When Life Gives You Lemons

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Prehab:

Monster squats 2×20″
Banded squats 2×10 (Fat band around knees-focus on knees out)
Calf Stretching on plate x45″

Warm up: 

2 Min Jump Rope
-then-
Bear Crawl x50′
Crab Walk x50′
Skipping x50′
Butt Kicks x50′
High Knees x50′
Karioke x50′
10 air squat jumps

Fitness

 Strength

Take 20 minutes to find your 5 rep max Back Squat

Notes:  This is our third week in a row of this.  Try to warmup and perform 4-5 sets at the heaviest weight from last week.  Practice and setup your movements between sets.

 Conditioning

4 Rounds for time:

10 Deadlifts
10 Pullups
15 Wall Balls
15 second Lsit

-20 min cap-

 Notes:  Prescribed is 185/125 for the deadlift, 20/14 for the med ball and feet above 2x45lb plates for the Lsit

 Advanced

 Strength

10 minutes to build up to your first set, then every two minutes, for 6 minutes (3 sets):?Back Squat x 10 reps @ 80% of your 1RM

Notes:  These should be heavier than last week!  Try to stick to the rest protocol, but if not that is ok, be sure to get in all 3 sets.

 Conditioning

3 Rounds for time:

7 Bar Muscleups
14 Deadlifts (225/155)
21 Wall Balls
30 second Lsit (accumulate)

-20 min cap-

Notes:  Scale the Mus as needed with a band or jumping.  Prescribed Lsits are feet above 2x45lb plates

Cool down:

Cobra stretch 2×30″
German Hand 2×30″
Pigeon stretch x1 min
Posterior chain flossing x1′

Tomorrow, two people who are very special to the gym, Sam Pearson and Jesse Billauer are getting married. For those of you who don’t know them, you should really try. Sam is one of the nicest, most humble, down to earth people that you can come across. And Jesse, although I have not personally met him yet, is such a geniune, optimistic, inspirational speakers that I’ve listened to. Not to mention he also may be one of the most talented surfers in the world. He has surfed 10 ft waves in Fiji, competed in the US open down in Huntington Beach, surfs with Pro’s including but not limited to Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, and Shane Dorian. He has multiple sponsers and even has custom boards made just for him, designed by the one of top board shapers in the world, Al Merrick. Oh and did I mention he done all of this without any use of feeling from his core down to his legs?

At the age of 17, Jesse was is a freak surfing accident where he broke his neck landing head first on a sandbar, immediately paralyzing from C7 down. At the time, Jesse was an upcoming star in the surfing world. He was one month away from turning pro when the accident happened. What a sad story right? For most people yes, but for Jesse…I would argue no.

There is no doubt that Jesse was a probably a great person before the injury, but its how he and his family have responded to it, makes this story truly remarkable. Jesse understands how precious life is and is absolutely living every moment to the fullest. Since his injury, Jesse has swam with Great white sharks, gone skydiving, got barreled by waves in Fiji, and have motivated disabled and able bodied people all over the world. If you haven’t watched his documentary yet, I strongly encourage you to do so, “Jesse’s Story”.

For those of you who don’t know, me and my beautiful wife Lindsay were married one week ago. The wedding was a dream, couldn’t have been a more perfect day. This past Monday morning, me and Lindsay were on a flight to Costa Rica for our Honeymoon. Seven days of beautiful weather and paradise. Or so we thought. We never even made on the flight to Costa Rica due to a medical complication that Lindsay sustained on the connecting flight to Miami. Our dream honeymoon was cut short. We had to get on a plane back to Los Angeles to see her doctor the next day. We were both quite heartbroken, but we both understood that maybe there was a reason that we weren’t supposed to be on that plane.

Last night, I was going through our movies and saw “Jesse’s Story” in the mix, so I randomly decided to watch it, not to give me hope or anything but I really just wanted to hear his story. Now I’m not a religious man, but I don’t believe that it was coincidence that I picked his movie over the 100 others that were in the same pile. Hearing Jesse’s story could not have come at a better time. What happened to us is NOTHING compared to what Jesse has gone through but it teaches a very valuable lesson. We can’t control what happens in life, we can only control our attitudes and decisions towards it. We all will eventually face significant adversity and affliction, watching people’s reactions to adversity will reveal alot about their character and what type of person they are. Jesse’s true character was revealed, and I would argue that what he has done is nothing short of being heroic. He has touched the lives of thousands truly makes every breath count. But I guess its much easier to do so when you have an amazing Dad (George) and a loving, supportive, and an eh hem… beautiful wife (as shown is this video)

So best of luck guys!!

Definition of a hero: “An ordinary person doing extraordinary things”