A Hammer For Giants

Growing up in Santa Cruz, I would often watch the San Francisco Giants play sometimes during the week or on a weekend when I use to go to the Catalyst Club in Downtown Santa Cruz with my Step-Dad before he died. I would get a burger and steak fries, get a coke, sit at a table next to the bar and watch Barry Bonds smack bombs out of the park or see some fun double plays. Once in a blue moon I would go to a game, went with my dad a few times and my step dad a couple or so. 

One of my favorite memories as a Giants fan was going to Candlestick Park back in the early 90's and watched Matt Williams hit more than one homer in a game. Saw them play live when they went to the playoffs in 2010 (same year they won their 1st world series as the SF Giants) with my dad. One game where they lost had one of the biggest see-saw battles I ever saw and one bizarre game where they got 8 runs in the first inning and didn't score the rest of the game yet won 8-7 against the St. Louis Cardinals. Nothing compares though to seeing Barry Bonds hit one of his 73 Homeruns in 2001 when he beat Mark McGwire for the crown of most homeruns in a season. 

My dad and step-dad made me a Giants fan since I was old enough to understand the game. Dad was a big fan, growing up in the 60's when guys like Willie Mays and Willie McCovey were at their peak. Mays was my dad's favorite player. The Say Hey Kid was a player I wished I had seen in his day, the guy could do practically anything on the Diamond; hit for both contact and power, speed on the bases and the outfield, great instincts at the plate and is 6th on the All-Time List in Homeruns (Also in the top 3-4 players to hit 600 or more homeruns without the use of Steroids). Just an incredible talent.

When it came to memorabilia, I don't have much but what I do have is special to me. Included, I have a baseball that I got many years ago at a shop that is signed by legendary Giants pitcher Juan Marichal, a Willie McCovey style Jersey, a biography of Willie Mays and a Custom T-Shirt of May's name and number on the back. Since I love researching things, I learned quite a bit about the game and some historical insights of it. My favorite is the Ken Burns Documentary on Baseball that showcases various stages of the game through the decades with the ups and downs, the scandals, the triumphant wins, the heartbreaking losses and controversies of the game's greatest stars. It is one of the most educational series' of all time and anyone who loves a good documentary or wants to learn what it was like for many back in the day (especially the rise and fall of the negro leagues), this is it.

Now, recently since I've gotten back into doing Sledgehammer Training, I wanted to do something unique and something fun to keep some of the excitement going so I bought a new custom sledgehammer but this time, I had the creator (Ryan Pitts of Stronger Grip) engrave the Giants logo on the head of the hammer. The Giants are having a hell of a year this season and seeing the progress they've made as a team, this hammer is a tribute to both the team I grew up with and my love for training. This hammer in particular is made specifically for conditioning purposes and in honor of the team's mascot I nicknamed it Lou Seal. 

Yesterday I got in a hell of a workout with it doing a total of 552 reps. This hammer is 13 pounds empty and can be filled to about 26 pounds with steel shot and probably 30 or more with lead shot which for conditioning is more than enough and I wouldn't go higher than maybe 25 or so. Besides, I want the weight of the hammer at max to honor the numbers of Willie Mays and Barry Bonds (24 & 25 Respectively) so that'll just be icing on the cake. When I was a kid and I played little league, my number was 26 so who knows what number I'll end up with but those 3 would be enough. 

I also did a little video that I planned on doing when I bought the hammer. It's only about 20 seconds long but it was a lot of fun to do and sharing my love for the team the best way I knew how. It's not 100% the way I wanted it but this was good enough for me. I added in a little music to it too that was recently out by this singer named Peyton Parrish that does Viking style metal and videos. He started doing Disney song remakes that are amazingly awesome and well done. If you're a Disney fan or seen the original animated version of Mulan, you might get a kick out of this. 

Make life interesting, be unique and make things exciting to do. Be bold and have fun with what you do, we only get this life one time, make it worthwhile. 

Hammer Training For Strength, Conditioning & Performance

 Methods come and go but very few stay true through the test of time and that is Sledgehammer Training. Burn calories, develop an iron core, full body strength training and conditioning from the old school of hard knocks. It's also one of the best methods of training to get aggression out of your system.

The improved work capacity is a mighty benefit that both men and women can use especially for those who need to be in top shape whether for a sport or an all day job that requires some form of labor. When it comes to Combat Sports especially in Boxing, Wrestling and Jiujitsu, you need to develop a level of endurance or strength endurance that lasts as long a fight is required and if you're tired within a minute, you might as well start tapping or get your ass knocked out. Hammer work also develops wrist and hand strength that helps a fighter get control and keep a lock on a submission. 

A key ingredient in working with a sledgehammer is the rotational aspects: It forces the body to keep control and balance the swing while keeping a certain form of finesse in order to properly slam it down and not risk heavy injuries. Smaller size hammers generate greater velocity and speed where as you explode and keep going, you're generating incredible force. Bigger size hammers (30-50+ lbs) won't have you generate as much speed but the brute force itself and the amount of control needed to create that brute force also creates strength from another perspective. Not everyone can do high reps with a really heavy hammer and there's really no need to break world records in reps so focus more more on the strength and control aspects. 

A personal favorite is doing this kind of training for relieving stress such as getting something out of your system after having a bad day at work or finding a positive solution to relieve negative emotions because as men, we can have high levels of aggression that at times can be unpredictable and have experiences where we are thrusted into our primal instincts and we leave the realm of reality which at times can be beneficial. We do however, need to keep our emotions in check and for some it's a constant learning format plus we don't want to hurt anyone that might be in our way when we go ape shit. This is a great solution to help us become calmer and burn calories at the same time.

Sledgehammer training is a lot of fun but shouldn't be taken lightly. Don't underestimate the power of a hammer and what it can do to improve your performance as an athlete or as an everyday person. It's hard work but with consistency and drive, you can develop that old school working man's strength and have your body handle stress in ways you can't get from the gym. Plus, the added benefit of training in the fresh air and working up a sweat while also building conditioned muscle instead of counterfeit muscle (as Karl Gotch used to put it) is just the tip of the iceberg of what is possible to build a conditioned body that is ready for whatever is thrown at it. Let me put it like this, yeah someone can lift a lot of weight but almost nobody will mess with someone who's got that strength from using hammers. 

What Is The Perspective On What Is Considered Natural Strength?

 When we think of someone being natural in the fitness world, most likely we're talking about someone who's never taken steroids or illegal performance enhancers in their chosen field such as Bodybuilding and other sports. It's not as simple as that. Being natural from a certain point of view to me is picking up on something right away and making it look effortless. They say someone like Michael Jordan was a natural in basketball or someone like wrestler Frank Gotch was just a naturally gifted wrestler or even John Grimiek being the most naturally gifted bodybuiler of his time but the real logical thing is, they all didn't have what experts would call "Natural Talent", they busted their ass in order to be the best at those fields.

Very few people just magically pick up on something and are an expert in a short amount of time. Being natural is more about having the timing that it took to pick up on a given thing and had consistency and figuring out quickly what to do and how to apply it. When it comes to someone with natural strength, I see guys like Slim The Hammerman, Farmer Burns, Eugene Sandow and a few others. Once they took to the thing they became legendary for, they dominated through training, proper application and intensity that made what they did look like a piece of cake. 

Let's talk about Slim, he had that natural gift of strength for his feats because of the back breaking work he did in the quarry and amazed the mighty atom when he asked Slim to bend a nail and Slim did it. Think about this, the amount of strength it takes to bend a spike and never really having any training and just be able to do it without hesitation. That just isn't human and that is one definition of natural strength. Another would be Bud Jeffries, one of the world's strongest men drug-free had to develop his strength through real work and not do anything to chemically enhance it. He developed a gift of strength that even some of the most chemically enhanced strongmen today can't do, that's another definition of what is considered natural strength.

Another look at natural strength is what farmers, laborers, carpenters and blacksmiths do. These people are stupid strong in many areas because of the tools and the way they twist, push, pull, grip and lift/carry their body throughout the day in order to make a living. Have you ever shaken the hand of a farmer or a blacksmith? They're hand strength can often times be intimating. Slim would be along those lines of a crazy strong laborer and could do things that even made other laborers' jaw drop. 

Being naturally strong on one end means you have built strength without the need of steroids or enhancers but another look at it is having that continued strength even way past your prime and having that vim and vigor. From a mental standpoint, it never comes easy but you just do it and you learn where to channel your focus. Does Natural Strength have a certain look? From my point of view, looks aren't always relevant, hell a natural bodybuilder may look awesome but his strength doesn't match up but if you look at average looking guys under 180 that look like they never saw a gym in their life yet have incredible strength it pisses off people that think they know what strength really is. 

Real strength from a natural perspective comes from developing a consistent progression with proper application and understanding the body's capabilities of handling things over a period of time. It comes quickly to some, for others it takes time but the strength that is developed could be carried over to other areas. On the other hand, some people are just born with certain genetics that makes strength building come at a quicker pace with or without proper training or application. So where's the true perspective on having a natural gift of strength? The real answer, there really isn't one, you either build it up, have it right away or not or have some genetic outlook on doing things at a faster or slower rate than others. Everyone is different and have different aspects of strength that either comes natural to them or developing it over time.  

The Hammer Is Coming Back

It's been a while since I've slammed a hammer down on a tire and after some searching and playing around, I have an intention on getting back to hammer workouts once to twice a week (fingers crossed) to make things a little more practical or should I say TACTICAL!!!! One of my big workouts was doing really high reps with my Epic Sledgehammer (nicknamed Big Bertha) that weighs close to 60 pounds. It's a hell of a workout and it has helped in developing incredible strength but the speed and velocity is not meant for a hammer that big and I want to add that to my workouts.

The other day I took out my 10 lb hammer and hit the tire for 418 reps before I started noticing my left hand was getting a little scrapped. Why 418? I was using a deck of cards as my way of doing reps. I was going more for speed and thrust so I swung it pretty damn hard as fast as I could for each rep. This is why once or twice a week is good for workouts because mostly for recovery purposes but also if you haven't done it in a while, your hands might need some toughening up so you do what you can little by little.

I love hammer training and it has taken me some time to come back to it and doing things a little differently. I had previously trained to go as heavy as I could and do as many reps with a heavy hammer as possible. With Big Bertha, it was to increase weight every time I would beat the deck which at times took up to 3 workouts and I would add about 3-5 lbs or so at a time, started at 26 lbs. I can still do some damage with that heavy thing but not for 1000 or more reps anymore, maybe a few hundred and at that weight, it's more than enough. I decided this time, I wanted to focus more on how fast I can go with a certain weight and got a hammer from Stronger Grip that is lighter and only goes up to no more than 25-26 lbs. This is to take on more of a conditioning and speed style of hammer training. 

This particular hammer is something special though and I'm getting a very cool engraving on it that has a special meaning for me. Not only do I get to train with this thing but I get to have something custom done just for me which is why this company ran by Ryan Pitts is so awesome. The Tactical Sledgehammer is purely meant for conditioning and long term strength training and watch the videos of Ryan & his son Logan as they slam, swing, play and power up. The hammer starts empty at 13 lbs which is a great weight to use and goes up to 26 using shot lead which for conditioning purposes, you don't need to go higher than that. 

Hammer workouts are about as old school as you can get when it comes to training. Boxers, Wrestlers, Football Players, MMA Fighters, Laborers all had done some form of hammer work and had some incredible physiques and powerful upper body strength. When it comes to hammers, no one made it look more intimidating than the legendary strongman Slim The Hammerman who made his living with his hammer, he might as well been the white John Henry. So many exercises you can do with a hammer and you'll never get bored but the time and true swing and slam is a testament to a man's strength in the real world. 

One of the things I noticed about messing with hammers is that after a hard workout, it's not surprising that you would build up an incredible appetite. I can eat pretty good but after one of those high rep workouts, it just blew up and I was as you might say "Super Saiyan" hungry if you're a fan of the Dragon Ball Mythos. If you ever noticed how the Protagonist Goku eats, I wasn't too far off with the way I ate after a workout. Another great benefit is the amount of testosterone that is built up, this aids in muscle building and heightening up the metabolism. The more consistent, the more your body will change into a natural and powerful physique. When it comes to calorie burning, it ranks right up there.

Women can do really well using hammers too, it's impossible to build as much muscle as a man unless you take some form of TRT but with proper training, women can build incredible physiques that have very strong tendons, naturally muscular arms, shoulders, back and core. In my opinion, women have every right to be as strong as they need to whether physically, mentally, emotionally or whatever. 

Get your hands on a hammer and go to town. This is real functional strength and has more carryover to the real world than we are lead to believe. It's a working man's exercise but it also has benefits for both sexes or those who choose to be Non-Binary or whatever you choose to make of yourself, it benefits many and builds strength you can't get in the gym. Become strong and powerful no matter what. 

Pirates And The Animals

 Ahoy there mateys, it be a be a beautiful morning out on the Caribbean Sea as we sail to find the buried treasure of Cortez on The Black Pearl. Sorry, had a goofy moment channeling my inner Pirate. Who doesn't love a good Pirate movie? Now when it comes to talking about animals, how are they and pirates linked in this article? Well, if you ever read any of my workouts, sometimes I come up with weird stuff.

One of my favorite workouts is taking a deck of cards and doing reps of animal moves for a good conditioning program. Deck of cards workouts have been around for decades with multiple variations of exercises that even a legendary wrestler used to torture his students with. You can do all kinds of exercises but be prepared to get your ass kicked. It's fun, it's challenging and you never do the same workout twice. 

When I was in Oregon, me and the wife went to this seafood restaurant and I saw these decks of cards at the gift shop that I couldn't help but be in awe of and they were a deck of cards with pictures of Pirates. I snatched it up later in the trip and they are pretty cool. When we got home and settling back into our element, I wanted to do a workout with this deck and doing animal movements were my exercises of choice. My animal moves were the Bear, the Crab, the Chimp & the Duck. I made it through the entire deck pretty easily but still got a great sweat going and breathing heavily. After, I was thinking I had a great game for this.

To make an interesting scenario out of this, I came up with the idea based on Pirate Lore and some bad jokes where it didn't matter what exercises you did, you had to finish the entire deck or you walk the plank but instead of walking it, you are the plank. You hold a plank as you listen to A Pirate's Life For Me (which is less than 5 minutes long) and if you can't hold it, than you're lost in Davey Jones' Locker. Now that may be found annoying or really fun to do depending on your perspective but also if you finish the deck, you can reward yourself with either the end of the map that leads you to buried treasure or reward yourself with good food and drink or whatever. Another creative and imaginative way to reward yourself with finishing the deck would be that you passed the test to become Captain of your own ship and take control of the seas.

A workout never has to be boring and as long as you keep things simple and using your imagination, you can create just about any workout you want with the knowledge of exercises you possess. Workouts should be challenging but fun to do and to create an atmosphere that will have you coming back for more. Now you can do this "Pirate Workout Game" with any normal deck but if you have a Pirate Deck on hand, that just adds more to the fun. If you ever read or learned of any of the real life pirates back in the 18th century you know what they were really about and the horrors that went on but you can create your own pirate legend and make a game out of it. I wouldn't recommend this game be a drinking game that if you can't finish an exercise in the deck you had to take a shot of Rum. 

Have fun and remember to set the sails and head for that horizon because you never know what treasures you might find out there and what Islands you'll find on your journey. Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.