Check out the latest article on grip and hand strength training:

==> http://www.straighttothebar.com/2008/11/grip_strength_where_is_it.html

Enjoy & Kill it!

–Z–

PS: If you want to develop rugged full body strength and strong hands, check out http://GripExperts.com

How can you deny those who taught you?

My book shelves are filled with books and videos from guys like Joe DeFranco, Alwyn Cosgrove, Ross Enamait, Diesel Crew, old school Strength & Health magazines, John Jesse, Josh Henkin, Louie Simmons, Pavel Tsatsouline, JC Santana and many, many more!

I love the ways of old school, raw, serious training….

In this vid, I’ve been inspired by John Grimek, who was born in Perth Amboy, which is less than 5 minutes away…who remember the Atlantic Fitness Club? It was a hardcore dungeon that burned to the ground, no accident if you ask me, b/c the only electric running through that gym were a few light bulbs.

The grip movement here was learned several years ago when Diesel Crew and I trained in my garage! We’ve got that footage on film, locked away in a top secret vault - will it be revealed one day? Who knows….there was garage training, playground training, stair trainin and some scarey sh*t going down w/those dudes!

Check the vid below, strong hands = strong man. Weak hands hurt everything, don’t let your weak hands get the best of you!

Post your favorite grip strength and hand strength training movements and tips in the comments below!

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

PS: I’ve got a jam packed compilation called ‘Grip Experts’ - some freaky stuff going down in that e book and it’s not just for building strong hands and grip strength, it’s for building full body strength and power. Check it HERE.

Take a trip through the original Underground Strength Gym, see what’s inside the Box and take your pick….

if you WIN the bid

watch the video below and then click the link below the video to go to my e bay auction!

Click HERE to get in on this insane e bay freak-isode auction!

Till the next time,

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

PS - Should I do something crazy like auction off a slot into the Underground Strength Coach Certification for 11/1 and 11/2?

Not sure why, but the camera turns me into a crazy mofo, crazier than expected! ha ha

I have always been a BIG fan of grip strength. I have never met someone with strong hands and a weak body. It NEVER works. Strongs hands = strong man, period!

In the world of grip, you know of Smitty and Jedd from The Diesel Crew and John Brookfield who has been featured on the Iron Mind web site for years and has also created a system of training called Battling Ropes (http://powerropes.com).

I have a 60′ Battling Rope at The Underground Strength Gym and man does this thing kick your ass up and down the street! John calls this velocity training, because it is ALL output.

We use this with all our athletes, and, like I told John, if I had a bigger place, we would have several ropes layed out at all times, ready to go.

The thing I like about the ropes is that they go BEYOND being only a grip tool. I have only just begun to delve into this system John has put together, there are endless variations to these ropes, but the few that we are currently using are doing lots of damage In a good way, that is!

A few sets of 15 - 20 seconds of work for a total of 2 - 3 minutes has been plenty to slow down even our toughest athletes.

If you’re looking to ramp up your workouts and want to try something high octane, check out the Battling Ropes.

I’ll be bringing them out to play for my athletes this week, especially our Football players. I see too many strong Football players with not enough conditioning. When conditioning goes, strength goes and then all the strength in the world means nothing.

Check out the video below of John using a 2″ thick battling rope doing a test called “The Tsunami”. It’s WAY harder than it looks!

Stay tuned, as I’ll be getting an audio interrogation with John Brookfield soon enough

If you have specific questions for him, feel free to post them in the comments sections below

In Strength,

–Zach–

P.S. - A perfect compliment to John’s Battling Ropes is the compilation of Grip Experts, Click HERE to check it out.

I am so pumped for the soon to be released new product I am tightening up.

It is packed with so much info and tons of killer bonuses…Oh man, I am so psyched can feel the earth shaking!

This new product will really give you an inside look at how I train with my insane schedule.

Speaking of training, I am setting up some backyard tools because there are times on the weekend when I really need to train just to clear my head.

I have a 70 lb Kettlebell, a climbing rope and next on my list will be a long chain, a long tow strap and some PVC piping to rig up a suspended pull up bar from a thick branch in the backyard.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I was passing by my old middle school
that I used to attend back in the late 80’s.

Wow that was a long time ago.

I remember listening to music on casette for crying
out loud. I also remembered a guy who was
a bit scarey to me and my friends yet I was
totally intrigued by him.

It just hit me today after all these years because
I passed by his house last night.

After school, while walking home, there was a house
around the corner from the middle school.

The driveway had a few barbells laying around, except
these were not your ordinary barbells. They were cement
weights with steel rims.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce “The Dragon” Lee was quite the physical specimen, as we all know this all too well.

I saw some recent pics of him using his own gripper machine, which we now see on the market in various places.

Bruce was not only a work out fanatic, but he was truly a forearm / grip training fanatic.

Check out one of Bruce’s workouts below…

Read the rest of this entry »

At The Underground Strength Gymnasium we hold regular competitions amongst the members. These are unannounced battles and they really hype up the crew at hand to step it up. Noone likes to lose and sometimes a loss exposes their weak area(s) and makes them work smarter AND harder towards filling those gaps.

 Our last contest was a pull up contest. The winners received a Captains of Crush Hand Gripper.

Pull ups are like squats for the upper body. They’re amazing at developing strength and adding muscle to your back, shoulders, biceps, forearms and they strengthen the hands as well. We never use straps to aid the grip.

I can not announce my next contest because my clients visit my Blog regularly. I can assure you it will be VERY challenging and much more brutal than the simple pull up contest. The winner will have to earn his prize this time through a brutal gut busting effort.

I’ll keep you posted on this next competition, it should be in a few weeks
The prize for our first contest was the Captains of Crush Gripper, and rightfully so. I know that when the hands become stronger the rest of the body becomes stronger.

Stronger hands will improve their pull up strength, increase deadlift strength and yes, it will even improve pressing strength in movements such as the military press and bench press. When the hands can wrap tightly around a barbell, or any object, and crush it tightly, the entire body tenses and strength now becomes a full body effort, not just an isolated effort from one or a few muscle groups.

I suggest you start working your hands twice a week. Work them hard and heavy and watch the rest of your strength increase. Two of my favorite exercises are Hex Dumbbell Holds and hand over hand sled pulls with a thick rope.

If you want to learn more exercises, methods and workouts to use for explosing your grip and hand strength then check out what 11 hard core strength coaches put together in this Beast of an e book: http://GripExperts.com

Stay strong!

 –Zach–

I was 13 years old, my Dad was getting the big set of stairs in front of our house rebuilt.

I used to run up and down those 32 stairs back in high school after they were built, after I ran my 4 or 5 mile wrestling run.

The guy who built the stairs was named Americo. He was a shorter guy, maybe 5′6″, but I still remember the day he was
showing my Dad the different bricks and stones which could be used for the stairs.

Americo’s hands looked like big meat hooks, his forearms were massive and muscular with veins running up and down them, and his biceps were rock solid.

I had been working out for only 2 or 3 months at this time, and seeing Americo’s arms, hands and forearms really sent a message home. It was that day I knew how impressive and intimidating it was to sport a pair of rugged, muscular hands, forearms and biceps.

That was 19 years ago, and I still remember it like yesterday.

Those hands, forearms and biceps didn’t get big doing a whole lot pencil pushing and in today’s speak, this means that sitting behind the key board and lifting small weights won’t cut it either.

There are many paths one can take when developing the hands and forearms, and the best thing is that when you strengthen your hands and grip you strengthen the rest of your body. I’ve seen this happen every single time, without fail.

You will NEVER find a man with a powerful grip to have a weak body.

You can also see the story of how I met a guy with freakishly strong hands and forearms who put my buddy and I to shame over at http://GripExperts.com

This guys name is Tony, and he doesn’t work out at a gym, ever, instead, he works at a tire yard.

Tires, barbells, kettlebells - they’re all weights. But when you put together the correct recipe,
it spells serious success for you in the strength game.

Check the story out plus a  photo of “Tony” over at http://GripExperts.com

In Strength,

Zach