Life is good! Working on my new book about Lean Body Mass today, I only have a little bit to go. Remember, “you asked for it!”

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It is the same lesson as always: Be Proactive!!!

Hats off to my friends at Park Road Fitness

Looking forward to a great weekend!

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I mention the Naked Warrior here. You can buy it at:Dragon Door

If you are interested in more information, head over to the Q and A’s at davedraper.com.

For a program that really makes things simple, try the Program Minimum from Pavel:

The New RKC Program Minimum Summary
• Twice a week alternate sets of swings with easy jogging for recovery for 12 minutes
• Do your swings to a comfortable stop. Once you are well conditioned you may go all-out occasionally
• “Shake out” the lactic acid and tension from your muscles when jogging. Relax! The purpose of jogging is active recovery, not more conditioning.
• Twice a week, do get-up singles, switching arms after each rep, for 5 minutes.
• Focus on perfect technique, not on reps. Don’t count you get-up reps, and don’t try to top them!
• Arrange the weekly plan any way you want, e.g., Mon., Thurs.-Swings; Tues., Fri.-get-ups or Mon., Thurs.-get-ups; Tues., Sat.-swings. If you want to add an extra swing or get-up day, go ahead-make your day.
• Start each workout with 10 minutes of face-the-wall squats, halos, and pumps.
• Unless you are an experienced strength athlete, do no other lifting.

Things are going well otherwise. Tonight, I am making Cuban Chicken for Tiffini and it should either be excellent. Or not.

Today’s video blog. I love my 28k Kettlebell!

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If you are in the market for Kettlebells, check these out: and tell them I sent you.

I finally met Mike Boyle. As some of you may remember, I made a note a while ago that I was reading, and impressed, by Mike’s new book. Well, I got an odd email that I “must like the smell of Mike’s farts, too.” For the record, I still haven’t smelled one and, well, I guess I will just have to wait. Mike’s presentation was fabulous and I can see why people listen to him. He really unpacked a lot of the mystery of warm ups and convinced me with logic and research to bring static stretching back into my work. Now, I have been doing it, lots of it, but I like his approach:

1. Roll
2. Static Stretch
3. Mobility Work

I will see if we can add it to our group meetings.

I hadn’t seen Josh Henkin in a while and his sandbag and strength workshop was a nice way to see someone understand that piling more and more is not always a good solution. He had some excellent ideas about insuring that when you add this and this to a movement, you have to back off on something else. A rare voice in the field!

I really did luck out with Stuart McGill. Stuart is the go to guy on lower back stuff. In fact, he is amazing. I love his balance about something that is controversial, he gives the right answer: “It depends.” After his session, we both sat down to work in a quiet room and got kicked out for something. So, we just sat and started to talk. I asked him if it was possible, as I assert, that I blew my stomach out squatting heavy. He pondered then had me stand up and he checked. Well, I was right, I have a condition (like a pregnant woman!) called diastisis. So, quick picking on my about my beer belly, it is a condition! It is going to take a little while to fix, but at least I know the route.

He also gave me some excellent insights into my hip issue. It seems I have a “Scottish Hip.” The leg moves square across with my ancestors and it is the reason I was off the charts in Quarter Squats and very average in deep squats. Saying this, it is also the reason I popped my left hip. Stuart, like many others over the weekend, gave me some great ideas to work with it. I have that dreaded “Gluteal Amnesia” in my left butt cheek, but he had me hinge over, put my hands outside my knees, squeeze out, THEN fire the butt. In just 24 hours, I seem to have much better control here. More on my butt later (lucky you)…

Also at the clinic was current American Record Holder in the discus, Suzy Powell. We had never met, but we had a ton in common, go figure. I was very interested in some of the things she tried through her career and, my dear friends, it was amazing to talk to her. Her AR throw, on the web somewhere, has lots of little tricks from the martial arts traditions, that are easily missed. I am going to give a few of her ideas a real run. There is a lot of things out there to consider in sport and when you get it right, things go well.

So well, you stop doing them!

I also got a chance to meet John Brookfield. Considering his physical feats, he is a fairly normal looking guy. Then, of course, he took a 20 foot piece of steel and twisted it so it could fit in a Federal Express package. Normal is not what it seems!

If you get a chance, look at the work of Robert Yang. I think he nailed it in the nutrition talk and it reminded me of the importance of priobiotics (or whatever, the stuff you get that is fermented and good for digestion…like kimshee) and the real need to think about foods you crave.  Look him up on the web.

Thomas Plummer did a very interesting talk. He took the top points from many fitness experts and laid it out for the audience. Becoming famous in this field is about passion and integrity AND not being a generalist. His energy and sense of humor really made a great talk. If he is talking, go and listen.

Finally, I met Gray Cook. This guy is as amazing as Brett Jones has told me. He worked on Laree and me (damn hip!) and just amazed us both with his assessments and manual work. The guy is not only dynamic and brilliant, but just a great hands on clinician, too. For all of you, do High Kneeling Haloes. Yes, Dan Martin…you will be doing this. If you don’t know, ask.

So, I’m tired and stinky and learned a lot…

Here you go. Read. Learn.

Breon Hole was struggling with her kettlebell swing. Josh Vert had asked me to help out as Breon’s lower back would scream after a few repetitions of doing the swing. Within two reps, I stopped her.
It’s funny, because years ago a young man told me: “squats hurt my knees.” I asked him to demonstrate his squat. He did and I said: “Squats don’t hurt your knees; whatever you are doing there hurts your knees.” I told Breon: “Swings don’t hurt your back; whatever the hell you are doing hurts your back.”
Ah. Great coaching again! I knew something was wrong and stated the obvious. Breon then asked the million dollar question:
“Well, then, what am I doing wrong?”

Thank you, Breon. You see, I could SEE the problem, but I had no ability to fix it. Oh, I knew drills and we could have pushed, pulled and prodded her to a better movement, but I knew that I knew that I didn’t know what to do. Like that famous exchange in “Mystery Men,” and, yes, I think it is the greatest film of all time:

Capt. Amazing: I knew you couldn’t change.
Casanova Frankenstein: I knew you’d know that.
Capt. Amazing: Oh, I know that. AND I knew you’d know I’d know you knew.
Casanova Frankenstein: But I didn’t. I only knew that you’d know that I knew. Did you know THAT?
Capt. Amazing: Of course.

I am a genius and a fine artist!

So, I knew that Breon was swinging wrong. But, I didn’t know much else. For a few minutes, we waved our hands around, did some drills and actually fixed her swing. But, I still didn’t know something. Did you know THAT?
She was bending her knees too much which let the bell go too low which tossed all the forces on her lower back. It is sometimes called the “Squatting Swing.”
When I said that out loud, my little world of lifting had absolute clarity. You see:
The Swing is not a Squat.
The Squat is not a Swing.

To which, you may reply: “So?” It is the greatest insight of my teaching career. We went to a white board and began talking about this notion. It soon became known as the Hip Displacement Continuum. Within a few minutes, I posted this first tickler on the idea at my forum at davedraper.com (the picture comes from a later discussion when I decided the SWING is the king of the hip moves…live with it!):

Breon and Josh Vert asked a good question and I already called Mark Twight, but somebody else will claim it later…

Breon was taught to do Swings from a “deep squat” and “you are cheating if you don’t deep squat”. Well, no…

Put this on a “rainbow” curve or continuum.

On the far left:
Vertical Jump
Standing Long Jump
Swings (all variations)
Romanian Deadlifts
(Tackling in football would go here)
In the Middle: Bootstrapper Squat
In a narrow beam: snatches and cleans and DLs
Back Squats
Front Squats
Overhead Squats
On the far right:
Goblet Squats

The most powerful movements the human body can achieve are from this swing position or, as it has been called more recently, the hinge movement. If you are walking and a rattlesnake crosses your path, that “leap” away will be more on the left side of the continuum. If you first wish to kiss the rattler that movement would be a squat. You decide, as I have no question about what I would do.

Bad jumpers start with a lot of knee bend and diminish the pop of the hinging hips. Bad squatters bend their knees a lot and ignore the hip movement. The continuum clarified this thinking for me. Forever. It is one of the few times that some mental effort can actually improve physical performance.

As a test, we added a series of Standing Long Jump tests. First, we encouraged the athlete to use a lot of knee bend and “really use your legs” and tested three jumps. Then, we asked for nearly no knee bend, but a snappy hip movement. Most athletes are within three inches of their best with this style and many athletes actually do better. Finally, allowing some additional knee bend, but emphasizing the explosive hip, the athlete takes a few more attempts. It is more common than not to reach personal records here.

Pavel recently added much to this concept at the HKC presentation in St. Paul. “Hinge” movements, like the swing are movements with deep hip movement and minimal knee bend. Squat movements have both deep movements in the hip and the knee.

So, to memorize:

Hinge the Hips (Swings, Jumps): Deep Hip Movement, Minimal Knee Movement
Squats: Deep Hip Movement, Deep Knee Movement.

As you move across the continuum, you might note that the knee bends more and more, but never “NEVER.” There always needs to be a slight bend in the knees during any movement. Pavel calls the stiff legged swing “The Tipping Bird,” like those old bar standards where the plastic bird swings back and forth into a drink. One of the great errors of beginning squatters is to lock the knees out at the start or top of the movement. No need to jack up your knees for life, my friend: keep a slight bend.

It is interesting to think about the popularity of leg extension and leg curl machines in the Seventies and Eighties. These are movements with technically no hip movement and deep knee movements, but there has been some research indicating that these movements are terrible for the knees. Mother Nature seems to know best when it comes to training.

When someone complains that Swings hurt the back, it is often because they have turned the movement into a Squatting Swing. Always keep the bell above the knees, “attack the zipper,” hinge the hips, make the hips fold…or whatever clue is going to help you. When someone complains that Squats hurt the knees, take a moment to clue the hips.

Once you understand the Hip Movement Continuum, teaching the body to move powerfully becomes much simpler, safer and sounder.

So, last night, the Giants blew a huge lead, went into extra innings, and won on a solid hit to Centerfield. Again, it was pretty darn perfect. Sitting in the club seats (?), having a few beers and watching a ball game is not a bad way to spend a day or evening.

It’s odd to think about that game with my dad. My dad died in 1991 and John Caravantes died around the same time. The evening, though, sits in my head like one of those perfect days. I have had a few of them. My last home track meet at Utah State where I qualified for Nationals and then had this huge party after in Bullen Hall. I think about several times with the girls (my daughters) where I wish I could just stop time. There was a Valentine’s Date with Tiffini back in the day that was just perfect, too.

I got an email from Lindsay and she is getting set for college and my Godson, Seth, is having some issues but he is very excited about zipping back to the University of Indiana. These are golden moments in their life and I hope they embrace them.

It’s not always the last hit at the last bat, but enjoy it when it does happen.