The Strongest Man I Ever Knew

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It’ no secret I spent my whole life lifting weights from the time I was 12 to about
30 years old. The first time I ever lifted any weights I put 110lbs over my head
and I weighed 98 lbs.

I was always obsessed  with gaining weight and getting stronger. All the years
I studied and read about real strong men never really seeing to many real strong
men, not even in the gym.  I did spot a man who did squat 800lbs and another
guy I would spot would do behind the neck press with 315 lb for 10 reps. Later
found he was on the juice, years later he was rail thin.

For my size I never knew really anyone stronger than I was at 145Lbs. I was deadlifting
400lbs as a 9th grader and as a senior in high school I was bench pressing 330lbs.

And after all these years  – all the years spent in and out of the gym and working
in the blue collar trade the strongest man I ever knew and who never lifted any
traditional weights was my “old man” My dad quit school in 8th grade and
went to work and all I ever knew him to do was drive truck and move furniture.

He was about 5’6″ weighed probably about 19o lbs and was thick, his legs, calves,
his chest, his hands and fingers were very thick he wore a size 8 EEE shoe, his feet
were as wide as they were long.

As a kid I never ever seen him fail at picking up anything he put his hands on. I watched
him strap refrigerators to his back and walk flight after flight of steps all by himself, you talk
about a step up workout! I seen him carry a baby grand piano with two other men, him on one
side two on the other. I watched him in Virgina run 3 men in the ground working in over 100
degree weather while ( I was probably 10 or 11)  and 3 other men need to sit in the shade.

I watched him pick up a 300 lb weight set and put it over his head as well as doing
pullovers from the floor with 200lbs when he was drunk and he didn’t know any better.

If he grabbed you, you would not get away. I watched him beat on my moms boyfriend and
almost kill him, not to mention the holes in the wall he made missing this dudes head.

The “old man” was never sick that I can remember or ever hurt. He drank all the time and
smoked probably a pack of cigarettes a day and never missed work. This is not some
ploy to talk about how great my dad was, because he wasn’t. He chose the booze and
I didn’t see him all my teenage life or even talk to him.

But here’s what happened to him emphysema, heart problems, weight gain, on oxygen
24/7 can’t even walk 25 yards without resting. He lived the dirty lifestyle and he paid
and is still paying. At 72 he keeps going and I don’t know how!

But it’s funny because no gym strong man could have even done half the things he did
day in and day out, it would have ran them in to the ground. Just growing up blue collar
and living this life gives you a toughness and strength weights could never give you.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

 

A Fat Man walks in…..

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I pulled in to a parking lot and watched an employee who’s belly
was hanging down to his thighs. He got in his car and left. I went
in the store and while I was in the check out line he walked back
in.

I guess he was on lunch, when he walked in he was carrying a bag
of Mc Donalds food and a big ass iced coffee drink. Young guy,
belly hanging down to his thighs and eating Mc Donalds.

How can men and women continue to do this to themselves?
Why do these people continue to destroy their lives?

Just like alcoholics, drug addicts and gamblers these people
have an addiction that they feel is okay. Booze, drugs and
gambling may ruin your life quicker but in the end food
will cost you more with food bills, sickness, disease and
higher medical costs.

Should we mine our own business?

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

A Navy Seal breathing Heavy & Runners are Weak

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Why do I continue to tell people that my blogs and newsletter is not
for the normal man or women and still people don’t get the idea.

I talk about the things other people won’t talk about, I talk about
real life situations that I see everyday and from the over 30 years
of being around the physical labor trade and  gyms.

I don’t talk much about white collar, that speaks for itself. No matter
what I say someone who has very little if any experience voice their
opinion. I had a person tell me how LSD (long slow distance) running
amazingly changed their body. And it will for a short time, but they
will never really achieve true physically fitness.

Runners are thin and weak, plain and simple.

Very few runners are physical most look like rail thin boys with
very little muscle. Here is a clue, if distance running is everyone’s
first thought on achieving fitness do something else.

Why do we look to the military as the standard in physical fitness?

Most go in out of shape – spend a few weeks getting in shape and this
gives them expert status. 100 pushups in 2 minutes is actually pretty
weak as well as 100 situps in 2 minutes.

Most get out of the military and never train again. A funny thing I have
been asked by former military is how can they can get back in shape after
they tell me that the best shape they were ever in was when they were in
bootcamp and I asked what did you do in bootcamp? They tell me and then
I tell them there is your answer.

Any group I mention someone always gets upset whether military, police,
martial artists, prisoners someone seems to get pissed because they or someone
they know did this or that the majority of men in these vocations do it because
they have to they don’t do it unless they have to when they are done or get older
no more training even the martial artists are pathetic.

What I’m saying is the majority are not in great shape not every military man
or prisoner or martial artists is some physical fitness freak; most couldn’t pass
my physical fitness test or for that matter a simple schools physical fitness
test.

Check the young recruit out of the military in less than a year or the prisoner
that makes parole fat and weak in no time. Hell I watched a former navy seal
demonstrate an exercise of about 10 reps and was breathing heavy when he
was done.

To be physically fit you need to work hard at doing what the majority are not.
You need to work the body in all areas, from different angles and push. To be
normal just go through the motions.

For the runners, try adding some pushups or pullups to your boring
running routine!

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

Want to burn more fat and build lean muscle? Stop jogging!

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Want to burn more fat and build lean muscle? Stop jogging!

That’s right stop jogging. When did jogging become the standard in fitness?

In the 60’s 70’s or 80’s. Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it right.

Here’s a question. If you are a runner have you achieved the results of a
lean muscular body?  I’m not talking about weight loss, I’m talking fat loss.

All most all runners are thin and weak. Long distance runners or joggers
are wasting valuable time, if their goal is health and fitness and fat loss.

If you notice I keep saying fat loss and not weight loss, why? Because
everyone is concerned with weight loss and weight loss is not the answer.

Just because you lose 20lbs doesn’t mean you will look much different.
You can lose muscle and still have fat but you should be shooting for
fat loss instead of weight loss.

Long distance running beats the body down. If you run to much your
body with start to use muscle for energy instead of fat. The less muscle
you have the less fat you will burn. The more muscle you have the more
fat you will burn.

When you start a running program you love it, then as time goes on you
find it starts to take a lot of time and you need to go farther to get results
then eventually no matter what you try the results stop. Why? Your body
will no longer respond to this type of exercise, it’s got you figured out
it knows you’re trying to lose fat and we are engineered to save fat so the
body will start to use other things as fuel such as muscle.

You need to confuse your body, trick it to keep getting results. The more
muscles you use the more efficient  your body will burn fat. Running
uses mostly the legs, some core and a little bit arms.

Most runners suffer from all sorts of pain, foot, back, knee, ankle and shin splints
just to name the most injured.  So why do you run in the name of fitness?

To get the most benefit and the quickest results is to use exercise that use
as many muscles as possible at the same time, the more you use the fast
the results and the faster will fly off. However, if you eat like garbage you will
never get the results your after.

If you want to run try short sprints, short sprinting will build lean muscle
and burn fat, most sprinters are lean and muscular. Short sprints can be
from 5 seconds to 30 seconds you can even try 1 to 2 minutes sprints if
you can.

Hill sprints will even hit the body a little harder, these are serious fat burners.
if you can’t find a hill try running stairs also a great muscle builder and fat
burner.

Bodyweight training is another way to build lean muscle and strip the fat.
Bodyweight training uses a lot of muscles at one time so you can spend less
time exercising.

Jumping rope is one of the best exercises you can do to become physically fit,
become more athletic, build agility and coordination, jumping rope works
many more muscles then jogging. If you don’t keep your torso upright and
straight you will not be able to jump rope long without missing.

Try a workout of bodyweight training, jumping rope, short sprints and
hill sprints and I guarantee you will be blown away with the results.

You can try this short workout and see for yourself:

Find a space like a football field or soccer field and mark of 40 to
50 yards.

Start with 10 pushups- from the pushup position sprint 50 yards
do 25 jumping jacks – Sprint back the 50 yards and drop for another
10 pushups and continue this 10 times rest 2 minutes and repeat
again. You can do it longer if you want but try it one to two times.

Finish with 200 pushups and 250 jumping jacks and a lot of short
sprinting you can probably finish this quicker than running 3 miles.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

Former Royal Marine is bodyweight training machine and gets the best of me.

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A while ago I posted a workout I tried called ” The Brutal Wildman Training 2,500 workout which consists of
6 different bodyweight exercise’s done in a circuit as fast as possible. 250 burpees, 1,000 jumping jacks,
250 crunches 250 squat thrusts, 500 bodyweight squats, 250 pushups. I posted a time of 49:36 and I
thought that was tough, then walks in this former Royal Marine.

He emails me and tells me that he and some buddies did the workout, and his time 45:06.
Not many people will ever give me a time let alone try these physically and mentally
demanding workouts. So when a former Royal marine from the U.K. does it and post a
time like this it gets me motivated.

Has anyone ever checked out the training the Royal Marines go through? Well when you get
a chance check it out. These guys are machines. They train using bodyweight training circuits
and are in superb condition. So seeing his time got me a little nuts. I was ready to sit down for
dinner and decided that I needed to try and get a better time then Max.

I actually gave up eating for competition. I knew it would be tough. To get a better time there would be
very little time for water and a quick wipe down. The sweat poured off. But in 41:58 done. Finished.
A brutal workout non stop any rest would cost me. But if I quit I would have failed and I would have
a problem with that, it would bother me until I got a better time.

If I didn’t get a better time I would have been pissed. But I needed to do at least better then my
original time. Which I smoked. I hope he doesn’t beat it because I was spent. I had a little left,
but not much. It’s nice to be able measure yourself and to continue  to push forward, because
if we aren’t trying to push harder and farther whats the use. We need to always be pushing harder
and farther then before, if you don’t you won’t grow. Besides ” I’d rather die then give up”.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube

Pure Grit – Paddy Doyle

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That’s the name of Paddy Doyles new book. He talks about his world records
his mind set. I have all his books and videos. If you haven’t been listen the
last couple years, I’m a big fan.

He has a circuit in the book that he uses when he trains for certain world records.

Here is what he does.

40 pressups.
100 situps.
100 bodyweight squats.
100 U.K. squat thrusts.
100 burpees.
15 minute static wall sit.
shuttle sprints 30 feet carrying 40lb dumbbells 20 times.
( up and back is 1 time)
Each exercise is to be done non-stop with a 15 second rest in between
each exercise.
Then he will repeat.

I did all the above except I struggled with the static wall sit
did a pathetic 5 minutes. But used a 100 lb heavy bag for the
30′ shuttle run.

Time 19:41 seconds. Not bad for first try.

If you want to copy someone why not try to chase a guy that has over
130 world and European records.

Toughness Builds Winners
Johnny Grube

Would love to here your comments