At last, we’ve brought back our 15-part series on Alexey Faleev and his "80/20" system of power bodybuilding and physical culture as a downloadable PDF book! It’s available here, 100 pages for a suggested donation of $5 (or none at all). I am donating proceeds to charitable organizations doing works of lean, solid goodness around... Continue Reading →
The Piñata & The Wrecking Ball: Why can small people hit so hard?
So it feels like an ever-new mystery to get overpowered in fight training by short, thin, or otherwise gracile people who, it seems to me, can’t possibly have as much power. Not just outmaneuvered and outskilled, but manhandled or just plain pounded. I’m talking thin teenagers, featherweight women, even a girl who’s too young for PG-13 and weighs less than my checked luggage. What gives?
Feet Are the New Core
Good news: The “core” isn’t the all-important missing link anymore. The cool kids have moved on. Now feet are the new core. Thank heaven, because I got bored of direct midsection work long before the fools in marketing renamed it the “core.” When did they coin that phrase anyway? I missed the Nineties, living in... Continue Reading →
Chat maigre: French for “lean, solid dog”
National Commando Training Center in Coullioure. Photo courtesy of Romain Mielcarek (http://www.guerres-influences.com/romain-mielcarek/) The Cult of Light Infantry? Here at Lean, Solid Dogs, we maintain a special interest in light infantry because we love to romp around the outdoors carrying heavy things. And there’s a whole profession dedicated to that! They're called light infantry and they... Continue Reading →
“Attention, Walmart Shoppers: You Already Have a Prize-Winning Physique For 1900”
"However, the champ often 'took ill' with a pathogen transmitted in oak barrels known to disparately afflict the Irish community."
Double Your Work Capacity By Being Lazy
This little $4 Esbit stove has been a huge winner for me. Dating back to the 1940s, it uses technology and design so simple and un-screw-up-able that I consider it honorarily Russian. And though it's as just a survival stove, if you add a coffee can to screen it from the wind and contain the... Continue Reading →
Romp in the Rain
Today’s game was to test out rain gear on a 3-mile ruck romp with Lean Solid Girl and our team weight, the Canadian Brick Bag (CBB), a sturdy canvas antique loaded with 35# of bricks. The rule was that the bag had to be carried in one hand at all times, by either one of... Continue Reading →
Reset
What I've been busy with Lean, solid dogs, it's been entirely too long. I've missed you! Since I last posted, I went "operational" on the county Search & Rescue team and started climbing a steep learning curve in any number of training courses--K9 search operations, swift water rescue, rope rescue, emergency medical response--and a handful... Continue Reading →
Girevoy Sport (Pt. 3): The Jerk
The jerk rewards a lot of Gumby-like flexibility in the hip flexors and shoulder girdle. Each of these bells weighs 32kg (70lbs.), and during the 10-minute set, your only chance to rest is in this position, but you need flexibility. (battlebell.ru) Whereas the snatch is a pulling exercise—you feel it most in your back and... Continue Reading →
Girevoy Sport (Pt. 2): The Snatch, “Tsar of Kettlebell Exercises”
In the snatch, if you’re going to last the full 10 minutes, you must spare your grip. How? Use your legs. After you “pull” the bell up, bend at the knees and dip down. That way you won’t have to pull as high. Even more importantly, when you drop the bell back down, rise up... Continue Reading →