DEEP THOUGHTS

-If the monolift came before the rack, would people still insist that the walkout was part of the squat?

-Mexican food must be the most anabolic food of all time due to all the amiño acids.

-I eat terribly when I am really pushing my training.  I have to find it a little bit ironic considering most people associate exercise with health and fitness.  As with everything, moderation is the key.

-Kalle Beck’s “Starting Strongman” facebook group makes facebook worth having.  Very positive and productive group.

-Ever notice how people opposed to weight cutting are bad at it?

-I beat one of my co-workers who is really into crossfit at some sort of push up challenge he came up with.  However, 3 minutes after the challenge, he was chipper and I was dying.  Who really won?

-Why is it that the people who rag on crossfit aren’t big, strong, or in very good shape?

Just saying

-I wonder how many more years I have to spend hitching my deadlifts before it “catches up to me”?

-I got a lot better at strongman once I stopped training like a powerlifter and started training like a strongman.  How crazy.

-As soon as I bought a deadlift suit, every competition I entered banned them.  I just bought a yoke, hopefully the same thing happens.

-My home gym is ridiculous.

-Accept no substitutions!  One of the most offensive things you can do to the author of a program after they bother to draft out a great routine is immediately ask them how to substitute certain movements.  If other movements were acceptable, they would have been listed.  Do the program or don’t, but don’t say you are running the program when you’ve changed it.

-On the above, don’t be powerless.  Just because you don’t have the equipment doesn’t mean you can’t train.  It just means YOU need to take the risk and figure out how to make it work.  Or save up your money and get some gear.

-Finally started using my spud deadlift belt: for the clean and press.  My inzer lever kept getting in the way, while the spud belt can pretty easily be turned around to avoid this.  Still doesn’t offer a lot of support, but better than nothing.

-Every gym needs a roll of gorilla tape.

-Need to strong for log in strongman but don’t have one?  The keg goes a long way in replicating the clean and press mechanics.  Seriously wish I got one earlier in my training.  Sandbag isn’t a bad choice too.

-T-nation recently disabled comments on their articles.  I am torn.  I greatly enjoyed reading the author’s comments, but maybe this will force people to quit asking so many damn questions and just go out and train.

-I have the guilty pleasure of going to /r/fitness and reading “gym story Saturdays” just to chuckle at the pompousness of so many posters.  It amazes me how arrogant and passive aggressive individuals become once exposed to just the barest of knowledge.  On the plus side, it also gives me ammo for future blog posts.

The most upsetting part is that usually the people on r/fitness talking about this are not actually powerlifters

-Watching Eddie Hall break the deadlift world record was awesome.  Watching the internet explode over straps, the deadlift suit and him being fat was predictable.

-The car deadlift simulator is my new favorite quad exercise.  Even if I don’t have this event in the horizon, I plan to keep the movement in my program.  Set-up isn’t terrible, there is minimal spinal load, and it nukes the quads.

-I should be sponsored by Pop-tarts.

-I should take it as a compliment when my co-workers think I am a bodybuilder.  It’s way better than when they think I compete in Toughman.  Or Ironman.

-One of my favorite “oh crap I forgot to eat” meals is a bowl of wild blueberries with natural peanut butter and a protein shake.  I feel like it covers all my bases and takes no effort/time to make.

-Someone asked me how to stretch their quads the other day.  It’s comical how little I know about stretching.

-I have never liked training barefoot.  I think having long, thin flat feet is to blame.  I need some sort of surface between me and the floor.

-I really dig “every minute on the minute” workouts.  I did one that was 3 sandbag cleans, and my wife is doing 4 burpees.  I have heard that log cleans work well too.

-I am as semantic as the next guy, but can we stop the whole “that’s not Tabata” crap?  Yeah, we get it, it’s only tabata with exercise bikes and speed skaters, everyone else gets that we’re talking about 20 seconds on/10 seconds off for 4 minutes.

-I only own 1 set of fixed weight dumbbells.  I am getting the most out of them by starting out with flat bench, and once I can hit 3 sets of 10, moving the incline up on my adjustable bench by 1 click.  Once I can hit 3x10 of that, I’ll start my next workout 1 click higher.  Goal is to eventually work to overhead pressing, and once I can manage 3x10 of that, I’ll start mechanical advantage drop sets.  You can get a lot down with little equipment.

But I totally get how it sucks that your gym only has 1 rack

-I don’t miss the gym at all.  Especially now that I train so early.  It also helps that I train with crazy crap that can’t be found in most gyms.

-Christian Thib’s “Power Look” workout seems like a decent base for a strongman workout template.

-I am having difficulty reconciling the fact that I will soon be one of the “old guys” at my competitions.

-It amazed me how little “Generation Iron” appealed to me.  I thought Branch Warren was pretty cool though.

-Movements I think are valuable that I just don’t seem to do any more: good mornings, weighted dips, kelso shrugs.

-I actually feel less energized if I sleep past 0450 and don’t lift in the morning.  I find myself getting up early even on my days off to get my lifting in early.

-People wonder how I train first thing in the morning without a pre-workout supplement, large meal, shower, 30 minutes between waking up and training, etc etc.  The joy of getting stronger is enough to get me going.  I myself wonder why these people train if it takes so much to get them motivated.

-An athlete is an athlete.  My wife is a distance runner, and we get each other.  I understand her frustrations and victories, and she understands mine.  These people that act like there is some war between crossfitters, powerlifters, bodybuilders, and strongmen tend to be none of the above.

-I’ve noticed a resurgence of the term “functional strength/muscle”.  Didn’t we get past all this?

-I always enjoy the various rationalizations that come out whenever some Hollywood hunk puts on a bunch of muscle in a short amount of time.

Steriods?  Twins?  Steroid twins?

-I bought an econo yoke from Pitbull Strongman equipment.  He built and shipped the yoke to me within 2 weeks.  It was dirt cheap, and is super hardy.  If you are on the fence, buy from him.

-Getting crucified is probably good training for the yoke. …maybe it’s the other way around.

-It was really hard to avoid throwing in a “crosstraining” pun in the above statement.

-Many people approach me wanting to be my workout partner until they discover what my schedule is like.

-What is the point of a workout partner anyway?

-I buy tons of super nerdy t-shirts and cut the sleeves off immediately so that the only time I allow myself to wear them is when I am training.

-On the above, I can’t wear a tanktop anymore without feeling self conscious or getting some dumb comment.  Kind of funny considering a lot of people turn to lifting to build confidence to wear more revealing clothing.  Either way, this sucks for someone who is perpetually overheating.

-I tire of non-competitors having opinions on sports.  To call themselves “fans” is a disservice to the term, as these people follow everything on youtube.  Show up to a meet/comp/show, pay the ridiculous spectator fee, and THEN your thoughts will hold some weight.  Otherwise, why should anyone care about your thoughts when you contribute nothing to the sport?

-It’s a running gag, the idea of someone competing in a strength sport while wearing posing trunks with a spray tan.  The “lost bodybuilder”.  I want to see the opposite: someone competing in a bodybuilding show wearing a squat suit and covered in tacky.