“Don’t fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order.

Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn’t matter. Start doing and believing in the stuff that works, and do it today and forever.

You want science and studies? Fuck you, I’ve got scars and blood and vomit.

This is a call to arms for some of you. It is for me too. Stop all the things that make you a pussy and steal your energy. Get your life back.”

– Jim Wendler

===

I can't take it anymore.

The gimmicks and false promises.

Useless supplements and fitness gadgets.

That instill in people the idea there are shortcuts and easy, effortless ways to get fit.

Society promises us rewards without effort and the path of least resistance is the road most often traveled.

"Hard work"?

"Commitment"?

Foreign terms that are ancient and outdated.

I used to fall victim to these empty promises just like thousands of other guys have.

What did it get me?

Nothing.

So ask yourself...

Do you want to be the guy who complains he's too busy to lift weights or run laps at the track?

Comes home at night, flips on FOX News, rants about illegal immigrants on Fakebook, and falls asleep in a bowl of Cheetos?

Boozes off and spends the entire weekend suffering from a brutal hangover, wishing he’d be able to live to see the next day?

The guy who jumps from one training method to the next every three weeks looking for that magic program that will turn him into the Hulk overnight?

Falls for that crap being peddled on message boards, in magazines or on TV so he can buy shit he doesn't need to impress people he doesn't like?

The guy content with getting what he can out of life - instead of what he wants?

Or will you join the few that follow the road less traveled?

The driven who do sprints in the morning sun or set PR's at the gym when the rest of the world cozies up under blankets.

The dedicated who track their performance in and out of the weight room, never falling into the complacency trap, always seeking gradual improvement.

The obsessed who headbutt Mr. Adversity when that ugly SOB comes a-knockin' on their door.

There's always an easy way out in life.

It's called the road to mediocrity.

It's where people go to die at 25, but aren't buried until they're 75.

You know what?

Fuck that.

I'm getting my shit together.

I'm taking my life back.

I'm taking the road less traveled.

Will you?

Then here's where to start:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik

I heard this bizarre story about a 28-year-old British guy whose heart stopped after accidentally swallowing a 6-inch Denver sole on a fishing trip.

The bloke had jokingly placed a fish he had just caught over his mouth. The sole then wriggled free and jumped in.

A whole fish stuck in his windpipe, the man couldn't breathe, went into cardiac arrest.

Paramedics eventually managed to remove the sole in the nick of time, preventing an untimely death of the hapless fisherman.

Blimey mental those British lads, aren't they?

Speaking of blokes with 6-inchers...

Kinda small.

Needs to be bigger.

Around 18-20 inches, to be precise.

Now get your mind out of the gutter, silly.

I'm talking about your bench press grip.

More specifically, the distance between your thumbs when you grip the bar.

You see, lots of guys bench too wide, with their pinkies on the rings of the barbell.

That might work for a competitive powerlifter who wants to bench the house, smash records.

But for the rest of us?

Going super wide places too much stress on the shoulder joint for my liking.

So bring your grip in a bit.

Somewhere between an inch or two into the knurling at the narrowest. And halfway between the ring and where the knurling starts at most.

That's right around 18-20 inches. Don't go any wider and you have a good chance of keeping your shoulders healthy.

To build a stronger bench press safely, visit:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik

In the movie The Waterboy, Adam Sandler plays a socially inept, stuttering, simpleton 31-year-old involved with the University of Louisiana's football program.

His sole job?

Schlepping water to keep the athletes hydrated in practice and games.

Lots of "water boys" among athletic performance trainers as well.

I call them smoothie boy strength coaches.

Here's what I mean:

A few years back, a strength coach I respect - who now trains a West Coast NHL team - told me about this guy who marketed himself as an NHL strength coach.

And yes, he did work for an NHL club back then. But he didn't train any of their players.

Apparently, his job involved working a blender in the team kitchen, ​making post-workout smoothies for the players.

Yet, he'd go around telling people he was this NHL team's strength coach.

What a joke.

Moral of the story?

Anytime you hear a trainer claim how they have coached this or that NHL player (or any other college player or pro leaguer), take it with a grain of salt.

Especially when you've never heard of the guy before, and a quick Google search can't produce any proof to back up his claims.

Chances are, he may be embellishing his success.

Or flat out lying.

Lots of fitness trainers and strength coaches grandstand on the Internet.

Very easy for someone to spin a convincing story of how they turned Patrick Kane or Auston Matthews into an NHL'er. When in reality, they worked with this future All-Star for one season while he was 9 years of age, the size of a fire hydrant, still a decade removed from his first pro game.

Even worse - the professionally inept, simpleton, self-professed "NHL strength coach" whipping out fruity smoothies back in the kitchen, not even permitted in the weight room while "his athletes" lift.

But who could know that? And would anyone call this guy out if they found out?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

So do your due diligence upfront. Don't fall for anyone's ​ridiculous posturing online.

Not saying every coach is full of shit, though.

But how do you prove ​they're the real deal?

How do you know you've found a legit strength coach to learn from?

​And not some silly smoothie boy full of delicious hyperbole?

A few telltale signs:

1. His athletes achieve success in their sport (winning individual and team awards, college scholarships, signing pro contracts, etc.)

2. Athletes give the coach props for their improved physical performance (a.k.a. testimonials)

3. Athletes ​make quantifiable progress under said coach's training system (easily ​verifiable via training videos on YouTube/Instagram/the coach's website)

How many of those will a smoothie boy strength coach have?

None.

But you'll find all of them (and then some) here:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik

Few people know this but I did sales before getting into training athletes full-time.

Many non-sales people would balk at that notion - conjuring up images of the stereotypical sleazy used car salesman - but it's a great way to earn coin if you know what you're doing.

(For the record, I wasn't involved in selling cars)

My favorite movie about sales?

Glengarry Glen Ross starring Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris and Alec Baldwin. A surprisingly realistic portrayal of what it is to try making a life in high pressure sales with all its highs and lows; promises of fortunes and deliveries of dross in a cutthroat environment of selling real estate.

Alec Baldwin plays a nasty son of a bee-yatch called Blake who has been sent down by corporate HQ to berate the company's salesmen for their lackluster performance.

As he's about to begin his speech, Blake catches a struggling older salesman - played by legendary Jack Lemmon - who has failed to meet his sales quota pouring coffee into his mug at the back of the office.

Baldwin barks at him:

After rattling everyone in the room with this pristinely venomous opener, Blake continues with the best sales speech of all time...

For Blake - a super successful salesman who made $970,000 in salary and commissions last year - nothing else counts but "closing" a.k.a. making a sale:

How Baldwin never received an Oscar for his performance is beyond me.

When I got my first job in sales, I'd get myself pumped up on Blake's attitude.

I would watch that clip over and over again every day before going to work.

My first full month, I placed second out of 12 salesmen at the store I worked at, missing the #1 spot by a hair.

I vowed to claim the top spot next month.

Which I did. And never looked back after that. Almost four years later when I handed in my notice to make the switch to training hockey players for a living, I had broken several sales records at the store, had won all kinds of sales competitions, and had earned the title as the company's #1 salesman in the entire country multiple months in a row.

I don't tell all this to impress you.

Rather, to impress upon you that my success had very little to do with talent. And everything to do with my attitude and burning desire to be the best.

And how anyone could replicate what I did.

You just gotta decide how much you want to succeed.

Most people don't really want success. Even when they say they do. Because words are meaningless. Action is the only thing that matters.

And very few people take right action.

At best, they'll put in a half-assed effort.

At worst - piss-poor results month after month, while attempting to fly under the radar.

Then they wonder why they failed to get a bump in salary.

Or missed that promotion they had in their sights.

Or got laid off when that next round of job cuts begins.

All because they didn't put in the effort required to succeed.

So it is with training.

You get out of it what you put into it.

Remember:

Average people talk.

Successful people do.

So ask yourself today:

Do you want greater success as an athlete?

Do you want better performance on the ice?

Do you want to play your best hockey starting today?

If you answered yes, you may have what it takes to become a closer.

Next step?

Shut up.

And make it happen.

'Cuz that's what closers do.

And coffee is for closers only.

Come grab your steamy cup of hot, dark java at:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik

Few strength coaches will ever admit to making mistakes in their own training.

Why?

Because they want to appear cool and flawless or whatever in front of clients and athletes.

I've made every training mistake in the book and am not afraid to say so.

Listing each of them would take forever.

So I'm just gonna jot down some of the big ones off the top of my head:

* Relying on fitness magazines for training information

* Overusing powerlifting methods

* Too much booze and chasing skirt on the weekends

* Not being consistent year round

* Lifting the same weights every week

* Using training programs written by and for drug users

* Wasting serious coin on BS supplements

* Blasting a muscle group into oblivion with body part splits

* Neglecting conditioning work

* Ignoring and pushing through joint pain

* Doing pump work exclusively

I could go on here but I'm sure you get the point.

Not surprisingly, ​I also see tons of hockey players make these mistakes in the weight room.

It pains me to watch guys who clearly TRY to lift with effort get so very little in return out of it because they don't know HOW to train.

These are the same guys who weigh the same 12 months from now, still lifting the same weights they did a year before.

That's why I put together Next Level Hockey Training 2.0.

It reveals the exact same training methods and programs World Champs, NHL draft picks and pro hockey players have successfully used to get bigger and stronger.

It's available to you right here:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik

I was up mindlessly surfing online and came across an article detailing some of the bizarre training practices of ISIS fighters.

Yunus, why on Earth would you be ​checking out some terrorist propaganda video in the middle of the day? Don't ya have betta things to do?

Hey, you know how it is when browsing the 'Net...

One link leads to another link that leads to the next, and so on and so forth, until you land on some obscure website where you can​ find a Russian mail order bride or hire a hitman to take out your mother-in-law, wondering:

"How the hell did I land on this page??"

Anyways, back to the daily grind at an ISIS bootcamp...

Typical workouts on any given day for these terrorists-in-training?

Carrying out target practice, navigating through assault courses and banging out chin-ups.

Standard stuff in the life of a recruit, methinks.

Here's where things get weird, however...

Apparently, ISIS have come up with a popular new way of showcasing their troops' "fighting spirit"...

By lining them up legs apart in front of a camera and kicking them in the genitals.

With full force.

This is done to show the ability of ISIS fighters to endure pain.

Sounds like those wackos have taken the old bodybuilding adage of "no pain, no gain" a bit too literally.

Training is supposed to make you better.

Not hurt you.

The workouts in Next Level Hockey Training 2.0 do the former. You get stronger. You get better. You stay mentally and physically fresh. So your lifts go up while your motivation goes up, too.

A smart training program will make you jacked and feel Gucci. Not batter your body into oblivion.

I guess someone forgot to tell that to these wannabe terrorist numbnuts.

For workouts that kick an ISIS fighter's butt (and nuts) without beating your body up, go to:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

Yunus Barisik