Above, playing with some unique Deadlifts & Heavy Dips from Blunt Force Trauma
Many say that deadlifts will wreck your back…. True, if you do them wrong.
Many say dips will wreck your shoulders…. True, if you do them wrong.
I find that Deads work best for me when I rarely if ever max out, instead, performing sets of 2 – 5 reps per set so it forces me to keep a lighter weight.
I also use what’s called “submax” effort, in essence, I do NOT KILL myself on the deadlift, I leave 1 or 2 or even 3 reps in the tank. I still remember, from age 13, sitting on the floor of a book store in Israel reading Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.
I sat on the floor ALL morning, reading every page, inspired by every black & white photo, until it was “siesta” time and the book store closed. What do I REALLY remember from that very day, 22 years ago? Arnold spoke about deadlifts and he never said do 5 x 5, or 8 x 3 or 10 x1…..
Nope. He said “Do a couple sets of a couple reps with heavy weight”…. That about sums up how I treat the deadlift, regardless of whether or not I use the barbell, trap bar or every now and again some crazy variation as show in this video to shock my body from unique angles.
What about Dips? Do they REALLY wreck your shoulders? Yes, they will wreck your shoulders, if you….
- Perform them too often
- Bounce in the bottom position
- Do not tuck your elbows and constantly allow them to flare out (you want to try and make your thumbs externally rotate, forcing the pit of your elbows / biceps to face forward)
- Your mechanics might suck
NO, they won’t wreck your shoulders when performed properly and in moderation….
Then again, about that moderation thing….
Some athletes can get away with doing TONS of dips, almost daily with NO adverse effects. It will depend on the individual, as some have poor mechanics or LOTS of natural internal rotation of the shoulders which starts to wreak havoc on the pec, shoulders and upper back.
Ironically, the bodybuilders from the 70′s (aka The Golden Era) and prior did TONS of dips and never were they looking for shoulder rehab / prehab techniques. Could it be our era, of always sitting on our asses, in front of computers? Hmmmmm…….
Deadlifts and dips, two of the most effective movements I have ever used since the age of 13, back some 22 years ago. But, when overused and abused, they quickly can become your enemy. Learn to use these two exercises optimally and effectively, not always maximally.
Use various bars for your dips as well as rings. For the deadlift, use the straight bar AND the trap bar, test drive pulling from different positions such as from a deficit, with chains, bands and from the rack or blocks. Find what works for you, as not everything works the same for everyone.
Question for You: What are your experiences with dips and deadlifts? Drop a comment or question below, looking forward to learning and helping.
Peace
–Z–
PS: One of the most powerful training programs I have ever used came from a 300 lb barbell, a few dumbells, chins and dips. Check it out HERE, it’s straight up old school strength
Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Jul 17th, 2011. 21 Comments. 
Robby Robinson is what I call a Renegade Underground Bodybuilder.
His favorite upper body workouts were endless supersets of the bench press and pull ups / chins ups.
His favorite lower body workouts were endless supersets of front squats and RDLs (Romanian Deadlifts).
Heck, ANY athlete can benefit from those movements, you don’t have to be a bodybuilder to be able to perform Density Training, ala Coach Reeve with the basics.
Robby loved the basics that any serious strength and muscle building fanatic should never stray away from:
- barbell power cleans / muscle cleans
- dips for high reps with bodyweight or lower reps with added weight
- barbell cheat curls
- sprints in the sand of Venice Beach, aka Muscle Beach
Not ironically, some of the thickest and most dense bodybuilders from the 70s and 80s performed sprints of all types:
- hill sprints
- sprints on the track
- sprints on sand
Guys like Casey Viator would run sprints, AFTER he snuck away from his brutal workouts under the guise of Arthur Jones. If Arthur Jones would have known he may have freaked out as he was so focused on HIT training, get it done, get out, rest and GROW.
I remember reading one of Arnold’s books where he encouraged bodybuilders to be “in shape.”
He spoke of finishing your workouts by sprinting and running hard on the beach, or, running between parking meters and jumping over curbs to improve agility and to help burn fat.
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Some of my best workouts came when I stopped going to the regular gym and simply set up shop in my Dad’s freezing cold garage. I built my own atmosphere and there were no half serious or half hearted lifters in my to steal my thunder.
It forced me to get away from machines, cables and too much exercise while sitting or lying down.
It was just me, a 300 lb barbell, a pair of 50 and 100 lb dumbbells, a flat bench, dip bar and the sound of hard rock n’ roll music. I still cringe when I hear stories of people telling me their easy listening gym tunes can barely be heard over the noise of everyone talking about what they did last weekend.
Ground Based lifts became the corner stone of the majority of my lifting and man did I feel and see the difference in added strength, power and muscle gains.
I still recall my hunt for equipment….. I hunted down my original equipment through newspaper classifieds and the original days of E Bay where some REAL gems would be found on e bay for dirt cheap! Nowadays, people have old school equipment collecting dust in their basements or garages and those weights need a pair of loving hands gripping onto them. Those hands could be YOURS.
Hey, heavy weights need love, too!
One you get the free weight basics down, you should make yourself a sandbag, working on the basics once again of sandbag workouts:
- clean & press
- zercher squats
- back squats
- lunges
- carries
From there, collect a few stones. I can only imagine the BEAST you will become as you begin putting together workouts mixed with free weights, sandbags, stones and bodyweight training.
The combination of training like a Renegade Bodybuilder and the use of odd objects will be a deadly combination.
Don’t feel the need to stick to full body workouts every single workout, I have found that regular full body workouts slow down gains in strength, power and adding muscle. Rest is key, especially if you REALLY train hard.
Instead, try splitting upper and lower body workouts and then have a high rep day for lower body or just upper body. The upper body tends to recover faster than the lower body so use your intuition, listen to what your body wants and needs and take it from there.
I wouldn’t want to run into you walking down a dark alley after a few short months of training like this.
Time to get after it and make it happen.
Drop a comment, let us know how you combine old school strength & odd object lifts. Looking forward to your comments!
In Strength,
–Z–
Recommended Resources:
Underground Strength Coach Certification
30 Day Underground Inner Circle Trial
Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Feb 14th, 2011. 16 Comments.
You just saw a little insight into some training that I’ve been going through over the past 2 weeks. You’ll see a mixture of:
- Strongman Training / Atlas Stone Lifting
- Old School / Golden Era Bodybuilding
- Speed Training via Box Jumps, Speed Deadlifts + bands with varied stances
- Kettlebell training via high rep swings
Training is feeling overall pretty darn good minus the shoulder, so, I am laying low on overhead pressing and full range benching. When I perform dumbbell and barbell presses I perform them with a neutral grip to ease pain on the shoulder.
I’m also following The Mobility WOD & implementing K Starr’s methods daily. It’s the shiz, no doubt, SON.
As you get older, you get wiser…. or at least you’re supposed to get wiser. Age does NOT mean you have an excuse to get weaker.
I’m chasing more strength, more muscle, more speed and MORE challenges.
The mind needs to be pushed for the body to grow.
Question For You: What have you done this week to challenge your mind and body? Post your thoughts, comments or perhaps your toughest workout of the week. Looking forward!
–Z–
Recommended Events:
Underground Strength Coach Certification
HTKA Business Immersion Weekend
Filed under Articles, Kick Ass Life, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Jan 11th, 2011. 11 Comments.
Hells Yea, SON! I’ve been busted up and banged up by the Jersey Virus that has attacked countless people through NJ. Finally, I am feeling healthy again and my appetite is back….. so is my hair 
I’ll be spending the next few weeks using some Golden Era inspired power-bodybuilding type workouts to regain strength and pack on some muscle again.
Some short sprint workouts and sprint repeats are in the works as well.
Here is a short glimpse of my first workout of being back in action. I felt strong but my shoulder is still weak and limiting pressing strength. I am keeping reps low to avoid aggravating my shoulder again.
Check it and enjoy….. pardon my insanity, I was excited to get back after it again!
Question for You: Drop a comment if you use any old school power-bodybuilding methods either for yourself, or, if you’re a Strength Coach, to train others. Drop some tips, I wanna see what everyone else is cranking!
In Strength,
–Z–
Recommended Resource:
Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Dec 30th, 2010. 15 Comments.
After lifting for 21 years and having gone through quite the gamut of training methods, training tools, near death experiences and plenty of pain and pleasure mixed in I have learned quite a lot. I’ve learned quite a lot in regards to training AND life through these 2 decades.
1) I used to do my homework in the gym. I just wanted to be amongst the weights. If I opened one of my books in the classroom you would find FLEX magazine inside the book. I couldn’t get my mind off lifting and being in the gym.
2) I would cut school to record American Muscle Magazine on ESPN. The show would air at strange hours, catering to to the west coast bodybuilding scene. Sometimes the show aired at 3 AM so I would set my alarm in the middle of the night just to watch the show.
I would count down the days till the show and mark my calendar. The weeks I had to wait to catch the next episode seemed like years to me.
3) I used to watch The Lee Haney show on Sunday mornings at 8 AM.”Stimulate, Don’t Annihilate.” I would watch his workout tape before I trained at home when I was 13 years old! Hells Yea I bought that tape!
4) I read ‘Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder’ for 4 years straight while in high school, NEVER allowing the other kids to take the book out from the library so I kept renewing it. I feared they would learn the secrets of Arnold and catch up to me.
5) On family vacations I didn’t want to relax. I made my Dad drive around and find me a gym. They would often drop me off in the morning and pick me up SIX hours later!
6) On the way to the gym one day, at the age of 14, my brother was driving me there and I was meeting up with two of my idols, both former wrestlers from the high school team and two of the most Bad Ass Wrestlers I knew at the time. Instead of helping my brother I got out and ran down the highway to get to the gym.
7) By age 15 I KNEW I wanted to own my own gym. My Dad would drive me to ALL the gyms within a 1hr drive and I would meet with the owner and ask him questions about running a gym. My Dad always had the business mind and would ask them if they would sell the gym! haha
There was a small, hardcore gym in Perth Amboy, home of John Grimek. The owner was lazy and the place was a yellow building with a few light bulbs and tons of OLD equipment, YORK barbells, dumbbells and a crossover machine connected with rope rather than cable! I would have bought that gym but the owner burnt it down…… Pure accident of course, at least that’s what the paper said. Coulda been quite the gem if I got in there.
9) There was a gym for sale in Newark, in a scary area. It was called Pumps Gym and the owner was a welder. He welded EVERYTHING, all the dumbbells, barbells and he even MADE the machines. The Leg Press was the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.
The Power Rack musta been 11 or 12′ tall!! He was burnt out and wanted to sell it for 10 grand. I had 10 grand in the bank to buy a diamond engagement ring. I ALMOST bought the gym instead!! Instead of the gym, I married that girl and bought some old equipment from the guy
10) When I was in my early 20′s I traveled to California alone, to do some soul searching. I stayed with my older bros buddy from The Israeli Army. Every day I drove into Venice and Santa Monica to train on Venice Beach or at Gold’s Venice.
I ate at the Fire House every day and layed on the beach. I was hoping for some nostalgic feeling of Pumping Iron but it NEVER happened 
I walked into World Gym and saw Joe Gold, Zabo and a few other GREATS from The Golden Era hanging out behind the front desk like the good ol’ days!
11) While in Santa Monica I walked by the ORIGINAL Gold’s Gym where Arnold and the boys used to train. And although it was just a BIG cement wall, I swear I could still hear Arnold talking and weights clanking as if it were 1975 all over again, the year I was born.
Last I heard some dude bought the original building and made it his house. Bastard.
12) I almost moved to Cali that summer and was ready to tell my parents to send me socks and underwear. I bailed and stayed in NJ ans regretted that for YEARS! It taught me to Man the F**K UP and be more of a risk taker. Now that I live 2 minutes from the beach I’m a happy man
13) I remember having a goal of squatting 225 for 50 reps. I hit 46 or so on my own and cranked the extra few with a spotter. That was FUN. Sometimes I wonder if my legs were so damn strong from doing Leg Presses!!??
14) I remember squatting 315 for 22 reps. I wanted to impress this hot girl at the gym but I was too shy to speak to her, imagine that. Figured I could catch her attention by squatting 315 for 20 + reps. She was ALWAYS at the gym when I was there. Except this time she showed up 10 minutes AFTER I did 22 reps with 315. The entire gym stopped to watch me, except for her.
15) I won the “Young Mr. Israel” contest when I was 18 with less than 2 weeks preparation. I was convinced to compete when I went to visit my Grandparents and the gym owner saw me. The competition was held inside an amphitheatre and the crowd was over 1,000 people watching!
The crowd was nuts and there 18 or 19 competitors in my weight class. I beat a kid from Russia to win the contest. I trained with a Navy SEAL and the gym owner, a former physical instructor for The Israeli Special Forces. Those 2 weeks of training were some of the most memorable days of my life!
16) When I was pumping up for Mr. Israel bodybuilding show it was in the basement. I retreated to a small back room and began churning out push ups with my feet elevated and my hands placed on 2 chairs for the extra stretch. Why did I do this? Because this is what Arnold did when he first came to America and competed in his first ever bodybuilding competition on American ground.
All the other kids were staring at me trying to figure out what secrets I had from America. After winning they all accused of me being on steroids and the Navy SEAL I was training with kind of flipped out. Kind of
17) I remember copying everything Vic Richards said in the magazines. It was common to find me doing things like:
- Squats for 2 hours
- Leg Press or Hack Squat for 2 hours
- Bench Press for 2 hours
18) I remember a kick ass, hardcore gym in my hometown that was packed with powerlifters and bodybuilders. The music was always loud as hell and everyone was lifting hard and heavy.
The owner sold his gym near the jersey shore, came back and painted all the brown equipment white and baby blue. The clientele cleared out like the plague was coming, the tape deck was removed (yes, it was THAT long ago) and eventually the gym shut down.
Shoulda stayed hard core. Period.
19) After years of trying to find a hardcore gym, as they were all either burned down, burnt our or sold out, I purchased a $ 99 300 lb barbell set from Costco. The training I had was f**ing awesome. I began purchasing odds and ends from E Bay, classified ads and Craigs List.
I was benching, power cleaning, deadlifting, floor pressing and shrugging.
The garage was freezing, literally. I purchased a space heater which did little to keep me warm. I wore 2 pairs of sweats, 3 – 4 sweat shirts, hats and gloves. I purchased a 2nd space heater, but when turned on, I shorted the entire house. My Dad wasn’t happy. I continued to train through mid December until I got sick for a full week and had to retreat back to a “regular” gym. F**K
20) The first time I ever saw Pumping Iron was when my friend’s Dad rented the movie for me. I didn’t leave the house and must have watched it over and over again until I had to go home. My friend’s Dad copied the VHS for me so I could watch it over and over again…. except this time at my house, haha
When the anniversary edition came out and all the lost footage was brought onto another DVD, I did the same thing. Spent ALL day watching that movie!!
21) There used to be an OLD School YMCA in Metuchen. All the equipment was by YORK and all the dumbbells were globe style or round heads. I would ride my bike there and barely make it home alive. I would try to ride my bike at other times push my bike.
Those days were THE BEST! I remember asking a landscaper if he had any water as I was pushing my bike home after killing myself with a leg workout copies straight out of ‘Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding’. The guys would always play AC / DC in the radio tape deck and this is the gym where some of my earliest articles about ‘NO Rules Training’ came from as some Beast named George was tearing up the YMCA weight room.
I have PLENTY more stories to tell, perhaps there will be a Part II.
Drop a comment with some of your memories and stories from lifting. Looking forward to reading them!
Lead from the FRONT!
–Z–
Filed under Articles, Kick Ass Life, Success, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Jul 14th, 2010. 21 Comments.
Mike Bruce is called “The Machine”….
But, take a look at his latest book and it’s really like stepping into a “Time Machine”…
If you’re tired and confused to no end with the latest crazes in fitness, strength then step into the “Time Machine” of true physical culture and learn from Mike HERE.
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
Filed under Announcements, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Feb 20th, 2009. Comment.
I’m a BIG fan of the good ol’ days when strength was a priority.
The bodybuilders didn’t just look strong, they were strong as hell!
I snagged myself a dozen or so old bodybuilding mags with someone I really admire, Dr. Ken Leistner.
He trained, and still does train, athletes with heavy barbells, thick bars, stones, anvils, missiles (don’t worry, they’re empty
Fo sho, Dr. Ken and I are related, ha ha
Check out the mags and the workout kids….
Do you love to train heavy?
Do you wanna be a strong as hell, thick, rugged beast?
I bet you do.
Kill it!
–Z–
Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Feb 7th, 2009. 1 Comment.
This is just the beginning….
The Golden Era returns…via Edison, NJ and The Underground Strength Gym!
The gun show is on….
Dave Draper knew what it was all about….
He left when it got out of hand & the comraderie disappeared….
Will I ever leave?
Who knows….
Check the gun show….this is just the beginning, there is MUCH MORE crazy training to come…
Time for you to kill it!
Thanksgiving is coming…
The Underground Pull Up Contest ends tomorrow….I’ve got a video for you
Do you have a video for me?
Post your pull up numbers on you tube and title it “Underground Pull Up Contest with _______ (your name)”
Kill it!
–Coach Z–
PS: The Golden Era & Physical Culture, both created Gladiators. See what Gladiator Training is all about Right HERE.
Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Nov 25th, 2008. 1 Comment.
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