I found out today that I had a heart attack and was recovering well from it. Apparently, the heart attack was from “supplementation” or something to that affect. There is something very humbling when you hear something like this and then, of course, it irritates the shit out of me.
For the record, I have not had a heart attack that I am aware of and I have not been in failing health from the use of supplements or for any other reason. I have been doing my cardio and getting leaner by the week and I feel great. Now, I could have a heart attack tomorrow but at least I have not had one yet.
For those that were involved in spreading this rumor, thank you for reminding me how important I am. I would prefer to be talked about in a more positive light but, hey, if I am being talked about I am important enough to someone, I guess. So, for that, I thank you.

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I have had a hell of a time getting another blog up what with so many things going on at home including sick kids. As I type this I hear my five year old coughing from her room. I can only hope that it doesn’t get to me but … it likely will. Those of you that have kids know that it runs through every person in the house and then usually hits you last.

I wanted to at least update those that have been hitting me via PM, email, facebook, etc., and let you all know that training is going well and so is the diet and my progress. As I posted a few weeks ago, I revamped my training for an “offseason” approach and it wasn’t going well so I changed back to the Skip way of doing things and thank God I did. I should be 220 by this weekend’s baseline and I look and feel so much better after just less than 3 weeks.

I am still struggling with this foot issue that for the life of me I can’t figure out. My knees are fine now that I am wrapping all the time for legs and my back is holding up well – although I did notice I was tighter than usual in my lowerback the last couple days. This is odd and I will be watching it closely to make sure that everything is ok. The foot issue is troubling because I just don’t know what I did to it. I can train legs but whether I have trained or not I limp on it and have for a couple months now. It hurts in a very small area on the top of my foot where the muscles are for the big toe – closer to the ankle joint. It almost feels like a sprain of some kind. I can’t train calves very often because of it. I may need to have it looked at considering it isn’t getting better (though not getting worse, either).

Now, if I can just fend off this sickness that covers the house I would be very happy.

I will be back to blogging as soon as things slow down here at home.

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I have started to write this blog I don’t know how many times and stopped over the last couple of months. I just wasn’t “feeling it” or it wasn’t striking a chord until I had a situation with a client about 3 weeks ago that really gave me substance to finally write it. Sometimes there is something that happens and it just makes you scratch your head and evaluate what your situation is and determine whether your situation is a good one or a really shitty one.
I took on a client for a contest prep back in the Spring and he was pretty much the ideal client. I mean, look, most of the clients I work with are great and because I can kind of pick and choose who I work with these days as opposed to just taking anyone that can pay me, it helps to kind of weed out the psychos and lost souls – not always but usually. So I start this prep and things are going well. This cat’s energy is through the roof. As the prep goes on I sometimes wonder where his energy comes from as he is a natural competitor so he isn’t using anything for energy or pick-me-up or anything. Hell, his energy is so high that I am wondering if the son-of-a-bitch is eating Hostess Ding Dongs and cupcakes instead of the typical bodybuilding food that he should be eating. Even his strength is progressing all the while he is on such LOW calories and doing plenty of cardio. After working with him for a bit it was obvious that he was not cheating on his diet and was just generally having a great time with his first prep. Yup, this is one of those bonafide nut jobs, alright. Anyway, it is always nice as a prep guy to work with people that you don’t have to doubt them as to whether they are following your instruction or not. If I told this guy to eat the ass out of Dante’s ex-boyfriend, he was going to do it.
Things are rolling along week after week and there really aren’t any big concerns other than his calories are getting pretty damned low and his cardio is getting up there. I figured his strength would start to cut out at some point but week after week it was holding just fine. In fact, every now and then there was even progression during the last month or so. Now, I don’t want to make it sound like progression while prepping is an odd thing because those that work with me find that it is a regular occurrence, most of the time. However, you have to keep in mind that sometimes you get a natural guy with a not-so-favorable metabolism and you battle for each pound the entire prep. It happens sometimes. This guy could have carried more muscle (can’t we all?) but he was leaner than at any point in his life and was more than happy with the progress and I was good with the progress, as well.
As we get to the last 3-4 weeks there is a theme among a lot of new guys that are dieting for their first show. The head games start and they are either feeling “small” or not “ripped” enough and their head starts to play with them. This is the point that a lot of guys bow out on their first attempt at a show. I don’t fault them because it is a tough thing to do – getting on stage when you don’t feel in your head that you will be as good as you thought you would. Most people have very high expectations going into a prep and think they will end up on stage leaner and bigger than they actually will. Why? Because this is a place where they haven’t been before both physically, of course, but also in their psyche. The psyche will struggle to get into a condition that it can’t visualize or that it hasn’t seen before. Basically, it is uncharted waters.
I kind of thought the guy might bail on me simply because it was becoming obvious that he didn’t have a ton of mass and the leaner he got the more pronounced it was. Bitch is, he stuck it out and hung in there and was constantly thanking me as the show approached. I was happy for the guy because he was working HARD for this while going to school and I always have respect for those that work hard and don’t complain about or feel the need to point it out to people.
We get to the final week and I am going over the finer points of the last week of prep and he is excited and for good reason. He has a ton of questions because he doesn’t just want to do what I ask of him but he wants to understand it all including the whys and hows. We get to the last workout of the prep before resting and just posing before the show while the dieting changes take over and he brings up to me that his girl isn’t too supportive of him doing the show but that he will get it worked out. I thought nothing of it, really. Later that night he posts again and tells me that his fiance is having issues with him stepping on stage to compete. I ask him what the issue is and why it is an issue right now – 4 days before the show and his answer is pretty much a blank face and he says he doesn’t know. He goes into how important his girl’s feelings are and how important she is to him and I had to ask if the feeling was mutual. I mean, how in the hell could someone that you have known for years and someone that watched you prep for a show, turn on you less than 4 days from your payday? He asked my opinion as to what he should do but I wouldn’t give it to him because the decision as to what to do was his to make and I didn’t want to influence him one way or the other. However, I don’t have to keep my mouth shut right now so I won’t: My advice to him if I were his friend or someone close to him would be to get the hell away from her and marrying her would be about as bad a thing as he could do. Not being on the same page before getting married and understanding and respecting your spouse’s interests and passions is some seriously wrong shit. If I had had her number I would have called her and asked what the fuck she thought she was doing to this guy that she loved and was going to marry. I was sick for the guy. I knew how passionate he was about his training and he had sacrificed a lot for that show. Even if he was a complete dick to her or treated her poorly, that type of shit should have come out long before the last 4 days before the show. Plus, it would be hard for me to believe that he was bad to her based on how “up” he was every single time I communicated with him.
He decided not to do the show, in the end, and wasn’t the least bit bitter about it as far as I could tell. When he explained his decision to me it was almost as if he was proud for making the “right” decision. I feel for this guy, I really do.
Look, my point is that if you are passionate about something whether it is bodybuilding related or not, you need to be sure that your partner respects you enough to support you 100%. I realize that I am lucky because I have a wife that supports me and always has no matter what I want to do. I have close friends that I can count on one hand that are supportive and want to see me succeed, as well. I just can’t imagine living a life where your interests were laughed at or mocked or just plain not respected. How you love someone like that is beyond me.
I hope that anyone that is thinking about getting married considers whether they are fully supported or not. If you think things will change you are fucking nuts. The changes that people make in marriages has little to do with the other person and much more to do with growing as a person. There are things that I do that irritate the shit out of my wife and vice versa but we both know that all the bitching in the world won’t change those things unless WE want to change them. There are plenty of people that get divorced for things that were there when they got married but thought that “things would change”. Please don’t be a fool.
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