Strength Basics

Trap Bar Deadlifts

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Over on T-Nation, my favorite dead lift variation has gotten a really nice article:

The Trap Bar Deadlift

This article makes a case for the deadlift as a superior lift. I'm not ready to argue the trap bar deadlift is better than the regular deadlift. But it's definitely easier to coach, and cue, and for many people, to do. And it'll build leg and back strength.

I use the trap bar deadlift with my clients almost exclusively for those reasons (plus it doesn't require scraping a bar up the shins, which not so oddly bothers some lifters).

The article has a few good videos and text descriptions of the main lift and its variations, and if you're trap bar deadlifting please take a look at this one.

Points of failure and priority

2012-01-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

Every exercise has a failure point - a weakness in the exerciser that limits his or her ability to continue to execute it.

So what does that mean when you program an exercise into your plan that has a specific point of failure?

I believe it means that you've prioritized that point of failure.

Your point of failure is your priority. Whatever fails first, and causes you to lose good form and stop, or just plain fails, is what you are prioritizing. Regardless of what the exercise is supposed to do, what it's doing is working on that specific weakness - or at the very least exposing it.

For example, is a deadlift a leg exercise or a back exercise? It's both, but if you fail because of tired legs it's not really working your back to the utmost, so your legs are your failure point.

You can use this in training for a variety of purposes.

For example, a person with poor shoulder endurance doing suspended pushups (with rings, say, or any similar training device). What will give out first is the ability of the shoulders to stabilize the body's position. So even if the triceps and chest can crank out more reps, the shoulders can't keep the rings in position and you cannot continue. This oddly makes it safer for someone with shoulder stability issues than regular pushups, because the exerciser must stop when he or she is unable to stabilize the rings.

Another example is a farmer's walk. Does the weight fall out of your hands due to a weak grip? Then, ultimately, you've gotten some ab and leg and back work but your grip is getting the biggest workout. Your grip has become the point of priority, and it's worth considering this exercise as slotting in where you'd do grip work. Same with, say, fat grip work - you add it in to prioritize grip over anything else.

Your point of failure on an exercise is a "weak point" but it's also your priority.

Music to Train to

2012-01-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

John Schaefer (famous NYC area music promoter and journalist) had a segment on his "Soundcheck" show today about music to exercise to.

It's not just "songs that rock" or something, it's pretty scientific, as the discussion involves a sports psychologist who studies the effects of music on athletics and training.

Let's Get Physical

No surprise, "Lose Yourself" by Eminem came up as effective both anecdotally and scientifically.

New Years 2012

2011-12-31T00:01:00.008-05:00

About a year ago, I posted about New Year's Resolutions:

"1) It's better to have a goal that's well-defined than vague. It's easier to add 25 pounds to your deadlift or lose 5 pounds than to "get stronger" or "lose some weight." Why? It's quantifiable. You know if you've done it or failed - there is no middle ground.

2) It's better to set goals of action than goals of results. If you do have a goal set, it's better to set one based on what you'll do than what you'll get. "I will add 25 pounds to my deadlift" is fine but you can't control that. "I'll follow this specific deadlifting program for 6 months" is better." "I'll eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day before I'm allowed to have any dessert" is better than "I'll lose 5 pounds" - you can control the first one, but it's hard to control the second. You can control what you do better than you can control what you get by doing so.

3) If you do have a goal that is results-based, set a series of milemarks along the way. Not 5 pounds by next year, but 1/2 pound per month every month until 2012. Not 25 pounds on your deadlift, but 2.5 pounds per cycle for 10 cycles. Bite-sized portions keep you from biting off more than you can chew."

So, how did you do?

How will your resolutions look this year? More of the same, or did you build a base you can advance from?

Make that #4 on that list:

4) Resolve to build a foundation for the future. Don't make a temporary resolution, or something that you can gain and then easily lose. What good is it to lose 25 pounds if you put them back on? Instead, resolve to build a base of habits that will get you where you will go.

- Exercise three times a week.

- Have no more than one bad meal in a row.

- Eat fruits and vegetables at every meal.

- Save 10% of your paycheck, rain or shine, sales or no sales.

- Slowly increase the efficacy of your workout (progressive overload of some kind).

This way, next year, you're not resolve to do the same things over again. Set a concrete set of actions down and make them habits. You may find you don't need resolutions if you do this.

Plank World Record

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

A new world record plank:

George Hood held a plank for 1 hour, 20 minutes and 5.01 seconds.

Matching that will be tough, but why not try a plank and see how long you can hold it?

Donward Dog for Health

2011-12-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

Yoga is often the whipping boy of strength training - it won't get you maximal strength. But there is an undeniable longevity to the training amongst participants. They don't generally drop out of yoga due to to injury. So it's interesting to see yoga getting its proper place in the mobility/movement for health approach that's been becoming the norm in strength training.

This post demonstrates downward dog, and makes a short but good case for its utility to non-yogi.

Thanks to Mike Robertson for finding this and including it in his newsletter.

Farmer's Walks redux

2011-12-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

I've been doing a lot of unilateral (weight on one side) farmer's walks recently, and all of my clients do farmer's walks in some way at some time. Here are a few resources on this excellent exercise:

Jedd from Diesel Crew on Farmer's Walks

Shon Gross on Farmer's Walks on T-Nation

This post of mine has some tips and a link to Jim Smith's advice on farmer's walks.

and

Dan John on unilateral farmer's walks

Grab some weights and get carrying.

CFF Sale

2011-12-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

Christian's Fitness Factory is having a "12 Days of Christmas" sale.

You can see their sale items up on their homepage.

I've had nothing but good experiences with them, so I can't recommend them highly enough if they've got something you need. It's worth looking into their sales, it might be the best time of the year to pick up something you, your gym, or your clients need.

2011-12-07T00:01:00.003-05:00

Mark Rippetoe has a new deadlifting article up on T-Nation, here:

Are You Ignorant When it Comes to the Deadlift?

Probably written to coincide with the new, 3rd edition of Starting Strength, this article covers my favorite lift.

The article hits a number of points familiar to Mark Rippetoe's teachings on the deadlift:

It's done from a dead stop. Touch and go is nice, in my opinion anyway, but bouncing off the ground is bad. It's a dead lift, which means the weight is lifted from a dead stop.

The right setup will look different from person to person, but it will be mechanically the same (flat back, relatively narrow stance, chest up, etc.) One great thing about Mark Rippetoe's articles is that they all back the argument with sound mechanical discussions of the lift. It's not "because it's how it's done" but because gravity and mechanics will make it happen in a particular way so it behooves you to plan around that. Everyone will pull the bar up from mid-foot, everyone will drag it up the shins if it's heavy enough, everyone will have their scapula directly over the bar when it breaks the ground, etc. even if they aren't all built with the same proportions.

Highly recommended read.

Evaluating assistance work

2011-12-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

Here is how I evaluate assistance work.

Does this add something to your overall athleticism and health?

Does this help improve your main lifts?

Is it safe to perform, either in general or for the person in specific?

If the answer these is yes, great, I include the assistance work. A lot of them fall down
hard on 2 and 3.

An example is rack pulls (a shortened deadlift). I find most of my clients have a problem not with lockout strength but with getting the weight off the floor in good form (or at all). Rack pulls help with the top of the deadlift, which isn't where they are failing, so I usually skip these and work on other things.

Another example are Pallof presses. I'm pretty well convinced these are very valuable for most of the population, both athletes and non-athletes. They are safe to perform, and while they may not clearly improve the "big lifts" of the trainee, they correlate pretty well to improved health, strength, and stability. So I include them. It doesn't worry me that an increased Pallof press doesn't seem to correlate with a higher deadlift or squat or more pullups. But as it goes up, other benefits accrue . . . so I find a way to rotate them in.

Congratulations - big DLs

2011-11-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

I'd like to congratulate my clients Tom and Pete the Fireman on some heavy trap bar deadlifts this past Monday.

Tom pulled a 20-point PR of 555 pounds.

Pete pulled 505 pounds, which is his first 500+ deadlift, and is also well clear of 3x his bodyweight of around 160. Last time he tried to pull a new PR he got 455 but couldn't even move 475.

As if they need it, I just sent them the link to this article by Mike Robertson. It's got five useful tips for deadlifting.

Upping your Pullups

2011-11-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

There is a nice article Mike Guadango from DeFranco's Training Systems up on T-Nation.

Time to Up Your Pullups

I've got personal experience with Mike - he's trained me. His own pullup numbers are excellent and he's demonstrated an ability to improve other people's pullup totals.

The progression to a pullup if you can't do one is good, too, although it does require a bit of equipment (rings, a place to do horizontal rows, etc.)

It's also got a nice collection of pullup variations at the end - including band-resisted (a favorite of Pete the Fireman) and correctly-labeled one-handed pullups (often mistaken for one-arm pullups).

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

One-Arm Pushup

2011-11-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

One of my clients has a goal of re-achieving the one-arm pushup. So I've started to bury myself in tutorials so I can help him reach his goal. Here is where I started.

Beastskills One Arm Pushup Tutorial

and

World's Strongest Librarian's One Arm Pushup Tutorial

If there are others I need to consult, let me know in the comments!

Weighted Hip Hinge

2011-11-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of kettlebell swings, but I find the name throws people. They feel like they need to really swing the weight, using a lot of arm and back muscle to lift it. "How high do I swing it?" is a pretty common question.

I've started teaching new clients the move as the "weighted hip hinge." First I'll show them the motion, unweighted, and then add a kettlebell. My cues are typical - head up, chest up, pull the hips back and hinge at the hips and let the knees follow. Keep a solid arch. Hike the weight back.

I tell them to just let the weight hang, and not worry about where it goes. When they "hip hinge" repeatedly and quickly, it'll swing. The motion is the same but removing the term "swing" seems to keep people from concentrating on the arc of the kettlebell and instead keeps them concentrating on their hip and back position, which is the key.

Review: CFF Drag Harness

2011-11-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a sled and dragging vest from Christian's Fitness Factory. While I have not yet been able to use the sled, I have been using the vest.

CFF Dragging Harness
Price: $29.99

What does it come with? The harness also comes with a dragging line for a sled of any kind.

The dragging line is a bit annoying, because the carabiners don't sit longways with the end of the line, but sideways. This means the lines don't pull smoothly forward and backward - you can see it in the illustration of the drag line on the harness's page. This doesn't seem to affect pulling performance but it seems lie it would eventually impact the longevity of the carabiners.

How does it fit? It goes on easily. The (plastic) buckle adjusts easily but grabs tight, and the straps stay where you put them. The padded shoulder portions are comfortable and wide, and distribute weight well when it's buckled properly.

If you buckle it a bit too tight, you'll feel most of the weight from the dragged object in your abs and chest. It's uncomfortable with the buckle pressing down on your chest. However, if you adjust it more loosely, the weight rides properly on your chest and shoulders.

It is also easy to put on and take off, even on a client with a shoulder/arm injury, which means it's easy to superset in sled drags instead of just "set up, do these, move on to the next thing." This is a very good thing when using the harness as a training tool for more than one person, too - I can easily use one vest with two clients and swap it back and forth with a one-buckle adjustment. This is much faster than a weight belt with a tow strap fed through it.

Rating:
Quality: 4 out of 5. On the Ironmind-like you-can-use-this-to-drag-a-plane-is-a-5 scale, this isn't the best it could be. But it's very solid, and it seems to be holding up to heavy use so far. The weave and construction are good, too, and none of the parts seem cheap or poorly made. It's well made.

Overall: If you need an inexpensive harness, this is a good one.

The Law of Duplication of Exercises

2011-11-15T00:01:00.000-05:00

When I train people, I often duplicate exercises. That is, I set up X for one client, so other clients do X or a variation of X.

For example, I had three clients in a row recently. The first one did a rope pull/prowler push combination, heavy, for strength. Hand-over-hand rope pulls with the Econo Prowler, and the push it back. Repeat repeatedly.

The next client was also supposed to do the Prowler for conditioning. So as a change of pace - and because it was all set up - I had this client do the same exercise. I made it lighter and pushed a faster pace to get more of a conditioning effect.

The last client wasn't supposed to do the Prowler at all, but it was all set up . . . and that client needed to do a heavy leg exercise. So I took the rope off, hooked up a tow line to the Prowler, and added a pile of additional weight and had the client drag it.

None of this would have worked out this way if I hadn't had to set up the Econo Prowler and tie the rope on for the first client. All of them would have done something, but not all do the same thing with minor changes.

In every case, the exercise is fit into the appropriate spot and customized to the client. The load varies, the reps and rests vary, the exact usage varies. All are sufficient to get a training effect in the way the client most needs it. But rather than set up, say, heavy rows and then low-handle prowler pushes, and light prowler pushes for cardio, and a squat, I used the same tool. Lower setup time, each client hit a variation they don't see that often, and everyone got something out of it.

It's a time-saver for a trainer, but the primary consideration is still this: get the client the training effect the client needs, without risk or harm.

Recovering from Injuries

2011-11-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Tim Henriques has an excellent new article on this subject over on T-Nation. It's fairly basic but it's step-by-step advice for coming back from injury.

Step-by-Step Approach to Coming Back from an Injury

Warning: T-Nation is NSFW, and the images in the article are of traumatic sports injuries in progress. Very much ouch.

Offset Bulgarian Split Squat

2011-11-04T00:01:00.002-04:00

Buried in an otherwise normal (but well-written) article about squats, Tony Gentilcore demonstrates an offset Bulgarian split squat.

Squatmaggedon

Cool!

Book Review: From Russia With Tough Love

2011-11-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

From Russia With Tough Love is yet another kettlebell book by Pavel Tsatsouline, kettlebell guru. I've reviewed a couple of his books before, but I hadn't gotten my hands on this one until just recently. It's a kettlebell book aimed squarely at women, and features two female RKCs (Russian Kettlebell Certified) as the models for all of the exercises.

Like his other books, it's written with a mix of "no excuses, Comrades!" Soviet-era callbacks and rock-solid training advice. Unfortunately, it magnifies some of the faults of earlier books without adding much to the canon.

This book largely covers the kettlebell box squat, clean, military press, one-arm deadlift (and one-legged deadlift), and snatch, all with kettlebells. The details on these exercises is outstanding, and while it does heavily repeat earlier books, it is written as if this was your first exposure. This is good because it doesn't assume any base of knowledge. It also doesn't sugar coat this - training is hard work, and while this is effective and doesn't require training to exhaustion you are only getting out what you put in.

The exercises are also well-pictured, with clear illustrations that exactly match the text, button-pictures differentiating bad form from good form, and easy to follow instructions.

But sadly the book also has even more ads for Pavel's other books and courses, more ads for his friend's books and courses, and even more forum quotes from the Dragondoor.com forums. This would be cool if it was interspersed as the occasional testimonial, but pages and pages of it? Often it's just a question, or a comment, or a "kettlebells are awesome!" me-too post, which don't add much besides a sense of community.

The book also has some sloppy editing. This sloppy editing shows up in a couple of places - besides boxed text that tracks across multiple pages, you also get text that either just ends (pg. 18) or begins (p. 122) out of nowhere. It also leads to some oddness - the book repeatedly mentions toning (keeping muscles lean and under tension even when you are relaxed) and strength without bulk. But some of the forum posts quoted mention adding strength, thickness, and muscular weight gain . . . so which is it? It can clearly be both, but it's hard to reconcile "do this and you won't get bigger than you want to" and "this is a great way to get bigger muscles" - and those two basic ideas show up a lot.

Overall:
Content: 3 out of 5. What is there is excellent - very high quality instruction on kettlebell exercises. But it's very heavily padded out with quoted Dragondoor forum posts, testimonial posts, long digressions with text errors that make them hard to follow.
Presentation: 2 out of 5. The text is easy to read, the pictures clear, and the good/bad/optional extra icons are nice. But the book is a mess organizationally, there are multiple trailing off sentences and sentences that start nowhere, and a total lack of text flow.

Overall: All of Pavel's books have two things in common - excellent material and a high price. The others I've read have been much better put together, however, and the instruction wasn't so padded out with extras. This book is very high quality information crammed in between poorly organized forum quotes and useless filler. This is too bad because the instruction that is there is gold. Not recommend - check out his other books instead!

More Fitness Myths Debunked

2011-11-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

I'm not a huge fan of myth debunking, since I think it's generally better to tell people what is correct than what is wrong.

But it's very nice to see more "mainstream" (non-industry, non-niche, non-fitness focused) news coverage that has correct and useful training information in it.

I'm not sure what's up with the formatting in this article, but the information is quite good:

Top 10 fitness myths by Sally Rummel

Sandbags

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

This recent (and excellent) article on sandbags make me think about some other sandbag training resources:

Sandbags for Strength by Matt Palfrey

His suggestions for how to use sandbags are excellent. You can sub it in for a "normal" weight, or use it for unique exercises. But either way, it's shifting weight means it's always going to be harder to lift than a designed implement like a barbell or kettlebell or dumbbell, so it's always going to add a challenge to the lift.

But how about those other resources?

This Men's Health article is brief, but has a good description of how to make a sandbag:

Sandbag Training

Josh Henkins has a good article up on Bodybuilding.com here:

Sandbag Training

There is the sandbag training blog too.

That should be enough to get you started on sandbag training. Enjoy!

Foam Rolling

2011-10-27T00:01:00.002-04:00

Pete the Fireman pointed this out to me:

Foam Rolling

It's a simple and thorough foam rolling routine. Print this out, bring it to the gym, and grab one of those foam rollers and try it out. If you've been foam rolling for a while none of this will be new to you, but it's a nice one-page routine regardless.

Single Racked Kettlebell

2011-10-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

I'm getting to be a big fan of a single kettlebell held in "rack." That's held against the chest and shoulder, with a straight wrist.

The advantages I find to this are:

Offset weights work your abdominal and back muscles. If you are holding more weight on one side than the other, or no weight on one side, you'll force your abdominal muscles and back to contract to keep you in proper posture.

A racked kettlebell forces better posture. It's hard to lean forward on a squat, split-squat, or lunge if you have a weight held up against your chest. Lean forward, and the weight starts to pull you forward. You correct by keeping your chest up, your lower back arched, and the weight held in tight. Those are all parts of proper form for squats and farmer's walks, so you're encouraged by the weight to do the right thing.

A racked kettlebell is stable. Held in tight, the weight doesn't pull or strain at the shoulders. The shoulders are held in a safe position, and it teaches people a safe place to pull and hold a weight.

A racked kettlebell doesn't encourage shrugging. If you get folks with tight or injured traps or shoulders, a racked kettlebell can help a lot. They can't comfortably shrug the weight up, so they naturally pull the weight in by tightening their scapula and shoulders instead of shrugging up.

You only need one. Hey, kettlebells are expensive. So this means I don't need pairs to use racked weights.

Again, this is in my experience. Those are the reasons why I've been using single racked kettlebells a lot lately with my clients.

Off-the-Shelf Programs and Athletes

2011-10-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

Occasionally I get asked about popular, "name" programs like P90X, Crossfit, Couch to 5K, etc. and how they work for athletes.

My experience is that they basically do not. Not that the programs aren't good (although some commercial programs are not), but that they aren't good for athletes.

Why not?

In my experience there are two big reasons athletes and off-the-shelf programs (hereafter OTSPs) don't mix very well.

Athletes have specific needs, OTSPs do not address them.

All athletes have specific needs for their sport, and specific needs for them as individuals doing that sport. OTSPs are generic, and thus don't take into account your individual strengths and weaknesses.

Even athletic-specific programs aren't ideal for all athletes - a program to make you a great powerlifter isn't an ideal program to make you a great MMA fighter, and vice-versa. Your sports have specific needs.

Athletes have a lot of training to recover from; OTSPs assume that you do not.

OTSPs assume that you are doing a specific routine and not much else (aside from the recommended extras, and probably not even them). Any athlete worth the name is doing multiple additional training sessions each week. These are often skill-specific and very intense - soccer practice, sparring, practice lifting, throwing, running. Recovery is sleep and rest and light movement (at most), not hard sports training. So the OTSP assumes you are resting on Tuesday and raring to go on Wednesday, not hitting the field tired on Tuesday and you feel too wrecked to do that circuit on Wednesday.

So what do I do instead?

That's a big question, but it boils down to: a program that addresses your specific needs (whether strength, or endurance, or what have you) and takes into account your specific training schedule. No, that's not easy. But it's necessary.