Balance

It feels like years since I’ve been blogging consistently. This is what happens when you work 60+ hours a week. It leaves little time for much else. My personal training business has been growing quite rapidly, and for that I am extremely grateful. But I definitely miss the times where I was able to sit down with my coffee, write a blog post, and take photos of my food. Like. All day.

Someday I’ll do that for a living. Until then, it’s sporadic training updates and slivers of my thoughts here and there.

It’s been refreshing to live a life that is mostly outside of the blogosphere, but there are definitely aspects that I miss. There are so many things that I have said I will write, and have never gotten around to. So many things half-written. Like how you’ll start cleaning one corner of the house, and before finishing, move to the next. Before you know it, you have spots in every area of the house that are clean, but nothing quite comes together like when you work on one thing at a time.

That one thing, for now, has been my business. I have a difficult time balancing my personal life with my work life. When one improves, the other tends to decline. It’s a constant see-saw between doing what I love, versus doing what needs to be done. I am fortunate enough to be in a situation now where I am doing what I love that also needs to be done. But it has left me little room to do the other things that make me happy. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

So I’ve decided that I don’t want to let myself go to any more extremes. Moderation is needed. I need to get back to doing what I love, in order to appreciate the times where I have to do things that are necessary to continue doing what I love. Otherwise I work for very little. I don’t want a shitty tax return on my efforts, so to speak.

That being said – my meet in Ohio is only three weeks away. Three. Time goes by so fucking fast.

Week #8, Day #1 – Officially 11 weeks out!

So, it’s official…

I’M DOING MY FIRST EVER AMERICAN MEET IN JUNE!!

Whoop!

It’ll be the APF Senior Nationals from the 6th-8th. I’m so pumped. It’ll have been a full year since I have been on the platform for anything but taking photos, so I’m really pumped to compete again.

Mock meet coming up in 2 weeks, and then just prep work from there. Schwab has me progressing every week, so I have no doubt I will put up some better numbers this time around!

Was a bit rushed during today’s training, but had a good session nonetheless. It was supposed to be MUCH lower volume than this…but sometimes I don’t know when to quit on leg days. Saved my ab work for tomorrow’s session.

Box Squats (parallel):

WU: 5 min. incline walking, x-band walks, glute bridges

bar x bunch

95×5

135×3

165×1

205×1

230×1

245×3

255×3

Leg Press:

(3 second descent, explode up)

270×10

360×10 (x2)

450×10

540×10 (x2)

Leg Curls:

(done till failure, with partial reps at end)

80×15 + 5 partials

80×10 + 5 partials (x3)

Leg Extensions:

I don’t remember what I did here. Just a lot of crazy strips sets and partial reps until I wanted to shoot myself in the head.

I’m Back!! – Week #7, Day #2

Fell off the face of the earth for a couple weeks because I have been absolutely SLAMMED at work, and there are lots of other things going on in the personal life. But I’ll be back to logging daily now. 🙂

I’m thrilled with my program. Brian has been a phenomenal help, and I’m progressing faster than ever. PR’s every week, and I’m feeling so much better physically. My back hasn’t been bugging me at all, and my hips are definitely improving slowly but surely. Still get some pain from wide-stance squats and sumo pulls, but nothing near what it used to be.

Bench Press:

bar x bunch

65 x 5

80 x 3

100 x 1

135 x 1 (3 board)

155 x 1 (3 board)

170 x 1 (3 board)

175 x 1 (3 board)

180 x 1 (3 board)

Floor Press:

115 x 5

120 x 5

125 x 5

Bar Front Raises:

20 x 10

30 x 8 (x2)

JM Press:

75 x 10

85 x 8

Training Session: Week #2, Day #4

Bench training from the other day. Was slightly higher volume today with some of the assistance exercises.

As for my incline presses…I’m actually supposed to do decline but I am a huge pussy, and have never been confident enough to do them ever, much less without a spotter. Working on it.

 

Bench:

bar x bunch

65 x 3 x 3

85 x 2

105 x 1

115 x 1

125 x 7

130 x 6

135 x 6 (PR)

DB Incline Press

25’s x 10

30’s x 8

35’s x 8

40’s x 6

45’s x 6

DB Front Raises:

12.5’s x 12 (x3)

Chins (palms in)

3×6

Cable Tricep Pressdowns

65 x 12

75 x 12

85 x 12

Training: Week #2, Day #3

WARM-UP

3 min. stair master, fast pace

Walking lunges (50 ft. x2)

X-band walks (monster mini; 20 steps per side)

Foam roll (low back, calves, hamstrings)

Full cleans (bar x 3 x 3)

Drop snatch (15 lb. bar x 8)

1.5″ Block Pulls:

135 x 5

175 x 1

205 x 1

235 x 1

255 x 1

275×5

285×5

Chins (neutral)

3×6

Med. Grip Pulldowns

70 x 12

80 x 12

90 x 10

Close Grip Cable Rows

80 x 12

90 x 12

100 x 10

Plate Pulls 

50 ft. x five rounds (back and forth)

Training: Week #2, Day #2

Missed the logging for Monday’s workout just because my work day was INSANE. Ended up training from 9:30am to 10:00pm, with a short break for my workout in between, and when I wasn’t training I was in meetings. Just silly busy.

But here’s yesterday’s bench training…fortunately I suck at math at the appropriate times, and made some accidental PR’s.

WARM-UP:

Band pull-apart’s (bunch)

Push-ups (x15)

Chin-ups (x5)

Ext/Int Rotations (5 lb. x15)

Bench

bar x bunch

65 x 3

85 x 1

105 x 1

115 x 1

135 x 1 (2 board)

160 x 3 (2 board)

165 x 2 x 2 (2 board)

NOTE: It was supposed to be 150×3 and 155×3. But because of some wrong plate loading, it was heavier. Means I am still on track!

Incline DB Press

(Note: was supposed to be decline but I am a pussy. This will be addressed at another time.)

25’s x 10

30’s x 12

35’s x 8

40’s x 8

DB Front Raises:

12.5’s x 3 x 12

Incline Tricep Extensions

(Note: elbows started hurting pretty fucking bad with these, so I kept them super light)

15’s x 2 x 10

Neutral-grip Chins

2×6

The Minimalist Method – Day #4, Week #1

Another long break from blogging. Life has thrown me all sorts of curve balls lately. On a good note, I started a new job, officially, as a personal trainer. I’m starting from scratch but things are already starting to pick up for me so I am looking forward to what the next couple of months are going to look like!
I have finally begun my training with the legendary Brian Schwab, as a sort of guinea pig for his new training program, “The Minimalist Method”.

Coming soon!! (Photo by yours truly)

This book is all about getting the most bang for your training buck, without over-training. It focuses on the fewest exercises and sets needed to produce great strength gains, while maximizing recovery and MINIMIZING injury!

So far I have been loving it. I just completed my first week and already hit a new bench PR. I am really excited to see how I progress over the next little while. I will be logging my workouts on here again consistently to help me stay on track.

Here’s my bench session from the other day:

WARM-UP:

Band pull-aparts (monster mini x 20)

Shoulder rotations (2×10)

Internal/External rotations

Push-ups (x15)

BENCH:

bar x bunch

65×3

80×2

95×1

110×1

120×8

125×7

130×7 (PR)

LOCK-OUTS (2.5″):

155×3

185×3

205×5 (x2)

CHIN-UPS (palms in):

2×5

CABLE LATERALS:

10 lb. x12

15 lb. x15

CABLE PRESS-DOWNS:

60 lb. x12

70 lb. x12

80 lb. x10

 

What in the fuck?! Training update: 1/03/14

Wow, so the last few weeks have been crazonkulous.

I am behind on two blog posts that still need editing, and am also working on a guest post for Bret Contreras, which should all hopefully be coming together within the next week. Just been crazy busy, and even a lot of my training has been a bit rushed this week.

I am going to be starting my new program with Brian Schwab hopefully by the 10th of this month, so I’m excited for that! I have just been trying to keep up with my volume and getting some heavy work in as well. I am feeling good though, no tendon issues and form is running smoothly.

Back update: Feeling MUCH better, especially since I switched to sumo pulling. Only obstacle I am facing right now is a weak left hip, which tends to get a bit painful after heavy pulls since I’m not used to the form yet. But I am hoping that with my slow weight increases it will get used to it and the pain will lessen.

Oh, I’ve also cut the fish out of my diet again. Not going to go into a lengthy explanation of why for now, but just so it’s clear which route I’ve taken with my diet. I am happy with my decision.

Warm-up:

Shoulder dislocations

Scapula pushups – 2×10

Chin-ups – 2×5

Floor Press:

bar x bunch

65×5

80×3

100×3

115×3

125×3

135×3

145×4 (PR)

 

Pause Bench:

95 x 3 x 10

 

Tricep Dips:

2×5

 

Chin-ups alternating with Pull-ups:

3×5

 

Bench Ab Raises SS w/Knucle Push-ups:

5x10x10 (see vid for exercise illustration)

 

 

CONDITIONING

Medicine ball slams – 20 lbs x until my arms couldn’t move anymore

 

 

The Strongmen Of Old: Lifting Inspiration

It seems that because there are so many more people involved in strength sports these days, what’s considered to be “strong” now is vastly different from what it used to be. Back in the day, you didn’t see women putting up big numbers, or guys just walking up and pulling 900 lbs. You witnessed pure, raw, out-of-this-world strength. People would pay to watch these guys lift heavy things over their head, and when Paul Anderson set the record in the overhead press, he was looked at as some sort of god. Even though several men today have pressed over 400 lbs. over their heads.

Unfortunately, we take strength for granted now. Someone pulls an 800 lb. deadlift and we think: “Yeah, that’s cool I guess.” I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been to meets and had the crowd just utterly silent before and after the performance of a world-record lift. It blows my mind. But somehow strength just isn’t as cool to us anymore as it used to be.

That sucks.

Some of my biggest inspirations are old-time powerlifters and strongmen. Think Louis Cyr, Arthur Saxon, Paul Anderson, William Boone, Bob Peoples, etc. Men who developed brutish strength from training outside and in their basement. I admire that kind of strength, and wonder if we will ever see it again. Though I believe it’s highly unlikely.

Hopefully some of this will be as inspiring to you as it is to me! Maybe I need to add in a few of these moves to my training regimen…hmm.

 

Videos:

 

Articles:

Lessons From Old Time Strongmen

Old Time Strongman Training

3 Feats of Strength

 

Now get out there and get stronger.

Training Session: 12/16/13 (Back)

Good training today. Starting to get a little more used to my early morning workouts.

I’m getting a little bit anxious about my meet coming up in April, but I will try not to fret over it. I still have a good 4 months, and though my back isn’t 100% yet it has definitely been getting better. Staying positive!!

 

Chin-Ups:

1×5 (palms in)

1×5 (hammer)

 

One-arm DB Row:

40×10

50×10

60x3x10

 

BB Row:

65×10

80×10

95x3x10

 

Close-Grip Lat Pulldown:

70×10

85×10

100×10

120×5, 100×5

100×10

 

Facepulls SS w/Straight-Arm Pulldown:

70 lbs x12, x12 (4 sets)

 

Quote of the day:

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

– Dalai Lama