- 20 grams of Sriracha hot sauce
- Pair of Glutes
- Pull Up Bar, Ab Wheel, Olympic Bar
- 2 BIG BALLS.
Sriracha hot sauce... hmmm.. sriracha hot sauce? "May any person who recognizes this "spice" please stand up." Noise in any form for the next moment was heard from a cricket, chirping away.
Okay. I'll be the one to break the ice here. Sriracha hot sauce is the "rooster sauce" you can fetch from an excursion to those asian-flavoured supermarkets. The truth is that this precious red sauce humbles salt and pepper at any designated dinner table. Asian-families dispose this hot sauce on many dishes - from noodles to rice; true story! That previous statement should speak volumes of its delicacy!
as simple as the sriracha hot sauce.
Product: Learn how to improve any workout using a very simple spicing
method.
The first ingredient in this sriracha sauce is - hanging on the pull up bar. There are 2 reasons why this is the prima donna. Firstly, this "hang opens intervertebral space in your spinal column to free up nerve transmissions to your muscles."(1) Even Waterbury got me on this! Watering this down for the layman, it equates to cleaning up the junk in your trunk. Or even simpler, blowing air through a straw to clear up the pearl obstacles in your delicious bubble tea, yum! This little tip here can spice up anything in your workout from bench press to deadlift.
Last but not least, this hanging on the pull up bar can also be done as a very effective lat stretch. Why is this important? This is not as universally effective as the first reason, but still holds its own in the sriracha ingredient battle royale. It stretches the antagonist (lats) of any major upper body pushing exercises. Shoulder press, military press, push press, bench press - the weight you used before and after will greatly differentiate if you performed the lat stretch for 15 seconds prior to your upper body set.
Think of it this way: when you are pushing against a rock, who's size is rarely seen in the free world, you draw every muscle in your body into the equation, and it does not budge a single American inch. After reuniting with your sweat towel and water bottle, you notice there's the legendary Hercules there, pushing against the rock. This is the same deal with our lovely upper body lifts. The antagonist, which exists in every exercise, resist against your muscles because INHERENTLY, your body is programmed to prevent injury. Whenever there is a great load at hand, your body involuntarily tells your antagonist to tense up, so that the load you handle will not be as great as it is without the antagonist relation.
That is great for survival (and reproduction), weightlifting.. not so much.
Another great tip reigning from Waterbury is the use of multiple beneficial exercises grouped together, to form a even stronger effect. Usually, after people are done their Mobility/Dynamic Stretches/Foam Rolling, they will proceed to their designated weight work. However, Waterbury prescribes a step beyond this conventional system.
The biggest muscle in our body - the lats. The strongest muscle in our body - the glutes.(2) The "foundation muscle" in our body - the core. Let's take a look at glutes for example.They usually aren't activated very well. They are such a large and powerful muscle that the energy it uses makes the body only activate it when in times of utter necessary need.(3) However, if we activate these muscles before any workout, the amount of voluntary strength output will be so much higher!
eg.1 -
"Romanian Deadlift : 2x3 (Moderately Heavy, a weight that would be 7RM - 8RM)
Ab-Wheel : 2x3 (Bodyweight)"(4)
Try this personally and be the witness to your results! A good test to see how well you would benefit from the glute activation is a drill called the Single Leg Bridge. (Refer to pic) Starting Postition: Keep one leg up in the air, arms on chest, and keep the support leg bent. End Position: Push through with your glutes and try to achieve the position in the picture. *If you feel the work is done in your glutes - you won't benefit as much; feeling the work in your hamstring - you will benefit A LOT with this method.
eg. 2 -
"Jump Rope : 1 minute
-Rest 15 Seconds-
*Run at top speed for 10 seconds
-Rest 15 Seconds-
Hang from pull-up bar for 15 seconds
*If there's no room to run, perform maximal bodyweight jump squats for 10 seconds."(5)
This is a CNS potentiation method. Whenever you are feeling tired, feeling stale, or plain just want to do better in the gym - this is the sriracha hot sauce for you.
These are just some of the many ways you can improve the quality of your workout. Of course, you may not benefit as much as others using these methods. For example: If you are already PSYCHED to go to the gym, or you may be a World Champion Olympic-Weightlifter who can already voluntarily recruit 90%+ of your motor units, you won't benefit as much with the CNS method. Or if you have already-activated glutes, you won't benefit as much with the posterior chain method. However I guarantee none of you are perfect, so you can still benefit A LOT from these methods.
*Also thanks to Waterbury for making his articles public, this article would never have happened without Waterbury's knowledge on T-Nation. Thank you.
Reference:
(1) Waterbury, C. (2009, March). "Pimp Your Workouts With These 4 Simple Tricks: Ignite Your Nervous System." T Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
(2) King,I., and Schuler L. (2003, pg.4). "All Muscles, Great and Small." The Book of Muscle.
(3) Rooney, M. (2012, September). Glutes - The Sleeping Giants." T-Nation. Retrieved from
http://www.t-nation.com
(4) Waterbury, C. (2009, p). "Add 20lbs to Your 1RM Today: Secure Your Foundation." T-Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
(5)Waterbury, C. (2009, March). "Pimp Your Workouts With These 4 Simple Tricks: Ignite Your Nervous System" T Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
Last but not least, this hanging on the pull up bar can also be done as a very effective lat stretch. Why is this important? This is not as universally effective as the first reason, but still holds its own in the sriracha ingredient battle royale. It stretches the antagonist (lats) of any major upper body pushing exercises. Shoulder press, military press, push press, bench press - the weight you used before and after will greatly differentiate if you performed the lat stretch for 15 seconds prior to your upper body set.
Think of it this way: when you are pushing against a rock, who's size is rarely seen in the free world, you draw every muscle in your body into the equation, and it does not budge a single American inch. After reuniting with your sweat towel and water bottle, you notice there's the legendary Hercules there, pushing against the rock. This is the same deal with our lovely upper body lifts. The antagonist, which exists in every exercise, resist against your muscles because INHERENTLY, your body is programmed to prevent injury. Whenever there is a great load at hand, your body involuntarily tells your antagonist to tense up, so that the load you handle will not be as great as it is without the antagonist relation.
That is great for survival (and reproduction), weightlifting.. not so much.
 |
| This will be you if you hang on the bar! |
Another great tip reigning from Waterbury is the use of multiple beneficial exercises grouped together, to form a even stronger effect. Usually, after people are done their Mobility/Dynamic Stretches/Foam Rolling, they will proceed to their designated weight work. However, Waterbury prescribes a step beyond this conventional system.
The biggest muscle in our body - the lats. The strongest muscle in our body - the glutes.(2) The "foundation muscle" in our body - the core. Let's take a look at glutes for example.They usually aren't activated very well. They are such a large and powerful muscle that the energy it uses makes the body only activate it when in times of utter necessary need.(3) However, if we activate these muscles before any workout, the amount of voluntary strength output will be so much higher!
eg.1 -
"Romanian Deadlift : 2x3 (Moderately Heavy, a weight that would be 7RM - 8RM)
Ab-Wheel : 2x3 (Bodyweight)"(4)
Try this personally and be the witness to your results! A good test to see how well you would benefit from the glute activation is a drill called the Single Leg Bridge. (Refer to pic) Starting Postition: Keep one leg up in the air, arms on chest, and keep the support leg bent. End Position: Push through with your glutes and try to achieve the position in the picture. *If you feel the work is done in your glutes - you won't benefit as much; feeling the work in your hamstring - you will benefit A LOT with this method.eg. 2 -
"Jump Rope : 1 minute
-Rest 15 Seconds-
*Run at top speed for 10 seconds
-Rest 15 Seconds-
Hang from pull-up bar for 15 seconds
*If there's no room to run, perform maximal bodyweight jump squats for 10 seconds."(5)
This is a CNS potentiation method. Whenever you are feeling tired, feeling stale, or plain just want to do better in the gym - this is the sriracha hot sauce for you.
These are just some of the many ways you can improve the quality of your workout. Of course, you may not benefit as much as others using these methods. For example: If you are already PSYCHED to go to the gym, or you may be a World Champion Olympic-Weightlifter who can already voluntarily recruit 90%+ of your motor units, you won't benefit as much with the CNS method. Or if you have already-activated glutes, you won't benefit as much with the posterior chain method. However I guarantee none of you are perfect, so you can still benefit A LOT from these methods.
*Also thanks to Waterbury for making his articles public, this article would never have happened without Waterbury's knowledge on T-Nation. Thank you.
Product: Learn how to improve any workout using a very simple spicing method. - SUCCESS!!
Reference:
(1) Waterbury, C. (2009, March). "Pimp Your Workouts With These 4 Simple Tricks: Ignite Your Nervous System." T Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
(2) King,I., and Schuler L. (2003, pg.4). "All Muscles, Great and Small." The Book of Muscle.
(3) Rooney, M. (2012, September). Glutes - The Sleeping Giants." T-Nation. Retrieved from
http://www.t-nation.com
(4) Waterbury, C. (2009, p). "Add 20lbs to Your 1RM Today: Secure Your Foundation." T-Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
(5)Waterbury, C. (2009, March). "Pimp Your Workouts With These 4 Simple Tricks: Ignite Your Nervous System" T Nation. Retrieved from http://www.t-nation.com
