Garage Strength

New Training Video!

dane — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0000

A new training video has been posted onto Youtube. This is a video I took recently with three women I train, all of whom are mothers! They love training on the prowler and pushing themselves to the limit both mentally and physically. Enjoy the training!

Garage Times: Issue #11

State Track and Field Meet

dane — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:44:13 +0000

Congrats to Amanda Hottenstein and Trevor Stutzman. Amanda placed 2nd in the PIAA AAA shot put and 6th in the discus! She had a great season and was recently voted co-athlete of the year for Berks County track and field. Amanda dominated the entire season from start to finish, she is still up in the air on where she wants to attend college.

Trevor Stutzman endured a tough a state meet. He threw well in the javelin and finished 13th. On the second day of competition he was slated to perform in the discus. He threw ok but he did not have enough to make the finals and ended up in 11th place in the discus. Trevor was still an All-County discus thrower and will return next year for his senior season. Congrats to both!

Past Weekend

dane — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:41:26 +0000

This past weekend was quite busy. Friday I spent most of the day driving a hiker to the Appalachian Trail and then heading to Shippensburg to watch the district track meet. Two of my throwers, Amanda Hottenstein and Trevor Stutzman went on to qualify for the state track and field meet held next week. Amanda won the shot put and hit the qualifier in the discus while Trevor placed second in the javelin and 3rd in the discus. He also pr’d in the shot put and placed 5th but missed the qualifying mark.

Two Garage Strength boxers, Van Oscar Penovaroff and Travis Kauffman also were victorious this weekend. Travis won by TKO in the 2nd over Chris Koval and may be in line for a fight on Friday Night Fights on ESPN. Van won by brutal KO in the 3rd. I will post pictures tomorrow!

Breakfast of Champions

dane — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:25:26 +0000

Get your brain moving in the morning. Throw some eggs in the cast iron pan and eat some ground grass fed beef. The eggs contain some choline to wake up your brain along with the carnitine found in the beef. Follow that up with some raw yogurt and black walnuts. Fueling your brain at breakfast is the most important part to having an energy packed day!

Also, as the day goes along, try to get a mid afternoon nap. Wake up and have a glass of raw kefir with rhodiola to calm down the nervous system!

Post-Tetanic Potentiation/Eccentric Hooks Pt. 2

dane — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:33:35 +0000

The best known way to increase potentiation (to enhance or increase the effect of force output) is to utilize proper activity prior to the actual lifting of the weight. In Roger Enoka’s book, “Neuromechanics of Human Movement,” he describes the effect of post tetantic potentiation as “a twitch elicited in a resting muscle does not represent the maximal twitch.” (pg. 391) According to Enoka, muscular twitch force is maximal following a brief tetanus or stimulation. One study showed an increase in strength after tetanus in the realm of 5% to 140%. I believe the discrepancy in strength increase is based off the muscle fiber make up of the subjects studied. Fast twitch muscle fibers tend to ellicit a greater potentiation response than do slow twitch fibers. Therefore, slow twitch individuals (distance runners) may not respond to eccentric hook training as well as fast twitch individuals (shot putters).

As you can see in the video (Eccentric Hook Video), the hooks provide a strong muscular contraction on the eccentric portion of the lift. When the hooks are released from the bar a more powerful muscular contraction is achieved due to the effects of post-tetantic potentiation. There are even further benefits to training with the hooks. Higher threshold motor units are recruited and thus trained/fatigued. Vladimir Zatsiorsky, sport scientist at Penn State and author of “Science and Practice of Strength Training”, has made it clear that to reap the benefits of high threshold units, they MUST be trained and fatigued (pg. 86). Hooks train high threshold motor units, they fatigue the high MU’s and dramatically improve maximal strength.

Please Note: These strength gains are related primarily to maximal strength. Shot putters or fast twitch fiber type may respond well to this training but this does not mean this training is necessary for their sport. Long Jumpers experience large eccentric forces, so it may work at times for them but for individuals such as shot putters and discus throwers and hammer throwers, special strength takes priority over maximal strength.

Congratulations to Amanda Hottenstein…Again!

dane — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:48:11 +0000

Amanda has continued to perform at a high level this track season. This past weekend she bested her personal record in the shot put by a foot, in so doing she qualified for the New Balance Outdoor High School Nationals. Amanda hit 42′11 and broke the meet record by nearly 3 feet. She has continued to train intelligently and will look to improve her mark and compete with the top throwers in the state of Pennsylvania over the next 3 weeks.

Amanda Hottenstein training in January 2010

Chicken Tractor

dane — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:05:24 +0000

This past weekend, my brother-in-law, girlfriend and I decided to build a chicken tractor. This coming June we will be getting about 50-70 chickens to raise for their meet and for their eggs. In preparation, I felt it was time to work ahead so we are prepared for their arrival. We spent the early portions of the weekend pricing out wood and gathering what we needed….one word of wisdom, try your hardest to get your wood from a local saw mill and to get your products from a local hardware store. We sissed out and went to Lowe’s to purchase our stuff and the quality of wood was just not there. Fortunately, after discussing saw mills with local farmers, we found a mill about 15 miles away that will provide us with quality wood in the future.

Below are images of our first tractor built. We will put the broilers inside the chicken tractor and move them every 2-3 days across our grasses. The chickens will be able to flourish on the grass while bulking up in preparation for slaughter. Enjoy the images below!

This is Brandt cutting wood in preparation.

Caitlin and Brandt after we framed it out and put in nails for the PVC.

Chicken Tractor nearly finished.

We now need to add the galvanized rubber tarp and close the ends. If you notice the plywood box on the far end, that is where our water will sit and feed a gravity water feeder below. The chickens will be able to eat their food in the far end as well.

Eccentric Hooks

dane — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:07:40 +0000

Currently, in my own personal training I have been utilizing eccentric hooks. Eccentric hooks enable the lifter to lower 100-160% of their concentric maximum. Generally, high level athletes are able to lower over 50% more of their 1 rep maximum…Using me as an example. I recently hit 343 on a 60 degree incline for a 1 rep max. I am not using 383 pounds on my eccentric (lowering portion) of my press, when the hooks hit the floor, they unload off the bar and the bar turns from 383 pounds to 283 pounds.

When I am lowering the bar, my body is forced to recruit massive amount of motor units. As the hooks release, post-tetanic potentiation takes place and my body utilizes the motor units that were recruited by the higher amount of weights. I have noticed that the hooks are enabling me to hit higher weights with greater reps. Currently, I have found that my optimal lower weight is about 140-145% of my previous maximum. I lower the weight for an 8 second count. I will be providing videos in the near future.

Words of wisdom. Make sure you do prehab exercises to prevent any shoulder injuries, exercises such as external rotators and prone trap raises are good exercises for solid shoulder health.

Welcome

dane — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:31:08 +0000

Welcome to the new website! Please bear with me while I continue to upgrade pages and write in new products and update the business section. The Garage has been doing quite well and keeping me very busy. I have a very exciting announcement coming this summer. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the 2nd Annual Throws Clinic being held at the Garage.

Food for Thought

dane — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:00:43 +0000

Here is an article about my brother Brooks and his wife, Anna Santini at North Mountain Pastures. Brooks provides Garage Strength with poultry, eggs and lamb all raised on pasture. The article is well done and quite enjoyable.

Food for Thought