Mar/1011
Success in the Gym and Out
I just moved into a new house. It’s great. Tons of room and space for everything.
This picture here is of my temporary gym…if you can call it that. Really its just all my weights and tools piled in a place that’s kind of out of the way.
My Temporary Gym
In order to get the setup I desire and to avoid the elements (I hear there’s suppose to be thunderstorms here tonight) I’ll have to do some construction.
There’s two points to this. The first is that in no way am I going to wait for that time to train. Even if I had no weights I could get the job done just using my own body. Even if I didn’t have a large gym or yard to train in. For a long time I trained in my bedroom in a few square feet of space. You can’t let any excuse get in your way.
But the second point is contrary to the first. My goal is to become one of the strongest people in the world. I’ve never stated that in exact terms here but if you’ve been following me for awhile you may have guessed as much.
In order for that goal to come true, I must train not only hard but effectively. To do the best job I need certain tools. For example to build incredible brute strength, I plan on adding heavy partials to my training. For that I need a power rack and am therefore getting one soon. I want the BEST setup I can possibly have. If a single tool or technique can help me reach my goals better or faster it would be stupid of me not to obtain it.
If you have a goal you need to do certain things in order to reach it.
Another goal of mine is to grow my business. So another thing my new house has is a dedicated room for my office. To use a colloquial term, by pimping out my office this will allow me to further increase my productivity and get more done. I’m talking about a second desk for more workspace, a second computer monitor for more digital workspace, and a huge whiteboard wall for mapping out projects.
Just like before, I certainly didn’t start this way. I started my websites with a small laptop (running out of my bedroom again) on a wireless connection “borrowed” from a neighbor.
You can’t let anything stand in your way. But once you get going you owe it to yourself to give yourself everything you want and desire in order to reach your goals.
Do you agree with me? What are your goals that you can rearrange your life for? Comment below.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I’ll be doing my first workout in this new house in just a bit. I know it’ll be a good one.
Feb/100
Circuit Training Ideas
Hill sprints are always an excellent choice
There are many possible circuit training ideas. I’m going to list some just off the top of my head.
- Pick three exercises. Do each one for a minute before moving onto the next with no rest. Repeat this all for five rounds.
- Pick a strength exercises that you can only do for one to five reps. Have a conditioning move you can do a hundred reps in. Go back and forth between the strength exercise and conditioning exercise for a number of rounds. (This builds the ability to apply maximal strength while fatigued. Great for fighters.)
- Have 10-20 exercises of varying difficulties. Do as many reps of each before moving onto the next. Keep track of the reps for each exercise and your total time.
- Have an implement like a kettlebell on one end of a field. Do a set number of swings with it. Sprint to the other side of the field. Do a bodyweight exercise like pushups. Run back and repeat.
- Pick a number of exercises to work the whole body. Do a set followed by jumping rope for a minute. Go onto the next exercise then jump rope for a minute. Continue in this pattern stopping after you’ve done each exercise or just going once through them all.
There you have five potential workouts. With variations of each you could use these for the rest of your life.
Personally I like to mix it up with my circuits. Plan something then go after it. As long as you keep track of your workouts you can do something similar a month down the road and see how you’ve improved.
Alternatively, you can add a few reps or a bit of time to each exercise thus making each circuit harder. Do this on a regular basic and you have a formula for improvement.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. As for calve work as David mentioned about his Convict Conditioning Routine I haven’t directly worked my calves in even distant memory. Sprinting and/or jumping rope is all you need.
Feb/103
Neck Strengthening Exercises
425 lbs. held in a wrestler's bridge
There are many ways you can strengthen the neck. Here are a few basic exercises you can do.
Bridging – To me this is the king of neck strengthening exercises. But it gives you much more than that. It build flexibility and works the spine as well as the whole body. In fact, I devoted an entire course to bridging exercises and many variations. Work into it slowly, but over time you’ll build a neck strong enough to scare people. (And I mean STRENGTH, not size.)
Shrugs – Shrugs of many variations (my favorite is the trapbar) primarily work the trapezius muscles. Being that this is right next to the neck and the muscles cross over this is a good neck exercise. Go heavy!
Neck Isometrics with Hands – You can work your neck quite well with just your hands. To the front, to the back and to the sides. Resist with your hand as you move your head back into place.
Plate lifting – I learned this one from Mike Bruce. Lay across a bench, placing a plate across your forehead (you may want to fold up a towel as a pad to make it comfortable), using your hands to keep it balanced, but drive with the power of your neck. You can do this from the rear and to the sides as well.
Harness lifting – If you have a head harness or lifting strap you can lift weight in a variety of ways.
That’s a number of neck strengthening exercises I’ve given you now let me tell you how I do it. While I gave you many exercises I mostly just do bridging variations. I’ve done a 10 minute wrestler’s bridge on a couple occasions. But that took too long plus it wasn’t as much resistance as I wanted so I started adding weight. My current best is the 425 lbs. pictured on this page.
I typically train my neck twice a week. I usually do a single set each of two different exercises. All my neck training in about 5 minutes a week.
Simple exercises = BIG results. This is a missing key to training almost everyone neglects. Don’t let that be you.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Jan/108
My Top 5 Training Tools of 2009
I figured I would do something special for the end of the year and that would be to list my top 5 training tools of 2009. It was hard to pull from all the things I use and do but I believe this is a fair list, when I look at what has been my focus in training, what have I seen results in, and what I believe has benefited me in ways that aren’t as simple as pounds and reps.
Great for shoulder and arm flexibility and health
#5. Indian Clubs
I picked up a pair of 1 lb. wooden clubs from John Wood over a year ago and I’m glad I did. I’ve used them steadily in the past year usually for sets done between presses and pullups. I find this helps to keep the shoulder girdle and elbows healthy especially when you’re lifting heavy.
You’ll also be amazed at the coordination you develop from swinging these light clubs. For me it seems like the swinging patterns I do are easy but I’m always reminded that that’s not necessarily so when my friends give them a try. I’d rank Indian Clubs as essential for working on some of the smaller muscles and attributes of fitness.
I’ve also worked some this year off and on with heavier clubbells which I enjoy too, but that’s quite different from the light wooden clubs.
Ideal tool for pullup training and more
#4. Gymnastic Rings
I would list bodyweight as a tool but some might construe that as cheating so I’m selecting a tool that is used for bodyweight training, and that’s the gymnastic rings. I haven’t delved into doing an Iron Cross or Maltese or anything that major yet, I just love them for pullups.
The natural groove of being able to rotate the hands and arms as you pull makes this exercise better then on a straight bar. You can lift more and its also better for your joints as you’re not locked into one path. This is important when you do heavy weighted pullups as I do.
My ideal tool for brute leg strength
#3. Trap Bar
Some people love squats. Some people love deadlifts. Using a trapbar is more like a combination of the two. And I find it suits my body and long limbs better than squats or deadlifts with a barbell. I have never hurt my back on the trapbar, which I can’t say the same for barbells.
I only really use it for two exercises, the deadlift and shrugs. Even if it was just for the first exercise it’s a must own piece of equipment for me. I was able to pull 200 kg. or 440 lbs. on it this year which is good progress for me.
Strength and Fun in one small nail
#2. Nails
I love short bending. Other bending like horseshoes, scrolling and braced bending is great too but I’ve stuck with short bending the longest and gotten the most out of it. In 2009 I went from barely bending Grade 5 bolts occasionally to killing them with a fair amount of ease. My best so far is to bend 15 in a workout. I also did 50 60D nails in half an hour this year.
If you’re familiar with bending you can probably guess my goal is to bend the red nail and I’m working up to it. I just got Grade 8 bolts and while my first attempt stopped me, I know I’ll get it soon.
Bending is great for not only hand and wrist strength but developing whole body strength that you can channel towards one single thing. It’s an addictive training and it can be over-done so know what you’re doing. I recommend the Diesel Crew’s Bending eBook to get started.
So many kettlebells, so many uses
#1. Kettlebells
Considering my main goal has centered around completing the Beast Challenge I’ve been using kettlebells steadily in presses, pullups and pistols throughout the year and am continuing to do so. These same moves could be done the same or similarly with dumbbells but I find that kettlebells are just plain fun. I own a lot of them so I might as well put them to good use.
However the real beauty of kettlebells comes in the ballistic exercises. Obviously I’m a big fan of kettlebell juggling but I’ve been concentrating on the 10 minute snatch test recently and just hit a big goal. More on that later. This is a place where dumbbells can’t come close to matching kettlebells.
I hope you gained something out of reading this list. If you’re inspired to go out and get one or more of these training tools all the better.
You don’t have to go into as much details but comment below and list your top five of 2009. I’d love to hear from you. Plus it may have to be something I go out and try.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Jan/105
Convict Conditioning
Today I want to talk about two different sorts of Convict Conditioning and which one you might want to try.
I know a guy who recently got out of prison after spending just a couple months inside.
We got on the subject of working out while he was there and the stories he told me where ridiculous. This is close to and actual overheard conversation he heard:
“Let’s see, we did chest and arms yesterday so today let’s work our pecs and biceps. And then tomorrow we’ll go big and do some benching and curls.”
Zero leg work. Zero back work. In my opinion, the bench press and curls can be part of an effective program. PART. Not the whole damn thing!
And the worse part was he said three people in the whole place could bench 225 lbs or more. You’d think if you only did a couple exercises you’d at least get good at them.
And most would do heavy cheat curls with…80 lbs. I wish I could show you his imitations of their atrocious form. And moving from barbell curls to preacher curls to isolation curls and so on. The advanced guys might…MIGHT do a few one arm rows.
When my friend was doing pullups (yeah I know, a real ‘out there’ exercise) one inmate asked him if that worked the shoulders. He was the only guy doing pullups in the whole place!
This whole conversation started when I showed him Convict Conditioning, a recent publication from Dragondoor. On the cover is a man in the middle of doing a one arm handstand pushup. Must be very different penitentiaries for this colossal chasm of difference in training.
Considering I do lots of training with bodyweight exercises (and have my own courses devoted to two of the moves found inside – bridging and handstand pushups) I bought the book and read through it. In it Paul “Coach” Wade takes you through 6 exercises which lead up to some impressive feats. These include:
One Arm Pushups
One Leg Squats
One Arm Pullups
Hanging Leg Raises
Stand-to-Stand Bridges
One Arm Handstand Pushups
Each exercise is broken down into ten progressive steps. These steps take you from remedial exercises (usually the first 3-4 steps) up to these advanced moves.
That’s a real important thing most people don’t grasp. Making bodyweight exercises progressive isn’t as easy as throwing another plate on the bar. And in all training progression is the name of the game. So I have to applaud the effort of systematizing the progression as its laid out in this book. I don’t 100% agree with every one in here but overall it’s really good.
Now, I can do four of these moves but was particularly interested in the progressions he used for the other two, as they are exercises I‘d like to do one day. (I’ll let you guess which of the two exercises are quite a bit more difficult then the others.)
For anyone wishing to do the same I recommend getting Convict Conditioning and applying what you learn inside. It’s well worth it.
Even if you just did this routine you’d be fairly well off. Of course you really should add conditioning work as well and hand and neck training but besides that it’s a great program.
Anyone who wishes to train should master their bodyweight to some degree before touching any other training tool. You don’t have to be able to do all six of these moves but being at steps 5 or 6 in the progressions would not be a bad idea.
You can get Convict Conditioning by clicking here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I would never recommend a product I do not believe it and use myself. That being said I will be paid a small commission if you buy this book by clicking on the links on this page. After all I am running a business here.
Nov/092
Kettlebell and Bodyweight Exercise Workout
Today I’m going to give you a tough kettlebell and bodyweight exercise workout.
I first came up with this workout after hearing reading about Bud Jeffries’ concept of Yardstick Conditioning in Twisted Conditioning 2 several years ago.
I wanted a way to combine kettlebell exercises with bodyweight exercises in a single intense workout that would test overall conditioning as well as build muscular endurance. I picked four exercises that I felt where foundational and ones I wanted to work on. Those exercises are:
Double Kettlebell Jerks
Pushups
Bodyweight Squats
Kettlebell Snatch
(When I originally did this it involved hindu pushups and hindu squats, although when I started doing this workout again recently I’ve done the regular versions of pushups and squats.)
Each exercise is done for 5 minutes straight. Then without a break you move onto the next exercise in the order listed.
The goal is obviously to do the highest number of reps in each exercise.
But another big goal is to get to the point where you can do the exercise without dropping the bells or getting out of position for the whole five minutes. This means you can only rest with the kettlebells in the rack or overhead position for the jerks, and just overhead with the snatches. You can do as many hand switches as you need with the snatches.
On the pushups you stay in the plank position (much easier to maintain five minutes of hindu pushups). With squats its easy to go all five minutes so recently I added cables, a portable power jumper from lifeline, to make them harder.
Of course, in the start do as many sets as you need to do the whole five minutes.
For the kettlebell exercises I use 24 kg bells. You’ll want to start lighter especially if you have no experience with long sets. Eventually I’d like to work up to 32 kg bells. That may take awhile. I shouldn’t have to say it but technique is real important here.
I would recommend only doing this workout once per week mixed in with your other training. And each time you do it you seek to add just a few more reps to each exercise.
It’s a challenging workout. But rewarding and if you enjoy bodyweight exercises and kettlebells it’s a great way to work on those fundamental exercises.
Give it a try and let me know how you do.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Nov/090
Conditioning Concepts
Tire Flipping Can Build Strength and Endurance
How do you know if your conditioning is getting better?
Yes its easy when you do the same workout over and over again. If you are running then you know you’ve made progress when your times go down. If you are doing a set of kettlebell snatches or bodyweight squats you know you’re better if you can do more reps.
But does it really mean your overall conditioning is better? Perhaps you’ve just increased your skill in the exercise and built up the muscular endurance that was previously holding you back.
You may not really increase your wind or cardio capabilities.
You’ve likely heard of the SAID principle in training. That is Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. This means your body will get better specifically to what you make it do.
And what this can mean is that even though you are training hard, you could be getting better at one specific exercise, but if you’re not careful you can really be sliding back in the grand scheme of things.
There is no great example of what conditioning is.
One concept I shoot for is to be able to go into any arena of training and perform well, if not dominate. Obviously, I won’t be winning a powerlifting meet one day and running an ultra-marathon the next. But that’s a guiding principle for my training.
Back on the SAID principle we realize that there isn’t 100% carryover from any one thing to another. Much of the time there won’t even be 50% carryover depending on how you do things.
Are you conditioning yourself hard or are you building muscular endurance?
When we step away from the cardio machines and get into bodyweight exercises, kettlebells or whatever we start doing exercises for our conditioning that have a muscular component. This is a good thing. But you have to be careful.
You want to build muscular endurance and you want to build conditioning. You can build both at the same time. However, there is ALWAYS going to be one thing that fails first.
Pushups can get you breathing hard but unless you are one of those guys that can do them non-stop your muscles are going to force you to give up way before your lungs would.
Here’s a different example. I just finished a set of kettlebell snatches with the 53 lb. bell a couple hours ago. I hit seven minutes with a 25 rep per minute pace. That’s 175 reps in 7 minutes. My goal is 250 in 10. Something stopped me.
Was it my conditioning? I was sucking wind big time but no I could have kept going. Was it my muscles burning? Nope. With swings and snatches the load is fairly well distributed so no problems here. In this case it was my hands which tend to be the weak point for most people in this exercise. They tore open and in order to preserve myself from more damage I stopped.
There’s a problem when you rely on one means of conditioning. If I only did kettlebell snatches (or swings) I could never fully push the boundaries of my conditioning. I could increase my ability but not as well as if I did something else.
Let’s use the example of a guy that lifts weights in low rep sets. He also runs long distances to get his cardio. Do you see the missing component here? Will this guy be able to apply any strength and conditioning at the same time? You throw him into an intense circuit style training and he’ll crap out fast.
My case is to use a variety of conditioning exercises and methods to eliminate this problem. Variety is good here. Yes you should have goals and regularly do the same workout trying to progress. But on top of that add more.
Also you need to work different levels of conditioning. There’s a big difference between sprint level conditioning and longer term conditioning.
Think about the difference in running a hill sprint versus flipping a large tire for two minutes non-stop. Doing a ten minute snatch test versus a bodyweight exercise circuit that lasts an hour.
I have to credit Bud Jeffries primarily to opening my eyes to this. His Twisted Conditioning 1 & 2 go into more details on these concepts and much more.
If you missed the previous announcement check out the new www.Strongerman.com where we are working together to bring you to very best training information. And if you haven’t got those books yet do it now. They’ll make you train harder and in a more complete manner.
In the near future I’ll give you more on this subject including some complete workouts.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Aug/092
Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups
I’ve just released The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups.
This book covers every detail you could think of on one of the greatest exercises, handstand pushups.
If you are working on doing your first rep you’ll find details on how to get there (not to mention a day by day training guide for that goal).
If you can do tons of reps you’ll find many ways to make them harder including changing positions adding weight and height.
And there’s much more covered like one arm handstands, how to do freestanding handstand pushups, common problems and more.
Check out the The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups to find out the full details.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Oh yeah, and you can get a discount on it now but only until Saturday. Check it out now.
Aug/095
Advanced Rope Climbing
Last night I joined my friend Jeremy at his rock climbing gym, Planet Granite last night.
I don’t have much experience with that kind of training but I always like to get out and try new things. Plus it’s a lot of fun.
Before we began bouldering I showed him a few things on the ropes and rings. I’ve wanted to do this video for a long time but didn’t have access to any rope until now.
This video shows how you can climb a rope upside down. (Hint: using your legs is a big help.) In fact, Jeremy was easily able to do it with a little coaching.
The second piece is climbing with a rope in each hand. Tougher on the grip but just as fun.
If you want some more detail on rope climbing be sure to check out Rope Climbing in the Feats of Strength section.
I’ll have a couple other videos from our excursion later on.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
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