Ok, so I am glad some people got on me about my training logs. I have been slacking in this department. I could come up with excuses like most people trying to lose weight. Excuses like, this is the busiest summer ever and it is hard to train this year let alone keep up with business and training logs. But the fact is, i have been lazy.

Here is a recap of what has been happening the past 3-4 weeks. About 4 weeks ago I was doing shirt work. I had more weight than i ever had on the bench press. Trying to hit 500 off a 3 board, I ended up straining my levator scapulae because I brought the weight too far down on my chest and tweeked it. This did not feel good and I could barely pull my shirt off for about a week. I have been trying to work back from that for about two weeks up until last Saturday.

Last saturday, I was doing stones. These have been getting better every week. Throwing the 275 stone to the 50″ box has been getting easy. The next stone in the series is the 375. (the other ones went back to their owner).  As we finished up work on Saturday morning, check-in’s and figuring payments for the week, I started my workout. I was having a great training session with stones so I thought I would give the 375 a ride. I don’t even remember if i used tacky….

This is were it gets interesting. Learning this from my cousin who is a doc, holding your breath elicits a CO2 response that tells you to breathe, but my problem with becoming light headed or passing out is elicited by the valgus response your brain sends to your heart telling it to pump. Some people have weak valgus responses and some have strong. I have always had a problem with straining to get weights and always wanting to pass out. Well, the 375 stone was no different. I had it to the edge of the 40″ platform when I was told I stepped back and the stone dropped, I then took another step back, and fell straight back to the floor with my arms at my side and my head bouncing off the ground.

I gave myself a severe concussion and really only remember bits and pieces of Saturday, asking over and over again the same questions all day: What day is it? did I hit my head, it hurts? My girlfriend came and picked me up and I do not remember anything from that point. I guess we had to pull over so I could throw up, and I when I took my shorts off, someone shit in my underwear.  I was later dropped off at my cousin’s place so he could watch over and take care of me. My head all last week was killing me because when the brain is injured, you need lots of rest. Owning your own business doesn’t allow much of that and I had to push through with 5-6 hours of sleep until Friday and Saturday night where I finally crashed at about 6 and got 12 hours of sleep.

This is week 2 of my concussion and I can shake my head slowly without it hurting, not bad. It is feeling much better but still no lifting this week. That first week I was picking up a 24 pack of water and I felt like passing out, this week I could at least give 95lbs a try on snatch and didn’t feel horrible, but not great either.

Well, now that the concussion box has been checked, I will be more careful when doing those lifts and at least have someone there to catch me if I pass out. Can’t wait for next week:)

Oh yeah, and while i was concussed, kirk beat me in MarioKart. pussy

” The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.”

Squatting was never my favorite thing to do. It was last year up until I was getting ready for a meet and hurt my back. It is slowly getting better and the weights are once again slowly moving up.

I started today with Cleans on the fat bar:

205 x 2×5

225×3x3

High Block Clean: 5×3@195

Push Press Axle: 165×3x5, 175×2x5

Squat: Green band

Warm ups: 135×10, 225×5, 275×5

Briefs: 325×5, 375×5, 415×2 all on a parallel box. I added a 2 inch box and hit 465×1

All-in-all it was a good day of lifting and I wasn’t nearly as gassed as I was last week doing this without the band. Just need to keep on plugging away.

Today was a good day to get back in the gym from a long weekend of graduations. I am playing with a wider grip on the bar for bench since I have been going more narrow the last 6 months. I really feel this in my shoulders and chest and as a result, I feel weaker because I am not using as much triceps. I am starting with a little more volume to get used to pressing with the wider grip.

Bench: Warm up 135×10, 225×10, 245×10, 275×5, 275×5

Chest Flyes: 3×20

Reverse flyes: 3×20

Some other stuff, can’t remember… busy

Finally feeling better on squats. Yesterday was the first day in almost a year that my back did not kill after I re-racked the weight on squats. I worked up to 415 for 3×5 and it almost felt weird not to have pain in my lower right-side of my back. It was a great day to be back at it and it re-vitalized my energy to squat again! I followed it with 3×14 on GHR and hitting bench today.