3 Feats of Strength: An Introduction to Strongman Exercises
by on December 16, 2009
George Hackenschmidt – Legendary Oldtime Wrestler and Strongman
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Jedd Johnson, CSCS from DieselCrew.com.
In the past, the pioneers of strength, like George Hackenschmidt, and other classic strongmen and wrestlers, were built like machines and were able to move serious weight and do feats of strength that left you thinking, “WOW.”
The primary focus on the part of these performers was strength, while the appearance of their body came secondary.
They foucused on strengthening their legs, back, and grip first and by using complex, ground based movements, the size of their shoulders, arms, and chest followed right along.
George Hackenschmidt didn’t try to build a V-shape torso with flared lats and a wasp-like waist. He built a thick back, a thick core, and could support tremendous amounts of weight in movements like the squat and deadlift.
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These days, it’s different. Most of the weight training that goes on in the gym today is not nearly as focused on the development of strength. Now, the focus is mostly on aesthetics – perfectly proportioned biceps and calves, a broad chest, and big biceps.
You can bet the Sandows of the day didn’t care about the peak on their biceps. The Hackenschmidts of the era weren’t worried about a big pump in their chest.
Somewhere along the lines, there was a shift from being strong to looking good. Much of this shift can be blamed on the overwhelming presence of bodybuilding literature at the newsstand.
For me, however, when it comes to a rewarding experience in the gym, bodybuilding falls short. I am more interested in building strength. In fact, much of my training revolves around doing what the oldtime strongmen considered “feats of strength.”
I want to share with you all what I feel are the best feats of strength to perform in order to build a strong back, powerful body, and an impressive grip.
Overhead Lifts
Without a doubt, one the best pure feats of strength is lifting something from the floor and up overhead. I don’t care if it’s a barbell, a dumbbell, a stone, or a beer keg filled with sand and water, there is just something about getting the object to arm’s length overhead that means you are truly strong. To do this requires practically all the musculature in the body from the ground to the hands. If your back is weak, the object won’t make it off the ground. If your legs are weak, they will crumble beneath the load as you try to push it up overhead. And if your mind is weak, you can get halted at any point along the way.
The best thing about overhead lifting is that you are getting up out of a seated position and performing the lift on your feet. This type of lifting requires more talent and athleticism than the seated variations which in turn makes you more of an athlete and more of a man.
The Log Overhead Lift
The majority of my overhead lifting is done with a log. I have competed in many Strongman competitions and the Log was always one of my favorite events, whether it was for max weight or for repetitions. Not only does it build your overhead strength, but also makes your lower back stable, as well as the grip.
The Keg Overhead Lift
I love Keg Lifting also, because kegs are so unstable. While you can hold a barbell or dumbbell pretty easily, the keg has a dynamic center of gravity that you have to compete with along with the fact it is so heavy and bulky.
Odd Object Lifting and Carrying
It is one thing to lift something heavy off the ground. It’s another thing altogether to pick it up and then carry it.
This is the primary difference between the sport of powerlifting and the sport of strongman. In the sport of powerlifting, the lifts that are executed are the bench press, the deadlift, and the squat. While tremendous weights are lifted in these three disciplines, all that takes place is the lifting and lowering of the weights. In many strongman competitions, however, the objective is to lift and then move heavy and bulky items such as stones, farmer’s walk implements, yokes, and sandbags. This is often done at high rates of speed as well. The athletes in strongman competitions have to be extremely strong, and be able to move nimbly over the course to be successful.
Carrying heavy objects, just like overhead lifting, requires the recruitment of every muscle in the body. With each step, tremors course through the body, requiring you to re-adjust and stay on track. The joints have to be strong and stable in order to keep from buckling with each stride, all while keeping your breathing under load. Carrying objects is a great way to train, and it can be done in the gym or in a parking lot or field. The most important thing is not where it is done, but that it actually gets done.
Homemade Farmers Implements
The Farmer’s Walk is a basic strongman event. You just pick up the farmers and take off. My farmers were made by a friend from scrap industrial pieces. He made the handles extra thick so it is more taxing on the grip and the handles are extra high, which causes swing. You have to be ready to stroll with these things.
Keg Carrying – The Toughest Walk in the Park You’ll Ever Have
Carrying the keg is a challenge not only because you have to pick it up but because you then have to move with it. Also, because it sits on your belly, it can be very hard to breath.
Bending Steel
There are few things in strength training that feel as good as bending steel. Strength feat enthusiasts have enjoyed bending nails, bolts, stock, wrenches, hammers, horse shoes and more for years. Training for this type of feat is becoming more common all the time as resources become more available to the public.
Generally when bending steel, there is some form of protective covering placed on the ends of the item being bent to avoid puncturing the skin. Usually this is a towel or thin piece of suede leather. This is extremely important because the hands have to press on the ends of the object with a great deal of pressure. If there is no protection, there is a much higher risk of injury, especially punctures and lacerations. Also, with no protection, the pain factor is escalated and when that happens it is much harder to apply full strength into the object, and the feat might not be completed.
Obviously, there has to be some limitation to how much protective gear is used because eventually it becomes padding. A balance needs to be maintained between protecting yourself and making the feat too easy.
There are two main types of bending – braced bending and unbraced bending. Braced bending is done by pushing the object against your thigh, knee, or other part of the body to get the bend started. When bending very long objects, like steel bars, very thick objects, like wrenches and hammers, or very resilient items, such as frying pans, bracing is needed. Unbraced bending is done by keeping the object free of the body for the most part and relying more on hand and wrist strength to start and complete the feat.
In order to bend something, you have to go about it with intensity. When going for a top-level bend, if you are not 100% focused on the bend at hand, you will not be successful.
Short unbraced bending, such as nail, bolt, and stock bending is featured in many grip strength competitions each year. Unbraced bending is chosen because it is a better means for testing hand, wrist and grip strength.
Double Overhand Bending
Double Underhand Bending
Reverse Bending
As you can see, there are many ways to bend steel. However, short bending should not be considered a grip strength feat only. There is a great deal of engagement of the core and torso to create radiant tension that travels down through the arms and into the hands to strengthen the grip on the object being bent. This increase in tension increases your bending ability while at the same time making it a safer practice as it keeps your hands from slipping off the object and causing injury. If you are interested in learning how to bend nails, bolts and other items, there is no better resource than the Nail Bending eBook. It is the definitive resource on short, unbraced bending.
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As you can see, there is much more to training that can be done in the weight room than just bodybuilding. While bodybuilding is a perfectly healthy and rewarding endeavor, feat of strength training can actually be just as effective at building muscle and getting a respectable body. The added benefit of feat training is the real world strength that comes along with it, strength you can keep under wraps until you need it for something serious, like changing a tire or carrying your friends out of a burning building. If you have any questions, please feel free check out my site, DieselCrew.com. Feel free to leave a comment or to drop me an email at jedd[dot]diesel[at]gmail[dot]com.
Jedd Johnson is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist in Northeastern PA. He specializes in Grip Strength Training but studies all types of strength training disciplines. His website, http://www.DieselCrew.com is an on-line community with the objective of helping its readers become as strong and healthy as possible.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Art of Manliness - 3 Feats of Strength: An Introduction to Strongman Exercises
Friday, December 18, 2009
Daryl Joseph Ducharme - Numinous, Masculine Sexuality – Awakening my sacred masculine
Ducharme seems to be using the book to conduct his own exploration of spirituality. I found his two part series on the sixth metaphor in the book interesting, so I thought I would share the posts.
You can read his first comments on the book here. He has been working through the 10 metaphors in Fox's book at his blog (Deacon's Blog).
Numinous, Masculine Sexuality, part 1 – Awakening my sacred masculine
Welcome the first part of metaphor 6 on my journey through the book “The Hidden Spirituality of Men – Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine” by Matthew Fox. If this is your first time reading my blog you might want to at least read the initial post on the book. You can also check out other posts in the series. Beyond that, read on.Here it is, the metaphor on sexuality. This metaphor was the most confronting to start reading. I put it off both subconsciously and consciously for about 2 weeks. At the same time, masculine sexual energy is a major reason I started looking into the men’s studies movement. As a father of two boys, I kept questioning whether or not I would know how to speak powerfully to them about sex when the time comes.
Being raised in an all (powerful) female household I really never had a male figure I trusted to discuss these things with and I was already ashamed about how other men treated women. Initially, the question of masculine sexuality pulled me on this journey through the sacred masculine and I was afraid of this metaphor the most (my ego was definitely shaking in its boots).
When I finally read the chapter, I breezed through it and got a lot of information. I felt much more comfortable and saw the bigger picture of the sacredness of sexuality. When I reread it before writing this article I noticed how much I missed. Realizing that my subconscious probably zoned out on the first pass, I made an effort to take in the information inside this book.I feel I must say one thing before moving on. This article is about sexuality as it concerns the sacred masculine. It is meant as a serious spiritual discussion. Watch where you find yourself giggling as that is where you are probably missing out sacrament of sex. Read on if you are ready.
Here is the second part.
Numinous, Masculine Sexuality, part 2 – Awakening my sacred masculine
Today’s post is part 2 of my post on Numinous, Masculine Sexuality. These two posts share my journey through the 6th metaphor from the book The Hidden Spirituality of Men – Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine by Matthew Fox. In my last post I talked about how ancient religions ( and some non-western religions ) worshipped sexuality as sacred. I also discussed how western religions have brought shame into the forefront of sexuality in an attempt to control the sacred. Finally, the last post discussed the fact that sacred sexuality is not just about intercourse – but rather intercourse is just one aspect. In revisiting this chapter I found myself starting to learn to play the guitar and it has given me access to a sexual spirit that has been suppressed for some time now.
The topics of today’s journey through numinous, masculine sexuality are sperm, male infertility, sexual diversity learning from the gifts of homosexuality and wrapping it all up in sexuality as sacred.
Sperm
In the book, the author had asked a group of mostly men to write down an answer to the question, “What is Sperm?” He shared many of the responses he got and many of them were at or nearing poetic. As someone who had always been uncomfortable with anything sexual in nature it had been very easy for me to never even think about it. Well, in the honor of sharing my journey I am going to attempt to answer that question right here in this blog from my perspective. I only hope I can do it justice.
Why is it so hard to honor sperm? Is it because it has so many names that make us giggle or turn red? Is it because we are afraid of the awesome power that lies within? Sperm is a metaphor for possibility. Each sperm is the possibility of life, and not just any life. The possibility of a new life that we love more than we have ever loved before. I have 2 sons because of sperm. 1 came from planning and one came from a moment of passionate love but they are both a part of my life because of sperm. Of all the fluids that are worshipped in this world – blood, wine, holy water – this seems left out of the sacred mix. So even if it is only a moment before my shame rises again, I take this moment to honor distilled masculine sexuality in sperm.
Read more.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
TC Luoma - ATOMIC DOG: You Don't Know Dick About Manhood
I left out a funny but raunchy bit at the beginning of the article, so you can read that if you'd like.
ATOMIC DOG
You Don't Know Dick About Manhood
by TCWhat was definitely unmanly about the whole thing—wussie, even—was the way he handled the aftermath of the disclosures. Rather than just cop to his long-term screw fest, he got coy. He crawled into a hole like one of Carl Spackler's golf-course destroying gophers.
He should have come clean. He should have looked the camera in the eye and said:
"Yes, I've been unfaithful to my wife but that's something for me and her to deal with. While I have some responsibility to my sponsors, only they can decide whether or not it's in their best interest to keep sponsoring me. Either way, I will continue to play golf, perhaps not now, but definitely later. In the meantime, have fun ripping me up in the media and laughing at my misfortunes. With a name like Woods, and a game that has holes, balls, and bags, you should have a field day with sexual double entendres. Consider it my gift to you. Thank you and have a swell day."Of course, I'm not sure how many self-respecting black guys, even if they were Tiger Woods, would use the word "swell," but you get the picture.
Anyhow, that's not how it usually happens. Tiger, like the majority of men on earth, doesn't know dick about manhood.
Why Not Replace Your Dick With a Droid?
Most men, if asked to define manhood, would stammer something inane about not crying, not asking for directions, or refusing to wear anything in Adam Lambert's leather and lace filled closet.
And you can't blame them. Look at their role models. Look at two of our primary teachers, television and the Internet. They've taken manliness and distilled it to a weak, watery brew that consists of silly macho sayings.
They claim they're being tongue-in-cheek, but say it loud enough and often enough and it starts to percolate through the collective consciousness or unconsciousness of every dick-swinging American.
Take a look at some of the ad campaigns viraling through the ether, all designed to prey on male insecurities about their manhood.
Motorola's new Droid, in an effort to compete with the I-Phone, is striking straight at your dick bone with a virtual bat'Leth, the Klingon sword of honor. "Should a phone be pretty? Should it be a tiara wearing, digitally clueless beauty queen?"
Heck no! Hell no!
It should be "racehorse duct taped to a scud missile fast" so it " rips through the web like a circular saw through a ripe banana!"
It's not a "precious porcelain figurine" of a phone! No, it's a robot!
Do you want to trade a hairdo for can do? Then buy a Droid, fool, and not one of those sissy I-Phones!
And for a brief moment, I too was nearly convinced that a freakin' phone could symbolize and perhaps even inflate the testicles of any man who squirrels a Droid away in his pants.
Shit, why not go one better; why not replace your dick with a Droid!?!
It can fuck and it can text, it can tell which song plays next,
It can even let you pee, if you agree to pay the fee....The new Docker's campaign, however, struck out with me. I mean, my God, Dockers as an emblem of masculinity?
Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open the door and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that's what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men. Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny. But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for. The world sits idly by as cities crumble, children misbehave and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street.
It drivels on about dropping our plastic forks and stepping away from the salad bar or something, culminating in a call for manhood, the call being, IT'S TIME TO WEAR THE PANTS.
That's right, manhood equals a pair of those lame Docker's khaki pants that previously hampered men from getting laid for an entire generation.
Other Dockers ads proclaim, "It's time to get your hands dirty. It's time to answer the call of manhood. It's time to wear the pants." Another urges you to "Khaki diem."
Oh please.
You just can't be a man unless you wear Docker's khaki pants and use a Droid to text. Likewise, Old Spice, the chosen scent of fossils everywhere, is reinventing itself as the "manly scent of experience, boys, and you need more of it."
"Are you an Experienced Man? Or a manfume-wearing sissy?"
Given the age of the average Old Spice user, the manly scent of experience is more accurately the scent of compacted, decades-old earwax, acrid apocrine sweat glands, and smegma-encrusted members that haven't had the will to lift themselves off their cushy scrotal pillow since their Testosterone levels had a fightin' chance of hitting 3 digits.
The ad for Campbell's "Fully Loaded Man" soup actually boasts that it contains "balls of meat."
Not only does that support my suspicions about the origin of the protein in most canned foods, the last two things I want to be thinking about when I'm eating soup are balls "fully loaded" with spunk.
A Burger King ad shows a guy eating "chick food" with his hot, elegantly dressed girlfriend. Indignant by not being served the caloric equivalent of one of Caligula's feasts, he storms out of the restaurant to join a band of marauding men—construction workers punching each other in the belly, men ripping off their constrictive underwear and burning them, all while singing "I am man, hear me roar...I will eat this meat," to the feminist Helen Reddy anthem, I am Woman.
Never mind that you left your girlfriend to strut your stuff through several homoerotic scenes, you actually equate eating shit food with manhood? You equate eating whatever you feel like, having the dietary wisdom and discipline of a two-year-old with manhood?
You putz. "Real" men eat what they need for health, not what they want any time they feel like it.
I could go on for megapixels.
Your Girlfriend's Put Worse Things in Her Mouth
Granted, I've written plenty of these "what makes a man" columns, but most have been written tongue-in-cheek, and I've never used them to prey on male insecurities so that we could sell something.
Still, as someone who writes and thinks a lot about manliness, I was hard-pressed to actually define the word. Maybe my brain has been cock-blocked by advertisers, too.
Think about it, can you define manhood or masculinity in terms that aren't cliché? Most often, guys will spout something like the following, spoken by Maddox, the author of The Alphabet of Manliness:
When I talk about old masculinity I'm talking about guys like my dad. My dad is a really tough guy. He fought in Korea, and if you took a look at this guy's hands you would see [that they] are big and callused and gnarled and there's stuff just oozing from them, and I think he has oil stains that are there permanently. And my hands in comparison are not like that. Sometimes he grabs my hands, and he calls me a pussy, and he walks away. To give you an idea what kind of guy he is, we went fishing once and he didn't have anything to gut and clean the fish, so he bit into its stomach and bit its guts out and spit them on the ground. True story. I was 13 or 14.
Great. His dad had an aversion to soap, didn't know about Nivea, and he lacked the ingenuity to think of using the fishhook to slice open the fish's belly. Instead, his creative approach to cleaning the fish was to adopt the manly behavior of my puddy cat, Mr. Frisky.
Shit, your girlfriend's put worse things in her mouth, if you're lucky, that is.
Not only that, dad's got the emotional development of an orc. Hey, let's try an experiment. You dads out there, call your kid a pussy and walk away. Do that a few times and see what kind of emotionally stable guy he grows up to be.
Chances are he'll still be wetting the bed when he's forty. Chances are he'll secretly wear women's panty hose because he loves the way his matted hair looks under the nylon, but hey, that's just me. No telling how it would affect your kid.
Is any of that stuff Maddox mentioned about his dad actually manliness? Or is manliness something more, something far deeper, far more admirable, and far more rare?
The Traits of Manliness
Like I said, I've thought about this a lot, and my feeble brain has come up with several manliness characteristics that I think are universally true.
Authenticity: The majority of men are counterfeit. They assume the opinions, mannerisms, and even fashion tastes of the masses. Much of what they say is a lie, because the truth would damage their self-image, or at least the image they want to project.
Authenticity means being true to your character; it's being exactly what's claimed, free of hypocrisy.
Bravery: When I use this word, I don't mean the ability to bear pain. Granted, being able to bear pain is courageous if it's done in order to complete some heroic task, but lacerating your femoral artery while cutting out pictures of underwear models for your latest boner collage and refusing to go to the doctor isn't brave and it isn't manly, only stupid.
Bravery comes in many forms. It can come in the form of physical self-sacrifice or emotional self-sacrifice. It's going against popular opinion, standing up for injustice when it might damage your standing in your community.
It's boldly facing bad news instead of avoiding it. It's realizing that everything worthwhile has some sort of pain associated with it.
Confidence: Cockiness is different from confidence. One is a false front, enacted to protect your self-image and one is self-assuredness in your abilities, thoughts, and actions.
Confidence allows you to consider other people's opinions without having your ego damaged. Unfortunately, most guys hunt for opinions that match their own:
"Geez, that guy agrees with me. He sure is smart!"
Honesty: I'm convinced that every third thing said by the average man is an exaggeration or a downright lie. Again, it's all an attempt to preserve or project a false self-image.
I suppose this category links closely with authenticity, but there are some obvious distinctions. Honesty also has to do with not stealing and not cheating, which are merely other forms of parasitism. Manliness means relying on your own talents and skills to acquire the things you need. It also means saying "no" occasionally to those things you might want but don't need. (Tiger take heed.)
Purpose: Unfortunately, most men don't have any purpose in life, other than recreation and, in general, distractions of all kind whether they be sports, cars, gaming, or collecting Snapple bottle tops.
A man's got to have some purpose or purposes, whether they're internal (pertaining to emotional growth, personal growth), intrapersonal (family and friends), or external (occupational).
Maybe you want to be a truly qualified trainer or coach whose hunger for getting better never dies. That's a fine purpose. Maybe you want to be the best husband or father or friend that you can be, constantly giving energy to people you care about. Also a fine purpose. Or maybe you just want to develop the inner you, discovering your motivations and purposes, while uncovering your contradictions and curing your own neuroses, which is a very fine purpose.
Men are truly content when they're learning something new or accomplishing some task. Boys are content when they're playing.
Rock-Fucking-Solid Human Beings
Oddly enough, these manliness "virtues" are also what makes a good woman a good woman, which brings into question the whole manliness term.
Another problem is that we use the terms manliness and masculinity interchangeably. Tearing fish guts out with your teeth would definitely be deemed masculine. Chugging beer after beer and engorging on greasy animal meat is pretty solidly masculine, as would using your dick instead of a hammer to frame a house. Likewise, cheating on your wife again and again and again could definitely be labeled masculine, but that, or any of the preceding masculine traits, has nothing to with true manliness.
Maybe we need another term for manliness, one that satisfies the man/woman thing and one that doesn't get so easily thrown in the muck with masculinity.
It's a tough one. Maybe we should just call them rock-fucking-solid human beings. Sure, from now on, people who are authentic, brave, confident, honest, and purposeful are rock-fucking-solid human beings.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
"Male Enhancement" Advertisements
I just saw an infomercial for a product that promises to increase your penis size, or your money back. First of all, bullshit - these products are worthless and DO NOT WORK.
Second, you are fine exactly as you are. You do not need to be bigger, or longer, or anything else. The truth these asshats do not want you to believe is that it really is about quality, not quantity.
Finally, and most importantly, the infomercial used "candid confessions" of pretty young women talking about how much size matters to them. One even said that a small penis "makes everything else about the man seem small."
So the message these f*cktards are trying to promote is that men are their penises, and if that one part of our bodies is not HUGE, then we are small men overall. What an effing dumbass thing to tell men, many of whom are insecure about size and performance anyway.
I was appalled by this ad. And the thing is that they will sell tons of this product because they target one of the greatest insecurities in many men, especially young men.
So, men, our penises are just one part of our bodies - they are not who we are as men. A woman worth being with, and spending our lives with, will not focus on our penis size or anything else - she will love us and want to be with us for who we are as human beings. And if you are with a woman who only cares about your penis, or makes an issue of any physical element, you are with a woman who is not worth your time.
Monday, December 14, 2009
NPR Science Friday - Coffee and Prostate Cancer
Hopefully, this will begin to put to rest the false belief that higher testosterone levels cause prostate cancer. From what I have seen, it is estrogen rather than testosterone that causes the cancer. And previous studies that linked T levels to cancer did not look at the conversion of extra T into estrogen, which may be where the false link comes from. Limit the conversion of T to estrogen, which is done by the aromatase enzyme (and can be prevented or limited aromatase inhibitors such as Anastrozole (Arimidex), Formestane (Lentaron), and some OTC supplements), and you can limit the occurrence of the cancer.
Coffee and Prostate Cancer (broadcast Friday, December 11th, 2009)
Colorful Coffee Composition Photo by 'Once and Future' / Flickr
Scientists this week said that they had found a link between increased coffee intake and decreased prostate cancer risk in men. The finding came out of an NIH-funded study of 50,000 men. "Avid coffee drinkers," those who consumed six or more cups per day, had 60 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer than men who drank no coffee. The results of the study were presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Houston. The researchers said that it was too early to say which, if any, of the thousands of chemical compounds in a cup of coffee was responsible for the effect. We'll find out more.
Guests
Kathryn Wilson
Research Fellow
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MassachusettsRelated Links
Segment produced by:Annette Heist
- AACR Press Release: Coffee Consumption Associated with Reduced Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer
- MedlinePlus: Prostate Cancer
Listen:
podcastSunday, December 13, 2009
Jason Ferruggia - 5 Killer Conditioning Drills
5 Killer Conditioning Drills
December 8, 2009
Riding a stationary bike sucks. Sure, it’s convenient and often the only option for a lot of people, but let’s be honest; enduring 30 minutes of water boarding would probably be more fun. If you can ride a stationary bike, you can ride a real bike; and that would be a much better choice. Sprinting would be far superior to either of those. Doing so on a hill or with a sled or Prowler is often even better. Below are some of my favorite conditioning drills that I do myself and with all of my clients.
All of these can be done at the end of your strength workouts as a finisher for 10-15 minutes. Most of them can also be done on off days; either alone or in a circuit with one or several of the other conditioning drills. If you choose that option you would train for 15-30 minutes and be sure to choose exercises that won’t interfere with your next day’s workout. Therefore you probably wouldn’t want to do band sprints the night before a heavy squat day, for example.
Battling Ropes- There are several different ways to do the battling ropes- alternate, double arm snaps, side to side, windmill style, with a squat or reverse lunge between reps, etc. Whatever ways haven’t been done yet will be invented, tested and tried at Renegade Gym sometime in the near future; you can be sure of that. The benefit of this exercise is that it causes zero joint stress or soreness. This is huge! Because of this it can be done frequently and on days between heavy training sessions without fear of it interfering with your size or strength gains. This is also great for anyone with any kind of knee or other lower body injury.
Prowler Sprints- I say Prowler sprints and not “pushes” because when we load the Prowler up heavy I consider that strength work or strength endurance. For conditioning I like to keep it a little lighter and do a large volume of work with minimal rest periods, or until the Prowler flu strikes and vomit appears.
Sled Sprints- These can be done forward or backward and with a belt attached to your waist or by grabbing the handles. Again, if you do these heavy, I consider it strength or strength endurance. For more of a grueling conditioning workout I keep the sled light and recommend doing 40-100 yard sprints. If you have limited distance, as we do at the gym, just do more sets with less rest.
Band Resisted Sprints- This one is awesome if you have limited space. The lactic acid build up in the legs is enough to drop anyone to their knees after thirty seconds if it’s their first time doing this. Use two to three bands (average or strong, depending on the weight and strength of the athlete) and keep constant tension while using short, choppy steps. Be sure to use spotters in front in case someone slips or you have any mishaps with the bands. Always resist on the eccentric portion and then fire out as quickly as possible when you return to the start position. A spotter in the back is a good idea as well, just in case some takes a wrong step or misjudges something and gets slingshotted through the wall like Elmer Fudd. If you are not used to these, start with 15 seconds per set and work your way up to 30 or even 60 seconds. Rest only long enough for the lactic acid to clear and for you be able to perform the next set with good form.
Farmers Walks- This is one of those conditioning drills that can also be a great strength exercise as well. Load it up heavy and it will increase your grip strength and build and iron core and stability in your lower body like nothing else. In the process it will also improve your conditioning. That’s one way to do it- heavy for short distances. Or you can go lighter on it and walk longer and further. You could bring a pair of 72-97 pound kettlebells out the field with you and walk 100 yards down and back with them. In between you could run sprints or push the Prowler and then grab the bells and go for another walk. You could also do two arm/two kettlebell swings and immediately at the end of the high rep set, walk as far as you can without dropping them. The options are limitless.
With all of these methods weather is never an excuse. If it’s 95 degrees in July or 5 degrees in January, any of these can be done by anyone who actually has some balls and is willing to work.
Get after it.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Depression Men: Symptoms and Treatments by Dan Micheals
Depression Men: Symptoms and Treatments
Studies have shown that, although there are more women who get treated for clinical depression, there are actually about the same number of men who suffer the condition, but they do not admit it or seek treatment for it. Society often mistakenly labels depression men as 'weaklings.' This causes men to hide their conditions rather than come forward and seek medical attention.
About six million men in the United States suffer from depression every year. Men seem to manifest depression differently from women. In general, depression men are more disposed to recognize exhaustion, petulance, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances' not 'emotions,' such as sadness, guilt, or worthlessness.
Because of this, depression men also have a different way of coping. Denial is common. When clinical depression starts conflicting with a man’s pride and self-image, it is almost impossible for him to come clean and admit that he is suffering from this debilitating mental state. Clinical depression slows down the male libido, causing the man’s sexual energy to suffer. Instead of seeking professional help, a man usually find other sources such as alcohol or drugs to vent their frustration. Unknowingly, the intake of prohibited drugs can actually cause permanent damage to sexual performance.
Tips For Depression Men
Don't Give Up Your Hobbies
Depression men, do not lose to the empty feeling as many people have given up hope and start dropping their favorite pastimes and hobbies in the process. This will undoubtedly only worsen the situation and create a more depressive state for you in the future as you are robbed of enjoyment and pleasure that these activities provide you. Instead, you should concentrate more of your time and energy into doing something that you love, for example go for a walk in the park, play golf and immerse yourself in hobbies that hopefully involves physical movements.
Exercise has long been proven to increase your blood flow throughout all parts of your body and will enable to you think clearly and more objectively to handle your situation besides obvious physical benefits. Also, it works as a natural anti-depressant as the activities will increase your serotonin levels and allow you to be at a more relaxed sedative state which will help depression men.
Watch Your Diet
One of the more overlooked leading factors in overcoming depression men is the lack of a proper diet. Are you enough or at the right time? Are you eating the right kind of food that provides proper nutrition? The right diet is important as lack of nutrients will make feel you easily irritated and generally unwell. Also, eating frequent light meals is better than a few heavy ones and make sure that all the appropriate nutrients are available in your meals. Try to leave out extreme diet plans that require you to forgo all carbohydrates and focus on protein or vice versa.
Furthermore, try to include brain food in your diet which uplifts your serotonin levels and helps to enhance your memory. Simply put, you are what you eat so it is vital that you eat your way back to your former happy healthy self.
Remember : You are not alone. The first utmost important thing to do is to find everything you need to know on depression and how to cure it. Don’t wait a second longer as you need to know more about the Depression Free Method on How To Treat Depression Men Safe and Effectively which can be found at www.depressionfreemethod.com now!Author's Bio
Dan Micheals have been involved in departing valuable knowledge on how to treat depression with his Depression Free Method over 10 years. His natural (drug-free), fast and permanent approach to treating depression has successfully ended the unnecessary pain and mental anguish for over 30,000 sufferers in the span of his career.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Psych Central - Male Infidelity Exposed
Emphasis added on that one important statement.Male Infidelity Exposed
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 7, 2009
Tiger Woods is the latest in a long list of men whose marital betrayal has made headlines. According to experts, the nation’s fascination with famous men who stray is nothing new.
In recent months, John Edwards, Mark Sanford, Eliot Spitzer, and others have faced similar allegations and public scrutiny.
Some believe the media has used the public transgressions to paint a sexual picture normalizing the behavior.
As such, a Wake Forest University professor has profiled male sexual behavior and how stereotypes compare with the norm.
Andrew Irwin-Smiler explains, “As a culture, we have a perception that men just want sex and that all men are promiscuous.”
“But the research shows that while men do have more partners than women, most men only have one partner at a time.”
His research shows that the majority of boys and men prioritize and value emotional connection to their partner.
Smiler’s research also shows that the popular media fuels the perception that men are promiscuous with television characters such a Fonzie in Happy Days, Hawkeye Pierce in Mash, Sam Malone in Cheers, Joey Tribbiani in Friends and Charlie Harper in 2 ½ Men.
The high-profile scandals involving public figures only add to the common misperceptions of men’s sexual behavior.
“The question is whether the media reflects reality or creates reality?” Smiler says.
Source: Wake Forest University
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Testosterone in the News
I like testosterone, the fuel of my physical masculinity. Can't imagine life without it. Problem is that this essential hormone has gotten a bad rap over the years, mostly due to feminists reasoning that if men are more violent or aggressive than women (which is only true in magnitude and not so much in frequency), then it must be the male hormone that is causing all the problems. Not so much.
Here is a new article that looks at the power of testosterone in women, with the assumption that it should trigger them to be more aggressive, but in reality they ended up being more fair and concerned with how they were perceived (social status, the lack of which is more associated with violent behavior). Interestingly, the women who got a placebo but THOUGHT they had received testosterone were more antisocial.
Meanwhile, over at Big Think, they took a look at the same research.Does Testosterone Have a Bad Rap?
By Constance Holden
Testosterone has a reputation for causing violent and antisocial behavior. But that's a bad rap, according to a new study. Women given the hormone acted more fairly in an economic game than did those given a placebo. Interestingly, however, women in the placebo group were more antisocial if they thought they had received testosterone, indicating that our negative attitudes toward the hormone have a powerful sway on behavior.
ScienceNOW Daily News
8 December 2009Scientists led by Ernst Fehr, a professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, suspected that testosterone is really about gaining and maintaining social status. And although status concerns lead to aggression, they theorized that testosterone does not necessarily make a person more self-seeking.
The team tested this idea by recruiting 121 women in their 20s to play a game that tests fairness. Two players, A and B, have to agree on the division of 10 money units, in this case Swiss francs. A proposes a division; B can only accept or reject. If B rejects the offer, neither gets any money. All the women were given a dose of either testosterone or a placebo under the tongue. Then 60 women designated as A played the game three times with three different partners, communicating through a computer.
A "fair" offer would be a 50-50 split. So, according to common wisdom, A would make more unfair offers if she were high on testosterone. The status hypothesis predicts the opposite: An unfair offer is more likely to evoke a rejection, which is an affront to A's status. So A is more likely to make an offer that B will accept.
The status hypothesis won. The women given the testosterone made significantly higher offers on average, the group reports online today in Nature: 3.9 francs versus 3.4 francs for the placebo group. "Our interpretation of this finding is that testosterone renders concerns for social status more prominent," says Fehr.
But the results changed depending on what the women believed they had received. Based on questionnaires, the researchers divided the volunteers into women who thought they had received testosterone and those who thought they had received placebo. Those who got the hormone but thought they got a placebo were the most fair; in more than 60% of their offers, they proposed a 50-50 split of the francs. Women who got the placebo but thought they got testosterone were the most unfair; in only 10% of the offers did they propose an even split of the money. That indicates, says Fehr, that the subjects' negative assumptions about testosterone--not the hormone itself--led to antisocial behavior.
Fehr says the group used women because the pharmacokinetics of testosterone doses in women are well-understood. He hopes to do the same experiment with men.
The research should help "demystify the wrong ideas about ... the 'antisocial' hormone testosterone," says Jack van Honk, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. But economist Niklas Zethraeus of the Stockholm School of Economics isn't convinced that testosterone influences fairness one way or the other. His group published a study this year using a larger sample that found no connection between sex hormone levels and economic behavior.
Hopefully, this research will begin to undo some of the negativity directed at men simply we have more testosterone than women. In this study, at least, the perception was much different than the reality.Testosterone Poisoning Isn't What You Think
In American folklore, testosterone is supposed to cause rage, lust, competitiveness, nuclear arms races, beer hats and other indicators of whacked-out excess masculinity. Andrew Sullivan, for example, wrote years ago about the "increased edginess and self-confidence'' that he got from hormone supplements--or, as he put it, his "biweekly encounter with a syringe full of manhood.'' He chased sex, he nearly got into fights, he bounced off the walls. Boo-yah!
If matters were that simple, then you'd expect that women who'd taken a testosterone dose before negotiating with each other would be more aggressive and reckless in their tactics.
Not so, says a report this week on the Nature website. Christoph Eisenegger and his colleagues had 121 women play the ultimatum game. Those who received testosterone beforehand were more fair and less egotistical than those who got a placebo.
Actually, there was one group of women who did behave according to stereotype, taking a much more "in-your-face'' stance in the talks. These were the women who thought they had been given testosterone.
Two conclusions: First, this is evidence for Eisenegger's more careful definition of testosterone's effect. He believes it's not a one-note promoter of aggression and lust, but rather a spur to competition for status. The experiment was designed to distinguish between the two theories: if testosterone just impels humans to act like rutting elks, then it should induce bad behavior at the bargaining table. But if it promotes status-seeking, then extra testosterone should be linked to winning the game, not burning down the casino. And so it was.
More importantly, it's a good reminder that we shouldn't assume that "bottom-up'' is a stronger explanation than "top-down'' for people's actions. Many people have an innate bias to think that pills, hormones and brain scans are evidence of forces more real and powerful than ideas, feelings and conversation. That's a bias to watch out for. Testosterone isn't just a chemical; it's an idea about gender and behavior that many Americans have acquired. The chemical can cause behavior changes; so can the idea.
Henrich Caveat: The work was done on 121 young women in a rich nation. It's not definitive (I'm not aware of a lot of cross-cultural work on testosterone's effect). But in creating conditions where the "folk theory'' didn't work, it does dent the notion that testosterone could be "a syringe full of manhood.''
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Complexes 2.0 — Optimize Your Fat-Loss Workouts by John Romaniello
Stop using pansy weights and start loading up the bar.
I love complexes for fat loss - WAY more effective than doing cardio. My workout today was a barbell complex, which took about 30-35 minutes, as follows:
A1: front squats
A2: hang cleans
A3: floor press
A4: bent row
All done with a 135 lb. barbell, for reps of 10/9/8 ... 3/2/1. I was soaking wet with sweat when I finished. Great workout. But based on this article, I should have done the hang clean first, and adjusted reps to make the series more challenging (bench and bent rows were easy).
The following article was posted at T-Muscle the other day. John Romaniello offers an update on the traditional complex workouts most of us have been doing.
If you want to lose fat and keep muscle, as most men do, then these are great workouts.
Complexes 2.0 — Optimize Your Fat-Loss Workouts
by John RomanielloIt's impossible not to notice trends in the fitness world. The majority of these—like the ridiculous Ab Lounge—last for a year or so and then are either forgotten or shoved underneath the bed next to the dust balls and discarded dirty underwear.
But some trends are actually beneficial and become staples in the training programs of thousands of lifters.
Take weight-training circuits (also called "complexes") for fat-loss. When programmed properly, they have the potential to strip off fat faster than any other protocol, but when half-assed or shoddily constructed they become a giant waste of time.
This article will teach you how to set up your own advanced complexes to burn the most fat without looking like a pansy.
Wait. What's a Complex?
It's pretty straightforward: cycle through a series of exercises without putting the bar down, transitioning smoothly from movement to movement, and performing all the assigned reps on one exercise before moving to the next.
I thought all us "coaches" had a fairly good handle on it, but I was wrong.
My first indication was when I read a workout in a newsstand magazine. This complex, written by a guy who had enough letters behind his name to know better, took a completely ass-backwards approach. I wrote it off as a fluke.
Less than a week after that, I was in the gym and saw a student athlete muscle his way through what I can only assume was his version of a home-brew complex. And by that, I mean he would do a bunch of reps on one exercise, and then a bunch on another, with no real thought to the order.
Despite the great examples that can be found, like this article , I still see people absolutely ruining themselves in the gym.
Here's the issue.
Efficacy vs. Expediency
The trend right now is fast-paced, interval-type weight training workouts designed for fat-loss. This is a good thing, and truth be told, these type of workouts make up a good part of my clients' programming for fat-loss.
Overall, the idea is to do as much work as possible in the shortest period of time, focusing on training speed and density.
However, when people randomly throw exercises together to create a complex, they're often not really paying attention to anything other than the idea of complexes. They're too focused on doing more work in less time to lose fat and haven't even considered if the exercises they picked were effective.
Let's say you have a guy doing the following complex:
Deadlift
Power Clean
Front Squat
Overhead PressHe's doing a lot of big movements, but is he really getting much out of some of them? Hopefully the deadlift is his strongest movement, but he can't really use a weight that's challenging since he's limited by the overhead press, which is undoubtedly weaker.
In terms of "doing a lot of stuff" in not a lot of time, this guy is on point. He's very expedient. But he's missing out on a lot since the complex isn't very effective. Or at least not as effective as it could be.
But if this guy used a different set up, he could work with a weight that's challenging for all parts of the complex and would get significantly better results.
Complexes 2.0
Here's where a lot of coaches and I part ways. Many trainers who prescribe complexes are OK with the notion that your weakest exercise limits your strongest one. I consider it a limitation of basic complex design that can be completely eliminated with a bit of forethought and some ingenuity.
Going back to the example above, the weight is incredibly light for our guy to deadlift, but perfect for the overhead press. Popular training literature suggests that we shouldn't care about that, since the complex is not intended to challenge you in the same way that traditional weight training is. That is, an overly-light deadlift is of no concern, because we are deadlifting just to lose fat.
I'm calling bullshit.
Instead, what if we did twice as many deadlifts as overhead presses or only used exercises where the weight was appropriate for the same number of reps on each?
What I'm about to show you aren't regular complexes. They're advanced. Or as I like to call them, Complexes 2.0.
But first, let's look at some of the problems with current complexes.
1) Too much focus on uniformity of reps.
I have no idea where it came from, but there seems to be some unwritten rule that when you perform a complex, you need to do the same number of reps for each exercise. Sure, it's one way to do it, but it's only effective if that same weight is equally challenging on all of the selected exercises.
2) Improper exercise selection
It's more effective to have the weight be equally challenging on all exercises. So if you're not going with a variable rep method like I mentioned above, it's better to select exercises that require an equal level of intensity to perform.
3) Improper exercise order
I can't stress enough the importance of properly ordering exercises for maximizing the effectiveness of your complexes. Throwing presses, cleans, squats and deads together in any haphazard order is just stupid.
Roman's Rules for Designing Complexes
Rule 1: When arranging exercises, "high skill" exercises come first.
Exercises should be performed in a descending order from the most demanding to the least demanding. I mean, why the hell would you put a hang clean in the middle of your complex? Also, by "demanding" I don't just mean the hardest exercises. I mean those requiring the highest level of technical proficiency.
High skill exercises include the Full Clean, Full Snatch, High Pull From the Floor, and Overhead Squat.
Moderate skill exercises include the Hang Clean, Hang Snatch, High Pull From the Hang, Power Clean, Power Snatch, Push Press, Deadlift, and Front Squat.
Low skill exercises include the Bent-over Row, Overhead Press, Lunge Variations, Back Squat, and Dumbbell Squat.
Rule 2: Use a non-competing exercise order.
Non-competing exercises are those that don't rely on the same muscles. The benefit of this protocol is simple: while one group is working, the others are resting. Given that complexes work with series of muscle groups at once, don't get too hung up on specifics here. Generally, try to alternate a pushing exercise with a pulling exercise, or an upper body movement with a lower body one.
Rule 3: Never select a weight heavier than your 10RM on your weakest exercise
I believe that complexes should be short. The entire draw of complexes is that they're brutal but brief. By imposing a 10RM weight limit based on our weakest exercise in a given complex, we ensure that the complex will generally stay in the area of 6-8 reps, which I believe is the most effective range.
Methods of Complex Execution
Given everything I've told you about the right and wrong way to set up complexes, it seems reasonable that there are some contradictory ideas, especially if you're used to the "old method" of just doing random exercises in a random order for a pre-set number of reps.
Instead, here are two advanced methods for extreme masochists looking for extreme fat-loss.
Rep-Based Method: Select exercises you can do for roughly the same number of reps with a given weight. Assume you want to do complexes with roughly 5-6 reps. Choose a series of exercises that you can do for roughly 12 reps (not necessarily your 12RM) with the same weight, and set up your complex according to the rules.
Weight-Based Method: Select the exercises you want to perform in the complex as based on the above rules. Then, test your absolute max number of reps on each exercise. For the complex, do 50 to 60 percent of your max number of reps for each exercise. In this way, you might get a complex that requires you to do six overhead presses followed by 12 front squats followed by eight bent-over rows.
Both of these methods are highly effective. Here are a few examples to get you started.
Sample Complex 1 — The Rep-Based Method
Here's a complex I've been using for both my athletes and myself. (I'll use myself as an example.)
I selected exercises I'm about equally strong on, could do for 12-15 reps, and chose a weight of 175 pounds. For me, those exercises were:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Bent Row
Push Press
Stiff-leg DeadliftIt's only five exercises, but I'm using the same fairly heavy weight for each. Now, I'm not the strongest guy in the world, but for me, this was absolutely brutal.
Note the order of exercises: I started with the one that required the most technical skill. From there, I alternated non-competing muscles. Generally I go upper/lower, but in the case of moving from the bent-over row to the push press, it's obviously just moving from a pulling exercise to a pressing one.
In terms of number of reps, I normally aim for about six to start.
However, we've done all sorts of fun variations at my gym including:
5 sets with 90 seconds rest between.
Descending pyramids (6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) with 75 seconds rest in between
Descending-Ascending Pyramids ( 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4). Rest periods are 45s, 30s, 20s, 5s, 5s, 20s, 30sKeep in mind there are dozens of ways to set up your rep protocol.
Sample Complex 2 — The Weight-Method
This is a complex designed for one of my female soccer players. Lauren is attractive, strong, and never complains—the kind of client that makes me love my job.
For her complex, we set the weight at 55 pounds and pre-tested her maxes for the following exercises:
Here's how we set it up:
Exercise Pre-Tested Max Prescribed Complex Full Snatch 22 reps 12 reps Alternating Reverse Lunge 15 reps per leg 8 reps per leg Push Press 14 reps 7 reps Bent-over Row 9 reps 5 reps Back Squat 17 reps 9 reps In this example, Lauren is obviously weakest in the bent-over row. If we were to follow normal complex protocol, we'd just do the same number of reps for each exercise, most likely five reps.
But in this case, she could do nearly twice that number of reps on almost every other exercise. Sure, the old method would still be moderately effective for fat loss, but with these adjustments we have optimized it.
Instead of being limited by her weakest exercise, we have set things up in a way that challenges Lauren supremely on every part of the complex.
Rather than focus on arbitrary prescriptions for reps, we allow for a little leeway and have to think a bit more during the complex. It's harder, more involved and infinitely more effective.
Finally, once again, please note the order of the exercises: we start with a highly technical exercise (Full Snatch) and then proceed to work non-competing body parts. This allows Lauren to recover faster and continue to work harder. Overall, the entire complex becomes more efficient.
Closing Thoughts
Sure, you can probably drop a good deal of fat with "regular" complexes; after all, they do force you to do a lot of work in little time.
However, if you want to take your fat loss to the next level or challenge yourself in a whole new way, why settle for just expediency?
Instead of just tossing a barbell around, put in a few minutes of planning, follow the rules and methods described above and make your complexes both expedient and effective.