Hy it’s DC here…
I hope you are crushing an awesome week.
Now that my training has been bumped back up to full go, it’s time to talk more about some of the actual training and exercises I use at the facility to help make sure our athletes never plateau and turn into freaks.
I took this ab exercise from Barry Ross, because if it is the only one he uses with his sprinters and athletes, then I think it’s worth using in the facility.
Side Note: If you haven’t purchased his book “Underground Secrets to Faster Running” and you train athletes, then you are doing them a disservice!!
In a few interviews he talks about performing what iso static holds and rotations with your upper body off hanging off a bench and your feet tucked under a squat rack safety. Well after tweaking it a tad to accomodate for comfort and shorter athletes, we moved that exercise straight to our GHR.
Needless to say, this exercise is an absolute killer… Especially when done correctly. Your abs aren’t just getting worked, but it forces your entire core to remain engaged, stiff, strong and powerful.
You have 2 variations, the rotation where you remain out and rotate as SLOWLY and in a big of range of motion as possible, and the hold. With the hold you just lay out and hold for a set period of time.
We typically go 2-3 sets of 30 seconds on the rotations, and then we go 2:00 on the hold.
We have yet to have anyone go 2 straight minutes on the hold, so the goal is 2 minutes total as fast as possible. When you come up to take a break, the clock stops. Start it again when you go back down.
Check Out Cushing’s Face… He Was Only 30 Seconds Into The Hold…
So what are some cues for performing and coaching this exercise?
- Set up the GHR so the base of the butt is still touching the outside of the pad. Any shorter than that you aren’t doing enough work, any more than that the lower back gets overworked.
- Lay back until the upper body is slightly above parallel with the ground.
- When rotating, rotate as slowly as possible and as big as possible making sure your shoulders turn. If we go for 30 seconds, we average 25-30 total rotations.
- When holding, remain in that parallel position until you have to take a break.
This is KEY: Make sure you and/or your athletes hips and legs aren’t flexed. If they lock their legs or do nothing but flex their hips and quads during the movement, the abs and core aren’t getting the full amount of work needed.
Here is a short video shot a few days ago of me and one of my coaches performing the exercise. The exercise is very boring to watch, so I only included 1 set of rotations and 1 60 second hold. It appears that I also included one of my coaches thumbs who can’t operate a camera very well.
Check it out and please let me know what you think.
I’ll talk to you guys on Monday, as I’m flying out early tomorrow morning to Phoenix for some awesome business masterminding and won’t be back until late Sunday night.
Enjoy the weekend and feel free to direct all your cuss words when performing this exercise (especially the holds) at either myself or Barry.
DC
Filed under Best At Sports, Bodyweight, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Stronger by on Jan 26th, 2012. 4 Comments. 
Whats up? It’s DC and I hope you are having a kick ass week.
Things at Genesis have never been busier as we have not just our normal junior high and high school athletes training, but we also still have our pro baseball group training for a few more weeks, our NFL Combine/Pro Day group has been going strong for a couple of weeks, our AFL football guys are finishing up before heading out to camp at the beginning of February, and now our NFL guys are starting to trickle back in now that their season has wrapped up and they had a few weeks to recover and rest.
With all that being said though, I want to make sure that you continue to work hard, learn, and train as best as possible…
So today I want to wrap up with the final 6 tips to develop huge arms.
If you missed part 1, you can find it here.
So lets get rolling so you can get those arms growing!
7) Don’t Always Curl & Press… Start Climbing, Pulling, and Crawling More
The first thing that pops into most people’s head when you ask them about training to get bigger arms, are all the variations of curling and tricep press exercises that you see everywhere. In every magazine, youtube video, or internet product now days there is some super secret curling or pressing exercise to get results as fast as possible while bringing up your 5th bicep head and 38th tricep muscle that is located in the externaltemporaneous plane that is a secret.
Instead of living off curls and tricep presses (and all their variations), what you if you started moving your whole body just by using your arms? This is one of the biggest ways to trigger massive arm growth.
So instead of dumbbell bicep curls, go climb ropes. Instead of barbell preacher curls, hammer as many different chin-up and neutral grip variations as possible; and instead of always just tricep pressing your life away, start performing walks and crawls like crab walks, bear crawls, or even learn to walk on your hands to hammer those arms.
Iso Holds Are Awesome
Constantly moving and lifting are great ways to pack on some size, but what about just static holds? One of the quickest ways you can pack on size to those noodles hanging out your shirt, is by putting in some iso static holds at the end of your training session.
An Iso Static hold means taking a weight and for biceps, curling it half way and holding it there as long as possible. For triceps you would press the weight half way and hold it there flexing as hard as possible.
You can also throw these in with your normal bicep/tricep exercises.
For example, if you are doing alternate dumbbell curls, then hold one dumbbell in the iso hold position, and perform all the reps for your other arm. Then switch arms.
9) Add Weight to Bodyweight Exercises
Bodyweight exercises are the bomb… period thank you. But so many athletes and people don’t think so because they never make them harder or heavier. Start throwing chains around you during push-ups or dips, hang kettlebells or plates from a belt or squeeze a medball between your legs during pull-ups, or even just elevate your feet during push-ups to make them more difficult.
If you can find ways to bring those types of bodyweight exercises back into the rep range that promotes muscle growth, then your biceps and triceps will start growing again.
10) If Your Triceps Really Suck, Add in Bands
If your bench sucks because you can’t get those last few inches during the press, or if it looks like someone cut a chunk out of the backside of your arm between your elbow and armpit, then you need to bring those triceps up stat!!
The quickest way to do this is to press a band 2-3 times a week from different angles and positions. You should be cranking out 100 reps after every training session, to help get those triceps caught up with the rest of your body.
Press it down, overhead and out, lying on a bench… It doesn’t matter, but vary up the way you are pressing it each training session and get 75-100 reps.
11) Become a Farmer
If you aren’t performing farmers walks and some sort of rope pulling exercise, then your arms aren’t growing as fast as possible.
Performing these 2 exercises is probably the simplest way to jack up your biceps and forearms.
Why? One of the main reasons is because of a thing called “Time Under Tension”. Time under tension basically refers to the amount of time, a muscle is performing work before resting.
Charles Poliquin originally came up with this phrase and he discovered that if a muscle is under constant heavy tension for 30-70 seconds, then hypertrophy has a better chance of occuring.
So by performing farmer walks or something like a heavy prowler, truck, or sled pull with a rope for time or distance, creates that needed time under tension to grow your arms.
12) Get a Stronger Grip
Outside of Popeye, have you ever seen someone with huge forearms and a massive death grip, have small upper arms? I’m willing to bet no. That is because guys with massive grip strength and forearms lift heavy weights and realize that growing your arms is only going to be as effective as your weakest link.
So train your grip. At the facility, we perform things like Captains of Crush grippers, sandbag holds, clamp squeezes, heavy farmer holds, rice digs, and much more.
Get that grip stronger and the rest of the arm will follow.
So there are the final 6 tips. Get off the computer and get to cranking those arms.
If you haven’t liked the new Facebook page, then I ask that you click here and do so. That way you won’t miss out on anything I have going on both off and on the blog. I’m going to start doing live QnA’s, product giveways, and much more. So make sure you don’t miss out.
*** www.DCFacebookPage.com ***
DC
Filed under Bodyweight, Get Bigger, Get Stronger by on Jan 16th, 2012. Comment.
DC,
For a skinnier guy that’s been getting into barbell strength training to put on a bit of muscle, and look good nekkid, is there anything you could recommend if I had to go without access to gym equipment for an extended period of time, of say 3-6 months?
I’ve taken a look at a book on bodyweight strength training, and the guy that wrote it seems to spend most of the time talking out his arse about how his bodyweight training is superior to free-weights in every conceivable way, and the rest of fitness world is just brainwashed.
His credibility aside, I’d be interested to know if it’s feasible to be make any sort of respectable gains, or at least avoid losing the muscle I’ve put on, if I just did not have access to a gym for an extended period.
James
James,
Thanks for the question and you bet you can pack on some respectable gains using just bodyweight only exercises.
Just take a look at male gymnasts. They are jacked beyond belief and never lift weights.
DB Laterals Raises & Curls Done? ZERO
The mistake people make when thinking about bodyweight exercises though is they assume everything is high rep, and never really think “outside the box” on ways to add resistance or make exercises more challenging.
They are stuck with doing dips, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and some sit-ups.
The same science and theories that work for building strength and size with barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, sandbags, etc. also work for bodyweight training.
The key is just finding the correct exercises.
If you can do find those exercises that you can only really do for 3-4 sets of 5-10 reps at a time, then you are training the body the same way you would with weights, but even more efficiently since your entire body has to stay tight and ends up getting worked out with these more advanced movements.
I recommend checking out Convict Conditioning as a great resource for bodyweight progressions to keep you gaining.
I turn to it all the time when figuring out bodyweight training for myself and my athletes.
DC
It appears that Convict Conditioning 2 has come out. I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but with how good the first one was, I am willing to bet it won’t disappoint.
If anyone has read it, I would love to hear what you think and if it is worth picking up.
Filed under Bodyweight, Fast, Strong, & Jacked, Get Bigger, Get Stronger, QnA by on Dec 19th, 2011. 2 Comments.
