After spending Friday and Saturday relaxing with Maria, my week began early with a busy Sunday. I’ve worked on the past 8 Father’s Days, but this time I was at the gym instead of the golf course. I started with a new client this morning, an 8th grade English teacher who “feels weak and wants to lose 10 pounds.” We spoke for a while so I could gather some information on her background and history, then went through an assessment and some basic exercises. She has 3 kids at home, and I explained to her that her children are probably heavier than any weight she’s ever picked up. She agreed with me, and realized that some good ol’ weight lifting is going to go a long way for helping her reach her goals.
I gave her two tasks for next week: Eat breakfast every day, and bring in the jeans that she wants to wear. She promised to eat an egg for breakfast every morning, and she knows exactly which jeans she’ll bring it. Incorporating a lean protein into breakfast is going to get her metabolism started on the right foot, and I’m going to use the jeans as a ‘Challenge’ to help her reach her goal. I got the idea from Rachel Cosgrove at the Perform Better Summit, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out.
After I was done with the training session, I retyped the notes I took and prepared an e-mail to forward to my client. Once that was complete, I ate a Chobani and got ready for my simple, lower body workout:
- Trap Bar Deadlift, 5×2 (All at 365lbs)
- Clean Grip Reverse Lunge, 4×8, (135×2, 155×2)
- Prowler March, 15 yards x 6 / Slosh Pipe Carry (540lb on Prowler, 34lb Slosh Pipe)
It’s pretty short, and I spent more time with the Prowler and Slosh Pipe than pulling and carrying. 365lbs was used for all 5 sets, and 5 sets of 2 is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Each rep felt good, and I’d swear I felt the myosin heads ratcheting around my hamstrings. I haven’t pulled low-rep sets in a while, and these felt really good. Now I’ve just need move more weight.
After the deadlifts and lunges came a good ol’ session with the Prowler. I haven’t done any heavy work with it yet, but decided to this weekend. We started dragging it using the TRX, but switched to pushes because our feet were slipping. My training partner for the day bailed once there were 4 plates per side, and I ended up taking 5-6 passes with 540lbs (plus sled weight). Here’s a video of my last set:
When I was done, the guy playing basketball asked me about what I was doing, and I explained that the sled works well for conditioning, concentric strength development, and recovery. You see he’s rocking a knee-brace, and high tops, and he said he also has a bad back. Can’t push the sled, but he can play basketball 5 days a week. Are you serious?! Facepalm.
After spending 15 minutes unloading the Prowler and putting it away, it was time to get home and eat. After all, ppost workout nutrition is pretty important, right? Animal flesh is an important part of post workout nutrition, right? Sunday was Father’s Day, right? Grilling animal flesh was a pretty good idea for the day, so that’s what I did.
After cleaning up after the gym, I began my preparing for my BBQ Extravaganza. Most people take the time to plan menus and stress over the details, but I’m the opposite. Food is your friend, and I think stressing out about it contributes to the negative relationship that many of us have with it. I like to pick out ingredients and play mad scientist, using my family as guinea pigs, figuring out how to make things extra delicious. For this BBQ, I concocted special burgers as well as a delicious sauce.
My mom had a three-meat blend of beef, pork, and veal, called a “Meatloaf Mix”. I mixed and mashed the meats in a bowl, and added a delicious concoction to flavor the burgers. In a blender, I combined an egg, a dash of V8, a few shakes of Herbs and Garlic spice, and 2oz. of onion. The onion blended into tiny pieces, and I was able to shape the meat into big juice patties. I put a few onion rings inside my dad’s burger, because he “used to eat it like that as a kid”, and I thought it was a nice Father’s Day touch. While g the burgers were on the grill, I tossed some onions on top of each one for some extra nutrition and flavor.
My mom threw together a salad to go with the burgers, and we’ve been a bun-less family for a few years so the burgers went straight onto the plates. I whipped up some special sauce while the burgers were grilling, and even though I withheld the ingredients from my family, they all tried it and liked it. Check out the recipe:
- 2oz. Ketchup
- 2oz. Chobani Greek Yogurt
- 2tbsp A1 Steak Sauce
- 1tbsp Minced Garlic
- 3 ‘shakes’ of Chili Powder (Honestly, no idea how much.)
Mix those ingredients in a bowl, and enjoy. It should end up looking pretty similar to Thousand Island dressing, but I think it’s way tastier. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
I’ll be spending the rest of the week writing essays and studying for finals for my 3 summer classes. I absolutely love being in school, and I’m glad I’m spending my summer educating myself and getting closer to ‘the real world’, but I’m ready for Summer I to be over. Not that it’s overly difficult, or that I’m tired from spending 14 hours a day doing work…I just want to take Exercise Physiology over Summer II.
Make sure you start your week out right, and maintain your healthy habits throughout the week!
Harold Gibbons 