Dave Tate On Deadlifting

Knee Jumps

1 Minute of Deadlifts

3 Max Sets Of Ring Dips

7 Habits Of Highly Defective Bench Pressing

In my line of work, I get to see a lot of pitching instructors and hitting coaches. Some have the unbelievable ability to really get through to kids and make them great. On the other hand, there are some that flat-out suck.

As I've seen these two ends of the spectrum, I've come to realize that the best guy to teach you a curveball is rarely the one who has had a dirty 12-to-6 breaking ball since he was in seventh grade. Rather, the guy that can teach you the most is the one who struggled with his curveball for years and tried everything to even turn it into a mediocre pitch.

Likewise, the best hitting coach hasn't batted .400 for a month, let alone a season. The best guy to teach you how to rake is the one who busted his butt to get from a .170 to .250 batting average.

When it comes to deadlifting, I've been pretty blessed. While I've worked my butt off and experimented with a variety of methods to bring it up, it's the lift that's always come naturally to me -- to the tune of a 650-pound deadlift at a body weight of 174 pounds in my last competition.

Read the rest of this article here



Goblet Squats

5-10-5 Test

AMRAP 20
1 Front Squat (Men use 185/Women use 123)
Run 100m
3 Weighted Pull Ups

T-Spine Mobility

Depth Jumps

D/E Shoulder Press
10x2 @ 70%

5 Rounds
5 Power Cleans (Men use 155/Women use 103)
10 Burpees

Dennis Rogers

Arm Bars and Brettzels

M/E Snatch

3 Rounds
Run 400m
25 Swings (Men use 48k/Women use 32k)
10 Tactical Pull Ups

Red Nails Die

Read about Dave's Red Nail crusade here

Jumping Pistols
4x1

Zurcher Squats
2x6

Barbell Complex
Hang Power Snatch
Overhead Squat
Good Morning
Row
Deadlift

The Jumping Position

106 pound bent press. Need we say anymore?

Single Leg Box Jumps

Clean and Jerk, Jerkx3

3 Rounds
Double Overhead Walk
25 Double Unders

No Internet

Sorry for not posting this last week. When the post holes were dug for our fence the cable, phone and internet line got cut. The good news is that the tires are out of the garage now.







M/E Bent Press

12-9-6
Front Squats (Men use 205/Women use 136)
Towel Swings (Men use 32 kilo/Women use 24 kilo)

Derek Poundstone

Goblet Squats

PNF Hamstring Stretch

M/E Deadlift

Reverse Hyper 2x20

4 Rounds
3 Muscle Ups
10 Kettlebell Snatches

Z-Health

Check out Z Health here

Chain Pull Upsx4

5 Rounds
3 Kettlebell Snatches per arm (Men use 40k/Women use 24k)
6 Hindu Push Ups
9 Jumping Squats (Men use 95lbs/Women use 63lbs)

Manufacturing Costs Vs. Retail Costs

Progenex has made every effort to achieve market position as a premier brand of recovery protein, in an effort to justify their average price of $62.50 per bag of protein (1 bag of More Muscle + Recovery = $125/month). However, to achieve roughly $30,000 in sales (which equated to just under $20,000, after tabulating various discounts), Progenex spent a mere $2,600 in production costs.

If the costs for the packaging (the bags) is subtracted from their total manufacturing costs, plus paying a company to put the protein in those bags, the total cost for $30,000 worth of their product is just around $2,000. If the discounts are added in, we find that Progenex is selling Crossfitters $2,000 worth of protein for $20,000. Therefore, according to their own financial reports, each $60 bag of protein costs about $6 to manufacture.

If you’re a Crossfitter thinking about buying Progenex, please consider that you are actually paying $60 for a $6 bag of whey protein, and the rest of your money is going into the pockets of people like Darren Meade.

Read this article here





Box Squats
8x3 @ 65%

Kettlebell Complex
3 Cycles of 6 reps each
Double Swings
Double Cleans
Double Presses
Double Snatches
Bent Over Rows

Squat Like A Girl

Single Leg Deadlifts
3x3

5 Rounds
5 Tactical Pull Ups
10 Hand to Hand Swings
Bear Crawl

Pressing With Power Breathing

Pay attention to how he breathes during the press.




M/E Press

Some Quality Time With "Judy"

"Bigger Stronger Faster*"

Arm Bars

Single Leg Box Step Ups

Single Leg Deadlifts

330m Farmers Walk

Say CHEESE!

Many years ago I was running intervals at the track when I noticed something. I believe I was somewhere around the third lap of my fourth 1,600-meter interval in a set of six when I became aware that my entire face was tense. By this point in the workout I was feeling rather fatigued and working very hard. My facial muscles were contracting as part of the overall effort. Nothing unusual about that, but on this particular occasion I became conscious of it and responded by consciously relaxing my muscles, which I was able to do quite easily because, of course, it is not necessary to tense one’s facial muscles to run hard. When I relaxed my face I felt that the effort required to complete the interval was ever so slightly reduced.

You can tell how hard any runner is working simply by looking at his or her face. The greater the effort, the more agonized the facial expression becomes. In the last part of any race, runners typically wear facial expressions that, outside of the running context, are seen on them only when they are in pain. The last-mile-of-a-marathon look is also the post-toe-stub look.

Read the full article here

Preparation for BUD/S

Powermetric Pull Ups

5 Rounds

10 Burpee Box Jumps

5 Power Cleans

Magnus Samuelsson

Our Captain's of Crush Training Center will be here on Monday




Clapping Push Ups and The Beast



PR Back Squat

Snatch 2x2

4 Rounds
10 Tire Flips
20 Kettlebell Cleans

When Grok Meets Krog

When I introduced a forum thread asking folks to share their top three challenges in going Primal, one issue got major traction: the S.O. factor (significant other, for those of you not into the whole online brevity thing). It’s a familiar story. One partner takes on a new health commitment. Life changes for that person. He/she goes through struggles, triumphs, growth – an entire physical and psychological process that potentially leaves a relationship chasm in its wake. Then there are the logistics, a menacing obstacle course of loaded questions and irksome details. Do you still eat together? Who cooks (not to mention shops)? Do we have enough pots and pans to make two different meals each night? How do we handle the kids’ food? Finally, what does it mean for the arrangement when one person’s food expenditure overshadows the other’s?

Read the rest of this article here


Tug-of-War. 130 pounds vs 130 pounds

Goblet Squats

Wall Squats

M/E Back Squat

5 Rounds
20 Clapping Push Ups
15 Kettlebell Swings (Men use 48k/Women use 32k)

David Whitley

Conditioning Rope

Jumping Squats
6x2

Pistols

4 Rounds
Sled Pull
5 Double Kettlebell Snatches

Double Kettlebell Snatch

There is more than one way to do a double kettlebell snatch.

Mike Mahler's technique (Mike is a Senior Certified Kettlebell Instructor) is similar to that used by Olympic weightlifters. Mike extends his body and drives his elbows back in order to pull the kettlebells closer once they are level with his head. This kind of double kettlebell snatch pull is an extremely effective upper back exercise on it’s own. When using this technique you should do lots of sets each consisting of low reps. Do not pull with your biceps, use your upper back and momentum instead. Also, drop the KBs back between your legs in between each rep. Once you get the hang of it, practice dipping underneath the KBs and locking out upon completion of the rep.

Following a heavy double snatch remember to ALWAYS lower the kettlebells to your chest before you drop them between your legs.

Brett Jones (another Senior RKC) performs his double kettlebell snatch in a classic "hard" style. His arms stay straight and rigid, with his hips driving hard without a second dip. If you want to work up to this, start by snatching the kettlebells higher and higher with every rep until they’re directly overhead.

With this exercise you will be dropping the kettlebells in one fluid motion and the force of momentum (or ballistic force) will be very high, so you should watch your knees and start out with a lighter weight than you may be used to in order to avoid hurting yourself.

Do not try this one-step version when you go to heavier kettlebells, instead start out with the two-step, pause at the chest method.

This article taken from Kettlebell-Training.com


The Double Kettlebell Snatch

Weighted Dips 2x2

Bent Presses

4 Prowler Sprints

Red Nail

Click here for Iron Mind's rules for becoming a certified Red Nail Bender

M/E Turkish Get Up

4 Rounds

2 Atlas Stones

10 Tactical Pull Ups

Speed Dynamic Warm Up

Train Like Arthur Saxon

Strong enough for ya?

Windmills

Lateral A Skips

4 Rounds
20 Kettlebell Snatches (Men use 32k/Women use 24k)
10 Front Squats with same Kettlebell

Coaching Session With Coach B

Depth Jumps

Box Squats 5x5

4 Rounds

5 Hang Power Cleans (Men use 155/Women use 103)

15 Ring Dips

Brett Jones Demonstraing Our End Goals

Piriformis Stretch

Hip Flexor Stretch

M/E Press

3 Rounds

7 Pull Ups

15 Burpees

10 Swings (Men use 32k/Women use 24k

Bikram Yoga

Bikram Yoga as a recovery method

Turkish Get Ups

Bent Presses

Curls

Bat Wings

My Philosophiae

Strength is paramount, conditioning is incidental.

Squat and deadlift.

If you are not properly using kettlebells you will never reach your full potential. Kettlebells transfer better to the barbell better than anything I have ever seen. The barbell does not transfer well to kettlebells.

Why buy a dumbbell when you can buy a kettlebell?

Your life or the life of another may depend on your physical prowess.

Arthur Saxon and Eugen Sandow got it right, train like them. A 370 pound bent press is unquestionable.

If you want to squat 500 pounds eat like you want to squat 560 pounds because once you squat 500, you'll want 560.

Curls should be in your program. Connective tissue takes 2-3 weeks to grow due to the lack of blood vessels in them whereas muscle takes 2-3 days. This is the same reason steroid users tear tendons and ligamnets. Still not convinced? How about elbow flexion in the saggital plane using a third class lever.

If you can bench press 350 pounds and you put your hands on someone they will go where you want to to go.

Bench presses and curls are both overrated and underrated at the same time.

You should be able to move your body weight with minimal fatigue over an extended period. Push ups, pull ups, flutter kicks, climbing, crawling, et al.

You should also be able to attach a substantial weight to your body and knock out 15 strict pull ups.

One arm/one leg movements = success.

Clean and jerk and snatch, heavy.

SAQ drills strengthen your ACL and aid in preventing tears, do them.

Your body can only weigh so much and so little, you cannot lose bone and organ mass. Worry about strength to weight ratio not what the scale says. The barbell and stopwatch cannot lie.

Drink olive oil.

Learn and master the turkish get up

Mobility will improve your technique and strength. Find your inflexibilities and correct them.

Isolation movements can be used to improve muscle imbalances. They should not be the bulk of your program however.

Triple extension in the Olympic lifts is not the same as rotational strength through the hips.

It was originally spelled "pliometrics".

Know your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. Changes may have to be made.

The biggest muscle isn't always the strongest muscle.

There are some laws that you should know among these are: Accomodation, Supercompensation, and Diminishing Returns. Unless you are in a sport then the Law of Diminishing Returns applies to you. If you are not a powerlifter a 1,100 pound squat stopped benefiting you a long time ago. Know the difference.

We all have a "6 pack", technically we all have an 8 pack. Being able to see your abs doesn't guarantee abdominal strength.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you train someone will always be stronger and quicker than you. It's your job to surpass them.

Knowledge is an on going process.

The king of kettlebell movements

Knee Snatches

D/E Bench Press

10 Minute VO2Max

Postural Analysis

Within the world of performance training and strength and conditioning, there are several evaluation methods used to determine body function and positioning. Some practitioners choose a variety of different methods while other stick to one comprehensive assessment that might contains pieces of many.

After studying athletes from the youth ranks through the professional ranks and walking through many malls and mass people depots throughout the United States, there are several commonalities which exist:

1. People have very poor posture.

2. People are unaware that they have bad posture, which contributes to daily pain and breakdown over time.

The above have been the driving forces behind our programming for a number of years. Understanding the relationship between posture and injuries has led us to many advances in corrective protocols. It has also helped us understand how sometimes the core exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, might have more negative effects than positive ones in certain situations and that at times our training and field research have actually hurt our athletes.

The analysis of posture; shoulder, head, pelvic, and foot positioning; torso length; and body sway have given us tremendous insight into the bodies of our athletes and clients. The ability to understand the underlying cause of the above will allow us to resolve daily pain caused by negative stress, which leads to poor joint functioning and negative movement patterns.

Read the rest of this article here


The Brettzel for thoracic mobility



Go to our Photobucket to see Michelle's mobility improve


Dead Stop Front Squats

Side Presses

Deadlift 3x5

3 Rounds
Snow Sled
Waiter's Walk

Bootstrapper Squats

Hamstring PNF

Box Jumps

M/E Snatch

Litvinov Sprints
8 Overhead Squats
Sprint 330m

Deloading Continues...

Rack Jerks

Snatch

Dead Stop Front Squat

Mobility and Strength Clinic

Chandra Jones and myself will be hosting a Mobility and Strength Clinic on January 22, 2011 at our location. Be sure to sign up for the clinic at the website listed above as it is limited to 16 participants.


The ultimate lesson in muscle tension


12 pound "Sheila" Goblet Squats shall henceforth be included in the warm up.

Armbars

Windmills/Side Presses/Bent Presses

50 Swings

Deload Week

What is one of the biggest mistakes strength coaches, personal trainers, athletes and lifters make?

They never DELOAD.

In fact, they come in for weeks and weeks on end and train their asses off. That’s good and bad.

Good - in the fact that they’re trying to build muscle, as well as getting stronger and faster. They’re trying to get more mobile, more explosive and get better for their sport(s).

Bad - with all of this training, you must build times recovery into your program. I’m not talking about a one-day recovery session. I am talking about a week-long process that specifically pays attention to getting your body ready for the next intense three to four week training block.

This is called a deload.


What is a Deload?

Read the rest here




Practice One Arm Push Ups and One Arm/One Leg Push Ups

Box Jump

Kettlebell Snatch Technique

Goblet Squats

Reverse Band Deadlifts

Hand Jumps

Reverse Band Deadlifts
8x2

3 Rounds
50 Double Unders
15 Ring Dips

Valery Federenko Sets World Record

Valery Fedorenko, the man who brought Kettlebells to America, beat his own World Record with a 132 pound kettlebell Saturday live on JustIn.TV. A kettlebell is a special handled weight adapted for fitness and developed into its own sport in Russia from its original use as a precise counter-balance on a scale. This retired Champion is now Chief Advisor for World Kettlebell Club®, and is still making gains in strength and conditioning beyond his professional sport days more than 20 years ago.

Fedorenko, now 37 years old, began lifting kettlebells at the age of 12. It wasn’t until he was 16 that he began getting serious about the Sport, much like youth in America take to Basketball, Baseball and Football. Born in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic located in Asia, Valery set several Official World and USSR Records and made many firsts, most notably breaking the Men’s Adult Absolute Snatch Record at a body-weight of just 163 pounds as a Junior Lifter.

Read the rest of this article here

Speaking of new records...

PR Overhead Squat from StCloudStrength on Vimeo.

Band Assisted Jumps

Turkish Get Ups

5 Rounds

3 Muscle Ups

6 Hang Power Snatches (Men use 105/Women use 73)

Folding A Frying Pan

One Arm Push Up Practice

M/E Overhead Squat

Quality Time With "Judy"

Muscle Imbalances

Symmetry is a beautiful thing. It seems to be nature’s preferred state, at least in the structure of organisms: two eyes for stereoscopic vision (the better to hunt you with), two legs of equal length for injury-free traversal of the environment, two hands, two arms. For all intents and purposes, the two sides of the body are approximate mirror images of each other, with corresponding muscles and ligaments and tendons. Our anatomical symmetry is obviously a product of evolution, because a balanced body simply works better. Kids born with right legs an inch or two shorter than the left are more prone to injury, just as cars with bigger wheels on the left will be more prone to disrepair. Objective human beauty is determined by symmetry of the facial structure, as if we’re innately drawn to balance. A balanced body structure, too, is objectively attractive, because it connotes strength and competence in matters of survival (war, hunting, protection). It becomes clear that if symmetry weren’t important for survival in this environment, it wouldn’t have been selected for, we wouldn’t be drawn to it, and plants and animals would have assumed entirely different forms. Maybe we’d be amorphous blobs just kind of oozing around (as opposed to the amorphous blobs with legs and arms that presently populate our planet).

Read the rest here





Goblet Squats

1 Minute of Deadlifts

Prowler Push

AMPED Warm Ups

Illinois Agilty Test

I go/you go fashion for 3 rounds

Double Kettlebell Press
2-3-5-10

Flying Through The Air

"This looks like a gym" - Dan John upon seeing our gym


Working on explosiveness with knee cleans


Depth Jumps

Safety Bar Squats
8x2 @ 70%

4 Rounds
20 Hindu Push Ups
10 Pull Ups
5 Tire Flips

Paleo Solution

Chris Double Pressing during his RKC technique test

Knee Cleans

Weighted Dips 5x5

3 Rounds
8 Swings
Sled sprint

Butt Wink

Periodically I get questions on whether or not the “butt wink” is an issue. The first thought that comes to mind is “who the hell thought of the term ‘butt wink’?” Winking requires the closing of an orifice, and everybody knows that in order to close your outer sphincter, you have to clench your butt cheeks together. You can’t do this while squatting, and if you do, you’re doing a half squat. So stop, god dammit.
Editor’s Note: Yes, there’s more than one sphincter. What?
2nd Editor’s Note: I don’t recommend Google image searching “butt wink” with the safe search “off”.

Read the rest of this article here


Line Stop Deceleration Drill


T-Spine Mobility



5 Minute Snatch Test
(Sharing the pain ;))

SMR With Eric Cressey

Yoga Downward Dogs
Overhead Barbell Jumps

Kettlebell Press
10x2

3 Rounds
1 Atlas Stone Lift
3 Muscle Ups

Safety Squat Bar

My First Safety Squat Bar Workout

I used to think this bar was a total waste of time and money before I used it for the first time at Westside Barbell Club in the early 1990’s. I came to Westside from a very intense progressive overload background. For those who are not familiar with this style of training, progressive overload begins by performing sets of 10 repetitions for several weeks and over two to three months, one would gradually decrease the reps until you perform singles. This style of training worked well for me when I first began training. As I got more experienced, I needed something more advanced and started training at Westside Barbell. I had to find something new or I was never going to get better. While at Westside, I was introduced to a whole new style of training. It was completely different and I had never seen or read about this kind of training before. I was hesitant at first but since I had not made any progress in many years I figured I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I had seen the Safety Squat bar before and thought it was a total joke. I always thought that if you wanted to squat more, you simply squatted. And if you wanted to deadlift more, all you had to do is deadlift. To me everything else was just to get bigger, not stronger.

Read the rest of this article here



T-Test

5-10-5 Drill

5 Minute Farmer's Walk

Crucible Gym

Check out the Crucible Gym. They have felt that we are "a real place to go".


24 kilos soon feels like 32 kilos

Band Assisted Jumps

Snatch Pulls
8x2 @90%

Pistol Practice

25-20-15-10-5
Jumping Squats
Clapping Push Ups

Leg Press vs Squat

The one thing I've grown to love about commercial gyms is their consistency. What I mean is, just as how a Big Mac at McDonald's is the same offensive product no matter what part of the country you're in, it's nice to know that Monday at 5:30 PM is "National Bench Press time" at every 24-Hour Fitness abomination from Azusa, California to Anchorage, Alaska.

Why do I like this consistency? Because it allows me to structure other important workouts, like leg training, around days that the douchebag crowd is occupying the various glam exercise stations.

And even when I'm still forced to wait a bit, the line-up for my beloved squat rack is always far shorter than the leg press queue (arm curls in the squat rack crew notwithstanding).

Silly weekend warriors. Everybody knows that squats are superior to leg presses right? They're harder to do, require more coordination, and just rate higher on the exercise badass scale than something that resembles a plate-loaded La-Z-Boy recliner.

Don't these douchebags read Testosterone?

Read the rest of this article here


PR Front Squat


Our new muscle up rig

Sled Drag

Kettlebell Press

Litvi-Sprints
8 Hang Power Cleans
Sprint 330m

Your Monthly Reminder...

This is your monthly reminder that you cannot out eat the table.

Side Presses from StCloudStrength on Vimeo.

Depth Jumps

Weighted Dips 10x2 @55%

Shrugs

Death by Push Ups

Innovative Sled Dragging

Today we’re going to talk about sled dragging and a very unique variation I came up with. Most anaerobic alactic/anaerobic lactic sports (especially combat athletics) require not only specific metabolic adaptations, but a general conditioning foundation (GPP). It is this foundation that allows more specific, higher level conditioning to be implemented and developed.

Sled dragging is an excellent tool to help develop this general conditioning baseline.

Read the rest of this article here


Joel pulling his way to a PR snatch

Hand Jumps

Overhead Squat 2x2

Side Presses

3 Rounds
Bear Crawl
10 Snatches per arm (Men use 32k/Women use 24k)

9 Steps To Prevent Overtraining

1. Vary training methods
2. Take advantage of therapeutic modalities
3. Use good technique when lifting
4. Get 8 hours of sleep
5. Proper nutrition and sound supplementation
6. Take advantage of psychological modalities that enhance recovery like visualization or meditation
7. Avoid all stressors that adversely affect your training, just say no to negative energy!
8. Avoid tobacco, alcohol and narcotics
9. Properly cycle training efforts

Taken from here





The wrecking ball known as "The Beast".


AbWheel rollouts from standing. Good luck getting out of bed the next morn.

Chain Pull Ups
4x2
Place a number of chains behind your neck and do two reps, take a chain off and repeat until you are only using bodyweight.

Sots Presses

3 Rounds
8 Cleans (Men use 155#/Women use 103#)
Prowler Bear Crawl

Dr Squat

DrSquat.com



Med ball Throws

5 Rounds for time:
25 Double Unders
3 Short Cycles

Kettllebell Trajectory

Click here to see proper mechanics of the KB Jerk



Flying through the air on one leg!

Hand Jumps

Overhead Squat
3x10

Litvi Sprints
8 Deadlifts (Men use 315#/Women use 208#)
Sprint 200m

Deadbugs

Snatches and sprints with a gas mask


Joel had the honor of the last workout in the original gym

Med Ball Chops

5 Rounds
5 Power Cleans (Men use 175#/Women use 118#)
5 Kettlebell Push Jerks (Men use 32k/Women use 53k)
5 Kettlebell Front Squats (Use same bell)

6 Ways To Gain Wrist Strength

1. Do wrist curls and extensions.
2. Grab a dumbbell with the weights off of one side and rotate internally and externally. Make sure you are doing stuff to keep your ROM optimal. Start easy and work yourself in.
3. Grip Devices: grippers, balls, etc.
4. Radial Deviation against a resistance band.
5. Ulna Deviation vs a resistance band.
6. Supination and pronation vs a resistance band.

Read this article here


One Leg Box Jumps

Kettlebell Shoulder Press
4x3

10 Prowler Sprints

Chains And Bands Are Crap

Now that I have your attention, I will explain. While I was a strength coach at Nebraska-Omaha, I learned about all kinds of things in the strength game to improve sports performance. I was a nerd when it came to biomechanics and programming. I always wanted to learn new things and apply them. I felt the quickest way to know if something was worth keeping around was by trial and error. I would use it on myself and on my sports teams. I never overhauled my philosophy, just tweaked it from time to time. I strongly believe everything works for awhile and nothing works forever when it comes to programming for human performance. I will take an athlete or coach who buys into learning how to move correctly over someone who is always looking for the latest, greatest. You can have the best strength and conditioning program on the planet, but if your athletes don’t buy into it or if they have poor movement, it won’t mean shit. On the other hand, I can produce some great athletes with determination and desire on a less-than-stellar program. It’s thetried and true that gets results. That’s why it’s referred to as such.

Read this article here




Reaction Ball

Med Ball Throws

Box Drill

3 Rounds
3 Hang Squat Snatches (Men use 95#/Women use 63#)
Prowler Pull

My first reason goes back to the time when a guy named David Marmon hired me to be his graduate assistant. I remember my first day on the job. I wanted to get my workout in. Like a typical meathead, I went out and did some crunches, bench presses, and bicep curls. After my “gettin’ swole” workout, I sat back down in the office expecting some praise and admiration for my superior workout skills. David greeted me with, “Why do you train that way?” I was dumbfounded. I thought I had all the answers when it came to things like getting stronger, fitter, and leaner and all around more awesome. He followed his question with, “We train movements, not muscles.” I guess the idea of training movements, not muscles, kind of stuck with me (even though we still did sit-ups in our programming at the time). Train movements, not muscles.

So taking the train movements, not muscles approach, is bringing your sternum closer to your pelvis a movement you want to get better at? Think about it. When you squat, what are the coaching cues you hear? Chest out. Back flat. Hips back. Right? Same thing with deadlifts and many other exercises. Chest out. Back flat. The spine evolved to handle weight in the “chest out, hips back” position. That’s why we coach it that way. Why would we want to get better in producing force in any other way?

Read the rest here





Pull Ups
12x2 @ 70%

Run 400m
21-15-9
Man Makers
Ring Dips
Run 400m

Candid View Of Westside Barbell

345# PR Deadlift


Savage

Hurdle Hops

1 Arm Overhead Squats
3x5

5 Rounds
Per Leg/Arm
3 Pistols (Men use 53#/Women use 35#)
6 Kettlebell Snatches (Use Same Kettlebell)
9 High Pulls

Preperation Mode

Due to the RKC being 5 weeks away we are going to place an even heavier emphasis on kettlebells. Maybe not this intensive though.




Wall Squats

M/E Deadlift

5 Rounds
10 2 Hand Kettlebell Presses (Men use
15 Box Jumps (Men use 24"/Women use 18")

Assisted Eccentrics

ASSISTED ECCENTRICS
Louie Simmons

Have you ever thought that ideas should be reversed? What if we
were born with the wisdom and the reasoning of a 65-year-old? We
would make more right decisions and possibly stay out of trouble and
make the most of our time while we’re young. Then as we get older,
we could start thrill-chasing and taking chances that instinctively we
would never consider. This of course would lead us to live by the
code of the poet Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good
night, old age should burn and rage at close of day; rage, rage
against the dying of the light” (1940). I try to live as Dylan Thomas put
into words, and yes, I have the scars to prove it. But of course we can
never live our lives in reverse.

There are a few that have read the exploits of a person who has been
said to have made great progress doing let’s say eccentrics. But were
there other factors involved in their training? I have read several
articles by sports experts around the globe, yet none have conclusive
evidence that eccentrics work. Mel Siff in Supertraining explains
eccentrics as action in which the proximal and distal muscle
attachments move away from one another. Eccentric work uses
significantly less energy than concentric work. When doing slow
eccentrics with large loads, there is no reason to associate these
advantages with the possibility of developing the ability to move
quickly and powerfully in concentric work. Lowering weights slowly
builds larger muscles for body building but will not assist concentric
actions.

Read the rest of this article here






Farmer's Walk

Weighted Pull Ups
4x10

3 Rounds
5 Hang Power Cleans (Men use 155#/Women use 103#)
10 Push Presses (Use Same Bar)
Bear Crawl

USAW

Side Presses

Jumping Pistols
10x2

4 Rounds
20 Knees to elbows
30 Double Unders

PNF Hamstring Stretch

One Leg Deadlifts

Snatch 2x2

Litvisprints
8 Clean and Presses
Sprint 250M

The Short Cycle

Depth Jumps

M/E Dip

3 Minute Short Cycle Test

3 Rounds
10 Tire Flips
10 Hindu Push Ups

Eggxactly

Eggs Are Good for More Than Silly Cliches
SMART FUEL

People like to use eggs in words like eggscellent, eggxactly and eggstatic.

Poor eggs. I recommend using them in your meals instead – and think beyond breakfast on occasion. Eggs are slowly regaining favor after their Humpty-Dumpty fall during the whole cholesterol paranoia of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

We know that they contain valuable protein, vitamins and minerals: stress-busting selenium, antioxidant E, and eye-healthy lutein among them.

Because I am an egghead (sorry), I’m proud to bring you the latest findings from a study Mark pointed out to the Bees in the Journal of Nutrition. In a study that was randomized (good), controlled (great), and cross-sectional (nice), scientists found that a daily egg gave people’s eyes a boost with lutein and zeaxanthin (an antioxidant from the carotenoid family) and didn’t raise their serum cholesterol. Not that we worry too much about cholesterol anyway. That’s right – we don’t lose sleep over cholesterol! Just one of the many MDA ongoing health debates you might want to check out in the forum.

Taken from Mark's Daily Apple


58# TGU

Weighted Box Jumps

Box Squats 3x10 @ 70%

Goblet Squats 2x5

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Pull Ups
Clapping Push Ups

RKC Advanced Strength

Back in ancient Greece, in the days of the battle at the Hot Gates, the human race had superior genetics compared to us in this lifetime. A couple of years ago an experiment was conducted across history. Exercise physiologists, engineers and historians from several universities across Europe set out to determine the level of conditioning these heroes of ancient times possessed.

By an historical analysis of information on these men’s training, ability to sail their ships and cover great distances by foot it was shown that the cardiovascular endurance and strength of the “average” man would be hard if not impossible to find a match for today—even when recruiting from the ranks of world level athletes. The scientists wrote: “It would be hard today to find enough world class athletes in the entire world to row a single copy of an ancient battleship at the same speed and for the same duration as the men from the past were able to do. Today we would not stand a chance against these men”.

Read the rest of this article here.



Thrusters
8x2

Kettlebell Complex
3 Cycles, 6 Reps per side
Side Pressx3
Front Squat
Clean
Push Press
Snatch
Two Hand Swing

10 Things We Should Already Be Doing

Throughout my years in the fitness industry, I’ve seen many things both good and bad. Working at a commercial gym for two years, I tend to see more bad than good.

Below is a checklist I came up with to help you determine whether you’re truly training or just wasting your time.

#1 Are you squatting or deadlifting regularly?
Hitting 3–4 sets of 135 lbs for 10 reps doesn’t count. You should be performing heavy deadlifts or squats at least one time per week. I’ve found that a heavy deadlift day and a squat day in the same week generally doesn’t work because it’s way too taxing on the body. Unless you’re doing these two exercises regularly, don’t come to me asking how to put on more muscle.

#2 Do you perform body weight movements?
My number one upper body movement is pull-ups, either body weight or weighted. If you don’t perform pull-ups regularly, get out of my gym. You’re wasting space. On top of pull-ups, there are hundreds of body weight movements that should be utilized in any training program. If you can’t move your body weight fluently, what good are you? And no, I don’t care if you bench press 500 lbs or more.

Read the rest of this article here



1 Minute of Deadlifts
Try to get between 10 and 20.
If you get less than 10, you went too heavy.
More than 20, too light

Sumo Deadlifts
3x3

5 Rounds
10 Pull Ups
25 Jumping Squats