I am always learning more and applying it to my clients. My techniques come from extensive research coupled with in the trenches experience.
This blog will be of my personal workouts, my clients, and any basic information I feel like sharing from the fitness industry.
Bigger....Stronger....Faster
Slept in a little today and it felt good. I needed it after last nights legs. It was one of those training sessions where I kind of blacked out and kept pushing harder and wanted to keep on going even when I knew my body had had enough.
Training Session: Legs
Sumo Deadlifts: 5x5 335lbs x 5 335lbs x 5 335lbs x 5 335lbs x 5 335lbs x 5
Partner Assisted Glute and Ham Raise: 3 sets (You get into a "praying" position on both knees, have your partner hold your feet down. Try to lean forward as far as you can without falling face first into the floor, give yourself a slight push back up, and use your hamstrings to fight back up all the way. These are crazy.) BW x 7 BW x 8 BW x 8
Parking Lot Dumbbell Lunges: 2 sets 25lbs x 45 feet 25lbs x 45 feet
The Finisher: Incline Parking Lot Lunge: 1 set 25lbs x 150 feet (Thats no typo, I had to concentrate really hard on not puking after this set. My mouth was watering, you know that feeling.)
Seated Calf Raise: 3 Sets(Slow eccentric, 12 second pause in the full stretch position, and a quick concentric) 230lbs x 8 230lbs x 7 239lbs x 6
This morning I had my clients use the new keg for some light cleans and presses. They liked the variety of training and were looking forward to using it in our future sessions. It didnt feel right bringing a keg into work, but oh well. I need to find a cap for the top of the keg because it leaks a little bit when tilted on its side. I am thinking about a rubber stopper or a PVC cap that will allow me to increase or decrease the weight inside the keg while also fighting against leaks. Now to the good stuff, last nights training:
Training: Push
Muscle Clean to Press supersetted with Push Ups: 3 Sets 185lbs x 4, 25 push ups 185lbs x 4, 25 push ups 185lbs x 4, 25 push ups
Cable Side Laterals supersetted with Push Ups: 3 Sets 25lbs x 20, 25 push ups 30lbs x 15, 25 push ups 30lbs x 15, 25 push ups
Rope Front Raise supersetted with Push Ups: 3 Sets 50lbs x 15, 25 push ups 50lbs x 15, 25 push ups 50lbs x 15, 25 push ups
Overhead Barbell Shrugs supersetted with Push Ups: 2 Sets 135lbs x 15, 25 push ups 135lbs x 12, 25 push ups
I stole this from my boy CJ. Its some deep shit and I figured I would share it with everyone. "Some people come to a point in their life when they have been through so much bull shit and so much pain that they become numb. Completely oblivious to everything and everyone around them. They become virtually untouchable. Pain no longer exists. Lunacy? Maybe. But more so reality than anything else."
Got hip dominant legs tonight, so Im off to pounding a Spike and N.O. Xplode. Check back in tomorrow.
Today I created my newest torturing tool for myself and my clients. I took an empty keg from my boys graduation party and cleaned it out. I took apart the tap and put some water in it. Talk about an unstable training tool. An empty keg weighs 30lbs, and I can add up to 130lbs of water (you will be hard pressed to find someone who can clean and press 160lbs of an unstable object). I made Term use it for clean and presses last night and it was probably weighing in at about 55lbs. The whole time you are performing these your core is firing in order to stabalize your body. On Saturdays, I plan on adding a sandbag/keg/car push day into my training. Some of the movements that we will incorporate:
-Clean to Press -Overhead Squat -Overhead Walking Lunge -Chest Throw -Sumo Throw -Overhead Throw -Complex Training
(I stole the keg on the right when nobody was looking)
These type of movements are extremely beneficial, they tap into the high threshold motor units, improve static strength, strength endurance, aerobic/anaerobic capacity (depending on the exact movement), and give you a break from your monotonous regular training program. Plus, they are fun.
As for yesterdays training:
Training Session: Pull
Barbell Rows:3 sets 225lbs x 12 275lbs x 10 295lbs x 6
Cable Lat Pulldowns with Extended ROM: 3 sets(4-5 second eccentric with fast concentric) 110lbs x 12 110lbs x 9 110lbs x 8
Cybex Row supersetted with Reverse Flyes: 3 sets (4-5 second eccentric with fast concentric) 130lbs x 15, 35lbs x 12 190lbs x 8, 35lbs x 12 190lbs x 8, 35lbs x 12
High Pulls on Cable Row supersetted with Standing calf raises: 2 sets (slow eccentric, hold for 12 seconds in stretched position, and fast concentric was used for the calf raises) 50lbs x 12, 100lbs x 8 50lbs x 12, 100lbs x 7
Thats it for today, check back in tomorrow.
Be Easy,
Video of the Day:(Its long but well worth the watch)
Legs are DONE. Absolutely killed them with Lester yesterday.
Legs (quad dominant):
Leg Press: 3 Sets 790lbs x 12 810lbs x 8 810lbs x 7
Sissy Squats on Hack Machine: 3 Sets 25lbs x 12 25lbs x 12 25lbs x 12
Leg Extensions: 2 sets 170lbs x 20 170lbs x 20
Barbell Walking Lunges: 3 Sets (Took the 70lb barbell out to the parking lot. The first 35 feet were on a slight decline, and then we turned around and had to go back up it to finish. That would be one set.)
Seated Calf Raises: 3 Sets (slow eccentric/12 second hold in a full stretch/then fast concentric) With calves I am trying constant tension to create new growth. Keeping oxygen and blood from the muscle during a set results in localized IGF-1 release and systemic (hGH) growth factors. (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/mondays_with_thibaudeau_the_constant_tension_alternate_curl)
I trained Term after I was done. I had to start strapping weight on him for the chin ups and pull ups. He's getting stronger each week. Also, check out his latest, its called Carry the Torch PT.2. Half the tracks are his and the other half are by Joell Ortiz. The cd is sick!!!
Yesterday I met with a new client. I will be working with him for the next 6 weeks and helping him prepare for the firefighters physical test. I had to be creative in movement selection for a few reasons. One, I wanted to be as specific as possible when it came to the test. There is no better way to improve on a movement than by actually performing it. Two, I need to work around a few injuries he sustained while serving in Iraq. I just wish I had more room to incorporate sledgehammer strikes and some tire flips.
Without getting too in depth, here is what we are looking at:
A1. Stair Stepper (needs to be on it for 200 seconds)
B1. Lat Pulldown with Rope (Has to raise 45lbs up and then lower it in under 35.56 seconds)
C1. Sandbag Carry (Needs to pull fire hose 50 feet through a u-shaped course with several turns. Cannot stand upright)
D1. Wood Chop or sledgehammer strikes (Needs to hit a post with a 12lb sledgehammer in under 13.91 seconds)
E1. Army Crawl (Needs to crawl 65 feet through a 4x4 tunnel with obstructions and turns in under 39 seconds)
F1. Sled drag or DB drag (Needs crouch and drag 125lbs through a 50 ft. zig zag course in under 36 seconds
G1. Barbell Hammer Grip Raises (Plate at the end of the barbell) (Needs to raise pike pole tipped with an industrial hammer head into a metal plate in an eight foot ceiling, then pull it down. 4 one minute periods of work.
He is extremely motivated and I look forward to helping him pass this test.
As for my training:
Pull:
Standing T Bar Row: 4 sets 3 plates(135lbs) x 15 4 plates(180lbs) x 12 5 plates(225lbs) x 10 6 plates(270lbs) x 6
One Arm Dumbbell Row: 3 sets 100lbers x 12 130lbers x 12 130lbers x 12
Seated Cable Row (pronated grip on a straight bar, SLOW eccentric/fast concentric to target the remaining fast twitch fibers): 3 sets 110lbs x 12 110lbs x 12 110lbs x 10
Wide Grip EZ Bar Preacher Curls: 3 sets (EXTREMELY SLOW eccentric/fast concentric) 65lbs x 10 65lbs x 9 65lbs x 8
Quick post today. It was push day yesterday. I did a shitload of push ups for chest seeing as this was my off week for heavy chest.
Clean to Push Press: 3 sets 135lbs x 10, 20 push ups 185lbs x 6, 20 push ups 205lbs x 2, 20 push ups
Incline Bench Dumbbell Side Laterals: 3 sets 20lbs x 12, 20 push ups 20lbs x 10, 20 push ups 20lbs x 12, 20 push ups
Rope Face Pulls: 3 sets 60lbs x 12, 20 push ups 60lbs x 10, 20 push ups 60lbs x 10, 20 push ups
Free Motion Front Raises: 2 sets 30lbs x 12, 20 push ups 30lbs x 12, 20 push ups
After training I got more ink. Its true what people say, they are addicting. I now have both arms/shoulders, left and right pecs, and upper back done. Time to take a break now.
“Tattoos evoke a range of reactions – from interest, astonishment, admiration and reverence to consternation and abhorrence. They are met with open mouths or frowns, their bearers are judged or misjudged, awakening fear or desire.” (Schiffmacher 1996:5)
This is going to be a very long week. Monday and today I am doing a 5am-5pm at the Waltham gym, then going directly to Powerhouse to lift and train a few clients. The good news is that football season is right around the corner. Time for the Pats to get pissed off, do something about last season, and shut up all the cheater claims. Last night called for pull training:
Chins (Rotate between regular chins and hammer grip chins): Complete 50 reps (my training partner and I would do chins to failure, wait for the other to be done, then jump right back up. It took 5 sets for me to hit 50.)
Hammer Strength High Pulls supersetted with Cable Face Pulls: 3 sets 190lbs x 15, 70lbs x 12 240lbs x 15, 70lbs x 12 290lbs x 10, 70lbs x 10
Reverse Grip EZ Bar Curls supersetted with Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curls:3 sets 60lbs x 12, 25's x 8 60lbs x 12, 25's x 7 60lbs x 12, 25's x 8
Nice and quick. It took 45 minutes to complete.
I trained Term right after my lifting. Needless to say I kicked the shit out of him again, but he wouldnt give in. I got another one of his boys from ST. Da Squad coming to the gym now too, he goes by Hectic. Dude is motivated, so Im looking to start helping him get ready for the cameras too.
Hip dominant legs tonight!!!! Then I got tomorrow off to play golf and train in the afternoon. Yezziiiiiiiir!!!!
Here is a short read on why I do not have my athletes perform aerobic work:
Aerobics Sucks Q: Coach Poliquin, you've said: "... the more lower body aerobic work you do, the more your vertical jump worsens. The more upper body aerobic work you do, the more your medicine ball throws worsen." Also, "Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training so anything more is counterproductive." So what are your general aerobic-related recommendations?
A: First, for fat loss purposes, I find aerobic training to be worthless. Most people are already stressed enough, and aerobic work only further stresses the adrenals.
Second, genetically speaking, we're made to throw a rock at a rabbit, not to run after it. We're not aerobically designed machines; we're designed for short bursts. Slow, continuous aerobic work also interferes with the brain's ability to recruit high-threshold motor units and interferes with power development. I don't make any of my athletes do aerobic work unless they compete in an aerobic sport. And yet my athletes score really high on aerobic tests. My hockey players always have the highest VO2 max at camp, and all we do is interval training a few weeks out of camp. People can't believe my players don't do aerobic work in the summer. In the '92 Olympics, the Canadian alpine ski team actually surpassed the cross-country team on aerobic scores using this method as measured by third party university labs. One of the guys from the Green Bay Packers asked for a copy of my running program. I gave him some blank sheets of paper and said, "Here, you can have it all!" Listen, the research is very clear: Having a so-called aerobic base doesn't make you handle interval training any better. And most sports are basically interval training: short bursts followed by a rest, then another short burst. American football is just a few seconds of action followed by a longer rest. Hockey is forty-five seconds on, a minute and thirty-five seconds off. What type of interval training do my athletes do? Usually it goes by the sport. In hockey we do everything on skates, so we'd do skating sprints. As the summer progresses, my athletes do longer work intervals and shorter rest intervals
Lets start today off with a simple fact. It is painful to walk, sit, stand, you name it. My legs are absolutely fried from Tuesday night still. It was one of those training sessions where you get in the zone and push further each set.
Tuesday Legs:
Squats: 4 sets 225lbs x 12 225lbs x 12 225lbs x 12 225lbs x 12
Hack Squats: 2 sets 140lbs x 10 140lbs x 10
Sissy Squats: 3 sets (Done on hack squat machine) 50lbs x 12 50lbs x 10
Free Motion Stiff Leg Deadlift supersetted with Seated Calf Raises: 3 sets (Calf raises were done with a 6-8 second eccentric/fast concentric) 200lbs x 12, 90lbs x 12 200lbs x 12, 90lbs x 10 200lbs x 12, 90lbs x 10
"Working Out"
You will never hear me use the term, "working out", to describe either my training sessions or my clients. We do not work out......we train. There is a distinct difference between these two in my mind. Working out is for the guy sitting on the leg extension machine or bench press station, either reading a book or talking on his cell phone while doing his set. Working out is for the lady who puts mascara on and does her hair for an hour before going to walk on the treadmill for an hour, god forbid she sweats. These people do not have the mental focus or discipline to push themselves for results. These are the same people who will come up to me with a perplexed look and ask me how they can lose weight or put on some more size. They expect a simple solution to their problem. They hope I will tell them about a magic pill they can take, or a machine that costs 3 easy payments of 19.99, to get the results they want to see. They dont like to hear that it takes hard training, focus, and sacrfice to meet their goals. Its like when I go out and someone comes up to me, beer in hand, asking me how they can lose their beer gut. I used to try breaking everything down for them....now its a quick answer I give, "Stop drinking beer." So please, if you are here to "work out", cancel your membership, go walk around the block instead and save your money. You are getting in the way of people who are here to train. Oh ya, and please turn your cell phone off and get off that machine....we need it.
Yesterday was a loooooooooong day. Worked from 5:30-2:00, then went to Powerhouse to lift before training Term.
Yesterdays Training: Pull
T Bar Row supersetted with Preacher EZ Bar Curl: 3 sets 3 plates x 15, 65lbs x 10 (4-5 second eccentrics) 4 plates x 15, 65lbs x 8 (4-5 second eccentrics) 5 plates x 10, 65lbs x 10 (4-5 second eccentrics)
Barbell Row supersetted with Barbell High Pull: 3 sets 225lbs x 12, 135lbs x 10 225lbs x 12, 135lbs x 10 225lbs x 12, 135lbs x 9
Free Motion Curls supersetted with Rope Face Pulls: 3 sets 50lbs x 15, 60lbs x 10 60lbs x 12, 60lbs x 10 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 8
Felt strong yesterday. Thats a total of 18 sets, completed in about 50 minutes. The face pulls felt really good. I am still being very cautious and performing alot of face pulls and other scapular retraction movemetns to try helping my shoulder impingement. As for training Term, I kicked the shit out of him. The best part was that he kept pushing harder on each set. Dudes got some motivation.
Up and Over Pull Ups supersetted with Hand stand Push Ups on the wall supersetted with Prisoner Squats
We did some direct arm work and planks to finish out the session before taking more progress pictures. I compared where he was three months ago to where he was yesterday and the results are absolutely unbelievable. They dont even look like its of the same person. He is getting more and more ripped up each time I see him. Getting ready for those photo shoots!!
Within the next few weeks I am going to be filming a workout I plan on trademarking and then releasing for the general public. Lets hope this works out!! But for now, tonight is legs, and its time to focus!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sumo Stance Deadlifts: 5 x 5 315lbs x 5 315lbs x 5 315lbs x 5 315lbs x 5 315lbs x 5
Walking Dumbbell Lunges: 3 sets 35lbs x 70 feet 35lbs x 70 feet 35lbs x 70 feet
Leg Extensions supersetted with Standing Calf Raises(6-8 second eccentrics):3 sets 170lbs x 20, 100lbs x 8 170lbs x 20, 100lbs x 10 170lbs x 20, 100lbs x 8
After lifting, I helped one of the local police officers train. She has been having hip and lower back problems for a while now and is getting aggravated because it is interfering with her running. I determined that it was an imbalance within the quad and hamstrings. She is extremely quad dominant, powerful throughout her lower body, but not with hip extension. So we went over some movements that will help her recruit the glutes and hamstrings. We covered:
Bridges on Bosu Ball X Band Walks Deadlifts
I am hoping that once we get her firing with her posterior chain, it will fix the imbalance and get her running pain free again.
Great Article:
I Hear Dead People by Chris Shugart
I held the dead guy in my hands and said, "So this is it?"
It was the summer of 1999 and I was working in a graveyard in Texas. At the time, I was actually a high school teacher. I always tried to get a physical job during the summer break to balance out my regular job, which consisted mostly of sitting behind a desk for nine months out of the year. Also, since teachers make less money than the custodians that clean the schools, I needed the extra dough.
It was an odd job to say the least. I usually told people I worked summers doing landscaping, but that was only partially true. At least once a week, I also had to play pallbearer. See, when you die at age 90, you don't have many friends and family members around to carry your casket anymore. After three summers of this, I'd probably carried more caskets than a Kennedy.
After a graveside service was over, I'd go help the guy who's job it was to dig the hole and set up the tent. The last part of the job involved lowering the casket into the concrete vault. (You don't do this until all the family leaves. The sight of their loved one being lowered into the ground is just too real for many to watch.) My job was to jump down in the hole with grandma's body and wrestle off the chain used to lower the massive concrete lid. One time my favorite cap blew into the hole and slipped down between the vault and the coffin. I had to lay facedown on the casket to retrieve it. Talk about coming to terms with your own mortality! As it turned out, that lesson was just beginning.
The day I held the dead guy was like any other summer day in West Texas. It was over a hundred degrees and the wind was blowing what was left of the topsoil around in a orange-red haze. I was manning the big Snapper weed whacker when the FedEx truck pulled up. I signed for a package, expecting it to be parts for our dilapidated Ford tractor.
Inside was a Glad freezer bag full of speckled gray powder and a note. It read,
"Bury in plot 223B."
That's when I realized I was holding what the funeral industry calls cremains, the cremated remains of a corpse.
I wasn't all that shocked. I mean, I'd been around dead people for so long that the act of passing by a body on display at the funeral home got to be routine. What got me was the finality, the cold note from the anonymous family member, and the lack of ceremony.
This was a human being I was holding in my hands, a person who'd been walking on this earth just a week before. His life had come down to this — a few ashes in a plastic leftover bag. For some reason, the worst part was the FedEx box, which still had the price of delivery on it. It costs nine dollars and eleven cents to mail a cremated human body.
I grabbed a shovel and headed out to find the plot. Two co-workers went with me, a friend of mine who's now in med school and the old man that had been working at the boneyard for years. We found the plot, dug a hole, and then debated whether we should toss in the bag, the whole box, or just pour him out. In the end, we tossed in the bag. The old man commented on how disrespectful the whole process was and wondered why the family didn't bother to put him in a nice urn. "Shouldn't we at least say something?" he asked as I covered the hole back up.
I did say something. I said, "I quit."
I don't believe in fate and I don't believe in "signs from above." However, I do believe in accidental lessons. A person only has to be on the lookout to find them occurring in everyday life. That afternoon at Rose Hill Cemetery, I'd been taught a lesson. It's a lesson we all know, but often try to forget. The lesson is this: We're all actors on the big screen, playing the role of friend, father, husband, brother, employer and employee. We may play bit parts as extras or we may get the lead role. It doesn't matter. The movie always ends the same way: a close-up of a hole in the ground. Fade to black.
About that same time, a fellow by the name of TC had been nice enough to publish an article of mine. By the end of that summer, he'd accepted a few more. School started back and I began my seventh year of educating the youth of America. I like teaching. The desire to teach was almost as strong as my desire to hit the gym and throw iron around. Bodybuilding and teaching had always been constants. Still, teaching wasn't exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I finished the school year and I kept sending in articles. My duties grew and by the end of the year I'd been offered a full time job as assistant editor of Testosterone. The other teachers and a few friends were astounded when I took it.
"You're going to quit the stable job you went to college for and work for a muscle magazine? Isn't that a little, you know, risky?"
I thought of the Glad freezer bag full of ashes and said, "You bet it is."
Now, I admit that switching jobs isn't a really big deal. It's not like I sold my worldly possessions, moved to Tibet and sought spiritual enlightenment or anything. But to me it was a big deal. I was getting off the merry-go-round that all the normal people ride and heading over to the big scary roller coaster. I was doing three things I always loved: lifting weights, helping people out, and writing. And I was getting paid for it.
I think there's a very big difference between stability and stagnation. Weight training, in many ways, is a physical manifestation of this idea. We go to gym to battle against "normal," to fight the good fight and stave off death, to make sure our movie is a double feature and that we look damn good up there on the screen in the time that we have.
For some, it goes beyond stagnation; it turns into atrophy. Look closely at those around you. The average person's life reads like a tasteless recipe:
Step one: Go to work at a job you don't really like.
Step two: Come home and watch several hours of TV.
Step three: Go to bed.
Step four: Wake up and do it all again.
Step five: Repeat until death.
Step six: Place leftovers in a Glad freezer bag.
I think about these things when I see people spending hours of their lives at meaningless hobbies instead of pursuing their dreams. As corny as it sounds, I think most people give up their dreams a few years out of high school and replace them with trivial diversions — watching TV, playing video games, collecting Beanie Babies. You hear them say, "I thought about opening up my own business at one time." "I should have tried out for that team." "I almost got my college degree." When they're 90, will they think, "So this is it?" What a petty epitaph to a human life.
It's like some people are on a remarkable quest to be average. They strive for nothing more than mediocrity. They sit in front of the boob tube and wait to die. They're not really happy living their lives vicariously through soap opera and sitcom characters, but they're content and that's much, much worse. They're people, but they're also sheep. They're sheeple. That's not a sin. Being satisfied with that role is a sin. I found myself playing this role once. You may be playing that role now. But as the Chinese say, the important thing is to be able to sacrifice at any moment what we are, for what we could become.
Happiness has been summed up by many as struggling, enduring and accomplishing in a field that you truly love. Maslow called it self-actualization, the state of achieving everything you're capable of. It sounds simple, but how many people are really doing this? Are you truly happy with your job or are you just going through the motions like a newbie at the gym who puts no effort into his training. Being a real T-Man goes beyond looking big, after all. It's about being in control and living your life the way you want to live it. Besides, isn't it decidedly un-Testosterone-ish to be a sheep? I'd rather be the wolf, wouldn't you?
As most Testosterone readers already know, you have to be strong to separate yourself from the crowd. If you're an avid reader of T-mag, then you've already taken the first step in removing yourself from the common flock. I sincerely believe that taking control of your body through diet and training is empowering. Sheep can't do this. Sheeple won't.
The flock is powerful, though. The crowd will do its best to draw you back in. ("Isn't that a little, you know, risky?") You may have to go it alone for a while. You may have to lose some friends. But that's okay in the end. You probably don't want to hang out with people who've given up on their lives anyway. They're uninteresting. They're boring. They're, in many ways, already dead.
