Daves Gym Blog

Dave's Gym Version 2.0

2012-02-29T02:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a little quiet on the blogging front recently. But fear not, my little blogranauts, this doesn't mean that Uncle Dave does not love you anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead I have been languishing in the Dungeons that are to be found under the East Wing of the Carter family castle, fed on nothing but rat flavoured protein shake and poked with Olympic bars every time it looked as if I would fall asleep.

And there I had to remain, lashed to a squat rack, in the darkness with only a dog-eared copy of Dan John's "Never Let Go" to keep me company.

I knew that release from my dank subterranean prison would only be granted by my harsh and pitiless gaolers if I could come up with "The Big Idea". So in the dark I planned and plotted plentiful ploys. I concocted and cogitated cunning contrivances, until a scheme of such canny and crafty genius was born that, if it had whiskers, it would have been a weasel.

My first thought was to get rid of all the squat racks and replace them with those vibrating power plates that all the nice shiny gyms have. This did not please my gaolers who administered more beatings, more Protein Rat and more Dan John books.

The next plan was to construct a horse out of discarded protein rat cartons, hide in its belly and then make a dashing bid for freedom. Unfortunately I only had enough Protein Rat cartons to fashion a mis-shapen badger, which fooled nobody, and so more beatings, more Protein Rat (now served in a battered tin cup that I had to return each time), and more Dan John books were prescribed.

Finally I came up with an idea big enough to satisfy my grim gaolers.

Elite Training for the Average Joe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In practical terms this means that for the next few weeks everything is going to be a tad chaotic in the gym. Equipment will be moved, and new stuff will be brought in. Builders will drink lakes of tea laced with 17 sugars. Staff will wander around looking confused and lost (we're not actually telling them anything - which we find deeply amusing and are laying bets on how long it will take Zucko to have figured out that we've moved the treadmills).

I will be telling you more about these plans of much cunningness - just as soon as I can work out how to get out from inside this badger. . .

Have a Protein Rat on me,
Dave Carter.

The Strength Commandments

2012-02-27T01:42:00.002-08:00

I - Thou Shalt Train Thy Body As A Whole

Ninety percent or more of your exercises should be HUGE exercises. The more muscles they target the better, and as a general rule so long as it's a full range of motion (not a partial lift) the more weight it allows you to lift the better. Recruiting more muscle means a bigger stimulus for adaptation, or in lay terms - you get out what you put in so if you're only working small muscles you'll only get small results.

This means devote almost all your time to types of Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Row, Chin/Pullup, Dips, Lunges, Good Mornings, Cleans, and any combo lift like Clean + Press/Squat + Press, or moving events like Farmers Walks, Sandbag Carries etc etc. Look at it like this - what's going to stress your body more: a 50kg Barbell Curl or a 100kg Barbell Row?

It's this principle that all the strongest men and women on the planet adhere to, so why shouldn't you? Powerlifters focus on three main lifts - the squat, then bench press, and the deadlift. Between those three lifts there's no muscle in the body that doesn't get called into play. Olympic lifters focus on even fewer - the snatch and the clean & jerk, but again - if you can name one muscle that doesn't get activated in either of these lifts you have just invented some new muscles!

Even bodybuilders base their training around big lifts where they can move immense poundages, and unless you're an advanced level competitive bodybuilder you have no place doing lateral raises to "sculpt" shoulders that haven't been built yet. Add some clay with heavy pressing before carving stuff out of it.

II - Thou Shalt Punish Thyself For Thy Weakness

Or in other words - as a rule the harder an exercise is the more beneficial it is. The same logic that makes compound lifts better than isolation lifts also applies here. If you can do a 60kg Military Press with your feet together with no back bend or leg drive, when you go back to a regular Military Press with a wider base and easier form you will smoke 60kg for reps.

This is same logic that makes things like lockout bench and rack pulls essentially useless for most people - you're actually making the lift easier, and you know this because you can lift more weight in a rack pull than your regular Deadlift! How is your lockout a problem in the Bench Press if when you isolate the lockout you can actually lift more than you can Bench? You're just not strong enough, period.

In these cases things like deficit deadlifts and paused bench press will pay dividends because once you can generate the power to lift throughout a greater range of motion or with no momentum the regular exercise wont be a problem. Get stronger overall and your sticking points won't be there anymore because those exercises are way harder. Putting yourself in a weak position and lifting weights is far more beneficial than lifting more weight in a stronger position. So long as it doesn't involve a fucking bosu ball.

III - Thou Shalt Be Ready To Lift Any Time, Any Where

Real strength means being able to lift anything anywhere regardless of the situation. If you're worrying that the bar is a tenth of an inch thicker, or that you usually only do legs on a different leg press machine, or that these plates feel slightly heavier than the ones in your gym - you're an idiot. Real strength means caring not for these things.

The best way to go about this is simple - use as little equipment in the gym as possible. Besides a bar, some dumbells or kettlebells, and maybe a bench that's it. Basically if it isn't a free weight you should stay away pretty much all the time. Machines train you only to be good at that particular machine - every rep is through exactly the same movement path, using exactly the same muscles in exactly the same way. The weight is supported by the machine itself, and you're generally sitting on a nice comfy padded seat. This is not conducive to being a badass bloke or chick.

Freeweights exercises require you to stabilize the weight with your core, balance while performing the exercise, learn how to control the weight through the movement path you want it to go through without the help of a set lever. If a friend want's you to help them move house, or train at their gym to show them how awesome you are, it's nice knowing with 100% certainty that you can grab the weight and own it no matter what because that's exactly what you do every time you set foot in the gym.

IV - Thou Shalt Build Thy Strength To Be Pure

Here's a vastly overblown example. Two guys have a Deadlift competition. One of them punches a tiger in the throat on his way to the changing rooms, we'll call him Dave. The other puts on weightlifting gloves to open the door. We'll call him Dumbo. This will not end well. Dumbo manages a 220kg Deadlift with straps, gloves, knee wraps, a deadlift suit, and a support belt. Before the lift he also chalked up his hands and thighs, listened to his favourite workout track, and sniffed some smelling salts. While Dumbo was pissing about Dave walked up to the bar and Deadlifted 200kg. He did this a few more times.

The next week Dave and Dumbo walk into the gym again for more Deadlifts. Dumbo realizes he left his gym bag at home. Oh dear! Dave manages 202.5kg this week. Dumbo nervously sidles up to the bar and does his sets. He works up to a paltry 180kg, strains his back, and drops the bar before lockout when his grip fails. This guy isn't strong.

Don't rely on anything or anybody but yourself to lift your weights. If your grip sucks, wearing straps all the time isn't going to improve it any, is it? If you have a weak back, protecting it with a belt is only delaying the inevitable. Check your ego and lift what YOU can lift on your own. That means getting it out of the rack, moving it to where you want to lift, getting it into position, and lifting it. Save the belt, straps, and knee wraps for competition day and actually get a tangible benefit out of them.

V - Thou Shalt Compete

This is a simple one - compete at something! Anything! Whether it's a bodybuilding contest, powerlifting, strongman, or just against yourself by setting a goal and sticking to it no matter what. Get a few friends together and have a friendly competition to see who can put up the biggest bench press in six months. The buzz of competition and having an actual time-frame to achieve your goals adds so much. If you're somebody who thrives on competition finding the right training partners can add a hell of a lot to your training, too. Once your name is down on a competition roster your training takes on a whole new level of intensity and focus and everybody should put themselves out there at least once.

VI - Thou Shalt Have Goals

Goals are what drive us to push ourselves in the gym, and are most of the reason we go at all. The number one cause of failure in anybody's health and fitness endeavor is lacking a proper well define goal. Either people just train for the sake of it and see what happens, or they switch goals every week, or their goal is way too unrealistic (every November at least three people tell me they're going to lose three stone by Christmas...yeah right).

Pick something realistic. In terms of strength, look at where you are now compared to your goal and work back in as long a time-frame as possible. For example I'm squatting 140kg now and I want to squat 180kg it's highly unlikely I'll pick up that extra forty kilos in a few weeks, maybe not even in a few months. The fact of the matter is that I'll have to lift 142.5kg before 180kg, and 145kg and 147.5kg and....well you get the picture. At a rate of 2.5kg a week that's about four months - add in a few rest weeks and some contingency and six months is probably a more realistic time-frame if my programming is solid. The closer you get to your strength ceiling the more difficult it's gonna be to increase your strength, too, so this will vary from person to person.

Write your goal down, think about it every day, visualize yourself doing it. Believe in your training and go after it everyday because the only thing standing between you and where you want to be is time.

VII - Thou Shalt Obey Wendler, The Prophet of Strength

In the above example there's one important factor you should take into account. In that example I already know I've squatted 180kg before to parallel depth but the other part of this goal is to squat it ass-to-grass depth (allllllll the way down). I can do a 160kg squat to this depth but I'm not using 160kg as part of my calculation because that would leave me zero room to progress.

Jim Wendler, the mastermind behind the excellent 5/3/1 program and all around badass strength guy, advocates using 90% of your true one rep max in all your programming calculations. This is incredibly smart and a big turning point in my training. You're never quite as good as your good days (nor are you as bad as your bad days either) so why base your training for 80-90% of the time on the top 10-20% of what you can do? You can't be great all the time. In terms of stressing the body, recovering from a 100% lift is a lot harder than recovering from a 90% lift, which is harder than recovering from an 80% lift and so on. It's also easier, then, to recover and super-recover (get stronger) when using sub-max loads. In essence what I'm saying is your body can continuously get stronger for a longer period of time by turning a 70% lift into a 65% lift than by turning a 100% lift into a 95% lift.

If that doesn't make sense, nevermind! All you need to know is that the sweet spot for gaining strength continuously over a longer period of time is by using 70-85% of your 1RM. An easy way to do this is to make like Wendler and treat your true max lifts as anomalies - your gym max should be something you can do every time you're in the gym whether you're having a good day, a bad day, or a regular day. If this gym max gets higher and higher your body will hardly notice since it doesn't exceed your abilities at any point, and will push your true max up without you noticing.

In my example I started out treating my true 160kg max as an anomaly, and instead used 140kg as my gym max. The other day on my last Squat session on this program I did a failure set of 21 reps on 100kg and then did some heavy singles and smoked 145kg - the weight i'm now using as my new gym max, which has pushed all my training weights in the next training cycle up by 2.5kg. A few cycles of this and I've no doubt my "true" max of 160kg will become my gym max without me ever truly maxing out.

VIII - Thou Shalt Progress

The last two points have pretty much covered this one, but it bears repeating. To get stronger you need to stress your body more than it's been stressed before. We've already established why going to your limit isn't the best way to go about this, and adding 10kg a workout to go from 140kg to 180kg in a month isn't really a realistic goal. So what do you do?

The answer is progressive overload. Using a lighter training stimulus to give yourself that recovery space we talked about, you train to progressively add to your workouts every session. Even if it's just one rep, or 2.5kg on the bar over a few years and hundreds of workouts you'll suddenly have doubled everything. Magic! In fact these small increases are so small in fact that your body can quite easily adapt to them.

I tell this story a lot but the strongmen of old, before the days of plate loaded barbells and Jersey Shore, had to use globe barbells filled with lead shot. These guys trained seven days a week all year round and added a few lead shot to their bars every time. A lead shot weighs a few grams at most, so you'd barely notice it in your pocket let alone on a bar. If they added a handful to the bar each workout it's basically nothing, but seven days a week all year round for decades adds up and some records set in the early 1900's have still yet to be broken!

IX - Thou Shalt Stick With The Program

I'm guilty of this one, and I can tell you from first hand experience switching programs every week simultaneously makes you look like an idiot and weakling. An idiot because you have the attention span of a goldfish, and a weakling because you won't get any stronger unless you get some consistency going. If you're going to progressively overload your exercises you need to stick with them. If you want to be able to measure that progress with any sort of accuracy you need to keep doing to same things for an extended period of time - or how else will you know they're working? Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will you be!

Choose wisely which program you choose. Does it have a system of long-term progression built into it? This will help stop you plateauing at the six-week mark. What happens when you do inevitably plateau? You will, it'll happen, but what's important is that you have a plan for how to continue training when this happens. Does your program actually address your personal goals, strengths, and weaknesses? So called cookie-cutter programs rarely work, and while it's important not to mess with the program (the author of it likely knows a lot more than you) it's equally stupid to do things that aren't applicable to you.

X - Thou Shalt Believe

Okay so that's a bit epic but following on from that last one, one of the most important aspects in sticking with any one program is your so called "buy-in". Do you believe in the program? Do you believe it'll work and get you where you want to be? Do you enjoy it? If it was written by somebody else do you trust the author? You should be 100% about this because attitude is a huge part of sticking it out for the long haul. If you can't get behind what you're doing you'll be dragging your feet from the start and won't get anywhere.

Stick with the same program for at least a few months or three complete cycles minimum if you want to see any appreciable results. At that point you'll have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't and can change things accordingly.

GO FORTH, AND LIFT HEAVY THINGS IN THE NAME OF THOR

High Intensity Training

2012-02-20T13:41:00.000-08:00

High Intensity Training

There is often a lot of confusion and myth about the pros and cons of high intensity training, who invented it, who uses it and if it actually works? This article will hopefully explain the main crux of the idea. I want to point out these ideas are not my own, I am merely trying to explain them in a way that I understand. There will be historical bits I have have missed. For example I have no idea when Mentzer and Jones hooked up to exchange ideas (it was probably in a bunch of 45 min intense brainstorming sessions), I will fill in the gaps as best I can. I will also try and relate the ideas to my own training to prove its not just for the bodybuilding elite.

What is hell is hit?

Hit was primarily invented by Arthur Jones who's ideas where taken further by bodybuilding hero and moustache king Mike Mentzer in the 1970s and 80s.

In the 1960s Jones an eccentric inventer and ceo set up the Nautilus company. Nautilus made fitness equipment. Jones argued that there was something wrong with training with barbells/dumbells. He argued that dumbell training would not stress the muscle through a full range of motion as it only offers one directional resistance (up and down from gravity). The problem with this is, that as animals we move in combinations of rotational movements. Not just on a single plain. For example if you do a free weight barbel curl the muscle is under tension at the bottom of the rep (full exstention) through the mid range of the rep, but as you reach the top of the rep (peak contraction)the weight of the dumbbell is no longer stressing the bicep. Instead the weight is supported by the joints and surrounding muscle, deltoids etc. With Nautilus machines, Jones designed a cab system that would enable a muscle to work through a complete range of motion. The muscle would be under the same amount of stress regardless of the position during a rep.

(Jones would go on to build variations of his machines that would change the amount of stress at different points in the rep)

In the late 1970s Mike Mentzer was an up and coming bodybuilder with a fantastic moustache. Becoming increasingly frustrated with a lack of results, he decided to increase his training. At the time the popular consensus from the Weider Magazines and body building elite was that more training is better. It was the norm for the likes of Schwarzenegger to train 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening 6 days a week (bare in mind Arnold was a genetic freak, germanic beast). In his quest for muscle Mentzer adopted this regime and still saw little or no results. Was the answer to train even more, perhaps 5 -6 hours a day? This would surely be unachievable? There was not enough time in a day to get that many hours in the gym (old school body builders did not have contracts with muscle tech, only Joe Weider, most had jobs).

Mentzer took a step back, pensively stroking his moustache. After meeting Casey Viator at the Mr America and discusing heavy duty ideas, Mike took Arthur Jones details from Casey and arranged a meeting. Mentzer and Jones soon became friends. After many meetings Mentzer (with Jones prior influence) used his logic and a scientific approach, to break down the traditional model of bodybuilding and started again from the ground up.

His aim – To achieve maximum muscular growth in the shortest possible time, with the leaset amount of effort. (This is a key point, bodybuilding not Olympic lifting or power lifting, just getting big muscles fast).

His approach - As within science their can only be one valid theory until proven different. This applies to growing bigger muscles. For example there is only one Theory of evolution - Darwinism, there is only one way of working out the value of pie in mathematics. Therefore there can only be one way of achieving maximum muscle growth in the shortest amount of time (until another theory proves otherwise). From the out set Mentzer based his ideas around a theoretical approach, using evidence to make his point. He was one of the first people in bodybuiling to use a scientific model applied to fitness.

So with this in mind what was his big idea?

Mentzer believed that a muscle only requires a certain amount of stress to stimulate muscle growth. So this meant that all the heros of the golden era where training to oblivion for no specific reason? Why after hitting failure on leg press do another set? What is the reason? Yes they were big and had achieved Herculean physiques but only through one model of training. (There were many styles of training at the time, but all emphasised the volume principle).

More is better is an attractive principle as it is straight forward, but it has no validity because it would be impossible to achieve maximum stimulation. By this theory you could do hundreds of sets and still have room for one more. If 20 sets give you great results, then 40 will give you even better results. Therefore the guys who spend the most time in the gym should have the biggest muscles?

'More is better only has validity when it comes to money and pretty girls' – Mike Mentzer 1998

“If a bodybuilder is training huge amounts of volume they are clearly not training hard enough. If they where then they would not physically be able to go beyond sets 4 – 5' – Drew Baye 2009

So if volume is not the place the go the only place left is quality/ intensity of exercise.

Menzer believed that through correct intensity a muscle reaches complete failure. This is all that is needed to stimulate maximum growth.

To achieve failure Mentzer believed that all you needed to was one working set. If you have not reached failure then your intensity is not high enough. Why waste time doing excessive high volume sets when you can achieve failure in one set. This idea was radically different to the training ideas of the bodybuilding world.

So in order to achieve complete muscular stimulation one must achieve a state of complete muscular failure. This means failure in the positive, static and negative ranges.

So using bicep curls as an example,

on the way up (positive)
hold at the top (static),
and slow on the way down (negative).

If you look at one working set broken down in the the positive, negative and static, in a 10 rep set your actually doing 30 reps (for all you volume junkies). Mentzer advocates that strict form must be used to achieve peak muscular contraction.

You often find that when you hit positive failure a muscle still has more left in the negative, another 2 reps perhaps. If you miss this then you have not truly achieved full muscular failure.

If you have trouble finishing a set and getting to failure Mentzer recomended the use of Rest Pause and cheat reps. Rest pause simply means taking a short rest mid set, for example in a 8 rep set of bench rack the bar on the 4^th rep, rest 10 seconds and continue to 8 reps. Cheat reps are usful if your training alone. Using barbell curls as an example if you have got to 10 reps but are too tired to get the bar up to do your negatives, swing the bar up using 'body english' to get in the negative starting point.

So far we have reached muscular failure by doing one working set. Once you have achieved complete muscular failure this is all that is necessary to achieve growth.

Any more and you are making inroads into your ability to recover.

Recovery

“Stimulate don't annihilate” - Lee Haney

Mentzer wanted to achieve the most muscular stimulation possible with the least amount of effort.

Recovery, this is another key component to the idea. Once you have achieved muscular failure, any amount of exercise after this is reducing your bodies ability to recover.

Let me explain. When we train we use weights to break down muscle tissue. Our bodies use the required time to recover repairing the muscle making it stronger and able to deal with more stress.

Recovery is not localised. Our bodies can only deal with a certain amount of stress be it physical or psychological. Our bodies have limited recovery reserves. An example of stress limitations can be seen in the migration of Atlantic Salmon. Each year they swim hundreds of miles up river to mate and die. Physically this is a huge feat of endurance. When examined scientists found huge amounts of cortisol (stress hormone) in their systems. Basically the Salmon where running on adrenaline to the point where the body shuts down.

This is an extreme example but here is my point. Most people do a 4 -5 day split every week, training a single body part each time. So on Monday legs were trained, on Tuesday the body is still using its resources to recuperate whilst you train chest. Then Wednesday you train back but your body is still recovering from Monday and Tuesdays workouts. Add to that the daily demands of work, family and other menial stress, the body is over stretching its resources and its only Wednesday. If your training this depleted your workouts are going to progressively loose intensity.

'under stress you shut down your growth mechanism' Bruce Lipton

So in a nutshell recovery is not just localised it is systemic. If you push your self too hard your gains are going to deminish to a negative point.

Another good example is time off, holidays. Remember when you took 2 weeks off training to go and play games workshop. When you came back to the gym you were stronger than before and your lifts went up. Why can't this idea be used all year round?

But what if your schedule does not allow you your days off, what happens if you have to train a day earlier to fit everything in? Mentzer says that its better to take an extra day or two's rest if your not sure, as muscular atrophy does not occur until 2 weeks.

Sticking points -Sticking points don't exist, its just over training. As you grow stronger and bigger you actually should train less as the weights you are lifting are bigger and the stresses on your body are greater. If your progress starts to slow, add an extra rest day. You should never have to reach a sticking point.

I myself noticed when I used to train 6 days a week I was constantly getting ill and my body weight was not increasing, when I reduced my training this stopped. I also put on 4 stone going from 12 – 16.5 st in 18 months (some of this was chubb). All my lifts shot up.

An important note here is nutrition, with out enough good balanced nutrition your recovery will be hampered, so all this is based on eating nice food.

Mentzer recoomends getting a balance diet from all the major food groups

60% Carbohydrate

25% Protien

15% Fat

Muscle is mostly water so he advised not to skimp on carbs when getting big. He also noted that there is no such thing as, so called 'Super Nutrition' that is advertsied by the supplement companies. Only optimum nutrition, the amount of nutrients needed for optimum muscle growth.

Genetics

At this point its important to establish that ones recovery ability is unique like a genetic trait. Some people recover faster than others and therefore can deal with more stress.

Mentzer used a great example of sunburn to explain this.

If you sit out in the sun your skin can tolerate a certain amount of exposure. You produce an adaptive response to protect your skin form the UV rays and get a sun tan. But this has a limit. After say 1 hr in the sun you start to burn and instead of getting a sun tan your skin starts to blister and go red. This idea applies to training, your body can tolerate a certain level of intensity after which any thing else has a negative effect on the bodies ability to recover.

The sun tan example can also be used to explain the different variation in genetic traits of recovery. For example people of Mediterranean origin will only need a small amount of exposure to sunlight to get a suntan and at the same time can be exposed to much more sunlight without burning than say someone from Iceland. With regards to training some genetic freaks ( Schwarzenegger) can cope with huge amounts of training and very little recovery. Others like Haney only require a small amount of stimulation to achieve an adaptive response. And some will only be able to handle one heavy session every 7 days.

Evidence

Dorian Yates

Despite being a genetic freak and taking loads of gear, Yates achieved incredible gains in relatively short periods of time using high in tensity training. For example he won the British heavy weight championships and turned pro after 3 years of training and became Mr Olympia after only 8 years. That kind of progress is unheard of in bodybuilding. Also the drastic change in his physique year after year can be acredited to his use of HIT. The difference between his 1992 and 1993 shows is huge. In his prime he was training a maximum of 4 hours a week, some of his competitors were doing that every day.

Here are his weight progression year on year.

210lbs /95kg 1985 UK Finals

226lbs/102.5kg 1988 Night of the Champions

235lbs/106.5kg 1991 Night of the Champions

240lbs/108kg 1991 Mr O

242lbs/109.7kg 1992 Mr O

260lbs /117.9kg 1995 Mr O

270 lbs /122kg 1997 Mr O

In total he gain around 70lbs/31kg of muscle in 13 years, with an average muscle gain of 5.4kg each year. Obviously there are many other factors at play here including diet and steriods, plus I am not sure what other body builders gains are but I think that this is pretty impressive. (Someone like Coleman may have gained more weight, but it is over a period of 20 +years).

An already massive Yates looking even bigger.

Schwarzenegger vs Viator

In an article on Menzters website he compares the bodybuilders lean weight gain and training time to see who had been most effective at building muscle. Both are genetic freaks and at advanced levels and most likely on similar amounts of steriods. Its worth noting that these guys were regaining muscle which is easier than gaining it in the first place.

Schwarzenegger represents the high volume school of bodybuilding. In this case we look at his 1975 Olympia physique. For this Arnold trained twice a day for 2 hours a session, 6 days a week, for a period of 4 months. Thats a total of 288 hours of training. Schwarzenegger went form 200lbs to a lean stage weight of 225lbs. (He missed his target weight of the previous year of 237lbs).

Casey Viator (HIT camp) took part in the 1973 Colorado expirment to see how much muscle mass he could gain in a certain amount of workouts carried out over a peiod of time. Casey trained 3 times a week, each work out was no more than 30 minutes over a period of a month. In total he trained 12 times over 6 hours. Casey went from 166lbs to, in peak muscular condition (ripped) 212lbs. During that month he had lost 17lbs of fat and gained 46lbs of lean body mass.

So what does this mean? Simply Viator gained almost 3 times the mass in a quarter of the time doing a lot less work. When asked why Arnold had not achieved his weight goal he replied, 'there was not enough time'. It also makes you think how much size guys like Schwarzenegger would have gained if they had adopted HIT principles?

So my point here is that HIT training can give you results fast.

Sample routine

Here is a sample routine form Mike Mentzers Heavy Duty Training video, featuring Ray Mentzer and Markus Reinhardt.

Each rep is completed at a speed 4 seconds up and four seconds down.

Working set should be carried out with a weight that is 75% - 85% of your 1rm. If you can do less than 6 reps the weight is too heavy, if you can do 12reps or more the weight is too light. Warm sets are done with compund exercises to activate the most muscles.

Day 1 Chest and Back

Chest

Incline Bench Press (warm up)

Set 1 (warm up) 8 reps very light

Set 2 (warm up) medium weight (neuromuscular activation)

Set 3 4 reps, heavy (75% 1rep max)

Peck Deck (working set)

1 set 10 reps, (last 2 reps are staic and negative reps)

supersetted with

Incline bench (working)

2 reps

rest pause

2 reps

rest pause

2 reps

rest pause

2 reps

(with rest pause each reps is maximum effort)

2 mins rest

Back

Lat pull down (warm up)

1 set 8 reps

Natilus pullover

1 set 6 – 8 reps (last 2 reps are static/negatives)

Supersetted with

Lat Pull down

1 set 6 – 8 reps

Deadlift

1 set 4 reps (warm up) 60kg

1 set 4 reps (warm up) 100kg

1 set 2 reps (warm up) 140kg

1 set 8 reps (working) 145kg

Day 2 legs

Leg press (warmup)

1 set 8 reps

Leg exstention (working)

1 set x 8 reps

supersetted with

Leg press

1 set x 8 reps

Hamstring curl

1 set 6 reps (last 2 static and negative reps)

Calve raise

1 set 10 /12 reps

Day 3 Delts and Triceps, Biceps

Lateral raise machine

1 set 6 reps (warm up)

1 set 8 reps (working)

Bent over dumbell laterals

1 set 8 reps (working)

Dumbell curls

1 set 8 reps

Tricep cable push down

1 set 10 reps (last 2 static and negative reps)

supersetted with

Hammer strength tricep dip

1 set 6 – 8 reps

Mentzer's routine for you to watch (nice dance track)

Dorian Yates has some concise videos of HIT that are worth checking out.

Summary

HIT training is based on the following points.

Understanding true muscular failure in the positive, static and negative.
Actually training hard enough, to reduce the necessity for volume.
Using strict form
Getting more rest, the need to recognise that the rest period is as important as the work out its self.
Listen to your body, everyone reacts differently to training and recovers at different rates.

Conclusion

Mentzer was a philoshper years ahead of his time, his ideas created a radically different approach to bodybuilding theory.

As an overview I think Arthur Jones ideas were too rigid at times, one must remember that he was trying to flog fitness equipment so of course he is going to denounce the dumbel. Mentzer actually contradicts Jones with the use of deadlifts and squats in his HIT routines.

Some say that Mentzer was angry having lost the 1980 Olympia and Menzter had a personal vendetta against the Weiders and their vision of bodybuilding. But in his defense he worked for Flex magazine as an editor and left a large Weider wage packet to pursue his HIT training ideals.

In relation to the actual training, you have to work very hard, therefore how easy is it to know if you have gone to far? Training so heavy with such little volume leaves very little time to warm up and could possibly cause injury (Yates retired from bodybuilding with torn triceps and biceps).

As I said earlier when I adopted a few HIT principles I gained strength and mass. I found that if you loose the idea of training a 7 day week it makes things a lot easier. I now do my four day split over 9 days some times more depending on how I feel. Mentzers book High Intensity Training is primarily aimed at the drug free bodybuilder. This is why he recoomends rest periods of 4 – 7 days.

I also found that not training 2 days in a row gives you a chance to refresh between workouts and go in stronger.

I like Mentzer because he challenged the status quo, he was brave enough to belive in his own ideas, an admiral accolade.

So if your not making any progress, have sticking points or want to get massive fast try some High Intensity Training principles for yourself!

If you can't be bother to read this article the Drew Bayes seminar covers it all.

http://www.mikementzer.com/

Classic Mentzer seminar

Clugston (HIT advocate)

MMA at Dave's. Onwards to glory.

2012-02-08T01:58:00.000-08:00

Yet again the boys and girls from Dave's Gym MMA ventured forth into the arena of battle and brought back victory. All hail.

Early start late finish, for the tough few!

Very poor turn out gents, from a “team” that sells out each training session by eight am, for four tough guys and a tired old fart to turn up for the biggest grappling contest in south west Britain, you can appreciate why this raises more than a few eyebrows!?! The competition was to a very very high standard, with MMA title holders competing, MMA unbeaten fighters, competing and rumours of a former UFC competitor also this was a golden opportunity missed by most, to safely test your skills against the besting the Britain!

This said it was a real pleasure to accompany and corner three of Dave’s newest members in their first venture in a brand new sport. I think all three will agree in the importance of competitions of this nature in their development. Plus it was good fun!!

Hours and hours of waiting over the Dave’s gym tough guys took to the mat understanding the importance of managing their food intake/fuel intake, the importance of weight cutting to certain weight categories, to keep composure, listen to your corner, breath and managing your nerves!!

Richard Hewitson, 0-2 for the day had made huge personal sacrifices of flavour, taste and enjoyment in his dietary run up to fight day, shedding an amazing 10kg to hit the under 84kg under one year experience category. With the bouts starting on your feet and with no solid physical boundaries such as ropes or a cage the competitors need to use patience and very fast technique to achieve a take down. Richard “the kickboxing camera man” Hewitson showed that he had taken on board pointers put to him during training, “if you don’t try for it you can’t expect to get it” and “the fight isn’t over until you HAVE to tap” having had shoulder injuries recently a tight arm bar could have panicked anybody into a quick tap but Rich kept his composure and scrambled the correct way to escape, looking for basic efficient submissions of his own with a guillotine attempt that was close, but for his own positioning, that will have scored high in judges eyes that we can now work on, the day gave us exactly that things to work on and great minor battles won. You can be proud of where how you conducted yourself and fought, the competition was high with a Pedro Bessa blue belt taking bronze. Well done buddy

Mike Bowell 0-2 for the day, Previous fighting experience, “Pilipino stick fighting” as a kid and Danny Zuko pad sessions! One month in the pleasure dome with the tough guys and Mike takes to the mat. Telling us that he wants a Tasmanian devil tattooed on his chest I expected a ball of tornado dust!! He didn’t disappoint! Coming off the mat asking “was it ok to go for that take down” (which was successful) to which I replied “Fuck yeah”!! Mike embraced exactly what the day was about, just go for it! What’s the worst that can happen? Kicking himself for tapping in a fight he was hands down winning he now knows where he went wrong and the same scenario again he won’t tap and he will complete the Achilles lock he almost had!! He has left the comp a better fighter than he started! Job done, well done.

Dan Moore 1-1 for the day met us in Bristol as his dog required a bit of looking after, giving up a lot of weight being at the bottom end of his weight class, you would forgive him for being nervous, or out muscled? Save your pity!!! Dan was composed and strong taking the fight to the opponents in both rounds with a blue belt in his first fight, and his second fighter had obviously seen this and was very tentative of Dan giving him the space to use his excellent wrestling skills to push the pace of the fight, find the dominant positions and secure the win. Well done Dan awesome achievement, well deserved win. With the mantra of position before submission taken care of, we will work now on making you Dan-gerous!!!

Jay “Mental for Oriental” Horley 2-2 for the day. Worried by his slow start in the Thai interclub, Jay worked on his sugar levels to produce a great start to the day, full of confidence, extremely composed and totally dominant in his first two fights, playing a composed top game, he didn’t give an inch and looked set to medal high. Unlike a standard fight night, one scrap and piss up this comp was a long long day, a lot of waiting about, getting warmed up, psyched up, cooling down, warmed up psyched up…..I’m not making excuses for Jay, or taking from his opponents, but his next two bouts looked like a different Jay. Spending large portions of the bout, defending on his back, in contrast to the go forward, dominant top game of his earlier fights. Again the day is predominantly about experience, and as such Jay experienced four top level grapplers and came out with his head held high, just missing out on a medal. Come the MMA top events with only one fight to prepare for I have no doubt that Jay will have his sugar levels on point and offer up only “whoop ass” on the menu!!

And so to the Mercurial Mr Williams, or Ash to everyone else 7-0 for the day.

A couple of months back Ash came to train at Dave’s and I gave the intro as British Champ, I reeled off only a small percentage of his achievements and credentials as a grappler, I have at every opportunity expressed the benefit to yourselves to train under and with Ash at every opportunity you get, his classes and one to ones also. Needless to say I have a pretty high level of respect for the lad, and remember my first roll with him having to tap four times in one minute, weighing nearly forty kilo’s more than him is a pretty humbling experience made worse when you learn that he can only bicep curl 10kg!

Ash took to the comp with a game plan, an idea of what he wanted to try, and his execution was floorless, technique over strength, play to your own strengths and game plan, take what’s in front of you with no preconceptions. Needless to say Ash won his division, of “Over a year and under 65kg” I may be corrected but I think five straight wins by Achilles lock, which also saw Ash win the absolute comp as well two gold’s for the day. (Absolute being everyone, any weight, any age, any level, any grade…..) beating other division winners in the process. This was no fluke, this was not predetermined fate, or “of course Ash won again”, he didn’t just turn up on the day hung over, he didn’t start thinking about it last week, the preparation has been ongoing for months with several high intensity sessions every week, discipline not to go out, (as a student this can be hard!) and then finally the courage to return as champion, and being the man to beat. The bouts were fiercely contested, Ash had to use all his techniques, try for multiple submissions and reset many times, he fought fella’s up to 20+kg heavier than him and beat everyone. Congratulations from everyone who knows and respects what you do Ash, well deserved and we will look forward to seeing you on Thursday!!!

Tough guys book early!!!!!

Q + A - February 2012

2012-02-05T03:55:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to the first ever Dave's Gym Q+A! Today we've got four great questions from some of our members that actually cover a wide range of topics. I'm not going to blab on too much, lets get to the crux of it!

***

"Speed / power training for increasing sprint / jumping power" - Rogan

While not technically a question, it’s a great one! If you look at sprinters’ legs they have absolutely huge quads, and while some of this is no doubt due to all the sprinting you can bet your ass they do a LOT of squatting. Like most other things the basis of your programming flat out needs to be based around the squat.

In terms of increasing power, certainly focus on Speed Hex Bar dead lifts (http://bretcontreras.com/2011/06/straight-bar-deadlift-versus-hex-bar-deadlift/), speed squats and Plyometrics. For all of those exercises you need to really focus hard on the speed and power development so you’ll want to do low, low reps and take a fair amount of rest between those sets to recover.

For the speed deadlifts I’d use 50-60% of your 1RM for 12-15 sets of just 1 single rep – put everything you have into that pull and drive your hips through as fast and explosively as possible.

For the speed squats I’d use 50% of your 1RM for 10 sets of 2 reps and ratchet the load from 50% to 55% then 60% over three weeks then go back down and start again. Squat slowly down to a box or bench, but keep your whole body tight (don’t relax onto it and let your posture sag) then explode and drive the weight up as quickly as possible.

As for the plyometrics, a big mistake people make is either doing them for sets of 20 reps, or just half heartedly jumping up onto a platform and back down. You should optimally be doing no more than 40 jumps a week, 6 sets of 3 once a week should be more than enough if you’re doing extra speed stuff like the deads and squats.

A plyometric movement is supposed to use as much speed and power as possible, for example in a jump squat or box jump I want you to explode from the floor as if you had 200 kilos on your back and jump in the air as high and as hard as you can. It should literally be almost a max effort rep in terms of effort and force development. The platform is just what you land on, not what you jump to. Keep the descent into the jump shallow and quick to get the maximum stretch reflex.

Keep doing your regular strength training with heavy weights, and incorporate some of this power stuff on days where it won’t affect that strength work – the more weight you can squat, the stronger your legs are, so the more force they can develop. Do your speed and power work first in the session after a warmup, though.

Let us know how that goes! If you want any more help programming this stuff into your training just pop in for a chat!

"BCAA's. Worth it?" - Jamie

BCAA’s are actually one of the few supplements that are worth taking. Along with a protein supplement for obvious reasons, fish oils for their anti-inflammatory effects and healthy fats, and a multivitamin for general health, BCAA’s are great for a few reasons.

Firstly the three branched chain amino acids (Valine, Leucine, and Isoleucine) are all essential amino acids meaning the human body can’t synthesize them so they have to be taken in as part of the diet. Leucine especially is incredibly important in building muscle and stopping the breakdown of existing muscle, and Isoleucine can be fed into a few different energy pathways during exercise (it can also be used to generate both glucose and ketones).

So in a nutshell, yes. BCAA’s are definitely worth taking. From a personal perspective when I took them regularly before and after exercise I definitely found my performance in the gym was better, and over the period of a few months when I was taking them my strength certainly increased drastically. This wasn’t all down to the BCAA’s, mind you, but I think they were definitely a contributing factor.

The only caveat is the price. The powder form is the one you want to go for just for ease of taking the required amounts (10-30g per day) and it will run you up a hefty bill if you take them for a long time.

If you can afford them, go for it. If you can’t, it’s not the end of the world.

"Should I be seduced by isolation, or maintain flogging the muscle twice-weekly? I can only train three days per week with any degree of consistency. However, I've always felt that I need to hit everything twice per week to get the best results. I've been training for a while and I'm knocking on a bit... Would I be better served by a three-day split that only hits everything once per week, but permits more sets and more exercises per bodypart. The goal, as ever, is the acquisition of muscle." - James

There’s a couple of ways you can go about this, really. While isolation exercises certainly have their place in some programs – mainly for strengthening weak points that might not get enough work from compounds like triceps, biceps, rear delts, calves, traps etc – they don’t make a huge difference to development, put a lot of stress on the joints (since the force is usually through the one joint) and aren’t as optimal in terms of using your time efficiently. Compound movements really are where it’s at in terms of stimulating the maximum muscle growth.

There are some simple things you can do with your current routine to start the gains coming again like timing your rest periods to make sure you’re getting that cumulative fatigue from set to set. If you stick strictly to 60 seconds between each set for hypertrophy you’ll find the workout a lot more difficult, doing sets of 10-15 reps with that little rest is brutal.

Progressive overload is critical in gaining muscle too, the best way to get bigger is to increase your strength in a certain rep range. Rather than increasing your 1-3 rep maxes increasing your weights with some volume is a tried and tested way of getting stronger and bigger. For example, if I do 4x10 with 60kg one week, next week I’ll add 2.5kg to the bar and do 4x10 again, then next week if I get the full 4x10 I’ll go up again.

The key to making this work is starting with weights you know for a fact you can do for the full 4x10 (or whatever rep range you’re using) to give you that breathing space to be able to increase every week. Err on the side of starting too light!

If you’re up for a bit of a change of pace, and find high frequency training has worked for you in the past, you can try a program based around the Squat/Pull/Press method. Essentially what this boils down to is training three times a week and doing a type of squat, a pull, and a press every single workout.

Your rep ranges can be regular hypertrophy things, anything from the basic 3x10 to 5x20 – again, keep your rest periods nice and short and when you manage the full rep range with a certain weight, increase it by the smallest amount possible and keep going. Start light!

Your exercise choices can pretty much be anything you like, just pick three of your favourite squats, three of your favourite pulls, and three of your favourite presses and have at it. My choices would be Back Squat, Front Squat, and Zercher Squat from pins; Deadlifts, Bent Over Rows, and Shrugs; then for presses I’d do Bench, Military Press, and Dips. Organise your exercises into three separate workouts each with a squat, a pull, and a press in whatever order or arrangement that makes “sense”.

Give it a go, let me know how it works out for you!

"I have a student who's trying to slim down and has asked, 'what is the quickest way to lose fat?'. Should she be going for the sweatiest highest energy session she can, counting calories, or doing short bursts of exercise??" - Tori

The most important thing to bear in mind, especially with weight loss, is that more exercise doesn't necessarily mean more weight loss. A lot of people (and women especially) focus a lot on the whole calories in/calories out aspect and do enough cardio that if that were true they'd lose all their body-fat and disappear into thin air within a month.

Unfortunately when you do too much exercise, like low intensity cardio for hours on end, all that happens is your body gets incredibly good at using fat as a fuel source and so after a few months of this it hardly needs any actual body-fat to get the maximum amount of energy out of it to fuel those workouts. Not only that but the more energy you use up during exercise the more your body will adapt your metabolism to slow down and conserve that energy in a highly available form - fat stores! That’s why there are so many women out there who do more cardio in a week than I do in a month (or six) and often end up worse off than they were before.

The best thing your student can do is start a moderate exercise program including weight training, intense but short cardio sessions like sprints, and a little steady state cardio afterwards. The weight training will gear her body towards storing energy in the muscles rather than the fat stores, the intense cardio will increase her metabolism for up to 24 hours afterwards and burn more calories at rest as well as liberating fatty acids from fat stores, and the steady state cardio (which primarily uses fat as fuel) will mop up those fatty acids so they aren't stored again.

In terms of the diet (which is the most important thing in fat loss) increase protein intake through lean meats (chicken, turkey, lean beef and pork), fish, eggs, and protein shakes - try and get some protein with every meal. Also decrease processed carb intake - fruit and veg, high fibre cereal, sweet potato, oats, brown rice/pasta, and rice cakes are good choices. Fatty foods aren't necessarily the enemy, carbs are the thing you want to limit - still stick to nuts, olive oil, avocado, and coconut for your main fat sources.

Hope that helps! That's a lot of information to relay to her, but if she wants any more help with the specifics tell her she's more than welcome to comment on the blog! I’ll be doing a whole article on this very soon so keep your eye out for that!

***

And there we have it! Thanks to everybody who submitted a question, we'll be doing one of these Q+A slots every month so if you have anything relating to health, fitness, the gym, nutrition, sports etc that you want answered either leave a comment on this post, email us at enquiries@daves-gym.co.uk with the subject "Q+A", or leave a post on our Facebook Page.

TTFN!

-Gaz

Somatotyping - Fact or Fiction?

2012-01-31T04:41:00.000-08:00

Developed by William Sheldon in 1954, somatotyping is a scoring system used to ascertain an individuals body-type and psychological traits in relation to three set categories. I'm 100% sure you've all seen them or heard of them over the years.

Endomorphs apparently store fat easily, have a wide bone structure, and a wide waist. Ectomorphs have long thin limbs, low fat storage and little muscle mass. Mesomorphs have a solid torso, wide shoulders and can't store much fat but build muscle easily.

Clearly most people start a program of exercise because they fit into one of these categories, and want to be more like one of the others. Generally, through years of inactivity and/or surviving off one piece of bread a day (i'm looking at you, students) you can be sure gym newbies are either an ectomorph, or an endomorph. Skinny, or fat.

Sheldon's theories were originally offered as an alternative to BMI, and he also ascribed psychological traits to the individuals purely based on their body type (this is slightly insane). Scores were arrived at by cataloguing 46,000 men from various ages and backgrounds (though a vast majority were either untrained or detrained in terms of physical fitness).

Since the 1950's the scientific community has, at best, shown somatotyping to be highly subjective and without much basis in fact. At worst it's been called pure quackery, damned to an existence on a dusty shelf with balance bands, homeopathy, and those pumps that make your cock bigger. (I.e. three ways to waste £20)

Unfortunately his work has been adopted by the public (and the bodybuilding community especially), providing a lot of excuses for why fat people "cant" lose weight, or why skinny people "cant" put on muscle, or why the people who can do those things through dilligence and hard work have only their genetics to thank for it.

You can see this by looking the following rankings of certain somatotype scores. Each score has a three digit number assigned to it (Endo-Meso-Ecto), scored from 1-7 representing to what extent each characteristic is displayed in the individual's physique.

So a pure type (ectomorph for example) would have a 7 in ectomorph, and a 1 in the other two. Easy peasy. In fact, the most common somatotype isn't any one of the three major types. It's actually 4-4-3 and in Sheldon's research was found in 600 out of 10,000 people. Next up is 3-4-4 with 570/10,000; then 3-5-3 with 560/10,000.

I'm gonna skip a few chapters and get to what we really want to know - the pure types! Uh...okay so it's more than a few chapters...oh here we are! The most common pure somatotype is.....(drum roll).....mesomorph. That's right, there are more pure mesomorphs in Sheldon's cohort than ecto's or endo's.

To be honest there's actually not much in it. Pure mesomorph was seen in only 3/10,000 people (that's not a typo), pure ectomorph was 2/10,000 and pure endomorph was only 1/10,000. Just take that in for a second - statistically there's a higher probability that you're more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Chris Moyles. I can't say i'm upset about that, to be fair.

Not only that but all somatotypes more frequent than 340/10,000 displayed a 4 or 5 score in mesomorph, suggesting that pretty much everybody has a great chance of building a lot of muscle, and everybody else only has a good chance slumming it down there on 2 and 3. Tsk.

There's also evidence that you can change your somatotype via exercise and proper diet, in Sheldon's own book at that, not to mention the decades of before and after pictures from people who actually work hard in the gym and achieve something rather than pontificating about being a hardgainer or why they think they have a thyroid problem.

Personally, i think the tree types are a great way to describe an already developed physique. For example Mike Mentzer has a very mesomorphic shape with his wide shoulders and solid musculature:

Whereas Frank Zane was more ectomorphic in proportions but turned his lack of comparative size to his advantage and created a statuesque physique that won him the Olympia three times!

Most powerlifters on the other hand are more towards the endomorphic end of the scale, like Dave Tate in his McDonalds years:

But even this side of somatotyping falls down because Tate himself drastically changed his type some years ago:

Hell, even the fatties of the iron game - strongmen - are starting to get ripped. Look at Derek Poundstone, rocking some epic traps somewhere between endo and meso:

My point is that all these guys have certain qualities that make them unique, but all of them started from the same place with an untrained, undermuscled, and over-fatted body. What does that say about somatotyping's real usefulness?

In conclusion, somatotyping is horseshit, hardgainers don't exist, and you're fat because of all that pie. Anybody who's stronger, more muscular, and more ripped than you has gotten that way because they spend less time crying into the internet and more time lifting weights and sprinting down the rec.

And that paragraph again in a less macho offensive way. Ahem.

There is absolutely no reason why you can't change your health, body, and quality of life TODAY except your willingness to get started. If you're sitting back on this pseudoscientific nonsense as a reason for why you can't succeed so "why bother" then you need to change your attitude. That's all. If you've been plugging away with no results for years and found this as a possible answer, get real - you're either not trying hard enough or you're not doing the right things. Find somebody who knows more than you and ask for help (the lovely trainers at Dave's Gym, for instance!)

The worst that can happen is that you'll lose the ability to disappear when turning sideways, or the ability to keep your keys and wallet safely under your manboobs. Depending on which side of the fence you start on.

Now get off the internet and go do something awesome with a barbell.

-Gaz
http://www.getlifting.info

Return of the Big Four

2012-01-29T04:05:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I wrote a short piece about "The Big Four" - four main compound exercises that you should stick to 90% of the time in the gym that would imbue you with the power of the gods and a body that would make all who gazed upon it weep with shame.

In this, the long awaited follow up (hah), I'll go through a whole gamut of ways to plug the big four exercises into your programs and get some really awesome results in 2012. There are four (i'm sensing a pattern here) solid programs in this article and not all of them will apply or appeal to you so pick the one you like the best and run with it for a few months and see where it takes you!

Lets get started!

Variation Method

A great way to use the big four is to train three times a week, but cycling four workouts. On each day make your first and main exercise one of the big four and the other exercises just variations of the remaining three, or exercises that target similar muscle groups. For example:

Workout A - Squats, DB Shoulder Press, Rack Pulls, Single Arm Pulldowns

Workout B - Military Press, Romanian Deadlifts, Inverted Rows, Front Squats

Workout C - Deadlifts, Dumbell Rows, Split Squats, Dumbell Bench

Workout D - Chinups, Leg Press, Barbell Incline, Good Mornings

Simple. This is a tough program because each workout is truly working the entire body from top to bottom. With that in mind take a bit of advice out of Jim Wendler's book and have a great day on your main exercise and a good day on your accessory. You can't kill yourself on everything all the time so listen to your body and know your limits. Speaking of Jim Wendler his 5/3/1 progression would be a near perfect fit with the big four in this template. Check it out at JimWendler.com.

This would work with just about any type of program periodization that's based around main lifts and accessory lifts. Take a look at my article on Bulking for Idiots for a system you can pretty much use as-is, and at Strength for Newbies and Doug Young for ways to periodize your main lifts (you can just do standard hypertrophy for accessory stuff, 3-4 sets of 8-12 or something).

Pick your accessory lifts/variations to target your weak points in the big four and build them up. Over the course of a few months you'll see massive improvements in your performance on the main lifts, guaranteed. Your weak points might change with time as you get stronger so always evaluate the reasons behind what you're doing, but at the same time keep enough consistency to actually give yourself a chance to progress. A few weeks before changing accessory lifts is an absolute minimum.

A lot has been written on the concept of weak point training and it's outside the scope of this piece to go through it all, but essentially it's all about identifying where in an exercise you fail and plugging in a corresponding exercise to rectify that. If your bench fails at lockout then the answer might be 4-board press or rack lockouts, if your deadlift fails a few inches off the floor some low rack pulls could be the answer, if you lose it at the bottom of a squat do bottom-starts. You get the idea. Sometimes singling these things out just requires an extra set of eyes but sometimes you'll need somebody who's been there and done that ten years ago. With the advent of the web this is a lot easier, so do some digging and take lots of videos.

Single Lift Method

The single lift method is possibly the simplest way to approach training, bar none. You'll train X number of times a week - anywhere from twice to five workouts is fine, but as usual 3-4 tends to be a safe bet. In each of those workouts you'll pick one exercise to perform out of the big four and train it non-stop for 30 minutes. That's it. Do your warmup, set a bar up, and have at it against the clock. This is the very essence of KISS (keep it simple stupid) training and fantastic if you're strapped for time or don't have have a lot of equipment at your disposal.

In terms of the actual programming for the session despite being limited to only one exercise you actually have a lot of options, maybe more than usual. Here are three of my favourites:

Max Weight - Over the course of half an hour attempt a max single, double, or triple (your choice) in this exercise. Spend a lot of time warming up with sub-maximal weights and really getting your technique locked in. Gradually increase the weight and shoot for the heaviest weight possible. This doesn't have to be an all-time max (a daily max is okay), and using Prilepin's Table might be pretty useful in figuring out your volume for the heavy sets. You can also use Westside Barbell's method of maxing out if you'd prefer - details here (Wendler wrote that one too, fanboy alert).

Max Reps - An extreme form of density training in a lot of ways, simply do a few warmup sets for 10 minutes, then take the remaining 20 minutes to get as many reps as possible at a particular weight. If you're in the mood for doing a lot of reps use something lighter, if you're in the mood for shifting heavy iron put something heavy on there. Density means an amount of work in a given period - this doesn't necessarily need to be a lot of reps, just a lot of work. Put 95% of your 1RM on the bar and tell me it isn't work just because your total reps were in the single digits by the end!

TUT - Strangely enough this method is the hardest of the lot even though the weights you'll be lifting are practically nothing. This method will build your core strength and willpower faster than you'd believe! The premise of the workout is simple - warmup for 5 minutes, then for your working "sets" put a weight on the bar (any weight is fine but I suggest LIGHT) and start doing reps with it. The difference here is that I don't care about the reps, or the weight - all I care about is that you don't let go of the bar for the entire 25 minutes.

(In the squat this is easy since you just don't rack it and keep it on your back; for deadlifts I want you to hold it at the top between reps rather than resting it on the ground (this is one of the few times I'll allow straps because a 25 minute static hold is obscene - if you manage that get in touch!); for overhead presses keep the bar locked out above your head between reps; finally for chins simply hang off the bar (again, straps are fine here). Rows and bench are a little tricky so stick to overhead, and If you don't fancy chinups replace them with power cleans and keep the bar on your delts in the catch position between reps. This single lift workout is disgusting - only for the brave.)

For all three of these single lift styles (and any others you can think of really - 10x10, speed singles for power endurance, whatever you want) simply track your performance and try and beat it next time. You can either stick to one method for everything (be careful with the max weight version), cycle them, or chop and change. So long as you come back to the same method every now and again to gauge your progress you'll know if it's working. These are also good for one off sessions or when you want a break from a more structured program.

Frequency Method

This one is based off a routine I did a long time ago with near mythic results (okay that's bigging it up a tad but it was pretty awesome). The program is based around training each area of the body in higher frequency blocks before backing off and training a different area of the body in the same way. That makes about as much sense as tricep kickbacks but nevermind. It looks like this:

Workout A - Squats / Bent Over Rows

Workout B - Deadlifts / Bench

You'll train this split four times a week separated into two day blocks (A and B) with slightly different loading patterns. The first day in each block will be 5x5 for each exercise at the same weight (do a few warmups first). The second day in each block will be the very next day, and you'll do 3x5 (after warmups) on the same exercises using 90-100% of the weight you used the day before for the 5x5, and you'll build that up each week.

Monday - Workout A (Warmups, 5x5)

Tuesday - Workout A (Warmups, 3x5 @ 90-100% of Monday)

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - Workout B (Warmups, 5x5)

Friday - Workout B (Warmups, 3x5 @ 90-100% of Thursday)

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - Rest

If you can't follow the split above don't worry about it, just make sure that you train two days in a row for each block - don't separate them! If you want you can train two days on, one day off; or two days on, two days off; or even four days on, 3 days off or something similar. A few old school methods revolved around training incredibly hard for days on end before an extended layoff to supercompensate. If it works for you, give it a go - just alter your rest and nutrition accordingly.

The important things to bear in mind with this program is to start with a LIGHT weight on the 5x5 days. It'll be a challenge but you should get every single rep every single workout every single week - train to make reps rather than fail them. After your warmups stay with this working weight for all five sets. For the 3x5 days start off with 90% of the weight you used the day before, and each week increase it by 2.5% (round up) until you reach the same weight or slightly more on the 3x5 sets as you used on the 5x5 sets (E.g. 5x5 @ 200kg = 3x5 @ 180kg / 185kg / 190kg / 195kg / 200kg - over 5 weeks).

Once you get to this point increase your 5x5 weight by 2.5% and start the whole progression all over again. Because of the percentages the program can last between 4 and 6 weeks per cycle so it's pretty variable. The best thing to do is play it by ear. If you feel you need a deload or week off between cycles to get all your reps then take it. This program works the best if you're in it for the long haul, and will pay slow steady dividends as consistently as you want to stick to it.

After your main two exercises for the day I'd throw in some bodyweight stuff and cardio. I did 50 dips on Monday after Workout A, and 50 chinups on Thursday after Workout B. Both were with bodyweight in as many or as few sets as it took me to get to 50. On Tuesday and Friday I did some low or high intensity cardio depending on how my legs were feeling or how much time I had.

This setup really exploits the frequency element and because of that I grew like a weed training like this, my back especially. Not only that but lifting heavy weights two days in a row on the same exercise really forces you to push with everything you've got. By the end of a few cycles I was so inured to heavy deadlifting that I couldn't wait to test my max - something I was previously not too fond of.

Conjugate Method

I wrote an article about a conjugate program a long time ago and that method of periodization has gotten some great gains out of people who've ran it. This one is based on the same concepts of training multiple biometers to elicit maximal strength gains, and is as complicated as the single lift method is simple. Prepare for a lot of percentages.

Whereas the other conjugate program split the biometers up somewhat, this program has you training multiple biometers in the same session every session. It's pretty heavy going so feel free to alter the frequency to suit your abilities. Plenty of rest, sleep, food, and warming up are essential but you can become a pretty well-rounded lifter training like this. It's fun as hell, too!

Here's how each individual biometer is set up for each workout:

Exercise 1 - Dynamic Effort / Power = 8x3 @ 50-60% 1RM, 2:00 RI

The first exercise in each workout should be focused on maximum bar speed and power generation. Weight isn't important, and you can even alter it from set to set in order to maintain as fast a rep cadence as possible. Control the weight on the negative portion and explode with maximum force for the positive portion. However you measure the speed (feel, training partner, or if you're lucky enough to train at a facility with the equipment for this) make sure you're training for power rather than weight. The rest interval is set at two minutes to make sure you have enough time to recover and maintain the required level of speed.

Recommended Exercises = Speed Bench, Push Jerks, Speed Squats, Jump Squats, Dynamic Shrugs, Dynamic Pullups, Speed Deadlifts, Cleans.

(Speed Variations of the big four mainly, but extra things are also okay).

Exercise 2 - Maximum Effort / Strength = 7x2 @ 80-95% 1RM, 3:00 RI

The second exercise is a strength movement geared towards maximum effort. The seven sets of two indicated here doesn't include warmups, so take as many sets as you need to warm up to using 80%. Increase the weight from there to achieve the right level of effort for these sets. Again, you may have to alter the weights slightly from set to set and the weight doesn't need to be an all time 2RM record - just a maximal weight for that day. At the same time, don't be afraid to push it if you feel able. Because of the intense nature of these sets you'll need a good long rest to get the most out of them.

Recommended Exercises = Bench Press, Military Press, Squats, Front Squats, Bent Over Rows, Pullups, Deadlifts, Good Mornings.

(These exercises all have a place in your true big four. Whatever your main exercises are it almost certainly should be one of these).

Exercise 3 - Repeated Effort I / Hypertrophy = 4x8-12 @ ~75% 1RM, 1:00 RI

The next exercise will be aimed at increasing muscular hypertrophy in order to accommodate future strength gains. Using roughly three quarters of your one rep max stay within the 8-12 rep range for all four sets, even though you may get more or less from set to set. The key here is to perform a lot of volume in a fairly short amount of time to stimulate muscle growth and the best way to do that is with a moderate amount of reps which bring the targeted muscle groups to a state of near failure on each set - the number of reps required to achieve this will generally be lower and lower with each set due to cumulative fatigue. Like the power and strength exercises we're training for a particular muscular state rather than a set number of reps or weight, and a higher performance earlier in the workout may very well change things compared to your previous session.

Recommended Exercises = Bench Press, Military Press, Squats, Front Squats, Bent Over Rows, Pullups, Deadlifts, Good Mornings.

(Are you noticing a pattern here? Whichever of those exercises you don't count as your big four should still turn up in your program in some other capacity).

Exercise 4 - Repeated Effort II / Muscular Endurance = 3x15-20 @ ~60% 1RM, 0:30 RI

Much like the goal of the hypertrophy biometer, muscular endurance takes it to an extreme past hypertrophy stimulation so to elicit an adaptation in your muscle's ability to maintain continuous work output. If hypertrophy is training to elicit failure and growth, muscular endurance is training to resist that failure and achieve greater performance. These sets are a lot faster paced than the others, and this time really shoot for maximum reps even at the cost of reducing the weight. This will burn a lot.

Recommended Exercises = Dips, Pushups, Bodyweight Squats, Lunges, Shrugs, Face Pulls, Hyperextensions, Reverse Hypers.

(This is where you can use some extra exercises to target a few smaller areas which don't get enough direct work. Little weaknesses will hold you back more than you think.)

I know that looks like a lot of stuff for one workout, and training all these different biometers at once for one particular exercise is not only sub-optimal but nigh on impossible too. Thankfully, I've thought about this a little. Instead of performing one type of exercise per workout you'll use an upper/lower split set up like this:

Monday - Upper Pull / Lower Push

Tuesday - Lower Pull / Upper Push

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - Lower Push / Upper Pull

Friday - Upper Push / Lower Pull

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - Rest

Unlike the frequency method discussed earlier the split in this program can be stretched out as much as you like. Train twice, three, or four times a week if you want, or go by how you feel. If you have a good week train a lot, if you're feeling tired train less times. I'm a reasonable man.

When choosing your exercises to plug into this template simply alternate them based on the split, so a sample training week could look like this:

Monday - 1. Dynamic Shrugs / 2. Squats / 3. Bent Over Rows / 4. Walking Lunges

Tuesday - 1. Speed Deadlifts / 2. Bench Press / 3. Good Mornings / 4. Dips

Thursday - 1. BB Jump Squats / 2. Pullups / 3. Front Squats / 4. Face Pulls

Friday - 1. Speed Bench / 2. Deadlifts / 3. Military Press / 4. Hyperextensions

As you can see you're never training the same movement pattern with things that conflict with eachother too much. For any particular muscle group or movement pattern the power training is always paired with hypertrophy, and strength is paired with muscular endurance, and never all on the same day for that type of exercise.

Performing strength or power training with higher rep "pump" work is a concept that's been used for decades by people from Doug Hepburn to Westside Barbell to name but two, and with great effect. Lots of folks on training forums have achieved fantastic gains with my own "Destroy & Flood" programs (Part I / Part II), which are also based on this very concept. It just plain works. The original "Destroy & Flood" workout is in the workout folder by the Dave's Gym blokes changing rooms.

This approach is a technical one, and don't underestimate the importance of specific rest intervals, rep ranges, and intensity levels to train each biometer correctly. Also remember that you're often training to achieve a certain physiological state to elicit a specific adaptation, so the same programming might not produce the same result from set to set and session to session. I would say this is a program for the advanced lifter just from the amount of attention you need to pay to your abilities and performance to get the most out of it, since those things are what determine when and how much you'll progress.

And there you have it! Four programs to get you into shape for the imminent end of the world in 2012. If the mayan calendar is going to kill us all you may as well have a six pack. If you have any questions about how to implement these programs or tailor them to your specific goals either leave a comment or come chat to me in the gym when you're next in.

Train hard!
-Gaz
http://www.getlifting.info

Dave’s Gym Top 5 Fictional Badasses of All Time!

2012-01-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

Hello there! After posting our top 5 real life bad asses of all time, I thought we would enlighten you all with our top 5 fictional badasses of all time. Being a complete nerd, this list was not difficult to come up with. I’ve been debating ultimate bad asses since I wow’d at my first action flick or nerd-gasm’d at my first ever comic book. Fictional guys are fun because they aren’t haltered down by the boring aspects of every day life like gravity, injury or common sense. On a side note I would like to add that Batman is not on this list. Unfortunate, as In my eye’s he is the coolest thing since sliced awesomeness, (if you read the comics) however if I’m brutally honest, I’ve still not recovered fully from the atrocity that was 1997’s Batman and Robin….

5 - Legolas

Legolas is an elf. Perhaps the most sissyish looking of all creatures. He is slim, blonde and pretty. Not badass. He spends much of his time uttering pure drivel like “a red sun rises. Blood has been spilt this night” or reciting poetry.

“Song of the South
Silver flow the streams from Celos to Erui
In the green fields of Lebennin!
Tall grows the grass there. In the wind from the Sea
The white lilies sway,
And the golden bells are shaken of mallos and alfirin
In the green fields of Lebennin,
In the wind from the Sea!”

Did u catch any of that? Neither did I.

Any way, when he’s not talking nonsense in English, he’s chatting delightful rubbish in Elvish. If daises could speak, they would speak Elvish. Why, I hear you cry are we starting off the list with the cream puff of middle earth?

I consider surfing down a flight of stairs on a shield, shooting orcs all the while keeping a body count pretty badass, not to mention free running up the flanks of an olyphant, (a colossal four tusked elephant to you and I) then shooting it point blank in the back of the skull, only to slide down its enormous trunk with ease and finesse. I don’t care what realm you’re from, that’s friggin cool! In addition to that, being an immortal badass, he undoubtedly has the highest body count of any creature in middle earth minus Sauron.

Legolas you effeminate macho man we love you!

4 - Ellen Ripley

Lieutenant Ellen Ripley is or was a space cargo hauler, who came into contact with highly aggressive parasitic extra terrestrials which…”gestate in living human hosts and have concentrated molecular acid for blood.' Now, aliens or Xenomorph’s to our resident nerds are the most nightmarish creatures in the known galaxy. Their teeth are sharp, their body’s are slimy, and their heads phallic.

If Sigmund freud was a psychospaztic sociopathic nymphomaniac this is the creature he would come up with sitting alone in his shed…skinning baby animals and using their blood for paint.

Feelings and manners are as alien (excuse the pun) to her as peace time is to a republican. Not to mention her coolest attribute, she holds a class 2 Power Loader licence which she uses to subdue the alien queen (think alien on steroids with gnarlier teeth). If you can stand toe to toe with the alien queen, and have the balls to scream “get away from her you BITCH” you are worthy of this list. She obviously has no balls yet managed to throw the queen out the airlock. "Micro changes in air density my ass!"

Her defining bad ass-tribute however is unquestionably her relentless pursuit to rid the galaxy of these slimy critters once and for all. A pursuit which has spanned three films, even coming back from the dead in the fourth and final film to once again kick some alien ass. Sorry Hudson, you are not the ultimate badass Ripley is. Bugger off.

3 - Rorschach

Walter Joseph Kovacs, or Rorschach as he would prefer to be called is a primary character in the Watchmen series of comic books. Most would define him as an anti hero. I respectfully disagree. Anti-hero’s are pretty badass yes, but they have a soft side, a good side, a clear line between right and wrong. Morals if you will. Rorschach is a morally driven character. In fact that’s the very essence of his who he is. He has a very distinct, clear cut no bullshit line between absolute right and absolute wrong. There is no grey area with him. So if he has set morals just like any other anti hero what makes him so different? What sets him out as more badass from the rest?

Rorschach is a fucking sociopath. A delusional deranged sociopath. There’s no other way I can describe him. Don’t get me wrong he is a ‘good guy’…somewhat. His view of good however has been warped and mutilated by his tangled mind.

He would kill you for stealing a stick of gum. This is how his mind works. Gum + stealing = wrong = throw this thieving bastard of a 12 storey balcony.

The main turning point in his transformation from crazy-sane Walter to fucking nutter Rorschach however was in the investigation of a disappearance of a young girl, finding her remains being chewed on my two large dogs.

This is where the real bad-assery begins. After Rorschach killed the two dogs with a meat cleaver, he waited in the shadows for the murderer to arrive. He threw the dogs dead body’s at the murderer and proceeded to handcuff him to a stove and cover him with kerosene, giving him a hacksaw. Our jolly hero then set the house on fire giving the killer the option to saw his own hand off or burn alive. (A fair choice in Rorschach’s mind) He chose to burn.

If we go on the events of the movie however, Rorschach in his blind rage chose to handcuff the killer to the stove….then use the meat cleaver to cleave his face. Repeatedly. Over and over and over again. Not a nice way to go.

On top of that this man is resourceful when it comes to killing. He has used pepper, to blind cops, a toilet bowl, a fork a cigarette and his jacket as weapons. My personal favourite improvised killing device however has to be the hairspray match stick combo to make shish kebab of any police officer that would want to lock him away.

Nevertheless, his defining bad ass moment has to be after he was caught and incarcerated.

While waiting in line to get his lunch the unmasked hero gets confronted by the big dog in the yard. The prisons head gangster who wanted to make an example out of Rorschach by getting his shank on. Rorschach, being in no mood to be any one’s prison bitch decided to retaliate. By killing him. But no not in a humane kick to the nuts and snap your neck fashion, this is Rorschach we’re talking about here. Our ginger haired headcase decided he should send the inmate to the after life by grabbing the deep fat fryer and pouring the sizzling oil over his opponent while screaming…

“None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. YOU’RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!!”

2 - Kratos

"Be quick with your words!"

Kratos is the protagonist in the God of War video game series. I would like to note that I use the term ‘protagonist’ very loosely. I say protagonist because you are following his story but I bull shit you not he is a fucking villain! This man is the reason there are no more Greek gods. He killed them all.

He is well known for his defiant nature, (“A choice from the gods, is as useless as the gods themselves.”)
His brutality,(I am not the same man you found that day, the monster you have created has returned. To kill you.) Incredible one liners (“Tell the God of War I am his no longer, I will find Pandora's Box, and I will use it to see him tremble before me.") and his relentless not give a fuckery.

A Spartan warrior who, after tasting defeat at the hands of the barbarian horde, made a deal with Ares the god of war to save him in return for eternal servitude, extended powers of asskickery and a pair of huge axe like blades grafted onto his arms with giant flaming chains named the blades of chaos, which are the perfect medium to channel his pent up rage.

To cut long stories short, Ares tricked Kratos into unknowingly murdering his family (to make him in to a better warrior). As a result, an oracle cursed Kratos to always carry the ashes of his loved ones on his skin for all to see which explains his pale complexion. Nicknamed the Ghost of Sparta, Kratos decided to start running around murdering everything in sight, ending his killing spree with Ares.

From then on he was the new god of a war. The only mortal to ever kill a god. When this wasn't enough to satisfy his unquenchable blood lust, he then destroyed a living Colossus of Rhodes, got himself killed by Zeus, climbed out of hell, killed all the gods, their friends, the Titans, all the Greek heroes, a ton of monsters, himself, and anything else retarded enough to get in the way of his giant whirling blades of death. He ran around murdering or humping his way through the entirety of Greek mythology in a way that would make anyone gain a new found appreciation for the term badass. Honestly, check out the Wikipedia List of God of War Characters.

Nearly everyone on the list ends with either "Killed by Kratos" or "Sex Mini-Game.” Kratos is certainly the most badass video game character ever to turn a person from a bunch of pixels to one big mass of blood coloured explosion. When Kratos isn't ripping a Cyclops' eye out of its head with his fists or punching Hercules in the face, he's showing absolutely no mercy or pity or sanity in any capacity whatsoever. He ultimately gets his revenge (by killing everything), achieves ultimate redemption (by killing more people), and celebrates by killing anything on Earth not already lying face-down in a pool of whatever it uses for blood.

1 - Maximus Decimus Meridius

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next...”

And here we are folks. The official Dave’s Gym number one bad ass of all time. Maximus Decimus Meridius, was a general of the roman army, turned slave, turned gladiator, turned badass. A Spaniard by birth, he dreams nothing more of completing his term and getting home to his beloved family. He just has to kill a hell of a lot of Germanic’s to get there. Long story’s short, he was selected by the emperor Marcus Auralius to succeed him as the next emperor. His son Commodus, insulted at the very notion ordered Marcus and his family dead. (After he murdered his father of course). He manages to escape execution with the help of a little sticky blade frost, kills his captors and escapes before being captured again, sold as a slave and then kills, executes and massacres his way to being the crowd favourite. “Are you not entertained!? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?”

He is a bad ass for many reasons. Throwing a bloodied sword at his captors whilst spitting at the crowd, besting the undefeated warrior Tigris in the arena after killing a tiger with a sword, I could go on and on. If you don’t believe me, dig Gladiator out of your DVD collection and give it a watch. Aside from being a great film, it is basically a list of how badass a person can possibly be in one short lifetime.

There is however one reason and one reason only why he has earned the highly coveted Dave’s Gym Ultimate badass trophy.

When a beautiful woman is all over you and you simply can’t be arsed (a position I constantly find myself in) you generally ask for a rain check. Maximus however is able to dismiss her with the line “I’m tired from battle”.

I’m sorry but if you are able to pull of the line “tired from battle” and not have some one laugh in your face you are the badest badass on the planet. Imagine actually being able to say that. Sorry mum I can’t tidy my room I’m tired from battle, or sorry Dave, far too tired to clean the cardio machines, tired from battle. Amazing.

Well there we have it folks. Our top 5 fictional badasses of all time. Hope you enjoyed your stay in badassville.

Strength and honour!

- Zucko.

A Day in the Life: Wednesday 18th January

2012-01-18T08:55:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! The Dave's Gym training log strikes again.Some good sessions today!

Matt Strong (Distinctly average at Rugby)

Forging awesomeness! Solid S+C session:

1. Clean Pulls - 6x2

2a. Bench Press - 4x5
2b. Weighted Chins - 4x5

3a. Inverted Rows - 4x8-12
3b. Dips - 4x8-12

Gaz (Dave's Gym Wall of Famer)

Fresh off his first cut ever, Gaz is getting massive with some hypertrophy training:

1. Standing BB Calve Raises - 2x20

2. Deadlifts off 5" Blocks - x5, x4, x3, x2, x1 (Increase Weight each set) then 1xAMAP at the 2 rep weight = x25 reps today.

3. BB Shrugs - 5x20

4. Leg Press - 1xAMAP = x45 Reps today.

5. Cable Palloff Press - 3x12

Matt Richardson, Dave himself, Danny Zucko (The three stooges)

Circuit training in the park for ultimate fitness:

4 x Empty Prowler pushes (Half Pitch) + Pull back
4 x Prowler pushes with 30kg (Half Pitch) + Pull back
4 x Prowler pushes with 60kg (Quarter Pitch) + Pull back

While one person is struggling with that, the other two are split between other stations doing:

5 x BB Thrusters with 50kg
Sprint
5 x Pullups
Sprint
10 x Kettlebell Swings 24kg
Sprint, start again

Until person 1 is finished with the prowler. PHEW!

***

Until next time ladies and germs!

Be Raw, Get Raw

2012-01-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

This is an easy way to increase your gains in just about any avenue of resistance training with the barest minimum of fuss. Whether or not you follow the sport of Powerlifting, the competitions themselves are divided into two camps - Raw, and Equipped. Put simply the equipped guys (and gals) make use of support equipment like squat and bench suits, belts, knee wraps, wrist straps and supports, etc etc whereas the raw lifters aren't allowed to use support equipment (usually they're allowed a belt, sometimes straps and knee wraps but not always).

Perhaps unsurprisingly the equipped lifters almost always lift more weight. A good squat suit can add up to 100kg (220lbs) to a 1RM squat, maybe more! A good bench suit isn't too dissimilar either, with the world records in Squat, Bench, and Deadlift all being around 1000lbs. Obviously for the raw lifters not only are the numbers lower across the board but there's also a lot more disparity between lifts (generally your squat and deadlift will be more than your bench).

So what does all this have to do with general gym shenanigans for the weight lifter and athlete?

Even though support equipment is incredibly useful in competition to get that edge and confidence to perform better, when you're training using too much support equipment is just going to hold you back and create weak links. Abused too much and those weak links might even lead to injury.

Lifting Belt -
Worn around the waist to support the lower back and core and provide something for the midsection to brace against. In competition this provides another layer of support and strength to what should be an already strong back and abs, and since you're maxing out in competition the safety element is big confidence booster. Using a belt too much in training will take a lot of the stress off the lower back muscles while taking no stress off the rest of the body, the net result is that your lower back and core get undertrained are weaker in comparison with the rest of you. What usually happens is that you'll try to lift something one day and while you're perfectly capable of lifting it, without a belt your core can't do it's job in supporting the spine and you get an injury. Eventually if you get strong enough not even the belt will be enough to help your core support the weights you're trying to lift.

Straps -
Worn on the wrists and wrapped around the bar to anchor the lifter to the bar. This effectively takes the hands almost completely out of the equation, and makes it nigh on impossible to drop the weight. In competition this is great because the last thing you want is to fail an attempt because your hands slipped. In training using straps all the time leads to vastly under-developed forearms, hands, and grip strength, all of which are absolutely critical for athletes of any sport and for being able to continually progress in the gym. Not only that, but in using straps you have no need to grip the bar as tightly which decreases your overall muscular tightness through the arms and shoulders, a situation that could possibly lead to a pull or tear.

Wrist Wraps -
These are worn around the wrists to provide support much like a lifting belt does for the torso. They are wrapped tight to compress and limit movement in the wrists and hands. When dealing with maximal weights in competition one slip of the wrist and you could land yourself with an injury or drop the weight, especially in things like bench press or overhead press you want the wrists and hands to be as stable as possible. In training however using wraps as a crutch leaves your wrists weakened and undertrained, again just opening yourself up for an injury later on.

Knee Wraps -
Knee wraps aren't used just as support but for assistance as well. Wrapped around your knees tight enough to make your ears bleed, when you get to the bottom of a squat the elasticity of the material springs you back up again. They also stop your knees from buckling when walking a heavy weight out of the rack. In competition the benefits should be obvious here, you'll be able to lift more weight. In training the main thing i dislike them for is giving people a false sense of how strong they are when the wraps are lifting that extra 20-30kg, not you.

There's a time and a place for support equipment and that place is the competition platform. If you can do it without equipment it's going to be that much easier when you do use it, and you may get that edge you've been looking for. Get raw and get strong and be confident in the knowledge that you can walk into any gym anywhere at any time in your street clothes and do something awesome.

-Gaz
http://www.getlifting.info

A day in the life. Thursday 12th Jan 2012.

2012-01-13T04:36:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be interesting for you to see what the various boys and girls at Dave's is up to in their training.

Dave - Trying to get fitter and lighter for The Thunderwalk, a 54 mile, 24 hour trek through Wales in May.

Blergh . . . today is a prowler session with Matt Richardson. Not content with merely pushing and pulling the infernal contraption, which trust me is more than hard enough, we're also going to take an Olympic bar and some weights down to the park as well. The workout will look something like this:

50m prowler sprint pushing x 3

50m prowler sprint pulling with a harness x 3

Add some weight and do it all again - 3 x push and 3 x pull

Attach some rings or a TRX and do some explosive drag and push drills.

Circuit of death - 100m prowler push while your partner does cleans, presses, rows, deadlifts, etc with the bar for 20 mins non-stop.

Dan Bishop - Trying to be the world's first 18 stone footballer.

A conditioning circuit with a difference for Bish today, who's going to be training with Matt Strong.

1 rep dumbbell snatch each side. (Heavy)

2 reps Romanians. (Also heavy)

3 reps Bench press. (Incredibly heavy)

4 reps Chin ups from a dead hang. No kipping crossfit boy. (Body weight - which is really heavy)

5 reps Ab rollouts. (Not heavy just hard)

Repeat 5 times. Followed by some sprints on the rowing machine.

Rhod - Getting back in shape after knee surgery.

A cardio session for Rhodders today who will be back on the weights next week.

Light jog 15mins.

Interval sprints 30 secs on 30 secs off for 5 mins.

Balance work on a BOSU ball.

TRX pistol squats - 3 sets of 15 reps on each leg.

Skipping - 3 rounds of 100 rotations.

Zoe - Also doing the Thunderwalk.

Zoe likes training but hates the mind numbingness of steady pace cardio. Death to the crosstrainer, long live the squat rack.

5 min bike.

5 min jog.

Superset of Bench press/Bent over row - 3 sets 15 reps.

Superset of Squats/Romanians - 3 sets 15 reps.

Superset of Chins/Dips - 3 sets 5 reps

Circuit - 8 jerks, 8 rear leg elevated split squats each leg, 400m row for 4 circuits.

Chosing the right routine.

2012-01-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

Well done! You've made the decision to start training. But what are you going to do and how are you going to do it? In this article I'm going to give you the Top 3 requests we get at Dave's Gym for training programs and, because I love you, I'll also include a sample workout for each one.

I wanna lose weight.

Far and away the number 1 request we get at Dave's Gym is Weight Loss. It also highlights one of the many differences that we get between male and female clientele. Ladies, as a sweeping generalisation, ask for "weight loss". Where on the other hand guys want "fat loss" or a "six-pack".

Ladies, I'm afraid to say, the boys have got the correct mind set on this (and probably only this) occasion. There is a worldwide obsession with weight loss. From Weightwatchers bung it in the microwave lasagna to "how to lose 5 pounds in 5 days" articles in magazines there is a tsunami of weight loss propaganda in the media.

What you really, really need to realise is that being healthy and looking good has absolutely nothing to do with your weight. Nothing whatsoever. What is important for your health, general well being, longevity and appearance is having a safe low amount of body fat.

How to achieve and maintain a low percentage of body fat is as much to do with your diet as it is the training regime you follow. But as this article is about the training aspect of fat loss we'll save the diet chat for another time. What I will say on the subject of nutrition is this;

eat 3 main meals per day,
have 2 small snacks in between meals,
each meal and snack must contain protein,
don't each much in the way of carbs, and when you do eat carbs try to stick mainly to the holy trinity of oats, sweet potato and brown rice,
take some good quality fish oils,
eat plenty of fruit and veg,
to replace the energy that you'll miss out on with being on diminished carbs use nuts, seeds, coconut oil, avocados and extra virgin olive oil instead,
drink plenty of water.

And ladies as a rule most guys prefer this:

To this:

The routine

Warm up - 5 Min's cycle or run gradually making it harder. Followed with a bunch of body weight style exercises.

Superset #1 - Standing dumbbell press done one arm at a time followed with Goblet squats. Do 4 sets of 8 reps on each with no rest between the exercises and only 30 seconds rest between supersets.

Cardio #1 - Run, walk, crawl or lurch 500m on a treadmill set at a 5% incline.

Superset #2 - Dips followed by Chin-ups. What you have to do here is 50 reps on each one in total. Just change from one exercise to another every time you crash and burn. It doesn't matter if it takes you 2 sets or 20.

Cardio #2 - Same as cardio #1.

Superset #3 - Front squat and Press up ladder. Do 1 front squat and 1 press up. Now do 2 front squats and 2 press ups. Then keep adding 1 rep to the total of each exercise until you get to 10 reps on each.

Cardio #3 - Same as cardio #1.

If you are still able to blink without assistance at this point in the proceedings then you could always sit on a bike for an extra 10-15 mins of fat burning if you wish . . . but you don't have to.

I wanna tone up my arms and legs a bit.

If there was ever a phrase or collection of words that can drive even the mildest of gym instructors to a blind homicidal rage more then "tone up" then I know not what they are. Every time I hear them, a part of me dies a slow, agonising, choking death.

I want to be crystal clear on this, so listen very carefully - THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TONING UP. Really.

I want you to open a new tab on your computer and do a google image search for "toned female legs". Just be warned that unless you have your filters set to kill, or a broad mind, you might be in for a shock. Choose a pair of legs you like the look of and have a good long look at them. Now I can't pretend to know what sort of look gets your juices flowing but I'll be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that you can see the shape of the muscle under the skin. Maybe not much - but certainly a hint of definition. You're looking at those legs and thinking "My my, now those are one pair of nicely toned wheels."

Well, what makes them appear toned is the combination of two different things; 1) the muscle. 2) body fat low enough to be able to see the muscle. If one or both of these things are missing then what you are left with is a shapeless tube of flesh.

You can't tone muscle. You can make it bigger, smaller, stronger and more useful but you can't tone it. You also can't spot reduce certain pockets of fat, but miraculously leave others intact. When you burn fat it's taken from everywhere at the same time. Doing endless crunchies will not get rid of your muffin top or love handles.

So how do you tone up? In a way it's not too dissimilar to the previous weight loss program. Build a little muscle, burn a little fat.

The routine.

Warm up - 5 mins cycle or run gradually making it harder. Followed with a bunch of body weight style exercises.

Giant set #1 - Dumbbell clean and press, lunges with the same dumbbells held overhead, bent over row still with the same dumbbells, press ups, kettlebell swings. Do 5 reps on the dumbbell exercises and don't be scared of going quite heavy. On the press ups and kettle bells do 20 reps. Rest 1 minute after each circuit and do 3-5 circuits.

Row 1km

Giant set #2 - Load up a barbell and do 5 bent over rows, 5 military press, 5 front squats, 10 deadlifts and 10 press ups with your hands still on the bar. Rest 1 minute and do 3-5 circuits.

Run 1km

I wanna get hoooge.

I wanna get hoooge! The battle cry of skinny 16 year olds the world over. I'm not mocking anyone here or having a go. I was one of those 16 year olds up until about a year ago. No, I'm not 17 - I'm 112, but the desire to get bigger muscles has been with me for as long as I've been under the bar. Mine is the same story as about 50 million other wannabe gym titans. In the beginning there was the word and the word was Schwartzenegger.

To say I was obsessed would have been a gross understatement. I have whole chapters of his weighty tome "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" tattooed on my buttocks. Every word was absorbed. Every photo scrutinised. Every routine diligently followed. The results? Nitch, nil, zero, zip, nada.

It turns out, much to my eternal shame, that I'm not Arnie. Nor do I have his genetics. Nor his will full single-mindedness. Nor his usage of certain performance enhancing pharmaceuticals. Training twice a day, 6 days per week for 2 hours each time would only ever result in my early death. What I needed was something a little more basic and achievable.

The universe is vast and complex and infinite in it's many mysteries, but a truth that you can always bank on is that you will always find what your looking for when you stop actually searching for it. So after many fruitless years of following training routines that gave little or no results no matter how exactly stuck to I stumbled across the answer by complete accident.

I was working in Libya, for an oil company, in the middle of the Sahara desert. There was no state of the art, fully equipped gym close to hand. Hell, the nearest town was 500km away. We worked 12 hour days, 7 days a week in 50 degrees Celsius of sledgehammer heat. The only gym equipment was an Olympic bar and a set of rickety squat stands. I could only summon up the energy to train twice, sometimes 3 times a week, and only did about 30-40mins of basic barbell lifting. Squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, cleans, chin ups on the door frame, dips between some drilling pipe racks and that was about it.

I remember upon first looking at the lone bar, the collection of battered plates, the volcanically hot little metal container they were stored in and thinking "Christ, there is no way I'll be able to train properly in this shit-hole."

And so for 6 long, hot, exhausting weeks I worked like a dog and forced my way through basic workouts and, much to my complete and utter amazement, grew like a weed. It was a revelation. I was stronger, bigger, in better shape and more cut then I had ever been in my life.

Training less often, with less manic intensity and more focus on basic barbell training has been proven to me, time and time again, as the single most effective method of increasing strength and getting more muscular.

The routine

Day one.

Warm up - 5 mins cycle or run gradually making it harder. Followed with a bunch of body weight style exercises.

Squat - 3-5 warm up/technique sets. 3 working sets of 5 reps. Done with a low bar and a wide stance.

Bench press - as above.

Deadlift - as above.

Day two.

Warm up - 5 mins cycle or run gradually making it harder. Followed with a bunch of body weight style exercises.

Front Squat - 3-5 warm up/technique sets. 3 working sets of 5 reps.

Overhead press - as above.

Power clean - as above.

Day three

Warm up - 5 mins cycle or run gradually making it harder. Followed with a bunch of body weight style exercises.

Squat - 3-5 warm up/technique sets. 3 working sets of 5 reps. Done with a high bar and a shoulder width stance.

Dips - as above but 10 reps.

Chin ups - as above but 10 reps.

If you absolutely have to do anything else then you could include some bent over rows, more chins/dips or some good mornings. If you do keep the reps quite high (10-15) and try not to spend more then an hour in the gym in any session. Feel free to chuck in some short but brutal conditioning work on your days of but try to keep it under 20 mins. Eat LOADS, rest loads and grow like a baby whale.

Laters,
Dave Carter.

Dave’s Gym Top 5 Real Life Badasses of All Time!

2012-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Right then guys and girls, a bit of light reading to entertain your weary minds this week. Working in a gym, we come across some badasses time to time. All you need to do is stroll over to the squat rack to witness a shaved bear squat 300 kg’s with relative ease, or make my way to the dojo to find a room packed with fully grown men punching kicking and kneeing the snot out of each other. I am surrounded by badasses. Now, in my mind I’m the badest badass of the lot. I eat nails, shit lightning, and piss Red Bull.

In my mind.

Having said that, I feel I am more than qualified to define once and for all who the top 5 real life badasses are of all time, On to my list…

5 - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

I don’t think it would be possible to do a badass list without including Sir Ranulph. Perhaps the only person in recorded history to have been kicked out of the SAS for blowing things up. A natural born badass he decided a temporary bridge built on the movie set of Doctor Dolittle in the Wiltshire village of Castle Combe, known as one of the prettiest villages in England was displeasing to the eye. He dealt with this blot on the landscape by placing a little kablooey on the bridge before watching it go kablammey. Using his skills as a member of the SAS he managed to evade capture, until he was caught, prosecuted and ultimately booted out the SAS. After his time in the forces he made a career out of being a professional adventurer. Being the first person ever to have been to both the north and south poles by surface means, and the first to completely cross the Antarctic on foot. At the age of 65 he reached the summit of Mount Everest earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s greatest explorer.

On top of that, in 2000, after a failed attempt to cross the artic on foot, he contracted severe frost bite in his fingertips. His surgeon suggested to keep the already dead flesh attached to promote new growth before amputation. What do doctors know ay? 7 years in university to come out as a pencil necked gutless wimp. Fiennes drawing from his extensive badass-ucation decided the use of his fingers were overrated. Besides, fingers are only useful for two things:

1) Pulling a trigger.
2) Waving offensive hand signals, and he has a whole other hand spare to do all that.

Fiennes decided to go to his shed and hack them off himself. Jolly good fun. Despite suffering from a heart attack and undergoing a double heart bypass operation some years later, he decided the best way to break in his new and improved heart was to run seven marathons in seven days on seven continents a mere 4 months after his surgery.

His series of marathons were as follows:

26 October – Race 1: Patagonia - South America
27 October – Race 2: Falkland Islands - "Antarctica"
28 October – Race 3: Sydney - Australasia
29 October – Race 4: Singapore - Asia
30 October – Race 5: London - Europe
31 October – Race 6: Cairo - Africa
1 November – Race 7: New York - North America

He would later admit that although his surgeon approved the races on stipulation his heart rate did not exceed 130 beats per minute he forgot to pack his heart rate monitor. Wow mate, you’re on the list you crazy bastard.

4 - Jack Churchill

Ever heard the expression ‘bringing a knife to a gun fight?’ Now, change knife to sword and gunfight to World War II. Jack Churchill was a Hong Kong born Leftenant Colonel, warrior, and military head case. Nicknamed ‘mad Jack’ and ‘fighting Jack Churchill’ he was famous for carrying a long bow with Arrows (He is the only known British soldier to have felled an enemy with a longbow in WWII, using his signature barbed arrows) and…..a fucking claymore.

Not the explosive tripwire claymore’s that you would think were conventionally used in the army. No, he used the claymores namesake. A large two handed broadsword used by Scottish highlanders. He was famous, or should I say infamous for saying "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed." His claymore wasn’t ceremonial however. Not like the pansiesque little ceremonial swords the marines wear and never use, this maniac actually used his.

On one occasion he is credited with capturing a total of 42 Germans and a mortar squad in the middle of the night, using only his sword.

On a separate occasion he and his men went behind enemy lines through the barbed wire and mines pitching grenades all the while. Mr Churchill charged ahead, despite the pitiful attempts of his men to keep up, all but 6 got tagged off one by one, most likely by bullets ricocheting of mad Jack’s humongous sword. Of those 6, half were wounded and the only weapons they had left were pistols. Well, pistols and Jack’s gigantic sword. After a mortar shell zeroed in on their location, it killed everyone who wasn’t carrying a giant sword. Being the only survivor and surrounded by a swarm of Germans, Leftennant Colonel Jack decided to give the Germans one last FU and started playing ‘Will Ye No Come Back Again’ on his bagpipes…I haven’t mentioned the bagpipes yet have I? Yeah, he carried them next to his big fuck off sword.

After being sent to a concentration camp, he decided it wasn’t for him and left. He actually just walked out. Obviously the Germans must have been gobsmacked by the balls on this guy, so they did the obvious thing and sent him to a new concentration camp, with shit security. Not liking the facilities they had on offer he strolled out again. After walking 150 miles, being fuelled only by a rusty tin of onions, he was found by the Americans and sent home. On his arrival he demanded to be sent back out into the field, only to learn (to his annoyance) that the war had ended.

He later told his friends, "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"

Lad.

3 - Robert Henry Cain

Major Robert Henry Cain was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. During the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 his company was closely engaged by infantry, (men with guns) self propelled guns, (men behind bigger guns) and enemy tanks (huge gun strapped onto a massive metal…..car). On the 20th of September 1944, a tiger tank approached his company’s area. To me a tiger tank sounds like a giant tiger with a tank strapped to its back. I’m going to call it a tank-gerrr (tank plus tiger plus grrrr) Any way, Major Cain left the relative safety of his company and went out alone to battle the colossal beast armed with a piat (a piat is a relatively weak form of anti tank weapon. Think of a little bazooka/RPG on stilts).

Taking his position he held his fire until the tank was a mere 20 yards away, that’s 20. Yards. Away. Until he opened fire. The tank instantaneously stopped, turning its guns onto the soldier, and fired a round towards him obliterating a corner of the house directly behind. Although WOUNDED BY MACHINE GUN BULLETS and falling masonry, major Cain continued to fire upon the tank, not leaving until he connected with several direct hits immobilising the tank, before obtaining a 75mm howitzer absolutely obliterating poor old tank-gerrr…..only then would he allow the medics to dress his wounds.
The next day he managed to scare away THREE more enemy tanks, fearlessly and courageously using his piat. Its note worthy to mention mind that each time he did this, he left cover, taking his position in open ground with no regard for his safety. Fucking maniac!

Over the next couple of days he was stuck to danger like white on rice, leading his men by his heroic and unflinching example, encouraging them to stand their ground and not give up. Despite having a perforated eardrum and multiple gun shot wounds, he refused medical attention, focusing it on his injured comrades instead.

On the 25th September the enemy approached Major Cain's position yet again, using self-propelled guns, infantry and fucking FLAME THROWERS. By this time the last Piat had been put out of action and Major Cain was armed with only a light 2" mortar. He managed to utilise this weapon using a combination of skill and coolness to lead the few men under his command to victory, not by taking out the enemy, but by completely demoralising them after 3 hours of constant engagement. At this point the enemy decided to tuck tail and run home than to carry on scrapping with this nutter.

This man was the epitome of a real life super hero. His gallantry and leadership is stuff of legend and his bravery and ballsiness is why he has earned himself a spot on this list.

2 - Joan of Arc

“Forward! They are ours!”

That was the famous battle cry of Saint Joan of Arc, the young virgin, turned badass warrior chick who, before the French gained an affinity for waving their little white flags at every given opportunity (Jokes) led the French army to several important victories. Born in eastern France, she is our only bad ass to have Devine guidance. Whether God was actually speaking to her or whether she was a few cards short of a full deck is irrelevant. She not only was a master military strategist at the age of 19, but donned a pair of grapefruits that would make Vince fucking McMahon blush. Now I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of how she actually became a general. This is a badass list after all not a history lesson, but just so you know, she was visited by St Michael one day, told to go see Prince Charles VII, (as one does) and casually demanded control of his armies seeing as they were getting there bollocks handed to them. What she must have said to convince the prince to hand over control of his armies must have been epic. I think she gave him a full on “now I’m not angry, just disappointed” speech making him feel like a little bitch and giving him no choice but to see things her way. Any way to the point, what is a 19 year old virgin peasant girl doing on this list?

Saint Joan of Arc was a tough, devout, god-fearing crusader who wouldn't hesitate to bash you over the head with her sword if you stood between her and the liberation of her homeland from foreign oppression.

Unlike most male warriors who would let little complications like death get in the way, Joan survived through various grievous injuries and kept pressing through. In one battle, Saint Joan was hit in the neck with an arrow, pulled it out and continued putting boots to asses. In another battle, whilst scaling a wall, she got boshed on the head with a friggin cannonball. As to be expected of a warrior saint, she simply shook it off and kept climbing. Her William Wallace style leadership and battle style (100% attack) traumatized the English army whenever they met. She was captured on the 23rd of may 1430 by the Burgundians and eventually sold to the English, not before attempting escape by jumping out of a 70 ft tower in Vermandois to the soft earth below. She was tried as a heretic and burned at the stake, only to be renamed a martyr 25 years later. It took a further 500 years before she was officially canonised as a saint. Believe me as a Catholic myself, getting the Catholic Church to admit they were wrong, about anything is a feat among itself. St Joan, you were one tough cookie in life and an ultimate badass in death.

1 - Audie Murphy

If Captain America and the Incredible Hulk had a love child, Audie Murphy would be the resultant offspring. All three started out as inadequately feeble girly boys. All three through one fateful event or another got transformed into hulking figures of pure mannish manliness. After getting rejected by the air force and navy, probably due to his pipsqueakish appearance he applied to the army, who probably thought he would be a perfect candidate for their new ‘human shield’ programme. On joining he was instantly shit. Probably couldn’t do a push up and undoubtedly couldn’t climb that long ropey thing in the gym. The army tried to reassign him to cook duty but Audie, must have known his inner badass couldn’t be released peeling spud’s begged to stay put. One thing he was good at though was shooting. (Audie hunted from a very young age.) So was promoted to corporal during the invasion of Italy, at which point he caught malaria. Keep the malaria bit in mind, he had it for most of the war.

Sent to the south of France in 1944, he came across a German machine gun crew who pretended to surrender…then shot and killed his best bud. Murphy responded by totally hulking out, laying waste to the entire machine gun crew. Then, after running out of ammo, used the enemy’s discarded weapons to annihilate every baddie in 100 yards along with 2 more machine gun crew’s and a couple of snipers.

He received a Distinguished Service Cross, and was made platoon commander while everyone apologized abundantly for nicknaming him "Shorty."

6 months later his company was assigned to defend a critical region in France, even though all they had left was 19 guys (out of the original 128) and a couple of M-10 Tank Destroyers. The Germans turned up with lots guys and a shedload of tanks. Out gunned and out numbered, Murphy sent the tanks in to the Nazi maelstrom. The tanks came back as scrap metal. Our pint sized hero proceeded to hulk out again and go all John Rambo on their candy asses, jumping onto the back of a flaming tank and killing everyone who wasn’t a Nazi. Remember, this tank was on fire….and full of petrol. Audie must have known this. Nutter.

He kept on firing untill he was out of projectile Nazi killer, then jumped off the tank, walking casually towards his men as the blazing tank blew up behind him ala Antonio Banderas in Desperado.

All in all “Shorty” Murphy racked up a total of 33 medals including the Medal of Honour. After the war, he suffered a case of shell shock and got addicted to antidepressants. Instead of going to drug abusers anonymous sessions like some namby pamby crybaby he locked himself in a hotel room for a week and got over it.

On a side note, Audey Murphy went on to become a famous actor after the war. His first role was based on his wartime exploits, which he famously wanted toned down for the film, as he felt his berserker rage wouldn’t be believed by the general public. Modesty and badassery are a rare combination. Well done lil guy!

And there’s my roundup, of our top five real badasses of all time. Putting there real life boots to real life candy asses. Tune in next week for our top five fictional badasses of all time!

Yours brutishly,
Zucko.

Death by Prowler.

2012-01-05T01:41:00.000-08:00

Today is a Cardio and Conditioning day. What, you may well ask, is the difference between cardio and conditioning? The answer is: very little. They both involve doing something that elevates your heart rate and what that thing is doesn't really matter. I suppose if I was pushed in to having to actually define the difference it's that generally "conditioning" is hard, brutal and short bursts of activity and "cardio" is something that can be sustained for long periods of time. Also "conditioning" sounds all roughy-toughy and as if your a professional athlete preparing for an event and not merely a fat, middle aged man trying to discover his long vanished abs again.

Doing "cardio" summons up images of Lycra clad ladies mincing about on a cross trainer for 40 minutes in a full face of make-up while reading a book or watching Cash in the Attic and not raising a single bead of sweat. Now, my dear blogranauts, we all know that this type of training is about as much use as tits on a fish. For cardio to be of any benefit at all it has to be hard enough to force your body to have to adapt or die. That, ultimately, is all getting fitter, stronger, bigger or whatever is. Subject yourself to a level of physical stress then sit back as your body adapts to that stress and leaves you harder, faster, better, stronger in it's passing wake.

For fucks sake.

Within reason the more often you subject yourself to the correct amount of stress the quicker you'll get in to better shape. This blinding insight in how to achieve physical perfection does, however, come with a caveat. Your training, and the success of your training, is completely reliant on your ability to recover from it. Without adequate rest, food and maybe supplements you won't be able to adapt and if you can't adapt then you will not be catapulted in super, mega, buffdom.

For today's decent in to madness and lactic acid lunacy I'm going to be pushing a prowler across a muddy field with Matt Richardson. For those out there lucky enough not to know what a prowler is allow me to enlighten you. They are a metal sled on skis that you can load up with weight and then push, pull, drag and manhandle across various surfaces. They look like this:

And they make you do this:

Matt and I carried the infernal contraption over to some nearby fields and took it turns doing various drills with it. I can't describe to you how fiendishly effective the prowler is. 1 hours worth of cardio in 5 Min's - easily.

It also mashes your legs up as well.

Grrrr, blert, vom and wibble,
Dave Carter.

Day 1. Time to train.

2012-01-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's me. No more parties. Time to train. Sigh . . .

Ahhh... My first workout of 2012. I managed to do about 4 workouts over the Xmas period. Nothing heroic, I just did some strength stuff. Squats, bench, overhead press, dead lift and similar all for sets of 3-5 reps. I personally think that if your going to train infrequently then strength training is the best way to keep your fitness, condition, athletic ability, motivation and all round gnarliness from slipping the most. But then, I own a gym, so I would say that.

However, the sands of time have slid through the hourglass of fate and the first workout of a brand new year is upon us. As I outlined in a previous post my goal for the first half of this year is to get fit and light enough to survive a 57 mile yomp around the Brecon Beacons in sunny Wales. I'm not overly concerned about it really. It's a long walk with some friends not a race to the death against the SAS. That said I do want to do it well and not be fucked for a week afterwards.

So how fit do you need to be to walk around the green, green grass of Cymru (that'll be Wales for all you non-Welshies)? Well, not very fit at all really. Most people of reasonable fitness could manage to keep putting one foot in front of the other for long enough to complete the course. But I don't want to merely cope with it, I want to cruise it. I want to cruise it with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I need a cunning plan.

A Cunning Plan.

My own personal weight is the most critical factor in making this challenge a . . . well, walk in the park. Which of course it is, it's just that it's a National Park. The lighter I am the fewer kilos I've got to move with each step, and there is a lot of them. Steps and kilos that is.

After the Epicurean feast of Christmas I currently tip the scales at a lithe and slender 105kg. I reckon that by the time that May rolls around I want to be about 95kg. That gives me 10kg to lose and will mean I have to move 10kg less with each stride of up-hill and down-dale. I'm not sure how many strides to the mile I take but lets call it 2000. If I'm 10kg lighter then in 1 mile I'm having to lug 20,000 less kgs - which over a 57 mile course means I'm not having to move over 1 million kilos. Which, if my maths is right, is a lot.

Goal # 1 - be less fat.

What will also make life easier is if I can be as strong, or stronger, then I currently am but at a lighter body weight - then everything I do will require less effort. Physical strength is the most important element to all round fitness. If you're stronger then you're fitter. This is the truth.

Goal # 2 - get strong(er).

What is fitness? It's quite subjective: who is fitter a marathon runner or a sprinter? There is no real way of answering the question. A better question would be - Fit for what? What there is, however, are different aspects of fitness - Strength, Power, Muscular Endurance, Stamina, Flexibility, Balance, Co-ordination etc.

What I need to do is concentrate on the parts that will improve my performance on the walk, namely; strength, muscular endurance and stamina.

Goal # 3 - improve muscular endurance and stamina.

Unfortunately the best way to train for a long walk up several Welsh mountains would be to do exactly that, which is not possible for me to do with enough regularity to get any benefit from. With running the Gym, the kids, the rental property, rugby coaching and a ton of other stuff I'll be lucky to find the time to hit the hills at all. Whenever possible you should try to make the training as specific to the event as you can. As I won't be able to replicate race conditions what I plan to do is just get way fitter and stronger then you would need to be to walk all day and hope I don't get a blister 2 hours into it.

Putting it together

Monday - Squats, Bench, Dead lift, some volume work and a little circuit of nastiness.
Tuesday - Cardio and Conditioning work. Something deeply unpleasant.
Wednesday - Squats, Overhead press, Cleans, some volume work and a small circuit of horror.
Thursday - Cardio and Conditioning work. Gasp, pant, puke.
Friday - Squats, Bench, Dead lift, some volume work and a tiny circuit of vileness.
Saturday and Sunday - Probably rest but I might throw in the odd little run.

In the following week I would change the order of the weights sessions so I'll end up Overhead pressing and doing Cleans twice but only Dead lifting once. Attempting to squat 3 times per week may be quite grim but it will give me lots of leg volume to get accustomed to. Each time I squat I plan to alternate between Front squats, High bar back squats and Low bar back squats and maybe some Zercher squats just for the sake of variety.

Here's today's session:

5 min cycle

5 mins of body weight squats, lunges, hip thrusts and similar to get my legs ready.

Front squats - 4 or 5 warm up sets working up to 3 sets of 5 reps with 80kg
.
Bench press - Several warm up sets working up to 3 sets of 5 reps with 100kg.

Dead lift -Loads of sets working up to 1 set of 5 reps with 140kg.

10 mins of Ladder training with Close grip bench press and Dead stop bent over rows. What you do here is perform 1 rep on one exercise then do 1 rep on the other. Go back to the first exercise and do 2 reps on that and then 2 reps on the other. Keep going back and forth adding 1 rep to the total each time. If you get to 10 reps then start coming back down. Keep going, no rest, 10 mins. Easy.

As this was the first workout of 2012 I thought it wise to stop there. So I did.

Till next time.
Love and Rockets,
Dave Carter.

Getting Started. How to get a new you in the new year.

2012-01-03T03:41:00.000-08:00

The whole "New Year - New You" thing may now be a bit of an industry cliche but cliches are generally only cliches because they happen to to true. The coming of a new year is as good a time as any to launch a renewed assault on whatever goals you have set yourself.

This is part one of a series of articles that are designed to help you get into shape.

Every year, driven on by yuletide excess, millions of people are propelled, like herds of lemmings, unwittingly into the welcoming arms of the thousands of gyms that stand ready to receive the Resolution Masses. Many of these gyms will take your money, show you the gym and leave you to get on with it.

None of us at Dave's Gym have ever been like this. Honest.

I'd like to think that here, at Dave's Gym, we're offer something a bit different from the usual corporate gym experience. We think that it's good business practise to spend some time with each and everyone of you little darlings and actually really help you get whatever it is that you want out of joining this fine gym.

This blog is a free resource that can help you to be better informed about the weired, contradictory, complicated and arcane world of fitness. If you have ever sat down in front of a computer and typed in "weight loss" or "how to get massive biceps" then you know that you get slammed by 22 billion search results that are either trying to sell you something or are offering somewhat questionable advice.

And why should you know how to sort the 10% of good advice from the 90% of horse-shit that is out there? After all when my car is broken I take it to a nice man in overalls in a garage that fixes it for me. I don't ever need to know what a carburettor or a piston rod is as I trust that Mick the Mechanic does. So what I want you to do is put yourselves in our capable hands and trust that we know how to get you into the best shape that you have ever been in.

Step 1. Have a goal.

I stole this quote from T-Nation but it does sum up things quite nicely - "The biggest tragedy in life isn't setting your goals too high and never reaching them, but rather setting them too low and achieving them." To that end, goals should be a journey, like steppingstones or progressions, never simple destinations.

Your goals should be aspirational and achievable but upon achieving them should lead on to the next goal.
Be specific. Do you want to lose 5kgs? Then pick that. Do you want to get fit enough to compete in a 10km road race? Then say so. Your goals need to be clear and definable and, most importantly, measurable. Don't chose something subjective like "I want to look better naked" because what does that actually mean? Better than what? Better then who?
Set short, medium and long term goals. This echoes back to the first point as the all the best plans are a sequence of stepping stones. For example let us say that your overall specific and measurable goal is to fit back into those size 10 jeans that have been mocking you for over 3 years now. Your short term goal should be to join a good gym and follow a training/diet plan for 6 weeks. The medium term goal should be to get fit and strong enough to be able to do the kind of training that will give you the results you need. This would mean sitting down with a trainer and putting together a harder and more challenging routine. Depending on how the fat loss is going you may also need to further scrutinise your diet. Finally the long term goal would be measuring how far you actually have to go and fine tuning your training and nutrition with a trainer to make the last few changes.
When you start to put the short, medium and long term goals together it's best to work backwards. After all you can't plan the journey if you don't have a destination.

I'm a big believer in education through relentless self-experimentation so here are my goals for 2012.

I'm doing a 57 mile hike around the Brecon Beacons in May so my long term goal is to be prepared for it.
To manage the hike well it would be good to be down to 15 stone (210lbs or 95kg) and much fitter. So my medium term goal is to strip fat and get fit.
Which makes my short term goal putting together, following and sticking to a sensible exercise and nutrition plan.

What are you going to do?

Happy New Year,
Dave Carter.

Deck the halls with...errrr Kettlebells?

2011-12-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick taster into Kettlebells and why we think they are a great tool for the majority of people that train regularly. It's been two years since we started the K/B classes here at Dave's and without doubt they have been a huge success story. The reason for the succes in my view is simple , getting results whilst having fun. Now I appreciate that line appears on every class poster in every gym in the country however, in the case of K/Bs it's a sinscere statement. There are some die hards out there that will spend a good few minutes or even hours if you let them trying to convince you that there is no life after kettlebells. However, I am not one of these people although I will agree that they are a versatile piece of equipment that you can perfom almost any decent movement with. For me there are three key areas where K/Bs can help all lifters regardless of whether they are used in a class or incorporated into a workout.

Range of movement (ROM)

For most people learning kettlebells is a completely new skill. New skills mean a fresh start and an opportunity to "do it right the first time". A full range of movement is important whenever and whatever you are lifting but we all know that satisfying our egos is a lot easier when the weight on the bar goes up continuously. As a result many would be "big lifters" just end up barely moving the weight at all. It is far easier to create good habits from scratch than it is to break bad habits and Kettlebells offer a chance to reiterate the importance of a full range of movement. Training in the full range of motion enhances both muscle strength and joint flexibility both things that all lifters should be aiming for. When I think of flexibilty and mobility I generally think about my warm up. I'll often use kettlebells to mobilise my hips as well as things like shoulders and in doing so establish a raised heartrate, no bad thing. This re-highlighting of importance of the full ROM through new kettlebell exercises can then be transfered into other movements being used in your training and hey presto you've just become a more intelligent lifter than the guy next to you that is doing bicep curls like Bez out of the happy Mondays.

Posterior Chain

The posterior chain is a group of muscles, tendons and ligaments on the posterior kinetic chain of the body. Examples of these muscles include the hammies, glutes, lower back, traps, rear delts and so on. The trouble is that you can't see any of these muscles in a mirror and therefore they play second fiddle to things like chest, shoulders and guns. From a sports performance perspective the posterior chain is vitally important and even aesthetically without the back the front will never reach its full potential. K/Bs offer a chance to address this imbalance and in doing so once again make reaching your gym goals just that little bit easier. All the exercises that are unique to kettlebells (essentially swinging in all its variations) revolve around the posterior chain. Learning to use these muscles in the right order as well as making them stronger can only be a good thing when it comes to your other big compound movements. Better glutes and hammies, better squat. Better hip stability, better running and more powerful kenetic movement, get the picture yet?

Conditioning

Yet another area where many of us fall down in our training. As a trainer I have to confirm what most people have read in magazines about conditioning on a daily basis. Yes, if you do sprint intervals on the bike, rower or treadmill you will acheive better conditioning and fat burning than those that insist on working no harder than their 70% fat burning zone. Quite honestly though I rather stub my toe repeatedly than do these, its just boring to me. Kettlebell swing intervals combined with a simple body weight exercise like burpees done at the right intensity will deliver the same heart rate as traditional cardio intervals. The best bit is you get to keep lifting even when you are doing conditioning and you can stand on the spot.

If you would like to learn more about kettlebells, that all members get 4-6 week programming you can use these to get a kettlebell taster. All abilities are taken in the classes which run four nights a week just pick up a timetable next time you are in.

Merry Christmas every one,

Matt

Zercher Lifting: The Lost Art of Getting Massive

2011-12-14T03:42:00.000-08:00

I love Zercher lifting in all it's ten million forms and permutations, and there are a lot of them! This group of exercises has sadly fallen into obscurity in recent years, and even when they are done as part of a program people do them with weights so ridiculously light they may as well not have bothered. That's not to say you should over-shoot your abilities to satisfy some arbitrary strength standard, just lift like you mean it!

Anyway, Zerchers. The legend goes that famous strongman Ed Zercher (who may pop up in a later installment of Badass INC.) invented the exercise that would later bear his name in his dungeon basement gym because of the lack of a squat rack, along with the free standing leg press (he would balance a bar weighing hundreds of pounds on his feet, lie on his back, and press it). Truly this man didn't like doing things according to the norm. He was, however, strong as a goddamn orc with bicep tendons you could hoist an elephant with - and a lot of that strength stemmed from his odd-lifts, not least his own Zercher Lift.

The "pure" Zercher Lift is performed like this (taken from the USAWA rulebook):

"The bar starts on the platform and at the lifter’s discretion the bar is deadlifted to a position where it may be supported on the knees or thighs. Feet placement is optional, but the feet must be in line with the torso. The lifter will then bend down, with the bar resting on the legs, to a position in which the lifter is able to secure the bar in the crooks of the elbows. The lifter will then stand erect with the arms bent and the bar fixed at the articulation of the upper and lower arms. The lifter’s arms may be inside or outside of the legs. The hands may be locked together. Once the bar is motionless, the legs straight, the body erect with shoulders upright, an official will give a command to lower the bar. The bar must be returned to the platform under control for the lift to be complete. It is acceptable to drop the bar once it is below the level of the knees provided that the hands follow the bar to the platform."

Basically - deadlift the bar to your knees, rest it on your thighs, and use that as a platform to get your arms underneath and squat it up to full lockout in the crook of your elbows. Nothing to it!

This exercise will add extra depth to your squat which is never a bar thing, build your mid-back and core up to a strength comparable with a slab of steel, and pretty much works every other muscle in the body to some degree. If you're interested in strongman but lack the specialised equipment needed to train for it Zercher Lifts are a great substitute for atlas stone lifting, and also condition your forearms for the conan's wheel event. Massive win.

Variations

As well as the pure Zercher Lift there are a tonne of different variations you can do to spice things up or train different portions of the full exercise to eliminate your weaknesses and start shifting epic weights. Some of them are just great alternatives to regular exercises you might be doing as part of your regular gym training. Give them a try!

Zercher Squats

This one is a really good alternative to traditional squats. Simply rack the bar at the correct height (this might take a little trial and error as your arms will have a tendancy to drop lower during the set), secure it in the crook of your elbows, lift it out, and squat down untill your elbows touch your knees. Keep the bar tucked into your body and resist the temptation to let it fall forward.

Bottom Start Zerchers

These are probably my favourite Zercher variation. Set the pins in your squat rack so you're below parallel squat depth and perform a zercher squat as above. These are incredibly tough since you have no elastic recoil to help you squat the weight up, it's done from a dead start through a huge range of motion. Brutal. Once you lock it out squat it back down to the pins carefully. These are a fantastic exercise for getting used to deep squats.

Zercher Lockouts

Incredibly similar to the bottom-starts, but you set the pins a lot higher so the ROM is almost nothing - six inches is fine. What you lose in ROM, though, you'll more than make up for in extra weight. The whole goal of lockouts is to condition your body and mind to handle weights far heavier than you could ever lift in the proper exercises - after doing lockouts with two to three times the weight you use for full Zerchers when you do go back to the lighter weight it'll feel like nothing on your tendons and your mind.

Zercher Deadlifts

Don't do these. They're risky, dangerous, possibly stupid. But by god they're awesome. If you were to ignore these warnings start LIGHT for the love of god. While a little round-back lifting is normal in the land of Ed Zercher, your back will be like a boomerang all the way through this exercise and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. Be careful.

Programming

To be honest you can plug these exercises into any exercise routine. Anywhere you need a lower body exercise like a squat, deadlift, or good morning these exercises can be substituted either as your main exercises in programs like 5/3/1, Westside, or Starting Strength. You can also go lighter and use them as accessory movements in those same routines, or do them for hypertophy. Do 3 sets of 10-15 on Zercher Squats and watch your mid-back and quads bulge through your clothes.

Zerchers are an old-school way of building real, usable strength. If you want to try something different or have to train with limited equipment they won't let you down. Remember - average training builds average strength, if you want exceptional strength you have to train for it.

Do something different today. Do some Zerchers!!

-Gaz
www.getlifting.info

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

2011-12-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's been 2 weeks since I've last blogged and I'm very sorry for my absence. But now I have returned like a comet from the outer reaches of the solar-system to bring you knowledge and information from strange and alien cultures. Well, Barry Island anyway . . .which is pretty strange and alien all things considered.

Although I've had an enforced break from blogging my training has been going splendidly. What I've been trying to do is get in shape (again) and set myself the short term goal of getting down to 16 stone (101.5kg or 224lbs) by Christmas.

As I write this we are 2 weeks away from Xmas and I only have a few pounds to go. Reaching my target weight should not be too hard to do - a bit more salad and running should get the job done nicely.

Diet

I've found over the years of bulking up and cutting back down again that I'm best suited to the simple way of doing things. Anything too complicated or ridged and I automatically rebel against it and begin to sabotage my own progress (midnight doughnuts was a particularly memorable low).

All I try to do is eat 3 meals per day (although I'll throw in a snack if I'm hungry) and avoid complex carbohydrates. Loads of fish, chicken and meat served up with garden vegetables and salad.

On the weekends I'll relax things a tad and allow some starchy-carbs creep into the mix. When this strategy finally stops me making any progress then I'll clean up my act on the weekends also. One of the best bits of advice I ever got regarding dieting was: "always leave yourself somewhere else to go." My relaxed approach to fat loss is working just fine and allows me to begin tightening the screws once that starts to not give me any results.

Training

For me being in shape is not about six-packs and shredded glutes but about performance and fitness instead. I want to be fit, strong, powerful and dynamic. Merely looking nice in a pair of underpants is not what motivates me.

The trouble is that being "fit" and "strong" at the same time is a little tricky to achieve.

What I've been doing this past few weeks is doing some strength training at the start of the workout and then hammering myself stupid with some kind of conditioning session.

The workout

Cycle - start at level 1, pedal at 100+ RPM and increase the level every 15 seconds until my thighs ignite.

Run - 2km done as a mid-paced plod.

10 each of the following exercises; leg swings, clam shells, side leg raises, glute bridges, bird dogs, squats, lunges.

Bench press - after several warm up sets I then did 10 sets of 2 reps done off 1 minutes rest with 100kg. This was a bit too easy and I need to go heavier next time.

Circuit of death - 3 cleans @ 60kg and 10 press ups done for 10 rounds with as little rest as possible.

TTFN,
Dave Carter.

Clugston's alternative Olympia Part 4 Bertil Fox

2011-12-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

The rise and Fall of Bertil Fox

Bertil Fox was a British body building sensation. Bursting on to the professional scene in the late 70's Fox was tipped as future Mr Olympia. Despite these predictions he never fulfilled his potential. His accent to bodybuilding fame was marred by a murder conviction in the 1990's. Bertil's story is one of success, frustration and ultimately tragedy.

Born in St Kitts in the West Indies, Bertil moved to the the UK as baby settling in Northampton. He began bodybuilding as a teenager and competed in his first competition at 18, winning the 1969 Junior Mr Britain. As an amateur he won a host of titles including 2 Mr Universe tiles, a NABBA World title beating the likes of Serge Nubret on the way. In a very short time he progressed to the pro ranks. He gained the nickname 'Brutal' Bertil due to his intense heavy training.

Fox immediately made an impact on the pro circuit placing 2nd in the 1982 Night of the Champions and the 1983 Swiss Grand Prix beating Lee Haney. In the lead up to the 1983 Mr Olympia, Bertil was tipped by Arnold Schwarzenegger as the favourite to win the show and to carry on winning consecutive Sandows.

(bigger than Haney?)

When Fox walked out on stage in Munich the crowd erupted. Everything about him was huge, his size outclassed the competition. He was the biggest thing on stage that night. Ripped with thick calves and quads, his physique displayed great balance. He hit pose after pose to an increasing standing ovation. Despite his backing from Arnold and winning the hearts of the crowd, Fox placed 5th behind Samir Bannout, Frank Zane and Haney. In the video you can clearly see his disappointment.

Some say that his placing in the 1983 Olympia was a huge turning point in Fox's life. Because of this he lost faith in the bodybuilding community. He became introverted and did not play the Weiders game. He was outspoken about the politics that existed in bodybuilding, highly criticising judging. Also at this time his relationship with his wife became more volatile. Their break up had a huge effect on his self confidence. He pulled out of the 1984 Olympia breaking his Weider contract. That year Haney won his first Olympia and begun his 8 year dominance.

Fox continued to compete but never hit the form of his earlier years. He retired from professional bodybuilding in 1994 at age 42. Having divorced his first wife he decided to move back to St Kitts with the dream of opening his own gym. He brought some land out side of his home town and started construction on his dream. During this time began a relationship with a 20 year old bikini model Leoca Browne.

Many of Foxes close friends and family questioned Fox's relationship with a girl almost half his age. Those close to him told stories of constant fights and infidelity. After 2 years Leoca left Bertil. Bertil struggled to deal with the loss.

On the 30th of September 1997, Bertil went to visit Leoca at her mothers business. No one knows exactly what happened that day as there were no direct witnesses but when he left both Leoca and her mother where shot dead. Bertil Fox was convicted of murder on 22nd of May 1998 after 2 trials. He was sentenced to death by hanging. On 22nd September 2002 his sentence was reduced to life on appeal.

Regardless of the bad experiences in Bertil Fox's life you cannot push aside the fact that Fox was convicted for double murder. His story is tragic and maybe could have ended up differently.

He will remain a bodybuilding icon, his muscularity was years ahead of his time.

Clugston

Badass INC. #2 - Hermann Görner

2011-12-01T05:39:00.001-08:00

The second badass to get the Dave's Gym seal of approval is probably my all time favourite strongman - the legendary Hermann Görner. This was a guy who performed feats of strength in the early 1900's that have still yet to be beaten nearly 80 years on. This was a guy who also wrestled elephants for fun during his circus strongman act. Let's take a look at what made him the consumate strength athlete.

Biography

Born on April 13th 1891 in Hänichen, Germany, Görner started becoming interested in weightlifting at the age of 10 and by the time he was 14 could perform a single arm kettlebell swing to arms length with 50kg. Throughout his strongman career his weight fluctuated between 264lbs and 293lbs at a heigh of 6'3". For us Brits that's between 18 and 21 stone! This was one massive man, even more impressive when you consider the relatively low level of bodyfat shown in most of the available pictures of him:

One set of measurements taken of Görner's physique underline his sheer size. All measurements were taken when flexed:

Neck - 19.5"

Chest - 54.4"

Left Arm - 18"

Right Arm - 18.9"

Left Forearm - 15"

Right Forearm - 15.8"

Waist - 45"

Thighs - 27.6"

Nearly a 16" forearm....is it any wonder he's my hero? But big doesn't necessarily means strong, right? WRONG.

Feats of Strength

Görner practised and set records in hundreds of different lifts throughout his career, but some of his most impressive feats with traditional weights revolved around his tremendous grip and pulling power. Deadlifts and the so called "olympic" lifts were a forte of his and the weights he could lift were phenomenal. Here are a few of my favourites.

Deadlifts:

Two Handed Deadlift with only two fingers on each hand - 270kg
One Handed Deadlift with the right hand, hook grip - 330kg
Two Handed Deadlift - 361kg (Double overhand grip)
Two Handed Deadlift - 377kg (200kg Barbell, with a fully grown man standing on each side!)

Snatches:

Right Hand Snatch - 104kg
Left Hand Snatch - 90kg
Right Hand Snatch with the arm kept straight - 77kg
Two Hand Snatch - 135kg

Clean & Jerk:

Right Hand Clean & Jerk - 120kg (Barbell from the floor to overhead with one arm)
Two Hands Clean & Jerk - 177kg

Misc:

Two Hands Anyhow (Floor to overhead, any style) - 195kg (Combined weight of 4 kettlebells!)
Two Hands Strict Barbell Curl - 110kg

These feats of strength are impressive by today's standards, more than that - most of them still haven't been broken. When was the last time you saw somebody doing a one hand snatch with two plates a side? The current world record for the one handed deadlift is lightyears away from Görner's 330kg .

(As of writing Mark Felix holds a record of 225kg using an olympic bar with a hook grip in this lift, and Steve Gardener has broken 330kg off the floor in the 2" ROM version of this lift - nobody has lifted this weight to full lockout in the manner Görner did. It's also worth mentioning that the bars used in the 1900's were considerably thicker than they are now, and probably didn't revolve. In short, we're all a bunch of pansies.)

Training

So how did Görner go about building a strength that defies the legions of strength athletes who've come after him? In truth, a lot of it flies in the face of conventional wisdom but bear with me.

Görner held the belief that there were three true tests of a man's strength: how much he could lift off the floor, how much he could carry, and how much he could put over his head. These were the kinds of lifts he trained, and he trained them often. Practice makes perfect, and during the prime of his career he trained 5-6 times a week with heavy weights in a huge variety of lifts, and devoting multiple days a week to the lifts he wanted to get better at. He was also an advocate of outdoor training and swimming, and he frequently swam before or after his weights sessions.

He was always creative in his training, thinking up new ways to test and demonstrate his awesome strength. For the Deadlift alone he trained about 15 different grip variations to build overall strength and competance in the lift, and that's just for the two handed version! He did snatches, cleans, presses, swings, and curls with kettlebells, barbells, and dumbells - always training heavy and testing his limits.

A sample of his weekly routine, as described by Charles A. Smith:

***

Monday –

1.) Two Hands Snatch: After loosening up with calisthenics he would work up in 8 or 10 sets of between 1 and 3 reps from around 125 to 300 lbs. on a good day.

2.) Two Hands Clean & Jerk: Beginning with 220 lbs. he would work up slowly to near his limit, which was almost 400 lbs. It should be noted that he used a very shallow split style on both the snatch and the clean & jerk, barely dipping under the weight.

3.) Two Hands Continental to the Shoulders: When he felt really well, he would put more weight on the bar after his heaviest clean & jerks and do several single continental lifts. He did them by taking the weight from the floor to his belt, then boosting it from there up to his shoulders. His best was around 450 lbs.

4.) Two Hands Curl: Goerner usually did 4 or 5 sets of this, working up to a maximum super-strict rep or two with 220 lbs.

5.) If the weather permitted, he usually ended his sessions with either some slow running or some swimming.

Tuesday –

1.) Curl & Press with Kettlebells: Approximately 10 sets, going from 55 lbs. to 110 lbs. in 5½ lb. jumps (2½ kilo) jumps. These were done very strictly – usually only 1 or 2 reps with each arm, working up quickly to the 110 lb. bells.

2.) Clean & Military Press: Approximately 8 sets of 3 to 5 reps, going from 198 to 264 in 22 lb. jumps, doing 2 sets with each weight.

3.) One Hand Swing with Kettlebells: Approximately 8 sets (4 with each arm) beginning with 110 and sometimes going as high as 254 (using two kettlebells grasped in one hand).

4.) Deadlift: Usually 6 to 8 sets, never exceeding 3 reps. He usually began with 440 lbs. (200 kilos) and worked up to almost 800 lbs. Often he would do his lighter sets without a hook, or with only three fingers on each hand, or two, or only one.

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

1.) Curl & Press with Kettlebells: Same as Tuesday.

2.) One Hand Snatch: Usually, he would work up slowly in this lift, going from 110 to 220 with each hand.

3.) One Hand Clean & Jerk: As in the snatch, he would do quite a few sets, always using low reps (usually just one), working up to a best of 265.

4.) One Hand Deadlift: Alternating hands, Goerner would work up gradually in poundage from around 220 to over 700 lbs. on his good days, doing 10 to 12 sets.

5.) Squats: During this period, he usually squatted once each week, never more, and he would begin with around 220 and work up to approximately 600. He never really concentrated on this lift. Again, he favored low reps, 3 to 5.

Friday

1.) Clean & Press: Same as Tuesday.

2.) One Hand Swing: Same as Tuesday.

3.) Muscle-Outs with Kettlebells: He usually did these with “light” (up to 65 lbs. in each hand) weights and higher repetitions as a shoulder developer.

4.) Grip Work: Often, Goerner would practice lifting heavy barbells and dumbells with one, two or three fingers.

Saturday

1.) Curl & Press with Kettlebells: Same as Tuesday.

2.) Two Hands Snatch: Same as Monday.

3.) Two Hands Clean & Jerk: Same as Monday.

4.) Front Squat: From time to time he did these, going up to a best of over 500 lbs.

5.) Two Hands Curl: Same as Monday.

Sunday

Rest.

***

As you can see, no slouching here. It's worth noting that Görner's gym was attached to a pub in which all the lifter's personal steins (beer glasses) were stored on a shelf for when they were finished with training. Now THAT's badass.

The whole point to this article series is that despite the advances in sports science, supplementation, "sports technology drugs" (cough), and gym equipment, there's still a wealth of knowledge in the methods of lifters who came before all that. Hermann Görner is a prime example of this - in a time before steroids were even invented, and the first widely available sports supplements were still a few decades away; his training was basic and he used freeweights exclusively; his world records are still yet to be broken.

Nuff said. Hermann, you're officially Badass Incorporated!

-Gaz
http://www.getlifting.info

Ultimate Recovery! The three best supplements you're not taking.

2011-11-23T07:34:00.001-08:00

There are many myths regarding the best supplements to take post workout. All you need to do is pick up any Men’s Health or Flex magazine, which are basically glorified supplement brochures, to see that if you took any of the vast array of overly marketed and overly priced junk they have on offer, that you will possess the unbridled strength of Hercules, the unparalleled might of Thor, and the healing capacity of Wolverine. Come back to the next month’s issue and you will be blasted with brand new breakthroughs and revolutions. So what, I ask you, happened to the previous months ‘revolution?

It isn’t difficult to get swept up in the hype of bodybuilding supplements. Here are some common phrases found on the back of body building supplements which, when looked at closely, don’t actually mean anything.

"Studies showed an 85% strength gain in individuals taking this product." What were the controls in the studies, and who funded them? Did they mention that individuals who achieved these gains also increased their protein intake and total calories while upping their training intensity?
"May increase testosterone by 55%." Eating dried Rottweiler droppings may increase testosterone levels. (To my knowledge consumption of dried Rottweiler droppings has never been disproved as a testosterone enhancer)
"Rats taking this product lost 50% body fat and gained 50% muscle." Last I checked I wasn’t a rat. Neither are any of the 3 people who end up reading this. Yes physiologically humans and rats are somewhat similar, but our biochemistry is totally different.
"All the benefits of a steroid without the drawbacks!!" This one is my personal favourite. Nothing other than actual steroids will give you the ‘benefits’ of a steroid. Nuff said.

You need to appreciate that these companies are out to make a profit. Many of these firms spend more money on marketing their product, than they do on developing and testing them. I know and have known many people; myself included who have been seduced into parting with our hard earned dosh with empty promises of greatness.

I’m getting a little sidetracked here I know, but I would like to mention that as a general rule of thumb when buying supplements, if it has been endorsed by a bodybuilder and or athlete, no matter how famous or successful they are, it probably won’t be that great, and defiantly will be overpriced.

Remember, bodybuilders, even the pros, don’t get paid in the conventional sense. Sure they get money for winning competitions, but the bulk of their dough is from endorsements. This means that when Jay Cutler is recommending that you take the latest, super-enhanced, extreme, high-quality dragon venom - he has been paid to say as much. And paid well!

All of these following supplements can be bought relatively cheaply. Remember - the supplements I will describe below are all included in many of the ‘revolutionary’ supplements in the media. The only difference is they can be bought in their raw form without the added cost of unnecessary fillers and over the top advertising. When it comes to recovery, there are only a handful of supplements (other than protein) worth taking which I will list below...

Glutamine

This should be a part of everyone’s supplementation arsenal. This stuff is cheap, dirt cheap compared to other supplements and it works! I swear by it. Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body. Over 61% of your skeletal muscle consists of glutamine.

During intense training, glutamine levels are greatly depleted in the body, affecting strength, stamina and recovery, taking up to 6 days for Glutamine levels to return to normal. As this amino acid plays a vital role in protein synthesis, it is essential to recovery. Studies have shown that L-Glutamine supplementation can minimize breakdown of muscle and improve protein metabolism.

Glutamine also increases your ability to secrete Human Growth Hormone, which helps metabolize body fat and support new muscle growth, while its anti-catabolic ability prevents the breakdown of your muscles. This is particularly useful for people who are ‘cutting’. Especially during summer when you're trying to get rid of some body fat without losing any muscle.

The immune system also needs Glutamine because Glutamine levels deplete during workouts. Bodybuilders tend to be more susceptible to illnesses - this is why L-Glutamine supplementation is so important, not necessarily to gain more muscle, but for the 'maintenance' effects of L-Glutamine.

BCAA’s

I am a strong believer in BCAAs. I don’t take them that often however, because they’re pretty expensive, and I’m pretty poor. If I spent more money buying BCAAs in bulk and less money purchasing caffeinated soft drinks, I could probably afford it, and I would be even more the superman my overgrown ego already tells me I am.

Anyway, I digress yet again. Back to the point - BCAAs stand for Branched Chain Amino Acids, which are the "Building Blocks" of the body. They make up 35% of your muscle mass and must be present for molecular growth and development to take place. Eight of these amino acids are essential (cannot be manufactured by the body) the rest are non-essential (can be manufactured by the body with proper nutrition). Besides building cells and repairing tissue, they form antibodies, they are part of the enzyme & hormonal system; they build RNA and DNA and they carry oxygen throughout the body.

Taking 4-8 grams before and after a workout is optimal. Lesser amounts are effective but if increased performance and recovery are needed a higher dosage is more effective. Taking BCAAs immediately before or during a strenuous workout or cardio session has been known to increase performance. Taking them after with a post work out meal or recovery drink will help speed the replacement of BCAA's in the muscles, speeding muscle recovery and preventing some problems associated with overtraining.

Multivitamins & Fish Oils

Multivitamins are your body’s insurance policy. Even if you are not training, take them. It can be quite challenging at times to absorb every nutrient your body needs on an everyday basis. Also by taking one multivit everyday you can overcome underlining vitamin or mineral deficiencies. This is especially important if you are dieting, as limiting the foods you eat or only eating certain foods may limit the variety of nutrients in your diet.

On to fish oils. Fish oils are the undisputed king, emperor and tyrannical overlord of all capsular nutrition. If you don’t take them you are a fool. If you don’t take them after reading this, then you sir or madam are an imbecile. Fish oils have been proven time and time again to support heart health, improve joint health and mobility, and aid fat loss.

Now I’m going to be brutally honest with you. After going to university and religiously referencing every sentence in every piece of work I have written for the past 4 years - I refuse to reference anything ever again for the rest of my natural life. Having said that - the link below is an article highlighting many of the benefits of taking fish oils. This is an incredible article from T-Nation, they explain what I want to say…only better. I’m only going to end up plagiarising this article so you may as well read it. Enjoy!

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_supplements/fish_oil_and_fat_loss

Don’t be taken in by the hype and remember if a thing sounds too good to be true – it probably is!

Yours mischievously,
Zucko.

Dealing with stress.

2011-11-21T08:43:00.001-08:00

Ugh! Last week was a bit of a sod. The student house that I rent out was being re-wired and the girls who live there had to be put up in hostels. Zoe and I had to go in to chisel a load of plaster off the walls of one of the rooms - and that stuff gets everywhere. Throw kids, dealing with contractors, speaking to the council, staff, rugby coaching, in laws, our own house beginning to disintegrate, a busy gym, my own training, Zoe's cold and a whole bunch of other stuff connected to running businesses into the mix and it's a miracle that I'm still sane. Well . . . Sort of sane anyway.

As is the way, when the shit hits the fan, the last thing you may feel like doing is giving yourself a damn good seeing to in the gym.Which is a shame because a workout may well be the very thing you need.

When you are subjected to stress the body releases a wonder hormone called adrenaline. It's pretty amazing stuff adrenaline. It will give you superhuman strength, morphine levels of natural painkilling chemicals, reactions like a startled cat, the ability to stop bleeding - even the bleeds associated with limb loss, acute mental focus and plays an important role in the orgasm!

Providing the adrenaline is used up in fighting a sabre toothed tiger or running from wolves through a forest at night or picking up the car that has trapped a loved one beneath it then it does no harm. It might leave you a little shaky and detached from reality but there will be no ill effects.

The problems come when the adrenaline isn't used up. What happens then is that your cortisol levels begin to creep up. Cortisol is a bastard and the evil, arch-enemy, end-of-level baddie in your quest to buffdom.

Like adrenaline it's released by the adrenal glands in the kidneys but, unlike adrenaline, there is not much up-side to cortisol. Cortisol's primary role is to increase blood glucose levels to provide fuel to your muscles and brain during a stressful situation.

Dave's Gym loves a list, so here are several.

What having raised cortisol levels will do to you.

It will raise your blood sugar levels (which will make you fat).
It will suppress your immune system (so you will get ill, not be able to train and get fat).
It will decrease bone formation (which is bad. Probably.)
It will give you insomnia (so you will be tired, unable to train and then get fat).
It will make you fat.
It will cause your testosterone levels to plummet (so you will not want to train or have sex with things and you will get fat).
It will decrease your liver's ability to detoxify stuff (which is almost certain, in some unknown and complicated way, to make you fat).
It will increase inflammation (which means you won't recover from training as quickly so you won't be able to train as often so you will get fat).

What can cause your cortisol levels to raise

Caffeine (dammit).
Lack of sleep (double dammit)
Intense exercise (bollocks)
Stress (yup, loads of this)
Commuting (ditto)

What can you do to reduce your cortisol levels

Supplementing your diet with magnesium, zinc, Omega 3 and vitamin C.
Music therapy (although I fear this means Whalesong and Enya not Slayer and Pig Destroyer)
Massage (happy ending optional)
Laughing and being happy ( bah, humbug)
Crying (apparently you feel better after a good cry but as a knuckle-dragging silver-backed caveman I wouldn't know)
Tea (a nice cuppa and a sit down can work wonders)
Sex (just try not to spill your tea)
Exercise (yeah, I know this contradicts other advice but get over it)

So in conclusion: Life is stressful. Exercise can help. So can sleep. As can fruit. If in doubt have sex with anything that will stay still for long enough.

Yours in karmic bliss,
Dave Carter.

Victory! Dave's Gym Clean Sweep!

2011-11-21T02:17:00.001-08:00

VICTORY.

As well a being a gym that is focused on Strength and Conditioning work we also have a very busy group of fighters. We teach and run classes in Boxing, Muay Thai and MMA but with a difference. First off in the Boxing and Muay Thai classes we don't do any sparring at all. For the guys and girls who have been doing it long enough to be able to spar safely and effectively we run additional sessions. So anyone can come along and do all the pad-work and technique training without getting their head kicked in by a caveman. With the MMA the classes are a genuine co-operative with all the guys who participate contributing to the overall teaching and training. The classes are run by Jamie Harris who is ably assisted by Naim Alwan and Ben Kerr.

The event last night was called The Valley of the Kings and took place at the Oceania Nightclub in Cardiff. The report is done by the ever shy and retiring Mr Kerr himself.

Win win win!!! and winner tonight was Dave's Gym full contact fighters!!! Tonight we had a Dave's gym first.....a clean sheet!!! We have come close in the past but tonight we converted!!!

A massive massive thank you to all the supporters who came out on a Sunday night and missed the X factor results to support our training partners and friends. These shows regardless of the talent on display cannot exist without your support and I/we thank you.

And to the fights!! Up first was the "Berserk Turk" T.I.M. (Tiny Indestructible Monster) Mercanoglu!! Again, as is tradition, his opponent was a surprise until this week but that was never gonna be an issue. At his current fight weight of 65kg he has proven yet again to be indestructible. A totally dominant, controlled, only ever one result display of only a limited number of his extensive skill set. Although he had mount in the first round and was dropping heavy, heavy blows to the head for the first time, he couldn't find that one sweet shot. That said the opponent could not find a way out and, knowing his end was near, he tapped before he was knocked out cold. A true professional before during and after Tim, you should be proud of yourself and the how far you have come in the last year.

Naim Alwan "the dream" fighting his "new best friend" in what was the the most placid build up to a fight in history with the two fighters hugging, smiling, chatting and I wouldn't be surprised if they swapped numbers all before the fight!! I have heard of and done this myself after a fight as is the fantastic, respectful sport we are part of, but to be that nice before punching some one out cold....is that sadistic or is it just me!!! Ha ha only joking! This is testament to how professional the sport is and the competitors that partake. The fight was the fight of the night by a long way, the show had many, many mismatches with the inclusion of a substandard gym but this fight was a true spectacle. Naim started the fight with some brutal leg kicks, landing over and over, he did allude to this new strategy of "kicking" on Thursday and it was paying off. His opponent having no choice but to clinch. the fight hit the floor and some high level ground work saw Naim dominant with the positioning and the striking and a very, very near armbar attempt. Once the pair stood up, Naims arms were very tired and he battened down the hatches to successfully block and defend against a barrage of punches to see out the round.

Round two again saw Naim throw few strikes (he stated his arms were tired) I believe he gassed them out, holding and controlling his very muscular and so I imagine strong opponent. He did control him and so the opponent again had no choice but to swing for the fences, looking for the KO. Naim however pissed all over those chips, landing a MASSIVE shot. I believe a straight right, that he has landed on myself many many times that floored his opponent (it's never floored me!!). Once on the floor Naim swarmed and used straights and hammer fists to earn a ref stoppage. A TKO takes his MMA wins to 5-0!! An amazing record by any standards. So, so proud of you Naim and your oddball ways, your dedication to this sport and the exciting way you CHOOSE to fight for the fans makes you a pleasure to corner, and I think all will agree you are a natural. NAIM BELIEVES THIS TO BE HIS LAST FIGHT. PLEASE PLEASE JOIN WITH ME IN CAMPAIGNING TO KEEP HIM WITH THE GYM AND TO CONTINUE GIVING THESE FIGHT OF THE NIGHT PERFORMANCES TO THE SPORT WE ALL LOVE.

Tanya Merrit - a fight name is required guys so all suggestions would be gratefully received and considered for her next venture into the arena!

The fight was Tanya's toughest to date, a very very unorthodox fighter, utilising a front leg technique that landed from some very awkward angles! Tanya had a slight rules confusion also in that in the clinch she did not strike, in K1 you have two strikes, or as many as you can until the ref breaks you apart!!!! Raising her arms in a good sporting fashion!!

Round two - Tanya realised that she had to weather a couple to land a couple. She span off the front leg strikes to land repeated big blows with her hands, a number of big big flurries saw her opponent grounded. The round was re-started and Tanya started to hunt. Smelling blood she walked forward stalking with front kicks and heavy hands, taking a couple for her trouble also!!! Round three saw more of the same with both fighters landing big head shots. Tanya has never been hit like this in the ring and so showed a true fighter's spirit to remain composed, not lose her head and remain technical, landing another take down and sealing the majority decision win and the clean sweep for Dave's Gym. You're a champion for this reason Tanya, the ease of your last win was because you had the tenacity of this win in reserve, that anything that is put in front of you, you can destroy and march on to many, many more wins in the future. Your attitude to training shows in the ring, you out work every opponent you have faced and that is because you outwork everyone at training. Pleasure working with you

So all in all a massive night for the gym, cementing our reputation as a premier full contact fighting gym. We train like champions and in the cage we reap the benifits of all that hard work.

December the eleventh is the next venture with our largest volume of fighters for one show to date. Lets march on tough guys and finish the year as we started, as we have consistantly displayed throughout the year as a professional and capable of greatness!!

Clugston's alternative Olympia Part 3

2011-11-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Ok the Olympia has been and gone, Phil Heath is the new champ and hopefully will lead the way for a more aesthetic bodybuilder. With that in mind lets look back at some of the greatest Olympians never to win a Sandow but who brought a touch of class to the competition.

Francis Benfatto

Similar in size and symmetry to Bob Paris, Benfatto had what can only described as a beautiful physique. Compared to todays standards he had a relatively small frame but had fantastic genetics. The combination of a Classic V taper, tiny waistline, huge triceps and great posing made Benfatto look like a work of art. In body building its all well and good having a great physique but without a solid posing routine many bodybuilders fall short. Luckily Benfatto moves like a performance artist. Every step and transition shows off a muscle group and leads the audience in to the next pose. He holds each pose just for the right amount of time. You see his great lines and before you eyes move away he gracefully sweeps in to the next pose. Artistic and powerful, one of the master posers in body building, hiding his weak points and drawing your eyes to his strengths. Legend has it that during this Olympia Benfatto was drug tested and reported clean. Still body building to this day below is a video of him guest posing earlier this year at the British Finals.

Rich Gaspari

The Dragon Slayer! Rich Gaspari earned his name by being a relatively small bodybuilder who could take down bigger champs. This was due to extreme conditioning and mass on a small frame. He was one of the first to bring anew level of extreme vascularity and bone dry conditioning to the Olympia stage. A scientific body builder, at any one point Gaspari knew his exact calorie and nutrition intake this in turn helped him achieve his great condition. Gaspari never won an Olympia but came very close second to the mighty Lee Haney in 1986, 1987 and 1988. He was also the very first Arnold Classic winner in 1989. After his retirement from bodybuilding he went on to found Gaspari nutrition, one of the most succesful supplement companies around today. Gaspari nutrition sponsor the likes of Welsh hero Flex Lewis. This year Gaspari decided to take up the challenge of getting back in to shape for the cover of Ironman magazine at age 48, 23 years after he originally appeared as an Olympia hopeful.

Ed Corney

The greatest poser in the history of bodybuilding, his transitions where pioneering and set him apart from his competitors. In pumping Iron Arnold famously comments, 'now thats what I call posing" Corney was late to bodybuilding competing for the first time at age 30. His acolades include the 1970 Iron Man, the 1972 Mr Universe. Not forgetting 2 Masters Olympia titles in 1994 and 1995. Corneys influence is huge, the first to bring an artistic edge to posing he was a pionner from the golden era of bodybuilding. Despite suffering a stroke in recent years he has recovered and is back in the gym doing what he knows best in his late 70s!

Stay tuned Olympia fans, next month we will be looking at the careers of quadzilla Tom Platz and the tragic story of Bertil Fox.

Clugston