Coach Shreck of varietytrainer.com shows how to make a diy rotating fat handle dumbbell.
An excellent training tool to for building grip strength.
Check out how to make some more homemade grip equipment
Friday, February 17, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Unconventional Conditioning PDF - Get it for Free
Last October did a sledgehammer challenge for my favourite charity Children In Distress, I have done many challenges over the years and each year managed to raise more cash than the last.
In 2011 I attempted to strike a tyre with a 25kg hammer 1000 times. Unfortunately I fell short with 960 reps . As you may guess it was no walk in the park and quite possibly one of the toughest things I've ever done (it's an understatement to say it was uncomfortable).
In 2009 I also attempted the 1 hr sledgehammer challenge and did 791 reps, 2005 saw me do 100,000m on the Concept 2 rower in 7 hr 1 min and 3 secs (which incidently left me hormonally un-balanced for about 7 days and an RSI in my wrist), but still raised over 750 quid! Around 2002 I did a gig with a band I used to play in and I think we knocked up around £300 (this was probably the easiest one!!)
Where Am I going with this?
Well last year to help raise the £1200 I managed, I wrote an ebook (PDF) about my training the things I have done and some of my ideas for getting strong and fit, along with many other things and as I haven't done anything else with it I would like to make it available to DIYStrengthGear readers for nothing else but a LIKE on the Facebook page (you can get it even without doing that but I would appreciate it if you did LIKE DIYStrengthGear)
Check out this post about my Free Training PDF and find out how to download it.
Roll Out The Ab Wheel
HOMEMADE AB WHEEL
Yeah, I know it's technically called an "ab wheel" and the exercise is "ab wheel rollout." But I called it an "ab rollout wheel" and I will stubbornly stand by what I said. So what? Wanna fight about it?
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Homemade Exercise Equipment Resource
Some of this may have been posted up here before , but here's an up to date list of Joe Hashey's Homemade Exercise Equipment directly over at Synergy Athletics
Thick Handled Dumbbells
Thick Handled Dumbbells - Quick Fix Version
Homemade Ball Grips
Homemade Loading Pin
Find A Large Tire For Flipping
Medicine Ball
Sandbag Construction – Video
Waterball Construction
Pull-up Bar
Homemade Lifting Bars
Simple Glute Ham Raise Machine
T Handle For Swings
Adjustable Slosh Pipe
DIY: Olympic Weightlifting Platform
Rack Mounted Wrist Roller
How to Make Your Own Clubs
Homemade Agility Ladder
Double Ab Wheels – Make these TODAY.
Bumper Plates and Bar
Farmer’s Walk Bars
Atlas Stone Part I and Atlas Stone Part II - Another Atlas Stone Variation
Dip Bars, Farmers Walk Handles, Loading Pin and more.
A Handful of Grip Training Ideas
Homemade Tornado Ball
Homemade Thick Bar Instructions (Video)
Joe has a really good Newsletter worth subscribing to with some great bonus reports and manuals
Sunday, January 29, 2012
If you're cheating, you're not trying
I heard an interesting, pseudoscentific term a week ago: Blue Monday Using a mathematical equation, someone figured out a way to determine the most miserable day of the year. Certainly January 16, 2012 was a really shitty day for me. Part of this calculation is the elapsed time after failing to meet New Years Resolutions.
You mean, like trying to lose weight? Around this time of year, questions start flying about when it's permissible to eat "cheat meals". The good intentions allegedly reaches it's end with the Super Bowl. It's been alleged that the junk food tradition accompanying the game is a conspiracy to permanently break the most popular New Years Resolution, keeping everyone fat.
So, what do I think about cheat meals?
This topic is getting as stale as asking about the best workout music. The problem is that people turn it into a question of cheating or not cheating. Then, once if becomes affirmed, then it's when and how often. I yawn just thinking about it.
This is actually simpler math than the Blue Monday calculation: addition and subtraction. What should we add? Well, we're going to add junk food. Have you ever considered that there are junk foods that should never be eaten? There's a huge difference between a cheeseburger from here and this...
I've done my best to make a policy of not eating things that contain ingredients that I can't pronounce or identify. When I make a pizza for dinner, I can tell you what's in the crust, the sauce, and even the bacon(yes, I make my own bacon. Pancetta, technically). I can usually drive to the farm where the cheese was made. That's a far cry from pizza like this...
I'm too lazy to do a Google search. Can someone tell me what Sodium Erytho...um...yeah, that stuff.
So, when we add pizza, cheeseburgers, and similar unhealthy fare to our diets on our designated special days, does that mean that we absolutely have to subtract everything resembling healthy food from our diet for the day as well? Is it a crime against humanity to have a salad with the pizza? Could you bring yourself to throw some diced jalapenos (which have more Vitamin C, by weight, than oranges.) and serve the whole thing on a whole wheat bun? Last time I checked, this was all permissible.
Let's cut the bullshit though. If you did resolve to lose some weight and you're already asking about when you can cheat, you're just setting yourself up for a failure. I could spout off about tips to eat better but the reality is that you need to get stubborn with yourself. Those of us committed to keeping a healthy weight get urges like the rest of humanity. We're just disciplined enough to fight off enough of them to stay healthy. At this point, don't even fucking think about when you can cheat and eat if your resolution is to lean out. You might have to skip the wings at Super Bowl but you'll feel, and look, better for it.
You mean, like trying to lose weight? Around this time of year, questions start flying about when it's permissible to eat "cheat meals". The good intentions allegedly reaches it's end with the Super Bowl. It's been alleged that the junk food tradition accompanying the game is a conspiracy to permanently break the most popular New Years Resolution, keeping everyone fat.
So, what do I think about cheat meals?
This topic is getting as stale as asking about the best workout music. The problem is that people turn it into a question of cheating or not cheating. Then, once if becomes affirmed, then it's when and how often. I yawn just thinking about it.
This is actually simpler math than the Blue Monday calculation: addition and subtraction. What should we add? Well, we're going to add junk food. Have you ever considered that there are junk foods that should never be eaten? There's a huge difference between a cheeseburger from here and this...
I've done my best to make a policy of not eating things that contain ingredients that I can't pronounce or identify. When I make a pizza for dinner, I can tell you what's in the crust, the sauce, and even the bacon(yes, I make my own bacon. Pancetta, technically). I can usually drive to the farm where the cheese was made. That's a far cry from pizza like this...
I'm too lazy to do a Google search. Can someone tell me what Sodium Erytho...um...yeah, that stuff. So, when we add pizza, cheeseburgers, and similar unhealthy fare to our diets on our designated special days, does that mean that we absolutely have to subtract everything resembling healthy food from our diet for the day as well? Is it a crime against humanity to have a salad with the pizza? Could you bring yourself to throw some diced jalapenos (which have more Vitamin C, by weight, than oranges.) and serve the whole thing on a whole wheat bun? Last time I checked, this was all permissible.
Let's cut the bullshit though. If you did resolve to lose some weight and you're already asking about when you can cheat, you're just setting yourself up for a failure. I could spout off about tips to eat better but the reality is that you need to get stubborn with yourself. Those of us committed to keeping a healthy weight get urges like the rest of humanity. We're just disciplined enough to fight off enough of them to stay healthy. At this point, don't even fucking think about when you can cheat and eat if your resolution is to lean out. You might have to skip the wings at Super Bowl but you'll feel, and look, better for it.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Replace Functional. Right idea, wrong word
If you wandered over here from my Facebook page, then you know that I enthusiastically bought "Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors vol II" as soon as I heard it was available for sale. It's been an oddly enthralling read. I've never been interested in bodybuilding but I've deeply enjoyed reading all of the goings-on in the transitional 1970's. Those years are the nearly-sole focus of this 700-plus page book.
You can't talk about those years without bringing up Arthur Jones. The Nautilus story takes up a significant chunk of the book. So, as I was reading about this "sport" that I don't have much interest in during years I wasn't born, I came across a part about how Arthur Jones lamented that his lats were too small. As he saw it, the problem was his hands were holding back his quest to get his Lattisimus Dorsi bigger. So, he set out to make a machine to take his hands out of the equation.
He felt as though he succeeded wildly, proudly proclaiming in all his brashness that he could put "lats on a rake" ... all that was necessary was a machine to take the hands out of the process.
That kind of thinking leaves me with one though...
Maybe, in addition to being a borderline maniac, Arthur Jones was an engineering genius. I run into that all of the time with work. There's lots of civil engineers that are really smart... and impractical as the day is long.
A while back when I decided to start reading about human anatomy, a very common way to describe the Lats was, "the climbing muscle," due to how heavily we all use the lat when we climb shit. So, riddle me this: how on earth do you climb anything if you don't use your hands? Forget the climbing for a second. How much can we do with the lats without the hands?
and this helps with what exactly?
I used a word a minute ago that we don't see too often in muscle training: impractical. I don't think that we use this term enough. Instead, we see exercises referred to as either, "functional," or not. Maybe that's a piss-poor label. Functional exercise is something that helps you achieve a goal. So, any exercise is functional. That's not what we're referring to and lots of people make themselves look silly by using this phrase, even if they're getting at something they're not properly defining.
Impractical is what we're getting at. There are lots of stuff you can do to make big, strong muscles but it's an open question as to whether it's worth doing in the first place. Like I said before, what can you do with your lats with in real life that doesn't require the use of your hands? So, what the hell good is a machine that sets you up to work out in ways you'll never move outside of a gym?
So, it's worth thinking about the way you're moving when you're in your respective gym. A little practicality would be a nice change of pace in people's methods of working out. While you're trying to be practical, dump the mislabeling phenomenon known as "functional training."
Owner of some of the best Lats in history. So, maybe there is something practical about building big lats: it drives the babes nuts!
You can't talk about those years without bringing up Arthur Jones. The Nautilus story takes up a significant chunk of the book. So, as I was reading about this "sport" that I don't have much interest in during years I wasn't born, I came across a part about how Arthur Jones lamented that his lats were too small. As he saw it, the problem was his hands were holding back his quest to get his Lattisimus Dorsi bigger. So, he set out to make a machine to take his hands out of the equation.
He felt as though he succeeded wildly, proudly proclaiming in all his brashness that he could put "lats on a rake" ... all that was necessary was a machine to take the hands out of the process.
That kind of thinking leaves me with one though...
Maybe, in addition to being a borderline maniac, Arthur Jones was an engineering genius. I run into that all of the time with work. There's lots of civil engineers that are really smart... and impractical as the day is long.
A while back when I decided to start reading about human anatomy, a very common way to describe the Lats was, "the climbing muscle," due to how heavily we all use the lat when we climb shit. So, riddle me this: how on earth do you climb anything if you don't use your hands? Forget the climbing for a second. How much can we do with the lats without the hands?
and this helps with what exactly?
I used a word a minute ago that we don't see too often in muscle training: impractical. I don't think that we use this term enough. Instead, we see exercises referred to as either, "functional," or not. Maybe that's a piss-poor label. Functional exercise is something that helps you achieve a goal. So, any exercise is functional. That's not what we're referring to and lots of people make themselves look silly by using this phrase, even if they're getting at something they're not properly defining.
Impractical is what we're getting at. There are lots of stuff you can do to make big, strong muscles but it's an open question as to whether it's worth doing in the first place. Like I said before, what can you do with your lats with in real life that doesn't require the use of your hands? So, what the hell good is a machine that sets you up to work out in ways you'll never move outside of a gym?
So, it's worth thinking about the way you're moving when you're in your respective gym. A little practicality would be a nice change of pace in people's methods of working out. While you're trying to be practical, dump the mislabeling phenomenon known as "functional training."
Owner of some of the best Lats in history. So, maybe there is something practical about building big lats: it drives the babes nuts!
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