It's Not The Taking Part... It's The Winning!!

Does anyone ever remember their mum saying that after a hard fought, hard lost game of football? Don't missunderstand the title here, i'm not saying that you should be walking around following a hefty defeat with your head in your hands lamenting your iminent demise from the competitive sporting scene. No, if you got your arse whooped by a stronger athlete or by a better, more skillful team on the day then it's time to suck it up, deal with it and move on. When I say move on at this point I mean you should be allready disecting your performance in terms of weak areas. Why was it that you lost? Did your conditioning (or lack there-of) let you down in the final 10 minutes of the game, or did the guy next to you simply have more strength or power or just simple grit and determination when it came down to the crunch?

You should be asking yourself these questions when the s**t hits the fan. At the end of the day do you want to be average or would you rather be the best in the business? In this game you have two choices; either you can go through the motions, training hard, eating well and putting in good performances on the track, field or whatever. Or you can get up every morning after a good 8 hours sleep, fully rested and recovered and fired up to go and tear it up in the gym, ready to train harder than you have ever trained before - train to be the BEST, the STRONGEST, the most powerful, finely tuned athlete you could possibly be in order to destroy the competition!
Without this drive and determination to succeed we will only ever be average. Do something about it! I know which way i'd rather go...

Send me your thoughts and questions on an e-mail and i'll get back to you.

Yours as always, in strength.

Smash it!

Strength & Performance Coach

Z**

zorandubaic@hotmail.com

A Question Of Grip...

Guys, i cannot reiterate this enough but there's something that concerns me slightly about the lack of emphasis that gets put on one's grip strength. Call me crazy but does no-one use any form of grip training in their routine anymore?? It's something that baffles me to be honest, i mean, would you enter a cooking competition without first having perfected your pastry making skills? No you wouldn't, so why is it that it appears to be ok to train for a sport such as rugby where you need a grip like a vice and for you to not be working like a dog on perfecting your grip strength?

It's a no-brainer. If you want to be the best in sports where your grip strength is paramount then you need to train to improve your grip strength. The old skool wrestlers and power lifters from the eastern block countries didn't become the best in the world at their chosen sports because they just trained the basic lifts, they became the best because they trained for every single aspect of their chosen disclipline, they left nothing to chance.

I had the pleasure of taking a couple of guys who play rugby and do a little MMA stuff through some basic kettle bell drills today. Nothing fancy but it opened their eyes to a few things, namely the importance of having a strong grip and forearms (something they both lacked).
We finished off with a little grip comp - kettle bell lifts with a towel woven through the handles, just so I could make my point. It was a close call in the end but I managed to come out on top with a best left hand lift of 66kg and a right hand lift of 72kg. I need to work on my left hand grip!

This article's main purpose is really just to emphasise what my colleague Sean was saying a few articles back. (If you missed it, have a look at 'seankeefe.blogspot.com' and check the archive out). To be truly 'strong' you have to have a strong grip. Make sense? Good, now go and smash it next time you train and think on, if you play a sport that involves a holistic approach, are you looking at it in a holistic sense or are you just focusing on the basics and not on the detail?..

Drop me an email or post a reply to this blog if you have any questions.

Yours in strength.

Smash it!

Strength & Performance Coach

Z**

zorandubaic@hotmail.com

Long Time No See..

Fellow undergrounders et al. My apologies for the long wait. Things have been a bit crazy round here over the last few weeks or so. In just over 2 weeks time, I am getting married to my beautiful fiancee Amanda so things are hotting up regarding last minute organisation of things which probably should have been organised some time ago if truth be told!

This however does not stop me from training like a son of a b***h and smashing into some serious iron and i intend to post some awesome articles outlining what has been going on during my absence and a little something on future plans regarding our Strength & Performance enterprise. It's high time in my opinion that the tallented athletes of the Greater Manchester area ne the whole of the UK have somewhere they can hone their skills in order to be the best. For too long we have accepted adequate facilities and average results... no more i tell you! It's time to man up and make this thing happen and i am SO fired up it's untrue. Stay tuned for more kick-ass articles.

Yours in strength

Coach Z

Strength & Performance Coach

zorandubaic@hotmail.com

Coach Z well and truly 'Tyred'

People, it's amazing what you can do with a used car tyre, some rope, a 14 year old Ford Mondeo and about 50kg's of pea gravel wrapped up in bin liners and silver duck tape! - my fellow Strength & Performance coach, Sean named this device the Silver Bullet and man did I feel like I had taken a bullet to the gut after today's training session!

I called up my good friend and client Chris today and asked him whether he wanted to ditch his pre-planned session and come smash it with me and Sean. He seemed hesitant at first and with good reason. Sean was taking charge as head coach and he had planned a punishing training session, not for the weak of mind or faint of heart!
I knew that there was going to be a certain amount of car pushing and pulling and possibly a little bit of conditioning but nothing could have prepared me (or Chris) for what was about to come... we had a date with the silver bullet and i wasn't sure what that meant but what I did know was that I was going to have to step up my game and smash some serious s**t otherwise I was going to look like a chump infront of Chris, something that I would not entertain under any circumstance. Failure was not an option today. Here is what we did:

3x30m car push (approx 1500kg's of old school Mondeo) with push back to warm up.

2x5 Silver Bullet power cleans

SB power clean x1 + 5x front squats (x2)

SB power clean + shoulder lift, 1x right + 1x left side + 5x push-ups on SB [x3]

SB walk (30m) + 5x front squats, 30m walk + 5x SB push press (x2)

Tyre work:

Tyre drag + pull using thick rope with hand over hand pull in at 30m (backwards rope pull back to start)

Tyre + rope lunge and push with hand over hand pull in at 30m (forwards rope pull to start)

Tyre and rope woodchop (6 reps each side)

To finish.....

Forwards run for 30m with backwards rope drag as fast as possible!! (x2)

Chris and I KILLED IT!!! He did me proud today like I knew he would. As for me.... well I smashed it up of course! What did you expect? We don't play games here, we come to train! It was the first time since I stopped sprinting about 18 months ago that I actually felt more than just a little bit or nausea creeping in and I have to say, it felt good!
Big shout to Sean (http://www.seankeefe.blogspot.com/) for making sure that we kept up the pace throughout. Stay glued to his blog for some awesome video clips of us ripping it up in the car park!

As always, yours in strength.

Smash it!

Z **

Strength & Performance Coach

zorandubaic@hotmail.com

Smash it or go home!

For the first time in a long while I tore s**t up in the gym today! For the first time in a long while I smashed the weights the way they were designed to be smashed.... I trained harder than I have ever trained before, over a time span of some 13 years!
As most of you will know training legs is not for the faint of heart. It hurts like hell and if you have trained properly you should be feeling more than just a little nausea creeping in. Sometimes I just don't get my head right before I train legs. Sometimes the wheels fall off mid set and I feel like chucking in the towel and going on my merry way. Not today. Something clicked today, sometihng changed the way I looked at my training in general. Today, I decided to smash it or go home!

Hopefully by now you are thinking 'what could have possibly made such a difference' right? Let me explain... Yesterday I sat down with my colleague Sean (http://www.seankeefe.blogspot.com/) and his little sister Roz. I had heard that she had bought Sean the 'STRONG' DVD by Joe Defranco, whom many consider to be one of the best strength coaches in the United States, even the world.
You just know that when big Joe D's name is mentioned that things are about to get more than just a little crazy so I was let's say just a little bit exited to get my hands on this new DVD.

'STRONG' takes you on a journey through the lives and professional careers of both Joe D and his family plus many of his athletes, some of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. Probably the most memorable of which goes by the nickname 'The Asshole'... you will have to watch it and make up your mind as to whether this title is justified, but like him or not, there is no denying the guy is an absolute ANIMAL! You will struggle to meet a more dedicated individual.

The film is as much infomative as it is inspirational and leaves you wanting and hoping for more by the end of the 52 minute running time. It is jam packed full of footage from Defranco's training (Joe D's facility in diiiiirty Jersey) and will i'm sure give many an aspiring athlete and coach from all walks of life the much needed kick up the ass they have no doubt been needing for some time. If you want to stop lifting without purpose or focus and get yourself tuned in to the task at hand then i recommend you get on to http://www.defrancostraining.com/ and click on the 'STRONG' link without hesitation. It was the first thing I did when I got home last night and the best $28 I could ever spend
.
Full of inspiration and an unquenchable desire to rip it up in the gym, I went and smashed my legs today! What did you do? Let me know what you have been getting up to in the gym this week. Post your comments below or drop me an e-mail with any questions you may have.

Yours in strength

'Smash it' or go home!

Strength & Performance Coach

Z**

zorandubaic@hotmail.com

Strength & Performance post number two... getting crazy in here!

Wassup fellow underground strength followers, coaches and anyone else who happens to be tapping in to the world of Strength & Performance... welcome all to my killer blog page where you find some of the best advice out there from some of the best minds in the game, order all your supplement needs from awesome sites such as http://www.myprotein.co.uk/ and a whole lot more besides! Buckle your belts coz it's about to get crazy up in here! Over the next few weeks and months I intend to get hyped up about a whole load of topics and you guys are going to be with me every step of the way... it's going to kick some serious ass I can promise you that!
Who among you want to get strong? Who among you want to learn some top secrets on how to smash your bench PR by 15kg or see your deadlift PR soar through the roof simply by improving your grip strength? Interested?... yeah I thought you might be so you'd better keep it here at http://www.zorandubaic.blogspot.com/ and you will learn the ropes. Also, why not stop by at my good friend, training partner and co Strength & Performance member's blog. For more info check out http://www.seankeefe.blogspot.com/.
More posts coming soon so don't you dare go anywhere!

Smash it!

Z*

Welcome to Zoran Dubaic - Strength & Performance

Calling all fellow strength coaches, athletes and anyone who is interested in make a difference in in their training by improving their strength, conditioning or simply improving their quality of life through regular excercise. So you can put a name to a face, the person in the profile pic, throwing around a 50kg lump of rock is ME!! My name is Zoran Dubaic (Z, Z-dog or Coach Z to my friends/colleagues) and I am a Strength Coach from Manchester in the United Kingdom. I have been lifting weights since the age of 13 and have a passion for improving my athlete's and clients strength and conditioning through the application of 13 years hard slog under the bar.

'Strength & Performance' is a concept thought up by myself and my partner in crime Sean Keefe, a fellow Strength Coach based in Manchester. We plan to open a serious training facility in the South Manchester area in the near future so keep your eyes open for more info. Any questions are welcome at this point so please feel to hit me up with a quick e-mail and I will do my best to respond as soon as possible.

I will be setting up a video blog shortly aswell as a regular blog here at 'zorandubaic.blogspot' so stay tuned for some serious underground action, tips on how to get strong, get massive and many other topics. For now though, stay strong, keep lifting the iron and make sure you kick some serious ass every time you get under the bar!
Yours in strength.

Smash it!

Z*