“Strength for a Lifetime” Day 1 Review! With Video!

I have to say, this weekend was amazing! We had the first of many “Strength for a Lifetime” seminars, ran by Brian Carroll. Our host was Michigan Barbell, in Howell Michigan. The facilities there are amazing. The have a great typical gym set up, along with a completely separate room for powerlifting and specific strength training. Multiple monolifts, competition benches, specialty bars, if you need, they have it!

I flew out Friday after work on the last available flight. By the time I landed in Detroit, rented a car, and got on the road it was 1am. The drive to the hotel was about 40 minutes, or so I thought! Just my luck, a large section of the interstate was closed for repairs. After fighting with my gps for 30 minutes and driving in circles, I finally found and open gas station and got directions. When I rolled into the hotel at 2:30 in the morning I was pretty fired up! Scott Paltos had the luxury of being my roommate, and when I got into the room I woke him up and asked “Is it time to squat yet?” Then I proceeded to trip 3 different times in the room and fall asleep as soon as I got in the bed haha!

We were up at 630 to start a long day! Shower, make sure I had everything I needed for the day, and off to Bob Evans for breakfast. The entire group for the seminar was there, including our beyond gracious host Heather Spitler. This was also the first time I have spent any extended time around Jason Pegg. I have to say, he might be the funniest man alive. He also maybe the biggest asshole, depending on your sense of humor!

We started warming up at MBB around 10am. It was clear that my 4 hours of sleep wasn’t enough, but I didn’t come all that way to not push the envelope. We broke up the monos between the gear whores and the raw guys. Daniel Dalenburg trained with us because we were using the mastodon bar, and that is the bar he will be using at Relentless. My warm ups felt good. We made plate jumps, all the way up. I added briefs at 600s, suit at 800s, straps at 900s, and then it went bad! The 900 was one of the fastest squats I have hit in a while. I really felt that I was on track for my training goal for the day. By the time I took 1000 it was 2pm. We all spent a lot of time wrapping and helping, so I have no real excuse. I missed the 1000 at the top, completely blacked out, which shouldn’t happen! If you know much about me, you know that sometimes I push the limits of smart/safe. There was no doubt in my mind that I could squat more Saturday, and so I called for 1110 with an average reverse band on it. Felt great on my back, got it to depth and blasted it up…..but again at the top I completely blacked out. I do remember waking up in the rack, and asking if I got it. I really thought I had made it to the top haha!

So squat did not go how I thought. I have missed less than 10 squats ever, and only 1 or 2 in training. To miss two in one day was, well just rare! My bench has really been moving this cycle, so again I had high hopes. I figured that with such a long day, and missing two big squats that I would be a little drained, but I knew I could find something inside to push me to finish. Warm ups were fast, legs were not cramping up too bad, so things started to look up. I added and did 495 off the 3 board then 585 and 675 off the 2board. The goal for the day was to push near failure off the 1 board. My best clean rep ever off the 1 board is 740, and with how training has gone I felt that would be easy today. First attempt was at 725. I got a nice clean touch and press. I banged the upright on the way up, but still got a clean lockout. I was simply just too close on my set up. Brain went after me and did a very easy 765. After that he went over and did a few reps on the deadlift. I took this as a perfect time to one up him. Chad Walker suggested that I add a 10 to each side, but I simply added a chip (2.5) to each side. Got a nice easy touch, and clean press at 770. Nice 30lb pr and with plenty of speed. Brian noticed that I chipped him and politely (not really) reminded me that I was still 200lbs behind on the day haha!

Even on 4 hours of sleep, and a marathon training session, it was a great day. Training with such a great group of lifters, it always brings things to another level. Later this week I will give you my thoughts on the seminar, and tell you about some new things we will have in the works.DSC_6183
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