The Useful Strong Stuff Journal Vol. 15 The Zercher Edition

Training without a gym and having minimal equipment takes a lot of creativity. The last couple weeks I have been jumping back into training post injury and post surgery. This means I am doing backyard workouts and playground workouts a lot. It also means I am researching how to use my limited equipment. If I had actual goals with my training this might be a problem. I just want to get stronger and rehab right now, there are a million ways for me to get that goal accomplished. So all these weird workouts are actually a blessing to me.

They are a blessing because they are forcing me to get smarter and more creative about my training. I have to think in ways I didn’t have to before. This thinking and experimentation will lead to me learning things I would have never learned in ideal situations. This will make me a formidable trainer and coach to others. I will know more exercises. I will also know better how to use limited training resources. I know by the end of this pandemic that I will be good at using bands. Bands will just be another tool, and a good coach can never have too many of those. Beyond learning new tricks to do minimal training, I think I might even become better at some things.

Pullups are easy to do on all sorts of playground equipment, trees, and other places. I have never been good at them though. This is the time to get good at them. The same goes for pushups, single leg squats, and lunges. I feel like if I become very good at these things then I will have a base to be even more awesome at the things I care about like squats when the time comes. That is how I view this time we live in.

Every layoff, every hurdle, every bit of a chaos is a chance to grow.

Every week I spend a lot of time reading and looking for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome. Here are some of the best things I have found this week.

Strength and Conditioning

I thought this was a fun looking calf exercise. Seems like it could be easy to implement at home with just dumbbells or at a gym. A good option for quarantine training. https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-the-best-weird-calf-exercise

A really good discussion on using dynamic lifting in your training. https://www.elitefts.com/education/dynamic-training-should-you-be-doing-it/

Tips to get strong enough to get your first pullup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0MYDVU6qoA

Zercher Good Morning Binge

Training from home means getting creative. One way I am trying to get creative is by adding in some Zercher Good Mornings. I have never done them, but have heard of them. I went on a little research binge this week and this is what I have found.

Benefits.

Hits the core rather hard. This is awesome because I don’t have equipment for that.
Stresses the upper back. Again limited equipment for me.
Easy to do without a rack out in the yard.
Hits the posterior chain, which is always good.
More variations means less boredom right now with this at home workout thing.

Technique vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wylCK7JZPQ4

Some technique tips: https://tonygentilcore.com/2012/04/exercises-you-should-be-doing-zercher-goodmornings/

Another nice demo video and some tips. https://ericasuter.com/exercise-for-confidence-zercher-good-morning/

Zercher all the lifts! This is a pretty cool article on different variations of zercher lifts. For example doing Zercher shrugs gives me another trap variation to play with other than barbell shrugs. The shrugs look like a lot of fun to try. The Zercher carries look fun too, something that is really good for messing around in the yard. https://thibarmy.com/i-zercher-everything/

You can also apparently use a band for a band only Zercher good morning if that’s what you got to work with. How you set the band up is going to take a little creativity. https://fightcampconditioning.com/strength-bjj-banded-zercher-good-morning/

The Useful Strong Stuff Journal Vol. 14: Rage Against The Capitalists Version

(Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is an actual endorsement of whacking anyone with sticks, socially and economically elite or otherwise.)

Someone was talking about a dumbass fitness goal on Twitter. Something about using their awesome fitness to whack the elite with a stick till the means of production fell out of them like whacking a piñata. Yeah it was some totally odd and random communist sounding propaganda stuff. They were probably being a smartass. My brain is stupid though. I started to think how someone would train to for such a such a goal. I didn’t have much of a clue.

Then I realized I have a clue.

Once you get deep enough into the fitness journey you start to realize you have some of the tools to train anyone towards most any goals. This assumes the trainee is a novice. I sat and assumed this individual was a novice at whacking the social and economic elite with sticks. So I crafted a smartass answer that looked a little like this.

Train the spinal erectors.
Train the squat.
Drag the sled.
Row to grow.

That was my thoughts on the matter. Really it’s not a bad base plan for all sorts of fitness goals. In fact if you got really good at those 4 things you would be well on your way to being a real badass. Things are just that simple sometimes. An advanced program might add some more things, but there is nothing advanced about the base act of whacking someone with a stick. Brute force gets the job done.

Brute force gets the job done a lot of the time, and more brute force is never a bad thing.

So being a smart reminded me that the basics is where it’s at, and where its always at. So I’m off to work on my spinal erectors today, just in case some I need to whack some dumbass capitalistic overlord with a stick.

Sidenote, if any capitalistic overlords would like a fitness program to better defend themselves from being whacked with sticks then I would be more than glad to provide a program for a nominal fee.

But seriously everyone I encourage you to go work your spinal erectors today, it’s always a good day for that.

Every week I spend a lot of time reading and looking for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome. Here are some of the best things I have found this week.

Strength and Conditioning

How to use variations in the gym to make your workout harder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xey0LiQ0Ms

An explanation on breathing and bracing along with some drills to lift bigger weights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtB7z6l6U9s

I found this to be a good explanation of hypertrophy training principles. There is a lot in here about how to think about your hypertrophy training from a conceptual approach more than just going by feel. https://www.jtsstrength.com/designing-training-for-hypertrophy/

Transformation

I enjoyed this article on identity and using our own self references for change. https://zenhabits.net/identity/

A Van Down By The… Library?

It was a hot sunny day during the madness of the Covid epidemic and I paused to read the signs on the doors of the library. I had been going to the library to do my daily writing for the last couple years. I was curious what their rules and procedures were regarding disease prevention. I would like to start going back to the library to do some writing. It is far easier to be productive at the library than at home. One of the notes on the door mentioned that the library would have Wifi in the parking lot 24 hours a day. I thought for a second that I could work from my van in the parking lot if I needed a quiet place. My second thought was that wasn’t really a productive place to be. My third and final thought was “Am I too good to sit in the parking lot and write and hustle out there? Is a van with wifi just not good enough?

After reading these signs I continued my walk and pondered these thoughts. I had seemingly tripped over my own sense of entitlement. Was a focused, comfortable, quiet workplace something I was entitled to? In the end I came to feel as though these things are luxuries. What I really needed was the most modest of workplaces; my computer, some internet, and a place to sit was about all I needed. A van in the library would provide all these things. If that is where I must write to be productive, then that is where I will write.

I have not taken advantage of the library parking lot Wifi yet. Since reading the sign I have had a lot else going in life, so its not come up. The parking lot is in my mind as a backup location for my writing practice. If I am to find success, acting like I am above doing work in such places is a trap. So many times we hears the stories of entrepreneurs or creative folks talking about phases of their lives where they worked in weird places. A lot of great works started in dingy basements and garages. Success finds a way. It is easy to hear those stories and think that is not how I will find my success. I sit and think that things will be comfortable for me, they may not be.

It is worth pondering where else in my life am I acting entitled. Entitlement can live in so many areas, and it never serves the host well. Forging the proper attitude about all sorts of things is so important. Things like entitlement can be sneaky, but we can catch them.

I am glad I caught this mindset of comfort and entitlement. It has no purpose living inside me. If the things I am working on truly matter, then comfort and entitlement will not. That is what I learned that day while thinking and pondering life on that long walk. So sooner or later, I may be in a parking lot in a van writing and avoiding the distractions of home. If I don’t end up there, it won’t be because I think I am too good to sit in a van in the parking lot getting after it.

The Useful Strong Stuff Journal Vol. 13

Building strength is of course the theme of this journal. This journal is really meant to be a place for building strength in all areas of our life. More and better is what we’re always looking for. We are always looking to progression to get better. The opposite direction may hold promise as well, sometimes the right answer is to regress.

I am coming off surgery and a long injury layoff. I am looking forward to working out hard again and regaining lost strength. At this moment though I am very weak. I am weak to the point of not being able for the first time since I was a child being able to do simple things like a pushup. This is the hand that life dealt me. I had to do simpler forms of pushups to get a workout in. I had to use an exercise regression. I did standing pushups against a rail where I only had to lean over a little bit. I was sore the next day. Regression was progression in this case, soon I look to be doing cool stuff again.

Acknowledging that I had to take a step back and use a regression took swallowing ego. I am “Nehemiah the Mighty Lifter” pushups are easy to do for me, except you know when they aren’t. Accepting cold hard truth is a step in moving forward, a step I am trying to get better at. Doing these super easy standing pushups, well that is the truth for me right now.

Every week I spend a lot of time reading and looking for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome. Here are some of the best things I have found this week.

Strength and Conditioning

Apparently you can Zercher your triceps extensions and they look pretty cool http://www.brandonsmitley.com/thirst-gym-terre-haute-zercher-tricep-extension/

An exercise for hip and ankle mobility that requires zero equipment https://ericasuter.com/technique-tuesday-floor-get-up/

2 hours of overview on the conjugate methodology of training, this stuff is really good for anyone wanting to push their strength https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgUb8ZHGkJk&t=1077s