Deal With It 3

This is the 3rd installment of a series of posts that deal with training with limited equipment.

First off, let's get something straight:
Without a rack and/or barbell, you almost certainly won't win any major powerlifting contests, Olympic lifting contests or the Crossfit games (I know everyone is heartbroken about that...)
The standards of strength persist because they are easily quantifiable.
Training with minimal equipment basically precludes you from excelling in certain strength sports. That's just the way it is. Not that it's a big deal if you don't have dreams to compete in said strength sports, but some people get crushed if you tell them that they can't have every measure of strength by doing sissy squats and burpees.
Training with little or nothing puts you in a different ball game.
So what? Why not get extremely strong at what you can do?
You have no reason not to.

Regan Bridge didn't let anything stop him.

 

 This guy lives in Middle-of-Nowhere, New Zealand. He lifts only rocks. 

500 pound stone lift at 225? Awesome.

Regan doesn't sit around browsing the Internet for the "perfect" plan, he fucking lifts rocks.

And guess what? He espouses daily training. 

Hmmm... there might be a connection between being strong and training every day...

From what I've read about him, he basically warms up with lighter stones; shouldering, lapping, pressing and the like, sometimes doing partials with the stone he wants to lift that day, and then he goes for it. He probably doesn't do scap pushups with a groiner to an up down dog and then spend 25 minutes foam rolling.

If you look at their technique, it's basically a deadlift to a front/zercher squat to a hip extension/power clean motion. Add in some stone pressing and you have covered everything.

Now, if you're in a situation that prevents you from using conventional training equipment, I'm not suggessting you fill your quaint suburban garage with boulders. You could, but it might be difficult to find and store lifting stones.

You could, however, get a keg.

The way I lift kegs is like this:

Then, just reverse the motion to lower it.

Pictures from: http://www.wrestler-power.com/wrestler-strength-keg-lift/

 You can fill them with whatever you like. I'd start with concrete. If you plan to lift the keg the same way, then it won't matter that it's bottom heavy. Once you get stronger, add more concrete.

When you fill the keg entirely, it will weigh about 335 pounds, according to www.mmarising.com.

Since the keg will be pretty permanent, you'll have to use your bodyweight to do any pushing exercises. I'd go with handstand pushups. This type of routine is very similar to some of the stuff that Bryce Lane writes about. (http://www.ironsports.tv/brute.htm) He suggests certain rep ranges and frequency. I do not. Lift as often as you can. Do lifts that allow you to handle the most amount of weight. The keg lift shown above will allow for more weight than shouldering or even loading. 

The pushing exercise is just to fill in the gaps. It isn't the focus, of course.

This kind of "program" could involve a sandbag, a rock(s) or something else that's really heavy. The point is, you're not just sitting around wishing you had a barbell.

Deal with it part 2

This is part of a series of posts concerning training with little to no equipment.

I said in my last post that I'd discuss making your own equipment... well, there's been a change of plans.
This post will be about training with only bodyweight.

This post is not about extolling bodyweight training, but is more about a "worst case scenario."
Weight training will always trump other forms of training in my opinion.
I'm sure there will many whining about gymnasts and how "totally jacked" they are...
Yeah, they sure are. All 5 foot 3, 130 pounds of them. We can also completely disregard the fact that the learning curve on what they do is incredibly high, and that they are almost always start at a very young age...
Let's not forget how "safe" gymnastics is, too! Wouldn't want to hurt your knees and elbows with weights!
I mean, it's not like Bart Conner, 1984 Olympic gold medalist was diagnosed with osteoarthritis at the age of 22. He probably didn't have nine surgeries over the course of his career, either... (That story is here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/spotlight/2001-02-08-conner.htm )

There is absolutely nothing wrong with not training with weights, but the high horse that BW only people ride is pretty flimsy. Like their lower backs probably are.

Without further delay...

What I would do if I had absolutely no access to weight training implements (barbells, dumbbells, rocks, kegs, etc.)

Handstand pushups
Why? Your entire upper body is worked.

Single leg squats (a.k.a "pistols")
Why? Your entire lower body is worked.

Rollouts (or walkouts, slideouts, etc.)
I bet you thought I was going to put pullups/chinups here. I thought quite a bit about this and decided that if one wanted this type of routine to carry over to other things, then the lower back would need to be stressed. Pullups don't do that sufficiently. The rollout, however, does do this. It also stresses the entire midsection, along with the shoulders, chest, triceps and lats. (Side note - the motion somewhat reminds me of a pullover.)
Since this scenario precludes the use of any equipment, pullups/chinups can't be done.
Rollouts with an ab wheel are out, too.
But, that doesn't mean we can't use something that achieves the same motion.

Look at the picture above.
Now, since we don't have a wheel at our disposal, we can't do what she's doing.
We can, however, use a towel/cloth/shirt/etc on a slick floor and do the exact same motion.
What if you don't have a slick surface?
If you're stuck with carpet, you could use furniture "sliders," a plastic lid, a baking pan or even a piece of laminated paper or cardboard. Get creative.
(Edit: Just tried a "rollout" with a phone book on carpet. It worked well.)
You could also walk your hands out in front of you (where they would be at the end of a rollout) and push up.
These are called Lalanne pushups. Personally, I'd do them with a neutral grip, on my fists.

                              Jack Lalanne had this shit figured out years ago.

They work the similar muscles.
If you want to mimic the rollout motion, then just walk your hands out and then walk them in as far as you can. That's one rep.


I'd focus on those three movements and work up to doing them every day.

There you have it-- a program that requires basically nothing.

Deal with it

Some people are generalists.
I'm not.
I have chosen to become good at three lifts. My goal is to improve those poundages. Losing weight, gaining weight or maintaing weight does not factor into my goal. Some people have no goals, whatsoever. Then they pickup Crossfit and start wearing Vibrams 5 fingers.
Bad idea.
Save yourself thousands of dollars and don't "drink the Kool-Aid."
Or they start looking into Men's/Women's Health/Fitness and find silly bullshit to do. The squat-to curl-to overhead press is not a total body movement... It is a travesty.

                                                               Dumbass.


The fitness industry thrives off of novelty. To keep these magazines running, writers do their best to combine, rework, complicate and add twists to the fundamental movements: pushing, pulling and squatting.
Do you really think a fitness magazine would last if every week they had this routine printed on every page?

      Overhead press
      Squat
      Deadlift (or clean if you know how to properly execute the movement)

      Sets: As many as you want.
      Reps: As many as you want.

Now, what if you don't care about being the most muscular or the strongest?
Well, all hope is not lost. The tool for becoming the strongest with a barbell is, surprise! A barbell.
If you're saying to yourself "I don't want/have a barbell! How will I become better than the vast majoritiy of everyone in America by not being a lazy, useless fatass?!"
Use what you have. That's how.

Scenario 1:
You have a barbell.
You don't need to read any further.

                                                              Awesome.




Scenario 2:
You have machine(s).
See scenario 4.


Scenario 3:
You have a dumbbell. Any dumbbell that is not adjustable is pretty useless for this scenario. You can't progress, therefore it will have to be relegated to assistance movements if desired.
Just do whatever you'd do with a barbell, but with a dumbbell.
An "all-round" program could include the dumbbell clean and press and either the single leg squat or the "Bulgarian" split squat.
If it were me, and I only had access to one dumbbell and one dumbbell only, I'd use the one arm dumbbell swing (not the idiotic kettlebell-type swing...)
This movement will be the topic of another blog post, but here's a video of the movement. (Personally, I'd go deeper into the split, but that's just me.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5Vcb8ICvc


Scenario 4:
You have nothing.
No weight training implements whatsoever.
Unless you're a bodybuilder, machines aren't that great.
They do have their applications but that is a topic for another post.

Use your own bodyweight. Pick a push, a pull and a squat and go nuts with them.
Personally, I'd choose the handstand pushup, the pullup and the single leg squat (pistol.)
You could pick any variation of those.
If you're a woman, something like pushups on an elevated surface (chair, counter, stairs, etc.)
negative pullups or rows of some kind and squats (lunges, reverse lunges, stepups, jump squats, Russian lunges, Bulgarian split squats, etc.)

 
As far as sets and reps, well that depends on your goals.
("Toning up" is not a real fucking goal, and even thinking that phrase makes you an idiot.)

A general rule is the harder the movement is, the more strength related it will be. If the movement is easy, it will build more endurance because of the amount of reps you can do. (i.e. handstand pushups for sets of 2 or 3 vs regular pushups for sets of 15-20.)


In the next post, I will discuss making your own weight training implements.