Introducing the Finger Man’s blog.
Hi, it’s the Finger Man, you may have seen me doing static contractions in a video with Kevin Levrone on Youtube or on LevroneReport.com. Or maybe you saw the raw food segment I did with Kevin.
I’m glad you made it here. In my new blog, “RawLiftinGuru,” I will unleash over 14 years of self–practiced techniques that will challenge conventional wisdom, expand your mind and guide you towards superior health.
Through video and written entries, you will learn about the incredible power of raw foods, static contractions and other types of strength training. Feel free to ask me questions in the comment section after each post.
I will share my experience with specific patterns of recovery and growth, restful sleep, and how to get momentum out of a positive attitude.
Allow me to guide you towards better health where you won’t be burdened by sickness or stagnation. Instead you’ll maximize your truest potential and benefit from a lifestyle of greater clarity.
It’s here where your questions will be answered, your mind broadened and your capacity to grow will know no limits. Welcome to the world of the Finger Man.
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July 1, 2009 at 8:57 am
Awesome. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Your videos are awesome.
July 8, 2009 at 4:29 am
I’m interested in static workouts. Keep it up. Good luck, Finger Man.
July 8, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Awesome to have you here, stay tuned and you will learn some things that will propel you forward in your workouts!
July 8, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hey Cielo-
It psyches me up that your psyched!! There’s a lot to discuss, and you’ll see it all, diet, excercise, how both change year after year, and how you can make it work for you!
July 8, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Just curious, how much could you squat through full range of motion? Have you ever tried?
July 8, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I stopped doing statics for about 2 years and went back to full range movements, which I had done for years prior to statics. After those 2 years returned to statics and regained all of the strength that I lost. I don’t remember how much I did for full range, but I never did full range while doing statics just to check.
July 8, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Hi Fingerman, 2 questions.
1)- What is the best shake with raw eggs ? (raw eggs, honey, pollen, anything else)
2)- how many raw eggs I can take a day to grow and build muscles ?
vince gironda took until 3 dozen a day.
thanks in advance
July 8, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Hey Juan-
Thanks for joining in! The best shake, you might want to start with just raw eggs scrambled in a glass…you can add chopped onion, which is good for cleansing and building! Honey and bee pollen are also good to add which we will discuss more later. In the next couple of days join us, I am going to demonstrate how I make s signature dish of mine and eat it! You can drink as many eggs as you want, but I could better answer that if I knew more about your diet now, which we will get into here on this blog. Stay tuned you have questions that we will answer here!
July 8, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thanks to response fingerman!! my diet is very simple, meat, fish or chicken with brown rice, all cooked, some vegetables, fruits (5 a day) and some nuts. I was thinking to drink raw Omega 3 eggs but I’m worry to get some bacteria. do you drink regular eggs or free range eggs ?
thanks again man!
July 8, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Hey Finger Man, same Post here as in Kev’s Blog!
I like some of your Ideas, but I have a few Critics…
You said in the Static Contractions Video, that this is the most powerful Position.
But as far as I knew, that’s wrong.
I’m sorry, I don’t know the english word for the Position, but aren’t you stronger in the Position where you do X-Reps for example?
And why did you put Fat in Kev’s Post Workout Shake?
This slows down the protein absorbtion…
And last a personal Question:
I wonder why you are so thin but strong, even though you eat enough protein apparently?
Can you tell me the secret?
Thanks a lot!
Looking forward for your answer,
greetings from Europe.
July 9, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hi Manuel-
The most powerful position meaning the strongest range of motion. For example when doing the squat the position that you could be in, without your knees locked, where you could hold the most weight would be your strongest range of motion. For a squat that is standing almost with legs straight, knees slightly bent. Doing reps of course has its validity, but my reason for lifting is to get stronger for the sports that I do. If you want to get as strong as you can the concept behind statics is that the muscle develops best with the maximum weight you can use for that exercise, it does not know motion or reps. You can try this as well, instead of doing 2 or three sets for full range exercises, do one set. Warm up before you start, excercise bike, treadmill, elyptical, something to get the blood flowing, and go to your workout and lift heavier with one set per exercise! Lifting per excercise once per week. After doing that for 4 weeks let me know if you have an improvement in your strength. The stronger a muscle gets the bigger it is going to grow.
July 9, 2009 at 9:43 am
As far as adding fat to Kevin’s workout the mix that I made him is something I have used off and on. I will admit I am not a scientist nor a nutritionist. What I do and what I promote is a lifestyle that I have found works for me and others over years of practice and experimentation. You may find you can try some of the ideas you learn of on this site and see then you will see what works for you. Many lifters have shoulder problems, or knee problems, I used to, having the desire to workout for the long term I wanted to take care of these types of problems so I could lift harder for the longer stretch. Getting big is awesome, but that has to be in combination with true health as well! I am thin and strong because the food I eat is used for repair, growth, and energy for my body. Never do I eat cookies (unless they are raw and made at home), more recipes later. At family dinners I don’t eat foods that they are eating, it has takes me years to perfect this, and I really arrived at a place with my diet that I respected only within the past 8 or 10 years, and I was constantly looking for what would work next! The diet I follow is what allows me to workout really hard, and that is what helps me grow, and then repair. Lately I have been slowly but steadily gaining weight, of course there have been many changes with my workouts lately as well! Good to hear from you and please continue to share your questions and thoughts!
July 9, 2009 at 9:18 am
Your welcome for your response Manuel! The more people learn how a healthy diet integrated with excercise can really work the more we will all grow! Sounds like you have a pretty good diet! A simple diet is always better, and if there is’nt an ingredient list on anything you eat you are far better off! In other words if you are only eating whole foods, and nothing processed that is awesome!! What kind of nuts are you eating? The best nuts are walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts, and almonds (almonds are a little tricky to find raw these days). Here are a couple of things you might try, as long as the nuts are raw you can soak them in water overnight. They will absorb the water and swell up, this breaks down protein inhibitors, and makes the nutrition easier to digest. As far as the meats that you eat, try not to cook the red meat too much, see if it works to cook it less and less. If you have sushi grade fish available to you try that. There are a number of ways to preparer it, I’ll discuss some recipes with raw fish that are really tasty, and simple! What kind of vegetables do you eat and how fresh are they? Keep up the good work!
July 9, 2009 at 11:57 am
Hi Finger Man,
I find your training philosophy very interesting, I’ve always been an admirer of Mike Mentzer’s and Arthur Jones work. What they did to the science of bodybuilding has yet to be match. Like them, you seem to be swimming against a heavy flow called “follow the volume training”. I will appreciate if you explain to us in depth, the number of static sets you do and the exercises that are more effective (Machine Pullovers, Pulldowns, Peck Deck, Leg extensions,etc) where the peak contraction part of the motion is where you get the more resistance. Also important is your approach to rest between workouts.
Greetings from Chile,
Keep up the good work.
July 11, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Thanks for the compliment, yes there is a heavy flow that I am swimming against, although I almost always lift at home, the gyms that I work out in are very personable and everyone knows everyone else, so no one doubts that what I do works, they see the development hands on! There are so many types of workouts out there, so many lifters, a variety of machines, and sometimes it gets confusing! Over the past 26 years I have tried all of those machines and tried to experience the benefits from them. There are many books on tons of topics within working out and weightlifting. Understand I am not the only one who believes in statics. There are some pro teams in the US who do statics, and college teams who’s trainers promote statics. They know this will benefit there athletes the greatest and significantly decrease the chance of injury, those who develop are those who have the ability to stave off injury! When doing my static workouts I start out with some kind of warm up exercise and stretching, or I will ride the bike for an hour outside and then come in and do statics, for upper body days! Getting warmed up is important because we are pushing ourselves very hard during the workout. Heavy statics are also something that is built up to, slowly strengthen the ligaments and the tendons. Don’t jump in and do more than you think your body is capable of. My intention of having this blog is to teach people to become healthier and stronger, safely, without injury!
After I am warmed up I start with my first set, generally I will do 2 sets per exercise, but ideally there is one set per exercise. I like doing two sets, but my first set is to get into the movement, the second set I am pushing myself as hard as I can. I will post video of both upper and lower body workouts and discuss some of the technical points that I have learned really work!
For lower body I do five exercises, squats, legpress, extensions, leg curls, and straight leg calves. These are exercises that use heavy weight for legs. For example I don’t think anyone can use the heavy weight in a seated calf raise that that same person would use for a stiff legged calf raise.
For upper body I do bench, close grip bench, lat pulldowns, lower back, and shrugs. There is a lot of variety for upper body. I like using a curling bar, with the old school weider curl attachment that hangs around one’s neck! A variation would be using a low pulley with a bar for curling.
Proper rest between workouts is extremely important because without proper rest the growth doesn’t happen for that muscle. Key to growth is to push beyond your limits, and then allow the rest time needed for the growth of the muscle.
Some of the other machines that you mentioned can be used for statics, but the excercises where you will see the most growth are those that will allow you to move the most amount of weight!
July 9, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hey Finger Man-
I am responding to inquire more about this raw diet that you discussed and demonstrated briefly on Kevin’s site. I am in the same situation a Kevin, whereas I stopped working out for 5 years or so. Kevin’s recent return has got me jacked up again to fit that back into my life. I am following a similar training program as Kev, and I have been eating “right” I am eating 5-6 meals per day- eggs/eggbeaters for breakfast, chicken breast or tuna with veggies for lunch, more chix or lean turkey with veggies for dinner and a few shakes in between. After seeing your raw diet, I am very interested in ways to prepare raw food, especially if there is a safe way to do chicken. When I do consume red meat, I like it rare anyways, so that isn’t a problem. I have always understood the nutrition that is lost by cooking our food, but I didn’t realize some foods like chicen can be eaten safely without cooking. Please enlighten me and help me out with any recipes that you may want to share. Thanks for you help- Stay Strong!
July 13, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Hey Shawn-
Preparing chicken really isn’t that difficult. Buy some of the cleanest chicken that you can, as should be for all of the meat that you eat, chicken should be free range, no antibiotics or hormones, cutlets may be easiest to prepare. Freeze the chicken for 48 hours, then put it on the counter and let it defrost at room temperature, or put it in a bag and place it under warm water for an hour or so. Squeeze some lemons or limes into a jar-enough to cover the chicken. The lemon or lime juice “cooks” the chicken and will get rid of anything that shouldn’t be. You can ad whatever spices you like including raw honey or paprika, jalapenos, dried pepper…Dill works well too! Honey further kills bacteria but it is not needed! After about 10 hours its ready to eat.
Tuna is easy to prepare as well, if you buy sushi grade Tuna, then you can just eat it however you like. I like Tuna with some sliced jalapenos, pears, and some lemon! If you don’t buy sushi grade lemon that’s fine, prepare it the way that chicken is prepared! No matter how you prepare it buy high quality fish, where it is fresh, and it smells right, kinda shouldn’t smell at all, but if it smells too fishy it probably isn’t good fish.
There have been times when I was out and about and didn’t have access to the stores I usually shop at. I bought some meat and ate it and was just fine, but I have been doing this for awhile, try to always get the best quality food that you can, not only because of bacteria, animals that are properly taken care of, not given drugs needlessly, and fed the right foods make healthier, more nutritious meats!
You seem to be eating meat that is lower in fat, which is great, and you reluctantly mention red meat, have you ever tried Bison (Buffalo), Ostrich, grass fed beef, or venison? These are some lower fat red meats that are high in protein and lower in fat!
July 28, 2009 at 2:54 am
Hey, man I’m going to be following you cause I find it very interesting. I just want to point something out, without being to critical, hopefully you’ll see my point. For thawing chicken, you’d be much better off using cool water, and or placing in the fridge overnight. Otherwise your potentially defeating the purpose of the 48 hours in the freezer. I realize your used to the technique you described, but for newbees it might be safer to do as I described. Thanks look forward to seeing some of your vids.
July 28, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hey Tony-
For sure chicken can be defrosted in water, in a rush I’ve done that before. You are correct it very well could be safer because it is a faster way to defrost the chicken. Over time anyone eating raw meats will gradually be able to let up on what they feel they need to do to be safe preparing raw foods. The freezing does kill any unwanted critters and the lemonor lime juice is the same level as cooking, it is a doubly safe way to eat raw chicken.
One other thing, the healthier one’s diet is the less likely he’ll get “sick” from eating raw chicken. If someone is eating Big Mac’s for lunch and cookies and chips as a snack later that person has a lot of “housecleaning” that needs to take place. Whole foods are healthier foods! If you can look at something you’re eating and don’t have to read an ingredient label that is a good thing. All meat, chicken, fish, and eggs should come from the best source possibe, free range animals, grass fed cows, no antibiotics or hormones, really clean animals.
July 13, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Excellent comments from every one, and I really want to reply to all both negative and positive, but finding the time somedays is difficult, so if I don’t see a reply within a couple of days I will comment…whether positive or negative! Thanks for all of the input, its a building process and my hope is that all of you can learn from my experiences and use what works!
July 13, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Don’t worry! We stay tuned on your blog!
July 13, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Your cool Egor, everyone posting comments here should know that your posts are important to me, as is giving thorough answers, not short ones where you don’t learn anything…especially because all of you are making such good comments, and as I said I will post negative comments as well.
July 18, 2009 at 9:57 am
Alright, i am trying to be as openminded as possible with these principles on static contractions….however, my education and experience forces me to respond. Power is determined by how fast an object can be moved and is also determined by how much the particular object weighs. With your static hold in the squat, i can understand there can be neurological progression of increasing weight on the bar…however this does not determine power seeing as that speed isn’t even the equation. You also say that you have stopped doing a lot of range of motion exercises, at least particularly in squats…this is absurd, i highly doubt doing ONLY static holds will be benificial for whatever sport you play, and as a correction for you, your power is maximized in the legs when the knee is around a 45 degree angle, this is a power angle…would an NFL lineman hit someone STARTING from a stand up position? No. So in conclusion, i know you probably mean well in these videos, but when educating someone in how to increase power i would suggest that you a)discuss all aspects of power…b)show a legitimate example of how powerful you have become due to this program (maybe in a clip of you playing a sport) and finally, c)explain to the viewers at home in detail, why this program is superior, possibly stating actual facts perhaps? Thank you for reading this, anyone please correct me on anything, i am only human and def. not perfect….just know what you are talking about, that’s all i ask…lol
July 21, 2009 at 8:12 am
The way that you are defining power, how fast an object moves is fine, but it doesn’t apply with what we are doing here with statics. Our muscles understand that when we move a certain amount of weight the more weight that’s moved the harder those muscle groups have to support that weight. If you are willing to apply this theory, which I have learned to do through my own experiments, then you want to be in a position for a given exercise that will allow you to support the most amount of weight for that exercise. Your example for instance of a lineman not standing up, but having his knees at a 45 degree angle is correct in that when at a stance his knees are at a 45 degree angle. When that lineman does a static squat, he should be in a close to standing position, his strongest range of motion, so that he can lift the most amount of weight possible. Training this way will allow him to have the greatest power when in that position, or while his knees are at a 45 degree angle, or when bending down to lift a heavy box. The stronger a muscle in one position, the stronger it will be in another position.
Not happy with my level of strength, I thought I would try something new, so I started doing statics about 8 years ago. My strength improved significantly over the next few months, and continued to improve for the next few years. I stopped doing full full range movements almost completely, maybe some shoulder work with dumbells or some dumbell curls, but that was about it. After five years of statics I was static squatting over 600 lbs, shrugs 525, just to give you an idea, huge amounts of weight. I stopped doing statics because my life was also very busy at the time and I wasn’t doing any aerobic exercise at all. Not knowing any better I was scared of having some kind of heart problem lifting huge amounts of weight once every 3 weeks, with no other form of excercise, so I stopped statics and went back to full range. Within a few months I lost a lot of strength, although I still couldn’t organize my schedule well enough to do my cardio exercises. It took me about a year before before I my schedule me to workout so I started doing cardio again, and went back to statics, strength as I had come to know it returned. I have not stopped doing my statics since.
Gaining and maintaining strength is the number one reason I do statics. The second reason is there is much less chance of injury. Third, the amount of time for working out is anywhere from 10-30% of the time most people spend lifting weights.
As far as your ideas about video of me in a sport to demonstrate strength I will post video of me doing some static exercises over the next few weeks! Maybe a video of me after a ride, or some climbing on my in-home gym.
Understand this is a radically different way to workout, but if you do it right you can make amazing gains! The number one problem one problem is people don’t use enough weight! Get warmed up first, use proper form, and lift heavy!
October 25, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Hi Fingerman,
I am a firm believer in statics. I have been using this technique for about 3 months now and have seen fantastic results. Even though I am still not at my ideal weight goal, I have seen more muscle growth than ever before. The question I have is, what do I do when I run out of room for more weight? At the moment I am static squating 655. A few more workout sessions I will be out of room for more plates. At this time I have room for improvment in other areas like bench and shrugs.
Also, is the chicken hard to eat, for a newbie of course?
I appreciate all your information and your commitment to health.
October 26, 2009 at 1:10 pm
First of all that is just so cool that you are seeing the benefits, obviously you are doing it right, and you are lifting heavy enough to receive the growth.! As far as room on the bar, my question is where are you lifting? It is difficult to do statics in a public gym because generally all of the 45′s have to be collected from two or three machines. That’s the first question, are you lifting at home or in a public gym. Either way what kind of bar are you using. I use a 1500 Hampton Olympic Bar. Hampton makes 2 bars, last I checked, they make a 700 lb max bar, and a 1500 max bar. When a Hampton Olympic Set in sold it is sold with one of the two bars, there are two ways to tell the difference between the bars. On the ends of the bars, 700 or 1500 lb is written on the black rubber cap. The other way to tell the difference is the diameter of the bar is thicker. If more than 700 lb is used on a 700 lb bar it could permanently bend and damage the bar. From my experience most “health club” type gyms do use the lighter weight bar, whether it is a Hampton Bar or some other brand. If you saw the larger diameter bar you could tell the difference, it has a significantly larger diameter. I worked out in a health club a few weeks ago, grabbed the bar, and the diameter was much smaller!
Is chicken hard to eat, it most depends on the diet you have followed over the past year or so….someone might say oh, I got sick from eating undercooked chicken!!! I say hey, if I didn’t sweep my house or clean up for a year or so, then I took a broom and swept up, dust would be everywhere, it would start looking worse after I started cleaning up! If I continued cleaning up, swept up all the dust, took out the powervac, really cleaned up, after an hour or so there would be a difference! It would start to look better, but not right away! What is your diet now? Do you eat fast food once a week, and say you’ll burn it off, or once a month? Is there stuff locked in your digestive tract that needs a good “housecleaning”? Have you ever done any fasting? Give me some of your background and I can give you an idea if eating raw chicken will be tough for you or not. Thanks for your compliment, I want to start posting more on the blog, really get some stuff going, and that’s in the works now. Looks like you have commitment as well, keep going, there is lots of room for growth, for all of us!
October 27, 2009 at 12:58 am
Thanks for the reply fingerman,
I work out at the gym at my local community college. I am not sure the bar type, but it is the 700lb capacity. I am already maxed out on the leg press at a little more than a 1000lb. The bench is really my weakest part as I have a lot of improvement as well as the deadlift.
As for the diet, i have already been eating all my vegtables raw and organic, as well as the natural buffalo and organic beef and chicken. I don’t eat fastfood ever, but resturants occasionally. If I do eat out I try and eat sushi. I also supplement with all vegetable sourced vitamins and minerals and shakes for extra protein.
Ps. I am starting the raw as possible diet tomorrow.
Thanks for all the information.
October 27, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Wow, I am impressed with what you are doing!!! That is excellent as far as your food choices. Eating sushi out is a great choice, because they don’t add all kinds of crazy things to the food! With what you are eating you might want to start with raw buffalo-raw red meats don’t have the amount of bacteria that raw poultry has, so the “cleansing” reactions aren’t as severe, if any from eating raw red meats…beef, buffalo, ostrich….eggs also don’t have a lot of bacteria, try to buy the free range eggs though, preferably fertile eggs, found at a health food store. Try that for a couple of months, then have some raw chicken!!!
As far as increasing weight at your community college gym, there is nothing you can do, sounds like you are stuck with a 700 lb bar…unless you might be able to talk with whoever is in charge of organizing the equipment for the gym, they might have a clean and jerk bar somewhere, that might be a heavier bar, but I am not sure, or see if you can talk them into buying a 1500 lb bar for heavier exercises??? and see if they will do it! If they don’t go through the administrative side and see if there is some funding available for purchasing of needed work out equipment!!! Good luck!
October 27, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Hey one other thing, about that leg press, if you’re maxed out and there is no other way to add weight you can do three quarters, stay in your strongest range of motion, and just move the weight a little bit. If you can only get just over 1000 lbs on the machine you won’t get much of a workout doing statics. If you do three quarters at least you’ll get some sort of workout, better than full range movements, but not the growth that you have experienced with your statics. It will carry you over until you figure something else out! Maybe using a hack squat machine. In my gym I put a 5 foot pipe through the center of my bar that holds weight, so I can get about 2000 lbs. on. I have some other plans when I want more to add more weight. Check your legpress rack, is there anywhere else where you can put some plates??
October 27, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Food wise, I tried the eggs raw this morning with the raw local honey and bee pollen. I also put some organic greek strained yogart as well. I have to say that it was very good. I think it was just the mental fact of eating it raw. I did soak some chicken breast with lemon over night and will see how it tastes. I plan on busting out the jucier again for my veggies.
As for the weight I am 6’6 so the leg press machine even at itl’s most extended point is about a three quarter press. I think I will get some guys from school to sit on the press for me Haha.
Anyway I do appreciate the info keep it up
October 28, 2009 at 12:28 am
sorry height not weight. I don’t weight 6’6
October 28, 2009 at 8:47 pm
You know what though, after you are doing it for awhile, eating the eggs cooked will be a weird thought, I don’t even think of cooked food as something I would eat, its just not a thought that enters my head! That’s a guess that you were talking about eating the eggs raw…I don’t know what that Greek cheese is?? How did the chicken turn out? The more you stay on the path the easier it becomes! Thanks for all your posts!