The Art of Manliness - #109 Underground Strength With Zach Even-Esh

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast for about the past

00:00:19.920 year or so now i've had art of manliness readers reach out tweet me and tell me about this book

00:00:24.960 called underground strength by a fella named zach evanish finally picked up a copy checked it out

00:00:30.100 and it's awesome it's all about tires and using stones and you know deadlifts just really basic

00:00:35.920 strength training that resonates with me i can see why i resonate with a lot of art of manliness

00:00:40.660 readers and listeners so i had to have zach on the podcast discuss his philosophy towards strength

00:00:45.940 training and talk about his book underground strength i think you're really going to like

00:00:49.680 this a lot of great actionable takeaways from this that you can start using today and incorporate

00:00:54.400 into your own strength and conditioning routines so zach evanish let's do this

00:00:59.160 zach evanish welcome to the show great i'm excited to be here all right so you wrote this book called

00:01:09.220 underground strength that's sort of like this underground cult classic i've had a whole bunch

00:01:15.000 of art of manliness readers tell me about it uh so before we get there let's talk about

00:01:21.500 the story of how you got into weight training you talk a lot about the underground strength training

00:01:25.800 how you got into weight training it's actually really interesting uh you started off as sort of

00:01:30.480 a bodybuilder right yeah so i've kind of been through the different stages of uh i guess you know

00:01:39.060 if we put in general terms of fitness so i began uh training in 1989 uh i was just finishing up

00:01:48.360 eighth grade so a long time ago and even before that you know my brother would always lift weights

00:01:54.080 in his room he had an old joe weeder bench from sears he had sand filled weights and i would go and

00:02:02.440 i would try to work out and it would last for a few workouts and then i would stop and start again and

00:02:07.580 that was throughout middle school sixth seventh grade and i remember in seventh grade like questioning

00:02:14.940 myself saying you know what's wrong with me why can't i stay committed to working out you know is

00:02:19.940 this something wrong with me i was 12 years old at the time questioning you know if uh if uh if

00:02:26.440 something if i had some sort of like unique problem that that other uh 12 year old kids have or don't

00:02:32.000 have and um in the in the last few weeks of school of eighth grade i started working out regularly

00:02:40.540 in my brother's room and i i i opened up for uh not the first time this was a gift from our grandfather

00:02:48.460 the encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding from arnold schwarzenegger and i just started following those

00:02:54.360 workouts and i remember exercising at the beginning something like a monday wednesday friday and then it

00:03:01.300 became a monday tuesday thursday friday and i remember after two or three weeks i was like holy crap

00:03:07.860 i i love this i'm not i'm not stopping like i used to stop and then uh you know not long into

00:03:14.500 the summer i remember having like shirt sleeves cut off and a girl in the neighborhood was like

00:03:19.640 oh my god look at these biceps and i remember thinking to myself like i had arrived that's awesome

00:03:26.260 so that was the uh my beginning in training and all the information back in the late 80s the early 90s

00:03:34.500 not all of it but really the stuff that was coming across my eyes as far as magazines and books was

00:03:41.340 you know very much what i call the pretty boy bodybuilding scene there wasn't all this talk

00:03:47.520 of compound lifts and squatting and dead lifting and doing power cleans you just didn't come across

00:03:53.400 articles like that although now i have a lot of old magazines from the 50s the 60s and even some

00:04:02.300 magazines from the 80s where they had feature articles from dr ken leisner who uh was one of the

00:04:09.920 earlier uh proponents and students of arthur jones who created nautilus and the high intensity

00:04:15.640 training and he had articles that i wish i had come across because he had uh articles of college football

00:04:25.140 players nfl football players um his sons talking about how he would get them to eat things like

00:04:32.260 sending them to school with uh 12 uh tuna sandwiches and saying you know the rule is you don't come home

00:04:39.500 with these sandwiches and you don't give them away so you find a way to eat them and he had pictures of

00:04:44.680 the boys uh using uh anvils and odd objects and you know welded welded uh gas containers for farmer walk

00:04:54.740 implements and i say wow that's the stuff i wish i came across so you know i was a bodybuilder in my

00:05:01.080 earlier days and uh i was influenced in the wrong ways so as a high school wrestler i looked very strong

00:05:09.620 and imposing but i didn't have you know the performance that was required to be successful

00:05:16.380 as an athlete and not and even on a deeper level um it didn't really train me mentally to be tough

00:05:23.480 to be confident to have you know that that uh instinct where i felt like i was prepared for battle

00:05:31.000 because my training was perfect you know i would go to the gym it was always isolation exercises lots of

00:05:37.360 machines and cables so that uh you know i learned the hard way that yes that stuff makes you look good

00:05:45.780 but it doesn't help your performance physical or mental so you know i've been training since 1989

00:05:52.240 and i haven't stopped so that's um i'm 39 now so 26 years of training yeah i thought your story kind

00:06:01.180 of reminded me of mine because i started weightlifting too when i was in eighth grade and i got the uh the joe

00:06:05.260 weeder bench i think i got it at like service merchandise do you remember service merchandise

00:06:09.600 i think i've heard of those i mean we had like woolworths yeah we had independent uh sporting goods

00:06:17.040 stores here you know in new jersey there's a lot of malls yeah and um my brother you know would always

00:06:23.560 save up money he was a bus boy then i was a bus boy i remember we're busing tables i was in sixth

00:06:30.140 grade and he would always save his money and spend it on gym equipment i remember he

00:06:35.700 i think i wrote about that in the book he had us go to the uh sporting goods store at the mall where

00:06:40.520 we had to ride our bikes across a a pretty busy highway and i remember riding my bike back with

00:06:47.320 the 20 pounds the 10 pound plates in my book bag and i just couldn't keep up with him so he really

00:06:52.380 inspired me to to be strong but i think i've heard of that store i mean yeah it was like one of

00:06:58.240 these weird things you went in there and then like you picked out what you wanted and you'd like

00:07:01.520 call this phone and like they would like bring it up on a conveyor belt i remember i was just really

00:07:05.860 excited because it took me like a couple months to save up for it yes and then i set up in the garage

00:07:09.960 and like yeah i found like this like book from the 70s that my dad had i had some like lifts you know

00:07:15.520 you know some sumo lifts and bench press and right and it was like it was it was awesome i mean i

00:07:21.120 really wasn't pulling you know pushing much weight or pulling much weight but uh it it scratched that itch

00:07:25.720 and it began something that i still continue to this day yeah the i wish you know i say i have

00:07:32.360 a lot of books and i save them all so i could pass them on to my son because i don't know what circle

00:07:40.380 of you know fads or gimmicks will come around next in the fitness world and i want him to you know that's

00:07:47.640 obviously also a big inspiration behind the book was i wanted something that my kids would be proud of

00:07:52.860 but i have some very very old books from early 1900s of um strength training as well as old magazines

00:08:01.580 from like i mentioned the 40s the 50s the 60s and back then

00:08:05.980 you know they were titled appropriately so the magazine was uh strength and health or health and strength

00:08:12.380 and they had a blend of um you know training that actually was good for your health and made you strong

00:08:21.360 so there was a lot of um kind of um you know basic bodybuilding movements power lifting there was a

00:08:28.800 lot of olympic weight lifting in these books gymnastic drills and real simple straightforward stuff no bs

00:08:36.320 and you know i want my son to read that stuff as well as my daughter i want them to see that um versus the

00:08:44.560 stuff that's kind of teaching them that it's six weeks to this you know 30 days to that because

00:08:50.880 you know as you said you've been training since eighth grade so over half our lives oh you know

00:08:57.220 well over half our lives you know two-thirds of my life i've been exercising for and it's not a 30 day or

00:09:03.640 six week you know shortcut it's a it's a every day all the time you know all in process yeah yeah yeah i collect

00:09:12.020 some of those old fitness magazines as well yeah i'm surprised like how strong those bodybuilders were

00:09:17.780 right they were like genuinely strong and like yeah the emphasis on gymnastics was always really

00:09:22.400 it's always really surprising to see like you know you need to do a handstand yeah right this was like

00:09:27.560 this was before cross like you know 50 years before crossfit where the people are doing handstands

00:09:32.420 but like they were doing it back in the golden age of bodybuilding right they did uh that's what you

00:09:37.620 know muscle beach was it was they had the weight pit and then they had all the gymnastic rings they

00:09:43.160 still have the traveling rings they had the parallel bars and even inside arnold's encyclopedia he talks

00:09:49.700 about like his conditioning he would he would ride his bike he would sprint he would swim uh out in the

00:09:55.860 ocean so even the big guys were doing that and dave draper um has spoken about that lots and lots of

00:10:03.040 times and um that stuff always inspires me because they weren't close-minded they weren't one-sided yes

00:10:11.580 they were big but they also wanted to have the performance aspect and i thought that was that

00:10:17.740 was something that uh is just i love that yeah all right so you started listening in your eighth grade but

00:10:22.740 then this jersey kid you became a bodybuilding champion in israel how did that happen that's kind of a

00:10:31.320 weird story yeah so um i was born in israel and my family we moved here uh well we moved to new york

00:10:38.400 we moved to the states when i was just shy of a year my parents always tell me that i was i learned to

00:10:45.180 walk on the plane on the plane here so we moved we lived in the bronx uh for about four years and then

00:10:52.140 we moved to new jersey and uh you know as i said started getting into the bodybuilding and that's what i fell

00:10:59.080 in love with i would look at these magazines and read them and i purchased every book from the bookstores

00:11:05.320 back when uh long before the internet was out back when people did buy from bookstores and uh bodybuilding

00:11:13.140 was just i feel like uh bodybuilding and lifting weights saved my life you know i uh talk about in the book

00:11:20.660 how i started going through bouts of depression and um i i was uh this at the time i was you know

00:11:29.400 started competing in bodybuilding i was a freshman uh it was the summer before sophomore year in college

00:11:35.540 so i just finished my freshman year in college and uh every couple years we would go back to israel to

00:11:41.020 visit my grandparents and um my brother was in the israeli military at the time and he was telling me

00:11:47.740 that there's this guy who owns the small gym now in town back then there would be i mean you could

00:11:53.440 not find a gym in israel i would just go do uh 20 sets of pull-ups every other day that the years

00:11:58.980 before that going to israel but there was a gym there and i went to that gym and uh it was very very

00:12:06.000 small i mean oh it must have been like 500 square feet 550 square feet super small the owner saw me

00:12:14.600 and uh i was 18 back back at the time and uh my brother introduced me to him and he saw me and said

00:12:22.220 he goes you have to compete in this teenage mr israel it was called the young mr israel 18 and under

00:12:28.820 and he's like it's in a couple of weeks he saw me you know i had a tank top on he's like you need to

00:12:35.900 compete and i was going through this bout of depression just really just broken down and i was

00:12:41.280 like no i don't think i want to do it i don't think i'm ready and uh every day i'd show up at

00:12:46.600 the gym and i would train and um he would ask me over and over and i'd kept saying no no and then one

00:12:53.160 day um one night at home i remember i'm at my grandparents and i'm just thinking to myself like

00:13:00.000 what the hell like i've always read all these bodybuilding magazines i read arnold's education

00:13:05.220 of a bodybuilder hundreds of times i mean i memorized the book and i wanted to live that

00:13:11.440 experience of competing and you know how he broke out of the austrian military broke broke over the

00:13:18.000 fence to compete in the in the young mr europe or the junior mr europe and i remember saying to myself

00:13:23.920 like is this what you're going to do you're going to be an excuse maker you're going to be weak you're

00:13:28.380 not going to challenge yourself and i remember i i just said to myself that's it it's time to change

00:13:34.400 time to you know be a strong person so i the next morning i went to the gym and i remember uh the day

00:13:42.520 or two before that the gym owner abner said i'm gonna give you one more chance i'm gonna ask you one

00:13:48.180 more time he had been asking me for two weeks and uh i remember i got to the gym and there was nobody in

00:13:53.960 the gym and he was just sitting there it seemed like he was just waiting all day i got there that

00:14:00.080 night late at night i would usually get there and um he's like okay last chance you're gonna do this

00:14:06.860 or not and i said yes i'm gonna compete and uh he's like he's like that's it let's train right now

00:14:13.080 and then we trained together it was myself the gym owner and this guy joe who was uh who was a former

00:14:20.200 uh army paratrooper and he was trying to get into the israeli seal team and uh the three of us wound up

00:14:27.380 training it was like two weeks leading up to it but we would train twice a day all the time i mean

00:14:33.120 it was just super intense it was it was amazing and i went on to win the young mr israel and there was

00:14:39.680 like about 20 kids competing and it was amazing we competed not you know most bodybuilding shows are

00:14:46.100 inside a high school theater maybe a college theater right this was in an amphitheater i mean it was

00:14:53.120 friggin amazing the the stars you know the sky was open um it just blew me away so i competed and uh

00:15:02.320 i was age uh 18 and i won the uh won the young young mr israel this was 19 94 okay that's a long time

00:15:13.160 ago all right so you jumped from bodybuilding then you did a stint with mixed martial arts how did that

00:15:19.320 happen yeah so i was uh you know after you know the young mr israel the next year i also competed

00:15:26.900 a couple times and i took first place and second place in a few bodybuilding shows natural bodybuilding

00:15:33.260 shows one of them and um then uh after uh a little bit after that is when i graduated college i became a

00:15:42.580 teacher and i kind of was getting that itch to uh to kind of defeat my inner demons i was a high school

00:15:49.840 wrestler and and super disappointed in my performance as a high school wrestler especially

00:15:55.980 with the work i put into it and uh as i got older i started developing just a different sense of

00:16:03.220 confidence i mean i was feeling like a man i wasn't afraid to go out and battle anybody on a wrestling

00:16:09.780 mat and i was like man i'm ready i was coaching uh wrestling at the time i was coaching at a middle

00:16:15.740 school high school um and i was also as i was an adjunct at a community college and an adjunct uh

00:16:23.900 professor and i remember um i was brought i met up with the wrestling coach and wrestled with some of

00:16:29.800 the guys and i took it to him and i was like man i'll i could wrestle anybody so at the time it wasn't

00:16:37.440 called uh mixed martial arts it was called nhb no holds barred fighting and a lot of the dominant

00:16:44.060 uh fighters were uh college wrestlers old college wrestlers i mean it was guys like um

00:16:50.480 oh of course i'm forgetting the name they you know uh mark kerr guys you know a lot of these ohio state

00:16:57.120 wrestlers um kevin randleman mark coleman i mean they they were the ground and pound guys

00:17:02.720 uh this is the early 90s oh no late 90s so i'm looking and looking and i find a place

00:17:09.880 uh online and uh it was a place about 25 minutes away inner city called uh they were teaching shoot

00:17:20.340 fighting shoot fighting was like open palm strikes it was what they were doing a lot in japan

00:17:24.960 so i went to that place and started getting involved with muay thai and jujitsu and there wasn't a

00:17:31.280 whole lot of instruction i mean it was more like show up and just you're gonna wrestle you're gonna

00:17:36.220 box you're anybody who's there is there to fight and uh started doing that and um started getting

00:17:43.260 really into it and there was uh i didn't compete in any kind of uh striking fights but i competed

00:17:50.800 in like the earlier days of the grapplers quest nationals i mean today there could be probably a

00:17:58.360 hundred people competing in your weight class when i competed i think there was like eight of us or 12

00:18:03.840 of us and i had a super close uh overtime loss to a judo black belt and i was so fired up i was like

00:18:13.100 i will never lose again and it also boosted my confidence being i was just you know my competitive

00:18:18.880 days was only high school four years of high school instruction but i had been wrestling and

00:18:24.480 coaching wrestling since the day i graduated high school so my confidence was up and i started

00:18:29.920 training hard hard hard and i tore my acl in training and that was really the moment that

00:18:37.460 changed my life and inspired me to uh become a strength coach or just to become a coach in general

00:18:43.960 you know i was wanting to in this weird way save the world of combat athletes and help them train

00:18:51.980 smarter so they wouldn't go through all the disappointments that i went through and uh since

00:18:58.700 then i've i've just been like possessed i don't know i just refuse to lose at anything i do you know

00:19:06.300 i've been there before the losses so i know that the mindset is the key so uh once i started uh

00:19:14.320 once i got had that acl injury and then i had my acl repair it was like i started this mission

00:19:20.820 where i was like gonna change the world of training combat athletes so from from the get-go i started

00:19:28.580 researching business with training and i started putting out information probably around

00:19:34.340 2003 maybe maybe even 2004 something like that it's definitely been well over 10 years

00:19:41.880 that i started creating you know ebooks and stuff like that i mean i was getting

00:19:46.920 pdf like adobe pdf maker bootleg editions off of ebay you know to make a pdf so it's been a long time

00:19:56.720 so tell us about how did okay it seems like everything you've been your life so far with the the weight

00:20:03.400 training when you're a teenager the wrestling the bodybuilding the mma you know the grappling 0.85

00:20:09.480 led up to underground strength training so i mean i guess what is the underlying philosophy of

00:20:16.760 underground strength training yeah when i was first asked that question a guy was interviewing me

00:20:23.180 and he's like describe what you guys do and at the time the big fad was this quote-unquote functional

00:20:30.940 training where everybody was had to train on a stability ball or you had to train on an unstable

00:20:37.780 surface or you you were using all these expensive cable pulleys and you know everything was just

00:20:44.160 circus tricks i mean it was just crazy and i wasn't doing that at all you know we were i had guys

00:20:51.020 swinging sledgehammers i had them chopping wood i had tree logs in the backyard where we would carry them

00:20:57.940 squat them we were climbing ropes that were slung around trees we were lifting stones i mean pushing

00:21:05.440 trucks and i just felt like we didn't follow any of those rules you know and many of the popular 0.95

00:21:12.700 coaches back then they laughed at me you know they were like ah you know that's some stupid stuff that 0.99

00:21:17.780 guy's an idiot and i think if i was younger i would have cowered today and i would have you know had my 1.00

00:21:24.340 lack of confidence but i was like you know what look at our results you can't argue with our results 1.00

00:21:29.840 the kids that i was training the athletes they were coming to me weak they were not winning wrestling

00:21:37.220 matches they were not starting on the football team at all i mean some of them were you know one kid

00:21:42.580 broke a collarbone he was so weak and um i started churning out kids that became all area football

00:21:49.300 players uh all state wrestlers state champ wrestlers all american wrestlers and i looked at it like we

00:21:57.480 weren't following the rules of what the norm was but now the way i look at it is i just don't

00:22:04.280 discriminate against anything that can make you stronger faster tougher so i'm not the guy that says

00:22:10.980 you only use kettlebells you only use power lifting i don't i feel like that's just a closed-minded way

00:22:17.820 it's an arrogant you know way to think i look at what is the best thing for this individual physically

00:22:24.380 as well as emotionally so the training i do is a blend of of physical and mental but uh we use

00:22:32.240 all training tools from free weights to kettlebells to dumbbells to odd objects like you know tires and

00:22:40.400 you know all kinds of different shape and size sandbags stone so when you see our training

00:22:46.360 you'll notice a wide variety of implements being used and i found that it's great because it not just

00:22:53.680 gets them physically stronger but man it gets people tough it gets people tough and even for

00:23:01.040 people think oh he's just training high school athletes i've got a good amount of adults that

00:23:06.540 train with me and it makes them tougher in life it's just like they apply the struggles through our

00:23:13.840 training and they become more successful in life because they're able to kind of look at life and

00:23:19.740 lifting as the same it makes them stronger it teaches them how to handle obstacles from work

00:23:25.900 and things like that so underground is really just not discriminating against the tools or the methods

00:23:32.140 that deliver results so i'm really open-minded and and it's always evolving constantly evolving i think

00:23:39.300 people are misconstrued with it because they feel like there's not a lot of science behind our training

00:23:46.380 which there is there's a lot of science but the most important thing is it's all application because

00:23:52.460 certain things look really good in these um scientific uh training manuals written by you know doctors of

00:24:00.900 exercise science but they don't always hold true when you're actually training um a group of athletes or a

00:24:09.060 specific athlete or sometimes those scientific you know uh i don't know if i want to call them rules but

00:24:15.760 those scientific theories they don't they may apply better for one sport than they do for another

00:24:21.660 sport so there's a lot of things that i look at when i'm training and i really individualize training

00:24:27.640 for the person for their needs whether whether it's sport life whether it's the the mental aspect that

00:24:34.880 they need you know i i blend a lot of it together so i don't just learn and um incorporate stuff

00:24:41.740 from the strength and conditioning world but i i also a lot of people who follow me know i'm i'm very

00:24:47.000 much connected to uh the military especially you know the elite forces of how they train and i i blend

00:24:54.080 a lot of those things into what we do to to maximize our results that's what it's about results all right

00:25:00.300 so you got uh yeah you flip me through the book you see a lot of like just cool exercises like yeah

00:25:05.300 splitting wood the sledgehammer tire pulls but you also have uh squats shoulder press you know the

00:25:11.700 barbell exercise as well i mean is there any type of programming with it or i mean how does

00:25:16.000 you know if someone were to do this like how would they decide like what they should do and for like

00:25:20.880 how long i mean what's the programming behind it so in the book um i didn't just give i gave sample

00:25:28.500 workouts broke them down into like sample beginner workouts sample intermediate sample advanced

00:25:34.240 workouts but leading up to that i write about blending science with hell you know blending kind

00:25:41.280 of like this good training program that kind of follows the rules along with things that are going

00:25:47.340 to test your mental toughness that are going to push you physically outside of your comfort zone to

00:25:53.700 help you grow not just physically but grow in your mentality and even on a deeper level you know the

00:26:01.600 warrior spirit that mark divine talks about from seal fit so when we train uh some of our workouts could

00:26:08.680 be full body workouts sometimes they're focused more upper body or focused more on lower body

00:26:14.360 but you know a lot of our workouts you know if you come and see our gym see our guys training of all ages

00:26:21.580 we start with a warm-up it's it's a blend of just movement sometimes it's got gymnastic drills like

00:26:28.380 tumbling and cartwheels other times it's got some light bodybuilding work in there like dumbbell

00:26:33.900 benching and maybe kettlebell clean and press or some light kettlebell snatches uh sled drags so we're

00:26:41.340 we're utilizing programming that is a blend of building strength building muscle um and and overall

00:26:49.860 athleticism so is there a program to follow yes but i never give a blanket program and say this is what

00:26:56.000 everybody needs it all starts with when i'm training people how do they move you know you might be very

00:27:03.720 strong you could deadlift 405 bench 315 but you can't do a push-up with unless your feet your hands

00:27:12.260 are elevated or you can't do a lunge you don't have the unilateral leg strength or the stability in your

00:27:18.140 ankles knees and hips to to push yourself off one leg so i look at those things before i determine

00:27:24.540 this is the workout that everybody has to follow you know to me i want to see people having uh general

00:27:32.640 fitness you've got to be in shape if you're all the way on one end of the spectrum very very conditioned

00:27:38.840 but then very weak i'm not a fan of that or if you're very very strong but you're winded when you

00:27:45.340 got to walk up a flight of stairs or you can't play with your kids because you know you're too big like

00:27:50.660 i don't like to see those things unless really that's your area of focus you know if you're a

00:27:56.900 power lifter maybe that's where you're going to be you know you got to chase the extremes if you're a

00:28:01.820 all-out ultra marathoner you may not have a lot of strength although uh i think many of them are kind

00:28:08.680 of learning that you know you don't have to be weak and also be uh to be an ultra uh runner or ultra

00:28:16.100 swim or any of that stuff so there's no set plan until i see that person move because movement to

00:28:23.320 me is is number one if you move like i want to fix that first and foremost you bring up an interesting

00:28:29.480 point there about the difference between athleticism and strength i mean what is that difference and

00:28:33.860 if you're just an average joe schmo like right you know i'm married dad i don't really play sports

00:28:40.360 anymore except for the occasional pickup basketball game like why should i be athletic

00:28:44.600 well an occasional pickup basketball game is where a lot of a lot of unathletic guys you know start

00:28:51.660 getting hurt like tearing acls or jamming up their ankle oh i jumped and i rolled my ankle and you hear

00:28:58.160 this shit all the time but what's unique is you know i look back to my high school days i don't ever 0.81

00:29:04.500 recall a kid saying i tore my acl i've got to get acl surgery nobody told me they were getting tommy 0.99

00:29:11.180 john surgery there's no such thing as little leaguer's elbow these are all words that have

00:29:16.420 been created because of overuse and over specialization so there's a lack of balance so

00:29:23.000 when i tore my acl you know looking back at those days was my training program was bodybuilding

00:29:29.800 leg extensions and and not not really doing too much machines not enough stability work poor mobility

00:29:38.240 so my body just was you know if it was put in a compromised position my joints were not prepared

00:29:45.040 for it and and the reason why the body gets hurt is because it's not prepared for what you're doing

00:29:50.180 so athleticism you know i look at it as a blend having strength the ability to move to be healthy

00:29:57.380 uh to be able to handle whatever it is that you're doing so if you're a power lifter and you don't have

00:30:04.620 kids to play with and you're not playing pickup games then your athleticism and your health won't

00:30:10.620 really be challenged uh because you just know how to go to the gym and squat heavy and deadlift heavy

00:30:16.980 and things are different for guys like you and i who become fathers you start looking at your training

00:30:22.820 differently you know i remember when i strained my lower back and my back was killing me while i was

00:30:30.860 giving my daughter a bath you know she was a baby she was a couple months old and that was the first

00:30:35.460 time i started saying like screw this you know i'm not gonna let my training interfere with being a dad

00:30:42.280 and uh you know so when i look at athleticism i don't look at it in relation to a sport i look at it in

00:30:49.480 relation to your life so if your training is uh messing up your life then we've got a problem unless of

00:30:57.540 course um you're zoned in if you're training for the olympics then your life is the preparation you

00:31:05.280 know joe de senna always talks about that um i'm not sure what uh rowing team what country they're

00:31:11.620 from but they had that blog called will it make the boat go faster and they were like hey you guys

00:31:17.040 want to go see a movie tonight and they say will it make the go the boat go faster they say no all right

00:31:22.020 we're not going to the movies you know that's when you're in the zone and you're being extreme but

00:31:26.600 when you become a parent your uh your your view of training um whether you like it or not it has

00:31:35.660 to change you need to be healthier you need to be able to play with your kids you need to be able to

00:31:41.580 uh balance your training and not be on the extremes of basically beating the crap out of your body where

00:31:48.640 you're unable to function uh with playing with your kids and as you said it doesn't have to be a pick

00:31:54.700 a game of basketball what if the kids out front want to play soccer or you go bike riding you want

00:32:00.660 to be able to do those things and to me that's the most important thing to me it just i don't care how

00:32:07.020 much i squat bench or deadlift anymore although i'm inspired to always lift heavier um i don't like

00:32:13.900 i i change my training anytime i feel that it's interfering with being a great father

00:32:19.440 guys are listening to this podcast right now what can they start doing today to apply the philosophy

00:32:28.440 under of underground strength in their own life i i say uh don't be afraid to get uncomfortable so

00:32:35.040 you're always going to the to the globo gym uh that's you know got the air conditioning or the heat

00:32:41.600 and it's got the tvs then one day i want you to go to the local playground and get get get going with

00:32:48.320 your hands on the monkey bars on the parallel bars go and find a stone and just carry it as long as you

00:32:54.560 can or do cleaning presses with the stone put the car in neutral and push it across the empty parking

00:33:00.500 lot a couple of times go out and train in a way that takes your body out of its normal realm of

00:33:06.860 training and you'll start developing a much uh a much more unique style of training and you're also

00:33:14.960 going to feel like your mind is evolving differently you know we guys like you and i with you know art of

00:33:21.040 manliness and we talk about the confidence factor and and being tougher that kind of training in this

00:33:28.260 unique way it breeds self-confidence you just feel like you have a bit of that alpha male going on inside

00:33:37.040 of you because you're like all right i know i'm not checking my cell phone in between sets i'm not looking

00:33:42.860 in the mirror i don't i'm not relying on the music that's going through the gym to motivate me i'm

00:33:48.680 outside training amongst mother nature whether it's hot or cold out and you start to get a little bit of

00:33:54.880 that edge and that is important man should never lose that edge and that's something that you can

00:34:02.020 train to acquire and you could also lose it by training and really living the wrong way living in a way

00:34:08.460 that doesn't make you uncomfortable and that's that's a scary place for me i don't ever you know

00:34:14.800 i don't when i find myself getting a little comfortable that's when i make sure i go and

00:34:19.520 train outside you know i own two gyms and uh especially when the weather's nicer but even in

00:34:25.940 the winter i make sure i get outside and do some training yesterday was a was a nice snowstorm here

00:34:32.240 i got to the park with my kids i was sprinting with them as they as they sat in the in the sleighs i

00:34:38.440 was chasing them were up and down on the playground and in between chasing them i hopped up on the bars

00:34:44.400 and did dips and doing that stuff just it puts my mind in a different place i start saying in the back

00:34:50.840 of my head like yes this is strong you know training while the snow is blowing and nobody else is you

00:34:57.720 know out here training like this in the cold it gives you a a great uh confidence factor and then

00:35:03.800 i take that confidence and i apply it to my work in in all factors of work whether it's you know my

00:35:09.480 writing or my online or you know being willing to do the things that other gym owners aren't willing

00:35:15.360 to do that kind of training i just call it get comfortable being uncomfortable i'm gonna put this

00:35:21.780 out there monkey bars hurt don't be deceived like i remember i did some i did some playground workout

00:35:28.360 and i just i'm gonna do the monkey bar i hadn't done monkey bars since i was in elementary school

00:35:31.820 man that is really uncomfortable like it hurts your your shoulders like man it's it's a workout

00:35:38.440 yeah it's just because we're not 50 pounds yeah i know exactly right yeah it's uh you're you're bigger

00:35:45.840 so using your body weight becomes much more challenging and uh that stuff's important you

00:35:51.640 want to be able to move your own body uh i'm a big believer in body weight and calisthenic style

00:35:58.660 training before you're trying to lift the weights i want to see guys that could do push-ups jumping

00:36:06.660 sprinting pull-ups dips i want to see all men being able to do that awesome well zach where can people

00:36:14.640 find out more about your work uh easiest way is go to underground strength.tv and uh if you just

00:36:21.560 google underground strength coach they'll see wow the facebook the twitter the instagram all the

00:36:28.180 youtube videos we've got i think over 1700 youtube videos with training mindset lot lots of stuff that

00:36:36.400 could be um easily applied but underground strength.tv would be great and uh the strong life podcast

00:36:43.240 they could find that as well on the blog awesome well zach evanesh thank you so much for your time

00:36:47.880 it's been a pleasure cool thank you brett thanks everybody for listening our guest today was zach

00:36:53.280 evanesh he is the author of the book underground strength and you can find that on amazon.com

00:36:58.100 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:37:04.540 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at art of manliness.com and if you enjoyed

00:37:08.760 this podcast really appreciate it if you give us review on itunes or stitcher whatever it is you use

00:37:13.300 to listen to your podcast and also uh recommend us to your friends if you think it's worth that that's

00:37:17.380 the greatest compliment you can give us anyways until next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay

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The Art of Manliness - April 10, 2015

#109 Underground Strength With Zach Even-Esh

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