And here we go!

A while back Chad approached me about blogging regarding fitness and such, I was hesitant at first, but figured I've accrued quite a bit of knowledge over the past 10 years or so of lifting competitively, and I've worked with some of the brightest, and strongest individuals on the planet, so who knows, this may help push someone in the right direction and give back since I've been helped and blessed by so many in the strength world.

To start, a bit about my background.  29 years old, no, I'm not 30 yet.  I started taking an interest in lifting in high school, off season football, the mean strength coach, all that.  Pretty typical start for most of us meat heads.  I never took lifting seriously though.  It was something we were obligated to do in the off season, and on the off chance it was storming bad enough for the coach to actually say we're not going to practice that morning on the field. After high school, lifting was non-existent for a good while.

Fast forward a bit, cutting out the boring crap.  After realizing my weight had shot up horribly and I was getting lazy, I contacted a few people I found on Google to see about setting up some training.  My first contact was Josh Bryant.  This is when everything I thought I knew, or had been taught in the past changed.  Google Josh Bryant, he's a beast of a man, with the heart of a Saint.  Not only did he push me further physically, he tested me mentally, and even got me on a better path with God (which I admit is something I do struggle with quite a bit).  Josh was the youngest person to bench 600 pounds raw (no bench shirt or support shirt), and had been able to cut weight himself over time.  I knew if anyone could get me going, it'd be him, I just didn't know how far he'd take me, and how much potential he'd unleash in me.  I started on a power lifting method he had put together.  We focused on dead lifts, bench press, and squats.  Cardio was done, but minimal.  When I start with Josh, I was at or close to 400 pounds.  My heaviest ever was 464 back in 2008.  Under Josh, I dropped down to about 320, and did my first power lifting meet.  During that meet, I set 2 state records and came close to a 3rd.

Since then, I've also studied under Ken "Skip" Hill, Brian Dobson, and Brandon Lilly.  I've gotten information or programming from too many people to list on here, that's for sure.

I've managed to get my weight down to 285, but during the winter relaxed a bit, and bulked up just a bit.  My lifts have all gone up, so it's not a total loss.

In March of 2014, I had a minor set back with a rotator cuff injury.  It wasn't severe enough for rehabilitation or medical treatment, but it was a nagging injury I had to address, so I took some time off from lifting heavy.  Now that it's cleared up, I'll be competing in October in a USPLA meet in Carrollton, TX.  I'll have the chance to qualify for an invite to Nationals in Las Vegas for 2015.  In 2015, I'll have the chance to qualify for IPL Worlds, which would be a pretty big step for me.

So, through this blog I plan on touching on some subjects regarding workouts, nutrition from time to time, and some personal goals and such as we roll along.  Any questions or comments, just leave them here and they'll definitely get answered.

Peace