It’s that time of year again, kids, where we start giving back to the community. Here we are with the St. Joe’s Fire and Rescue. St. Joe’s is a bunch of volunteer fire department guys who found out where I live and won’t leave me alone. I’m at the firehouse today, and we’re going to go old school. We’ve never done it in the blog, dead lifting and bench-pressing the right way.

Not like those morons do in the gym that you go to, you’re going to learn traditional Russian power lifting, you lucky dogs. Ladies, don’t go away, because you’re going to get to meet a real firefighter. Well, he’s not a real firefighter, but he’s as close as I can find today.

Today, we’re going to talk about your one stop shop move. You got nothing else. You got a crappy weight set in the basement, the deadlift.

The deadlift goes like this. Use a standard grip, rock it against your shins, wear a thick pair of pants. Tight grip, ass down, head up, breathe in, stand up. Ah, nice. If you have rubber weights, you get to do that, [crash] and that’s the best part of it. If you don’t, you lower them back them the same way.

You work pretty much everything in your whole torso, your back, your waist, your obliques, your abs, your quads, your buttocks, your calves, your lung capacity.

This is a staple for anybody, but especially for first responders and firefighters. I have my buddy Ryan coming on here, come on here Ryan, stand right there. Ryan actually is a firefighter. He’s not a pretend firefighter. He’s a real one.

Ryan: He’s lying.

Ron: The door was wide open and he found a shirt, very good. While he does it again, I want you to get down on your technique here, I’m going to point out a few things.

First of all, the entire back is engaged, the quadriceps are engaged. Go ahead and give me a standing pull, and then pause. Forearms, grip, shoulders, chest. He’s going to look up a little bit and breathe air, it’s going to be fabulous, and then he’s going to dump it. Go ahead, nice.

This is kind of an essential move for him and his partners out here. This is a real good strengthener. You can do a couple sets every day and really build some real strength, and some real power. Not to mention, done correctly, you avoid injuries.

These guys have got to carry a lot of gear, lots of tanks and screaming kitty cats, whatever else you pull out of those fires. Screaming husbands, I don’t know.

The deadlift is worth it for learning and owning, so get yourself an old school barbell setup, and go to work. We’re going to do it one more time. You get into your tuck, you have a standing grip, you sink down in your squat. Tight grip, you breathe in, you stand right up, easy peasy.

Then, to be a real badass, you go down real nice and slow. Drag it down your legs, oh, feel the pain. He loves it.

Next time, we’re going to cover the bench press. You get to see more of Ryan, ladies, and then all kinds of interesting things around the firehouse. We may put some fires out. See you next week.

(originally published on Feb 23, 2015)