The 120lbs and Pregnant McDonald's French Fries Diet

Appeared August 22, 2006

May you truly realize God’s blessings and the wonderful positive things in your life.

You know when you live the lifestyle that I do, which is very wrapped up in work and not particularly interested in going to that many public places, especially things like shopping, it’s easy to forget how far out of whack the average person is.

My wife picked up a pair of sneakers for me today and relayed a story to me about the cashiers at the shoe store. It seems that the first cashier was chiding the other one for talking so much about McDonald’s French Fries that she had given up all hope and gone out to get some to eat for her lunch. Now neither of these women were over 120lbs. Yet both of them were talking about being on a diet. The one eating the fries was also evidently pregnant and blaming her co-worker for not sharing the burden of eating the fries.

When you start getting deep into information on health, strength, etc., you tend to think that everybody else is playing along. It’s very easy to lose touch with the fact that the average person doesn’t know squat about health, exercise, food, etc. They might think they know a little, but they don’t understand enough of it to apply and generally what they do know is junk science. It still amazes me that at 120lbs your self image can be so completely out of whack that you need to be constantly on a diet. It amazes me that anyone would still eat McDonald’s French fries. I’m not against the french fry itself, but that’s not even an edible food substance and if you’re paying even a little bit of attention to health information you should know that. The reason my wife told me the story in the first place was because of the absolute idiocy of someone being on a diet and eating McDonald’s french fries while pregnant. It would be healthier for the baby to take a spoonful of toxic waste.

People labor under the same false assumptions about exercise all of the time and to see proof of that all you have to do is visit a local gym. You only need about 60 seconds to be overwhelmed by the lack of intelligent work going on. That’s why all of our products contain both basic and advanced level information. Many of the goals and concepts are very advanced. However the style of information delivery, the basic exercises and the beginner details are all there as well. This way everybody… rank beginner or advanced hard core man both benefit.

What’s even more amazing is how simple and achievable basic exercise and reasonable nutrition are. Lift heavy covering the basic structures of the body. Use reasonable volume. Lift some odd stuff so you can learn to actually apply the strength from those barbells. Find some type of conditioning that you like, that you can go very hard at for 10 to 20 minutes, occasionally longer. Go for a walk, maintain the ability to move and be mobile. If you can’t pronounce it (manmade products), don’t eat it. If it didn’t grow out of the ground or come from an animal, don’t eat it. If it comes in plastic and has a shelf life, long enough that you have to actually look up how long it is, don’t eat it. Get adequate fluids and sleep.

The above paragraph summarizes the entirety of health and strength. Is there more detail? Absolutely, but that’s the basics. It’s the basics for those just interested in health as well. For those interested in more than simply being able to get off the couch. You should all remember that most of those you know don’t have any understanding of these simple concepts. They think they can have a little gastric by-pass surgery, pop some Hoodia or Zantrex…. Or whatever this weeks popular diet pill is named… and voila! They are thin and healthy.

Thin isn’t healthy. Healthy is healthy. Good strength, good mobility, good endurance, pain-free, sound nutrition. It doesn’t come out of pills, be that the diet or steroid kind. It comes when you actually do the work. Keep it simple and don’t get side tracked by all the snake oil out there.

The Benefits of the Guts to Step Out

Appeared August 21, 2006

God bless you all.

Last night my family and I did something that might seem kind of insane to our neighbors or family. We had some business plans to take care of, which fell through at the last minute so we decided to spontaneously drive to Tarpon Springs to eat dinner at a little sea-side restaurant. The thing that makes it odd is that it wasn’t four-star dining and it’s about 75 miles one way to get there, but it’s a fun little place with great food.

Could we have gotten the same food in town? Basically, but we wouldn’t have had the experience, or the time together. We wouldn’t have exercised the freedom to have fun that we’ve tried to build into our life. That freedom is there because we had the guts to step out and live a different kind of life. The guts to try a business that most people are afraid to do. The guts to chase a dream that we actually wanted to have, not settle for what other people told us we could have.

It wasn’t anything insanely special to do, but it’s a payoff for the courage to actually take steps to live the life you want to live. What’s holding you back from doing the same?

A business acquaintance of mine once told me this and I have since found exactly the same. He said that he had explained how to start a very productive business in a personal way to many people, but that I was the only one who actually ever did anything about it. I’ve done the same thing and rarely had anyone actually taken the steps, even though the plan for a better life was laid out for them. It happens all the time in both the training world as well as the spiritual and business world. There are lots of reasons people don’t act on things that they know would benefit their life. Some are legitimate, sometimes the time just isn’t right. However in most people it’s the lack of ability to actually take active steps to better their life. It takes courage to do that. Don’t let that be the reason you walked away from being a better man, building a better business or more powerful and incredible body, better relationships, better mind, or a more complete spiritual life.

Have the courage to step out, it brings you freedom and it will payoff!

100 Squat Thrust Challenge

Appeared August 18, 2006

You want a fast way to see if you’re in shape? Then take this challenge. Pick your favorite variation of the squat thrust/sprawl/burpee and rock through for 100 reps as fast as you can. Depending on which variation you use you should be shooting for five minutes as a time limit, but it doesn’t matter. Force yourself to go as fast and as hard as you possibly can. Do as many as you can before you have to take a break.

Let me tell you this is a simple exercise, but it will really let you know where your conditioning stands. This full-body movement will prove to even the most staunch of doubters that even bodyweight exercises are no joke. And it’s a good standard to be able to test yourself against. It’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s high enough reps to involve muscular endurance, but not so high that it will make you insanely sore and it will shoot your cardio through the roof. Really force your heart to pump a massive volume of blood and force you to breathe extremely heavy, thereby actually strengthening them. Being able to maintain a consistent minor elevation of heart rate for a long time is one thing, but being able to go all out hard for an extended period of time is another. And that’s what you need to be truly in shape.

Say you’re a Superman? Say you generally do 100 squat thrusts on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Say you only get a 2 beat per minute heart elevation by doing 100 burpees? (First of all if you said that you’re flat-out lying I don’t care who you are). Want to make it tougher? Here are a couple of quick ways:

1. Do 100 kettlebell swings before and after your 100 squat thrusts.

2. Grab a kettlebell, barbell or dumbbell of a moderate to light weight and put it in front of you. As you do the squat thrusts, when you come back to standing on each rep, clean whatever weight you’ve decided to use. As you drop to the next rep, drop the weight to the ground and repeat.

3. You can do a Mike Bruce style which is insane, but it’s this; Start on top of a low to moderate box or bench 12 to 18 inches high. To do your sprawl or squat thrust, jump back off the bench, squat down, kick back, come back up and to finish jump back up to the box or bench. If you could crank through 100 of those non-stop you probably have a big blue suit on with an “S” on your chest and you’d be able to as some of my country friends say, “… go bear huntin’ with a switch.”

Try it out and send us back some info. I want to see who gets the fastest time.

Be sure to include which version of the exercise you use and whether or not you had to be hospitalized after. Now go out there and start kicking some butt. Make yourself harder than steel, because you can do it… you just need the will.


If you’re ready to get more kick butt challenges and dedicate yourself to becoming the mountain-moving, iron-tossing, steel-bending, awe-inspiring strength and conditioning machine that you can be, then what are you waiting on? Permission from your mother? Step up to the plate, make a decision, stick by it and get our unbelievable training info.

10 Tips from Powerlifting Legend Tony Conyers

Appeared August 17, 2006

If you read our earlier newsletter this week entitled "Big Lifting Weekend,: you know that I got a chance to hang around with some perennial powerlifting legends and pick their brain about training. That is how the upper echelon of strength shares information. Just like scientists or politicians or whoever. Top minds meet and learn from each other. When they talk you should listen.

One of the gentleman I spoke with this weekend was Tony Conyers. He is literally the most dominant light weight powerlifter of all time. The only 165 to ever total 2,000 pounds. Ridiculously strong and consistent in his strength. Here are a few fast things in skimming over our conversation that he said which just shows the tip of the iceberg of the wealth of strength wisdom that he possesses.

1. Most important thing for increasing your competitive squat - raw training on the squat itself to refine technique and build a solid strength base.

2. Up your raw max to increase your geared max. Tony has an over 600 raw max at 165, and hits a new max at every stage of powerlifting gear he puts on. For instance a true raw max belt-only, a rep max with belt and kneewraps, a rep max with belt, kneewraps and groove briefs, and competitive max with full equipment.

3. When Tony made his biggest competitive squat of all time 854 at 165, he only trained twice a week for an hour or so each time.

4. He rarely ever trains more than three one-hour sessions per week. Often two of those sessions are at home in his garage gym and one is at a regular gym with the powerlifting team.

5. He mixes high and low reps in his training and uses a very short peaking period spending only four weeks in equipment prior to a meet.

6. He told me about a very unique off season bench training cycle that he and a partner did that led them both to new maxes. We'll cover that in another newsletter.

7. Believes in not necessarily starting the bar touching the shins for the deadlift, but having it a couple of inches away so that as you pull past the knees the bar lines up more easily with the quads.

8. Mental intensity and psyching are great, but don't get mad about missing a lift. There's nothing you can do about it if you miss, that attempt is gone and in the past. Focus on having fun and getting to your next lift, competition or training session.

9. Tony turned 48 years old last Saturday. Living proof that consistent training and mental outlook direct your age, not the number. Drug free training that consistently makes you stronger without over working into an area of lasting damage will preserve your health and keep you kicking butt.

10. Above all your spiritual life is the most important thing, because it is the only thing that lasts. Taking care of your family, praying, ministering to others and your belief in and relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing.


It's amazing that when you boil it all down, the guys who are the strongest almost uniformly follow the same pattern of training. It does flesh out in absolutely different ways, but we all cover the same bases. Low and high rep training, good form, whole body exercises, taking care of your health, consistency as well as variety in training, unconquerable belief in yourself and the realization for the need of God in your life. It's the formula for super human strength and super human ability. Even if you're not a powerlifter there's extremely intelligent things you can learn from this. Strength is strength. No matter how you build it, it applies. Follow the formula and you get the results.

What Are You Invested In?

Appeared August 16, 2006

God bless you.

I hope today finds you fully enjoying the blessings of life.

Have you ever had someone say something to you that just snaps on a light bulb? Something that strikes you with both the casual way that it's said and the absolute profoundness of the statement? My wife did that to me yesterday. We were discussing a negative issue that is common around our neighborhood and a repetitive situation that is for our neighbors a source of constant complaining. It's not an actual problem, just a matter of someone having nothing better to do with their time.

She said, "People who have nothing positive to invest their emotions and passion in will seek things to complain about in order to achieve any emotional and passionate response whether they realize it or not."

What does that mean? It means you have a certain need for emotional and passionate fulfillment in life. A sense of purpose. And you had better be out doing and being in involved in something positive if you want to achieve real fulfillment. If not you can be like 90% of the other people in the world, wasting their time and being dominated by complaining and negativity. If you don't fill it up with positive, the negative will seep in and take it over. More over it's not enough to just think positive things. You need to be actively involved and doing positive things. Doing is the key to success.

What are you investing in? What are you doing in the mental, physical and spiritual areas of your life that makes you actively involved in positive advancement? Training should be one of these things. Reading, stretching your mind. Prayer. Finding ways to be helpful and involved in the lives of others and your family.

You're going to be one or the other. A positive influence or a negative drag on yourself and others. A choice to be positive and to do and find things to promote that side of your life and squash the negativity is what it takes to get the job done. Get a plan and get doing!

Are you ready to get busy with an incredibly positive response from your training? Ready to uplift your physical life and in the process uplift your mental and spiritual lives? Ready to train in a way to make yourself into more that you ever believed you could be. Then don't waste anymore time. Drop kick complaining out of your life and jump on the most powerful training you can get. Actually do, don't just talk. Find the info to get it done here:

Strongerman Products

Big Lifting Weekend

Appeared August 15, 2006

I had the opportunity to go to the RAW 100% Natural Powerlifting Championships this weekend with my friend Scott Weech. Let me tell you these cats put on a great meet. Consistent, fair, but lifter-friendly judging. Well run, well organized, no idiotic over ego and lots of great RAW lifting. Guys totaling near 8 to 9 times their bodyweight raw. Lots of great comradery and great efforts, not to mention a terrific message and a powerful weekend.

We filmed Scott’s amazing performance. National and World RAW records. 825 squat, 505 bench and 750 deadlift. And we’re nearly finished filming the new squat training DVD with Scott. There’ll be some monster stuff on this DVD. From the youngest guy to ever squat 1,000lbs in top five RAW squat, and top 10 equipped squat all at age 21. Believe me 900 raw and 1200 equipped are coming soon from Scott. He also tells you all the secrets of his unique approach. Basic, but with some very smart twists and training. In fact I’ve got several stories to tell from this weekend about some amazing things that happened, people I spoke with and some incredible DVDs that are going to come from this!

It’s always uplifting and reassuring to get around positive, powerful people. Just when you think the negativity and insanity in regards to the internet in strength is overcoming the good of things, you get around people who are proving the opposite. Tony Conyers and Beau Moore, both legends in powerfliting, were there and proved the same thing. Positive people building others up, incredibly strong and men to be proud of. You’ll be hearing about them this week.

If you have the chance, get to a gathering like this. It renews your motivation, faith in the sport and its people. It gives you the opportunity to learn first hand from other lifters, talking to great champions and help other strength athletes as well. Teaching, learning, and helping others are keys to happiness and success in life.

Iron or Insanity

Appeared August 11, 2006

I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with many of the top-level strength people of the world. Even though popular culture would portray them as dumb, (i.e. “All muscular people are less intelligent,” a popular comedic ploy given by weaklings), when you actually speak to them they’re quite intelligent. Even though it may not be physics-professor-style intelligence, most people who lead the curve of any activity have their own type of brilliance and the ability to give an effort that’s frightening to the average person. Popular culture would also say that lifting hundreds of pounds or doing anything that is out of the ordinary as far as achievement and effort is insane. I say popular culture is insane. It’s insane NOT to chase the physical vitality that you could have. It’s insane not to throw yourself whole-heartedly into your accomplishments. It’s insane to be tossed about by the whim of ill-informed culture. To refuse to seek strength, health, endurance and a level of being alive that is only possible through hard training. A level of mental, spiritual and physical connectivity that is only possible when your effort outweighs the ability of a single side of your nature. That your entire being must be unified to win against yourself. Without these you live a half life. Satisfying only one side of what could be a much more well rounded and powerful human being.

Refuse the bonds of mediocrity both in your effort and in your life. To say that you cannot be intellectual, spiritual, socially intelligent and physically powerful is to limit what mankind is supposed to be. It’s to move backward in the advancement of humanity and in your personal growth as well. Go beyond what you are right now. Go beyond what someone else tells you you could or should be. Choose your own definition of greatness and your path to get there. Greatness too is only achieved through an effort that goes beyond what’s possible from a single side of your nature. It is use of the whole man. When you have traveled to a place that brings out your whole man then you can become great.

You know your own mind, your own spirit and your own body. You know where you need work. You know that you can give the effort to unify all three and become more than you are

Swings and Super Conditioning

Appeared August 10, 2006

God bless you all.

The kettlebell or dumbbell swing is one of the most incredibly powerful exercises in modern hardcore conditioning. It works the posterior chain like almost nothing else and you can get a tremendous amount of strength and endurance with little or no damage from heavy loading. You all know I believe in heavy loads, but I also believe in mixing light and heavy work to get the most well-rounded effect and the greatest strength with the least possibility of overwork. I’ll give you a couple of examples.

At the present time I do quite a bit of heavy squats, but not that many heavy deadlifts or goodmornings. I find that the overload of muscles and structure is very close from all three of those exercises and you have to be careful not to overload the low back and hip structures from too much heavy work. I’ve also done a large number of swings lately and even though I haven’t regularly practiced stiff leg deadlifts or goodmornings when I have done them lately I have been very close to my top level. That means I’m maintaining that strength with no training and have the ability to practice those exercises with no pain from over work. Plus I get the benefits of extreme endurance and body conditioning from the swings.

Here’s a quick conditioning routine that I did the other night:

Start off with 100 swings with a moderately heavy kettlebell. Then sets of 20, 15, 10 and 5 of bodyweight squats, jumping jacks, sit ups, and push ups. Between every set jog in place for 50 steps. Try not to stop moving. As soon as you finish your set start jogging in place, and as soon you finish jogging hit your next set. Finish with another 50 kettlebell swings. Try to beat 15 minutes for the whole workout. You should be breathing very hard and you will have worked every muscle in your body along the way.

If It Ain't You, It Ain't Gonna Work

Appeared August 9, 2006

God bless you all.

The internet is a wonderful thing. It allows massive communication all over the world about millions of topics. It also unfortunately because of how human beings act and react, is one of the biggest time-wasters ever invented. Am I cutting it down? Absolutely not I make my living off of it. But if you’re not searching for knowledge on a particular thing, you’re just surfing and you’re spending more time on that than training, then you’re wasting your time.

Ninety percent of the discussion on training on the internet is a waste of time. Why? Because much of it is nitpicking over things that people have no real idea about what they’re talking about. All theory, no personal knowledge. Generally attempting to be governed by whatever they think is the “rules” for their particular sect of training. If you put out a low volume program and ask for discussion about it, some follower of the High Temple of High Volume will immediately jump on it with both feet. The opposite is the same for an initiate of the Low-Volume Order of Holiness. Then a general religious war will ensue extolling why I’m right and you’re wrong.

Let me put it to you straight. There are success and failure stories from every denomination, order, rite, temple, church, group, gang, and commune of training known. The missing ingredient to what makes success or failure from any one of these disciplines is you. What do you like, what do you want, what style suits you both mentally and physically, what works for you and achieves your goals?

People almost always want specific prescriptions for what will work for them. And I and many other knowledgeable trainers can give them to you. However if you’re not making your own choice helping to figure out what works for you and putting yourself both physically, mentally, emotionally into the training you won’t get the greatest results. It’ll work for a while and then what you really want to do will emerge strongly enough to push you in another direction or kill your progress. You have to step up, put some skin in the game and be responsible for your own progress and knowledge of your own body. You also have to spend more time training than you do discussing it.

Get off your butt and put YOU in the game.


Are you ready to really put forth your own effort and style to get the best gains you’ve ever had? If you are then you’re ready for our books and videos. The personal element that you need for you to pick what works for you within a template that works for everybody is a big reason that our training material is put together the way that it is. The reason we give you the smartest most complete training templates to follow and then give you freedom and lots of choices about exactly which exercises to plug into those templates. It doesn’t matter whether you want to train with barbells, dumbbells, clubs, log, rocks, kettlebells, cables or bodyweight, we’ve got you covered. And always in a way that brings you to previously unknown levels of strength and endurance.

When you’re ready to invest in yourself we’ve got what you need to get the job done.

When Was The Last Time?

Appeared August 5, 2006

When was the last time you read something that stretched your mind? Read something that informed you more about our world? When was the last time you told your wife you loved her? Or kissed her like you meant it? When was the last time you played with your kids? Spent time with family? Talked to your parents? Helped a neighbor? Ate a new food? Tried a new activity? Went for a walk? Trained really hard? Tried something new in training? Made progress toward your ultimate goals of both training and life? Prayed?

Life is to be lived. Success isn’t really about money. It’s about what you do with the time in life while you’re here. Do something today that’s totally unexpected. That takes advantage of the time and life that you have to actually live.

1,000 Reps Up Your First Mountain

Appeared August 1, 2006

I hope today finds you all deeply pursuing the blessings available to you from God, our Father.

Most of the conditioning that I and many of the hardcore athletes now do has a very quantitative nature. In fact I think that’s what attracted me to that type of conditioning originally. There’s just something more substantial about saying, “I’m going to do “x” number of reps in “y” amount of time.” Than saying, “I’m going for a run, or I’m going to ride the bike.”

Nothing wrong with running or biking except for the fact that I believe that all hard conditioning should have some type of interval built in. It’s the natural state of the body. The deeper I got into the alternative conditioning methods that I now pursue the more perspective I gained about them. Here are some of the things I found out.

Using muscular and aerobic conditioning together is the way to add endurance to your strength without taking away from your top end. Fast pacing and moderate rep sets alternating exercises is superior to one long super high rep movement. Single movement super high rep workouts are fine, they’re great base builders, but shouldn’t be the absolute cornerstone of your conditioning. All the alternative implements give similar results as long as you give the right effort. Alternating implements is a great way to add variety to your training, up your conditioning and stop over use injuries.

Reps of one type of exercise do not have a straight equal in another type of exercise. (100 bodyweight squats may equal 50 kettlebell snatches in the amount of power output and conditioning they may require). Different people will have different exercises that they are particularly suited for. Generally speaking however the mark of solid started conditioning is a 500 rep workout. The next gateway and the beginning of super endurance is 1,000 reps.

Here’s a sample 1,000-rep workout that I did the other day, which you can have a little twisted fun with:

20 reps band twists
20 push ups
20 bent over rows
20 bodyweight squats

Done with no rest between sets, repeating five times.

20 step ups
20 half sit ups
20 kettlebell swings
20 dumbbell arm movements

Done with no rest between sets, repeating five times.

50 band pull aways
50 leg lifts
50 kettlebell high pulls
50 double dumbbell presses

There you have it. 1,000 reps. Working every part of the body at a fast pace building both cardiovascular and muscular endurance. If you really want to spice it up, throw in a strength exercise at the beginning, middle or end. I bent some nails at the end of this workout even though it would have normally been quite easy, they were significantly more challenging because of the total level of fatigue.

If you want to step up to a level of endurance that carries over to everything that you do that really has a long term effect on your health and energy and makes your strength work easier, at some point you have got to explore the upper echelon of what’s possible with your endurance. You’ve got to build up to it and then go to places you didn’t think were possible. Just add a few reps at a time. Keep going, getting one more rep, one more set of 10, whatever you have to get to get there.

Then you can sit on top of the mountain and know you’ve been somewhere and you can see even higher peaks to climb


PART II - Appeared August 2, 2006

Another 1,000 Reps

Yesterday we talked about a 1,000 rep workout. A starting place for super endurance. Got a huge response in the email about this so I thought I’d talk about one of the emails I got and then throw out another 1,000 rep challenge.

There are all kinds of ways to do this workout. I told you yesterday that I believed a mixed workout involving a fast pace alternated sets of many different exercises is probably the best way to go. However you can take one exercise and one implement and do 1,000 reps with that or you can take multiple other approaches such as that of Steve Schmidt.

Lee Gesbeck wrote to me yesterday about one of Steve’s record setting backlift challenges. Steve is the modern equivalent of Warren Lincoln Travis and has beaten most if not all of his heavy lifting challenges. Steve backlifted 1,000 pounds for 1,000 reps in something like 7.15 minutes. Beating Travis’ time of 9 minutes. This gentlemen, is a monumental feat and a monumental challenge to put yourself through.

It will create not only incredible endurance, but muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments of steel. Steve uses a special set up that allows for the right kind of repetition backlifting for speed. But I’ll probably take this challenge on anyway even though I use a different set up.

What’s the saying? “Do the thing and you’ll have the power.” Well if you want that kind of back breaking power then you’ve got to do that kind of back breaking work. Alternately you could take five different partial lifts and work them each for 200 reps a piece or two lifts and work them for 500 reps a piece. Partial bench, partial overhead press, partial squat, partial deadlift, partial row. This is just a for-instance.

The big point… work hard, challenge yourself to go beyond what you think is humanly possible.

Am I A Genetic Freak??

Appeared July 28, 2006

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, “How did you get strong?”

“Were you born that way?”
“Did you take something?”
“Do you know some secret?”

Well, yes, I do know a secret. But it isn’t some secret training routine. Or some secret food to eat or supplement to take, or drugs or anything like that. One of the other criticisms that everybody who is strong and puts out information about how to train gets is this: “Well anything would work for you. Your genetics are so good you couldn’t help but get strong.”

Is that the truth? Could I have haphazardly done any ol’ program and gotten strong? No, it’s not true and that question explains itself. You can’t haphazardly, randomly pick exercises and suddenly find yourself with the key to strength or magically strong. No matter where you start or how good of genetics you come from, it’s what you do after that which counts. No one is born suddenly possessing the ability to lift 1,000 pounds or do 1,000 pushups. Those things my friends take use of the secret.

So what is the secret?

Focused, progressive hard work on real result producing exercises. Effort. Effort means more than genetics. All the potential in the world is nothing without applied effort. Effort means more than drugs. It means more than supplements, more than the perfect training routine or some “secret” exercise. Effort IS the secret.

Where ever you are, if you’re not getting bigger, stronger, faster or more enduring then complaining about it or blaming it on your genetics won’t get the job done. Comparing yourself to others won’t help to get the job done. Genetics is something you cannot control therefore it is a non-factor. You work with what you have, which is always more than you give yourself credit for and become the best you can be.

Intelligent training applied with effort always beats genetics. There are tons of people out there with starting blocks to build with genetically, but they’re too lazy or unfocused, or unmotivated to do anything about it. Results beats potential. Second-guessing that is a pure waste of time. “Oh if he only worked as hard as so-and-so… he has so much potential.” So what!? Potential without the work is an un-measurable and unrealistic concept. You can do what you’re mind believes you can do and what you actually put forth the effort to accomplish. Everything else is hot air. No excuses, no worrying about whether somebody else has great potential or whether you do or don’t. Put in the work and you’ll get the results.

I already told you the secret, now you step up and apply it.

Smart Stuff from Steve Maxwell

Appeared July 25, 2006

Hope today finds you with rich blessings from the Almighty. The more top level strength coaches and real intellects of the strength and conditioning world I get to know I find that we all operate off of very similar philosophies.

I also find that they are less close-minded than the average trainer. That open-mindedness allows them to experiment and find the things that really produce results. Here are some really brilliant things that a top level trainer conditioning specialist and world Jujitsu champ, Steve Maxwell, recently wrote. It’s smart stuff so pay attention.

“I started exercising at 11 when my Dad bought me my first York barbell set. My home town, Carlisle (PA) was close to York, the then mecca of olympic lifting. Dad would take me to the old York gym to watch the Olympic lifters. There, I met many of the old time weightlifting champs including, Bob Bednarski, Joe Dube, Ernie Picket, Tony Terlazzo, the great John Grimmick, Steve Stanko, Bob Hoffman and others I cannot remember. These were the fathers of American strength training. The influence these men had on me as a young kid is deeply ingrained. Later, as a high school and college wrestler, PE teacher, coach and trainer, I met dozens of other professors, coaches and mentors that helped mold and shape my ideas along the way. Some of the things I learned over the years are:

1. There is no one right way to do things, there are several right ways to do most things. The important thing is to do what is right for you

2. There is no one all, be all system of exercise. each system has advantages and disadvantages. Educate yourself and intelligently select the best system that meets what it is that you wish to accomplish

3. No one piece of exercise equipment can do it all. each piece of equipment is a tool. Learning to chose the right tools for the job comes from experience.

4. Have a set goal and work towards that goal. Realize that as you mature, your goals will change-that is a good thing.

5. Do not be afraid to try new ideas. don't get stuck in a rut, experiment.

6. Pick an exercise system that you enjoy and can stick with, but realize that in life we have to sometimes do things that we don't enjoy and exercise is no exception.

7. No mater what system you employ, put your health first and foremost. Exercise should build ones health and wellbeing. If your exercise regimen is producing injury and pain, you need to take a hard look at why you are doing this to yourself. A superior system of exercise should prevent injuries and make the body more resilient. If you take care of your health, work on your ability to do things (function), then your muscles (form) will take care of themselves.

Steve Maxwell”


Very smart stuff!

Emphasize your health, get stronger to prevent injury, use training that builds you up instead of breaks you down. There is no one way. Much of the road you’ll have to discover for yourself even if someone else lays out a very detailed system for you.

I don’t often post something so extensive that someone else wrote, but this is brilliant stuff and Steve is a top-class guy. Truthfully most of your top level conditioning guys, whether they promote a particular system or not all believe along these same lines. Is it a coincidence that we’ve all reached similar conclusions from separate pathways?

No it’s not. It’s because these findings represent the truth of what it takes to achieve physical greatness. Just like most of the real training systems around the world, when you investigate them deeply, hold most of the same principles, they just use different tools to get the job done. It’s because there is a specific formula for superior physical ability. High and low reps, strength and conditioning, consistency and variety, basic and unique exercises, all molded together make for the greatest training.

Does your workout include these? If it doesn’t, somewhere you’re missing the boat.

A Workout To Frighten The Beach-Goers

Appeared July 21, 2006

God bless you all.

One of the things often lamented about the hard core lifting community is that it is “frightening” to the average fitness person or lay person. Lots of talk about how to make sports like Strongman and Powerlifting more acceptable to the general public by making them less intimidating. Or make the participants more mainstream looking. Yet also within this exists an odd dichotomy. To get more publicity the events need to be as freakishly heavy and bizarre as possible, but to get more “acceptance,” the athletes need to look less large and intimidating.

All hogwash!

I believe that we as strength athletes need to make a move for our own independence. To do what we want to do and be how we want to be regardless of sport or the mainstream. I never want to intentionally intimidate anyone who is in a gym environment or seeking fitness for strength or whatever, however I refuse to water-down the manliness of the challenges I put before myself to make it more acceptable to anyone’s idea of what is mainstream. The mainstream should be looking to man-up and get strong and in shape and not be so easily intimidated by any minor expression of physical intensity or passion.

You don’t get to be exceptional by caving to mass opinion. If you’re not finding your own expression of strength, health and fitness regardless of what anyone else thinks you ought to look or act like then you’re not being true to yourself. In fact I’m a little glad that the average fitness person is intimidated by a hard workout. Not the idiocy that steroids has brought or lame histrionics or people who are intentionally, personally intimidating to other people in a gym setting. I’m talking about effort that bleeds though your skin. Weights that bend bars, objects that people don’t think can be lifted and feats that people don’t think are possible.

I want to do the thing that requires the effort that separates me from the mass of the fitness world. If you refuse to be separated then you choose to have their results, which is mostly pathetic and for show. Higher results require higher effort and that is what separates us from them. Not some imaginary disquieting presence that they choose to assume.

Intimidation for intimidation’s sake is idiocy. Just like being intimidated by someone’s effort in the gym is idiocy. Most people don’t ever see themselves as having the ability to produce that kind of strength and they realize what a person who can produce that kind of effort is capable of. That’s why they’re intimidated. However most of the truly tough people I’ve ever met are also quite nice and are generally the exact opposite of the assumption of the mainstream. In fact they are an asset to the world because of their strength instead of a detraction. They help to preserve the abilities of strength, effort and heroism in a world that tries to water everything down and looks down on them for it. Be one of these people and be your own man.


Now that we’ve fired our volley in defense of strength, personal choice and standing up for yourself I’ll tell you a story about the title of today’s newsletter.

We spent the last couple of days at the beach taking a little family time. Had a wonderful time at a very nice little, secluded beach. I always enjoy the water and the time with my family away from other distractions.

Caught a little workout while we were there. Nothing fancy, brought a kettlebell with me. It’s just inspirational to have that type of setting. On the sand and surf, it’s one of those places that drives you to enjoyable effort. So I did a couple of hundred swings, finished the workout by doing sprints from the water up onto the beach, back to the kettlebell for another set of swings. I did five sets. It’s a workout you should definitely try because the water really adds to the effort. Believe me you’ll huff and puff like a steam engine.

Now I tend to be oblivious to other people when I’m doing something like that. I’m wrapped up in my own little world of the workout and nobody else is really effecting it. My wife was telling me later about watching people’s reactions when I came sprinting out of the water. Everybody on the beach, particularly those in the water would suddenly jump and start searching the water as if there were a shark. The really funny thing is they did it every time I ran a sprint out of the water, not just the first time. As if there were a new shark every time I ventured back into the water. My wife and son were there swimming along with me. She said they kept looking back at her like, “Why is the big guy running and the woman and the boy are staying in the water?!”

All in all except for the slight moments of shark-induced fear, I think everyone had a good time watching the 350lb guy run out of the water and swing the cannonball with the handle around. No one was intentionally intimidated, but I had a great time and improved my fitness along the way. You should try this workout. Do things to make your workout tougher to separate you from the weak and frightened masses.

Teach-Ability

Appeared July 17, 2006

May God richly bless you all and may you all be moving toward the life that you want.

Today a quick note on teach-ability. The people who are the greatest at what they do are always willing to learn. They never come to a place where they don’t have the ability to learn from someone else. No matter where they are in life or what they’re doing. Great teachers also realize that the act of teaching is one of the greatest ways to learn. If you want to really understand the thing that you’re doing put yourself in the position of having to teach someone else to do it. It forces you to critically think about the steps necessary to truly learn and master a skill and be able to communicate them.

Almost all of the great trainers in America today are like this. I’ve met most of them and as revered as they all are for the their strength or ability to teach the skills of strength and endurance they are almost universally surprising in their willingness to learn. However that is how they generally became great in the first place. The intense desire to absorb knowledge and the willingness to actually apply it. 99% of the complaining and most of the talking both on the internet and in gyms around the world are from people with an unteachable spirit. They have come to believe that they literally know all that there is to know about training. This applies to most all other areas of life as well.

Guard yourself against that attitude. It will forever doom you to being second-best. Your willingness to learn is directly related to how high you go in any profession and especially in strength training. Learn to ignore those who complain or believe they know everything. They’ll waste your time and energy. Become one of those who uses learning to become great in your job, in your life and in your training.

A Fast Workout

Appeared July 14, 2006

Many of you may know that we spent a week in Houston with Dennis Rogers working on some upcoming projects. One of the things we did was to work on an exercise program for a friend of his. The average guy working out at the average gym is laboring under the assumption that he has to do three hours and hundreds of sets of everything available to get real results. He’s been sold that by the average training magazine available in the US right now. The programs of the bodybuilding stars. Built to look great on paper with absolutely no value in the real world.

The fact is those things just aren’t true. It’s the effort that you put into the training that you do. Much more so than the amount of training. So we gave him a quick program. Three 15 minute workouts per week. This combined with proper effort, proper form on the exercises, proper food, and progression will get you tons of results. Here’s a variation of that routine.

Workout 1

Warm up
Then barbell squat 1 set of 20.
Followed by 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.
Followed quickly by stiff leg deadlifts of 1 x 15
Then 1 x 20 breathing pullovers.

Workout 2

Warm up
Then dumbbell row, dumbbell press and barbell curl 3 to 4 x 1, 1 x 10, 1 x 20 plus your choice of what type of dumbbell press or row.
Start with one set of 10 very light on each of the exercises to warm up, then jump immediately to progressively heavier sets of 1 up to a max for the day then back off, do another set of 10, and then a set of really high reps.

Workout 3

Warm up
Hindu squat x 10
Push up x 10
Dumbbell or Kettlebell swing x 10
Repeat each of those non-stop dropping one rep per round (10 for all three exercises, 9 on the second, 8 on the third, on down to one round).

Move as fast as you can, taking as little rest as possible and repeating as many times as possible in 15 minutes.


There you have it. A quick routine that gives you a great template to work off of. Three 15 minute workouts that’ll make you pour sweat and build massive conditioned muscles all at the same time.

Throw, Catch, Run, Play

Appeared July 8, 2006

God bless you all.

Much of the time we as trainers take ourselves too seriously. We push the attitude of fierceness of strength competition to an everyday, all-the-time thing. But there is more to life than just lifting heavy things and growling all the time. Don’t get me wrong. I love to lift heavy stuff, but if all you ever do is lift heavy without conditioning or athletic movement you set yourself up for physical problems. You shorten your training career and damage your own health.

The people on the opposite side of the real strength curve see people that move slowly or un-athletically or have an achy joint and represent them as the effect you’ll get from heavy lifting. The truth is there are plenty of people who move slowly, un-athletically and have achy joints and never lift anything heavier than a cup of coffee and a donut. Just because a certain group of any exercise style exhibits a problem from the faulty practice of their style does not invalidate their entire training. Learn to take the good from every training style, cut out the problem areas and balance them with a realistic view of life and health.

How does that flesh out?

It means don’t just lift heavy things. By all means lift heavy barbells, dumbbells and odd objects. They’re the fastest way to brute strength. But also do muscular and aerobic conditioning with your choice in any and all of bodyweight exercises, kettlebells, indian clubs, sledgehammers, heavy bag work, cables, etc, to promote all around muscular balance as well as vibrant health. These training styles are inter-related and not conflicting.

Find something that forces you to move athletically. Not in the absolutely primal way that our normal ferocious training does, but in a way that helps you develop other athletic qualities. Qualities of suppleness, flexibility, coordinated graceful movement. It can be as simple as playing a game of catch with the kids, touch football, kicking a soccer ball, pick up basketball, a martial arts class, tai chi, hiking, or a walk with your spouse. When you do it, force yourself to move with fluid grace and maintain or improve your athletic ability to move as well as your high level strength or endurance work. Find the joy in that movement and the vitality that you can get from it. Remember, if you don’t train for a particular athletic trait you probably won’t get it.

There’s cross-over between all athletic traits. In much of the basic training that we do carries over to many athletic qualities, but remember to also have some fun and some play in your workouts. Your strength career will be better and your life will be longer.

When The Spirit Meets The FLesh

Appeared June 29, 2006

God bless you.

Last night I had the opportunity to speak and perform at Dennis Rogers' church and had a great time doing it. It was one of those nights that illustrates the transcendent nature of strength. That the tool of strength can be used to communicate deeper truths. It was also a night when the spirit of God was present among a group of believers and his power touches our physical effort to make it greater than it's natural state. This is the highest level of expression of strength.

Started the program off with a quick basic demo of some of the old time strongmen barbell and kettlebell juggling stunts (a very basic demo, I don't practice these). Then moved to pressing one of the youth pastors overhead with one finger and then another overhead with one hand. Then shared the story of my life and the absolute certainty of God's power in it. Spoke on the importance of you and those around you standing on the word of God. Finished with a backlift of the youth staff for the church totaling 2,000lbs give or take an ounce. Then Dennis spoke on the importance of a sincere and pure heart to finish the program and then offered an opportunity for people to make changes in their lives, the most important part of the service. A wonderful response and a tremendous blessing from God.

One of the things I said to them last night is that all of us have a talent that we can be using to bless others. It may be an insane talent like Dennis' and mine which may require the lifting of bizarrely heavy objects and the shaving of your head... well alright the head shaving is optional, but suggested.

Whatever your talent is, be sure you're using it to bless others in your life. Don't think that just because strength is not something that comes completely naturally to you that it might not be a talent. There are incredible stories of people overcoming tremendous odds to become great strength athletes including mine and Dennis' stories. In fact the further you look into a great majority of the world class strength performers, the more you find serious challenges that they had to overcome. To do that you need belief that you can accomplish whatever you want no matter what the challenge. Desire, burning deep enough to push you through the suffering necessary to accomplish those goals. Knowledge of your self and of the technical aspects of the strength you wish to gain. Intelligence about the way you treat your body and your life and if you really want to get to the highest level, a deeper spiritual connection.

The greatest strength is always the one that goes past the physical. What are you doing to put that kind of power in your life? The real way is through prayer and Jesus Christ.

More On The Right Kind Of Strength

Appeared June 28, 2006

May your spirit be stronger than your body.

We're spending the week hanging out with Dennis Rogers and his lovely wife Sylvia. Unless you're living under a rock you know that Dennis is the living link to the old-time strongman feats and the modern "Daddy," of phone book ripping.

I never liked phone book ripping as a feat because I considered it illegitimate until I watched Dennis do it. There are many tricks you can use to rip a phone book that makes it no more than children's slide of hand. But when you legitimately rip one with grip strength it is a tremendous feat.

When you train for phone book tearing one of the big exercises is the pinch grip. In fact that's a big exercise for hand training. One of the major divisions that must be trained for all-around strong hands. I have a really good pinch-grip, but in working with Dennis I found that there is a special type of pinch grip for phone book tearing. This is what I referred to yesterday. A basic exercise, but the specific variation necessary to make your training work for your goal. In this case it's the thumb pad pinch.

I have never seen this done anywhere else (you can see it very soon in Dennis' phone book tearing DVD which we'll be announcing on our site ASAP). Most normal pinching is done by using the digit of the thumb itself along with the fingers to pinch whatever object is being lifted. Thumb pad pinching is done by taking the digit of the thumb itself out and using the heel of the hand or the "thumb pad," and the fingers to pinch the object. This directly simulates the grip you need to rip a phone book via legitimate grip strength and it trains your hand in a totally unique way that you can immediately feel.

This is another in the long line of problem-solving adaptations to get to your goals. The truth is real strength training is as much about the problem solving as is the technical aspects of lifting. Thinking and investing yourself in your training is what really leads to gains. That also is a secret to success in the other areas of life. Keep on the lookout for new training as there's a biiiiiiiiig project coming soon from Dennis and myself together!

You won't believe it when you see it!


You also won't believe a lot of the training footage on our new DVD set. Bodyweight training, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, odd objects, heavy lifting, great conditioning and live workouts. What more could you ask for? Find it here: How To Hit Like A Freight Train

Some people still don't believe the incredible gains you can make in both strength and endurance simultaneously if you follow the right training. We've done most of the problem solving for you and blazed the trail for you to get world-class strength and endurance. Find that here with Twisted Conditioning I and II.

Five Quick Fitness Truths from the Premier Athletic Coach of the World

Remember to stand up for what you believe in and take care of those around you. Today I had the chance to review an old book by Bob Hoffman. Bob Hoffman was often billed as the “Premier Athletic Trainer of the World.” He did so through his promotion of heavy lifting, American lifting teams, York Barbell books and magazines help spread his training to thousands of people.

One of the things that always shocks me when I read a book from 30, 40 or 100 years ago is how smart, simple things that they recognize as practical truth for making physical gains are as universal today as the were then.

Here are five quick snippets of what Hoffman said that are as true today as they were when he was in his prime and even when Milo was in his prime as well.

1. If you’re following an intelligently designed workout program, and you’re still not gaining you need to look at the other factors in your life. (Are you getting good food, good ample variety, is their peace in your household or is there constant stress, etc.)

2. Sleep is a major factor in both the growth of your muscles as well as the success of your training. Taking a few extra minutes to set your sleeping arrangement right will result in better quality sleep and better gains.

3. A variety in training emphasizing both heavy and light exercises consistently working the ones you want to gain on and experimenting with a wide variety of others is the surest way to excellent muscular development.

4. Progression is the law of training and life. If you’re not gaining right now be patient and continually strive for that progression and even though it may take a little while you’re body will adapt and eventually you will gain.

5. If you want the little muscles to grow you have to do both specific movements for them as well as the big movements that work the big muscle groups across the whole body. Little muscle groups are often held back because the body’s basic platform isn’t strong enough to support extra growth in them.


Examine your training and the appropriate lifestyle conditions and see if they fit in this advice. That truth will bring you to a new level just like it did for the York lifters in the 60’s and the Golden Era Strongmen of the 1900’s.