Month: November 2018

Tommy Kono trained primarily from the hang in his dirt floor basement.

Norb Schemansky seemed to train with the mindset of “because fuck you that’s why”, even getting fired for requesting time off to lift at the Olympics. He trained hard but within his limits, generally maxing in contest, and occasionally in impromptu gym contests.

They didn’t have bumper plates. Strength was the priority. Technique just needed to be good enough, self taught was the way, lifters did for themselves, what they needed to.

I once found old footage of and a write up on a lifter who trained in his kitchen.

They still had the overhead press.

No certifications, no seminars, and little coaching. What they had was a can do attitude.

It was a time worthy of emulation.

You don’t need pristine conditions.

You don’t need to train perfectly scientific.

If taking the weights outside to do hang variants is how you can train…

If high rep overhead squats are your way to train around no rack or stands…

If you like the military press, despite it no longer being contested..

If your platform is dirt…

If your lifting shoes are whatever you happen to own…

Do it.

Your attitude towards it all is all that matters. Fuck the minutia. I’m a big strong heavyweight, the bar’s goin overhead.

As I pant from the last set I can’t help but feel connected to an older age, if my Grandpa in the 50s was training with weights for football I bet it looked something like this.

Sometimes the way forward is to look back, and run with it.

Back in 2015 while I was doing the large majority of my pushups in a very short range of motion I learned how to “put” pushups in just about any muscle group of my upper body.

Not only could I put them in my chest, triceps, and shoulders, but I learned how to put them in my traps, lats, biceps, and even my forearms.

You have to play around with hand spacing, hand angle, “stroke length”/range of motion, rep speed, and most importantly…intent.

Most importantly INTENT.

You have to believe it possible, and figure out how it is.

Within 20 minutes of experimentation you can have the pushup able to cover ALL your upper body work.

I do 10 bodyweight squats, locking the glutes at the top of each rep, then tense my glute and leg musclature alternatively in a modified warrior pose.

I think to myself about all the wasted breath dissing bodyweight training.

Have those people never flexed hard during a simple calisthenic?

(Like the top of a bodyweight squat or pushup. No need to even get out of “vanilla” and into gymnastics work.)

Have they never pushed the reps very high, well past 100?

Surely they’ve never combined the two.

Calisthenics and bodyweight work truly will bring you as far as your mind will allow.

Or maybe I’m just different, after all who else would dream they were racing flights of stairs, and doing straight leg situps on the landing?

Use what’s available. If you enjoy lifting…then do so. However ; if you have no equipment other than your God given self…it’s all there.

You could lock me in an empty room, and I’d still get it in.

PT mindset. Who else has it.

I exhale, and see the cloud of breath rise before my eyes.

This was a test run.

The question : can I lift in the winter cold comfortably?

15°F

The answer?

A resounding yes.

Running shoes, track pants, a sweater, little black gloves, and winter cap pulled over Bluetooth headphones.

It works.

I’m not in a gym, hell I’m not welcome in most of them.

I have yard space, a barbell, plates.

It works.

Overhead squats for high reps, and a lot of pulling work. It’s mostly pulling work, fat grips mixed in on certain exercises, but NOT ON CLEANS, don’t make that mistake. It’s damn near impossible to lower cleaned fat grips with metal plates, it’s not an axle, and you can’t drop it.

The gym gives me social, but I’m unwanted, unwelcome, and the dues are too high. It’s not the bodybuilding gym, I’m about 3000 miles away.

There is the yard, it’s free, and I already own the equipment. No dues, no gas, no wear and tear on the car, no socializing.

If necessary I can purchase more plates, though I can make a lot happen with what I have.

Just 3 weeks ago I was telling this sexi Brazilian chica at the gym that the SoCal heat was killing me, and now here I am in 15° lifting comfortably.

Nausea & dry heaving from the heat at 80° to comfortable lifting in 15°-20°…Viking blood, cold weather adapted.

A throwback to those wintry sessions at 17.

(Side note : I was overtraining for 2-3 months straight, adapted, and came out better. The fear of overtraining is highly overdone. It’s basically just coughing and gains. I trained through it.)

Only me. Most wouldn’t gut this out.

I must be a madman whether I’m in the gym or in the yard.

I knew the snow can be shoveled away, and now I know I can take the cold.

Years of lifting without warm ups prepared me for this, I won’t be a gym member unless I’m getting it comped as staff. I’ve lifted outdoors in the winter before, but never primarily. This is new, and…it works.

•Overhead Squat
•Bent Row
•Clean
•Military Press
•Deadlift                                      •Snatch

Real old school lifting, no rack, and on frozen ground.

I’ve seen lifting in rougher circumstances. It’s not like I’m getting shot at in Afghanistan, or dodging shanks and shivs. This is cozy, even if chilly.

I have the how, and…I have the why.

Whatever you could say against it, this is back to my roots. The pure intention is here, now, again.