A Middle Aged Adolescent (who cannot possibly be the only one)

[Nunedog]

In the Summer of 1979, when I was a skinny, little rising sophomore in high school hoping I would somehow become a big, strapping lad, I went to football camp, where legendary Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert taught a handful of us how to shed a blocker. This remains high on the list of incredible moments in my life, even though, strangely enough, I didn’t appreciate it at the time. This was despite being a rabid Steeler fan. Lambert, ferocious yet light at 220 pounds, was the patron saint of skinny kids who brought little more than enthusiasm to the field. Meeting him in person, however, as he gestured for all of us to come close so he could explain how to club an offensive lineman - exactly the way he really did it in games - was more than I bargained for.
There were no greetings, words of encouragement, or reflections on character. It was time for purely brutal reality. Lambert was all business, briefing us as if this were the bin Laden hit or the Dallas Cowboys had the ball on third and goal late in the game. It was just a simple fact, he explained, that if a guard was coming to block you, you had to seize the initiative and take him out before he expected the hit. When I glanced around to see who else was feeling in over their head, Lambert barked at me, ‘Hey! Are you paying attention?’

I made it to my young friend’s football practice the other day. It was well organized, with the team divided into drills all around the field. The coaches were professional, with no raised voices, and the players went through their paces smoothly, sure of what they were doing. I saw no one there who did not belong. There were certainly smaller kids; the entire varsity, JV, and freshman program comprised probably 80 or more players.
I stayed for one hour out of two. The coaches were leading them through a progression of skills. Backs caught passes while linemen pushed a sled. Then came some blocking and running schemes for both the starting offense and defense as they faced scout teams. Receivers ran pass routes while defensive backs practiced coverages, separately at first and then against one another. The defensive backs hit blocking pads and tackled dummies. Linemen squared up for one-on-one or two-on-one hitting drills. The groups around the field gradually combined until full 11-on-11 squads were facing off at the line of scrimmage.

After a few decades of strength training and Judo, I completely understand the principle Lambert was trying to convey, as well as the fact that at the time I was in no position to grasp it, let alone use it as such a little stripling.
Lambert would take on blockers - and occasionally ball carriers - by leading with a forearm strike a split second before their bodies collided. The key was in his very last step, where he’d have his legs flexed and hips behind him. From there he’d explode upward, accelerating both his body with his legs and his forearm relative to the rest of him, to deliver a surprisingly powerful shot. If Lambert’s right forearm did the clubbing, his left hand would come up at the same time in a palm-heel type of uppercut, striking low on a player’s chest. The lower the better, he told us. If you can get both arms under the edges of the shoulder pads, it’ll knock the guy up and backwards.
It’s still astonishing that Lambert confided to us one of the secrets that made him a Hall of Fame player, the very way he could take on players far larger as well as maintain the separation he needed to spot and pursue the ball carrier.

My God - it just now occurs to me after all these years that he probably spotted us as a particularly pathetic group and wanted to do us a favor.
I bring all this up because I did see a few kids who could have used a little Lambert on the field the other day.

Two drills caught my eye at practice. In the first, defensive backs had to backpedal and move laterally, mirroring the motions of a coach acting as quarterback. At a whistle, they then had to charge forward, get past a blocker, and tackle a big, cylindrical dummy. The blocker was a coach with a shield styled pad on his arm. He’d veer into the players’s path, forcing the defenders to ward him off quickly in order to get to the ball carrier - or dummy.
Some kids were better at this than others. The small kids, the freshmen or sophomores who haven’t spent any time in a weight room, knew nothing about loading their bodies to drive through the hit. They’d push at the pad with their hands or slap at it as they tried to run by. The coach let a few of these slide, but then he leaned into the pad in one case and sent the kid sprawling. ‘Come on, now! Get up and hit me with your whole body! That’s the way!’

The other interesting drill was the one-on-ones or two-on-ones among the linemen. At a whistle, the players would drive out of their three-point stances, collide in classic fashion, and battle over who could move whom five or six feet backward. The clashes were over in seconds.
Without exception - and it didn’t matter who was bigger or smaller - the clear winner was the player who hit his opponent low, getting his hands beneath the numbers on the other guy’s chest. I was surprised by how many guys flew up out of their stances and spent their time upright, pushing at one another’s shoulder pads. Those matches were prolonged, often without clear winners. Occasionally, though, somebody would be low - or late - and only get their hands halfway up their opponent’s body - but they would drive him back like a champion.
The coaches knew this, even if they hadn’t gotten the point across. One player was having a hard time, so the coach stopped the drill. I could see him explaining this precisely: elbows in, hands up, legs flexed; hit him low. The kid dropped into a stance for the next round and killed his opponent, but even after that guys weren’t getting the idea.
It would seem that people have forgotten the idea behind the three point stance. The best leverage is from below, which is why you’re getting down there in the first place.

I wonder what Jack Lambert thought after that drill that day, whether he knew we were neither physically ready for whole bodied mechanics nor emotionally capable of the aggression that accompanies it. Still, his heart was in the right place.
Where would be the best place to teach that kind of hitting? Maybe it’s not on the field. I’d put a BOB dummy or blocking sled somewhere near the weight room during the off-season. ‘Do you guys see the principle here, how we’re extending just like in a squat or a deadlift?’ I’d say. ‘Now, watch this: I want you to try something with your forearm.’

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 8/20/18 3 sets of 5 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5) Tom 367.5 JC : 165
2. Press (3x5) Tom 175 JC: 82.5
3. Deadlift (1x5) 445 second session JC 230

4. 3 sets heavy pull ups
5. Seated Partial PRESSES (#5-down, close holes) 177.5+ (#1 top range )
180 (#4 top range) 182.5 JC - dips
6. barbell curls: 3 sets
7. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. JC: Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets 132.5
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 265, 315, 355
2. Bench Press: (3x5) Tom: 252.5 JC: 117.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 267.5, 230 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 525
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 330 JC: 150
2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 157.5 JC: 75
3. Romanian Deadlifts 3x5 Tom 380, 382.5x2 JC 147.5

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 3 sets of partial bench presses holes (- 4 -8 -12) . . . . 260+, 285+, 340+
JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 3 sets 5-6 curls
7. abs: T-bar sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

I managed a strict 200-pound seated press in my rack work Monday, which earned me a wan, ‘That’s nice,’ from the wife and a slightly more sincere, ‘Like I care,’ from the 14-year old. 200 is only five or ten pounds away from bodyweight; when I hit that milestone in the weeks ahead, I’ll just have to crack open a private Guinness. Pride, not glory, I have to remind myself.

The little 14-year old wretch is starting high school this week, which makes this a time of nervous anticipation, a school dance already this Friday, and new opportunities. The one-time Tennis Girl and Rowing Girl has to decide what she wants to get involved in, and as the coaches and teachers wave us along the driveway each morning when I drop her off, I find myself hoping the right kind of people are on the job.

At the University of Maryland, the Board of Regents has assumed control of an investigation into the death of 19-year old Jordan McNair, a football player who suffered heatstroke during a conditioning test. They are also investigating the entire football program in the wake of a damning ESPN report. Head coach DJ Durkin was placed on administrative leave, as were other athletic staff members. Strength coach Rick Court, who has drawn much of the focus in this case, has resigned.

From the ESPN report:
“Over the past several weeks, two current Maryland players, multiple people close to the football program, and former players and football staffers spoke to ESPN about the culture under Durkin, particularly strength and conditioning coach Rick Court, who was one of Durkin's first hires at Maryland in 2015. Among what they shared about the program:
-There is a coaching environment based on fear and intimidation. In one example, a player holding a meal while in a meeting had the meal slapped out of his hands in front of the team. At other times, small weights and other objects were thrown in the direction of players when Court was angry.
-The belittling, humiliation and embarrassment of players is common. In one example, a player whom coaches wanted to lose weight was forced to eat candy bars as he was made to watch teammates working out.
-Extreme verbal abuse of players occurs often. Players are routinely the targets of obscenity-laced epithets meant to mock their masculinity when they are unable to complete a workout or weight lift, for example. One player was belittled verbally after passing out during a drill.
-Coaches have endorsed unhealthy eating habits and used food punitively; for example, a player said he was forced to overeat or eat to the point of vomiting.”

Officials are investigating whether this manner of coaching contributed to negligence in handling the on-field collapse of the player who eventually died.

Around the same time, this news was breaking in THE WASHINGTON POST: “More than 300 Catholic priests across Pennsylvania sexually abused children over seven decades, protected by a hierarchy of church leaders who covered it up, according to a sweeping grand jury report released Tuesday.
The investigation, one of the broadest inquiries into church sex abuse in U.S. history, identified 1,000 children who were victims, but reported that there probably are thousands more.
“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the grand jury wrote in its report.

Just as the priests were bent on self gratification, Maryland’s football coaches appear concerned mainly with self justification, and preservation, at their players’ expense. Another critical fact has come to the fore: since strength coaches customarily maintain contact with players throughout the off-season, they play a dominant role in the lives of athletes.
That was the problem in Pennsylvania. Men who played dominant roles in the lives of young people betrayed those relationships with a hidden allegiance to a conspiratorial, ritualistic cult - and that’s not a crack about the everyday Catholic Church. Some of the abuse detailed in the report includes unholy child-sex ceremonies among groups of priests, as well as networks of extensive aiding and abetting.
THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that, “in college football especially, the strength coaches are typically hired — and fired — by the head coach, with little or no oversight by an athletic administration official.“ Of coach Court, “he’s the most important hire I’ve made,” Durkin told SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Court embodied this dual role, having prolonged contact with young athletes yet serving an entirely different master.

I’m all in favor of coaches having high standards - provided they can enable their athletes to meet them. For example, suppose a coach has decided that all players should have a 200-300-400-500. Presuming he knows his technique, programming, and rest intervals, and possesses the interpersonal skills to handle intangibles like motivation or raising expectations, everyone should be off to the races. However, if people aren’t making those lifts, or if the deadline for doing so is ridiculous, the selfish choice the coach might make, whether his job or ego is on the line, is to convince the kids the shortcoming is their fault. Their motivation level becomes the focus.
Worse than that would be the coach with no clear standards and no clear means of achieving any anyway. Their sole emphasis would be on demanding a maximal intensity of effort everyday. We can now add self gratification to the factors at play, since this points to a tyrant stomping and screaming around his weight room.

“Court . . . seemed to personify the fire-breathing, helmet-smacking, iron-fisted drill instructor, his head shaved bare, whistle dangling from his neck. He spoke often about juice, or energy, and his catchphrase “excessive juice” — or what is required upon entering the weight room — became a team motto at Maryland.” according to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
From ESPN: "He's just a ball of testosterone all the time," one current player said. "He's really in your face. He'll call you [expletives], he'll challenge you in the weight room. He'll put more weight on the bar than you can do, ever done in your life, and expect you to do it multiple times. He'll single people out he doesn't like, which is a common practice here. Guys are run off. They'll have them . . . do harder workouts or more workouts just to make their lives miserable here. He's kind of Durkin's tool to accomplish that. He's the guy people hate, and that way Durkin doesn't have to take the blow for it. Guys can't stand Coach Court." (Bolding is mine)

The sadism befitting a cabal of priests makes for a substantial ESPN article. After descriptions of further abuse and intimidation - including Court’s heaving collapsed athletes back to their feet to continue running - the piece goes on to say, “Players and other sources close to the team said Durkin and Court were aligned in all elements surrounding workouts and strength training.
"They're joined at the hip," one source said. "They're the same. They use the same language and the same classification."
Added a current player: "They usually target and pick a couple people they think are soft and go after them. ... [Durkin and Court] feed off of each other. I would say Court is as much responsible for the culture as Durkin."
A former staff member said Court is Durkin's "confidant."

The most striking concept in this entire spectacle is the realization that strength coaches spend so much time with their athletes. In my case it was all school year long - and quite often the young people who turn to strength coaches need a little guidance in a broader sense. This is quite the responsibility.
The trauma of sexual violence is infinitely greater than that from cruelty in a gym or on a playing field, but the dynamics are the same, namely the taking advantage of those in a lesser position and supplanting generosity with cruelty.
Rick Court was named Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches association in 2016. Approached by THE NEW YORK TIMES concerning this story, they wanted nothing to do with a Vatican flavored scandal and refused comment. If they’ve given this any thought, they’re probably not excited to see their highest qualification linked to such brutality and incompetence.

Court is probably pondering his next move. He has several to make, the first of which is a visit to the grave of Jordan McNair.

[Nunedog]

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 8/27/18 3 sets of 2 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2) Tom 405 JC : 180
2. Bench Press (3x2) Tom 285 JC: 120
3. Deadlift (1x2) 500 second session JC 240

4. 3 sets heavy pull ups
5. Seated Partial PRESSES (#5-down, close holes) 180+
(#1 top range ) 182.5 (#4 top range) 185 JC - dips
6. barbell curls: 3 sets
7. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 145
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 267.5, 320, 360
2. Press: (3x2) Tom: 195 JC: 87.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 267.5, 230 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 535
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 365 JC: 162.5
2. Bench Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 257.5 JC: 107.5
3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5 Tom 382.5 JC 147.5, 150, 147.5

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 3 sets of partial bench presses holes (- 4 -8 -12) . . . . 260+, 285+, 340+
JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 3 sets 5-6 curls
7. abs: T-bar sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

Over the weekend, I exchanged e-mails with my old high school weightlifting coach. ‘Did you hear about that scandal at the University of Maryland?’ I asked. [This was the subject of my piece last week.]
He has 40-plus years’ experience in encounters with football coaches. In the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, that kind of rough treatment was more or less the expectation, he said, since many of the coaches were World War Two and Korean War veterans. Practices in many ways were a ‘watered down’ version of military training.
Though retired for a few years, he was back at school not long ago for a reception, he told me. The football coaches ‘talked about the need to teach the kids how to be winners and the need to toughen them up.’ Coach found himself compelled to respond.

First, however, I’m sympathetic to the challenges coaches face, particularly on the high school level. Some weeks ago, I wrote that maybe a summer filled with on-field drills is a better choice than strength training. Coaches have years of lost outdoor play to make up for, in terms of basic athleticism, and the larger the group, the lesser the rewards reaped in the weight room, experience seems to show.
The coach’s nightmare must be two fold: physically the team is manhandled at the line of scrimmage, and mentally the kids’ will to win - even to be there - is destroyed. The team is slaughtered as he watches helplessly. Preparing for a season is a huge task. It has to start mentally, the coach thinks, with the guts and desire to put in weeks of hard work. There must be nothing scarier for a coach to behold at the beginning of practice season than a lot of soft bodies and innocent expressions.
So what are we waiting for, they think. We have to get to work on these little creme puffs.

My objections to the coaches’ concerns are based on the language and faulty narrative logic involved, speaking as a one-time English teacher. ‘Teaching kids to be winners,’ and ‘toughening them up,’ certainly sound like good ideas, but in and of themselves, they contain no clear goals or means of reaching them. The phrases have no meaning. Therefore, they’re open to interpretation, which can mean abuse along the lines of what happened in Maryland.
The second problem is that in ‘toughening kids up,’ the idea that a trial by ordeal will forge skilled, capable players is very poor logic. It’s a lazy construction of a story, the stuff of ROCKY movies: we see our heroes push themselves to the ends of their abilities. They display sheer tenacity - and we’re expected to believe that this is enough to master all the skills and strengths necessary to win in the ring or on the field.
It’s a shortcut that completely skips the nuts and bolts of actual training - but too many coaches think this is a perfectly valid progression.

Don’t take my word for any of this.
In THE WASHINGTON POST, Sally Jenkins writes, “You know how many kids NCAA football coaches have killed with conditioning drills . . . [since 2001]? Twenty-seven. I say “kill” because that’s what it is when tyrants force captive young men to run themselves to death out of their own outdated fears of weakness. Why is the NCAA tolerating this kill rate, which is unmatched at any other level of football?”
In THE GUARDIAN, Patrick Hruby inventories a number of recent incidents stemming from when “athletes are asked to do too much, too fast, for too long, performing workouts that are untethered from both the sport’s demands and basic principles of exercise science.”
He also goes on to describe what some more enlightened coaches have identified as “Junction Boys Syndrome,’ a reference to the famous – and infamous – preseason training camp held by former Texas A&M University football coach Bear Bryant in 1954 that featured scorching temperatures, punishing, day-long practices and no water breaks. The ordeal was later documented in a book and made into an ESPN movie, and its antiquated, Darwinian attitude toward conditioning – weed out the weak with sadistic workouts, so that the strong can survive and win – remains alive and well today.”

Now, hang on - a book and a movie about Bear Bryant hardening up some players, ‘finding out who really wants to play’, in the savage Texas heat? Yeah, that must be inspiring until you find out that the team went 1 and 9 that season. They got their asses kicked all Fall long by teams that didn’t bother with that nonsense. I’m sure they played to the very edges of their ability, what little they had. The Junction Boys were as brave as any other characters in the movies, but the reality was that Bryant knew nothing about preparing them for football.

Back at the reception this past Summer, my coach’s response to all the talk about toughness and winners was that he didn’t see the importance of winning. A sport is an art, he said, an athlete an artist, and the coach should be teaching finer points and fostering the the athlete’s dedication to perfection. Games represent opportunities for the athlete to do his best and ‘become’ the performance itself.
He was an Eastern Studies teacher, quite literally a Zen practitioner. Way back when in the weight room, he would occasionally toy with the weaker minded among us, informing them that we completely misapprehend time as it truly exists in the universe or dashing off a quick summary of relativity. This was aimed at derailing rowdy behavior, though it sometimes derailed kids’ entire afternoons as well.
With the football coaches, he pressed his case. Teaching each player the art associated with his position should be the focus, he said, as opposed to winning or losing. Being the best tackle possible necessitates extensive training in the weight room and in drills for speed and skills - which, by the way, can include an intelligent level of conditioning. After a game, he explained further, ‘a good coach’ would go to each player and with them assess their performance - this being vital to fostering the athlete’s ownership of his art through the course of the season. Nothing would be left to intangibles like attitude, confidence, or motivation. The last thing a coach should do, he warned, especially after a loss, is tear into them with angry threats.
Despite this more Western explanation, the football coaches remained derailed.

I told him about seeing that local football team in practice and how their linemen were hitting one another too high. They lost their first game, after which the newspaper called the opposition’s line ‘powerful,’ and said this team could not establish any momentum on offense.
If these problems continue, the coaches could start screaming about ‘digging deep’ and playing harder. However, no amount of toughness, real or perceived, is going to make up for a lack of sound technique or strength.
Those coaches back at my old school had things exactly backwards. Strength and skill, hard earned, bring ability, which makes winners. I hope their season goes all right.

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 9/3/18 3 sets of 8 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x8) Tom 330 JC : 147.5
2. Press (3x8) Tom 157.5 JC: 80
3. Deadlift (1x8) 405 second session JC 212.5

4. 3 sets heavy pull ups
5. Seated Partial PRESSES (#5-down, close holes) 182.5
(#1 top range ) 185 (#4 top range) 187.5 JC - dips
6. barbell curls: 3 sets
7. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 117.5
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 270, 325, 365
2. Bench Press: (3x8) Tom: 230 JC: 107.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 235, to 270, 235 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 535
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x8) Tom: 297.5 JC: 130
2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x8) Tom: 142.5 JC: 72.5
3. Romanian Deadlifts 3x5 Tom 382.5, 385, 382.5 JC 150

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 3 sets of partial bench presses holes (- 4 -8 -12) . . . . 260+, 287.5+, 345+
JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 3 sets 5-6 curls
7. abs: Kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

I have no one to scold particularly this week, and only so much news from my own training. It’s all generally good news, nonetheless:

The University of Maryland football team took the field against Texas with deceased teammate Jordan McNair very much in mind. Players carried his jersey, another waved a flag with McNair’s number 79 on it, and in their first play from scrimmage, they lined up with only 10 men on the field, in a ‘missing man’ formation of sorts, with McNair’s right guard spot wide open.
Texas generously declined the penalty for Delay of Game after Maryland’s offense remained silent and still, but they should have known Maryland would be fired up. Maryland struck first, Texas fought back to gain the lead briefly, but Maryland scored once more near the end for an emotional win over a nationally ranked Texas team.
I hope some journalist is on hand to capture the saga of 2018, from the abuses through the Spring semester to McNair’s death in May, the investigations, the coaching and staff suspensions, and the games as they proceed through the Fall. Somehow these kids managed to succeed at a task without being humiliated and screamed at the entire time - an interesting lesson for coaches on just who turns out to be expendable. Still, the excitement from their liberation will fade, as will the inspiration from remembering McNair, and these players might just have the chance to discover something about relying on themselves and one another for their success - instead of being the pawns of lunatic adults. The interim coaches, in cobbling together a scheme as best they can, will quite possibly realize what few things really matter in leading a team.


It occurred to me that I had to find out whatever happened to Shaquem Griffin, the University of Central Florida linebacker whose fantastic story made headlines last Spring. Born with a deformed hand, which was ultimately removed, he’s the first amputee to be drafted into the National Football League, by the Seattle Seahawks. All his life he’s had to overcome doubts from peers and coaches alike until he enjoyed two breakout seasons at UCF and put on an amazing performance at the NFL scouting combine.
I thought about him while watching the Cleveland Browns’ last pre-season game. The starters were all being saved for the season opener, so a handful of third-string players were competing for the last available spots on the team. It was really a minor affair, not even a national broadcast, with hometown announcers in the booth and on the field sharing all kinds of thoughts about training camp and the upcoming season.
It struck me as very poignant. The announcers explained that for many of the players we were watching, this would be the last time they ever played football. This would be the end of the dream. Cuts had to be made; the final 53-man rosters were due.
They went on to say that the guys we were watching all grew very, very close in the month they were together, and they were making the most of this last night together - which they really were, murdering the Detroit Lions. A day or two later, their names were in the paper, marked as ‘released.’

When I wrote about Shaquem Griffin in May, I was happy that justice was served, both in terms of Griffin’s honest effort as well as Seattle coach Pete Carroll’s willingness to give him a fair shot at making the team.
As cuts were announced, I steeled myself as I Googled - only to stumble upon the following headline:
“Shaquem Griffin Shines in Preseason, Could Start”
(More recent headlines confirm that he is set to go against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. He’ll be on the field with his twin brother, Shaquill, who plays cornerback.)

Griffin showed up in camp ready to play, picking off a pass from star quarterback Russell Wilson early on. He led the team in tackles in preseason games and has won the respect of his coaches and fellow players - despite the fact that ‘his head was spinning’ from all the information he’s trying to take in, according to coach Carroll.
Starting linebacker KJ Wright has just undergone arthroscopic surgery on a knee, which has thrust Griffin into the spotlight.
Griffin is fast, but he’s not the biggest guy in the world. Now that he has a little cash flow, or a top-tier staff dedicated to supporting him, he has to get the top of the line prosthetics he needs for pressing and pulling. Get lifting, buddy. Give ‘em Hell.

Score two for self-motivated athletes, one for Maryland and one for Shaquem Griffin.
I’m plugging along, perhaps not so dramatically, but the good news is that my deadlifts are back up where they belong, after a deuce with 500 pounds last week and 8 with 405 the other day. The secret is in the Romanian deadlift sets on Fridays, which are creeping into record territory. Last winter, that big experimental progression gave me 10, 8, and 6-rep counts at some great weights, but after all that and the heavy isotonic-isometric rack work, I was too beaten up to reach any new maxes.
Go, Browns!

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 9/10/18 3 sets of 5 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5) Tom 370 JC : 165
2. Bench Press (3x5) Tom 255 JC: 120
3. Deadlift (1x5) 450 second session JC 232.5

4. 3 sets heavy pull ups
5. Seated Partial PRESSES (#5-down, close holes) 180 (#1 top range ) 185
(#4 top range) 187.5 JC - dips
6. barbell curls: 3 sets
7. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 132.5
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 272.5, 330, 370
2. Press: (3x5) Tom: 177.5 JC: 85
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 235, to 270, 235 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 535
5. abs: hollow rockers


FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 332.5 JC: 150
2. Bench Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 230 JC: 107.5
3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5 Tom 382.5, 385x2 JC 150

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 3 sets of partial bench presses holes (- 4 -8 -12) . . . . 260+, 290+, 340+
6. 3 sets 5-6 curls
7. abs: T-bar sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

At my 35th high school reunion a year ago, an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in all those years told me, ‘Every time I hear a Van Halen song, I think of you.’
This absolutely caught me by surprise, to the point that I laughed out loud. I had forgotten this about myself, but it was absolutely true: the soundtrack to my teenaged years was pretty much Van Halen. In high school, their winged ‘VH’ insignia was carefully inked onto the blue cloth of my three-ring notebook.
This past winter, when I was coaching at the training center, I was presenting the plan for the day to a group of more than 30 kids. ‘Any questions?’ I said at the end.
A hand went up. ‘I bet you listened to a lot of Van Halen when you were young,’ a boy said.
Others in the class studied me for a moment and nodded as if they could see it.
’How the Hell did you know that?’ I asked.
‘You just seem like the type,’ he said. Apparently I reminded him of one of his uncles.

I’ve just had a chance to visit some very old but familiar territory, by way of author Chuck Klosterman’s article on the VULTURE website,
Chuck Klosterman Ranks All 131 Van Halen Songs
This was a trip back to the landscape of my high school years, a reunion with old friends, namely the guys in the band and especially my younger self, as Klosterman perfectly captures an experience that I thought was mine alone. I hope that kid’s uncle saw this piece.
Klosterman captures the zest Van Halen embodied at their best: "A caricature of leering masculinity . . . . An embodiment of American exceptionalism . . . idealized avatars for a euphoric, consequence-free, hyper-intoxicated lifestyle that (a) could only exist in Southern California, (b) could never exist today, and (c) probably never existed at all, unless you were a member of this specific band. The abstract idea of Van Halen remains iconic.”
He also acknowledges some truths that fans have had to overlook: "A legendary live act consistently criticized for their terrible live performances . . . . Songs from the Roth era are marginalized as party anthems designed for strippers . . . the solos are overstuffed and a little self-derivative.”
As Klosterman works his way through the canon, what emerges is a stunningly human depiction of glory and difficulty through the years, things we’ve always understood about Van Halen the way we have about ourselves.

Even in Ninth Grade, we grasped that the wildness Van Halen represented, the ‘euphoric, consequence free, hyper-intoxicated lifestyle,’ was a metaphor. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work was way too groundbreaking, the songs way too well put together for this to be a reckless, accidental endeavor. Lead singer David Lee Roth’s wit constantly belied the image of the sultry frontman: “I, myself, am the son of Satan, although my duties here are largely ceremonial.” The band still made an important point: a young fellow had to be awesome, somehow or other.
If Pittsburgh Steeler center Mike Webster represented the Hammer of the Gods level of strength we were all aspiring to, and linebacker Jack Lambert embodied the consummate warrior ethos, then the acrobatic karate kicks, howls, and tossed locks of David Lee Roth represented the audacity and humor we needed for a well rounded swagger. When we hit new maxes in the weight room, cracked heads in hockey, or thrashed the occasional bully, it wasn’t that Van Halen was actually playing in the background. Rather, all those hours home alone listening to their albums primed us for these moments.
I blew one of the speakers on my parents’ stereo early in this process. Whenever I had the chance to torque some ‘Halen, I had to turn the balance knob all the way to the other side.
In high school, the prospect of my winning over women with a rock star’s appeal was a dream at best. In college, even after I had moved on from Van Halen, I found myself in a spirited grapple in a young lady’s dorm room, beneath a poster of David Lee Roth. She headed off to the bathroom at one point, whereupon I pointed a finger at Roth and gave him a wink. He would have no doubt approved. A few years later, I woke up in the New York City apartment of another young lady when she turned on MTV to get ready for work. Roth’s solo hit, ‘Just Like Paradise’ was playing. Wow, I thought as I strolled into the living room. My patron saint has been with me all along.

The VULTURE link came in an e-mail from my sister, who asked if I agreed with the rankings. I had to disqualify myself from more than half of the songs, since I stopped paying attention before all the personnel shakeups and other difficulties - but yeah, I said, I’ll buy it, especially since Klosterman ranks ‘Dance the Night Away’ as the Number Three all time best. ‘Dance the Night Away’ happens to be one of the best songs in all of Rock and Roll, deserving a high spot in some master compilation somewhere. It’s a strange song in a way, neither a driving dance tune nor metallic enough to be hardcore; it is, however, a piece of Zen perfection, an easy, good-time tune you invariably crank up when you’re in the car. Ben Affleck used it to great effect in the 2012 true-story film ARGO, in which the CIA creates a bogus science fiction movie to be filmed on location in Iran. It’s a front for rescuing American hostages, but they manage to fool the Iranians as well as every kook in Hollywood, who turn out in droves in an audition sequence set to ‘Dance The Night Away.’ I’m convinced this helped secure the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Klosterman says it should be the music on a suicide prevention hotline for anyone placed on hold.

I disagree with his listing ‘Hot for Teacher’ Number Six. I find it completely juvenile. Yes, the music is pretty ferocious stuff, but this to me illustrates the dynamic at the heart of many of Van Halen’s problems, the battle for primacy between guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s musical genius and singer David Lee Roth’s penchant for Showbiz silliness.
Roth was at once Rock’s greatest front man as well as the one most aware of the absurdity of the entire idea, so he was unapologetically unafraid to be his goofy self as the situation demanded. The frustration that fans shared with the Van Halen brothers was that Roth should have taken things a lot more seriously.
I actually feel a little sorry nowadays for Eddie Van Halen. With his two hands on a single guitar, he could produce an orchestra’s worth of music. He’s the one who led our fiery, explosive escape from the era of Disco, but I’m not sure that in the long run he found the outlet for his talents that he needed.

For a while, though, they made magic. Klosterman (who provides a link to every single song) provides some interesting insights: that raking, shuddering parents’-nightmare riff at the beginning of ‘And The Cradle Will Rock’ is from a keyboard, not a guitar. ‘Ice Cream Man,’ which has little to do with ice cream, is a cover of an ancient blues tune. ‘Women in Love’ is about losing a woman to another woman, which at the time was something I didn’t even know could happen, so it occurs to me that I was probably air-guitaring way back when to a lot of things that went completely over my head.

I’ll leave you with a song that would sum it all up, a tune that I probably never would have heard again if it weren’t for Klosterman’s article. Though not a conventional hit, it’s a wormhole straight back to my blasting it in the playroom when I had the house to myself. It has everything: a little Roth melodrama you have to overlook at the beginning, a few strange transitions, but then a musicianship and arrangement that I’ve not really heard anyone surpass. This song soars, but then there are parts where you kind of shake your head. That’s youth - and life, isn’t it?
YouTube 'In a Simple Rhyme'

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 9/17/18 3 sets of 2 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2) Tom 407.5 JC : 180
2. Press (3x2) Tom 197.5 JC: 90
3. Deadlift (1x2) 505 second session JC 240

4. 3 sets heavy pull ups
5. Seated Partial PRESSES (#5-down, close holes) 185+, 185, 185
(#1 top range ) 177.5 (#4 top range) 175 - + JC - dips
6. barbell curls: 3 sets
7. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. JC: Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 145
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 275, 335, 375
2. Bench Press: (3x2) Tom: 287.5 JC: 117.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 270, 240 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 525
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 367.5 JC: 162.5
2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 177.5 JC: 80
3. Romanian Deadlifts 3x5 Tom 385 JC 150

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 3 sets of partial bench presses holes (- 4 -8 -12) . . . . 260+, 290+ , 335+
JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 3 sets 5-6 curls
7. abs: Kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

As I post this on a Friday, I am not lifting weights as usual. I’m slacking off, gloriously so, which (I’m imagining now) feels absolutely great. I’m burnt out and beaten up, and rather than slog along stubbornly the way I have in the past, I’ll rest before all these body parts get even worse. It’s been 12 or 13 weeks since that Iceland trip, which was my last break, so I’m due.
Not all news is bad, but it is time for an important change in some upper body assistance exercises.

The good news is that the squats and deadlifts are doing fine, which means also that the assisting partial, dead-stop squats and the Romanian deads are contributing to progress the way they should. This past Monday, I hit three sets of 2 with 407.5 in the squat nice and deep, and with decent speed on the ascents. When it came time to deadlift, I had just received a call about a meeting arranged on short notice, so I rushed out for my second session early and did my warm ups as quickly as I could load the bar: 135, 225, 315, 405 - and then after an extra minute of gathering my courage, I deuced 505. As nice as it is to hit that weight, It’s even better to know I can do it in a pinch.

It’s the upper body lifts that are slowing down a bit, and the partial-press rack work is getting cumbersome. Two weeks ago, my press 5’s went 5, 5, 4 with 177.5, and this past week my deuces with 197.5 were only singles. My 287.5 bench doubles were only singles after handling 255 pound 5’s the week before.
Getting only singles in comparison to what the 5’s suggested does represent a falling off in performance, but the real issue was the accompanying sense of structural fatigue. I didn’t have the mojo for a good, hard hip spring in the press, and the shoring up the shoulders and rib cage in the bench wasn’t happening in the usual way. The culprit is the rack work, where my lifts have gotten heavy enough to tax all the stabilizing muscles pretty heavily.

The solution is to switch back to dips and triceps extensions, which should be ‘end of story,’ - end of blog entry - but what makes this worth writing about is that I have to proceed very carefully. I’m ditching the exercises that made it possible for me to bench 300.
Done from a dead stop, a partial press nullifies the advantage gained from the stretch reflex. For example, if you lower the bar to your chest in the bench press, the stretch reflex primes the muscles for the trip back up, both in terms of tissue elasticity and neurological stimulation of the motor units to be used. However, starting from that bottom position with no prior motion means your body must come up with another way to lift the weight. The answer is to recruit more motor units, which makes this a fantastic training trick, giving you more muscle trained from a given weight than if you did it in the usual down-and-up fashion.
It’s worked beautifully. I’ve strict pressed 201.25 (gunning for 202.5, but I forgot the friggin’ 1.25 plate on one side) and the other day when the 287 benches were only singles, I put on 300 just to make sure I was still a man. It went up with plenty more in the tank.
Still, the rack work has been taking too long lately. That’s a cardinal sin. Assistance exercises are not supposed to be more of a production than the main events.

One question remains: what made the partials work so well, the miraculous motor unit recruitment, the increase in training volume, or the intensity? Prior to the rack work, I was doing lying triceps extensions and dips, but one exercise on Mondays and the other on Fridays.
I didn’t really increase volume. Three sets on Monday and three on Friday were replaced with three and three.
It was the intensity, the big weights in the rack, without which there wouldn’t have been any other miracles.

If I’m dropping the intensity, I have to increase the volume. I’ll do both dips and extensions twice a week, a suggestion from Andy Baker’s blog. He’s always been pretty aggressive about the volume of assistance work needed to build strength.
If I do anything Friday, it will be to sort out what weights to use for the dips and extensions. The long term plan, of course, is to see how this affects the big lifts.

BREAKING Thursday night: The Cleveland Browns win for the first time in nearly two years as rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield comes off the bench like a gunslinger. If you check out any highlights, listen for the sound his passes make as the ball hits his receivers.

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 9/24/18 3 sets of 8 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x8) Tom 332.5 JC : 145
2. Bench Press (3x8) Tom 232.5 JC: 97.5
3. 3 sets heavy pull ups

4. Deadlift (1x8) 410 second session JC 215
5. 4 sets of 10 weighted dips
6. barbell curls: 4 sets
7. 4 sets of 10 overhead triceps extensions
8. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. JC: Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 115
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 277.5, 340, 380
2. Press: (3x8) Tom: 160 JC: 82.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 270, 230 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 535
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x8) Tom: 300 JC: 130
2. Bench Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x8) Tom: 210 JC: 90
3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5 Tom 385 JC 150

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 4 sets of 10 weighted dips JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 4 sets 5-6 barbell curls
7. 4 sets lying triceps extensions
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

Two and a half years ago, I was asked by a women’s group to teach a self defense seminar. I was under no illusions that anyone would come out of a two or three hour session with any real skills, but I figured that at the very least I could introduce them to a few basic concepts and, if all went well, the mindset necessary to use them.
We’d be moving in athletic fashion, using gravity, I explained. How many people have played tennis? It’s the same idea: your hand and arm swing the racket, but really your whole body is in the stroke.
Then came my clever introduction, a Cross Cut and Swing, an old World War Two technique featured in a pamphlet distributed in England as they feared a Nazi invasion. Should a Hun grab you by the throat or lapels, the solution was a matador’s sidestep and turn, during which the now-forward arm would swing, elbow first, over the attacker’s arms. The elbow might or might not clean his clock, but the rotation draws the bad guy off balance, and that same arm is primed - in terms of both plyometric rebound and position - for an axe hand to his throat. Another step toward him delivers the body weight behind a palm heel to his chin from the opposite hand. The technique is elegant and effective, and contains just about every martial arts concept they’d need to know. It was intended for the little old ladies who assured Churchill they’d be on the beach with broken bottles in hand to repel the Germans.

It’s as simple as a hopscotch leap, but not a single lady in the group could do it. I used lines on the gym basketball court; ‘jump from this line, 90 degrees to this line . . . ‘ They couldn’t grasp what to do with the elbow, and they certainly couldn’t do it at the same time as the jump. These were women in their 40’s or 50’s, though a few teenaged daughters had been forced to attend. The Germans would have strolled right up the beach past this bunch.
I suddenly realized I was in big trouble. The 30 people there were way too many, and 25 of them were utterly uncoordinated. What was an elementary introduction in wartime was impossibly advanced for them. Quickly, I moved on to Lesson Two, a closer look at some of those strikes we had just mentioned. We tried the axe-hand, which is a horizontal chop, as well as a hammer, a similar motion with a closed fist. I had provided pads for groups to work with, but the results were similarly horrifying. These women lacked the strength to swat a fly or knock on a door. Holding an arm horizontal at shoulder level, and then having to use it, appeared to be an act they had never attempted before. The seminar was a mess only minutes from the start.
(I ran the Crosscut and Swing by my wife and daughters when I got home, to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and they got it right away.)

This is a dreadful, sexist post thus far, but I actually mean it to be the opposite. The story above points out an unflattering truth, that a great many women have very low expectations when it comes to physical abilities or athleticism. Maybe they were brought up this way; maybe some of them had been athletes, but clearly they had abandoned much of their personal autonomy while they still had decades to live.
I do happen to know some bad-ass chicks. One friend, who’s pushing 60 if she’s not there already, just posted Facebook pictures of her in the English Channel - at night, training for a swim across. Earlier in the summer she crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. A young friend, SWAT-team qualified, just sent a video of a win in a BJJ match.
A great many women have to up their game, however, whatever it might be. They have to develop confidence, resilience both physical and emotional, and experience that can transfer from one physical challenge to another.

This comes as the topic of sexual assault is very much in the news. Regardless of the outcome of the inquiry surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a few stark realities have been pushed into focus. One is the drunken young man, presumably known to his female acquaintances, who suddenly becomes a monster capable of enormous damage. The second is the young female victim, unwary, unprepared to defend against a sexual assault, and unable to cope with its aftermath in the long term.
Of the two, I have greater impatience with the young women. I am very well aware of the long term damage to the psyche resulting from rape; in fact it is because of this catastrophic danger that I find helplessness to be a greater fault than drunken aggression.

I don’t know how many other fathers are taking their teenaged daughters out to the garage in view of current events, but I have made it clear to 14-year-old Equestrienne Girl that if she ever wants to see her cell phone again, she is going to be working weekly on earning her Devil’s Brigade hand-to-hand quals. From the STARTING STRENGTH training, she’s still stronger than any boys her age. From my standpoint, I’ve learned from that disaster with the women’s group years ago. I’ll bring the skills along gradually.
We’ve talked about a few things she’s seen already as a freshman, as in kids vaping or drinking. This is when kids start playing some grown-up games, she’s realized. She’s doubtful about being able to handle a boy in a physical confrontation. Said the girl who’s hitting deadlift sets with nearly 200 pounds: ‘They have more brute strength than I do.’
‘How would you measure brute strength on this platform?’ I replied. What they have, I pointed out, is probably a greater willingness to use force - but that’s something that can be learned. Actually, it brings up an interesting issue we’ll address: which comes first, aggression or ability?
The answer is ability. The bullies of this world operate on the assumption they can handle their victims. No one is going to sign up to be a bouncer or an MMA fighter without first developing some ability. In those TV shows we see about SEAL’s, the SAS, or the FBI bursting into a building to rescue hostages, charging into a room and fanning out is pure aggression, but that skill is practiced slowly, carefully, and thoroughly.

Yes, a proper mindset is the most critical element in a crisis, as the experts say, but that’s cultivated in practice as well. One author advocates ‘vehemence drills,’ which start as simply as bashing a pad 8 to 10 times in a row and letting the emotions come to a boil. We’ll build upon successes, I’ve told the kid, and don’t worry; with your strength and athleticism, you’re going to pick this up quickly.
Driving to school with the radio on in recent days has meant listening to a horror show of sexual assault scenarios. Pinned on a bed? You have to know your principles of groundwork, I told her. Play the mat, not the man. The guy unzips his drawers and waves his unit in your face? That thing’s coming off. Give it to the cops when they show up. You get some drunk clown wiped out, down on his hands and knees? A stomp to the Achilles tendon will take him out of the race. Don’t worry; we can transcend the issue of who has brute force on their side.
I have judo mats, a BOB dummy, pads, and a High Gear ballistic suit for reality testing.

Of course, proportionality is important, I’ll also teach her. If a guy runs his hand over your ass - presuming you hadn’t been hoping he would - you don’t friggin’ blind him, but you will know how to turn, control the space, and dominate the interpersonal dynamic at play as you tell him, Not again. I was there in the 80’s, and the entire point in these house parties was high risk behavior. The girls were there for that very reason. That pants came off or bodies got groped was no great surprise to anyone. Most of these moments dissolved pretty quickly, unless the girls were incapacitated - an unforgivable sin which blows the whole idea of a woman’s autonomy, the real issue at stake.

Even at a wild party, everyone has some right to personal safety, or personal agency. I’m not a psychologist, but I would imagine that the long term trauma that stems from rape is that a person is robbed of a full sense of existence. The very notion of Self is the control of one’s mind, body, and perceptual sphere as he or she interacts with others and the physical environment. A sexual violation denies a person ownership of that realm; it’s been trespassed upon, used roughly on someone else’s terms. Everyday, that phase of existence would seem to belong to someone or something else, a brutal memory or fear.
Sexual assault is too serious a danger for women to ignore, and too many of them are utterly defenseless.

Any father would rather bail his daughter out of jail than visit her in a hospital. I’ve already been through these lessons with my older kid. The second one will be meeting Fairbairn and O’Neill on Sunday morning.

[Nunedog]

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 10/1/18 3 sets of 5 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5) Tom 370 JC : 165
2. Press (3x5) Tom 177.5 JC: 82.5
3. 3 sets heavy pull ups

4. Deadlift (1x5) 455 second session JC 225
5. 4 sets of 10 weighted dips - with band
6. barbell curls: 4 sets
7. 4 sets of 10 overhead triceps extensions 10’s on sides
8. abs: banded pull downs


TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. JC: Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets 132.5
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 280, 345, 385
2. Bench Press: (3x5) Tom: 257.5 JC: 117.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 270, 230 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 545
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 332.5 JC: 150
2. Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x5) Tom: 160 JC: 75
3. Romanian Deadlifts 3x5 Tom 385, 387.5, 385 JC 147.5

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 4 sets of 10 close grip bench presses JC: close grip bench press, T-Bar
6. 4 sets 5-6 barbell curls
7. 4 sets lying triceps extensions
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

Every so often it comes back again, flitting into the collective consciousness of the STARTING STRENGTH community: are you sure we shouldn’t be running?
This happens on Facebook or on the Forum most often as inquiries from new arrivals. Told that fitness has to be comprehensive, they’re sampling websites. That STARTING STRENGTH doesn’t really see the need for running strikes them as . . . old-school, negligent, even self defeating. Internet trolls love the controversy; they know that bringing it up is like hurling a stick into a cave full of bears. Some members here confess to running ashamedly: they didn’t know any better, they explain. All they wanted to do was get in shape or lose weight.
I’m with those who say from time to time that they miss running. I miss the idea of being able to roam a trail, covering territory at a decent speed, and catching an endorphin rush. While traveling, I’ve explored a lot more of a lot of foreign cities running in the early mornings than I would have otherwise.
My knees began to complain, however, which luckily was when I was learning more about the science of strength, so my priorities changed. Still, I think I understand why the topic of running seems to lurk so close to the surface of people’s thoughts.
Of course, there’s the classic fear that we should all be staving off heart attacks, but running appeals to a more primitive, animal side of our brains. Being able to run means we can move fast, light, and unencumbered. We feel we should be highly adapted creatures ready for anything.
What exactly are we ready for, however? Battle? Escape? No clear images come to mind. Vaguely I can picture some kind of large scale disaster, where in coming to the rescue - in an earthquake or along a flooded river - I’d have to be ready to run, but that’s as much I can conjure from so low on the brain stem. I’m surprised that despite my conscious emphasis on strength nowadays, I still think of open spaces and speed when it comes to survival.

In the days that I did follow that primal instinct for speed, I was both running and swimming a few times a week. I was pretty fast, which the experts would explain had more to do with ergonomic efficiency and less with aerobic horsepower than one might expect. That’s a problem, as it turns out, in the context of considering running as a means of spurring continued adaptation or making one primitively ready for anything.
Plenty of articles on the STARTING STRENGTH website can explain this better than I can, but the idea is simple: just as our bodies would become accustomed to lifting the same load over an over without an increase, our cardiovascular capacity becomes accustomed to the same time-and-speed bout of endurance work time and time again. A runner who hits a five-miler three times a week experiences less and less, and ultimately very little training effect with each workout.

Anecdotally, in terms of meeting primal challenges, I can think of a handful of situations I faced in those years that would indicate that all that conditioning did NOT have me ready for anything.
The first is Judo, where I trained on a competitive level for a number of years but did not have the strength to apply my technical knowledge on the competition floor. I had no problem with the hottest days or the hardest drills, staying upright as others gasped, but this did me no good when it came to the combat itself.
Speaking of disasters and rescues, I once had the chance to take the Firefighter’s Challenge, a standard test that included charging up a set of stairs, sledgehammering a weight along a track, heaving a heavy coil of hose, and dragging a dummy (and not in that order, necessarily). Volunteers and paid firemen must qualify in this every so often - and it’s done in full turnout gear, which is to say the heavy fireproof pants, jacket, helmet, and air tank and mask. I did reasonably, though not as well as I expected. The air tank and mask made my throat as dry as paper in a matter of seconds. Simple conditioning did not prepare me to haul a heavy coil of hose up a tower staircase, heave another one up three stories with a rope, or wield a sledgehammer with any real power.
The last physical challenge for which I was significantly unqualified was a water polo match. Despite the fact that I could knock through laps in the pool as fast as the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers my team was playing against, the lunging and sprinting of the game itself wiped me out. I was unprepared for that intensity of exertion, which wasn’t much like typical lap swimming, and I didn’t have the egg-beater kick nailed down as a skill, which is vital for staying on the surface without having to use one’s arms.

Not only would the scientists tell you that conditioning quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns, the need for good, old fashioned strength and the realities of task specificity and skill quickly undermine that intuitive sense one has for being ‘ready for anything.’

I’ll stick with the strength work. I could tear up that Firefighter’s Challenge compared to my old time, and, as I’ve written before, I’d like to go back to that old Judo dojo now that I’m weighing 40 pounds more than I did the first time around.
Still, should STARTING STRENGTH athletes be running? Yes, absolutely. Once a week, and not on a day when you’re staggering out of the gym after heavy squats and deads, get out in an open space and hit six to eight 50-yard runs. These are not sprints or jogs, but runs. You’ll feel your heavy squatter’s thighs lightening up and a fairly natural stride returning. This is too important a human skill to neglect. Someday, you’ll have to dash across a parking lot in an emergency, but you’ll be able to wield the sledgehammer when you get there.

Heavy-Light-Medium
Week of: 10/8/18 3 sets of 2 reps week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2) Tom 410 JC : 180
2. Bench Press (3x2) Tom 287.5 JC: 120
3. 3 sets heavy pull ups

4. Deadlift (1x2) 510 second session JC 240
5. 4 sets of 10 weighted dips - with two bands
6. barbell curls: 4 sets
7. 4 sets of 10 overhead triceps extensions bands 2.5’s?
8. abs: banded pull downs

TUESDAY - Conditioning
sled pull 2 miles; 45, 25

WEDNESDAY
1. Squat (80% of Monday’s weight) x Monday Reps, 2 sets JC: 145
Tom: 3 sets PARTIAL SQUATS; DEAD STOP holes 9-13-17 - 282.5, 350, 390
2. Press: (3x2) Tom: 197.5 JC: 87.5
3. Power Cleans 3x3 Tom: 230, to 270, 235 JC: 75 - 95
4. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 555
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Squats: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 370 JC: 162.5
2. Bench Press: [90% of Monday’s weight] (3x2) Tom: 257.5 JC: 107.5
3. Romanian Deadlifts - off rack - 3 sets of 5 Tom 385, 387.5x2 JC 150

4. 4 rounds gymnastic rows with vest
5. 4 sets of 10 close grip bench presses (185+ descending)
6. 4 sets 5-6 barbell curls
7. 4 sets lying triceps extensions
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters