Archive for the ‘mass building’ Category

Hey dudes,

We rolled by Bennington High School the other day and got in front of some eager wrestlers wanting to kick some major ace!  We took these boys through one of our general workouts.  It was a huge difference for these guys to say the least but they had fun!

What I love about wrestlers in general, especially these kids, is that they love to work out!  If you’re a wrestler and hate to get sweaty, dirty, or even bloody, you’re in the wrong sport!

Man it makes me miss the days where I was wrestling!  I gave my heart and soul to the sport.  I would love to get just one more match in!  What I wouldn’t do…  You may be seeing me in some open tourney’s come this spring!!  Ha Ha!  I’ll have to get some new wrestling kicks and I doubt my old AAU singlet fits anymore!  We’ll see… -Travis

Now, back to our little trip….    These kids got after it!  A lot of the exercises we took them thru were new ones for these guys but they listened, learned, and put in 110% effort and we love and respect that to the highest degree!  We hope to continue to work with these boys further on down the road.

Expect to see some of these dudes from Bennington High killing it this coming year!  Hopefully they can land another team state championship!   Other class B schools in NE, watchout!  There may be some state champs on the team as well!  Either way, we got their backs!

Check out the a few of the highlights of our first encounter with these dudes ===>   Bennington High School Wrestlers

Until next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Dudes,

Glad everyone is out there trying to get strong. Everyday I try and think of different ways I can incorporate a different exercise to get that most wanted muscle.

I remember the days where three sets of 10 was the norm. I used to lift like this constantly because I didn’t know any better. I am here to say that over the years I have incorporated many different tools and lifts to get strong as hell and lift big weights.

It’s all about change and not letting your body get used to what you’re doing.  I now incorporate tools like sandbags, kettle bells, rope climbing, kegs, tires, prowlers and all odd objects are fare game.

Doesn’t that sound like fun?  The days of lifting on machines are over.  They don’t get you what you are looking for anyway so why use them.   Start working with free weights, sand bags, kettle bells, tires, ropes, and just heavy odd objects.

It’s give your body the shock you need to see new growth in size and strength!

Get Forged Strong!

Welcome back kids!

Wow what a morning!  I just finished my workout for today and my legs are completely fried!

I don’t know how I’m going to function today.  I gotta keep moving though.  I can’t let a workout put me outta the game right??  That’s why we train to get strong and to be able to push through anything.  Right??

Anyways, I got inspired to write this post as I was preparing for my last exercise of the day – 1 all out set of 20 reps on squat, or as you may of heard these called before “Death Squats”.  I’m not sure if Dave Tate invented the name or what, but they really do almost kill you!  That’s why I love em so much baby!

So, let me explain a little bit about “death squats” (ds’) and how these can really benefit anyone looking to get stronger, bigger, faster, or just plain tougher.

Just a quick note – These babies are serious!  These are NOT for beginners.  If you’re going to do a set of ds’, make sure you’re prepared.  Make sure you’ve been through a basic strength program for over a year and that your squat form is near perfect.

So, most people know that to get strong and big, you need or should be lifting weights in the 2-7 rep range and no more.  Anything you can lift over that many reps in a set is too light and will not spark enough muscle fiber to trigger strength gain.

I’m not going into all the technicalities, but I just want to make a point with this.  I get questions about ds’ a lot and the one that I get a lot is “If I’m doing a weight for 20 reps, isn’t that just endurance training?”

No and Yes – because with death squats, here’s the key and why they are called “death squats”.  With these you choose a weight you know you can perform perfectly around 7-10 reps.  Now, what you do is basically start squatting.  In between each rep at the top, take a deep breath.  This serves as almost a short rest (but not really).  Your chest should pop way out due to the size of the breath you just took.  After the breath, go into another deep squat and repeat until you die, or finally reach 20 total reps.

You basically just did a weight you would normally do around 7-10 times.  That’s in a good range to trigger strength and growth gains.  No, besides getting stronger with these, you’ll agree after you do them, that you’ll be working your endurance as well.

Here’s a pointer – as you start to fatigue out, take more than 1 breath at the top.  I usually get around 3 to even 5 huge breaths by the time I reach 17 or 18.  Your heart will feel as if it’s about to EXPLODE!

It’s crazy but fun!

Now, why 20 reps?  To be 100% honest, I’m not sure.  What I do know is with squats and deadlifts, these two exercises make your body produce the most amounts of growth hormone due to the level of muscle mass and muscle movement involved.  And if the weights heavy enough, you’re in for getting stronger and bigger my friends!

Anyone who is a good squatter knows to use their whole body when squatting.  Everything should be tight!  It’s takes a lot out of you and gets you strong as heck!

The best way to make these “death squats” be the most effective is to ONLY do this 1 x a week for 3-4 consecutive weeks in a row and then take a 1-2 week break off.  Too much of these and you’ll overtrain yourself.  I always perform these last in my workouts, usually on leg focused days.  But, if you’re doing full body, as I do a lot, throw these in there at the end!

So, here’s my sample workout I did today:

1A)  Box Jump seated from Box  4 x 3

2A) Box Squats   8 x 2

3A) BB RDL w/ chains  3 x 8-12

3B) Hanging Leg Raises  3 x 12

4A) Scooter or Power Wheel Leg curls 1 x 50

5A) DEATH SQUATS  1 x 20  J

Give these babies a try!

Get Forged Strong!

Ps – got a lot of new peeps stopping by the gym!

Lots of people in Omaha about to get “beasted out”

If you live in Omaha and want to stop by for the real deal, give us a call 402-984-0791

What’s up everyone!

Today was one of those days where we unleashed some hell in the weight room.

Trav was training so hard that his nose started to bleed. Now! we do not expect our guys to train this hard in our gym.

Trav is just one of those crazy dudes.

He had close 100 lbs or better hanging off that belt. Damn good strength if you ask me.

Check out this vid at the forged athlete of him doing some crazy pull ups.

watch?v=gp3Dyu70bJY

Yo kiddo’s

I’ve got a killer workout for you guys and gals today!

Since I hit full body on Monday, I’m coming back with an upper body based workout with a full power power exercise at the start to kick it off right.

This one got me good!

There’s some power, strength, and work capacity all thrown into one brutal workout.

I was always taught to keep your power movements at the start of your workout when you are the freshest to get the most out of these.  You want perfect technique and also want your nervous system to be fresh.  So lifts like snatches, cleans, jumps and other movements simialr, try to keep these at the start of your workout.  Of course you can break the rules sometimes

The main thing is, I hate seeing bad form on the cleans and snatches.  Its not good for your gains or your body for that matter.  Of course if your trying to improve work capacity and train for fighting and wrestling, you’ll want to throw that type of stuff in for circuits, but keep the weight a little lower and make sure your technique is spot on perfect.

Avoiding injury is the main concern always, then power, strength, and endurance or whatever you goal is.
Power + Upper Body

So, Here it is:

1A) Hang Cleans 4 x 5-3  Haven’t hit these for a while, worked up to 225 for 4 on the last set

2A) DB power press 4 x 4-8  I tried strict militaery press to start the sets then finished with power press
2B) Bent DB Rown 4 x 4-8

3A) Blast Strap Chain Push Ups 3 x Max  I went for max reps the 1st round, then really focused time under tnesion the 2nd two rounds
3B) KB 2 hand swings 3 x 15

4A) Blast strap face pull + Y row combo 3 x max
4B) Thick Handle DB Farmer Walks 3 x max you will see in the video how these are freaking killer!
4C) Dip Bar Knee Tucks  3 x max

Like I said, this one was a real chip off the old block!  I love IT!

Get Forged Strong!

ps – make sure you get signed up for our next Forged Strength Seminar Sept 18th at 10:30 – You’ll learn tons of our underground strength training techniques to get you “strong like bull!!!!”  HA HA!

Hey Kids,

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what types of cardio are the best to use out there without having to run on a treadmill. Well,  what I’ve done is compile a list of my 5 top “gladiator” style cardio conditioning method workouts.

I call these 5 exercises “gladiator” cardio methods because they help you keep muscle, build muscle, get huge gains in work capacity, and will shred you up so you look like a gladiator.

Whether you’re an athlete trying to get in shape for sport or a regular Joe trying to lose some fat and build some strength and muscle, these methods will help you gain crazy amounts of endurance, speed, power, and rip up your mid section by simply melting fat off your body.

So without further ado, here are The Forged Athletes top 5 “gladiator” cardio conditioning methods.

Don’t ask questions, just do them and you will see results!

1) Prowler Sprints, Drags, and Pushes

The prowler, hands down one of the most useful and effective pieces of fitness equipment available on the market.  If you have the funds to purchase one,  go for it.  I actually was fortunate enough to have my dad weld 2 of them up for me.

The workouts with these are real basic – pull or push the damn thing!

You can do dozens of different sprints, drags, and pushes with the prowler.  My favorite is loading the prowler up with a fairly heavy load and dragging it for 20 yards then pushing it back for 20 yards for 5 sets then rest.  Talk about leg burn.

These will help build crazy strength and power endurance in your legs.  Prowler work will melt fat off your body in no time as well.  It kicks ass!

2) The Battling rope

I love this cardio method as well.  The battling rope is a fairly simple yet very effective conditioning tool as well.  Get a long thick manila rope, roughly about 50’ will work, string it around a post or sturdy object, and whip the rope around like crazy.

Your shoulders, back, abs, and glutes will get worked like crazy!  There’s so many different ways you can do battling rope as well.  You can perform alternating whips, double whips, single arm, arm circles, and you can even add in squats while doing these movements as well.

Our wrestlers love the battling ropes because they build upper body work capacity real well.

My favorite workout with these bad boys are battling rope tabatas – 20 sec work with 10 sec rest for 8 sets.  4 mins of hell!

3) Sledgehammer work on the tire

This is by far one of the most effective and functional cardio methods out there.  Sledgehammer work on the tire is a huge exercise for building up your core conditioning as well as upper body strength and power.

This is simple, get a 16lb sledge, ideally with a fiber glass, none slip handle, and pound away on a tire.   There’s a bit of a kearning curve to getting the motion down for the swing, there’s a lot of ways people can mess this up, usually by trying to use just their upper body to swing the hammer.  The key is to be able to use your whole body to swing the sledge.  You should be using your whole body from your toes to your finger tips to swing that hammer.

My favorite with the sledge is tabatas as well.  Grab the sledge, pound away for 20 secs, rest 10 secs, switch sides and pound away again for 20 sec, rest 10 secs and repeat that 4 times on each side.  Killer!

4) Jump rope tabatas

I got used to these at an early age through wrestling conditioning.  You wanna get your heart rate up quick, these are for you!

You can do these a number of different ways.  The sets will always be the same in that you will jump for 20 secs, rest 10 secs and repeat that for 8 total sets.

Its all in how your choose to jump.  I prefer to do double jumps for my sets.  If you can’t double jump, I recommend doing high knees for your jump intervals.  But again, you can do whatever you like – side to side jumps, single leg, front to back, alternating, ect.

Get a good jump rope and go to town!  Its amazing how much quicker your feet get and this will help your jumping ability as well not to mention it will also shred up your midsection too.

5) Hill Sprints

Last but not least, the most effective ‘gladiator” cardio method out there, hill sprints.

I don’t need to go into too much detail here.  It’s simple, find a fairly steep hill and sprint up to the top, turn around walk back down and repeat.

This will increase power, speed, acceleration, and get you in freaking tip top shape.

There was a hill back where I was from, called Brickyard Park.  I used to go there and run 12 sprints up this hill. This hill was about at a 50-55 degree angle up and was probably a good 40-50 yard sprint from the bottom up to the top.  It was brutal but it got me into great shape and not to mention, helped me get fast as heck!

Ideally, if your after speed training, you should stick to using a hill that’s inclined at 15 degrees up to 40 or so and no more.  Too much steepness and your speed and running form will be compromised.  If you’re simply out for conditioning and getting shredded, the steeper the hill – the better.

So get after it!

Well, those are my 5 top “gladiator” conditioning methods.  All will get your lean and mean.

Make sure you always warm up properly before doing any of these methods and that you’re good enough condition strength wise to hammer these methods out.  Don’t go and hurt yourself!

Until next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Hey Kids,

It’s been a while I know.  Things have been extremely busy at The Forged Athlete!

Get ready for a great unvieling very soon. 

Shit is about to blow up!  I’m telling you!

I just want to throw this out there for all of your serious folk – when we open our doors (very very soon) we are taking 10 charter members that will get VIP like treatment as well as charter member prices for the first 3 months of their programs.

Not only do you get a cheaper membership rate for the 1st three months, you get to be apart of the underground training movement - The Forged Athlete - our gym is going to change Omaha and the way serious people train.    If you miss the boat your going to be wishing you would’ve hopped on cause when you see what type of freaks we’re going to be producing outta this joint your gonna wish it was you.

I’m 100% SERIOUS.  I don’t mean to be cocky but I’ve seen it first hand.  I know what our type of atmosphere and training can do for a person.  If you want it bad enough, you’ll do it.

The RESULTS will speak for themselves!

Now, for the brutal workout of the week:

This is a strongman type workout focusing on strength endurance.  Just because these are strongman type moves doesn’t mean they don’t cross over into speed and power sports. 

Speed endurance is a very important trait to have if your any type of sprinter or power athlete.  Mid distance sprinters especially need to be able to continually produce strong forces for extended periods of time.   Wrestlers also need to be able to be strong in the 3rd period, just as much as a defensive linemen needs to be blowing off the ball still and plowing through his man in the final minuets of a big game. 

I hope you understant the importance of strength endurance.  If your strong but have no work capacity or endurance, you’re not going to go the distance.

Here’s a brutal “strength endurance” workout:

A1) Sandbag Zercher Carries – 200′ x 4 sets

B1) Kettlebell rack walks – 200′ x 2 sets

C1) Kettlebell Towel Farmer carries (loop a towel through the kb’s handle and hold onto that)  - 200′ 2 sets

D1) Double Kettlebell swings – 10 x 3 sets

E1) Loaded Sled Pulls/Push – Pull x 100′ turn around Push 100′ x 4 sets

It may look easy on paper…  Try it and let us know.

I’m out the door right now to crush this workout with Joe.

Stay Forged Strong!

T

 

What up kids!

Just took a huge step forward in getting things ready for the grand opening of The Forged Athlete’s location!

I’m so freaking excited right now I don’t know what to do!

I was so excited that after I got home from getting a bunch of our new equipment (from craigslist, I tell you more in a sec) that I just had to use it.

Here’s the workout I did:

1A) 50 db snatches per arm (do sets of 6-8)   I used a 70 until I got to rep 32, then did 80 to finish it out

1B) 50 Sandbag Shouldered Squats  – I used the heaviest sandbag I got, prob loaded with 110 lbs

1C) Mixed Grip Pulls x max – did rope pull ups, wide grip, and finished with close grip w/ the rope

2C) Mixed Push Ups – did decline, neutral grip off of db’s, then finished w/ close grip off a kettlebell

That was a brutal workout to say the least!  But I has so much freaking energy it pushed me to my limits!

So, about craigslist – it’s a f-ing GOLDMINE kids!

I just snagged a bunch of equipment  (dirt cheap!!!) for our gym and I gotta tell ya, its almost go time!!!

Once those garage doors open to The Forged Athlete’s new facility, it’s going down!

This is what I got – Check it out:

• Got over 600lbs of Olympic plates
• Hex db’s from 5lbs up to 80lbs
• Roman chair
• Db rack
• trap bar
• olympic bar
• Rubber flooring to drop kb’s and db’d on

Kids, there going be some sweat, blood, and tears produced from these pieces of equipment I just picked up NO DOUBT!

We’re taking Omaha by storm!

I hope your ready to crush it!

Check the video out:

rolling heavy – forged style

We wanted to stress the importance of working the posterior (back side) of the body. Most individuals that we meet have a very weak back side. It’s very important that as athletes we want to have balanced movements. It makes no sense to bench 315lbs if you can’t do a pull up.

If your most likely not hitting your pulls and rows, your probably just working the beach muscles. If you’re in the mirror most of the time you probably need to hit the pull ups. Think as pull ups as your “upper body squat”.  All variations of pull ups will pack serious mass onto your frame.  

Pull ups and all their variations are just one of among many ways you can train the back. In the vids you can see us doing pull ups with chains or holding a dumbbell between the legs, deadlifts, bent barbell rows, cleans, db rows, and of course – band pull aparts.

It took us a long time before we had good strength with the pulling movements. We’re talking weeks, months and even years of training. Strength is a skill that we practice everyday in some way shape or form. A lot of people think they can get strong as hell in a week or month. We laugh sometimes when we hear this. It seriously takes years of lifting and determination to get better. Check out these pics of what a well developed back can look like. All pulling movements are fair game when it comes to a jacked back. So Put down the db curls and start attacking the back side. 

Stay forged strong!

 

What up kids and all you ripped S.O.B.’s,

Boy today’s workout was KILLER.  I want to start this post off by talking a little bit about the power of imagination.  We wanted to implement rope climbing into our workouts today, but unfortunately at the facility where we do a lot of our training at (new location coming very soon!!!),  has no rope or ropes to climb on.  We didn’t let this stop us to say the least.

In this short vid we have for you today, we go through two of the biggest strength building exercises you can do for your upper body.  We started this particular forged workout with handstand pushups for max reps and then superseted that with  our “forged” version of rope climbs.  Repeat this superset for 5 total sets – BRUTAL!!!

Joe had an old but HUGE beach towel at his house so he brought it to the gym with him.  We took that HUGE beach towel and tied it up to the bars behind the basketball hoops.  It was quite the set up.  The knot wasn’t strong enough to hold us so one of us had to hold the top end of the towel to keep the knot tied.  It worked great and got the job done. 

Quick tid bit about grip work – Using towels and ropes is a great way to develop vice grip like hands and ripped forearms.  If you increase your grip strength, the strength of your other lifts like pull ups and even presses will increase due to the stability your grip provides.  Grip strength is an overlooked commodity in lots of programs.   Make sure to throw in different grip building exercises in your workouts

The lesson of the post is to use your imagination!  Just because you may not have some different pieces of equipment shouldn’t be an excuse to keep you from getting strong as hell! 

Go ahead and share some of the various ideas you’ve may have come up with that are “out-of-the-box” ideas.  Some of these ideas may be the key to getting you strong as hell! 

Stay Forged Strong!