Undergrounder Strength Nation…. Let’s DO this!

I hope you had a powerful day yesterday…..

I had MANY obstacles to overcome yesterday as the past few days have been tough and the stress was mounting.

Was it easy? NO

Did I get it done?

YES….

Mission Accomplished.

I had to focus on what I wanted and where I wanted to go, what I wanted to MAKE happen and ultimately what my best outcome looked like and felt like.

VERY Important: Keep focusing & putting Your Attentions On Your Intentions

The mind is what made all the pieces come together.

What is My Commitment To YOU?

I will continue to commit to training you in the various ways of empowering your mind because the mind is what motors everything you do, fast or slow, it’s up to your mind.

Yesterday, 2 of my athletes ran from their house to the gym. This is not odd for either of them as both are highly committed
athletes, one is only  a 7th grader while the other is an 8th grader.

Click here to view the embedded video.

BOTH of them were on their “off” days, where they can come in and train anyway they want to train. Coach Reeve calls these “Champion Workouts” – where you do the work when no one tells you to do it, ALL through your own motivation and inner drive.

Both of these boys run between 1.5 – 2.5 miles. The younger athlete, a wrestler, ran both here and back, no car ride home.

The older, a Football player & Wrestler got to work on the jump rope immediately.

The gym was crowded so he took the rope to the street, without shoes, barefoot…..

After he was done “warming up” he practiced the many bodyweight exercises we favor:

- push up variations

- hand stand holds

- pull up variations

- rope climbs

From there, he jumped in on a workout with one of our wrestlers, which, at the time was 3 rounds of farmer walks carrying 130 lb military cans filled with sand coupled with tire flips for speed….

Yes, he did this barefoot…..

Why am I sharing this story?

Because you must train your body to get uncomfortable, even if it means little by little.

It’s amazing how fast the body will adapt.

Strengthen your feet and ankles, get rid of the shoes but keep it SAFE.

Hate Running? Change WHERE you run…. today I’ll be running on the beach, next time in the park, next time in the trails.

Do you suck at a certain exercises, perhaps the squat? Then start  squatting during your warm up at least 3 x week with some added weight.

Rule of thumb: “If It’s Weak, Attack It.”

Stronger Than Yesterday.

Thank you for being a part of Underground Strength Nation.

Let’s DO this!

–Z–

PS: One of our speakers, Elliott “The Incredible” Hulse will be presenting on something very unique and powerful.

He calls it his ’4 Layers of Strength’. He shared some of his info with me and I know that learning from Elliott with his life changing lessons will be worth the small investment of The Underground Strength Conference.

You’ll notice discounts are available to Inner Circle Members along with a special link for you to gain discounted access to The Inner Circle

I’m doing ALL I can to make this event as affordable as possible but hurry because price increases SOON.

Check the details Of The Underground Strength Conference HERE

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So, the holidays are here and you might be thinking THIS is the time and excuse to be a fat bastard. Hells to the NO, Kids!

Here is your time crunched, holiday workout. You can hit several of these all week through this hectic time of year.

Crank this simple formula that I LOVE to use:

Beginner / Intermediates can crank a 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 rep scheme

Advanced Lifters go Prison Style: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…..1

The set up for exercises and program design are simple.

I prefer to do a full body lift coupled with a pull such as the video shown below.

Or…. Upper Body Lift + Lower Body Lift.

One workout your upper body lift can be a pushing movement such as a military press or bench press, next time make it a pulling movement such as a hand over hand sled pull, rope climbs or pull ups.

Another favorite which I’ll be doing through the week is a Bodyweight Bodybuilding Couplet for 10 minutes x max rounds:

A) HandStand Push Ups x submax reps

B) Squat Jumps alternate with Lunge Jumps x 10 reos

These density type workouts were inspired to me via Coach Reeve, who used to perform these brutal couplets for time with a goal set for total sets when he was a college wrestler. Today, he uses them to train Gridiron Gladiators at The D1 Level!

Check out this Holiday Density Workout, using keg clean & press + Mixed grip pull ups…..

Click here to view the embedded video.

Underground Strength Challenge: Hit one of these holiday style Density workouts and post a comment with your workout and how it went. Let’s see who has the most kick ass holiday workout!!

I am psyched to see what you got!

Happy Holidays!

Live The Code

–Z–

PS: Underground Strength Nation TRIPLES in price after the new year. The new audio being added is one of the most kick ass ever.

PPS: USC Cert is around the corner and we have 4 more spots left. Check it HERE

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After spending time with Coach Reeve and Coach Istvan Javorek over the weekend while speaking at The NC State Strength Coaches Clinic we spent lots of time speaking about athletes who overcame adversity.

Coach Reeve & Coach Javorek have so many stories and memories of athletes it is awe inspiring.

I’ve seen my fair share but my experience pales in comparison compared to these two Gentlemen.

Of course, we spoke of wrestlers and olympic weightlifters the most

These stories of athletes achieving greatness and overcoming adversity reminds me I have MUCH room to grow. Reminds me that YOU have lots of room to grow as well!

These stories remind me to push the envelope in training, not just in how I organize the workouts and make them more effective, but also through raising the intensity and above all else, getting stronger. So, with these stories fresh in my mind, I went balls out at my gym.

The past 2 weeks of training has been beyond my norm. I can’t let this “age thing” be an excuse until I’m 95 years young Was it me vs the weights or simply me battling against myself?

I think you KNOW the answer. My workouts are a battle of will and you need the same battle at least some of the time. That’s what I call “REAL World Strength”.

A Navy SEAL told me something back when I was only 18 years old, half my life time ago!!! He said the worst thing in life is to lose your edge. “Never lose your edge!”

You need the same mentality because training the body doesn’t suffice, you MUST train the mind as well. If you lay in bed at night knowing you left some in the tank or held back in life and lifting, you will NEVER gain that opportunity back. It’s gone…. forever.

You need to beat your previous best…. add one more rep or 5 more lbs.

Get more done in less time and take your mind to the next level. Coach Reeve calls this “Density Training” and he was using this in the early 1970′s when he was competing as a high school and collegiate wrestler. His wrestling strength and conditioning workouts would crush the average human, heck his wrestling workouts would crush the ABOVE average human!

Coach Reeve wasn’t just training his body though, it was mental training as well. Giving himself the edge that he KNEW he trained harder AND better than his competition.

This is what life is ALL about, getting outside your comfort zone….

REMEMBER: Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Are you always doing low reps? Try high reps for a change.

Always resting 60 seconds? Try resting 30 seconds instead.

Always doing sets of 5? Try ten heavy singles instead.

My legs are crushed from my “Death by Squats” workout. I’m still feeling it.

It was me VS me during that workout. Pushing the set further each time. I wanted to stop at certain points but I took it one rep at a time.

Doing an extra rep each time my body told me not to.

Life is about pushing limits…. Who holds you back, anyway?

Is it everyone around you, or, is it YOU?

Remember, it’s YOU vs YOU.

YOU determine the outcome, let no one else tell you otherwise.

When I was 22 or 23 I attended a Tony Robbins seminar. I used my entire pay check to get a front row seat which was over $1,000. back then that was a BIG deal for me.

It was 2 weeks worth of work but man did it change my life FOREVER. I coulda gone the cheaper route and taken a back seat where it was cheaper but I wanted to be UP FRONT, heck NO, I thought to myself when I saw the option for the cheaper seats in the back, back seats ain’t my style!

I learned LONG ago that if I am to do anything in life, I should be going for first place and nothing less.

You should be gunning for first place as well. If you don’t someone else will take your place.

If you’ve read my Blog, my e mails and watched my movies long enough, you know I’ve experienced LOTS of losses in my life. 2nd place sucks and losing in general is nothing to aspire to. I have learned LOTS from my painful mistakes and losses.

But, when it’s time to represent for my family and for those I teach, I am proving that you must lead from the front. I am out to WIN and dominate. Period.

I think you should do the same.

Drop your comments / questions below. Looking forward!

In Strength,

–Z–

Recommended Resources:

Underground Strength Coach Certification

How to Kick Ass Business Immersion Weekend

Underground Inner Circle 30 Day Trial

The Gladiator Experiment

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Here is Part II of my Old School Strength Inspired Sandbag Workout. Part I, was inspired by The Mighty Hermann Goerner. Part II, still inspired by Hermann Goerner but also inspired by Coach Ethan Reeve.

Coach Reeve told me about a workout he did several years ago when I was down in North Carolina to speak at The NC State Strength Coaches Clinic. He did 100 D Ball sandball shouldering reps for BEST time.

Coach Reeve was performing “Density Training” back in the early 70′s when he was a wrestler, stringing together a few exercises and getting a LOT of work done against the clock. It helped Coach Reeve become a 2 x All American Division 1 Wrestler, NO easy task in itself, trust me, I SEE first hand who these All Americans are at a D1 Level.

I have been training a hand selected crew of D1 Wrestlers since June. These are NOT the guys I would want to tangle with, instead, I’d prefer to have them at my sides if I were walking down a dark alley.

Check Part II on The Old School Sandbag Workout. Shouldering + Lunges, The Chain…. start light, go heavier, back down to lighter. Sandbags WILL get you strong as hell….. at least the heavy bags will

If you’re trying to figure out the ONE tool to begin using if you’re new to unconventional strength training, get yourself a sandbag.

It’s a Gym All in One.

I began using sandbags sometime around 2002 or 2003 maybe? They kicked my ass and still do today. Back in the day, 50 lbs felt heavy, today, I throw around the 130 lb bag. The 75 lb bag feels like cake…..until I do a few reps. That’s THE thing about the sandbags. They show no mercy and make every muscle in your body work overtime. There is NO relaxing with a sandbag.

Time for you to get busy.

Time for me to hang some rings in my garage. Rings + Sandbag + Kettlebells = BadAss Training.

Peace!

–Z–

PS: Friday is the last day to take advantage of the sale price AND the payment plan for The Underground Strength Coach Certification. This is the FINAL Cert of 2010. Next date is unknown. Click HERE to sign up while space is available and the sale + payment plan is available.

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About one year ago you may remember me posting a video and article inspired by the Great Strongman, Hermann Goerner and I gave a little taste of his Kettlebell Chain.

Well, now things are the same AND different…..

Enter The Sandbag Chain….. NOT for the weak of mind or heart, check it and get after it.

Check the Video below…

Coach Reeve and many of the strongmen from the 1800s and early 1900s have inspired me to lift in some very unique and non conforming ways.

My Question for You: Who has been the top 3 most influential people in the way YOU train, AND, those 3 people don’t necessarily have to be someone who is alive today. Psyched to see these answers, drop a comment below!

In Strength,

–Z–

Recommended Resources for Bad MoFos (Or, Aspiring BAD MoFos

Underground Strength Coach Cert – Final Cert of 2010 (On Sale!)

The Underground Sandbag

The Underground Sandbag Assault (FREE Gift When You Join USC Inner Circle)

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As you know, last Saturday was 9-11. I drove up to Ct to meet with John Welbourn, former NFL athlete and creator of CrossFit Football. I remember 9-11-01 as if it were this morning. I was a 4th year Phys. Ed. teacher and the librarian was listening to the morning news, as she always did. They were unsure of what happened (the news that is) and thought perhaps two planes collided.

Parents were picking up kids early from school and the panic was felt everywhere. I spent my afternoon at the park and watched the cloud of smoke grow larger and larger after the twin towers were struck. That day left a strange feeling inside of me that is tough to describe.

Driving through NY into Ct the traffic was heavier than usual with extra security around the bridges and tunnels. I was fired up and disappointed to see more than half the drivers did NOT have their lights on.

Some forgot or perhaps didn’t realize they were supposed to remember. Not good.

I got into Ct approximately 2 1/2 hrs later and met up with John. After approximately 2 years of trading e mails and messages via twitter, I had to made the trek to connect.

I had a killer gift for John which was gifted to me by my homeboy, Jim Wendler, I made an extra copy of this rare gem.

It was a collection of the ORIGINAL Westside Barbell articles featuring Bill “Peanuts” West and other greats such as Bill Starr. The articles dated back as far as the late 1960′s I believe, covering topics such as box squats, board pressing, “rack pulls” which were performed as partial deads off of boxes of various heights.

There were articles on training partners, the bench press, olympic lifting and it’s the stuff strength addicts live for.

We began talking training, naturally, and how his CrossFit Football program evolved. Back when he was playing for The Philadelphia Eagles, he spent some off season time training down in Tampa, with Raphael Ruiz, who John said, kicked his ass by training him with methods he had never experienced before.

John was already strong, or so he thought. When Raphael began training John, he began implementing training protocols that carry over from the gym to the Gridiron. Have you ever met guys who are gym strong but can’t run or perform in their sport?

John and I spoke of a “famous” Strength Coach who took a kick ass NFL athlete from 210 to approximately 260, the player became what I call “ALL Show and NO Go.” Remember: training like a bodybuilder might help you LOOK strong, but performing like an Animal in any playing arena requires a totally different blend of training.

We’ve all seen these guys with big chests, big arms and quads, heck some of you may have even beaten their ass on the playing field. I’ve seen this in wrestling as well, NOT just Football. Raphael trained John with all types of sprints, jumps, stretches with bands and HEAVY Met Con Circuits.

The training was not just for making physical improvements, but, for John to go through hellish workouts so that when he played Football, the practices were tougher than the game. Kinda reminds me of Coach Ethan Reeve, training his Football players with workouts that blend performance and mental toughness together, forcing the players to bond together as a team in order to finish the workouts. Sounds like Navy SEALs.

The workouts kicked his ass in more ways than one. The conditioning work he performed was with HEAVY weight, sprints, bodyweight training and odd objects. John and I connected even more so when spoke of HEAVY lifting, especially the circuits. This is how I trained, and still do train, my wrestlers.

I didn’t want my wrestlers being trained with light weights as it didn’t make sense if they had to beat someone their same weight. I wanted them able to battle through heavy circuits mixed in with sprints, odd objects and the necessity to remain strong & explosive through the entire circuit. No different than a wrestling match.

It reminded John of playing Football against the players who grew up working on farms AND never lifted weights. He said these guys had “Farm Boy Strength”, something I spoke about back when I wrote my first e book, ‘The Gladiator Training Manual’.

These were Football players emerging from states such as Iowa, Ohio, Pa., Minnesota, Idaho. I said the same of the wrestlers from those states.

Coach Reeve spoke the same of when he spent his summers at The Granby School of Wrestling, he would help on the farm with manual labor and mixed in simple yet highly effective workouts with rope climbing, truck pushing, swinging sledge hammers and more.

I told John how back in the day, when NJ would wrestle Pa in their annual battle, the Pa wrestlers would emerge victorious more often than not, and I KNEW it was BIG thanks to their farm boy strength: throwing hay, carrying feed for the farm animals, pushing and pulling trucks and weighted wheelbarrows, climbing rope that was hung in their barn….

Of course, our conversation went to chatting about training teenagers, something that is even tougher where John lives, right near the beach on The California coast. I told him of a story of one of my former athletes, who had great potential but he simply did not have the eye of the tiger.

This athlete got scared of heavy weights, got scared when he felt nauseous and spoke of being too busy to train more than twice a week. His Mom said he was busy on the computer. I then saw him on FaceBook, joining strange groups such as “I love it when you text me first because that means you were thinking of me first.”

That made ME nauseous.

John grew up the youngest of three brothers, they didn’t have time or the desire to play video games, instead, they played street Football and “Kill the Man with the Ball” until 10 at night, not coming home during the day unless it was dinner time.

Sounds like my story, growing up with my older brother addicted to working out, my younger brother a wrestler and we all would end up wrestling in the backyard, front yard, living room, over other friends houses…..

If I wasn’t wrestling I was lifting at the gym or running with my best friend who ran track year round for his high school team. The dedication was there and I loved the training, I wasn’t “too busy.” That would have been a lie.

John and I agreed that the basics ruled.

Of course, we spoke of Bill Starr’s 5 x 5 and ‘Only the Strong Shall Survive”, training in an almost circuit fashion, incomplete recoveries along with heavy AND explosive lifting. Bands and chains are awesome, but, what about the guys who never used bands or chains yet moved BIG weights without any complex methodology?

Those were THE REAL days of strength where no excuses were allowed and the squat rack looked no thicker than two broom sticks made of steel and a flat bench that looked like it could barely hold up a 100 lb woman, let alone someone benching 315 or more.

Time to get Under the Bar….

Lead from the FRONT

–Z–

Recommended Resources:

CrossFit Football

Underground Strength Coach Cert – Final 2010 Cert!!

Ask John a Question

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Is there truly an ART or a Science to getting strong as hell? Hmmmmm…… Ask Louie Simmons and he will say yes, Jim Wendler will also drop his genius with his 5/3/1 program, allowing him to keep getting stronger….and STRONGER.

But, when in doubt, just lift heavy shit with PROPER technique.

You can do high sets and low reps such as 12 x 2 reps OR…. try Hellish set – rep paramaters like 5 x 10 on movements such as the Barbell Clean & Jerk, Deadlifts, Kettlebell Snatch, etc.

Coach Reeve was always training against the clock when he was a competitive wrestler and a college wrestling coach, and, he still does it today with the Football players of Wake Forest.

Not only does this style of training build serious strength and dense muscle, but also develop immense conditioning and mental toughness, something too many people lack nowadays!

Try This: 2 reps on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes of (Choose Any One Exercise) the log clean & press, tire flip, sandbag shoulder, stone shouldering, deadlift, barbell clean & press….

I’ve done this with athletes using heavy weights if they need to gain weight and fighters, wrestlers and combat athlete who need strength endurance / power endurance.

And by the way, if you’re resting 3 – 5 minutes between sets because your last scientific handbook told you to do so you’re missing the boat.

In the REAL world, when the hell do you get to do 2 reps and rest? Learn to push heavy weights with minimal rest and as I mentioned before, using proper technique.

I’ve seen some dangerous form being used in local gyms and even by popular web sites on the internet. It sends the wrong message, and you can’t create a powerful message unless You Lead From the Front.

Time for me to get some rest, the alarm is set for 6:30 AM tomorrow morning. It’s training time. That means heavy weights followed by prowler conditioning.

Check out some footage below.

You may also have noticed less video footage from me. I will get back to the videos, so don;t you worry, BUT, I am zoning out when I train and hate to mess around with a video camera when I am focused on getting STRONGER, FASTER, LEANER & MEANER!

That’s me hitting some thick bar deadlifting and the Prowler Pushing with 9 plates is one of our Freshman Football Beasts, we call him “The Hit Man”.

Peace!

Lead from the Front.

–Z–

PS: For all you Strength & Muscle Building Fanatics, check the 30 Day Underground Trial HERE.

PPS: For those of you who wanna start doing what you love, check out our upcoming Underground Mentorship Courses:

2 Day Underground Strength Coach Certification / Mentorship

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Enjoy the audio interrogation with Coach Ripp.

Sorry, a little static during the first 2 minutes but it clears up after the 2 minute mark. Have mercy on me as my office is out of a military back pack since moving out and awaiting for our new home to be ready and I don’t have a land line

Regardless….The information in this interview is Golden and make sure you READ the article linked below. It is what I would call “F**ING EPIC!!”.

Read THIS Article: Reflections Of Iron: Mike Webster

It is my FAVORITE article I’ve ever seen on Coach Rip’s site and perhaps one of my All Time favorites. As you know, I have an affinity for anything “Old School” and these stories kinda remind me of how The Underground started in my backyard using stones & logs year round, winter and all.

Drop your comments / questions below regarding this interview with Coach Mark Rippetoe and especially let me know your thoughts on the amazing article!

Of course, if you dig it, share it out via facebook and twitter!

–Z–

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I am NOT an Olympic Lifter so don’t cry over my shitty power clean technique.

The mere fact that you are about to be ripping weights off the ground and throwing it overhead counts BIG time.

Check this Vid, Kids….

After you warm up, get a light weight on the bar, for me, I stayed at 135 lbs.

Perform the following reps: 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 8, 5, 3, 2

Rest periods were 1 minute maximum, on the lower rep sets I rested 30 seconds.

This workout busted me up REAL Nice

Back in the day, the test of a Man’s Strength was how much weight he was able to rip off the ground and lock out overhead. Today, the question is always “How much can you Bench?”

BOTH are great movements, but if I’m looking for all around strength and power you can NOT beat ripping objects off the ground and pressing them overhead.

You can even try an ALL OVERHEAD workout, where you hit 5 – 10 reps of a clean and press with countless objects: stones, sandbags, 1 kettlebell, double kettlebells, barbell, swiss bar, log bar, dumbbell, 2 dumbbells, anvil, etc.

Coach Ethan Reeve had a similar workout as he trained for wrestling through college and become a 2 time all American. You can hear all about his past and present methods that have influenced me as well as how other greats have influenced me.

Click HERE to see what I mean.

Peace!

–Z–

Jack Up Your I Pod and Get Yourself JACKED UP!!

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Been VERY inspired to share my thoughts on this lately.

It’s been one thing after another, watch this video and I’ll explain further….

I don’t have much more to say than that.

Drop a comment if you have anything to add or share, looking forward!

Peace!

–Z–

PS: The BEAST Program is live. Once again, NOT reserved for the normal. Click HERE for Details.

Unleash The BEAST!!

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