Ground Up Strength

Slow Verus Fast Pulls: Why is the Deadlift a Slow Pull and the Olympic Lifts Fast Pulls?

What makes a "pull" slow or fast. Is it a choice? After all we can do speed deadlifts. So does that make the deadlift a fast pull?

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Going to the Heart of Things: Break the "Advanced" Mess Down to Its Essence

I complained about the misuse of quotes in fitness articles in my first Bad Fitness Article post. While writing the last post in that series I was thinking about the mess of programs and so-called advanced training techniques and this caused me to go all philosophical. So I wanted to see if I could use quotes in a useful and legitimate way to illustrate some of my ideas in this area. I called on two of my favorites and went from Bruce Lee to Emerson.

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A Bit About Specificity and Transfer Of Training Effect

Specificity has become one of those buzz-words that, as I'm always complaining about, people give 'lip service' too without any real understanding of the concept.

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The Functional Big Three

Strength Training has become the new "in" thing to do. Train like a Powerlifter and eat like a Bodybuilder. This is standard advice given to every beginner wanting to get in shape. The next thing you're likely to read or hear is "Squat 500, Pull 500 and Bench 300 and you won't be complaining about size."

While these statements may have some truth in them - however remote, I do not think that the Big 3 Powerlifts are going to be the only "Holy Trinity" in getting anyone big and strong.

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How to Perform Your Specific Exercise Warm Ups

A great deal has been written about the general warm up for strength training. Mobility drills and soft tissue work are big news and most trainees would do well to pay the general warm up some attention. However, the specific exercise warm up is often a source of confusion and a good specific warm up can be an art form in itself.

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A Strength Training Fallacy: The False Compromise

Did your mom ever tell you that when you have a disagreement with a friend you have to learn to compromise? Not to disrespect your mom but the idea that we always must reach a compromise is nonsense and is a common fallacy of thought.

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Olympic Weightlifting Basics with Travis Ortmayer

Travis Ortmayer, top international strongman and owner of Athletic Nation gives a tutorial on the snatch lift in this video.

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BASIC Progression and Bulgarian Split Squats

I am always bringing up, obsessively you might say, how there are many different ways to progress in strength training. And, in fact, how many different things we do and achieve represent progression that we don't even recognize.

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Strength Consolidation: An Example

All strength athletes, at certain times, must consolidate their gains and they will do this instinctually by adding reps to their present limit. As a matter of fact this is an "old-school" way of training and it is still prevalent. There is not a NEW way that is better by virtue of science or Russian periodization. The ways that work haven't changed…our attitudes and expectations have.¹

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Strength Training with Single, Double and Triple Progression

The only other person, besides myself, that I've known to speak in-depth about single, double, and triple progression is Anthony Ditillo. However, to be frank, most of what he said about it makes no sense to me and he seems to have been applying the terms to established styles of training as an alternative to what others had named their training methods, such as "the pyramid system".

When Ditillo spoke of single and double progression he seems to have meant simply allowing yourself to use more than one way to progress. Or in other words to manipulate more than one parameter. This should be common sense.

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Ninety Second Rest Periods For Strength? Are You Kidding Me?

Ok, you are at your favorite forum or you are talking to one of the trainers in the gym and you want to know about rest periods.

"How long should I rest between sets?" you ask.

Here is the typical first response you will get from the forum:

"What's your stats?"

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The Gripper Guide

As a follow up to my last blog post, and to satisfy my obsession with crushing grip strength, I'm going to lay out a guide for torsion spring grippers. I'll make it as comprehensive as I can and it will contain information for people with and without experience with grippers.

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If You Can't Grip It, You Can't Rip It

I came across the title of this post while I was looking around youtube (I feel compelled to watch weightlifting vids or strongman events sometimes) and not only is it a classic line but it also reminded me of something I've never really sat down and talked about: Grip Strength! Just like the title says if you can't hang onto the bar or the handles then you can't perform that exercise. You COULD use wrist straps, but where's the fun in that.

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The Honeymoon Period

Everybody loves the bench press. Hey. no wonder. How many exercises let you lie down while training and then get to boast about it?

Let's examine two different hypothetical training situations, both novice lifters beginning their first real strength training program, to see how they learn the lifts.

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Teaching Versus Learning The Lifts

You know I love how the words 'teach' and 'learn' get mixed up. Provided you are concentrating on just a particular exercise rather than a general technique overview, you can teach a person a basic slow lift in 10 to 20 minutes.

Meaning, you can INSTRUCT them on it it that time frame and have them go through the motions, correct the mistakes, etc.

That doesn't mean they have LEARNED the lift. That means they have received instruction on the lift and gone through an initial training session with it.

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