Tire Flipping: 101

I got a text message Sunday afternoon.

"I am thinking about flipping the tire 100 times tomorrow. you want in?"
From:Zack Roberts
5:28pm 8/22/10

I reply.

"I am training in the morning"
From: Zac Boman
5:30pm 8/22/2010

He says...

"Word"
From: Zack Roberts
5:32pm 8/22/2010

So, I hadn't decided to do the hundred rep challenge with Roberts as I left for the gym. I had actually planned to do some dynamic effort box squats with bands at a certain percentage of an estimated max and other very sciencey training with complicated sets and reps and loading and gadgetry all designed to make me look smart and trick my training partners into thinking I knew what I was doing.

I pull up to the compound and sure enough Zack was already there and I helped him roll the tire out on the gravel drive to begin his quest. And something in me just wanted to do it too. "Are you gonna flip the tire Boman?" he asked, I said "I think I am."I then ditched all my complex training plans for something simple and straightforward task of flipping a 540lb. tire 100 times. To complicate matters I had about an hour to do it. So, we decided to work in sets of five with ~2 minutes of rest in between sets. Then it began. The first fifteen were cake, barely even broke a sweat. The next fifteen started the water works, and then the next fifteen had us wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. By 7am we were both sitting at 50 flips. Things start going down hill from there.

The tire literally became soaked with sweat. The hand holds were caked with sweat and dirt. And you had to talk yourself into every flip. We coated ourselves in chalk. We reached 70.

At 80, my grip was going, my shoulders were chewed up like I had been front squatting a roll of barbed wire, and me, Roberts, and the tire were suffering. The sun by this time had broken over the trees. its 7:23am.

I needed to get this over with, so I decided to do a set of 7,7 and 6 brining me to 100 and getting me home and showered. I wrestled 7 over for the two sets. And finally came the last set. I finished the 6 and then did one more just to show it who was boss. 101.

I had jumped slightly in front of Robert's he was working to get to 90. I had to leave before he finished. I knew he would flip to 102 just to say he did more than me. I had trouble opening doors the rest of the day, My fingers weren't fully functional for about 12hrs. My entire body is sore today, and it's kind of nice. You set a goal and you don't stop till it's done. Again, one of the nice things about having a place to call your own.

I get another text message close to lunch -

"111"
From Zack Roberts
8:03am

"you jerk"
From Zac Boman
11:32am

"Lol go back and do 112 tomorrow"
From Zack Roberts
11:34am


No, I don't think I will.

Happy Birthday Precious Girl

I missed the birth of my daughter. A reality that haunts me as the fact that Rebekah was not naturally born to us seems more and more foreign with each passing day. Worst of all, I don't know where I was or what I was doing August 23rd, 2007. I would give anything to remember. I would like to think that I paused for a moment and things felt different, or I woke up in the middle of the night wondering what had disturbed my sleep. I doubt such romantic or supernatural a thing happened, but I wish it did.

The last five months have flown by. I don't know where the time has gone. And it is hard to believe that in December it will have been a year since we sat in the stern orphanage director's office in south Russia and had placed in our lap a crying, underfed, frightened little girl with a social history that, frankly, scared us to death. It was enough to make two naive parent wannabes almost turn tail and run... but because of God's faithfulness we didn't.

That little girl who, 9 months ago, terrified us and convinced us we were about to ruin our lives, is now asleep in her very own room right next to ours, and part of me is hoping she wakes up just so Allison and I can go in there and tell her we are here, always, and she is safe.

We put her to bed tonight as a two year old for the last time. My heart breaks as I think about all we missed. Allison said only moments ago "I wish I could have seen what she looked like when she was a little baby", just one of the many phrases that make me want to invest everything I own into developing a working time machine. I am determined to make sure we don't miss another thing from the girl who has changed our lives, for the better, forever.

I could go on and on about what a treasure she is, how she has come to life and is nothing like the hollow, somber child we met in December, and how God Masterfully purposed in eternity past to accomplish this thing in our lives for His Glory, but it's late and I need to shed a few more tears over the fact that time is already moving to fast and my little girl is growing up. Happy Birthday Rebekah, you are a treasure to your Mother and Father's heart, we love you.

Where I got hooked

In 2007 I had the opportunity to go to America's Strongest Man in Charlotte, NC. It was produced as sort of a side show to the NASCAR Speed Street festivities in downtown.

It was a good year for Strongman. This ASM contest included names like Brian Shaw, Steve MacDonald, Nick Best, Travis Ortmayer, Derek Poundstone, Van Hatfield, and Chad Coy just to name a few.

It seems hard to believe, but I didn't have a digital camera in 2007, So these were taken with my trusty Canon Elph (remember advantix film?). After I took these pictures, the camera sat untouched in the console of my wife's Yukon for the last three years, no kidding. A few weeks ago my dad was visiting and making a trip to Wal-Mart and I got him to drop the film off. Our Wal-Mart no longer does on site processing so they had to be sent off (alot has changed in photography in three years). Anyway, here is a few pictures of the only professional strongman show I've been to. It was very cool to watch and I think I drank about twenty complimentary Monster Energy drinks over the course of the two day show.

Brian Shaw on the Log Press for Reps, I forget the weight.




Steve MacDonald getting ready to press


Van Hatfield getting set for the Engine Block carry and Load


Derek Poundstone after the Engine block load and discovering that he had already won by points, I don't think it was even the second day yet.


A tenacious but undersized Chad Coy


Nick Best getting ready on the Block Press


Those Blocks were hot

Nick Best on the 700lb. Deadlift for reps



Steve MacDonald deadlifting

Travis Ortmayer, who withdrew due to back injury after the first two events, on the block press


Derek Poundstone after the deadlift


And Van Hatfield after a solid deadlift performznce



All in all, it was alot of fun to watch the pros at work, and now some of these names are the best in the world at what I love, I'm glad I was there. I think my log press went up 20lbs. just smelling their sweat.

Dairy Farm

Here are a few pictures of our trip back home to Vernon, Alabama. As I mentioned earlier, we visited Gilmer Dairy Farm. God bless the farmer's of America for working so hard to fill my ever growing power belly.
Allison, Rebekah and I had too good of a time, life moves a little slower in Lamar County... And I am better for it. To view our photo album from our trip just click either of the two pictures. And Drink More Milk!

Playing in the Dirt

The longer I train out in a steel building the more I like it. Slowly, my workouts are looking less and less traditional. I guess you'll mix things up a little when you have the space, equipment, and remoteness that a bizarre training protocol requires. Today I wanted to train my upper back, but I need to work on some form of power movement... and I wanted to try and throw something (just in case I work up the nerve, don a kilt and compete in the highland games in October). So my session was reduce to me hoarding the bumper plates working my way up on a very "born outside of marriage" version of an olympic high pull. Which, frankly, became reduced to a very fast deadlift and an upright row at the end. This was intermingled with me marching out in the dirt and grass to throw a 20lb. kettlebell as high as I could. The kettlebell kicked up wads of dirt and the morning dew as it landed and the red mud turned the handle slick as glass. I was ok with that, it made me feel rugged, and old fashioned, and alive. In between throws I went back and did some barbell rows. I'm thankful to have patches of grass and gravel that afford me such weird luxuries as slinging weights as high over my head as they can go. Two of the three exercises I did today would have had me escorted off gym property at any fitness establishment.

The further I get into my own training the less inclined I am to perform traditional movements. A person should squat, deadlift, and press in some capacity, everything else is subjective. I haven't performed a traditional bench press in nearly six weeks. It's one of those things that fall by the wayside when you train the log and overhead press twice a week. So when people ask me "what do you bench?" I'm going to say... "I mostly do curls..." and then I'm going to stare at them blankly and let a little bit of drool drip out of the corner of my mouth. And then, regardless of what they say, I'm not going to say another word, just keep staring and drooling until they walk away.

As an aging lifter, I am learning what Dan John means when he says "the body is one peice" and "all training is complimentary". I couldn't pass up high pulls just because the good mornings I did on Sunday made my hamstrings and low back sore, sometimes things just overlap, I'm learning to be ok with that. Plus, you might think what I did today did a poor job of bringing "ripped" and "shredded" definition to my rear deltoid like a Men's Health model... and you'd be right. But supersetting reverse cable flyes doesn't develop the strength and power it takes to put kettlebells eye level with third story windows.