A new article all about round back deadlifting has been put on Breaking Muscle. Deadlifting With a Rounded Back: If the Best Do It, Why Can’t You? “You’re going to CRIPPLE yourself!!!” It’s annoying. For whatever reason, YouTube seems to be the worst place for receiving the most off-the-wall and …
Charles Rigoulot
Charles Rigoulot was a strongman from France born in 1903 who started training with weights as a child. Aside from setting numerous weightlifting world records and winning the gold medal in the light-heavyweight class during 1924 Summer Olympics, Charles was also a race car driver, an actor and a professional …
Sanford Bennett
Sanford Bennett, born in 1841, was most famous for growing young at the age of 70. At around 50 years old, Sanford suffered from a wide range of chronic diseases and many wrinkles made him look much older than he actually was. He tried to solve his health issues through …
More Deadlift and Chinnup PR’s
As I mentioned earlier I feel like my progress is accelerating. Here are two more big PR’s for me that happened back to back. The first is a partial Jefferson deadlift. Working at about a 3/4 range of motion this is a fairly powerful position. I know I could have …
Bill St. John
Bill St. John was a famous old-time bodybuilder and strongman who took part in a number of contests and placed second in the Mr. USA contest in 1971. Among things which make Bill interesting is his focus on neck training. One of the exercises he liked to do quite frequently …
Marilyn Monroe, Breast Development and Recovering from Your Workouts
The other day I was going through a book on hypnosis by Leslie Lecron. This man worked with the famous actress Marilyn Monroe early in her career. Did you know that early on when she was trying out for acting gigs she would become paralyzed with fear when she had …
Podcast: Questions and Answers
I take on many of the questions I receive on a daily basis and answer them in this podcast. [display_podcast] Want to get bigger, stronger, more agile and look better? Here’s what to do first… Two ways to deal with stubborn fat What to do about the voice that says …
Harry Griffin
Not much is known about Harry F. Griffin, as he wasn’t that famous around the world, but only locally. Harry was a firefighter from Los Angeles and well-known throughout the west coast and especially his home town. He was a great firefighter, but he often performed as a strongman. Harry …
Bodyweight Isometric Exercises
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rra4W3GKD8k&w=560&h=315] It’s videos like the one shown above that goes through a circuit of bodyweight isometric exercises that get me really excited! Why? It goes to show you that we do not need to lock ourselves up in a dark and depressing gym like a little rat (or a big …
Hanging Core Exercises
Do you ever get fed up with doing isolating core exercises while lying on the ground? If you’re someone like me you most definitely do. A great alternative to lying on the ground would be to instead do hanging core exercises. The following video displays a couple of hanging core …
Double Kettlebell Clean and Press
If you’re looking for a new way to test your strength and endurance, try this work out called the “Flynn-Fran” that incorporates the use of the double kettlebell clean and press. A friend of mine showed me this to ask for my opinion of it and it looks pretty killer. …
How Visualization Works
A new article I wrote is available on Breaking Muscle. The History, Science and How-To of Visualization. There is what for some may be a surprising study found in the book Peak Performance by Charles Garfield. The study shows just how powerful mental training can be for athletes: “In my …
Abbye Pudgy Stockton
Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton was a strongwoman born in 1917 in Santa Monica, California. Despite the fact that she weighed around 115 pounds at a height of 5’2″, “Pudgy” got her nickname as a child and it stuck until the end of her days. Abbye and her husband Les Stockton, whom …
505 lb Deadlift (again)
In working towards a 600 lb. deadlift I have broken the 500 lbs. once again. You can compare this to my deadlifting 505 almost two years ago. It took a little longer than expected to get back to this level, but truthfully I think I’m stronger. I did this much …
Bodyweight Training with Odd Objects
Just published a new article over at the Progressive Calisthenics blog. This one is all about how you can take the concept of odd objects and apply it to bodyweight training. Odd Object Training with Bodyweight?