Getting Strong For Everyday Living

Building muscle and getting strong is not necessarily the same thing. Notwithstanding the cast of "300," I am guessing that not too many gladiators and Grecian warriors had bulging Pecs or wondrously sweeping Lats with mountainous peaks for biceps. More than likely, they had great shoulder girth, strong forearms, and strong core muscles with solid legs.

They were strong for everyday living (hunting lions and so forth). We need to be strong for everyday living too. For my money, that means doing the following exercises that hit your entire body (or most of it) in one movement. It is a step beyond compound movements, it is whole body movements.

1. Farmer's walk - At first blush, this exercise would seem to be mostly about forearm and grip strength. You would be right to assume that. But this monster exercise also works your traps, core muscles, legs, and determination like few else. You begin by dead lifting the weights up. With a pair of rocks in both hands, you begin walking where the swinging and kinetic motions of walking stress your whole body from fingertips to your neck and from your toes to your hips, not to mention your trunk.

An easy exercise to do; you grab a pair of dumbbells that are about half your bodyweight and walk until you have to drop the weights. Once you catch your breath; you pick up the dumbbells and walk back. Do this until you cannot pick up the dumbbells anymore, let alone continue walking. Your objective is to build to using weights that are equal to your bodyweight. Crazy, huh?

This is a brutal exercise and a great way to finish a work out. Truth is, done right; your forearms will be too pumped and shot to do anything else that day. So, you pick one work out day the first week and do this. The second week you do...

2. Power clean and (slight) jerk - This is again a whole body movement. This one exercise works everything in your body with the exception of, maybe, your lower Pecs. Otherwise, it is all systems go. The first couple of times, you need to use fairly light weights to practice the movement. Ultimately, you will work up to 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps.

You clean the weights to your shoulders, followed by an overhead press. You will not do a full on jerk, but you can squat slightly before pushing up with your legs as you press up. When the weights are almost up, you can step back with one leg about a foot behind for balance. Again, this is a slight jerk.

You should do this exercise just once the second week. You can insert this movement into your shoulder routine. I normally work shoulders with legs so this works for me. The third week you do...

3. Deadlift - If you could only do one exercise, then this would not be a bad choice. Again, this whole body movement hits everything other than say, your Pecs and triceps. And it is a gut check movement which you have to love. This is a basic movement where you go heavy, heavy, and heavy - say 4 to 5 sets pyramiding from 8 reps to 6 reps, as low as 4 reps.

The fourth week you do...

4. Your regular workout.

I think these 3 movements done basically once every four weeks will help build overall, body strength. They make you strong in ways that you use your body in everyday situations.

As a caveat, if you don't have the means to do these exercises, by all means, improvise. The key is to do exercise that simultaneously works your forearms, traps, shoulders, trunk, hips, gluts, and rest of the legs. You could try pull-ups with knees held up (it's a killer) or squat-thrust wearing a backpack loaded with books, improvise - it will work.

By: Jack K.

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