Good to see people are looking at my blog updates, but when I don't see comments, it's easy to think that it is not being watched. For example, I'm a little surprised that the Grand Finale Workout didn't generate questions or comments, and neither do my quarterly reports. But then again, I've been posting workout blogs since late 2007, so a lot of questions may have been answered. But then again, there HAVE been a lot of changes since that time, it just makes me wonder if the excitement of my workout blog has worn off, so to speak. Or maybe if I need to do something new with it to grab the attention of new members.

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Along with my grade explanation, I'm going to give a somewhat lengthy review of the 2009 season before delivering a final grade of the season, a final verdict, if you will, much like I did last year. Unlike last year's ups and downs, this one was mostly down early on with occasional bright spots, and then, in late summer, as if by the flip of a switch, things not only got better, but they suddenly went from the worst string of workouts I'd had to endure to the best string of workouts that I'd ever had the good fortune of experiencing. Most years, such as 2007 and 2008 have pronounced ups and downs, but this would make a nice smooth chart shaped like a hockey stick, smooth up through July, possibly even a decrease, then a slight increase in August, and then a massive increase in every month in the fall. I had never seen a workout year where I started off regressing and then made progress like I had never seen before. It's almost like fall of 2009 made up for the struggles of not only the first two thirds of this year, but it made up for the struggles of 2008 as well (it was a year of ups and downs, but there was a steady long term pattern of general progress, digging myself out of the hole I'd fallen into and then some by a good bit, if you look closely, general, steady progress through 2008, ending the year much better than I had begun it). But all of this year will be factored into the grade.

After ending my workout season last year, I had big hopes for this year, taking off most of January, which still remains the only month I take off from working out, but on January 26, it began ominously, ending my streak of good kickoff workouts with what was at the time the worst workout I had ever done (after two even worse workouts, it now sits as the third worst workout I'd ever done, but still, what a way to begin the year). After that horrendous beginning, I seemed to have recovered, having a couple weeks of decent workouts at the end of January and the first half of February. But that was just an illusion, after two halfway decent Thursday Grip Workouts and one actually decent Sunday Grip Workout, the trials and tribulations set up by the Kickoff Workout, the spectre of the first one that went bad quickly took over. We all know that a bad beginning, a bad first impression can ruin things, sometimes permanently. The Month Of Infinite Sorrow, as I call it, a string of bad workouts began with a bad Valentine's Day Workout (Sunday Grip Workout on February 14th with red font) and finally ended with a rare "B" grade a month later, around the time I had reintroduced bench pressing, on March 14th's workout, it consisted of a bunch of failing workouts and workouts that just barely made the grade, with the lone bright spots being a D+ and a D. However, with bench pressing reintroduced, that gave some thought that a new era was dawning, things were going to improve. I also created a rock lifting workout, which was a huge success. With my bench pressing, rock lifting, and grip workouts, things had finally began to look up, I was slowly getting out of the hole, the struggle was over. Or so I thought.

On an ill-fated April night, when I had just finished manual labor, and I was already soft from near-injuries from doing things that put my back into unsafe positions (such as bent-pressing without building my stomach muscles first, it uses a lot of the obliques and abdominals to lift the weight), I had finally done it. I knocked my back out of commission from lifting a rock wrong, and rather than just doing the logical thing of setting it down and trying again in a few minutes, I kept trying to lift it, and then not only that but finished the workout. For the next week, things just got worse, and on May 5, I had to begin my hiatus when a Tuneup Tuesday proved to be the final straw. My back, my legs, just about everything connected felt sore as hell for weeks. By late May, I was finally feeling fine agian, but I didn't want to risk anything, so I put off the return to working out (and did some abdominal exercises) until after a few more weeks of chiropractor treatment. Finally, by late June, I was ready to work out again. But the workout came at a price, I would then have the worst workout that I had ever done, surpassing the Kickoff Workout, and this string of awful workouts would largely continue through July, doing a workout that almost was a second -2, and I had become so sick of these workouts that I assigned one workout a -100 grade (which I later revoked), and my workouts by early August had finally begun to show signs of improvement. It was very slow, however, especially due to two weeks I smartly took off when I felt an injury was looming around the corner, and it wasn't until a few decent late August workouts that I felt like I had really begun making progress. With a clean BeefBuilder Master and a discovery on hand position, I was in prime position to start having good workouts again. Even though the reintroduction of the bench press was a failure at first, it quickly improved to a level beyond decent and became good. I was already almost at where I was in 2007 and 2008 again by late September (remember the reps), but I wasn't done by a long shot. I was about to discover just how much progress can be had in a single workout season.

In mid-September, the slow progress had quickened into a fast progress. It was late summer, football season had started, and my workouts had begun to improve exponentially, the Master gripper that I had struggled all year with was now so easy, that I moved up to the Ironmind #2 a week after closing it, and around that same time, I began to have results with chest crushing the BeefBuilder Elite. Not only results, but I closed the Super Elite and then moved up to it for my workouts. But I still continued to make massive progress. With only a handful of disapponting workouts (with none of them being all THAT bad, and actually by the standards of January-August, were pretty good), I had finally seen just how fun working out can be. Facing adversity had made me tougher, and facing and overcoming adversity IN a workout had really changed my look on things. I eventually dominated the Ironmind #2 so much that I couldn't not move up to the BeefBuilder Super Master. At first, it was a struggle to work with that thing, but I came close by the end of the year, although I never quite got it closed. I made a leap of progress from 1" away from closing it in September to 1/8" from closing it in late December. And we can't forget that I was finally closing the BeefBuilder Master with my left hand. Additionally, December was my best workout month ever. In November, I reintroduced my old standard dumbbell workout (with modifications) that was the staple of my workouts from 2001-2008, although no longer the center of my workout regime, it still holds an important place. In addition to that, I moved up to the BeefBuilder Grand Elite with chest crushing, I came close to chest crushing the Ironmind #4, and even the pinch block, which had been a struggle all year to advance much on, by year's end I found myself ready to move up. With the bench press, at one point I moved up in consecutive weeks and was ready to move up in December. And along with doing one last rock lifting workout, it overall was the best one that I had done at that point, even my wrist roller made tons of progress in the fall (the only thing to make progress the rest of the year as well), and so did the anvil lifting. I had went from giving myself D's and F's to B's and C's to A's in just a short time. Fittingly, my Grand Finale Workout, better than last year's by far, was graded an A++, and the fall season was graded A+++, a newly invented grade. So, without further ado, here is the final grade for this year.

Grade: B-

Explanation: Although late summer and fall were beyond great, I couldn't really give myself a higher grade than something in the B-range, and I had struggled so much over winter, spring, and summer that that it doesn't really make it a good workout year. While this is one of the better workout years I've ever had, with the best being 2005, a year I had made nearly endless progress without a single injury getting in my way, this workout season is still better than 2007 and 2008, and about on par with 2006 another year that I remember fondly, even better than 2003 and 2004, which were also decent workout years. The only bad workout year I'd ever had was 2007 (which would likely get a D overall), even last year with today's grading system (that I first applied last year) would get only a C+. While the fall was great, I also had to take into account the part of the year that I struggled greatly. The best part of this year was that not only did I make progress towards the end, but it played catch-up enough that I actually want to forego the workout break, when usually I'm just relieved to be done, and it sets up some high expectations for next year. Hopefully I'm not let down next year, but I will try my best not to get too ambitious with the standards. Like a class I had in college where I struggled early but finished strong, this workout season has been one of the ones that I learned the most from. Not just about injuries but ways to approach a workout, and how simple solutions and flexibility can produce great workout results, just like it did this fall.

Explanation: Like that game, there was a shaky start, but slowly things began to turn out right until a huge explosion at the end of good fortune. In January through August, it was generally slow progress, with some regression at times, I was just hoping for a spark, and then towards the end it not only took off, but what had been a very slow moving 2009 workout season finally culminated with a great fall, like the fourth quarter of the Penn State vs Northwestern game. Also, like that game, the fourth quarter was the strongest. Just look at how amazing the final quarter of the Penn State vs Northwestern game was compared to their struggles the first three quarters, just like how the fourth quarter of my year, the fall quarter, was worlds better than the other three quarters of my workout year was. There were signs of hope here and there early on, but after the ominous start, it took a very long time for things to correct themselves. But when they corrected themselves, they more than made up for the early struggles, what began as a year that I couldn't wait to be done so I could close the book on it, became a year that at the end, I wished could last longer so I could continue having all this progress with my workouts. Look at how much I struggled with closing the Master and chest crushing the Elite early on, then by year's end, I was using a gripper two levels harder for both tasks (Super Master for gripper work and Grand Elite for chest crushing), it was almost like the final third of my year, especially the final quarter of the year, didn't match up with the rest of the year. It's amazing how the fall quarter saved a disaster of a year and made it into something special that I will always fondly look back upon and remember. Before this year, not only had I never closed the Ironmind #2, but I had struggled with the Master, now I can almost close the Super Master. Before this year, I could barely chest crush the Elite, but now I can easily chest crush the Grand Elite and almost chest crush the Ironmind #4.

With the 2009 workout season done, it's worth noting that this is probably the first season I can remember (this didn't even happen in 2005 and 2006) where I was so enthusiastic about my workouts that I actually didn't want to pull the plug right before Christmas on my workout season like I always do. Usually I'm thinking "Thank God that's over, I'm done with it all, and I'll probably be enthusiastic again in the spring", but this year I was thinking "I wish I had one or two more workouts to go, but I know I need this time off". Usually the time off is focused on snowpiling and relaxing the overworked muscles, possibly going to a chirporactor to get myself loosened up again with an adjustment, but the time off is a lot shorter than it used to be for one simple reason, the workout schedule isn't focused around the kind of full body workouts that it used to be, mostly focusing on grip stuff, with benching and military pressing and other things like that being of secondary importance. I think it's apparent with the changing of the format of the Grand Finale Workout that the format of my workout regime in general has changed. Since gripper work interferes very little with snowpiling, I can start that up in late January, but stuff like bench pressing and military pressing don't start until February, and rock lifting will be idle until at least March, maybe April, the last rock lifting workout can usually be done in November or early December. Ironically, a new workout is the only one that confines itself to my old workout schedule which only took place in spring, summer, and fall. With the addition of the winter quarter, I get to focus more on grip workouts, and I'm hoping that by March I can close the Super Master, even sooner if possible. I'm hoping that the lull of most of this past year is gone now and it's all progress for me next year in all aspects of the workouts I do.

Happy New Year! Well, now I'm certainly getting into the meat and potatoes of my break from working out now that the 2009 workout season has ended, and I can honestly say that I have never been this hungry for the break to end and may start up again as early as the 17th which would be the earliest I ever started up again, putting my time off as only a SLIM majority of January and tiny chunk of December. But ultimately what I'm looking most forward to is the continuation of what last fall started. Although things went downhill in 2007 and early 2008 and I spent the rest of 2008 and most of 2009 picking up the pieces, I can honestly say that finally, I am finally getting done what I've wanted to get done for a long time. I just hope that I'm not rusty after I come back from my month off, and I return to having good Kickoff Workouts. Probably about a week from now, I'll start the 2010 blog, post a list of my goals, and give a general listing of my grading system. And I'll hope to get my fans to be speculators, not just spectators, of the 2010 workout season and their predictions.

congrats on the success

OMG you do this everyday???? I went to the gym for the first time ever today and OMG the pain!!!!!!! I am sitting here stiff and sore, hot shower didn't help! What am I doing to myself! and I only spent 40 minutes working out, that is what the guys told me when I got there since I am a newbie...I thought I was pretty strong and in pretty ok shape till today!
Tell me this gets easier,
tell me the pain won't be like this all the time,
tell me to keep at it, cause right now I am thinking the hell with this, it hurts!!!


Altoona Man, you are my new hero!

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I can only make one person happy a day, Today is not your day...
Tomorrow isn't looking good either. Check back next week.

I don't do this everyday, actually less than that. A lot less. And I only work out 11 months of the year (taking off the last week of December and the first two thirds of January, in addition to some week breaks through the year, maybe closer to 10 total if you factor those in). Usually I work out 3-4 days a week when I'm in full swing (close to 1-2 days a week at each end), and sometimes 5 days a week, but I make sure to take at least two days a week off, and never repeat the same workout two days in a row. However, during the winter, I do snowpile work, which is way harder than anything I do workout-wise, although not as effective as building specific strength (imagine carrying six buckets up a narrow stairwell of 15 steps, then dumping them on a snowpile, it all makes my workouts seem like a cakewalk, and I'm a big time manual labor enthusiast, I work out with a 200 lb rock if you remember). It builds more all around strength, but it's a separate category from my workouts. And I don't just bring six buckets or so (sometimes two sets of four) of snow up one time, I probably bring them up about 40 times in a row, no breaks, one after another, after filling them up, then dumping them on the snowpile. Hope my snowpile stories aren't scaring you off of workout out, I'd NEVER get anybody but a volunteer to do much snowpile help. Plus, I'm what you could call fussy about how it's all done.

Good news, the pain will not be as severe as you go on. I remember when I started, I'd be sore for a week after a workout, and every year after the break I'm sore for 3-4 days after starting up again, but once you're into the groove the soreness becomes mild, and only lasts for 1-2 days (I've actually done a half-workout, abandoned it, then done the full workout the next day and felt fine after some initial soreness). My advice is to take hot showers after every workout to loosen up the muscles and apply Tiger Balm or something similar. But hey, thanks for considering me your workout hero. If you have any workout related questions, feel free to PM me or continue the discussion in the 2010 blog that I'll be starting fairly soon. Just remember, you may be a beginner, but don't give up. It gets easier as your muscles adapt over time, but at the same time, if you toughen your standards up, it actually gets tougher in a way because you can handle more. You'll know what I mean in time. When I started working out in 2001, for example, curls with 25 lbs were hard and I could only push press 50 lbs once. Now I can do over twice that. In time, you will be able to do a lot more if you stick to it and don't give up. There were a few times I almost gave up, once I had a really brutal injury in 2008, way worse than what I had this year in the spring, I almost quit working out but then I reshuffled everything and now I'm having more success than I'd ever dreamed. Also, don't be afraid to expiriment and see what works and what doesn't, I needed years to finally get it right.