Enter Through the Barbarian’s Gate
Returning back to the Met-Rx powerlifting corner where I dropped 360 to the floor a week ago on a quiet Sunday afternoon, knowing I blew out a disk, I started lifitng again, even overhead.
Today is the first day of the 2007 NFL Draft and as I write this, JaMarcus Russell of LSU went to Raider Nation as the number one draft pick. At 6′5", 265 this guy is an absolute specimen. Bigger than Vince Young and Daunte Culpepper and more skills than either. Raider fan has got to be pleased. I am still waiting to find out who the Packers choose in the 16th overall pick. They will probably select a running back or a wide receiver. We are also waiting to see if the Raiders and the Packers make a deal to bring Randy Moss to Green Bay.
Prior to the draft the NFL holds the Combine, where all the potential draftees get to showcase their physical skills in various skill and agility drills, vertical jump, 40 yard dashes and one of the most popular, the bench press.
This was the first day I went back to the gym since I messed up my lower back with the bad form deadlift and a subsequent recurrence of a herniated disk, the first episode in almost seven years. I just wanted to get an idea what I could do and could not do at the gym.
As I started some warm-ups, I thought back to my laundry list of injuries; two groin pulls (lingering), shoulder/scapula injury from Painstorm (recovered), lower abdominal strain or pull (lingering) jammed finger and thumb, (healed), and the most recent, the ruptured disk. In spite of all that in such a short time, I stubbornly, (some say foolishly), fight on. As I thought about this, I realized the Barbarian could very well be the invincible Black Knight.
It was a beautiful, sunny late afternoon in Costa Mesa and I had a great position on the grassy infield.
Another day at the daily grind, but I started off the day to do a max set of push-ups with full range of motion (ROM) and proper form. I cranked out 64 straight push-ups with a goal of 100. (Hey Brent, remember that fitness expo? I want to win the push-up contest next year and take home the Benjamins)! I did more of these later in the day…
It was a quiet day at the gym as is usually the case on a Sunday afternoon and the ideal day to do deadlift singles, or at least it started out that way…
I am training for a new sport, at least new to the US. Before I get more into that, I’ll detail today’s workout which was brief, yet very intense. In fact, the second part of my workout will help get me in shape for my new sport.
To begin, I did six sets of push-ups with 90 seconds rest between sets. 48/31, 25/25, /25/27 for a total of 181 which is my best effort yet. Tomorrow, I am going to do one set of standard push-ups for maximum reps.
When I finished that, I drove to the track with Val as my coach/timekeeper for more of those lovely Tabata sprints. 8 rounds, 20 seconds sprint (in a manner of speaking) with 10 second rest. It seems like a good when I decide to do these but after the first sprint, it becomes "oh shit". Form speed, everything breaks down rapidly so that by the end, I am hanging on for dear life. I thought about starting "easier" and work my way into it, but that does defeat the purpose, after all, so you have to sell out right from the beginning. I did 2 laps around the track to warm-up and 1 afterwards to recover, but the actual Tabata takes "only" 4 minutes. I find these Tabatas to be more difficult than any others I have done, including the Bottom to Bottom Squat Tabatas. My goal is to do the Tabata sprint 2x a week. Now take a look to see what i am training for…
Tim Sanders, formerly of Yahoo has a good take on the implications for NBC to paste it’s logo in the corners of the Virginia Tech murderer’s videos and still shots. Why would NBC want to anchor it’s name to images of that evil murderer?
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