rock lifting

[peterhanley]

Hello,

Great site...couple of questions re 1 tonne challenge.
-When you have the stone above your head, do you just chuck it down or do you have to lower it under control?
-To get it off the floor, do you crouch down bending at the knees or do you just bend the waist keeping legs straight? Could the latter be dangerous?

Thanks

[Seeker]

Welcome aboard! Always great to see another face. 

Bending at the waist to pick things up is quite normal for lighter weights. Of course squatting with a straight back to lift heavy items is definitely wise advice. You sound like you have things worked out already from a common sense point of view as these questions have crossed your mind. I'm sure Matt will chime in with some further details about his program so I'll leave that to him if any more information is needed.

[Matt Emery]

Hi Peter, thanks for posting, and welcome aboard

The '1 tonne challenge' is best executed by using a weighted barbell, which you can lift in several different ways.  You can use a rock, or log, or anything that tickles your fancy, but for the sake of safety and efficacy, I recommend a weighted barbell.

The movement I recommend using is the 'Clean and Jerk'.  It is functional, safe, efficient and very effective.  You bend at the knees and hips and keep your back in a relatively neutral position.  Do not keep your legs straight - that can be quite dangerous, and it isn't very functional either.

The Clean and Jerk is an advanced exercise, and must be done correctly, in order to prevent injury and to maximise the efficacy of the exercise.  Go here for an excellent demonstration video (scroll down to the Clean and Jerk videos); http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

Also, there is no need to lower the weight under control, you can drop the weight after you have reached full extension - just like they do in Olympic Weightlifting.

And remember... be safe, use a light weight at first (don't get greedy) and most importantly, have fun 

[peterhanley]

Thank you both for replying so thoroughly.

I think you have inspired me to get a barbell. I also like the idea of using the rock - more cavemanesque and plenty of them lying around in the hills when I´m out trail running.

I see in the caveman workout video the athlete bends the back much as I would do.  Elsewhere you recommend the sit-up over the crunch. Any reason?

Sorry for being a bit clueless and I realise you are out there for the fun of it and not setting yourselves up as experts either!

[Seeker]

My personal opinion on why the sit-up trumps the crunch is simply how I have observed it in daily life, especially young children. How often in the real world do you crunch up so your shoulders are a few inches off the ground, hold that position for a second, then lie back down? Yet curling up is a normal part of just getting up off the ground. I don't like the kind of sit-ups where you hold your back straight and lever at the hips though, I think curling up like a crunch until you are fully upright is much less strain and also seems to be how we naturally sit up if you aren't thinking about actually doing it for exercise.

[Matt Emery]

I see in the caveman workout video the athlete bends the back much as I would do.  Elsewhere you recommend the sit-up over the crunch. Any reason?

I should remove that video... it is so technically wrong, but the spirit of the video is cool - as you've pointed out. 

I recommend a sit-up because it recruits more muscles due to the increased movement of the Hip Flexors - it's what you'd be doing in nature.

Seeker is correct, rolling up (crunching) into a sit-up is a natural and functional way to do it.

[peterhanley]

Remove the very video that attracted me here?!
I hope you film another one.

One last question:
You advise against isolating muscle groups and your reasoning makes a lot of sense. What about the bicep curls on the video? Isn´t this an isolating movement? Perhaps something like a squat-curl-press would be more functional?

[Seeker]

One good and "functional" biceps curl type movement is cradling something heavy in your arms and carrying it for distance. Farmers carrying sacks and cavemen carrying a carcass come to mind. They actually do this exact thing in the Worlds Strongest Man competitions and it's either a big rock or steel shield type thing.

[Phanatic]

Imo the best abdominal exercise I've done is the plank. It sounds easy, but you'll change your mind after a minute.

http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises_10.htm

[Matt Emery]

You advise against isolating muscle groups and your reasoning makes a lot of sense. What about the bicep curls on the video? Isn´t this an isolating movement? Perhaps something like a squat-curl-press would be more functional?

Yep, it is an isolating movement, and I never actually do them myself.  it's another reason i'd like to remove the video - and film another one   

Personally, I don't do curls at all, my biceps get plenty of action by doing compounds movements e.g. push ups, pull ups, Kettlebell snatches etc.

[Seeker]

Believe it or not, good old chin-ups (with hands facing toward you) are one of the best exercises around for biceps, as well as the obvious and massive benefits for your entire back and shoulder structure.

[Phanatic]

Believe it or not, good old chin-ups (with hands facing toward you) are one of the best exercises around for biceps, as well as the obvious and massive benefits for your entire back and shoulder structure.

Chin-ups are awesome, and can be quite hard and challenging - hence why you see people sticking to the assisted pullup machine.