Today I had planned on training my tail off.
I mean I really planned on hitting it hrad and picking some heavy weight up off the floor.

However my mind and my body had other ideas. I did not sleep well the nigh before and when I awoke I felt rundown, tired, and weak as a baby. My motivation was in the toilet and I was close to grabbing my gym bag and head out the door.

My training partner; Chris Sampson told me to go light and just go through the motions. he said , you are here why not do a little something and at least break a sweat. After he said this I remembered this saying  ”a workout missed is gone forever” I forget where I read that but it has always stuck with me.

Sometimes we must not workout to give our body time to heal. But advanced trainee’s can often push through and end up having a great workout anyway.

This is where a great training partner can be the difference. If it was not for my partner Chris I would have left today, no doubt about it. Instead I chose to go with what got me to where I am.

Heavy deadlift training.

As a seasoned lifter I recently got away from what made me, well me. I was so frustrated with some of my training that I started asking for assistance form some that I respect in the training world. This is not a bad thing nor is it a knock to my friends that offered me help. The problem is I know my body better than anyone else and I know what works for me.

After many years of trial and error I have my method of training down to a science, but only for me. I found that when I got away form my methods I could not get my body firing like I wanted it to. This means that I was not getting it to respond the proper way for me.

Today I tried some narow squats and like I have been finding out recently my knees hurt badly when doing this. I have never had knee pain during my 24 years of training. I did one light set of 8 and felt terrible. Then I moved on to 2 sets of barbell lunges for 2 sets of 8, same thing: Knees felt terrible and painful. Mind you that I am almost 40 and have never been an avid squatter since 1997 always favoring the deadlift over the squat.

I was discouraged and ready to call it a day.

Until that phrase popped in my head again- a workout missed is gone forever.

I then decided right there that I would do my Deficit deadlift of 520 for 3 sets of 3. I did that very thing and easily. I felt better and then did a 4th set of 3. Now I felt even better and went up to 545 and nailed another 3 reps. This set felt better than all my other sets. I stopped then though I felt like I could have gone even further.

I still don’t know what it is about my training that enables me to throw 500lbs on a bar and pick it up off the floor anytime I want and rep it out. I have always trained like this fo ryears. I always trained with the mentality that if I was to get stuck on the road and the car got a flat tire I always wanted to be able to pick the back end up to get a board or stone under it to hold it up if I had no jack available.

My thought was I would have no time to properly warm up to pick the car up or lord forbid if I had to lift something heavy off someone to save their life. 500lbs has always been my warm up number, I can pull it any day of the week and always get 10-15 repetitions. After I do this I always feel warm and ready to go. Though mnay scoff at this weird method it works for me. Powerlifter/Bodybulder Michael Keck and his wife Girls Gone Strong Jen Keck both told me that I am a freak and if they tried that their spines would be splattered across the gym wall.

I understand this and never train my clients to work this way. I have done this since 1997 when I learned to deadlift. I have never been injured and feel great. While it is of utmost importance to pay attention to our bodies and the advice of others that want to help you.

Sometimes all you have to do is look in the mirror at yourelf to find what you were lookng for to begin with.

The Machine