"Solvitur Ambulando"

November Coming Fire. Trees are turning at a slow rate, which, to anyone who cares to look, allows the different colors and shades of colors to create a fiery salad of 20 feet-high matchsticks rustling and shedding and going skeletal for what will no doubt be another mild winter. Climate crisis, ice age coming, whatever. I am on foot 90% of the time, and to have these mighty towers of carbon decorated by the chemical reaction of minus sunlight, water loss and decay, I am happy. Inspired by their death I went to iTunes and purchased Bauhaus.

Recently I went to another state to perform a private, 4 hour tutorial with a Level II RKC hopeful. We bookended the training with some local excitement. I watched dragons duel and entered the radiation chamber- a real W2 type afternoon. I plan to revisit this client in January after the pistol, windmill, and bent pressing skill has set in. Pulling Up and Jerking bells is no problem for this kid.

My private life, which hindered my career in 2007, has once again become a huge part of my career, however the surfacing of my personal interests in my twin-passion professions has done nothing but aid in my financial and philanthropic growth. Before, the external reinforcement of my 'image' with long nights at the bar, heavy lifting doing nothing for the health of my neck, and a weakened grasp on the quality of the food I ingested led to the decline of a once fine physique. Less pronounced was the degradation in my vaporous self, my 'inner', namely the loss of my passion for art as life, and life as a wonderful thing. What I found in myself when I went to California was what will forever be referred to as The Itch. The Itch to serve myself and only myself. To stretch the patience of my loved ones and students by counting on their loyalty to their own fitness quest to forever link them to me in a professional capacity. Twas the most selfish and manipulative of all motivations, though I was not aware of the behavior. So when I, on that May night after returning to LA from Denmark and Philly, strapped on the iPhones, darkened the room, and dug for the truth, I came out with two handfuls of shit so rank and malicious that I walked it to the edge of the cosmos and offered it to the void- hoping it returns to someone in better form, as that of starlight or rain, rather than darkness and cancer.

Now that I am working 65 hours a week between Trader Joe's and Philadelphia Sports Club, I have no choice but to infuse my personal enchantments with the hours I am on the clock. For I have very little time otherwise to eat, to create, and to dig. People at the Joe have taken pages from the Warrior Diet playbook. Trainers at the gym have begun asking me question after question. Female customers at the store approach me for answers with regard to weight loss and vitamin/mineral supplementation. And I have a new friend whose presence inspires me to work harder than I have before in The Joe, The Gym, and The Chamber [my headspace]. So a few stickers on my clipboard and a few skulls painted on my handled bells draw attention. So I am turning 30 and still dress like a skater. So, here I am happy and motivated and well fed, very well shred, and back from a cold space with warmth and rear-view. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did not enjoy excavating. The manifestation of my body as art and the smartly charted moves I make each week are not merely a version of myself. It is the man I am hungrily becoming. It is the exoskeleton and the vessel guidance system I deserve to have. They, together, are the testament to the pain of my family, the chemistry of my body, and the work my friends and lovers did to put the damage I inflicted on display. Yes I read the note. Yes I looked at the pictures. Of course I recall the concert where I absolutely lost my mind and left you to twist. Can you See the reclamation on display in my eyes and my flesh? I armored my soul against souls for 28 years. With you, I exposed the tumorous mass and offered it back to the black. Black outside no longer means black inside. It was never grey, as grey signifies a medium. I was at one extreme. You all kept the plank balanced, and held the line. You would never ask for payment, but I owed this to all of you. My debts are growing smaller and my craving for responsibility larger. Find me deep inside you when you weep, and I will walk you to the void, where you may jettison the smoldering distress. It is NOT the color within. All cats are grey, but your days should serve your journey, not your cargo. Unload, open the door, and escape to the sea. . .

21 October
'Kettlebells on Parade'
Rite of passage pressing 24kg x 3 rungs, 5 ladders.
Tactical Pull Ups +6kg for 3 sets of 2 reps.
Bodyweight of 229lbs.

23 October
'Laugh until my head comes off'
Max V02 36:36 protocol, day one. 16 repetitions of the kettlebell snatch in 36 seconds followed by 36 seconds active rest. 5 sets Right, 5 sets left.
Tactical Pull Up + 8kg x 3 sets of 3 reps.
Hard Style Push Up x 5 sets of 8 reps.

24 October
'Machines of Melody'
Sumo Deadlift 135lbs x 5 reps to wake up my Sumo position.
185, 190, 195, 200, 200lbs. all for sets of 5 reps. It was not yet a natural stance, yet no longer awkward. 19 hours later, at 0200 Saturday morning, my lower back exploded at Trader Joe's. I was tired and dehydrated and that is where all back strains occur. Last year I would have been out of work for a week. I would have cried and eaten an animal sandwich and made the pain worse. Instead, I just kept moving and never though about it again. I did not train for 4 days.

28 0ctober
'November, Underground'
Sumo Deadlift 165 x 3 reps, 5 reps. Felt it out.
Alternating Pull Ups and Push Ups: 3 pull/5 push, 5 pull/5 push, for 3 rounds.
Max V02 36:36 for 10 sets left, 5 sets right = 240 snatches in 18:00 clock time.

2 November
'Of Wolf, and Self'
Sumo Deadlift
185 x 3, x3. 195 x 3, x5. 200 x 3. This took 28:00 to complete. I was patient.
24kg Rite of Passage Pressing. 1 ladder of 5 rungs. No ground, all pound.

Alternating Ring Pull Ups and Squat Thrusts 1/2-1/3-1/4-1/5 DONE.
Stacy brought her rings and I brought the TAPS bar to the upstairs studio at the Club. It was a bomb session. Then I went to work at Trader Joe's.

I have not trained all week, as it is clearly time to rest again. When animal products dominated my diet and depression fueled self sabotage fueled depression fueled. . . .[you get it] I would work out like it was cool, and then get hurt about once every three months. I would refuse to break from training thinking that I would then have no right to eat. Ridiculous, I know, but the layoffs I take now clearly benefit me, as the reduced weight lifting leads to decreased eating and I end up leaner. I weighed in at 219 after UCLA. I weighed in at 234 on October 3rd. I weighed in at a searing hot 222 last Tuesday. The undulating weight patterns fuel growth, just as Pavel taught us to Wave Loads for bench pressing and other power training. I could always memorize the templates and give a student the company line, but now, I can hear it.