Weekend Update: Playing Catch Up, An Awesome 11 year-old, and the Hometown He-Man Crushatorium

This week's training only...

Tuesday:


Squat: up to 455x1, 435x4, 315x15

Bench Press: 225 x 10 singles

Friday:


Front Squat: up to 315 x 1

Dead Lift: 515x1, 455x 2 sets of 3

Single Arm DB Press: 82x3x3

I've been crazy busy lately.  The secret is out that NX Level Sports Performance is pretty much the cat's pajamas when it comes to being trained by some studly, handsome, non-creepy performance coaches.  Our Summer Rush started at work earlier this month and we've been jam packed with people looking to improve their fitness, performance, and overall awesome quotient.  Last week  I had an 11 year-old kid say to me, "I'd rather come to NX Level than go to practice four times per week because NX Level makes me stronger physically and mentally."

Damn.

That kid is way ahead of the game in terms of getting "it".  Sports and training aren't for everyone but the lessons gleaned from them can be applied across all areas of life.  Especially the mentally tough part.  Resilience is a commodity that seems to be in short supply these days.  People would rather throw something out, whether it's a broken chair or a broken marriage, than put in the work to fix it.  I just saw this quote today and it applies perfectly here:

"Falling down is how we grow.  Staying down is how we die." -Brian Vaszily

Everyone fails.  But those that learn and fail forward are the ones that come out on top.  Think about that when things get tough.

Since I'm moving in a few weeks it was inevitable that West Allis Barbell was going to be closing its garage doors for good.  But like a Phoenix rising from the ashes Amy's garage is no longer a garage and is now the Hometown He-Man Crushatorium will be taking its place.  Big ups to Eric for coming up with the name.  The Crushatorium is in the very early stages of development.  There is still garage stuff in it and only some of the equipment is there.  But in the coming months the floor and walls will be redone so that it can be trained in 12 months a year.  If you are in the Chicago area and are looking for an awesome place to train let me know and perhaps you too can call the Crushatorium home.

June is definitely the worst month for NFL fans.  Sick of the drama.  Just want football.

Training two heavy days per week is going really well.  It fits my schedule much better, I'm getting stronger and not feeling as run down as when I was four days per week.  During the week I'll also try to fit in a few quick lighter workouts.  I've actually had to talk myself out of going heavy and keeping things light.  Being excited to train is key if you want to ever get better.  Going in with a ho-hum attitude usually leads to Fuckabout-itis and ultimately diminished returns.  The last thing you should do is try to jam yourself into a circle hole if you are a square peg.  Find what works for you and what you enjoy and do it up.

As for me it's time for a dog walk and then some weight crushing.  Have a great rest of the weekend.

Weekend Update: Warrior Dash, Flippy Cup, and some Training

Tuesday

Squat: 455 x 5 singles

Bench Press: 225 x 5 singles

Friday

Hi Bar Squat: 365 x 1

Bench Press: 225 x 3 x3

Saturday

Warrior Dash

Training was pretty OK this week.  I decided to switch the squats up a bit on Tuesday and used the Buffalo bar.  It doesn’t change the actual lift too much but it is a little easier on the shoulders.  I’m going to stay somewhat conservative and not push the envelope too hard on squatting.  Just going to keep plugging away and when the numbers come they’ll come.  I’m going to try doing three week cycles that I just made up.  Week one will be working up to a daily max or, 1RM.  Week two will be working up to a 3 or 5RM.  Week three will be five singles and week one’s max.  Then wash, rinse, repeat using slightly bigger numbers the next week.

My right shoulder area (trap, shoulder, scapula, lat) is knot city, especially my trap.  The trap is the muscle that sits above your collar bone between you neck and shoulder.  When I bench my trap will pull my shoulder and upper arm into an unwanted angle and mess up the rep.  For the time being I’m going to keep my bench press weight at 225 and below and just hammer away on technique and getting my trap to relax during the lift.  Taking some time and working that stuff out will be much better than just pushing through it and possibly hurting it.  If I were to hurt my shoulder all I would hear is Mr. Mister’s Broken Wings in my head.

I ran the Warrior Dash today with my girlfriend Amy and her sister, Mandy.  I’m not much of a runner but these are definitely fun things to do. 

If you are not much of an exerciser it is a fun thing to train towards since there are a lot of obstacles that require you to have some bodyweight strength to go along with the endurance needed to finish the race.  However, if you are in the neighborhood of 150 pounds overweight then perhaps you shouldn’t do it.  We passed two women who had to be three hundred pounds being prodded along by a woman whom I’m assuming is their trainer.  They left before us and finished well after us.  My best estimate says that it took them two hours to traverse 3.1 miles and a few obstacles.  I give them credit for finishing but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  Just sayin’.

I want to wish my Flippy Cup team (which has been renamed District 5 instead of Team MDK {Muder Death Kill} in my absence) good skill in the Third Annual Joe Jarosz Classic. 

We’ve lost in the finals to Team What the Flip? The last two years.  Both years What the Flip’s? victories came tainted with an asterisk.  Year one one of WTF’s team members got a little too drunk and was calling fouls on fill lines and anything else that crossed her fancy and many of WTF’s team members would just wander off between flips delaying the game.  Eventually Eric and I just said, “Fuck it.”  Year Two Team WTF competed with a pregnant team member who didn’t drink.  It was apparently Ok’d by the rules committee but seriously, one of the challenges of the game is flipping the cup while inebriated.  Hopefully this year tells a different story.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend.  Stay cool it’s gonna be HOT!

Marlyn "Duke" Dequaine: 7.2.1927 -6.4.2012

On Monday my grandfather, Marlyn "Duke" Dequaine, passed away due to complications from a stroke.  He was 84 years-old.  You can read the obituary here.

My grandpa is a figure that I've drawn a lot of lessons from over the years. 

Today we have people who will actively protest soldiers who protect their freedom to protest.  He lied about his age TO GO TO WAR after his brother had been captured and taken as a P.O.W.

Today we have men who will collect unemployment instead of work because the only jobs available are "below them."  He delivered mail everyday for years to support his family.

Today we have men who will belittle others simply because of an honest mistake.  I've never seen my grandpa get mad and I'm sure he didn't have an angry bone in his body.

Today we have kids who hate to read and can barely hold a conversation for five minutes.  He loved to read about architecture simply because it fascinated him.  He could participate in conversations on almost any subject but was also happy to just sit back and listen.

My grandpa's life story isn't extraordinary.  He just liked to read, collect anything and everything, watch Lawrence Welk, and be with his family.  But he did the ordinary things extraordinarily well.  He was an awesome grandpa and a better human being.  He had a positive impact on everyone who met him and he will be missed dearly.

Weekend Update: Training, College Kids, and A BIG Announcement

Tuesday

Squat: up to 455x1

Strict Press: 135x5x3

Friday

Bench Press: up to 265x1

Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 sets of 8

Zercher Squat from the pins: 6 singles at 305

Paired with

Chins or Lat Pulldowns

I’m only writing down the two heavy days at this point.  I did some light stuff on Monday and Thursday but don’t really remember what.  I need to get back in the habit of keeping a hard copy of my training.  Either way I was happy with how this week went.  I’m not trying to push the intensity too much right at the outset.  I’m going to more or less let the weight dictate itself depending on how I’m feeling.  It’s more of a freestyle, self-regulated why to train as opposed to having strict percentages to work off of.  Neither is better than the other.  Percentages give you a solid goal to work towards.  Almost like a challenge.  Doing the freestyle thing is something that takes a few years under the bar to really know how to work it.  It also takes me not being a baby if I don’t work up to the goal I usually have in my head before the session starts.

If you don’t know it by now I’m a big coffee drinker.  Not to the point that I can distinguish between two different types of brews and I’m also not going to be hanging out in Starbuck’s any time soon.  But I do love a solid cup of joe.  There is a lot of evidence coming out right now that coffee could actually be considered a health drink.  Blasphemy, you say?  Well, here are a few reasons for its recent pub:

- It’s calorie free (when you drink it black.  Adding cream and sugar definitely change that.)

- It’s got crazy tons of anti-oxidants

- The caffeine makes you more alert during the sagging hours of the day

- It’s been implicated in helping prevent certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, certain cancers, and women’s depression

So go ahead and drink up.  But obviously, don’t go overboard.  Caffeine addiction’ll getcha.

Sweet vindication!  I was perusing one of the muscle-mag websites I frequent and a very well-known (Christian Thibaudeau) bodybuilding and strength coach talked about doing explosive movements after strength and hypertrophy work.  I AM NOT the first person to try or champion this approach.  I had actually heard of an Olympic weightlifting coach who would occasionally do strength work first and then heavy clean and snatch pulls second.  That’s why I decided to give it a shot.  I liked it.  You might too.

Being as it’s now June we are starting to get our college kids back at the gym.  I always like this time of year.  The youthful exuberance of experiencing a part of the world free from parental limitation is a refreshing thing to see.  To see kids that are excited about learning and expanding their world-view, whatever it might be, gives me some confidence for the future. 

To me the wanting to learn, and to some extent the want to read, are two very important things that are missing from the youth.  You can blame the internet, video games, modern music, or whatever but what I think it comes down to is an overstimulation.  Kids are so overstimulated with sights, sounds, tastes, and smells that sitting down to read a book or put their focus on one single subject is like a slow painful death to them.  They are addicted to that stimulation and will satisfy it somehow. 

Speaking of college kids, seeing kids that I knew when they were in eighth grade come back from their first or second year of college makes me feel incredibly old.  These kids were born in the mid 90’s.  When someone says, “Yeah, that was like ten years ago.” my first thought is, “Yeah, like 1998….Shit.”  So it goes.

Alright everybody, take a knee.  I’ve got an announcement.  As many of you know I was born and raised, went to school, and worked in Wisconsin.  Well, a Siren by the name of Amy has stolen my heart and lured me down to Illinois.  I will be moving at the end of July.

I’ll give you a minute to pick your jaws up off the floor.

Okay, good.  In all seriousness this change has been coming for a while.  We decided to move forward with it in February.  To my NX Level family, you guys were the one thing that was holding me back from pulling the trigger on it earlier.  I love ya'll that much.  I’ve built up some awesome relationships that I’m sure will last a lifetime; it’s just going to be hard not seeing you every day and helping you achieve your goals.  

Whenever a big change like this happens I always try to focus on the good and be glad for the experiences and the people and not be sad that it’s ending.  So again thank you to all of the people who have had a positive impact on my life in Wisconsin.  I am truly grateful and will miss the shit out of all of you.

I think that’s a good way to end this week.  Have an awesome rest of the weekend and get outside and soak up some vitamin D.

What A Beautiful Snatch You Have!

Ah, the snatch.  It is, without a doubt, my favorite exercise to watch and perform.  The finely-tuned mechanics coupled with otherworldly raw power required to be the best in the world make it a spectacle to see.  In case you are unfamiliar, the snatch requires the lifter to bring the bar from the ground to overhead in one motion.  Here is Dmitry Klokov, one of the best weightlifters in the world, doing his thing with 205 kilos.  For all of us ‘Mericans, that’s 451 lbs.  Sheeeeit.

Up until my summer internship in 2006 at NX Level I was only somewhat aware of the lift.  I had never done it before.  Since we have our athletes perform the hang version I had to learn myself up quick.  I’m not afraid to say that I was definitely afraid of doing it with any kind of serious weight.  By then I had seen what could happen if you let an elbow or shoulder get a little lose during the lift.  But I started slowly with an empty bar and became mildly proficient at it to the point that I could teach it to athletes. 

We don’t test our athlete’s max on the lift however and never do the full lift (from the platform).  We use it as a means to an end.  From an athletic performance standpoint the snatch is great for teaching and developing explosive power through what is called the triple extension.  This is the rapid and forceful straightening of the hip knees and ankles.  This is what happens in the lower body during a jump, acceleration, and a bone-jarring tackle.

In the little over five years since I first started doing the lift it has come and gone a couple of times in my training.  Because of this there is one definite that I can tell you about the lift.  To be good at it you have to do it.  A lot. 

Performing the snatch doesn’t make you stronger, per se.  The weight is usually too low to get any kind of adaptation from it.  Performing the snatch relatively often in your training, like 2-5 times per week, makes you more efficient at the snatch.  Squats, dead lifts, and presses will make you stronger in the positions that you are put in during the execution of the lift.  Snatching and becoming more efficient ensures there is no wasted effort or faulty mechanics that will cause a missed lift.  My best effort in the lift came when I was practicing it three times per week (100 kilos or 220 lbs. in case you were wondering!).  To me that’s why I like it.  It requires great efforts of strength, technical prowess and concentration.  It’s a lifter’s lift.

If you are thinking about using the snatch in your training or want to see what kind of weight you can do I would strongly urge you to seek out a coach who can teach you the proper way to perform the lift safely.  There is even a chance that the snatch will not be a lift that you can perform safely due to underlying movement dysfunctions whether it be immobile hips or tight shoulders or some other contraindication.  If you don’t get a qualified coach you could end up like these clowns.  That would be bad.

Weekend Update: Memorial Day Edition

Monday

Bent Rows: 265x1231, 200x5x3

Tuesday

Squat: 405 x 14 total reps

Thursday

8 rounds of:

Strict Military Press: 175x1

w/

Dead Lift: 500x1

Friday

Small recover-style workout

Not going to lie.  Every day, except for maybe Tuesday, felt like a pile of shit.  I have definitely accumulated the fatigue I was hoping to.  Now I’m going to do no training until Tuesday to rest up.  Most would take a full week off in this case.  I don’t think I need a full week.  I just need to get some quality calories in me and do one or two more recovery type workouts (which are mostly mobility and flexibility drills anyways) and I should be good to go on Tuesday.  Here is how I’m going plan it out.

Monday: Light recovery work

Tuesday: Heavy Squat, Moderate-Heavy strict military press, upper back/scapula stability

Wednesday: Light recovery or conditioning or both

Thursday: Light recovery or conditioning or both

Friday: Heavy bench press, moderate-heavy dead lift, upper back/scapula stability

Saturday: Light recovery or conditioning or both

Sunday: Off completely

Notes:  Light recovery work is the small accessory lifts that I usually don’t feel like doing at the end of sessions like reverse hypers, face pulls, arms, calves, etc…. Dead lift work is going to take the form of single leg work for at least a few weeks and will then transition into trap bar and then after a few months straight bar work…I’ve always lifted heavy at least three days per week so I’m kind of excited to see where only two heavy days and the extra recovery will take me….Carbs will be very high on my heavy days and low to moderate on the recovery and conditioning days depending on what my activity levels were and where my weight is at…Conditioning is going to be sprints, prowler pushes, or hill sprints.  No need to over complicate it…Fridays, regardless of what I, or anyone else, is doing, are now tank top or basketball jersey Fridays.  Plan accordingly.

The Reign Man!

Another wedding is going down this weekend.  My cousin Sara is getting married in Green Bay on Saturday.  I’m looking forward to seeing my family as it’s usually only Christmas that I do.  I’m going to do my best to get my dad drunk.  It should be a good time.

I’ve been kind of slow in getting articles up lately but don’t worry; I’ve got a few in the works right now.  It’s all about finding time to do the research and put my thoughts on the page.  It can be a lot harder than you think.

Now, on to the good stuff.  Memorial Day Weekend is upon us in this great land of ours and I kept help but feel immense gratitude for those that have served in the military.  It’s a calling that I myself resisted and let fall upon another. 

At some point or another we all bitch about something in this country, whether it be war, politics, religion, the economy and the countless other things that ultimately don’t really matter.  What does matter is that we give thanks to those that have put themselves in harm’s way to enable us to bitch about these trivial matters.  We can argue abortion until we’re all blue in the face and absolutely no one will change their stance. 

What we lose sight of is the fact that there are those in the military that will literally step in front of a bullet aimed at the original document, written over two hundred years ago, that granted us the freedom to waste time in that way.  So this weekend if you know a vet or even just see one on your travels thank them for their service.  They’ll appreciate it and you may even get a badass story out of it.  Now go do something that the troops would be proud of.

Weekend Update: Fatigue, NX Level, and A Whole Lotta Chest Hair

Monday:

Pendlay Rows: 260X123123123

DB Bench Press: 3x10

Dips/ Face Pulls/ Curls circuit

Tuesday:

Squat: 385x123123123

Snatch: 152x2x5

Barbell Bulgarian Split Squat: 5x10

Thursday:

Clean and Push Press: 210x123123123

DB Bench: 5x10

Single Arm Row: 4x8

Friday:

Dead Lift: 485x12312312111 (holy shit this sucked)

Holy crap I am feeling it this week.  The fatigue from the last five weeks has definitely caught up with me.  My shoulder prevented me from doing barbell bench press on my upper body days.  Pendlay rows felt crazy heavy.  Dead Lifts on Friday completely wiped me out.  Squats… felt pretty good.  That’s the way it goes usually.  One or two lifts will be going awesome while others stagnate or slide back a bit.  I completed all the reps I set out to complete so I can’t be too upset.

Next week is the last week of this accumulation phase.  I’ll probably repeat the weights from this week.  After that I’m going to take a few days to rest up and then I’m going to switch to a max strength phase.  Intensity (weight being used) is going to stay high but my volume will drop way down.  I’m going to be working in the 1-3 rep range on my main lifts and then in the 6-10 rep range for my accessory.  The sets will be way less than what I’ve been doing.

I’m going to have two heavy sessions each week and two or three light sessions each week.  I’m going to write up two or three heavy workouts for upper and lower body and the same for the light workouts.  I’ll then just rotate the workouts.  So week one will be heavy upper and lower #1 and week two will be heavy upper and lower #2.  It’s kind of hard to explain so I’ll lay it out in a future post.

I’m going to an engagement party today for my friends Lance and Katie.  I’ve never been to one before.  I heard the dress is going to be business romantic so I’ll be keeping the top two buttons of my shirt unbuttoned, my chest hair dancing in the wind.  Not sure what’s more romantic than that. 

With this accumulation phase I’ve been eating a lot on my lifting days (weekends too).  I’ve gotten my weight to be consistent around 200 pounds.  This is where I want to stay.  Once I switch to my max strength phase I’ll work to keep my weight at 200 but slowly (talking months to yearish) dropping fat while building up muscle.  Recomposition diets can be effective but you have to give them a while to see any results.  Dropping fat or gaining weight can be done relatively quickly but doing both at the same time is difficult at best.  It’s hard to sit on two horses with one ass.

NX Level celebrated its 7^th year anniversary this past week.  I’ve been there for just under six and it’s been amazing to watch it grow into what it is.  Awesome clients and a great group of trainers that care more about results and building lasting relationships with clients than the bottom line.  In most things if you take care of the former the latter will work its way out.

Get your ass here if you care about sports.

I went a little crazy on Amazon a few weeks ago and now have a stack of five books or so that I need to get through.  Some are on training concepts and others are just books that I wanted to read.  This means I’ll probably be doing a recommended reading post again in the future.  If anyone has any suggestions on some good reading materials I’m all ears.

That’s all I got for this week.  I hope everyone does some awesome stuff this weekend.  Because if you don’t then what the hell is the point?