Remember the movie, Face Off, where someone removed Nicolas Cage’s face and switched it with John Travolta’s? Well, if you only knew me outside of the gym and then walked in when I was training you would probably swear that had to have happened. The guy who is almost always laughing, cracking jokes and quoting Seinfeld is long gone.
I’m angry, laser focused and don’t really see the humor in much. Not because I’m not enjoying myself or because I want to be a dick to those around me, but because I’m very serious about my training and really enjoy blocking out the rest of the world and cranking up the intensity for an hour. To me, that’s a lot of fun.
That’s my one hour of the day to let out the aggression and the last thing I want to do is talk.
I don’t want to laugh.
I don’t want to smile.
I just want to train.
I don’t care about the new Pearl Jam album or the girl you slept with last night or the fact that you’re tired or injured or just trained whatever lift we’re training two days ago.
No chit chat, no excuses.
We’re all injured.
You’re either training or you’re not.
Finding a partner who understands that and is at around the same level that I’m at is very important to me. A good training partner can get dialed in and go to battle with you while hardly saying a word for the entire hour. They’re just totally in synch with you.
I’m not a rah-rah cheerleader type in the gym. The most you’ll usually get out of me is a “Come on,” or a short coaching cue or a word on improving your technique after your set. Some days I say more than others but I’ll never be mistaken for Vince Lombardi. For these reasons I don’t really like to train with anyone who displays less than picture perfect technique. I don’t like doing excessive amounts of coaching while I’m training. Watching my training partner use shitty form is very distracting to me. Like tinsel to Frank Costanza.
I’ve always said that having a good training partner is one of the best things you can do to enhance your rate of progress. It’s also a great way to make your training a hell of a lot more fun and competitive. Over the years I’ve trained with a lot of people, but only five that stand out. These are the five people I’ve trained with the longest and made my greatest gains with. They are also five training partners that I have developed the greatest level of trust with. I’d trust their opinions on technique, squat depth, etc. more than just about internet guru out there today. These guys not only helped me get stronger but taught me a few lessons along the way.
Training Partner #1
I started training on my own at the age of 12. I continued on that lonely, fruitless road for about three or four years until my younger brother, Jared was ready for his first taste of the iron. I’m guessing he was about 12 when I first threw him in the rack, but he may have even been 10 or 11. I can’t say for sure. Either way, he was thrown right into the deep end and loved every second of it. He became instantly obsessed and couldn’t wait for his next workout.
Being the bigger, older brother (by almost five years) I led the way and provided the inspiration and motivation. He, on the other hand, would have died in the squat rack just to keep up. We both have horeshit genetics for size and strength, but with an unparalleled work ethic and dedication Jared was able to go all the way from just under 100 pounds when he started to 252 pounds over the course of his first decade of training.
During that time he was the ultimate science project. A never ending human experiment that I tried EVERYTHING on. Before I even had any clients or my first certification I was testing out every training and nutrition variable I could on this poor kid. Sometimes he got sick, other times he got injured, but he always soldiered on. Training was our biggest obsession in life.
By the time he was in his early twenties Jared was starting to squat and deadlift the same weights that I was doing. A few years later he was surpassing me. His intensity became legendary at Renegade, as did his nonsensical antics of headbutting walls, breaking light bulbs over his head and puking on his shirt during the eighth rep of a set only to continue four more reps. We were young and dumb. But it was a hell of a lot of fun at the time and made for some good stories.
Unfortunately that kind of intensity catches up with you and you burn out. We both got injured to various degrees and we were forced to take layoffs. You can keep that pace up for a while but eventually bad things can and will happen. Once you start racking up the injuries training’s never really the same anymore.
The pace and the intensity that we kept up for all those years eventually led to Jared burning out. Similar to a gymnast who is put into intense training at a very young age and then can’t stand the thought of gymnastics anymore by age 18, Jared hit a breaking point in his late twenties.
After nearly two decades of training and a lifetime of injuries he lost the passion. The twenty four hour a day obsession and the laundry list of injuries had caught up to him and he stopped training for a while. It broke my heart and was nearly unfathomable to me. It was the greatest bond in our life, the one thing we shared and now he wasn’t into it anymore. So I was forced to move on without him.
Eventually he returned and got into a much lighter, maintenance style of training, necessitated by his years of accumulated injuries and stubbornness to rehab and fix them (something he learned from my bad example back in the days).
Fast forward to February 2011 and Jared’s 100% back into training like he was for all those years when he first started. He’s beat up and injured and has a list of things he can’t do, but he’s determined to set new PR’s. Old habits die hard and he’s still working on getting more dedicated to proper warm ups, prehab and recovery. Our meathead instinct is to go into the gym, jump in a place a couple of times like boxer before a fight, rub some Blue Heat on whatever’s ailing us, tape it up and get under the bar. Unfortunately that’s what we did for far too long.
Lessons Learned
Too much intensity is a bad thing.
Not warming up properly is a bad thing.
Ignoring injuries and not listening to your body is a bad thing.
Training Partner #2
Todd Coker was my brother’s friend growing up and a superstar athlete. He became one of my first clients, and along with Jared, another one of my human guinea pigs. Todd started with me at around the age of 12 or 13 and has been following the Renegade ways for nearly two decades. During his college years Todd went from being my client to my training partner during the months he was home. After several years of hard training he had grown significantly bigger and stronger and we both thought it would be fun to train together. We continued on and off up until 2005 when he moved away.
During those years we had one killer training session after the other, always pushing each other beyond what we would have been capable of on our own. By that time Todd was squatting in the neighborhood of 500 pounds and pulling around 600. It was all I could do to try and keep up. He took me on lower body days and I had my revenge on upper body days.
Lessons Learned
Firstly, always train with someone stronger than you. Todd has me on lower body days and I have his number on upper body days. We force each other to step it up at every other workout.
One of the things I always appreciated about training with Todd was how much he got it and how in tuned with his body he became over the years. He understood that there will be some days when you just don’t have what it takes to go up. While, in the heat of battle, Jared and I would push through no matter what, Todd realized that it was smarter to back off on those days. Because if you don’t, you usually end up getting hurt. He did as I said and not as I always did.
Sometimes the student becomes the teacher and he had to hold me back. Todd also realized that not every assistance exercise needs to be taken to death. Some days after we finished squatting, guys that used half the weight Todd did would be out-lifting him on single leg Romanian Dead Lift’s or single leg squats. Those were the guys who just didn’t get it. Todd did. He always wanted to do the exercise properly and get the most out of it instead of just piling on weight and doing a death set with atrocious form, thus slowing down his recovery in the process.
This week, Todd and I will be start training together again for the first time since 2005 and neither of us could be more fired up about it.
Training Partner #3
I started training Joey “Styles” Scott during his sophomore year at Seton Hall University. He was an outstanding baseball player who had all the talent in the world but a less than Herculean work ethic. Todd was similar. They both will freely admit this to you so I’m not telling you any secrets behind their backs. Joey and I became quite close so naturally I wanted the best for him. He always asked if he could train with me but the way I trained wasn’t really ideal for him. Then one day I realized that the ideal program isn’t as important as the effort you put in and the environment you train in. So even though he was a lot smaller and weaker I let Joey jump in with me, Jared, Todd and Mark. Instantly his results shot through the roof.
I loved training with Joey because we fed off each other’s intensity and nearly came to blows at every other workout. We rarely said much during training but we always had a blast. Joey eventually got drafted by the A’s but we always trained together during the off season and picked right up where we left off. Eventually his playing career came to an end he started working insane hours, more than an hour away from the gym. That brought an end to our partnership but I’ll always remember those days as some of the best times I ever had.
Lessons Learned
Sometimes the perfect program isn’t as important as the effort you put into your workouts and who you train with. If you believe in what you are doing, are relentless in your dedication and have a partner(s) to compete against you’re going to get results.
Training Partner #4
Mark Crook started training at Renegade shortly after turning 40. His interest turned to obsession rather rapidly. I saw a real, not faked, intensity in Crook that I don’t see in most people, so I invited him to train with our crew, only six months after he joined the gym. He was the oldest (by 12 years) and the weakest but he fought like a dog to hold his own and keep up. He became the heart and soul of Renegade and soon took on a leadership roll while surpassing people who had been there for years before him. There are very few people as intense as Crook is during his training, though you wouldn’t know it by his outside of the gym personality (aside from his love for Slayer and other similar bands). He’s dark, demented and twisted. And I love every minute of it.
Recently, Mark’s girlfriend Margie started training and was introduced to a side of him she hadn’t seen yet. I had the opportunity to witness this first hand when my car was in the shop and they gave me a ride to the gym two weeks ago. Crook was starting his pre workout ritual of dialing it in and psyching himself up. He changed the radio station and put on something a little bit more aggressive. He turned up the volume then took a deep breath and exhaled angrily. I knew exactly what was going on and sat silently in the back. This wasn’t the time for talking. Being new to all this Margie asked Mark what was wrong. Mark told her that he was just getting his mind right for training. I prayed that she didn’t ask another question.
As Jen has come to understand and appreciate; there can be no questions around that time. Since then she’s figured out that sweet Crook becomes Satanic Crook around training time and that it’s all good.
Lessons Learned
First of all, don’t talk to Crook immediately before or during a workout ;)
Second of all, age is never a valid excuse. Mark doesn’t give a shit how old someone he’s training with is. He’s there to slaughter them. If he can’t out lift someone he’ll damn sure motivate them to do even more than they were capable of. For me, it’s always motivating to keep the old man far behind me, and when Mark trains with me he’d do anything to emerge victorious.
Crook’s intensity has also been responsible for some setbacks and injuries. This is a recurring theme with meathead, lunatics like us. Luckily he’s smartened up and matured. He’s doing his best to stay injury free now and reign it in a bit. This is huge. You can’t train when you’re injured. And if you’re not injured now you may be heading in that direction, so take care of yourself and do the necessary prehab work to avoid it.
Nowadays, when Crook and I train together we end up holding each other back more than we push each other. That’s because in the heat of battle we’re both so nuts that we’ll keep adding weight until something tears. So he holds me back and I do the same for him.
“You think I have another five pounds in me?” I’ll ask.
“Dude, you barely got that. No way.” Crook will respond.
Seven or eight years ago I would have taken that as a challenge and thrown on ten pounds. Nowadays we’re both a lot smarter so we move on to the next exercise and I thank him later.
Training Partner #5
I became good friends with John Alvino 14 years ago but it wasn’t until 2006 that we finally trained together. For a stretch of about six months we had some of the best training sessions of our lives. John and I were very close on everything strength wise and were completely dialed in and on the same page when it came to training. Things always got very competitive as we tried to outdo each other on everything we did. John can bring the intensity like no one else.
Lessons Learned
Eventually we settled in and backed off the intensity after our main one or two exercises of the day were done. It was during this time period that I realized you can only really go all out on one or two big sets or big lifts at any one particular workout. Unless your volume is incredibly low it’s tough to go beyond that. Beginners can do but it advanced guys can’t. That’s why you see powerlifters work up to a top end set on one or two exercises then kinda cruise their way through assistance work.
Advanced guys can work up to a top end set on one or two big exercises while getting really fired up in the process and going all out, but after that you have it to turn it down a notch for the rest of the workout. That’s not to say you shouldn’t train hard and try to always improve but you don’t have to approach every single exercise the way you approach your top end set of squats or deadlifts. Turn it down a bit when you get to step ups, hip thrusts and ab work. An hour of straight off-the-charts lunacy will lead to burn out and overtraining.
The Bottom Line
Training partners come and go but the Iron will always remain. I’ve trained alone plenty of times and will do so plenty more times in my life. In fact, I’d rather train alone if I can’t train with one of those five guys or someone very similar and at the same level.
I don’t rely on anyone for anything. My training is too important to me. I suggest you take the same attitude. But if you can find a great training partner who truly gets it and is right there on the same page with you it will make a far bigger difference than any supplement or fancy, spaced aged workout program ever will.
Please leave your questions and comments below.
