Exercise and Fitness Forum

Farm Strength

by Earl R. Curry

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I attended a National Throws Coaches Association Clinic a few weeks ago. Basically it was hands on instruction and panel discussions from some of the best College and Olympic coaches and athletes in the country. One phrase kept coming up constantly throughout the weekend??Farm Strength?. I think I heard the phrase a half dozen times, from about a half dozen different world class coaches and athletes, ?Farm Strength? or strength built with just plain old hard work. There was one Olympic discus thrower that said that?s all he ever did, work on a farm, to get strong enough to win a gold medal in the Olympic Discus Throw.

I owned a little pizza shop years ago and had a teenage kid working for me on the weekends. He was a big farm boy and his other part time job was working on a pig farm down the road. He was strong as an ox himself and when I asked him how he got so strong, he said it was from having to hold on to the pigs all day. His job was to grab the hind legs of the pigs and hold them while they were getting castrated. Bet you won?t see that on ?Dirty Jobs? any time soon.

The Farm Strength they were referring to is what coaches and trainers ?now? like to call functional strength. Some also call it dinosaur training, cross training or even strongman training.  There?s a growing movement in the fitness and strength fields on building this functional strength. Most trainers also associate it with ?core? strength but it?s really 2 similar, but different things.

I noticed on the Biggest Loser TV show they use functional training a lot. Best example I saw was when they put the trainer, Bob Harper, on a moving dolly and pushed and pulled him up a hill. They do a lot of back to basics hard work on that show.  See that hill? Let?s climb it. See that skid of bricks? Let?s move them over here?and race while we do it. It?s just good, old fashion, hard work.

One thing I saw on the Biggest Loser that looks like a great idea to me is when they make them carry the amount of weight they lost while they do their races. Carrying the extra weight while walking or running is actually a very good form of overload training used by many athletes.  You can buy special weight vest to add weight or I?ve seen some people just stuff a back pack with some barbell plates or sand. As we lose the fat, our bodies actually don?t have to work as hard to move around so we use less energy. Adding a little weight while you jog or walk might just be the thing that kick starts your progress again. If you have little kids give them a piggy back ride around the block. Use what you?ve got!

Did you ever watch Rocky IV, when he fought the Russian giant? The Russian fighter had all the latest technology and drugs at his disposal. Scientist in white lab coats where his coaches and trainers. What about Rocky?s training? He moved to a farm and lifted rocks, cut wood, put a log on his back and walked thru the snow, did presses with an old wooden wagon with people in the seat for extra weight and ran in the snow. Back to basics, hard working, farm strength.

We have a personal trainer here in Columbus that has his clients carry a rock around the block. Nothing special, just a big, old rock. Many of his clients are housewives just looking to get toned and stay in shape. His gym is full of sandbags, logs and old car parts he found at the junk yard. He has people lift and toss these things around the gym and outside. There are many gyms like this around the country now. While some gyms go high tech and get the newest chromed up computerized machines that cost thousands of dollars just to work one muscle like your bicep, here are these warehouse gyms (you?ll find them in industrial parks, not shopping malls) that make you pick up a cheap sandbag or an even cheaper rock. Picking up that sandbag will work every muscle in your body and get you in better overall condition than just about any machines will? believe me.

Someone posted on the Obesity Help Fitness message board not to long ago, asking what they could do for exercise at home. (Here?s the link to that message board - http://obesityhelp.com/forums/fitness/a,messageboard/board_id,5104/ ). You really don?t have to run out and buy a bunch of dumbbells and rubber tubes. There are things lying around your house or backyard that can give you a great workout and it won?t cost you a dime. Be creative, have fun and work hard.

• Instead of a dumbbell grab a can of corn and start curling.
• Grab a gallon of milk, water or bleach?anything and do some presses and curls.
• Squats with a broom or mop on your shoulder instead of a barbell. You haven?t lived until you do 50 or 100 squats with just bodyweight.
• Do some pushups. If you?re really good at them, have your kid sit on your back while you do them. Not quite strong enough for pushups?do them against a wall, then on your knees and then do full pushups.
• Put your feet up on the couch while you lie on the floor and do crunches or Hip Lifts. If you get really good at it, do them 1 leg at a time.
• Grab a support column, like in the basement or a door way, with 1 hand at about waist height, step away from your hand and bend over, kind of like holding your hand over your head while bending over at the waist with your hand holding onto the doorway. Then lean back and stretch out your back. You can kind of twist to the side for more of a stretch. You can even pull a little with your hand and arm and it will feel amazingly like a Chin Up on your Back muscles.

If you need a lighter or heavier jug, use the following substances instead of water:

• Water ? 8.33 lbs/gallon
• Concrete - 20.02 lbs/gallon
• Sand - 13.35 lbs/gallon
• Dirt - 13.10 lbs/gallon
• Milk - 8.59 lbs/gallon
• Corn - 6.01 lbs/gallon
• Beans - 5.84 lbs/gallon
• Rice - 5.74 lbs/gallon

The first progressive resistance exerciser was a guy name Milo of Kroton. He basically started by putting a calf on his back and walking around. As the calf grew, so did his strength. I know we all don?t have large farm animals laying around but?you know?use what you?ve got.