Training Auxiliary Muscles

God bless you all.

I hope we're all coming off of a great Thanksgiving weekend. Now we head into the Christmas season. A wonderful time of year. Let's all be ready to make this a truly special time. Not with big gifts, but with spending time with the ones you love and remembering the real reason for the season; The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now I got a little bit of a rebellious streak so I'm now going to encourage all the rest of you to be politically incorrect and rebel against the current idiot tendencies of our society. Don't put up with people telling you, or anyone trying to force on you, not being able to say "CHRISTmas." I know it's not popular right now and governmental institutions and many public places are required to say, "Happy Holidays," or whatever else they're supposed to say without "offending" anyone. Well I'm going to tell you right now, that offends ME!

People can say whatever they want about religious tolerance, but the truth is by doing this the largest religious group in the world isn't being tolerated. Christians by far out-number other religions in the United States. However, our right to celebrate our holiday is somehow wrong. Yet every other facet of society that doesn't agree with Christianity is allowed to say whatever they want. I support people being able to say whatever they want as long as it isn't obscene, because if I say it's okay to censor you, someday the shoe may be on the other foot and you may have the power to censor me. But what is happening right now is that the true founding faith of our country is being censored. All I'm saying is that if we're going to function in a live and let live society, then you gotta hold up your end of the bargain and let me live as well.

Therefore those of you who are Christians, step up to the plate. When you decorate, make sure it says, "CHRISTmas." Be a little bit personable and explain it to anyone whom you think might be offended. Tell them that you have no offense intended towards anyone else's beliefs, but that you're not going to be ashamed of yours either. Even though I believe it is my duty to tell you what I believe, because I believe it will make a difference in how you spend eternity, you have absolutely every right to believe anything you want. I share my belief with you because I care about you.

I'll say that right now again in this newsletter. I know that there are people who read this who come from many parts of the world and have different faiths than mine. Or. no faith at all. I would not offend anyone, but would you really want to listen to me about anything if I wouldn't truly tell you what I thought. If I don't stand up and say what it is I believe, not in a pushy way, but in a way that communicates to you, doesn't that make me weak? A kind of weakness far more serious than any of the physical kind we're combating with our training? I know many of you read this because you want to hear the training tips and you just tolerate whatever other spiritual or philosophical business gets thrown in. I appreciate your interest anyway. That's why we always give physical training tips. But as I've said before, there's no separating the physical, mental and spiritual. The truly strong man does not seek to. He understands that gaining strength in all areas blends together for a superior life and strength.

TRAINING TIP

Sneaky ways to add extra emphasis to a little muscle while working a bigger one.

We all know we need to emphasize certain muscles to get better at particular lifts. And we all have little muscles that we don't particularly like to do anything with that usually get left out because we've rightly focused the majority of our energy on big exercises. But I have found that if you don't do a little bit of work for some of the supporting cast muscles, you eventually end up with an injury. And if you don't address your weak links most people don't move up in their lifts, or at least when they get past the beginner stage and have their form perfected.

So what's the solution?

Well one small one that I've come up with that seems to work well for me flow right along the lines of one of the earlier newsletters we put out just a month or two ago. It' was about looking for little ways to create the greatest efficiency in your training. Well, here' s three ways to throw in those smaller exercises so that you're sure they get done and you still have an efficient workout.

1. Alternating sets between big and little exercises.

   Most of us hard core guys tend to skip stuff like calves, but I have found that for me, if I skip them on regular basis, I tend to have calf pulls when I do events that really stress them. Sprinting, etc. So this is how I like to work my calves to make sure they get done. I alternate sets of squats (or could be pulls, or presses) with sets of calf work. The calf work does a couple of things for me. It keeps me moving in the gym from set to set between sets of squats. It helps me pace. By mixing it with squats, I also get a superior calf workout without having to do much. Because the calves are involved in squatting, they're getting worked from both angles. But the small exercise is not enough energy drain to effect my squats. This style would apply to many other types of workouts and you could set it up to have a related effect like the squat calf raise combination or a direct effect by mixing for instance deadlifts and hyper or reverse hyper extensions.

2. Reverse ordering a workout.

   Another thing big lifters usually skip is abs. This is very easy to neglect at the end of a major lifting session when you've burned up all your energy. If however you change the order you force yourself to get that exercise you're likely to skip done first. Then you can concentrate on the big bang exercise. This works particularly well with abs, because they make for a great warm up and when you pre-stress them they then have to work twice as hard during your big compound exercises. Therefore you get more strength without nearly as much direct work. And you get for a good part, a more applicable kind of strength for what most lifters really want. By pre-stressing your abs with a direct exercise then following up with a compound exercise that stresses them in a supporting role, you teach them to be strong for the compound exercise. This can be applied to lots of different workouts. For instance, doing grip work first then a heavy pulling workout. Or deadlifts before you squat instead of after to pre-fatigue your back.

3. Arranging your workout to specialize on a smaller muscle.

   If you know you have something that is lagging, creating a weakness you can take a short period of time and arrange a major exercise geared toward fixing that weakness while still fitting the bill of being a serious basic exercise. For instance if you're a bench presser and you know your triceps are weak, well do some close grips. You're still benching, but you've changed the exercise to work on a particular weakness. If you're having trouble locking out, do power rack work. If your hamstrings are weak, do single leg deadlifts. If your low back is weak do stiff legged deadlifts. You get the idea. Think about it a little and find the exercise, which fits, in the basic framework of squat, press, pull that also mechanically lends itself to fixing your particular weakness.

This is basically what we've tried to do on our squat tape and on our Barbell lifting tape for Odd Objects. As well as on the Odd Object lifting tapes themselves. We've basically stuck with versions of major lifts geared to fix your technical or weakness oriented problem so that you come out with a bigger, major lift. Bigger squat, bigger stone lift, barrel lift, whatever the case may be. Be sure to check these out How to Squat 900lbs and Odd Object Lifting Series.

NEW STUFF

We are working feverishly to get one of our new books ready for sale before Christmas. Stay tuned, we'll let you know as soon as possible. We've also been blessed to come into contact with some cool and truly strong people. We'll tell you about them tomorrow.

A quick prayer:

Those of you who consider yourself praying people, I have a friend I'd like you to pray for. Scott Davis is a close friend of ours and his father has been ailed with heart conditions quite severely recently as well as been through the wringer on getting the right care. He had angioplasty done this Wednesday and I have not been able to find out exactly how he's doing, but I would like any of you out there who get this to say a prayer for him and his family. That he would be physically blessed, and that all of the related stresses would be lightened. we thank you for this Lord and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Thank you all. we really appreciate your prayers.

Again, thank you all we hope you enjoy these newsletters.