Workout: Upper Body Back and Chest and The Gift of Running

Power: Snatch Grip Squats 3x5

• BB Bench Press Dream Pyramid
• Warm up well
• First set 5 rep max
• second set 4 rep max
• third set 3 rep max
• fourth set 2 rep max
• fifth set 1 rep max
• after completing the fifth set perform a drop set

• superset w/ perfect push ups x5 

• BB Bent Rows 3x6
• superset w/ pull ups x6
• Med Ball Plyo Push Ups 3x8
• superset w/ DB posterior raises x8

I call this particular bench press workout the dream pyramid because the parameters actually came to me one night in a dream. When I woke up and remembered my dream I realized that it could actually be a really good workout. It is designed so that your body will fatigue through the sets so each rep max will remain at similar weights. At the end of the fifth set, the one rep max, immediately perform a drop set by having the spotter remove 20lbs from the bar, then perform as many reps as possible, rack the weight, remove another 20lbs and repeat until the weight has reached the original weight that you used to begin warming up. For instance, if you warmed up with 135 lbs and your one rep max ended up being 245 lbs then your drop set will be at 225lbs, 205lbs, 185lbs, 155lbs, and then finally 135lbs. Every set prior to the fifth set will be superset with perfect push ups. The only rest between sets of the drop set is the amount of time it takes for the spotter to change the weights, otherwise there is no rest during the drop set.

A perfect push up is just that. With flexed quads, glutes and a tight core perform 5 push ups with a level spine. Have face looking directly at the floor, not up, and keep elbows in tight, as if performing a close grip bench. The tempo is !-1-3-1, with the "!" being the pressing or concentric phase, and the "3" being the lowering, or eccentric phase. So from the top, lower for 3 seconds, pause for 1 second with nose about an inch or two off the ground, then press explosively but controlled to the top and hold for 1 second before repeating.

If you are confused about any of these exercises, I try to use generic names for them so instructional videos can be found for most of them on youtube.

The Gift of Running

During the summer of 2011, in July, I sustained what at first I thought to be a minor injury, but would actually end up changing my life. I was doing front squats with 225 pounds on the bar. Because I was fairly strong at the time I was able to stand up powerfully enough to make the bar bounce. On my last rep of my last set I stood up, and the bar bounced. When it landed on my shoulders I felt a strange pop in my right hip and I was immediately in a lot of pain. I racked the bar and stumbled to the nearest place I could sit down. Because the pain was located just below my right glute I thought that perhaps I had pulled my hamstring.

I have never known how to explain to someone the amount of pain I had to endure for months after getting hurt. In the beginning, however, I was able to run well enough to keep playing football. I was in unreal pain but I could move fine, so I decided to just tough it out so I wouldn't lose my senior season of football. Gradually however, the pain increased and my ability to run properly diminished. This went on until the second to last game of the season when I found that I actually was completely incapable of moving faster than a very slow jog. Pain aside, I simply could not move my legs quickly anymore.

By the end of the season, I was in pain 100 percent of the time I was awake.  After months of increasingly excruciating pain, and a ruined senior season of football it was found that I had actually torn the hip labrum. On top of that, it turned out that I had a particular hip malfunction, generally due to malformation, called Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI). About eight months after injuring myself I had my first hip surgery. After the surgery, because my senior year of football was so disappointing to me, I decided that no matter how much work it would take, I would play college football. So my therapy began, and for a long time my recovery was spectacular. My only focus in training was getting ready to play college football. Then I hurt myself again. I guess I didn't learn anything the first time I hurt myself, because I decided to just tough it out. I was able to make the team through a tryout and about a week later I hurt myself even worse and I was out for all of spring football camp. I was cut and three months later I had my second hip surgery.

I am writing now about how wonderful the gift of running is because for the first time in 27 months, I am able to run pain free. Wednesday of this week was the first day since my surgery in July that I was able to run. And by run, I mean more like a slow jog, but it is running nonetheless. It was exhilarating. I am so thankful to God for the ability to run again. You can count on the fact that I will absolutely not overwork myself this time, but I will do everything I can to become a capable athlete again. I'm so thankful for the ability to run now because over the course of my injury I have learned the incredible amount of work the body must do in order to run. When you consider the amount of muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones in the leg, it is mind-blowing to think of how in synch all these components must be to function properly. Whenever I am watching high level sports, like the NFL, or Olympic track, I always look at the movements of the athletes legs when they run. It is a truly beautiful thing to witness when one considers the multitude of critical components there are to such a seemingly simple motion.

I have been through a lot of pain and hardship because of my hip injuries, but even I am fortunate compared some people. Not everybody has the luxury of being able to get up and just go for a jog. There are so many people who, for various reasons, simply cannot. Perhaps from birth they are incapable of running, or maybe they are paralyzed due to an accident. Imagine what they would be willing to give up to be able to just run? So for those of us who are capable of running, or perhaps are injured but will be able to after an amount of work, like I was, I'm writing this post to remind us of the incredible gift we have. It is nothing to be taken for granted. Like so many wonderful things we have in our lives that we take for granted, running could be taken from us in the blink of an eye. I lost the ability to run for more than two years because I let a barbell bounce three inches off of my shoulders. I could type for hours describing the ways in which that three inch bounce has changed my life. I am thankful for it though. I would not be becoming the man I am trying to become if not for the injury. God allows for hardships and challenges and life changing accidents to occur so that through them we can all become the men and women He intended for us to be. He allows for us to be knocked down, for us to become depressed, angry, and hurt so that he can offer us the strength we need to get back up, become the best that we can be and grow in our relationship with Him. Throughout my journey of becoming able to run again, I have learned more and grown more than I think I ever would have if I had not been hurt while doing front squats two and a half years ago. Therefore, I am incredibly thankful for the challenges that I have had to overcome and for the gift I have of being able to run again.

Running should be done on a regular basis by all who are capable of it, and the ability should be relentlessly sought after by those who cannot run, but could with a certain amount of work. Running shouldn't just be done for the health benefits, it should be done for the places it can take us, for the people we can become because of it, and for the pure beauty and intricacy of the movement.