8 Weeks Out Joel Jamieson

Grip strength is a skill that many athletes simply miss the boat on, and yet it does not take a ton of time to develop.  Even though grip strength may not seem obviously applicable to certain sports, it is a surprisingly prevalent physical quality that can makes a huge difference in athletic performance in almost all areas.



Grip Training

In this video, we cover three simple methods for improving grip strength.  We’ll show you how easy it is to target your grip by making small adjustments to the exercises that you’re already doing…

3 Simple Grip-Strengthening Methods:

1.) Use grip-force grippers, which can be incorporated into a variety of different exercises, including:



* Pull-ups

* Dumbbell rows

* Kettle bell swings or jump squats

* Virtually any dumbbell or barbell exercises



2.) Use a pinch grip for static plate holds (30-90 sec) and deadlifts

3.) Do dowel exercises with a partner, including:



* Using an overhand grip to roll dowel toward and away from the body with tension supplied by partner

* Conducting a reverse dowel curl with partner providing concentric and eccentric resistance

* Applying force to the dowel at different angles while partner resists movement



Improve Sports Performance

If you have already developed some grip strength, these exercises can be a great supplement to your warm-up.

If you are relatively new to increasing grip strength, these methods may best be applied at the end of your workout so that you’re grip isn’t fried for the duration of your training time.

These methods are simple, easy, and inexpensive, yet they can make a huge difference in sports performance

Stay tuned for more performance-enhancing tips…

The Apollon Axle Clean and Press is one of the more common strongman lifts and while similar to the Olympic weightlifting style clean and jerk, the technique is unique. Although it’s conceptually simple, this lift requires great precision. The bar itself can be much more than just a handful! Zack McCarley and Patrick Castelli are here to help.



Mastering the Apollon Axle Clean and Press

While the lift closely resembles the clean and jerk, the axle clean and press has a technique of its own.  We’ll start by breaking it down step-by-step:

1. Set up your stance by approaching the bar in a dynamic stance, similar to a traditional clean and jerk stance, or a footing you would use to jump from.

2. The starting position and posture will be very similar to you traditional clean pull position, however, a key difference is in hand placement.

Due to the thickness of the bar, and the fact that it is one solid, non-rotating, piece, you will grip the bar with an over/under grip, also known as a mixed or alternate grip.

3. The initial, or first pull, is the same standard clean pull off the ground, clearing the knees and then pulling your hips through, while making contact with the bar as you pull it up the superior portion of your thigh.

Now this is where it gets tricky…

4. When the bar is clearing the hips, release the bar with the “underhand” in mid air and re-grip it in a standard “double overhand” grip position.

This mid-air transition of your hand is key!

The efficiency of this method is highly dependent on this transition, so practice this motion until you’ve mastered the timing.

5. Following the transition of your hand placement, with a double overhand grip, think of rowing the bar into you and keep it tight to you body. The bar should be pulled tight to the top of your abdominals, just below your sternum.

Common mis-cue: traditional cleans require you sit your hips back to receiver the bar, similar to a front squat.

This is not the case following your mid-air grip transition and catch on your upper abdominals

Instead: a better cue is to keep your hips a bit more forward. Remember, you are trying to create a shelf in which to catch the bar, before getting it to your shoulders.

Specifically for smaller and leaner athletes, this may require you to lean back a bit with your hips out in front.

6. Once you’ve caught the bar here, do not waste time under tension with a loaded bar resting on your diaphram. Quickly give the bar an extra bump, similar to a small jerk to clean the bar the rest of the way up to your shoulders to your “rack position”.

This is where you would sit your hips back, more like a traditional clean catch to receive the bar.

7. From here, press the bar overhead as you see fit.

Remember, in strongman, the rep doesn’t count until your head is through and your feet are parallel.

Clean and Press Technique Tip

When cleaning the bar up to your torso, speed is key. Some people will curl, or row the bar up to their first catch position before the transition. This is not only inefficient, but risky.

Any time you are cleaning the bar, or rowing with a mixed grip, that under leaves you with an exposed bicep. This puts you at risk for a bicep tear, especially on a thick bar.

Pulling the bar slowly isn’t nearly as efficient or safe, but speed will go a long way.

Misconceptions about the Clean and Press

When loading your bar in training or competition, do not clamp the collars on extremely tight.

Instead, leave a tiny bit of room between the plates and the collars, so long as the promoter allows it. This is a non-rotating bar, but if a bit of space is permitted, that might give you just enough rotation to get some extra reps or a new PR.

Next:

The atlas stone is by far the most iconic and oldest of the strongman lifts and yet so many people get it totally wrong. Although simplistic in idea, this ancient lift is very technical and there’s a lot that needs to be done very precisely for it to be done safely and effectively.



Mastering the Atlas Stone

Let’s start by breaking down the technique:



* Set up your stance by straddling directly over the top of the stone.

* Reach straight down and pinch the stone between your forearms and elbows, with your hands as deep as possible to maximize surface area on the stone.

* Lift the stone off the ground using technique more like an RDL than a conventional deadlift.

* Load the stone into your lap by bringing your feet together and sitting back. Common mis-cue: lifters are often told to bring their knees together to load the stone onto the platform of their lap.  This puts unnecessary strain on the knees. Instead: a better cue is to bring the feet together; the knees will automatically follow.

* Bring arms over the top of the stone at 10:00 and 2:00 positions.

* Let your hips come up first, then dynamically bring them through and extend as the stone is pulled up the body (and over any hurdles). Think of the stone “rolling” up your chest.



A stance that is too wide will not allow you to build up the speed needed to lift the stone high enough to load it on to a platform or over a bar.

A stance that is too narrow will make you unstable.

The perfect stance is generally a little more narrow than your jumping stance.

Atlas Stone Misconceptions:



* When picking the stone off the ground, you do not want to lift it like a conventional or sumo deadlift ; it does not give you the best leverage.

Instead, think of it more as a Romanian deadlift (RDL), or a wide stance RDL, to pick the stone effectively. Your hips should be high with a slight bend in the knees.

* When the stone is in your lap and you are about to load it, you do not want to reach your hands underneath it; this places unnecessary strain on the biceps.By placing your hands under the stone and exerting the muscles in your shoulders and biceps, you are not only far less effective, but also at great risk of injury.; your shoulders and much weaker than the larger muscles of your back.Instead, place your hands/arms at the 10:00 and 2:00 positions on the stone so that the load is placed on the larger muscles of the back as you pull the stone up your torso to load it. You are far less likely to injure yourself, and will be utilizing muscles much larger and stronger to load the stone.



Next: We’ll be breaking down the proper form and setting straight the misconceptions surrounding the axel clean & press.

The tire flip is by far one of the most commonly used Strongman lifts and yet so many people get it wrong. Even though the lift may seem simple, there’s a lot that needs to be done precisely in order for it to be done safely and effectively. Discover how to master the tire flip.



Welcome to Strong Man 101

This is the beginning of a free, 3-part mini instructional series to provide the best, efficient, and safe techniques for strongman lifts. The use of strongman implements has drastically increased, unfortunately resulting in a lot of improper coaching and instruction being made public….

Mastering the Tire Flip

Most people assume that being one of the strongest men in the world means lifting all the time.  What they don’t know is how much technique is involved.

Today, we talk with National Strongman, Patrick Castelli, and America’s Strongest Man, Zack McCarley, to receive the best technical advice for mastering the tire flip.

Why the tire flip?

There is a particularly large amount of misinformation regarding this Strongman lift.  Countless injuries could have been prevented with just simple adjustments in technique.

Goals:

–Address misinformation regarding tire flip technique

-Break down the proper tire flip technique

The Proper Tire Flip Technique

1.)    Find the stance you feel comfortable in by getting ready to jump

2.)    Approach the tire, usually from about 1.5 ft away

3.)    Crouch with chest forward, slightly upward, pressed against the tire

4.)    Establish a grip outside of your feet

5.)    Step in with one foot towards the tire

6.)   With the lagging leg, knee the tire & use your hands to push it over

Make sure you have solid contact of your chest and shoulders with the tire to drive it up. 

Misinformation about the Tire Flip

You should have your hands positioned at the center of the tire to flip it from a sumo stance.

Why this is wrong:  As you stand up, your chest and shoulders are not in contact with the tire.  This causes strain to be placed on your biceps.  It’s no surprise that the most common injury from the tire flip is a distal torn bicep. 

Next:

learn how to safely master the atlas stone lift

We are going to be coming out with a very in-depth, detailed instructional course on all the strongman events, and multiple variations of each, taught by the best in the world at each event.

Ever wonder what some of the strongest men in the world do for their training? In this episode of8WeeksOut TV, we haves special guest Zack McCarley, a six-time national champion in sport of Strong Man and reigning America’s Strongest Man.



Meet Zack McCarley

What does training look like for America’s Strongest Man?

Surprisingly, Zack McCarley doesn’t just train for Strong Man; he has competed in wrestling at the national collegiate level and in power lifting.

He’s been a relatively top level power lifter, but hasn’t invested a lot of time in that sport, and this year, after his wrestling season he’ll be doing some CrossFit competitions as well to see how he measures up.

Focusing on being an athlete more than just a Strong Man, power lifter, wrestler, Zack enjoys the whole aspect of being athletic and having a healthy lifestyle.

Transitioning between these different focuses of requires some finesse in his programming…

Carry-Over Between Zack’s Sports

Going from Strong Man to the wrestling mat will clearly place a higher demand on aerobic conditioning with more training being done on the mat then in the gym.

There is some carry-over from sport to sport, with increases in strength and power on one side, and a much larger working capacity on the other.  However, Zack properly trains them both separately in the appropriate time.

Managing those energy systems is key, for example, although he most likely will be the strongest wrestler in his weight class, if not managed well, he could be left exhausted and gasping for air before the match has finished the first period.

Zack’s Ace to Explosive Power Development

Zack is known for being so fast and explosive in the world of strongman, so let’s take a look at what he does to train that skill…

Zack uses box jumps as a staple of his training. Having integrated them in and out of his training over the years, he does however use some less common variations than most people use:

Staying primarily within two variations, Zack demonstrates his version of box jumps from both the seated and standing position. His equipment is basic: for his set-up, Zack uses a bench in front of a relatively low platform which could be another bench or a low box.

The key to Zack’s box jump, whether seated or standing, is to not re-bend the knees and lift his legs toward his torso.

He will instead keep his legs fairly stiff and straight after triple extending for the take-off, and allow just enough flexion at the knee to land comfortably.

The idea is to get good at jumping higher by developing more power in the lower extremities, not to jump onto something higher simply because you become more efficient at tucking your legs up higher toward your chest to get onto a higher surface.

When doing his seated variation, Zack will rock back in his seated position on the bench to lift his feet. With his lower extremities still in a position of flexion, he’ll rock forward to contact the ground with his feet, and begin the jump.

Because Zack’s variation of the box jumps rely on keeping the legs extended and fairly stiff, he recommends using a box that you can clear with two or three inches of clearance.

Why This Style of Jumping?

The biggest reason why Zack uses this style of box jumps is when you start getting good at box jumps you start needing taller boxes… 

You find that you need a platform that’s 36 inches, and then a platform that’s 40 inches, and 45, then maybe 50 inches.

If you travel at all, you don’t always find things that are that tall to jump on (or at least that the gym owner will allow you to jump on). So convenience is an issue.

In this week’s episode of 8 Weeks Out University, Joel and Patrick cover how to develop national champion-caliber strength with HRV. Using Patrick’s training program that earned him the coveted national title, we’ll answer your questions on HRV training for strength.



HRV Training for Strength

On this episode of 8 Weeks Out University, we want to share how to use HRV to develop and improve your strength.

One of the questions we get asked a lot is: how do I use BioForce HRV training to improve my strength?

So we have Patrick Castelli here to talk about how we use BioForce HRV to really manage his program and help him win the National Championships.

We knew the competition was going to be extremely tough. The events were tricky, with two days of competition:

Day 1 events included:



* Axle clean and press away

* Keg carry/wheelbarrow carry medley

* Car dead lift



Day 2 events involved:



* Yoke carry/sled drag medley

* Frame carry

* Press medley

* Atlas stones



Patrick had gone to Nationals last year with fairly serious damage to the common fibular nerve. This obviously held him back but in the long run, it seems to have worked out for Patrick.

This year, Patrick went into Nationals under the radar and took everybody by surprise…

Once we knew the events, we put together a program with massive training volume.

The closer we got to the competition, the more specific we wanted to make the training sessions.

Programming for the Competition

Once we knew the events, we had every reason to train the events as specifically as possible.

The keys to what made the program so effective were:



* its specificity

* lots and lots of volume

* monitoring and making adjustments using BioForce HRV



The exercise split was simple, depending if the events were on day one or two.  Then we just had to push Patrick with as much volume as he could handle.

As we got closer to the competition, training mimicked the order of events.

Patrick would train day one events, and the next day he’d do day two events, a day of active recovery, and then day one events, day two events, and then a day of active recovery again going into the Saturday sessions.

If we were doing day one really heavy, then the following day two we would back off the volume and intensity.

This followed along with the principles of the High/Low Training system we’ve covered before.

Using BioForce HRV to Manage the Program

The first way we used BioForce HRV was in managing overall volume.

So when we programmed a couple of two-a-days, if Patrick showed up with an amber BioForce HRV score, we cut the training sessions back to just one.

It was key to push the volume to the limits of recovery, and then back off just slightly to avoid overworking.

The simplest way to do this is to cut back the number of training sessions, especially when someone like Patrick has built up to 7-9 training sessions per week.

The first week of the program had about 5 training sessions per week. If Patrick had an amber BioForce reading, we would either taper off the volume, or taper off the volume and the intensity.

It’s simple, small adjustments that make BioForce HRV training so beneficial.

Based off of his HRV feedback, Patrick could move certain days of the week around as we needed to.

Just because you have days where you have a red reading doesn’t always mean that training day should be skipped.

We found ways to move the active recovery days around to best manage and recover from those red readings and still catch up on the work we were going to miss.

BioForce HRV and Recovery Strategies

Sometimes, no matter how much you manage things, changes in outside circumstances like sleep, travel,