What Injury Has Taught Me By Chris Steele I have an injury. My right shoulder. I said: I have an injury. I did not say that I am injured. My shoulder is injured, but I am not. I’ve learned a lot from this injury. The most important thing injury has taught me is to separate the injury from myself. I’m sure that sounds strange to some, but by treating the injury this way I’ve found the freedom to keep…
The Gada or Macebell is an ancient training tool popularized in India. It was used heavily by wrestlers and strongmen, and continues to be a choice training tool for many. The benefits of Gada / Mace training are focused primarily on the upper body, especially the grip, arms and shoulders. The dynamic nature of club swinging also provides an extra challenge in coordination and mobility. Not to mention it’s fun! There’s also the added benefit of being able to…
With gyms across the state and most of the country closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, how do we go about establishing a new routine? A quarantine routine. There is no easy answer to that. All I know for sure is that we must keep training. There will obviously be major changes, but anybody who has joined a gym before or even started working out has already dealt with such changes. Remember what it was like when you first…
Bad things happen to everybody. We’re all going to get hurt (mentally and physically), get sick, get into a car accident, someone we know is going to cancer, pets and loved ones are going to die, and at some point we will slowly degrade until one day we die too. It could be a pretty bleak outlook, especially if you are in the midst of one of those stressful, depressive situations. Or if you’re injured and can’t train the…
by Craig Cusic, SFG The Night Before It’s Thursday December 5th 2019 2:00pm. I’m laying on top of my freshly made bed staring at the ceiling waiting for Jackson to get home from school. My bag is packed (triple checked), Southwest.com has been visited at least five times, hotel reservation confirmed (again), Uber app downloaded, every bit of info I need written on paper and stuffed in my wallet. Not just in my wallet, but in the secret spot…
For anyone looking to make lasting change in their life it’s helpful to think in terms of a 1 year plan. Especially at the time of this writing, New Years Eve, it’s important to plan your goals in a way that you can actually achieve them in the next 365 days. When it comes to fitness goals, this is where the concept of programming comes into play. If you’re not familiar with the concept, or if you’ve never written…
by Reese Jones It’s no secret that kids need physical exercise. It’s a great way to get them moving, allowing them to release all their energy instead of staring at screens all day. One of the biggest challenges parents face is not whether your child should get into exercise, but which exercise to do. From after-school team sports to individual activities like dance or martial arts, it can be difficult to find the perfect activity for your child. This…
vice1 /vīs/ – a weakness of character or behavior; a bad habit. “Big Keith” was a friend of mine, he was actually the father of a friend of mine, who I used to party with back in the day. This guy embodied the term “old head”. Although I can’t say 25 years later that I agree with his parenting style of allowing kids get high in your house, as a teenager I was quite fond of him. Anyway, Big…
The following is a personal account of when I won the Maryland Strongest Man contest, my transition from competition to performing strongman, and my thoughts on what it means to be a strongman or strongwoman. I competed from 2003-2008. I did every strongman competition that was held in Maryland during that time and most of the grip contests in PA. Back then there was 4 weight classes in strongman. There was no women’s division (there was no interest), no…
I recently trained a group of seniors that reminded me of a lesson I learned long ago. The lesson is that “intensity” is something that doesn’t come naturally for most people – it is a learned experience. It is an important lesson too because you cannot gauge the effort you put into your training if you don’t know what you are capable of. You think you’re working hard but you’ve never truly stepped outside of your comfort zone. The…