Today was one of those days where I had to kick myself in the butt to train hard. I had to remind myself to "embrace the suck" and just keep grinding to perfect my craft. I got maybe 5 hours of sleep last night and I'm coming down with a cold, so I had the perfect excuses not to train. However, I knew that right then, the guy who'll challenge me on the platform was probably working his butt off to beat me. Warriors don't act like pansies, so I trained.
It's finally the off season for cheerleading, so I started the Texas Method today. It's an intermediate level program for general strength. Today was a high volume day to set up for a light day on Wednesday and heavy day on Friday. The high number of sets and reps gives a solid work capacity base so that intensity can be increased later on.
Texas Method C1W1D1:
Squat 5x5 290 lbs
Bench 5x5 205 lbs
Deadlift 1x5 345 lbs
Despite the sickness and lack of sleep, I felt extremely confident that this workout wouldn't be awful. Each of the exercises on its own was baby weight for me so I didn't foresee too much struggle. HUGE MISTAKE.
I've never done the Big 3 all in one day so I got fried. My squats felt good for the most part, but from the 3rd set on, the last few reps of each set utilized more lower back than I would normally like. The last set of squats was one of the most painful things I've every experienced. My bench is sloppy. I never bench. The weight was super easy, but my technique felt like garbage. I really need to start training that more if I ever want to break 300 legitimately. The deadlifts... I'd rather not talk about.
Honestly, throughout this workout, there were probably at least a half dozen times today when I just wanted to quit and go home.
That's when the warrior mentality kicked in.
Every time I felt like giving up because I was tired and scared of the weight, I looked at myself in the gym mirrors and just said "NO." Giving up is not an option. It is never an option. If I want to be a champion again, if I want to be the strongest dude in the country at my weight class, if I want to be remembered as one of the greatest there has ever been, there is no option. I had to keep going. Today was one of those days where I just had to tell myself "I will DIE under this bar before I quit. If they have to drag my body out of here then so be it." Sometimes that's just what you've gotta do.
And to all of you who say I'll never make it to the elite level, come talk to me in five years. Then we'll see what's up.
Stay Strong,
JB
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