Monday 9/29/08

80# Sandbag, 3 sets, 6 reps each, 1 minute rest between sets:

• Suitcase Deadlift
• Deadlift
• Romanian Deadlift
• Good Mornings
• Bent Rows
• Cleans
• Shoulder Squats (6 each)
• Zercher Squats

Tuesday, 9/30/08

Back Squats, x 3:

135×5/185×5
225/245/265/275/285 (90%)/285/250/245

Push Press, x 3:

95×5/115×5
135/155/165/175

Wednesday, 10/1/08

Rest Day

Thursday, 10/2/08

Power Cleans

Warm-ups, x3:
45/65/65/88/95/115/135

Singles:
155/155/165/175/185/190f/190 pr/170/155
135×3/135×3

Friday, 10/3/08

Power Snatch

45×3/65×3/75×3/88×2/88×2;
singles: 98/108/108/115/125/130 pr/130/130f.

Saturday, 10/4/08

Deadlift

135×10/225×5/315×2/385×2;
singles: 405/415/425/365/365/365.

Sunday, 10/5/08

Rest Day

I had a decent week of training including a couple of personal bests, but I think the best session was yesterday’s deadlft.

Tony T Getting Air With A Sandbag

A few years back, I picked up a 14# leather medicine ball. It was of the old school variety and I thought I would do a lot with it. I didn’t so I donated it to the gym I train in where it got so much use the stitching began to open. One of the trainers decided to make a workout of repairing it wrapping it with 2 rolls of black duct tape. It is no longer round, but flattened.

I first discovered the Dynamax medicine balls a few years back while training with a Crossfit affiliate and really liked their overall size and softer composition. The ball we used was the 20# Husky used for wall ball shots. The Dynamax people are adamantly opposed to most people using the 20# ball, but more on that in a moment.

A few years back, I attended a Crossfit seminar which was like an interactive trade show. You could go to one exhibit and get some Olympic lift training from coach Mike Burgener and Aimee Anaya. You could get powerlifting help from coach Mark Rippetoe and dumbbell training from coach Mike Rutherford. I “sampled” all of them but the best workout I got was from coach Jim Cawley who gave us superb medicine ball training using balls that did not exceed 8 pounds. (I even suffered a cracked rib from that session when I hit the deck hard)!

Dynamax balls are all about movement-based training incorporating all the subsets of fitness, including speed, power, coordination, balance, strength, flexibility and accuracy. (Jim Cawley is also the source of Crossfit’s definition of fitness, “What is Fitness”).

Medicine ball exercises, especially as recommended by Coach Cawley and Dynamax are all about movement in sport and life. For strength, there are, of course, barbells, kettlebells, sandbags, etc.

According to the Dynamax site, the rule of thumb for the best weight is choosing a ball that is “light enough where it does not interfere with normal movement AND allows you to throw at high velocity.” If you are throwing it so fast your partner has trouble catching it, move up a weight.

I would surmise that Crossfitters are big customers of Dynamax balls and typically order 20# balls for men and 14# balls for women for wall ball shots used in some of their wods like “Fight Gone Bad“, yet Dynamax even sends disclaimers out when they ship the heavier balls because they don’t recommend their use for all but the more advanced athletes. It is here where Crossfit founder, Greg Glassman differs with Dynamax’s Jim Cawley.

Dynomax doesn’t advocate balls over 12# because beyond strength training, other applications are limited. They say, for strength, go to the weight room. To improve movement and athleticism, go to the field with the lighter med balls. The movements are more complex than bar and dumbbell movements. Dynamax has more thoughts on the topic of 20# Dynamax med balls.

Here are the Dynamax balls in action. Oh, and by the way, I was talked out of both the 14 and 20# balls and happily purchased 6 and 8# balls.

Technorati Tags: Dynamax, medicine balls, Crossfit, Jim Crawley, Greg Glassman,

Continuing along the theme of freakish fringe female “sports” we investigate the burgeoning interested by Chinese women in pole dancing. Pole dancing? What a unique idea! I’ve never seen that before. (Ok, I’m lying).

It turns out this is the latest fitness craze in China, particularly in the cities. It is not, however, without it’s share of controversy. 29 year old accountant Xixi is not happy at all about the craze, but Jiang Li wants to be a pole dancing superstar. Go Jiang Li.

The Chinese Olympians excelled at everything else, so maybe they can get pole dancing in as an IOC-sanctioned Olympic event. It is far more interesting to watch than synchronized swimming and the floor routines passed off as sport. But until that happens, if I want to take in some complex, athletic pole dancing routines, I know where to go. (Don’t tell Val)!

Source: NY Times by way of OMB

Yesterday was MarkFu’s birthday and Val came through with a surprise gift, due to arrive tomorrow. They are the Nike Romaleos weightlifting shoe-Nike’s first shoe for this sport. If you have been watching any of the Olympic weightlifting on nbcolympics, you will see virtually every athlete wearing Adidas, which have been the de facto standard for years. By no means are they the only shoes out there. I have a pair of Do-Wins which are very good and friends of mine have shoes made by VS. Clearly, weightlifting shoes are sport specific, so you aren’t going out for a run in them, nor should you lift in running shoes either.

I am looking forward to getting the Romaleos and trying them out, but a couple things make me scratch my head at Nike’s first entry into the sport. Take a look at the video which features the shoe’s designer.

Ok, did you catch that? Has anyone seen the video of the lifter that put 1,000 pounds over his head? Then there is the part where he explains “splitting into the snatch” while showing the lifter completing a jerk from the clean and jerk. Ok, Nike, I know this is your first shoe in this sport, but you need to understand the sport and the terminology before you put this video out. Print marketing fares no better as they proclaim with this shoe you will “dominate the deadlift”. Um, no, actually you won’t. Better get a pair of Chucks for that. This isn’t nit-picking, so fix it, Nike!

Nevertheless, I am anxious to try out the shoes, which just became available to the public after only the American, Chinese and Ukrainian Olympic teams had custom versions of the Romaleos to train and compete in. At the very least, they sure look cool!

Thanks, Val!

I am a member of a gym with about 9,000 square feet of floor space with a tons of equipment all jammed together so tightly you are bound to walk into something. If you like training with machines, you have virtually every thing you need. You are in gym heaven, I suppose. Most of the people who train here a gyms all across the country use machines. Good for them.

There is a small group of people who prefer more traditional forms of weight training and lifting as you can tell from my workout logs. There are very few machines we have any interest in all. I started bringing some of my own gear to the gym as have some others. I was the first person to bring an old school Russian-style kettlebell to the “box now quite a few people bring in theirs as well. I do believe, however, I bring the most stuff to train with at the gym and anyone who would like to use any of it is more than welcome.

Take a look at the above picture and you get the idea of what I bring. Let me run through them:

Weightlifting Shoes: I enjoy the Olympic and supplemental lifts, so these shoes help considerably with support and stability.

Bumper Plates: These are great for doing the Olympic lifts and good to drop when finished. This gym actually is quite tolerant of the noise we make. Anywhere else around here and we get kicked out.

Chalk: Officially this isn’t allowed at our place, but I am discreet and clean up the evidence when finished. I use these mostly on deadlifts and kettlebell snatches. Sometimes it is the difference whether a lift succeeds or not. Magic Dust.

Bands: I use these for a variety of things from assisted pull-ups, to assisted barbell lifts to add additional resistance. These are quite handy and come in different colors and tensions. Made by JumpStretch.

Rings: I use a pair of Elite rings for push-ups, dips pull-ups, body rows and Skin the Cat. No Iron Crosses or Muscle ups, but I do get some solid work in for the stabilizer muscles.

Kettlebells: The sizes I prefer are 20, 24 and 32 kg bells and use them for snatches, swing, cleans and presses plus several other movements.

Weighted Vest: This is handy to add additional resistance and weight to anything I do. I have done long walks, hill runs, walking up sand dunes, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, dips and a few other movements. When you become totally gassed, it adds pressure to your chest making it even more difficult to breathe. A great tool to have.

Sandbags: The newest addition. This one weighs in at 75 lbs and I used it for cleans and presses, squats, presses, snatches. over the shoulder carriers, tossing and more. I often like to mix this in with a kettlebell session. I have another bag with a 140 lb capacity I am waiting on.

Hand Gripper Trainer from Captains of Crush. It is in the gym bag for grip work, but I could get more use out of them while sitting in the southern California traffic to strengthen my grip and relieve traffic-induced stress.

The AbMat: This was popularized by Crossfit and this allows you to do sit-ups correctly and with full range of motion without causing problems to the lower back.

Not Pictured: Jump ropes, speed and beaded; 6′ Manila ropes for kettlebell swings and rope pull-ups. On order is a 100′ length for battling ropes. A Lifeline Power Wheel is a great core training tool. From Lifeline, I also have their Power Push-up which uses a system of bands to add resistance to your push-ups.

Wish List: A Pendlay bar, a Dynamax medicine ball, strongman log, sledge hammer, tire (no place to put it now). Am I missing something? Make your suggestions in Comments.

By the end of this training week, I have three kettlebells on the back floor of my jeep and a sandbag in the back. And I complain about the price of gas?

So that is my portable, “Have Gym, Will Travel”. When I get a bigger garage, I’m set. For now, I can take any of this stuff to my gym to get the workout I want or just down the street to the park, and yes, to the beach!

With summer in full swing, I haven’t been blogging much but my training hasn’t missed a step even if I have. This week, our favorite smack-talking Freak Factory strongmen, Scott and Pete invited us to one of their Saturday sessions over at Scott Brengel’s Costa Mesa home gym. Now it may have been a simple matter of those two just being sick and tired of slapping each other down and needing some “fresh meat” by bringing in newbies like me, Mike Covert and their friend “Rhino” along with another strongman, Sean. Maybe Scott decided to have an “Open House”. Either way, it was great to get the invite and we had a great time training with the freaks.

Initially, we lifted the two strongman logs and did 8 sets of 3, up to 161 lbs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Running shoes are designed for running and weightlifting shoes are designed for…well you can finish the sentence. Then why do so many people lift at the gym with running shoes?

Here is what a power clean looks like in slo-mo wearing spongy, cushy running shoes.

Now here is what a power clean looks like wearing a pair of weightlifting shoes.

For contrast, go back and look at the squishy running shoes again.

If you were a runner, you wouldn’t think twice about going out and getting a pair of running shoes, in fact several throughout the course of a year, would you? Well, if weightlifting is your thing, what is holding you back from getting proper footwear for your sport?

MarkFu’s Blue Suede Do-Wins

You can get a nice comparison of the most popular weightlifting shoes and decide for yourself and read Mark Rippetoe’s comments about the advantages of weightlifting shoes in general.

Adidas has long been the pre-eminent weightlifting shoe around the world and for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing but this year Nike has a shoe in the competition, the Nike Romaleos and you will see Team USA, Team China and Team Ukraine wearing them. At the moment, they are unavailable to the rest of us.

Mehdi over at stronglifts.com outlined the pros and cons of using weightlifting belts, which were and are primarily used by Olympic lfiters and power lifters. Personally, I don’t use one, but did recently doing a 605# rack pull which I had never done before. I think they are a great aid for those extra heavy lifts, but I don’t believe you should rely on them. Strengthen your core to make it “bullet-proof” and you may never need one. The purpose of the belt is to tighten up the core to create intra-abdominal pressure, which serves to keep the spine strong and protected. This can be done by working the entire core, not just the abs to create this same pressure. My coach Danny Henry and kettle guru, Pavel both advocate tightening the entire body for light and heavy lifts. Stay tight! Mel Siff in “Supertraining” suggests that the benefits of the belt may be mostly psychological but that wearing one does give you the sense of where your back arch needs to be. 

When wearing a weightlifting belt, make it tight and move the buckle off the the side so it doesn’t interfere with an Olympic lift if your belt wasn’t designed with this in mind. When lifting, push against the belt with your abs.

For me, I would use a belt as an occasional tool as I go for heavier lifts, but not regularly. I have almost the same view of lifting straps as well. They both assist, not replace.

Sound off in Comments if you have a take on the use weightlifting belts.

We have been having fun with kettlebells over here. Not only do we swing and snatch them, but we paint ‘em too!

You have seen my blue-green 24 kilo creation and the candy apple Big Red 32 kg paperweight. Those were my modest attempts at kettlebell creativity and about as far as I want to go. I would rather go ballistic with them.

Torri Lehman painted this beauty and recently presented Val with her own customized hot pink kettlebell. In the works is one for a female MMA fighter and another for Todd Medina’s Fight School adjacent to our training pit in Costa Mesa, CA.

If you would like to get a kettlebell or two or three and then get them painted by Torri, contact Val at Val’s Kettlebells. Just click the tab at the top of this page.

Ok, ladies, let’s get to some kettlebell swingin’.