No risk, no reward.

Where would we be in this world today if people didn’t take risks?

It’s time for me to step out and take a risk of my own.

I have found a pretty great warehouse space to call my own.  Real World Strength & Conditioning is finally going to have a permanent home!

This is a huge step for me as I usually play things close to the vest but I’m ready to myself and my skills out there and see what happens.

I’m no longer afraid to fail or succeed.

There is tons of hard work staring me down but it’s time to get busy, take action, and make things happen.

Time to go to work!

…Well sort of!

After hitting it crazy hard the last three week, blasting away at my lower body 4-5 days per week in some form or another, it’s time for lets the joints rest.

After doing so much lower body work, I actually feel really good.  However, I’ve learned over the years that you jsimply cannot pound away on your joints week after week and expect to progress.  On my deload weeks, I prefer to keep the training short and sweet!

Deload and reload!

Below are last Friday’s and this week’s first recovery training session.

Get Strong(er) Wk 8 - Deload #1

I rocked a brutal DB complex.  It was 6 rds, increasing the reps on each round from 5 all the to 10 on the last rounds.  The last 3 sets were brutal my legs, lungs, and forearms were begging me to drop the weight but I refused.

Just because it’s a deload week doesn’t mean you can’t put a little work in!

1a - DB Deadlift

1b - Bent Over Row

1c - High Pull

1d - DB Front Squat

1e - DB Thruster

1f - RDL

Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Get Strong(er) Wk 7 - Day 4

1 - Deadlift 8×10,8,6,3,3,3,1,1

2a - DB Walking Lunges 3×20

2b - Abs 3×20

5rds for time

3a - SB Shoulder x6

3b - Burpee x10

3c - Sledgehammer Swings 3×10(l/r)

I crushed last week’s time by almost 45 seconds!

Olympic lifting is not my strong suit.  However, I’m determined to get better.

This training cycle I’ve been hitting a lot of oly lifts.  My form isn’t the greatest but it steadily improving.

It’s all about improvement and attacking your weaknesses.

Have a plan and purpose when you train.  Otherwise, your training will suck and you’ll never reach your goals.

Get Strong(er)  Week 7 - Day 3

1 - Hang Snatch 5×6,6,6,3,3

2a - Flat DB Press 5×10,9,7,6,6

2b - GHD Situps 5×20

3a - Recline Row 4xsubmax

3b - Dip 4xsubmax

Squats do a body good!

A quick training update for you today since I missed yesterday.

Get Strong(er) Week 7 - Day 1

1 - Hang Clean + Front Squat + Jerk 3xx6

2a - Weighted Chins 5×12,10,8,8,7

2b - Weight Dips 5×12,12,10, 10, 8

5rds for time…

3a - DB Thrusters x10

3b - Thick Rope Slams x20

3c - Box Jumps x5

3d - Sledge Swings x10(l/r)

Get Strong(er) Week 7 - Day 2

Super Squat day!

1 - Squat 3×10,5,5,2 1×20

2a - RDL 5×4

2b - Hanging Leg Raise 3×15

2c - GHD situps 3×15

Today was squat day. It was hot inside the strength shed as the thermometer here in Richmond hit about 97 degrees.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I’m on a mission to build up my 20 rep squat weight.  I’m up 20lbs since I started two weeks ago.

Honestly, I wasn’t feeling it today but like I’ve said before, NO EXCUSES!

After recovering from my death set, I got to thinking more about my gladiator training post and how important mixing in high reps into your training regimen should be standard.

I’m not talking about high rep training with pink dumbbells here.  I’m talking about heavy s***.  High reps sets should make you want to puke not just give you a pump.

So, I’ve decided to make a list of 10 my favorite lifts that I like to take high from time to time!

1.  Any bodyweight movement.  Add some weight to your pullup and pushups and start       counting.

2. Barbell Complexes.  There’s nothing like destroying 35 reps of your favorite 7 exercises!

3.  Squats…

4.  Deadlifts…

5.  Barbell Combos

6.  1 arm DB Rows

7. KB Swings.  Your hamstrings and lower back will thank you!

8.  KB or DB Snatches

9.  Any variation of the lunge.

10.  Overhead pressing.  Nothing challenges your shoulders like a set of high rep pressing.

Drop a comment and let me know about your favorite high rep gut wrenching set!

My lifts are getting stronger albeit, little by little.  Hey progress is progress right?

I’ve identified two weaknesses as my strength increases.  First, I need more drive off the chest on the bench.  I tend to get a little stuck at the beginning and it costs me during the course of a set.

Second, as my deadlift increases, I’ve noticed my grip fails before anything else.  Now this can be cause by one of two factors.  Deadlifts are my last big lift of the weak and I’ve already attacked my grip with tons or pullups and other movements or my grip just sucks!

I tend to think it’s not one over the other but rather a little bit of both.  I’m sure as hell not going to go easy on the pullups and such so I’ll be adding in some extra grip work.

Being able to identify your weaknesses during the course of a training cycle is paramount to continued progress.  You must constantly assess yourself!

Get Stronger Wk 6 - Day 3

1 - Hang Snatch + Squat + Back Thruster 5×5

2 - Bench Press 5×8,8,6,6,5

3a - Mixed Grip Pullups w/ Towel 5xsubmax

3b - Pushups 5xsubmax

Get Stronger Wk 6 - Day 4

1 - Deadlift 7×10,8,6,6,4,3,3

2 - DB Reverse Lunges 5×20

Five Rds for Time

3a - Burpees x10

3b - SB Shoulder x3(L/R)

3c - Sledge Hammer Swings x10 (L/R)

This was a great finisher to the week!

I’ve started keeping my lower body days short, sweet, and intense since on the other training days I’m getting some kind of squat or hill sprint during a session.

That’s right I’m hitting my lower body roughly 5 days per week.  A little unconventional I know but my recovery is theret and my strength continues to go up.

Sometimes you have to forget the conventional rules and take a different path.

What keeps you driven?

I believe that if you are ever going to succeed, no matter what the endeavor, you must answer these two questions.

My passion is training and coaching.  My drive consists of wanting to be the best father, husband, and coach I can be.  I want my own facility where I can teach and coach athletes and others who share my passion for training and being the best.

Speaking of drive and passion, check out this training video from one of my clients.  Jordan’s passion and drive consists of wanting to be the best wrestler at the Division 1 level.  More athletes today need to have the passion, determination, and work like Jordan.

Check him doing work below.  On a side note, some of this footage is from his adventures to the Strength Shop run my colleague in Virginia Beach, VA.

I’m still on my death squat quest.  Yesterday was better than last week.  I bumped up 10lbs.  My plan is to increase 5-10lbs each week and see how high I can climb.

This morning I rocked some hill sprints.  This was a huge mental test for me this morning as my quads and hamstrings were screaming at me from the first sprint on.

It would’ve been easy for the to quit and say “screw it, I’m sore, I’ll do them tomorrow” but that’s not me.

NO EXCUSES.  Sometime pushing yourself mentally is just as important as pushing yourself physically.

Get Strong(er) Week 6 - Day 3

1 - Squat 3×10,6,4 - 1×20

2a - RDL 5×5

2b - Hanging Leg Raises 3×15

Short, sweet, and deadly.

I read this post by my boy Zach Even Esh last week.

I was inspired to take my training old school.  Tuesday I crushed some high rep squats taking my last set to a brutal 20 reps.

To finish of my training for last week I went with a real old school 10×10 deadlift session.  It was rough to say the least.  I got about half way through and my grip, traps, and hamstrings were screaming.

It was awesome.  I felt great when I finished.  In the old days guys trained with high reps all the time.  They needed strength and endurance to stay alive.  If you don’t include some high rep training with the big lifts every once and a while, you’re missing out on a different kind of strength.

Give it a shot and your growth and strength will explode!

Get Strong(er) Week 5 - Day 4

1 - Deadlift 10×10

I finished off the session with some sledge hammer and battling rope interval training.  What a great way to end the week.

Today I went back to practicing my barbell combos.  I stuck with the same combo as last week and worked on speed and explosion.  I also crushed some weighted chins and dips, destroying my numbers from last week.

Always strive to improve with each training session.

ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!

Get Strong(er) Week 6 - Day 1

1 - Power Clean + Front Squat + Jerk 4×5

2a - Weight Chins 5xsubmax

2b - Weighted Dips 5x submax

5rds for time

3a - Barbell Thruster x10

3b - Thick Rope Slams x20

3c - Burpee x10

3d - Sledge Swings x10 L/R

I can't wait to see this movie. I hear it's pretty bad ass!

My legs were still busted up from Tuesday’s session.

So, before I got going today I spent a lot of time hitting the foam roller.  If you’re really going after it with your training, a good foam roller is something you simply cannot live without!

Soreness is a part of training.  Some sessions leave you sore for a couple days, others don’t.  It’s how you recover, which will in part determine your training success.  Do not hesitate to take extra time to get on the roller, do mobility work, and go through a thorough dynamic warmup.

Today my warmup took about 2o minutes.  Your warmup doesn’t always have to be that long but today I had some extra time and took advantage of it.

Once I worked the kinks out it was time to tear it up!

Get Strong(er) Wk 5 - Day 3

1 - Hang Snatch + Back Squat + Back Thruster 4×6

2 - Bench Press 5×7,6,6,5,5

3a - Recline Row 100 reps (as few sets as possible)

3b - Pushups 100 reps (as few sets as possible)

I’ve decided to step my game up.

I’ve mentioned before about my love/hate relationship with squats.

Well, today I did it.  I rocked the death squats.

If you haven’t tried this test of manhood, I suggest you give it a go!

It’s pretty simple!  Load up the bar and knock out 20+ reps without racking the bar.  They’re called death squats for a reason!

When you are finished you legs are like jello, your core, upper/lower back, shoulders, are on fire.  Simply put, death squats attack your entire body!

This isn’t just for fun!  I have a specific goal in mind.  I want to work my way up to 1.5X my bodyweight.  After that, who knows!

Check out today’s training session as well as some good death squat training tunes!  Today’s session was simple and brutal.

Get Strong(er) Wk 5 - Day 2

1 - Squat 3×8,6,4 (ascending) 1×20

2a - RDL 5×5

2b - GHD Situps 3×15

2c - Hanging Legs Raises 2×15

Tomorrow I’ll be hitting up some hill and stair sprints!

And now for the tunes!