Do you want a great looking back side??

“The way I was able to live my dream, rather than dream my life was through consistency.”
-Zach Even Esh

Thursday Nights Workout
Conventional Deadlifts – We have made the switch from pulling sumo to pulling conventional. Both of us feel we can pull more using the conventional style, and when your in a powerlifting the meet the point is to lift the most weight possible one time. Below I have posted pictures of the two different set ups, the one on the left is the SUMO position and the right is the CONVENTIONAL position.

Because neither of us have pulled conventional in about 6 months we worked up to a one rep max.
365 X 1, I then missed 405 four times in a row due to grip issues, then figured it out and GOT IT for one, finished up with 365 X 2, and 365 X 1
Step ups
(2 sets)
GHR’s with black band – Do you want a great looking back side?? Of course you do, who doesn't…if your gym has a Glute Ham Raises I HIGHLY recommend you start doing these. You can also do these with a partner. If you have no clue what a GHR check out this awesome video by Martin Rooney…
(2 sets)

THEN we had our first intramural basketball game… After a heavy deadlift session I’ve had better ideas like lay down, don’t move, and be a vegetable. So I got on the court and immediately I regretted my decision because I couldn’t move without my back or legs telling me I'm an idiot. I ran up and down the court like I had a stick in my butt… obviously not my favorite feeling and not everyone's favorite sight to see. Next week we won’t be working out before our game so my basketball abilities should increase 10 fold (just kidding Ill probably do worse. I suck at basketball.)

Friday Night

Tonight I made sure to include a ton of grip work because that was definitely my limiting factor yesterday for the deadlift.

Speed Bench

(165 X 8 set of 3 reps moving the bar as fast as possible)

Push Press Deload Week
(65 X 5, 85 X 5, 100 X 5)
Chin Ups with Fat Gripz
3 sets of AMAP (As Many As Possible)
Dips
3 sets of AMAP
Face Pulls with a Towel
3 sets
Cross Body DB Extensions- I got this exercise from Dave Tate check the video below he explains it much better then I could ever do…
3 sets

Going to the 4th Annual MBSC Seminar tomorrow, ill be posting my review on Sunday night. Have a great weekend everyone.
TRAIN HARD!

STRUGGLE

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
- Albert Einstein

Getting through today was a STRUGGLE. We were suppose to hit the gym at 8 am this morning but it just didn’t happen. Sometime life gets in the way, so we will be doing our deadlift workout tomorrow night. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get a workout in…today during some down time at work I was able to get in:

20 min of Stretching and Mobility

10 min of Jumprope

5 min of Med Ball Work

and then I finished up with 5 min of Bench and Deadlift technique practice with just the bar

A beautiful picture representation of my day

This weekend I’ll be attending the 4th Annual MBSC Seminar with Kevin. The first 4 hours is observation where I'm assuming we get to go workout and get instruction from some of the top coaches in our profession. I am most psyched about this part because who wouldn’t want to meet and workout with the best strength and conditioning coaches out there??

The next 5 hours will be the actual seminar. Presenting at this years event will be:

Eric Cressey: Medicine Ball Meat and Potatoes

John Pallof : Training the Shoulder - Mobility to Stability

Brijesh Patel: It's Not All About the Sets and Reps

Michael Boyle: ACL Injury Prevention is Just Good Training

I could not be more excited to go and meet, listen, and learn from these guys. This is the stuff the you just cannot learn from college classes or from a book. This is real world experience. There will be at least 100 plus people all from my line of work in one room! The networking opportunity is HUGE.

So many people I know do not continue their education. They either think they already know everything and cannot advance any further in their career or they think that just going to class and getting that piece of paper from a College means that you know what your talking about. I can tell you right now that I personally have learned 10 times more about strength and conditioning from my internship at Athletic Evolution, training clients, working out myself 5 times a week for the past 8 years, and from reading every book and blog I can find, then I have ever learned in a classroom.

So many people tell me that they don’t have time to read, go to conventions or seminars, or do an internship. Well I say BULLSH*T. Excuse my language but it really is. You don't have time to read? Everyone has time to read its just that most people would rather watch TV, play video games, or shoot the shit. Whenever I have down time I read. Between classes, before bed, going to the bathroom, on the bus, while eating lunch!

Some times I arrive to class 20 min early so that I can read. There are usually 5 to 10 kids just sitting there listening to their IPod's twiddling their thumbs waiting for class to being. Why not bring a book with you an read? How about that 20 min when you watch TV before bed? or that 20 min you eat lunch or ride the bus? That’s 20 min to you could be using to continue your education. An extra 20 min a day would do people wonders. It doesn’t even matter what it is, just read.

Also, if you ever have the opportunity to do and internship or go abroad… DO IT! The experience you gain is experience you can never get in a classroom. Everyone I know who has done an internship or gone abroad has learned more about themselves, their life, and their profession than they ever thought possible. My internship was 4 days a week 12 hours a day. I trained 100’s of kids per day from sun up to sun down. Our bosses threw us right into the fire and made us learn on the fly. I can tell you that the hours sucked and some days were better then others but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything else in the world. I learned more about myself, training, and business then I could have ever learned if I was working some crappy job that summer or sitting in class learning about how alcohol is bad for you and that eating less food will make you lose weight duhhhhh.

And guess what I did that internship for $1000. My rent in Boston cost me $1200 for the summer, not to mention all the other expenses it cost to live there. But I know the return on investment, for you business majors out there, is so much more then what I had to pay because that experience I gained somewhere down the line will make me my money back and then some.

So what have you been doing to continue your education? Pick up a book, or do that internship, you’ll thank me.

Check out this Henry Rollins interview… I love this guy because he just tells you how it is…

Thanks for reading, lets hear your comments… Leave one below.

New Transformation Pictures

“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
-William Faulkner

Weighed in at 188 today about 10 % Body Fat

Here Are the New Transformation Pictures!

Let me remind you I was about 260 at 33% in those pictures from high school

So we’re 5 weeks away from the meet and I was going to compete in the 198 weight class but because I'm about 188 right now I think I’ll be dropping down to the 181 class.

At the grocery store tonight my roommates and I went shopping as a family. And for being such a good boy in the store Chris bought me this sweet Miley Ray Cyrus tattoo.

Bench Press with a Pause (see video)
2/1 reps X 8 sets X 90 % Plus = Heavy Week
Work Sets

(250 X 1, 265 X 1, 275 X miss, 275 X 1, 265 X 1, 265 X 1, 255 X 1, 245 X 3)

Foam Press
(275 X 2, 295 X 1, 305 X 1)

Pull Ups
(10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 = 10 sets for a total of 55 reps)
so we went from 10 reps down to one rep. Kevin and I would switch off every time

-Superset with-

Seated Rows
(For these we went 1 to 10… 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 = 10 sets for a total of 55 reps)

Rear Delt Raises with the Band
(2 sets)

Dumbbell Curls
(3 sets)

Thanks for reading and remember email me with any questions you might have zoomassfitness@gmail.com 

This video is a collaboration of all the best and worst videos of 2009 which gave me a few laughs and made me feel much better about myself and my intelligence…

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

WARNING: If you don’t like watching people get hurt and bust their face don’t watch this…

Why Be Physically Active?? Here’s your WAKE UP call…

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Elenor Roosevelt

This will be my first full week of classes this semester and I got a lot of big things going on tomorrow. We’ll be at the gym at 8 am, then I have 4 classes and at 4:00 PM I have a one on one meeting with my entrepreneurship teacher. He is the owner of Bueno’s right here in Amherst and various other restaurants. I am very excited to run my ideas by him. Then at 6 PM Kevin and I are having our first Bodyweight Bootcamp class. If your interested send me and email brearick@student.umass.edu .

In one of my classes this week we discussed the benefits of physical activity. Some of these things are very obvious but some of them you might not be to familiar with. After you read this list you’ll know why physical activity is emphasized so much and if you are not physically active, you might want to rethink your lifestyle.

I hope this isn’t you

All it takes is 20 to 60 min a day 5 to 7 days a week. The average person watches 4 hours of TV per week or 35 min per day. Imagine taking those minutes to get a workout in? 35 min per day? Hell you can even workout while you watch TV.

Why Be Physically Active??

1. Decrease in overall mortality rates
2. Decrease risk of Coronary Heart Disease
3. Prevents or Delays Hypertension (>120/80 mmHg)
4. Decrease Risk in Colon Cancer
5. Risk Of Various Other Cancers
6. Increase in glucose management
7. Increase in bone mineral density
8. Increase in respiratory system
9. Increase in Oxygen utilization and decrease in sarcopenia ( muscle loss due to aging)
10. Decrease in birth complications and increase in sexual pleasure
11. Increase in motor skills
12. Increase in self-image and self concept with a decrease in stress and mild depression
13. Increase in  digestion and excretion
14. Increase in Quality of sleep
15. Decrease risk of Alzheimer's

(courtesy of Dr. Rife’s Wellness Programming Class)

So you think you don’t need to exercise because your not fat, you don’t have time, you don’t like it, or whatever excuse you have, well think again. Being Physical activity is WELL worth your time and if you can’t find time to exercise MAKE time to exercise. You don’t need to belong to a gym, have to have fancy equipment, or even need to be outside. You can get a great workout in small space on your bed room floor. Stop making excuses and find 20 min a day to do some type of physical activity. If this list of benefits is not enough for you to change you mind and make you take action, then I don’t know what the hell will. Some people need a WAKE UP call before they take action, but sometimes that wake up call can lead to serious physical problems that you cannot overcome and can sometimes even result in death. SO tell me… are you going to take the necessary action now to avoid your WAKE UP call???

Contact me if you want to make that change, and we can work together so that call never comes.

Great workout today. Got some good video today and the weights were real light because it is our DELOAD week. Basically we lower all our weights in order to:

• To give your body a rest
• To give your mind a rest
• To peak for a meet
• To prevent overtraining
• To increase your chances of progress
• To prevent injury
• To increase motivation in gym/prevent becoming stale

(courtsey of Jim Wendler at EliteFTS this is a great article if you are interested in what a DELOAD really entails of.)

Speed Deadlifts – Conventional (see video…we will be moving to conventional deadlifts this week just to see the difference between our conventional and sumo pulls)

(205 lbs X 10 sets X 2 reps)

Squats (See video… the video today is of Jay. When I first met Jay this summer he couldn’t squat a popsicle stick with two socks on the end of it without looking like he was having a seizer in the squat rack. In the video you see him performing 5 solid reps of 185 with perfect form. I’m very proud and impressed with Jays progress in only about 6 months) 

(125 X 5, 155 X 5, 185 X 5)

Full Power Cleans with Front Squat

(85 X 5, 95X 5, 115 X 5)

Reverse Hypers with a Band

(2 sets)

One Arm Farmers Walks

(2 sets)

Single Leg Hip Lifts Off a Bench with Weight

(2sets)

 

As always thanks for reading, keep training hard! Please subscribe by entering your email above and add me on Facebook if you haven't already. You can also now follow me on Twitter! I know you all probably think I’ve gone crazy… and you're right I have. Live your passion.