Category: Lifting

Soviet Wrestler Style Squat And Deadlift Kettlebell Exercises :

4/3/21 – “Ukrainian Deadlifts” :

Recently I found that this movement setup is called “ukrainian deadlifts” online.

I’ve had fun with the movement, originally picking it up from an old black & white training video of soviet wresters, hence “Soviet Wrestler Style Squat And Deadlift Kettlebell Exercises” when I first played with them in 2018 as I too was doing squats, not just deadlift pattern, in the same way to train around a healing twisted ankle.

It was the first squat variation I could do, and recently with the setup possible at planet fitness, I did them again.

Very good for a pump.

I’ve found nothing better personally for a glute pump.

At pf today I was using a 50lb dumbbell held by the end, at the “hardcore?” gym it’s largest kettlebell – the 70lber.

Louie Simmons has written of the movement done with a roughly 190lb t-handle, it dates to at least soviet wrestling, and I’ve come across it reading up in rehab circles.

Heck, the squat variant is like a belt squat in a way, without the belt, the grip still in use.

Now my first write up…

From The Archives :
7/12/18

At some point I’ll get a video of this, I’ve seen video of Soviet wrestlers doing similar and tried it.

Stand up on two boxes. Grab the heaviest kettlebell you can find.

Now you can do a very deep round backed RDL like movement.

Make the boxes high enough that the bell won’t hit the floor when you’re bent over.

Cool exercise.

Here’s another.

Stand on those same boxes and squat ATG, let the weight pull you down.

The kettlebell will be centerline, directly under you at the bottom.

You find that this movement is VERY good for firing the muscles/hard contractions.

It also has a theraputic effect to it.
On a hurt ankle it was the first squat variant I could do comfortably.

It also lends itself to high reps, work capacity development, and has a cardio like effect.

With some elbow tendonitis going I’ll likely do this for a short while.

The KB likely stretches the tendon, which helps, at the very least I’m not aggravating it with the bar on my shoulders.

All the positioning involved makes this a squat variant very easy on the body.

Pullups :

Under the bar, I hop up, and start.
5,8,10, easy, 12, still easy, hit 15, keep going, 17 I tie recent PR, they’re all strict, 18 strict enough, 19, 20.

I was a little loose with form on rep 20, and maybe on rep 19.

Lifetime PR
age 14 to 26
zero to 20 reps
Pullups

I’ll get it truly strict soon. Making it a solid 20.

I’d be even higher with chins.

I don’t know what I weigh. Screw the scale, it doesn’t matter.

6′, I doubt I’m any lighter than 245, I’m probably 260.
20 pullups.

There is only performance.

You want to be good at calisthenics – it’s commitment, do lots of reps, give it time, you’ll get there.

The first thing I do on the gym floor is a set of pullups. I always get 10, some days more, like today.

I tend to do a couple more sets of 10 throughout my time at the gym.

It’s just something I do. It doesn’t feel like work.

It’s cool to still get the set of 10 immediately after machine preacher curls.

Now I’m at what was the next level. Going up.

Dips :

I spoke about dips with my uncle.
I’ve done over a 100 before.

Recently I’ve done 60 reps on a couple of occasions, and always am good for 50+.

100 for time took just under 3:00 very recently.

They’re the body transformation gone dumb, taking thought out of the equation.

They’re the dip odyssey.

My Fat Friend :

He’s now coming to the gym with me twice a week.

On his own accord he started doing tricep pushdowns, even superset them with cable lateral raises.

I was happy.
He did an exercise on his own accord.

He then suggested leg press next.
I was even happier.

I’ll be writing more about us at the gym.

Very obese, he’s pretty weak, but with his massive size I know the strength comes fast.

Full body, getting him used to higher reps and more sets, he’ll get to dips and chins at some point.

It was about four years ago, maybe even once before that, when he first asked to train with me.

He is now!

I’m committed to helping him.

While I don’t view him as doing enough, he is doing something.

He’s now at the gym twice a week.
He’s started on session two to willingly do exercises. He suggested the leg press and wasn’t mamby pamby about it either.

I saw far more effort today than his session last week.

He put in effort on the leg press.

Now, as training “takes”, I’ll have to get him eating reasonably, going for daily walks, and to drop the booze and smoking/vaping.

With me on his side, he can’t fail.

Today was a great spring day!

-J

There is much talk of isolation exercises not being functional.

I have to disagree.

Whenever I’ve done cable chest flyes my bench increases.

I have a feeling that cable lateral raises serve in much the same way for shoulders, shoring up useable strength, and largely contributing to the look of “hollywood muscle”.

Side Delts & Trapezius

Curls, such a blasphemous thing to the “serious” trainer – to them I ask are pullups serious? – as curling, most strikingly on a preacher curl machine very clearly improves the ease in which I do pullups and my rep max at the same.

I say isolation movements are functional.

For an in-n-out workout you don’t want to be spending much time on the gym floor.

You go in.
You have about 20 minutes.
You leave.

This is “Feel Good Session 101”.

You’re there to catch a full body pump.

This makes you feel great.

You’re not going to do many sets per exercise, so pick movements you can go all out on from the gate.

•Upper Push
•Upper Pull
•Lower Body

One high rep set per exercise is ideal, but you have a bit of leeway here.

You could do a few sets for one of the three, or you could split lower body into push/pull as well making four exercises in the session.

At planet fitness this ends up for me being a rep out on dips, either a pullup variant or the machine preacher curl, and the “bad girl” machine.

This type of session gives you a massive full body pump, it’s feel good to a tee.

At a “hardcore” gym this would be a one movement session, but the pf style is all about the pump, and can be done anywhere.

You could use a bit of stationary bike or the stair climber, and you could superset.

My in-n-out style however is three sets :

•Rep Dips
•Rep Pullups
•Rep The “Bad Girl” Machine

I’ve been training like this often lately.

100+ dips, 20+ pullups here I come.
The glute rep count is already going higher and higher into the stratosphere!

Persistence & Tenacity

Gym Dream :

I was going back to school with the intention of playing football, doing school right by being in the sports I should be in.

Within the last couple days I’d read a couple college sport walk on stories, so it was on my mind.

I knew the running at practice would lean me out, I realized it’s actually easier to condition in practice than by oneself in the off season, so I was going berserk in the weight room with only “minimal” sprinting outside.

I still sprinted, and I still would run extra after lifting. Lifting was the focus.

The dream took place in summer, I was lean and mean, 6′ 235 in crazy condition.

Bodybuilder lean but extremely athletic and strong – doing it right took the purpose of training for a specific goal.

Brief sprinting session every morning, and mostly upper body – going heavy and high rep every evening in this ramshackle improvised gym in what seemed to be a community center basement in the late afternoon.

Instead of repping a 225 bench, the football PT test, regularly – I was doing a pullover and skull crusher variant.

A short length of pipe with five 45lb plates slid on the center, my hands on opposite sides of the plates.

Getting it in position was quite the process. On that ramshackle homemade bench I’d roll it from the floor in front of me onto the end of the bench, then heave it up to at arm’s length above my stomach/chest, then from there lower it behind my head most of the way to the floor, before using pure brute strength to french press it with a bit of pullover back to lockout, the pipe with weights, looking like a roided up devil’s ab wheel, ending each rep where you’d normally hold a bar at the top for benching.

Serious reps, I’m talking quickly getting to sets of 50, day to day I was seeing my arms get bigger – day. to. day. I. saw. the. growth!

Each day I saw less and less fat.
Each day I saw my abs show more and more, nearing the season I was 235 covered in veins, sprinting crazy fast, and running good miles from some running the track and bleachers postworkout.

Athleticism running in the summer sun.

A couple hours of weights daily.

Bleachers or a mile run after the weights.

Six meals a day, bodybuilder style eating, fatty meat with vegetables – it was kielbasa or steak on rotation with green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower on rotation.

I saw a lot from this dream.

Gym Training :

Now with a dream like the above, I couldn’t not go to the gym.

•15 pullups
•50 dips
•5×10 leg press

An “In N Out Workout” (post idea here), with a recent pullup PR tie (even if the last two reps used a bit of hip power), and a recent dip PR.

Leg press, because full body, and you can never do enough legs (especially in the land of “Captain Upper Body Man™ that is pf).

20 minutes in the weight room is all you ever need.

Dips On Deck :

I’ll be training pullups with sets of 5-8, and should throw some weighted reps in.

I’ve hit 15 on a couple occasions now, can do a set of 10 most days, so 20 is close.

Dips? I can taste 100+.

And I have the idea to do reps with weight again. I barely notice bw+45.

A dip goal would be 50-100 x bw+90lb.

You’d get some triceps from hitting that.

From 2019’s “dip odyssey” I know how much I get out of dips.

I’m not committing to dips every day right now, but I’m training them again.

50-100 x bw+90lbs

50 x bw+anything is ridiculously close.

+90? That’s the equivalent of me in the mid 300s REPPING DIPS.

Persistence & Tenacity

Seated Press In The Smith Machine Like Zydrunas Savickas :

I’ve only pressed in the smith machine like Zydrunas Savickas a few times.

A couple times heavy months back, and the other day with the thought of either starting 10×10 or working a set of 50 reps on it as a regular thing did 5×10 with fairly quick rest periods and only a 25lb plate each side.

Now I like the movement, pressing away with the smith machine’s angle like in the picture, and like how brute force the movement feels.

I’ll be sticking to volume, and maybe sticking to fairly long rest periods, I have 3:00 in mind.

Burpees :

100 burpees, :12 intervals, I jog up the last 4:00 of the twenty, doing high knees the last :12.

I get one comment that I’ll feel this for the next two weeks – hahaha.

I answer him “it’s an easy pace, see I can talk”.

Truly.

This could be done multiple times daily, it’s just mental toughness.

Burpees being an exercise entirely dictated by one’s mental self talk.

I could’ve quit, I thought that I might puke while jogging it up at the end, something I’ve done twice from exercising in my life. Think that down. I’m not stopping!

1. Wrestling Practice – junior year, sprint repeats – I saw trail mix in the snow.

2. High Rep Power Cleans – 2018, seeing something like chicken quesadillas and pepsi combined in a strange mix in the trash can.

No third time today!

Calf is cramping, keep the shuffle going! Only a little left!

I have a long way to go with burpees, and I’m only better for it.

You get out of breath, and doused.
It’s like wrestling practice, heavy breathing, and a bunch of sweat.

Do some strength training, and hit cardio…with burpees.

Cardio Calisthenics™

•strength stimuli
•full body pump
•cardio effect

Interestingly I don’t count burpees as my daily pushups. I’ll be doing mantra pushups soon.

What You Have, Where You Are :

Wanting to use a barbell, and wishing I had the logistics is the wrong mentality.

I can go to planet fitness, and will myself strong!

That’s the right mentality.

Go all the time, and be…

Jacked. Strong. Built.

There’s much progress to be had simply going to any gym and putting in effort regularly.

So I’m using the smith machine more.

Smith Machine Hip Thrusts :

Hip thrusts in it being the heaviest leg stimulus at pf.

I have more experience with this than emulating Zydrunas Savickas pressing in the smith machine.

I loved the explosive reps in it the other day warming up, and loved the top set with explosive reps, followed by feel the muscle type reps.

More than one type of stimulus within the same set.

Note that I face the same direction as how Savickas presses in the smith.

Some Links :

Ken Leistner anecdotes on unconventional strength building – deadlifting cars, truly high reps, etc.

Rock Lewis on heavy benching, belching feet in the air, and volume benching for max strength.

Mythical Strength on pressing.

A prior “more than one in one post” of mine.

Finnegan’s Wake :

Persistence & Tenacity

“Chuck Norris” was how many refered to him, as they looked rather alike.

You’d get a laugh if you were to learn his real name. I had, being just about the only one who had. Mind you it wasn’t Carlos.

“Chuck” took it all in stride.

He surprised me when he asked if I knew his son – the two look nothing alike, but they had the same personality that’s for sure.

Fairly shy unless you spoke to them first. I saw the family resemblance there.

His son being the kid behind the infamous five singles leg press hour.

At the time he was late 40s, about 5’9″ 180lbs.

Quiet and unassuming he’d come into the weight room, and go straight to the seated press station, it taken he’d press out of the rack.

He wasn’t picky.

Other than his appearance being much like that of Chuck Norris, what was noteworthy was how much he pressed.

Every 3-5 days he’d press 185lbs for 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps after a brief set at 135.

He weighed 180.

Roughly a 50 year old man, once or twice a week he’d come in and press a bit over bodyweight for sets and reps.

It’s the only bodyweight military pressing I’ve witnessed in person on a gym floor.

A guy I know of similar height and weight has told me he’s got 185/190, but he was late 20s at the time, and it wasn’t for reps.

“Chuck” has him beat on p4p as far as the military press.

Now I’ll have conversations on the gym floor. I’ve learned a lot doing so.

“Chuck” told me he’d been coming to the gym two to four times a week, and pressing once or twice a week for around 30 years at that point with very little straying.

In his eyes it was completely normal to have that level of strength…as it should be.

“Chuck Norris” was a lesson in consistency.

You train long enough you’ll be strong.

“Chuck” was pressing bw for sets of 8 off of naught but pressing and preacher curls.

Do the work, any programming will work, the secret is obvious…just do it.

Persistence & Tenacity

What are naturally your best bodyparts are the ones you have the best mind-muscle connection with from the beginning.

My chest has developed well, was large when I was skinny, and I always felt it getting worked well.

A guy I know with serious forearm and bicep development said it was the same way for him with his respectively best developed muscles.

A buddy of mine who bodybuilds, as a beginner he felt his biceps, lats, quads, and glutes.
They all grew quickly for him.

It’s likely this way for everybody.

Better development comes from better mind-muscle connection.

Though the mind-muscle connection comes more easily on the muscles which have the advantageous insertions, it’s not just advantageous insertions.

Good Insertions & A Powerful Mind-Muscle Connection

It’s a symbiotic relationship.

The great thing is that you can continually improve the mind-muscle connection.

Doing so in many cases ends up building your strength better than if you just did movements where you go a to b without feeling the muscle work.

I’ve found that letting my lats and biceps work, to feel the mind-muscle connection, and to get the squeeze is more advantageous to me than just doing pullups.

Back machines, and curls in my case are functional training.

They improve my pullup ability while giving me a euphoric pump.

Whatever movement gets you a pump is functional to you.

Not to mention the psychological benefits of a euphoric pump.

Even a strength specialized low rep lifting powerlifter makes better progress when getting a pump.

The pump can and sometimes does come with low rep stimuli.

Though for most, and most reliably, it comes with lighter weight, squeezing the contractions as hard as possible, and lowering the weight slowly.

Whatever your goal – with weights you want to be getting a pump.

Persistence & Tenacity

Developing The Tendon & Ligament Strength Of Ancient Humans :

I tell him I train in long sleeves because “not the joints, but my bones on a low level hurt”.

That’s the simplified version, it’s not entirely accurate.

I’m describing it like that to make my point easily understood.

While doing pushups a night or two later the word “ossification” popped into mind, and I was struck by a eureka moment.

I am definitely feeling something in/on my bone, the ones between shoulders and elbows, like there’s a light bruise on the bone itself.

Something is causing this…
Up to that point I hadn’t given it much thought.

Now the bone itself could be thickening, then I realized what is going on :

It’s “bone strength”, more accurately the tendons and ligaments growing in thickness and strength.

That’s the primary, the bone itself may be thickening as a side effect of their respective pulls.

See they studied the bones of legionaries, gladiators, trireme rowers.

These well fed soldiers, fighters, and sailors of the ancient mediterranean were looked at as if they were practically a different species of human by modern scientists.

Though the roman legionary averaged at about 5’8″ 150lbs (an interesting correlation), not only were their centurions documented as larger, 6′ 235lbs, but the centurion also as capable of holding their own with today’s professional strongmen of 7′ 400lbs in physical strength.

The average legionnaire himself was far more rugged than his modern size would suggest.

And too olympic level athletes have failed to match the capability of the trireme rowers for one day, while the ancients were documented to perform day after day.

How?

The skeletal remains show that far more thickly developed tendons and ligaments were pulling on the bones and at more advantageous to strength insertion points.

The roman legionary, his centurion, the gladiator, the trireme rower – the hardships of their ancient lifestyles gave them far more muscular power through sheer magnitude of their greater physical hardships than ours in this soft modern age.

With this information I put 2+2 together.

I’ve long known years of consistent training to effectively change your genetics and somatotype.

What I’m experiencing right now is my bones adapting to the growth of tendons and ligaments more resembling those of the roman legionaries than modern physically inactive humans.

This is a huge argument in favor of heavy physical labor while in youth.

Listen to Bill Kazmaier speak of tree service work in high school, and you’ll understand the implications here.

I’m doing lots of handstands, regularly hitting pullups, doing anywhere from 15 to 50 weighted pushups at a bench equivalent of around 330lbs without warming up, and have another 2000 vanilla pushups on top of that each week.

It’s enough to cause this positive, thought to be impossible, adaptation!

The tendons and ligaments are growing thicker, more powerful, and I just keep doing the work – having my buddy standing in my back, ignoring whether he’s positioned perfectly nor allowing his struggle to hold his own balance atop me stop me.

Without stopping to think I’ve been training rugged grizzly bear viking berserker type strength, and continue to do so.

Strong enough to not consider the details.

Be so strong everything else is minutia.

I just shrug when other’s make this realization, my inner thoughts like conan the barbarian.

They say a detail, I shrug, my inner instinct going “hmn – inconsequential, no concern”.

The tendons and ligaments are getting stronger, more like the ancients, and this development is the way of freakish strength.

There is no such thing as physical hardship. I love doing the work.

Persistence & Tenacity

Chicken Legs Don’t Happen :

“Dude, I’m at planet fitness. The mood in the air doesn’t involve training legs. When in rome – at the moment I’m captain upper body man.”

I said the above word for word at some point in the last couple of weeks. The guy I was talking to saying he needs to do more leg work, me saying I don’t bother at present.

It’s funny, starting out with weights I squatted primarily.

Now I barely train legs, and yet…they’re fine.

I feel my quads firing during the weighted pushups.

That’s how you get through the sticking point. You fire quads as hard as possible. It’s possible that I now could use leg drive on a bench. If I was to bench.

Everything is firing during the weighted pushup position planks.

I’m still explosive.

Occasionally I’ll hit some kneeling jumps or goof around cossack dancing.

From the many kick ups into handstands I feel my legs worked in a very athletic feeling way.

When I do a wrestler’s bridge pullovers or holds it’s a leg static too.

The body doesn’t like growing very far out of proportion.

Even without much leg focus they’ll develop to match upper body gains.

The body isn’t going to build a brick shithouse on top of a stork/stilt looking support structure.

And that’s with all the time I spend on my hands in training.

I’m entirely okay with my upper body developed a bit more heavily in proportion to my legs.

It won’t go too far, EVER.

The legs will always match.
Maybe at 60/40 instead of 50/50 even, which is fine.

I can always throw in some swamp lunges. They pair real well with upper body calisthenics.

I don’t even need to oly or high rep overhead squat.

My legs are fine with the current training.

“Chicken legs don’t happen.” -J