If you missed Grip n Rip 2.0 this year, you missed out. I unfortunately was noly able to stay there for about 3 hours in the AM and since Jodie and I were hopping on plane that early afternoon to Baja Mexico (more details on that soon too).
Great stuff and the guys from Swager Strength were there in full force too. I picked up one of their 2 inch solid axle thick bars. SWEET!
This is about twice the diameter of a normal bar and there is absolutely ZERO flex to it. I love it so far.
Check out the video below of Adam Glass, Brad Nelson, and the guys at Swager Strength for an inside look at Grip n Rip 2.0
Summary
Great stuff and I will hopefully make it to the next one for sure!
Be sure to check out the fine folks at Swager Strength for some amazing products that you will not find anywhere.
Tell them I sent ya. I get nothing to promote them. Not one cent, but they are stand up guys who make excellent products at very fair prices.
If you went to Grip n Rip, drop me a comment on how it went and what you thought of the event.
Give Traditional Program Design the Finger and Destroy Your Old PRs!
So I was probably not supposed to deadlift tonight, but I like deadlifts and I wanted to try some B-Stance Deadlifts and Kettlebell Get Ups (formerly known as the Turkish Get Up, but I guess the Turks are not the only ones doing them).
I did a 2.5 hours bench-a-thon on Tuesday night with Dave “The Athlete Creator” and I hit an all time PR (personal record) on the bench at 240 lbs. Not my end goal by any means, but moving forward and hitting all time PRs is great. To be fair we also did some neutral ring rows and kettlebell presses and kettlebell swings too. I was starting to have flashbacks for awhile there to pretty much any commercial gym on a Monday, which as you know is national bench and bicep curl day.
Squats and More Fun!
Wed night I hit up a lighter session of bottom pause squats (to an 8 inch box) for about 4 doubles, wide grip rope pull ups for singles and feet up push ups, which all tested well via biofeedback (as featured on the upcoming Gym Movements DVD).
I had not done any trap bar work in about 2 weeks so I hit up a nasty routine I’ve been working on. In short it is 10 x 10 but work to decrease the time. So Wed night I hit 265 x 10 for 10 in 21 minutes and 30 seconds for a total volume of 26,500 lbs. If you want the full details, leave a comment below and more than 12 comments and I will have a whole post with all the details.
More Deadlifts!
I did not sleep very well last night, had to work during the day, and decided to hit up some B-Stance deadlifts tonight as mentioned.
While the temp is never warm in the winter at the Extreme Human Performance Center (tonight it was 34 F, but the windchill was zero), the music on the stereo system is always amazing. Tonight was no exception and was provided by those Swedish death-medlers Soilwork.
Here is a great song by them (watch out, there are few bad words so if you are offended put on some ear muffs)
B-Stance deadlifts tested fine for awhile and worked up to 315 x 3 for 2 sets and the switched to regular deadlifts for a few singles (pronated, both palms down, for grip work) at 315.
Movement tested well, so I added 70 lbs of chains, went great! Whoo ha. No problem at lockout either with all the chains off the floor.
Talking Weights
I had to head off to work, so I figured I would end on that high note and as I was cleaning up I saw a 25 lb plate that was just begging to be added to the bar (am I the only nut that thinks the weights talk to them?) I threw those on the end and after a long session on Tuesday, 2 sessions yesterday with a deadlift movement of 26,500 lbs and sore hams and glutes, 365 for a single was easy. Very easy actually.
Summary
In the past I would have not even thought of doing deadlifts again and heck I probably would have opted to skip that day due to DOMS (muscle soreness). Now I have a tool to check it and test would is best.
Quality movement + volume = bigger muscles
If you are recovered, your body HAS to respond by increased strength and muscle hypertrophy (bigger muscles).
If you missed many of the biofeedback videos, I have posted them below here. This is a series that Adam T Glass did, so a huge shout out to Adam.
I feel so good I will probably hit up some kettlebells snatches yet tonight. Whooo hahahahhaha.
If you are interested in the routine from hell details of GVT meets EDT, leave a comment below and if I get 12 comments by this Sat night I will post it for you! Spread the word. You can help by signing up to my RSS feeds below and hit the button —>
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Tons of great posts coming up including USAPL Meet update, Z-Health Review rolls on, more testimonials, TSC results, a top secret project, and much more so stay tuned here!
I will have an update to the last post below coming soon too!
If you are in Minnesota, you have to be watching the Green Bay Packers vs Minnesota Vikings game this Monday night too! It is going to be a killer game, so Jodie and I will be watching the game after a nice dinner of salmon, veggies and a nice Blue Moon Harvest Moon pumpkin beer. Tasty!
Testimonial for Mike T Nelson from uber strongman, grip athlete Adam Glass
For those on my newsletter list, you know I went over to Brad “No Relation” Nelson’s top secret location last Friday for a little talking shop pow wow that went into the wee hours of the AM. As with most things, at some point in the night we end trying all sorts of stuff on each other especially after a few tasty adult style beverages.
Adam had some issues closing a gripper, so after some investigation I did some nerve glides on him and gave him a Z-Health joint mobility drill (fingers curled and perform finger circles). Keep in mind that the body place a HUGE priority on the nerves and if it thinks that you will potentially damage them by a particular movement, it will start to neurologically shut down your performance as a survival mechanism. For more info on nerve flossing, see the post below.
Fast forward a few days and Adam sends me this video.
In short, he did the drills and went on a complete terror and closed every #3 gripper in his gym! Wow! Very cool. A HUGE shout out to Adam for being a great student (we are all students) and taking massive action (he did the drills). If you know Adam, you also know that he tells it like it is and does not pull any punches.
Do you want to increase your performance? Move better? Get out of pain?
I often getting the question of “What should I focus on for my fitness goals?”
It is a great question, and while the answer depends on your goals, a linear approach would be to focus on the following in this order.
1) mobility first
2) coordination (stability makes it sound like you don’t move)
3) strength (in what position?)
4) power/speed (everyone need to move fast since life is a full contact, fast paced sport)
5) CRF (cardio respiratory fitness)
I honestly can’t remember who I stole it from (Frankie F and Aaron S I think?), but just thing about Quality over Quantity and you will have your answer.
Is it good to run 5 miles if your gait (walking motion) sucks?
Should you just keep pounding your joints to dust to increase your “cardio”?
If you want to get even simpler, you can just go with
1) mobility
2) coordination (unloaded, under load and at different speeds)
Again, this is a generalization as every individual athlete will have specifics needs that will vary from day to day; but if I had to pick I would go with the above.
Happy July 4 to everyone in the USA. To my foreign friends, it is just another day. Either way, I trust you had a great weekend.
Jodie and I along with my parents and sister went to see the latest Cirque De Soleil Kooza on July 4 outside here in Minnesota. WOW, is all I can say. If you get the chance, you MUST see them-amazing performance and I will have more details soon.
Tactical Strength Challenge Fall 2009
Check those calendars and the Tactical Strength Challenge is about only 8 weeks away! Wow, time is flying by.
Are you ready?
Do you have a plan to be ready in 8 weeks?
Heck, are you even going to SHOW UP?
Your goals need deadlines and you need to be held accountable (that goes for me too).
Who is holding you accountable?
I will be there and I want to see all of you there too.
If you need a plan, drop me a line at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com and I will set you up.
Using some great techniques I picked up (thanks Frankie), I went from 39 reps with the 32 kg KB for the 5 min snatch test to only 4 weeks later cranking out 75 in 5 minutes. I had managed to fall in a broomball game and bruise my sciatic nerve in mid January and was unable to do any snatches for about 6 weeks.
That is almost DOUBLE in 4 weeks and I can show YOU how to sky rocket your numbers too. There is nothing special about me, just some well applied knowledge.
You would be shocked to learn that other than a few test days, my max number of snatches with the 32kg was about 8-10 reps at a time per hand.
Enter the Assisted Pullup
The common question is “What if I can’t do even one pull-up?” No worries, as B-Rad, Adam T Glass, Mark Wilson, Myself and friends are here to the rescue with an exclusive video on some options for you.
Technique Note
Keep a nice tall/long spine and no crazy chicken maneuvers at the top just to get your darn chin to the bar. Bring your body to the bar. If you need another cue, think of bringing your elbows to your waist. I would rather have athletes only go to the top of their head, eyes, nose and then chin rather than do some crazy-ass neck cranking at the top.
The killer grip series rolls on with that extreme human himself, Adam T Glass.
Below, Adam shows you some hammer lifts, and I even give it a go although I think my nervous system was still in a mess from the TSC just a few hours below as I could not understand a command from Adam to save my life!
More Extreme Human Feats from Adam T. Glass bending stuff!
The video is huge, so it may take a bit to load (still playing around with bitrates and video size).
Keep in mind, Adam did this AFTER competing in the TSC Elite style at B-Rad’s Torture Chamber (aka Kinetic Edge Performance). You too are more capable than you think. Time to remove the brakes.
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