This was a relatively cheap addition but worth it’s weight in gold for the benefits my athletes get from it.  Just trying to climb the rope takes a vast amount of strength.  A typical climbing workout would look like this:  I would have the athlete sit on the platform and grab the rope with a tight grip.  They would then be instructed to try and keep their legs straight and go hand over hand climbing up to the top of the rack and then work back down as many times as they are able.  Many athletes are not able to do this the first time they try and many female athletes might not ever reach this level.  This is where progression comes into play.

One way to make this a little easier is by lessening your body weight.  You can do this easily by keeping your feet in contact with the floor and then work on hand over hand techniques.  I normally have an athlete grab the rope and place their feet against the rack and lean back lowering themselves little by little and then climbing back (as demonstrated in the video).  The lower you go back towards the floor the harder it will be to climb back up to vertical.  You can see how this would be productive and everyone can work within their capabilities.

Another simple progression is to just stabilize your feet and lie back extending the arms and then without changing the grip or hand positions pull yourself back towards the rope like a rowing motion.  You can repeat for reps or until fatigued.  Make sure for variation you change your grip so that you are not always rowing with the right hand higher than the left or vise-versa.

You should always focus on keeping your core tight and you will feel the muscle tension build in the upper body as you squeeze your grip as tight as possible for each climb variation.

There are many ways to utilize ropes into a training program.  Really your imagination is only your limiting factor.  Get creative with ropes and have fun challenging yourself.  I hope this helps give you some ideas and potential variation that you can include into your training program.

To your health,

Jerry

If your excuse is that pull-ups are boring then Monkey Pull-ups might just be what you are looking for.  I learned of this exercise variation years ago from the Diesel Crew guys (Jedd & Smitty) and have used it with my athletes ever since.  I am not sure if they called it monkey pull-ups back then, but they demonstrated it on a cable cross machine, climbing around back and forth on the crossbar.

Monkey Pull-ups:  Basically, you are performing a pull-up and each time you complete a rep you take one hand and change the grip position.  As you can see in the video, I have adapted this into my half racks with all my different pull-up grips, climbing rope, swivel grips, and the rack frame itself.

This is extremely taxing on the upper body, core, and grip.  By challenging my athletes, they really start to try and better themselves each time they do a set.  These are not easy.  If you are looking for some variety and you are pretty good at pull-ups; give these a try.  Ironically, you will find yourself starting to think they are fun.

If you have any other pull-up variations to add to this post; let me know or put it in the comments section below.  It is great to share training information with each other.  The benefits are for everyone!!

To your health,

Jerry

Our goals are simple:

• Stay Healthy
• “Finish” Games
• Win the Patriot League Championship
• Get into the NCAA Tournament!!!

A lacrosse player is a special breed of athlete.  Some have set skills and most hold certain field positions.  They can’t get too big or bulky and they must be strong, agile and explosive.  Toughness, both physical and mental, are required at this level of play.  I try to instill this into my lacrosse athletes each time they work with me in and out of the weight room.

During our conditioning workouts I have a “stand tall” rule.  No matter how tired or gassed you are you NEVER bend over and place your hands on your knees.  If someone does, the whole team gets punished.  This is a mental game (as are most demanding sports) and if your opponent sees you are sucking wind; they will have that mental edge.

We can carry this same physical and mental toughness into the weight room.  For example, this workout is taking place during the schools spring break and there are no classes.  They could have easily slept in but we decided to keep them on schedule and hold the workouts early in the AM.

In the video, I took random clips of the team going through Day 1 of their In-season program.  I personally, was not happy with the team’s performance and intensity of this workout on this day.  Actually, I believe this to be one of our worst workouts of the year and I let the team know about it with some colorful words off camera.  Hey this is reality and this is what I filmed on this particular day.  Here was the workout:

Functional Injury Prevention Work: Internal/External Shoulder Rotation & Scapular Retraction Exercises

Functional Core: Kettle Bell or Dumbbell Oblique Raise (windmill)

Emphasis Work:

• Hang Clean To Split Jerk 5 x 2
• Incline Bar Press/DB Press 2 x 6
• Swivel Grip Pull-up 1 x Failure
• Neutral Grip Pull-up 1 x Failure

Supplemental Work:

• Manual Resistance Posterior Shoulder 1 x Failure
• Dirty Thirty Calves 2 x 10/10/10
• Banded Biceps 1 x 100
• Wrist/Grip Work

Ab/Low Back Circuit w/Strength Coach 7min 30 seconds

Team Static Stretch

As you will see in the video background, some athletes will have other exercises that they are working on in their individual programs.

To your health,

Jerry

PS-Follow us in the NCAA Tourney!!

I have had Pipe hung from chains across power racks for years.  They just do not get old, they do not cost much to set up, and hell they are just fun to hang from.  In the video I go over a few techniques that I use.  I really like to stick athletes on the pipe pull-up that have the habit of kicking there feet around to get another pull-up.  If they kick the feet the pipe will rotate and they will lose their grip.  This really helps in teaching strict form.

In the video I show a thick pipe but you can use varying thicknesses.  I have other pipes that hang in other parts of the gym that are only one inch in diameter and up to four inches in diameter.  When you add this instability factor; your grip will become a major part of all hanging pipe exercises.

If you have the opportunity to hang a pipe like this, you might just be surprised at how challenging it will be.

Yours in strength,

Jerry

On the eleventh day of Gripmas my true love gave to me… a Farmer’s Walk.  I explain in detail what the farmer’s walk exercise is and how to do it.  This has been done for years in individuals training.  This is frequently seen at strongman competitions.  There are clips of this in my York Barbell Trip video.  Adding this type of exercise into your program will give added strength gains almost instantly.

On the twelfth day of Gripmas my true love gave to me…. a Towel!  A heavy towel is a great way to add in some variety to your existing program and there are countless ways to use them.  For the basis of this topic I’ll use the towel to enhance grip strength.  Turning the towel hang exercise into a competition is a great way to get increase it’s effectiveness.  When working in the weight room adding some type of competition really boosts the productivity of your training.  Hey, you know you can have fun while you train hard!!

Focus For Results,

Jerry

On the ninth day of Gripmas my true love gave to me…. a Softball and Counter Weight!!  Seeing what I did with the softball in the video may or may not be new for you.  Many grip experts and coaches have been doing similar things to softballs and creating ways to train with them for years.  Coaches will also attach tubing and/or bands to the balls to do various shoulder exercises and many times they are used in a rehabilitative setting.

The counter weight I found is extremely challenging to train with.  I thought many of you might find that to be an interesting training tool.  The point here is; you never know what you might come across that you can use for your own personal training.  The beauty of this is that it is not traditional types of training and the body gets stimulated just a little differently.  Little variations like this can really help improve your strength and fitness gains quickly.

I post a lot of non-traditional lifts and exercises; but I need to emphasize not to neglect your traditional lifts like squats, dead lifts, bench press, cleans, and rows.  I am showing you some options to add variety into any training or fitness program so they do not become routine and boring.  Hey “old-school” lifts have always worked and they always will.  I am only assuming that if you are looking at my site; then you enjoy challenging your body to get the results you want.  This is the drive I have to share this information with you and knowing that I will help someone is very rewarding.

Thank you,

Jerry

A lot of people ask me about my personal training programs and workouts.  Recently, I had a request from a subscriber to post a sample of one of my workouts.  Well, I did one better:  I filmed it and I show clips of the workout in the video.  You ask, I listen, then I post what you want.  So here you go, the following is exactly what I did on this day in my personal workout.

Warm-up 5min on a upright bike

Dynamic Flexibility (Continued Warm-up)

Shoulder Circuit (5 exercises-explained in detail in my shoulder injury prevention article)

Tennis Ball Arch Rollouts (I always do these when I am going to train without shoes on)

Homemade Indian Club work

KB Oblique Raise 2 x 8-10 (both sides)

KB Towel Around The World Swing 3 x 10-12 (both directions)

Double KB Clean To Press 3 x 10

Single KB Clean To Press 2 x 8

Bucket Hop 3 x 12 Supersetted with Push Away Pull-up 3 x 5-8

Spiderman Push-up 2 x 20

Stability Ball Stabilization Press 3 x 6-9

Straight Leg/Arm KB Sit-up 3 x fatigue

Band Stretch

This might look like a lot at first glance but my rest periods were very short; typically no more than one minute.  A good portion of my rest periods were spent hitting the record button on the video camera or repositioning it.

If you have any questions or comments about this workout; please post them below.  Also, if this is something you thought was informative and beneficial, let me know and I will post more of these.  Thank you for your continued support and questions.

Keep your passion alive,

Jerry

Using a band to help you achieve a pull-up or just to increase the number of reps you are able to do is an excellent solution to a problem most people have.  When deciding to use a band to assist you; you will need to understand there are many thicknesses to bands and how the band will assist you.  When a person does a pull-up the hardest point of the pull-up for most is getting started from the hang position.  When you use a band; this will be the position when the band is stretched out the most and will give you the best assistance.  As you pull yourself up, the tension in the band lessons.  Most individuals are much stronger towards the up position of the pull-up.  Having the band lose tension during the upward phase is a perfect compliment to the pull-up.

Choose a band thickness that will assist you in achieving 5 reps.  Continue to train with that thickness of band until you are able to achieve over ten reps.  You will now be ready to go to the next lighter thickness band and continue training with that thickness until 10 reps are achieved.  Keep doing this until you are down to the lightest thickness and then you will be able to perform a full body weight pull-up with no band assistance.

It is so awesome to see someone who could not do a pull-up at all and see them progress through the bands.  When they achieve their first body weight pull-up with no assistance at all the excitement and sense of accomplish that individual shows is priceless!

If pull-ups are not your thing-make them your thing.  Start doing them and you will be surprised how fast you see your strength gains and fitness developments improve.  If you have any questions about the bands or pull-ups; please post them in the comments are of start a discussion in the forum.

The pull-up is one of the most fundamentally sound exercises a person should do.  My questions is then; Why are more people not doing them?  Go to most gyms and count how many people move towards a lat pull down machine but never even attempt to do a pull-up.  I honestly think it is because most people do not want to embarrass themselves because they can’t do one or might only be able to do a few at best.  I put this video together because a person requested some advice on how to properly perform a pull-up.  I hope this helps.

There are literally hundreds of variations to the pull-up and how it can be achieved.  But what if you can not do one single pull-up?  First, please watch the video and check out the body positioning that I teach my athletes and clients.  Then what I would have you do is to perform an “eccentric pull-up”.  What you do here is either jump up or have someone boost you up to the high point of the pull-up.  From there you want to concentrate on the upper back muscles and with a tight grip, lower yourself down as slowly as you can.  Try doing multiple reps of these.  These help make you aware of the musculature that you use when performing a pull-up and it will also strengthen these muscles.

There will be a follow up video to this which will show you the proper way to set up a training band to help assist you in performing a pull-up or to increase your endurance by adding multiple reps.  Pull-ups should be a common exercise found in your training program.  Do not get discouraged if you can not do a pull-up.  Think of it as a challenge to obtain.  When it is done properly and with a lot of effort; it can be one of the most effective exercises in your training program for developing your upper back musculature and making you stronger.