IOL Strength and Conditioning

You’ve spent your hard-earned shekels and you now have at least the basics mentioned in The Minimalist Approach or you’ve taken it a step further, as in The Lavish Approach. What next?

For those of you that want “just a little more,” I’ll continue to list equipment and purchase considerations. I may even throw in a homemade equipment idea or two that are constantly being born of my chea…er, FRUGAL nature. However, I’m warning you now…this could get long….

CALF MACHINE
Unless you like the mental picture of pencils sticking out of sweat socks…you’ll want some way of working your calves. Most people will opt for some type of calf machine and there are two main types: the standing model and the seated calf raise machine. Of the two, I prefer the standing machine, here’s why: You only work the entire calf muscle group (meaning the gastronemius and the soleus) when the leg is straight or very nearly so. When seated, the gastroc is basically inactivated, while the soleus does the lion’s share of the work. So, if you want to be efficient and work everything at once, the standing calf raise is the way to go. Since I’m a firm believer in multi-purpose machines, (and did I mention FRUGAL?) I’d opt for a combination machine that allowed me to do standing calf raises AND also a squatting movement. Additionally, any standing calf machine can be used for Hise shoulder shrugs and will be much more comfortable than the same movement performed with a barbell.

Calves may also be worked in a movement called the donkey calf raise…which usually requires the cooperation of a partner to sit on your hips. By utilizing a dip belt or a hip squat belt, one may successfully do the movement alone.

CHEAP CONSIDERATION
You may simply choose to use your power rack for standing calf raises. Take the loaded bar from the saddles and walk to the opposite side of the rack where your calf block is waiting. Lean back slightly until the bar contacts the uprights and step onto your calf block. Do the calf raise movement while allowing the bar to slide up and down the uprights…and yes, you’ll scratch the paint.

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A couple of weeks ago we took a look at Dave’s current menu, geared to weight gain, or at least holding weight, and compared it with his menu from a few years ago. Let’s add one more thing to the mix: food supplements.

Here again, Dave had listed his supplement intake in the prior report, so we’re able to consider what changes he may or may not have made during the passing years from age 57 to today, about six months ahead of the official Medicare marker, 65.

To recap from 2001:

Morning supplements:
Super Spectrim aminos, Super Spectrim vitamin/minerals, Vitamin C, Anabol Naturals creatine, Body Ammo Joint Connection (MSM, glucosamine), EFA oil

Pre-workout:
Bomber Blend Protein drink, Ageless Growth Formula

Evening supplements:
Super Spectrim aminos, Super Spectrim vitamin/minerals, Vitamin C, Anabol Naturals creatine, MSM, glucosamine, tablespoon Metamucil fiber, EFA oil

Now let’s see what’s happened in the intervening years. Oops, would ya look at that! Almost nothing.

And you know what? I’m totally serious. Here’s a link to the “What Dave Uses” page of the online store, where we find the items above, less Metamucil, which you can get at most grocery stores, and EFA oil, which you’ll want to get refrigerated from your local health food store.

The additions: COQ10, Omega 3 Fish oil capsules and Vitamin E. These are primarily for heart health and joint health, and were added after we learned of their value these past few years.

The subtractions: None. And this has been going on for decades, I kid you not. Would that the rest of us should be so consistent!

The key to such consistency is to set up the vitamins at a standard time each day. Dave, for instance, sets out the follow day’s supplements every night while he’s drinking is final protein shake or downing a last can of tuna. Never misses.

For some folk, the Minimalist Approach just won’t work…they need (or more likely want) more. This article will address these folks, as well as provide some equipment hints and considerations that I’ve gleaned from 30 plus years experience. Let’s assume that you have the necessary space available and that money really doesn’t limit you.

Unless you are blessed with sufficient coin of the realm to purchase everything you want at once, you may have to view the equipping of a home gym as a long term project. Consider this: Rather than join a commercial gym, save the money you would annually pay and purchase (or build, if so inclined) one good piece of equipment every year. In a few short years, you’ll have a well-equipped home gym that didn’t require an enormous one-time payment.

The one most essential piece of home gym equipment is the power rack. First and foremost, it is a safety device, allowing you to bench press and squat heavily, without requiring a spotter. There are many types available…here’s what I consider important when considering which power rack to buy:

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Like a lot of people when I started lifting at the gym I religiously followed the program set out by my instructor - Derrick I think. My flat mate and I had decided to go along to a local gym when we saw a flyer for a membership special: “Pay for 6 months, get 6 months free!” the bolded font screamed. We later noted that this “special” was not that special and was the standard membership deal – oh well, it got us in. We had our assessment and program appointment and were given the exact same program. My memories of the exact program are a little hazy, the one thing that stands out is 3 sets of 8-12, no squats, no bent over rows and most certainly no deadlifts.

This really set the standard for me, I did a bit of gym hopping, had a couple of stints at working out at home and had the 3 sets of 8-12 doctrine burnt into my brain by trainer after trainer, as I did the concept of doing isolation exercises. Although, truth be told I did squat when training at home, no racks though so I had to do some awkward body movements to lift the bar of the bench press supports in a way that really frightens me now. The only thing that saved my back is the lack of weight I owned.

As I became more experienced I also became more inquisitive, I tried a few different things, started off cautiously with some supersets, then some drop sets - it certainly made the training more interesting. I even bought Pete Sisco’s Static Contraction Training, read it cover to cover and it made a lot of sense to me. I gave it a go and, well let’s just say that is twelve weeks of my life I won’t be getting back. I also started lurking on this website owned by some guy called Dave Draper and started getting his newsletter. I really enjoyed his writing style and decided to buy Brother Iron, Sister Steel.

I have now read Brother Iron more than any other book I own, every couple of weeks I thumb through it and find something new in it. Anyway one day I decided I was going to try something really different and gave the Full Body Strength program a go. Suddenly I was thrown into the world of deadlifts, bent-over rows, clean and presses, and what can I say - it worked. But then, for whatever bizarre reason, I went back to doing what I had previously I lost the momentum. Until around four weeks ago that is.

I decided to follow the sage advice I was reading from IOLers (who have probably put in more hours at the gym then I have put in at work) and do two things: eat more, lift heavy things with compound movements. The difference is amazing, I can see muscles starting to pop up that I have never seen before and veins appear in places that I didn’t know had veins.

I think it all became really clear to me today when after a really tough and rewarding session I caught my reflection as I went to step in the shower, I did a double take, it was definitely my head, I just wasn’t sure whose body it was attached to. It’s all so simple to me now.

Someone recently mentioned using ear plugs to solve his problem with music in the gym during workouts. My imagination immediately went to a dim and silent place. I was holding the heavy steel handle attached to a cable that traveled 20 feet, looped over a thick six-inch pulley, ruggedly secured to the ceiling, and dropped ten feet to the floor. There it connected to a length of 2-inch pipe acting as a holder for an assortment of Olympic plates lying flat and stacked.

You wanted to adjust the weight, you unhooked the cable and kept it in place under your foot as you added or removed plates. Simple as the wheel and equally as effective. The Dungeon’s long lat pull - a giant movement, you’d love it.

I wore wax ear plugs, made slits out of my eyes and burrowed through my workouts. There was no music in the Muscle Beach gym, but the noise from the guys was too much for me. Though the 5,000-square-foot cellar was never packed, the voices were loud. To speak, one yelled as one would across the Grand Canyon. ‘PUSH it - PUSH it - ONE MORE REP - you can DO it.’

Some things never change - same exact musclehead vernacular.

One thing changed: mid-’60s there wasn’t a woman’s voice amongst them.

dungeon dweller

As we have seen over the last few weeks, muscles, strength and general feats of strength have been with us ever since the year dot. When Dave was still in diapers (probably using his milk bottle to build those biceps) Steve Reeves was posing across cinema screens; when Steve was in diapers, Eugen Sandow was appearing in the forerunner of muscle magazines and when he was in diapers, strongmen were showing their stuff at fairs and the theatre. But what of today’s bodybuilders in training? Well, they have the internet and boy, when you start searching for muscles online, you turn up the darnedest things.

If you search on a generic term such as “bodybuilding,” you get all the usual websites on the subject. You can get histories of the sport from Wikipedia, how to get buff from sites like this and in some cases even personal websites of the great and the good of bodybuilding.

And apart from the slight reference to bus making, bodybuilders certainly crop up a lot in the image searches as well, but perhaps the most famous of all the websites to have sprung up over the last few years is YouTube.

Type the term “bodybuilders” there and you are spoiled for choice: pro bodybuilders, amateur bodybuilders, training routines, interviews with bodybuilders, contest videos and if you’re really, really lucky and type in the right keywords you can turn up little gems like this:

Dave Draper vs Roddy McDowell

Consider this a companion piece to Laree’s blog entry about transitioning to a home gym. In fact, Laree very gently nudged me into writing this. So without further ado, let’s establish some ground rules. The recommendations that will follow are the result of years of experience, both good and bad, regarding setting up the home gym. It is written from the standpoint of one who is interested in strength, some bodybuilding and most importantly - minimal investment of hard-earned dollars. What follows won’t appeal to all but should at least be considered as a good blueprint to follow in setting up one’s home gym.

PART ONE - THE MINIMALIST APPROACH

THE SPACE
Your training area needs to be level and free from obstructions. You will require a clear floor space of about 8×8 feet minimum. However, if you can free up the additional space, an area that measures about 12×12 feet is nearly ideal. The flooring should be protected, either by heavy carpet, floor mats or a wood lifting platform. Let’s examine each one of these in turn and I’ll try to influence you with my preferences.

Heavy carpet is the least desirable, in my opinion. Unless solidly anchored, it has a tendency to slip around and that is dangerous. Obviously, if the space you’re considering is already carpeted, you don’t have much choice. Also, carpeting just doesn’t give you a solid footing, which is critical to lifts such as the clean and press, squat or deadlift. A couple of carpet squares will protect your flooring somewhat, but is less desirable than the next option.

If you live near a feed store, farm supply or tack shop, you may wish to consider the purchase of either stall mats (used in animal stalls) or truck bed liner. Both of these items are available at a reasonable cost and the purchase of a couple of stall mats or a section of truck bed liner shouldn’t set you back too much…consider it money well spent to protect your flooring and deaden noise somewhat. Two sections measuring two feet square will be all that is necessary.

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The freeway from our house to The Weight Room is no longer a nightmare; it’s clogged 24/7. A trip to the gym can cost me three hours, and since I like to train in some fashion five or six days a week, well, you add ‘em up: 15 hours.

Time to re-think things. But switching from a commercial gym to home training is a head trip, messing up the thinking part.

I spent the better part of this year uncovering the following five mind benders.

1) While we owned the gym, training at home didn’t even occur to me, but once we no longer owned the gym, it was fear of failure that kept me from making a move toward a part-time home gym. Would I be able to recapture my successful gym flow if I couldn’t get my head in the home-gym game after I let the daily head-to-the-gym-habit lapse? I just didn’t know. And I was afraid to find out. Lesson # 1: Don’t let fear of failure hold you back.

2) Once committed, here’s what hit next, hit hardest and took the most purposeful effort to overcome: After 25 years as a gym member and owner, I felt self-conscious training at home, alone in the basement, almost like I was a kid playing house. That may sound as goofy as all getout, but the truth is, I was almost embarrassed. No one else was involved in this, just me and my mental weirdness. Lesson 2? Recognize and get over it.

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He-Man
played by: Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is 6 ft 5 in and weighs approximately 237 lb. He speaks four languages: Swedish, English, German and partly French. He holds a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Kyokushin Karate and won the European full-contact karate championships in 1980 and 1981 and a heavyweight tournament in Australia in 1982. He was also a member of the Swedish Kyokushin Karate knockdown team for the 1979 World Open Tournament arranged by the Kyokushin Karate Organization. It is alleged that for his role in Rocky IV, he dabbled with steroids but this is strongly denied by Mr. Lungrun himself.

He-Man is a superhero in the truest sense of the word. Not only does he possess superhuman strength but also has a secret identity. That of heir to the Eternian throne Prince Adam. Adam is everything that He-Man isn’t. An out and out coward, an complete wimp and slightly nervy with the women compared to the out and out hero, erstwhile stuntman and someone who I dare say that Dave wouldn’t have minded training with.

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I was reading the various posts in the IronOnline today and a post by one of our moderators (Bill Keyes) caught my eye. Bill was responding to something that Eric (Erkmax) had posted earlier…the exchange went something like this:

(Eric)
…It has been my experience that people are too focused on getting results than taking the journey….

(Bill)
The equivalent of, “Are we there yet?” My observations are the same as yours. So many folks train and don’t enjoy it. Achieving a goal overrides all other considerations and many miss the wonders of the process. Too bad.

Quick weight loss

Quick weight gain

Quick strength

The “quick” achievement of a goal

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In The Beginning, weight training is fair and just; gains cometh steadily and regularly and promptly, and in equal proportion to the efforts expended; life is good. But, just as all good things must come to and end, we discover that our days in the Garden of Eden Gym are numbered.

Really we should know that it can’t be that easy forever; if we were going to add 5 pounds to our bench press every two weeks, everyone would be benching over 700 in five years. When you start training, a simple model for growth is sufficient. You do a workout, giving your body an unfamiliar stimulus; you go home and rest a couple days, and your body adapts and strengthens to better deal with that stimulus next time; the next time you go to the gym, you can do more. Lather and repeat and do the math and in five years you ought to be benching 700.

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Today, a few years after Dave’s daily menu was posted, a quick review shows change does happen, yet that boring Bomber diet remains… boring. His meat selection was swapped, and he must have gotten sick of red potatoes, but in nearly every other element, he and his diet are unwavering.

Let’s take a closer look.

In 2001 at age 60, 225 pounds with a desire to hold weight, training hard two hours, five times a week, he wrote:

Fact is, I enjoy the order and rigidness of my diet—brings me peace. No regimen, I feel sloppy and careless, guessing and out of control.

Total consumption for an average day:
4,520 calories, 426 g protein, 434 g carbs, 119 g fat

Approximate average daily nutrient percentages:
38% protein, 38% carbs, 24% fat.

I’m going to list the foods he eats on an average day in 2006, at 64, 218 pounds, still training as hard as possible, but a little lighter and a little less at four days a week for about 90 minutes. When I’m done, I’ll run it through fitday and we’ll make a comparison.

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Whoops, yes I realized the day after my post I’d put big instead of small screen. Sorry about that, but don’t worry. Next week it really will be the big screen!

The Incredible Hulk
played by Lou Ferringo
First appearance on screen: 1977

David “Bruce” Banner is a physician/scientist who has been traumatized by the loss of his wife in a fatal car accident, and his guilt over his inability to save her from the burning wreckage. He begins to conduct research into strange phenomena in which human beings temporarily display superhuman levels of strength, trying to understand why others faced with a similar traumatic experience to his own were able to save themselves or their loved ones while under abnormally high emotional distress, whereas he was not. He concludes that high levels of gamma radiation from sunspots are the cause, and to prove the theory, he bombards his body with gamma radiation to see if he can endow himself with superhuman strength.

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A while back, I wrote about how GPP is basically just overall physical fitness. That may or may not be a helpful clarification; it leads to another question. Have you given any thought to what it means to be fit?

A dictionary definition of the word fitness may be something like, “the ability to perform tasks” and is, in my opinion, perfectly adequate. So physical fitness would by extension be nothing more than the ability to perform physical tasks. An adequate definition, but not exactly an earth shattering concept. Knowing a definition is not understanding.

The folks at Crossfit have probably thought as long and hard on this subject as anyone. They have a free issue of their Crossfit Journal, titled What is Fitness? which fleshes out that definition quite a bit. Their concept of fitness involves identifying ten key components of fitness: “cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.” You are as fit as you are competent in these categories - according to Crossfit.

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