For the Ladies

By Eric Prush

Ladies Squatting Pressing & Pulling

After my last blog, I felt like I’d hit a high point. I had taken on Planet Fitness, and won. I had scored a huge victory for all who had ever felt insulted by their prejudicial tirades against the muscled.  It was a huge success: It was shared by meatheads all across the tri-state area. It was well received by my peers. It led to me being approached by hordes of attractive women who loved my work and desperately wanted to be with me. Some of the above is not true.

And so when John Gaglione asked me what I was working on next, I couldn’t tell him. Where would I go from there? It was a desperate time. And in desperate times, we turn to our friends. I called my good friend Nikki and asked her what she wanted to hear out of me for my next blog. Nikki, along with my mother, comprises the list of roughly 5 women that read this blog each week. So in attempt to broaden the audience of our website, and to score Coach Gaglione a fitness model girlfriend, I decided to get in touch with my feminine side. But for those of you who are starting to panic about the tone of this  article, don’t worry: Nikki, like myself, possesses a large degree of hatred for much of humanity. When I spoke to her, she responded with the raw attitude that is expected of a friend of mine. “It makes me f*cking angry when dumbasses say women will turn into giant monsters when they lift weights. Write about that.” Boom. I had my topic.

By the end of this article, Gaglione and I will be fighting over JuJu Salimeni's phone number.

The problem is, this topic has been addressed ad nauseum by people in the fitness industry. Google it right now and you will see countless articles by coaches and trainers educating women on the various health benefits of strength training. But let’s be honest: none of these articles are working. Go to any gym and you will consistently see skinny fat (or just plain fat) women doing 90 minutes of cardio on an elliptical and 20 sets of curls with the lightest dumbbells in the gym. They do this day in and day out and still look the same, or worse. So for the sake of helping American women everywhere increase their training IQ and look better, I will avoid the scientific route. I will instead do what I have been doing week in and week out on this blog: Tell you a story from my personal life that will either get you thinking, or outright offend you. And so with this, story time with Eric Prush begins yet again.

This stuff definitely doesn't work.

As some of you guys may already know, I have spent years shilling supplements to the public in a shopping mall. I have told some horror stories about said experience, but now let me share some positive ones. Actually, it’s just one positive: I have met A LOT of beautiful women there. Now before you come at me with “Well no sh!t, Eric. You work in a shopping mall in New York. There are tons of beautiful women living in New York.” let me tell you that the vast majority of them are not from New York. In fact, the most impressive ones I met did not even live in the United States. Instead, they were Brazilian flight attendants who worked for TAM Airlines.

Not the only thing to come out of Brazil

Brazil, best known as the home of Blanka from the Street Fighter video games, also houses some of the most beautiful women in the world. Before I delve any deeper, let me silence the haters first. Every time I discuss this topic with a woman, I am inevitably confronted with the argument of “they only have great bodies because they have great genetics”. Let me be the first to tell you that this is NOT TRUE. If you buy into this argument, you are already making an excuse to b!tch out and not do the work you need to do to look great. So instead of being a hater, ask the important question: Why are these women so hot? The answer is very simple. They look great because they spend a ton of time training hard and heavy in the gym. How do I know this? Time after time, as I helped these women in my store, I was amazed to hear them asking for whey protein, creatine, caffeinated pre-workout products and a host of supplements typically associated with full-on meatheads here in the United States. For a while I assumed they were buying these products for their male friends back in Brazil, as the supplements there are typically lower quality and far more expensive. Finally, in an attempt to make conversation with one in hopes that she would throw herself at me, I asked one of them who they were shopping for. “For me!” she said matter of factly. “I want to build some muscle and be strong.” I then asked her what kind of training she did. She looked at me confusedly and said, “Musculação.” I asked her what the hell this meant and she said “Musculation. The same type of training you do!”

Westside Musculation: Brazilian model Thais Bianca has apparently learned from Louie Simmons

Now at this point I had no memory of every musculating, whatever the hell that meant. I had never seen such an activity in my life, and as such, this woman was met with a blank gringo stare. It wasn’t until after she left that I consulted google translate and found out that “musculação” meant “bodybuilding” and that “musculation” was, in fact, not a word at all.

The fact that this beautiful, feminine woman said she loved to bodybuild fascinated me.  I continued to ask each and very flight attendant who they were buying for, and what kind of exercise they did. Time after time, they answered the same way: They were buying for themselves, and they loved musculation. HEAVY musculation. Immediately, several things became obvious:

1. Their English was terrible.
2. None of them seemed to be afraid becoming “too big” or “manly” from lifting weights.
3. They all looked great.
4. I had to go to Brazil.

Much to the chagrin of my family (many of whom thought that I would have my kidneys harvested), a close friend and I planned the first of what would be many trips down to Rio de Janeiro. When I finally arrived in Rio, I realized that us gringos had it all wrong when it came to the way we trained our women. There were no skinny fat women wasting their time with incessant cardio and light weights. Instead, there were women squatting heavy and training hard. There were dip and pull-ups bars on the beaches where both men AND women banged out reps between intense games of volleyball or soccer. The women also wore super small thong bikinis on the beach. But I digress. The formula for success was written there: heavy resistance training and high intensity cardio will produce the best body for a woman, hands down. It will not make women grow beards, urinate in a standing position, or leave the toilet seat up. It will, however, make them the envy of their peers and lead to others saying they only look good because of their “genetics”.

Caution: Squatting heavy may lead other people to accuse you of having great genetics

I came back from Rio a different man. I had learned that I wanted a Brazilian wife, that real men wear speedos, and that there should be almost NO DIFFERENCE between the ways men and women train. And guess what? At Gaglione Strength you will see both our male and female clients performing squats, deadlifts, presses, and pull-ups with a variety of implements. Our women can out-deadlift more than some men at commercial gyms and look great while doing it. Training should be hard, and if you are one of those women who is only walking and doing light weights because they don’t want to get “too big”, ask yourself if that workout is kicking your ass enough to change how you look and feel. If you don’t like the way you look, you already have your answer. Get your ass down to Gaglione Strength and be ready for some hard musculation. Thong bikinis and speedos are optional.

Eric Prush is a strength coach at Gaglione Strength located in Farmingdale NY. He runs the “AM crew” for the G-team and the morning internship program. He is a competitive powerlifter always practicing what he preaches.  He can be reached at eric.prush@gmail.com

So ladies remember if you want to become the ultimate YOU then you are going to need a program designed for YOUR goals. Some exercises may be tough, some may seem intimidating at first, but giving enough time and effort you can completely transform your body and get the results YOU deserve. E-mail gaglionestrength@gmail.com to schedule YOUR free trial workout to kick start your total body transformation.

Click HERE to learn more about our female training programs and check out some of our most powerful success stories from women just like YOU!

With Some Much Information Out There, Who Do I Listen To?
Guest Blog from Robert Riccobono

You need to find the optimal program for YOU! That is why having a coach is so important

I remember when I began weight training.  I had just turned 21, was about to begin my senior year at Syracuse University, and I was looking to transform my 165lb skinny-fat frame into something more formidable. But there was a problem…..I didn’t know squat (pun intended) about how to get there.

Where should I begin?
What workout plan should I use?
What did I need to eat?

It seemed like every friend I spoke with, every method I learned about, every online “expert” I read had a different opinion. I’m sure there are other neophyte lifters who are experiencing the same anxiety and confusion I did. So if you’re looking for guidance to put on some muscle, shed a few pounds, or just challenge yourself in the gym……. who do you trust?

Let’s first look at selecting a program. I advise beginners to look for a protocol that is optimal, not one that simply “works”. With enough hard work and effort, almost any training or diet can work, so the goal should be to find a program that will be most efficient and give you success in the long term. A surefire way to predict the long-term success of a program is to determine if it’s feasible to maintain.  Choose a protocol that you can incorporate into a lifestyle, not something that you can only sustain for a few months.  For example, it is not optimal to maintain a diet that limits you to only a few foods, rather than aiming for caloric and macro nutrient goals. It is not optimal to stick to a workout plan that prescribes an hour of cardio each day in addition to strength training. Bottom-line: if a program is not built on principles that will help you in the long-run, it belongs in your trash rather than in your training.

In addition to following a program, you want to know which coaches or trainers you can rely on. My biggest tip when sifting through all of the so-called experts: Avoid the extremists. You can identify these coaches if they frequently use the term NEVER. Typical claims you’ll hear from this crowd are: never back squat, never deadlift, never press overhead. I cringe most of all when I read their nutrition advice: never consume dairy, never drink diet soda, never eat carbs at night or you’ll instantly balloon up like the Michelin Man! Whether it’s regarding nutrition, exercise, or other aspects of life, most things are fine in moderation. Some of these extremists are so fixed in their ways that they refuse to acknowledge new scientific data and anecdotal evidence. You are limiting yourself if you abide by a coach who is not open to different methods that have potential benefits. Try to learn from someone who is just as eager to learn new things as you are.

The exercise selection and program must match the individual needs of the athlete. A traditional squat may be a good choice for some and a bad choice for others. It all depends on their current situation and goals

That leads me to my most crucial piece of wisdom: Question everything, and think for yourself. When it comes to diet and training, everything must have a reason and purpose for it. If someone advises you do a fancy exercise variation, what is the reason for it? What are its advantages and disadvantages?  The individual offering you advice should welcome these questions and more, and enjoy engaging in a dialogue that you can learn from.

I had this mindset when I began training at Gaglione Strength, and that’s how I realized it was the right place for me. I was given a training program I could stick to, it incorporated any exercises that could help me reach my goals, and my coach (the immortal John Gaglione) has always been more than willing to engage with me in a conversation to explain the reasons for everything he prescribes.

Every Exercise we prescribe and everything coaching cue has a purpose

And that’s what you should look for in a coach, trainer, or even just a friend giving you advice along the way. When it comes down to it, no one has it all figured out. There are no secret exercises, and there are no magical solutions. Put in the hard work, use what you’ve got between the ears, and nothing can stop you from achieving your goals.

Robert Riccobono is an intern at Gaglione Strength and competes in raw powerlifting.

Ready to take your training to the next level? E-mail gaglionestrength@gmail.com today to schedule your free trial workout.

Bat Wings

Movement Category: Upper Body Pull

Athletic Benefits: The partner bat wing is a great option for beginners who can’t do a pull up yet, but also is an important exercise for advanced trainees as well. Isometric strength is often neglected in people’s training program and can be found in a variety for sports especially in MMA and wrestling. This exercise will give athletes the local muscular endurance necessary for holding onto the ball or another opponent. This is a good alternative for pull ups in the wrestling room when bars are not available.  To make the movement harder you can perform it with straight legs.

Check out the VIDEO below!

I hope you enjoyed this wrestling exercise of the week! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at gaglionestrength@gmail.com

1 Year Anniversary of Gaglione Strength Farmingdale

Guys Coach Gaglione here,
It has been a CRAZY year at Gaglione Strength! It has been another great year for the athletes, lifters and everyone involved at our gym!

Well we have reached another amazing milestone at Gaglione Strength…. We have OFFICIALLY been at our new location located in Farmingdale New York for one year! I never would our imagined our 1 Year Anniversary would come so quick! The gym keeps getting better and better and I am truly blessed to have this platform to be able to help so many athletes achieve their dreams!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary Gaglione Strength hosting will be hosting a party and open workouts on Saturday May 25th from 4pm-7pm.

We are going to have great food and music to kick off the festivities as well as an open workout for anyone who wants to test drive our gym. Athletes, parents, and coaches are ALL welcome. Any who is serious about training for wrestling should be at this event.
This gym is NOT for everyone, but if you are someone who wants to take their training to the next level Gaglione Strength’s coaching and training environment is second to none! Everyone who has committed to our program has seen amazing results and I can’t wait to see what results will come from our team next year! You will also get to see some lifting demonstrations and check out some of the UNIQUE equipment and methods we offer at Gaglione Strength.

Here are the details

Who: Anyone who wants to have a KILLER time training, learning or just hanging out and grabbing a bite to eat while watching some of the action unfold! You will get to connect with Gaglione Strength athletes and coaches as well as many other special guests. Parents, coaches, athletes, friends and family are ALL welcome.

What: Food, Music, heavy lifting and an AMAZING experience. We will have some strength challenges, prizes and give aways for all guests! T-shirts, DVDs, memberships and other surprises will be in store at this event. You don’t want to miss out on these prizes!

When: Saturday May 25th 4pm-7pm Come whenever you want but we are also offering as FREE one week membership to Gaglione Strength for the first 15 guests (for first time members) so make sure you get there early to take advantage of this special offer.

Where: Address: Gaglione Strength 32 Allen Boulevard Unit D, Farmingdale NY, 11735
Located in same lot as TJA Auto Collision. Additional Parking on Baiting Place road.

RSVP by May 17th Space is LIMITED on a first come first serve basis.
E-mail gaglionestrength@gmail.com to Let us know you are coming! YOU MUST RSVP to attend!

Again if you are NOT a member and want to test drive our program to kick start off your summer training take advantage of our very special offer! You get a FREE week of training with us for the FIRST 15 people who show up to the event!

Check out our FB event page to stay updated with news and updates!
http://www.facebook.com/events/400739136700040/

FIRED UP FOR THIS!!! Come celebrate with us!
See you on May 25th! E-mail gaglionestrength@gmail.com to reserve your spot TODAY!

Face to Face with the Enemy
By Eric Prush

STOP!  If you are overly sensitive and easily offended this is not the post for you.  READ ON only if you want to hear the TRUTH and most importantly are looking to take yourself to the next level. KEEP ON READING

Enemies.

If you live your life with enough purpose and intensity, sooner or later you will have them.

He-Man had Skeletor.

Batman had the Joker.

Rambo had that fat sheriff in the first Rambo movie.

"I would rather be dead than average"

And those of us who dare to train hard and get strong have Planet Fitness.  And while we are all familiar with their commercials that stereotype all people who have ever seen results from training, they are still an entity that many of us never encounter. After all, most true meatheads probably do not have many friends that enter that hellhole, much less ones who work in it. So basically, Planet Fitness is to us hardcore lifters what Kim Jong-Un of North Korea is to most of the world: A fat, pudgy, incapable joke.

So if that is true, then why do I classify Planet Fitness as a member of the meathead Axis of Evil? Well, imagine if Kim Jong-Un walked his sloppy ass into your job, spit in your face, kicked you in the balls, and told you that your head was too big for your body. He would go from an annoyance to someone you want to punch in the head pretty damn quickly. And that, my friends, is what happened to me a few weeks ago. You see, my life is not all fun and games. While I do enjoy my superhero existence at Gaglione Strength, the fact of the matter is that like any superhero, I must endure the agony of a double life. In my case, my secret identity (or “Clark Kent Mode” as John Gaglione calls it) is the assistant manager of a store that sells all sorts of vitamins and sports supplements. It was here that I came into contact with the lowest form of human beings I have met yet: Planet Fitness gym managers. For a long time I wasn’t really sure if anyone who worked for them actually believed the nonsense that they put in their television ads. As I discovered, some of them really believe that shit. And this is where the fun begins.

It was a Wednesday night when two out-of-shape, ugly, unflattering women walked into my store. I, being the professional that I am, approached these two gremlins and asked them if they needed help. They responded quickly.

They looked me dead in the face and said, “We really want to lose weight, but we don’t want to change our diet. We need a pill to help us.”

Damn.

Just hearing that raised my blood pressure 50 points.

I hate lazy people.

But I’m a professional, remember?

I kept it together and took them to the diet section of the store. It was there that I showed them all kinds of weight loss products: appetite suppressants, metabolism boosters, body cleanses and even herbal diuretics. I showed them every diet product known to man, yet they were unhappy with them all, mostly because I kept telling them nothing would work unless they changed their diets and trained hard. For the record, this degree of honesty is why I completely suck at sales, but I digress. When they eventually decided to forego any diet products for a sugary protein bar (that I told them would only make them fatter), the truth about these goons came out.

“I don’t know why you keep telling us to train hard. We work out. We each run a Planet Fitness.” one of them said.

Despite the mention of Planet Fitness, I kept it together. “Planet Fitness, huh? Well that’s certainly better than doing nothing.” I then added, with a smile, “I wonder if you guys would even let me in to that place.”

One of them then looked at my 6’2” 240 lb frame and told me “Absolutely not. You would be considered a “Lunk”. People like you are not welcome in our gyms.”

Lunk ALERT!!! You won't find Prush Pulling at Planet Fitness

Well, for someone who works at a “judgement free zone”, those words sounded pretty damn judgemental. But, in spite of their tone, I kept it together. Anger management has never been a strong suit of mine, but I am working on it. I was content to let them spew their nonsense without a rebuttal when my  hothead coworker (a fellow meathead) decided he had enough. Out of nowhere, he chimed in with “You know it’s funny that you guys pretend be against judging others, but you stereotype THE SH!T out of people like us!!!”

It was on and popping from there on. “You guys have your places and we have ours!” one of them said. “I ABSOLUTELY DETEST anyone who grunts, drops weights or makes any kind of noise while working out. It’s totally unacceptable.”

I still tried to be diplomatic and I told her “Well, you know, when you are deadlifting over 500 lbs it is very hard to put it down quietly. It’s not like everyone is TRYING to make noise and distract other people.”

“NO!” the other one told me. “You people act like neanderthals. We can’t stand it. It’s gross and that’s why you are not allowed near us when we go to the gym. And if you have an issue with us, TAKE IT UP WITH CORPORATE!!”

Sir can you stop working so hard please? You are disrupting the people trying to walk on the treadmills while eating bagels…

Shortly after this, they each walked out of my store, never to be seen again. They vanished into the night like two whoppers down each of their respective throats. I spent the next two hours of my shift in a rage. What the f*ck was wrong with these women? Why would ANYONE have a problem with people working hard and seeing results? Why are those with any discernible degree of muscle mass dismissed as “lunks” who have no brains at all?

The answer is that we have become a society that no longer rewards hard work. Many people now believe that good things come easy, and that there are shortcuts to every destination. These same people often think it is cool to not try too hard at anything, and even make fun of those who do. Because of this, they surround themselves with like-minded, weak, lazy, slackers that make them feel better about themselves because none of them are going ANYWHERE.  Don’t believe me? Look at Planet Fitness. They have made a ton of money by capitalizing on people with this mentality! Their gym is essentially a culture of haters. In fact, their next commercial should simply say, “Are you mediocre? Do you dread hard work? Are you intimidated by success? NO PROBLEM! Train at Planet Fitness and you will never have to confront any of these things!”

No haters here, only motivators!

In my last blog I spoke about Donnie Thompson. I neglected to mention another nugget of wisdom Super D shared with us when he said “The better you get at anything, the more people will hate you.” I have confronted this my whole life. When I was in high school I was 6’2” 160 lbs. I got great grades and a full scholarship to Boston University. Was I called a successful student by my peers? Nope. I was a nerd. I was marginalized immediately. Fast forward almost 10 years and I have gained 80 lbs of muscle. I am now a lunk. Do anything exceptional and “normal” people will be there to sh!t on you. That’s why surrounding yourselves with these people is a recipe for disaster.

At Gaglione Strength I am proud to say that there are no haters under our roof. I cannot promise, however, that we are a judgement free zone. What I will tell you is that the only way in which you will be judged is by how hard you work and what you do to help others. And that is the only way you should be judged. So f*ck Planet Fitness and their complete acceptance of American mediocrity.

We get judged every time we step on the platform…And we are proud of it!

Take yourself out of a “Judgement Free Zone” and you will be surprised at how much you can achieve.

A little bit of hard truth may just take you a long way.

Eric Prush is a strength coach at Gaglione Strength located in Farmingdale NY. He runs the “AM crew” for the G-team and the morning internship program. He is a competitive powerlifter always practicing what he preaches.  He can be reached at eric.prush@gmail.com

One Arm/Leg Plank Series

Movement Category: Core

Athletic Benefits:  For athletes it is important not only to be able to produce movement, but also resist and control movement. This exercise teaches the athlete to stabilize the spine and resist rotation and extension.  By eliminating the number of joints in contact with the ground you are taking away part of the athletes base of support which makes the exercise more challenging. Combat athlete need to be able to resist movements from their opponent. This is a great progression from a traditional plank. For ball players it will train the same muscles that actually produce movement in an isometric fashion.

Check out the VIDEO below!

One Leg

One Arm

Opposite Arm and Leg

I hope you enjoyed this wrestling exercise of the week! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at gaglionestrength@gmail.com

Lose Weight Gain Strength

One of my proudest moments as an author. This is how I lost weight and gained strength. The story & science behind losing 60 pounds and adding 200 pounds to my total. I put everything out in the open here. No BS just the TRUTH! Please share this out as I believe this info can help a TON of people.

You can’t ride two horses with one butt!

It’s classic bodybuilding advice. They say you can’t build muscle and lose fat simultaneously as the two processes diametrically oppose each other. One process is anabolic, the other catabolic, and trying to merge them essentially renders both ineffective.

Better to approach it as separate phases – eat a calorie surplus and train to get big and strong for X number of months (or until your penis disappears underneath your growing belly), and then eat a calorie deficit to shed all that fat while training just to maintain the size you built. Simple advice, and effective. And totally not necessary.

Building muscle while losing fat is possible, and this article will show you how I lost over 60 pounds of fat while becoming the strongest I’ve ever been. And I’m not even talking “pound for pound” strongest – I’m talking straight-up pounds on the bar.

Check out the full post here!

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/westside_for_fat_bastards

Prone Shoulder Series

Movement Category: Upper Body Pull

Athletic Benefits:  The inverted row is an amazing movement for all athletes that don’t have access to any equipment or partner. This movement integrates the muscles of the lats with muscles of the posterior shoulder. Shoulder health is crucial for wrestling and doing this exercise is a great way to train of the small stabilizer muscles in the back on the shoulders.  All of these areas are typically weak in athletes so it is a great “bang for your buck” exercise since you are working on strength, stability and injury prevention all at once!

Check out the VIDEO below!

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I hope you enjoyed this wrestling exercise of the week! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at gaglionestrength@gmail.com

You need to BELIEVE before you can ACHIEVE!

I had the tools, but didn't have the mindset

A lot of my guys on my team always give me props for being a gamer and being mentally tough. While I am honored for them to think such things I KNOW I still have a long ways to go, but I can tell you I have certainly come a long way.

My high school athletic career was plagued with injuries. I can honestly say there weren’t many people that worked much harder…if any. I trained with weights, I ran, I wrestled in the morning before school. I went to camps, clinics, open mats and trained in season after practice multiple times per week. It was never a question that I did the work, but the difference was I never truly believed in myself.

In high school my goal was to be an all county wrestler. At the county tournament my senior year I had a great tournament at the start. I pinned an all county kid and had a very tight match with the number one seed who eventually placed 2nd in the state the following year and placed 5th at states that season. I was even winning the match for the first half of it too. When push came to shove I didn’t have it mentally to make it to the second day to make all county. In the round to place I got taken down with 12 seconds left for the match to go to over time. I lost in double over time and my dreams were destroyed. I wasn’t the right in the head for several months after losing that match. I thought in my head that all of that hard work was for nothing.

I always seemed to fall a little short of my goals for whatever reason. I can’t say what the reason was for sure.

Was it my parents? Not sure. They always have had the best intentions for me, but I always felt whatever I did was never good enough. No matter how much I accomplished I felt I always could have done better.

My coaches? I had great skill coaches throughout my career and they certainly helped me achieve much success, but little things some of they said really got to me. Some of these things I maybe heard once or twice others I heard on a regular basis.

You will never bench press more than me.

You are a hard work, but not an athlete.

There is no chance you will get a college scholarship.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much impact we have on young people’s lives. If you work with younger athletes NEVER put a ceiling on them. Be realistic and tell them what they will need to do to be successful, but do so in a positive way. It took years for me to undo some the negative things that were stuck in my head from some of my past coaches.

Fast forward.  I was miserable as a personal trainer at a local facility and I ended up at Zach’s Underground strength cert. That was the turning point in my life when I really started to believe in myself. He saw the greatness inside of me. From then on I kept building momentum in my life and in my business which later carried on to my own training. When my training is spot on so is my business and vice versa. The only difference was my mentality I refused to lose. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. No matter what hardships I encountered I always found a way to get out of it and I will continue to do so.

I stopped listening to the nay sayers

I sought out expert advice

I surrounded myself with like minded positive people

I built a team to help support my goals and my mission

I stopped comparing myself to other people and started focusing on myself and what I needed to be successful

I started focusing on my progress rather than perfection (big take away from my man Uncle Pauly this is HUGE)

All of these things helped get my mind right. I have a great team of lifters to support my training, a strength coach to do my programming and diet, and a group of life coaches and colleagues to help ensure my business is staying on track and growing as well. In high school I kept to because I didn’t like asking for help. This was a HUGE mistake! You DON’T need to this alone! Ask for help and find a group of people to support you with whatever your goals may be. This will do wonders for your mindset. But no matter what in the end you will never unlock your full potential if you don’t believe in yourself.

A big turning point in my lifting career was meeting Donnie Thompson. He believed I had the ability to be a great squatter and kept telling me to add more weight. While he was coaching me to my first 800 pound squat he tapped my lats and told me, ” You got this.” Knowing that he was here for me if something went wrong was a huge confidence booster. Now when I unrack 800 pounds I don’t get worried about the weight or the outcome I just focus on the execution since I KNOW I am strong enough to do the weight.
This mindset came in very handy at my last powerlifting competition. The last meet I did had over 75 lifters with a large gaps in ability level. My opening squat was 850 and the first person in my flight was opening with a little over 300 pounds. This made warm ups very challenging to say the least. I didn’t let it get to me and took as many warm ups as I could to get ready for my first attempt.

Donnie gave me the confidence I needed to unleash my potential

On my first attempt the rack height was a little high, but still unracked it and came up strong. I got two reds for depth. My nerves were gone as I stood up with the weight, I knew I was strong enough and just had to sink it a little deeper. On the second squat we lowered the rack height a bit which helped the unrack, but for some reason I everything went silent and I couldn’t hear anything. Wasn’t sure if it was just the pressure or the weight on my back, but I came up strong and went deeper than my first squat. Still no good. I got a little pissed off at this point. I settled down and told myself I did the work and I am going to nail this on my third. I will keep going down until I hear Sandy (my handler) even if my face explodes! The head judge Scot Mendelson told me to widen out my stance a bit and side Judge Chris Taylor told me I was at parallel on my second squat so I knew I was close. We agreed changing my stance a bit would help and I listened.

For those that don’t follow powerlifting if you miss three lifts in anyone one discipline (squat, bench dead) you bomb out of the meet. I NEEDED this squat just to stay alive. It was bottom of the ninth with two strikes and two outs. I needed this to stay in the ball game. I needed a home run! I could easily quit and be done and fold to the pressure or rise to the occasion and step up to the challenge. I also had 17 other lifters from my team competing that day. I didn’t want to let them down either. I wanted to make sure I showed them how to rise to the occasion just in case they were ever in a situation like me. I wanted to show them how to deal with adversity and overcome it in order to come out on top. More than that I wanted to do this for myself. I wanted to do this for myself to prove to myself I AM capable of great things. I am sick and tired of falling short of my goals. It was time for me to get it done!

When it counted most I NAILED it! New PR with 850!

On my third and final squat I kept sitting back and opening up my knees. I finally heard Sandy call for the dip and I opened up perfectly just barely breaking parallel and coming out of the hole really fast. I KNEW I had hit depth and let out a classic Ronnie Coleman, ” YEA BUDDY!” to celebrate my successful squat. Sandy hit my back which then erupted a cloud of chalk to celebrate my successful squat! It was an amazing day filled with lots of PRs. I will always remember coming back to hit that squat on my third.

I used think to myself since I am a business owner I won’t have the time to be a really successful lifter. At the time of this blog the squat I hit is ranked top 30 in the country in my weight class and division. While its not world class by any means it was a huge step in the right direction for myself. 800 used to be my goal for my life time. Now I have the confidence to know 900 will soon fall and eventually I will squat 1000. I KNOW it is possible and I will find a way to make it happen. No more excuses, no more negativity. I know focus only on execution and the belief that my work is paying off. I have complete trust in my coaches and my team to lead me to greatness and so should you!

It all came down to believing in myself and trusting in my team. No matter what your goal you need to believe in yourself.

Never ….

put a weight on a bar unless you know  you are going to hit it

go to college unless you know you will earn a degree

take a test unless you believe you are going to pass

open up  business if you don’t believe it will be successful

IF you are going to do something GO ALL IN and BELIEVE it is GOING TO WORK! There are going to be ups and downs on your journey to success, but no matters how many bumps in the road there are you need to believe you will eventually reach your destination.

For any goal you are going to need proper planning and preparation. If you use the proper plan and do the work the rest should be easy. It just comes down to performing. Many people are deathly afraid of failing. Optimal performance starts with belief. No matter what your goal in life you need to believe you will achieve it.

Believe in yourself and big things will happen for you!

You need to BELIEVE it before you can ACHIEVE it!

John Gaglione is a strength coach out of Long Island, New York. John trains a wide variety of athletes at his facility located in Farmingdale New York. He specializes in spitting out champion wrestlers and improving maximal strength for all athletes and “average joes”.

John has also written many strength and conditioning articles for major online publications such as Men’s Health, Elite Fitness Systems, Testosterone Nation, One Result, and is the featured strength & conditioning author for Long Island Wrestling Association.

An avid strength athlete John also has a lot of “under the bar experience” and has competed in the sport of powerlifting for several years with competition bests of an 850 Squat, 525 Bench Press and 575 Deadlift. If you would like to learn more about John you can reach him at gaglionestrength@gmail.com.

Want to train with Gaglione Strength? E-mail gaglionestrength@gmail.com to find out how to get started.