Earlier in the month, or maybe late last month? either way, Brett Contreras put up a fun little challenge for us to test ourselves with. Hundreds of people have attempted this challenge and here is my attempt at it.
The rules are fairly straight forward. There are five lifts- front squat, romanian deadlift, hip thrust, pull-up, incline bench press. The weight on the bar is equal to your bodies weight. Front squats have to have your hip crease breaking the top of the patella. For the Romanian Deadlift the the bar must go lower than your knees and you must stand up straight to finish the rep. For the hip thrust you must use a regular sized bench or higher, weights cannot touch the floor. For pull-ups, you must start from a dead hang and no kipping. For the bench no bouncing of the chest, ALL THE WAY UP AND ALL THE WAY DOWN. sorry for yellling but partial rep syndrome is a pet peeve of mine. For scoring, each good rep counts as 1 point, add up all your points and that is your total score.
Brett had some reward system in place. I do not recall what he put down, but you can check it for yourselves at brettcontreras.com you can also read a bunch of articles he's written and get smarter, dude is smart!
on to the videos
Friday, February 24, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
strength! lightning fast
this past weekend i went up to south windsor connecticut to lift at lightning fitness under strength coach and strongman competitor matt mills.
here's what went down!
as usual, coming from a commercial fancy gym i catch an instant semi when i walk in and see all the equipment. the toys were there and i wanted to play!
first on the list was the yolk walk! last time i did this was at defranco's gym back in august, i walked for roughly 50 feet 530 lbs belted. this time 545, 50 feet there and back no belt. i'd call that improvement, just saying.
next up was a 50 feet there and back medley of farmers carry, prowler push. 225 on each farmers handle and the prolwer had 4 plates on it.
upon finishing this i took notice of the leaders board (good idea and i will steal it) and wanted my name up there.
took over the under 200 lb deadlift and under 200lb 3 minute 24 k snatch.
what did i learn? the usual and as dr. davidson, professor at springfield college said earlier that day, you could have the best program and best form, but the right atmosphere is the missing ingredient. being the strongest guy in your gym just means you may need to find a new gym. i learned that strength is essential! if i wasnt as strong as i am, that unbelted yok would have crushed me! instead it improved my posture. i learned, from dr. davidson, that you always need a rabbit to chase. always be happy with your accomplishments, but never stisfied with them. grow and grow always.
if you live in the east coast or find yourself around here i strongly suggest you go to matt mills place. he's a smart guy (ma in kinesiology from uconn i think) strong as hell (holds log clean press records), and most importantly a good person.
lightning-fitness.com hit that site up and get your lift on.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
update 2/15
front squatted 325, ugly as sin but its a pr. thought, is an ugly lift acceptable if its a pr?
decline bench: closest thing to powerlifting bench i think. 345 for a single. crazy hard grind. last week i missed 355 happy with this. using 75 lb's for chin ups (supine grip) for sets of 3.
side note, show and go is the bomb! if you dont program for yourself get on this!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Good Stuff to read
does stretching make you flexible- by Steve Pulcinella
http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/rehabilitation/does-stretching-make-you-flexible/
6 Tips from 6 Coachesby Ben Bruno
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/6_tips_from_6_coaches
The "Pro Athlete Trainer Myth"- by flo fitness
http://flofitnessllc.blogspot.com/2012/02/pro-athlete-trainer-myth.html
Reaching Your Potential in the Big 3by Lee Boyce and Todd Bumgardner
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/reaching_your_potential_in_the_big_3
http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/rehabilitation/does-stretching-make-you-flexible/
6 Tips from 6 Coachesby Ben Bruno
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/6_tips_from_6_coaches
The "Pro Athlete Trainer Myth"- by flo fitness
http://flofitnessllc.blogspot.com/2012/02/pro-athlete-trainer-myth.html
Reaching Your Potential in the Big 3by Lee Boyce and Todd Bumgardner
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/reaching_your_potential_in_the_big_3
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Too much?
As a powerliftter I may be about to commit sacrilige but, strength might be overated. People sometimes impose their own bias on to others as "the way". My job as a trainer is to have my clients achieve their goals, whatever they may be. If my clients program looks like mine, then that client better have my exact goals, exercise history, injury history, mobility issues etc.
The clearest example i can think of are bodybuilding style trainers. Does their 60 something year old sweet as pie grandma client need to be doing an "arm day" or a 9th set of the third chest exercise of that day? I think a lot of this comes from ego, thinking that what we do is the best. That thinking needs to change to (maybe) what i'm doing is the best for me. Usually its more like this is the only thing i know how to do and say its the best because I do not know any better.
What about powerlifters? most trainers can agree that squatting and deadlifting are essential movements we as humans should be doing. My question is how much is too much? Just like grandma does not need flat bench; incline; decline; chest flye days, She definitely doesn't need maximal effort method front squatting. Even though increasing maximal strength will make lighter work absolutely easier, it will improve her bone mineral density, we can easily say its too much.
Grandma was an easy case, but what about young athletes? I made a friend of mine start dunking by increasing his 5rm back squat, but how much is too much? A stronger squat will improve knee stability, maybe even verticals (as my single person case study showed). Where is the line in the sand?
I overanalyze everything so I wanted to make this simpler for myself. What do I, did I do to improve performance in my sport? I practiced and drilled. I could not stop my opponent from taking my leg, so I worked on sprawling and defending the takedown. I wasn't getting to my opponents knees? thousands of shots at my drill partner or the air.
would a heavier barbell reverse lunge help me? maybe. it would/could make my step into the opponent more explosive. I had a potentially stronger split stance step, now I took this newfound explosive and did thousands more shots at an opponent or air with a stronger first step.
What I am trying to say is that if a MINIMAL amount of strength is not in the picture then strength training will improve your sport performance. If a minimal amount of strength is in place then getting stronger will give you the ability to do better when you practice, which will in turn make you better at your sport.
Train to be better at practice/ don't train to the point where it has an adverse effect on practice.
practice to be become better at your sport
compete
find a weakness
strengthen that weakness
practice as an even fitter person to be even better at your sport
repeat cycle
just my thoughts
-Jorge Unigarro
The clearest example i can think of are bodybuilding style trainers. Does their 60 something year old sweet as pie grandma client need to be doing an "arm day" or a 9th set of the third chest exercise of that day? I think a lot of this comes from ego, thinking that what we do is the best. That thinking needs to change to (maybe) what i'm doing is the best for me. Usually its more like this is the only thing i know how to do and say its the best because I do not know any better.
What about powerlifters? most trainers can agree that squatting and deadlifting are essential movements we as humans should be doing. My question is how much is too much? Just like grandma does not need flat bench; incline; decline; chest flye days, She definitely doesn't need maximal effort method front squatting. Even though increasing maximal strength will make lighter work absolutely easier, it will improve her bone mineral density, we can easily say its too much.
Grandma was an easy case, but what about young athletes? I made a friend of mine start dunking by increasing his 5rm back squat, but how much is too much? A stronger squat will improve knee stability, maybe even verticals (as my single person case study showed). Where is the line in the sand?
I overanalyze everything so I wanted to make this simpler for myself. What do I, did I do to improve performance in my sport? I practiced and drilled. I could not stop my opponent from taking my leg, so I worked on sprawling and defending the takedown. I wasn't getting to my opponents knees? thousands of shots at my drill partner or the air.
would a heavier barbell reverse lunge help me? maybe. it would/could make my step into the opponent more explosive. I had a potentially stronger split stance step, now I took this newfound explosive and did thousands more shots at an opponent or air with a stronger first step.
What I am trying to say is that if a MINIMAL amount of strength is not in the picture then strength training will improve your sport performance. If a minimal amount of strength is in place then getting stronger will give you the ability to do better when you practice, which will in turn make you better at your sport.
Train to be better at practice/ don't train to the point where it has an adverse effect on practice.
practice to be become better at your sport
compete
find a weakness
strengthen that weakness
practice as an even fitter person to be even better at your sport
repeat cycle
just my thoughts
-Jorge Unigarro
Friday, February 10, 2012
Alright stop! hammer time
avoiding plateaus is not an easy task. No matter how well versed we are in exercise science or how expensive our gym or trainer fees are, we run into plateaus from time to time. Designing programs is a balancing act.
Do it like crossfit and change movements seemingly without thought? Ok, you avoid the worry of getting accustomed to the stimulis BUT you may remain too cognitive in the learning phase, and never really a move well enough to add some appreciable weight.
Do it the opposite way and you get PLENTY of practice in the movement but the stimulis is diminished. The positive is the movement gets perfected, with this you can add more weight than if you changed every exercise every workout. The negative is you get too accustomed to the movement, and diminishing the stimulis which will minimize the adaptation from it.
Exercise selection is nothing more than a variable in program design, to be tweaked, maintained, or let go of for whatever reason we choose. Programming Design is like a science experiment, if i do X what will happen? the only difference is we have a pretty good idea of what will happen. In this science experiment a variable that is sometimes forgetting (usually because it makes the exercise more difficult) is pausing in the eccentric/concentric phase.
I want to think about four distinct phases of a lift, and lets the bench press as the example (since its an easy one) the concentric (the press), eccentric (lowering) phase in between concentric and eccentric (lockout) and the phase between eccentric and concentric (the bottom range of it.
In the bench press (for example) what are the benefits of a pause at the bottom? As we lower the bar we build up energy in our muscles, think a rubber band being pulled back before you flick it a little sibling or cousins head. This energy is recycled to help you in concentric phase, and overused by deuchebags bouncing the weight uncontrollably off their chest. 1 benefit is it minimizes you looking like deuchebag. Another benefit is with resting at the bottom, the potential energy goes away after a few seconds the potentially recycled energy is gone and you are forced to call on MORE MUSCLE fibers to lift the weight off your chest.
Eliminating or diminishing the stretch reflex has some awesome side effect as well. It minimizes our chance of using weights that we have no business dealing but only do so because your ass is a foot off the bench and you're leaving bruises on your chest from the bounce.
This pause isn't a magic bullet and there are some negatives to it as well. Using this energy is natural to our bodies, its on our walk, run, jump etc. another negative is maybe we shouldn't always use a full range of motion and staying at a range of motion that isn't good for you, longer. does some damage. For Example, if at the bottom of the bench our shoulders can't be set right staying there under load will quickly hurt you. An easier example to see is with the squat, if full rom is ass to grass, but you are so tight that slightly above parrallel lumbar flexion occurs then going lower with load and holding that position is a recipe for disaster.
This is yet another balancing act of pro versus con is it worth the negatives for positives? this pause is nothing more than yet another variable which is a part of the tempo of the lift.
Change variables often enough that enough that you do not remain stagnant, but so often that you can't make too many gains from building on that movement.
Do it like crossfit and change movements seemingly without thought? Ok, you avoid the worry of getting accustomed to the stimulis BUT you may remain too cognitive in the learning phase, and never really a move well enough to add some appreciable weight.
Do it the opposite way and you get PLENTY of practice in the movement but the stimulis is diminished. The positive is the movement gets perfected, with this you can add more weight than if you changed every exercise every workout. The negative is you get too accustomed to the movement, and diminishing the stimulis which will minimize the adaptation from it.
Exercise selection is nothing more than a variable in program design, to be tweaked, maintained, or let go of for whatever reason we choose. Programming Design is like a science experiment, if i do X what will happen? the only difference is we have a pretty good idea of what will happen. In this science experiment a variable that is sometimes forgetting (usually because it makes the exercise more difficult) is pausing in the eccentric/concentric phase.
I want to think about four distinct phases of a lift, and lets the bench press as the example (since its an easy one) the concentric (the press), eccentric (lowering) phase in between concentric and eccentric (lockout) and the phase between eccentric and concentric (the bottom range of it.
In the bench press (for example) what are the benefits of a pause at the bottom? As we lower the bar we build up energy in our muscles, think a rubber band being pulled back before you flick it a little sibling or cousins head. This energy is recycled to help you in concentric phase, and overused by deuchebags bouncing the weight uncontrollably off their chest. 1 benefit is it minimizes you looking like deuchebag. Another benefit is with resting at the bottom, the potential energy goes away after a few seconds the potentially recycled energy is gone and you are forced to call on MORE MUSCLE fibers to lift the weight off your chest.
Eliminating or diminishing the stretch reflex has some awesome side effect as well. It minimizes our chance of using weights that we have no business dealing but only do so because your ass is a foot off the bench and you're leaving bruises on your chest from the bounce.
This pause isn't a magic bullet and there are some negatives to it as well. Using this energy is natural to our bodies, its on our walk, run, jump etc. another negative is maybe we shouldn't always use a full range of motion and staying at a range of motion that isn't good for you, longer. does some damage. For Example, if at the bottom of the bench our shoulders can't be set right staying there under load will quickly hurt you. An easier example to see is with the squat, if full rom is ass to grass, but you are so tight that slightly above parrallel lumbar flexion occurs then going lower with load and holding that position is a recipe for disaster.
This is yet another balancing act of pro versus con is it worth the negatives for positives? this pause is nothing more than yet another variable which is a part of the tempo of the lift.
Change variables often enough that enough that you do not remain stagnant, but so often that you can't make too many gains from building on that movement.
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