Awesome pics brother… good lookin’ kids, great dogs too. You are one thick son of a gun eh?!
The little guy in the middle… holy crap, you could call him “mini me” he even has the same smile as you!
Hope everything works out in the “drama” department. These forums are a good place to vent, and get advice. Guaranteed someone on here has gone through/ is going through the same thing.
Keep liftin’… use the bullshit/ stress to get you stoked in the gym.
Welcome Pete
another big strong dude… very regimented lifting, nice work ethic.
and yes nice big numbers.
good looking dogs.
When My life gets pear shaped, I tend to do well in the gym
kmc
DAy off work to attend to drama. Had normal breakfast of eggs, lean organic ham, w/peppers, onions and a little cheese. Then driving all over the place to attend to said drama. Drama is mostly resolved. I may post a discription later. (Thanks for the support Bunny). I did have my gym bag with me, and made it to the gym at about 1:30. Drama doesn’t stop me, the gym is my temple in a sense, it is where I go to make sense of everything else. I know I am sounding a little Dave Tate-ish there. So be it.
DE Bench: 215 + monster minis, 9 sets of 3, varied grips, all real fast
Rack lock outs 275 x 5, 315 x 5, 365 x 5, 405 x 3 Getting the hang of these, 40lb PR over last week
DB Inclines 3 x 10 w/100s
Nose breakers 115 x 20, 165 x 10, 185 x 8
Laterals 45s x 15, 50s x 12, 55s x 8
Blood sugar crash, hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Grabbed a $5 Mass Recovery, now eating a salad w/chicken, to be followed by a 100 gram shake just to get me back in line. Ribeyes on the grill tonight. And maybe some adult beverages. Tomorrow I pull, so not too many.
[quote]bunny7568 wrote:
Awesome pics brother… good lookin’ kids, great dogs too. You are one thick son of a gun eh?!
The little guy in the middle… holy crap, you could call him “mini me” he even has the same smile as you!
Hope everything works out in the “drama” department. These forums are a good place to vent, and get advice. Guaranteed someone on here has gone through/ is going through the same thing.
Keep liftin’… use the bullshit/ stress to get you stoked in the gym.[/quote]
Thanks for the support. The little one is my mini me. He has more hair now, but my look a like and partner in crime.
Time for my digression on training and stress.
5 years ago I was training for a strong man event. It was to be my first one. I still haven’t done one. One day doing deadlifts with straps something went wrong around the 500lb mark. Didn’t think nothing of it and finished my workout. Two days later I went to squat, and event at 225 something felt wrong. I am bull headed, so kept going, but when I finished my set with 525 I was bent over in agony. I had this older powerlifter that I will call Crazy Mike, about 5 foot 7 260 lbs spotting me. He took one look at me and said ‘bulged disk’. Trip to the the doctor and chiropractor confirmed his gym diagnosis.
Two weeks later I went to vacation with my wife and then 14 year old son (from a previous relationship) and my parents in Florida. I was in a lot of pain still throughout the trip. However, I found a Gold’s Gym 5 minutes away. I trained a few times that week still. On the 5th day of our vacation my father, who had been on dialysis (due to PKD) for several years slipped into renal failure. We got him to the hospital, I made sure everything was okay, and still made it to that Gold’s Gym.
In the last year, I have had an older sister pass away due to cancer, have had a severe pay cut (no overtime, no bonuses), nearly lost my older son due to an episode involving alcohol and sleeping pills, have taken in a foster child, have lost foster child because that whole system is run by a bunch of low payed, unenthused idiots, have contintued to raise my son who will be 3 in August, and enjoy every eff’ing moment with him, and have not missed one single training session.
I will type some more regarding the foster child, which is some of the current drama, later.
Ahhhhh, St. Bernard. That explains the 280lb dog, I had one as a kid growing up in Chicago, they’re very cool.
Great pics Pete! I guess I should stop complaining about some of my stress related issues.
Got to sleep in today, did yard work, grocery shopping, then trained. Felt a little fatigued from the yard work so kept it simple.
Deadlifts: Plan was to do 250kg for 5. Wasn’t in the mood for cardio, lol, so did 260kg (575 essentially) for 3, 10kg/22lb pr over two weeks ago. Felt I had one or two more in the tank too.
GMs, wide stance, worked up to 405 for 5.
Shrugs. 315 for 15, 405 for 10, 495 for 10, 585 for 10, 635 for 3, lost my grip. Want to get up to 675 for 10 reps, at least once. That is when I will know my grip and my dl are bullet proof.
Was going to do some single legged quad work, but my quads were sore until yesterday from squat session. Figured I would give them a break.
Back extensions, weighted, 4 x 10
Seated calves 4 x 20
Standing calves 1 x drop set
Then it was nearly the cut off for the childcare at the gym, and felt done anyway.
Me and my son then went to Menard’s, where I picked up various gardening supplies as well as a few 2 x 6’s. Gonna make some boards for board pressing, time to get this lock out issue resolved.
[quote]daddyzombie wrote:
Ahhhhh, St. Bernard. That explains the 280lb dog, I had one as a kid growing up in Chicago, they’re very cool.
Great pics Pete! I guess I should stop complaining about some of my stress related issues.[/quote]
whereabouts in Chi-town did you grow up DZ? Lived there after college, and it is where my wife is from. Spend a lot of time there. Actually we do the Chicago ‘vacation’ trip to Michigan pretty often.
[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
Welcome Pete
another big strong dude… very regimented lifting, nice work ethic.
and yes nice big numbers.
good looking dogs.
When My life gets pear shaped, I tend to do well in the gym
kmc[/quote]
Hey KMC, thanks for the support.
PeteS - your drama trumps my drama, and I had one of the worst days of my life today. I also had one of the best days. After my lifting session (after working yet another Saturday) I sat out in the back yard sipping a beer (well, a “couple” of beers) and looking up at the neighbor’s pine tree.
There must be well over a dozen branches broken off of that tree from heavy snow storms, etc. But, it is still not only living, but thriving. If you haven’t had a few branches broken off, I reckon you ain’t really lived yet.
Hang in there, brother!
Since I started talking about the drama, I will post an update. As noted above, my wife and I took in a foster child this past winter for about 6 weeks. This child is actually my second cousin. My cousin, his mother, apparently had a substance abuse problem and an abusive boyfriend. We kept her boy for 6 weeks until the social workers said she had made the correct steps to reuinite with the mother. Yeah right.
Well apparently since then things have not been a gravy train for this little boy that we have come to love. And now the state is reliquinshing all rights of the mother. How much does a mother have to fuck up to lose rights to her kid??? a lot is the answer.
My wife and I were approached whether or not we wanted to permanantly adopt the child. Pros and cons went on. We both work full time. He needs 100 percent attention we know. Etc.
Well, my uncle, who, on the bad ass scale, rates 120, with 100 being max, has decided, at the age of 65, to play daddy again. This is a man who has one of the highest confirmed kill rates from Vietnam, and then went on to get a Literary degree and publish novels, work as a cowboy, mercenary etc. He is taking his grandson, whose mother was a ‘lovechild’, and going to raise him. He and I spent most of yeaterday with lawyers, etc. to get everything in order. The process will take a few months but it is a done deal.
So now my second cousin/former foster child will have a good upbringing, and I will know his progress, and be there when he needs me. And my son will get to visit the guy who was his ‘brother’ for a couple of months.
Visited family this a.m., took little boy swimming. Man, my eating always turns to crap on Sundays in the summer. Trip to Home Depot to pick up tiller. This particular Home Depot has a Chicago style hot dog stand in the front of it. One Chi dog with everything, and an icy cold, sugary Coca Cola.
Now to go bust by butt in the yard. The dandelions will not win this year!
By the way, feel like I got run over by a semi from yesterdays session.
Pete a belated welcome, nice work on your young cousin,
do you have a specific goal with your new log (one that I have obviously missed…blame tirednes, age in law birthday party - yawn - etc. etc)??
amother comp on the horizon…
[quote]GMH454 wrote:
Pete a belated welcome, nice work on your young cousin,
do you have a specific goal with your new log (one that I have obviously missed…blame tirednes, age in law birthday party - yawn - etc. etc)??
amother comp on the horizon…[/quote]
Looking to do a push/pull August 1st. However, the meet dues are really steep for this one, so if that doesn’t pan out there is an old fashioned, unsanctioned, backyard YMCA meet that same day for next to nothing… either way.
Note to self: When you are of Scottish and Norwegian stock, and it is a beautiful 80 degree day, and you plan to spend the whole day outside, please where sunblock. My big bald head is already pealing, and my shoulders are scorched. No way in hell am I going to do shirted bench work today, plus haven’t heard from my Monday night training partner in over a week, so I am planning on reverse bands over lunch.
Yesterday got about 4 hours of ‘conditioning’ work in, between mowing, spreading weed and feed, vacumming up ‘helicopters’ from the maples, tilling my whole back yard, etc.
Nice training… and steppin’ up to the plate for your cuz.
Wife and I took in a young fella 6 years ago who was going through some “stuff”, and raised him like we were raising our 2 boys. He graduated 2 weeks ago from the Military Firefighter Academy is is posted to an Air Base in Western Canada as a firefighter. Kid has come a hell of a long way, but it was worth it after all the trials and tribulations. Made me proud, and afterwards gave the wife and I a real nice letter… adressed to “mom” and “dad”. Damn near made me shed a tear…
Looks like your GPP/ conditioning work is also determined by the bride’s “Honey Dew List”? I know mine is… “Honey, can you do this… Honey, can you do that…”
[quote]bunny7568 wrote:
Nice training… and steppin’ up to the plate for your cuz.
Wife and I took in a young fella 6 years ago who was going through some “stuff”, and raised him like we were raising our 2 boys. He graduated 2 weeks ago from the Military Firefighter Academy is is posted to an Air Base in Western Canada as a firefighter. Kid has come a hell of a long way, but it was worth it after all the trials and tribulations. Made me proud, and afterwards gave the wife and I a real nice letter… adressed to “mom” and “dad”. Damn near made me shed a tear…
Looks like your GPP/ conditioning work is also determined by the bride’s “Honey Dew List”? I know mine is… “Honey, can you do this… Honey, can you do that…”[/quote]
Yes, that never ending list…
Dragged my sunburned, still tired body to train. I have a theory: when you aren’t into it 100%, make sure to get one ‘pr’.
As noted above, with the severe sunburn there was no way I was going to put the shirt on. What I did was torturous enough:
Reverse band bench: 135 x 20, 225 x 15, 315 x 5, 365 x 5, 405 x 5, 455 x 3, 495 x 3. PR
Then I felt yesterdays labor kick in, everything else was a grind:
DB Bench 105s x 12, 130s x 8, 6
Dips bwt x 15, 45 x 10, 90 x 10, 135 x 5
pressdowns 4 x 10 - 20, last two full stack plus mini band behind back
machine shoulder press, neutral grip 6 x 10-15, true RE style, about 40 seconds rest between sets
Precor ab machine, 6 x 20 with full stack, this thing was useless, never us it again
Had an error trying to post training, will try again.
Feeling sunburnt and like hamburger. When you feel like this you should just focus on one good PR.
Reverse band bench 135 x 20, 225 x 15, 315 x 5, 365 x 5, 405 x 5, 455 x 3, 495 x 3 PR
dumbell bench 105s x 12, 130s x 8, 130s x 6
Dips bwt x 15, 45 x 10, 90 x 10, 135 x 5 (ugly)
pressdowns 5 sets, last two full stack plus mini band behind back for 10 or 12 reps
Machine press, neutral grip 5 x 10-15, RE style with short rest
Precor ab machine 5 x 20, full stack, this machine is useless