BEYOND STRONG

New Stunt Show Reel

I've been working on a new stunt show reel over the past week and although I am not totally happy with it I thought loyal Beyond Strong readers might like to see it. Here it is. (You''ll need Quicktime to play it I think). Enjoy!

Nick

 

Rowing madness and more benching

On Sunday my wife and I did this...

4 star jumpsx10x10
Low Squat jumpsx30x30
Rhythm Lunge jumpsx10x10
Ab Wheel - hamstring curlsx20x20, straight leg and p-upsx10x10, ab roll to max
Incline Runs - highest incline on treadmill (level 15)x10,12,14 on the speed for 20 second bursts.
Row - 1000m. 3mins34secs.

The row was stupid hard. Nicky refused to do it as being a former competitive rower she knew the pain well. That time ranks me in ther top 100 on the concept 2. Dunno if that's right but that's what the website says anyway.

Yesterday...

Bench Press - 135x10, 242x8x8x4plus2plus2 singlesx4 plus 4 singles. The rest/pause stuff is interesting although not something I would do a lot of. Good for plateau busting.
One Arm Lockoffs with 10lbs platex1/1x1/1x1/1x1/1. I was looking for 5 singles each arm but 4 was tough on the elbows.
Triceps Pushdowns - 70x10x10x10x10
Slippery Eel - made it into a dumbbell, 135lbsx5/5x5/5.

Nick

Power pants and deadlifts

I am still very much in a phase of 'let's try this and see how I feel' so after squatting went well monday I thought I try benching and deadlifting this week too.

Bench pres - 135x10, 220x10x10x10x8 plus 2 x5 plus 2 plus 3 singles. 50 total reps with 220 wasn't as easy as I thought.
Seated Cable Row - 100x15, 130x12, 160x10, 175x6
Rear Delts on Incline bench - 25lb DBsx15, 35'sx10. strict.
DB Curls up the rack - 25lbsx5, 30'sx5, 35'sx5, 40'sx5, 45'sx5 all non stop.
Triceps up the pin stack - 20, 30, 40 ,50, 60, 70x8 reps each non stop.
DB Wrist Curls - 60lbs DBx15x15x12

Today...

Deadlift - 155x5, 265x5, 375x5, 440x5, 375x5. All felt ok.
1 Arm Lockoffs - 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1. I am varying the way I do these each set. Sometimes more biceps sometimes more back etc.
Leg curls - 1platex20, 2platesx10x10x10x10
Partial Rack Deadlift - double overhand hacklift, 265x15secs, 350x15secs, 420x10 secs then alternate grip up to 903lbsx1. I held this quite comforatbly so the grip is still there. A grand would be nice I guess.

My Inzer Power Pants arrived today and I looked at them and thought I had bought them for my tiny wife! Hell they were small. Anyway, after much thought I set about stretching them and 20 minutes later I got them on, or almost on anyway. I spent the next hour walking, sitting, standing and moving in them to get them to fit 'better'. Hopefully I will try these out on squats next week.

 

Nick

Ryan Kennelly and other random thoughts

In case you missed the video, here is 1074:

Shitty lighting, but by far the cleanest 1000+ pound bench I have ever seen.  He had control of it the whole time and locked it out and held it.  Beautiful lift!  Kennelly is awesome, and I love his "say what is on my mind" attitude.  If you have a hour to kill, check out www.inzersucks.com and listen to his interview.  It is at the bottom of the page, and it is great!  He point blank says that he thinks no one will ever eclipse his records, and I tend to believe him.  I wonder if he will hang it up before he hits that 1100?

I am glad I am not the only one who thinks it gets old after time.  I mean, you do the same shit month after month and then you do a meet, hit a physical and emotional high, then it is back to the grind.  And for what?  I thought it was just me, but Kennelly expresses the same in his interview.  He says he is getting tired of it.  There comes a point where you just look at the weights and think, "now what?"

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the death of Jesse Marunde.  I can't believe it has been a year since the world lost one of the best American strength athletes. 

Someone said he is probably winning "Heaven's Strongest Man" right now.  I would like to think that.  I loved watching him compete and strongman is a little less exciting without him in it.  R.I.P. brother.

I am headed back to the basement of pain this weekend.  I miss those sons a' bitches and I need to be around them.  They lift my moral and I feel better when I get to spend a few hours in that basement talking shit and lifting some weights.  Not sure what I will be doing, but I will just be glad to be back there once a week hanging with my buds and having fun.  Eventually I will be back there twice a week again, but for now Saturdays will do until the summer has ended.

Weight loss is coming along slowly, which is what I wanted.  I did not want to take it off fast, pound or so a week.  I am in the 230s right now and would like to be in the lower 220s by October.  I hate cardio, but I need to do it.  It is just so damn time consuming and hard...

And the saga continues.  The wheels never stop turning, and that is the crazy thing about life.  Regardless of what happens today, tomorrow, or next week, the sun is still going to come up and the hours are still going to tick away.  We are going to get another day older and maybe, if we are lucky, wiser and stronger.  I have a wedding the wife is dragging me to, I think it might be this Saturday afternoon?  or next?  Then we have her family reunion where we will get to spend some time with her cousins widow.  I don't know how she is doing it with 2 little kids, but she is a rock and I admire that about her.  I am sure it will be an emotional weekend.  Then, the following weekend we are headed to Ocean City for a week of (hopefully) sun and sand.  Of course, I will have to indulge in a little beer drinking.  I haven't had a cold one since July 4th, and by August 15th I will be ready.  Bring on the ocean, the bikinis, and the hot beach nights!

With that, I bid you all a farewell until the leaves change.  I have some things coming up for work (travel) and I will be busy with my trips, etc. with the wife.  Also, we will hopefully be having some baby English Bulldogs this September as well!!  I am stoked for that, but it is A LOT of work. 

I will be back to posting soon enough.  Until then, stay strong, and GO GET IT!

-Rick

07/23/08- chest/back/tris

-Incline bench: DC 225 x9, x4, x3.  Should have used more weight, wanted to get a total of 8 reps!

-Flat bench dbs: 90s x15.

-Wide grip rows: DC 180 x8, x4, x4

-Seated low row, underhand: 180 x20.  OUCH.

-Close grip to throat: DC 185 x9, x5, x4.  Again, too light.

-Push downs: 150 x15 / 130 x5.

Done.

I am eying up an interesting meet in TN called "Night of the Living Dead: GREED".  Unsanctioned dl meet that promises a WPO atmosphere with cash prizes and big time lifters.

-Rick

-

high carb day and blah

Got up this morning after 2 low carb days and just felt like a zombie.  Almost fell asleep on the way to work, was tired all day, and almost fell asleep on the way home.  Still tried to go to the gym.  4th warm up set with squats and I packed my shit and called it a day.  Just wore out.  I think the bike ride trashed me...

Anyway, today was high carb day which probably also lead to the sluggishness.  I feel like a shit sandwich, which is to be expected when you are running on empty.

I have decided I will drop my training days to 3 a week, DC style.  This will be quick, and DC is always productive for me.  This will also allow me to fit cardio in more.  It is hard to work all day, go directly to the gym, then come home and do 30 minutes of cardio, on limited calories.

So, my next training day will be Wednesday, chest, back, and tris, DC style.

-Rick

Knee wraps

We had a great weekend with my parents. Shopping in London and breakfast in Windsor. Excellent stuff! The only down side was I was a little off colour. I had a sore throat, a cough and a headache all weekend and today. Despite that I decided to train today anyway.

Box Squat - 135x5, 242x4, 365x3, 420x1, 465x1. This was just with a belt but I recently bought some new APT  wrist and knee wraps. I have been meaning to get used to using knee wraps so today I played around with different wraps and did...405x1, 450x1x1. I was starting to feel a little assistance in the bottom. Also, these were done without a belt. I think had I put a belt on I would have done 500lbs today no problem. So we'll add the knee wraps next week at something like 450 and go from there. The next purchase will be some Inzer Power Pants to give my hips some added protection and support. Interesting stuff!
One Arm Chin Lockoffs - rightx1, leftx1, rightx2, leftx1, rightx1, leftx1, rightx2, leftx1, rightx1, leftx1. Just easing into these as I know they can flare up the elbows.
One Arm Pulldown - 5pinx10/10, 6pinx3/3. Done slowly and deliberately.
JM press - 135x12x12
Bicep Curl machine - 3 sets

Perhaps all this equipment can give me a new lease of life on my squats and deadlifts whilst keeping my weight down and my body intact.

Nick

Progression

 

Life in Bali is good. Last week we made a trip to Java, with the boat. I drove in our Kijang LSX, better known as a Toyota. Traffic in Bali has its dangers, with a lot of crazy bike drivers coming from any corner, speeding too much, and sign and signals that many people do not obey. There are speed limits, which is a necessity with a road no bigger than two lanes, but since everybody neglects the signs things can become very, very dangerous. The bigger transportation busses, trucks, they tend to pass you even in the most dangerous situations and turn. A big curly road, incline or decline, on the mountain, even then they will pass you with dangerous speeds.. I have spent a measly 400km on the road, for a total of more than 24 hours and saw: a big snake on the road soon to be road kill, a truck that just drove into the living room of a small house, a truck that fell down a bridge, another truck that fell down the cliff and where people were busy trying to carry the big bags of rice back in the truck, two trucks that drove into each other, a man falling from his bike whilst going downhill, a few dead dogs.. Driving in Indonesia, not your typical driving environment like in western countries..

Started to train again as well. My training, that is now focussed towards bodyweight exercises mostly coming from gymnastics, as not really structured yet. Most days are a lot of pull-ups on my thickbar, pushups, ab exercises etc.

I have now found it necessary, if I want to see any progress to make some sort of program. However, dividing a bodyweight routine is a bit of a problem, because many exercises are based around compound exercises, which makes it hard to split up things.

So, best is to see what kind of skills I want to get, and work with that. Here I will outline some of the skills and exercises I am currently working on:

Handstand (wall)/ handstand pushups: I am kicking into the wall handstand with a straight leg, and hold for time. Straight arms. Mostly I get around 60 seconds with this exercises. When I want to work shoulders, I just try to lower myself inch by inch. I am not yet at full depth, but once there, the exercise will be made harder by doing it on paralettes. Eventually the goal is to do a free standing handstand pushup.

Parallet work: This goes from every L sit progression you can think of, and push up work. A tuck sit, with my knees as close to my body as possible, until a straight leg L sit. Holds for time, in sets of 3-5 for 10 seconds or longer. Goal for all the sits are 60 seconds. Works the core very, very hard. Push ups on paralettes will give you a bigger ROM and therefore I like them. I try to get into a planche position as much as possible by leaning as far as possible and then push up.

Rings: This has been too much on and off. There are many skills that I want to be able to do. I am using a lot of the articles on gymnasticbodies that contain a lot of good information. Highly recommended.. Muscle up, and the front and back levers. I suck at the back lever, and I suck at muscle ups. The transition of the muscle up is very hard for me, but I am working at it. I try to do dips and get lower a little bit every time, until I finally will be ending up at the final position of the pull up. Likewise I do this with pull ups, trying to power up higher and higher. Hopefully I can get the muscle up in the near future.

Front and back levers are great skills and look neat too. Progressions with these exercises are really easy, going from a tuck (knees in) to slightly more stretched, then straddled etc. The back lever, I can only work on the rings, too bad because...

Thickbar work (grip): I can work the front lever very well on the thickbar that I set up in the garage. It’s a 2” scaffold pipe. Front levers can be done here very easy, starting from a chin ups, and then pushing shoulders backwards and trying to push down with hands, staying tight throughout your whole body.. one thing that will work very well in learning the correct body position in the front lever is the hollow position. To learn this position you should lay down on the floor, and touch the ground with your lower back. Try to really press it down, simultaneously pressing your hand (that you hold by your side) down into the ground. You can put your chin up to your chest if you like. Try holding this position until you get tired.. (the hollow position, is also THE position you should get yourself in when you are doing your abdominal movements like crunchs, leg raises, etc. )

Next to the lever work, I do a lot of pull ups and chins. I try to vary with every single hand position possible, pronated, supinated, mixed grip, implement towels and what not. Just pull ups? Yes, because you can make it as hard as you want. Right now I like using frenchies, holding a static position in the top, at 90 degrees, and at 120 degrees for more than 5 seconds.. That is one rep...

Right now one of my main goals is getting a one arm pull up. OAP... And that is hard, especially on a thickbar.. I will do this in a thumbless curl grip, because I don’t really have big hands. At the moment I do a lot of mixed grip pull ups, with one hand as far from my body as possible, and the other (the one with the curl grip) as close to my body as possible.. From what I have read, 12 reps in this style is good and close to getting a OAP.. You can make this exercise harder by looping a rope over the bar, and grabbing it with your (non) working hand/arm.. Grabbing lower will make it harder.. Negatives are also something I use, lowering as slowly as possible with one arm, assisting with just a finger of the other hand.. An OAP is not an OAP when you not start from a dead hang, and right now that is not something I can do yet. The thickness of the bar has something to do with that, and the fact that it is hard not to pull your shoulder out of its socket or get instant elbow tendonitis.. Care must be taken in the quest to an OAP!

Floor work: Push ups, abdominal work.. You know the drill. One skill for long term is the planche, but I wonder if I will be able to ever do that.. Will take a lot of hard work. At the moment I am still working on progression 1, and that is the frog stand. I am at 40 seconds right now..

With floor work, also comes leg work and calf work. Just regular calf raises for tons of reps, and walking on toes with weights.. At the moment I weigh around 89kg, and this loss is mostly coming (and I want to say fat loss) from my puny legs ATM... To counter this, I work my legs with pistols, one legged squats. I can finally get into a full squat, and am working on reps.. Later weights can be added, by holding a KB for example.. Lunges, and a few other exercises are also in my arsenal.

For conditioning I use the beach a lot, sprinting, jumping up on stones, throw around rocks like a caveman and swim some..

 

To make a long story short, you can get strong and beyond using just bodyweight. The trick is in the knowledge of how to make your body work just as hard or even harder like when you would go to the gym..

 

Theo

 

The Tour

It just ain't what is used to be when Lance Armstrong ruled the road from 99' to 05'.  7 straight wins...hard to comprehend.  What I find strange is since Armstrong left, all of the big time riders have been testing positive for drugs or EPO.  They tested Lance after every damn stage and he always passed, yet the haters still say he was doped.  Funny how he never tested positive, but all the big shots are now.  Bottom line, if Lance was using, he would have been caught.  He was just incredible, driven, and wanted to win so bad that he sacrificed everything.  I sure do miss watching him climb those big ass mountains every July!

Who can forget these moments of absolute greatness:

And who could ever forget the look:

He faked being broke and beaten the whole ride to Alpe d' Huez. Then he was gone like a rocket. Amazing shit that you just don't see anymore!

Speaking of bikes, the wife and I hit the rails to trails today for about 14 miles of riding. It is basically flat, some small sloping up hills. I am out of shape! 10 minutes in my legs were screaming and now they are tight and stiff.  I guess I don't have to use the Treadclimber today...the biking was hard enough.

-Rick

Back and shoulders

Unfortunately my legs were still in terrible pain yesterday and I could not pull.  I have been feeling bad about ever since, kinda like when you skip class in college.  That shit always bothered me and I didn't do it unless I absolutely had to.  Anyway-

-T-bar rows: 190 x10, x10, x10, x10

-Reverse grip pull-down: 135 x10, x10, x10, x10

-Standing pull-over: 60 x10, x10, x10, x10

-Seated underhand low row: 195 x10, x10, x10

Today:

-Seated military: 155 x10, x10, x10, x10

-Side laterals: 25s x10, x10, x10, x10

-Halbert raises: 25 x10, x8, x8, x8

-Bent over lateral raise: 25 x10, 35 x10, x10

-Shrugs: 515 x10, x10, x10.

Some dude was growling and making all kinds of noise today when he was lifting.  I will give it to him, he was strong and fairly big, but he was wearing one of those spandex tight shirts and basically screaming with every set so everyone would look at him.  Then he would walk around with his chest way out like he was king shit of the gym.  I hate that shit.  He kept telling his buddy that he was trying to tire out his chest and tris, he just couldn't!  Maybe if you didn't rest for 10 minutes between each set and bullshit with your homies, you could.

I am going to start slowly building the garage gym back up, this time the right way and with stuff that I can use well into my late years.  I have some plans, and I will begin collecting stuff soon.  Can't wait to train the grandkids some day...

I am sleeping in tomorrow. 

-Rick