Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing A Bench Press Gone!

Trainer Mike T Nelson Testimonial: Shoulder Pain While Doing A Bench Press Gone!

The Night I “Couldn’t” Bench Press By Dave “The Athlete Creator” Sandel

Just like every other Tuesday, it was bench press night with Mike. However, this Tuesday was different. I sent him an email earlier in the day stating:

“Tonight might be prehab/rehab for me. I was feeling just a touch of shoulder pain in my left shoulder after last week, and it was worse after training last night. This is, unless, your voodoo works again.”

So, I showed up at the usual time, did my usual Z-health CNS warm-up, and did some push-ups to test my shoulder. Push-ups tested fine and without pain. I thought, “Hmm, maybe everything will be alright tonight.”

Then it was my turn to warm-up with the empty bar. After a few slow, pain-free, concentrated reps I decided to try exploding a rep off my chest. That nearly caused my left arm to collapse because of the shooting pain in my left shoulder, just as I had felt before.

After a brief description of the previous night’s workout, Mike put his head down and started mumbling something to himself. Something about external rotation, abduction, sagittal planes, and some other stuff I didn’t quite recognize (eventhough I’m studying for my CSCS certification).

After a minute or so he finally had his answer. We started with some z-health mobility work directly on the shoulder, and then tested it out on the bench. It was better, but still not pain-free.

This is where it got a little weird…

He had me lie on my back, internally rotate my right leg (remember, my left shoulder is what was hurting), and perform cross-body leg circles. After a few tests doing band pull-aparts, we decided to try it out on the bench.

Lo and behold, I was virtually pain-free!

He explained what the drill was doing and why it works. I understood all of that, and it made perfect sense.

Now, I know there is a direct connection between opposite-side joints, but I still can’t wrap my head around why a “trauma” to my right hip is causing pain in my left shoulder. Oh well, I’ll leave that for another visit.

In the end, you’re probably wondering how my bench press session went.

Well, as I stated in the beginning, I walked in thinking I was going to be doing some mobility and prehab/rehab work all night. As it turns out, I actually ended up bench pressing 5 more pounds in a max effort lift than the previous week!

Not only that, but I added more volume on my accessory lifts as well! All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good night.

Thanks, Mike!

Dave Sandel
www.athletecreator.com

Bench 45 lbs with Pain To Bench 270 lbs Without Pain In One Session?

How?

I know this seems insane that someone could literally go from barely being able to press the bar without pain to benching around 260 lbs without pain, so that is the reason I had him write it up in his own words above.

If you are interested in how the heck this can work and look into the methods behind the madness, drop a comment below and if I get 10 comments by 1pm tomorrow (Thurs March 11, CST) I will have a post about how it works.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance!

This also saved Dave about 4-8 weeks of “standard” rehab type exercise work, during which he would be told not to bench (and for good reason since benching was painful).

Add to that time period 4 weeks at least to get back to where he was before and we probably saved him about 3 months in one session!

How much would you pay to get 3 months of training time back?

I know I would pay a lot for that.

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

  • If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
  • If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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PPS

10 comments below by 1pm tomorrow Thurs March 11 for the secret to how this is done!  Post a comment below now.

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Amazing Feet on TED Talks

Amazing Feet on TED Talks

The feet truly are amazing and if you have not seen TED Talks, you are really missing out.

Optimal foot/ankle function is essential for elite athletic performance.

Messed up feet/ankles = messed up hips =  piss poor athletic performance

I loved this talk, especially since I did a Masters in Mechanical Engineering focusing on Biomechanics.

Check out this one below!

What do you think?

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Laree at DaveDraper.com for initially posting this one

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Biofeedback Training: Move Forward In All Directions

Biofeedback Training: Move Forward In All Possible Directions

Sam Langford

Sam Langford

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”-Goethe

The PR train rolls on with biofeedback training (ala Gym Movements)!

I have been hearing about tons of people busting PRs like crazy.   If you are on twitter, use the tag #Preveryday and start posting your PRs for a chance to win a really cool prize from Ryan at Stronger Grip.

Last night I was working on my dissertation paper and took a “study break” to go lift.  Trap Bar Deadlifts were sounding good, so I put on 135 and tested it and waaaaala, tested great!

I worked through my warm up and kept adding weight and it kept testing well.  I did 405 and it was easy w great bar speed (another indicator is the speed of the lift).

Whoo ha!

This was 20 lbs off my current PR and I knew that I could do 455 lbs, so I added a 25 to each side.

The moment of truth: it came up a bit slow, but felt very smooth and I got it!  This was a 25 lb PR is only a few weeks.

425 x 1 PR on Jan 31, 2010

455 x 1 on March 7, 2010 (unfortunately my camera was full and I did not get it on film)

So in about 5 weeks I was able to add 25 lbs to my max.  The interesting part is that I only trained trap bar deadlifts one other time during those 5 weeks.  On that day, 365 lbs felt very heavy and I just did some reps around 315.

Optimal Every Time

By using biofeedback it allows you to test what will be best for you on that day at that time!  Maybe today is a max lift on bench but your program design says to do 3 x 10 for squats.    Did you just miss a great bench session?  How would you know?

Ask any experienced lifter and they will tell you to not miss those days that everything is working well, you feel “on” and you should go for a new max on that day (1 RM, 1 rep max).  You may not get that day “back” for some time.

I call BS on this.

I would say that if you test it each day, you can have a virtual ground hog’s day of never ending PRs!

ground hog

This ground hog loves hitting PRs too!

This may not always be a max lift (1 RM), but it will happen in the following

  • Volume (total amount of work done)
  • Intensity (max weight lifted for a single rep or % of 1 RM)
  • Density (amount of work done in a given time)

Keep moving forward in whatever direction you can, each day.    Your goal is do and be better tomorrow than today.  Nothing stays the same.

There is nothing special about me at all.  Heck, most of the athletes I train make faster progress than I do.  The goal is to be better today.

How many people do you meet that are BETTER each time you see them?

Sign me up!

Comments

What do you think?  Is this possible?  I want to hear from ya in the comments!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Death to all Fitness Gurus?

Death to all Fitness Gurus?

Fitness Guru

A revolution is coming….

I can see it off on the distant horizon.

You may not see it yet, but you will soon.

I can smell the fear of others.

There is a secret “they” don’t want you to know. “They” will have to change soon. Change is not something “they” do well.

What?

What the heck am I talking about? Perhaps I spent too long lifting in my garage with too many paint fumes. Maybe it was the funk filled air at the Fishbone concert last night.

Here is what I am talking about

The Movement Certification: The BioMechanics of Physique Transformation


Biofeedback

What if everyone starts setting personal records (PRs) on their own? What if they stop paying for program design based only on what someone else THINKS is best?

There is no way a piece of paper written by the greatest trainer/guru ever can compete with feedback from one’s own body used in an intelligent way. It will never be able to compete.

How will a piece of paper take into account the changes in your stress level that day?

  • Your kid kept you up late last night, so you only got 4 hours of sleep.
  • They started a riot again and since you are on the SWAT team you have to make sure order is kept.
  • You had a paper that was due (I am way to familiar with that one recently).

You get the idea. How will that piece of paper tell you to alter your training?

You may opt to take the day off completely, but we can all list times when we slept 4 hours, ate “bad” food, dragged our sorry butts to the gym and still set a PR.

I did this awhile back when I was taking an advanced physiology class at the U of MN and working full time at a med tech company. I got up at 6am, packed my food, went to class from 8-6pm, hit the gym for a short training session, ran home, showered and worked on stuff from work and class homework until 1am, and repeated that for 5 days in a row. By Friday I was spent, tired and did not want to go to the gym.

I remembered a Henry Rollins quote

Henry Rollins

“If I can just get to the gym, I will lift the weights” -Henry Rollins

So I made it there. I was supposed to take day off since I was pushing too hard, but I wanted to lift.  The paper said, “no go, you will get crushed.”  I figured I would go and just do some general work and call it a day.

I felt good after my warm up and hit up some bench.  Hmmmm, it felt good and the weights felt light.  I worked up to a max and hit a new PR!  The paper was completely wrong and I set a PR. Weird.

Good thing I did not listen to that piece of paper.   The reverse is also true.  I’m sure you’ve had days that on paper looked great, you may have even felt great; but your performance sucked!

The end result is what needs to be measured and the cost to achieve it considered.   More important than listening to your body is to test it.

Death to All Gurus

  • What if this does take off?
  • What will happen to all the industry gurus?
  • Will there be a split and those you want inferior results will be side with them?
  • Will they change?

It will be very interesting to see. Fear is a powerful motivator.

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future.” -Fulton Oursler

I will leave you with a great video from one of my new favorite bands

Left Spine Down : Welcome to the Future


Left Spine Down – WELCOME TO THE FUTURE (Music Video in HD)
Uploaded by leftspinedown. – See the latest featured music videos.

TAKE IT BACK
(WELCOME TO THE FUTURE)

Comments

What do YOU think? Is this an oncoming trend or a flash in the pan? Will it work? Will it last?

Leave a comment below and let me know!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Are you making your workouts easy or hard?

Are you making your workouts easy or hard?

Check out this video of Olympic super start Apolo Ohno training.  Tell me what you see most of the time:

What do you notice when he competes?

What did you see?

Do you see what I see?

He is the most decorated Winter Olympian and there is nobody competing on the level he is for the length time he has in speed skating.

Watching him skate is a thing of beauty. Power and grace. Extremely fluid. He makes it look very easy, but is competing at the highest level.

Why is it that most (not the readers of this blog of course, way too bright for that)  are making it look hard?

The goal is to make the difficult LOOK easy.

Make it look easy and get BETTER results.

Sounds insane I know.  Try it first before you dismiss it.  Test it.

As the old saying goes, success leaves clues.

Drop me a line in the comments below and let know your results!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

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Joint mobility for a shoulder issue, which joints help the most?

Joint Mobility for a Shoulder Issue, Which Joints Help the Most?

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Common wisdom would say that you need to work on the shoulder.  Perhaps

Further done the chain they say scapular mobility.  Perhaps

Now thoracic spine mobility is the in thing.  Does that help?  Perhaps

What about opposite hip function since we know they are connected via the serape effect?  Perhpas

Opposite foot and ankle?  Same side wrist?

The key question is “How do you know”

Test it

Everyone is different, so you will need a custom approach with each athlete.

In general, for shoulder issues I find the following to work really well

  • Same side wrist
  • Thoracic Spine
  • Opposite Hip
  • Opposite foot/ankle

Does this work all the time?  No, but most of the time is does for acute/chronic movement issues.

If you get rid of the pain, is the athlete good to go?

No, you need to make sure they can play their sport at the same level as before.  Performance must be evaluated.  If there is still a decrease in performance, they are not 100%, despite passing whatever wizz bang test of the week they ace.

Comments?

What do you think?  What works for you?  Let me know in the comments section!  I love comments!!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Thanks to Jodie for letting me film her in the video as an example.  Only 3 more weeks until the big wedding date for us!

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Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Hip flexor and groin tight and painful on Squats

Testimonial for Mike T Nelson: Hip Flexor and Groin Tight and Painful on Squats

Dustin Williams

Mike T. Nelson single handedly took me out of pain in 10 minutes.

I had been doing many months of heavy front squats when my right hip flexor and groin area became extremely tight and painful. No matter what method I used, it just simply would not let up. After suffering for weeks, I decided to call on Mike.

During his consultation he showed my some joint mobility/ Z-Health type drills and I was doing squats about 3/4 of the way to rock-bottom in 10 Minutes!

My pain was a solid 8 out of 10 at its worst before the consultation. 5 days after the consultation with Mike T. Nelson I was at Grip N Rip 2.0 (a workshop in Woodbury, MN) hitting Personal Records on the Deadlift, PAIN-FREE.

Stop wasting time at your local doctors office and get out of pain and start moving BETTER with Mr. Nelson.

-Dustin Williams, Owner of Wrought Iron Strength and Conditioning, Hugo, MN.

If you are in pain, you are limiting your performance.

If this can be done for pain, imagine what we can do for your performance!

Now It Is Your Turn!

A Huge thanks to Dustin for taking the time to write that up and taking action to look for an answer to his pain and movement issues.

  • If you are interested in a phone consult, for a limited time they are only $90 per session (normal rate is $110) and are 100% guaranteed.  If you are not happy for ANY reason, there is NO charge, email me by clicking HERE
  • If you are in the St. Paul, MN area, you can see me in person for $110 per session (normal is $125) and it is 100% guaranteed also, email me by clicking HERE

Drop me an email by clicking HERE to move better with less pain today!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still not sure, see all the other testimonials below

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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Dave Barr: Exclusive Interview About Supplements, Testosterone, Growth Hormone, and Exercise

Dave Barr: Exclusive Interview About Supplements, Testosterone, Growth Hormone, and Exercise

One of the things that I love doing is hanging out, talking shop about exercise, nutrition, and movement.    I feel so honored to be able to pick the brains of many of the top people in the industry.

Movement, Movement, Movement

A few weeks ago, Cal Dietz from the U of MN left me a message that Neil Rampe, the therapist for the AZ Diamondbacks was going ot be in town, so I should stop down for a movement pow wow.   I was sooooo stoked and it was a great meeting.

Three hours there flew by like it was 20 minutes.  Movement of all forms was discussed from cranial work for more internal rotation (like 30 degrees more in minutes), breathing patterns, asymmetries, soft tissue work (a great local soft tissue expert was present too), and how to extract maximal performance from athletes.  Great, great time.

More This Weekend

Just last night I was hanging out with Dave, Brad Nelson, Adam T Glass and Frankie Faires and will be with them and many more today too.  Aaron S from UND (great strength coach at Univ of North Dakota) will be sleeping on my couch for 2 nights (check out his blog HERE) and a few others are scheduled to be in town also.  The amount of information I will be able to pick up and use after just a few days is going to be insane, and I am so excited about it.  I am like a kid in a candy store.  Whooo ha.

Conferences for Vacation?

I am a huge geek and I go to conferences on exercise physiology for fun.  This past May Jodie and I flew out to Seattle for a vacation and I attended the American College of Sports Medicine’s Annual conference for 3 days.  I decided to not present this year, so I just got to hang out with much less stress and absorb as much as I could (read, pester people at posters about their research).

I had a blast and learned tons of new things, although some of the presentations can be a bit dry.  Ok, a bit dry is an understatement, but I endure this all to bring you just a few worthwhile tidbit of info to have you set another PR.

Enter the Barr

Good thing there are other geeks (albeit with much bigger arms) than me there like my good buddy Dave Barr.   Dave is a very bright guy and has a great background in exercise physiology and nutrition.  He currently works for Muscle and Fitness, so be sure to check out his blog there below

David Barr’s blog at Muscle and Fitness

I was able to corner him and got to pick his brain.  Luckily for you I have it on tape here!

Sit back as Dave Barr drops knowledge bombs from the ACSM 2009 Annual Conference.

Note this was previously released as a special bonus, but now I am making it available to everyone.  The conference was this past May, but many time oral presentations have data that is not published for many months to even years after it was presented (if it gets published); so this info is still cutting edge.

Enjoy!

Thanks Dave!!

Let me know what you think about this in the comments section!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

PS

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Shoulder Issue with Kettlebell Pressing: Video Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

Shoulder Issue with Kettlebell Pressing: Video Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

George Samuelson CK-FMS

I have owed Mike T Nelson this video for about three months now. My Name is George Samuelson from New Jersey. This session with Mike T Nelson was at the end of 2009 last year to address some of my present press patterning issues on my left side and also work on some kettlebell military press

Basically why this video (below) took so long is for the past lets say month or two months of a hideous viral infection like many other people, just kind of  affected with low energy levels so I was trained and whatever I have to do.

However my training sessions are still included good amount of Z Health mobility work to improve my movement.   Specifically some of the drills Mike had given me. Also during the past while doing lifts or exercises, my body has given me good feed back on going ahead and what to do for that day.

I am very happy to be able to say with even with all this stuff going on I have been able to still maintain my standard 32 kilo and 36 kilo press pretty easily.

Also during this time frame, I have put on about 5 pounds of muscle and have actually going down some body fat as well.

Doctor has asked me if I have been taking anything and I just basically told some pressing and drills, they just don’t really get it.

So if you get chance, I recommend you schedule session with Mike, whether its at a workshop by going and seeing him.

If you can’t make it out to him, make sure that you do read his blog, make sure you also sign up for his newsletter.  Its a great resource to have and thanks.

—George Samuelson, RKC II, CK-FMS, NASM-CPT, Z Health

Video Testimonial for Mike T Nelson

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

A huge thanks to George for the great testimonial and it was a pleasure to work with him when he was here in Minnesota.  If you are in the NJ area, be sure to contact him at his website  This Feels Good.

What are you waiting for?  Email Mike T Nelson by clicking HERE today to get started on moving, feeling and performing better!  Click HERE now!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are still skeptical, be sure to check out all the other testimonial at the link below.

Mike T Nelson and Extreme Human Performance Testimonials

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I am pissed, a trip inside my head

I Am Pissed!  A Trip Inside My Head

skeleton

I am really pissed off right now and I can’t focus on anything else, so you will get an inside look into my brain. Caution, you have been warned.

As readers of this blog know, I do training and nutrition work to get professional and every day athletes of all types performance increases. I’ve been doing it for several years now and I’ve spent well over $200,000 over the years on getting better at my craft via college, seminars, certifications, books, etc. This is not meant to impress you, but if you are serious about something you have to pay to play. I know many others that have paid very large sums to practice their craft, so this is no different.

Why I am Pissed

I am pissed off to no end now because I could not get the result I wanted from an athlete I worked with this morning. Note, this has absolutely nothing to do with the athlete and everything to do with me. I feel like I failed him because I did not have a solution to his pain issue. We spent 1.5 hours trying all sorts of things, with very little change. My agreement is that if I can’t get a performance increases or a large change in your pain, the session is free. The athletes satisfaction is my primary concern and I fully believe that if I don’t deliver, I should NOT be compensated. End of story.

The System Is Broke

This is the direct opposite to most professions. Take physical therapy (not to pick on them, but….) if you (not anyone who reads this blog, way too bright for that) are an average PT and you take 12 sessions to get a result and you charge $50 per session, you made $600. If you are a stellar PT and you get the result in 3 sessions, at the same price, you get $150. You were clearly better (got the same result in LESS time), but you made about 1/4 as much. How much incentive is there for you to get better? Not much!

True, that it is different when you own your own business, since if you suck, hopefully you will go out of business. If you suck, I don’t want you around to drag everyone else down and please go away and the sooner the better. I won’t get into the whole fitness business and how anyone can take a weekend cert by mail and be a fitness trainer. It makes me vomit in my mouth a bit each time I read it. Ugh. I need some mouth wash. Ok, I am back now. Where was I? I know business is very complicated and there are times where the most knowledgeable are also piss broke, but if you work for a large company, there is normally very little incentive to get better.

You’re Insane

I have many great friends in the field who are doctors, physical therapist, other trainers, consultants etc and almost all of them tell me I am completely out of my tree, coo coo insane, have a melon where my head should be because this is my expectation below

I expect that 99% of the people that walk through my door that I can get a dramatic performance increase (also many times equalling a decrease in pain) in ONE session that last 1-2 hours.

I’ve had many long discussions with many of them arguing that IF this is even physiologically possible. They say no and I say it is possible. If pain and performance are primarily (not entirely of course) controlled by the brain, we know that you can make changes in the brain extremely fast (as I have learned in Z-Health).

Yes, there are times that there will be a biomechanical and/or biochemical issue, but even then you should still be able to see a large change in one session.

I’ve seen athletes with missing rotators via MRI have no limitations on shoulder function and no pain.

Is this the norm? No, but it can happen. My point is that I feel the brain and nervous system are the most plastic systems in the body and are also open to the greatest change at the fastest speed (this is supported by research on brain neuroplasticity).

Does this mean we ONLY need to focus on the nervous system–no, of course not; but if pain reduction and performance are your goals, you have to address the nervous system.

Victory Destroys Knowledge

That was a great quote from Dan John. While I do remember many of the “successes” I’ve had, my failures stick in my brain like a canary in a coal mine. You notices I put “successes” in quotes since I did not do ANY of the darn work, the athlete did all the work and hence they should get the credit. I just helped point them in a better direction. They had the discipline to do the work!

I’ve been very fortunate to work with athletes to get them out of pain, avoid surgeries, compete in the Olympics pain free, bend over to pick up their kids without pain, take a ski trip vacation and ski 5 days in a row for the first time ever, etc. These are all great and completed by highly motivated athletes.

What I remember more are the cases where I could not do anything. We tried for 2-3 sessions or more with no change. Granted, these athletes usually had been everywhere and done everything, but I still feel like I should have had a solution.

I know that their pain is not my issue and that it takes many reps to over ride the lifetime of poor reps they have accumulated and that nobody has a 100% solution for chronic pain. Look no further than research on the success of various low back pain treatments and many of them are acute, no chronic pain issues. Yet somehow I feel I should have all the answers. They come to me as their last hope and if I can’t help them in a very short period of time I feel like I let them down and have failed them. Completely unrealistic I know, but I still feel pissed when I can’t get a result. I know there is a solution and when it evades me I can’t stand it. Yes I am neurotic too.

What To Do

To keep myself sane, I don’t work primarily with chronic pain clients. The toll on my psyche is more than I can handle and the logical conclusion is that the better you get, the harder the cases you get and at the end you will only be left with your failures. I know I can’t handle that. I do, however, take on “hard cases” to force myself to learn. I learn more from the difficult ones than from any others. Fear of failure will drive you much farther than success, but you need to be aware of the cost.

Performance increases are relatively easy for me now. I know that sounds like a super arrogant statement, but it is true. Most athletes have just a slight (or major) movement issue that is impairing their current performance. Remove that (which could be mobility, visual, vestibular or soft tissue) and performances goes up. Think of it as removing the king pin from a log jam. Once you do that, the whole river flows again just by that one minor change.

Your Trip Is Complete

There you have it. A trip inside my brain to see what drives me. I did warn you that it is a bit of a scary place. I’ve been told by multiple well meaning people that I need more knowledge like I need a hole in the head and I should spend more time on marketing. My business model of primarily seeing athletes for single sessions once a month or even less is the worst possible thing to do. What you realize very fast is that once someone is out of pain, they forget they ever had pain extremely fast, so your time for referrals is very short. Getting new clients routinely is much harder than working with them routinely. I do have some reoccurring clients, but most come for an acute change and that is what I deliver.

While I am spending more time learning marketing and business now (and they are no evil and truly needed), my true passion is bridging the chasm between research land and practice. We can learn a ton from both and in the process and I move step by step closer to that 99%. I may never get there, but if you aim high and miss by a bit, you are still much higher than if you aimed low. Don’t tell this to my psyche if you see it lying on the road somewhere trying to hitch hike!

A HUGE Thank You!

Thanks to all for their support and reading this blog. It truly means a ton to me and I promise I will do everything I can to help as many athletes of all types destroy their old personal records. I feel incredibly fortunate that I know exactly why I was put on this earth and exactly what I want/need to do. Many spend their lifetimes looking and wandering, so I am truly blessed and grateful.

I need to send a very special shout out to my soon to be wife Jodie too for all of her endless support and to my family. Thank you!!

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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