Posts Tagged ‘strength’

Hey-

It’s another day in the big red country and cold as all hell. Oh well! I guess this is what builds character. So how many of you out there have failed at something and realized months or years later you were in the same spot?

You were stuck and had no idea why! We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. If it weren’t for those times some of us would never succeeded.

It’s weird how some people let circumstances control their life. Are you one of those people that follows what everyone else does or do you lead?

I have learned that to get what you want takes a decision from you and only you. If you let other people decide what you should do you will never be happy.

It has become very clear my mission on this planet. It’s been my calling and lies deep in my sold. I believe I’m here to help people become better through strength.

When you work out it helps you in so many ways that to the novice is hard to imagine. You can literally change your whole life through hard work and dedication.

Through this belief we have developed a program that is built around hard work, commitment and excellence. We want every individual that enters the program to go through each experience and change their life along the way.

The question is,”are you going to be the person who decides to make a change for the better. Life goes by too fast! Make your decision to change because time is going by. Take action and go for it.

Joe

What’s up warriors!

 

The post today is about the female athlete and how they can become strong and explosive.

A lot of the time the girls don’t get enough credit so I’m going to change that a bit.

All female athletes are welcome in our gym.

As long as you’re ready to go and put in a lot of hard work.

Trust me it will pay off during game time.

The series of exercises in the vid are designed to develop strength and explosiveness.

Trav and I are constantly telling our athletes to explode.

Being explosive while maintaining technique develops the true athlete.

You’ll see box jumps, pushups, trx work back extension and some strong man work.

Yep I said it, “strong man or should I say strong woman”.

 Being strong allows you to become more powerful.

This one’s for all the girls out there who wish to become better.

Stay Forged Strong!

- Joe -

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Ok-

Just want to speak on a few things before I head off to the gym for another day of training.

Lately I have run into people who think that strength comes overnight.

I laugh at these weak minded individuals.

Why in this world does everyone think that there’s a quick fix for everything?

Is it because technology has transformed most people into couch potatoes!

The truth is that there is no easy way out when it comes to training.

This seems to be the only thing left in the world that takes true gut busting hard work.

You either do it or don’t and let everyone else that works hard reap the reward.

If you want success in getting in shape then you better become motivated and stop being lazy.

I’ll say it like this GET OFF YOUR ASS AND MOVE!

I hope this post will motivate you to do something about your current levels of strength and fitness.

We can always improve on something even if were in good shape.

It’s important and should be incorporated into your life. It’s the only fountain of youth there is.

Stay forged strong!

- Joe-

 

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What up!

I wanna talk about FATIGUE a little bit.

First of all, let me ask you these questions, answer them truthfully:

While you where training, have you ever got to the point to where you couldn’t go 1 more second?

During your training, have you been to the absolute edge to where you thought you may just die?

During competition, have you ever wanted to rest so bad you would almost just rather quit?

Have you been to the point to where you knew, in your heart that you could have gave it 1 more rep, went a few more steps, gone a few more seconds, but you didn’t?

Honestly answer these questions, then determine what it was that persuaded your answer.

It’s called FATIGUE.

If you train hard, play hard, and go hard you know what I’m talking about.

It’s when your muscles burn, your heart pounds, and your lungs can’t seem to suck in enough air for you to breathe.

It’s the thing that causes you to second guess why it is your training as hard as you are.

It’ll take those who “talk the talk” and put them into their place.

It’ll take the strong and brave and turn them into a weak and scared.

Fatigue will make cowards of us all.

That’s how the old saying goes…

I’ve heard it before as I’m sure you have too.

BUT – How will you react to this yourself??

Only the true warriors will look fatigue in the face and say “F**K YOU!”

This makes a champion!

To the few people out there, who have the GUTS, COURAGE, and FORTITUDE, YOU will PREVAIL!

Something very important happens to a person when they face their fear caused by their fatigue.

I say when you push yourself so far beyond your limits that you change in many ways.

Changing your mental strength is one of the ways we change.

Changing your mental strength will ultimately change YOU as a whole.

It’s that point of a workout where you know you have one more round, one more rep, or just a few more secs…

What do you do?

Will you quit?

You can be the only judge and the only one that truly knows if you gave it 110% in the face of fatigue.

IT’S A BATTLE!

Stand up, take control!

Will fatigue make you a coward?

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

What up kids?

Hope you’re feeling strong as ever!

If not, you better do something! You’re not going to get strong just thinkin’ about it!

These last two weeks have been great for our gym!

Joe and myself are super thrilled about all the new members we have that have been putting their minds and physical selves to the test.

This is why I love coming to my “office”.

As a strength coach and mentor – this is MY LIFE!

I live and die for this stuff!

I wouldn’t trade this for ANYTHING!

My gym is my office. My office is where I do business!

Just yesterday we had a crazy workout with a few new members. They crushed it!

They gave everything they had! That’s what we want at The Forged Athlete here in Omaha!

Nothing less than your best efforts!

There are big things to come to The Forged Athlete.

Trust me when I say – Dudes will be walking in the front door and walking out the back STRONG and JACKED to the max!

Our “office” is a strength factory! I pride myself and so does Joe on getting each and every one of our dedicated members RESULTS!

Since we are so dedicated to making sure our members are taking care of, we do not open the door just for anyone.

You have to earn your way!
Those that are members already know that they must bring their “A” game to every session.

We DO NOT take days off!

When they come into work – they pack a lunch because we get busy!

It’s all about hard work and dedication.  The results just flow when that’s what your main focuses are.
Stay tuned for some really killer stuff coming very soon.

Just another day at the office….

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

Hey people of strength!

Hope all is well and you’re kicking ass!

If not, work harder and push yourself beyond your limits.

Don’t find excuses and NEVER settle for less!

Find what it is that you need to work on and zero in on it like your life depends upon it!

You need to find your weak points!

All athletes have weak points.

For most its their backside.

The hamstrings, lower back, mid back, and upper back.

The main reason most athletes have weak backsides is because they can’t see them.

A lot of athletes train just their “mirror” muscles.

Curls, bench presses, tricep extensions, and lots of quad work make up a typical routine.  This routine is familiar to athletes that simply don’t know any better.

I was a victim of this!  I fell into the trap of training just what I could see.

I did bench, all the presses, squats, lunges, curls, and tricep work.  I also did do a ton of pulling movements as well but manly with the upper body.

This was largely due to the fact I was a wrestler and I did pull ups and peg board about every day.

If I could go back and do it over again I would’ve focused tons more time and energy in on the DEADLIFT,  KB swings, RDL’s, glute ham raises, and all the different variations of the good mornings.

Lets not forget about prowler and sled work!  That’s a must!

These string of exercises are CRUCIAL to help athletes build up explosive power and speed.

I was always under the misconception that my quads were what made me fast.  I was mistaken due to the whole “mirror muscle” thing.

Boy if I could go back and train like I do today or do what I know to do today!

Sub 4.3 40 yard dash perhaps??    Or even a 40+ vertical easy!?

I was edging on those number training the wrong way!!!

I would love to know BUT that’s not possible.

What is possible is YOU, reading this now, can train smarter and better.

Attack your backside for maximum strength, power, and speed development!

It’s the KEY!

I’ve got a killer backside workout and video for you below.

I love training my backside.

Here’s my backside focused training day:

1A) Speed Deadlifts w/ bands 8 x 3, 6* (*last set, without bands x 6)

2A) Sandbag Squats  4 x 8-12

2B) Mixed Grip Pull Ups and Reclined Rows  4 x Submax

3A) KB Complex – Alternating KB Clean x 6/arm + Double KB Swings x 12  x 3 rounds

3B) Weighted Back Extensions 3 x 12

4A) TRX Ab Circuit (Knee Tucks, Pike, Pendulum Swings)  3 x 12/movement

4B) Grip Work – Plate Pinches, KB Towel Farmer Walks  3 x Max Time/Distance

5A) 1 max Set of Pull Ups (this was killer, grip and back were fried!)

Roll out like a mo fo and stretch!

That’s it!

Attack the backside!

Make sure you’re adding in a lot of hip extension type exercises in your routine to hit the weak areas of your body!

Until next time,

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – Leave your comments and questions if you got em!

Hey everyone-

 

The other day a few local high school boys from Millard North stopped by the gym to have some fun and throw down on the iron.They wanted to experience what a workout is like in our gym.

 We warmed up and then hit it for about 4o min or so. When we work out, it’s all about quality over quantity. I want my athletes lifting very aggressively. The harder you practice the harder you play!

 From what I understand, you can be and do whatever you want. You just have to be willing to pay the price to get it. Nothing good ever comes easy. The harder it is, the more you can appreciate what it took for you to get there.

I talk to a lot of people who complain about hard work.If people could only realize that hard work equals happiness in all areas of life they would be fulfilled.

I’m not saying all people, but most live by status quo. We all need a coach! I’m coached everyday in the strength world. It’s the I can if you want to be a better athlete. Remember that! Check the vid of these boys putting the work in.

Joe

 

p.s. Drop a comment if you know these guys?

 

Believe-

            I wanted to write this post to those of you who wake up in the morning feeling depressed or emotionally drained. Your beliefs during this time of year can determine how your day week and month is. Let’s examine!

 So what is the definition! Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. Yes! I took that from the dictionary.

 So what we believe in is what we become. So if you think negative your going to be negative. Thinking positive makes you positive. In my world failure is not an option. I will flex and bend, but will not break. 

I’ve gone through some tough times just as you have. From what I read and experience, the people who go through struggles and succeed end up being some the happiest people in the world.

They appreciate what they went through and become grateful instead of resentful.  It also seems to me that people who are handed everything don’t feel this way.  

They go through the motions and let other people dictate their  life. I don’t want to be this way and I know you don’t. Lets take a look at what your beliefs can do if you focus and really BELIEVE. Lets hit it!

Joe

 

p.s. If you think that your life is hard there is always someone who has it harder. I have much respect for a man like this.

 

What up people!

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Men’s Health “Spartacus Workout” Challenge lately and how it’s all this and that.

I will attest to this and say it’s a solid workout and it will crush you if you’re not in good condition.

There’s almost another “300″ craze going on again with this whole spartan training thing.  I like it!

You should always train with a warriors mentality!  It’s like I say – IT’S ALL OUT WAR when you train!

Something about this program that you need to know is that it WILL NOT get you stronger and more explosive and here’s why:

When you do sets of exercises for longer periods of time, like 60 secs with this workout, you’re body produces tons of lactic acid.

This is great for wrestlers and other athletes that need HUGE levels of work capacity, but if you’re trying to get strong, you need to lift heavy weights!

This workout will crush your lungs and give your muscle a burn like no other.

Don’t confuse this with “cross fit” as it’s not.

I like to use this style of training to build strength endurance and work capacity.  It’s also very good for cutting weight and body fat as well.

I’m currently throwing it in to my routine as I’m in a deload week using lots of bodyweight and high reps.  Next week it will be back to crushing the heavy work sets and big lifts.

You can check out the original “Spartacus Workout” HERE to see the ten exercises Men’s Health had in the plan.

I put my own twist on it to make it more my style.  Here it is:

The Spartacus Workout – Forged Style

Perform 10 exercises in the circuit @ 60 secs of work with 15 secs of rest with a 2 min break in between rounds.  Repeat for 3 rounds.  I did 2…

1A) Sandbag Front Squats

1B) TRX Knee Tucks

1C) 1 Arm Kettlebell Swings

1D) 1 Arm Push Ups

1E) Sandbag Front Lunges

1F) Kettlebell True High Pulls

1G) Sledgehammer Swings

1H) Rope Recline Rows

1I) Sandbag Power Press

1J) Sandbag Get Ups

This is a killer group of exercises!  It will crush YOU!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Check Part 1 of the video here:

Stay tuned for part 2!

PS – Leave you comments if you have any!

Hey Kids!

Hope you’re feeling strong!

If not, it’s time to make yourself your own home-made prowler.

If you’re on a budget, you can still get strong as heck!

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the prowler we have.

It’s home made!  My dad built it for me.

Basically I gave him a pic of your standard prowler, we gathered up some different pieces of steel and welding em up and now we have two strength building prowlers that kick major ass!

My best advice on the dimensions is to look up the prowlers dimensions and mimic those as best as you can.

Our prowler is measured at 48″ long and 23″ wide.  I’d say a good guestimate of how much it weights is probably 55-65 lbs.

We’ve got a 1 1/2 bar that about 20 inches high on the back where you can load weights up on.

We took a T-bar row bar and stuck it on the back  bar to use for pushing.

You’ll see what I mean in the video.

If anythings for sure, I know a sled and even a homemade sled will get you into some good shape QUICK!

Go ahead and make your own and when you do, send us a video @ theforgedathlete@gmail.com and we’ll post it on the blog for you!

We’ll have a battle of the home made prowler contest to see who’s kicks the most ass!

Check the video below for more on our home made prowler:

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

PS – Leave any comments you may have!