Holy Schnikies!

DE Bench: 8x3 w/175lbs bar weight

3xnarrow grip w/ 2 chains/side

3xmed grip w/ 3 chains/side

2xwide grip w/ 4 chanis/side

Standing Press: 3x5 @ 170

Weighted Dips: 5x10 w/ 35lbs

Fat Bar Chins: 2x8; 2x6 w/35lbs

Cable Cross Rev. Flys: 3x12

DB Complex: Burpee Snatch, Renegade Row, Pushups

x10,8,6,6

I don't know where to start or where to begin. Bench felt good. Chains threw me off a little bit. I need to be more stable at the top with the chains swinging around. Presses, Dips, and Chins all went off without a hitch. DB Complex left me breathing heavy and sweating hard, which is nice.

Now I want to introduce you to someone whom I look up to in the sport of powerlifting. His name is Doug Young.

As you can see from the picture the man sweats testosterone from every pore. No comb in the world could contain the badge of manhood he proudly wears across his entire chest. Not only that, the dude was balls-ass strong. Competing in the 242 lb weight class his best competition lifts include a 722 lb squat, a 610 lb bench press, a 738 lb. deadlift, and a 2017 lb. total. All this was done before weightlifting gear like squat suits, and bench shirts were even invented or used in competition. Shit that guy was strong.

Sadly Doug passed a few years ago from a massive heart attack. I read somewhere it happened while he was eating. Definitely a noble way to go.

Now, not only was Doug stronger than three week old piss, but he had a physique that any man would be proud to sport. I haven't told anybody this, but it is my goal to someday look and perform like Doug Young. I'm not going to be naive and say he did it totally natural, but a guy can chase a dream can't he? Vince Lombardi said, "We are going to chase perfection knowing full well we will never achieve it. But in the process we will achieve greatness."

To look like you are the strongest guy in any room you walk into in your entire life is one thing, but to look and be the strongest guy in any room you walk into is a whole other. That is my goal. If anyone tries to shit in my cereal on this one, I'm done with you and your negativity.

"I don't do tricks. I'm not going to lift cars for people. I'm not a clown." -Doug Young

Circle of Friends Winter 2010 Trip: Day 4

I last left you hanging on the edge of your seat after I had just eaten breakfast. I teased you with the fact that I was going to be singing karaoke tonight but didn't tell you which song(s). More on the in a minute. This afternoon we went to the Trailmates Snowmobile Club near Wausau. The Trailmates do a great job every year and give the kids fun rides, great food, and a nice, little puppet show.

Group photos followed the snowmobile rides. Lots of great memories will be brought up when I look at those photos. Great kids and a great group of people.

As soon as photos were done the helicopter took off. This was the first time I had ever seen this and it was pretty impressive. The helicopter was maybe a hundred yards out and the snowball fight started. There was a lot of snow thrown, a couple face washes, and a few tears. no one was hurt though. Well, maybe Pete's pride was hurt since his kids are as big as he is and threw him around like such. Either way it was a great day at the snowmobile club.

Dinner was held at the Pine Ridge Supper Club. We had chicken, roast beef, corn, and mashed potatoes and gravy. A lot of the kids got a little overzealous with the sweet tea and were bouncing off the walls by the time the dance started. There were some classic cuts, new stuff, and even a few Beatles songs.

For my first song I sang a duet with our photographer Andi. We sang "Leather and Lace" by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley. Some of the kids danced but I don't think it was my strongest performance. Andi carried us. Johnny encouraged me to go to my "go-to" song for a solo. There was only one song that fit that bill. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". I'm not a good singer at all. I have a nasally singing voice and I don't know how to breath properly, but when I'm singing that song I don't care. I get lost in the moment and it's just me and the mic. One of the kids, Koree, was singing too and he probably sounded better than me, but you know what? I felt like a super star out there.

I think my destiny is to be one of those delusional losers on American Idol. One of those contestants that truly in their heart-of-hearts believes that they are a great singer destined for stardom when they are actually destined to crawl back to where ever they came from and stay there. Anyways it was a fun night dancing and singing.

When we got back to hotel we had are last meeting as a group. This is where we acknowledge all the kids in the group and they can hang the hearts they made on the tree. After the heart hanging we all sit in a circle with unlit candles. As we move around the room we light each candle and each person has the opportunity to say whatever they want to say. Some say a lot, some say a little, and some chose not to say anything. Either way it is very touching to hear what everyone has to say. There are a lot of great people and a lot of great kids that were a part of this year's group.

I thanked Jerry for allowing me to be a part of his wonderful organization, Cassie and Austin for putting on a wonderful trip, the players for taking time out of their busy schedules to have fun with the kids, Jenny and Kevin for all the work that they do that sometimes goes unnoticed but not unappreciated, the Wunsch family for allowing all of us to be an extended part of their family, my fellow counselor for making it easy on me to be one of them, and most importantly I thanked the kids. These kids have gone through more in their young lives than they or anyone should have to. They give to me more than I could ever give to them. When my days get long, or I feel tired and/or unmotivated I think about these kids. I think about the smiles that I see on these trips and the fun they have in the face of the cancer that they are fighting. I know that if they can stay strong I can stay strong. I know that if they can keep smiling I can keep smiling.

"Keep your face always towards the sunshine-and shadows will fall behind you." -Walt Whitman

Saturday Training

My fellow counselor Johnny was sawing down the entire Wausau area forest this morning so I got up around 7am and went and trained. I did what you could call German Volume Training. Here goes...

Bulgarian Split Squats: 8x10 each side
w/
Feet Elevated Hip Extensions: 8x10

Burpees: 8x10 w/ 20 seconds rest between sets

Incline Treadmill: 20 mins.

Breakfast was 8 sausage links, coffee, 2 cups of milk, and some fruit. Today we are going snowmobiling at a local snowmobile club. Later tonight is the dinner, dance, and karaoke. I'm still thinking about which song I want to sing. It's probably going to be a love song since tomorrow is America's biggest Hallmark Holiday. It's gonna be sweet. I will post later tonight with all the details.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." -Maya Angelou

Circle of Friends Winter 2010 Trip: Day 3

Today started earlier than anyone wanted it to. 7am wakeup; 7:30am breakfast; left for Granite Peak Ski Area at 8:30am. Once we got all the kids outfitted in their ski gear I headed over to the bunny hill. I can't tell you how many times people were shocked I had never really been skiing before. The first time I ever downhill skied was last year on this same trip. I tried my hand at a few bunny runs, fell a few times, made an ass of myself trying to get up, gave up skiing to watch and help the kids.

By the end of the day all the kids ended up skiing which was great because we had a few at the beginning that didn't want to. All of the kids picked up skiing much better than I did. I guess my natural athletic ability is limited to lifting weights and bowling. That's ok, I can't rule at everything. We left the ski area around 2pm and returned to the hotel. By the time we got back we only had about 45 minutes until we left for the Anklem's Farm. Some of us almost didn't make it to the bus after taking a short trip down Sand Man Lane.

We got to the farm and the kids got to play with the dogs and pet the horses. We then saddled up for the sleigh ride to the bonfire. The sleigh ride took a nice winding route to the bonfire area in the middle of the woods. At the bonfire we ate hot dogs, s'mores, and pudgie pies. If you don't know what a pudgie pie is, it's a sandwich with pasta sauce, pepperoni, and cheese that is baked inside a campfire sandwich maker. What I'm trying to say is that our pudgie pies were totally awesome. After a big thank you and some hugs we then went back to the hotel. Some of the other male counselors and I managed to fill the entire half hour bus ride back to the hotel with poop stories. This type of thing has been happening for centuries and I still here women ask, "Why and how are you still talking about poop?" I don't rightly know either. Just accept it and move on gals. At the hotel the kids played in the water park or in the arcade. Now the water park is closed and me and some of the boys are about to head up to the community room for snacks and games.

Peace.

I'm outta here.

"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines" -Walt Whitman

Circle of Friends Winter 2010 Trip: Day 2

I started this morning with a little training in the hotel exercise room. Nothing special, but I'm starting to feel a little sore.

5 min treadmill warmup
Pushups: 10x10
w/ Chinups: 10x10
w/ Dips: 10x10

Breakfast was at 9 am. I loaded up on the eggs, ham, and sausage. After breakfast we loaded up the bus to head to Sylvan Hills. Sylvan Hills is a tubing hill only. Since tubing is all they do they do it well. The runs were fast, smooth, and totally exhilarating. Here's a video.



Now I'm no rocket surgeon, but logic tells me that the heavier I am the faster and farther I will go. We had a group of six people link up in a straight line. Lighter people were in the front, heavies in the back. I should now say that at the bottom of the hill there is an area of wood chips and bark that goes up into a steep hill to stop your descent. The group of six proved to be too much for the mound of wood chips and the first two kids in the line went right over the back. Luckily no one was hurt or worse for wear. In any case all the kids had a blast and will be remembering Sylvan Hills for years to come.

We then came back to the hotel and the kids had some free time to play in the indoor water park. This indoor water park is actually pretty first rate. Three big slides, basketball, and an area for the younger kids. I went down the slides a few times and splashed around with some of the kids and then got out and just watched them have fun.

Tonight was taco night for dinner. After dinner we went cosmic bowling. It was out of this world. I learned tonight that I'm actually a pretty decent bowler. Two of the other counselors who I made look foolish last year were talking big game about how they were going to get me back this year. Uh uh. Not up in here. My first game was my best game with me clocking in at 179. I then went 153 and 136 winning all three games. The fourth and final game came down to the end. The two counselors, Lou and Doug, were steadily gaining ground on me through the first three games. If you added their two scores in the first game they still wouldn't have beaten me. But now they were making it interesting. I was in great danger of falling way behind around the seventh frame. I focused, controlled my breathing, and hit two strikes in the eighth and ninth frames retaking the lead. In the tenth I left two easy pins after my first roll. I then miss fired and only knocked one down. Lou then came through in the clutch and hit what he needed to hit to beat me 152 to 148. I'm not mad though. I'll let the old folks have their glory every now and then.

It is now 11:50 and the kids are eating candy and I need sleep. Guess which one is going to happen and which one isn't.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing" -George Bernard Shaw

Circle of Friends Trip: Day 1

Today is the first day of the Circle of Friends 2010 Winter Trip. The day started with Nurse Adam, Sam, Toriean, Rachelle, and I driving a rental van up to Green Bay to meet all the other groups. There are groups from Tampa, New Orleans, Atlanta, Wausau, and Milwaukee. From the airport we all went to Kroll's West which is right across the street from Lambeau Field. I had a butter burger and a side of cottage cheese. I'm going to try to eat as healthy as I can on this trip, key word "try".

At Kroll's we sat with our groups. I am a counselor for the Falcons aka The Dirty Birds. Big Johnny is the other counselor. Definitely one of the nicest men I've ever met. Our kids are Demitri, Lance, and Adam. Demitri and Lance are pretty chill. Adam is another story. He's got energy to spare to say the least.

After lunch at Kroll's we went across the street to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. We got a behind the scenes look at the field itself. The kids got to go run around the field and take pics. I look pretty damn good doing the Lambeau Leap. Trivia: Who was the first Packer to perform the Lambeau Leap? Answer: Leroy Butler.

Anyways after the kids tired themselves out on the field we got to go into the Packers Locker room. It was nice of them to have my locker ready for the coming season. Right at home my fellow D-linemen. After the kids took all the pictures they could we saddled for the 1.5 hour ride to Wausau. Dinner, opening meeting, calls home, games in the community room, counselor meeting, and just a little TV rounded out the remainder of tonight's agenda.

Tomorrow it's tubing at Sylvian Hills. We weren't able to go last year due to lack of snow and an over abundance of ice. I'm pretty pumped. I've heard some stories of the hill. Speed records might be broken. What am I saying? Speed records will be broken.

I'm also going to train in the exercise room in the morning. I'm thinking 100 pushups, 100 chinups, and 100 dips. Maybe some running too. We'll see.

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" -Benjamin Franklin

Breakin' Necks and Cashin' Checks

The PRs just keep on a coming. I tried Advocare's Muscle Fuel for the first time today and one PR and came close to another. I used Spark Energy Drink yesterday and set three PRs. I'm really liking this Advocare stuff.

Squat: 225x3; 315x3; 405x1; 455x1; 495x1; 535x1

The 535 is 10 pounds away from my PR. Soon young Skywalker...soon.

DL: 375x1; 485x1; 550x1; 585x1 (PR)

The 585 felt awesome. My previous best was 573 and I hitched the shit out of it. Today was smooth as Jameson Irish Whiskey. No hitches, a clean lock out at the top, and smooth all the way to the last drop. I can smell 600 and a nice Jameson sour. Damn those are good.

GH Hypers: 3x10 @ BW
Slosh Pipe Sit-Ups: 3x10
w/ Walking Plank: 3x10 yards

This was all I had the motivation to do. Maxing out on two lower body lifts is extremely taxing on the nervous system and I don't want to overtrain. If I'm going to err it is going to be on the undertraining side.

I'm leaving for Wausau tomorrow to chaperon the Wunsch Family Foundation Winter '10 Trip. It is going to be a great time for the kids. Skiing, tubing, snowmobiles, sleigh rides, camp fires, water parks, and such and such. I'm going to train twice while I'm there. They are going to be accessory movements only. Nothing big. Maybe only body weight stuff. I'm not 100% sure if I will have interweb access at the hotel but if I do I will post. If not, you'll have to wait for a massive post Sunday. Until then, Hold Fast.

"Not I- not anyone else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself." -Walt Whitman