Dear Dino Man

by Al Myers

I get HUNDREDS of questions per month from individuals pertaining to weight lifting or other matters since I have been webmaster of the USAWA Website. I guess that goes along with making your email address publicly known on a website. People are always looking for free advice and the internet provides plenty of it – some good and some not so good. I try to respond to most questions, but there are lots I don’t get around to. I hate to deprive the USAWA Daily News readers of these “email exchanges” so I’ve decided to start an advice column to share some of these questions and my responses. Maybe it will answer a few questions that I repeatedly receive, and cut out having to answer the same question over and over again. I have decided to name this column Dear Dino Man. I am leaving off the names of the email senders – to insure confidentially and possible embarrassment.

Dear Dino Man,

I am interested in all round weightlifting, and would like to know where to find out more information and a listing of the competitions. Where do I find this?

It’s all on the USAWA website – the same place you found my email address.

Dear Dino Man,

Our company (fill in the blank) sells (fill in the blank) and would like you to link our website to yours. Would you do that?

Sure – and how much do you plan to donate to the USAWA in yearly sponsorship? (followed by no response from the sender).

Dear Dino Man,

Im 17 years old and been liftin waites for 6 months now. Me and mine buddies is allready lot stronger than u guys. We train at the high school, and coach tells us we need to do a liftin meat cuz wear so good. We think ur meats sound fun and we no we would be da champions. How big uf trophes will get?

For the time being, it sounds like it would be best if you focus on your academic studies, and if you get time  take a course in humility.

Dear Dino Man,

Is the bench press and the roman chair bench press the same thing?

No, not even close.

Dear Dino Man,

I really enjoy the USAWA website! Thank you for the refreshing approach to weightlifting that I don’t see any more. I especially like the stories written by Thom Van Vleck. Is he someone famous?

Thom is indeed someone famous! He has written many articles published in MILO and other strength publications. He has weight trained for over 30 years and has a wealth of lifting knowledge.  He has directed many competitions (Highland Games and Weightlifting) and is a real leader in the strength World. He is also the assistant webmaster of the USAWA website. I only wish he would contribute a little more often instead of leaving most of the work to me.

(Disclaimer: Dear Dino Man provides answers that may fall into the grouping of “not so good” amongst the multitude of  free internet advice)

Got a great idea?

by Al Myers

After sharing my idea of Hanging Dumbbell Presses, I was wondering if anyone else had ideas like this??  I know someone else has to have some “secret training idea or tip” that may benefit another lifter.  Hey – we are all here to share!!! Don’t keep those secrets to yourself!  So I’m going to stage a little competition to get those secrets out.  All you need to do is submit a story on your idea and how it benefits your training.  This doesn’t have to be about some unique piece of equipment – it may just be a training idea or a training tip.  The more original the better.  I will then run these stories in the USAWA Daily News here on the website  and after all submitted stories are ran, leave it up to USAWA membership to vote on the one they like best!!  You do not need to be a USAWA member to submit a story, but do in order to place a vote.  I will accept stories up till this coming Sunday night (January 30th) so I can have them ready for the website the next week.

Rules of the competition: Stories must be between 500-1000 words, and a picture must be submitted that goes with your story.  The DEADLINE for submitting a story is Sunday, January 30th. Please email them to me  at amyers@usawa.com .

To spice up the competition a little, the winner will receive a set of my Hanging Dumbbell Handles!!

Hanging Dumbbell Presses

by Al Myers

Al Myers demonstrating a Hanging Dumbbell Press, using a special made dumbbell handle that attaches to a chain that suspends the dumbbells at shoulder height.

A few months ago I started a training program utilizing seated dumbbell presses with the hope that they would be less stressful on my shoulder joints than straight bar shoulder presses.  Years ago I did LOTS of dumbbell presses and really liked them.   The natural rotation of pressing dumbbells feels better on your shoulders than a straight bar. Pressing dumbbells also makes you  very aware of shoulder strength imbalances.  With a bar, some of these “imbalances” can be compensated for with the stronger shoulder – but with a dumbbell that weakness is EXPOSED very quickly!  I started this dumbbell training program after Worlds in which I was VERY disappointed with my dumbbell press at that meet.  I have been able to “hide” my weak left arm pressing strength for quite a while by just using my right in competitions that require a lift to be done one handed. But at Worlds the Scots pulled a mean trick on me – and put in place  a “meet rule” that required both one arm lifts to be performed with alternate arms.  I really wanted to snatch with my right, so the dumbbell press was “left” to my “left”.  Needless to say, I did less for a max standing than what I USED to do for 5 reps seated.

This is a picture of the Hanging Dumbbell Handle.

I started the program out easy with light dumbbells and progressed a little every week.  My shoulders felt great.  No front delt shoulder pain.   However, soon I reached a point when the dumbbell poundages got heavy enough that I remembered another problem that dumbbell pressing causes.  My elbows started hurting!!! My elbow tendinitis flared back to full force like the days when I was bench pressing heavy.  Back then, it was a standard practice of mine to ice my elbows for an hour after every bench training session.  I don’t really want to go back to doing that now – just for dumbbell pressing!  The act of hammer curling or cleaning the dumbbells to my shoulders was the culprit here.  I was about ready to give up on dumbbell pressing because of this – but then I came up with a BETTER WAY!

I decided to make a “special” dumbbell handle that could be hung suspended overhead from my rack at the seated shoulder height.  This way I could hang the dumbbell using both hands – thus taking out the part of the lift that was causing me the elbow pain that seemed unnecessary. Now with the dumbbells already hanging, I just “take my seat” and start pressing!   I also feel a lot safer because if for any reason I would lose control of the dumbbells they would be “caught” by the chain and not do any damage to the floor or myself!   I have never heard of read of anyone else making a dumbbell handle like this so I want to share this idea.  Someone else may already have done this,  so I’m not going to make any claim to this idea.  That’s not my point.  If it would help someone else experiencing this same problem as myself and this idea would help them – that is enough for me.  The handle was very easy to make, and hopefully, will help build up my dumbbell press once again.

USAWA Records 2010

by Al Myers

What a year for broken records!!!  After tallying the last chance for any 2010 USAWA records  from the National Postal Meet, the USAWA ended up with a total of 609 records.  This is less than 100 from the all time best of 702 records set in 2005.  This is the third best year ever.   Maybe next year the “record for records” will go down.  Let’s hope so.  The following is a listing of the lifters who set the most USAWA records (20 or more)  in 2010.

Individual Records 2010

1.   62 – Al Myers

2.  43 – Chad Ullom

3.  35 – Kohl Hess

4.  30 – Rudy Bletscher

4.  30 – Thom Van Vleck

6.  28 – Dave Glasgow

7.  25 – Mike Murdock

7.  25 – Art Montini

9.  24 – Joe Garcia

10.  22 – John O’Brien

11.  21 – Denny Habecker

12.  20 – Darren Barnhart

It is interesting to note that only one lifter in the above list is not a Junior or Master lifter – and that is Chad Ullom.  The significance of this it that Chad is eligible to break or set only OVERALL records, not age group records.  The advantage of being able to break or set age group records is that you can “double dip” – meaning you can set TWO records with one record attempt.  All of Chad’s records were set individually – which is much more difficult!  This will change next year for him as he reaches the age in which he can FINALLY call himself a MASTER LIFTER.  This list does not include records set in the TEAM Record List, which is a different listing.  All together 18 new Team Records were set in 2010.  The following is the list of which teams set the most.

Team Records in 2010

1.   8 – Mike Murdock and Rudy Bletscher

2.  6 – Al Myers and Chad Ullom

3.  4 – Scott Tully and Mark Mitchell

Cambered Squat Bar

by Al Myers

Scott Tully, of the Dino Gym, training with a Cambered Squat Bar. In this picture Scott is squatting 520 pounds for reps.

I have made lots of interesting training devices for the Dino Gym.  Some are of my original design while others I copied from someone else.  Some get used all the time, while others just get “pulled out”  every now and then.  Some of the devices are for very specific-type  training, while others are used for general strength training.   A few weeks ago Dino Gym member Scott Tully started using the cambered squat bar for his squat workouts.  I made this bar several years ago after reading about its advantages described by Dave Tate of  Elite Fitness Systems.   It has been around, or on the market,  for several years now.  The first time I had ever heard of a cambered squat bar was in an article by Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell.  Most people attribute the development of the cambered squat bar to Louie. This bar has been hanging in the bar rack in the gym for quite a while so I was glad to see Scott pull it out and put it to use.  Sometimes just changing things up in your training will jump-start your strength gains.  I’m sure that is why Scott decided to use this bar in his training program – and he probably will only use it a few weeks before resuming straight bar squats.  And I predict once he gets back on the straight bar squats – his squat will be improved.

It was pretty easy to make, but did require the sacrifice of two good bars to make one unusual looking one.   The main benefit of squatting with the cambered bar is to decrease the stress on the upper back and place more muscular involvement in the hips and legs. The experts say it strengthens the posterior chain (which I say is a fancy word for the gluteus maximus.  haha look THAT one up!).  The camber (or offset) is 14 inches.  As you descend into a squat with this bar the weight “tracks” in a different line compared to a straight bar.  The result of this is that you will squat more upright with the cambered squat bar.  Also, by being able to grip it lower, using a cambered squat bar greatly reduces the stress on the shoulders and elbows.  It is perfect if you are “coming back” from a shoulder injury where your shoulder mobility is reduced or painful when gripping a straight squat bar.

This bar is also rackable – meaning you can take it out and return it to normal bar hooks in a cage or squat rack.  Spotting someone using this bar is no different than a normal bar.  The upper portion of the bar exceeds the racking hooks far enough that you can get a hold of it during a spot if needed.   I sort of have problems calling this bar a cambered bar, because in my mind “camber” means bent.  Like a Buffalo Bar or Bill Clark’s “special” one handed deadlift bar. Webster’s dictionary defines camber as “a slight curve” or “to arch slightly”.   This bar SHOULD be called an off-set bar instead.  But it has been advertised as a cambered bar for so long now, that name has stuck.  However, it is a great addition to any gym and adds variety to any strength training program.

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