Adam T Glass convinved me to compete in the latest grip contest.
I have not done much grip stuff to be honest, so I figured it would be a great baseline and something fun to try. I have never done a single rep of the 3 grip events that were in the contest until that day.
I could have sat at home and talked about getting better, but that is too easy. Time to sign up and see how it goes.
The contest was a blast! I ended up at #52 out of 59 (see HERE for World’s Strongest Hands Results) and even got beat by a chic, but had lots of fun.
Time to train and improve.
Adam added a few other fun events too like 2 inch vertical bar, 2 inch diameter axle deadlift (double overhand, so both palms down) and rolling thunder.
Check out the video below and see if you can spot the Professor
The Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) is coming up on Sept 25, so that will be a great one. Max deadlift, pullups and kettlebell snatch.
The second part of the Grip Contest will be at the Movement Minnesota on Sept 11 and if you missed the first one, there are still 2 more chances after the Sept 11 one, so come on out.
Drop a comment on who is going to compete.
The goal is not to win, the goal is to be better first. Winning will come once you are better and better and better.
No excuses, sign the line now! If you want someone to guide you through your first meet or TSC, hit me up at the “services” tab above and I will help you out.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
HUGE thanks to Adam for doing the contest and David Horne for the idea. You can see Adam’s blog post at
A scientist is simply someone who tests things.
Do you need an advanced degree to do this? Nope. I would not recommend that people spend 16+ years in college to the tune of over $250,000 like I did just to test things. Let me save a ton of money and time.
Don’t get me wrong. Education is great, but if you want to talk about overkill, that is pretty much it if your goal is to test exercises on yourself.
You should find a way to test everything.
Do you want to build bigger muscles and increase strength?
Find a way to test it.
I have been using the testing as shown in the Grip n Rip DVDs for about 3.5 years now. The system was not as refined when I started, so you have a huge head start. Frankie was the first one to test it and then I was right after him. Now you can go to www.twitter.com and type in “#PReveryday” and see hundreds of people using it.
If your goal is more muscle and less fat, then you progressive overload. What is that? Do more volume, density (volume/time) and intensity (weight on the bar). Do a bit more in one of these 3 areas each time you enter the gym and score a PR (personal record). Rinse and repeat. I can be that simple. Really.
I recently went back through my training journal to look at the first year of training that I did using biofeedback. This was starting about 2 years ago and I looked for about a 1 year time span.
Here is what I found
I responded much better to more volume. I did volume work at a lower percentage of my max and still made progress. Even doing high rep work on the trap bar deadlift helped.
For bench I responded better to more higher intensity work. My best gains were made when I was at a heavier body weight and working at about 90%+ percentage. For a 9 month period I was routinely doing 5-10 sets of singles at 90-98% of my 1 rep max once a week.
This one did not test well at all, most likely to my spine issues. I could lunge and do deadlifts, but a standard barbell squat did not test well. Once I got my spine fixed up a bit, it started to test well again. More on that below.
The more new exericses I did, the better I felt and could increase relatively fast. I found that this helped other things I did the most. I was much better kiteboarding, playing broomball and volleyball. I could kiteboard for 3 hours at a shot, just cranking it for most of the time with very little body fatigue. AWESOME! Nothing worse than going to some place new and finding out your body hates you and you are limited. Boo.
I have a scar of over a foot long on the middle of my torso from open heart surgery when I was about 4.5 years old. I was born with a cogenital issue called an “atrial septal defect” see the video below
My heart was enlarge and I went into heart failure at a very young age. Without surgery, I would be lucky to live to about age 18 due to the increased strain on my heart. They went in, took a bone saw and cut my sterum (chest), cut through the right atrium and repaired the hole. Even on x-ray now I still have the “twist ties” in my chest that they used to put me back together.
I did some specific work taping my scar into a position with kinesiotape before my lifting sessions. I taped it in the direction that resulted in the greatest increase in my active range of motion.
I worked on specific exercises that would stress that area and cause it to remodel. During this time many lifts that I wanted to do did not test well. My performance on my “standard” lifts dropped.
This went on for about 6-9 months and then I needed to tape it less and less. Since then I have not had to do any taping at all and my structure is much better.
Keep in mind that loading (weight training) is a powerful stimulus to cause changes to
It is probably the best way we know to change our structure
I am currently stereoblind – I don’t see in 3D. I suppress the image from my right eye. You have 2 eyes that your brain uses to construct a 3D view of the world since each eye is off just a bit from the other one, so it sees things just a bit differently. Your brain uses this to allow you to see in 3D. I can “see” from both eyes, but when I am giving specific tests to analyze 3D vision I fail them out right. My right eye is set out and up a bit since I had a “lazy eye” as a kid.
Through help from Dr, Cobb of Z-Health, at the time, I found that my scar seemed to be linked to my ability to turn on and off (unsupress) my right eye by using a simple Brock string device. As my movement got better, I did less scar taping as described above, my vision started to get better. Currently I find that kettlebell juggling is a huge help. My next step is that once I get a few things off my plate and bit more money I will start some more intensive visual therapy as my structure seems to have stabilized.
I found that I need about 9-9.5 hours of quality sleep a night.
At first I was pissed about this and spent months and months trying many things to get by on less. I could operate on less, but my strength gains and the amount of volume and intensity I could do in the gym dropped off pretty fast. I learned to be a master of the nap and would drive around with a pillow in my car. I was known to slip out of the lab between sessions and catch a short nap in the back of my Jetta. If you do it right, a 6′3″ guy can find the back with the seat down. I used caffeine power naps too.
I have also been using an Earth Pulse Unit for a few years now. I have not noticed as much strength gains as others have reported, nor could I cut back on sleep duration; but I noticed I don’t have to do much of any cardiovascular (conditioning) as I had to in the past to keep it at a decent level. I don’t use it for a few days and CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness) drops quite fast. It should be pointed out that I have never really had any issue with quality sleep, so others with sleep issues may respond differently.
Stress would kill my gains in the gym pretty fast. While you may not be able to change what you are doing (maybe you can), if not, you need to change how you PERCEIVE it. This is a bit beyond this post, but keep in mind that you are in control and that you make the decisions. Are you getting better or worse?
Seems so obvious I know, but I did not get it at that time. I did not think it was possible to make a PR every time you go to the gym. It is possible and for the fastest progress you need to do it!
So I would encourage you to take a look at your training journal and see what trends you find. Figure out a way to test it. If you don’t have a training journal, get one now! Just a standard notebook works great for me. Probably the only thing I did correct when I started about 18 years ago was keeping a training journal. I still have ever one of them too. Study the past to help predict the future and test it.
Rock on
I’ve recieved it so much lately, I figured it would make a good blog post and was inspired by Mark Young and Bret Contreras talking about how they learn.
I have a confession to make.
I have had to put my general reading on the back burner a bit.
Gasp!
I know, I know, I should be reading more, but the key question to ask is “Is that the best way to learn?”
I also probably read more research than most still though. Most don’t read research and I am fine with that as long as you don’t try to state that “research shows….” and you are pulling it out of your butt!
Since I am working on a project (book chapter) on protein, I have about 40 studies sitting in front of me on it at any point in time. Other topics are energy drinks and metabolic flexiblity; so I tend to read everything on those topics.
I can’t read on a computer screen for long, so I keep studies printed out and in my backpack or at my desk (aka kitchen table) which normally has a huge pile at all times of fun stuff to read.
I read a few blogs and other sites for fun on occasion as a break.
Alan Aragon’s Research Review (AARR) is a must! For like 10 clams a month you get some great article and breakdowns of research. I have written research reviews and it takes more time than people realize, so I will cheerfully pay a 10 spot for it.
The Valencia mediacasts from Carl Valle are great too. You can find him at Elitetrack.com and send him a note if you want to sign up to them. They are dirt cheap and awesome info. I make zero money from promoting either one.
I have subscriptions to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning and Medicine & Science in Sport and Exercise from ACSM. Since I am still a student, I can get access to almost any full study which is great.
I use Evernote through my phone to snap pictures of printed studies, upload then and pull the full study. I can use Ref Works to add in abstracts to Ref Works database.
As of today I have over 1,360 studies in there. Looks like I will buying a subscription to ref works for the rest of my life once I graduate! They got me.
I do find great research on there from time to time too. It is also a great way to connect with people using the ole interwebz.
I love listening to podcasts and my ipod is great for it.
My top 2 favs are Ironradio and Super Human Radio and not just because I’ve been a guest on both shows in the past, but top notch information in an entertaining format too.
Other good ones are The Fitcast, the Strength Coach Podcast and Sports Rehab Expert podcast. I have to confess that I generally listen to these for some good nuggets and to also see what most people are into. I am working on seeing things from the other person’s perspective, so I can understand how they think and view things. I feel this will make it easier for me to communicate with them.
Collection is not the goal. Action/results are the goal. Frankie has a great post below on it
I always look to see what ACTION I need to take to test the new info I learn. My goal is not to just collect info, it is to see what is useful and how does it change what I do.
I think ACTON is a missing link many times.
I am one of those old school people that does not download music for free. At last count I have about 1,400 CDs. Yes, the old silver looking platters. I still love getting all the art work and listening to it how the final mix was supposed to sound, not compressed to hell and back on MP3s.
I do love my ipod since you can put so many track on there, but I prefer to buy CDs still and support the artists themselves directly.
Similar to electronic products, if you like the product and the person who purchased it, just buy it. The people that I know who put out products are doing it for the love it and yes they want to make some money from it too. They are not doing it just to pump up their bank account. They are doing it to make a living yes, but primarily to help others.
How do you learn? What are some good resources that you use?
Let me know by placing a comment below!
Rock on
I just have a few minutes before I am off to meet up with Craig Keaton at the Movement Dallas. A huge shout out to Craig and his wife for letting Jodie and I stay at their place, eat their food (raw organic whole milk with carob nibs is amazing), drink his cpoffee, and snag his wireless access. HUGE thanks.
I was interviewed a while back by James. We chatted about metabolic flexibility, working through pain, biofeedback and personal records every day
One of my fav drummers of all time is Gene Hoglan who has done drums for many band including Testament, Dark Angel, Death, Dethklok, Strapping Young Lad, Pitch Black Forecast, and most recently Fear Factory.
Below is a video of him in action with Strapping Young Lad. If you have sensitive ears, you may want to skip this one. Gene does some insane drum work and makes it look easy.
If you are in a hotel for a longer period of time, you can get by with just body weight exercises. Here is what I did today
1) Stairs up and down to 13th floor. I also saw a few black cats too, haha
2) TRX rows. Mounted the TRX to the door with their handy door anchor
3) Asymmetric push ups: I did some biofeedback testing (as always) and it was better to have my left hand further down towards my feet.
Just put those together in a circuit and you are set!
The temp yesterday was around 106 F I think. Yikes. I have not been in the sun much at all, which is ironic since it is sunny like every day.
Let me know! I will have a bit more time to reply to the ones people left also (and the webinar ones too).
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
a HUGE thanks to all that picked up the webinars from the sale. The sale is down now and they are back in the vault. Thanks to all that picked them up as I really really appreciate it!! The feedback so far has been great. Thanks again!!
Jodie and I are off in a few hours (I miss sleep) to Dallas TX since she has a Mary Kay conference and I am going to bug my good friend Craig Keaton at The Movement Dallas and Frankie during the day.
You can also find me at the local coffee shop drinking tons of dark goodness cranking on a book chapter for an upcoming academic book all about protein which is due very very soon. I love reading about protein and have done work in the lab related to metabolic “stuff” and exercise, so it is kind of fun. I don’t particularly enjoy the whole formal writing process, but just feel totally honored I was asked to help with one of the chapters. More info later once it is public.
Had a blast at the MN NSCA regional meeting today too. Great stuff and awesome talking to many old friends and making a few new ones too.
Coming up soon and more stuff from the ISSN trip, videos and perhaps some info from my time in Dallas. I predict some epic chats with Craig and Frankie about metabolic madness. Maybe the professor will even show up.
Thanks again for all of the continued support!
rock on
The post yesterday got about half great reviews and about half horrible reviews. I got some really good hate mail for that one. Here is a tip, if you are not happy, please tell me how to fix it or atleast WHY. Telling me I am a jackass is not helpful. I want to know WHY I am a jackass!
Interestingly enough I got some similar not-so-happy emails about 4 weeks ago when I ran a post on a powerlifter lifting monster weights.
For some reason, a few people did not find the post motivational. I got notes saying that I was encouraging people to hurt themselves by showing that. Pleeeezzzee.
It should be noted that 99.9% of you that read this blog has been nothing but exceptional and I have learned a ton from all of your questions and interactions. Seriously, I really do appreciate it more than you will ever know.
The post yesterday had references to “pain and suffering” and implied that it was needed to reach you goals.
Is it?
This got me thinking.
For those who have read this blog, you know that I am not a fan of creating pain in the gym. I am not a fan of hopping on the spiky foam roller or trying to hump a baseball on the floor for “deep tissue work” before a lifting session.
If you want to create some pain before lifting, call me up and I will kick you in the nuts really hard. At least that is fun for ME! Hahaa.
The Science Behind The Nutty Buddy
Now I am not exempt from this type of behaviour in the past and I have paid large sums of money to trainers, guurs, coaches and massage therapists to create pain FOR me. I don’t fault them at all, I did if of my own free will with my own hard earned money.
Do I recommend you do that? No. Save your money for my upcoming serminar on Metabolic Flexibility
instead (shameless I know, but hey, I pay the bills to keep the lights on around here).
This bring us ot the questions “Are their times in your life where pain and suffering are neeeded?”
I think of them as side effects to certain goals.
Let’s look at drugs for a second.
No, not those kinds of drugs you hippie!
Drugs, like pharmaceuticals.
In pharmacology, the term used is “therapeutic window.”
While I did a minor in Chemistry and took some high level pharmacokinetics classes a few years ago again, I am not an expert; but here are the basics (trust me, this will be short, so no drueling on your keyboard).
From Webster’s it states (source therapeutic window)
1 : the range of dosage of a drug or of its concentration in a bodily system that provides safe effective therapy <the narrow therapeutic window…the effect may go from therapeutic to toxic with an increase of just 10 micrograms per milliliter [in] blood concentration—Lisa Davis>
Many times this is also referred to as the Therapeutic Index.
“The therapeutic index (also known as therapeutic ratio), is a comparison of the amount of a therapeutic agent that causes the therapeutic effect to the amount that causes death.
Quantitatively, it is the ratio given by the lethal dose divided by the therapeutic dose. A therapeutic index is the lethal dose of a drug for 50% of the population (LD50) divided by the minimum effective dose for 50% of the population (ED50).
A high therapeutic index is preferable to a low one: this corresponds to a situation in which one would have to take a much higher dose of a drug to reach the lethal threshold than the dose taken to elicit the therapeutic effect.”
Source Wikipedia : Therapeutic_index
For those that scrolled past all that chemistry crap, here is the recap
LD50 (lethal dose 50) in addition to being the title of a CD by the band Mudvyane is the lethal dose to kill 50%. ED 50 (effective dose 50) is the effective dose for 50%
We want as much separation between these two as possible–a smaller ED and a high LD.
Some drugs that have a very narrow window (or index) and are not very “user friendly.”
DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol ) is one that comes to mind where some nutty bodybuilders have used it to cut body fat in a short period of time. It basically interrups (uncouples) the cell’s ability to produce ATP (energy).
While is does not do this completely, it does it enough so that extra energy is produced as heat, thus more calories are literally “burned off”. Many years ago it was used as a weight loss drug, but had some very bad side effects like cooking yoursel from the inside out.
While case studies are rare, there was one reported recently (Barlett et al, 2010) that stated
“A 46-year-old man took a lethal dose of an agent called dinitrophenol (DNP). He presented 11 h after ingestion with loin pain, diarrhoea and vomiting. He rapidly deteriorated with profound hyperthermia, acute renal failure, hyperkalaemia, metabolic acidosis and eventually haemodynamic instability. Despite aggressive supportive measures and rapid sequence induction, he deteriorated and died 21 h after ingestion.”
So, my point on this is that DNP has a very narrow therapeutic window. A little bit may help you drop some pounds (although long term effects are unknown), just a bit too much and you are dead. Your arre more than playing with fire as instead of getting burned you could end up dead. Did I emphasize that point enough yet?
Ok, so I think all decisions have a therepeutic window or a risk/reward to them.
I could lift this weight, but my low back is really hurting bad.
In my case last night, I could do some heavy band deaflifts, but the callous on my left hand near my pink was not happy. I ended up not doing it past a few sets as I felt like I was going to rip it open at any point. The risk of ripping it off was much higher than not doing the lift on that day.
Every decision have a risk/reward.
Lifting in pain has a high long term risk and in my opinion is not needed for gains.
It has been said that only when you know the rules can you break the rules.
I try to follow the same rules in life that I do in the gym. The goal is performance, not how you “feel” afterwards. I know Charles Staley has been saying this for years.
“It’s better to use your performance as a gauge of what you’ve accomplished than how much you hurt the next day. Numbers don’t lie; if your numbers are going up, so is your progress. The reverse is not true however. I trashed my back a few years ago doing something really stupid, and trust me, the fact that I couldn’t tie my shoes for a while wasn’t a sign of progress!”
Life can throw you curve ball though.
As you know, I’ve been in college going on about 16 years now. No, that is not a typo where I inadverntently slipped in a 1 in front of the 6. I started in 1992 and did 7.5 years full time completing a BA, 2 years of post grad work and a MS in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics), took about 1.5 years off where I swore I was never going back and then was back in college again. Even the thought of it caused shivers up my spine and nauseau.
Fast forward to today where I am in the process of writing up 3 studies and a literature review for my final defense to finish off my PhD. Pretty much every day I have thought of quitting. Many days I did not want to look at another research study or revision number 31 (not joking on that) of my study that I am trying to submit, only to most likely get it rejected by the journal since they like to publish high rejection rate to make themselves look good.
I had others that told me it would be a long road. I figured that much. I planned on 5 years of full time work. Wow, I never thought it would be this long though. Ugh.
The point of this is not a “poor me” story and “look at how much I struggle.” or “hey, look at all this effort.” I made the decision to do it. Nobody put a gun to my head and said “do a PhD crazy man or die.” I made the decision and therefor I also made the decision to accept any and all “side effects” that come with it, just like the drug example above You decide to take statins, you accept both the benefit and the side effects.
I can quit at any time. That will make it all go away. I have thought about it many times. I had times where I kept telling myself that I could “quit tomorrow, but not today.” I worked to find more efficient ways (read, less side effects) to get it done. I soon learned that there are no shortcuts, not even things that helped a bit. Such is the windy path I have chosen.
The key turning point came when I was talking to a colleague and I asked him “How did you make it out?”
His answer was, “I made the decision that I was going to finish it, no matter how long it took, and that they were not going to break me in the process.”
I wanted to find a short cut or some better advice, but I soon realized this was great advice and one that I adopted. I took pride that in TIME, I would graudate. I had tried all other avenues and the only one left was to go straight ahead and survive the process.
If that meant I had to scrap 11 months of work and start over, if that was the only option, then so be it. If I have to rewrite a paper 41 times and that is the only way, then I will do it.
I can quit at any time, but I must accept the side effects too. If I have to accept them, I will do what I can to minimize their effects. So if you are taking statins, talk to your doc about taking ubiquinol which is the reduced and active form of Coenzyme Q10 (statins mess up this pathway and deplete your body of it) to minmize the side effects or work to get of them entirely (Mabuchi H,et al.).
-Demon Hunter
As I Lay Dying “Through Struggle” Video
only through struggle have i found rest
with a piece of me taken away
i begin to understand
hollow out this machine like chest
with its gears that turn to make me feel
and assembled thoughts that fade away
only through struggle have i found rest
-As I Lay Dying
Some times pain and suffer are the side effects we must endure to achieve our goals.
If we want a certain goal, we must be prepared to endure everythign that comes along with it. We can stil work to reduce these side effects to as low as possible however.
What do you think? What times in your life have you accepted the risks/side effects? Let me know in the comments
Rock on
REFERENCES
Tainter ML, Stockton AB, Cutting WC (1933). “Use of dinitrophenol in obesity and related conditions: a progress report”. J Am Med Assoc 101: 1472–1475.
Bartlett J, Brunner M, Gough K (February 2010). “Deliberate poisoning with dinitrophenol (DNP): an unlicensed weight loss pill”. Emerg Med J 27 (2): 159–60
Mabuchi H, Higashikata T, Kawashiri M, Katsuda S, Mizuno M, Nohara A, Inazu A, Koizumi J, Kobayashi J. “Reduction of serum ubiquinol-10 and ubiquinone-10 levels by atorvastatin in hypercholesterolemic patients”. J Atheroscler Thromb. 2005;12(2):111-9.
Charles Staley, Pain and Performance, Tmuscle, PUBLISHED 05-24-07 10:09 Accessed July 19,2010 source Pain and Performance
Just wanted to drop you a note that I will be presenting at the Fitcom Xpo coming up in the next week or so.
There will be tons of fitness professionals presenting on topics ranging from Boot Camps, How to Gain Muscle and Drop Fat, Fitness Marketing and much more!
You will be able to log on from the comfort of your own home and pick from a huge selection.
I will be doing a presentation this year for Fitcom on
This will not be some old hat presentation as it will have cutting edge science and be VERY practical for you also. I am currently finishing up my dissertation writing on Metabolic Flexibility.
More details to come very soon! This will also be a great way to get CEUs if you are a fitness professional too.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do make a few bucks if you sign up for the expo through my site HERE.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
I trust you had a great July 4 weekend and had some time off if you live here in the USA and if not you have a great weekend.
July means we are over half way through the year!
Wow, time flies by!
How are you doing on your goals?
Are you at where you want to be?
Are you happy with your results?
When you look in the mirror do you run the other way?
When you go to the gym, are you breaking records?
I want to help you, so let me know what you need.
What kind of information are you looking for?
What type of articles do you want to see on the blog?
I will make the deal even better, by throwing in a free 30 min phone consult with me to help you solve any issues you have. You can pick my brain about all aspects of performance in the gym, how to lift more with less pain.
Pass this along to your friends and family too, I want to get tons of input so that I can help you even more
Rock on
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