Quantcast
Channel: The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban
Viewing all 2123 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Mel Hennessey - Gary Cleveland (1966)

November 30, 2019, 3:23 pm
$
0
0


Article Courtesy of Liam Tweed



There's more on Mel Hennessey here:








MEL HENNESSEY: SUPER BODYBUILDER
by Gary Cleveland (1966)


I would like to introduce the readers of Strength & Health to a strongman little known in the world of weights. He has never before been featured in any magazine nor has he entered a major contest, but three times a week he goes to the St. Paul YMCA and lifts phenomenal weights in a manner that must be seen to be appreciated.

When I moved to Minnesota in 1963, the only Minnesota strongman I was familiar with was Paul Bunyon. Since Paul isn't training much any more, I was at a loss for a gym in which to train until a friend suggested I try Mel Hennessey's basement. During this period I came to know Mel personally and to see his muscles in action. 



At a bodyweight of 215 pounds, Mel has bench pressed 535, squatted 535, and deadlifted 600. Although he seldom works them, he has pressed 300 lbs. from behind the neck and military pressed 325. When I say "military pressed" I mean just that. All of Mel's lifts are done in extremely strict style, which is why I say them must be seen to be appreciated. When you see him lifting over 500 lbs. in the bench press in such a smooth and deliberate motion you get a feeling of power than cannot be conveyed by merely quoting facts and figures. 

Mel began weightlifting when he was thirteen years old, but it wasn't until he was fifteen and inspired by a television exhibition given by the great John Davis that he really began to take his training seriously. During those first years of training he was living at home on the farm and trained in his father's barn. He claims that he occasionally took his weights to school with him and exercised there. Actually, knowing Mel, it seems as normal for him to have carried his barbell to school as it does for the other students to have carried their books.

The Army interrupted Mel's training for two years. Being in the paratroops, he spent most of his time making jumps and skiing near Innsbruck, Austria. Next to weightlifting, skiing has remained his favorite sport.

After his discharge from the army in 1956, Mel moved to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where he now lives and works as a warehouseman. There he began working out at Alan Stephan's health studio. Training in a well equipped professional gym under such a qualified man as former Mr. America, Alan Stephan, sure beat training on the farm and Mel's strength responded accordingly. 

Since then, his training quarters have changed to his basement and finally to the St. Paul YMCA, but his strength has continued to gain at a rather steady rate.

At thirty-two years of age, he expects to continue gaining for at least ten more years. The fact that in the last two years he has increased his squat by 45 lbs. and his bench press by 50 lbs. indicates that he is certainly not slowing down. These gains are especially noteworthy when one considers that they are gains on already tremendous lifts.

Since Mel is really a bulked-up middleweght, one wonders why he doesn't go down to a bodyweight of 198 and attack the national bench press record in that class. In view of the fact that he pressed 450 five years ago at a weight of 195, it seems that this record is well within his reach. 

The simple fact is, Mel is not interested in breaking records or winning contests. His sole satisfaction from weightlifting comes in training hard and getting stronger. This point is illustrated by the fact that it was only as a personal favor to some of his friends that he began entering local meets and he still looks upon them as nuisances that interfere with his regular training.

How did Mel Hennessey become so strong? As with any strongman, the answer to this question involves four elements: diet, exercise, rest, and all of these multiplied by persistence.    

Mel's diet may be described in the simple phrase, "low starch, high protein." He eats absolutely no bread or pastries and avoids refined sugar as much as possible. His diet consists mainly of eggs, steak, green vegetables and a gallon of milk per day. He prefers eating five smaller meals a day to three large ones, consequently he uses his morning and afternoon breaks at work to dispose of two meals. He eats less on workout days, especially limiting his last meal before his workout. 

Actually, were it not for the gallon of milk that he drinks every day, Mel's diet might be prescribed as one for losing weight rather than gaining. Of course, we must keep in mind that he eats these weight reducing foods in large enough quantities that they lead to gaining weight. 

Following this diet has enabled Mel to weigh a solid 215 pounds. As his pictures indicate, there is little fat on this man. 



The key to Mel's exercise routine is simplicity. He sticks pretty much to the tried and proven strength building exercises and works them very hard, rather than doing a variety of exercises of dubious merit.
  
Following is a summary of a typical week of workouts.


Monday


Bench Press: 
135 x 15
260 x 10
420 x 3
465 x 1
480 x 1
maximum single (depends upon how he feels)
425 x 4
455 x 3

Squat: 
135 x 25
300 x 10
360 x 8
430 x 3
480 x 3
510 x 1
maximum single

 

Deadlift 
400 x 12
495 x 6
550 x 3
550 x 3
570 x 2


Upright Row: 
135 x 10
155 x 8
185 x 8
205 x 8

Situp: 
25 x 8 x 6 sets


Wednesday

Deadlift: same as Monday

Bench Press: same as Monday

Tricep Press: 
135 x 10
155 x 8
185 x 8
205 x 8
225 x 4
245 x 2
265 x 1

Incline Bench Press:
225 x 6
275 x 5
305 x 3
330 x 3

Leg Press:
450 x 10
500 x 8
550 x 6
625 x 6


Saturday

Bench Press:
135 x 25
260 x 10
360 x 6 
420 x 3
470 x 1

Squat: 
135 x 25
300 x 10
360 x 8
405 x 6
485 x 3
500 x 1
525 x 1
535 x 1
475 x 3
400 x 12

As you can see, aside from the poundages, this is a typical workout program for thousands of lifters. It is worthwhile to point out how thoroughly Mel warms up and that he frequently cuts the weight back after a maximum lift and does reps. 

The one factor that can neither be photographed or written down with his routine is dedication. Yet this is a factor that has produced from an average program an un-average lifter. As Mel has said himself, "If weightlifting isn't in your blood, you'll never make it." 

Mel's future as a weightlifter is hard to predict. Since he has gained more in the last year than he had in several years before, who knows what next year will bring. Certainly, he must be thinking about a 600 pound bench press in the next few years. At the rate Pat Casey and some of the boys are going, Mel won't be the first to bench press that magic mark, but he'll certainly be the lightest. 













































↧
Search

Exercise for Seniors - John C. Grimek (1988)

December 1, 2019, 5:36 pm
$
0
0



But first . . . very, very highly recommended: 


 Click to ENLARGE below

 EXERCISE FOR SENIORS
by John C. Grimek (1988)

From his column "Yesterday & Today"


The author in his late 50's
showing incredible mass for a senior. 



Because of the recent influx of letters lately, coming mostly from men concerned over their impending status of becoming "senior citizens," i take the liberty to deviate this month from the Old-Timers series and devote space to this "younger than older" group who appear to be avid readers of IM magazine. Most of them, I find, are concerned about the training routines they are following and anxious to know if their training programs might be too strenuous. 

Classifying these letter-writers, I came up with 18 men and one woman. Most of the men ranged in ages from their early 40s up to their mid-50s. The next group was between 54 and 67. Two of them were in their 70s: one just passed his 72nd birthday, the other was approaching his 75th. 

Note: Be wary of the way you place stress on your spoken words. 
Happy B-Day can easily be heard as Happy Bidet. But hey, it could be a brand name gift, eh.

Strange as it may seem, the latter two men only recently had joined a health spa, though neither seemed happy with the attention they were getting. They liked the facilities but wanted more advice, hence the letters. 

The woman who wrote in was 45 and had joined a commercial health club to lose weight in her lower body. She complained that she's been attending classes for the past 10 months and is not satisfied with the total results, although she admits her thighs have become firmer in appearance. She laments that she tires quickly and easily gets out of breath. When she questioned the instructor, he vaguely suggested that she ease up or stop and rest before continuing her routine. She feels that in 10 months, such a condition should have improved, but it hasn't. 

Anyone who has any kind of medical problem and those who have not been active along this line but are now eager to begin, should check with a physician and have a thorough evaluation made of their physical condition. Those who were never very active but are now contemplating an exercise program should undergo a complete physical to be on the safe side.

On the other hand, most of those who wrote in have trained in the past and have remained in fairly sound condition. They might want to make some adjustments, particularly if they find themselves lacking energy after their workouts. Should this be the case, it's better to reduce the number of sets of an exercise and/or use less weight. Then check to see how you react. Most of the time, just cutting back on your exercises and using less weight overcomes such tiredness, but if not, further reduction in reps and poundages might be required. But usually doing less in any or all of that should make a difference and a big difference to some. 

So, experiment a bit. 

But those who are unaware of any physical changes should continue to train as before without making unusual demands on the body, unless, of course, there is some reason, such as an emergency.

Some of you might remember about the great Sandow who was in his late 50s when he pushed his car out of a ditch, a seemingly necessary feat which contributed to his demise at the age of 59. Most have heard that Sandow died of a stroke or heart attack from this effort. Actually his death resulted from a ruptured aneurysm, which had been present in his system, but the unusual strain he made by lifting the car out of the ditch caused it to burst. 

Most of us never think of the consequences of doing strenuous things because we still feel strong and fairly agile and think we're still as good as ever. We might feel this way in our minds but does our body know this?   

This is where sensible training comes in. Nor is this the time to prove anything. Your past accomplishments are enough. You don't have to prove anything now. Relax and enjoy the fruits of your past efforts. You deserve it. 

Too many older men like to prove to their contemporaries that they are as good as ever. That's why these men have torn their biceps, pulled their triceps and muscles in their legs, strained their backs and ripped their pectorals and shoulders from trying something they weren't prepared to do. Many succeed but many more nurse the injuries they suffered. 

Ole [Earle] Leiderman, during his late 60s, ripped his biceps by trying some chinning on a bet. Almost every time he wrote or I talked with him, he lamented the stupidity of it and how utterly silly it was for him to try it. And it can happen to anyone. So think before you try something you haven't done in years. Stick to things you can do relatively easily and without strain. And when you do, make sure your muscles are fully warmed up so they can function at maximum capacity. The risk is low and you'll feel good.  

Truth is, many men haven't actively trained hard for years but think they can do something they did when they were in the gym always. Such an ego is folly. 

As you age, your muscles may be stronger than those who haven't trained at all, but your muscles might not be as strong as they were when you were training vigorously regardless of your age. 

And for older men who don't exercise as much, strength dissipates even faster. That's why after laying off for a couple of months, most men, especially older fellows, will find the weights feel "heavy" when they begin training again, making it necessary to start with lighter poundages and gradually work up to where they left off.

I have known a few individuals who got so hyped about training when they first started they could not resist training to near capacity every day. Normally, the body cannot tolerate that much exercise in the early stages. Most people who try such an approach lose interest and quit. Occasionally a dynamic person does appear on the scene and shows gains right away. Such progress makes him more determined to train even harder and his drive is truly amazing. Then it happens, and even I experienced such a reaction myself during those early years: the slump from overtraining. 

You not only lose interest but most of all the gains you've made. You are enveloped with a cloak of tiredness and lethargy and you can't explain why. In my case, I was ready to sell my weights to the junkman. I could not train and actually hated the very thought of it. But after laying off for a time, I felt my ambition returning. Reluctantly, I made a feeble attempt to do some exercise. I used very light weights and did each movement slowly as if it hurt to do it, but I continued. I remember feeling better after that brief workout. Even my muscles tingled. 

Two days later I tried it again. I was beginning to regain my enthusiasm. By the end of two weeks, I was back to my usual self, especially after I checked my girths and found they had all returned to their former size. Some muscles even gained a quarter of an inch. There is no way I can explain the feeling of exhilaration, only to say "it was just was I needed" to restore my interest. 

I never again experienced that depression again, probably because I followed a more meaningful approach. In later years, I did train harder, in fact, every day; by then, my muscles were able to stand the physical stress and thrive on it. But when this happened earlier I was a beginner and my muscles were not seasoned to tolerate it. That made a difference.

Note: He explains his early overworking here:


One must coax the muscles along in certain stages and accustom them to each ordeal. That takes a little time - like a few years. 

I mention this only because I have learned through the years that muscle size which is forced in the early months of training is rarely long-lasting. 

The physique that is developed slowly endures longer. 

The younger, more enthusiastic men usually take the more vigorous approach and when they fail to make the kind of gains they expected, they fall into a depressed state. Older men usually tire out long before they reach the depression point. 

I remember such an individual: a 53-year-old businessman who joined Sig Klein's gym back in the '30s. That was Arthur Leslie. He was somewhat overweight and joined the club to reduce and improve his shape. Klein outlined a special course for him. After a few days of very light exercises, mostly free hand movements, or with only a 12-pound bar, he improved so much that other gym members bestowed a lot of praise on him. As he continued, it appeared that his ego was developing faster than either his strength or his muscles. He began attempting things that were best left to the more experienced. Klein had to watch him all the time. He didn't want the man to have a heart attack from some of the stunts he tried and Klein even threatened to suspend his membership. 

Yet every change he got, Leslie would do something that caused Klein's hair to turn grey. Finally when he stopped coming to the gym, Klein was determined not to sign up anyone who would not follow the rules of his gym.

I saw Leslie only twice and must admit he had a boastful attitude. Yet I had to admire the man for the determination to get stronger, especially since he was in his 50s. After all, there weren't that many men during the '20s and '30s who were past mid-age and into training. So this man did command some attention even though some of it was foolhardy. Then one day I asked Klein why I hadn't seen Leslie in the gym any more. I thought Klein had suspended his membership. But Klein merely shrugged his shoulders and admitted he didn't know but thought the man may have had a slight stroke and that his doctor forbid him to undergo such foolish demonstrations. Now as I think back, he was the best example of a senior citizen's ego gone awry. 

So exercise should be done for the benefits that one might get from such activity, but certainly not to the point of overtaxing your heart or to put uncalled for stress upon the other organs and glands in the body. That's not sensible training. 

I recall that after I had passed my half-century mark, my age was mentioned in a magazine. I began getting numerous letters asking me how I was training and what changes I had made since reaching my 50th. Until then, I never had given my age a fleeting thought and because of this, I never made any training changes and continued what I had been doing. 

But I do remember always including some leg training, mostly high-rep squats which I always followed with some chest expanding exercises such as pullovers or flat bench flyes. But I never used anything heavier than 25- or 35-pound dumbbells for these movements. I found that when heavier weights are used for these exercises they involve more muscles in this area and restrict full mobility of the rib cage.

If you want to work the muscles around the chest, wait until after the chest expanding movements have been completed. Using heavier weights for actual muscle building at a later time is more effective. The purpose of employing lighter weights for chest expansion is recommended because you want to supplement the depleted oxygen created by the high repetition squats, which often results in a fairly breathless condition. Thus, by using light weights during a chest exercise, the lungs inflate more fully and you expand the rib cage. I have always been in favor of this leg/chest combination and believe it can work for anyone who practices it.

I don't think, however, that many people 60 and over are capable of working that hard in the squat. But it's wise to remember that it is not the weight that counts but how the exercise is done to effectively speed up heart and lung action. That's more important than the poundage you employ. As so far as reps are concerned, some may find 10 to 12 a high number. For others, 20 to 25 is more appropriate, but the choice is yours. 

Only you know your capabilities. 
Follow them. 

Those unable to train two or three times weekly should settle for once a week. On alternate days try fast walking, slow jogging, swimming or some chins and pushups or riding a stationary bicycle. Nothing strenuous, but enough to get your blood moving around more rapidly. 

However, avoid going to extremes. That could result in nervous anxiety, which happens to older people. When it does, stand up straight and raise the arms to above the shoulders, breathing deeply as you do. Lower and repeat. This deep inhalation exerts a relaxing influence. Or take a brisk walk while breathing deeply. The symptoms of nervousness will, indeed, diminish. 

Just remember, your body does not recover from any kind of stress as readily if you are older because your functions are much slower . . . so stay relaxed. You'll feel great.    

I'd like to mention another incident that parallels those demonstrations of Mr. Leslie, the businessman who trained at Klein's gym. It's about the strongman Warren Lincoln Travis, who when he was in his 60s went to extremes, which I feel hastened his death. 

There's more on Travis here:





In his day, Travis was quite powerful on all his favorite strength stunts. But at the time he planned the exhibition I'm referring to, he hadn't been training regularly and wasn't in prime shape. Yet, he chose to demonstrate his ability one Sunday in 1940 that proved eventually fatal. The things he did were performed very fast and in rather high counts. He just didn't allow himself enough time to fully rest, and this put a strain on his heart. He did a lot of his pet stunts, but I'm inclined to think the ultimate was the hip lift that he performed with rather a heavy poundage and in high repetitions and very fast. He, like so many others, thought he was as good as he was 30, 40 and even more years ago, forgetting that the organs and glands do not react as fast.

Travis at one time was very powerful. The stunts he performed at Coney Island were always very impressive. Those who saw him perform knew that, but didn't expect that he might push himself too far. He was in his 60s during this time and though his last performance was impressive, it's too bad it had to be his last. 

I still insist . . . there is no need for anyone to attempt something that he or she has done two or three decades earlier. Yes, you should exercise if you can, but now is your time to enjoy the fruits of your past efforts. There are so many things you can do that are not associated with physical or mental stress. Choose those. 

And what changes should you make in your training schedule? 

None, if you continue to feel good after training.   

But, when you find yourself feeling tired and lacking ambition after training, that does indicate a change . . . a change towards less intensity. Ease up and cut down on your exercise. Later you will regain your drive and then you can do more. 

But as long as you feel depleted after training, especially when you get up the next day, this is a positive sign you are overdoing it. Just do less but keep active. Don't sit around watching TV or just dozing. That won't help but can make things only worse . . . so get up and move - anywhere or anyway - and that lethargic feeling will disappear. 

Remember, it's not what exercises you do, but how much and how heavy they are that knocks you out and whether your system can cope with whatever you are doing. 

Be more methodical and get every bit of action from every movement you do and don't forget to breathe deeply. 

It will surprise you how your attitude and feelings can change without changing your program!



   


  
























↧
↧

To Single or Not to Single - Jon Smoker

December 2, 2019, 10:23 pm
$
0
0


There's another good article, aging related, from Jon Smoker here:
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/06/my-training-philosophy-jon-smoker.html

Gotta stop using invisible ink on them pictures. 





 





Whether or not to do singles in training is an issue in powerlifting that has die-hard proponents on both sides. Those who are against them believe that they cause physical burnout because they require a maximum output from the body with no physical gain. They argue that singles do not build strength and that if one persists in doing them, the body will just be repeatedly torn down with no chance for replenishment. Inevitably, the singles will begin to decrease and this in turn will lead to mental burnout, or an aversion to lifting big singles. Far better, they say, to save that big stroke for the meet and shoot your wad all at once. Then you can gradually build yourself back up again a you take aim at your next meet. 

Well, it's a free country, so I elect to demur with the preceding, as I do singles in my training and also have the lifters I coach do them. However, the singles we do are not maxes and therein lies a crucial difference. I think the aforementioned does have a lot of validity if one is talking about testing out maxes all the time. The singles we do are part of an ever-increasing cycle, and if everything is going according to schedule, they will always be 10 pounds or more below the maximum we would actually be capable of on that given day. 

The cycle lasts sixteen weeks and singles are done on each lift every other week, or eight times. A reasonable goal is picked on each lift to be attained at the end of the cycle and the remaining seven are calibrated backward from that final single. 

Generally speaking, the jumps between the first few singles are bigger as one is merely adjusting to heavy weights that have been lifted before and smaller jumps are employed as one gets toward the end and is coming close to their previous maximums. 

The singles we shoot for are based on the previous meet's performance. Because the athletes I train, and myself as well, tend to be meet lifters (i.e., we hit bigger lifts in competition as opposed to the gym), generally speaking, the final singles we will be shooting for are the maximums we made in our last meet. 

I reason that when you hit that big lift in competition, a neuro-muscular "code" is imprinted in the mind, and with enough work that "code" can be called forth in training. And, at that point, you are in a position to go beyond that and establish a new "code" in competition, when you have other factors going for you not present in the gym, like increased adrenalin secretion. 

By following this system, one can gradually inch their way upward. Of course the system is not built strictly on the weight handled at the prior competition as there are other factors to be considered such as, is the athlete gaining weight, did the previous cycle end on an upswing, was there weight left on the platform, etc. 

So, for example, my last meet I felt certain I could have done 15 pounds more in the squat and I was still a couple of pounds shy of the weight class limit. (I am in the process of changing weight classes). The single I will be shooting for at the end of my next cycle will be what I made at the previous meet plus the 15 more pounds I felt I could have made, plus 15 more for the extra bodyweight I will be picking up. 

The point is, the lifts made at the previous meet, especially if they exceeded my previous bests, are, strictly speaking, reference points and only if all factors are equal will they be the lifts to hit at the end of a cycle. 

With a gym lifter one would have to devise some other way to pick the final lifts in a cycle, although after a while a pattern would emerge, such as a particular athlete consistently hitting 20 pounds less in competition than in the gym, so his final singles should be 20 pounds more than what they want to hit at the next meet.

Initially I would do a single every week, but even though they were not maximums, it did become a mental chore. Remembering what I had read in a British journal, that the body peaks and can therefore withstand a heavy workout every nine days, I began doing singles every nine days and eventually it became every other week. 

The off weeks I hit a heavy triple on each lift, among other things, and as long as they are increasing it gives me the confidence that my next singles will be there, my workouts are going good, and that my strength is increasing. 

Of course, this is not the only system for doing heavy singles in a cycle and one should shop around to see what is most comfortable for them.

For example, Rick Gaugler has mini-cycles of four weeks within a bigger cycle, so that at the end of four weeks he hits singles heavier than the ones at the end of the previous four weeks. (When I talked to Rick in 1977, he favored heavy triples, and I am not sure why he has switched to singles since then). 

Whatever system is chosen for doing singles within a cycle, it has to be flexible. If they begin to feel heavy, or God forbid I should even miss one, then I tend to adjust the way Bridges does when he misses a heavy single: I crank my back down again to lesser weights and begin building back up again. 

Conversely, if the singles are feeling easy, then an adjustment needs to be made in the other direction.

Now, I will agree that singles do not build strength (Roger Estep notwithstanding) . . . 

Note: Wait a second, consider this article: 
https://www.strengthminded.com/single-rep-training-routine-for-strength-training/


 . . . so even though they are not maxes in my system, why do them at all, one might ask. The number one reason  is that problem areas are immediately detected and can be corrected. 

If I notice myself leaning forward a little on my heavy squats, I know it is time to step up abdominal work. In the bench press, more chest work is indicated if there is not enough initial drive, and if I am sticking at mid-point, then more triceps work is needed.  

In the deadlift, is the drive good off the floor, is the lockout from the knees there, is the grip holding? If not, then adjustments must be made in the workout schedule, i.e., more rack work and shrugs to improve a poor lockout.

"Why not do triples or doubles to detect weaknesses?" someone might ask, which brings me to the second reason I advocate doing heavy singles. Singles train the mind for heavy lifting in a way that I do not believe heavy triples and doubles can. Moreover, I have found that more injuries occur with triples or doubles because there is always the tendency to get a little sloppy.

So to get back to the original criticisms of doing singles: With my system, does one experience physical and, ipso facto, mental burnout? No - because one is not doing maxes all the time and the singles that are done occur only every other week.

To answer the other main criticism . . . the big stroke IS saved for competition. I realize that whether or not one should do singles is going to continue to be a debated topic, so I am not pretending to resolve the issue here, but for those who are undecided, perhaps this article will give them a different perspective, the key to which is: 

A SINGLE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A MAX. 




























↧

Wrist Curls and Wrist Pain - Joseph Horrigan

December 3, 2019, 8:23 pm
$
0
0

John McCallum photo courtesy of Liam Tweed




The wrist curl is the mainstay exercise for forearm strength and development. For bodybuilders and arm wrestlers, in particular, it is important to build up this area. As with all weight-training movements, however, the wrist curl is not without its myths and hazards.

When you do wrist curls, you work the muscles that are collectively known as the wrist flexors. Many of the muscles originate on the medial epicondyle of of the humerus, which is the bony prominence on the inner elbow, and insert into the wrist and fingers. 


There are two common methods of performing this exercise. The first is to lay your forearms against the bench or the top of your thighs with your palms up and overhanging the bench or thighs. You hold the bar firmly in the palms of your hands, and the only action is at the wrists as you move the bar up and down. 

In the second method, you set the exercise up the same way, but instead of limiting the movement to lifting the bar up and down, you take it farther in the bottom position, letting it roll down your fingers to where you are holding it by your fingertips and then curling it back up into your palm before lifting it up to complete the movement. 



For years the bodybuilding magazines have touted the superiority of these ways to perform the wrist curl. The proponents of each always give their rationale for their choice, but they never tell you about the risk factors. 

Nevertheless, letting the bar roll down you fingers is by far the more risky method because it places tremendous stress on your wrists. 

Tendinitis is the best case scenario of the injuries you can incur when you do wrist curls this way. One of the worst case scenarios is stenosising tenosynovitis, in which the tendon sheath can tighten, or narrow, producing what is known as a "trigger finger." 

Tendinitis is still a possibility when you perform wrist curls using the safer method, where you hold the bar firmly in your palm. If you experience pain while doing this exercise with your forearms on a bench, try placing them on top of your thighs. 

If you have experienced any previous injuries to your wrists, such as a fall in which your palms padded the shock, a football injury to your wrist, an auto accident in which your hands were strained while holding onto the steering wheel of a motorcycle accident that hurt your wrist, you have to put this exercise on the back burner for a while. The wrist is a very complicated area, and it should not be overstressed after a traumatic injury. 

If you have incurred any such injury, you should have it treated properly by a medical professional. If the injury is not serious, you can  try doing wrist curls with a very light weight (perhaps just the bar) to see if your wrist will tolerate the movement. Working with the empty bar may be of some rehabilitative value if it does not cause pain. If it does, wait several months before you attempt this exercise again. 

If your wrists are healthy, however, you will find that the wrist curl lends itself to heavy weight. 




I recall Ken Waller (above) performing wrist curls with 225 pounds. Another patient of ours, who trained for the enjoyment of training did 315 for 5 with his forearms on his thighs - and his forearm measured 19-plus inches pumped. A recreational trainee should have no trouble working up to 100 pounds in this exercise.

Increase the poundage gradually on your wrist curls. If you have a previous injury, work entirely within your comfort levels. Even if you don't have a previous injury, AVOID ROLLING THE BAR DOWN YOUR FINGERS. 

You may not get hurt by doing it, but you greatly increase the odds.     


























↧

The Grip - John Jesse (1974)

December 4, 2019, 10:52 pm
$
0
0


Photo Courtesy of Robert Villar-Kelly 
For much, much more, visit: 

Goes great with a cuppa Joe! 








Total grip strength is dependent on the strength of the forearm muscles, and the tendon and ligament power in the hands and fingers. It is influenced by proportion and leverage (size of hand and length of fingers) in the lifting of weights with large diameter handles or holding on to the 18-inch upper arm of a strongly resisting wrestling opponent or in wrist wrestling. It is also affected by training for specific types of finger strength, such as raising billiard cues between the fingers, which involves the rarely used adductor muscles of the fingers, or toughness of the hand and fingers in breaking horseshoes, spikes, nails, etc. 

What is not generally recognized is that the size of the hands and fingers can be altered, if training of the grip is started early in life. The bones of the hands are endochondral bones, meaning they are nothing more than ossified cartilage. Through use of the hands in heavy labor occupations or by use of the proper exercises, the bones increase in size and strength causing them to grow longer and thicker. It is also well established that tendons and ligaments thicken and grow with use of heavy exercise.

The potentials for the development of tremendous grip and finger strength is best illustrated by the exploits of old-time amateur and professional strong men. While engaging in all types of strength feats, most strong men of that era portrayed their grip strength in the lifting of thick handles weights, barrels by the chimes and other bulky objects. In addition, many specialized on specific kinds of grip and finger strength, such as the breaking of horseshoes, spikes, nails, etc. 

Charles Vansittart, "the man with the iron grip" born in 1869, rejected for insurance at 19 years of age, built himself up to a point that few men in history could approach his feats of strength involving the grip and fingers. Extremely slender in build, being 6'3" in height and weighing only 185 pounds, he developed a 17-3/4 inch upper arm and a 14 inch forearm.    


Photo Courtesy of:
He could tear tennis balls apart, break an English shilling in half and tear apart three packs of playing cards at one time. He could bend a genuine wrought iron spike, seven inches long, 7/16ths of an inch thick, into the shape of a horseshoe with the two ends nearly touching each other. He could grip the tips of six billiard cues between his fingers, squeeze his fingers together, and then raise the six billiard cues to a horizontal position at arm's length in front of him
Among amateur wrestlers in the post World War II era, none is better known for strength of grip than Dan Hodge, three-time NCAA champion and second in the Olympic games.  


His feat of 20 consecutive pins has never been approached in the history of college wrestling. Hodge had such great strength in his hands he could break a pair of pliers by squeezing them.

Forearm strength is developed by all forms of weight training where the hands are used and by gymnastics, wrestling, and rope climbing. But, to develop a very strong grip requires other specialized methods of training. 
Fortunately, most exercises specifically designed for the wrist, hands and fingers can be isolated from general body movements and require little expenditure of energy. Also, the tendons and ligaments of the hands and fingers do not require rest periods as lengthy as those called for after a strenuous all-round strength development program. 
Some form of grip exercise can be done five or six days per week. On regular workout days use exercises that work the muscles of the forearm, wrists and hands together, such as various types of curls, chinning, rope climbing, dipping on fingers, picking up thick handled barbells and dumbbells, wrist roller, etc.. On in-between days use exercises such as wrist curls, wrist lever, grippers, squeezing rubbers balls, crumpling newspapers in the hand, pinch grip exercises, etc. Many of these can be done at home. 
Here are 28 grip and forearm exercises. 
Exercises 1 though 6 are primarily for the wrist and forearm. 
Exercises 7 and exercises 10 through 15 are primarily for the hand and fingers. 

Exercises 8 and 9 are total arm, forearm, hand and finger exercises. 

Special attention should be given to exercise 7 to insure that the extensor muscles, ligaments and tendons on the back of the hand are strengthened for a more balanced development and as a protection against injury. These muscles, ligaments and tendons are rarely used in daily life and are relatively weak compared to the flexor muscles.


Exercise 1
Wrist Roller. With  outstretched arms, palms downward, grasp the wrist roller, as illustrated, and wind up the plate by maximum turns with the wrists. When the wrist is turned away from the body it develops the forearm flexors (inside of forearm). When the wrist is turned toward the body it develops the forearm extensors (outside of forearm). Roll up weight three to five times in both directions. If shoulder muscles tire, stand on bench or chair with arms hanging down in front of body. Exercises should also be done with elbows at sides on occasions, as illustrated. 

Exercise 2

The same exercise as No. 1 done with 10 to 15 sheets of newspapers. 



Exercise 3
 
Wrist lever for pronator and supinator muscles involved in the rotation of the forearm. Do exercise slowly with weighted end of bar in a downwards and upwards position as illustrated. Perform 10 to 12 repetitions for 3 sets in both positions. 
 
 

 Exercise 4

Stand up wrist lever exercise. Perform 10 to 12 repetitions for 3 sets in both positions: weighted end projecting to the front and projecting to the rear. 

Exercise 5

Wrist Curl. With palms up perform 10 to 12 repetitions for 3 sets. Repeat with palms down (reverse wrist curl). Perform exercise slowly raising weight as high as possible in both positions. 


Exercise 6

Barbell wrist lever exercise. Control weight as it is moved from lower to upper position on front and back sides of shoulder in alternating fashion. Perform 10 repetitions for 1 set in each position.

Exercise 7

Finger exercise. Start with a book of two or three pounds, particularly for the finger extensor muscles (back of hand) which can be strained as they are rarely used in daily life, and gradually increase the weight by the use of a barbell plate on top. The important part of the exercise is the position of the hand at the edge of the table or bench. This should be noted carefully in the illustration as this is a finger exercise, not a hand grip exercise. 10 repetitions each finger. Proceed slowly in the palm down position so as not to strain the relatively weak extensor muscles.

 
Exercise 8

Chinning with finger pinch-grip from rafters. Start with four fingers and thumb for as many repetitions as possible. As finger and grip strength increases, perform chins with three fingers and thumb, two fingers and thumb, etc. 

Exercise 9

Finger chinning on horizontal bar. Start with four fingers, as many repetitions as possible, graduating to three fingers and thumb, two fingers and thumb, and finally as finger strength increases, thumb and forefinger alone.


Exercise 10

Gripping rubber ball. Practice squeezing with emphasis on different fingers in different arm positions such as the wrist bent downwards or upwards, with arm straight, or bent at the elbow. The ball can be squeezed with thumb and any, one, two, three or four fingers in singles, paired together or total grip combinations. Gradually increase repetitions until 100 or more can be done without resting.


Exercise 11

Dropping heavy barbell plates with one hand and catching with the opposite hand. 10 repetitions for each hand. 

 
Exercise 12

Picking up loaded end of heavy barbell with pinch grip on plates for 10 repetitions.

 Exercise 13

Picking up loaded end of dumbbell handle for 10 repetitions.

Exercise 14

Performing floor dips on thumb and four, three, two or one of the fingers. Weight on fingers can be increased by raising position of feet. Perform 10 to 15 repetitions. 


Exercise 15

Picking up heavy dumbbell with a pinch-grip wooden block as illustrated. Perform 10 to 15 repetitions. This exercise can be performed with thumb and four, three, two or one finger. 


Non-Illustrated Exercises

Set out below are non-illustrated exercises, many of which can be classed as single feats of strength, that provide variety in grip strength development. We have mentioned previously the importance of doing ROUND BACK EXERCISES with weights to develop the type of back strength required by the wrestler. To insure that the athlete will not progress too fast in weight increases, and possibly strain his back, construct a thick handled barbell (as described in Exercise 12 which follows). His grip strength will automatically limit the amount of weight he can use in round back deadlifts, etc.

No. 1 - Twisting tops off tightly sealed jars.

No. 2 - Bending beer bottle caps.
Note: The exercise above must be gradually adapted to. There is a tendency for the novice to empty the bottles too quickly, which can result in sloppy performance when bending the caps, as well as head injury from falling over backward, or forward without putting up the arms quickly enough. As in all exercise, use caution. 

No. 3 - Picking up beer or cider barrels by the chimes. Empty beer or cider barrels can be filled with water to various levels. Old-time strongmen used to have contests in lifting beer barrels to the shoulder or overhead using one or two hands. 

No. 4 - Use of grippers. 

No. 5 - Rope climbing.

No. 6 - Hold a corner of a sheet or two of newspaper in one hand and roll it up into a ball by action of the fingers.

No. 7 - Picking up heavy planks three to four inches in width. 

No. 8 -  Wrist wrestling.

No. 9 - Tearing magazines, telephone books or decks of cards. 

No. 10 - Lifting barbells with one or two fingers of each hand. 

No. 11 - Alternately dropping a heavy dumbbell with one hand and catching it with the opposite hand. 

No. 12 - Performing weight training exercises with thick handled bars (two to three inches in diameter). The average barbell handle is one and one-sixteenth inches in diameter. Cut a piece of 2-inch, or 3-inch diameter water pipe (PVC) the length of the barbell handle between the inside collars. Wrap tape around the barbell handle in the center and close to both ends to take up the space between the barbell handle and the pipe. Old-time strongmen developed fabulous grip strength from the practice of lifting heavy thick handled weights. 

Trainees should devote some time and attention to the adductor muscles, tendons and ligaments that provide the power to squeeze or hold objects BETWEEN THE FINGERS themselves. A good exercise is lifting a small barbell plate squeezed between two outstretched fingers (of the same hand). Gradually increase the weight as strength increases. These muscles can also be strengthened by squeezing a rubber ball between the fingers. 

Holding heavy weight for time is also a good method of strengthening the grip. 

Another approach is to perform an exercise for grip development (10-15 reps) and on the last repetition hold the object for as long as possible. The same approach can be used in the chinning exercises.  

















   
↧
↧

Kono's Coaching Clinic - Bill Penner (1972)

December 8, 2019, 2:07 pm
$
0
0

Courtesy of Liam Tweed


First, here's an interesting, in depth post by Gwen Sisto on weightlifting shoes:


No, really, there's some interesting observations there . . . 




 Click to ENLARGE

Check out her blog for a lot more very cool stuff! 









By the left: 
Vic Boff, Harry Greenstein (son of The Mighty Atom)
Tommy Kono, Steve Stanko (seated)
Norbert Schemansky, Joe Greenstein (The Mighty Atom)
and Leah Greenstein, Atom's wife.







On Friday, June 9th, before the two days of lifting at the Senior Nationals, Tommy Kono presented a weightlifting clinic. It was fairly well attended and was quite interesting, as Tommy had recently returned from the European Championships held in Romania.

Since this was the day before the beginning of the national championships, Tommy started off his remarks with things he thought might help those who would be competing in the nest two days of lifting. Although this is certainly not official, I would say that the majority of those present at the clinic were not those who were to be competing on the next two days. Does this say anything? Perhaps. I'll let you be the judge.

Tommy's opening remarks were directed at the knotty problem (sometimes) of making weight for your bodyweight class. For Supers this hardly ever poses a problem, but for those poor souls in a lower bodyweight class, it can prove to be quite sticky at times. First of all, it was brought out that a lifter should monitor his bodyweight for at least a few days before the contest. 

Note: Tommy Kono set World Records in four weight classes. 

This matter of making weight should definitely NOT be something that becomes a concern only on the day of the contest. Even if you are close to the limit and have not had trouble making weight in the past, it would be wise to at least glance at your weight the few days before the contest. This enables one to lose weight (if necessary) over a period of several days rather than all on one day. Losing many pounds on the day of the contest can prove to be quite enervating. This enervation CAN and DOES result in lower-than-maximum totals. 

Another item to remember in regard to making weight is to NOT assume that the scales you are using will be identical with the ones used to weigh in. So, just to be safe, Tommy advised that a lifter strive for a weight slightly under the limit to allow for a possible difference in calibration of the two scales. You might say, "Well, the scales should be exact." Yes, this would be desirable, but we live in an imperfect world and it appears that it will stay that way for some time to come. So, just to be safe, try to be just slightly under the limit. It may very possibly save you from the traumatic experience of finding that you are overweight and have only 15 minutes to lose the necessary weight. This can be very exasperating, to say the least. 

After a lifter has arrived at the competition site, stepped onto the scales, and has found that he has some weight to lose, what does he first do? 

Tommy's advice is to do something to start the perspiration process in motion - it is then much easier to keep the sweat going. It was mentioned that a sauna can be an excellent medium through which to induce sweating. However, it was also advised that this can be hard on an individual who is not used to it. 

Another method of losing pounds is through use of a diuretic, however, Tommy made clear the fact that usage of diuretics is precarious because the lifter may lose more than he had planned; i.e., it isn't possible to tell when the diuretic effect will stop. 

Besides making the weight, the well-prepared lifter will make sure that he has all of the necessary appurtenances (!) for the competition. Nothing is more nerve racking than to get to the competition site and find that you have forgotten your wraps, a jar of honey, tape, a lifting belt, or any other accessory. One simple tactic that can be used is to make a little list of all the things needed before the competition and check over this list BEFORE leaving your house or hotel or motel room.

Another item well to remember is to always arrive at the competition early so that there is plenty of time to get drunk, score coke and hook up with some local whores, er, take care of the necessary things and not be rushed. It would be much better to be an hour early than an hour late. This again may seem to be something which is almost too simple to mention, but it requires advance planning to make sure that one gets to the competition with plenty of time to weigh in, get dressed, etc.

Another common practice which is undesirable, is to eat heavy food after the weigh-in. To be sure, the time for protein-rich, heavy food is definitely not after the weigh-in. Protein should be taken care of at breakfast. The type of food needed after the weigh-in and before and during the competition is of the energy type. The lifter needs something which will digest easily, not something that will remain in the stomach and take hours to digest. Many lifters have used honey during the competition since it is easily digestible and provides a source of quick energy. Some lifters feel that they need something to pep them up during the competition, but it is ill-advised to take stimulants such as methamphetamines. Many doctors feel that if an athlete needs a boost, coffee will do just fine. 

One problem which seems to plague every lifter who has ever stepped onto a lifting platform is the problem of choosing poundages. Since Tommy had returned not long ago from the European Championships, he had some interesting statistics to point out regarding the percentage of successful lifts for several of the teams that competed in Romania. With a nine man team and nine attempts per lifter, we come up with a figure of 81 possible lifts for a full team. The most successful team was the Bulgarians with 56 successful attempts out of the possible 81. Second was the Russian team with 45 successful attempts, still more than a 50% success rate. Third was the Polish team with 39 successful lifts, just under the 50% figure of 40-1/2. 

Tommy analyzed the practices of the Bulgarians as compared with the Russians and others and found that the Bulgarians started lower and took a much larger jump between their first and second attempts. He said that many of the Bulgarians jumped 22 lbs. between their first attempt and their second attempt. On the other hand, the Russians usually never jumped more than 11 lbs. between their first and second attempts. 

Tommy also pointed out that 3 out of the 9 lifters on the Bulgarian team made 9 successful lifts. Also, included in the Bulgarian team tally of 56 successes was one lifter who missed all three presses. So, you can see, the Bulgarian team as a whole chose their attempts well.

The basic truth in the wise selection of poundages is - START LOW! This can never be overemphasized. Tommy also pointed out that if a lifter chooses his own poundages, he is almost always too optimistic, whereas if a coach is choosing the poundages the selections are usually more reasonable. Thus, it is to the lifter's advantage to have a coach present who knows the lifter's strength and will choose the starting poundages wisely. A lifter is almost always overconfident of his abilities and will rarely make adjustments for any facts which might warrant a lowering of the starting poundages, such as hot weather, lack of sleep or any other factor. 

It is also worth mentioning that if a lifter will not heed the advice of his coach and will only argue with him concerning the poundages, then there is very little use in having a coach present. Those who have been to international meets can attest to the fact that in many European countries, notably the USSR, the coach does, in fact, choose the poundages and the lifter has absolutely NOTHING to say in the matter. In Lima, I personally saw Alexei Medvedev, the head Russian coach, write down a lifter's next poundage on the expediter's card even before the lifter had left the stage. Thus, this is the categorical evidence that Medvedev was the one who chose the poundages and that the lifter had really nothing to say about it. This, by the way, is just one example of how the Russian lifters are disciplined.

Another problem which can plague a lifter is what to do to keep warm between attempts. Depending on how many competitors there are, there may be only a few lifts between a lifter's attempts, or there may be 15 or 20 or more. What to do to keep warm is always a problem and especially so when there are numerous lifts between a lifter's attempts. There are basically two methods of warming up. One is to use light weights and do many sets, but with little or no increasing of the poundages from set to set. Another method is to use progressively heavier weights from set to set. Tommy feels that one method is not necessarily any better than the other, but that lifters should experiment to find out which method suits them better. 

Tommy mentioned seeing Tony Garcy warming up at an International competition with numerous sets of presses with 132 pounds. Also watching Garcy warm up was the famous Polish lifter Baszanowski. Tommy recalls Baszanowski coming up and asking if Garcy was actually going to lift in competition. Baszanowski said he was not used to seeing a lifter warm up with light poundages, but this type of warmup suited Garcy quite well. Garcy would do many warmup sets with 132, then jump to a warmup set with 220, and then come out for a first attempt press with 264. For Garcy this system worked well. For someone else it might be preferable to use progressively heavier poundages. Try both and see which works better for YOU. 

Tommy also mentioned the factor of team unity and how the top teams usually seem to have a high degree of team unity. Tommy feels that this was one of the reasons for the superiority of the American teams of bygone years. Many lifters seem to like lifting because they feel they are doing something "on their own," however, a lifter will actually do better if he is lifting "for the team." If a lifter is lifting for a cause - for a team - he will do better. 

Also mentioned was the fact that a lifter's daily living habits will affect his performance on the lifting platform. Live a strict, disciplined life and you will do better. No lifter can expect to make maximum totals when he doesn't get a regular amount of sleep each night. There is no need to refrain from having fun, but an attempt should be made to keep regular hours. Believe it or not, there have been cases of U.S. lifters on international teams who were out taking in the bars and night spots THE NIGHT BEFORE they were to lift. This may sound unbelievable, but it's true, nonetheless. The time for celebrating is AFTER  the competition, not BEFORE. 

A lifter must sacrifice in order to become a champion. If you want to be an elite lifter, it almost has to be your first goal in life. You have to want it badly. Many potential champions fell by the wayside because they didn't have a strong enough desire to make an absolute success of their lifting. Tommy brought up the fact that there was a lifter in the U.S. who had potential to be the greatest lifter in the world. However, because of his living habits, this lifter never reached his ultimate capability. 

An item of extreme importance in competition is the matter of conditioning. A lifter MUST be in top condition with a great amount of endurance or he will just simply run out of gas toward the end of the competition. This is probably one of the most serious mistakes made by American lifters in their training. Tommy mentioned that the Russians and other European lifters can take extra attempts in the press and snatch for records, and still they are fresh right up to the last clean & jerk and even make records on a fourth attempt clean & jerk, in some cases.

Somehow I have the feeling that many American lifters feel that endurance and conditioning work will detract from their development of strength. This is really not the case. Tommy mentioned that most of the European lifters spend literally hundreds of hours in training and conditioning. In fact, it is extremely possible that the majority of their training is not spent on power movements, that that perhaps the majority of their training time is spent on conditioning and factors involved in making a lift, other than power movements. 

So, it is possible that American lifters spend too much time worrying about power movements and not enough time working on conditioning and form work, etc. Power is important, let there be no mistake about that. But, what good does it do to have a tremendous amount of strength and not be able to fully use that strength on the clean & jerk because you are fagged out due to lack of conditioning. It is entirely possible that a weaker man could defeat a stronger man simply because he developed the necessary conditioning tot enable him to be fresh when it comes to the clean & jerk. 

Thus, strength is important, to be sure, but it won't be nearly as effective as it could be if it is not coupled with a generous amount of endurance and conditioning. This matter of conditioning should not be taken lightly as it can have a very definite effect on your total.              




 



















↧

The Noble Barbell - George A. Gould (1992)

December 8, 2019, 2:21 pm
$
0
0




Recently one of those highly advertised franchise-type exercise emporiums opened in our neighborhood. My son drove us by the place, and as we peered through its wide window, a wondrous site greeted our eyes: gadgetry galore, all chromed and shiny, to develop every known muscle in the human body. What I could not see anywhere, however, were some plain, old barbells. Maybe they had them tucked away in a back room, available only on special request by some uncouth throwback like myself. 

From where I sit typing this, I can turn around and see an exercise bench and an assortment of barbell paraphernalia. Down in my basement I have several hundred pounds of these weighty objects, which have been my constant companions for well over a half century. 

Unlike my other possessions they are in almost the same condition as they were when I first purchased them, although I did apply fresh paint to some of the plates. I suppose they must have come with some kind of guarantee, but they've never failed to function in the expected manner. 

They have served faithfully. 

I know exactly where I stand with a barbell, and I can precisely measure the toll of all of those years on this old carcass of mine. 

It doesn't take quite as many iron discs to give me a workout these days, but I do have a certain feeling of satisfaction when I complete a session with my old friends.

When I'm no longer around, I expect that my free weights will still be here to give some younger person a workout. 

As for the mechanisms in those avant garde gyms I have a feeling that they will all be supplanted by something that has more microchips and computerized intellect than the present models. Call me an old fogey if you will, but I have an inherent distrust of any entity whose intellectual capacities are greater than my own. 

Barbells and dumbbells suit me just fine.  

















↧

Sample Chuck Sipes Routines - Part Six

December 8, 2019, 3:59 pm
$
0
0





Routine 26 - Six Days a Week


Monday/Thursday: 

Leg Extension, 2 x 50
Heavy Quarter Squats (no lockout), 4 x 15



Sissy Squats, 4 x 8

 - Stand in an upright vertical posture next to a stationary post, rack or chair, etc. With knees slightly unlocked, place your feet approximately 12 to 18 inches apart, with heels inward and toes rotated out laterally, just slightly. The feet should be about 13" apart and the knees about 17" wide. 

 - To maintain a perfect balance in this quadriceps exercise, lightly grasp hold of the stationary post with one hand. Now, with just your own bodyweight, rise up on your toes, or if you wish, place your heels on a 4" x 4" block of wood. Lean your upper torso backward (approximately 45 degrees from vertical) until you feel a maximum stretch contraction in the quads, especially just above the knees. Your upper torso and thighs will be in alignment with one another if you have done this correctly. 

 - While maintaining this inclined, lying back position (you will basically be at a 45-degree angle to horizontal position), slowly lower your body by bending your knees, allowing them to thrust forward. Allow the upper torso and thighs to descend to where the shoulders are directly over the heels and beyond. Do not relax at this point. Keep continuous tension on the quads by doing a smooth direction reversal at the bottom of the negative stretch (approximately parallel to the floor) phase by straightening your quads and driving your hips forward until you are once again at the non-lock starting point. 

 - Remember as you come up to push off on your heels while pulling the front part of your foot up off the floor. Begin the next rep immediately. With absolutely no pausing, continue until you have completed 4 sets of 8 reps in nonstop, nonlock style. 


Tuesday/Friday: 

Seated DB Press, 4 x 6
Barbell Press Behind Neck, 4 x 8
Behind Neck Chin, 4 x 6
Dip, 4 x 8
Bench Press, 8,8,4,4,2,2,1,1
Preacher Curl, 6 x 10


Wednesday/Saturday: 

Triceps Pushdown, 5 x 10
Lying French Press, 6 x 6
Jumping Squat (dumbbell in each hand), 4 x 10
 - spring up fast and keep moving
EZ Bar Reverse Curl, 6 x 8
Bent Arm Barbell Pullover, 5 x 8
Regular Deadlift, 4 x 4


Routine 27 - Five Days a Week


Monday/Wednesday:

Squat, 8,8,4,4,2,2
Standing Calf, 4 x 20
 - Do these in deep concentration making the calf muscles carry the load. Do in a slow rhythm trying to force out each rep at the peak of the heel raise.
Regular Deadlift, 8,8,4,4,2,2
Barbell Shrug, 4 x 8
Preacher Curl, 4 x 10

Tuesday/Thursday:

Heavy Quarter Squat (nonlock), 6 x 6
Leg Extension, 3 x 10
Leg Curl, 3 x 10
 - Use Pause/No Pause. 1set set pause for a count of two in the bottom position of each rep. Next set there should be no pause whatsoever.  
Stiff Legged Deadlift, 4 x 4
Power Clean, (from dead hang), 4 x 8
Lying French Press, 4 x 8

Friday: 

I mile walk/run


Routine 28 - Shoulder Routine  (three times a week)

Seated Barbell Front Press (shoulder width), 4 x 8 
Seated Barbell Press Behind Neck nonlock, fairly wide), 4 x 8 
Barbell Front Raise, 2 x 12
Seated DB Lateral Raise, 2 x 12
Bentover Rear Lateral, 2 x 10
DB Around the Worlds, 2 x 10


Routine 30 (yeah, I know) - Arm Routine  (three times a week)

Cheat Barbell Curl, 4 x 4
DB Concentration Curl, 6 x 8 
 - Do 2 sets each position: seated palm up, seated palm inner (hammer), bentover with head braced supinating concentration curl. 
Preacher Curl, 3 x 10
Barbell Wrist Curl, 4 x 10
 - 2 sets palms up, 2 sets palms down
Lying French Press, 4 x 6
 - touch bar to nose
Triceps Pushdown, 3 x 20
Chins (palms facing you, wide grip to chin), 6 x 6
Dips, 4 x 8


Routine 31 - Arm Routine  (three times a week) 

Preacher Curl, 2 x 12
Standing Barbell Curl (light to heavy), 12,12,6,6,4,4,2,2
Seated Alternate DB Curl, 4 x 8
Lying French Press, 4 x 8
Bench Dips (slowly), 4 x 8
One Arm Triceps Extension, 2 x 12 
EZ Bar Reverse Curl, 4 x 10
Barbell Wrist Curl (palms up), 2 x 15


Routine 32 - Three Days a Week

Bench Press, 4,4,2,2,1,1
Squat, 4,4,2,2,1,1
Regular Deadlift, 4,4,2,2,1,1
Press Behind Neck, 2 x 12
Barbell Wrist Curl (palms up), 2 x 20
Hanging Leg Raise, 2 x 10
Broomstick Side Bend, 2 x 50
One DB Calf Raise, 2 x 50
 - 20 reps slow, 30 burns, flex hard high on the toes for a 10-count after each set.    


Routine 33 - Every Day


Monday/Wednesday/Friday:

Breathing Squat, 2 x 20
 - light poundage, several deep breaths between each rep 
Straight Arm Barbell Pullover, 2 x 20
 - light poundage, very deep breathing and stretch
Chin Behind Neck, 2 x 8
Dips, 2 x 12


Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: 

Bench Press, 2 x 12
Power Clean, 2 x 8


Daily:

Jog, 1 mile
Incline Situp, 1 x 50
Broomstick Front Bend, 1 x 50
Broomstick Side Bend, 1 x 50

 

 






 










 


 
 



 

 


 
↧
Search

"Reverse" Sissy Squats - Bob Green

December 8, 2019, 5:53 pm
$
0
0

Article Courtesy of Liam Tweed






Click to ENLARGE



Over the years I have read several articles on the now famous "Sissy Squats" used by the West Coast bodybuilders. Vince Gironda popularized and polished the movement until it matured into its present form. 

I don't know of any leg movement that can do so much for the thigh without extremely heavy weights. My own thighs are up to 25-1/2" from the stork-like 20-inchers I had two years ago. I owe this growth  mostly to the sissy squat. Dan Mackey won numerous Best Leg awards, thanks to the sissy squat, and so did Bill McArdle, Rick Giofu and others. Dave Draper had trouble with his thighs until he threw in dome sissies at the end of his leg routine. 

Here:

Cool stuff here:

It is unfortunate that many trainees can't "get into it" or have back trouble in the lumbar region and can't do this valuable exercise. By the way, it'll get you a breath like a vacuum cleaner if you do them right! 

Because the sissy squat is a compound movement many a low back can't take the extension and contraction involved. One day last year I sustained a low back injury doing squats and was forced to lay off thigh work for about four weeks. When I resumed thigh training I was hard-pressed to find a substitute for the sissies. They had done the most for me, but my chiropractor told me to lay off them for several months so that I wouldn't aggravate my back condition. Nothing works like the sissy squat and even though I did leg press, machine squats and hacks I didn't get the deep ache I got when doing the sissy. 

I felt that some kind of machine squat was necessary to save my low back and still hit the thighs to a maximum degree. Some of the new. exotic equipment was tempting me

 
but I wanted to keep my routines in the context of true physical culture and if I was out of town [did Odysseus work on the road?] I couldn't rely on gyms having the latest super-gyro reflex Godzilla machines. 

By accident I dropped into a squat under a press machine by angling forward and dropping at the knees to favor my back. The pull on my frontal thighs was amazing in this position! 

With a few alterations I came up with an alternative to the sissy I call the Reverse Sissy due to its opposite movement to the regular sissy. 100 pounds felt like 200! The results are fantastic and the guys here in Ventura are going bananas with them. Try 'em after 3 or 4 sets of leg presses - WOW! 

To do this movement you will need a press machine, power rack, multi-power exerciser (smith) or a good leg press. See photos above. 

Place a board under the heels for several reasons: 

A. It will stabilize and place more stress on the side and frontal thigh muscles. 

B. In this manner you can vary the pressure more significantly from the heels to the balls of the feet (pressure points).

Note: This line regarding Sissy Squats from the previous post: 
Remember as you come up to push off on your heels while pulling the front part of your foot up off the floor.

C. On the upward thrust the heel should become the focal point of pressure so that the thigh biceps and inner thigh can be activated as well as the frontal group. 

Start with a light weight so that you can do 15-20 reps the first couple of sets. Add weight each set until you are only doing 8 to 10. 

Get under the bar and hold onto the carriage with the toes pointed slightly outward (picture One above). 

Keeping the hips tucked in forward - drop at the knees (picture Two). This will isolate the frontal thigh group something bad! From this position go right down into a squat allowing the hips to go down as they would in a regular squat (picture Three).

Now comes the clincher: thrust upward pushing the pelvic girdle out and up as you go (picture Four); dig in at the heels. Don't just push up, but thrust the hips up and in as you ascend. 

If you don't get each of the three moves down, the movement as a whole will lose some of its magic. We teach it by doing 7 reps in each position separately. That is: 

 - 7 reps of the knee drops
 - 7 reps of the squat portion
 - 7 reps of the thrust.

All without weight and braced until the movement is perfected. 

You need not use heavy weights on this one. We start everyone out with only a 35 pound bar and even the big guys whimper after 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps. 

When they can do the sissy properly we switch them to the machine and use heavier weights doing the REVERSE SISSY. 

If done properly you will never get stale on this movement. This can be used as the basic movement for your thigh routine, or as a finisher to polish their look. It all depends on where you place it in the program and the severity with which you attack each set. 

Thigh work is great for stimulating cardiovascular response, muscularity and fat loss, and overall body strength.   



















↧
↧

Calf Blast-Off - T.C. Luoma

December 9, 2019, 7:38 pm
$
0
0


"Will" - G. Gordon Liddy


EPUB -

More articles by T.C. Luoma:











There's a story about Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy that he once stuck his hand over a candle at a cocktail party and held it under there until his flesh started to smoke and blister. An observer asked him, "What's the trick [Big Ears]?" Liddy turned, looked at the man with his shark-like eyes and said, "The trick is not minding." 

That "trick" is one that bodybuilders would do well to learn, particularly when it comes to calf training. No, I'm not suggesting that you stick your calf in front of a butane torch. I'm talking about applying some good old-fashioned willpower to your lower-leg workouts. 

first of all, do you even need to add size to your calves? Take a good look at them. According to the ancient Greeks, who practically wrote the book on symmetry and proportions, your calf measurements should be roughly the same as your arm measurements. 

If they are, chances are you're not one of those people who work calves as an afterthought - you treat them with the same respect you give every other bodypart. Almost invariably, people who have lousy calves do them last in their workouts, and they rush through their sets without concentration, probably ogling someone's spandex-covered buns instead of taking care of business. Unfortunately, since the calves designed for constant work and rapid recuperation, they require plenty of work and supreme concentration. 


A little knowledge of the anatomy of your calf muscles can go a long way in helping you build them up. 

Although the soleus is the largest muscle in the calf, it is mostly buried underneath the twin heads of the gastrocnemius. The soleus, when properly developed, gives the calf width and sweep, two qualities all bodybuilders should strive for. It is the gastrocnemius that gives the lower leg the impressive "cow heart" look most of us associate with great calf development. 

The third muscle that affects the appearance of the calves is the tibialis anterior, a thin band of muscle that runs along the side of the shin. When developed, it can make the calf look almost a full inch bigger when viewed from the front. 

To work the entire calf area you have to do at least three calf exercises, one for each of these muscles. 

Any kind of seated calf raise targets the soleus. Standing calf raises or donkey calf raises target the gastrocnemius (and the soleus too, to a lesser degree), and front calf raises work the tibialis anterior. 

These three movements form the foundation of a calf workout, but it's only the foundation. Your ultimate success will be determined by how many sets you do and how much effort you put into them. Arnold once theorized that it takes about 500 solid hours of work to develop the calves. 

So what're you waitin' for? 

The clock's ticking . . . 



Beginning Routine 

If you've just started training your calves, undoubtedly some know-it-all has told you to vary your foot position to get all the different angles. That's a good tip - but not for a beginner. For now just keep pointing your toes straight ahead. This method develops the calves proportionately, and at this point you should be more interested in overall growth than in targeting the insides or outsides of your calves. 

Always stretch and warm up first, or you risk pulling or tearing your Achilles tendon, which can take up to a year to heal. Use any standard runner's stretch and then do your first couple of sets with little or no added resistance. 

As discussed previously, your routine should consist of at least three movements. Try starting with the standing calf raise, but don't overload the machine - all you'll do is work you back and maybe your quads.

The key to getting great calves is reps. Bodybuilders, with the rare exception, credit their calf development to doing lots of reps, anywhere from 20 to 30 per set. Sets of 8 to 10 using 500 pounds just won't cut it. If you need further proof, take a look at an aerobics instructor, bicyclist or someone who does a lot of rope jumping. These athletes generally have great calves, and they get them by doing reps, reps and more reps.

The next most important factor is your range of motion. It's essential to get a full range of motion when working calves. Full extension means bringing your heels down as far as they'll go and pushing off until you're way up on your toes. It's amazing how few people work their calves this way. Most are content to bounce up and down a couple of inches like a "Club MTV" dancer for 10 seconds and call it a set. It's not hard to understand why people do it that way. The calf muscles are strongest in the midrange - that's the range in which they normally operate while you're walking or running. Using a full range of motion hurts. 

After performing 3 sets of about 25 reps on the standing calf raise, do the same on the seated calf. Again, keep your toes straight, about eight inches apart, try for a full range of motion and resist the temptation to grab onto the handles and use momentum to get the weight up.

Your final exercise is reverse calf raises for the tibialis anterior. Not many bodybuilders do this movement. Include it in your workouts early on, and you'll eventually pass almost everyone with your lower leg development. 

Stand with your heels on a block. While supporting yourself, lower your toes as far as you can and then lift them up until you feel the muscles at the front of your lower legs contracting as much as possible. 3 sets of 20 should do the job. 

Putting it all together, the session shapes up as follows: 

Standing Calf Raise, 3 x 25
Seated Calf Raise, 3 x 25
Reverse Calf Raise, 3 x 20

In the beginning, two or three calf workouts a week should put you well on the way to respectable development. Since the calves are used to getting so much work when you're not in the gym, consider yourself a beginner for only two or three months. After that it's time to up the ante because chances are your calves are snickering behind your back, saying, "Heck, this ain't so bed - we can sleep through this workout." 


Intermediate or Advanced Routine 

You'll not that I grouped the intermediate and advanced trainees together. That's because the only difference between an intermediate and an advanced calf routine is the work load and how much intensity you're willing to apply to your sets. If you're an intermediate level bodybuilder and you take on the work of an advanced lifter, you won't be able to walk until next spring. 

The easiest way to increase the work load is to add more sets to your routine. Give your calves 10 to20 sets per workout. It's also time to start working them more often. Although conventional wisdom on the subject of overtraining might disagree, you can work your calves up to six times a week. Wouldn't that constitute overtraining? Perhaps, but most of the bodybuilders who have the best calves work theirs every day.

In addition to the three basic movements described for the beginning routine, you might want to include donkey raises, calf raises done on a leg press machine or one-legged calf raises. You should also employ any and all advanced techniques, such as forced reps (preferably with a sadistic training partner), cheating reps and stripping plates. When you've done as many full-range reps as possible, finish off with some partial-range reps (burns). When you finish a set, you should not be able to perform a single additional calf contraction. 

At this point you're ready to start surprising, or shocking, the muscles as well. Try changing the rep range frequently while switching to heavier or lighter weights, changing the order in which you do the exercises and changing the range of motion. I know, I know - only a few paragraphs ago I heavily stressed the importance of getting a full range of motion. Once your calves adjust to that, however, it's a good idea to periodically do a shorter range just to keep them on their toes, so to speak. 

Note: Try pausing in the bottom, stretch position for a 5 to 10 second count on some reps, or on all reps of some sets. Also try contracting hard and holding in the top position. Try staggered sets for your calves.

It's also time to take advantage of that hot tip you got at the beginning and change the direction of your toes on each set. Pointing your toes out works the inner calf, and pointing them in works the outer calf. Also, if you tilt your heels in the opposite direction from where your toes are pointing, it intensifies the effect.


Tricks of the Trade 

In addition to the traditional exercises, there are various things you can do to help your calves develop. Try to get into the habit of massaging them after every set. If you can improve the circulation in your calves, even momentarily, by massaging them, they'll grow faster.

When you do squats, try using a two-by-four underneath your heels. This tends to put a lot of the stress on your calves that would otherwise be spread evenly over your feet. 

Try to get in the habit of walking up stairs by planting your toes on the steps and then pushing off with your calf muscles. Anyone who works in a multi-story building could probably add an inch to his or her calves over a period of a year with this method. 

Finally, prioritize your calves by doing them first in your workouts, when your energy levels are highest. The only time I wouldn't recommend this is on hamstring day. If you really work your calves, the pressure exerted by the support on the leg curl machine will be too much to bear - 
unless you're the Gordon Liddy of Bodybuilding. 

Hey, do I smell something burning?  



      

   
 

























↧

Deadlifts and the Strength Athlete - Bill Starr (2012)

December 10, 2019, 9:54 pm
$
0
0




It seems that there are two distinct schools of thought when it comes to deadlifts. On the one hand, there are those who believe that the lift is a necessary part of the process of getting stronger, while another group of coaches and athletes shun them altogether, stating that the slow movement does not carry over to high-skill movements like the clean and snatch. That latter group believes that instead of laboring over a heavy deadlift, athletes should be doing dynamic exercises like power snatches and cleans and snatch- and clean-grip high pulls. 

In many college and scholastic strength programs, the athletes are not allowed to deadlift because the coaches consider it too dangerous for younger athletes - too risky to the lower back. This is still the opinion of many authorities in strength training: better to do an exercise that is safer than one that puts the body in peril. The truth of the matter is that any exercise can cause harm when it's done improperly, and almost any exercise can be beneficial if it's done correctly.

I say "almost any exercise" because there are a few that I never recommend doing, such as presses behind the neck or chinning behind the neck. These force the shoulder to be placed in jeopardy because the shoulder joints are not designed to handle those positions, especially when there is added resistance. 

I use deadlifts in all my strength-fitness programs. In fact, it's one of the very first exercises I teach anyone, young or old, male or female, aspiring bodybuilder or fledgling Olympic lifter. I believe that it's imperative to know how to lift a heavy object off the floor the right way because, throughout our lifetimes, all of us are required to do this thousands of times. And this isn't restricted to those who lift weights regularly. Everyone, without exception, is going to lift a box of books, overloaded bag of groceries, case of motor oil or heavy bag of junk off the floor just going about daily life, and knowing how to do so correctly can mean the difference between lifting the weight smoothly or incurring a dinged back. 

As for the deadlift being a higher risk movement than the more dynamic lifts, that's not really true either. The deadlift is a static movement where the joints stay locked in place, while the explosive lifts like full snatches, power cleans and high pulls involve many joints that are placed under a great deal of stress. Of course, when faulty technique is used on the deadlift, even with light poundages, an injury can occur, and because a great deal of weight, relatively speaking, is often used, any injury that is sustained is going to be more severe. This is why it's important to learn how to do deadlifts using perfect form.


Dead to Rights

This article is aimed at Olympic lifters and those following a program that involves high-skill exercises. Powerlifters are already believers in the deadlift, and they must do them regularly if they want to excel in the sport. 

When I first became interested in weight training, I had the barest of equipment to work with. For the first three years that I trained, all I had was a standard bar, lots of plates and two adjustable dumbbell handles. From that I built my program, staying with very basic movements out of necessity. My two primary hip and leg exercises were the back squat and deadlift. I set up all my programs, using as my guide a booklet I bought mail order from George Jowett while I was in high school. When I started lifting after I joined the Air Force, I didn't have the booklet, but I remembered what I had read. He recommended 3 sets of 10 on the various exercises, so that's what I did. 

I only weighed 135 lb. at the time and certainly wasn't gifted in the strength department, so all I could handle on the squats and deadlifts were rather light weights. This, as it turns out, was the best way for a puny individual to get started in strength training. I was also power cleaning the bar to do overhead presses and jerks, so the two exercises fit together nicely. The power cleans helped me to learn the line of a long pull so that when I deadlifted, all I had to do was concentrate on that first and second move. And because I could do deadlifts in a very deliberate fashion and was using fairly high reps, I never had any problems. 

However, what happens in many cases currently is that youngsters try to see how much they can lift off the floor. This is usually a result of some dare from peers, and if there isn't an adult around to monitor the workouts, injuries can happen. So these are my basic rules about deadlifts in regards to younger athletes: they can never do them unless an adult is present, and they should not be allowed to try a max single. There's plenty of time later to do that. The priority should always be safety, and supervision is a necessary part of that. 

After I got my hands on a couple of issues of Strength & Health, I became intrigued with the three Olympic lists and changed my program around to give them priority. Still, the back squat and deadlift remained cornerstones in my routines. But when I got out of the service and enrolled at Southern Methodist University and started training with Sid Henry at the Dallas YMCA, I followed the routines he laid out for me . . . 

Note: "An Ideal Beginning Strength Program" by Bill Starr
This one came from Sid Henry of Dallas. It also holds special interest for anyone who includes high-skill exercises in his or her program.

https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/an-ideal-beginning-strength-program/ 

Woven into the program article are some cool things about Sid Henry. 

Aaaaaaand . . . if you're enjoying this article chances are you'll dig: 

 
There's always something new going up there, and the forums are filled with searchable answers to your questions about strength training. 

  . . . and they never included deadlifts. So for three years they were not a part of my strength programs, except for when I would go to some odd lift meet in Texas that included deadlifts. I discovered that all the heavy pulling movements I had been doing to improve my cleans and snatches carried over nicely to the deadlift,and I always placed highest in the deadlift at those meets. 

It wasn't until I left Texas and entered graduate school in Chicago that I discovered the deadlift was a valuable exercise to help me become a more proficient Olympic lifter. It wasn't something that I thought out; it came about clearly by chance. 

From January till may there were meets held at one of the YMCAs in Chicago nearly every week. This was a welcome change for me because it required a very long drive to get to a contest in Texas, and they were held few and far between. The sites in the Windy City, on the other hand, were just a few minutes away. After each Olympic meet there was always a physique competition, and in most cases some sort of strength test - curls, bench press and deadlifts were the favorites. And as most know, those odd lifts evolved into the sport of powerlifting. I usually entered these because they gave me the opportunity to pick up another award, which was my primary motive for lifting in the first place.   

Near the end of the season, in May, it was announced that the deadlift would be tested after the Olympic meet was finished. I decided to give it a try, mostly because I was curious to find out just how much I could move in that exercise. I hadn't done a deadlift in about two years, but my pull was strong that day. I had done well in the snatch and clean & jerk. Because I had absolutely no idea what I was capable of, I ended up doing 525 lb. As soon as I did it I knew I had a lot more left in me, but it was too late to think about that. I ended up taking second behind Ernie Franz. I was pleased because he was already regarded as one of the strongest lifters in the city. 

The meets were always held on Sunday, and when I woke up on Monday, my entire back was sore to the touch. It was the kind of deep soreness that makes you grunt when you walk up stairs or sit down hard in a chair. This wouldn't have been so disconcerting had I not already entered another Olympic meet for the following Saturday in Moline, Ill. The deep soreness hung around through Wednesday, and my training was terrible. I considered bailing out, but I had promised Bob Gajda I would go with him and help pay for the gas. In addition, I had recruited two brothers, Tom and Rick Holbrook, to make the trip as well. I had taught them the Olympic lifts at the Park Ridge Y, where I was the youth director. They had lifted in a closed meet, which I held at Park Ridge, but this would be their first appearance in an open contest. I couldn't back out.  

The four of us crammed into Gajda's VW and headed west. I was just hoping I wouldn't fall flat on my face. To my utter delight and surprise, I broke my snatch and clean & jerk record and posted my first 800-lb. total, a benchmark for the 181-lb. class at that time. 

The only thing I had done differently going into that contest was deadlifts. Everything else was the same, so it didn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out that it was the heavy deadlifts I had done that made my pull stronger. Soon after that contest in Moline, I moved to Marion, Ind., to become youth director at the YMCA there, and I started adding deadlifts into my program. I'd do them once a month and only did 5's, never going after a max single. 

There were lots of powerlifting meets in the state as well, and I would enter those mostly for fun. My deadlift was always strong, and I set a state record with 575-lb. in the deadlift without any serious training on the lift. And whenever I moved my deadlift higher, my clean went up. And vice versa.

My next stop was York, and I quickly found that none of the lifters living and training there did any deadlifts at all. Except for Homer Brannum and Ernie Pickett, and neither of them did any in training. Rather, they would go to powerlifting meets and be able to move big numbers on the deadlift due to all the heavy pulling movements in their routine. Homer was the first athlete to win both the Senior Nationals in Olympic lifting and powerlifting in the same year. Ernie won the Junior Nationals and came in second in the Seniors two weeks after he earned a spot on the '68 Olympic team. 

Bill March, Tony Garcy, Tommy Suggs and Bob Bednarski never did any deadlifts. They opted for the more dynamic movements, as did I in training. But when Ernie started going to power meets in the off-season of Olympic lifting, the summer, I would go with him. We never got too serious about these contests. We would only enter meets that were close to the Jersey Shore so we could party there after the contests. We always went heavy in the York Gym on Saturdays anyway, and the power meets were much easier than the Olympic contests, and we got in an excellent workout in the charged atmosphere.

There were quite a few Olympic lifters in the mid-'60s who also competed in powerlifting, and when powerlifting became a full-fledged sport in the AAU, a great many of them, usually those who were not really good Olympic lifters, switched over to the new, much less complicated power lifts. 

When strength training for football became extremely popular across the country in the early '70s, none of the programs included deadlifts. This was primarily because those who had been chosen to train professional teams were all Olympic lifters: Louis Riecke at Pittsburgh, Dr. John Gourgott at New Orleans, Tommy Suggs at Houston, and myself at Baltimore. So the high schools and colleges followed what we were doing for the most part, and our programs didn't utilize the deadlift. 

It wasn't until I signed on at the University of Hawaii and began coaching some Olympic lifters along with all the other sports teams that I began inserting the deadlifts back into some of my athletes' programs.

And at Johns Hopkins, I used that lift much more frequently for my advanced athletes, whom I had taught the snatch and clean & jerk. I recalled how the lift had helped me during my competitive years and was of the opinion that, when done correctly, it is, along with the back squat, one of the very best exercises for building greater strength in the hips, legs and back. I had all my Olympic lifters do them, as well as many of my advanced athletes. Because they had all started out with the "Big Three" - back squat, bench press and power clean - they picked up the form easily. That's one reason I like to have all beginners learn how to do the power clean correctly from the very beginning. Then he or she can move to high pulls, full snatches, full cleans, power snatches and shrugs without any difficulty. 

But for these athletes, I only had them deadlift once a month at most - the exceptions being those who planned on entering deadlift or full power meets. Then I had them deadlift every other week. 


The Why and How of Deadlifts

Whenever the subject of deadlifts as a strength movement comes up, it is assumed that they only have value when they are done with very heavy weights. This is not the case. They are very useful when done with light or moderate weights for higher reps. 

This is particularly true for older athletes who are no longer interested in seeing how much they can move off the floor for a max single. Their goal is overall strength fitness and deadlifts are great for keeping the back, hips and legs strong even when the athletes have started drawing Social Security.

Two or three sets of 20 reps with a weight that forces the athlete to fully extend himself will carry blood and nutrients to all parts of his body and not be stressful to his joints. Some older athletes have written me and said they're doing very high reps - 50s and 75s - with very light weight, and it does wonders for their rheumatoid arthritis and any other maladies of the joints. There is really no reason to try a maximum effort on any lift when your joints are in peril. The ultra-high reps are most useful; low reps are foolish. Former national-champion Hugh Cassidy said it best when he told me, "If I want to move 500 lb., I'll get a forklift." I agree 100 percent. 

Whenever an athlete thinks of the deadlift, he usually only imagines doing the lift in one way, what I call the "conventional style" - feet set close together, arms outside his legs, with the bar pulled upward close to his body. However, there is another way to do full deadlifts that is just as productive and in some cases fits the needs of the athlete even better than the conventional style. Sumo deadlifts work all the same muscle groups as the conventional ones yet in a slightly different manner, and they are also valuable in strengthening weaker groups that are not as involved in the conventional style. Primarily, I'm talking about the adductors. While these groups do play a role in conventional deads, they are of much greater importance when the sumo style is used. In my opinion, both need to be incorporated into a strength routine. 

The styles for the two forms of the lift need to be perfect, so I will go over the form points for both. I'll address the conventional style first because I believe it's smarter to learn that lift before moving to the sumos. 

Unless you re doing reps of 20 or higher, use straps. The straps will allow you to lock on firmly to the bar and not have to be concerned about your grip. All your concentration can be centered on proper technique. There are, of course, plenty of commercial straps you can purchase online or at sporting goods stores, but nothing can beat seat belts. They'll outlast the ones bought 10 times over. Cut them out of the back seat of some clunker No one I know uses them anyway, and cut them to a length of about 22 inches. Better to make them too long than too short. You can always trim them down if necessary. Throw them in a washer for five or six cycles to soften them. The pair I had was used by nearly every athlete at Johns Hopkins for over 10 years, and I still have them. To say they have been durable is a gross understatement.     

Even if you feel that you don't need the straps for the warmups or with lighter poundages, use them anyway. It takes some practice to figure out how to wrap them so that they're snug but not so tight that they cut off circulation. And if they're too loose, they'll take some hide off your wrists when handling a heavy poundage. 

Your grip will be the same as you use for power cleans, full cleans or high pulls. If you've never done any of these exercises, just extend your thumbs on an Olympic bar until they touch the smooth center. Your feet should be at shoulder width or a bit closer than that. The best way to find you ideal foot placement is to shut your eyes and pretend you're about to do a standing broad jump. Tuck the bar in tightly against your shins. This is very important because if the bar starts away from your legs, even so much as an inch, or moves out front during the execution of the lift, you're giving away leverage, and that will make it much harder to do the movement with any amount of weight. 

The eyes should be set straight ahead, and your back should be flat. Make sure your frontal deltoids are a bit in front of the bar. This is another key form point. When your deltoids are behind the bar you do not have nearly as much thrust at the start and the tendency is to continue to pull the bar backward. You don't want that to happen so pay attention that your deltoids are always slightly in front of the bar from start to finish.

Those who have been lifting for some time can set their hips fairly high, even as high as a position that puts the back parallel to the floor. This provides a longer lever and is most beneficial if - and this is a critical if - you can hold that position during the start. The basic rule on any pulling movement is that your hips and the bar must move upward at the exact same rate. For most who are learning to deadlift, it's better for them to lower their hips until they feel they're in a solid position.   

In order to handle heavy weights in the deadlift, you must maintain a flat back throughout. The best way to achieve this is to pull your shoulder blades together and keep them locked during each set. While learning the technique on the deadlift, do not allow your back to bow at all. But once you have the form down and have built a solid foundation, it's okay to round your back some. Not in the beginning, though. Flat back elevating the bar, and flat back while lowering it to the floor. 

When your set position is right, take a deep breath, make certain that every muscle in your body is tight, then do this: instead of just pulling the bar off the floor, think about trying to push your feet down into the floor. When you do that the bar will glide off the floor smoothly and in the proper line. Many beginners try to jerk the bar off the floor, hoping to jump-start the movement, but this doesn't work when the weights get demanding. Also, jerking the weight off the floor will invariably cause the bar to travel forward and cause your back to round. Both are form faults, so practice the lift correctly and you'll be well ahead when you go after the bigger numbers. 

Another mistake beginners make is they try to bring their arms into the mix. Your arms are no more than connecting links, which I compare to powerful chains. If they bend, you lose upward thrust, so they need to stay straight from start to finish. 

When the start is done correctly, the middle generally takes care of itself. It's the finish that causes the most trouble because lifters wait till the very last moment to involve their traps. There's no reason to wait to contract the traps. When the bar reaches mid-thigh, squeeze your traps dynamically. This will elevate the bar a few crucial inches. Then all you have to do is drive your hips forward and the lift is completed. Those who wait till the very end to utilize their traps usually end up trying to jerk the bar home to the finish. This is not a valid deadlift, and in a contest it would be disqualified. 

After you have completed the lift, take a breath and lower the bar back down to the floor while keeping a very flat back with the bar still close to your legs all the way down. Don't get in the habit of letting the bar crash down to the floor. This can be traumatic to your wrists, elbows and shoulders, and it throws the bar way out of line for your next rep. Also, lowering the bar deliberately works like a negative and helps you gain even more strength. 

When bumper plates are used, it's very tempting to rebound the bar off the floor after each rep because that makes the start much easier. However, even if you use good form on the lift itself, you're still cheating  yourself. Because you're not doing much work for the start, those muscles and attachments that are responsible for that first move are being ignored. Hence, they will not be strong enough when you go after a max triple, double of single. Do every rep from a dead stop, and you'll be way ahead of the game.

Now for the sumo-style deadlift. Most find that sumos are easier to learn than the conventional style. It's basically a shorter stroke and puts less stress on the lower back, which makes the lift quite attractive to older athletes. The sumo style is done with a wide stance, and the grip is between the legs rather than outside them. 

How wide should the stance be? That depends on your height, but my rule of thumb is about 3 feet apart. You will need to experiment with your foot stance and grip until you find the one that fits you. 

Another big difference from the conventional style is that your feet must be pointed straight ahead, and during the lift all the pressure is placed against the outsides of your feet. In the conventional deadlift, the pressure shifts from the front of your feet to the back as the bar travels upward, but in the sumo style, the pressure starts on the outside and stays there throughout the movement.  

The basic rules are the same as for the conventional deadlift: tuck the bar in snugly against your shins, get your frontal deltoids out in front of the bar, pull the bar smoothly off the floor, and keep it in tight to your body all the way up. Here's what I tell anyone doing the sumo style for the first time: once you're in the correct set position, push your feet down into the floor and lean back. Like magic, the bar climbs right up to lockout. Again, lower the bar back to the floor in a deliberate manner. 

Sumo deadlifts are great for any athlete wanting to improve his adductor strength. That group is hard to hit if you don't have an adductor machine, but sumo deadlifts and wide-stance squats will get the job done.

Which style to use? Why not do both? They work the hips, legs and back somewhat differently, so you will achieve more complete development by including both in a strength routine. 

One thing that should be noted concerning the sumos: they do not work the lumbars nearly as much as the conventional style, so when they're done exclusively, time must be spent doing a specific exercise for the lower back (good mornings, back hyperextensions. reverse back hypers or almost-straight-legged deadlifts). 

There are some other variations of the deadlift that are most useful for strengthening a weak area, such as halting deads; low, low deads; and the before-mentioned almost-straight-legged deadlifts. I will go over these in a future piece but for now learn how to do the two styles perfectly and you will be able to include them in your strength programs for the rest of your life.

  

 

  




 
  

























  
↧

Flexibility - Richard "Smitty" Smith

December 11, 2019, 10:02 pm
$
0
0


Article Courtesy of Liam Tweed 



"Smitty" by Ken Leistner: 

Dan John's Dick Smith Interview: 

Check this out: 

And these!!!
 
 
 
FLEXIBILITY: A KEY TO BETTER LIFTING
by Richard Smith (1966)
 
 
Every athlete is interested in performing better, and the weightlifter is specifically interested in achieving a higher total. There are many things to consider when a lifter is pursuing better lifts and higher totals. 

The most important characteristics, in my opinion, are: 
 
Incentive
Form
Speed
Stamina
Strength
 
It is an obvious fact that the lack of form and speed accounts for the majority of frustrations that a lifter faces in Olympic lifting. Needless to say, with the competition as keen as it is today, the weightlifter needs everything going for him that he can get. 
 
Sometimes the lack of speed limits the athlete so that he does not move under the weight quickly enough. The lack of technique has accounted for many, many failures in past contests. However, I contend that in most cases the lifter is slow and lacks for because he lacks FLEXIBILITY. 
 
In Poland, the sport of weightlifting has made terrific progress. Morris Weissbrot reports that one of the reasons for the Polish lifters' success is that the Polish lifters are extremely flexible. Each youngster is compelled to engage in some sport other than weightlifting such as: volleyball, gymnastics, track events, etc. for well over a year before he is permitted to engage in Olympic lifting. The Polish coaches realize that this preparatory training strengthens the ligaments and tendons and helps to develop a full range of motion in all of the joints. Undoubtedly, the flexibility gained from this type of training has contributed remarkably to the success of the championship Polish team.
 
I remember reading the story of Zhabotinsky's rise to the top of the heavyweight class. While he was ranked only 4th or 5th in his country, his wise coaches visioned a fantastic future for the young giant, but they knew that he could not reach the pinnacle of success if he remained as inflexible as he was at that point. Hence, a special trainer was assigned to Leonid whose specific job was to make the big Russian flexible. It is reported that the trainer loosened, through manipulation, every joint in his body, including each finger, before and after each workout.
 
Reportedly, this was not a pleasant experience at first because he was so tight and stiff, but he soon became very loose and extremely flexible. Anyone seeing the Olympic films of him in action can well appreciate the outstanding flexibility of this huge man. 
 
1967. Start as :20. You can set the video to slow speeds . . . 
 
 
If a man of this size can obtain such a degree of flexibility, then surely a middleweight or lightheavy should not complain that it is impossible to "get his elbows high" or to "hit a low squat position." 
 
Other champions take the time to loosen up thoroughly before each workout. York's Tony Garcy is an excellent example. Tony makes certain that he is completely warmed up and flexible before he starts into his training program. 
 
Tony Garcy, Dick Smith
 
 
So often when I suggest to a lifter that he warm up I hear the comment, "I don't have time to warm up. I only have two hours to lift and I need every minute." Every lifter is rushed for time. He needs to get back to work, mow the lawn, take his wife to dinner, see the doctor, etc., etc., etc., etc. My answer to the hurried individual is, "If you don't have time to warm up, then you don't have time to train." This bit of advice is not meant to be sarcastic by any means. It would be better by far to skip a workout than to attempt to hurry through a program without the proper warmup. 
 
Dr. Russell Wright, the team physician for the Detroit Pistons, Redwings, and Tigers states that over 50% of the athletic injuries are due to improper warmup and inflexibility on the part of the athlete. The two go hand in hand. An athlete will not be flexible unless he warms up properly. I would venture a guess that over 90% of the injuries in weightlifting are a direct result of inflexibility.
 
When a lifter is flexible he not only prevents injuries, but he performs much better on the platform. 
 
Not long ago in the York Gym, Bob Bednarski was missing snatches with a weight that he normally handles very easily. It was obvious that he was not lifting with his normal speed and confidence. When I inquired as to whether he had warmed up, he replied that he had, but that he did feel somewhat tight in the shoulders. I told Bob to start over as if he had just come in the gym. I massaged his deltoids and trapezius and after some five minutes he was snatching weights that he had been missing just minutes before, and his form was excellent. Here again it was just those extra five minutes of warming up and stretching that made the difference.
 
It is also very critical for the competitive lifter to warm up thoroughly at a contest. So often, the lifter gets caught up in the excitement of the contest and forgets to take the time to stretch and loosen the muscles and joints. The few minutes before the meet often makes the difference between success and failure. 
 
At this year's YMCA Nationals in Detroit, Tommy Suggs complained that he felt very tight after his final attempt in the press. Dr. Wright happened to be there and worked with him for some fifteen minutes. Tommy evidently was relieved of his stiffness as he went out and made three very fine snatches. 
 
Vigorous stretching is a vital law of nature and is practiced by all land dwelling mammals, except man. One can observe dogs, cats, or any wild animal as they arise from rest. They always take the time to stretch before they run, jump, and exercise. Man simply does not take the time and has suffered because of his haste. 
 
An important point to remember is that it is just as important to stretch after a workout as it is before a training session. It just doesn't make sense for an athlete to spend two or three hours hammering away at the muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments and then just walk away without taking a few minutes to relieve the strain put upon the body. It is immediately after a workout that the muscles are about to cramp or spasm which can lead to some very persistent injuries. In talking to physical therapists and medical doctors, they seem to feel that the stretching that is done after the training session is as critical in the prevention of injuries as is the pre-workout warmup. 
 
It is very important to note that when I am speaking of flexibility, I am referring to TOTAL FLEXIBILITY and not just flexibility in a certain part of the body. Some are very flexible in certain areas of their body, but lack suppleness in another area. One must be flexible all over in order to be an effective athlete. 
 
I know a lifter who can do a full split, and dislocate with a stick held at shoulder width. 
 
 
 
Note: Here is a basic introduction to doing dislocates:
 
Many people prefer using a mini-band for their dislocates, and some like using a towel. I still prefer the broomstick. 
 
You can gradually, gradually develop the ability to perform dislocates with a progressively narrower width grip over time. Not a good idea to force this! 
 
Article continues: Now, normally, one would have to comment that this is an extremely flexible individual. This is true in part. Yet, this same person lacks ankle flexibility and I believe that the ankle area is one of the most important areas to be considered. 
 
Without flexible ankles the entire body can be thrown off the center of gravity. The point I am making is that THE INDIVIDUAL IS NO MORE FLEXIBLE THAN HIS MOST INFLEXIBLE AREA. 
 
Sure, it's great if you can touch your elbows to the floor, but if, at the same time, you have allowed your shoulder girdle to tighten, then you are only half as flexible as you need to be. 
 
Let me speak further concerning the ankle area which I mentioned previously, because I believe this part of the body is so neglected, yet so critical to the lifter. 
 
Lack of flexibility in the ankle can cause undue stress on the knee and hip joints and this, in turn, can place stress on the lower back and other parts of the body. 
 
The Orientals' flexibility always amazed me. They can sit for long periods in a very low position with their feet perfectly flat. This requires extremely good ankle flexibility. I cannot recall seeing any of the well-known Oriental lifters, not the European ones for that matter, wearing shoes with excessively built up heels. When I see a lifter with very high heels it is a dead giveaway that the lifter either lacks flexibility or has some handicap in his anatomy. It should be noted that injuries among the Oriental lifters are very rare. Kenji Onuma told me that the Japanese lifters always spend from 10 to 20 minutes stretching and loosening up both before and after a workout.     




       
 
     
 
Another point of interest to lifters which I have learned from talking to medical authorities is what they call "spinal reflexes to prevent over-extension of joints." What it means, simply, is that the body has a built-in safety device which prevents the joints from going beyond a certain range. [Study Golgi tendon organ and muscle spindle for more]. 
 
When the shoulders reach a certain range of the snatch, for example, the safety device clicks and the muscles lock to that the shoulder joints will not be injured. This reflex depends almost entirely upon conditioning. That is, if you stretch and loosen the joints to a range beyond what you intend to use in a lift, then you will not have to worry about this reflex cutting your lift short. 
 
Let me use the shoulder area to clarify this further. Let us say that in order to successfully snatch a weight you must be able to grip the bar with the hands 32" apart. Then you should stretch and loosen the shoulders so that you could actually dislocate at 26" or 28". You should stretch beyond the range of the movement of the lift itself. 
 
A recent piece of research done by Adran Adams at San Fernando Valley State College in California also supports the benefits of stretching. The old view was that athletes, and especially football players, should not do exercises which stretch the joints. This has long been the argument against football players doing full squats. According to the study reported in the May, 1966 Research Quarterly, Adams concludes just the opposite. He says, in essence, that exercises which tend to stretch the joints serve to strengthen the areas rather than weaken them as was once believed.
 
As I have mentioned previously, take time to stretch, both before and after training, and be sure to loosen all areas of the body. 
 
The area which you neglect will most assuredly be the one which plagues you in the future.  
 
In lifting, as in any field of endeavor, it is the simple A-B-Cs that could be the missing link to success. 
 
Flexibility may be the missing link in your case.  


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
↧

Power Cleans - Joseph M. Horrigan

December 12, 2019, 7:31 pm
$
0
0




Most people work out in gyms where the population consists of recreational trainees and a handful of bodybuilders. Generally speaking, there are no track and field athletes, collegiate or pro football players or Olympic weightlifters, as these people tend to train in team or college weight rooms. Other athletes go where the strength coaches and facilities are, and that is not in the popular gyms.

Hence, few recreational trainees are exposed to strength training, and most assume that no one trains that way. This is a very narrow point of view.

There are, in fact, several types of progressive-resistance training. The typical recreational weight trainee performs what comes under the heading of bodybuilding workouts. These include exercises that work all the different bodyparts and are geared toward overall conditioning and total-body development. 

In addition to bodybuilding, however, there are two sports in which athletes train for maximum weight on specific lifts: Olympic weightlifting, which involves the clean & jerk and the snatch, and powrlifting, which involves the squat, the bench press and the deadlift. 

One exercise that comes from Olympic lifting and carries over to nearly all sports is the power clean. Although it is a mainstay for many athletes in weight rooms around the world, this movement is, unfortunately, rarely seen in bodybuilding gyms.

What exactly is a power clean? 

If you've ever watched Olympic weightlifting on television, you've probably seen the event known as the clean & jerk. The clean is the action of pulling the bar off the floor and dropping your body into a full front squat position of a front squat with the bar racked across the front of your shoulders. This is also known as a squat clean or full clean.

In a power clean you don't drop as low as a full squat; you only go down to a half-squat position or higher. This is an exercise that you must perform with good technique and, as you become accustomed to it, quick movements.

The muscles that provide the action for the clean include the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae and trapezius, as well as stabilizers like the abdominals, the gripping muscles of the hand and forearm and the calf muscles when you rise up on your toes. The only exercise that comes close to utilizing this many muscles is the squat.

In performing a power clean, you pull the bar very close to your body as you pull it up, and you must actually move around the bar in order to get under it. By keeping the bar close to your body, you keep the levers short, which enables you to lift more weight and reduces your chance of injury.

Research studies performed in the late 1970s identified several factors that made the difference between world- and national-class weightlifters. It seems that the national-class lifters usually lower themselves under the bar at a speed that's 15% slower than gravity, while world-class lifters get under the bar at a speed that's 8% faster than gravity. 

This means that world-class lifters actively pull themselves down under the bar, and national-class lifters slow themselves down while assumit the full front-squat position. The slower movement requires the national-class athletes to pull the bar significantly higher, as much as six inches, in order to have enough time to get under it. The world-class athletes, on the other hand, are quick enough to get under the bar, and since they don't have to pull it as high, they can lift more weight. 

As you can see, the clean is a very complex movement - more complex than many give it credit for. 

In addition to the above-described distinctions, there are a number of different pulls that were developed around the time these studies were done. The double pull and the Bulgarian pull provided ways to re-recruit the quads during the pull and reduce the torque and levers in and around the low back and hips; however, we'll save discussions of those for another column.

I asked Mike Reed, D.C., of Grover City, California for his input on the power clean. Reed has been the team physician for the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team since 1989 and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

"Without a doubt the power clean is the best all-around exercise," he said. "Mike Stone (a Ph.D. at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina) did research that has shown that it burns more calories than any other exercise and that it has a residual carryover of an increased metabolic effect. This is perfect for bodybuilders who are cutting up. They don't have to use it for size gaining even though their erectors and traps will thicken and the phenomenal stabilizing by their abs will help bring them out too." 

Bodybuilders who include power cleans in their training should be careful how they work them into their routines, however. Like the deadlift, the power clean doesn't lend itself to high reps; in fact, high rep deadlifts and cleans frequently lead to low-back fatigue and injuries. 

"I advise bodybuilders to do 5 to 6 sets of certainly no more than 5 to 6 reps," Reed said. 

In addition, the movement may take some getting used to. "Some powerlifters and bodybuilders who are not used to the clean find that they don't have the wrist flexibility that is needed," Reed continued. "In these cases I tell the athlete to focus on the pull and the shrugging motion at the top of the clean and not to worry about racking the weight (across the shoulders)."

This motion is called a "pull," or in this case a "clean pull," in which the clean is performed exactly as you normally would except that you don't rack the bar. This requires the use of rubber bumper plates, and they are usually performed on a lifting platform.  

It also requires a cooperative gym owner. Performing high-clean pulls and dropping the weight does not go over well in many gyms.

The technique involved in the Olympic lifts is generally very complicated. While the power clean is a little less complex, it would be a fabrication to tell you that you could learn how to clean from a few pictures and the space limitations of a column like this, but here's a general description. 

Start with the bar resting against your lower shins. 

Grip the bar with your hands at a comfortable distance that's slightly wider than your shoulders.

Bend you knees and maintain your back in a flat or slightly arched position, but not rounded. 

As you begin to stand, quickly pull the bar, keeping your back flat and your elbows straight.

Don't pull with your arms - THIS IS NOT A CHEATING UPRIGHT ROW. 

As you elevate the bar, incorporate a powerful shrugging motion, still keeping your elbows straight. 

At the same time rise up on your toes as if you were performing a calf raise. 

Then do a high pull, the movement during which you actually pull yourself under the bar.

These combined efforts significantly speed up the movement of the bar and recruit all the major muscle groups, in addition to providing the elevation of the bar that you were looking for. 

With that accomplished, drop your body into a half-squat position, which should place you under the bar, as in the photo: 


Then stand up straight with the bar across your shoulders. 

This is a power clean. 

"While the power clean is one of the best all-around movements, it is also one of the most dangerous," Reed warned. He was talking about the torque that's placed on the back when you perform a clean with poor technique; for example, pulling the bar too far away from your body, which can cause an injury. Over-training on this movement can also lead to low-back injury.

Proper power clean technique is something that you can carry over to your everyday life in terms of lifting things correctly. "I teach my low-back patients and even post-surgical patients the proper lifting techniques for the clean," Reed continued. "For an average low-back patient we start with the stabilization of the torso. After we have achieved that, we teach the clean position, not the clean. This involves keeping the torso tight and stable and learning to keep the weight or object close to the body. Then we progress to a dowel or stick. Finally, we work up to an empty Olympic bar."

In the case of athletes who have suffered an injury, the elimination of low-back pain may not be enough. Athleted must learn to move and lift properly again. Many teams and schools require strength minimums, and athletes must perform a clean, a squat and a bench press up to certain standards before they can return to a starting or playing position. Learning proper technique is crucial to their careers.

"The 50th percentile in the clean for a collegiate linebacker is a 245-lb. clean," Reed explained. "We want to see the rehabilitated linebacker return to at least the 50th percentile." 

The power clean is usually the talk of the football training camps. Several years ago defensive end Pete Koch of the Kansas City Chiefs broke the team record with a 350-lb, and by cleaning his bodyweight five times. Shot putter John Brenner told IRONMAN magazine that he spent a great deal of time with the clean and that he performed a power clean with 460 lb. [October '90 issue]. 

Of course, the Olympic weightlifters pull enormous poundages. For example, the 123-lb champion who performed a clean & jerk with triple his bodyweight. The super-heavyweight record is approximately 585 lb. These athletes all have powerful looking physiques, much of which is attributable to the power clean. 

At this point we've barely scratched the surface of what there is to learn about the power clean. We'll address the lift in more detail in a future column.     
   

















 
↧
↧

Power Clean - Teaching the Beginner - Harvey Newton (1984)

December 13, 2019, 3:21 pm
$
0
0

But first . . . 



Publication Date: July 29, 2019









The teaching of the power clean to beginners should be simple and quick, assuming the athlete does not have any physical disabilities and possesses average motor coordination. The standard method of instruction has been to teach from the ground up, but there are several factors which seem to indicate that teaching the movement in reverse order has more advantages. 

Therefore, this article will describe this reverse-order method.  

Part of the rationale for using this technique is that learning in the reverse order allows for initial exposure to the most explosive part of the lift, which is also the simplest movement to master. By so learning, the athlete will always be reinforcing those traits learned first and concentration can later be devoted to the more complex middle part of the lift. The final phase learned, that of lifting the bar from the ground to approximately knee height, is again simple and easily learned. 

To begin in the traditional manner, one concentrates on a good starting position, however, once the lift commences form is normally lost, body positions change, and the remainder of the power clean is not as efficient as it should be.

In referring to Photo 1

note the final resting position of the bar on the deltoids and clavicles. The wrists are well-flexed and the hands maintain a solid grasp on the bar. This is the only acceptable position for safely holding the bar. It is quite usual to observe the novice, or poorly-coached, athlete with the bar well on the shoulders, but the bar is barely held on the fingertips. This precarious grip is almost always a result of poor wrist flexibility. A concentrated effort at improving the flexibility of this joint will quickly remedy this problem. This same fingertip grip will normally be employed by the same athlete when executing Front Squats, and again, should be corrected immediately. 

A second position frequently exhibited by the novice or poorly-coached is one of the bar contacting the chest below the clavicles, with elbows quite low and along the sides of the body. Normally, the upper back will also be rounded. This is a very poor position, lending itself easily to injuries. 

All athletes should be taught the proper holding position first. Elbows are slightly elevated (how much depends on arm segment lengths) and pointed approximately 45 degrees to the sides. The bar is secured at the chest by elevating the deltoids slightly. The back is flat and straight, with the bar in line with the body's centers of balance, i.e., hips and feet. 


The most explosive part of the lift is the final combined leg and hip drive, along with the shrugging of the trapezius muscles (Photos 2 and 3) 



The easiest way to learn this is from blocks on which the barbell plates rest. The approximate height of the bar relative to the standing athlete is shown in Photo 4.

Either the blocks can be adjusted up or down or the athlete can change his position by standing on mats or a small elevated platform. If the latter method is used, be sure this unit is safely constructed and the possible movement of the athlete's feet will not result in any accidents. 

Have the athlete bend the knees and ankles so that the knees are positioned over the toes. The hips are located over the heels, the back is absolutely flat, the arms straight, trapezius extended, and the trunk inclined forward at the waist about 10-15 degrees. The balance is located toward the front of the foot, which is flat at this time. Shoulders should appear directly over the bar when viewed from the side. Positions will vary between individuals based on leverage differences. 

From this position, the athlete must concentrate on explosively jumping upward. As the momentum created by the hips begins to fade, the trapezius muscles are quickly contracted, which will result in a slight bend of the arms. It is very important that the athlete does not try to now pull the bar higher with the arms. Since the biceps are so weak compared to the legs, hips, and trapezius, it is a waste of time and effort to attempt to pull the bar higher with the arms. What is critical at this point is that the athlete bend the arms as he pulls himself under the bar. This is done before the previously generated momentum fades completely; the bar still moves up slightly, but the main speed movement is getting the body under the bar. 

Assuming the elbows have lifted directly out to the sides, the bar will pass very closely along the athlete's torso. When the elbows are seen going backwards, the bar will be further away from the trunk and the usual result will be a swinging motion of the bar, which results in a poor receiving position of the bar on the chest and deltoids. This is another key area where injury can occur because of poor skills or coaching.

Just performing the power clean from this final explosive position will give any athlete the training necessary to improve one's speed-strength capabilities, particularly as it applies to vertical jumping. Some athletes who, due to leverage or overall body height, may find doing the power clean from the floor too awkward, can greatly benefit from high block power cleans.

After this step has been mastered (usually two to three weeks), the bar is repositioned at approximately knee height. By adjusting the block height or the athlete's elevated position, start the movement as shown in Photo 5. 

 The balance should be approximately in the middle of the foot, as opposed to balance near the front of the foot in the previous high block position and the starting position from the floor. Feet are flat, lower leg just slightly less than perpendicular to the floor, knees slightly flexed, lower back very flat, arms straight, elbows turned out, shoulders ahead of the bar when viewed from the side, head in a neutral position, all your ducks in a row. 

The actual lifting is activated by hip and lower back musculature. The shoulders must move straight upward, being sure not to pull them backward. After several inches of lifting have occurred, the knees and ankles are flexed and the hips drop slightly. The shoulders will move rearward, but an attempt should be made to keep them over the bar, not behind it. The bar will lightly graze the thighs, approximately 1/3 to 1/2 way up the length of the femur. The position will be identical to Photo 2, but no blocks will be supporting the weights (Photo 6). 


The rest of the lift is executed as previously learned.

This segment of the power clean will teach the natural tendency to lower the hips prior to jumping, whether with a barbell or in a simple vertical jump. The most important concept for the athlete to learn is the shift of the balance from the center of the foot to the front of the foot. 

The final portion to be learned is the simple task of raising the barbell from a starting position on the floor to the knees. The starting position is shown in Photo 7.

 Feet are flat, shank portion of the leg is inclined forward so the knees are approximately over the toes. Depending on femur length, it is generally suggested that the hips be slightly higher than the knees. Center of balance is near the front of the foot. The back is flat, shoulders over or slightly ahead of the bar when viewed from the side. Arms are straight and the head is in a neutral position. By simply activating the quadriceps and hip extensors, the bar is brought off the floor. A slight movement of the bar toward the shins is expected, which will usually result in a center of pressure (balance) change from the front of the foot to the middle. It is more important that the hips move upward only, guarding against the tendency to let the hips move rearward, which would place the center of pressure too close to the heels. This would lead toward a rearward motion of the shoulders and a general failure to execute a vertical jumping motion. One cannot jump upward efficiently when the balance is on the heels. 

When the bar approaches the knees, the previously learned low and high block power clean movement is again used. 

Depending on the skill level of the athlete, each of these various steps can usually be learned within one to six workouts. One can see how learning the power clean in a reverse order is extremely simple and effective. Along with the actual learning process being worthwhile, the use of low and high block power cleans also allows for increased variation in workouts, something which is critical for the advanced athlete in order to avoid physical and mental burnout.  

 


 

   
   


 


















↧

Shoulders - How to Build Them - Bradley J. Steiner (1972)

December 16, 2019, 3:24 pm
$
0
0


Article Courtesy of Liam Tweed




Pete Grymkowsi



Ron Love




Terrific shoulders are not hereditary. At best, a man can be born with naturally wide clavicles and fairly well shaped deltoid structures - but actually big, really powerful and impressive shoulders must be BUILT. In this article we will discuss how you can build them.

IRONMAN's readers comprise - for the most part - the hard-core, essentially dedicated barbell men. The phonies, the wise-guys and the muscleheads tend to steer clear of this publication, and for good reason. Peary Rader has never permitted wishful thinking to run hog-wild over IRONMAN's pages. Articles in this magazine, in whatever aspects they may differ from one another, hold this principle in common: Give the honest truth about training. Don't fabricate, don't lie, don't make crazy or fantastic promises. Push honest work, because that's what builds honest muscles. 

I have always held this philosophy myself, with regard to my own work for IRONMAN - and I want to stress at the outset of this month's feature that EFFORT - effort, effort, effort will be required of you if you want Supeman shoulders - or even if you have hopes of approximating that ideal. don't kid yourself about there being an easy road to follow. It's a long, tough climb. But it's a lot longer, and a heck of a lot tougher when you don't know what you're doing. 

Some time ago I was introduced to a young man by a mutual acquaintance of ours who was concerned over his friend. The acquaintance was concerned, since, as he told me, the fellow was going off the deep end with regard to his training, and he was beginning to lose all semblance of a normal life. He had begun training a year ago, and now, he was specializing on his shoulders. Trouble was, he was concerned about little else! He dreamed about deltoids.    

Now, I go for enthusiasm, but this was, even to me, ridiculous. "Would I try to help this guy see the light?" our acquaintance wanted to know.

Like an idiot, I said yes. 

"So you write for IRONMAN?" Larry the young man said when we were introduced. He had big, brown eyes, like a hungry St. Barnard, and a handshake like a wet fish.

"Yes, Larry, that's right. Have you read any of my stuff?" I said smiling. 

"Nope." 

My smile vanished. "I see." 

"I train," he said seriously. "Never waste time reading." 

There was really no printable answer to a comment like that, so I said nothing. 

"Say," he said, leaning forward slightly. "Whaddya know about shoulders?" he asked, as though we were sharing a secret.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Jeez! Shoulders, man! Don't you know what shoulders are?" 

I smiled, wondering if I ought to belt him once on his nose. "Oh sure," I said. "Shoulders. What did you want to know about shoulders?"  

"Well," he said, flexing his lats, "I'm on a shoulder specialization schedule." 

I wanted to tell him to go on a head specialization schedule. But I smiled, and in my most professional tone, I said, "How nice. What exercises are you doing?" 

"Presses," he said.

"Excellent. What else?" 

"Lateral raises." 

"Good." 

"And presses behind the neck." 

I turned my head a little to the side, and I was going to ask him how many sets and reps he did on those three movements, but he went on . . . 

"And the upright row." 

"Hey, wait a sec . . ." 

"And bent laterals. And front raises. And seated dumbbell presses, with some seated laterals . . ."

"Are you crazy?" I mumbled while he spoke.

". . . all done in sets of three," he finished.

A moment passed. 

"What's wrong?" he asked. 

"Wrong? Wrong? Why nothing!" I answered. "How often do you train like that?"

"Five days a week." 

"For God's sake!" 

"Yep" he smiled. "I top off every workout with my shoulder routine." 

"YOU 'TOP OFF'!" I screamed.

"Sure," he nodded. "You don't think I want to neglect the rest of my body, do you?" 

"Oh, no," I said. "Of course not. Heaven forbid you shou8ld undertrain." I frowned. "You might rot." 

"Say, you sound like you don't think too much of my schedule."  

"Now what on earth could have made you think that?" 

"I dunno." He scratched his head.

"Well actually, I do think your routine could stand a few minor adjustments. Just a couple of small details switched around a bit, to give you better results.? 

"Yeah," he said. "I guess I could start doing four sets of each exercise, if I put my mind to it," he mused.

What mind? I was thinking, but since I'm very kindhearted, I said, "No, Larry - this may be a shock to you - but I think you should do less." 

"Less!" he said.

"Yes. You should cut your schedule to five exercises," I got in, before he interrupted.

"That's crazy," he said.

"Look, Larry, it's all you need. And they shouldn't be five shoulder exercises, either." 

"But . . ."

"Look, I'll be honest with you. Your present schedule is lousy. If you keep it up, you'll start to look like a bamboo shoot within two months." 

"Lousy?" He looked hurt. 

"I want to help you," I said smiling. Don't feel bad. It's important that you become aware of the truth about your training." I felt I should say more. "And the truth about yourself, too, I must add." 

"Myself?" 

"Yes. How much actual progress have you made since you started this shoulder routine?" 

"Not much." 

I know," I said. "It stands to reason that you haven't been able to gain. You're overworking." 

"But how can I be sure that I'll gain if I don't work out a lot?" 

"You don't have to work out 'a lot'," I said. You only have to work out HARD. And you must work out hard on the right exercises." 

"But only five exercises?" 

"Only five," I assured him

"Well, I dunno," he said. 

"Will you try it out, just to see?" 

"Well . . . okay." 

"Great," I said. "You won't be sorry." I took out a pad and pencil and wrote out the following routine: 

1) Military Press, 4 x 8
2) Squat, 2 x 15
3) Stiff-Legged Deadlift, 1 x 15
4) Press Behind Neck, 4 x 5
5) Lateral Raise (standing), 4 x 5-7

I handed the slip of paper to Larry. 

"This doesn't look like too much work," he said. 

"It's plenty." 

"Should I train every day?" 

"Three times a week. NO MORE." 

"Gee, I'm gonna take it easy, it seems." 

"That's what you think. I want you to use every single ounce of weight that you can manage in exercises 1, 2 and 4. And use enough to make you sweat in the other two." 

"Wow! That's not how I work now. That's rough!"

I smiled. "See?" 

"But I never worked that hard." 

"That's what we're going to change, Larry." 

He didn't seem too happy.

"Do I have to train so hard on the squats and deadlifts?" he asked. 

"Do those two exercises with as much weight as you can properly handle. You don't have to use blackout concentration or anything like that with your shoulder stuff - but you can use a good 10 or 20 pounds over what you're using in those exercises now - and I say this without even knowing how much weight you're using in them!" 

"That's a cheering thought," he muttered.

"It is, isn't it? Well you said you wanted results, didn't you?" 

"Yes. And I'll do what you suggest," he said. "But are you absolutely sure that I'm not leaving off any of the most important shoulder stuff?" 

"Look, Larry," I said. "The most important - the most effective and result producing exercises you can do for your shoulders are the few I gave you. Even the lateral raise can be considered almost a "secondary" exercise. And it is, too, except in a shoulder specialization schedule." 

"Hmmmm," he replied.

"What was that?" 

"Nothing. Okay. I'm gonna give her a try all right. How long before I see results?" 

"You'll notice improvement after three weeks to a month. In three or four months you'll have transformed your shoulder structure. You'll be really impressive." 

"Yeah!" he said. "Impressive!" 

Larry started on the schedule - the same one outlined for you here in IRONMAN - and I have to give him credit. He stuck it out until he got really good results. When I saw him a few months later he had a terrific pair of shoulders. They looked like small coconuts. He was smiling like a kid on Christmas morning.

"You look great!" I told him. I was genuinely happy for his progress.

"Thanks, man," he said. "Well, I gotta say you really steered me right." 

"My pleasure, Larry." I figured he wasn't such a bad fellow, after all.

"Say," he looked at me. "Guess what!" 

"What?! I asked. 

"I've started reading." 

"You have?" I said. "You mean you're reading my stuff in IRONMAN?" I was smiling from ear to ear. 

"Oh no," he said. "I'm reading a novel by Hemingway."  


 
 
  - To know Dublin, read your Joyce, for Macondo, Garcia Marquez, and for Mesopotamia, Serhiy Zhadan. Of course, this Mesopotamia is not the Birthplace of Civilization (or is it?), it's Kharkiv, the Ukranian Center of Nothing, located smack-dab on the Russian border, which, in Zhadan's brilliant vision, is smack-dab in the middle of life lived beyond the fullest because any second could be your last, creaming with joy, madness, war, orgasm, stupidity, and a blinding light that smells like the essence of human spirit. We need to learn from Ukraine. Zhadan is a masterful teacher. 

The use of poetry as Notes - so far as I know, this has never been done before and is positively Nabokovian. This book is world-class literature.
 


 
 
 
 






 

 

    





















 

↧
Search

Pec Tech - Greg Zulak

December 18, 2019, 1:41 pm
$
0
0
Time to send out them cards and letters, eh. 












The chest is second only to the arms in terms of bodyparts that lifters love to train. There are at least three obvious reasons why so many bodybuilders emphasize chest exercises in their workouts: A big well developed chest fills out a T-shirt like nothing else, it brings admiring glances from both men and women, and it makes you feel big and powerful. 

Aesthetically speaking, full, thick well shaped pectorals are the mark of a good physique athlete. A chest like that tells the world that you're a bodybuilder, for no other sport or activity develops the muscles of the chest to their maximum. Other types of athletes develop muscular arms, shoulders, backs or legs, but only bodybuilders display the thick slabs of muscle, along with cuts and striations, on their chests.

Bodybuilders are always in a hurry to build a big chest - so much so that they often give absolutely no thought to determining the best way to do it. Many people go so overboard in their efforts to develop this bodypart that they completely forget about such factors as balance, shape, definition and proportion to the rest of the physique. They mistake bigger for better and end up looking like the Pillsbury dough-boy, with soft puffy pectorals that have no shape or definition. 

Sometimes the lower pecs become so overdevloped and out of balance with the upper pecs that they droop, appearing in need of a support bra. This seems to be a common occurrence, especially among the young lifters who seek size and mass at any cost. 

Let me state one thing right from the start: A good chest is more than just big pecs. Shape, balance, proportion, density and definition of the muscles are just as important as size, and so to build the ideal chest you have to work it from all angles, hitting the upper, outer, inner and lower portions. 

The most pleasing pectoral development has a wide, squared off look, which comes from emphasizing the upper and outer parts of the chest. In addition, the rib cage should be high and deep to give the chest depth, and the serratus, that group of small, fingerlike muscles that frames the chest, should be highly defined. 

No muscle is an island. You can't train any muscle group - the chest included - without taking into account how it fits with the rest of your body. If you develop your chest too much, it can easily grow out of proportion. This ruins your aesthetics and symmetry, which is exactly what happened to former Mr. World Mike Katz. It was said that Katz's chest was so big he could balance a beer bottle on his pecs. Even so, it didn't help him become Mr. Olympia. 

Many people don't realize that too much pectoral development actually makes the shoulders look narrow and smaller. It can take away from your overall shape, especially if your inner and lower pecs are overdeveloped. Overdeveloped inner pecs make the chest look bunched up and unappealing; overdeveloped lower pecs make it look saggy and feminine. You can avoid such errors by putting a little thought and planning into your chest workouts.


What is the Ideal Chest? 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Serge Nubret, Franco Columbu and Lee Haney are all known for their great chests, but what these men all have is great chest development taken to an extreme. 

Genetics is, of course, the limiting factor. Not everyone can develop a chest like these man have, but everyone can develop their chest as far as their genetics will take them. The keys to success are hard work, persistence and planning. 

For the average trainee - which is most people - aspiring to the level of a Schwarzenegger is not a realistic goal. In the end you'll likely get frustrated and give up. The more productive strategy is to work for more moderate chest development, with the emphasis on shape and definition. 

Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. The high, squared-off pectorals of a Steve Reeves or a Frank Zane might be a better goal for you than the huge, bulbous pecs of the Terminator.

The point is, chests come in all sizes and shapes. Some may have different training requirements than others, but the goal should always be to build your chest as close as possible to the aesthetic ideal: rib cage, serratus and all sections of the pecs fully developed. 

Now, I'm not claiming that you can change the basic shape of your chest, but by intelligently emphasizing certain key areas while de-emphasizing others, you can create an illusion of development that's closer to the ideal.    


How to Create an Illusion With Your Chest

This is what bodybuilding is really all about - creating illusion. Consider the relationship between the width of your shoulders and the width of your hips and waist. In bodybuilding it is desirable to have what is called an X-frame - that ism, wide shoulders and a small waist so that you have an exaggerated V-taper. 


 


Brian Buchanan (photo above) is an obvious example of someone who has a super-exaggerated V-taper. His waist is so small, it makes his shoulders appear to be three feet wide. 

If you are not so blessed, if your waist is naturally thick or your shoulders naturally narrow, you must train to create an illusion of shoulder width by de-emphasizing your waist and emphasizing [Come on! The beauty of variety, eh. Accentuate, highlight, accent, articulate, spotlight, highlight, underscore and such] the side heads of your deltoids and by doing exercises to help stretch out your clavicles and scapulae. Adding to your shoulders and increasing your shoulder width makes your waist look smaller; and decreasing your waistline automatically makes your shoulders look wider. It's that simple. 

For your chest the trick to creating an illusion is to concentrate on the upper and outer sections of your pecs. That's not to say that you don't train your inner and lower pecs, but you give the other parts priority. This strategy focuses on two major improvements:

1) Exercises that emphasize the upper pecs help fill in that hollow at the top of the chest that nearly everyone has. This creates a more balanced look and makes your pecs look tight and firm instead of soft, saggy and feminine. 

2) Exercises that work the outer sections of the chest make the pecs flare out the way lats do from the back, giving an illusion of width.

By combining your chest-illusion training with your shoulder-and-waist-illusion training, you can create a wider appearance that is aesthetically pleasing and makes you look like a winner. 


Assess Your Chest - And Your Workout

The first step in putting together your optimum chest routine is to make an honest assessment of your chest to determine the weak spots and strong points. It possible get a second opinion from an impartial observer (this is no time for friends who'll tell you what they think you want to hear). 


Bill Murray contemplating his chest development.


Next, design a routine that brings up your weak points while maintaining your strong areas. In other words, create a workout that fits your individual needs instead of just copying some champion's formula out of a magazine. This seems so obvious, but you'd be amazed by the number of people who follow routines with no idea what they're doing.

You can't create an excellent physique, or any one bodypart for that matter, with such mindless training. Only when you start using well planned routines that bring up your weak will you be on your way to developing a balanced, proportionate and symmetrical body. 

If your chest is a real weak point, give it priority by training it first in your workout, when your energy, enthusiasm, strength and concentration are highest; or, you can devote an entire session to this bodypart on a split routine. For example, you might split your body as follows: 

Day 1: Hamstrings, quads
Day 2: Chest, calves
Day 3: Back, biceps
Day 4: Delts, triceps

Even if your chest is one of your better muscle groups, analyze where you might improve it and work on overcoming any weaknesses. For most people the upper pecs will be the last section to come in and could use some improvement. I've never seen a bodybuilder whose upper pecs were too thick or overdeveloped, but I've seen plenty whose lower pecs were too big. 

Even Arnold, as great as his chest was early in his career, came to realize that his upper pecs lagged behind his enormous lower and middle pecs. After that he gave his upper pecs priority, starting his chest workout with incline barbell presses instead of flat bench presses. 

You must keep a sharp eye on your chest development to make sure things stay in balance. Check yourself weekly in the mirror. If you think your outer pecs need more work or the lower portions are getting too big, change your routine quickly to rectify the problem. Don't just train mindlessly month after month and then wake up one day to realize thta your chest is a disproportionate mess. 

Always be aware of the effects that the exercises you do have on your development. If your chest isn't benefiting from a certain movement, it's time to reevaluate your routine. Train smart and build a chest you can be proud of, not one that ruins your physique.

Again, this seems obvious, but you see it all the time - guys who have huge lower pecs but continue to do bench presses instead of incline work. Or lifters who have no rib cage or serratus development failing to do pullovers. Or the ones who don't seem to see that their outer pecs are lagging behind. 

What causes this epidemic of blindness in the gym? Pure ego. We bodybuilders are funny that way. We like to work the areas that grow the easiest because it's more fun than working a stubborn area. A bodybuilder who doesn't need to bench press any longer will continue to do so even if it's ruining the look of his chest because his ego demands that he lift heavy weights and show off to his buddies. Don't fall into that trap. It takes an intelligent bodybuilder to recognize his weak points and do something about them. Learn to get gratification from bringing up yours.

Now that we've covered the theory of chest training, let's talk about what you're going to do in the gym. 

There are three important focus points for making your bodybuilding chest workouts productive:

1) Learn to bench press correctly.  
2) Work your upper pecs.
3) Work your outer pecs.
4) Include rib cage expanding exercises. 


Master the Bench Press - the Right Way

In terms of chest training there are two kinds of bodybuilders - those who respond well to bench presses and those who don't. You know what I'm talking about. Some guys do a few sets of bench presses and their pecs just take off. Serge Nubret and Franco Columbu seemingly built great chests from bench presses, while Reg Park actually had to stop doing flat benches because his pecs got too big. And then there were champions like Bill Pearl, Ken Waller and Chris Dickerson who never got much out of bench pressing and relied more on incline and decline work, flyes and cables to build up their chests.

I fall into the second group. When I did bench presses, nearly all the chest development I achieved was on my lower pecs, and my front delts and triceps also grew well. My middle and lower pecs didn't receive any stimulation at all, it seemed. It wasn't until I met John Parrillo, the Cincinnati-based nutritionist and trainer, that I learned how to bench press properly as a bodybuilder. 

I was what Parrillo calls a "delt bench presser" because I relied too heavily on my delts to push the weight up. I'd drop my chest at the top of the exercise and continue holding the weight up with my shoulders. The result was a super set of front delts and a chest with that undesirable droop.

As I learned from Parrillo, in order for your bench presses to develop the entire pectoralis major - the muscle that covers the rib cage from the collarbone to the bottom of the rib cage and from the sternum to the arm pit - it is necessary to set up your pectoral girdle so the mechanical advantage is placed solely on the pecs, not on the delts. Here's how to do it correctly: 

Lie back on the bench and take a tight grip on the bar. Pop the bar off the stands and lock it out. Next - and this is the most important move - concentrate on pressing your shoulders back into the bench and down toward your waist at the same time, as if you were doing the bottom part of a shrug. Without arching your back off the bench, thrust your chest out and start the movement. Maintain this position throughout every rep. When you push your shoulders down and back, your sternum arches up, which concentrates the stress on the pecs.    

If you have trouble getting into the proper position, start with a weight that's 25% lighter than you would normally use. 

Another way that you can the feel for this exercise is to stand up against a wall and round your shoulders forward so your pecs flatten out. Then move your arms in and out as if your were doing a vertical, or seated, bench press. Notice how little the pecs are actually working. If you place your left hand on your right pec as you continue the motion with your right arm, you can feel that there is little, if any, pec contraction. This is how most people perform the bench press.

Now try this: Stand against the wall but this time work your shoulders behind while you arch your chest out and up as much as you can. Maintain this position as you place your left hand over your right pec and perform this movement again. You should feel the right pec expanding and contracting on every rep. Take this position to the bench, and you'll be on your way to a great chest. 


Techniques for Building Those Upper Pecs

As discussed above, it is absolutely necessary to develop your outer pecs if you want to sculpt your ideal chest. This means performing incline presses and incline flyes. Many bodybuilders complain that even when do incline work their upper pecs don't grow. There are two reasons for this: 

1) They do the exercises incorrectly, throwing the stress onto the already stronger and better developed lower and middle pecs.

2) They rest too long between sets and fail to get any pump and lactic acid buildup in the upper pec area.

Most bodybuilders use too much weight on their incline barbell and dumbbell presses. This forces them to arch their back off the bench, which forces the stronger lower pecs to take over the action. Here's how to do your incline presses properly: 

Start by making sure - as with flat bench presses - that you roll your shoulders down and back and arch your sternum out as you press the weight. Second, make sure that your elbows are pulled back in line with your shoulders. When the elbows drift forward, it's almost impossible to make the pecs work hard because the triceps take over. Finally, keep your form strict and really concentrate on the upper pecs. If this means that you have to use lighter weights, so be it. 

For incline dumbbell presses add one more point: Try to pull your elbows as far back behind your head as possible. If you do this properly, you should feel a strong diagonal pull across your pecs. The same goes for dumbbell flyes. Don't just lower the bells to the sides. Lower them back and down.

Two other excellent exercises you might want to consider for upper pecs are bench presses to the neck and Parrillo dips. Do the presses to the neck as follows: 

Take a medium-wide grip on the bar and use the form for bench pressing described above. Tuck your chin into your chest and lower the bar slowly to the point of your chin, pulling your elbows back in line with your shoulders. Some people keep their feet up in the air with their knees bend and their legs crosses to prevent them from cheating. 

Another version of the bench press to the neck is done on a 10 degree angle. Place a two-by-four under the head of the bench to create the slight incline. This shifts more stress to the upper pecs. 

Note, however, that not everyone is built to do bench presses to the neck safely; some people experience shoulder joint problems because of this exercise.

Parrillo dips really work the pectoralis minor, that fan-shaped muscle located under the pectoralis major. Perform this movement as follows: 

Get into the lockout position on the dipping bars. Lower yourself as far as you can without bending your arms. As you press yourself back up to lockout, push your chest out as much as you can, squeezing hard at the top. Pull your knees up to place more emphasis on your chest, and do not bounce. This is an excellent exercise to superset with incline presses, incline flyes or benches to the neck.

As mentioned above, it's difficult to get a pump in the upper pecs and to create lactic acid buildup. The trick is to reduce your rest time between sets to an absolute minimum. Drop sets, and down the rack dumbbell work are excellent for training the upper pecs because you rest only as long as it takes to strip weight from the bar or to grab a lighter set of dumbbells. Also, give supersets and tri-sets a try. The following makes an excellent upper pec routine: 

Tri-Set: 
Pec deck flyes, 4 x 10
Incline presses, 4 x 10
Incline flyes, 4 x 10

This tri-set will really pump up your upper pecs, but it will not overly tax the triceps and arms because each exercise uses a different action.

"Racing the Pump" - How to Build the Upper Pecs, by Larry Scott: 
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2016/08/racing-pump-larry-scott-1976.html 

"Upper Pec Training" by Greg Zulak: 
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2014/09/upper-pec-training-greg-zulak.html



The Outer Pecs - Your Ticket to Width

The subhead says it all - in order to create a wide chest, you have to work the outer portions of the pectoralis major, the part located toward the side of your torso. Any pressing movement - flat, incline or decline - done with a very wide grip will work the outer pecs hard, as will any flying movement with constant tension (bring the bells up only 2/3 or the way and stop when they're 12-15 inches away from each other). Cable crossovers, stepping forward so that you have to reach back to pull the handles forward, and will also work the outer pecs somewhat. 

The best exercise for this area, however, is the wide-grip dip. or Gironda dip as it's called. Here's how to do it: 

You need V-dipping bars that are 32 inches apart at the wide end. Take a wide grip, tuck your chin down on your chest and hang with your feet in front of your face, with your body curled in the shape of a quarter moon. Keep your elbows wide and lower your body as far as you can, but when you push up, only go 3/4 of the way so you can keep the tension on your pecs. Never lock out. 

Another Gironda exercise that works both the outer and inner pecs at the same time is the decline cable flye, which is performed as follows. It's too bad that many bodybuilders ignore this exercise, because it hits the outer portions directly. 

Set a bench at a low decline in front of a cable crossover machine. The bench should be properly centered and far enough in front of the apparatus that you have to reach back behind your head to grab behind your head to grab the low handles. From this position pull the handles in a wide arc until they meet above your crotch. Tense hard for a count of two and return to the starting position. 


The Truth About Rib Cage Expansion

Some people say that it's impossible to expand the rib cage once a person's cartilages harden and toughen after age 25, but this is nonsense. Many men who didn't take up bodybuilding until their late 20s or 30s have added 10 inches to their chests. Still, it's definitely easier for a teenager to expand his rib cage because the catilages are still soft and easily stretched. 

When it comes to rib cage expansion, you can't do better that the time-proven superset of breathing squats and pullovers. For breathing squats choose a weight with which you can get out at least 20 reps, and take 5 or 6 deep breaths between all reps.  

When doing the pullovers here, remember that your emphasis should be on stretching the rib cage, not on using heavy weights. Choose a light weight and do 20 reps per set. 

Very light, straight-arm flyes done for high reps can help to expand your rib cage from another angle. Do 3 or 4 tri-sets of this combination - breathing squats -> pullovers -> straight-arm flyes . . . two or three times a week. Six months of hard work on this routine could do wonders for your rib cage. 

"Expanding the Rib Box" by Bob Hoffman:
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2008/05/big-chest-book-chapter-thirteen.html 

"Rib Cage Expansion and Overall Growth" by Paul Kelso: 
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2018/05/rib-cage-expansion-and-overall-growth.html 


The bottom line is that you've got to look at each bodypart from all angles. Learn to bench press correctly as a bodybuilder, give the upper and outer pecs priority, work to expand your rib cage, and you'll build a more impressive chest, one with much better shape and balance. 
   

   

     






























↧

Thick Handled Weights Develop Great Strength - Norman Thompson

December 19, 2019, 3:22 pm
$
0
0


Article Courtesy of Liam (Santa) Tweed  







Editor's Note: Most of the great old timers took as much pride in a powerful grip as in any other strength asset. To cultivate this grip and also to foil would-be challengers who attempted to lift their weights, they trained and lifted with barbells with very thick handles, such as this one which Mr. Arthur Leslie is holding. Mr. Leslie was about 60 years of age when this photo was taken but was still a very strong man. That handle is probably over three inches thick. 

Note: This article was posted here in November of 2008 (it was a Who Knew for the first few paragraphs. After that, I decided to "update" it with some more photos, a few links and include the full article this time around. Man, there's no shortage of great lifting articles once you start losing your memory! 



The article: 

Your man-power can only be expressed through your grip, as you cannot move what you cannot grab, push or punch. All "fair" self-defence boils down to hand power usually, and the strong man is strong in any situation; he can lift the new hot water tank packed in its bulky case; he can carry hundred-weight sacks of cement with ease; he can lift large planks and beams, and move stoves, refrigerators, sofas and small cars, for his grip on life is strong and sure because he has training along correct lines. 

How often we find the man with the impressive development failing to measure up when put to the test, made to feel inadequate by the real strength of the trucker, delivery man or laborer. True, he has worked long and hard with the weights and by certain standards is quite strong, but he has not developed strength which is functional in daily life. How puny his wrists compare with the thick, steely bands of the plumber; how almost feminine his hands and forearms beside those of the trucker and day laborer. 

Certainly our man envies those blessed with mighty hands, wrists and forearms, but he argues that his training routine is too full already; that he simply cannot fit such exercises into his schedule. 

Well, it is to this problem that I dedicate my article, so that any of us in the iron game can kill two birds with one stone; that is, develop strength as useful in the street or home as it is in the gym, without sacrificing body building gains in general.

For any queries in our field I always turn to the example and writings of my friend, the late Mr. George F. Jowett, and work from there, and at the outset I would like to thank one of his best friends and contemporary, Mr. Ottley R. Coulter, for the very valuable reminiscences he gave me to season this article with. Mr. Coulter is a grand old-timer, in his 82nd year and still going strong and a renowned example of man-power in his own right. 

He told me that Alan Calvert called Jowett the most powerfully built man of his height (5 feet 4-1/2 inches) in the world. George often wrote that as a child his parents had expected him to die before the age of fifteen from an inflatable anvil accident, I mean from a stomach accident in infancy, but that after a series of operations he took up research and home weight training and recovered. Certainly he trained correctly, for the fearless, indomitable wrestler's body he molded packed the awesome power to carry him undefeated to more records than any strength athlete, including the world's wrist-turning (arm wrestling) trophy

Arm wrestling fans will like this:

https://www.thearmwrestlingarchives.com/armwrestlingrsquos-first-supermatch.html 

and the reputation of having the strongest arms of any man alive.



All of this was achieved, I firmly believe, because George was always more interested in how Saxon, Marx, Pedly, Sandow, and others developed their mighty gripping powers and massive hands, wrists, and forearms, than he was in any other kind of feat. 


Starting with but a normal bone structure when he commenced heavy exercise in the year 1900, he had but a seven inch wrist; however, in a few short years he had added a full inch so that before World War One it was at least eight-and-a-half inches. 



 
Ottley Coulter mentioned reading that when George Greenwood measured Jowett's wrist in England, he found it to be absolutely the largest (9-1/2 inches) he had ever measured, surpassing such immortals and Arthur Saxon (8 inches); Louis Cyr (8 inches), and our contemporary, the great Paul Anderson (9 inches). And if we consider that George Jowett weighed about 210 pounds, and that Cyr was at his best at 315 and Paul Anderson at 350, we can better understand just how remarkable Jowett's arms were for his size. Even in 1930 his forearms were 16 inches, his biceps 18-1/2, and as far as I know, nobody ever lifted his "unliftable dumbbell" from the floor, although he could toy with it as one would with a slipper.  

How did he do it? Certainly he specialized at feats of gripping strength, but what was his mainstay, his essential secret? 

I would say, if forced to oversimplify, that it lies in this:

He usually trained with THICK HANDLED DUMBBELLS - MASSIVE WEIGHTS. 

Happily, any home trainee can adopt this secret, use heavy, thick handled barbells and dumbbells, with the emphasis on the latter. Absolutely nothing else will do; they will develop the grip while the hand is grasping an object in the extreme opened condition. A tremendous grip is created for all occasions and upon all objects to be grasped. 

Not only will you be able to lift awkward objects that others can only roll or slide, but also as you become accustomed to lifting with the open hand, not squeezing the weight, only gripping it strongly enough to balance it, you will find that your overhead lifting will improve enormously as well, for your gripping muscles which would pull down will not resist your lift; gradually you will handle more and more weight and your arms from wrist to shoulder will grow proportionately.  

And, apparently you will also improve your sentence length stamina. An 84-word sentence is nothing to sneeze at!

You can perform all standard barbell and dumbbell exercises with your thick-handled weights; indeed, you must if you want to be strong both in and outside of the gym. It does not matter whether your hands are large or small; the man with small hands can develop fingers like steel pincers, and need never again fear competition or comparison with his better-endowed competitors; able to wrest bulky objects from the floor with one and two hands pulsating with power, never again will he feel his bodybuilding to be futile, his muscles useless. 

All one has to do is obtain pipes long enough to reach from collar to collar on your barbell and dumbbell bars. (You will dispense with the revolving sleeves). I have found that it helps to have barbells and dumbbells of various weights already loaded, and you will gradually accumulate a variety of these different-weighted "challenge" barbells and dumbbells in your home gym just as fast as your tiny mice-like girly fingers can grab them. 

Buy pipe from the plumber about 2-1/2 inches in outside diameter at least, or they will not sufficiently tax your grip. Probably 2-1/2 inches is enough if your are small-handed. You might wrap the bar in cloth and then slide it is the pipe or wrap friction tape around the dumbbell handle as packing because you must not have the bar slipping around, and you want it centered or you will get a dead point which would defeat your object. 

Using this kind of weight enabled Thomas Inch (with only six-inch wrists and hands upon which he could wear a woman's ring on any finger) to develop a 15-inch forearm and the strongest grip George Jowett "ever saw." 

If you don't want to bother with the pipe, just wrap friction tape around your bars, but it will take a lot of it, for those handles must be thick. 

Assuming that you have equipped yourself, here is the way to genuine strength: 

1) Swan-neck dumbbell (kettlebell even better) curl from floor.

2) Endways (thumb-up, "hammer") dumbbell curl.

3) Reverse dumbbell curl with wrist down one set; wrist up for another set. 

4 & 5) Hand-open wrist curl with fingers on line with hand, curling wrist only and not bending elbow. Open hand held straight is bent palm-forward as high as possible. This wrist curl should also be performed with the back of the hand up but hand will have to be closed. Use a kettlebell for the first one. Various sized handles can be used and try opening your hand toward the end of these movements and resting mainly on thumb.

6) One and two handed deadlifts with barbell; use large and ordinary sized handles from time to time.

7) One and two handed deadlifts with dumbbells of various sized handles. 

8) Deadlift with kettlebells. 

9) One-finger lifting using each finger. Have a ring with a hook on it made to fit your middle finger. Practice with all the fingers. 

10) Cleaning barbells and dumbbells of various-sized grips using only two fingers. 

11) Heavy snatches, presses, jerks, bent presses, swings, and tossing from hand to hand mostly with thick-handled dumbbells.

12) Curling dumbbells of various-sized handles with palm up, palm down, and thumb up.

The above routine can be alternated with twirling barbell bars, lifting loaded-at-one-end dumbbell bars across the legs whilst seated on floor, pinch-gripping barbell plates, wrist-twisting, finger-pulling (these daily if possible), the bending and twisting of iron, spikes, and horseshoes, the tearing of cards and thick newspapers, working with grippers and grip machines, hand-wringing sodden diapers till bone dry by midnight, practising handstands (start against wall), use of thick wrist rollers, chinning a thick bar and varying hand spacings and facings - one palm toward you, one palm away from you; cross-handed chinning, and, if you are really ambitious, obtain a wooden barrel [as for keeping wine in] and a keg. The water-filled barrel (partially at least) is lifted by the chines (edges) and later managed from ground to knee to shoulder with one hand. The keg is a great teacher of open-handed lifting and can, of course, be made as heavy as you are capable of lifting. 

In all exercises use low reps (3 to 5) and increase resistance as fast as your strength allows; use more weight, thicker handles, or a combination of both; for the iron bending and card tearing increase the diameter of the iron, or the number of cards.

Vary the exercises used, movements  and positions, from time to time, as well as the size of the grips, and remember to stress plenty of curls and one-arm deadlifts both with massive handles. The one arm deadlift   

   
no, wait, that's a one-legged deadlift, my mistake. The one arm deadlift is best because you don't need so much weight, so your legs and back won't give out. Your grip will become enormously strong as you will be using your legs and back and only one hand [after that diaper-wringing around midnight I seriously considered a two hand amputation); also one strong hand cannot help a weaker one; yes, there's a metaphor for the standalone points in every man's life. Yep, life is hard and hell is hot, Brother. But also practice two-arm deadlifting sometimes.   

When single-finger lifting do each finger for 2-5 reps for maximum weight but go easy at first especially if using a tight fitting ring, so as to avoid pulling a tendon; and always increase poundage very gradually. George Jowett wrote that his boyhood ideal, John Marx, performed about eight of these large-handled movements daily and twisted wrists and pulled fingers at ever opportunity, consenting or not. 

You might start off by cleaning and jerking, pressing, curling and swinging thick-handled dumbbells from 25-50 pounds, depending on your strength, gradually working into weights of 90 pounds and more in jerks and swings with one hand. You will like this work for by the time you can clean and jerk the 90-pounder single-handedly, you will find that your friends will fail; they won't have your gripping power, will be forced to face and drown their humiliation through the cleaning and jerking of a 40-pounder only to re-view their shame, sorrow and smallness come morning, pain, and hangover.  

Importantly, the inch or more which you pack on your forearms will flow into a thicker wrist and your grip will express the might existing in both. And in my opinion you will, in the long run, get a better biceps from this work; especially around the elbow, and it will insert without a gap into your steely forearm. 

But most important of all, you will have a pair of arms that not only look good but are also much stronger even than they look, and will never fail you, whatever the test, be it in the gym, at work, or at home. 

This is a job for Mighty Wrist . . . 
"Here I come to save the day!"








         




 

























↧
↧

Do You Enjoy Your Training? - Bradley J. Steiner

December 20, 2019, 4:05 pm
$
0
0
Press, Overhead.




Weight training is demanding and extremely hard work. When I reflect on my nearly 30 years of training, however, the one feeling that keeps coming to mind is enjoyment. 

Workouts take time, sweat, effort and discipline, but as far as I'm concerned, it's an undeniable fact that they produce  genuine, unadulterated enjoyment. 

I sometimes wonder whether others feel the same way. 

It seems that in the years following the 1960s bodybuilding has offered its participants less and less enjoyment and more and more demands for excessive and unrealistic gains. 

The absolute worship of "bigger this" and "more cut-up that,""ripped these" and "awesome those," along with impossible strength-level demands has made countless bodybuilders slaves to these insane goals.

The real goals of sane bodybuilding are to cultivate all-around physical excellence - good health, strength and a fine appearance - along with a sense of well-being and self-confidence. 

Why wouldn't someone enjoy an activity that with every workout helps you achieve such goals or maintain your achievements once you reach them?

It is only when the activity becomes perverted that it turns into something you do purely to achieve an unenjoyable end. That, I'm sad to say, is what has happened to bodybuilding. 

Don't let it happen to you.

There are certain truths about bodybuilding and weight training that you must keep in mind if you want to avoid getting caught up in practices that will rob you of the greatest benefits that lifting has to offer.

1) Not everyone can build a great or championship physique and develop elite levels of strength. 

My personal feeling on this point is, So What? Far too many young people (and a lot of older ones as well) are drawn into lifting with the idea the attaining the so-called championship body or elite level strength standards is their raison d'etre. 

A good analogy would be if you thought that the objective of going to college was to become a world famous scientist holding three Ph.D.s. Forget going to college simply to learn or to prepare for some other type of career - college is for scientists and degrees. If that sounds crazy, it is. It doesn't make any more sense when you apply the logic to lifting. 

2) There's no one on earth who is capable of training with weights who wouldn't benefit from doing so.

Lifting is an activity that benefits the severely handicapped, the elderly, nonathletic people who want to get fit, those who have terrible potential but who want to develop what they've got, athletes who want more strength, people who just like the challenge of lifting, and anyone seeking a marvellous safety valve to let off steam and reduce stress. 

Properly done it is the supreme physical fitness activity.    

3) Lifting is a lifetime activity.

Although we occasionally see photos in the muscle magazines of people who are in their 40s and 50s, the obvious focus is on those who are in the teens and 20s; who are rapid gainers, in many cases naturally athletic; and who portray the impressive muscularity and physical development that youngsters in their prime can achieve with weights. 

The latest pair of biceps in the magazines will soon by replaced by another and another and on and on. In the 1940s we saw such-and-such on the mag covers; in the '50s so-and-so appeared; and in the '60s it was what's-his-name. Now, there's nothing wrong with new heroes replacing old ones and new physiques catching the lifting world's eye. These people offer inspiration, and for a time they enjoy the limelight. 

But as time passes, every champion is left with himself, not with the audience. 

Athletes who train only for the audience are missing a lot.  

The real winners in this great field of physical culture are the people who train for their entire lives, beginning when they are introduced to weights and continuing until they are long past their prime. One great barbell man who is certainly unknown to most readers was the wrestling/jujitsu teacher Harry Baldock of New Zealand. Mr. Baldock recently passed away at the age of 82, but he was an avid lifter until the age of 80, when severe ill health overtook him and he had to stop. 

https://magazine.fighttimes.com/the-harry-baldock-story/ 

That's my idea of a champion!     

Whether you've just started weight training or you are a veteran of many years, this is not a fad - it's something to enjoy for a lifetime. It doesn't matter one bit if you ever achieve a 20-inch (or even a 17-inch) arm. It does matter that you keep your vigor, your health, your strength, and that you enjoy fine development to the extent of your potential throughout your life. 

4) Lifting should make you feel good, not depleted. 

It used to be axiomatic that a person would feel great after a good, hard workout. Not anymore. Today we hear of lifters who become totally wiped out from training. They spend countless hours in the gym, pumping, lifting, grinding out set after weary set while ingesting steroids and following the god of size, strength and appearance with blind and fanatical devotion. It is small wonder that these people often give up in disgust, become sic and drained or drive themselves to increasingly extreme - and debilitating - efforts. 

These people feel anything but "good" after training. In fact, they often reject the whole notion that this is a desirable result. After all, they train in order to get big, strong - or whatever their goal - not to feel good; they don't train for their own health, development or well-being. 

This is a sad trap. No one should finish a workout and feel that he is totally spent, with nothing left. If your training does not make you feel good, you are not training correctly. 

A workout should, after a brief rest, leave you feeling buoyant, alive, full of energy and fine in every way. 

Lifting can be the greatest tonic on earth. It induces full, deep breathing, cleans out the body's wastes through perspiration, massages and stimulates the internal organs and induces perfect circulation. It improves digestion and elimination and keeps you ready to meet any demands that you might place on it. 

When you know that you're going to finish your workouts on the healthiest of highs, you'll really look forward to them.

5) Lifting doesn't have to take a long time. 

Nowadays the idea that you can get all the possible benefits of weight training by devoting an hour or so to it three times a week is largely regarded as a myth. The fact is, however, that those who feel they must devote two to three hours every single day to their workouts are the ones who are following a myth.

No one can spend an excessive amount of time training and still get the maximum strength and health benefits.

I cannot blame the beginners who read in some article that so-and-so, who is a "champion," spends three hours a day on the most incredibly demanding program in existence. These beginners will assume that they too must orient their training along those lines, and so they do - with less than championship results. 

No matter how advanced or fully developed you become, you will always find that one to two hours three (or at the most four) times a week is plenty. many great physiques were built on less. 

The key to doing brief, effective workouts is in understanding how to train. By organizing a routine correctly, using a sane number of exercises, sets and repetitions and by employing realistic poundages - increasing them as you, not Mr. America, are able to increase them - you will see that training doesn't have to take up a major portion of your day. 

Anyone can live a normal life and train - if he or she does it correctly. The fact that many lifters today don't train correctly is insignificant if you are determined not to follow the herd. 

Look at training as a very important adjunct to a good life. See your workouts as the means by which you build and maintain the health and wll-being, the strength and the physique that will enable you to enjoy the rest of your life. 

The goal of training is to assist you in living a full, healthy life - 
not to prepare for more training!    

6) Your workouts should offer challenges. 

Many come to dread their training. Small wonder, since they see every workout as an overwhelming demand to push, Push, PUSH. Who could possibly look forward to that at every session? 

There is something really stimulating and enjoyable, however, about facing a manageable challenge. When workouts pose such a challenge, they become eagerly anticipated events. 

One or two good, hard sets are enough for any basic exercise. After that stop and do another movement. Don't keep pumping, and don't keep trying to achieve a new record at every workout. It isn't possible, necessary or desirable. Just train regularly, and the increases will come.

You may read that some "name" lifter or "Mr." uses tremendous weights on such-and-such an exercise, and you feel terrible because you only use 1/10th of that. This is wasted energy. You are two different people, and as long as you train so that you are adequately taxed and coaxed along toward greater development, what in blazes difference does it make if you are still underdeveloped as compared to him? 

If you can lift one more pound on an exercise today than you were able to lift on that movement last week, you have improved. That's what this activity is all about. 

7) Lifting should not be an exclusive activity. 

Many Mr. Americas of the past were complete athletes. There were physical culturists who attained great fame but won no physique titles, and these, too, were well-rounded athletes and real men. 

I've mentioned Harry Baldock, and although few of you have even heard of the man, he represents what I'm speaking about. 

So does the late Harry B. Paschall.  

And the late Geroge F. Jowett.

And the late Sig Klein. 

And many, many others. 

Too many who train with weights regard it as the only physical activity they need to pursue. Even so, there are pleasures and rewards to be found in many other athletic pursuits, and the proper use of weights will enhance anyone's capacity for excellence and enjoyment in these pursuits. 

The term "mirror athlete" is rarely used today - largely, I suspect, because it aptly describes many of today's bodybuilders. Don't be a mirror athlete. Use the weights to develop yourself, and explore other activities that may also prove worthwhile in assisting your development and enriching your life. 























↧

Percy Wells Cerutty, Trainer of Champions - Donn Draeger (1967)

January 5, 2020, 1:13 pm
$
0
0

ARTICLE COURTESY OF LIAM TWEED


Percy Cerutty, Herb Elliott, George Hackenschmidt. 




"Elliott," once remarked the wiry, obviously physically fit oldster, "you may run faster . . . but you can't run HARDER than Percy Cerutty." 

Such a dynamically frank statement typifies the turbulent and inspirational personality that inherently underlies the athletic greatness of Australia's Percy Wells Cerutty, the man who had brought weight trained Herb Elliott to international athletic fame, and who has probably had more close contact as a teacher to more top level athletes than any one man in the world today.

I had wanted to meet this great man and I had traveled to Portsea, Victoria to where Cerutty lives comfortably and humbly, surrounded by the many wonderful assets of nature. That area of the southeastern Australian coast is a rugged countryside, but perhaps not coincidentally in harmony with the spirit and disciplines of the man who makes his home there. Portsea's miles of sandy beaches, surf-filled waters, craggy shorelines, and sand dunes of loose white sand speckled by scrub vegetation awaken man's vital inner self. 

The area's appeal to men like Cerutty is one of acceptance of a challenge, and those who choose to follow him are men tempered accordingly. There one cannot find any of what Cerruty describes as "lazy athletes." Cerruty's home is called "Ceres" implying "truth" and "sincerity." For Cerruty, this underlying concept is essential to athletics, nay, to living itself. 

The many hundreds of young men to come to his International Athletic Center at Portsea find themselves welcome, if they will but come with an open mind. This attitude is extremely necessary, for at the International Athletic Center, Cerutty dispenses with orthodox and traditional techniques and uses his own revolutionary concepts. 

Meeting Cerutty on a casual basis provokes various opinions. "Nut" . . . "crank" . . . "eccentric" . . . "washed up," say those who will not try to establish more than a superficial opinion about the man. "Genius" . . . "scholar" . . . "philosopher" . . . "vital teacher," say the men to whom Cerutty has been an inspiration. 

After a year's acquaintance with Cerutty, and as I sit down to write this article, I challenged myself, "how well do you really know this man? Do you know him well enough to write meaningfully about him?" I can only say that I know him well enough to have him invite me to his home and for him to treat me as a friend. I further realize that I know him well enough to understand that he has a message; not only for athletes, but for everyday folks as well. Would that I could persuade him to write a series of articles for S&H readers! 

Until such a moment, let me introduce him to you. Great names in track athletics such as Herb Elliott, John Landy, Murray Halberg, Bill Baille, Dave Stephens, Albert Thomas, Dave Power, and Armin Hary, to mention only a few, are men whom we best associate with Cerutty's teaching genius. The list, however, is much longer when we add those athletic marvels such as Peter Thompson in golfing, John Marshall and Jon Konrads in swimming, and still others. 

All of these men have had what amounts to a direct rub-off effect from the teachings of Cerutty. These are all athletes who "run" for Cerutty. The list lengthens considerably when all who "run against him" are taken into account. Regardless of the personal position of many athletes, his teachings have affected many of the international hall of fame athletic greats. 

Cerutty succinctly points out that "I have never claimed to have coached anyone. For one thing, I am not that enamoured with the title or role. Coaches come, surely, in tens of thousands. Teachers, those who can really impart, are they rare? It is said so." 

To watch Cerutty "teach" is to witness an inspirational unwinding of techniques, endlessly stimulating. Cerutty is a teacher, first and foremost. He "teaches" what he calls "success.""Success, the getting to the top is a technique; a philosophy. I teach just that. And the principle factor, as I understand it, is not to say do this or that, but to show the way; to be able to draw upon one's own experiences; to be able to enter the personality of the person who would learn; to be able to hearten and enthuse, as well as suggest new techniques; new approaches; new aims and goals - even those that normally follow a career as a sportsman." 

Standing on the wrong side of seventy years of age, Cerutty can still "do." He car run a mile under six minutes and defeat anyone his age, or even ten years younger, over long distances. I have seen him give an inimitable demonstration of running styles. Keino, Elliott, Zatopek, Delaney, even Clarke, he imitates perfectly; as if turning on a switch, the style of the man imitated is there. Nor is is only a mechanical imitation devoid of attitude; it lives and breathes with facial gestures as if the man himself. This is the mark of a genius, this quality of imitation of style. 

Cerutty's teachings rely heavily upon method, method filled with emotion, for to him the person without emotion can never achieve great things. Within his methodology breathe his concepts, his philosophy, his principles. 

His own words are best to describe these: "It is not in my nature to compromise, to adopt half-measures or to be content with other than success on levels as high as I can conceive." 

Life has always been highly competitive for Cerutty. He likes it that way, perhaps would not ever wish less.  

Competition is the thing! One competes to win, win easily. Says Cerutty: "I hold it as a weakness to be too magnanimous confronted with the 'enemy.' The 'enemy' are those who would usurp us, who would decry out efforts - no matter what they may be. To me, the 'enemy' is the challenge, the idea or competitor that is to be beaten. i say beaten - on merit - not merely liquidated on principle." 

He stands categorically opposes to what orthodox coaches consider under "sportsmanship," that of wishing your opponent well in competition with you.

"Hypocritical humbug" is what Cerutty calls such an attitude. "If you are out to win you are better not wanting to know your opponent, much less grow to like him - and wish him, honestly, success over you." 

Training methods at International Athletic Center are revolutionary. They are based on what the great man calls "survival." He muses, "I have realized that Nature, that last and supreme determinant, was never, and still is not in goodness or badness, per se, nor in mankind's ideas of loyalties, moralities or ethics, but in SURVIVAL. And it seems to me that survival, unless it means fit, healthy, clean-minded, affectionate-living survival, is a poor thing unless we have a basically 'helpful to others' philosophy, and accord our lives with Nature's laws and principles, which surely should be man's first and last study!"

The actual methods used are of a great magnitude and take into consideration the need for resistance type of training to produce stronger physiques. Weight training of the concentric or isotonic type is constantly under study at Cerutty's International Athletic Center at Portsea. It is a proven fact that running or all-around athletic performance is substantially enhanced by weight training. Herb Elliott's fine muscular body is an example of the kind of "muscle" developed by the Cerutty weight training method. 

Occasionally a weight lifting or weight training authority will find his way to the Cerutty training camp, and criticize the exercises chosen by Cerutty for his runners. Usual areas of criticism are that too much emphasis is given to the upper body development, and not enough to the legs. Still another criticism is that Cerutty's use of the "cheating curl" is not the best possible choice of biceps curling actions that can be made. Since Cerutty is a competent authority in the special area of applying weight training to runners, such criticism, if less than constructive, is not accepted but met by the usual Cerutty love of a challenge. "Don't talk," says Cerutty to his would-be critics. "Show me what is better." 

To back up his point, he takes them to the "hill." 





The "hill" is a sand dune, innocent in its sixty or seventy yard forty-five degree incline, but capable of "murdering" all but the toughest set of legs. All of Cerutty's trainees learn about the hill quickly, learn to respect its training values, and learn to negotiate it daily. The object of the hill is to run up its slope, turn around, and run back down; then repeat as many times as physically possible. This feat alone is enough, but to it Cerutty adds a time limit which must not be exceeded on each leg of the hard course. 

Many a set of legs, including weight trained ones, have failed to impress Cerutty on this course. The average athlete cannot complete ten trips up and down the hill. Cerutty's boys can do scores of repetitions, with a top performer making over 100 trips up the loose sand. With the hill and miles of sandy beaches to run over, Cerutty does not overemphasize weight training for the legs. There is no real need for it. 

Cerutty believes firmly in the dead lift with heavy weights.

All his top performers can be seen seriously exerting over this exercise in the weight training area. The "cheating curl" and the overhead single arm dumbbell press too are favorites that are never omitted. The need for strong arms is well known among top runners, and the cheating curl closely approximates the muscle action of the arms as needed for running. Strict form curling is too isolated an exercise for the runner, in Cerutty's opinion, for whom the concerted action of abdominal muscles and arm-shoulder muscles is absolutely essential. Sit-up actions, with or without weights, of various patterns are also an essential exercise for Cerutty's boys. The inspirational images of past greats such as Elliott, Landy, and others, whose perspiration has actually stained the old and battered sit-up board, gives fresh incentive to the new young trainees that now exercise at the International Athletic Center.

Not all of the curriculum at the Center is physical in the sense that the trainee must exercise. Cerutty requires daily attendance at lectures personally given by himself. The lectures are as inspirational as his methods, for they are uninhibited deliveries of wit, wisdom, fact, speculation, and relevancy. They are replete with valuable information indispensable to the serious athlete. Some of the more unusual subjects are as follows:

The Rhythms That Govern Our Lives
The Inclined 'Saw Tooth' Theory
The Principle of the Primary and Secondary 'Tanks' of Energy
The Concept of 'Yearning to Be' Rather Than 'Willing to Do/
The Part Played in Suffering and Pain
Learning to Die, i.e., To Give All
The Importance of Strength; Skill Alone, Not Sufficient
Traditional and Orthodox Techniques Not to be Relied Upon 
The Importance of Flow, i.e., 'Out-pouring'
Surge
Rest in Effort
Tidal Breathing
The Importance of High Intelligence Not Necessarily Measured By Academic Success

These and many more complement physical training at the Center and send an athlete away thinking. It is the thinking athlete that has the potential to be great, according to Cerutty. 

While the Portsea training camp carries the slogan "To train without pain is to train without gain . . .," and the idea that "pain and travail are the best teachers," to bring athletic successes, the great heights, the 'Everests,' both must be superimposed on intelligence so the lessons learned can be assimilated. 

There you have a small insight into Percy Wells Cerutty, the world's best athletic teacher, in my opinion. Many will argue with my generalization, for certainly I have not met all the world's athletic teachers, but few will contest the Cerutty is certainly this century's greatest. 

Cerutty is a master psychologist. He commands, from his trainees, respect; respect gained through his techniques of teaching which play to the individual case. Encouragement, severe criticism, embarrassment, shock, praise, cold indifference, and many more "approaches" are masterful, result-getting teaching techniques in his hands. Cerutty knows how to reach the individual man. As one athlete, American Dave Clark, a physical education instructor who has resided and trained with Cerutty for over the past year puts it, "You can always count on Perc to come up with something unexpected." 

This writer observed that not only "runners" benefit from the International Athletic Center training programs, but athletes in all walks of endeavor find interest and beneficial experience there. A most recent addition to the Center is the use of facilities by combative arts athletes who have learned that Cerutty's teachings improve their performances. 

I close this short article by illustrating the attitude of competitive balance that Cerutty teaches and demand of all his athletes, and wonder it if might not be, as Cerutty intends it, better applied by those who read it with an athletic meaning, to our society itself . . . 

"We are all out to win. Not only win, but win at all costs. Anyone that thinks otherwise must be considered among the simple. It is true, winning at all costs does not mean breaking the rules, but every means open to athletes and coaches are used, naturally, psychologically. In the actual races winning by the main means driving oneself close to physical collapse, even death, as many are capable of and some odd ones have actually encountered, that is, died after finishing a race. 

But when the heat has cooled, it is customary to get together socially, even if not competitively. 

Be generous to the conquered; 
be tolerant of the stupid, but never of the vicious;
be understanding, 
kind and thoughtful for women, but never weak with them;
be gentle with children, yet firm; and
be a good example to the young,
be truthful when volunteering opinions, or information,
but never submit to force, blackmail or pressures to command your truth;
keep the body strong, and particularly, clean inside;
keep the mind informed so that it, too, is powerful, and clean inside.

Add to these concepts a compassion and forgiveness,
extending never to oneself, but 
to all those "lesser" ones, 
the underprivileged ones, 
the rejected, 
the "little" ones, as I call them,
wherever found, whatever race, whatever beliefs,
as long as they, too, are not vicious, selfish and cruel.       



        

















↧

Peaking for Amateurs - Richard Winnett (1992)

January 5, 2020, 4:53 pm
$
0
0







Striving to reach personal, absolute peaks is not a process reserved for high-level competitive athletes. It is a set of processes open to all of us, no matter what our skill level or age. Amateur athletes - that is, the vast majority of us - are likely to run into trouble, however, if we emulate the peaking practices of professionals. 

As an amateur athlete you do not make your living by training and competing. The fact that the time you have for training and recovery is more limited immediately tells you that tackling a professional peaking program can only lead to frustration and disappointment. 

When you couple a busy and sometimes stressful work life with family and other responsibilities and then add the rigors of a professional peaking program, the phrase "can only lead to frustration and disappointment" becomes an understatement. 

If peaking is supposed to be an exciting experience for all athletes, how can those of us who are not candidates for professional peaking programs achieve this experience? 

The fact is, all athletes can peak, but amateurs must take a somewhat different approach from what the pros do. We can't have very long peaking periods, and we must contain our workouts. As with professionals, however, we do have to understand correctly what's involved in peaking successfully. 


Peaking Goals and Processes

The point of peaking is to reach your absolute best in performance or physical condition. You ride a physical and mental crescendo to an absolute culmination at a predetermined time and place. 

What you strive for and achieve in peaking is by definition usually very specific. It's doubtful (although not impossible) that you can be at your absolute strongest and have your best physique at the same time. It's even more doubtful (although still not impossible) for you to be at your strongest, have your best physique and achieve your best level of aerobic performance at the same time. 

Wise peakers, then, make choices and keep their goals highly specific. After all, it's usually better to reach an absolute best in something than to achieve only "good" performance in a number of areas. As we'll see, however, there are some exceptions to this rule. 

If you're attempting to sharpen your training - that is, increase the focus and stress - some other parts of your training equation must change. for example, according to fitness expert Clarence Bass and powerlifting champion Fred Hatfield, peaking in bodybuilding should involve variable repetition ranges and types of performance to fully stimulate all a muscle's components. 

Most of us seem to forget, however, that increasing the focus and stress of training demands even more attention to recovery. This is where we can take some good advice from professional athletes. Many pros - even with their vast capabilities - have learned to reduce training volume when they're peaking. 

For example, runners may run a shorter distance but run harder, and bodybuilders may do fewer sets but do them with more intensity. 

This seems to be the opposite of what many amateur athletes do. Amateurs often attempt to reach a peak by simply doing more of everything. This violates what peaking is all about, and because of his other life commitments it dooms the amateur athlete to failure. 

An absolute axiom for peaking is, "Do less, but do it harder.' Let's see what this means within the perspective of health-and-fitness bodybuilding as advocated in this column. 

Health-and-fitness bodybuilding involves a combination of sound nutrition, weight training, aerobics and other life skills. The notion of a COMBINATION is important. It would be inconsistent with the overall idea, for example, if you did no aerobic training for six months and just worked to increase strength. Likewise, the combination of efforts means the health-and-fitness bodybuilders should be relatively lean (goes well with elan!) and fit year round. Periodically gaining and losing large amounts of weight or not training for a while are also inconsistent with the basic idea.

When it comes to peaking, then, heath-and-fitness bodybuilders start out in good overall condition. This isn't that same as being in peak condition, however. For health-and-fitness bodybuilders peaking can include reaching the following goals: 

 - Optimal weight and a low bodyfat percentage.
 - Top levels of strength for various repetition ranges.
 - Maximum aserobic performance in one or two aerobic exercises.

These goals encompass that important combination of efforts described above. If you accomplish all of them, it is possible that you'll achieve an appearance that's close to your best ever. The question is, from everything previously stated about the specificity of peaking and the limitations of amateurs, isn't it asking for trouble to strive for that combination? 

I don't believe that this is the case IF you stick to certain guidelines. 


Nutrition and Training 

The strategy described here for a four week peaking phase assumes that you are in good overall condition, have no injuries and are not tired at the start of the peaking period. If you're not in good condition, have even minor injuries or are only a little bit tired, postpone peaking. Likewise, if you're anticipating added stress in your family and/or work life, put peaking on the back burner.

I detailed a nutritional approach that emphasizes losing bodyfat in the January and February 1991 issues of IronMan. Following the overall approach described there means that you will only gain or lose up to two or three pounds for the four week peaking period. This emphasizes the need to be in good condition at the outset. 

The following training guidelines and plans are my own synthesis of Clarence Bass'Ripped 2 and Ripped 1. 

1) Reduce your work sets per training session. A simple recommendation is to reduce the sets per bodypart by one-third; for example, from nine to six, or from six to four. Fewer sets means more focus but makes it easier to recover. 

2) Incorporate all repetition ranges and performance styles into every workout. This means do lower-rep sets (6-10) in a more explosive way but with control; do midrange-rep sets (10-15) with a pause at the top and the bottom of each repetition; and do higher-rep sets (15-20) in a smooth, continuous style (see Ripped 3 for a complete explanation of these performance styles. 

3) During the four week peaking period employ a step-by-step weight increase for all repetition ranges; this process should be similar to any periodization or goal attainment system. Your intensity, too, should build over the peaking cycle: Week one is moderate; week two is moderate to hard; week three is hard, going to failure on some movements; week four is very hard, with many personal record attempts. 

4) Consider lengthening or otherwise modifying your training cycle. For example, if possible, extend your usual seven day cycle to eight or nine days by taking more rest days. Reduce your easy workouts from a more typical 85% of maximum effort to 75% or less. If you're not recovering from the hard workouts, drop the easy workouts entirely. 

In terms of realistic aerobic goals you can probably only reach a peak on one or two exercises. Don't make the mistake of training too frequently on those exercises, however. Work on each of those activities only once every 7-10 days. Use the same plan for building intensity as you use for weight training: Week one is moderate; week two is moderately hard; week three is hard; week four is very hard, with you going for personal records. As noted, keep the sessions well spaced out. Rotate all of your aerobic exercises, doing aerobics no more than three times per week, and take extra rest days if you're not recovering. 

Keep your aerobic workouts short (30 minutes plus warmup and cool-down time) and very focused, and use variable repetitions and interval times. Include long (two- and three-minute) repetitions, midrange (one-minute) repetitions and very short (half- and quarter-minute) repetitions, along with one-to-two-minute intervals. 

Let's see what this overall plan looks like for individual workouts and an entire peak training cycle. 


 Figure 1


Figure 1 illustrates how to work bodyparts in a peaking session. You do only one set per exercise, four sets per bodypart. This may look easy, but have you ever tried to reach personal records in many different exercises with different repetition ranges and performance variations in the same workout? 

The way the program is set up, if you do only two or three bodyparts per workout, you can complete each session in 30-45 minutes. Again, short, focused workouts are a critical part of peaking - especially for the amateur. 
 
  
Figure 2


Figure 2 shows an aerobic workout designed for the peaking phase. You can use this approach for any aerobic exercise. Following this plan should lead to personal bests in most midrange (10-to-20-minute) aerobic activities or simply a personal best for a 30-minute training session. 


   
Figure 3


Figure 3 presents a complete training program for a four week peaking phase. The two week cycle is completed twice, incorporating increasingly hard workouts and goals. Notice the following points in the schedule: 

 - The easier end-of-week whole body routine is made especially easy (75% of maximum effort). 

 - Except for the Lifecycle, which is a good fit for the leg workout day, there is considerable rotation of aerobic exercises. 

 - There are nine days between hard workouts on the rower.

 - There are three complete rest days per week. 

This schedule also meets one other important peaking requirement - there is a brief tapering off period before record attempts. Look at Figure 3 again. Since week one is the same as week three, at the end of the third week, prior to your record attempts in week four, you'll do only one easy weight workout and one easy aerobic session, and you'll also have three rest days. This is an ideal tapering period. 


The Rewards of Peaking 

If you haven't really extended yourself before, you may be asking, "Why go through this peaking process?" 

Peaking is the most exciting and challenging training cycle. It is a time when you reach heights you planned for but possibly harbored some doubts about hitting. 

Simply put, it is a time of personal transcendence.  

For those who haven't tried peaking in this way and want a more concrete set of expectations, imagine the following scenario: How would you feel about making 12 personal best in weight exercises and two in aerobic exercises in the course of several days? 

Peaking is exciting for any athlete, but it is also a difficult, exacting task. For amateur athletes peaking becomes even more challenging; however, even health-and-fitness bodybuilders can enjoy the rewards of peaking if they emphasize nutrition, weight training and aerobics and pay careful attention to a set of training guidelines.   




















↧
Viewing all 2123 articles
Browse latest View live
Search