As you know, not only I am a lover to black coffee, dark beer, lifting odd objects, kiteboarding and reading research for fun, I am a huge metal music fan.

One of my new fave bands is Lorna Shore, featuring vocalist Will Ramos.

The first time I heard them, I honestly couldn’t get into it. I thought the vocals were from a rare wildebeest in heat…

…then I heard them a few more times and saw a live video of them.

Holy crap – they were amazing! I was a converted fan.

Not only are all the musicians in the band freakin’ amazing, Will’s vocals are other-worldly.

Here is a video of his vocals. All done in one take, no overdubs, no edits, no processing.

What the holly hell.

I liked how Elizabeth Zharoff from the Charismatic Voice described his vocal style when hearing it for the first time as:

“…he sounds like a demon…some soul sucking creature from diablo, wow!”

Not only is Will’s vocal take insane, he makes it look like a walk in the park.

Seriously, even if this style is not your cup of black coffee (which is totally cool), watch how he not only nails every part, he does it with very little effort.

Not any straining.

No crazy high tension.

No long breath holds or even much neck tension.

Add to this that he can pull it off live- night after night.

I was able to see Lorna Shore live this past August and their set was amazing.

Will was actually smiling between vocal parts. Not in an odd way, but you could tell that he really loved performing. Lorna Shore absolutely crushed it live.

Ok, enough about me going on and on about some obscure metal band vocals you say, how does it help you?

The key is that the principles that are true are applied across widely different domains.

The same principle of making crazy sheeeeeet look easy applies to your lifting performance.

The idea is to do hard things, but make them look easy.

This is the opposite of most Globo Gyms where lifters are making ok things look hard.

Bro, you really don’t need to have a sour puss face from hell when preaching curling 10 lb DBs.

This is not to say you won’t have some facial tension on bigger lifts at times, especially when you are getting closer to failure; however, the goal is to make it look easier, not harder.

You can squint your eye completely shut like Snoop Dogg after a smokebox session with Cypress Hill and it’s not going to help you lift the weight.

The goal is to do heavier weight, more volume, more density (volume/time), while progressively making it look easier over time – just like this video below of Benedikt Magnusson destroying a 1015 lb deadlift like a walk in the park.

Adam and I talk at length about this concept in the Gonzo Grip Strength Mini-Course.

Work to do more, better.

Work to make it look progressively easier like Will Ramos coasting through a vocal take.

I promise you progress will be faster.

Executive with violent consistency.

Much love,

Dr Mike

PS – speaking of principles, while the Gonzo Grip Mini-Course is focused on how to increase your grip strength for better overall performance, all the same concepts/principles Adam Glass and I teach in it can be directly applied to your lifting program.

GONZO GRIP COURSE INFO << click here

PPS – for fun, check out the Charismatic Voice analysis of Will Ramos– love her YouTube channel. Epic!