Mistakes, theft, and follow through...

I would like to say a greeting to all you Wicked Iron Undergrounders, however, there aren't any... No one has had the guts, the drive, or the money, to change their lives for the better. Not one person has joined the Underground, and that makes me sad. I am sad, because, you people think that you know what real training is. You think that you have the best personal trainer around. You think you can't afford to hire us...But you can certainly afford cable t.v., a huge comfy chair, and a 30 rack....Can't you? Guess what, the only way to change your life for the better, is to stop making excuses and start taking chances.
I would like to talk about mistakes for a minute, now that I have your attention, if you are paying attention that is. My business partner and I had a great opportunity this summer. We got a chance to run a boot camp for a brand new high school football team. That's right, brand spankin' new! This team was in it's first stages of creating a football program for their town, and we snuck in on the ground floor. You might be thinking, "well, good for you", and wondering, "why is he being such a jerk in the first paragraph", well, I am about to tell you.
We went to this practice, after a meeting with the coach. In that meeting, we outlined our intentions and what we would like to do for this team. We told the coach, we would get them in a place where they were "out of the box", head and shoulders above the already seasoned teams they would face this year. Our plans were robust, focused, and pertinent, and when we got to the end of our outline, the coach scratched his head and said..."I like your ideas, but, I can't pay you, and I think that I need to have more time with them before I have you guys come in. How about if we just try one day, and see how you do, and then we can talk about having you come in."
You are asking yourself, what is the big problem here, right? Nothing really, we told the coach we just wanted to ENHANCE his training methods with our own, not replace his. Which I am now going to lay out for you: This coach believed, and still believes, that football players need to be able to bench 200lbs. That doing lat pulldowns, and using peck decks, and pull over machines, and even the horrid Smith machine, will get his team into the kind of shape they needProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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o be in, to WIN!
What's wrong with that, you ask? EVERYTHING!!! Sure, the bench press can help, and all the other machines do something, however, if you have ever played football, and tried to block a tackle, you know for sure that this is a whole body function, not a single movement. Everything is done at the same time. How else can you move a 2oo+ pound guy out of the way? By bench pressing him? Really?
I digress...
We show up on a Saturday, get set up in a soaking wet field, and wait for the team to show up. They do, and let me tell you, I shuddered to think of how this team would fare, seeing the kind of kids they had on the team. The coach ran them around the field, made them do jumping jacks, all of that warm up stuff. Then it was our turn.
We did a short explanation and demonstration of each circuit station we planned out. Burpies with a strongman log, chain pushups, sand bag cleans, sand bag squats, tire flips, and kettlebell work. All things that use the WHOLE BODY to perform. We ran these kids ragged. We harried them at every point, pushing them to their utmost. The coach and his assistants....Fell in love with us, and what we were doing. The team, though exhausted, was having a blast, finally doing some hard work. Sounds great eh? Alas, it was all for naught.
When we were done, we were summarily dismissed, with promises that our business cards would get out to the team, and we were never called again. Before I go further, I want to let you in on something....We did all this work, for this brand new team, FOR FREE!!!! I know, right?
I called the coach, and offered another bootcamp, and he was excited for it, though he was quick to mention that he could not pay us. I decided, along with my business partner, that this was not in our best interest, and we declined. Doing something for free, once, is one thing. More than once, that is just idiotic.
Because of our success witht his team, at the boot camp, we decided to try and hit the other teams in the area. The "rivals", of the new team we trained for free. It didn't work out, for a whole host of personal reasons. Needless to say, things stalled. We had made a mistake. That much was clear.
The other mistake we made, was indirectly giving away our ideas. No sooner had we left, then the coaches of this new team, went out and got their own tractor tires for flipping, and using our methods, began to train their team with them. Essentially, stealing from us. Now, I know, we did not invent tire flipping, and were even trained by a pro how to do it, however, this team had never heard of such a thing before we showed up. Now, all their teams, including the middle school team, does it. Mistake number two.
Now, I have the privilege of being a middle school teacher, and many of my old students were on that team, and many of my current students play on the middle school team. This is how I came to learn about a few things going on with the football teams. The first was the theft of the tire. The second, validates what we here at the Wicked Iron Underground believe. Not too long ago, I was visited by an old student, who is on the high school football team, and was at our summer boot camp. He told me a story about his team. The team had won a few games, which was surpising, and I was happy for him, and the team. However, when he told me the scores, I was confused. All of the games they won, and lost, had huge scores on the board, for both teams. Now, if you watch football, very rarely do you see both teams scoring 40-50 points in a game. Yet, this was happening with my students team, EVERY GAME! I asked why. It was this...The offensive line was so weak (fitness and strength wise), that they were getting blistered every time they were on offense. When on defense, the team would actually make up the difference and pull ahead. In case you know nothing of football, this happens to be the opposite of what you are supposed to do. The coach brought his boys into the weight room for a strength check. Guess what? Not one of them could bench over 100 pounds. They lacked the stamina, and physical strength they needed, to do it on the field. When the coach asked the boys why this was happening, they told him..."We don't do enough lifting, or push ups, or conditioning during our practices, we just do it if we mess up, and then you only make us run..." When I heard my student say this to me....Let me tell you, I had a grin on me that went from ear to ear, bigger than a cheshire cat's I swear.
You see..The coaches fundamental mistake was this....He did not train his team to use their whole bodies. He did not keep them training with enough frequency. He did not keep them training in the correct methods of body weight excercise. He literally threw them in there off and on, and hoped for the best. What would happen if the Patriots did that? The Steelers? Any other NFL team? They would lose, plain and simple. This coaches mistake...Was thinking that the things HE used to do as a high school player, were going to work for his team. Bench pressing with a Smith machine, does little or nothing for the rest of your arms and chest. It works only the big muscles, robbing you of extra strength. By not using kettlebells or logs or FREE WEIGHTS EVEN! The coach hamstrung his own team. MACHINES SUCK! They do nothing to help you get stronger or fitter, they are a hoax.
What can I say Coach F....You should have called us, and you should have payed us a little scratch to do your work for you, now you have to suffer with what you have, which is a weak team!
Follow through, you have to have it. We didn't follow through this summer, with training the other teams in the area. The coach I described above, didn't follow through in training his team properly. This team, I have been talking about, not one of them called us for extra training. In a word, they lacked follow through. Now, I do this part-time. I would do it full time if people had follow through. So while, we lacked the follow through ourselves, to promote our business, who's lack of follow through was the most devastating? I say, it was the team and the coach. They are the ones losing, not me.

So, if you are tired of not following through with your own fitness goals, give us a call. Write us an email. We would be happy to help you achieve your goals. You would be helping yourself, and you would be helping us, to actually follow through with something.

We are the Wicked Iron Underground...And that is all.

Dojo Seminar 09'

I just want to take a moment to thank Sensei Stan Leach, head instructor of Orland Shorin-ryu karate dojo, and all his attentive students, for a successful FIRST seminar by Wicked Iron Underground. We were kindly invited to Sensei Leach's beautiful NEW dojo (school) to teach what we know about strength and how it can apply to karate and every day life, and we thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to relay some of our knowledge about strength and it's related topics to his students, and seemed as though the students had some fun as well...hard-style!
I'm sure some of you out there can attest to functional strength and how it has transformed at least your body, if not a large part of your outlook on fitness as a whole. The learning part of fitness is a battle, because to accomplish a higher level of strength, flexibility, agility, etc., one has to push through a somewhat painful experience to get to a certain point of technicality and knowledge of one's self, therefore being able to tap into one's potential...and ATTAIN IT!
Even though learning these methods is a great experience in itself, TEACHING them is a whole different ballgame (or bellgame for all you iron-lovin' comrades), and opens up a lot of new things for the practitioner when it's flowing OUT of you, instead of learning, when knowledge is flowing into you. Most people with enough life-experience know that teaching is the best way to learn, and it's certainly the best way to "know your stuff."
To make a long story short, we had a great experience letting the knowledge flow out to others, and we learned a lot about the iron, about ourselves, and about others through teaching the things for which we have such a passion.
If you haven't dived already into the world of functional strength, find someone who knows their stuff, give it a try, then us know what you think. There are MANY professionals out there who are more than willing to pass on some of their knowledge about what they do, given you are determined to make something more of yourself, or to just find a NEW way to throw around the weights.

Keep on keepin' on!
Dan C
Wicked Iron Underground

Can you see what i see?

I am near a loss of words for what I've witnessed during the past several weeks, and NOT in a good way. I confess, I've been to the big town gym a lot lately, but it's not what you think, i swear!! I've been going to _____ ___ for my protein shakes lately, and MAN are they good! But, what i see while I'm there seriously disgusts me, no joke. First of all, before i go to _____ ___, i have a KILLER workout...obviously, what else would someone do before a shake?? So i get to the gym, take a seat, and I'm beat from the workout i just pulled through in my DRIVEWAY. I obviously have time to look around and see what's happening at the big Ole' gym. What do i see? I look to my left, and i see several men and women SITTING...yes...SITTING on these little cycle peddler thingies (how should I know??) going about two mph, reading the latest Newsweek or whatever is good these days. I look to my right, and there are a few people on the treadmills, watching t.v. while they think they are doing themselves a favor by being there. GIVE ME A BREAK!! I'm sitting there thinking to myself..."do people actually go to the gym to RELAX??" Well, socializing is one thing most can't avoid in a place like that, but when you're interrupting your workout, you might as well leave and never come back. That's what i did!
I actually sat there listening to some girl saying...and i quote..."I'll workout a little bit, but talking to people is the only real reason why i come here." It's great to be honest, but then mutter on about how "these workouts just aren't doing anything!" I'll say it again...GIVE ME A BREAK!!
Don't get me wrong, people are completely free to waste their time walking around in a gym talking to people in hopes of avoiding doing actual work, but don't ever think you'll workout with me or anyone that I workout with. You're not worth my, or frankly...YOUR time, if you have an attitude like that. Not to mention the fact that you are not getting better at anything if you don't make the effort and push through to make a change. Here's a universal rule for ya... If you have a weight in your hand, you want to make a change in your life, simple as that. YOU have to decide if YOU want to change for the better, or do you want to be your old self a little longer!?
It's all about improvement. Making your life a workout of art. Yes, this includes your body, mind, and spirit. Be independent with your workouts. Don't just sign up at your local gym because you ASSUME "that's what people do to lose weight or get stronger, etc." Please, think for your self for once, and get with someone who knows what they are doing and can help you improve yourself. If you don't know how to make improvements on yourself (that you'll actually notice), you CAN'T do it without knowledge of HOW to change. Take it from someone who'd already tried to go to the gym four times a week, thinking that he'll improve, just 'cause he's at the gym. I was there, and now i'm working out in my driveway with tires, stones, and kettlebells. You don't need the big gym, and it doesn't need you. If you can improve yourself in that gym, by all means, go for it. But honestly, get it together and look at the big picture. What is worth your time?
I won't be an idiot and say "stay away from those gyms!" But i will say "stay smart about what and how you change yourself." And for goodness sake, if i ever find you at the "gym" sitting down on a cycle-sorus-rex, i just don't know you anymore...sorry!

Your friendly neighborhood strength coach,
Dan C

It's Time!

Alright peoples, the sun is shining, and the pavement is heating up. It's finally ideal weather in Maine for getting outside and using the jungle of nature to better our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. I don't think i stand alone in saying that spring brings a certain pattern of personal growth to our lives, as it does for the trees, the fields, and the beasts. Regardless of where you live, whatever you consider to be "good weather" can make you...no...PULL you outdoors and under the sun. It's time!
Jason and I had a crazy trip down to Zach Even-esh's Underground Strength Gym in Edison, New Jersey (a.k.a. "The Dirty Jerzee"), and found out first hand what the hype was all about. Like Zach often says, he's "killin' it" down in Jersey, and it's obvious to see by just watching his videos and connecting with the underground community, as it was by attending the certification weekend. Both of us are truly inspired by what we experienced at his gym, and recommend it to anyone willing to give their all, for their all.

Now, back to my point...GET OUT THERE!!

I think we underestimate how much we can benefit from being out in the open air with nothing but the will to sow the seed of perseverance and the patience to reap the strength, and maybe a pair of shorts ;-)

I took advantage of yesterday's sunny inspiration and took the kbells for a spin. Here's what i did...

1. 5 reps push-press, left (non-dominant) then right.
2. 7 reps swing-to-clean, left then right.
3. 10 reps kbell push-ups, not too fast, full body tension, parallel grip and close to body.
4. 5 reps, double rack squats, not too fast, smooth full body tension.
5. 2 reps, snatch (1-4) top-down TGU (turkish get-up), left then right, with one press at the bottom.
REPEAT (if you can)
End with farmer walks or rack walks with both bells, then get your protein shake and TAKE A SHOWER you filthy comrade!

Take this workout into consideration as a max-out session. Mix up numbers and/or drop an exercise to better suit your energy needs, but push yourself a little more each workout. As your body advances, so should your discipline.

What are you waiting for? Hop outside and get to work!

Stay strong,
Coach C

How to stop whining...

I'm tellin' ya...Maine has got to be the fricken coldest state in the US, besides maybe Alaska. It's JUST NOW getting in the mid-40s!! Even though the weather isn't quite what i prefer yet for enjoyable workout conditions, i made it happen. It may have been around 40 degrees at my house, and i KILLED IT (sorry Zach, but it's true). I had the 300+lb tire, 50&30lb kbells, and 5 stones (all different weights and sizes), all for me to play with however i seemed fit. If i can give you any advice on what to do when you're outside with this kind of equipment, i'd say "GO CRAZY!!!" I was moving from flippin' the tire to crushing, pressing, and jerking the rocks, to snatching the kbells to jumping the tire, to doing elevated push-ups on the tire (it's a great functional tool, by the way) to doing rows on the tire with the kbells to doing one-handed presses with one of the lighter stones (45lb) to flipping the 50lb kbell, to a few other things i can't remember. It was structured enough to be equally comprehensive, but random enough to trick my body.
Now that it's warming up a little outside, get the frick out there and go nuts!!
Yea, we whine a lot and give ourselves little excuses to skip a workout or two, but when it gets down to what we MUST DO, we MUST stop the whining and train. No excuses, no questions asked.
The warrior instinct in us wasn't meant to be tied down to anything that inhibits it from allowing the self to achieve what it really wants and needs. Be controlled so that you don't hurt yourself and others, but don't hold yourself back from anything that may improve your strength and wellbeing.

Keep it real!
Coach C

Being poor, and training hard....

I know....We are all poor. The economy is just in the can, and there is little we can do about it.
I trained last night with Coach C, and our basement gym was flooded with water. We said F-it and trained anyway.
That is the way it has to be. Period.
Do we currently have people busting down the door to train in our wet basement gym....Nope. Do we think a nice fancy gym would get us more clients...Yup. Do we give up because of people's misguided understanding of what a gym should be....HELL NO!
We train. We promote. We hustle our asses off....Bottom line.
Trust me...I would love to have a nicer place, with high ceilings, and a ton of clients, somewhere in town where people could actually SEE us. But can I have it now....Not without getting a loan, or an investor who would most likely make the decisions for our business rather than let us run things the way we want. Frankly, I don't need another boss....I've got one already, and I hate it.
The thing is....Even though we are poor, and have a basement to train people out of, does not mean that we let ourselves die...That we let ourselves give in to the depressing mood of today's economy. You have got to stand up, and keep moving forward, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how poor you are, failure is something that happens to everyone. It's what you do after you fail that matters.

I think this quote from the movie "Rocky Balboa" says it all....

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!
Rocky Balboa

Do I get discouraged by not having what I want...Right now....Your damn right I do...Some days you just want to pack it in. You think that trying to start up a fitness facility is just a dream that will never happen, that it is taking too long, that you don't have the money....Well, I can cry over it, or I can suck it up and keep moving forward, just like Rocky said. I can't go any lower in the fitness biz, so what do I have to worry about? Nothing..... All I need to do, is just train hard, work hard at getting the word out, and eventually, something will happen, and if it doesn't, I just have to keep working until it does, no matter how long it takes.

The bottom line is this....
It is easy to give up, to quite.

It is damned hard to keep fighting.

But it is your life that you are fighting for....

So you better damn well give it all you've got, `cause it isn't going to get any better if you just lay down and die, its just gonna end.

Here is what I want to say to all of you out there that are struggling to keep it together. That are living paycheck to paycheck. That want something more from this life than you already have...

Keep the dream alive! Keep fighting no matter what. And if you fall, get back up and go back at it harder than before.

Never back down and never give in.

If you want to get in shape, but can't do it by going to a gym....Give us a call, we can come to you. We can be your support, and you can be ours. We are the Wicked Iron Underground.

Take care all!

Coach B
WIU

Sick

So......I'm sick as a dog. Sicker, actually, cuz my dog is just fine. I caught the flu a few days ago, and it's not fun. I'm a student of a local university, and school just got back in session, so getting the flu now is BAD TIMING! But I know you're not interested in my academic life, so here's why I'm writing to you...cough, cough!!
In my experience, when I get sick, workouts go down the drain...FAST! So, what to do when you're sick?
I don't suggest cardio. BAD IDEA! You want to get better, not worse. For those of you that get sick and think "I'll just flush everything out of my system by working out really hard." No, just no. I tried that once, and I ended up in bed for two weeks because of the pain of straining my already weak muscles. Be smart with your body.
ANYWAY...!!
I don't know about you, but I still want to stay active even when I'm sick, so here's what I do.
Body weight exercises and stretching, that's it. Think of your sickness - Whether it's a cold, flu, or whatever - As an opportunity to work on the things that you ignore when you're too busy being "hard-style." *Guilty as charged*
And by "body weight" I don't mean do a thousand push-ups and even more crunches.
If you do any push-ups, crunches, squats, or anything that you would normally do with a weight in your hand, do them slowly. Be patient when you're sick.
Why do I say slow? Because if you want to maintain muscle density, slow, tight movements are the only way to do so without a weight. WOW!

Here's a quick workout for you sickly folks out there...
Push ups: 2-3 sets of 5 reps, full body tension. 3sec down, 1 sec pause, 3 sec up. Get rid of the part of your ego that thinks that more reps equal "bad-ass!"
Crunches: Untraditional; when performing the crunch, press your lower back into the ground. This will promote more muscle work for less reps. 3-5 sets of 5 reps, same timing as push-ups.
Squats: Hands straight out, full body tension, down 3sec pause 2sec up 3sec.
Tactical lunges: start feet together, then lunge backward. No solid timing, just slower than usual and be careful. Full body tension!

There's just a few exercises for ya! Add or remove any to your own taste, but keep the timing theories and full body tension technique.

Over and out,
Coach C