New Personal Record

O.K. I haven't posted in a week but I had to decompress a little after Bob dying and the freak at my kids school ( a little alcohol, little time ) but hey don't worry, I have not missed a workout ( I am patting myself on the back right now !).
So, I Have a new personal record to report in tonights workout, first of all I can only do 8 or 10 strict pushups, and I have been reading about russian powerlifting theories ( yes I know I am obsessive, I have to constantly read if I don't I feel.........depressed) so they have a technique called ladders, take your 8 rep max weight on any exercize and do this, do 1 rep, rest, 2, rest, 3 rest, 4, rest, 5, rest so your sets look like this 1,2,3,4,5, then start over. I did three sets, my scheme looks like this. 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4,5, I read up on the science behind this and still don't completely understand it, but it is a loading and unloading powerlifting cycle compressed to minutes instead of weeks. Any how, 45 pushups, I am going to try for 5 cycles then test my bench. Amazingly to me this is not my PR.
The pics are of a kettlebell swing, it is the most brutal ballistic move in KB practice, it is deceptively simple, there are three factors to consider.
1) no rest between reps: any other movement that I do has a lockout point or rest point, this is a constant motion, like pedaling a bike with your whole body.
2) forces in play: force =mass x acceleration, so the faster I work or the harder I push the more force is applied in the line of the acceleration, ie pulling away from me. I took the time it takes do one upswing, and roughly measured the arc, then guesstimated the speed, then the peak speek, there is roughly 180 pounds of force pulling on my arm for a split second.
3) little thing called muscle irradiation: squeeze your hand into a fist as absolutely hard as you can, the only muscle responsible for the movement of your fingers is your forearm flexors located on the underside of your forearm, but your arm ( bicep, tricep) shoulder, and probably neck were tensed right, now try this, stand up, bear with me, this is weird, flex your stomach, your butt, your sphincter, legs, chest and lats as hard as you possibly can the squeeze as hard as you can with all your might squeeze everything everywhere, your grip will increase at least 20% if you do this right. How does this apply to the swing? glad you asked!
The swing activates all the muscles in you body at once, some to a lesser degree, but all of them, as you progress in the swing with no rest between reps, muscle irradiation calls upon deeper levels of muscle tissue from your whole body, your entire body becomes more and more contracted with every rep above a certian point ( mine is like 12 reps, I can FEEL it happen ) vast jumps in energy expendatures occur at the point where fast twitch muscle fiber starts being used.
So needless to say I enjoy the hell outta this exersize, on the 6th of jan. when i got my 'bell I could do 5 reps per side before feeling like I was going to die. tonight I did 140 swings..yup 140
70 a side, my sets looked like this 15/15, 10/10, 15/15, 10/10, 20/20. still plenty of rest between sets but 10 reps to 140 in a month, At least I know I am doing something right, give me five or six more........
I cannot take credit for the facts I have talked about here ( except for the math formula, basic highschool math ), I have a book called Power To The People, it is a Russian powerlifting and periodization manuel geared to the common person, the author, Pavel Tsatsouline, teaches people in this manuel how to become stronger ( much stronger ) with two exersizes, and like 25 minutes of exersize a day, and it works spectacularly!!

I may be starting a new blog, it will be a comunal blog with some fellow kettlebell trainees.
Its purpose is for us to measure and record our progress.
warning, I will be posting shirtless pics of myself every so often so don't look at it after eating, LOL

Thank you for going to the memorial service with me babey, I love you very much!!

workout post

OK after two depressing posts I am back to wrighting a workout post. I was extremely tired due to a late night last night, and I know I probably am going to have another one tonight, so I was going to skip working out today and sleep when the babies went down, and I laid down, then got up and worked out, best one to date. I did 5 sets of 5 one legged deadlifts each leg, and a combination move that was brutal, it is a snatch ( wich consists of "snatching" a weight from the ground over your head and holding it there ) and an overhead squat, where you hold the weight over your head and squat. I did fifty each side, in sets of five, each side with out putting the 'bell down when swithching sides. lets take left side, I would swing the kettlebell between my legs and reverse the motion with a hip snapping motion like trying to jump without leaving the ground,stop the weight with my arm being vertical and the weight above my head, then do a full squat and stand up, that is one rep, 4 more on left, 5 on right, that is one set, did ten, took about 40 minutes because of the rest time betwen sets to get my breathing under control ( and wright my will...lol ) in two weeks I am going to start a stretching routine in the evenings before bed to reduce soreness and help with flexibility ( p.s. my wife was about a mile down the road from me last night and I jogged almost the whole way without stopping, still giving myslf untill jan 2008 to loose all the weight and seriously start powerlifting again )

crazy day

So my wife came home today and asked me to go with her to our girls school, appearently there was a man hanging out at the school. I don't have the time or the mental resources right now to make this a long post, but she was right. The police warned him twice to leave, having a bad feeling, we followed him for 4 HOURS, as he went to different schools and stalked different kids, including one school where he had a campsite set up in a bush to watch girls run track.
The insane feature of this individual is that for the ENTIRE 4 hours we made ourselves known, either directly behind him or in the car a close distance behind him.
He did not care, he looked in childrens yards, he walked his route inbetween three schools, and was on the prowel, the only time he showed ANY emotion is when he had to leave his "territory" and walk to an industrial area where there was no kids. The police finally took note after many individuals in different areas called in with similiar complaints.
I was amped for four hours for a life and death fight that never came, on top of much more important fact that he was a direct threat to my family, I am having an emotional and hormonal crash like I have never experienced in my life ( I also directly confronted him in a park ). I have competed in full contact Karate, been in streetfights, and given cpr to a baby, this is different it was my family...........................I am spent, but I still need to get the word out watch your kids, there are monsters out there, and they look like us.

My friend

I was raised in an ultra-conservative household in an overly conservative religion, I currently have no religion and am happier than I have ever been. There are only three people I miss from my days in religious internment, 1.) a friend named Andrew John,who know is so self-rightous he would not come to my wedding, so to hell with him. 2.) a friend named Anjeanette Boyd, who was my best friend for a while, I also had a huge crush on her, however I remember as a girl and I am married to a WOMAN, I love my wife to an untold degree, and we lost contact years ago I don't really know where she is. 3.) an incredible person, a damn fine human being, I cannot say enough good things about him, in his 50's he still rippled muscle under his considerable layer of fat. He exuded power, his son set a bench press record at his school. He was an incredible street fighter even when I knew him, he had fists the size of honeybaked hams. And yet he was so gentle I used to watch him pick up his cat with warped, broken, and poorly rehealed knuckles, so gentley the cat could have shivered and gotten out of his grip. He was kind to all who were kind to him, he treated his wife like the most precious commodity on the earth, he was open, kind-hearted, willing to do anything fore anyone, he definately had a diachotomy of personalities, and they all fit together to make an amazing human. I found out tonight he died, although he and I had not spoken in years due to the fact that I completely cut myself off from the religion of my childhood his death hit me like a ton of bricks. As completely insane as it sounds I can take comfort in one fact he died instantly from an anuerism, he died like he lived, full tilt. No inbetween only on and off. One side note he was black and the only reason I mention it is because he was so inffluential on my development, I learned you could be a fighter and a lover, you could defend your personal honor, and help the less fortunate, You could stand up as a Bigger than life figure ( when he was in his early twenties, he would often tell police he would beat them boxing in their own precenct, and do it), and touch your wife with such tenderness and compassion that onlookers would blush. And racists used to treat him different because he was black, that was where I first developed my hatred for racism. So to Bob, my friend, my mentor, my sounding board when no one else would be, I am eternally gratefull for the distinct privelage of knowing you, I will mourn you as the universe will. I will drink a vodka and cranberry juice, I will treat my wife with tenderness, and I will punch any motherfucker who needs it in the mouth, and I will always remember what I learned from you. Old Man rest in peace.

I will get there

this is Mike Mahler doing a clean in the first picture, wich is from the ground to shoulder in one "clean" movement. And a Bent press in the second wich starts from the clean position, by the way that is a 145 pound kettlebell and he weighs 180. I will get there!!!!!!!!!!!

athletic results

I am definately getting a higher level of athletic ability, muscles getting harder, joints getting looser. My knees used to constantly hurt, especially when I would stand up or sit down.
Today I stood up off the couch to put a load of laundry in, and without realizing it, I stood up using one leg to carry most of the load, ABSOLUTELY no pain in knee ( one legged deadlifts paying off). The snatches are giving me more flexibility in my shoulders. My hips have gotten a lot more snappy, my thirteen year old and I always mess around, he hits me in the shoulder and runs, I try to kick him in the butt as he runs away ( neither one of us hard, just guy stuff) yesterday I had to pull my front snap kick before I made contact with him, it came up and out with a genuine snapping motion, haven't been able to do that in a while.
I am starting to get more energy, my movements are starting to get more efficient, I hate the fact that I got out of shape ever..............damn beer and brauts!!!

MY AMAZING WIFE

So I posted some pictures on my sight because my wife posted some on her sight, and she was cool about it, no argument, no cold shoulder, but I could tell it bugged her a little, that was the point.
I figure if I am going to try to get her goat on such a public forum ( and I did ) I should also tell her and everyone else how much I love her and am glad to be with her. ( and I am).

tonights workout

So I haven't ran in a couple of days, feeling crappy. I probably should be resting, but I had to workout, so I grabbed my 44 pound kettlebell and did 20 snatches 10 left 10 right, 20 swings 10 left 10 right, 20 clean and jerks 10 left 10 right, 50 underleg passes one set 20, one set 20, third set 10. paused maybe 60to 90 seconds between sets on all exersizes and I had sweat rolling into my eyes and off my ears, I might just have to adjust my workout a little, and try to do this whole series as one set with no rest in between exersizes and work up to five cycles three times a week.
Running is a little hard right now, my knees hurt because of the weight, I still will run, even at 240 lbs I could pop out 1-2 miles and not hurt, pushing three hundred does something to my knees, so here is too a little higher physical ability before I run regularly again. (p.s. my lovely wife bought me a three shirts because I needed them, even though they were 3x they were still too tight on me, and I am not a fat person who thinks I look good in tight clothes, so I was a little discouraged because I needed shirts. Today I took one out of the dryer, before it was streched out and it fit just fine, a little loose actually. Yeeee Haaaaawwww!!!)

setbacks

There always setbacks in life, in fact I think life in general is a two steps foward one step back process, now we can plan for this accept it and learn from our setbacks, or you can do like I did and go have a killer workout the first day I felt better after the flu and you can fell like dog doody like I do right now!!!!!

Just had to even the score a little my wife keep going on a bout Steven Tyler and Lenny Kravitz, granted, we have a totally cool relationship, she is very open minded, and she pretty much keeps my freaky self taken care of. Still all the pictures of guys on her site made me want to play catch-up!!!!!! Enjoy honey.

Katrina

This is a picture taken by a New Orleans traffic cam, I don't know if you can see ei but the speed is 133 mph, insane!!!

brainsyke

This post is for brainsyke and everybody else also but check out this link. http://www.dragondoor.com/
This sight has a bunch of workout info from powelifting, bodybuilding, kettlebells, bodyweight excsrsizes, ect something in there might spark your interest. The guy who wrights most of the books is a former Soviet Union "spetznas" or special forces trainer. he knows his stuff.http://www.mattfurey.com/
O.k. second link is to a guy who is a combat athlete, so he needs to be in shape and strong to stay alive, he does almost totally bodyweight exercizes, some of his stuff gets a little weird, but his training regimen is incredible. Good luck hope, you find something in here you enjoy.

motivation

Me and a buddy O' mine up in Northern California in like 2000 or 2001 gack when I was about 225, ( he has always been in shape.....jerk), just posted his for my own motvation, I remember how good I felt on that trip.........

Weird Item #2

o.k. here goes, if you are easily offended don't go to this site. The only reason I mention it is that there are a few people who visit my site who seem to be really cool, non-judgemental, and very christian people. I have no desire to offend them as they have been very nice to me, all you other sickos click away and let me know the results.http://meatspin.com/. trailady and Deb don't go here, I really don't want to offend you!!!!! Royce

weird stuff

So this is me, goofing around at a breast cancer benifit that a buddy o' mine held. Obviously I was hamming it up, I'm about 280 in the pic, I don't like having my picture taken at this weight so I use humor as a sheild, everybody says " look at that dude, sure he's overweight but he is so jolly " well I will post my pic again when I am down to 180!!! ( and I will still be jolly, but everybody will call it FUNNY then ).

Ephedra

O.K. not really a long post, just a warning, I have taken ephedra for a few years off and on again, and let me tell you something the stuff flat works.
I would loose weight and keep it off, then gradually fall back into my old habits and gain weight, workout take ephedra the loose the weight again.
I used to work at a lab and had my heart enzymes drawn, perfectly normal.
So I am on my little fitness quest again and so I pop a few ephedra and go workout, well yesterday I developed a HUGE rash over all of my body, it was also a day after I started to eat almost totally organic foods, so I figured I ate something I was allergic to, I have several plant allergies and I was drinking a juice that had wheat grass and spirulina in it.
The rash was so bad it was under the calluse on my hands and feet and itched like hell, so I said no more juice drink, took some benedryl and got better.
Today almost no rash at all, my whole body was better, went one a 2 or 3 mile walk with my wife and dogs, popped an ephedra before the walk by the time I got back I was on fire no itching this time burning.
My body is rebelling it won't let me do anything unhealthy anymore, getting older sucks

These are kettlebells, I believe the biggest one is an 88 pounder, then 70, then 53, 35, and last a 26 pounder.
They have way more variety than dumbells, because of the shape. And because you do some balistic lifts with them and it is a very thick handle your grip strength is severely taxed.
Now are they better for putting on mass than barbells and dumbells, NO WAY , you will never see a kettlebell only practitioner who is massive.
Another draw back is they don't lend themselves well to pectorial training, long considered a sign of athletic performance in this country, Every guy in the gym has been asked, or has asked, " how much ya' bench", If you were to say two 32 kilo kettlebells for ten sets of 5, people would look at you like you just said, " Hey, I think Osama bin Ladin is misunderstood, we should here his side of the story."
Because of the drawbacks of kettlebells most practitioners do cycles of freeweights and kettlebells and get the benifits of both, one of the best benifits is the extremely hard workout it puts on your core, your base of power, even a simple military press fires your core hard, because the weight hangs outside your arm and you have to use your core to balance it.
For me the #1 reason to do them is it is flat FUN, it is way cool to swing a kettlebell, toss it up and try to catch the handle again and do ballistic throws with it. As weird as it sounds I can't put the damn thing down, just sitting in front of the tv, I do some specific grip stuff because it is so fun to play with.
If your training has gotten stale pick one up, trust me it makes you feel like a kid again, when you picked up a rock in the field just to see if you could pick it up!!!!

O.K. kettlebell training

So I am going to post my results on the Web, not because I think everybody wants to know about my fat ass, but because I have to be accountable. If I post it, and people read it, it will help keep me motivated.
Here is the plan m/f/s I am going to follow this plan, jog 1/8 of mile between each of the following exersizes, kettlebell one arm swing l/r 10repsx1, 1 arm kettlebell snatch l/r 10x1, one arm clean and jerk l/r 10x1, underleg pass 10x2, so basicly it is 4 exersizes, done on each side of the body and a one mile run. It is takes its inspiration from boxers roadwork, and trust me its brutal.
On wednesdays I will do a 5x5 program switching exersizes every week (ala, louie simmons of Westside Barbell Club ) for example , one week flat bench 5x5, bent over barbell row 5x5, back squats 5x5, stiff-legged deads 5x5, next week incline bench, lat pulldown to the front, deadlift, good mornings. Same rep scheme as previous week.
Problem # 1, I can't do the cardio, I hover over 280 pounds at 5'8", damn near as big around as I am tall ( a little exaggeration, but you get the point.).
So I have to modify my program a little, I can't get throught the first 1/4 of my cardio workout yet, ( run 1/8 mile, 10 left arm swings, run 1/8 mile 10 right arm swings) I can complete the first 1/8 mile 10 swings and about 50 or 60 yards of the second jog, walk the rest of the way and do the other set of swings, then I wheeze uncontrolably for about 5 minutes, and I don't have asthma. My poor wife stands by with a phone to call 911 she thinks I am going to have a heart attack. She is not the only one!!!!!!
So my first goal is to complete the first 1/4 of the workout, the half, then 3/4 and so on, so I will post my workout when I can do the first 1/4 of the BEGINNER cardio ( damn I am a lard-ass ).
Anyhow, the Wednesday workout will change every 4-6 weeks so they don't get stale, i.e. high reps, dumbell only, x-reps, low reps, multiple single reps, Gotta credit my buddy Doug for this approach, he was a big dude back in the day, and he told me that switching stuff up keeps you fresh, and in fact I was starting to have elbow problems, and I remembered something he told me a long time ago about dropping the load per workout, and doing it more often, so I cut my sets in half on every exersize and did them twice a week, presto no elbow problems.
Untill the next post......Seeee YYAAAAAAA

I am on the World Wide Web..........what the fuck should I say now???

My lovely wife and a damn good buddy of mine have their own blogs and it looks like fun. I am very opiniated about a wide variety of stuff ( wich just means I know just a little about a lot of things), and I am going to give this expressing myself a chance.
All views, all comments, all expressions are allowed here. I love people, I love communication. I tend to have a wierd, dry sense of humor , so if you come across some crazy shit in your daily life let me know about it.
O.k. weird shit #1 I am actually a little sad about this, that there are people who actually need this service, however the wierd part is that thes people take their dolls on group cruises, switch partners ect...............And people say I need help, oh well to each their own. Go to realdoll.com to see what I am talking about
Untill next time SEEEEE YYYAAAAA