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The Barbell, King of the Weight Room,

Part III

Barbell Training

By

Rob Izsa

Deadlift

“The deadlift is unrivaled in its simplicity and impact while unique in its capacity

for increasing head to toe strength” states Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit

(2006). With a promotion like this, what else do you need? There is no other

exercise that works as many muscle groups, is a primal movement pattern, and is

prerequisite to other lifts as is the deadlift. What is more basic than lifting

something off the floor?

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One-Arm Press

The one-arm press, or side press, is a great feat of strength. The bar can be tilted

on end, gripped in the center and hoisted to the shoulder. Another method is to

perform a reverse grip one-arm clean (similar to an explosive curl). Tighten your

midsection, brace your legs against the floor, crush the bar, and push yourself

away from the bar. Once the arm is locked out, move under the bar so it is

directly overhead. Another simple move that develops pressing strength, midline

stabilization, the rotator cuff, grip, coordination, and balance.

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Clean and Jerk

What is the clean, but an explosive deadlift and heave to the shoulder, again,

another primal movement pattern. The jerk allows for more weight to be heaved

overhead. Also holding a heavy load overhead strengthens the entire body from

the fingers to the toes. Coordination, strength, power, timing, flexibility; what

else would you want?

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Snatch

The snatch is the fastest of all lifts. Speed and strength is required to lift the

barbell from the start to a secure overhead position.

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Overhead Squat

The overhead squat is a great full body strength move. Best if performed after a

snatch, but can be cleaned to the shoulder then pressed into position (more

functional movements). Tremendous flexibility and strength can be developed.

The OHS develops great midline stability, hip, shoulder, and ankle flexibility,

balance, coordination, and shoulder girdle strength and stability.

Front Squat

The front squat is a great movement for training the lower body, midsection, and

upper body. If you can clean it, you can front squat it!

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Back Squat

With just a barbell and no rack, old-time lifters would tilt their bar up, get under

it, and then nudge it into position. Maximal weight may not be able to be used,

but higher reps with no wrist strain (front squat), can be achieved. The squat is

also a great full body exercise requiring many muscle groups across multiple

joints with different types of effort within a single repetition. The back squat can

be performed heavy for greater strength gains, moderate for hypertrophy

development, quickly for explosiveness, and light with high reps for a

conditioning effect.

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Javorek Complex

Once you’ve become sufficient in basic barbell movement patterns, this complex

will really test your mettle. Snatch pull x 5, snatch x 5, back squat x 5, push press

x 5, good morning x 5, and rows x 5 = 1 set. This is a great warm up when

performed with light weight and a great workout for conditioning, strength

development, power, and hypertrophy.

The Bear Complex

Why not one more combination exercise to kick you’re a**! A power clean, front

squat, push press, back squat, and another press = 1 rep. Heavy with low reps or

light with high reps, pick your punishment – either way you’ll be better for it.

Here is a three day effective workout using nothing but a barbell and weights.

There are many set and rep schemes that can be used to develop your overall

fitness to the fullest, but for me I believe in Less is More and Keep it Simple. So

here is a simple, brief, and intense basic workout plan

Day 1

Strength Day

Warm Up: Javorek Complex

Deadlift (5 x 5)

1-Arm Press (5 x 5 each Arm)

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Day 2

Speed Strength Day

Warm Up: Javorek Complex

Clean and Jerk (6 x 2-3)

Snatch and OHS (6 x 2-3)

Day 3

Metabolic Challenge Day

Warm Up: Javorek Complex

Bear Complex (7 x 7)

The purpose of this program is to utilize movement patterns that occur naturally

in life; grab something and lift it up. In my opinion these basic full body

movements cover the universal movement patterns of the body. By performing

them in varying set/rep/intensity variations and including the three energy

systems, a high level of overall fitness can be achieved.

Rob Izsa, MA, CSCS, USAW Club Coach

President of Intense Training Systems, LLC and

CrossFit Morris County located in Denville, NJ

Physical Education Teacher

Morristown High School

http://intensetrainingsystems.com

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Blastin’ the Barbell Basics!

By Zach Even – Esh

If I ever forget where I really came from, or where any other REALLY strong man

came from, I simply need to be confined to my Dad’s garage again with only a

barbell, nothing else! Those days packed strength and muscle on my body faster

than ever before!

Lock me up for 4 weeks with a heavy barbell and nothing else and I’ll pack on

muscle and strength faster than if I was in a fancy, fully equipped sports

performance facility and so will You!

The men from back in the day did it, and we need to remember that this is what

still works, in fact, it will ALWAYS work.

Vince Gironda’s gym – plenty of barbells!

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I also remember in Arnold’s Book, ‘The Education of a Bodybuilder’, how he and

a buddy would go to the woods and pack a barbell and 250 lbs of weights in the

trunk and then squat for hours until they couldn’t even stand up anymore.

Why don’t we see this kind of training anymore? I used to help a bodybuilder

friend of mine prepare for contests and he always loved my enthusiasm so I

would put together crazy workouts for him. His back workouts would end up

being 20 minutes of barbell rows for max sets, 20 minutes of deadlifts for max

sets and 20 minutes of weighted pull ups for max sets.

This guy would perform barbell rows with 365 lbs! It was sick! His back was so

thick, dense and ripped it was shocking! He had that ripped up lower back that

looked like a Christmas Tree!

I use barbells for straight up heavy strength work, or, sometimes I perform

barbell complexes for endurance work. The barbell complexes FRY your

forearms, it’s insane when you perform these complexes how difficult holding the

bar becomes.

Here are my top Barbell movements, in no particular order:

- bent leg deadlift: lower body

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Above, the bent leg deadlift is one of the most effective exercises out

there. A few heavy sets for no more than 5 reps will do the trick.

Nothing fancy here, grip and rip!

- bent over row (overhand and underhand): upper body

More and more people perform chest supported rows and lat pulldowns in place of

the REAL muscle and strength building back exercises. Bent over rowing is the

KING for developing a thick and rugged back with monster pulling power. Work

these regularly and work these heavily!

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- hang clean / power clean: full body

Above, the rack position of the clean. Personally, I can not perform these with the

perfect execution, but, I have still received a great benefit in strength and muscle

gains from all the aggressive pulling required to pull a barbell upward. This is also

why I perform cheat curls. I use a similar pulling movement but the underhand grip

allows me to rack the weight comfortably. BOTH are powerful movements!

- clean & press variation: full body

- military press variations: upper body

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Military Pressing with a thick bar. Overhead presses are awesome for developing

the shoulders, triceps and upper back. In addition, the legs work very hard during

this movement, even if it is not a push press. There is no part of the body which can

relax during the overhead press. When performing any type of military press, I

prefer to pull the weight from the ground first, requiring me to power clean the first

rep of every set. This is another great way to get added pulling work into your

workouts.

- high pulls: full body

- floor press: upper body

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The Floor Press is phenomenal for developing upper body pushing strength.

Without a rack, you’ll need a training partner to deadlift the weight up and hand it

to you. I used to do this in my garage with my training partner. The benefit here is

the spotter can perform an explosive deadlift every time he lifts the weight. It’s a

great way to extra work in!

- Romanian dead lift (RDL): lower body

- Shrugs: upper body

- Cheat curls: upper body

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I have encouraged these to many people in the past and they are amazing for upper

body strength and power. Load the bar heavy and use your back, shoulders, traps

and everything else to get the weight up, then lower as slowly and controlled as

possible. This is a great way to finish a workout.

- Lying extensions / JM press: upper body

- Back squats: lower body

- Lunge variations: lower body

- Zercher Squats: lower body

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The Zercher Squat was supposedly very popular in prisons as there were no squat

racks available so the inmate would lift the weight by squatting under the bar and

lifting it or, he would deadlift the bar, sit back and place the bar on the lower thighs,

then carefully place one elbow at a time under the bar and begin the lift. Your upper

body will work equally hard as your lower body in this amazing lift. Make sure your

hands stay high so the bar does not roll down your forearms. Also, if you do not

have a thick bar, wrap a towel in the center of the bar until you feel comfortable

holding the bar in the crook of your elbows.

Outlined below will be several workouts for you to follow. I suggest

giving them a go for at least 4 weeks in a row to test the response. Trying a

workout or movement once does not do enough to elicit a response, so be

patient.

Workout 1: One Exercise Only

Choose one exercise and give yourself a 45 minute time limit. You will perform

ONE exercise for an entire 45 minutes. Choose ANY of the above exercises except

for the curls or tricep extensions.

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Once your first set begins the clock begins. You can perform reps ranging

anywhere from 1 – 10 reps. Your last 5 – 10 minutes you can lighten the weights

and hit some high rep sets above 10 reps.

I’ve seen guys do this with phenomenal results. But, it takes a lot of discipline to

NOT walk away and start doing another exercise. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS! Also,

if you find your technique faltering, you can lower the weight and / or lower the

reps.

My highest recommendations for the One Exercise Workout would be:

- Deadlift variations

- Squat variations

- floor press

- clean and press

- military press

- high pulls

Rest periods should be 30 – 60 s between each set, no longer.

Workout 2: Upper Body, Lower Body & Full Body Exercise

Choose 3 movements, one from each category above.

For example:

1) deadlift

2) floor press

3) high pull

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Perform each exercise with a 15 minute time limit, once again, working in the 1 –

10 rep range. The order of exercises does not matter much, they can be switched

regularly.

This style of training is great for adding strength and muscle. Once again, short

rest periods are recommended.

Last, if you want to work on conditioning, lactate tolerance and adding

muscle mass, a barbell complex can be exactly what you need. These high reps

are awesome for adding muscle and really push the body and mind. I think

bodybuilders and powerlifters can benefit from complexes greatly and can be

worked in every 7 – 10 days. If your goal is conditioning, then use the complexes

more often.

I prefer using a medium weight with 6 – 8 reps per exercise. But, when I

performed Randy Couture’s circuit (we have an article here on USC detailing his

workout) we did 10 reps per exercises, which came out to 80 reps every set!

Here is the complex we have used with great success at the

Underground, 6 - 8 reps per exercise:

1A) hang clean

1B) push press

1C) bent over row

1D) deadlift

1E) high pulls

1F) squats

1G) reverse lunges (6 reps ea. Leg)

You can also break down your complexes into upper or lower body only. These

can become quite brutal and for the lower body and you can use some heavier

weights than normal for lower body.

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Upper Body Only Complex, 6 reps per exercise:

1A) hang clean

1B) bent over row

1C) high pull

1D) push press

1E) shrugs

Lower Body Only Complex, 6 reps per exercise:

1A) back squat

1B) good morning

1C) reverse lunge

1D) walking lunge

1E) back squat

** If you are skilled at front squats and overhead squats, by all means mix them

into your lower body complex. My personal lower body complex would look

exactly like the above, where I start AND finish with the back squat.

On a final note, this 3 part series was inspired after I recollected my days of

training with a 300 lb Cap Barbell set that I bought from CostCo. Yes, the barbell

was a piece of shit, but man did I have awesome workouts.

I also had a pair of 50 and 100 lb dumbbells, but my training centered around the

barbell and my strength soared as did my muscle mass.

Because I wish I knew about this style of training when I was younger, I hope we

can pass along this powerful information to those we work with, those we know

and most of all, give to yourself.

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You owe it to yourself to use the best methods, and even Reg Park said it in what

was perhaps his very last interview before his unfortunate passing….Reg said that

if he was setting up a gym today, he would have barbells, dumbbells and a

chinning bar.

That’s some REALLY basic stuff and can we argue with a man of such enormous

strength and magnificent appearance!

Above, The Great Reg Park

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