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Are you gonna post longer videos than this? I was a bit dissapointed when this ended after less than a minute. I would appreciate if you spoke about your philosophy behind your way of training, and the progress that you made in other sports (you mentioned that you train static to become better in other sports – what are they?).
I tried statics for forearms recently, after normal training (wrist curl, reverse wrist curl and standing reverse curls for brachioradialis). Practically it was nothing more than holding a barbell loaded with 300 pounds of weight while standing, without straps of course. I got the best pump in my forearms ever, but next time I’m gonna use knee wraps to feel safer.
That’s so awesome that the statics worked for you for forearms! Sounds like you are doing them right. Do you want to wrap your knees to feel safer when you are holding the weight standing up? Do you have problems with your knees, or do you just wrap them to prevent problems?
As far as length of the videos, I’ll try a few different things to see what works, maybe one post a week of demonstration, and one more about philosophy. Trying to find something that works for everyone. Really glad it works for you!
As far as my sports, my main sport is off road bike riding, twisty off road dirt/rock trails with climbs and drops. I love to off road ride, ideally Colorado, Utah-Moab, New Mexico, and Arizona out west, and the east has good riding as well, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina! I don’t compete in races, just against other riders on the trails. I also road ride, but its more training for the off road riding. I do like to indoor rock climb, you might have noticed the home gym in the first video. I design and build indoor gyms, the gym I have now is my firth gym. I like to climb simply to build power, I usually climb in the winter more, using my bouldering cave, don’t do much straight up indoor climbing. I used to compete USMS, adult amateur competitive swimming, IM’s, butterfly, back, breast, and free. Short course (25 meter pool) 2 years, long course (50 meter pool) 3 years. Stopped swimming didn’t like the chlorine. I’ll swim open water whenever I get the chance. Used to practice martial arts, would love to return, but currently no time.
OK, you`re a biker. But why so intense on diett?. I guess diett is not that important for a biker. I understand that static training is, but i cant see why raw food eating would make you a better biker. I know a couple of bikers, not exactly offriders, but kind of competive bikers. And there its pizza, coca cola, hot dogs and if you mention things like protein/karb and whats inside the food, they just fart in your face:-)Norway out.
I grew up on sports, as a kid baseball and basketball mostly, then I found cycling. I loved to ride and I was fast, and of course I loved to weight lift. At the age of 19 I started not being able to push my body as hard as I did when I was 16 or 17. I would pull a muscle, or injure my knee or shoulder. By my mid twenties I had a handful of things that were stopping me from training the way I needed to train, really hard! It wasn’t just training that was held back it was also regular life stuff. The problems were things doctors could do nothing about, couldn’t sleep well at night, often woke up tired, a pulled muscle could last for 8 weeks! I had cartilage damage in one shoulder from lifting, a ligament in my leg hurt regularly for years! There was some other stuff, but in general I felt like my body was falling apart. After losing respect for most medical practice I decided to take my health into my own hands because I knew the current state I was in would not bring me the life I wanted to lead! I started following a typical vegetarian diet, and felt a touch better, changed to a vegan diet that didn’t work either. Then I made a big shift and practiced a raw vegan diet for four months. I lost a lot of weight, but my aches and pains went away. I started lifting again and things were ok, kinda. After trying to follow the raw vegan diet for about a year I was really hungry and craved meat and eggs. From there I started including all raw animal foods with fruits and veggies. I ate what I wanted within raw foods and minus the details that’s what I do now. I feel great, if I go off of the path I don’t feel great, so I stick with it, its been about 14 years.
NICE! you the man finger man. 405 that’s hard core. love that you said OUT. very kevin-esque. i’m going to try this and see what it feels like. love the short simple video and can’t wait to see more. OUT.
Just wanted to stop by and say that the static contraction squats I added in my routine a while ago are already working quite well for me! I usually do my CrossFit WOD first, then do some sort of static contraction, whether it be squats, abs, bench press, or overhead press…I do each once a week, except for abs which is three. I really feel the explosive power it has increased. I’m picking guys up and throwing them around much more easily now, and my double leg takedowns (that require a shoot in) are much faster and much more explosive. I feel a lot of bound up energy in my muscles now…as if they are more “intelligent”, and know when I’m going to use them.
That’s just so awesome! You are developing more strength through your statics and then seeing it put to use with what you do! There isn’t a better example of how statics can work than what you explained in your post! Keep going, get stronger! Sounds like your competition will just take off!
For you to post does inspire me as well to post more and make more vids. We can build a community here of lifters, get really strong, and stay away from injury, so we can get stronger! You’ll notice as you get stronger and use more weight for a static exercise you’ll need more rest time between exercises to allow your body to grow!
Question-
You mentioned a few times that when you stopped doing static and instead did fully reps that you lost strength. Could define in what aspect you lost strength via full reps and gained in static? Did you get stronger at full reps from doing static? Are you simply stonger at static from doing static? Curious since one of my goals is increasing my overall body strength. Hey talk about raw, I just went out in the yard and literally picked my dinner off the vine. Do you grow your own vegetables?
Yes and yes! I went from full range to statics, did mostly statics for three years, alternated with some full range for deltoids and biceps. Everything else static. The statics gave me more power overall, for sports for one. Off road bike riding, martial arts, Kng Fu-full contact practice and sparring. Kicks, punches, core power was stronger. Also just lifting things, whether moving a desk, a couch, a bed, my overall strength increased significantly. I didn’t go back and check full range strength during the time I did only statics-Very quickly I didn’t feel I needed to prove anything. When I stopped doing statics and returned to full range my full range was stronger than it had been. As the weeks and months went by my strength in those exercises started to decrease. My overall strength doing other things decreased as well. My body size and weight also increased with the statics over three years and I started to lose body weight and muscle mass. I am starting to gain back lost mass now. No reason for me to ever go back to full range now, don’t want to lose my regained strength.
Also too I intend to lift until the day I die! I just love to lift, like all of you do I am sure. The idea of doing 1, 2, 3 sets for curls, or extensions, squate, whatever once every week over a period of time is just not natural. It is strain on the joints that in the long run will not help us continue to lift for the rest of our lives. How many long time lifters do you know who don’t complain of knees popping/snapping, making some sort of noise from squats, or not having some sort of shoulder noise or problem from any one of a number of exercises? Many or even all long time lifters I know complain of these things, they have explained to me a bone on bone rubbing, or lost cartilage, lost cushioning between the bones, in the joints.
Statics work the muscles as hard as possible, with the greatest amount of intensity available to us, without straining the joints. Make sure you’re warmed up before starting your statics, sure you can still get hurt if you don’t wam up. The little movement significantly decreases the chance of injury that we are all suseptible to doing full range excercises.
That’s too awesome about picking your own dinner! Raw vegetables are great, but even better are living raw vegetables which I will post about. Living raw foods are just like you said picking your own food! Did you have grapes…off the vine? There are also berries that can be found, mulberries and rasberries! Yes I do have a garden, kale, collards, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucs, cucs, basil, mint, and onions. A couple of years ago most of the food was lost to the local squirrels so this year I moved a portable plastic garage port frame, took off the plastic and put the frame over the garden and enclosed it with chicken wire, built a door, and the squirrels are on the outside of the garden this year! Raw veggies are key, living brings life to the body and muscles! Keep on doing all that you’re doing and watch yourself grow, and gain! I will get more into diet as the site goes on! Thanks so much for your post!
I performed my first static squat today. I worked my way up to 385 pounds on my last and final set for 25 seconds. To be honest, I found it to be extremely easy. The only think I notice after doing it was that I developed a lot of pain in my lower back and I felt a few vertebrae near my neck grind a little. I’m a bit skeptical on the SAFETY of this sort of training. To me it seems potentially dangerous to your spine. What are your thoughts on my experience? I’m just about to ditch the whole idea, something that I was extremely excited to try to increase my power and strength for full range exercises.
It sounds like you did a static squat with 385, is that correct? First of all as far as your lower back pain I can tell you its probably because your legs are stronger than your lower back is capable for right now. Your legs might be able to static squat 450 lbs. Your lower back might only be able to squat 350 lbs. Lower back problems can also come from needing a stronger stomach, a stronger core! Here are a couple of things you can try. As far as for your legs don’t go that heavy for squat for now, do what you are comfortable with, and the 25 seconds you held for is actually too long, once you are at 15 seconds you need to increase weight, because it just isn’t heavy enough. If you had that back pain though you can strengthen your stomach, use a low pulley and do a static contraction crunch. Lie on your back and hold a tricep rope on either side of your head. Crunch your chin to your chest and hold for 15 seconds. In a month you will strengthen your core significantly!
As far as lower back and spine here are two things you can do. Find one of those benches that you hook your ankles under and do extensions, fingers behind your head, hips on pads, and ankles under a second set of pads. If you work out at home you can also do extensions on the floor, raise opposing leg and arm and hold in the air. Start slow for 10 or fifteen seconds, and as you get stronger hold for longer!
I am going to suggest something else, but please proceed with caution, there are varying beliefs about this exercise. I think it is ok as long as you start slowly, and don’t use too much weight! Good Mornings! Awesome exercis for the lower back. You can start by using a broom stick to get the form down. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart, legs stay stay straight, not locked-I almost never lock my knees or elbows to save the joints. Bend forward at the waist. I will post a video of this within the next week! Arch your back and look up while you’re doing the exercise! Stay with high reps, gradually as you get stronger use a bar-Olypic is 45 lbs, or use a standard weight bar if you can to start with less weight.
Doing the static squat will also strengthen your lower back, but proceed with your static squat at a weight that your lower back is comfortable with, not what your legs need. I had an issue similar to this, I didn’t have lower back pain, but I had to strengthen my lower back to lift what I wanted to lift for a squat!
As far as your neck grinding, do you use a bar pad. I do, I don’ want 500 lbs. plus pushing on my spine! That’s just me, some lifters promote using a bare bar, maybe if you have huge traps that you can rest the bar on and weigh in at 245 lbs. plus. That is not my body type nor will it ever be, so I use a dense foam pad. How much do you weigh in at? If you are close to average I would suggest a pad. Another suggestion, I tried it and it didn’t work for me, but it works for some is the Manta Rey, I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a blue piece of plastic that clips to the bar, some people swear by it!
On the diet side you might need more liquid in your diet in the way of vegetables and veggie juice. If you eat a lot of salt that can be taxing on the vertebrae and spine also. I don’t mean just salt shaker salt, but processed foods have a lot of salt in them, fast food has a lot of salt, certain restaurant foods have a lot of salt. I will post some vids about juicing and how to, different juicers to use, that kind of thing.
Please don’t put the whole thing down. Doing statics we are lifting extremely heavy weights here, but when you begin naturally you will discover your weakest link in any one exercise. For squats maybe your lower back, for lat pulldowns maybe your biceps for example. Discovering your weakest link helps because you then know what area o fyour body needs the extra attention so that you can get stroner overall!
I don’t think I mentioned this, but you can do static legpress to supplement for squats to strengthen your legs, as you are kinda waiting for your lower back to get stronger. Something else you can try would be a static hacksquat machine. This way there is a pad behind your back supporting your lower back, and spine, so you will still get the benefits and the workout, but take pressure off areas you are working at strengthening!
Keep lifting! Thanks for expressing what you did, all of what you said will be addressed in more detail through vids. Keep asking the questions!
Thanks for the detailed response. Its must appreciated and very informative.
I work up this morning and and my lower back is quite sore, bot on the lumbar vertebrae and my spinal erectors. I’m going to give it a few days to see if the pain goes away. I really hope it does because lower back pain is no fun!
I weigh 165 and my traps are quite developed so putting all that weight in that area doesn’t really bother me all that much but maybe I’ll try with pad next time. I actually did 405 for my first static squat for 25 seconds. I honest thing I could go 5 45′s on each side. I’m just quite concerned with my lower back pain, never expected that to happen and I’ve never experience this sort of pain in that area before.
Glad I was able to write something that helps! One other thing, what kind of shoes do you wear, especially when you lift? If you wear a regular gym shoe, or running shoe it has a heel. Ideally your weightlifting shoes should be flat. Wrestling shoes are perfect, they are totally flat. Shoes meant for weightlifting are also flat! Wearing a running shoe forces the lower vertebrae to push the discs together in an uneven manner, and with the large amount of weight that pushing together of the discs is made worse. Personally I wear flat shoes all the time, because I don’t want back pain, many people by the age of 40 have back pain, and my belief is because they wear heeled shoes their entire lives and at a certain point their back just hurts from it.
Good that ypu are giving yourself a few days to recover with your lower back, you can strengthen your lower back and lift more than you could ever imagine! Good job, keep with it!
Sorry man, but I think you’re fucking insane.
I would consider you the smallest guy in my gym, and never, I said NEVER receive any advice from you. You’re just a thin guy doing crazy exercises that makes you continue thin. Try HIT sometimes or even a beginner gym exercise ig you wanna gain some mass and grow that (as I see) RIDICULOUS body.
Sorry if you didn’t like my comment, but it’s the truth.
I’m wondering what Kevin has seen in you, it’s really interesting.
Thanks for your comment, you are welcome to think whatever you want! That’s fine that I would be considered the smallest guy in your gym, and whether you would accepts advice from me or not is really up to you.
Before you make judgements let me enlighten you to a few things. As far as my size I am not training for mass and size. I am achieving my goals. In your gym I might be small, but in a pack of road riders or off road riders (cycling and mt. bike riding) I am somewhere in the upper half as far as muscular size and appearance, and people who I have ridden with could attest to my power. This is my sport, its what I do, its what I enjoy, and what I train for! I also rock climb, am I am a pretty strong climber, I just love the sport, but I am not great at it like I am at cycling! These two sports represent what I am trying to obtain, both require a lot of strength but not size!
Also understand I completed a 23 day water only fast last November! It was an intense experience, which you might not relate to! I did it for overall health. Once a year I go to my doctor and he completes a full blood profile so I see where I am truly at in the way of my health, this past January he said my blood is that of a healthy 18 man! I am not 18, but it is good that my blood is that healthy!
What Kevin saw in me was that I was doing something different, he wasn’t judging me by size, he thought I was ripped, but he was more interested in the lifestyle that I promote, from my diet, exercise, devotion to working out, the entire lifestyle. Building my own gym, having the knowledge and tools, both in the physical and spiritual sense to set goals and obtain them. Sure maybe I view things differently than other weight lifters you know, but my mind is not constrained thinking I have to look or be a certain way. I know what I want and I go after that!
Please do return to my site, and post a comment if you have something to share, we can all learn from each other here! If you have any questions or when you plateau, maybe there is something you can learn here that would help. I am interested to know how long have you been working out?
July 26, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Hi Fingerman,
Are you gonna post longer videos than this? I was a bit dissapointed when this ended after less than a minute. I would appreciate if you spoke about your philosophy behind your way of training, and the progress that you made in other sports (you mentioned that you train static to become better in other sports – what are they?).
I tried statics for forearms recently, after normal training (wrist curl, reverse wrist curl and standing reverse curls for brachioradialis). Practically it was nothing more than holding a barbell loaded with 300 pounds of weight while standing, without straps of course. I got the best pump in my forearms ever, but next time I’m gonna use knee wraps to feel safer.
Thank you for broadening our mind, Fingerman.
Please keep posting.
July 27, 2009 at 10:43 am
That’s so awesome that the statics worked for you for forearms! Sounds like you are doing them right. Do you want to wrap your knees to feel safer when you are holding the weight standing up? Do you have problems with your knees, or do you just wrap them to prevent problems?
As far as length of the videos, I’ll try a few different things to see what works, maybe one post a week of demonstration, and one more about philosophy. Trying to find something that works for everyone. Really glad it works for you!
As far as my sports, my main sport is off road bike riding, twisty off road dirt/rock trails with climbs and drops. I love to off road ride, ideally Colorado, Utah-Moab, New Mexico, and Arizona out west, and the east has good riding as well, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina! I don’t compete in races, just against other riders on the trails. I also road ride, but its more training for the off road riding. I do like to indoor rock climb, you might have noticed the home gym in the first video. I design and build indoor gyms, the gym I have now is my firth gym. I like to climb simply to build power, I usually climb in the winter more, using my bouldering cave, don’t do much straight up indoor climbing. I used to compete USMS, adult amateur competitive swimming, IM’s, butterfly, back, breast, and free. Short course (25 meter pool) 2 years, long course (50 meter pool) 3 years. Stopped swimming didn’t like the chlorine. I’ll swim open water whenever I get the chance. Used to practice martial arts, would love to return, but currently no time.
July 28, 2009 at 8:10 am
OK, you`re a biker. But why so intense on diett?. I guess diett is not that important for a biker. I understand that static training is, but i cant see why raw food eating would make you a better biker. I know a couple of bikers, not exactly offriders, but kind of competive bikers. And there its pizza, coca cola, hot dogs and if you mention things like protein/karb and whats inside the food, they just fart in your face:-)Norway out.
July 28, 2009 at 8:14 am
UFO commented “Ok, you’re a biker”, but I couldn’t get it to post so I cut/paste and posted through my name
July 28, 2009 at 8:20 am
I grew up on sports, as a kid baseball and basketball mostly, then I found cycling. I loved to ride and I was fast, and of course I loved to weight lift. At the age of 19 I started not being able to push my body as hard as I did when I was 16 or 17. I would pull a muscle, or injure my knee or shoulder. By my mid twenties I had a handful of things that were stopping me from training the way I needed to train, really hard! It wasn’t just training that was held back it was also regular life stuff. The problems were things doctors could do nothing about, couldn’t sleep well at night, often woke up tired, a pulled muscle could last for 8 weeks! I had cartilage damage in one shoulder from lifting, a ligament in my leg hurt regularly for years! There was some other stuff, but in general I felt like my body was falling apart. After losing respect for most medical practice I decided to take my health into my own hands because I knew the current state I was in would not bring me the life I wanted to lead! I started following a typical vegetarian diet, and felt a touch better, changed to a vegan diet that didn’t work either. Then I made a big shift and practiced a raw vegan diet for four months. I lost a lot of weight, but my aches and pains went away. I started lifting again and things were ok, kinda. After trying to follow the raw vegan diet for about a year I was really hungry and craved meat and eggs. From there I started including all raw animal foods with fruits and veggies. I ate what I wanted within raw foods and minus the details that’s what I do now. I feel great, if I go off of the path I don’t feel great, so I stick with it, its been about 14 years.
July 28, 2009 at 12:10 pm
It was not me who wrote that post. I’m not from Norway, I’m from Hungary
July 26, 2009 at 8:43 pm
NICE! you the man finger man. 405 that’s hard core. love that you said OUT. very kevin-esque. i’m going to try this and see what it feels like. love the short simple video and can’t wait to see more. OUT.
July 27, 2009 at 10:44 am
Glad you like it! Let me know what you try and what works, I’ll start posting more regularly, stay tuned!
July 28, 2009 at 3:59 pm
“Finger Man” it is the alter ego of “rawliftinguru”?
I do not know to whom from them to ask the question!
Thanks for vid! Siberia out!
July 29, 2009 at 9:50 am
Finger Man and rawliftinguru are one in the same! Thanks for your input and questions Siberia!
July 29, 2009 at 12:20 am
Looking good FingerMan!
Just wanted to stop by and say that the static contraction squats I added in my routine a while ago are already working quite well for me! I usually do my CrossFit WOD first, then do some sort of static contraction, whether it be squats, abs, bench press, or overhead press…I do each once a week, except for abs which is three. I really feel the explosive power it has increased. I’m picking guys up and throwing them around much more easily now, and my double leg takedowns (that require a shoot in) are much faster and much more explosive. I feel a lot of bound up energy in my muscles now…as if they are more “intelligent”, and know when I’m going to use them.
Nice 405! Keep going, you will inspire many!
July 29, 2009 at 10:55 am
That’s just so awesome! You are developing more strength through your statics and then seeing it put to use with what you do! There isn’t a better example of how statics can work than what you explained in your post! Keep going, get stronger! Sounds like your competition will just take off!
For you to post does inspire me as well to post more and make more vids. We can build a community here of lifters, get really strong, and stay away from injury, so we can get stronger! You’ll notice as you get stronger and use more weight for a static exercise you’ll need more rest time between exercises to allow your body to grow!
Keep going, very impressive!!!
July 29, 2009 at 2:40 am
Question-
You mentioned a few times that when you stopped doing static and instead did fully reps that you lost strength. Could define in what aspect you lost strength via full reps and gained in static? Did you get stronger at full reps from doing static? Are you simply stonger at static from doing static? Curious since one of my goals is increasing my overall body strength. Hey talk about raw, I just went out in the yard and literally picked my dinner off the vine. Do you grow your own vegetables?
July 29, 2009 at 10:17 am
Yes and yes! I went from full range to statics, did mostly statics for three years, alternated with some full range for deltoids and biceps. Everything else static. The statics gave me more power overall, for sports for one. Off road bike riding, martial arts, Kng Fu-full contact practice and sparring. Kicks, punches, core power was stronger. Also just lifting things, whether moving a desk, a couch, a bed, my overall strength increased significantly. I didn’t go back and check full range strength during the time I did only statics-Very quickly I didn’t feel I needed to prove anything. When I stopped doing statics and returned to full range my full range was stronger than it had been. As the weeks and months went by my strength in those exercises started to decrease. My overall strength doing other things decreased as well. My body size and weight also increased with the statics over three years and I started to lose body weight and muscle mass. I am starting to gain back lost mass now. No reason for me to ever go back to full range now, don’t want to lose my regained strength.
Also too I intend to lift until the day I die! I just love to lift, like all of you do I am sure. The idea of doing 1, 2, 3 sets for curls, or extensions, squate, whatever once every week over a period of time is just not natural. It is strain on the joints that in the long run will not help us continue to lift for the rest of our lives. How many long time lifters do you know who don’t complain of knees popping/snapping, making some sort of noise from squats, or not having some sort of shoulder noise or problem from any one of a number of exercises? Many or even all long time lifters I know complain of these things, they have explained to me a bone on bone rubbing, or lost cartilage, lost cushioning between the bones, in the joints.
Statics work the muscles as hard as possible, with the greatest amount of intensity available to us, without straining the joints. Make sure you’re warmed up before starting your statics, sure you can still get hurt if you don’t wam up. The little movement significantly decreases the chance of injury that we are all suseptible to doing full range excercises.
That’s too awesome about picking your own dinner! Raw vegetables are great, but even better are living raw vegetables which I will post about. Living raw foods are just like you said picking your own food! Did you have grapes…off the vine? There are also berries that can be found, mulberries and rasberries! Yes I do have a garden, kale, collards, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucs, cucs, basil, mint, and onions. A couple of years ago most of the food was lost to the local squirrels so this year I moved a portable plastic garage port frame, took off the plastic and put the frame over the garden and enclosed it with chicken wire, built a door, and the squirrels are on the outside of the garden this year! Raw veggies are key, living brings life to the body and muscles! Keep on doing all that you’re doing and watch yourself grow, and gain! I will get more into diet as the site goes on! Thanks so much for your post!
July 29, 2009 at 3:52 am
HI Fingerman,
I performed my first static squat today. I worked my way up to 385 pounds on my last and final set for 25 seconds. To be honest, I found it to be extremely easy. The only think I notice after doing it was that I developed a lot of pain in my lower back and I felt a few vertebrae near my neck grind a little. I’m a bit skeptical on the SAFETY of this sort of training. To me it seems potentially dangerous to your spine. What are your thoughts on my experience? I’m just about to ditch the whole idea, something that I was extremely excited to try to increase my power and strength for full range exercises.
Thanks
July 29, 2009 at 10:48 am
It sounds like you did a static squat with 385, is that correct? First of all as far as your lower back pain I can tell you its probably because your legs are stronger than your lower back is capable for right now. Your legs might be able to static squat 450 lbs. Your lower back might only be able to squat 350 lbs. Lower back problems can also come from needing a stronger stomach, a stronger core! Here are a couple of things you can try. As far as for your legs don’t go that heavy for squat for now, do what you are comfortable with, and the 25 seconds you held for is actually too long, once you are at 15 seconds you need to increase weight, because it just isn’t heavy enough. If you had that back pain though you can strengthen your stomach, use a low pulley and do a static contraction crunch. Lie on your back and hold a tricep rope on either side of your head. Crunch your chin to your chest and hold for 15 seconds. In a month you will strengthen your core significantly!
As far as lower back and spine here are two things you can do. Find one of those benches that you hook your ankles under and do extensions, fingers behind your head, hips on pads, and ankles under a second set of pads. If you work out at home you can also do extensions on the floor, raise opposing leg and arm and hold in the air. Start slow for 10 or fifteen seconds, and as you get stronger hold for longer!
I am going to suggest something else, but please proceed with caution, there are varying beliefs about this exercise. I think it is ok as long as you start slowly, and don’t use too much weight! Good Mornings! Awesome exercis for the lower back. You can start by using a broom stick to get the form down. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart, legs stay stay straight, not locked-I almost never lock my knees or elbows to save the joints. Bend forward at the waist. I will post a video of this within the next week! Arch your back and look up while you’re doing the exercise! Stay with high reps, gradually as you get stronger use a bar-Olypic is 45 lbs, or use a standard weight bar if you can to start with less weight.
Doing the static squat will also strengthen your lower back, but proceed with your static squat at a weight that your lower back is comfortable with, not what your legs need. I had an issue similar to this, I didn’t have lower back pain, but I had to strengthen my lower back to lift what I wanted to lift for a squat!
As far as your neck grinding, do you use a bar pad. I do, I don’ want 500 lbs. plus pushing on my spine! That’s just me, some lifters promote using a bare bar, maybe if you have huge traps that you can rest the bar on and weigh in at 245 lbs. plus. That is not my body type nor will it ever be, so I use a dense foam pad. How much do you weigh in at? If you are close to average I would suggest a pad. Another suggestion, I tried it and it didn’t work for me, but it works for some is the Manta Rey, I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a blue piece of plastic that clips to the bar, some people swear by it!
On the diet side you might need more liquid in your diet in the way of vegetables and veggie juice. If you eat a lot of salt that can be taxing on the vertebrae and spine also. I don’t mean just salt shaker salt, but processed foods have a lot of salt in them, fast food has a lot of salt, certain restaurant foods have a lot of salt. I will post some vids about juicing and how to, different juicers to use, that kind of thing.
Please don’t put the whole thing down. Doing statics we are lifting extremely heavy weights here, but when you begin naturally you will discover your weakest link in any one exercise. For squats maybe your lower back, for lat pulldowns maybe your biceps for example. Discovering your weakest link helps because you then know what area o fyour body needs the extra attention so that you can get stroner overall!
I don’t think I mentioned this, but you can do static legpress to supplement for squats to strengthen your legs, as you are kinda waiting for your lower back to get stronger. Something else you can try would be a static hacksquat machine. This way there is a pad behind your back supporting your lower back, and spine, so you will still get the benefits and the workout, but take pressure off areas you are working at strengthening!
Keep lifting! Thanks for expressing what you did, all of what you said will be addressed in more detail through vids. Keep asking the questions!
July 29, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Hi Fingerman,
Thanks for the detailed response. Its must appreciated and very informative.
I work up this morning and and my lower back is quite sore, bot on the lumbar vertebrae and my spinal erectors. I’m going to give it a few days to see if the pain goes away. I really hope it does because lower back pain is no fun!
I weigh 165 and my traps are quite developed so putting all that weight in that area doesn’t really bother me all that much but maybe I’ll try with pad next time. I actually did 405 for my first static squat for 25 seconds. I honest thing I could go 5 45′s on each side. I’m just quite concerned with my lower back pain, never expected that to happen and I’ve never experience this sort of pain in that area before.
Thanks
July 30, 2009 at 9:35 am
Glad I was able to write something that helps! One other thing, what kind of shoes do you wear, especially when you lift? If you wear a regular gym shoe, or running shoe it has a heel. Ideally your weightlifting shoes should be flat. Wrestling shoes are perfect, they are totally flat. Shoes meant for weightlifting are also flat! Wearing a running shoe forces the lower vertebrae to push the discs together in an uneven manner, and with the large amount of weight that pushing together of the discs is made worse. Personally I wear flat shoes all the time, because I don’t want back pain, many people by the age of 40 have back pain, and my belief is because they wear heeled shoes their entire lives and at a certain point their back just hurts from it.
Good that ypu are giving yourself a few days to recover with your lower back, you can strengthen your lower back and lift more than you could ever imagine! Good job, keep with it!
August 14, 2009 at 1:51 am
Sorry man, but I think you’re fucking insane.
I would consider you the smallest guy in my gym, and never, I said NEVER receive any advice from you. You’re just a thin guy doing crazy exercises that makes you continue thin. Try HIT sometimes or even a beginner gym exercise ig you wanna gain some mass and grow that (as I see) RIDICULOUS body.
Sorry if you didn’t like my comment, but it’s the truth.
I’m wondering what Kevin has seen in you, it’s really interesting.
August 15, 2009 at 7:18 am
Thanks for your comment, you are welcome to think whatever you want! That’s fine that I would be considered the smallest guy in your gym, and whether you would accepts advice from me or not is really up to you.
Before you make judgements let me enlighten you to a few things. As far as my size I am not training for mass and size. I am achieving my goals. In your gym I might be small, but in a pack of road riders or off road riders (cycling and mt. bike riding) I am somewhere in the upper half as far as muscular size and appearance, and people who I have ridden with could attest to my power. This is my sport, its what I do, its what I enjoy, and what I train for! I also rock climb, am I am a pretty strong climber, I just love the sport, but I am not great at it like I am at cycling! These two sports represent what I am trying to obtain, both require a lot of strength but not size!
Also understand I completed a 23 day water only fast last November! It was an intense experience, which you might not relate to! I did it for overall health. Once a year I go to my doctor and he completes a full blood profile so I see where I am truly at in the way of my health, this past January he said my blood is that of a healthy 18 man! I am not 18, but it is good that my blood is that healthy!
What Kevin saw in me was that I was doing something different, he wasn’t judging me by size, he thought I was ripped, but he was more interested in the lifestyle that I promote, from my diet, exercise, devotion to working out, the entire lifestyle. Building my own gym, having the knowledge and tools, both in the physical and spiritual sense to set goals and obtain them. Sure maybe I view things differently than other weight lifters you know, but my mind is not constrained thinking I have to look or be a certain way. I know what I want and I go after that!
Please do return to my site, and post a comment if you have something to share, we can all learn from each other here! If you have any questions or when you plateau, maybe there is something you can learn here that would help. I am interested to know how long have you been working out?
August 20, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Interesting response.
You’re a smart guy rawliftinguru and have to admit that you have your point.
Well, keep going.