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.

My homeboy, Jonny Hinds, is tearing it up with kettlebells and plyos in his favorite style of training, Prison Workouts.

Check it out and test drive it yourself. I have done this while jumping on two tires rather than plyo boxes.

Our Football players have also followed this kettlebell / jump prison workout and it is awesome for strength and power endurance!

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

P.S. - Gotta love the endless variations you can use with Kettlebells! Check em out HERE.

Many years ago i found my way to Steve Maxwell’s web site. It was quite interesting, to see this renegade physical culturist creating his own style of training, following no rules, using what he had learned through decades of the martial arts and mastering his own body for training.

There were photos of him training with a pair of homemade kettlebells, they were silver and looked deadly! He was performing a bridge while pressing these two kettlebells.

I finally met Steve two years ago at the Ryan Lee Boot Camp and we chatted about grip training and grip strength, rope climbing and using kettlebells.

I was blown away to say the least.

Just yesterday, I shared the stage with Steve, as we co presented the Gladiator Seminar, which went from 10 AM - 6 PM with just a few short breaks for snacking and fluids. Want an amazing day it was and what an honor to learn from such an expert.

I was excited that I was able to teach Steve some new stuff! Who woulda known!

Lucky for you, we recorded every second, and that means this will be available for you to watch at home soon enough. I believe it came out to 7 or 8 tapes! That’s a boat load of info, and all the info was Steve and I cutting through the hype, showing ONLY what works, only what we use, no filler and no fluff.

After training with Steve, I am psyched even more so to hit the bodyweight training. I’ll be tearing up my backyard tonight with my power wheel and kettlebells.

Stay tuned for more stories from the Underground!

Kill it!

-Coach Z-

PS - I’ll be announcing the next USC cert soon. It’s coming, so be ready! Serious inquiries only, no cry babies, no whiners….I’m getting sick of those people

On my one hand, I can count those who have REALLY influenced me in training AND in life.

Without hesitation, Jonny Hinds is one of those people. I connected with Jon maybe 2 or 3 years ago by phone, after Pat Miletich sent me his way.

I would spend over an hour on the phone talking about physical culture and nutrition every time. We would philosophize about life and exchange cool stories, and I’ll admit, Jon has more coller stories than I do

You have probably also seen I promote very few things that are not mine. The equipment Jon has developed blows my mind and kick ass physically.

Two of my favorite tools are his kettlebells and the power wheel, although I am quite the avid fan of his various jump ropes, the jungle gym and the power push up.

The conversation your about to hear is jam packed with golden nuggets of awesome strength and conditioning information. You’ll love it.

Please let others know about this Blog and this audio so we can spread the powerful info unleashed in this audio interrogation.

Click HERE for the Jonny Hinds Podcast!

In Strength,

–Coach Z–

P.S. - Get the power wheel HERE. I have spoken about the powers of hand walking, and the incredible core and ab training you can get from this awesome training tool. You will love it when you get it, I know it!

P.P.S. - Check out all of Jon’s products HERE. 

One of our Underground Strength Coaches, Nelson “Necho” Puentes just returned from the NAGA grappling tournament last weekend and took 1st in white belt Gi and No Gi. His next battle will be the Pan Ams this Fall as a Blue Belt in BJJ.

Necho has been known for his brutal workouts, he scares our clients with them, but, Curls, another one of our Underground Strength Coaches, loves these brutal tests of physical and mental will power.

Test drive the following “Nightmare with Necho” workout and post comments here on your results

10 Minutes of max rounds of:

1A) sandbag power clean x 5

1B) handstand push ups x 5

1C) pull ups x 5

10 minutes max rounds of….

2A) 2 hand Kettlebell swings x 10

2B) ring push ups x 10

2C) recline rows on ropes or rings x 10

3) Finish with battling ropes hybrid: 6 exercises in a row for 15 seconds per exercise

Enjoy your “nightmare with Necho”

In Strength,

–Z–

P.S. - Get your Russian Kettlebells HERE. The workouts you can perform with kettlebells are endless. Today, I was throwing and tossing my Kettlebells on a grass field! The workout was intense but man was it awesome using all power to throw those bells around!

I remember when I first started setting things up in my garage to begin my own Underground Strength Gym. I was so psyched to be freed from the horrible environments that were in all the gyms around. These gyms sapped me of ALL my energy, it drove me up the wall.

I knew that Underground was the way to go - no rules, no machines, nothing fancy, just old school iron and odd objects.

Do you need anything fancy in your garage, basement or backyard to make some Underground Strength Training come to life? Heck no! Get a barbell, or a few dumbbells, or a few kettlebells, or a sandbag….you get the point, right?

You don’t need ALL of these tools, just one will be plenty fine, and a few more certainly will help, but they are not  a necessity.

I started back in my Dad’s garage with just a 300 lb. barbell set, I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about this before

Check out some footage from my early days in my garage. You can perform the burpee - power clean combo with a kettlebell, a pair of kettlebells, dumbbells, a sandbag or a barbell as shown.

Time for you to get busy with some training!

In Strength,

–Zach–

P.S. - Wanna get busy with these power Underground Strength methods? Go to http://UndergroundStrengthCoach.com

P.P.S. - Come and get some Underground Strength Training in person, by attending the ass kicking Gladiator Strength Seminar, details are here: http://combatgrappler.com/html

Do you want to be strong, or do you want to be highly conditioned?

Do you want to be explosive, or do you want to be agile, mobile and hostile?

How about training for all of these traits?

I know, many people say you must specialize to get optimal results. But, in the real world, you need everything. You gotta be “in shape”, and that means having the perfect blend of many physical traits: strength endurance, power endurance, aerobic endurance, and overall conditioning.

Finding the right balance is key, and most people don’t have the discipline to let go of what they enjoy doing, when they really need to focus on what must be done.

Can one truly blend powerlifting, strongman, metabolic conditioning, gymnastics based movements, mobility and more into an overall program?

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, what an awesome weekend this was.

The first ever, USC certification, and it rocked the house big time.

With military and fire personnel, budding Strength Coaches, Fitness Pros running boot camps and High School Strength Coaches in attendance, it was an amazing time.

The ins and outs of my gym and business, A - Z, were delivered. Nothing buts the nuts and bolts, no fancy, complicated stuff.

This was all about kicking ass with nuts and berries, no need for fancy equipment.

The feedback was great and you’ll see some pics and videos on the blog soon enough.

I’m a little hectic now as last night, around 3 AM, we headed to the hospital as my wife was having contractions for a good few hours and the Doc told her to come in asap.

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With the busy times hitting me hard, there is no fear. Most people would give up and skip workouts entirely.

I’m simply gonna grab a little piece of my 2 car garage back. It used to be filled entirely with gym equipment, all my Underground tools. Now that I own a gym, my wife took it over

I have a few Kettlebells in there now, and will bring an old curling bar to the garage and 2 olympic dumbbells so I can load them up with 25 lb plates for some heavy duty Underground Bodybuilding.

Now, you might be wondering why the heck I’ll be using a curl bar?

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Come to my gym and you’ll see us using many training tools:

- barbells

- dumbbells

- thick bars

- sandbags

- kettlebells

- sand filled medicine balls

- anvils

- stones

- sleds

- ropes

and of course, bodyweight….

But, one thing that has been a huge factor in developing strength and power endurance is the use of two critical training tools and the endless variations that come with them, and these tools are ….

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