Push-Pull, Lift then …..
I don’t know how it took this long but I have discovered that I have been ignoring 2/3’s of the strength universe for a long time. In my holy quest to lift “big iron”, I forgot that most practical stuff in the world revolves around “push and pull”. Moving things that can’t be lifted because of bad position, no handholds or simply too heavy. This does not mean there is no way to train for this however; I’m gonna tell ya’ some.
I was watching an NHB fight on pay per view and thought that these contests are not supposed to be contests of strength but often become that way. During a slow match my mind drifted off to a book I read about Sumo wrestling where its all about push and pull, you have to use one or both of those to get your 300-600 pound opponent out of that circle, that’s the contest. I thought that someone who could project force well forward or backward extremely powerfully would have quite an advantage in the ring without having to worry so much about so many delicacies of technique and balance. Suppose you have the power and grip to simply shove someone right off their feet with one hand or after getting a grip on one of their limbs, simply fling them to the mat or the fence. Suppose you also have the endurance to just keep at it all the way to the end? Football is all about this kind of force, wrestling certainly can be; Not to mention this would make your moonlight job unloading trucks at the supermart alot easier. You would have a very complete and useful array of strengths.
I had read about Sumo wrestlers pushing against trees etc., but I think there are better ways that the tree will probably like better also. You can make a tire sled like this one:
The real fun of one of these is that you can attach anything to it to do what you have in mind. Here is the main one:
I call it a “pusher bar” but you can pull it also. You can use the bar with one hand or two, pushing, pressing, rowing, pulling etc. Another good thing to have is a long thick rope for “playing tug-o-war” with. This is one of the best exercises I can imagine and also fun in its own way. Get a 50’ length of 2” thick rope. Nylon “circus rope” is fine. Its 2” thick to work your grip and forearms also; Since without the ability to hold onto things, all the strength in the world won’t help you much. Lash up one end into a loop, then attach a short chain with a carabiner to attach to the eyebolt on your sled. To keep the lifting element in the picture, make yourself a pair of these:
Not only can you do exercises with them of course, but they are very convenient to carry and toss into your sled as weight too.
Here is a very simple workout that covers the big stuff:
Monday-2O minutes, sled push, Viking row, one handed pulls
Wednessday-20 minutes, Clean and press (or push press) with dumbbells
Friday-20 minutes, “Tug-O-War”
Very simple, but take a look and see. What isn’t being worked? Not much. Throw in some neck work (because its what holds your head on) and you have quite a strength and endurance program-plus much more. This simple routine 20 minutes, three days a week you have conditioning, grip work, force projection, upper and lower body work all in one. Mentally compare how much closer to reality these kinds of pull or pushes are to what you might acheive with simply a good bench or row. Its different.
You can see on Monday that it looks like there are three exercises there; not exactly. What you are doing is simply mixing up different things as you go. Suppose you start out with your arms over your head pushing like superman, then let the bar come back down to your chest while you are still pushing and then do presses with your arms pressing out like you are shoving a big box, then when your legs cannot go any further than way, you turn around and pull the bar with two hands, one hand, then rowing it to your chest while you are pulling like you are rowing a boat (Viking row). You don’t have to do all these in a single run or all at once but they do add to the variety of that day and keep the sled going for longer than it might otherwise.
In the 20 minutes you will have to stop now and then if you are using enough weight. The best way to start is to use a weight you can push for about 100 yards, then stop and rest if you have to, but the moment you can focus again, go at it, keep this up for 20 minutes and try and have less rest next time. If it gets too easy or no longer as much of a challenge as you would like, then add weight. Generally if I can make 200 yards in one push, I will add more next time.
Wednesday is pretty self explanatory. Just do as many reps of the dumbbell clean and press or clean and push press as you can. Its probably good to even alternate them from week to week so you don’t get stale. 50 reps is a good number. If you can do fifty then add some more weight.
The “Tug-O-War is where you get on the far end of that thick rope and pull the sled towards you, there are two hand tugs, one hand tugs, tugs where you get low, and alternating hands. Pull the sled up to you, then take the free end and run back to where the sled came from to start again. That way you can easily keep going. Also if your hands get chewed up, use some leather gloves.
One important thing to remember is that this is extremely intense hard work. Out of every month take one week off and just do light stuff with the dumbbells or simple relax. This will sneak up in a bad way on you if you go too long without some space to recover. This is not like doing a few benches in the gym now and then, you need the rest.
Not only is this effective, but it gets you out in the air and its fun. I just wrote out a simple framework in this article but feel free to add or modify the idea to your needs.