MUSCLE CHURCH: Our Father, the Iron

Well I guess funny things happen all the time right? So, as you may know from following me, I'm kind of on a half-rehab, half-diet thing now and I'm not doing any heavy training. Cardio. Stretching. Heavy bag. More cardio. Annnnnd the most dreaded two words in the world...light weights. I know, I know heavy training burns more calories yadda, yadda but you guys don't wake up with my knees and ankles everyday, a break is past due. Indeed. Time to take a step away from the heavy training... ...okay it's been 3 weeks, that's enough right? I can't put into words how miserable I feel right now. I've posted on here a lot about how the concept of 'muscle church' is something that transcends lifting weights or competing, it's something so close to my core that I haven't always been able to separate the workouts from the man. My identity is wrapped up in the iron and anytime I have to step back, even just a little bit, it's literally t...

Big Loz just practicing for carrying the groceries in! Oh look at you! Big strong man! Strongest man in Europe? Oh you mean The Mountain??? WRONG! Ha ha! Europe's Strongest Man came and went and while Eddie Hall's amazing world record deadlift stole the show, the real winner of the weekend was Laurence Shahlaei who came in spectacular fashion to win the contest and set a new record in the Car Carry. Laurence, or Big Loz, as he's known, is a hell of an athlete with quite a story. Just a few years ago he was sidelined with a host of injuries that took him out of the World's Strongest Man. He was seen famously laying on the doctor's table with ice packs on both torn biceps saying, "I think it's over for real now." Only to come back from that and tear his quad, in the process losing lots of size and sponsorships. Loz maintains a crazy positive attitude and through all of it he kept posting encouraging messages on social media and cheering on othe...

So I’m on the final lap of contest prep and I’m feeling the strain. In my head I can hear Colin Bryce yelling “take the strain” as he is so famous for doing at World’s Strongest Man. If he was here I could assure him that the strain has been taken, and soon it will be over for a time and I cannot wait. For all intents and purposes, the hard work is done now. With two weeks before contest time, trying to move the needle any further along will probably be counter-productive or cause injury. So there’s a part of me that gets to hit the brakes a bit and look back on the last 12 or so weeks of training and seeing how far I’ve come. I could train all I want in the next two weeks but I’m not going to make myself more ready for this contest. Sure I’m going to have some good workouts and maybe up the cardio a bit, but the time for progression has passed and now it’s time to reap the rewards of my labors. Oh have there been some labors. I present to you the face of fatigue and prog...

Thor's shirt really makes a statement! Hey everyone I’m back with two updates today, both featuring 2 time Europe’s Strongest Man, Hafthor Julius Bjornsson AKA The Mountain. What a lucky guy to get such a cool nickname…and the paycheck that surely comes along with being on one of TV’s hottest shows! Well, while he is strolling around collecting paychecks and challenging for World’s Strongest Man later this year, I am trudging along in my gym getting ready for my next contest in under 4 weeks! I’m not a huge fan of publishing my training journals because the pounds you lift in the gym don’t always correlate to what you can do at a contest. Oh let’s say a 700 pound squat in the gym when you're fresh and rested might only equate to 600 at a contest held outside in the summer and after a truck pull! I’d like to start sharing some more of my specific training theories though, but after this first contest when I can really sit down and analyze how my preparation related to m...

There has never been something so simple and so correct! To those of you who train at a high level, whether you compete of not, you already know how to see yourself achieving your lifts. You practice this type of mental preparation regularly and at times you find yourself getting lost in it. I know I do. However a lot of you out there don’t practice this and I believe it’s because a lot of you don’t understand the importance of it. I wrote once about how important the leg press is for strongman prep because it allows you to feel a lot of weight crushing down on you, so that way when you’re harnessed up to a massive truck or tugging away on a heavy implement, you can recall what that felt like in training. Mentally, it’s just as important to see yourself crushing the lifts you need, because when you get to those few, cherished “champion” sets near the end of your workouts, your muscles will be lacking but your mind can be a source of fuel for them. It’s important to store...