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Exercise Medium
Exercise Medium?!
What the hell does he mean by “Exercise Medium”? Well faithful readers I am talking about
what you perform exercises with, be it a barbell, dumbbell, sandbag, kettle
bell, etc. Despite what pushers of
certain fads would have you believe each of them are good for certain
things and shit for others. I’ll try
to stay within the limits of my experience, so if I don’t cover something
its cause I don’t know shit about it and/or have never used it.
The Barbell –
This neo-ancient device
(hah! I made up a new term) is good
for a whole assortment of weight lifting masochism. You can do just about anything with a
barbell, and the weight can be made balanced, immobile and easy to
grip. You need a barbell to really
lift. Period. The lifts I think the barbell surpasses
all others are the ones that carry the most mass: Bench, Deadlift, and
Squat. No other medium replaces a
barbell on the big three and for the most part, many of the countless the
variations on the big three (incline bench, side deadlift, hack squat,
etc.) are best left to barbells as well.
Honorable mention goes to the one handed barbell snatch, cause it’s a great exercise that really supercedes the balance
and stability required of the one handed Dumbbell snatch.
The Dumbbell –
The dumbbell
is a great way to begin to add some work for your stabilizer muscles as
well as break up bilateral movements (movements involving two limbs) into two
unilateral exercises. In some cases,
the total of two unilateral movements can (and probably will) be more than
their bilateral equivalent. For example,
the sum total of a left and right DB curl will often be greater than a
barbell curl using both hands. Most
exercises you can perform with a pair of Dumbbells can also be done with a
barbell, but there are still a few that are very notable. For example, DB bench press seems to put
more emphasis on your pectoral muscles and an element of instability to
your bench. Also of this ilk is the twisting
deadlift, this can be done through other mediums but requires a 2 handed
grip on most others. Exercises that
are unique only to the dumbbell and cannot effectively be replicated
through other means are exercises like Tate presses and Twisting snatches. One handed bench presses can be done with
either a barbell or dumbbell but should probably be lefts to DBs.
The Sandbag –
My
inspiration for making this abomination of an article. Sandbags are a very useful tool for
adding a moving, unsettled, unbalanced weight. If you find yourself ever wresting with
an object of this nature (say a human) you should consider incorporating
sandbags into your workout. I have
come to think that sandbags are most useful for things like cleans, cleans
and presses (how else are you going to get the bag up to push press
position?), Cleans and jerks, and most throwing motions. In my Randomness program I include an
exercise call fence tossing that is really great for developing the muscles
needed to throw somebody, and can best be done with a sandbag. One drawback to sandbags is that you can’t
do snatches very easily. It sucks,
but luckily god invented:
The Keg –
That’s
right a keg. Buy one, drink the
contents, then fill it with water/sand/concrete
for an appropriate amount of weight.
The water is nice cause it will move around a be a LOT more
unsettled than sand will (instability that is > than a sandbag). Basically kegs are best for any movement
that a sandbag can be used for as well as my personal favorite:
Snatches! “But if a keg is more encompassing
why even bother with a sandbag?” Glad
you asked. As you may be able to
tell just by taping on your keg it’s made of metal, and this means that the
shape will not change as the keg is heaved and thrown and lifted. A sandbag is something you really have to
wrestle with because if you look at you keg a little closer you will notice
handles… handles that don’t appear on a sandbag. This makes it easier to grip, but it also
means a sandbag will work your grip harder (important for development). So we can see that a keg and a sandbag
(while having similar exercise potential) are two separate animals that
need to be treated separately.
That,
for now, is the full extent of my experience. Oh there’s some language on trap bars,
pull-up/dip belts, and weight vests. that I could include, but I won’t. I will do my best to update this as soon
as I explore KBs and CBs.
How
do I make a routine out of all this?
Why don’t I show you what
I would do
Day 1 –
BB Back Squat
BB Good Morning
Sandbag Clean and press
DB Tate Press
Pull-ups
Day 2 –
DB incline Bench Press
BB Flat Bench press
Keg Snatch
BB Overhead Squats
Day 3 –
BB Deadlift
BB Stiff
legged Dead lifts
BB Close
grip Bench press
BB Bent
over row
Sandbag
Clean
Well There you have
it. As you can see I didn’t go apeshit with the unconventional stuff because, quite
frankly, it’s not always the best thing to use. But it does add new elements to your
strength training game. The reps I
would use are, of course low for your main lifts (in this case the first
lift on each day) higher for supplemental lifts, (tri, chest, hams,
etc.). For the keg and sandbag lifts
I generally treat them as exercises I can’t max out on, so I keep my reps
between 4 and 10 per set. In
addition to this type of routine you can use your sandbag and keg for
shouldering, loading, throwing, etc. for good GPP. That’s all for now, Happy lifting!
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