These guys are on the right track and doing the necessary things in order to get stronger faster and more explosive for their sport. It takes and iron mind and determination to go through workouts like this, but only the strong survive.

I’ll go on to say that, “The Difference Between A Successful Person And Others Is Not A Lack Of Strength, Not A Lack Of Knowledge, But Rather A Lack Of Will.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

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???

Sign Up below and find out how you can get a FREE Trial and join our gym

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!

If you’ve been following the recent articles on sprinting then you have been exposed to some damn good info. Also if you know me, this happens to be my favorite time of year.

Track and field is one of my favorite sports.

It amazes me how the human body works as a unit to perform specific movements. In sport we all know that speed is very important. Wining and loosing can be separated by this one skill. With all the things you have been learning I thought it would be kick ass to talk about resisted sprints.

The easiest way to explain this is to think about running with hiking boots on. After a period of time and some sore feet take them off and run barefoot. I guarantee you’ll feel and be a bit faster. The purpose of resisted sprints is to improve on the drive or acceleration phase.

In any sport I want my athletes to reach maximum velocity as fast as possible. This tool helps do just that. In the video you’re going to see me go through a quick warm up which consist of a variety of movements and then into the sleds.

When you watch the vid notice my head and how I need to lower just a bit. I also focus on good arm action. Coaching this is telling the athlete hands move ear to pocket. Often times after viewing my own videos I see what I need to improve on.

There are always improvements to be made. You have to stress technique when you coach. It’s critical for the athlete. Stay tuned for part 2.

1a) acceleration sprints-Forward 10 yards x 5

2a) lateral left and right side shuffle 10 yards x3

3a) back peddle sprints 10 yards x5

4a) Body weight pushes 3 x max reps

5a) Body weight pulls 3 x max reps

6a) abdominal movement 3 x 15

Stay Forged Strong!

-Joe-

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

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