Why is it, that very few people who exercise for strength consider training grip? When training for true strength, how many times have you felt your grip has let you down? I would suggest the most obvious example of this for most people is when training the deadlift. I know for my self that if I'm doing strength or power sets with the deadlift, that my grip tends to stop me from pulling the bar as I get towards the end of my sets, how about you?
Now you might be saying, well that's what wrist wraps are for. Hmm, well sure, that will help you pull the bar, but I am an advocate of only being as strong as your weakest link. If my grip can't pull the weight, why pull the weight at all?
Oldtime strongmen focused hugely on grip. For them to lift heavy and awkward objects, they had no option but to have the grip to do it. There were no grip aids, or wraps!
If you were to have a hunt around on the net, you might be surprised to find that there is a huge cult following for grip strength and training. There are numerous folk who focus their whole training around grip. I myself never used to train grip specifically until not too long ago, but once the grip bug bit me, I became hooked.
I have always been aware of my grip as I spend a lot of time hanging of pull up bars, throwing KB's around and doing power lifting. But I never considered training just grip to help with other exercises, I always just figured that my grip would progress with what I was doing. And to a degree it did, but since training grip, I feel my progress in other areas has progressed a lot quicker.
So when I'm talking about grip, what am I talking about. It is pretty well accepted that there are three types of grip.
Crush grip - Mashing grippers, crushing cans
Pinch grip - Picking up an object with fingers on one side and thumb on the other
Support grip - Hanging of bars, pulling bars
I believe all three types of grip should be trained for complete grip and hand strength. And how do you train them you ask?
There are many many ways, and I will list a few, but first I will tell you one way for each which on there own will greatly improve your grip.
Crush grip - The main way this is trained is by using grippers. But not you basic gripper where you do hundreds of reps. Head over to Ironmind and get yourself a set of Captains of Crush grippers, the gold standard of strength grippers.
Pinch grip - The easiest way to do this, by weight plate pinching. Not only can you pinch heavier weights to progress, but multiple plates as well to make it more difficult.
Support grip - You probably think doing deadlifts would be the go, and you would be right, especially one hand deadlifts, but I like another exercise, towel hangs. Sounds basic..try it. Throw a towel over a pull up bar, double it up and try and hang off. The end goal, hanging off it with one hand.
So, a very quick run down on grip, but there is a lot more, and I will address some more in part 2.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
So what exercises - Kettlebell/Grip
I was going to put both Kettlebell (KB) work and Grip work in the same post. Partly because some of the KB exercises I do are done with the dumbells, so this is nothing new. And partly because I believe that using the KB is also a tremendous way at working your grip. But grip is such a big topic, I will give it it's own post.
KB's have become very fashionable in recent years, but they have been used for years, and I mean more than 100 years! Most people say they originated in Russia, but I have read a few different ideas, so I don't know. But check out some of the strongmen from early 1900's. They are playing around with what appears to be massive KB's but I am unsure if they were referred to KB's back then, or just 'Iron Balls'.
As I said above, all the Dumbell exercises I do, can also be done with the KB, but there is also a few more exercises I like which work better for me with KB. These include;
Snatch
Woodchop
Figure 8
Swing (both one armed and two armed)
The other benefit of KB work is that is smacks your cardio. If you are familiar with Girevoy Sport (GS), you will understand. GS is hugely popular in Russia, and it involves 10 minutes (each) of straight work in double press, snatch and double clean and press. You score based on total reps, but you are unable to put the KB down during the 10 minutes. Just holding on to two KB's for 10 minutes is hard enough, let alone throwing them around as well! The weight of the KB varies depending on age/gender, but I believe that currently, the top level guys who do GS are working with a 40kg KB...Madness!
The oldtime strongmen used very heavy KB looking objects, and one of the favourite exercises for a lot of them was the 'two hands anyhow'. I don't do this myself, but essentially it was an exercise to see how much weight you could get over head lifting two objects separately. Usually involved a bent press with one object then grabbing the other object and doing a modified clean and jerk. Sounds confusing, google it.
The takeaway point from this post...don't think that KB's a new, and don't think that just because they have become popular that they are new fad. This kind of thinking might stop you from having a go, and believe me, KB's used properly make you fast, strong and fit!
KB's have become very fashionable in recent years, but they have been used for years, and I mean more than 100 years! Most people say they originated in Russia, but I have read a few different ideas, so I don't know. But check out some of the strongmen from early 1900's. They are playing around with what appears to be massive KB's but I am unsure if they were referred to KB's back then, or just 'Iron Balls'.
As I said above, all the Dumbell exercises I do, can also be done with the KB, but there is also a few more exercises I like which work better for me with KB. These include;
Snatch
Woodchop
Figure 8
Swing (both one armed and two armed)
The other benefit of KB work is that is smacks your cardio. If you are familiar with Girevoy Sport (GS), you will understand. GS is hugely popular in Russia, and it involves 10 minutes (each) of straight work in double press, snatch and double clean and press. You score based on total reps, but you are unable to put the KB down during the 10 minutes. Just holding on to two KB's for 10 minutes is hard enough, let alone throwing them around as well! The weight of the KB varies depending on age/gender, but I believe that currently, the top level guys who do GS are working with a 40kg KB...Madness!
The oldtime strongmen used very heavy KB looking objects, and one of the favourite exercises for a lot of them was the 'two hands anyhow'. I don't do this myself, but essentially it was an exercise to see how much weight you could get over head lifting two objects separately. Usually involved a bent press with one object then grabbing the other object and doing a modified clean and jerk. Sounds confusing, google it.
The takeaway point from this post...don't think that KB's a new, and don't think that just because they have become popular that they are new fad. This kind of thinking might stop you from having a go, and believe me, KB's used properly make you fast, strong and fit!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
What sort of exercises - Dumbells/Barbells
I discussed the types of BW exercises I like to do, and am trying to obtain. And if I'm honest with myself, I think that I dedicate more time to my BW work then I do with the other forms of exercise. I think this is because the BW work requires less equipment, can just about be done anywhere, it makes me feel strong, and I think it looks cool!
But as much as I love trying to obtain the BW strength feats, I do love the feeling of moving heavy weight around. This is where my dumbells and barbell work comes in. Using dumbells and barbells to gain strength is certainly nothing new, but just how long has been around? I don't have a precise answer for you, but have a hunt around and you can find plenty of pictures and references to the strongmen of the "Golden Age of Iron Men" The excellent website 'sandowplus.co.uk' (follow 'golden age' link) is a free and comprehensive website all about the old time strongmen. These men were the original strongmen, and achieved some awesome feats of strengths.
Now there are a heap of different exercises that can be done using dumbells and barbells, but a lot of them have been conceived in the more modern era due to people focusing on bodybuilding, rather than focusing on strength and well being. I'll add here, that the kettle bell can be used for the dumbells work, but the difference I find between the two, are different techniques, and weight. I believe the kettle bell is more technique driven, and that more weight should be used with the dumbells.
As far as dumbells go, I train the following exercises;
Clean and Press
Side Press
Bent Press
Sots Press
With the barbell I do the following;
Deadlift
Ground to over head (this for me is typically a power clean and then press)
A few things about these exercises (from my point of view). These are all compound exercises using the whole body. I don't focus on one part of the body, I want total body strength and fitness and I want the ability of my body to work as one. For this reason I tend to always do the whole exercise, rather than train one area of the lift. For example, in the ground to over head, you could break it down into the deadlift, hang clean, full clean, power clean, shoulder press. However, I'm not an Olympic lifter, so I don't focus on the individual components. (Probably foolish on my part!) Having said that, I love to deadlift!
A final note on this. I don't have any real specific amount of reps/sets, and you can do whatever you like, but I do tend to do low reps and more sets, as I am training for strength and not size. This means that I want a challenging weight, but nothing more than I can handle.
But as much as I love trying to obtain the BW strength feats, I do love the feeling of moving heavy weight around. This is where my dumbells and barbell work comes in. Using dumbells and barbells to gain strength is certainly nothing new, but just how long has been around? I don't have a precise answer for you, but have a hunt around and you can find plenty of pictures and references to the strongmen of the "Golden Age of Iron Men" The excellent website 'sandowplus.co.uk' (follow 'golden age' link) is a free and comprehensive website all about the old time strongmen. These men were the original strongmen, and achieved some awesome feats of strengths.
Now there are a heap of different exercises that can be done using dumbells and barbells, but a lot of them have been conceived in the more modern era due to people focusing on bodybuilding, rather than focusing on strength and well being. I'll add here, that the kettle bell can be used for the dumbells work, but the difference I find between the two, are different techniques, and weight. I believe the kettle bell is more technique driven, and that more weight should be used with the dumbells.
As far as dumbells go, I train the following exercises;
Clean and Press
Side Press
Bent Press
Sots Press
With the barbell I do the following;
Deadlift
Ground to over head (this for me is typically a power clean and then press)
A few things about these exercises (from my point of view). These are all compound exercises using the whole body. I don't focus on one part of the body, I want total body strength and fitness and I want the ability of my body to work as one. For this reason I tend to always do the whole exercise, rather than train one area of the lift. For example, in the ground to over head, you could break it down into the deadlift, hang clean, full clean, power clean, shoulder press. However, I'm not an Olympic lifter, so I don't focus on the individual components. (Probably foolish on my part!) Having said that, I love to deadlift!
A final note on this. I don't have any real specific amount of reps/sets, and you can do whatever you like, but I do tend to do low reps and more sets, as I am training for strength and not size. This means that I want a challenging weight, but nothing more than I can handle.
So what sort of exercises? - Bodyweight strength feats
You might have read my first post and thought, Ok buddy, using dumbells for exercise is pretty broad, or, what do you consider a bodyweight strength feat? Well, good questions.
I'll say, that in time, I will post detailed information about the exercises I like to do and am trying to achieve, as well as how I'm trying to obtain them (progression steps for BW exercises), but for now I'll just discuss them. I'll start in this post with bodyweight (BW) exercises as they probably require the most explanation.
BW exercises for strength have been used for many years, most notably being the handstand and pull up in my opinion. However, there are many many BW exercises, but most of them are in fact progression exercises. And while all the progression exercises are great, they are usually leading to one impressive bodyweight exercise that requires tremendous strength. Not sure what I'm on about? Quickly, consider moving weight around. The progression with most exercises related to moving weight only involves adding more weight. The more weight you can move, the stronger you are. But in BW exercises, your not going to deliberately get heavier (I hope) just to progress. This is where you have to understand how to make BW exercises harder, and this usually involves moving from using two arms to one, or changing leverage.
Take the outstanding exercise, the pull up. Now sure, that in itself can be considered a very hard exercise, and for some they might see it as the final step in a long battle, but in fact, in lots of bodyweight strength circles, the pull up is a relatively easy step on the way to the one armed pull up (OAP).
But, please don't think I can do OAP's, because I can't, but that's what I'm working towards. And I'm working towards it because I consider this a awesome BW strength feat.
Anyway, still confused about seperate exercises leading to one final strength feat? Looking again at the pull up. You might have used progression exercises to get to the pull up, do you remember? But now you have it, what next, go from doing 3 to doing 100? You could, but then you go from using the pull up as a strength exercise and making it an endurance exercise. So what to do?, well that's exactly where the OAP comes in!
A quick and simple progression plan may look like this;
Pull ups
Close grip pull ups
One arm holding towel (thrown over bar) with other arm completing the pull up
Same as above, but moving the hand further and further down the towel
This is a very basic progression, and not fully complete, but you get the idea.
BW exercises are great, because on top of the progression exercises, there can be other exercises which can help obtain the final feat. Such as in the OAP, one armed negatives for example.
So as I said above, I will in time post information about how I have been trying to obtain these, but in the meantime, if you look you will find heaps of information and helpful sites/books. I like convict conditioning 1 & 2, and a fantastic website is 'Beastskills'
Here are the bodyweight strength feats I'm trying to obtain are the following;
One armed pull up (OAP)
Free standing hand stand push up (FSHSPU)
One armed handstand (OAHS)
Planche
Front lever
One armed push up (OAPU)
One legged squats (Pistols)
If any of the above aren't familiar to you, or you don't believe me the old time fitness enthusiasts did all of these, just use trusty google and you will soon find them all along with all the info you could ever imagine.
So that's my quick rant on BW exercises, but there will be others.
Good luck with your training.
I'll say, that in time, I will post detailed information about the exercises I like to do and am trying to achieve, as well as how I'm trying to obtain them (progression steps for BW exercises), but for now I'll just discuss them. I'll start in this post with bodyweight (BW) exercises as they probably require the most explanation.
BW exercises for strength have been used for many years, most notably being the handstand and pull up in my opinion. However, there are many many BW exercises, but most of them are in fact progression exercises. And while all the progression exercises are great, they are usually leading to one impressive bodyweight exercise that requires tremendous strength. Not sure what I'm on about? Quickly, consider moving weight around. The progression with most exercises related to moving weight only involves adding more weight. The more weight you can move, the stronger you are. But in BW exercises, your not going to deliberately get heavier (I hope) just to progress. This is where you have to understand how to make BW exercises harder, and this usually involves moving from using two arms to one, or changing leverage.
Take the outstanding exercise, the pull up. Now sure, that in itself can be considered a very hard exercise, and for some they might see it as the final step in a long battle, but in fact, in lots of bodyweight strength circles, the pull up is a relatively easy step on the way to the one armed pull up (OAP).
But, please don't think I can do OAP's, because I can't, but that's what I'm working towards. And I'm working towards it because I consider this a awesome BW strength feat.
Anyway, still confused about seperate exercises leading to one final strength feat? Looking again at the pull up. You might have used progression exercises to get to the pull up, do you remember? But now you have it, what next, go from doing 3 to doing 100? You could, but then you go from using the pull up as a strength exercise and making it an endurance exercise. So what to do?, well that's exactly where the OAP comes in!
A quick and simple progression plan may look like this;
Pull ups
Close grip pull ups
One arm holding towel (thrown over bar) with other arm completing the pull up
Same as above, but moving the hand further and further down the towel
This is a very basic progression, and not fully complete, but you get the idea.
BW exercises are great, because on top of the progression exercises, there can be other exercises which can help obtain the final feat. Such as in the OAP, one armed negatives for example.
So as I said above, I will in time post information about how I have been trying to obtain these, but in the meantime, if you look you will find heaps of information and helpful sites/books. I like convict conditioning 1 & 2, and a fantastic website is 'Beastskills'
Here are the bodyweight strength feats I'm trying to obtain are the following;
One armed pull up (OAP)
Free standing hand stand push up (FSHSPU)
One armed handstand (OAHS)
Planche
Front lever
One armed push up (OAPU)
One legged squats (Pistols)
If any of the above aren't familiar to you, or you don't believe me the old time fitness enthusiasts did all of these, just use trusty google and you will soon find them all along with all the info you could ever imagine.
So that's my quick rant on BW exercises, but there will be others.
Good luck with your training.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Hello there
Hello to all who have stumbled across this blog. I would like to make a quick introduction.
My name is Bob, I'm 31, and I live in Australia. Between being in the Army and getting physically flogged, running the physical training in the Army, and being a personal trainer in gyms, I have been around fitness for many years and have been exposed to just about every idea surrounding exercise. Some are tried and tested, while others have been flash in the pan fads which have disappeared as quick as they came.
Like most guys and girls who have been exercising for a while, I've tried many of the different ideas surrounding exercise. From your standard 3 sets of 8-12 reps to build "beach muscles", doing Olympic/power lifting, cardio only training for weight loss, to training for marathons and other endurance sports, and to one of the latest crazes in fitness, Crossfit.
First of all, I want to point out that I'm not going to be here talking bad about different types of exercise, or trying to preach that the type of exercises I like to do is the best for you. Instead, I'm here to talk about the different types of exercise I like to do, as well as document different training methods and my own progress in such. I also like to talk about the history of oldtime exercise, and
So, in saying that, I am assuming that you have searched for some sort of "oldtime" strength/fitness/techniques, and that's why you have ended up here. That being the case, you are in the right spot, because that's exactly what I'm all about.
Now finally, in case your ideas of oldtime fitness is different to mine, I will quickly discuss what I believe. Hopefully this will keep you from wasting your time keeping an eye on this blog if you disagree with what I have to say.
I want to say here, that I don't train for any specific purpose. This means, I am not currently training for any one goal, i.e a marathon, and I don't train just to try and look good. I train to feel strong, feel fit, and also for personal achievement. So this is basically what I do using exercises from back in the day. Body weight strength feats, heavy dumbells/barbell work, kettle bell work and grip specific training. I don't use any weight machines, have no benches and train in my shed. I also consider "oldtime" as being around the 60's back to late 1800's! If that doesn't sound like your idea of fitness, or oldtime fitness and you don't wish to read on, thanks for reading this much. If that does interest you however, read on....
Bob.
My name is Bob, I'm 31, and I live in Australia. Between being in the Army and getting physically flogged, running the physical training in the Army, and being a personal trainer in gyms, I have been around fitness for many years and have been exposed to just about every idea surrounding exercise. Some are tried and tested, while others have been flash in the pan fads which have disappeared as quick as they came.
Like most guys and girls who have been exercising for a while, I've tried many of the different ideas surrounding exercise. From your standard 3 sets of 8-12 reps to build "beach muscles", doing Olympic/power lifting, cardio only training for weight loss, to training for marathons and other endurance sports, and to one of the latest crazes in fitness, Crossfit.
First of all, I want to point out that I'm not going to be here talking bad about different types of exercise, or trying to preach that the type of exercises I like to do is the best for you. Instead, I'm here to talk about the different types of exercise I like to do, as well as document different training methods and my own progress in such. I also like to talk about the history of oldtime exercise, and
So, in saying that, I am assuming that you have searched for some sort of "oldtime" strength/fitness/techniques, and that's why you have ended up here. That being the case, you are in the right spot, because that's exactly what I'm all about.
Now finally, in case your ideas of oldtime fitness is different to mine, I will quickly discuss what I believe. Hopefully this will keep you from wasting your time keeping an eye on this blog if you disagree with what I have to say.
I want to say here, that I don't train for any specific purpose. This means, I am not currently training for any one goal, i.e a marathon, and I don't train just to try and look good. I train to feel strong, feel fit, and also for personal achievement. So this is basically what I do using exercises from back in the day. Body weight strength feats, heavy dumbells/barbell work, kettle bell work and grip specific training. I don't use any weight machines, have no benches and train in my shed. I also consider "oldtime" as being around the 60's back to late 1800's! If that doesn't sound like your idea of fitness, or oldtime fitness and you don't wish to read on, thanks for reading this much. If that does interest you however, read on....
Bob.
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