Fishin' in a Crawfish Hole

Developing comfort in the bottom of the squat, aka "The Hole," is very important for a weightlifter, as the snatch, clean, and all variations of the squat (back, front, overhead, and even the squat jerk, if performed) require the athlete to spend time down there.  This much is accepted by all members of the weightlifting community – athletes and coaches, alike.  Where these respective parties differ is how to build this comfort.  Some coaches prescribe exercises such as pause squats to build strength and emphasis speed for driving out of the hole, believing such work as a hand in producing heavier lifts.  This may be true, and I have several friends who advocate the use of pause squats.  Others, like Donny Shankle, for one, shun the use of pause squats, arguing they make a weightlifter sticky in the bottom.  And I can understand this line of thinking, too, especially when it comes to the clean. 

In my own training, I try to strike a balance between these two diametrically opposed positions. When performing strength-building exercises like back squats and front squats, I bounce out of the bottom as quickly as possible, for any time spent down there only robs me of kilos on the bar (and the whole point of strength-building exercises is to add weight to the bar).  The same is true for cleans.  I always seek to bounce out of my cleans.  After all, the jerk is my goat (In the event a weightlifter consistently fails to catch the bounce out when recovering on the clean, there may be a fault with their pull line, possibly a coming onto the toes or not finishing through the hips). Conversely, when performing other exercises like snatches, overhead squats, and squat jerks, I try to "stick" my lifts and hold the bottom position for a few second.  This serves two purposes: it affords me the opportunity to regain my balance, and it strengthens my truck and overhead position.   After all, I stopped “doing abs” years ago.

This approach has served me well – and I think it would work for others, too – but everyone is different when it comes to training.  What works for one person might not work for another. Experimenting with cycles of pause squats might help a weightlifter who continues to get pinned at the sticking point by heavy cleans, or sitting in the bottom of an overhead squat might alleviate fears in another.  But the only way to learn is to try it for yourself.  At worst, you will probably succeed in strengthening your spinal erectors and improving your mobility.  That's a pretty reasonable risk, if you ask me.

My words of caution are this: a weightlifter must have the prerequisite mobility before performing movements such as the pause squat.  Holding a valgus knee, i.e. an inward collapse, for a prolonged period of time would most likely, if not certainly, wreak havoc on an athlete's knee structures (ACL, MCL, etc.).  Therefore, it is essential for a weightlifter to continually improve their hip and ankle flexibility, as well as strengthen their glutes, so that a valgus knee can be avoided.  Strive to have the femur track the toe angle.

Eat Organ Meat to Grow Big and Strong

Before reading Bill Starr's seminal work, "The Strongest Shall Survive," I was not a connoisseur of organ meat.  Far from it.  My idea of "adventurous eating" was wolfing down the dark meat after Thanksgiving.  And by that point, the giblets were long gone via the trash. 

Several factors contributed to my "fear" of consuming organ meat: (1) neither my mother nor my grandmother cooked liver, heart, or kidneys for me as a kid, (2) finding high-quality product was more difficult than popping down to the neighborhood grocery store and chatting up the butcher (more on this shortly), and (3) the texture grossed me out a bit.  But I am the type of athlete who will eat just about anything if a respected coach like Bill Starr says it will improve performance. So with that, pass the salt, bro. 



 

Starr discusses liver and its many health benefits in his chapter devoted to "super foods."  "The liver acts as a storehouse for vitamins, it balances hormones, builds amino acids, it secretes bile to govern intestinal activity. The liver controls bleeding, combats dangerous clotting, fights viruses and bacterial poisons, releases energy from food, and performs an amazing variety of functions," he writes.  Starr then goes on to describe an experiment in which liver-fed rats outperformed their vitamin-enhanced peers in a genuine test "life or death" endurance – the rats were placed in a drum of water from which they could not escape, and were required to keep swimming or else drown.  While the vitamin-enhanced rats swam for an average of 13.4 minutes before they gave up, the liver-fed rats swam for 63, 83, and 87 minutes, respectively, while the remainder of the latter population was still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours.

Now was Starr ahead of the proverbial curve in touting the health benefits of liver, or was he merely regurgitating long held beliefs?

Of course it is the latter, but, to his credit, he was smart enough to recognize the success of certain practices.  Prior to the industrial revolution, the cuisine of native populations often included the consumption of organ meats.  In fact, in Steve Ambrose's book, "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West," the author, citing to Lewis' original journal entries, describes in graphic detail the eating of buffalo organs by Native Americans immediately after a hunt.  If memory serves me correctly, the natives supposedly began eating the organ meat before the buffalo was even dead (apologies for not citing to the specific passage, but it seems I have misplaced my copy of "Undaunted Courage"). 

Here in the non-buffalo roaming swamps of Washington, D.C. I have been able to procure high-quality beef liver at Eastern Market, an all-season farmer's market located only a ten-minute walk from my apartment.  For those unfamiliar with cooking beef liver, or for those just curious about someone else's preparation methods, I have provided a recipe below:

Ingredients:

Whole milk – 1 – 1 ½ cup(s)
Large ziplock bag - one gallon with zipper top
Bacon, preferably of a thicker cut – ½ pound or slightly more
White or yellow onion - one, large
Beef liver - 3 pounds, fully thawed
Garlic - fresh, one clove
Cast iron skillet - one
Large bowl - one, just about any size will do
Himalayan salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Place thawed livers in large ziplock bag.  Add whole milk so that milk covers all livers.  Let sit for one hour.  This step is critical and should not be overlooked, as the milk eliminates any funky smell from cooking the liver.  If pressed for time, allow to sit for at least fifteen minutes while oven pre-heats and bacon, onions, and garlic are prepared.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove outer layers of onion and garlic and slice into long, thin strips (I halve, then quarter the onion, at which point I cut on a diagonal line to produce thin slices).  Garlic cloves need only be chopped roughly.

Cut bacon into approximately one inch chunks.

Once oven has reached temperature, warm skillet on moderate-high heat (I use a 7/9 setting at home), then add onion slices, garlic bits, and bacon chunks.  Allow several minutes to cook on each side.  The pieces should be about 75 percent cooked through by this point.  Remove bacon, onions, and garlic while attempting to keep juices in the skillet.  This is good favor.

Turn down burner heat one notch (6/9 for me), then remove livers from bag and place in skillet (avoid “overlapping” livers in skillet).  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Allow to cook for approximately two minutes before flipping (this should be enough time for moderate browning, but if not, allow to sit for another 30 seconds).  Repeat on other side.  Cooking on other side will probably need less time than first due to residual heat in skillet.

Once second side is browned, add bacon, onions, and garlic back in, dispersing evenly across skillet's face, and place whole skillet in oven.  Set timer for four minutes.  Chef beware: overcooked liver is gross, and I have read it tastes like shoe leather.

After removing skillet from oven, let sit for five minutes or so.  When you cut into liver, it should still hold a slightly pinkish color.

Now, personally, I don't like hot beef liver, so I let pieces cool then pack them up for breakfasts. That's right, I prefer my beef liver as leftovers served with three-four fried eggs over easy and sweet potato hash browns for breakfast.  Save your Wheaties, this meal is the breakfast of champions.

My Public Opinion Baths



Every day I spend roughly an hour riding the D.C. metrobus to and from work.  My commute is sobering, to say the least.  As I look into the eyes of my fellow passengers, I realize this country is full of listless people.  Assuming there was a fire, it was extinguished long ago.  These people now "exist" in the "gray twilight" that Theodore Roosevelt reserved for those who know neither victory nor defeat.

My rides on the city bus are checkered with the usual suspects: young mothers, homeless men and women, day laborers, construction workers, and various working professionals, like myself. Two of these populations routinely catch my eye.  The young mothers, many of them still girls, not yet women, are often times lugging around two or three children under the age of five.  All are eating candy and drinking soda for breakfast.  Some of the older ones are already showing signs of Type-II Diabetes.  This breaks my heart, because these children stand virtually no chance of success.  Maybe a few will rise like phoenixes from the ashes, but the vast majority will not, and these are the ones who will continue to perpetuate the downward spiral.

The other population that draws my attention are the "blue collar" workers, the construction guys, the day laborers, etc.  These men and women inspire me day in and day out.  Though low on energy, many are justifiably exhausted from working two, or even three jobs, all while struggling to raise a family in one of the country's most expensive cities.  Who am I to complain about lifting some weights, or working a 10-plus hour day?

Even as I write this post, a pungent "aroma" of ammonia, a smell derived from human urine, and cigarette smoke is wafting through the bus, courtesy of the homeless woman sitting in front of me.

President Abraham Lincoln used to call receptions with "average" members "of our whole people" his "public opinion baths."  And although Lincoln supposedly heard a number complaints from citizens on "utterly frivolous" matters, he nonetheless concluded these receptions were critically important because, in his own words, " . . . I have but little time to read the papers, and gather public opinion that way; and though [these receptions] may not be pleasant in all their particulars, the effect as a whole, is renovating and invigorating to my perceptions of responsibility and duty."  With the utmost humility, I share President Lincoln's view that if one only interacts with a small handful of people their views will, as he said, become "arbitrary."  Against this backdrop, my public opinion baths give me great cause for concern, but rather than leave me depressed, they serve to reinvigorate me and challenge me to exemplify the changes I want to see in the world.

It was Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19^th century French political thinker, who wrote, “ . . . a nation cannot long remain strong when every man belonging to is individually weak; and that no form or combination of social polity has yet been devised to make an energetic people out of a community of pusillanimous and enfeebled citizens.”

Strickland Syndrome

 

"Far better is it dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure . . . than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

 -- Theodore Roosevelt

It goes without saying that failure is part of life, but most people never experience full-fledged failure because they never committed themselves – mind  body, and spirit – to their goal in the first place.  And it is easy to understand why.  Far easier is it to stand on the sidelines and say, "Well, if I had tried as hard as him (or her), I would have done just as well or maybe even better."  That's the definition of cowardice, in my book.

I call this "Strickland Syndrome," named appropriately after my sophomore year college roommate.  Anyone who saw him, or watched him swim, could tell this guy "had the goods." Vested with all the physical skills one needs to be great in the sport of swimming – tremendous size, a beautifully efficient stroke, and good “feel” for the water – Strickland never reached his potential (and that's putting it mildly).  Part of the reason for this was Strickland suffered from an inflated view of his own "talent."  Sure, he had some skills, but not nearly enough to coast through practice every day and still win multiple All-American honors.  The other reason for Strickland's underachieving was his unwillingness to give a damn.  Apathy was the comfort blanket, which allowed him to "pack it in" when times got tough, both in training and in the biggest meets.  As a result, he had zero tolerance for pain.  Zero.

I've always been the opposite kind of person, the one willing to sacrifice or endure pain.  This approach, however, is not without fraught.  Most people can't handle my intensity or single-mindedness of focus; sometimes my wife is even taken aback, this after five-plus years of living together.  But I've come to expect this from people.  In college, some of my teammates laughed at me, called my goals "outrageous," and ridiculed me for my subtle self-motivating tactics.  Whatever.  The clock never lied, and I learned to let my performances do the talking.

More recently, I've learned that life is full of "has beens," "back in my day-ers," "just wait till your my age-ers," and "if I had your talent-ers."  Yeah, guess, what?  I don't give a shit, and I would have kicked your ass back then, too.  Go home, and tell yourself whatever you must to fall asleep.  And sleep well, for tomorrow, when you roll over, I will have already been hard at work for several hours.

I will end this post the same way I started it -- with a quote.  "Anything in life is worth over doing, moderation is for cowards."  Thank you to our Navy Frogmen, and their families, for their service.

Just Eat More Broccoli: A Rant Against Needless Complication

"I hope my wife remembered to get more toilet paper at the grocery store..."

For whatever reason, our society has shown, and continues to show, a tendency to associate "complicated" ideas with higher orders of intelligence, while at the same time dismissing "simple" ideas as the mere daydreams of amateurs.  This post will attempt to strike back against such thinking.  In other words, simple trumps complicated.

Well thought out programs focus on only a handful of concepts for the athlete: (1) training the body as "one piece," (2) minimizing their chances for injury, (3) building strength, and (4) improving mobility.  Other concepts like building aerobic base or improving balance coordination are secondary in importance, only because most athletes reap these benefits to a sufficient degree through the previous four.  You think me wrong?  Attempt a 20-rep max back squat -- if you have never given the "window maker" a run before, try it with 70-75% of your one-rep max – and check your heart rate. I would venture to bet its north of 170 beats per minute. The same basic concept applies to higher rep, combination movements, like front squats and push presses (i.e. thrusters), power cleans and push presses, power snatches and overhead squats, etc.

Athletes who require a more developed aerobic base, such as swimmers, track athletes, rowers, speed skaters, etc., should build this capacity primarily through the practice of their sport, but supplementary conditioning at different times of the year could also come in the form of burpees (shudder), KB work (snatches, clean and presses, getups, swings), or intervals on a rower or airdyne (shudder, again).  In the absence of sport specific conditioning, supplementary work could indeed prove beneficial, especially for the layman.  This conditioning would be shorter in nature, less than ten minutes in total length as a rough benchmark, but very high in intensity (expressed in terms of heart rate).  Conditioning at this high intensity level carries many benefits for the athlete and layman, alike: (1) it builds confidence, (2) provides an opportunity to simulate the "suck" of racing/competition for athletes, and (3) develops efficiency at lower heart rate levels.

Improved coordination and balance are other concepts that can be addressed through barbell strength training. Higher skill exercises like snatches, cleans, jerks, and their respective power variations will develop levels of improved coordination and balance that will carry over to other everyday tasks, like dance classes (I know this from firsthand experience).  Two good KB exercises for improving balance are the getup and the Romanian Deadlift.  Both could be incorporated at the end of a workout or on an “active rest” day.

Throwing together a random set of exercises – like half squats on a BOSU or bizarre med ball exercises – in a "secret sauce" type of “matrix” might convince a novice of your "expertise," but such complication only reveals a lack thereof to the educated.  No, sets of five in the back squat are not imaginative.  No, eating more broccoli will not land your diet on the front page of the New York Times “Lifestyle” section.  But at the end of the day you will be both stronger and healthier, and probably more so than the vegan balancing on the BOSU ball over in the corner.

 

PS - I love this post from Justin Lascek over at 70sbig.com.

 

http://70sbig.com/blog/2012/08/a-part-of-me-died/

 

Book Review No. II: The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football by Bill Starr

 

"Strength undergirds all other factors when one considers the total functioning of the body movements. Without sufficient strength, factors such as endurance, flexibility, and skill cannot be used effectively."

 

Professor Gene Logan of Southwestern Missouri State, noted author in the field of physiology

 

First printed in 1976, Starr's book remains a timeless classic, a work chalked full of insightful training and nutritional advice.  The nutritional section, alone – which addresses, via individual chapters, a wide range of topics, including macronutrient dieting, vitamins, B vitamins, minerals, and "super foods" – is worth the $30 pricetag.  The first two chapters dealing with the human body, its muscles, and the functions of those muscles is also a worthwhile read for someone with a lagging understanding of anatomy, such as myself.

The training methodology Starr advocates for in this book relies heavily, and in some cases exclusively, on the "Big Three," i.e. the back squat, bench press, and power clean.  In order to further simplify the program, Starr prescribes a formulaic five sets of five repetitions for each exercise, ideally increasing the load with each set.  Thus, an athlete's training log would look something like this:

 

Power Clean: 115x5, 135x5, 145x5, 155x5, 165x5

Bench Press: 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 190x5, 200x5

Back Squat: 135x5, 165x5, 185x5, 205x5, 225x5

Within each training week, Starr recommends reserving Monday for the heaviest training day, with Wednesday and Friday serving as "light" and "medium" workouts.  Starr states the athlete should work up to 80% and 90%, respectively, of their five-rep maximums in each of the Big Three on these other two weekly workouts.  The ultimate goal of Starr's 5x5 program is for the athlete to increase the load on each successive heavy day, and the author suggests taking bigger jumps (10 pounds on the bench press and power clean, 20 pounds on the back squat) early on in the program, thus capitalizing on "newbie" gains.  However, as the loads become more challenging, Starr recommends dialing back these initial jumps.  "When in doubt as to the proper poundage to jump to after a successful five sets of five on the heavy day, always select the lighter of the two choices.  This will give the trainee a higher chance of success and the more times he is successful, the more enthusiastic he will be," he writes.  The author concludes the same paragraph by noting the self-fulfilling prophesy of hard work, success, and enthusiasm.

 

In a somewhat unique and unexpected twist, Starr states the Big Three should be executed via the circuit method. He explains his rationale, writing "[the circuit method] is a preferred method because it insures all the major muscles [are] obtaining equal attention and an equal workload." Starr goes on to add that circuit method also provides significant cardiovascular benefits, as it can easily keep an athlete's heart rate above 120 for 20 minutes or longer. 

Recognizing that a complete review of Starr's 210-page masterpiece could easily produce another 200-plus-page work, I will only touch on the points and highlights I found most interesting and/or discussion-worthy.

(1).  Attempting Maximums and Holding Informal Contests.  Although Starr strongly cautions Strength Coaches against having their athletes test maximum singles in the Big Three too early in the athlete's development, he nonetheless believes a testing interval of every five to six weeks is appropriate once a sufficient introductory period has elapsed.  He recommends these testing days be scheduled on the weekly "heavy" day and only on the Big Three. I found this subsequent excerpt particularly insightful,

"On one of the scheduled test days, take the fellows out of the weight room [and] into the gym or auditorium. Open it up to the entire student body and let it be an informal contest.  Make sure that the players know this well in advance and inform them that the results will be published in the school paper . . . Have such contests perhaps twice during the year.  Set the date as far in advance as possibly so the players have time to train specifically for the contest.  It adds a bit of incentive to the overall program and will help to stimulate the players to work harder on the regular training days."

(2). Building a Record Board.  Building a record board is one recommendation that I have heard from multiple strength gurus, including Louie Simmons, Joe DiFranco, John Welbourn, etc.  Starr suggests developing one that includes multiple weight classes, and uses chalk to note the various records.  He further recommends recording maximums for both fives and singles, thereby providing an added incentive for every heavy Monday workout.  In a related point, Starr writes, "Make it a rule that records can only be made on testing days so that this simply motivational device does not turn into a monster."  This is an excellent point, one that Starr no doubt learned the hard way earlier in his coaching career.

(3).  Continuing Strength Work "In Season."  The concept of lifting mid-season is one subject where I devoted sufficient thought of late, partly because a competitive swim season, for example, can last upwards of five months (a typical collegiate season might run from mid-October to mid-March).  Starr's approach strikes me as a workable solution for the latter part of such a long season (December through February).  He recommends training only one of the Big Three lifts each day in the middle of the week (Tuesday through Thursday), with no prescription for order between power cleans, bench presses, and back squats.  However, Starr does recommend performing preventive exercises like leg hyperextensions and leg biceps curls every workout, not just once a week.  The author has a strange fascination with these two machine-based exercises, in particular.  If time is especially short in the off-season, or if the athletes are particularly tired, Starr suggests they perform only three sets.  In the event athletes are lifting immediately after practice, Starr says allowing them to begin their three sets with heavier weights is also fine, as their bodies are already warm and their muscles are already loose.

(4).  Modifying the 5x5 for the Advanced Trainee.  One of the more interesting tweaks Starr lays out for modifying the 5x5 is the 5,5,5,3,3,3,6-10.  In all my years of lifting, I have never encountered someone using this particular rep scheme, but Starr's explanation provides great insight into its derivation.  "The first three sets serve as warm-up sets and by dropping two reps on the next three sets allows the trainee to use more weight in the lift.  The final back-off set insures the trainee of sufficient work as he will be doing a minimum of 25 reps per exercise.  Any less is not going to be enough total work, regardless of the top weight handled," he writes.  When selecting the load for the back-off set, Starr states the proper loud will generally fall "somewhere between the third and fourth sets, depending on how tired [the athlete is] after the first five sets and how strong [they] happen to be in that specific movement."

Another unique rep scheme is the Dough Hepburn routine, which calls for three sets of five, five heavy singles across, and five sets of five as back-off sets (5x3, 1x5, 5x5).  This particular routine struck as extremely difficult, and Starr agrees, noting that this routine should only be done once a week and that only 5-pound jumps between workouts should be utilized.

(5).  Timed Squats.  The final training point I wanted to mention was Starr’s experimentation with “timed squats.”  During the summer of 1967, Starr and his training partner, Tommy Suggs, decided to experiment on themselves by devising a squat program “designed to increase cardiovascular, respiratory fitness.”  Upon reading this sentence, I immediately thought, “This sounds like one of those horrible ideas your training partner comes up with after browsing the Internet late at night.”  Starr and Suggs embarked on this adventure for the purposes of showing “researchers” that lifting heavy weights could indeed improve endurance, a concept at that time authorities were rejecting.  The two men would perform five sets of ten repetitions, increasing the weight each time, but the major difference between this routine and any other squatting program is that they would time their squatting sessions.  “Our goal was to do the five sets in 12 minutes or less the first day,” writes the author.  In their first session, the two athletes did 135x10, 175x10, 205x10, 255x10, and 275x10 in a total of ten minutes, calculated from the time the first lifter did his first rep until his final rep on the last set.  (At the time, Starr notes both he and Suggs were capable of squatting 500 for a single and handling 425x5 in training).  Starr noted his pulse after these five sets exceeded 180 beats per minutes.  Starr concludes this section on timed squats by writing the two men stayed with the program for a total of four weeks, and they increased the top weight by ten pounds each work.  At the conclusion of these eight workouts, evidently the two men performed this same workout twice per week, Starr and Suggs successfully worked up to 355x10 as their top weight and did all five sets in seven minutes.



"Use a napkin, bro."

Prior to the Christmas holiday, I was slated to visit my grandparents for four days in Columbus, OH, and the original plan called for me to train at a nearby Crossfit gym. Bumpers.  An Olympic lifting friendly environment.  Yeah buddy.

Fast forward to 6 a.m. on the morning of December 23, and I cannot figure out how to enter the parking garage of the rental condo.  None of the keys worked, and it was cold as balls at that hour of the day.  In a last ditch effort, I decided to walk around the corner and try to enter the garage via the electronic gizmo.  Then, it appeared before me.  A squat rack.

 

Yeah buddy.

 

As I stood there with my nose pressed up against the large glass window, several perfectly workable squat racks came into focus, all of which were complete with real barbells and plenty of steel.  This was my Red Rider bee be gun.  I walked through the front door, prepared to fork over $20 for the drop-in fee, but much to my amazement, the charge was only $5.  No frills.  No "you must do our program or suffer a painful purification via Crossfit mainsite."  Just slap down a Mr. Lincoln, commandeer a squat rack, and get to work.  I was as happy as a pig in the mud.

The lone downside of this training wet dream was the defunct barbell collars, as none were capable of holding the heavier weight plates in place.  Once I had worked up to 225#, I started becoming concerned about the plates' walking, i.e. their sliding down the bar.  After trying about six different sets with no success, I walked over to the neighboring squat rack where a massive dude was half squatting what looked to be 245# or so.  After explaining my problem with the collars, he replied, "Use a napkin, bro," meaning tear off a paper towel and wrap it around the bar to eliminate the gap between the bar and collar.  Admittedly, I had my doubts about this approach, but it worked beautifully.  I successfully worked up to five sets of five across in the back squat, and I had no further troubles.

Many people use the holidays as a deload week or as a time to take a complete rest -- and this is probably a wise strategy for most -- but, personally, I enjoy the adventure of training somewhere new and interacting with different people.  This freshness breathes new life into my training, and often times I pick some morsel of useful information.

I will conclude on this final point.  I know a lot of guys who train at commercial gyms when on break, and behave like total douchebags.  They snatch or clean with metal plates, and drop loaded barbells with reckless abandon.  Let me make my position totally clear -- don't be an asshole.  The weightlifting gods are fickle creatures, and they neither protect nor reward douchebags.  Show some respect for someone else's property, and honor the weightlifting gods with additional back squats, presses, and pullups.  In case you were wondering, the weightlifting gods also detest kipping pullups.