goergen1
10-22-2007, 12:15 PM
Functional Strength
by Jake Brooks
I just want to talk for a second on functional strength. My views on becoming a stronger person have changed over the last couple of years, I used to think that having a strong bench and a strong squat made you a strong man until I discovered some literature of lifts done around the turn of the century.
Lifts such as Olympic style lifts, the dumbbell swing, the one arm bent press, the overhead press, thick bar work. Exercises that were born out of what ever these guys could find lying out behind the old barn and try to press over their head.
Fortunately nowadays we have companies like Sorinex that can provide us with the type of gear we need to get it done. Gear like Inch D-Bel replicas, Granite Spheres, Big Squeeze D-Bells, Land-mines, Thick Bars. Equipment and lifts that are similar to the ones we see in modern day strongman competitions. These lifts done on this equipment not only train the muscular system but more so the nervous system and coordination or body awareness. They train you to be a more athletic person, putting the body in real life situations and training it to react.
My point is that pretty much anybody can train themselves to lie on a bench and press a bar in a linear plane or take a bar out of the rack, squat down and back up and so on and so forth. Would not a power clean serve the lifter better in day to day activities? I do believe that there is merit to this type of training and sprinkled in here and there can only have a positive effect on a person and their training.
Just one for instance, a friend of mine who will remain nameless hurt his back the other day while sitting in a chair lifting a 30 lb. computer monitor out of it's box. This person also the week before back squatted 610 for a double! How and Why did this happen? You tell me.
Get yourself some old strength publications and give it a shot. If nothing else you'll finally get people to look at you in the gym, they be looking at you funny but they will be looking at you all the same.
Every now and then you got to push the envelope to see where you're at!
Thanks
Jake
by Jake Brooks
I just want to talk for a second on functional strength. My views on becoming a stronger person have changed over the last couple of years, I used to think that having a strong bench and a strong squat made you a strong man until I discovered some literature of lifts done around the turn of the century.
Lifts such as Olympic style lifts, the dumbbell swing, the one arm bent press, the overhead press, thick bar work. Exercises that were born out of what ever these guys could find lying out behind the old barn and try to press over their head.
Fortunately nowadays we have companies like Sorinex that can provide us with the type of gear we need to get it done. Gear like Inch D-Bel replicas, Granite Spheres, Big Squeeze D-Bells, Land-mines, Thick Bars. Equipment and lifts that are similar to the ones we see in modern day strongman competitions. These lifts done on this equipment not only train the muscular system but more so the nervous system and coordination or body awareness. They train you to be a more athletic person, putting the body in real life situations and training it to react.
My point is that pretty much anybody can train themselves to lie on a bench and press a bar in a linear plane or take a bar out of the rack, squat down and back up and so on and so forth. Would not a power clean serve the lifter better in day to day activities? I do believe that there is merit to this type of training and sprinkled in here and there can only have a positive effect on a person and their training.
Just one for instance, a friend of mine who will remain nameless hurt his back the other day while sitting in a chair lifting a 30 lb. computer monitor out of it's box. This person also the week before back squatted 610 for a double! How and Why did this happen? You tell me.
Get yourself some old strength publications and give it a shot. If nothing else you'll finally get people to look at you in the gym, they be looking at you funny but they will be looking at you all the same.
Every now and then you got to push the envelope to see where you're at!
Thanks
Jake