Category Archives: Nate Green
Building the Apex Predator Body
by Nate Green and Nick Tumminello
Let’s be very clear: if you have muscle and hustle, you’re at the top of the meathead food chain. Your body stands out among the crowd and can compete with even the toughest of athletes. You’re an alpha male. An apex predator.
If you’ve got the most advanced software with super-human hardware, you’re in a perfect position to build and maintain an amazing body.
You’ve heard the maxim “you are what you eat.” Well, you are what you train, too.
Your muscles have the capability to do three things, provided you train them to: produce force, reduce force, and transfer force.
And each one is crucial to building the ultimate blend of machine and muscle.
You produce force—which makes you stronger and builds muscle—whenever you do traditional strength training movements like squats, deadlifts, chins, or presses.
Learning to reduce force—like decelerating a lunge, for instance—is an overlooked aspect of training but one that can save you wear and tear on joints and enable your body to heal itself more quickly.
In the gym that means things like plyometrics, reactive training, and full-body integrated movements like kettlebell swings or medicine ball slams.
And not only are these three aspects of force crucial, an apex predator must also know how to use his body in the most efficient way possible.
Any wasted movement or extra effort zaps your energy and screws your results.
If you are what you train, then you need a blend of movements that work both the hardware and the software.
Since the exercises Tumminello pairs together use different muscle groups and metabolic systems, your body stays fresh.
Deadlift for 6 reps
Rest 30 seconds
Swiss ball Push-ups – as fast as possible for 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds
Repeat
The beauty of this pairing is the time-based exercise. “A timed exercise doesn’t interfere with your established rest periods,” he says. “If I said to do twenty reps, it may take you a minute and then your rest period would be ruined. This way, you get a lot of work in a short amount of time and are still refreshed when you go back to the main ‘hardware’ exercise.”
• Perform all gray exercises at the highest intensity possible for the given sets and reps
• Perform all yellow exercises at medium intensity for the time given.
• Unless otherwise specified, rest as little as needed between sets to successfully complete the given reps with perfect form.
• Begin all workouts with a 10-minute dynamic warm-up.
• Perform Power Work in the same session as Strength Work
AR – Active Recovery
MB – Medicine Ball
BW – Bodyweight
DB – Dumbbell
BB – Barbell
1A – One arm
KB – Kettlebell
CBL – Cable Column
SL – Straight Leg
MB Rotary Toss x 4-6 each side
MB Chest Toss x 4-6
MB Slam x 4-6
Rest 90 sec between sets
Jump Shrug x 3-4 reps
Hang Clean x 3-4 reps
Clap Push Up x 5-6 reps
Rest 90 sec between sets
AR – Lunge Matrix (Eyes closed) x 1 minute
AR – Swiss Ball Ricochet Push up x 30 seconds
AR – DB Uppercut – 30 seconds
AR – Push-ups – 30 seconds
AR – Swiss ball Leg Curl x 30 seconds
Rest 25-30 sec between sprints
Put the treadmill at a high incline—15 degrees—at a speed of 10mph and sprint for 5-8 seconds. Rest 25-30 seconds between sprints.
AR – Hip Flexor Stretch 30 seconds each side
AR – Swiss ball 1A Plank Hold (15 seconds each arm)
AR – Recline Rope Pull
MB Rotary Toss x 4-6 each side
MB Punch Toss x 4-6
MB Soccer Toss
Rest 90 sec between sets
Single Arm Swing x 4-6 reps
Single Arm Clean x 4-6 reps
Single Arm Push Press x 4-6 reps
Perform all exercises, back to back, on one side of the body. Then perform on the other side.
Rest 90 sec between sets
AR – Supine Band Shoulder External Rotation – 30 seconds
AR – Split Stance Band Speed Row – 30 seconds
AR – Body Saw x 45 seconds
Your physique isn’t just a collection of muscles—it’s a system with both hardware and software that communicate with each other. If your systems communicate poorly, your body suffers. But if everything’s in sync, the results from your training will come quicker and be more dramatic.
So while a pure hypertrophy or pure strength program is a great way to go from base level to bigger and stronger, to truly become a well-rounded machine you need to vary your program and work on producing, reducing, and transferring force.
100 Reps in 100 Seconds: 5 Hardcore Challenges
Building a chiseled, resilient body requires more than lifting heavy weights—there’s good nutrition, proper rest and recovery, and taking super-supplements at the right time to help boost muscle growth and strip body fat. But on the physical side, one of the most underrated methods for building a true warrior body—and perhaps one of the most effective—is short-burst work at maximum intensity.
If you need a label, you can call it intervals, HIIT, complexes, or circuit training. Martin Rooney, trainer to some of the top combat athletes in the country, simply calls it hard work.
Known for getting his athletes into top physical and mental shape in record time, Rooney is a master of torture and results. His most recent favorite method, something he’s dubbed “100 Reps in 100 Seconds,” is exactly as hard as it sounds and will help you build a more rugged body (if you don’t wuss out).
This Isn’t Hard Work For Hard Work’s Sake
This method translates into actual physical results.
Rooney attributes at least part of Brown’s muscle gain and superb conditioning to this new protocol.
“I believe if you can take a light weight—sometimes even your bodyweight—and pour all of your energy into five exercises for a total of 100 seconds that you’ll hit more motor units than you would even touch with a regular weight-training session,” he says. And according to Rooney, it’s a great way to rapidly drop body fat and increase mental toughness.
Now there’s nothing magical about the timeframe or even the reps. Rooney is the first to point out that “100 Reps in 100 Seconds” is more of a challenge that is to be done once per week instead of a stand-alone program. It should be part of a regular weight-training program.
But if you want to challenge your body in a new way—and reap the muscle gain and fat loss that goes with it—you’ll want to try one of Rooney’s five challenges below the next time you hit the gym.
Grab your stopwatch and set it for one minute and forty seconds (100 seconds). With this method you’re going to load a barbell with a relatively light weight—Rooney suggests starting with 95 pounds—and perform the following exercises one after another as fast as you can with good form.
*To do the Bar Push-up, simply put your hands on the bar and get into a normal push-up position. Bring your chest down to the bar and explosively push back up.
Isn’t 95 Pounds a Bit…Wussy?
It may seem light at first, but you won’t be thinking that for long. “Try holding that sucker for 100 seconds and you’ll see how heavy it can get,” says Rooney. That said, Rooney suggests choosing a weight you think you can get all the reps with. If you use 95 pounds the first time you do it and beat 100 seconds, try bumping it up to 100 pounds or more the next week.
How Long Do I Rest?
Rooney suggest resting three to five minutes before moving into another Challenge. “Ideally you’ll have another guy with you timing you,” says Rooney. “So after he goes, you’ll go right after and that’ll be his rest period. Once you finish, he’ll be getting ready to start his next challenge.”
This pure upper body challenge will fill out your shirtsleeves and leave you gasping for air. But be warned: by then you’re only halfway done.
Repeat one more time without rest in order to make 100 reps.
How Much Weight Should I Use?
Rooney suggests starting with a barbell that you can curl for 12-15 reps and using that for your curls, overhead presses, and high pulls. Oh, and don’t bother adding any weight to the chin-ups and dips. Trust us.
Although Rooney and his MMA athletes hang two twenty-pound chains around their necks before doing this tough lower body challenge, he suggests you start off with just bodyweight (unless you have some chains lying around). You can also wear a weighted vest.
If you didn’t make the 100 seconds the first time, Rooney is sympathetic. Not many people do. “This is the toughest Challenge to conquer in a minute and 40 seconds,” he says.
Got a pull-up bar hanging in your doorframe or a tree with a low branch nearby? Then get out of your chair and try this bodyweight challenge right now (then come back and report your time).
Why the odd number of reps?
Since Rooney hasn’t seen many athletes get over 15 continuous chins, he won’t ask you to do 20. To make the 100 seconds, you’ll have to get through those chins without letting go of the bar once.
* To perform the Ankle-grab Sit-up
Begin by lying on your back with your hands stretched overhead. In one motion bring your arms and legs together while sitting up and grabbing your ankles. Reverse the movement before repeating.
**To perform the Sit-Out
Begin in a pushup position with your feet wide. Shoot the left foot under your body and out to your right side while lifting the right hand so that your body is supported on the left hand and right foot as shown. Then bring the left foot back to the original position before shooting the right foot under the body and out to the left side while lifting the left hand as shown. Keep repeating. Your hips should be turning side to side as you are reach each foot out.
A quick warning from Rooney: “This is not as easy it looks. “My first try I did it in 101 seconds, but some of my guys completed it in over 150 seconds,” he says. “Prepare to be humbled.”
Switch back and forth between both exercises as fast as possible and complete for five sets one after another. Throwing up is optional.
Important: The Crucial Warm-Up
Although these challenges seem like something you can just waltz into the gym and perform, you have to prepare your body. “You’ll get gassed even faster if your adrenaline is pumping and your body isn’t warmed up,” says Rooney.
Before you do any of the challenges, quickly go through this warm-up written by Rooney.
3 sets with no rest in between
3 sets with 20 seconds of rest in between
3 sets with 30 seconds of rest between each circuit.
After finishing the warm-up, rest 3 minutes. You should now feel loose and ready to move into the first challenge. (If you feel worn-out, you’re about to be in big freakin’ trouble.)
A Few Final Tips From Rooney
• On the challenges that use barbells, make sure to select a weight where you don’t compromise quality for intensity. Then again, don’t use a bar that’s too light either. “You’ll have to do these a few times to get a feel for it,” says Rooney.
• Start with one challenge per week and gradually build up to doing two or three challenges in one day. “Do it right and it’ll be the longest 200 or 300 seconds of your life,” says Rooney. “Two sets will kill most people.”
• Make it a competition. “Grab a group of guys and a stopwatch then hit the gym,” says Rooney. “Trust me, if you’re by yourself the urge to stop halfway through will be intense. With a couple of training partners watching and ridiculing you, you’ll make sure to finish.”
• Attack every single rep as fast as you can with good form. “Don’t slow down or hold back. You’re going into the gym to better yourself, so make sure not to cheat or give up. You’ll only be letting yourself down.”
• If you don’t make it in under 100 seconds, don’t start crying. Just beat your time the next week.
Martin Rooney is the COO of the Parisi Speed School and author of Ultimate Warrior Workouts: Fitness Secrets of the Martial Arts. He has trained champion athletes for the UFC, NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, ADCC and the Olympics. Find out more at http://www.parisischool.com
37 Tips and Tales from Dave Tate by Nate Green
Five minutes before my interview with Dave Tate a new Facebook status update pings onto my screen.
It’s from Tate.
“Getting ready for an interview with Nate Green. I’m LMAO right now at some of the items on my list. Random and insane!”
Tate, it seems, is a social media junkie. He posts messages on Twitter and Facebook upwards of ten times per day. What’s he talk about?
Damn near everything.
That’s why I interview Tate a little differently than most other contributors. There are no real questions or timeline. We just get on the phone and talk.
And that’s when the most interesting shit I’ve ever heard comes out of his mouth.
Tate Talks
• What would I change? Not a damn thing. The old me wouldn’t listen to anything I could say to him now anyway. We can’t change shit or do things differently so why bother thinking about it? I achieved my goals. I continued to get stronger. So are you asking me if I would go back and suck? Hell no.
• A lot of the habits that became very bad were out of necessity or lack of education.
• I ate clean for many years and my body-fat stayed under 10 percent till I reached 260 pounds. When I tried to break that I ran into problems. I tried to bulk clean with more chicken and rice and I was eating close to 6,000 calories per day. Doing that clean was a bitch. It was almost impossible. I could do it for one day but then it’d drop off to 3000 calories for the next two. So I had to add junk food until the only healthy thing I had left was the lettuce on my Big Mac.
• If you’re trying to gain weight you have to eat more food less frequently. Fat people don’t try to be fat. And when they tell you they’ve only eaten twice that day it’s probably true. They eat big-ass meals once or twice a day and their metabolism just drops. So what you have to do is try to lower your metabolism as much as you can, because the calorie surplus will be easier to meet. It’s probably not the healthiest route, but it’ll get you big. You can’t do it for long, though. You’ll get the sloppy “drop fat” that way.
• Drop fat is when your stomach hangs over your belt like a fanny pack. Looks like a fucking tumor.
• Nutrition is different now. There are supplements that can actually make a huge difference. We’re seeing some amazing things with Surge Workout Fuel. We’ve actually had to have people back down and take less because they were gaining muscle too quickly. We had to pull two guys off completely because they were so close to a meet and had to make weight. These are people who wouldn’t gain weight before. I mean, I don’t want to be a supplement whore, but if I had to school an up-and-coming lifter I’d tell him to look at pre-, peri-, and post-workout nutrition very closely.
• My old routine was McDonald’s on the way to the gym, coffee during my workout, Burger King and Copenhagen post-workout.
• My new routine is SURGE® Workout Fuel, FINiBAR™, Anaconda, SURGE® Recovery, and a shit-load of SPIKE® Shooter. You tell me which is better.
• I knew a strength coach at a D1 school who used to feed his kids peanut butter sandwiches during their training. He told me, “Forget about the nutritional value. Look at the calories I just put in them.” Your body can take in a lot of calories in that workout window. Peanut butter sandwiches may not be the best idea, though.
• I train twice per day four days per week using a body-part split.
Saturday
Morning: Quads
Evening: Hamstrings and calves
Sunday
Morning: Chest
Evening: Biceps and abs
Monday and Tuesday
Steady-state cardio for 30 to 45 minutes.
Wednesday
Morning: Back (Vertical and horizontal pulls. Sometimes deadlifts.)
Evening: Traps (lots of shrugs) and more upper-back
Thursday
Morning: Shoulders
Evening: Triceps
Friday
Off
• I always make sure there are four and a half hours minimum between sessions. That’s from the end of the first to the start of the next.
• My volume is very, very high. I can’t train as heavy as I’d like so I’m making up for it. I’m also trying to deplete as much glycogen as possible; that way I can replenish as much as possible. I drain myself and then build back up. Make sense?
• Right now I’m at 12 percent body-fat at 287 pounds. Last week I had my blood work done and my doctor pulled out the first blood report he took before I contacted Berardi back in ’06. He put them together and showed me the results. “Here you were 295 pounds and 20 percent body-fat, and there’s not a single variable on this chart that’s not fucked up,” he said. “This one here, you’re at 12 percent and only eight pounds off from where you were three years ago and there’s not one variable that is screwed up.” My nutrition is night and day. I’ve never been this lean while being this heavy.
• I used to train through everything. You’re not supposed to do that. I look at it completely different now with the people I’m working with. But it depends on how far away we are from a meet. If we’re outside of the five-week mark, we’re gonna let them rest. But if we’re inside of five weeks, they’re gonna have to push it, man. I’m not gonna hurt them, but my specialty is getting people to perform optimally when they’re fucked up.
• Some people will call it hardcore. I call it fast retirement.
• I like carb cycling mostly because I fucking love Fruity Pebbles and Mike and Ikes candy. Some of my super-high days are 1200 grams of carbs. My metabolism just flies. But then I gotta follow that with a low-carb day. It’s fucking horrible. I can only have 200 grams of carbs that day. It’s a nightmare.
• A lot of guys are going to read that and say, “Fuck you, Dave. 200 grams is not low-carb.” Whatever.
• I’m not sold on one diet philosophy. I’m sold on whatever will work for you.
• The Prowler? I fucking hate it. I’m not going to bullshit anyone. I absolutely hate the fucking thing. I’ll let everyone else say how awesome it is. Wendler and I took it out to a football field outside of town a while back. I don’t know how much weight was on there, but it wasn’t a lot. We did full-on sprints. Four times through. It was hot as fuck. I finished and just lay there and wanted to die. My lungs were on fire and the smell of fresh-cut grass made me want to puke. It took everything I had to just get to my car, drive my sorry ass home, sit on the couch and slobber for three hours. After that, I told myself that I’d never push that fucker again.
• I have a phase every year which I detailed in Stronger where I work on muscle balance, mobility and all that bullshit I hate. I have to spend at least two to three months every year taking bars off my back and getting my function back. It’s all geared on getting my muscles to fire, and getting my flexibility and conditioning back.
• I have to go through that phase because the next phase is pure strength. I can’t do heavy singles and triples without going through my mobility. Most guys don’t do it and they’re the ones who are going to be fucked up later.
• My year is split into blocks that kind of repeat every year. I spend a few months in each. What are they? Mobility, strength, hypertrophy, and a diet phase.
• I live on Curcumin 500. I take between 8 and 12 a day. It’s alleviated the need for me to take things like Advil.
• The most underrated exercise is the chin-up. A lot of lifters I know have shoulder problems. They have very limited range of motion. I think that’s because all they’ve ever done is lat pull-downs. They just don’t put your shoulder through the same range of motion as a chin-up. Chin-ups are something I wish I would’ve done all the time. It’s hard to lose the range of motion if you’re always using it.
• Everybody wants to look at others to see which way they want to go. Everyone wants to follow. You can learn from the path others have taken but all that’s going to do is give you the same results they’ve gotten. If you’re okay with that, then it’s cool. But it’s not my passion.
• It’s a rare individual who lets themselves be steered by what they feel is their own passion.
• Some people are put here just to be critics.
• In all honestly, the majority of people don’t give a fuck about you. They have their own shit to worry about. They don’t care what you make, or what you lift, or who you are. But that’s fine.
• I’d love to be able to generate a million dollars in revenue for LiftStrong. I just want people to know that the strength community gives a shit about something. We’re nowhere near the endurance community right now. They take action.
• There’s a big problem when it comes to training with percents. If I’m going to tell you to do five reps at 70 percent of your one-rep max, the first thing you have to do is figure out just what the fuck your one-rep max is. The last time you did it could have been three months ago. Lets say you benched 300 for one rep three months ago, but you don’t think you could hit that now. It’d be stupid to take 70 percent of 300 pounds and put it on the bar. That may be 80 percent of your max. You may get two reps instead of the five you’re shooting for.
•You can work technique all you want at 30 and 40 percent of your one-rep max using multiple sets and low reps, but technique is still going to be influenced by what’s on the bar. You may look good at 50 percent but 80 percent may look like shit.
• What I do is have people figure out their “perceived max” for the day. I don’t want them to actually do an all-out one-rep set. Let’s say a lifter I’m working with has done a 600-pound squat in the past. But maybe they can’t hit that today. So we have to figure out where they’re at right now and base our training off that perceived max. So this guy hits 495 for three reps and I ask him what he thinks. “It’s too light.” So he’ll go up to 545 for a single and I’ll ask again. “I could probably hit 585 today,” he says. If I agree with him then we’ll do 70 percent based off that perceived max of 585 pounds. The more experienced the lifter, the more “keyed in” he is to his training.
• Our guys just got done with a 12-week phase. Every deadlift went up thirty to fifty pounds across the board. Squats went up by 100 pounds. It wasn’t even a strength phase.
• Technique is crucial. Let’s say you’re doing a squat and it’s fucked up. Maybe your knees cave in and your chest keeps falling forward. Well, we could do a “strength” phase and put ten pounds on your squat pretty easily. Or we could just get your technique perfect and instantly add 50 pounds. It’s your choice.
• I’m not looking to create lifters who are going to go out and be average. I want them at their maximum potential. I want them to crush it.
• Here’s a quick story.
There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn’t gain weight to save my fucking life.
There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He’d go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.
I finally asked him one day how he did it.
“You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I’ll fill you in.”
Now remember, we’re at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.
So we get outside and he starts talking.
“For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don’t care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That’s your breakfast.”
At this point I’m thinking this guy is nuts. But he’s completely serious.
“For lunch you’re gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don’t want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don’t care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can’t let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter.”
“For dinner you’re gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don’t like sardines, don’t put ’em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it.”
“Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals.”
This guy is in a zen-like state when he’s talking about this.
“Now you’re on the clock,” he continues. “After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you’re full. Don’t listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I’m telling you now, you’re going to get three or four pieces in and you’re gonna want to quit. You fucking can’t quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.
And if you can’t finish it, don’t you ever come back to me and tell me you can’t gain weight. ‘Cause I’m gonna tell you that you don’t give a fuck about getting bigger and you don’t care how much you lift!”
Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn’t get much fatter. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, though.
• I gotta go, Nate. Gotta take a piss. E-mail me if you need anything.
Wrap-up
I hang up the phone with Tate, grab a glass of water, and refresh my Facebook page.
Instantly, another update from Tate pings onto my screen.
“Spent close to 90 minutes speaking with Nate Green for a new TMUSCLE interview. This will be a good one.”
Thanks Dave.
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FROM FAT TO FIT 