About two weeks ago, we packed up the expedition and took about a 12hr drive to Columbus, Ohio, to see some lifting, catch up with some other friends and have my training partners experience the Arnold for the first time, which was very cool.  Shane, Steve, Dave have never been during the Arnold weekend. We tried in 2020, but the weekend was canceled right before they were to take their flights. I’m sure you all remember two years ago!

I wanted to take care of my training partners and introduce them to some of my friends who have mentored me and motivated me along the way, as part of a thank you for the help going into, and to the meet in TN where I did my last meet. I wanted to show as much appreciation as possible and kind of celebrate in the way of being done and achieving my goal, as corny as that might sound.

The trip was just what I needed, and I’ve come to love driving long distances; even though it takes longer than a flight, I like the idea of being in control of when I get there and when I leave. Stop when I want, eat what I want, etc.

Most of you know that I started my team over in my garage a little less than 3.5 years ago for those of you who’ve read my log the last few years. We needed some fresh blood. So we pushed for a couple of years together and had some fantastic results, got super strong, added some big injuries (pretty much all of us), and got some great experimentation done in the lab (under the bar).

You learn more from injury and failure than from your success, at least in my experience. I’ve learned even more how the details matter, and you can’t plan for every inconvenience, i.e., control everything, but you also need times when you deviate from your plan and aren’t so dang rigid. This is my biggest takeaway from the last push over this time.

Dave Tate and I had some cigars while I had some Whiskey with the guys, as we recorded another Table Talk podcast with Dave Tate. 

During this podcast, we discuss Training when you don’t want to, going all in and what that means to people who truly do it, and moving forward into other areas of life that are now the focus.

The bottom line is you have to really enjoy the people you train with; otherwise, it’s not as much fun as it should be. And I really do like these guys — I also enjoyed getting a chance to train with some of my clients while at Elitefts (Jen and Leah), while Dave, Shane, and Steve got some squats and deadlifts in.

I even threw on my (large now and loose) comp briefs to take a 740 squat for the heaviest lift I’ve done in a year and a half. It felt heavy.

After Elitefts, we headed over to the expo and met up with our old training partner Tom, who was awesome to see after a year of being gone. We got to catch up with him, and then we met up with my lifter Derek who has a huge meet coming as soon as the details are refined, but it wasn’t to be this weekend.

As stated on the podcast linked above with Dave Tate, Multi-ply powerlifting details are exhausting and neverending. The sessions and meets that it goes smoothly should be really appreciated and taken in and enjoyed because they don’t always happen. One simple little detail can mean the difference between a PR and a bomb or injury.

Besides the health reasons that would undoubtedly catch up to me, this is why I longer have the desire to compete—too much to worry about with too many other more important things going on.

Even though Derek didn’t have the meet we all wanted, I think he now sees much the tiniest of details matter so much when lifting the numbers he is approaching now, and it’s the best way to get the outcome you train for.

Every detail matters when you are pushing toward ultimate human performance.