The Training Week That Was - 2/24 - 3/2

"I'm an entertainer. I have nothing to sell...I just want you to enjoy a point of view that I enjoy" - Alan Watts


2/24 Snowing BALLS here so got a quickie in at the Glendale YMCA
500m row @ 1:33
Abs x60/Chins x10
Military Press bar x10x2 95x5x2 115x3 135x3 145x2 155x1x12 w/ minute between reps (this is a Steve Pulcinella idea from his IronSport Method)
Chinese DB Row 85x10x5
JM Press - 7x10
Pulldown 2x20

2/25 - Acupuncture from Chiropractic of North Denver

2/26
Muscle Snatch (one full + two from high hang) 60kg 3x3
Snatch High Pull (1+2) up to 100x1x4
Floating Snatch High Pull (1+2) bunch at 80
Snatch Pull w/ Pause 100x3 120x3 140x3 150x3 140x3x3
Back Squat 135lbsx5x2 205x5 255x5 275x5 285x5x2 295x5
Pause Squat (seven second pause) 3x5 @ 195lbs
Dead Squat 10x1@245lbs, 30s between reps
Heavy Standing Abs - 3x10  Grappler Abs 2x8+8

2/27
Military Press up to 160x1x6 155x1x3 150x1x3
Chins x20
Bunch of snatch grip upright row-type things

2/28
Muscle Clean 50kgx3x3
High Hang Clean up to 115kgx1x2 then Floating Clean 70x1x2 90x1x2 (wrists getting better)
Clean Pull w/ Pause 110x3 140x3 160x3x3
Front Squat 135lbsx5x2 205x3 245x3 265x3 275x3x2
Seven Count Pause Squat 185lbsx3x3
Dead Front Squat 135lbsx1x3 185x1x5
-Had to cut the squats short because I was running late for a company dinner. This should have been 10x1 of dead squats and 5x3 of the pause squats.

3/2
Only had an hour to lift so I worked up to 120x1 in the clean and then bolted for acupuncture. My back tends to not appreciate rushed morning sessions.

Zazen (or Why I Stare At A Blank Wall Every Day)

Two places that I look for some peace and quiet are zazen and the weightlifting platform. For me, those are the two main places where I can get some peace and quiet. There's no Facebook statuses, Twitters, text messages, emails, friends, girlfriends, telemarketers, overpriced gas, etc; it's just me and a wall or me and a barbell.

Something that is tough for people to wrap their mind around is the idea that successful zazen IS zazen. By that, I mean that there isn't some sort of end goal. The point of the journey IS the journey. The whole point to doing zazen is to do zazen.

I will make this point: when I first started doing zazen, it was the exact opposite of what I expected. I pictured this tranquil, quiet time to not think. What I got was the exact polar opposite. My mind ran a million miles an hour and it felt like Heathrow with thoughts taking off and landing constantly. I learned how to calm things down a bit after a couple weeks of consistent practice, but this is a constant battle for me in zazen. This also illustrated a great lesson for me: if you want the fire to go out, stop fanning the flames.

When I'm doing zazen, thoughts bounce in and out of my head pretty much constantly. But they aren't really coherent thoughts; more like thought fragments or a half-molded piece of clay. When I latch on to one, it starts molding into something coherent. Once I figured out to stop giving these thoughts energy, they just fell away. Rinse, repeat and apply everywhere. Those little thoughts can be death by a thousand cuts and leave you exhausted when important, real life shit comes along. I think we tend to self-destruct by giving additional energy and stoking the flames on some things when we could simply let them go. To borrow an over-used and under-appreciated quote from Chuck Palahniuk (via Tyler Durden in Fight Club) that I'm still trying to really figure out:

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

In short: for me, zazen is like training my ability to distinguish between important and unnecessary and let the unnecessary go. So try it: sit down, shut up and see what happens.

Gratitudes of the Day

1. Immensly grateful for this steaming hot cup of Novo Coffee that I'm currently slurping down as I type this. My sleep patterns got all screwed up over the weekend so I've been waking up between 3-4am the past few days instead of my usual 4:50. Easy to do on off days from the gym, but coming off of workout days makes that a bit more of a challenge. On the plus side, it allowed me to get these written down before I hit the office, so I'm grateful for that!

2. I'm grateful for a couple emails yesterday with Steve Pulcinella. Steve's one of the US's best ever Highland Games athletes and strongman competitors and I reached out to him looking for some training info for the upcoming Highland games season, as well as Olympic lifting. I've always prided myself on programming my own training, but I'm really getting hooked by the idea of being able to get programs written specifically for me by great coaches and then being able to rotate through them.

If you're frustrated by lack of progress in the gym, I encourage you to hire an online coach and have something written for you. Almost everyone out there who writes articles on any of the popular training websites (T-Nation, EliteFTS, etc) does online coaching (nutrition, training or both), and the pricing is very reasonable.

3. I'm very grateful to Shelby Starnes for introducing me to the books Sit Down and Shut Up and Hardcore Zen, both written by Brad Warner. I've always gravitated towards Buddhism but I've found it difficult to really digest many of the writings of Buddhism outside of the Dalai Lama. Brad's writing and breaking down of some of the Zen Buddhism concepts has made for excellent reading and I'm gravitating towards a lot of these ideas and teachings.