Joint approximation is manipulating joints into a better or optimal position to restore function. It facilitates stretching and is effective at preparing certain joints for training. I give a brief explanation of it, and then show a very effective way of applying posterior distraction on the hip to open up the hip flexors.
Have you used joint approximation stuff before? What have you found to be beneficial? Does this method help open you up for training?
The holidays let me have a breather by slowing life down. It almost makes me yearn for a life where there isn’t much going on. I always think of the movie “Hot Fuzz” where Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are cops, and they get off work and literally don’t have anything to do. Their primary options are to go to the pub or go home alone and do nothing. What a life! To never have a care or a worry beyond the 9 to 5.
But that’s not what makes success.
“Great” isn’t a 9 to 5 gig. Trying to achieve your potential in life is a round-the-clock deal. The easy part is when you’re clocked in for work or class; the other hours of the day are where you acquire, develop, and perfect your ideas, knowledge, and skills.
Not having anything to do at the end of the day is coasting. It means you either don’t have something you’re working towards, or whatever it is you think you’re working for isn’t terribly important to you. Do something about it.
You can think of this in terms of training: when you leave the barbell, your real work begins. Your sleep, your consistent, quality food intake, and your mobility work will lead you to be strong, capable, and jacked.
But, I don’t want you to be limited in just worrying about training; it’s an important part of life, but if you don’t implement the lessons from under the bar, it’s all for naught.
If you’re someone who has a clear goal with an end state, do you have a consistent and quality attack plan to achieve it? When you get home from work, are you studying, practicing, organizing, or developing? You don’t need to stay up late and burn the midnight oil, but you should actively work to improve in your spare time. Caption for pic: But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?
Do you have that 9 to 5, yet you pretty much chill out when you clock out? Then you’re under performing. You will never be in a steady state of accomplishment. “Achievement” is a moment in time, not a constant. People think success is a thing, but instead it’s a process. If you want to get strong, you must squat multiple times a week for a long time. If you want to do great things in life, you work on it every day. Do not settle for the minimum; the great never do.
Do you not have anything to pour your spirit into? It’s about time to figure it out. What do you want to have? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Our society spends so much time observing other people doing great or fascinating things. Instead, decide to be one of those people instead of watching them. Go out and DO. Figure it out, make a plan, and start taking steps each day to achieve it.
Look, if life is easy, you’re doing it wrong. Test your mettle by putting yourself in positions that require consistent, hard work. Go beyond the realm of normalcy and possibility. Don’t stay locked into your specific job or social circle. Go, learn, do, and think.
PR Friday is a forum to allow you to share your triumphs and failures with your strength training brethren. How has your training been this week? What questions do you have for your peers? Talk and mingle.
Check out Eddie Hall deadlift 400kg x 5 RAW and unbelted. What’s your all time deadlift PR?
Also, we’re still doing consultations, so if you need help hitting the numbers you want shoot an email to 70sBigConsult@gmail.com.
Sleds are a wonderful conditioning tool that can hit any end of the metabolic spectrum. In this post you see me do a round of sled pushing and then struggle through the first few seconds of panting hard. I guess I won’t do my talking AFTER hard sets anymore. The wife said it was comically unbearable during the filming.
Have you pushed a sled before? What kind of sled workouts do you do? How has it helped you?
In 2009 my friend Gant asked website readers to commit themselves to achieving something through competition (Letters of Intent – 2009, 2010, and 2011). This isn’t merely a list of “resolutions” or meager goals — the point is to get your ass into a real competition, especially if you’ve never competed before. There’s no better time to sign up for a powerlifting, Olympic lifting, strongman, highland games meet, Tactical Strength Challenge, the dying CrossFit Total, or other strength and power events. We would prefer that you prevent in something that would take advantage of your strength and conditioning training so that you have the direct benefit from your training. In other words, flag football is competition, but it isn’t as dependent on your training as doing a meet. Adults will probably get more out of solo sports (like martial arts) than team sports since we don’t have the time to commit to proper team practice.
As Gant said in the original post:
I don’t want to hear any crap about how you can’t win. Competition isn’t all about winning at the amateur level as much as it is learning about yourself. Hell, I don’t win most of the stuff I compete it (in fighting, you have the added benefit of possibly breaking something or being choked unconscious), but I keep going back, and I get better every time.
Competition is helpful for more than just the introspective learning. Again, from Gant:
Competition puts your training into focus. A date on the calendar forces you to taper your program (hell, HAVE a program), tweak your nutrition (especially if you’re in a weight class), and arrange your schedule (sleep comes to mind).
You also get instant feedback on your training program. You will quickly find out if you did too much or too little conditioning, spent too much benching and not enough squatting, or didn’t work your technique enough.
You also learn game day management. I’m talking about how to pick lifts, when to warm up, what and how much to drink before your event, and the myriad other things that don’t come up during training. This can ONLY be learned by competing. Most of it is learned by watching and asking other competitors, many of whom will become your friends.
Gant has a focus these days on performing and teaching Judo, but he will always use proper strength training with high intensity conditioning to prepare for the sport. It’s easy for all of you to jump into a powerlifting meet since you’re already performing the lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift), but if you’re jaded with that sport that perhaps you should try learning something new, like Judo, and compete in a local tournament. There are Judo forums that could provide you with basic information, but find a local place and get started.
Today is about committing to a competition. Search the internet, find what is near you, and circle the date. Commit to it today. You don’t need to be a certain strength or skill to compete, but you do need to have a pair of balls (or ovaries) to actually commit to it, and that is much more meaningful. Committing to competition will immediately make each training session meaningful.
What is your intent?
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…who strives…who spends himself…and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
