FireMike

Sometime ago my good friend Carla wrote about her accomplishment of a 1000lb  leg press, and how some people have asked her when she was ever gonna use that in real life. At the time when I read this the story I am about to tell slipped my mind or else I would have told it then. What you are about to read is in fact true, it occured on Tueday March 9, 2007, and will show that the strength we strive for in the gym is not only for our personal gratification, but may help you save a life someday.

My partner and I were heading east bound on I-90 just east of downtown Cleveland. We had been running our ass’s off all day long and were on our way back to base. I was taking a nap in the passengers seat, when my partner yelled out, "oh my god, did you see that *******?" I awoke not knowing what he was talking about. He told me a SUV had been traveling in the far left hand lane, when all of a sudden he came across all 4 lanes of traffic and went thru a chain link fence onto a surface road. Just as he was telling me this I saw thick black smoke about a quarter of a mile up the road. I had my partner turn the lights and sirens on and get over onto the right side median. What I saw as we pulled up was a SUV wrapped around a large telephone poll, a man’s head bobbing out the driver side window bleeding profusely, and the engine compartment was fully engulfed in flames. I jumped out, grabbing the fire extinguisher from the squad, and telling my partner to notify city FD & EMS of the accident, then to bring our trauma bag. I jumped the fence seperating the surface road from the highway, I was 20 feet away from the car when I started feeling the heat. I had no halligan bar w me, no shears, no spreaders, just me and my extinguisher. I ran up to the passenger side to see if the man had a pulse, he did but it was very weak & thready. I checked to see if I could get the hood opened or find a opening to quickly hit w the dry chem. I found a small opening and quickly hit it enough to give me a minute or two to get the man out. I moved back to the door, it wouldn’t open. The fire resumed and I suddenly had one of those moments you see in the movies, my entire life to that moment flashed, literally I relived 26 years of life in 5 seconds. I made the commitment I was getting this man out of the vehicle one way or the other. I grabbed high on the door, the thin part by the B post and started to bend it out. Once I had it out far enough, I was able to grab it and pull on it, peeling the door down in half. The bottom, the thickest part of door started to pull out a little. I grabbed and pulled w everything I had then, POP, the sound of metal breaking as I pulled the door open. The passenger compartment was severely intruded, and flames were getting hotter, just then my partner had made it over and began hitting the flames. Mind you it had only been like a minute and half since we arrived, this was fast moving. I pulled the man out and got him about 100 ft away from the vehicle before beginning to work him. The man did survive and is still in rehab, he had suffered bilateral fractures of his tib/fib, and rt femur fx, multiple head lacerations w a subdoral hematoma, fx of the entire left arm, and a collapsed left lung. The next day I got a call from the man’s mother, thanking me for what I and my partner had done. The next week myself and another friend / co worker of mine stopped up at the hospital so I could meet the man. It was another one of those moments you see on tv shows. His family asked how I got him out of the vehicle, and I told them the story to their disbelief.

So Carla, whats the point of a 1000lb leg press, or a 450 lb row, or whatever the lift is? The point is this, you believe in both your mental and physical strength and power. So if your ever placed in this type of situation, you’ll know you have the power too. STRENGTH & HONOR

I usually write more about what motivates me, however you guys have to hear about yesterday’s leg workout. This training session would have made the boys at Animal proud. So my brother, who I call the quad king bc obviously he has these sick ass 29" quads, I have to also note that he’s only 5′8" lucky bastard. Anyway we were supposed to meet for training at 6:30, so there I was at the gym primed and ready, however no brother yet. I figured i’ll warm up, so I did 5 mins of walking to loosen up. Still no James, so I go and grab a squat rack figuring were gonna start w some form of squats. I warm up a little 135×20 ass to feet literally for 2 sets. Still no James and im getting irritated. Next 225×15 for 2 sets again ass to feet, then finally he arrives and im pissed. After he gets loose he knocks out a few light sets and then the war began. 315×8 for 4 sets each time going deeper than parallel, if you don’t go beyond parallel it doesn’t count. We sell out, the first 2 sets were easy, the lightheadedness began after the third set and then the forth, well lets say the pain I was feeling has to be comparable to having your testicles slowly squeezed in a vice until they pop. We water up and then he drops a bomb shell of a new move on me. We are always bitching that we wish we had a verticle leg press at one of our gyms. A verticle leg press is true weight, no angles so maximum exertion and strain is placed on your quadriceps especially in the medial areas. We go over to the smith machine and we do 5 sets of verticles on it. If interested in trying all you do is lay on the ground with your hips directly under the bar, have a spotter to turn the bar when you press up and begin pressing. First set was cake, 315×15, add another plate, bam 405×15, add another plate 495×15 now were starting to feel it a little. Add another plate 585×12, beginning to feel the lunch come up. Add another plate 675×10, OMFG I laid there on the floor as James did before my set, paralyzed didn’t wanna even think about standing up, but all you can do when times get rough is get up again, so I did. 5 sets were done right, NO, one more set 315×15 speed rep’d. Well lets say it burned like hell when finished but actually pressing it was like pushing air after our previous sets. We fuel up on some water and head over for extensions, but we don’t do normal extensions. Extensions today were gonna be 3 seconds upward w 2 second hold contraction and 3 seconds downward for sets of 8. Needless to say this wasn’t gonna be one of those "hey look at me I can rep out the whole stack" sets. FYI - I hate when people do that bc unless your Branch Warren (cerafied Freak) you should never be able to do the full stack after you’ve squated and press’d. We kept it at 120 for all 4 sets, and our quads were then cooked. Then it was on to some seated calf push. First was a superset 90×15x3angles, then 190×15x3. Next 290×15x3, then finally 390×15x3. Well we dont stop there, if you pyrmid it up you gotta dropset the entire rack down. 390×15, 290×15, 190×12, 90×10, 30×15, empty rackx15… Let me tell you that empty rack felt like 390 by the time I got to it. Then it was finally over, as we leaned on each other walking out of the gym, each unable to support the own weight of our bodies. We had achieved what we set out to do, we went to hell and back, and personally im ready to visit again. STRENGTH & HONOR

The war within has begun, with the stroke of midnight my bulking phase ended and diet time began, 23 weeks. I have a fairly long drive to work, about an hour, and on my way in this evening I couldn’t stop thinking about my past, the past that fuels me, keeps me at war with myself. I thought of how weak and insignificant I felt as a little boy when my step father would knock me around and gloated at the fact he could defeat a 10 yr old boy. I thought of the loss of the man I idolized as a child, my grandfather, and remembered the rage and anger I felt the day he died. I thought of the woman I called my DreamAngel, and how she turned out to be faker than anyone I had ever met. I thought of all this negative shit that has happened to me over my life, Why? To fuel my tank for my journey to the stage. Everytime I step into the gym I think of one of these people, I remember, I relive, and I unleash my hatred, my anger, or my pain on the weights. This is how I train…. Intense, every time out. I sweat, I bleed, I vomit, there are no excuses when your in the gym. Im not one of these dicks you see that show up in a matching workout get up, driving some luxury car, and think an intense workout is 30 mins of level 2 eliptical training. I dont care what i wear to the gym, I drive something a little better than a hooptie, and my idea of intense involves a lil bleeding, conjuctiva (blown vessels of the eyes) and vomiting…thats intense. My war within keeps pushing me, so when, if ever I come face to face with the man who beat me, he’ll drop to his knees and beg for my mercy. So when my grandfather looks over my well being, he can proudly say im his grandson. And so when she see’s me, whenever that maybe, all she can do is think about how she screwed up bc I said I was gonna do it, and like always I did it. In order to achieve your goals and aspirations you must be diligent, patient, and continue to put forth your best effort until the time is right. Well I feel the time is right, my journey has begun and tomorrow the next stage of training begins. With STRENGTH & HONOR I will push myself thru the hard road of dieting and to my redemption, competition. STRENGTH & HONOR ALWAYS.

Here I sit, less than 12 hours away from the start of competeing. Yesterday I had a chance to train w my brother, who I haven’t trained w in 6 months and prior to that it had been a year since we consistantly trained together. I have been fortunate in my training to have good training partners, but non better than my brother James. When I first seperated from my ex wife back in Sept 2005, James and I began training together everyday. We spent all free time together, training, researching nutrition, and eating. We’d go to Borders and just read thru all the mags, taking mental notes to improve our training. James got me thru a hard time in my life, he was there for me menatally as I was for him financially. At the time I was sitting well w finances, James was a senior in high school and didn’t have the money for supplements, so I bought them for him. By the summer of 06, I was involved in a new relationship as he was too. Slowly our time dwindled together, especially in the gym. Eventually I moved about a half an hour north of our hometown which didn’t help us training together, which leads to this moment. Yesterday I realized I wanna come back home, N Canton Ohio. I need to be training w my brother, he knows how to keep me going at a very high intensity. He knows what to say to get those few extra reps out of me, and he knows when he better pull the trash can over bc im gonna be sick after these reps. Its funny how we as people tend to forget the small things, then later on have that moment when we re experience them and find that we want that back. This was the case yesterday. Sure I do enjoy training w some of my friends but when James and I get in the gym its nothing but business. Now here I am at the beginning of the most important 23 weeks stretch of my life, and yes it truly is the most important bc every since I was a kid I wanted to go on stage, trying to find a way to move back to my hometown so I can be closer to my greatest training partner. For the time being I have made secondary plans to be in the area for 3 day stretches at a time which will allow us a gauranteed 3 days of training together. However I will find a way to come back home, and complete my personal journey w the ones who were there for the start of it 2 years ago. STRENGTH & HONOR