Hey everybody.

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week. I am working on a new clothing line. Included are leather head and chest hoods, body chains, and nut-hugging-tight pants, like the image to the right…

Just kidding.

Actually, I have been working my ass off this whole week finishing a product off that I started in 2009.

I’ve had some people asking about it recently, saying it was a logical “next step,” so I figured it was about time for me to get serious and get it done. This should be out next week…

Unforch, I’ve been working so hard that I neglected you and I apologize. I have lots to tell you, so let’s get to it.

Napalm’s Nightmare

First off, if you picked up Home Made Strength II like many other strength enthusiasts, personal trainers, strength coaches, and athletes did, during the introductory sale, then you may have won one of the prizes, a Napalm’s Nightmare device from StrongerGrip Enterprises.

I did the drawing out of my bad ass Diesel Beanie, the last one in stock (claim it here => Diesel Crew Beanie Hat. If you want it, you better hurry. Check out the drawing to see if you won…

Congratulations to the winners. The Napalm’s Nightmare is an AWESOME device when home made by your own hands, but to get one from Ryan Pitts and Stronger Grip, as awesome as his stuff is, that is going to be extraordinary.

Grapple Grips

As you know I have the opportunity to review many products, both informational and equipment products. One of the recent reviews I got to do was for the Grapple Grips, and I must say that I like them. I have done plenty of training with them since getting them and they work great.

Below is the review video. I would have liked to have included some training footage for you guys, but unfortunately it hurts my finger injuries and I didn’t want to push it. I promise when my injuries are resolved I will shoot another video and post it for you guys.

Here are some of the exercises I have done with the Grapple Grips: Pull-ups, Pull-downs, One-Arm Swings (I have done tons of these), Hammer Curls, Waddles, and Flexed Arm Hangs. All of them were awesome. Like I said in the video, I got one of the biggest sizes to work my hands hard. You will probably want to get smaller ones if you do not have porno thumbs and banana fingers like me…

AJ Roberts Interview

On Monday, I interviewed AJ Roberts, who is probable the strongest guy I have ever sat down and had a cup of coffee with. He recently competed in the SPF (Southern Powerlifting Federation) and broke a World Record for Total (Squat + Deadlift + Bench Press).

The thing I grilled him on in particular is the mental side of his training and how he approaches it all so that he can perform at an Elite Level. The stuff he passed on to me was awesome. One thing in particular that he told me I was instantly able to implement and it helped me accomplish a substantial PR in my training.

If you want this interview, all I am asking is that you sign up for me new newsletter. You HAVE to be signed up for this newsletter in order to get this interview. If you signed up for the recent Home Made Strength II release or the Muscle Building Giveaway at the top of the page, that won’t work. You HAVE to fill out the boxes below.

I really want to keep in contact with you all when I dump this old email system, so please sign up.

The information in this interview will help you out in your strength training, your job, and any other facet of your life in which you want to perform at a high level so don’t miss out.

That’s about it for right now guys. Like I said, I am sorry for leaving the site so stagnant this week. I can ensure you that I have been plugging away!

All the best in your training.

Jedd

DIESEL MINDSET Part 2

Check out Part I = > Diesel Mindset Part I

If you are reading this site, then chances are you take your training very seriously.

You maintain a very tight training schedule.

You watch your diet, eating and hydrating for sustained high performance.

You track your training results, whether formally or informally.

You take each set and each rep seriously.

And if you are someone who is serious about their training, you know that FAILURE is occasionally a part of the equation.

Sometimes when people FAIL at a lift or MISS their desired reps in a set, it can really have an effect on them.

That set can linger in the back of their mind and have a negative effect on the rest of the workout.

There’s no place for negative thinking in a serious strength or muscle building program.

You have got to move past that sh*t and not let it eat you up inside or else it is going to hold you back.

It’s time to change your MINDSET and look at failure, misses, and other non-successes differently.

Next time you miss a lift or fail to hit your mark, whether it is a squat, deadlift, bench, snatch, clean, press, curl, push-down, pinch lift, gripper attempt, etc, you need to approach it like this:

MISSES ARE JUST WARM-UPS

You missed a lift – JUST A WARM-UP – get it next time.

You didn’t hit depth – JUST A WARM-UP – get it next time.

You lost the jerk out in front – JUST A WARM-UP – get it next time.

The fact of the matter is, sometimes it’s just “not in the cards” for you to hit that big lift or set that big PR.

There are so many variables that impact performance and if just one of those is slightly off that day, it can affect your upper range lifts.

Factors Affecting Performance

• Hydration Status
• Nutrition the day of the workout and days before
• State of Warm-up / Excitation
• Spinal / Joint Alignment
• Recent Sleeping Patterns
• Recent Stress Levels

That’s a lot of stuff to have all in line. Not everyone is going to keep all of those points in order, every day and some are completely OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.

Now, I guarantee you can think of a time where you missed a lift, re-grouped, and then came back and hit it for a successful lift.

The fact is, your body may need an extra attempt in order get ready to do something amazing.

That little thing that is “off” might actually get corrected during your miss and you might be ready to set a new milestone if you try it one more time.

So does it make any sense at all to just stop trying something because you failed at it one time???

Below is an example from a recent training session where I failed, MULTIPLE TIMES, but just kept on going and ended up setting a substantial PR for volume.

I was lifting what is called a Fatman Blob Clone.

It is an iron weight that is cast from a mold from an Original Fat Man Blob. I don’t know the actual weight, but Clones are much harder to lift than other Blobs because they ended up coming out bigger and they surely seem heavier as well.

More info on “the Clone” = > Blob and Clone Facts

Here’s the video from that workout where I talk a little bit more about the concept Misses are Just Warm-ups.

When you push yourself to new heights, Failure is a part of the game.

Misses are part of the game.

However, Misses don’t have to be the end of the game.

MISSES ARE JUST WARM-UPS.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

I have a confession to make.

For years, I thought warming up was a joke – a waste of time. DUMB.

Trainers like Guy Razy would come to train with us and show us cool warm-up drills, and I would ignore them. DUMB.

Guys like Coach Mike wrote me emails telling me I needed to improve my flexibility and mobility and I put it off. DUMB.

Smitty and Brad told me how much better they felt after incorporating more of this stuff into their training and I ignored them. DUMB.

It wasn’t until more than a year later when Smitty and Brad actually ran me through a battery of intense warming up that I realized what I was missing. Now I warm-up intensely every single workout.

In addition to warm-up and dynamic flexibility strategies to get ready to WREAK HAVOC, I’ve also found that I respond well to jumping exercises before hitting the weights.

I’ve always loved jumping, but unfortunately my ceiling is too low for me to leap up on top of jump boxes, so that’s out of the question.

But I recently found something just as good. You’ve probably heard them called Kneeling Jumps, but I call them Up Downs.

Up Downs spark the Central Nervous System BIG TIME.

After doing these, I am ready to DROP BOMBS. I feel more aware, more focused, and I have hit several PR’s since including them. I want you to try these out.

How to Perform Up Downs

You may have seen these done differently elsewhere, but this is how I do them. This way actually makes it harder to perform them, causing you to work just a bit harder, focus more deeply, and as a result, pushing you to a better warm-up finisher.

Starting Position:

Kneel down on the gym floor, placing your entire shin flat on the ground, plantar flexing the foot. This position takes your ankles out of the movement and forces you to engage everything else more intensely.

Power Transfer:

It is imperative to get the arms involved in the movement in order to generate the power to get up off the ground and to the landing position. Swing them back to engage a sretch reflex, then fire your leg and glute power to drive yourself upwards.

Recovery Position:

Once airborne, you must pull your feet out from under you to stick the landing. Try to land as quietly as possible to absorb the energy, and get into an athletic position, like a puma ready to pounce on its prey.

Here’s a quick video demo showing some of the stuff I have done to modify Up Downs even more.

If you’re like me and have hated and dreaded warm-up, you should try this out.

Go through some dynamic warm-up and mobility stuff and then finish it off with some Up Downs or something similar to really prime the CNS. I think you’ll be surprised how good you feel.

Try them and let me know what you think. I think you’ll have a KICK-ASS workout setting MONSTER PR’s.

All the best,

Jedd

Innovative Sled Dragging

Slosh Sled Dragging for Functional Strength

by Jim Smith, CSCS, RKC

Check out my latest article that was posted on Elite Fitness!  It involves a very unique sled dragging variation you have never seen.  I liken it to cutting for football or explosive dribbling in basketball, but the carry over is for all sports.

Non-linear, non-patterned sled dragging is the key to preparing the body, the joints and developing functional strength.  Truly bridging the gap between GPP and SPP.

SEE THE FULL ARTICLE HERE – CLICK HERE

Slosh Sled Dragging

Get Lean/ Get Strong

By John Alvino

It has been stated that a non-chemically enhanced lifter cannot get stronger while on a fat loss program.

The popular justification for this claim is that in order to lose fat, you need to create a caloric deficit through dieting and higher volume training. And caloric deficits are NOT conducive to gaining strength or building muscle.

This is why when most people want to get stronger and/or bigger, they go on a high calorie diet and reduce their training volume. Unfortunately, this usually results in unwanted gains in body fat. It’s a classic catch 22 scenario.

Then, when they try to drop their recently gained body fat, they usually follow a typical fat loss protocol (low carbs/low calorie diets, high intensity cardio, high volume resistance training), and although they may lose some fat, they can kiss their strength gains goodbye. And then they are right back where they started.

Does it have to be this way? Or can you lose your unwanted body fat while INCREASING your strength simultaneously? The good news is yes: you can (and should) increase strength while decreasing body fat.

In order to accomplish this, you must focus on three different aspects. Here they are:

1) Target the nervous system with your training - To a large degree, your strength is a function of the efficiency of your nervous system. This is because your nervous system is responsible for synchronizing and activating your motor units. For those of you who don’t know, a motor unit consists of a bunch of muscle fibers and a motor nerve cell.

Increased synchronization and activation basically means you will be able to utilize more motor units per contraction. This phenomenon will increase your strength dramatically.

How do you target the nervous system? Well, there are two ways to make significant neural gains.

The first is to lift heavy weights. In fact, the weights must be 85% or more of your 1 rep max. This will result in performing sets of 1-5 reps each.

The second way is to move the resistance at high speeds. Any type of explosive movement will do the trick here. Examples of explosive movements are jumping, plyo pushups, Olympic exercises and various med ball drills.

It is important to note that the nervous system can take up to 10 times longer to recover than the muscular system can. Therefore, in order to maximize this training technique, you should be sure to get near full recovery in between sets. For an experienced lifter, this could result in up to 4-5 minutes between sets.

2) Maintain or increase your lean muscle mass. This is critical, because even if you make neurological gains, you can still compromise your strength if you lose muscle tissue.

There are two things you must do to increase muscle mass during your fat loss program.

The first muscle boosting trick will involve your nutrition. The key is to NEVER stay sub caloric (below maintenance level of calories) or carb depleted for more than 3 consecutive days. Obviously you will need to reduce calories in order to lose fat.

Just don’t keep them low every day. Keeping them low everyday will result in losses in lean muscle mass. Instead, lower your calories and carbs on light training or off days and then INCREASE both carbs and calories on HEAVY training days.

The second trick is to include some hypertrophy sets in your routine. Hypertrophy sets involve using a weight which allows you to get 6-10 repetitions. The key is to keep the volume low on these sets.

Do not exceed more than 4 total hypertrophy sets for each movement pattern. More than that can result in overtraining and/or muscle loss.

Additionally, these sets should ALWAYS follow your heavier neural sets.

3) Stay hydrated and nutrient loaded. Training at high intensities while dieting can result in dehydration. This will decrease your strength and thus negatively impact your workouts and future gains.

The obvious way to try and combat this is to drink plenty of water. Be sure to drink a daily minimum of half of your bodyweight in ounces of water. Although drinking a sufficient amount of water is important, it is not enough all by itself to maintain a high level of strength performance.

Additionally, 30-45 minutes before your heavy workouts, consume a liquid meal consisting of 30 grams of protein, 500 mg of magnesium, ¼ tsp of salt, 5 grams of glutamine, 5 grams of BCAA’S and 60 grams of carbs.

This will help jam nutrients into the body, thus improving workout performance.

I have used this protocol with great success with many of my clients. But just recently, I put this protocol to the test on myself for 6 weeks. Here are my results:

Starting weight – 211lbs

Finishing Weight - 202lbs

Starting Body Fat% – 13%

Finishing Body Fat% – 8 ½ %

Trap Bar Deadlift Starting Max – 505lbs

Trap Bar Deadlift Finishing Max – 545lbs

I also did a Trap Bar Deadlift rep test. The test was simply 405 for max reps. At the beginning of this program, I was able to get 11 reps. After just 6 weeks, I was able to pull 20. Here is the video:

405lb Trap Bar Deads for 20 Reps!

I also performed a similar before and after test using a Military Press.

Standing Military Starting Max – 175lbs

Standing Military Starting Max – 205lbs

Those were the only two exercises I took maxes on. These are very good results. For strength athletes, the benefits of this protocol are obvious. But this is incredibly beneficial to anyone who looking to lose body fat as well. Give this protocol a try, You’ll be glad you did!

About the Author

John Alvino is a strength And Conditioning Coach, Fat Loss Coach, Vegetarian, Fitness Author, MMA Junkie, Ex Convict and Pit Bull Advocate from Morristown, NJ

Get his killer new FREE report at www.johnalvino.com