All Around Strength and Conditioning

This will be the first of a few short posts on making your own grip stuff. The first came to me at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago while I was browsing for some cinder blocks. Lo and behold I came across some bricks and after messing around with them decided that they would be perfect for pinch strength training. Really simple concept, you can take a brick or two and hold them "pinch" style in your hands and lift them for reps or time. Or if that is too easy, and believe me it's not really challenging, you can attach weight to the brick via cord, webbing, chain...etc. I used some parachute cord left over from the tornado ball, and attached a five pound weight I had sitting around, I have roughly 45 lbs. of misc. weight plates sitting around at my place, so I imagine doing pinch grip wide, or with two bricks and weight should be sufficient, seeing as I have no real need of grip training for my goals.

Here's the pictures...

Single brick

The setup

Enjoy; I've seen this done using a small plate and a chain suspended downwards attached to another weight, as well as using the bricks for knife fighter push ups, and so on.

After wishing I had my own personal medicine ball I decided to make one. After reading Jim's method from Lean and Hungry Fitness I decided to give it a shot. Mine is a bit modified, and I'll find out in the next day or so if this ball is up to the task.

Step 1- This was definitely the lengthiest part of the task and that was shopping at Wal-Mart. The cost break down looks something like this; Basketball $4.94 (Spalding), Tire Repair Kit $3.96, Shoe Goo $3.96, and finally two ten pound bags of sugar $4.74. I only used one bag though because the ball wouldn't hold much more.

Step2- Puncturing this ball was the task I was least looking forward to, I had this feeling that when I stabbed the ball with the spike it would explode on me. Don't worry it doesn't explode.

Step3- For some of the methods I read about a small hole is desirable. This is the more tedious route but most likely the best way to preserve ball integrity. For me I didn't have a lot of time (it's almost finals week). So I took some needle nose pliers and jammed them in the hole, and then ripped off some pieces so that it was large enough for the funnel to sit in.

Step 4- Pour sugar in the funnel. From what I noticed it moves a lot quicker than sand does. When the sugar backs up I used the spike to free up the hole, and I just poured cup after cup. Altogether the pouring took about 20 minutes, which is considerably less time than some of the other methods out there.

Step 5- I took the gooey tire patches and folded one in half and jammed it in the hole. Then I liberally applied shoe goo around the hole, and now I'm going to wait 24 hours to see what happens.

Step 6- This one is just anticipatory, but I want to inflate the ball afterwards and give it another day. If it holds I'm going to wrap the ball in a reasonably thick layer of electrical tape to make sure no air leaks out, and to keep any sugar in, in case the ball ruptures.

That's it, nothing fancy but cheap and quick. I also plan on turning this into a tornado ball, by getting a double stitched rectangular piece of canvas and putting a grommet at each corner. Then placing the medicine ball in it, and securing the canvas around it by running some rope, cord, or webbing through the holes turning it into a sling. From there I'm going to swing the hell out of it.

Have any questions feel free to leave me a comment, or e-mail me at carpediemcat@gmail.com

Step 7- Ok now that it's been 12 hours and $4.00 later the ball is finished, full of air, and wrapped in a layer of electrical tape, over time I may continue to wrap layers on the ball, but for now here it is. Took about 20 minutes and I just wrapped around the ball in strips following the center line and going in a circular motion until it was finished. Note: I left the hole I made uncovered so I could find it if it ruptures, and the filling hole as well.

TORNADO BALL

Now here is the initial set-up for the tornado ball. Ran into a two major difficulties after I completed this. First off a heavy ball is hard to swing. Secondly the scrap canvas I used was a bit smaller than I wanted it to be. I was going for a sling style of construction but I needed just a tad more canvas. I bought 1 yard of black canvas from a fabric store for about 6 dollars, and a set of 10 grommets and a tool for about 10 dollars. Now the set-up takes all of about ten minutes to do. This part will be what I recommend after my mistake. Take four feet of canvas and double back it. It should be roughly 2 feet X 1 foot. Next put four grommets in all the corners. Optional: you can add a strip of duct tape on the sides of the fabric to make sure the double backing doesn't come apart, and to prevent fraying. Lastly you run a piece of cord through the four grommets and presto! You're done, now go have fun swinging that ball around. Fair warning...if the weight is to heavy and your space is limited you might want to exercise more caution than normal. With that being said here's the pictures.

In lieu of this not so great tornado ball, I've created another one, much like that mentioned in Ross Enamait's Full Throttle Conditioning DVD (which I highly recommend).

Really simple to make, if you made a medicine ball or have one lying around then you're pretty much set, this tornado ball set up costs me about $9.00 give or take. I purchased a basketball net, some parachute cord, two small rolls of duct tape, and some polypropylene rope. That's it, the trick is putting it all together.

So the first task is to get the medicine ball into the net, no problem there.

Once you have that together, I recommend tying off the end that hangs from the hoop with some sort of cord, webbing, rope, etc. Once that's in you may want to start on creating the handle.

This was fairly simple, some rope folded over itself 7 times, and wrapped in duct tape, connected to the netting.

Now wrapped in tape to prevent rope friction, and make the grip a bit bigger.

Now the finished product... Enjoy...

 

After reading several online articles on how to make your own parallettes I decided to do just that, and create my own. Before I begin I'll basically explain what they are. A parallette is basically a bar that raises you off the ground, and is used for an impressive array of skill progressions for gymnasts, and circus performers, and many other groups or sports who embrace these simple yet effective tools.

So here's the breakdown 2 hours and $30.15 later I have created my own parallettes using PVC pipe, some connectors, purple primer, glue, a saw, a pencil, and a measuring tape.

This is the cost breakdown

1 1/2 PVC Tee connectors (4) for $5.92

1 1/2 PVC Elbow connectors (4) for $4.60

1 1/2 PVC End caps (8) $7.12

1 1/2 Black PVC pipe ABS 10 feet for $4.29

Purple Primer, and PVC glue handy pack for $5.96

The rest is figured as sales tax.

Ok so here comes the fun stuff, sawing... not the most fun especially without a workhorse but I found sawing on the garage floor getting on my hands and knees works well. After about 20 minutes of sawing I assembled the pipes piece by piece.

So that's the basic set up, now for the technical stuff.

The biggest pieces of PVC are reserved for the actual handles. I cut them 18 inches and then connected them to the 1 1/2 elbow connectors. I'll write this as if you were creating two parallette. You can choose to prime them, and then glue them right away, but I would suggest putting everything together first to see if it fits, works, and is load bearing worthy.

The next step is to cut several six inch pieces 2 for one parallette, 4 for 2. Then connect them to the elbows, and the Tee connectors.

Once you have connected those pieces, the next part is to cut four 5 inch pieces to serve as the base, 4 for 1 parallette, 8 for 2. My advice is to mass produce them first, and then assemble. Once you assemble, place the end caps on one side, and then connect each one to the Tee connectors. It should look something like this.

Ok now the last stretch and you're virtually done. I've heard that you don't need to glue them together, especially if you want to take them apart often for portability. Presuming you want something a bit more solid, I recommend gluing this pieces. There are really two methods and I used them both and I have to say that taking these apart piece by piece and then gluing them back makes the parallette much nicer and more even. If you don't want to take the time you can disassemble them and then glue them piece by piece back together. Here is the finished glued product, and they have already survived an L-Sit, a handstand, and a crow stand. Solid enough for me.

Here's a little handstand at the end to test whether or not these will break.

 

I made this little gem a few months back, but forgot to write an article on it, so this one will be brief, since the wobble board is a piece of cake to make. To get you started here are the supplies I used to make this.

1 30" x 12" piece of oak cabinet that I got at Home Depot for about $10.00

1 package of grip tread for about $7.00

1 protein bottle that I just happened to have around.

1 roll of some sort of cloth tape (nothing slippery)

Some concrete

I don't have the receipt on me anymore since I made this awhile back but to the best of my ability this whole thing was less than $20.00

Basically I slapped the grip tread straight onto the board in two even pieces, and that constitutes about half the work right there.

The next part is a bit trickier, the protein bottle is about the right height for the roller, the problem is that it is super flimsy, so I filled mine with concrete and let it dry for about 3 days in the sun. Once it was good and solid, I took some epoxy and glued the lid onto the threads so that it wouldn't pop off. The last step is to wrap the roller in some sort of tape, I used cloth tape from a first aid kit and a couple times around has lasted me about 3 months.

Here's the final product...

I hope this gives a general idea of what I did. I talked to a surf instructor that I worked with over the summer and he used to make wobble boards with the same set up except that instead of a protein bottle full of concrete, he used 3 liter soda bottles filled with water. The nice thing about the concrete is that it also functions as a grip tool by grasping the lid.

If you're like me and in an environment all day long where there is potential to get injured either by your own folly, or by people dropping weights and letting equipment snap back and hit you, rehab might be something worth while to invest in. Now I'm not talking about 100 bucks for physical therapy; ultrasound, deep tissue massage, cryo and thermo therapy, I'm referring to rice buckets and foam rollers. If you take your hand or wrist out of commission this may be something to look into. There's a whole bunch of things that you can train your hands for with the rice bucket method; crush, rotation, flexion, extension, and pinch grip fairly easily. The rice is soft on the hands, and you can set your own pace.

The construction is excruciatingly simple a bucket with about 8 pounds of rice, and there you have it.

Here's a very quick demonstration of a few techniques for the bucket, subtle yet effective.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=-wALVXL8XBY]

Foam rollers have gained a ton of popularity over the past few years, and I thought they were a joke until I dished out ten dollars at Target and tried one out. Lo and behold these things can be vicious, and highly effective, they will most definitely loosen things up, and increase flexibility, they're great as an unstable surface, and lightweight and portable too. I'm not even going to bother demonstrating anything on this, anyone can find something on these using youtube, or google. It's a great tool to throw in your toolbox, and can help nurse inflexible joints or damaged tissue back to green again.

deo, widgets, etc...

$31.22 and 7 minutes later; that's the time and money it cost to create those nifty little ab wheels that Ross used in a few videos but especially his most common one. $31.22 is what it will cost you to buy;

2 10 inch hey bolts

6 1/4 inch hose clamps

4 lawn mower tires

2 rolls of electric tape

So simple to put together it's ingenious. The only tool you might need is a knife to cut off tags, and a flat head screwdriver to lock the hose clamps down.

Here's the materials;

Next you slide one wheel on the end, and a locking clamp right behind it. Then another clamp and the opposite wheel, be sure you leave yourself enough room for grip, and make sure that the clamps are down tight, it would be unfortunate to lose a wheel in the middle of a standing ab wheel roll out. Then set the last clamp on the end and secure tightly. (Estimated time, 52 seconds)

Wrap it up in about a roll of tape, and it may look something like this, or at the very least, a bit nicer than my hasty job.

Now double it, and in roughly seven minutes, you can have your very own pair of independent ab wheels, for awesome core and a half development.

I decided to start trying to make a ground based platform for things like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and jumps. Somewhat mimicking the idea of the I've begun to create a sort of low tech version of this at a fraction of the cost. No seriously those things run for 3 k or more. This one costs about 40 dollars of materials including the power drill I had to buy, and the bit. A piece of particle board 4 ft. by 8 ft. cut into quarters to make four even pieces of 2 ft. by 4 ft. Essentially I've folded those over and glued each board together to make a thick base, and drilled holes to mount eyelet bolts. Clipping in some climbing carabiners that I already had, or you could use quick links, I attached my jump stretch bands (purple and blue) to my ironmind dipping belt and there you go. But my dimensions are all wrong, so for now this will have to do, and I will probably need to invest in some resistance tubing, and pulleys. One major flaw is that if I have tension on the bands and I jump in the air the board will follow me and smack me in the knees. Getting another piece of wood and putting a 2.5 inch spacer would allow enough room to slide in a couple of 45 lb. plates to help this thing down more. Here's the pictures, and keep in mind this is an experimental rough draft. I'm no mr. fix it or do it yourself kind of guy.

This is a picture of what it looks like when the bands are looped into the dipping belt.

Like I said, just a rough draft where some kinks need to be worked out, I definitely need to add a rubber mat, some tubing and a different harness rig, I tried the big blue bands bandoleer style and that was about the right weight but the platform needs to be weighed down just a bit. In the next few days I'll be updating this and tooling around with the design, so in the end I can put a video of it in action out.

I've been really wanting to post some pictures on this, but I've just not had the time. A while back I wrote about the usefulness of tow haul cables, and apart from using them like rings, I also use them for sled dragging minus the sled. My gym has a rubber floor, and I basically loop the cable through some plates. I then lock the hooks together, and drag away, my 14 foot cable is really only useful for the legs and back stuff, you can't really use it to press too much. So here's some of the pictures. I do lunges, reverse lunges, karaokes, and all sorts of minor variations.

Ok now here is my modified jump platform, using a smith machine, 2 jump stretch bands, and a weight belt I am able to train my vertical leap. Basically choke the bands around the bottom supports of the machine. Then run the other ends through the weight belt. Now the easy part, squat down, and explode upwards trying to drive your body through the ceiling. The neat part is that the bands pull you back down to earth really quickly. Then explode back up, this is plyometrics without the boxes. I’ve also found that this same set up allows for some really neat pull ups/chin ups. The higher you go, the more resistance you get, helping you break those sticky plateaus.

I apologize for the atrocious speed pictures my camera takes, it’s a cheap 200 dollar Casio digital camera. So in the future I’ll be converting lots of these pictures into videos to save space, and give users a better for feel for whats going on. These are not all of the things you can do, but there starters to change up your routine.