Real and Raw

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"I just gotta stick to the basics. Core lifting, bench press, squat and deadlift. All that shit." - Guy Cisternino

It has been 16 weeks since you all saw Guy Cisternino at his lowest bodyweight of 193lbs. He was on the mend from double shoulder surgery training legs at destination Dallas. Now he's back in Dallas, weighing over 220lbs and lifting damn near like his old self. Granted he trained with a more controlled style before, he is even more mindful of his range of motion and tempo now post surgery.

"I wouldn't be the same person or have the same physique if I was not able to test my limits in the gym."

Check out the volume, exercises and reps Guy is back to for chest training. Stay in the loop as we bombard you with a lot more Quadro. www.gaspofficial.com to sign up for the newsletter.

Incline Barbell Press: 135 x 15, 225 x 12, 275 x 12, 315 x 9

Plate Loaded machine press: 3 x 10-15 reps

HEAVY COMPOUND LIFTS - Guy Cisternino CHEST TRAINING

Day 2 of the Arnold Sports Festival 2019. 7:00 AM at Powerhouse Gym Columbus, Ohio. Guy is up in weight weighing 230lb now and Branch is looking gnarlier than usual and still building back up since having shoulder surgery.

Here we give you a mostly raw rep for rep and and set for set run down of what Guy and Branch did here in Columbus.

Arm Day - RAW & Unfiltered with Guy Cisternino and Branch Warren

"Doing this type of training has greatly increased my endurance and my physical fitness level."

Outside of the gym Branch Warren is very active. Being an outdoorsman and hunter you have to be physically fit and have adequate endurance levels to hike up mountains and then carry out your kill several hundred pounds at a time.

Butch Steinle, Branch's training partner here, is a police office and SWAT Team member and must be physically and mentally prepared to act very fast when, "all of a sudden something gets quick and exigent and you have to make entry, you might have the fight of your life."

Everything done here by Branch and Butch are super sets of several implements performed in revolutions combining strength, stamina and 3 dimensional movement.

Branch Warren and Butch Steinle - Functional Training

"I have a strategy that my first exercise will be heavy as fuck. I always like trying to improve the weights on my first exercise. Other than that I like to get a nice pump. It has gotten me this far and i think it will take me much further if I stay dedicated."

Marcus Salomonsson is one of Sweden's rising amateur bodybuilders with a great structure, impressive strength complete with grit and love for "f.ckin heavy" weights.

"There is not just one road to the top. You should listen to some people's points, but at the end of the day you need to do whats best for you." Some of Marcus's training is unconventional and "felt out" so he is very much taking his own advice in learning his own body and adapting his training to what he finds works for himself.

HEAVY + PUMP - Chest and Shoulder Training with Marcus Salomonsson

"We like to call it a reload week. Deload suggests that you're kinda sitting there with your thumb up your ass watching reruns of the Simpsons. Reload is a proactive process. This is not a blow off week. This is a way to perfect your technique. You're not going to build your technique with 90+%. You're going to build your technique with sub maximal weights." Josh Bryant explaining the importance of FOLLOWING THE PROGRAM and perfecting your technique with the reload protocol.

Johnnie Jackson also gets raw and real rehashing his thought process to starting this series. "If you don't use it you lose it," hits home here for Johnnie. So what a perfect way to bring you all everything he goes through bringing his own strength back up.

Full deadlift program now available at gaspofficial.com

Try it for yourself and tag us and we will feature some of your training!

Deadlift Protocol - Reload Workout with Johnnie Jackson: Episode 5

"Every week is getting better!" Johnnie Jackson amping up his drive, focus and energy toward this 8 week goal as evidence for the fact that "a month ago this (600lb) wouldn't even go up for one." Josh Bryant programmed todays top set as 600 lb for 3 reps which as he said a month ago wouldn't budge in his baseline assessment

A component to any worthwhile endeavor is mentality. "You got to attack, attack, attack." Johnnie really delves into his mentality with this goal after not having deadlifted in so long. Check out what he says about mentality, how he is adapting his own mental struggles here and how you can apply it to your own program.

Deadlift Protocol - Johnnie Jackson and Josh Bryant: Episode 4

"As you can see, we are doing the same exercises as last week. We are not trying to get cute or fancy and do what other people are doing to take selfies in the gym. We want o get good at this collection of exercises that is going to build Johnnie's deadlift." - Josh Bryant MS

To build a good base and to progressively overload you cant change unnecessary variables from week to week. This is workout 2 of Johnnie's 8 week quest to annihilate 705lb on the way to surpassing what he pulled in 2012. Josh Bryant is getting Johnnie to perfect his form on every deadlift he performs including the speed deadlifts and deficit deadlifts with MAXIMUM force (speed x acceleration).

Stay tuned and see the energy, focus and most of all STRENGTH of Johnnie Jackson amp up!

Deadlift Protocol - Johnnie Jackson and Josh Bryant: Episode 3

Full training program available at the end of the series.

Last episode was laying the ground work. Josh Bryant and Johnnie Jackson talked and demonstrated everything from set-up, form, execution, cues for lockout, training gear and mental ammunition to be able to successfully finish this program. This week is the first workout for Johnnie.

"This is solidifying 700lb. I can already see. He's gotten better from missing that 585lb (during the initial assessment). I guarantee you he could do 585 for 3 today. We are not gonna do that now because 705 a the end of these 8 weeks is the mission." -Josh Bryant on Johnnie's execution in this workout.

Deadlift Protocol - Johnnie Jackson and Josh Bryant Episode 2

This is EVERYTHING you need to know about the conventional deadlift. How to execute, equipment, cues and the mentality! FULL PROGRAM coming at the end of the series.

If you're a powerlifter, its part of your three lift total. For physique athletes, its a great way to develop your physique. It sort of like a swiss army knife. It does a lot of things really well. The deadlift has a very simple learning curve and it forces your body to work together in concert. For example, for traditional athletes, speed is king. Speed is king on the court and on the field. One of the best ways to get faster is to improve your strength to body weight ratio in the deadlift. If you can deadlift 2.5 x your bodyweight you YOU WILL BE MORE EXPLOSIVE! - Josh Bryant MS

We are here with Johnnie Jackson with one of the best backs in the history of the sport of bodybuilding. The deadlift had a lot to do with building it.The deadlift will work pretty much every muscle in your body and it will develop your grip strength. In 2012 Johnnie Jackson pulled 832lb in the deadlift at the Raw Unity power meet. Flash forward to 2019 and after a few more notable pro bodybuilding wins including an Arnold Classic title Johnnie Jackson is back at building up his deadlift again. This time we are documenting it all and sharing the program with you to follow suite. Episode 1 in this 8 week series is crucial to your mindset and perspective on deadlift training. Watch it in its entirety.

Deadlift Protocol - Johnnie Jackson and Josh Bryant: Episode 1

A world class chest and strength is built with time, patience and KNOWLEDGE. You cannot create anything that stands out from the pack without some attention to detail and a lot of variety. Johnnie Jackson breaks down his chest workout lift by lift and adds in a couple of "out of the box" exercises here that you haven't seen from him in the past. Stay tuned for more REAL and RAW training information from Johnnie.

REAL and RAW Chest Training with Johnnie Jackson

If you’re a powerlifter, it’s part of your three-lift total. For physique athletes, it’s a great way to develop

your physique. It sort of like a swiss army knife. It does a lot of things really well. The deadlift has a

very simple learning curve and it forces your body to work together in concert. For example, for traditional athletes, speed is king. Speed is king on the court and on the field. One of the best ways to get faster is to improve your strength to body weight ratio in the deadlift. If you can deadlift 2.5 x your bodyweight you YOU WILL BE MORE EXPLOSIVE!

"If you can deadlift 2.5 x your bodyweight you YOU WILL BE MORE EXPLOSIVE!"

There is something primordially satisfying about ripping some heavy ass pig iron off the ground.

My gut says the deadlift is the oldest strength-training movement in existence. Squats and bench presses took iron game pioneers some imagination, but picking up heavy objects? Putting it down and picking it up again? That’s instinctual.

"Deadlift programming and technique have been refined through the ages and we have provided you with a video series on proper technique and are giving you the exact program to follow."

A caveman tells an opponent to pick up a rock. If the dude can, he gets to chow down on some prime wooly mammoth ribs. But, if he fails, he loses his ribs, his cave and his lady. That’s probably how the world’s first powerlifting meet played out and not a whole hell of a lot has changed since.

Deadlift programming and technique have been refined through the ages and we have provided you with a video series on proper technique and are giving you the exact program to follow. 

to watch the video series and download the FREE program.

8 WEEK DEADLIFT PROGRAM

Any chance you can talk about this “switch?”

This switch to turn on, and stay on unwavering is super interesting and a common theme for GASP. What is it? How does this eliminate everything other than the goal? What does it do to you, your mind etc?

"It’s only when there is a valuable goal I can really turn it on to be honest, it’s a massive state of obsessive selfishness where simply nothing else matters but what I can bring to the stage and anything that can be of a distraction is eliminated from my daily scenario, this can be close people too which is unfortunate but once I’m in that mindset I’m tunnel vision. It’s almost like a do or die scenario, and I say it to that extreme because during the process of prep I’m sooo hard on myself I exhaust myself of the goal, no stone left un-turned and nobody else responsible for anything that goes on so I can’t blame when things don’t go my way. I’m in charge of my destiny, so to do anything out of line I’m kinda like my own mental coach saying well if you gonna slack there don’t bother competing, winners don’t step foot out of line, winners don’t prioritize anything other than the goal, winners don’t have balance, winners care about winning and whatever winning consists of... I must do. I already know I’m not the most genetically blessed, so that just means the work rate has to go up. And I will continue to press forward with this mindset til' I prove to nobody but myself that hard work will always pay."