IOL Strength and Conditioning

April wrapped up a full year of regular Feldenkrais training, both in group classes as well as in private, hand-on sessions. Not only has the training propelled me miles ahead of where I could have gotten on my own with self-taught corrective exercises, stretching and myofascial release, but it’s also been a real eye-opener for casual movement, moving posture and even in learning.

The biggest wow moment was learning to think of the skeleton separately from muscle. When doing joint mobility, I now think of the bones moving and let the muscles move naturally, without purposeful attention. Good joint motion happens when it’s smooth and effortless.

Good movement through the joints requires the right rhythm. Muscles have to fire in optimal order to move well and freely, without pain. Yet how do you do that? How can we possibly teach our muscles how to fire in the right order? Some—many—ways to move are never learned, or are forgotten. Remember this: In movement, we’re self-taught!

In reading of corrective exercise, we learn about joint coordination, how the right hip effects the left shoulder, for example. In Feldenkrais training, especially during the Awareness Through Movement verbal classes, we feel it. That’s why I consider Feldenkrais the ultimate in joint mobility.

In this ancient 21-minute video clip, Moshe Feldenkrais demonstrates how he teaches the brain of this whiplash patient—reminding her brain—how to move the skeleton. Notice especially how easily her joints move at the end of the session as compared with the beginning.

Feldenkrais Functional Integration, the hands-on sessions, are normally done lying down, supine, on the sides or occasionally prone. Few practitioners work with a seated client; I believe that’s because the body is more relaxed when it’s not working against gravity. More relaxed means the brain will be more trainable.

Would you like to give this a try at home? There are numerous good session sets available via mp3 downloads for pay, but before you head off in that direction, here’s a link to do-it-yourself ATMs, where you can try these out for free.

A favorite instructor of mine, Larry Goldfarb, has this free mp3 lesson, Rolling Fists, on his Mind in Motion site. Along with Suzie Lundgren, the woman who’s been walking me through this remarkable year’s process, Larry is co-presenting a new 12-week session beginning May 4th for anyone in the local Santa Cruz area. Suzie also does hands-on work, which for me has been priceless.

Susie Lundgren, Feldenkrais practitioner at work in Santa Cruz

A few of the paid sessions available for download are found below.

• Larry Goldfarb, Back into Action
  
• Ryan Nagy, Eliminate Back Pain Now
• Lavinia Plonka, Unstress Through Movement, and Power of the Pelvis
• And here’s an interesting set of three lessons: Lengthen Hamstrings and Spine. The Feldenkrais method is done without stretching; amazing, and I promise you, this works.

Learning to move with the ATM lessons is powerful, but those with chronic pain will find faster relief in the hands-on Functional Integration lessons, in which the practitioner will be able to quickly zero in on the patient’s individual needs. There’s a directory of local therapists here at the Feldenkrais.com website.

Nothing has influenced me physically as much as Feldenkrais work, not even 30 years of weight training. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

One final thought: I had a conversation with Mike Nelson via twitter the other day. He’s a Z-Health Master Trainer who’s also familiar with Feldenkrais. I asked him if he could explain the difference between the two, and his answer was they’re similar, but Eric Cobb’s Z-Health is faster to both learn and apply. This makes sense to me, because while I’ve often had jaw-dropping breakthroughs during a session, it’s taken the entire year to get fully comfortable with the work.

One of the Z-Health dvd and manual sets, perhaps the R-Phase for $85, could perhaps get most readers where they need to be with regards to athletic, pain free movement.

Chronic pain sufferers, get a Feldenkrais practitioner to put hands on you. It’ll give you back your life.

In a conversation of books covering barbell training techniques, Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore’s book, Starting Strength, will instantly surge to the top as the most important book a trainer should own. Period, no close second.

If you need another opinion, there are plenty in this section of the forum where we review the book and discuss their instructions and illustrations of the basic exercises. You’ll find everything’s covered; in fact, we’d arranged for the guys to come on the forum to address questions at the end of our book review month, but when the time came… well, there just weren’t any questions left unanswered.

Still, some people are visual or audio learners, and perhaps even Lon’s terrific illustrations aren’t enough for these types. A mere $24.95 and plenty of practice will buy these folks a perfect squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and power clean; no joking here—Mark Rippetoe’s filmed Starting Strength barbell exercise technique seminar leaves no confusion. Each of the five exercises gets its 25-35 minutes, including discussion and instruction, followed by a long section in which Mark troubleshoots individual problems.

As an example of what’s on the video, let’s take a look at his squat points.

• First he addresses stance, preferring the heels at shoulder width, toes out about 30%.
• On the way down—no bar in position at this point—shove the knees out with the elbows, insuring the knees point out at the same angles as the toes.
• Using hip drive, shove the hips up from below; don’t pull up with the chest.
• Head down eyes toward the floor produces more hip drive; head up stifles that. Looking down will make you use your hips.
• Elbows up keeps everything tight under the bar.
• Thumbs on top keeps the wrists straight, and the weight off a torqued wrist.
• Stay tight. Don’t get your depth by relaxing your lumbar spine.
• Maintain your back angle throughout.

Now consider he follows those initial instructions by walking a variety of people through the movement several times, both without, and later, with weight. After that, he repeats the process covering the overhead press, deadlift, bench press and power clean. This $24.95 dvd, clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, is seriously priceless!

This is a nice production using a variety of camera angles. The background music is subdued and not distracting; the sound quality is good, the vocal audio is clear and no troublespots were seen.

I especially appreciated the choice of participants. There are about a dozen models demonstrating a big variety of body types. This is important in an exercise technique video, because perfect form is going to look different from body type to body type. A short-torsoed, long-femur squat is simply going to be different than the reverse, and potential problems can be reviewed when using a variety of athletes. This is something missing from videos using a solo model, and you’ll find it quite useful for understanding good form.

My review should be clear enough: Big thumbs up on this one!

Clocking in at a whopping 416 thought-provoking pages, I’m ecstatic (to the point of giggling randomly during the day) to say Dan John’s new book, Never Let Go, was sent to press earlier this morning.

Happily it shipped Federal Express, meaning I didn’t have to stand in the block-long tax-return line at the post office to get this jewel on its journey to the press at United Graphics. Look for pre-order information here in about two weeks.

Meanwhile, have you been pondering our invitation to Dan’s three weight training seminar workshops June 5th and 6th just south of Salt Lake City? We’re filming the sessions for dvd; he’s covering kettlebells in one session, Olympic lifting technique for relative beginners in another, and will delve deeper into his all-around training advice and strength philosophy in the third. This is part of our annual IronOnline forum gathering and as such, is free to all-comers. Simply drop me an email and we’ll get you the details.

I just wanted to give a shout-out to share in the joy of project completion, and… of course… to show off the book’s cover. I’ll get back to you later with ordering details.

Update: Place your order for Never Let Go today!

Camaraderie among gymrats, sharing training tips learned over the years… the hard way… and an outstanding weightroom educational opportunity — could there possibly be a better way to spend a weekend? Not likely!

The members and visitors of our IronOnline forum get together annually to laugh and learn and grow; this year’s event will be in Draper, Utah, just south of Salt Lake, the weekend of June 5-7, and as always, you’re invited. Drop me an email, or join in the Utah Bash forum thread to express your interest.

Now, then, what’s the truly exciting part? Just this: It’s to be held in Dan John’s weightroom, where he’ll be on hand to lecture three times, which we’ll film for future dvd production, and to answer our long list of training questions privately or in small groups, winging it (Dave likes that term a lot, thinks since we’re pretending Bombers we should be winging around town at will) as needed by the participants. We’re not planning a huge crowd, and your face time with Dan will be plenty to cover any of your training confusion. Heck, this guy likes to teach!

Dan John, First Place — Discus
US Master’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships August 2008

Here’s the schedule as it now stands. I could not be more eager to hear Dan speak, to learn his well-earned secrets and to watch the faces of my IronOnline forum pals as they realize what gems they’re being given, tips that are certain to change their training lives forever.

Friday:
4:00-5:00pm Olympic Lifts
Dan’s developed a few amazing techniques to bring Olympic-style lifting to the general public, the non-athletes who will still benefit from whole-body effort even if they don’t have time to commit to learning the competitive lifts. Just a glance at this impromptu video will give you an idea of the wealth of knowledge overflowing from the guy — can you afford to miss this weekend?!

5:15-6:15pm Kettlebell Instruction
Now a Dragon Door RKC Team Leader, Dan has studied kettlebell training since learning of Pavel Tsatsouline’s work with the handled balls of iron. Today he blends the RKC training, his extensive conversations with Pavel, and his time on the field with beginning and elite athletes to offer the basics of what we need to know to get the most from kettlebell training.

6:30-7:30pm Workout
Later: Dinner at a restaurant near the hotel

Saturday:
10-1: The Philosophy of Strength and Conditioning
In this three-hours seminar, Dan will cover such topics as the role of absolute strength in sports; his philosophy and approach to the issue of strength training and sport; systemic and systematic education and strength training; hip movement issues; honest assessment and the strength coach, and a long list of other topics that flash through his brilliant and occasionally goofy mind. He promises to leave time for our questions, and we’ll hold him to that one way or another.

Lunch at the seminar site

Hang out through the afternoon, including hands-on group or individual instruction by Dan. This will be in or near the weightroom, and small groups of Q&A will be happening throughout.

4-5pm: Hands-on work
All you have to do is show up, stand near the guy and when there’s an opening, blurt out your question. Nothing to it!

Sunday:
Brunch at a restaurant near the hotel

1-2pm: Individual work
Just let Dan know you have questions, and he’ll make an time-slot for you.

Winner, Men’s Masters Division
Pleasanton Highland Games, August 2007, 2008

The host hotel is the Fairfield Inn, $85/night, and our group rate offering ends in about a month. Time to ramp up your travel plans!

To give you an idea what to expect, here are links to our previous Bash photo and event reports:

Bash 2001, Santa Cruz, CA

Bash 2002, Las Vegas, NV

Bash 2003, St. Petersburg, FL

Bash 2004, Manhattan, NY

Bash 2005, Santa Cruz, CA

Bash 2006, Juneau, AK

Bash 2007, Austin, TX

Bash 2008, Scranton, PA

Will you be a part of Bash 2009, Salt Lake City, Utah? Drop me an email, or join in the forum thread to express your interest. We’d love to meet you!

As you read in Dave’s column or saw in the forum or elsewhere on the internet, Zabo (real name Irwin) Koszweski died over the weekend. His death came suddenly; Dave talked with him about three, maybe four weeks ago, and he was fine, at home in Venice. A couple weeks later, he spent a few days in an LA hospital with pneumonia, was released to and went east to his daughter’s where he died about a week later.

Named by Dick Tyler in 1969 as most muscular man he’d ever seen, Zabo was always known as the world’s all-time best ab man.

In the caption for this photo in West Coast Bodybuilding Scene, Dave wrote, “I can tell by the smile this is Zabo, also known as the “Chief.” He answers to Irwin Koszewski, but only if it’s time to eat. I call him Zabe.

More than anyone I know, Zabe epitomizes Muscle Beach with his natural lifestyle, Zen attitude and peaceful philosophy.  After leaving the army in the mid-’40s, he’s seldom been more than a mile from the Muscle Beach sand and allure.

For some inexplicable reason he’s famed for his abdominal development. Go figure.”

Writes Dick Tyler, also in West Coast Bodybuilding Scene,

I was talking to Zabo the other day at Joe Gold’s muscle pit in Venice. We were on the subject of strength stunts when Zabo looks at me and sez, “Dick, see if you can hold this broom parallel to the floor with your arm at your side.”

I looked at the broom for it moment. It was a long one all right and all you could use to keep the broom parallel was the strength of your wrist. I took hold of the handle of the broom and seemed to have no trouble in holding it level to the ground.

Zabo just smiled, “No, Dick, not yet—I mean with a two-and-a-half-pound plate on the end.”

I checked myself in the mirror. Gosh, your forearms look powerful, Dick ole boy, I was thinking. A minute or so passed.

“Go ahead, Dick, try it,” said Zabo.

He didn’t know it (or maybe he did), but for that last minute I had been straining my guts out. The blasted thing hadn’t moved an inch off the floor. I strained again, but the end of the broom lay there like a rock. Zabo said, “Here, I’ll show you what I mean.” And proceeded to lift the thing off the floor and parallel.

“Ah, ha,” I said like a big rear end, “you had your elbow bent a little.”

“Uh, yeah,” was Zabo’s only reply as he handed the broom back to me. Well, to end this little drama, let me just say try as I might, I couldn’t lift that broom with its plate weight so much as an inch off the ground. I left the gym a pretty disgruntled guy.

And later, we find:

Have you ever had one of those days when you felt stronger than usual? Most of us have. You know, you feel you can tear apart a piece of wet tissue without working up a sweat. Well, I felt that way a few days ago. To make things better we had a pretty easy day of it here at the Weider West Coast office. It was time to go home and the summer sun was still shining.

“I feel unbeatable,” I said to myself as I started to get into my car. That, good buddies, is as far as I should have gone. “I know,” I continued, “I’ll drop by Joe Gold’s muscle market and see if I can buy a contest with Zabo.”

You see, a week or so earlier Zabo had done a strength stunt I was unable to duplicate. This bugged me. Now that I was feeling mighty, it was time for revenge. Besides, maybe I could catch him when he was sick or something. So a few minutes later I walked into the gym. There was Zabo in the middle of the floor, instructing. He looked discouragingly healthy as usual.

Undaunted, I went up to him and said, “Zabe, babe, what’s new?”

“Okay, Dick, try this one,” he answered as we went over to the thigh curl bench. (He seems to know what I’m thinking all the time.) The bench was very high. Zabo stood beside it for a second. He leaped up and landed on top with both feet.

“Can you do that?” he asked. “A lot of guys are afraid they’ll break a leg trying.”

I looked at the bench and then at Zabo. Without saying another word I walked out of the gym. Driving home I was thinking I could at least kick my dog when I got to the house. After all, why waste all that power?

What a character! What a pair of characters, in fact — Dick and Zabo must have been a riot together.

We’re going to miss that guy. Zabo was 84.