4/3/10 - Salt is life

I’m taking advice from a very talented and passionate nutritionist. Looking at my diet, I eat a ton of salty foods and foods with saturated fats!

I’m also pretty low on dark and leafy greens. Time for a change. Maybe I’ll get some good pics of new recipes.

4/2/10 No Quit

Afternoon Training

Track Work Son! Haven’t done this in years. I ran track in college for Rutgers, missed doing these workouts as tough as they can be sometimes…

Lots of running drills:

400 meters - 75 sec.
400 meters - 76 sec.
200 meters - 32 sec.
200 meters - 34 sec.
400 meters - 82 sec.
400 meters - 78 sec.

Hip and hamstring stretch

60 seconds rest between sets - felt pretty winded after the last set but recovered very quickly, felt like a kid on Christmas day about 5 minutes after I was finished. I would love to take my times down to 30 seconds on the 200s and 65 seconds on the 400s.

Science Alert!
I definitely run with an anterior tilt - meaning I run with my hips tilted forward. Now I know why I pulled my hamstring so often in college. This effectively shuts down the function of the glutes during running and over emphasizes the hamstrings. I just need to work on my technique and running drills to fix this!

I find it funny that coaches always prescribe exercises to their athletes but never explain the rational behind why they are giving them. Now I know why.. Because they don’t know why they’re doing it! I was doing thousands of running drills through college with poor technique with never a clue why I was doing them. Great way to build bad habits. Go figure!


Guy above is world record holder sergei bubka - I used to do that crud in college

4/1/10 - Get After it!

Am Training:

Rope Dynamic Warmup

Dumbbell Man makers and suicide runs 10 min worth
15lb Dbs and 10 suicides about 50ft. Did a little over 4 sets of each

Swiss Ball: 30 seconds work, 15 seconds rest - 3 rounds
Pot Stir
Lying Hip Extension + Knee Flexion
Jack Knife
X-Band Wide Out


Noon Training: - Never enough training

3 rounds
Explosive Med ball chest pass x 8
1 leg tuck jump x 5/side

3 rounds
Med Ball punch pass x 5/side
40lb med Ball Burpee snatch and slam x 10

3 rounds
Sled Push and Box Jump combo 20 total jumps to 40” box and 100ft push

Band Resisted forward to backward run
3 x 10

Barbell Clean and Jerk
Worked up to 235 x 2
Band Knee Draw-in x 20-50 reps

3 rounds
Ladder pushups - mini band around wrists
1h ring recline row x 6-8

3/28/10 - There’s nothing good to see in this world outside of New Jersey.

Anyway, big plans. I recently got into Physical therapy school. (UMDNJ physical therapy program Stratford NJ) It starts at the end of May/beginning of June. Last day of work: April 21st.

Man I loved personal training and was blessed to have such an incredible clientele! It will be tough to leave all the great friends I made.

However, I’ll have one month off before the regional competition so what am I doing?

Sitting on the couch eating cheetos for a month. YES!

No, Im driving across the nation going from gym to gym training like a madman and blogging the whole thing! I’ve already had some awesome strongmen tell me I can came train with them across the US.

I love hiking and camping too so I hope to be sleeping under the stars more often then not during the trip. Stay tuned.

The pic above is half dome in yosemite pumped for it

3/26/10 - Crossfit Sucks!

Just kidding. I hear a lot of negative talk about cross fit from the strength training community but to be honest the top levels athletes are complete animals. I had a chance to compete in the new jersey/new york sectionals over the weekend and let me tell you some of these guys are freakazoids.

Besides having outrageous conditioning some of these guys were saying they deadlift 450 - 500+ lbs push jerk 250 - 300lbs and do german swissle swassles for hours on end! These guys are light too.

Nothing but respect for these guys. I think more people should experience things for themselves before they pass judgement.

I get made fun of so often by my strongman buddies for the level of absurd exercises chosen by the cross fit promoters. (Truth be told I think strongman may be a little more ridiculous) Its really all good fun stuff though, there is a lot of room for creativity and makes the sport lots of fun.

Anyway, I qualified for the Regional Level Competition to be held May 22nd and 23rd I think In Albany New York. Top three from here go to the global level competition held in California, whoop ass.

I must say I qualified for this competition all based on my work for strongman in the past year. I know I’m hard on myself but felt I was very poorly prepared for the competition and know I’ll be a freak of nature by the time regionals come around. I’d love to get on the top three level but damn do I have some work to do. Lets get it!

God I miss Strongman so much. Been training for this crossfit competition that is this saturday. Can't wait to be done. I can't say the change of pace wasn't great, it was but I want to get back to my passion - lifting stupid heavy ridiculous objects. Man, I must be some kind of weirdo if this is my passion.

Wanted to post more here but I've been very busy. Anyhow its getting slower so i think I'll be blowing up the blog with some more fun stuff soon.

This picture is from the last annual Philadelphia WingBowl where my best friend Jon Squibb won eating 238 wings in 30 minutes - 90wings more then second place.

In the picture is the #1 ranked competitive eater joey chestnut winner of the hotdog eating competitions(yes he beat the asian eater tobiyashi) hanging out with Jon's strippers. Next year its Joey vs. jon. Its going to be big!

Whoa...

Been some time since I posted. Busy! Anyway, here's a quote from Alexander Karelin, probably the greatest wrestler, and definitely one of the most dominant athletes of all time. He went for a streak of 13 years never losing a match and went something ridiculous like 8 years without even being scored on.

Karelin has a famous quote for his jealous cohorts, No one can believe that I am natural. The most important drug is to train like a madman, really like a madman.The people who accuse me are those who have never trained once in their life as I train every day of my life..

Pretty intense, it really makes the point that people need to change their mind sets in order to reach their own goals.

Here is also a blip about him i copied from another website

Alexander Karelin is a man who can't be beaten by mere mortals.Nurtured by the pagan gods of the Siberian white deserts , Karelin has evolved himself into a superman , enlarged in both body and mind.

Karelin is the man to lose to in Greco-Roman super-heavyweight wrestling - beating him is out of the question.He has won the gold in this category in the last three Olympics , and has never lost an international match , an amazing record in over 13 years of competition.

Karelin has won world and European championships without enduring hardship , and of all the athletes in Sydney , his grip on gold is firmest.

Karelin is mainly dreaded for a harrowing manoeuvre that turns giant opponents into pygmies : the reverse flip , or the reverse body-slam.He has developed a habit of throwing his opponents over his head , and then slamming his 130-kg body on the miserable opponent.

Karelin did not really develop this move , though ; it had been in use by wrestlers in lower weight categories.Karelin only adopted it in his category , a feat that had never been seen in the heavyweight category because it requires terrifying strength.And Karelin has that terrifying strength.

Karelin is rumoured to train amid swirling snowstorms , jogging through waist-deep snow , carrying logs on his back , and pushing sleds.Though it is not confirmed whether he can do all this at the same time , what is certain is the fact that never even a whiff of rumour of drug use has ever come close to him.

http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Karelin_Alexander_43251871.aspx