Living heavy stuff, being aware of injuries, and having the right training mentality

There is something to be said about being able to pick up a couple times your body weight and yell at the mirror. I like to help people move... almost as much as i like to see 12 crossfitters try to carry one couch through a door. They get so confused when they can't use momentum and an extra little kick thing to move something inanimate.

I have recently been getting the itch to look around for a strongman comp and train for one. Now that I have finished my masters I want to train for something. I had been just pushing to be stronger, lift heavier things, and that was it. To a point, that is measureable, but it isn't exactly guided toward a peak performance date or anything. I try to keep up with Chase Karnes over in Paducah as he has been competing some, check out his site for some good articles and videos.

This is on my mind because I had deadlift tomorrow. It is such an all-encompassing lift. Total body strength is employed and if you don't stand up, you didn't get it. You can't really cheat too much on deadlift. You can do that little hitch while arching your back and dragging it up your legs, but those guys usually don't deadlift for very long due to injuries.

Speaking of injuries, this past couple weeks I have been getting pretty banged up. I felt something like an unravelling feeling in my groin while doing my dynamic warmup before deads two mondays ago. Deads went fine, but after back and front squat on wednesday I had a knot in my groin. I took it easy the rest of the week and stretched out and now it is gone and hopefully gone for good.

Last Wednesday, I was finishing shoulders so I was doing standing 1-arm dumbbell shoulder presses and got 7 reps with 75lbs with my right arm. On rep 3 with my left arm it stalled and my torso twisted a little bit and I felt my core under my rib cage on the left side. Felt like somebody frog punched me in the ribs. I finished the rep, of course, but felt that tear for the rest of the week. I took the core out of back (did a lot of machine work) on Friday and rested yesterday and today. It is no longer sore to the touch so I am going to treat deadlift like normal tomorrow night. I made the necessary adjustments to my training, but didn't just take days off that I was supposed to train. We'll see how it works.

I have developed a training mentality over the last 12 years that I have been training. I have been through a bunch of different exercises, know which ones are good, which ones suck. I don't know it all by any means, but I can give you an opinion with reasons to back it up. I hate when somebody throws out an opinion followed by," well because man, just because."
I push the limits when I train, but don't go for a new 1-rep max every day. The goal is to have vision for the next couple months, year, ahead of time and plan out your routine to get to where you want to be at the end-point. I have focused my intensity, with knowledge of where I want to be in the future, but patience to be realistic in that gains don't exponentially increase overnight.

Stay Strong... get stongER