Old School Strength – Am I a jerk for this??
August 15, 2009 by Admin: Joe Hashey, CSCS
Filed under Muscle Building Articles, Synergy Pictures, Unreal Strength Building
My father used to tell me that there is no strength replacement for a day of workout with your hands.
And as a furnace man, he practiced what he preached. He had huge hands and incredible “real world strength.” After getting on the business end of a few boilers, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
This week I wanted to give my lifters a taste of some heavy grunt work, so I came with an exercise I dubbed “Bull Strength Fire Drill.” It was brutal, and I felt like a jerk for making the guys do it. However, no one complained, and they were all building some serious real world muscle!
Bull Strength Fire Drill
- Size up the dumbbell rack that is 55-100′s.
- Switch the top row with the bottom row.
- and repeat to replace all the DB’s
Rules: Alternate arms each removal. Each dumbbell must travel above your stomach and then go to the floor. You must rotate 10 of the DBs from hip to hip before placing it on the floor.
Kevin should have rethought unloading the whole rack at once….
The Fire Drill was timed and the younger guys did it with the lighter rack – 5′s to 50′s. The guys were working their core, legs, bracing, shoulders, biceps, upper back, and glutes. A quality full body strength exercise that will work its way into the program about once a month.
Also, what’s the hardest part of a heavy training day? Putting the weights away!
- Joe Hashey, CSCS -
PS. Am I a jerk for making the guys do it? I couldn’t stop sweating demonstrating it!
You could also do something similar to Ryan Vierra’s plate loading drill. He stands between two boxes and moves plates from box to box.
Have the trainee have their back to the rack and load the dumbbells up by twisting right then to the left and work their way down the line.
Sounds like an awesome drill.
Video?
Sure Chris, I do have video. I’ll probably put it up on Vimeo or one of my other accounts this week.
Joe
awesome drill
Joe, that looks like some hard work. You’re not a jerk for the exercise as long as you did it yourself. That’s the deciding factor. If you didn’t do it first, then you should be taken out into the street and whipped with a chain, brother!
Keep up the good work.
Haha, you know I did it, couldnt get enough!
Jedd, did you find what I moved around your house yet?
Joe
Joe,
That is funny because I have stated that some day I am going to make the athletes completely un-rack and re-rack the dumbbells for a workout. Everytime I clean all the dumbbell racks-I do it quickly for a quick workout! I have two full sets of 5-120 lb dumbbells!