I’ll start off by saying nothing is easy. Not your life, or mine, or that random person we don’t know that bags our groceries down the street. I’m going to assume that to some of you, my troubles and struggles are merely a drop in the bucket compared to real life stressors. I won’t sit here and downplay my life nor will I assume its a dramatic novel that will tip the scales to some readers. Everything ends, and sometimes life needs to remind us of how close that statement can hit home and how real life can get. I almost lost my grandmother on Thursday and despite some valiant efforts to get better she is still fighting to push through. Now I am not writing this for sympathy messages or some sort of sob story response, in fact I actually hate that and often times my pragmatism is seen as uncaring or distant. I am writing this because of the reality of life and how these revolving issues happen to us all and how they can crush our ability to perform in the gym. For many people, the gym is the only controllable variable holding our lives together but to some of us it is a weapon and a job to be sharpened, making it a responsibility, a gift and at times a job. I consider myself to be part of the latter perspective, despite having spent so many years of my life using the gym as an escape.

But what does this all mean? I would never dive so deep into my personal life on this log without there being a direct correlation to bettering myself or pushing forward. Maybe some of you can relate, but I try my best to remain stoic during times of personal and mental adversity. Despite having failed this strategy many times in the past, it is something I try to tackle on a weekly basis. It is with this same train of thought that I approached Sundays events. We all have our fuel, our stories and our reasons to use strength sports as a form of expression. And just like the ebb and flow of life’s ongoing challenges, the reason for what gets us up in the morning to bring our spiritual gym bag to the iron church is an ever changing process.

I had set my goals to be realistic, absent of emotion, and with the specific goal of pushing my training forward rather than setting it back with injury or tweeks. I wish I could tell you I walked in the gym with some passionate fuel or some emotional driven anger that would help me lift anything. Instead, I tried to separate my emotions from the events at hand and focused on accomplishing my job as an athlete. Look, I’m an emotional lifter, definitely guilty as charged but what I’ve hoped to have gained the last 1.5 years is the ability to use my emotions as a fuel source rather an a GPS. A huge part of me wanted to walk in and make everything as heavy as possible, every carry as long as it could be and to train in the sun so long I would black out… but lets be realistic. Where would that emotional train of thought leave me? It would certainly not help my grandmother feel better. It wouldn’t help calm my mother down. It wouldn’t help me develop as a student of the iron game nor get me closer to my Strongman goal, which at times is a major reason I keep going forward in life, or at least die trying.

The day ended in true Strongman form having seen everyone in the training group hit some PR’s, including some personal post injury Press and farmers PR’s for myself. I was able to hit a strong press out of the Rack and knocked off the rust with a 285# log press. Farmers carries proved that my grip is not where it needs to be but my bicep was able to handle 250# on each hand. Ending the day with a keg harry medley sealed the deal on a positive execution of work and ended with my lungs on fire from 35 seconds of carrying kegs. The day saw a lot of elated raw emotions that although didn’t truly mask the underlying feelings I came into the gym with, they were the product of approaching an event day with an objective responsibility to my sport. Love of sport sometimes demands an unbiased and hardened emotional approach to complete the day. I am most certainly not saying this is an easy task nor that I am particularly good at it and I am hoping that you see this as more of a guideline than something written in stone. Maybe some of you can relate and some of you will use this as a valuable tool when life reminds us how unbelievably fast and unyielding it can be. Where there are mistakes, pain and weaknesses… there is training.   

Work Load:

• Log Press (out of rack) 5×1 (worked up to 285)
• Farmers Carry 3 x50ft (including a hold at end for grip)
• Keg Carry Medley 2 x 175#, 225# keg for 50/50ft runs

Never Stray from The Way

MDLP