Posts Tagged ‘strength training’

Hey kids,

Boy it’s been a crazy weekend!

I just got back from Louisville, KY at Bootcamp, Bootcamp, where I met up with lots of other fitness pros that came from around the country and world.

I was stoked! I met up with a pal  Zach Even-Esh and met and made some more new pals likes Jason C Brown and Pamela MacElree, who are two of the most sought out kettlebell gurus in the country.    I also met some other really inspirational people as well!

Overall it was a great weekend but, I couldn’t just travel to Louisville and hang with a ton of the biggest boot camp owners and fitness pro’s in the world without repping The Forged Athlete!

On the last day of the seminar, TRX had a “40-40” challenge which is 40 atomic push ups with a min rest in between then immediately 40 reclined rows.  I was able to complete the task and win myself a brand spanking new TRX!  I’m thrilled!  It’s in the mail as I write this now!

The TRX in my opinion is one of the best pieces of equipment to train one to get strong as heck with simple “suspended” bodyweight exercises.  I also feel it’s one of the best ways to train your core to build a solid mid section as well.  The exercise options and difficulty levels you can bring yourself to with the TRX are endless.  Besides a good pair of Olympic rings, the TRX is by far, the best bodyweight training system out there.

Which reminds me to let you all in on some really cool info about what’s going to be taking place in a few months. The Forged Athlete will be holding TRX “Underground” Suspension Training Boot Camps.  These camps will rip you up, BIG TIME!   You’ll build crazy strength, power, loads of new muscle, and of course, help increase insane amounts of athletic ability.

In the mean time, check me out tearing up this “40-40” challenge.  I should’ve turned it into a “50-50” challenge.  Ha Ha!  Next time…

Get Forged Strong!

TRX 40-40 Challenge Forged Style

Alright lets talk about something that is very important to me. I’m talking about our nations armed forces. Our military is one of the most respected forces in the world. If someone pisses us off, We take care of it period.

I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of our military and some of the things they do for us. If you don’t feel the same way stop reading now.

It is because of them that we have the lives we have. They are our protectors from the acts of terrorism and all national conflicts. 9 -11 was a day that everyone will remember for ever. It was a day that changed Americans and how we view the world and each other.

Because of these brave men and women who lost their lives so we could live ours you are able to go home to your families and live.

For some of our troops this will not be the case. I’m writing this to give tremendous amounts of respect to these people and their families for doing what they do. Because of the situations that have unfolded I give a salute to all men and women in the military.

Our prayers are with you.  This flag represents life death and the pursuit of happiness and should be take very seriously.

Check the vid and let me know what you guys think.

Stay forged strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DThHOgpriY

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!

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

4^th of July blast off

Check this one out guys!

I went home to the big wonderful Wyo over the 4^th and had myself a workout. It would be good to know how many dudes also worked out over the 4^th.

Yes I was on vacation, but man the workout was defiantly something I needed. I put together a few exercises out on my ranch for ya. It just goes to show how creative you can be and still get your butt kicked. In the vid you’ll see me put together a push press exercise for 5 reps and carry.

My upper back and arms were on fire. I also mixed in some push ups and band extensions for reps. I was also able to get my hands on a metal pipe I found and rock out some snatches for reps.

Have fun watching the vid and let me know what you guys think. Stay forged strong.

 

 

 

Blast off workout

 

1a) Stone push press 5×5 Added stone carry for distance

1b) pull aparts 5×25

 

2a) Pipe snatches 5×5

2b) band face pulls 5×15

 

3a) close handed pushups

3b) band tricep push downs

 Finished with a heavy stone roll in sand (burn!)

Check to video highlights – Strength Trip In Wyo

Hey Yo,

We just had a heck of a day out at the park!

We had our 1^st bodyweight strength training seminar for some of our athletes.

We had some kids come out and show us what they got in their tanks. 

A few of em happened to get “the baseline flu” which is to be expected.  Nothing wrong with that at all.  It happens to the best of us!  What makes these guys strong is I know they will stick with it!

Training with The Forged Athlete isn’t the easiest while it’s not your typical style training.

It’s totally different from what a lot of young athletes are used to.

Most athletes are used to slow paced, low intensity, non sport specific type training.  Types of training that will NOT help them to become a better overall athlete or stronger individual in general.

Our training is different.   It’s fast paced and highly intense.  The biggest factor of it all is it gets  YOU RESULTS!

Go ahead and watch the video of some of these guys going through some of the different exercises and drills.  See how they did!

Forged Bodyweight Training

Just a heads up ==è WE will be having another FR.EE bodyweight strength training seminar Saturday July 18^th at 9:00am!  Let us know if YOU are interested! 

Contact US at theforgedathlete@gmail.com

What up all,

I just finished a hellish workout!

My bro Joe was out of town on vaca visiting the fam (got some good footage of this coming soon ) so I did a quick, fast to the point workout.

It was 15 straight mins of work, but I survived. I made the stop watch be the one to push me. Sometimes, if you workout on your own, you don’t get pushed like you do with a partner. In this case, I used time as a motivater.

I wanted to work my power endurace. This is great for athletes that participate in sports such as wrestling, mma, football, boxing, soccer, and short to mid sprinting athletes.

Power is good to have as we all should know. However, when your sport requires you to have short burst of power over and over and over again, you need to have power endurace. That’s what I worked on in this workout boys and girls.

Check it:

1 15 min round of:

1A)115# sandbag cleans x 5
1B) Bbodyweight pull up x 5
1C) 50 yard sprint x 1
jog back and repeat as many times as possible!

it was fun to say the least! Here’s part 1 of the video-

15 min workout part 1

I remember I used to run a 4.38 40 and have a 38 inch vert.  Ok numbers for todays elite level athlete.

That was back in the playing days and years ago when I was in “combine” shape.  The way I got there?  Well genetics played a small role I’d have to say.  What really got me there was by doing everything explosively. 

If you want explosive speed, you have to train that way.  Yes absolute strength is great to have, but if you’re not explosive, you’re strength and overall speed isn’t as dangerous.  It’s the fast, quick, explosive burst of power that’s the true game changer.  Speed is just a plus when you’re explosive.     

Nothing can out do having explosive speed capabilities.  If you’re the most explosive player on the field, people are going to know.  It will be very apparent you is the fastest and most explosive.

Now we know we want explosive speed, but how do we get it?  Well, like I had mentioned above, I focused on doing everything as explosive as I could.  Whether it was pressing a weight over head or pulling a weight off the floor, I did it with as much explosion as possible. 

I love the Olympic lifts with a passion.  I’ve spent many years trying to perfect my form to get more explosion from these lifts.  While knowing how to do these lifts is great, for a beginner, learning and perfecting the form can take years.  If you need explosive speed now, you need to focus on other explosive activities, such as plyometrics.

Nothing will ever out do bodyweight plyometrics.  Jumping, skipping, bounding, single leg hops, and yes – lots of jump roping to name a few.  These help create raw explosiveness, speed  and just great overall athleticism.  Different jumps NEED to become a staple in your program ASAP! 

I always recommend doing these types of activities at the start of your workouts when you’re the freshest.  If you try to perform plyometric while you’re tired, you won’t be putting out maximum effort, so you will be training at subpar performances.  This will not get you more explosive, it will help gain work capacity, but not raw explosion. 

Just a few examples of what I used to do for plyometrics, at every workout, especially my lower body days, I would start the workouts by doing skips for height and skips for distance for sets 4 of 40 yards.  I also had access to a long jumping pit that was filled with sand.  I would do sets of 5-8 explosive squat jumps out of the sand before legs days as well.  This really increased my vertical jump and explosiveness due to the fact I was jumping out of sand.  Anytime you jump out of a soft surface, you’ll help increase your explosiveness. 

These are just a few examples of how I used to train and how I still train.  I think plyos are fun, that’s why I still do them.  When you have explosiveness, you just don’t ever want to lose it.  That’s why I train like an athlete still.  Once an athlete, always an athlete.

Enjoy this video of an example of some explosiveness.  Crazy shit!

jump out of pool

Stay Forged Strong!

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!