The Ultimate in Strength, Flexibility, and Balance

I came across this cool video on MySpace. This guy exhibits significant strength, superb balance and extreme flexibility. All seem to be in excellent balance with each other for almost perfect physical shape. He's obviously practiced a lot, so I bet his endurance is equally excellent. However, I do wonder if his extreme hip flexibility subtracts any from leg strength. Some physical conditioning experts, notably Pavel, believe that too much flexibility can keep you from reaching your full strength potential. Anyway, check it out:

Incredible African Pole Dancer

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Modding the Crazy Plate Bench Press for Low Budget Lifting

Below is a Youtube video showing a guy doing a crazy plate bench press. Now I'm sure that guy or whoever owns the gym he's at paid a nice hefty price for that bamboo lifting bar, but I think this concept can be used to get a great low-budget-warrior type of workout as well. First, watch the video:






Notice that the free-hanging barbell plates make the lift more difficult, that's the only reason for doing this lift in a gym with nice equipment and lots of barbell plates. Your muscles will be screaming when you're done.



Now, how does this translate to low-budget lifting? As I've noted before, when I started lifting I was supporting a family of four on a budget of less than $16,000 a year. I had NO money to buy equipment with. Anyone that doesn't have $150 to buy a set of weights can easily lift heavy by modifying the crazy plate concept. For the bar, use an old metal fence post or a long section of pipe (at least 1" in diameter) or anything similar. For weights, hang a 5-gallon bucket or half of a 50-gallon drum from each end (make sure you use rope to tie them in place, the bucket's handles may not be strong enough). Fill the bucket/barrell with anything heavy, from sand and brick to old car parts and farm equipment, getting the weight as balanced as you can. Find the balanced center of the bar and start lifting. You could also use a rope or chain to tie on concrete blocks or homemade concrete plates like I used to use.



Here's an article from http://www.low-budget-warrior.com/ that talks more about homemade weights:

http://www.low-budget-warrior.com/Articles/StoneAgeWeights.doc



By the way, big thanks to www.straighttothebar.com/ for pointing out the crazy plate video.



God bless, stay strong, stay fit



--John

Are Strong Chicks Sexy?

You don't have to be around the fitness industry long before you start hearing ladies complaining that they don't want to lift heavy weights because they don't want to get huge, bulging muscles that will make them unattractive. Personally, I just about burst out in laughter whenever I hear something like that, because such a statement contains several misconceptions. Here are my arguments to those misconceptions:

1. Muscle is sexy--Ever see a guy turn his nose up in disgust at a pair of firm, muscular thighs? Not talkin' about the babes on steroids with no trace of body fat. Talkin' about athletes, dancers, fitness models and the like. Nope, muscle makes a body curvacious and attractive.
2. Bulky muscles don't happen by accident--Those gals in muscle mags that women think of so often when they think about weightlifting don't get that way just because they lift heavy. Most of them are also on juice, train excessively and maintain an unhealthy bodyfat level. Few gals (maybe 1% of the population) will gain lots of muscle mass just by lifting heavy weights a couple days each week. If muscle mass were easy to get, every guy in America would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And even if you fall into the 1% of women who do gain muscle easily, review point No. 1 above and be happy!
3. Strength is health--So many health problems from bad posture and back pain to heart disease and high cholesterol can be solved with strength training. Strong muscles prevent injury, correct posture, and make your body more capable. Training for strength increases heart and lung health (provided your training reaches intensities that raise your heart rate significantly) and increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which is the "good" cholesterol. Sickliness, including muscles wasted away by excessive aerobic conditioning, and weakness are never sexy.

My wife used to tell me that she didn't want to do heavy weightlifting because she didn't want to get all bulky with muscles. She's been doing kettlebells for a year or two now, but that's not really heavy lifting--great exercise, but not heavy. But this summer she started lifting with me--working at her 5-rep-max and such. We just tested her 1 RM on Friday and she pulled 215 on deadlift and pressed 100 pounds off the bench! She wont' win any contests at that level, but she's stronger than most American women. She feels great about what her new strength allows her to do. And to look at her, you'd never suspect that she likes to lift heavy. She's curvacious and firm, but not bounding with mutant-looking muscles. And in the bedroom . . .well, that's between me and her (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

So, what do you think? Are strong chicks sexy? Let me know by leaving comments on my blog.

For a list of resources that the gals can use to start gaining the benfits of heavy strength training, check out the ladies' page on my Low Budget Warrior web site: http://www.low-budget-warrior.com/ladies.html.

Also, here's a gal that's got a great attitude about heavy lifting: http://www.stumptuous.com/

God bless, stay strong, stay fit

JOhn

Debut of the Stonebell

It's done and it works great!

My experiment in creating the perfect Stonebell was a success. It's got the shape of a regular iron kettlebell (for the most part anyway), but you can make it at home with some concrete and a few other materials. Here's a couple of photos:



Here's the short version of how I made it:

1. Cover a children's play ball with plaster of paris, leaving holes to insert ends of the handle into and a way to divide the plaster shell to get the handle in.


2. Once plaster is dry, deflate the ball and remove it.


3. Make the handle out of stiff 1-inch diameter rubber tubing over a 24" piece of re-bar.


4. Place the handle between the two halves of the mold and tape the mold together.


5. Mix up and pour concrete into mold.


6. Let stand until concrete is hardened; remove mold and allow to cure for about a week.


7. To make it adjustable with barbell plates, before pouring concrete screw a 1/2-inch diameter bolt about 3/8 of an inch into a threaded-bar coupler and suspend the bolt end of it in the center of the mold. The open end of the coupler should be flush with the top of the mold so that, in the end, it looks like this:

Use another bolt and a washer to bolt barbell plates onto the bottom. I use a 25-pound plate in the photo above, but 10 and 5-pound plates work just as well.

I haven't had a chance to write up the detailed instructions, but will do so before too long and make them available to you all. For now, take a look at my video using the Stonebell.

Low Budget Warrior Tip No. 103: No Bench Required (Part 2)

Last week I went over several exercises based on the basic pushup. This week I want to cover some barbell, kettlebell and dumbbell exercise that train the chest without using a bench. The first three of these I have to thank Pavel Tsatsouline for bringing to my attention several years ago through his books “Power to the People!” and “The Russian Kettlebell Challenge”. Since then I’ve found several other references to these exercises, which have been around since the old-time strong men like Arthur Saxon and Eugene Sandow.

Without further ado, here are six exercises for strengthening the chest without a bench:

1. Side Press—Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Grab your dumbbell, kettlebell or barbell in one hand and clean it to your shoulder. If you’re using a barbell, make sure you grab the bar at the center of balance before attempting to lift it off the ground. Now, shift your center of gravity over the leg opposite of your lifting arm and lean to the side away from the bell. As you shift your weight, rotate your hand so that the back of your hand is facing behind you and your thumb and fingers are facing forward. Ideally, your elbow should be a little bit behind you so that your triceps will be resting on your lats—not directly on your ribs. Turn your head so that you are facing the bell and tense up the entire body, especially the core muscles. Keeping eye contact with the bell, engage the lat and press the bell upward until you can lock your arm out. Maintain tension as you return the bell to the lowered position.
   
2. Bent Press—This is similar to the side press, but I like it better because I think it works the pecs even more than the side press. Start in the same stance as for the side press and hold the bell in the same position. But, instead of pressing the bell up, bend at the waist to lower your torso to the side and slightly to the front and press with your pecs and lats so that the bell rises almost naturally as you press your body away from it. Once your arm is locked out, keep it straight overhead as you raise your torso back to a standing position. At the end of the motion, you are standing straight up with your arm locked straight up, supporting the bell. Slowly lower your arm back to the starting position for the next rep.
3. Floor Press—This is essentially a bench press, but you are lying on the floor instead of a bench. Because your elbows cannot drop lower than your back, you won’t get the bar or bells to your chest, but you will get sufficient range of motion. There are two ways to get into position. You can either lie down and have someone hand you the weights, or you can maneuver the weights into position as you lie down. Some of the old-time strongmen would roll a barbell up their body as they laid back, but this takes a lot of muscling around. For floor press, I prefer to use dumbbells or kettlebells, because you can hold them to your chest while sitting up, then lay back and they almost automatically fall into position.



4. Neck Bridge Press—This is a floor press except that before pressing the weights up, you arch your belly toward the ceiling so that only your head and heels are on the floor. This lets you get a more complete range of motion, but you have to start with very light weights until your neck and spine become accustomed to the exercise. Be EXTREMELY careful performing this exercise and don’t use any more weight than you are confident with. Only do this with a spotter around who can take the weights if anything goes wrong. This is a very effective exercise, but stupidity will get you injured quickly.



5. Floor Fly—Lay on your back with a dumbbell/kettlebell in each hand. Stretch your arms straight out to the sides. Keep your arms straight as you use your pecs to pull them up and inward. At the top of the fly, your arms are locked straight toward the ceiling. Slowly lower your arms back to the floor. If this exercise is new to you, start with very light weights.
   



6. Isometric Press/Punch—From a standing or lying position with clenched fists held to the sides of your chest, slowly punch or press one fist out. Resist the punching motion with your biceps and back muscles. It should look and feel like you are moving your arm through wet concrete and you should feel the burn of effort in your chest, back, triceps and biceps.
   
   Well, that should keep you busy for a week.
   
   Stay strong, live well.
   
   John Fike

Low Budget Warrior Tip No. 102: No Bench Required

When the subject of lifting weights for exercise comes up, one of the first exercises people think of is the bench press. The bench press is one of the signature exercises of the modern bodybuilding culture. To be fair, the bench press is an efficient way to build strength and size in the pectoralis muscles of the chest. However, it is not the only way to do so and other exercises build functional chest strength better. After all, how often do you find yourself lying on your back and pressing something off your chest?

The pectoralis muscles are important to functional strength. They play a key role in punching, overhead lifting, holding and carrying large objects and similar motions. They also assist in maintaining structure and alignment of the shoulders, providing counter force to the trapezius and other muscles of the upper back. Because of the importance of the pectoralis muscles, we want to be sure to include them in our strength training program. But if you don’t want to spend money on a bench or don’t want to clutter your home with exercise equipment, we need to have ways to train those muscles without a weightlifting bench.

Obviously, pushups are the simplest substitute for the bench press, but it won’t be long before you have stopped gaining strength and are just increasing muscular endurance by doing more and more repetitions. Some solutions to this are to increase resistance by doing one of the following:

1. Incline pushups—elevate your feet. The higher your feet, the more difficult the pushup becomes.
   Drawback: eventually you’ll get your feet high enough that you are working the anterior deltoid (shoulder muscle) more than the pectoralis muscles.
   
2. One-arm pushups—Not only are you lifting the same weight with one hand that you previously did with two, but the leverage of the exercise effectively multiplies the weight. It is unlikely that you will be able to do one-arm pushups from the floor correctly the first time you attempt them. Start by placing your hand on an elevated surface with your feet on the floor. This shifts your center of gravity toward your feet and effectively reduces the weight you are pushing up. Work your way toward the floor over weeks and months until you can pushup off the floor.
   Drawbacks: Requires tremendous muscular control and balance to execute and thoroughly exhausts the Central Nervous System.
   Resource: Best instruction I’ve ever seen on performing a one-arm pushup is in Pavel Tsatsouline's book The Naked Warrior. Check it out.
   
3. Add resistance with bands—stretch them across your shoulders and upper back and pin the ends to the floor with your hands.
   Drawback: resistance increases as the bands are stretched and decreases as the bands contract. To apply more resistance on the bottom of the pushup, shorten the bands and do half pushups.
   
4. Add resistance with weights—put weights (either barbell plates, sand bags or other heavy objects) in a backpack and put the backpack on. Do pushups as usual.
   Drawbacks: You can only get so much weight in a back pack and it can be awkward to get on and off when its heavy.
   
5. Have a partner add resistance—partner stands either in front of you or straddles your waist and places hands on the trapezius between the shoulder blades. Partner applies just enough resistance to make the pushups challenging. Drawbacks: Requires a partner, so you can’t do it alone, and the partner must be attuned to your needs so that the resistance applied is neither too great nor too little.
   
   Next week we’ll discuss several ways to use dumbbells, kettlebells and barbells to exercise the chest without a bench.
   
   Stay strong, live well.
   
   John Fike

Engage the Lats for a Better Bench Press

Use back muscles to exercise the chest?

Yes.

By tensing up the lats, along with the pectoral and arm muscles, you bring into effect the phenomenon known as hyperirradiation. In hyperirradiation, muscles other than the targeted muscles are tensed and hardened to give support to the targeted muscles and stabilize the joints. In this case, the tense lats (Latissimus dorsi) stabilize the shoulder and support the action of the pectoralis major. The end result is a stronger lift and, perhaps more importantly, a safer lift that is less prone to injury.

Think of it this way: Imagine a ladder lying on the ground and you have to lift it to a vertical position by pulling on one of the rungs. If you just heave on the rung without bracing it, the ladder will be very difficult to control and you will use most of your strength to keep the ladder from swinging out of control. But if you brace the ends of the ladder with your feet or have an assistant steady the ladder, you can focus your strength on raising the ladder into place. Hyperirradiation works the same way, the assisting muscles stabilize the joint and supply a firm foundation for the movement so that the pectoralis major can focus its strength on pressing, rather than stabilizing.

In addition to stabilizing the joints, the additional muscular activity of hyperirradiation also stimulates more neural activity in the targeted muscle, i.e. pecs.

In Power to the People, Pavel Tsatsouline says this about the effects of hyperirradiation:
“Powerlifters (to) whom I taught this deceptively simple move report a typical increase of ten pounds on their bench press the first time they try it!”

To engage the lats from the bottom position of the bench press, prior to pressing tense up the lats by making an inward twisting motion with the arms as if you were attempting to bend the barbell. Maintain tension on the lats throughout the press. You can do the same thing starting from the top position and maintaining the tension through the eccentric (lowering) motion.

Another way to employ hyperirradiation to improve your bench press is to crush the bar with your grip. The forearm muscles activated by the grip will stabilize the elbow and wrist and lend strength to the triceps. With solid, tense muscles all the way up the arm, the force generated by the pecs and lats goes right to the bar instead of being absorbed by the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

Stay strong, live well.

John Fike

Sandbags: Low Budget Weight Training

Getting strong and fit without spending a lot of money is always a good idea. In fact, it's the whole basis of my Low Budget Warrior web site. Sandbags are by far the easiest and least expensive way to train heavy. What's really awesome about sandbags, besides their low cost, is that they are extremely adjustable--just add or remove sand as needed.

Straight to the Bar recently posted an entry with instructions on how to make a sandbag for less than $10. Though I've not tried his method yet, it looks durable and excellently suited for adjusting the weight. In his method, the sand is divided into smaller bags then put in a larger sack for lifting. With this method, you can add or remove sand easily depending on the exercise and your ability and not make a mess spilling sand all over. The smaller bags will also keep the sand from shifting quite as much I imagine, which may be good or bad depending on what you're looking from a sandbag .

http://www.straighttothebar.com/2006/11/how_to_make_a_sandbag_for_10.html#c15612

Once you've made your sandbag, here are 10 things you can do with it to build strength, endurance and power:

1. Bearhug the sandbag and carry it as far as you can. You may need more than the 45 pounds of sand called for in the Straight to the Bar version to make this challenging.


2. Deadlift it from the floor with two hands--again, you may need more than 45 pounds.


3. Put it on one or both shoulders and squat with it.


4. Press it from chest to overhead with two hands.


5. Press it overhead with one hand using military press, side press or bent press. (Pavel's Power to the People and Enter the Kettlebell books have excellent instructions for these exercises)


6. From the floor between your feet, use two hands to sling it up onto your shoulder. Return to floor, then sling it to the other shoulder. Make sure you use your legs and hips to power the sling and keep your back straight and firm.


7. Use a kettlebell-style clean to clean it from floor to chest.


8. Combine the clean with an overhead press and squat for power and cardio development.



9. Lay on your back and chest press the sandbag .


10. Set it on the floor next to you and, from a standing position, bend at the hips and grab it with two hands. Then lift it up to your chest, followed by bending at your hips to set on the floor on the opposite side that you started from. Repeat going the reverse direction. This is a good exercise for obliques and lower back, which are essential core muscles.

Strongman Training Video

Video Description: Train up for AZ Strongman Contest - liftdragcarry.com

While books about lifting and doing strongman exercises are abundant, trying to get a video of various lifts or exercises is a bit of a pain--they're either hard to find or expensive. Here's a free video on YouTube from TroyBCF that shows several examples of several strongman lifts, including the farmer's walk, Atlas stone lift and sandbag carry. Enjoy and be strong.

John Fike

Strong stomach and glutes eliminate lower back pain

For my first post to this new blog, I want to share an e-mail conversation about lower back pain that I recently had with a relative. He was sharing with me how he has dealt with pain in the lumbar region over the years and I explained why that worked and how to further relieve and prevent lumbar pain:

HIM: I've always found, ever since I was in the furniture business, that when I have back pain or even discomfort, the first thing I do is start a regimen of sit-ups. Even the first 20 or 30 help things considerably, but if I do that for several days, that back pain just disappears completely. I think those muscles and bones in there need to be moved around and strained to help them get back into activity. I remember one time (my wife) and I were in New York City at the SOFA show, it was May. We'd been walking around this huge exhibition center all day. My back started giving me a problem, and it got worse as the day progressed. So when we got back to the room, I just laid down on the floor and went to work with about 30 situps, and that took care of the issue.

ME: What those situps are doing is pulling the front of your pelvis up, which straightens escessive curvature in the lower spine and provides relief to the overworked lumbar muscles. However, situps can also strengthen the psoas muscles, which attach to the inside of the lumbar, run through the pelvis and attach to the upper leg bones (femoris) which flex the hip joints. The psoas doesn't get stretched much, so it can pull excessively on the lumbar, thus contributing to excessive curvature and more lower back pain, especially when standing a lot. Strong muscles in the butt and hamstrings counteract the pull of the psoas by pulling down on the back of the pelvis and having the same effect as strong abdominal muscles. That's why I like deadlifts so much, they strengthen butt and hamstrings--and provide some real shapeliness in those areas for the female population!

Try this next time your lower back hurts from standing or walking: contract the stomach muscles and squeeze your buttocks so that the front of the pelvis tilts upward and straightens out the spine. The motion of the pelvis is similar to certain movements during sex, but is subtle enough that you won't get strange looks from those around you. You should experience some immediate relief.

For more information on how to relieve back pain related to muscle imbalances like the situations described above, look up this resource from the Healthy Back Institute:


Back Pain Relief Guide











John E. Fike, Fitness Writer
www.jawbone.biz
www.low-budget-warrior.com
www.johnefike.com