Bulking up and eating like crazy, to pack on serious mass, is one of the most controversial topics in bodybuilding today…

Some people say bulking is a thing of the past… others say it’s a necessary evil for serious gains, and insanely effective way to pack on serious mass.

Honestly, I am a firm believer that you can gain muscle without having to put much fat on. Yes, there will be some fat gain but you can keep it to a minimum while you aim to put on muscle/size.

This is pretty important, especially considering athletes who wish to put on more muscle without adding unnecessary body fat that could put a damper on their speed and power..

Speaking of that topic, you can download a couple of FREE reports that talk about this very subject from Vince Del Monte and Lee Hayward.

No e-mail address needed, just simply click the links below to get ‘em!

The Death of Bulking <—- Click to Download!

The Anabolic Amplifier Effect <—- Click to Download!

Let me know what you thought in the comments section below! What do you think? Can you gain muscle without fat, or is traditional bulking the way to go?

When people ask me how to build big triceps I respond with two simple words; “do dips.” Do dips and do a lot of them. Why, you ask? Have you seen the triceps development on male gymnasts lately? The dip is basically the only true triceps move they do and they are absolutely jacked with huge, thick, horseshoe triceps. Whenever you use your bodyweight for resistance or bodyweight plus additional resistance via a chin/dip belt or weight vest, you activate a much greater number of muscle fibers than you would if you simply used a machine. Machines do not recruit the smaller stabilizer muscles and do not force the muscles to contract naturally as they would in real life. Whenever possible you want to try to move your body instead of simply moving the arm or attachment on a machine. And although free weight exercises are very effective and a much better option than training on a machine, moving your own bod will always reign supreme when it comes to building muscle.

Dips can be performed on parallel bars or, if you are really strong, gymnastics rings. Be sure to squeeze the bars tightly, brace your abs as if you were about to be punched and lower yourself no lower than the point where your triceps are parallel with the ground. Going lower than that puts too much stress on the shoulders and getting the extra stretch is not worth the risk of an injury.

Dips can be performed three times per week as a beginner. After a few months of that I don’t think you will be confused about how to build big triceps anymore. When you get more advanced it is recommended to cut your dips down to twice per week. Although I used to love weighted dips and routinely had many of my clients perform them with numerous 45 pound plates strapped to their waists I have found, over the years, that there is simply too great a risk of injury with heavy weighted dips and now do not allow anyone in my gym to do dips with more than just one 45 pound plate. Anything beyond that seems to get too risky.

For intermediate lifters you could do one day heavy, where you add resistance to your weight belt, and one day light where you simply rep out with bodyweight. The two days should be about 72 hours apart. Once you get strong enough to do a 45 pound plate you will probably only want to use weighted dips as a rep exercise and not a heavy strength movement anymore.

To make dips more difficult without adding more weight, try doing them on gymnastics rings or on straps. You can also try holding your legs straight out directly in front of you as well. Either option will be very challenging and are great muscle builders.

Aside from dips, the next best muscle building exercise for the triceps is a reduced range of motion close grip bench press or some variation of it. The top half of the bench press really focuses the stress on the triceps which is why you want to limit the range when training simply to increase the size of your arms. To do this you can set pins in a power rack or have a partner hold a few two by fours on your chest. These are called board presses. Three, four and five boar presses are awesome for building huge triceps and should be incorporated into your routine on a regular basis. When you get too strong to go heavy on dips without risking a shoulder injury, make board presses your heavy triceps movement and dips your light triceps movement. Keep pushing up the weight and reps and pretty soon people will be asking you about how to build big triceps like yours.

Train hard,

Jason Ferruggia

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/

By Travis Stoetzel CSCS

Travis Stoetzel practicing what he preaches!

Bodyweight training is the oldest and one of the most effective means of adding muscle and strength to

the body. For athletes, bodyweight training should be an essential tool. Lots of athletes and trainees alike by-pass bodyweight training all together to hit the “big” weight in thinking that lifting heavy weights is the key to

all muscle and strength building. This concept is way wrong!

Bodyweight training alone has so many different variations and modifications that an athlete or trainee could actually go without lifting heavy weights for a long time and still manage to build lots of muscle and strength fast.

Lifting weights should still be apart of a serious athlete’s and trainee’s core regiment, but if heavy weight’s aren’t available, here’s 7 different ways how you can add muscle and strength via body weight training modifications.

1) Explosive – Plyometric Bodyweight Exercises are key to fast strength and muscle gain!

Instead of doing the normal slow paced bodyweight movements, try adding in explosive movements such as squat jumps, lunge jumps, plyo push ups, and even explosive pull ups and rows.

The science behind explosive movement training, or plyometrics is when you perform movements at the highest velocity possible, you recruit close to all of your muscle fibers which in short, will help increase strength and muscle gain. Throw plyometric movements into the first part of your training workouts for best rests and keep the rep range around 5-8 and no more.

2) Adding Chain Resistance – Adding in resistance in the form of chains help blow your muscle and strength gain through the roof with bodyweight training.

Normal push ups and all of it variations can get a little dull and unproductive at times. What you can do to change all of that is add in chains for more resistance and challenge.

Simply throw the chains around your next and hit your normal push ups. You can also add in chains for squats, lunges, rows, pull ups.

The best chains to get are the thicker versions with 1 inch to 1/2 inch thickness that are usually 2 feet in length and weight around 20-25 lbs each.

Chains are easily removable or added in to the different bodyweight movements which make them even more useful.

3) Suspended Bodyweight Training – Using Blast Strap and TRX are two ways to add in suspended bodyweight training for strength and muscle gain.

What suspension training is in a nutshell, is when part or all of the body is suspended above ground. This forces the body to work extremely hard to perform normal movements such as push ups, rows, single leg squats variations, and even plank and other abdominal movements. Using the TRX and Blast Straps are great ways to challenge the whole body and add in muscle and strength fast. Make sure to give it a try!

4) No More Failure - Stop training bodyweight movements to failure all the time. This will actually decrease results.

When you go to failure, you fatigue your body down to the point where it can be a huge stress on the body. When you do this set after set after set, your body begins to get highly over trained. This is no good.

You body only gets stronger at rest and only grows muscle when at rest. The more you train to failure, the more rest and recovery time you take away from you body.

A good rule of thumb is to “leave a few reps in the tank”. Go until your movement slows down and when you have to start grinding out reps, stop. Stay a little bit fresh.

This will be hard at first because so many people are used to training to failure on everything they train for on every set.

Give it a try and your results will prosper!

5) Go Solo – Use single arm and single leg variations to blow through plateaus and increase strength and muscle even more.

When you basic two arm, two leg movements get easy, why not take it to the next level and hit single arm and leg variations of the same movements?

You’re results will only go up!

For example, when you hit a plateau with your push ups, try hitting single arm variations for about 3-4 weeks. Yeah, your reps won’t be anywhere close to your two arm reps, but trust me when I say your strength will go up for sure!

You can do the same with pull ups too!

Another way to go is with your two legged bodyweight movements. take your normal squats and do your single leg squat or pistol squat variation for 3-4 weeks.

You’ll come back and each leg singly will be stronger and you’ll pack on more muscle faster.

Challenge yourself with single arm and leg movements and variations for extreme gains in strength and muscle.

Well, there you have it; 5 ways to take your bodyweight training to new heights!

Give them a try and you’ll see your muscle building and strength go through the roof in no time at all!

About the author:

Travis is a highly unconventional hardcore strength and conditioning specialist that focuses in on serious athletes and trainees to help them improve their overall performance and physique. He specializes training athletes specifically in aggressive sports such as wrestling, MMA, and football. Travis does this with “underground” type training methods including strongman, kettlebell, ropes, chains, bodyweight, Olympic lifting, sandbags, sleds, and tires.

He own a small hardcore gym in Omaha NE, called The Forged Athlete where he helps athletes and serious trainees alike accomplish their performance and physique enhancement goals.

For more information on Travis, go to his personal blog at http://www.travisstoetzel.com and look into all of the other articles, posts, and videos available.

His Omaha NE Gym website is located at http://www.theforgedathlete.com

Let’s face it… building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

So, I’m going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises. It doesn’t matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle… big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It’s easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):

* upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),

* upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),

* upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),

* upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)

* lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)

* lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)

* lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)

* abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements… your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2. Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism. You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train. My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don’t interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity. The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program — caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3. Eat clean with quality whole foods… REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement “stacks” that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag… Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you’ll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you’ve never seen before!

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Mike Geary

Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

Author – The Truth about Six Pack Abs

**Below is a guest post from Mike Westerdal, owner and creator of CriticalBench.com

Enjoy,

-John Cortese

For a lot of bodybuilders, competitive athletes and guys who just like to work out, sore muscles are the marker for a “good” workout. If you’re muscles aren’t sore the next day or the day after that, then you probably didn’t work out hard enough-that’s what a lot of us have been taught to believe, anyway. But is that really true? Is it necessary for us to train hard enough so that every time we work out our muscles are sore? Let’s find out.

For years, fitness and medical experts thought that sore muscles were the result of lactic acid building up after an intense training sessions. Lactic acid is produced when you exercise or lift really intensely-when the muscles are screaming for more oxygen than what the blood can possibly deliver at that moment. Because the body can’t deliver the oxygen the muscles want, it compensates by beginning another process-one that works in the absence of oxygen. Lactic acid is a by-product of this process. And since it is an acid, it causes us to “feel the burn.”

So while on the surface it seems to make sense that lactic acid could be the culprit in causing sore muscles after an intense training session, it’s just not so. In reality, the lactic acid gets washed away from the muscles pretty quickly-it doesn’t hang around for hours or days. But, the muscle soreness we’re talking about here doesn’t show up for anywhere from as little as 8 to up to 36 hours after we train. So if can’t be lactic acid causing the soreness, what is it?

Modern science points to micro-traumas…

..as the real perpetrator that causes the post-training muscle soreness. Micro-traumas are just what they sound like: small abrasions, tears or otherwise localized damage to muscle fibers-specifically, the membranes and contractile elements. Researchers have taken biopsies of muscles suffering from training-induced micro-traumas discovering that the z-bands were bleeding, causing their function to be disrupted.

The z-bands are filaments that hold the muscle fibers together as they slide over one another while contracting. When they’re damaged and bleeding-even though it’s microscopic-the muscle fibers become swollen and of course, sore.

They’ve even found a way to evaluate just how badly the muscles have been damaged by measuring the level of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) in the bloodstream. CPK is normally found inside of the muscle fibers but the when the fibers are damaged the CPK is released into the bloodstream. The higher the level of CPK in the bloodstream, the greater the damage to the muscles, which means more soreness.

Some people say that stretching after you train can alleviate the severity of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)-which is what it’s being called these days. However, knowing what we now know about what causes the soreness, we realize that this just isn’t true. While stretching-before and after a workout-is always a good idea, it won’t do much of anything to reduce or eliminate sore muscles the following day because micro-traumas are the real source of the pain, not lactic acid.

So is muscle soreness necessary? The answer is that to some degree yes, it is needed. It’s the stress or trauma that comes from lifting hard and heavy that causes our muscles to grow and become stronger. If you never train to the point where your muscles are sore the next day then the truth is, you’re not training hard enough-and you’re not seeing the results you’d probably like to see. On the other hand, ignoring the soreness and forging blindly ahead training “through the pain” is not the answer either. If you don’t pay attention to what your body is saying, you’ll pay the price sooner or later and wind up injuring yourself-possibly very seriously.

The secret to managing the soreness is two-fold:

1) increase your workload gradually. Don’t try and show off by making huge leaps in the amount of weight you’re lifting-give your muscles time to adapt.

2) Allow your body plenty of time to rest and recover between training sessions. Remember, the rest and recovery part of bodybuilding is equally as important as the lifting weights part. It’s during this process that you’re muscles are actually growing-not when you’re working out.

So while it shouldn’t really be your goal to completely eliminate training-induced muscle soreness it is important to know that you can manage it and minimize its impact on your body and your training routine.

Is a “Pump” Needed to Build Muscle?

By Jason Ferruggia

Who could ever forget that famous line from Pumping Iron where Arnold said that getting a good pump was better than sex?

We all laughed, although some of us harder than others, because deep down we agreed with what he said. But after all these years, the question still remains- is a good pump a defining component of a productive muscle building workout. Is it really that important?

Some people emphatically state that getting a good pump is necessary if you want to build muscle. There are no studies that show this to be true, but real world evidence shows that there is something to getting a good pump. First of all, the ability to easily obtain a good pump is a sign that your body is in an anabolic state and ready to train. It shows us that the body and the cells are well hydrated and ready to grow.

Some days, you go to the gym and can’t get a pump no matter what you do. Those are days that you probably shouldn’t even be training. Your body is telling you something, and that something is that you are not in an anabolic state, probably not fully recovered, and you are not ready to train. In other words you will not be building muscle on that day.

As far as the pump having an anabolic effect, this is debatable, but most bodybuilders swear that there is something to it. When you get a good pump, you are delivering tons of nutrient-rich blood to the muscles that will greatly increase amino-acid uptake. Theoretically, this should result in a greater anabolic effect.

The kind of training that stimulates a good pump causes sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy. This is the kind of hypertrophy which is lost very quickly when you stop training. It is completely different from myofibrillar hypertrophy, which comes from heavy training and lasts much longer. However, sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy is necessary if you want to be as big as humanly possible.

So, while it isn’t proven by science, there is probably something to gain from getting a good pump. Having said that, I definitely wouldn’t make it the focus of your workout. Chasing the pump and disregarding all of the principles of effective training is one of the biggest mistakes you can make and will do nothing to help you build lean muscle.

You can get a great pump from doing 50 pushups but everyone knows that’s not going to build muscle. Just mindlessly pursuing a pump will get you nowhere and may even cause losses in size and strength. However, after you have done the bulk of your workout you can always finish with a backoff set, a rest/pause set or even an occasional drop set to maximize your pump and thus maximize your body’s muscle building potential.

For example, on your chest workout you could do a couple heavy sets on the bench press for 5-6 reps and then finish with one higher rep set of 8-12 on dips to get a great pump. If you do this you hit a variety of muscle fibers and target both types of hypertrophy. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Remember, it isn’t necessary and should never be the focus of your workouts (heavy training should) but getting a good pump tells you that you’re ready to build muscle and can even maximize your potential to do so.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Muscle Building Nutrition

By: Jason Ferruggia

It has been said that nutrition is responsible for 80% of your muscle building results. I think that is dramatically overstating it but nutrition is critically important to your muscle building efforts. Without proper nutrition you will never build the physique you desire. Below are a few easy to follow nutrition rules that will help you get bigger and leaner. Follow these rules and you will reach your goals, ignore them and you could be in for years of frustration.

• Eat every 2-3 hours. Doing this keeps your body in an anabolic state and keeps your metabolism running along at high speeds so that you don’t get fat. If you need 3,000 calories per day to build muscle, it is much more effective to have five 600 calorie meals or six five hundred calorie meals than it is to have three big 1,000 calorie meals. Doing that leads to fat accumulation and also has you going too long without eating which only leads to muscle loss.

• Build your meals around a base of lean protein. Protein is what builds muscle, so every time you sit down to eat you should be consuming some kind of protein. That should be the main focus of each meal. Once you have that covered you can add in starchy carbs, vegetables and good fats. As far as daily protein requirements go, you should shoot for one gram per pound of bodyweight per day. The only time you would need more than this is when you are dieting and your carbs are extremely low.

• Eat vegetables at every meal except breakfast. Not only are vegetables incredibly healthy because they provide tons of nutrients and fiber but they also slow down the absorption of your meals leading to less bodyfat accumulation.

• Eat organic foods whenever possible. There is so much artificial crap in the food we eat these days that it is really a very wise decision to eat organic as often as you can. This includes meats, fruits, veggies and grains.

• Avoid sugars, artificial sweeteners and saturated fats as much as possible. The consumption of sugar and saturated fat is what leads to numerous health problems and diseases. Too much saturated fat and sugar consumption also leads to inflammation in the body and can actually worsen nagging injuries and lead to other aches and pains. Many people actually notice a reduction in back pain once they cut saturated fat and sugar from their diet. Some saturated fat in meats is ok from time to time, but you should really try to cut out the sugar and artificial sweeteners. Although they don’t talk about it much in this country there is plenty of evidence that artificial sweeteners are not the least bit healthy.

• Eat most of your carbs at breakfast and immediately before and after your workout. Those are the times when your insulin sensitivity is highest and when you will use carbs most efficiently with the least risk for body fat gain. Don’t be scared to eat carbs at this time because most of them will be used for building muscle and will not usually add to body fat accumulation.

• Drink at least a half gallon of water per day. Doing this keeps you well hydrated which keeps your performance levels high. Even a slight drop in hydration will cause a drop in performance. A half gallon is a good start but a gallon is usually better, especially in the summer.

• Pay strict attention to your sodium intake. When I say that I mean it in the opposite way that most people and doctors would think I mean it. I mean that you must be sure that your sodium intake is adequate. This is especially true for athletes who play in the summer time when it’s hot out and you are sweating a lot. Without adequate sodium intake, your performance can suffer drastically. Adequate sodium levels also help to maintain strength levels while dieting.

About the author:

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more muscle building nutritional tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Especially if your goals are to lose body fat.. But not at the price of getting weak and smaller in the process.

How you can simultaneously lose fat, get in killer shape, and still build muscle and strength at the same time?

The answer lies in how you CONDITION. I recently got my hands on a copy of strength coach and owner of Synergy Athletics in New York, Joe Hashey’s Bull Strength Conditioning Manual.. And let me tell you…

I am being 100% completely honest that this is probably one of the greatest manuals on the exact subject we talked about above.. No matter if you’re a current athlete or want to get back into “athlete-like” conditioning, this is THE book you’ve waited for. Think you can’t get a killer 10-15 minute workout in? This manual proves that completely WRONG. And with over 23 done-for-you workouts ready to plug and play, you basically have an entire 1-2 months work done and ready to implement right away.

My review: Go to this link here ==> Bull Strength Condtioning and check out why I think this is a MUST have. I approve 100% of it, Joe Hashey is one of the smartest dudes in the strength and conditioning industry right now. He’s one who “gets it” when athletes or former athletes want to get in kick ass shape. Look, as readers of my blog, some of you may or may be familar with Joe; but if you haven’t I highly suggest getting over to Synergy-Athletics.com and Bull Strength Conditioning website to see what it’s all about!

Again, just go here ==> Bull Strength Conditioning to see what I’m talking about.

See ya!

John Cortese

I want you.. To quit the damn whining! Thanks

If you want something, how are YOU going to make it happen? Look, nobody owes you anything. This video inspires the hell out of me. I’m sure we’ve all had an excuse to WHY you can’t workout because..

I don’t have a gym..

I’m too old/out of shape/lazy…

I can’t because (irrelevant excuse)

Make it happen, someway, somehow! When there’s a will, there’s a way. Get better today, and every day after!

Enjoy this video from strength coach Matt Wichlinski who owns  his own warehouse gym in Virginia Beach, VA. If you’re in that area, get over to his facility right now!

You can get a kick ass workout practically anywhere if you’re creative enough!

See ya!

John Cortese

Enjoy!

-John Cortese

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Carry Like Crazy!
By Zach Even – Esh
UndergroundStrengthManual.com

The simplest movements can often yield the most powerful results. Is this why I never saw anyone doing farmer walks with the 180 lb dumbbells at some gyms I’ve been to?

Or heavy rack pulls, heavy squats, heavy military presses (standing not seated) or heavy barbell rows?

These movements pack on the real muscle and make you stronger than a Bull! What about farmer walks with the farmer walk bars?

I snagged a great pair of farmer handles from http://elitefts.com

I used the econo farmer bars and they arrived 2 days later! These long bars make the carries much harder and really hammer the lower body. Normally we used our 130 lb dumbbells or heavy kettlebells but these long bars were different and better for full body work!

You can also perform the other basic carries with dumbbells and sandbags. These movements will develop full body strength and you want to include these HEAVY in your workouts on a regular basis. These are the basics. After the basics you can start getting more advanced by using cross carries or mixed carries. I’m talking about zercher carries and bear hug carries using sandbags or carrying a stone around the backyard in between sets of kettlebell work.

The cross carries can be used with dumbbells, kettlebells and even sandbags. All you need to do is hold them in two different positions. This awkward loading of the body strengthens the muscles and the body from unique angles that don’t get worked through traditional movements.

Some more of my favorite are rack walk + overhead carries or overhead and farmer walk mixed together.

Carrying heavy objects of any type are awesome for full body strength development and work capacity.

In addition, the first rep of every set is some form of a power clean and / or deadlift just to get the weight off the ground. Putting the weights down requires control, so no dropping, only squatting / deadlifting the weights down under control.

I’ve met some seriously strong men who never touch free weights, their strength came from manual labor carrying objects, lifting them, throwing them, power cleaning them into truck beds, etc.

The guy who used to pick up our garbage when we were remodeling our house had an old pick up truck, it seriously looked like Steve Justa’s truck!

This guy’s name was Tony. Tony picked up junk for people as a side job, but it was always heavy stuff. Odd objects that makes you stronger than a freight train.

He would pick up all our stuff: toilet bowls, dish washers, heavy contractor bags filled with sheet rock, an old deck and more! I remember talking to him about strength training (as I always did) while we were loading his pick up with 20 + bags of sheet rock. He was holding one bag with a straight arm as he causally spoke with me! I was using two arms and my entire body to heave those bags up and I was starting to sweat bullets.

Tony was used to carrying car parts, scrap metal and other seriously heavy and odd objects. Essentially, all he did was carry junk. But, remember, like I said, when you carry objects, you power clean them up / down as well as deadlift the weight up / down.

It can’t get any simpler than that!

Now it’s time you begin to carry some odd objects!

About the Author
Zach Even – Esh is a Strength & Performance Coach from Edison, NJ and is the owner of The Underground Strength Gym and creator of the Underground Strength Manual. Zach’s Underground methods have spanned the globe and have helped men and women of all ages to dramatically improve athletic performance, pack on rugged muscle and develop brute strength. Zach is the Strength & Conditioning advisor for TapOuT Magazine and is also a featured writer for Men’s Fitness Magazine. To learn more about Zach and his methods visit UndergroundStrengthManual.com