Why the Front Lever Is So Difficult

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an overweight person pull off this move! (Though it’s certainly not an impossibility.) But it’s not just how much you weigh, but how tall you are that plays into the difficulty of this movement. As a leverage exercise, one additional inch in height adds many foot-pounds of pressure that you must resist. Personally, at 6’2” and 185lbs, I’m not the standard gymnast size. But that’s no excuse for not being able to achieve this move if you’re willing to put in the work.

The front lever is somewhere around two to three times more difficult than the back lever, at least in my experience. It’s not just about holding your body out parallel to the ground, but also about using your lats to lock yourself into place. In the front lever the lats are at a much more disadvantageous position than in the back lever, making it significantly harder.

I’ve even heard it said that the front lever is tougher than the one arm chin-up, but I think this will depend on the person and their focus. In either case, there will be some carryover between the two.

Six Steps to the Front Lever

In this article, I’ll give you six steps you can use to work up to the full front lever. You may notice these are different than what I advise for the back lever. In my own training, I discovered that this set of progressions worked better for me for the front lever. For example, I found that when I tried to do straddle front levers, there was a likelihood of a pike in the hips, which you want to avoid, but this is easy to avoid with the one-leg versions. That doesn’t mean you can’t do alternate progressions if you want, but this is what has worked for me and for many people I have observed.

Tip: One thing that helps on this exercise, regardless of the step you’re on, is to not only pull down on the bar, but to also pull apart your hands. This action can help stabilize the scapula allowing you to hold the position better.

Tuck Front Lever

Grasp the bar within overhand grip. Pull your legs and hips up, at the same time leaning back. Your back should be rounded and your body tucked up into as much of a ball as possible. Although rounded, you want your back approximately parallel to the ground.

Advanced Tuck Front Lever

Start in the tuck lever position. Instead of rounding your back, now you’re going to straighten it. It should form a line approximately parallel to the ground. At the same time, pull your shoulder blades back in retraction. Open the legs up slightly so your thighs are perpendicular to your body. This opening up increases the leverage.

One Bent Leg Front Lever

From the tuck lever, start with both your legs tucked in hard. Now extend one leg out, but keep the knee bent. The lower leg will be perpendicular to the ground, but your hip will be opened up completely. It may look like an odd position, but it’s not difficult to get into, and is an important step in the progression. Make sure to alternate legs between your sets.

One Leg Front Lever

Start in the tucked front lever position. Extend one leg out completely straight. Your back, hips, and the extended leg will all be in one line, parallel to the ground. It’s okay if there is a slight bow, but you should be mostly straight. The other leg will be tucked in hard to the chest. Make sure to alternate legs on your sets.

Advanced One Leg Front Lever

Start in the tucked front lever position. Extend one leg out completely straight. The other leg is partially un-tucked. The foot will be in line with the knee of the other leg. This halfway open position increases the leverage dramatically. Once again, your back and the straight leg are parallel to the ground. Alternate legs.

Front Lever

Starting from the tuck lever position, keeping both legs together, gradually extend them out at the hips and knees, until they are completely straight. Your entire body will form one straight line parallel to the ground. Pull down hard with the hands and the lats, as well as working the pulling-apart action to assist in stabilization.

Tip: Alternatively, you can pull up into this position from standing, although this is harder to do. These front lever pulls can be a great dynamic exercise, even without holding, to do in addition to the regular progressions of holds.

In the interest of being forthright, at the time of this writing I haven’t achieved the full front lever hold yet. Not for more than a split second anyway. But I am close, having accomplished several seconds in the advanced one leg front lever. And these are the progressions I’ve used to get there.

In the beginning you may progress quickly through this series as your body becomes adapted to the front lever position. As you reach the last three steps, you’ll find things slow down. Understand that it can take months to go from one step to the next. An additional second here and there is great progress. And, as needed, you can do additional in between phases of these exercises.

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Braced bending is different from short bending, which I showed you in my previous article on nail bending. Short bending is done away from the body, and all the power is generated through the hands. But even though you use a fulcrum, braced bending is not easy. You still need hand and wrist strength, even though other parts of the body come into play. This will be described more as we get into the details of technique.

Braced bending is typically performed with objects in the 8” to 12” range. When you go longer than that, you’ll still be bracing the object against something, but you may create multiple bends. This is called scrolling steel, and is considered a different feat of strength altogether.

Brace and Bend

The most common brace is the thigh. Note that this hurts. You’re applying a lot of pressure on the object, which then digs into your leg. You can place a pad or a rolled up hand towel on your thigh to help, but it will still be painful. Jeans seem to disperse some of the pain a bit more than other clothing. Get used to it. Part of being a strongman is developing a high pain tolerance.

1. Wrapping the Spike: Wrap the head and point of the spike in leather or other wraps, just as in short bending. A tight wrap is still useful, though not as important here.
2. Leg Position: Take a slight lunge position. The leading leg is whichever leg you prefer the spike to be braced against. I like to go with my right leg, but experiment to find which one works best for you.
3. Grip Position: Grasp the wrap at the far ends of the spike. Your hands should be as far to the edge of the spike as possible, but the majority of the hand should be over the spike and not hanging off the ends.
4. The First Bend: Explode into the nail with the upper body and arms. Press down as hard as you can on both ends of the nail. The nail will begin to bend around your leg. You must be able to resist the pain so you can push hard enough to bend the object. Tricep strength comes into play. Keep a slight bend in your arms and bend from the waist. Think of an explosive bench press and sit up at the same time, all directed into the steel.
5. The Next Position: Once you have a sufficient kink in the spike (aim for at least a 30 degrees), you’ll switch to the next position. Reposition your body but keep your hands on the outside ends of the nails. Place your feet at minimum shoulder width apart but turn your feet and knees outward. Place the spike between the insides of your thighs, with the wrists backed up against your legs.
6. The Second Bend: Once you’re in position, start torqueing with your wrists to begin the bend. Your legs apply inward pressure against the wrists to assist with the bend. Don’t just press inward, but torque that pressure towards the kink in the spike to drive all the power into the weak point. It may seem like the legs do most of the work here, but wrist strength will make or break your ability to accomplish this.
7. The Final Bend: Finish the bend in this position. If you need to, step your feet in closer to each other to provide more leverage. You can also bring the spike up to a double overhand position, like in short bending, to finish the close.

Right: the first bend; Left: the second bend

Progress to Wrenches and Screwdrivers

Start to learn this feat with a 12” spike. Once you’re good there, you can move on to 10” spikes. This is a pretty big jump in difficulty. Like other feats of strength, the difficulty will change depending on the quality of the steel used. In my experience, galvanized nails – those with a zinc coating – are easier than non-galvanized.

Once you’ve mastered the 10” spike, you can move on to other objects that can be bent in the same way. Thick screwdrivers, hammers, and even wrenches. Bending these common household objects with your hands is a stunning feat to the average person. Turning a brand-name wrench into an “S” shape with just two bends is one of the feats that put grandmaster strongman Dennis Rogers on the map.

Braced bending takes strong hands and a strong body, as well as a large degree of pain tolerance. But if you master it, you’ll be able to perform a feat of strength few can match.

More like this:

• Feats of Strength: How to Bend a Nail in Half
• An Introduction to Implement Training: Get Strong Like a Strongman
• At Arm’s Length: Old-Time Strongman Tests of Shoulder Strength
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Feats of Strength: How to Bend a Spike (or Screwdriver) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This destructive desire is also at play in the previously covered phonebook ripping and card tearing feats of strength. But it is possibly even more satisfying here. Man and woman versus metal.

Nail Bending Styles and Types

There are many different styles and types of bending metal. Long bar scrolling, such as rolling a frying pan into a burrito shape, or twisting horseshoes into hearts can take over an hour of dedicated work.

Here we’re going to cover nail bending, also known as short bending. Nail bending requires great hand and wrist strength. Bending a 60D nail (read as sixty penny nail) is known as the entrance into the performing strongman world. When you can do this, you have begun.

There are three main styles of nail bending, all of them legitimate. These are known as the double over, double under, and reverse styles. The strongest benders in the world tend to prefer the double overhand style because you get the best leverage and can minimize the use of the wrists. Here more of the upper body is used.

Personally, I feel strongest in the reverse style. Make sure to experiment and learn all three before you decide to dedicate yourself to one style. In this article, I will be covering the double overhand style.

Wrap Up

Both ends of the nail are wrapped in some material. Large amounts of material aid in leverage. Perhaps for this reason, performing strongmen tend to use less material.

Something as simple as a washcloth can be used to wrap the nail. Be sure to toughen up the skin of your hands because you are using a lot of pressure. Leather wraps are the best protective material. Another good option is Cordura, which is included when you buy the Ironmind Bag of Nails. The Cordura must be used to certify in bending the Red Nail, which is an elite feat of strength.

A Full Body Movement

This is a full body movement. You’re going to explode into the nail, tensing up the whole body.

• Grasp both ends of padding over the nail, with your arms raised out to the sides. Keep your wrists mostly straight, and keep the nail up high under your chin.
• Gripping the nail hard, explode your upper body into the nail so that the elbows come forward, not down (this common mistake is known as chicken-winging). It can be helpful to bend the torso forward as you’re doing this.
• If you do it correctly, the nail will fold partially. You’ll then need to re-position your hands in order to finish the nail. As the knuckles run into each other you can open up one, then the other hand, spreading the fingers across the back side of the opposite hand to complete the bend.
• The nail ends will not touch. The bend it is usually considered complete when the ends are within two inches of each other.

In the following video, the double overhand bending is done right around the six-minute mark. I also give a number of other tips and show the other styles of nail bending.

Nail Size and Quality

As with other feats of strength, the quality of the steel can vary greatly. I’ve seen 60D nails that are as tough as Grade 8 bolts (very hard) and others that most in shape people seem to be able to bend way too easily.

You’ll probably want to start with 40D nails, which are easy to find. Here’s is an overly simple progression, using things that are commonly available in most hardware stores:

1. 40D nail
2. 60D nail
3. Grade 5 bolt
4. Grade 8 bolt

You can also buy lengths of hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel. The cold-rolled is tougher than the hot-rolled. These can be bought in different thicknesses and then cut to length. One quarter-inch thick cold rolled steel is roughly equivalent to a 60D nail when if is cut to six inches in length.

This form of steel allows more progression and regression than nails and bolts, as you can alter the length. Note that the leverage and technique changes slightly with longer and shorter steel. And going too short is not fun, as there is too little to grab.

Start Small

Start easy to work on technique and build from there. Be careful and ease in slowly. Do too much volume or intensity can damage the ligaments, inflame the elbows, and cause pain. If you feel pain, back off.

Once you’re in the groove, bending four or five pieces of metal for a workout tends to work well. Do this two times a week and you’ll make progress. I like to do high-volume bending one workout per week, then work on higher strength metal on the other workout of the week.

This is a great form of mental toughness training. It is man against steel. It’s up to you whether your willpower will overcome or not.

More like this:

• Feats of Strength: The Old, the New, and You
• What Strongman Training Can Teach Us About Getting Strong
• How to Get Strongman Strong With the Bent Press
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Feats of Strength: How to Bend a Nail in Half appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Card Tearing: A Beginner’s Guide

This feat requires a significant amount of hand strength. Similar to the phonebook trick, there is a posting hand and a ripping hand that work opposite each other. Here’s how it’s done:

1. The non-dominant hand grips the deck, covering about half of it. Grip too high or too low and one hand will work harder than the other, as it is grabbing less surface space.
2. The hand grips over the top of the deck with the fingers and thumb wrapping around the deck. Pressure is exerted to stabilize the deck, mostly through the middle joint of the thumb across from the middle joints of the index and middle fingers. The cards are kept stiff and together, but don’t grip so hard that it curls the deck.
3. The other hand takes a different grip. Pressure is exerted between the thumb pad and the side surface of the index finger, with the other fingers underneath for added support. Squeeze these fingers together as much as possible. It’s a weird grip that is not trained in most hand strength programs.
4. The posting hand will then be exerting a downward pressure while the ripping hand exerts an upward pressure. As in the phonebook, a slight “S” curve in the deck can narrow down the line of tension to one point, making the tear begin.
5. With the cards it is customary to hold them away from your body, not supporting against your leg or anywhere else. This is the standard way to do it, though for training purposes you can use that extra bracing when needed.
6. Once you tear through the cards partly you’ll reposition your tearing hand for better leverage. Once you’ve gotten through half of the deck you can then position your hand inside of the tear to help finish it off.

There is an alternative technique that involves the same fingertip-to-pad-of-hand grip as the phonebook trick. The hands grip the deck while opposing each other, then are twisted apart. This can be a legitimate way of tearing cards, as long as they are not fanned apart.

Finding Cards for Practice

The gold standard for card tearing is the Bicycle brand. It’s a fairly tough deck and is widely available. That said, I’ve come across others that are even tougher. The problem with Bicycle decks is they tend to be the most expensive.

My favorite place to get cards is on Amazon. You can find tons of inexpensive used decks from casinos, and usually they’re pretty tough. Another good option is a dollar store. These decks tend to be lower quality and easier to tear, making them a great starter pack.

The strength of cards varies greatly, partially due to the amount of plastic in the card compared to paper. Purely paper cards are pretty easy to do. Others are like working through Kevlar.

Scale Your Progression

The principles of progressive training apply here, too. It’s actually quite simple. Start with around fifteen cards. Anything less than this and you don’t have enough mass to support the technique. They tend to fold over if you use too few cards. If you can’t handle fifteen cards, you may want to do some more basic hand training exercises first. When fifteen is easy, move onto sixteen or seventeen. Build a card or a two at a time and eventually you’ll handle a full deck.

“You can tear a deck vertically, tear a mini deck of cards, or tear them behind your back – the options are endless.”

As for how to train it, a simple but effective program is to do about four “decks” in a workout, where a “deck” is however many you’re working with. To conserve my money and get more out of each deck, I typically quarter each half.

To quarter a deck, you tear it in half. Then you take each half and tear that in half, thus turning the deck into four quarters. Watch out that your first tear is fairly even, or one of these new halves will be much smaller than the other, and thus much tougher.

Variations of Tearing

That brings me to some of the variations. You can tear a deck vertically, tear a mini deck of cards, or tear them behind your back – the options are endless.

Another fun option is to do a “deck of cards” workout, and once you are done with that, you tear the deck in half. Or, if you ever get beat badly at poker or blackjack, you can show the cards who’s boss!

You’ll also enjoy:

• Feats of Strength: The Old, the New, and You
• What Strongman Training Can Teach Us About Getting Strong
• 3 Reasons You Should Do the Bent Press: The King of Lifts
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo couresy of Shutterstock.

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Don’t Bake It, Pop It or Fan It

Tearing a phonebook in half has been a challenge of strength as long as phonebooks have been around. Many people think of it as a party trick, but done in the right way it takes lots of strength. Don’t get me wrong – there is technique to it, but not anyone can tear a phonebook in the legit style.

Phonebook tearing is one of the easier feats of strength to learn, but it will take some dedicated practice

– and a lot of phonebooks.

Speaking of legit style, there are ways to fake it, which include:

• Baking a phonebook in the oven makes it brittle and easy to tear.
• Fanning the pages so you only need to rip a little at a time.
• A method of “popping” the phonebook, so once again you end up only tearing a few pages at a time.

This is in contrast to the style of simply gripping it and ripping it, as I was taught by my mentor and Grandmaster Oldtime Strongman Dennis Rogers.

Dedicate Yourself to the Book

Phonebook tearing is one of the easier feats of strength to learn, but it will take some dedicated practice – and a lot of phonebooks. Since phonebooks are free, it also doesn’t cost you any money like some of the other destructive feats of strength. There are a number of ways you can get hold of some phonebooks to rip up:

• When people are given phonebooks they often just throw them out, so you can ask your friends and family to save them for you instead.
• Libraries tend to keep copies of all the different counties in stock. When they get new ones they recycle the old. You can ask them to save them for you instead. I did this for a number of years.
• Places like information centers in tourist places of towns and cities often still have phonebook towers. You can take a few phonebooks from these.
• You can even call the phonebook company and ask them to send you a bunch.

So now that you know how to round up some phonebooks to work with, let’s get to the technical aspect of the feat.

The Basics of Tearing – A Step by Step Guide

Phonebook tearing is based first and foremost on hand strength. Although most of your body is in use, the hands tend to be the weak link.

• You’re going to grip the phonebook with a version of the pinch grip. In the standard pinch grip (think of holding two weight plates together with your hand), your thumb works opposite of the four fingers. Here, your fingers will be working opposite of the palm of your hand.
• One hand is the posting hand. This will typically be your non-dominant hand. You grip the phonebook near the spine and press it down against your thigh. The opposite end of the phonebook should be near your hip crease. The goal of the posting hand is to keep the phonebook secured in this spot, while the ripping hand does the ripping part. Just know that without a strong post, nothing will happen.
• The ripping hand then grasps the phonebook right next to the post hand, except on the side where the pages are loose. It’s important that the hands are close to each other, so when you exert force, it is narrowed in on one spot rather than spread throughout the book.
• Grip the phonebook tightly with both hands, posting down hard. Then pull with the ripping hand, kind of like you are doing a one arm dumbbell row. You shouldn’t just pull with the arm, but instead use your whole body behind it, twisting at the torso.
• The thumb largely is not in use, though it can be brought into play in the ripping hand. This is one place where you’ll want to experiment and find what works best for you.

When you first try it, nothing is likely to happen, but keep at it. One of the finer technical details is in applying force in such a way to develop what is called the “S” curve in the phonebook. What this accomplishes is to focus the line of force directly on one spot in the phonebook rather than it being spread out. With this line of force, tearing becomes easier.

The Key Is Starting Small

When you’re first beginning, you’re going to start small. The principles of progression apply to phonebook tearing just like any other strength goal. If you have big phonebooks, tear them down the spine so that you create smaller phonebooks out of them. I started with about a half inch in thickness and worked up from there. If you can do half an inch easily, bump it up to ¾ of an inch, then an inch, and so on. At this point my biggest tear was an over three-inch phonebook. Be forewarned, the quality of paper in phonebooks varies greatly, so some can be tougher than others, even if they are smaller.

Once you’ve mastered the basic tear on a fair-sized phonebook, you can begin to play with variations. These include everything from multiple vertical tears of one phonebook, to tearing chunks out of it, to wrapping duct tape around it then tearing it, to “posting” the phonebook with your teeth, and even more. Just like with any other exercise, start small, focus on technique, and build over time from there.

More on feats of strength:

• Feats of Strength: The Old, the New, and You
• 3 Reasons You Should Do the Bend Press: The King of Lifts
• Train Like an Old-time Strongman
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Feats of Strength: How to Tear a Phonebook in Half appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The History of Strength Demonstration

Demonstrating strength in this way is much of a lost art. About 100 years ago, strongmen were some of the top entertainers of the day. People would crowd the circus, music hall, or other Vaudevillian stage to watch the greats like Eugen Sandow, Arthur Saxon, The Mighty Atom, Hermann Goerner, and many more do amazing feats of strength.

“Many of the feats require more tendon, ligament, joint, and bone strength than your average muscle-focused exercise.”

The specific feat of strength depended on the strongman in question. They might include lifting heavy barbells in odd ways, doing muscle control, bending steel, juggling weights, supporting a car or an elephant, or any other number of possibilities. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of feats of strength I came up with, though it is not complete.

• Anvil Lifting
• Short Bending
• Braced Bending
• Long Bending
• Scrolling
• Horseshoes
• Rolling Frying Pans
• Can Bursting
• Card Tearing
• Chain Breaking
• Finger Lifting
• Finger Supports
• Grippers/Crushing
• Feats of Hair Strength
• Hand Balancing
• Human Link
• Juggling Weights
• Muscle Control
• Muscling Out Weights
• Nail Driving with the Hands
• Feats of Neck Strength
• Odd-Object Lifting
• Partial Lifts
• Phonebook Tearing
• Pinch Grip
• Pullups/Chinning
• Rope Climbing
• Sledgehammers
• Feats of Teeth and Jaw Strength
• Thick Bars
• Two Hands Anyhow
• Weightlifting
• Weight Supports

Some of these have been around from ancient times, while a few are more modern incarnations.

Strength for Benefit

There are several benefits to doing feats of strength, and these differ from what you get from your more conventional workouts. And by “conventional,” I’m not just talking about bodybuilding or Jane Fonda workouts. I’m speaking to many of the less conventional styles like CrossFit, bodyweight exercises, and kettlebells.

Many of the feats require more tendon, ligament, joint, and bone strength than your average muscle-focused exercise. These tissues are capable of growth too, it’s just not as noticeable. And when it comes to strength, they’re hugely important. A focus on tissue growth and strength is often missing from most training programs.

Many of the feats of strength focus on hand strength, which is also a lacking component in many people’s programs. As an example, although CrossFit tends to think it’s hitting all the areas of fitness, these are two that it is not focused on. CrossFit misses training methods like supports and partials, as well as just about any form of direct hand strength.

Feats of strength are just plain fun to do, too. I often tell people if I had to spend an hour on a treadmill at a commercial gym in order to be “fit,” I wouldn’t want to train, either. But I get to do fun things like juggle weights, lift a thousand pounds, practice hand balancing and more. Practicing these feats can be much more exciting than standard training programs.

Strength for Purpose

Furthermore, if you become a “strongman” in this sense, you can use your strength for various useful purposes. If you can rip phonebooks, I can guarantee you will be asked to do it in front of people for entertainment. This can be leveraged in your fitness career in many ways. A few people today are making their livings strictly as professional strongmen, just like the old-time guys.

“Some people don’t really get the point of lifting weights. But bend a horseshoe in front of them and they will be amazed!”

Some other business benefits of strongman training include getting press attention. When I had a personal training studio I was able to get four local newspapers to come out for my grand opening, based on a press release that talked about death-defying feats of strength. That press resulted in new clients.

And I’ve definitely leveraged what I’ve done for my online strength training business, too. Here’s a couple of my more famous feats of strength. There are many more where these came from.

In my coming articles I’ll be going into detail on the technique and training you need for some of the more basic and popular feats of strength, including phonebook ripping, card tearing, and bending nails.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Lessons from Pavel: Strength as a Skill and the Value of Practice
• The History, Science, and How-To of Visualization
• 5 Tips for Longevity in Lifting
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Strength Education.

The post Feats of Strength: The Old, the New, and You appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The double kettlebell snatch.

The kettlebell snatch is one of my favorite exercises for a variety of reasons. I’ve written about the movement in the past, and I’ve done it with many weights and in different styles over the years. But one particular version has caught my attention more in the past few months.

The double kettlebell snatch.

This exercise is performed like the regular kettlebell snatch – except with two kettlebells. They’re swung from below the body, then affixed overhead.

That constitutes a single rep, and often with this movement, many reps are done. If you’re going to attempt one rep of this movement, let alone many, then you’re going to need to have good and efficient technique.

Here are a few tips on performing this exercise. But before we begin, it should go without saying that your kettlebell snatch, which also includes the foundation of the basic swing, should be excellent before trying an advanced movement like this one.

The Technique for Two Bells

With two kettlebells, your stance will have to be slightly wider than for a single bell as you’ll need clearance for the two bells to swing under your legs.

Generally with this exercise, unless you’re going very light, I would recommend doing what is called a half snatch. The upward portion is one explosive movement, but then you lower the bells to the shoulders, and then swing back on each rep.

The half snatch is a useful method as it can help preserve your back from undue strain. If you’re going for high reps, it’s a good idea because the lower back can become fatigued.

That fatigue is even more likely with the full snatch. If you’re going for more power, the half snatch is still a good idea because the weight can often be more than half your bodyweight, and thus want to pull you around. You will have more control if you stick to the half versus full snatch.

Going for Reps

Like the single kettlebell snatch, doubles can be done for higher reps. Often, this will be done in some sort of interval style, like ten reps at the start of every minute for ten minutes.

Another fun challenge is to do an all-out set for as long as you can go. It’s interesting to see what fails first – your endurance, grip, or strength in one area or another. With a lighter weight, as you can always do one more rep, it just might be your mental toughness that fails.

Going for Power

While many people can work up to snatching pretty heavy kettlebells without much problem, the double kettlebell snatch can easily become a maximum power exercise, similar to a barbell snatch. A good test of strength and ability for most men would be to double snatch 32kg bells.

“If you want to work on becoming explosive then try to work from a dead stop.”

When working with heavier weights, it can be useful to do a pre-swing before doing your snatch.

That being said, if you want to work on becoming explosive then try to work from a dead stop. Put the kettlebells under you or slightly behind you, and then snatch them in one clean motion without momentum.

This demonstrates the dead snatch with one bell. You can imagine how two feels!

Competing in the Double Snatch

This event has begun to make its way into IKLF Bolt competitions. I gave this a shot and I found that the most difficult part, at least for me, was getting a firm fix of the bells overhead. Many of my reps were not counted.

Note: In the video of me training in my backyard, you’ll note that I was a bit more lax on my form than here in competition. As it was my first time competing in this event, I learned a valuable lesson about what to work on for next time.

Putting the Movement to Use

I’ve been using this move as an adjunct to my single kettlebell snatch training. As I’m working with a heavy weight there (48kg), two 24kg bells is the same load, but hits the body differently.

If you’re looking for a new way to test your strength-endurance give this move a shot. And if you’re looking for maximum explosive power, try it out with heavier weights. I think you’ll enjoy it!

More on kettlebell movement:

• Training Kettlebells: Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared
• Kettlebells for an Iron Core: A 3-Phase Training Plan
• The 5 Deadliest Kettlebell Sins

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Improve Your Strength Endurance With the Double Kettlebell Snatch appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, as popular as the deadlift has become, just about every other version of it, except maybe the sumo deadlift, has declined in popularity. In a previous article, I covered one of my favorite variations, the Jefferson deadlift – and now we focus on another, the one-hand deadlift.

Me demonstrating the suitcase-style one-hand deadlift.

How to Do It

The one-hand deadlift used to be trained much more often. In fact, it comprised two of the lifts (done right- and left-handed) in the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association (BAWLA) for many years.

William Pullum, the 1991 BAWLA champion, gave instructions on this lift in one of his books, How to Use a Barbell:

[T]his feat may be performed with the barbell held either at right angles or parallel to the lifter’s front. Of the two, the former is the most favoured style, as it seems to possess the greater possibilities. Whichever method is employed, this is the procedure to follow:

The feet should be set comfortably apart, the disengaged hand placed just above the knee as first advised in the “Swing,” the back kept as straight as can be, and the legs made to do most of the work. To be counted a correctly finished effort, the bell has to be brought to at least the height of the lifter’s knees and held there for the prescribed period. While so held, the bar must be kept level and the legs be maintained straight. In “bell parallel to the lifter’s front” style, the bar is grasped with the knuckles forward.

Thus we have two variations we can work with – barbell to the side or front. The barbell to your side, running perpendicular to your body, has also been called the suitcase deadlift. In that variation, your abdominals, obliques, and all other muscles of the torso must work to support your body as the weight is all on one side. But you can generally lift more this way because the body can be shifted slightly to one side.

“The barbell is the ultimate tool for this lift as it allows you to go to higher and higher poundages, but you can certainly get started with kettlebells or dumbbells.”

If you’ve never tried one-hand deadlifting before, the hard part at first can be gripping the bar in a balanced way so it doesn’t come out of your hand. For most people, the grip is going to be the weak link, thus this is a great hand-training exercise.

Single-hand deadlifting can also be done with a number of other tools. It is often done with a shorter range of motion, making it more of a partial lift.

An Impressive History

Just how far can this exercise be taken? I believe Hermann Goerner’s record still exists. It’s even posted on the Guinness World Records website. Edgar Mueller reported in the book, Goerner the Mighty, regarding his unofficial and official records in this lift:

On this lift Hermann has lifted more weight than any other man in the world. His best performances being 727.5 lb. (330 kilos), which was lifted unofficially on 8th October, 1920, in Leipzig. The bar was correctly lifted from the floor to the fully erect position of the body. Officially Hermann has performed a right-hand dead lift with a barbell of 663.5 lb. (301 kilos), which was lifted on 29th October, 1920, in Leipzig. No other man has come within aiming distance of Hermann’s amazing record.

Here is Peter Cortese with a triple bodyweight one-hand deadlift performed back in the 1950s:

Variations

This lift can also be changed up slightly for different focuses on hand strength.

• Thick bar
• Hook grip
• Thumbless grip

The barbell is the ultimate tool for this lift as it allows you to go to higher and higher poundages, but you can certainly get started with kettlebells or dumbbells.

Because of the balance involved with a barbell, this movement is best done for low reps, no more than five. Generally, I keep the sets to three or fewer per hand. I recommend trying to work both hands somewhat evenly, but you’ll likely find your dominant hand is much stronger in this exercise. This is a great exercise to work in before or after any two-hand deadlifting sessions.

More Like This:

• 15 Practical Strategies to Increase Your Deadlift Max
• 14 Strongman Articles to Strengthen Your Knowledge
• 33 Reasons to Train Strongman
• New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

References:

1. W.A. Pullum, How to Use a Barbell, South Carolina: Strongman Books, pg. 66-67. 2012.

2. Edgar Mueller, Goerner the Mighty, South Carolina: Strongman Books, p. 59. 2012.

Photo 1 courtesy of Logan Christopher.

The post How Much Can You Deadlift With One Hand? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, as popular as the deadlift has become, just about every other version of it, except maybe the sumo deadlift, has declined in popularity. In a previous article, I covered one of my favorite variations, the Jefferson deadlift – and now we focus on another, the one-hand deadlift.

Me demonstrating the suitcase-style one-hand deadlift.

How to Do It

The one-hand deadlift used to be trained much more often. In fact, it comprised two of the lifts (done right- and left-handed) in the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association (BAWLA) for many years.

William Pullum, the 1991 BAWLA champion, gave instructions on this lift in one of his books, How to Use a Barbell:

[T]his feat may be performed with the barbell held either at right angles or parallel to the lifter’s front. Of the two, the former is the most favoured style, as it seems to possess the greater possibilities. Whichever method is employed, this is the procedure to follow:

The feet should be set comfortably apart, the disengaged hand placed just above the knee as first advised in the “Swing,” the back kept as straight as can be, and the legs made to do most of the work. To be counted a correctly finished effort, the bell has to be brought to at least the height of the lifter’s knees and held there for the prescribed period. While so held, the bar must be kept level and the legs be maintained straight. In “bell parallel to the lifter’s front” style, the bar is grasped with the knuckles forward.

Thus we have two variations we can work with – barbell to the side or front. The barbell to your side, running perpendicular to your body, has also been called the suitcase deadlift. In that variation, your abdominals, obliques, and all other muscles of the torso must work to support your body as the weight is all on one side. But you can generally lift more this way because the body can be shifted slightly to one side.

“The barbell is the ultimate tool for this lift as it allows you to go to higher and higher poundages, but you can certainly get started with kettlebells or dumbbells.”

If you’ve never tried one-hand deadlifting before, the hard part at first can be gripping the bar in a balanced way so it doesn’t come out of your hand. For most people, the grip is going to be the weak link, thus this is a great hand-training exercise.

Single-hand deadlifting can also be done with a number of other tools. It is often done with a shorter range of motion, making it more of a partial lift.

An Impressive History

Just how far can this exercise be taken? I believe Hermann Goerner’s record still exists. It’s even posted on the Guinness World Records website. Edgar Mueller reported in the book, Goerner the Mighty, regarding his unofficial and official records in this lift:

On this lift Hermann has lifted more weight than any other man in the world. His best performances being 727.5 lb. (330 kilos), which was lifted unofficially on 8th October, 1920, in Leipzig. The bar was correctly lifted from the floor to the fully erect position of the body. Officially Hermann has performed a right-hand dead lift with a barbell of 663.5 lb. (301 kilos), which was lifted on 29th October, 1920, in Leipzig. No other man has come within aiming distance of Hermann’s amazing record.

Here is Peter Cortese with a triple bodyweight one-hand deadlift performed back in the 1950s:

Variations

This lift can also be changed up slightly for different focuses on hand strength.

• Thick bar
• Hook grip
• Thumbless grip

The barbell is the ultimate tool for this lift as it allows you to go to higher and higher poundages, but you can certainly get started with kettlebells or dumbbells.

Because of the balance involved with a barbell, this movement is best done for low reps, no more than five. Generally, I keep the sets to three or fewer per hand. I recommend trying to work both hands somewhat evenly, but you’ll likely find your dominant hand is much stronger in this exercise. This is a great exercise to work in before or after any two-hand deadlifting sessions.

More Like This:

• Old-Time Strongman for New Strength: The Jefferson Deadlift
• 14 Strongman Articles to Strengthen Your Knowledge
• 33 Reasons to Train Strongman
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. W.A. Pullum, How to Use a Barbell, South Carolina: Strongman Books, pg. 66-67. 2012.

2. Edgar Mueller, Goerner the Mighty, South Carolina: Strongman Books, p. 59. 2012.

Photo 1 courtesy of Logan Christopher.

The post Test Grip Strength and Balance With the One-Hand Deadlift appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Barbell juggling does not actually involve juggling multiple barbells at one time, but like kettlebell juggling involves the throwing, catching, spinning, and lifting of a single barbell in novel ways. It is not a single exercise, but a grouping of different techniques, some of which are explained below.

“As with anything else, start light and build up slowly. Just the bar alone is all you need to begin.”

Note: Barbell juggling certainly builds strength, but it is only recommended for those looking to perform as strongmen. It’s flashy and looks cool, but if you’re just looking for the benefits of strength training, then normal exercises will do.

In addition to strength there are big speed, explosiveness, and coordination components to practicing this art. One of the best barbell jugglers alive today is Andrew Durniat. In this video from one of his strongman performances, you can see a few moves in action.

Barbell Juggling Technique

Here’s a list of moves that are all part of barbell juggling, along with tips on how to perform them and train for them.

Switch Hands Snatch – Do a one-hand snatch with the barbell, but as it is exploding upward switch hands and complete the snatch with the barbell overhead in the other hand.

Overhead Hand to Hand – From a locked-out position with the barbell overhead in one hand, toss it into a locked-out overhead position in the other hand. The hard part is catching the barbell directly in the middle in order to be able to control it, especially once some weight is added. This was a favorite of Arthur Saxon who would routinely do this with barbells weighing 200 to 300 pounds.

Zercher Catch and Throw – Start with the barbell in the Zercher position (the crook of your elbows) and explosively throw it upward into the overhead position, catching with one or both hands. You can also do it the other way around – let go of it from overhead and catch it in the Zercher position. Warning: this last one can be painful.

Strongman Dan Cenidoza demonstrating various barbell juggling techniques.

Zercher Spin – Same as the above, except you start in the Zercher, throw the bar overhead, spin 180 degrees, and then catch it back in the Zercher position.

Behind the Back – From an overhead position, drop the barbell and catch it behind you in your hands, with your arms hanging by your sides near your butt. Take extra caution that you don’t drop the barbell or hit your spine or any other part of you. Perhaps the barbell can even be thrown explosively from here.

Vertical Lift – Stand the barbell up vertically, with the end of the barbell in your palm. It goes without saying that you need a lot of overhead clearance for this one. Keeping it balanced, go ahead and press, push press, or jerk the weight overhead, maintaining the balance throughout.

Neck Spin – The barbell can be spun around your neck. Start on the back, as in a back squat, move through the front squat position, and then to your back again. The difficulty is in keeping the center of the mass centered around you.

Around the Body Spin – It can also be spun around the body. See the video, as this one is hard to describe in words.

Overhead Spin – From an overhead position with both hands on the bar as close to each other as possible, spin the barbell.

If you work with all of the above, I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with a number of new moves on your own. In barbell juggling you get extra points for creativity.

The Practice of Strength

If you do choose to pursue this activity, let me provide you with a few starting tips:

• As with anything else, start light and build up slowly. Just the bar alone is all you need to begin.
• Speaking of bars, it is recommended you use a two-inch thick bar or larger, without knurling. For some of the moves a normal bar will cause more pain and damage. (Did I mention this isn’t for everyone?)
• Treat this as a practice – not as a workout. You don’t want to be fatigued when you are trying out complicated and potentially dangerous moves.

That all being said, if you do try barbell juggling and you gain some decent skills, be sure to post a video and share it with us!

Check out these related videos:

• How to Shoulder a Barbell Like an Old-Time Strongman
• How to Perform a Perfect Turkish Get Up With a Barbell
• Don’t Be a Specialist – Your Routine Needs Variety
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

The post The Forgotten Art of Barbell Juggling appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Side note: I think many people fall in love with kettlebells not because of the tool so much, but because they end up doing far better exercises than what they had been doing previously with barbells and dumbbells, i.e. the standard commercial gym workouts.

The get up is one of those great exercises that accomplishes a lot in just this one movement. The basics of this exercise are to stand up while keeping a weight overhead the entire time. Often, this is then reversed and you get back down to the ground while still maintaining the weight overhead.

The Turkish get up as taught by the StrongFirst training method.

The Power of Overhead Movements

The word overhead is important. The weight really does stay “over your head,” but as your body shifts around, this overhead position is maintained by working the shoulder through a significant degree of motion. This is one of the reasons the get up helps in rehabbing shoulder problems for many people.

While the movement can be awkward when you first try it, once you are trained in the exercise you will be able to handle a good amount of weight. It is said that old-time strongman Sig Klein would have people at his gym train with the get up until they could handle 100 pounds before he would start them on other exercises. A hundred-pound getup is a solid goal worth shooting for!

 “For the ultimate challenge, try working this movement with the barbell.”

As with the bent press, the get up can be done with a number of tools. The kettlebell tends to be the easiest and is the best starting place because the offset weight helps keep your arm in place. The kettlebell basically pulls back slightly, helping you to use your anatomical structure better.

Dumbbells are great, too, and provide a bit more challenge as the weight is slightly further away from you and thus at a worse leverage. But for the ultimate challenge, try working this movement with the barbell.

Experimenting With Equipment

If you have never done this exercise before, it’s worth giving it a shot. If you have done the movement with kettlebells or dumbbells, then I recommend you start experimenting with a barbell. When I got started with the barbell, I found that by changing the recommended form slightly I could handle more weight. My instructions for doing this follow.

1. Start lying on the ground with the barbell to the side of you, but in line with your body.
2. Roll over to one side, grasp the barbell with one hand and cup the other hand around your first hand. It is absolutely essential to grab the barbell in the middle. Specifically, put your middle finger directly in the center of the barbell. I use a piece of tape to indicate where this is so I can easily place my hand each time.
3. Using both hands, push the barbell up into lockout over your body. The barbell should be parallel with your body.
4. At this time, let go of the extra hand and maintain the weight over your head.
5. Bend the leg that is on the same side as your lifting arm, so the knee is in the air and the foot flat on the ground.
6. Roll to the non-barbell side, until you are on your side.
7. Press into the ground with your free hand. You will scoot upward, making little movements at a time, until you come to a position where you are leaning against your elbow.
8. From here extend the elbow so you are resting on your hand.
9. Press using your leaning arm and your leg with your food flat on the ground (the same side as the weight), and raise up your hips just enough to get your leg pulled through. (With the kettlebell, get up you go through a high arch in this position. That is great for training movement quality, but when you’re working with a heavy barbell you’ll want to skip that added movement.)
10. Come to a kneeling position in an action similar to a side raise, picking your leaning arm off the ground.
11. Drive off with both feet coming to a standing position with the weight overhead.

From there, you can lower down in the same manner or simply drop the barbell. When working with the barbell, I usually just do the standing portion and don’t go back down. After you are done with one rep, begin once again on the other side.

Tips for a Successful Get Up

• Make sure to keep the lifting arm locked out at all times and your eyes on the barbell. As mentioned, this is much harder than the kettlebell version because of the balance involved.
• Be prepared to drop the barbell. But, of course, only train this in a suitable place for dropping weights. It is recommended to use bumper plates because you will likely drop during some attempts on this exercise.
• This is an exercise where I typically only do singles. Just do a few of them working up to a progressively heavier weight.

The get up fits in great as a skill-practice exercise done at the beginning of your workout before doing other movements. The last time I worked on this exercise regularly it essentially served as my entire warm up.

Give the get up a try and see what you think. It’s a great whole body exercise for developing good movement and challenging your strength. If you have questions, post them to the comments below.

Check out these related articles:

• The Get Up: Why It’s My Favorite Exercise
• How to Do the Perfect Get Up
• The Value of the Get Up (Broken Down Into 6 Pieces)
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

The post How to Perform a Perfect Turkish Get Up With a Barbell appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The shouldering a barbell exercises covered in a previous article is one example of this. The shovel lift is another favorite of mine.

A Whole-Body Exercise

When you utilize the leverage of a seven-foot barbell against you, a small weight becomes a big challenge. The shovel lift is a great exercise for building tremendous core and shoulder strength. In fact, the whole body is put to use.

“Because of the leverage disadvantage, you want to be sure your body is capable of handling the weight and won’t be pulled out of place.”

The idea for this lift comes from people who became strong, such as gravediggers, from using the shovel over and over again. While it is called a shovel lift, unless you want to do manual labor, we’re going to use a barbell to mimic the motion. Grab the barbell with one hand in the center and the other at the end of the handle.

The starting position.

The first time you try this, I recommend you do it with an empty barbell. Once you have a feel for the movement, then go ahead and load the bar with weight on only one side. Note: it is essential that you have good collars when doing this exercise.

How to Use This Lift

The shovel lift is not just one exercise, but more of a category of how you use the barbell. There is opportunity for several different specific exercises. Here are several things you can do with this lift.

• Pick up the shovel just slightly. This is almost like a lop-sided deadlift. It is great for handling bigger weights that force your body to work overtime to stabilize everything.
• From this slightly lifted position you can thrust the barbell forward. This extends the leverage and adds extra challenge to the arms and shoulders, which then must be rooted down to a stronger base. It sounds easy, but it is deceptively tough.
• Once standing tall with the barbell, twist to one side. You can rotate both directions and go pretty far. As with everything else make sure you start slowly. Don’t generate more momentum than you can stop as the barbell could pull you out of place. This challenges the torso, especially the obliques.
• Raise the barbell vertically. Act as if you were throwing a pile of dirt over your shoulder. Of course, it goes without saying that you need adequate overhead clearance to do this. Once again, the arms and shoulders get used a lot more here. With this one especially, you’ll be working with a lighter weight than the rest.
• Use your imagination and do various combinations of the above. Try maneuvering the shovel in many different ways and be sure to work both sides equally.

Make sure you have adequate overhead clearance.

Make the Most of It

You’ll likely find one side is much stronger, the side that you would normally use if you were to shovel anything in real life. That means, of course, you should really work on training the other side. 

“The first time you try this, I recommend you do it with an empty barbell. Once you have a feel for the movement, then go ahead and load the bar with weight on only one side.”

You can also alter your hand position for slightly better or worse leverage. For an added grip challenge, use a thick-handled barbell or the various options that allow you to turn a regular barbell into a thick bar, like Fat Gripz.

This exercise can be done with a light weight for many reps or with a very heavy weight. Build up in working with heavy weights slowly. Because of the leverage disadvantage, you want to be sure your body is capable of handling the weight and will not be pulled out of place.

My personal favorite use for the shovel lift is as a finisher after a workout. Load up a bar to a working weight, whether light or heavy, and just go at it as best as you can for five to ten minutes.

Give it a shot (or a shovel!) and let me know how it goes in the comments below.

More Like This:

• How to Do a Proper Bent Press With a Kettlebell or Barbell
• How Much Can You Press? A Brief History of a Big Lift
• Old-Time Strongman for New Strength: The Jefferson Deadlift
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Build Functional Strength With the Shovel Lift appeared first on Breaking Muscle.