CSD StrongDad Program

CSD StrongDad Program: Determining and Eliminating Weaknesses

Posted on by Cool Pappa

My Rack Pull weight, but getting this off the floor as a true Deadlift may be a bit more difficult!

My Rack Pull weight, but getting this off the floor as a true Deadlift may be a bit more difficult!

How are you CSDs coming with your StrongDad exercises that we talked about here?

Well, if you are discovering some weak areas as you push your body to the limit, check out the article below from elitefts.com. It provides a simple and easy to use checklist for determining where you may have muscle imbalances and what to do about them.

How I wish I had a list like this when I first started lifting…

Check it out and let us know how your lifting is going!

Enjoy!

Determining and Strengthening Weaknesses

By

Tom Myslinski


Squat

1. Problem (P) – The bar feels heavy out of the power rack.
Weak Point (WP) – abdominals, hip flexors
Coaching Point (CP) #1 – Contract shoulder blades, flex, and arch back out of rack, requires a static contraction to maintain arch.
CP #2 – Create a neutral spine position, push out against belt.

2. P – Butt sits straight down, “Olympic style”
WP – Incorrect technique, hamstrings
CP #1 – Push butt back, “sprinter style”, to incorporate posterior chain (spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings) thereby activating stretch reflex.
CP #2 – Perfect posture maintains the greatest mechanical advantage.

3. P – Knees buckle in
WP – Hips, glutes, external rotators
CP – Spread the floor by pushing out over the sides of your shoes.

4. P – Fall forward
WP – Low back, abs
CP #1 – Lead up out of hole with a spread, high chest
CP #2 – Push up with arms by keeping elbows positioned perpendicular under bar, letting the elbows rotate up and back causes the wrists to roll the bar high.
CP #3 – Do not squat into mirror, causes instability regulated by visual feedback

5. P – Stuck out of hole (bottom position)
WP – Incorrect technique, bar too heavy
CP – Not sitting back far enough to fully activate stretch reflex.

6. P – Stuck ½ – ¾ up
WP – Hips, glutes
CP – Develop accelerative strength, prolong rate of force production

Bench Press

1. P – Bar feels heavy or unstable
WP – Lats, posterior deltoids, external rotators, rotator cuff
CP – Contract shoulder blades, requires a static contraction to maintain, drive upper back into bench upon concentric contraction

2. P – Weak off of chest
WP – Bar too heavy, nobody fails off of the chest
CP #1 – Lower the bar with your back, “springboard effect”, activate stretch reflex
CP #2 – Develop accelerative strength, prolong rate of force production

3. P – Stuck ½ way up
WP – Triceps
CP #1 – Spread the bar with your grip, activate medial head of triceps
CP #2 – Keep elbows positioned perpendicular under bar, any rotation outwards transfers the load to the shoulder capsule

4. P – Pressing into the J-hooks
WP – Triceps
CP #1 – The shortest path between 2 points is a straight line, maintain a straight bar path
CP #2 – Do not push into bar, press yourself away from bar, create separation
CP #3 – keeping the elbows positioned perpendicular under the bar maintains the greatest mechanical advantage, any rotation outwards transfers the load to the shoulder capsule

5. P – Butt rises from bench
WP – Incorrect technique, bar too heavy, bench too low
CP #1 – Maintain correct posture, knees up, straighten legs or drive with heels
CP #2 – Do not arch low back, arch upper back by contracting shoulder blades

6. P – Head rises with eccentric lowering
WP – Incorrect technique
CP #1 – Maintain correct posture, keep head down with chin tucked
CP #2 – Concaving chest causes an increased distance for the bar to travel

Source: http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/determining-and-strengthening-weaknesses/

 

Bodybuilding Loses A Legend – Sergio Oliva

Posted on by Cool Pappa

This week the bodybuilding community lost one of the best ever, Sergio Oliva.

Sergio died on November 12 and was 71 years old. Known as “The Myth”, Sergio’s biggest claim to fame was the fact that he was the only bodybuilder ever to beat the other great one, Arnold Schwarzenegger (I know, I know, some still say Mike Mentzer beat Arnold in 1980 but that’s a subject for another day.)

When I first started lifting weights, Sergio was a big inspiration and earned plenty of space in the Iron Temple, which is what I called my home gym. My upper arms were always a strong body part for me (not in exercise terms, but in appearance) and the dream of one day having to cut the sleeves just to fit my guns in there kept me going down in the chilly basement. But Sergio’s physique was so perfect and dense, he made me hope that I could even bring my weak limbs into proportion as well. Yet that to was a pipe dream, as that’s what made Sergio “The Myth”. Very few then and now could attain a physique with no visual weaknesses as his muscularity seemed more like a cartoon or airbrushed picture, than something real.

Sergio’s accomplishments are also remarkable because it harkens back to when training and reaching genetic potential determined winners in bodybuilding, not endorsements and pharmaceuticals.  That doesn’t mean that Oliva’s and his contemporaries didn’t use anabolic drugs. But the guys had to know what to use (and it’s not nearly as much as what would later be used in the “sport”), how to train and how to eat in a very non-scientific world. Sergio even trained with some of the smartest guys in bodybuilding at the time, Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer, two guys that revolutionized training with an abbreviated lifting method called HIT or High Intensity Training. It was truly a time when bodybuilding led science, not the other way around like we see today.

American’s always want to tell boot-strap-type stories and Sergio certainly has one of his own. He defected from Cuba decades before we started hearing about other athletes coming to America seeking fame and fortune. The Chicago Tribune reports,

“Oliva defected to the United States from Cuba in 1963 at a Pan American Games qualifying competition in Jamaica, bringing the entire Cuban bodybuilding team with him. He came to Chicago in 1963 because “he heard this was where the jobs were,” longtime friend Jack Merjimekian said.”

You can read more about the life of Sergio Oliva here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-14/news/chi-retired-chicago-cop-former-champion-bodybuilder-dies-20121113_1_bodybuilder-arnold-schwarzenegger-memorial-fund

First, my “wrastling” CSD’s will know the guy with Sergio.
Second, my man had to cut his sleeves!

Are You Strong Enough To Handle The Dude That’s Trying To Date Your Daughter? Do You Have That “Ole Dude Strength”?

Posted on by Cool Pappa

When I was a young man growing up, I got into a few fights. I can say that I only lost one, and that was to Charlie Brown when I was about 7 or 8 years old. It’s hard to imagine my 8-year old Big Homie getting into a fight, but I guess we had to really grow up fast in my ‘hood.

But what’s really funny, is that over the years, my dad probably got into just as many fights with the neighborhood kids as I did. He didn’t allow foolishness, swearing or bullying around his house or his children. After a while, cats in the neighborhood appreciated the fact that my Ole Dude didn’t play. He once even chased the thug that stole the bike he “made” (I wish I had pics, that bad-boy had a steering wheel!) for blocks, hurdling fences like an Olympic hurdler, before the dude just gave up and dropped the bike to flee for his life.

Smart decision.

That’s Ole Dude strength and determination right there.

But what about today? First, IF dad even has a presence in the home, would he even be able to physically protect his children or wife? Could you be like James Evans in your house? For my fellow Good Time aficionados  you know nobody was coming into that house and whipping James. Where are the men like that on TV? Now-a-days, it is the woman of the home doing the protecting and dad is sitting there looking like Homer Simpson.

Good example

Bad Example

So, that’s why I thought the goals below by strength coach Dan John were a great idea for CSDs to set for themselves. To give us “Ole Dudes” a good bar to shoot towards in the gym. Most of us aren’t doing manual labor jobs like our parents, but we sit on our tails all day and the research is mounting that office jobs are taking years off of our lives. Plus, when we were younger, we might have exercised to look a certain way, impress a young lady or something, but now that we are older, it’s also about being healthy and having so-called “functional strength”.

…and yes, you still need to look good for your wife as well. If you want her looking as good as she did when you got married, how close are you to that wedding picture?

But I digress…here’s what Dan John recommends:

Push
Expected: Body weight bench press
Game Changer: Body weight bench press for 15 reps

Pull
Expected: 8-10 pull-ups
Game Changer: 15 pull-ups

Squat
Expected: Body weight squat
Game Changer: Body weight squat for 15 reps

Hinge
Expected: Body weight to 150% bodyweight deadlift
Game Changer: Double body weight deadlift

Loaded Carry (Farmer Walk)
Expected: Farmer Walk with total body weight (half per hand)
Game Changer: Body weight per hand

Personally, I think these are great CSD goals to set.  Perhaps you can get an early start on your ’13 New Year’s resolution?

In a few years, some young man is going to likely try to ask to date my daughter (may I recommend Voddie Baucham’s book, What He Must Be: If He Wants To Marry My Daughter http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/store/product/what-he-must-be-book/to hear how we’ll likely deal with this in my house) and I want him to understand that not only do I have a mental and spiritual presence in my house, but a physical one as well.

Now some of you reading this may think I’m being shallow and that’s fine. But I remember meeting fathers when I was a young man who were scared of their daughter’s date and their little-girl knew it. She knew dad would not come looking for her if she was in trouble and that he could not protect her from that abusive boyfriend or predator.

However, my dad proved to many fools that “Old Man Strength”, was not a myth.

Now it’s my turn.

So, how close are you to the goals above? Let me know!

Thankfully, I think today (at the seasoned age of 42, 5’11 and 210 lbs.), I can go in the gym and hit the Game Changer on the Pull-Up, Squat and Deadlift. But getting the Bench Press and Farmers Walk are going to take some work for me as I’m only at the Expected level.

If we get a good response, perhaps we can turn this into a CSD-team goal for 2013! We could post workout recommendations, monitor progress, etc. What do you think? I’d love to hear your story!

Just because we’re getting older and we can’t do all of the things we did at 22, we have more motivation to push now than we ever did back then, those precious God-given gifts that He has made us protectors over.

My Rack Pull weight, but getting this off the floor as a true Deadlift may be a bit more difficult!