Everyday Systems

In my long, arduous search for a way to strengthen my spindly forearms I found this site several months before hearing about shovelglove.com. For some reason I never bookmarked it and then I forgot how to find it, but it resurfaced today and I thought you all might find it interesting.

Excercise #2 looks like something between incredible stupidity and clinical insanity. I can't wait until I trust my arms enough to try it!

Phayze,

I have seen that site too and have tried all of the exercises. I like the "weaver stick" the best. Judging by how hard all of these were, the guy on the website (Eric) is very, very strong. Like everything, I suppose, just choke up on the handle and progress slowly! My friend told me his blacksmith father could do exercise #2 (overhead lever) with a ten pound hammer, touching his nose each time, at least a dozen times.

Also, note that Eric's forearms aren't all that big. I've known some people with spindly forearms who were scary strong. My forearms grew pretty well after I started shugging but after a certain point they just kept getting harder and more vascular--maybe it's genetic?

Be careful with your wrists!

--david

david wrote:My friend told me his blacksmith father could do exercise #2 (overhead lever) with a ten pound hammer, touching his nose each time, at least a dozen times

Allow to be the first to say: That takes some fierce control!

Yeah, I know just from my own experience that size and strength aren't always directly proportional - a part of me likes being underestimated, because it's fun to surprise people by being stronger than I look, but on the other hand I'm tired of the constant jokes about being "too skinny". The weirdest part is that when I was a boy people made fun of me for being too fat!! Damned fickle mob . . . never satisfied!! :p Also, as a stage fighter I want to develop a slightly more "heroic" physique for the sake of helping my audience not see me as just some geek with a sword, but with my slender frame adding mass has always been difficult (much to my annoyance).

Aside from genetic potential for mass, there's also a major dietary component. I'm a vegan with a distrust of high protein diets (see The China Study), so I have a real problem with the bodybuilder standard of eating 1.5x your bodyweight in grams of protein per day - that's 220 grams!! Not healthy or easy. I don't like supplementing either, because a) if you can't get it from the foods you eat everyday then you're either eating the wrong things or you just don't need it and b) a leader in vegan health suggests that protein isolates are too concentrated for the body to process in a healthy way and are best avoided.

But I digress . . .

I'm sure I'll start playing with Eric's moves eventually, but I probably won't be changing my routine for a few more weeks. Bending nails isn't high on my list of "feats to accomplish" (yes, I have a list), and at least for now I feel like I'm getting enough of a grip/wrist workout to keep me happy.

Yeah, in that case I think adding mass will be a problem. You might be able to get some advice over on veganfitness.net.

When I was a vegan I always was able to hit my fitness goals better if I ate a lot of nuts. That being said, when I "reverted" to omnivory I put on five lbs. of muscle without even trying. Putting on mass as a vegan seems possible, but in a few years of lurking on veganfitness I only saw one or two guys do it without a bunch of protein supplementation.

Also, from the POV of stage fighting, just tell the audience that the armies of centuries past would have looked like a bunch of 12-year-olds to us. You are likely bigger and stronger than most of those "historical" warriors and duellists.

--david

Here's another site you might find interesting.

Yeah, I've been an unregistered lurk for a few months at veganfitness, but I'm pretty put-off by the obsession with supplements there. For now I'm making obvious gains, so maybe I'll look for more advise on the subject if I'm still unsatisfied when I plateau. Until then maybe I'll just eat more peanut butter. Oh, the horror.

As far as being bigger than historical fighters - we know that, but modern audiences are spoiled from watching too many movies with guys like the Governator and the Rock. Bruce Lee could have taken 'em all, and he was about 1/3 their size!

VG - Nice link! I've been looking for sites on club swinging, but hadn't had much luck. I'll just have to get real player so I can watch his vids.

Glad you like it. There's some pretty cool stuff on that site. The reader's gallery has some pretty cool feats, as well.

Wow. I need to spend some more time poking around this site. Very eager to try some of these feats myself...

Thanks for the post!

Reinhard

as long as we're sharing links, I found a great page with scans of Historical Club Exercises from 1866. I love the pictures in the end of the lady in a big puffy dress swinging th clubs!

I'd love to see some more modern teaching tools for this stuff. Someone needs to tell the club enthusiasts about youtube! Until then, maybe I'll look for a pair of one-handed hammers and start playing with some of this stuff. I like the idea of working both hands simultaneously on these - great coordination/body awareness practice.

The main site has lots of interesting-looking strongman books from the olden days - definitely and interesting look into the history of exercise.

EDIT: Also, here's a great site with some cool feats of strength/agility and advice on how to train for them. I don't have anywhere the near the upper body strength to even think about most of this stuff (yet), but I'm hoping that I'll be in a better position to start working toward them by New Year.

Sandowplus is a very cool site. I visit that one often.

I've also seen beastskills before. It's a good one as well. I can "kinda" do some of that stuff...But not very well.