New year Squat frenzy (or why I'm not strong..yet)

 See note at the bottom about this picture

Today I finally realised something that has on the edges of my mind for a while. ...I’m not strong!  Now let me qualify that a bit, strength is kind of hard to define, you can be strong at say pull-ups, or deadlifts, or whatever, but being ‘strong’ means being able to do your chosen skill well, with a decent amount of weight.

For a short while I’ve been moving over from a powerlifting style training routine to a more weightlifting-esque style of lifting.  That has proven somewhat more difficult than I expected as I’m reasonable at the powerlifts (2 x bodyweight deadlift, 1.5 x bodyweight bench), but the stiffness I developed in those endeavours is just what I do not need for doing Olympic style lifts.  For example overhead squats touching glutes to calves I have to work up to even lifting bodyweight.  From standing to parallel I’m pretty good, below parallel I suck!  It’s like I have to fight myself down, I’m kind of weak & stiff at the same time in that portion of the lift!  It’s the same with the other squat variations, but not quite so bad weight-wise, I’m not strong in the bottom part, I’m also not fast.  Those are two things you need to really do reasonably well at Olympic lifting being fairly strong & fast at just the place I’m weakest & slowest, it’s a pain.

So, far this year I’ve worked out 6 days this year (every other day & some sessions have been twice a day) & every session has included squats.  This is NOT a powerlifting style of squatting.  We’re talking high bar back, front or overhead & basically the sets have been short of max so far.  I am going to say now this is going to change, I’m moving to working out squats every day for several weeks, sometimes twice a day – it will be basically this: Work up to the daily max, then done, or on harder days followed by some lighter higher rep sessions.  I will do variations that will affect the max lifted like pause squats (if done using overhead squats these are extremely brutal, but I’ll do pause variations on all forms of squats that I do) & other techniques to keep everything going.  I will be doing other exercises, but squats will play a big part.  I will be backing off of squats once it becomes obvious the cycle is done, but I really want at least this month of consistent squatting on a daily basis.  After that I’ll have a short recovery then still hit the squats several times a week, but hopefully my numbers will be more tolerable after a cycle or so of really focussed squat training.

 Not used in this cycle, but chains are cool :-)

This may not be the kind of training you’ve heard about before, it is a very ‘Olympic lifting’ style of training & one I’m not used to following either, so it’s nearly as new to me as it is to you.  I have no idea how I’ll fare using it as up until now I’ve used totally traditional bodybuilding &/or powerlifting styles of training that insist on resting bodyparts or movements between sessions, not hammering & hammering the same thing day after day, so I thought I’d try it out using these first few sessions to slide into it, then going daily from now until I really hit a wall either physically or mentally - Squatting is mentally TOUGH, it’s in the top % of tough exercises to burn out the mind.  I’d go so far as to say squatting is more mental than physical, you are frightened of being crushed, overhead squats are even worse than the rest, you could drop a weight onto your head!

 Hopefully we'll be lifting all this 

& more by the end of the cycle

So back to the not being strong – To clarify I’m not strong at these lifts YET!  That’s the important point, I know I’m not up there quite yet, but it will come, so far I’ve managed to get from not being able to touch my glutes to my calves to being able to get down (yes I started with a stick!), now I’m going to be grinding out a daily recipe of squats (various back, front & overhead, with or without pause & maybe even some unstable versions if I feel I can do them safely – using discs hanging from the bar using bands NOT standing on an unstable surface). 

 Hanging discs from a bar using bands

So, that’s the plan for the first part of 2013.  It may, or may not work out as this is a pretty new method to me & goes against a lot of what I’ve learnt before, but then so is letting your knees go over the front of your toes, holding the bar overhead with the shoulders shrugged, cocking the wrists when lifting overhead, wearing heeled shoes when squatting, moving quickly when lifting.  All of this I’ve had to adjust to over the last few months, it’s been a steep learning curve, but has opened up a whole new vision about what you can do when training.  That isn’t to say the other things I’ve done are wrong, that bodybuilding, powerlifting or functional style training routines are wrong, far from it, I love doing them.  It’s just I’m exploring a new pathway for a while & see where it can lead me & if my legs do happen to get super-strong I won’t be too upset as they always been my weakest part!

So, let’s hear what you’re trying out for 2013, pop it below & we can maybe give the readers a whole pile of ideas for the new year, how about it?

[NOTE: I didn't have any pics of my recent training sessions so I grabbed a few random pics just to make it a bit more exciting for you.  I am not using a box for squatting as shown in the pic for example, it's all glute to calves]

REVIEW: Matt Vincent Training lab (book)

This was a book I got simply out of interest.  I am not into highland games, nor do I have any plans to train for or work with anyone interested in highland games.  I have never even been to a highland games event before.  Saying all that this is an interesting read.  It is not a long read (I was done in an evening), it does give you an idea of what you would have to do if you have compete over a long season, how to peak & also mentions the point that you cannot 'peak' for a whole season, you have to pick the time to excel during that season (a point missed in many, many publications).  I found it a useful guide for any strength athlete with a longer session & it could be used as such (you simply swap out the throwing with the skill work of your choice).  The concepts were pretty sound & as it's an ebook you could have it in moments if you think this might be of interest to you.
I'm not sure how many vegan highland games athletes there are in the world (if you are one I would love to hear from you!), but if you are then get this book, if you are interested in different styles of strength training then get this book.
It uses a form of block periodisation system with strength, speed/power & volume sections.  It also covers CV work, recovery, even what to take to highland games 'event' ('meet' or whatever you call a collection on competing highland games athletes?)
Final points, this book does have a few swear words in it (but if you've read any modern powerlifting stuff you know what to expect), just ignore that & find the useful nuggets.
You can get the book from here as usual we gain nothing from this review, just thought you'd find it useful.

REVIEW: lift, run, bang ebook

Now there is a title you'll either love or hate!  These two books are based on the blog of the same name ( click here to check that out).  A friend of mine had the books & so I thought I'd check them out as they are both quite short.  I won't give away the whole program here, but the ideas are pretty basic (translated: that means I like them!), you get two books, one for mass building, one for strength peaking, you also get excel sheets to plug-in your own numbers & use the system.  The whole system is built upon eating a lot & lifting pretty heavy most of the time.  I liked the 80% : +10%: -10% rule.  It's so easy to add into your training & yet I'd never thought of it, that is a change to my 2012 log book right there! (80% of your workout should be 'ok', 10% great, 10% will be crappy.  Simply writing it down in your log will allow you to see how you are going, if you have too many -10% then you are doing something wrong, if you are hitting a load of 80% &/or +10% then you're heading the right way...how simple is that!).  That one rule was worth the read in itself & there is plenty more in there for someone who wants to improve their lifts.  The good thing is neither book is over 40 pages!  Read the mass one first (it's a little over 30 pages), then read the strength one (26 pages).  Read them in that order as some stuff is covered in the mass but not in the strength, so it makes more sense that way.  You can read & digest these in an hour or so, then go straight to it if you want.  I liked the simple style & common-sense approach to lifting.  The dietary advice is pretty much useless to the vegan, veggie or even meat reducing athlete, but you can get some ideas of the amounts needed to eat to grow larger & yes sometimes the younger guys & gals need to slip in some junk to add mass (but outside of the very youthful, 'bag of bones' junk food should be a very rare treat).  There is a little swearing in the book, if that worries NEVER hang around with powerlifters or similar types as aggression tends to 'loosen the tongue' when you lift flat out max weights.
As a final note there was plenty about lifting, a very little about running & nothing about banging in the book, so if you expected anything else you are out of luck (also all the pictures are of big, sweaty guys, not the heaving bosomed young ladies, so again tough luck).
The whole thing costs $15 USD so if you like the powerlifting/powerbuilding style of training then this could be of use to you.  I can probably guarantee you have heard 90% of what is being said before, but if this book actually gets you DOING IT, then it's $15 well spent!

To get hold of lift, run, bang click here

REVIEW: The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline

I read this book in a day! That’s not because it’s especially short, but it was a compulsive read! I’ll start with the one annoying feature. Pavel’s sales pitch is being ‘the Russian’, so selling to the American market, he uses words like ‘Comrade’, & has phases like ‘the Party line’, a play on the old USSR communist ideology (which was actually about as communist as ex-British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher!), but I digress. Yes, he does do a lot of that ‘commi-talk’ which I don’t enjoy really & actually made me take him less seriously than I should have for a long time.

With that said on with the book. The idea sounds almost overly simple. Take 2 bodyweight exercises & focus on those to build strength. In this case he uses the one arm push-up & the pistol (a pistol is a one leg squat with the non-working leg stuck out in front – you kind of look like a pistol, hence the name). This doesn’t sound like it would be a very long book, nor would that many find that interesting (unless you want to do those specific moves), but it’s actually not about those moves as such! What it’s actually about is how to display strength using various techniques of breathing, body tension & movement cues. This is why this book will work for many athletes, whether they are weightlifters, powerlifters, athletes or fighters. Yes, you are learning 2 movements in this book, but you can apply this knowledge to ANY lift & many athletic endeavours (any that require strength). It is a technique book, not an exercise book & so the rules found in here can be applied to a whole range of strength-related activities.

I read convict conditioning only the other day & this is another bodyweight book – in this case whereas Paul Wade was against the use of external load at all, Pavel has the view that you can & probably should mix both weights & bodyweight to get the best of both. I think I agree with this idea. Also Pavel is focussed upon building strength for the word go with low rep work, Wade starts with more high rep & works towards strength, a view that Pavel thinks is incorrect ‘you can’t build strength from muscular endurance exercises’ sums up Pavel’s view of training. I do tend to side more with Pavel than Wade on this, but that is purely my personal preference rather than absolute knowledge. I know that harder low rep stuff is more exciting to me than pumping out 50 reps of something, so accept I am biased & I do know some people who can do both high reps & high strength moves (like many push-ups & some strict one arm push-ups), but did one build the other or did they learn one, then learn the other? I’m not sure?

So, if what you are after is learning a one arm push-up (or you could even try the one arm/one leg push-up) & the pistol (with bodyweight or weighted both are covered) then this book will be for you. If you want to learn some of the tricks that allow you to display maximum strength in your sport then this will be the book for you.

The book is called the ‘Naked Warrior’, so it is saying you can do it anywhere, anytime & need no equipment, but given the choice I would have added the one arm chin-up to the mix. I know that ruins the whole ‘no equipment’ rule as you need something to chin from, but then you’d have a more rounded out program in my view. That is the ‘big 3’ of the bodyweight world, yes, there are harder exercises, but everyone understands that a one arm chin is hard, a one arm push-up is hard & a pistol is hard, if you can do them with good form then you have got to be considered ‘strong’ by any honest standard of strength. Hence I think you are missing something without the hard pull that a one arm chin-up gives you. That is my only gripe really, I’d have included that as well.

I did enjoy the book (barring the whole ‘comrade’ stuff I mentioned at first), as I said I read it in one day & found it a clear guide to some techniques we can all include into our training whatever our field.

That’s about it, it’s a good read, it’s useful & you will probably learn a trick or 2 that will increase your strength if you add them in to your training.

If you're interested in the book you can pop over to dragondoor & get yourself a copy.

J.C.Hise - a new perspective?

Over the years & my fondness for old time physical culture I've read some articles by J.C.Hise, but today I read this from a guy who was in direct contact with the man & here is a few of his thoughts:

"...He often spoke of the Eastern doctrine of ahimsa. This is living your life so that you never harm any creature..."

"...Nutrition
There’s much anecdotal evidence, some of which is supported by epidemiological studies, that those races or peoples who stay strong and healthy even in extreme old age live on diets that are low in calories but high in nutritive value. In particular, those populations that consume diets that primarily consist of fruits and vegetables have healthy blood pressure, low glucose levels and low total serum cholesterol levels..."

Now I've read a little about Hise in my time & a couple of things struck me as odd:

First of all Hise was never really what you'd call a low calorie guy...In fact I've read several times about the incredible appetite the guy had. Maybe that was the odd occasion & maybe he followed a less hectic eating program most of the time, but had, kind of, binge sessions when going for maximum growth?

The other was his ahimsa attitude. I seem to remember he actually pushing a meat diet (hardly never harming another creature!), but I could be wrong as I'd have to dig through some old magazines to find the articles in question.
I just thought I'd mention a few doubts I have just so you don't uncritically read the article which I did find very interesting.

You can read the article by going here

A few points about Hise, if you've never heard of the man before. He was the first man to use heavy 20 rep squats to build his body. His influence inspired Mark Berry to champion the squat (especially for high reps) & for Peary Rader (editor & owner of ironman magazine) to take up squatting & pushing the idea in his magazines. He inspired Strossen to write the book "Super squats" & used a form of abbreviated training that has been the basis for guys like Stuart McRobert. Basically he is one of the founders of bodybuilding & strength training as we know it, although today mainly forgotten. He invented (or popularised) many exercises, like flat footed, heavy high rep squatting & Hise Shrugs being the most enduring two of his ideas.

Anyway, I have decided to try & find out more about the guy, so I’m going to try & find out if there are any books about his life, useful articles about his philosophy or any other avenues of information I can explore to see if I can discover the true J.C.Hise.