Conquering the Waves of Life

[slammingbars]

Work hard, PR harder!

[slammingbars]

20.

The satirical love story between a lifter and his mistress, Ms. Brown Eyes and the tragic progression of their relationship.

She is 20oz of pure magic. Combined with her sweet aroma and decadent punch she is irresistible. Everyone’s “Ms. Brown Eyes" is different. Mine’s a Venti Iced Coffee from Starbucks, straight. I take mine without any bull shit. I don’t need any protection between my sweet love.

0%

0, truly the loneliest number ever conceived. With 1, there is at least something rather than nothing at all. This is the time before you begin your courtship. Before you begin the dance that is know to us as the workout.

100%

This is the movement you wish you could live in forever. When you first set eyes upon her dark brown beauty and fall in love.

90%

Her appeal is too much and you can no longer hold yourself back and you take your first sip. This will undoubtedly lead to her unfortunate demise. You are hooked on this newfound love as if you were a drug addict.

80-75%

The journey from the coffee shop to the gym proves difficult and you give in to your addiction. Injecting yourself with her sweet nectar dry, not before you realize that you need her for what's to come.

60%

By now you have started your workout. She patiently waits for you in the corner while you complete your lift. You are hopelessly in love and faithfully return to feed off her boundless energy.

30%

At this point you are starting to conserve her precious gift. You crave her but you hold yourself back because you will need her when the lifts becomes difficult.

15-10%

As the lifts become harder, you start to rely on her more than ever. Taking only take small sips, just enough to parch your mouth, to her last as long as possible. This is all you need to make the next lift.

3%

She is already starting fade. She is no longer posses her former beauty. A concoction of melting ice and watery coffee. But nonetheless, you need her, despite her miserable state to complete that lift. Resorting to eating the ice to get the reminisce of her liquid gold.

0%

0, alone again. You can't fathom she's gone. Just when you need her the most. Your only reminder that she was ever there is the cool bitter taste she left on your tongue. This simple reminder is all you need to finish out strong.

In the end, she gave her life for you. Without her, you wouldn't have left out the door to go train. You owe it to her, you owe it to Ms. Brown Eyes. Who may be gone now, but is alway there to help you conquer.

Nicoli - Version 2.0

[slammingbars]

This is absolutely gnarly! 

Epic squat-battle between a Powerlifter, a Weightlifter, a Strongman and a Bodybuilder.

[slammingbars]

The Temptress

The story of the devil in the red dress comes from a blog my weightlifting coach, Jon North wrote. In it he explains how she, the devil, will try to make us fail and stop us from achieving our dreams; manipulating us by using her charm and extraordinary beauty. “She looks so tempting with her silky red dress and her plump red lips.” - From, Devil in a Red Dress

She is the temptress that lives within all of us. The one who puts negative thoughts and ideas in our heads. She is the one who convinces us that after a hard day of training we should rest… forever. This has been something I have struggled with in my life recently. When weightlifting became hard to maintain with school and water polo, I started to drift and eventually I stopped going. Now that I’m back, I feel I have taken the first step to defeating the monster infecting us with her poison. I have realized that weightlifting and water polo are necessary in my life because the keep me whole. There are times when we want to give up and give into temptation. We must gather our strength and relinquish our fears, and doubts. These are what fuel the temptress. When we accomplish our goals we can make her weak. I have found throughout my career that when I try to strive for goals that are far away, I came up short. We forget about the little goals, the ones that the major life accomplishment could not be achieved with. Focusing on the smaller accomplishments and goals we can improve ourselves. After each work out I think back to my lifts and think, “That was a great lift, I should try to lift like that next time!” Using this philosophy I have found that training has become easier and more enjoyable. Keeping the devil at bay we must away keep a watchful eye. If we slip, even a little, the devil will be knocking at your door in her red dress.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. - Mathew 6:13

Nicoli - Version 2.0

[slammingbars]

We've been fascinated with the ideal human form since ancient Greece and before, although that ideal form has been constantly changing. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Howard Schatz's Athlete series is so striking – it taps into the same focus on physical human beauty that ancient Greek ...

Source:[Bored Panda]

Interesting article! What body type are you?

[slammingbars]

Truly awe inspiring!

[slammingbars]

The Reboot

It has been almost 2 years since I wrote my thoughts down. It’s time for a reboot.

With our busy lives, we are constantly making an effort to maintain the different facets that make up our day to day existence. We soon get overwhelmed and we tend to stray from the things we love, whether that’s friends, sports, or writing blogs. Amongst the chaos we push these things away till they are forgotten. But having these in our lives not only makes life more interesting but it helps keep us sane. Over time we become monotonous, tedious, and cumbersome. We begin to see life as a task rather than as a joy. In a way we start to become like computers. We begin to slow down and fill up with junk. What used to be the latest and greatest, now struggles running simple applications. We realized that in order to gain some speed we delete the “junk” in our lives we no longer had a need for. Often, these are things we used to enjoy but no longer have time for. This is only a temporary fix. Before long we’re deleting things that were once important but carry no meaning anymore. Just like a computer, we need to restore ourselves in order to gain a new perspective which we can use to become the best version of ourselves, equipped with the latest Operating System. 

Over the last year weightlifting has become lost in my life. I had inadvertently deleted this part. It was only recently that I returned to the scene. I was reminded once again, of how much of a passion weightlifting was to me. Soon I fell into the familiar patterns that I was accustom to, but something was off. When I reinstalled weightlifting in my life it didn’t run quite right. The lifts were the same, but I did not feel like the same person who was lifting almost a year ago. I realized that I need to change and restore my system. I needed to update my OS. Reboot and start fresh.  

Rebooting every once in a while allows us to start anew, and have a clean slate. Our only obstacles become the walls we put around us. I struggle breaking these walls down. As soon as you conquer a wall, a new wall takes its place. I feel, however, through a mental reboot anyone can return triumphant in the face of adversity. With this new found outlook, I am ready to return to the gym and conquer my walls. Ready to slam bars. 

Nicoli - Version 2.0

[slammingbars]

The Recipe

PR - serves  1 Ingredients: - 20 fl oz of coffee - techno music - a pinch of powered chalk - a shit-ton of confidence!

[slammingbars]

The Fall

The Fall

No matter how hard you practice you can’t prepare for the fall. The fall is probably the hardest thing for an athlete to go through. You train and train but when it comes to proving yourself, a single moment, like getting a DQ or dropping the bar can bring it tumbling down. This is what happened to me today.

I am minutes before my race. My event, the 100yrd Breaststroke. As I prepare for the race of my life, I start to get the jitters, but I can’t let this distract me. I am the Business Man. Finally my event is called. I step on to the block. Mind and body in sync. I AM READY. BEEEEEEP!!!! The race begins. As my body enters the water, the adrenaline kicks in. I leave all my worries on the pool deck. THIS IS MY RACE. The next few moments was a complete blur. It is almost as if I am watching someone else race while I view the race from the bottom of the pool. I hit the wall. I look at the result board 1:10:00. I am completely baffled. I can’t believe it! What an amazing PR! 0:2:60 off my best time. In swimming 2 seconds is a big deal. Most of the time when you break your record it is only by milliseconds. I won my heat! The feeling was incredible. But just as quickly as it came it went away. 

That moment was a beautiful rose made of glass. A glass more beautiful than diamond. When rays of light shine on the rose it gleams, showering everything in a rainbow of colour. This flower grows from our dreams and is and watered by our ambitions. Everyone has their own unique flower. So when I found out that my swim was DQ because my elbows came too far out of the water I was deviastated. The flower that I had worked so hard to grow shattered into a million pieces and was blown away by the wind. Out of the pieces of the flower a new flower can grow. Using the seeds of optimism we can plant a new flower. We need to soldier on and try again. We can’t let a minor disappointment stop us from acheiving of dreams. We may not achieve our goals today but if persevere our flower will regrow from the ashes of of our loss.

[slammingbars]

Business Man

You walk into gym. You see your fellow athletes training hard. At first you're intimidated because you know the next hour will be hell. But you've already reached the point of no return. You can't back down or you will forever be deemed a coward. By this point, you should already have your game face on because it's time to train like an animal. Or as I like to call it Business Time. When you first walk in your mind should already be switching into training mode. A good workout starts with your attitude. You can't shift into training mode 20 minutes into your workout because by then it's pointless. As I said before mind and body need to work together to accomplish your goals. By preparing your mind, you in turn prepare your body. As you warm up think about task you're about to do. Make a plan. Making up your workout as you go is not very effective. I know from experience that if you go this route you will end up walking around and wasting your time. This mentality is also true in the real world. If you want to succeed you need a goal orientated plan otherwise you will be left in the dust with nowhere to go. In the gym you should be the business man. The business man doesn't fuck around. The minute he walks in the door he gets down to business. He immediately starts working and doesn't stop till his goals are accomplished. He knows by working hard he is one step closer to the top. Everyday I strive to become the business man. Not only when I'm in the gym, but in all aspects of my life. This has been especially hard for me when it comes to school. A person does not become the business man overnight it take years of practice, but by getting into this mind set you're one step closer to becoming the business man.

[slammingbars]

The Road to 60

The road to 60 has been a difficult journey for me and I don't recommend it to the faint hearted. Snatching 60kg was such a surreal moment for me. I could hardly believe it! It was as if the whole lift happened in slow motion. Finally I had proof that my hard work payed off. Sure I PRed before but not like 60. Just weeks before, I was just recovering from my injury and had been stuck at snatching 42kg. I've finally started treading into dangerous water, but I couldn't have done it without the guidance of my coach, Jon North. Hats off to you! It's such an incredible feeling to finally call myself a weightlifter. Here's the video down below:

[slammingbars]

The Beach

I am listening to my Sublime with Rome radio station on Pandora. Whenever I listen to this music it makes me feel free, and helps me relax. I imagine I'm on the beach, the sun is shining, and the waves are perfect. I escape to this safe haven when I have to rejuvenate my mind and body. Training 5 days a week for 2-3 hours can take a lot out of you. So taking care of your body is essential in the recovery process. I would say its even more important than training itself. If you don't take the right precautions in preparing your body for the next workout you will be more prone to injury and your day's workout will be useless. Everyone should have a recovery ritual that they follow after every workout, regardless of the amount you trained. By going through the ritual you tell your body it is time to rest, and you allow it to get ready for what's next. My ritual consist of drinking a protein shake, eating dinner/lunch (depending on the time) and taking a nice 30 min bath to ease my muscle after a hard day of training. Eating is the most important part of my ritual and it should be mandatory in everyone's ritual. Why eat? Eating is your body's way of recovering the lost energy you use during you work out. You need to eat!!! Skipping meals to lose weight is NOT okay. There is only one way to achieve weight loss and that's persistence. Along with resting your body you have to rest your mind. Having your mind race with a million thoughts or stress over things you have no power over can negatively effect you body. It can add physical strain to you body rendering it useless for the next work out. Without the mind the body is useless and vice versa. Mind and body have work hand-in-hand. Another important part in resting the mind is sleep. We need our sleep its not only when of bodies rest, but we allow our brains to rest so it can function at its maximum capacity. Getting 8 hours sleep is not easy. I'm especially guilty of this and I'm sure all of you are too. Staying up to watch your favotite TV show or texing you friends. But we need sleep and we have to try of best to try get the most sleep we can possibly get. As I like to say "you can never get too much sleep". So as I return to my beach with my iced coffee I wish you and your families a very happy Easter! Train, Eat, Sleep... Repeat!

[slammingbars]

The Mountain

In our lives we all have obstacles that we have to overcome. Whether it's obstacles at school, work, or in sports. Without these obstacles we can not seek to improve ourselves. We need to be smarter, faster, and stronger or else we will but left behind while the rest of the population continues to evolve. We are all on a journey, we don't know what lies ahead on the road just that the end is majestic. I have always seen my life's journey, like climbing a mountain. You know what lies at the top, but the path leading there is treacherous. Many have attempted to climbed this haunting beast and failed which makes you want to give up. But we have to go on, it's our human nature. We are alway put the test on the mountain. She constantly challenges us, putting obstacles in our way. What seems to be a sunny day can drastically change into an un-forbidding storm that has already taken so many, but we can't let these minor speed bumps keep us form accomplishing greatness.  I climb this mountain everyday. I have many ups and downs but you have take each day one at a time and try to forget how you did the previous day. Just because you play the game of your life or get 5 PRs doesn't mean you will tomorrow. This has been the most difficult thing for me to learn and I still struggle with every now and then. When I play bad in a game it's hard not to think "what if I play like last time?". If you want to be successful in your sport you have to dump the "what if" questions and just move forward. Your mind is both your enemy and your friend. It can help you overcome the storm or push you even further from the top of the mountain.

[slammingbars]

The Virgin Blogger

Hello everybody I’m Nicoli and I’m currently a senior in High school. I’m a WATERPOLO player. This sport has become my passion in the last 4 years. I started playing my freshman year and haven’t stopped since. It has become my way of life, I live it, and breath it. Water polo in other words is what makes me, me. Before water polo I was just like every other kid, but through water polo I learned dedication, hard work, and responsibility.

With all the 5:30 wake up calls and demanding practices I learned discipline. I believe this is most important skill I learned in water polo. I have been able to apply this to all areas of my life, like school and most recently olympic weight lifting.

I recently suffered an injury to my leg that prevented my water polo training. After weeks of sitting at home bound to my sofa my brother suggested I train with Jon North at California Strength. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Just like water polo, weight lifting has its own way of life that’s not all that different from water polo so I immediately fell in love. In the beginning it was a constant struggle to train with my broken leg, but I always pushed through my psychical limitations because I knew the harder I trained the faster recovery I would have. I have been training for about 3 months and in that time I have gained so much from this sport. Although its an individual sport there’s a sense of comrodery amoung the lifters whether its setting up the bar for the next lift or cheering on as someone attempts a new personal record (PR).

After about 4.55 liters of coffee and 17.5 days of techno music played, I’ve come to really enjoy weightlifting. My body goes crazy when I don’t train. It’s as if my chi is out of balance. I wake up in the morning and think to myself “I’m going to get a PR today”. Each time I do, I think “that not good enough lets train some more”. I feel in a way I will never be satisfied because that next PR will be kilos away. I have to constantly improve myself in everything I do or else will be stuck in a “purgatory” that will keep me from become who I strive to be in the future.