Character Strengthening & Comination Training/Ultra High Reps

God bless and hope this finds you all well. Well the last couple of newsletters have been topical about something that was fresh on my mind at the time. This one will be the same. I actually had a topic in a few newsletter back that I intended to stretch into a second newsletter and finish my thought process on, but that’s going to have to wait till next time. The best laid plans of mice and men …

Regardless of whatever you plan you have to remember that people are the most important thing. I read yesterday in an article examining a famous martial arts character that the ancient masters believed that true study of the arts was also a development of character. In that character one should honor God and family before improving one’s self. It’s funny how we don’t come from the same style, culture or belief system we still believe the same things. I believe that those of us dedicated to strength are in the same vein of physical life as martial arts. That strength is in essence a martial art and that martial arts are a development of strength. And along with those old time masters I believe that the development of strength should also be the development of character. Honoring God and family first.

Does your life reflect that? Does your training reflect that? If it doesn’t deeper examination of those areas is warranted.

Physical effort and struggle builds discipline and character. While the physical effort seems difficult it is still the easy part of building the whole man. Physical effort lasts only a while, but the struggle of character is permanent. It is the deeper work of a man’s life. Honor to God and family are not difficult once they are an expression of love and character. Although playing them out in the realm of real life may include some very difficult choices. When you boil those choices down to your deepest love and your priorities they become evident and easy to make.

With those thoughts in mind that’s why I changed the topic of today’s newsletter to this:

There are many families within our circle that need our prayer right now. I want to ask that you all be thinking and praying for these people right now. One of the great powerlifters of the past, Pat Casey who will be honored at this year’s Old Time Barbell Association dinner recently died of cancer. There’s another strongman whom I can’t name at the moment who is also struggling with cancer. Within my own family there are two cases right now of recently diagnosed cancer.

My first cousin Ginger was recently diagnosed with Lymphoma. She’s only 28. Her immediate family is still struggling with the after effects of her mother having breast cancer. They’re still waiting to hear what will be done about treatment. My wife’s aunt has recently been diagnosed for the second time with cancer. She underwent a biopsy days ago and was found to have another malignant growth. She in herself is an inspirational story. As a child she had a massive tumor in her lower abdomen which was life threatening, yet as a young adult she became a professional ballet dancer and teacher. In her early 30’s she had another larger tumor growing in her brain which was cancerous. After enduring 27 surgeries and countless other treatments and still dealing with the after effects, she has gone on to become an advocate for the rights of handicapped citizens in the state of Pennsylvania, as well as a talented artist for Carnegie University having done several murals for them and working as a grant director as well.

I’m sure that throughout our list there are many people dealing with situations like this. Let’s remember these four that I’ve named as well as those who go unnamed yet are dear to our friends.

Let’s use the training that we have done to make us better people so that we may better love and serve those around us who need us. Let us take courage in the face of adversity. Let us remember that God is in control regardless of the outcome and that all things work together for good for them that love Him. Let us remember that hard situations can be beaten and that you can go on and live past these difficulties. Let us be inspired by their strength and in turn inspire them with ours. Let us not waste life, let us not waste time worrying about things that don’t matter or being upset over things that even though they are hard, are minor. Let us rally our courage to defeat the big challenges and cheer for our brothers as they do the same.


SOME GREAT STUFF HAPPENING AND COMING UP

I was in the book store the other day and happened to pick up a copy of the July issue of Ironman and thumbed through. Saw that my buddy Pavel Tsatsouline had a two-part interview by Ori Hofmekler. So I was reading along and low and behold he mentioned me. Not that that’s anything huge, but it’s always nice to suddenly find your name. I don’t normally read the glossy muscle mags, but this one is worth picking up for the interview with Pavel. The June issue also carried an article by Mike Mahler. Hardcore training might be making a return to the mainstream.

June 1st, I’ll be participating in teleseminar/training interview with Charles Staley. It’ll take place between 3-4pm PST. It will last an hour. The first part will be interview, the second part will be question and answer. Charles Staley is definitely a world class trainer of professional athletes and has some brilliant training materials. He’s another man to help bring realism to the training of mainstream. We’d like to say thanks to Charles for the opportunity and to those in his group who requested it. We’ll let you know more about specifics next week if you want to get in on it.

We just finished shooting a new video/DVD course on Partial and Progressive Distance Training. We’re still in the editing process but it will be ready very soon. It will likely run about an hour and 20 minutes and will cover about 30 different partial exercises some completely unique and never before seen on video as well as details on how to use them in your training. It will also come with a training manual that will give you recommendations and specific routines to add this powerful concept to your training. Look for it very soon.

June 11th I’ll be performing at the Old Time Barbell and Strength Association annual dinner in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. It’s a great opportunity to meet some of the living legends of strength sports. Slim Farman, “The Hammer Man”, a living strongman legend will also be performing. Pat Casey, Don Reinhoudt and Red Lerriel will be honorees. There will also be a bending and tearing competition as well as a vendor’s tables and an Olympic Weightlifting clinic with Tommy Kono. It’s not a weekend to be missed if you can make it.


TRAINING TIP

Combination Training and Ultra High Reps

All our training is in some way a combination of multiple concepts. I believe combination training is absolutely necessary for the greatest overall development. I think if you narrowly focus on one thing then you’ll make the greatest gains for that in the short term. But in the long run you cheat yourself. Now that narrow focus training maybe necessary and can be beneficial for short periods of time to maximize your performance on a particular goal. However in the long run you’ve got to be working strength and endurance training and truthfully probably mixing in many other training styles along the way. Such as joint mobility, flexibility, partial and full range training, high and low rep, aerobic and anaerobic training. Within one of these concepts lies ultra high rep training. I think there are some unique benefits to be made with this particular brand of training especially when it is combined with low rep power efforts.

I think if you look at the training of many of the strongest people in the world you will find this concept and we’ve said this before. There are many examples. Me, Dennis Rogers, John Brookfield, Steve Justa, Slim Farman and Dave Patton. Now let me clarify what I mean by Ultra High Reps. I’m not talking about doing it forever nor am I talking about bodybuilder style training. I’m talking about taking an exercise and driving it into serious whole body effort by continuous performance. I’m talking about pushing it beyond simple limits and building a type of endurance strength that’s rarely talked about today. I’m talking about pushing an exercise beyond it’s normal limits to the point where it begins to apply every muscle in the body to get the job done as well as building and uniting the Chi or subtle energy of the body into functional effort.

I think this worked for me when I truly pursued high rep bodyweight exercises and even though for a short period of time that was my focus and it slightly took away from my other strengths once I began to refocus on maxing my strength, I had built up such a reserve that once I redirected my efforts I made a massive jump in power. This is why I say it is important to combine max strength with ultra high reps. Plus this type of training knocks down mental walls. It shapes you into a machine with powerful focus, unified physical and spiritual force and the will and belief that you can get through any challenge. Steve Justa wrote very well about this in his book. This is the big reason why I think Pavel Tsatsouline’s style of training is very effective.

Super ballistic high rep kettlebell drills combined with low rep power focusing exercises on big basic moves. Slim Farman did the same thing with sledgehammers. Thousands of reps combined with low rep max efforts. He also did this with other exercises. For instance hundreds of reps of bench presses and crushers and was able to lever a pair of 30+lb hammers. Nearly double what almost anyone else could do. Dave Patton a world champion arm wrestler always did multiple sets of 21 reps with little or no rest and often did sets of 111 in forearm exercises. He was practically unbeatable in arm wrestling and has been described as having some of the highest quality muscle of any human being to ever live. He also had a body weight of approximately 175lbs, could curl 225 with his back against a wall. That’s an amazing feat of strength.

Dennis Rogers believes that the circulation and healthy muscle built by high reps are the reasons that these men could perform the feats. Massive influxes of circulation carrying oxygen and nutrients to the muscle and flushing out toxins while at the same time building internal energy in tendons and ligaments. When combined with focusing efforts on maximum strength as well you get a greater overall effect. The max effort makes the high reps more doable and the high reps pre-prep you for max effort. The key is building in slowly and using light and if possible ballistic or quick exercises for your ultra high reps. Also working them in intervals takes less away from your max strength while building whole body unity and circulation.

Set up a challenge for yourself. I always train max strength but always maintain some high rep work as well. At some point in your training career you should undertake a challenge for ultra high reps. Set yourself something up that requires you to do 500 to 1,000 or more reps. Once you come through the fire so to speak refocus on your max strength and apply what you built with your challenge. You’ll definitely come out stronger.