Hey, How Ya Doin'?

At the same time this question is so innocuous yet so very loaded.  My usual response is, "I've got no complaints."  But on occasion the stresses of everyday life have me saying in my head, "Well, how much time do you have?"  I've come to the realization that my outward response is the truth and my inward monologue is just a bullshit attitude trying to squirm it's way through.

What do I, really, have to complain about?

I've got a roof over my head, I'm in no danger of going hungry, and my furnace is kicking ass as I type this.  I go to work everyday to a job that I love and get to help people.  I've got money in my bank account and a few extra dollars in my wallet.  I've got no major illnesses and haven't been sick in a long time.  I've never worried that tomorrow I might wake up to some crazy madman with a gun that wants to kill myself and all of my fellow villagers.  Shit, just the fact that I'm typing this means I'm doing better than half the fucking people on the planet.  Not too shabby.

So on this day here's a few of life's perks that I'm thankful for:

-Parents that knew when to be parents and when to be friends.

-All of my failures and mistakes and the ability to learn from them.

-Coffee/ caffeine.

-The fact that my dog still loves me even after I give him a bath (which he hates with the intensity of a thousand suns).

-A sister that forces me to hang out with her.

-Family members that have shown me the proper way to be a man and how to treat a woman.

-A wonderful girlfriend who does things like surprise me for my birthday, puts up with me growing a moustache during Movember and then donates to the cause.

-A work environment that values its employees being themselves even if they are jerks (me) sometimes (all the time).

And here's a few of the things that are like icing on this big ol' birthday cake called life:

-Budweiser, Jameson, and all of the other tasty, tasty alcohols
-Nitrous to get me through getting my cavities filled
-Fast cars, loose women
-Huge Beds
-Iron weights
-Books
-Democracy
-The Internet
-Loyal Dogs
-Underwear fresh out of the dryer
-Back Rubs
-Caffeine
-Rock 'N' Roll


There are countless other things that I'm thankful for.  These are but a few off the top of my head.  The point is that I've got it pretty good.  There are very few reasons why I should ever be in a bad mood and the only ones that I can think of involve death.  So on this day think about what you are thankful for and keep it with you every day going forward, not just until the end of dinner.  Speaking of which, I'm going to eat so much fucking turkey.


Song of the Day:

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of thanksgiving." -W.T. Purkiser

Who Wants A Ride?

Being that this is Movember wherein members grow moustaches and raise money to help fight prostate and other men's cancers, I think it is appropriate to bring to light some of the most famous moustaches in history and the great men behind them.  The moustache of late has taken on some negative connotations.  One kid at the gym said that I was close to having a "pedo-stache".  This is a moustache that gives the wearer the look of a pedophile.  To the best of my knowledge the kid has never encountered a true pedophile nor grown a single facial hair in his life so he can't be trusted as a knowledgeable authority on either subject.  Regardless, the moustache has been and will always be a symbol of manhood far and wide.  Here are some of the best.

Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt was hands down the most bad assed president ever.  He was a Harvard Boxing Champion in his early years.  He killed people as the leader of the Rough Riders.  He was a cattle rancher in the old days of the Wild West.  Killed all kinds of endangered species in Africa.  And he once started a speech with, “Ladies and gentle I don’t know if you realize this but I have just been shot.”  Yeah, he’d just been shot.


Arthur Saxon

One of the strongest men to ever have lived.  Still holds the record for the bent press and two-hands anyhow.  Don't know what those lifts are?  Google them.  Want to know how he died?  He was supporting a bridge that had cars on top of it.  The bridge failed and collapsed on top of him.  Pretty awesome way to go.

John L. Sullivan

When you invoke the image of a bare-knuckle boxer you think of John L. Sullivan.  He was one of the greatest pugilists of all time.  And boy did he like to drink.  He was the first American athlete to earn over a million dollars and died with $10 to his name.  Like a boss.

Tom Selleck

Since the 1980’s Webster’s Dictionary has had a picture of Tom Selleck a la Hawaii Five-O in place of the definition of the word moustache.  No words are needed.  Only Tom Selleck’s sweet sweet ‘stache.

Hulk Hogan

If you grew up in America in the 80’s you wanted to be just like Hulk Hogan.  I still remember being amazed when my first grade teacher Mrs. Hunt said that we all had the same muscles as Hulk Hogan, his were just bigger.  After the tank top had been ripped off and the bandanna lost all he had was his famous handlebar moustache to beat the likes of the Iron Sheik and Andre the Giant.  The only question that remains is, “What you gonna do when this sweet handle bar moustache runs wild on you brother!?”

There you have it.  Five awesome examples of manliness to motivate you to grow a sweet moustache.  If everyone does their part we can take back the moustache and cast off the negative connotations.  Will you do your part?

Saturday Night Press Fest & Sunday Morning Back Attack

Saturday Night

Bench Press:
225x2x5
25-x1x5

BTN Push Press:
185x3x5

Dips:
BW+50x5x3

Sunday Morning


Pendlay Rows:
242x3x5
312x1x5

Shrugs:
405x8x5
525x3x5
Threw some chins in there as well

Band Pull Aparts:
3x25
w/
Neck:
2x25

Bonnie, my client who had her first powerlifting meet on Saturday crushed it.  She had two PRs and had a blast in the process.  She definitely wants to do another one.  Team Murder Death Kill is now multi-gendered with another one getting bitten by the iron bug.  Great job, Bonnie.

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things- to compete.  You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated." -Edmund Hillary

Back In The Saddle

After four days of laying low and recovering I'm back.  The days off felt good since my back was sore until Thursday.  I'm still trying to figure out the exact direction of my training.  This may end up being just a go by feel period.  I've always liked having an unstructured training plan.  The only downside of it is that I, like most people, gravitate to the things that I'm good at or like to do and shy away from the things I need to do.  Mainly mobility work.  I'll try to remember the lessons of the past and stay on top of it. 

Here's what I've done the last two days.

Thursday

Snatch:
up to 186x1, 176x1x2

Military Press:
135x5x3

Squats:
315x5x3

Friday

5 rounds of:
Single Arm Dead Lift: 155x5 ea arm

Push Upsx10

And just a reminder that Movember is still going strong.  I've gotten a lot of nice comments on my sweet 'stache so far.  If you want to donate please visit mobro.co/TroyDequaine.

This weekend I'll be in Dubuque, IA helping out a client in her first powerlifting meet.  My guess is that she's going to kick some ass.

Liftageddon Write Up

Liftageddon was like a cold slap in the face.  I don't really feel the need to go into too much detail on each lift but needless to say it was not my strongest day.   I've got a whole list of excuses I want to make as to why but I'll keep them to myself.

Squat warm ups went well until the last warm up set.  It was a single at 455.  For whatever reason my decent was all kinds of messed up.  I broke at the knees first instead of my hips so I had to quick shift back and waste a bunch of energy to right the ship and bring it back up.  I opened at 500 and got it but it was a grinder.  I went 515 and it wasn't even close.  I had zero pop out of the bottom, said, "nope" and let my competent spotter help me up.

Bench went much the same way.  I got my opener at 265.  Grinded out 280.  Then went for 285 and was close but needed help from Lance to finish it.

Dead lift was the lone bright spot.   My opener was 544 even though I didn't know what it was when I pulled it.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and called for 600.  This lift was probably the ugliest and slowest of my life.  I got it but probably would have been red lighted in an actual competition as I hitched the absolute shit out of the bar.  Oh well, there weren't any judges there.

In hind sight there are things that I would definitely do differently.  One would be to rest more in the couple weeks leading up a meet.  I squatted and dead lifted on Tuesday and benched on Thursday.  Not a lot of down time to recover.  There's some other stuff too.  But it's technical and boring and I don't really feel like thinking about it right now.

Next week I'll be taking things easy.  I'll be heading to Dubuque on Friday to handle a client from the gym who is doing her first meet.  Should be a great time.  After that I'll come back with a renewed sense of purpose and a hunger to smash some weights.

Thursday

I'm writing this post on Friday morning, 11.11.11.  A lot of people are getting married today.  Cool.  But more importantly it's Veteran's Day.  I want to say thank you to all of those that have heard the call and served our country.  Without you I wouldn't be sitting in my heated house, drinking coffee, and game planning for the weekend.  I'd probably be taking a shit in an alley somewhere like some kind of goddam animal right before I got in the bread and soup line or something.  We have it easy peazy lemon squeezy in this country and we have our veterans to thank.  So again, thank you.

It was also the Marine Corps birthday yesterday.  236 years young and still putting boots to asses.  Semper Fidelis.

Yesterday I just worked up to my first attempt on bench (265) and it felt pretty good.  After that it was just some chins, dips, push ups, and arms.  Nothing special, just keeping it light and easy before Liftageddon 2011: The Wreck-oning.

In honor of Veteran's Day here's a link to an article that I wrote about an American soldier who I am eternally thankful was on our side.  This guy's story is the kind of stuff they use in movies.  Oh wait, they did!

http://200poundsis200pounds.blogspot.com/2011/03/guys-id-like-to-have-drink-with-vol-2.html

Tuesday

Squat:
worked up to 455x1

Dead Lift:
worked up to 505x1

Single Arm Row:
3x8
w/
Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps

Glute Ham:
4x10
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
4x25

Standing Abs
4x10

Today I just worked up to my last warm up sets on squat and dead lift.  Squat went fine.  Dead lift I can tell I haven't pulled heavy from the floor in a while so it was good to feel some weight.  Saturday is shaping up to be a pretty epic day.  Got to work in the morning, then Liftageddon 2011:The Wreck-oning in the afternoon, then Medieval Times in Shaumberg, IL at night.  Fuckin' A.

Song of the Day:

"Truth is truth to the end of reckoning." -William Shakespeare

Thursday and Friday

Thursday:


Bench:
95x5x2
135x4x2
185x3
225x2
245x1x2
255x1x2
270x1x2

Weighted Dips:
Body Weight (BW)x5
BW+25x4
BW+50x3
BW+75x2
BW+100x1
BW+50x6x3

BTN Push Press:
135x2
155x2
175x2
195x2
205x2x3

Arms

Friday:


Chest Supported Row:
50x10
55x10
60x10
65x10
70x10
75x10

Meadows Row:
5x8 each arm.

10 rounds of this:
Rack Dead Lift (Bar just below knee):
x1 (reps 1,2 @ 445, 3-6 @ 495, 7-10 @ 545)
w/
Rack Pull Ups:
x6

Two pretty good day this past week.  On Saturday is going to be Liftageddon 2011 at NX Level.  Again, since the meet that Lance and I were going to do is full we'll be having our own meet with some of our other lifting friends joining in.  I'm still game planning what I'm going to do this week.  Thinking I might work up to my last warm up sets on squat and dead lift on Tuesday and the same thing for bench on Thursday.  Then on Saturday it'll be nothing but heavy-ass poundages being thrown around all over the place.  Can't wait.

Song of the Day:

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -H.L. Mencken

Tuesday- Lower

Squat:
135x5x2
225x4,3
315x2
405x1
445x1x2
475x1x2
500x1x2

Dead Lift:
300x1x3
330x1x3
360x1x9 (one rep every :20 seconds)

Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps
w/
Band Resisted Glute Ham:
3x12

Power Wheel Walks:
3x20 yards

Dip Bar Straight Leg Raises:
3x12

Pretty good session today.  Squats felt really good.  Dead lift went smooth.  Accessory stuff is accessory stuff. And don't forget, today is Movember First.  Check the links below.

Movember- us.movember.com
My MoSpace- mobro.co/TroyDequaine

Song of the Day:

"A man without a moustache is like a cup of tea without sugar." -English Proverb