PDXStrength News

Blog 35 – Our Workouts Should Have a Training Bias… AAARRRRRR! 

A follow-up thought to the pull-up blog. What we’re really talking about here is encouraging individual members to create their own training bias within our general programming; whether that be within the hour or so we spend together or sometime in between. PDX Strength’s goal isn’t to “prescribe” you what a one-size-fits-all program (though I understand the conditions that make it seem as such). The goal with our programming is to “prescribe” to you a framework in which we offer you a well-rounded group exercise experience, based-in a foundational pattern, and rotating intensities. Could you just take that at surface level and produce some sort incremental gains across the board or varying levels of success? Absolutely. Frankly, Nigel is the most thoughtful programmer I’ve worked with. 

But, alas, something funny happens in this process. A variable shows up, one as old as all living beings. That would be us – you, me, and the rest of the wild gang of rapscallions that hangs out down by the train tracks. You see, we are an ever-evolving being. When we throw ourselves into a structured process (like Nigel’s programming), we will often take it for a spin, dissecting what we like and don’t like, and come out the other side with newly formed opinions – a change in perspective if you will. Then the cycle repeats. And again. And again. And this could actually work for a REALLY long time if we keep a similar focus and perspective on what we are entering and engaging with. But what kind of humans would we be if we didn’t act out irrationally in the name of self-centered individualism and change?

In this light, it’s important to recognize that Nigel’s program (or any of the other class programming) is not for you. It is for us. Nigel acts as this pirate ship’s captain; keeping our course through sunny skies and nasty seas. But he also understands that sometimes his little swashbucklers need the ability and freedom to jump in a little skiff to explore new lagoons and beaches. (For those of you, that are now thinking, “What the fuck are you talking about, Dylan?!” I’m not sure to be honest. I’m just running with an analogy that I enjoy, and is making me laugh to myself while I write this blog as my shoulder pet, Fritz, sleeps soundly next to me dreaming of adventures past…. No? Ok, what I’m talking a giving you the freedom to explore a training bias – the beautiful beach – and what that might look like in the larger scheme of the programming – the pirate ship. )

For example, you personally might idolize a pull-up or muscle-up or whatever. You got your first taste in Groups Strength and Conditioning and you loved it. But then, “Nigel didn’t program it for another 2 months.” And you’d be right, he didn’t, because on the whole it’s no more important that any of the other ways our bodies are capable of moving. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t (or don’t) have the freedom to jump on that little skiff and explore that movement more often via accessory work, substituting movements within a structured class, asking for a periodized training plan, etc.

Yes, you’re inevitably giving up some of the time spent on the larger ship (or within the general programming for those of you that still can’t get behind my pirate analogy), but you’re also going to be happier for it. We are all going to be happier for it. You get more direct work as it relates towards YOUR goals, and we (the ship’s officers aka coaches) get to nerd out about what we really love – helping people explore their individual capacities. 

More questions? Pen a letter with quill and ink.

AAARRRRRRR! – D

Blog 34 – Small Pieces to Larger Parts of the Pull-up

The pull-up seems to be the movement most often idolized at the gym, and subsequently the one that we’ve lost access to. You might be saying well “what about THIS?” or “what about THAT?!” I will certainly grant you that we’ve been limited with other movements to varying degrees, but not in the same way as that elusive pull-up. 

Generally, we focus, separate, and rotate our work by larger compound movements that are grouped by upper and lower body and by push and pull movement patterns (This is probably too simple). What this means is that we’ve chosen to center programming around four basic movements – squat, hinge/deadlift, press, and pull-up. With each of the first three, it is relatively simple to reproduce without any special equipment. We can literally squat, hinge, and press with whatever device we are reading this blog on, or just using the ground and your bodyweight. Done long enough or with enough intention, we’ll get a certain stimulus that at the very least allows us to feel like we are working those targeted patterns. 

The pull-up, though, is quite different. It requires a fixed position or specific equipment – like a bar, stable and sturdy enough to withstand the forces of us hanging and pulling down on a bar. There are not many places that meet these requirements. Trees, decks, park fixtures (Columbia Park) are all great options, but also don’t often exist where we’ve chosen to workout – our living rooms, most open spaces, the front landing at PDX Strength – nor do they allow for modifications if strict pull-ups are not yet within our capacity. All of this makes the pull-up even more elusive. 

What can we do without access to a bar/rig? Being a compound movement, we break the compound movement in to its parts, and focus on accessory work. I know that accessory work is not the same as doing a pull-up. But if we consider that all compound movements are chains within the body, and a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link, then we start to understand how we are improving the pull-up “chain” by focusing on each of its links. 

The basic links (or joints) of a pull-up are the hands/wrists, elbow, and shoulders/scapulae; involving basically every muscle group, tendon, and ligament from fingertips to our mid back. The muscles that we most commonly consider “pulling” muscles are the biceps, traps, and lats, but commonly neglect our hands and forearms and don’t often consider how much opposing muscles like the triceps, deltoids, and pecs factor in to our ability to stabilize a pulling motion.

To strengthen these links we’re looking at picking 2 or 3 the following type of exercises about 2x/week in sets 10-15:

• Wrist curls and extensions 
• Any curl variation; especially the Hammer curl
• Upright rows
• Lateral/ front shoulder raise
• Back/ chest flies
• Shoulder/bench press
• Triceps extensions
• Shrugs
• Pullovers
• And all the like bodybuilding exercises

None of the above requires much in the way of specialty equipment other than some type of weight or resistance band. Taking this information we can start to deconstruct our own pull-up to better understand where our imbalances lie and strengthen the links if the chain rather than trying to make the pull-up stronger all at once. You might be surprised how big of a difference how something we haven’t focused on, like wrist/grip strength, plays into the efficiency of your pull. – D