Dislocate your shoulder on the cheap

Today I'll show you how to make a simple tool that will assist you when performing the mobility exercise known as shoulder dislocations. Better yet, it takes less than ten minutes and costs only a buck. Alternatively, you could use any number of household objects if you have them.



Cost: $1 to $5 (depending on what you already have)
Project Time:  10 minutes
Difficulty: If you're allowed to use scissors you can probably pull this one off.

Tools Needed:

• Scissors make life easier
• Saw (any kind) - optional because hardware store probably has a saw to use for this

Materials Needed:

• PVC Pipe - 4 to 6 feet length of 1/2 inch or 1 inch diameter
• Masking, painters, or electrical tape (colored is good here)

Welcome all,

This is the first project I'm posting on Homemade Strength. It's about as easy as it gets and it will show you that I can and will make posts about even the simplest of things elaborate on this blog. Because I'm about to ramble on for many paragraphs about something which ultimately amounts to a piece of pipe with tape on it.

Yeah, it's a pipe with tape on it. So what?

Despite the name, you won't actually be dislocating anything when you perform Shoulder Dislocations. In reality they are a great dynamic stretch to increase your shoulder flexibility which is useful for many things including low bar back squats. A narrow grip is better for this exercise (I means squats) and most people lack the flexibility to take an ideal narrow grip on the bar. A good way to increase your flexibility is with shoulder dislocations. If you don't know what they are, do a youtube search and I'm sure you'll find dozens of video examples. Basically you hold the end of a bar, broomstick, or pipe in each hand and then raise said bar over your head, keeping your arms straight, and then bring the bar behind you touching your ass, arms straight through all of this. Everyone can do this if you take a wide grip on the bar, rope, or stick in question. As you move your hands closer together, that's when it becomes more difficult, and requires more flexibility; precisely what this helps you develop.

There are many things you can use for this exercise; a rope, a broomstick, or any thing that resembles such things, like a jump rope or audio/video cable. I don't recommend a pool cue since it's a two piece design and liable to snap in half ( i know from experience). It's my personal opinion that something solid, like a broomstick, is better than something flimsy, like a jump rope. But if you don't have or don't want to sacrifice a broom for this, the cheapest and easiest solution is PVC pipe.

You can get a 10 foot length of 1/2 inch diameter pipe for less than a dollar at any major hardware store. You don't need 10 feet of course but that's how it's sold.  Since PVC has the ability to slightly bend, it won't ever break; unlike a certain pool cue I once knew. In other words, for $1 it will last forever, and actually you could make two for a dollar.

Make sure you measure your vehicle before you go to the store. If you have an SUV you may be able to fit a 10 foot pipe in it. If you have a car, there's nearly no way because your trunk is separate from the car. No worries though, there's two easy solutions. Bring a hand saw with you and leave it in your car. You can cut the pipe in half in the parking lot. Don't worry, cutting 1/2 inch of hollow plastic pipe will take only a few seconds.

If you don't have a saw or don't want to do that then take your pipe over to the section of the hardware store with all the wood baseboard and molding. There is almost always going to be a hand saw rig setup so that you can cut your own molding down since these things are sold in ridiculously long lengths and are charged by the foot. Again it will only take a few seconds to turn your pipe into a matching set. Just tell the cashier that it is one pipe which you had cut into two pieces so you only get charged for one pipe. If you can't even be arsed to do that then ask someone at the store to cut it for you. If you can't even be arsed to do that then how did you even get to this site? You must have had to do a whole bunch of clicking and typing on the keyboard, not to mention pressing a button to turn on the computer. That's way too much work.

In my experience a five foot length of pipe should be enough, but I won't guarantee that for everyone. If you have a pool stick, rope, length of string, broomstick, or garden hose at home, anything that you can use to measure your flexibility, do so before you go to the store. Again, watch a video on youtube if you don't know how to do the exercise. Test out how wide a grip you have to take to do it with your current flexibility. That way, you'll know how long you need to make your pipe (minimum length that is). If you don't have any of those things then just cut your pipe down to 7 feet. This will fit in your car unless you have a stupidly small vehicle. Then at home you can use your newly purchased pipe to run said flexibility test and trim it down appropriately.

Now you certainly could just leave the pipe as is and use it. But you could also make a few improvements if you wish.  In the picture you can see that I've taped off intervals using blue painters tape. You could just as easily use black or any other color electrical tape,  or even masking tape colored with a marker. But if you do that you would have to put clear tape over it so the marker doesn't get on your hands and then the clear tape will make the pipe more slippery and harder to grip. In short, though I used painters tape I think electrical is better for the task.

The purpose of this is to have a reference to measure progress. With a plain pipe, you don't necessarily know if you're getting more flexible since you can't accurately gauge how narrow a grip you are using. With these tape markings you can simply count how many marks and over time you'll be able to see your improvement.

Unlike Mr. Poolstick, I know you'll never let me down.

So $1 for the pipe. If you have tape at home then that's it. If not, you could spend a few bucks picking up some tape. Just remember it has to be visible so clear Scotch tape isn't going to work. That was simple, fast, easy, and cheap. In the time it took to read my drawn out elaboration of the process, you probably could have finished the project.

-Carl

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DIY Throwing Weight - Kettlebell for Swings

DIY Throwing Weight - Kettlebell for Swings

Being a thrower myself I have often used various homemade throwing devices over the years, many of which were very good and some of wish fell apart on the first throw. However, I've been looking for a decent solution for a 28lb/56lb throwing weight which could also be used for fitness training as well (as the dynamics are very similar between elements of the kettlebell swing and parts of the Highland Games Weight for Height - WOB)

For this you will need:

Some weight discs
A length of chain (no more than 1 inch link width)
A couple of shackles or a shackle and carabiner
A handle (of some description)


Pull the chain through the weight discs and attach shackle
















Pull tight




















Attach carabiner with as little slack as possible

























Attach handle - 'Enter Adjustable Throwing Weight/Adjustable Kettlebell Device'
























Once finished you can cut any extra chain you don't need but bear in mind that you will want some spare to make the weight more adjustable or alternatively you can have a couple of different lengths of chain to suit (it will be cheaper with less chain). Also, I would use duct tape around the weight to keep them together or take up the slack with another smaller shackle at either end.

If you're struggling to find a handle for your throwing weight then David Horne does a very good one which will last forever, check out David Horne Throwing Ring

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Because I want to make sense of functionality

It has to be the most annoying adjective posted to training out there, sure to roll eyeballs and ignite flame wars about how stupid the users of such a foolish description of a noun ever applied to strength training: F-U-C-T-I-O-N-A-L. There's a standard line parroted in response to such insolence and it goes something like this: There's no such thing as un-functional training. All training serve a function because it helps you reach a goal.

func·tion·al adj \ˈfəŋ(k)-shnəl, -shə-nəl\ Definition of FUNCTIONAL 1a : of, connected with, or being a function b : affecting physiological or psychological functions but not organic structure 2: used to contribute to the development or maintenance of a larger whole ; also : designed or developed chiefly from the point of view of use 3: performing or able to perform a regular function

It's spelled out right there. Functional is doing something towards a goal. If you're functional training, and you're training to do something, then the training is functional. Fabricated solution to a problem that didn't exist, right? I'M FUNCTIONAL, MOTHERFUCKER!
Or is this a case of bad wording? Is it kind of like calling skin cancer a blemish? Or, more to the point, is the outcome of the training, the goal of the training, good for anything other than the goal itself? I think that most of us can agree that too much of the training going on out there is too narrowly focused on achieving one facet of strength that it cuts into the body's ability to perform other tasks of differing strengths. It's all for the game that it's practiced for. It's been said before: strength is ability. The more able you are, the stronger you are. Heavily-myopic focus eventually makes a weaker person.

So, what is, um, functional training, so-to-say? Okay, I'll start using another term... when I think of something else to use. Just bear with me in the meantime. Back to training talk...

First of all, since I've supplemented BW training with lifting objects a year or so ago, I've lifted strange stuff, lifted stuff strange, and done strange lifts. I could give you a list of lifts that I use in real life but honestly, not a huge amount of what I do really imitates any lift by the numbers. Sure, I do a lot of deadlifting-like movement but it's usually odd-shaped object with an uneven-stance on uneven ground, sometimes back-rounded (I know, I know...) and nothing remotely nice to grab as a bar made for me to grip in the first place. Actually, since I spend a lot of time in water (of various stages of not-sewer-anymore) up to my knees, I lift stuff in a manner that looks more like a Goodmorning than it does a deadlift. I don't want to get my ass wet or water in my waders after all.

I've lost count of how many time's I've lifted stuff (sort of) like this!

If you're one of those that gets a little hairy about that round-back lift thing, sorry, sometimes there really isn't any other way. The other reason why some stuff in real life isn't duplicated in the gym is because it shouldn't be. Manual labor and sports alike have one thing in common: a lot of the shit that's done will, to varying degrees of speed, destroy the body. Training should focus on strengthening the body to withstand the abuse. It shouldn't be trained to do abusive stuff even more abusively.

I got a chuckle a while back when I first came in contact with the concept of eccentric lifting. That's yet another example of bad wording because that doesn't exist. Lifting is a concentric movement. eccentric movement puts something down under control. THAT'S NOT LIFTING! This is one of those training concepts that exists without a little bit of good sense. As far as I'm concerned, had most people been as concerned with putting whatever they're lifting down as they were about getting it up in the first place (and not dropping it), there would be no issue with eccentric training. In real life, the chances that you have to carefully put down whatever you lift are pretty high. If you pick up two or three bags of concrete (doesn't everybody?) you carefully place them on the ground! Nobody appreciates you dropping their boxes when you help them move either!

Oh, and about the max strength thing: it's nice but it's not always where it's at. More often than not, it's far more important to be strong over a long period of time than it is to be insanely strong for only 15-20 seconds. That doesn't get the snow shoveled faster any more than it gets all 10 bags of that concrete I mentioned above out of the pick-up truck that you're going to put down nicely. Hey, what about those 20 boxes of tiles?

That brings me to another point that I should have reiterated earlier: Most stuff gets picked up off the ground. Get good at doing that!

What I'm probably getting at is getting a body strong for doing more manual labor. Those of us who do a lot of it get a chuckle at watching those who train for strength games fail at being able to sustain any kind of any kind of serious, physical job for any longer than a few, fleeting moments. It seems wrong because it is wrong. We know imbalanced strength when we see it and once seen, it's hard to deny that it's a method of training that's flat-out wrong.

Then again, with the proliferation of desk work and people who hire others do to their dirty jobs for them, most people will never realize any of what I'm talking about. They'll probably be perfectly happy fractionalizing their strength, treating it like a game or a hobby with little or no bearing or carry-over into a physical life. As far as they're concerned, "functonality" will just be a marketing pitch with no other meaning beyond that. Yes, it's horribly mislabeled but I'd like to think that what people are taking about when they misuse the word is that they're trying to be as physically capable for anything as possible.

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Homemade Weightlifting Equipment - Cheap Home Gym Fitness Training

Great video with some really cool Homemade Exercise Equipment ideas to check out

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Come a little closer and I'll tell you the secret behind Kettlebells

Kettlebells are a great tool, but since the explosion of the kettlebell cults, dumbbells have taken a backseat in training. Funny, but no one ever takes a picture with a dumbbell, yet I see more shots every day of people carrying a kettlebell like it was his or her first-born.

I have nothing against kettlebells and use them in my training. I just wonder if the KB explosion would've ever happened without the Internet? Kettlebell shirts, kettlebell necklaces...

Poor dumbbells, I'll miss them.

Martin Rooney

You won't miss them for long, Martin. Pretty soon, someone, 15 years from now, will resurrect dumbbells as a long-lost training secret! Then, you'll feel even cooler knowing that you were ahead of the curve, doing DB's before they were cool! Hell, you'll have one even better: you'll have the training secrets behind dumbbells! Then, you're a millionaire!

Yeah, I jumped on the KB bandwagon almost two years ago myself, working out with them pretty steadily since. I have a practical consideration for my choice since I work out in low ceilings that really put a pinch on what I can press overhead with. Otherwise, I like working out with them.

They're kind of awkward.

Actually, that might be a significant and that might be a practical reason, outside of some legendary marketing, why they caught on. I've heard a lot about their history and a few explanations as to why they died out. Since that part is a little vague, I'm going to take the liberty of assuming that they died out because they were awkward, and therefore limited the amount of weight that could be lifted. If you could say one thing about strength training equipment, or fitness equipment in general, is that for a while (and in a way), it evolved to make training with it easier. Easier, that is, to move more weight. Most everything that's come out was geared to make it as easy as possible to move the most amount of metal.

Kettlebells turned out to be the first major reversal of that trend in the past half-century. If anything, equipment seems to have gone from high tech and machine- oriented to simple and odd.

Now, the one thing that kind of annoys me isn't the tool itself but the insanely cultish methodology that's caked up around them. As far as I'm concerned, there is no "kettlebell training." Just about everything that can be done with one can be done with a dumbbell. Maybe it's not the same feel, but frankly people need to stop being so damn picky. There's still a workout to be done there!

So, I understand the irritation surrounding the KB but that doesn't mean that the cult's methodology taints the tool irrepairably. Just because they don't go much over 100 lbs and everyone's doing strength-endurance style workouts doesn't mean that other, more sexy strength can't be built. After all, it's an odd-shaped object. It doesn't need to be heavy to make you strong! Find a different way to lift it, that's all!

So, yeah, they're awkward. That's cool. They might be your thing. If they are, then have fun with them and get some good work done! It's like every other tool that you can use to get into shape: it's what you put into it that gets the work done.

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Homemade Grappler - Core Trainer

DIY Grappler for Core Training


Shoua from Shoua's Stuff has posted up a Grappler/Core training he has made himself. Great looking device at a massive saving compared to commercial versions




Check out the BOM for this build


Go to his blog Shoua's Stuff to find out more

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The magic potions never stop coming

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I'm no fan of supplements. In fact, for the most part, I downright despise them. It's often a comforting thought to assume that our training has evolved way past the ancient Greeks in the sense that we don't believe that some magic potion mixed up by a crackpot pseudo-religious oracle-shyster will make you bigger, stronger and faster than the next guy. The reality is that we haven't and the snake-oil carbetbagging of the American Reconstructionist period probably settled in Utah and became the modern supplement industry as we know it.

There might be a pattern to the supplement industry. In fact, you could call it the unofficial business model. Ready for it? Here it is, in a nutshell:

1. Find a semi-edible waste product from somewhere.
2. Turn it into a supplement
3. Find a quack doctor or scientist to come up with a bunch of half-bullshit claims about it.
4. Hand it over to the bodybuilding world...

Seriously, some of the most popular supplements out there right now came to us from WASTE PRODUCTS!

Let's start with the most flagrant, possibly the most dangerous: soy protein products. The modern soy protein supplements came to us compliments of the peeps (namely Henry Ford, one of the biggest advocates of the American Eugenics movement, I might add) who used soybean oil for industrial lubricants and paints. Someone must have realized that the defatted soy meal could be sold as a food product, maybe after finding out that people in Asia ate a lot of soy. They live a long time... maybe we can feed this stuff we just soaked in solvents to people! Now, all that was needed was to find some doctors, scientists, and studies to back it up...

Okay, so much of soy ends up, somehow, as a food product, including the oil. Still, a lot of that oil is extracted with Hexane. Yum.

Well, at least whey is a bit less dubious in terms of its origins and safety. If you look up whey in Wikipedia, it doesn't take long to figure out where the idea of whey supplements came from...

Whey or milk plasma is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a by-product of the manufacture of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is manufactured during the making of rennet types of hard cheese like Cheddar or Swiss. Acid whey (also known as "sour whey") is obtained during the making of acid types of cheese such as cottage cheese.

Hey, look on the bright side: you may have been suckered into buying the left-overs of Velveta or cheese-whizz, but at least it came from food manufacturing rather than paint manufacturing. Okay, maybe it's not Velveta. Maybe you could pretend your Whey protein was left over from a more dignified cheese. Maybe it's Cabot Extra sharp, which is a really good cheese, I might add. Not Paleo, mind you but still very good!

The biggest joke of all might be fish oil supplements. If you want to pull your hair out, try finding out what fish they use to make most of these Omega-3 supplements (Did you REALLY think it was coming from tuna and salmon? ). I found out, years ago in a magazine. I'm sure whoever wrote that article got bitch-slapped pretty hard by the supplement makers because I can't find the name of that damned, little fish. I do remember this: IT'S A FUCKING GARBAGE FISH! Maybe it's this little guy!

Seriously, it's a tiny, little bony fish that's completely inedible because there's so little meat on it it's barely any good for bait! It does have one thing going for it though: it's oily as hell! So, these little shit-fish are rounded up, put in a screw press, and squeezed for all their worth: their oil. Then, they filter out the little bits of bone, eyeball and scale, put it in a capsule, and VOILA! Fish oil supplement! Pay your $15.00 a bottle now...

All of this crap brings back shades of the early 20th century's thought process that food is, somehow inadequate on it's own and that science is desperately needed to make it perfect, or at least better. Even with the explosion of the organic food market, there's still a healthy number of unhealthy people who think that health comes from pills. Even if that were true, it's NOT coming from these concoctions that I just described. Supplement makers don't have to prove to anyone that what they're making and selling will do anything that they say that it will. They even go one step farther in the intelligence-insult-assault by getting people who didn't build their bodies with these things to say that they did. I could keep going on but that should tell you all you need to know about the state of the supplement industry these days.

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