An online fitness-hub where guys come together to provide relevant, practical, and "in the trenches" solutions for guys who are serious about training to lose fat, gain muscle, and forge a life of passion.
And, yes, guys... You'll find tons of stuff to help you look better for your lady, too.
Strength training, exercising, conditioning, boot camps, working out, Richard Simmons videos (wait, what?!)...
You hear about it all the time these days. I talk about it during our training sessions, during the “Maximize Your Metabolism” classes, with my online-Meatheads coaching clients, and pretty much to anyone else who will listen.
Seriously, you can't get anymore "Forrest Gump at a bus stop" than me when it comes to training. Truth is, though, that I'm passionate about it and want to give people a ton of fitness information that'll help them get leaner, get healthier, and finally feel good.
And that's why I want to tell you about exercise:
It's great for your Metabolism. It's awesome for your physique. It's crucial for your health.
BUT….
What's the real science behind it? Does it really help? How does it help? The easy answer is right here from my buddy and RD, Jayson Hunter:
So now you understand WHY it's good for you, but HOW should you exercise to REALLY jack up your metabolism? Well, Elliott Hulse (remember him from a few posts back how he explained Lean Hybrid Muscle Training?) is hooking you up with an exact design of his workouts at his gym, Strength Camp, in St. Pete, Florida!
The simplest movements can often yield the most powerful results. Is this why I never saw anyone doing farmer walks with the 180 lb dumbbells at some gyms I've been to?
Or heavy rack pulls, heavy squats, heavy military presses (standing not seated) or heavy barbell rows?
Getting some pressing done... The first girl actually floor pressing (video, not picture) is Cynthia Ramos. Her testimonial is to the right.. Notice a difference? Too bad more girls didn't train like guys, huh?---->
These movements pack on the real muscle and make you stronger than a Bull! What about farmer walks with the farmer walk bars?
I used the econo farmer bars and they arrived 2 days later! These long bars make the carries much harder and really hammer the lower body. Normally we used our 130 lb dumbbells or heavy kettlebells but these long bars were different and better for full body work!
You can also perform the other basic carries with dumbbells and sandbags. These movements will develop full body strength and you want to include these HEAVY in your workouts on a regular basis. These are the basics. After the basics you can start getting more advanced by using cross carries or mixed carries. I'm talking about zercher carries and bear hug carries using sandbags or carrying a stone around the backyard in between sets of kettlebell work.
The cross carries can be used with dumbbells, kettlebells and even sandbags. All you need to do is hold them in two different positions. This awkward loading of the body strengthens the muscles and the body from unique angles that don't get worked through traditional movements.
Some more of my favorites are rack walk + overhead carries or overhead and farmer walk mixed together.
Carrying heavy objects of any type are awesome for full body strength development and work capacity.
In addition, the first rep of every set is some form of a power clean and/or deadlift just to get the weight off the ground. Putting the weights down requires control, so no dropping, only squatting/deadlifting the weights down under control.
Some heavy carries we did at AST!
I've met some seriously strong men who never touch free weights, their strength came from manual labor carrying objects, lifting them, throwing them, power cleaning them into truck beds, etc.
The guy who used to pick up our garbage when we were remodeling our house had an old pick up truck, it seriously looked like Steve Justa's truck!
This guys name was Tony. Tony picked up junk for people as a side job, but it was always heavy stuff. Odd objects that makes you stronger than a freight train.
He would pick up all our stuff: toilet bowls, dish washers, heavy contractor bags filled with sheet rock, an old deck and more! I remember talking to him about strength training (as I always did) while we were loading his pick up with 20 + bags of sheet rock. He was holding one bag with a straight arm as he causally spoke with me! I was using two arms and my entire body to heave those bags up and I was starting to sweat bullets.
Tony was used to carrying car parts, scrap metal and other seriously heavy and odd objects. Essentially, all he did was carry junk. But, remember, like I said, when you carry objects, you power clean them up / down as well as deadlift the weight up / down.
It can't get any simpler than that!
Now it's time you begin to carry some odd objects!
About the Author Zach Even - Esh is a Strength & Performance Coach from Edison, NJ and is the owner of The Underground Strength Gym and creator of The Underground Strength Manual. Zach's Underground methods have spanned the globe and have helped men and women of all ages to dramatically improve athletic performance, pack on rugged muscle and develop brute strength. Zach is the Strength & Conditioning advisor for TapOuT Magazine and is also a featured writer for Men's Fitness Magazine. To learn more about Zach and his methods visit UndergroundStrengthManual.com
As promised, here is Pt. of "How to Design Your Own Hybrid Workout" with Elliott Hulse. I will add that we trained & conditioned with a LOT of the Hybrid Workout principles at AST and in the Meathead workouts and saw incredible gains in muscle, strength and fat-loss from it! I've even included a video of some of the Hybrid Training in action...
You may remember a while back when I interviewed Elliott Hulse, professional strongman, owner of Elliott Hulse's Strength Camp, and co-creator of the Lean Hybrid Muscle system. Well, the interview was awesome and I sent out the audio file for the interview as a gift for subscribing to the blog (if you haven't heard it yet then comment below with your email and I'll hook you up).
At the time, Elliott was getting ready to launch his muscle-building meets bodyfat shredding workouts, designed to get guys lean, rugged, dense, granite-muscle as quickly as possible. Obviously, with his program just getting released, he didn't want to share to much about what made the workouts blast the fat and pack on size, but now he's spilling the beans about how YOU can design a kick-ass hybrid muscle program!
Check it out! This will be a 3-part series so check back often to get all of the info, but first, get your mind right with the first video!
