The amount of complicated BS training is getting out of control. The truth is, it is simple. And, NOT easy.

It also takes time. Not months, but YEARS of work.

The formula to gaining size?

It starts with STRENGTH.

If you want to get BIG, then you better plan on getting stronger, period.

Heavy weights, low to moderate reps, some high rep sets for finishers, lots of quality food, quality rest, basics, basics, basics. I know, ground breaking, right?

Yet on the regular, so many people message me with confusion and frustration and wonder why they aren't getting the results they want. I always laugh because even though I tell them how, they often times still come up with a laundry list of excuses.

They look at one of our freaks at The Underground Strength Gym, "Curls", and they think he has special genetics and some sort of secret weapon. They think it all came so easy for him......

Let me tell you this....

I have known Curls since he was in 4th grade. He was a chubby kid with the LEAST athletic potential. In tag games he was usually tagged first. He couldn't do 1 good push up and he was embarrassed.

In middle school, he began thinning out, getting taller and performing lots of calisthenics on his own as well as playing various sports: Football, Basketball, Soccer and Track and Field. He was a year round athlete.

He hit the weights HARD in high school. Harder than everyone else.

He joined The Underground when we were just starting out, which was located in the garage and at local fields. When Curls wasn't training at The Underground, he was training at the high school, running stairs, doing pull ups on soccer goal posts or tree branches in the park. At night he did push ups and ab work.

He never skipped breakfast, or any meal for that matter. He brought protein bars to school to eat in between classes.

He followed our simple guidelines for building strength & size.

He ate breakfast, lunch (packed his own lunch) and then ate immediately after school.

Then he trained in the early afternoon, dinner and then a late night meal. 5 meals a day. For adults, I encourage meal prepping, usually 2 x week. Sunday and Wednesday you should cook your meals in quantity. If the meat becomes dry, add some chicken stock to mix it up a bit and soften the meat.

Training 3 days a week was a staple of many of the strongest bodybuilders from the 40s, 50s and 60s. Volume training began in the 70s when Arnold popularized bodybuilding. If you're natural, I suggest 3 sessions, maybe 4 each week. You can add some calisthenics, sprints and sport activities on the other days for balance and health.

Here's a 2006 video from The Underground Strength Gym Garage Days.

Most of the athletes trained 3 x week back then. Some of the high school athletes, mainly the Football players, also trained with their high school team. When you're young and eating a ton, you can do that.

Our boy, Curls trains with the fury of a mad man. He can move BIG weight AND move at a VERY fast pace. A pace that makes others run to the designated "puke spot" around the corner of our gym. Lots of supersets is how we train at The Underground. You'll see this when you train with any of my online courses. We don't want to be Strong & Useless. We want to be Agile, Mobile & Hostile. Always in shape.

Curls is just one story of a guy who started off as the slowest and weakest and is now the strongest guy in our gym and on his team (and that was as a Freshman in college). There are many more stories like Curls. ALL the Success stories came from those willing to DO THE WORK.

Consistency is KING. There are COUNTLESS stories of guys who worked hard for a few months, disappeared a few months, came back, etc. It was an up and down roller coaster of results. MANY people can NOT handle working hard consistently. It's a weak mindset. That is the unfortunate truth. You need to decide which category you will fall into. The consistent effort group or the excuse making on and off group.

If you have excuses, then you'll never build strength or muscle the way you want to. THAT is common sense.

It's the same message I will keep hammering home. I never plan on selling out and giving you the green light for weak excuses or some BS "training course" that highlights doing easy things.

DO THE DAMN THING.

What about gaining size and strength as we "get older"?

The older guys out there are feeling left out after seeing our high school and college guys crushing their training in these videos 🙂

The truth is, 50 is the new 30. You CAN build muscle and strength as you get older.

As I've gotten older, I train more frequently. Usually I train 4 or 5 x week, but those sessions are 35 minutes on average, sometimes 45 minutes. 

My intensity is NOT the crazy sh-t I did in my early years. In my early years it was squatting 225 for 50 reps. Leg Presses with people sitting ON the leg press and doing drop sets until I totaled 50 reps in a row. Today, I recommend that you always leave some energy in the tank. Don't KILL it in the gym. If you kill it in the gym, you'll be useless outside of the gym.

There are days where I stay away from the weights and focus on bands and bodyweight training, as described in this video below:

At the end of the day, here's what it takes:

Less talk, a lot more action = building a lot of strength and a lot of muscle.

You choose. Strength or Weakness. Success or Mediocrity. These are ALL choices. You get what you Earn.

Live The Code 365,

--Z--

Online Training HERE