Sinew & Steel

Mixed training for great results

Well, this is just me rambling on about some things. Well, many things. Doesn’t mean I am ultimately right or wrong, just my way of looking at things. As with all things, take what helps you and discard the rest.

This:

“Looking to build a rugged body that will withstand any activity I want to throw at it…”

is what I train for.

I don’t sport. Did that as a young buck. I don’t need it now and many will find sports will give you a nice collection of injuries over the years.

That is what I found. Ask any person who has been in and trained for one sport for the past 40 years or so and get your notepad out to record the injuries. Same if you compete in many sports.

Sports are great for creating injuries.

Don’t get me wrong, however, I do like sports.

Part of the problem with Crossfit, is they have taken training for exercise or sport specific training and turned the training/exercises into its own sport with specific parameters people try to achieve and train by, endeavoring to set constant PR’s. Basically, Crossfit IS a sport.

Forget the glory is forever mantra.

Glory fades and is not remembered by others. Pain will be with you the rest of your life.

I can think of only one time I was injured while training and exercising.

I could care diddly-squat about how much somebody dead-lifts. Well, not really, but I am trying to make a point. Dead-lift but don’t chase max efforts.

I do them (dead-lifts) but not to max and not too often.

A real heavy dead-lift won’t do you much good when your body is all twisted up off balance playing some sport or you are all out of whack back-packing sideways up some steep slope and you happen to slip.

Don’t get me wrong, deads do build brute strength, and do have their place in a routine.

But for what you are after, you don’t want to focus on one form of training over all others.

For example, focusing on power-lifting alone (squat, bench, deads) won’t get you what you want. Same with focusing on just Olympic lifting.

Does this mean you shouldn’t power-lift or Olympic lift?

No.

As mentioned by others, for dead-lifts, drop the reps down to 2-5 reps on your deads. Only a couple of sets.

Try drop deads: deadlift the bar and as soon as it hits near the top of the lift, drop it. You need bumper plates or rubber mats to do this. Or simply do them outside in the dirt. This method saves a lot of wear and tear on the lower back.

Pushing the deads for max reps or max weight as you get older can be done, but:

Can you spare another injury to the lower back?

Could you recover well enough from it to still enjoy what you want to do in life and be able to continue to train?

That risk isn’t worth it to me. How about you?

If not, try the drop deads. Do them once every week or so.

As mentioned, hyper-extensions are good, as are swings for reps or for weight (you can build up to a heavy weight here for a few sets of 10 or so).

The goat bag swing as outlined by Dan John can be a great benefit.

Half-pulls are good but you need to keep the back locked in even more since it is a faster movement, sort of the same as a power-shrug.

Faster movements with heavy weights means the time frame is compressed, so a lapse in attention for even an instant can garner an injury. Whereas a slower grind may (I said may) give time to re-align or add tension to prevent an injury.

The old health lift might be just the ticket, since you pull the weight like a dead-lift, but the bar starts off blocks or pins in a rack and you start pulling the bar from about just above the top of the knee level or slightly higher.

Not having to go as deep with a heavier weight in the health lift is easier on the back even when you pull heavy. Just don’t hyper-extend at the top.

Trap bar deads might really work well for you, again don’t push the weight (or reps) constantly trying for a PR

You can work the top part of the pull with any form of half-pull once/twice per week depending on how you feel.

I like the method of doing several sets of deads at a lighter weight one time per week (it doesn’t take much out of you) and then once per week or so, dead-lift heavier.

Then work the bottom part of your dead-lift movement with things like deep goblet squats, snatch-grip dead-lifts with a lighter weight, bear-hug a rock or keg and lift it from the ground, etc.

I really like the snatch-grip style deads, cause you have to go deep, so you maintain and train deep flexible strength, but I also find it is very conducive to keeping a nice straight back even in the hole.

A few exercises devoted to developing some brute strength done twice a week is good. Something like a dead lift or similar exercise. Some sort of heavy press and a good squat move.

Then the rest of the week I would focus on exposure to other elements. Things like bent presses, windmills, slosh-pipe work. Sled drags and sled pushing. Sledge hammer work and a mixture of KB training and some body-weight stuff.

You’ll want to do imperfection type training, like contra lateral deads (one leg dead-lift but holding weight in opposite hand of leg you are standing on).

Also, things like half-kneeling presses, OH squats, one arm work is good.

I’ve also done dead-lifts with one hand on a barbell while standing on two feet. It is not a suitcase style dead-lift. The bar is dead-lifted in front of you just like a conventional dead-lift, but with one hand.

Various loaded carries come into play here, too. So does limited amounts of rucking with a pack.

And tumbling drills are a great benefit.

Armor building and impact training are a must too.

Sometimes I just take a slosh-pipe to the park and do as many odd-ball movements with it as I can think up. And yes, that slosh-ppe will probably smack into you as you train with it. Good impact training!

I’ll take a KB and do every move I know, non-stop for 30 minutes or more. Just one set of each move.

Sometimes I’ll load up some weight on a pulley and rope and walk back to get the weight off the ground and then perform a bunch of different moves, pushes, pulls from high and low and various angles. It’s almost like wrestling.

The thing is, you are trying to build and maintain strength but also take that strength and be able to express it over a wide variety of conditions, angles, leverages.

To do that you will have to train your body to learn how to leverage your strength by exposing yourself to varying training implements and conditions.

You are trying to condition the body to really work as a unit, as one piece, no matter what circumstances (sport, work, home, camping, hiking, hunting, off-balance, etc) you find yourself in.

For me, this is a fun way to train. You get to focus on a few basic lifts, something like the Southwood Program from Dan John, but you also get to “play” with a lot of differing implements and training methods.

Done correctly, you get the benefits of Crossfit minus the injuries. And you can get pretty strong doing this. If anyone ever messes around with you, they will find wrestling around with you is like trying to hold a slippery eel infused with a gorilla’s strength.

There are many ways to do this:

Twice a week train basic brute strength.Twice a week play with various implements focusing on developing enduring strength or work-capacity in constantly changing parameters.

Or:

Train in two week blocks:

Two weeks focus on strength.

Two weeks focus on a variety of conditioning methods.

Or:

Mix it all up as often as you like:

Train brute strength with one or two exercises 2-4 times per week.

Mix in a variety of other training implements and methods, before, after or with the strength training and on the same or on different days.

There are many things that come into play in traing this way. Too many for me to address in this article.

But, for example, you might try Pavels PTTP for two weeks and then switch to Kb clean and presses, done ladder style mixed in with slosh-pipe and sledge hammer training for the next two weeks. Keep flipping these for 8-12 weeks.

After going through that series for 8 weeks you could switch to Southwood Program for two weeks and then a body-weight program mixed with loaded carries and KB work and sprints for two weeks. After 6-12 weeks, switch to another program.

Make sense?

This doesn’t mean you try to do everything all at once.

It also doesn’t mean you have to do or learn every single exercise you can think off with a particular training implement.

Just learning 5-6 basic exercises with each implement will give you plenty to mix and match.

If you use KB’s body-weight, barbells, slosh-pipe and sledge hammers/tires, that’s about 30 to 36 different exercises you can rotate around.

It also doesn’t mean you cannot acquire new skills. Skills build upon and compliment each other.

Learn to play one instrument well and playing another gets a little easier. Especially if you learn the musical notation or the basic rules behind or underlying music. Then you can apply those notes, chords and scales to any instrument with some practice.

Learn the proper mechanics of throwing a baseball and learning to throw a football, rock or stick is even easier to learn. They all have a similar basic movement pattern.

I don’t buy into the “my bodies too dumb to learn too much” crap.

I can run, jump, throw, swim, carry, weld metal, play guitar, wood work, paint, fix a car, build a fire, shoot a rifle/handgun, make a bow and arrow and shoot it, cook, sew, etc.

What’s this “don’t train too much stuff business”?

Sure it can and will mess up a competing athletes sport specific skills.

But for average non-competing people, I think it’s a rule they can ignore to a certain degree.

I know some of this flies against the current focus on only doing one thing or training one thing at a time, which works very well, particularly if you play one sport and/or compete in a sport.

For sport you have to be goal specific, and sports have rules you play by and certain qualities you need and skills specific to that sport. You train them to perform under the conditions encompassed by the sport.

For this:

“Looking to build a rugged body that will withstand any activity I want to throw at it…”

you must play with a set of specific rules applied non-specifically.

In other words, you have to apply specific rules that work as regards getting stronger. We can’t get stronger lifting pee-wee weights. But we also need to train outside the “sport specific” box. You are not training for one particular thing.

You have to look at your goal as developing toughness in all areas.

And at times, you have to throw some of the rules out. But, you have to know which ones and when.

You also need to be aware that when you are engaging in a lot of other activities, perhaps during a certain time of year when you can engage in them frequently (like skiing or hunting in the mountains) you will have to adjust for the extra activity this brings to your total workload. So, this would be a time when minimal strength routines and even minimal conditioning routines are done just to maintain what you have built.

Thus, you can and should follow something like PTTP by Pavel or the Southwood Program by Dan John or some even more minimalist strength routine. Follow specific training rules that apply to getting stronger. It shouldn’t take too much out of you.

Then, depending on how you structure it (among many other things) you train other qualities you are after.

For the newb to this style of training I say focus on building a good base of strength first.

Then start experimenting with mixing things up a little more. Get some exposure and time under your belt with other things.

Then, eventually, you will be able to still get strong even as you build greater mobility, enduring strength, flexibility, agility, toughness, etc.

You are looking to accumulate an amount of exposure to varying conditions of training. The more experience you get with this, the better you can express your strength and enduring strength under changing conditions.

You won’t be able to compete with and beat someone who focuses on one specific sport and trains for it, though you many times can put in a good showing and surprise them.

But you will no doubt be able to beat them at many other things that they can’t compete with you in, because they are too sport specific in their training.

A person can get to a pretty high level of strength and enduring strength by training different things and implements and mixing things up. They can be way above average. Just because they don’t compete on a professional level does not mean they aren’t capable of expressing strength or endurance or work-capacity to a degree that would surprise many people.

Here’s an example:

Some of my friends only played tennis. Some were always playing basketball. Me, I played around with a lot of different sports and work and training exercises. When they wanted to play against me in tennis or basketball, for example, I couldn’t beat them. It was their game.

You usually can’t beat someone at their own game unless it’s your only game too.

But, I certainly made them sweat and work way harder than they thought they would have to in order to beat me!

They would usually say something like:

“You did way better than I thought! I figured I’d crush you out there!”

But, if I take them into a game they don’t play, like soccer or football or hiking with a back-pack or splitting firewood, I can beat them or outwork them. They are not used to performing under such wide and varying conditions. They don’t have the accumulated training experience of exposure to many things to leverage their strength into something foreign to them. They flounder.

Another example. Years back I wrestled with a college wrestler at work, out in the grass. He couldn’t pin me in the 5 minutes we wrestled around in. I didn’t have the amount of wrestling skills he had, just wrestling around with friends and a little in school. I did not know he had wrestled in college. My co-workers were trying to set me up to get pinned.

But I had played all kinds of sports by that time, hiked, split wood, worked on a farm slinging hay bales, etc, for a number of years. Every day, at that job he wrestled me at, I would hang metal on a movable paint line. Often lifting metal pieces from the floor that weighed 60-100 pounds up to the line to hang them with heavy metal hooks. I’d grab cement mixers big enough to lay in and up-end them by the tongue hitch and push them up a ramp on the back two wheels.

So, although he was better skilled at wrestling, I was able to express speed and strength and agility at a high enough level that his skill did not enable him to pin me in the time frame we wrestled around in. If we kept wrestling, he probably would have pinned me.

Many expressed surprise that he didn’t pin me pretty fast. I was tall and he was pretty stocky. He mentioned it took him by surprise that I could move so fast and was able to break several of his holds. This enabled me to survive the match. On points, he certainly would have won by a wide margin, ha ha! Though I did give him one good throw that knocked the wind out of him. It was sort of a do whatever you can type of wrestling match, but no punches or kicks.

So, this is what I am talking about. You can get rugged and tough enough to surprise a lot of people and survive many things, and you can get this by mixed training.

In sports competition, specificity rules.

But life and the many things you face in life are outside the rules of sport. Life doesn’t come in a box. And life can get pretty rough, pretty tough physically and mentally..

I train for life, not sport.

So, this might help some in determining where I am coming from when I give out my thoughts on training. I don’t train for weight room numbers and PR’s.

I don’t train for any specific sport.

This doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do these things.

It just means I prefer to train to express myself in whatever activity I find myself doing. I train so I can leverage my strength and endurance into any activity, even new ones.

I train to have a better ability to improvise, adapt and overcome whatever task is at hand. I train to build a higher quality of physical and mental toughness so I can keep going.

This means doing what others will not do. It’s fun, but it can be tough training at times.

I know how to train elite. But I don’t want it. I don’t want elite in one activity. I want a good level of competency in many areas.

This doesn’t mean you can or should train everything all at once. That just does not work.

You do blocks of strength work and blocks of conditioning work. You cycle them.

Various training implements lend themselves to various forms of training. You rotate these in and out of your routines.

Sometimes, you do a cycle where you mix strength training with conditioning training in the same workout.

It’s an art form to train this way. It takes experience earned by doing it gathered over years of training and experimenting.

It’s accumulated exposure to many things, but not all at once.

To the untrained eye, however, it will look like you are doing everything at once.

MMA changed how many view training for martial arts. The thought of just practicing your art and being able to win against anybody was quickly shown to be wrong.

It was proven that a variety of skills and strengths needed to be developed to survive in the MMA world.

I believe the same about training to be rugged, tough and prepared for anything.

Simply having a skill is not enough. Simply having knowledge is not enough. Simply having strength is not enough. Simply having endurance is not enough. Simply being flexible or being agile is not enough.

You need them all.

Train them all.

Some thoughts on movement…

Interesting thread. This is in response to a post here:

http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/30321/tp/1/

And the following is just some rambling thoughts I have on this and may not add up to much or even address the thoughts raised in that thread. So, for what it’s worth, here you go:

I guess most of the time I just don’t look at things in a way of categorizing them. I just train. I just do.

Movement begets movement.

Movement with various loads/objects/bodyweight begets flow.

I don’t think:

“How do I train this snapshot in a movement pattern?”

Or:

“How do I connect the dots from crawling to standing?”

Or:

“How do I connect or flow the strength in dead lifting to the mobile strength in exploding off the line of scrimmage into an opposing player?”

Unless specifically focusing in on rehabbing an injury, where maybe something very specific must be stretched/strengthened, etc, I don’t view any lift or movement as separate from the rest of my movements or patterns.

In other words, a hinge as being separate from a push, or a crawl as separate from a stand.

I guess a particular movement, like a goat bag swing (hinge) is sort of a series of snapshots in time. It’s a small piece of a larger moving picture. Life is a constantly changing movie, not a 30 second video.

Maybe many approach training as if it is a 30 second video repeated as separately from the rest of their movements in life?

I think that is the sad thing in training for many:

It has to be this or that.

I think it should be this AND that.

I think it’s all about exposure.

Bodybuilders are not the best athletes.

Neither are Power-lifters.

Nor are marathon runners.

Now, true, they are all athletes if they compete, we might say, in their particular sport.

But what is the quality of movement or their ability to flow from one thing to another given a large variety of tasks outside the things they compete in?

How I Bench Press

This is in response to a guy called Funky on the Dan John Q&A Deck forum:

But it just might help you too!

In part, Pavel and Dan John have suggested dumping small plates in favor of using just 25 and 45 pound plates on an Olympic bar. Now I won’t get into the reasons why at this time, but this is for Funky in regards to the bench press:

With the military press, I’d say go with the 35′s too, as I said above. That way the jumps are not as big. And I would incorporate push presses to get used to a heavier weight.

I completely understand the frustration with the bench presses. I too have never been great at them. Some people just are not built to bench. But I still managed to work up to 315 for a few reps.

Part of the problem is that with some exercises or lifts, you can’t get the whole body into it as well. You can’t rebound energy down into the ground and back up as effectively when you bench press as compared to a standing press or push press.

I think with some lifts, using the heavier plates only is better off for someone who already has a good base level of strength, like a body-weight press, 1.5 body-weight squat, etc. Newbies, I think, may be better off using smaller jumps until they get to a higher level of strength.

Think of it this way:

If learning to play football you don’t suddenly start trying to block a guy who outweighs you by 100 pounds. You start off blocking guys more your size, developing the skill and strength and progress from there.

The thing with the smaller plates is too many guys who can bench 155 start with an empty bar and take 5-8 sets building up in small increments to their 5 rep max weight or higher. And they use a lot of high rep sets. So, by the time they get to the heavier weight (for them) they are tired from all the lower weight volume.

For me,I had tried every dang program I could find to improve my bench. Even had friends help me out. Nothing worked. And trying to grind the reps out just hurt my shoulders and made me weaker. So did jumping the weight up using heavier plates.

So here is what I did that finally worked for me:

I skipped the long high reps per sets warmups and ramped the weight up faster. Then I did a bunch of singles beginning at around 90% of my one rep max.

So, if 225 was my one rep max that I could actually bench with no help and without a minute long struggle to press it (most guys would call this their 5 rep max cause they would bounce the bar, arch their back high and have a pardner help them as they yelled: “It’s all you!”).

Here’s what I did:

Bench 135 x 6

155 x 3

185 x 1 then I jumped to about 90% of 225=

200-205 for 1 rep. I KNEW I could bench this for probably 2-3 strong reps, but I only did one rep.

Then I would add 5 lbs and do 210 x 1

215 x 1

220 x 1

Now, depending how I felt that day, I would go higher or not.

If I felt kind of worn out I would drop down to 155 and do a set of 5-6 without going to failure. And that was it. Done benching for the day.

But, if I felt pretty good, I would do more, like this:

225 x 1, was it real strong and controlled?

Then I’d try 230. If that went up hard then I’d stop there. If it went up strong and smooth I’d add 5 lbs total (2.5lbs each side) and try 235.

If that was strong I’d stop there anyways. If I missed it, I’d drop down about 10-15 pounds or so to a weight I KNEW I could get and do one rep. I always tried to end with a max or near max rep that I could get. I tried not to end on a failed rep, even if it meant dropping the weight by 10 pounds or so.

Teach yourself to fail by failure. Teach yourself to succeed by success.

Then I would drop down to 185 and do a set of 4-6 reps and then drop down to 155 and do a set of 5-8 reps and then I would be done.

By dropping the weight down to about 80% of my top weight and then down to about 70% of my top weight, I could get in a little more volume without killing myself.

Funny thing, as the top weight gets higher, your medium heavy weight that you used to only be able to bench for 2-3 reps would suddenly get light enough where you could knock out 5-6 reps with it.

I never pushed till I was screaming on these reps, wiggling around like a stuck pig. Every rep was done strongly in good form or I would stop the rep and set. I did them in a power rack where I could drop or set the bar on the pins, that way I couldn’t get pinned by the weight and I did not need a spotter. I did not like using a spotter because I wanted no one to touch that bar. I lifted it MYSELF or I did not.

After a while, where my first set at about 90% for a single would eventually be a weight I could push for 2-3 reps and then down the road it would become my drop set of 4-6 reps.

It seemed like nearly every time I benched this way I could start at about 20 pounds or so below my max and work up to it or even over it by 5-10 pounds. I think all the singles at or near my max built my confidence and I got used to handling the heavier weight without doing too many reps at the heavier weights or too many reps at 70-80% weights. SO, I was not getting burned out from too much volume/intensity.

Anyway, once I figured this out my bench kept climbing fairly well, until I got to 315, my goal, and I said that’s heavy enough for me. I had no desire to try to bench any heavier. I was more interested in pressing OH. I benched twice per week. No medium or easy day unless I felt too tired. Medium and easy days seemed to make my bench weaker.

Here was my technique:

No arch in the back, except what was natural. Legs tight and feet wedged into the ground. Stomach braced. Shoulders pressed toward my hips and pulled back so my chest was high without an unnaturally high arched lower back.

I gripped the bar fairly hard, as if trying to bend it in a “U” shape. I kept my elbows pretty close to my sides; I did not let them flare out. My pinky fingers were on the small ring of non-knurled area to each side, so a fairly close grip. This move saved my shoulders a lot of grief. I never benched wide. Lowered the bar to just below the nipples and pressed strongly from there.

I would lower the bar under control (no drop and bounce) pretending my body was getting compressed like a spring, and as soon as the bar touched my chest lightly, I would use that compressed spring feeling to jack back up against the bar, trying to wedge my body into it, like a car coil spring being released under control. It would go up fairly quick and smooth.

I try to get the lats into the movement as much as possible. If you don’t know how to do that, I would suggest learning how to do a bent press and then, just before you bench press, do a set of low rep bent presses, then immediately bench. DO this for every set until you can get the lats into the bench. This will make your bench stronger and help protect your shoulders more.

It was never a long slow grind. If it took too long and turned into too much of a grind for me, that was my top weight for the day. Once it turned into too much of a grind that was my signal to stop and drop to a lower weight, otherwise it would just make me weaker and hurt my shoulders.

I actually tried to stop a set before that point, trying to always stop where I lifted a good solid single and felt like if I tried to add 5lbs and do another single I would probably stall out during the bench.

Something else I did differently, was I did not take 4-5 minute breaks between sets, even at the top weights for me. I could care less what the dang science says about ATP and all that bunk. If I took too long a break between the singles, it was harder to bench than if I rushed them more.

So, I’d do my set of 6, add weight, do my set of 3-4, add weight do a single or double (as I felt like it) and then add weight and start doing my singles.

Bench. Set the bar in the rack. Sit up, stand up, walk over to my weight box, grab some plates and put them on the bar. Sit down. Take a breath. Roll back, grab the bar, get set, take a breath and bench.

So, maybe a 30-45 sec rest between reps. It worked for me. Longer breaks left me feeling weaker and flat. When I works I works.

Everybody is different here. Some can grind on the bench. Some can take 5 minutes between sets of benches and feel better for the next set. I’m a fast twitch kinda guy with quick recovery, so I used that too my advantage when benching. Many times when lifting I would knock off 30 sets of lifts in 30 minutes.

No bouncing at the bottom, but the turnaround at the bottom was quicker than a paused bench. IT was more like as the bar touched my chest it pushed a little switch in that went “click” and then the bar just went up. I’d sometimes pretend like I was loading a cannonball as I lowered the weight, and then try to explode it up and keep accelerating the bar (even though it wouldn’t go fast) all the way up so I wouldn’t run out of steam halfway up. This would allow me to drive past the sticking point.

Working at various levels to try to build the sticking point did not work well for me either. But that’s just me. I think working on sticking points of something like the bench is lost on a person until they are moving some fairly serious iron. Don’t worry about working on sticking points until you are benching 1.5 times body-weight or more.

I benched with elbows close to my body and bar touching low on the chest. Wide grip and bar benched higher up the chest would only cause pain for me. I wince when I see guys bench with a wide grip and close to the neck.

Some days I would occasionally do some partial bench presses with 50 pounds more than I could bench, just to feel a heavier weight. But used too frequently and it would not work for me.

Some days I would just go up to my max for one rep and then drop down. Other days I might do several single reps at that weight. Just depended on how I felt. Sometimes I felt so strong and solid on that last max rep I KNEW I could pop off another rep real easy and sometimes I would. Other-times I hold back and save it for another day.

If you follow this, about every fourth week just do the warm up sets and drop sets. This lets you regroup for the next push.

So, if 155 is about your 5 rep max, you can probably bench around, what, say 185 or so?

Thus:

115 x 5

135 x 3

155 x 1

165 x 1

170 x 1

175 x 1

Was the 175 strong, smooth and controlled?

Then try 180 x 1.

When you get to a weight that is telling you next jump ya ain’t gonna make it without a bunch of struggling, stop there.

Drop down to 145-155 and knock off 4-6 reps in good form, no bouncing, no help and no wiggling around with the bar or your body. If you head is shifting all around, it’s to heavy for you to do another rep.

Drop down to 125 or so and do about 4 reps and you are done. These drop sets are not done in a stripping fashion. Don’t rush too fast to do the next set, but don’t take all day either. Find your own rhythm where you can do the work at a good level of strength and control. This might mean you need the same amount of rest between sets that I did or it may mean you need 2 or more minutes of rest.

Now, this is just my thinking, but I think this is more a product of how you train yourself to train verses how long it takes for energy stores to be built back up. Probably true with the grinding reps also. I’ve always just got under the bar, no big slap-me-in-the-face kind of show, just get under the bar and get it done. I don’t sit or stand huffing and puffing thinking about lifting it. I just do it. So, that is probably reflected in how I perform my sets and reps. I move. I train movements, not slow-ments.

As the top weight climbs over the weeks, adjust your warmups up too and adjust your drop sets up accordingly.

So, when you hit 205 for the top sets it might look like this:

135 x 6

155 x 3

185 x 1

190 x 1

195 x 1

205 x 1

210 x 1

175 x 5

155 x 6-8

My 315 sets looked like this:

135 x 6

225 x 4

275 x 2

295 x 1

305 x 1

310 x 1

315 x 1

275 x 5

225 x 8

Also, this program doesn’t mean I always hit my max one rep every time I benched.

Some days I would be 10 pounds or so under and that was enough. Other days I would hit it and some days I would climb over it by 5-10 pounds.

But, the days I increased my bench by 5 pounds was pretty steady. Granted, if my 1RM (one rep max) was 225 for example, if I really pushed and screamed and struggled I might have been able to get 5-10 pounds more. And that is what most would call their 1RM.

Not me.

I think this is why this program worked so well for me and whenever I use it to up my max on the bench it works very well.

It also works for getting my medium-heavy weights (in the 70-85% range) reps up. When trying to jump my reps with 225 from say 2 hard reps up to 6 reps, just continually trying to press 225 for more and more reps did not work to well. But as I got the 1RM higher fairly easily, the 225 would suddenly just get easier to press for more reps, without killing myself trying to push it harder all the time.

Well, anyways, I hope this helps you a little more. I think the bench press is probably the exception to the thought of using just 25′s and 45′s to force bigger jumps.

Tough Enough…

so…

I recall seeing a video a few years back where some UFC dude was training while wearing a mask (not the type used in WWF- though about as effective for making your face sweat).

Since then, it has sort of become a “secret” training method that some fighter-training sites are sharing more and more.

Of course, tactical operators need to train wearing battle-specific gear so they know they can accomplish objectives under field conditions. This is true of SWAT teams, Police, the various military branches, etc.

But is is also the same with fire fighters, SAR, etc.

It’s good for these men to train with gear so that, under field conditions, the weight and cumbersomeness of equipment doesn’t weigh them down physically and mentally.

Their life and those of others hangs on their ability to operate coolly under extreme duress and use their gear effectively. When subjected to stress, people revert to their training.

Imagine a firefighter donning all his equipment and then after fighting a fire being too out of breath to carry out an unconscious victim and treat them appropriately because he never trained with his equipment while physically tired from exertion.

SO, yeah, you might see such personnel training while wearing a mask and other field equipment specific to their job.

But, sad to say, some people want to be associated (for a variety of reasons) with certain military branches even though they have never engaged in that type of deployment, and are what some call posers.

Yet, I realize some may want to emulate the strength and conditioning of various tactical personnel and in particular those operating in extreme ops, like Navy Seals, etc .

They look at these men and marvel at their physical and mental toughness and want to have the same strength- stamina and desire the ability to carry on no matter what.

And that may be why some might think training in a gas mask is good. They are looking to build the same mental and physical toughness of these men and probably think it is the equipment they train with that toughens them up. Well, there are a variety of things employed here in toughening these men up that goes beyond the gear they carry. A lot of this is mental training and yes, physical training can be an excellent way to develop mental toughness.

But, unwieldy, heavy tactical gear can be subbed out in this way:

If you don’t want to look like some poser running around wearing a shemagh (this generations version of a tiger striped head cover or boonie hat–VN era-”Look at me, I’m a veteran of Nam”), “Look I’m an Afgan Vet!”

and as a civ you don’t want to own a ghillie suit for training and tote around a Barrett M107 .50 cal and end up scaring the neighbors and answering questions from the local tactical Officers, do this:

Ditch the mil-spec clothing, face camo and AK and just run around in rough terrain wearing normal clothing.

I understand some may be training in remote areas with chance encounters with wild animals a distinct possibility. I myself film and train many times out alone with no one around. So I understand having some firearm or other means of protection with you may be a good thing.

Out here in AZ, there are rattle snakes, cougars and peccaries (which can and will attack if you surprise them-they are tough little critters and can mess you up, they have killed people and dogs and weigh from 40-90 pounds)).

Peccaries run in packs of about 8-15 and are highly aggressive. You are even more likely to run into them than a cougar. So, if you run or hike in AZ territory out by yourself and are concerned about such things, it is not unwise to go prepared. You may have seen me running around with a Tomahawk and that is why. Figured it would be less menacing than running around with a gun, but maybe not, ha ha!

But, I’m not donning an Indian headdress and wearing deer-skins and sporting a bear claw necklace.

Back to the training: Do some hill sprints, some basic compound barbell and/or KB training, farmers walks and body-weight training mixed with some carries with a slosh pipe.

Add in some hikes and walks with a weighted pack, some tumbling drills or sledge training or heavy bag or even up-downs training for physical impact readiness and you will be good to go physically and mentally when the defecation impacts the rotary oscillator, if that is YOUR idea of being fit.

Short of those thinking there will be a post-nuclear-Ebola-Mad-Max reality, I do know some just want to be strong and what they consider to be tough-self-reliant individuals and being strong and tough mentally and physically is always a good thing, it prepares us for life’s surprises and emergencies.

But the gas mask?

Do some swimming, it will teach you breath control. Just be sure to buddy up so you don’t drown.

So, if you don’t know how to structure this, (there are many ways) here’s a breakdown of what is possible.

Ditch the mask.

Train barbell twice per week (this should only take, at max, about 2 hours total each week and should be tracked, structured and measured):

warm up with a set or three of goblet squats and a few TGU’s then:

OH Snatch-style squat (this will teach you the body is one piece, and carry a high-value impact on the body)

KB clean and press

bent press (get used to expressing strength in an awkward position)

a few sets of heavy swings

farmers walks (this is your slow pull—with no other pull except cleans and swings with KB you can pull heavier farmers–and mix up the types of FW’s you do)

Mornings: (yeah, you should be getting up at 0300 or 0400 if you are an aspiring spec-op wannabe)

(how many days per week is up to you-best to vary it weekly–some weeks nearly every day, next week maybe three times that week, and vary the intensity of this, some times just one easy set, other times push yourself):

keep the body-weight training tight, don’t get sloppy with the form:

pushups

tactical pullups

ab wheel

followed by cold water swims or nice mixed runs and cold water dousing>

Note: water dousing best built up to with progressively colder water and done every day.

Swims and runs can be swapped out from day to day or even a nice daily walk with the dogs and a weighted pack thrown in here if you have canine companions (hint: walking with your canine pack is a great stress reliever).

Later in the day, two days per week (not on strength training days):

Pick a few of the following and balance them out with how you feel and how hard you train the other things (in time you could mix these all together and do rounds or circuits, etc):

Heavy bag

swings

sledge hits on tire

mixed with slosh pipe carries

and tumbling drills

Be sure to change the intensity/volume from week to week on all of this stuff, so, for a week or two push the strength training and ease up on the conditioning, just doing the conditioning work as recovery/movement training. And next week or two push the conditioning and ease up on the strength training.

Throw the weighted walks/hikes in on the weekends.

Other than longer swims, runs or hikes and walks, the rest of it shouldn’t really take you more than 4-5 hours total per week, maybe less. The swings, heavy bag and sledge hits, unless just easing up on them for some movement training/recovery, should be done with some intensity, so they won’t be taking all that long to do.

You can do slosh pipe or tumbling drills between sledge hits or heavy bag rounds or swings. The trick is, the hits or swings should be done with intensity and the slosh pipe or tumbling drill is the opportunity to catch your breath somewhat while drilling another skill or movement.

Or you can finish one thing (swings) and finish up with pipe carries.

This entire format is just one way you might possibly follow to train strength and strength endurance. It will give you a good mix of differing abilities and skills.

So, excuse me while I go find my dive mask, snorkel and swim fins and where did I put that ghillie suit?

I think I’m gonna try something new…

Body-weight Movements for Fun

Low crawls, or spider-man’s are a good indicator of general useable strength and mobility. Many people do have a tough time with them. Yes, just because one might be good at push-ups or planks does not mean they can spider-man across the floor. Just because you can dead-lift 900 pounds does not mean you have coordination enough to walk without waddling like a duck. And if you can dead-lift that much, kudo’s to you for training that hard on that lift, but:

At what cost to your body? Later years will tell the story.

And if you can hardly scratch the back of your head and playing a game of fast battle-ball for a half hour against a bunch of teens leaves you doubled over (well, not quite, as the stomach is in the way) and gasping for air, you’re on the losing end of health and general fitness.

Just as a thought, no matter what you train for, adding in some things like spider-man’s can actually help you in your quest for strength.

Here’s a little list of moves I do fairly often (of course, if this is in conflict with your chosen goals you should know what to do and not do, it’s your choice):

standing 4-way stretch
push-ups
prone flutter-kicks
pull-ups
back flutter-kicks
squats
low-crawl (spider-mans)
knee tucks
push-ups
chin-ups
deck squats
straight bridge
squat thrusts
hoz. rows
dips
windmills
bird-dogs
mountain climbers
3-way planks (work up to 90 seconds per hold- I like these after getting winded as you have to learn to control your breathing behind the shield)
on back: 4-way neck moves
tactical lunge
pumps
bridge
alternated grip chins
and then usually 5 mins of tumbling/rolling around on the ground

At times I may change this up somewhat with different moves or less movements, depending on how much time I have from other obligations. It’s a flexible pattern.

Breathe through the nose all the way through. If you can’t catch your breath at some point, take a breather, mouth breathe if you must, but:

I think it better to control the breathing and thus the feeling of panic or anxiety as you continue breathing through the nose until you feel composed and ready to continue. In time, this gets easier and will benefit you in everyday life when “stuff” happens unexpectedly.

On many of the moves I do a 4 count for 10 but not always. Some days I run through it fast doing only a few reps, other days I take more time as I do more reps. Variety of load, volume, TUT, (Time Under Tension). Sometimes fast reps sometimes slower.

It’s just a movement walk-through. You could just set a Gym-boss to beep every 15-30 seconds and run through the movements that way. I think it best just to do the movement and not worry about the time. Get into the flow of the moves. Work on working the body and mind so it feels good, then you know you hit it just right. You shouldn’t feel hammered after something like this unless that is the particular aim of the day.

Most of the time I do not push these moves until failure, just to a good point of:

“Yeah, I can feel that pretty good”.

I stay in the range of feeling in control by strength. Lose the strength of the movement and you lose the suppleness, fluidity or whatever you want to call it, and set yourself up for injury and cementing in bad form.

Everything is done with body-weight only. Work on fewer reps until you can go through something like this all the way without stopping between movements. Then begin slowly adding reps here and there. You’ll build strength endurance this way.

I use this in the morning and at a later point in the day I hit other forms of training. Sometimes I will do all this and then hit 1-2 moves for strength, like rack-pulls and press or front squat and press or just power curls.

Other days it is my only training for the day. I am gradually adding in this little shake down on more and more days throughout the month until it is nearly a daily habit. A little at a time until my body views it as a normal part of the day, like eating or sleeping.

I am finding as I run through this it is getting easier and easier and getting done quicker and more smoothly and is impacting my other lifting and training less and less from a fatigue point of view. Currently I am doing this about every other day, sometimes two days off in-between.

But I am slowly adding in more and more days until I reach the point where it is performed 6 days out of the week.

It also seems to be helping in easing everyday aches and pains from my Lyme Disease. And other things are getting easier too. I think it has a therapeutic effect.

Those days where I don’t look forward to doing it, i pass it up and take a break from training. It is sort of becoming a litmus test for the day. If it goes good it energizes me and I know I will hit a great training period later in the day. If it goes so-so, I know I need to back off a bit with other training later or even skip the other training.

But it seems that as I continue to do it, it is becoming more and more consistently good.

I am mixing sort of a spec-ops type of training with more traditional strength training. At 50, I don’t care if I can’t dead-lift a house. I’m more interested in moving with fluidity that stems from strength in all movements. Balance, coordination, strength, speed, reaction, power, train it all. They belong together and enhance each other.

I’d rather train to be a tiger than a cape buffalo.

But them’s my goals. You must choose your own.

I think the best thing for children and teenagers is to play (not compete) in as many sports as possible. Get exposed to as many forms of training and playing physically. And Wii does NOT count!

We forget that a kid chasing a ball around while playing battle-ball is still training. He’s learning to run, stop fast, reverse direction, keep an eye out, catch, throw, duck, twist, get hit and endure it and yell and have fun.

Children and teenagers should become well grounded in moving the body and various sports implements and then as they hit their late teens, early twenties, start doing more traditional weight and strength training to add to the movement strength they already have.

A baby and toddler does not get strong and then learn to crawl and walk, they learn to move first and that builds strength as they learn to move, balance, coordinate and lift their body. Later, as they grow heavier, the added body-weight means more strength is created and expressed through the movement.

I really think, as I get older, that going back to that “playing around with everything” sort of fun mentality is a far better approach for most once they hit mid 40′s or so. Focusing too much on one thing while excluding other things is tough on the body as one gets older.

Those who compete in a particular field as they get older almost always have a list of injuries sustained from their sport. Following one sport only might get you good at it (but does it pay the bills?) but it beats a person up as they continue to try to be or remain competitive.

At least my list of injuries is from many things, ha ha! And doing many things allows me to work around the dragons (injuries that can bite back) and build them back up with WTH effects from indirect training.

You can do a lot of things and still build strength. It’s like food. Macro-nutrients like fat, protein and carbohydrates are good. But you need all the little micro-nutrients also, to get the most out of your food. One without the other is not good. A variety of foods is always best:

Fruits, nuts, berries, leafy greens, vegetables, eggs, organic meats, etc.

Pure strength training is like meat, a macro-nutrient. Put in the time with focused strength training for brief bouts. Supplement with plenty of micro nutrients or I should say, with micro-shots of variety training worked in and around the strength work. You’ll be golden.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

You are only limited by what you think you can’t do.

I know I can therefore I do.

Oh, don’t forget to do your spider-man’s!

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Mixed training for great results

Some thoughts on movement…

How I Bench Press

Tough Enough…

Body-weight Movements for Fun