Beach Workout!

For the first and only time this summer went with the family down the shore for the week.  No equipment, no playgrounds, no gym...NO PROBLEM.  Tomorrow morning my little brother and I are gonna get up with the sun and hit the beach for a bodyweight conditioning workout.  We'll start with explosive bodyweight ladders inspired by Zach Even Esh and finish with 5 rounds of high intensity bodyweight conditioning inspired by "Getitdonefitness," (check them both out on youtube they're reliable strength and conditioning sources that have helped to make me the athlete i am today).  This type of bodyweight cluster training is a great way to build explosive strength and power as well as conditioning especially when you're short on time and equipment.  Here's the workout, give it a try and give me feedback!

Bodyweight Ladders:
1a) Squat Jumps--2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12
1b) Plyometric Pushups--2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

Bodyweight Conditioning--4-6 Rounds
2a) Bear Crawls--30 yards total
2b) Bodyweight Squats--15
2c) Pushup Variations--12
2d) Burpees--10
2e) Walking Lunges--10 each leg
2f) Mountain Climbers--30

Zach Even Esh Inspired Training!

Zach Even Esh has always inspired me.  It was over two years ago now that I discovered Zach and his Underground Strength Gym in Edison, NJ.  I don’t even remember what brought me to his website as a college Sophomore at Fairleigh Dickinson University, but from the moment I stumbled on Zach’s philosophy on training, I was loving it.  At the time, I was recovering from my second ACL reconstruction, and was getting more and more passionate about training.  I learned many things from Zach’s website and videos, but what was most important was his love for training and his commitment to both himself and his athletes. 

During this past winter and spring of 2012, I began to train like an Olympic lifter, having convinced myself that this was the way to true strength and athletic ability.  I worked hard to improve my barbell clean and snatch techniques, and squatted constantly.  I was in the gym so often, and concentrated so hard on improving these lifts that I eventually herniated two discs in my lower back.  I had over trained so much that I had caused myself another serious injury.  I was lost.  I didn’t think I’d ever train the way I wanted to again. 

As summer approached, I revisited Zach Even Esh’s training philosophies, which I had lost touch with in the past year.  I began to read about his philosophy on bodyweight training and odd object lifting.  Zach trained both himself and his athletes extensively using bodyweight exercises such as pull up variations, climbing, hand walking, pushup variations, jump training and numerous other exercises that not only added tons of strength, endurance and muscle, but built athleticism and promoted joint health.  He also spoke about his early days of training, when he didn’t have a gym, and would train with all manner of odd objects, such as Russian Kettlebells, rocks and boulders in his backyard, and heavy sandbags.  He called it “soul lifting.”  He didn’t always follow a program, he did what felt right, what worked for him, and he had fun with his training. 

In light of my recent back injury, and with my history of shoulder and knee problems I decided it was time to change my training.  I had been so focused on percentages and numbers and programs that I had lost sight of why I had fallen in love with training in the first place.  I wanted to be big, strong, and athletic, and most importantly, I wanted to have fun!  So I began to lift based on feel, getting away from the gym and the confines of classic power and Olympic lifting in favor of animal, bodyweight, and odd object training.  My first acquisitions were two large rocks that I found on FDU’s campus.  One was 95 pounds the other was 100.  I’d take them out to the football field and do stone shouldering, squats, clean and press, and heavy carries.  I felt fantastic.  I’d combine stone lifting with sprinting and bodyweight training like animal walks and various pulling and pushing exercises.

I wanted more.  I began to build my own sandbags at home, and acquired my first kettlebell.  Now my training has more variety then ever.  I wake up every day not sure what or where my workout is going to bring me that day.  I train outside using various objects and bodyweight to build strength, muscle, and conditioning.  My joints haven’t felt this good in forever, I’ve leaned out to under 230 pounds for the first time in over a year, and added strength and muscle without touching a barbell or dumbbell in months.  Plus, for the first time in a long time, I’m truly enjoying training again, because its just good old badass fun throwing around heavy shit! 

I’m not saying athletes shouldn’t utilize classic powerlifting or Olympic lifting in their training, but the key is variety.  Mix it up, do what feels right, do what gets results, and forget the rest.  If you can’t do pull ups, handstand pushups, throw around heavy kettlebells and sandbags, or farmer walks and various carries then get on it because in the real world it doesn’t matter how much you can one arm dumbbell curl or cable fly.  Bodyweight training and odd object lifting builds real world strength and muscle for the long haul and will take your athletic performance to a new level.

Hybrid and Bodyweight Strength Training For Maximum Results and Health

      My journey to my current hybrid training method began in the winter of 2012.  My passion for everything strength and conditioning related is always leading me to research new ways (at least for me) to get stronger, bigger, and more powerful.  I had just finished my first full season as a college football player at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  After having three ACL tears in three years I was excited to be healthy and ready to take my strength to the next level for the next season.  I fell in love with Olympic style weight training, which concentrates on the snatch and the clean and jerk, as well as their variations.  I immersed myself in Olympic lifting, and tried to learn everything I could about the technique and the style of lifting that produced unbelievable strength and power in top-notch Olympic lifters.  Unfortunately, combined with the training I was doing with my football team in the offseason, I took it too far.  I was stronger then ever before, and was able to achieve a 310 pound front squat and a 410 pound back squat, as well as a 250 pound clean and jerk, but I gave up something far more important, my health.

          What’s the point of having max strength if you’re too injured to use it?  One day I was training with my football team and was deadlifting 430 for my fourth set a three, when I felt a snap in my back.  I figured it was nothing and kept lifting.  The next morning, I could barely move.  I had to literally roll off my bed, I couldn’t tie my shoes to go to work, I couldn’t even sit up at work.  But I was so sure that I could just will myself through it, I kept lifting.  For two weeks I tried to continue to lift in the way I had, with mixed results.  Then one day, which practicing jerks from the box, I felt another snap in my back, this one more pronounced.  I immediately crumbled to the floor.

            Within the next week I began therapy for my back, and was forced to miss multiple spring football practices.  After an MRI, I found out that I had herniated two discs in my lower back.  The damage wasn’t serious, or career threatening, (as herniations go) but it was serious enough that if I didn’t take care of myself, I could do permanent and irreversible damage.  The trainer who had told me three times that I had torn my ACL sat me down and told me I needed to rest and do rehab, and consider a complete stop to heavy lifting in order to regain my health. 

              I was lost.  I had devoted so much time to Olympic lifting and heavy strength training, I didn’t know where to turn.  I loved training and I didn’t want to give it up and become weak and out of shape.  So I began, as I always had, to research.  I decided to go back and listen to and watch the teachings of a man who had helped me get started in kickass strength training years before, Zach Evenesh.  Zach is a strength coach who owns The Underground Strength Gym in Edison, New Jersey.  Years before, his videos had inspired me to work hard and have passion for the gym, to utilize bodyweight training, especially pull ups and its variations, as well as do the basics, like squat, deadlift, and bench press.  In this case, I was inspired by his love of bodyweight training.  He preached the power of bodyweight training, and had, after years of being under the bar, had sustained injuries very similar to mine, and had used bodyweight training to build strength and heal the body and mind.  Having concentrated on lifting heavy for so long, I was concerned about getting away from the barbell, and figured I’d have to sacrifice muscle and strength. 

            I was wrong.  As I did more research, I discovered other trainers and athletes who utilized bodyweight training to do incredible things.  Bar Brothers, Barstarzz, and Calisthenics Kingz, among other “bar athletes” utilized nothing but bodyweight training to build muscle and bodyweight control.  I realized that I hadn’t maximized my bodyweight training.  Bodyweight exercises, which I had always just thought of as push ups, pull ups, split squat jumps, and dips, were varied, intense, and flat out fun.  I began experimenting and practicing handstands, handstand push ups, gymnastics rings dips, L-sits, front and back levers, hand walking on parallel bars, muscle ups, squat jumps, kneeling broad jumps…the list goes on and on.  For most of the summer, I trained outdoors, getting away from the gym in favor of training on my elementary school playground and at the local parks.  Gone were the days of two and three-hour gym grinds using max clean and jerk and back squats.  Now I was working out with speed and intensity, utilizing a single 70 pound kettlebell and a 130 plus pound sandbag and my own bodyweight.  My workouts were no more then an hour long, but I was burning through fat and building athleticism, muscle, and strength like I’d never had before.  I was having fun and getting the results I wanted.  I was hooked.  Slowly, I began to implement barbell squats and deadlifts back into my routine once a week each.  My max strength is returning, and my bodyweight strength and athleticism is at an all time high.  At a bodyweight of 235 pounds, I can see my abdominal muscles for the first time ever, I can do five consecutive muscle ups, nearly 20 straight pullups, full body plyometric push ups, and can deadlift over 400 pounds less than three months after herniating two discs in my lower back.  Most importantly, I can do it all without pain.

       The point is, too many people focus SOLEY on weight training.  Everyday I see people on Facebook talk about how they’re going to the gym to “grind” or workout.  They go and do every conceivable exercise using dumbbells and barbells to attack every single muscle individually from every possible angle thinking that this is the way to strength and size.  Newsflash…they’re wasting their time.  The key to strength, size, and athleticism lies in doing basic athletic movements.  Squats, deadlifts, overhead pressing, and bench press heavy, carry heavy objects like kettlebells and sandbags, and utilize bodyweight and gymnastics movements like front and back levers, handstands, muscle ups, pull ups and push ups, and every conceivable variation of them.  This type of hybrid training builds strength and muscle that’s useful and functional, not that ballooned up bodybuilder crap that has no real use.  Time to man up, and become a stronger and healthier human being.  Invest in bodyweight training, you won’t be disappointed.