In the 50s and 60s, strength sports were a small "Underground" cult. Even in the 70s. Until Arnold hit the big screen, bodybuilding and literally building your body was viewed as something only a narcissist would do. Today, of course, being strong, fit and healthy is viewed as "normal". I have been getting back to my roots lately, even with my time crunched workouts, I'm hitting the underground bodybuilding methods and it's paying off big time. When I use the term "Underground", those early … [Read more...]
Apollo’s “TOUGH Gym”
Original Article Date: 4/1/2008 Updated: 2/4/2024 Have you ever seen Rocky III where Apollo takes Rocky back to the old school gym he used to train at where everyone has the "Eye of the Tiger"? TOUGH GYM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peBGvS0VGr4 That gym look liked a dump to others, but when I saw TOUGH GYM, I thought it was perfect and beautiful. It was exactly what I wanted to build for athletes. I took out a notepad, paused the DVD player and started sketching the … [Read more...]
Why I’m The Anti Purist When It Comes To Training Methods & What REALLY Matters?
I'm an anti purist when it comes to strength and performance training. I don't use only one training tool or only one training method. Why? Simple: I am a purist when it comes to training for Results. Results are THE only thing that matters..... … [Read more...]
Q&A: Building Muscle, High Reps vs Low Reps
Above, the Back of BIG Kevin Tolbert Zach, It's a bit confusing to me as I've been reading a lot of books about building up muscle & strength. Many of them said reps should be around 8-12 and anything more is a waste of time. I hear you're saying that we should go for high reps to obtain muscle. Please tell me the difference between doing high & low reps? What impact does it have? You see I've only started training recently & want to build up my muscle. I've … [Read more...]
How The Viking, Jon Pall Sigmarsson Inspires The Underground Strength Gym
I have recently watched the documentary on The Viking, Jon Pall Sigmarsson. It's an amazing tribute to one of the most dominant World's Strongest Man Champions. What a pure beast this man was. He unfortunately passed at the young age of 32. To see Jon Pall's evolution of training and various forms of strength competition was incredibly inspiring, and you can bet that tomorrow, at My Gym, The Underground Strength Gym, I will be attacking some serious strongman work using Stones, Sandbags … [Read more...]
A Barbell and 2 Milk Crates | Minimalist Strength Training Tips
What can you do using a barbell and 2 milk crates? The Answer: A LOT! And, you can get strong as all hell! Trust me, I've been there...it's how I trained in my Dad's garage for a year and I piled on strength and muscle faster than ever before. I loved it. I cranked the music and had barely any equipment: - Pair of 50 & 100 lb dumbbells - 300 lb Barbell set - Squat Stand - Flat Utility Bench It's the training template I included in The Russian Lion Power Course. It's … [Read more...]
Squats, Stones & Thick Bars
Last night's workout was a brutal one. By the title of this article, you can guess for yourself it was challenging to say the least. I LOVE training in a way that pushes me BEYOND the physical. Where I can literally FEEL my mindset changing, getting tougher and building that GRIT! I used a specially designed thick bar for my Zercher squats, working up to 325 lbs for 3 reps.The Zercher squat is excellent for not only leg strength but for strengthening your entire trunk and core. I don't … [Read more...]