My powerful left arm, my right arm is similar

Women may also take up lifting weights but they usually do it to reduce the size of their wobbly arms.

To build massive powerful biceps requires a special secret exercise known as the cheat curl. This secret exercise is known only to a very few people hence massive powerful biceps are a rarity… but now you know the secret too;

The special secret exercise

Many people will tell you that cheat curls are dangerous and will result in small biceps and a damaged back, instead they recommend strict curls. This is nonsense, designed to keep you happy about having small weak arms.

Pumping the arms with light strict curls can result in large arms but they are arms built out of fluff… no true man wants arms built out of fluff.

Still it doesn’t hurt to do the odd set of strict curls here and there, the added fluff will make your arms look more impressive. But beware of becoming carried away with excessive amounts of engorged arm pumping or else they will be entirely built out of fluff so that when it comes to you demonstrating strength people will laugh and point at you.

Proper men train their arms heavy;

Mitch and me are locked in an arms race

So how does one do the special secret cheat curl… pretty much the way I show in the video above. The traditional straight bar does a fine job, though recently I have found that I quite like using the EZ bar. Dumbbells can also be used. Other heavy curls can be done – for armwrestling, the table curl is a favourite;

A table curl

You now know the secret of building massive powerful arms like me.

The weight was swinging all over the place and I had trouble breathing, I had to hold my breath to walk which meant I couldn’t walk very far before dropping the weight. Partly this was due to fatigue from the previous events.

Prior to the contest I had done some walking on the spot, 29 steps with 266 kg and 16 steps with 306 kg. I also did some actual Yoke practice, but at home I have no Yoke so walking on the spot is good preparation;

However the steps were very shallow. I’ve therefore done some work recently and did this last week;

Here you will see that I do 30 steps with 306 kg and 20 steps with 326 kg and a few steps with 346 kg – also I lift my feet much higher this time. I also breathed during the exercise, I held my breath during the first few steps and then started breathing when I got up to speed.

The number of steps is based on Matt doing 40 steps in 20 seconds over 20 metres, i.e. that would be the goal of doing the 20 metres in one continuous run.

Walking on the spot with 326 kg puts 406 kg through the floor through one leg

Something which I feel HIT is somewhat blinkered on, is its approach to training for athletic activities… in this case I am using the Yoke Walk as an example.

The typical advice from the HITer to train for the Yoke Walk might be something along the lines of;

“First one should train the muscles for strength via full range exercise on specially designed machines. If one has only free weights one should still use full range exercise and adhere to the principles of good form via slow controlled movements. One should then practice the specific activity of the Yoke Walk by using the Yoke Walk apparatus with the weights that one intends to use in a manner exactly like that in competition and so practice is specifically like that for which it is intended to be used!”

At the ankle the force is 384.6 kg, at the knee the force is 378.9 kg and at the hip the force is 364.1 kg. There would also be accelerational forces to add to this.

The calculations for this lift show that at the floor the force through each leg is 111.5 kg.

The forces for this exercise at the ankle is 110.1 kg, at the knee is 104.4 kg and at the hip is 89.6 kg.

• Floor 3.5
• Ankle 3.5
• Knee 3.6
• Hip 4.1

This means that if I were to take the HITer’s advice and practice full squats for strength and then ‘practice’ an actual Yoke Walk that my bones, joints and muscles would be woefully unprepared for the stresses.

Fair point! But do they really match the forces in such an event such as the Yoke Walk?

The HIT specificity principle says that the actual machines should in no way mimic the Yoke Walk and having used the Duo Squat I can verify that this is so! When locking out the legs on the Duo Squat the legs feel entirely stable – indeed they are locked into a fixed path and as such there is no requirement for muscles such as the abductors and adductors to keep the leg from deviating laterally. Similarly there is no requirement for the muscles to stop the leg deviating ventrally or dorsally.

Furthermore intra-rep fatigue means that the resistance curve of the machine will never match the required forces of the Yoke Walk. I go into some detail on intra-rep fatigue here.

Intra-rep fatigue looks something like this;

This is a schematic of what my sumo style deadlift fatigue might look like, where I use 213 kg for 8 reps. The blue line is the resistance curve of weight and the red lines are the potential strength curves for each of the 8 reps I perform in the deadlift. The potential strength curves are obviously all above the blue line (I am stronger than the weight) until on the 8^th rep it just grazes the blue line at the cross. If I were to perform another rep I would fail because the red line would drop, at some point, below the blue line.

It might seem that a machine would be better because one could make its resistance curve more like the potential strength curves… except that the potential strength curve is force at each point that could be generated at each point if the barbell was artificially stopped whilst the lifter then pushed as hard as possible.

This means that if a variable ‘barbell’ was used the potential strength curve would be flatter because fatigue during the rep would be greater. In effect the ‘better’ resistance curve at the beginning of the lift would weaken the lifter at the end of curve compared to that of the ‘inefficient’ barbell.

Thus one might well design an eccentric cam with a shape that ramps up the resistance by 4 times but this would mean that one would have to use a smaller weight at the beginning to be able to generate the required resistance at the end. Thus the force curve of a Duo Squat or a Duo Leg Press from the start of the move to lockout would have to look something like this for each leg (numbers in kilos);

However in reality I could not take the equivalent of ~100 kg (per leg) at the bottom of such a machine because this would wear me out quicker than the 20-25 seconds of the walking squat and squat videos. I would in effect have to use 0 kg for the first 80-90% of the move to simulate the full ~386 kg at the end of the move… if I used anymore than 0 kg for the move then I would be weakened for the final part of the move such that I could not lift 386 kg.

I was suffering from a stomach bug after the 30^th December 2009, so I took a step back before doing the 12^th January 2010 session. The cycle never really got going perhaps because it was too similar to the deadlift cycle I had just finished. Still the 30^th December 2009 session was okay with all the reps being records if only because they were performed slightly differently to the usual 1 rep max efforts.

My best max squat is here;

My best repetition squats are here;

I think for future cycles I will make sure that I don’t follow one cycle with a cycle of a similar nature – I will also use lower reps, maybe just singles or doubles for squats.

98 kg + 98 kg + 111 kg bridged, 100 kg + 112½ kg bridged

I was challenged to an internet bench competition a couple of months ago and you will see from earlier posts here and here what I have done so far.

Given my benching strength that I wasn’t too enthusiastic about the challenge but I figured that the best way of getting better at the bench was to bench. It has proven to be most satisfying and best of all my bench is getting better…

I was asked a question regarding my technique and why I did a bridge bench after the normal bench and this is my answer;

“I am using the same techniques as a powerlifter uses to lift the most weight.

A bridge bench [where the butt raises of the bench] can be seen as an exaggerated competition style bench, it emphasizes the arch and the decreased range of motion and thus emphasizes the amount of weight used but is still similar enough to the competition style bench to be of use to it. So for example it helps with locking out of the weight in a competition style bench.

An alternative to the bridge bench might be board presses wherein boards are placed on the chest, again this emphasizes weight though not arch. It is of particular use to shirted benchers because the shirt means that the arms start working hard to lock the weight out. The boards mimic the springiness of a competition style bench.

The idea with arching is not just to get a short stroke but to get the lats and chest to push the weight up, a flat back bench [like a beginner does them] doesn’t do this and in fact somewhat subluxes the shoulders (I call them shoulder dislocates!) – so the strongest and most stable position for the shoulders is to shrug them back and arch so that the shoulders are tight and the biggest muscles (chest, lats) push.

Whilst shirted benchers keep their elbows low (because the shirt is doing the work of the chest), raw benchers must use these muscles thus on lowering the bar the elbows tend to be in to get spring from the lats but on blasting up the elbows come out to get the chest into the move. The stronger the lats, triceps and shoulders in relation to the chest the later the delay in the elbows coming out, however the ratio (rather than absolute) strength of the muscle groups tends to be the similar from person to person so the elbows come out for most people.

Partials in the rack and decline benches are not really as similar to the competition style bench as one might imagine so they are not used much.”

I was also asked if my elbows weren’t too wide on pressing up, I answered;

“I think you will find that most raw benching does not involve keeping the arms in like they do with bench shirts.”

In summary, I use the powerlifter type of bench rather than the ‘bodybuilder’ bench as the powerlifter style is safer on the shoulders and allows more weight to be used. I do the bridge bench after as it acclimatises me to heavier benching and stresses the muscles further.

Carry large weights, because in real life you have to carry things

Take dieting. A fat person goes on a diet and gets to his goal weight, then he starts eating cakes again and before you know it he back weighing 600 lbs or 700 lbs – he yoyos because he won’t stick to the diet. Lifting weights, like dieting is a full time thing so you better make sure you enjoy lifting weights and you better make sure you make lifting weights enjoyable.

Work you pecs and your biceps because all true lifters work these muscles

That’s my Christmas message…

90 kg × 2 reps, 91 kg × 3 reps

92 kg × 2, 2 reps, 93 kg × 2, 2 reps + bridge benches 103 kg × 1, 1
reps

95 kg × 2 reps + bridge bench 105 kg, 90 kg × 3 reps + 95 kg × 2
reps

96 kg, 107½ kg bridged

The technique on this lift is to shrug the shoulders back into the bench, this puts the shoulders into a stronger more stable position. A side effect of this is a big chest with a better pulling angle for the chest and lats, additionally arching the spine puts these muscles into a more favourable pressing line.

Carrying a bunch of plates is a simple exercise… but can be quite knackering

A lifter trained in only the 3 powerlifts may be surprised to discover that carrying a mere 100 kg of weights can reduce one to a dribbling imbecile.  At the strongman competition I entered last year a couple of competitors were flattened by carrying a 105 kg beer barrel for 20 metres.

This is because the powerlifts typically last around 5 seconds whereas carrying a barrel in strongman usually takes around 30 seconds. The energy pathways look something like this (see here);

What this means is that the powerlifter uses energy that is already in the muscles. This energy is in the form of ATP or adenosine triphosphate. ATP is the only energy which the body can actually use. Once ATP runs out then body needs to make more ATP. After a couple of seconds ATP runs out and so is regenerated from stored creatine phosphate (CP).

After a few seconds more CP runs out, so glucose from the blood must be used to regenerate CP and ATP. It should be understood that the end result of using fats, glucose or whatever to generate energy is always ATP and that this ATP is actually being produced all the time – thus whilst the amount of ATP at any one time in the muscles is small, the total amount produced can be great. If something blocks ATP production then you will die horribly.

In the video I carry the plates for 28.6 metres in 28.6 seconds… which is 1 metre per second. The first 7 metres don’t feel like much, at the half way point of 14 metres I am beginning to feel the effects. 7 metres from the end it really starts kicking in… and at the end I’m gasping for breath. Not only does the event last a ‘long’ time but the plates are an awkward shape whose centre of gravity is a long way from the body’s centre of gravity, additionally the plates press against the stomach making it difficult to breath. To hold the plates it is necessary to lean back so that the weight is supported by the hips and the weight is more over the feet, this means the quads burn out quicker, because it is like walking in a sissy squat position.

I recover in 5-10 minutes. I prepare for this event by doing activities of about 30-90 seconds – thus as well as simply carrying the plates I will, for example, do skipping of about 60-90 seconds. Doing activities longer than the event is similar to doing activities heavier than the event in that it gets the body used to going heavier or longer than the event. So as well as skipping, various forms of deadlifts, which are much heavier than 120 kg, are also done.

184 kg × 8 reps wrist straps monolift, 184 kg hook grip monolift deadstop, 184 kg alternate grip right, 190 kg sumo alternate grip left

Before the strongman competition detailed here I had a go at a regular style deadlift… I couldn’t lift 153 kg. This didn’t particularly bother me as none of the events needed that kind of strength, but I figured that my regular style deadlift needed some work particularly as Magnús Ver Magnússon says I need at least an 800 lb deadlift to be any good at strongman.

Deadlifts are typically started from the floor, so after doing the repetitions shown in the video above, I then do a deadstop rep out of the monolift – in other words I lower the weight, pause at the bottom, take a breath, then lift it up. Some of the elastic recoil and stretch reflex is dissipated from the pause and also from taking a breath, but I maintain my position to use the remaining recoil.

After that I then do a regular style rep where I simulate the monolift deadlift by lowering with tension in the muscles and taking my breath prior to reaching the bar. I grab quickly and immediately pull to utilise the recoil of the unweighted lowering.

After that I repeat it, but in close stance sumo style with 190 kg – note my alternate grip is the other way round to the regular dead.

By transitioning from the monolift to the regular style I maintain the recoil and reflex which I can mimic the feel of monolifting for repetitions.

One can use the lower and grab method like me (some do it really fast like my fellow P&Ber Craig);

Or one can use the pump method which is better for grip like Mitch which is kind of what Andy Bolton does but there’s not as much recoil and reflex as with the lower and grab method;

Or if one is a freak, one can just wrench the bar in a hump back style with no elastic recoil;

My previous deadlift max for 10 reps was 163 kg, my previous max for 5 reps was 173 kg;

Last post I talked about the goal of 10 reps with 183 kg in the regular deadlift – so this is where I am at currently… For this particular cycle I started at 143 kg and the next week did 153 kg for 12 reps, then the following week I did 165½ kg for 12 reps;

Then the following week (last week) I did 175½ kg for 10 reps, which is a 12½ kg gain on my previous max, then this week I did 183 kg for 6 reps which is 1 rep and 10 kg more than my previous;

My actual plan this week was to get 183 kg for 10 reps, but I could feel that on the warm-up weight of 163 kg I wasn’t explosive like the previous week, the 163 kg felt underloaded last week whereas this week it was sluggish.

I had difficulty getting on my belt… and from the video I can see why, the towel must have got caught and so got squint. The towel pinched at my right hip and my torso didn’t feel pressurised.

I could feel from the first 3 reps with 183 kg that it wasn’t going to be 10 reps, so I stopped at 6. I could have got 1 or 2 more but didn’t want to bust my back doing so. Thus you can see I pause for a while on completing the last rep as I decided to save the effort for next week.

I was a bit unfocussed for the following lifts getting the breathing not quite right with the hook grip, then not grabbing quickly with the regular pull (I was thinking of how to do the grip as I bent down, I should have thought beforehand).

Still… I’m about 12½ kg ahead of my previous PBs for 10 and 6 reps.