Results matching “Bird”

The most recent edition of T-Nation's Exercises You've Never Tried series (#18) encouraged me to re-read the earlier articles in search of lost gems. Amongst them I found this treat - the Anconeus Sidekick - which soon formed part of an ever-growing Triceps-blasting arsenal.

The Anconeus is the oft-forgotten 4th elbow extensor. To perform the sidekicks, kneel down beside a bench and use it to support your upper arm. Move your upper arm so that it's at right angles to your torso (and parallel to the floor), with your forearm hanging straight down. Pick up a dumbell with a pronated grip (point your thumb down), and raise your forearm to horizontal (your upper arm won't move).

Follow it up with your usual tricep work.

Punch Gym's Anthony DiLuglio demonstrates [.wmv, 5.3mb] one of the less common squat varieties - the Kettlebell Overhead Squat.

Key points :

• After pressing the bell overhead, retract the scapula (but keep the arm straight)
• Twist the body slightly at the hips - toward the side pressing the bell (this twisting is reduced as proficiency in the lift increases)
• Keep your eyes on the bell throughout the squat

From Rif : starting Aug 20, an interesting looking series on the National Geographic Channel - Fight Science - tests the numbers behind some of the rarely seen (and often disputed) moves in MMA. Should be good.

Rick Walker works with college basketball player Brandon Krug. If you've ever worried about being too short to play basketball, stop. At only 5'11, This guy is insane.

Part 1 | Part 2

During a few sets of squats yesterday I asked my dad to tell me how deep I was going (in relation to parallel). He moved his hands apart as if describing 'the one that got away', and I knew there was going to be some work to do. In short, I was nowhere near it.

I turned to the Ian King article 5 Ways to go Deeper; an excellent piece on the basic ways to improve squat depth. The first of these - simply holding onto a stable vertical bar (or anything that won't move), squat down as far as possible. In my case I can achieve depth easily when doing this - which points to a poor technique rather than inflexibility. Let the retraining commence.

Of course, if you find that inflexibility is indeed a factor, the above article will also help you out. Also worth reading is King's The Lazy Man's Guide to Stretching, which outlines some of the stretches to be done before squatting.

As for my own retraining, I began by following King's slow bodyweight squatting recommendations; and will supplement this with some of the stretching (notably the shins) and a few light sets with the bar tomorrow. It's going to be a long journey, but I've no doubt that the benefits will be enormous.

At the start of today's workout I decided to do a quick weighted chin-up test. The last time I tried this was way back in July 2005, and I was hoping to still be around the bodyweight + 30kg mark. As it turned out I'm somewhere between 30 and 40kg; I got within a couple of inches at 40 before calling it a day.

Chin-up (weighted) 1@5/11, 1@10/22, 1@16/36 (the kettlebell), 1@20/44, 1@30/66, 0@40/88

This week has seen the workout volume steadily increase, although the weights were around the same as last week's. Everything feels as though it's slipping neatly into place.

Bud's comments last week on squatting provoked a last-minute substitution: the scheduled bottom-up squats were replaced with a few sets of Jefferson lifts. These were performed as per Bruce Lee's The Art of Expressing the Human Body (with more emphasis on the thighs than the lower back) - a good change. I worked up to three plates per side before the grip decided to call it a day.

Bottom-up squat 4×10@40/88
Jefferson squat 10@60/135, 10@80/176, 10@100/225, 1@140/315
Waiter's Bow 2×25@10/22

The bench presses (floor pressing once again) were accompanied by more back, bicep and wrist work; in the form of chin-ups, rows and curls, looking something like this :

Pull-up (medium grip) 10@bw
Barbell curl 20@20/44
Chin-up 5@bw
Zottman curl (both sides together) 20@6.5/14
Floor press 2×10@40/88, 9×3@60/135
Bent row 10,8 @60/135

The deadlifts were high rack pulls (I'll be lowering the starting height each week or two), and were all done double-overhand, sumo:

Gorilla chins 10@bw
Waiters bow 20@10/25
Rack pull (5 holes showing, above knee height) 2×10@60/132, 2×10@80/176, 2×8@100/225, 2×5@120/264, 3@140/315
Shrug (with hold on last rep) 2×10@100/225

Looking for something different to spice up ab training? Try the Zercher Decline Situp.

Via Bruce Ross' MyoQuip blog, I just came across the training blog of an up-and-coming Rugby prop from Brisbane (Australia). For those of you not overly familiar with this great game, the props are the two guys that pack in to the front of the scrum alongside the hooker; and are generally the heaviest and strongest guys on the team.

Now that Jedd Johnson has detailed the most popular methods for cleaning a strongman log, CJ Murphy provides an insight on training with one. Some interesting ideas in there.