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September 2016 – HammerShedSkip to content
On today’s episode I speak with Adam Field the co-founder of APEMAN Strong Apparel. Adam shares his story of how he and his brother started a powerlifting company focused on their passion for the sport, inspiring others through powerlifting, and training hard. Adam talks about their approach to design, sponsorship, and he shares the story of APEMAN athlete KC Mitchell. Whether you are a powerlifter or not I am sure you will find this show truly inspiring.
Adam and his brother run APEMAN strong together out of a warehouse in Phoenix Arizona. Adam came from a background in finance and commercial real estate and his brother ran a screen printing business making shirts for local companies.
I started the interview asking Adam what advice he would give people getting started in business or their sport. He says the most important thing is to do something you have a passion for. Chasing money doesn’t always make you happy. Even having money may not bring happiness. He has found the most satisfying part of his job is being a part of something he loves. He loves to write, lifting weights, and pursuing strength. APEMAN Strong doesn’t think about chasing money, they chase their passion, STRENGTH. When you are doing something you are truly passionate about the money will find you. It’s more important to them to find ways to help people with their business than to make a quick buck.
Adam shares that his fascination with strength goes back to when he was a kid and watched The Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno. He always wanted to have big muscles, like the Hulk and characters from the Rocky movies like Sylvester Stallone, Apollo Creed, etc… Also very involved in sports through high school Adam says he has always loved lifting weights. When the real estate market crashed in 2008 Adam explains that he was over stressed, his business partners left, and he had to go through the pains of closing offices, laying people off, and it proved to be too much. On the verge of a breakdown himself he said going on late night runs helped reduce the stress. Unfortunately during a 62 mile race Adam went into kidney failure and put it him in the ICU. Not being able to run and needing some more income Adam’s brother invited him to help print tee shirts and workout in the warehouse gym. That is when Adam fell back in love with weight lifting. He became addicted to letting his angst, aggression, and frustrations of life on the barbell. Lifting became a much needed release.
Adam and his brother then began to talk about the idea of starting a brand around lifting weights. It just made sense to them. They loved lifting weights, they were already printing shirts for other people, why not start something that they had a passion for. The original concept was for a lifestyle brand based on the idea that we need to promote strength, taking care of business, and powerlifting.
The first shirt APEMAN came out with was “Lift Angry“
People outside of lifting sometimes can misconstrue the meaning. What it is about is, taking circumstances that have caused pain, hurt, or rage in your life and unleashing it on the weights in a positive way. Not being a jerk in the gym.
One of the athletes APEMAN sponsors is KC Mitchell. His story is a very inspiring one. KC lost a leg while serving our country. Feeling down and out, he turned to power lifting and completely turned his life around and got off all the pain pills he heavily relied on.
Adam and I talk about how training with people who are better than you makes you better. It is inspiring and can show you that the limits you put on yourself are artificial, you can always do more.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
On today’s episode Bret invites us back to constant forward progress. I start the episode by talking about a great workout I had that morning. Not everyday in the gym is perfect and we don’t always feel our best, so when we do it’s important to take advantage of it! I have been doing a Westside Method style program lately. This type of programing incorporates a lot of banded exercises and on this particular workout my banded squats felt REALLY easy. I ended up triple checking the weight and doing and extra couple sets with straight weight just to verify I was doing the right amount. For more information on the Westside Method be sure to go back and listen to my interview with AJ Roberts.
Working with Bret and interviewing some of the industries greatest calisthenics experts has inspired me to spend more time learning new skills on my rest days. Not only does this help with my body awareness and strength is also helps improve my mobility and aids in recovery. Bret shares how making minor adjustments such as hand placement, can make a huge difference in difficulty when doing calisthenics. Bret also advises that strength sport athletes do more single leg or single arm accessory work to help prevent or fix asymmetries.
We briefly highlight some of the great performances in track and field during the Olympics. Michael Johnson’s 400M world record was broken and Ryan Crouser an Oregon Native broke the Men’s Olympic Shot put record.
Bret and I then move on to the topic for the show which is the compounding effect of consistency. There are some many times when we want to skip our training. Either we don’t feel good, we are not motivated, or we feel like there are better things to do. This is where so many people go wrong. You will not get anywhere being a fair weather athlete. It’s the days we don’t feel at our best yet still manage to push through and complete our training that help us reach our goals. Not missing workouts for a head start on the weekend makes the your next PR come even sooner.
One important lesson I learned from Squatting everyday is there are days, where I don’t feel good, even after a extended warm-up. On those days I have to fight every urge not to call it quites. Even though I didn’t feel strong and doubt what would come from the workout I have been able to surprise myself and set PR’s. You never know what you are capable of until you test yourself.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
On this episode I speak with AJ Roberts. AJ is a two time world record holder in power lifting, successful entrepreneur, and sought after strength coach. We talk about how he got into power lifting, AJ explains the Westside Method in detail, and he explains how to program intensity into your workouts.
AJ grew up in England playing basketball and moved to Oregon for High School on an exchange program. This is where he discovered weight training and the Bigger, Faster, Stronger program. Due to eligibility issue AJ was not able to compete in basketball his senior year so he transitioned to power lifting and bowling.
He then shares with us his powerlifting story, time at Westside Barbell, and breaking world records. Early in his career AJ recognized that training with people better than him was a vital part of getting better. After 17th place finish at nationals he was not satisfied his results and was determined to win. In 2006 AJ met Louie Simmons and after college AJ moved to Columbus, Ohio so he could train at Westside Barbell.
The Westside Method Outline:
A blend of maximal effort, dynamic effort, and submaximal repetition work in a four day per week program. Two days dedicated to maximal effort, two days dynamic effort, and repetition work done after your main lifts.
Maximal Effort (work up to heavy single)
Day1: Upper body, followed by accessory work.
Day2: Lower body, followed by accessory work.
Dynamic Effort (use bands)
Day3: Upper body (35% 1RM + 25% band tension for 9X3), followed by same accessory work from Day 1.
Day4: Lower body (3-week wave 50,55,60% with 25% band tension 12×2, 12×2, 10×2) followed by same accessory work from Day 2.
72 hours between maximal effort and dynamic effort. Submaximal work is done with accessory exercises for the entire body but should target weak areas. 20% of total volume should be done in the three power lifts and remaining 80% in accessory work. For more details check out AJ’s video on the Westside Method
AJ reminds us that we are only as strong as our weakest link, therefore the assistance work is so important to unlocking our strength. He thinks that many powerlifters over do it on the main three (squat, bench, deadlift) and don’t do enough accessory work.
Another benefit of the Westside Method is you raise the strength of everything at once, due to the variety of lifts in your programing. It’s a longevity program that you can do for a long time. People who do the Westside Method for a long time usually gain a tremendous amount of strength. The key is you MUST do the accessory work.
I then ask AJ how a non-powerlifter could apply the Westside Method to their training. His suggestion is to superset or tri-set exercise to reduce the time requirements in the gym.
When talking about his world record total run, AJ said he had a conversation with Donnie Thompson and “Super D” told him, it was not about AJ’s strength but his preparation. So AJ adjusted his recovery, nutrition, and carefully picked his accessories to address his weaknesses.
When asked about environment and intensity AJ shares with us a article he wrote on the Conjugate Strong FB Group. He used to think that environment and intensity came from external factors, such as your training group. AJ has recently realized that the intensity he thought came from the environment at Westside can actually be programed through competition in your program, not needing the external environment.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
On todays episode we have a full house! Joined by Bret and Megan Hamilton we welcome Al Kavadlo to the the Show. We talk about, the PCC, developing body awareness and training outdoors.
Growing up Al always worked out doing push-up’s and pulls-up’s, and in high school got into lifting weights. He, started as a traditional personal trainer but slowly transitioned to more body weight movements with his workouts and with his clients. Now most of his work with body and calisthenic work.
Bret and Al talk about how making slight adjustments to exercises can make a huge difference in how the exercise feels, and how calisthenic work can be so fun and creative.
Al graduated college with an English degree and just happen to fall into a personal training job. Al luckily found a publisher looking for a fitness writer and so began his writing career. Al has become an accomplished author of many books, his first book was We’re working out. When a copy of that book got into Paul Wade’s hands he approached Al to be apart of Convict Condition 2. Al’s current book is Street Workout a book he and his brother Danny wrote together.
When asked about grip strength and hand maintenance Al says that is a aspect that commonly gets overlooked by trainers and people new to calisthenics. His suggestion is to just ease into it. Bret suggests using towels to hang from and Megan recommends, pumice stone or corn huskers lotion.
On this episode we talk about mixing calisthenics into your existing program and how picking one or two movements to do on rest days or between sets is a great way to expand your movement vocabulary and get your toes wet in calisthenics. Not only does this give a playful feel to your workouts it also keeps your heart rate elevated and allows you to get more work done in less time.
Please share our show with your friends and family, continue to send me your emails, and remember Consistency is KING!
HammerShed Podcast, a show for anyone who is looking for great information on fitness, coaching, and nutrition. I speak with professional athletes, Olympians, world class coaches, and leaders in research and wellness.
I want to make the best podcasts possible and continue bringing you the best content from the smartest people in the industry. The HammerShed Podcast was made for you, no matter your age, skill level, or strength. You will find great information that will help you achieve your goals. To produce and create the best shows, I need your help.
If every listener donated $2/month, we’d have all of the creative freedom to deliver the kinds of shows we’ve always wanted to create, without any limits. Reaching this goal would create a better balance between listener support and sponsorship’s, and create a more sustainable model for The HammerShed Podcast. This means better shows, additional video content and, fewer sponsor breaks.
HammerShed wouldn’t be what it is today without your support, and we truly appreciate your donation, no matter the size. To become a HammerShed Podcast Patron go to: www.patreon.com/hammershed
