Archive for the ‘misc’ Category

 

One of the best ways to increase strength and improve performance is training in an environment that creates attitudes of dominance, desire and mental toughness. There is a difference between a Div. I college football weight room and a corporate gym and it’s NOT the difference in equipment…

In order to produce results your environment must harmonize with what your setting out to accomplish. A mismatch between the two can cause you to second guess yourself which will guide you to become demotivated which will ultimately cause you to under succeed or fail.

Marines are some of the toughest people on the planet and it’s shown through their never give up mentality and GO-GETTER attitudes as they’ll find ways to adapt and improvise to dominate their environment. They rely on unity and team work to motivate each other through the difficult times they face.

Marines are determined to no end and will find a way to win at all cost’s!

This attitude is built because of the environment they are brought into and that’s the way it should be. In strength training that environment is absolutly critical.

Combining the right atmosphere with the right attitude and a person can go from zero to hero in no time flat. Confidence is dramatically increased as well as self esteem.

Take a look at what the right environment can do for a crew like this!

Imagine what types of things you can accomplish when everyone around you has your back, pushing you beyond your very limits, challenging you to step it up each and everytime you step foot in the gym??

If you’re a SERIOUS ATHLETE or trainee looking to take it to the next level, put yourself in the correct environment for total success and dominance!

If you’re ready to take action, click the box below to register for your FREE trial workout!

 

 

 

 

Yo kids!

I had a lovely finish to my workout the other day.  At the end I was DONE!

It was a finish to a workout that already involved 1 arm KB cleans to press and 1 arm bent rows.  This was my “strongman” day and I wanted to finish it off right.

Here’s what I did:

Zercher Carry – Sled Drag Medley

1A) Sandbag Zercher Carry x 25 yds

1B) Drag Sled Back

1C) KB rack walk x 25 yds

1C) Drag Sled Back

1D) SB Bear Hug Walk x 25 yds

1E) Drag sled back

I did this for 2 rounds as my legs were SHOT at the end.

I rested about 1:30 in between.

CHECK out the HIGHLIGHT reel ==>  Zerchers + Sled = Brutal Combo

This will get you strong as heck, build some serious work capacity and strength endurance.

Next go around I getting the heavy bag out there and another few KB’s to add two more rounds in there.  That’s going to be real brutal!!!

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!

Yo monsters!

What’s better then being able to out run your opponent or blow through a guy standing in front of you?  I can’t think of too many things.

There’s nothing more I love watching than a guy busting through the line to make a sack, a wrestler blasting thru a guy with a takedown,  or a sprinter exploding out of the blocks with explosive power and force.

Its so demoralizing to your challenger when you can beat him off the line, always be a step ahead, and simply run right through him like he’s nothing.

Acceleration plays such a huge roll in being explosive and fast.

The first few steps of a sprint, the first few movements of a take down, and of course coming out of a break and changing directions.

Acceleration is key in all of these movements.

There’s lots of exercises that come to mind that will help increase your acceleration.

The other day, my workout called for tire flips.  Tire flips are great at helping one become more explosive and to increase their overall acceleration.

The only problem for me was, the weather was absolutely terrible out!  I wasn’t going to be able to get outside and flip my tire.

What I did was used my imagination a bit and decided to try something new.

I took your basic tire flip and added some resistance bands to the mix.

What I did was make a band harness which forced  me to explode and accelerate through the whole tire flip motion.

I set up a little contraption so I could flip the tire then simply pull the tire back into place so I could get multiple reps in without having to get out of the bands.  It worked good enough to say the least.

The bands work great for acceleration work.  While the bands get longer, the tension increases, which forces you to keep accelerating.  If you don’t,  you’re going to get pulled back.  Using bands also force you to keep low and stay moving.

I loved these.  These also worked well because the tires we currently have are not as heavy as we would like.  I’ve got to make the lifts harder any way possible.  Using bands with this works!

At the end of the workout, I ended with some added range of motion sprinter lunges with the barbell that were absolutely killer!

This was a great workout to increase my overall acceleration capabilities.

Give it a try and check out the video!

Speed and Acceleration

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

This is going to be a quick vid on one of our dudes killin prowler. This happens to be at the end of one of our workouts on a Sunday afternoon.

This guy is a tank and used to box back in the day. It’s good to see people like Matt kicking ass and taking names. As long as I’ve known Matt he has never missed a workout.  The only time that I can think of was over Christmas and family time. This is the kind of person that I look for when training.

If you or anyone out there loves to kick ass and get strong then drop us a line so we can arrange a workout to see if this is for you.

We have one life guys!

Lets try and live it to the max.

Till next time, stay forged strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8tKtrLYrNA

Alright lets talk about something that is very important to me. I’m talking about our nations armed forces. Our military is one of the most respected forces in the world. If someone pisses us off, We take care of it period.

I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of our military and some of the things they do for us. If you don’t feel the same way stop reading now.

It is because of them that we have the lives we have. They are our protectors from the acts of terrorism and all national conflicts. 9 -11 was a day that everyone will remember for ever. It was a day that changed Americans and how we view the world and each other.

Because of these brave men and women who lost their lives so we could live ours you are able to go home to your families and live.

For some of our troops this will not be the case. I’m writing this to give tremendous amounts of respect to these people and their families for doing what they do. Because of the situations that have unfolded I give a salute to all men and women in the military.

Our prayers are with you.  This flag represents life death and the pursuit of happiness and should be take very seriously.

Check the vid and let me know what you guys think.

Stay forged strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DThHOgpriY

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

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!

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