Author: D C

Here we have a showdown of epic porportions — who will win? The bodybuilder? The powerlifter? The strongman? How about the Olympic lifter? I won’t spoil the fun for you but it is quite a showdown. What did you think? Did you see what happened to the bodybuilder? That’s why we have power racks!

I would have liked to have seen the powerlifter lock out his squats at the hip. Seems like he’s doing a bodybuilding squat, instead. And the Olympic lifter is doing textbook perfect squats! Good job!

Looking at the result makes me think of how much strength relative to body weight needs to be taken into account. Having a high ratio of strength at a leaner weight is an advantage.

So how about a new fitness challenge/test? Here it is: squats with your bodyweight on the barbell, AMRAP for 5:00. Test yourself every now and again, count your reps, and try to beat your score next time.

Spoiler alert!! Notice how well the two guys that squat for 1RM did in the challenge! Getting your 1RM up can increase what you can squat for reps if you do it right! Just think — 1-3RM work for strength and bodyweight x5:00 for muscle growth and fat loss…..hmm……..:)

I ordered sandbells for the gym. We’re primarily going to use them train kids, for grip strength, and also for slamming. Our med balls aren’t really made for that. Here’s a nice little workout above with a sandbell for adults.

I was initially turned off of sandbells because they were being promoted as an alternative to the kettlebell and they aren’t that IMO. Not even close. The right tool for the right job. They’re also being promoted as a replacement for barbells and dumbbells — again, a mistake IMO. I see them as being good the uses I outlined above. For heavier work, I’d recommend that people just use a regular sandbag and ours go up to about 120lbs.

Anyway enjoy them when they come in!

My boy Nicholas has been working on the monkey bars to increase his grip strength but what can you do when it’s cold and rainy outside? I came up with these grip switches for him to train his one-arm strength inside the gym or on the pullup bar at home. They’re pretty tough, you should try them out at the gym. Every switch counts as one and I highly recommend doing them in sets of ow reps at first. Nicholas has started doing them in max sets. He has worked up to a max set of 63 in this clip and he did it pretty fast. Try it out and let us know what you think.

No piece of fitness equipment is a magic wand and no book, DVD, or workshop is a secret recipe. It doesn’t work that way. When you get a new piece of equipment, you have to use it a lot and use it well in order to get results. If it collects dust in your corner, then you only have yourself to blame. A DVD won’t help you get fit if you never watch it and do the workouts on it. Having a DVD or book sit on your shelf doesn’t get you in shape. Likewise, a workshop, seminar, or certification is only useful if you put in the time practicing what you learned and making it your own.

Before I went to the IKFF certification, I bought all of Steve Cotter’s DVDs and spent hours every day preparing for the cert. By the time I got there, I was ready for the challenges he threw at me and I was able to pick up even more because I was prepared.

After we brought Steve Maxwell over for his first certification last year, I also bought all of his DVDs because I was so impressed and then spent time doing his routines and exercising as he suggested. I did this in order to take his material and make it my own. You own the material by practicing it yourself and finding your own version of it.

Don’t blame the equipment, the DVD, or the seminar if you don’t do your homework. The producer has the responsibility to put out the best product they can. The rest of the responsibility rests on you.

Pavel is the most famous guy in kettlebells training because he exposed the US to it back in the early 2000’s. What most people don’t know is that he’s also a very knowledgeable strength coach who adovocates heavy barbell work and bodyweight training. We pay attention to him because his ideas of blending barbell for strength, bodyweight exercise for assitance, and kettlebells for conditioning fits what we do perfectly.

One of his favorite methods of increasing people’s pullups or chinups is called “greasing the groove” but it can be applied to other exercises you want to get better at, as well. The idea is practice the movement using low reps very frequently. For example, buy a doorway chinup bar and put it in your office doorway. Every time you pass under the bar, do one chinup or pullup. Over the course of a day, you’ll do a ton of pullups, more than in the average workout, but it will seem easy since you only do one each time. This is a great way to practice the movement and build your chinup skill and muscles.

Another method would be doing small sets of 2-5 between sets of other exercises in your workout. This works very well on leg days, for example. As a trainer, I used to do a set of pullups after every PT session. In no time, I was doing 70-80 a day and this built my one ability to do pullups very quickly. Doing 15 straight was no problem after all that volume.

The exciting thing is that there’s no some small evidence that this “greasing the groove” also helps with fat loss by stoking the metabolism throughout the day. Tim Ferriss wrote about doing small sets of bodysquats throughout the day, and he found this helped him avoid gaining lots of fat even after big meals. So think about adding this to your training and see how it goes.