Posts Tagged ‘training’

Ladies-

 

I want to direct my attention to those of you who wish to improve not just your athletic performance, but all around physique as well.

The implementation of these movements will transform the way you look feel and move through your day.

I know it’s important to most men, but to females, it can be a whole different story.

Its spring time and most of you want to make a statement.

It’s hard to explain to someone through a video or email what this training is like and can do for you.

I must tell you that there are other considerations to think about as in, nutrition and proper rest.

Sara has done very very well since she started training.

The hard work has paid off for her.

In the video you will see Sara using kettle bells and other odd objects during her workout.

We do a lot of the same training with the dudes that train in the gym.

For the female athlete we back off on the weight a bit.

Check this video and let me know when you want to give this stuff a try.

 

- Joe-

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It’s not for everyone so only the serious need apply.

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

Guys-

Thought I would put together a quick vid on whats been going on in the gym lately.

There have been a ton of goodprogressions with our athletes.

It’s awesome to see how powerful the mind is when your focus is directed to whatyou want.

It’s said that whatever you focus on is what you get in life.

For myself I know this to be true.

Stay Forged Strong!

- Joe -

 

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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!

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!

Yo,

I get this question alot – “How can I increase the intensity of my workouts?”

The most common answer to this is to increase the weight.  I also hear adding setswill increase your intesity as well.

These are both true and work!  They work for ONLY a certain amount of time.

Well, I’ve got a new way you can really crank up your intensity – I call it ATTACKING THE TIME.

What I need you to do real quick is forget about everything you’ve ever read about strength training.

If you’re a dedicated strength coach or trainee, you already know that when your working with heavy weight, you need to allow your body to rest for around 90 secs to 3 mins in between sets.

This is the scientific way of thinking about it.  It’s been “proven” through research and all that stuff.

I say – “SCRAP IT!”

Lets do some “REAL WORLD” stuff and go against the grain.  Let’s break the rules!

Back in high school and college, I always stuck to the books.

I would have my stop watch and I would make sure my rest periods were spot on.

I got results, yes, but were they THE BEST RESULTS?  I Don’t Think So!

Today, I ATTACK THE TIME no matter what!  My results are still just as good if not even better!

The plain simple truth about it is – You don’t need complete recovery time to get strong.

I say shorter break and rest periods make you tougher, stronger, and give you a mental edge!

What’s a 3 min rest period do got you besides help you get strong??

Mental toughness is real world stuff!  It’s built by Attacking the Time like a madman.

Next time you do your workout, time yourself and write down the total time it took for you to finsih your workout.

Now, instead of increasing the weights, keep all the weights the same but push the pace, attack the time and finsih the workout in a faster time.  Do that for three to four weeks in a row and see what happens.

If your real daring, add weight to your lifts and beat the time – that’s cranking up the intesity even more!

Attack the time and see what happens!

I’ve got a sample video here of myself attacking the time in my workout.  Check it out below.

The actual workout was this:

1A) Trap Deads 5 x 3-5

1B) Squat-Pause Box Jumps 5 x 4

2A) Sandbag Shoulder loaded + KB Squats 3 x 10

2B) KB Swings 3 x 12

2C) KB Turkish Get Ups 3 x 3/side

3A) Sled/Prowler Heavy x 6 mins nonstop

Total time – 43 mins including warm up.

It kicked my ass and the next time around, it will kick my ass even more!

It’s a race against time!  Attack it!

Check a highlight below:

Get Forged Strong!

Travis

What’s going on!

Hope you’re staying warm!

It’s cold here in Nebraska but that WILL NOT keep us from training hard.

There can be no excuses!  You must get stronger EVERYDAY.  You’re either getting stronger or weaker – you never stay the same.

Live by that rule!  Always strive to get a little better each day.  Even if its a little bit, make sure you’re stepping in the right direction.

Some of the members of The Forged Athlete have been taking steps in the right direction for sure.

They don’t find excuses.  They find a way to get things done.

Here’s a sick workout they just did this last week that really tested thier limits.  I like to call it “Bags, Bells, and A Rope.”

We use all the different tools to get them strong in this workout.

Here it is:

1A) Rope Climb or Recline Rope Climb 5 x max

1B) KB Double Clean and Press 5 x 5

1C) Sandbag Clean to Zercher Lunge 5 x 5/leg

* throw band pull aparts in throughout between the exercises and sets

We ended the workout with 8 straight mins of sled/prowler

It was a good one.  Simple and effective.

Check out the video of some highlights below:

Nice!

The workout was tough for sure. The vid that you’ll see is of myself. If you guys think that your workouts are boring then try and take  an exercise like this and rep it out for about 100 reps or so. It looks like this

1a) Warm up

2a) 100 curtis p’s

A curtis p is a hang clean to a front lunge on both legs to a push press.  Repeat for 100 reps.  Good Luck!

That’s it! I thought I would experience the workout for myself. I was definitely in for a treat. I was able to get 76 Curtis P’s before Rob told me to shut it down. The training that I traditionally do is geared for reps of 5 for strength. Give me some opinions about the training you guys do out there. Do you train like this? What are some of the benefits of workouts like these? Speak up people!