In this month’s issue of Men’s Health, Joe Kita writes a great article about the strength training approach of Coach Dos Remedios, or the College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita California and his take on getting bigger, stronger and leaner.
Coach Dos’s training consists of relatively short, high intensity compound resistance exercise, regularly changed up. By concentrating on this method of training, not only will one be able to sculpt the body they want, but they will also gain the benefits of functional fitness.
Hmm…. Where have I heard this ad nauseam before? Oh, that’s right – the tried and true crossfit. But this isn’t the first time that Men’s Health has featured an article about the benefits of athletic type strength training and how superior it is, compared to the isolation movements of the standard bodybuilding repertoire. Several months ago the Men’s Health “guy” was Jason Statham – the ripped action flic actor \ mixed martial arts practitioner who gets his physique (and uncanny strength) through high intensity functional movements. Again – crossfit-esque in every way.
So I wonder – is this the new norm? Are more and more gym rats suddenly going to be hitting the pull-up bar and working on their cleans and push jerks? Will lines begin forming for the power racks? Will squatting and deadlifts start getting the attention they deserve? Probably not. Unfortunately.
This is great stuff. Mark Rippetoe, the author of several well known strength building books, is also a sort of beer connoisseur. A custom brew was made for a post-crossfit lifting seminar he led… Read on here.
A great way to do double duty at the gym is to combine a couple of otherwise very different exercises into a single movement. Hanging leg raise to pull-up would be one example of a single gut-busting, lat-straining exercise.
Another really super great combo is the squat to shoulder press movement, otherwise known as a thruster (in crossfit lingo anyway – a key element to the “Fran” benchmark).
The thruster is, as I described, a single movement between squat and press. The exercise can really be done with any sort of weight – kettle bells, barbells, dumbbells, medicine ball – anything you can do a squat and shoulder press with.
Start with the weight positioned at shoulder level as though you are about to do a shoulder press. Instead, go down into a squat, back up and then do the shoulder press. Go immediately back to start – that’s a rep.
Try doing three sets of 8 at an empty bar, 45lbs or 65lbs to start. You may find that you can easily go up to 95 or higher (depending more or less on your shoulder press), but before you do that, attempt to increase the intensity. Whipping off 8 reps of this exercise without pausing between reps will make your heart pound and get your sweat on like you’ve just run a record mile.
P.S. Just don’t overdo it. Exercises like the thruster can really give your body a run for its money.
The November issue of Mens’ Health just arrived. They have an interesting article called the “5 – Second Strength Booster”. Interesting not because it’s another article about how good the deadlift is but interesting because of the tidbit of information they revealed.
The deadlift was, at some point way back when, called the health lift. Now we typically use barbells or dumbbells, while then the lift simply called for heavy objects. Lift them up, then let them down… done. 5 seconds flat. It was the staple lift – believed to give all the physical exercise that a person needed.
And truthfully, the deadlift (or health lift) is an exercise that, if you could only manage a single exercise for one rep, should be the one. There is no other exercise that engages as many muscles from top to bottom as the deadlift. The bonus is that this great lift requires so little as far as equipment goes. A barbell, dumbbells, a rock, a sandbag, your 27 inch CRT television, the neighbor’s dog – whatever.
Of course, like most exercises – technique is key. Many people actually avoid the deadlift because of the rumor that it could seriously hurt your back. Done incorrectly, this is true. Done correctly, however, the deadlift not only won’t hurt your back, but will provide you with extra insurance against back problems by strengthening it and the surrounding muscles.
Once again, I have to reference crossfit and their great library of workout demonstrations. The below video gives a great introduction to how the deadlift should be performed. Keep an eye on how the bar literally scales up the legs and thighs. A sign of a good deadlift is some barbell burn on the shins ;)
In this month’s issue of Men’s Health, Joe Kita writes a great article about the strength training approach of Coach Dos Remedios, or the College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita California and his take on getting bigger, stronger and leaner.
