January 2006 - Posts
Alrighty then . Been there done that but this one is gonna set an example of things and the way they go. I will continue to train and set my sights on another tourney but sad to say no matter how you work and prepare for something there is always a possibilty as in this case that it will all be for nothing accept to continue for the next one. Yes doing the right thing hurts sometimes and I practice what I preach. Early yesterday morning I had to make the decision to abort the plans to attend due to time contraint responsibilties with family "dog" and financial situations both in the positive and the negative. We have recently aquired a white American Bulldog that upon the checkup at the vet is gonna need the heartworm treatment in full. She is young and a very good risk investment wise which didnt matter to me . We took the responsibility knowing that consessions might surface. Heartworm treatments vary in price according to how long you would like the pet to live, I have learned and I dont do things that way. It is either maximum protection or I should have not got involved . Thank god for credit lol. This one will run just under 600 dollars and entales a month of one or the other of us being with the animal all the time to keep her calm. Reason being that when the worms in the heart die you want them to disperse through the lungs one or two at a time and if she was to run and jump around they could all flush and kill her on the spot.Then there is the treatment of the babies in the blood stream "microfylaria" not sure on spelling..They must die as well. This is probably the main reason I chose to bump the tourney but we could have waited another 2 weeks before the treatment. Still the cost has to be absorbed. I have also begun my studys for my Microsoft Certifications and they are not free so I have commited to around 400 dollars for the first two tests involving that and I have the first test on the 2nd of February. This was the second factor to consider due to the fact that the tourney is about 600 miles one way from my house. When I travel this way the only way I can do it is to rent a vehicle and then there is gas and room and entry and food. My wife and I cannot even think about getting through a tournament like this for under car=140 room=120 gas=100+ entry=25x2=50 +food=100 or 150 "TOTAL=500 to 550. It is just the way of things and with the financials like they are and my wife having some possible positive side scheduling dollars at work around the date it was only clear what the decision should be. I was really hyped to go and support my friends in South Carolina "Kevin Hicklin" but I know they will understand my situation completley. It sounds like its gonna be a real great event. If anyone wonders I am still gonna maintain the training in a mirrored fashion on what has been written in the past weeks but I have to devote more time to work and class and the protection of the added family member. I can now go back more on my diet to drop off from 220 which I am very close to and maintain my weight back at a more natural state of 210 . I was pushing the carbs way up to keep the strength as high as possible and it was showing . I believe that this process and now trimming back to my normal weight will promote even more strength when I drop off because that is a natural way of things in healing. I will pick some more topics next week perhaps updates on my testing and certification and plans for the next tourney with a listing of all we have to choose from within short distances but even after the dog has been cured it is a new consideration on boarding while we travel because I wouldnt allow the animal to be watched in any other surrounding that professional. Good Luck to anyone who is going to the Palmetto Classic and if I dont make any further events that far north I will see you all at the National Championships just north of Cincinatti OH. on the second of June at Kings Island >Paramount. rememeber it isnt always easy to do the right thing however it is the only thing to do. take care
Ok here we are Tuesday afternoon and I am here to speak of my weekend and beginning of the week. I attended a seminar for Microsoft late last week for the MCSA/MCSE and got with course directors from the University of North West Florida about my direction of proceeding. I am one of the few with alot of hands on past experience and the advice I was given was to just go ahead and study for the five different courses involving the MCSA at home and clep the tests and move on to the MCSE. I have begun this and even scheduled my first testing date of February 2 . All is well in the knowledge world and I will move to my Saturdays training schedule. I got up and went to the gym earlier than most days. I had alot of trouble in the treadmill due to phone calls etc but managed about 20 minutes uphill. In the gym if you answer your phone its like a sin and they will come and ask you to turn it off so I had to pause and go outside to talk. When I returned in just a few short minutes the machine had reset itself and I was already 20 minutes in so I just did about 8 more minutes and had no way of knowing any stats except for I burned around 400 calories. From there it was the normal 100 crunchs and another 50 behind the head and the obliques 30 each side and then I did a few warm up concentration curls with the 25's sets of 10 and some pullups at the rate of just 5 at a time for two sets. Now down to business. On this day I felt like I really needed to pummel my arms and I dont have a table curl so I do it sitting on a bench with wrist curls first per arm and then half curls with my elbow resting on my hip. I do these with comparativley heavy weight starting with 60 pounds and a set of 10 wrist and 10 curls per arm. Then since I was using even numbers of 10 I go up 10 pounds and do it again. Everyone is different so the number of reps per set will vary with people but I carry the reps of 10 all the way to 100 pounds and then just back off to 3 reps curl and maybe 8 or 10 reps wrist above 100. I felt like there was no reason to tear myself totally limb from limb on this day so I stopped at 120 pounds. On a good day after do this type of curl regularly I have been know to go as far as the 150's but I planned on doing hammer curls on the machine this day so I stopped at 120. Left handed I just stopped at a set of 5 with 90 pounds as its injured and no sense in hurting myself alot worse. My right has always been extraordinarily strong compared to my left though. I stopped at the reverse tricep extension cables on the way just to loosen up a bit before the hammer curls. I guess I have outlined my hammer curl machine info earlier in this group of blogs so I will make it short. start at 45 pounds , do left and right and go up. On this day I stopped at 130 right handed and 110 left handed. It was kind of achy through the sets but felt good once I made a first rep and was in motion. This was a very heavy lift and upon completion of these two excercises to their fullest I had no reason to continue because I had other plans for Saturday. You may have guessed it though I think I talked earlier of my chores. This day it was the Boat. We have a parking lot of gravel etc and you cannot keep a boat in the salt air in florida without cleaning it regularly. here is a link to pictures and it is a 2 to 3 hour job done correctly with a scrub brush and is a part of my training that I use to get my base strength up to par. Pictures found here and the paint job was expensive so it takes alot of care. http://www.battlesbailbonds.com/boat05.html
On a Saturday this is alot to do but I didnt stop there after finishing I went home and studied and cleaned part of the house which continued into suday and involved using a wire brush to to prepare a dog crate for painting and then the usual stuff we all do in laundry , dishes , vacuuming and studying to be a Microsoft Certifed Systems Administrator to compliment me and my Bail Bonding Agency.
In comes Monday and a busy day it was with many phone calls and business and appointments with attorneys blah blah blah. If I had not been doing what I did to prepare for the incoming week I would not be productive at all so once again stressing on hold down the whole fort in preperation through all this for I day off and a 600 mile drive to armwrestle. Armwrestling Practice came and went on Monday night and revalations and reality set in with my changed diet plans to meet at 220 pounds instead of 209 which is my norm. It was much more difficult to get in the monkey bar training. again whatever you feel you need and can make be it Monkey bars/beam - rope - tree climbin - rock climbing and or even bowling for light weights hehe. Bowling can help but wont be the complete package but to each his/her own. I stepped up my beam training by increasing the time I remained on it to double trips. I was devastated with my extra weight and the added distance but managed. Then we armwrestled but on this night it was more about just stretching and pulling pretty hard but not to pin. Everyone was sore and we just pulled hard and let it go at that. I know I am ahead of the game and next week will be the last hard pull leaving me one week and my grand finale' on how to not self destruct before getting to the tournament provided I can afford to even go once we make it that far. Too many youngsters put together a fine training method and then get close to a tourney and total trash their chances by letting the testosterone run wild with their emotions. It aint over until its over and doing foolish things after all the hard work that will only ruin your chances for success is the number one reason so many fail to reach the goal. I.E. dont be stupid and try a finger lacing contest with someone and weaken your hand going into a competition and I will cover some of the many other mistakes people make by not knowing how to train the hand and working the grippers too much before they get there.
Until the end of the week this is all the advice I can give along with telling everyone that will listen to just calm down when you get a week out from a competition . That doesnt mean go stagnant but does mean you will most likley not get any stronger than you are at that point. The trick is to be as strong as you can be to see a good day for you armwrestling on the day of the competition. We will deal with that coming up. Stay Tuned, James
Ok its thursday at lunch and I am gonna try and sneak this one in. The schedules dont always cooperate with this kind of thing but I am doing my best . As I said before these are things that work for me now. This is going to be different in some way with most because you have to take into account my lifting history and what I did all those years to get here and what I am doing now. I have weighed as much as 239 before and even did bench press back in the day . I guess my solid rep count lift was 315 for a set of 10 and my low rep was 450 for a set of 2. I do these no more as they really only impress the chicks on the beach . Ok starting from Monday and practice. I only had two show for practice on Monday but that is really all that is needed. You just do with what you have and work it out. I have some that come and then have to deal with their own demons through the week and need more time. The 3rd guy showed but he was still trying to recover from the prvious week and we all work. His second night after the last practice had him looking to vicodin for relief but he still showed and did some because he knows he has to work through it. I will admit the entry to my world can be painful at first. We did the pre wrestling work on the beam and pulled once again . I would have them alternate out on me until I felt like they had torn me down enough and the stronger of the two we had a few extra pulls in a hook to really get to the bottom of it. Yes it was kind of an off practice because this is a transition stage and people can only handle so much with their own schedules. Practice went well and then on Tuesday everyone can try and just get through the day.
Wednesday was hectic and I crammed the schedule because I have a bulldog we just bought that cannot be left alone too long as she will get lonley and look for something to chew on and I dont have the Crate completed that I am de rusting and re painting for her to stay in during these times when one of us cannot be there. Dogs are used to being crated for short periods of time and it keeps them from eating pillows etc. I rushed the gym but it is dedication that got me there so anything I succeeded in was a plus. Same general idea with Cardio but on this night all the people that party all weekend and drink and make lots of money were their doing their little classes or occupying literally every apperatus in the gym because they think that partying and drinking and burning the candle at both ends can be alleviated by their one little trip to the gym a week. I say more power to them but they are not what I consider to be remotley in the ball park of dedicated. Anyway you have these girls who half of them are so skinny they could run or walk on a treadmill for days and never break a sweat or even turn their little clock up enough to fart decently. Truth is they dont understand that you have to eat real food and then run it off and most of them think a white russian is a dairy product. Anyway the younger ones on this night had finally walked and ran the treadmills down where two of the machines just up and died and you cant even get a decent audio with the headphones because they yank and crank the plugins until they ruin them. Yes and this is at a golds gym with expensive equipment. Anyway I managed to get an end machine and once there it is no problem cause I am there for 25 minutes minimum. I dont have a feather frame where I can just float through a mile and never break a sweat nor burn any calories. Most are really no problem because their idea of cardio is a 5 minute walk and then a kind of fake damping of pretend sweat from somewhere on their bodies lol. I went right at 500 calories 10 to 15% incline 20-something minutes 1191 feet alltitude. Then I did manage my 100 crunches machine style and then another 30 hands behind the head and my 30 each side obliques. After that I had to get back and get my wife off to work so I did some of the reverse tricep extensions palm up and a quick set of 20 concentration curls with the 25s and then to the pullup bar for a stretch and a few very slow pullups to really get the idea to my body that it was going to have to adjust. I have made up my mind to just stay at 215 because I am much stronger at 205 + than at 198 and they are offering the class 220 instead of 209 at this tourney. No diet needed and in fact I literally can eat anything and as much as I please and that includes ice cream or whatever. I will report back again in the regular interval and havent decided on maybe working in a lift tonight or resting and aiming to the weekend. Today is only the 19th so this means I still have 3 weeks and 2 really to push the heat up. The next two weeks given the oppurtunity I will increase my intervals of self infliction before using the last week to cure it and be ready.
This is all very sound advice but I cannot say that it will work on everyone because not everyone has been where I have been over the past 25 years lifting wise . This means it isnt going to just win you a slot if you havent built what I have built over a 25 year period however it will help you to see how to isolate the things you need to eventually win. If you have never stepped into a big competition and felt what you are up against then not meaning to insult anyone but you are in for a surprise. These people who have been eating away at the competative side have more techniques they can draw on than you would imagine and if they dont get you one way they will move to another inflight so quickly that it will just finding you standing there wondering how that happened. This is how you learn and believe it or not something you will see in the way of a mistake you made , you will do it over and over again until indignation will drive you to be ready the next time. I have on many many many "pretty much all" occasions showed up at a tourney and had people approach me and tell me they never have been beaten and no one they had seen presently at the tourney stood a chance against their superior strength/wittyness/ego etc etc etc. On these occasions I have never and dont get frustrated when I tell you this never seen any of them get closer than say 4th place in professional class and in most cases the individuals were 2 up and 2 down with people that in the end did not get closer than 5th. These people that beat them would not say anything but by their claiming the prize before the tourney it just kind of internally enraged the people that had been trying for some time and only commanded a quite smart spanking by them when met across the table. I will say in almost all the cases the spankees went on to follow the same path the others were following and took it to where they wanted to. Not all of them wanted to do more than just respectable and then they pursued other things. Some of them loved the sport as I do and are still around deciding whether they are gonna listen to what is being freely given in advice and deciding whether they can physically meet the challenge by doing what they have to and know they have to in order to be the man. It makes it a very good character builder for people and they learn alot of direction and compassion from dealing with it and the respect is always given. These are the people of the future and very much a kind of no *** group who are not afraid of a challenge or failure. The only thing that scares any of them or bothers them is that win lose or draw they might not leave it all or really have what it takes to leave it all on the table. This is really what we all strive to do. Answer : find what it takes to leave it all on the table. Winning is great but what I just decribed is the first step and essential to the winning consistently. You gain that and you dont have to be superstitious about people getting in your head or anything like that. some people try and use that type of approach and it is very rewarding when you see them hype at an experienced armwrestler. You can all rest assured that most all experienced armwrestler have seen hype that would make Mohammed Ali's lines look mundane and while they might have fallen a little in the past they usually have enough experience and background Character to not buy into it resulting in a pretty nasty ass whipping. In the case of the younger wrestlers it is also accompanied by a post verbal reprisal that usually doesnt really last that long. So if you get you feelings hurt a little just go back over and apoligize because the experienced wrestlers are very forgiving as long as the correct path is found and recognized. This is a sport and we all strive to keep it that way and not turn it into some kind of side show. It carries plenty value to spectators and wrestlers alike to attract a crowd on its own.
Ok enough with the intro rant I just thought people might benefit from reading this part and it would help them in joining the group. Thanks and I hope this has been informative.
P.S. A very old Armwrestler once said that the name Armwrestling wasnt really the full analogy of the sport. He said it would have been better if it had been called Handwrestling but didnt quite cover the whole spectrum. Nevertheless your hand is part of your arm.
I believe his name was Al Turner. regard, James
First let me just say it isnt easy doing all this and the updates but we will get through it. It is Sunday evening and my last entry was Tuesday January 10th. Today is the 15th but Tuesday was actually 12:04 am so it was only technically Tuesday. This one will come in two parts. A training session on Thursday and one today sunday plus a little about the in between.
On Thursday I got into the gym around 7pm and did somewhere around 1.66 miles in 26? minutes around a 15degree incline and 3.7+ mph for an altitude of 1232 feet. After comes the same 100 crunches conventional followed by 30 behind the head crunches and obliques 30 reps each side. On this night I mixed it up looking for things I had not done so first while I thought about it and the flat benches were all taken , I went to the pullup bar just for a set of 5 and a set of 10 . Then the bench opened and I wanted just a little curl warmup so I did seated concentration curls for a set of 30 with the 25's. After this it was reverse cable tricep extensions. I use that crossover cable machine to accomplish this isolating my elbow facing sideways with my palm up using 40 pounds. I do these on either side of the machine both arms for sets of ten until I get a good burn going. Then its on to the pullover machine. Back in the day some people called a quarterback machine because it helped with thier throwing distances. I simply put a couple 45's on this and do sets of 10 and 15 according to how I feel and on this night I did 2 sets of 15 and 2 sets of 10 since I needed to move on. Next I went for the seated row machine and started with sets of 10 at a weight of 75 and went up 10 pounds and around 105 I started decreasing by one rep until I got to 255 and one rep. Then it was lat raises and light weight on this night starting at 65 and sets of 10 ending at 65 and sets. Alright some people might think this was a good workout and some might think not but it was somewhere over two hours and no lollygagging and other than a parting set of pullups before heading home that was it for Thursday.
On Friday I was a little sore but took on the business day and made it through the evening just doing house stuff and I have by no means been really dieting however the weight is beginning to come off. I will tell that at the end so as to not get it out of context. Saturday other than hanging around the house and heading out to do some chores I didnt do much of anything other then maybe some light hammer pronation and supination movements. I am actually going to do my full sets of them and the grippers tonight after this posting facing practice tomorrow regular schedule.
Alrighty then on with today Sunday. I entered the gym just before 3 pm and did the cardio 10 to 15 degrees 27 minutes 3.7 to 4.3 miles per hour with a weight setting of 215 pounds for an altitude of 1205 feet. This type of cardio brings in just over a 500 calorie burn but I wear a hooded sweatshirt for it to make sure it is all that. Afterwards 100 crunches + another 50 with hands behind the head instead of on the crunch machine railing. 30 obliques each side followed by seated concentration curls starting at 25 and then 30 and then 35 for sets of 10. I was pretty rushed today and needed to get my butt in gear due to errands I needed to do. I was being lazy but when you get older sometimes it is hard to get it in gear. This is the reason I used this day to grab up the weight belt with the chain attached and just some light weight like 3 - 25's and a 10 and the seat row cable handle. This thing you can drape over the pullup bar and turn sideways and do pullups. I use the weight belt to add to the shock and start with 10 pounds and go up . 10 , 25 , 35, 50 , 60 , 75 , 85 then 75 , 60 , 50 , 35 , 25 and finally 10. Each number represents a set and today running out of time I was unorthodoxed and super setted them. I was out of breath from start to finish giving only 30 to 60 seconds rest while changing weight. I did conquer it though and with only 2 minutes left before the gym closed I took all the weigtht off and did just a few wide grip facing strict pullups while out of breath. Then I went to do some chores. In my case it was to the yacht club to run the boat for an hour. That is something that requires climbing in and out of a bilge and up and down a ladder. I was gonna wash it today but ran out of light. When I do that it takes me between 2 and 3 hours at best with a scrub brush and a 5 gallon bucket of soapy water. I will probably do that one on Tuesday.
Tonight I weigh 97 kg and I have been doing no dieting . I think I will just see where my weight goes but 220 sounds like a good weight and maybe I can eat more and build a little before Rock Hill . I always want to do well but there are more important things in life like friends and that is at the top of the list in this case. I am old friends with the people of Rock Hill and mostly look forward to seeing them all. In life everyone whould remember always be true to yourself and others. I have nothing to hide but what I do might not be the best for anyone who reads this and there is another factor involved. That would be the dedication factor. I look forward to people seeing gains from incorperating what I have written but you have to remember I been lifting dedicatedly since I was 26 and I am now 48. I would have been much better a long time ago if I had not ran into the strengths of the pullers in the 80's and broken bones in my elbow but hey better a late comeback than never to reach a goal. Take your time because you have alot of it as long as you dont take a cheap way out with drugs. The use of the drugs will shorten your time on the table to just a few years whereas if you keep training you might not beat all the short timers you come into contact with but you will be around alot longer and later on in the hunt in defiance of your age. Good Luck and god bless you cause if you hold to your dedication you will realize your dreams eventually. I will report back maybe Tuesday or wedensday. I expect to push much harder this week so we will see . night night, IRN
Supplimental
Ok the dishes are done. We had a pork chop and vegetable medley "string bean , carrot , onion" and some pasta with cheese sauce.
Afterwards I did the hammer wrist hammer and supponation / pronation and the hand grippers Captains of Crunch. Walked the dog and now I am off to the scene in Mirc to mess around and chat for a while pending my passing out cause tomorrow is MONDAY lol. Night,
Alright it is late Monday night but I am here for a short recap since Friday. I am starting to get back on the track. Saturday after all responsibilties were completed I made it to the gym and completed around a mile and a half + uphill 15 degree incline at around 3.7 miles an hour. Total uphill altitude 1198 feet 24 minutes?. Then 100 crunches and 30 obliques each side. This was a pretty good re-entry after being off for four weeks. I went back to the old standby before leaving and did pullups followed by hammer curls on the machine. That actually made me feel better as well working from sets of 10 declining in numbers as I added weight starting with 45 pounds and ending up with the setting at 130 and two reps in the end right handed and 100 with the left two reps. Sunday was kind of a nightmare because the shock on the back and arms was noted but I still made use of the day and even worked a little hammer pronation and suponation late that night. Monday we did the armwrestling practice which was cool but I had a few of the guys that were too sore from last monday however another one showed that wasnt present last week and we dealt it out . We made this practice more about training than pulling but we did pull until people were running for the napersenes. This is because we did the monkey bar type work hand walking . It was pretty severe since it is 14 feet long and down and back is one trip. You add armwrestling after that and people get what they came for. I think alot of people use different things like pin boards and ropes etc. I am not really dieting heavy yet but it was salad for dinner tonight and shrimp cocktail. I am still around 216-217 but plenty of time once the metabolic slingshot goes into effect as long as I am not loading carbs with bread or rice or potatoes etc. that my body can convert. You know what they say > release the grease. Once that starts it will be 2 pounds a day because I intend to still eat otherwise I would drop faster and you dont want to lose muscle so you have to eat. It is all about what you eat though. Still out on the jury about 198 or 220. I will either be like 205 in the 220s or I will just barely come under the wire at 198. It is no matter because both classes will have plenty of targets and they will all be worthy. Time for sleep now and I will report back thursday or Friday of what I was able to accomplish in the week. I never know because my schedule varies. It is the dedication that gets us through and not the schedule normality. As nike says just do it. Night
Ok its late but I am making a decision to attempt to make the Palmetto Classic in 4 weeks in Rock Hill South Carolina. I have just begun to get back in form so let's see if I can do it in 4 weeks and what it comes down to. I am a fatboy currently from all the time off and this past week I ballooned to like 219 pounds. There are two choices of weight. In this tournament they have a 198 or 220. Over the next week I will start my cardio and change my diet and report back how my changes come about. Since last night I dropped 2 pounds to about 217 but I have yet to get to my stripped low base weight and actually start to burn off the fat my layoff has aquired. It is now time to cut out any consumption of diet cokes and limit my intake of anything besides water to maybe 20 ounces of splenda layden hawaiian punch per day which I will cut out as well in about a week. As far as food I will be lowering my intake of breads and anything with carbs to near nothing in this week as well and bringing the cardio to cause the change. I figure I will see if I go to my normal trim weight of 205 pretty fast and if it just doesnt happen due to time constraints I will simply increase my diet of good intake and push the lean muscle back up as high as I can before the torunament. I will report back in about three days with the changes so that the readers can follow how it is done without losing the strength in your arms. In a last note let me say that I do cardio without running but simply walking uphill at a fast pace of 3.5 to 4.0 miles an hour at a 10 to 15 degree incline. If you wear a sweatshirt this is the better low impact way to succeed without shedding muscle. I will post again within the next 3 days. Maybe monday night.
yesterday was practice and I am sure as myself most of the guys at practice are a train wreck today. Alot of pulling done after watching some bowl games. Auburn looked like they been laying off too much at least to me. I been refinishing a set of chester drawers so using my hands enough but latley alot of arthritis pain although I noted other than being muscle sore the practice seems to have lessened the arthritis pain.
I dont know if any of you have ever heard of round robin or king of the hill at practice but if you havent this is how it goes. There are several variations of the rules but its basically single match line winner holds the table . You can make a rule that if you hold the table through a full round of pullers that you step down to the one who came closest to beating you or you can even make it if you go two rounds. We just go until someone gets beat down enough to drop a match. It just happened to be at the end of the second rotation so it didnt really matter. This is a good way to really get your pull on and study over and over the contrast of your pullers and what their attributes are . It shows clearly what they need to work on and in fact you can orchestrate it easier to get someone that you have that always pulls a hook to maybe use their toproll or visa versa. We only had 6 people at practice which is an ok number and we pulled on each other relentlessly even using the straps. Once again the one thing it cleared up about what my teammates needed to learn was that in a tourney the hook only guy will rarely come out the victor in the end. The big example is you get a guy that can hammer curl say close to 200 pounds over and over again and he likes the toproll. Ok you have another fella that if he can turn into a tricep press he can push about the same strength in a driving pin. Question: How strong is the tricep guys hand and wrist? Answer: Not nearly strong enough. The backpressure guy just keeps popping the outside move but the good thing is that it builds both skills putting these guys together and in a practice environment where you dont have the rulers out seeing whos is longer , it helps because you can get the guy with the big hook to try some toprolling and actually see just what he is capable of and what he/she "excuse me" needs to work on. Consequently you can get that big toproller to work his/her hook as well. It just makes for an all round improvment of skills. Everyone else in the pecking order will also get more out of the session that they needed. Besides myself I have one heavy guy that is a mean toproll and needs hook time. He weighs about 300. I also have a guy that as Neil Pickup puts it is the wizards *** in the shoulder roll . He is weighing about 215. I had another weighing in around 200 that just needs to get back on track and one that weighs about 180 and one in around 130 pounds. My wife pulls too so she gets plenty on the table. I guess what I am telling you guys is it isnt just a pull session. You have to look at everyone and work them in the areas that they need it. Ok here is where I brag a little. My heavy guy is Carey Nick and he has this ongoing rival with Chuck Westberry from Jacksonville. Before we went to Florida state I put Carey in the Straps and just held a defensive position on him and made him stay in the straps for about 5 pulls maybe a few more. I wouldnt take them off even though they kept getting tighter. I would just make him work and work at different angles to give him ideas about what to do if he was in tournament with someone and needed to drag out something to get by with. In that tournament he wound up in that scenario and even though he drove into a shoulder roll for the win in the straps , Chuck was totally suprised and Carey had the gas to peddle through it from our encounters. This is an great example of how you become better. The lifting and cardio is all great and you need it but you must get all aspects of that table and practice . It is very important you do it all. I hope this rant has been helpful. Until next week
I generally have 8 or more at practice but one just had a baby boy >congrats Kelly Wintz and the other I expect we will see next week. There is never any telling . I have had as many as 15 or so show up for a practice but it takes them time away sometimes to decide what they are really going to put into it and what they expect out of it. It is something that the individual has to decide but as I always say. It is indignation that will drive them there. I will come up with some more things we do maybe after next week. Remember this though > You only get out of it what you put into it. defining that item is not that hard to see however it is alot harder to do.