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