History
of Cable Pulling and why you should do it
Here's
where Bookfield kicks off. Basically he points out the advantages of Cables over
other types of resistance training equipment. Brookfield is an ex-judoka &
professional strongman - he's not looking for 'beach muscles', all he is interested
is in real-world strength. Bar bending, stone -lifting, man-throwing type, dinosaur
strength, the kind of strength that may not look impressive in a gym, but causes
havoc on the mats. Cables, Brookfield argues, build just that type of power.
There's
a short section on the history of Cable pulling, giving some brief glimpses of
characters like Sandow, Inch and Rollon. Alas, this section is far too short IMO,
and could have easily been expanded on with photos's, examples of old cable courses
etc.
The
exercises
There's
54 different exercises listed in the book. Many of these are pretty logical and
you'll have figured them out yourself without any instruction - ie. Just think
of an exercise done with weights and figure out how to replicate it using cables.
However,
many are unique to cables and don't have a weightlifting equivalent - eg. the
'chest expander' type exercises like the Archer.
Brookfield
also improvised with some other household items to produce cool exercises like
the towel curls and extensions and with the use of a broom handle, the front squat.
I'm
always a bit sceptical of leg exercises done on simple home equipment, as I think
in most cases it's far better just to do some free squats (or piggyback a friend
for more resistance), stair sprints or just go out and run. This book is no exception,
there's a couple of one-legged leg presses and calf extensions that don't have
me convinced yet. To make amends, Brookfield also includes a one-legged cable
squat - which is an absolute killer (although strangely omits the 2 legged cable
version ).
Where
cables excel is in upper body work - particularly the upper back and shoulders
that get hammered in most of the exercises. This is the meat-and-potatoes of the
book and there's loads to get stuck into.
Towards
the end there are 3 mini-sections. The first is stretches with cables, which is
frankly, a bit weird. For example the squat and lunge whilst doing an accordion
style cable pull at the same time, they are great all-body conditioners but not
sure of the stretch value over conventional stretching exercises.
The
second mini-section is about arm-wrestling and if you're into that, then it's
good.
Lastly,
comes neck and traps. Brookfield says "If you are a football player or are
involved with any combat sport, these are a must for survival..." Needless
to say, it's a good section, well explained.
The
Routines
In
short, there are none.
Brookfield
is deliberately evasive about this. He feels that you should "experiment"
and believes in "letting your own body tell you how much is too much or too
little".
That's
fair enough and to be fair Brookfield suggests you start slowly and build up.
But what's the betting that most people will dive in, do way too much, and spend
weeks/months chasing cul-de-sacs before getting the balance right. Some more guidance
would have been nice, particularly for beginners to strength training.
The
Cables
Unsuprisingly,
Brookfield uses the rather expensive (US$70!) Ironmind cable set throughout the
book. It would have been good to see him use other, more common brands, or given
instruction on how to make your own set.
Conclusion
There's
so little out there on cables that's it's refreshing to get a whole book on the
subject. Brookfield writes very well and the range of exercises is vast and clearly
explained. Shame there's no routines, and some info on how to incorporate cables
into your existing training would have been good. However, as a resource for different
types of cable exercises, it's unparalleled and although maybe not quite reaching
must-have status, it's good, solid addition to your library.
