I am NOT a hard headed guy when it comes to learning about strength, fitness and physical culture. I laugh at the morons who refuse to listen and learn.
Below you’ll find two men I respect, admire and confide in to help me improve my own personal training and the training of others.
If you’re open minded, you’ll take advantage of these two Coaches as well, they are amazing, and honestly, that description doesn’t do these men justice.
Check out The Virginia Beach Beast, Matty Wichlinski, I am going to set up some rings in my garage and will be attempting to go through these awe-inspiring bodyweight training progressions, check em’ out:
Then we have Kelly Starrett, who spent 30 minutes on the phone with me today, going over various methods and tools to use to help get my shoulder back on track. I’m sure he’s busy enough and didn’t have to spend that time with me on the phone, but he did, and man, after taking action for 15 minutes my shoulder felt 100 times better.
Here’s a video I used from K Starr and followed to help dramatically reduce my shoulder pain, check it out and USE it:
One of the best combinations for us strength fanatics is the ability to develop FREAK Strength AND to understand how to heal ourselves.
After talking with K Star we made some simple adjustments to my training as well, such as ring push ups with my thumbs pointing slightly outward (11 and 1 o’clock) to stop from my constant internal rotation.
I will be using strength drills to heal in addition to the soft tissue work, this allows me to keep training intensely which is something embedded in me. I took stock and realized I am rarely doing underhand pull ups, the majority are overhand, neutral or rope climbs. So, for a while, I’ll be focused on underhand pulling.
Tonight’s workout was pretty aggressive and felt GREAT with lots and lots of rounds of barbell muscle snatches and underhand pull ups. Shoulder felt solid and if I can lift aggressively I sleep better at night 
Mountain Biking trip # 2 is scheduled with the boys and more running will be on the agenda as well. In fact, my hometown is holding a Turkey Trot with a 1 mile and 5k race. I’ll enter the 1 mile. My best time was 5: 58 back when I was 14 years old! My goal is to beat 7 minutes. It’s ON.
We need to compete, we need to challenge ourselves, both mentally AND physically.
Food for though no doubt.
Question for You: What do you have on your agenda in regards to competition or challenges for yourself. Drop a comment and make yourself accountable. Psyched to see what everyone has on their agenda!
Peace!
–Z–
Recommended Resources:
Do What You Love – Final USC Cert of the Year, On Sale!
Mobility Master – Heal Yourself
The Va. Beast Bodyweight & Kettlebell Workshop
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Filed under Articles, Strength Building, Success, Videos, muscle building by on Oct 19th, 2010. 16 Comments. 
Matty Wichlinski calls this a Freestyle Fighter Barbell Complex.
Matty and I tore up a 1 Day Underground Strength Coach Cert this past Saturday at his gym.
The night before we had some good grub, GREAT conversations and a few brews
I even witnessed a dude get caught stealing liquor from a 7-11. Yep, in the “South” people are buying beer, wine and all types of liquor from 7-11. Strange.
Check out Matty in action below, the Dude is a straight up BEAST!
If you missed The Va Beach Underground Strength Coach Cert, you missed the best damn training and business methods you ever came across.
Lead from the FRONT.
–Z–
PS: Wanna become a BEAST? It ain’t gonna happen training like any ol’ normal workout has you training. It takes something completely different. Click HERE for The BEAST Program.
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Filed under Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Mar 22nd, 2010. 5 Comments.
Lots of people HATE CrossFit.
Of course, it’s f**ing HARD workouts. Period.
For my athletes I follow a system. A system of training is required to consistently get them stronger, more explosive, adding more muscle and improving their skill at the lifts as well. CrossFit is implemented into our conditioning work.
CrossFit in lifting / movement / training is similar in philosophy to why I always tell my athletes to Cross Train in other sports to make them MORE athletic in their sport of focus.
For example, I ALWAYS tell my Wrestlers and Football players to train in Judo for a few months out of the year.
I can explain WHY, but instead, I want you to see a high school wrestler who is also a Judoka. He is F**ing deadly. Watch Below…
I am BIG Time impressed with Derek Wojcik, a Judoka and wrestler from Georgia.
The Overseas athletes ALL crosstrained in various sports and various lifting / training methods. The Olympic Weightlifters from the 1970′s looked like a Hybrid of a Gymnast – Wrestler. Very lean, very muscular, extremely strong, extremely explosive and ALSO highly conditioned.
My Football players play a lot of Basketball as it improves their speed, power, agility and overall conditioning.
The athlete who never rotates new movements, methods or sports into his / her repertoire will be more likely to get overuse injuries or achieve physical / psychological burn out before the athlete who is more well rounded, exposed to more sports yet still focuses on 1 or 2 main sports.
Drop a comment, let me know your thoughts.
–Z–
PS: The Underground Strength Kit forces you to cross train using a variety of methods, tools and training modalities. Our athletes don’t always squat or bench more than the competition, but when it comes time to compete, we are dominating.
PPS: If you’re an athletic coach, strength coach, parent or an athlete looking to be part of the best strength and sport training seminar then find a way to meet me HERE. Time is running out.
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Filed under Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Mar 12th, 2010. 32 Comments.
Man, it’s AWESOME to see those putting to use what they’ve learned during Underground Strength Coach Mentorship Courses.
Check out my boys from The UK, Zoran Dubaic and Sean Keefe. They sent me their opening highlight video and some good words and I am BIG time honored.
I LOVE seeing people following their passion and achieving their dreams!
They just opened their gym a few weeks ago, check the video below….
Pretty damn awesome, if ya ask me
And here is some footage of Sean, Zoran and the rest of the crew that attended an Underground Strength Coach Mentorship.
“Zach Even-Esh is one of the most inspirational people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting. His encouragement, support, enthusiasm and passion for helping others has been instrumental in helping us achieve our ultimate goal of owning and running our very own warehouse gym.
We traveled all the way from Manchester, England to complete Zach’s Underground mentorship and it is the BEST thing we ever did! Thanks again, Zach, for helping us realize our dreams”.
~ Zoran Dubaic and Sean Keefe ~
Directors of Strength and Performance Ltd.
http://strengthandperformance.co.uk
Who else is gonna go after their dreams?
Drop a comment with your thoughts and / or questions.
Lead from the Front!
–Z–
PS: We still have some room at the upcoming Underground Mentorships below.
But, this will be the last 1 Day Mentorship I plan on doing. Lots of peeps request them yet very few that request step up and sign up. I hate talkers, I wanna work with doers!
1 Day Mentorship – Click HERE for Details
2 Day Mentorship – Click HERE for Details
PPS: Talk about Action Takers!!!
We just had a gym in Texas sign 10 of their Coaches up for a private, tailor made Underground Mentorship. Now that’s what I call a bunch of SERIOUS Ass Kickers Who Wanna WIN!
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos by on Mar 1st, 2010. 20 Comments.
I had a goal of Trap Bar Deadlifting 225 lbs for 50 reps.
It was easy, mainly because I didn’t allow myself the option to fail.
I did fail, however, in my ability to count.
I watched the video and realized I did 49, NOT 50!
I’m a knucklehead, enjoy the Madness Below….
Drop a comment with your thoughts!
Lead from the Front!
–Z–
PS: Just had a dude sign up for the 1 Day Underground Mentorship coming on March 20th!
Now that is Dedication, traveling to another country for a day of training & business! I will let attendees know about our meet up the night before which oughtta be off the hook, crazy as well!
No Excuses Bad Asses can Sign Up HERE
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Feb 26th, 2010. 32 Comments.
There are those who “Get it” and those who simply don’t “Get it”.
Some struggle with how to train athletes, having no system of their own, no time in the trenches and too much time on their ass sitting in front of a computer and in the books, NO Real World application.
Some try opening their business and quickly crumble and fall out of “business”.
Some see adversity and cower away, while others stare it straight in the eyes and keep charging.
Some have a laundry list of excuses and very few take responsibility.
Some Kick ass and Take names while others get their ass kicked.
Some are The Hunters, other are the Hunted.
If the Devil was facing you in the cage would you still fight, or would you lie down and quit?
You must be relentless when attacking your goals if you ever want to achieve them and start living life on your own terms.
Who cares what others think or say you should do. You can follow or you can lead, doing both doesn’t cut it.
Blaze your own trail. Yes, you will mistakes and be knocked on your ass and on your back, you can lie down and quit or get back up…. again and again.
Here’s a guy who “Gets it”…. BIG Time.
He Kicks ass and is on a mission, with fire his in eyes.
The Virginia Beach Beast, Matty Wichlinski, a Bruddah who Leads from the Front!
Check it…
When Matt opened his warehouse gym he was struggling in more ways than one in his life. While others could have given up, lied down or simply never have taken the first step, Matty took massive action to achieve his dream of opening a warehouse gym.
He has been growing his business quickly and not only is he kicking ass with his warehouse gym, but as a Coach, he is constantly evolving and growing, learning, making him self better, and in turn, making his athletes that much better.
Drop a comment on Matty’s Video.
Matty and I hope to see you in Virginia, click HERE for details.
Lead from the Front!
–Z–
PS: The night before our Virginia Underground Strength Coach Mentorship I will arrange a gathering (optional on your part) and we’ll talk training, business, life and of course, how to start living life according to your own rules.
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Feb 18th, 2010. 14 Comments.
Check the video below. Athletes are throwing weights overhead. I don’t think we need a crying argument here whether this is a push press, military press or whatever you want to call it.
The arguing is for the internet gurus who sit on their fat ass and don’t lift jack shit anyway.
Weakness is NOT good. If you have a weak point, attack it with ferocity. Throwing weight over your head makes you strong from head to toe.
I just interviewed Jim Wendler, who favors the strict press, and we spoke about weak areas and attacking the hell out of them.
Lots of people argue that overhead pressing is bad for you.
It’s bad to be weak, period.
It’s bad if you never cycle your lifts or movements which leads to overuse injuries.
Check out Matty Wichlinski, throwing heavy weights overhead.
We believe in STRENGTH here, what do YOU believe in?
Lead from the Front.
–Z–
PS: Matty & I will be unleashing a kick ass Underground Mentorship come March 20th, check out the details HERE.
PPS: 2 Day Underground Mentorship is Open HERE. Serious Applicants Only.
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Q & A, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, Zach's Workouts, muscle building by on Feb 9th, 2010. 10 Comments.
Holy S**t! The Underground Strength Coach Inspiration Contest BLEW ME AWAY!
And by reading ALL the comments, I can see YOU were also inspired!
I am beyond amazed and inspired by the videos that were made.
I compiled the votes that came through my e mail (which was A LOT!), the Blog comments and the 4 people I had judging and man it was a SERIOUS fight for 1st place between BIg Dan and Chris the BEAST.
There was also some SERIOUS love for the Virginia Beach Beast, Matty Wichlinski. Matt contributed and is already a Expert Panelist at http://UndergroundStrengthCoach.com as did Dominik Feischl from Austria, who is also on the Underground Expert Panel.
These two Beasts already have lifetime membership to Underground and did not need the “awards” to inspire them. They are Strength addicts, as we all are, and is what inspired them to take action. Hells Yea!
So, we decided to make a top 3.
This was calculated by the e mails, Blog comments and the 4 friends I had voting as well.
The fight for 1st place was CLOSE but one man edged out another!
Here are the Top 3 Winners and their videos are below.
1st: Chris “The Beast from the East”
2nd: BIG Dan Gibson
3rd: Matty “The Virginia Beach Beast” Wichlinski
Chris AND Dan are BOTH getting a FREE ride to come to a future Underground Strength Coach Mentorship held at my gym in NJ.
Chris will receive ALL the products listed on The Underground Store Page, BOTH physical and downoadable programs.
More info to come from Matt Wichlinski shortly……
I want to say, before posting the videos, that I am honored and humbled to see the awesome people that have taken part in this event.
Everyone showed awesome inspiration AND a humble demeanor.
Too many people in the fitness industry act like assholes and have a holier than tho attitude and it is refreshing to see awesome guys like yourself.
From here on out and every day forward we gotta continue to pay it forward!
Let’s take another look at The 3 Baddest Mother F**ers……
For The Top 3 BEASTS, please e mail me so we can arrange your prizes.
More to come shortly…
Lead from the Front!
Peace!
–Z–
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Underground Strength Show, Videos, muscle building by on Jan 17th, 2010. 19 Comments.
Check out Underground Strength Coach, Matty Wichlinski, making a homemade Sandbag.
I’m gonna crank a few of these myself and get our athletes squatting, lunging, jumping and throwing them.
Check it & let me know your thoughts below
You know I love sandbag training and sandbags were actually my first substitute for a barbell.
I didn’t have the cash for a barbell and making a sandbag ran me under $30 bones, so I made a 50 and a 100 lb bag and I got my ass handed to me cranking out the following sandbag exercises:
- clean and press
- shouldering
- carries up hill
- loading onto tall objects
- power clean & catch
Sandbag training to this day is a HUGE part of how I train and how I train my athletes.
That video kicked ass, what about you? Did you dig it?
Post your comments below and let us know your thoughts on the video, sandbag training and anything else you wanna unleash!
Peace!
–Z–
PS: I’ll be announcing in the next day or 2 the upcoming Underground Strength Gym License Course, which allows you to run your own high profit, low overhead Underground Strength Gym.
Oh yea, you will also have a 10 mile radius blocked off so NO other Underground Strength Gyms can open up near you.
The date is soon, it’s July 18 & 19 at my gym in Edison, NJ. There will be 9 spaces so get ready to jump on this pronto.
Watch your e mail in the next day or two! Have an awesome weekend!
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Calendar, Strength Building, Success, Videos, muscle building by on May 31st, 2009. 36 Comments.
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