Feats of Strength, the Christmas Edition
December 24th, 2009
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by Mike T Nelson · Filed Under: Mike T Nelson · Strength · athletic performance
Merry Christmas to everyone and time for feats of strength!
This is the Christmas edition and tons of great stuff. I trust that you are having some great times with family and loved ones, so take time to enjoy it.
Here is my Holiday video for you!
Motivation
The Great Kaz is probably the greatest strongman ever. If this video does not get you excited to go lift something heavy you need to check out your pulse!
Notice how easy he makes it LOOK. These feats are FAR from easy, but he is making them look easy. The squat is over 850 lbs I think and the deadlift is around 800 lbs (around the 2:30 mark).
Flipping cars–no problem! Pulling semis—bring it on! Wow.
Maybe it is the hair?
Festivus PRs
I am a huge Seinfeld fan, so I am sure you remember the Festivus episode. From the wikipedia entry on it says
“the holiday’s celebration, as shown on Seinfeld, includes an unadorned aluminum “Festivus pole”, practices such as the “Airing of Grievances” and “Feats of Strength”, and the labeling of easily explainable events as “Festivus miracles”.
One of my goals for 2009 was to deadlift 425 lbs (no belt) by the end of the year. I had planned to do that in a meet in July, but I ended up not doing a meet until September and pulled 413 lbs, then a few weeks later at the TSC pulled 420 lbs. I put my DL on hold after that and began to work on my squat since I felt it was holding my DL back (and was very weak). Fast forward to recently and I had planned to squat today, but noticed that I still have not made my DL goal.
I went into the Extreme Human Performance Center (my garage) and tested my DL using biofeedback. It tested great. Whoo ha. Warmup at 135, 225, 275, and 315 –all felt great and tested good. 365 came up fast and tested well. On
to 405 lbs. 405 in training most of the time is hit and miss, but it came up the fastest yet; so 425 was within reach and I made it.
Notice that I still need some hip work near the top as my hamstrings were shaky, but overall it felt pretty good (most PRs are never perfect).
It is a Festivus Miracle!
Deadlift PR Video (music by American Head Charge)
Your Festivus Miracle
I want to hear about YOUR Holiday “Feats of Strength” by placing a comment on what PRs (Personal Records) you have broken recently. Any PR counts, so post away! I want to see ATLEAST 10 comments here.
Happy Holidays
rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
If you don’t have any PRs to report, I have 1-2 spots open for online training. Email me HERE.
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14 Responses to “Feats of Strength, the Christmas Edition”
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Lots of PRs for me this week
Monday 2×3 at 615lbs squat
Tuesday 2 board bench 2×435
Wed. 675 rock bottom squat!
Merry Christmas Mike and congratulations on your huge PR!
Is it me or does Kaz look like a cross between the guy from King of Queens and Mr. Incredible?
Thanks Tommy!
AWESOME work on the PRs man! HUGE stuff man! You are going to be set for the meet in Feb and your cruise too.
Keep in touch!
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hahaha, good one Niel! I would agree!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
I should be hitting my 445 DL PR today. Here’s to PRs.
WHooooo ha! Hell ya David! I want to hear all about it once you do it.
Yes, here is to PRs!!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
445 felt so good, I went for 450 for my other 2 max reps! Hell freakin’ yeah. This is +45 over my 405 PR at the TSC.
One interesting thing is that Chins are consistently testing much better than Pull-Ups for me, so I am doing chins with my regular weight/rep/set scheme instead of pullups.
Thanks Santa! (Aka, Brad Nelson, Mike Nelson, Adam T Glass)
My biggest PR this year was getting my head in the right place. After a year of going nowhere, and actually regressing, I was able to put 209 lbs. on my powerlifting total since June of this year. Went from 325 squat to 405, from 205 bench to 240, and from 365 deadlift to 459. All lifts were raw at no more than 155 lbs. of bodyweight.
Train specific, train hard and train OFTEN! Take a break to eat, sleep, and crap. Then hit the barbell again.
Any thoughts on the BOSU ball? I am trying to decide it’s worth all of its hype.
I will save you some money, don’t buy one. Other than perhaps ankle rehab, I don’t find them that useful at all.
It is also not specific to just about any sport. If the ground moves under you during your sport, you have other issues to worry about.
I would recommend Kettlebells or a TRX for something fun to use that works great.
Let me know what follow up questions you have
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Awesome to hear Steve!
Wow, most would give their left nut for those results in 1-2 years, much less 6 months! Awesome work man esp raw and at that low of a body weight. 2010 is going to be even more crazy, esp since you get to lift with Dustin there in Alex Minnesota!
For those wondering if your thoughts affect your lifting, check out this video
http://extremehumanperformance.com/blog/do-your-thoughts-help-you-to-lift-more-weight-in-the-gym/
I think Steve has proven this point!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
AWESOME Dave!!! Was that the April or Oct TSC? Can you describe yourself so that I can put a face to the online name? I believe I talked to you there at B-Rad’s place.
Glad you are using the biofeedback–nice!! I would stick with pull ups for now then. I had a period where only chins would test good most of the time and it happens.
Thanks for the kind words!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Mike, that was at Brad’s gym in October. We spoke a bit, I live right up by your fiance in Champlin.
Oh yeah–you had on some Vibrams and your girlfriend was there also, correct?
If chins are testing well then stay with them–sorry for the confusion there.
An advanced tip is to try to do some joint mobility work to get pull ups to test better since you are tested on pull ups at the TSC
I find wrist, thoracic spine, shoulder and hip work to help. Try cross body hip circles in front for hip work and see if that helps. Again, use the testing to guide your mobility work for that day.
Let me know how it goes!
rock on
Mike T Nelson