It’s pretty much set and stone (and if I’m not mistaken, the 14th Law of Physics) that anything with the word dynamite in it’s title is the epitome of baller and automatically increases its “badass” factor exponentially.
Two examples that immediately pop into my head are Napoleon Dynamite and Black Dynamite – both of which, respectively, are hilarious movies that I feel should be required viewing for everyone.
Now, just imagine what happens when you place the word DEADLIFT in front of DYNAMITE.
Like whoa. That much awesome certainly can’t be contained, and I believe a whole lotta Gangnam Style just hit you smack dab in the face.
I’ve been hinting at this one for a while now, and I don’t feel as if I need to sit here and really “sell” people on this manual. I mean, everyone who knows me and reads this site consistently knows that I love me some deadlifts.
And Matt Damon, but that’s for another time.
I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy a few weeks ago, and to be perfectly honest it actually exceeded my expectations.
In fact, the title of the manual is a little misleading because it’s not just about the deadlift at all. Everything from honing technique on the “big 3” (deadlift, bench press, squat) to programming ideas to corrective strategies on improving posture are covered. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In a nutshell it’s about improving performance; it’s about preventing injury; and more to the point, it’s about getting strong as a s***!
If that’s something you’re interested in then I’d highly suggest checking it out. It’s a game changer for sure!
1. First things first: I just want to take a few words to say THANK YOU to any servicemen or servicewomen (past or current) who may be sitting there reading this. I think we take A LOT for granted in this country, and it’s my hope that EVERYONE reading will take a moment to recognize the incredible, invaluable, and downright courageous job that our troops contribute to this country, not to mention those who served in years past.
My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed back in 1941, and while I never got a chance to really know him (he passed away when I was very young), I was always amazed and dumbfounded whenever I read or heard stories of his service time. The man was a straight-up, certifiable, badass.
And that applies to anyone who goes out of their way to risk so much and not really receive much back in terms of reward or notoriety.
They all truly deserve our respect and gratitude. Without question they have mine.
2. I also want to thank everyone who participated in last week’s Deadlift Battle over on WeightTraining.com. To say that it got a little heated and that people got just a teeny-tiny bit competitive would be a drastic understatement.
Lets just put it this way, the top two participants combined – CoachA and BrandonKW – deadlifted over 1,000,000 lbs by themselves!!!
That’s a one with six zeroes after it. Or roughly the total number of times I asked Nicole Kot out in high school and she said no.
To his credit, the good Coach edged out Brandon 563,555 lbs to 532,535 lbs and gets the title for most masochistic son-of-a-bitch in existence.
If anyone deserves a slow clap, it’s you. This one is dedicate to you, sir. Enjoy it.
This isn’t to belittle everyone else who participated, of course. We had over 60 people make a conscientious decision that this would actually be a good idea, and in order to even crack the top 10 you had to deadlift a minimum of 120,000 lbs.
I sucked and ended up in 12th place with only 105.115 lbs.
Needless to say, it was a blast, I’m probably going to take a week off from lifting anything heavy off the floor, and we’ll be letting everyone know who the GRAND PRIZE winner is shortly.
3. Speaking of deadlifts, two legends in the strength and conditioning community – Pavel (of RKC fame) and Andy Bolton (of he can deadlift a metric shit-ton fame) – have collaborated on what I feel is going to be a game changing, holy-shit-I-think-I-just-peed-myself-a-little-I’m-so-excited manual:
A short while ago, John DuCane, CEO of Dragon Door Publications (which is releasing the manual), reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in receiving an advance copy to check out. I responded back with, “you had me at deadlift.”
I don’t think I have to tell you that it’s awwwwwwwwwwesome, and today, just to serve as a slight appetizer, both Pavel and Andy have released three FREE videos that will undoubtedly make people’s faces melt from all the deadlifting knowledge bombs being dropped.
4. Serving as an adjunct to the article I posted last week on Tips for a Badass Bench Press, I also wanted to note that as much as lifting big weights will make you stronger, we also can’t turn our heads on bar speed.
I certainly can’t take credit for it, as many, many coaches much smarter (and stronger) than myself have stated it before:
Getting faster will make you stronger
Bar speed is an often overlooked component of bench pressing. More specifically, developing power – or the ability to generate force quickly and increase your rate of force development – is an often overlooked component of bench pressing.
In a nutshell: you can’t just rely on “muscling” the weight all the time, grinding out reps on a weekly basis. That’s only going to take you so far. However, developing more bar speed will undoubtedly go a long ways in helping improve your bench press.
* Photo courtesy of elitefts.com
In looking at what’s called the Force-Velocity Curve, which is dictated by load and speed, one would find the following variants to be true:
Loads between 30-50% of a trainee’s one-rep max typically focuses more on power.
Loads between 75-95% of a trainee’s one-rep max typically places an emphasis more on maximum strength.
Loads between 50-60% of a trainee’s one-rep max, done ballistically, is the sweet spot for developing power output – where force AND velocity are maximized.
This last point is where focusing on bar speed comes into play. Getting faster will help you get stronger. Popularized by Louie Simmons and the guys over at Westside Barbell, incorporating more of a “dynamic effort” day is a fantastic way to help increase your numbers in the bench press.
Not coincidentally, it’s also a fantastic way to hone in on technique which can be argued is where the real benefit lies.
Basically, all you would do is take 50-60% of your current one-rep max – and perform the reps as quickly as you can for something like 6 sets of 3 repetitions, with 30-45s rest between sets.
There’s obviously a bit more to it than that, but in many ways there isn’t.
Now, if you’ve only been training for like a year or your current 1RM is something like 185 lbs, I don’t feel dedicated speed work is going to be an efficient use of your time. But, for those who have a little more experience “under the bar,” and have been in a benching rut, this might be exactly what you need to get over that hump.
Speaking a little more ubiquitously, and even taking speed work out of the equation, what’s important – on EVERY rep, no matter the exercise – is that the INTENT to be fast is there.
This is a mistake that I find a lot of people make – that they have to grind out, or “muscle” all their reps.
While heavy is heavy, and you can’t expect to make every rep look like a paperweight, so long as you tell yourself to be fast – and the INTENT to move that bar quickly is there – that’s definitely a step in the right direction.
So, from now on, tell yourself BAR SPEED is the key.
5. So a little movie came out this weekend, you might have heard about it: Skyfall.
Giving full disclosure, up until Daniel Craig took over as James Bond and Casino Royale came out in 2006, I had never been a fan of the franchise.
Ever since then, however, I’ve anticipated each and every installment – and Skyfall was no different.
What intrigued me the most was that Sam Mendes who directed classics like American Beauty and Road to Perdition (which, for those looking for some cool movie trivia, was where he first directed Craig) was taking the helm and directing this edition.
I LOVE Sam Mendes, and was really looking forward in seeing what he could do to spice things up after the somewhat disappointing Quantum of Solace.
Without giving away everything, I really, really liked Skyfall (but still feel Casino Royale takes the cake).
Javier Bardem evokes crazy like no-one else, playing the cyber terrorist Silva (I’d even go so far as to say he should at least be considered for a Best Supporting Actor nomination), and like with any Bond movie, the chase scenes, one-liners, and gadgets are epic.
1. I firmly believe that one of the best ways to bring up any lift is repeated exposures to that lift. One major mistake I see a lot of trainees make – particularly intermediate and advanced lifters (beginners can do ANYTHING and get stronger, and we all hate you for it) – is assuming that training a lift or movement once a week, even if they’re going at it hard, is enough.
For example, I train a fair number of females and one major goal that many of them aspire for is that Brad Pitt stars in the movie adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey to be able to perform a strict, un-assisted chin-up.
For those who missed it the first time around, you can check out my three -part article Chin-Up Progressions For Women- The One Rep Hump: Part I, Part II, and Part III.
One general theme I hit on throughout is repeated exposures. Namely, if you want to get better at chin-ups, you need to do chin-ups. And a lot of them. Why anyone would think that performing “x” number of reps on ONE day is going to get them anywhere is beyond me.
That said, if I were to do little role reversal and point the spotlight on all the guys reading, I think it’s fair to assume that many want a big bench press. Thing is, many go to the gym on Monday (National Bench Press Day), perform their three sets of ten, and that’s it. Yeah yeah, they’ll throw in some incline presses, decline presses, and some pec flies for good measure, but the point I’m trying to make is that it’s that ONE day, and that’s generally it.
Having read Easy Strength recently – and loving EVERY page – both Dan John and Pavel hit on this notion of LADDERS, and how they can be used to help bring up one’s bench.
To give the Cliff Notes version:
You’re going to bench three, maybe even four times per week. Heresy, I know.
Each “session” you’ll perform three bench press ladders of 1,2, and 3 repetitions, using a weight that you know you can handle for 6-8 reps.
From there you rest 3-5 minutes and repeat the awesome two more times.
To give you an idea of what ONE week looks like:
Session 1: THREE ladders: 1,2,3 reps
Session 2: TWO ladders: 1st ladder (1,2,3), 2nd ladder (1,2)
Session 3: TWO ladders: 1,2,3 reps
You want to stick with the SAME weight throughout until you hit every rep of EVERY ladder.
Meaning if you start with 200 lbs, you’ll stick with that weight until you hit every rep during any given session. If you do, you can increase the weight 5-10 lbs on the next session and repeat the same process, only increasing the weight when you hit every rep. Did I mention you need to hit every rep? You need to hit EVERY rep!
I just had one of my distance coaching clients do this for a month and he had amazing results. At the beginning he was using 240 lbs for his ladder sets. Four weeks later, he was hitting ladders using 280 lbs!
We just tested his 1RM, and he hit a solid 315 lbs – a 15 lb PR.
Now, you tell me that repeated exposures don’t work!
Granted, this isn’t something you’ll want to utilize indefinitely, as it’s pretty CNS intensive. But for a dedicated 4-5 week block, it’s a sure fire way to take your bench press to new levels!
2. Since I’m the one who opened up the can of worms and exposed the world to my recent back issues, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from readers asking how things have been coming along.
Swell, actually!
For the last few weeks I had been ramping up the intensity of my deadlifts performing a lot of pulls with chains as accommodating resistance (lighter at the bottom, heavier at the top). About a month ago I hit a 555 lb pull (405 lbs of bar weight with 150 lbs of chains at the top). It felt good, not great…..and Dean Somerset (who was writing my programming) just about blew a gasket when he saw that I did that.
In hindsight it was dumb, and I really lucked out that I didn’t reverse all the progress I had made up until that point.
Fast forward a few weeks – and roughly 12,686 deadbugs – Dean gave me the green light to start pulling heavy again.
I was on that like a CrossFitter on a gluten free PopTart!
Not wanting to be too aggressive, last week, I decided I’d do me speed work and then, depending on how I felt, I’d work up to a sorta-kinda heavy single.
I felt goooooooooood. And when I was done with my speed work, I told Greg (Robins) that under no circumstances was he to allow me to go any heavier than 500 lbs. If I attempted to go any higher, he’d have my permission to Sparta kick me in the groin.
Here’s what 500 looked like (wearing a Dragon tee courtesy of one Jon-Erik Kawamoto)
Not too shabby. Today, I’m going to shoot for 520 ish.
600 lbs by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
3. I came across this quote the other day and I really have no recollection of where I saw it or who said it, but I thought it was awesome and whoever said it deserves a meatloaf sandwich:
The reality is if you are lifting a weight ten times, numbers nine and ten should be difficult. If you can lift a weight 20 times but choose to do only ten, you are wasting your time. Period.
4. This past weekend I went to the theater to see the remake of Total Recall:
Here’s my one-sentence review: it should have been called Total Regurgitate In My Mouth. HA, see what I just did there? I took the title of the movie and then re-worded it so that you’d get the impression that it sucked, and, well, you get the idea.
5. Lastly, I wanted to give you all a heads up on a really cool site I’ve been using for the past week called RebelMouse.com.
In short, it’s a site that takes all of your social media – Facebook and Twitter – and conjoins everything under one umbrella into your very own social front page. It’s pretty freakin sweet. Check out my page HERE.
It’s currently in Beta, and there’s a waiting list to join, but it might be something worth checking out.
I like to consider myself as an even keeled person who tries to see the comedy in life and not to take things too seriously.
I’m originally from Middle of Nowhere, NY where I grew up in a small town with no traffic lights and no fast food restaurants. Just to be clear though, yes, we had running water. And the internet for that matter. But barely. My parents had been using a dial-up connection up until last year, which is considered child abuse in some states.
Love you mom!!!!!
Anyways, life moves a bit differently where I’m from. Where I’m from people don’t slam on their car horn and go bat shit crazy if you don’t move within one-hundredths of a nanosecond of a red light turning green. Here in the city? Different story. Everyone is the most important person in the world, and is apparently in some dire emergency to get somewhere.
Likewise, there aren’t many things that really bother me. Okay sure, some people can go out of their way to be “kinda douchy” and do something really irritating like talking, going to Maroon 5 concerts, or taking up two parking spots and blocking me in.
Hey dude: this isn’t Dukes of Hazzard, and I don’t drive the General Lee, so I shouldn’t have to do a window stunt just to get into my own car. Capiche?
But those are usually few and far between.
The internet, though: now THAT’S a whole new ball game, and a place where my pet peeves seem to increase exponentially.
Given the safe domain – not to mention the anonymity – that the internet provides, it’s not surprising how it often brings out the “inner expert” in people.
And why not? One of the advantages of the internet is the profound profoundness of it all. Never has information been so easily accessible. And never has there been a time where people can learn everything on anything with just a simple click of a button.
Which is also it’s drawback.
Just yesterday I read an article over on Livestrong.com by a buddy of mine who described a brief, albeit effective, metabolic type workout that could easily be followed by the masses and maybe provide a nice change of pace to someone looking to shed a little fat.
As is the case with any “universal” article geared towards the general public, it had to be watered down to the lowest common denominator so that the information could be easily followed. It was a slideshow piece which provided still-frame pictures (and descriptions) of each exercise.
Apparently PJ (the author) made the mistake of using dumbbells in his pictures – which makes sense given that the majority of people out there don’t have access to kettlebells.
I thought it was great and provided a solid routine for a lot of people reading.
But wouldn’t you know it, the first comment – as well as a few others that followed – were from the kettlebell nazis, trying to convey to the world that kettlebells are the only form of exercise everyone should be doing. EVER.
The very first comment:
The swing is a great exercise………when performed CORRECTLY…….WITH A KETTLEBELL! Do not use a dumbell as it is a different and less effective move and more likely to recruit the low back for power production.
The same person, then finished with these great words of wisdom:
nice technique………..NOT!
For starters: it’s a freakin STILL FRAME picture. Lets get off our high horse for a second. How can you judge one’s overall technique by one still frame shot?
Here’s a picture of Jim Wendler squatting:
Using the same logic, we could argue that his squat technique sucks because he’s not hitting at least parallel. We all know this is bullshit, because this is a STILL FRAME shot of him either descending or coming out of the hole during a max effort attempt.
Going back to the article, I have full confidence that a dude who trains HUNDREDS of people a month, has been published in several reputable magazines, and not to mention has a pretty smart editor at Livetrong who’s job it is to make sure that high quality content makes it to the site – knows how to perform a proper swing.
Relax. Deep Breaths. The World Won’t End.
Secondly, while I won’t argue that using a kettlebell over a dumbbell “feels” better when performing a swing, as I noted above, not everyone has access to kettlebells in their gym. Using a dumbbell is fine.
No, really. It is.
And since when does a dumbbell recruit more of the lower back? I have a hard time figuring this one out. If one is performing a proper swing pattern, snapping their hips, “attacking their groin,” and keeping the weight close to the body, I don’t see how if someone uses a dumbbell that it’s somehow is more detrimental to the back.
Further down the comments section, there are several other readers who state that the same workout is, like, waaaaaaay more effective if done with kettlebells.
Kettlebell squats are better than dumbbell squats. Kettlebell rows are better than barbell rows. Kettlebell swings cure cancer. Kettlebells make the best salt and pepper shakers!!
Okay, I get it already: you like kettlebells.
And that’s cool. I do, too. I consider coaches like Pavel, Dan John, Mike Mahler, and Gray Cook (all of whom are “kettlebell guys) mentors. Moreover, I have a high respect for people like Neghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, Steve Cotter, and Batman (I think) – all of whom utilize kettlebells to a high degree as well.
I use them myself – heck, I’m even contemplating going for my HKC. I use them with all of my athletes and clients. But as with anything else, and I think all the peeps I mentioned above would agree – whether we’re talking about kettlebells, TRX, yoga, deadlifts, or anything else you want to throw into the mix – they’re a tool in the toolbox, and need to be used at the right time, with the right person, for the right job.
People are entitled to their opinion, of course. Everyone shouldn’t have to sing Kumbaya and hold hands on everything, and I think it’s great when people from different view points can have a civil discussion – even if all they do is agree to disagree.
But I just get flabbergasted (yep, that’s right: flabbergasted) when people go on and on and on and on and on*about how kettlebells are the shiznit (and they can be) and have to be used for E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. That’s not necessarily the case.
End rant, exit stage left.
Anyone agree? Disagree? Am I off base?
* = and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. You get the idea.
