It aint Letitia, Nat or Davina - this is the real deal: Peter Horton at his best. Now unlike others I'm not gonna strip down to me shreddies and prance about in public on YouTube, so here's a taster of what to expect presented by the man himself...

There are at least a dozen DVDs in the series and hence no reason not to give it a try! Equipment wise you're looking at say a yoga mat, Dumbells (or Homemadegymstuff bands), chinup bar and yer water bottle.

To avoid pulling all your forearm hairs out - shave 'em off before you apply "Tacky" for the Atlas Stone lifts

(Grown men with tears in their eyes is funny though!)

Get ya resin from atlasstones.co.uk

The ol'Titan Telegraph Key is a nice piece o'kit for working the pinch grip; it's a bit cumbersome to be considered portable, and expensive for what it is. So imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this idea over at GripFAQ It's a great intro into pinch grip training - try before you buy...

Go make one now, no, go make two so you can have one in the gym, and one in the car/at the office!

Problem - simulating the strongman hand-over-hand pull when it's either wet/cold outside or space is limited.

Closed loop rope, quick-clamp & tube offcut...

Wrap loop around post (twice for starters)

clamp tube to base (acts as a guide for rope)

and we're good to go.

Altenative view, note bits are clamped to a Keys VKR

Homemadegymstuff Hand-Over-Hand; here it is in action. Although this was thrown together as a tester/prototype and the rope loop is a bit too short; even with only two twists round the post - there is a fair bit of resistance due to the friction of rope twixt painted post.
Resistance is around 40kg

Looking at the HiPEQ Ox ($950), which is a nice compact unit, I'm wondering if a braked 'windless' design would be more effective/longer lasting. The 'exer-genie' like friction solution, although requiring less components is a lot harsher on them/the rope and the loading less controllable.

HiPEQ Ox ...nice, even if a bit pricey!

Best start looking round for a spindle/drum of sorts...

As a stop-gap/alternative have a look at this

Smitty(dieselcrew.com)/Joe DeFranco solution ...Twang!

You could go out and buy a Stretch Out Strap for PNF stretching

or you can make a Homemadegymstuff version for around £1.54

Er, 1" poly-prop webbing

Fully made-up strap is 6' long (Ends are sown in the middle)

Basic loop dims

Finished strap

Here's a few vids to get ya started...

Steady as she goes... (original text here)

PNF stretching (or proprioceptive muscular facilitation) is one of the most effective forms of flexibility training for increasing range of motion.

PNF techniques can be both passive (no associated muscular contraction) or active (voluntary muscle contraction). While there are several variations of PNF stretching, they all have one thing in common - they facilitate muscular inhibition. It is believed that this is why PNF is superior to other forms of flexibility training.

Both isometric and concentric muscle actions completed immediately before the passive stretch help to achieve autogenic inhibition - a reflex relaxation that occurs in the same muscle where the golgi tendon organ is stimulated. Often the isometric contraction is referred to as 'hold' and the concentric muscle contraction is referred to as 'contract'.

A similar technique involves concentrically contracting the opposing muscle group to that being stretched in order to achieve reciprocal inhibition - a reflex muscular relaxation that occurs in the muscle that is opposite the muscle where the golgi tendon organ is stimulated.

Using these techniques of 'contracting', 'holding' and passive stretching (often referred to as 'relax') results in three PNF stretching techniques. Each technique, although slightly different, involves starting with a passive stretch held for about 10 seconds.

For clarity and to compare each technique, think of a hamstring stretch in the supine (on back, face up) position for each example. The athlete places one leg extended, flat on the floor and the other extended in the air as close to right angles to the body as possible.

Hold-Relax

•A partner moves the athlete's extended leg to a point of mild discomfort. This passive stretch is held for 10 seconds.

•On instruction, the athlete isometrically contracts the hamstrings by pushing their extended leg against their partner's hand. The partner should apply just enough force so that the leg remains static. This is the 'hold' phase and lasts for 6 seconds.

•The athlete is then instructed to 'relax' and the partner completes a second passive stretch held for 30 seconds. The athlete's extended leg should move further than before (greater hip flexion) due to autogenic inhibition activated in the hamstrings.

Contract-Relax

•A partner moves the athlete's extended leg to a point of mild discomfort. This passive stretch is held for 10 seconds.

•On instruction, the athlete concentrically contracts the hamstrings by pushing their extended leg against their partner's hand. The partner should apply enough force so that there is resistance while allowing the athlete to push their leg to the floor (i.e. through the full range of motion). This is the 'contract' phase.

•The athlete is then instructed to 'relax' and the partner completes a second passive stretch held for 30 seconds. The athlete's extended leg should move further than before (greater hip flexion) due to autogenic inhibition activated in the hamstrings.

Hold-Relax with Opposing Muscle Contraction

•A partner moves the athlete's extended leg to a point of mild discomfort. This passive stretch is held for 10 seconds.

•On instruction, the athlete isometrically contracts the hamstrings by pushing their extended leg against their partner's hand. The partner should apply just enough force so that the leg remains static. This is the 'hold' phase and lasts for 6 seconds. This initiates autogenic inhibition.

•The partner completes a second passive stretch held for 30 seconds, however the athlete is instructed to flex the hip (i.e. pull the leg in the same direction as it is being pushed). This initiates reciprocal inhibition allowing the final stretch to be greater.

Here are some other general guidelines when completing PNF stretching:

1. Leave 48 hours between PNF stretching routines.
2. Perform only one exercise per muscle group in a session.
3. For each muscle group complete 2-5 sets of the chosen exercise.
4. Each set should consist of one stretch held for up to 30 seconds after the contracting phase.
5. PNF stretching is not recommended for anyone under the age of 18.
6. If PNF stretching is to be performed as a separate exercise session, a thorough warm up consisting of 5-10 minutes of light aerobic exercise and some dynamic stretches must precede it.
7. Avoid PNF immediately before, or on the morning of competition.

Suppose you've just bought your own practice stone from, say atlasstones.co.uk, how do you load them into your car without smashing the axle?
One down & dirty way is to use an old towel - roll the stone onto it & two people can grab an end each. (This also works for moving sandbags)
Homemadegymstuff's solution is the Atlas Load Master...

Start out with a length of rope (Thankfully this is the last of the 'pink stuff')

Deconstruct, reform into a closed loop & splice in three hand loops.

ALM finished.

Rob (Kettlebell Training For Sport) Russell's practice stone, nice & safe; on it's way home.

Splicing & rope work aint just for Salty Old Sea-Dogs

Bands are great - whether used for prehab/rehab, injury prevention, pull throughs, pull aparts, crunches, assisted dips/pullups/chins, triceps extensions/biceps curls, all planes of leg adduction/abduction, barbell work and kettlebell routines etc. etc., but - they're so damn expensive! Having said that you do get what you pay for. There are a couple of low-cost alternatives which will allow you to road test band exercises, and maybe convince you to buy 'real ones'

Some options are pallet bands (OK if you know someone in the trade), sports shop 'therabands & their knock-offs, and my personnal favourite Bungee rope; judging by how many I've had to replace, due to them having gone walkabout, other people like too.

Here's ya homemadegystuff starter for ten:

3.0m of 10mm Bungee.

Tie the ends together (Possibly the easiest make, ever)

And we're good to, so here's a vid from Dick Hartzell to get you started:

Band chin-ups

Prehab: X-Band Walks

Stack.com: Add the walks to your lower body routine at least once a week to prevent an imbalance and reduce the risk of injury.

• Stand on resistance band with feet around six inches apart
• Hold handles of band with hands, and make an “X” by crossing band in front of legs
• Stand up straight with shoulder blades down
• Take lateral steps

Sets/Reps: 1-2/10-15

Coaching Points:
• Keep feet no more than hip-width apart
• Take six-inch steps, one at a time
• To keep hip flexors lengthened, avoid leaning forward
• Don’t wing out elbows, because it weakens posture


And last, but not least; Big X-Band Walks - Raise your hands up & out to activate your posterior chain - a big X.

Have fun!

rs plans

Apparently The Sloshvest inspired the owner of Kettlebell-training-for-sport to come up with this;

Rob's words...
The slosh helmet will help you train your neck muscles whilst cycling, running or kettlebell training!
Technically speaking its a mini sloshpipe attached to a bicycle helmet, simple but will give your neck a proper workout.

*Lighting effects optional.

Thanks go out once again to Bob for kindly cutting the disks on his plasma cutter!

Ahh, plates-angle grinder-powerfile-Hammerite Paint

Orbital sander. RIP.

(It's a long story but suffice to say it all started long ago when I lent it to a former neighbour)

Let the 'scrub' painting commence!

These Homemade plates are gonna get some abuse, so no need for more than a few microns o'paint.

They look "well dope" (apparently)

All done finished, dry & on the bar within 5hrs.

The unsung hero - my squat box.

(Recycled from the Malton floods @5:57 vid taken 2 doors down from our old house - lucky or what!)

I'm no wuss but still wear me PPE when grinding etc.

Just a quickie - concentration curl - rather than contort into the traditional seated elbow against knee, do 'em stood-up with the elbow supported by the seat of your exercise bike!

Esp. good if you prefer using kettlebell curls (and need the extra floor clearance)

This weekend Rob Russell will be entering his first strongman competition, down at Melton Mowbray; run by Englands u105kg strongest man Jason Talbot. Events are in medley format check out sugdenbarbell for more info, hints & tips.

*Growler - Pietastic!

The perfect homemade solution to having no cash/access to a punchbag... http://oakstboxing.com/index.php

So here's a few of my solutions as to the 'how'
Tools required are a reciprocating/hack saw, power drill (HSS bits/Holesaw) and Quick clamps
And various sticky-together items such as; self-tapper screws, washers, bent angle brackets, metal strips for backing plates, nuts & bolts, untreated wood, some chain/rope, eyebolts, shackles
Not forgetting a couple of tyres... (tires) Most of the fixing solutions are interchangeable, modify as you see fit.

Wall/column mounted Punch/MMA Kicking Target

Basically a plywood backing board, 3x2 fixing blocks,

plenty of screws and half a dozen shield anchors

(oh and slightly more than half a tyre)

Swinging uppercut styly.

You'll need three tyres as the uppercut sections take a bit more than half a tyre each.

Tri-point hanger (more stable than 4 point spport) options:

X. Basic rope

Y. Chain & eyebolt with backing block/plate/washer

Z. Chain,shackle & snap carabiners

+1 Swivel joint/D-ring to hanger support - it's upto you.

Fixity Options:

A. Wood block spacers with screws

B. Fold-in tabs bolted/screwed with washers/backing plates

C. Metal brackets, fixings as 'B'

D. Fold-out tabs bolted/screwed with washers/backing plates

D2. Tab extended - gives better load spread

A further option would be tabs with enlarged holes allowing the use of rope to lash 'em together.

Cross-over piece cutting/folding.

Disclaimer->

Due to their very nature, tyres can snag/grab saw blades/drill bits - you've been warned!

Have fun!

OK how to keep 'the wheels' if you're;
    A. Lost & marooned on an island.
    B. Find yourself in prison and lined up to spar with Charles Bronson.
or C. Just plain ol' broke and running outta room

Previously I'd blog'd the old Roman Squat complete with construction details. It niggled in the back of my mind that there must be a more simple solution. Enlightenment came via OldTimeStrongman.Com and Professor Attila.

Sig Klein demos the Roman Board (35lb 'bell)

Aha, we only need basically two items to allow us to do Roman Squats; An upright and knee supports...

Some rope, padding for the knees and a reef knot

Loop the loop (what?) around the sturdy upright

Step into the loops (facing the upright!)

Sit-back

Squat to thighs horizontal (min) curse @#$;%.

Repeat.

Yes that is pink rope - but it was all I had and cost me nowt. Obviously in prison rope will not be an option - so if you're in 'solitary' whip off your kecks (trousers) tie the legs together and use the bedframe as the upright.

If there's one thing I really like - it's saving money. Take grippers for instance, now I aint never gonna be mega-strong gripwise; but I do understand the need to train the grip. Enter the Ivanko Super Gripper (Pullum-Sports UK).

Usually supplied with two springs - providing around 50 levels of resistance (45-360lbs), some like those supplied by Hammar Sports come with an extra spring taking the max to approx. 470lbs (and custom knurled grips) Iron Woody also do the custom grip thing.

Here's the data sheet for two springs: (calc for more springs)

Over at Dragon Door Kettlebells there's a thread on old strength gadgets and it got me thinking back to an odd gadget a friend once lent me. It was a curious old lump of metal with a rope wrapped round it, by pure serendipity I found it on the Frugal Fitness thread at ChristianIron - the Apollo Exerciser (well similar, kinda)

From what I remember of it, there is no eccentric componant to say the 'squat' or 'overhead press'. Is this still a valid piece of exercise equipment - could be invaluable if you live in a flat (apartment) and want to pratice the snatch (bumpers would sure wake-up the neighbours). Or a swim trainer as my friend did.

Did a search, they still make 'em; Exer-Genie from TheTrainer made in the good ol' US of A

As used by the Apollo Astronauts - Cosmic, Rodney!

Running, Jump Rope & Boxing can all cause pain in the shins "shin splints." Try this Dorsiflexion with ya littlest KB to start with, and see if alleviates the pain...

Of course the lower the angle of the shin in relation to the floor - the more of a stretch you get; needless to say don't go over doing it.

(ah the voice of *experience*)

Over at irontamer.com you can get a free copy of David Whitley's "101 Kettlebell Workouts" (I was a bit apprehensive about putting in details - but it was all fairly innocuous stuff)
It's free - so go get ya copy, print it out and start 'ticking them off'
This bloke David Bradley is doing a fine job of documenting the journey from workout 1 to 101, have a look at his Blog

And whether you use Kettlebells from Dragon Door or XLR8 Kettlebells from Newitts, this'll help you get the best from both them & you-yourself.
Roll-on twenty-ten and a fitter you.

Zercher squats/walks are great - but going for a 'walk' in the gym with a 7ft bar might not be the easiest of rambles. So that thought gets filtered-out, and we carry on until El Bonito at Rosstraining.com finds the answer/inspiration; newyorkbarbells.com, and brings it to the masses with his HMV (HomeMadeVersion - that's my TLA!)

Fabulous.

NYB Zercher

El Bonito's

The 'El' himself...

Add a large diameter T-bar to mimic Conan's Wheel

(kinda, in a fashion)

 Now go make (You know ya wanna)

ZERCHER WHO?
The Zercher squat was developed by Ed Zercher, a well-known...

For around £45-£55 and a visit to the scrapyard, you could bag yourself a great strongman training tool...
David Hornes Wheel Converters - Bumpers for the masses; not exactly rocket science but if you don't have the tools to do a home make, these are very reasonably priced.

Unlike the drill thru' an old plate & bolt-on solution, these will be more resilient to being dropped. Oh and it's an excuse to get the paper and wax crayons out; ahm! purely to get the correct bolt layout - of course!

AlexJones asked at Rosstraining.com:

"i wanna do some farmers walks, trouble is i havent got enough weight at home, and the heaviest dumbbells they have in the gym is a pair of 40kg/88 pound's. since thats the heaviest they have, i have used them but feel i can step it up a notch.can anyone suggest any other objects i could use?i wanna do some farmers walks, trouble is i havent got enough weight at home, and the heaviest dumbbells they have in the gym is a pair of 40kg/88 pound's. since thats the heaviest they have, i have used them but feel i can step it up a notch.can anyone suggest any other objects i could use?"

Someone suggested wrapping the handles with a towel, another 2x1 gallon water bottles filled with sand.

My solutions were: First thoughts would be to 'sling' the next heaviest DB under the heaviest using either rope or webbing. If you're worried about 'em slipping duct tape the slings in place. (similar idea at bodybuilding.com)

Or, howabout this - two old tyres; DBs wedged inside the rim!!! With two "big" hand holes in the tread you could grab thru' to the actual DB handles. (rather than holding onto the sidewalls)

Alternatively a rope loop, passed thru the tyre hole then taped up would provide a thicker grip, without all the hassle of cutting the radial banding.

As regards the leg banging water bottles;

(Stolen from Dr. Math) "Filled with water the weight will vary some with the temperature of the water. To begin, we know that by definitions,

                        1 gallon = 231 in^3*(2.54 cm/in)^4/(1 cm^3/ml),
                                    = 3785.411784 ml,

exactly. Now it is just a matter of multiplying by the density d in g/ml of water at the temperature you want, and then converting to pounds by dividing by exactly 453.59237 g/lb. Thus the answer to 12 significant figures is

    1 gallon of water weighs 8.34540445202*d pounds." say 8.35lbs

Different kinds of sand have different densities, but 2.3 g/mL is a typical value. So it's around 20lbs. However mercury at 13.6 g/ml would give you 114lbs...