WOW. I got this e mail mid way through the week, I LOVE getting e mails like this.
Check this out, you will be fired up as you read how a young man found comfort in the UNcomfortable!
Dude, I just discovered your blog and all I can say is "F**king A! Now this is this kind of shit I want to be associated with!
I'm currently 22, and I been training very similar to your style for the past several years. As a matter of fact, 2 years ago I was so limited on equipment that I trained with a keg for 10 months. Then, I progressed into bending steel and whatnot.
Those were the only two pieces of "equipment" that I worked out with and man, did I get brutally strong from just doing the basics: Shouldering, deadlifts, squats with the keg and bodyweight squats, carries, cleans, and pushups.
Now I have a gym with more steel bars to bend, 2 kegs, 2 barrels, a barbell with 300lbs of weights and a heavy bag.
I wanted to share a quick story, a training day I had that changed my entire approach to strength.
About three years ago--I woke up laying in bed feeling like a beast. Around that time, I picked up "Rock, Iron, Steel" by Steve Justa.
I wanted to test myself, so I found several buckets loaded with rusted chains and called out for my younger brother. I asked him to tie on all 150 pounds worth of the rusted chains onto my upper torso. My brother shook his head and just chuckled, "You're nuts, but okay."
Keep in mind, I did not have any padding. My mother was sitting on the back porch and called out to me, "What the heck are you doing?? You being crazy again?" I laughed and told her I was going to walk to grandma's and she absolutely went hysterical begging me not to. I calmed her down with my charm and started walking.
I live in a small, country town that nobody has ever heard of. My grandmother's house was three miles away hiding amongst the cornfields. I started my walk and it had not even been 1/4th of a mile and I was huffing and puffing worse than that wolf in the children's tale.
Waterfalls of sweat poured off of me as I walked down the long deserted road. I pressed on and by the time I hit the half a mile mark, the chains were cutting into my skin. The sheer weight alone placed tremendous pressure on my collarbones / traps and slowly bruised my upper body muscles to the very last fiber.
My body was screaming for me to quit, but I pressed on. Nearing the end of the mile, I was in a state of turmoil that I never experienced before, but I refused to collapse.
The mind is the greatest 'weapon' a man can harness and I sought out to prove that.
I finished a mile and a half, there and then I barely was able to take off the chains. I was standing in the middle of the road, under the scorching sun that laughed at me with no mercy, and when I finally took off the chains--I was bruised everywhere with drops of blood slightly broken out of my skin.
Yet I still had another mile and a half. I grabbed the thick-handled chains with my bare hands, all 150 pounds of it and started dragging and tugging as if I were in a war. My lungs were breathing spit-fire, and it felt as if battery-acid were flowing through my veins.
My body begged for mercy, and then my mind started to cave. I had to rely on my heart, my will to drive me through. I dragged the chains to the finish. I collapsed from sheer exhaustion and my body was in such agony.
BUT damn was I proud of myself. I felt like a MAN of Steel. From then on...I stuck to the basic, brutal, gut-busting hard work.
Only The Strong Survive.
- Dustin -
7 Days FREE - Gladiator STRONG
7 Responses
In todays world if you train like that all the f**ing pussies will call you “crazy” or “dumb” and whatnot.
I have to a commercial superhyper pussy ass gym to get my barbell work done (thank god they still have barbells and plates…) So I was deadlifting the other day and there was like 6 people + me. They ALL WERE DOING MACHINES. Ab machines (WITH A FUCKING SEATBELT???!!!!!!, Leg extensions and cable stuff, you get the point…) So then I cranked some Clean & jerks with a barbell and some guy came to me and said “God bless your back!” and smiled. In other words: he thought I was crazy. I almost said something clever back but decided to let it be. I mean I get more work done while those pretty boys are using the machines, haha 😀 Be my guest.
The world has come to this. People can’t fucking train anymore. They prefer machines and having fun while listening to the latest crappy radio hits that play on the background.
I’m seriously pissed sometimes. I’m the crazy one if I do bodyweight, kettlebells, barbells, stones, logs, running, jumping whatever. Well I might be crazy, but shit, I’ll get stronger every day. That’s MORE than fine with me.
Zach, I love your work, keep it up! You are one of the guys that showed me the way to be a better man mentally and physically. Thank you.
Have a good weekend!
-Henri Huikuri
Thats some sickness right there! I love those types of workouts. I went to the flea market one day and bought myself an old army duffle bag from this cool hippy dude. I got home and made myself a nice 60 pound sandbag. I was looking for any holes on it and i saw that it had the name LISA written in the middle. So From that day i called my sandbag lisa. People ask me, “what did you do today?”. And i answer “ohh i hung out with lisa, or me and lisa went for a walk” My favorite workout to do are what i call “weighted walks”. I give myself 1 hour to get as far from my house as i can. Everytime i drop it, i gotta pick it up. Thats deadlifts right there..carrying makes my biceps burn. I like to put it on my chest so its harder to breathe. Sprints with it are brutal. My favorite thing about this workout is that when that hour is over, i look back and realize that i still gotta walk back home. Theres no..ill leave it here and come back tomorrow.No, i gotta pick that sh*t up and carry it back to the garage. I get the funniest looks from people when they see me on the side of the road looking like im about to collapse, but it doesnt matter to me. I have to get Lisa home! haha
Stay strong,
Tony Arana
Crazy stuff right there! Freakin awesome!
Im going to be taking a week off currently, but when I start back up on the 18th, its gonna be all about deep heavy squats, sandbag cleans, Rope pullups, and headlock carries with two sandbags.
No reason I should let those bags slip outta my arms, Thanks for the post. I’m pumped as hell now to measure up to such a level of mental toughness!
Keep Kickin ass Dustin!
This post puts the past me to shame, like all your other ones.
I can’t believe that while some people fight against their limits on every single training session, I was wasting time worrying about whether I should wait an hour after waking up to train.
Now, I just f-ing DO IT! I wake up, wash-up, warm-up and that LIFT or RUN. I know than if I give myself a yard, I’ll leave myself soft and with excuses.
As you say, there’s only one rule for training – there are NO RULES!
That’s F’ing AWESOME! Mental toughness right there. RESPECT!!
All I can say is it’s just ASSKICKIN
Every vids and articles are just Gem
Keep rockin coach Zach!
-Zercher rules! hell yeah!!-
Love this. Reminds me again that we are capable of so much more and of the need to think outside the box and not just for training. So many ways to get stronger and tougher! Keep coaching and inspiring