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.

I never invented anything.

People were lifting heavy shit ages ago.

I admit my psychological issues in the wide open here….I can’t afford therapy, so crazy I will remain.

Maybe you need to get crazy to get results.

I’m not talking results in the gym, I’m talking results in life.

It’s not over yet, trust me kids, I got more crazy shiz where that came from….

Crazy Marketing = http://killitmarketing.com

Crazy training = http://UndergroundStrengthManual.com

More craziness coming soon

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

At the Ryan Lee Boot Camp, Senior RKC Kettlebell Instructor and grip junkie, David Whitley showed his passion for old school strength.

The guy has hands and forearms that resemble bowling pins, not the kind of guy you wanna tangle with if you catch my drift.

Does it hurt that he kills 100+ lb kettlebells on a regular basis?

I assume it can only help!

Watch David in action below.

Now that you’re motivated, go kill it with some heavy kettlebells and finish up with some beastly grip work!

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

PS: These are the kettlebells I love, Click Here.

PPS: This is the course you want to have if you love grip work or simply want to discover some ass kicking grip and hand strength training tips, Click Here.

There are Underground gyms all around the world, often hidden in cold garages, dark, dingy basements and sometimes backyards.

While searching for vintage weights at garage sales look what I found..

Tell me about an Underground Gym you’ve come across before that rocked your world, or, maybe it’s your Underground gym!

Tell me about it and share your stories!

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

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.

Got a question via e mail and wanted to share this bad boy….

Question: I own a small gym in St Louis and have recently added a few thick bars to my collection.  I had a new member ask me an interesting question the other day, he wanted to know what muscles were benefiting from using a thick bar that would not benefit by using a regular size bar.  He also asked if you only used the thick bar would that hurt him in the long run because he is a pitcher and a quarterback on his high school team.  I told him that I would ask someone with more knowledge than I had on the subject.

Please help

DeAndtre D.

Answer:

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Every Friday at 5 PM we have a packed house of guys training together. It is getting insane, but we organize the groups very tightly and there is little to no down time. This is a mix of high school Football players, College Football Players and a few guys from a adult Football League.

The workout pace is furious as we almost always perform 2 movements back to back. If they feel like they’re waiting too long they know to work in abs and pull ups. you can’t go wrong with rock solid abs and a powerful upper body developed through countless pull ups. And yes, even our 250 + lb. guys are required to hit pull ups.

 We work in recline rows as well using a 2″ thick rope to aggressively work their hands, forearms and grip strength.

I highly reccomend the focus on ground based lifts. I encouraged this BIG time when I spoke last Friday at the NJSIAA Coaches Annual Seminar. Ground Based vs typical training, Ground Based movements will always give a better return in results. The typical movements let you sit down or lay down waaaaaay too frequently.

I’d rather see athletes working on tire flips, power cleans, overhead presses, deadlifts, etc.

Now, I know MANY people know how to do these movements. But guess what, doesn’t EVERYONE know how to bench press and squat? Yet we know how many people who can bench over 600 and squat over 1,000 lbs?

Catch my drift? It ALL boils down to the magic in the program design. Those who understand the science behind program design get phenomenal results.

So when an arrogant idiot e mails me, “We all know how to lift barbells and sandbags, it’s not rocket science” - I must give the response, “Then why the hell aren’t you transforming athletes into Beasts?”

There is a science behind developing optimal training programs which develop phenomenal results in strength, speed, power and work capacity.

The arrogant people who already know it all will ignorantly state that “It’s not rocket science”, and this is likely why he is not training any athletes or, able to get himself any viable results.

My methods have come about through hands on experimentation and LOTS OF LISTENING to highly experienced Coaches.

This is why The Gladiators are increasing strength, speed and work capacity every single week.

I’ll be getting into the details of how, when and why we implement the things we do when I present in NJ, on April 5th w/my buddies Jason C. Brown, Pamela MacElree and John McKenna. These are three Coaches who are training countless people day in and day out, and truly getting their hands dirty.

This seminar is for everyone - Coaches, athletes, parents, etc.

If you’re in the tri state area I hope to see you there!

Info is here: http://www.crossfitphilly.com/Events.html

In Strength,

Zach Even - Esh

P.S. - As always, we have an early bird registration so get in before time runs out.