Layin' the Smack Down

I was reading a Q&A Question on Elite yesterday, and the answer was way over my head, but something caught my attention and had me worried I was missing the boat when conditioning our hockey players in the summer.

So, since the answer was way over my head I sent it off the Coach Foley to translate it for me.

After he translated and explained a few things, everything made good sense and I was relieved to know I was using proper programing with our hockey players. (Not that I needed any other proof than the fact that our guys kick ass in training camp)

I'm sure glad to have the kind of resources that I do. Thanks Jordan.

Tomorow morining I'll be packing up and heading south to not so sunny Wykoff New Jersey.

My wife and I will be 2 of the first 6 people to take part in the Defranco's Mentorship Program. We will be spending the weekend shadowing Joe and his staff while they run work-outs for their NFL combine athletes, some college guys and also some high school athletes. We are going to learn all the ins and outs of how Defranco's Training systems is run as a business.

I hope to bring back as much info and experience as possible to help our summer athlete program flourish. We had great success with all the guys we worked with this summer (using the WSSB template) and I am anticipating even more top level athletes in 2009.

Put Your Head Down and WORK!

Today's title is inspired by my excuse for not posting more frequently lately.

January is always a busy month in the fitness business and I've been putting my head down and getting the work done. Plain and simple.

This mantra can also be applied in your training.

Instead worrying about picking the best special exercises or compiling perfect rest periods and tempo's, just pick a couple of the big 3 (Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Military Press) and get to work.

Last week on our squat night, we used what's called the boring but big template from Jim Wendler's III manual.

The boring but big calls for the main exercise (in our case squats) to also be the accessory work. So after our Max Effort squats, we deloaded the bar and did 3 sets of 10 squats. Crazy, I know but by the beard of Zeus it blasts the legs and just about everything else. And in the last month I've noticed some size increase in my legs.

It's not exciting but it works. Hence the name "Boring but Big".

Less talk, more Rock.

The Strong Ones (Part 2)

So in part 1 we've identified the why's and the what-nots (yes, I think I just made that up now) of finding and surrounding yourself with strong/good training partners.

So how does on go about getting on board with the people they aspire to be like?

I don't think there is one single answer to a question like this. There could be many different ways to aproach it and I'll share with you how I've gone about it myself.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is what do you have to offer these people. You can't always expect to get, get, get, and never contribute back. (See the "Piss Pucks in Party Town Post" Nov. 18th 2008)

The fastest and often the easiest way to get help from people is with money. Plain and simple. I've spent almost $4000.00 on attending training seminars alone (before travel and lodging) in the last 3 years. This gaurantees you are going to get your questions answered. I know of one top strength coach that even hired another top strength coach for a 1 hour session at the going rate just so he could ask questions and pick the brain about coaching athletes. (I just got an idea for a future rant here.)

Another method is to become the "plate monkey" of the guys you want to train with. This is the most entry level aproach. You have nothing to offer but your sweat and effort. Start by showing up at the same time they train. Chat it up with them when its appropriate and offer to load plates and spot. This sounds kinda shitty but you can learn a tonne just by being a spotter. You get to observe from mere inches away. You get to here all the cues and learn the lingo. You are also doing the lifters a big favour because you can never have enough plate monkeys and spotters.

Once you've developed some status as a guy in know, you can also trade info with people. You may be a really good warm-up or stretching guy but need to get better at benching. Find the best benchers through association and offer to help them with their mobility in exchange for some bench coaching.

The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is, you have to have something to offer. Even if it's just a good attitude and the fact that you show up on time all the time, ready to kick ass in the weight room. You don't have to be bull ass strong to get into the club, but you have to be dedicated and ready to give. Many times I would pick a weaker athlete with a good attitude over the guy who is naturally strong but has a poor work ethic. The good attitude will take you much farther.

Okay kids, talk amongst yourselves.

A Huge Congratu-Fucking-Lations To UF Team Member SHANE CHURCH for his WIN at the Montreal CPO powerlifting meet. I'll have to confirm his numbers but he did Squat 7 bills (700lbs) and won the 242lbs open division. This is not an unusual thing for an Ultimate Fitness athlete to WIN, as we always train with the attitude that winning is everything and second place is only defeat. Nice work buddy! I won't tell how much prep he did for this meet though. (NONE, greasy greasy bastard. Just signed up and won.)

The Strong Ones (Part 1)

Matt Kroc does chins with Wendler and Rob Pilger looking on. In the background is AJ Roberts, Currently of WestSide Barbell, and if you look closely you can see Alwyn cosgrove in the far corner (blue t-shirt). That's a group that gets my full attention.

I wrote an article that published on EliteFTS a while back about surrounding yourself with like-minded people, successful people and going out and finding them if they are not in your current circle.

This is such an important thing to do, not just for the strength gains you seek but for success in all aspects of life. Think about it this way, if you hang around with a group of friends that spend every single weekend getting shit-faced at the local bar, I'll bet there's a good chance you get your drink on every weekend too. If you always dreamed of being the local alcoholic and waste case, then by all means, seek out the town drunks and start smashing that liver.

On the other hand, you may want to be a succesful business owner (yeah, I'm refferring to myself here) so you seek the advice and company of other succesful business people.

And most importantly you want to be BULL ASS STRONG! Don't be the hater that talks shit under his breath about the crew of bulls that are squatting bar bending loads. Start chatting with them (not when they are about to get under the bar though), ask questions, show up when they train, watch, listen, let them know you are not only interested but also dedicated to improving. Find the strongest guys and learn from them. Ideally you will want to train with them. Don't expect to get the invite instantly.

In part 2 I will outline where to find these people and how to go about getting in the clique.

Later masterbaters

Empty Jugs = Success

I've been saving all my empty protein jugs since I started dieting in September.

I've got a shit load of them. I am actually suprised by the amount of Whey Fusion that I have gone through.

A long time ago, when I was just getting started and interested in taking care of my nutrition in order to improve my fitness results, I bought my first ever jug of protein.

It was a 2lber of Pro-Lab Whey. Strawberry flavour. I bought it at the nutrition store in the mall near my apartment.

Now keep in mind, at this time I was in college, on my own dime, no loans. Just my hard working future wife and my 3 part time jobs to pay the bills. So when I went out on a limb and bought some protein, I wanted it to last a while, because it probably took a big chunk of my monthly budget to buy that 2lbs of whey. I used to make sure the scoops were perfectly level and took every action to not spill or waste a single grain. I also remember rinsing the cup out and drinking the diluted "left overs". I only drank a shake after training, no matter what.

I was conservative. I don' t remember exactly how long that 2lbs lasted but I know it was way longer than it should've.

Empty Jugs = Success.

Somewhere along the line (probably when I started to have a few extra bucks), I realized that the protein powder wasn't doing me any good sitting in the jug on top of the fridge. It only helps build muscle and lose fat when you eat it. (or drink it)

Before I was so proud to have that full jug of protein on top of my fridge. Now I'm proud to have a massive stack of empties on top of the fridge. (And I stopped buying 2lbers long ago)

Not only do I have the empties, I also am starting to develope the physical attributes that I so badly wanted when I was younger.

So to summarize, buy a jug of Whey Fusion, eat it, drink it, whatever. Lift weights, sleep, repeat. Success doesn't happen over night. It's a long journey, and I'm loving every step of this journey.

These guys have some empty, but they ain't Whey Fusion

Baptized By Fire

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy

Fire is really starting to piss me off.



I've already talked about our ordeal. It sucks.



I don't know all the details, but a house down the street in my neighborhood burned last Sunday night. I saw the fire department finishing up on my way to work last monday morning.



It put things in perspective for me as I thought about how much more it would suck if it was my home that burned and not my business.



I really feel for these people as they lost there home and I hope that nobody lost their life.



Dave Tate's log post sums it up real well. http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=87551&tid=





Lesson learned.





To lighten things up a bit. I did 100reps of chins on Sunday and by the beard of Zeus is my back feeling it. It took 10 sets.



I'm gonna piss the group off tonight when I announce we are gonna do 100reps of GHR.

Check us out on Wednesday walking around like a bunch of penguins.



All in the name of Strength.




No I don't smoke weed.......anymore, just love this song.

Rant Time!

Okay kids, put your seatbelts on, it's Rant Time.



As you may or may not know, my wife and I make our living by teaching people how to train. We own a pair of gyms, we work in them full time and we are 2 of the 3 trainers that work in our clubs. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that my paycheck or lack thereof comes from me knowing about strength and fitness training (especially fat loss) and being able to help others achieve there physical goals.



I don't really have a good term or title to describe exactly what I do, but to the average Joe, I'm a personal trainer. BUT, I am not certified (like thats some glorious, godly thing) by any personal training company or organization. And let me tell you why.

When I first got into the business I had already been training myself for about 10 years. I had already competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting and was a pretty good student to the ways of the iron. I even had a client that I was training privately in his home 3 days per week for 6 months. Needless to say I knew a bit about training and nutrition and how to achieve success.

I looked into a few of the different companies that offered personal training certs and was horrified by what they had to offer. I did find one company that seemed to have it's shit together but they seemed to be out of business or not interested in new members because I never got a reply to any calls or emails.

One point that I want to make here before moving on is that personal training companies that offer certifications are just that, independant companies that offer certification courses on what they feel are the important skills and knowledge to be a personal trainer.

Just because you have a nice website and charge $400.oo for a weekend long certification course doesn't neccesarily mean you offer the best product.

I'll get the point here. I've come across a few individuals, that feel it neccesary to stop by my gyms or meet me in the street and want to look down there nose at our business because we are not certified. These people are often certified by one company in particular (rhymes with fan-bit) and are usually mortified that we answer their questions about certification with "I'm not certified by anyone".

This rant was fueled by one person in particular that recently came into our gym and inquired about some of our rates and training programs. The person then proceeded to tell us they were a 15 year veteran of personal training and were certified by a company that rhymes with fan-bit. The person then (as usual) inquired about our certs and had little to say about our answer.

Here's the question I have all you fuck tards with a fancy piece of paper with gold foil and your name on it from fan-bit. How many people have you trained? How many of them achieved their goals? If you are such an awesome personal trainer then why in hell aren't you making a living teaching others how to get fit?
If you want to feel high and mighty about your paper certification from the 2 day course you took about personal training, don't try me. From now on, I will be asking the hard questions.

My wife and I have been training clients for over 4 years. We started with nothing and built our business into something I'm very proud of. We did it without paying some companies bullshit fees to have a piece of paper on the wall. We did it with a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading, a lot of travelling to seminars, a lot of phone calls and emails to people who already had great success in the business. I've spent thousands of hours reading and studying training methods. I've logged thousands of hours in the gym trying shit out on myself. I've logged hundreds of hours in the gyms training others to reach there goals. And guess what? I've never bragged about how awesome I am (or used to be) to another trainer. I've never looked down my nose at another trainer with less experience. I'm willing to pay it forward and share what I've learned, and most important of all....I never stop learning, studying, trying hard to stay on top of what works.

That's all.

Have a great day.

Slackin ?

Well I hope this post will mark the end of my blog slackin'. I've now got a computer in both offices so there is no excuse.

Do you have any definative goals for 2009?

I'm not talking about some bullshit new years resolution. How about something measureable?

I'm assuming that if you are reading this blog you are at least slightly interested in strength. Why not figure out what your biggest weakness is and test it somehow?

Lets use grip strength as an example. You have a really shitty grip. You are the king/queen of the deadfish handshake and you have trouble holding 35lb DB's when doing lunges.

Lets test it out. How long can you hang from a chin-up bar? What's the heaviest gripper you can close?

So now we have a baseline. Get to work with a plan. Start with the end goal and work backwards to where you are now. Set out mini goals along the way and deadlines to achieve them by.

The same system can be applied to any weakness. Bench, deadlift, whatever.

X-Mass, Come and Gone

Well I'm back in the office for the first time in a while. It's almost great to be back. We live our lives so dependant on our daily/weekly routine that after a while the holidays make me nervous. Things just don't seem right and I get worried that I may fall of the horse for good.

Despite being on vacation I am definately NOT one to skip training. I did pass on some cardio sessions but they didn't make or break me. I did have some really great training sessions and some not so great. I missed my goal of a 700lb deadlift. On Dec 30th 2008 we trained lower body and deads were the main course. I was having a poor work up, pitching forward over the bar off the floor. My lifts went as follows;
315X5
405X5
495X2 (only wanted to do a single here but the first rep was so pitched forward I decided to take a second)
585X1 (also pretty pitched)
675Xmiss (I dumped forward off the floor but it still came up well but near the top my legs and hips were locked before I got my shoulders back so the lock-out was not there. I keep asking myself if I should've hitched it up, but it doesn't matter now. )

So the goal was missed.

Is there anything gained from the whole ordeal?

You're damn right there is. I aimed high, worked hard, and had great confidence going in. I got a little hasty and didn't give the proper respect to the work-up weights and fucked things up. I've learned another lesson that can only be learned by missing weight and that was to treat the work-up like a meet lift, everytime. My sloppy work-up may or may not have been the deciding factor but it won't be in question ever again.

How did your year end go?

Did you meet the call to action?

Lets hear about it.

Happy 2009.