Got out of my advising appointment a lot quicker than I had anticipated, so I figured instead of spending my precious time on homework with due dates, I would grace your eyes/ears with more of my ramblings. I do wish I had headphones because the conversations I am eavesdropping on are killing my brain cells… But I just can’t stop listening.

Ok, back to fitness.

Last Friday we hosted a Halloween party and post-Whole Life Challenge celebration at CrossFit Alaska, complete with beer pong, lots of ridiculous costumes, and a drinking WOD. I’ve never been a fan of Halloween, but after this year I found myself inspired for H-ween 2014. Oh, maybe I should tell you what I was for Halloween this year… It’s kind of a “you have to be there” on a daily basis type of costume.. So if you’re totally confused, that’s ok. Don’t worry about it:

On Sunday, I taught a little Bench and Deadlift clinic during Open Gym at CrossFit Alaska to 6 athletes and I saw some average bench pressers turn into BENCH PRESSERS right before my eyes. In the session, I briefly explained the significance of an arch, and showed a way to set your arch without a huge backbend. However, one of the athletes, Dillon, really wanted to implement a full-on backbend bench press set-up (similar to mine, if you’ve ever seen it). First, I was impressed by the flexibility of his spine! It seems like most men don’t have as flexible spines as females.. Secondly, he maintained that same exact set-up throughout the entire clinic and worked up to a 1 rep max of 265-lbs (easily, with commands) at a bodyweight of 165. For a CrossFitter, that’s good! And he’s only going to improve now that he has proper technique. Another moment of success was getting Karen to actually push with her legs while pressing. Not only did she learn to push with her legs, she thrusted her hips so high in the air that we probably could have stacked 2 AbMats under her butt… So, a little much, but now we can work to find a happy medium of driving with her legs, but keeping her butt on the bench 🙂 I can’t wait to have this crew compete at the USA Powerlifting Southside Winter Classic on December 7th. We are going to have a ball.

This weekend (Saturday), I’m assisting Rob in putting on a Powerlifting 101 Clinic at CrossFit Anchorage. We are going to teach CrossFitters in Alaska how to get real strong so that they can: do 1,000 Wallballs without stopping, never get stuck in the bottom of a Clean, and so many other cool things. Wouldn’t it be cool if you were so strong that RX-ing the weight in a workout was never a concern? We are going to tell you how to get THAT strong. (Hint: it may involve creatine and squats)

Hold tight, because I will have CANNONBALL t-shirts for sale soon as a fundraiser so that I do not starve to death before going to the Arnold in February.

Here is my heavy Bench session from this week:

Oh and this article really sums up how I feel about Sumo Deadlift High Pulls: http://breakingmuscle.com/crossfit/the-sumo-deadlift-high-pull-is-stupid

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” – Margaret Drabble