Atlas Stone Shouldering + Gym Variations

Atlas stones kick my butt. 

Seriously.

But I have enjoyed the full body work that the atlas stones provide.  I have two, a 220 or so and a 261ish.  They are the same diameter (one was made with a foam square in the middle to make it lighter). 

When I am done, my legs are wobbly, my upper body aches, and I feel like I have done something serious! 

However, the problem is not everyone has an atlas stone or access to one.  I did provide a variation that is easy to use in a gym.  Check it out!

“Atlas Stone Lifting”

Atlas Stone Lifting

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- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Exactly When Do I Deload?

Question:  Should I plan deloading weeks for the athletes I train.  They are mostly high school age boys and girls.

___________________________________________________________

Answer:  No and yes, but mostly no…

Here is something I have learned from running my gym over the last years.  Deloading weeks will schedule themselves with high school age people. 

So, yes there should be a deloading time to let them recover, but no you won’t be the one scheduling it.  Chances are that they will have a vacation,  a tournament, some family gathering, or anything along those lines that will take them away from working out for a period of time. 

Looks like a good place to back off training for a week!

They are going to miss a session or two due to those obligations. Give some a light 10-15 minute workout to perform while they out of town (unless it is for a competition).  Use these weeks to deload the athletes. 

If you schedule a deload after, let’s say, 6 weeks of lifting, and then a week later they need to go on vacation, you just wasted half a month of training. 

Same goes for your own training.  If you know you have to go to the in-laws house for half a week during Thanksgiving, work that into your training schedule as opposed to going by specific weeks and days of training vs deloading. 

Sure, you can be proactive and ask your athletes when they will miss training and work that into your schedule, but again, take into account their obligations. 

They will appreciate your flexibility, and you will be giving them a better chance strength gains.

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Effective Pull Up Variation

Here is a classic relative body strength exercises that I included in the Bull Strength Manual. 

The movement is simple to explain – simply perform a dynamic pulling movement and switch grips at the peak. 

Benefits of Switch Ups

• Improved dynamic grip strength
• Forces a dynamic pull or chin up
• Increased upper back and forearm strength
• Requires more control during deceleration
• Challenging and enjoyable!

Switch Ups

Give these a try and let me know how it goes!  Check out many more effective variations in Bull Strength!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Increase Your Squat NOW

As an update, I did send out the newsletter exclusive free bonus on improving your squat. 

Here is just one of the comments I received from a friend of mine on Facebook (Add me as a friend HERE), John Cortese:

Hey Joe, nice squat bonus! I have been using the “knees out” cue for a while with the athletes and clients I work with but I totally forgot about “spreading the floor” cue. Instantly fixed some form issues with a couple athletes today after I used that and their squatting looked TONS better. No more damn valgus force on the knees! Thanks again.

For those of you that missed out, I will leave it as a newsletter bonus item this week.  Sign up for the newsletter over in the right hand column and the squat bonus will be right on the thank you page for you to download!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

Axle Deadlifting For Serious Strength

I just posted up this video of some axle deadlifting that we did down at John Alvino’s place down in New Jersey.  Jedd Johnson, Ryan Magin, and I got up to some good weight on the deadlift, and had a great time.

Jedd went on to pull 315 double over hand.  I wasn’t able to match it, as the bar rolled out of my hands (ie, I need stronger hands).  However, we just kept going heavier and heavier! 

Axle Deadlift

For people that aren’t familiar with the axle deadlift, here’s the scoop.  The bar is 2 inches thick and weighs more than an average bar.  I was told this one was 95 lbs, but I cannot verify that fore sure.  That means the last pull was around 505 lbs. 

Here’s what I need you guys to do.  Jump on the Synergy Athletics newsletter, off to your right in the sidebar, as I have 5 more videos from this event that you don’t want to miss!!!!!  Some of the craziest training I have seen went down that day. 

 - Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  I did just send out the “Increase Your Squat NOW” exclusive newsletter bonus.  I have got some great comments about it, please keep them coming!  If you missed out, I will leave it on the newsletter bonus page until tomorrow.  Enjoy.