John Greaves III's Blog, page 20

Garage Gym Athlete Profile: Always Get Better Stronger

Back in the day as a bodybuilder

@alwaysgetbetterstronger is one of those Instagram guys who is so awesome you wonder to yourself, “Why doesn’t this guy have more followers? He’s doing such cool stuff!” Or at least I did. So when I wanted a garage gym athlete to break down kettlebells and how to start training with them, Rob was the first person I thought of. Read on to find out about this stay at home dad with the cool training videos and how to start your journey to always get better, stronger!

Who Am I

My strength journey began back in 1992. I sat in the basement and read a book by Charles Atlas and starting practicing calisthenics and dynamic tension. I continued reading about strength, but my focus switched to a bodybuilding style. I continued training in the basement for 4 years before I joined a gym. From there I worked at gyms (many positions, multiple gyms) and supplement stores and became more knowledgeable about working out in a bodybuilding style format. During college I competed in a couple of bodybuilding NPC shows. The gym was a way of life and I loved it! After almost two decades of training like a bodybuilder I had the opportunity to train with a multiple world record holding powerlifter. I really enjoyed it and caught the powerlifting bug. I competed in a few WABDL and 100% raw powerlifting competitions.

with Pavel Tsatsouline and Andy Bolton

In May of 2014 I had the opportunity to go to a seminar on powerlifting put on by Andy Bolton. At the time I was very interested in deadlifting, and was very excited to learn from him. He was co-teaching with Pavel Tsastouline. To me learning from Pavel was also a big deal; I had read many of his books. Previous to this seminar, I had been interested in learning kettlebells but had never seriously pulled the trigger. This seminar reignited my interest. I enjoyed how Pavel explained and taught things and several of the attendees were certified in kettlebells via StrongFirst SFG (Pavel’s company). To get certified you must attend a 3 day certification weekend. They review the skills, refine when necessary, have you go through some pretty tough workouts, have you demonstrate teaching, and then the last day is the test day. But it isn’t something you want to walk into unprepared.

Breaking Down Kettlebells Barney Style

Keeping things simple: there are 2 kinds of kettlebell lifts, Grinds and ballistics. The grinds are the getup, military press, and the front squat. The ballistics are the swing, clean, and the snatch. For your test you demonstrate your technique/form for all the lifts. And you perform 100 snatches in 5 minutes. To determine the weight of the kettlebell you will use, you just reference their chart on their website. It is based on gender, body-weight, and there are senior(s) listings as well. Because I had been lifting for over 2 decades the grinds felt easy; but the ballistics were brutal. My ego made me reluctant to seek out professional help. But I continued to make many mistakes practicing the ballistics (bruises, torn hands). I signed up for a Kettlebell User Course. Strongfirst has a one day user course that goes over the basics. It’s not a certification, but it helps get you started, even if you are only interested in personal usage. It was helpful. After the course I got some additional 1 on 1 training to get better at the ballistics. After I got certified through StrongFirst SFG I went back to barbell training.

My Journey Back Home

The goal was never to be a kettlebell guy, it was to learn another strength tool. Plus as this was the most difficult certification I had ever received it was sort of a badge of honor. So back to the grind! I was a personal trainer at a busy gym in Southern California. The gym was always busy! One day after I waited WAY too long for a barbell, I threw my kettlebell in my truck and drove to the park to practice my kettlebell skills. It was awesome! From that point on I was working out with my kettlebells at the park or the beach most days. I would get mad when it rained, because I had to go workout in the gym. As weird as it sounds, it felt liberating. Not having to wait for anyone, not having to worry about anyone walking into you mid set (yes that happened). I originally started working out in the basement, so non-gym workouts sort of felt like a come back. Now at first it might be easy to look at the typical kettlebell weights and think the weight may be easy. But it’s all in how you practice. In StrongFirst we practice what is called hardstyle. It means in your practice you are focusing to squeeze all the energy out of each repetition. When you are practicing your military press: you are pressurizing your mid-section, squeezing your glutes, and driving you legs into the floor. After the press, you actively pull the negative back down with your lat. So instead of a lackadaisical dumbbell press I use to do – it’s nearly full body tension. That takes some practice, but that is the goal.

When my son was born, kettlebells were a huge asset. As you could imagine, no one in the house was getting much sleep, and I didn’t have the luxury to leave for my leisurely beach workouts. Pavel has a program called Simple and Sinister. Basically you are practicing the swing and the getup. You practice everyday. It takes less than 25 minutes including warmup (of course you could take longer if you needed). You start with 50 swings and 5 getups per arm. The program progresses and has “Simple” and “Sinister” goals to achieve (which have time limits and kettlebell size goals). The great thing was that it was quick, it was simple to practice, and it is as difficult as you make it. Because you control the dial of your intensity.

Now my son is over a year old and I am a stay home dad. On a typical day I will work on 2 skills and a conditioning routine. I could easily break that into 3 workouts of 20 ish minutes each; or do the whole thing. It all depends on the mood of my little guy. The skills

Click to view slideshow.

I practice are: getups, pressing variation, squat variations, and barbell deadlifts. Conditioning will usually be swing variations, but I will add cleans to my presses from time to time, and if I want to burn my lungs – snatches will make the menu.

Now You

*If you are interested in kettlebells I’d recommend you learn from my mistakes.

Instead of literally beating yourself up with them – learn from someone that is certified. On the strongfirst website: www.strongfirst.com it will give you a list of instructors near you.
The cheapest kettlebell is often not the best. At first glance I assumed they were all the same. But the cheap ones I bought have chipped, increased the chance of blisters when practicing the ballastics, and some have been off on weight. I’d recommend a cast iron bell that isn’t oddly shaped and I prefer them labeled in kilos.
Don’t let your ego get in the way.

**Not all trainers are qualified in teaching kettlebells, if they don’t have proper credentials, I’d be wary.

I am certified through StrongFirst. But they grew out of the Dragondoor’s RKC. And it appears that some of the leadership has branched off again and started another organization called Strength Matters. All three have similar modalities. I have friends in each organizations. Any of them would be worth looking into if you are interested in learning more.

Want to learn more from Rob? You can reach him by either one of the ways below:

A.G.B.S Facebook page

Instagram:  @alwaysgetbetterstronger

 

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Weekly Motivation Featuring Office Chair Workouts with Ross Enamait

 

Weekly motivation is back! Today’s video features Coach Ross Enamait of Rosstraining.com showing how we can use a simple office chair to get a quick, effective core workout in. I use this myself for when I’m away from my home gym and it’s always a killer stimulus.

Training in the garage by yourself is tough. You usually don’t have the camaraderie of other gym members to help push you.  That’s why we combed the web to find videos that will help motivate you to keep striving to be your best. Time to do your part.

Stay motivated and keep training hard until people want to post videos of you!

 

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Mental Warm Ups or Setting Up Your Gym Area

bench session plus accessory work

Mental warm ups don’t get much thought in our culture. Most people just go in the gym and start training or worse they choose equipment without forethought; just grabbing whatever’s closest without preplanning. I think taking time to mentally get ready to train is critical and that includes setting up the workout area.  I’ve watched a number of champions train and I’m always struck by how purposeful every step of their session is. From first rep to last rep; there is very little wasted movement because they do everything on purpose.

Narrowing Your Focus

I’m like everyone else; I’ve got a billion thoughts bouncing off each other in my brain. It’s Tuesday as I write this and I’ve already dealt with three cars in two different repair shops, a sick wife and setting up an event later this month. I couldn’t train at all Monday between carpooling with my wife and taking on her night time duties with our 1 year old, so I didn’t deadlift until 1am. I got done around 2:30am but I still had to be up and out the door to my acupuncture appointment in the morning.  My mind was racing all day. Add to that reviewing blog posts and writing an article for the Garage Gym Journal and my plate is full.

Setting the gym up helps me slowly shut out the outside world and focus solely on the bar for an hour and a half. I interviewed Bud Jeffries recently and he said, “There’s nothing like getting under heavy weight to help you focus”, but at the same time, for me that’s not yet an automatic process. IPF Powerlifting Hall of Famer Sioux-Z Hartwig-Gary once told me that she can switch from lifting to talking about whatever, but the rest of us need time to get in the zone. A 2013 article in Scientific American says, ” … sport psychology demonstrates the performance benefits of pre-performance routines, from improving attention and execution to increasing emotional stability and confidence”.  So setting up your own pre workout routine can help you especially if your coach has programmed a hard session for you, you want to PR that day or you’re going to try something in the workout that you’ve never done before.

Planning It Out

In tonight’s training session I was scheduled to bench press up to a relatively heavy single; about 90% of my current max.  Along with that came some accessory movements for my upper body and for the entire workout I’d be using  my body weight, bands, dumbbells, dumbbell power hooks, wooden blocks, the treadmill, my 45lb bar, plates and spring clamp collars. Before I got on the treadmill to warm up, I set up weight room so I could do my first four exercises without stopping to rest any longer than it took to change the weights on the bar.

That means as you can see from the video below, that I set up the bench in the power rack and checked to make sure that the J hooks were low enough so I could unrack the weight without hitting the lip or losing my arch. My bench is higher than competition height so I use wood blocks that I put in place where they’d allow me to put my feet where I will in my next competition. I put the first weight onto the bar and set down the mat that I would use to do my neck bridges.  I also put the pvc pipe that I would use to roll my thoracic spine as part of the DeFranco’s Simple 6 in place. I knew I’d want to record the neck bridges so I could measure my progress, so I set up my phone where it would have the best angle to record. Tonight I wanted to use a YouTube show to keep time. Not that I was necessarily watching, but the show is an hour and a half long so I knew that if the show ended and I was still training, then it would be time to wrap it up. So I cued that up and pressed play.

Why It Matters

What’s the point of all this?  Simply that I set up everything so I could get right off of the treadmill and move seamlessly into the rest of my workout rather than have to look around for things. Once I was done with bridging, I could sit right on the bench and do my first warm up set without resting longer than it took to get into position.  That saves time. Saving time is a huge deal if your reason for training at home is that you’re a busy mom or dad, training while the kids are down for their nap or when you first get home before taking Junior to soccer practice or going to Little Suzy’s piano recital. I’ve gone so far as to set the gym up before leaving the house so everything would be ready when I got home.  No I don’t worry about leaving my opening weights on the bar. After working in a public gym for five years where people left bars loaded with all sorts of weight, (yes that was annoying because I had to put their weights away); I have no worries so long as the Rogue bar lives up to what they promise on the website.  If that thing can’t handle occasionally being left stationary in J Hooks with 135lbs on it; then I doubt it could handle an entire CrossFit box slamming it down repeatedly during a metcon. But I digress.

If you have issues getting your “me time”, setting up the gym may benefit you because

It signals the rest of the family that Mommy or Daddy is about to train and it’s a great way for the kids to not only see you prioritizing your health but also help them to start learning to respect boundaries and to wait patiently until you’re done. That is a skill that will help them for the rest of their lives.
It puts you in the right frame of mind to train.  With every piece of equipment that you set out, you’re telling your mind that you’re getting ready to perform. Great athletes have pre game rituals for a reason. Gym set up should be your pre-game ritual.
It saves time once the session actually gets going so you can use your rest periods to stretch or drink water rather than hunting for the next thing to use.

Setting up the gym takes a little thought on the front end but that’s the point. My process is a methodical one where I have to think through what I have to do, select the tool I’m going to use and put it where I can best use it.  That’s one reason that I tend to be slightly disoriented whenever I train anywhere but at home. But it is a benefit of living the garage gym lifestyle.

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Who’s The Guy In The Garage?

Quiet and unassuming, Rob @theguyinthegarage flies under many people’s radar. I only discovered him because I saw one of my other followers tag him in one of my Instagram posts. He doesn’t come up when you search #garagegym, #garageworkout or even #squateveryday which is what he’s become known for among those of us who follow him.  So who is he? And what motivated him to squat every day for 365 days rain or shine? Let’s find out!

  How long have you been training? Where did you get your start?

I played a year of high school football and two years of high school basketball. In high school I didn’t take lifting serious at all and focused mainly on my ability to run. I had some natural athletic ability so I never took anything more than that very seriously. I wish I would have.

As I got older and got into police work I began to focus more on being functionally fit, in 2000 I became part of a SWAT team where I had to run more but also have a good amount of strength to do pullups, pushups and sit-ups. Around 2008 I started looking at doing more weighted movements and then in 2011 I attended a Crossfit Level 1 seminar. From there I realized in order to be able to do the weighted volume needed to perform those workouts, I was going to need to get stronger. That has morphed into me focusing primarily on powerlifting movements, which has created a larger frame for me that I hope to soon start cutting back down while maintaining as much strength as possible.

It’s obvious from your Instagram name that your gym is in your garage. Has it always been there since you began training at home? What was your first piece of equipment?

The name “the guy in the garage” came from my neighbors down the road who didn’t know my name, but would refer to me to other neighbors as “the guy in the garage”. I’m sure what they meant was, “the crazy guy in the garage”, because I would workout at odd hours, dropping weights, playing music loud, and doing things like tire flips and lunges up and down the road.

I have had a gym in my garage since 2010 when I first started getting interested in Crossfit. My first pieces of equipment were a pullup bar and some kettlebells.

You recently completed 365 days of squatting every day. What motivated you to start that journey?

I heard Cory Gregory talking about squatting every day on the Barbell Shrugged podcast.

One of my favorite podcasts by the way. I actually met Chris Moore in the Animal Cage watching the lifts. I was sad to hear of his passing. But back to the interview!

I also heard Travis Mash talking about it on his podcast. Travis is 2 years younger than me and beat down from being one of the best powerlifters in the world. I figured if he could do it, then I could give it a try. It started out with me setting a goal to get to 30 days, then to 50, then to 100. From there, it became a habit and a determination that I would not quit for at least a year. At day 50 I started my Instagram page, which was very helpful since I was able to find an accountability group of other people doing the same thing. It was the closest thing to having someone in the garage with me, motivating me, while the workout was going on.

What were your squat numbers before you began this journey and what are they now? How about your other lifts? Did any of them suffer from so much emphasis on squatting or was there positive carryover?

I think squat every day did get in the way of technique of other movements, only because of lack of time on my part to do other movements. However, I found I was doing the other movements less often, but all my numbers went up.

Before

Squat 300 for a pitiful almost parallel squat single
Bench 225
Deadlift 455
Clean 225
Snatch- Muscle snatch only.175- I didn’t have the flexibility to drop under the bar.
Front Squat 275

After

Squat 405 to parallel and 300 for a set of 12, which equates to a calculated max of 420. I’ve box squatted 435
Bench 245, 275 from dead start at 4 board height. I will be changing those numbers soon.
Deadlift 475
Clean Will be trying clean and snatch max within the next few weeks, didn’t do much of either one except for recovery during squat everyday. I have done hang clean complexes with 205 during that time.
Snatch Same as above, nothing to compare it to. However, I have done some sets where I am showing the mobility and strength to drop into a squat almost immediately.
Front Squat 335, missed 350 a few times during the year. Had a wrist injury that set me back a few months ago.

Squatting everyday generates a ton of muscle soreness in the first few weeks. How did you get through that initial breaking in process? 

It did generate soreness, however I would mitigate that by self-regulation and by doing a ton of pause squats and lunges. Those two things were the key for me.

What have you learned about goal setting and about yourself through this process?

There is a reason why I do something every day. Before it was always too easy for me to skip a day and say I will get it later. Now, every day is every day. If I were to miss a day it would have a compound effect later with excuses. I don’t miss for that simple reason.

I am a stronger person mentally, physically and spiritually because of setting goals like this. I believe I am a better person, husband, father, Christian, and co-worker because of it. That has in turn helped me prepare as a better leader.  It has given me more confidence and also allows me an opportunity to burn off any stressors in my life.

You did squat every day at home training by yourself. Was it tough to do that or did you train with other people sometimes to keep you motivated?

Training with other people does keep me motivated and that part is awesome. The thing I learned from squatting by myself is I had to be my own motivator, chasing away excuses, and driving myself to be better without a lot of positive talk and motivation from others. There is a lot of inner strength to be found there.

You finished off day 365 by training at the gym where you work. Why was it important to you to do that?

I had some buddies from work who asked to be there for day 365. Since it was so early in the morning I needed to leave the garage knowing it was going to be a little louder, so I went to work. That part was awesome, because I got to finish up the year with folks who have shared in the journey the whole year.

It was also great because one of my closest buddies looked at me after I hit rep 12 and said he thought I looked like I had a few more reps in me. That’s the advantage when other people are around during a workout. He was trying to push me to do more, but I think we both realized the strength was there, but the work capacity was not.

What’s next on the horizon for you? I saw something about loaded carries is that going to be a year challenge as well?

There are roughly 100 days left in the year and roughly 100 days left in my Bible every day challenge. So I will continue squatting every day, 5 light days and 2 heavy days until then. I will also push myself to get to 100 days of loaded carries. I know there is going to be some CNS conflict there, but I plan to auto-regulate that by using a conjugate method.

From there I will do an assessment for next year. That may include squats and loaded carries everyday or I may identify other weaknesses and go after them.

What advice do you have for others who are embarking on their own challenges? First to anyone who may be trying to lose weight and then specifically if someone is attempting to try daily squatting like you did.

Everyone has challenges in life. Whether it is to be a better spouse, parent, be lighter/heavier, lift heavy, or run faster. The list could go on forever. The first step for me was to find something I know was going to be tough, but attainable. Then I took it in baby steps by setting a short-term goal of 30 days, then 50 days, and then 100 days. The true challenge is in the mind. If you can commit to doing something daily, whatever it is, the body will adapt and follow and the mind and body will then grow together.

With squatting everyday, for me the support group with having an Instagram page where I followed other people doing the same thing helped me a ton. It’s an accountability group that I didn’t want to disappoint.

How can people follow your training?

I’m on Instagram @theguyinthegarage

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DIY Tornado Ball

DIY and garage gym life often go hand in hand. Either we make it to save money or we make it for the sheer joy of building something ourselves. Today we’re looking at a DIY tornado ball build submitted by Dave Reid @dr1967.

Why Do I Need A Tornado Ball?

First, a tornado ball is a great way to get in a solid core workout. You can use it to build rotational power or just build your core with a plyometric style workout.  Not a bad stress reliever either.  Tornado balls retail between $45-$120 online but you don’t need to break the bank if you don’t want to.  Try this DIY  approach and start slamming away for a fraction of the money.

Before you get started, you’ll need a slam ball which is a sand filled rubber ball that doesn’t bounce. You can get one on line or at a sporting goods store. They start at around $29.99 for a 10 lb ball like the one I’m using in the video above. You can also find stability balls filled with water but for this it’s best to use the sand filled one. On to the build.

Materials Needed

slam ball

basketball net

towel

zip ties

closeable chain link.

Making The Tornado Ball

Notes- Great for working your core. I made another one using a 10 lbs ball that bounces, it’s harder to control and doesn’t work you as good.

Want to see more from Dave? Follow him on Instagram @dr1967

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Dwelling In The Gray

Dwelling in the gray

I’m a gym rat. A garage gym rat in fact, with all due respect to Mike “Bird” Parrott.  Being a gym rat who trains at home means my peer group is sparsely populated.

See I’m not a top ranked strength athlete; enthroned in the top ten rankings of my chosen sport. Able to hang out with the others who occupy the higher end of the sport.

I’m also not a normal person. I’ve rejected average and the middle age slump that comes with it.  To top it off, I choose to train in my garage; usually alone with no music except the clang and bang of plates kissing each other as I use them to dance with gravity.

So I don’t fit in. I don’t fit in with regular people whose normal reaction if I tell them I hit a PR squat or deadlift is to either warn me against getting hurt or to bring up a false memory from high school about some long ago strength champion who somehow managed to outdo what today’s champions achieve with pride under bright lights and strict judging.

I don’t fit in with the strength athletes I admire and sometimes interview. Yes, they’re gracious and giving of their time, especially because I’m telling their story to the world for the magazine’s readership; but we don’t hang out. I mean for people to associate they have to have something in common.  I don’t have stories about that time I broke the All Time World Record Total.  Or having to go somewhere to fulfill an obligation to my sponsor.  No, we’re cool maybe but not close friends. We have a mutually beneficial relationship like pilot fish cleaning parasites from the mouths of sharks. I get to tell their stories in exchange for a fee and they get their stories told so their legends grow. It’s career symbiosis. But it’s difficult to be friends with them.

Click to view slideshow.

So I don’t fit in. I dwell in this gray area where I don’t have people to share my triumphs and goals with. This gray zone where I hit a pr and instead of calling somebody; I hold it in. As an extroverted introvert; someone who engages in social activity but only with concentrated effort it suits me fine.  I’m content to lift in my silent cave; pushing towards goals only I understand. Celebrating victories that matter only to me.

But every now and then I see someone else like me. Maybe I’m driving through a neighborhood and I see a weight set on the front porch.  Or I get together with others who live this garage gym lifestyle to train and for that brief hour to two hour period. Somebody else is there who understands.  And that’s good too.

In case you’re wondering, that’s why I started Garage Gym Life. To connect all of us who are citizens of the gray area. Whether we spell it gray, grey, gris, grau, grå, kijivu or серый.To make it possible for more of us to meet up and be around someone who understands even if it’s only for an hour and a half.  And one day, when this community stretches around this planet and I see men and women in Garage Gym Life shirts for no other reason than it gives them a sense of pride to know that they dwell in this gray area by choice but they’re not alone, when I go on Instagram and see videos of people who met through my efforts getting together to train. When people start saying Go Home and Go Heavy instead of Go Heavy or Go Home, I’ll know I succeeded.  And that will be good too.

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Rip A Phone Book? John Stepien Shows You How!

Ever wish you could rip a phone book in half?  That’s one of the ultimate tests of strength most familiar to the average public.  Unlike bench pressing say, 325lbs, where you’d have to explain how much is on the bar; even in today’s digital age most people can identify how hard it is to rip a phone book.  So you can earn instant street cred by tearing one in half.  But how to get it done? John Stepien, strongman, grip enthusiast and Highland Games athlete has a short video showing you his favorite method to master phone book tearing.

One thing that’s really cool about this sort of training is it doesn’t punish the back and legs so it’s something you could train if you’re nursing a hamstring or low back tweak but want to keep your grip up to par. Plus it makes a nice change of pace from bars and bells or even calisthenics. And don’t think that this is only for guys.  Ladies, a strong grip means you’ll never have to wait for anyone else to open the pickle jars again!

Garage Gym Life has some awesome contributors who make this site a great resource for home based athletes. But I freely admit that we don’t know everything. So I scour the web to find the best articles from yesterday and today (I’d get them from the future as well but the DeLorean is in the shop) and bring you the links here. Check out this video and John’s YouTube channel where you can subscribe and ask him for tips or give suggestions on future videos!

 

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Weekly Motivation featuring Sia Cooper

Training in the garage by yourself is tough. You usually don’t have the camaraderie of other gym members to help push you.  To help out, we combed the web to find videos that will help motivate you to keep striving to be your best.

Today’s video features Sia Cooper aka @diaryofafitmommyofficial.  She’s a NASM CPT Fitness Nutrition & Women’s Fitness Specialist and mompreneur who walks the walk. This is a collage video of her training during and after her pregnancy.  If she can do it; so can you. Be encouraged!

You can contact her using the form at the bottom of the page.  Until next time, remember train hard until people start posting videos of you!

https://garagegymlife.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/vidstitch_video_1474623775321.mp4

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Savage Simplicity: Get To Know Phil Bennett

Phil Bennett, also known as @phil_completemma on Instagram, is an enigma embodied in one of his favorite phrases: savage simplicity.  He’s a shaggy bearded artist with intricate tattoos. An athlete with the tattoos of torso of a laborer but the mind of a poetic grizzly. Read on to learn more about this philosopher coach.

I started in the fitness game late. I wasn’t a student athlete. I wasn’t  from a fit family and in all honesty at the time couldn’t care less about  general health let alone training hard.

I’m an artist in every sense of the word- A painter, a designer, a  musician, a writer. I embodied all that the fitness industry dispelled.  Drinking, severely lacking in quality sleep, smoking and a

diet that would  make most cringe. You see so many gifted athletes in the fitness industry  and I can honestly say I am the furthest example from one of them. I’m a  normal guy.

Phil Bennett of completemmatraining.com

I’d love to say there was an inciting moment for change, but there really  wasn’t.

 

I simply woke up one day tired of being tired, tired of being skinny and  tired of being unhealthy.

I joined a gym, played around on the weight machines, lifted some weights  and generally hated every moment of it. The vapid nature of the guys who  went there- the selfies, the chatting, the social element and the lack of  hard work never kept me around for long.

Instead I did my research and came across who I consider to be the  godfather of the garage gym- Ross Enamait. His words spoke to me. His  approach and attitude was all that I assumed the gym going experience  would be, not the mess I saw in the commercial gym. Without finding his work, I probably wouldn’t have continued to where I am now. I trained  bodyweight, with a sandbag and kettlebells and physically and mentally  thrived. During this time I was introduced to martial arts, first boxing,  then Muay Thai and submission grappling. My skill set in the arts

increased and the “unconventional” training I was doing complimented it perfectly. I took my training outside and became my own coach. Nature was  my lab and I was the mad scientist. I based the training on the human  movements- squat, hinge, push, pull and carries. On Dan John’s  recommendation the carry was the most important, followed by the squat,  then the hinge, pull and push last- The opposite of conventional gym  wisdom.

Unsurprisingly, Dan John is a phenomenally gifted coach, it  worked. I made leaps and bounds in fighting and the quick progress was  noticed. I rapidly had my own collective of fighters I coached in my mad  outdoor methods:

– Carrying and squatting logs, stones, sandbags and each other

– Jumping, crawling, sprinting, throwing, climbing

– Hammering the basics- push-ups, pull-ups, rows, hand walking, tumbling

– Having frequent challenges to keep the mind hardened and the body sharp

Phil’s going to be posting here at garagegymlife.net from time to time but in the meantime, here’s a link to one of my favorite posts from his blog at www.completemmatraining.com. Check it out and subscribe to his blog. You won’t be sorry and you might get stronger!

Savage Simplicity, the basics and the 5 must do exercises

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DIY Mace for Shoulder Mobility

Mace training is growing in popularity.  Elite athletes like Ed Coan and Chris Duffin are huge proponents this ancient training method. That’s because it’s supposed to be awesome at improving shoulder mobility and athletic performance. Okay, sounds great.  But maces and Indian Clubs can be a bit pricey and hard to find.  So you can either bust out the credit card to purchase a mace, Chris Duffin’s ShouldeRök™ or Indian Clubs . But if you’d like to try before you buy we’re here for you.

Time to get some DIY action

Good news, you probably won’t even need your Home Depot card!  Steve Bergman from the Grindhouse Garage Gym has put together a short video on modifying adjustable dumbbells to make your own makeshift maces or clubs for shoulder mobility training.  If you didn’t know, the Grindhouse is a garage gym and a lot of time they have to make their own equipment, making Steve the perfect person to drop some DIY knowledge. Check out the video!

The Grindhouse is a garage gym and a lot of the time we have to make our own equipment. We’re just a collection of people who enjoy working out and training others. Find us at grindhousenj.com

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