End of my rope

The title is a phrase that my parents used to say when I was younger and I can relate to it. It's a phrase that brings up images of someone dangling from a cliff by a rope and they are at the end of it. They don't have any strength left and they are about to loose control. Maybe they are only hanging on by one hand, maybe their fingers are starting to slip, and it's only a matter of time before they have nothing to cling onto anymore. When my parents said this it basically meant that they were close to loosing control and to beware of the consequences if I chose to push or test them. When they said that phrase it was known to keep your distance from them. I find myself at the end of my own rope and often wonder how I got that far down the rope. I mean, it always seems like just yesterday I was at the top of the rope just about to pull myself up off the cliff. I suppose life is all about hanging onto the rope, and even letting go of the rope now and then. This is a depressing topic, but I don't care. It's late December, it's below zero outside, it's dark, and these are the things I think about when I'm down in the rabbit hole. That's what happens when you let go of the rope, you fall down into the rabbit hole.

What's up with me?

I went out and drank socially last night for the first time in probably two years. I drank a bunch of Heineken and a few Jameson whiskey's. Jameson is the second Irish Whiskey I've tried this year, the other one was Wolfhound, both by me taste of candy apple. Is that typical of Irish whiskey's? I cut my hair. I'm not happy about this but who cares. Yes, I regret it, but maybe I needed a change. Obviously a part of me wanted a change. My grandfather died at the age of 84, I just got back from the funeral yesterday. My grandpa lived a good and long life but his death hit me a little harder considering that his daughter, my aunt, my mother's sister, also passed away this summer in a motorcycle/automobile collision. Her and my uncle were on the motorcycle. She died, he lived. It was good to see him at the funeral. He could have lost his legs but I saw him walking around well. I'm taking two weeks off from Weightlifting to focus on finals and graduation. I've still been coaching my student James. James is currently on a sort of off season program of pulls and squats. He tweaked his wrist on a clean a couple weeks back. He's done some pulls and powers and in the end I think his pull will be much sharper once his wrist comes around. He's been doing some back squats also. I'm big on Bulgarian type of programming but I'm starting to think that there is room for other things. Yes, snatch and clean and jerk should be the meat and potatoes, but there's nothing wrong with throwing in the veggies in there as well. Snatch, Clean and Jerk, Power snatch, Power clean, front squat, back squat, snatch pull, clean pull. (That's the meat, potatoes, and veggies right there) Some other exercises that I think will help me with my deficient overhead position include: Jerk Recoveries, BTN overhead exercises, dips (for some reason this help my crappy elbow, I also read that Oscar Chaplin used to do these). Also, I like the pull to the hip exercise, making sure to stay over the bar. Like John Drewes said, In powerlifting the lift is over at the hip, In weightlifting things are just getting started at the hip. I tried out some Romanian deadlifts but honestly It doesn't seem specific enough, you're never over the bar that soon in the pull (below the knee).

Fun/Intense 90s movies

1. Romeo + Juliet

Yep the one with Leo Dicaprio. I actually saw this movie in the theater. It wasn't the local one in Decorah, IA either. We must have been on vacation, maybe in Chicago or California. I remember my older brother had tears in his eyes as we were walking out after the movie was over. He was always more sensitive than me. I remember when our dog died he cried too but I didn't. I feel things, I'm just so internal, so introverted, intense. I'd be more likely not to cry but to go home and write about it. My dad was a teacher and we always had Macintosh computers, even those early ones with the floppy disks. I remember admiring a young girl from town and writing about it on that computer, a journal of sorts, of course my older brother found it, read it, and made fun of me, once again the extrovert. Anybody remember the game Spectre? How about Myst? Lemmings? Those were some good times.

2. The Fifth Element

Yep, Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, "Corban Dallas" and "Li Lu", he had blonde hair and she had orange hair. That movie was rad and I'm not one to say rad, it's just what come to mind.

3. Hackers

Mess with the best, die like the rest. Yep, Angelina Jolie, those juicy lips, damn. The soundtrack to this movie was down right jawsome. That's a word I got from my dad, I think it's a combination of jaw dropping and awesome, jawsome. Hackers made you want to drink Jolt cola and stay up all night, and we did. I remember buying Jolt cola in Protovin, IA. Remember Crystal Clear Pepsi?

Those 3 movies kick ass

90s kicked ass. I don't know what happened. Clinton got out of the White House, Bush took over, War in the Middle East, Meth, Adderal, Slipknot, Economic downturn, recession, 9-11, long hair wasn't cool anymore. It's like the 90s was the 70s sort of, and the 2000s were the 80s. Hopefully the good times come back around again.

True Blue

Early December

The day was like night

Her eyes piercing

They cut me deep

and it felt good to feel

That snow white afternoon

A glimpse of perfection

True Blue was the color of her eyes.

Training the CHinese system

So for two semesters down in Waterloo Iowa I lived in Jianping Ma's basement. Another lifter Dan Moeller lived down there to. We trained at United Sport and Athlete and I got a glimpse into the Chinese system of training.

    First things first, in my opinion the classic lifts were not done enough. There were some weeks were it seemed like all we did was assistance stuff and then on friday we were expected to max out on the classic lifts. I remember being scared to death of the classic lifts on fridays, scared like I was going to hurt myself.

    About those assistance exercises, too many were used. It seems like the Chinese do variety for the sake of doing variety. Many exercises I felt didn't help me at all. Maybe they would help some people but not me. That's were I think the Russians got it right, instead of doing variety just for the sake of variety, it seems the Russian program in exercise like medicine to compensate for deficiencies and weaknesses.

    Some of the exercises under the Chinese system I liked, I was smart enough to get a gut sense when an exercise was helping me out. Exercises such as jerk recoveries, good mornings, and stiff legged deadlifts. We never did much behind the neck stuff but I find that those exercises help my crappy shoulders and overhead position.

    Squats were done three times per week usually but not always, sometimes it seemed like we did more deadlifting than anything. Many of us suffered from old man walking syndrome as a result. This is where you walk like an old man because of the heavy deadlifting. It made me feel like tight, stiff, unathletic. People would go way too heavy, to the point where backs would round and form would break down.

    We did a lot of high pulls and I never minded them, I'd rather do pulls over deadlifts anyday. I always felt I had pretty good form on my pulls too. So as much as I trash pulls, I really don't hate them as much as you would think, it just feels wrong not to go under.

   What other exercises did we do? You name it we did it. Muscle snatches, power jerks, power snatches, power cleans, half squats in the power rack, french presses, rows, press, push press, lifts/pulls/deadlifts from the blocks, hang lifts, hyper extensions, bench presses, treadmill running, pauses in the half squat for time with 50-60 kilos, rack jerks, snatch balances, pull ups, toes to bar, leg extentions. I"m sure I'm forgetting others. None of it was based on your weakness and everybody had the same program. Like I said, variety for the sake of variety.

    My theory is that it's a cultural thing. I think Asians like variety, I think it stimulates them. I could be wrong though.

    One of the best things was that Jianping Ma wasn't just a coach, he was the team masseuse as well. Sometimes he'd give me a quick massage after practice or else he would walk on my back, "Simon, let me walk your back", he'd say. He also brought in an inversion table to be used post workout. He liked us to hang from the pull up bar for the same reason, I think it was to decompress the spine. All of that stuff was a good element to the training. One time I let him do the suction cups to my back. I remember coming home one weekend and showing my family the red marks, I think I messed with them and told them something was wrong, they freaked out before I explained what they really were.

    I could see how the system would be good for the extremely talented individual. You wouldn't have to max out much, most of the time you do assistance and bodybuilding, lot's of variety keeping the mood light. And that's all fine and dandy as long as you were born to snatch and clean and jerk. That's what I thought anyway.

    We lifting on Zhangkong (ZK) bars which I didn't particularly like. There was one competition bar that we kept in the corner that was really nice, the spin was crazy. I'd much rather lift on Uesaka or Eleiko.

  I don't know what else to write about. Maybe I'll do a part two sometime.

     

Weightlifting is like sex

Weightlifting is like sex. There, I've wrote it. I'm not the only one to ever think this. Why is it like sex? Because it's a release, because you have to pour yourself into the lift, because it's a burst, because you will make noises that sound sexual as you grunt and aggressively exhale, because it's intimate, it's you and the bar, and yes to do this in competition is like having sex in front of people. There is a rhythm to it and if you can't find that rhythm then you aren't doing it right and you'll never get to the finish line. Gwen Sisto says weightlifting is parasympathetic, I would guess that sex is parasympathetic as well. That usually means it would get clumped in the "Rest and digest" category but that ain't right. Sure, there is a relaxed aspect to it, just like sex, but as we know there is something very not relaxed about it as well. It takes focus, it take concentration, you have to be into it fully, submersed, in a world within a world, same as you can't be watching the football game while you are having sex, it's possible but obviously it isn't as meaningful. That's why weightlifters might get confused as being "fussy", it's fine if music is on in the gym but not too loud, people shifting around the gym can be distracting. We are trying to reach a climax but we have to rest and calm down between each set in order to do that. That's the way it is, rest, climax, rest, climax, again and again. It's hard to rest when music is blasting or the room is full of loud discussion. I admit, that is "fussy" but it's the way it is, because weightlifting is like sex. It can be difficult for new weightlifters to perform in front of people watching because weightlifting is like sex. They have to show what they look like, what they sound like, the faces they make that occur when they bear down and lift the bar. I actually get mocked in my gym for the noises I make or the faces I make. It's no different than getting made fun of for the faces or noises you make during sex. Everyone is gonna have there own individual faces and noises when they completely bear down on a lift. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch a video of the best weightlifter to ever lift, Naim Suleymanolgu, watch the way he opens his mouth wide open before he pulls on the bar, it's like the "Oh face" as described in Office space. Good lifters pour themselves into the lift, it's a sacrifice of emotion, tension, stress, past, future, everything. That's all mainly because it's a one rep max sport, you are betting the farm on each lift, it's totally different than the efficiency needed to save your energy when doing reps. There it is, I've finally wrote it down, Weightlifting is like sex.

My personal journey

It may surprise some of you, maybe not to some others....that I was a spastic fireball with legs from about the age I was born up until my early teen years. My parents even took me to a shrink when I was maybe 10 or 12. Not much was said, I wasn't in touch with anything that was going on. I just knew my brothers pissed me off a lot and we would fight and try to kill each other. I grew up with two brothers and no sisters. With my dad included, that's four males in a house and one female being my mom. Both my parents worked so that left a lot of time for three brothers to basically go primal rage on each other daily. And I was smack dab in the middle, the middle of three brothers. The youngest was the sentimental one, the oldest had the authority, and I was just crazy. I punched and kicked so many holes in sheet rock walls of our house that it's just embarrassing looking back. My parents not only worked, they worked two jobs each because they ran a restaurant/bed and breakfast on the side. There was one thing that leveled me out back then and that was rollerblading. To be continued...