Add 100lb To Your Squat In 12 Weeks Or Less!

Mark Rippetoe said it best,

There are few things graven in stone, except that you have to squat or you’re a pussy.

If you gotta do it, why not do it right?

Popper Form

•  Your back must remain arched at all times.
• Your shoulders must remain together, and back tight.
• Bar must sit on lower traps.
• You must go down to parallel. The top of your hip must pass the top of your knees. No higher, no lower.
• Sit back. Your knees must not pass your toes.
• Your elbows cannot touch your thighs.

Most of these are straight from the IPF by-laws rule book.

Deadlift!

Just as having a good deadlift requires you to squat, the reverse is true. The deadlift strengthens your glutes, hams, back, and quads. To have a good top half, and to explode out of the hole (basically the whole movement), you need to deadlift.

Train Your Upper Back!

Upper and lower back go hand and hand. Do plenty of rows, pullups, and shrugs.

Strengthen Your Hamstrings And Glutes!

Beside deadlifts, I’d recommend doing glute ham raises to.

Squat Wide!

This way, you take better advantage of your much stronger glutes, and take stress off the knees.

Sample Program

Squat: Rule Of 3

GHR: 5×5

Jump Squats: 5×5

That simple. Boom. Se you next time!

Add 50lb To Pressing Movements In 12 Weeks Or Less!

Every guy who walks into a gym wants a big bench. Period. So much so that I see guys benching 3x/week, at the expense of more important muscle groups! For all you bench junkies out there I got some good news, and some bad news. The good news is, you can bench more! The bad news is, you need to work other muscle groups!

3-2-1 Blastoff!

You need to train your back. Your back is your launch pad. Far to many guys I see, train back with a few sets of half-assed pullups and T-bar rows. Not enough. You need no less then eqaul chest/back work, preferably 50% more back then chest work, not counting deadlifts, which you must do or you’re gay.

Heavy emphasis on bent over rows, and then on pullups. Just having weak back musculature makes your chest weaker. Why? The body requires that both opposing muscles be able to counteract one and other, just in case.

Curl Syndrome

I see far to many guys doing biceps curls, but no were near that amount doing triceps extensions, or correct close grip bench press. You need to train your triceps, nuff said.

Train Your Shoulders

Your shoulders play a massive part in pressing of all kinds. Depending on your style, shoulder activation may come close to rivaling chest activation! You must press overhead, nuff said.

Touch Your F***ing Chest

Proper form is essential. Period. Many guys don’t get proper form.

• Shoulder blades “pinched” together.
• Back tight and arched. When arched, I should at the very lest, be able to slide my hand under it.
• Elbows “tucked”. Similar to punching, your hands are at an angle unto your sides.
• Don’t bounce the weight off your chest.
• Lower weight to lower chest on flat, and nipple line on incline.
• Have a spotter spot you, not deadlift the bar off of your face.

Those are the rules. For many guys, proper form may make a 20-30lb difference.

Bench Isn’t The Only Chest Exercise, Who Knew?

Do dips, do flies, do incline! No decline, decline bad!

Bench Like A Man!

Stop doing 30 damn reps, start doing 3! You need to stay below 12 for this. Preferable, below 6.

The Rule Of 3: Let’s Bench!

If you read my article about deadlifts, you know the drill.

12 Weeks To A Massive Bench

 Flat Bench Press: Rule Of 3

Incline: 3×3

Flies: 3×5

Lying Triceps Extensions: 4×4

Only do this once a week. And by the way, my advice on deadlifts applies here as well!

Getting Freaky The Old Fashioned Way Part 2: Getting Shredded With Nothing But A Pullup Bar!

In my previous articles, I spoke about gaining muscle when only bodyweight and a pullup bar are all you have at your disposal. In this article, under the same conditions, I’m gonna show you how to get ripped!

Time To Get Complex!

Now allot of us in the strength/bodybuilding circuit know about “complexes” or “circuits”. A complex is a 2 or more sets of an exercise performed back to back. Pros have been using these, from Olympic weight lifters, to bodybuilders, since, well forever. It’s like bootcamp.

Without further adieu, let’s get down to business!

A Beginner’s Guide To Complex Design

You want to include one exercise for every body part. An example:

Pushup, pullup, squat, good morning, crunch

You must do at least moderate to high reps (10+, preferably 15-25) an example:

Sprint: Pick A Distance

Pushup: 15 reps

Pullup: many can’t do 15, so just do as many as you can, cheat if you must!

Squat: 15 reps

Good Morning: 15 reps

Crunch: 15 reps

You must do more then one round. Preferably no less then 3 rounds.

Example Workout: 3x/Week

3 Rounds

Sprint: Pick A Distance

Pushup Variation: 20 reps

Pullup Variation: Max out

Squat: 20 reps

Good Morning Variation: 20 reps

Crunch: 20 reps

Use the most difficult variation for you, no slacking. Some of you don’t have a pullup bar? SKIP PULLUPS, you just won’t get the same results.

Until Next Time, Good Evening San Diego, Stay Classy!

Add 100lb To your Deadlift In 12 Weeks Or Less!

You gotta admit it: there ain’t nothin’ more impressive then deadlifting 5 plates like a champ, well, except 6. I see allot of guys get stuck at a meager 315 or 405! In this article, I’ll tell you how to take that 315 to 415, and that 405 to 505, in 12 weeks or less!

Train Everything

• Hit your hams
• Hit your upper back
• Hit your quads

Stop Doing So Many Sets

One you know your max, 2 warmups is enough.

The Rule Of 3

First things first, you must find your 2 rep max. I mean 2RM, not just something that’s kinda hard for 2 reps, I mean to reps and it doesn’t leave the ground for a third. Once you’ve found it, your ready to begin.

This is not some long ass program that you alternate every 4 weeks: It’s one workout

The rule of 3 goes as such: 2 easy warmups of 3-5 reps. You jump to your 2RM, max out. You drop 40-60lb (less is better), and get 6. Then 8. Then 10. Six sets in all. You stick with this weight until you get 3 reps with your 2RM, then jump 20lb! Simple.

12 Weeks To A Massive Deadlift

Deadlift: Rule Of 3

Hamstring Curl/Single Leg Ham Curl/Glute Ham Raise (do the hardest one): 4 sets of 3-5 reps.

Take my advice, do the rest of your back another day.

Remember to check your form first; I’ve known guys to add 40lb to there deadlift with a good form check. A good idea is also to add stiff-legs in your leg day, 5×5.

Happy lifting!

Getting Freaky The Old Fashioned Way Part 1: Building Muscle With Nothing But A Pullup Bar!

In a previous article, I mentioned that bodyweight training has a very limited place in the strength circuit. I said it because you can’t effectively add weight. Well, you actually can, but you gotta get primal!

Ancient Chinese Secret

In actuality, it’s not very secret, it’s very popular in gymnastics circles. The idea, is to add weight be means of other people!

The Lower Body

• Partner Squats: Have your partner get on your back, as if you were to carry them, with their legs around your waist. Squat down, stand up. If you can do 20, find a heavier partner! If you can do 20 with him, let him hang from your front, not your back, and pause for 2 seconds at the bottom! If You’ve mastered that, move on to Partner Jump Squats!
• Partner Jump Squats: Same as partner squats, except you jump as high as you can. Got it 20 times? Try pausing for 2 seconds at the bottom. Again? Have your partner hang from th front, and pause for 2 seconds! Again? Move onto Partner Lunges!
• Partner Lunges: Same as partner squats, except you lunge, instead of squatting! If you complete 20, pause for 2 seconds. Again? Partner in front, and pause 2 seconds. Again, move to Jumping Partner Lunges!

•  Jumping Partner Lunges: All prior principles apply.

• Glute Ham Raise: Have a partner hold down your ankles. Most people cannot do one of these, so do negatives. A negative is when you SLOWLY lower yourself, and then use assistance (your hands) on the way up. Once you can do 20 negatives, try doing real, unassisted GHRs! If you can by some means do that, try Single Leg GHRs!
• Single Leg GHR: Do it with 1 leg. Start doing negatives, and then do real ones!

• Sprinting: Sprinting, in the absence of weights, is the king of leg activation! I won’t even explain this. It’s hamstring/glue dominant.
• Pistol Squat: This is a single leg squat. You should start by doing negatives unto a chair, but without assistance getting up. If you do 20, try real reps. If you can do 20 reps, try jumping. If you can do that, find your lightest friend!

The Core

• Partner Good Morning: Start off with your lightest friend. All prior techniques apply, accept for jumping.

Barbell Good Morning

•  Single Leg Good Morning: Use One Leg

• All manner of ab work.

The Upper Body

• Partner Pushup: Start doing negatives with your lightest friend. Did 20? Start with real reps! Did 20? Started exploding off the ground, without clapping. Did that? Add a clap. If anything, add a 2 second pause at the bottom, applies to everything.
• Partner Feet Elevated Pushup: Elevate Feet.
• Partner Dip: You get the idea.
• Single Arm Pushup: Start with slow negatives, for 20. If you can do that on both arms, do real reps. If you can do that, explode off the ground. If you can do that, have a friend put his foot on your back, and progress to a whole friend, 20 times.
• Single Arm Elevated Pushup: Elevate Feet.
• Handstand Pushup: Up against a wall, do 20 negatives. If you can do that, do 20 real reps. If you do that, explode, and add a clap if you wish.
• Handstand Pushup Without Wall: Do away from wall.
• Assisted (Kipping) Chinup: With an underhand grip, pull yourself up. Use a good swing to help, and lower slowly. Once 20 reps can be done, avoid kipping, and move to an overhand grip for strict reps.
• Partner Pullup: Do 20 negatives. Once you can do that, do 20 real reps. Once you can do that, have a friend pull down on you. Have a friend hang on you. If you’ve accomplished all this, experiment with super wide and super close grips. At this point, employ a pause of about 5 seconds at the top of each rep.
• Single Arm Chinup: Same as single arm pushup progression.
• Change The Angle Pullup: Every time, try to do move closer to horizontal, until you can row yourself to the bar.
• Muscle Up:  All techniques apply.

There are allot more cool gymnastic things I could show you, but I’m almost out of time.

Example Full Body Workout: 2-3x Weekly

• Pushup Variation: 4×20
• Pullup Variation: 4×20
• Squat Variation: 4×20
• Hamstring Variation: 4×20
• Ab Variation: 4×20

Total Sets: 20

Progressing

You should follow this program. As time goes on, and you reach 20 reps, go to the next hardest exercise. Keep doing this until you can do this program easily. After you can do every exercise 20 times with ease, try super slow reps, pausing reps, etc. After that, just do as many reps as you can. Remember, the fact that you (and whoever you train with) will gain weight, lends an added challenge. Remember to use compromised sets*. As always, stay strong! The best progression after this would really be to join a gym!

In every case, I can’t stress this enough: you must pause, and squeeze the muscle, throughout every lift, every rep. Be as explosive as you can be. The intent counts, even if you don’t move fast.

As always, experiment with hand placement, close grip wide grip etc

This workout applies to women as well. It makes it nearly free, to get those sexy curves! Beside, if you think somethings getting to big, just raise the reps to 20+, or lower them to 3-5 for density (tone).

In Part II, we’ll cover bodyweight weight loss, with just a pullup bar!

* Compromised set: an example would be doing pushups until the failure, than doing them on your knees, then puking.

Simple Strength Training For Striking Martial Arts Part I

To often, I see martial artists who don’t value weight training, they’re bodyweight purists, and this is to bad. Bruce Lee trained with weight, look how he turned out!

Things That Really Piss Me Off: Bodyweight Purists & Doctor Mom

Bodyweight training has it’s place, but it’s vary small. To increase physical ability, you must increase workload. You can increase the resistance (weight) or volume (number of reps/sets). When, in the case of bodyweight training, you can only muster an increase in volume, you see quickly diminishing returns.

You see,  a guy who can do 100 pushups is NOT stronger then one who can only do 50. Why? Well, within a single muscle cell (myocyte) there are 3 different types of muscle fiber

• Type I: Weak, Small, Slow, Aerobic/Oxidative. Best suited for endurance based work. ex running a marathon, jogging, doing 30+ pushups
• Type IIA: Moderate, Medium Sized, Fast, Aerobic/Anaerobic (without oxygen). Best suited for moderate volume. ex running for 10 minutes,  heavy squats below 25 reps, doing 20 pushups.
• Type IIB: Strong, Large, Fastest, Anaerobic. Best suited for power based work. ex sprinting a 200m, a 40 yard dash, doing 5 clapping pushups, attempting your 1RM on bench press, Olympic lifting.

Now 100 pushups is Type I. All you strengthen is Type I, no other fibers get stronger, or bigger. You can, some studies suggest, even convert some IIA fibers into slow, weak, Type I fibers, making you weaker. Do you want that?

Unless you’re an endurance athlete, I highly doubt it. Yet there are so many people who swear by this as the ultimate mechanism of physical fitness. Sad. If you can’t make it heavier, it ain’t worth it. You won’t gain anything doing 1000 pushups.

The people who stick by this usually can’t afford a gym membership, can’t master proper form, or are just off there rockers. Suck it up pussy. You’re wrong.

You want to be big, but you don’t wanna lift big. Garbage in, garbage out, you get what you give.

This leads me to my 2nd point:  Doctor Mom.

You have the parent out there who insist that, God forbid, their children lift weights, they will break there backs and be 4ft tall for the rest of their lives! What science backs this up? NONE AT ALL.

You see, humans are strange animals. You can tell a man the truth a million times, and he will still default on what he was taught. This is what’s wrong with the church, the government, ad God forbid, the gym.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it’s perfectly safe, and these are well informed medical professionals. Who do you want to listen to? The Doctor with 30 years of medical education and experience, or dear old mum who bakes you pie? I hope you chose the doctor, or you to piss me of royally.

Then we have the parents who decide their children’s physique goals. I remember at one point hearing a mother say “Well, I don’t want him to look like some big veiny bodybuilder, I’ll make sure he doesn’t look like that”. My response to that disgrace was “I’m sorry to inform you, but that’s not your choice. That’s between your boy and his genetics. He’ll look how HE wants”.

So many, especially mothers, think this is their place, WRONG.

This is just 1 thing, that pisses me off.

Things That Really Piss Me Off: Broscience

You know that guy: The guy who you know shouldn’t be giving advice, but does so, and insists he’s right.

Fuck that guy…

Broscientists plague gyms and fitness centers across the nation, and the world.

They give advice like this:

“Nah bro, you should hit chest/arms 3 times a week!”

“Nah man, you’re supposed to do pulldowns/overhead press behind your neck. It’s so much better”

(Note I said pulldowns? That’s because these guys can’t do pullups)

Who gave them their BS.D (Doctorate of Bullshit)?

Their even less intelligent friends!

So please, look at yourself and tell me: are you a broscientist

1. You’ve been doing nothing but upper-body for the past 3 years
2. When you bench, you’re spotter practically deadlifts the bar off your face
3. 90% of the time, you use machines instead of free weights
4. You think every guy who’s bigger then you, is on steroids.

If you fit any of these criteria, end your life now, or read a damn book!

/End of rant

A Very (Very) Basic Strength Program

Franco Columbo doing the king of all exercises: The deadlift!

Let me ask you something? What would you say, if I told you, that you too could be as strong as Columbo here? Would you say “Hell yeah!”? If so, then this article’s for you!