Archive for highly recommended
Strengthening your beliefs.
Posted by: | CommentsSo I just watched the show the Apprentice with my wife and heard country music star John Rich say something along the lines of “My mind willed my body to over come it and I did.” This was in reference to him lifting a heavy generator for their task.
country music star John Rich
I thought to myself “Hmmm. That is kind of like what legendary strongman Slim the Hammer man Farmer said to me which is something he also said to uber Strongman Dennis Rogers, which was something his teacher the Mighty Atom told him, and is something that Dave Whitley told me is ‘the real secret’.” It was strange to hear it coming from the mouth of a musician.
It was basically that you have to treat the feat like failure is absolutely, positively NOT an option. You see his will, overcame his lack of physical strength and he lifted the generator up. Yeah it might not be the greatest feat of strength but the lesson is there nonetheless.
You see there is a lot going on under the surface. If you ever attempt something that is extremely difficult there will always be those nagging voices that tell you the weight is too heavy, or that you aren’t strong enough or whatever. I have no idea why this fear exists but it does. Belief, true belief in yourself can overcome this.
Think about what true belief has accomplished. It wasn’t that long ago when people thought no one would ever run a 4 minute mile. Roger Bannister did it, then bam! not long after that others started doing it as well. Was it because there was a sudden improvement in our genetics? I don’t think so. Was it because they uncovered some super secret training program? No. What happened was that it was proved to not be impossible which made people believe that they could do it too. It was the belief that changed. Nothing else.
Now how can you apply this to whatever it is that you do training wise. Not that long ago I was teaching my clients how to do a one handed overhead press. I handed her a kettlebell that was heavier then she had ever used before. We put it in the rack position, and she feels the weight of it and says “No way.” I took it back, looked her in the eyes and said “You can do it. I know you can…now go ahead and do it.” I sometimes jokingly say that I am always right and if I am wrong then reality will shift and make me right. Well either reality shifted, or her belief shifted. It doesn’t really matter to me which one it was. The only thing that mattered was that she mustered up the tension and it went up no problem. Her response as she got the 16kg over her head after only having trained with me a month was “Holy shit!”. One thing I would like to add was that I had just taught her how to press 2 days prior. Not too bad huh?
Now I’ve bent pressed 106lbs. Yeah there are people that have done more and maybe that’s one of the reasons I was able to do it. The previous training sessions I had done 32kgs, 36kgs, 40kgs, a stacked 44kgs since I don’t own a kettlebell in that weight. Me being able to do those built up my belief that 48kgs (the 106lb beast) was not only possible but was going to happen and happen soon. I’m certain I did this because I was sure I could.
The question is how to cultivate your belief system. How would you do it? Would you go to bed every night telling yourself you are a pile of trash and you need to train to get better? Well if that’s how it’s done I’m sure I am doing it wrong. What I do is before I go to sleep I’ll say to myself “It’s just a matter of time baby.” It led me up to a 106lb pistol squat as well. (I don’t have footage but I have witnesses).
If a mother who never lifted a weight in her life can lift a car off her children, don’t you think you have that power also? Take that one to heart.
Now the more you do something the better you get at it. That’s the basic rule of efficiency and the basis behind synaptic facilitation (greasing the groove for those not fluent in geek speak). Basically that teaches your nervous system that something isn’t too bad and it makes it better at doing it because you have taught it that by doing it many times easily. So can that concept be applied to your beliefs? Only you can decide if that is possible (if you don’t think that is possible you just completely missed what I was talking about). Convince yourself that you can do something. Practice convincing yourself and you will get better at it. Practice accessing that part of your brain that one strong dude called “the crazy switch” and you can become stronger then you presently believe.
Eric Moss
I am a fitness professional residing in Hopatcong, NJ, who is dedicated to making myself and my clients as strong as (or stronger than) they look and to look beyond sexy. I helps my clients drop body fat quickly, gain strength quickly and I use kettlebells as my main tool and the RKC system as his main methodology. I am a personal trainer with kettlebell fitness bootcamps in Morris and Sussex County NJ. This fitness blog is where I have become known as a straight shooter with a unique writing style and I have been known to force companies to take videos down where they teach unsafe and ineffective technique with just a couple written words. It has become an inside joke that I don’t wear shirts but that is mainly because I have built up my physique along the lines of a Greek statue and exhibit it proudly.
Interview with Diesel Crew’s Jedd Johnson- by Eric Moss
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I left the gym and started looking for new ways of training that didn’t require gym memberships there were a ton of sources on different methods of training. As time went on I gradually fell out of favor with certain things and kept coming back to others that always appeared interesting. One of the things early on that caught my attention were the youtube videos put out by the Diesel Crew. The Diesel Crew are guys that are strong and make others strong. In the world of strength these two have achieved a bit of celebrity status among us for their contributions. I actually had a mini debate with one of them when I called him a legend and he tried to deny the fact. I actually won that one 
So one day on the Diesel Crew site I saw a post where they wanted to know who we thought should be nominated for the Iron Master’s hall of fame. A correspondence with Diesel Crew’s grip expert and strength guru led me to both nominating my favorite strongman (Dennis is the best IMHO). It also led us to having discussions about grip strength, the upcoming movie Thor, learning about his Steel Bending DVD and now I have the honor of interviewing him.
Now if you don’t know anything about him, I’ll let you in on the facts.
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist since 2001
Competed in Grip Contests since 2003: US Champion in 2005, 3rd in 2006, 2nd in 2007, 2nd in 2008, 2nd in 2009, 1st in 2010
He was certified Captain of Crush in 2003 for closing #3 Gripper
Certified Red Nail Bender in 2007
Competed at Mighty Mitts in 2010
He has put nearly 350 pounds overhead and lifted 400-pound Atlas Stones.
Don't put that in your car ladies and gents.
He has mastered various feats of strength including Blob, Glob, Inch (As in the old time strength feat from Thomas Inch which is nearly impossible), 55-lb Anvil by Heel, 510-lb Double Overhand Deadlift
First Person to ever bend Red Nail with a full Kink done Reverse Style:
His Nail Bending eBook has produced more Red Nail Benders than any other resource in the world.
His Nail Bending DVD has been bought in not only the United States, but also the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Sweden, France, Thailand, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland
So Jedd I am somewhat new to bending and even before I began with kettlebells I found videos by Diesel Crew that had badasses doing crazy things like lifting up Atlas stones and training with sledgehammers. Getting stronger from kettlebell and bodyweight strength training has given me a hunger and there is something so badass about melting steel with your bare hands. How did you get started with this and how long have you been training like this?
I found out about nail bending in 2002 when I was preparing for my first grip strength competition, and I started doing it right away. I started out by going to the hardware store and picking up various types of nails and then soon graduated to hot and cold-rolled steel. From there, I picked up the stock being sold by IronMind and FBBC as well as graded bolts, the kinds used in various industrial applications. Nail Bending was at one time a major part of Grip Strength competitions, so it was just one more thing I trained for in order to go to the contest and put myself in a position to win.
Now I saw in your DVD that you teach the “terminator bend” as well as a couple others. What other types of bending are on this Steel Bending dvd that people can learn about and which do you think is the best one?
There are many different techniques for Bending steel and nails. The three main types are Reverse, or Terminator, style, Double Overhand and Double Underhand. I cover these three types because these are the styles that are most often used by benders to slaughter big steel. Depending on individual differences in body make-up on technique might favor a person more than other techniques.
Bending to someone who doesn’t know any better seems like a pretty straight forward thing. What most people don’t realize is that there are multiple stages in a bend and each have to be given attention. What are the different parts of a bend and what you think are the best ways to train for them?
Very good observation, Eric. Bending a piece of steel involves many different angles, with force being driven into the nail in many different ways. The initial part of the bend is called the kink and involves bending the stock about 30 degrees. From there, the bend transitions to the sweep. This is where the bender tries to take the bar down under 90 degrees. Once there, it is time to finish the bend, and that is called the crush-down.
Naturally, the further you can kink the steel, the easier it will be to push through the sweep, and the deeper you can sweep the bar, the easier it will be to crush it down to the required distanced, with is 2 inches between the ends of the bar.
Like I said earlier there is something really awesome about being able to take something that shouldn’t be bent and bending it to your will. I just think it’s plain AWESOME which is why I want to get into it. Why do you think others get into it and why should people get into this?
The internet is probably the main way that someone finds out about Bending. Whether it is a strength forum, a blog, or on YouTube, Bending can be found all over the internet. Some people continue to do it because they are interested in competitive sports like Grip Contests and Bending Challenges. Others do it in order to strengthen their hands and wrists while also keeping their mind strong at the same time.
Why should someone get involved in steel bending?
There are many reasons, but it comes down to two main factors: Strength and Fun. Bending gives you a kind of hardcore strength that bodybuilding and powerlifting can not give you. You essentially go into bending with the mindset to DESTROY. There aren’t many sports where the objective is to ruin something, and that is essentially what you are doing. Every bending session, you come away with a trophy to remember that workout by. You can label the nail or bolt with a marker or sticker and put it on your dresser and be able to remember it forever. You can also continue to push yourself to new heights bending harder steel and different looking bolts. Challenging yourself and being successful like this is an awesome feeling!
pushups wouldn't give you a trophy like these bad boys
(Read that last line again “Challenging yourself and being successful like this is an awesome feeling!” Strength and doing things you couldn’t do before leads to a kind of satisfaction that nothing and I mean nothing else can provide. I have seen it time and time again.)
I am familiar with the red nail cert which I know you have done but what are the others and how do you get certified?
The Red Nail Roster is a certification that is driven by IronMind Enterprise. The Red Nail isn’t truly a nail. It is actually a 7-inch long and 5/16-inch thick piece of cold-rolled steel. Cold Rolling is a form of temperature treatment for steel that helps make its strength level more consistent. The opposite is hot rolling, which still produces strong steel, but the strength levels can vary more.
There are also other certification systems out there. For instance, Fat Bastard Barbell Company maintains several different lists on their website. The FBBC equivalent of a Red Nail is the Bastard Bar. As half inches are cut off the Bastard Bar, it qualifies you for another list, such as Huge Bastard and Magnificent Bastard. They have the Shiny Bastard, which is 7X5/16 piece of Stainless Steel which is even tougher to bend than cold rolled steel. They have many other lists on their site.
Other sites also have their own lists, and in 2011, we will be introducing the Diesel Bar Certification Lists, coming soon to DieselCrew.com.
I think for me along with the exercises with the sledgehammer and info on bending itself I think my favorite part of this dvd is the methods of recovery which is missing from some of the similar dvds. Which part do you think is the most valuable for people that want to add this to their collection?
Yes, recovery methods are very important, and I cover many methods in this DVD. He two most important strategies are also the most simple –Warm-up, and Stretching. Benders are usually pretty good about bending consistently, doing extra work to strengthen their hands, and working on their technique to get the most mechanical advantage on the bar they are bending, but taking care of the soft tissues and the muscles in the lower arms is something that seems to slip their minds. I put a lot of effort into including plenty of information about this into the DVD. And it’s not like it’s complicated stuff. Heck, one of the methods you can do right in your kitchen!
What makes this different from the nail bending ebook?
That is probably one of the most common questions I get about my Nail Bending DVD, and rightly so. A lot of the products I design the articles I write, etc, are driven by the correspondence I get at the website. After writing the Nail Bending eBook, people would often write me asking for more information about this technique or that technique. I wanted to shoot a DVD on bending for a long time but just could not get it done with the time I had. Finally last Fall I was able to get the time to shoot the DVD and cover what needed to be done. Now, people can go to Home Depot and pick up some nails or stock, pop in my DVD and follow me every step of the way from Wrapping the bar all the way through the big three techniques. I go slow and commentate throughout the bend, but if something slips by you, just hit the rewind button on the remote and you can go right back the point you missed.
Yeah I really also enjoyed the fact that it is a dvd. A little while ago I had a friend over my new house for the first time and he was cracking up about how contrasting the decorations and other stuff are between my wife and I. Let’s just say that when you see this DVD cover you know that it doesn’t belong to my lady
Jedd I appreciate your training advice and for you taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview. Before we wrap it up do you have any tips for people starting out training?
Grip Training should be a staple in everyone’s training. There are many ways to do it, but the most important thing is to get started. Once you bring your hand strength up, all of your other training will improve. You’ll pull more in your deadlifts, you’ll press more weight, and you’ll perform more repetitions before hands tire out on you. I put together a free PDF and video that covers 8-full weeks of Grip Training Workouts that your readers can begin implementing today, and it is available here.
Eric, thank you for taking the time to shoot me these great questions. The last thing I want is people rushing into bending without the proper instruction, then having trouble getting some momentum, getting frustrated, and then quitting and missing out on all the fun. All the best in your training!
Jedd
Jedd it was my honor to be able to do this interview with you.
How to do a bent press
Posted by: | CommentsNow before I start, I want to add a little disclaimer here. The bent press is an extremely technical lift and I haven’t gone through the RKC level 2 yet so this isn’t a reflection on them or the way they teach it. This was my own experimentation on the lift based on books, dvds and a quick lesson from the bent press king Dave Whitley about a year and a half ago (Dave I hope I don’t embarass you with this one.) I want to thank Chris Beardsley (who runs a phenomenal blog about training in your garage) for suggesting this blog post.
The bent press is an oldschool lift and probably the most famous picture of it was when Arthur Saxon used it as part of a 2 hands anyhow in this famous photograph.
Saxon using a bent press to start a 2 hands anyhow
About 2 weeks ago I got a bit bored doing military presses and decided to practice my bent press a little bit. Within a week I was able to do it with the 48kg (106lb) kettlebell called “the beast”. You are my witness here.
Now the reason I was able to get a high bent press relatively quickly was because it is actually more of a feat of supporting the weight rather then pressing it up. When you really get that you are supposed to support the weight and get underneath of it (assuming you have the requisite amount of flexibility and are able to generate relaxed tension like in the turkish getup) you can move up quickly in weight when you are grooving it properly.
The base level benefits of the bent press are full body strength, flexibility and it helps give you a broad shouldered look (due to strengthening the lat and the shoulder at the same time) which according to the dudes that created Adonis Effect ebook makes you irresistible to women and socially dominant (I like the sound of that).
Alright so without further adieu here is how to do it.
Step 1: turn feet 45 degrees away from where the weight is and bring weight up to the rack position. If you don't know what that is you need more basics. Notice that the weighted arm forms a straight line down to the ground through my weighted leg. It is hard to see from pictures but my tricep is actively sitting on my lat muscle.
Step 2: Keeping the kettlebell mostly in one spot move yourself down and away from the kettlebell. It will feel a bit scary and uncomfortable on your lat muscle. Remember to always keep your eye on the weight.
Step 3: Keep going until it has locked out. It will feel like it has shifted it's weight to the other leg and you can either windmill it up or stand up from an overhead squatting position. Whatever you do just make it safe.
I recommend the use of a kettlebell for this because it’s offset center of balance can help open up your chest.
Now I know you might be tempted to just be like “Oh look a new exercise. This is the secret I needed.” Well don’t get hasty yet. You need to have a lot of control and patience with this one. Make sure you have done plenty of turkish getups to make sure you have adequate mobility and stability before you even attempt this one. One resource I highly recommend is Deepening your Getup Skills by the Iron Tamer Dave Whitley along with his Lessons of the Old-Time Strongmen Dvd. There is actually a portion in there that teaches a critical portion of the bent press from a turkish getup and the principles one will teach you how best to put it in your program.
Let me know how it all works out for ya.
Eric J. Moss over and out
Adonis Effect – is it the real deal?
Posted by: | CommentsThe Adonis Effect has made some pretty bold statements about building the perfect male body but is it the real deal? According to them when you build your body with a specific amount of muscle you can generate instant attraction and charisma to not only give you better luck with the opposite sex but in all walks of our social life. I wasn’t too sure but got my hands on it to see what it was based on just to see if it was legit for full of it. Let’s have a deeper look.
I don’t know where I first saw it or how I ended up coming back to it but something compelled me to look further into it. I think it is probably because it goes against just about everything that a lot of people have been saying and that sort of thing typically draws me in.
Now there are numerous scams floating around the internet. “Build muscle fast.”, “Lose body fat quickly” and “How to get more girls.” tend to be buzz words that appeal to guys in an effort to make money. Usually it is in the form of shady supplements (for example like the acai berry scandals that have been going around) or in the form of pick up artist tips (which may or may not work, I don’t know because I have never used them).
So what the Adonis Effect program claims is that by knowing what your Adonis Index measurements are you can use that as an end point for building muscle, burning fat or both to create a physique that is irresistible to the opposite sex. Does that sound too good to be true? I was extremely skeptical about it because typically if it is too good to be true it normally is and this certainly sounded like it.
So how would I be able to tell if this works? Well that isn’t the easiest question to answer since building the perfect male body isn’t an overnight thing. The only thing I could really do is to look at the research it was based on. Luckily they cite the scientific studies from which they based their theory on which makes it easier to look up. Here are a couple parts from the abstracts from some of the studies that Adonis Effect is based on.
“Rivals with a low as opposed to a high WHR (waist to hip ratio) were perceived as more socially dominant and attractive in both sexes, and as more physically dominant in the case of men.”
“As predicted, women rate muscular men as sexier, more physically dominant and volatile, and less committed to their mates than nonmuscular men. Consistent with the inverted-U hypothesis of masculine traits, men with moderate muscularity are rated most attractive.”
“Women who are traditionally feminine show a preference for traditionally masculine physiques, i.e., tapering V physiques”
Did Sandow have the elusive Golden Ratio? He certainly got a lot of girls.
That is just 3 of about 20 different studies from which that hypothesis was based on. So that gives you an idea of how being in shape makes you get treated better. But what about the exact shape that makes this product different then typical fitness products? The answer is what has become known as the Golden Ratio and has been found in various paintings, architecture, book covers and several forms of art. It’s also been called the divine proportion.
1.61803 or phi
So the basis for the Adonis Effect program is to bring your shoulder to waist ratio to be the golden proportions which supposedly will make you more aesthetically pleasing and socially attractive which will carry over to multiple aspects to your life. One of the things that I like about it is that it is a clear and concise goal that is based on psychological studies of our perception of others.
Now all of this does seem to make sense when you stop to think about it. How many times have you overheard a woman saying that she thinks body builders are disgusting? How many times have you heard an obese person being accused of being lazy whether they were actually lazy or not? These are all internal prejudices that people don’t even realize is going on. One of my clients used to be much heavier and has noticed the difference in the way people treat her now that she is much leaner.
What the Adonis Effect program does is it attempts to take advantage of these internal prejudices that people have in their subconscious minds. The Halo effect put quite simply is that when you have one positive attribute then you are going to be perceived as generally having more positive attributes. So having your waist to shoulder ratio as being good it will make other parts of you as good in the eyes of others. That could be good for just about anybody (especially me since people are going to want to like me in order to hire me to train them.) I don’t plan on actually doing the workouts because they focus just on achieving the look and my goals lie in physical performance. Although my personal goals are different and I do think you should train for performance over aesthetics I have to admit that it is a very compelling argument to want to achieve what the Adonis Effect promises. I am adding the goal of the Adonis Effect program as a secondary objective in my own training.
So to wrap it up. Much of Adonis Effect is based on psychology and I learned a lot about how people are initially perceived. The other parts of it are based on physiology and I learned a great deal from their scientific studies as well. I believe that the Adonis Effect is legit and the real deal but not something I pursue by itself.
Optimal Roads and how to lose ugly fat
Posted by: | CommentsI was having a conversation over the phone today just talking about training and that sort of thing with a friend of mine. He is a coach all the way on the other end of the country and I always have a good time talking to him about designing programs and why certain things work and why they don’t (it can get
a little geeky if you aren’t into that sort of thing).
Well anyways it came up that we ended up talking about the type of people we enjoy working with. For me I enjoy people that want to get a bit stronger and drop body fat and are willing to do what it takes to get there.
Seriously when someone isn’t motivated to get results it takes all the fun out of my job, especially since I put so much into finding the best road to get where they want to go.
Well that is a bit of a lie now because I have already found the optimal road and the route to get there. Well at least the quickest I found.
I just print out a copy of the Furnace Workout and use it on my clients until they are ready for Kettlebell Burn. The results that came from that formula are enough to make the bride that I trained go tell all of her coworkers how awesome my class is and now I am training them too. It also got me in the newspaper.
Awesome right?
Well the results came because there is an EXACT formula for losing fat with kettlebells and that formula came from David Whitley and Geoff Neupert (2 of my mentors). I used their programs in succession on my clients to generate fat loss results that are off the charts. (The one testimonial that got me into the newspaper
was when my client had lost 5lbs in 2 sessions from a variation of the furnace. Results aren’t typical, but they aren’t unheard of either.)
I would suggest if you wanted to get crazy fat loss results then you should try it out on yourself. I know you have NEVER heard me talk about a program like this but it really changed the way I do things.
You see there is an exact method to the madness. They have a system that you can get together but you have to get it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE because the sale ends TONIGHT at midnight. It is a literal
“formula” for rapid fat loss.
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Just like 1+1 = 2, there are 5 powerful strategies in the kettlebell fat loss formula and with the way this is programed 1+1 actually equals 3.
Here are 5 strategies that went into the formula that generate speed of light fat loss.
1. Lift Heavy.
2. Lift Explosively.
3. Eliminate Weak Links.
4. Manage Fatigue.
5 Elevate Your Metabolism.
Of course that is just a vague and general description,
The devil is in the details
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