[QUOTEdidn't leave me wanting to punch someone/something afterwards.][/quote]

That's when I do my best!!!! (Poor body bag.)

Seriously - I get angry, I could probably pick up my truck and flip it over...

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I have learned that stress is caused by saying "no problem" when you really mean "no chance".

I'd get a body bag to beat up on, but I'm too cheap to get a good one. And I rarely use a cement wall or the streetlight in front of my house because I don't want to break my knuckles or be accidentally break the streetlight.

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Click on the beautiful Altoona skyline to go to my website about central Pennsylvania.

You could always snag one off the meat wagon, but they start to stink after a while....

Surprise! An old workout of mine is back, but in a slightly altered form. For starters, I'm sticking to the ABCDF grading system and not bringing back the numbers system, secondly there are no squats right now. You might be reading through and wondering why I decided to use a pennyweight for my workout and do hardly anything with it, but the reasons are because I haven't done it in 11 months (essentially a year) and I want to ease my way back into it, secondly I want to be 100% sure it won't aggrivate anything (the second I'm suspicious, I get rid of it), and third I want to heal easy enough for now that it don't interfere with my chest crushing next week. So I used almost nonexistant weight without training to fatigue.

Bench Press with 135 lbs

1. 8 reps, 7 good
2. 10 reps, all good
3. 10 reps, 9 good
4. 8 reps, all good
5. 7 reps, 6 good

Grade: B-

Post workout commentary: Given the circumstances, I decided to be a little generous with the grading. I did do decent for not working out in 11 months and not even attempting to do anywhere near the reps I could. Over the next couple weeks, I'll be moving towards doing as many reps as I can and increasing the weight. As time goes on, I won't grade these workouts as generously and any incomplete workouts get at best an F, but more likely a 0 or -1. My goal is to be back to using real weight by June or July and doing some workouts with heavy stones and logs (maybe bringing back deadlifts, too, but preferrably doing a manual labor equivilent).

You guys are wearing me out just reading these posts.

AM is awesome - an absolute inspiration.

The week off did help, but today's workout was a little lackluster. But it wasn't lackluster because of lack of ability, it was lack of energy today, since I got up a lot earlier than I usually do. But overall, it wasn't exactly a horrible workout, but hardly one that I'm proud of. But I'll take off days over abysmal workouts any day. Today's workout was an example of the worst an off day SHOULD be most of the time.

Lifted the 15 lb anvil by the horn three times each hand, did wrist work

Pinch Block loaded to 35 lbs

1R. Lifted and held for 6 seconds
1L. FAILED

2R. Lifted and held for 32 seconds
2L. Lifted and held for 8 seconds

3R. Lifted and held for 28 seconds
3L. Lifted and held for 5 seconds

Chest Crushes with the BeefBuilder Elite

1. 5 reps, 2 clicked
2. 6 reps, 1 clicked
3. 8 reps, 3 clicked

Loaded the wrist roller to 22.5 lbs, did four sets with it

Grade: D+

Post workout commentary: The extra set on the wrist roller bumped this up from a D. Other than the first set with the pinch block, I actually did alright with the pinch block. Now, if I can only have more consistancy, like sets 2 and 3, I'll be in business. The chest crushing part was a little disappointing, although the last set was okay. It wasn't bad, though, just a bit of a let down, since I had pictured myself blamming out rep after rep that clicked on that Elite. But still, my hands don't feel fried after the workout, which is good. While today was an off-day, because I was a little tired, it actually felt almost good to have a workout that I wasn't totally disgusted with. I think that week off broke the recent trend of let-down workouts. But still, I'm going to be doing contrast baths and Tiger Balm a lot more often than I used to so that my hands don't feel fried after every workout again at any point in the near future. This actually gives me hope for next Thursday.

Happy Pi Day everyone! And for today's workout, I've achieved what seemed two weeks ago like a mathematically impossible feat, I had a good workout. While ordinary seeming early on, it became better and better throughout. This is the first workout this year that I've found little to complain about. I'm feeling GREAT after being rewarded with a good workout. I'm just really hoping that I don't jinx myself here and end up with two weeks of miserable workouts because of this, but I think that week off definately helped. Read today's blog just to see the great results.

Heavy Gripper Workout with the Master

1R. Got it down to 1/16", using a deep set
1L. Got it down to 1/2", using a deep set

2R. Closed? and held for 3 seconds using a deep set
2L. Got it down to 1/4", using a deep set

3R. Got it down to 1 mm, using a deep set
3L. Got it down to 1/3", using a deep set

4R. Closed? and held for 5 seconds using a deep set
4L. Got it down to 1/3", using a deep set

Light Gripper Workout with the Super Advanced

1R. Closed and held for 16 seconds using a shallow set, overcrush
1L. Closed and held for 8 seconds using a deep set

2R. Closed and held for 10 seconds using no set, overcrush
2L. Closed and held for 9 seconds using a deep set, possible overcrush

3R. Closed and held for 21 seconds using a shallow set, overcrush
3L. Closed? and held for 5 seconds using a deep set

Grade: B

Post workout commentary: This was a good workout overall, the first good gripper workout that wasn't a Tuneup Tuesday all year. There's no need for one this week. The right hand did a pretty good job, closing the Master twice (I'm pretty sure the first close was a close, second close I'm not quite so sure, but still good), and completely dominating the Super Advanced. But I was really impressed with the left hand, it did pretty decent with the Master and was so dominant on the first two Super Advanced closes that I could have closed them with an intermediate set. The only "complaint" is that I was hoping to be by now consistantly closing the Master, but I AM making progress, and despite a very ordinary first set and an ordinary left handed finish, this is a workout I'm proud of overall. I can see myself actually using the Ironmind #2 as my working gripper by my birthday, I'm just hoping that workouts like this becomre more common. Right now I'm also hoping to use today's good workout as a springboard for a great Thursday Grip Workout next week, and maybe even a good Bench Press Workout (which if I do it, will be done tomorrow or Monday to give a long healing time for the Thursday Grip Workout). And also, I'll do something Tuesday just to have a St Patrick's Day Workout, even if it's just a five minute workout.

I propose you lift green beer on Tuesday....

Normally, I would, but unfortunately I gave up beer for Lent. Maybe I could color whiskey green and drink a glass of that.

There alway's Bailey's... that's Irish. Have some Irish coffee (coffee, whiskey and Bailey's)

The beauty of this flexible schedule is that there's no order of the workouts. I can do the Bench Press Workout any day except Thursday or Sunday (or whichever day I do my Sunday and Thursday workouts). I used the pennyweight again this week. I actually have nicknames for different poundages now. Under 135 is training weight, 135 lbs is pennyweight, 140 lbs is nickelweight, 145 lbs is dimeweight (yes, I know a dime is smaller than a nickel but it's worth more), 150 lbs is quarterweight, 155 lbs is half-dollarweight, and 160 lbs is dollarweight. 165-220 lbs is middlingweight, and 225 lbs and better is real weight (divided into two categories, 225-360 lbs is standard weight, 315 lbs and up is heavy weight). I'll probably be using weight from the pocket change series until this summer.

Bench Press with 135 lbs

1. 12 reps, 10 good
2. 12 reps, all good
3. 12 reps, 11 good
4. 8 reps, all good
5. 8 reps, 7 good

Grade: C+

Post workout commentary: You're probably looking at this, noticing how I did much more this week yet I got a signifficantly lower grade. Several reasons, first off, that one was to get my feet wet, this is the real deal. My new goal is 5 sets of 12 reps two weeks in a row, with at least 50 good reps, using the pennyweight. Once I do that, I'll start working towards 5 sets of 12 with the nickelweight. I'll do that with each pocket change weight until I get into the middlingweight category. Then I'll start slowly decreasing required reps until I work up to a 5 sets of 5 regimen. This way, I'm less likely to be disappointed with the results. I actually was going to give this a C, or even a C-, but the time pushed it ahead to a C+ (I finished in 20 minutes, the standard time allotment is 30-45 minutes).

After thinking about it for awhile and trying to decide what kind of workout I should do for St Patrick's Day, I decided that since I usually work out my arms, legs, chest, and back, it was time to work out the stomach. I usually rely on compound movements to give my stomach a good workout, but I thought it was about time that I do a stomach focused workout, too. So, without further ado, the Saint Patrick's Day Workout, designed specifically for the stomach.

One double-header of Bailey's Irish Cream for the warmup

Two serving dish sized bowls (size of a small mixing bowl) of corned beef and cabbage

1. Bowl was heaping just over the top, ate all of it
2. Bowl was heaping just over the top, ate all of it
3. Ran out of corned beef and cabbage.....

Ate several pieces of butter bread and some Irish soda bread

Drank seven double-headers of Bailey's Irish Cream

1. Drank the whole thing
2. Drank the whole thing
3. Drank the whole thing
4. Drank the whole thing
5. Drank the whole thing
6. Drank the whole thing
7. Drank the whole thing

Grade: A+

Post workout commentary: After trying to decide what to do for a workout, I decided to take Summerrain's suggestion and turn it into an actual blog entry. I hope you enjoyed reading my workout blog spoof about my eating and drinking as a "stomack workout". And notice, it's in green, too! About the workout, everything went good, and had I not ran out of corned beef and cabbage to chow down on, I could have eaten six bowls of that. I was going to drink more of the Irish cream, but I want to save some for later.

That is great!!!! Love it!

Maybe posting joke workouts is bad luck. I follow up a "workout" I gave myself an A+ on (or in actuality, a bench press workout I gave myself a C+ on) with a completely unimpressive workout. While there were some "bright spots", a lot of the work out turned out to be ugly, infact I almost gave myself an F or D/F, but there was just enough "redemption" to push it into passing range. Overall, pathetic efforts in nearly every way. See for yourself.

Lifted the 15 lb anvil three times each hand by the horn, did wrist work

Pinch Block loaded to 35 lbs

1R. Lifted and held for 23 seconds
1L. Lifted and held for a split second

2R. Lifted and held for 34 seconds
2L. Lifted and held for 2 seconds

3R. Lifted and held for 34 seconds
3L. FAILED

Chest Crushes with the BeefBuilder Elite

1. 5 reps, 1 clicked
2. 7 reps, 2 clicked
3. 4 reps, none clicked

Wrist Roller loaded to 22.5 lbs, did four sets with it

Grade: D-

Post workout commentary: The workout wasn't actually as bad as advertised, but what's really disturbing is the complete lack of progress and continued unimpressive results on the pinch block and the Elite for chest crushing. After the impressive results towards the end of last year, I had high hopes. Am I going to have to wait the whole year just to get what should be a month's worth of progress? I know progress takes time and patience, but I should be seeing results. I'm seeing a big fat NOTHING. If I just wanted to maintain, I'd stop working out. If I don't see ANY progress next week on the Thursday grip workouts, I'm going to start to think that something's wrong with me OR that my workout needs reshuffled. And if reshuffling my workout doesn't help (I'll give it a two month test run), then I KNOW something's wrong with me, and I'll just give up working out knowing that I've reached the pinnacle of my strength, which is laughable at best. Right now I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt that a reshuffling might help, and doing the Bench Press Workout in between Thursday and Sunday from now on will help because that may be conflicting with this.

I think what you are doing is impressive, regardless of what grade you give yourself. You don't see me doing it, that's for sure. If I can't hit it, kick it or tackle it, I am done.

While this workout wasn't all that great, it was pretty much just a normal off day. Some things could have gone better. In two weeks, I'm going to average all of my workouts (yes, even the St. Patrick's Day Workout) to give a quarterly report on how the workout season's going. I have a feeling that the results are going to be less than great, but I usually do my best workouts once the weather gets warm anyway. Not in the summer but spring and fall. Plus, now that this isn't taking a backseat to the snowpile (even if it comes back out again), I can focus more on this and probably get better results.

No Set Closes of the Ironmind #1

1R. Five reps, all clicked
1L. Five reps, none clicked

2R. Five reps, four clicked
2L. Five reps, one clicked

Heavy Gripper Workout with the Master

1R. Got it down to 1 mm, deep set
1L. Got it down to 1/4", deep set

2R. Got it down to 1 mm, deep set
2L. Got it down to 1/3", deep set

3R. Got it down to 1 mm, deep set
3L. Got it down to 3/4", deep set

Light Gripper Workout with the Super Advanced

1R. Closed and held for 8 seconds using a shallow set
1L. Closed? and held for 5 seconds using a deep set

2R. Closed and held for 9 seconds using a shallow set
2L. Closed? and held for 8 seconds using a deep set

Grade: C/D

Post workout commentary: While my right-handed work is only a little better than my last time doing this, my left handed work improved greatly, which is why it's a C/D instead of a D/F. There may be a five minute Tuneup Tuesday but I doubt it. Tomorrow, depending on how I feel and the weather, I may introduce the Rock Lifting Workout. But if you remember, my last time doing this variation of the Sunday workout I said my right handed work was "decent". And like I said, a decent left hand effort would have made it C-range. My left hand did its job today, so I gave myself a C/D, but only a C/D because I want progress.

Five left hand squeezes on the IMTUG#5

It's your lucky day! TWO workouts in one day. This one's going to be more detailed than the last one, though. I weighed the rock and it wasn't as heavy as I thought, only 200 lbs. But that was a bit of an advantage for me, since I was able to do more with it to expiriment than I would have been able to do if it were 250 or 300 pounds. As I get more rocks, this will become more interesting to read. I still need to get myself a 110 lb stone (light, for one handed work or easy two handed work) and a 140-160 lb stone (medium, for two handed work). Maybe also a 300+ lb rock for very heavy lifting. Also, this one is going in the workout journal.

Heavy Rock Lifting with 200 lb Rock

1. Lifted it, set it down, then lifted it and took a few steps
2. Lifted it, set it down, then lifted it and took a few steps
3. Lifted it, set it down, rolled it onto a flat surface
4. Lifted it and held it standing up straight for 65 seconds

Grade: B+

Post workout commentary: I really don't know how to grade something like this. Whenever it's the first time with something new, I naturally want to give myself a generous grade. Mostly I was doing expiriments, and probably the next few weeks will be expiriments. I have several rock lifting goals, lift the light one overhead with one hand, pinch lift the light one at least somewhat, throw the light one at least 20 feet, lift the medium one overhead with two hands, two handed pinch lift it somewhat, and toss the medium one at least 10 feet, lift the heavy one and hold for over 100 seconds, throw the heavy one at least 3 feet, and simply lift at all the very heavy one. Of course, all I have now is the heavy one. I may also get a very light one.

Did you count off the number of steps you took or are you going by distance?

Not a bad workout for the first time round with a boulder.

yes, boulder!

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Look within...The secret is inside you.