As everyone may or may not know, Supertraining – the gym I own - has moved. We’re now located at 2010 3^rd Street in downtown Sacramento, California, inside Midtown Strength and Conditioning.

To be perfectly honest with you, I hadn’t ever really planned on moving, at least not so soon. What happened was this: a friend of mine told me it would be a good idea to talk to the owner of Midtown Strength and Conditioning. “You need to call this guy,” my friend said. “He’s a good guy, so give him a ring.”

I did, and as it turned out, he was actually a big fan of Team Supertraining. He had purchased the DVD from Elite Fitness Systems and he was extremely enthusiastic about everything we were doing at the gym. I went to his place, met with him and checked out the facility, and I instantly knew that this would be the right move for me and my team. There was a turf field and a ton of space, but I knew I had a lot of leverage with the equipment I’d be bringing, because the new place didn’t have anything even close to what I have. The best part about this was that the owner of Midtown Strength and Conditioning knows the deal about what we do, and he knew the value of all the EFS equipment I’d be bringing in. He approved of everything and I decided to pull the trigger and move.

Midtown Strength and Conditioning has over 6000 square feet of space – of which Supertraining occupies about 1400. This is an additional 500 square feet over and above what we had before. All the powerlifting equipment is concentrated in one area of the gym, but we have a ton of space and everyone is thrilled with the setup.

I’ve always known that first impressions are huge, and I’ve always wanted a facility where people walk in the door for the first time and say to themselves, “This is the place I want to be. When I come in here, I’d better nut up or go home.” It’s not like we didn’t have that in the old place, but now we really have a gym where everyone can get excited. I’m talking about athletes of all shapes and sizes as well as powerlifters.

What I like best about the new place is that we’re now capable of offering training for any athlete. It was difficult in the old gym because we didn’t have the facilities for it. It was geared strictly to powerlifters. Yes, we had a handful of football and wrestling guys coming in and training, but the vast majority of people who trained with me were powerlifters. Now, athletes can walk in the door of my gym and say, “This is my spot.”

In fact, we had a couple of shot put/discus guys come in the other day to check the place out, and they were absolutely blown away. They didn’t even want to talk about how much the gym cost to join – they just wanted to sign up because they knew this was where they belonged.

Another exciting thing we have going on is the addition of the great Jesse Burdick – my “brother from a different mother” - to the staff. Jesse has been training people in the Bay Area for many years, and he’s one of the legendary names in powerlifting. He’s also a genius when it comes to ART, chiropractic and rehab protocols. This adds a new dimension to the gym and to our ability to train everyone, not just powerlifters. His knowledge of flexibility and conditioning is absolutely unparalleled, but if you’ve been around the sport for a while, you already know that. Whenever the Team Supertraining guys run into any injury problems, we’ve always gone straight to Jesse for answers.

We’re going to train people together, and now, with the new setup, we have everything an athlete could possibly need, right here under one roof. The plan is to train athletes in groups – 10-12 guys at a time. We’ve got the best equipment in the world right here, an incredible facility, and the best coaching you’ll find anywhere. If you’re an athlete, you don’t ever need to go anywhere else.

You also probably know that my brother’s documentary, Bigger Stronger, Faster is coming out soon in major release. This is highly personal to me, because I’m seen in it discussing some very controversial issues with which I’ve been involved. A lot of people have asked me, as a businessman, why I would have gotten involved with the film in the first place.

I did it because my brother Chris is a supremely talented guy and I wanted to help him in whatever way I could. I had no idea how far he’d get with this project, and my first concern, to be perfectly honest with you, was getting him a job. He’d been plugging away on his film career for years, not getting anywhere, and when he came to me with his idea I figured I’d do what I could for him because, at the very least, it would help him get work in the future.

I know there’s a negative side to the subject matter, and I’m aware of the fact that it might not work out very well for us as a result. I’m not worried about this, for a variety of reasons. First off, the movie is so well done that I think people are going to focus on that before anything else. Chris puts a pretty positive spin on everything concerning me, so I don’t think anyone who sees the film is going to try to pigeonhole me as a steroid user. I just think everyone should go see this film because it’s an incredible piece of work, and it’s going to change the way you think about everything.

What amazes me about the promotional plan for this movie is the guerilla tactics used to get the word out. Some of the very first mentions I saw were on some of the biggest “meathead” forums on the internet, which I found hilarious. I’d log on to some random, obscure message board and see thread after thread covering Bigger, Stronger, Faster, and I thought this was incredible. They’re using the same marketing and release plan that made Supersize Me so successful, and right now it’s a lock to be released in at least 250 big city theatres.

As for my personal life, it’s hectic, as usual. I have two young kids, and they’re a handful to manage. My daughter Quinn is eight months old. As every parent knows, when you have an infant, all they want to do is sleep and it’s usually pretty straightforward. Quinn is more active now that she’s a little older, and it keeps me on my toes. My son Jake is four now, and when Quinn actually does get to sleep, Jake is always there to wake her up because he wants to play with her. Combine all this with the moving of the gym, and it’s been a little stressful, but we’re managing just fine.

My training has really sucked since I blew out my hamstring. If you’ve ever read any of my writing on this site, you know I’ve never been a big believer in rehab. I think it’s totally overrated. I think what happens when you have an injury is that a period of time goes by and it heals, rather than rehab exercises having anything to do with that healing process. I mean, it’s all well and good for some professional football player who has nothing else to do all day and can spend ten hours doing a hundred different things to help an injury, but I can’t do that. I’ve always believed that the little rehab exercises they have you do don’t do anything to help.

My problem now is that my hamstring isn’t progressing very well, so I might have to bite the bullet and try some of the aforementioned stuff. For now, I’ve just been doing some light Prowler work – 30 minutes of pushing – some light reverse hypers and some banded leg curls. That’s about it. When it comes to rehab, though, I’d rather just deadlift. If it hurts to pull off the floor, I’ll pull from the pins. I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do, per se, but it’s what I feel like I should be doing.

The last thing I’d like to add is a “help wanted” announcement. We’re looking for lifters to join Team Supertraining, so I’m putting out a national – and international – call for people to come to Sacramento and join us. Right now we’re the strongest gym in California, hands down. We want to be recognized as one of the strongest gyms in the country, if not the world. We have about six guys on our team right now who are really, really good, but we need some more depth. If you think you have what it takes, and you want to help push us, and yourself, over the top, we’re here and we’re waiting for you. Go to our website at www.supertraininggym.com and contact us.

Q&A

I’ve read where you don’t believe in deloading. What do you do instead?

Well, anyone would be a fool to try to lift big the day before a meet, so I do take some time off before contests. In swimming, this is known as a taper. Sprinters will basically do nothing for 5-8 days, while most of the other swimmers would “deload,” significantly reducing their volume and intensity.

In my talks with some top lifters, I’ve found a lot of variation with this. Shawn Frankl from Big Iron Gym lifts on Wednesday before competing in a contest on Saturday. In my opinion, this is NOT just because Shawn is a mutant. I think it’s what works for him. Being a smaller guy who’s in better shape than a chubby lifter like myself, Shawn can afford to do more and still recover. Mike Tucherererererrrrr is a 242 lbs USAPL lifter who trains bench, squat and deadlift in nearly every workout. I know this sounds weird, but who’s to say it’s wrong when you post the numbers that Mike does?

Scott “Hoss” Cartwright and myself are both 308 lbs lifters. Scott and I normally take at least seven days off from training before meets. Does this mean we do nothing? Not really. We’ve done some very light stuff – like biceps, triceps, pecs, shoulders and light stretching. Scott and I will set up our last hard workout 10-14 days before a meet.

One thing Scott and I have in common is hard work. He and I both work hard, we attack training, and we don’t miss workouts. We challenge each other in the gym, and we force each other to live up to the standards we’ve set. The interesting thing here is that Scott and I rarely lift together. We’ve done so in the past, but we’re working on different things and training for different meets. We don’t allow slacking.

In my mind, deloading is bullshit. I’ve said this before, and I’m saying it again. The day after I hit 2502, I was at the gym at 8 AM pulling the motherfucking sled. It this because I think I’m a tough guy? No. It’s because that’s where I needed to be. Mentally and physically I needed to get back in the gym and prove to myself that 2500 was not the end of the road. 2500 was great, but now it’s time for more. So, to answer the question directly, what do I do instead of deloading? I lift. When you train hard, limitations go out the window.

I am on a mission, and I don’t see how taking days off will help me reach my goals.

What are your thoughts on training both the squat and deadlift simultaneously for raw lifters?

I believe there’s always more than one way to skin a cat. The squat and deadlift are trained at the same time not just through the lifts themselves, but through variations and special exercises.

I like to do two barbell movements in nearly every workout. I squat and then I pull. Or I pull and then I squat. Or I squat and then do goodmornings, and so on. That’s the kind of work I typically do on Max Effort days. I rotate main exercises. After the “main event,” I’ll do supplemental work.

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

Suspended GM’s: work up to a max single
Low box squat: 3 sets of 3 reps

Box Squat: Work up to a heavy single
Same movement with less weight: 3x5 reps

Here’s something I’ve done in the past:

ME deadlift with chains: 2 sets of 2reps 545
ME Box squat w/blue and green bands: 1x1 700

If you’re going to deadlift every week, or even twice a week, just make sure you change the reps, sets and intensity.

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