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KRC

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Lots of significant changes on my end recently. My relationship of seven years recently ended, I live in a new area across country, have a new job--really everything is different. Rather than continuing to get caught up in specific numbers or putting timeframes on specific goals, my only goal is to get better. That's it. Get better at lifting, at grip, at eating, at my professional goals, everything.

I've been driving up to Ottawa for about a month now to pull and things are going great. I can't thank the guys up there enough for their willingness to train a total n00b--for free--and to provide such an awesome atmosphere for badass training, Devon and Eric specifically for opening up their houses to me and others. It's clear I have a LONG ways to go, but I'm really glad to be able to stop thinking about armwrestling and be able to get after it, and with a great crew of guys.

I've lost about 27 pounds since March and I'm now down to 231. Pretty much the only goal I'm setting for myself right now is to get to 205 or below. I've taken a few different kinds of bodyfat analyses, and though they all differ slightly, they all signify that there's no reason that with my frame I can't be down around 200 and still be strong. Related to that, I'm pretty much starting over on all my lifts. I don't care where they are at all as dropping substantial weight is the main priority for so many reasons. So, I'm going super, super light just to get back in the swing of things and to accommodate the cut while still getting some decent work in. I'll still be doing grip stuff, but a lot less than usual outside of contest prep, probably just some RT reps and isos one or two days a week max.

It's going to take a while to get used to all of this, but things are headed in the right direction, and with all the free time I now have, there's nothing preventing me from consistently getting better.

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9.19.13

Got in the pool for a real, structured workout for the first time in over a decade.

20x50 freestyle @ 90s

Doing 50's on the 90 looks stupid easy on paper, but by the end it took a good amount of stress to complete for someone as out of pool shape as me. Felt great to get back in the water and 1000 yards is a good amount of volume at this point. Did the last 50 at ~85-90% and came in around 32-33 seconds. PR is 23.9 (from 1999-2000, lol).

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9.20.13

Just getting blood flow and a pump with lots of Iso holds on the RT handle with bands looped through. Followed up with a lot of high rep gripper (and inverted gripper) closes with the Sport, 1 and BBM.

Right shoulder trashed from swimming last night, lol. I have a bad habit of breathing only to one side which makes the opposite shoulder dip down and pull more than it should. Bilateral breathing--as I should have been doing from the start--going forward.

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Awesome training last night at Devon's. He spent a good amount of time with me working on hand positions at the start and we did sort of a drip for toprolling and I felt a lot stronger than I did even last practice. Consequently, I'm sore everywhere... like even in my glutes and calves sore.

eaving tomorrow for my sisters wedding but I'm gonna try to get some training in when I can depending on what I have access to down there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got a real lifting session in. The gym I'm going to isn't as great as I thought though--the vibe is perfect, but there is very little equipment. I'm thinking about buying some things like a texas bar and bench--I benched tonight on a Weider JC Penney bench--and asking to keep it at the gym. Once I get my own place I plan on setting up a home rig anyway so this could work.

Couldn't make it to arm wrestling Monday so I did some pretty extensive grip training. I'm curious to see how AW training translates to the grip sport events. Maybe Ill do a comp in the next few months.

10.2.13

Squat: up to 5x175

RDL: 3x10 @ 95

Bench: up to 5x135

CGBP: 3x10 @ 95

BBR: 3x10 @ 95

Just easing back into things.

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  • 5 months later...

Jedd is having a contest on 5/3 and I'll be logging my prep for that here. Starting from scratch so don't judge the weights :(

2HP: 3x12 @ 87.5lbs

2HP Hold: 2x1 @ 87.5lbs for 5s

Stub Hold: 1x10s R&L @ 10lbs (plus device weight)

I have my training laid out in two three week cycles with a light week in the middle. Gonna ramp up to pretty high volume. BW @ 225.5

Here is my training corner (I thought I had a small space before):

3Cl6lSm.jpg?1

It's less than 5'x5' but its all I got for now.

Only one goal for the comp: show up.

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3.14.14

Squat: up to 1x12 @ 135

Back Ext: 3x6 @ BW

Abs

Extremely appropriate video from last nights disastrous loss, summing up what it's like to be a Syracuse Basketball Fan:

(following 531 for now)

3.15.14

2HP: 3x10 @ 95 w/bands

Stub Hold: 1x12s L, 1x10s R @ 17lbs

Only going to train stub left hand and silver bullet right hand from here on.

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3.18.14 AM

Bench: up to 1x25 @ 95 ...

BBR: 3x10 @ 100

Shoulder DB complex

Abs

Started the program too light on the bench

3.18.14 PM

2HP: 4x8 @ 102.5 w/bands

1x1 @ 132.5

Stub: 1x12s @ 17.7 LH

Silver Bullett: 1x60s @ IM Sport RH

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3.20.14

2HP: 5x7 @ 107.5 w/bands

Stub: 1x9s @ 19.2

SB: 1x60s @ IM Trainer

Tore the webbing on both hands after the second set ... gonna stock up on electrical tape.

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I'm going to try and make Jedd's contest also dude. I hope I can and we can meet. I'm hosting New York Grip Throw Down II this summer also. Just something to keep in mind.

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3.22.14

DL: up to 1x15 @ 155

Lunges: 3x5

Abs

Back is tweaked--gonna roll/stretch it out over my first real weekend in a while. Also might consider doing 531 for PL style training on DL day.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My old boss retired last week and my new boss started Monday, and as part of that I found out have to travel for work the weekend of Jedd's contest :/

So I can't do the 10th Anniversary comp, but I started training for Chez's contest last night. Should get 4 solid months of training, and hopefully a lot of the guys that are going to Horseheads can make it to Chez's too.

4.2.14

Grippers: 3x8 CCS @ IM S

1x1 20mm @ GHP 5

Hub: 3x6 @ 30lbs w/hold at last rep

Gonna take it slow and keep programming as simple as possible.

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4.9.14

AM

Swimming

Warm up

3x(3x50) alternating breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle

Warm down

PM

Grippers: 3x4 @ IM1 w/1.5" block set

3x1 @ GHP5

Hub: 3x4 @ 35

3x1 @ 40

Singles up to 56.8

Haven't trained the hub in like 2 years so pretty pleased with this baseline. Goal I set for the comp when I laid this programming out was 60.

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4.10.14

RT: 3x6 @ 100

Hammer: 3x4 @ 132

Everything feels good. I saw Eric and Yori's video of the hammer event at their comp, and I tried doing the hammer without it being parallel to the floor the whole time and it felt great. I don't know if they do that on purpose, but it made a noticeable difference in how easy the lift was.

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4.12.14

AM - Swimming

warm up

6x75 back, breast, free strokes

warm down

PM - Grip

Grippers: 3x3 @ BBM w/1" BS

Hub: 3x3 @ 37.5

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4.13.14

RT: 3x5 @ 102.5

Hammer: 3x3 @ 138

1x1 @ 168 (ties all time PR)

I gotta put the ego aside and stop taking these singles...

Anyway, two weeks down and one more week of this first mini-cycle (of four). It's three weeks on and then one deload week at the end of which I do a mock meet of the comp events in order, at varying percents of my goals for the comp. This first cycle mock meet will be all events at 90% (second at 92.5%, third at 95% and fourth at 97.5).

When the next mini-cycle starts back up, it will be the same reps, but one extra set, and 5-10lbs heavier on all starting weights. So far so good.

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4.15.14

Week 3, day 3 today rather than tomorrow because I'll be travelling this weekend.

Grippers: up to 3x2 @ GHP5, 1x1 @ BBSM w/20mm block

Hub: 3x2 @ 40

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4.17.14

RT: 3x4 @ 105

Hammer: 3x2 @ 144

1x1 @ 174 (6lb PR)

1x1 @ 192 (24lb PR)

Things are going pretty well with the hammer--this was my goal weight for the comp, hit 2.5 weeks into my 16 week training cycle, with room to spare too. I think I might bump up my starting weight for the second micro-cycle.

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