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Trap Bar Deadlift Video
I’m a fan of the Trap Bar Deadlift. The Trap Bar is a hexagonal bar that surrounds your legs as you stand, with the handles on the side and set front-to-back. This allows for a different position for your arms and hands. If you have any kind of shoulder, elbow or wrist issues this might be the answer. I’ve included a video to help show you how I do it. Note that my arms and legs are very long in proportion to my torso. That changes my alignment a bit, so that I’m starting with a more forward position with less bend in the legs. I’m also using the upper…
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How to Log and Compare Workouts
In my most recent book The 100 Calorie Diet Plan (available in Print on Amazon andCreatespace, and for Kindle and for Nook ebooks) I explain briefly how to log your workouts and then make steady incremental progress from workout to workout. For a more complete explanation and a better example than in the book, here’s two of my recent training sessions compared side-by-side. If you’re already training, I hope you’re keeping some type of training journal. If not, you have one now. Put your data in your nutrition and success tracking journal we started in the previous chapter. The plan now is to log everything, minutes, miles, feet, pounds, sets, reps. If you don’t know what you’re doing…
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High Rep Calf Raises
I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago. He was doing off-season training for ice climbing and mentioned how his calves would get tired while leading. In leading ice you normally stand on your front points and lower your heels to lock in your knees and keep your weight on your bones, or skeleton. This saves wear and tear on your muscles. Be that as it may though, it still takes quite a bit of flexibility and strength to do most efficiently. This made me think about my own training with high rep calf raises. Without going into too much detail about muscles, the calf is built with…
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Basement Training Room Updated
Finished the floor for my basement training room. This is the room where my weight equipment gets used. I bought a few boxes of the plastic garage flooring at Costco (they have it every summer) and staggered the black and white tiles in a checkerboard pattern. It’s pretty fast and simple to do. I had to cut the tiles around the edges on two walls. The space I left is for the framing for insulated walls with electric outlets – that should be later in the year, maybe summer. I started at the most difficult place – an “L” and worked my way outward to the right and back (facing…
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Why Am I Doing This?
If you are interested in training at all, reading all the really good information in books, articles and forums on the net, you’ll see a lot of devoted fanboyz pushing their magic pills and formulas. Train like a powerlifter. Olympic lifter. 400 Savage Paleo lifter. Functional. Bodybuilder. Complicated set and rep schedules that take software to figure out and track. Weakness Of the Day randomness. You’ll also see them rip on each other. No bands, no gloves, or wraps, or straps. Metal suits, reduced Range Of Motion, maximum ROM. No machines, no cardio, no heat. Yeah. So how do you wade through this morass? Think for a minute. Why am…
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Training Report for November 2011
For November I increased my weight training a bit. My own personal opinion is that during the cold and dark winter months the body naturally goes into a form of anti-hybernation. You sleep more and eat more. Optimum conditions for gaining muscle mass. So I upped my weight training. For weights right now I’m doing some good basics: Front Squats Box Squats Straight Leg Deadlifts Bench Press Military Press Front Row High Row Low Row Pulldown Along with some limited accessory movements: Facepull Haney Shrug Seated Calf Raise Standing Calf Raise Dumbbell Shoulder Raise Later I’ll post my set/rep plan if you’re curious at all. For cardio, I’m still working…
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