This weekend Brian and I traveled to Orlando Barbell to be a part of a mini UGSS held at Orlando Barbell.  In attendance from elitefts™ was Brian Carroll, Jo Jordan, Brian Schwab, Bob Youngs, Gabe Naspinski, Chad Walker, and Dave Tate.

Before I forget, I want to say thanks to several people. Thank you, Brian and Trinity Schwab for hosting this. They were great hosts and I appreciated everything they did to help make us comfortable. I want to thank Bob Youngs for the planning and the invite. I love hearing from Bob and it was an honor to be invited to this. And of course, I want to thank Dave Tate for coming down and hanging with us for the weekend and for everything he does for us. It never goes unnoticed.

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I arrived Friday night just in time to get cleaned up and head to dinner with everyone. I was feeling sick, but had a great time in spite of a nasty headache; a recurring problem that I share with Dave. I didn’t know that until some discussion before we left for dinner.

When we arrived at Texas de Brazil the look on the manger’s face was great. We sat down and I had a clear view of their perch, so to speak, as he kept a very close eye on us throughout the night. We ate a lot, but I doubt we did too much damage. We were there for a very long time.

After all that food and the medication I was taking for the headache, I thought I would sleep well, but that was not the case. I was up and down all night. I finally gave up sometime around 6:00 a.m. Before eating with the team at 10:00 a.m.,  I had made trips to Target, Walgreens, and IHOP. The only bright spot was that I figured the second night had to be better after such a poor first night’s sleep—it wasn’t.

We were squatting and pulling on Saturday. My plan was to test the squat at around 700 pounds in full gear. I have not had more than 460 pounds on my back since my injury in March. I was hoping to just get a feel for where I am in the gear. That turned out really well. I handled 710 pounds with no wraps and it felt really light. Light enough that it was not as satisfying as I thought it would be. So I moved to 800 pounds with wraps and again moved the weight surprisingly well. I am very happy with where I am on the squat and look forward to testing it again in a few months. For now, I am continuing with the program I have followed over the last couple of months.

 

The pulls were as equally satisfying for me. I worked up to 650 pounds in my suit. That is 155 pounds more than anything I have pulled in the gym since before March. I pulled both 585 pounds and 650 pounds, with straps up, and both felt better than expected. Actually, I did not plan on pulling that heavy at all, but after having the squat go so well I wanted to give it a try. I am a ways off from platform readiness, but I am not off at all from where I think I would be in any regular off-season training. That’s encouraging.

 

After training, we were forced to go to Chipolte to keep Brian from crying. I hate the place and going there again didn’t change my mind. The highlight of the day was hanging out by the pool and watching Brian assault Chad in the pool while teenage girls watched in fear. No exaggeration needed in that little part of the story. We left there to go eat, or to keep from being arrested, I forget which. We went to Tilted Kilt to eat and watch the fights. One word of advice: bring a pillow to sit on if you plan to do anything more than eat at Tilted Kilt. My butt is still numb. I may need surgery.

 

The seats at Titled Kilt are my excuse for a poor bench on Sunday. I couldn’t feel my lower body, so I couldn’t produce any leg drive. I’ll stick with that. I couldn’t lock out 600 pounds with my left arm. It just wasn’t there. I needed something to complain about anyways so my bench came through for me. It sucked.