Posts Tagged ‘omaha personal trainer’

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

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!

Here are some things to think about when looking for a good coach. This is a quick story of how my own personal experience with a coach built me to be better.

I had a coach that gave me a feeling of being important, winning, having fun, laughing, good memories and athletic dominance. Because of what he would say and how he would say it, this coach made me better. When he would say something to me it would go straight to my soul. I would of ran through a brick wall for him. I remember a time where we needed to take second place to go to finals for track. I remember my whole team of three including myself wondering if we could do it. It was either do or die for us. For some it might be our last race together.

Anyway I told myself that I will do anything possible to get my boys where we needed to be. The first guy took off and all lanes were even all the way around. The second took off and I realized that we might have a shot at this. By the time the third guy took off we were in third and I knew I was going to have to run one of the best races of my life to win. I received that baton and took off with determination written all over me. I could not here anything except my breath and my track spikes being picked up and put down very fast. By the time the home stretch came around I was still in third, but somehow some way I was able to pass the guy in second and beat the guy at the finish line to take first. My coach was so happy he kissed me. I was so tired I didn’t care.

The point is here that my coaches were awesome people and they always filled me up with positive statements. Imagine you guys in this position. Your coach is so important to your progress. He can make you do things you can’t even imagine. Hopefully your coach is passionate about what he/she is doing. Get a bad ass coach and take your workouts or sport to the next level guys. Good luck with it and as always stay 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

Virginia Beach dudes are gonna be getting strong as F***!!!

Our boy and fellow underground strength coach Matt Wichlinski, who is probably one the top 3 strongest dudes I’ve met in my time, is opening his own underground gym, “The Strength Shop”, in Virginia Beach. VA.

This guy is a beast!  I watched him snatch this antique dumbbell that weighed well over 140 lbs over his head with ease.  Freaking horse!

I just wanted to shout out to this guy!  He’s a good all around human being and anyone that’s as passionate about getting strong , coaching, training, and messing around with the iron as much as we are is always someone we will respect.

Congrats Matt and good luck in your strength endeavors!

Check out the unveiling of Matt’s sick gym below

the strength shop

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!

MMA Fighter Circuit Round 2

Hey kids,

I’m back with part 2 of the MMA fighter circuits.

Damn these things kick ass! If you’re ever short on time these are it! You’re in and out of these workouts quick!

I like to use these types workouts when I’m in a deload phase more than anything.

I’m usually doing mini-cycles to add strength, mass, and power to my frame but when I want to really work the conditioning and work capacity, I turn to these quick intense circuits.

Here’s Round 2:
A1) SB power cleans
A2) SB Zercher Squats
A3) Chin Ups
A4) Handstand Push Ups (get used to these!)
A5) Hanging Leg Raises

This is just an example of what I did. Your options are ENDLESS!

Stay Forged Strong!

Ps – Big announcement coming very soon – The Forged Athlete Gym will be opening VERY soon!
Stay Tuned!

MMA Circuit Round 2

ps – If any of you out there are into combat athletics such as wrestling, boxing, or MMA – we can help build your power, work capacity, strength endurance and sick athletism – contact us @ theforgedathlete@gmail.com for more info