STRONG Life Podcast 173, here we GO! Have you ever felt like you're in a place where you simply do NOT fit in? I've been there before with both training and life / career. This episode brought me back to my early days of training athletes from my garage and eventually my first location. 98% of the people that knew me or knew what I was doing all said You can't do that! I was able to build a 6 figure warehouse gym while teaching full time and running my gym with part time hours. There … [Read more...]
Strong Is STRONG & Training Is TRAINING
Training doesn't need to be complicated to be effective. I will be hammering this home BIG time at my up and coming STRENGTH Seminar with Travis Mash (Details HERE). Growing up in the 80s and 90s gave me insight to the times of YMCA weight rooms filled with York Barbell Equipment. I got to see a state championship Football team crushing the basics while playing The Rocky IV soundtrack day after day. I saw my Wrestling Coach doing 10 sets of squats every time he trained legs, 5 sets of back … [Read more...]
The Story of The Infamous BIG Curl Bar
It was a summer morning in 1990 and I had arrived at my favorite place, The Metuchen YMCA. This wasn't the updated YMCA with their brand new equipment, nicely painted walls and senior citizens aimlessly roaming the gym floor. This was the small basement weight room that was treated like the red headed step child, outfitted with what we call today "old school" York Barbell equipment. Round Head York Dumbbells lined the dumbbell racks while the heavier dumbbells were left scattered on the floor. … [Read more...]
WHY Iron History Is SO Important
I've traveled around the country and have done some crazy things to get my hands on vintage, historical strength training equipment. There is a special history in these older weights, where the men and women were EXTREMELY strong. The passion behind training back in the day for these men was NOT about pumping light weights. Training had a MUCH deeper meaning, as it does for the rare few men of today. Here are some photos and videos - some from my experiences and some from others. Enjoy. … [Read more...]
Episode # 139: Vintage York Barbell Gym Tour, Part II
Woops, almost forgot about this BEAUTY thanks to my insane schedule :) Check out this beautiful vintage gym in a south jersey basement. I snagged about 600 lbs of vintage strength weights from this gentleman. I need to clean them up a tad and my son will be getting 4 or 5 VERY vintage York barbells for him to use. Could there be anything more amazing than some old york weights in your hands? OK, never mind, don't answer that question. Anyway, check this amazing video, and if you love … [Read more...]
Power-Bodybuilding Workouts
Last night I was so tired when I was done training my athletes at The Underground I was ready to just call it a night and drive home. Certainly, back when I was a teenager or early 20s, training at 9 PM was easy. I had all the energy in the world, granted, I wasn't a family man or running multiple businesses either. But at the end of the night, I knew I just couldn't quit. I had to go hard and dig deep. Times like these reveal and test your character. It's been a LONG week with my son, … [Read more...]
Episode # 73: Underground Strength Picnic
Back in the day York Barbell held strength and health picnics where the greats demonstarted their amazing feats of strength, fans came and watched, lifters shared good times, good food and much laughter. There was amazing comraderie, great training and information was always shared, NOT hoarded like some top secret affair. I will bring these times back, mark my words....coming soon to The Underground Strength Gym of Edison, NJ. Watch ALL the videos below and post comments on your thoughts and … [Read more...]
Episode # 72: If You Build It, Will They Come?
Typical gyms and health clubs suck pretty badly nowadays. It's almost impossible to find a hard core facility where they allow "No Rules" Training. Watch the video closely as I talk to you about power racks, thick bars, grip training, sandbag training and everything else you need... Check out this vid on how to build your own Underground Strength Gym.... Video to be continued...... :) Now, if you build it, will they come? What do you think? Post your comments below :) Kill it! --Coach … [Read more...]
Underground Strength Show # 62 & 63: Rusty Iron, NO Rules Workouts & Mental Toughness
Training doesn't have to be perfect for it to work. Often times, the imperfections are better because they train the mind AND the body as one. They force you to cope with the "resistance" that is more than just the weights. My methods are NOT perfect, they have flaws, but guess what, so does every program. The flaws are beautiful. The challenges are to be wished for. Be grateful for the tough times for anything worth achieving is worth fighting for. Sometimes you just gotta attack your … [Read more...]
Anvil Training
All you need is a barbell, a pull up bar and the desire to eat big and lift big. But, if you're like me, you may have quite the infatuation with the "Golden Era" of bodybuilding and the olden days of strength training. This is why I am always on the hunt for training tools that have history behind them. My latest toy is a 125 lb Anvil, which was a popular strongman implement used for gripping. George Jowett actually grasped a 168 lb Anvil by the horn, and then cleaned & pressed … [Read more...]