Mindset is THE KEY to kickin’ ass & takin’ names…. I can talk, talk, talk ALL about this, BUT, let me show you a few videos that will tell you EXACTLY what it takes to kick ass in LIFE…..

Special thanks to Chael Sonnen for speaking from the heart…

2012 is gonna reveal some SIC shit to Underground Strength Nation. Enjoy these videos and by ALL means, DO something with the info in these videos, it would be a crime NOT to….

Dan Gable speaks on training like Rocky, training old school and NOT allowing yourself to get comfortable….

Check the highlight below with some footage from Underground Trained, Anthony Ashnault…. Inspiring whether you wrestle or NOT!

Drop a comment with your thoughts on these “videos of the mind”…. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Live The Code, Underground 4 Life

Peace

–Z–

If you missed Part I, check it HERE

17) After freshman wrestling season ended I joined Apollon Gym, which is the gym I share a parking lot with today! I trained 6 – 7 days a week, for  a minimum of 2 hrs a day. Often times on weekends, my parents would drop me off in the morning to train while they went food shopping, ran errands, went to the mall, etc. It wasn’t odd for me to be at the gym 4 – 6 hrs on weekends. I just kept on training till they picked me up

18) My subscription to FLEX magazine was what I lived for. I would hound the mail man as I began to dial in the exact day of the month in which FLEX magazine would arrive. I would read the magazine cover to cover on the very first day and as the years went on, my book shelf was bending and on the brink of breaking with the hundreds of bodybuilding magazines that overstuffed every inch of my book shelf.

19) In the summer of 1990 we were going to Israel for 3 weeks and feared I would be unable to train. The day before flying I did over 50 sets of squats with over 225 lbs with hopes of the extra work maintaining through my time away from weights.

20) While in Israel during the summer of 1990, I did 20 sets of pull ups every other day. Every other day I walked to the local school and began every workout with a 20 rep set. The first 10 sets were performed with an overhand grip. The last 10 sets were ALL mixed grip pull ups. I came back to the gym after vacation and was banging out multiple 20 + rep sets of pull ups weighing approximately 150 lbs at age 14 (I was YOUNG for my class, I turned 14 in December of my Freshman Year!).

21) Sophomore year of high school I returned 20 lbs heavier than freshman year. My Wrestling Coach was impressed, my friends were impressed and girls LOVED it! ha ha Muscle DO help

22) The summer of 1990 I attended The John Smith Intensive Wrestling Camp where there were about 13 or 14 wrestlers, ALL of whom were state qualifiers and all state wrestlers. There I was, a kid who NEVER won a wrestling match and got my ass kicked so bad I didn’t even know my zip code.

It was hellish. Every morning was 3 – 5 mile run followed by 3 wrestling sessions, 4 workouts a day in total. I got injured and tore rib cartilage which was NOT fun.

23) I FINALLY won my first wrestling match during my first match of the season, my 2nd year wrestling, it was December 1990. I ALMOST lost…. I had worked hard all off season and nailed my low single which I had drilled thousands of times. Somehow, someway my opponent had me on my back and I remember a whirlwind of feelings going through my head at a mile a milisecond.

I thought it was over… getting pinned… AGAIN… I felt like death crept into my body for a few seconds as the ref was counting back points. Somehow, someway, deep inside I remember shouting to myself.. “FUUUUUCK YOU!!!!”

I got off my back, escaped, and starting getting takedowns and back points, racking up points, gaining the lead, more and more. The match was a whirlwind experience, and I still remember my Head Coach, Mr. Pagach, telling me to remain calm, there was 22 seconds left on the clock…..

Getting my arm raised after SOOOO much emotional pain through the past year was one of the best feelings I ever experienced.

24) To pay for my gym membership I began mowing lawns on a regular basis after wrestling season ended. My dad would drop me off with a lawn mower, trimmer, weed wacker and gas. I was making regular money and I could pay for my gym membership, my protein powders and endless bodybuilding magazines and books.

I didn’t care much for fancy clothes or the typical things other high school kids did. All I cared about was lifting. Every book I had for school had a muscle magazine stuffed in the middle of it and I could barely focus on school work, all I could think about was training.

25) In October of my senior year in high school I was walking into a Quick Check. While walking in 2 thugs were staring at me. 15 minutes later, I walked out, and now there was close to 15 thugs, most of them drunk or high. The guy who was staring at me earlier was now shouting at me and calling me out with his back up crew. He started calling me and I turned around and he pushed me.

I didn’t even know how to fight, so I shot a double leg takedown on him and pinned him against the wall. He started shouting to his friends, ‘Help, Help, get him off of me!”. I thought they would watch us duke it out, mano e mano, but I was wrong. In a milisecond my entire body was getting kicked from head to toe.

I scrambled my way to my feet while a few kids held me and another was punching me. I escaped by hitting another double leg takedown and never threw one single punch.

The cops arrived and I was lost as to what just happened and embarrassed at the fact that i had NO clue how to fight, all I could do was wrestle. I learned a VALUABLE lesson that night regarding wrestling, street fighting and rules of engagement. I was 16 at the time, it was 1992, I remember that fight as if it happened last night.

26) Guidance Counselor told me, “Maybe college isn’t for you….” after I scored 840 on my SAT 2 times in a row. That very same day Marine recruits were in my school and they told me I could join the Marines and wrestle. At the moment, it sounded pretty cool but the idea never REALLY took over my mind so I never followed through. Third time I took the SAT I scored 970 and this helped me get accepted into college.

27) The Fall of 1993 began my freshman year at Kean College and I also became part of the first graduating class of Kean University. Freshman year was brutal for me, I was failing Algebra and had NO clue how to study. After being an honors student in high school for 3 years in Level 2 classes, I realized the “system” was bull shit. I wasn’t smart enough to be in Level 1, but they needed nice kids who do their homework in Level 2.

You think you’re doing good, till you show up in college and can’t read more than 5 pages without day dreaming.

Being 17 in college doesn’t make you the most mature person either.

28) In December of 1993 I fell in love with a girl. You know, the stupid kind of love that only a 17 year old knows. That girl cheated on me and it f**ed my world up REALLY good. I went into a downward spiral for a solid 6 months and felt like the walking dead. I was having a brutal time in college and I didn’t pack on 1 ounce of muscle during this 6 month stint of depression.

29) In the summer of 1994 we went to Israel again. I was STILL depressed and wanted to go home. My older bro was in the military at the time and he brought me to the new gym in town. I remember training shoulders and arms HIT style on my first night there. Drop sets, partials, forced reps….

The owner saw me and showed me a poster of the upcoming Mr. Israel Bodybuilding contest that was 2 weeks away. He insisted I enter the “Young Mr. Israel” contest. Being the depressed idiot that I was, I said “No.” I trained at his gym every day, and every day, Avner, the gym owner, asked me to compete. Every day, I said “No.”

30) My friend in Israel noticed I was walking around like a bag of shit. He told me I need to start waking up every morning excited for life. I need to wake up and say to myself, “Today is gonna be a beautiful day!”

That next morning I woke up and tweaked that speech a little bit, it went like this: “F**k this! I am done being a depressed piece of sh*t! Today is gonna be a Beautiful day! What beautiful things will today bring me? ONLY beautiful things!!”

I know, it sounds kinda crazy, BUT, I AM Crazy

That moment changed my life forever. I drew a line in the sand and NEVER looked back.

31) That very same day I went to the gym and Avner, the gym owner, said to me, “I will ask you one last time….will you compete in The Mr Israel?”

I said “Yes!”….. we had 7 days to get ready and I remember doing EVERYTHING at once. I met Joe during that first workout. Joe was trying to get into the Israeli SEAL Team, called Shayetet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We trained 2 x a day every day, with a third “workout” being me practicing my posing.

My Grandmother cooked chicken and rice for me to eat during EVERY meal except for breakfast which was 8 eggs every morning, half whites, half yokes.

I was scared when I showed up to compete. There were kids from Russia and all over Israel, but they were dressed in baggy bodybuilder clothes and looked HUGE. I thought they were HUGE. The competition was held in a HUGE amphitheater with the clear night sky above us.

But…. prejudging was held in the basement! It reminded me of Arnold talking about his first bodybuilding show in America, unable to speak english. He pumped up his chest by doing feet elevated push ups with his hands on chairs for the extra stretch. I did the SAME thing, along with curls, rows, presses and calf raises.

I stayed away from the competitors and Joe helped me warm up and would not let anyone near me or allow anyone to talk with me. The other teenagers were accusing of me being on steroids because I was from America and was much bigger than they were. I was offended and tried to explain to them how hard I worked but they still accused me of being on steroids provided by Joe Weider (NOT kidding!).

There were close to 20 teenagers in the competition and after the strange pre-judging was over the night show was ON. The music was blasting and I performed my posing routine to a Metallica song…..It’s the same song I always listened to on cold winter nights during wrestling season, when I would go out and run like a madman for 3, 4 and sometimes 5 miles every other night in the freezing air…… Dedication…. Comitment…..

Click here to view the embedded video.

The amphitheater was PACKED and people were screaming like crazy. I NEVER saw such a thing in my life, let alone experienced this. I believe there were well over 1,000 people…..

When the dust settled I was announced as “Young Mr. Israel”. My family was there and my friends along with the thousand plus attendees screaming. It was very surreal to go from a half a year of depression to the best week of my life. When I was finished with the competition younger kids were waiting outside for me to get my autograph, asking me questions on how to build bigger biceps, chest……

32) When I returned home from Israel, I went from 185 lbs to 198 lbs in about 2 weeks. The depression I was going through stopped ALL physical and mental progress from occurring. As soon as I drew that line in the sand my body responded like a mad man and I gained 12 lbs in 2 weeks.

It was THEN that I learned the power of the mind and controlling emotions.

I also NEVER again let a girlfriend ever again have an emotional effect on me. I became cold and heartless to anything anyone could possibly do to hurt me.

33) Sophomore Year in college began and with my new outlook on life and greater confidence I began kicking ass in school and learned how to study. Everything in life was starting to go GREAT and I became consumed with learning about the power of the mind.

This was the fall of 1994 and I didn’t even have e mail or internet.

34) While training at one of the last hardcore gyms in NJ, Dynamic Fitness, I ran into my friend who was a former wrestler and a top level bodybuilder. He was impressed by the gains I had made and asked me to train with him to get read for the 1995 Mr. NJ Bodybuilding Contest.

I told him I’ll ask if my Mom can handle cooking all the necessary food so I can eat 6 meals a days. If she would agree, I would call him and commit to the training and we would train for 6 months together, at Diamond Gym. At that time, FLEX magazine ranked Diamond Gym as the most hardcore gym in the world. And for GOOD reason.

This gym had hours from 5 AM – 10 PM. I once showed up at 5 AM on the dot thinking I’d be first and most committed. I was WRONG. I walked in at 5 AM and when I opened the door a gust of heat and sweat hit me like a ton of bricks while loud house music was blaring through the speakers and shaking the walls. There was around 30 guys in there drenched in sweat, lifting heavy and what seemed to be at least mid way through their workouts!

It was common to see bodybuilders benching 315 for reps, squatting 405 and 495 for reps, deadlifting 495 + for reps. The dumbbells went up to 180 lbs and MANY guys used them!

Weights were dropped ALL the time and NO one ever batted an eye lash about it. The gym had an electric energy that I have never experienced anywhere else… ever.

These bodybuilders were built VERY differently than the bodybuilders of today. NONE of these guys were pump up artists, they trained heavy and hard and that’s what the owner, John Kemper, encouraged everyone to do and he led by example.

After our workouts we all hung out in front of the gym, eating our food (we ALL packed meals with us everywhere we went), trading workout tips, old school workout stories and more. I was always in my glory when training there and being part of the bodybuilding culture. I loved it ALL, not just the training, but the camaraderie involved which is so rare nowadays.

I guess it’s tough to bond nowadays when you don’t have a hardcore gym to train at and you feel like an outcast trying to lift hard and heavy amongst other people on cell phones and lifting baby weights.

I stopped by a while ago during lunch which is a bit of a quit time but you get the idea…..

Click here to view the embedded video.

35) In April 1995, after training like a madman for 6 months, it was finally time to compete. The goal was to compete in the Teen Mr. NJ but then I saw a poster hanging up in the gym for The Mid Atlantic Natural Bodybuiding Show. It was to be held a week before The Mr. NJ.

I wanted to do it, especially after so many people accused me of being steroids. People were saying things like, “There’s NO way he’s natural. No one can train that hard and recover from those workouts and still be natural.

I wanted to prove them WRONG.

My attitude was TOTALLY different as was my confidence compared to my high school days. I had matured mentally, BIG time, and I had an animal instinct and a desire to win with an even greater desire to NEVER lose again unless you killed me.

I trained so damn hard and committed to the lifestyle of winning to the T.

Every night, lights out at 11 PM NO Matter what! I remember escorting a HOT girl out of my house at 10:45 PM and she had NO clue what the heck was going on! ha ha

Every morning I woke up at 7 AM, even if I didn’t have an early morning class, I still woke up to have my first meal of each day, a Met-RX meal replacement. I then went back to bed and woke up at 9 AM and had the classic bodybuilder breakfast.

8 egg white + 1 yolk

bowl of oatmeal

TONS of water

Multi Vitamin, Vitamin C, Vitamin E

2 Bananas

As soon as I committed to competing as a bodybuilder, the ritual was ON! I wrote down EVERYTHING I ate and drank for 6 months. For 6 months, I went to sleep at 11 PM and woke up at 7 AM. My life was bodybuilding and school. I would pack food to school and eat in my car…. turkey, potatoes, turkey….. chicken….. more turkey, broccoli…. I still HATE Turkey to this day.

That’s me 4 weeks out from my bodybuilding show, below.

The results from my bodybuilding competitions went like this:

Mid Atlantic Natural Teen: 1st Place & Overall

Mid Atlantic Men’s Novice Light Heavy Division: 2nd Place

I weighed 178 lbs at The Mid Atlantic and the Light Heavy division ranges from 176 to 198.

The next week I took 2nd place at The Teen Mr. NJ, the 1st place trophy went to the kid who went on to win the Teen Nationals that summer. I was natural…. he was not

Well, that’s 35 life & lifting lessons but I’ve got MUCH more to share and tell….. so, without a doubt….

I’ll continue with a Part III Soon Enough!

If you enjoyed this, please do me a huge favor and share with your friends by using our facebook, twitter and stumble upon share buttons.

Any questions or comments, please drop a line below, I LOVE getting comments and answering questions

Peace!

–Z–

Shit!

In a few short weeks I’ll be 36.

Time goes fast. TOO Fast. Here’s some stories and lessons I’ve learned along the way & hopefully you’re not too cool to learn from some of these.

Anyway, for no reason whatsoever I thought it would be legit to have a pic of Dr. Ken training with an empty bomb to remind you to push the limits

1) I remember when I was 7 years old and racing big wheels with my friends down the hill and smashing into garbage cans. That was FUN. As we get older in age and acquire more responsibilities we forget to have FUN. Like I said time goes fast and sometimes I forget this also. Be smarter than me and DON’T forget.

2) I remember arm wrestling all the kids in the neighborhood one night in 6th grade. Everyone beat me. It sucked. It was summer vacation. I went home that night and started doing push ups. I think I did 3 or 4 push ups. The next day I did 5, then 6, 7 and up to 20 something reps. I started doing GTG (Grease the Groove) ala Pavel without knowing it. Do your push ups, kids.

3) When I was in elementary school and my older bro was in middle school he started getting into working out. There was a sporting good’s store in the mall near our home called “Herman’s”. My bro made me go to the mall with him on our bikes, with empty backpacks. He bought 40 lbs, all in 10 lb plates. We each had 20 lbs in our backpack and the ride home had a steady incline. I wanted to quit but he yelled at me and made me push through the hill.

When we got home and I took off my back pack I remember feeling light as a feather walking up our stairs.

4) When I was in 2nd grade our Doberman had puppies, born in our home. My old brother woke me up at 3 or 4 AM when they were born and I couldn’t wake up. I woke up that morning to see 8 puppies. One puppy didn’t make it and we kept one and my Dad sold the others.

The one we kept grew up with me from age 7 till I was 21. When he died I was depressed for 4 days and experienced my first lesson in losing my best friend.

5) I used to play Soccer. My Dad being of Romanian descent didn’t know much about American sports like Football & Baseball. I remember standing in the field and not paying attention until a ball went flying at full speed and nailed me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me.

I was about to fall to the ground in pain and my Coach shouted out to me, “Good block, Zach!”. He totally knew I just got my ass kicked by a flying soccer ball.

6) In 4th grade my BMX bike was stolen by 2 kids. They were big, bad teenagers and my friends and I were playing Football. The apartment complex was known for getting bikes stolen, and these kids stoke my bike in broad day light, in front of all of us. We ALL just froze, it was a surreal experience and time seemed to freeze while the only thing I saw a kid racing away on a bike I saved all my paper route money for and dumped every penny of my allowance into.

To this day I still remember that feeling of seeing my bike ride off to Perth Amboy, NJ.

I would gladly like to meet both of those kids today and would have NO problems spending a little jail time to let them know that I’m not 9 years old anymore and stealing bikes isn’t nice.

To this day, my bikes hold special meanings to me and I’m always waiting for someone to think they can ride away with my bike. It wouldn’t be pretty, that’s for sure.

7) My older bro bought one of those crushers you’ve seen in Pumping Iron. I tried to crush it and I was so weak it slipped out of my hands and nailed me in the chin, damn near knocked me out and I think I cried. I probably did cry. I was a BIG pussy back in the day! ha ha

Click here to view the embedded video.

My older bro bought the soloflex the fall of my freshman year in high school, I was still 13 years old. I think he saved his money as a bus boy to pay for most of it. I thought if I used it I too would look like Mr. Soloflex. I’m still wondering what happened?

Click here to view the embedded video.

9) The first time I ever cut school was freshman year in high school so I could tape American Muscle Magazine. The show would always air at strange times like 3 AM on a weeknight or 12 noon on a weekday. I fell in love with bodybuilding and decided I would use my “sick days” strategically, once a month, to record the monthly American Muscle show. I would then ride my bike to The Metuchen YMCA so I could get in a double workout that day. I was always scared they would call the cops and ask me why I wasn’t in school.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10) The first hardcore gym I ever trained at was called Dynamic Fitness. The owner welded ALL the equipment himself, all the plates were wide flange Ivanko plates. Squat racks lined the wall along with plenty of benches and dumbbells up to 180. It was common place to see bodybuilders benching 315 and squatting over 405. The place was a 7,000 sq ft warehouse and no air conditioning. There were large industrial fans everywhere and I LOVED it.

There was ALWAYS someone bigger and stronger than you in that gym. It was heaven while it lasted.

11) While in middle school and in Israel, my older bro and I went to the local book store and I found Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. I sat on the floor and couldn’t stop reading the book till I was kicked out at 1 PM when ALL the stores shut down for mid day naps.

The book was twice as expensive in Israel compared to the states. My Grandfather bought it for us anyway. He never said “No” to us.

I STILL have that book today, in my office.

12) I rented the movie Pumping Iron while in high school and watched it over and over ALL day on that first day. It blew me away and all I could think about was bodybuilding and living in California. I was connected to the Golden Era bodybuilders 100 x more than what I saw happening in the 90s.

I began reading books from Arnold and Mike Mentzer. I preferred the black and white pics over the color pics. I preferred the REAL pics of the guys lifting heavy compared to the fake images in the magazines.

13) When I trained at The Metuchen YMCA the membership was $5 a month! They had a York Isometric rack, York Dumbbells, plates and all York gym equipment.

Mid way through high school they got rid of all their York equipment and the dingy basement gym and brought in all fancy nautilus & bodymasters equipment, put it upstairs and added carpeting. I NEVER trained there again. The day that old school gym was removed broke my heart.

14) I remember trying to ride my bike home from the YMCA after a leg workout. I could barely pedal my bike so I started walking it, leaning on it, trying to push it. My legs were cramping up BIG time after following a leg workout from Arnold’s Encyclopedia at the young age of 13.

I was hurting and saw a landscaper along the way watering a garden. I asked him if I could drink water from the hose and I think he saw the desperate look in my eyes and let me drink. I began to cherish the feeling of soreness and the inability to walk after a leg workout was THE main factor that determined if my leg workout was intense enough or not.

15) The first time someone coached me to deadlift was at Apollon Gym. His name was Herman and he still trains there today and I always remember that day. I was deadlifting with 115 lbs.

16) The first year I began wrestling was freshman year. The team was packed and I had to wrestle off for the freshman spot. I got pinned EVERY wrestle off and it fueled my fire to train harder than everyone else. Those consecutive losses also proved to be a burden on my mind and I was never able to recover from so many losses. No matter how hard I trained my mind held me back.

Those depressing times taught me largely how I need to think to become a champion in everything I do. My pain in wrestling and a select few other areas in my life have fueled my first to do what I do today, to help others avoid my painful past.

Wrestling taught me to become immune to physical pain and discomfort.

Wrestling taught me the pain of losing.

Wrestling taught me the power of the mind.

Wrestling taught me emotional pain and it is the ONE thing I never want to face again.

I’ll crank a part 2 soon enough.

Any thoughts, questions or comments feel free to drop em’ below. If you enjoyed this blog, please share with friends via facebook and twitter

BIG thanks,

Peace

–Z–

Not EVERY post on this Blog will be about lifting. I don’t think lifting is the end all be all, perhaps you’ve heard me use the phrase, ‘Kick Ass in Life AND Lifting’? If not, read the book HERE!

Here’s a bit of my day and how things are rolling for me lately…

I’ve had a slam packed day and normally I do more work, but today was different. Many ask me how I get so much done and still have so much passion and energy on top of such a hectic schedule.

Well, # 1, I focus on my passion, and that is my family, living life to the fullest and moving my body in any way, shape or form.

My alarm was set for 5:30 AM but I woke at 6:30 instead. I went to bed after midnight so I wanted to get 6 hrs of sleep. Most days I am up before 6 AM, especially when the weather is nice out.

I like to get up early, not just because it’s quiet and allows me to get work done, but because I know many others do NOT wake early and I LIKE doing what others won’t do.

I like to be different and ahead of the pack. Being a conformist or part of the pack always made me feel out of place, ironically.

Fired up my only cup of coffee for the day and then I cranked a bit of work on the internets before my wife and kids woke up, then I make breakfast for the family.

Egg omelets, french toast, chocolate chip pancakes… you name it, I make it. Today was pancakes and egg omelets.

Then, it was off to tennis in the AM with my daughter and my son came to watch and run around like a wild boy does Afterwards, my son demanded a trip to the bagel deli, so we went! ha ha

The kid is GROWING, what can I say!

After brunch with Ethan, I did a lil’ work on the internets and then got some new wheels on my skateboard.

I’m doing LOTS of stuff that I used to do as a  kid and living by the beach is bringing me back to those good ol’ days of playing all day and night.

I drove 45 minutes north and spent time chatting with my homeboy, Jonny Hinds, inventor of The Power Wheel.

We spoke about a TON of stuff, as we always do:

- bodyweight training (we ALWAYS get fired up talking training)

- life

- business

- skate boarding

- NYC & life in the city of Chicago

- jiu jitsu training now vs BJJ in the past

- the importance of recovery

- Rickson Gracie

- The Bartendaz

….and planned a mini hang out for a few days now that I fly

We always end up chatting about our passions and bodyweight training always brings inspiration, so, check out some of the guys we we were talking about who inspired the heck out of us!!

I got up north and shopped for the final prizes for the http://LiftSTRONG2011.com benefit. From there, it was time for Toys R Us.

Then, I shopped for birthday gifts for Ethan, he turns 3 this Sunday! I am psyched and wanted to get him tons of awesome gifts. The reactions he has when opening presents and tearing off wrapping paper is priceless!!!

I also bought my daughter a gift, I can’t let her watch Ethan unwrap gifts without her getting a gift as well

I finished shopping and flew over to open The Underground and trained athletes from 4 – 6 pm. We tore it up with bodyweight, dumbbells and strongman training.

After 6 pm crew was done training, off I went, food shopping for Lift STRONG.

I bought 8 hamburgers and 50 hot dogs amongst other things. These Dudes better be
HUNGRY! I dropped the food off at my parents pad since they still live up north near my gym.

I had a nice home cooked meal from my Mom, chicken and brown rice, then drove home to crank some final work. I coulda called it a day but shit needs to get done and most peeps would quit, I ain’t most peeps.

I went through a lot of blog comments and answered them and was really humbled by all the kind words people are saying on the blog.

Is every day this hectic?

Heck NO.

My days are usually very carefully planned, by the hour, broken down. Organized and committed to getting things done! Today was a wild day and I also need them here and again to get away from work, work, work.

After 2 days of heavy lifting, this was a rest day. A well deserved rest day! Train hard = Rest Hard!

I got time to spend with my kids and that really matters most to me.  Time to hit the bed and get ready for a strong day tomorrow.

Question for YOU: What else do you want to see from me on my blog? Do you want me creating a specific product, training or non training? Please describe in the comments section, thanks!

Peace

–Z–

PS: By the way, I just opened my USC Cert up, back in NJ again

Not all attendees are coaches, many attend for personal growth.

Many are looking for a weekend to challenge them both emotionally and physically.

They want to experience a life changing weekend that they will NEVER forget, a weekend that will solidify them as an Underground Strength Coach.

I am psyched for this cert, especially after traveling away from home, I KNOW the energy is always at it’s best when I’m home, at Underground HQ, kicking ass and taking names with YOU.

Sign up and be ready for a life changing experience:

==> http://UndergroundStrengthCoachCertification.com

Very interesting video below, and although it speaks of wrestling, you and I BOTH KNOW that what Dan Gable speaks of is applicable to anything in your life.

Watch this Video…

It’s quite amazing, that Dan Gable was about to finish his collegiate career undefeated and lost in his final match to Larry Owings, who was only a sophomore at the time and Gable was a Senior.

Owings was determined to beat Gable, it was imprinted in his mind and he dropped 2 weight classes to meet Gable!

Ironically, Owings never won another National Title, taking 2nd place his final 2 years in college.

It seems that beating Gable was MORE important then the national title, hence his runner up placing the next 2 years.

That loss is what MADE Gable into who and what he became from there after.

Not one point was scored on Gable during the Olympic games, he refused to give up 1 point!

Do you see the power of the mind, focusing like a demon and dedicating yourself to winning?

The same can be applied to your life and any goals you may have. Yet all too often I hear excuse after excuse as to why things can NOT be achieved.

The mind must be trained, just as you train the body.

The Russians called Dan Gable “The Machine”.

Are you a Machine?

How can you become a machine.

What will it take to achieve your goals, both physically and your life goals?

Drop a comment and share your thoughts, questions, success stories and stumbling blocks.

Let’s ALL come together and share how to kick ass!

–Z–

Recommended Resources:

Va. Beach, Va. Underground Strength Coach Mentorship – Click HERE

NJ Underground Strength Coach Mentorship – Click HERE

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

Wow, look what I dug up! Years ago, I had the opportunity to e mail Coach Ethan Reeve, one of my mentors, and he dished out some of the most insanely powerful training information. Here it is, once again, for your reading pleasure.

Grab some hot cocoa, relax and enjoy!

Coach Reeve: Yes, I wrestled at the University of Tennessee from 1973-77. Although I was not an NCAA Champion I was a 4-time Southeastern Conference Champion and a 2-time NCAA All-American. Fortunately, I was privileged to have been an assistant wrestling coach under some great coaches at the University of Tennessee (Gray Simons), Oklahoma State University (Tommy Chesbro), Ohio University (Harry Houska) and Clemson University (Eddie Griffin).

Eventually I landed the Head Wrestling coach position at the University of Tennessee @ Chattanooga where I coached from 1984-1990. We had five Southern Conference Championship teams in six years. I loved coaching wrestling and still miss it.

However, I really enjoy training all sorts of sport athletes. The main thing I enjoyed about coaching wrestling was the training in the wrestling room. That is why it was such an easy transition to strength coaching because I just love training athletes and helping them become champions. Hard, smart work is the answer to success!

Basically, we are at the mercy of the athletes that are given to us by our sport coaches in recruiting. Our job, as strength coaches, is to “maximize” the athletic potential of each and every athlete we work with. We trust our sport coaches to identify the athletes they feel can help our university have success in that particular sport. Sport coaches, like NFL scouts, will look at film and visit the players and see how they perform at practice and in competition.

An athlete can have great results in the “combine” but not perform well in competition. If the athletes do not succeed in their sport under competitive situations then they will be overlooked in the recruiting process no matter how well they test in the strength room or combine. What coaches need are athletes that perform well in competition.

We do not emphasize numbers in testing in the strength room or speed and agility tests. We look for adequate strength, power, speed and athleticism. If the athletes given to us do not meet our standards then it is our job to get them to those minimum standards. It is the athlete’s choice to go beyond those standards and succeed at a higher level on the field of competition.

How we break the body and its movements down is like this:

Total Body Strength

1. Deadlift-401 lbs.
2. Power Shrug (Pulls)

Hip and Knee Extension

1. Front Squat-308 lbs./Back Squat-352 lbs. Both squats are well below parallel!
2. Lunge -242 lbs. for 2+2RM

Hip Extension Power

1. Hang Clean-308 lbs.
2. Hang Snatch

Hip Extension Strength

1. Romanian Dead Lifts (Rdls)
2. Good Mornings

Upper Body Pressing

1. Standing Press-198 lbs.
2. Bench-300 lbs.-325 lbs-350 lbs. (depending on position)

One-Arm Upper Body Pressing

1. DB Bench-(125 lbs. for 5+5RM)
2. KB Standing Press

Upper Body Pulling

1. Chins
2. Bent Rows

We feel it is very important for athletes to be athletic while they are getting stronger and more powerful.

What is athletic?

Great athletes do something that marginal athletes don’t do. The great athletes make the skill of their sport look easy. How does this happen?

Thousands upon thousands of repetitions of the skill of their sport at the speed needed in competition!

We believe in making our athletes athletic by doing athletic lifts instead of isolation lifts during our team workouts.

An athletic skill, like an athletic lift, is the incorporation of all your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments together in a natural and many times explosive fashion.

Our recommendation to incoming freshmen is to do athletic movements and athletic lifts. Don’t be so concerned about the amount of weight right away. Work on technique through a full range of motion and the speed of bar movement.

Learn how to tumble (forward rolls, diving rolls, backward rolls, back rolls to handstands, bear crawls, crab crawls, seat rolls, etc.). Tumbling is one of the best ways to develop kinesthetic and spatial awareness for all sports.

Learn how to do agility drills.

What is agility?

Agility has three main components:

1) change of speed

2) change of direction and…

3) change of levels all within the same drill.

Athletes must know what good position is for an athlete. The athletic position for most stand up power sports is with your hips bent (down), feet shoulder width apart, on the balls of the feet, natural curve in lower back and with knees bent.

One of the worst positions for an athlete (other than a jiu jitsu / grappler) is on their back. What we did with our wrestlers every day in practice is spend at least 5 minutes drilling a Bad to Good Position Drill. This drill entails, on the coaches’ whistle, having your athletes go from different bad positions up to their feet in the athletic position while moving their hands and feet when they get there.

Some bad positions are:

1) back

2) belly

3) side

4) butt

5) hands and knees and….

6) knees

The object is to go from the poor position and get to the athletic stance, with motion, as quickly as possible. The slower, less athletic athletes will get there slower.

2) With the experience & knowledge you have gained in the past years as the head strength coach at Wake Forest, what have you learned or implemented differently that you wish you would have done when you had wrestlers in your strength room (for those who don’t know, Wake Forest does not have a wrestling program) at your previous coaching positions?

Coach Reeve: We do not have a wrestling program here at Wake Forest. I wish we did! I’m not sure I would have trained wrestlers a whole lot differently than I did back in the 80′s. I have a notebook for every one of my six years at UT Chattanooga.

It is a detailed notebook with every practice’s lesson plan, minute by minute. It also has my observations of each workout. Within the notebook, prior to the daily lesson plans, is a detailed Master Plan of the teaching progression and drills to incorporate for strength training and wrestling technique.

We had a philosophy the permeated every wrestling drill and competition we had. Everything we did was based on these three elements of our philosophy:

1. Pressure
2. Position
3. Motion

These words were said, by me, to our team maybe 100-200 times at each and every practice. I will explain what their meaning is!

1. Pressure. The wrestler must keep pressure on his opponent every split second of every match he wrestles. This is whether he is on top, bottom, or on his feet! Pressure, pressure, pressure! Unrelenting pressure must be applied.

The wrestler must also be able to handle pressure mentally and physically when it is applied to him.

Referees will make mistakes. The crowd will taunt him. The opposing coach will say negative things at times. The wrestler must maintain his cool. He should never show emotion of any kind! Stone-face and stoic! When you show emotion in competition, the heat of battle, it is compared to a shark smelling blood!

If you display emotion during the battle the shark will smell the blood and attack that weakness.

We taught our wrestlers to search for physical and mental weaknesses in their opponents and attack them! If you are to have success with pressure then you must put all three portions of the philosophy together. And it must be implemented into every drill and scrimmage during practice sessions. There is no way you will pressure in a match without practicing pressure in every drill in practice.

2. Position. If the wrestler applies pressure to his opponent while being in poor position he will surely not have good success. All strength is angle specific. A great wrestler puts himself into positions of strength. This is whether he is on his feet, bottom or top position. Having good position is not just being in an athletic stance. It is his position in relation to his opponent. Cutting distance down so he can work his offensive technique and also be able to have a good defense when his opponent attacks is paramount.

This is true in all sport whether it is strong man competitions, Olympic weightlifting, Power lifting, tennis, golf, football, basketball or wrestling. In the lifting sports it is gravity, resistance and the object to be lifted that is your opponent.

The great wrestler continues putting himself into positions of strength in his sport. This is why being a strong strength room guy is not as important to him. The strength you receive from the strength room will only benefit the athlete if he has paid the price with technique of his sport. There are a lot of wrestlers that don’t appear strong.

However, they realize their strength potential in wrestling by putting themselves into positions of strength. Teaching a wrestler how to use his body with total body power and strength lifts will help him use his strength in wrestling.

Out of season we would focus on the power cleans, hang cleans, squats, standing presses, chins, dips, etc. In-season we placed more focus on lifting our partners within the technique of the wrestling drills. That way we hit two birds with one stone. We worked on our strength specific to the sport of wrestling! However, in-season, we still did our lifting two days per week.

3. Motion. A wrestler is not in good position if he cannot move. A wrestler cannot run as fast or move as fast on his knees, butt, back, sides etc. as he can while he is on his feet. Shooting takedowns and staying on your knees will stop your motion. I am not saying you should not shoot to your knees.

However, don’t stay there if you cannot finish quickly while there. Learn to hit on the knee and get off of it quickly or work on your takedown technique by not going to your knees. We found we had more success by not allowing our wrestlers to go to their knees on double leg and single leg takedowns. Their technique for the setups and penetration was much better by doing this. We did allow them to go to their knees while doing fireman’s carries.

There is one other thing we did at UT Chattanooga that no other wrestling team did that I am aware of. We made our wrestlers bow as they entered and exited the wrestling room. This was not done as some religious sort of thing.

The only clothing we allowed our wrestlers to wear in the room was t-shirt, shorts, jock, socks and shoes! No sweats or rubber gear! We emphasized to our wrestlers that they need to come into every practice with the intent to leave the room in some way better than when they walked in. Did they get better at technique, stronger, better condition, more mentally tough?

Better and better everyday was our motto. A wrestler cannot get better if he knows everything. He must come in with an empty glass to learn and improve. If he walks in with a full glass, if he knows everything, he will not make changes needed to become a champion! Bowing as you enter and exit the room promotes humility. Humility allows the humble to learn and get better!

3) How would you go about training a high school football player who is heavy in body weight but lacks the strength & power for someone his weight? The reason I ask is that I find a good number of high school football players tend to carry extra weight yet are weak /deconditioned for their size.

Coach Reeve: That high school athlete, in our opinion, should work on all qualities of athleticism together: strength, power, speed, anaerobic-endurance, flexibility, balance, mental toughness, spatial and kinesthetic awareness. By doing this the athlete will fit into his body naturally with some changes in his diet. I am not a certified dietician nor do I claim a vast knowledge of nutrition. I know enough to identify folks that need some help with their diet and try to direct them in the right place.

We believe the combination of Olympic lifts (hybrids), Powerlifts, bodyweight calisthenics, dumbbells, kettlebells, speed work twice a week, agility work twice a week, tumbling, plyometrics, static and dynamic stretching will benefit all athletes.

I remember one of our baseball coaches coming up to me at Ohio University telling me that a couple of the pitchers didn’t understand how the tumbling or agility ladders would help them as pitchers. I told him that the two pitchers he mentioned were not very good at ladders or tumbling. Also, I informed him to tell the pitchers when they get good at ladders and tumbling they’ll understand why we do them. They both went on to have their best seasons that spring.

Everything we do is based on the ability to move. The only way to get good at moving is to move everyday! As the athletes get stronger and more powerful in the strength room they will move faster and more explosively. However, their flexibility or lack of flexibility will be a limiting factor if they don’t do both dynamic and static stretching each day.

Static stretching should be done at the end of the workouts or after a dynamic warm-up. We feel it is more important for athletes to spend more time on dynamic flexibilty like: tumbling, hurdle flexibilty drills, form running drills, and agility drills.

What we are trying to develop are athletes that can move more efficiently for sport. They must spend the bulk of their training time working on the technique of their sport in order to be successful! However, they must also work on being more well-rounded athletes. This is where strength coaches come in to play!

The strength coach must also realize that strength and athletic development, by his prescription, is just a piece of the pie. This is why we stress that strength coaches train athletes to be better athletes on the field of competition. They should focus on making their athletes better athletes not so much on getting bigger lift numbers to be posted on the strength room board.

4) What are some things in / out of the weight room that you would discourage football players / wrestlers to do? Are there any training methods / techniques that are used commonly today yet have no carry over to their sport?

Coach Reeve: We tell our athletes and sport coaches that there are many ways to become a champion. Some are more efficient and some are less efficient. We have found many ways to gain strength, power, speed, athleticism and size! We try to incorporate as much variety as possible without compromising our philosophy and efficiency while also delaying boredom.

Weight machines are not used by me or my two assistant strength coaches here at Wake Forest when working with our sport teams. This is part of our philosophy. We are not saying you cannot have success using machines. Of course you can! We just don’t train our athletes with machines during the team workouts. We don’t discourage our athletes from using machines during their personal “champion” workouts individually. We do have machines in our strength room, just not many.

We prefer training our athletes with total body lifts to develop strength, power and athleticism. In our opinion, using weight machines is less efficient in developing these qualities. Isolation of joints or muscle groups is a less efficient way of training athletes. If the athlete desires, during personal workouts, to do isolation work then we do not discourage this!

The sport coach has the duty to encourage the “champion’s attitude”. “Did you do any extra workout today?” he will ask! The strength coach and sport coach must not design team workouts that will take every bit of energy out of the athletes. Leave some energy for the “champion” to do his extra workouts. This way the champion can take some ownership in his success. The sport coach and strength coach should design the team workouts to make them difficult enough for the team to have success.

If the strength coach and sport coach designed workouts around the champion then he will find few athletes left to coach. I have had many of these types of champion athletes ask why I don’t push the whole team harder.

My answer is “how many athletes would be willing to work like a champion?” Not many!!! However, by encouraging the “champion’s attitude” maybe we can get more athletes doing their “champion” workouts. The key is to get the athlete to “want” to be champion not “pushed” into being a champion. We push our teams hard enough to win as a team while encouraging the champion’s attitude in those individuals that decide to be a champion.

7) As the head strength coach who works closely with the football coaches, how do the coaches at your university & other universities view the combine that high school football coaches compete at?

Coach Reeve: Our football coaching staff will look at results from the combine. However, most importantly, they get to know the football player, his family and his character to see if he fits Wake Forest University. I can’t answer for other universities.

I will tell you that combine results are of little value if the football player does not exhibit being a good football player on game day. From my experience, the NFL scouts feel the same way. They will look at tons of game film. If the player lets up on plays and doesn’t play all plays with his “hair on fire” then the scouts will not ask me much about him. We give the NFL scouts strength room results dealing with speed, agility, strength and power. These results don’t matter if the player doesn’t produce on game day!

Hopefully, this will be of some value to some of the high school football players to make sure they always play hard each and every play.

Thanks, Coach Reeve. This was an amazing interview and I am honored and grateful for your time, guidance and effort!

Coach Reeve: Anytime, Zach! My pleasure. Keep up the great work you do with your athletes!

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Well, I hope you enjoyed this ‘Blast from the Past’ interview. It was one of the first interviews I ever did for my web site way back in the day, and, to this very day, Coach Reeve remains a great inspiration to me and has always been the most influential Coach on the methods I use today. His philosophy is awesome and his success as a Wrestler, a Wrestling Coach and a Strength Coach and really blew my mind as did his training methods.

I would love to hear your comments on this interview below. Please take a moment and share this with interview via twitter or facebook.

In Strength,

– Z –

PS: I’ve also got my favorite audio interview of all time in my Underground Strength System, with Coach Reeve. Check it out HERE along with audio interviews with Joe DeFranco, myself, Elliott Hulse and the most kick ass Strength Coaches I know!

Recommended Resources:

The Underground Strength System

Train To Pin

Underground Strength Coach Certification

Today I will be training a baseball team off site.

 Tomorrow, a wrestling team, off site.

 There is NO equipment where I’m going.

 No worries, been there plenty times before

 I’ll be rocking out countless bodyweight drills, solo and with a partner.

 I’ll also be using various jumping drills, and band resisted running drills, animal walks and with the wrestler, I’ll use what we call “brawling drills”

 If I was to train these teams on a regular basis, I’d bring my tire sleds, store some tractor tires on site and have  afew sandbags ready to go.

 The strength built with these implements is freakish, it comes that fast.

 Maybe even throw in a few kettlebells, or, go with the good ol’ basic dumbbell.

 If you’re a parent or coach, this can be done.

 When I first created a DVD called ‘Ancient Training Methods’, a Coach in Ct. set up tires and tire sleds plus sandbags and logs and man did he transform his Football team.

 He said they never wanted to hit the weight room again and his numbers practically doubled in no time because of the fun they had and the results they got.

 To this day I get e mails from one of the football players from back then and the kid is a beast, currently in the Marines.

 I have said it so often, to get the unfair advantage, the edge, the brute strength that allows you to dominate, you gotta be different than everyone else and do something different.

 You need a secretw weapon.

 If you’re a parent, coach or athlete, I reccomend my home study course at http://undergroundstrengthmanual.com  or if you prefer dvd’s and a manual plus audio cd’s, then check out Ancient Training Methods:

 ==> http://combatgrappler.com/ancient.html

 Now it;s time for you to kill it!

 Any questions, shoot me an e mail

 –Coach Z–

 http://combatgrappler.com/ancient.html

 http://undergroundStrengthManual.com

The latest e bay freak-isode, some wild stuff happening in this bad boy.

The auction is on for 3 days, see the auction HERE.

Good luck and have fun with it!

Kill it!

–Coach Z–

PS: Members of http://undergroundstrengthcoach.com are getting a FREE teleseminar tonight, it’s the ‘Kill it’ Teleseminar. I am adding a VERY unique twist, don’t miss it, and become a member asap. I will be answering business AND training questions, NO holds barred style

PPS: I am announcing a NJ gathering as well, this Thursday, but, the located is disclosed only to those who are members of The Underground.

You saw how pumped I was to train… Driving 100 MPH (I know, I know, NOT smart) – but hey, I am uncontrollable when it comes to my love for the iron! Check out this workout…head to head with a D 1 wrestler… Questions about the workout, comments….right on! Feel free to post below! Kill it! –Coach Z– PS – I was hanging ten today baby!