Category: Exercises
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Using isometrics to burn out mental impurities while getting super strong
Isometrics have an air of mystery to them. Maybe, like me, you think of Bruce Lee, shredded and super strong, doing isometrics. Or maybe you’re read Steve Justa’s Rock Iron Steel where he talks about feeling strongest when doing isometrics. He mentions how bailing hay became super easy when he started a program of “isos”.…
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Increase your strength all over with this simple exercise tool
A while back I was reading about a prison guard. This guard wasn’t an imposing figure by any stretch of the imagination. A career liability of sorts. Probably better to look stacked when you’re dealing with men behind bars. But this guy did have something unexpected. Something that as soon as he grabbed you, it…
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The gurus speak: you must lift heavy weights to be manly…do you agree? I don’t.
Remember that psychology study where they put a bunch of people in a room and let smoke in the room? Thing is, one person doesn’t know it’s fake. Just one. Everyone else in the room is in on it. He’s looking around, panic building by the second. “Fire,” he says, but no one listens. “FIRE!”…
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Then Steve Maxwell came on the stage…
Steve Cotter and some other dude were on stage at a Ryan Lee Bootcamp. This was in 2006. Cotter and this other dude were impressively throwing a heavy kettlebell back and forth. They were showing some really fancy moves, flipping the kettlebell and catching it, tossing it high in the air and catching it and doing…
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Pavel Tsatsouline’s Power to the People and the office worker
Look at Bruce Lee. That power. That speed. Bruce Lee knew how to maximize his use of the nervous system. “From the thought to the fist, how much time is lost?” he would ask. Then he would figure out how to reduce it. To get that speed and power you need to influence your nervous…
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The Tilden Combo Salad, Brooks Kubik, and Walking
One of the more popular posts on my site is the one about gout. People hang around for 10 minutes reading it. If you’ve ever had gout, you’d know why! To cure it, my gout got me associated with the writing of John Tilden. Tilden is pretty awesome. So much of it boils down to…
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Found myself moving some appliances today—this training saved the day
A friend needed some help getting old appliances out of the house. Found myself on the bottom side of the washer going up the basement stairs. The dude on top was pulling up with a dolly. On the last step, something happens. Who knows what. But the washer came falling into me and the other…
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[Video] You’ll feel like a machine and everything will feel lighter – isometrics
I always evaluate my strength after a visit to the airport. How did I hold up? It takes me back to the concept of the threshold of pain I first learned about in Red Gold: What does it take to really agitate you? What makes you cripple over and mentally wilt? Whatever it is, it…
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Hand and forearm strength saves the day
It’s all about being strong and capable. I mean, really. No one wants to be weak and incapable, right? Of course not. So that brings me to the impromptu wrestling match with my 18 year old, athletic, nephew. Each year it’s like a test of strength. This year, shit, he was stronger again! I knew…
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The cult of the kettlebell
I’d say I owe a lot to the writings of Pavel Tsatsouline. I got in early—2003. Took the RKC, once as a student, another time as an assistant instructor for Steve Maxwell’s group. It was pretty great, although there were definitely some cult-like aspects to it. The kettlebell is the shit, we’re learning so much,…