phattygixxer
Registered User
Here's a excerpt from an interview with a guy, Pavel Tsatsouline who is mostly interested in practical strength training for combat applications (I recommend reading the whole article to understand the context in which he is talking):
"T: Describe your infamous "ladder" drills.
Pavel: It is the Soviet Special Forces favorite for upping strength endurance. They are required to perform 18 dead hang pull-ups wearing a 10-kilo (22 pound) bullet-proof vest. One of my SWAT cowboys worked up to forty consecutive pull-ups with this technique.
If done with a partner, it works like this: I do a pull-up, you do one. I do two, you match me, etc. until one of us cannot keep up. Then we start over. One rep, two reps, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5. We totaled hundreds of pull-ups almost daily without burning out, and the extreme PT tests of our service were a breeze. You should stop each ladder one or two reps short of your limit. In other words, if you can work up to ten reps at the top of the ladder, it’s best to stop at about eight, and then begin at one again.
You can perform these by yourself as well. Basically, you do a rep, rest a few seconds, do two, etc. until things get hard but not impossible. Then you start at one again and work up. You may do another round of ladders later in the workout. A couple of months later your armpits will chafe."
And here is another portion about your abs, which may or may not up your abs' usable strength beyond what the Marine Corps crunch can do:
"T: You’ve written a popular book on ab training. Where do people go wrong when it comes to abdominal training?
Pavel: Everywhere! Number one is this ridiculous notion that you have to use high reps to get cut up. Getting cut up is a function of resting tension in the muscle and low body fat. That’s all there is to it. Think of Bruce Lee who did a lot of isometrics, the ultimate high tension training. The guy was wiry, lean and hard. Some women will start doing high-rep programs thinking they’re going to cut up and some of them instead start gaining mass, especially glycogen and water.
You get so beat up from high reps you can barely sneeze. It’s like rigor mortis. So go heavy. Use a heavy weight but don’t get a pump. That means you keep your sets low and you rest a lot. Three sets of five is more than adequate for the abs, but the secret is to find a very challenging exercise. One option is to use a ton of plates or even a loaded barbell, as many of my powerlifting buddies do, and do sit-ups with it. But who really wants to do a sit-up with 225 pounds? It’s awkward, plus the technique has to be really precise. So you may want to choose a drill with poor leverage instead, e.g. the Janda sit-up or the dragon flag.
The other problem is exercise selection. There is this notion that abs can be isolated from the hip flexors by eliminating the movement in the hip joint, like they do in the crunch. It’s a big joke. It’s like saying that you are what you eat. You are a bagel. Doesn’t work like that.
You can only inhibit the hip flexors neurologically. Eastern European Professor Vladimir Janda developed a special sit-up where your training partner places his hands under your calves and pulls back. You attempt to sit-up while steadily pushing against his hands. This activates the hip extensor muscles. Reciprocal inhibition takes place and the hip flexors relax. Back stress is eliminated and the abs are isolated!
[Editor’s note: Read our Evolution of Ab Training article for more info (and pics) of the Janda sit-up.]
So if you want to train your abs well, first of all do the power breathing techniques we’ve discussed and second, do Janda sit-ups. That’s the cornerstone of all ab training. In addition, you may want to add some other drills, but certainly not crunches. They belong in the junk pile of history next to Communism."
Hope someone finds this of use, I'm going to start trying both of these two things out.
"T: Describe your infamous "ladder" drills.
Pavel: It is the Soviet Special Forces favorite for upping strength endurance. They are required to perform 18 dead hang pull-ups wearing a 10-kilo (22 pound) bullet-proof vest. One of my SWAT cowboys worked up to forty consecutive pull-ups with this technique.
If done with a partner, it works like this: I do a pull-up, you do one. I do two, you match me, etc. until one of us cannot keep up. Then we start over. One rep, two reps, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5. We totaled hundreds of pull-ups almost daily without burning out, and the extreme PT tests of our service were a breeze. You should stop each ladder one or two reps short of your limit. In other words, if you can work up to ten reps at the top of the ladder, it’s best to stop at about eight, and then begin at one again.
You can perform these by yourself as well. Basically, you do a rep, rest a few seconds, do two, etc. until things get hard but not impossible. Then you start at one again and work up. You may do another round of ladders later in the workout. A couple of months later your armpits will chafe."
And here is another portion about your abs, which may or may not up your abs' usable strength beyond what the Marine Corps crunch can do:
"T: You’ve written a popular book on ab training. Where do people go wrong when it comes to abdominal training?
Pavel: Everywhere! Number one is this ridiculous notion that you have to use high reps to get cut up. Getting cut up is a function of resting tension in the muscle and low body fat. That’s all there is to it. Think of Bruce Lee who did a lot of isometrics, the ultimate high tension training. The guy was wiry, lean and hard. Some women will start doing high-rep programs thinking they’re going to cut up and some of them instead start gaining mass, especially glycogen and water.
You get so beat up from high reps you can barely sneeze. It’s like rigor mortis. So go heavy. Use a heavy weight but don’t get a pump. That means you keep your sets low and you rest a lot. Three sets of five is more than adequate for the abs, but the secret is to find a very challenging exercise. One option is to use a ton of plates or even a loaded barbell, as many of my powerlifting buddies do, and do sit-ups with it. But who really wants to do a sit-up with 225 pounds? It’s awkward, plus the technique has to be really precise. So you may want to choose a drill with poor leverage instead, e.g. the Janda sit-up or the dragon flag.
The other problem is exercise selection. There is this notion that abs can be isolated from the hip flexors by eliminating the movement in the hip joint, like they do in the crunch. It’s a big joke. It’s like saying that you are what you eat. You are a bagel. Doesn’t work like that.
You can only inhibit the hip flexors neurologically. Eastern European Professor Vladimir Janda developed a special sit-up where your training partner places his hands under your calves and pulls back. You attempt to sit-up while steadily pushing against his hands. This activates the hip extensor muscles. Reciprocal inhibition takes place and the hip flexors relax. Back stress is eliminated and the abs are isolated!
[Editor’s note: Read our Evolution of Ab Training article for more info (and pics) of the Janda sit-up.]
So if you want to train your abs well, first of all do the power breathing techniques we’ve discussed and second, do Janda sit-ups. That’s the cornerstone of all ab training. In addition, you may want to add some other drills, but certainly not crunches. They belong in the junk pile of history next to Communism."
Hope someone finds this of use, I'm going to start trying both of these two things out.
