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Special Weekend Post: Good, Bad, and Great News

You’re probably wondering what’s with the post on a Saturday – I mean, in the four or so plus years I’ve been blogging, I don’t think I’ve ever posted on a weekend.  What gives?

Well, truth be told, I have an ulterior motive that, if all goes according to plan, will undoubtedly go down as one of the coolest things to ever happen on this blog – if not the history of the interwebz (but more on that below).

But before I get to that, I’m sitting here in a Starbucks on a Friday night as I type this (yep, I’m that cool), and wanted to pass on a few tidbits of information to update people on what’s going on the life of TG.

The Good News

Things have really been amping up this year on the writing side of things.

  • One you may already know about.  T-nation.com has asked me to contribute more content on a monthly basis, which is of course, an honor.  As many of you know, I’ve been writing for t-nation.com sporadically since 2006, and it’s definitely opened up a lot of doors for me in terms of getting my name out there in the fitness community.  Entrepreneurship, unfortunately, threw a monkey wrench into things, and as a result, my article-writing prowess has suffered as of late.  So, when they asked me if I’d be willing to be one of their Featured Authors, I of course jumped at the opportunity.   You’ve already seen a few pieces HERE, HERE, and HERE, and you can expect even more in the near future.

 

  • Secondly, and something that I’m really excited about, is for another online site that is one of the most popular sites in the world (according to alexa.com, it’s ranked close to top 1,000!).  I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet cause we’re still in the early stages, but needless to say I’m humbled that they would even think to ask me to be a part of their team.  More on this soon.

Basically, this year is turning into a really big year for me thus far.  With Cressey Performance growing, the new site growing, and my ego growing, I fully expect world domination by September.

The Bad News

As a precursor to what you’ll read more about below (OMG, I’m going to pee my pants!!!!!), the game plan was to nail a new deadlift PR of 585 lbs this past Thursday and use that as a decoy, or segue if you will.  Alas, I suck at life, and only got it like an inch off the ground.

In my own defense, though, it was one of those “hey, sounds like something fun to do” type of things and I didn’t necessarily train for it in any way.  If I had, hell, I might have gotten it two inches off the ground.

Nevertheless, since not hitting the lift ruined my thunder, I needed something in the pinch to pick up the slack.  So, I decided to do what any man in my situation would do when lacking a serious dose of manliness – and post the trailer of Over the Top instead:

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure Chuck Norris was conceived through the making of that trailer.

Okay, okay enough of the rambling….lets cut to the chase and get with the GREAT news already.

Hello Kelsey Doucette, in case you’re watching – which I know you are because I was informed you read my site daily.

I wanted to let you know that someone by the name of Stevo contacted me, whom you may know as your boyfriend.  He told me that the two of you hope to get married this Fall and would like to visit Cressey Performance for your Honeymoon.

However, I hear that the two of you aren’t engaged yet, which makes it difficult to fully plan a wedding and subsequent honeymoon.  So, Stevo told me that he didn’t think he’d have that great a chance of marrying you unless I was involved, as I’m uncannily witty and could also give you a run for your money in a “Lord of the Rings” trivia death match.

If you could please watch the following video, I would love to personally invite you to Cressey Performance for your honeymoon, pending your response to the video below:

UPDATE:  She said yes!!!!

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Miscelleaneous Miscellany Monday: Surprise B-day Party Edition

1.  I’ve had to keep my lips sealed for far too long on this one, but this past weekend I flew home for the day for a surprise 60th b-day party for both my mom and step-dad.  My sister and sister-in-law have been in cohoots for quite some time, and they did an amazing job at pulling off an epic party.

Now, rather than spend ten hours in a car driving to and from NY, I elected – reluctantly – to fly instead.

Five hours in the car vs. a 60 minute flight:  easy choice, right?

Upon arriving at the airport early Saturday morning, I looked at my plane and it had freakin propellers.   PROPELLERS!!!!!

Anyone who knows me, knows I HATE flying.  And, as you can probably surmise, up untll that point I had never flown in such a small plane before.  Packed in like sardines, we took off, and I pretty much destroyed the back of my pants.

Long story short, both my parents were caught off guard, and it was awesome to see their reactions when they walked through the door to see all of us standing there.

Everyone:  SURPRISE!!!!!!!

Mom [deer in headlights look]:  Oh…….oh my gosh, what in tha………OMG, Tony!  Where’s Lisa?

Me:  Hi Mom, I love you.

Mom:  Where’s Lisa?

Me:  Happy Birthday!!

Mom: Where’s Lisa?

Needless to say, my Mom really likes my girlfriend…….haha.

2.  While away this weekend, I was able to get a quick lift in at my alma mater, SUNY Cortland.  I hadn’t been there in like eight years, and it was really surreal to be walking around campus again.

A quick aside:  for those that don’t know, Cortland has played host to the NY Jets for the past few seasons during their training camps, and was featured this past season on HBO’s Hard Knocks.

Of course, as expected, I was surrounded by a bunch of dudes with wife-beaters on, doing every bicep curl variation known to man – not to mention the obligatory guy who puts waaaaaaaay too much weight on his back, only to squat down maybe four inches.

It comes with the territory, I suppose; kinda what I expected.

I was didn’t expect, however, was how the facility itself has really improved since I left.  While most college (student) gyms are lucky to have one squat rack, this one had three – as well as an olympic platform, various different bars (thick bars, trap bars, etc), a glute ham raise, battle ropes, kettlebells, and a host of other goodies that made me feel like a kid in a candy store.

I kept it pretty simple:  worked up to a few heavy singles on the deadlift, followed by some bulgarian split squats, then glute ham raises, and then finished off with some KB windmills and swings.  Okay, okay…..I also sneaked in some curls, too.  Jesus! But it was only two sets.  Okay, three.  I mean four.

3.  Someone sent me this quote from strength coach Nick Horton, and asked for my response:

But, personally, I’m in favor of dumping box squats all together (we never do them), as the idea of spinal compression from BOTH ends is scary to say the least.  You should never sit down when heavy weight is on your back, IMO (powerlifters start throwing stones at me … now).  The potential benefits do NOT outweigh the risks.

Still, he’s dead right about Oly squats kicking the butt of box squats.  And, that you should squat if you have any interest in not being wimpy.

My Response:  We use box squats quite a bit at CP – as we feel it’s a great tool to teach proper depth in the squat.  Likewise, we don’t teach our athletes the traditional “powerlifting” box squat (rocking off the box); instead, we teach more of a tap-n-go approach, and to stay tight in the bottom.  Additionally – and this is an important point –  the spine does a fairly good job at handling compressive loads – it’s sheer loads (rounding of the back) that you have to be careful of.

To that end, we also use Olympic style squats a lot, too.  It just depends.

Either way, this is no jab at Coach Horton – the guy trains a ton of athletes and he’s doing things the right way.   Besides, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and who am I to say that he’s wrong and I’m right?  We may have different thoughts on certain things, but so long as our athletes are getting better, that’s all that really matters.

4.  I will say, though, if we’re going to talk about how NOT to perform box squats, this video pretty much hits the nail on the head.  Seriously, if you can make it past the whole “you don’t want to squat to parallel – you should keep your knees below the hips” comment without wanting to jam a pen through your eye, you win!

Since you’re not going to parallel, the key to this exercise is to load it up as heavy as possible, so that the body gets used to handling a lot of weight.

Says the guy with 15 lbs on his back.

A small part of me is thinking this has to be fake – but them again, it probably isn’t.  Excuse me while I go jump into a live volcano.