We returned from Ohio and visiting the family and friends on the 27th. I have just now gotten close to getting things back to normal. I will post some new topics of possible interest in the near future but just dropped in to recap the visit. Yes we saw some snow flurries and about 6 inches of snow on the ground that melted the first few days were were there. I went Ice fishing and got one bite but the ice was melting so we didnt stay out there long. I trained on Christmas Even with a group around Dayton at Eric Baldino's Gymnasium. It was a pretty successful practice and we met 6 new up and coming wrestlers and traded ideas on technique and training. I think it was pretty informative and they all seemed to soak it up like a sponge. I dont think anyone walked out of there with anything much left in the arms. I recommend Avis rental car for anyone who is planning a semi long trip and air fare is too steep. 250 bucks for a pontiac vibe for a week. We put right at 2000 miles on it 740 each way and traveling around town. 30 mpg isnt bad on the gas and made the trip in 10.5 hours with two stops on the way.
I have a unique situation because my whole family armwrestles. My father in law is one of the Mcsherry Brothers from up in Ohio so no matter if I am here in Florida or in Ohio I can pretty much armwrestle which is fortunate. Ok once I get a brain storm on furtherment of the Blog in the way of Armwrestling I will be posting further. I do have more material that might spark thoughts but this is just a vacation recap and Wishing everyone Happy New Year!
Mondays 6pm Armwrestling practice
we do this in many different capacities. Strength training first with the team using whatever method you have be it a rope or a beam or wall pegs etc.
Then to the table and the warmup and pulling . Usually a few matches with selective wrestlers and if slips occur then the straps. These matches are not neccessarily to a pin but more for who gains control of the match. There are many different things you can do in the way of pulling but they are only things that arise if needed.
This portion is followed by round robin matches which is like king of the hill. We go around the room and see who can hold the table longer. Usually at this point everyone starts to feel the burn so we back off and talk about positioning and grip etc,. Usually on a night right before a tourney there is also some practice involving those items with starts / hits.
In the end everyone calls it a night and heads for the tylenol or dinner etc.
Tuesdays.. This is a good day to just simply survive the day and deal with work and getting home and relaxing.wednesday
Wednesday I use the evening hours for the gym usually between 530pm and 630pm I get to the gym and slug down about 8 ounces of water and get on the treadmill walking uphill for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on the urgency and need.
Cardio followed by Crunches on a crunch machine and then by a set or sets of oblique exercises . an oblique machine is a thing that allows you to lay out at an angle sideways and do like a side to side motion that will burn off your love handles and side abdominals.
Once completed this far I have to make a choice for the lifts. It goes similar to bicep / tricep or back / shoulders but I have several different approaches to these muscle groups that are slightly different.
One night I will do seated concentration curls and seated half curls along with reverse cable tricep extensions. On this same night I have been know to use a pullover machine to work on my shoulders dexterity and ability to complete this lift in a series of sets. If these lifts are all I do this night then I will do a 2 set of 25 at 10 reps and then a set with the same weight at 30 reps. Then I will go up to the weight of 30 40 and 50 for sets of 10.
The reverse tricep extensions I do with two 30 or 40- pounds sets of 10 or 20 reps for 4 sets each arm. It is important to remember on any given night I may do more of any lift I choose to increase my chances of success.
On another night I will do Pullups with weight attached to my body on a belt two different types of pullups. I use one of those seated row or pull down handle things for the cables and stratle it over the pullup bar. I start with 10 pounds on the belt and then I pull it off and add a 25. Then I add the 10 again and then I pull it and add a 25. Each time Is a set and the reps range from 8 to 10 going up declining as I increase to as much as 100 or 110 or more in weight. I just see how many reps I can do with the high weight. It is usually 2 to 4 reps with the 100 or more in weight and anywhere as high as 5 reps up to 100. When i get it loaded with the max weight I am using I start back down with the weight removing and adding until I get back to 10 pounds. I do a different pullup on the way down though. I do a widegrip facing pullup on the way down with the weight. After this I go to the seated row machine and start with 75 to 90 pounds and sets of 10 and go up 10 pounds and decrease in the reps until I reach a point that I feel the burn. This could be as high as in the low 200s. After that I am on to the lat raise machine where I start with about 65 and reps of 10 and go up to around 100 or more and reps of say 5 to 10 depending on how I feel.
Ok now there is an alternate night that I will slip into a week where I do curls but with a double armcurl machine that has a handle like a bicycle. I start by doing double arm curls reps of 10 with a starting weight of 50 pounds and I increase by 10 pounds and go up to about 180 or 200 and just a rep of 2 or 3. Then at the same machine I start over holding in the middle and doing hammer curls pretty much the same way as the double arm curls but only up to 150 or so on a good night right handed and 110 left handed.
There is also an alternate night once a week where if I dont get the half curls with heavy weight and the wrist curls that I will fit in somehow unless I am experiencing alot of pain. I start with like 75 or 80 pounds doing as many as reps of 10 through 100 or 110 pounds and then 120 or higher being just a couple or three reps. I have done as many as 5 reps when I was younger with 150 but it twists my back and I dont work that lift as hard as I used to.
In essence I fit all these lifts into my week along with holding together my life and on saturdays or sundays I through in a 4 pound sledge with suponation /pronation and hammer wrist curls plus the good old captains of crunch grippers. This is just a kind of outline of my preperations to bring an A game to any tournament I enter. I could tell people all day what did to get there but it makes no difference because many will try and do it but not many will either do it to its full extent or they will simply think they can take short cuts . This will be the difference in their successes or not. I do it to a heavier degree at times and a little less according to just how much pain my body will handle.
On top of all this there is more dealing with proper diet and nutrition. I use no water pills or any quick fix ideas in pill form. Remember Salad is good. Bread Rice and high carb foods store and can be bad because your body will run of them and leave the fat behind. Good Luck
end/rant
You can live eat and sleep armwrestling in an obsessive fashion but the world goes on and everyone should remember they are alive and should grab at all they can in life. It gets easier in time but I will begin by explaining I do have a full plate so to speak. I have many things I do resulting from my interests in life. I have been in the net since about 1993 when I added to my list of obsessions this box I communicate through. Yes the Computer. I built my nephew one last night while I was doing many things. It is hard to imagine where it has gone this technology and that bare bones needs for a 10 year old would extend to a pentium 4 3ghz processor with a 2mb L2 cache and hyperthreading technology > 1gb ddr 400 sdram and a 250 gb sata harddrive for storage under an scsi dual drive system to carry windows XP pro. Yes if you build it they will come.
I have webpages all over the net and even at 48 I hang out in the scene in IRC just for kicks besides monitoring now 4 messageboards including this one . I am a bail agent by trade which occupies my days in a way that makes me feel like a psychiatrist for the most part helping people make decisions that should be so simple based on their propensity to do what is right . In a short description though while it is a mainstream concept alot of people make bad decsions based on no previous inclination to do what is right but rather stupid things based on shallow learning from watching people on TV like Bill Clinton for instance lying and getting away with it. Here me now all you people out there . If you dont base all your decsions on this concept of doing what is right then you will never reach the pinnacle of fullfillment you seek. Simply put whether you stand to gain for a decsion you make in life or not if you do what is right because it is right then you cannot go wrong.
I am starting back towards my diet today only being about 3 pounds off weight. Do it now and dont get so far from home base or you will surely pay the price to make it . At my age I have found something that is pretty much like the miracle suppliment for joint pain too. I tested this latley by stopping my intake of this wonder suppliment and tonight I started back. I feel better already. Glucoamine with Chondoitin and not just any because of the bodies inabilty to process gel or hard tabs I only buy the capsules at walgreens lol. 500 + 400 mg dosage and 3 a day.
I have done many things so far in my life. I have been in the general contracting business encompassing anything from hauling blocks to pouring concrete and drying in and trimming out custom homes all the way up to stucco working a high rise. I fished for a living both commerically and for the rich tourists that come to florida. I have even ran private yachts for the rich and worked the billfish tournament circuits. All of these things were just stepping stones to the real prize though. Being a success and owning a home and being stable in life is the big prize. It might not sound so appealing to many but nevertheless it is the shiznit! Make no mistake of that. I have traveled all over the world and I love that as well but home base will always be first in the priority department. Ok this was a rant but heck I can write whatever I want in here and if anyone is paying close attention they will get little peices of advice that will guide them hopefully to happieness by the decisions they make as a result of reading the rant.
I have so much to keep me busy it is really quite insane. I even have a case of books here on loan from a friend that has everthing MCSE in it at least up until a few months back. I must consume this knowledge as well but alot of it is recap because I have successfully ran several networking labs using windows 2000 server and 2003 server in almost every facet of the system besides doing similar non profit work answering questions during the beta cycle of windows xp in the newsgroups. Bottom line is what oppurtunities can you youngsters make for yourselves out there to motivate . If you live by this type of enthusiasms you will certainly succeed at armwrestling. Do however much you can concieve that it might take to be successful and then double your efforts,. You might just make it! end/rant~
My Plan 12-14-2005 2317 hours and I have just discovered the link that led me here to my Blog. This as I understand it will be basically a diary of my movements in the Armwrestling world. Mondays are Practice . When I have a tourney coming on wednesdays and fridays and Saturdays or Sundays become the lift/cardio days in preperations. This week is a little different because we just returned from Florida States where I was fortunate to ax 2nd place in the 209 right handed division at the Mudville grille on Beach drive in Jacksonville Florida. Nice turnout with 174 entries. This next monday the 19th of December will be the Last Practice until after Christmas. Yes apparently unless things change we will have practice on the 26th. I will be adding entries of interest as we go but this is a good start for now.
Several possible tournaments on the horizon in the southeast to consider. Get A Grip albemarle NC, the Palmetto Classic Rock Hill SC, Battle of the Giants Albany Ga, another one possible still under construction in Ga. around that time and then of course the National Championships just north of Cincinatti Ohio at the Paramount Kings Island Amusement park on June 2nd 2006. These are things on my mind currently if I have the funds and time to attend. The Nationals is a must do though. Everyone who reads this remember you cannot climb a mountain unless you go and try . Also everyone should know that as of last year they added novice classes to this Nationals to help bring in the beginners. Almost midnight and I am gonna go relax but I will be back to smear more of my thoughts around tomorrow. rant/out