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Feels Good to be Back
I am going to be honest with all of you right now. This triceps recovery has been a lot tougher mentally than I thought it would be. After almost a year of barely training, I had just got back into shape. I was dreaming about competing, and feeling like myself again. Then out of the blue, bam no more triceps.
At 43-years-old it just shines light on the fact that I am getting old. I don’t know how many years that I have left to lift heavy. That’s scary to me. I have lifted heavy my entire life. It has been a major part of my identity. Sometimes it is like I don’t even know who I am anymore.
I am sure that this is God’s way of showing me that my identity should be in Him. I get that, but it’s still hard for the human side to let go. I love lifting big weights. It makes me feel young to lift heavy. It’s exciting to be able to lift heavier than most of my young athletes. I say most since I coach Nathan Damron and Evan Rutledge. I don’t see me backing off from heavy weights, but I am going to redefine things a bit. I definitely want a mix of:
• Strength
• Mobility
• Conditioning
• Muscular balance
• Relative strength
Saturday was the first real workout that I have had in weeks. My main focus was back squat. The first challenge was figuring out how to hold the weight. My right elbow is patched with several staples, so I have to make sure that I don’t put a lot of pressure on the injury. I just put my hands out on the collars and held the bar with my traps mainly.
Here was the workout:
180k x 1
150k x 5
200k x 1
160k x 5
210k/462lb x 1
170k/374lb x 5
Things felt surprisingly good. I felt a little clumsy, but I figured it out by the last couple of sets. I can’t tell you how good it felt to squat. This injury has really made me appreciate every moment in the gym. I was shown how quickly that it can all be taken from me, so I am going to love every second that God gives me.
I finished out with some:
Belt Squat Goodmornings
Lunges
Left arm DB Clean & Presses
I kept it pretty simple, but I will start ramping things up next week. I get my staples out Tuesday, and then in about another month, I can start working towards recovery. It’s going to be a process, but I hope to really pinpoint my future goals during this process.
Trials in life are simply a part of the process. I have always learned more from the trials than I ever have from the successes. That doesn’t mean that the trials are fun. They are not. Trials are painful. They hurt. You gotta keep your head down and eyes up. You have to remember that it is just a season. The key is to allow the trial to do its job. If you are wise, you will let the trial grow you as a human. You should come out the other end wiser than you were going into the trial. I am going to try and do just that.
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My latest E-Book “Mash Method” is live and it’s FREE! Check it out now at: http://www.mashelite.com/mashmethod
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This book has several of the techniques that I used to set personal records and world records along with some of my latest techniques that I’m using to get my athletes and me hitting all-time numbers.
-wave training
-bands and chains contrasted with straight weight
-walk outs
-partials contrasted with full ROM
-Squats for vertical leap -Sled drags to set PR 40 yd dash times
And more!