December 2008 Archives

Ive been away in Indonesia for a wee while, and havnt had a chance to post. But im back now just in time for Christmas so thought id pop up a quick post before all the festive mayhem.

When it comes to grip training, seems every man and his dog has a different way to train the hands. Im not gonna say whats good or bad, as theres different aspects of strength relating to the hand, or any body part for that matter. An interesting method is the thick barbell. Its basically a barbell that is thicker than normal. This means you cannot wrap your hands around it so much, placing more stress on the hands to maintain grip. Some say this takes away from a "crushing" force to more of a "pinching" but any training is better than no training - and if you try it youll probably notice the difference.

Heres a vid from Zach Even-Esh doing an incline bench press with a fat or thick barbell. Great thing about using the thick bar is you can do "normal" exercises and get a good grip workout at the same time, saving a bit of time in the long run.

Ill post some more stuff on grip soon as its kinda essential for martial arts, especially praying mantis.

So in 7 Star Praying Mantis kung fu that i do there isnt a lot of high kicks, but that doesnt mean we shouldnt train them, and its always good to have strong flexible legs. Contrary to popular belief, strength and flexibilty go hand in hand, and you'd be suprised at how flexible bodybuilders are. In simple terms a weak muscle resists stretching more, as the body fears the muscle will be damaged, so strenghtening muscles (particularly in a lengthened or strecthed position) will actually help flexibilty.

Once again Im a lazy bugger, and I have a youtube video to do the work for me. The exercises shown are great ways to increase flexibility and kicking, so have a look. Theres also some other great videos from Elastic Steel, the guy who made this video.

As I mentioned several posts back, Ive been busy working on this surfing event, which is all coming together with only a few minor hiccups. Its looking like it will be a fun event, and I cant wait to get out of the Shanghai cold.

You can find all details at Surfing Hainan's Website with entry forms, FAQ, and stuff.

And the good news is I get a few days off work to hang at the beach. Im off to Indonesia this saturday to organise some surfing stuff to do with prizes and business, so ill try to post on my adventures there.

Ok I admit its Tuesday, but..Movement Tuesday? it just wouldnt sound the same, would it.

So todays exercise is the hack squat. You may have heard of it, but probably never tried it. I can say Ive never seen anyone do it in the gym. Well actually I barely see people doing squats or deadlifts in the gym so maybe that says something.

Anyway, Old George Hakenschmidt was a Russian strong man and wrestler and he invented the "Hack Squat" you can find more info on the guy here.

So the hack squat is kinda like a deadlift with the barbell behind your body. I like it because you can lift a lot of weight like a deadlift but it tends to get the quads(front thight) more than a standard deadlift which works the hamstrings(back thigh) more. I also raise my heels by putting some plates down to emphasise the quads even more. Its also much easier to learn than the deadlift in my opinion, and newbies dont have the problem of hitting their shins, which can happen when deadlifting with poor technique.

This is a great exercise if you dont have a squat rack, and as a supplement to other key leg exercises (i.e front and back squats and deadlifts).

I forgot to take my camera to the gym so Ive pinched a video off youtube to show you how its done. It may feel a bit weird at first, but its an exercise you can quickly learn (in my opinion) just remember the basic rules of keeping a good/safe body position - knees in line with feet, back slightly arched, not rounded, chest out, head neutral.

You can see this guy also stands on plates to emphasise quad involvement. Remember to squeeze the all impotant glutes (i.e your ass) as you lift. You can do it with a standard overhand grip, or switch grip, or basically whatever you want - just give it a go.

enjoy.