John Greaves III's Blog, page 25

Bombing Out At USPA Drug Tested Raw Nationals

I crossed a milestone recently that I never wanted.  I bombed out of a meet for the first time.  A lot of factors went into it, I was recovering from strep throat, I’d lost twelve unplanned pounds.  Or at least I hadn’t planned on losing all of that weight so fast.  I had planned on three or four at most. I was on antibiotics for ten days.  The biggest factor though was that I didn’t pay attention to how I felt during warm ups because my mind was set on goals I’d previously set for myself.  That was a HUGE mistake.

I stopped by my coach Steve Goggins’ garage gym yesterday to shoot a video in which we did a Lessons Learned so that other lifters might learn from my mistake.  I’m a relative novice in powerlifting but this is something that I’ve seen even seasoned veterans do and I think that the points Steve brought up are sound enough for anyone to learn from.

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Weekly Motivation featuring Maliek Derstine

Training in the garage by yourself is tough. You usually don’t have the camaraderie of other gym members to help push you.  To help out, we combed the web to find videos that will help motivate you to keep striving to be your best.

Today’s video features Maliek Derstine who I interviewed for Power Magazine last March.  Maliek was already the 181lb world record holder but he decided to move up a weight class to claim the 198lb record total.  Check out a training video of him in Steve Goggins’ garage in the months leading up to his world record 788lb squat!

Stay motivated and keep training until people want to post videos of you!

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Remembering Iron Game Legend Paul Kelso

photo courtesy of Paul Kelso

Paul Kelso, one of the most influential figures in the Iron Game passed away July 11, 2016.  I had the pleasure of interviewing him for Power Magazine and I’ve got to say it was surreal to interview someone who’s writing had influenced me so greatly.  Paul is the author of Powerlifting Basics: The Adventures of Lope Delk

He also started out his training career as a garage gym lifter.  Check out this post from Oldetime Strongman about Paul’s memories of his time in the garage gym.

RIP Paul, thank you for everything.

 

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Rick Daman on How to Run Group Garage Training Effectively

We have some awesome writers and athletes who contribute to Garage Gym Life. But we admit that we don’t know everything. So we scour the web to find the best articles from yesterday and today (we’d get them from the future as well but our DeLorean is in the shop) and bring you the links here.

I get it. You’re passionate about exercising and you want to share that with others.  Plus a bunch of your friends and neighbors like the idea of training with you versus dealing with the long commute to their current gym or maybe they don’t train at all but think that it would be easier to get started if they did it with you.  Hmm.  Is this a good idea?  There are a number of considerations for the enterprising garage gym owner to consider before throwing up a business profile on Google+ and hanging a sign on the mailbox. I already talked about some of the other pitfalls like having to adjust your schedule. Today we cover your gym’s identity and coaching philosophy. As Rick Daman points out in a post we reblogged from EliteFTS.com, your coaching facility should be a place where work is accomplished, goals are met, and pride is instilled.  Check out the full post at the link below:

Source: Garage Gyms: How to Run Groups Effectively

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Jonathan Walseman Shows Us How to Insulate the Door to Your Garage Gym

We have some awesome writers and athletes who contribute to Garage Gym Life. But we admit that we don’t know everything. So we scour the web to find the best articles from yesterday and today (we’d get them from the future as well but our DeLorean is in the shop) and bring you the links here. Today’s article comes from YouTuber Jonathan Walseman with a short video about insulating the garage door to help with climate control in your garage gym. Walseman says, “People overlook how simple this actually is and how much you can save on your power bill.”

 

 

 

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God Has Spoken: Time To Get Strong!

The diet is over.  At least the weight loss part of it is.  I actually lost too much weight, too fast.  My plan was to slowly transform my physique, but I contracted strep throat, thirteen days away from my competition at the USPA Drug Tested Raw Nationals and went from roughly 203lbs on a full stomach to 191lbs when I weighed in.  My waist was 36inches.

The meet was not a successful one at all.  I bombed out on bench, (I didn’t complete at least one bench) so I was out of the meet.

I knew that something wasn’t right when I did my final warm up.  My coach, Steve Goggins, had already told me to drop my opener from 314lbs to 303lbs and he put my final warm up at 275lbs touch and go.  275lbs felt heavy for the first time in a long time, but I thought nothing of it because I’d benched 325lbs with a pause at my final heavy session thirteen days prior.  I should have trusted my instincts and dropped my opener to 270lbs.  I didn’t and I paid for it.

Squat second attempt 402lb

I did however, squat more than I ever had at that weight with 402lbs so that’s a plus.  It doesn’t make up for everything though.  I’m mostly upset that I let my coach and my team down. None of them had anything but encouraging words for me but that’s because Gogginsforce is a supportive team.

I just have to face the fact that I just went out there and didn’t execute.

I guess I could be sitting here sulking.  But after praying about it and doing the final edits on this post from Nigerian bodybuilder, Azekhumhe Omoh, I just couldn’t sit here and mope.  Not when people like him are facing much bigger problems than mine and aren’t giving up.

So, I signed up for the Gogginsforce Invitational on October 28, 2016 in Atlanta, GA.  That’s my chance to make this right.

Thanks for reading!

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Home Gym Athlete Profile featuring Nigerian bodybuilder Azekhumhe Omoh

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about the West African  bodybuilding scene. We see the motivating videos of you guys training but there’s very little background information on African bodybuilding. I know that the readers are eager to find out about you guys so let’s dive in!

How long have you been training?  Where did you get your start?

I have been training for 5yrs now. I started at home then it was just one little cement dumbbell I had.

  Where is your gym located? Is it at your home or a friend’s house?

The gym is located at my house.

  Did you all build your equipment or did you get someone to make it?

We built most of the equipment ourselves with a well measured amount of sand, cement and gravel for the weights but we have to make a sketch and provide the resources needed for the metal equipment like the Squat rack, T-bar and the Squat bar.

 

Which piece of equipment was your favorite to make?

The dumbbells; it is one of the most important equipment in the gym and also one of the hardest to make locally. But no matter the size I am building, I always pay full attention to every detail when I am building it; from shaping to casting and installing it all has to be accurate.

Cement dumbbells are pretty hardcore! In the West, we’re pretty insulated from the problems of the rest of the world. Even I, as an immigrant from West Africa have only vague memories of what it was like in my birth country.  Bodybuilding is hard enough when you’ve got all the resources we have, I can’t imagine how it is for you guys. So tell me, what’s your biggest challenge?

Growing up and surviving in this part of the world is a very, very big challenge with the whole political and economic thing going on, only the rich one’s and the strong one’s like me and my fellow garage gym brothers and sisters all around the world will survive. My biggest challenge is not having money to buy good food to eat. As a fitness person or weight trainer your body needs a lot of good nutrition to help repair the muscle after training, but getting money to buy the necessary food and supplement we need is a very big challenge. Countless times we have trained on empty stomach without food not even a little biscuit. But still God’s grace and the passion for what we love kept seeing us through and helping us push pass each day.

 I hear what you’re saying but I see the awesome videos of the physiques that you guys are building in Ghana, Nigeria and other parts of Africa.  West African bodybuilders are making a lot of progress despite limited resources. What is the secret to making progress despite your obstacles?

For me, the secret is the ability of being able to see the great opportunity we have in every moment of each day we live against all odds. Knowing that the sorrow and the pains we feel now will only last for the night, but joy must surely come in the morning.

Let’s go back to nutrition. We’ve been reading a lot in the past few years about the health benefits of red palm oil which is used in West African cooking.  When you are able to get food,  which of the traditional African foods play the biggest role in helping maintain your physique?

Beans with bread or grinded cassava, white rice with palm oil stew, vegetable soup with ground cassava, fried beans with bread then fried eggs with bread.

 In the West, our problem isn’t lack of food but too much intake of bad foods.  When you’re limited nutritionally, it’s got to be tempting to eat anything you can get but are there any f oods you absolutely have to avoid?

The ones with too many starch and fat.

  Where do you get most of your training information?

I do a lot of research and I watch videos that have to do with fitness training in general.

  Who inspires you?

My inspiration comes from people doing things that other people says they can’t do no matter how hard they try.

  How do you stay motivated to train?

Each time I look at the way we are living trying to survive with no money, nobody to help you, no friends just me my family and the gym I feel my blood pumping and my spirit rejoicing knowing that each time I bench, squat, dead lift or curl I get one little step closer to saving my family and all my brothers in the same struggle in one way or the other.

Do you and other West African bodybuilders ever get together to train?

No, but I hope so in future.

Have you done any competitions?

No.

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about starting a gym in their home?

Let absolutely nothing discourage you! The beginning may be tough, but when you are able to resist negative ideas, then the sky is just the beginning. If you really love it then go for it no matter what!

How can people follow your training or get in touch with you?

They can follow me on:

Instagram: @oazekhumhe
Facebook/AzekhumheOmoh
Twitter: @azekhumheo
Like my Facebook page: Normal sucks
Email: omoh4pk@yahoo.com

  Thanks again for answering my questions. Your story is pretty inspiring to me and I’m sure that others who read it will be inspired as well. It’s easy for us in the West to get wrapped up in our personal problems which is why it’s so awesome to read about someone who’s facing their struggles head on every day.  God bless you Brother and keep pushing forward!

With much love from Africa Thanks Bro.

 Want to read more from Azekhumhe Omoh? Check him out in 

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Weekly Motivation Slow and Steady Wins The Race: featuring Ross Enamait

Training in the garage by yourself is tough. You usually don’t have the camaraderie of other gym members to help push you.  To help out, we combed the web to find videos that will help motivate you to keep striving to be your best.

Today’s video features Coach Ross Enamait of Rosstraining.com preaching a sermon that EVERYONE needs to hear!  Slow and steady progress is REAL progress that lasts!

Stay motivated and keep training until people want to post videos of you!

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Jonnie Candito Says Avoid Home Workout Scams

We have some awesome writers and athletes who contribute to Garage Gym Life. But we admit that we don’t know everything. So we scour the web to find the best articles from yesterday and today (we’d get them from the future as well but our DeLorean is in the shop) and bring you the links here. Today’s article comes from popular YouTuber and IPF powerlifter Jonnie Candito.

Candito addresses a popular scam that specifically targets the home exercise crowd.  You know that a fair number of us chose to train at home because we’ve got emotional baggage from negative past experiences or we’re simply ashamed of how we look right now.  We might have started training after years of putting up with snarky comments behind our backs or even outright bullying.  So we avoid gyms and any potential for some jock to ruin our day. Unfortunately, that means we’re prime targets for late night infomercials that take advantage of our desperation and our desire to have our problem fixed quickly and painlessly.  In this comprehensive video, Candito points out what those guys from the infomercials know but won’t tell you because they want your dollar.  Progressive resistance is the only way to transform your body. Check out the video and subscribe to Jonnie Candito’s YouTube channel for tips, tricks and to follow his training or to order his training products.

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Faster or Better?

Faster or Better

Faster. Lose weight faster.  Get in shape in ten minutes a day.  Six weeks to your best body.  Torch fat faster.  These headlines are splashed on magazine covers in every grocery store in America.  But I’ve learned that faster isn’t always best when it comes to getting in shape.  I’ve seen and read it in different forms from three separate sources.  I got positive confirmation in a YouTube video by Dr. Mike Israetel and a conversation with my brother. I saw the negative results of dropping bodyfat too quickly in a few Instagram posts where people had loose skin.  Many of us have seen the articles about Biggest Loser contestants rebounding to have more bodyweight than before.   They cut calories and increased their energy output while living in an environment away from the normal temptations.  Basically they went on an enforced elimination diet.  I experienced the same thing in boot camp at Parris Island.

The dirty secret of boot camp is eventually you graduate and have to start making your own choices again.  My drill instructors always preached the mantra “Being a Marine is harder than becoming a Marine.”  That’s because as a Marine, you no longer have someone stopping you when you are about to eat too much.  You have consequences for overeating. You no longer have someone making you exercise.  You have consequences for being out of shape.  The same goes for people who hire a trainer or nutritionist. At some point, most of us end up back on our own. What do we do without someone looking over our shoulder? Is the change forever?

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating. I’m on a diet for the first time in my life.  I’ve cut weight for sports before but this time I’m actually trying to change my physique, not just shed water while keeping the same body.  This is a process of discovery for me that I’ve not had since I first started training with weights over twenty years ago.

Batman Not Captain America

One important discovery is the realization that if I want to be the sort of person who’s got an admirable physique I need to become that person. I need to become a person who puts in regular work in the gym and at the table.  Yes, at the table.  Eating what I should is also work.  From preparing the food to training my willpower to not let food of any kind control me.  The person who devotes time to keeping my body in balance so I don’t get stiff and lose normal range of motion in all of my joints. Yes, I want that in one Captain America Vita Ray procedure.  But is it realistic? Or put another way, how could I possibly build an NFL running back’s physique over the summer when it took that running back years of hot summer two a days, early morning practices in high school and hours of dedicated training from elementary school to adulthood?  What is possible is building a Batman physique, spending time to develop what God gave me into a machine that functions optimally the way He designed it, whenever I need it to function, however I need it to function.

Don’t be misled–you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant Galatians 6:7 (New Living Translation)

So if I want to have that running back physique, I need to put in the time.  Yes, I can mimic his training and if I’m dedicated, I’ll look more and more like him physically as time passes.  When I become that person, I’ll have that person’s physique.  It’s as simple as sowing and reaping.  In fact, since many athletes let their bodies go when their careers end, I might have that physique later in life than the guys I envied when they were playing.  It’s not who can get abs fastest, it’s who can keep them longest.

John Greaves III is a freelance writer and amateur powerlifter in North Georgia.  His work has appeared in Power Magazine, powerliftingwatch.com, NaturalStrength.com, Strength Advocate, the Chattanooga Times and various trade publications.  John is the author of the coming of age novel, A Different Kind of Giant, available on Amazon.com.  You can contact him through his website johngreavesIII.net.

 

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