For the past year I have watched the rapid physical decline of a loved one subject to the cruel ravages of Mesothelioma. It is poignant, heartbreaking and at times fills me with utter despair watching the final moments of a life being overwhelmed by the pain of such an insidious affliction.
It is moments like these that keenly focus your thinking on individual mortality and the frailty of the human condition. Certainly from this perspective the pursuit of physical perfection embodied in strength sports is exposed for the illusory nature of its offering: from the day we are born the clock commences as does our slow physical degradation.
Recently I listened to a seminar by a renowned social scientist who opined that all human life is a tragedy, that we move from ignorance of mortality in child hood to a deliberate avoidance of this truism in adulthood.
Due to events 3 years ago I am utterly cognisant of the fleeting nature of our existence. I eek out every moment I can understanding the bittersweet oblivion facing us all. Everything we own, have achieved and care about will ultimately fail.
I am not frightened of the end, in fact there is true humanity in embracing the days loving more deeply, embracing tighter smiling in the face of the mundane and ridiculous we are faced with daily.
I love life, I love who I have become. I understand my place in the world and its not defined by my status, wealth or possessions.: they are fleeting. I live each day grateful for the persistence, industriousness and good fortune that placed me exactly at this moment.
Thomo
Friday, June 1, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Reflections and Restarts
Writing for enjoyment is the salvation I too often forget. When life is complicated and professional and personal issues are pressing the first item jettisoned from my routine is writing.
In corporate life I am an adept keyboard warrior slicing through a slew of inbound requests while producing slide decks at a prodigious enough rate to give a McKinsey consultant pause. But when life asks more of me I always forget just how relaxing I find writing even if it is only for myself.
I am not sure why I like to write but I find sentence structure and the challenge to articulate a thought with clarity but brevity strangely carthartic. That’s not to say I find it easy but on occasions such as tonight there is a direct channel from brain to finger tips that requires little conscious effort.
Great writing is inherently beautiful, there is an elegant satisfaction in reading a tightly constructed piece of prose. I think the test of good writing is to read your own work years later and get a pang of satisfaction and almost disbelief at whether you actually wrote the piece. Let’s be clear though I don’t experience that often!
I am saddened that quality writing amongst the general population is on the wane (at least in my corporate personal bubble). At work I often am the brunt of light hearted ribbing for my word selection. The criticism being I use words that are too “big”. While it is good natured with no malice intended what makes me chuckle is that the vocabulary in question is actually simple. That a word as mundane as ‘palpable’ elicits criticism from my peers is sad.
Much like a painter with a broad pallet of colours can create a beautiful vista so too can a broad vocabulary articulate a richer tapestry of meaning.
So while this post has taken only a few minutes as I sit here in a nice flow state with a quiet house late at night I feel immeasurably more relaxed.
Because of this I will post again tomorrow night and try and remember how important it is for me to write.
Stay Strong
Thomo
In corporate life I am an adept keyboard warrior slicing through a slew of inbound requests while producing slide decks at a prodigious enough rate to give a McKinsey consultant pause. But when life asks more of me I always forget just how relaxing I find writing even if it is only for myself.
I am not sure why I like to write but I find sentence structure and the challenge to articulate a thought with clarity but brevity strangely carthartic. That’s not to say I find it easy but on occasions such as tonight there is a direct channel from brain to finger tips that requires little conscious effort.
Great writing is inherently beautiful, there is an elegant satisfaction in reading a tightly constructed piece of prose. I think the test of good writing is to read your own work years later and get a pang of satisfaction and almost disbelief at whether you actually wrote the piece. Let’s be clear though I don’t experience that often!
I am saddened that quality writing amongst the general population is on the wane (at least in my corporate personal bubble). At work I often am the brunt of light hearted ribbing for my word selection. The criticism being I use words that are too “big”. While it is good natured with no malice intended what makes me chuckle is that the vocabulary in question is actually simple. That a word as mundane as ‘palpable’ elicits criticism from my peers is sad.
Much like a painter with a broad pallet of colours can create a beautiful vista so too can a broad vocabulary articulate a richer tapestry of meaning.
So while this post has taken only a few minutes as I sit here in a nice flow state with a quiet house late at night I feel immeasurably more relaxed.
Because of this I will post again tomorrow night and try and remember how important it is for me to write.
Stay Strong
Thomo
Monday, September 26, 2016
Deadlift Fun
Today was going to be a challenge. I needed to get my training out of the way early as I had a barbecue in the country to get to and needed to be on the road by 10:00. For context I hate rushing and really dont like early morning training.
Two weeks out from Nationals and I was programmed for a 97% 1RM deadlift today followed by working sets.
Given it was 7:30am I made sure to hit plenty of light reps to warm up the back. The early timing also ensured there was only a handful of lifters around.
Warms ups done I started laddering my way to a top set. Form felt a little off as the weight went up until I gather my breath and gripped and ripped my top set.
Overall it moved pretty quick but video review afterwards revealed I had let it get way too far in front as it hit my knees. I really had to work that much harder to get it to lock out.
It just illustrates that when your form is off even a little, the weight is proportionately that much harder. On my work sets I realised I had neglected to focus on keeping my lats tight thus the drift forward.
Refocusing on lats for my work sets resulted in a much quicker pull and an overall feeling of being tighted and more fluid. I will need to focus on this queue right up to comp day.
Depsite the time pressures I felt pretty good about this week and overall relaxed about Masters Nationals.
Thomo
Two weeks out from Nationals and I was programmed for a 97% 1RM deadlift today followed by working sets.
Given it was 7:30am I made sure to hit plenty of light reps to warm up the back. The early timing also ensured there was only a handful of lifters around.
Warms ups done I started laddering my way to a top set. Form felt a little off as the weight went up until I gather my breath and gripped and ripped my top set.
Overall it moved pretty quick but video review afterwards revealed I had let it get way too far in front as it hit my knees. I really had to work that much harder to get it to lock out.
It just illustrates that when your form is off even a little, the weight is proportionately that much harder. On my work sets I realised I had neglected to focus on keeping my lats tight thus the drift forward.
Refocusing on lats for my work sets resulted in a much quicker pull and an overall feeling of being tighted and more fluid. I will need to focus on this queue right up to comp day.
Depsite the time pressures I felt pretty good about this week and overall relaxed about Masters Nationals.
Thomo
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Lift more...switch off the brain
I wish I had a switch that would allow me to turn off my brain. One of the problems of being naturally inquisitive and an analyst by background is that I can sometimes overthink things in a desire to achieve an outcome. This becomes particularly problematic in regards to training.
For the last couple of months, I have been running a 10-week contest peak which was going perfectly fine until I ran into a challenging period at work. You know the usual, long hours missed meals and travel. This translate to two weeks in a row of 4 day breaks from training following by 2-3 consecutive days of training in a frantic effort to maintain momentum.
Friday night I found myself in this situation and with meet day looming I needed to get my squat back on track. In the previous week, it felt like I had completely lost the fundamental ability to squat. Annoyingly I just couldn't get consistent good depth and when I did it felt like I was completely out of position.
With this context, I wasn't particularly confident to hit the number I needed. However, in a rare moment of clarity I remembered the words of a coach of mine from a few years back. While I'm loosely paraphrasing he would say, Thomo don't overcomplicate the squat.Put the bar on your back and sit down, don't think don't worry about failing just sit down and stand up....simple turn my brain of and keep it simple.
Net result with a single spotter, no wraps, and no fanfare I hit an unwrapped PB squat. Mentally it was a morale boost and proved I am stronger this year. The number unwrapped was my previous wrapped 1st or 2nd in comp and is 89% of my best wrapped competition squat.
Tomorrow is deadlift day and will likely be 95-97% of 1RM. Sitting here tapping away I have at least 3 steaks in me along with enough carbs to get a good bloat happening.
Bring on the pain.
Thomo
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Masters 2016
It has started which is to say the 'it' is my preparation and the 'what' is the 2016 GPC Masters Nationals.
Previously GPC in Australia ran an 5 day extravaganza with pretty much everyone and their dog flying in for what I think is the best National Championships in this Country. However given the resurgensce of powerlifting in this country the chanpionships became a logistical nightmare hundreds of competitors.
In response it was decided to ensure the Open event was on a qualification basis and the Juniors, Masters and Equipped have been spun out into a standalone event. While personally I wasnt a fan of the change it does mean I will be heading to the Gold Coast in October to represent my gym in the Masters Nationals.
Currently I am on 4 weeks leave and this afforded me a level of breathing space; a disruption to my mormal frenetic corporate existence. Practically this translates to not having to rush into the gym after a 16 hour work day to jam my workout in so I can get home and see the family.
Being less rushed is a nice switch-up from my normal routine and I have enjoyed training in a less frenetic environment.
At the moment I am 14 weeks out and have 3 weeks of a mass/volume phase to finish before kicking off my 11 week prep to the platform. Given how busy Ive been professionally I have been running this month Mass program as a break-in to hard training.
Peaking will be a pretty basic linear progression but I am pretty keen to pull well so may switch in the Coan phillip deadlift progression into my peak. Ill see how my numbers look coming out of this phase.
Consistency is what I need, just the basics but lots of it. Game on!
Thomo
Previously GPC in Australia ran an 5 day extravaganza with pretty much everyone and their dog flying in for what I think is the best National Championships in this Country. However given the resurgensce of powerlifting in this country the chanpionships became a logistical nightmare hundreds of competitors.
In response it was decided to ensure the Open event was on a qualification basis and the Juniors, Masters and Equipped have been spun out into a standalone event. While personally I wasnt a fan of the change it does mean I will be heading to the Gold Coast in October to represent my gym in the Masters Nationals.
Currently I am on 4 weeks leave and this afforded me a level of breathing space; a disruption to my mormal frenetic corporate existence. Practically this translates to not having to rush into the gym after a 16 hour work day to jam my workout in so I can get home and see the family.
Being less rushed is a nice switch-up from my normal routine and I have enjoyed training in a less frenetic environment.
At the moment I am 14 weeks out and have 3 weeks of a mass/volume phase to finish before kicking off my 11 week prep to the platform. Given how busy Ive been professionally I have been running this month Mass program as a break-in to hard training.
Peaking will be a pretty basic linear progression but I am pretty keen to pull well so may switch in the Coan phillip deadlift progression into my peak. Ill see how my numbers look coming out of this phase.
Consistency is what I need, just the basics but lots of it. Game on!
Thomo
Cross Fit Bumpers
Why is it whenever I view an image on social media featuring crossfit they appear to be using ridiculously thick plates that are not proportionate to the actual weight. It's just the oddest look and anecdotally woman appear to to be the worst offenders.
I can only assume a supplier started producing this style of plate to appeal to woman in the sport and particularly social media posts. You know, these hot athletic looking woman can post images of snatches and jerks with what at first blush appears to be a tonne of weight over head.
Were it not for social media I think there would be very little of any demand for these plates.
Just a really minor nuance that annoys the shit out of me.
Thomo
I can only assume a supplier started producing this style of plate to appeal to woman in the sport and particularly social media posts. You know, these hot athletic looking woman can post images of snatches and jerks with what at first blush appears to be a tonne of weight over head.
Were it not for social media I think there would be very little of any demand for these plates.
Just a really minor nuance that annoys the shit out of me.
Thomo
Sunday, March 6, 2016
IFBB PRO...a cast of thousands
There seemed to be a proliferation of body building posts on my social media feed today. On the back of the annual Arnold it struck me just how damn common the term IFBB pro is bandied around. I mean literally it feels like every second person is bikini,boardshort,physique first time, novice masters winner.
Broadening a sports appeal by increasing participation is absolutely desirable but it certainly feels like it has been at the qualitative aspect of the sport. Literally every second post on facebook has someone either posting an 'inspirationl' meme regarding their next show or worse still a photo of 3 rows of tupperware containers with the caption 'meal prep done'.
The proliferation of PEDS amongst the masses has definately changed the sport. A decent local show winner today would easily have been hyper competitive 30 years ago at National level.
Frankly I am uneasy about just how much the gear has also changed societies perception of what a 'normal' physique should look like. Life is a marathon not a sprint, and there is a certainly a whole generation of lifters who arent showing care or consideration to long term health. There is always a tradeoff and I supect in the future many will be surprised by the price to be paid.
Thomo
Broadening a sports appeal by increasing participation is absolutely desirable but it certainly feels like it has been at the qualitative aspect of the sport. Literally every second post on facebook has someone either posting an 'inspirationl' meme regarding their next show or worse still a photo of 3 rows of tupperware containers with the caption 'meal prep done'.
The proliferation of PEDS amongst the masses has definately changed the sport. A decent local show winner today would easily have been hyper competitive 30 years ago at National level.
Frankly I am uneasy about just how much the gear has also changed societies perception of what a 'normal' physique should look like. Life is a marathon not a sprint, and there is a certainly a whole generation of lifters who arent showing care or consideration to long term health. There is always a tradeoff and I supect in the future many will be surprised by the price to be paid.
Thomo
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