Hello DOMS, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…

Over the weekend I had the profound pleasure of actually taking part in a privately held, very much improvised, socially distanced barbell workout. A friend of a workout buddy owns a warehouse so 5 of us gathered to lift some weights for the first time in 2 months (Note: in the country where I live, […]

What not going to the gym feels like.

We are 2 months into this pandemic and gym rats the world over are agonizingly jonesing for an “iron fix”. Yes, not being able to train really, truly sucks. Some of the ways it blows are obvious and there is also some unexpected “suckage” which I will outline shortly. Surprisingly, though, there a few silver […]

Life imitates meme…or why the gym is always packed the first week of January.

It commonly said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And yet, in spite of decades of gym-going experience every December I find myself tut-tutting at all those lame “new year’s resolutioners” memes and snarky posts to forums and Facebook groups. Every year I tell […]

The evolution of a Powerlifter.

I happened upon strength training almost by accident. I had been going to the gym for a number of years, nay, decades, more or less consistently. So I went to the gym regularly, but aimlessly, without clear goals. I’d do whatever I felt like doing once I arrived at the gym and the exercise choice […]

Gym may be life…but keep it to yourself.

As I’ve said in previous posts, if you want to stick to a strength-training program it’s absolutely necessary to find your motivation. Strength-training, per se, is not necessarily fun. People who stick to strength-training programs are those of have developed an interest in which weight-lifting plays a part. Often, these are athletes in heavily strength […]

What to do when you don’t feel like training…

Sooner or later, it happens to everyone. You take your physical training regimen for granted and little by little, it becomes less of a priority. Whereas before you’d broach no interruption to your training program, now work and family stress become a valid reason for missing workouts. Inevitably, as your training become crappier, so too […]

The 4 rules of the SQUAT

I had an epiphany a few days ago. Thanks to time, rehab and mobility training, I have recently been able to perform back squats for the first time in 11 months. I knew that I was going to lose strength in squat…and I sure did. What surprised me, however, was how much my technique […]

Why is this so popular? Rant o’ the day

Today I’m going to bend one of the golden rules of this blog The gym should be a judgement free zone, not in the infantile, disempowering “here, have a donut” Planet Fitness sense, but rather a positive place where you do challenging things. Mirin’ is encouraged, but haughty disdain of one’s fellow gym-goer is the […]

Germany Competition Recap – stuff happens.

So last weekend I competed in the stand-alone bench press event in the 2018 German Powerlifting Championships for my federation. It was an interesting weekend in many ways, I learned a lot about what I should, and should not, do for my next competition, how I feel about “stand-alone” events vs. the traditional 3 event […]

The bench-press: It’s not just for meatheads any more…

In honor of Monday (aka International Chest Day) and my upcoming competition this weekend, this post will examine why the bench-press is so misunderstood, why you should do it and some surprising tips I’ve learned over the years that have helped me improve my bench-press. As I sit here alternating between sips of black coffee […]