Desicion Points: The Memoirs of Eric "Big W" Williams Jr.

What i did not like about 2010:

I failed myself in a few areas which were very important to me, and i can not reclaim the chance i was given.

I had lower renewal rate with clients this year than was expected, simply because i got lazy in November.

The delay in passing the Zadroga bill stripped me of any faith i had left in this country.

I concluded that some friendships, which are not reciprocal, are not friendships.

My parents wrongfully appropriated $30,000, which was every penny of my inheritance, and moved to a trailer park in Delaware. True story.

What i loved about 2010

I saw My Morning Jacket three times, in three separate cities.

I will have seen The Black Keys twice by year's end [the July show at Penn's Landing was sublime], as i am traveling to Chicago to see them on New Year's Eve. . . .

With the same crew i saw Social D three times in 11 months, in three different cities.

Boardwalk Empire & The Walking Dead.

The Flyers' entry into the playoffs and run to game 6 of the Cup was incredible.

Satisfying the sinister, vindictive Philly kid within me was the beating of a NY Rangers team in a shootout, in the final game of the regular season, to enter the Stanley Cup playoffs as the 6th seed, and then to dispose of the NJ Devils.  Yet, the rally to beat Boston was sight unseen.  Never in my young life has a team i care about mounted a sustained comeback which lasts four straight games.

The repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law is a spiritual victory.  I like women, as you may know, but the repeal was a triumph for millions of Americans and a benchmark for the Obama administration.  I love women.  I desire them.  I fantasize about them.  I crave the life of the family man here at age 31, but in order to have that one must have sex with a woman.  I also crave that.

I visited my lovely aunt in Georgia for Thanksgiving.

Several of my friends had 'snow babies', so congratulations.  Snow Babies are mysteriously named, as their birth 9 or 10 months after the back-to-back blizzards we had here in February clearly has nothing to do with the moniker attached. . . .

Welcome to the world Danny and Jameson [JR]. 

Segue!  The historic Philadelphia Eagles comeback against the NY Giants, which i will refer to as "8 great minutes in professional sports", happened only a few hours after JR and i met.  I hope that my relationship with his parents facilitates and uncle/nephew dynamic, so that i can take him to Flyers playoff games with me in the spring to see, you know, if we a magical duo or something. . .

Jameson Ryan Lyons

The great revelation of my love for country music earlier this year.  
Someone cool and i discussed that Johnny Cash is the gateway for many headbangers and punks.  In my case it was true.  1999 i began to listen to Social D.  Johnny Cash from there.  Waylon Jennings and Hank III took me further.  The Dixie Chicks satiate the desire for female vocals and bluegrass remnants.  The renowned soundtrack to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which i have owned for nearly ten years, tipped me over the edge.  Numerous compilations and bluegrass records later, i wandered back to Hank III and he pointed me towards Lefty Frizzel and Buck Owens, whose names you may not know simply because George "No Show" Jones is more popular.  There is much left to taste, and Pandora Internet Radio just served me a plate of Merle Haggard with a side of Marty Robbins and a steaming hot cup of Johnny Cash.  Breakfast of champions.

Segue.  I finally read "Breakfast of Champions", by the inimitable KV.  Do you like comedy?  Do you like to laugh out loud?  Do you appreciate intelligent and tactfully placed racial humor as much as i do?  Read this book.

I attended and completed the Tactical Athlete Instructor Course/Crossfit Kettlebell Instructor Level-I in Knoxville, TN.  Met some excellent men and women and trained with old chum Jeff Martone.

Through the persistence of Adam T Glass, world record holder in the "grip strength" sport of vertical bar dead lifting, i got OUT OF PAIN and reclaimed my place as a personal trainer who is fit-for-duty.

People in my life are generous and kind and caring, and they remind me that, though humanity is ultimately deserving of the self inflicted annihilation it will suffer at it's end, there are more than enough people out there who spread good.  But we will all perish in flames, do not kid yourself.

I departed the cult i was in for about 5 years and realized that the moment i ceased asking questions about weight training was eerily close to the point in my life where my orthopedic pain levels increased to an intolerable level.

On the initiative of the named party, my relationship with James Sjostrom of Crossfit NRG, [SLC Utah] seems to have been repaired.  James was the bigger man and told me to stop being stupid and angry at him.  Thanks Jarhead.

The Gym Movement protocol and the Movement Model [how to teach the GM protocol] proved to be every bit as good as the testimonials claim it is.  For me it was far beyond 'as good as advertised', as the success is relative to the individual user and is therefore subjective, yet always surpasses previous experience with any "program" visited upon them from any magazine, or web post.

In a prediction of the future, i will tell you that after a nice Xmas morning with these two,

My exotic princess and her trusted steed

  i am going to 'lose my shit' tomorrow evening in the movie theater during "True Grit".

And in my favorite moment of 2010, at long daggone last, my homeboy and true friend of over 12 years Justin Garfield visited me, and the Beast coast, for the first time.

Mexico 2006

Short of filming a sextape with Rashida Jones and flying to NYC on rocket skates, Trusty and i had as much fun as two aging Jarheads can have.  Drug and jailhouse free, unlike Waikiki 10 years ago. 

So there are many of the events which shaped my year.  If you know me, you know that my favorite subjects are healthy eating and weightlifting, Batman, music, hockey, movies, and literature.  So, in place of the 6,000 words i can drop on those subjects, i will list for you the efforts which most impressed me this year.


My top records of 2010:
1.  "Diamond Eyes", Deftones.
2.  "Brothers", The Black Keys
3.  "How I Got Over", The Roots

Top Films:
1.  "Inception" 
2.  "Crazy Heart" [released in December 2009] is so good that it counts for this year.
3.  "True Grit", and i have not even seen it yet.

Top Sports Moments
1.  Flyers erase 3 game deficit to play the Bruins in game 7, and down 4 goals to ZERO in the second period, they summoned the great spirit and sent Boston's black and gold hockey giants home in straight up shock.
2.  The Eagles aforementioned "8 Great Minutes Of Professional Sports".
3.  Two words- Cliff Lee.

Make it a wonderful weekend for yourself and those who love you, for you know it or you don't, 'tis true, life is what we make of it.

The Most Dangerous playlist/Am I Viking?

When you plug in, you plug in.  Me too!  Rarely does anyone wearing headphones in any situation, desire to be 'bothered' by another person.  On a train, aboard a plane, in the health club, running on the trail, running the art museum steps, or while shopping at Trader Joe's, i desire not to abandon the world i'm living in at that moment to discuss anything with anyone.

I was not bothered by anyone today.  Not a soul grabbed my attention while i was at the gym, which may be a great thing as the world i lived in for 100 minutes today was a violent world.

The most dangerous playlist i have made in recent memory:
Avenged Sevenfold "Critical Acclaim"
Sytstem of a Down"P.L.U.C.K"
Shadows Fall "To ashes"
ASSJACK "No regrets" note- i am wearing my new ASSJACK Shirt right now :0
System of a Down "X"
Slipknot "Me inside"
Pantera "Hellbound & Death rattle"
System of a Down "Know & Sugar" anyone who owns the first album should know that these songs must be played back to back, similar to Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid"
And here is where it got lethal: Slayer/Ice-T "Disorder" from the Judgement Night movie soundtrack.
The Misfits "Devil's Whorehouse"

40 minutes of metal, fueling the nice upper body testing/training session i had.  It made me want to smash windows, rip people's faces off, set fire to buildings, and pillage/plunder until my belly was full and the thirst for blood slaked.  So nice i listened to it twice.
If i were a viking. . . .

 

. . . . this would be my trusted partner.

 

He appears friendly, and he is a big giver of love, but if he were trained to obey his instinct and kill me a boar for evening chow, he would not photograph so nice, eh? 

Recently, great things have been happening in and around your host, Bigger Will.  

-My client Doctor Bravo is smoking PRs like dry rubbed ribs every time she deadlifts or performs lat pull-downs and chest pressing.  

-Presicion Kettlebells' Mike Barbato just squatted 290 with at least one more set in the bank, and deadlifed 435 last Tuesday.  He weighs 197 lbs.

-Renee has lost over 100 lbs.

-Mike Rush USMC/MNPD has gained almost 23 pounds of muscle since April.

-I hit intensity Personal Records in my clean and jerk on Wednesday, and on my hang cleans this morning.  

Details: Wednesday the barbell clean and jerk tested awesome so i moved around to see if it would test better.  I took a stance with my hips rotated slightly out, my right foot staggered 2-3 inches back from my left, and my right hand slightly wider on the bar than before.  The result?

135-145-155-165-175-185-195-205 for singles.  205 was my one rep maximum lift, or, the absolute most weight i could lift with no effort.  And then. . . 

210-215-220-225 for singles.  Yes, a 15 pound increase in my one rep maximum strength with no effort.  Or, a 7.3% increase.

Today?  Your buddy Large Will performed all reps of the hang clean, with the same asymmetrical stance, at 88.5% relative intensity for 10 minutes.  A Personal Record in reps performed at a higher intensity than previously known.

The plan?

Just consumed 8 eggs and two sausage links.  6 hours of sessions tonight at Kettlebells 4 U, Flyers Vs. Rangers tomorrow at 1300 hours, all my X-Mas shopping is done, and i am 140 pages into Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.  If i am half the beast he is, you should fear me.

Just kidding! Go make it a great weekend.

Free Personal Training for January 2011, do you qualify?

I am sure to sound like Crazy Eddie, or a carnival barker as i promote this, but this will be the first time i offer a sales package like this so allow me some room for goofiness, please.

The studio i train out of in Paoli is located one block from the Paoli train station and offers free parking around the clock.  We never have more than three clients in the studio at any time, so as to maintain the intimate environment a private personal training studio is known for.

The studio is named Kettlebells 4 U and it houses my business, Authentic Strength Training.  My hours of availability are Monday, Wednesday Friday from NOON-830PM, and Tuesday/Thursday from 0930-1PM.  I have been a successful personal trainer since September of 2002 and my recent experiments with clients have proved thoroughly effective.  My client Renee has lost over 100 pounds in 2 years and 36 pounds from this April through last week.  Astounding!

As part of the promotion to, in all honesty, drum up business and make money [what else?] my partner Gary and i have agreed to offer 8 sessions free in the month of January with the purchase of ten 45 minute sessions to be used from February 1st-March 15th.  It is quite a simple stipulation: purchase ten 45 minute sessions at the standard rate of 500.00 and after completion of the complimentary 8 sessions, we will begin to run through your purchased sessions.  Our aim to provide a ten-week training module that will allow you to springboard onto the path of a righteous, sexier body and improved quality of life through the training of quality movements and the use of the amazing Gym Movement protocol. 

I am sure you have been tantalized.  And i am sure that major financial decisions are made after the convening of heads-of-household and checking the bank books.  Please marinate on this offer and email me for more information: kettlebelltrainer@gmail.com

If you are interested in bringing in a partner to slice the cost of the ten-pack of sessions by 20%, please confer with your intended compadre and notify me of your interest via email or phone call. 

I will be making sales for this offer available to debit/credit card purchase as well as checks from 15 December to 5 January, only.  This is a "steal of a deal" and there are no stipulations other than the sessions purchased being used by 15 March.

Enjoy your week, and get back to me when you have time.

Thank you so very much for your previous commitment and i hope to see you again soon!

Best,
Will

Hank III birthday hollerin'

Sunday 12 December was Hank Williams III's 38th birthday.  Here are two videos that give you insight into what the Texas-born, east Tennessee resident rebel gets into at his live shows.

Hank III and the Damn Band


ASSJACK, some of the same musicians as the Damn Band but it is the harder side of the crew.  Their 2009 CD is sick.  Straight up Slayer-status death metal.


And in a third plug. here is a look at how the man lives when he's not on the road keepin' it real.

Villainous Ascension

"The Wolf at the door" Dr. Daniel M. Kane MD

"The Dark Place" Brett Jones MS CSCS

"Section 8" -old military term

All of the aforementioned phrases can describe what i feel from time to time.  What you may have felt, or may even feel right now.

"Numerous studies have pointed to people's feelings of happiness correlating to how much control they feel they have over their lives" -frankie Faires.

"Just Do It" -Nike slogan of the 80s and 90s.

"Don't worry, be happy"-popular song and phrase related to Bobby McFerrin.

But what if the rising of the villain within, the knocking of the Wolf at the door, or the ability to Just Do It seems so freakin' out of reach that the option to retreat into one's self becomes the chosen path?  I have said before that i feel as though i am always exactly where i am supposed to be.  And i still believe it.  I continue to think that progress every day is a possibility and though we may make progress in a different direction each day, we can be better than before if we choose to. 

But i chose to retreat. 

The last few weeks have been tough.  They have been tough due to a few simple factors i have absolute control over yet i have chosen to "slip".  My nutrition has been defined by a caloric abundance, not great for a guy who really needs to stay within the 230-240 pound window.

My sleep has been chaotic as i have stayed up late and watched too much TV since Halloween.

My business has not taken in the desired amount of sales revenue and has therefore suffered.

And when compiled, and looked at under the microscope that is my own harsh self judgement, i appear to be one big 256 pound disappointment.  I have to right the ship.  I have to use foresight.  I gotta get back 'in the groove', one move at a time.  If everything is a shit test then i am a C student for this semester.  Average.  I am on par with all the other times in my life where i slipped.  I see it now, as it happens, rather than not seeing it until i am deep in the hole, but i am even more dissatisfied with myself as i know what i am doing wrong, i simply have chosen NOT to bring it back around. 

The only thing i could do today in order to put myself in a place where i feel like i have control was to challenge myself with a goal and try to meet it.  A simple goal.  Add some stress and hope that my body resolves it. 

Since i latched onto Gym Movement protocols and took the safe route to a better body and mind, i have only disregarded the elements of effort once.  In June i performed a ten minute kettlebell snatch test with a 24kg bell and went past the "Elements Of Effort".  I scored 202 reps in about 10:45.  Not bad.

So today, i used the minimum amount of distress and pushed into the elements of effort for 5 drills in my workout session in order to lift 30,000 pounds as fast as i could.  I tested and recorded all the data.  I was breathing hard, grunting, pushing past tension, and squeezing reps into sets that should have ended before any of that stuff happened.  But i knew that this was not common for me, in fact it is wholly uncommon these days, and even though i was intentionally distressing myself, most of the sets tested well.

Enough about my sad, sad state.  Here is what happened when i invited the Dire Wolf into my cabin.

Two handed triceps extension from high cable pulley:
90-130 pounds, 7 sets, 6:20 time.
Volume 7,840lbs.
Intensity 60-86%
Density 24.47%

Clean and Jerk with an asymmetrical stance:
135lbs. for 5 sets of 5, 9:18 time.
Volume 3,375
Intensity 65.85%
Density 56.47%

1 Arm dumbbell rows from a supported lunge position:
45lbs, 5 sets of 10 reps each arm, 4:23 time.
Volume 6,750 lbs.
Intensity 45%
Density 49.06%

1 arm kettlebell press from scissor stance:
44lbs, and 35lbs., 5 sets of 10-12 reps each arm, 7:05 time.
Volume 4,290lbs.
Intensity 46-58%
Density 48.23%

1 arm kettlebell snatch from asymmetrical stance:
44lb. bell, 10 reps each arm for 220 reps/11 sets, 15:01 time
Volume 9,860lbs.
Intensity in reps/minute pace = 90%
Density 49.83%

Total Volume in 50:00 32,035 pounds.\

I feel better but working out is such a minor thing that i can only tell myself that unless i pull it together and use this as a springboard, none of the work means anything.

And since it was competition day, where i disregarded the Elements of Effort, i cannot count any of these numbers as Personal Records.  And they will only mean something if i am better tomorrow than i am today.

Thank you for dropping in.  For a true view of a PR visit my previous post!

Time to hit the showers and keep looking up. . . .

Intensity [relative difficulty] Personal Record

Doctor Bravo:
She hits PRs again, and again. 

How does a woman who weighs less than 135 pounds and spends most of her time in a lab coat and goggles deadlift 206 pounds for two reps and rock out to Social D in her Batmobile?  I can only tell you about the former.  The latter might have to do with her upbringing in the gritty city of Columbus, Ohio.

Monday 12_6_2010 @ 1815 hours
Sumo deadlift 5,154lbs. in 4:57 for a Volume/Density PR at 32.25% work time in a 5 minute block for 5,154 pounds in only four sets [the volume is her total weight lifted, the density is the % of the TOTAL time spent working].

Wednesday 12_8_2010 @ 1715 hours
Sumo deadlift Personal Record for 100% Intensity/1 repetition maximum lift is 200 pounds.
We tested her movement and made sure that the loads [weight on the bar] were appropriate and we took off!
146 x 2
151 x 1
156 x 1
161 x 1
166 x 1
171 x 1
176 x 1
181 x 1
186 x 1
191 x 1
196 x 1
201 x 1 PR, new 1 Rep Max!
206 x 1 Another PR, a new standard for her 1 rep max [1RM]
206 x 2 [1 rep, rest :15, another rep] Holy multitudes Batman!  206 for two?  PROVE IT.

Fine, here it is. 

Oh and by the by, we use Gym Movement protocols to find out what movements are worth training. . . . .

24 hours of unremitting rants: Facebook cartoon profile pictures

OK, i just read the news about how cartoon characters as Facebook profile pics will raise awareness about child abuse.
Read more about the goal here

Excuse me, but, well, i don't think so.

There is someone i know, a user on Facebook whom i used to live with, and she will attest that there was a child who was being abused right under our noses and we had no idea.  No idea at all.  This little girl was beaten to death on Christmas eve in the town home we all shared for months until she and i broke up and moved on, prior to the final incident.

My input? Pay attention to your surroundings and maybe don't be scared to say something.  Offend your friends, neighbors, or in our case, roommates, if you think there is something evil happening.  And no i am not a Christian but i do believe in Evil.  Corporal James Clark and i had a discussion about this at range 407A.

I'm not so sure finding out what TV show you liked as a kid may result in anything more than some people feeling good about themselves.  Have you ever felt responsible for a child's death?  Have you ever watched a person's life disintegrate after they take their child off life support on Christmas morning?  I know a bunch about the former and my old girlfriend/roommate knows about both the former and the latter.  What i can tell you, what i am clearly asking you, is to evaluate any situation which alarms you and involves someones safety.

My dad claims that he was abused pretty hardcore as a kid, and i know that i was abused, in an indirect fashion.  My dad slapped the shit out of my mom at least twice that i can remember.  That is simply what i can recall.  The verbal 'abuse' my dad laid on my mom is what shaped me more than anything else.  Also, the man who was my godfather is an accused child molester who has been in hiding for almost 20 years.  I have no recollection of any abuse to me and he never had time alone with my only brother, but i do recall my mother, father, and grandmother sitting me down and asking me if there was anything i could recall in 'uncle' Bill's behavior that hurt me.  I can't recall anything and do not feel as though i have buried anything.

My buddy was raped by two men when he was at school overseas, as a child.  Another pal was raped by a man when he rode his bicycle to the shop to purchase what he hoped was a rookie card from a famous MLB outfielder.

Neither of these chaps pressed charges or made the information available to their parents, yet they found enough strength to tell me.

If there were a stipulation that Facebook founder Mark Z. was going to donate a $hitload of coin to child abuse awareness research, or something, if everyone on the site changed their pic to a cartoon character, i would be less indignant.  And i know you changed your picture because you believe it will help, but please think about what i have said and reevaluate the effectiveness of what you did.  I like the fact that it makes you feel good, and that you care enough to have read the news and made the switch.

But in truth, you likely have changed nothing but your belief in yourself.

And for the record, my favorite animated character was Raphael from the TMNT.

Eternally though, my favorite character who is a drawing is Batman.

Proliferation of Progress and the distraction of sex

I got all wrapped up in some serious messiness.  All i can think about today is sex and my approach to training at 1100AM was skewed.  I was up late last night watching football and my first client required me to leave my house at 0525.  I certainly ate enough last night to fuel today.  My goodness.  And i ate some chicken breast with a Moroccan seasoning that is making my sweat smell very. . . . distinct. 


But in accordance with the Holy Grail of Perpetual Progress, the Gym Movement product line, and the laws in place long before i was in the womb 32 years ago, i hit a Personal Record in my lifts.

If you do not believe in progress every day, let me give an example: The DVD

I thought to myself about halfway through my session, "You are tired, you won't PR in anything today, though movements are testing well".  It appeared as though i was going to dishonor The Movement, i was going to let my people down, i was going to cop out, as i have done so many times in my life.  Even my dog would have been disappointed in me. 

That is not how it works, and i did not leave the club when i felt tired.  Nor did i run bull-headed towards another drill and force myself, with loads of effort, to do more work.  Nope.  Not today.

Today when i got tired i just tested some flexibility stuff, trained some body weight drills, drank some water, and then went back to the iron.

I recalled a photograph that i saw on the internet today, of a personal trainer in such SICK shape that it was what sent me to the health club in the first place.  I recalled and thought to myself "Does every session begin with the goal of a PR?"  The answer is 'no'.  The session, or lesson, begins with a set of movements to test, and beyond that the Gym Movement Protocol takes over.  Data collection, analysis, reformulation, execution.  Find what tests well, change what you can, to see if it may test better, and then train the heck out of it.  The physique in the picture reminded me that more is at stake with my training than honoring a school of science i now study under.

My mood, my appetite, my pain levels, my self image, my happiness [directly related to how much control i believe i have over my choices], my sex drive, my schedule, my income, my choices, etc., etc.

These are all associated with how weight training proliferates and today i saw something previously unseen.  Or maybe i was viewing it from angles i had not visited prior.

It is not about hitting a PR every day.  That shit just happens :)

It is about following the protocol.  Observe the signals, record the data, make the adjustments.  Personal Records and Perpetual Progress markers will follow. 

So when i almost quit, i did not.  That may even be a PR.

1 arm dumbbell rows, from supported position, using different weights and speeds from left to right:

Volume PR 8,080lbs./11:00

Intensity 60-70%
Density 26.66%

Hang Cleans with an symmetrical stance, staggering the hip i had surgery on:

Volume PR 2,295lbs./8:30

Intensity PR old 1RM was 150, new 1RM is 175, trained today at 77-95%

Density 10.98%

Cable shoulder extensions, from a lunge position [I rest my belly on my front thigh], different loads on each side:

Volume PR 3,455lbs./11:35

Intensity N/A
Density 20.87%

And i wrapped up with Pantera on my iPod and dinner on my mind.  Tonight, more chicken breast [it's cheap!] with Moroccan sauce [it's unique and yummy], watch last night's episode of Fringe on DVR, and go to bed early.

Tomorrow, i am testing myself at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Who wants to join me?

Yo! Microphone check 1-2 what is this?

Big Willy in the health club with the roughneck business.

-Lift against gravity
-Had too many cavities
-Got more muscles than an Irish catholic family

No need to sweat a kettlebell to gain some type of fame
No shame in my game, but i'll never be the same

Pounds upon pounds upon pounds is what i hoist
You want to hate on Willy cause your girl is getting moist

I lift weights in bare feet so i can feel it in my calves
Messing 'round with Willy gets you sliced all up in half

I never partial rep 'cause i'm not a partial rep'er
I drink a lot of soda, call me Diet Dr. Pepper

Refuse to compete with some whack competition
Your game is lacking cred so double-check your game commission

I never ride the rails thinkin' it's all about Willy
Even though deep down in Philly City Hall can get chilly

I just do my best to like, go all out
Some might even say this massive white boy's buggin out!

Wednesday 1 December, check in at 2023 hours

Clean and Jerk
All single reps tested better and better and better until i found where my body wanted to train.
135lbs., 155, 165, 175, 185, 195 all singles reps, testing awesome.
So i went to my 1 Rep Maximum number [205], my 100% intensity, and one reps tested better than anything yet.

So then i tripled it.  Yes, i did three reps with my 1 rep maximum from October.

So then i put more weight on the bar.

My new 1Rep Max is 210 lbs.  Thank you very much Gym Movement.

Volume/total weight lifted 2,850 lbs./16:00

Personal Record [PR] Intensity, new 1RM.

So then i worked the cleans and hit another PR.  I took an asymmetrical stance, with my right foot [hip] staggered back a few degrees.
195 x 2, x3, x5 [PR], x5, x5
Volume = 3,900/10:45
Intensity = All reps at 92.8% [Personal record]
Density [percentage of the total time spent lifting the weight] = 27.02%

So then, i went Hollywood and did some weapons maintenance

Alternating block of 1 arm and 2 arm rope press downs [triceps contraction/elbow extension] and varied grip chin ups:
Press downs Volume 6,510 lbs. [Personal record], Intensity = Most reps at 71%
Chinning Volume [reps x body weight of 245lbs.] = 7,105lbs./29 reps. [PR in speed of reps for one set where i pulled 5 reps in 9 seconds]
Total block density for 14:15 is 21.32%

As you can see, i am clearly buggin' out.  Multiple PRs.  That is simply what we do.

Cost of Living [happy holidays]

Team,
I actually selected "Classical Christmas" from Pandora Internet Radio last night and today.  The inspiration is not a love of the holiday season, but a means to walk in the shoes of the world.  I have the eyes of the world, and from time to time i act upon what i think may better us all, yet there are so very many things elemental to life which i have not tasted, spat out, viewed, heard.

Death is one of them.

I served in the USMC and was deployed twice, first with the mighty 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit [MEU] during the peace time Clinton administration.  And again in August 2001 with the 13th MEU.  I sat eating pizza in Darwin, Northern Territories, Australia when the twin towers were demolished.

My unit served as airfield security in two countries related to Operation Enduring Freedom and not once was a shot fired on either side of our 360 degree defense.  We came home safe.  100% of Battalion Landing Team 1/1 was alive.  One Marine from Bravo Company took a bullet to his leg near _____,________.

President George W. Bush declared Mission Accomplished.  I was honorably discharged at the end of my contract.  I wanted to make 50.00/hour as a trainer and chase girls around.  It was clear to me that the war was short and bittersweet, just like the Gulf conflict in 1991.  Maximum effect, minimum casualties.

No one i went to boot camp with, or infantry school with, or deployed with, was KIA or MIA that fall, 2001.  I got out summer 2002.  Went to Atlanta to chase a girl. No one died.

My mother's mother died 18 December, 1992.  The only relative i have ever known who has passed away.  I was 13 years old.  She drank every day and smoked every day for 37 years.  I was numb, too numb to be sad yet certainly not surprised.  Vodka and Viceroy does not always equate to long life.  Her name is Janey Lynn Smithgall.  She is 58 years old eternal.

Two of my classmates from Haverford Senior High, class of 1996, passed away.  I knew them yes, liked them for sure, but was not close enough to have been invited to view their bodies or be affected greatly by their passing.  But i will forever remember the days they announced that Gabe and Patty has passed.

So here i am at my computer, the very same place i was last night when i learned that on October 6th of this year my client of 2005-2006 Tracey Turner Winter passed away due to rampant cancer spread from her liver.  She is 36 years old forever.

So i think to myself last night that there are few people who have impacted me so greatly that i can name them and the related situation from said influence.  Yet there are many, many more whom i have not recalled or documented properly, and millions who have had a butterfly effect upon me that i may never meet.  Millions dead who have contributed to my life, and yet very, very few people i have ever had a relationship with [in  any form] have passed away.

My name is Eric Junior, people call me Will, and i have a Nate Fisher complex.

I do not even think of death as the end of life.  I think of death solely as something the living must bear.  Death does not seem to bother the dead. Dying, however, can be felt by both the passing and the breathing.  What would i know of this?  As mentioned, nothing.  Nothing at all.

So why is that?  I do not have desire to learn the answer.

Perhaps no one i know closely has passed so that i may only know the sadness that i afflict myself with though cycles of depression and disappointment.  Perhaps no one close to me, no one i have ever loved, has passed so they may live to mourn me when i pass before them?  I do not know.  I was engaged in a conversation this summer about thinking in terms of causation vs. terms of association.  I associate detachment and numbness with death.  I associate fear of dying to a television character i have similarities too [and a man-crush on the actor Peter Krause who played him expertly].  When i hear that someone has passed away, it is nearly always someone close to someone else who i did not know or even meet.  I feel nothing but i detect the impact it has upon the living who are tied to the dead.  Detachment, numbness, Nate Fisher.

In this case, i knew Tracey was sick.  I reached out to her through Facebook, as her 'care page' was blowing up and there was an event held for her the weekend i was in the Twin Cities talking about causation vs. association with fF and ATG.  I told her i could not attend, and typed to her that she could reach out to me if there was something she needed or wanted that relied upon me being be the appropriate one to deliver.  She hollered back, clearly in good spirits due to the number of exclamation points and :)s located in the message.  That was July.  I never even thought of her again until i visited her Facebook page last night and saw that the most recent posts on her wall were from friends detailing their means of dealing with her absence.

Yes, i found out that Tracey Turner Winter, age 36 for the rest of our lives, had passed away because i went to her Facebook page.  Other than come to life in front of me there is nothing FB has not done for me since becoming a member in 2008.  I have not physically seen her since I was working as The bouncer in her neighborhood pub in 2006.

And i felt something other than a lack of feeling, or detachment this time.  I felt a connection to the rest of her world.  I felt a small measure of the anguish her friend detailed on FB about recently having a dream in which Tracey "came back to us all", and how she awoke in tears.  Moreover i detected something else.  I realized the professional caliber ability i have to bury feelings i don't want to feel until they ascend at a point where it is time for me to feel them.   I recalled the phone call that the girl i chased in Georgia, 2002 [remember that] made to me on Christmas night of that year, to tell me that Victoria Grace, age 2 forever, had passed away that morning.  I recalled how quickly the inaudible 'slam' shut that the cold, intangible chamber i summon unconsciously when i need it, made as she spoke the words though the phone.  Victoria Grace was the daughter of our roommate when we all lived together, in a 3 bedroom town-home, east of Atlanta.  Her mother chose to take Victoria Grace off life support on Christmas morning after she was taken to the hospital the night prior, for injuries which were at the time of unknown origin.  It was determined shortly there after that Victoria's mother's boyfriend had beat her to a condition leading to her death on Christmas eve.

Phone call, chamber, no feelings, Nate Fisher.

As never before, i am placing myself in a spot where i am aligned with the mentality of the masses.  Holiday decorations, shopping, stress, hustle and bustle, get the kids to the game, get to the mall, pay the Visa bill, go to the gym.  Things people do every day.  Things i do not relate to.  If you ask me, i will tell you that i am on an island and the only one on this planet who feels what i feel.  I am the only one who feels depressed, sad, pain in my joints, financial despair, overweight, lazy, unrested, stressed, or any combination of said situations. If you ask me i can tell you that i feel everything when it hits yet not everything has hit me.

I put on Pandora Internet Radio's "classical Christmas" station because i need to be outside of my head, my body, my apartment, my life, right now.  I can not explain why but i feel the need to be connected to the pulse of the upright primate throbbing mammalian mass right now in order to discover something.  Something outside myself and my life linking me to something within me.

As the saying goes "life is too short".  As the record label told us "Life is . . . Too $hort".  And as i tell you now, not really knowing why, my life is too short to be disconnected and stuck inside that chamber.  Certainly when something calls to me to leave it.

Tracey Turner Winter, age 36

Peach State Update; Outro

Thursday was wonderful.  I slept until noon, raced to the gym i had a week-long guest pass for, and trained movements that tested well for about 80 minutes.  Solid stuff.

Chow time was lean and motivatin'.  No turkey, no potatoes, no stuffing, no gravy.  Check it out: 3.5 pound locally raised [grown?] grass-fed beef sirloin roast.  Lots of fibrous veggies in stew and salad form.  Then we went and saw Harry Potter and the something of the something or other.  \It was the second time i have seen this movie in 5 days and i really enjoyed it, even if i can't remember the name. 

Ah yes!  The Deathly Hallows.  That title makes me desire some Iron Maiden circa 1985. 

So i ate truly healthy on this trip, had ONE alcoholic beverage, relaxed, worked out three days, and watched every episode of The Walking Dead.  great week coming to a conclusion today as i jump a non-stop flight back to Philly to
-Eat healthy
-Train
-Grow up a little bit more
-Reinvest myself in my career and my journey by
          A.  Talking to my clients individually on the phone before next week starts
          B.  Acting a wee bit smarter in the future

The Iron Thursday
Various presses, most of which tested negative after the first few minutes: Volume 3,380 lbs., Density 18.24%

Rope pull downs, with stiff arms, from kneeling and half kneeling: Volume 7,000lbs. Density 17.77%

Dbl KB snatch, a pair of 12kgs: Volume 125 reps/6,625lbs. and 26.24% Density.

Also trained pistols, body weight squats, and ipsilateral 1 leg deadlifts for about 18 minutes in an experimental capacity.

My Iron today
1 arm rows Volume 4,650lbs. Density 30.58% PR vol/den
Rope press downs Volume 5,190 lbs. Density 34.24% PR vol/den
2 KB and DB push presses Volume 4,199 Density 22.47% PR reps/minute.

See you all on the dance floor.

Update from the Peach State

Doctor Bravo texted me her turkey day numbers. Thus us a snalll woman under 135lbs.

16kg snatches, 100 reps in 4:45
Two sets of double Kettlebell strict press, 10 reps each set with a pair of 26lb. bells.
And a 3 mike road run during inclement weather.

Quite nice.

Yesterday I walked into one of those 'fitness boxes' as I enjoy calling them. The manager, truly friendly dude, gave me a three day pass for 15.00, so I grabbed as much iron as I could in 29 minutes before Aunt and I cruised out to Harry's Farmers Market in Marrietta GA.

I did not PR or dazzle anyone, as the movements I tested were only testing well for about 4 minutes, or not at all. But I DID discover a version of a cable shrug-upright row-high pull that tested well enough to train.

I am at Starbucks now gassing up and then I plan to be waiting outside the Box for someone to let me in so I can train any movemen I can for as long as I can until dinner time.

Yesterdays volume:
11,295

Bring the noise i said.  A foggy morning bottomed out and gave us 65 degrees and bluer skies.  Adam Glass' Facebook post about contraspecific movements invited my shoulders to try something different.

Hang cleans and cleans have tested well and they involve accelerated scapular articulations that look well and feel great.  I took the shoulder into extension today as i assumed a kneeling lunge position, sturdy as in the one arm row stance, and worked a straight arm through shoulder flexion and extensions, on the cable station, with 20 pounds.  Test drive, test well.  Disconnecting my shoulder from my body feels nice.  As nice as the CD my homey made for me last week.  Another Mother Planet.  Happy birthday Joe Lyons Jr.

So i went into a lunge position and kept my torso parallel with the floor.  You may picture my arm working with palm in a pronated position and just raking my arm though the air with 20lbs on a cabel station and it felt wonderful.  It also tested nicely enough to train, each arm, with my hips in varied angles of extension on both the ipsilateral and contralateral working shoulder and hip.

20x8 right, 6 right, +
20 x 6 left -
Faster pace for the reps and 20lbs x 6 right, 10 right +
35 fast left x 10 +
8 right
Double-leg bent reps 6L8R
Volume = 1,625 over two periods in the 80 minutes i was on the dance floor moving and testing.  Nothing but laziness and self doubt got reps in last week.

I worked the hang clean again, with the staggered feet.  Tested nicely.  Dudes, seriously:
Hang cleans from a single hip are colorful at 135 lbs.  For triples.  And i'm out!  No i'm not.  I hung in there to  'see through' these sets and tests on each leg.  A fast, explosive shrug from a staggered leg hang position gives my hips and shoulders something they need.  Speed and load applied, from the angles regarding my hang clean, dose the backside with something as complimentary as anything on record since i was tossed from the jeep in '97.

Hang Cleans
135 used for all reps: 20 total, in sets of 3r, 3l, 1r, 1l, 3l, 2l, 4r, Clean & jerk x 3r
Volume 2,700 lbs
Intensity 90%
Density  27.77%

Previous hang clean data Wednesday 10 November
135 used from all reps, 19 reps in fewer sets.
PR Volume today.

Also, great bodyweight strength stuff today.  Headstands in and out with straddle position.  Worked the squat pattern and single leg lifting/lowering, both in headstand.  Also, a PR in grace as i took a single leg toe touch movement into a headstand and worked lifting/lowering the left leg.  Tested beyond anything else this day, and it was in the opener of this session.

Deftones tested with pleasant results, "Diamond Eyes".  Chino takes it somewhere and the band transports his voice right back to the moment.

The failing of a shit test

Suspicions have been confirmed out here at GMT -5:00.  When i ingest food stuffs there exist clear markers between the results of the various macronutrient combinations.  The mixing of protein, sugars, and fats.

-Protein can be eaten with either fats or sugars and will typically test well.
-Fats can be ingested in large, large quantities by themselves and with protein and almost always test well.
-Fats combined with fruit sugar, e.g. whole milk yogurt with any fruits,  test well with respect to the intensity and density of the food.
-Sugars may also be consumed in high volume and when ingested  as the sole macronutrient they will test well with regard to the intensity of the food.

So i chose to abandon reason and eat my nasty face off for three weeks.  I paid attention to the results of this disciplinary deficit, and half a stone later and i now have meat on the ole' bones.  A Winter warming layer?  Likely a layer, yet of residual funk from my lazy lope back from that night of Juan Tu Manny pistola.

I can eat an eight pack of 100% grass-fed beef franks and nearly a pound of cheese, at the same sitting, and it has tested well.  But when i reach for the donuts and whole milk to dip them in, or an Italian hoagie [lunch meat, cheese, bread] there is static in the field.  I ignored my better judgement and took some time away from one meal a day, and the veggies/animal product supper.  And today with the lines in my mid-section nearly filled in, i lifted 15,430 lbs. in 65 minutes and feel shit hot right now.

Clean and Jerk*
Volume 3,795
Intensity 67-81% trained most load at 76%
Density 38.31%
14:37

1 Arm Row**
Volume 5,195
Intensity 65-75%
Density 25.83%
10:00

2 Kettlebell Jerk***
Volume 2,120
Density 22.02%
4:01

2 arm kettlebell overhead swing****
Volume: 80 lbs. 45 reps x = 3,600
Density 23.25%
7:30

Today's volume 15,430 lbs. and density 31.36%  Chin up variations, after rows, totaled to 9 reps and none tested well.

* C&J from asymmetrical foot positions and using both legs for soft splits.

**1 Arm rows, dumbbell, from a lunge position, moving fast and leading from the elbow.  Led with the hand previously.  Music: Tool "Swamp Song"

***2 KB jerks, yes i am surprised i tested these at all.  I have seen Gary blitzing with progressions in the weight of the kettlebells, his reps/minute, as well as his density and other metrics you can find detailed on his site.  I had my feet in a tight scissor formation and tested and trained with 2 sets in each position.

**** "American swings"?  Yeah, well, i modified them even further.  Clearly, as my range of motion indicated, training the 2 handed kettlebell swing, to a transition point higher than the shoulders, can test well.  And with 36kg it got my heart beating.  Swings haven't elevated my heart rate and my mood in quite sometime.  What tested even better was the two handed snatch-pull set where i flexed my ankles to allow the swing to reverse while i had the bell over my head, and my body on the balls of my feet.  Wicked, man.

So today, with all my Big-ness and hearty meals over the last few weeks i am stronger than the cock on a mechanical bull.

System of a Down is testing well for tonight's score, as are the works of Don DeLillo.

DeLillo's name is linked in text with two authors i have read as well as many more i have not.  Brett Easton Ellis and Cormac McCarthy drew me to Don DeLillo and by selecting Underworld [1997] i feel as though i took a leap and asked a girl to dance who had years of Waltzing and Fox Trotting under her appeal.  Don Delillo had, not to my knowledge, published nearly ten books prior to Underworld and i was unprepared.  The book and i wrass'ld and on two occasions i was ready to return the book to the public library.

I renewed this book five times.  A testament to the worthiness of I the reader, who stuck with the book and happily welled up with tears as i wrapped it after retrieving it from the 'lost items' passenger services office at the public transportation station in center city Philadelphia.  Yes friends, i left it on the train after reading 780 of 830 pages.  In the four days without the book my world fell to bits.

Swapped Underworld for the 117 page sprint through his most recent release Point Omega [2010] .

When i sin, i sin, real good.  When i obsess, i obsess, for sure. . . oh baby.

David Cronenberg has optioned Cosmopolis [2003] for a script he will adapt and direct himself.  I asked the walls "what did Cronenberg, and the personal touch he places on the use of gory images, find so compelling about a book which hints at a plot that encompasses a young millionaire's episode of being stuck in his limo all day in Manhattan?"

The report i can give you 50 pages in, is that which draws a parallel to Brett Easton Ellis' work.  The films i've seen, American Psycho and The Rules Of Attraction, as well as the two book of his that i have read, The Informers and Glamorama.  Perhaps lying ahead in this tale is a scene where Patrick Bateman descends upon Eric's limo.

 Cronenberg can work with that.

Chow time:
All ingredients, including oil, salt, pepper, and black pepper sauce are from Trader Joe's.

12 large Brussels sprouts
1 bag of frozen peas, organic
1 bag of frozen spinach, organic
1 large boneless skinless chicken breast


Sautee, roast, season, consume, convert.  Clarity has returned.

I made myself stupid

"purification by pain"
-popular description of my Kettlebell and 'boot camp' classes at World Gym 2004-2006

Hell I took all forms of pleasure in the knowledge that my training was viewed as both taxing and effective. Not entirely safe, however. What I though were safe mechanisms of tissue transformation I regard now as unsavory. And unsafe.

Hooking up with Adam and Frankie was a great step for me. Reading fF's post Pain Makes You Stupid echoed in my head as my history of injury, pain, and joint mobility allowed me to process the information with direct reference.

So after following Gym Movement for 6 months I have my first resurgence in pain. This ti
E, though in a familiar area, the pain is easy to read and even simpler to resolve.

Knee pain has vaporized in the last few months and training pistols has not aggravated it at all. In addition, walking or riding my bicycle has not fired it up either. My trip to 9,130 feet of elevation in Silverton Colorado flared the knee up and it has been quiet since my return from that trip ten weeks ago.

So your ole dad here likes the one leg squats and they have been testing well for months.
Recently I applied some neck and torso rotation to the pistol and it tested quite nicely. I hit a volume PR with pistols on Tuesday and for three days now my knee as well as symmetrical pieces of quadriceps tissue on either leg are in full vocal chorus.

I hurt myself. But how? Well even though the movement and said variations tested well AND I paid attention to the elements of effort, I abused my tissue.

Something in the rotation of my spine or the depth of my pistols lit up the muscles which could be local to the adductor group or the quadriceps group. So what do I do? Me, the guy who has been gettin' outta pain all summer and fall?

I listen. I regard the data, I reformulate an approach, and I ask more questions. That is the applicable course of action for the physical vessel.

For my soul I pledge to not set a trap for myself through actions influenced by pain and I have no plan to use the pain as a motivator to do anything other than keep moving forward.

W

Addendum: One week later and my knee has not bothered me since that day.

Weekend Update: Bigger Will is in the house

Why am i referring to myself as 'Bigger Will'?  The cold weather is giving me the urge to eat more and i will be damned if i am not losing the battle against that urge.  I think i weight 305 now. . . .

These are postings with regard to my training.  i am sure that my clients will put up numbers this week that best their previous data, and dazzle the reader.  Here it comes:

Friday PM
Headstand leg lifts
Inversion postures
tumbling, handstands, wall stands,
25:00 of beautiful strength

24kg snatches
Volume 5,565 lbs./105 reps in 9:35
PR [progress report] Better in Volume, Density [Progess Report = better than Wednesday's snatch session]

Scissor pressing
Volume 2,758 lbs. 20.83% Density
[PR in volume]

Chinning from various grips
Volume 7,808 lbs./32 reps, Density 14.82%
[PR volume]

Pistols, heel elevated
Volume 2,928 lbs./7 reps left, 5 reps right, Density 12.66%
No numerical PRs, but less and less pain in the on every rep, and a new understanding of the pistol and where my body can go with it.  That is a PR.  A Personal Record.  Perpetual Progress.  Progress Report?
Quality of Movement increased. . . . .

Saturday 0600 woke up, clients until 1130
Tested wall stands and wall-stand push ups, cleaned my kitchen, ate perfect calories and watched the Flyers win!
Sunday 0800
Nature walk  2.8 miles, on my feet from 0700-1330 hours, then a movie, 9,000 calorie, 30.00 dinner, and sleep.

Today, my typical rest day, began with a bang.  0700 WAKE UP, Drink that coffee, call that woman, total those calories from yesterday.
-0945 pound my NO-BS Dirty pre-workout powder [gagging noise], ride 1.2 miles to the health club.
-1002 test baseline ROM, dead lifts, hang shrugs, good to go!

Cleans
165 x 1, 165 x 2, 165 x 3 [last set tested negative, so i rested and added more weight]
185 x 1, 185 x 3 [again a set of 3 tested negative so i rested, added more weight and stuck with short rest between reps. . .
195 x 3 singles in 50 seconds tested awesome
195 x 3 rest 2:00
195 x 5 tested every rep, every rep tested well

Clean and jerk 195 x 3, tested every rep, tested well.

C&J from a staggered stance [Adam Glass' recommendation]
195 x 3 every reps tested +, rest 1:45
195 x 3 every reps tested +, rested 1:45

Jerk 195 x 3, tested negative.  DONE!  36:00

Volume of Cleans 4,460 lbs.
Volume of C&J/Jerks 3,120
Total in 36:00 7,580
Density of 36:00 19.02%
PR Intensity, more reps/load done at 97.50% intensity than previous

1 arm DB row data
Volume 5,860
Intensity 50-75%
Density 19.29%
PR Volume

And no pain.  None.  My body feels as though it slept well [that means i want more sleep], it feels like it was worked out [that means my muscles are big], and it looks like i just abandoned my veggies/meat strategy 5 out of the last 9 days [my belly is soft now], but there is no pain. 

Quality of movement in this case also increases quality of life.  For me, waking up after a long night in the rack and no back pain is, well, unfamiliar.  But certainly not unwelcome.  . . . .

Report

Team,
My home PC is buggin' out and i am not enabled to blog 'full quiver' from my iPhone. Please stay tuned as i will be posting my workout data and screaming client PRs as often as i can from the mobile device and the PC at Kettlebells 4 U.

My recent noteworthies:
Discovered the inverted crunch tests well.
Discovered that i can train guided by biofeedback in order to relive pain in the immediate sense, as well as the long term.
Discovered that the clean is precisely what my hips and spine and shoudlers desire as the speed and load feels as though it is uncorking my twisted set of bones.

My recent PRs
24kg kettlebll snatch Volume/Density in 10:00 block
[yes you read it i am testing/training kettlebell snatches again]

1 arm rows
Volume and Intensity on the same day

Barbell cleans full on Quality of Movement increases every day.  No effort, no pain, all gain.

See me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/authenticstrengthtraining

Major Rush, USMC/MT Police Department, RKC 2009

224 pounds bodyweight,

38 years old

Previous 1RM in conventional deadlift 350 lbs. [Sept 2010]

Today, 1445 Hours

Debrief from The Movement Minneapolis: "Pain pain go away"

Oh the lords of metal and all things emotive in a masculine vain are sure to chortle upon thier thrones as this flagrantly gloom and doomy post is manifest in text.

-Rather than deleting and revising most of the expository portion of this post, i put up that self defending disclaimer.  I'm a goofball with regard to my own introspection.

Enter: The Ozzman
My castles were burning.  No one could help.  Since i asked no one, no one could help.  I was in pain all over and i could hardly deal with my own existence.  I had questions, burning for answers.  I searched my brain, and all that i exposed was my own naked vanity.  Autumn 1992 right there homeboy.

"Why aren't I better yet?"  I have done everything.  Why haven't I gotten better yet?"

It took the deeds of others to make me look elsewhere first, and then within.  Adam T Glass.  frankie Faires.  Josh Hanagarne.  Gary Berenbroick.  All doing things with their bodies and lives that i was in a great spot from which i could attune to their decibals.  I know i did many many push ups in the military and my body was jacked before i entered recruit training, and i know i misused and overused my soft tissue in the name of strength, yet as recently as March/April of this year i had a chiggity chunk of the following list all flared up, and my vessel lobbying for change in an audible scream.  

Timeline:
1995- Car accident
1997 Car accident [continuous back and hip pain from then until now]
2001-Car accident
2002-Sprained wrists
2005-Blown shoulder
2002-2006 continuous neck pain
2007-Sprained ankle
2008-Bicycle accident, sprained wrist
2008-Ventral hernia surgically repaired
2008-Followed Enter The Kettlebell to the letter and got all twisted up. . . .Neck and shoulder pain came back more fierce than ever.
2009- Bicycle accident, sprained wrists again
2009-Blown shoulder
Christmas 2009-Massive lower back sprain while deadlifting.

Autumn 2009-Adam Glass called me and talked to me about pain.
April 2010-I started testing my movements.  And then i had an inguinal hernia repaired surgically.

October 2010-Nearly all injuries have receded and all i have is a talkative back in the mornings.  And when i tell you that as recently as this April, nearly every injury i listed was flaring up to a degree that had me thinking dark thoughts.  Time has come that i talk to you about pain.

I have been wrestling with pain since i was 8 years old.  I have lost many rounds and won a few.  The few i have won are more important than i can convey and what i can tell you is that right now, i am winning.  I am orientated towards 'better'.  I was 8 when my mom's sister came to visit us in Philly from her home in Florida in 1987, we went to a BBQ at a family friend's house.  I ate too much.  I ate Oreo cookies and hot dogs and got sick all over my clean bedsheets when we arrived home and i went to bed.  Donna, in nursing school, came in to be with me.  I was so embarrassed to have vomited all over myself and so unhappy with my parent's constant fighting that i told Donna, through tears, that i hated myself and could not stand life.  Or something like that.  I can't imagine the position an adult must be in when a child close to them, at such an age, says something so heavy.

I had an unhappy childhood.  Big surprise.  Never heard that story before, right?  I am the only one whose ever been less than happy with the way they were brought up.  It certainly seemed that way until about 2 years ago.

Through depression, childhood taunting [no way, in America?], weight gain, injury, and scores of decisions less than forehtought, depression followed me.  The cycle of injury and depression made its way across my life and career so pronounced that i have had several serious 'check out' sessions planned.  Suicide and suicidal are two different things.  I can say that i am neither, i was simply afraid, desperate, and had trapped myself.

When the wolf came to the door, i would go internal.  Lock the doors, eat like crap, not answer the phone.  Snap out of it, come back to life, repeat.  Only with the help of close friends Sarah, Joe & Kia [who just had a baby] did i accept the fact that i get severely depressed and begin to come out of these spells stronger.  After almost losing my Babyluv this year to these cycles of depression and injury did it become clear that i had the choice to avoid pain.  After convincing myself that i was going to live in pain forever, i listened to someone else's story, and then asked myself questions.

Why am i in pain?
What makes it better?
What makes it worse?
What happens to me when the pain goes away?
What happens to me when it gets worse?
And the secondary concern, only to the above concerns is this: What happens to the people in my life when the pain arrives/recedes/amplifies?

It would appear that my friends are not far from suffering, as i would have bet on.  It appears that my pain affects my people, possibly they were in my blast radius.  It would seem that they are much more patient and understanding than i am, as i have literally ditched myself and my own concerns multiple times, considering others through looking back solely when i was at my most desperate.

I received Killswitch Engage "The End Of Heartache" in the mail the very week it was released in 2004.

These days, the path i walk, i walk in with my own resolve.  It is the same road, the same stimuli, i simply deal with it better.  Darkness fell, i was reborn.  Multiple injuries remain, as scars, and memories do.  But i have a different aim now.  Along with being honest and not denying things any more [the origin of my injuries, extended bouts of sadness and despair and the effect they had on others] i know how to take action.  I know how to make myself happy and in some cases, i can view the fallout long before it happens as i have seen it before.  I know me all to well.  And now you do too.

"Chaosidince"
Silverton, Colorado 2010

Maryanne Garvin grew up in 'Jersey and got her orientation early.  MA, at age 19, began working on people's bodies and took her talent and taste and educated herself with experience and liesurely quests.  She enetred a tug o' war in Silverton and busted two ribs.  Her plan to certify as RKC in San Diego was broken as well.  Her and Shicole went to shake thier tail feathers at the Philly RKC and arrived to a welcome as warm as a bucket of yesterday's piss in February.  No team assignments, no name tags, no manuals.  No love!

Shicole took the reigns and hand wrote her and MA's names onto the posted roster for Team Williams.  And so it was.  They both passed the cert and snatch test and while catching their CO vibrartions all weekend, i noticed MA for sure as she took charge of the two ladies who were her assigned "victims".  This chick had "skizzills".  She worked those two women over like an instrument she had been practicing for many moons.  She was clearly an experienced fitness pro.  Not just a fit woman who owned a facility.

For dinner on Sunday night, i tried to rally the troops to a neutral location.  The southeast of PA and west of Philly burbs have a coat of arms and i farggin' represent.  I wanted to take the team to somewhere dope, like The Flying Pig Saloon or Theresa's Next Door.  Yet, the mass of bodies called for a situation better accommodated with an Iron Hill Brewery or like the place we ended up, Champps in King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania.  Dude, if i knew it was going to be Big Will Fish, MA and Shicole only, i would have motioned that we rode in the ladies' rental down to Wayne.  I was expecting the bulk of the team to show up.  I could have lobbied for Anton and Bato to come with us as well.  As it played out, it was the only way it could have been.  MA and i discovered our connection as 'escorts' in this lifetime and continued our association in Minneapolis as i urged her to
I.  Cancel her CKFMS registration
II. Use her non-refundable non-adjustable buddy pass airfare to get to MSP
III. Get educated by Adam Glass while i floated around his training room, The Movement Minneapolis
IV. Have a blast

Friday October 22nd 0430, i clocked a 50.00 cab ride to the airport
-Painless flight to Minneapolis
-Sweetly priced Hotel room
-Great training session with Adam Glass
1.  We took my injuries and specified various positions within the Primal Patterns model to improve upon movements that have been testing well, and movements that have not.
2.  I have no desire to lift kettlebells again anytime soon. I have tested well with very few kettlebell movements, and as Mike T. Nelson noted at dinner on Saturday, i have "associated a lot of bad $#!t with kettlebells
-ATG took us out to Minneapolis.  Kieran's Irish Pub on Hennepin Ave. in Downtown.  Awesome food and great service.  Interesting place to people watch, use tobacco products, and watch the Athlete Creator create the funkiest dance moves this side of Wisconsin.
-From there, after a dinner of braised cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and Ox sausage with leek and mashed potato, we visited Drink.
-It was a daggone freak show.  Maryanne and i are over 30.  No one else in the club was over 30, save the dude who looked like the crypt keeper.

We got home at 0215.  MA and i were smoked.  0800 came up way way way too fast.  But SaturDAY and night were fabulous.  Adam taught Maryanne Day 1 material from Gym Movement Bi0-Mech 1, and damn if he didn't deliver like a freaking pro.

It is my hope that i can be back for the Summit, in early December, and that all the coach candidates who i have not yet met are able to attend the levels II & III Gym Movement education in March of 2011.

Thank you Maryanne and thank you Adam.  And if you have ever been invited to train with Adam in Minneapolis and have not taken advantage of it, i urge you to consider this model.

-Southwest Airlines or Midwest, purchase the flight 3 months in advance if you can.  Air fares are least expensive on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
-Super Shuttle to the hotel nearest The Movement Minneapolis is 26.00 from the MSP airport.  If you can rent a car, do it.  You may want to go downtown or uptown while you are in town.
-Best Western Kelly Inn, Plymouth MN.  0.4 miles from The Movement Minneapolis [Adam's Gym], 3 nights for 290.00.
-There is a Trader Joe's food store 3.2 miles from Best Western.  It is a great place to load up on awesome, cheap, healthy food for your stay.
-Goin' out is fun.  Where other than Minneapolis can you have zero traffic, minimal asshole factor, and get pizza by the slice until 3AM?
-Nowhere, that's where!
-It's The Movement.  You simply must be with one of us to understand.  And we want you there.  We do.  You can help us.  And we can help you.  

File under 'misty water colored memories'.  This was an excellent trip.  Mind you that this was my 10th trip to the twin Cities and your ole' dad here knows his way around.  But get this- i was at once In and OUT of my comfort zone.  Why?

Because i was on the west side of the Mississippi, that's why.  

September 26th 2009

October 23rd 2010

Renee's continuous physique transformation (data)

Bodyweight reduction, another 8 pounds lost since September 16th.

Shoulders increased by 3/4"
-muscular development

Chest reduced by more than 1"

This is going to appear as a typo but it is not.
She has lost over 4" on her waist in the last 35 days. Yes, that is what happened.

Hips are down 3/4"

Right thigh is down 1/2"
Right calf is down 1/4"

Left thigh is up 1/2"
-both legs are nearly the same size now
Left calf is down 1/4"
-both calves have lost size and are nearly symmetrical

Right arm has lost 1/4"
Left arm is the same. Strange!

What have you done with your body since 9-16-2010?

If you are The Movement, it may be worth looking at.

The Movement Minneapolis: Sit-Rep

Great training.

Good friends.

Trader Joe's.

Great shower in the hotel.

Raw and ready training facility.

Comfy rental car.

Trader Joe's!

Brock Lesnar got WORKED.

Adam Glass is lean and mean and smart.

Mike T Nelson is kind and funny and tall.

David Dellanave is the birthday boy and strong and fashionable.

Megan K is smooth and cool and great to be around.

Dave The Athlete Creator is a skilled dancer.  Possibly the only cat  to ever wear a goofy blazer to the club and have hot, hearty MN women check him out, and miss it, i have ever rolled out with.  He missed it while ATG was breaking his balls about not using social settings to exact sales training.   

Maryanne Garvin is my big sister from another Mister.  We miss Shicole, the other mother lover.

My physique transformation with regard to body-fat reduction and circumference tracking, has brought me to a floating frame of time in which i weight between 228 and 236 lbs.  I am happy with my fleshy exterior, and i have quantitative evidence that supports my changes.

My primary association to this quest is the reduction of painful sensation in my body, the decrease of effort in my lifts, and the resolution of stress.  I am, however, in apology for the sexual nature of these photos.  i took them for my one and speical girl and i am having them serve as my report for this week.  I plan to call this a closing of a stage which began possibly 22 moons ago, and have you know that i have no idea how many stages are to come nor how many could be clocked.

I expect to hang around 235 and be fully satisfied in that quantitative field.
I want to put up other numbers, barbell numbers and chinning numbers and other things, which are just as tasty for me to have chomped on, as the photos were this summer, while i trained to get out of pain, and resolve stress, and display what i have learned about function with a return to form.  A true restoration of lost physical function.  

http://www.movementminneapolis.com/

Major Rush, USMC- physique transformation data

After 18 months of training this man, we have truly reached a new height at an accelerated rate. For the first 10 months I referred to his Functional Movement Screen scores in order to guide his training. Yet, after nearly a year of shoulder mobility corrections and other physical therapy-inspired corrective exercise, he hadn't gotten much stronger nor had his scores improved dramatically. He was not "all 2s with no asymmetries". He was not, as the system I pledged allegiance to declared was the minimum score to be fit for duty.

So I said forget it. Let's lift weights safely and shed some pounds.

But what is lifting safely? Aiming for perfect form as though each rep were a form contest? Using high levels of feed forward tension and the Valsalva maneuver to ensure his body was ready for a 35 pound Kettlebell (?)? Well I thought I knew then, and what I know now is this-
Safety and form are unique to the trainer and the Gym Movement thesis sums it up better than I can. But I will try.

"Train quality, tested movements, with the varying degrees of specifity and the minimum amountof distress"-  GM thesis.

Quality movement - Lift in a straight line with regard to simple mechanics respective to the lift.


Tested movements- Gym Movement protocol exposes the beneficial value of the movement, load, and reps.

Varying degrees of specifity- I am in Minneapolis as i type in order to learn more about this. What i understand now is that there are starting points for an individual that regard specific, non-specific, and contra-specific movement. More on this soon.

The minimum amount of distress- ditch the elements of effort, test frequently to gauge recovery between loads, and be signal sensitive.

And here we are with proof in flesh.  To see his numbers, refer to this post.

Major Rush physique measurements, changes listed since last measurents on 8.31.2010

Bodyweight is presently 223, down 7 pounds total since April 2009, 5 pounds since 8.31.2010.
Neck is down 1/8"
Shoulders are the same
Chest is up 1"
Right upper arm is increased 1", right forearm is the same.
Left upper arm is increased 3/4", left forearm is the same.
Both arms now the same size.
Navel measurement is the same.
Waist is down 1/2"
Hips are up 1/2"
Right thigh is up 1/4", calf is down 1/2"
Left thigh is up 1/4", calf is up 1/4"

And his lifts are routinely at the 5 digit mark for volume and he looks great. Other than his family and his duty to the US (he is also a police officer) our sessions are the highlight of his week. Someday I will break my bodyfat reduction code of Hammurabi and drink 12 beers in his company. Until that that, we walk that tightrope and crack that whip

Forward march.

How did i find MY best system?

FROM MY POST LAST WEEK WITH REGARD TO MOVEMENTS TRAINED THAT DAY.
S
All movements tested beyond my baseline toe touch Range Of Motion, but i only trained the movements and movement variations that tested better than anything else in it's class. With Gym Movement testing protocols and the Order of Operations located within, we are allowed room to change a movement to see if it tests better. One of the models frankie Faires noted that we borrow is Paul Chek's 'Primal Patterns'. Basic lifts with varying degrees of specificity. For example. My thoracic spine rotation, to the right of my mid line, is significantly reduced when compared to the left. In order to improve upon the relationship between left and right, which i am sure has affected or has been affected by my sacroiliac situation, i am using varying loads and varying degrees of specificity to do so. I must run out to perform some sessions at The Studio, but i will be back to convey to you why i feel the Gym Movement protocols will turn me into a better slab o' meat than the Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Systems ever could. Why? Gym Movement is my system.



What do i mean by Gym Movement is my system?
Maybe i enjoy lifting weights and performing movements that are detailed in someone else's book or DVD.  Perhaps there are drills and things that i like, or would love to try, but the messenger who promotes these movements to me attaches a rep count or some other math to the movement which i find inappropriate.

"Train quality, tested movements, with varying degrees of specificity, and the minimum amount of distress"
-The Movement thesis

I will be training this weekend at The Movement Minneapolis with Adam Glass.  We are available for private sessions and classes.  Contact me at 610.883.7455 or email me kettlebelltrainer@gmail.com

What i plan to learn this weekend is how to take specificity of movement to a new level for myself and my students. Specific, non-specific, and contra-specific movements are where we find someone's beneficial starting points.  We ditch the Elements Of Effort, and we follow Gym Movement protocol.  I am the movement.  I am ready to begin anew every day, forward march.

Read this before you do anything else please:
The World's Strongest Librarian [no doubt]

Major Rush, USMC
Volume total 20640 - density 26.31%
Barbell military Press 5342, int 60-64%
Barbell deadlift, conventional stance- 15298, int 58-64%
I expected the best from him and got it. The last time he totaled over 15,000lbs. He had snatched for 6,000 at home and then we deadlifted and pressed for 13,000 in 38:00 at Kettlebells 4 U in Paoli Pennsylvania. Today, he lifted and pressed for 7,000 more pounds in 9 minutes less. Nasty work Marine! Thanks for coming out, kickin ass and payin cash!!!!

Back on the scene, crispy and lean. . .

I have not really lifted weights since i began testing/training again.  Most of my training has been body weight only, which leaves the volume/intensity/density metrics somewhat ambiguous.  Density is clear and easy to calculate.  Volume and intensity, however, are somewhat tricky.  So last night, on day 6 of strep throat/fever, my shower ceases to work.  I made a trip to the health club to perform evening hygiene.  About half way up the hill [1.4 miles total to the club], Deftones 'One Weak' came on my iPod.  By the time i strutted into the joint i knew that there was some weights to be lifted.
Movements tested:
Conventional Deadlift
Sumo Deadlift
Stiff Leg Deadlift
1 arm kettlebell press
KB press with scissor stance and torso rotation
Barbell clean and press
Barbell clean and push press
Pistol, bodyweight, heel elevated
Chin ups with asymmetrical hand position

All movements tested beyond my baseline toe touch Range Of Motion, but i only trained the movements and movement variations that tested better than anything else in it's class.  With Gym Movement testign protocols and the Order of Operations located within, we are allowed room to change a movement to see if it tests better.  One of the models frankie Faires noted that we borrow is Paul Chek's 'Primal Patterns'.  Basic lifts with varying degrees of specificity.  For example.  My thoracic spine rotation, to the right of my midline, is significantly reduced when compared to the left.  In order to improve upon the relationship between left and right, which i am sure has affected or has been affected by my sacroiliac situation, i am using varying loads and varying degrees of specificity to do so.  I must run out to perform some sessions at The Studio, but i will be back to convey to you why i feel the Gym Movement protocols will turn me into a better slab o' meat than the Certified Kettlebell Functional Movement Systems ever could.  Why?  Gym Movement is my system.

Last night's data [with strep throat and a fever]
Conventional DL 135 lbs. x 10 reps
1 arm KB press 35 lbs. x 11L, 12R
Sumo Deadlift 135 x 8 [made my right knee hurt]
Scissor stance press with rotation 35 lbs. x 9 left, tested better than strict presses
Strict press 35 lbs. x 14 right, tested better than baseline but not great
Sumo DL 220 lbs. x 2 [tested negative]
Stiff leg deadlift 220 x 9 [tested awesome with toe touch and shoulder flexion]
Scissor stance press 35 x 9 left
Strict press 35 x 9 right
Double under grip stiff leg deadlift 220 x 7 tested better than anything else with ROM
Volume = 8,630 lbs.
Density 30.21%
Intensity = N/A [not yet ready to establish 1RM]

Barbell clean and press/push press
135 x 5 tested amazing
135 x 5
140 x 5
Volume = 2,050 lbs.
Density 30.21%, same as previous block, SO WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Intensity range 82-85%

Finished with some chin ups and pistols, and i was sweating insane bullets and totally worked.  I woke up today and felt as though i had not been sick for 6 days.  Time to make the donuts. . . . . .

3 years ago this month.  Elite Athletic Club.