The Road to Success

So, my wife and i recently had a baby boy! I knew i wasn’t going to get any sleep but i didn’t factor in not sleeping and not being able to train!!!!The first four weeks were a wash! I did maybe some light cardio but the mrs. had a C-section which meant she needed my help more than ever. I enjoy bonding with my little guy but i had no idea how hard it was to balance work, baby, wife and working out….I went from working out 5-6 days to maybe one day a week and when i did try to lift heavy, it was a waste of time b/c i had nothing!!!!If i did have any kind of energy i needed it to help out at home. Oh yeah, almost forgot…someone has to clean the house! Ta da! Your looking at Mr. Molly Maid baby!!! Im so thankful that my wife has fully recovered now and is allowing me to sleep at night since i work early mornings(she’s the best). As of March 1st i have been able to get back to a somewhat normal routine in terms of lifting! I just have to muster up some energy to squeeze in a workout and that by far is a challenge. How do moms do it? I thought i had it rough! How and where do moms find the energy to get back in the gym??? my hat’s off to all the moms out there! My wife is lucky she’s married to a personal trainer….and im just as lucky to have her, she motivates me to stay fit. No excuses for me!  

So, Sunday November 9th, 2008 I-along with a team of five others climbed the Sears Tower for Cancer Research(Damon Runyon). It was my first time doing it, and it showed. Being an athlete, former football player, and current personal trainer i felt i had all the tools to tackle such a feet! And do it in style, of course! However, the minute I entered the stairwell and ran up the first 3 flight of stairs, I knew it was going to get ugly!!!!

Naturally, i am very competitve and stubborn. I hate defeat. I play to win. I don’t play to just have fun, for me, winning is fun! And i’ve lived my whole life that way. So, it was kind of heart breaking for me when I didn’t finish in the time that I set as a goal…in my mind! So what if i thought I could come close to the world record or even tie it! It was plausible in my mind…then reality set in…am i going to make it to the top?  There were 105 floors which calculated out to about 2200 stairs roughly. 2000 competitors in all. At one point i thought to myself, are all of these peolpe going to make it to the top? If they do then I have to! And I did. My time was a mere 27:42. the World Record is set at 13:35? Now looking back, after having completed the climb, is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! What kind of drugs do you have to be on to fly up those stairs? I think i was maybe halfway at 13 minutes.  But guess what…..as sick as i am in the head-I want a piece of that action!!!!!!I want to be that guy on drugs sprinting up the stairs to victory! This will now become an annual event for me! Until I get the record…i don’t really care how long it takes to break it….ill do it Olympic style and train my ass off for the next four years IF I have to! IF!?!

Training Regement:

Does it matter? I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do….come close to the record….so therefore…back to the drawing board! Starting from scratch! One thing I will say, i was not at all sore anywhere…my muscle endurance and strength seemed to be great….however, the cardio aspect! Terrible! Absolutely terrible.    

…I know I shouldn’t dwell on it but last week i hurt my shoulder at the gym. Not sure what I did, all i know is that i can’t sleep at night, can’t db bench and i’m limited on the amount of shoulder and chest exercises I can do. This isn’t the first time either, the last time was about a year ago when I got a "bad" spot from a random guy at the gym…that was the last time i got a spot from a stranger!

 Ive gone through all the phases of training, stability, endurance, flexibilty and i am into my strength training phase. Perfect timing, as i’m making some freakish gains, i have to now scale back. As much as I want to push through it i know i need to slow it down…does anyone feel my pain? I don’t know, even with 10 years experience under my belt and cert’s, it doesn’t get any easier! Or Does it?

I was gonna post some progress pics today….but i think i’ll wait it out for a couple of weeks, my focus now is going to be cardio and flexibility training! Wish me luck!

Anyone have any good rehab shoulder exercises?

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