Have you joined us over at Super Human Training?
We had an awesome call with Andrew Durniat last night. I have three things I’m adding into my workouts immediately not for the sack of adding new stuff, but they’ll directly help me in my goals. Not to mention a few more things to look out for in the near future.
As was expected we blew past the hour mark and went a full 80 minutes. All jam packed with information.
- Are you doing the forgotten barbell lift? I haven’t been but I am now, starting today!
- How to kick off the restrictor plates in your training.
- Why you may want to train in kilograms and not pounds.
- The simple formula to get stronger. So obvious almost no one sees it.
- What’s holding back your squat? Hear two different answers and how to fix your weaknesses.
- What Andrew learned in recent overseas training. The necessary thing that ALL Americans were lacking when it comes to Girevoy Sport. Can you guess what it is?
- How to combine training along with Strongman, Highland Games, GS, and Grip competitions. Discover Andrew’s secrets to effectively getting stronger and excelling in many sports.
- And much more.
You may have missed the call but there is still some time to listen into the replay.
And if you aren’t signed up for the remaining nine calls, what are you waiting for? Make sure to sign up here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 22nd, 2010. Comment. 
Just last night my friend, Jedd Johnson from the Diesel Crew, told me he’s having a sale on his Card Tearing ebook.
Let me tell you, if you ever have thought about learning this feat of strength, this is your roadmap. There are so many effective techniques and methods in this book its crazy.
It’s normally $29.97 but through the rest of this week it’s $10 off for its birthday celebration.
He’s even coming with a number of bonuses including the teleseminar I just did with him and Bud Jeffries. (Great, informative call by the way.)
You’ll even see my testimonial at the top on that page. Now, card tearing is certainly not for everyone. But if you’re one of those rare individuals that likes to destroy things with your bare hands, drop the 20 bucks and get this book.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Affiliate Disclaimer: Did you know it’s law now that you must proclaim any paid incentives or relationships in everything you do online? So the FTC doesn’t come and raid my house and lock my gym up as ‘evidence’ here’s all the legal writing. I was originally given the Card Tearing eBook, just like I‘ve given Jedd some of my products for reviewing purposes. But its good so I recommend it to others. (I have received products free in the past that I didn’t promote because they weren’t good or worth the money.) I will make a small commission if you decide to buy this product today which I may then spend on a burrito or filling up my tank of gas an eighth of the way full. Would I recommend this product if I wasn’t compensated? Absolutely! It’s the best thing available today on how to tear decks of cards in half with ease.
Filed under Feats of Strength, Hand Strength by on Mar 4th, 2010. Comment.
This weekend they held an RKC in nearby San Jose. While I was not an assistant this time, my friend and I decided to stop by just to say hello. Great to get to see and chat with guys like Pavel Tsatsouline, Dave Whitley and many others.
While I was there I decided to see how my training was going. As you may know one of my goals is to do the Beast Challenge which is to lift a 106 lb. kettlebell in a one arm press, pullup, and pistol. I hit the pistol for the first time the other week and I’m working towards the other two.
After focusing on the one arm press for a significant amount of time I decided to switch it up and focus on double presses. As this move is harder I had to drop down in weight regularly working with the 70 lbs bells. As I’ve only done two arm presses for a few weeks now I was curious if it was making my one arm press stronger.
Now I found out it was. I had access to a 44kg bell which I don’t have at home so I decided to attempt a press.
This video shows the second rep. After pressing it once each side I decided I should have got it on film. The second rep was not as nice as the first. While both had side action going on this one was a bit more.
Just one step closer on my path. Are you moving forward?
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Kettlebells, Videos by on Feb 25th, 2010. 3 Comments.
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.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Feb 11th, 2010. Comment.
David asked a follow up question regarding his Convict Conditioning routine. “Two questions: I forgot to ask, how would you add grip, neck, & calf work in there too; and can you give a more in depth outline of circuit training – how you would plan it?”
In today’s post I’ll cover hand strength training. For grip work I would train the hands two or three times per week. You could probably even get away with one session a week and still make good gains. Pick one to three exercises each time and go after it. These are the main types of hand strength but these are the main ones. Depending on your goals you may need other exercises.
Wrist levering – This can include wrist rollers, sledgehammer leveraging, dumbbell wrist curls, etc. Even handstands are good.
Crushing grip – This is usually done with steel spring grippers but can be trained in other ways.
Working the pinch grip with a block weight
Pinch grip – Pinching plates is the easiest form, block weights are great too, and then you can do feats like card and phonebook tearing.
Support grip – This is any type of holding. Kettlebell swings certainly work this. Farmer’s walk is probably one of the best exercises.
And many exercises cross over in different area. Bending nails works the wrists and your crushing and support grip. Plate curls will work your wrists and pinch at the same time. If you’re short on time I’d advise doing exercises that give you more bang for your buck.
Also for better hand health you should look at doing exercises like finger extensions especially if you go heavy into working the grip.
You don’t need to do heavy volume. Just one to a few sets is all you really need for your hand strength training.
In the next couple posts I’ll cover neck training and circuit training.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Hand Strength by on Feb 9th, 2010. 1 Comment.
I received this question the other day after my post on Convict Conditioning, and since it was well thought out I’m going to give an in depth answer.
Hey Logan,
You obviously have far more experience than me and I don’t even compare to you in terms of strength/conditioning. You’ve done an awesome job from what I can see! I’d like your opinion, please I read Coach Wade’s “Convict Conditioning” and I want to do the “Big Six” moves!
Goals – strength in the “Big Six” and mutant conditioning.
Preference for the kettlebell swing.
‘Decent’ recovery abilities.
Equipment – barbell, dumbells, 35lbs & 70lbs kettlebells, & pullup bar.
Not much money.
I was planning on trying out the ‘Veterano’ routine with swings three times a week (light, medium, and heavy swing days). A concern–over training with back bridges and swings.
Do you think this a great way to reach my goals?
Is ‘Veterano’ not enough strength work?
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you & God bless!
David
Considering your goals and equipment, I think what you have laid out is a good plan. If you want to get good at these moves you should do them. Adding in a conditioning component with the kettlebell swing makes it even better.
For those of you who don’t have the book yet the Veterano is a routine that consists of doing a few sets of one of the six exercises each day. In my opinion, since the volume is already kept minimal I believe this program would be better with more frequency.
These moves require a high degree of strength but also a high degree of skill. So practicing them more often should result in faster gains. One thing I learned from Pavel is that its better to do one set of an exercise everyday then six sets one day a week.
For this reason I would modify this routine to do two exercises each day instead of one. One arm pushups and bridges. Handstand pushups with hanging leg raises. And one leg squats with one arm pullups. This way you do each move twice a week instead of just once. Adjust the volume if you have to but I think this will give better results.
I wouldn’t worry about overtraining with the bridges and swings. If you’re knew to bridging or swinging just be sure to ease into it.
A light, medium and heavy swing days is a good way to approach it but I personally never liked light and medium days. When I train I want to go hard all the time. If it works for you do it but here is how I’d approach it.
While swings are one of my favorite exercises I caution you against relying on just one movement for your conditioning. When you do this you may become real efficient at that movement and your conditioning may not actually improve that much.
Its good to have a conditioning goal like a number of swings (see Bud Jeffries recent Kettlebell Swing article) to go after. But its good to have some variety too. Personally I would focus on swings one day a week and do some sort of circuit conditioning on another day. You can mix swings and snatches with other exercises like sprinting, burpees, jumping rope or many others. This’ll give you a different feel and end up being better for your endurance.
In fact this is what I am doing in my training right now except I’m focusing on kettlebell snatches instead of swings.
I hope that helps you out and if you have to ask any follow up questions. Be sure to let me know how you progress.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you want to check out Convict Conditioning, click here.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Workouts by on Jan 27th, 2010. 7 Comments.
When the new year comes around most people make a resolution or two and abandon them within a week. That’s not me and I hope not you either.
I find the new year is always a time for reflection as well as forward planning. And I spend significant time doing those things. Seriously, right now there’s a list of several plans on a wide variety of topics (life, business, fitness and more) that I need to get done in the next couple weeks.
Why do this?
Well, as the saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That’s enough reason for me to do the planning.
But today I want to talk about reflection. And I ain’t talking about looking at yourself in the mirror.
The very first lesson in my Keys to Successful Training Course is to keep a workout journal. Without this key tool you will not get very far. The primary use of this is to know what you did in your last workout and what you need to do to beat it, and thus make progress.
But another use is going back over the year (or whatever time period you want). You can look at what your most productive periods of training were. You can find where your weak points lie.
Training is a continually adapting creature. One workout is never exactly the same as another. Because there are so many factors involved you will have times of great progress and others where you’re not gaining (or even sliding back!).
By consulting your workout training journal you can see what the patterns where. Every single person is different and you’ll find what works best for you. Which exercises, which set and rep schemes, different methods of strength and conditioning and more.
When you have this knowledge you are better prepared to move forward in the future.
Your homework is to do just what I’ve said. Post your comments below on what you find.
And if you aren’t keeping a workout journal START NOW! You can thank me later.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Another important aspect of success is to get coaching from those who can do what you want to do. On that note I’ll be interviewing one of my mentors, as far as doing insane feats of strength goes, tomorrow night. Want to listen in and even ask your own questions? Go to Register for the Dennis Rogers call here.
Filed under Strength Training Concepts by on Dec 14th, 2009. 2 Comments.
Don’t know if you heard about it.
I’m doing a special teleseminar with Bud Jeffries tomorrow night, where we’re going deep into the topic of twisted conditioning. What it is, how to apply it and much more.
In addition you can ask your own questions on any training topic.
This is just the first of many. Next week we have one of my mentors joining us. Now, if you want to build super human strength this is one guy worth listening too.
But for now jump on board and sign up for the first call. The details can be found at
http://www.strongerman.com/teleseminar-series/
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Uncategorized by on Dec 7th, 2009. Comment.
Sometimes you have to push the limits.
I didn’t plan this workout ahead of time. I just started bending and kept going.
In the end I had bent 50 60D nails in just under 30 minutes. This video shows the aftermath.
Now I know I’m a bit crazy for doing this. My hands have open wounds on them right now where the skin tore and blistered in many places. (It ain’t the first time and won’t be the last.)
Looking back in my records my previous best was 22 nails in 42 minutes. That was one year ago. That means I did over twice the volume in just over two thirds the time. That’s improvement.
Do I recommend doing this for everyone? No.
But sometimes you have to push the boundaries of what you’re capable of, even if that’s through comfort and pain. In your training and in life.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you’re interested in bending nails, get this must have resource from the Diesel Crew.
Filed under Feats of Strength, Hand Strength, Mental Training, Oldtime Strongmen, Videos by on Nov 28th, 2009. Comment.
I’ll cut straight to the chase.
This Wednesday I’m being interviewed by Geoff Neupert on one of my favorite topics, kettlebell juggling.
I won’t hold anything back. And you can even submit your questions for the call.
It’ll be a great time. Go to the Kettlebell Interrogations page and sign up for it now if you haven’t already.
Geoff has been interviewing a whole bunch of kettlebell experts and generally strong dudes. I’m honored to get to follow the likes of John Brookfield and Zach Even-Esh (the last two interviewees in the series).
If you’ve missed the past calls, just be sure to get on board for this one.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. On the page I am billed as ‘One of the World’s Leading Physical Culture Renaissance Men.’ I like that title!
P.S.S. Oh yeah, if you want everything there is to know on kettlebell juggling be sure to check out The Definitive Guide to Kettlebell Juggling.
Filed under Conditioning, Kettlebells by on Nov 23rd, 2009. 2 Comments.
