Raw Strength

Welcome to another Ask Ant blog post where I answer any and all of your questions!   QUESTION: Hi, I’m a rower and I do a lot of pulling movements in the weights room. However I feel that my pull-up reps are limited by a weak grip. So what can I do to strengthen my grip for pull-ups? Charlie   ANSWER: Charlie, thanks for asking a question, lets take a closer look at your problem and what you can do to solve it. Pull-ups require a hell of a lot of strength but are one of THE best bodyweight exercises you can do, so stick at them, especially as you’re a rower with a need for a strong grip and pulling strength! The best way to improve your grip strength for pull-ups is to do more pull-ups! You need to improve your grip strength-endurance… There are two main ways to increase total strength endurance. 1) Increase your muscular coordination .  2) Increased growth of type IIa (fast oxidative glycolytic) muscle fibres.   Lets take a more in-depth look at these...

Welcome to answer time! You ask the questions and I’ll throw the answers straight back at ya! Here we go… QUESTION: Why do your legs tire faster when dragging the sled backwards as opposed to forwards? Tony   ANSWER: Thanks for the question Tony! If we take a look at how much muscle is located on the back of your legs, we find the hamstrings, glutes and calves. The combination of all of these muscles is a group commonly called the ‘posterior chain’, they are the strongest group of muscles in the body and you use them all when you drag the sled forwards. Now compare that to how much muscle is located on the front of your legs; we have the quadriceps and hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas, pectineus, sartorius and rectus femoris for those who are interested!). When these muscles are combined the total strength is less than the ‘posterior chain’ AKA the strongest muscle group, and these weaker muscles are used when you drag the sled backwards. So it’s harder to drag the sled bac...

There is a LOT of misinformation out there in the fitness world, I know, I’ve listened to some crap advice and done my fair share of ridiculous programs! But here is the TRUTH. Answers from PROVEN research and personal experience to protect you from the lies. QUESTION: I want to add definition to myself without adding extra weight, how can I improve muscle definition without hypertrophy? Matt   ANSWER: Hi Matt, thanks for the question! To increase your muscle definition you have to lose fat whilst maintaining your current muscle mass, and hopefully strength, I’m assuming that losing weight due to fat loss won’t be a problem so here goes: There are 2 things we need to take into account to achieve this goal: 1) Your diet has to change to decrease caloric intake AND increase the quality of foods you eat 2) Your training must increase your metabolism to burn more fat AND still maintain your strength and muscle mass   Your diet is the most important aspect of changing b...

This is a showcase to demonstrate the great efforts and hard work of all the clients at Raw Strength. First up is Jacob, age 15, he plays rugby union for Warrington and Lancashire. In his first month of training Jacob had the following stats: 37 barbell press-ups (Hands on a bar raised off the floor) Unable to do any pull-ups 60kg box squat for 4 reps Unable to flip the big tyre   During 3 months of HARD training twice a week Jacob has achieved: 60 barbell press-ups 30 press-ups with his feet on a box (feet higher than hands) 6 pull-ups 67.5kg box squat for 12 reps 5 flips of the big tyre   Jacob has put on some visible muscle mass throughout training, is considerably fitter and much stronger and is about to start an intense off-season program for rugby to further increase his improvements! Check the following video, Jacob is the second guy… I’m really excited about what he can achieve over the next 3 months of training. So congratulations to Jacob for steppin...

Here’s part 2 of the ‘Eating For Winners’ Series of articles. Part One is Here. WHY YOU NEED TO EAT DURING COMPETITION During any high-intensity exercise your body is going to need a lot of energy, the reason athletes get fatigued, cramp up and injured during the later stages of competition is because they just run out of ENERGY! High intensity exercise includes weight lifting, rugby, football, tennis and any sport that requires repeated, intense activity for upwards of 60mins. The energy source used is called GLYCOGEN, and it is derived from all the carbohydrate (carbs) you should’ve eaten if you’ve read Part One! The benefits of ingesting carbohydrate during exercise include: You can play at a HIGHER intensity for LONGER when you eat or drink carbs DURING your performance. Your skill performance is going to be helped as you can last LONGER before exhaustion. You will immediately use what you ingest for energy, saving your body’s stores of glycogen, so you will perform BETTER ...

Here is something you’ll undoubtedly hear all the time……."If you aren’t eating correctly, there’s no point in training!” Now whilst I’m not quite inclined to agree with this it does carry some merit, especially if we look at the benefits of correct nutrition, PRE, DURING and POST exercise. The benefits of eating in the right ways include: 1) Greater fat loss 3) Greater mental clarity 4) Greater physical performance 2) Greater rate of recovery (Think muscle growth!)   WHY YOU NEED TO EAT BEFORE COMPETING For athletes competing in the mornings, the PRE-COMPETITION meal takes on a greater significance. The overnight fast whilst asleep has depleted a lot of your stored carbs. You gotta break the FAST, refuel the body with CARBS and RE-HYDRATE  the body. It takes 3-4 hours to digest, absorb and most importantly, STORE energy in your muscles.   Stick to eating carbs and lean protein BECAUSE: 1) Carbs digest and absorb into the body faster than anything else 2) ...

So you wanna be a rower? Ask yourself the following questions: 1) Are you doing HEAVY strength work using basic exercises?  e.g. squat, deadlifts, pull-ups 2) Are you doing sport specific conditioning? AKA do you get in the boat often enough?! 3) Are you complementing your HEAVY strength training with assistance exercises for the correct movements? You MUST be answering all 3 of the above questions with a resounding YES in order to succeed in rowing. Not to mention other questions on diet, recovery, sleep, tactics, teamwork. But as I’m going to assume that you are constantly rowing throughout each week lets just look at how to get as strong as a VIKING!   THE MOVEMENT Simply; the rower is constantly pushing with the legs and pulling with the upper body. So all of your training MUST centre around standing up with and pulling heavy weights. THE BASICS FOR STRENGTH To intensely stimulate the correct muscles in a similar movement pattern your basic strength training m...