Monday, February 28, 2011
Ivan Denisov - World Record 24kg Snatch - 730 reps - 1 switch
Not much to say about this effort....It boggles the mind!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Bob Peoples and The Roundback
Another dated but still timely article...Originally Posted on "The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban"
Bob Peoples And The Roundback (Terry Todd)
In these two photos, which were taken in the fall of 1972 at the Peoples farm near Johnson City, Tennessee, Bob Peoples watches as Dr. Terry Todd assumes two very different positions for the beginning of the deadlift. In the top photo, Dr. Todd is set in the traditional position recommended by most experts. In the bottom photo, he is set in the position developed by Bob Peoples and used by him in his record lift of 725 made in 1947 at a bodyweight of 181 pounds.
Consider the rounded-back deadlift, the style that has been seriously advocated in articles on power training only during the past year or so. Bob Peoples figured all this out several decades ago. He correctly reasoned that a rounded back helped the leverage in the deadlift by shortening the lever arm (the back) and therefore increasing the amount of weight that can be lifted. His thinking went far beyond even this. As an innovator, he was a true radical - he went to the roots of cherished assumptions and transformed them so that they bore better fruit. The established experts of Bob's day (and most "experts" today) all insisted that the correct deadlift position involved the following things:
(1) A flat back throughout the lift.
(2) Hips low at the start of the lift.
(3) Head up throughout the lift.
(4) Chest full of air.
(5) Either a reverse or a "hook" grip or both.
Consider then, Bob's following statement, made over 20 years ago. "On October 4 I finally made a new world record deadlift record of 700 pounds. At this time I was lifting on normally filled lungs. However, I then started lifting on empty lungs and with a round back - that is I would breathe out to normal, round my back, raise the hips, look down and begin the lift. I feel this is much safer than following the customary advice of the experts. By breathing out you lessen the internal pressure and by lifting with a round back you lessen the leverage - all of which adds many pounds to your lift. I have used the reverse grip and also the overhand hook grip but I have now changed to the palms up or curl grip (with hook) and will experiment with it for a while to see if it helps."
Yet another myth Bob exploded involved the age at which a man could do his best lifting. He was in his prime between the ages of 35 and 42 and set the 725 deadlift record when he was in his 40th year. When he was 55, he was able to regularly deadlift 650 pounds at a bodyweight of approximately 190.
Bob used a great many lifting routines, but most of them revolved around the deadlift. Before his contest against William Boone, Bob did the following workout every day for several weeks:
Deadlift - 450x20, 500x15, 550x12, 600x10, 625x5, 650x2, 670-690x1.
Press - many sets of varying reps.
Squat - 200x5, 250x5, 300x5, 325x5, 375x5, 400x5.
Another method he used successfully was to work entirely on deadlifts until he felt himself going "stale" at which time he'd switch to the squat until he felt stale again, then switch back to the deadlift.
In general, he favors daily training if you can stand it, low reps working up to heavy singles, lots of partial lifting and supporting work, good nourishing country-style food, and an individualistic and creative approach to training. He suggest that beginners follow these rules as a way to begin, but that that they should feel free to experiment on their own with a variety of exercises and schedules. Bob's a strong advocate of a program of instinctive training built around a good solid core of the basic, heavy lifts.
He was and is more than a great lifter - he's a good man and he's been a good man for a long time now. When we visited him and his wife we stopped down on the main highway to get a drink of water and fill up with gas and the owner of the little country store asked us where we were from. We told him Georgia and that we'd come up to see Bob Peoples. When he heard that he began to tell us about Bob and about how the people of the area felt about him. He finished filling up our tank and as he screwed the cap back in place he turned toward us and said with a smile, "Around here, Bob's spoke of high."
Bob Peoples And The Roundback (Terry Todd)
In these two photos, which were taken in the fall of 1972 at the Peoples farm near Johnson City, Tennessee, Bob Peoples watches as Dr. Terry Todd assumes two very different positions for the beginning of the deadlift. In the top photo, Dr. Todd is set in the traditional position recommended by most experts. In the bottom photo, he is set in the position developed by Bob Peoples and used by him in his record lift of 725 made in 1947 at a bodyweight of 181 pounds.
Consider the rounded-back deadlift, the style that has been seriously advocated in articles on power training only during the past year or so. Bob Peoples figured all this out several decades ago. He correctly reasoned that a rounded back helped the leverage in the deadlift by shortening the lever arm (the back) and therefore increasing the amount of weight that can be lifted. His thinking went far beyond even this. As an innovator, he was a true radical - he went to the roots of cherished assumptions and transformed them so that they bore better fruit. The established experts of Bob's day (and most "experts" today) all insisted that the correct deadlift position involved the following things:
(1) A flat back throughout the lift.
(2) Hips low at the start of the lift.
(3) Head up throughout the lift.
(4) Chest full of air.
(5) Either a reverse or a "hook" grip or both.
Consider then, Bob's following statement, made over 20 years ago. "On October 4 I finally made a new world record deadlift record of 700 pounds. At this time I was lifting on normally filled lungs. However, I then started lifting on empty lungs and with a round back - that is I would breathe out to normal, round my back, raise the hips, look down and begin the lift. I feel this is much safer than following the customary advice of the experts. By breathing out you lessen the internal pressure and by lifting with a round back you lessen the leverage - all of which adds many pounds to your lift. I have used the reverse grip and also the overhand hook grip but I have now changed to the palms up or curl grip (with hook) and will experiment with it for a while to see if it helps."
Yet another myth Bob exploded involved the age at which a man could do his best lifting. He was in his prime between the ages of 35 and 42 and set the 725 deadlift record when he was in his 40th year. When he was 55, he was able to regularly deadlift 650 pounds at a bodyweight of approximately 190.
Bob used a great many lifting routines, but most of them revolved around the deadlift. Before his contest against William Boone, Bob did the following workout every day for several weeks:
Deadlift - 450x20, 500x15, 550x12, 600x10, 625x5, 650x2, 670-690x1.
Press - many sets of varying reps.
Squat - 200x5, 250x5, 300x5, 325x5, 375x5, 400x5.
Another method he used successfully was to work entirely on deadlifts until he felt himself going "stale" at which time he'd switch to the squat until he felt stale again, then switch back to the deadlift.
In general, he favors daily training if you can stand it, low reps working up to heavy singles, lots of partial lifting and supporting work, good nourishing country-style food, and an individualistic and creative approach to training. He suggest that beginners follow these rules as a way to begin, but that that they should feel free to experiment on their own with a variety of exercises and schedules. Bob's a strong advocate of a program of instinctive training built around a good solid core of the basic, heavy lifts.
He was and is more than a great lifter - he's a good man and he's been a good man for a long time now. When we visited him and his wife we stopped down on the main highway to get a drink of water and fill up with gas and the owner of the little country store asked us where we were from. We told him Georgia and that we'd come up to see Bob Peoples. When he heard that he began to tell us about Bob and about how the people of the area felt about him. He finished filling up our tank and as he screwed the cap back in place he turned toward us and said with a smile, "Around here, Bob's spoke of high."
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A Change for Your Pulling Routine
In many ways we cannot know where we are going until we know where we have been. I thoroughly enjoy reading of training methods from the past years. It is not lost on me so many ideals in training that get lost as time goes by. Great inspiration can come from educating oneself of the training methods that worked so well, but have taken hiding in our hi tech world. Many past lifters were performing feats that pale those of today. In times when simplicity ruled and results abound, we have much to learn from looking back. BB
What follows is a Repost from "The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban".
A Change for Your Pulling Routine
by Tommy Suggs (1969)
During the course of a year there are always a few weeks or even a few months which can be described as the doldrums. The doldrums are when you just finished training for a contest or training yourself to a peak and you suddenly feel what Dr. John Gourgott apply describes as “post contest depression.” No matter what you call it – doldrums or post contest depression – the symptoms are the same. You are tired of the same old exercises, especially the three Olympic lifts and the standard assistant exercises. Your enthusiasm drops and consequently you slack off on your training and lose ground to your competition who are still training hard. The recommended cure is always the same – change your routine. The only problem is that very often it is difficult to find new exercises that will work the muscles in a new and different way yet strengthen the same muscles used in the Olympic lifts. I would like to present a training program for the pulling muscles that will be new and different and at the same time strengthen the muscles used in the pulling portion of the three Olympic lifts (press clean, snatch, clean for the jerk).
Power Rows
This is one of the best exercises around to work all of the pulling muscles. Take a grip between your snatch and clean grip. First take a position as if you were going to do a deadlift – head up, back straight, hips down. Now raise your hips until your back is parallel with the floor and the weight still resting on the floor. Now keep your hips in the same position – with your knees slightly bent – and raise the weight off the floor until the bar is a few inches below your knees. This is the starting position of the exercise. Now straighten up a few inches and at the same time pull with the arms trying to touch the bar to the lower portion of your chest. As soon as you exert a pull with your arms and while you are still pulling with your arms, lower your shoulders to the starting height and try to touch the bar to your chest. Lower the bar to the starting position (not to the floor) and repeat. The motion should be performed with an emphasis on pulling the bar fast and with a snap at the point where you stop straightening the body and lower the chest to touch the bar.
The Power Row has to be one of the best off-season exercises for the pull. Every muscle used in the pulling motion is strongly worked. Let’s take a look and see why and how each muscle is worked. First, the Brachialis, the pulling muscle of the arm is strongly worked when they contact to bring the bar to the chest. The rear deltoids and traps are strongly contracted when the arms are pulled back to help give momentum to the bar as it is being raised to the chest. The spinal erectors are strongly contracted during the whole exercise as they are constantly fighting to keep the back arched and must do all the work while at a disadvantage. Also, when the shoulders are raised the first few inches to get the bar started upwards, the spinal erectors do all the work. And finally, the thigh biceps, which few people realize work hard when pulling heavy weights from the floor, is constantly contracted as it helps to maintain balance and raise and lower the body position during the exercise. No pulling muscle of importance is missed with this exercise. This was a favorite exercise of Vern Weaver who had one of the best back developments of any Mr. America winner and who power cleaned 360 while weighing only a few pounds over 200, mainly on the strength developed doing this exercise.
Include this exercise in your workouts on Monday and Wednesday. You need not do any other pulling exercises. In fact, to do more would just lessen your progress. Stick to five repetitions although you may occasionally want to drop the repetitions on your last and heaviest set to three. Here is a sample of how should work up on this exercise if you are capable of a 300 clean. Start with a warmup set of 10 repetitions with 135 and then progress in sets of 5 reps as follows: 165, 185, 215, 235, 255, 275. Remember these points: Concentrate on proper position and a fast snap as the bar travels the last few inches to touch your chest. Stay with five repetitions and include Power Rows in your training only twice a week. And most of all, when you feel strong go up a little heavier than before and if you feel a little tired or overworked slack off and don’t handle limit poundages.
Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug.
It’s usually better not to work the same exercise each workout. Instead, it is better to substitute another exercise that works the same muscles, but give variety. The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug should be considered a secondary exercise in your pulling routine. The Power Rows should be worked the hardest and with the most mental and physical drive. The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug is performed on Wednesday to keep the pulling muscles in shape and to provide a change in training so you won’t get burned out on the primary exercise, which in this pulling routine is Power Rows. But just because the Deadlift and Shrug is not the primary exercise, don’t think you can just drop it from your routine. It is important that it be included, but just don’t work exceptionally heavy or hard on this particular exercise.
The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug is performed as follows: Place the feet under the bar in the same position you use when you clean a weight. Grasp he bar with your regular grip – use straps to aid your grip with heavier weights – and raise your hips until your knees are almost straight. Keep the knees slightly bent during the whole movement. Now you are in the starting position. Simply keep your legs and hips in the same position and raise the shoulders until you are standing upright. As you reach the upright position shrug your shoulders as high as possible. Try to touch your traps to your ears. Lower the bar to the floor while keeping your knees slightly bent and repeat. Your lower back and traps will get a tremendous workout. Work up with approximately the same poundage you use for your Power Rows and stick with five repetitions. Of course, you will need to adjust your exercise poundages as you progress and become stronger in this exercise.
Train three days a week only. do a pressing exercise of your choice first. Then your pull workout – Monday and Friday do Power Rows and Wednesday do Stiff-Legged Deadlifts and Shrugs. Then do squats. Follow this routine for 4-6 weeks if you have time, or for only a couple of weeks if you have a contest in the near future and want to get back to the Olympic lifts. In any event, your pull will be stronger than ever when you start back on the Olympic lifts and get them in the groove again. Just remember that there is nothing like regular training to keep making progress and there is nothing like variety to keep you training regularly.
What follows is a Repost from "The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban".
A Change for Your Pulling Routine
by Tommy Suggs (1969)
During the course of a year there are always a few weeks or even a few months which can be described as the doldrums. The doldrums are when you just finished training for a contest or training yourself to a peak and you suddenly feel what Dr. John Gourgott apply describes as “post contest depression.” No matter what you call it – doldrums or post contest depression – the symptoms are the same. You are tired of the same old exercises, especially the three Olympic lifts and the standard assistant exercises. Your enthusiasm drops and consequently you slack off on your training and lose ground to your competition who are still training hard. The recommended cure is always the same – change your routine. The only problem is that very often it is difficult to find new exercises that will work the muscles in a new and different way yet strengthen the same muscles used in the Olympic lifts. I would like to present a training program for the pulling muscles that will be new and different and at the same time strengthen the muscles used in the pulling portion of the three Olympic lifts (press clean, snatch, clean for the jerk).
Power Rows
This is one of the best exercises around to work all of the pulling muscles. Take a grip between your snatch and clean grip. First take a position as if you were going to do a deadlift – head up, back straight, hips down. Now raise your hips until your back is parallel with the floor and the weight still resting on the floor. Now keep your hips in the same position – with your knees slightly bent – and raise the weight off the floor until the bar is a few inches below your knees. This is the starting position of the exercise. Now straighten up a few inches and at the same time pull with the arms trying to touch the bar to the lower portion of your chest. As soon as you exert a pull with your arms and while you are still pulling with your arms, lower your shoulders to the starting height and try to touch the bar to your chest. Lower the bar to the starting position (not to the floor) and repeat. The motion should be performed with an emphasis on pulling the bar fast and with a snap at the point where you stop straightening the body and lower the chest to touch the bar.
The Power Row has to be one of the best off-season exercises for the pull. Every muscle used in the pulling motion is strongly worked. Let’s take a look and see why and how each muscle is worked. First, the Brachialis, the pulling muscle of the arm is strongly worked when they contact to bring the bar to the chest. The rear deltoids and traps are strongly contracted when the arms are pulled back to help give momentum to the bar as it is being raised to the chest. The spinal erectors are strongly contracted during the whole exercise as they are constantly fighting to keep the back arched and must do all the work while at a disadvantage. Also, when the shoulders are raised the first few inches to get the bar started upwards, the spinal erectors do all the work. And finally, the thigh biceps, which few people realize work hard when pulling heavy weights from the floor, is constantly contracted as it helps to maintain balance and raise and lower the body position during the exercise. No pulling muscle of importance is missed with this exercise. This was a favorite exercise of Vern Weaver who had one of the best back developments of any Mr. America winner and who power cleaned 360 while weighing only a few pounds over 200, mainly on the strength developed doing this exercise.
Include this exercise in your workouts on Monday and Wednesday. You need not do any other pulling exercises. In fact, to do more would just lessen your progress. Stick to five repetitions although you may occasionally want to drop the repetitions on your last and heaviest set to three. Here is a sample of how should work up on this exercise if you are capable of a 300 clean. Start with a warmup set of 10 repetitions with 135 and then progress in sets of 5 reps as follows: 165, 185, 215, 235, 255, 275. Remember these points: Concentrate on proper position and a fast snap as the bar travels the last few inches to touch your chest. Stay with five repetitions and include Power Rows in your training only twice a week. And most of all, when you feel strong go up a little heavier than before and if you feel a little tired or overworked slack off and don’t handle limit poundages.
Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug.
It’s usually better not to work the same exercise each workout. Instead, it is better to substitute another exercise that works the same muscles, but give variety. The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug should be considered a secondary exercise in your pulling routine. The Power Rows should be worked the hardest and with the most mental and physical drive. The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug is performed on Wednesday to keep the pulling muscles in shape and to provide a change in training so you won’t get burned out on the primary exercise, which in this pulling routine is Power Rows. But just because the Deadlift and Shrug is not the primary exercise, don’t think you can just drop it from your routine. It is important that it be included, but just don’t work exceptionally heavy or hard on this particular exercise.
The Stiff-Legged Deadlift and Shrug is performed as follows: Place the feet under the bar in the same position you use when you clean a weight. Grasp he bar with your regular grip – use straps to aid your grip with heavier weights – and raise your hips until your knees are almost straight. Keep the knees slightly bent during the whole movement. Now you are in the starting position. Simply keep your legs and hips in the same position and raise the shoulders until you are standing upright. As you reach the upright position shrug your shoulders as high as possible. Try to touch your traps to your ears. Lower the bar to the floor while keeping your knees slightly bent and repeat. Your lower back and traps will get a tremendous workout. Work up with approximately the same poundage you use for your Power Rows and stick with five repetitions. Of course, you will need to adjust your exercise poundages as you progress and become stronger in this exercise.
Train three days a week only. do a pressing exercise of your choice first. Then your pull workout – Monday and Friday do Power Rows and Wednesday do Stiff-Legged Deadlifts and Shrugs. Then do squats. Follow this routine for 4-6 weeks if you have time, or for only a couple of weeks if you have a contest in the near future and want to get back to the Olympic lifts. In any event, your pull will be stronger than ever when you start back on the Olympic lifts and get them in the groove again. Just remember that there is nothing like regular training to keep making progress and there is nothing like variety to keep you training regularly.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Endure
ENDURE en·dure/enˈd(y)o͝or/Verb
Below is a repost from a blog by David (Cooke?) who blogs as Southern Kettlebeller. Josh pointed to this post and I thought it was a good summation of opinion to questions regarding Kettlebell Sport and what role "Strength" actually plays.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Do you need more endurance in 2011?
Kettlebell Sport is known as a strength endurance sport. Most non-athletes consider kettlebells to be "heavy" weights, whether they are thinking of amateurs who compete with the 24kg kettlebells or world-class athletes who use the 32kg bells. To be fair, most folks don't lift 53 lb or 70 lb objects every day, much less put two of them overhead for fifty or a hundred times in a row.
But from an athletics standpoint, the weights that kettlebell sport athletes use are very light. Olympic weightlifters of my weight class snatch over 400 lbs; they clean and jerk over 500 lbs. Powerlifters often squat over 1,000 lbs, deadlift over 900 lbs, and bench press over 900 lbs. These lifts are completed in just seconds, for only one repetition, as opposed to the kettlebell lifts, which are repeated continually over the course of 10 minutes.
I mention all of that to give context to a statement that should be obvious, yet comes across as controversial to many who discuss kettlebell sport on popular Internet discussion forums:
Kettlebell sport is an endurance sport.
Now, some may acknowledge the truth of that statement superficially. But when you start talking training regimens for kettlebell sport, many recommend heavy lifting of some kind. Squats, deadlifts, and even presses. Rarely do these same people recommend running, rowing, or jumping rope. But lifting truly heavy weights? All the time. Recently, a great American kettlebell sport trainer, Cate Imes, addressed this phenomenon in two excellent blog posts, the most recent of which can be found here. Obviously, the title of those pieces inspired the subject of this blog.
The questions and advice posited from many kettlebell lifters and fitness enthusiests reveals the common assumption that the development of maximal strength is a priority for kettlebell sport athletes. Yet, Sergey Rudnev and Eugene Lopatin disproved this common misconception in their article Strength or Endurance, development of strength and strength endurance in Kettlebell Sport. A very readable summary of the article and one lifter's impression of it appears here. Of note in the article is that Lopatin, a multiple world-record-holder in kettlebell sport, could not meet the minimum strength recommendations for athletes who wish to participate in kettlebell sport as set by a Voropaev, a highly respected sports scientist. Yes, the world record holder could not pass the recommended strength requirements for a beginner.
Again, to be fair, Voropaev's recommendations essentially reflected the priorities of many other sports
scientists, and the prevailing wisdom of kettlebell sport throughout the years. So the assumption that the development of maximal strength is a priority for kettlebell sport athletes is neither new, nor isolated.
Both Rudnev and Lopatin teach in the department of physical training and sports of the Far Eastern Military Institute of Russia. They noted that the athletes with better results in kettlebell sport at their Institute were endurance athletes, and specifically noted the successes of former cross-country skiers, rowers, and distance runners.
Rudnev and Lopatin conlcuded that the development of maximal strength with a barbell had no bearing on the success of the kettlebell sport athlete. While some reading that sentence are still saying, "yeah, but..." let me take it a step further:
Strength endurance is not a determining factor in Kettlebell Sport lifting.
According to their article, strength endurance is the ability to perform an activity at a fast tempo for 1-3 minutes. One measure of strength endurance would be the two minute push up test that is often used as a part of the US Army's physical fitness test, in which a soldier completes as many push ups as he can in two minutes. However, per Rudnev and Lopatin, "...strength endurance is not a determining factor in Kettlebell Sport lifting. It [strength endurance] only allows you to perform at fast tempo for 1-3 minutes...Kettlebell Sport lifting [requires] endurance which allow(s) [you] to perform 10 minutes of competition time. Therefore, we should talk about the special endurance, which is necessary to work with pauses between repetitions sufficient for recovery to the next repetition..."
The authors go on to explain that, according to their studies, the development of general and special endurance are the top priorities for the kettlebell sport athlete.
This brings us to what I think should be the real question for all aspiring kettlebell sport athletes:
"Do I need more endurance in 2011?"
Only if you want to succeed.
Gods blessings on all of you,
David
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