Everything is just a tool. The barbell will always be the King of the weight room, but man do I LOVE heavy dumbbell work.
Heavy sandbag training is awesome as well.
Explosive bodyweight drills can’t be denied either.
Check out one of our athletes, CJ Hart, 16 years young, a Football Player and Wrestler.
Box Squat 385 x 2 (barefoot)
130 lb Sandbag Clean & Press x 6 easy reps
Pull Ups on Steel Beam for the added grip strength challenge
I have mentioned many times before about those early garage gym workouts where all I owned was a gun rack, 300 lb olympic set and a set of 50 and 100 lb dumbbells.
I packed on muscle and strength like never before.
You will too. Soon I’ll show you how 
Tell me about your workouts using different tools.
What’s your favorite training tool and why?
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
PS: I have 2 spots left for my April 25 & 26 USC Cert – Sign Up HERE before it’s too late
PPS: Lost Secrets of Strength Seminar w/Joe DeFranco and myself is more than 1/2 way full. 7 spots left. Sign up for Lost Secrets of Strength Seminar HERE
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Filed under Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Apr 12th, 2009. 16 Comments. 
I’m a BIG believer in carriyng heavy shit.
It requires you to perform an explosive power clean at the beginning of every set.
Then, you must wrestle the object into position.
Carrying the objects in different positions force your trunk to work overtime and you must stabilize like a MoFo – you dig bruddah?
Watch this video and see all the “equipment” you can carry!
There is plenty of “equipment” you can carry in addition to what you just saw.
What are you gonna carry at the beginning or end of your next workout?
Tell us about it and let’s see who can come up with some kick ass ideas!
Post your comments below!
–Z–
PS: Check out this article I wrote, you will dig it! Click HERE.
PPS: Want some sandbags? Check these bad boys out!
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Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Apr 2nd, 2009. 5 Comments.
My friend and fellow Underground Strength Coach, Dominik Feischl, sent me this video after I sent him a rare video of training from Europe which was filmed in the early 70′s.
He was inspired to say the least, so he put his training on video to share with you below…
Dominik is on our Panel of Experts at http://UndergroundStrengthCoach.com
Feel free to ask him questions on the forum, this guy has some amazing knowledge that the world needs to learn about!
Kill it!
–Z–
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Filed under Announcements, Strength Building, Videos, muscle building by on Feb 11th, 2009. 3 Comments.
Athletes come to The Underground Strength Gym, more often than not, weaker than a 98 lb weakling, no joke.
My motivation is to get them strong as hell, and while doing so, I need to walk the talk and remain stronger.
You never know what must be done to represent.
On New Years, 1 of my athletes hit a 115 lb pull up weighing 240 lbs, I hit a 106 lb pull up weighing 220.
One of the young guns, a high school sophomore is addicted to The Underground – he wants to train all the time and always does extra work as he awaits his ride home (that is, if he’s not running to the gym).
Let’s see who wins….
Now, EVERY workout Pierce busts out a challenge at me.
Monday he challenged me to pull ups, so, I let him go first. I also added that I would wear a 20 lb chain. I did that for the mind games, ala Muhammad Ali
I hit 15 no problem, Pierce hit 10
Next year he might get me in something, so stay tuned!
Kill it!
–Z–
PS: I’ll be around during the day tomorrow, so if you have questions about The Underground Strength Gym Licensing Course, feel free to call me at the gym or e mail me.
(732) 379-9370 ==> Leave me a message if I miss you, I will call back
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Filed under Announcements, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, marketing, muscle building by on Jan 29th, 2009. 5 Comments.
Who wound up winning the weighted dip contest at The Underground Strength Gathering?
If Marvin Eder was there he woulda kicked everyone’s ass up and down the street.
But, because Marvin didn’t show, there’s a new Sherrif in town…..
So, at the end of the day, STRENGTH MATTERS!
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
PS: Stay tuned for episode # 100!
PPS: Does Strength Matter to You? Then Check this out & see what peeps have been saying about it.
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Filed under Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Jan 24th, 2009. 2 Comments.
A few days ago I was on the field with a crew of Baseball players onder the guidance of Paul Reddick.
Don’t think that these vids or the information found inside of them is just for Baseball.
I would use these for ALL athletes.
Video # 1
Video 2:
Whatcha think?
Post comments below!
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
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Filed under Videos, Zach's Workouts by on Aug 15th, 2008. 5 Comments.
My old bedroom and my old book shelf! You gotta see this! Am I wrong here? Did the Golden Era really rock today’s lifters? Today we have less comraderie, more complainers, more cry babies, more fancy methods and people still want more fancy methods. Here and there I get a complaint about me not showoing anything new.
Is new better? Maybe I can hang myself upside down, use a kettlebell, rubber band and a wooden spoon, that’s new! There ya go, it’s my next video!
I sure wish the camraderie would come back like it was during The Golden Era. Today it’s powerlifting VS olympic lifting, bodyweight VS. free weights, and on and on we go.
Post your comments and let me know your thoughts. Feel free to tell the complainers to shut up
I sure do wish the golden era would come back… Hell, I’m gonna bring it back!
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
P.S. – Tell your friends about The Underground Strength Show. Tell the world!
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Filed under Underground Strength Show, Videos by on Aug 1st, 2008. 7 Comments.
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, the MMA Coach and former UFC Champion, sent me his way.
I would spend over an hour on the phone talking about physical culture and nutrition every time we chatted. We would philosophize about life and exchange cool training and life stories and experiences, and, I’ll admit, Jonny has many more cooler stories than I do ha ha
You have probably also seen me promote very few things that are not my own creations. The equipment Jonny has developed blows my mind and kick ass physically as well as spiritually. Sounds crazy, but if you’ve done bodyweight training you understand that it heals the mind AND body, something I am BIG on.
Two of my favorite tools are his kettlebells and the power wheel, although I am also quite the avid fan of his various weighted jump ropes (which I have ALL of them), the jungle gym and the power push up.
The conversation you are about to hear is jam packed with golden nuggets of awesome strength and conditioning information. You’ll love it. From bodyweight training, healing your injuries through Eischen’s Yoga, REAL core training, the NFL combine and tons more.
Please let others know about this Blog and this audio so we can spread the powerful info unleashed in this audio interrogation with my homeboy, Jonny Hinds. Enjoy!
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.
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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!
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Filed under Uncategorized by on Jul 8th, 2008. 1 Comment.
One of my athletes is heading off to Pa. for a good month for some family vacation time. They have a place “in the woods”, so he was very worried about missing his workouts.
I told him about what we used to do in my back yard, and how powerful the underground strength training was when we first began, it was truly shocking!
We had two tree logs, a climbing rope, some stones, a few sledge hammers and that’s it!
Our wrestlers began with a 10 minute circuit of max rounds of this workout:
1) log carry around back yard x 1 lap
2) rope climb x 1 rep
3) sledge hammer swing x 10 left / right
Every week we added 2 minutes until our guys would perform the workout for 20 minutes.
Holy shit did they get insanely strong and develop some animal like conditioning! I was awe struck!
The advice I gave our young lad as he was to head off to the woods for some vacation was simple.
The tools to use would be stones, tree logs, bodyweight / calisthenics and the typical outdoorsmen type activities: hiking, trail running, swimming, kayaking, etc.
Imagine doing pull ups on tree branches, carrying stones, squatting with logs….
This is the kind of stuff that builds what I call “freak strength”, others call it “brute strength” or “unusual strength”.
Whatever you want to call “it”, know this: It’s the stuff that you want to use because the results are just too damn powerful to pass up!
Go get em’!
In Strength,
–Z–
P.S. – Want the Bible on developing “Freak Strength”? Click HERE.
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Filed under Articles, Success, Zach's Workouts by on Jun 24th, 2008. Comment.
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