FireMike

This is gonna be short and to the damm point… If you WANNABE a strength junky, dont F***ing talk about what your damm projected, estimated, chart bullshit maxes are… IF YOU HAVEN"T LIFTED IT, ITS NOT YOUR F***ING MAX. That’s all I have to say about this, just had to get it off my chest. STRENGTH & HONOR

Today i entered the gym ready to rage a complete war against my quads and hams. I put the headphones on, pulled my hoodie up and got pissed at the world. It wasn’t until I was leg pressing that I even noticed there were other people in the gym, and their eyes were glued on me as I was getting burried into my starting position on a vertical leg press machine. I paid no attention to them, I was focused on the task I had set for myself to accomplish. I was on my 14th set in my quad workout and I was gonna rep this damm apparatus 12 times, no excuses no failure was exceptable. I went at it reps 1 thru 6 were easy, reps 7 thru 10 whooped my ass… I was locked out, holding the weight bc I told myself 12 reps, no excuses no failure. I burried 11, knees touching my chest and back up. I felt like I was gonna puke, I could see I was as white as a ghost, I was dizzy. 1 more to go, burried it again and began the slow climb up, pain…..that wonderful feeling running thru my legs as they trembled. I got it up, locked it in place and rolled out. I couldn’t stand, I could see straight, I just laid there dead to the world. The owner of the gym lended me a hand to get up, his look…shear amazement. He began unloading the plates for me as I sat on a bench w my face in my hands, allowing myself to feel what I had inflicted on myself. It was great feeling, 1080lbs for 12 reps after some serious sets of front squats and bb lunges have already depleated you of everything you had. Achieving what you had told yourself you were gonna do, nothing beats that. This is my mark and I leave it where ever and when ever I train.

There I was walking w my children thru the mall yesterday. I was wearing one of my FD shirts, when man passed and said how adorable my kids were. I thanked the man and his wife and mentioned not to let them fool him bc they were lil devils who wore me down. The man laughed and asked if I was a fireman, after I told him I was he commented on how he feels safe living in my community w a firefighter like me around to serve and protect. That made me feel great, I felt like im not just seeing what I wanna see when I look into the mirror, bc here a complete stranger is complimenting me. Later we were in Walden books picking out books for my son, he’s in first grade so we gotta work on that whole reading thing. With books in hand we were over at the magazines and I was of course flipping thru muscular development, when one of the workers came over to straighten up and said, "why arent you playing for the browns they need you." I laughed and made a comment about how my beloved Cleveland Browns were turning things around too which the man said, "well w you at linebacker i may believe it." Whats my point in all this? Well as athletes we all walk a fine line, the line between confindence and arrogance. We have to be confident in what we do or else we will fail, but at what point do you buy into your own hype too much and become arrogant? Well after these statements from people I had never met I was feeling great, and I went too the gym later and had….THE WORST WORKOUT i’ve had in months. I was well rested, well nurished, and ready to go so what was the problem? I crossed the line for a single moment and lost a workout bc of it. I hold myself to high standards as far as working out goes, so while my workout yesterday maybe of quality to some, it is of shit to me. In fact Im not even documenting the workout in my journal bc it doesnt even deserve to be noted. Im lucky enough to realize what my problem was yesterday and have corrected it and am prepared to go battle again today. Point being as you progress do not allow you mentality to change, do not allow your new physical being to change who you are bc if that happens, what was the point of all the work you did. STRENGTH & HONOR

Most of us say this but how many really mean it when we say training isn’t a hobby, its life? I for one do. Just tonight at work I was asked by a nurse I work w "why do you do that, is it a hobby?" I sat there just looking at her thinking "you dumbass you wouldn’t understand the heart, love, desire, dedication, pain, blood, sweat and soul I pour into my training." My reply, "no its not a hobby, my hobby is my jeep." She just looked at me like a I was a complete idiot, did I care….Not one bit. I don’t expect "them" to understand. I have restructured my entire life so I can raise myself to the next level, so I can ACHIEVE. I live my life differently than the norm bc I have too. See a hobby is something you don’t have to do, I HAVE TO TRAIN. So here I sit, typing while eating my salmon and rice, visualizing this afternoons workout, dreaming of how I can push myself harder and farther than last week, what its gonna take for me to win…But yeah this is my hobby, WTF. STRENGTH & HONOR

I have alot of time to just sit and think throughout my nights at work. I often find myself visualizing my next days workout, the movements im gonna do, the weight im gonna use, the pump im gonna achieve. I also visualize my hand be raised in victory over and over again. Im a firm believer that visualization is the key to success bc if you can’t visualize for yourself, who’s gonna do it for you? Nobody, ultimately nobody really cares if you succeed but you. Of course your family and friends wanna see you achieve but they are not the ones busted their ass in the gym. They are not the ones counting every thing you consume, they aren’t the ones who put countless hours into perfecting your posing routine. You do this, so in the end who is hurt by failure…. You and you alone… Visualize your success. STRENGTH & HONOR

This is just a bitch session, nothing more, nothing less. Im just so irritated w certain people in my group of training partners and so forth that I gotta put this out there. Things that piss me off the worst when it comes to training… 1) people who tell people how / what to do to achieve something that they haven’t achieved themselves. 2.) SLOPPY as form… I don’t care if your speed reping or concetrating, your doing nothing if your cheat reping every rep of every move. 3.) The f***ing POSERS. GOD THEY PISS ME OFF. You hear them talking to other guys in the gym asking the typical poser ass shit of how much do you bench? Then following up w some outlandish claim that they bench 315 or 350 (the two most common claims to a max bench that i’ve heard) and your laughing your ass off bc your looking at this guy who has MOOBS, not PECS, and 13" arms claiming he only benchs 30lbs less than you???? F*** YOU!!! I reached my breaking point  today w this shit. I overheard some punk ass twig boy claiming he could bench 350, now call it a bad day or whatever, I couldn’t let this one pass so I chimed in on the convo. I called dude out, went over to the bench threw 315 on the bar jumped on reping for 5 cold, and told him if he could do it once I’d give him $100 right then and there. What the hell do you think the reply was???? "I would but I just trained chest yesterday." OH BLOW ME you F***ING WANNABE, I just hit my triceps and shoulders and did it, but I bet pit lick doesn’t even realize that your triceps and shoulders have about 50% off the workload on the bench. Fact of matter is, I don’t know for sure what my max’s are on anything, bc I don’t care enough to know. I find out when I do a power show. As I said, im just irritated and pissed about the bold face lies people make to try and appear stronger or fit in. Be weaker than I but do things right and poor your heart and soul into and you’ll have my respect, lie and i’ll embaress your ass bottom line. STRENGTH & HONOR

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, I feel like no matter what it is im trying to achieve there are outside forces trying to hold me down. Right now I am so focused on my goals in powerlifting and bodybuilding that it is all I think about. I plan every aspect of my day around whats best for my training. Yet, shit still happens. These are the moments, the times that seperate us from the posers. The wannabe’s who don’t go to the gym bc they have to get up after 3 hours of sleep to get the workout in before going back to work, or skip the workout so they can go out. **** that shit… I have very very deep personal drive behind what I want to accomplish, and in fact there is even one person who I just wanna embaress on stage, and I WILL. Nothing will hold me down, and nothing should hold you down. STRENGTH & HONOR

My son who is 6yrs old now, remembers just 2 yrs ago when his dad was FAT!!! I’ll never forget when my son was 3 and told me my younger brother, his uncle, had bigger muscles than me and could beat me up. I guess that was the very moment I truly realized that I was no longer the athlete I was in my teens, I had become lazy and never knew it. Today life is a little different, well alot different. My son truly believes that i am the strongest man alive, and never speaks of anyone being able to beat his dad up anymore. Daily he asks me if he can workout with me, and ohhh how much I want that day too come. I have lately found ways to incorporate him into the gym. The other day I asked him if he wanted to jog on the track w me, and of course he did. 8 minutes and one mile later, that little boy was still running his little heart out trying to beat his dad….competetive lil dude. We kept going, 2 miles in 20 mins. At this point I wanted to see how far he would push it, well his tank ran out another lap later but a boy who is 6 yrs old wanted to beat his dad so bad at something, he pushed his body to its limit w out second thought. That is amazing to me, that night I laid in bed thinking about the times I spent w my father at the gym when I was a child. I remembered wanting to workout with him, I remembered jogging w him, and now I knew how he felt in those moments. My children are my inspiration bc they are the best that I am. STRENGTH & HONOR

You know your body can only go so long before the heavy weights catch up to you. Im currently fighting a bum left knee right now. I’ve tore my MCL twice and partially tore my ACL once and every year when the weather begins to change it tightens up to the point that it feels as tho bone is grinding on bone. Today when i was incline pressing I had to sit up high on the incline and slide down into the bench bc my knee just didn’t want to bend without this loud POP and when it pops, yes it is felt. My friends who don’t train the way I do always tell me its my own fault bc I shouldn’t be doing the heavy deep squats or anything heavy on my legs… well what am I supposed to do not have good quad and ham development? Give me a break, I take precaution by wrapping and unfortunately Ohio cooled off dramatically this week, by this time next week my knee will have adjusted like it always does and all will be good. Until then I’ll just keep PUSHING THRU. STRENGTH & HONOR

The other day I was in the gym, I was tired almost to that point of pure exhaustion. I had slept, I had ate, but I was just feeling beaten down. All the hours at work, then turning around and taking care of my responsibilities as a father without quality sleep only short naps periodically were taking their toll. There I stood looking at the power rack thinking, "what the **** am I doing here?" Then it became clear as day in my mind, pulling 600 and benching 425 in comp… I was here bc I don’t have time to slack, slacking will only cause me embarassment in not putting up the numbers I expect of myself. If I slack i’ll be setting myself up for failure when I hit the show stage in May. If I slack I will not honestly be able to look my son in the eye when he’s older and begins walking this path, and tell him I never slacked. I’ve never slacked in the gym, I always find a way to pull myself outta my hole and do what needs to be done. Life is too damm short, I see that everyday so way sell myself shorter? Train hard or Train harder? I choose to train the hardest… STRENGTH & HONOR