Zach Even-Esh: Author, Founder of the Underground Strength Gym, Creator of The Underground Strength Coach Certification

Team Never Quit

This week we catch up with Zach Even-Esh, a physical powerhouse of a human being. Zach has an amazing reputation in the world of fitness, strength, and conditioning. While Zach himself has been training non-stop since 1989, he has also trained thousands of athletes - from the youth level to the college level; from military personnel to the Olympic level, and has inspired countless athletes around the world to achieve greater success in both sports and life.

In this episode you will hear:

• I get to help kids change their lives.
• You want to have the horsepower of a Ferrari, with the grinding strength of a tow truck.
• Strength and condition is just a vehicle for changing lives – especially of our youth.
• Kids sometimes need time to turn the corner. Not every kid has the attitude that can he run through a brick wall. You never know when a kid’s gonna change. He could be a train wreck for two or three years, then he turns it around and he’s your star. You never know – that’s why you can never give up on a kid.
• If there’s a never a challenge – or you wait too long to challenge a kid, then it’s completely foreign territory for them.
• The work is the gift. You should be chasing that work – not avoiding it.
• If you think you’re having a bad take day, take the focus of off of you. Make the person next to you better.
• For people to have a breakthrough, they must have a breakdown.
• It has to be hard – not stupid – it has to be tough. Training has to be hard.
• The “we”, not the “me” mentally is the game-changer.
• You need great team mates.
• To start a basic fitness effort, start by walking – we can all do it. If you make one change, you’re at 100% past zero.
• Don’t beat yourself up. Just get better.
• Accountability to somebody else changes everything.
• Perfection never happens.
• There’s beauty in the imperfection.
• You gotta fall in love with the process, vs the end result.
• With fitness & health, there’s never really an arriving point.
• When you achieve something, go and work at the next thing.
• One of the best thing you can do for yourself, is be healthy and strong.
• One of the most important tricks is – don’t follow the fads or gimmicks.
• I was taught that to be normal was to be strong.
• You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it.
• The biggest thing is to see the emotional/Internal change people experience through hard training.