tosabarbell

Growing up, my parents (mom mostly, pops when he could) set a good example on how to support the kids (us) at our sporting events. It was not uncommon for Ma to sit in a pool area for two hours at one of my meets; go on to football practice for my brother; and finish the day at my Lil sister’s dance class. If I wasn’t in the pool, then it was expected that I was watching that football game or attempting not to laugh at the chaos of 25 six year olds tap dancing across a floor in unison. It’s called support, and it was instilled in us pretty early.

I started thinking about this after reading an article on how NY Jets center Nick Mangold (above with Holley) is choosing not to miss the first couple days of training camp to watch his sister Holley lift in the Olympics in London later this summer in person. First off, know this now, I’m not judging. I honestly don’t care. It just inspired a stroll down memory lane on how giving support to family members (extended family too) was expected.

It’s one thing I’m enjoying about Bigg’s family. Even without the draw of NYC, they’re still planning on coming to Reno to support him at America’s Strongest Man. Even without understanding a lot about his training or competing at this level, they still support him, no questions asked. It’s also why I harp constantly on the older twins to support the Oz man when they can…because there were days he sat in his little car carrier deal for 4+ hours watching their various shit while staying within a two mile radius of home. Poor kid.

It’s nothing now for the cousins to run to a hockey or ball game and watch each other and it makes us old folks happy. So ya, stop being so busy and go take in your nephew’s t-ball game. I know, it’s hot and sticky outside and t-ball is boring as hell. But he’ll remember you were there and you’ll probably go for ice cream after the game. Win/win.

*****UPDATE: Nick Mangold made the jaunt across the pond to watch his sister lift. She did great and we all look forward to 2016 to see how far she goes. Pretty cool.*******

Happy Hump Day.

The last month has been filled with travel; a move; more travel; and more travel. Because of that, both Bigg and I have been making do with our training and it’s time to refocus and get our programming straight. Funny enough, he came home from work yesterday and had already spent some thought on the subject (yup, we’re cute that way.)

His training obviously has to have more focus due to his competitions coming up in August so he’s returning to a template that’s worked well for him in the past. He’s tweaked 5-3-1 to push himself harder in the gym and make gains that still allows for work travels that will inevitably come but won’t derail his progress.

My programming has taken an unexpected turn with my back tweak last week but I’ll be fine by next week. I’ll go back to a program Rip wrote up for me years ago where I squat twice a week, press (each form) once a week, and pull three times a week. The olympic lifts are in that template so I’ll tweak that a bit until I get a women’s bar. This will give me a chance  to focus on getting my strength base back to what it was prior to the packing/move gig and make gains from there. I’m hoping to take the time compete in some Highland/Highlander games this summer but I need to get my back on track first.

I also need to focus on embracing my new community. It’s something I didn’t do when I moved to Texas, I just showed up and went right to work without taking time to acclimate to the new digs. So I was determined I’d do that here. Instead, I spend most of my days trying to find places to put stuff so I can continue unpacking along with the work to  make a house that hasn’t had any TLC for quite some time feel like home. So I’m going to refocus on that goal and venture out more.

But it’s ucky out again, so my venturing out will include somewhere with air conditioning. Heh.