Deadlift Platform

Lifting platforms are cool. But they take up a lot of space, they can't really be moved or stored, they weigh hundreds of lbs., can potentially cost over a hundred dollars, and they require a truck or trailer to get the rather large materials home. I came up with a smaller, lighter, cheaper, and portable solution. Though it is designed specifically with deadlifts in mind, that is all I need it for. And it only cost me $15.



Cost: $15 - $20
Project Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: You have to cut plywood and use glue and screws.

Tools Needed:

• Saw - Either a hand saw or a circular saw or other type of saw to cut plywood.
• Caulk Gun - if you choose to use Liquid Nails to glue the rubber down

Materials Needed:

• Plywood - I went with a single piece of 3/4" thick oriented strand board. It was 2' x 4'
• Liquid Nails - (optional) If you want to glue the rubber down.
• Wood Glue - (optional) not strictly necessary if you use screws but I like to use it. If you're using Liquid Nails for the rubber you can just use that to glue your plywood together.
• Screws - make sure they are long enough to go through all layer of the plywood but no so long that they poke out of the bottom layer.  In my case, I used 1 inch long screws to secure two layers of 3/4 inch plywood.

I have been wanting a lifting platform for a while, but I just don't have the space for it.  I don't even really have the space for a half platform to use for deadlifts. But it's getting to the point where my deadlift is heavy enough to want some floor protection underneath.

A full size platform (8' x 8') weighs somewhere around 300 lbs. Hardly easy to move and obviously takes up a lot of space. I don't even really have room for a half size platform (8' x 4').  Since I want it for deadlifts only, and I don't pull sumo I really didn't need anything as big as a half platform. Instead I made a 3 piece design. It's light, you can move it when not in use, and it cost me only $15.

The whole thing weighs 28 lbs. and as you see in the video you can carry it all in one arm and easily store it away when not in use.

- Carl

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Lifting Belt Storage Rack

Another project that I made from scrap materials. It's a glorified shelf / coat rack but I made it to store my weight lifting belts and other small gear. I previously had these lying on the floor so this storage solution is an improvement.

Even if you were to buy materials for this project you would only need a 1 x 6 board about 60 inches long, depending on how big you want to make it. A few small nails and screws, a square dowel, and some bolts with nuts and washers. It should be under $10.

This is part of the "show off" series, as I didn't record the actual construction process. I made this up on the fly and the exact materials I used is not the perfect way to go about it because I was just cleaning up scrap I had. The project is pretty simple and I explain the construction in the video, but if you would like me to do a full write-up with diagrams and such please leave a comment. If the demand is there I'll do it. But it's basically just a simple shelf with bolts through it for "hooks" and a lip around the edge so my lacrosse ball doesn't roll off.

The reason I suggest screwing this thing into studs is because it's going to have a decent amount of weight on it, especially if you hang chain belts from it. To find the studs in your wall either use a stud finder tool or you can knock on the wall. You'll be able to hear and feel when you're over a stud because it will sound hard, for lack of a better way to describe it. Where there's no stud it will be distinctly hollow.

- Carl

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DIY Sandbags

I have wanted to do some sandbag training for a while now. My goal was to use things around the house in order to make these completely free. Lest I get some complaints, I know it's not best sandbag option out there. I'm not saying it's good for any purpose you might want to use a sandbag. I'm just showing you what I did to make some basic heavy bags for free. These weigh 50 lbs. each. I've had them for a month now and they have been working well for my purposes so far.

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DIY Stone Roller for Stone Lifting Training

In a month I'll be competing in 'The Gathering' -  a 2 day grip competition where folks with strong hands from many areas of the World will congregate and test their strength.

One of the events is the 'Bear Hug Deadlift' where the athlete hugs a stone roller and lifts the bar to knee height for a successful lift. The event is a superb lift for practicing the atlas stones and a great strengthener for the forearms and back muscles.

To train for The Gathering I have made my own Stone Roller

Materials required:

Old dustbin (must have little or no taper in the main barrel)
1" or 2" bar
Sand, gravel, cement
Buckets for mixing
PVA glue



 

 How to make your own Stone Roller
 
1. Cut a hole the same size as your bar in the center of the dustbin

2. Level an area of ground and place the bin on the levelled area. Set a spirit level across the bin to ensure when set the bar is as concentric as possible.

3. Insert the bar through the bin and into the ground to the correct depth so that once complete the bar protrudes from the barrel equally on both sides (some simple maths here)

4. Use some kind of mould release to assist removal of the concrete from the bin once dried. I used some vegetable oil spray for this. Spray all around the area that will be in contact with the concrete.

5. Mix the concrete using a ratio of 5/6 to 1 (sand to cement) using sharp sand and gravel, make sure the mix is quite wet so that it fills the mould entirely.

6. Use a stick to work the concrete and remove any air pockets.

7. leave for 1-2 weeks (the longer the better), to allow the concrete to set and fully harden

8. Remove from the mould (if your bar is quite long like mine, it may be a 2 man job to turn the mould upside down unless you're feeling strong!)

9.  Hey presto!! A 114.5kg Stone Roller almost ready for putting to action for stone lifting training.






10. Next step is to paint the stone with PVA glue, this will prevent the surface of the stone from rubbing away and dusting. Allow to dry for at least a day or until the surface is not tacky.

11. Lift and enjoy!

In 'The Gathering' no tacky shall be allowed, only chalk which in turn makes the lift more challenging.

This stone ended up 15" long by 16" diameter at a weight of 114.5kg 252 lbs and loadable to well over 300kg

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Dip Belt Weight Rack

Loading up weights on to a dip belt can be a bit of a hassle if you're using more than one plate. I realized this when I did a chin up session consisting of ramping singles and had to do a lot of weight changing between sets. My solution was to build a rack to hold the weights for me. This makes getting the belt on and off easier and makes loading the weights on to the belt a lot easier.

Cost: less than $5
Project time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: You have to cut off a piece of 2x4 wood and drill holes in it.

Tools Needed:

• Drill
• Saw to cut wood (I used a normal hand saw)
• Screwdriver (you can use your drill)

Materials Needed:

• One 2x4 stud (8 ft. long)
• Some 2 1/2 inch deck screws (I like the T-25 star head)
• Wood Glue (optional)

This is yet another project I built from scrap wood. You need only a single 2x4 stud (8ft. long). and some wood screws. If you don't have a dip belt, check out the Project Index for that project.

- Carl

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You Keep Asking. Here it is: How I put together my routine

That kind of puzzles me too.  I'm not sure why people are so interested in how I put together my routines.  I do have a few protocols for putting them together but it's not like I've built revolutionary quantities of muscle mass lately or done amazing things to be picked apart on a Youtube video by the ass-monkey experts using my current programming guidelines.  If you want to know what I do, then get ready to be blown away.  Right.  Now...

UPPER/LOWER BODY SPLIT ROUTINE

Profound and innovative? Pretty much like everything else that gets written out there about strength training.  I do have some things that I keep in mind when I decide how I'm going to put together my routines.  There's probably considerations that we never see in any of the strength sports programming out there that I take very seriously.  I'm sure they're things that you have to cope with too.  Items like time constraints, being able to go work the next day and perform normally.  Having limited, or even no access to a gym or specific equipment.  It's easy to program strength training when you have minimal commitments to anything else but yourself.  With that kind of life, you can afford to mold your life to your training.  For the rest of us, life happens and it's not quite so easy and the training molds more to the rest of our life. With an infant son, my training is, more than ever, all about getting a good workout under a time constraint.  30-40 minutes to myself, when I'm at home, is a luxurious amount of workout time.  I can get more than that...if I'm traveling.  So, then I work with limited equipment issues.   No matter what I do, I do have a labor-intensive job so whatever I do working out can't drain me to the point were I move slow and painfully the next day. 

Monday, Wednesday and Friday are my upper body days.  Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are for the lower regions.  Sunday is my goof-off day and I do whatever I feel like doing.  I try to work out everyday.  It doesn't always happen, but I get a B+ for effort.  As long as I moderate, picking easy and hard days, training every day hasn't been a problem for me.  Things get grey when I try to work out twice a day, every day.  That taxes the amount of recovery I'm capable of with 4-6 hours of sleep. 

When I do my upper body work on Mondays and Fridays, I superset push and pull movements, doing two or three supersets, each one with more volume than the next.  I've found out that my upper body can do a lot in a short period of time without worrying about over-doing it.  That's one thing that I love about supersetting:  less downtime.  You "rest" by switching to another set of muscles to workout.  It really cuts down on the amount of time spent training. On Wednesday, I do only pushing movements.  These I'll do with more of a conventional sets and reps.  No supersetting here since this day usually amounts to a shoulder day.  There aren't too many push movements that don't hit the shoulders.  So, I allow for some extra rest on these. 

Lower body days aren't done with the same kind of mad dash mentality that my upper body days have.  I've done this in the past and spent a day or two limping around with sore muscles as a result.  This isn't fun if you walk several miles or climb ladders all day (both of which I do a lot).  I recall reading somewhere that Tom Platz used to count out the number of steps he'd have to take daily so he could minimize this walking after abusing his legs with his infamous leg training.  Do you have that kind of capability?  Neither do I.  As it so happens, two of my (ongoing) goals are to get better at pistols and be able to do glute ham raises.  This has been much of my leg training, starting with the pistols in low reps and then moving to some GHR work (lately, 5 partials plus 5 eccentric GHR's to a set, one right after another).   I find that when I'm trying to master new movements, it's better to minimize the whole, "most volume in the least time", approch to training.  So lately, these days aren't as rugged on my body.  This is where I kind of wander off the conventional upper/lower split plantation because I also do some Two-Hands Anyhow work after I finish up with the pistols and the GHR. 

Although I'm trying to master these two lower body moves, I've been known to throw in a heavy squat day once a week for a break.  I like doing belt squats, zerchers, and some squat-press with two kettlebells.   Regardless, I don't forget that my legs have muscles in the front, back and sides. 

Sundays are my blank slate.  You might catch me doing all core work, complexes, deadlifting,  or whatever sounds interesting to me at that particular time. 

This summary and outline is meant to be nothing more than my story about how I do what I do to stay strong with some very real world constraints.  I'm still a huge advocate of getting smart enough at training to put together a routine for yourself.   Nobody else's routine is going to take into consideration all of the little idiosyncrasies of my life.  Maybe that's why I find the inquiries about how I do what I do odd.  Still, there's always something to be learned from other people's methods and hopefully you can find a few of my pointers about routine construction useful. 

A slice of my week working out...

Monday
Switch Grip Pull-ups, 8 reps
Diamond Handstand Push-up, 8 reps... repeat 4 times

Decline-fingertip push-ups, 25 reps
Sandbag (87 lbs) rows, 25 rep... repeat 4 times

Tuesday
Pistols, 6 sets 5 reps per leg
Hold bottom position of pistols for 15 seconds, twice each leg
GHR work (described above) 4 sets
Two Hands Anyhow, 3 each side

Wednesday
One-arm push-ups, feet < shoulder-width apart, 3 sets 5 reps each arm
Push-ups with sandbag on my back, 4 sets 10 reps
Handstand push-ups 3 sets 15 reps

Thursday .... somehow I got stuck watching the kid while my wife went shopping with her mother and friends.  Forced day off!

Friday
Ladder Pull-ups, 8 each side
One arm push-ups on suspension rig 8 each side ...repeat 5 times

Sandbag clean and press 10 reps
sandbag rows, 20 reps... repeat 3 times

Saturday... same as Tuesday

Sunday
300 lbs deadlifts, 6 sets 6 reps
150 lbs belt squats 8 sets 8 reps
pull-ups, wide grip 10 sets 10 reps

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Homemade PVC Parallettes

DIY Parallettes

Great idea for making your own parallettes



Check out this video for some ideas for what to do with them

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