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...

And try this old time strongman crucifix ->

Bear in mind that this geezer is 75 year old William Barker and has 50lbs in each hand; aint those one pooders feelin' heavy!

Oh whilst yer at it - post your times up...

Just spent the night/day in Durham. We stopped at Bannatynes and had free access to the leisure club, nice!

So I went in last night to do some free-weights, too busy, so I dicked around on the machines till they came free. During this time I worked up to whole stacks on the chest supported row, press, flyes - you get the idea; I was 'working out' as opposed to everyone else who I observed who merely used the machines - 8 or 10 reps with 15-20kg - no real work - move on.


Eventually I got to the deadlift, laid out my towel, off came the shoes and it was 'on'


One plate, 2 plates, 3 plates then 3 plus 2 #35ers great. (I was a little tired by the machines)


Looked down and there was blood everywhere - the callous on my left hand had been ripped off; good time to stop the heavy work!


Funny thing; whilst I'd been lifting, a couple of kids next to me were being 'inducted' - suffice to say the lat raise instruction was deplorable; the poor lanky lads had dead straight arms and were pushed to use too heavier dumbells which caused their traps to kick-in, thus lifting the shoulders. I can't be bothered outlining the rest - it's just beggars belief...
Finished off by having a blast on all the machines I'd missed out, a sauna, steam & a swim. Sweet.
Best get a job soon - I could get used to this!

Not sure if it flagged it up on your PC - I've added the Roman Squat assembly drawing so you can make your own!

Found these the other day (apologies I don't know who by) - easy, simple, elegant homemade Dip-Bars for your squat rack.

One variation would be to slightly rotate the RSAs so that the bars form a V, rather than being parallel, when placed on the safety bars. (a la Vince Gironda's variations see below)

You might just win it!

Take this for instance ->



Now just for a laugh I put a bid in of 99p and I only goes and wins it! Total purchase price including p+p £5.98 Great, only problem what to do with it?

1. Find a "needy cause" and unselfishly donate for rehab.

Well my wife's work colleague has just snapped her Achilles tendon, though rehab will only really start in 10-12 weeks time...

2. Use in an new, unorthodox way.

Enter the Homemadegymstuff Cycling-Plank

It's a killer, for sure.

PS If you're selling on Ebay, be sure to check-out the actual price of postage, it cost the seller £11.45 not the £4.99 I paid - so I got an even better deal than the one I didn't want in the first place, if you know what I mean ;)

What I really meant was whatever you do, make sure it's productive; take yesterday morning for example.
Sunny Kirkbymoorside, one man, one hammer (25kg) and one tyre.
One hour and a bit later, he's pummeled the tyre with 800 blows and earned a tidy sum for charity <-Click

(Sorry I just can't resist) Here's a blow-by-blow account of the challenge:

2mins - 30 Blows
05:00 - 68
07:15 - 100
10:00 - 136
11:09 - 150
15:00 - 199
16:30 - 223
18:49 - 249
20:27 - 275
22:25 - 300
25:00 - 331
30:00 - 392
30:20 - 400
34:23 - 450
38:28 - 500
40:00 - 515
42:59 - 550
45:00 - 574
46:30 - 600
50:00 - 639
54:31 - 700
60:00 - 791
60:50 - 800

Priority number one was getting a min of 600 hits - working on a rough ratio of 30work:30rest

Well done Rob! (KB4SPORT)

...So here I am sat 'at' work, jus' cruisin' an' waitin' for my second redundancy interview. Ya know the one where they say sorry but your job is redundant, blah,blah...

Anyway, it's been a long time a coming - but finally I've screenshot the sled details; they're simple 'cos that's the nature of the beast.

It's winter in the Northern hemisphere - but don't let that be an excuse for not getting out'n'about.

Kristoffer Lindqvist started to build this outdoor gym back in 1992, originally Flintstone styly.

Over the years he ruggified the setup replacing the wood with iron to better suit his shift to powerlifting.

My old garage gym was cold, damp - and during winter my hands did literally 'stick' to the bar. Yeah I've a purpose built warm, dry and bigger gym now, but that raw hardcore garage felt more - ya know 'harder'. Having said that - I can now train barefoot (ok with socks on) all year round and in just me underpants if I feel like it!
If it's raining outside take the time to look around Kris's site and be inspired.
(unless your name's Colin and you have an outside gym in Bali - see below)

Not mine - but Kudos for some great ideas. Look out for the 45° hyper that doubles up as a supported row... climber511

Nice.

Around nine to ten years ago, both on T-Nation & Dolfzine (sadly now gone) there was a buzz created by an exercise scientist named Jerry Telle. Jerry developed many exercise variations based on negating the loss of tension due to bodyposition neutralising gravity. Tellekinetics was born. There was a book, 'beyond 2001', which was only partly editted - probably not wholly to it's detriment; as from what I've heard around the 'net it may give further insight into his thoughts & way of thinking. There was also a video.

Jerry combined these improved biomechanics with a proprietary drop set "wide spread, varied tempo" system.

Have a look at the above links - you may not agree with all his ideas, but if you're mindful of the weight being lowered and how; then it might add to your gains.

Now if we only had have the Dolfzine articles and only need a PDF of the book...

Ever seen one before.
Do you know who made them. (or maybe the pic shows a prototype?)
Have you used one.

Please drop a comment if you can help...