up

No More Knee Pain - Part 1

No More Knee Pain - Part 2

Advanced Pull-up Training 1

Advanced Pull-up Training 2

Improve Pressing Power 1

Improve Pressing Power 2

Popular Articles

Celebrity Fitness - Build Muscle

How to Build Muscle

Build Muscle Now with Ladders

19 Tips for Fixing Your Squat

Fix Your Squat - Part 2

Fixing the Shoulders

The Summer Six-Pack

Keys for the Hard Gainer

Improving Your Deadlift Grip

Top 5 Core Exercises

Media

Home Team Diesel
Media Resources
Products Forum

MUSCLE BUILDING / GAIN MUSCLE MASS / HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE:
Accelerated Muscular Development | How to Build Muscle | How to Bench Press Muscle Building Anatomy | Muscle Building Nutrition - Build Muscle Mass | Sled Dragging Workouts Strength Training - Muscle Building Workouts | Strength Training Powerlifting | Strength Training Workouts How to Lose Fat - Fat Loss | Kettlebell Training | Strength Training Workouts Injury Rehab - How to Rehab an Injury

CORE WORKOUTS / CORE TRAINING / SIX PACKS ABS:
Core Training Workouts | Core Workouts for Athletes

ATHLETIC STRENGTH TRAINING / STRENGTH WORKOUTS / BUILD STRENGTH:
Athletic Strength Training Train With Odd Objects Strength Training to Improve Athletic Performance | Core Workouts for Athletes | Strongman Training for Athletes Baseball Strength and Conditioning | Improve Speed Bag Training

GRIP STRENGTH / IMPROVE GRIP STRENGTH / GRIP TRAINING FOR ATHLETES:
Bending Grip Strength | How to Tear Cards | Grip Strength Blob Lifting | How to Improve Crushing Grip Strength Improve Grip Strength | Improve Crushing Grip Strength | Grip Strength Blob Lifting | Grip Strength Competition

OLD STRONGMAN / OLD TIME STRONGMAN / STRONGMAN FEATS OF STRENGTH:
Old Strongman Feats of Strength

DAILY MOTIVATION / INSPIRATION:
Daily Inspiration - Motivation

BUILD YOUR OWN GYM:
Create Your Own Garage Gym

Copyright © 2006 – 2009 The Diesel Crew, LLC. All rights reserved.

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer

Cleantalk Pixel