I’ll start this training log with a real dose of reality. My days in lifting heavy are numbered. As in all things in life and a personal life motto, Everything ends. Some will see this as a negative sentence, a sort of countdown to armageddon but I don’t. I see it as a certain number of days that I have to give everything I have to this strength world. A reminder that all things come with a price and all efforts should be given a serious outlook. Just how many days and how long I have left is not something I am certain about and at first was a serious pill to swallow. But inside this shot of sobriety I have pulled the personal courage to not let the doubt that echoes in my head at times, drown out the gift I have been given to keep going back to the battlefield just a little bit longer.

The Last time I log pressed a significant weight in a training session was exactly 2 years ago. I was training for a Plat Plus in Jacksonville and was going into it in great shape. Unfortunately during prep, I tore my hamstring and that would lead to a series of consistent injuries that would bring to light to just how bad my spine was. 5 months after that time I was told by Pt’s and doctors I would never lift heavy again and that if I did, I would be in so much pain I would stop. Now, I can sit here and write a classic Social Media post about how many haters, nay sayers and doubters wanted to see me fail along the journey back but that is a cry for attention. On the contrary, I’ll tell you about how many close friends, family members, lifters, coaches and loved ones encouraged me. The positive confidence they had in me that I would persevere, overcome and that I would take it on the chin in proper fashion. The weight isn’t much to write home about but the journey is a fucking tale worth telling and yelling from the mountain tops. This is rocky 4, I ran up the Russian mountain tops and I am belting my lungs out. As much as this log press felt like a personal feat, it was for every single person who ever believed in me, sat with me during my days at the bottom and those who never let me stray from The Way. To Brian Carroll for never giving up on me and allowing me to see that I had a second chance at “life”. To Megan Elizabeth Howard, for being with this chained up wolf every step of the fucking way and finally seeing my chains broken loose.To my friends, blood family and my Battle Axe Clan, this 300 is for you…because when they gave me the “death sentence”, we never gave up.

Maybe it reads like I just won the Nobel Peace prize or cured cancer, and I am by no means making this event more grandiose than it needs to be but I cant help but thank those around me in a large fashion. In the past there were very real, heart breaking times I felt this would NEVER happen again.. that I would just fade away into the instagram videos of post spine surgery lifters who broke down into dust. That I would never push the human limit, feel that rage and that passion that we are addicted too. 2 fucking years waiting for this day. Read that shit again. 2 fucking years since I pressed 300 over head. You’re right, I didn’t save the world with that press but I certainly made mine shine just a little brighter. Emotions ran high this day and with my Sunday crew in full go mode on this Sunday, a little bit of my life changed for the better, forever…

Work Load:

• Log Clean and Press: work up to a heavy single (235,265,290, 300)
• Yoke: 2 sets of 40ft at 635
• keg carry: 3 sets of 50ft with run backs. (60 sec rest)

Never Stray from The Way

MDLP