Archive for the ‘misc’ Category

Crushed a good one today.

I’ve really been pushing the core training and speed work these last few weeks.

The weather has just been way too good to not be outside.

Its good to get away from the clutter of the gym sometimes.

As far as that goes The Forged Athlete Gym is about to open – August 1^st! 

Stay tuned for more updates!

Here’s 1 of my speed and core workouts I did:

A1) Power Skips x 50 yards x 4

A2) Inch worm to plank hold on finger tips and toes x 20 yards

B1) Single Leg Power Hops x 15 yards/leg x 4

B2) Side Plank rotation x 15/side

C1) Triple Jumps into 10 yard sprint x 6 x 4 sets

C2) Prone Plank w/ knee tucks x max out on each side (got about 30/side)

D1) 20 yard ALL out sprints from 3 pt stance x 6

Crush this speed and core workout a couple times a week if your trying to gain some speed and core strength!

Make sure you keep up with our blog – GRAND OPENING footage and special announcements of our new gym and location will be coming very soon!

Stay Forged Strong!

PS – If you want to get in on our “Charter Membership” contact us @ theforgedathlete@gmail.com – the first 10 peeps to get in on the charter membership will have super CHEAP membership access to our gym.  More info coming soon!

Man I’m motivated as crazy to write this for you guys tonight. It’s a Tuesday night about 10:40 pm. By the time you read this it will probably be Wed or maybe Thurs. Anyway time to get down to business. This post is about being around like minded people who are positive and believe in what you do.

I just talked with a local Omaha dude that is strictly someone you would not want to meet in a dark alley. We’ll just call him TV. I did not ask him if I could use his name so I will not out of respect. I talked to this guy about my vision and what I want to do with athletes and especially youth athletes. This is where we need the most work in my opinion. Youth training.

Anyway he shared some things he wanted to do with athletes and wanting to help them be the best they can be. I was eye to eye with him on this one. I had so much passion flowing through me that I almost started a second workout for the day. I held back though.

Guys this stuff is for real! Get around people who want to be winners, that share the same passions as you, that wanna go further, and most importantly, think like you.

It will change your whole prospective on what you can do next. It could possibly change your whole life!

This is part of the process that I am going through to find a true niche for myself. It’s awesome because the good lord must be watching out for me on this one. I keep running into people that have so much to offer. Whne people help each other, just sit by and watch what happens.

So stay positive and feed off that good energy and use it to your advantage. If it were not for that conversation I would not be writing this to you. Stay away from the negative and close to the positive.

Stay forged strong!

The hard core kick ass’ Vs The wimp baits:

Ok! I want to make a distinction between two types of people that I see in gyms. Lets set this straight right now! What do you want? You decide, kick some ass or wimp bait.

If it would be up to me the kicking ass choice looks more attractive. To make sure you don’t become a wimp bait I put together a list for you so that can be avoided. Check it out!

Hard core kick ass:

Aggressive music

Aggressive Warm up

Sweat, screaming, cussing, puking if you must

Big lifts and big weights.

Blisters, some pain and sometimes a little blood (Not too much though)

Group motivation, fun and feeling of accomplishment.

Strong as freaking hell not to mention powerful and fit.

Steak and potato eating, whole milk drinking, protein shake mixing beast.

The wimp bait:

Skips the warm up

Complainer

Invisions themselves anywhere, but in the weight room

Would rather do a bicep curl than a squat.

Would rather put lotion on there hands than chalk

Likes to wear weight lifting gloves.

Not strong and does not want to be.

Replaces a good steak for a hot dog.

Weak!

Stay forged strong as hell and don’t let people take you out of your game plan.

Having a bad day!

This is the topic of discussion for today’s post boys and girls. I wanted to write this because we all have them. They suck and don’t make you feel good. It is how you rebound from one of these days that will determine how and what you do the following days and weeks that lie ahead of you.

Ok the other day I was pissed off for whatever reason and man did I let it affect me, big time! I have no idea why this crap happens, but it does and I know everyone has them so that’s why you guys can relate with me.

I told Trav that my day sucked big time and I had no idea why. We were about 1 hour and a half away from crushing a deload workout. I could not focus enough to get my mindset where I needed it. The hour came and went by and we decided to get the workout done later in the day.

I was so freaking pissed I went and got my haircut. I know it sounds crazy, but by doing that I was able to reevaluate why I was feeling the way I was and get my mind on track. I got a mean high and tight military style.

Every time I feel a little jacked up I do this and it works for me. I told myself that the workout I was going to do was going to be one of the best I ever had. I deloaded and got a major pump from all the body weight exercises I did. At the end of the workout I did 6 sets of 50 yard prowler sprints. These things kicked my ass big time. I was so tired I almost puked. I had to elevate my feet so I would feel better. I felt like a million dollars though. It was crazy I went from feeling like crap to feeling like a warrior.

I think the haircut made me feel like a freaking killer and man did it feel good. If you want to get strong as hell and make big time gains you have to have a killer instinct about you. I cannot stress that enough guys. You just have to want it more than anyone around you. You can’t be stopped because you are to strong for them. They cannot even hold a freaking candle to you. Think like this and you will not be stopped.

If you have one of those days get your ass into the weight room and tear some sH%t up.

Stay forged strong

Hey all,

I wanted to let everyone that reads this blog know that its GO TIME!

The Forged Athlete is in FULL EFFECT

We will be having a Secrets of Strength Bodyweight Seminar this weekend JUNE 28th at 11am. If you live around the Omaha area feel FREE to come!

Anyone who wants to attend can for FREE! Come learn from Joe and myself all about how to use your body to get strong as heck!

Here’s some more details:

What you will discover WHEN you come:
•5 Bodyweight Training Secrets to Increasing your overall Power and Speed
•The one exercise YOU should be doing but YOU probably don’t ever do to increase overall bodyweight strength and power!
•How to instantly increase your 1st Step Explosiveness with this one move!!!
•The 3 Key Movements to building an unbreakable athlete
•How to actively use muscles you probably never use to increase speed and power
Come learn these key points and secrets plus much more!

All you need to do to attend this FREE Secrets of Bodyweight Strength Seminar is call and reserve your spot NOW – Contact Travis at 402-984-0791 NOW
There are only 20 spots available for this exclusive FREE seminar!

Location will remain a SECRET – only those who take action and call to reserve your spot will find out the secret location of the camp.

Check out this new video of Joe and I training at the track – there’s just a few exercises we use to get strong from bodyweight training.

bodyweight training

Stay Forged Strong

What’s going on?

Something I have always wondered about is how some kids can be so damn strong just walking in from off the street while other kids, who have been apart of organized sports, around the best schools, and have access to top of the line gyms their whole lives can be weak as hell.

The difference, street mentality – it makes you one strong SOB! I think one of the best examples of this is with Mike Tyson. This guy was a killer since he was 11 years old! Everyone one knows Mike for his years as being one of the best heavy weight fighters ever (and of course all his other hi jinx like biting ears off, getting his face tattooed). What a lot of people don’t know is Mike as a kid. He was knocking dudes out twice, even three times his age! Why and how is this you ask? He was from the streets. He became a man at a very young age.

Mike was forced to grow up fast when he was a kid. He came from one of the hardest ghettos known in the US – the streets of Brooklyn. He didn’t have nice weight rooms to workout in, he didn’t have all the commodtiites lots of kids have today. Granted back then, kids still had commodities like nice high schools, organized sports and such, but not where Mike was from. He had to learn how to be “street strong”.

This “street strength” is where Mike excelled over other athletes. His strength levels were built from day to day hustles and struggles to survive the streets. It’s a no man’s land out there in the ghetto streets as he learned veryu quickly that he had to rely on his own abilities to survive. Kids had to go knuckle to knuckle daily.

Mike knew this so as a kid growing up, he became very experience with street fighting. To increase his abilities, he worked bodyweight exercises dailiy. Pull Ups off of anything he could hang from, push ups everywhere and anywhere, and of course, everywhere he went was on foot via walking or running.

The main idea I’m getting out of this example is most people, and kids especially have it way too easy. Lots of kids are “soft’. They don’t have any sort of “street mentality” or sense of urgency. I almost have to beat it outta some kids when they train because they have no killer instinct. It’s this killer instinct or “street menatality” that’ll truly make you a stronger person all around.

This is the idea The Forged Athlete wants to instill in its athlete’s. We want to make men out of boys when you train with us. You need to be mentally strong and physically capable to peform to your best ability. The mental part is almost always more important.

I would take a scrawny looking kid off the streets of Brooklyn against a huge jacked kid from the suburbs any day. Its because the kid from the streets has the mental advantage. YOU need to find this mental adavantage.

I’m not saying go live in the streets of Brooklyn or anything, that would be the dumbest advice ever, what I’m saying is to make sure you find that killer instinct inside your brain and get after it!
Be an animal. If your passionate about being an athlete – whatever sport you play, it don’t matter what it is, you will always have an edge on your opponent if you have the “street mentality”. You’ll be stronger than anyone who doesn’t have this.

Find your trigger to fire off this mentality!

Stay Forged Strong!

Pain Tolerance

There are a few things I can think of that I absolutely hate and the one common denominator that all these things have in common that I hate is the amount of pain associated with them.

I actually don’t hate these things purely. It’s more of a love hate relationship if you know what I mean.

So what is pain tolerance?  I believe it’s the ability to push past extreme pain barriers and carry on through whatever it is you may be suffering through. 

What doesn’t kill you will make you strong as hell right? I feel Pain tolerance helps mold a person’s true character. You either have it or you don’t. Can you create pain tolerance?  Yes, I feel you can over time.

What it comes down to at times is how bad you want it? How bad do you want to succeed?

I once read somewhere and I’m sorry I forgot where, that stated  that if you go hard in enough in practice, you can coast in the game.  

Here’s the top 3 things I hate but love at the same time. All require a high level of pain tolerance.

Zercher Squats – I HATE these with a passion but damn it, they are So good for you   They crush your forearms but also help build a solid core and upper back, plus you get your leg work in J 

Continuous sled drags – if you have even had the chance to work with sleds, try a continuous set to build your work capacity.  Drag the sled 100’ then turn around and pull the sled back.  You work your core, upper back, shoulders, and of course your legs BIG TIME!  By the fourth min, if you’re going heavy enough, your legs will be SCREAMING at you!  Give it a try!

20 Rep Squats – Ok heavy squats are bad enough, but when you do heavy squats for 20 reps, your in for a world of hurt!  The plan calls for getting under your 10RM squat weight.  Start performing nice, deep squats.  In between each rep, take a deep breath then repeat until you die or actually reach 20 reps.  The way this works is after each rep you get a “mini” rest break while you take your deep breath.  It really isn’t much of a break but you already know that right… 

Give this a try if you really want to jack up your legs and experience some pain tolerance.  These are not for beginners! 

So, there you have it!  Those are my top 3 pain dishing exercises.  They are not for the faint of heart.  Let me know what your top love/hate exercises are!

Check out the video below and see coach joe and myself crank out some zercher squats and squeeze out some 8 min sled push/pulls.  I hate those! 

Stay Forged Strong!

We are looking for serious bad ass individuals who want to dominate there opponents and destroy foreign bodies who try and harm our homeland. I want to send this message out to all of you who have a determined mindset to get strong as freakin hell. If you or you know of anyone who wants to take a journey into changing their whole life, have them leave a comment on how they want to change.

Military, law enforcement, fire department, serious athletes of all types, combat junkies, and hard core fitness enthusiast – we want YOU!

We are only looking for a select few so let us know if you are serious. These training methods are special and will involve certain coaching techniques . It’s about to get seriously freaking crazy with the forged athlete. We want to pump out athletes that go to division I university’s and become true champions.

All military, fire,  and law enforcement personnel should expect nothing else but the best when we work with you. Your job entails keeping the public safe and secure.  Are you in good enough shape to take on the responsibilities that are set upon YOU?   People are depending on YOU!

If you are a serious fitness freak wait until you get your hands on this stuff. If you think your workouts are tough now and you work hard enough, let us take you through a trial workout.  You may be mistaken! 

And no we ain’t crossfit.We like what they do,  we respect what they do, we apply some of what they do, but don’t follow everything they do.  We are different.  Its about progression and getting strong as hell, explosive as hell, and to have work capacity up the ying yang.  We don’t settle for medium across the board! 

We come from underground and we like it that way. Our mentor Zach Even-Esh, one of the origionators is one who created the underground movement.  We will keep the train rolling! 

Lets us know guys. Time is wasting and we only live one life on this earth. We might as well do something totally remarkable together. Respond to this post with serious inquires only.

No negative people allowed.

Stay forged strong.

Hey bruddah’s and sista’s

My mentor and buddy wrote a sick post the other day on his blog http://www.zacheven-esh.com/blog and I think you should definitely check it out.

My bro Zach is a straight up menace to society!  He talks about the 10 reason’s why you train like a panzy!  I can’t agree with him more on this subject.   It sparked some desire to write this post! 

What really got me going about this post from Zach is that he shows his true passion.  Yeah he talks about how people bitch and complain about their results and how if people really want it, they need to go after it! Zach’s a freaking freight train that doesn’t stop!  Show me a guy that works harder than him and I might pull a large peice of furniture out my ass!  HA! HA!

 I’ve met VERY few people in my life that have an equal if not bigger passion and desire for the iron than me.  When this happen it pushes me even more!  Zach and I may be long distant cousins somehow, someway.   He’s one of my mentors and someone I strongly look up to and I’ll always turn to for answers in strength game. 

I’ve added 5 more reason’s to why you train like a panzy –

1)      You lack desire for the iron

You say you want to be strong, you say you want to be big but yet when it comes down to crunch time, you find excuses.  Where’s the true desire to do whatever it takes to get to your goals?  Quit finding excuses and f-ing do the damn thing!

 2)      You can’t find time

Its late, work was too long, and you have to meet friends for drinks by 8…  That’s one of the excuses I’ve heard a few times.  You want to be strong and want to be big – YOU make time.  Sometimes 20 mins is all you need.

3)      You do panzy ass lifts to get big

Screw your db kickbacks, bosu squats, and 1 arm cable curls.  I got news for you – these alone don’t work!  Get your ass in the squat rack, deadlift, do weighted pull ups, do everything you can think of with a barbell, and just move  heavy ass weights!

 4)      You lift in the “hypertrophy” or pump  zone too much

How strong do you actually think you are when you can move a weight 10-15 times?  You get the pump, which is great, but you aren’t moving serious weight.  Unless your moving triple digit dbs around for reps in the high teens or respectable weight on the barbell for high reps, you may be ok.  But, at some point in your program, grab a weight that you can get 3-5 times MAX and do about 5 sets of that. REST GROW REPEAT. 

5)      Your atmosphere SUCKS ASS!!!

I’m sorry, I’ve worked at a big box gym for a long time and it’s nearly impossible to get great results there because of the weak ass atmosphere.  If you have the right mindset and are able to get yourself into “the zone” you’re in a better position.  If your easily distracted, you have no hope.  Unless your gym is at the underground, in a dungeon, at your garage, has pantara blaring over the speakers, or filled will 110% freaks and psychos that are yelling, bleeding, spitting, and sweating all over the place – do this – leave your cell phone at home, put some head phones on – turn up the Metallica so you can’t hear any outside noise, and focus on your workout 110%.  Your results will come.  Atmosphere can change the whole game for you!  Believe, me I experienced this  first hand when I traveled to Zach’s place at the underground strength gym in Edison, NJ.  Boys are turned into men when they step into that building!  Make your place of lifting this way!  No distractions, just good old blood sweat and tears (and sometimes vomit )

Pay attention to these points and all of the points on Zach’s blog.  Make sure you find that desire for whatever it is you do.  Lifting, getting strong, your job, life, family – whatever it may be!  Go all out!

Stay Forged Strong