Road To Nationals: Week 8, Week 9, The Holiday Message, and What I Want For Christmas

Ah yes... the Christmas Season...

... or whatever season it is you celebrate.

You get the idea.

Anywho,

These last two weeks have been a grind, and though I think I've made some progress, overall, it's been a little more difficult than I would have liked it to be.

The hardest thing to settle into in regards to a strength sport is that there is no single preparation test. There is no one task. They aren't like other sports. In football, you have a position and a job. In track and field, for the most part at the national level, you have a single event. But for strength sports... it gets a little hairy...

In powerlifting, in regards to the squat, the bench, and the deadlift, when an athlete starts to creep into the world of the elite, progress doesn't come as quickly as it once did. I'm finally starting to realize that. Listen, if I go to this meet on January 24, and I don't PR on all 3 lifts, I'm not going to be shocked. If I do, I'll be elated, of course, but I'm not planning on it. Two years ago, if I didn't put poundage on all 3 movements, it was because the program I was following was missing something. Now, I realize that adding 10 pounds (almost 5kg) on the bench after 3 months of training is kind of a big victory. In that regard, if I can put 10 pounds on my bench at the end of 4 three-month long strength cycles, that's 40 pounds on the bench over the course of a year. With that in mind, that puts me less than 3 years away from a state bench press record...

But that's how you have to think in this sport. At the same time, if the world was perfect, and I could put 10 pounds on each lift every 3 months, well then that puts 120 pounds onto my total each year, and it only puts me 2 years away from becoming one of the strongest guys in the country at my weight class and easily the strongest guy in state history weighing 163 pounds...

When I talk to people about what it is I actually do (whether it be lifting or writing), fairly frequently people call bullshit. I'm forced to deal with the idea, at least according to them, that it's either way too much to be doing and that I'm crazy, or that it's not that big of a deal and they don't know why I'm spending so much time doing it. Then, they scoff, as if their lives are so involved and important that they couldn't possibly have the time to dabble in what it is that I do. And then I think, well, sure. That's fine...

But, to be honest, I'd rather agree to disagree and just not have that conversation at all, you know what I mean? I'd rather have people not ask me about any of it because what that conversation does is it calls into question my philosophies on a bunch of other different issues, right? Because I think, well, if in 2 years, I'm one of the strongest SOBs on the planet, and I have a book published, and I get a song or two sold (I do those things on the side for those of you who have not been following), and at the end of those two years, I'm beat to all hell but I've progressed, but that other person is literally in the exact same place they were in two years before... well then what's it all matter anyway, you know? We're just going to have that same conversation...

So when I'm standing alone on a platform at 10PM on a Wednesday, or when I've gotten up early to write at 7AM on a Saturday morning, and because of that, I didn't go out the night before, I'm forced to have these converstaions with myself so as to not go absolutely crazy. It turns into a game of Us VS Them. It becomes a battle between the Warrior Poets (see last week's post) and the peasants. And then that's what gets me through.

And when I think about Christmas or the holiday season or birthdays or gifts in general, all I ever think about is that battle. Because the things I do on any given day are the things that I feel I owe to myself to do. When people ask me "what I want," as a gift, all I can think about is the battle. Because what I want is the freedom and the opportunity to keep on going. That's it. Everything else? The cards and the wishes and the gifts and the language and the bells and the whistles and everything else that goes along with it can burn for all that I care if I don't have the support and the understanding I need to keep going.

So as you all bring in the holidays, there is one very important thing that you all need to understand - and I'm speaking for the Warrior Poet tribe: Support us. That's all we want. Understand us. That's all we want. Not a single gift in the world can measure up to those two things. Remember that...

Peace out cub scouts...

All my best,
C

By the way, here's a great example of how not to pull from the floor. Welcome to Rounded Back City. Population, Me. Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail (a poorly postured stupid idiot nail.)

Here is the following week. I managed to tighten it up a bit, but I still ahve work to do. I'm playing around with where my shoulders are in relationship to the barbell.

And here's one final one. It's probably my proudest training moment. Over the summer, I called a 275 bench by December. Here's 265 for 3. We're on our way, kids:

Road to Nationals: Week #7

What's good people,

So I'm 6 weeks out from this meet in North Jersey on January 24th, and I've never felt better. There's a lot to be said for thoughtful stretching and rehab (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, check out my last two posts.)

As far as programming is concerned, I was able to squat 365 for 4 pretty easily yesterday, and my bench is coming along nicely. There's something to be said for benching 3 days a week AFTER you either squat or deadlift.

With all that being said, there's also something to be said for the idea of being a life-long learner. Truth be told, my squat is still pretty nasty as far as position goes. I think that's what most people don't understand when they see me lift locally (nationally, I'm not all that impressive). They look at me and say, "Man, you're tiny. That's a big squat," and all I think about is, "Well, wait until I actually learn how to move the right way."

I'm still playing around with stance width and toe angle and bar placement for my specific body type, and it's maddening (there is no universal rule for movement in the squat - everyone's body is different). In the end, though, that's the game. That's the sport.

Here are a few clips from this week:

Beltless squat session:

And some Deadlift deficits:

I'm still waiting on programming for next week, but I'm expecting the volume to pick up a bit and then drop off as we get closer to the meet on January 24. The goal is to crack into 1200, and with a 425 squat, 275 bench, and 500 deadlift, it should give me exactly what I need. I'd like to go into nationals moving closer to that 1300# mark, but we'll see. It will require a lot less time hanging out with friends and family and a lot more time in the gym and sleeping and eating. Luckily for me, I've got enough friends and family who train with me that it makes the journey a little more forgiving.

What's evermore frustrating is that I'll still need well over 1300# to crack into the top 10 at nationals (I'll need, at the least, 600kg [1320#]), and the higher that number gets, the harder it is to get there. Putting 20lbs onto a total at the novice level isn't really all too difficult to do. With the right program, you could put 20lbs onto a single lift in about a month. However, when you start creeping into the world where you're quite literally getting everything you can out of your body, things start to get a bit hairy.

I'm going to cut this one short for the week. For some reason, Blogger has trouble linking videos from youtube. I'll try to have something figured out by next week, though, and get you all some meaty content to enjoy.

All best,
C

Road to Nationals Week #6 and the person you want to become...

You are defined by the people with whom you surround yourself.

I remember hearing that when I was younger and thinking that I completely understood what it meant. Back then, when I was young and stupid (I'm still stupid...), I just figured, well, the person telling me this information is working to make sure that I know if I surround myself with troublemakers, I may find myself in some trouble. "You are the company you keep."

... that sort of thing.

However, for some reason, it never occurred to me that this advice could work the other way.  Not once did I ever think about it. I never thought about how if I wanted to be a better person I should spend time with people who had the potential to make me better...

... and how that sort of thing, that pendulum, especially with social media, swings farther today in both directions more now than it ever had.

I'm not here to preach to you about making wise choices, but I do want to remind you (the four of you reading this), that the person you want to become is only a few conversations away. The journey is right around the corner. There are people waiting... begging, even, for you to buy your ticket; you just have to make the decision.

Now, keep in mind, again, that this thing works both ways. You're going to have to cut ties with some folks. It's just the nature of the game...

... and it's NOT because they are bad people, you dig?

There's a good chance that they are GREAT people...

... but if they can't sail a ship, or if they're afraid of the water, then you need to make a decision before you pull anchor.

Listen... Brian Rose of London Real, Ryan Adams, Joe Rogan, Chad Wesley Smith of Juggernaut Training, the guys from Barbell Shrugged, Bill Burr, the folk/punk singer Frank Turner, none of them know who I am (except Frank, sort of). I get that. But they're a part of my tribe, whether they like it or not, because aside from being wickedly entertaining, they're chock full of information that is of great importance to me; because of that, I can find pieces of who I am in parts of who they are.

Conversely, though, understand that not all of it has to be that far-reaching. There are far too many to name (they know who they are because I make it a point to remind them), but there are people in my life who are friends not because they're just people I enjoy being around. They're too damn BIG for that (and when I say BIG, I don't mean that they are large humans. I mean that they are complete beings - wholesome and wonderful and everything I aspire to be). They're my friends because they light a fire inside of me... they're my friends because they are people I want to one day become. They're warrior poets... and if it wasn't for them, I would have been stranded on some beach somewhere some long time ago... drinking Captain Morgans and eating cold pizza (Time and place, folks. Time and place).

Moreover, most Friday nights, I find myself standing in the gym or sitting in front of a note pad and thinking about how insanely lucky I am. I'm lucky to have found the idols I look up to. I'm lucky to have those amazing warrior poets in my life. And I'm even luckier to have such a supportive family and local friends and the single greatest group of lifting-goons a guy could ask for (I would lay in traffic for all of them).

And when I hear about what there is "to do" on a Friday night, I think about how maybe five years ago I'd feel bad about not going out. Now, however, I feel bad for not doing what I love with people I enjoy being around. It's a crazy, uplifting feeling...

At the end of the day, you have a damn good opportunity to build the world you want to live in...

Anywho...

Onto the programming:

No video for you guys (I forgot this week).

With that being said, I'm finally feeling pain-free (and more mobile, to be honest), and I was able to squat 335 for a set of 4 without any pain and without a belt. Hopefully, as my programming opens up next week, I can hit 340 or 345 for a set of 5 without a belt, and then 365 for a set of 4 with the belt later on in the week.

My deadlifts have been feeling quite nice, and where I struggled with a pull of 445 with a belt last week, this week's 445 for 4 came pretty easily.

I'm most happy with my bench progress this week, as I managed 255 for a set of 4. If I can hit 260 next week for a set of 5 (something that I think I'm up for), that means that I'll have benched my competition PR for 5... so if I don't hit 275 at the meet in January (by the way, I signed up for a meet in North Jersey on January 24), I'll be pretty pissed.

The goal is to qualify for nationals with a 1200lb total, so if I can squat 425, bench 275, and pull 500, I'll be right where I want to be. Anything after that will just be a bonus.

And to think, there was a time when I thought I'd never total over 1000lbs. Who knew? Not bad for a high school cross country runner, huh?

I hope this message finds you well.

All best,
C