Dec/080
Getting Stronger at Pressing
There are many different ways to accomplish the same goal when it comes to strength.
Let’s say you want to get stronger at pressing. Here’s a partial list of exercises you can do to achieve that goal.
Military Press
Side Press
Two or One Hand at a time
Push Press
Sots Press
Seated Press
Isometrics, Negatives & Partials
Not to mention the tons of different tools you can use: barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags, odd objects, cables, and bodyweight.
This doesn’t even include any other planes of movement too, like a bench press or incline press.
Of course if you want to get good at one specific thing its good to stick to that. But using these variations its easy to get around any possible plateaus you have. And you won’t get stale practicing just one move over and over your entire life.
Since a vertical press is such an important movement it should always be in your training. But now you can see as far as what form it takes, the sky’s the limit.
Getting a heavy weight overhead is a true test of strength. And a good exercise to set out to improve.
I’ll only be sending you one more message before this year is over. So I wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. However you celebrate this occasion, make sure you spend the time well and don’t neglect to finish off 2008 with some great workouts.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Dec/081
Holiday Strongman Performance
When you’re starting out you’ve got to get some practice doing feats of strength in front of others. It can be a different beast on a stage versus in the comfort of your own home.
This past Friday night I had an opportunity to test out one of my newest feats in front of an audience. In fact I had never done this particular feat in this manner before.
At my former place of employment I did a show for the holidays. My cameraman wasn’t paying attention so its out of focus to start but it gets better the second half.
This video features a phonebook torn into thirds and the finale. I took a recent feat of mine and added a twist by supporting weight while doing it.
Can you see the piece of concrete that flies off and cuts my chin?
Judging by the crowd’s reaction it was quite a success.
In 2009 I’ll be working towards doing many more shows like this. Using my strength to entertain and inspire others.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Dec/081
Best of 2008 Video
What a year’s it been. This video gives you a glimpse of just a few of the things I’ve accomplished along the way.
Let me set this straight. I am not trying to be boastful here. I’m not saying I don’t take pride in my accomplishments, but my purpose here is to educate, inspire and entertain.
You too can accomplish things you would never dreamed of before if you’re willing to put the work in. And in most cases you have to be persistent, waiting years before reaping the real fruits of your labor.
And this video hardly contains everything I’ve done in this year. Putting it together I realized I haven’t filmed a lot of my normal, everyday workouts. Starting next year I’ll try to even out the filming in that regards.
So I hope you enjoy this video. Personally, I can’t wait to see what the Best of 2009 will be.
In Strength,
Logan Christopher
Dec/080
Your Progress in 2008
We’re coming up on the end of the year. The question you have to ask yourself is: Are you happy with the progress you’ve made this year?
Its always a good time to look back and see how far you’ve come. What your major accomplishments of the year were.
I’ll be making a ‘Best of 2008’ video highlighting some of what I’ve done within the next couple weeks. (At least what’s been done on camera.) There’s been many feats and workouts completed, some of which I hadn’t even conceived of when 2007 ended.
But despite all the progress that’s been made, I know more could have done more. It’s a wise time to find out what was holding you back so you can eliminate those restrictions the next time around.
Because how far you go in life is NOT determined by your potential, but by the constraints, the things holding you back. I learned this lesson as it applies to business, but it equally applies to the world of physical culture and elsewhere.
I know one drawback I have to deal with is being attracted to new and shiny things. A part of me wants to be the best at everything but that can not happen. You don’t have to limited to just one field but you can’t go after everything.
Perhaps you know the feeling. Read a new training book and want to change you entire training plan to reflect that.
I’ve gotten better over the years at staying clear on my goals, especially in the last, but there’s still room for improvement. To be sure, when I’ve had that single-minded focus, I’ve gotten the best results.
What about you? Where are you at and where do you want to go in 2009?
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. There’s a new feat of strength up on the site, this one on the pinch grip.
Dec/080
RKC in San Jose 2009
Late last week I got confirmation that I will be an Assistant Instructor at the Russian Kettlebell Certification in San Jose, CA coming this February.
This will be my third time overall as an Assistant and I have to say each time seems to get better and better. This one will be no different.
There’s high level coaches of all sorts there and it’s a great opportunity to learn from them all. I’m talking about ANY question you have, you can get answered. Plus you have the fun of a group of people doing feats of strength over dinner, doing through several workouts a day, and you even get to apply all you’ve learned at the end.
Back in 2005 when I first went through the event it was a big turning point in my life.
Since they hold several RKC’s every year and have been doing it for a long time they’ve had lots of time to refine the system and it works great. Unlike some other seminars I’ve been to where they tell you ‘your suppose to do this,’ here they’ll give you several drills to make sure you ‘get it’ inside and out.
There’s just a couple spots left open as these things fill up fast. So I wanted to give you a chance to come out and join me.
And if you’re already signed up be sure to drop me a line or comment below and let me know so I can look out for you.
You can check out much more info on it here. San Jose RKC
Hope to see you there.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Dec/080
Strength and Size in Strongmen Today and Before
Received an excellent couple of questions the other day about size and strength, specifically of the old-time strongmen.
My most concern is that I’d like to know how somebody could be a strongman without being as huge as nowadays’ strongmen. What did the old-time strongmen did to be so strong and be this small in size but being able to do all feats that strongmen of today are doing?
I’ve got four factors that play in the role of size and strength.
1. Size does not necessarily translate into strength. There are many big bodybuilders today that are big but are not strong in even the basic lifts. And there are many small guys who you wouldn’t even give a second glance at that are unbelievably strong. This isn’t even talking about weird lifts, odd objects, and the like.
2 Strength is connected with the mind. The deeper you get into strength training the more you realize this fact. Knowing that you can do something, whether you’re big or small, goes a long way in making you strong.
3. Its all in how you train. There are specific ways of training to get strong and stay small, to hypertrophy the muscles without strength, and to do both. And if you want to do specific feats you need to work on those. And the feats performed by the old-time strongmen are not the same ones done in today’s competitive strongmen contests. Those doing the old-time feats are often not big guys at all.
4. The use of drugs. Can you get big and strong without them? Definitely. Can you get as big as some people are today without them? No. And I’m not just talking steroids. There’s all kinds of ‘super-supplements’ and other things that can do the same.
Looking at these four reasons you can see why many strong people today are bigger then those in the past. Not to mention the precedent of guys getting bigger and bigger all the time.
The important thing to do is look at your goals and see what it is that you want to achieve.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
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