“Using Gallagher’s CrossCore ® Hardcore protocols, I was able to bring my biceps and triceps to positive failure within ten reps. I would never have thought that possible. The CrossCore ® Hardcore strategies will tax the strongest amongst you on a lot of exercises. Some of the crazy angles you can use are unlike anything I have ever encountered in 40 years of training….as far as a mobile, portable, take-anywhere training tool, this thing rocks!”— KIRK KARWOSKI , 6-time IPF world champion, 7-time US national champion, Current IPF world record holder
“I love training tools that are heavily researched and that diversify my programming. CrossCore ® Hardcore offers ideas for how to train athletes with intention—with purpose. It shows how this one great tool has benefits that can be very sport specific, and it demands that you progressively train in all planes of motion utilizing the athlete’s bodyweight. CrossCore ® Hardcore as a study and as a method is AWESOME!”— STEVE HESS , professional basketball strength and conditioning coach
"We Make the Best in the World Stronger, More Muscular and More Powerful—And Now It’s Your Turn…"
The "Grandmaster of Absolute Strength," Marty Gallagher, originally developed the CrossCore® Hardcore program at the request of US Tier One Spec Ops. These elite, "best-of-the-best" warrior-athletes sought a portable training device that could still provide a powerful strength workout in the most challenging of locations.
After Gallagher’s protocols exceeded all expectations with his Special Forces trainees, he turned his attention to several world-champion powerlifters—who were blown away by the results they achieved with the CrossCore®…
The CrossCore® Hardcore program commands attention and severe respect from these uber-athletes because it can burn down the toughest and strongest in the world within twenty minutes…
Because this surprising "gym-in-a-bag"—when used the CrossCore® Hardcore way—can replicate EVERY testosterone-amping, muscle-building result you could ever expect, from your most outrageously heavy dumbbell or barbell workout…
CrossCore® Hardcore attacks every body part with a carefully-planned set of progressions that replicate traditional exercises like the bench press, the deadlift and the squat—but without the need for heavy weights or a gym.
CrossCore® Hardcore’s progressive Old School system can create payloads sufficient to tax the strongest of men… The targeted muscles are so blasted and so exhausted, no further effort is needed to achieve fast, superlative strength gains…
Do you want access to the same strength secrets—and the physical results—that have the proudest, toughest and strongest men in the world cry Uncle within just a few reps—and at the hands of a light, portable device?
Then the CrossCore® Hardcore program is your ticket…
Marty Gallagher, with the help of co-author Dr. Chris Hardy and with Michael Krivka, has poured his heart, his soul and over 40 years of strength wisdom into CrossCore® Hardcore. The hard-won secrets revealed on every page are pure gold…
Marty’s overriding goal is the radical transformation of the human body—in the fastest, most effective manner possible. His system is rooted in the cumulative, collective, empirical experience of his world champion and world record-holding strength mentors.
Engage full-on with the CrossCore® Hardcore program and you will trip the high threshold hypertrophy switch—accelerating the production of growth hormone and testosterone—for a dramatic surge in your power and raw strength…
If you are man enough, then now’s your chance to rip a page from the ultimate strength playbook and expropriate the techniques, tactics, intensity and mental tenacity of the elite athlete—and reap performance rewards you’d never dreamed possible for yourself…
Here’s a further taste of what you’ll discover within CrossCore® Hardcore:
- How to use intensity amplifiers—for faster and more dramatic strength gains 27
- THIS little-but-powerful secret of the resistance trade causes maximal flexion and contraction—beyond what you previously considered possible 28
- Why it is a serious mistake to try to trick your way through sticking points—if big gains are your goal 29
- This magically effective motor-pathway is accessible only through the use of CrossCore® 30 How to become adept at modulating payload with the CrossCore® 31
- The 7 non-negotiable CrossCore® techniques for getting superior strength gains 38
- How to override the brain’s protective mechanisms against fatigue 38
- The key and telling difference between mainstream and hardcore resistance training 41
- How to properly prepare for explosive training 44
- How to build low-end, pure bulldog torque 44
- How to make light weights heavy 45
- How to send your performance into the stratosphere 45
- This one technique can make an exercise 25% harder—for equivalent gains in real-world strength 48
- The single most heretical intensity amplifier for additional power and strength 48
- These 3 CrossCore® methods improve flexibility, keep joints open and functioning, make muscles pliable when relaxed and hard as wood when flexed 49
- How the CrossCore® allows you to make in-flight payload adjustments that are unprecedented in the history of resistance training 52
- Imagine if you could make your dumbbells or barbells lighter or heavier in mid-set—the CrossCore® lets you do this 52
- The essential 11-point checklist for optimizing your CrossCore® workouts 52-53
- Why the CrossCore® is the finest tool available for the development of rotational strength—regardless the ability or inability of the trainee 65
- How to balance out the average gym rat’s forward sloping and rounded shoulders 69
- The single biggest secret to successful rowing 70
- How to overcome "back-amnesia" 70
- Why the CrossCore® is particularly adept at replicating the classic dumbbell one and two-arm triceps extension 81
- Why CrossCore® could be the finest tool ever for learning to squat perfectly 90
- The #1 secret to squat success 90
- 20 keys to mastering the single finest progressive resistance exercise 91
- Why the Airborne Squat can be a sure-fire cure for gluteal amnesia 95
- Why the CrossCore® could be a game-changer in the martial-arts world 102
- How to double your raw athletic power and strength in two months—with as little as two 20-minute sessions per week 102
- The biggest lie in all of fitness 111
- How and why the CrossCore® can be used for a fantastic hamstring exercise—for maximal sprinting speed, jumping height, leaping distance 119
- The 8 keys to successful periodization 124
- THIS is the intensity amplifier without peer 130
- The one simple technique that will make any exercise 20-50% more difficult 131
- The single best piece of progressive resistance training advice you could ever get 139
- Why the rotational universe available with the CrossCore® is absolutely unobtainable using any other tool 142
- Why no other tool, device or machine allows you the ability to lighten and groove in a technique with the ease and sophistication of a properly-used CrossCore® 143
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by J.P. Brice v
Introduction: The Fitness Heretics 3
PART I: ORIGINS AND FOUNDATIONS
Goals, Tools, Protocols and Motivation 11
CrossCore® Military Roots 13
Time to train: Where the rubber meets the road 17
Accessing the adrenaline/endorphin Axis of Excellence 21
"Ghosting" Operator X thru a CrossCore® HardCore workout 25
PART II: TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS
CrossCore® Hardcore Rules and Principles 37
Anatomy and Physiology of the CrossCore® 55
Exercise Techniques
Horizontal Anchor Exercises 59
Vertical Anchor Exercises 105
PART III: PLAN OF ATTACK
Tactical Plan of Attack 123
CrossCore® Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced tactics 126
Beginner: twice or thrice weekly CrossCore® ‘whole body workout’ 129
Intermediate CrossCore® Training Split 133
CrossCore® Advanced training split 136
Programming Athletic versus Military archetypes 133
CONCLUSION 139
