There are two schools of thought when it comes to being the best. One theory says that aiming for the top is hard, tedious and difficult since everyone wants to be up there. Another theory says that it’s easy, since there is less competition at the top because most are trying so hard to be mediocre instead. Truth is a funny thing, specially once you achieve something at a high level, and the truth is that both those statements are true. The work involved is tough as shit, you better have some dedication. But once you’re there, the snowball effect works in your favor and you keep getting better. Below is my journey on how I overcame a f**ked up lower back, and managed to pull a national record in my weight class. (If you want to know more about my deadlift technique, see my Deadlift Mastery series. It’s a 3 part course on how to pull bad ass weights at your weight class and generally become more awesome.)

2 Months Out: The Back Pain

As a gymnastics coach, it’s kind of my job to make sure that when people are trying to do inversions, they don’t fall on their face. And I do my job well. So when one of my athletes went to do a back tuck (backflip) and decided to bail in the middle of the inversion, I had to jump in, grab her by the waist and chuck her over my shoulder.

She landed on her ass, safe and sound but I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I was pissed. Not because she bailed; athletes make mistakes, but because at that point I could easily manage a deadlift of 365lbs without problems, but somehow a little 100lbs girl threw out my back. Bullshit.

1.8 Months Out: The Diagnosis & Treatment

A few days later, I called over my buddy Kris from (http://www.selfrecoverynow.com) and after he did his assessment, we realized I really f**ked things up. Also, the pain was going no where so we came to a conclusion that a chiropractor’s magic was much needed.

1.5  Months Out: The Rehab

Sure enough, the chiro told me that the two of my lumbar vertebrae were jammed together on an angle. I believe it was my L4/L5… great. So I scheduled 3 spinal decompression/re-alignment sessions to see how things would go. Each session involved the use of a machine (Kris knows the name of it, ask him) that would use electric pulses to loosen out my back, then he would work his chiro magic by twisting and tweaking the shit outta my back and making me do a few odd movements. There were satisfying cracks that took place and by the end of each session I felt as loose and limp as a chinese noodle.

Oh and he told me not to deadlift for a month, which was advice I fully ignored. I signed up for a comp and I was going to pull 400lbs no matter what (my max at this point was around 365lbs). I did however work with Kris to make sure my re-adjusted spine wouldn’t get all jammed up again. My “keep your spine pain free” regimen went as follows:

• 3 sets of 10 Reverse Hyper Extensions
• 2 sets of 10 Straight leg weighted shrugs on a dip station (this was to decompress the spine)
• 2 sets of 10 Bird Dogs
• 2 sets of 10 Super Mans

This little routine would basically sandwich my deadlift workouts, and Kris also did some stretching/active releases twice a week. The idea was that these movements would keep my spine decompressed and would strengthen the muscles around it to prevent it from going back into the “jammed state”. Worked well, really well in fact. It was as if the injury never happened… but more on that later.

1 Month Out: Hitting A New Max

Training was going well, and the inclusion of a belt was helping the process and keeping my vertebrae from making out with each other. I made sure I would imitate my competition at least once before I actually competed. This means going into a similar mind set, similar warm up times, visualizing the judge’s commands etc. Long story short, I pulled a new max of 385lbs like chump change off the floor. Three minutes later I decided to go for the 400lbs – after all, if you pull something in training, it’s that much easier to pull it in competition since you’ve already done it. The mental advantage is huge.

Well, 400lbs came off the floor but that’s about it. It got stuck half way and after trying for what seemed like an eternity I dropped that beast like a bad habit. I now had the opposite problem then when I first started. My weakness used to be off the floor and the lockout used to be my strong point. So after doing a month of deficit pulls, it became a strength. And now the lockout suffered. Granted I didn’t work it as much as I should have; lesson learnt.

Quick chat with Jordan Syatt (A 3x bodyweight deadlifter himself) told me that I should focus on doing some serious hip thrusts to get that humping power and work on strengthening my lats, which are needed to pull the bar in for the lockout. Heavy lat pull downs and hip thrusts were the suggestions but since I despise sitting down, I did heavy ass wide grip pullups instead.  Dr.Bojan Kostevski also discussed his training methods which were adding monster numbers to his guinea pig… I mean, his brother. Talking to these 2 men was a wise decision since it paid off quite well. But before before a rise, there is always a dip.

2 Weeks Out: Time For A Break, Have A KitKat

I took about 2-3 days to ditch the heavy training and did some gymnastics instead. I threw double back flips and a whole bunch of other shit that would not be advised before a competition. Giving a f**k however, is not something I do well. This was well needed as I believe you need to have some fun. Also, this was the day I started my diet to drop the 5 odd lbs for the weigh ins on May 11. Comp would be on May 12th – my birthday.

1 Week Out: The Pain Returns

It was a routine day at the gym. I did my “rehab routine”, followed by a quick warm up and decided I had to pull heavy numbers on my deficit so when competition rolls around, 400lbs wouldn’t be a problem. I was using a 4-5 inch deficit so the bar was literally starting from my ankles. If you can lift heavy shit from your ankles, you can lift it from shin height in your sleep.

But somehow, a puny 355 lbs deficit pull wrecked savagery on my lower back. The lift went up handsomely and as I went for the lockout, BAM; Instant pain and an immediate drop in weights which shook the floor like an earthquake. Luckily, the trainers at my commercial gym know me quite well by now so I wasn’t bitched at. Dirty looks are standard; usually by guys twice my size who can’t lift half as much and hate life. Weak ass haters, to be correct.

So it was Kris again to the rescue. After some killer stretching and digging his fingers into my back, quads, glutes and plenty of other muscles that hurt like hell, I was good to go in two days. His work was also mixed in with long bouts of heating and stretching on my own behalf. Oh and if you must know, two days after this incident, I pulled 450lbs on the trap bar deadlift. This took my confidence, gave it a blow job, put it on cloud 9 and surrounded it with the finest escorts the world had to offer. Basically, I felt good about the comp.

Day Before: Weigh Ins

On Thursday, I was about a pound over so decided to cut eating (“fasting”), and focus on high volume, light weight workouts coupled with interval cardio. Sweat buckets I did, and the morning of the weight in day, I was about 1.5 lbs under. Perfect excuse to pig out, so I went on a date where I stuffed my face in front of a beautiful lady. After that, it was off to the weigh-ins and watching dudes almost pass out and chicks who were too heavy that had to move up in weight class.

I weighed in like 0.6lbs over. But that’s because I was too lazy to remove my shirt and jeans since I figured the heavy meal would have evened things out. After getting practically naked, the scaled showed me at 1 lbs under and that was good enough. I ran over to the nearest grocery store and bought 3 WunderBars (love em), a big bottle of Gatorade, beef jerky, and picked up two cheese burgers on the way back home.

What? Shut up, it was my cheat day!

Judgement Day: Pulling The Record

First of all, I had no clue this would be a record. I had no idea what the previous record was and nor did I give a horse’s ass. Being my first comp, I wanted to go for FUN and achieve a personal goal of 400lbs that would officially make me a member of the 3x club (deadlifting 3x your body weight).

Warm ups were easy, simple and aided by my supplement potion consisting of Creatine, Beta Alanine and MuscleSpeed. If you’ve read my Deadlift Mastery series, you know the golden rule: If you can lift a light weight quickly, you can lift a heavy weight slowly. I saw way too many dorks “warming up” like this was a body building show and they needed a pump. Ridiculous. There were dudes doing 5×5 and other nonsense. Unsurprisingly these happened to be the same cupcakes who missed their first or second lifts.

So here’s how my warm up went:

• 160lbs x 2
• 230lbs x 1
• 280lbs x 1
• Dynamic vertical jumps 2 sets of 4
• 10 super mans and 15 bird dogs

Probably also made the record for the shortest warm up ever. The problem is, people think they need to go balls out on all 3 lifts. Not so – you first lift attempt IS PART OF YOUR WARM UP. It sets the tone for the next two which are your real and challenging attempts. My first lift was 330lbs – a weight I could pull hung over, half asleep with half a leg. Sure enough it went up. Second lift, was 360bs – challenging, but nothing I couldn’t manage. This also got the crowd talking as I frankly remembering a chick say to her boyfriend “where the f**k did he come from?”

Answer: From the pits of deadlift hell, bitch!

Now here’s the important bit – after the 2nd lift, I was standing by the judges trying to pick my final attempt. Obviously I blurted out 400lbs but unless I was going for a National Record, I had to pick weights from the pre-made charts. “What bullshit is this?!” I thought to myself. And since I had no clue, nor did I care about a record, I had to pick either 396 or 402.3. I knew I’d make 396 but would go home with regret because you can round it up all you want, 400lbs is 400lbs. So I chose the  latter – I figured I’d rather fail at the weight I came for, then get the weight I didn’t.

The Video

Instead of using words, below is the pull which broke the National Record and won me “The Best Deadlifter” award for the day. Quite the birthday present, if you ask me.

Conclusion & What’s Next

First of all, I want to give some props to the following people: Jordan Syatt, Dr.Bojan Kostevski, Kris R, Jon Goodman, Dan Go, JC Deen, Rog Law, Dick Talens, My Clients, My Fitocracy Followers and everyone else for the encouragement and their help. I always say, surround yourself by those that lift heavy ass shit, and the burden of success becomes light weight. A statement I think you’ll agree I’m a living proof of.

So what’s next? Well I’m thinking of moving up to 165lbs and doing the whole thing all over again. This gives me a reason to pig out and lift even monstrous numbers. It’s either that, or I’ll work on my bench (which sucks) and compete all three lifts at the current weight class. I’ll decide later.

In short – eliminate your weaknesses, make room for strength, and say “no” to mediocracy.

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© 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.

My Swedish brother from another mother, Dr. Bojan recently said on facebook “what you feel is a lie”. He was referring to the fact that although he felt like pure shit, when the managed to finally hit up the gym, he crushed his workout. In fact, he hit PR’s (Personal Records) on two out of his 3 lifts.

Now mind you, being a doctor who lifts heavy, he is one crazy f*cker and was doing a self experiment where he ate around 650 calories per day. And yet, somehow the workout was a success. How? Well as you’ll soon see, pushing past limitations has nothing to do with your caloric intake. Nor does it have anything to do with your general strength levels.

Let’s take another example – the rocket launch. Rockets expend about 80% of their energy just to get off the ground. The remaining 20 is all that’s needed to keep it going till it enters space. So, what can we gather from all of this?

The Start Of Anything Is Never Much Fun

When you really think about it, every task you can possibly think of, which requires you to get off your ass and initiate, is a cruel mistress for the first 60 seconds or so. Then, it’s a bit of a grind for another 2-5 minutes after which you reach “cursing altitude”. When you’re at that cruising altitude, very little motivation, energy and drive is needed to continue forwards.

It’s like Newton’s first law of motion: An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force. So once you get started, things get easier. It’s the starting that’s the hard part. So what do you do, if you’re sitting around, vegetating in front of the idiot box, while in the back of your head you know you’ve got to hit up the gym? Common sense says you need to get the hell up, and drag your ass outside the house.

But there is a part of your brain (known as the reptilian brain) which is rather stubborn and likes to do things its own way. In fact, this part of your brain is so powerful it often trumps logical decisions – which is why common sense advice doesn’t always work. And explains why a chunk of the population does some seriously dumb shit form time to time. Google “triune brain theory” to get a better understanding of what I’m talking about. Here’s a direct quote about the reptilian brain:

The overriding characteristics of R-complex (reptilian brain) behaviors are that they are automatic, have a ritualistic quality, and are highly resistant to change.

You may think you’re fully in control of yourself at all times, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. The solution is to get the inner reptilian on your side. Trust me, you can’t fight it – not forever. And you can’t tame it… juggling knives while wire walking across two towers would be easier than that. So as the old saying goes, when you can’t beat em’ you join em’.

How do you do this? You make things fun. Find out what equipment/classes/toys your gym has that are an absolute blast, for you. As in, you could be a sloppy hung over mess, but you’d still consider doing such an activity because it makes you feel good. That is the key. See, the reptilian brain is concerned with survival – as in, conserving energy. So when you’re alive and well, it sees no reason to hit up the gym and expend energy on a tedious workout plan.

While the reptilian brain is reliable, it’s also quite retarded. It cannot understand the implications your actions will have on extending your life, for instance. It’s concerned with the NOW. However, there is something about “joyous activities” which can get even the laziest fat kid off their ass, and motivate them enough to move.

So load up that workout plan on your smart phone (or write it on a piece of paper if you’re old school) and slip it in your back pocket. Go to the gym with the intent of just having fun for a while and leaving. I personally love hitting up the heavy bag. It has taken so much beating over the years, I’m surprised it’s still hanging. Either way, I go to the gym with the intention to do harm. I punch, kick, elbow and beat the ever loving shit outta it. It’s fun, and it puts a smile on my face. Don’t ask why.

Fifteen minutes into the beat down, I’ll whip out my workout plan, hit up the water fountain and continue on. It’s a seamless transition because my “fun” activity acts as a great warm up – heart rate is up, joints are well lubricated, there’s a bit of a sweat build up and I feel a potent mix of inner accomplishment and rage from kicking something as hard as possible. This general feeling of awesomeness spills over into my workout and I leave the room of iron accomplished, ready to take on the world.

This little trick is simple, but that’s exactly what makes it powerful. Ever seen a mother trying to feed a child? It looks impossible until she makes it fun. Hence the whole “here comes the air-plane” nonsense everyone knows about. The turning-fun-stuff-into-productive-work trick. In its simplicity, lies its strength. Try it out.

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© 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.

What lies below is a direct cut-and-paste of an email form one of my clients who has, after some serious work,  achieved bad-ass status. Some might call it a tear-jerker. I call it life changing… because after you’re done reading this, you will walk away a different person from when you started. Count on it…

“There are times in life when decisions are crystal clear. Like the day we buried my father. To this day, 15 years later, I can still remember the precise thought as the first shovel of dirt hit his urn, that I had a choice; to bury my sadness and grief and fill the cavernous void he left by dying, with alcohol and drugs so I wouldn’t feel. Or I could find a way to channel that hurt and one day be okay. And just like that the choice was made…I would find a way to channel it.

Other decisions aren’t so clear. Like the decision to face what it is that’s fucking you up every day. The choice to stop and look at why you have the habits you have, what formed them, why you’re comfortable in them and then decide to take someone else’s advice to change them. It’s not clear because then you have to face the fact that the habits you formed haven’t been good for you.

That the knowledge you’ve gained and have been employing has been wrong for the 5, 10 or 15 years you’ve been using them. Anyone who says there’s no emotion in training is retarded. I agree that there shouldn’t be ego in training. I agree that when you approach the bar you need to be humble. You need to take your time. It’s a patient teacher. It never wavers and it will crush you if you think you’re better than it. So the first lesson to learn is to take ego out of it. But if emotion flows, well, sometimes shit just comes out.

I know that without the bar, lifting heavy and running hard I would be in a mental institution or worse. There’s a huge psychological effect when training. It’s an incredible mental release. It’s a lesson in discipline, humility, personal celebration and introspection…training allows you to stop stuffing your face with food to numb whatever the fuck your trying to hide from. I learned ages ago, in counselling, from reading self-help books, that if you don’t acknowledge something you can’t change it. If you don’t accept and deal with pain and you don’t stop to understand that you are a product of the pain you regenerate day after day of not dealing with it, that it’s going to come out in other places.

Yes, she looks good. I just showed her the way. SHE put in the work.

That eating when you start to feel what you’re hiding from is just an outward manifestation of what’s going on inside. So the lesson is that one needs to acknowledge what is happening in order to make it different and better. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. That’s an easy concept to understand but a hard one to put into practice. For years I lied to myself about what I was hiding from. I STILL do it because there’s some things I just don’t want to face. Not brave enough yet I guess.

There’s times though, when someone comes into your life and smacks your shit up so blatantly that you get spun so fast things start to change before you can even THINK of controlling the direction you’re spinning in. My decision to contact you (FitJerk) was a passive one. I read your blog about Slimband, loved it and thought “what the hell, I’ll contact him. I doubt he’ll work”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was superficial at first. Odd even. I had never trained online before, never put my trust in someone I hadn’t met, never thought the method of uploading my stats, workouts and meal logs would work because seriously…how could a trainer know how I’m doing without SEEING me.

And so, a month into the program, I bailed.

It wasn’t something I was comfortable with. It wasn’t KNOWN. And that’s everyone’s problem. That’s why you’re sitting on the couch reading this from your computer, lamenting that you’re out of shape, how did I get so fat…and then you justify the shit out of your habits. “I don’t eat properly because I don’t have time to cook right, it’s too expensive to buy good food, I can’t cook, I’m too busy and pre-packaged meals are just as good! It says low fat! But it’s Weight Watchers!” “I have to get in shape before I go to the gym, oh I can’t run I have bad knees, I can’t lift I have a bad back, I don’t have time to work out, I can’t afford a personal trainer/equipment/gym membership, I don’t want to get bulky (ladies), I’ve worked hard for this keg pack (men)” Fuck that.

Excuses for your poor habits, outward manifestations of shit you don’t want to deal with…just plain fucking lazy! You are where you are because it’s comfortable. It’s the reason I went back to my old gym after a month of FJ’s tough love. It was like slipping into an old pair of jeans “welcome back friendly fatty…we’ll love you here and encourage you to stay in your comfort zone because we know how hard change is” and I stayed there for another month, tracking my workouts and meals because I still had faith in FJ’s methods, but I didn’t want to fully commit because I was stubborn and stupid and FJ was decent enough to help my sorry ass with nutrition and educate me along the way.

I don’t know when the clarity came. I can’t pinpoint the exact date and time and pin it to a specific event like I can my dad’s funeral. But it came. Hard. And when it did I remember coming back to FJ and “talking” to him about it (it was a novel of an email) and asking if I could train with him again. His message back to me was inspirational, full of fire, and made so much sense I was stunned I could have been so foolish…all because I wanted to be comfortable and didn’t want to be pushed. I still have his response, a year later, that’s how much it made an impact.

Can you believe she’s a mom with 2 kids? Yeah, me neither

How do you thank someone who changed your life? How do you let them know how grateful you are for the patience they had when you were breaking, discouraged, frustrated, angry, disgusted and didn’t WANT to train any more, didn’t WANT to eat properly any more, just wanted to give up because it was easier to grab some junk and just numb your way through it all instead of pushing yourself to BE BETTER?

How do you let them know how much you appreciate them believing in you? The man says he likes scotch…I’m sure I can manage a bottle or two. But more than that I would want to reach as many people as I can to tell them that HE’S WORTH IT. He’s the real fucking deal and he’ll get you the results you want because he knows what works!!

You just have to stop being so stubborn, stupid and comfortable. Drop your ego at the door and take a lesson…REALLY learn something because it is LIFE CHANGING. Don’t be scared of being uncomfortable, being pushed, being told your habits and ideas are wrong.

Be terrified of staying where you are. Be terrified of remaining stagnant. Just start… He’s called FitJerk for a reason, jackass. Because he doesn’t take any excuses or tolerate any whining. He just gets you results… and I love him for it. Thank you FJ. You’ve changed my life. Mentally and wickedly physically!”

-Lesley Unger

Follow her on Twitter or on Fitocracy.

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© 2012, By FitJerk. FitJerk.com is a division of Flawless Fitness Media – All Rights Reserved – No part of this post is to be republished without author consent under any forms of media (including print, internet, video or audio transcription). Doing so is a violation against copyright law and should be punishable by a punch to the face. All images are copyright of their respective owners.

Tired Of Looking Ordinary? Click Here And Get FJ To Design A Fitness Plan Just For You! FREE Initial Consultation.