This past weekend I went to the NorCal Renaissance Faire with my family and friends. Always a fun time! And one event stands out as something worth sharing regarding strength. They have a bunch of games there such as throwing javelins and shooting crossbows. There is also the classic swing …
Warren Lincoln Travis Back Lift
Warren Lincoln Travis was one of the “World’s Strongest Men” back at the turn of the previous century. For years he was an attraction at Coney Island where you could see him perform a wide range of feats of strength, such as the back lift here. https://youtu.be/_RXhrr26c4Q The back lift …
How to Avoid Getting Knocked Out
Do you want to know how to avoid getting knocked out? Read on for Matt’s question… “I recall overhearing a conversation years ago about a guy who was a novice to working out saying he wondered how he could maximize muscle density and have rock hard muscles as a form …
Swinging Clubbells
I haven’t shown off swinging clubbells all that much, but I’ve been playing with them lately. This video features a 25 lb. club did in what I call a full and reverse swing style. I haven’t talked a lot about clubbells, but they’re a fun and useful tool. They make …
Should I Be Symmetrical in Strength?
I copy a conversation thread with a customer below as I figure some other people will find it interesting and useful. It covers how to target weak spots as well, body symmetry, and whether or not to aim for this. Enjoy! Laid writes: “If you remember I recently wrote you …
Quartering a Deck of Cards
Halving or tearing a deck of cards is when you tear it in two. Then you can tear one of these halves in two, which means quartering a deck of cards. I’ve been working on my card tearing again lately and this video marks a PR for me. I’ve quartered …
Full Deep Vacuum Box Breathing
A new breathing combination routine I’ve been doing which involves box breathing and the abdominal vacuum, along with a few other finer points. This method and much more with box breathing and beyond are fully explored in Outside the Box Breathing.
Research Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercises
What Deep Breathing Does for You Recently I came across some new papers on the benefits of deep breathing exercises. Like this paper titled, “Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow deep breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system.” (Yep, they pretty …
Progression Keys – The Max Set
e continue the series on the keys to progression. Today a deep dive into why the max set is best.. To understand some of the terms used, read that first article in this current series, Progression Keys – Intensity, Volume, Density, Quality, RPE right here. As mentioned, strength training is …
How to Be Breathed
“Be Breathed” is a concept I learned many years ago from Scott Sonnon. It is the idea of the movement breathing you, rather than you breathing…even unconsciously. If you missed the previous video and post, that covers the difference between anatomic (or natural) breathing and paradoxical breathing. You must understand …
Breathing Principle – Anatomic vs. Paradox
Understanding the breathing principle of anatomic (or natural) vs. paradox is very important when breathing is combined with any sort of movement. This is as opposed to just sitting there doing breathing exercises. This video breaks this down in simple to understand terms using squats as an example of how …
Get Fit…Be Happy, Make More Money
Had to share this study I came across last week… In a survey of two thousand people, one thousand of which exercised regularly and one thousand who didn’t, they found a few interesting correlations. Those that exercised: * Made on average $25,000 more per year. * Had more sex! * …
To Press a Lot You Must Press a Lot
“To press a lot you must press a lot.” This saying comes from Russian weightlifting circles. Kinda like a Zen koan, there is some enfolded meaning within it. One of the simple ways of looking at it is like this: “To press a lot of weight, you must press frequently …
Flow in Workouts
I’ve been reading through Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This book has been gracing my bookshelf for years now, yet I hadn’t read it. I was dissuaded as I heard it is a tough read, something like a textbook. Well, some textbooks are worth reading… The flow …
Yardstick Conditioning
This is a concept I first learned from Bud Jeffries. I believe he outlined it inside of Twisted Conditioning 2, though I could have that mixed up. Bud was the first guy I saw that was really doing it all. While many people were bodyweight only guys, or kettlebell guys, …