Tuesday

Squat: 375x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Close Stance, Yam-Bag-To-Carpet Squats: 275x10x3

Front Foot Elv. Split Squats: 3x10 each leg

Cold Tub x 10 minutes

Awesome session today.  No PRs but the 375 felt like 135 the whole way through.  My mobility felt great and there were no aches or pains.  I think it was a combo of the ephedrine and the playlist of nothing but Mastadon, Lamb of God, and Dethklok.  Those three bands melt faces.

Hopefully the cold tub will help keep some of the soreness I've been having after Tuesdays at bay.  I didn't use ice but I'm not sure if I would've been able to handle it if I had.  Time for food.

Song of the Day:

"Rock and Roll: music for the neck downward." -Keith Richards

The Freakin' Weekend

Friday I drove up to Wausau for the Circle of Friends' annual golf outing fundraiser.  I was stationed at hole #4 in the Bacardi Tent.  It was my job to sling drinks and I think I did a pretty good job.  It's always a lot of fun and it's great to see people rally around a great cause.  The only bad part of the trip was the drive home.  Oshkosh has decided to do all of their road construction right now.  Not only are a lot of on/off ramps closed, but so is an entire stretch of highway 45.  I spent about 30 minutes driving aimlessly in Oshkosh before I finally found my way to the highway.  I don't like Oshkosh.

Saturday morning I trained.  It went ok.  It was hot.

Deadlift: 455x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 315x10x2

Shrugs: 405x10x3

Saturday some friends and I went and celebrated the marriage of our good friend Dave Pick and his lovely bride Maggie McGinn.  The wedding was held at the McGinn family farm.  The weather was beautiful, the food was great, and the bar was open.  I took full advantage and I'll leave it at that.

Sunday Jake had a strongman show at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee.  He competed against heavyweight amateurs and a few other lightweight pros.  And he smoked them all.  He took first place and pocketed a good chunk of change in the process.  Congrats Jake.

Late afternoon Sunday I was having a wrestling match in my head over whether or not I was going to train.  The "go train" wrestler won out and I labored out to the garage.  It was a lackluster session to say the least.  Probably because my sweat at this point was about 38% vodka.  I probably got nothing out of it, but oh well I got through it.

Press: 155x1/2/3/1/2/3

BTNPP: 135x8x2

Pendlay Rows: 225x8x2

Gun Show

I then took the dog for a jog and he got tired before I did.  Win.

Song of the Day:

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” -Nietzsche

Wednesday

Fat Bar Bench: 245x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 175x10, 195x10

DB Incline: 3x10, 2x15

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
Side Laterals: 3x10

Gun Show

Felt some junkiness in my right shoulder tonight so I didn't push the assistance stuff too hard.  I think I'm a bit impinged and I've probably got a pretty gnarly knot up in there.  Other than that everything felt ok.  The bench didn't move quit as fast as I had hoped but I'm not too concerned.  Yet.  If next weeks 255 feels crappy I'll have to relook at some stuff.  Namely my diet.

Song of the Day:

"When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere." -D.H. Lawrence

Tuesday

Squats: 355x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 245x10x3

Split Squats: 5x10

RDLs: 225x15x2

I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Song of the Day:

"The middle of the road is where the white line is/ and that's the worst place to drive." -Robert Frost

New England Weekend

This past weekend myself, my aunt Patti and uncle Matt, my other uncle Mike and my two cousins Alyssa and Hannah were treated to an all expenses paid trip- courtesy of Grandma Donna- to New England where Mike, Alyssa, and Hannah live.  It was a great weekend filled with whale watching, softball and baseball, awesome New England/Bostonian food, and family that I haven't seen in quite some time.

The last time I saw my cousins Alyssa and Hannah was 14 years ago.  I was twelve, Alyssa was six, and Hannah had just been born.  I remember trying to hold Hannah and all she did was cry.  Being as I was a too cool for school twelve year-old and Alyssa only being six I don't think we interacted much.  How the times have changed.  In the 14 years since we last saw each other they've grown into two beautiful, smart, intrepid young women. 

Alyssa is an International Relations major at Tufts University.  She recently went on a trip to Pakistan and India and met with and interviewed officials from both countries nuclear arms programs.  After undergrad she plans to go to medical school.  To put it into perspective my nineteenth year of life was spent getting into trouble with the law twice for underage drinking and growing out my hair.  That girl is wicked smaht, as they say in New England.

Hannah is going to be going into her freshman year of high school in the fall and is now the reigning jock of the family.  We got to watch her play in a softball tournament this past weekend and her team "mercy-ruled" a couple of other teams.  This is where Hannah's team was beating the other team so badly that the other coach got down on his knees and begged Hannah's coach for mercy.  It was quite a scene.

One of the highlights of the weekend was going whale watching.  Our tour guide was scientist named Leah who was doing research on the whales in the region.  If you ever get the chance to go on one I highly recommend it.  Seeing the animals up close is impressive to say the least.  We also got lucky and got to see a super pod of Atlantic White Fin Dolphins.  There were a couple hundred animals in the super pod and they looked like they were having a good time out in the ocean jumping around and riding the wake of the boat.  It's going to be a dark day for humanity when those things develop opposable thumbs.

The best part of being on a whale watching tour is seeing the entire boat turn into a group of eager third graders.  We all want to be the first one to spot a whale.  We all want to get a great picture.  We all want Leah to see that we did a good job.  And when some animals are finally spotted things get kind of crazy. 

"Lookoverthereablowhole!Yousaid"blowhole"!Ohyeahawesome!Isthatahumpbackwhale?Coolthetailcameoutofthewaterhe'sgoingdown!Waitarethosedolphins?ThoseAREdolphins!YEAHDOLPHINS!They'replayingwiththeboat!Iwannapetone!Iwannarideone!Thatwouldbesocool!There'sanotherwhaleoverthere!YESmorewhales!What'shisname?Sedge?HISEDGE!Areyouhungry?Ibethe'sreallyhungry!He'sgoingdownagain?HemustbeREALLYhungry!

And that was just Grandma Donna and Patti.  But seriously, it is pretty exhilarating to see the animals in the wild.

Sunday we all watched the Brewers get embarrassed by the Red Sox at Fenway.  The Brewers gave up six runs in the first and by then it was over.  I kept talking about the train making a turn to Comeback City but apparently that stop had been removed from the schedule.  After the game we got some pasta and dessert at a small restaurant in the North End.  (If you've never driven in Boston I don't recommend it.  I'm pretty sure the road system was designed by a four year-old with a crayon taped to his hand.  He scribbled all over some blank wall and another guy nodded and said, "It's just crazy enough to work.  All right boys, let's make it happen!"  I'm glad all I had to do was sit back and take in the scenery.)  I also had my first cannoli and it was beyond delicious.  It's well known I have a massive sweet tooth and I was not disappointed.  A nice big sugar bomb to round out the weekend was just what I needed.  After dessert we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.  A bittersweet end to a great weekend.  Thank you Grandma, Patti, Matt, Mike, Alyssa, and Hannah.   

Wednesday

Fat Bar Bench: 235x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 175x10x2

DB Incline: 4x10

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
DB Side Laterals: 3x12

Skull Crushers: 3x12
w/
Band Tri Pushdown: 3x20

Pretty good session tonight.  All of the above plus warm up only took me 90 minutes.  I think there is something off structurally with my upper body.  Towards the end I could feel my right side just kind of deflate while my left side was still working.  I think it has to do with the fact that my collar bone sits a bit higher on my right side at my AC joint (where your neck meets your chest).  Not entirely sure why that would be, it's just a hunch.  I've also always noticed that my left side is a bit more developed than my right.  Not a big deal because there has never been a strength discrepancy.  If I ever start bodybuilding, which I won't, then I'll worry about it.

Song of the Day:

"I am getting so far out one day I won't come back at all." -William S. Burroughs

Tuesday

Squats: 335x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 225x10x3

Split Squats: 3x10

RDLs: 2x15

Awesome session today.  The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, I'm outside at West Allis Barbell, shirt's off (sun's out, guns out), and the clanging of iron weights is ringing in my ears.  That's livin' man.  L-i-v-i-n, livin'.  My legs feel pretty thrashed right now.  Definitely got some wobbly knee going on.  It's a good feeling though and one I haven't felt in a while.  With that said, I've still got some hip mobility issues to work out mainly in the hip flexors.  Specifically, my illiopsoases.  Just need some extra soft tissue work and stretching.  Story of my life. 

Song of the Day:

“These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” -William James

Badass Flags In Honor of Flag Day

The Gadsen Flag

The Gadsen Flag was designed by and is named after Christopher Gadsen, an American general and statesman from the Revolutionary War days.  Its roots can be traced back to Ben Franklin's satirical cartoons from the 1750's.  It is also the motivation for the Metallica song Don't Tread On Me.  Any time you are the impetus for a metal song you've done something right.  Unless you're Hitler or something like that. 

The only thing I don't like about the flag is that the Tea Party has adopted it as their symbol.  I think the Tea Party would gain a little bit more traction in America if they didn't have complete nutjobs like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as the stars of the Party.  Those bitches is crazy.

It's symbolism is obvious.  The rattlesnake represents the original thirteen colonies which were populated with rattlesnakes.  The legend, DONT TREAD ON ME, was a message to the British that we were not to be fucked with.  The rattlesnake doesn't provoke attacks and even sends a warning when would be harm doers get too close.  But once shit hits the fan that rattlesnake will fight like hell, never surrender, and die in the process if need be.  Long story short, the rattlesnake won.  America, bitches.



The Come and Take It Flag

Here's the lowdown.  In 1831 some Mexican officials gave a small bronze cannon to the colony of San Antonio.  It was then transported to Gonzales, Texas.  When the Texas Revolution began in 1835 the same Mexican officials that gave Texas the cannon ordered them to give it back.  The Texans then sent a message to the Mexican government with the same message that is emblazoned on the flag.  Mexico got all huffy and tried to do just that.  This resulted in a monumental fail the size of...well, Texas.  The best part is that the Mexicans were driven back and defeated by the very cannon that they had given away.  Stupid idiots.

The Bedford Flag

I'm not going to lie.  I'm not really sure what is going on with this flag.  According to some traditions it was the first battle flag to fly in the American Revolution.  It was fashioned by the Bedford Minutemen and may have flown at Concord, Massachusetts when the first shots were fired.  The motto, Vince Aut Morire, means Conquer or Die.  That's pretty badass.  There is also an armored hand with a sword coming out of a cloud of bubbles.  Okay.  And the fabric looks like it came off of some unfortunate couch that my grandparents might have owned at some point.  Like ten pounds of badass stuffed onto a five pound flag.  Either way, I like it.

The flag of Black Bart Roberts

This flag is a flag that is near and dear to my heart.  I deemed it badass enough to have it tattooed on my left arm.  This flag was flown by a pirate named Black Bart Roberts.  He is widely regarded as the most successful pirate in history.  Estimates say he captured over 470 vessels in his days as a pirate.  He was such kick ass pirate that when he died in 1722 the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end.  Like a true pirate he was buried at sea wrapped in his ships sail.

The flag shows him and a skeleton who represents Death holding an hourglass together.  This was a message to any enemies that them meeting Death at the hands of Black Bart was only a matter of time.  He also flew a flag of him standing on the skulls of a Barbadian and a Martinquian.  Those guys must've really pissed him off.  As you can tell from the picture Black Bart was a bit of a dandy.  I always find that kind of bizarre.  Here's a guy who makes his living killing and stealing and plundering and he's all about matching his ascot to his jacket?  Whatever.  His flag still rules.

The Betsy Ross Flag

Old Glory herself.  This flag was commissioned by Big George Washington himself.  He is the Father of America and he needed a blanket to wrap his new born in so he had Betsy Ross stitch a little something together.  The stars represent all of the new formed states in a round table type setting.  The vertical lines are the original thirteen colonies.  Everyone knows that.  A little fun fact about the current 50 star flag.  It was designed in 1957 by a 17 year-old kid named Bob Heft for his history class.  He got a B-minus.  That's the best we can do?  We should rearrange the stars into a big middle finger or something.  Let everyone know what's up.  We are America after all.

I'd salute it.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_take_it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bart_Roberts

http://www.marcleepson.com/flagbiography/29facts.html

Sunday

Military Press: 3x10 @ 110

BTNPP: 2x8 @ 130

Shrugs: 3x12

Calf Raises: 3x10

Fat Grip Curls: 3x10

Great weekend this weekend.  We celebrated my friend Dave's bachelor party in Milwaukee on Saturday night and some of us had a pretty wild time.  Bars, Brewer game, bars, off the deep end hilarity.  It would be unfair to the parties involved to share any details.  Let's just say some of us lost a little dignity out there.  And it's never coming back.

Song of the Day:

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." -Albert Einstein

Friday

Deadlift: 425x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 3x10 @ 275

Chins: 3x10

I know I should be appreciative of days like Friday.  Anytime during the summer when I don't sweat constantly and feel like the chaffing on my adductors is going to start a fire is surely a good day.  But shit, it was cold for being June 10th.  I just wish Big Momma Nature would pick a season and stick with it.  Screw this La Nina stuff. 

Anyways, trained at West Allis Barbell.  I need to get a good power bar.  Right now I'm using my Olympic bar for deadlifts and it's kind of a hassle.  The bar is designed to hold bumper plates, not iron.  With the iron weights there is about 1-3 mm of play between the bar collar and the weights.  This means shit get kind of shaky once we're air born.  It also means that the weights don't sit vertical like they should when the bar is on the ground.  It's not a big deal right now as all it means is that I need to adjust the weights between sets, but when I start creeping into 500 lb+ territory it could be a liability.  Daddy don't need no blown out knees.

Song of the Day:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." -Aleister Crowley

I'll drink to that.

Tuesday and Thursday

Tuesday:

Squat: 315x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Split Squat: 3x10 each leg

Abs

Thursday:

Bench: 225x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

DB Incline: 3x10

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
DB Lateral Raise: 3x12

Skull Crushers: 3x12
w/
Tricep Push Downs: 3x20

Prowler

So here's the plan.  I've picked starting weights for the three lifts that I will perform for my next meet.  225 for bench, 315 for squat, and 405 for deadlift.  Each lift will be performed once per week with the 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3 rep scheme.  Each week I will add 20 pounds to the squat and 10 pounds to the bench and deadlift.  When I get to a point with each lift where I cannot move the weight up I will figure the halfway point from where I started and where I'm at.  I will then drop the weight to the weight and continue progressing up while only making five or ten pound jumps depending on the lift. 

Example: bench starting weight is 225.  I get to 295 and can no longer progress up.  I will then drop the working weight to 260 (halfway between 225 and 295) and continue moving up in five pound jumps each week.  Once I max out that progression line then it will be time to switch things up.  It's super scientific and advanced, I know.  It just has to work.

All of my accessory for right now will be body builderish in nature.  I'm thinking this plan will take about 2-3 months to run its course.  I like the set up because it is going to give me a break from working with near maximal weights all the time and I'll only be training each lift once per week.  It's got a nice little progression plan to it and there won't be any missed weights to mess with my head.  With this plan I'll also be better able to put on some needed quality mass.  I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

Song of the Day:

"No one saves us but ourselves.  No one can and no one may.  We ourselves must walk the path." -Buddha

Sunday

Deadlift: 405x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Calf Raises: 4x10
w/
Barbell Curls: 4x10

Shrugs: up to 455x5, 315x20

Conditioning: not easy, not too hard

Well, my foray into high frequency training has come to an end.  In the past twelve weeks I've trained five times per week, most of them coming on week days.  In the beginning things were going awesome.  I was getting stronger.  I wasn't putting on any scale weight, but I think I was leaning out a little bit.  And I was really enjoying the training.  Then a little past halfway things started to turn sour.  I was sore all the time.  I was tired all the time.  My training weights were going down.  I never got injured, but I could feel it coming a few times. 

I think this was a great lesson in having the ability to recognize when you need to shake things up.  I can't remember exactly who but a famous strength coach once said, "Everything works...for six weeks."  I didn't change protocols because I set my sights on going twelve weeks with it and I did.  Had I had the option I would have dropped one or two training days half way through.  My body became adapted to the stressors I was giving it and my progress stopped.  Ultimately I think I would have done a lot better on this program had I done a few things differently.

• Used lighter weights. 
• Planned a progression of weights to be used.
• Utilized better recovery methods.

Those three things I feel would have helped a lot.  The biggest one of all being the last one.  In a perfect world I'd be able to sleep in, eat, train, eat, take a nap, eat, do some active recovery, get a massage, eat, go to bed, repeat.  Of course, this was not the case.  Many Olympic lifters train with a much higher frequency than I did, but they also have made lifting the highest priority in their lives and are either subsidized by the government of the country they live in or have structured their lives to resemble that model.  I didn't do that.  I'm not an Olympic athlete.  I work, I have a life outside of training, and I wouldn't want it any other way.  I love to train, but I'm not married to it.

I'm going to take things easy next week while I draft up my next training plan.  I'm not 100% on how it's going to look but I've got a pretty good idea.  It's going to have a progression based on where my maxes are at and it's going to be more powerlifting based.  That much I know. 

For right now I'm on a big Beastie Boys kick.  Well, I'm a 6.7 on the Richter scale!

Song of the Day:

“The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose” -Plutarch

Last Few

Having Monday off has me really screwed up this week.  I have no idea what day it is.  I might just start making days up.  Today is Blorsday.  Happy Blorsday.  On with the show.

Tuesday:
Clean: 286x1, 220x10

BTNPP: 175x8x3

Today:
Snatch: 198x1

Squat: 315x2x3, 365x2x2
w/
DB Press: 60x5x5

The cleans on Tuesday were OK.   I was happy that I was able to finish the 220x10.  I'm also pretty sure I caught all of them with the right side of my clavicle.  Squats today were kept light, deep and fast.  I'm still sore from Monday so I didn't push it too hard.  Plus I want to deadlift on Friday.  This week is the last week of my five days per week training.  I'll recap and throw out some plans for the future in a future post.  Imagine that.

Song of the Day:

“It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet,than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.” -Epicurus