Tuesday, March 01, 2011

40 Years of Training, 54 years and 54 reps.

Although I turn 54 years old today I am much more excited about this being my fourtieth anniversary of the start of my training journey than anything. I started training gymnastics, pretty much full time, at age 14 at the start of my freshman year of high school.
I was immediately captured, in love with this new way of movement and the strength, power and grace it required and displayed. Not to mention the physique it created. Everyone looked like Superman and I wanted to as well.
I trained from 2 pm until 6 pm Mon- Fri right from the start and never had one thought, ever, that what I was doing was work. It was play but it was more than that too. It was a gift, a blessing to be able to spend that much time, completely out of time, in the flow, learning and doing so much cool stuff every single second of my practice.
And so I do turn 54 today and can easily say I am in the best physical condition I have been in in the last 15 years. I am virtually out of pain, can move better, walk better,am stronger, more flexible,mobile, stable and am as lean as I have been in all that time.
And I may not need a knee replacement after all.
From 6 years ago when all I could use to train was the single arm swing and snatch holds and getting up out of chair was torture to today when I can one arm or two hand swing, snatch, press, do handstands, pullups, pushups and even some squatting without pain. With more coming every day.
When John DuCane titled my DVD from the Level 2 Seminar/lecture 'Restoring Lost Physical Function' he hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what my journey has been about and it has been getting better and better each and every year even though there has been some serious setbacks and pain.
I not only trained but competed for 31 years, stopping only in 2003 when I was forced to give up even bench press competitions. There really was no point anymore; I was in constant pain and everything hurt. Training, competing, living.
So I dug into my rehab like I had my training and was as obsessed with restoring my lost abilities as I had my Olympic dreams and my hopes for and Elite ranking, at anything. The first thing that had to go was the luxury of testing myself, pushing myself, seeing what I could do.
At ANYTHING. I could get hurt getting out of bed and the slightest wrong move left me in agony. For years I had had one foot on the gas and another on the break and that is no way to train for anything.
I spent my workouts trying NOT to get hurt instead of working towards progress. That had to stop.
SO, no SSST test, no RKC snatch test, no maxing out on ANYTHING. No testing anything. to my competitors soul this was the greatest torture, the greatest loss. To not be able to push myself, test myself against other I KNEW I was at least as good as, or better was humbling.
To have to stand back and not show others what I was made of was humiliating. But I had no choice. I knew the consequences of being what I call "greedy" and they were not good. Instead of pushing to the max to see what lie on the other side I always held back because " the next step off a peak is always down".
So when I got back from the DVD shoot this weekend, after spending 12 hours standing barefoot on concrete and demo'ing deads and swings and drills and corrections and then told Tracy I wanted to do something 'special' to commemorate my 54th birthday I knew I "was back".
The long cycle clean and press has become my favorite move, in keeping with my new philosophy in working my strong points as well as my weaknesses and reveling in them, and I wanted to do something with that.
From not being able to press anything from 2005 to 2008 to building it back up very, very, very slowly to now feeling safe and secure when I press and able to really push myself again is a miracle. Pressing is what I am built for, what I have trained all my life, since I was 14 and what I am strongest at.
My shoulders are still fragile and I can't be stupid but I will enjoy this now.
SO I thought about the 24 kg, 53 pounds and doing 54 reps with that but didn't think I wanted that much of a challenge. Plus, I wanted something that would be hard but I knew I could do. I didn't want to fail.
No sense in starting the year out that way.
So the 20 kg it was, 54 reps per arm? Nah. 27 and 27 each arm for a total of 54?
Yeah. Of course I have NEVER done more than 10 reps in the kb press and that is very recent.
But I have been feeling so confident in my pressing that all I could think of was that I did 33 close grip pushups with a 100 lb plate on my back and that 27 was less than that.
Long story long. I killed it and it was the perfect challenge and the perfect weight.
here's the breakdown
6-7 am: stretchout focused on overhead stretching
8:30 am
warmup
one arm swings
16 kg x5/5/5/5 x3
one arm cleans
16 kg x5/5 x2
long cycle clean and press
16 kg x5/5
16 kgx 3/3
20 kg x3/3
go time:
Long Cycle Clean and Press
20 kg x 27/27 all time PR
Started with the left arm and cruised through the first 19. 20 was the first hard rep and 21-27 were very challenging. Especially to stay calm mentally . The right arm started off so fresh I had to purposely slow the pace down as I just wanted to get it over with, lol.
This side got tough at 15 when I started making strange sounds to force the exhale harder and get more air. I recalled this is the noise I made when I used to bike race and had to climb long steep hills. It just comes out and it ain't pretty but neither I am. It kept me going.
As did my Queen, who counted for me and provided the most important inspiration to me; her presence and her support, and her unending belief that I can do anything I set my mind to. Love you, my sweet.
Nice way to start this year.
Clubbell rockits
10's x 20x2
15's x 15
20's x 12 x 2
man these COOK the quads. yes, another score . haven't been able to do these either forever.
Clubbell Swipes
10 lbs x 25,20, 15
15 lbs x 17, 15, 12
can't believe I once did 300 of without stopping! But I know I can train this move again and that's all that counts..
Datsit. Wow, what a great day.

25 comments:

Boris T said...

Happy b-day Mark! Great reflection no being greedy, I'll have to remember that myself. Very easy to fall into the ego trap and allow it to hurt you and regress the progress you've made.

Shaf said...

Nice bit, Mark. It has been a long journey for you back into function.

Strength Nomad said...

Rif,
Happy Birthday. You, along with Tracy are tremendous role models to me and my wife (Sarah) on how to focus on a goal and seeing it through to the end.
Thanks,
C.J.

Kai Johnson said...

Happy Birthday Mark! Great work on getting back your ability to move. I absolutely appreciate how hard it is to be patient and keep it moving forward when you're trying to fix a repaired body. Great pressing pr!

jockeRKC said...

You did the Super muscle and you are the Superman =)

Rif all the way

Cecilia Tom said...

Respect, and many happy returns, happy snatches, happy presses :)

(I can't write anything too corny or I will end up killing myself. You know I think you are awesome.)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday from Germany, Riff!

sztheomo said...

Happy Birthday Mark, and thank you for the inspiration again. Reading your posts always gives motivation to keep training and to train smart.
Thanks
Tamás

Mark Reifkind said...

robert

thanks so much and I know you see what shirt I wear all the time:))

Juci SFG said...

Rif All the Way! Rock on!
You're not getting older, you're getting better.

bulldogtenacity said...

Just awesome Rif. Congratulations my friend!

Geoff Neupert said...

EXCELLENT job, Rif! Especially excited about the part of you being mostly out of pain. Well done! Inspiring stuff. We'll catch up soon, amigo. Happy Birthday.

Diana said...

Again, Happy Birthday Mark!
Great video of your accomplishment! I hope that today you are taking a well deserved rest day.....I doubt it!
I PR'd by lifting that 20kg 3/3 yesterday-to do another 24 (per side), I can't fathom that right now. Then again, I couldn't fathom doing 3 on the right side just a week ago either!!

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Boris

the better I feel the more i have to remember NOT to be greedy.It is easy to fall back into the ego trap and not appreciate the little things that really matter ( like being out of pain)

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Steve

nice of you to comment.it's been long alright but it's good to get here :))

Mark Reifkind said...

C.J

that's the most satisfying thing of all; to inspire others :))

Mark Reifkind said...

thanks Kai

I know you know :)) never give up

Mark Reifkind said...

Joakim

thanks man, that's a great thing to say. keep up the good work yourself my friend.have fun at the indian clubs cert

Mark Reifkind said...

cecilia,

thanks I thought you had dropped off the kb universe. good to know you are still kicking :))

Mark Reifkind said...

judit


thanks and that is FINALLY true :))

Mark Reifkind said...

tamas

thanks for the support and encouragement.

Mark Reifkind said...

tommy

thanks my brother :))

Mark Reifkind said...

geoff

thanks alot. you know how far I've come, it is exciting. being able to be a bit strong again is cool too :))

Anonymous said...

Hi Mark,

i wish you all the best to your birthday:-)

You are a great inspiration for me and you have my respect for your longlife performance!

I stay tuned for the next 54 yeahrs ;-)

Take care!

MKSchinabeck said...

Happy Birthday Rif. Keep training because in 46 more years you are going to have to hit 100 reps!!!

155 x 3 x 5, 160 x 3 x 5, 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 40, 35

 Thought about going back to 5x5 for a hot second then my left shoulder  reminded me why I stopped doing them before. It doesn't seem to...