“See that Look in their Eye Rock???”

As you all know I’m a huge fan of Crossfit Football and John Welbourn. John created as site some time ago called “Talk to me Johnny”.

Its intent was to answer questions that were bogging down the Football comment section. The content has grown past that since its creations. The other day it had what has become one of my new favorite articles.

It was called “Mecca of Power”, and it’s definitly worth reading.

http://talktomejohnnie.com/aggressive/mecca-of-power

That article gets me pumped. That’s how I want to train, those are the kind of places I want to train in, those are the kind of people I want to train with, what motivates you?

The Strength Shop which has a link on the right is another one of those locations in my mind. Train Hard, Party Hard….

Posted by: Z

“Is that enough for you? Is that enough of a scene? Cause I could start doing a lot worse then that. And the reason that you haven’t taken me home to your mother is that your mother, with her makeup and all her drinking, she’s in the closet too.”

Today’s post come’s from our very own burly necked Dr.Pond on how to not make a scene when visiting other gyms. (Videos were added for my amusement.)

Yesterday the 6am class was graced with a rare guest who trained with us before he left town.  It was a great experience for all as he got exposed to a Wendler Cycle for his first time and he got to witness some epic heavy lunging.  We in return learned how to not come off as a D-Bag when visiting someone else’s gym.

To not come off as a D-Bag when visiting someone else’s gym:

1. Don’t brag-  It is sometimes necessary to announce your max such as yesterday when we were working off a percentage maximum back squat.  It is not however necessary to list off ALL of your maxes nor is it necessary to make a ridiculous statement such as “my back squat is already at #330 so when you get that big it’s hard to make any more progress.”   Ridiculous.

Z- Yeah you could tell by this guys barbwire and tribal tattoos he moved weight. I double taked when he walked by.

2. Don’t give advice-  Don’t correct other people’s form.  Don’t even comment on other people’s form.  Don’t tell strangers how they can get as strong as you.  They might be stronger than you.

Z – There wasnt any dbag posturing from this guy at all

3. Don’t complain

Z – Im sure it was just his shoes…

4. Don’t make excuses-  Such as “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”  Or “I drove 19,000 miles yesterday.”  No one cares.

Z – Come on thats Rule #76

5. Work hard, have fun, say thank you

Written By: Sky

Posted (and video commentary) By: Z

Cause We’re better Than you and We know It…

So Barbell Club membership director Johnny Winters has taken it upon himself to write profiles for all members of Old Country Barbell. For those of you not associated with the Club one of the questions was “whats your favorite part of it”. Well I dropped some epic Rip quote in my response to him and called it a day. Then I thought about it, and it’s the simple fact that I love our gym.

We cuss and play the music we want as loud as we want with no complaints from the dog groomers next door. We throw chalk and used ammonia caps around without a care in the world. If  a athletes bitching about something you just get to tell them to “sack up”. I also have more women athletes that’ll tell you that squats cure cancer then I know what to do with.  Then there are the workouts that spill out  of the gym into the local bar. Pretty much the best gym every.

It hasnt always been like this for me. My last gym I shit you not I worked for a douche bag just like this…

Whats my favorite thing about Old Country Barbell and liven a “We do Whatever the F*ck we Want” Old Country Strong lifestyle. Is it we dont care how much we weigh but how much we lift? Or that we get our weeks “carb intake” in a weekend sitting at the bar? Or that we wear more chalk then deodorant? Maybe it’s just all those things combined.

Posted by: Z

Just drive Your ass up

Mark Rippetoe, for anyone who frequents OCS that should be enough said. Coach Rip was formerly Crossfit HQ’s go to guy for all thing to do with Powerlifting. Rip now runs his own Starting Strength certification, and maintains his gym Wichita Falls Athletic Club which is the premiere black-iron gym in North Texas. Having attended a couple of Rips Barbell certifications, I feel confident in saying Rip is still my go to guy for all things with a barbell.

Here is a video of Rip coaching a athlete on Hip drive. This should be very helpful to anyone to who has had issues dialing this in.

Posted by: Z

What Do You Do In Between

There are gyms and than there are GYMs. Monster Garage Gym, http://www.monstergaragegym.com/ ,is the latter.  Located in Waukegan, IL, the gym is a hardcore gym for powerlifters , strength atheletes, and those who wish to push themselves. For people looking for chains, bands, quality squatters, people to help with their bench shirts, and to train with other people who get it. As my brother would elegantly put it, this is a serious pipehitting gym.

This hardcore lifting philosophy is instilled by the co-owners of the gym, Eric Maroscher and Phillip Daniels. Eric Maroscher is a two time WPC World Powerlifting Champion, two time APF National Powerlifting Champion, WPC North American Powerlifting Champion, as well as other numerous titles. Maroscher is a Master I lifter in the 100KG Division with PRs in the division of a 805 Squat, 460 Bench,  671 Deadlift , 1826 Total. He also runs the Maroscher Powerlifting Team, whose website http://www.maroscher.com/ has many good articles on getting strong..  A great interview with Eric can be found here, http://www.criticalbench.com/Eric-Maroscher.htm . Phillips Daniels may be familiar to Seahawk, Bears, and Redskins fan as a 14 year NFL veteran at Defensive End who has amassed 60 sacks in his career. Daniels was first exposed to powerlifting when playing with the Seattle Seahawks as Louie Simmons worked with that team on the Westside Method. At 6’6″, 300LBS and 12% body fat, Daniels has a 722 LB single ply squat and 633 LB deadlift in competition to his credit.

If that is not enough here to convince you, here is some gym training footage.

Posted by: Nickay

Johnny Pain…

Here is a sick video from GreySkull Elite Strength and Conditioning. This is John Scheaffer’s gym (also known as Johnny Pain), a regular at Coach Rip’s Starting Strength certifications and all around awesome coach. When my training partner Johnny hurt his knee, I got in contact with John for advise.  He sat on the phone with me for over a hour (I was a complete stranger at the time) advising me on a bench program for Johnny. I’ve followed his work for sometime now, back as far when GreySkull was a crossfit box.  A link to John’s gym can be found on the right, they move big weight out there.

And if you’ve worked to improve your bench with me at all then you know these.  Thanks John, “Big Back, Big Bench”

Posted by:  Z

Oldest sport in the world

A while back my brother sent me some videos of training that the US Greco Roman wrestling team was doing, it was some really good and inventive stuff. What were they training with? Their bodyweight, barbells, kettlebells everything a good strength and conditioning program should base off.

The more I looked into it the more I learned about the man who brought a lot of this training to the team. Ivan Ivanov, a former Bulgarian citizen who relocated to his new home in America and has help reshape our Greco Roman team. Below is a bio about Ivan along with some training videos of his as well as some of the US Greco team training. I really like the kettlebell pummeling workout and have done it myself sense, it’s a real burner.

Coach Ivan Ivanov

After the end of his carrier as a competitor in 1997, Ivan left his home country of Bulgaria to join U.S.A.

Wrestling as a coach to help develop Greco Roman wrestling in the United States. Ivan served as assistant resident coach for the Greco-Roman wrestling team in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the Olympic Training Center from 1997 until 1999. In March of 1999 Ivan began to work as the full time wrestling director and head coach at one of the biggest health clubs in Utah, the Tree-house Athletic Club or (TAC-wrestling) in Salt Lake City UT.

In February 2002 Ivan was hired by USA Wrestling and Northern Michigan University to serve as a head coach for the Greco Roman wrestling team at the United States Olympic Training and Educational Center (USOEC) in Marquette, Michigan. Currently the Program is the top Greco Roman wrestling program for college aged athletes in the United States.

Listed below are some of Ivan Ivanov’s wrestling accomplishments and current endeavors.

# 1994 Tampere Finland World silver medallist 62kg.
# 1996 Atlanta -Olympian finished 5th at 62 kg
# 6-Time Bulgarian National champion in Greco Roman Wrestling.
# 3-Time winner of Nikola Petrov Grand Pre international tournament
# 1995 Petrov Gold Belt winner
# USA wrestling Gold level certified coach
# USA wrestling national coaching staff since 1998
# 2008 Olympic Games Beijing — USA wrestling coaching staff
# From the period of 2005-2008 the USOEC Greco –Roman program led by Ivan Ivanov and assistant coach Jim Gruenwald, won total of 7 World Medals and 1 Olympic Medal.
# 55kg Spencer Mango 2006 University World Champion
# 2006 Junior World Championships – Bronze Medalist, 2008 Olympian finished 8th at 55kg.
# 84kg Chas Betts 2006 University Worlds Silver Medalist
# 66kg Harry Lester 2005 University World Bronze medalist, 2006 and 2007 Senior World Championships Bronze Medalist
# 120kg. Peter Kovalzchuk 2008 University World Bronze Medalist.
# 96kg. Adam Wheeler 2008 Beijing Olympic Bronze Medalist

And here is a video of some of the test they conduct for the team. I dig a lot of this, might have to do some of these in my gym one day.

Posted by:  Z