Start Time:
Monday, July 12, 2010 at 5:30am
End Time:
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 5:30pm
Yes, the toughest two week boot camp in the Midwest has returned. Consider the fact that we have students try other boot camps around the KC area and they all remark that they're not even as difficult as our regular fitness classes.
If you are not a member of our facility, you will need to attend an Introductory Seminar or week of self defense/fitness classes in order for us to assess whether or not you should attend. Yes, we have at least one person puke every year. Yes, only about 60 to 70% of the people finish every day. Yes, it's a friggin blast!
This year's beast of a workout will be July 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, 23. The times are from 5:30am til 7:30am. The locations will vary with the majority of them at our facility. The cost is $99. No whining and no refunds!
For more info call 913-671-8375 or email steve@kravmagakc.com.
Strength Life Legacy
Monday, May 31, 2010
Movie review of the week - Law Abiding Citizen
So I watched this last night. I meant to go see this in theaters but just never got around to it.
Gerard Butler plays a father who watches his wife and daughter murdered in front of his eyes, and sees the justice system fail to do its job. I love revenge movies and this was a GOOD one. Butler is convincing as a grieving father and Jamie Foxx, who plays the prosecutor, also does a solid job.
There are a few "huh?" moments plot wise but I don't find many movies that don't have those. This is a "moral of the story" movie in the end, and Butler's character does a fine job and making sure his rival (Foxx) understands what that moral is.
This is not a over the top great movie, but it is a very solid one. I definitely recommend it.
Gerard Butler plays a father who watches his wife and daughter murdered in front of his eyes, and sees the justice system fail to do its job. I love revenge movies and this was a GOOD one. Butler is convincing as a grieving father and Jamie Foxx, who plays the prosecutor, also does a solid job.
There are a few "huh?" moments plot wise but I don't find many movies that don't have those. This is a "moral of the story" movie in the end, and Butler's character does a fine job and making sure his rival (Foxx) understands what that moral is.
This is not a over the top great movie, but it is a very solid one. I definitely recommend it.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Assistance work for the raw powerlifter
Ahhhhhhh the topic of assistance work in powerlifting. This topic gets far more talk time than it should in the grand scheme of things. Assistance work does matter, but far too many guys get wrapped up in all the X's and O's of their assistance work and then wonder why their big lifts are moving as well as they would like. So I am going to cover my philosophy, if you will, about picking assistance work.
Adaptation specific -
My buddy Ed Koo and I were talking a few weeks ago about how specific the body is with moving big weights. His longtime training partner is an older fellow who pulls over 600 like the sun sets and rises. Ed said he quit pulling for a few months and was able to increase all of his other exercises for hamstrings, upper, and lower back. When he came back to deadlifting he went to pull 605 and it was STAPLED. I would expect it to be. For every guy that says he gained on the "no deadlift" program I will show you hundreds of other guys who lost strength that way. The "don't deadlift to increase your deadlift" may work for guys with perfect leverages to pull, but for the majority it's about as backwards as a philosophy as you can get.
Don't do something to get good at it? I'm not sure how that ever made sense to anyone. Ed's training partner got stronger in all of the musculature areas involved in pulling, but his actual pull went into the gutter. I experienced this same thing when I tried focusing on good mornings and box squats to increase my pull. I hit PR's in both the good morning and box squat and did speed pulls on a different day. When I went to pull heavy, weights I had previously moved easily, were ridiculously hard or stapled to the floor.
Get good at a lift by doing that lift. Especially if you aren't good at it. If you want to pick an assistance lift for that lift, pick one that mimics that lift very closely. You also must remember that you need to keep doing the main lift, even if the assistance work has great carryover. This is because of motor function. I believe that you can indeed train the main lift with lower percentages and push an assistance lift in weight that gives you good carryover. I intend to do this with my bench press for the upcoming meet.
Benching heavy every other week has worked well for me, however I believe that benching every week, but lighter, and pushing my incline hard will yield good results. My incline shot up using this method to right around 400 pounds and all I was doing was hitting 225-250 for a few sets of 15 after my heavy singles on bench. I believe this method will work for my bench as well, and not beat up my shoulders and elbows. Leaving me fresh.
So remember to train movement patterns, not muscle groups. Training the muscles involved in a lift doesn't mean that lift will go up. Performing the lift itself is the most important part.
Figuring out "weaknesses" and what to pick -
If there is any single "term" out there about assistance work that makes me chuckle it's when the "find your weakness" chant. Look, let's get real. The MAJORITY of guys have enough trouble setting up a program and following it. They have no idea how to "train weaknesses" and second, I'm not sure that's how it works anyway. I beat my hamstrings to death for years and was left with a deadlift that wouldn't budge no matter how strong they got. It wasn't until I stopped that shit and just started pulling heavy from the floor and from boxes that it started moving. According to some people, getting my hamstrings strong was the real key. Maybe it was, but the deadlift as it turns out, builds the hamstrings better than just about everything else. So I actually used the deadlift and a couple of variations of it, to build my deadlift. CRAZY I KNOW RIGHT?! /sarcasm
In my experience, finding the right assistance exercises just comes from trial and error. Lots of guys have been told to build their triceps to get a big bench and then spend all day doing pushdowns and skull crushers and their bench doesn't move. If simply building big, strong triceps were the key I promise you that everyone would have a big bench. I've never met a guy that didn't put considerable time into training his triceps.
So this is my own personal theory. You can take it, or give it right back (AnchorMan reference right there). Add in ONE assistance movement to supplement your main movement (do it after your main lift). Give it 4 weeks and push it hard in the 5-8 rep range. If it's a bodyweight movement, then shoot for a certain number of reps or do both (a top set of 5-8 followed by getting bodyweight for a certain number of reps).
You should improve in strength on it. If you main lift improves, it is helping. If it does not, drop it and try something else. Don't beat your head against a wall because someone told you that you have to do a particular exercise. Sometimes an assistance movement is building a weakness, thus improving your main lift, and sometimes it is improving your "strengths", and also improving the main lift.
Let's cut through the bullshit here. The bottom line is improving your main lift. Sometimes taking what you are good at and making that better is just as good as improving a "weakness". Throw out the "train your weaknesses" mantra and worry about what is helping the lift instead. Then you can cut through doing a lot of bullshit and figure out exactly what is working for you.
So if you are improving on strength in the assistance lift AND the main lift, then credit the assistance lift, and ride it out until the main lift stops moving. If the assistance lift is moving up and the main lift is not, drop it. Again, focus on the real key, improving the main lift.
When the main lift stops moving try something else as your assistance work and repeat the above.
Assistance for the Squat -
For me, the squat itself is enough. I have done every leg exercise in the history of lifting (or at least I think I have) and just squatting has always worked the best for me. I will give some variations I think have good carryover, but I honestly believe of the three powerlifts the squat is the one that requires the least amount of assistance work.
Pause Squats -
In my opinion pause squats are probably the single best assistance exercise a raw guy can do. Remember when you aren't wearing equipment you need to train the bottom portion of the movements. And with pause squats you will build a lot of strength coming out of the hole. I ran 6+ weeks of pause squats only and can say they will also grease your form like no other. Your sit down and core have to be super tight in order to move some "big" weights out of the hole. If you don't believe me try sitting down in the bottom then letting your breath out and watch what happens. This is a pretty interesting test. It will let you know right away how important it is to be tight in your midsection to move strongly out of the hole.
An easy way to put pause squats into your routine is to either just do pause squats for 5 sets of 3 (same weight) or to do them after regular squats. Take of 50-90 pounds of what you did for your top set of squats, then knock out 2-3 sets of 3-5. If you are running something like 5/3/1 you could use the first set plugged in for a percentage for pause squats and shoot for the required reps (so it would be 5,3,5 over three weeks).
Front Squats -
My feeling on front squats are fairly mixed. I think they do an awesome job of developing full body strength, maybe even more than the squat in some aspects, however as far as getting carryover to the actual back squat, I never got much out of them. Lots of people swear by then however so throw them in there and work hard on improving them and see what happens.
Box Squats -
For the raw guy, I believe box squats are incredibly overrated. Even on a below parallel box. When you sit down on a box and unload that bottom portion it creates an environment that is the opposite of what a raw guy needs. I've addressed this movement before in my article about raw squatting so I won't go into it again. I think that box squatting has turned into what HIT turned into in the 90's with guys training once every three weeks. Box squats aren't Gods gift to great squatting. It is a great tool for teaching beginners how to squat and in my opinion great for multi-ply guys, however for raw guys I don't think it is a good assistance movement. That's just from my own training and talking to a lot of other raw guys.
If you do want to do them, what I suggest is just TOUCHING the box then exploding up. This way you're not unloading the quads and hams at the bottom. Again, as with anything, work them in, give them a fair chance and figure out if they work for you.
Hack Squats -
Hacks are interesting in that you are in a fixed movement yet the quads work harder than they do in a regular squat. I am fairly intrigued about inserting hacks as an assistance movement for my squats for my meet prep. This may happen. If so I will document it here.
Zercher squats -
More worthless than rubber lips on a woodpecker for powerlifting in my own opinion. Great for strongman training. Again, try em out and see what happens. Yuck.
Leg Press -
Uh oh I brought up the leg press! This violates my "similar movement pattern" rule. However lots of guys have used the leg press as a good movement to aid their squat. Andy Bolton, Steve Goggins, Eric Lilliebridge, etc. I used to love leg pressing but once I got to where I could do 10 plates per side for high reps it just became exhausting to load all of those plates on and off. Some guys really like the 1-legged version for this reason better. Try em out and see what you think.
Bench Press -
Grip variations -
This is probably the best overall way to work on increasing your raw bench in my opinion. You can do your competition grip work, then do some close grip and then wide grip stuff. This was really common back in the 70's and 80's before the shirts got crazy.
Incline -
I have fallen in love with incline as a bench builder. No it's not in the same plane but I can move pretty decent weight on incline, and for whatever reason it has great carryover to my bench. Remember, I define carryover as "the assistance lift goes up and the main lift goes up in conjunction". In regards to incline and bench when one goes up the other one does as well. Now I don't mean to say I could do incline only and increase my bench. I still have to actually bench.
Dumbbell bench -
A lot of guys like dumbbell bench to aid their bench. I like dumbbell benches for rep work but never noticed they made my bench feel better. I do think they have a lot of merit, I just don't know why. HAH!
Cambered Bar Bench -
This was a favorite of the great bencher Mike MacDonald. Be careful if you use these. You don't have to bring the bar down to touch actually, just bring it slightly below the usual ROM for bench. Again, be careful on these because they can be rough on the shoulders.
Deadlift -
Box Deads of various heights -
What I call box deadlifts is when you put the weight on the box, not standing on the box (I call that deficit deadlifts). I also only advocate pulling off the box from below the knee. I did above the knee for a long time and never found any carryover to the floor. Again, your mileage may vary so try each out. I will say that when you pull from below the knee you will find spots where you are weaker than you are from the floor. TRAIN THAT AREA!!!! It will suck but it will help your deadlift tremendously.
Deficit Deadlifts -
If you do these mind the height of what you are standing on. If you get too high you can get more quad involvement and it kind of becomes a whole new lift. I find that is the case for me anyway, and then when you go back to the floor there isn't as much carryover. Try smaller deficits at first, like standing on a single plate.
Stiff Legs and Romanians -
I did well with these too. Pulling stiff legs for high reps works pretty well because you stay a little lighter.
Conclusion -
Like I said, throw in one assistance movement at a time and work it hard for a few weeks. As it improves make notes of what is going on with your main lift. If it doesn't improve in some fashion, drop the assistance movement. And once again, remember that like all good things it must come to an end. In the end it is all about improving the main lift, so judge the worth of your assistance work based on what is happening with your main movement. Not the other way around.
Run,Lift,Bang -
PC
Adaptation specific -
My buddy Ed Koo and I were talking a few weeks ago about how specific the body is with moving big weights. His longtime training partner is an older fellow who pulls over 600 like the sun sets and rises. Ed said he quit pulling for a few months and was able to increase all of his other exercises for hamstrings, upper, and lower back. When he came back to deadlifting he went to pull 605 and it was STAPLED. I would expect it to be. For every guy that says he gained on the "no deadlift" program I will show you hundreds of other guys who lost strength that way. The "don't deadlift to increase your deadlift" may work for guys with perfect leverages to pull, but for the majority it's about as backwards as a philosophy as you can get.
Don't do something to get good at it? I'm not sure how that ever made sense to anyone. Ed's training partner got stronger in all of the musculature areas involved in pulling, but his actual pull went into the gutter. I experienced this same thing when I tried focusing on good mornings and box squats to increase my pull. I hit PR's in both the good morning and box squat and did speed pulls on a different day. When I went to pull heavy, weights I had previously moved easily, were ridiculously hard or stapled to the floor.
Get good at a lift by doing that lift. Especially if you aren't good at it. If you want to pick an assistance lift for that lift, pick one that mimics that lift very closely. You also must remember that you need to keep doing the main lift, even if the assistance work has great carryover. This is because of motor function. I believe that you can indeed train the main lift with lower percentages and push an assistance lift in weight that gives you good carryover. I intend to do this with my bench press for the upcoming meet.
Benching heavy every other week has worked well for me, however I believe that benching every week, but lighter, and pushing my incline hard will yield good results. My incline shot up using this method to right around 400 pounds and all I was doing was hitting 225-250 for a few sets of 15 after my heavy singles on bench. I believe this method will work for my bench as well, and not beat up my shoulders and elbows. Leaving me fresh.
So remember to train movement patterns, not muscle groups. Training the muscles involved in a lift doesn't mean that lift will go up. Performing the lift itself is the most important part.
Figuring out "weaknesses" and what to pick -
If there is any single "term" out there about assistance work that makes me chuckle it's when the "find your weakness" chant. Look, let's get real. The MAJORITY of guys have enough trouble setting up a program and following it. They have no idea how to "train weaknesses" and second, I'm not sure that's how it works anyway. I beat my hamstrings to death for years and was left with a deadlift that wouldn't budge no matter how strong they got. It wasn't until I stopped that shit and just started pulling heavy from the floor and from boxes that it started moving. According to some people, getting my hamstrings strong was the real key. Maybe it was, but the deadlift as it turns out, builds the hamstrings better than just about everything else. So I actually used the deadlift and a couple of variations of it, to build my deadlift. CRAZY I KNOW RIGHT?! /sarcasm
In my experience, finding the right assistance exercises just comes from trial and error. Lots of guys have been told to build their triceps to get a big bench and then spend all day doing pushdowns and skull crushers and their bench doesn't move. If simply building big, strong triceps were the key I promise you that everyone would have a big bench. I've never met a guy that didn't put considerable time into training his triceps.
So this is my own personal theory. You can take it, or give it right back (AnchorMan reference right there). Add in ONE assistance movement to supplement your main movement (do it after your main lift). Give it 4 weeks and push it hard in the 5-8 rep range. If it's a bodyweight movement, then shoot for a certain number of reps or do both (a top set of 5-8 followed by getting bodyweight for a certain number of reps).
You should improve in strength on it. If you main lift improves, it is helping. If it does not, drop it and try something else. Don't beat your head against a wall because someone told you that you have to do a particular exercise. Sometimes an assistance movement is building a weakness, thus improving your main lift, and sometimes it is improving your "strengths", and also improving the main lift.
Let's cut through the bullshit here. The bottom line is improving your main lift. Sometimes taking what you are good at and making that better is just as good as improving a "weakness". Throw out the "train your weaknesses" mantra and worry about what is helping the lift instead. Then you can cut through doing a lot of bullshit and figure out exactly what is working for you.
So if you are improving on strength in the assistance lift AND the main lift, then credit the assistance lift, and ride it out until the main lift stops moving. If the assistance lift is moving up and the main lift is not, drop it. Again, focus on the real key, improving the main lift.
When the main lift stops moving try something else as your assistance work and repeat the above.
Assistance for the Squat -
For me, the squat itself is enough. I have done every leg exercise in the history of lifting (or at least I think I have) and just squatting has always worked the best for me. I will give some variations I think have good carryover, but I honestly believe of the three powerlifts the squat is the one that requires the least amount of assistance work.
Pause Squats -
In my opinion pause squats are probably the single best assistance exercise a raw guy can do. Remember when you aren't wearing equipment you need to train the bottom portion of the movements. And with pause squats you will build a lot of strength coming out of the hole. I ran 6+ weeks of pause squats only and can say they will also grease your form like no other. Your sit down and core have to be super tight in order to move some "big" weights out of the hole. If you don't believe me try sitting down in the bottom then letting your breath out and watch what happens. This is a pretty interesting test. It will let you know right away how important it is to be tight in your midsection to move strongly out of the hole.
An easy way to put pause squats into your routine is to either just do pause squats for 5 sets of 3 (same weight) or to do them after regular squats. Take of 50-90 pounds of what you did for your top set of squats, then knock out 2-3 sets of 3-5. If you are running something like 5/3/1 you could use the first set plugged in for a percentage for pause squats and shoot for the required reps (so it would be 5,3,5 over three weeks).
Front Squats -
My feeling on front squats are fairly mixed. I think they do an awesome job of developing full body strength, maybe even more than the squat in some aspects, however as far as getting carryover to the actual back squat, I never got much out of them. Lots of people swear by then however so throw them in there and work hard on improving them and see what happens.
Box Squats -
For the raw guy, I believe box squats are incredibly overrated. Even on a below parallel box. When you sit down on a box and unload that bottom portion it creates an environment that is the opposite of what a raw guy needs. I've addressed this movement before in my article about raw squatting so I won't go into it again. I think that box squatting has turned into what HIT turned into in the 90's with guys training once every three weeks. Box squats aren't Gods gift to great squatting. It is a great tool for teaching beginners how to squat and in my opinion great for multi-ply guys, however for raw guys I don't think it is a good assistance movement. That's just from my own training and talking to a lot of other raw guys.
If you do want to do them, what I suggest is just TOUCHING the box then exploding up. This way you're not unloading the quads and hams at the bottom. Again, as with anything, work them in, give them a fair chance and figure out if they work for you.
Hack Squats -
Hacks are interesting in that you are in a fixed movement yet the quads work harder than they do in a regular squat. I am fairly intrigued about inserting hacks as an assistance movement for my squats for my meet prep. This may happen. If so I will document it here.
Zercher squats -
More worthless than rubber lips on a woodpecker for powerlifting in my own opinion. Great for strongman training. Again, try em out and see what happens. Yuck.
Leg Press -
Uh oh I brought up the leg press! This violates my "similar movement pattern" rule. However lots of guys have used the leg press as a good movement to aid their squat. Andy Bolton, Steve Goggins, Eric Lilliebridge, etc. I used to love leg pressing but once I got to where I could do 10 plates per side for high reps it just became exhausting to load all of those plates on and off. Some guys really like the 1-legged version for this reason better. Try em out and see what you think.
Bench Press -
Grip variations -
This is probably the best overall way to work on increasing your raw bench in my opinion. You can do your competition grip work, then do some close grip and then wide grip stuff. This was really common back in the 70's and 80's before the shirts got crazy.
Incline -
I have fallen in love with incline as a bench builder. No it's not in the same plane but I can move pretty decent weight on incline, and for whatever reason it has great carryover to my bench. Remember, I define carryover as "the assistance lift goes up and the main lift goes up in conjunction". In regards to incline and bench when one goes up the other one does as well. Now I don't mean to say I could do incline only and increase my bench. I still have to actually bench.
Dumbbell bench -
A lot of guys like dumbbell bench to aid their bench. I like dumbbell benches for rep work but never noticed they made my bench feel better. I do think they have a lot of merit, I just don't know why. HAH!
Cambered Bar Bench -
This was a favorite of the great bencher Mike MacDonald. Be careful if you use these. You don't have to bring the bar down to touch actually, just bring it slightly below the usual ROM for bench. Again, be careful on these because they can be rough on the shoulders.
Deadlift -
Box Deads of various heights -
What I call box deadlifts is when you put the weight on the box, not standing on the box (I call that deficit deadlifts). I also only advocate pulling off the box from below the knee. I did above the knee for a long time and never found any carryover to the floor. Again, your mileage may vary so try each out. I will say that when you pull from below the knee you will find spots where you are weaker than you are from the floor. TRAIN THAT AREA!!!! It will suck but it will help your deadlift tremendously.
Deficit Deadlifts -
If you do these mind the height of what you are standing on. If you get too high you can get more quad involvement and it kind of becomes a whole new lift. I find that is the case for me anyway, and then when you go back to the floor there isn't as much carryover. Try smaller deficits at first, like standing on a single plate.
Stiff Legs and Romanians -
I did well with these too. Pulling stiff legs for high reps works pretty well because you stay a little lighter.
Conclusion -
Like I said, throw in one assistance movement at a time and work it hard for a few weeks. As it improves make notes of what is going on with your main lift. If it doesn't improve in some fashion, drop the assistance movement. And once again, remember that like all good things it must come to an end. In the end it is all about improving the main lift, so judge the worth of your assistance work based on what is happening with your main movement. Not the other way around.
Run,Lift,Bang -
PC
Ready to start training!
I'm back from Cali, super tan, and super motivated. I think the month+ of just taking it easy was good for my mind and my joints and I'm really breathing fire to get back to moving big weights. My meet prep will be 9 weeks following by a deload week, then a week off and then the meet. I am hoping for a minimum of 650/450/650 completely raw (no belt). That has been the goal for this year and I believe I can hit this. I think I'm a little too heavy right now so the first few weeks I will be dropping weight, which is not ideal, but with two vacations back to back (well Cali was supposed to be training for my job but felt like a vacation) it is what it is.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Training and eating on the road
Well I've been in Orange County for a few days and last night we went and ate Sushi. I am a big sushi fan, but this was without a doubt the worst sushi I have ever eaten. Zero taste and very slimy. Not only that, but the shrimp was definitely not cooked. So I woke up around 3 a.m. with some pretty bad stomach cramps and you guessed it, had some food poisoning. I was in and out of the bathroom until I had to leave for training around 7:30 and luckily I think I got it all out by then. I still felt very cruddy for the better part of the morning but by lunch I was good to go. One of the guys here with me who also ate a lot of the sushi ended up sick as well. Glad to report he is also feeling fine now, so it wasn't TOO bad.
Otherwise traveling to Cali has been awesome. We ate at Flemings the first night here and I HIGHLY recommend it. We ate 6 loaves of bread (yes 6), then I downed a 22 ounce steak, fully loaded baked potato, salad, and part of a dessert. Our waitress was 100% awesome and so was the staff. We did end up having one of the funniest things ever in my entire life happen, but it is not funny to tell the story, but I will try.
One of the guys I'm here with ordered mashed potatoes and when they brought it out, it was in a semi-large bowl with a spoon in it. The guy puts it on the table and grabs the spoon and starts chopping up the mashed potatoes at a rapid fire pace. I mean, faster than you can imagine. I figured he would do this for a few seconds and stop, but he didn't. He kept chopping these mashed taters with a fervor that is hard to describe. After 45 seconds or so I am having to hold my laughter in because the whole scene feels very ridiculous. After more than a minute I am barely holding it and then I make the mistake of looking across the table and see one of the guys I am here with, holding his napkin over his face so he too won't burst into laughter. Well that pretty much did me in and I started laughing hysterically. The waitress bumped me and said "stop laughing" in a playful way, and that made it worse. Then suddenly the guy stops chopping the mashed potatoes and walks away real fast. All three of us were in tears at this point and I laughed so long and hard that my abs cramped and I could barely breathe.
Again, it doesn't sound like the funniest thing you could ever hear but to be there was possibly one of the funniest moments of my life.
I actually trained today in the hotel gym which isn't too horrible. I did 5 sets of 20 with their 55 pound dumbbells on flat bench flyes, 3 sets of lat pulldowns, some upright rows, bent laterals, and db curls. My elbow is slowly feeling better and I think the light training for a few weeks has helped that a lot.
Let me also say that if you are a single guy, you need to move to Orange County. If you can afford it. I don't know that I've seen a single girl here that isn't incredibly attractive. It's hard to even describe. I guess that's what happens when you live somewhere where the weather is good year round and people are far more active than land locked states. We walked up and down Laguna Beach yesterday and there were kids everywhere on skate boards, running on the beach, playing volleyball, basketball, riding bikes, roller blading, you name it. People here are FAR more active and I don't know that I've seen anyone that is really overweight. Very refreshing.
I am supposed to train with Ed Koo this week but he has come down with some kind of sinus/bronchitis deal so I doubt we'll be able to do get a training session in, but we'll see. If not, it's all good. I wouldn't mind getting over to Gold's however, just for kicks and grins.
I will try to update the blog when I can. I have to pay for internet service in the hotel (this is strange to me, high speed used to be free everywhere even in shitty hotels) which sucks, but oh well.
Stay strong.
Paul
Otherwise traveling to Cali has been awesome. We ate at Flemings the first night here and I HIGHLY recommend it. We ate 6 loaves of bread (yes 6), then I downed a 22 ounce steak, fully loaded baked potato, salad, and part of a dessert. Our waitress was 100% awesome and so was the staff. We did end up having one of the funniest things ever in my entire life happen, but it is not funny to tell the story, but I will try.
One of the guys I'm here with ordered mashed potatoes and when they brought it out, it was in a semi-large bowl with a spoon in it. The guy puts it on the table and grabs the spoon and starts chopping up the mashed potatoes at a rapid fire pace. I mean, faster than you can imagine. I figured he would do this for a few seconds and stop, but he didn't. He kept chopping these mashed taters with a fervor that is hard to describe. After 45 seconds or so I am having to hold my laughter in because the whole scene feels very ridiculous. After more than a minute I am barely holding it and then I make the mistake of looking across the table and see one of the guys I am here with, holding his napkin over his face so he too won't burst into laughter. Well that pretty much did me in and I started laughing hysterically. The waitress bumped me and said "stop laughing" in a playful way, and that made it worse. Then suddenly the guy stops chopping the mashed potatoes and walks away real fast. All three of us were in tears at this point and I laughed so long and hard that my abs cramped and I could barely breathe.
Again, it doesn't sound like the funniest thing you could ever hear but to be there was possibly one of the funniest moments of my life.
I actually trained today in the hotel gym which isn't too horrible. I did 5 sets of 20 with their 55 pound dumbbells on flat bench flyes, 3 sets of lat pulldowns, some upright rows, bent laterals, and db curls. My elbow is slowly feeling better and I think the light training for a few weeks has helped that a lot.
Let me also say that if you are a single guy, you need to move to Orange County. If you can afford it. I don't know that I've seen a single girl here that isn't incredibly attractive. It's hard to even describe. I guess that's what happens when you live somewhere where the weather is good year round and people are far more active than land locked states. We walked up and down Laguna Beach yesterday and there were kids everywhere on skate boards, running on the beach, playing volleyball, basketball, riding bikes, roller blading, you name it. People here are FAR more active and I don't know that I've seen anyone that is really overweight. Very refreshing.
I am supposed to train with Ed Koo this week but he has come down with some kind of sinus/bronchitis deal so I doubt we'll be able to do get a training session in, but we'll see. If not, it's all good. I wouldn't mind getting over to Gold's however, just for kicks and grins.
I will try to update the blog when I can. I have to pay for internet service in the hotel (this is strange to me, high speed used to be free everywhere even in shitty hotels) which sucks, but oh well.
Stay strong.
Paul
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Off to Cali
I am off to Southern California (well, Sunday after lunch) for job training stuff for the next week+. The next week I start my prep for the August meet and I'm getting very excited. I am also working on an article on raw lifting assistance work that I will get out soon.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
PC - Training
20May10 - Pressing
Bodyweight - 238 WTF?!?!?!?
Neck and Abs - 2 sets each x 15
Hammer Strength Incline Press - 4 plates per side x 8
Machine Bench - up to stack x 8
Tit Machine - 3 sets of 8-12
Cardio - 20 minutes with some fast intervals.
Wow my weight is just stuck in the 230's it seems. I got two weeks until I start my training for the meet and I'm still right at 240. I was hoping to get down to 225 and then slowly eat up for the meet because I do better in a nice calorie surplus. However when I arrived home from Vegas I was 251!!! I lost back down to where I am now in two days however I am not "fat" right now, I have a full visible 6 pack but am definitely not bodybuilding ripped either. I wanted to get back into single digit bodyfat before I started the meet prep but that isn't going to happen. So I will have to put a limit on weight gain in preparation for this meet.
Bodyweight - 238 WTF?!?!?!?
Neck and Abs - 2 sets each x 15
Hammer Strength Incline Press - 4 plates per side x 8
Machine Bench - up to stack x 8
Tit Machine - 3 sets of 8-12
Cardio - 20 minutes with some fast intervals.
Wow my weight is just stuck in the 230's it seems. I got two weeks until I start my training for the meet and I'm still right at 240. I was hoping to get down to 225 and then slowly eat up for the meet because I do better in a nice calorie surplus. However when I arrived home from Vegas I was 251!!! I lost back down to where I am now in two days however I am not "fat" right now, I have a full visible 6 pack but am definitely not bodybuilding ripped either. I wanted to get back into single digit bodyfat before I started the meet prep but that isn't going to happen. So I will have to put a limit on weight gain in preparation for this meet.
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