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.