Tag: strength

  Unconventional Tools, with Exceptional Results: Bands & Chains

Posted on by jfdameyf

 Power, Stability, & Hypertrophy:  A Common Link

   

   If you’re familiar with the world of strength training. You know who the Godfather of powerlifting, Louie Simmons is.  Aside from producing 1,000 lb squatters and 500+ lb benchers, Louie is also known for popularizing the use of bands and chains in training. These tools allow for a vast increase in strength and explosiveness through an “accommodating resistance.” Now you may be thinking, I’m no athlete, what use are bands and chains to me? Well they can also be utilized to increase hypertrophy, stability, as well as many other variables. They are incredibly versatile tools that can help facilitate your exercise and performance goals.

Increasing Strength and Power

    If bands and chains increase resistance, why not just put more weight on the bar? Standard bar weight or dumbbell weight is fine. They allow you to overload a muscle in a linear fashion. However, bands and chains allow you to overload muscles in specific positions, while deloading muscles in others. At the bottom of a lift, the band is not stretched, or the chain is resting on the floor so the weight feels normal. At the top of a life where we are normally stronger, there is an increased load from the chain being lifted off the ground, or the band being stretched. In addition, normally at the end range of a lift we decelerate so we can reverse the motion. In a sense, this reduces our force output. With accommodating resistance the band or chain forces us to keep accelerating and thus keep our force output high.

    In sports we often see high forces being produced at high velocities, i.e sprinting, jumping, etc. And who are the best athletes we see? The ones who can produce more force, more quickly than others. They are the ones who get to the ball more quickly, get up higher for that rebound, can dive for a ground ball get up and laser it to first base for the out. Bands and chains are best utilized  in a “dynamic” fashion to develop these qualities. Lower percentages of your one rep max (1RM) anywhere from 50-70% are used depending on the goal. Proper programming and periodization can allow for the best utilization of these tools.

 

Force velocity curve
From Strong By Science.net

Bands and Chains for Hypertrophy

   

    Typical programming for size and muscle growth involves using high repetition schemes, and progressive overload. As we now know (and as I’ll post about later), muscle growth is more dependent on overall volume as opposed to repetition scheme. Meaning you can theoretically achieve the same amount of growth using sets of 3-5 repetitions as you would using sets of 15-20, as long as the volume was equated. That said, there are other factors such as load, time under tension, and mechanical stress that also affect hypertrophy. As such, bands and chains are great additions to your arsenal if you want to bust through a plateau or simply increase size! I’ve already talked about accommodating resistance, so we know we can overload and deload certain positions of our lift. This can be advantageous in certain exercises where we might not feel as much activation.

Bands and chains

     In the video I posted I demonstrate using chains for chest fly’s. This is a perfect example as we often see shoulder issues trying to increase range of motion and bringing are hands closer to the ground. But if we can’t go low enough then we’re sacrificing range of motion, or must reduce weight which in turns reduces volume. With the chains, we can get a bigger stretch because the chains are deloaded when you bring your arms down, but when you lift them up you start loading your pecs again while they’re in a more advantageous position. So essentially, you’re to go through the entire range of motion without cheating, and you’re increasing the weight which increases force production and volume while reducing chance of injury.

    Like chains, bands make it harder to go through the entire range of motion and thus stressing the muscle to a larger degree. Bands do something chains don’t though. Once a chain is off the ground, the force you’re producing is enough to counteract the weight and the amount gravity is pulling on that weight. It’s basically as if you were just holding a weight in your hand. With a band though, the elastic component is continuously pulling down, on top of gravity. And as you start to reverse the motion, your muscles start being to be overloaded eccentrically which can induce greater muscle damage and thus greater gains. Think about doing bicep curls, many people often don’t fully extend their arms since this bottom position is hard to bust through, and then at the top they tend to almost rest. The band will cause you to contract through the entire range of motion.

    You can also just use bands without a weight or barbell. For example do your set of whichever exercise lets say squats, then step on the band with both feet and lift the top of the band up over your shoulders and do a drop-set. This will intensify a simple bodyweight squat to a much larger degree. The possibilities are endless!

Try this with your exercise of choice:

  • 3 sets with a band added to your weight
  • After your last rep of your last set, remove the band, do another set with the same weight
  • Do one more set with just the band. You can hate me now but you’ll thank me later.

Increase your stability

    Bad news first, I’m not talking about financial stability. The good news, you’ll learn how to strengthen your joints and reduce injury. What you’ll notice is that as you move through the range of motion, the weight starts shaking. Due to the oscillations caused by the band, your body must stabilize rapidly to control that motion. It’s important to use proper body mechanics and aim to put yourself in a stable position while controlling the oscillations. These are great exercises to do while you’re fresh and can serve as a warmup and/or an injury prevention tool before your main lift.

  • Take a barbell, and use a band to hang a kettlebell or weight plate on the ends of it
  • Now take your pick of exercise to complete. Do a squat, an overhead press, a bench press, a row, again there are many possibilities
  • Start with a light weight, lighter than you normally would use for the exercise you chose
  • Go through the eccentric swiftly but with control, then pause for 1-2 seconds
  • Go through the concentric swiftly but with control and pause again for 1-2 seconds

 

        Let’s be real, you won’t find chains in any Planet Fitness gym. And while doable, it may not be practical to lug your own chains into a gym either. Bands are a little more common, but even then most facilities won’t provide them for you. That said I believe it is a worthy investment to buy a pair of bands. They are lightweight, portable, and can intensify any weighted movement, or act as a stand-alone tool for exercise. A simple Amazon search will help you find companies such as SKLZ, Rogue Fitness, Perform Better, and countless others make that their own bands. These unconventional tools have a wide array of benefits, and are highly underutilized, so if you need to liven up your training, or bust through a plateau, incorporating these in your programming might be what you need.

Please Follow and Share

Build your Core, 6-pack included

Posted on by jfdameyf

Building your Core, 6-pack included

 

 

Hollow body hold
Performing a hollow-body hold

   

    Everyone wants a 6-pack. And even if you don’t, I think it’s safe to say most people wouldn’t mind losing a little fluff around the midsection. So how do you do it? Surely 100 sit-ups a day, or more will do the trick right? Unfortunately, doing that might be causing more harm than good.

    The fact of the matter is whether or not your abs are visible, relies very little on how many ab exercises you do, and more so on your diet (My next post will be about how to lose body fat so keep an eye out for that!). Additionally, there is no such thing as spot-reduction. Meaning if you want to lose fat on your arms, doing more arm exercises won’t reduce the fat in that location specifically. Likewise, if you do a ridiculous amount of crunches and sit-ups, you won’t reduce your belly fat. Working your abdominals definitely has value, but there’s a better way to train your core, as well as get that definition in your stomach region that you want. But first, let’s define the core.

 

What is the Core?

    Your core is comprised of various muscles. First, your rectus abdominis, or abs. That’s your 6-pack muscle.

     We also have our obliques which are lateral to our abs, and extend from our lower ribs down to our hip bones. On each side we have external obliques, and internal obliques right underneath. And that’s usually the extent to which people train their “core.”

    But you also have your transverse abdominis, which is a crucial and overlooked muscle. It lies underneath your abs, and wraps around to your back. Why is it so important you ask? Do you have lower back pain? If so, chances are this muscle is weak. Strengthening your TA is an easy way to address low back dysfunction, and it is key to maintaining a healthy body long-term.

    Your core isn’t only on the front of your body. It also comprises of muscles on your backside. Your Quadratus Lumborum (QL), spinal erectors, and even your glutes can be considered part of your core!

 

Core Training
   

Core Training Philosophy

    While sometimes it is nice to feel a little burn at the end of a workout, there are more effective ways to train. Instead of thinking about how many repetitions of an exercise you can do, think about how long can you hold a position. How much force can your body resist, while in a disadvantageous position? And not only that, how long can you maintain good posture while doing it? I give crunches a bad rap, because it’s constant flexion and extension of your lower spine. Your lumbar spine isn’t necessarily meant to go through large ranges of motion, especially repetitively. Instead of creating movement like flexing, extending, and rotating your spine, try anti-rotation, or anti-flexion/extension.

 

    A good place to start is checking out the video I made (down below). I filmed some simple but extremely effective exercises that challenge core strength and stability. This is just part one in a series of instructional videos I’ll be making, so be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven’t done so yet! Some common cues are keeping your stomach tight, and/or drawn in, while keeping your butt squeezed. Isometric holds (static holds), and eccentric lifts (slow and controlled descent) are great methods in challenging your core. You can also get creative with your foot positioning. The wider the stance, the more stability you’ll have, meaning the easier it’ll be. The closer the stance the harder. Then you can progress to a split stance, single-leg stance, eyes closed, etc. Possibilities are endless!

 

 

How to train your core, effectively!

   Try this not that: How do YOU work your obliques? Often I see people doing side bends with weight. While this is one way of working them, your core muscles are MUSCLES. Doing repetitions contracting will cause them to grow. And if you already have some “love-handles”, doing side-bends will give you a thicker appearance in that area. Instead try some isometrics or static holds. Side planks are great, and there are many different variations to challenge you. Shoot for a minimum of 15 seconds!

    Instead of a crunch, try a hollow body hold. Instead of a Russian twist, try a pallof press. If you experience back pain, Dead bugs, and bird dogs are very simple exercises that I would start incorporating.

    Lastly, instead of a sit-up try a plank. Planks are simple, but when done correctly they’re a great exercise. I often hear people say they can hold a plank for more than a minute, but when I see them try, their butt and hips are high up in the air, they’re pushing their stomach out, and clasping their hands together for dear life. Try keeping your stomach sucked in, glutes squeezed, forearms parallel to each other. Resist gravity and maintain this posture while keeping your core engaged, and I promise that by the 30 second mark you’ll be challenged a whole lot more than by the 2 minutes of crappy planking you’ve been doing.

 

    I hope this clarified some things concerning core training, the key takeaway here is to look beyond the conventional in order to build your core, and get that 6-pack you’ve always wanted. Of course, doing that through an eclectic approach! If you have any questions or want to request a video on any specific exercise, feel free to reach out or leave a comment! Thanks for reading, see you soon.  

 

 

 

Please Follow and Share

Becoming Bulletproof

Posted on by jfdameyf

The Eclectic Athlete

     First of all, welcome! Again my vision for this website was to educate, and empower. My goal is to stay as objective as possible while providing valuable and hopefully lifechanging information. I don’t expect everyone to agree with everything I say, but as students, and learners it is your task to stay open-minded and say “hmm, yeah okay that makes sense let me try it out”, or “I see where he’s going with that let me think about it” Now whether you agree with the information or not, I hope i’m able to get some of those neurons firing. 

The 5th Annual Bulletproof Biohacking Conference

    About a month ago I had the amazing opportunity, of learning (yea i know nerd alert) from some of the world’s foremost experts in their respective fields, MD’s, PhD’s, billionaires, entrepreneurs, and transformational speakers alike shared their wisdom. Among those were entrepeneur and philanthropist Naveen Jain, relationship expert and psychotherapist Esther Perel, world renowned strength coach Charles Poliquin, and of course Mr. Bulletproof himself (no not 50 cent) Dave Asprey.
charles poliquin, strength sensei
Myself and The Strength Sensei, Charles Poliquin (Look at those biceps!) 
dave asprey, bulletproof, bulletproof conference
Me and founder of Bulletproof Coffee, Dave Asprey

Biohacking and Bulletproof Coffee, say what?

     Don’t get too hung up on the term biohacking, all that means is that we’re trying to “hack” our biology, or in other words work smarter and not harder to achieve the desired result. Whether that be faster learning, more muscle gain, more fat loss, etc.
     I learned about hacking your mitochondria, nootropics, about optimizing sleep, stem cell therapy, issues in modern dating, your gut microbiome, and many other interesting topics. Also got the chance to check out sweet tech that had me feeling like Tony Stark. I’m talking bioinformatics apps, blue light filtering glasses, biofeedback sensors, infrared saunas, acupressure tools, hyperbaric chambers, and sensory deprivation pods to name a few. I even got to learn how to do the Haka! (Ancient Polynesian war chant). And of course, I got my fair share of collagen protein, brain octane oil, and grass fed butter, in my coffee. Yes in my coffee, and yes it tasted good. 

What can you do today? Give Gratitude

     I’ll delve into some of those topics in later posts,  but my biggest takeaway from the conference, was having gratitude, and expressing it every day. This is a simple habit, that at the very least will put a smile on your face. It could take the form of stating that you are grateful for the loved ones in your life, or for the ice cream you had the night before. It can be as profound or as simple as you choose. No harm in trying it, but just an fyi some of the most successful people in the world have made a habit of doing this and even keeping a gratitude journal. And in case you still need convincing, There’s plenty of research that shows that giving gratitude can have mental, and physical benefits. This link has great info if you’re interested.
meditation, biofeedback
Using a biofeedback sensor that read my brainwaves, to help me meditate (the pose was after I was done don’t worry)

Above is also a compilation video I recorded throughout the conference, enjoy!
Feel free to comment, let me know what you think, what you’d like to hear more about.
Don’t forget to subscribe, and stay tuned for more great content coming your way!
Please Follow and Share