This Past Week (5/16-5/22)

This past week was a HUGE week for Self Made!! In case you haven't seen, the site got completely redone, and it looks awesome! Maria Tucker, a student at Williams, helped me put it together, and she did an amazing job. There are still some things that are in the works for the site, but for now it is a significant improvement as far as the professionalism and individualization of the site are concerned. This was by far the biggest thing that happened all week.

The Self Made Facebook and Flickr pages were released as well, and I am very happy with the progress that has happened with both in such a short time. I was also able to finish uploading all of the videos for SMS7 onto YouTube and the Exercise Index, and the Exercise Index was completely reorganized as well so now exercises are listed by name and prime mover!

As far as my training went, this past week was my heavy triple week for SMS7. All of my lifts went really well as I was able to hit all of my weights for my main lifts and able to increase weight from Week 2 for my supplement lifts. I didn't do plyos or alternate conditioning at all this past week because it was also finals week, so I limited my cardio to my recovery sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.

That's pretty much it for this past week. The website was the biggest news, and I'm really excited about this new format and what it will allow me to do and what it will do for my business as well. Now it's time to go live this week.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (5/9-5/15)

This past week was my filming week of SMS 7. I got all of the exercises taped and uploaded to YouTube and my Exercise Index. As far as the lifts themselves, SMS 7 proved once again that it's timed sets are a superior form of training, in my opinion, to a pre-determined number of sets. I'm not kidding you, these lifts I've been having have been ridiculous. Not only has my training volume and efficiency gone up, but I feel so much stronger as well. I can't wait until I am able to release SMS 7 to the public for you all to purchase and try for yourself.

On that note, another thing that happened this past week was I put up SMS 1 through SMS 3 on my website, making it the first public releasing of the S.E.L.F. Made Simple Series. I also made SMS 4 through SMS 6 available for purchase on my site. SMS 4-6 are selling at $15 a copy, which means you can get 6 months worth of training programs for only $45! And not just some random programs that I put together, but programs that I have put together for myself, programs that I know work, and programs that have all of their instructional videos up in the Exercise Index. Believe me, this is a SERIOUS deal!

This past week I also did my plyometric sessions twice and recovery cardio sessions twice as well. All of that work is going well, and I feel very fit and explosive. I also had two of my articles featured on Elitefts.com. "The Parasympathetic Secret" and "The Hills" were the two articles that were featured, and while there were a lot of people who expressed their doubt in the comments section of "The Parasympathetic Secret", I know from the experience of doing this training myself that it actually works. I think that's the biggest difference between myself and a lot of other performance coaches and trainers: while at one time some of the coaches out there may have been fit and active enough to actually use their training techniques on a regular basis, everything that I put into practice with any of my clients is something that I have already done and that I know works. So while some of the middle-aged or even early-30's coaches out there may have had accomplished athletic careers in the past, they are not using the same techniques or training methods that allowed them to have the careers that they did. Therefor, if you're not doing something yourself, how do you know if it truly works?? I'll let you ponder that.

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

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (5/2-5/8)

This past week I started SMS7 and, wow, I have to say that these timed sets are EXACTLY what I've been needing. In fact, I have said that these timed sets are the best thing to happen to my lift since I switched from the Bowflex to the iron game, and it is true. If you don't know already, SMS7 gives you an amount of time to do each exercise instead of a number of sets. I'll be writing my June training article on this topic, so for now that's all the detail I'll be going in to.

So Sunday was my squat day, and from the first exercise that was timed like this I could tell that I was on to something good. I was getting in way more sets than I normally would, and I was feeling as strong as ever. The paired exercises were brutal to get through, but at the end of the workout I had one of the greatest T pumps going that I've ever had. This held true for my bench, deadlift, and military press days as well. Basically, I don't know if I'm ever going to go back to lifting like I used to, with a pre-determined number of sets and reps.

Monday and Friday I did plyos again, and Tuesday and Thursday were my recovery days. Friday I was dragging a little bit, but luckily my plyo workout was short and sweet so it was just enough stimulation to wake me up and get me out of my fog. Wednesday I did hill sprints behind the school's track. There is a small, fairly steep, hill back there that takes about 6 to 8 seconds to get up. It's the perfect size of anaerobic work. I did hill sprints for 20 minutes on it, making 30 trips in that time. I would sprint up and walk down. It got my heart rate super jacked and I burned a ton of calories, not to mention the two and a half hours of epoc after I was done.

I forgot to tell you that Sunday evening I had trouble sleeping. I laid down to go to sleep at 10:00 PM, and at midnight I was still staring at my ceiling. I couldn't believe it. I normally sleep so well and fall asleep right away. I had tried different breathing tricks, some minor meditation, reading, writing a new blog post, but every time I would go lay back down my eyes refused to shut and my mind refused to shut off. So, after lying awake for two hours, I decided I needed some physical activity, so I hiked Self Made Mountain.

Yup, at midnight I decided it was a good time for a walk so I put on a shirt and my shoes and headed out the door. At first I wasn't sure where I was going, I just wanted to walk. But after a while I realized that the only way I was going to fall asleep was if I hiked this mountain, so that's what I did. I got back to my room at about 1:15 AM completely soaked with sweat (it was a really humid night) and passed out in my bed. Then I woke up at 5:45 AM that morning to get my lift in haha.

On Thursday of this past week I sent out the May issue of The Source. If you aren't signed up for it yet, you can do so by clicking here. No Williams e-mail addresses please! The Williams e-mail system blocks my newsletter as spam, so I'll need an alternate address if you are a Williams student or faculty.

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

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (4/26-5/2)

This past week was my deload week of my strength training. I take a deload week every fourth week, as I have mentioned in previous posts. This deload week was much needed as I could feel both of my shoulders were starting to wear down and my body overall was pretty tired. I rehabbed my shoulders Monday through Friday with stim and ice, so we'll see how they feel tomorrow morning when I bench.

I did plyos twice again this past week, sticking to the Monday/Friday pattern. I also did plate pushes on Wednesday and recovery work on Tuesday. Thursday I had recovery work planned but became bogged down with sessions and class.

I was hoping to begin planning for the newest issue of The Source on Saturday and Sunday, but unfortunately my schedule got filled up again so that never happened. The May issue will be coming out later this week, however, so look for it in your inboxes soon! And if you haven't signed up for it yet, make sure to do so by following this link: http://selfmadefitness.com/?page_id=79

My weight has finally gotten up to a respectable level as I broke 230 for the first time since October this past Friday. I've definitely made a conscious effort to be taking in more calories throughout the day. I also have been drinking a ton of raw milk, and I think that has a lot to do with this weight gain. I'm feeling strong, though, and I think that as long as my shoulders stay healthy I will be able to get very close to the training goals to reach by graduation that I had set for myself to back in January: 500 free squat, 450 deadlift, 350 bench, 225 standing military press. I would say my deadlift is the closet to that goal right now, but I think all of them are within reach.

I wrote the new program for the Williams men's basketball team this past week as well, and I think they will see great results from it. They've progressed out of their GPP/Bodyweight phase and are now beginning to use external resistance.

That's all for this past week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.