Medicine Ball Training!

Medicine balls allow you to do explosive exerises such as slams, granny throws, and throwing the ball backwards over your head. These exercises help develop the posterior chain which is important in everyday tasks like standing up, squatting down to pick something up, as well as other things like deadlifting and squatting hudreds of pounds. Medicine ball training can help athletes such as football, rugby, basketball, and aussy rules players. Medicine balls also allow you to work in different planes of motion. Their are all kinds of things you can do with a medicine ball as a warmup to your actual workout like rotational handoffs, woodchops, swings, and presses. When I was in high school I used to take a 10 pound medicine ball and throw it against my stomach 50 times in a row while doing a leg lift. I do not know if that helped my jumping ability but I did dunk a softball at 5'9. If you want to learn more contact me.
Nathan Jordan
(614) 499-4633
www.jackhammermusclesculpting.com
www.jackhammerstrength.com

TRX Susension Training

Suspension training is unlike any other training modality. It incorporates all of the 37 core muscles. Because all the core muscles are activated you cannot train one muscle at a time like bodybuilders often try to do. This forces you to train the whole body as one synergistic unit instead of trying to hit individual muscles.

Some of the best suspension training exercises include chest presses, one leg jump squats, atomic push ups, the pendulum, and inverted rows. Suspension straps allow you to train in all three planes of motion transverse, sagital, and frontal.

One of the best things about suspension training is that you can increase or reduce the resistance by increasing or decreasing the angle. An example of this is the inverted row so imagine your feet are up against a tree holding onto straps suspended from a tree branch above you, your feet are horizontal to the ground and you pull yourself up. This is a real inverted row and it is very difficult. Now imagine you are standing and just leaning back at a 30 degree angle now it is a lot easier and you can probably do it without a problem regardless of your current fitness levels. By training in this manner you can progressively increase the angle and improve your physique with each subsequent workout.

TRX suspension straps are by Fitness Anywhere because you really can use them anywhere over a tree branch, pull-up bar, joist, or even on a door frame.

If you want to know more or have a training session let me know,

Nathan Jordan

614 499-4633

http://www.jackhammermusclesculpting.com/

http://www.jackhammerstrength.com/

My favorite gym is open again!

Jesse Owens North is open again! The students are back at The Ohio State University. You might wonder why it is my favorite gym. The first reason is that I have lived less than 50 yards from this amazing gym for over 4 years. The second reason is the equipment squat racks, pullup bars, dip station, kettlebells, basketball courts, and the real power lifting stuff glute-ham machine, reverse hyper, and deadlift platform. Today I did some conventional deadlifts not too heavy though since it's been a while and I did not use a lifing belt.

The plan is to get my deadlift up to 500 pounds by my birthday next year. The most I've ever done is 450 on the hex bar and 415 conventional. I have done a 500 pound rack pull so I know I am capable of lifting a quarter ton. To get to the seemingly unreal 500 pound goal will take lots of dedication pulling at least every 5 days, cycling between low sets of heavy reps and higher rep sets with lower reps to not burn out my central nervous system too quickly. I will also have to supplement my deadlifting with lots of glute-hams, kettlebell swings, and reverse hypers to work my posterior chain and make my lower back strong enough to make that kind of lift. If anyone else wants to join me in a quest to get strong come see me at JON I will be there most evenings for the forseeable future!

I want to ride my bicycle!

Hello,

I got my bike back today after two long weeks without it. I am not sure why it took them so long to fix it but the important thing is that I can ride again. I love to ride in the fall when it is not too hot out. I like the way my muscles feel, the wind, the trees, the river, the critters in the woods, seeing lots of people and dogs enjoying the great outdoors. Today I rode to Antrim Park plus a lap and back to campus. On my ride I stopped three times first to pet a Saint Bernard. She is very friendly I played with her and the larger one several months back. My second stop was at my favorite tree at the Park of Roses. I like to train using TRX suspension straps on this tree because it is the perfect height for me to do all kinds of exercises on. I did squats, one legged squats, y's, v's, biceps curls, and inverted rows.

When was the last time you rode a bike? If you used to ride a bike why did you stop? Is it because you don't have a bike anymore, scared of traffic, or something else? Hopefully I will ride to work at least once this coming week.

Jackhammer

Today's workout!

Today's workout plan was to go to the RPAC and do some light sets of squats, glute-ham raises, pullups, chest supported rows, one arm rows, some basketball, and then hotub but the RPAC is closing at 4 pm all weekend for Labor day so my workout became kettlebell swings, cleans, goblet squats, and presses. I tried some bottoms up presses, these really work your grip strength, with my 45# and got 3 reps with my right but none with my left probably because my left shoulder has been sore for about a week. In my sports Medicine Research class I am going to review either: How can a client with Multiple Sclerosis safely train to improve their balance and equilibrium or Can you reverse Diabetes through exercise and if so is cardiorespiratory activity or strength training more effective?

Getting started with an exercise program!

How does someone get started with an exercise program? For myself I don't have to worry about it because I have exercised if not acually trained regularly for the past 8 years. But for most people the biggest hurdle is to actually get started exercising in the first place. The first thing you need to do is to decide to start exercising. The second is to committ to that program.

Once you have made the committment to start a program you need to consider the different aspects of fitness such as cardio, flexibility, stability, strength, muscular endurance, and power. Their are different ways to learn about ways to exercise. You could find someone else who allready exercises and try to learn from them. You could watch youtube of different exercises. You could buy a book such as The Abs Diet Get Fit, Stay Fit Plan. Probably the number one way to get started is to hire a knowledgable trainer to start training you.

What should you look for in a trainer? Probably someone who knows anantomy, saftey precautions, many exercises, has a legitimate certification such as ACSM, NSCA, or the ISSA. Probably the most important thing when hiring a trainer is to figure out what kind of trainer you want to help you reach your goals. Because if you want to be in shape like a navy seal yo probably need a drilll sargeant type trainer but if you just want to be able to do everyday tasks like put something away in a cupboard above your head that weighs 20 pounds the drill sargeant type is not the kind of trainer you want. You might want a trainer that you consider a friend. You probably do not want someone who looks like they are off the cover of a muscle magazine unless you are looking to get into bodybuilding.

What kind of trainer am I you might be wondering? I am not the drill sargeant type. I will make your program harder as you progress through the different stages of fitness from flexibility and stability all the way through strength and power.

If this is something you are interested in you can reach me at:

614 499-4633
jackhammerstrength@gmail.com
www.jackhammerstrength.com

Jerry Rice greatest receiver ever!

I'm sitting here watching sportcenter and Jerry Rice and Emmit Smith are getting inducted ino the Football Hall of Fame today. Both of them have numerous records but when people talk about the best receiver ever their ususally is not even anyone else mentioned in the conversation. When talking about the best running backs ever I hear the names Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, not ususally Emmit Smith. Why was Jerry Rice the greatest ever at his position? Was it his genetics? Was it playing with Joe Montana and Steve Young or was it because he prepared smarter and harder than any other receiver in the history of the NFL? Jerry Rice is a legend and still runs 20 miles a week.

What are you doing to be the best athlete or person that you can be? I am very proficient at creating training programs. However I am not very good at following programs that I create for myself. If you want or need a program let me know and I will try to help you inyour goals.

On a side note my workout yesterday went for an hour and a half. I got my bench back up to 285 after only benching for about 4 weeks. I was not able to do very much upper body lifting for a while because of a torn extensor tendon in my right pinky. My grip strength as measured on a dynamometer wit my rigt hand went from 127 psi to a sad 65 psi. Also yesterday I hexbar deadlifted 405. I my have to get some 100 pound plates soon if I'm going to continue to go up in the hex bar deadlift.

I have a basic plan for the gym for te next 6 weeks. I am going to do hangcleans twice a week other than that I will go to Ausstralian Rules Football Practice. I'm sure I will do other lifts too but will not have a plan in place because I know when I make a detailed plan I just stray from it.