CHAPTER TWO
THE NAKED WARRIOR WORKOUT
• “Grease the groove,” or how to get superstrong without a routine
• “The Pistol”: The Russian Spec Ops’ leg strengthener of choice
• The one-arm/one-leg pushup: “An exercise in total body tension”
“Grease the groove,” or how to get superstrong without a routine
This program was first published in MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes. I insist that you subscribe to this top-quality publication at ironmind.com.
Our communist enemies who are trying to bury us have exercise breaks instead of coffee breaks.
—Bob Hoffman, York Barbell Club
Once, I came across this question posted on a popular strength-training website by a young Marine: “How should I train to improve my pullups?”
I was amused when I read the arcane and nonspecific advice the trooper received: “Do straight-arm pulldowns, reverse curls, avoiding the negative part of the chin-up every third workout...”
I had a radical thought:
If you want to get good at pullups, why not try to do...a lot of pullups?
Just a couple of months earlier, I had put my father-in-law, Roger Antonson, incidentally an ex-Marine, on a program that required him to do an easy 5 chins every time he went down to his basement. Each day, he would total between 25 and a 100 chinups, hardly breaking a sweat. Every month or so Roger would take a few days off and then test himself. Before you knew it, the old leatherneck could knock off 20 consecutive chins, more than he could do 40 years ago as a young jarhead!
Specificity + frequent practice = success
A few months later, Roger sold his house and moved into an apartment. Being the paranoid Red that I am, I suspected that he plotted to work around the “chin every time you go to the basement” clause in his program. By Politburo decree, Comrade Antonson was issued one of those “Door Gym” pullup bars. He wisely conceded to the will of the Party and carried on with his “grease the chin-up groove” program.
My father, Vladimir, a Soviet Army officer, had me follow an identical GTG routine in my early testosterone years. My parents’ apartment had a built-in storage space above the kitchen door. (This is a Russian design—you wouldn’t understand.) Every time I left the kitchen, I would hang on to the ledge and crank out as many fingertip pullups as I could without struggling.
Consequently, my high school pullup tests were a breeze. (FYI: In Russian high schools, boys must do 12 strict palms over pullups to ace the test, and they fail if they do anything under 8.)
According to the conventional bodybuilding wisdom, Roger and I could not possibly have gotten stronger following this program. Training a muscle more than a couple of times a week is ‘overtraining’! And where is the intensity?
But we did. And so did countless Russians and many Americans after I wrote this program up a few years ago in MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes. Here are but a few of the many testimonials you can find on the dragondoor.com discussion site.
SOME GTG TESTIMONIALS FROM THE DRAGONDOOR.COM FORUM
GTG Rocks!
From: Conrad • Date/Time 2002-05-16 01:14:43
I did a week of GTG with pistols and handstand pushups. At the beginning, I could do 1 wobbly pistol with my left leg—1 to a first stair step with my right, and 2 handstand pushups. By the end of the week, I was cranking 2 with each leg and 2 HSPUs [handstand pushups] throughout the day. Today, after about a week off, I tried again and did 5 clean ass-to-ground pistols with each leg and 5 HSPUs! Thanks, Pavel and the Party, for programs that work! Now I’ll have to start adding weight and ROM.
Fastest hypertrophy ever on GTG?
From: Rocko • Date/Time 2002-09-12 18:47:54
While working to strengthen my calves to take more stress and allow myself to run properly, I’ve been doing GTG unweighted calf raises. In 7 days, I’ve gone from not being able to see anything when I flexed it to having it extend a half inch out the sides of the other muscles in my legs and seeing the whole thing like an anatomy chart, from back of knee to Achilles tendon. It shocked me today when I flexed my calves just to look and see what was going on. GTG works! :)
I went from 5 to 10 [pullups at 235 pounds of bodyweight] in 1 week following GTG
From: Chris Rubio, RKC • Date/Time 2003-04-23 21:33:22
MORE GTG TESTIMONIALS
8-week GTG pullup results
From: runc2 • Date/Time 2003-04-13 13:38:05
When I started doing GTG for pullups 8 weeks ago, I could do only 1 assisted pullup. Today I maxed with 6 dead-hang pullups!
Two max rep PRs…
From: Eric Bruesch • Date/Time 2003-08-27 13:08:18
Last night, I did . . . 15 one-armed pushups each arm. Two months ago, I could not do one complete rep. GTG practice is 100% responsible for the progress . .
How does the GTG system work?
By literally greasing the groove for your chosen exercise.
Your technique will become so good from doing so many submaximal sets (in other words, from practicing) that once you decide to go all out, more ‘nerve force’ will reach your muscles because your nerves will have become superconductors.
The result? A PR (personal record), even though you will never have come close to your limit in training!
This will seem counterintuitive, if you are in the old workout mode. But it will make perfect sense, once you approach your strength training as practice.
It is critical for the program’s success that you avoid muscle failure. Do not come even close to failure, whether you train for max or reps!
A good guideline is to do half the reps you could do if you put your heart into it (although there is nothing wrong with doing even fewer reps). Roger Antonson had worked up to training sets of 9 by the time he set a personal record of 20 chinups.
Since the Naked Warrior program is aimed at pure strength, do 5 reps max and select harder variations of the bodyweight exercises.
Strength is a skill. Professor Vladimir Zatsiorsky, a Soviet strength expert who jumped ship to America from the Dark Side, has summed up this notion by saying that an athlete must “do as much work as possible while being as fresh as possible.” If you have a hard time remembering this best ever summary of effective strength training, get it tattooed on your arm.
“The Pistol”: The Russian Spec Ops’ leg strengthener of choice
If you want to develop strong legs and have no resistance to work with but your bodyweight, there is only one exercise that will deliver:
The one-legged squat, which we fondly called “the pistol” in the Russian Spetsnaz. Just go rock bottom on one leg, holding your other nearly straight out in front, and then get up without bouncing. No sweat, right?
With your foot flat on the floor, your heel planted, and your free leg held nearly straight out in front of you, descend under complete control until your hamstring touches your calf.
“Just” go rock bottom on one leg, holding your other nearly straight out in front, and then get up without bouncing. No sweat, right?
Do not bounce.
Pause for a second and get back up. Be careful not to wrench your knee. Don’t let it bow in or extend forward too much.
Do you want to know how you rate against an everyday Russian hard guy?
According to the battery of PT tests developed by S. Lobanov and A. Chumakov, Masters of Sports of the All-Union Research Institute in Russia, 10 consecutive pistols per leg are ”satisfactory,” 15 are “good,” and 20 are “excellent.” You should be able to work up to 20 without ever doing more than 5 in training. Just make them harder and harder by adding pauses, kettlebells, and so on.
Time to get down to business. With your foot flat on the floor, your heel planted, and your free leg held nearly straight out in front of you, descend under complete control until your hamstring touches your calf. Do not bounce; pause for a second and get back up. Be careful not to wrench your knee. Don’t let it bow in or extend forward too much.
If you can pull off a clean pistol following these instructions (which are typical in scope, or rather lack thereof, for strength-training books), then my hat is off to you. But I think you will not. My point is this: Do fewer exercises and pay attention to details. Street fighters who have polished one or two moves always dominate black belts who know 10 ways to block a punch.
Later in this book, you will find a comprehensive step-by-step guide for taking your one-legged squats (or pistols) and one-arm pushups (the only exercises in the Naked Warrior program) from zero to hero—plus many cool variations that are both harder and easier than regular pistols and one-arm pushups.
The one-arm/one-leg pushup: “An exercise in total body tension”
“It is a mistake to think that Physical Training becomes more satisfactory and attractive according to the number of exercises used,” wrote K.A. Knudsen, chief instructor of gymnastics for Denmark in his 1920 A Textbook of Gymnastics. “The teacher of gymnastics must learn the art of limiting himself. Far too often the short time given in the school curriculum to Physical Training is wasted on exercises of little value. Therefore the first thing required of a teacher of gymnastics is that he should be capable of estimating the value of the exercises he uses.”
The one-arm/one-leg pushup is such an exercise.
Note that your shoulders must stay parallel to the floor, your chest must almost touch the floor, and your foot may not be resting on its edge but on the ball.
This move is much more than a stunt to impress your friends.
Note that your shoulders must stay parallel to the floor.
This move is much more than a stunt to impress your friends.
Your chest must almost touch the floor.
Your foot may not be resting on its edge but on the ball.
Brett Jones—RKC Sr., champion of the First Tactical Strength Challenge, owner of InMotionAthletics.com, and all-around strong guy—has called the one-arm/one-leg pushup “an exercise in total body tension.” As you will find out when you have finally conquered this challenge, it is impossible to do this exercise without applying all the Naked Warrior performance techniques. Thus, its value goes far beyond strengthening the pushing muscles of the upper body. Expect an awesome midsection workout and a honed skill to tense your muscles for great strength, which can be applied elsewhere.
“One of the most important elements in gymnastics conditioning is body tension or ‘body tightness’,” writes former gymnast Brad Johnson in one of his exceptional articles on dragondoor.com. “A gymnast can control the action of his or her body more easily, whether in a static strength position or in movement, when his or her body is held tight than when it is a loose collection of individual parts. A person’s weight is much more difficult to handle when his or her body is relaxed than if it is held tight. This is why demonstrators at a protest will relax their bodies (go dead weight) when the police are trying to escort or carry them away. By learning and practicing these tension techniques many advanced bodyweight strength movements will become much easier to accomplish.”
Good luck finding a muscle that is not working hard during a one-arm/one-leg pushup. Even your lats, unlikely as it may sound, will be working like dogs.
Another advantage of the one-arm pushup is extra shoulder safety. You will not likely overwork your shoulder, as so frequently happens with conventional pushups. You simply cannot do that many one-arm pushups, especially the one-legged variation, even over the course of a day!
Senior Russian kettlebell instructor Brett Jones has called the one-arm/one-leg pushup “an exercise in total body tension.” Photo courtesy Dennis Armstrong, Dragon Door Publications.
But before you can fly, you need to learn how to walk. So follow the very detailed instructions provided later in this book for working up to this awesome move.
GTG is the ultimate specialization program. By definition, you cannot specialize on many things. The Naked Warrior will have you do only pistols, and one-arm pushups, period. The warrior is naked and has few weapons. But he uses them expertly.
