Training

More in Training

"Who is to say you CAN'T? Go out and shoot for it. Do it. Be it!

No man has a right to tell another man he can't do something. If you have the work ethic, self belief and relentless drive you can f***ing do it."

Shaun Clarida setting himself way ahead of the best in the world and stirring up Olympia weekend living up to his nickname the Giant Killer!

Shaun Clarida – The Sky Is The Limit, 2019 Mr. Olympia

Hunter Labrada came up to Dallas for a few days, and CEO Michael Johansson took him on a tour at our new facilities that soon will become our GASP Gym at Destination Phase 2. This is what Hunter thought:

"When Destination Phase 2 is done it is going to be one of the coolest gyms that I have ever been to. I know it's going to be one of the best gyms in the country. There will be a lot of equipment and I am really excited to see it all done. It's going to be fun to have this close enough to just drive up whenever I want. The ceilings! Everything about the space is perfect for a gym, and then having the office right there. It's going to be a very cool environment for the employees and the gym members." - Hunter Labrada

Hunter Labrada Visits Our New Destination Phase 2

Josh Bryant MS is the author of the ISSA's bodybuilding course and is the coach to the most over-600lb benchers in the world. He has been teaming up with Ed Brown for bodybuilding programming getting him back on stage in 2020 to re win his Pro card in the IFBB.

Here he goes rep for rep with Ed explaining every technique, rep range, exercise and tempo. Check it out, try it out and follow Official GASP for more world class training information!

Ed Brown – Leg Training with Josh Bryant

Yes you need some badass legs to win the New York Pro. Badass legs and a badass back. Here we are pursuing greatness.

Hunter Labrada is in Dallas with GASP CEO Michael Johansson visiting the new bigger and more accommodating phase 2 of Destination Dallas and Texas headquarters for GASP and the iron community. Along with the 34ft ceilings and dedicated podcast rooms, meeting rooms, and lifestyle areas this place is gearing up to deliver something truly one of a kind.

"Everything about the space is perfect for a gym and then having the offices right there, its going to be a very cool environment for the employees and gym members that's for sure!"

Hunter spells out his hamstring focused day later on at Destination. From muscle function to execution, its a very methodical approach to training with no lack of "till the wheels fall off." Definitely everything needed to be a big disruptor in his rookie season and debuting at the New York Pro.

Hunter Labrada – Pursuing Greatness

GASP CEO Michael Johansson catches up with Hunter Labrada at his home.

"I haven't seen you in a while. What's been up?"

They delve into pre-shoulder surgery, to the impact of 8 weeks of being in a sling to recovery and hitting the gas full throttle and being able to train at 100% again.

Training and recovery is so good that Hunter is able to revisit his goal of preparing for and competing in the 2020 New York Pro.

CEO Catch Up: Hunter Labrada

GASP Ambassador Emiel Oldenkamp is originally from the Netherlands but grew up in Belgium before moving to Sweden. As a child Emiel played various sports but he didn’t find true passion in any of them.

At 15 years old he found his way to the gym together with some friends. Take a peek into his journey and you may gain some valuable training tips as well.

**Shortly after I moved to Sweden, I participated in my first powerlifting meet. The entire experience of training towards it and competing elevated my interest and passion for training to a whole new level. It is also during this period that I started coaching friends for free to gain experience and began pursuing a degree in Applied Mathematics. We are a little over 2 years further now. My passion for coaching and competing has only grown larger during that time and I have started coaching people professionally in May last year.

**Being 22 years old, I realize that I am only at the start of my journey and still have much to learn. This does not mean that I am not proud of where I am right now and that I don’t appreciate the people that have helped me along the way. I would never be where I am right now if it weren’t for mentors, clients, friends, and my extremely supportive parents and girlfriend. The best is yet to come, and I am very happy to also have GASP in my corner now.

**Outside of my own training and studies, I coach people in powerlifting and strength in general. Teaching and coaching are big passions of mine. I also hope to hold more seminars and workshops in the future as I have always loved public speaking.

Alongside that, I enjoy going on walks and watching movies with my girlfriend. I am also an avid music lover and have played music in some way for basically my entire life. Although it isn’t as big a part of my life as it used to be, it is still very important to me.

**I believe in a rational and well thought out approach to training that encompasses both the tangible and intangible factors. This does not mean that my approach is complicated, I am very big on keeping the program as simple as possible. This way, when complications occur, we can easily adjust variables to solve and/or track down the source of the issue. The why is just as important as the what, and I make sure to also convey this side to my clients. By doing this, I hope to let the training transcend the weight room and improve overall movement and quality of life outside of the gym as well.

The basic concepts of training aren’t complicated. Planning is not hard when everything goes to plan and getting strong is not hard when you don’t get hurt. There needs to be a balance between sticking to the plan and being able to adapt, between getting stronger and staying healthy, between just getting the work done and enjoying training. Together with the athlete, I try to find out where those balances should sit for them at this point in time and help them balance these scales.

My best tips to someone new to powerlifting are:

**If you are thinking about competing, or even just enjoy training, give competition a shot. People are always complaining about "not being strong enough yet" and that they will compete once they have achieved an x kg total in training. The truth is that you will never be strong enough if you think like that. Look for a competition nearby, sign up, get in touch with your fellow competitors and have fun.

In an ideal world, everyone would have access to a great coach or mentor to learn about lifting technique, programming principles and other considerations regarding training. The sad truth is that these services are expensive and not everyone has the means to make use of them. Luckily, we live in a time where almost all information is readily available, and mostly free. In this day and age, there are very few excuses for being badly informed. Start out by learning the basics of anatomy and exercise physiology. You don’t need to become an expert in these fields, but you need to be able to evaluate the validity of the information you come across. There are a lot of very good resources out there, and even more crappy ones. The same applies to coaches. Being able to correctly decide into which category something fits is an extremely valuable skill, and the time (and possibly money) that you spend on developing this skill is an investment that will keep on generating profit for the rest of your training career.

With very high specificity programs being popular in the powerlifting world right now, many beginners fall into the trap of almost exclusively performing the squat, bench and deadlift in their training. What beginners need, alongside learning correct technique, is to build muscle mass. The best way to do this is to do dedicated hypertrophy training and to not be afraid to eat. Spend a good amount of the year training with hypertrophy as the main goal and stop identifying yourself with a certain weight class. Unless you are competing at a high level, weight classes are not relevant and should be disregarded. If you are cutting for a local meet, you are fucking up big time. The whole phenomenon where basically everyone that doesn’t have a huge arch has a ‘poverty bench’ can almost entirely be attributed to them being too light and not carrying enough muscle mass. Don’t let a bodybuilder of the same body weight as you bench more than you.

**In the short term, I want to total well over 800kg at my next competition coming October, the 2019 IPL Worlds in Leipzig, Germany. Next, I will compete again in November at the WRPF Swedish Nationals as my first competition in the 125kg weight class.  After that, I will spend a fairly long time training with hypertrophy as the main goal, steadily growing into the new class. I am also spending a lot of time trying to grow my client base and get my name out there in the world of strength coaching.

In the long term, I want to have a positive influence on the world of strength sports as a whole and establish myself as one of the top strength coaches in the world. As an athlete I want to put myself into a position where I can keep on improving for as long possible on all fronts training wise. Lifting weights is a big part of my life and something I love to do, and I want to be able to do it for the rest of my life.

**I believe in living a life with passion and no compromise. I don’t believe in selling people bullshit and I tell them how it is.  I pride myself on being an honest and loyal person who does not refrain from speaking (or shutting) up when I feel it is appropriate, probably my Dutch genes taking control.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you wish to contact me with questions, criticism, or if you’d like to enquire about coaching or a seminar/workshop you can reach me at 

My Journey: Emiel Oldenkamp

Vlad Petric won the Coat of Arms International bodybuilding championships in the Dominican Republic in 2018 earning him professional status in the IFBB. Now he is preparing for his pro debut in the 212 division in Romania in November.

This is what he has to say on his chosen sport: 

Bodybuilding is a game of variables. Some things like genetics, who shows up at a competition, the judging are things you can’t control. That leaves you with things like intensity and work ethic, things you can control which play a major role in your progress and success. Going into my pro debut I wanted to make it a memorable one and what better choice than to compete in my home country. It makes it that much more meaningful to know my family can be there to see me compete in person after all these years that they’ve only seen through pictures and video. If that’s not motivating enough to pick up the intensity and work as hard as I possibly can, I don’t know what would be!

Vlad Petric – Getting Ready for Pro Debut

 - Tyler Hobson - Inventor of the Pendulum series

GASP CEO Michael Johansson and Tyler Hobson link up in rural Conroe, Texas (1 hour north of Houston) after visiting DESTINATION Dallas and agreeing that a collaboration between Tyler, GASP and DESTINATION is a logical next step for 2 brands that see eye to eye on not compromising and never apologizing for brand values.

"With your attention to detail and the level where you take everything to no compromise, it feels good to take on this journey together with you."

"We don't compromise and we don't apologize. It's not for everyone and that's OK. But for those that want the absolute best, we both fill that void."

When Too Much Is Just Enough

"It's very important to talk about why fitness is important to people. Me, I lost 90lbs many years ago. My aunt died from morbid obesity. Sugar addiction, alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental illness are all things that for me, drives me to taking care of my body, learning about nutrition, learning about function workouts and strength."

 at destination Dallas after Steve posed to his song Zombie in the 2019 Mr. Olympia. Being that Bad Wolves are currently on tour, their schedule is hectic but Tommy meets up with Steve to hit shoulders, biceps and back. Tommy and bassist Kyle are riding a high since their new album is killing it on the charts ranking #2 on iTunes most downloaded record in USA and is on top of the charts for rock!

Steve Kuclo and Tommy Vext – Bad Wolves Back and Shoulder Training

Bryan Troianello is no stranger to the slow game of bodybuilding. That game being in large part one of consistency and patience. Over the past 10 years of consistent lifting and the last 2 with Hunter Labrada, Bryan has managed to pack on the necessary muscle to compete against the best in the country to potentially earn professional status in the IFBB.

"Hunter has been healthy for the last 6 months and training is going better than ever - like it should be."

With Hunter well on the mend and into his off-season preparing for his pro debut in New York in May of 2020 he has the necessary energy to focus on pushing training partner Bryan and girlfriend Misty Statum for wins at the upcoming Texas State and National Championships.

Bryan Troianello – Hunt for the Pro Card

Chest composition science: The chest is composed of about 57-65% fast twitch muscle fibers meaning they read better to heavy weight/high speed contractions.

In this chest training session between world renowned strength coach Josh Bryant and IFBB Pro bodybuilder Jay Warren, Josh breaks down everything from the composition of the chest, areas of the chest and how to holistically hit every angle and every fiber for maximum development.

Check this workout and see what you can take from it and check back for the same from leg training and arm training all at gaspofficial.com

Chest Training – Science and Execution with Josh Bryant and Jay Warren

You know while you're going through it, you know there's so much pressure. First of all you're concentrating on catching your breath. I could never catch my breath before its my turn to do another set. So you get done, settle down and you try to catch your breath.

Each set you accomplish you're going up in weight. So each set you accomplish is just another notch in your belt. Your head is screaming, your body is yelling. You've just got to love working out and you've just got to want it for yourself.

How do we maintain the energy through the workout? Its nothing but self. Self motivated to beat yourself. Beat your last set. Beat your last workout. Self motivation to become better.