tosabarbell

This is an oldie but a goodie. The Dude owns his dancing, I respect that. Happy Weekend.

I like prizes. I like giving them and I like getting them. Prizes could be big or small, it doesn’t matter. They make days fun. I like coffee. A lot. I really like very good coffee. Yesterday was a good day when I was on the receiving end of  prizes consisting of Awesome coffee from my new friend Anne.  Anne’s hubby (Chris) and Bigg train together and she has been involved in endurance sports for a while now. One thing she has never tried was dedicated strength training. So after her latest adorable daughter was born early this year, Anne contacted me and asked for help in getting her going.

The obvious obstacle here was distance. Anne lives in the Milwaukee area and I live in North Texas, aboot 1,018 miles give or take a mile or two. How in the world do I get someone training with very little barbell experience from over 1000 miles away? Between my (at times stern) advice and Chris and Bigg’s hands on coaching and ALL of Anne’s hard work and patience she’s doing quite well. She’s on her way to getting stronger and kicking ass in the gym. Anne is a PT by trade which is helpful and hurtful all wrapped up in one. It’s helpful from a standpoint of her body awareness and kinesthetic sense and hurtful in that she’s used to (at times) isolating how movements feel where we’ve worked on feeling the big lifts as a whole.  She has done amazing and I’m very proud of her. I’m also looking forward to meeting her which feels weird saying after being in such close contact for a couple of months.

I’ll enjoy an awesome pot (or two) of coffee this morning thanks to my coffee prizes!  Thanks Anne, see you soon.

Deadwood quote of the day:

“You can’t slit the throat of everyone whose character it would improve.” – Al Swearengen

A couple of years ago, Jim Wendler was out to WFAC for a Starting Strength Roundtable event and I got a chance to train with him briefly (I was supposed to be working;) During the event, one of my favorite sayings of his was that each of us need to “Pay our Dues” when it comes to training. This resonates with me this week as I’ve dealt with a few impatient folks (yes, you know who you are) who have felt some frustration that they’re not picking up the barbell lifts as fast as they “feel” they should.

For some reason, barbell training brings the “I WANT IT NOW” out of people. I’ve coached some sports teams and athletes up to this point and learning the foundations of the sport was an acceptable part of training. Why is it that barbell training is different? Is it because we’re older and have forgotten the importance of batting practice? You know, that part where we started Little League and they took us out to the plate and we hit three out of thirty pitches? And then we did it again the next week? And the next? Eventually, most of us got pretty good at this thing they called Batting Practice.

Dudes. Being a novice lifter is the same idea. You learn the foundations first and then practice them. Over. And over. And over. If you have a strength coach that’s worth a shit to help you out, good for you. Be patient. If you don’t and are learning strictly from video’s or books, you are on your way. Be patient. We all start from the same point, just at different times in our lives. Be patient.

As long as you’re training, YBF (if you don’t know what YBF is, it’s a very powerful medicine originating in the Pacific Northwest and will show up here often.) Don’t skip batting practice, it’s the fun part. It’s where we get to screw up for a while only because we don’t know better. Have fun!

 The Foo Fighters are my favorite. They’ve paid their dues; they’ve walked through the standard fires of band battles; and they give a shit about their product. They have fun; they work hard; they strive to be a little bit better each time out…sound familiar? A lot like us in the gym. We do the work, we pay our dues, and we try to be a little bit better. We just don’t make millions doing it, most of us don’t anyway.

This song in particular has a personal meaning, as music tends to do. I’m not a fan of the video but the words are special because they make me think of someone near and dear to my heart. Nuff said. I believe the FF are to be in Chicago this summer and it’s already shaping up to be a busy one so I don’t know if we’ll make that show. But seeing them live is on the bucket list so it’ll happen at some point. Until then, I’ll appreciate their work and enjoy the music.