THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION

On September 23, 2010 I went to a seminar given by Pilates instructor Shelley Hampton at Cox Hospital in Springfield, Missouri.

One of the things she demonstrated was the connection between the mind and the body during exercise. The way she demonstrated it didn’t appear—at least to me—to be very convincing. Her opinion was that you could increase another person’s strength by simply putting your hands on that person, which would help them to concentrate and, by that, increase their strength.

The next day I tried it on a fellow I was training named Adam. Adam had done his first set of bench presses with 250 pounds. He did 3 reps and then failed halfway up on the 4th rep.

Then I had Dianne place her hands on his upper pectoral muscles for his next set with the same 250 pounds. He did 5 full reps.

Seeing is believing.

We took this video afterward just to demonstrate the concept.

Warming Up To Do Military Presses

If you want to use a light weight--but not too light--to do military presses, you don't need to go to the dumbbell rack.

Simply grasp the middle of the bar with one hand and use the other to stabilize the bar. What you will have is the equivalent of a 45-lb. dumbbell

Winner of Samson Cable Set Video contest

The winner of the video contest is Joe from Texas showing his unique use of the Samson Cable Set to strengthen his core.