For me its 2 world class coaches + 1 instagram sensation.
Dan John : I was a new tnation.com reader when i first set up a home gym to train and i had no idea how to train my legs with so limited equipment. Dan John was an active author in those days so i sent him an e-mail. His exact reply was : ‘’ I built a career without a rack. Just do barbell front squats + goblet squats and never mind the weight on the bar. These are 2 great exercises. ‘’ They have been a staple in my program since then.
John Meadows : When John Meadows started writing in here, i was hooked. I think he was the only author that concentrated on pure bodybuilding training. I learned a lot of things from him and i still do but he literally revolutionized my back training. One arm barbell rows, meadows rows, dumbbell deadstop rows and shrugs with 3 second pauses at top are all i do for back now.
Julian Smith : This is a pretty nice dude with a great physique and really interesting exercise videos. I have already added some of his suggestions to my arsenal. If you train with limited equipment like i do, you might give him a follow.
Tom was a fantastic Punisher in an ok Punisher movie. A real tragedy he didn’t get more work in the role.
And seeing him in 2004 certainly gave me more motivation to get jacked. Seemed I never had any trouble getting my female friends to watch the movie with me.
Agreed. Always thought that was a marvelous performance.
Back on topic:
To anyone that reads my training log, this is probably no surprise. This will probably sound like a backhanded compliment, but his stuff was/is absolutely marvelous for people that want to use a minimalist approach and/or be “a strong guy who lifts weights” without necessarily specializing enough to become highly competitive in bodybuilding, powerlifting, or strongman.
Dan John - Learned to punch the clock and how less is more. His articles are gold.
Jim Wendler - Learned that being strong just doesn’t mean moving weights. Learned how to structure a training program. Pick a main goal and work your way back. Learned that for every thing you add, you have to pull something else back.
@T3hPwnisher - Learned to stop complaining and just go get some work in. Also learned that conditioning should NOT be neglected. Learned that running BTM makes you a man. Learned that getting an injury doesn’t mean stop working out. It means to work around it until it heals.
@Evolv - Learned that keeping it simple can take you a long ass way.
@ActivitiesGuy - Learned that programs, sets/reps, and all that doesn’t matter. Consistent hard work everyday wins. Learned how to get strong if I honestly had only 20 min a day to train.
@flipcollar - Learned to listen to people stronger than me, so I could go from being weak to strong. Learned to get out of my own head.
Elliot Hulse - When I first started working out I found him on YouTube. I learned a lot about overall information from him. My favorite video of his is the “Do This Workout For A Year”. Honestly anyone new to training should watch it. Puts it in perspective especially for program hoppers like I was.
Brian Alsruhe - his log on here just absolutely blew my mind, with the amount of work he puts in, his conditioning work, along with the huge numbers. I’ve also gotten a TON out of his videos as far as strongman technique is concerned.
Wendler - because 5/3/1
Meadows and Thibs - I ran programs from both guys, particularly Thibs, for YEARS. I probably spent more of my training career following various Thibs programs than anyone else. I’m not sure most of you guys know that about me, since it was before I really started posting on here, but I trained like a bodybuilder for years before getting into heavier lifting, and then competition.
Dan John - because simplicity with hard work is what works for me. Also, his list of the basic human movements that you have to train has really stuck with me. I think the list is perfect. hip hinge, press, squat, pull, loaded carry. However you train, if you make sure you work on all of these movements, you can succeed and avoid weak points. I WISH I had paid attention when I first read this list to the carry part. I didn’t do that, I didn’t think it mattered since I only cared about looks, and I sincerely regret it.
•Dave Tate and the rest of the Westside guys (Westside caught my attention and immediately drew me in when I first started. Their no holds barred attitudes, allowed for me to get over a lot of fears I had with lifting).
•Wendler
•Alan Thrall (mostly because his videos are great to watch, least for me personally)
I watched Elliott Hulse religiously from 2010-2012 when I first began training squats and deadlifts in high school and it was an absolute paradigm shift. #1 overall
Zack McCarley (early on, but still now) was a tremendous influence on my training as far as mindset/conditioning goes. Zack is sort of a not-so-static strong dude, but still destroyed so many static monsters in his division as well as casually cutting down to 90kg and winning worlds. I had basically tracked his training for years before he turned pro up to his 3 pro national wins and he never had much to preach, just hard as work.
Brian Alsruhe @Alpha in that he’s made me question the approach to my training, especially with conditioning, and that I should not be afraid to tire myself out before compound lift work. + Gotta be hard to kill, and going strong while everyone else is dying in a corner after 8 hours of competing.
Ronnie Coleman training videos, among others (Matt Kroc, Dorian Yates, Kevin Levrone, Ben Pakulski), all enthralled me as a teenager when I was only training to be jacked and lean. Drop sets are something I’ve kept around since the beginning.
At the end of the day, my own trial and error has influenced my current training the most. I can’t actually say I’ve followed anyone’s program or that anything I do right now has anything derived from someone else. Maybe, vaguely, the cube by Brandon Lilly, but rotating parameters isn’t a newfound thing…so…yeah.
edit can’t forget @T3hPwnisher for finding his way back from hell after a minor knee tweak and also listening to a robot chick say “Begin Set” in a mundane voice for like 2 years of EMOM work. He reminds me of the T-1000 from Terminator 2. Or…Cain Marko. Just incessantly hoisting iron like a machine with no emotions. He’s the dude you think of when you have a mediocre workout, and you know he’s just putting one more in…and one more in…like a crazed russian just drinking motor oil and eating beer bottles.
Wendler, for 5/3/1 - my first real tracked progression program, percentage or not.
Bartendaz/Barstarzz/all those youtube calisthenic videos that showed me how outrageously jacked you can get doing bodyweight work.
Thibaudeau, not because he was the first one to say this, but because he was the first one to convince me that different intensity/frequency combinations work for different people, and it’s okay to not stay on one program forever.
I was kind of afraid to say CT’s name honestly because I didn’t want to get thrown into the mix with the weird and gay-rapey fanboys he has who frequent his forum and yell at people for using his first name.
Dave Tate and Louis Simmons- My goals are not at all PL related now but I still use DE work and the emphasis on building work capacity has been a boon to any athletic goals I set for myself. Also, I learned from here that I respond very well to exercise variety and learned how to adjust on the fly depending on what my weaknesses are how I was doing that day. Also, watching Westside BB vids showed me what real hardcore training looked like for the first time.
Mike Hedlesky- He was member of the forums here in the PL section. He had incredible work ethic and was a treasure trove of knowledge that he very freely gave to many people in that forum.
My current MMA coaches- they have pushed me not only past my comfort zone but farther than I thought possible in as little as just over a year in regard to work capacity and cardio. I’d go into detail about skill work but this is the Bigger Stronger Leaner forum so I’ll stick to S&C. Anyway, don’t underestimate how much good coaches can push you and keep you honest and accountable.
I forgot to mention Dorian Yates. His Blood & Guts training video is the reason i use full range of motion in every exercise with a slow negative and an explosive positive.
I also learned how to use rest pause ( which is the perfect intensity technique for a guy that trains alone ) from the video A Week In The Dungeon where Yates trains Mark Dugdale in Temple Gym.
Overall the friends I started lifting with have definitely had the biggest influence on my training, but in terms of strength coaches/authors - Dan John and Pavel Tsatsouline. And as with others above, I get a lot of inspiration from some of the training logs on this site.
Thibaudeau: I spent a year doing almost all “star complexes.”
Mark Rippetoe: It was his books that first convinced me I was spending too much time on bench and not enough on legs.
Mark Lauren: His book is my go to manual for when I’m on the road, and when I’m focused on weight loss I use his exercises more than going to the gym (and lots of walking for cardio).