A Personal Regimen

Another great one from KW.

Enjoy!

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2. So, one of the real keys to strength training is developing a "personal regimen" ...making your training "yours".

Now, when I write about this don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm talking just to "beginners". Yes, it would be nice that when individuals start training they knew exactly what to do...of course, that doesn't happen often.

But the key point here is that whether you are new to training or an "old hand" it is important to grasp the basics... and always be close to the basics. Strength training is a "participatory art"...you learn by doing it.

You'll find that when you run into individuals who "really know what they are talking about" that they have a firm gasp of the basics. Strength training should always be very elemental and simple...and very personal.

Kim Wood
Hall of Fame 2003
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Some Recent Administrivia

Today Im going to cover some recent issues that have been cropping up. Take a look and see if theres any topics that you may have been wondering about:

1. Tracking Numbers, Shipping Times etc

All "small" items i.e. books, dvds, super grippers etc are shipped directly from our offices.

We currently use the Endicia mailing system which automatically sends you an email with a tracking number as soon as your order is scanned at the post office.

This system is very dependable and reliable.

Please allow 48 hours from the time of order placement for the tracking number to be sent and make sure to check your inbox or other relevant folded in your email system.

Larger items, ie sand bags, climbing ropes, etc, are shipped directly from the manufacturer. We will be happy to provide a tracking number upon your request, but please respect all posted lead times for larger items.

2. Sandbag Ordering

As a side note, our sandbag manufacturer has recently informed us that their current turn around time has been increased to 4-6 weeks during the busy summer season.

We place all orders with our various manufacturers immediately upon receipt in an effort to expedite the process as much as possible.

If you need to order sandbags by a certain date, please place your order well in advance.


Vinyl 75 Pound Sandbag
3. Ivanko Super Grippers

Our office staff is working feverishly to keep up with the demand for Ivanko Super Grippers and the interest has been mounting as the price increase from $24.99 to $29.99 is looming upon us.

Dont worry, there is still time, but better to act quick to grab one:
Ivanko Super Gripper

And yes, for those of you who have asked, we do have extra springs available but it is highly unlikely that the current springs will ever wear out or break.

4. Chest Expander Complete Sets

If you have ordered a complete set of Chest Expanders , we are shipping the complimentary Bonomo Cable course from our office, and the cables will be shipped separately from Lifeline. Again, please allow 10-14 business days for the chest expanders to arrive.

5. Overseas Orders

If you are located overseas and would like to place an order please contact us ahead of time with the following information:

1. Name
2. Complete Shipping Address
3. Desired Items

We will then be in touch with more details on the ordering process.

6. Foreign Shipping Options

There have been some recent changes in overseas shipping services by the
United States Postal Service. We calculate shipping costs by order weight
and location although there is now a global flat rate option which cost $38
and means the cost will not change no matter how many items we include
in a flat rate box.

For example, we can fit up to 10 hand grippers, or half a dozen books &
dvds in a flat rate box for the same shipping price. This option is actually
very economical when you combine several different items at once.

7. Declined orders

If you place an order and find that our system has declined it, please contact us by phone or email and we will help rectify the problem immediately.

Whew – hopefully this information will make things much easier on all fronts. This June is turning into one of our biggest and busiest months ever – and were just getting warned up.

If you need anything else, please dont hesitate to contact us.

Train hard,
John Wood

Roadwork

"I Run On The Road, Long Before I Dance Under The Lights"
- Muhammad Ali

Kim Wood Speaks

Pop sent in a good one, check it out:

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1: "Make it personal"

Physical training can be very valuable...valuable in many ways. Fitness and strength training have become a part of our culture. Almost everybody has been exposed to it... training images and information are everywhere. But great value is found when you "make it yours"...

The real key to physical training is integrating it into your life. Training should be a "discipline"(...much like the martial arts are a discipline). Physical training should be an extremely personal endeavor... It should be an activity that's between "you and you"...a private affair. Grip training is a very good place to start the process. It doesn't take a great deal of time...you don't need a whole bunch of equipment.

If you work hard(and smart) you'll make progress quickly... ( because of the
connection between the hands and the brain you'll "feel" your progress as you get
stronger...)... Yes, grip work is a good place to start the process. The process is a process of physical improvement...but right along with that is the process of learning about yourself...

Kim Wood
Hall of Fame 2003
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Train hard,
John Wood

Ivanko Super Gripper Special

Needless to say, our latest product - The Ivanko Super Gripper - is HOT! If you haven't had a chance to order one for yourself, sprint on over here and grab one asap:

Or, you can give the lovely Shelby a call right here if you wanted to order over the phone: 1-800-978-0206.

Now, one kind of response we have been getting is from folks telling us they had already got one a while ago.

No surprises there, the Super Gripper is a top notch product that has been available since the mid 1940s and thousands upon thousands of athletes have been using them for years to build stronger hands.

But ever if you already have an Ivanko Super gripper, we still want to hear from you. Click on the link below and fill out your info because we would still like to keep you updated on the training guide we have in the works:

It's going to be a good one and you don't want to miss out on this.

Train hard,
John Wood

Chest Expander Questions

We put up a new section over on the Oldtime Strongman site. It's a product Q & A just like on some of our other sites where we will hope to iron out some of the common questions that folks might have.

The first entry is all about chest expanders.

Even if you dont have any questions, youll want to take a quick poke around, we have put up a few classic shots that you won't find anywhere else.

Heres the first section:

Chest Expander Questions

If you have a question that hasn't been answered, please send 'em our way.

Train hard,
John Wood

Flash The Office Dog

Flash the Dog, doing his thing


When Flash isn't catching tennis balls,
he's catching some Zzz's

How to Train With Chest Expanders

Chest Expander One Arm Press
With the release of our latest product about this time yesterday,the interest and questions start to flood the 'ol email box. The most popular question we have been getting is:

"How do I train with Chest Expanders?"

And its a good question, of course there is no single "answer" since chest expanders offer so many different movements and variations. - but this also means you will never run out of training ideas either which is a good thing.

Today I am going to tell you two of the ways I train and have trained with chest expanders.

1. The first technique is "Die Kette" (aka The Chain.) which I mentioned on the Chest expander page. This type of workout involves using progressively heavier or lighter chest expanders.

Simply start at one end of the spectrum, perform the specific on to the next level.

For best results, youll need a full set as it saves time to just grab the next level and get training, instead of having to change the cables etc.

2. The second technique is to take specific exercises and "plug them in to your workout" as needed. I have three favorite exercises with chest expanders:

The "Back Press Out" which I call a tricep press because there is no better tricep developer in my opinion and this movement can be done with any other equipment, -- not barbells, not dumbbells, not kettlebells, only chest expander.

The Front Chest Pull - which you can see me demonstrating on the Chest Expander page right here: Chest Expanders

The Pullover, which along with the front chest pull, makes Chest Expanders really live up to their name.

Youll need expanders on the lighter side for the Front Chest Pull and Pullover, but for the Back Press Out," you will work up to very "heavy" resistance levels very quickly.

There are many couple other useful exercises as well, these are just some of my favorites, perhaps I will go into some of them at a later date.

Train hard,
John Wood

P.S. The exercises I mentioned above are also demonstrated in Joe Bonomos Strongman cable course which comes complimentary with every order of a complete set of chest expanders. Grab a set for yourself here: Chest Expanders

New Product -- Lifeline Chest Expanders

When most people think of building "Strength" they think of a chunk of Iron. - barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, etc.

Iron weights are certainly effective, they always have been and always will be, but all weights have one great disadvantage - they can only provide the greatest resistance in one direction and thats straight down.

But there has always been another option.

A method of training with a certain kind of equipment that can provides resistance from any angle you need, and, unlike iron weights, provides accommodating resistance throughout the entire range of motion.

This means more strength for you -- and something that should be a part of your training.

So, without any more hesitation, check out our latest and greatest new product, something to add a new dimension to your training:


Lifeline Chest Expanders
And you definitely dont want to miss some of these classic photos.

Check em out right now.

Train hard,
John Wood

New Product Coming Tomorrow

Just a quick heads up - early tomorrow we will be "unleashing" a great new training product.

Be on the lookout for it.

Train hard,
John Wood

New Product Q & A Section

Just a quick heads up, we have recently made an addition to our product Q & A section to answer some of the many questions we receive about our Bulgarian Training Bags.

Check it out right here, along with some of our other Product Q & A's:

Bulgarian Training Bag Q & A

We are currently working on answering questions about all of our other products including, as well as new questions for some of our existing products:

Keep your eye on FHS for the latest and greatest in the world of Strength.

Train hard,
John Wood

P.S. Do you have a question about one of our products? Please let us know and we can include it.

Secrets of Building 43

Most everybody knows that the headquarters for Google, the most well-known search engine on the 'net is located in Mountain View, California.

What you may not know is that there is a secret area of the Google compound known as Building 43, where behind closed doors an army of techies are constantly tweaking and refining the Search Engine algorithm for Google.com.

Each day hundreds of Google engineers are hard at work trying to "balance the equation" to make sure people actually find what they are looking for...

But like something right out of The Matrix, thousands of Search Engine Optimization experts around the world are working just as hard to "unbalance the equation" and to "beat Google" in order to get their pages ranked higher.

Here's the interesting thing:

No matter how complex Google makes their algorithm, the majority of how it works will still be based on a few simple concepts... and if you understand those concepts and apply then in your website, you'll get the high rankings or be infinitely "findable" without a whole lot of effort.

Of course, you still have to know what those things "are" and how to apply them -- and then do so. I was fortunate enough to find someone who was willing to teach these things to me.

Thing is, once I learned what to do, I was quite surprised, the "secrets" of Google are very simple, anyone can get high rankings -- it doensn't take as much trouble as people would have you believe -- and what needs to be done should, quite frankly, be so obvious that everyone could use it to their advantage.

But like most "secrets" it often gets ignored by just about everyone.

How am I so sure that I know what I'm talking about? -- Take a look at the last six months of search engine searches per-day for my two most recent websites:

Daily Stats for www.bodyweightbasics.com - Live Since March 2007

Daily Stats for www.oldtimestrongman.com - Live since October 2006
Amazing isn't it? -- And it's no accident either. Needless to say, everyone with a website woulkd benefit greatly from this info. -- perhaps I'll go into that at a later date.

Now, the reason I bring this up is that essentially the same concepts that allow me to control Google are the same concepts that make my training (or anyone's training) work -- just a different application.

-- a few simple things, (that most people downplay or ignore) done correctly over time.

A graph of my training progress would look remarkably similar to the diagrams pictured above. – the graph just keeps going up.

The "Secret" to Success in anything is right there -- far more obvious that most people realize.

Sun Tzu understood it, so did Miyamoto Musashi, so did George S. Patton, so did Bear Bryant -- and all of the other great strategic minds in history... And it's wide open for you too if you open your eyes to what should be obvious.

Training-wise, here's some nudges in the right direction:

Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik

The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results by Ellington Darden, Ph.D.

Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey

Train Hard,

John Wood

Home |About John Wood |Hand and Grip Products |Contact Info

A Message From Shelby

If you've called in or placed an order, most likely you’ve received a reply from me about the shipment of your order! I would just like to clear up some questions that I receive frequently to assist those of you in ordering, and I have a special request at the end so that I can ensure that your package gets to the correct address, quickly!

All of these questions and answers will also be located on the Product Question and Answer page in case you delete this or need to refer back! Thanks everyone! I enjoy hearing from all of you!

Shelby

Questions

How do you ship?

We ship most products via the United States Postal Service Priority Mail.
If you order a Log Bar, Climbing Rope or Bulgarian Bag it will be shipped via UPS.
If you order Sandbags, a Peg Board or Jump Rope, it will be shipped via Fed-Ex.

How long will it take until my package arrives?

This is a good question. This depends on when you place the order, (we are located in Michigan which is Eastern time, and we are usually out of the office after 5:00 pm. -- out training our forearms!) and where you live.

If you live within the United States and you didn't order a Sandbag, Log Bar, Climbing Rope, Bulgarian Bag, or Jump Rope, your order should arrive within 3-5 Business Days. If you did order one of these things, please keep in mind the following lead times:

Log Bars: 6 to 8 weeks
Black Iron Thick Bars 6 to 8 weeks
Sandbags: 10-14 business days
Climbing Ropes 10-14 business days
Bulgarian Bags 10-14 business days

These lead times are in place, because the product you order is custom made. What happens when you place the order is that I place it with the manufacturer the same day, and then they ship the product to you once it is finished.

If you live outside the United States, and your order is being shipped via Priority Mail, it should arrive within 10-14 Business Days.

Can I get a tracking number?

After you placed your order, I print out the packing slip and fill your order. When I print out the postage to send your order, an e-mail is automatically generated with a tracking number for your order. You can then check the status of your order by going to www.usps.com and entering the tracking number (or click on the link in the email.)

This e-mail is entitled: "Your Functional Hand Strength Order Has Been Shipped"

Please check your e-mail for this e-mail, and if you can not find it, please check your SPAM and Trash folder, as some e-mail systems redirect e-mails to SPAM or trash without you knowing. If you cannot find it after that, please feel free to contact me and I can re-send if need be!

If what you ordered is one of the following things:

Log Bars
Black Iron
Peg Board
Sandbags:
Climbing Ropes
Bulgarian Bags

We do not have access to the tracking numbers unless you specifically request them. As always, please feel free to contact me if you need a tracking number and I will get it to you as quickly as possible.

Do you Ship to PO Boxes?

Yes, everything BUT the following list of items can go to PO Boxes. If you are planning on ordering any of the following items, please provide a physical shipping address:

Log Bars
Peg Boards
Black Iron
Sandbags:
Climbing Ropes
Bulgarian Bags

Do you Ship to APO Addresses?

Yes, we proudly ship our products to APO addresses all over the world to the members of our armed forces.

And Finally My Part:

To Help Expedite Your Order:

This is especially important for our out-of-country customers. Please include all information that is pertinent to your package getting to you. These include the zip/postal code and please try to limit the abbreviations when you are filling out your shipping address. Sometimes it is hard for me to tell if "S" means South or Street, and I want to be sure that your package gets to you in the quickest amount of time!

Also, please be sure to check and double check and make sure that your shipping information is entered correctly. A quick double check that you included your apartment number or that the zip code is correct can save your package from being delayed or worse yet from never getting to you!