Purposeful Primitive Online

Grill and Gallagher, Summer 2009

Bits and pieces from the Marty Gallagher

Tim Ferriss of “Four Hour Workweek” fame contacted me to work up a hypothetical “How to add 100 pounds to your bench press” article for use in his next book. Tim is a great guy who is showing folks how to live outside the box of societal convention. I told him I had been living the 4-hour workweek since 1968 and we both have a Tom Sawyer complex; a psychological condition a psychiatrist friend of mine labeled my state of mind. Some folks cannot exist within societal norms and I am one. We’ve posted the final finished bench press article elsewhere in the blog – check it out – the not easily impressed Ferriss liked what I worked up and responded in a subsequent e-mail, “Marty, this is outstanding!”

Mark “The Hammer” Coleman lost a tough fight to another UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture, this past Saturday. Mark and I go back a decade. He is a longtime Parrillo Performance Product user and I have done a dozen interviews with The Hammer over the years. He is an innovative fighter who made “ground and pound” part of the modern fight lexicon and an equally innovative trainer. Mark trail-blazed the “sustained strength” cardio approach all fighters use in this day and age. Mark virtually lives on Parrillo Products when prepping for a fight. Once Parrillo shipped Hammer a product order that weighed in excess of 220 pounds! Now that’s one hell of a lot of protein powder and sports nutrition bars! Mark had a three contract fight with the UFC and this was the third. At age 45 I would not be surprised if Mark hangs up his gloves and turns to coaching.

Pavel Tsatsouline and I talked at length about the new website and my old friend is enthused about becoming a part of our communal effort. Any Iron Man that hasn’t obtained a copy of Pavel’s latest book, Power to the People: Professional is missing the proverbial boat. This book is crammed full of tips, tidbits and tactics that you can immediately apply to your own training…my highest recommendation. We look forward to having Pavel offer up some of his unique strategies on kettlebells and Old School weight training. Miles Davis once said of Duke Ellington, “Every jazz musician should pick one day a year and get down on their knees and thank Duke.” Every kettlebell user, teacher, trainer and student should do likewise for Pavel.

GRILLMAN is back in the saddle as a regular web columnist. This took a bit of convincing as the Man Mountain has full dance card. Grill had been one of my contributing mainstays back when I was working a real job at the WashingtonPost.com. Big Grill is most insightful in both lifting and nutrition. He is knowledgeable and chock full of real world empirical experience. Read him carefully as this man has thirty years hardcore experience under his lifting belt – and he is still cracking it hard. Grill’s writing style is iconoclastic. His plain-speak puts me in mind of another Iron Icon, Steve Justa.

Dr. Chris Hardy and I continue our ongoing conversation about nutrition; he and I see eye to eye on nearly everything nutrition related. Both of us feel that modern diet and nutrition is all about strategy and not enough about nutrient purity. Our collective motto is: seek out the finest locally grown and seasonally appropriate proteins, fruits and vegetables – then do with them as you like. Elite chefs are positively fanatical about obtaining the finest, freshest foods possible; strictly for taste. Chris is currently at Johns Hopkins and is one of the very few physicians that not only talks the talk but walks the walk. He trains under kettlebell whiz (and webmaster) Sandy Sommer’s tutelage. Speaking of SS, check out his “turning lemons into lemonade” piece on snow shoveling.

The Gang of Five are zeroing in on the April 10^th Tactical Strength Challenge to be held in Rockville, Maryland: in addition to Chris Hardy and Sandy Sommer, the Philly contingent of Mike Barbato and Italian Phil will be competing. My Fred-Neck buddy and Wing Chung instructor Don Berry is also gearing up. Don trains with me on Tuesdays and this past week he deadlifted a perfect 295 x 4 – not bad for a 49 year old dude who has only been deadlifting for six weeks. His Sumo pulls were pure technical perfection. Each Gang of Five member is using our experimental, kettlebell-adjunct, minimalistic, one-cumulative-hour-per-week-free-weight system to enhance their current capacities. Check out their training diaries to see their sensational progress to date…eight weeks and counting!

Santana Hana is being by me kicking and screaming to our website: the elusive one from parts unknown offers up his ode to manhood and shares with readers his unique approach towards “kick ass” fitness. Hana lives by a Jerry Lee Lewis credo, “Be hot or be cold, for if you are lukewarm the Lord will spew you forth from his mouth.” Which puts me in mind of a Hana quip made some years ago; I was visiting him in New Orleans and we had drank several Cajun cocktails waiting for seats a K-Paul’s when Hana said of the moonshine and hot pepper concoction, “This goes down smoother then Baby Jesus in silk pants!” Like Grill, there is only one Hana.

Mark Chaillet former world powerlifting champion and one of the greatest deadlifters in history (880 weighing 269) called from his personal training studio in nearby York, Pa. last week. Chaillet, in his mid-fifties, is as rugged as they come and we are going to be working together on a power photo book about his famous and now defunct Chaillet’s Gym. He has a million priceless photos and we’re going to go through his photo collection with an eye towards creating a photographic power retrospective. That’s one book that should write itself.

Anyone interested in becoming a phone training client of Marty Gallagher can contact him at mgso@embarqmail.com