Take a moment to watch this brief video (you must watch the end to appreciate the significance).

This video reminds me of a famous Thomas Edison quote. In his words, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

I’ve seen truth in these words at all levels. I know professional fighters who have starred in main event title fights on national television who still doubt their ability. The physical talent is there, but the mind is still trying to hold them back from reaching their true potential.

The mind is certainly powerful. There is no denying this fact. Unfortunately, the mind’s power can work in both directions. The mind can either propel you forward or hold you back. More often than not, the physical talent and potential is present, but the mind prevents the athlete from moving forward.

There are times when you need to turn off that little voice inside your head. Turn it off and go! Don’t think about what you can or cannot do. Just go. Think less and do more. Challenge yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.

As mentioned in the past No Excuses article, I often see athletes who constantly search for a new and better plan. If something isn’t going right, they rarely take personal responsibility. It must be something else, right? Wrong! Often times you simply need a reminder of what REAL work is all about. Hard work is interpreted differently by different people.

For a combat specific example, we occassionally call for additional rounds of sparring when the athlete thinks he is in the final round. For example, the athlete believes he is sparring 6 rounds, but we may call for 8 or 10. Initially, you may be mentally conditioned to assume that you are fatigued in what you believe to be the last round. When you are forced to “suck it up” and continue however, you’ll often surprise yourself (and realize that you have more gas in the tank). Clearly, this isn’t something that the novice should attempt, but as you climb the ladder, you need to do more than is expected of you.

Ross

Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »

It’ll be a bit before I set any strength goals. I’ll wait until my life settles so I make some reasonable goals.

But one fitness goal that I’m finally going to knock down is the James Joyce Ramble. I’ve been running it for years, but this is the year to do it with sub seven minute miles. I’ll post back when I’ve got some sort of training schedule.

Posted by Mike | 1 Comment »

I had a pretty great squat workout a few days past, and had immediately posted this to my own personal blog. I thought I would share it here, because I think it touches on some of the core OpSLED concepts, as well as an idea I addressed in the last entry.

***

In a gym known for eccentricity, I might have just carved myself out a new niche.

I just had a terrific squat workout, five brutal sets of eight brutal reps each. Nothing to really write home about for around 90% of the gym, but nor was it too shabby for a guy who’s never taken squats seriously until the last year or so.

I wrapped my rosary around the horizontal support for the squat rack so that it was dangling in front of me while I pounded out the reps. The squats hurt. A lot. But then I’d find myself focusing on the crucifix rotating in front of me from the force of my exhales, and I’d think, “oh, yeah, I guess it doesn’t hurt all that bad, after all”.

Really kind of puts things into perspective.

I had a lot to think about tonight, and a lot to pray about, and a lot of fury that I felt OK taking out on the weights. I killed a few birds with one stone, I guess. And my legs. I’m seriously having some trouble with stairs right now. And am emotionally exhausted. It’s been a week, I’ll tell you what.

But, then again, perspective. Right. And strength. Right.

But yeah, a few people did double takes at my mumbling, struggling self squatting in front of a dangling rosary. And they nodded in seeming approval.

I might just become maniacal enough to fit in there after all.

***

There are several things here I’d like to expand on over time, but one thing that I hope immediately jumps out is that simply by getting in there, busting ass, trying my best to suck a little less than last time out, and frankly not giving a damn about what other people thought of me, I fit right in with a group of people who were a lot bigger, stronger, and badder than I.

There was a time not too long ago where I whould have avoided doing lifts I’m not that great at, out of fear of sticking out as a weakling. Obviously, this is a self-defeating strategy, as every time that I avoided a workout, I only put off actual progress that much longer.

But the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t the other, more capable, less-sucking people present that made me feel uncomfortable; it was me, and me alone. MY own insecurities, and nothing more. Nobody really gives a damn how much weight you’re putting up in the gym. What they notice is that you bring it all, throw yourself into every rep, and give Sucking Less Every Day the ol’ college try.

A whole other idea that I would like to address more in depth another time is that of my faith. It’s a shame how much popular culture has either demonized or emasculated men of faith in recent years. But plenty of the blame for that can also be placed squarely on the faithful themselves. Sadly, many of today’s churches do a pretty piss-poor job at representing the ideas on which they were founded. But, again, that’s a whole ‘nuther topic for a whole ‘nuther time.

Posted by Jon Sewell | 1 Comment »

In the never-quite-ending quest to suck a bit less daily, it’s important to have a vision. It doesn’t have to be too specific right away, but you need something to strive for, some kind of goal in mind, to effectively judge at the end of each day whether you just spent the last 24 hours sucking more, sucking less, or doing a bit of both (you’ll find this one to be the case most often, I assure you).

Here is a list of ten physical benchmarks I have set for myself. Some of them I’m close to hitting now, and some of them are likely a good ways off. But I feel that once I can do all of the following, I will be able to confidently declare myself pretty damn fit. Surely a bit stronger than the average bloke off the street, but hardly an extreme specimen, either. I’m sure that there are many people that would gawk at a list like this, and write me off as some kind of health-nut. I’m also sure that in near any gym across the country, there would be at least a handful of people that could handily smoke all these numbers.

And that’s OK. I’m a very average guy who happens to work out in a very hardcore lifting facility, so my perspective on strength, and my feeble place in its spectrum, is probably skewed. I am pretty confident that I have not the dedication, genetics, or even inclination to ever become a competitive bodybuilder, powerlifter, or strongman. However, I also have plenty of valid reasons related to my career to want to be bigger, stronger, and tougher than the average guy on the street.

So, don’t ever worry about what anyone else’s goals are, or where you stack up next to them. Worry only about how you stack up to yourself yesterday, and your ideal self tomorrow. Working to get further from the former and closer to latter, and helping others to do the same, is what OpSLED is all about!

So, without further ado, here are MY ten current (and admittedly arbitrary) fitness benchmarks. Now I’m eager to hear about your’s, so we can walk those very different but parallel paths together.

1. Bench Press 300 pounds.

2. Deadlift 300 pounds.

3. Squat 300 pounds.

4. Overhead Press (pushpress) 200 pounds.

5. 12 strict consecutive chinups.

6. 50 strict consecutive pushups.

7. 45 situps in 1 minute.

8. Run 10 miles.

9. Run 1 mile in under 7:30 (a gazelle, I am most surely not).

10. Close the #2 Captains of Crush hand gripper.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you next time!

Posted by Jon Sewell | 1 Comment »

Its funny I just wrote a post about being stronger in life, and strength training, and now I’m gonna tell you that sometimes stuff sucks. I don’t personally think this is me sucking less, its just my body sucking less.

For about 1-2 years I have been experiencing ongoing shoulder pain. Come to find out I have a torn labrum, bone spur, and tendonitis. How do I get this stuff? If you read about me earlier, I am can be very abusive to my body. Heavy lifting, hardcore martial arts training, and just general stuff that over the years has taken its toll. I’ve always had this do or die attitude because I am so scared of letting my life slip me by, and not ever doing things that challenge me.

But in doing so, I have now broken down my body and facing surgery in 5 days. I will be out for 6 weeks. No lifting, training, fighting, etc. Shoulder completely immobilized. Freakin sucks.

I’m actually having a real hard time dealing with it. I’m scared that when I am not able to exercise I’ll become a dick (I need to get my energy out), I’ll become weak, and I might gain fat. I’ve been very healthy lately and slowing finding out what my optimum weight is by still maintaining my strength, but losing a few pounds a week. I bulked up over the holidays and hit 265. I am now down to 235 and feeling really good. My strength really hasn’t changed either. I gain weight very easily and I like to eat. I am mostly a fit guy, but I battle with some extra pounds. That is how I suck everyday. I battle my urge to pound food like I did 5-10 years ago. So like I said, I’m scared I’ll go right back up in weight, and lose all my strength.

So my challenge for the next 6 weeks is to not suck at being healthy, calm, and focused on healing. It ties back to my previous post. I need to be a healthy healing mental warrior so I can get back to being a health brutal physical fighting warrior as soon as possible!

Posted by Matt Bryers | 1 Comment »

I look around at the people I work with, the people on the street, restaurants, mall…. wherever and I see people who have given up on themselves, their body, and being a warrior in life. I guess you can look at that and see it as a dumb statement “Warrior in Life”, but seriously, thats the way you need to look at it. Everyday you face battles, whether it be struggling to finish a deadline, dealing with home issues, sporting events, or your personal issues. As warriors we need to be strong, not only physically, but mentally. And they are not necessarily separate.
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Posted by Matt Bryers | No Comments »