Video of Andy Bolton’s new deadlift world record. 457.5kg (1008.6 lbs). Over one THOUSAND pounds, and he looks like he could have lifted even more.

Lyle McDonald on the 5×5 program.

The folks over at RingTraining.com have unveiled a nice looking tool to help ease into advance ring strength moves, the Elite Strength Trainer. There’s good info there, and this was in the e-mail announcement:

I just wanted to let everyone know that the Elite Strength Trainer is now available. It’s selling at a $40 discount till January 1st. It’s a new tool that helps train for the cross, maltese and other advanced ring strength exercises. It works by adjusting the leverage placed on your arms in 10 increments. As you get stronger, you simply move up to the next level. It brings the direct, linear progressions available to weightlifters into the world of bodyweight exercise.

A few months ago, I took a prototype to the national team training center. I met with Kevin Mazeika, head coach of the US Olympic Team, and Jordan Jovtchev, 5-time Olympian, and they both offered me some feedback on the design. Within 15 minutes of setting them up in the gym, I had almost a dozen national and Olympic caliber gymnasts from the American and Japanese teams try it out. They had all used equipment in the past that worked on the same principle, but unanimously preferred the design of the Elite Strength Trainer. They liked that it had a lot of adjustment points, it was quick to adjust and easy to set up and comfortable to use. This is actually a tool that is quite important in the training of a lot of top-level gymnasts. For some of them, it is just for conditioning. But they already have short arms, so it’s almost like they’re already using it! For others, it’s the safest way to get back strength after an injury or to develop new strength skills. For the rest of us, it is a great way to safely and effectively incorporate advanced ring strength moves into our training.

Sorry not to let you know about the sale earlier (which will probably be over by the time you read this), but I didn’t get the announcement until 12/30.

Alobravo has a fun collection of videos up, The 6 Sickest Playground Workouts You Can’t Do (no arguments here). I’d seen the Bartendaz one before, but the rest where new to me. The Hannibal video is unreal. The guy does some exercises I’ve never even imagined before. (via SttB)

And here I thought the one-arm chin was a difficult skill… How about one finger? Also, Jim at Beast Skills turns in some great work on the pegboard, including a muscle-up. That guy is a machine. (both via SttB)

Everything Jim at Beast Skills posts warrants a link, and his one arm push-up tutorial is no exception. Great stuff, as always.

Two excellent, semi-related posts on building a training program of your very own:

• Get the Most out of Strength Training by Anders Eriksson. « via SttB »
• Ross Enamait on kettlebells.

Whatever you do, you have to really feel like you own it and want to do it if you are going to have a chance of success.

• John Berardi posted a comprehensive, balanced piece on soy at his forums.
• Coach Sommer describes a brutal abdominal exercise, "The Crank".
• I'm getting started with barbell training, so bought a copy of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. Looks fantastic. And I just learned you can ask questions of the man himself at the Mark Rippetoe Q&A Strength Mill Forum. I would definitely read the book, the stickies, and take advantage of the search feature before posting (here's why).

I was reading this great rant by Ross Enamait, Examining The Google-Bot Trainer, and noticed in it he mentioned St. Wilhelm's Nondenominational Church of S&P and their Ten Commandments. Excellent, had to check out the rest of their site:

Though we call ourselves a church, we have no religious affiliations. Strength and Power is our religion. We do not have a physical building. There are no meetings or agendas. Membership is merely an honor bestowed upon you through good faith. Our hope is that the church will grow large enough that each member, at some point in their life, will pass a complete stranger on the street wearing a Saint Wilhelm's t-shirt and they will instantly know that this person has done something great, whether it be in competition or by simply achieving a hard-earned personal goal.

If you think yourself worthy to join, you must promise that once you receive your member's t-shirt, you will make a video of yourself doing something great while wearing the shirt. You may record yourself doing a gym lift, beating someone up (in organized competition, of course), crushing objects, or performing any number of strength feats.

The church recognizes Ross as a saint. :-)

Holy cow, finger handstand video. Hurts just watching. More at kottke.org.

Like seven pages into a deadlift thread, this guy Dr. Boots loses his mind and doubts Ross Enamait (trainer whose books I have praised many times on this site) can perform some physical task. In this case the task is a 400 lb. deadlift, and he says he'd pay $100 for video proof. Ross responds, "you just lost $100." It's fun reading the thread from that point, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the proof and then some. Incidentally, Ross declines the money after pulling it off ("You can keep your money however. I don't want it. Donate it to charity or buy some equipment for a gym that could use it.").

Great use of chains and spring clips as fractional "plates" for microloading.

(via the recently-upgraded Crossfit boards - looks nice!)

Very interesting interview with Eric Cressey all about deadlifting. The whole thing is good, but in particular read his response to the question, "what are the unique benefits of deadlifting?" Here is the first of the 10 points he makes in response:

First, I'd say that (along with box squats) it's the single-most effective movement for training the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, adductor magnus, and lumbar erectors). The posterior chain is of paramount importance to high-level performance; watch the best sprinters run, and you'll see that they seem to just "float"—and it's because they're running with their hamstrings and glutes. In contrast, watch a guy who runs with his quads, and you'll see that his hips are bouncing up and down; there's a lot of wasted movement. The glutes and hamstrings are all fast-twitch fibers with a lot of strength, speed, and size potential—potential you'll never realize without deadlift variations.

T-Nation is running an excellent article by Christian Thibaudeau titled, The Training Strategy Handbook. It lays out the major set/rep schemes with pros, cons, and applications of each depending on your situation.

During the season the strength workouts (not one of my strong suits, if I even have a strong suit) are the first thing to fall off the table as I make room for pickup and tournaments and such. I manage to do a pretty good job maintaining, but I certainly don't make any gains. I'm starting to get a good picture of what my off-season is going to look like this year, which is nice. Still messing around with different things though, as I'm going away next week and don't want to try to establish a good rhythm until I get back. Had a nice strength workout tonight though, which I thought I'd share:

• One-arm DB snatch, 4 sets of 5 reps per arm.
• Sandbag shouldering, 4 sets of 8 (alternate shoulder with each rep).
• Grasso Lunge, 4 sets of 5 reps (new exercise, really like it). Interwove these sets with sets of...
• ... Romanian Deadlifts (scroll down until you find it, I've also seen it called a one-legged deadlift). Another favorite. 4 sets of 5 reps.
• Weighted pull-ups, 4 sets of 4 reps, Interwove these sets with sets of...
• ... Weighted ring dips, 4 sets of 4 reps.

Felt good. I'm thinking I'll be just the right amount of sore tomorrow.

A muscle-up tutorial on YouTube. I'd like to notch that skill, but it gives me elbow pain. I expect to get it eventually, though. « via RT »

• Malcolm Gladwell asks: Abolish the NCAA? (then follows up with NCAA Redux).
• Man, the Supertraining table of contents looks fabulous. « via RossTraining forums»
• Also via RT, 660 one-arm push-ups?!?! And he's getting all the way down there. Reminds me of this one-arm rope climb video.

• Art De Vany: Work Outs for Chicago Nick and Las Vegas Nick.
• Ross Enamait: Strength Training For Fighters - 15 Random Thoughts (definitely not just for fighters, IMO).

Here a good article on why the Kettlebell Swing belongs in your fitness arsenal. I've never used kettlebells, but I do know one-arm DB-swings are fantastic. The swing forces you to maintain tension throughout the core (unless you want to throw your back out), works the whole posterior chain, and makes you generate the power and snap from the hips (your arm really just serves as a pendulum, and your grip keeps the DB from flying away, rather than having to actively lift it). At least, that's the way they feel to me.

Update: As usual, the Crossfit folks come through with a video ("Kettlebell Swing" on the list).

Remember that unbelievable "big strength" video I posted awhile ago? Well, today I found Junior's home page, and you really must check out the video in the "Videos" section. It's all amazing stuff, but he's got this move that starts at 2:31 of the video that can only be described as a rapid-fire repeated planche-to-L-sit. For me that was the jaw-dropper in a reel full of stunners.

Scott Sonnen's floating lever progression is great, with videos of some exercises I'd love to start incorporating, the elbow-lever push-ups, if nothing else. Looks like great core work.

Very impressive video (WMV, 12MB). If nothing else, after watching the first couple exercises you'll think, "geez, there's the last guy in the world I'd want to poke me in the eye."

One of the exercises that factors into my current program is standing rollouts on The Evil Wheel. A demo of how standing wheel rollouts should look is towards the end of Ross Enamait's Low-Tech, High Effect video. Ross makes it look easy, but this is an insanely difficult exercise. Not only is the abdominal strain the most intense of any bodyweight exercise I've tried, but it also hits just about every muscle from your shoulders to your shins.

The problem is, how does one progress to such an exercise?

First, safety: stay tight throught your body, and DO NOT let your back arch (i.e. your stomach drops). I haven't done this, but I can feel from the strain in my back as I get close that it would be bad, bad, bad.

As for the progression:

1. Do rollouts from your knees to start.
2. When you start doing standing rollouts, face a wall. When you rollout, the wheel will hit the wall, catching your descent. You can then reverse the motion.
3. As you get more comfortable, move further and further back from the wall.

Power Rings are also a fabulous tool for learning this movement (note that version 2.0 of the rings are available for preorder, and $55 is a great price (limited time offer)). On rings the same move is called a Standing Jackknife. The exercise and progression are simple:

1. Position the rings as close to the floor as you want. Bend at the waist, grab the rings, and push them away from you until you are fully laid out.
2. To make the exercise easier, raise the rings and/or start with your feet closer to them.
3. To make the exercise harder, lower the rings and/or start with your feet further away.

One of the great things about using rings for this is you can vary the resistance mid-set simply by stepping to/from the rings.

Why should you care what Brad Johnson says about pull-ups? Well, he can do a rafter pull-up, for starters. For finishers, look at all these variations he suggests. I'm going to make a set of those PVC thingies, at least.

Isn't this handy? Following this discussion on squat mechanics, Crossfit posts a video laying it all out. A must-watch, and contains yet another reference to the importance of hip action in elite athleticism. It is striking how often that theme is repeated in my reading and surfing.

My only complaint about the video is that it ends too soon.

I was going to write something about pull-ups, but there's so much good information out there I'll just link you up:

If you can't do any pull-ups, or if you struggle just to do one (that's where I started out at the beginning of this year) give Pullup Training for Women and/or The Road to Your First Pull-Up a good read. The former article talks about using Jump-Stretch bands to assist, which seems like a much more economical solution than the Active Cords I used (I swear they were cheaper way back when I bought them).

Regardless of how many pull-ups you can do to start, you should definitely read The Application and Creation of Pullup Power first for invaluable advice about engaging the big muscles of the upper back rather than just pulling with your arms.

That's really all you need to know to get on the road to respectable pullup power. Beyond that, there's The MonkeyMaker, and a great discussion on Crossfit concerning how high to pull yourself (click the "Archive through..." link at the top of the page to get back to the beginning of the discussion). From that discussion, take special note of this post by Greg Everett and watch the "Big Fat Pullups" video he links to. The guy just flys over the bar.

Jim of Beast Skills fame has just posted a One-Arm Chin-Up/Pull-up Tutorial. Yow. I need to pick some easier goals!

I mentioned recently that I'm following Coach Sommers' instructions for learning the planche and front lever. I just had a breakthrough that I thought might be helpful to others (your mileage may vary, of course). I'm still basically in the fetal stage of acquiring these skills, but even now it's fun and rewarding, and Sommers' training approach couldn't be easier to follow:

You will use the same basic strength progression on all of the following exercises. Be sure to master one position in a progression before moving onto the next. Hold for sets of however many seconds you feel comfortable, while continuing to combine the time of your sets until you reach 60 seconds total time. The number of sets it takes to reach the 60 seconds combined total time is irrelevant. All that matters is that you accomplish 60 seconds of "quality work". Once you can hold a position correctly for the entire 60 seconds in one set, it is time to move on to the next harder exercise and begin the training procedure all over again.

So that's what I've been doing for a few months now. Progress has been very slow, but perceptible. And building up to 60 seconds was fairly painful. After getting to a point where I could execute a hold at all, my first hold of a session would be okay, but the duration of my subsequent holds would plummet, dropping to just a second or two for the last 20-30 seconds I needed to get to 60.

So last week I tried something different. Instead of trying to accumulate 60 seconds of quality work in one session, I spread my sets throughout the day. I'd do one in the morning. Then another at each bathroom break. Then another at each laundry break. As a result, all of my holds were of some semi-reasonable duration, rather than an almost instantaneous collapse into failure. I have been trying this gentler approach for three days now, and the result has been a clear spike in my improvement. In fact, after three months or so of working on these, this would be the only spike in my otherwise-linear improvement. My best hold last week for my pathetic version of a tuck planche was maybe 8 seconds after working on it for a month, and today I managed 15 seconds. I didn't gain much time in my advanced tuck front lever, but it felt like my form was much better (which makes the hold harder).

So is this what greasing the groove is all about? Sign me up. There are a few other variables that could account for the sudden acceleration (from snail to tortoise) in my progress, but it certainly feels like this minor training tweak is the big one. Less pain, more gain. It doesn't seem possible.