A Rarely used Strength Secret

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A Rarely used Strength Secret

Most trainers and strength coaches all over the world use a few
strength building exercises, the squat, the dead lift, the power clean
for over all body power. These are great strength builders, but how
effective are they really? And do they promise all the hype of real
strength building?

I will tell you there is a better way of building overall body strength that
will transfer to all athletic sports and everyday life. It’s an exercise that
our bodies are made for. You don’t need a lot of weight for a total over
all body workout.

If you look and think how the body has been used for centuries you will see
that some things modern day trainers look at as full body workouts are
damaging to the body.

The squat is considered the “King of exercises” but how often do you really
need to put 300lbs on or shoulder in real life and stand up? The fact is that
if you ever did need to stand up with 300lbs the chances are you would fail.
Why? Because, in the real world 300 lbs that you are lifting would never be
balanced, it would be awkward and most men that could squat 300lbs would
have a tough time standing up with 200 lbs on their shoulders.

Squatting is big in football, for instance a lineman is usually coming out
of a squat no one else. There is more pushing than anything else. The
pushing will require overall body strength and a big part is the core and
not one of the 3 exercises I mentioned will strengthen the core to a point
of real function.

Same goes with the dead lift, deadlift 400lbs now grab a 250lb rock and lift
it up. The rock is a lot lighter but there is no nice bar to grab your body needs
to call on muscle memory to lift something compact, awkward with a whole
different body dynamic.

The power clean is another story, most people don’t do it right. Most people
are doing it like an explosive reverse curl. Olympic style weight lifters do this
correctly most others do not.

The body does not know whether you are lifting sandbags, logs, weights, digging
ditches or moving furniture it’s all weight.

But the one thing you can do to build a functional strong body from head to
toe is the simple method of shouldering and carrying an unbalanced object
for time or distance up hill and downhill. I say it will build strength from head
to toe because carrying will strengthen the entire body and the core muscles that
are required in all sports and in everything else that will need total body strength
and the head meaning it takes mental toughness to carry a weight for time or
a predetermined distance.

The great thing is a weight as little as 40 or 50lbs will enough for most men
try carrying a 50lb sand bag, rock, log for a ¼ mile or more switching the object
from shoulder to shoulder. I like to use a 70 or 100lb heavy bag for walking hills
and climbing steps and walking wooded trails. And if you want to build heavily
muscled traps and shoulders try shouldering and carrying and let me know how
them shoulders and traps feel.

Shouldering and carrying an awkward object should be a big part of any strength
training program. Balanced objects fool you into thinking you are stronger than
you actually are. Just like bodyweight exercises that require more muscles to do
pushups than it does to do bench presses.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

www.wildmantraining.com

P.S. Yesterday did 845 dips in 30 minutes. I’m a little sore today. So try some
shouldering and go for your record number of dips!

http://www.wildmantraining.com/products/manual/

 

Why locking out and using a full range of motion can be crippling!

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Why locking out and using a full range of motion can be crippling!

Remember you read it here first. Locking out and a full range of motion
could be the reason for most injuries over time. First question, when you
walk do you lock out at the knee with every movement? Second question,
do you walk using a full range of motion?

When you stand do you stand knees locked? When you walk are your
elbows locked or do they have a slight bend?

I have been training for over 30 years and have had my share of soreness,
and injuries. My injuries always came from the traditional way of exercise,
doing what everyone else did. Take heavy squats for example. Squat down
stand back up and lock the knee until you are ready to do the next one.

This pressure on the knee will cause knee problems in the long road. Take
two exercises I love, dips and pushups. For some reason everyone thinks
that if you are not going below parallel you are doing the exercise incorrectly.

Doing dips and going below parallel becomes a shoulder ripper, meaning
the lower you go the more you stretch the better chance of a torn muscle
and a great chance of strains that will keep you from training.

I got away from all that crazy “What everyone else does philosophy” and
started doing what is right for my body and for long term physical fitness
and health. And when I started training more explosive or with more speed
and not locking completely out or going beyond parallel my body healed
got stronger and my muscles got harder.

A benefit from coming just short of locking out is the muscles stay under
tension longer the longer the muscle can stay under tension the stronger
it will get. Muscle kept under tension will strengthen quicker and build
a body not as likely to be injured.

Try not going below parallel try not locking out and keep the muscle
under tension longer and feel the difference in your joints and the
rest of the body.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

Bodyweight Training – 50 Suspension dips on chains

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I’m a big believer in using what you have to build a strong and productive
body in all environments. I also think that we need creativity to stay
motivated to continue to make gains and to keep the mind fresh.

In the video I’m doing some dips using chains from a piece of equipment
in a park. I rarely do dips on anything other than a dip rack, but these
were tough. Because the chains move my body is forced to work more
muscles to stay up without falling.

If we want to continue to grow physically and mentally we need to change
the things we do day in and day out. We need to be creative. We need
to step out of the box and do unconventional things.

Nobody wants to be just a regular guy. We want to be the best we can be
and we can never be the best we want to be if we are like everyone else.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

“Conditioned Strength”

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“Conditioned Strength”

Years ago I didn’t know the different kinds of strength I only knew
that strength and physical fitness always interested me and I was
drawn right to it. The only strength athlete was my dad a truck driver
over the road furniture mover short and thick, could lift almost
anything he got his hands on and could go for hours despite
smoking 2 packs of non filter cigarettes a day.

It wasn’t until years later that I realized there were different types
of strength, strength that can move a heavy object one time and
the strength to move a heavy object many times.
I went for the one rep max strength and over the years done more
damage to my body not to mention gaining weight and losing a lot
of athletic ability because of the weight gain and focusing on one rep
strength.

When I started to realize the benefits of “Conditioned Strength”
Strength that can I will last when you are tired and can still continue
to keep going and even become stronger at the end, to me that is
the real benefit. Strength in the beginning of a task that can’t
last is of no use to me.

When you are breathing heavy and your muscles decide they can
no longer go and you need to stop you have left yourself in a bad
situation a situation of quitting.  For instance you will benefit more from
being able to do 100 pushups than being able to bench press 300lbs
one time. If you able to do 100 pushups I can guarantee you
are physically fit yet a person that can bench 400lb one time
is probably and almost always is not fit.

These men almost always focus on the strength and not the
“Conditioned Strength” of exercise and I can almost always promise
these guys couldn’t run a few short sprints. But to be able to do 100
pushups requires a full body effort including the anaerobic system the
400lb bench presser is using usually low reps usually 5 reps or less with
a lot of rest in between sets.

A lot of men don’t understand this type of Conditioned Strength  unless they
are using their bodies on a regular basis to lift, pull, drag, carry at a high volume
sitting in an office it really doesn’t matter but a laborer has and needs the strength
to continue all day to get the job done.

Our country wasn’t built on men that were one rep men these men were
strong all day long think about the cave man walking carrying sprinting
wrestling “Conditioned Strength” one rep strength would be useless

I try to educate people on the benefits of bodyweight training and
natural body movements for functional fitness I believe you can and
will do better with less equipment and more creativity than complicated
training programs created by experts that have never really trained. I
loved having the meat head gym ego I loved strength and still do except
now I love “Conditioned Strength” because it has changed my life for the
better. I loved having 18 ½ “arms and a 21” neck at 5’7 and 240lbs I
looked huge and intimidating. That is what most men think, get big and
scare other men. But I can tell you this, just looking like you are athletic
lean and carrying yourself with confidence will give the same confidence
except instead of looking you are being.

I do not think there is anyone who can teach the benefits of functional
fitness better than me considering my whole life has been earning my
living with functional strength and if you include the 30 plus years of
training my body has probably triple the work and stress put on it if
not more than the most experienced fitness expert.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

This workout is a 14 minute non stop knock down drag out ass kicker.

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Here is a great functional workout that will build a different type of
strength a strength that will have you ready to be strong and
explosive.

The workout is a 14 minute non stop knock down drag out ass
kicker.

Punch and kick the heavy bag for 1 minute. Drop down for
1 minute of Prisoner Squat Thrusts, try for around 20 a minute.

Repeat this non stop for 5 rounds. Now for the 4 minutes you
will do Wildman Heavy bag shoulder cleans (these will build a
great body awareness and build great strength when you need it)

I use a 100lb bag and for one 1 minute you clean it to the shoulder
for one minute as many times as you can and drop it down and repeat
after 1 minute switch to the other side do not stop continue switching
sides for 4 minutes.

Drop down while breathing heavy throw a 25lb plate on your chest and
do 100 situp crunches legs should be crossed and in the air to keep tension
to the lower abs.

Then I finished off with a few superman roll outs with the ab wheel from a
standing position.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

www.wildmantraining.com

3 Short Intense Body Blasting Workouts

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Finding time to train is never a problem for me. Ever
since I switched to mostly body weight training finding
time and staying creative has never been a problem.

I always carry a jump rope because it’s such a great
athletic building tool.

Yesterdays workouts were done in 3 different places.

The first was outside my house. I jumped rope 500 times
and did 200 pushups outside my house.

At about 7:30am I was in a state park over looking a
stream and did 500 bodyweight squats in 8:00 minutes.

The third workout was in a park. I walked to the basketball
court and did my final workout. Jump rope 100 times and
did 10 yards of Wildman Bodybuilders and repeated this
5 times it took me all of 5:55 to complete the final workout
of the day. I finished off with 200 consecutive bench dips.

I got a lot done in a short period of time. My only
equipment, a jump rope and a bench in a park. Not bad
for someone that works 12 hour shifts.

We are only limited by our creativity and willingness
to do what we know what we should do.

Toughness builds Winners

Johnny Grube

www.wildmantraining.com

P.S. The “Wildman Training program” will get you where you
want to be.

Skipping a meal won’t kill you fat ass!

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I can’t help but wonder why people are so against skipping a meal? It won’t
kill you. It gives your body a rest and time to repair. The funny thing is that
with all research and all the gurus and the diet industries and all the
prepackaged food and new weight loss surgeries we are fatter than ever.

The new standard is to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day to lose weight, or the
percentage diets you know 40% of protein and 30% of carbs and 30% of
fat or whatever percentage diet people want use.

The problem is people are not that interested in making 5 to 6 small meals
or spending the weekend making bulk food for the week they are NOT
going to take percentage of their foods.

And any experts and diet book authors that think people live this way are
fools. There was a time when people ate 3 meals a day, do you remember
that? Breakfast, lunch and dinner and maybe a snack was how most
people ate.

Growing up if you were in grade school you ate breakfast before school,
you ate lunch in school; than you came home changed and went right
back out the door to play. Ride bike or play sports, came home had dinner
and back out the door again. If you were in high school the same thing, out
the door or you had after school activities.

There were some fat kids and they were the kids that for the most part were
the least active. And for the ex fat kid that wants to tell me how active they
were and that they didn’t eat that much you are lying, plain and simple.

Another question fast food has been around a long time and only in the last
20 years it’s gotten a bad rap. Has fast food changed?  Or is it because we
live on it every day? When I was a kid McDonalds was a treat, a once in a
while treat

T.V. dinners came in metal trays and had to be put in the oven and this
was a treat, today everything is a t.v. dinner.

So why is skipping a meal bad? We focus on food all the time. We sit on
our asses all day. How can an expert tell anybody how many calories
he or she should eat, everyone is living a different lifestyle of activity.
Common sense say’s if you sit on your ass all day you better eat less
at least of processed foods.

I have a thought and it may or may not work. Eat when you’re hungry!

Stop making food your main concern! Stop thinking you will waste away
if you miss a meal you won’t. Oh, yeah and not eating all day and thinking
it’s okay to eat a half gallon of ice cream because you didn’t eat that
kind of thinking will get you far.

Blue Collar DNA

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Blue Collar DNA

Is it possible to have blue collar DNA? We all know we can’t change our
DNA, but what about the way you are brought up. Our country was built
on blue collar DNA meaning nothing was easy it was a fight every single
day.

Some people are just brought up to be blue collar and some are brought
up to be white collar but the funny thing is, is that our bodies are made to be
blue collar. Our bodies are not made to sit around for 12 hours a day or more.
This is the main reason white collar men start to lose muscle and levels
of testosterone.

The white collar person’s body will waste away. The blue collar person’s body
will wear out. Both are right and wrong at the same time. If a white collar worker
is active and eats well he will maintain muscle and a level of fitness. If the blue
collar worker eats well and is active he can save his body from wear.

Most blue collar men who work all day like to eat badly and very rarely exercise
at all because they are doing it all day long and want rest. The white collar worker
also eats pretty bad and won’t exercise because of lack of energy from doing
very little physically and white collar workers are usually mentally fatigued.

I personally don’t know any blue collar workers that train like me or that have
trained as long as I have it’s been over 30 years. So my question is should my
body be worn out after 30 years of training and about the same as working labor
for 30 years?

I do know that the longer you train and use your body to make a living you build
a physical and mental toughness that can only be built over many years. Also
you will build a strength that is real hard to duplicate.

Old time strong men were mostly laborers and also spent a lot of time doing
bodyweight training and throwing around the weights some trained heavy some
trained with light weights but most of their roots were blue collar and I can’t think
of white collar strong men of the past.

These men built a strength that could only be built through years of physical hard
in and out of the gym.

So my question do you think that you are either born with a blue collar DNA or
a White collar DNA?

Toughness Builds Winners

Here are a few crazy thoughts!

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Here are a few crazy thoughts

I believe in training for real life. The way the body is used in everyday
activity is the way it should be trained. I hear so much talk about injury
and how to prevent injury, why are we talking about injury?

What we focus on we tend to get more of, focus on injury and injury
prevention are you really going to get the results you want?

If every time you train and you worry about injury, how hard do you think
you will go? They even have books written about injury prevention and
I do NOT own any books about injury but have a huge amount of health
and fitness books.

Do you think that the trainers that think injury also think about disease or
sickness? I hope not. If you want health and fitness you read and think
about health and fitness, and that is what you will get.

R.O.M. (range of motion) who says that doing every rep has to be a full
range of motion? What sport or everyday activity focuses on R.O.M?
this is another reason for injuries, your body is made to be explosive
and used to get things done, most people train for gym fitness not
life fitness.

I read an article saying that jumping rope for 10 minutes is equal to
15 minutes of jogging and at one time I would have never questioned
this but because I jump rope almost every day and  there is no way that
jumping rope for 10 minutes equals jogging for 15 minutes or even 30
minutes.

Don’t believe me, have you ever seen a fat sloppy person jogging
for 15 to 30 minutes? Now get that same person to jump rope for
10 minutes, it won’t happen!

Anyone can jog, jumping rope takes time to learn and the muscles that
jumping rope build are pure athletic, jogging could never come close to
competing with jumping rope in fat burning or building over all physical
fitness.

Jumping rope strips the fat plain and simple.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

 

Bodyweight Training – Tough Workout

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Try this workout but only if you are physically fit

Wearing a 40lb weight vest jump rope 500 times non stop no rest
move right on to plyo pushups to a object at least 8″ wearing
5lb wrist weights. Simple with the weights on your wrist you explode
on to the platform drop back down for 20 reps.

I finished off with a secret exercise never seen before anywhere!
Talk about an F’n beast.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

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