the joy of strength training

Gubernatrix

Currently browsing posts found in January2008


Your ideal gym?

» by January 29th, 2008 at 12:21 am » Comments (26)

I’d love to have a gym of my own one day. I don’t like training by myself all the time, so even if I had a home gym I’d have to invite people round to use it. There are many aspects of a gym that affect the training experience. There is the space, equipment, décor, […]



My deadlift: then and now

» by January 26th, 2008 at 1:15 am » Comments (7)

Anyone who has been following my personal deadlift saga might remember that I was on a mission to fix some errors in my form by dropping the weight right down and concentrating on technique. Finally, I am back to the weight I was at before I began this journey: 90kg (which is 150% bodyweight). It […]



Ring training: getting started

» by January 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm » Comments (22)

You don’t have to be able to do muscle-ups and front levers to benefit from training with rings. They make even old favourites like push-ups and dips more challenging because you have to work to stabilise them. You’ll probably be surprised at how much more difficult an exercise can be on the rings – I […]



Why do most women still avoid the free weights room?

» by January 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm » Comments (52)

This puzzles me because almost every strength website I come across these days has the obligatory “why women should lift weights” article. Yet despite all these attempts at myth-busting, it appears the message isn’t getting through. Body Pump, a group exercise class involving free weights set to music, seems to be as popular as ever […]



New links page now live

» by January 19th, 2008 at 3:20 am » Comments (2)

I have added an extensive links page to the site, with loads of great material from around the web. All strength topics are covered, from Anatomy to Zercher squats . The material includes individual articles, websites and blogs, videos and e-books. I will be regularly adding to these links with more resources as I find […]



How-to: Deadlift

» by January 16th, 2008 at 2:32 am » Comments (34)

The daddy of the powerlifts, the deadlift is arguably the most functional lift there is: picking a heavy object off the floor. Most people don’t do this because it is damn hard work. Are you one of them? No? Good. What is the deadlift? The deadlift is picking a dead weight off the floor and […]



What do you do when you see someone lifting with bad form?

» by January 13th, 2008 at 4:06 am » Comments (17)

Commenting on a fellow trainee’s form seems to be the ultimate no-no in today’s fitness clubs. Recently I’ve seen some poor deadlifting form in my gym. Basic stuff: rounding of the lower back, hyper-extending at the top of the lift, that kind of thing. But gym etiquette dictates that you can’t say anything to people […]



Other strength websites (1)

» by January 12th, 2008 at 4:03 am » Comments (4)

People often go on about how much crap there is on the internet, especially when it comes to strength training. But amongst all the rubbish are some real gems, and I will be highlighting my favourite sites on here from time to time. To start with, here are five sites you’ll love if you have […]



How-to: Handstand push-up

» by January 10th, 2008 at 12:04 pm » Comments (17)

One of the most badass exercises you can do in the gym, the handstand push-up is a humbling experience when you first try it. But persevere and you will develop excellent upper body strength.  What is the handstand push-up? A handstand push-up is performed against a wall in the handstand position. You slowly lower your […]



The Clean: common problems

» by January 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pm » Comments (10)

At a recent Crossfit London session, we focussed on clean technique. Although we had all done the clean before, we were generally not very experienced in this move and variously exhibited these common problems: Rounding of the lower back Elbows too low ‘Reverse curling’ the bar up rather than shrugging Crossfit encourages full squat cleans, […]