I’d like to introduce you to Keith, the mountain man…

No, he isn’t an actual banjo plucking, harmonica tootin’ hillbilly, (at least I don’t think he is…)

You see, when I call Keith a ‘mountain man,’ it’s in reference to his physical appearance. The man’s literally built like one…

He isn’t a vertical wonder. But does he ever make up for it in sheer thickness and mass.

In a way, Keith’s a bit of a paradox because he can be considered a ‘small man.’ He’s only 5’7”. But like many things in life, one data point rarely tells the whole story, and oftentimes it can mislead you…

For those who don’t know, Mr. Wassung has managed to pack 242 lbs of living steel onto his frame. So a ‘small man’ he is not…

But things haven’t always been this way for Keith…

In fact, at one point he was the smallest kid in his class. He only weighed 93 lbs in his freshman year of high school.

And don’t think that this went unnoticed…

One of his coaches recommended that he stick with calisthenics. He feared Keith might injure himself using weights.

Thing is, Keith grew up on a farm. And farm life means days filled with manual labor and honest toil, a blessing in disguise.

Why a blessing?

Because it develops a work ethic second to none.

And if there’s one thing a person needs to develop the strength to Squat 710 lbs, Deadlift 665 lb, Bench 480 lbs, and Overhead Press 340 lb (Keith’s lifting stats) it’s plenty of old fashioned, get down and dirty, work ethic…

Why do I bring all of this up?

Because I quoted Keith a few days back regarding a person’s pressing potential.

————————————-

There’s a lot more to the story than this. But we’re gonna approach the length of an encyclopedia if we don’t cut it off now…

Keep your eyes peeled for part two, I’ll be sending it out first thing tomorrow morning…

Until then,

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: Interested in molding Might and Muscle like Keith Wassung? If so, you’re going to need plenty of hard training on the core exercises, plenty of rest, and a nutrient packed meal plan.

If you want to shortcut your ‘nutritional learning curve,’ get your hands on the BodyDesign Nutritional System. It’s one of the best things that you can do to maximize gains and speed them up, too…

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The bench, deadlift and squat get all kinds of attention when it comes to building mass and power…

But there’s another player in town… the bent over row.

For some reason, rowing exercises tend to get overlooked when the topic of ‘power movements’ comes up…

It’s too bad because the muscles involved in rowing movements can be built up to handle enormous weights.

There are guys out there, like Reg Park and Bud Jeffries, who can handle 400 lbs and 500 lbs in the bent over row.

No, their form isn’t picture perfect, but boy o boy does it ever work you hard

Best of all, if you stick with it, your form will tighten up as your strength increases.

These ‘cheating’ rows will help you build lats like bat wings, boa constrictor thick lumbars, and bowling ball biceps.

The trick is to use a little leg drive to help get the weight moving.

It’s important to be thoroughly warmed up. You don’t want to injure a bicep or your lower back.

You’ll be surprised at how much weight you can handle once you get some practice.

Just be sure to give yourself time to get used to the exercise, and to allow your muscles to adapt to the increased weight.

From there, you simply…

Row heavy, use a little leg drive if need be, be conscious of your lower back, so you don’t injure it, and hammer away

Have fun, and get ready to outgrow you shirts…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: If you want to build super strength and endurance, and the size to go with it, you need the right meal plan. The BodyDesign Nutritional System will show you the way in easy to follow steps….

Go here to learn more…

I hear it all the time…

‘That looks hard.’

‘I don’t think I could do that.’

‘How many times a week do you put yourself through that?’

Those are the types of comments I get when people ask me about my training…

I catch myself thinking, ‘If you didn’t want to know, what did you ask for?’

‘Well, what were you expecting?’ is another thought that comes to mind

Come to think of it, I can understand their reactions. Infomercials and mainstream fitness have all but brainwashed people into thinking that ‘No Sweat, No Effort’ workouts really do exist.

Well, I guess they do…

That’s exactly what Tubby McManBoobs does every night in front of the TeeVee. His thumb gets a ferocious workout from clicking away at that remote…

Oh, wait a minute, there is sweating involved. But it ain’t from exercise…

Oh no. It’s because he’s either too lazy to get his rump up and turn the AC on, or it’s from cramming all of those extra spicy wings and chili dogs into his face…

Seriously though, what do people expect? The name of the activity gives itself away… WORKing out…

I know it’s also called exercising, training, lifting weights, and a bunch of other things. But, with this point, they don’t quite get the message across like ‘working out’ does.

When it comes to training, here’s one of the biggest favors a person can do for himself:

Acknowledge and ACCEPT the fact that it’s going to involve work, and plenty of it.

Not only that, but the bigger, stronger, faster, leaner, and more enduring they want to get, the harder they’re going to have to work. PERIOD.

But like I’ve said before, don’t let this scare you off. You will adapt to the effort, if you stick with it. This doesn’t mean that it’ll magically become ‘easy’ one day, but it will become easier.

Once you accept all of this, you mindset changes.

Pissing and moaning about how tough it is disappears. Being shocked by the difficulty of a set doesn’t tend to happen anymore. The desire to quit when it hurts like h.ell gets it’s ugly little head lopped off.

When it gets tough, you’ll be ready. You’ve been waiting for it…

And because of this, you’ll be primed to kick some major butt…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: If you want to meet your grueling workouts head o and come out on top, you need a power packed meal plan. Get the info you need to feed your body the nutrition it needs to grow and perform at its best…

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A few weeks back I was exhibiting at a local trade show.

If there was ever a time in my life when I had to do ‘double time’ it was then.

Here’s the background info…

I only found out about the show 3 weeks in advance.

It was our first show ever, so I had to learn and cram for the event like you wouldn’t believe. (I wasn’t going to ‘wing it.’ We wanted to knock this out the park.)

I lost about a week due to issues with an incompetent fire marshal and an unreasonable health inspector.

Because of these issues, I put our marketing and printing on hold. No point in doing all of that if we might not be at the show…

Once I persuaded the fire and health officials to let me do what we wanted to do, I only had 5 days before the event!

From there I had one technical SNAFU after another.

If this was meant to challenge me, it was putting up a pretty good fight. Needless to say, the whole thing seemed like one long ‘11th hour.’ it was insane…

Here comes the pain…

During those weeks, I got a few hours of sleep…a week. Seriously.

The week before the show, I almost fell asleep in my plate of eggs at breakfast. I’m not kidding…

I nodded off, and my head slowly dropped lower and lower. Eventually I felt something funny on my forehead. I opened my eyes and found my breakfast staring back at me at point blank range.

Thankfully I didn’t ‘nose dive’ into my food.’ I barely made contact, but still, talk about a rude awakening.

When the day of the show finally did arrive, I was pumped.

I had barely slept an hour the night before, but it didn’t faze me. I was ready to kick butt and take names, literally.

My siblings were with me, who did an awesome job.

Our signs and printed material were ready. The last minute rush meant they weren’t ‘perfect,’ but they were good enough.

The payoff…

We ended up having one of the busiest, if not busiest, booths at the show. The promoters kept commenting on our efforts and how great of a job we were doing.

Most importantly, we had great feedback from the Visitors and left the show with a stack of leads. It was awesome…

The lesson…

Why do I bring all of this up? We’re supposed to be talking about training aren’t we? Correctamundo, which brings me to my next point…

During those ‘hell weeks,’ I was still able to make my training sessions. The lack of sleep meant that they weren’t record breaking performances, but I made them nevertheless.

I was also able to handle the lack of sleep, missed meals, dealing with officials, learning how to do a show from scratch, creating marketing materials, arranging and setting up our booth, ad infinitum…

I only had an hour’s worth of sleep for the first day of the show, and only 3 hours for the second day. Both due to dealing with technical problems the night before.

I strongly believe that I was able to handle all of this with flying colors due to my physical conditioning.

I knew some guys at the show who had a full night’s rest and only had to work the booth; who were dead by the end of the day.

Once we finished for the day, (spent entirely on our feet dealing with crowds of people), I’d hurry my butt on home to do follow up work and deal with other issues.

Without a doubt, my training had a lot to do with this.

Yes, I was excited for the show. I did have an intense desire to make the most of it. And I do have a ‘Never Give Up’ mind set…

But none of this would have meant much if my body couldn’t keep up.

This is turning into a full length novel, so I’ll say one last thing before signing off…

This is what I’m talking about when I say your training can benefit you in and OUT of the gym.

For me, it turned an impossible no win situation into a crushing victory…

It can do the same for YOU…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: If you want to make it though a situation like me, you need to fuel your body for success. The BodyDesign Nutritional System will show you how in easy to follow steps…

Demonstrations of high levels of strength or endurance (and Denise Milani) can literally have jaws on the floor…

The same can be said of extreme feats of strength-endurance. Unfortunately we don’t see enough of these…

But that’s OK; you and I are going to change that…if you’re up to it…

I’m going to kick things off by giving you a glimpse of what’s possible when you put your mind to something…

Below I’ve listed a few kettlebell records to get your competitive juices flowing. Don’t worry if you’re miles away from matching these feats. I doubt that these people were born with the ability to do this…

Keep in mind that these totals include the right and left hand reps.

16 kg / 35.3 lbs Kettlebell Press
1. Igor Avramenko from Belarus performed 1150 reps in 1 hour
2. Igor Avramenko from Belarus performed 2640 reps in 3 hours

If Igor’s performance seems a little too much for you now, below are some numbers that you should be able to accomplish within a short period of time…

16 kg / 35.3 lbs Kettlebell Jerk
1. Tatiana Dorogiy from Ukraine performed 112 reps 5 minutes
2. Oxana Novel, from Ukraine performed 221 reps in 10 minutes

Use these performances as inspiration. As long as you feed yourself well, get adequate sleep and use your noggin’, you should be able to progress quickly.

As always, I love getting feedback and progress reports. Keeping them coming in, and as always…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: Fuel your body right to handle your record level workouts. The BodyDesign Nutritional System will show you in easy to follow steps…

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A few weeks back, I mention the need to take your other training into account when creating a grip routine…

Heavy barbell and strongman exercises can hammer your grip hard…

Even simple calisthenics, like pull ups and chin ups, work the grip harder than most realize. People figure it out pretty quickly once they add specialized grip work to their routine…

Another, more obvious determining factor is your actual grip routine…

How many exercises do you plan on doing? What about sets and reps? Do you plan on doing heavy negatives like Mr. Kinney, the first man to officially close the #4 Captains of Crush?

Questions like the ones above will help you figure out if your routine makes sense.

Any one who wants to make serious gains in his grip strength asks questions like the ones above…

The number of exercises you use is something you need to keep an eyeball on …

The hands and lower arms are made up of plenty of parts that move in practically every direction. There also seems to be a new exercise or grip tool created every week.

I’ve heard about a few guys that get totally carried away. They end up doing what seems to be every grip exercise known to man in one session.  Crazy…

Another trap people fins themselves in, is overdoing the volume.

Heavy grip work can be demanding on the whole body, but it doesn’t come close to big compound movement like squats, deadlifts, and presses.

That means you’re body doesn’t tend be taxed as hard, and the grip workouts don’t feel so heavy.’ Before you know it, you guys are doing enough sets to make you wonder if he gets some type of sadistic joy out of it…

That’s crazy…

You wouldn’t train the rest of your body like that would you? So why train you grip like that.

Keep these things in mind, and keep a close eye on your progress.

If you haven’t made any gains in a long time, you might need to chop back on your volume.

Do whatever you have to do to get the gains rolling again, even if it means cutting back to one set of one rep for one exercise.

Stick with this, and you’ll eventually have a pair of mitts like a vise… That may mean chopping back your

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: Muscles are like plants, you gotta geed and water them right to get the best results. Learn everything you need to make your own personalized meal plan tailor made to fit your goals and training…

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Forget stopping to smell the roses…

When was the last time you stopped to chew our food?

That’s right, Chew your food?

Last time I checked, racing was no where to be founding under the definition of eating in the dictionary…

And unless you’re Tubnut McGee pictured below, pounding sustenance into your face like a bulimic warthog ain’t exactly the way to eat …

(I’m guessing that the porcelain throne is going to resemble ‘Tiny’s’ face once his cheeks get a hold of it)

Besides being poor table manners, inhaling your food poses a few health risks…

A) You could choke and end up dead; face down in a plate of Sloppy Joe’s.

B) You are never going to get a date looking like the guy ‘posing’ for the photograph…never. (if a guy like that did, I shudder at the thought of what a ‘dinner date’ would be like) –

C) Never getting a date = plenty of pent up sexual frustrating. By now, we’ve seen enough TV and tabloids to know the trouble that’ll get you into…

All kidding aside, most people don’t chew their food enough, even those who seem to eat like ‘normal people.’

Whether or not they know it, this puts mental and emotional stress on the body.

The mental stress is usually a result of thinking about something else while eating. More often than not, that something else is a stress causing thought…

Work, chores, your to do list, the report that’s got to be in this Friday, the prick who cut you off in traffic earlier, what are you going to make for supper, making sure you remember someone’s birthday, don’t forget to get a movie for tonight’s movie date, and on and on….

On the physical side, insufficient chewing means that you’re not maximizing the nutritional yield of the food. In other words, you’re not getting as much nourishment as you think, which means you’re performance and gains are going to less than what they can be. It means wasting money, too.

It can also cause upset stomachs and a general feeling of crappiness. (Yes, that is a multi-syllabic medical term)

For people like us who want to get the most out of our training, this isn’t the way we want to be eating.

Eating should be done in as relaxed a state as possible. And the food needs to be thoroughly chewed. (and yes, I know that isn’t easy for those of us with hectic lives and jobs.)

If you want even better results, I highly suggest that you think the thoughts that Bill Peal did while eating.

Now, I’m no fool. I’m fully aware that getting someone to actual gear down and focus on what their chewing on will be tough enough, let alone have them go along with the ‘mental mumbo-jumbo.’

But I’m not trying to convince anyone to do this…

The truth is that the winners will see the value in what they’ve just read, and then go about implementing it immediately…

Let me know how this works out for you…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: So we’ve just covered how’ to eat, to learn ‘what’ to eat to perform your best and get the biggest and fastest gains…

Go here and Order NOW

On the first of the month, I shared some examples of ‘heavy pressing,

I wrote this to answer the question ‘how heavy is a heavy press?’

I also wanted to give people an idea of what the human body is capable of…

Well, it looks like I may have overdone it. Some are having a hard time swallowing ‘the facts

Some of my examples included Tommy Kono, Paul Anderson and Doug Hepburn. I ended up getting some responses from people that I expected…

They went something like this…

‘Kono, Anderson and Hepburn might be able to press an elephant overhead, but they were genetic freaks!’

Maybe…

I do know that I can’t stand that ‘genetics’ card.’ I believe that so called ‘average genetics’ are capable of a lot more than most realize…

And I’m not some solo crackpot who believes this…

If you doubt your ability to lock out an obscene amount of weight overhead, you need to hear what Keith Wassung has to say…

Here’s what he had to say, directly from his voice box to your ears, (well, I guess its eyeball’s in this instance.)

‘I believe that if you can bench press 225lbs, then you have the capacity to eventually perform an overhead press with 300lbs. This may take you a year or it may take five years, but the effort will be worth it.

Damn, those be fightin’ words…

He’s essentially saying that the vast majority of people can build up the ability to press 300 overhead.

How can I say vast majority? Because I can’t think of any guys who are half serious about their training; and have spent a few years in the gym that can’t bench 2 plates…not a single guy…

And I say their fightin’ words because Keith’s slapping the gauntlet down…

He’s essentially saying that a 225 pound bencher has no reason for not eventually pressing, or at least come very close to pressing, 300 pounds overhead…

And just in case anyone’s confused, a 300 lbs standing press is a BIG lift. And if you can bench 225 lbs, it can be yours…

Now, being that this is the beginning of the week, I hope that this fires you up and leads to some new PR’s…

Get out there and get it…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: You’re going to need to develop some serious strength and muscle mass to lock out 300 lbs overhead. The BodyDesign Nutritional System will make sure you have the nutrition and energy you need to reach your goals…

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My Power Rack training tip from the other day, ‘Working on Your Bottom’ raised a few eyebrows…

I think a few people thought that a proctologist got a hold of my email account…

The others were intrigued by the potential gains of ‘bottom position work’…

This led to some questions that raised an important point. A few guys were wondering how a competitive lifter would incorporate this technique into his training.

Here’s the deal…

Starting your lifts from the bottom makes your muscles work harder, which means you’ll get stronger, much stronger.

If you’re a competitive lifter, like a powerlifter, being stronger is a good thing. So, bottom position work should be a part of your regular diet.

However, since most competitions start the lifts from the ‘top position,’ you’re gonna need to use yer noggin to make sure you show up at the meet ready to kick butt.

If you do your lifts strictly from the bottom position right up until the day of competition, you’re form and timing are going to be off, way off.

Instead, I highly recommend going back to ‘regular’ lifting, i.e. starting from the top, to help you get your groove back for the meet

Training in the rack will make you as strong as an ox. But, if you’re timing and form are off, you’re going to spend that extra horsepower on keeping the bar ‘on track,’ as opposed to hoisting up more iron.

So crank up your strength with bottom position work. But be sure to switch to your competitive lifting style before the show to get used to it.

Now, that that’s straightened out, it’s time for something else that’s been on my mind…

Ever since I mentioned ‘proctologist’ up top, I can’t stop thinking about this question…

Is it just me, or should you be forewarned if a person’s a proctologist before you shake hands with him?

I don’t mean to be anti-social, but being that we definitely know where his hands have been, I think I’ll pass on ‘pressing the flesh’ and opt for bowing instead…

Just my .02 cents…

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany

PS: Power rack training can turn you in to a living breathing superman, but you need to support your efforts with right nutrition plan. Maximize your gains from every rep with the BodyDesign Nutritional System…

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Visualization, Mind Power, Positive Mental Attitude…

Pure bunkum, right?…

To answer that, let’s bring in a legend of the Iron Game…

Bill Pearl is known as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time… But there was more to Bill than the mounds of muscle covering his frame…

He had a pile of ‘GO’ accompanying that ‘Show,’ just like it should be…

He could bench 450 lbs, Squat 605 lbs. Press 310 lbs for a double in the seated press behind the neck.

He performed traditional feats of strength that drew crowds and dropped jaws…

He’s NASA’s go to guy when it comes to conditioning their astronauts.

He puts on some of the highest quality lectures in the health and fitness field. And he has written some of the best strength training books out there…

Oh, I almost forgot… He also won the Mr. Universe title…5 times, with his last win at the age of 41!

Now you know why he’s considered to be one of the Greatest…

Bill has talked about the power of the mind on more than one occasion. He even mentioned how he used visualization when it came to his diet, something that really caught my attention…

He said that; as he ate his food, he would imagine the nutrients rejuvenating his body and building up his strength and muscles.

This isn’t something you merely pay lip service to. You need to really get into it. You must BELIEVE and have FAITH in the process.

If you’re finding this a hard pill to swallow (how smooth was that pun?) put those doubts on hold. Simply try this out for the next few days.

If you have to, write it down on a 3×5 card or set a reminder on your phone. Do whatever to remind yourself to do this every time you eat. And yes, this applies to drinking protein shakes, too.

IT helps a lot to have confidence in the meal plan you’re following. If you’re current diet is full of fast food, Twinkies and sugar loaded ‘treats,’ you’re gonna have a heard time doing this.

Let’s be honest, being aware that you’re BS’ing yourself isn’t the path to overflowing self confidence…

Get your hands on solid nutritional information. There are a ton of books out thee.

When it comes to strength and muscle building nutrition made easy, the BodyDesign Nutritional System takes top honors. It’s full of real world experience and easy to follow templates. You can learn more by going here

Stick with Bill’s ‘Pearl of Wisdom’ (another intentional pun. Damn I’m good…) for a few days. A few weeks would be better.

I’m betting that it won’t be long before you start to notice a change for the better. But remember, you need to go ‘all in,’ half stepping it won’t cut it.

Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes.

Train Smart, Train Hard

Ray Toulany