At The Forged Athlete Gym in Omaha NE, we’re all about unconventional means to increasing performance and athletic ability!

Try some of these power combos!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is just part 1!

Stay tuned for more power combos for improved athletic performance and physique enhancement!

Live Aggressive and Get Strong!

Travis

PS -  Are you a SERIOUS athlete or just someone wanting living in Omaha NE wanting to BUILD STRENGTH, LEAN DENSE MUSCLE, and improve overall PERFORMANCE???

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Not everyone can be the fastest, strongest, or most genetically gifted.

There are the athletes that are just born to be athletes and the ones that weren’t born to be athletes.

For the born athlete, things come easy to them.  They develope faster than others and are naturally able to do amazing things.  That makes up only a small percentage of the athletes that play sports.

The athlete I want to talk about is the one that wasn’t born with the talent.

This athlete is never the fastest, quickest, or strongest.  This athlete is the one that works harder than any other athlete around. This athlete is determined, filled with hard work ethics and grit.  This athlete is the one that makes himself be among the fastest, quickest, and strongest athletes out on the field.  This athlete does it with guts, determination, hard work, and a mentality of never giving up until the job is done.

These are the types of athletes we have and want in our gym, The Forged Athlete.

We will not accept an athlete that isn’t willing to work hard.  That is the only way to gain membership at The Forged Athlete – Hard work, dedication, and a strong work ethic.

If you want to become amonng the fastest, quickest, and strongest athletes around, you have to work for it!

No other way about it!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buckle down and get to working hard!

Good things will come!

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – Make sure if you do live in the Omaha area and you want to commit to working hard, you call us up 402-984-0791 and come in for a trial session.

See what it’s like to train hard and earn your results!

So in part one I broke down exactly why sprinting is something you must have apart of your training program in order to be faster, more power, strong, and athletic.

There’s no other way around it!  Humans were made to run!

Think about it.  In the caveman days if you couldn’t run, you were dinner for a dinosaur or saber tooth.  I bet cavemen were fast as hell!

It was all about SURVIVAL.  Today, not so much.

Now in the athletic world, if you want to be at the top of the crop, you’ve got to sprint!

You already know this is you read PART 1.

So lets talk about different ways you can add sprinting into your training program.

I’m sure some of you reading this are thinking,

“I don’t need to sprint, all I need to do is lift hard and I’ll get the gains I want….”

You’re dead wrong bruddah or sista…  You need to add sprints in where they fit in!  I show you how.

So here’s 5 ways you can add sprints into your program:

1)      Add sprint into your warm up.  On days I’m crunched for time, I’ll always add in 3-5  sprints at the end of my warm up.  This is especially good on lower body days because it get you loosened up and ready to roll as well as lights up your nervous system so you’ll actually lift heavier weight!  If you add sprints into your warm up, just go 20-40 yards tops no more.  You’re warming up not trying to fatigue your body.

2)      Throw sprints right into your workout.  You ever hear about doing some front squats then immediately dropping the bar and hitting a 50-100m sprint??  Well it works!  Especially if you’re trying to build power and strength!  Try it sometime!  Or you could simply hit some heavy squats and then do sprints in the middle of your workout to get em in.  Either way works.

3)      Throw sprints in at the end of your workout.  This is probably the simplest way but the toughest.  It’s the toughest because most people, if you’re like me, are freaking beat after they train and don’t even want to think about doing sprints after a workout.  Give it a try sometime.  I recommend doing this after a upper body day for the most part.  ALSO – if you’re training to get faster, I always recommend doing sprint BEFORE your workout so you make sure you’re training full speed.  More on this coming in Part 3.

4)      Sprint separately from your workouts.  I had to do this in college because our college workouts were so damn long you couldn’t get sprints in otherwise the workouts would be 3 hours long!  What I used to do was give myself 4-5 hours rest from my training workout and do sprints.  Usually I would run early in the morning most of the time when I was super fresh but sometimes it was fun hit it up at night.  You can choose what’s best for you.

5)      Sprint on your off days.  This last tactic is for athletes and people that are truly training to increase speed and power.  Training on your off day with sprints lets you be 110% focused on just sprinting.  Instead of worrying about your training session or being a little fatigued from your training session, you can just zero in on running fast.  This is a great tactic and works amazing IF you have the time.  I know most people don’t have the extra time but if you do, I would recommend trying to throw sprints in on your off days.  Sprinting can serve as a good recovery workout sometimes as well after a heavy legs day.

Well, there you have it!  5 ways you can throw sprinting into your program.  Now you have little to no excuses unless you’re just going to puss out on doing them.  Then it doesn’t matter, you are just a pussy…

In part 3, I will get into the details about all the different type of sprint workouts there are for you to do.

There’s different ways to implement sprinting into your program for different reasons.

For example, if you’re trying to get faster and going for pure speed, there’s a specific way to train with sprints just like there’s a specific way to train using sprints for fat loss.

So be ready for part 3 coming soon!

In the meantime, get out there and run your ass off!  You’re survival may depend on it…

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – Keep the comments coming people!    I want to know what YOU want so WE can help you!

Lets talk about running fast!

Here’s part 1 of the 3 part series I will be writing ALL ABOUT SPRINTING.

Part 2 and 3 will cover the meat and potatoes of sprinting while this first part is going to cover the benefits of sprinting and why, you as an athletic or human being for that matter should be doing it and doing it often.

When it comes to sprinting, I like to think Joe and myself know our fair share.

Joe having an extensive background running track with blazing times in the 100m and 200m and myself testing out in the 40 yard dash in the 4.3 range back in my prime, we know how to train to get fast!

We still have a HUGE passion for sprinting.

WHY?

Because sprinting keeps you strong, fast, athletic, and coordinated not to mention tons of other things.

The only problem is, not too many people or athletes for that matter actually get out and sprint enough.

Sprinting should be apart of ALL athletes workout regiments

Here’s just a few things sprinting can do for you as an athlete:

• Increases Speed
• Increases Overall Relative Body Weight Strength
• Increases Power and Force Production
• Keep the Nervous System Sharp
• Helps Decrease Body Fat Composition (If eating right)
• IMPROVES YOUR ATHLETICISM

These are just a handful of the benefits you’ll receive from sprinting.

I hope that after you read this you will get out and start sprinting a bit.

There’s a ton of different ways you can approach and program in sprinting into your workout plan.

Just make sure you’re adding it in for now anywhere possible!

New part I will discuss how to program sprinting into your workout plan for a multitude of different effects such as fat loss, speed, power, and flat out getting faster.

Until then,

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – For ALL you local athletes in Omaha – make sure you mark your date for June 12th!  The Forged Athlete Combine Challenge is going down!  More details coming!

PPS – As always, make sure you’re writing in or commenting on the blog.  We’ve been getting some good questions so keep em coming!

The sandbag – simply BRUTAL!

Take a sandbag and make a complex outta it = Even More BRUTAL!!

There’s nothing easy about em!

Especially when you’re doing a heavy set complex like sandbag cleans straight into sandbag lunges.

Two great moves to increase power and strength for football players and wrestlers.

The sandbag in general does a multitude of different things that are great for increasing sports performance in Football and Wrestling sports.

1)      Sandbag training builds mental toughness – sandbag are unpredictable sometimes and when the weight shifts, one must wrestle around with the bag ans stay with the lift which a lot of the times makes a set longer and harder to get through so being mentally tough helps get through that

2)      Sandbag training engages the whole body – in sports you use your whole body, with sandbags you do the same – nuff said

3)      Sandbag training builds vice grip like hands – grabbing, ripping, and pulling heavy sandbags off the ground will really tax your hands in the long run which in turn will help increase your grip strength and conditioning.  Two key things to have in wrestling and football.

4)      Sandbags are tough!  Just look at an old dirty sandbag – nothing nice about it!  Working with it will get YOU tough!  The tougher you are, the better!  Trust me!

The sandbag complex I’m talking about from above is the sandbag power clean to lunge.  These are two great moves to use to help increase power and strength for football and wrestling sports.

Both football and wrestling require the athlete to be explosive and strong.  That is if you want to win…

Ripping a heavy sandbag off the floor with the power clean is a great power builder, while the sandbag lunge is great for building up strength in the legs.

Both exercise have carry over to both strength and power which in turn have an impact on SPEED!

Everyone wants to be fast!  If you wanna be fast you’ve got to get stronger and more explosive!

This heavy sandbag complex will do just that!

Check out the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now go find yourself a nice heavy sandbag to toss around and give this exercise complex a try!

Until next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – If you’re wanted to see all of our personal workouts straight up, go to our personal blog links below:

Travis – www.forgedstrength.wordpress.com

Joe – www.jchizek.wordpress.com

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!!!

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!

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