Becoming an Athlete

I always said that a person's perspective is what sets them apart.  Champions from participants. Warriors from ordinary.  Whatever comparison you want to use, really.  Its not about what cards you are dealt.  Its how you play them.... I'm no champion and I'm no warrior, but I strive to always press forward toward my goal, even when I have setbacks.  This time it is a broken finger, and this time the setback has been pretty freaking awesome. I broke my finger on Thanksgiving morning playing flag football.  At first  I was aggravated that I'd likely miss 8 weeks of training. After taking a weekend to let the swelling and pain subside, I went online and bought some hook grips.  As long as I keep my hands open and disengage my finger flexion, I can do whatever I want.  The wrist straps have their limits, but this is proving to be a great boost to my mass phase. I can't deadlift because these straps won't support that much weight.  Pull...

I've never invented any original training concepts. I've never been or coached a world champion. I have no degrees or certifications to impress anyone with. All I have is a  passion to push myself to be the most exceptional that I'm capable of becoming, and a passion to learn the best route to achieve same. Right now I have a broken finger, but I have purchased a pair of wrist strap hooks that will enable my to keep rowing while my finger heals.  I'll also have to use machines for all my pressing, but that is still better than not making progress. The thing is, I'm still making more rapid gains in size, strength, and work capacity than at any other point in my life, and I'm about to turn 41.  I can only imagine if I'd run a few volume accumulation phases when I was in my 20s and 30s. It all goes back to Charles Poliquin and his popularization of the 10 Sets method, which he dubbed German Volume Training.  Before Mr. Poliquin's article in the 90s, V...

This is the fastest I have ever built muscle and strength. And I'm doing at almost 41 years old, with a recently torn left bicep.  I have eliminated ego from my training and am taking a rational, simple, but extremely difficult path to increasing my training volume. My training partner and I are lifting 4 days per week.  Two days are the real result producing days. This is our Volume Accumulation program: Using the same weight for weeks 1  - 3 Week 1: Tuesday:     Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 5 Friday:       Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 6 Week 2: Tuesday:     Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 7 Friday:       Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 8 Week 3: Tuesday:     Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 9 Friday:       Deadlift & Dips: 10 x 10 Week 4: M,W,F: playing with heavy loads, low volume on bench press, overhead press, squat, cleans, rows Week 5 - 7 Add +40lbs to deadlift and repeat Add +25lbs to dip...

I've been rehabbing my torn bicep for a solid 3 week now.   I still can't do any pullups or heavy rows, but my strength in the left bicep is slowly returning as the tear continues to heal. I trained for a solid 2 hours on Sunday and noticed a small divot at the base of my bicep right where it meets the tendon. The good news is the swelling is finally down enough, and my ability to engage my bicep (flex) is finally high enough that I can see the tear. It looks a little weird, but oh well.  I'll eventually be stronger than I was before the tear.  I just have to keep adding reps, then slowly adding weight.   Nothing magical about the process. But that brings me to my point for today.  I've done some stupid shit in my life and have a litany of injuries that my friends can't wrap their heads around.  I'm not a pro athlete, and I'd argue I'm not much of a real athlete in general.  I'm closing in on 41 and I can tell you, I don't have a stash of tro...

I hurt my bicep well more than I had first hoped for, but about as much as I expected.  I was at the gym full force last week (9/26-30), but my full force in my left bicep is pathetic.  The elbow injury is impeding my pressing strength some, but it has damn near eliminated any pulling strength. Example - I'm doing curls with 15 pound dumbbells. I can't do a single chinup. I can only do Oly lifts with ridiculously light weight (95 and under) without hurting my arm. No worries.  I'm training smart, checking my ego at the door, and making progress towards full recovery.

I had three silly injuries in a row and ended up taking a week off.  I get back to it on Monday 9/19.  I'll be starting with lighter weights than I can handle and going for max reps on the final set. Same schedule / framework as before, but just lightening up a little to ensure I recover fully before taxing myself to new levels of effort/strength.

I miss looking like a lifter. I'm leaner, faster, more agile, and have great stamina, but my maximal strength is down and my size is down considerably. The thing is, training for size requires a ton of volume and intensity.  I have no issue with intensity, but I need to leave plenty of energy in reserve for boxing, so my training volume is not where it should be for maximal size gains. Right now I'm training for a boxing match, so my training is geared to accomplish these goals: Drop bodyfat Improve stamina Maintain strength Here's how I've structured my training week. Monday AM: whole body strength - Week1: 10,10,10+;  Week2: 8,8,8+;  Week3: 6,6,6+ - accessory work is using Paul Carter's 350 method for upper body, 3 x 20 for lower - Treadmill intervals:  3 rounds of 3min run / 1min walk    - increase speed each round Monday PM: - Boxing gym Tuesday AM: Boxing specific MetCon - ab work - Olympic lifts: Week1: 5x8; Wee...

Well folks, I've finally reached a point where typical sets of anything from 5 to 20 reps just isn't giving me the sort of physique response I'm after.  I am getting stronger every week - no doubts there, but my training buddy and I are finally at a stage of development that requires higher intensity and more time under tension. I love my meat and potatoes workouts. I love stripping it down to big basics and grinding out more reps at a given weight, then adding a little more weight the next session. The problem is, I've reached a point where that method is more taxing on my connective tissue than my muscle tissue.  Here's what we did today for Shoulders and Arms: Shoulder super set: a. Seated overhead press: 5 sets, pyramiding up in weight. 6th set was push presses with a 5 second negative b. Isolation work (either lateral raise, prone raise, or front raise after every set of presses) Biceps superset: a. Incline dumbbell curl: 3 x 8 b. Alternating hammer curl...

I've been back at the boxing gym for two weeks, and I'm loving it as much as when I was competing.  Having cut down to a rock solid 197 makes a world of difference.  My stamina is about as good as it was when I competed at 187. Here is how Tuesday's workout went: Jump rope x 6 rounds (3min /30sec) MetCon: 3 rounds of a. tire flip x 6 b. tire jump (like box jump) x 10 c. sledgehammer smash x 20 (10 per side) Ab circuit 5 rounds of a. weight overhead situp x 10 b. trashcans x 10 c. leg raises x 10 Mitts:  I was holding for others, not working mitts.  Maybe 6 - 8 rounds Heavy bag:  Now for the good stuff!!!!  3 rounds My ideal boxing schedule will look like this: - Stamina Day: run: 2 miles jump rope: 3 rounds Bodyweight circuit: 4 rounds (details could vary) a. pushup x 25 b. Russian twist x 20 c. Alternating jump lunges x 20 d. Handstand pushups x 5 - 10 Shadowboxing or partner drills:  3 rounds Mitts:  4 rounds Heavy bag: 3...

I'm down to 199.4 after yo-yo'ing a bit with camping and hanging out with my kids.  I ate plenty of chips, granola bars, cookies, fruits, and all manner of carbs you could imagine.  After 2 weeks of that I was up to 207.  As of this morning, I'm 199.4 and feel amazing. I've been steadily increasing my cardio output in an effort to feel more like an athlete and less like a mannequin. Saturday: 1/4 mile laps 2 x laps walking 6 x sprinting the straights and walking the curves Sunday: mixing it up 1/4 mile run 80# KB swing x 10 1/4 mile run 20 pushups repeated for 4 circuits (8 laps total) Monday AM: Old school lifting, worked up to some heavy ass weight Monday PM: Simple track circuit 1/4 mile run 25 pushups 80# KB swings x 10 repeat for 4 circuits (4 total laps) Tuesday AM: MetCon!!!!! Complete for time: clean & jerk: 155 x 15 pullups: bodyweight x 20 dips: bodyweight x 25 treadmill: 1 mile not sure my total time, but I ...

We burned 800 calories in 45 minutes doing simple, straight-forward work, with short rest intervals. Vertical push/pull superset a. overhead press: 85x10; 95x10; 115x10; 125x11 b. Pullup: bodyweight x 6,7,8,8 Flat back goodmorning: 125x10; 135x10; 145x10; 155x10 Arms superset: a. barbell curls: 95x7, 10, 10, 10, 7 b. skull crushers: 55x15; 60x12; 70x10; 80x10, 10 That's it.  Nothing fancy.  Just hard work on basic lifts.  Friday is our day to try out all the crazy conditioning plans. 

Man, this week is just freaking magical!  I've dropped 4 pounds since getting back from a hiking trip, and I'm at a rock solid 200 pounds. Everything is working (hate to use the cliche but) synergistically. I've been following the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse Diet.  I won't do 10 days, but M-F, with weekends for clean eating.  I'm adding a ton of protein powder to my smoothies to stay anabolic as I cut.  Despite a radical reduction in carbs and caffeine intake, I feel amazing.  Strength and stamina are up.  Joint pain is down, Abs are getting more and more defined.  Love handles are 95% GONE. Even my cheeks are starting to get lean.  I'm much less chipmunkish and worked my way to weaselish. The smoothies taste like a mixture of compost and yogurt, but the results are astonishing!!!! So my buddy uses a heart rate monitor and discovered that we burned about 750 calories today in our 1 hour old school workout.  It's so simple, I feel foolis...

My training buddy and I were talking about how the blended training qualities approach has been doing wonders for our fitness, but not doing much for hypertrophy, so we decided to split it up a little differently. Monday and Thursday are all about old school strength training.   Think Larry Scott, Reg Park, and maybe even HIT.  High quality sets; perfect reps; taking the last set to absolute failure Tuesday and Friday are conditioning days.  Yeah, you could call it CrossFit or MetCons, but then I'm sure I'd owe somebody $150 a month, so we'll stick with Conditioning.  High volume, low percentage of 1 rep max, lots of rowing, farmers walks, bodyweight movements etc.  The "kitchen sink" approach to circuits to get you smoked. So far, I'm making AMAZING progress. I've honestly never been stronger, leaner, or more athletic. One of the key learnings for me has been Rep Maxes.  Trying to increase max reps on a certain load is better than trying to always l...

I was weak today on deadlift for a few reasons: hard squatting the day before insufficient warm-up cutting carbs as low as possible doing just vegetable smoothies as of Monday Today's session: Clean grip muscle snatch:   45x10; 65x5; 95x5 (light weight just to wake up) strength superset: a. Chinup:  +35  x 5,4,4,4 b. Deadlift: 225x5; 275x3; 225x5,5 strength endurance superset a. flat back goodmorning: 95x10; 115x10; 135x10 b. Kroc row: 85 x 10/10; 10/10; 10/10 MetCon a. American KB swing: 50# x 25, 20, 15 b. TRX inverted row: BW x 20, 15, 10 c.  Side-plank knee-to-elbow: 15/15, 10/10, 5/5

Here's a good representative example of the current phase of training. Nice long warmup CNS warm-up:  just a few of each to get ready to lift HEAVY a. wall ball b. toes to bar or hollow-body rocks Bench press: 135x10; 185x5; 205x5; 225x7 Squat: 135x10; 185x10; 225x10; 275x5; 315x7 MetCon a. Thruster: 95 x 20, 15, 10 b. Burpees: 20, 15, 10 I felt like I was going to pass out and have a heart attack by the end of 20 reps each of thrusters and burpees. By the time I got to 10 each, I was a zombie, just doing it while light-headed and feeling my pulse rip out of my neck.

I've cut weight to a solid 203 pounds, but will occasionally hit 198 just for fun/looks, but also to get my body used to being lighter so I won't be in shock when I compete at 198 pounds for Highland Games. I'm really happy that at 203 pounds, I was able to bench press 225 for 6 reps.  Squats and Deadlifts are doing amazing, but my bench press has always been a weakness.  My Clean and Snatch are coming along great, but what II'm most proud of is my overall conditioning. While I'm not a fan of CrossFit and the random nature of their WODs, I do love structured MetCons that tax the same muscle groups and movement patternns as the strength work performed in a given training session.  Example: On push day on Thursday (quads, chest, shoulders), my MetCon was: 2 rounds of: Wallball x 20, 15,10, 5 Pushup x 20, 15, 10, 5 Weighted leg raise x 20, 15, 10, 5 I'm as lean as I was when I was competing in fighting at 185, but I'm a damn sight stronger.

Training has been amazing.  My training partner and I have 8 months of morning training sessions interrupted only by a couple of flus, business travel, and a few late nights.  I've found the balance of living fully, dieting well, lifting like a madman, and making cardio fun usually with friends. The training plan has been 4 days a week.  We tried to run Mon - Thu, but my lower back isn't able to handle the loads we've been lifting for 4 days straight.  the new schedule is Mon,Tue, Thu, Fri. We are rotating between a push day and a pull day, each getting trained twice, but with slightly different emphasis (e.g. vertical plane vs. horizontal plane). All sessions are pretty comprehensive: Explosive training Strength circuit Hypertrophy circuit MetCon On Push days, we do something along these lines: Explosive: medicine ball throws & box jumps 4 x 5 each Strength circuit usually 4 x 6 or 4 x 10, depending on the day of the week bench press back squ...

I've been consistent.  I've been dedicated.  I've worked through some difficult scheduling challenges and personal tumult.  The thing is, you just block out the crap long enough to do what needs to get done.  Then when you carve out some quiet time, you face the demons and evict them from your mind. I've been working as hard to overcome the thought patterns that sabotage me. I'm continuing to invest in my spiritual growth and it is paying dividends.  I'm seeing the fruit of my labors in my professional, physical, financial, and personal life. It  brings it back to a realization I had a few years ago.   When my plans & goals are devised to glorify myself, I fail.  When they are devised to glorify God, I succeed. Right now I'm 198-203 lbs, depending on the day, and have a 32" waist and 17" arms.  I'm as fit as I was when I competed in fighting at 185 pounds.  When I lose the final 5 pounds of fat, I'll FINALLY be satisfied with w...

I LOVE trying out new training protocols. I love reading and researching what works best.  But above and beyond all that, I love making rapid, injury-free progress.  One of my long-time friends is a professional bodybuilder and former competitive powerlifter.  The guy is also a serious professional trainer who has helped countless athletes prepare for shows and competitions. I'm half-way into week 2 following this plan, and the workouts are way harder but lower total volume than I'm used to.  The one thing I'm not used to is training only 4 days a week. On the up side, I don't feel nearly as trashed each weekend, and I'm hitting a little cardio in the evenings as the days get longer. Will report some numbers during week 3. The best part for me about getting a trainer is the opportunity to deflate my ego a little more and trust another person.  I trust Ed knows way more than I do. I trust that he will do his part to help me succeed. Now I have to doo my ppa...