Comback Compilation

Yes, That Good!!!

What’s up guys, I am way late on getting this updated but a few posts back I started to explain to you how I was getting myself back into shape after a good few months off from training.  Well that phase is over with now and I am back in the gym full time and feeling good, I am not back full strength yet but I do feel strong again.

This is a wonderful feeling, it makes you realize how important it is to keep yourself strong and conditioned.  Being strong just feels so damn good, everything is easier from moving around to picking up my kids as well as the extra energy and confidence.

Those are the real reasons for lifting weights and trying to get as strong as possible, not to be a fake tough guy or attention hog.  The side effects I mentioned above should make you consider getting back into the game or just getting in the game at all.

I am an ex college athlete and a lot of guys/ girls I know or have talked to call it quits with training once their sports careers are over.  It is so bad sometimes that when they are telling you how sick they were in high school or college you can barely believe that they were ever in good enough shape to play a sport. 

I was the MAN in '96

Their attitude is “I put in all that time busting my ass for sports my whole life that I am going to take it easy now”.  And all that drinking and eating they are used to being able to handle when they were active in sport starts to catch up real fast.  Now it may not show up right away when you are in your early to mid-20s but the effects will be right around the corner.  Once the effect show up the bad habits are already formed and it is tough to break them.

Now when it gets hard they may start thinking about how their parents gained weight and feel like crap all the time and that must be the way life is supposed to go.  That’s bullshit too many people settle for that and it is no way to live your one and only life.

Not me I want to always be in better shape than my sons, so now not only strength and condition are important to me but more than ever my health and the way I eat is a huge priority.  I am still learning all the aspects of true health freaks and the best things to eat but I am on the way and looking to make it a full lifestyle change.

Now back to the comeback phase as I am calling it, the whole thing lasted about a month and it was far from perfect and not everything I laid out ahead of time was done.  But that is fine because at the end I accomplished what I wanted to with this phase.  I was able to start building strength again in a safe and effective manner.

Some of the things that made me veer off course a few times was the face that it was the middle of the holiday season and the fact that we got a blizzard once a week for about a month.  And I have no snow blower so that means good old fashion shoveling.

 Every week after the first I only actually had a training session once a week because of the snow.  I was getting such a good work out from shoveling that it would be silly to push it too much. 

So I treated shoveling like I was training and sometimes I had no choice because I had to toss snow over a pile just about as tall as me.  Now this only flew because of how much snow we get in such a short period of time, most winters the shoveling is not nearly as bad so do not use shoveling as an excuse to not train when you know you can.

But the fact that I had to change things up and still had success is an important lesson.  Number one is life is not perfect and we have to adjust often to be successful.  And number two is to listen to your body, my back and legs were fried after shoveling a lot of these days.  So I could have said to myself stop being a pussy and train, but the fact of the matter was I was smart about it. 

Even though I was only training once a week for the last 3 weeks all my reps and weights were going up and I would have a little extra pep in my step each session.  Progress in the weight room can be a very hard thing to come by some times, so if it’s not broke don’t fix it. 

So instead of showing you each of my sessions and breaking down my reps and sets I am just going to show you a highlight reel of all the movements I did throughout the phase.  You will see similar movements with different objects.  And again this was all done in my basement with little equipment and sometimes my son running around as well. 

So please enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

Stay Strong