A lot of people ask me, “What ever happened to your boy intern Mike? We don’t hear much about him anymore.” Well, let me tell ya, it’s both a sad and tragic tale. As a lot of you know Mike was a kid who came to my gym a couple years ago, he seemed like a really great kid. I was so impressed by this young man that I took him under my wing, taught him how to train like a man, made him big strong and nasty, I gave him a job trusting him with running my entire strength empire. I like to say that I treated him like he was the son I never had. Things were going so well between us that at one point I was thinking about taking him for a ride on the Pulcavator, crashing through the roof and giving him the gym as we fly high over Southwest Philadelphia. But this story was about to take a tragic turn.

Mike had a dream of someday being a police officer, we were all behind him one hundred percent. Somehow things changed as soon as Mike entered the police academy. The PT instructors started forcing the evil crossfit on him and the other recruits. Mike tried to resist this style of training but like so many young people he just gave into peer pressure. He began to lose precious bodyweight and strength with each passing day. By the time Mike graduated there was nothing any of us could do to save him, he was thin, he was weak and he was full on addicted to metcons. He was hooked, and it was like he was a different person. They had poisoned his mind so bad with their evil WODs and their knee socks that I hardly recognized him when I did actually see him. The final straw was the day he told me that he joined a local “box” . . . he actually used the word box. I felt at that point like a part of me had died. I was looking at Mike, but his eyes just looked dead inside. As I hung my head down in sadness I couldn’t help notice his Vibram toe shoes, I had to hold back my vomit.

Many months have gone by and the memory of Mike has become more distant. Once you have lost a loved one like that you just try to move on to cover up the hurt. But then I logged into Facebook this morning and saw a guy I vaguely recognize. It kind of looked like Mike but there was something different about him, something I couldn’t put my finger on. Oh, now I see what it is . . . HE’S COMPETING IN A FREAKING CROSSFIT CONTEST CARRYING SOME LONG HAIRED DUDE ON HIS BACK! Oh my sweet baby Jesus, what the hell did those devils do to him? A tear welled up in my eyes. Good night sweet friend . . . good night.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HEY MIKE, HOW DOES IT FEEL UNDER THAT BUS? COMFY?

Sunday’s training:

I just wanted to go into the gym on a nice empty Sunday morning and do some light technique work from the high block position to get some blood pumping and some biceps before my training clients came in. Instead I pulled up at the gym and the joint was already jumping at 9:30 on a Sunday morning.
40kgs x 6 sets of 5
50 x 3 sets of 4
60 x 3 sets of 3
70 x 6 sets of 2

Preacher machine curls:
5 sets increasing weight

Dumbbell curls:
4 sets of 10

Reverse barbell curls:
4 sets of 15

Neck extensions:
5 sets of 12


Monday Training:

Bench press:
Worked up to 330lbs for 10 singles
250 x 15

Cable Flyes:
5 x 15

Triceps pushdowns supersetted with triceps push-ups: 5 x 15/15

My shoulders and elbows have been feeling beat up but my benching has been going well. I just gave myself a break with any heavy assistance this week.

The Best Gym in the Hood


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