So I have recently been toying around with the one arm military press. I train shoulders twice per week and I now include heavy one arm military presses every other shoulder workout. This started by accident a little over a month ago. I was planning to do some seated dumbbell military presses, but all the benches were taken. I grabbed a set of dumbbells and decided to do just one arm at a time standing (an exercise I've never included as part of my routine). It felt pretty awkward the first set, but really engaged my triceps. By the 3rd set I was hooked! This creates a much different feel in the shoulders than doing seated dumbbell presses. After just 4-5 weeks of using this lift all of my weights in my pressing movements have shot up. No wonder this was such a popular exercise back in the early 1900's.
[Yeah...I am nowhere near this strong. I'm only using dumbbells in the 60 pound range. I have no idea how much weight this guy is hoisting. With Olympic plates it is easy to tell what is happening, but with these old fashion barbells who knows what is going on!]
You Will Be Able to Use Heavy Weights in This Lift
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I am cautious about recommending explosive strength training due to a higher risk of injury compared with slow and steady training. That being said, it is an effective way to gain strength quickly when done properly. I haven't dug in deep into this topic on my blog so far, so I wanted to take the time to do this now. The same weight can generate a different amount of tension to the muscles worked, depending upon the speed at which that weight is lifted. This is what I plan on talking about in detail in this post, along with a way to include this technique into your workout routine.
[Insert cheesy trivia that "ants can lift 50 times their body weight" here. Another awesome piece of trivia for you? A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel 
Very important life-changing info for free, brought to you by FBB!]
Strength Training vs Building Muscle
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People who have trained in the gym for years often look at something like the simple push up as a beginner's exercise. I mean, why would they want to perform push ups when they can get a "real" chest workout with heavy sets of bench presses. This is a big mistake, and one that I have been guilty of. It is easy to look at the simple push up as working the exact same muscles as the bench press, but with less resistance. I would like to talk about why you should include the push up in your routine, even if you are someone who trains with free weights.
[Here are a few guys "benching" on the edge of the River Thames in London using decent form. Yes...a bad joke, but better than the typical bench press article picture...a bulky guy in a lifting suit bench pressing a ton with his face as red as a beet.]
What I Never Knew About Push Ups
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I have to admit, I have only been exposed to thick bar training on a few occasions. I simply have never trained in a gym that had many thick barbells or dumbbells. My guess is that 99.9% of the people reading this article don't have access to thick bars either. I do have a solution for this, but first lets talk about how thick bars can significantly improve upper body development.
[If you can develop a vise-like grip, weights that once felt heavy will now feel lighter in your hands. This strength will transfer over to your entire upper body. I'll discuss why this is the case in a second.]
How Does a Strong Grip Help With Pressing Movements?
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I want to explain to you a method of how to get stronger at push-ups and pull-ups. I found out about this method from former Soviet special forces trainer, Pavel Tsatsouline. Pavel is a guy I began following closely since the late 90's. I was just fascinated by his advanced strength training methods that were unlike anything I had read in the mainstream fitness magazines. His methods were based around training elite military forces how to stay light and lean, while gaining amazing strength. I began studying this guy like a mad-man. Here is just one of the many techniques I learned from this master trainer from the former Soviet Union.
[Here is a photo of a fighter plane from the former Soviet Union. I'm quickly becoming a history buff and I'm fascinated by the former USSR in particular. I vividly remember watching The Olympics in the 70's and 80's...and their dominance in many of the sports made an impact on me as a child.]
Get Stronger by "Greasing the Groove"
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This post is to prove to people they can reach an ultra-high degree of conditioning with something as simple as the pull up bar. I've been writing a lot about body weight training and I've personally been trying to get better at pull ups and chin ups. You guys may or may not have heard of the Bar-Barians, but these guys are flat out impressive. They don't train with weights, but I would go as far to say that they are most likely in better shape and more ripped than just about anyone in your gym. If you have never been exposed to the Bar-Barians, prepare to be "Wow'ed"!
[The Bar-Barians were founded in 2004 and are based out of Brooklyn, New York. These guys are some of the most impressive athletes I have ever seen. Brooklyn has a reputation for being a tough area, but I'm guessing people don't mess with this group.]
Don't Let Their Tough Demeanor Fool You…
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I wanted to make a post outlining the most common strength training mistakes I see in the gym on a regular basis. I know that all of us reach sticking points in strength gains, but you could be doing a few things in your workout that are sabotaging your own progress. In my rush to getting stronger in my early days of lifting, I made these same mistakes. Use this post as a checklist next time you get stuck. Strength training is safe and easy when done properly, but can make you weak and sore if done wrong.
[I was overdue for an odd photo, so this should do the job. As usual, only about 1/2 of the photos on my site have anything to do with the article. This weekend I am going with a few friends to a beach house that has a nice hot tub overlooking the water. I guess this photo relates to that, but hopefully we won't be attacking each other!]
Why I Recommend Strength Training Over Bodybuilding
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