You can get both on the internet, but in my gym, hard-core has given way to soft-core. As I have written in the past, Met-Rx has accommodated more diversity in training styles than any gym in the area. If cardio equipment is your thing, there is plenty of equipment to train with. Almost 9,000 square feet is jammed with machines to work just about every muscle in isolation. Swiss balls, med balls, cable machines and dumbbells are always in use. We have two squat racks and a safety squat rack which is what the hard-core members use for heavy squats and deadlifts and everyone else for knee raises and bicep curls. I had brought in two sets of rubber bumper plates for use in the Olympic lifts and they got plenty of use by those who knew what they were meant for.

Nothing stays the same, however. Met-Rx is now Club Z and the most hard-core of the hard-core, members of the Freak Factory, the strongman athletes, have been given their “termination” papers and I have had to remove my bumpers from the gym.

A few months ago, we all lamented the imminent closing of Met-Rx which was bailed out at the 11th hour by a member who was also a well-known bodybuilder in his day. The gym remains open under new ownership and changes are afoot designed to bring in new members, especially women, according to the new owner. He alleges the heavy lifting and dropping bumpers going on in the corner somehow intimidates and scares off those women. I don’t know which women, but none that I know!

In any age, making a gym profitable is a tough thing and this economy is making it tougher still and so changes are being made to increase the membership rolls. One of the first things done was to put out nice patio furniture outside. Why, I have no idea. The next thing was to get rid of the “extremists” who “do powerlifting”. Actually, what they do is what people have done in gyms long before the age of the shiny chrome and fern gyms of the 80’s and 90’s; they lift heavy, train hard, make some noise, drop some iron, sweat and go home.

Hardcore? Not!

They are dinosaurs though and had to become extinct to make room for more trainers and their out-of-shape clients who are needed in large numbers pay the bills to keep the joint open.

Crossfit saw this trend back in 2002 and labeled them “Globo Gyms” and “boxes” and people who wanted true fitness left the boxes in droves and never looked back.

Pretty!

What we had at Met-Rx until recently was the ideal but the ideal wasn’t bringing in revenue so the transformation will be another yet another gym for the masses.

Those of us who train “old school” have to go back to the garage until another facility opens that welcomes the type of training that really makes people strong and fit.

Steve Belanger’s Old School Garage Gym

Steve Belanger, Crossfit, hard core, Globo Gym, squats, deadlifts, strongman, powerlifting, Olympic Lifting,

Prior to an athletic competition, a man’s testosterone level will increase as they get ready to “do battle”. Interestingly, those levels increase or decrease depending on their fortunes during the game. In this video, two evenly matched rugby teams had their T levels tested before, during and after their match. (Hint, the winning team had more).

In another video, powerlifter Kieran Kidder talks about his steroid use which he believes are “widely misunderstood”. You decide. The animation on muscle growth is interesting.

If you are a proponent of the big compound lifts; power cleans, deadlifts, bench press, and squats you probably know of Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore and their well-known book, Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training. I can’t think of a better how-to book to learn these lifts.

Have you ever used Wikipedia, the user-editable online encyclopedia? Then you have an idea about the Starting Strength Wiki. There is some great information here in this wiki so I invite you to take a look.

Here are a couple of classic Mark Rippetoe quotes you’ll enjoy.

“There are few things graven in stone, except that you have to squat or you’re a pussy.”

“Pierre, if you are eating 5500 calories a day, then I am a female kangaroo with a Sonic Drive-In franchise and a heroin habit.” (I have no idea what that means).

On steroids:

“There are no shortcuts. The fact that a shortcut is important to you means that you are a pussy.”

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”

Newb: Got any good ab exercises?

Rip: Got any better questions?

I could go on, but you’ll have to go to The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Rippetoe.

With the books closing on 2007, I don’t expect to be setting any PR’s but in that respect, I had a good year of increasing totals and lowering times, most notably in the deadlifts. More on that later.

I had injuries heal and got new ones to replace them. My right scapula is now good, but the left is kind of wobbly from overdoing sets of barbell snatches. I have tendonitis in the right elbow from either an errant kettlebell swing or a barbell clean that got too far away from me. I stayed pretty healthy with only a couple of bouts with allergens during the Santa Ana winds recently.

I found myself skating less, but swinging kettlebells more. In August, Val bought me my first KB, a 20 kg hunk of metal with a handle. Previously, I used a kettlebell only as part of a Crossfit WOD. Now I have four different weights and Val bought me instruction with a RKC trainer as a Christmas present and can do swings and snatches with the 24 kg kettlebell.

I have continued to mix up my workouts like the Crossfit programming model. Gone are the days of single activities such as speedskating, running and mountain bike riding, all of which I did largely at the exclusion of much of anything else, save an occasional trip to the gym.

Speaking of Crossfit, while I still enjoy doing their WODs and subscribe to their journal, I am no longer a “Kool-Aid drinker”. I never was someone who was attracted to cult-like organizations and their zealots, but I do continue to learn much about fitness from Crossfit.

My interest has steadily grown in powerlifting and Olympic style weightlifting and will get quality training wherever and whenever I can find it. I am even sticking my toe back in the water, so to speak with running, an activity I gave up years ago. I have no intention to ever be a big mileage guy, though.

I am enjoying the complexities of learning the Olympic lifts and I benefit greatly from the simplicity of bodyweight exercises I get from Ross Enamait of rosstraining.com and Crossfit. Mixing up workouts has been the best thing to happen to my physical training and I credit Crossfit for that and Crossfit Marina, with the Serranos as trainers and Brent O as a competitive foil for my sessions.

I have been more consistent in going to the gym than I have in many years and almost always look forward to my sessions there. I also like training at home or in a park. To that end, I have been buying useful fitness “toys” like Elite rings, fitness bands, weighted vest, weightlifting shoes, racing flats, jump ropes, chalk, a stopwatch, an Ab Mat and a kick butt ab roller from Lifeline. There are more things I will be getting in ‘08, but training at home is a now a viable alternative.

In ‘07, my diet largely went to crap and my weight crept up. That will change in 2008. ‘Nuff said about that.

I made some modest gains lifting over the year, and in all cases form has improved but much needs to improve in that area over the next year. At the beginning of the year I could clean 145 as a 1RM and the last time I tried, I was doing 175 lbs, but I am certain I can beat that right now. It will just have to wait! The Crossfit Total, (CFT) consisting of the best lifts in the squat, overhead press and deadlift was 760 lbs in January and is now 910, with the biggest increase coming with a 415 lb max deadlift, which increased by 75#. My overhead press increased by 25 lbs to 185 and my squat went up by 45#, a bit of a disappointment. My 5K run time at the beginning of the year sucked and stills sucks with no improvement to speak of at 28 minutes.

This year saw, what I believe were growth changes to the Barbarian Blog and I will continue to tweak it next year.

There were a lot of “Good times” in 2007 as Brent was fond of saying, (where have you been dude?) and more to come next year. Stay tuned.

Check below for a couple of workouts done this weekend…

Saturday:

Kind of an active rest day and ran around the block a couple of times which took all of 19 minutes for just under two miles.

Sunday:

Ran 2 x 800 meters

Sit-ups: 50/40/30

Push-ups: 50/40/30

Overhead Squats: 50/40/30

Back Extensions: 50/40/30

One arm Overhead Squats: 25# overhead, holding 53# with the other hanging arm x 12 and again x 20. 18/25#, 2 x 20.

Kettlebell Swings, 24 kg: 10/10/10/10/10

Kettlebell Snatches, 24 kg: 10/20/20

For those of you who enjoy powerlifting, you probably know who Mark Rippetoe is and if you don’t, you should. Mark is the author of Starting Strength, Second Edition, Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming.

Craig Rasmussen of Elite Fitness Systems posted the second installment of Texas BBQ Part 2: More Shop Talk With Mark Rippetoe.  You’ll also want to go back and read Texas BBQ, Part 1. In part 2, Rasmussen asks Coach Rip about the fine points of the back squat, deadlifts and programming. 

I was also happy to read that a dvd is forthcoming. That will be great addition to his body of work.

You can also find video of Coach Rippetoe teaching the lifts at the Crossfit site.