Results tagged “history of strength”

Backing Away from Back Squats

Squats are the undisputed king of lower body movements. No question. The term 'squat', however, is a general term that encompasses a range of different movements. Of course, when most people hear the word, they think of the traditional back squat. And, indeed, most guys build their leg routine around this movement. Yet, despite its obvious ability to stimulate thigh mass, the back squat has some inherent weaknesses.


In fact, the back squat has a nasty little secret. This greatest of overall mass builders is also potentially the most dangerous movement in the gym for your lower spine, your hips and your knees. And that's when you do it properly. You see, the back squat is almost impossible to perform without some degree of pelvic tilt. When you lean forward and arch your back, your lower back muscles will be shortened and your abs and glutes will be lengthened. This puts an inordinate amount of stress on the posterior discs of the lower spine. And that all spells trouble for your lower back.

Another problem with the back squat is that your thighs are going to get stronger at a much faster rate than the muscles of your lower back. So, while your legs might be able to handle 300 pounds, the muscles supporting your spinal column have just gotten used to 175. The result? Painful injury, coupled with expensive chiropractic sessions.

What's On Your Feet?

Proper squatting technique, regardless of the variation of the movement you select, has a lot to do with your foot placement. In recent years, lifting shoes have become extremely popular in the gym. Specialty shoes for performing squats, deadlifts and other Olympic lifts feature a raised heel, which angles your shins forward. This provides a greater shin angle in the deep squat position, allowing for a flat stable, profile with the floor. This allows for better squat mechanics, keeping the torso upright to help you to stabilize and lift the weight. The solid cup, velcro fasteners and tough synthetic or leather upper inners also provides for greater stability. This stability anchors the heel and keeps the foot from shifting laterally.

All of these features combine to provide a strong platform from which to exert force directly into the floor, making you a stronger, safer squatter. The proper shoes will put you on the front foot to power through your squat workouts.

A Hack in the System

Even with the right shoes, back squats may not be the ideal movement when you consider not only the size of your legs, but your overall well-being.

What's the alternative?

Ever heard of hack squats?

Yes, hack squats. Your gym, if it's worthy of calling itself a gym, will have at least one machine dedicated to this awesome thigh movement. There is no better squat variation to build the outer sweep of the quads. It's also the best thing you can do to bring out that impressive tear-drop muscle just above the knee. In addition, the hack gives more direct stimulation to the hamstrings than the back squat. Best of all, though, the hack squat provides a lot of support to your vulnerable lower back. And, you're able to vary your stance to hit different aspects of the thigh without the balance issues that are inherent in the back squat.

The hack squat was named after early 20th century Russian strongman and wrestler George Hackenschmidt. Hackenschmidt preferred the exercise to the back squat because it allowed him to develop explosive strength in his thighs without over developing the hips and butt. The movement was popularized by the first superstar of bodybuilding, Steve Reeves, in the 1950's. Reeves built his leg training around the hack squat to build an impressive outer sweep to his legs.

The hack squat reverses the pressure of your driving force. With the back squat you drive through your heels, but with the hack you initiate your drive through your toes. That small change really targets the quads, hamstrings and glutes.

If you haven't experienced the undeniable pleasure of the hack squat, it's about time you did. And, don't worry if your gym is hack-less. We'll show you how to hack with nothing but a barbell (surely it's got one of those, right?). But first, let's learn how to get the most out of the hack squat machine.

Front Hack Squat Form

The hack squat machine looks a bit like a 45-degree leg press with shoulder pads where your feet would go. You'll also notice that it's got a good deal of support in the form of padding for your back.

Position yourself under the pads. Your feet should be closer together than if you were doing a back squat, with your toes pointed out slightly. The machine will put you in the proper ergonomic position for a hack squat. Unrack the resistance by releasing the handles, situated either at shoulder or waist level. Now descend slowly, below parallel to a full, deep squat. On the ascent, push from your toes, transferring the force to your heels at the mid ascent point. Flex your quads in the top position.

Keep your head up at all times and your spine against the back pad. Make sure that your hips are back against the back pad at all times; don't allow them to drive forward.

Reverse Hack Squat Form

Place your heels on the outside of the platform as you face in towards the machine. Position yourself under the shoulder pads, but don't go all the way in. Keeping your butt in, squat down until your thighs are parallel to the base of the platform. Push back to the start position. This variation of the hack squat will allow you to place more emphasis on the hamstrings as well as the inner quads.

Barbell Hack Squat Form

Step in front of a loaded barbell, with feet shoulder width apart. Your toes should be pointed out slightly. Bend down to grab the barbell behind you, keeping your back slightly arched as you descend. As you rise, allow the barbell to follow the line of your legs. Keep your chest up and your back straight. Squeeze your quads and glutes in the top position. Slowly lower back down to touch the floor.

Whether you're training specifically for strength or just for general fitness, chances are that you're keen to avoid illness and injury wherever possible. This idea of being 'indestructible' - and being tough enough to tackle anything - is exactly what we'll be talking about this week.

Joining us is 'Physical Culture Renaissance Man' Logan Christopher, and Personal Trainer and Strength Athlete Josh Hewett. Fantastic.


NB : We love hearing from as many people as possible. Join Logan and Josh on the Hangout, or fire in your questions via the Q&A. Full details below.

And if you'd like to point your friends/colleagues to the discussion, just use the 'share' button at the top of that page. The more the merrier.

Details -

Who : 'Physical Culture Renaissance Man' Logan Christopher, Personal Trainer and Strength Athlete Josh Hewett, and You
Topic : Learning from Experts Outside of Your Discipline
When : Monday Nov 10, 8:00pm EDT (the Event page shows what time that is in your local timezone).
How : Watch the live stream, join the hangout (just add Top Form Fitness to one of your circles, and Josh'll send out the URL when the Hangout starts), or jump in the Q&A on the Event page itself. We'll also post the full video on the main site shortly after the Gymchat.

Thanks again to everyone who watched and sent in questions for the discussion Gymchat 237 - Old-Time Strongman Training [with 'Physical Culture Renaissance Man' Logan Christopher, joined by Personal Trainer (and Strength Athlete) Josh Hewett] - much appreciated. If you haven't seen it yet (or simply want to go over a particular point again), here's the entire video.

The incredible Kat 'The Mighty Kat' Ricker pointed me to a superb resource on the History of Strength, The University of Texas' 'The Quest for Victory' site. Love it.

Quick reminder : in this week's Gymchat we'll be discussing the various ways to get your yoke on (and why you might just want to) - in Neck Training II. Superb.

See you there.

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There's nothing quite like having a strong neck. And if you're a martial artist, rugby player or Formula One driver; you'll understand just why.

This week I'd like to return to this wonderful form of training (we first looked at it almost 3 years ago now, in Twitterchat 27) - what it involves, who it applies to, how to get started and a whole lot more. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than combat athlete Andrew Nalepa. Fantastic.

And if you've just joined us on Google+, welcome. Join us on Mar 28, and add a comment/ask a question or three. Dive in.

Walter Joseph Lyons (better known as Don Athaldo) was an Australian Circus Strongman in the 1920s and 1930s. Although he published several books, it was his The Athalding System mail-order offering that helped give him lasting fame.
Lyons was born to Queensland carpenter Frederick Horace George Lyons and his wife Elizabeth on 26 November 1894 at Condobolin, New South Wales [1, 7]. Named Walter Joseph, he was constantly ill, asthmatic [9] and could not walk well until aged 5. At Fitzgerald Bros' Circus he saw the strongman 'Dr Gordon', became inspired and began reading about ancient Greece and taking correspondence courses in physical culture to build himself up [1].
Apprenticed to a blacksmith for five years, in 1915-16 he served as a shoeing-smith corporal with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force at Rabaul, New Britain. In 1916-17 he twice enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, only to be discharged both times as medically unfit. Rejoining the A.N. and M.E.F. in November 1917, he returned as a shoeing-smith corporal to Rabaul where, after briefly being discharged in 1919, he served until 1921. On 22 August that year he married Vera Elizabeth Stewart at the Warren Methodist Church, Marrickville (a Sydney suburb) [7]. He resumed blacksmithing at Leichhardt (also a Sydney suburb), as well as becoming involved in numerous sports (he boxed for a time as a light-welterweight).
Adopting the name 'Don Athaldo' (*), he won acclaim as a circus strongman; cementing his reputation through spectacular demonstrations of strength and a flair for showmanship. Among his best-known feats were the Human Link, Bending & Scrolling, and Horse-Lifting (involving a harness lift of sorts). Topping the list : pulling a touring car with six passengers an incredible 805m (more than half a mile) up the hill of William Street, Sydney. If you've ever run the Sydney City to Surf half marathon, you know this hill. Insanely steep.
In 1932 he authored Health, Strength & Muscular Power, a booklet detailing his Athalding System [3]. This was followed in the early 1940s by Meet Don Athaldo and Muscular Strength. In the early 1950s he wrote The Athalding Course, a 3-part series of lessons detailing his own approach to training and nutrition [3]. Heavily influenced by Charles Atlas' Dynamic Tension course [4], it was Athaldo's The Athalding Course that helped cement his long-term fame.

Athaldo's philosophy combined the idealized man of action with ideals of health, masculine beauty and virility. Rejecting the notion of 'abnormal development' fostered by weight-lifting, he stressed diet, fresh air and 'dynamic tension'. 'The Athalding System', he claimed, would overcome bad breath, bad habits, cancer, stammering, brain fag, virile weakness and pimples, while developing a pleasing personality and the Oriental secret of calmness [1].

Variety is the spice of life. We all have our favorite tools, our preferred methods, and our go-to exercises. But if we continually bang away at the same thing, without mixing it up a bit, our training will eventually get stale, at best, or lose its effectiveness, at worst. There are many ways to mix things up, but one of the most fun and eye opening is the use of bodyweight exercises.

Unfortunately, bodyweight training hasn't received its due in the past. Many believed it boring -- lacking in choice and options. Others didn't feel it provided adequate challenge. Well, that's all changing. The secrets of ancient physical cultures are converging with the ingenuity of cutting-edge coaches to deliver captivating programs using only the trainee's body weight to garner impressive results. And with the economic uncertainty of our times, bodyweight and other low cost training options are growing in appeal.

Age-old Inspiration

If we look to the past for inspiration, we can tap into rich traditions such as the Iranian Pahlavani and the physical cultures of the Indian peninsula. Even yoga, before becoming diluted and filtered for the West, was rife with examples of strong and wiry practitioners using the resistance of gravity on their own bodies to build incredible physical prowess. And much closer to home, strongmen of the early 20th century were huge proponents of bodyweight training and published dedicated tracts on the subject such as The York Hand Balancing Course.

Today, the treasures of the past are being resuscitated and imbibed with new life by innovators such as Scott Sonnon, founder of the Circular Strength Training® system. Anyone who has ever tried his FlowFit® program or any of the exercises from his Body-Flow™ collection know that these are not milquetoast exercise options.

Examples of great bodyweight movements are all around us

More modern day options are available through the study of athletes such as gymnasts, acrobats and even break dancers. The extent to which these athletes can control and manipulate their own mass in space is an inspiring feat. But beyond their jaw dropping skill and strength, they are also a deep well of training ideas for anyone interested in using bodyweight exercises in their training.

Building off such solid examples, we can create programs for many different goals. In fact, the new Bodyweight Exercise Revolution introduces five turn-key programs for fat loss, strength, hypertrophy, longevity and general athleticism.

Bodyweight Circuit Training

In order to explore the power of bodyweight training, let's take a look at one of its most versatile uses, high intensity circuit training. By putting a bodyweight circuit together which taps into the range of high intensity exercise, we can use it for purposes such as fat loss or cardiovascular conditioning. This makes for an appealing alternative to conventional interval training, which can become tedious.

It can also be an excellent option for space and time efficient exercise when you are on the road or in the middle of a particularly busy period in your life. A small space in you hotel room, office or bedroom will suffice to receive the benefits of a hard-hitting conditioning session.

The ways you can set up your circuits are almost limitless. Here, we'll borrow a protocol I learned from Scott Sonnon during a TacFit session in Bellingham, Washington. You'll have three minutes per round. Each round starts at the top of the three minutes. So you'll have to get in all your repetitions and rest within that timeframe. The faster you go, the more rest you'll have.

I suggest you start with a thorough warm-up of joint mobility and movement prep. I use the Intu-Flow joint health and mobility program, along with a selection of movements from the Body-Flow library and some easy but sophisticated routines with my Mini Clubbells®. This gets the joints lubricated, the body temperature up, and the muscles all firing properly.

Recently I got the chance to find out a little more about Professional Strongman Chris Rider. As you'll soon discover, he's a truly amazing guy.

1. Firstly, a bit of background. What is your name (and nickname), and where did you grow up?
   
   

   My name is Chris Rider. I grew up in a small town located outside of York Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes from the famed York Barbell Company of Bob Hoffman.



2. How did you get started as a performing Strongman?

   In the fall of 2006 a friend of mine had seen a fellow on television tear a phone book in half. Knowing that I was a lifter and had a high level of general strength, he had asked me if I could do it. I told him I didn't know, I never tried it. With that I grabbed a phone book and tore it in two on the first attempt. Wondering if it was a fluke, I grabbed a second, this time much thicker book, and tore that one as well.

   I continued with tearing phone books, and began to wonder what else I was capable of. The next feat of strength I tried was to tear a full deck of playing cards in half. Again, I was successful on the first attempt. Then came the bending of a 60 penny nail, tearing a license plate, bending a horseshoe, breaking a baseball bat, etc., all successful on the first attempts.

   I began to seriously wonder what I had tapped into. My friends and family were wondering the same thing too. I began to research the great performing strongmen of the past and the feats they demonstrated. I had come across two relatively small fellows on the Internet who were doing things that were just incredible sounding. They are a pair of modern day performing strongmen, A Mentor and his Protege - Dennis Rogers and Pat Povilaitis. This was the stuff I was looking for, instruction offered by a Grand Master in his field. I began to train with the materials offered by Dennis and my list of accomplishments continued to grow.

   I attended the 2007 A.O.B.S. reunion in June of that year, after only seriously training as an oldetime strongman for 3 months. I had completed some very notable feats and thought it would be wise to go show the top guys that I wasn't just a keyboard warrior, that my claims were on the level. I did just that, after the festivities were over I ended up bending, breaking, ripping, and tearing all sorts of things in the hallway out side of the reception room until around 3 AM. It was my first real taste of performing in front of people I didn't know, and it was in front of many of the best in the business. I've been hooked on performing feats of strength since.



3. Which accomplishment (sporting or otherwise) are you most proud of?

   That is a hard one. I guess the one sporting accomplishment that really puts things in perspective is after being diagnosed with multiple severely herniated and degenerative disks in my spine, and being told I would not be able to lift weights again, I worked my way up to completing a set of four with 315 in the stiff leg, full range good morning exercise. This was done after refusing surgery and pursuing healing through natural means coupled with proper training.

   It just goes to show that things thought impossible can be achieved with the proper mind set and dedicated training.



4. What are your goals for the next year or so? The next 10 years?

   I just completed the certification process for the IronMind Red Nail. For a short term goal, I am now working towards becoming certified in closing the Captains of Crush # 3 gripper.

   My long term goal is to consistently become stronger than I am. I am also looking forward to a long career as a professional performing strongman.



5. What changes in the world of Old-Time Strongman have you seen over the
   past couple of years? What would you like to see?

   I am still relatively new, but I have seen more interest arising in the traditional feats. I would like to see interest continue to rise and catch on mainstream.

Sig Klein with one of Louis Cyr's challenge dumbbells.

19thC French Strongman well known for chain breaking - Pierre Gasnier.