Feats of Strength

Deadlifts Save Lives

A USF Football player lifted a car off of a man, saved his life. 

Have you done your deadlifts this week?

Starting Strength Infographic

Monday Motivation

Train Like Thor

Men’s Fitness did a story on Chris Hemsworth’s training regimen for the upcoming Marvel Comics superhero movie, “Thor”. He looks like a beast. See for yourself.

Here’s a glimpse at his workout. Part 1 looks an awful lot like Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength… Just sayin’.

If you’re looking to put on size, strength, and increase your conditioning, check out Starting Strength. As far as workout routines go, it’s about as vanilla as it gets – the same, big compound lifts over and over and over again with steady progression (and solutions for plateaus). But don’t be fooled – vanilla does not mean easy. That many heavy lifts will kick anybody’s butt.

Old School Strength Training. Literally.

Awesome story of “80-years young” Sam Penner destroying a weightlifting record. Most impressive (to me) is that at his age, working with his Personal Trainer, he completely re-learned how to bench press. Competition lifts are judged very specifically. In Sam’s case, he had to learn to hold the press at the “bottom” until the judge gave the green light.

Personally, I’d be scared to find out how much my max bench press would drop if it was judged with a hold. Maybe when I’m 80 I’ll be able to put my ego aside like Sam. Just another thing to train!

“Baby We Were Born To Run”

This story has been making the rounds, mostly because it’s pretty fascinating.

Biomechanical research reveals a surprising key to the survival of our species: Humans are built to outrun nearly every other animal on the planet over long distances.

Late one night over beers in the Welsh hamlet of Llanwrtyd Wells, an innkeeper got into an argument with a foxhunter about who could run faster, man or horse. The innkeeper insisted that over many miles, a human runner would have greater stamina, and prevail. Thus was born a tradition: Every year since 1980, Llanwrtyd Wells has hosted the Man Versus Horse Marathon, which pits hundreds of runners against dozens of horses with riders. On two legs or four, contestants take on 22 miles of challenging trails laced across a dazzling green countryside. They trot through fragrant pine forests, scramble up mountainous rock-strewn sheep trails, cross rolling moorlands, and ford rivers. In June 2004, for the first time ever, the human won.

My question: What kind of shoes was the runner wearing?

Only Sixty More Years of Training…

And I’ll be this guy.

If Dr. Charles Eugster, the “World’s Oldest Competitive Oarsmen and Bodybuilder” doesn’t inspire you (even just a little), I don’t know what will. “Your body can be rebuilt at any age – and your life transformed!” And I’m banking on him being right. (I’m biased.)

Among the more amazing thing he says is that “I took up judo to teach me how to fall properly.” Now, that’s just smart. The medical community has long known that hip fracture in older men (moreso) and women is directly tied to a reduction in life expectancy, so instead of resigning himself to old age, this Doc went straight to the Dojo.

From the article: “I’m not chasing youthfulness. I’m chasing health. People have been brainwashed to think that after you’re 65, you’re finished. We’re told that old age is a continuous state of decline, and that  we should stop working, slow down and prepare to die. I disagree. To me, a 65-year-old is young. I turn 92 this year. It is a frightening prospect – the law of averages is against me, and, yes, one day something will happen and that will be it. But until that day comes, I’m going to carry on working on my abs.”

Hell yeah.