While the bench press is king when it comes to developing a strong muscular chest, it may not be the only thing you want to use for a variety of reasons. You’re on the road and can’t get to a gym. Most hotel gyms suck and don’t offer much to …
6 Strength Training Measuring Sticks
How do you match up? While you shouldn’t necessarily compare yourself to other people out there, it can be useful from time to time.These six measuring sticks can be helpful guidelines for how you might want to structure your training and what your weak points might be. Deadlift – Bodyweight …
Vertical and Horizontal Presses and Pulls
I received a question regarding the balance between vertical presses and horizontal presses and pulls, with vertical exercises like pull-ups, overhead barbell press or handstand pushups versus horizontal presses like bench press, dumbbell rows, inverted rows and similar horizontal movements. Do you really need to do all of these to …
Progression Tips for Handstand Push-ups
A new article on handstand push-ups progression and my “Aha” moment has been put on Dragon Door blog. Handstand Push-ups and My “Aha” Moment When I got started with bodyweight training my goal was to be able to do a handstand push-up against the wall. My upper body strength had …
Doug Hepburn
Doug Hepburn was a famous strongman and weightlifter from Canada, best known for winning numerous weightlifting medals in the 50’s and various feats of strength he used to perform during the same period. The public became aware of Doug’s presence in 1953 when he won a gold medal at World …
Should I Bench Press?
The bench press is probably the second most favorite or the most hated exercise in the world, depending on who you ask. The first one being, of course, the curl. So, should you bench press? It all depends on what you are going for. It’s not a necessary exercise for …
Podcast: Stronger Pressing
This podcast features my good friend and fellow trainer Tyler Bramlett. On this call we talk about all different forms of pressing. [display_podcast] The Getup and Press, a phenomenal exercise for shoulder strength and health Is the bench press non-functional? Why hand balancing is the ultimate form of bodyweight pressing …
Pat Casey
Pat Casey is probably more famous for the record in 1967 when he managed to bench press 615 lb. Pat also broke another record when he squated more than 800 lb in another official contest! Imagine someone of his size doing a weighted dip with 380 extra pounds…Well, that’s exactly …
Effects of Music on Strength
I got a free copy of Men’s Fitness magazine the other day and was glancing through it. I came across a small paragraph about a recent stuff on the effects of music on strength. This comes from a study at California State University Fullerton. I dug up the complete paper …
Convict Conditioning
Today I want to talk about two different sorts of Convict Conditioning and which one you might want to try. I know a guy who recently got out of prison after spending just a couple months inside. We got on the subject of working out while he was there and …
Joe Nordquest
Joe Nordquest was a classic strongman back in the early part of last century. He was the brother of ‘The Young Sandow’ Alfred Nordquest. Here are some of his hand balancing exploits. From Klein’s Bell in November of 1931: Joe Nordquest performed a one hand stand and with the free …