MUSCLE CHURCH: Our Father, the Iron

Often we get in a routine where it becomes easy to just say, ‘fuck it, I’m out.’ In society these days we have so much of everything that many things we truly want and value don’t seem to be worth too much. Going to a movie doesn’t mean anything if I can just stream it at home. Buying an album is just clicking a button. So much of what we do and say in life becomes meaningless because it’s so interchangeable. When you enter the arena of the gym things have a finite value. At your job things might be that way too; whether it’s fixing a car or filing reports, some things are concrete. However, we tend to think of being goal-oriented as the non-stop journey toward something, instead of the way we get there. It’s not always about the end result, it’s about the process. If you want abs. If you want a promotion. Hell, if you want to live another day-it doesn’t come automatically and you don’t earn it by accident. Whatever you want in life, has to come at a price and you pay that pri...

My first strongman contest was a learning experience every step of the way. I guess you want, or at the very least need, your first time doing something to be educational as much as you want it (or need it, remember that word) to be rewarding. I thought I had done everything I could to prepare for what was to face me on that cool West by God Virginia morning, but I forgot to bring one thing…my A game. I had studied the events and knew where my weaknesses laid and what my strengths were. I knew that the overhead press would be good and I tied for second, just like I knew the Atlas Stone could be disastrous and I failed to even lift it. I wound up coming in last place, by only a few points but still, LAST PLACE. Normally that would infuriate me and I’d write journal entries about how motivated I was to come back stronger and blah, blah, blah but in reality I took my picture with Phil Pfister (truly a large and silly man) and went to Ruby Tuesday and ate a little steak and some d...

I love the sled leg press. With a burning, intense passion! No shame in my game, I love it and as I have progressed in terms of strength over the years I’ve found it to be an indispensable part of my leg training routines. My latest trip to the sled leg press, 1288lbs for 9 reps. Now there are some among you, general the less hardcore or perhaps those nursing injuries, who sing the praises of the leg press over the back squat because it is easier on the knees…allegedly. On the other side of course you have the hardcore strength athletes who never met a machine they liked and think the leg press just takes away from your squat time. Well to be clear I’m not advocating ANYTHING over the back squat, which is the 2nd best exercise known to man, after the deadlift of course, but I am advocating for greater inclusion of the leg press to the hardcore lifters and perhaps a reevaluation of leg training for the squat-less. My focus these days is strongman and will be for the foreseea...