There have been plenty of challenges living for the past six years as an American in Japan. First of all, finding shoes my size is a challenge at best and damn near impossible at worst. Finding t-shirts that don’t choke me while not simultaneously being covered in non-sensical (or at least grammatically incorrect) English is another. And let’s not even get into trying to find a decent steak.

But I digress, this article is about do-it-yourself (DIY) beast mode gear. Almost a year ago, I started my own gym in my town, and am the proud owner of one of the few Olympic-style weight sets in the entire town (including the three largest commercial gyms).

When shopping, however, prices reared their ugly heads. Weight sets that would have cost about 600 dollars in the United States were running 100,000 yen here in Japan (about a thousand American dollars) – before shipping! I spent the most I could afford and got the best set I could. Hey, heavy lifters are rare in Japan, and even more rare in the countryside. Almost everything has to be imported, and prices are at a premium.

Fast forward to last month, and I was working my squats. I was very happy to hit a personal best (post ACL surgery) of 210 kilograms (about 463 pounds) when I noticed that my bar, while not failing, had what I would call an excessive amount of “flex” in it.

Since this was my one and only bar for the gym, tearing the damn thing in half would not be a good idea. So, I went back into my documentation on the weight set and checked my bar capacity.

Open up to the proper page, and read “Recommended Max Weight: 200 kilograms.” Ooooops. Now, what do I do? I want to go even heavier, but if I do, I might just shear off the ends of my bar. Time to buy a new bar it seemed.

Here, prices reared their ugly heads yet again. When I checked prices for a high capacity bar, the cheapest I could find was over 50,000 yen (500 USD). A good quality bar like an Ivanko bar was going to run over 100,000 yen (1000 USD).

To be quite honest, I just couldn’t afford the damned things. So, as a former military officer who did his fair share of “MSU Ops” (Making Sh** Up Operations), I decided to DIY my new bar.

The most important part, of course, is the heart of the bar, the core bar itself. After reading a series of highly informative (and quite often funny) articles by Dr. Ken Leistner (no stranger to the DIY iron game himself), I knew I wanted to get cold rolled steel. In stepped the helpful folks at Osaka Stainless Steel Company in Osaka, Japan.

Working with their representatives, we decided eventually on a 38mm diameter cold rolled hardened steel bar at 250cm in length (about 8 feet, so longer than your normal bar – it’s the one on top in the photo). And it was really a good price too, only about a hundred U.S. dollars, including delivery.

I went with the bigger diameter bar (38mm as opposed to the standard 28mm bar) for a few reasons. First off, while I knew the bar I was getting was cold-rolled, that was no guarantee it was as strong as the steel used in a high-quality commercial bar.

Those extra millimeters of steel could be useful. Second, the extra diameter could also be useful as a grip aid. While not a true fat bar in the 2-inch or higher category, let’s face it, that extra almost half-inch is still going to challenge the grip on deadlifts and other pulls.

So, I had my “heart,” now I needed the finishing touches. A quick trip to a local hardware store got me the pipes to go over the ends of my bar, a set of 50cm long 1.5in diameter water pipes.

With an inner diameter of 39mm and an outer diameter of 49mm, I couldn’t ask for a better fit if I had custom ordered the damn things.

Since this bar is meant for the power lifts and not Olympic lifts, I didn’t need bushings or bearings or anything else like that, I could affix the pipes to the bar directly with no rotation needed.

Using a series of high strength epoxies, I was able to fasten the pipes to the ends of the bar with no issues at all (while I would have loved to have welded them on, I have neither the skill nor the access to a welding set). Using an old set of screw-on collars to work as my inner collars and TA-DA! The BEAST is unleashed!

I can tell you, so far this thing is a rock on my back. Taking it out on squats was like having a dead straight laser line across my shoulders, even when fully loaded, and even when I tried to bounce the top of a few squats just to see if I could get the bar to flex at all. As an added bonus, the extra bar width even felt a bit more comfortable on my shoulders, dispersing the weight a bit wider on the back muscles.

So, don’t despair if you are in a similar situation. While I doubt few readers of this are going to find themselves in a non-English speaking foreign country that doesn’t have a large heavy lifting community, you might find yourself in a situation where your finances don’t quite match the prices of commercially available equipment, or shipping and other costs make do-it-yourself work useful and worthwhile.

If you do decide to take the DIY plunge, here are a few tips I would share with you:

1. Shop around. I checked over a dozen different sources (online and via telephone) before I settled on the bar that I purchased.
2. Research. Check the dimensions, thickness, and any other information you can on the commercially available products you are trying to emulate or template off of. Even if your build is unique due to your circumstances, find out as much info as you can.
3. Overbuild. Unless you are a master metalworker or fabricator, or you know someone who is, your welds and materials may not be as fool-proof as the commercial stuff. Let’s face it, York, Ivanko, and the rest have stayed in business doing what they do because they build good stuff and they know how to put it together. You’re not that good (yet?). So, overbuild if you can. If the commercial-grade rack you want has box walls 2mm thick, get something 3mm thick if you can. If you need something that can handle 500 pounds, build something that can handle 750 pounds. It might be a bit more expensive (hey, I could have built the BEAST for about three-quarters of the price I did if I had copied commercial measurements exactly) but the extra safety factor helps me sleep better at night.
4. Try it out. Put the thing through its paces, but do it slowly. Just because you might want to build something that can take up to 1000 pounds, don’t just slap 1000 pounds on the thing first time out. Take it up slowly, and see what it can do.

In any case, I hope this encourages you as well to try and do your own home made beast mode gear for your own needs.

The post DIY Beast Mode Gear: How to Build Your Own Barbell appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Mike Tromello—a USA Weightlifting National Coach, who has coached many national-level weightlifters—explained the importance of barbell complexes within in the sport weightlifting.

Barbell complexes are great for:

Whether you’re a weightlifter or a multi-modal CrossFit athlete, barbell complexes can be valuable for various reasons.

Mike Tromello—a USA Weightlifting National Coach, who has coached many national-level weightlifters—explained the importance of barbell complexes within in the sport weightlifting.

Barbell complexes are great for:

• Improving lifting mechanics
• Improving an athlete’s understanding of the path the bar should take on lifts such as a clean or a snatch
• Improving an athlete’s body awareness
• In some cases, complexes work to build posterior chain strength, as they can force the athlete to spend more time under tension than doing singles

On top of this, Tromello said he prescribes barbell complexes about once a week to his weightlifters just to make training a bit less monotonous.

“Part of the reason I have my lifters who train five days a week do complexes is just to keep them from getting bored. Complexes give them something else to train,” said Tomello, a former college football player and the owner of Precision CrossFit in Agoura Hills, California.

On the other hand, for multi-modal CrossFit athletes, complexes are also often used for:

• Building grip strength
• Providing a metabolic conditioning workout

1. Bear Complex

One complex that has become popular in functional fitness circles is the bear complex.

• 1 power clean
• 1 front squat
• 1 push press
• 1 back squat
• 1 push press (from behind the back)

While all of the above movements in the complex are useful in and of themselves, Tromello warns if you’re going to try this complex, tread with caution.

OK, truthfully, his warnings sounded more like this:

“I’m not a fan of the bear complex. I can be really dangerous,” he said. The danger part comes when athletes sloppily drop a heavy barbell from overhead onto their back for the back squat.

“I have watched two athletes destroy their shoulders doing this,” Tromello said. However, these athletes were trying to max out during a workout that involved five rounds of the bear complex.”

If, however, you are an experienced, strong athlete who moves well and are well conditioned, the bear complex can be useful as a conditioning tool if you keep the barbell light, have healthy shoulders, and maintain perfect form throughout. Strive to complete your bear complexes like 15-year-old Thea Boucher from Vancouver, who has been training since she was 11-years-old.

2. Snatch Pathway Complex

If you’re new to weightlifting, or even if are experienced, Tremello recommends this complex, which he calls the snatch pathway complex (although it can be done with a clean, as well).

This complex involves three times through of the following:

• 1 snatch (or clean) pull to just above the knee and hold for three seconds
• Move from just above the knee to the hang position (mid-thigh) and hold for two seconds
• 1 hang snatch (from mid-thigh)

Why Tromello recommends this complex:

“Obviously it depends on the level of athlete, but 99 percent of CrossFit athletes have no idea about barbell pathway. They don’t understand where the barbell needs to go, and have no idea how to get their knees out of the way, so they just rip it off the floor,” he said.

Tromello said practicing the snatch pathway complex, usually in sets of three, is a great way to improve the path the barbell takes on either a clean or a snatch. Usually, he keeps percentages of an athlete’s max quite low for this complex (60 to 70 percent), but experienced lifters can build up to close to 90 percent, he explained.

“And for inexperienced lifters, this is a great complex just for teaching them where they need to be the whole time they’re lifting,” he added.

While this complex is more for improving technique than it is for conditioning, cycling through three times can still be fairly taxing on the lungs.

3. 5 Power Cleans + 5 Jerks

And for those who are looking to turn a barbell complex into conditioning, Tromello recommends keeping it simple. Such as:

“It doesn’t need to be complicated,” Tromello said. Just doing five power cleans into five jerks is a great and simple way to build grip strength, work on barbell cycling, and get a full conditioning workout in the process.”

For interval conditioning fun: rest 1 minute in between each set of 5 power cleans plus 5 jerks, and repeat five times.

Check out these two articles Tromello has written about barbell cycling:

• 2017 CrossFit Open Prep: Barbell Cycling
• The Secret to Cycling Single Lifts

Put Barbell Complexes to Work

Have fun, make strength and conditioning gains—and don’t drop a heavy barbell onto your back à la maxing out a bear complex. Focus on form and position, keep a good grip, and you will reap the benefits of these complexes.

The post 3 Barbell Complexes for Fun and Profit appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Barbell Basics

Type of Bar

Powerlifting bars typically have a more aggressive knurling to assist with grip. The markings for the grip are a bit wider than the markings on Olympic weightlifting bars. Generally, powerlifting bars are also stiffer than Olympic bars, though there are some specialized deadlifting bars that have more bend and are longer. This is because the more the bar bends, the more the end plates are left on the ground.

Westside Bar from Rogue

Olympic bars have less aggressive knurling. They provide enough grip, but not enough to tear your hands in the transition of movements. These bars are known for having more whip or bend (see below for details). Olympic bars also have collars that spin. As the bar is moving up through the lift, the spin goes with the momentum of the weight to assist the lifter.

Hybrid bars attempt to take the best of each type of bar. They often have two set-up markings to line up with Olympic lifting and powerlifting standards. They might have some whip and some spin depending on the bar. These bars are useful for gyms that do both types of lifting in one training session or anyone needing to be economical.

Example of a hybrid style bar – the Rogue Bar 2.0

Size of Bar

The diameter and length of barbells are different and are often denoted by men’s and women’s size.

Specifics

Yield Strength

Yield strength gets at the amount of weight that can be put on a bar for it to bend and then not bend back to being straight. In general, we want bars to have some bend to them. As mentioned above, greater bend in a deadlift leads to the end plates staying on the floor for longer time. But we do not want that bend to remain.

Yield strength deals with the amount of weight it would take to permanently bend the bar. This test is considered a static test, as more and more weight is simply added to the ends. But when lifting weights, you also apply dynamic force (different force at different parts of the movement), so a different test might be more useful.

Tensile Strength

Tensile strength is tested dynamically. It is rated in pounds per square inch (PSI), which is the amount of weight needed to pull the bar apart. High-end Olympic bars by Eleiko or Ivanko use steel rated at over 200,000 PSI. Anything over 180,000 will fit most everyone.

Eleiko bar

Whip

The whip of the bar is the bounce that occurs as the lifter stops moving and the momentum of the bar continues. Whip is useful in the transition between a clean and a jerk. An experienced lifter bounces the bar off the chest and uses the momentum of the bend coming upward to help propel the bar into the jerk position. For an example watch at around 1:26 of the following video:

Whip is difficult to measure quantitatively. It depends on the diameter of the barbell (skinnier bars have more whip) and the type of steel. You might have to rely on reviews or online videos for subjective measures of whip.

Sleeve

Inside the sleeve of the bar are the mechanics that determine how much spin the bar will have. Bushings are solid materials that have low friction (brass is commonly used). Bearings are small balls or needles within a sleeve that roll. Bearings generally allow for faster spin, but they are often more expensive.

LEFT: Bushing; RIGHT: Bearings

If you are in the market for an olympic barbell spin will be one of the most important factors. If you can’t test the bars in person, there are many online videos showing the different spins of barbells.

Finish

Bare steel bars have no finish on them and are prone to rusting, but have a nice grip. They need a good deal of maintenance. Zinc finishes provide more protection and comes in black or bright finishes.

Chrome provides the most protection and is usually the most expensive. It comes in satin or polished options. Chrome can also feel a bit more slippery depending on the finish, but the top of the line bars often have a chrome finish and still have great grip.

Center Knurling

The center knurl helps keep the bar on the back during back squats. It will be seen on powerlifting bars. On many Olympic bars there is not center knurling and it might be a different texture than the outer knurling.

Texas Squat Bar from Elite FTS

Summary

Hopefully I’ve clarified some of the options for barbells. Different bars are suited for different tasks. Trying to find the bar that fits most of your needs is important. We will do a comparison of different barbells (based on specialty) in the future. (Manufacturers, please contact us to include your barbell in a review).

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• How Barbell Knurling Differs and How This Impacts Different Lifters
• An Argument Against the Barbell
• DIY Beast Mode Gear: How to Build Your Own Barbell
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 3 courtesy of Dragon Door.

The post Barbell Buying Guide: What to Look for in a New Bar appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Recently I was working out with a friend, a guy called Dan John, you may have heard of him? And we were speaking about this exact thing – people using the wrong tool for the job – and he came out with a great expression for it. The killer app.

Dan’s story started with a brief history of Excel. A guy made a spreadsheet program, basically just fooling around, and showed it to an accountant, asking if he may have any interest in it. The accountant explained he had an entire building full of people employed to do what that one little program could do in seconds.

In exercise, the killer app is that one application you can get from a piece of equipment that you can’t get anywhere else. For instance, kettlebells are best for the HKC movements of swing (and other repetitive ballistics such as snatches, cleans, and jerks), get up, and squat. The barbell is great for maximal strength exercises such as deadlift, bench press, and squat. TRX is great for upper back work such as rows and other Y and T variations for shoulder health.

If there’s a piece of equipment that doesn’t have a killer app then you don’t need it. It’s that simple. I speak to many people about outfitting gyms – whether it be their home gym or a massive commercial facility. A lot of people still operate on what I call the Noah’s Ark Principle – just get two of everything and pray that it’ll be all right. But for those of us who have a limited budget it makes purchasing choices much easier if you begin to realize that a majority of the equipment sold in the fitness industry has no killer app. I’m going to infuriate some people but the BOSU, for example, has no killer app. Every single thing you can do on a BOSU can be done an another piece of equipment. So save your cash and don’t buy it. (Besides, those things are ridiculous).

One of the most popular, yet inane questions I seem to get is when people ask me which exercise I would pick if I could only do one. Because apparently, in this scenario, somehow all the equipment has been sucked out of my gym and I’ve lost my memory too. But instead of imagining that I’ve lost most of the contents of my gym and my mind, we should try flipping this around a little. Instead, imagine we can only use equipment for its killer app and see what kind of program we get.

In my gym I have bars, kettlebells, pull up bars, rowers, Airdynes, and a lot of open space.

Because we have space, and the best thing about space is moving around in it, the warm up is going to be get ups combined with overhead carries using the kettlebells. I’ll start from the ground as usual, but at the top of each rep walk to the other end of the room with the bell locked out overhead before finishing the rep. I’d pair these up with pull ups. A get up/walk on each arm followed by a set of as many pull ups as I could do. Doing this for five rounds would get my body well and truly warmed up.

I’d move on from there to some barbell work. And because I like to work in non-opposing supersets (a pair of exercises that don’t conflict with each other), I’d go for deadlifts and overhead pressing. I would choose bench press but we don’t own the equipment for that, because other than bench press there’s nothing you need a bench for that can’t be done from the floor or standing. So, five sets of five of both deadlift and overhead press and I’d be done.

One of the things I’ve noticed most about kettlebell swings is that when I do them after I deadlift my body feels much better later on. So, I’d round out the strength work with five sets of swings.

To finish, I’d have to go with my least favorite toy – the Airdyne. If you’ve not used one don’t be fooled by their ungainly appearance. Just like the ugly duckling that turns into a swan that can nip you somewhere tender, these things can bite. Because of the way they’re made, the only way to use these things in the way their killer app is satisfied is by using them for all out sprints. A simple interval session would suffice – maybe four rounds of thirty seconds all out followed by thirty seconds recovery.

And I’d be done at this point. To summarize, we can double check that I am using my equipment for the right purposes. Can I do get ups with a barbell? Yes, but they never feel as balanced as they do as with a kettlebell. Could I swing a barbell? Probably, but most likely only the one time. So, my kettlebell choices are good. Can I deadlift kettlebells? Well, yes, but just like trying to do get ups with a barbell they never really feel right. Overhead pressing is contentious as both barbells and kettlebells work well here; however, if I’m looking for max strength training my concern is how much weight can I use, and when it comes to load the barbell is king. Finally, the Airdyne is ill-suited to longer efforts, its strength comes in destroying you quickly.

One of the secrets to training is to stick to the Killer Apps for each tool. There’s no need to limit yourself to a single tool, but don’t waste your time doing things that for which that tool is not designed. Like long-distance riding on the Airdyne or trying to do repetitive lifts with a barbell, these things just don’t work. Use the tool for the right purpose and you’ll get far better return from your training.

Photos 1&2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Killer App: Using the Right Equipment for the Right Exercise appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How does a coach like me go from being such a fan of the barbell to suggesting it is one of the least versatile pieces of equipment? Evolution. Questioning ideas, methods, and yes, equipment, can be a great source of discomfort for many coaches. However, becoming a better professional and serving your clients to the highest level requires that we serve as our own toughest critics all the time. If I am going to make a statement that makes so many people uncomfortable, I better have some good reason.

Numbers Lie!

Why did I invest so much into my squat rack, barbells, and plates? Because this is how we were taught you got strong. You couldn’t even consider yourself a “strength coach” if the barbell wasn’t the heart of your program. After all, it provided us with the biggest lifting numbers and had the history of producing great strength athletes. But, does it really?

Barbells actually have a much younger history than most other strength training tools. Dumbbells, kettlebells, gymnastics, Indian clubs, sandbags, and more have a much longer and deeper history of use than the barbell. The barbell doesn’t show up in any type of writings until about 1854 and didn’t hit mainstream use until much later. Does this mean people weren’t about strength prior to the 1850s? In Dr. Jan Todd’s article From Milo to Milo: A History of Barbells, Dumbells, and Indian Clubs, she writes, “Barbells. There is not a single mention of this apparatus in Higginson’s article nor in any other English-language book prior to 1860 examined by this author. Although the practice of heavy lifting was well established by this time.”

Okay, but we got smarter right? Barbells still allow us to build the greatest amounts of strength. Well, yes and no. Do barbells allow us to lift the highest amounts of weights? Yes! Does this mean what we think it does? Maybe not. Barbells became longer over time to support the desire to lift more weight, and as such the length and the design of the barbell has one major goal – hold more weight. The eventual modern design of the barbell also shaped how it is used in training.

As we become more focused primarily on load, our movements decrease. Instead of working from various body positions, angles, and patterns, we tend to work from a very stable base and lift from our strongest positions. Old time strongmen would lift early barbells in all sorts of ways. With one or two hands, they would lift barbells from a variety of positions and postures. In Mark Berry’s series of early barbell courses in the 1930s, dozens of different barbell movements were shown. Many of these lifts would have scared most modern coaches as being unsafe. Yet, the goal was the exact opposite. Working in all sorts of positions and postures was meant to prepare the body for more intense lifting.

Over the years we see our lifting becoming less and less athletic. The barbell is balanced, the way we perform most of the lifts is very stable, and even where we position the barbell is balanced. Of course we can lift more weight, but does this “more weight” really carry over to being stronger in the real world?

You don’t need to be a biomechanics expert to really question the reliability of the barbell. Let’s look at the classic bench press. A 315-pound bench press is not all that rare in strength circles. However, when was the last time you saw that same individual pressing 155-pound dumbbells? Even the casual gym goer knows that it is rare to find someone who can use the same amount of weight in dumbbells that they can in barbells.

This isn’t a matter of just gym knowledge. A 2012 study compared standing and sitting overhead pressing with both dumbbells and barbells. What did they find? “… the exercise with the greatest stability requirement (standing and dumbbells) demonstrated the highest neuromuscular activity of the deltoid muscles, although this was the exercise with the lowest 1-RM strength.” In other words, weight doesn’t necessarily correspond to greater muscle activation as much as some instability and control of a weight. Numbers may be lying to your training.

A Smarter Business

It is not a great secret that while the fitness industry is filled with passionate coaches, there is also a big hole in the way we look at the business of fitness. A great example is simply in the means with which we set-up our facilities. Space is one of the most important and expensive items for a new training facility. What requires the most amount of space? Yes, barbells, especially combined with racks or stands. But let’s put our examination primarily on just the barbell itself.

In a lecture at a Sanford Power and Strength Conference, coach Troy Anderson broke down the square footage of a barbell versus some of the non-barbell equipment. He examined the dimensions of the equipment, providing a buffer zone for safe movement and taking into account drills that require the most amount of space (ex. lunges). He found some interesting numbers. According to Coach Anderson’s calculations non-barbell related equipment (dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags) requires approximately 24 square feet of floor space versus 42 square feet for the barbell training area. Almost double the space required to perform the same amount of training! This also means you are going to pay double in space for the same type of training. Is this a wise business move?

People love to share pictures like the ones in this article, but do you notice something about each of these early gyms? No racks, no barbells. And maybe this aspect in the photo below is not deliberate, but you can see how many more people we could serve without sacrificing the quality of training.

Lastly, related to business, there is cost. I think it is almost laughable when people complain about the cost of non-barbell strength training equipment and then spend far more money on a piece of equipment that takes up more space and possesses less versatility than most of these other forms of strength training.

Here is a real world example. Looking at a popular strength equipment distributor’s site a 160-pound barbell set with bumpers and what is considered a very basic set-up is $499.00. Add in the base squat stands and you are up to $775.00. In order to have a fair comparison, I can spend $725 on the same site and outfit myself with enough kettlebells, sandbags, and rings to train eleven people.

Remember, to be a smart businessperson, you have to look at your return on investment and costs to operate your business. In the above scenario the barbell set-up (remember, it’s not even high end one) costs me $775 per client trained. The second scenario outlined brings it down to about $70 per client. So, who has the better fitness business set-up?

It can be very challenging to be different. Going against the grain always puts us in a position to be alienated or scrutinized by those that we want to see as peers and mentors. However, when the information is so compelling and if we look at our history not with emotional goggles, but honest and thoughtful eyes, we see the errors of much of our ways. There are many reasons that the fitness industry has a turn over rate of about eighteen months. Part of it is in the way we service our clients and the ways we can set up our businesses. If there is a better way, why do we fight it?

References:

1. Saeterbakken AH, Fimland MS. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Oct 23. Effects of body position and loading modality on muscle activity and strength in shoulder presses.

Photo 1 and 4 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photos 2 and 3 by: unknown; file: James Steakley [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 5 by Choate, John N. of Carlisle, Pennsylvania [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The post An Argument Against the Barbell appeared first on Breaking Muscle.