--- title: 'Starting from Scratch in the USA | The Iron Fam Story' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=KyFqHtMnMm8' video_id: 'KyFqHtMnMm8' date: 2026-07-21 duration_sec: 824 channel: 'Sportfaza Перезагрузка' --- # Starting from Scratch in the USA | The Iron Fam Story > Source: [Starting from Scratch in the USA | The Iron Fam Story](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KyFqHtMnMm8) ## Summary The video follows a Ukrainian fitness YouTuber who lost his monetization due to the war and relocated to the USA, where he rebranded his channel as Iron Fam. He shares detailed back training techniques and emphasizes community support over negativity in the fitness industry. ### Key Points - **New Beginning in the USA** [00:02] — The creator had a million-subscriber YouTube channel in Ukraine but lost monetization due to the war. He moved to Greece, then Poland, and finally to the USA, starting from scratch with the Iron Fam channel. - **Lat Pulldown Technique: Body Tilt** [00:35] — For lat pulldowns, tilt your body toward the working side to contract the lats from the start. Avoid rotating the handle around the spine; instead, push your chest forward. - **Maintain Tension in Lats** [01:16] — Keep lats tense even during the stretch phase. Avoid losing tension by relaxing the muscle completely. Use a controlled pace, 10% slower than your body wants, to maintain control. - **Background and Move to USA** [02:03] — The creator worked full-time for 10 years filming with celebrities in Ukraine. The war forced him to leave; he eventually got a green card and moved to the USA, dreaming of California. - **Return to Social Media via AI** [04:27] — YouTube's AI-powered multilingual dubbing allows him to reach a global audience. He rebranded his channel to Iron Fam (Iron Family) to foster community support. - **Vertical Pulldown Technique** [05:08] — For vertical pulldowns, avoid excessive lower back arch; keep spine straight or slightly rounded. Elbows should stay in front of the body, not go back. - **Explosive Start for Vertical Pulldown** [06:01] — An explosive start can help overcome the difficult lower phase of the movement. This technique was used by Arnold Schwarzenegger, as seen in 'Pumping Iron'. - **Grip and Thumb Position** [06:31] — Use a straight, medium-width handle with thumbs on top (not wrapped) to reduce biceps involvement and keep focus on the back. - **Community Over Negativity** [07:26] — The fitness industry is full of comparison and hate. Iron Fam aims to be a supportive community, echoing Rich Piana's phrase 'We are all in this together.' - **Upper Back Exercise: Shoulder Movement** [09:08] — For upper back, focus on shoulders curling inward. Perform a shrugging motion at a 45° angle upward and back. Feet behind buttocks, lean forward, reduce space between shoulder blades. - **Future Content Plans** [10:44] — The creator plans regular weekly content on effective training tools for average genetics, avoiding overcomplication. He aims to provide foundational, practical advice. ### Conclusion The video combines personal story of rebuilding after war with practical back training advice, all while promoting a positive, supportive fitness community. ## Transcript USA. At home, I had a big platform with a million subscribers on YouTube. And here I am starting from scratch again. So, this is my new beginning, and this is the beginning of Iron Fam. The first thing I would pay attention to is the tilt of the body towards the side where your working side is. So you contract the lats, you put them in a contracted position from the start by leaning over like this. That is, not straight like that, but to the side. The second point. You shouldn't rotate the handle around your spine because this will reduce the load on your lats. Instead, you stick out your chest. Instead of you stick out your chest. Instead of turning, you push your chest forward, focusing on contracting your lats . And also try not to lose tension in the lats, because sometimes when we try to stretch as much as possible , we completely relax the muscle and lose tension. That's why I recommend keeping your lats tense even when you stretch. Also, when we start moving, we often create inertia, on which we then roll throughout the entire amplitude. We supposedly exploded and are rolling along on this inertia. And this is again a loss of voltage. The solution I suggest is to make the pace 10% slower than you want, than your body wants. This way you will have more control over the way you will have more control over the movement throughout the entire range of motion. Sportfazafaza. Hello everyone, guys. sportfaza and the main star, whom you loved on my channel, Michael Hrn. [music] Ah, thank you. This was my full-time job. For about ten years I traveled, ten years I traveled, filmed videos with various famous celebrities, and everything was great. I provided myself with this completely. But then the provided myself with this completely. But then the war started, and that changed everything. All these events affected many people, including my family. my family. I was forced to leave Ukraine. Then the rules for YouTube monetization in our countries were changed. Basically, I couldn't do this anymore, I couldn't do this as my main job, because I couldn't provide my family with social media. First we went to Greece, then to Poland. There I received a green card and then I got out to the USA. I've always dreamed of living and working in California. The war wasn't exactly the reason, but it pushed me to come further. I tried to realize myself further. I tried to realize myself here, in the English-speaking segment. here, in the English-speaking segment. I spent almost 3 months making videos in the English-speaking market, but after 3 months there was practically no growth, and I kind of gave up. The problem for me is that I can’t, I do n’t have the opportunity to do something without making money from it, investing my time and effort. does not receive anything for this, because life was very expensive. Plus I have three children that I Plus I have three children that I take care of. So I had to do something else. And so I started doing Golds personal training. I had online management before, but years I have been working as a trainer at Golds. I still like everything. I love working face to face with people. Nevertheless, I decided to try to return to social networks again. return to social networks again. And the reason, in fact, is in AI, because YouTube is now rolling out multilingualism to its platform from AI. So for the first time, I will finally have the opportunity to use my large platform globally throughout the world. I globally throughout the world. I rebranded the channel. Now it's Iron Fam, rebranded the channel. Now it's Iron Fam, where iron is iron and F is where iron is iron and F is Family. And this is what is missing in the fitness industry today. I think it's a vertical block pull. Here I try not to bend my lower back too much without this. Straight spine or even slightly rounded shoulders. I also make sure that my elbows don't go back. my elbows don't go back. They must stay ahead of me. I just said that let's avoid inertia and explosion at the beginning, and here it seems like I even recommend it. Because in the vertical block pull, the lower phase of the movement is more difficult, harder, where the back is shortened. Usually, when we get here, we don't have much strength left to pull our elbows down any lower. And if you explode from the very beginning and roll on this inertia a little, then roll on this inertia a little, then you have a small impulse to . If you remember how Arnold trained his back by pumping iron, he had exactly this technique. I looked, I tried it, and I understood then what was meant by all this . Even after this, there is, in fact, no right or wrong exercise technique. She is different. For some things work better, for others worse. And this is also my favorite handle, by the way, straight, medium width. This is how I usually grab. The thumbs should always be on top. If you are training your back, you do not grip the handle with your thumbs because that closes the chain of your hand. And when you grip like that, in general, the biceps are involved in the work much more if you grip with your hand around. That's why the thumb is hand around. That's why the thumb is always on top. then, when I start to get up, I start to help myself a little bit with the start to help myself a little bit with the momentum at the top. what I think is missing in the fitness industry right now. Everyone is comparing themselves to each other these days, while criticizing each other on other these days, while criticizing each other on social media. People expose each other on YouTube, comment, in general, everything has a negative connotation. This all comes from hate. And I don't like this whole story. At least from my side I want to I want my platform to be about supporting each other. We are all in this together. This is a phrase I heard from Rich Piano about 10 years ago. I liked it so much that I made it the slogan of my clothing brand. Whatever you look at in life, I don't know, like this cup of coffee or know, like this cup of coffee or this T-shirt or my phone or the basketball that the guys are playing with, it was all made by people. By interacting with each other, working with each other, people create something important, meaningful in life. We also come to the gym and build our bodies through hard work, helping each other in the gym. Some are more experienced, some are newbies, a guy or a girl, some are older. We are all different, but we all have one goal. We help each other with advice. But ready to accept this advice, because some people: “Oh, get lost, I know everything myself .” These guys probably don't watch Iron FM, but we'll fix that. In short, we speak only with those who are ready to receive information. I hope most of us are like that. And yes, community, brotherhood, community, brotherhood, we are all in this together. Damn it. we are all in this together. Damn it. So we have the middle of the upper back here. So we have the middle of the upper back here. We pay attention to the movement of our shoulders. We make sure that they curl inward. And then you did it like shrugs, only upwards. clearly, and back and up 45°. It looks roughly like this. I advise you to place your feet behind your buttocks, behind your buttocks, and lean forward. We reduce the space between our shoulder blades and shoulder blades and press the diamond-shaped trapezius at the top. We exhibit. We pump our chest forward and our shoulders back. Round your shoulders. Shoulders back. we round our shoulders and stretch our back. And you can do this not only on this machine, but, for example, with dumbbells this machine, but, for example, with dumbbells on an incline bench in this way. Or you can do it with bent-over barbell rows . The horizons just don't go too low . The horizons just don't go too low , say 45°. , say 45°. And you can do this with seated deadlifts, seated block rows. You just need to pull it towards the bottom of your chest. The main thing to pay attention to is the shoulders. When you do this exercise, you need to reduce the space between your shoulder blades. We press this zone, the trumpet, the trapezius. This gives a bulge to this area up in the center of the back. Well, that's all for now , but this is only the first day of Aronkhm in the USA. I will have a lot of collabs, a lot of quality content. When it comes to training tips, I'll be focusing on the most effective tools, especially for those who aren't as genetically gifted as Mr. genetically gifted as Mr. Olympia or a fitness industry celebrity. Well, a regular guy like me, tall, skinny guy, all my life with long arms, long legs, it was always hard for me to gain weight, but nevertheless, something, yeah, I built around my body. So I will share these tips. And I know there is a lot of information on the internet . You'll say now: "Oh, the same thing again ." Yes and no. Because there is a lot of information, it is effective, but sometimes we get lost in all these nuances and advice, and they actually provide, perhaps, 5-10% of real growth. I will try to give real growth. I will try to give you a return to the most basic and effective tools that are actually important for development in the gym. In these details, we, most teenagers now, simply get lost. So yes, there will be a lot of content and it will be constant, not like before. Previously, I would constant, not like before. Previously, I would film something at home, publish it, film it, publish it. Now I do it semi-professionally. So, right now, I already have five or six episodes. That means I'll post every week on the same day, most likely Monday. So count on me, stay here and I think me, stay here and I think you will like my content and I will make quality content 100% and hopefully useful for you. See you soon. Alex Mokn, Anf, we are all in this place. Ah it? [laughter] Let's go, brother. That thing is even better. [laughter] He did. Yeah. Welcome. This man, I love this man, man. Came to America first. Good energy, good love, good inspiration Good energy, good love, good inspiration extension, you know what I mean to Ukraine know what I mean? [music] That's it. Yeah . I appreciate you, BR. Ah . I appreciate you, BR. Ah . [laughter]