“The name’s RJ and I’m a sprinter who’s just recently turned to bobsled. My business just opened up yesterday and, I’m not going to lie, I’m getting the word out. This isn’t spam though (well, not really).” http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=44257

You just know that with an introduction like that that Roger Nelsen Jr. was in for a good internet kicking by the P&B crowd… which he duly received. Undeterred Roger continued his self-abuse;

“I guarantee I’ve read far more than you have, talked to far many more important and knowledgeable people in the field than you have, and am frequently questioned by far more qualified people as well.”

“As for the part about reading, I have spent the last 4 years collecting a library of sports science books. Kinesiology, neurology, anatomy and physiology, pedagogy, general exercise science. I’ve read a lot. In addition to that, I’ve read and have notes on well over a thousand studies relating to exercise science. I am not lying when I say I’m well-read.”

As the thread continued Roger mentioned that he had a Revolutionary book for sale (Training Essentials: A Concise Guide to Physical Conditioning singularitysportstraining.com). Roger was kind enough, or stupid enough, or just plain desperate enough to send me a copy.

The book is in PDF format, 180 pages long, has a contents page but no index, a few diagrams, a number of tables and a lot of writing. In style and appearance it is that of a sports science student’s revision notes, though written in a more orderly fashion;

About the Book
Adaptation and the Human Body
Mind, Muscles, and Movement
Basic Anatomy and Physiology
Components of Fitness
Training Basics
General Training
Specific Training
Sports Practice
Training Means
Weight Training
Shock Training
Energy Systems Training
Stretching
Muscle Activation Exercises
Reflexive Firing Isometrics
Potentiation
Rest and Recovery
Nutrition
Testing and Assessment
Progressions
Programming
Sample Beginner Plan
General Reference
Suggested Readings
In Closing
Contact Information
Praise for the Author and the Book

My first thought on reviewing the book was that I would pull apart each and every scientific chapter but it is fairly solid in that respect, I could say for example that Roger’s implication that stiffer tendons are better is a point of argument;

“Increasing the stiffness of a tendon also serves to make it more resistant to injury, and is therefore in everyone’s best interest.” page 15

Obviously thicker, stronger tendons are less likely to break and can store more energy. However the oscillation frequency of a spring is related to its optimal stiffness (where stiffness = force/displacement) and the mass applied to it.

Thus if I get a spring and hang a mass on it it will boing up and down at a certain frequency, as the boings dissipate and get less in amplitude the frequency stays the same. The only way to vary the frequency is to get more springs and put them in parallel (to speed up the frequency) or in series (to slow down the frequency). Alternatively I can add more mass (to slow down the frequency) or less mass (to speed up the frequency) on the spring.

For example if I stand up straight with my legs locked and spring up and down on the balls of my feet thus utilising the elastic recoil of the achilles tendons, I find that I cannot speed up or slow down the springing!!!

In other words the optimal stiffness of a tendon depends on what frequency you need, a middle distance runner needs a different frequency to a sprinter for example.

Another point of argument I could take;

“If one lifts primarily with the muscles in a shortened state, the nervous system will tighten up those muscles groups and reduce the ROM over which they can work.” page 73

This seems to be what everyone says and I might agree with that if it was the whole summation of all the movements in a person’s life – however I am a world expert of one on partials having performed them at one point exclusively for 7 years. I would have to say that I did not experience any tightening up, so naturally I wonder where such deductions come from. I still do partials and have done so for about 16 years and have still not noticed any tightening.

Still these are perhaps minor quibbles, my main issues with the book are presentation, lack of references, lack of index, lack of diagrams/photos – I don’t think Roger should take these as criticisms so much as suggestions for improvements in future editions.

However when I mentioned these to Roger he was somewhat dismissive,

“As for references, that would be hard, as this book was written almost entirely from memory. I started it as a project during my downtime at work, and since I couldn’t have my library there with me I just had to pull all the information from memory. I could go back and get references for everything, but that would take longer than writing the book did.

And I really don’t care how professional it looks. When I said I was primarily interested in just getting the info out to people, I was serious. Making money on the project isn’t that important.”

My feeling is that Roger has obviously put a lot of effort in getting down the material on paper, so to dismiss presentation would be foolish – because people would be less likely to read his hard earned writings. Presentation also means more than just nice styling, it shows logical and systematic thought processes and the ability to present it in a logical and systematic way. There is also the matter of formality in that Rogers refers to himself as “the author” which is a scientific affectation yet drops into youth speak with such things as “Anyways, the protocol calls for performing” page 119.

The book is not messily presented, just not professionally presented. It could do with a wad load of diagrams and photos to complement the text, because text descriptions of exercises just doesn’t cut it. It could include internet links to such exercises.

Given that this book has the feel of sports science text geared towards strength and conditioning then it should have references. The reason for this is twofold, Roger says he is well read and so needs to reference his sources to acknowledge their contributions; references also allow the reader to find out what Roger is rabbiting on about.

For example when he first mentions Reflexive Firing Isometrics I immediately thought, “What the heck is that!! It sounds made up and is probably from a dodgy source.” Roger mentioned Brad Nuttall and later in the book he mentions him in the suggested reading section, but it seems that nobody knows who Brad Nuttall is. RFIs turn out to be jumping about or pushing things and dropping and catching them, the idea seems to be that it teaches fast contractions and fast relaxations and is thus suited to cyclical stuff. I do skipping, so it turns out that I am doing RFIs – though I do them for endurance reasons. It could be that RFIs are just made up, there again I have a saying, “That anything the body can do it should do.” – though some people seem to have gone too far and formed entire industries based on one principle such as rolling around on big inflatable balls.

A quick internet search shows that RFIs seem to fall into a continuum of different plyometric type moves, though I could only find about 3 references.

Will the book appeal to P&Bers… no, it won’t.

It will probably most appeal to coaches and students of sports science. It isn’t a book about how to get stronger and lift heavier. It is more a book on tying together all the disparate observations from other books and articles about improving athletic performance – I think it does that rather well.

Being young and impressionable Roger may think that such information is Revolutionary, which presumably gave him the energy to write the book… on the other it may come across as irritating to the ‘been there and done it’ P&Bers.

Should Roger sell his book or offer it free? Well, I’m not a businessman but I suppose one could use the stronglifts.com model which is to offer the book free which then attracts members to the website and forum and subscription to the feed. Medhi hasn’t had much success with lifting weights but is successful when it comes to promoting his site… once the beginner is hooked by a freebie he tends to forget that.

Roger would also have to improve the presentation of his website because currently it looks as though it is put together by a hick.

One could sell the book but on a life time subscription basis (Digging into WordPress) whereby the model is the site doesn’t need to generate more traffic on the subject of WordPress but can make money on its traffic. In this case the authors are experts so you know you will get your moneysworth.

Or he could Lulu it and get it as a real book.

The biggest problem for Roger is that he hasn’t had much time under the bar – time under the bar is of course merely a reflection of experiences. By writing the book Roger has greatly accelerated his experiences on the academic side. However under the iron it seems that Roger has only had a short time, for example when starting his post at P&B he reveals that he has only been using his Revolutionary 20-40 Method for 3½ months (the method isn’t mentioned in the book). As such a P&Ber might have the feeling that one is being instructed by an impertinent twerp who is chewing gum and showing his underpants.

With time I think if Roger sticks to it we will see future editions mature and become more respectable and maybe one day the impertinent twerp will wear proper trousers and people will say, “He’s had time under the bar, that book is actually quite authoritative… “

I am now off to write a book for my website – it will be bold, it will be Revolutionary, it will be…

Craig Pfisterer’s competes at Pennsylvania’s Strongest Man at 253 lbs (115 kg) and does pretty good despite having a chest cold – watch him pass out on the Conan’s Wheel;

Presses are not something I am good at so I perked up on seeing this thread;

http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=44372

Here’s a few of the posts;

Henry_Adolfo

Some tips that has helped me:

1. If you know how to clean…you’ll press more.

2. Train with more volume and frequency than “regular” lifts.

3. Lift mostly submax weights, a lot of low rep sets.

4. Pull-ups and rows help some…single DB presses are the king of assistance lifts.

5. Invest some time to find your best stance, grip, and body position to press..this will pay off in the long run. Also, learn some proper technique…you know, push head through when locking out, keeping elbows slightly in front of the bar, learning how to set the arms at the beginning of the lift, how to tense your legs and hips, etc.

6. Building some muscle overall will help a lot…overhead pressing is not a lift for skinny bastards.

Strongmac

Basically, the template is this:

Start with ~75% of 1RM for 2×5
add 10 pounds, do 2×4
add 5 pounds, do 3×3
add another 5 pounds, do 3×2
Drop back down to starting weight and do 1×6

It’s tough (39 presses over 11 sets) but it works. Probably only want to use it once a week for 3-4 weeks.

An excellent routine, and one i return to occasionally. 220×2 and 200×6 were my pr’s after following this for a month or so.
The OHP is a very fucking tempremental lift though. I lose strength quickly on it if i don’t keep up the effort.

privateviking

I agree with what others have said, I really need a lot of “practice” in the strict press. Weights that I can handle, to kind of “grease the groove.”

If you feel like you need some heavier work, you can always do push presses, or jerks and kind of overload the pressing muscles. That way you, you can get the heavy work in, without frying yourself on the strict press.

In the past, I’ve messed around with seated presses in the power rack from eyebrow level, right where my sticking point is. They are another exercise that you can push and grunt through, so you can work heavy and not mess up your military press from/technique.

As far as work for the triceps, you could try skullcrushers or even better, JM presses. I find that the elbow postion at the bottom of the JM press is sorta similar to where my elbows are at the bottom of a strict press.

As for a plan, when I was into Strongman, I’d do this for the overhead.

Monday (Heavy)

Push Press, sets of 5 working to a max set of 5.

Seated Press from Pins in Power Rack. 4 sets of 5, working up to a tough set.

JM Press. 5 or so sets of 6-10. Just sorta went till i had a nice pump.

Wednesday (Light)

Strict Press. 5×5, with 65% of max

Dumbell Press. 4-6 sets of 6-10. work up to a moderately hard set.

Dumbell Tricep Extension. 4-5 sets of 8-12. Just to get a good pump.

Friday (Medium)

Press. 5×5, with 75% of max.

Skull Crushers. What ever.

Friday was by far the hardest, and sometimes it took a long time to get all the sets in. Wednesday was super easy, and I’d try to do the sets as quickly as possible, with as little rest as possible.

I didn’t get to anal about the precentages. Days I felt bad, I used a little less weight. Days I felt good I used a little more.

One of the pages I am subscribed to is fellow Power & Bulker Craig Pfisterer’s Justgetstrong Blog. It has many excellent videos and the routines are clearly laid out.

Craig is retard-smart and young… as a result he is very tall and making very fast progress. Craig’s aim is to be a professional strongman… and I have a feeling he will achieve that.

If I was to go back in time this is how I should have trained, I would have been a lot taller and stronger as a result;

John McKean, posted the following here;

I just had the pleasure of watching big Ernie (Beef) set 6 official IAWA world records at our club’s annual “record day” meet. In the presence of 6 long time international officials, the big man did a rack push press of 381 pounds as easily as most of us can do with a bare bar! He just barely missed 401 at the top of lockout, but, in my opinion, will far exceed this with further meet experience and his sound training methods!

Here is the video;

And here are the lifts;

More details of Ernie Beath’s efforts can be found here.

I came across an interesting article on Ivan Abadjiev.

It basically says that his lifters concentrated all their efforts on the clean & jerk, snatch and front squat with near maximal (for the day) weights. Lifters also trained every day, several times a day. ”Assistance” exercises are not performed because a lifter only has limited recovery and needs to put all his efforts into the primary lifts.

But that is not the most interesting thing… the interesting thing is that at the end of the article thanks are given to amongst others, Brian Hamill – and here is a story which I will relate to you;

Hamill is a BAWLA fellow and many years ago (circa 1989) I was in one of Hamill’s classes where he was demonstrating ‘correct’ spotting technique for the front squat. Hamill seemed pretty clueless but was front squatting with about 50 lbs using an ordinary non-Olympic bar with cast iron plates of about an inch thickness.

His spotters consisted of a girl (a student) and a man (Hamill’s assistant) both of who clearly had no clue as to what they were doing. Hamill squatted down and then literally threw the barbell forward, the girl manage to catch one end allowing the other end to smash down with sledge hammer force so that the cast iron plate impacted directly onto the man’s toes.

We all felt the man’s horrifying pain as his toes were crushed to pulp and he screamed incoherently… I enquired of Hamill if this technique wasn’t in fact a bit dangerous.

Bench with a rack – sure thing.

Respect the bench press. Last week decided that after squatting I could handle going straight into 100k benching . Stupid of me, next few days I thought I had done some major neck damage and I was unable to drive as I could hardly turn my head. I lost a couple of days work and was fearful that I was not going to recover for a very long time. It passed as all my training injuries have passed, but one day if I don’t learn from my mistakes my inner retard will knock me out big style and life without training would be horrible. Always warm up.
And do mobility work, stretch after training. you will plain feel better, recovery is so much faster. Stretching the chest after benching is a must, put your hands on both sides of doorway and stretch forward.

Little stuff, basic stuff,do it.

I’d just like to point out why you should use a Power Rack when benching… http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=44011

It doesn’t matter if you are using 1000 lbs or a mere 200 lbs like me;

Use a power rack because each year people drop bars on their necks, faces, chests and suffer injury, death, disfigurement. Do a search of youtube and if that doesn’t convince you… get a hammer and hit yourself in the face and remember a hammer only weighs a fraction of what you bench.

The second thing is to check that you have set up the rack correctly and that all pins are locked in place or else suffer like this;

Poor Beef smashed his eye socket with 765 lbs and has lost the site in one eye – he was using a rack but through tiredness neglected to check his rack…

Use a rack for benchs, squats, etc… because no spotter in the world will catch a weight if you suddenly drop it.

BLACKFLAG humps up 230 kg for a few reps in a style somewhat reminiscent of Vince Anello. Here is BLACKFLAG at 82 kg;

Here is Vince Anello at about 90 kg;

Dave Hoff totalling 2615 lbs at the SPF Powerstation Pro-Am in Sharonsville, Ohio.

There’s nothing under his shirt honest, its a medical condition, its photoshop, its aliens, its the light, its a shadow, its… something. I wonder when powerlifting will be in the Olympics?

http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43542

http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/12273;