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.