[The photo is offered as proof-of-principle, in that one-hand swings--off hand at that-- versus the pull of G’s become a piece of cake with The GFF
Program.]
Scattergun Muscle Defined
When we encounter the phrase “scattergun” or “scattergun
muscle” in the old record, we are hearing archaic slang for targets along the
periphery.
We hear echoes of this euphemism in old prison slang. The
most current usage I can find is in “Paul Wade’s” Convict Conditioning 2
where he refers to training the neck, grip, and calves as “shotgun muscle.” He
explains it thusly:
“These groups were often called shotgun muscles by the
old-time prison athletes, because they ride shotgun with the bigger movers.”
Unleaded Scattergun is broken into three broad classes.
·
One-Grip-Fingers-Forearms [GFF]
·
Much
ado about work-grip here and nothing about hand-grippers.
·
Two-The Head Harness
·
The
neck is more than bridging, we’ve got to awaken the full sweep of the trapezius
for true stability on the mat or rolling with the shots.
·
Three-The Feet, Calves, & Toes
·
Old-school
lower leg training was less about the vanity of the bulging gastrocnemius and
more about gaining speed, strength, and stability.
·
In
that precious few seconds of breaking the toe-hold you’ll appreciate what this
will wrought.
·
Let
alone the fact, much of what ails the knee, or can ail it down the road can be
traced to the tendon insertions and the strength of what lies below this mighty
important joint.
Historical Grip Kings
The Old Timers respected not only a strong grip, but one that
was enduring and survived static feats.
They turned their eye to two occupations as embodying
grip-strength.
One-Climbers. I need say not much here, as we have copious examples
of climbers today displaying their staggering GFF ability.
We shall spend more time with the second occupation…
Two-Keelboat & Flatboat Men
These Hosses of America’s “muddy thoroughfares” were notorious
for their rowdiness, their wrestling ability, their rough ‘n’ tumble nature,
and for The GFF Program purposes, their astonishing grip.
Taking a boat downriver was an arduous process, going
upriver though, in the days before steam, well, that was a different breed of
River-Cat altogether.
To go upriver pre-steam required much ingenuity but mainly
manpower—among these mortal-drivers was the process of cordelling.
There are two ways to cordelle.
Tie a rope to the mast, run it through a bridle at the bow
of the boat, send a man/men upriver with a thousand yards or so of line and the
man [men] on the bank would pull the boat upriver, against current with full
weight of freight performing as “canal mules.”
Or the man upriver on the bank would tie off to a fixed anchor-point
Then on the bow the line could be pulled in a process called warping.
Both are godawful arduous.
If you ever have a gander at a full-scale replica keel or
flat boat, ponder how much guff it takes to do what was just described. A keelboat
was on average, 70 feet long, 18 feet at the beam with 3-4 feet of draft.
It is likely because of cordelling and warping that these Hosses
rivalled climbers for staggering GFF development.
[More on keelboat exploits and fighting tactics to come in
The Black Box Project.] And trust me, these men Loooved to fight.]
GFF—More than Aesthetics—Re-Hab & Pre-Hab
Sufferers from any of the following will likely find
relief and a bit if pain-freeness on the horizon…
·
Tennis
Elbow [lateral epicondylitis]
·
Golfer’s
Elbow [medial epicondylitis]
·
Carpal
Tunnel Syndrome [median nerve compression]
·
De
Quervain's Syndrome [radial styloid tenosynovitis]
·
Trigger
Finger Syndrome [stenosing tenosynovitis]
·
Lifter’s
Elbow [medial epicondyle tendinopathy]
Often these maladies are “self-inflicted” in that
repetitive or poor use begins the inflammation of the particular issue and then
we continue to experience pain by returning to these poor-use patterns.
Sudden or unexpected forces can also begin manifestation
as in the case of uses where velocity is key [the powerful tennis serve with
the long lever of the racket continuing rotation past optimum] to the screaming
elbow from the heavy bench or supinated curl.
Once pain begins many choose two paths to “recovery”…
One-The athletic are often determined to work through it and
begin adding braces, turn to NSAID pain-relievers, or habitual need for ice.
These steps will not improve the situation and will
likely lead to more damage.
Two-The other option is often rest or use-avoidance.
Also, anathema as “failure to use” often leads to loss of
strength, flexibility, and mobility in the afflicted area and then when return
to use is prescribed, a brace is often “required” to take up the slack that the
“failure to use” has wrought.
Caveat—In cases of recency or extreme pain, yes, task-avoidance is
advised, in cases where painful use does not exceed a 4-5 on a 10-scale, well,
the Old-Timers would advise get back on the stick at scalable load.
“Health is not to be purchased by idleness and inactivity; these greatest evils attend on sickness. The man who thinks to conserve his health by idle ease does not differ from the man who guards his eyes by not seeing.”-Plutarch
What Not to Do
Beyond the just discussed, “Stop using it” and “Brace,
ice, pain-killers, do the same things that hurt it before” there are more
Old School suggestions.
Some of these are anathema to modern thought
but…self-experimentation has proven, to this Old Man at least, that they knew
of what they spoke.
The Six Old School No-Nos for GFF
One-Use Avoidance
Two-Continue to do what wound you up where you are but somehow expect
things to change even though you don’t.
Three—Stretching. Wha? No stretching. Yeah, seems counter-intuitive
but…
Elbow, wrist, finger injuries are likely manifesting
around tendon insertions and/or involve inflammation over areas where nerves
lie close to the bone.
Stretching addresses muscle tissue primarily, which is not
where a likely source of pain or injury is occurring.
Stretching of the hands, fingers, and wrist will, yes,
stretch unafflicted muscles, but it will also cause tendons to compress across
these bony insertion points where inflammation is already present. The inflamed
tendon which is compressing and firing the afflicted nerve will then be
stretched over the non-giving surface of bone further applying pressure to an
annoyed nerve creating a loop of tendon-nerve aggravation.
The advice to stretch the hands, fingers, or wrists with
any of the aforementioned maladies present is akin to “healing” a sprained
ankle by doing calf stretches.
“But Mark if I don’t stretch won’t I lose flexibility
in the site of injury?”
Nope. Unleaded GFF places the afflicted areas
through a range of motion while the GFF musculature is under tension. The dual concentric
and eccentric contractions will act as shock absorbers/cushions for these bony tendon
insertion points providing respite for the inflamed nerves.
This allows us to re-educate use, strengthen afflicted
areas, and not only maintain but even gain flexibility.
In Old School thought, “flexibility” or mobility” are
looked at askance. Flexibility was part and parcel of use and performance and
not a separate “stretch a sprained ankle” or stretch a “future sprained
ankle” chore to be added to your workout.
Yeah, I hear ya, “Give up stretching?”
The proof is in the pudding. I ask the intrepid to give it
a 12-Week Anti-Stretching period and then decide for yourself.
Me? I side with the Old Timers.
Four-Nerve Gliding. There is a modern approach to many of the GFF
maladies that fall under the rubric “Nerve-Gliding.”
The theory being that nerves become “trapped” within their
tunnels.
As anyone with any experience with nerve-gliding can tell
you, it is just another form of stretching, that is, compressing already inflamed
nerves.
The scientific evidence behind “trapped nerves”, nerve
gliding, and the efficacy of the practice is, well, if it worked above the mean,
I wouldn’t offer the Unleaded GFF Program.
Five-Hand-Grippers. First, this is not a knock to hand-grippers, they
are fine for hitting some aspect of use…but they simply do not address enough
of the story.
There is more to GFF musculature than simply powerful
closing.
We require hands that close with strength, hands that can
use this strength thru ranges of motion and wrist rotation—seldom do you see
grippers used in any wrist-position other than locked straight
We require hands that endure to “true” load rather than
“gym” load.
We’ll get to this heavily in the actual program.
Six—Wrist Curls. They don’t do what you think they do.
Bend your arm palm up, have a look at your forearm.
See the bulk of the musculature at the widest point of
your forearm just below the elbow.
Use your other hand to grip this widest point—squeeze
hard.
Now, while squeezing with your other hand, leave your palm
open and perform a few wrist curls and feel the amount of flex in the forearm
on both sides of the radius and ulna.
Now, keep squeezing, stop your wrist curls, and instead
open and close your hand as hard as you can.
Squeeze your fist as tightly as possible, then open your fingers
to full extension as far as possible.
Notice how there is far more contraction and flexion
occurring when you did finger-work as opposed to wrist curling?
The muscles of the forearm are primarily about finger
control. The muscles that control wrist flexion in a plane are far fewer and
are activated in finger work whereas the contrary does not occur.
Wrist curls do not provide the necessary “load” to
strength and improve the GFF to the Old School degree.
FYI-Fear not. I am not saying that wrist flexion is an unneeded
attribute I am merely saying that wrist curls pay a poor return on GFF training
investment. There are wiser and more useful ways to train wrist flexion. We
will cover those in The Unleaded GFF Program itself.
GFF Training: Who Needs It?
Thus far its seems that we have been referring to Unleaded
GFF as a rehab program. I began our emphasis there to highlight what can
commonly go wrong in athletic individuals, and to cast a bit of a spotlight on
No-No’s to emphasize our approach.
But let’s get on to the positive attributes from those in
health-holes or without.
Who can use good GFF Conditoing?
·
You
ever need to make fist and “throw some hay” with bad intent?
·
Do
you wrestle or play any grappling art where you’ve ever put your hands through
gripping, twisting, and maintaining a hold paces?
·
Do
you climb, rappel, swing on ropes over rivers?
·
Need
to hoist yourself up and over a wall?
·
Lower
yourself down from a second-floor window for escape?
·
Grip
a tomahawk or battle axe or cudgel as tightly 45 minutes into battle as you did
at the beginning?
One “Continuous” Exercise
There are 15 distinct movements in the Unleaded GFF
Program but…
One-Perform all as one long
exercise with as little rest as possible between.
Two-Once a timer is started,
leave the clock running even if you come off a bar [over or under] to shake it
out. Your performance will improve over time.
Three-The goal is one
continuous seamless performance.
When
to Perform the GFF
You will want some separation between GFF and The Prime
Mover Program so there is no grip-interference to kybosh your gains in
other areas.
Ideally allow at least one hour between GFF work and Prime
Mover Work.
You need only hit the GFF twice per week.
You’ll find these “continuous 15” go a long way to
giving you what you need.
My Example:
I train 3-days on and 1-off on a revolving basis. I hit the GFF early in the AM
on Day One of each 3-Day cycle.
Of course, tailor to fit your needs.
Gear Required
A pull-up bar, an empty Olympic Bar, a sledgehammer
and a timer.
That’s it.
[For more info or to purchase The Unleaded GFFProgram.
Black Box Subscribers,
you get it at the greatly discounted rate as part of your subscription—you need
do nothing, she’ll come your way this month.
In other words, buy it piecemeal, or join the crew and
save yourself some jack!]
Hey, try our new podcast The Rough n Tumble Raconteur!
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