I love catchy titles like this as I have stated before. They grab your eye and make you think “I want to be more like Harry Selkow”.
Who doesn’t?
So this article is a continuation of the one I wrote a few months ago. In that one I listed my top 5 and they are as follows:
Farmers Walks
Atlas Stones
Pullups
Prowler Pushing
Ab Wheel
After some thought I felt I needed to revisit this. Yes, I still believe that ones I listed before are the Top 5, this is part 2 and maybe we should re-name it to the Top 10.
Anyway, here are the exercises in no particular order.
6. Sprints:
We all know the value of sprinting and we all know how much it sucks. What makes it suck is what makes them work. Your body is forced to work all out for a short duration and gets placed in oxygen debt.
When programmed correctly sprinting increases your “wind” to use a very scientific term and increases your bodies capacity to process oxygen and they build MUSCLE.
Take a look at world class sprinters, they are all JACKED and sometimes tan too. I don’t care too much for tans on myself, but you may. Jacked on the other hand is something I am still chasing.
Being able to sprint FAST and not pass out could come in handy in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse (something my 10-year old is concerned with) or a whole host of other athletic situations.
If you are not sprinting, I suggest you start.
7. Pushups:
Pushups work virtually every muscle in the body when done properly. I don’t mean arched back sloppy prison yard pushups, I mean tight, fast and explosive ones. When doing a proper pushup you are doing what I refer to as an Active Plank.
Holding a good plank position is a great exercise but once you get good at them I feel they lose some effectiveness. Adding in movement challenges you more.
Watch the video below to see how to do a push up the correct way and then add them and and see what I mean.
8. Heavy Sandbag Clean and Press:
The value of odd object lifting can’t really be debated too much. Unstable objects added into your training force you to utilize muscles not ordinarily recruited in barbell lifting. When you use your stabilizers more, you get stronger all over.
Load up a sandbag and Clean and Press it for reps or time at the end of a training session for a few weeks and see if your other lifts go up. Keep all the other variable the same so you know if it is working.
A good starting point is as follows:
If you can Press (Overhead Press) 95 with good form, try a 75-pound bag.
If you can Press (Overhead Press) 135 with good form, try a 100-pound bag.
If you can Press (Overhead Press) 185 with good form, try a 125-pound bag.
These are just guidelines.
Bang out as many reps as you can in 60 seconds and then rest for 60, and do it again 3 or 4 times.
9. Turkish Get Ups:
I’ve written about the value of the TGU many times and I still feel they are one of the best you can do for overall strength. They are not specific to any one sport or activity and have tons of value.
You are lying down and holding a weight overhead then you have to get up to a standing position. During the lift you will be actively stretching and stabilizing at many points using muscles you didn’t know you had.
Your flexibility will improve, your mobility will improve and you will get stronger.
I like doing singles on the TGU. They have a lot of time under tension and are very tiring when done as shown in the video below.
10. Jumping/Bounding:
If I have to explain the benefits of jumps and bounds you may be on the wrong site, I’ll do it anyway.
Jumping and bounding teach your body to quickly deliver force and then quickly absorb it.
You’ll get faster, more explosive and more agile.
Jumps and bounds are not for beginners.
When introducing jumping into your program, I strongly advise that you learn the most important part first, the landing.
There are many good resources on this on the web but I’ll see if we can get a video of how to do it up for you soon.
Add these an and you'll be well on your way to being more like Harry.
My Training:
I’ve been pretty consistent the last few weeks with the Farmers Walks and have been following the progressions I listed a few weeks ago.
I decided to start back at these with just a plate on each side of the handle and add a 10-pound plate each week to build up work capacity, increase ankle knee and hip stabilizer strength and get back to a little more Strongman style training.
So far it has worked well. This week I will be up to 160 per hand for 6 sets of 50 feet.
Why 50 feet?
That’s a run on my turph. Or turf and you may call it.
I don’t like doing turns as I think they are an injury waiting to happen. I’ve been pretty gassed after these but my conditioning is improving and I feel more solid on my other lifts.
That was the goal and it seems to be working. I’ve been doing these on Friday after pulling and will continue.
I also added in the Yoke but that was a dumb idea. For some reason the Yoke jacked up my hip pretty bad. I think it was the addition of two weighted walking events added too soon.
Maybe I’ll add the Yoke back in later after I build some more “functional” strength, maybe not.
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Vincere vel mori
