Heavy Hitter's Dumbbell Complex

I hope this finds you all being richly blessed. Today we’ll give a quick dumbbell complex you should all try. Especially those of you who want to increase your striking power, strength and stamina throughout the whole body at the same time.

You can find this demonstrated live on our new “How To Hit Like A Freight Train DVD Series.”

1. One arm press/push press
2. Windmill
3. One arm high pull/snatch
4. One arm bent row
5. One arm, one leg deadlift
6. Lunge or Bulgarian Squat holding dumbbell
7. Two hands one dumbbell swing

Unlike most complexes that are purely for conditioning this one can be done heavy and should be done both for high and low reps. Begin with a one arm press depending on how heavy you go, possibly a push press and while you’ve got the bell over head drop immediately into a windmill. Then switch hands and repeat depending on how heavy your dumbbell is you go immediately to a one arm high pull or if you can, full snatch. From there immediately to the one arm bent row, then the one arm, one leg deadlift which you can do either bent or stiff legged style.

From there pick the dumbbell up with both hands, hold it at the waste and perform either an alternating lunge or a Bulgarian squat. (Place a bench behind you, put your right foot up on the bench, then squat down with your left leg – alternate one leg at a time). From there finish with a full dumbbell swing using both hands to hold the dumbbell. With this complex you can go heavy and build both explosive strength and endurance at the same time. I’ve done it with a 150 and could do it heavier.

For a rep scheme with this you might 5, 4, 3, 2 ,1 or simply 3 sets of 3 or you could alternately go with higher or lower reps depending on how hard the individual exercise is for you. For instance press x 2, windmill x 1, high pull x 4, etc.

The other great thing about this is that it builds your ability to unify the power of the entire body behind a single limb. A big key to both hitting harder and your ultimate strength levels and you’ll breath like a steam engine while you do this.

7 Ways to Jump-Start Your Enthusiasm

God bless you all. Let us always remember to be thankful for the blessings we forget to count every day.

Enthusiasm – passion and excitement for what you do. This is the key to hard training. The key to doing your best in your workouts. Hard training produces gains. More muscle, more endurance, more whatever, but it’s hard to do if you’re bored with what you’re doing, or if you’re not clear on your purpose.

Here are 7 tips to ramp up your enthusiasm:

1. Be clear on your purpose. Know exactly what you want out of your training. If you know what you want you can set clear goals. When you have clear goals you can map out a clear course. It’s easier to get excited about a tough race when you can see the finish line.

2. Condition your mind. Most of us have some innate passion for training. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be doing it. Learn to enjoy the road to your goals, not just their end accomplishment. Find your own on-switch. Something that you do on every workout at the beginning that clicks you into training mode and condition yourself to be excited and ready to rock when you start training. The more you practice it the better you get. The better you get, the better gains you make. It’s a self perpetuating circle.

3. Talk to like-minded people. When you want to get and maintain long-term excitement for your training develop some friends whom you can consistently talk, share and gain excitement from. Your deepest motivation must be internal, but surrounding yourself with people who are passionate about the same things you are breeds excitement and success.

4. Watch DVDs of inspiring performances or read inspiring literature. One of the greatest things that comes out of the information products about hard-core training right now besides the sharing of knowledge is being able to watch other people and have your enthusiasm renewed by their performance. Be challenged and inspired by the great performances you see on TV and DVDs and read about in strength books and magazines.

5. Use consistent variety. If you really want to make tangible gains you’ve got to work the same big exercises over and over again for long periods of time. But along the way, there’s a tremendous amount of room for, and strength to be built in, trying new things. A new training implement, a new training program will jack up your excitement and intensity. As long as you keep coming back to your long term goals, you can experiment with anything that turns you on along the way.

6. Balance your training and time on and off. If you’re doing all strengthening and no conditioning, eventually you’ll burn out and vise versa. Also renewed enthusiasm is often built by rest. Taking a short vacation or down week from training will allow your energy reserves to build up along with your excitement for training. That doesn’t mean you should do nothing. Be physically active, but a short break from hard training and paying attention to your rest and recovery will keep you raring to go.

7. Kick the negative people and influences out of your life. Stress happens, you have to deal with it, but often we allow stress into our life that doesn’t necessarily HAVE to be there. People and situations that are constantly dragging the energy out of your life need to be controlled. If you let them run rampant in your life they will affect not only your day to day energy and training, but even your longevity and health. I don’t believe in writing people off, because I believe everyone needs Christ in their life and can become positive people, but at the same time I don’t believe in allowing someone who constantly forces negativity on you to have access to your life. You have to take control of the amount of negative influence in your life. But when you do the dividends it pays in every area of your life is worth the amount of work to get it done.


There you are. If you can’t wait to get to the gym, then you’re going to have a great workout. String together some great workouts and you get some great gains. If you’re not excited about training, then look at these seven areas and pull something to turn it up.

Because they said it couldn't be done

May God bless you and continue to extend His mercy to you today as everyday.

You know there are just some people who have a pioneer spirit about them. They’ve existed in every time period and type of endeavor throughout the world. It’s the guy who is willing to go farther, to believe he can do what people say cannot be done. These people, no matter what their endeavor, but especially if they thrive in the physical training realm, are our kindred spirits. Something about these people makes them unafraid. Unafraid to explore new territories, unafraid to try the things that no one believes is possible. It even makes them the kind of guy that thrives on doing what people believe can’t be done. He thrives on a challenge.

There’s a great deal to learn from these men, because they are almost always invariably a leader in their field. If it doesn’t challenge you when someone says something can’t be done, then you don’t have the right attitude. Look for the place in yourself where you begin to accept a challenge in not a juvenile way that children and teenagers do, but in a way that opens up your mind to the possibility of new freedom. When your mind is bursting with enthusiasm and built out of the same steel that your melding your body from, then you’re ready to take on the world. To be the best you can be, regardless of anyone’s expectations. Embrace the hardness of challenge, because there-in lies the opportunity for greatness.

I got the header of this newsletter from a friend of mine I spoke to the other day. Brian Strickland. More than likely you’ll be seeing some articles and maybe more from him on our site very soon. Brian is a WPO Lightweight Powerlifter. That means professional powerlifter ranking him somewhere in the top five in the world at 165lbs. When I was at the gym the other day talking to him I watched him squat 720lbs and I also heard that last weekend he benched 475lbs. Put that together with about a 600lb deadlift After the training session we were discussing a few things and we came around to the idea of being an all-around athlete.

Brian said, “You know, that’s why I do some of the things that I do. I competed in a powerlifting contest and a bodybuilding contest within two weeks of each other. I’m guest lifting at the APF Senior Nationals this weekend and next weekend I’m going to compete in a NAGA Submission Grappling tournament, because everybody told me it couldn’t be done, that you can’t do two opposite sports in a short time period…. Well they were wrong.”

By the way I first met Brian a few years ago when he was training to and competing in a couple of strongman contests back when amateur strongman in the US was still pretty new. People said he couldn’t do that either. That he was too small and that he’d have to be crazy. Wrong again.

That’s the spirit we all need. Living proof that there are no rules. That you can do whatever you have the heart and mind to believe you can do. By the way, Brian is lifetime drugfree. Do you know why Brian has been able to do all of those things? Why the other guys who are unbelievable at the things they do are able to perform in a way that seems super-human? Because regardless whether or not someone else has come before them and blazed a trail to the top of their game they have unwavering belief. They crush self-doubt like an empty Coke can. They’re willing to get out of the mold that everybody else uses and be the one who works hard enough to fulfill their own self-directed destiny.

In your own life, in whatever area it is, you must destroy all doubt that you will succeed. How do you destroy that doubt? A step at a time. You build a track record of success. You guard your mind. Create a willingness to do what it takes to succeed and a taste for difficulty. Learn from the successes and failures of others and go beyond them. Find new ways and personal ways to be the best at what you want to be.

Men like Brian and the others on this site are crucial to the development of physical culture. Because they’ve proven that whatever “it” is it can be done. Whatever you want, if you follow these insights, you can achieve.

We’ve pioneered the way for you to get unbelievable strength along with unfathomable endurance. To squat more than anybody thought would be possible without drugs, powersuits and knee wraps. To train with every implement under the sun and always get a realistic, gut-buster workout. To be huge, fast, flexible, and athletic all at the same time. If you’re ready to chart your course, pick up the greatest information available on physical training, throw in a big dose of hard work and unwavering belief, then click here to find our products. It’s your library of stellar muscular success! http://strongerman.com/storefront.html

What Can He Do?

God bless you all. Let us remember today to be grateful for the incredible blessings of being able to indulge in our pass times. Let us remember to be grateful for the basics; walking, talking, simple health, and to live with excitement and passion for the challenges of life and achieving our dreams.

Last week I wrote an email that talked about the first time I met Dennis Rogers in person. The gist of it was how to condition yourself to be strong at any time, day or night, under any circumstances. You can look it up on our blog, it’s worth reading.

As always we get responses to these emails, mostly positive stuff because when we put these emails out we don’t mess around. We believe in giving you solid information on the spiritual, mental and physical, but occasionally you get those letters from people who take issue with something that was written. There are more of these we’ll get to in the next few days. Some in particular that were in response to our email on Memorial Day.

In this particular one we’re talking about today, someone said, “Hey you talk about Dennis with all of this respect, but what has he really done other than these grip tricks?” Because of the rest of what was said in the email, I believe this gentleman actually, seriously wanted to know. However in the past we’ve received very negative emails about people we’ve used as examples in our newsletter. Let me lay some of this to rest for those of you who may have had a passing question.

Everybody we’ve talked about in this newsletter or who writes for this site is a stud. That’s all we recruit. How big a stud? Very big. No other way to go in our barnyard. How about Mike Bruce? Former Marine, amateur and professional no-holds barred fighting champion and nearly 700lb deadlift and 1200lb lockouts at 205 bodyweight.

Pavel Tsatsouline. Father of American Kettlebell lifting, nearly 600lb deadlift at a 180lb bodyweight, as well as incredible strength information. I watched Pavel nearly close a #3 gripper and do a behind the neck handstand pushup in the same day. Both on just a whim.

How about Bryce Lane? Brilliant strength theory, former competitive lifter and creator of some insanely hard bodyweight exercises.

Dave Whitely, huge fitness success story, tremendous down-to-earth training info and has done 1,000 rep snatches with a 16kg kettlebell.

That just names a few of the guys who have written for us or we’ve mentioned in our emails. Serious guys who train hard and produce real results just like you.

This particular gentleman wanted to know about Dennis Rogers. First let me start by saying that what he referred to as, “grip tricks,” ain’t tricks. They aren’t something that just anybody can do or walk off the street and do without serious physical training. There are a couple of grip feats that people have notoriously faked throughout strength history. Phone book tearing and card tearing, but done in a legitimate way without a tampered product or a cheating technique, these are extremely difficult strength feats. All you have to do is watch Dennis to know there’s no faking and no cheating. In fact he goes way beyond what’s necessary to prove that he’s doing a legitimate feat.

The strongman feats of the old timers are legitimate feats. As with everything in the world somebody will come along and find a way to undermine and cheapen what they’ve done to fake or cheat their way through. But there are those who stand above that and perform real feats that require real strength. Dennis is one of those. If he wasn’t we wouldn’t work with him.

But if you can’t get past the issue of it being grip feats, allow me to lay out just a couple of the other more orthodox feats he has done. How about a one finger, one arm chin up? How about one arm preacher curling a 100lb dumbbell for 10 reps and a 120lb dumbbell for one rep all at a bodyweight of 150 or less. How about deadlifting double bodyweight with one finger or doing dips in sets of 80 or handstand pushups in sets of 25.

I’d say those are all things that most people would love to be able to get close to doing and there’s no faking them. We specifically have gone out of our way to prove what we say on this site and when people write for us it’s real people who can teach you something very special and specific about training.

If we write about somebody with respect it’s because they deserve it and you should be paying attention to what they’re saying. When you want to learn how to be the best at something look to the people who are the best at it and the people who’ve worked the hardest along the way to become great at what they do.

All of you have some feat of strength and test of endurance that you can become great at. Everybody has something and you should be looking to develop your own specific talent. Work your strength and become great. Work your weakness to become more than just a normal person.

Never stop working.


If you’re ready to train to be worldclass and ready to find your talent and develop it, then you need to be reading Twisted Conditioning I and II. There are no other books like them anywhere. There’s also nothing else that will help you reach the pinnacle of your physical strength and endurance like these books can. If you’re ready to do what thousands of others around the world are already doing, becoming the best they possibly can be, then step up to the plate and get them here:

Twisted Conditioning I –
Twisted Conditioning II –

You want to see Dennis Rogers perform some of the most insane grip and strength feats that anyone has ever come up with along with a star cast of characters and some of the most entertaining DVDs around? Then you should check out our Dennis Rogers products.

Do you want to know WHY the title says, “Crazy But Powerful.” Just watch and you’ll absolutely understand. Find that and the rest of his DVDs here:

Pound For Pound Package

Have You Forgotten Your Pets

God bless you all on this wonderful day.

Bet you think that’s a funny title for this newsletter don’t ya? Yeah… it is. But these exercises aren’t. So if you were hoping to hear something about giving your dog some extra cuddle time, you’re outta luck. In fact if you were actually thinking the words, “cuddle time,” slap yourself really hard right now or recruit someone tougher than you to do it.

What I’m talking about is animal conditioning movements. When was the last time you took your favorite bear crawl out for a little stroll? Let me tell ya, it’s easy to forget or maybe block out how tough those simple movements are. I was out the other day doing a little playing/training with my son. I was showing him some basic grappling techniques… you know average, every day father-son stuff. So we’d been wrestling around for a while and I decide to finish off with a little workout. Nothing fancy, 10 sets of 20-yard animal movements. Couple of sets of bear crawls, couple of sets of side-ways bear crawls, lizard walks, kangaroo hops, duck walks, army crawls, dragon crawls and gorilla hops.

These are powerful conditioning exercises. They work every area of the body in an integrated way and they drive your cardio through the roof. Do them fast enough and far enough and they’re very, very hard no matter how tough you are.

WARNING:

Contrary to a popular opinion at the moment, animal walks will NOT give you the strength of an animal. You will not suddenly be stronger than a gorilla, faster than a cheetah, or suddenly able to identify people simply by the smell of their butt. You will however get in great shape. Don’t forget to put them in your routine from time to time. Or specialize in them for a short period and see how good you can really get at them.


You know sometimes people who sell strength and conditioning products treat you with a carnie and rube mentality. With the P.T. Barnum, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” intent to the way they do things. We think you’re smarter than that and should be treated with more respect. Just because something is hyped beyond belief doesn’t mean you should buy into it. It’s necessary to talk about your products in an excited way to sell them, to make a living. No one wants to hear, “Hey I wrote a strength and conditioning book,” and … well that’s it.

People need to understand exactly what that book is about and what it’ll do for them, but they don’t need to be treated like idiots. They don’t need to be sold the idea that one exercise style is the only way and anything else will kill you and most of your close family members if you even try it. That’s why we have created products that embrace all the hardcore tools for getting the strength and conditioning job done. To give you the flexibility to train with whatever you are interested in or whatever is at hand. (Sometimes even if there’s nothing around, i.e. animal walks). We haven’t tried to make you drink the Kool-Aid so-to-speak. We’ve just given you honest, down-to-earth, real result producing information that can be your key to being your physical best.

If you’re ready to embrace smart training that covers all the bases and treats you like an intelligent adult then get these books and DVDs.

Strongerman Products

The Best Answer

I had a great conversation the other night with Wayne “Scrapper” Fisher. For those of you who don’t know he’s an extremely intense and knowledgeable strength and conditioning guy, who runs classes for the military plus private strength and conditioning classes. He’s worked with top level fighters and even fought a bit himself. He’s one of those guys who makes you proud to be in the strength and conditioning industry, because he’s helping to preserve some of the last of real manly attitude left on the planet. He understands the need for the incredible vitality that only supremely hard core training can give you. He runs a great website www.trainforstrength.com with lots of free exercises and workouts. He also has some strength and conditioning packages that you really should check out.

His Mod 1 comes with three CDs, a DVD and a workbook. The CDs are train-along so you can go through the workout with him giving you verbal instruction and time cues the whole way. Some really kick-butt stuff! We’ll also have some articles from him on our site very soon. So we spent a while on the phone the other night swapping training tales, which is pretty much common practice among those who have delved very deeply into hardcore training. One of the old time strongmen said, “No matter where I go when I meet another strongman it’s like I’ve run into an old friend.”

He told me a story that I’m sure many of you can relate to. You see if you’re reading this newsletter you’re probably the type that trains with implements and in ways that just flat puts off the average guy. Scares ‘em. Makes ‘em sweat estrogen all through their nice little spandex, color coordinated, workout clothes. Be proud. Because that is usually the marker of a guy who is really going to succeed. The guy who is willing to live on the outside edge. To do the things that other people just aren’t willing to do. That’s where greatness lies.

So he’s training at a regular gym and is alternating going outside to do sandbag lifts, runs and carries and inside to do dips and pull-ups. He’s just come back inside speeding on his way to knock out another set. On the previous sandbag run he fell ending up with a cut, and some pretty significant mud. As he walks in dripping sweat, dirt and blood one of those knows-it-all-but-never-does-anything-real-with-it questions him on why he’s doing what he’s doing and working so hard. I know we’ve all been in some form of this situation. The having to explain why you’re working so hard that people are calling for lifeboats from the pools of sweat you’re creating or why you aren’t using the cable crossover machine instead of doing those brutal, dangerous and insane exercises. I know we’ve all been fed up with having to answer those questions sometimes too. So instead of stopping he simply answers, “Because I’m training to be a better man and you’re not.”

That might be one of the greatest answers I’ve ever heard for those indignant and repetitive questions. We should all be training to be better men.

Don’t read into that that this type of training is the only thing that makes you a man or well-rounded person or that he did, or that I randomly blast people who ask questions. Sometimes people need a wake up call. That’s what this was. A very succinct way of saying, “I’m willing to do the really hard things because I’m honestly working to be the best. Not pretending to put out effort.”

Occasionally I get a letter from somebody who resents something that I said in a newsletter. Usually along the lines of, “I don’t want anybody else talking to me about spiritual or mental topics in a physical training newsletter.” You know what? They’re missing the point. The harder the struggle in your training, the deeper you draw into your own mental and spiritual realms. The stronger your mind becomes, because of the effort you put your body through, the deeper your connection to the spiritual becomes, because of the transcendent nature of supreme physical effort.

When you’re training hard you’re not just training your outside body. You’re training your inner being. You’re becoming a better man physically and you should be moving toward being a better stronger man mentally and spiritually. Yeah, we’re all training to be supremely dominant physical men, but you don’t reach your true pinnacle without the inner training as well. Every time you hit it hard is an opportunity to improve both inside and out. Make yourself a better man in every way tomorrow by the training you do today.

Are you ready to make yourself into a better man? Ready to gain the knowledge of how to take yourself past your genetic or mental limits? Ready to take the reigns of your own destiny in hand? No longer willing to accept missing your goals, lacking in strength or lagging in endurance? Are you ready to shoot mediocrity out of a bazooka? Then step up to the plate and get our Training Trio of Twisted Conditioning I, Twisted Conditioning II and Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts.

Use them to make yourself into the unstoppable force you can become.

Band pulls for bad abs, bad strikes and throws and bad intentions

God bless you all. Did you ever do an exercise that really allowed you to “grip it and rip it?” Something that allowed you to not only build raw strength but express animal emotion and power. Band pulls fit right up that alley.

Most people, probably not the ones reading this newsletter, but most average trainees never master an exercise well enough to be in a place where they should be attacking it with absolute raw emotion. But the big time champions, even if they look calm, are doing that. Make no mistake about it, emotional intention makes a big difference in your strength. When you’re a beginner trying to master an exercise you’ve got too many things to concentrate on to really put your raw power into it, but in the long term you should be looking to master any exercise that you do past the need to be consciously thinking about the technique. It should be honed to a level that it just flows and then your other powers will come into play.

Some exercises however are simple enough that you can put your whole self into it without much conscious thought. The deadlift while it isn’t like that the first time or two, is something that very quickly lends itself to a more integrated level of physical and mental effort. Band pulls are something else that you can do almost immediately and get that same integrated training.

Now by band pulls I’m actually referring to a couple of specific exercises, but you can build serious strength and endurance with all kinds of movements with a hard core rubber cable set. That’s why I train with them. I generally use the Lifeline Chest Expander and Portable Power Jumper sets, (a traditional length cable set and a long cable set for leg and full body use).

Here are two of the exercises I’m really talking about. Cable twists and cable throws. For both exercises begin by attaching one end of your cable to an immovable object. I’ve used a power rack as well as the bumper of a truck, anything that won’t move when you give it a good pull. For the twist, pull the cable tight and assume an athletic stance at a 90 degree angle from where your cable is attached. Then tighten everything up and twist as if you were chopping a tree down. Keep the handle of the cable close to your body. Do a set or two keeping your hips locked in place and just twisting your torso, then crank it up and do a set or two using leg and hip power to drive the twist.

Cable throws start with you stretching the cable set tight, and get in an athletic stance facing the object that you have the cable set anchored to. Now pull the set while imagining you’re actually throwing an opponent. Step away with your left foot and pull the set, twisting as you go, following with your right foot. You should finish with your torso parallel to the ground facing the opposite direction with your hips kicked backward as if to lift an opponent and throw him with your hips over your shoulder.

Both of these exercises integrate strong abdominals with a leg, back, hip and whole-body movement. Because they force you to stretch the cable harder and harder the longer distance you cover and in effect actively pull back against you, they allow you to really build some speed into your movement and therefore into the nerve firing muscles you’re working. Plus they’re simple and allow you to really attack the movement working strength, speed and conditioning all at the same time.

It’s a terrific way to build unified strength and abdominal movement together and a terrific way to take your training to the next level with unified exercise and mental intention. Crank it up… your results will get you just as excited as the exercise itself.

If you want to learn more about killer exercises like this that have multiple purposes and really build efficiency into your workouts as well as unbelievable strength you need our Twisted Conditioning Series and our Martial Arts book.

You wanna see exercises like this really performed live as well as 90 other exercises with a real world, hard core training tool? You should be looking at our Power Jumping DVD.

If you want the complete cable training set with over 165 exercises you should get the Power Jumper DVD and the Cables DVD together! What a killer pair.

Twisted Conditioning I –
Twisted Conditioning II –
Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts –
Power Jumper DVD –
Cables DVD


Find them all here at Stongerman Products

A Big Key To Hitting Harder

Hope this finds you all training hard and deep in blessings. Here’s a tip for all you martial artists out there, but it’s also a skill that applies to any athlete. Selective Tension.

If you’ve ever lifted anything heavy you know that it requires total body tightness. You just can’t perform a big lift right and be loose. If all of your muscles aren’t contracted right and firing correctly you loose energy, correct weak links and set yourself up for injury. Conversely if you’ve ever tried to move fast, or do anything that requires athletic grace you can’t do it with excess tension. Creating speed is a combination of the power stored in that tension, nervous efficiency and relaxation. You can’t muscle a big strike. The tension is too high and it slows the movement down so much that it takes away the power, but if you don’t have the explosive power of releasing the tension of the muscle to create a fast movement you don’t get much on that strike either. Also if you don’t last second tense the part of the body you strike with you set yourself up for injury and take away from the power of a strike because you’re not hitting with a hard surface.

Therefore an important skill for the martial artist is to be able to instantly, alternately and ultimately, with lightening fast float between relaxation and tension. That’s the key to a fast and powerful strike. For you other athletes its also a key to safety in competition and training and a secret to explosive endurance. If you try to do an activity that is constant motion, an endurance activity and try to maintain the same type of tension you would in heavy lifting, you’ll be exhausted very quickly, within a couple of minutes. Many fighters who are actually in descent shape fatigue themselves prematurely by not being able to relax in the ring and devastate their performance.

One of the greatest exercises you can do to practice explosive selective tension is the kettlebell swing. This exercise really has over the top benefits and carryover to martial practice. All great strikes start with the hips which is the primary target point of the swing. By doing this exercise correctly you’re working on strength, endurance, cardiovascular conditioning, speed, selective explosive tension, abdominal development, hip extension, and transfer of power. All keys to hitting harder. If you haven’t done this one you need to learn how because it’s a big blockbuster of a movement.

If you want to learn more about how to hit so hard that people will swear you’re on roids, and how to train for maximum martial strength and endurance, how to do and what the greatest exercises for your combat training are then you should have Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts.