Bulking Up Part 1 - Underground Strength Coach

Bulking Up Teleseminar
Part II
Konstantin: So there is hope for vegetarians.
Zach:
Absolutely. My friend, Jon Hinds, he’s a strong dude. He’s not the
kind of guy you’d want to tangle with on the street. He looks and is
strong. Not only that, performance-wise this guy could dunk a
basketball and get his elbow to touch the rim. His vertical jump is
insane.
Konstantin: Next question.
Hello. My first question is as a beginner
with a home gym which includes dumbbells, etc. but no
power rack. I am scared of doing squats without the
rack.
Do you have any substitutions for squats which would
target the legs as powerful as a squat?
Zach:
If he has a barbell I would do dead lifts. Then as your dead lifts get
strong you would elevate your feet. You’d stand on maybe a 45
pound plate or a couple of rubber mats or a box. What happens is
the greater range of motion starts targeting your butt and your
hamstrings.
Here’s another possibility that is so underrated. If you can’t do that,
a great way would be heave dumbbell lunges and probably walking
lunges. Could be dumbbell split squats or what we call Bulgarian
split squats.
These are all in the Lazy Muscle Gain that you were talking about.
They add so much muscle to the quads, hamstrings and butt. It’s
basically doing one legged squats.

We used to not even have our guys do squats with a barbell. One
guy would be 6’4” and another 5’3”, so we never used the power
rack. They would do heavy lunges with dumbbells and then squat
with a heavy sandbag. That way you don’t even need a barbell.
I love the barbell and it allows you to go extremely heavy. Do you
need it? Is it a must? Absolutely not.
Konstantin: If there’s one thing you can say about Zach, it’s that there’s no
shortage of any alternative exercises.
Zach:
The possibilities are limitless. I can’t emphasize enough the need to
go back and stick to the basics. There’s no fancy anything.
Konstantin: Okay. His second question was about nutrition once more.
opinion?
What is the best nutrition plan to follow in your
Zach:
Number one, I would never tell someone they need to follow like
such and such protein only, because what if somebody’s a
vegetarian? One thing I have found to work is eating regularly, five
meals a day.
I’ll give my own personal nutrition program here. My body tends to
respond best to eating carbohydrates only after a workout. Other
than that it’s a lot of meats, fruits and vegetables throughout the
day. Also maybe some nuts and seeds to get some healthy fats in
the body.
If I’m extremely active, say playing sports all the time – which I’m
not like I used to be six days a week and wrestling – then it would
be protein and carb at each meal. Now I train short workouts four to
five days a week and my meals, I like them to be protein and
veggies and fruit scattered throughout the day. I feel great doing
that.
Some people feel good following that Warrior Diet which is basically
one controlled over eating. Some people are vegans. So it’s really
finding what your body responds to best.

Here’s one thing nobody can escape. Everybody knows if they’re
eating something healthy or really bad. If you cut out the junk food
and stuff you’re going to make changes. Nobody could mistake the
choice of chicken and broccoli or eating pizza. You know what’s the
better alternative.
It’s like the workout. Are you working hard? The same thing is true
with the diet. Are you really sticking with quality food? There’s really
no secret to it.
Konstantin: Quality food is a must.
Zach:
It’s absolutely a must. One of my wrestlers said this, “Ah, I haven’t
been eating that good.” Because of that, towards the end of every
wrestling match he’s tired and not as energetic. I said, “There you
go.” It’s so simple to explain.
It’s like a car. If you’re a race car you cannot put crappy gas and oil
into the car. It has to be top quality fuel. It’s the same thing with the
human body. You want to look good, be strong and fast, perform
like a true athlete then you have to fill yourself with great quality
food.
Konstantin: What I’d like to add to that is from my own experience. It’s the old
listen to your body advice. I listen to my body and it tells me exactly
what I need to eat. It’s been good up until now. If you eat quality
food you also notice the difference.
Zach:
I do the same with the training for myself. I don’t plan when to train
hard this day or that day. If I feel energetic I train very hard. If I’m
tired I go lighter. I listen to my body. When you don’t listen you get
hurt. It’s just a matter of time. You must listen to your body.
Konstantin: Onward to the next question.
I want to put on 10-15 pounds of muscle
using sandbags. What’s the best way? Would it be two
days a week and how long would it take?

Zach:
If you’re going to try to put on muscle just using a sandbag? First of
all, never treat any one training tool like the end all training tool or
the best tool. You can only use a kettlebell or a barbell.
If you’re only going to use a sandbag you’re going to need to get a
very heavy one if you want to try to pack on just 10-15 pounds of
muscle. You also better be ready to eat tons of quality food. Muscle
gain of 10-15 pounds is very tough to gain unless you’re a new lifter
who’s going to respond to really anything.
I would be doing sandbag squats, carries, lunges, clean and
press…
Konstantin: Sounds like doing all the basics, but if you have to use sandbags
then do it with the sandbags.
Zach:
Do the basics. It’s so funny. If I’m going to train with a stone, a
sandbag or a barbell, you’re going to find me squatting, dead lifting,
clean and press and row and lunge.
You’re going to find me attacking those basics. I love those basics.
That’s what my workouts revolve around. That’s what our athletes’
workouts revolve around because it always works.
If you want to get stronger and bigger you’re going to need to follow
those basics and go heavy. Like I said before, progression, helping
you get stronger adding more weight or more reps.
Konstantin: The next question is here.
I’m a soccer player and I would like to gain
more muscle mass, especially in my legs and calves.
How would you suggest for me to achieve such a goal?
Zach:
Number one, when you play soccer – this is kind of like my wrestler
– they’re so active and they burn so many calories it makes it so
hard to keep putting on muscle. One thing that I would definitely
recommend is increase calories in quality food.

Number two, you know what I’m going to say about getting the legs
bigger and stronger. You’re going to want to do squats, dead lifts,
lunges, kettlebell swings. If you have access to doing the glute ham
raises do it. If not do weighted back extensions.
These are going to target the butt, the hamstrings – which are huge
muscles – so when you add muscle to those areas it helps with
weight gain, which is important. If it’s off season try to lower the
amount soccer playing you do.
Otherwise you’re still going to be burning so many calories and
exhausting the legs and won’t be able to train heavy in movements
like the squat and the dead lift. The dead lift might be a little bit
better for a soccer player.
If they’re always playing soccer their quads are going to be
exhausted from sprinting. So the dead lifts might be more helpful in
that area. Squats, dead lifts, kettlebell swings, glute ham raises and
back extensions with weights. Those are going to be critical.
One thing I’d like to throw in there is a real simple way – and I show
this in the Lazy Man Muscle Building – is how to use a tire for a
sled. It’s a great way for athletes to add muscle to the legs but it
doesn’t create soreness. Since you’re not squatting up and down it
doesn’t tear down the muscles.
The tire sled is a very powerful way to use for adding muscle and
adding strength. Use a light one for recovery purposes.
Konstantin: So go to http://REALManMuscle.com and check it out. Next question.
How often should I go heavy in my
workouts? Should I be maxing out all the time or go
high reps lower weight part of the time?
Zach:
Remember what I said a few minutes ago? I do this with my own
athletes. If you feel very energetic then what you should do is train
heavy that day. If you come in and you’re beat up and exhausted
then do a light workout and cut the volume in half and intensity
down or just go home.

That is the best way to train. The difference is are you being lazy or
is your body truly beat up? If you’re body’s beat up then you have
to go lighter. That’s the way to get strong.
You get strong when you’re recovering. If you’re always beat up
and you never recover then you can’t get big and you can’t put on
muscle.
Konstantin: That is a very common misconception that’s going around these
days. People always go harder and harder, stronger workouts,
higher reps and they miss the part on resting.
Zach:
Listening to the body. This is a big reason why I have the injuries I
have. When I was a body builder it was forced reps and no matter
how tired I was I believed I had to outwork everybody.
This is why I had back problems when I was younger. Even if I was
tired I squatted and dead lifted heavy. Even when my shoulders
were hurting I was doing forced reps on the bench press. Now I
never do forced reps.
Now I train hard when my body feels good. If I’m tired I go lighter.
Such a simple way to organize your workout and in my opinion and
experience it’s the most effective.
Konstantin: Very good. Zach, when the goal is to increase both size and
strength and each one affects the other, which one should you put
the most emphasis on in your training?
Zach:
Some people will argue and say if you want to get strong focus only
on strength. If you want to put on muscle, focus only on that one
thing. However, here’s something I’ve found in my experience as a
body builder.
1. When I was gaining muscle I had to get stronger to put on
muscle.
2. It was a combination of heavy lifting for low reps and
followed up by moderate weight for moderate reps.

Let’s say it was chest day. I would start off with the bench press
and I’d work up to 1or 2 very hard sets in the 3-5 repetition range.
Sometimes it would be 2-4 reps on the bench press.
Then I would go to an incline dumbbell bench and I would do 2 or 3
very hard sets and that would be more in the 6-12 repetition range.
It was the moderate rep range. That moderate rep range tends to
be great for adding muscle.
They go hand-in-hand. When you add muscle it’s like a bigger car
engine. If we could add different things to that car engine we could
make the car engine stronger and faster. There certainly are guys
that don’t look big but are strong and vice versa.
Usually those guys are not mixing strength and muscle gaining
methods together. For strength it’s heavy weights, lower reps, really
trying to break records and always trying to get stronger.
For muscle you have to get stronger and include those moderate
rep range with moderate weights, 6-12 or 6-15 reps. Those rep
ranges are great for adding muscle.
Konstantin: If you want to increase size and strength the best thing is to focus
on one thing at a time, right?
Zach:
You can, but in the perfect world it’s so hard to say you must focus
on one thing. I have found, as you said, they are intertwined. When
I add muscle to my body I find I do get stronger. That did come
from me adding strength and muscle building work. It’s good to
have both of them included.
Most people respond great to doing only 1-3 reps all the time,
heavy singles, doubles and triples. You have to find what works for
you, experimenting on yourself.
Konstantin: Very good. The next question is from a 65 year old guy.
How do I lose fat and gain muscle? How
much muscle, in pounds, is possible at this age?

Zach:
To be honest with you, I have no clue for somebody of any age for
what would be possible. It always comes down to the select things.
The genetics, are you someone who puts on muscle fast or burns
fat easily?
What is their training experience? If they’re new to training they
might be able to see results very quickly. How are they training? Is
it real quality work and is their food and nutrition quality on a regular
basis?
We train a guy that’s 60 years old and we’ve made him much
stronger than when he started with us. He’s extremely lean but he
eats clean and trains hard on a regular basis. His body utilizes the
food he takes in. This guy has really made amazing progress. At 60
years old he’s really put together.
Konstantin: Of course there is no cookie cutter advice for a 65 year old that all
65 years olds can gain so much power and muscle or something?
Zach:
Right. You can’t say you could gain 10 pounds because it’s
different for everybody. That’s the hard facts.
Konstantin: The next guy who submitted a question is slightly obese and here’s
his question.
Is it possible to gain muscle mass and
maintain roughly the same amount of weight?
Zach:
It depends on how your body changes its own composition. Some
people change, while others maintain the same weight but their
body appearance changes. They lose body fat and gained lean
muscle mass. It really depends.
If he’s slightly obese I’d say he definitely needs to be focusing on a
mixture of strength and muscle building work ,as well as things like
sled and tire drags, jump rope and sprint intervals to burn the fat.
There are no hard facts. The body will respond according to what
you give it and everybody will respond differently.

If you and I were on the same program I might make better gains
than you or vice versa. These are real world answers from my
experience. You just never know how somebody is going to
respond to workouts.
That’s why you have to ready to change on the fly. If something is
not working for you, change it.
This is guy is saying he’s slightly obese and he wants to maintain
body weight but add muscle. In this case I wouldn’t even worry
about how much you weigh. I would go by the mirror and do before
and after photos. That’s how you know if you’re making good,
ample progress.
Konstantin: That’s good, real world, sound advice.
Why are the gymnasts not recommended to
take salty or sugar foods when it comes to a healthy
diet?
Zach:
Why not salty and sugar foods? If you’re taking sugar it’s just to eat.
Sugar is quick energy. If you’re an athlete you can have the healthy
sugars that come from the fruits and what not.
If you’re taking the sugars that are coming from the junk foods like
in cookies and all the additives from all the processed foods, the
body doesn’t utilize it well.
We have to look back and think about how cavemen ate. I believe
they ate a lot of meats because they were hunters. They also ate of
things grown from the Earth so it would be a lot of greens, fruits and
vegetable, seeds and nuts.
I know we don’t have hard facts about how they looked but that’s
how they ate and what sustained them. It allowed them to be active
on a daily basis.
Even without education or knowledge, if I put two different meals in
front of you, you could tell me which one is healthier and which one

isn’t. You could easily say this meal is loaded with carbohydrates
and there are no vegetables or protein there.
You could identify a meal with a good balance of protein,
carbohydrates and fat right there. It’s common sense. People often
want to deny what’s healthy and what’s not. If you’re going to eat
awful foods you are going to feel, perform and look like crap.
Konstantin: So it’s going basics in another dimension even. Going back to the
roots of mankind.
Zach:
It’s so basic. I think what is happening now is people need this
information reinforced. There is so much information, especially
with the internet. There are a million and one places to get
information and it’s confusing.
Sometimes you need somebody to say, “Shut up, train hard, train
every other day, use basics and eat clean.” That’s it. Then it starts
to make sense. If you have so many different information sources,
it’s really confusing.
Konstantin: You can also repeat what you’ve said throughout the interview one
more time because the next question is this.
How do I avoid over training?
Zach:
Once again, if you feel tired don’t train hard. I would take the day off
or train light and do a couple of exercises. Lower the volume, lower
the intensity.
Or let’s say you feel great. Go in and break records. Maybe you
could spend a little extra time in the gym that day. Maybe you could
get an extra heavy set in. I think this is becoming the optimum way
to train.
We do this with our athletes. When they come in I’m looking at
them. When they go through the warm up I’m talking with them. I
get a good idea of their energy levels through verbal and nonverbal
feedback.

That always lets me know this one needs to train freaking hard
today, while another one is exhausted, has an athletic event
tomorrow, and is a little beat up so he’ll go light and skip dead lifts
and squats.
He’ll train easy and do a lot of flexibility and recovery work at the
end. I tell you what, there is no science behind that. It’s just me
being smart and listening to them or listening to my own body.
That’s what it comes down to.
Konstantin: I think this is really good as we are getting really close to the end
now. It’s really what you’ve been saying all through the interview.
Listen to your body and do the basic workouts.
Zach:
Absolutely. If I open up any of these health and strength magazines
from the 1940s, their physiques rival many of today’s. It’s what a lot
of people want to look like.
You look at their workouts and they are doing things like floor press
with a barbell, clean and press, squats, dead lifts and doing a lot of
gymnastic type movements. That helps them create a body building
type physique, but also helps them perform. They don’t just look
strong, they are strong.
It’s so basic and I think this is a big reason why people aren’t
getting results any more. Training with a stability ball, a medicine
ball, this and that, do it on one leg is just crap. It doesn’t deliver
results or the results are minimal.
Konstantin: There’s one more question.
Listening to your body isn’t really good
advice for me because most of the time his body is just
too tired. Is this telling me something?
Zach:
Yes, that’s a great question and let me answer it from the heart
because that’s me. I wake up at 6:00 or 7:00 AM and go to work. I
run my gym and then it’s 8:00 pm when it’s time to work out. I’ve
already worked about 12 to 13 hours, on my feet and physical all
day.

A lot of times I’m exhausted and it’s easy for me to say go home.
You know what? I get a good quality warm up in, the body starts
waking up and kind of like the messages start flowing. Then I know
if I can push it hard or not.
That’s what I spoke about earlier when I said you have to make the
difference between being lazy or truly beat up. If I simply left the
gym, I think that’s me being lazy. I think as a man you need to
tough that out.
You will be tired, and on the flip side this is why you want to create
your own lifestyle. That’s a big reason why I’m so into my
certification program. It’s what is giving me my life back and
allowing me to stop working for other people. I can do more with my
family, sleep more and spend time with them more and be healthy
again.
The typical people here in the northeast and New York, New Jersey
and Connecticut work from 7:00 AM to midnight. That’s very typical.
They’re on the train, this and that, get out of shape and eat horrible
junk. They eat pizza and fall asleep on the train.
This is where the 15 minute workout comes in. This is where you
have to say it’s time to suck it up. Time to push hard doing rope
climbing and hand stand pushups for 15 minutes, or time to do as
many sets of five in the clean and press and the pull-up in 15
minutes.
It might be dead lifts for 2 reps every minute for 15 minutes. This is
where the Lazy Man Muscle is not so much are you lazy as time
crunched. You’re so busy that you need to find a way to get it done.
This is when it’s a mental game. You can quit and leave or you can
refuse to lay down and quit and make it happen.
Konstantin: That’s a perfect closing note. We are out of time now. This was
Zach Even-Esh with us on the line. If you want to find out more
about Zach go to http://REALManMuscle.com or for the Underground
stuff at http://UndergroundStrengthCoach.com.

It was a pleasure speaking to you, Zach.
Zach:
Thank you, I’m honored.
Konstantin: I appreciate you and it was very good what you have shared with
us. Getting back to the basics, not worrying about it too much, and
doing it with a heart.
Zach:
Yes, it comes from the heart. I’m really honored that you put this
together. I’m always more honored that somebody from outside the
country even knows about what I do. I think it’s great you’re awake
at 4:00 AM to do something like this and give back to people to help
them.
I think it’s awesome and I can’t thank you enough, Konstantin.
Konstantin: Thank you. Bye, everyone.
Zach:
Good night everyone and thank you.
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