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October 31, 2005
Practicing: an old-timer strength secret for harder, stronger muscles
Our great-grandfathers treated their iron time as a practice rather than a workout. They lifted heavy and often but never to failure or exhaustion. According to The Strong Men of Old by Bob Hoffman, Arthur Saxon “would do each stunt only a few times and alternate with brief periods of rest so as to prevent himself from tiring.” That explains how Saxon could train daily.
Although frequent, heavy, and non-exhaustive training builds unreal strength, it is not a good full time method for a bodybuilder. Saxon was a strong man but not a muscle man. In 1879 William Blaikie explained in How to Get Strong and How to Stay So that “…occasional heavy lifting tends rather to harden the muscle than to rapidly increase its size, protracted effort at lighter but good-sized weights doing the latter to better advantage.” An occasional six to eight week gig of daily pure power training will do you a world of good though. Greater strength later applied to high volume bodybuilding will deliver tremendous mass gains.
For more information on this and related strength topics order Pavel’s Beyond Bodybuilding today
Posted by james at 6:30 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2005
Mixing it up: an old-timer strongman strength training secret
Dr. Ken Leistner, one very strong hombre and an influential name in the iron game, once quipped that bodies built with isolation exercises looked like 'a collection of body parts'. That never happens to those who apply their muscles to a variety of natural tasks: lifting awkward objects, acrobatics, heavy manual labor, etc.
One way of combining such training with traditional bodybuilding is starting every workout with the former and wrapping up with the latter. Another approach, more fitting for someone who trains at a public gym, but keeps his logs and tires in the garage, is to emulate Russian strength icon Valentin Dikul. This sixty some year old juggles 180-pound kettlebells and squats a grand! He lifts daily, alternating powerlifting/kettlebell/strongman days and bodybuilding days. Note that although Dikul does isolation exercises like straight-arm pulldowns, he always goes heavy, typically five sets of six.
For more information on this and related strength topics order Pavel’s Beyond Bodybuilding today
Posted by james at 6:31 AM | Comments (3)
October 17, 2005
The fundamentals of heavy lifting
Question: Why are you so fundamentalist in your training philosophy? 'Never do more than five reps', 'never go to failure', etc. There are people who got big and strong without following them, aren’t there?
I will restate my 'iron communist' views:
1. You must lift heavy.
2. You must limit your reps to five.
3. You must avoid muscle failure.
4. You must cycle your loads.
5. You must stay tight. Tension is power.
6. You must treat your strength as a skill and ‘practice’ with iron rather than ‘work out’.
7. You must strive to do fewer things better.
My ‘fundamentalism’ is meant to give you the safest and most foolproof path to your goals – size and strength. Why overcomplicate your life with multiple choices if you can get the job done simply?
At a recent RKC seminar one of my senior instructors Rob Lawrence made an excellent point that all training 'laws' are reversible under the right circumstances. Take 'the law of staying tight' as an example. Extreme full body tension is an absolute must for one-rep strength that impresses; I dare you to find a good powerlifter who does not practice it! Yet gireviks, athletes who compete in kettlebell lifting, stay as loose as they can when pressing. Tension accelerates fatigue, which is unacceptable in the brutal Russian strength-endurance sport.
Yet I never recommend this approach to those who do not plan on competing. My shoulders feel just fine when they are braced with tension, even with the heaviest kettlebells. But whenever I demo a ‘stay loose’ press for the guys and gals who will wear red, white, and blue at the Worlds in a couple of years, I immediately get a twinge where I took a bad fall once. The ‘law of staying tight' has been broken, but at a price – compromised safety.
All training laws and guidelines are reversible in the right context. The caveat: it takes knowledge and experience to reverse them properly and sometimes you must be willing to pay the price. Until you have been in the iron game for a decade and accomplished something, break these 'laws' at your risk.
For more information on this and related strength topics order Pavel’s Beyond Bodybuilding today
Posted by james at 6:26 AM | Comments (3)
October 10, 2005
Protect your back with a 'virtual belt'
Q: Should I Power Breathe when I squat and deadlift?
When your spine is compressed by heavy poundage you cannot afford losing any air, for it protects your back like a pneumatic cushion. So instead of forcefully expelling your breath just pretend that you are – a technique I call ‘Virtual Power Breathing’. Obviously, it is not for comrades with heart or blood pressure issues.
Practice a couple of regular Power Breaths as I described elsewhere. Then do the same – but ‘catch your breath’ in your stomach instead of letting it escape. You will experience comfortable tightness in your waist as your abdomen gets pressurized. Your belly should not stick out or suck in; it will just get rock hard and you will feel very solid inside. Make sure not to flex your spine, try to maintain its normal curve.
Do not forget to employ this technique when you are hauling heavy stuff outside the gym and remember to religiously practice plain vanilla or water Power Breathing to hone your skill of pressurizing your abdomen.
The effects of Virtual Power Breathing are nothing short of miraculous. The usually heavy weight will feel whimsically light and your back is not likely to feel a thing.
For more information on this and related strength topics order Pavel’s Beyond Bodybuilding today
Posted by james at 6:15 AM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2005
How to Use 'Dead squats' for Extra Power
Question: I saw a big dude in my gym squatting from the bottom up from the power rack pins. What is the purpose of this type of training?
I will start with the benefits of ‘dead squatting’. First and foremost, it keeps you honest. While you can get cute in the traditional back squat by cutting your depth for instance, the dead weight sitting welded to the pins will accept nothing less than real strength. Second, it is a very safe way to squat. And fun too. The dead squat is the ultimate in muscle tension.
The drawbacks. First, because it de-emphasizes the negative, the dead squat does not build as much muscle as the down-and-up squat. It can be an advantage though, if you are satisfied with your thigh size and just want to get stronger. Second, the dead squat does not teach you to ‘store tension’ on the way down. It means that you will not improve your regular up-and-down squat without specific practice in addition to your power rack squats.
Set a light barbell inside a power rack at a level that places your thighs at parallel once you crawl under the bar. Get under – quickly, before your cramp! – take a breath, tighten up, and stand up.
De-emphasize the negative. Do singles. Add small amounts of weight until you work up to a near max, then take off some weight and do one or two back-off sets of five to ten reps. Let the bar rest completely on the pins between each rep. The whole workout might look like this: 185x1, 225x1, 275x1, 295x1, 305x1, 310x1, 225x10. Ease into it as you are likely to get very sore, especially in your hip flexors.
Follow the above routine one to three times a week. You will not need any other hip and thigh work. A few years ago I put two friends of mine, everyday guys in their forties, on this program. They kept improving at least five pounds a week for almost a year without back cycling of any sort.
The definitive text on the dead squat is How to Squat 900lbs Without Drugs, Powersuits, or Knee Wraps by Bud Jeffries (Strongerman.com). In the know people consider Jeffries the successor of Anderson. The man parallel dead squatted a grand!
For more information on this and related strength topics order Pavel’s Beyond Bodybuilding today
Posted by james at 6:24 AM | Comments (1)