Posts Tagged ‘training’

What is going on everyone!

 Just getting back from my trip to the Wyo. Every year it’s nice to get back to the high country and spend some time with the fam. This year was a little different. I decided to take a trip to a gym that is located in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

They’re called the Mountain Athlete and specialize in training military and any fitness enthusiast that love to train. I shot a quick vid on who they are and what they have. In this first vid you’ll see is the introducation to the gym. I’ll bepositng the second part of the gym shortly. Check this out and let me know what you think.

The forged athlete wyoming

Hey what up!

Hope everything is going strong for you with any and all adventures you may be embarking on.

I’ve been really hammering the pulling movements hard in my workouts lately.

One of my main objectives is to be able to hit 5 good single arm pull ups on each side.  Right now I can only manage just one.  That’s on a good day.

I’ve got to say that to be able to do a single arm pull up, you’ve got to build up some serious strength from your head all the way down to your toes.

It takes so much more than to just pull yourself up over the bar.

Obviously you need to have serious upper back and lat strength to pull yourself over the bar.  Your shoulders much be strong enough to stabilize your whole body and keep it straight.  To aid in your stability, you must have an extremely strong core to stay tight to prevent from swinging.  Grip strength is crucial and is the link between you and the bar.  Without a tight grip, your pull up will be non existent.

On top of all these qualities, you must be lean and in good shape.  If your fat and flaccid, you’ll have a lot of extra weight you’ll be trying to pull up over the bar.  This is just another reason why you need to eat clean and stay lean.

I’ve always had a love for pull ups ever since grade school.  I was one of the few students who could actually do pull ups back in elementary P.E. class.   I was one of the few that could climb the rope and ring the bell.  I had a peg board my father had build in my garage I would regularly climb.  My wrestling club had a 60 ft long jungle gym latter hanging from the ceiling we would have to climb around on at practices.

Pulling is such an overlooked movement with many athletes today.  Too many athletes focus on presses, curls, and tricep extensions.  Too many mirror muscles being used.

The back is the key to a lot of an athletes overall strength.  It supports most movements and is a HUGE part of the core.  It serves for good posture, stability and power development.

If you’re an athlete or avid strength trainee, you need to be incorporating pulling movements into your program.

Some guidelines when it comes to pulling abilities I like to go by when training my athletes are these:

• 6+ bodyweight pull ups
• 15+ reclined rope rows
• 10+ hanging Leg raises
• BW x 1.5 deadlift x 5

These are just a few of movements to require a strong back with all of the other qualities I talked about earlier.  Obviously, there are people of there that can’t perform these standards and with anything, you have to start somewhere.  With everything, there comes progression and regression.

I’m about to give you a few ways to increase your pulling abilities.  Try throwing these 2 exercises into your regimen as much as possible to increase your pulling strength.

1)      Reclined Rowing – This is using your own bodyweight but isn’t limited to this.  You can add chains and weighted vests to this movement to add resistance.

If you have blast straps or a TRX, you can use these easily to perform reclined rows.  You can also use a racked barbell or smith machine and simply set the bar at about hip height and walk your legs underneath to where you can pull yourself up.  I would build yourself up to being able to perform 20+ reps with added weight.  If you’re eating clean and dropping body fat, you should be able to move on to pull ups.

2)      Negative Pull Ups – This is basically taking your pull ups and cutting out the actual pulling part.  To do this, grab a bench and set it up near a pull up bar.  Jump up and squeeze your back as tight as you can while having your chin over the bar.  From here lower yourself as slow as humanly possible.  Repeat for 8-10 reps or until you can’t hold on any longer.  This is great to add eccentric strength.  You add good stability to your pull and in time should be able to perform good regular pull ups.  Its all about being consistent.

From this point on, its all about progression.  Once you can do 1-2 pull ups do multiple sets.  I like trying to get anywhere from 25-50+ total reps of that movement.  If you can only get 1 good pull up, split it up into 50 sets.  Throw in a set in between your other exercises while you rest.  Soon you’ll be able to perform 3, 4, 5+ pull ups in a set and it all just keeps goes up from there.  Just stay consistent and the results will come.

For me, the most I’ve ever done in a set was 34 good pull ups.  To increase this number I’m going to focus on single arm pull ups.  I’ll do weighted 2 arm pull ups, rows, and obviously throw in every different style of grip I can to keep increasing the bottom line.

I figure if I can get myself to 5 good 1 arm pull ups per side, my overall strength will go up in my pulling abilities and I’ll tear up my total reps of pull ups.  I’ll be also focusing on high reps work every now and then while I’m doing this to make sure and keep my strength endurance to perform lots of reps.

The main reason for this post is to get you focused on how important pulls are in your training.  If you’re not currently pulling more than your pushing, make the change.  I guarantee your results will go up!

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

Yo dudes!

Do you still do circuit training?

I bet you still think that’s for mostly women who go to the circuit training classes at the local commercial gym right?

WRONG – circuit training can still give you want you need!

I use workout muse for my circuit training.  It’s the best and ONLY audio interval soundtrack system of its kind.

It kicks total ass and I love it to death!

It totally automates my workouts when I want to train with circuits for speed and power endurance, and work capacity.  I really like crankin’ intervals on my de-load weeks when I hit up a lot of bodyweight movements.

I feel that if you’re a fighter, wrestler, or any sort of combat athlete, you need to have circuit training as a part of your training arsenal.

There’s lots of  intervals you can choose from.

The best and most popular is probably the Tabata Protocol – 20/10′s x 8 total rounds.  Great for everything especially work capacity and power endurance.

I really enjoy 30/30′s which are good for strength and work capacity.   You can see this in the video below ==>

Some other options you have are 50/10′s which are specifically for work capacity and endurance.  Then you also have 40/20′s which are also great for strength and power.

Overall, intervals  are a bad ass way to train.

You options are limited by only your imagination.

Here’s the workout I crushed in the video (Thanks to Workout Muse for the audio track!):

I did 3 total rounds of 30/30′s (F-ing brutal, I wanted to die at the end!)

1A) Sandbag cleans

1B) L seat rope climbs

1C) Handstand Push Ups

1D) Shoulder Loaded Sandbag Lunges R/L

1E) Opposite Shoulder Loaded Sandbag Lunges R/L

1F) Blast Strap Push Ups w/ Feet Elevated

This is a killer circuit for any combat athlete or athlete in general lookinig to increase power endurance, strength endurance, and work capacity.  It’s NOT EASY!

This makes it easier to go to war with your workouts!

Get out there and blast thru some circuit!

Till Next Time

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – Let me know what your favorite circuit is of all time and why!!

Eh Yo,

I hope you had a chance to read part 1 of Joe and I’s Corporate Gym “Adventure”.

If you haven’t make sure you go there and get caught up!

So back to where we left off from the last post, My boy Joe and I were hittin’ up an old corp gym where we used to train at.  Boy I DO NOT miss those days!  I was stuck training people I had no interest in training and I was limited by “rules”.

All they cared about was how much training I was going to sell in the next month.  They didn’t give a squat about if my clients were happy or were getting results.

To make a long story short – I’m happy I took action and got the heck outta there and started my own thing!  I couldn’t be happier!  They actually fired me b/c I was training people in my gym already before I gave them notice I was leaving.  Oh well..

IT WAS MEANT TO BE!

I must say, it actually felt kind of nice getting back into this gym.  After all, they do have some nice equipment.  We knew the lone power squat rack back in the far corner wasn’t going to be in use so we had no problems getting to that.  We were probably the first dudes to use it in a while.   Most of the time it sits there collecting dust.

So, About 20 mins into our workout, this squeaky clean little manager, who I’ve never seen before comes on over to the corner where we’re at.  At this point, Joe and I are just ripped up.  We hit a few sets of our first super set and the workout was going great, until Mr, Salesman Elite had to ruin our fun!

“He fellas.” The manager says, “You guys used to work here right?”

“Yeah”, I said breathing heavy as all heck.

“Oh, well in that case, I’m going to have to have you two leave.”

“What!?” Joe exclaimed.  “Why?!”

The manager replied, “Well, I’ve been around the block a few times and I know when there’s trainers trying to pull new clients outta here, and that ain’t gonna fly.  So you need to leave.”

Give me a break!  Dude!  That would be true but the only thing is that there are NO clients that we would actually want in our gym.  Maybe a few…  But no one that would be dedicated enough to want to train in our gym.

Too bad all the members there are pussies and would never train like we or our actual clients do in our gym.  There’s some nice people there but we were definetly not there to pick up clientel.  Wrong place!

That really fired me up.  So, without starting any sort of problem, we said OK and finished out our last set on floor presses and cleans and made way to an apartment gym down the road to finish our daily strength assault.

Here’s the workout:

1A) Floor Press 5 x 6-10
1B) Hang Cleans 5 x 3
**We got asked to leave after set 4 but insisted we be let to finish. They didn’t resist

We then finished the rest of our workout at a apartment gym complex down the road:

2A) DB Incline 3 x 10 (got 18 reps, 15, 12)
2B) 1 Arm DB Bent Rows 3 x 10 (got 30 reps, 22, 22)
**they only went up to 65lbs so we had to hit high reps

3A) DB Hammer Curls 3 x 8
3B) Weighted Dips 3 x 10 (used a 65 DB)

4A) 1 max set up Pull Ups off of smith machine – hit 27

Ah I love lifting, where ever it may be…

You know, after it was all said and done, it dawned on me that that was supposed to happen.  We are not meant to be in a corporate gym or atmosphere as weak as that.

We do not belong in there.  We just don’t.  People could tell once we started to warm up that we were totally opposite of anyone else that came in there to train.

It’s crazy what will happen to you when you train in a atmosphere that pushes you to excel.

That’s the jist of our strength training adventure!

I hope you enjoyed it!

Here’s the lesson or the moral of the story – find a location or atmosphere where you can train where there will be:

• No distractions
• must have LOUD Music
• No pussies, whiners, babies, or quitters
• No Treadmills
• Limited mirrors
• Access to heavy odd objects such as – sandbags, logs, sleds, atlas stones, kettlebells, kegs, ect
• Heavy dumbbells
• Ability to yell ans scream as lous as you want
• The ability to train the way you want to train – w/ NO RULES

Make sure this atmosphere pushes you beyond your limits.  It could be in your garage, basement, or even back yard.   Invite people that have the same mind set as you and will do anything to make progress when it comes to training.

DO NOT let poeple in that will bring the atmoshpere down.  So make sure there’s no negative people that aren’t willing to pay the price to get stronger, bigger, and more powerful allowed into your training environment.  Is there are now, give them the boot!

It’s hard to find people that will be able to stick with and fit into an environment such as this.  It really is.  I’m thankful for Joe.  He pushes me and I push him.  The results I get now are based on him pushing me through workouts and the atmosphere we train in.

Here’s the bottom line – your training atmosphere must become your personal BATTLEFIELD!!!

Remember – it’s ALL OUT WAR!!!

The Forged Athlete Gym has everything we need to excel in the strength and conditioning game.  It’s made for one thing and one thing only – training.  Every training session is a war.

Stay Tuned!  There will be more to come!

Joe’s hitting up The Military Athlete in Jackson Hole WY in a few days!

We’ll be posting the training he does there so be on the look out for that!

As always, leave some comments for us to let us know you’re there.

Or don’t if you’re lazy…

Till next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

Hey Kids,

I want to take you all behind the scenes of a little “adventure” Joe and I recently had in strength training.

Unfortunately I have no video footage for you of this but have a great story to tell.

I didn’t think we would need our camera but I’m kicking myself now because I didn’t have i!

Anyhow, Joe and I decided we would change things up a bit a head on over to a local “corporate” gym to get our workout in.

We thought it would be good to showcase the skills we’ve created over the months of training in or gym atmosphere.

Before I get to the rest of the story, let me tell you this – you’re results depend on a couple things:

1. Intensity – This is by far #1 in my book.  If you aren’t going all out ape shit and doing battle with the iron with a warrior mentality every time, you’re results will suffer from it.  If you go hard enough and put in the effort, the results will come.  It’s all out war every time you train.  No Questions!
2. Atmosphere – This is second on the list and the reason I feel this is second is that if you have “it” mentally, you can block out the atmosphere you train in many times.  But some times that just isn’t enough.   If you want to be strong and tough and get freaking jacked, you need to be in the proper atmosphere.You need to surround yourself with people and things that will help you get stronger.  You need competition and things that will force you to improve and push forward.  Unfortunately, corporate gym sdo not help you do this.  The music sucks, most of the people there “working out” are more interested in how they look in the mirror and how their “new” workout clothes look.  There’s too many distraction such as TV’s, good looking women, not-so-good-looking women,  unneeded spandex, and cell phones.   This is NO GOOD.

Make sure you have these two things dialed in and your results will sky rocket!

Ok, back to my story…

So we got to the gym and proceeded back to the empty and rarely ever used power squat  rack in the back corner of the building.  I honestly am surprised they still have this in the gym.  Since Joe and I left I’m sure it’s never really used.

I gotta be brutally honest and I”m not trying to toot my own horn here but when Joe and I walked through those doors and started to warm up in the corner, it felt so different.  There were “eyes” on us.  We were different.  We were NOT suppose to be in there.  We just didn’t belong.  I think there’s a sort of “aura” that we were giving off just by being there.  People could tell we were dead serious about our training.

Hence, this is not the proper atmosphere we need to be training in very often.  Overtime, our results would probably suffer because of the weak, non competitive atmosphere that gym has to offer.    We know this but were just having some fun training in a different place.

We didn’t mess around and make sure out hair was pretty, or checked out  how our clothes looked in the mirror, or looked at our cell phones to make sure we missed any calls.  We were there for business.  We were there to do one thing and that was to absolutly DESTROY the workout we had planned.

If you’re like Joe or myself (which I hope you are if your on this site) we were freaking pumped to be there and train.  That’s what we do – WE TRAIN.  Where ever, when ever – it don’t matter.  We love it and we have an addiction for it.

I tell you what, this story is just heating up!

In the meantime – Share you’re stories and stay tuned to find out what happened as we got into our workout.  I’ll also tell you all about the workout we did.  This was a good one!

Stay tuned for part 2 of Corp Gym “Adventure”

Until then and while you’re waiting,

Get Forged Strong

Travis

PS – Make sure you let us know and share any adventures in strength training you may have!  We want to hear em!

Hey kids!

It’s been COLD over here in Omaha but there’s no excuses to keep me from training.

The gym is cold and we have yet to crank the heat.

I feel I get a better workouts in the cold.  Forces you to keep moving to stay warm.

So, it’s Day 6 of Operation Get jacked!  This is the last day of the rotation.  Basically what you will do from here if you’re following the program is start back over at Day 1 and repeat the cycle 3-4 times.

I’ve taken days off when I need to.

This 1st cycle through I’ve gone Day 1, 2, 3 RESTED for 2 Days then hit Day 4, 5 RESTED 1 Day then Hit up Day 6, 1, ect…

I recommend you listen to your body.  Go hard when you feel good and cut back when you feel torn up.

I’ll go through this 6 workout cycle 3 times then I hit up a deload week with light kettlebell work,  lots of bodyweight, and probably some bands and light sandbags.  I’ll also through in tons of sled draggin of all sorts.

So here’s Day 6 – Strongman Part 2!

20 min Circuit

1A) Tire Flips x 8-10 (depending on the size tire you have – heavier go 3-6 reps, lighter 5-10)

1B) Sled Drag x 2 trips dow and back

1C) DB Farmer Carry x max distance

1D) Sledghammer Swing x 5/arm

Repeat for 20 mins.

That’s a good circuit.  I’ll add 5-10 mins next time around.

Keep hitting it and going to battle!

The war never ends!  Only when you surrender!  I’ll die before I surrender to the iron!

Get Forged Strong,

Travis

Yo dudes!

I hope the 1st 3 days of the program have treated you well!

Hopefully your picking the right intensities and pushing yourself hard.

One of the things about these workouts is attitude. Its all mindset. If you don’t have it upstairs you won’t get the progress and results your after.

So make sure your focused and make sure you’ve got the right attitude to kick some ass!

Remember its WAR!  You against the iron.

Take No prisoners.

Go by No Rules.

Just hard work and exteme intensity.

Now for day 4.

We’re hitting up the max effort day again. Hopefully you’ve taken a day or few off to recover and now your ready 2 rock again.

If not rest up and hit it when you feel refreshed.

I always can tell where I’m at during the warm up. If I feel ready to roll and I’m jumping around like nothing I know I’m ready physically.

Mentally I’m always ready but sometimes during the warm up you can tell your body isn’t prepared. Your still feeling sluggish and the explosivness just isn’t there.  This means you might not be fully recovered.

If your hitting a max effort day, you wanna have as much in the tank as you can.  It will prove for better results my friend.
So were coming back strong with a max effort day upper body.

Here’s the workout:

1A bench press 8 x 3  (pretty weak here but the number will go up!)

It’s not like the good ol’ college days where I benched 2 x a week prepping for the combine.  My numbers then were impressive for a 175lb wide reciever   I will say this, my shoulders feel alot better now!

2A Deadlifts x 5 x 10 mins EDT
2B Weighted Pull Ups  x 5 x 10 mins EDT (F***ing BRUTAL KIDS)

3A Double Kettle Bell Swings 3 x 15

4A Db Bench 1-2 x max reps

Foam Roll like a mo fo!

Stay Tuned for part 2 with the second half of the workout.

I’m gonna get into EDT training a little bit more.

You wanna talk about real mental toughness….

Till next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

Hey yo!

I’m back with Day 3 of The Get Jacked Program for those of you out there that are following along and really trying to crank up your results.

I must be honest with you, I’m sore and busted up today!  My legs are done!  This program will definitely do that to you, NO DOUBT.  The heavy Bulgarians from day one are getting me good!

Here’s the real kicker though, listen to your body.  You should be able to tell when to push it and when to cut back.  I’m cutting back a little bit today for this reason.

Overtraining will get you NO WHERE!  Trust me.  I over trained for a good 6 years of my life all through High School and my first 3 years in college when I played football.  That’s a whole other series of posts I’ll put out later so you don’t do the same thing.

It was CRAZY how many workouts and volume I was doing that I thought was putting me way ahead of the pack.  I had the right mentality in pushing myself beyond my limits and staying driven and dedicated, but I was doing way too much.   I’m still surprised I never got injured back then.      Lucky me

What happened was I thought more was better.  I was always doing more more more!    I was way wrong!   I’m telling you, if you need a day or two of rest, take it and get back on with the workouts.  Or go lighter and foam roll and stretch like a mo fo!

So, now that we have that outta the way, like I said, my legs were busted up big time today from all the heavy lifting I did on Day 1.  Today’s workout is very low in volume and full body based.  I like to call it my “strongman day”.  This will really keep the program athletic based and functional.  These movements help the body stay that way.

It will be good to get the blood flowing to help speed up the recovery process.  I definitely did not go as heavy as I should of but that will come next time around when I get acclimated to this new program.

I hitting up the home made foam roller heavy today as well!  I’ll probably hit a good set on my hips and hamstrings in between each set of shouldering.   This will really help with the recovery process.  If you don’t have a foam roller – INVEST into one or go make one.  You’ll see mine in the vid.

So without further ado, here’s day 3 of The Get Jacked Program.  Enjoy!

Day 3 – Strongman Day

1A – Sandbag Shouldering  x 30 reps/ shoulder

2A – KB windmills x 15-30 per side

3A – Foam roll like a mo fo!

That’s it kids!  It appears pretty basic and easy on paper.  If it’s like this for you, then you definitely did not go heavy enough on the SB shouldering.  I had a weight I was able to do 3 x’s each shoulder per set.  I broke it up that way and went until I hit 15 each side.  It got brutal.  Push yourself and try to finish thw workout fast.

Next time around I’ll hit a weight I can get on 1-2 x’s per set on the shouldering  J  Can’t wait!

For the KB windmill, I used a light weight.  The goal for these is to just stretch out the hips a bit and really work on my range of motion.  I’ll go heavier next time.

Like I said, foam roll and stretch like a madman!  This should be something you do before and after each workout!  It’s that important!

I hope things are going well for you thus far!  Now, we get a day off to recover and get ready for Day 4 which is our  Max Effort Day “B”.  I can’t wait!  It’s taking everything I got to rest just 1 day.  But remember, more is not better!   Get some rest and come back and kill it on Day 4!

You can see Joe killin the power cleans in the background.  Getting S**t done as usual!

Get Forged Strong,

Travis

PS – Keep hitting up those comments kids!  I love getting feed back.

Ok warriors!

I hope if you’ve been reading this blog that by now, you know you have to be a warrior to get to where you wanna be.  Not just in training, but life as well.

If there’s something you want, then make it a personal war to go and get it!  BATTLE!!!  Challenge yourself daily and you will accomplish more than what you ever thought possible!

Ok, so lets get into part 2 of day 1 of Operation: Get Jacked!

I just finished hitting the legs heavy with the Bulgarians so now I’m finishing the workout with 10 mins of escalating density training with barbell incline presses paired with barbell bent rows.  These are two old school bodybuilding lifts super setted for 10 straight mins.  BURTAL.

For those of you that do not know about EDT or escalating density training – it’s basically picking two different movements that are non-competing and just pounding out reps and sets for a certain amount of time.  A guy by the name of Charles Staley has made this form a training popular.

So for example, you would use a push and a pull.  You would perform as many sets and reps of these movements for the allotted amount of time.  This kills you!

The next time you perform the EDT set, you make damn sure you beat the amount of reps and sets you did the week before.

It may appear easy on paper, but if you choose your loading right for the weights used, you should be spent after 6-7 mins.

I wish I had footage of this but the last three mins are an ALL OUT WAR!!!  Who is going to win???  Don’t ever lose to a barbell.  They are unforgiving and have no emotions.  You must be stronger everytime or you will fail!

This week I’m keeping the weights at a submax for this.  I haven’t inclined pressed for many months but I’m 110% ready!  I picked intensities I know I can get at least 8 times.  I’m also sticking at just 10 mins for week 1 on the EDT.  By week three I’ll be hitting 15-20 mins of this EDT circuit.  That will be fun and I’m most definitely looking forward to it!

Ok, so hit it up and if you’re not sure, get a spotter for the inclines.  Joe was not around but that made me lift much harder knowing that if I didn’t get the press, it was going to get me.

I got the first few mins on video but was running low on time and had to get this baby done!  Next time around I’ll get the last 3 minute battle of the EDT set!  I may not survive!

Hit up the comments and questions kids!

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – been getting lots of questions about nutrition.  Keep em coming!  Comment of what you think or wanna know!  I will post answers if we can get at least 15 comments on this blog!

I will even go behind the scenes and video exactly what I eat to stay at 7% body fat year around!

PSS – as always, tell you friends!  Get everyone around you strong by letting them know about this blog!

Yeah Kids!

Its time for battle!  Day 1 Operation: Get Jacked!

So I just cranked out day 1 of the get jacked program and it felt good!

My legs got destroyed.  I know their going 2 be hurting big time in a few days or so.

Before I get to the workout I just want to point some things out about this program.

Like I said in the last post about going to war with your workouts, you’ve got to get down and dirty and let everything go!  Its time.  NO TURNING BACK!

That’s what I enjoy about training hard!  You can let it all out and do whatever the heck you want!   (That is if you have your own “no rules gym”  of course;)

So let’s get into this first workout. This is my heavy strength day. I’m hitting exercises at near maximal efforts. I’m keeping the volume high and the intensity even higher.  Here it is:

1A) 1 Leg Barbell Bulgarian Sqts   5 x 5/leg – I hit 215 on the last round

2A) Incline Barbell Press   x 8  x ( 10 mins EDT)

2B) Bent barbell Rows x 8  x  (10 mins EDT)

That’s it for the day!

Just three movements is all it takes with heavy ass weights.

One thing you’ll learn, lifting heavy weights for lots of reps will get you strong as hell and build up a nice suit of armor made out of pure muscle.

Like I said – it’s go time!

Come back for more on Day 1 – part 2 of Operation Get Jacked!

I’m going to speak more on the second part of this workout which crushed me big time!  EDT if you don’t know is escalating density training and will bust you up quick!

Make sure you let you friends know what’s going down!  Share this with them and add your comments.  Make yourself be known or you’ll never be known!

Get Forged Strong!

Travis