~Michele~’s BodyBlog

One of the things that I am most excited about at the Olympia this year is the Powerlifting Supershow, taking place on Saturday at 3pm on the expo main stage. A year ago I might not have taken such an interest in it, but since then I have been learning a lot about sport and admire the work and dedication that these guys put into their training. I first met Brad Heck at the Arnold Classic in 2007, where he claimed the world record in the 181 weight class by benching 679 pounds. I met a few of the other guys on the Big Iron team that weekend, but had no clue at the time that I would soon be training at their gym, and that we would all become good friends.

Big Iron Gym in Omaha, Nebraska is one of the most respected powerlifting gyms in the world, and although I am not a powerlifter myself, its hard not to get excited about the amazing accomplishments that the lifters achieve meet after meet. When I first started training there, I didn’t know what a monolift was. After a few weeks in the gym, I understood what it was all about. And after watching my first meet, my level of respect for powerlifters increased dramatically. Led by coach Rick Hussey, the Big Iron team has some of the top powerlifters in the sport, and I am very excited to see some of the guys in Vegas benching on the Expo stage!

Shawn Frankl (810 at 198), Jim Grandick (800 at 242), Brad Heck (705 at 181), and Richie Briggs (866 at 275 & is 23 years old) will all be competing at the Powerlifting Supershow. Make sure you don’t miss it on Saturday afternoon, I’ll be there cheering for these guys - its gonna be a good show! This competition in a slightly different format from traditional bench press meets. They will be not lifitng the standard one-rep max, but the lifters will be required to do a two-rep minimum. This is more of an exhibition so that bodybuilders and other fitness enthusiasts can relate to it, but I encourage everyone to check out a traditional full meet to see the big numbers, as well as the squats and deadlifts.

And if you’d like to see what the training atmosphere at Big Iron Gym is like, or want to learn more about the techniques that these guys use, they just made a really cool DVD that is on the gym’s site www.bigirongym.com .

I think it is safe to say that most people have a love/hate relationship with cardio. We love what it does for our physiques, but hate spending so much time on those machines with nothing to do but count down the minutes until we are done. I am lucky that I am pretty coordinated, so I don’t need to focus very much energy on what I am doing. When I am on the stepmill (my preferred cardio machine), I will do anything I can to distract myself from watching the clock: reading trashy magazines, reading books, texting anyone and everyone, listening to music, glancing at the tvs in the gym, talking to myself…. okay kidding on the last one, but you get my point!

Recently I made an investment that is so awesome when it comes to cardio that I just had to share. I bought a portable DVD player and a subscription to Netflix. It sits right on the magazine rack, and with the headphones on I can zone out everything else and just keep moving my feet up those stairs while watching a movie. I always end up doing more minutes than I planned because I just wanna see one more scene…. okay one more scene. Really, this is the last scene then I gotta go!

I don’t see a lot of people with these at the gyms I go to, which is why I wanted to share. The DVD players are actually pretty cheap (under $100!) and you can use it when traveling too.

The only downside is that people might not understand why you may burst out in laughter in the middle of a silent gym. I think its funny when people think I am nuts so I just roll with it. So if you happen to be in Omaha and see a little blond girl climbing the stepmill with a goofy smile on her face and randomly giggling, don’t make fun of her… cause she is having way more fun doing cardio than you are!

Thanks for the laughs, Will!