What Do You Really Want From Your Training?

I can't tell you the number of people I see every week who have no idea what they want out of their training, and yet they are convinced that they can get themselves there. If you are going to try to go through your fitness journey alone, then you better be doing some things right. Check out the article below to see some of the things that you aren't but should be.

Six Things You Aren't Doing by Gregory Robins

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (10/10-10/16)

This past week was my singles week in the weight room for SMS 12. The previous week I squatted on Saturday, and I was planning on doing the same this past week, but unfortunately I set my alarm for 5:45 PM, sooooo I didn't wake up in time to get a lift in before my session. Fortunately my body is attuned to the sun, so I ended up waking up at 7:00.

Sunday morning I did my squat workout and followed it with a yoga session. I hit my box squat singles easy, which didn't necessarily surprise me because I lowered my working max for box squats down to 405, but it felt good nonetheless. Yoga was exactly what I was needing it to be, and Sunday evening I had a league basketball game. We only had five guys for the game so I played all 40 minutes, but with the running clock it wasn't that bad.

Monday was my flat bench day. The past few months I have been at the same working max for my flat bench, which I chose to do because I have been struggling through my working sets. With my singles weight at 315 this day, I wasn't sure how I would handle that. I had only hit 315 once before, and that was after a week's rest. Let me tell you though, I felt great this day. I didn't put triple plates on the bar, but there is no doubt in my mind that I could have hit it. I went 1x1 at 295, 1x1 at 300, and 2x1 at 305, all without a spotter. That's how confident I felt. Then I repped 225 thirteen times, which was a new PR for me. I think after this phase I can finally bump my working max up.

Tuesdays are normally the days when I do plyos, but man I felt awful this day. So I just took Tuesday as a total off day, which my body greatly appreciated.

Wednesday I was back at it with my deadlifts. My sumo pull is definitely stronger than my conventional pull, so I have lowered my working max for SMS 11 and SMS 12 to take this in to consideration. I hit my singles nicely, but I did have to alternate my grip from my standard overhand grip to an alternating grip, which is a stronger grip but I don't prefer to use it because I am concerned about potential injury using this grip.

Thursday was my conditioning day. I completed the plyo workout that I was supposed to do on Tuesday and ran sprints afterwards. I burned over 500 calories in that 25 minutes, and felt gassed after.

Friday was my military press day and I set another PR in the weight room, hitting singles at 205.

Saturday morning I played pickup basketball to finish out the training week.

I bought a new book this week, "The IMPACT! Body Plan" by Todd Durkin, who I worked for during the summer of 2009. I finished it on Saturday, and let me tell you, it is a GREAT book. If you are looking for a new book on fitness, wellness, and nutrition, I HIGHLY recommend this book.

That's all for this past week. Now I gotta go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

Things To Keep In Mind For The Future

Here is a very insightful article from EliteFTS.com about owning a gym, and a small business in general. I'm definitely going to have to remember these tips in the future.

Small Business Survival 101 by The Executive Meethead

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (10/3-10/9)

This past week was the start of SMS 12. I was feeling really good following my deload week, so I was definitely ready to get going.

I squatted a day earlier than normal this week, on Saturday, because of some other obligations on Sunday. I felt really good during this lift, and I knew the deload week had done what it was supposed to.

Sunday I had a league game for basketball at DePaul. The game went well and it was a lot of fun playing out there. The competition wasn't great, but it was better than nothing.

Monday I benched and started a new book, "The Power of Four". I felt real aggressive during my workout and hit my weights nicely. I did 4x3 at 280 on the flat bench, then the fifth set I dropped down to 225 and repped that out 11 times, which was a PR for me. In the evening I lifted again. I often times find myself with an hour or so between clients, which isn't enough time for me to go back to my apartment, so I just stay at the gym. I have decided that when this happens on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays I will just lift again, doing pushups, chinups, and different arm exercises. Basically, it is a beach body workout in the evening after I lift in the morning or afternoon.

Tuesday I started the power phase of the Self Made plyo program, which consisted of box jump variations. I performed them all wearing a 25 pound weighted vest.

Wednesday was my deadlift and back day. I don't know what was going on with my grip, but I really struggled hanging on to the bar this day. I am not a fan of pulling conventional, so I don't know if this is somehow affecting my grip. But whatever the cause, my grip strength sucked this day. The rest of the lift went well though haha.

Thursday I took the day off from working out. I was gassed from everything that had already happened this week, so I just spent some time in the sauna at work. Thursday I also sent out my monthly newsletter, The Source. To sign up for The Source click here.

Friday I was back at it with my military press day. I hit 185 for 5x3, and hit it nicely each time. While my RHR hadn't dropped significantly from the day before, I felt alright during this lift.

Saturday my RHR was high again so I did recovery cardio on the treadmill for 20 minutes.

That's all for this past week. Now I need to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (9/26-10/2)

This past week was my deload week for SMS 11. Instead of boring you with a long, day by day breakdown of how each deload lift went, I am just going to tell you that my deload week went very well, per usual. Deload lifts usually go pretty quickly, but because the second pair of supplemental lifts was taken out of the program these deload lifts went especially quick.

Aside from lifting, I had my regularly scheduled plyo sessions on Tuesday and Friday. These were the final sessions of the elastic portion of the Self Made plyo program, which means I only have six more weeks left in the program and the rest will just be box jumps once a week. After that I will reformat the entire program according to the data I have gathered.

I read a bunch this past week, starting and finishing the book "Stretch To Win" as well as reading three chapters in the CSCS textbook. I only have three more chapters left of that, so I am going to try to finish it this upcoming weekend.

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

Get big or die tryin'.