In the Company of Iron–Vision

Passion is that vague notion of motivation.  Dreams are things that pass the time, either waking or asleep.  Vision tells you where you are going and what you will have to overcome on the way.

Not to discount a virtue I spent countless words romanticizing in my last post but passion by itself is not enough.  Fire that burns creates heat.  It is what you do with that heat that makes the difference.  If you have a fire, it can warm you, cook food, and light the night.  If you put that fire in a locomotive, it makes steam and steam engines changed the history of mankind.  You put that on a solid, well maintained track, and you can go places.  That is where vision comes in.

Too often in the modern age of motivation, the idea of vision is misconstrued to mean the ability to envision your successful, fulfilling, and happy future.  While that may be part of it, I say it is more like the vision a running back has when he runs.  He doesn’t have to keep his eye on the end zone.  If he did, Ray Lewis or his clone would knock his vision out.  He runs as hard as he can, seeing the line blocking in front of him, seeing the defense pursuing him, making every move he can.  Vision you see is not the ability to dream.  It is the ability to see your way through to the end.

I believe passion should define the dream.  Just as when that 18-year old returned from his first powerlifting tournament and dreamed of being a world champion.  It does not need to be constrained by reality. (Again, I have contradicted myself.)  Dreams can be as big and as glorious as you wish them to be.  These dreams should be a natural continuance of your passion.  BUT dreams do not get things done.  We all know passionate people that are further from realizing that passion than they were when they started.  We all know dreamers that see how glorious it could be yet never get further than that passionate first burst.  Nope, discard the cause head passionate protesters and the star-gazing escapists before you become lost in their Siren’s song and are crashed on the rocks with them.

You need instead to find your Vision.  Head toward that dream with all the passion you can muster but let the path of your journey be defined by your vision.  Let me put it another way.  We all dream of being rich, never having to worry about money, bills are paid, work is optional and life is a paradise.  Well, how many of us are working to get there?  We watch Fox Business and Bloomberg with our IRA in mind but we don’t have a real investment strategy.  We watch programs describing multi-million dollar homes without considering how we could afford that. Nah, too much between us and them to see our way.  No wonder the world is full of discontented people blaming Washington, Wall Street, and the  Establishment.  Instead of finding a way through, they would rather blame someone else for them not being able to keep up with the Joneses.  Maybe it is the fact that Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones work their asses off to live that way?  Maybe they sacrifice lunch with Ronald to save a few extra dollars.  Maybe they are focused on making a difference in their own situation instead of following Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade.

That’s the way vision works.  You see your way to the end.  Not all the reasons why you can’t make it for yourself.  Vision is limited to what lies immediately before you.  It is your 90-day plan and how it fits into your annual plan and how that fits into your 5-year plan.  Consider what is in my vision right now.  In my training, it is simple.   I have made CMS in weightlifting, MSIC in powerlifting, and now want to make CMS in Girevoy.  Last year, a monkey wrench was thrown in my plans but hell, that’s what makes it fun.  To combat this, I added a new goal–Run a marathon.  (October, Vegas, It’ll be fun.  Come see my wife and I renew our vows.)  What makes that goal contain vision?  There is a plan on paper.  Numbers to hit, miles to run, all leading to a specific date that I will arrive at ready to go.

Are obstacles going to pop up?  Use your vision to swerve around them but not off the road.  Your road closes?  Take the detour but get back on it as soon as its clear.  You gotta keep your eyes on the prize.  You gotta have Vision.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

In The Company of Iron–Passion

Chase your passion, not your pension.–Dennis Waitley

Like I have written many times, I owe my life to my passion for Iron.  Poets have tried to capture it.  Songwriters try to connect with it.  Motivational Speakers try to generate it.  But Passion is not something that can be manufactured.  Years ago, when I was asked to take a vacation from school (read as academic suspension), I was only qualified to do two things:  lift weights and dig ditches.  Since I had no love for the shovel and an unquenchable thirst for the Iron, I pursued the former but did the later.  Being the stubborn, independent, hard headed type, I was blessed with a shield from all the negativity that this decision generated.  ”They” did not understand and well meaning or not, “they” were not helping with their guidance. I did not have dreams.  I had my destiny.  I was going to be the greatest lifter in history.  I was going to be a world famous personal trainer to the stars.  I was going to be everything “they” said I wasn’t.  In the meantime, there were bills to pay, so I dug ditches, flipped burgers, unloaded trucks, all to support my pursuit of my dream.

Well, twenty years later, I am not the greatest lifter in history.  Ed Coan, Paul Anderson, Shane Hamman, John Davis, and countless others are champions I still strive to be.  BUT I have won more trophies and honors than I feel I deserve.  I am not a world famous trainer, unless you count my Facebook friends (BTW please like this post and forward it on, thanks dear friend of mine.), by any stretch of the word BUT I have a loyal core clientele that supports me and keeps the gym open.  So on goals one and two, mark that down in the not gonna happen column.  You might say that I am being a quitter to which I will say I am being a realist.  You just aren’t following the whole story.  Greatest lifter in history, no.  Greatest lifter I could be, yes.  I have been a champion for many years.  Multiple marks in the record books.  Top 100 rankings in all three lifts.  Weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman, and Highland Games all in the same year.  Not lifting as much as the others but lifted on the platform as much as I ever thought I could.  World Famous trainer, never gonna happen.  The type of training I love is not conducive to the masses.  As surprised as I was, not everyone wants to be a champion athlete.  Not everyone loves to push themselves to the brink and past.  Pity.  I will never understand them.  I will always look with a condescending eye at them.  But I accept them.  What I will not accept is advocating a training style or system just to make a buck.  I can’t put my name on something unless I am proud of it.  Unfortunately, I am the voice telling you what you need not what you want to hear.  Remember the old saying, if you want to make a living, sell what people need.  If you want to be rich, sell them what they want.  Well, it is true.  Fine by me.

Now that third one, as much if not more so is due to passion.  The line I heard more than once was, “You can’t make a living lifting weights.”  Well, I seem to have so far.  I have made a living.  Found the love of my life and bonded with my children through this passion.  ”You should put that effort to good use.”  I would say that all the rewards it brought me, my effort was put to good use.  ”You are so smart.  Why don’t you get a job where you use your mind instead of your muscle?”  Yeah, but that isn’t what I want.  I wanted to do this.  For every comment parents, grandparents, employers, friends said trying to help or for malicious reasons, it just spurred me on further.  It just made me want to try harder.  Passion makes you believe even in the face of failure, discouragement, and isolation.  You know the answer even when life makes you question it.

But passion has another enemy, an even conniving and maleficent enemy, success.  You see it all the time.  Super Bowl champions that don’t win half as many games the next year.  Golfers struggle and improve every year until they win a major then fall off into obscurity.  In powerlifting, there is a drop off after you hit a big squat.  For me it was a 600 bench. I hit 600 in a bench only competition but it was over a year before I could put it in a 3 lift meet.  But instead of saying, I’ve done it once.  I can just lift 585 and be happy, I kept after it.  I had a great total at 2110.  Big time number, international elite, and not one person close to me but did I back off?  Nope.  I trained and trained and despite the fact I was only able to muster 2116, I know it was worth it.

Read the poem If by Rudyard Kipling.  It is instructions to a boy on how to be a man.  Kipling says that triumph and disaster are two impostors and should be dealt with just the same.  Be warned success will kill your passion faster than failure if you let it.

So, how can I give you that fire in your belly and unquenchable thirst in your soul?  Simple answer is I can’t BUT I can tell you what I have seen and done to grow and protect mine.  Right or wrong according to them, here’s what I have learned In The Company of Iron:

1. Selfishness is a virtue.  Ayn Rand wrote pages on this concept.   Being true to yourself is a selfish act.  Putting your passion first before convention is a selfish act.  Doing and teaching your training, music, art, writing, or whatever in the way you think is right even in the face of the popular is a selfish act.  Express your passion as it is.  Don’t conform for the sake of popularity.  Trends and fashion change.  Your passion will always be with you.
2. The reality habit is vital to living your passion.  Many of us see the world as we wish to.  Very few of us see what it really is. I am as much, or more so, the dreamer as anyone.  I dream of a world that is perfect to me.  However, we do not live in a perfect world.  Other people do not believe as you do.  Nature does not follow your rules but her own.  The laws of reality still apply and govern you regardless of how much you desire or pray or wish that wasn’t true.  To best bring your passion to fruition, you had better see what really is.
3. Objectivism is a philosophy worth cultivating.  I could write a whole post on the folly of perspectivism. (hmm…light bulb!)  To be objective first means to pull your emotions out of it.  Our hearts can warp our perspective as fast as anything.  To be effective, you must see situations, people, and yourself objectively.  You have to get past the statement, “…but that is not what I want.”  Second, to be objective, you must not be stuck by your preconceptions.  Scientifically speaking, a bumble bee should not be able to fly.  If you never saw one and were presented with the scientific evidence, you would believe that whole heartedly and argue vociferously against its flight.  Yet, if you grew up watching bumble bees, you would dismiss that evidence in a heart beat.  Consider the arguement both for and against God.  In truth, there is no scientific, objective, proof of God’s existence.  And the atheist will argue violently that you are a fool for believing.  To those that believe, it is unquestioned and truly faith.  They don’t need to see proof of God, they know he exists.  That is Faith.  Now, before you smash your computer screen, I am not weighing in one way or another.  I believe that there has to be a creator, intelligent design is plausible to me, but there is no proof so i could be wrong.  It is the same in your decisions.  When you are drowning, you don’t stop and pray.  You may pray but I’d bet money you are swimming as hard as you can at the same time.  Don’t let your preconceptions prevent you from taking proper action.  Your perspective is not necessarily correct.  Essential elements may not be visible from where you are looking.
4. Persistence and determination are the only way to real success.  Just because you are being objective and real, doesn’t mean you live only by logic.  We are talking about passion.  I am persistently bringing up the story of Thomas Edison and the light bulb.  Legend has it, he failed 10,000 times before he succeeded.  Go figure.  Objectively, he perhaps was not.  He could have invented so much if he wasn’t on that kick for ten years.  On the other hand, he was not operating based on preconceived notions that it was impossible.  For me, that is exactly how I became a champion.  I persisted to do the work, day after day, microcycle after microcycle, mesocycle after mesocycle, (you like the tech terms, dontcha?) until one day I looked up to find myself at the top.  I was determined to make my passion my reality.
5. Sacrifice is essential.  There is a price to be paid.  At the gym a few years back, a young Joe college told me, “I’d give ten years to bench that much.”  I looked him straight in the eye and told him, “I did.”  Despite the embroidered promises made by the silver tongued charlatans that dominate the weight-loss, muscle gain, fitness industry, it doesn’t come without paying the price.  No pill, gadget, cream, shake, or surgery will give it to you.  You gotta move the weights, run those miles, and punch that time card or it ain’t gonna happen.  Try getting that paycheck without doing your job if you don’t believe me.
6. Faith is stronger than science.  I know I wrote earlier about objectivity and not giving in to our preconceived notions but you have no evidence you will ever succeed.  Even the Declaration of Independence contains the line, “PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS” as if the Founding Fathers wanted you to understand that there are no guarantees.  You may fail.  No, you will fail.  Repeatedly.  Too many times to count.  But, you may, in the end, persevere through determination, guided by a realistic and objective perspective, take the correct action and reach that mountain top.
7. Finally, GET YOUR ASS MOVING!!! RIGHT NOW.  DON’T WAIT.  START RUNNING TOWARD THAT DREAM.  A bad plan today beats the perfect plan tomorrow!

That’s my take on it.  Woefully inadequate despite the number of words.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

So, here we are again…

The day after Christmas 2011, time to start packing up the tree, taking down the lights, and paying off the credit cards after another crazy season.  It is also time to look ahead to next year and all it holds. 2012?  When the hell did that happen?  I was just getting married…wait, it has been ten years.  I just graduated high school…Sauteed Shitake Mushrooms, Batman!  It has been twenty years!  Well, I guess it is time to think about resolutions for 2011…er…2012.

Given the Mayan calendar, this might not be a worthwhile exercise.  End of the world and all that.  But hey, we may as well finish up strong. Besides, what else are we gonna do until then?  This past year, has been a revolution for me.  As I have wrote previously, the best laid plans of this mouse have been trodden into the ground.  The world might not end this year but it might for me.  That seems depressing and very dark, but it isn’t.  We all make excuses for pursuing our dreams, going after what we really want, or trying something new because we want to be practical or because we can put it off until tomorrow or because it is just too much trouble right now.  That realization has given me the key to those self-imposed handcuffs.  I can see something and go for it.  I don’t want to miss my chance.  This is it.

It is not in big things.  I am not going to get my chance to play football again.  I am not going to miss my opportunity to compete for a world championships.  It is in things like time with family.  For years, my wife has wanted to go take the Polar Express train ride with the girls up in Santa Fe.  The ride itself is nothing special.  Hop on an antique train car and ride out a few miles, read a story, drink some hot cocoa and ride back.  Not shocking anyone, this year has not been an easy one financially but we made the trip happen.  It hurt our budget for gifts for ourselves but it was the best gift in the world.  Every other year, I poo-pooed the idea on the grounds we couldn’t afford it but this year, I was thinking we couldn’t afford not to.  Three most amazing things, my youngest daughter riding with me on an open flat car yelling, “Wow!” and pointing at everything we went past, the way my oldest daughter’s eyes became as big as saucers when Santa climbed on the train, and listening to both of them laugh and giggle watching “Elf” in the hotel room afterwards.  Definitely, couldn’t afford not to go.

So, given that,  What do we do about next year?  No specific goals.  A goal is a promise you make.  I don’t like breaking promises.  I have become very judicious about making them.  No, no resolutions.  That implies that something is wrong with what you have today.  When the handcuffs came off, so did my wanting.  I now try to appreciate every moment, good or bad.  No, I am not fixing myself.  I am just being.  So, not to speak circuitously, what am I going to accomplish for this year?  I am dropping the specifics.  No numbers or benchmarks.  No rigid plans.  I know Napoleon Hill is rolling over in his grave at my advocating such heresy but hear me out.

This year I am outlining guiding virtues to pursue in my daily life.  Principles to guide my behavior that will bring me happiness, satisfaction, and put my house in order.  I’ll go into detail on these later.  Each one warrants a post of its own but I want to put them all here today. Call them themes for the year.  Just like when Ralphie’s teacher assigned him the theme.  Just the concept and he could fill it out however he wished.  To him, it was the greatest piece of literature ever written, full of his dreams and vision.  That theme was his way to bring his dreams to reality.  Such are these to me.  Will I shoot my eye out?  Maybe.  Will I get a C- from my teacher?  Maybe.  But I’ll never stop Black Bart if I don’t.

The first theme for 2012 is minimalism.  I am about a third of the way into Walden.  It brings back thoughts I had when I was that DS teenager graduating high school twenty years ago.  Over the next five years, I had some of the greatest adventure of my life.  All because I was free from the trappings of modern life.  I spent two stretches sleeping in my car and a summer living like a gladiator in a travel trailer.  Chased my dreams with abandon all because there was nothing to lose.  I had food, a job, and time.  That was before I became enamored with the concept of sophistication.  The trappings of the world mean things to lose and things that must be done to hold onto them.  There is nothing wrong with the sophisticated life but it is not in my nature.  I am just as happy on a lawn chair with a can of High Life as I would be in a swank restaurant drinking Moet.  No, I’d be happier.  As much as I appreciate a luxury automobile, I much prefer my truck.  Dents and scratches make me never worry about parking.  It doesn’t bother me to drive in mud or muck.  On Saturday night, I much prefer to stay at home and do anything than go to some bar, party or get together.  Cut away the unnecessary.  What remains is what is really important.

So what does that translate to in action?  Four steps, each one returning to that simpler life, each one an obviously simple thing to do that I have not done before.  Step One, kill the sacred cow.  I have notoriously held onto things that only I saw as important.  That has been good like my devotion to training.  It has also been my undoing when my pride and shortsightedness have lead me astray.  Step Two, trim the fat from the steak.  I know some fat adds flavor to the steak but you don’t need all of it.  Same with life, holding on to a few things that are sentimental or rainy day items makes sense and adds to the quality of life but what happens when keeping these things becomes work in and of itself.  Step Three, Sell off the excess before it goes bad.  Have you ever left your lunch in the car and forgot about it until one sunny afternoon when you get in your car and swear that death had taken occupancy?  Keep what meat you need and can use but no need to hold on to things that will go bad before you can eat them.  How many times have you bought too much just because it was a better deal only to throw half of it out once you dug it out of the back of the fridge a year after the expiration date?  In all things I want to judge things by the question, “What do I really need?”

Theme two is Discipline.  You can’t live minimally without having the discipline to remain true to that creed.  It is fine to enjoy things however decadent, as long as you have the discipline to let it go once it is gone.  Be disciplined to do what is necessary.  Work at the things we want to accomplish.  Work hard and be true to yourself.  Vince Lombardi became a legend on this theme alone.  ”I’ve never known a man worth his salt who, in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline.”  Bring myself to bear on training, easy.  To run the half marathon a few weeks back was easy despite the fact that before March I had not jogged more than a mile since Clinton was president.  No trouble, just do it.  Bringing myself to bear on an engineering/handyman problem, no big deal.  It is almost automatic.  But so many times, I know the solution to the problem but fail to engage it because it is easier to just ignore it.  Diet, relationship, financial, maintenance, cleaning, I put off until the deadline.  I have to be disciplined in doing what I don’t want to do with the same devotion, enthusiasm and integrity I do the things I want to do.

Persistence is that thing that truly brings success.  Seeds that are planted need to be tended.  Work needs to be done.  Everyday.  Every week.  Consistently.  Persistently.  It also is what allows us to deal with failure.  I am fond of quoting the legend that surrounds the light bulb.  Numerous inventors besides Edison were pursuing that technology but none succeeded.  It was considered impossible.  Edison was even considered a fool for pursuing it.  10,000 failures before succeeding.  His attitude was not that he failed, he discovered another way not to make an incandescent light.  This is a general theme that I do not need to add but need to make sure I don’t forget.  I devoted decades to strength training.  I have devoted 15 years to being a personal trainer.  I have devoted seven to being a gym owner.  Persistence is not an issue but as with discipline, it needs to be broadened to all aspects of my life.

Principled Living is something John Wooden espoused as the key to a successful life. All of us make sacrifices for the sake of expediency, convenience, and to avoid conflict.  But are we sacrificing long term happiness for these short term moments.  Perhaps.  Maybe not once but once here and once there, over time, repeatedly and it becomes a giant snowball rolling down hill.  Uncontrolled and unstoppable.  As Shakespeare wrote, “To this above all, to thine own self be true.”  I need to remember what is right in the face of what is fun, what is easy, and what is self-indulging.

The last theme for the year is Planning.  Wait, what is this?  Didn’t you just say no plans?  Yep, if I contradict myself, very well, I contradict myself.  The point is not to put a plan down and rigidly follow it but instead to think long term.  Is it worth the cost today as opposed to the reward tomorrow?  Or even more importantly, is what I am getting today worth the cost tomorrow?  The other thing is that I have a tendancy to just go after something and not plan how I am actually going to get there.  This results in me getting too far in to change course but no idea how to get from here to there so I spend three times the effort and twice as long getting out of it as I would have if I would have simply thought about it before hand.   I need to make my plan, just as I would training for a meet, and follow it.  Who goes into business without a business plan?  This guy.  Who goes into presentations with no idea what he’s going to say?  This guy.  Gotta be smarter than that.

That is the thoughts for this coming year and barring the end of the world, we’ll revisit this in a few days or at least it will seem that way December of next year.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

Insanity Update

I know many of you just spewed protein shake across the counter as you read that thinking, “Rich really has gone sissy and is doing those DVD’s.”  Wrong!  Many more of you were not thinking anything of it perhaps muttering, “What else is new?” as you clicked on the link.  But really this post is to laugh about my first two days on the Ewoldsen Insanity Program.  (I know he didn’t name it that but that is an apt description of it.)

Day one is bench press.  Wonderful protocol here.

Bench Press 8 sets of 5 with 1 minute rest.  I used a massive 200# and barely finished all the reps.

No more than a minute later begin auxiliary work, 5×5 with 30-45 seconds rest between each.  Change exercises each workout.

Incline Fly (Flies?  I haven’t done flies since before Bill met Monica!)  I used 35′s and thought my shoulder was going to pop out.

Low Incline Barbell Press with a macho weight of 155 again contemplating how I was going to get out from under it if I couldn’t make the racks.

Low Cable Row 230 pounds, not so bad.  Dead hang chins again not horrible.  Yes, I was kipping.  No, it’s not cheating.  I am still 275!

Overhead Cable Tricep Extensions 150#.  This is the whole stack so next time I will switch machines.  No, I didn’t cut the stretch short on the last few reps.  Not too much anyway.

Close Grip Bench with 150# was easy.  That is, if you mean not as hard as heavy deadlifts, then yes it was easy.

I barely finished all the reps.  It drove my heart rate up to the same zone it is when I run and would only drop 20-25bpm when I rested.

Yesterday, I got after deadlifts.  Opens up with one set of deep breathing squats.  I used 240 and should have gone heavier.  I will next time.  However, today my legs are crying.  Interesting about this, I can tell you which quads work the most doing GS and which ones don’t by the soreness in my legs.  Rectus Femoris and Vastus Intermedius, yes.  Vastus Lateralis and Vastus Medialis, NO!  Makes sense with the RF because it is the only head to cover both the knee and the hip joint.  Tremendous work on jerks and long cycle in the rack position.  Intermedius also because of the linear motion of the jerk without a great knee bend.  Compare that to the deep squat position and the great knee bend and lateral stability required.  Both of those stress the VMO and lateralis more.  This combined with the greater load and longer time under tension…

Sorry, geeked out on you there. But trust me the empirical feeling in my legs matches the theoretical explanation. Plus, all the muscles in the groin are big time upset with me.  Must have been the squats because conventional deadlift is easy on the groin.  Speaking of deadlift, I hit two sets of five with 340 then dropped to 300 because I was shaking so much parts were flying off.  I did get every set, no extra rest.  I haven’t done fives on deadlift in the last five years at least.  My memory gets a little fuzzy after that.   Forty deadlifts in under nine minutes?  I usually don’t do 40 deadlifts in two workouts!  As Mike put it, if you still want to do auxiliary work at this point go ahead.  Nah, I’ll pass.  I did run around 2 miles though.  Weights don’t slow me down on my runs.  Not that that is possible without calling it walking.

Anyway, campers, that is my fun for the past two days.  I’ve got some kettlebells to lift.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

New Tricks for an Old Dog

The love of iron never goes away.  I am still dealing with A fib and other issues but the siren’s call of three white lights still draws me in.  So, since I no longer can lift heavy as gravity allows as often as my sore knees and even sorer (Is that a real word?) shoulders permit, I have to find something else to do to silence the lure of the big iron. 

I began today a program designed by a close friend of mine.  Mike Ewoldsen is one of a few lifters that has totaled 11 times his body weight. He is also a great friend of the sport as he will load weights all day the day after posting that total.

This program is a light weight, fast paced program.  Perfect as an addition to the girevoy sport training.  Also it gives me the opportunity to test a theory I have about my heart.  I seem to function better after my workout than before.  Also, it seems to knock me back into rhythm when I am out.  So, frequent, light workouts that get my heart rate up should help me both function better in a cardiovascular sense and function better in life.

I haven’t trained this way in twenty years.  I turned away from volume and went down the Dark path of Mentzer, Hatfield, and Darden before turning to weightlifting and powerlifting.  Not since I dreamed of being the next Dick Butkis or Lawrence Taylor have I done this.  It burns like hell.  You breathe like a freight train.  And you don’t look as cool because you are using sissy weights.

I have to go write it out. This should be fun.

We’ll see.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

In the Company of Iron…

One of my friends suggested to me that I need to write down my perspective on things, kind of like Dave Tate did in “Under the Bar”, because he has heard me rant about these things in the gym, in bits and pieces, and launch into dissertations and monologues about numerous subjects.  To me, I never really thought of myself as a sage or guru sitting on the mountain top but rather the seeker climbing in search of the master.  I never put serious thought to it until now.  I started this blog because some social media marketing consultant suggested it.  There was no plan.  I just wrote about what I was feeling or thinking about.  I found it to be therapeutic for me to write.  Well, after the last post, between the people I made cry and the people that suggested I write about something I have told them in person, I think I will try to write with more of a plan.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach, would speak to all walks of life when he gave The Speech.  He would lead with the disclaimer that all he knew came from football.  But he asserted, all those lessons carried over into every other aspect of life.  I am calling the posts in this series, In the Company of Iron because all I know came from moving the weights or my desire to move more weights.  Plus, I figure that if you are still reading this blog, my writings must connect with you on the emotional level I write with or trigger your intellect like I intend to.  If not, it is a Ben Kenobi situation (Who’s more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?) and these are just the babblings of a crazy person and you are a poor wedding guest trapped by my words.

In truth, I am just a musclehead.  I have spent more time with an knurled grip in my hand than almost anyone I or you know.  It has given my life meaning but also perspective.  What value that has is arguable?  I can not claim to have found the key to success but to be selected as an Athlete of the Decade means that for the majority of a ten year block, I was a top competitor.  During this time, I did not have the largest overall lifts nor did I have the best lifts based on bodyweight.  I was simply the most consistent.  That really means something.  Legend says that it took 10,000 failures to invent the light bulb.  Even if you had one attempt every working hour of the average worker, it would take you just short of FIVE years to get the 10,001 tries necessary.  Perseverance is key.  It is truly the one thing that will ensure your success in fitness and in the rest of life.

From the time I started lifting,  it took around six months for me to break 100# on bench press, another two years to break over the 200# barrier, another four to cross 300#, plus another 4 to smash 400#, about 7 to crack 500# but two and half to break #600.  I am over three years past that barrier and have conceded that I may not get 700#.  But that shows you one thing, I was consistently getting half a pound a week on my bench press for over two decades.  I persisted despite injury, in the face of massive frustration, in spite of life outside the gym, and eventually triumphed.  It wasn’t by some great genetic advantage.  It wasn’t by some brilliant understanding of the workings of the human body.  It was not by some intricately designed program that overcame some hidden secret that was hindering my progress.  It was through sheer stupidity.  I was simply too stubborn to quit.  I did not concede that I was done.

That’s what I am doing with this series.  I am persevering at writing my thoughts, perspectives, and, dare I say, wisdom.  I need to just do it.  Like my calf rehab, it is probably good for me and helping me get where I want to go.  I don’t have the inherent motivation to be as consistent as I was over the last 2000 bench press workouts.  That is key.  How do I find a reason to write?  I don’t.  My friend once quoted a much greater author than either of us by saying, “You become a writer by putting your butt in the seat for one hour a day.”  So, I will just do it.  Like this post.

So, that brings up the most common question I get asked as a trainer.  ”How do I get motivated?” or “How do I stay motivated?”  My answer is always the same.  I don’t know.  You just go do it or you don’t do it.  In my training, it has always been easy for me to just do it.  That is why I don’t listen to music when I train.  I strongly believe if you need music to workout, you don’t have enough focus on what you are doing.  It is highly likely you don’t have enough heart.  You need to be paying incredible attention to what you are doing when you bench 600#.  But I don’t think I was paying any less attention when I was trying to break through any of the barriers on the way there.  The thing is, I am not too far off when it comes to my reps in my workouts.  I had to pay a great level of attention to develop the understanding I now have for bench press.  It is a level of understanding that is not available in books, except when you read my bench training manual (email me if you are interested), no matter who wrote it.  No clinical trial or published study will give you that comprehension no matter how expertly the biomechanics is explained.  Nope, you gotta put your time in.  You gotta do the task.   You gotta persist.  You gotta invest the time In The Company of Iron.

Great Superheavyweight Weightlifters – YouTube

Great Superheavyweight Weightlifters – YouTube.

The start of a new season…

Been away for a while, start of a new football season and with the idiocity of our local school system, we did not get to do our summer program for the kids.  This means that our eighth grade football team was left to their own devices all summer to stay in shape and be ready to play.  They also only gave us two weeks of prep time before our first game.  So, not only are we supposed to shape couch potato kids into athletes in two weeks, we are also supposed to teach these kids what their responsiblilities are within the system.  Oh yeah, I can’t forget the intangibles such as team spirit, confidence, discipline, and the like.  What do I look like a miracle worker?

Kind of reminds me of the people who call me interested in personal training and say, “I have to look good for my sister’s/aunt’s/brother’s/(insert VIP here)’s wedding.  I meant to call sooner but I was busy.”  When is the wedding I ask trying to get a plan formulated in my head only to hear the reply, “It is in two weeks.  Can I loose 20# by then?”  At this point, I have the same reaction I do when I ask one of my players to repeat what I just said.  I try to calm myself and repeat internally, “Don’t cuss at the children.  Don’t cuss at the children.  Don’t cuss at the children,” and try to continue speaking like a rational human being instead of screaming, “Are you stupid or something?  What kind of S4B, dumb4$$ idea is that?”

I say to these poor, deluded souls, “You are shit out of luck.”  Okay, so I can’t keep from cussing at this stupidity. “We can make a good run at it and strip off some water weight and maybe an inch or so but you are not going to like it…”  I then go into an explanation of how strict their diet must be, how much cardio they must do, and what kind of weight training I will have them do.  Some say, “I’ll try.  I need to do something but I can’t today.  Can we start tomorrow?”  It should read manana not tomorrow.  Manana (pronounced man-ya-na) for you gringos that don’t speak spanish is a word that doesn’t mean tomorrow but instead means another day.  They leave and never come back.  They I’m sure go to one of my less scrupulous competitors and get taken for their cash because the schmuck tells them what they want to hear.  Or they just resign themselves to picking a more flattering outfit.

Not so for my footballers, they are stuck with what we got.  We run them, yell at them, try to teach them that the suffering they endure today is leading to a reward at game time.  Cram what we can into the time we have.  This season it turned out to be enough.  We got our first win yesterday.  I was not happy with their performance.  I saw mistakes on every play.  I will say I was incredibly proud of how hard they played.  It was a big step.  Exactly like the big step those last minute exercisers make if they go for the cram session style of training.  They have worked through the hard part and are to the point where we can get some real work accomplished.  But, I know those boys will be there for practice this afternoon.  I also know Miss I can wait until the last minute won’t be there after the event.

This is born out statistically across the country not just a unique happening for my personal training business.  The majority do not exercise but have purchased a gym membership in the past 18 months.  The majority of gyms have a 10% usage rate among their membership on any given day.  Why?  Because everyone is looking for the quick fix.  Everyone hates to hear the bad news.  Everyone doesn’t like to do the hard work as much as they like to sit on the couch.  EVERYONE!  Not just the fat, lazy, out of shape people that make excuses for why they are what they are, even Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, and Usain Bolt all like to sit on the couch and rest instead of working out so hard they puke.  The difference is that elite athletes, workout enthusiasts, and even the successful “I just wanna lose 15#” crowd sit on the couch after they get their work done instead of instead of doing their workout.

That’s the simple difference between those that suck and those that don’t.  You gotta get your work done before you get your reward.  So, this is the simple moral to my rambling, random rant expressed here:  DROP YOUR BS EXCUSES AT THE DOOR.  GET TO WORK.  DON’T GIVE IN TO YOUR PAIN.  BE PERSISTENT. BUST YOUR ASS.  DON’T SUCK FOR ONE JUST ONE DAY.  Good news is that you can now go collapse on the couch.  Bad news is that you gotta do it again tomorrow.

If you need me, I’ll be around.

As a post script, if anyone from the LCPS athletics department reads this, please don’t misunderstand my opening paragraph.  I want to restate my feelings in a clear unambiguous manner.  YOU SUCK!  YOU SHOULD PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR SELF-CENTERED ASSES AND ACTUALLY CONSIDER WHAT WOULD HELP THE KIDS MORE NOT WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU.  CONSIDER THIS MY MIDDLE FINGER.

There is no going back…

Normal is what everyone else is and you are not. –Dr. Soran

In the movie Star Trek Generations, Dr. Soran is trying to get back to the Nexus, an energy ribbon that houses a dream world.  A world where every fantasy is your reality.  No regrets.  No fears.  No mistakes.  No chance or opportunity missed.  What Normal people would call heaven. Normal people want that.  It is where everyone wants to be.  But Captain Picard is on a mission to save the world and prevent the destruction of a world.  He recruits the legendary James Tiberius Kirk to help.  Initially, Kirk wants to indulge in all that he missed.  A long forgotten romance, the thrill of amorous pursuits, but when he goes to jump a creek on horseback, he realizes it is not real.  He doesn’t feel the fear he had every other time he jumped it.  He realizes that while that world is ideal, it is devoid of the challenge that makes life worth living.  (Skip to the ninth minute if you just want to see him jump ravine.)

That is what I feel when I just workout.  Training has some teeth.  It implies that failure is a possibility.  It contains the subtle threat that failure to train while your opponent does will lead to failure to perform in competition.  If you fail to workout?  Eh, who cares.  You can do it later.  You can be one of those Blue Pill People that like the illusion.  I can’t have that once I know the trick.  Once you have been to the puppet show and seen the strings, you can’t just go back.

I just returned from NASA World Cup.  This is eighteen years after I first went to this meet in Phoenix.  I once slept in the parking lot across from the meet hotel because I didn’t have enough money for a room.  That was 1995.  My current budget is not much greater, I still come home with change in my pocket and pride in my heart.  Then I was some no name kid with crappy form that knew it all and would repeatedly climb on the platform still wearing his baseball cap and without his singlet straps up.  That was my first introduction to numerous friends I came back to see at this meet.  Now I’m the old guy trying to help out that kid.  Knowing the “Yeah, I’ll try to work that into my program next time.” is the same one I would say years ago that meant, “Why is this old guy pestering me?  He just doesn’t know the newest ways to train.”  Its okay, son, I know there ain’t no school like the old school.  You’ll learn.  I did.

This was also the first time I have been to this meet since this heart issue crept up.  This was the first time I “can’t” participate.  This was the first time I was a spectator.  A little tough for me to take.  Sure I have been to meets since this issue came up.  But I have always lifted at every World Cup since my return to powerlifting, with the exception of 2005, when my daughter Mackenzie was born.  Add in the three years I lifted at it between 94-97 and that is ten times as a lifter at this meet.  Even when I was hurt, it was bench only.  Watching the meet was actually painful,  not because I miss the attention, the glory, or the praises of my fellow lifters.  But because there was not that fear that comes with stepping on the platform.  It is one of the rare moments that make you feel alive.  It is that rush that I miss.  This was always my big meet of the year.  The build up as you wrap your knees painfully aware of the lifter on the platform ahead of you but trying to pretend you don’t care and keep your mind on your own task.  My heart rate jumped as my turn came up.  I should have  been hearing my name called in the order.  ”Rich Kahle, you are in the hole.”  This is when I begin wrapping my knees.  ”Kahle is on deck.”  I’d finish wrapping my knees and be in final preparation mode for my lift.  As I watched the other lifter wrap his knees, I could feel myself mimicking his movements subtly with my own hands as I flexed my quads.  The lifter I would have followed hit his lift but they did not call my name.  No one in the room missed it but me.  My heart sank as it was official.  I am not lifting.  Until that moment, I had not missed it. I was content to rest on my laurels and smile and wave like the previous inductees at the Hall of Fame ceremony.  In that moment, I wished I was back on the platform.  I was planning on sticking around and watching bench press.  Nope, I wanted out.

I broached the idea of returning to competition with my wife this morning.  Does went over like a lead balloon mean anything to you?  I can understand her fears.  I have thought them out.  Would I be able to compete half speed?  Nah, not once I smelled blood in the water.  I get that crazed, adrenaline fueled frenzy like a school of piranha and go charging ahead with my hair on fire.  But really, could I just let go and attack things like I used to when it was my turn to chase the records?  No, I know I would pull back from the edge.  I would make a good show of it, push up to the guard rail, and lean slightly over to get a better view.  But I would not stand on it with my head leaning on the glass at the World Trade center doing my best Ferris Bueller impersonation without a care in the world.  I can’t go back and like Kirk, I would not be afraid of that ravine.  I’d know what I was doing.  I wouldn’t have that fear that made it such a rush.  Besides, it is a moot point.  No matter what the doc says, she wouldn’t sign the release form for me.

Skip to the last 20 seconds.

So, where does that leave me?  Coaching.  Those that can, do.  Those that can’t, coach.  I was wrapped up in coaching my daughter Mackenzie.  No one was watching me with her on the platform but while she was lifting but I was in the background “helping” as if my movements would somehow impart the force to the bar and make it go up.  Thankfully it was not needed.  As you can see, I was extremely happy.  Not as much a rush, but I could not be prouder.

Proud coach and even prouder papa...

She told me she wants to win more trophies than I did.  I would love to help her do it.  But even if in a few years, she becomes more interested in boys than barbells, I am just loving the hell out of sharing this time with her.  I am more nervous when she lifts than when I do.  And when she lifts it, I don’t get the rush of the lift itself.  I feel relieved.  I can relate to my dad saying to me, “I can’t watch you lift.  I am too scared when you are doing it.”  It is such an amazing feeling to watch any of my athletes break personal records and win trophies.  Watching some of my athletes grow because of the new confidence acquired from the sport, just as I did, gives me a greater satisfaction than winning trophies for myself.

Daddy's little champion

The greatest question in all of this is, why take the chance?  Why risk getting hurt or worse?  What have you left to prove?  The answer is that rush.  Nothing can replace that rush.  I miss it.  But like Kirk in the Nexus, I can’t go back to that real moment in time, that real place where fear confronted confidence and challenge faced ability, and I won out.   I may return to the platform, just to get back in the grind and, like a cup of Colombian with cream, catch a little rush to wake me up but that quad-espresso charged place is closed to me.  I can lead others back there but I can’t go there.  It gives me a chance to enjoy those moments of triumph I took for granted.  I can enjoy the successes instead of passing them like highway mile markers.  It is this achievement that matters.  What I did do not what I could have done.  It is now not the next time.  After only three of my meets have I ever been satisfied with what I had done.  One was the 1998 USAW Collegiate Nationals,  I won the Snatch with my best ever lift (135 kg) but dropped to fourth after the jerk even though I PRed the lift (155kg) and my total (290 kg).  After World Cup 2007, I hit big lifts on squat and bench and missed my final deadlift to break my total record.  I know you might say, “Satisfied with failure?”  But I knew I left it all on the platform.  I passed out on my deadlift still trying to pull it up.  No failure in that.  And again after Nationals this year.  I mentioned it in a previous post, I once again hung off the edge and lifted to the best of my abilities.  Forget the numbers, it was paltry compared to my best but that was the best meet I have had.  Until Saturday…seeing that sparkle in her eye that had long ago left mine when she was given her trophy made me prouder than I have ever been.  On the drive home, I looked over my shoulder once I realized there was no noise coming from the back seat.  Seeing this, I know why it is more rewarding to be a coach instead of an athlete.

So, I am going to have to settle in with the good, old stand-by, Costa Rican coffee called coaching but that doesn’t mean I won’t throw in a shot of espresso now and then for a little bigger rush…

I may be smarter and mature enough to know this but I ain’t never gonna be normal.  Give me the red pill, Morpheus.

If you need me,  I’ll be around.

The Return Red Bells From Hell

Knuckleheads like me are a rare commodity.  It is not enough to be working out on a program that makes me cry.  I have to add to it.

In March I was training to make Class 1 in long cycle maybe even CMS if I could just get over the pain, breathing, and my sudden collapse at five minutes.  Got up to 42 in just under six minutes at my best.  I always thought it was a mental breakdown or a lack of conditioning but turns out out was atrial fibrillation and low Q. 

All this stopped in an instant.  Jogging, bicycling, and light weight dominated my life.  No training, just working out.  I still can’t bring myself to do bodybuilding style bodypart workouts.  What is the point of 8-12 reps again?  June brought a new feeling with 300 volts shocking my heart back in rhythm.  Just working out has been getting easier, jogging not any faster but easier, it feels good again.  Now it has become training, not just working out.  Well, despite my struggles to push the high reps in GS, I am not suffering like I used to.  Sick as it seems, I miss it.  So, concurrent with my Biathlon program, I started a long cycle program.  Yesterday, I worked out with the Red Bells From Hell again. 
The double 32kg bells are heavy.  Despite being able to clean and jerk 150 kg on a bar, this 64 kg combo has humbled me on numerous occasions.  Yesterday, they breathed life into me at a time I really needed it.  So, again behind my quest for rank with the long cycle.  Can still do ten in a row. Only 46 reps to go. Add two reps a week and I’m there by New Years.

So, Pecs Readers, remember this…it is not what you can’t do that matters. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.  No excuses. Just go do something. Don’t be satisfied with good enough, good, our even great. Be all that you can be, not just in the gym but also at work, at home, in your marriage.  Constant And Never-ending Improvement!

If you need me, I’ll be around…