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Mass Made Simple…Lite

For those of you who want a “lite” version of “Mass Made Simple,” I put together a few ideas from here and there for you. It’s a simple approach, but it has merit.

The “Ten Secrets to Building Mass:”

First, although there are truly no real “secrets,” here is the overriding principle: Mass building, like fat loss, has to be done at the exclusion of everything else. A guy with 14 inch arms will ask me about a mass building program, but worry to death about his “six pack” (meth addicts have six packs, for the record), his cardio, his “game,” and about five other things. Once you get 16-18 inch arms, I will allow you to worry about all those other things.

Second, there is a need to spend time under the bar. This has been called a number of things in the past few years, but you have to find ways to load your body and move the weights for up to several minutes without releasing the load (putting the bar down or resting on a machine). This program is going to be based on this insight.

Third, Great White Sharks seem to be big and eat “big.” Killer Whales seem to eat big, too. Alpha predators don’t seem to count calories. You are now going to stop worrying about every calorie like a college cheerleader. On a mass gaining program, you must eat. When I put on forty pounds in four months my freshman year in college, I used to some sandwiches BEFORE dinner so “I wouldn’t be so hungry during dinner.” Think “Shark Week” when you sit down to eat and warn the others at the table not to reach across your plate.

Fourth, you must master “resting.” I know that there is this urge to do this and that and this after every workout, but for a mass building program you must learn that cardio is changing channels with the remote. If you don’t sleep eight plus hours a night, it is going to impact your mass gains. Many famous bodybuilders have advocated the “Muscle Nap,” a long nap in the afternoon to simple gain muscle. Remember, you grow while you rest. Pick up basketball games are not rest!

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As I have working on Emails from the book, “Easy Strength…”

I thought I would share some of the ‘streams of thought.’ Honestly, before you ask a question, it might be appropriate to read the book. What frustrates me the most with questions is:
One, clearly, the person didn’t read the book.
Two, clearly, the person doesn’t know about this blog and how to navigate on the innerwebz. So, first:
BUY THIS!!!

Following that sound advice, scroll back through my blog here and look around. I am coming out with a written version of Intervention, probably for Kindle only (and a few hard copies for me…to be buried with me), but the bulk of it can be found in my blog…sorta.

The following is answers to emails, I hope it helps.

Dan, where do I start?
‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’
(Lewis Carroll, “Alice in Wonderland)

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Loaded Cuddles

For the past year or so, I have been taking time each week to “give back” a little in every area of my life. One of things I have been doing is offering a free two hour gathering each week that we call the “Coyote Point Kettlebell Club.” Our members include a firefighter, several Personal Trainers, a Policeman, a movie guy, students, friends, and all kinds of visitors.

We focus on improvement. It can be technical issues, like a problem with a swing. Having a Senior RKC and several RKCs weekly seems to address these kinds of problems well. It can also be other physical issues and there is where I think we bloom. It seems that if someone has the courage to say “I need help here,” pretty soon some of us either admit we have the same issue or, perhaps better, show us a path to overcoming it.

And my favorite thing is when both happens: we have a technical issue that helps with a physical problem or vice versa. Our foundational movements are the Swing, the Goblet Squat and the Turkish Get Up. If is sounds like an HKC, well, in my humble opinion, that’s all most people need.

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“But, this is how I know you didn’t do it…”

Sometimes, I answer too many questions. My wife, as many of you know, was/is a Hemingway…yes THOSE Hemingways…and I need to practice talking like Uncle Earnie:

You see, it comes to this sometimes: people ask me questions because their mouths can formulate noises and these noises can heard by my ears to make my brain work. The questioner has the ability to literally ask anything as my friend Crazy Jerry used to say: “You have a Toyota in your nose.” You can say the sentence, but it means nothing.

I have this believe that you can only train HARD in blocks of two, four, six and, maybe, eight weeks. Then, you slide back to “medium.” For dieting purposes, the great ones get it: Atkins Two Week Induction is genius. Chris Shugart’s Velocity Diet of 28 days of practically nothing but protein shakes works. After those short intense bouts with food, you are different: celery becomes butter and carrots are candy. It’s hard to live normally like that. Now, we all know that the best diet and exercise program for fat loss is found in the book, “The Road.” I enjoy telling people it is a delightful comedy…

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A Couple of New Year Ideas for You!

Well, as 2012 opens its eyes, many of us are in the midst of personal resolutions and body revolutions. In my life, 2011 was one of the best years of my life with amazing changes in key areas of my life and a total left hip replacement. The hip surgery was life illuminating for me: I learned that pain leads to all kinds of issues and you need to deal with it.

I am never going to tell you that pain is bad altogether. It is the body (and the Universe!) warning you that you need to take a moment to rethink a few things. In the past few years, there has been a surge of people giving advice about eliminating pain. All too often, when you start trying to eliminate pain “here,” you discover a ton of pain “there.” And, “there” and “there” and “there.” Moreover, I recently had some great insights from an Orthopedic surgeon who laughed at this idea that you can go to a workshop and dispense advice about hip, shoulder, neck, back and finger pain in a weekend. I think it is also illegal in most states.

So, be careful here: I DO think that we can do more than just cut the body open. Two excellent new products are on the market that reflect the kinds of things I believe in. For example, I have discussed the role of yoga, especially Bikram Yoga, in aiding most of us with mobility and flexibility. Bikram Yoga also seems to be an excellent sleep aid and did wonders for me as I approached my surgery. Post surgery, I discovered that I am banned from a number of the movements, so I have found some other forms that work just as well. This kind called “Gentle Yoga,” where I hold a pose for up to five minutes, is as misnamed as “Tough Love” in the RKC.

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Since I am flying Coast to Coast…again…Point A to Point B Makes Sense!

It turns out that I was the problem. Yes, this is true: I had great ideas, excellent programming and some nice technical tidbits that worked for everyone. For the squat, I had progressions that I humbly think changed the world of lifting forever. Well, at least, I thought they were working. What I discovered was a disconnect: I was saying “this” and people were hearing “that.” I thought I was making a point, but my people were hearing another point. This reminded me of math class, by far my weakest subject:

“The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.”
Euclid…or, at least, what I can remember from Geometry

If you asked me to summarize “all of this,” this entire system of what I today call “Easy Strength,” a few years ago, I would have been at a loss. Seriously, I think I had the whole thing locked down years and years ago, but there was disconnect, perhaps more of a gulf or ocean, between what I thought I was saying and what people were hearing.

Honestly, the answer literally came to me just the other day which is months after the DVD and book came out and after I have presented this program to elite athletes, the top tier of coaches and amazing people who somehow “know” that this is the future of the strength, conditioning and fitness world.

You see, this program is all about getting people to their goals. Now, as the cliché goes, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there!” I also need to add the old Irish joke: “I need to get to Dublin. Can you show me the way?” “Well, I wouldn’t start from here!”

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Coast to Coast and Toasted

I travel a lot. A lot. It’s hard to face the blog writing when you travel coast to coast, fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the night wide awake!

But, thankfully, I don’t always have to do much! I have three links today that do all the work for me. First, a nice blog post about one of my biggest principles of program design:
Anthony is an up and coming Strength Coach and he “gets it!”

Next, are you too poor to buy my stuff? Too lazy to walk over to the DVD? Well, Kevin Larrabee’s “epic” video of me teaching the squat and lifts is remastered and back up! I am in the middle of Highland Games season in this video and my belly has been all packed with counter weights for the caber:
Learn, watch, enjoy.

Finally, Laree Draper, the world’s finest person, has put Mass Made Simple on Kindle WITH a pdf for your journal work. If you don’t want to bulk up, buy it anyway because the information in the Kindle is as clear as I can make it presentation about fitness, strength and health. Buy THIS!.

Take the time to watch and read these materials. I think you will come away with a lot of depth about what is important in improving all aspects of your life. If you have questions, hit me up at My Little Q and A.

Teaching…or learning…the Kettlebell Snatch

Little Note from Danny: I know I have been doing a lot of writing about kettlebells lately, but I tend to write when I have new insights about things. This doesn’t make me think that “barbells are bad!” or whatever. So, enjoy the insights. If you hate KBs, fine…but there is always keys in these articles that will clarify any goal set.

Teaching the Kettlebell Snatch “from the top down” has advantages that are only apparent when the reps get high. Honestly, when you keep the reps under ten, then rest for a set period and repeat, it appears from my vision that one can have some pretty lousy technique and not lose skin off the hand. I have learned that the proper way of helping someone improve their KB snatch is to wait until around rep 70 to comment. The challenge of doing 100 reps in a set period of five minutes demands that the candidate learn to bite the bullet and learn to keep properly snatching throughout the challenge.

In my little book that I asked the attendees at the first RKC Belfast certification, one wrote this: “With one sentence, you changed the way I snatched and I nailed the test.” I asked what the sentence was and the newly minted RKC answered:

“It was when you said: ‘You have to have the courage to drop the bell into the swing with authority each and every time.”

Remember, first and foremost:
The Swing is a Swing.
The Clean is a Swing.
The Snatch is a Swing.

The bulk of the issues with most people in the Clean and Snatch can be cured by ignoring the “Clean” and the “Snatch” and coaching the Swing portion of the moves. As if by magic, a proper Swing for the Clean or Snatch stops most wrist banging issues and most lockout issues.

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“We’re Number Two!”

I have been coaching “officially” since 1979, but my friends would tell you that I started long before my terry cloth Polo Shirt with “Utah State University Assistant Track Coach” was handed to me. My neighbor, Janet Styles, who just died a few weeks ago, used to call me “The Pied Piper” as the neighborhood kids would show up to play catch or shag the discus or whatever we needed to do.

In these years, I have some memories of great successes and many, many failures. Certainly, watching Paul Northway just get better by the day in his Sophomore year was a joy to witness. He literally doubled his competition in several meets…and sometimes they were upperclassmen. My “Dirty Thirteen” Junior Varsity team in football with no linebackers or running backs (literally, we didn’t bring any with us!) used to dominate anyone in our path. And, perhaps the greatest moment of my life, both of my daughters were throwing in the state track meet in the discus together. This was the time when Kelly “marched out” with her discus and made the whole crowd chuckle and both came away All-State. I was a chocolate mess, of course.

There is a million memories, of course. But, they all stand clumped in a pile next to the “best” coaching of my career: SFX II’s Volleyball Team. I was sitting in my office at Juan Diego Catholic High School and the phone rang. I did my standard “Office of Strength, Coach Dan John Speaking!” It was my daughter, Lindsay, in tears. They had too many kids at Saint Francis Xavier’s volleyball team and “no one is going to get to play,” because…because…

“Dad, we need a coach.”

My mind sifted quickly to “Hmmm, who is dumb enough to take this job?” Lindsay asked again, “Dad, we need a coach.”

Ah. That means “me.” It means “Dad, get over here and coach us.”

Now, don’t take any of the following negative or mean, but when the teams were split, I got Lindsay. That was nice. I also got the two shortest boys in the school, Sal and Carlos (fine young men!, but really, really short), a few girls who cried often, and Jasmine Yu, who tragically passed away recently and was about to have a heart transplant at the time. This was a great group of kids, fine people, wonderful to have around…not a Volleyball team!!!

So, I hopped in the car immediately after school and discovered that I was “Late.” Well, I had to drive twenty-five minutes to get to SFX and practice started after their school ended. For the record, I am not sure I ever made it “on time.” I’m good, but I can’t bi-locate. Yet.

My TA at the time was an injured volleyball player. My knowledge of the game was zero. So, I asked her “my question:” “What are the three keys to winning in a volleyball game?” We worked it out to this:
1. Get the serve OVER and IN!
2. Protect the Middle.
3. Play as a team.

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The One Arm Press

Even on vacation, I love to get into a gym or two. Certainly, we need to take time off and recover, but I really enjoy learning and seeing new things. On my recent trip to Ireland, I even had the chance to help a Hurling team (Carnmore) with some footwork drills and my four sessions with them, thanks to Adrian Cradock, really opened my eyes about the real joy of amateur sport.

During my time in the Galway City Gym, a perfect combination of every facility I trained in while growing up, I met a 79 year old man who had “taken up” some lifting. He benches 100 kilos, or 220 pounds, so some of you young guys need to step up your game. As I walked around the gym, it reminded me of training in my old high school facility. The best places to workout all seem to have that same aura, certainly the same smells, and I started thinking about a lift I have now been doing almost four decades: the one arm press.

In high school, we had a Universal Gym. I don’t care if you love or hate machines, but, even now when I look back at it, a lot of people trained really hard on it and made pretty fair progress. One thing we did a lot of was one arm presses on the Military Press station.

We did them in a way that honestly stands the test of time: I would stand in front of the machine and my partner would have the “key.” That’s a term I haven’t used in decades either: this was the little bent selector key that allowed you to use more than forty pounds. The coaches kept them in their office, so no one could use them to work out unless they were there. Of course, every kid from Francisco Terrace knew that a bent nail worked just as well, so I had my own personal gym any time I could sneak in.

So, I would do five reps with the right arm. My buddy would move the weight to 50 pounds. Five more reps. We would continue this process all the way down the stack until I couldn’t do five reps. Then, the fun started: we would go back up, ten pounds at a time, to the starting weight of forty pounds. We called these “Burnout Sets” and the pump in the shoulders was unbelievable.

Of course, now you put your left hand on the machine and did the same all the way down and up the stack. It worked well then and I would imagine the human body hasn’t changed that much since then, so it might well be worth a try today. You certainly can go up and down the dumbbell rack at your gym or do like we do at my training group and lay a row of kettlebells on the ground and do the same basic workout.

The Varsity throwers at my school came up with a nice twist to this to help the shot put and they would only do singles, but changed the reps in a wild, chaotic way each and every rep. There was gold in this idea for throwers and I ignored it most of my career, but the variation of speed would an excellent supplement for a thrower or fighter. Alas, I forgot it, but perhaps the next generation of elite throwers will use it.

One of the things we all noticed from doing these one armed workouts is how sore we were around the waist the next day. Growing up, the area between your ribs and hips was called your “waist.” Now, we call it “core” and charge a lot of money to make you train it.

And, this is part of the point of doing single arm overhead work: it challenges you from your toes to the top of your head. Now, I am not calling for us to start dressing like “Ye Olde Tyme Strongman” with leopard prints and a saucy mustache, but there is a great tradition in strength sports to put weights overhead with one hand. Like every great lifting idea, it has ebbed and flowed through its popularity. When I first started squatting seriously, practically no one squatted in gyms. Then, squats became the answer to all questions. I like to think today as I write this that the squat has become a key lift again and its importance to general training is generally seen as crucial, but not “squat or die.”

I have always seen five advantages to one arm pressing. First, the whole body is supporting the work done by one limb. This allows me to use more weight with one hand than I can handle with two. Let’s make this clear:

If I can one hand press 110 pounds, I have two legs and one torso supporting it.

Now, if I put 110 pounds in EACH hand, I still have two legs and one torso supporting it. Now, I KNOW I can press 110 with one hand, but double 110s (220 total) would be a great challenge. So, my deltoids, triceps and the whole gang of muscles supporting this one arm lift are really challenged. Yes, you actually overload the arm, if you go heavy enough, by doing one limb movements. True, the total amount is higher with two arms, but the local load is heavier with one. For hypertrophy, it almost feels like cheating.

Second, and this should be no surprise, one arm lifting is asymmetrical. The bottom line on this is simply “Asymmetry is harder.” I strongly recommend on one arm lifting that you either use a partner or a mirror when lifting. I like the Chin, the Sternum and the Zipper (my “CSZ Line”) to remain basically in a vertical line while pressing. There will be some twisting and turning under great loads, but limit it as best you can. Recently, I was asked:

“What do I do when I start twisting?”

Stop.

I thought it was brilliant.

Third, equipment needs for one arm lifts are less. At my old gym, I had 113 kettlebells, but a group of them were far too light for pressing practice. To have 40 athletes all pressing double bells, we would have had to share and that, of course, was fine. But, by utilizing singles, the whole group could lift at once. There is something magical about watching that many people intensely focused on pressing weights up and down.

Fourth, with a light load and only one limb, there is a sense of what we call “Active Rest.” My friend, Pavel, has this funny story about the military: a bunch of privates are shoveling dirt. After a few hours, one of them asks “Sir, when do we rest.” The officer answers: “Ah. If you throw the dirt farther, the dirt will be in the air longer. You can then rest when the dirt is in the air.”

My vision of rest during one arm lifts seems about the same as in this joke: you rest while the other limb is working. The funny thing is that the body seems more than able to support rep after rep switching hands. Of course, the reps are challenging as you move along, but that brings us to the next point.

Finally, one arm pressing leads us naturally to “longer” sets. Now, if time under tension/load is the key to bodybuilding or hypertrophy, it would make sense that alternating hands and continuing to move would certainly increase time. Call Einstein for the specifics on increasing time, but those who have ever had a limb in a cast know that working on the healthy arm or leg seems to keep the atrophy of the injured side to a minimum. The body is one magnificent piece with only one blood system, so hypertrophy should come with these longer sets. In my experience, and with those willing to try it, it works.

I believe in doing one arm presses standing. I have done them seated, for example, after a surgery, but I really think there is a value to doing them with the whole body wedged underneath the bell. If you have never done them before, keep the reps low, maybe two to five reps, and get used to the movement. I strongly suggest, like in the Bench Press, to keep the elbow vertical under the wrist. Again, a mirror can help here. There are some variations that I will use in teaching this with interesting names like the “Bottoms Up Press” and the “Waiter Press,” but strive to keep the elbow in line with the wrist.

My favorite workout scheme for one arm presses is also the method I use in my book, “Mass Made Simple.” I strongly believe that one arm presses allow you to handle a lot of volume, so I use two “ladder” schemes for almost any purpose (sports help, hypertrophy, fat loss, this is “one size fits all”):

The 2-3-5(-10) method.
I have discussed this scheme in other articles, but very simply the first variation is to do this:
Two reps left arm
Two reps right arm
Three reps left arm
Three reps right arm
Five reps left arm
Five reps right arm
If light enough, to a set of ten left and right, too. This is not always possible. This workout (with the tens) is forty total reps. It won’t “feel” like forty as you moved back and forth between limbs and the reps changed. If you do this a number of times, well, this will be a lot of time under load. And, that is a good thing!

I suggest for most people to do the entire workout with one weight. Let the volume be the issue and not your technique under heavy loads. If you decide to go up, an interesting way to do this is simply:
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
Add Weight
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
Add Weight
2-3-5 (Both Sides)
I don’t suggest doing this much more than this, but occasionally it would be fun to push up another round. Oh, and skip the tens on this variation as we are trying to get the biggest bells we can in the last round of five.

Any traditional rep and set scheme will work, of course. As I noted from my high school experience, I was able to recover quickly from all those sets of pressing. In hindsight, I can also understand why I had such a remarkable bench press at the light weight of 162 pounds: good pressers press a lot!

For the older trainee, the one arm press works all the muscles that Janda explained weakened with age. In other words, if a 50 plus man asked me “that question,” “If you could only do one lift, what would it be?,” I would answer one arm presses. Yes, it even works the glute as you can’t have a saggy butt when pressing half bodyweight overhead with one arm.

Experiment with increasing the amount to one arm pressing that you do. There is no contest or Gold Medal for one arm pressing, but the rewards are great.