I will be competing at The Odd Haugen Northern California Strongman Challenge and Visegrip Viking Challenge on May 21 and 22, 2016. I am thrilled to be back to competing in strongman and finding my passion to train once again. My return to strongman isn't just about getting back into event training. It's also my return to dropping weight, becoming athletic once again, maintaining solid nutrition AND figuring out how to incorporate and maintain grip training in the mix. In the past that has not been possible and I generally go out in a big ball of flames. This time I'm optimistic.

A perfect storm is brewing and many different components of who I am as an athlete are changing and improving. Part of this process is reflecting on where I have been in order to catch you all up while continuing the inner strength to rebuild and compete at my best.

You can catch up on the first two installments of background information here,

Rebuilding: The Fat Doctor & Inevitable Decline

Rebuilding: The Fall Out

There is more to come on this entire process and more background and I hope you find value in some of the lessons and struggles I have experienced. Keep your eyes peeled for the third installment. Who knew I really had that much to say?

From 4/6/16

Rolling

Warm Up

Planks - 4x30 sec

This cycle is taking a toll on my knee. It's fairly swollen and the past few weeks my squats have been freaking out on me with the higher reps. I took yesterday to refocus on getting things just right so I back tracked and did more work with the SquatGuide. Needless to say, it absolutely helped. The weighted holds really helped to refocus and get things feeling good again.

SquatGuide - 3x5

SquatGuide Weighted Holds
5 x 15 seconds

By the end I was feeling like a champ again.

SSB Squats
SSB, 3x8
190, 2x8
190, 1x7
190, 1x8

Grippers
NO rhyme or reason, just doing what I was able to.

Lunges weren't happening and I had to jet. I'm really looking forward to switching things up. This cycle has felt like an eternity and my ego is looking forward to putting some weight on the bar again.