"Do you suppose they will choose to make war against lean, solid dogs rather than against fat and tender sheep?"
What my training was supposed to look like... This year I was forced to train much differently for the Heavy than planned. I suffered an injury to one shoulder and both hands that ruled out some of the very training that I intended to rely on, namely pushups, heavy kettlebells (32 to 40kg), and carrying... Continue Reading →
Here at Lean Solid Dog HQ, we heard from an infantry reservist and Afghan veteran with a job, a grad program, and a young child to raise by himself, and he asked me to post my thoughts about getting lean again. I have definite thoughts on the subject, but my only qualifications for holding them... Continue Reading →
I am 20 days out from the “GORUCK Heavy” event. Normally I reserve this blog for content that I think will have general interest, not “training log” entries. But this month will be a little different, as I leave a sort of memo for my future self, and this post is a snapshot of my... Continue Reading →
Part 2 of our series "Tao of the Lazy Badass" The 5x5 is a classic approach because it is a foolproof way to accumulate volume.For liability reasons, however, you should not attempt high-volume midget lifting. Just add more plates. Exercise is a tale of two variables: Volume (how much you do) and Intensity (how hard... Continue Reading →
“Like water, volume is soft and yielding. But volume will wear away rock, and it beats the crap out of excess fatigue. As a rule, volume wins over fatigue. This is another paradox: what is soft and voluminous is strong.”from the lost training manual of Laozi (Lao-Tzu) A difficult book, but the most important one... Continue Reading →
David Rigert: even now one of the most popular Soviet sportsmen ever. But what the hell kind of name is "David Rigert" for a Russian weightlifter?! It's a trick question: Rigert isn't ethnically Russian, he's German. Rigert was born in 1947 to a family of "Volga Germans" who immigrated to Russia in czarist times and... Continue Reading →
"Для меня Ригерт — это бог штанги, на него я молился с детства." "For me, Rigert is the god of barbells. I prayed to him from the time I was a child." -Weightlifting BAMF Alexei Petrov
Yesterday we wrote about some Army researchers' finding that, in a long, heavy ruck march, the guys who march fastest are the most muscular ones. Not necessarily the strongest, but the most muscular. How can that be? If you beef up for a long ruck with an extra 20 lbs. of muscle, you're schlepping an... Continue Reading →
Strength and endurance are rivals. “Strength loves rest,” as the saying goes, and it hates endurance. Strength and endurance compete against each other for your training time and recuperative powers. Yes, you can do both (and you should, at least a little). But unless you are a pure strength athlete or pure endurance athlete (e.g. a... Continue Reading →
Rucking looks to be the “next big thing” in exercise. In a word, you fill a rucksack (a glorified backpack) with weight and go hiking. For bonus points, you can haul other heavy things too: sand bags, a water can, a kettlebell, a log, a sledgehammer, a stone, a weighted sled. Try to read this... Continue Reading →