This Past Week (3/22-3/28)

So this past week was actually a fairly productive week for me. My sickness was pretty much gone (yes!), just a few sniffles here and there, so I was back on the grind with my iron game. Considering I didn't actually get back home until Monday afternoon, all of my lifts were pushed back a day, but it was all good. I could tell the week off really helped as well. I squatted Monday evening and throughout my entire lift I felt as strong as I have all year. I was hitting my weights easily even though I had jumped up 5-10 pounds for all my lifts from the previous two weeks. This trend continued with my bench workout on Tuesday.

Wednesday was a non-lifting day for me, and maybe it was because I had watched Rocky II the night before, but for some reason I really wanted to do a boxing workout. So that's what I did on Wednesday. 10 minutes of heavy bag work followed by 5 minutes on the speed bag and 5 minutes jumping rope. Then I did plate pushes in my basement for 15 minute as my finisher for the day.

Thursday was my deadlift and back day, and instead of taking the day off from lifting on Friday I did my military press workout. Just like on Monday and Tuesday, my heavy weights were moving well so it was a really good week in the beast room. Saturday was another off day from lifting, and after mixing it up on Wednesday I decided to mix it up again on Saturday. I began that workout with incline walks on a treadmill for 5 minutes as my warm-up, then moved on to a 22 minute TRX total-body circuit where I'd go 30 seconds on 30 seconds 0ff. It was the first time I had used the TRX in that capacity but I really enjoyed it. One thing I will say though is that while the workout felt pretty intense while I was doing it, afterwards I recovered very quickly and there was almost no soreness the next day. I don't know what this means exactly, but I just wanted to make note of it.

This past week I also uploaded 16 YouTube videos to my Exercise Index. This current week is going to be a busy one for me as I'll have to write at least one program and two articles (one for the site and one for The Source). I'll also need to start planning for SMS6, which will either start Sunday or Monday.

Well, that's all for last week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (3/15-3/21)

This past week was an interesting week for me. As predicted, I didn't get a thing done for Self Made. And to be completely honest, my lifts were not any more productive. The previous Friday I began sneezing and by Sunday I had a full cold. I thought I'd be able to lift through it, but after getting through my general and specific warm-ups, I hit my three warm-up sets for my box squats but the weight felt heavier than it should have. Then on my first working set I had to break the set up into 2x2 instead of 1x4. My second working set I hit all four reps clean, but on my third set I unracked the weight and struggled mightily with my first rep. That's when I racked the bar and decided to call it a day.

I planned on crushing my lift bench lift the next morning, but upon waking I realized that my illness had only gotten worse. Nonetheless, I made it over to the gym, got through my warm-up and warm-up sets, then struggled through four working sets on the bench. I did three set of core and called it a day. Actually, I called it a week. I decided to take the rest of the week to sleep, rest, and heal with the understanding that I would have multiple plane flights and a lot of other travel going on that week as we were headed down to Salem, VA for the Final Four. Realizing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I decided it made a lot more sense to try to get as healthy as I could in order to enjoy the rest of the week as best I could.

My plan worked, and after sleep 11 1/2 hours that Monday night I woke up on Tuesday feeling significantly better, and by Friday I was all but over my cold. So yeah, that's the big news for last week on the Self Made front. This week holds a lot of promise for productivity though, so I should have a good post for you in the near future.

That's all for last week, now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (3/8-3/14)

Wow. I've seriously been slacking this past week. I've hardly updated anything (blog, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook). Well, after this current week my schedule will have a lot more free time so no excuses then. Right now I'm just trying to get through this week of school so I will be able to enjoy this last week of basketball. But these thoughts are for next week, so on to last week.

Alright so last week was pretty low key for me. I uploaded all of the videos from Day 1 of SMS 5 to YouTube and my Exercise Index, but asides from that nothing much went on. I had a solid week of lifting, hitting all of my weights and leaving me feeling confident heading in to this week's training. I can tell that my working 1RM's are finally getting closer to weights that they should be because my core lifts are starting to become much more challenging, which is perfect timing considering the basketball season ends Saturday (knock on wood).

I was scheduled to start writing a new article for the site this past week, but that didn't happen as two midterms and preparation for the Sweet 16 took precedence over this, but, like I said, next week I should definitely find the time to write this article. So don't worry, it'll be up soon!

I did get a chance to get a little reading done and watch a training DVD as well. I'm working through the Parisi Speed School DVD series and have watched three of the disks so far. I look forward to learning and applying the information of their other DVDs as well. I am also, slowly but surely, making way through Jozef Drabik's youth training book. It's not a difficult read, but it contains incredibly valuable information. I highly recommend this book.

Well, that's about all I have for you for right now. That's all for last week, now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (3/1-3/7)

This past week was a productive week for me. I began working with two new clients who are a lot of fun and bring a TON of energy to their sessions. I also began phase five of my S.E.L.F. Made Simple training program, which I am loving by the way. I am definitely seeing results with this program, both in terms of strength and size gains, and right now I'm planning on this program being the cornerstone of my large team training programs. As I may, or may not, have said in my last post (I can't remember now), S.E.L.F. Made Simple is my version of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1. The progression is very similar, with the main difference between the two being that 5/3/1 calls for its athletes to do their final set to failure every training session while SMS has a set number of reps that the athlete is to hit.

While this may seem like a very minor detail, it does, in fact, make a huge difference in the overall well-being and long-term success of an athlete. Don't get me wrong, in my experience 5/31 has definitely gotten people bigger and stronger. But I'm not talking about everyday lifters or powerlifters and strongmen for that matter. I'm talking about athletes, humans that need to have both power and skill for them to be successful. And not just skilled with the ball or puck, but skilled in regards to how they are able to move and control their bodies. For the latter to truly make an impact an athlete's arsenal, movement training sessions are often required. These would include linear and lateral acceleration and deceleration, top-end speed, and vertical jump training, among others. In order for an athlete to be able to perform well in these sessions and get the most out of these sessions they are going to have to have a fresh nervous system and a hormonal system that is in equilibrium, and this is not possible if the athlete is lifting to failure four times a week.

I'm going to stop talking about this now because I would like to save my argument for a later blog post and article, but that gives you a basic idea of where I'm coming from.

So what else happened this past week? Nothing much in regards to Self Made. Right now I'm in my second week of SMS phase 5 so I'm busy filming all of the new exercises I'm doing in this phase to put on YouTube and in my Exercise Index. Ahh, that reminds me, I did also add four new videos to the Exercise Index this past week. I also sent out the March issue of The Source. Wow I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about that haha.

Yeah so this month's issue turned out pretty well I feel like. The feature article was about a motivational tool I use called a 90-Day Wonder, which is where you write your goals down for the next 90 days. You do some other stuff with it too, and surprisingly enough it works like magic. And by magic I mean I have completed 90% of the goals I wrote down back in December. Anyways, for more information about this be sure to check out the articles on my site and make sure to sign up for The Source so you can be the first with these articles!

Well, that's all I have for you about last week. Now it's time to live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.