Sunday, May 3, 2015

Training, Tweets and Links January - March 2015

Training

 My training is what it has always been. Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press in one form or another. For the first part of the year I did start working on my quick lifts (Snatch and Clean & Jerk) and have made considerable progress on my technique. Quality over Intensity, good form, and proper positions are all part of the plan. And I FINALLY figured out what everyone was talking about when they said "jump with the bar" in the clean.

I love my new training journal I got for Christmas, which is really just a yearly day planner with a paragraph sized place to write for each day. It's awesome. It has also lead me to start journaling a little, basically a brief description of each day and what we did and maybe a few thoughts. My hope is that one day the kids will enjoy reading some of their old dad's day to day mundane thoughts as we chug through life.


I would just as soon January and February not even exist on the calendar, partly because I lift in a non-climate controlled environment. But also, there is nothing for the kids to do except be cold and bored and it gets dark at 4:30pm. and you don't even have Christmas to look forward to. A few years ago I started calling March 1st "Strongman New Year" because it heralded the coming of spring and time change and warmer weather. It's become my favorite Non-Holiday Holiday. No one really knows it's a holiday except you, you don't have to buy gifts, and all you do is basically think about what all kind of training and you're going to do when the weather warms up. So, a belated Happy Strongman New Year to all!

Below are my tweets and links, as you can see there is a lot, but hope you'll enjoy.

Tweets
(End of College Football Season Related)



(The Rest)




Links 

 The Late Stuart Scott's speech the ESPY's from 2014
Rich Eisens tribute
"Bulletproof" coffee is stupid and terrible and it's creator is a weird dope head
Russia's Adoption Ban 2 years later
"he drinks a gallon of milk a day/eats a quart of cottage cheese"Old Article on Don Reinhoudt
Construction worker that bragged on FB about putting Bama flag on Kyle Field commits suicide (So tragic)
21 reasons to have your own home gym
Tour LSU's new football weightroom
Eyes to See
Strength Coach Ron McKeefery / Adoption Gameplan
Artisanal Knuckle Sandwich
“I think sometimes kids aren’t playing multiple sports anymore because it’s just too expensive.”
Bad NFL Lip Reading 2015
Wrestling great Booker T performs “spectacular” citizen arrest during armed robbery
Biggest Loser: "We're all fat again!"
Flaming Hammer Curls
Lessons from China (weightlifting)
Flowchart on whether or not you should tweet potential college recruits
Huntsville loves hockey an is kind of a weird place
ISIS is turning people to Jesus
Removed {foster care}
20 Nutrition myths debunked
Squats: Not Everyone is the Same
Meet Ben Jackson
Adopted For Life Ten Years Laters
Random Thoughts on Coming back from injury
UGA(ly's) Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Mark Hocke
Naps Are Good For You
Some Challenge Workouts From Dan John
World Orphans Iraq Update (Please watch this one)
Not Sleeping is Not Good
Did Auburn Football Players Really Harass a disabled Veteran and Her Helper Dog?
On a recent day she asked a visitor: 'Do you want me?' - I almost suffocated reading this article
Barbell Training as Rehab
Wiggle Love
Long Form Article on Sleep Deprivation
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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

5 Years Down

5 years, Lord help me...

I guess it deserves a few words to mark the occasion, it only seems fitting, indulge me one more time for just a moment.

5 years ago yesterday we said our final dasvidaniyas in Astrakhan, Russia and pulled away from baby home #2 for the last time.

That place still calls to me like a siren's song, and part of me is still there. Don't think that will ever change...

Today there are barely traces of the somber little girl that became our daughter that day. We've spent a lot of time unpacking the bad and filling the suitcase of her heart with good. It's a full time job, and the much of the credit is owed to her patient loving forever mommy. 

I could tell you a lot of sad things from years ago and make you cry, but as time goes on it isn't my story to tell anymore, it's hers.

Thankfully it's a story didn't end in tragedy, and it is to this very minute being rewritten. And now her story is peace, hope, love and family. It is Halloween candy, Christmas presents, and Birthday cake. It is Sweet Home Alabama, Country Roads, "War Eagle!", and vacations by the sea. She has a big strong Daddy, a mother with the patience and skillset of Mary Poppins and a little sister to multiply the joy... And, most importantly, she has unrestricted access to The Good News of a God who loves, LOVES  Adoption.

If you would, I ask you to join me in praying that the lost and forgotten little ones would be found, that political and bureaucratic walls would be torn down, and that stories here and all over the world would be rewritten.



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Saturday, February 14, 2015

The Old and The New

I cooked Rebekah a steak tonight. That's what she wanted for her Valentine's Day meal. I  look at pictures like this and can't help but remember our first meal as a family in our hotel room in Russia...  She would have eaten a mud pie if we had set it before her. Seems like a lifetime ago, but it was only about five years.

But tonight she wanted steak because the girl knows what's good and she got one, a big juicy one. And I was most impressed when she manage to find room in her stomach for nearly all of it. To this very day I still love watching her eat a big meal. The table of plenty, amen and amen...

It's fitting and routine to celebrate in our home with relative frequency, because with the naturally passing time and fair amount of effort none of us are where we were almost five years ago now, and I continue to be thankful for that.
This morning I took the girls down to Toomer's corner to see new oak trees that were being planted. The two that used to stand there unfortunately were destroyed  and had to be removed...  You heard the story... Don't worry, we all went and said goodbye.
 
Every community has it's own special landmarks and traditions, Auburn, Alabama, my home, is rich in both. I still point out the spot where I proposed to mommy, and where I worked up the nerve to kiss her right square on the lips for the first time.  We have history here, and our history is now their's. 
 
Our calendar is always full of special events no matter the season. Today is just another penny in our memory bank of special moments.  I wanted my little girls to be able to say years from now they were there when things were made new and right and traditions were planted in fresh soil.
 
It's hard for me not to turn the  simple events of steaks for supper and the planting of trees as symbolic reminders of the two little lives I've been blessed to watch grow. Surely we are all rich in such uncommon Graces if we stop to count our blessings.
 
The last five years have brought many changes and the next five will bring many more. And there will be times that the old must be painfully and carefully pruned away and the new must be nourished and given every possible chance to take root in good soil. It's the nature of this life.
 
Thankfully, Spring is coming and even in this mild winter I welcome it's arrival. Things grow easier in the warm weather. Some seasons I enjoy, some I don't. Sometimes we eat steak,  sometimes we starve for hope. Sometimes we grow, sometimes we have to cut it all down and start over, like it or not. It's life isn't it? It's not easy, but it is desperately precious. 
 
If you are being pruned, Bless you. If you have just been replanted, run your roots deep like a storm is coming. And if you are hungry, buy some ribeyes next time they go on sale. As Rebekah, my oldest little girl, will tell you, they are worth the wait.
 
 
 
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

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Sunday, January 4, 2015

The Big Year Ender: Training, Tweets and Links Oct,Nov,Dec 2014

Well this is it, another year down. Here is a recap of the last few months.  Happy 2015.

TRAINING
I was going to take picture of my training log and do a lot of the usual run down complete with pictures, ect. but the time and effort to document the last 3 months of training would be repetitive and not worth it. But here is a brief synopsis for the both of you that may be inerested in what I'm doing in the gym.

October - lot of squats, bench, deadlifts and whatever I wanted to do with no plan or direction.
November - Volume, Volume, Volume, lots of 5 x 5's, multiple low rep sets in squats, lots of accessory work, especially upper back, and bodybuilding movements.
December - speed, low reps sets, lighter weight, chains bands, modest accessory movements

as and aside, I'll be focusing on strength in January, so the bar weight will be going up, sets/reps will decrease and accesory movements will be limited. The last week will be off completely. Which will set up the plan for the rest of the year. 

Month 1 - volume
Month 2 - speed
Month 3 - strength/load the bar then a week off ... generally speaking... 

What can I say, an imperfect plan is better than no plan at all. At least this way I'm not training multiple qualities at once which, for me, in this season of life is just fine. 

TWEETS


LINKS

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