Real Strength!

Hoss

Hoss

1
well im looking into working in some 'real strength' exercises into my routine.. i've heard a lot about them lately and am begining to become increasingly curious. i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of exercises i could preform? off the top of my head i remember 1, the keg toss. but im not sure of exact form or anything, and im very careful with technique.. so if someone would mind cluing me in on some more of these exercises along with how to correctly do them id be grateful... :)
 
Look into odd object lifting, specifically any exercise that utilizes heavy kegs and sandbags.Brooks Kubik has an excellent book, "Dinosaur Training" and video called "Bags, Barrels and Beyond" or something like that.
Shouldering a heavy keg or doing repetition clean and presses with a heavy sandbag will build excellent strength.Rope climbing is another one.Look here for some tips from Kubik:
 
thanks ballast! i read the webpage a-z and was really interested... so i gave in and ordered a book :D but would still appreciate any other advice or suggestions!
 
ballast said:
Look into odd object lifting, specifically any exercise that utilizes heavy kegs and sandbags.Brooks Kubik has an excellent book, "Dinosaur Training" and video called "Bags, Barrels and Beyond" or something like that.
Shouldering a heavy keg or doing repetition clean and presses with a heavy sandbag will build excellent strength.Rope climbing is another one.Look here for some tips from Kubik:
Click to expand...
That link is fascinating
 
mreik said:
thanks ballast! i read the webpage a-z and was really interested... so i gave in and ordered a book :D but would still appreciate any other advice or suggestions!
Click to expand...

If you ordered his Dinosaur Training book (not sure if he has authored others or not), then you will be more than satisfied.In my un-expert opinion, that book is one of the single best pieces written about basic but highly productive strength training as well as a compilation of excellent anecdotes of how the old time lifters of the 1900's trained.Truly an excellent piece of literature.

Also, if you want to shoot me your address, I can send you a few editions of his Dinosaur Newsletter.He is no longer publishing it, but it was a monthly newsletter filled with articles, training programs, etc.If you are interested, e-mail me and I'll see what I have laying around:
toupalik1@yahoo.com

Also, if you want an excellent book on strength training, especially sandbag training, check this out:

Ultimate Training for the Ultimate Warrior is the best book I have ever read on sandbag training and other unorthodox methods for strength and conditioning and the price the author charges is almost laughable in regards to the return you get informationwise.

For good strength exercises here is a list of specifics which I have found productive:

Keg lifting:
shouldering the keg with one or two arms
backward keg throws for height/distance
lift and load drills onto platforms of varying height (waist-chest-head)
power clean and press (these are probably one of the greatest challenge lifts I have ever done.the water sloshing around inside the keg, even a minimal amount, will have your stabilizer muscles fighting like mad to complete the lift)
uphill pushes

Sandbag lifts:
power clean and press
shouldering with one or two arms
curls
fence hops (these were made popular by Ross Enamait.You place your bag beside a fence that is between waist and shoulder-height.Pick the bag up and throw it over the fence then quickly scale the fence and follow the bag over.Repeat back and forth.The combination of lifting and jumping puts a tremendous bang on your muscular and cardiovascular systems)
lift and load drills on various height platforms
carries (overhead, bearhug, on the shoulder, etc)

sledgehammer striking (preferably with a 16 pounder):
figure 8's
overhead
diagonal
golf swing
leveraging

I'll mention rope climbing again because it is so demanding.You can use many styles such as hands only, hands and feet, hands only while keeping your legs horizontal with the ground, one hand and both feet, two ropes at once with one in each hand, etc.If you find a variation too easy, load up a backpack with a small bag of sand and put that on while you climb.You can also do rope pulls where you attach the end of the rope to a tire with a sandbag stacked onto it and sit down while you pull it toward you.
 
Geez, Ballast why would you want to go outside and workout when you can be stuffed inside the gym with annoying people critiquing your form and taking up one of the few pieces of good equipment-squat rack with their bicep curls? :p

I firmly believe that strongman training has helped in every asset of my other lifting. Flipping the tire has built up my traps like no other exercise. And that is an excellent exercise--tire flipping. Call up your local Michellin dealer and see if they have a 17.5X25 (you'll want to start light and work up) inch front loader tractor tire. They'll give them away, you just have to have a truck to get them home.

Farmers walks have done great for my arms and grip. I don't have implements but what I do is I have some old 5 gallon paint buckets and I just basically toss all my plates (free weights) in them and carry them for time.

Then there's always getting a rope and attaching it to your SUV, truck, or car and pulling it.

The other thing that you might consider is making an atlas ball and lifting it up and onto things. You simply get one of those big, round kids bouncy balls. You will paper machete around it but leave a spot where you can cut a hole into the ball, let it dry and then cut the hole. Now get you some concrete and pour that stuff in there and in 24-48 hours after drying you will have an atlas ball. Depending on how big of a ball you get the heavier you can get the ball.
 
evolution said:
Geez, Ballast why would you want to go outside and workout when you can be stuffed inside the gym with annoying people critiquing your form and taking up one of the few pieces of good equipment-squat rack with their bicep curls? :p
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LOL.Cuz I'm an old man and I have spent plenty of years in that very environment.Curling inside a squat rack is probably one of the most annoying things that drove me out of commercial gyms (though I admit to using my power rack to hang laundry during off days).

I forgot about the farmer's walk.Excellent recommendation evolution.I tried the bucket method but I ran chain through the top of the buckets and then attached a 2" diameter wood handle to each.Talk about a forearm blaster!
 
is my favorite.

I have both of John Brookfield's books on nasty grip strength and they rock! He crushes new tennis balls and bends some thick-assed nails!

I have only closed the trainer and #1 CoC gripper. My friend has closed the #2. Only like 4 guys in the world have closed the #4!!!

-Rip
 
ballast said:
If you ordered his Dinosaur Training book (not sure if he has authored others or not), then you will be more than satisfied.In my un-expert opinion, that book is one of the single best pieces written about basic but highly productive strength training as well as a compilation of excellent anecdotes of how the old time lifters of the 1900's trained.Truly an excellent piece of literature.
Click to expand...

definatly expect an email soon! lol.. and those workouts sound intense!! just one more kinda big question! how am i supposed to organize these workouts? like to make sure everything gets healed 100%?? any tips would be great, because im in the dark with these exercises. most of them seem to work almost the entire body!
 
mreik said:
how am i supposed to organize these workouts? like to make sure everything gets healed 100%?? any tips would be great, because im in the dark with these exercises. most of them seem to work almost the entire body!
Click to expand...


Most of the exercises listed do work the entire body.As such, I think the best way to approach them is by doing full-body workouts to start with.I also believe you would benefit from some type of varying intensity scheme.The old heavy/light/medium day system is excellent as well as the chopped down version of heavy day/light day.If these are unfamiliar to you, let me know.

Kubik outlines some great routines in his book that I think you will find useful as well.
 
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