Exercise – sometimes it’s a lifeline

Ok, everyone knows that regular exercise helps ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s exceedingly well-documented. For the most part, those of us who exercise regularly don’t need to be told about the very real endorphin rush one receives after physical exertion. It’s not a magic bullet, though, but it is a valuable tool […]

Dumb Luck

The other day a thought occurred to me as I drove down the road. It hit me just how many times in my life I’ve avoided literal serious injury or death by sheer, dumb luck. These were instances in which no common sense was yet available or, if it was, was studiously ignored. Broadly speaking, […]

Bench prescient

Yesterday I did 6×5 @150kg in bench-press. I was training at the club and nobody else was there. Now, granted, I used a heavy competition bench with really sturdy safety arms, but heavy benching is always a scary proposition. Nothing will make you besmirch your undies faster than that feeling that you’re going to miss […]

Blues for your Soul

It has been said – correctly – that the Blues is the mother of modern popular American music. Technically and historically speaking, there is a clear musical lineage from the Blues to Bluegrass, Jazz, Country, Rock, Gosple, R&B, Soul and Rap. Thematically, the Blues is, of course, about the injustices of life, or the need […]

How blogging is exactly like strength-training

My two favorite things to do on Saturday morning, after I’ve had my coffee, is to write a few pages and then go to the gym for a few hours. It occurred to me this morning that there are quite a few similarities between the two activities. Let me explain: Hygiene: Powerlifting is an important […]

The key to happiness is daring to suck, and suck badly…or the mystery of motivation.

The inspiration for this stems from a something I posted recently regarding regrets and a subsequent post I read on Stuart Danker’s excellent blog. If you think about it, our biggest regrets are those times when we simply “gave up” or chose the easiest solution, the path of least resistance. Conversely, one of life’s enduring […]

That time I did a Strongman contest

About 18 months ago I did a very, very silly thing. I participated in a local Strongman contest on a whim. I just signed up a week before the contest and then I participated. “How hard could it be?”, I thought naively. I should preface this by providing some context at this point: I know […]

Life under the bar

Aside from spending time with family and friends my absolute favorite things in life are reading, physical activity and, during a certain period, booze. Reading, if one reads broadly, is obviously a way of cultivating one’s intellect. Physical activity (running, yoga, weight-lifting, etc) is the second part of the equation – Mens sana in corpore […]

An Ode to Powerlifting Meets

Powerlifting is the sort of sport that you generally fall into. I’ve never heard of an absolute beginner walking into a gym with expressed intent of competing in the sport. It’s a sport that you might gravitate to after you’ve spent a certain amount of time in a gym and have decided you have an […]

The unexpected consequences of lifting.

What motivates people to train in the strength sports? Ask 100 different lifters why they lift and you will no doubt get a 100 different answers that are just variations of the same theme. The common thread running through their answers would be that it’s that it’s just flat out fun being strong. Being stronger […]