Friday 5 July 2013 Training

Bench
     95# x 5
     135# x 5
     150# x 10 x 10

Rack Lockouts
     2 Inches off Chest
     165# x 10
     145# x 10
     125# x 10
     105# x 10

Cam Bar Skulls
     60# x 10
     65# x 10
     70# x 10
     75# x 10

Rope Pushdowns / Face Pulls
     100# x 12 / 100 Reps



Holy triceps. 10x10 absolutely sucked at 150#. This is literally only a 5# jump from last week's percentage, but it crushed me. Good thing Brent was there to call me derogatory names and pull it off my chest when necessary. That's what friends are for right? Calling you terrible things when you're being a bitch and making sure you don't die from a bar crushing your sternum. After that i decided to mess with some high rep rack lockouts, mostly because anything 2 inches off my chest and to lockout is weak, and i haven't had a rack with arms that i could use for rack lockouts in my training in a very very long time, so i wanted to throw them in as an assistant for the day. Mother of God that shit was horrible. Killing all the eccentric / concentric stretch and pushing from a dead stop was really tough. The dead stop plus being smoked from the 10x10 was pretty rough. The weights got pretty light really quick. Nothing like struggling under 105# as a 190# grown man with a previous bench max of 275#, but to get strong you need to put the ego in your gym bag when you walk in the door and put in work, regardless of where you are in the game.

That's another great lesson Matt taught me. I was always more concerned with what was on the bar rather than putting in the work to get more weight on the bar. As a kid coming into this game, you're really concerned with getting stronger. That's usually the point of why people get into this and you want to get there as soon as possible. You want to be strong like your idols, and you usually come into the game hungry to get there as soon as possible. No one tells you in the magazines or in the books that you first pick up that sometimes moving light weight around and just putting in work, regardless of weight, will get you where you need to be. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are 800# squats and deadlifts or 500# benches. Most times you need to just shut up, stop thinking, pick up some weights, and put in the work. You never see videos of the people you want to be like, big huge strong guys lifting hundreds of pounds like giants, working with 5 or 10# dumbbells, doing light band pull-aparts, foam rolling, prehab / rehab work, etc. It's often times the work you don't see, the stuff that isnt glamorous, the stuff that isnt fun, that builds the strength to pick up those massive bars. Build strength, don't display it. Often times we get caught up in the later, but the guys who end up on top never forget the former.

Now, i'm going to take a shower, find some baller new york city pizza, and enjoy myself. Big Matt also told me we only have a few good years on this earth, and while we still can, train like a savage, eat like one, and live like one. Go experience life.

Empire State Building, 4th of July