Say a little something into the camera...alittle someting into the camera

Because of recent hounding and building upon my previous blog about consistency I am writing todays insert.

Todays entry will be an outline of future blogs..not in any specific order

1.Addressing scapular positioning
2.Hip Positioning
3.Groin strains
4.Large group training(In-season hockey prep)
5.Training log updates

As stated, not in any specific order, I will touch on these 5 topics in the comming posts.

Training in a snapshot -

Front Squat 315x1; Bench 280x1; Deadlift 441x1/436x1

Lets try getting back into this again...

Today was an awesome lift to start back up blogging a little.

I've been training my front squat for the last few weeks. I set a goal of being able to front squat 315x3. At the time my current best was approx.255-265.

I have since then hit 275, 295, and today 315x1.

I am proud, but at the same time, there are still stronger people in this lift, even in my gym. I must keep training because this is just a road stop. I have more to learn and more to lift.

Consistency goes a long ways

Update: Tough Mudder

Its been 9 weeks of training, I'm in phase 3 of my tough mudder training and I think it's progressing very well.

I am up to running 50minutes on Tuesday and Thursdays. I still lift lower body on Mondays with 20minutes HIIT. On Wednesdays I get the upper body in and a easy 10-20minute jog. Fridays I do a full body lift and some more HIIT. Saturdays I am up to 6 miles and that will keep building.

Todays lift: Deadlifts 3x5 @ 264 (light but little rest)felt great and a good segway into getting back into things. BUT follow that up with 95# front squats, ass to grass, for 3x10 plus 3x8 bwt lunges and what do you get...?

Nic rolling around on the ground due to multiple leg cramps as soon as I stepped into my first lunge on my 3rd set. So cx that last set and rolled out for a little bit, came into the office and re-hydrated, and finished with a brief HIIT set that consisted of heavy bag slams, evil wheel abs, and tire hits---than a 15-20 minute jog around the neighborhood.

I definitely have seen a huge improvement in my overall work capacity - which is great - and to be expected. These last two weeks I have really been noticing it. My ability to just keep moving and internally pushing myself has been growing. The long distance runs have been getting easier while getting harder - once I get about a mile in I can actually keep a good clip for about 2-3miles after but then I peter out. In about 3-5minutes I recover and am able to kick it into gear again and run the rest of the route.

I am really enjoying this training cycle but it is taking a toll and I am looking forward to a little more strength based lifting after the challenge...July 23rd in case you forgot.

Better Late than Never

Below is a video I promised from a long time ago. When I first started my tough mudder training and was beginning my running program I randomly maxed out on power cleans. The result was dropping 264 but getting it to the rack position - enjoy my failure

Blue October Pics

Phase 2 and Blue October

Phase 2 of my Tough Mudder training goes a little like this:

Mondays-Zercher Deadlifts + 20 Min conditioning circuit
Tuesdays-40 minute run
Wednesdays-FAT Bar Bench + 20 minute run
Thursdays-40 minute run
Fridays-Stone lift + 20 min conditioning circuit
Saturday-Long distance run

Zercher deads are considerably hard and awkward. I thought I'd be able to do a lot more weight than I have done in the last two weeks. Although the weight is close to the lifters COM the lifters hip height needs to be low in order to get into position. This position, along with the bar placement, make the lift difficult. I am using the Zercher deadlift, with a fat bar, to help develop grip strength, pulling strength, and "functional" (I hate using that word here) strength. When moving anything in life your not going to be able to get into a perfect deadlifting position, the Zercher, along with the Atlas Stones, has a little carry over into that world. Now, just because you train in unorthodox positions doesn't mean your any less susceptible towards injury. When you change an angle of lift you change the way a muscles effected. Fat Bars to Texas bars: stones to trap bar: 4in. lift to a 2in lift or different heights in a rack are all different exercises and are going to work the grip or posterior chain in different ways: more erector/low back less hamstring more hamstring more glute less glute some lat.activation and trap or none...So in point the Zercher changes the angles, provides a more challenging obstacle, and takes a lifter out of an ideal ROM - same thing with Stones.

40 minutes are getting very easy - I am pushing 3.5+mi in 40minutes and now that the weather is getting better I am definitely loving running again.

Upper Body days are going well, I hit 250 for a solid single on the fat bar plus 230 for 3. My overall strength is definitely diminishing but considering the fact I am running 4 days a week plus doing a lot more conditioning I dont think its been to huge of a loss. This is where I need to really keep up on my nutrition and supplementation. Its really hard on a budget but whats harder is the discipline. I am constantly having to re-focus myself.

Strongman days suck - I've been doing stones for the last two weeks and I hate it. It just pisses me off. ...Now I hate it for two reasons - 1.Its just hard 2.I end up whining about how much I hate it, which only makes me hate it more. All I can do is suck it up and keep trying to get better at it.

Long distance runs - not so bad. As long as I warm up properly the long distance runs are easy but recently I totally have been preoccupied with something else and randomly decided that I need to go run...therefore I put my shoes on and took off-bad idea for the first 1.5miles. Otherwise, I think the runs are going well.

Overall Phase 2 is rapidly closing and I think its gone well but I re-assess in 2 weeks so we'll see what that says.

Blue October came to the Pabst Theater on May 5th. They are currently on tour called Ugly Side-An acoustic evening with Blue October. I've seen these guys about 5-7x and this was THE best show I had ever seen. The music sounded awesome, we had great seats for the price and time we got to the event, and the vocals were studio quality. It was really an awesome experience and the Pabst theater is a sick venue. The best part wasn't even the show - it was the hour after the show were we were able to get Hillary's ticket signed by Ryan (the violinist), Matt (the bassist), and Justin (the lead signer.) On top of those signatures Ryan saw and signed my recent tattoos and was very impressed by them. Justin also saw my tattoos .... signed them AND THEN TOOK HIS OWN PICTURE OF THEM! That's right! I had a band member take a picture of me - as he took his pictures of my tattoos he said, and I quote, "this is the type of thing that would be cool to have in the next album."


Whaaaaa?

I'd like to think I gave my best poker face at the time but inside was jumping up and down after hearing that so I do not know what my actual reaction was...all I can say is I will be lined up at the door to buy the next album!

I will get those pictures up asap...but will leave you with a Blue October Video

Tough Mudder 2011: Wisconsin

The Tough Mudder Wisconsin is the next B.A. event I am training for. For those of you unaware of said event here is brief description:

H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

Mission Accepted.

I typically describe it as a adventure race. The Wisconsin event is a 10 mile course through Devils Head Ski Resort. Along the route are 20 obstacles to overcome. These road blocks consist of natural hills ( its is a ski resort ), muddy slick hills, low wire forcing you to crawl through the mud, greased monkey bars over freezing water, fire you have to run through, electrical fields you have to run though ( no joke ), and lastly a surprise obstacle they don't release until the day of. Oh yeah, our (Wis.) race in July - so its going to be hot! Muy caliente!

When contemplating to do this I was thinking of exactly how to train for it... the race itself requires strength, power, aerobic capacity, and lots and lots of fortitude of all kinds - testicular...mental...

So - I am doing it all in hopes of not burning out to soon

3 (4) week phases

Phase 1
3x wk -lift
3x wk - run
1x wk - rest

Mon, Wed, and Fri - Lift
Mondays are lower body, Wednesdays are upper body, and Fridays are full body. On Mondays and Wednesdays I am using a modified 5/3/1 template for front squat and incline bench. My core lift on Fridays are going to be of strongman nature and I started with Farmers Walks. For 3 weeks I kept the total distance the same but each week increased the weight per hand. I actually ended up walking 230 per hand for 20yds. Not bad for me seeing that I use to train with a buddy in La Crosse and I had to do timed holds with 200 a hand, I could barely walk with that then. Thanks Lance ;)

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I would run for 30min on the treadmill about approx. 5.0-5.5mph. I was getting anywhere from 2.5-3.0miles. The reason for running on a treadmill was weather related as well as postural. The last time I tried to start running I was running on the side of country roads that were banked. Not so good on the outside leg due to the uneven ground. So I developed my base on a flat controlled surface. For those of you that are still reading this your probably saying to yourself that's only 2x per week and you said 3x earlier. That's because on Saturdays I would run outside back at home. On Saturdays I am doing a distance run. For the 1st phase I have just been doing 3 miles. Now that I am in phase 2 I will bump of the mileage every other week. (4,5,6,7; phase 3 8,9,10,5; competition)

So far phase 1 has been successful. I have not burned out after 4 weeks. I still feel my strength has diminished to much and the most improved are my lungs. One definite draw back is that my body comp sucks even with improved nutritional habits (but not ideal). I need to be more consistent...ps I totally just ate 6pc of pizza a client brought it. Running is becoming a lot easier and it doesn't hurt AH much. Now that I am into phase 2 my times are increasing in my weekly runs, my distance on the weekends are increasing, plus on my lifting days I also have some extra HIIT and shorter steady state (10-20min).

I will take the time graph it out a little better in the upcoming posts but that is it for now. An updated graph and more info on phase 2 to follow. plus some video from phase 1.

Lift smart Lift strong

Whats new....

A very quick post for a very special friend...MANDO WILFURZUR

What to expect from liftsmart-liftstrong in the coming weeks.

1.updates on training - awesome event coming up
incl. video, pic, nutrition, cardio program, and lifting program

2.updates on current topics of training philosophy that i am currently interested in
incl. info on anatomy trains, Olympic lifting, and blog info that i read

3.update of social occurrences - visited Orlando, moving to a new apt

these are all things you have to look forward to! sorry its been so long

One last time...for now

Since my last post I've had 4 training days. My week started out with deadlifting which I previously discussed. After that Monday, I had a upper body rep-day, a lower body speed day, and finished with a max effort upper body. The latter is the day in which I will debrief you all on...

This was last Friday, my training called for some benching in my shirt. Typically I have been working up to a RAW max and then going into my shirt work. I warmed-up to 285# and it completely buried me. I was pretty disappointed that I had nothing to give. Way to soon, I think I was just getting Max effort happy. I shouldn't have even tried it and I think the next thing I'm changing for my next cycle is where I work my max effort days into my program. I've placed them in the beginning of my last two cycles to get a number for the following training. I know I will be pretty honed-in on my numbers for whatever I do next, so I am sure that will be one change up from this cycle to the next.

After my abmissmal raw lifting I hit a new PR in my shirt. I worked into the shirt with a couple of lighter singles and double and then made some slow jumps up...whamo ...5# PR(lesson learned from previous training!)

New Shirt Max - 350lbs

I worked in 48 total pull-ups afterwards and thing some Kroc Rows and Face Pulls.

The added volume on my heavier days has really been a blessing. I was periodically getting ridiculous pain in my AC Joints + the lateral line of my upper arm (between Bi/Tri). I would do tons of soft tissue work and stretching to alviate the pain but now I add in some extra assistance and 5 weeks in pain free!

I've been going pretty hard latley and have been doing pretty well. This week is the first week of percentage training and its going pretty good so far. My day 1 was a lower body day where I pulled sumo again. Everything felt good except my warm-up single at 375. My actual working sets were strong but I was getting some hip pain that went away after my first 4 sets. I think I need to get back UNDER the bar and not OVER it. It will be good to squat Thursday and Monday.

Deadlifting

Today I came to the club with a little surprise. I assumed I would be starting my first week of squatting heavy but I was pleasantly surprised that I still had one more week of testing - Conventional DL Max effort.

Which also means I have one more max out session on upper body - SHIRT MAX - vera naaice!

Today went something like this...

132x10 398x1
198x8 418x1 PR - felt smooth
264x5 428x1 Miss - picked it up....and put it right back down
309x3
352x1

I PR'd at 418 and it felt great. It didn't FEEL heavy - my speed felt good and my lockout felt strong - I think I just need to keep smashing weight in order to get stronger.

One additional surprise is that my max out sumo-pulls was pretty much the same. I don't know how to interpret these results. I don't see it as a bad thing, good thing, just an odd thing. I thought for sure my sumo would have been stronger.

My goal for the end of this phase is going to be a lockout with 428. Like I mentioned, I got if off the floor. "So, I got that going for me."

One last tid-bit. I have recently been exposed to the documentary Food Inc., Food Matters, and The Beautiful Truth. I highly recommend these documentaries in hopes they inspire you as they did me. Besides all the little factoids and anecdotal proof/testimonials which absolutely blew me away. Watching these documentaries have shed a little light onto my perspective of the pursuit of knowledge. After viewing these peoples opinions on the topics they discuss I wouldn't say I am would just drop everything and "drink the juice." But there are it helped me see that there is so much more the world can offer us, how much we take things for granted, and that there is so much more hope for everyone if people just took the time to educate themselves. All three documentaries just had a huge underlying theme, laziness. Whether it is diet/nutrition or other forms of medicine (topics covered by these films)we just accept one's professional opinion as the end all be all truth. I say, watch the films, read up on the materials covered, investigate, seek answers on all ends. Then form your opinions.

The word of the day: Self-educate

Wake - up World, Stop be lazy, investigate, learn, analyze & assess, ... take action

If I can quote a movie(pretty much the opposite of these above mentioned documentaries) National Lampoons Van Wilder.

"Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand into. -- Write that down."

Continuing to smash weight

The new training phase has been going pretty well. I'm liking the splits, what I am getting done, the overall length of each training day isn't ridiculous. Things are going well. I'm still early in the progression but so far I have started out with a DL PR, a bench PR, and most recently I tied my front squat PR. I might have been able to break it but I was to anxious to hit 300#. I attempted it twice and hit the bottom both times... FAIL

BUT

Lesson learned. Even though both attempts felt good going down with the weight and I came out of the hole fast the first time I should have been more patient. I singled 275# pretty easily, tying my max, and jumped to 300. I should have tried to hit something around 285#. I would most likely be writing a different story had I done that...lesson learned. Be patient. Be smart with choosing your next attempt. Good things come in time. So next time I work up my front squat, or any lift, I'll be sure to heed that advice and hopefully I'll crush an old max weight and push a PR.

Lifting smart really does equal lifting strong

WEEK 2 DAY 1
Front Squat 10x45, 8x95, 5x135, 3x200, 235x1, 275x1, 300xFail, 300xFail

45 degree back ext 3x10 60# + straight bar sit-ups 3x15 50#

Prowler 90# x 40yds X6

Day 1 Day 2 of new cycle

Day 1 will almost always be my max effort lower body days -- that way I get the job done right off the bat. I started out with a max effort sumo pull. After some warm-ups and activation I started my pulls.

154x10
198x8
264x5
308x3
331x1
352x1
384x1
419x1 Raw PR
462xmiss- completely stapled to the floor

My assistance for that day was 3x10 GHR w/25# + some core work

To keep my work capacity up I am going to finish all my lower body days with Prowler pushes.

90# X 6

Tuesday

Upper body conditioning day/rep day

Same warm-up
3 cycles with 3 exercises per cycle 3 sets per exercise different reps
This was a great workout-I'll go into it a little more next time but it was hard, challenging, changing, and I felt great...still feel great afterwards. The push-ups were alittle humbling though.

2 days into the new cycle (12weeks) and I'm pretty much loving it. I am excited about my next two training days and even more excited about the next 2 weeks and the next 10 weeks after that. We'll see how it all goes, I've made some changes to this program from my lessons learned in the previous one --- and this new one has some difference than the last one.

Word of the day: excited

Previous Training Cycle

Okay -- So, I spent the last the last 10 weeks training 4 times a week. Mondays was a max effort upper body lift + variations of pull-ups. I always kept the total tonnage higher on the pulls than on the pressing, which led to doing quite a bit of pull/chin-ups. I mixed the grip on the pull/chin-ups in order to break the monotony and utilize different grips/different muscles etc. One thing I really liked about this is that I definitely got my absolute back-side strength higher than ever. I think my max was about 7 sets of 2 reps at 35-45#. It also helped keep my shoulders healthy, for the most part.

I was experiencing some AC pain but I tracked it down to my 5's weeks. I kept changing my press each week in order to keep lifting heavy, but every week I would do heavy sets of 5 reps I would experience pain for 3-4 days later. Most of my working sets were in the 70-77% range of my max. If I worked sets of 3's in the 80+% I would not get the pain, so I'm leaning to that fact that volume was just to high for that training weight. In my next training cycle I am going to do a lot more triples.

My second body day was more upper body work, but instead of horizontal pressing it was a variation of vertical presses - MP, DB MP, Jerk. This was also the time I did my assistance work on this day. I did some variation of db pulls, some shoulder work, and then tri's. I definitely liked this set-up. It helped keep my time down per workout and still allowed me to get the necessary training in. I am going to keep this set-up in the next training cycle. Except this time I am going to add a little more pulling on my max effort day and my second upper body day is going to be more upper body circuits in order to keep my work capacity up, still target the backside, and help somewhat with body comp.

.... As far as the upper body training goes I think I was able to learn a few things about myself, so I am gunna stick with what works, and change what needs changing...I'll report back in a few weeks.

Did I run today....response to Fbook

Nope. Was actually planning on it, but I did not have time due to some important work. I have had some good success with the first 2 weeks of my new program but I have missed my fourth workout every week, lower body conditioning day 2.

That is all I really would like to say for now.