Diary of a Mad Man

Greetings!  I have survived!   It has been an absolute crazy past couple of weeks here.

I had the title of “Diary of a Mad Man” pop into my head when I was writing this up, so I thought I would include a live version of this Ozzy classic for your listening pleasure.

I remember seeing Ozzy on his “No More Tours Tour” in like 8th grade. It was awesome other than the treble was so high I think I had hearing damage for years after that.    I’ve seen him many times since on Ozzfest also. So much for retirement!

As you know, I am getting married this coming Saturday (yes, like in a 2 days) and I am very excited.

PhD Update

I have also been working on my dissertation paper regarding HRV (heart rate variability -  a way to measure biofeedback) and I handed in the latest revision to my advisor at about 2:30am today.   I already have more work to do on it as I got the revisions back already, but getting closer to submitting if for peer review and publication.

Once that is taken care of, I will then work on finishing up my paper on the effects of Energy Drinks (Monster Energy Drink) regarding heart rate, HRV, exercise performance (like, do the darn things even work?) effects on fat burning (via RER- respiratory exchange ratio) among other things.   I collected the data last year and have it analyzed already, so hopefully I won’t need to get any more subjects.  All the studies were fasted, so nothing like getting up at 4:45am sometimes to be in the lab (or sleeping there overnight—shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone though).   I still carry a pillow in my car to catch a quick cat nap for a few minutes wherever I can.

Once that is completed, I have my third paper to work on regarding Metabolic Flexibility as I am looking at a potential new way to measure metabolic flexibility without sticking someone with needles.   I will combine those 3 studies plus a literature review and conclusion into my final dissertation.  Lots and lots more work to go, but progress one step at a time is good.

Ever Wonder What It Looks Like?

I shot this short video, just for you!

Top Secret Location

I have only seen Jodie about 2 times in the past week, but we will get to spend a whole week in Mexico (top secret location) after the wedding, so we are super excited about the honeymoon!  It will be sooooo nice to finally spend some time together and then I get to see her for the rest of my life every day—yeah!!

Jodie and I

Perhaps I will have an re-enactment of this photo from our La Ventana trip.
Viva La Mexico

And lots of this!
Although I do have a hard time sitting still for long.

A huge thanks to Jodie also for all the wedding planning and to our friend Dana and Nicole too for all their wedding planning help.  I had no idea that planning a wedding was so much work, but it will be great!   Neither one of us do much that is considered “normal” so we are even getting married in a cave!

Project 86

For those that missed the engagement story, see this link below.

Mike and Jodie Are Getting Married- Caught on Video

We got engaged at a Project 86 show in Arizona (huge thanks to the lead singer Andrew,the Rev, and the P86 Tour Manager).    My wonderful colleges at work (I still work part time at a medical device company as an engineer for over 10 years now), bought me a Project 86 cake and had a nice celebration, wonderful card and gits too!  Thanks everyone!!!

Myself, Jodie and Andrew from Project 86

The Project 86 cake

Lifting

Of course I am still lifting myself and it is going well, despite crazy levels of stress and enough caffeine at times to approach the LD 50 for small fury animals.   Last night I came within 1 lb of breaking my all time bench personal record (PR) and pulled 8 singles at or over 365 lbs on deadlifts the day before.   Yeah for biofeedback training.  Keep your eyes open for the Grip n Rip DVD soon and it shows you the break down on how to custom your training to you!

I gave 435 a run, but no dice.   I will get it though and will pull 450 lbs by the end of this year.   My buddy Maximillian Barry (Nu_Fit on twitter) and a few others have a deadlift race.

We will celebrate once we both pull 500 lbs, raw.

I will get this deadlift very soon!

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Plus, once my schedule frees up a bit post PhD later this year (fingers crossed) I plan to hang out and lift  more with those nuts Adam T Glass and Brad Nelson.   Doing the Tactical Strength Challenge Elite style 10 days after coming back from my honeymoon is going to be brutal though!  I will be traveling with trusty TRX suspension trainer though.  Maybe the professor will show up in a future video from Mexico, who knows!

The Blog Marches On!

I am hoping to crank out some updates for you tomorrow AM yet,   I will probably not have computer access in Mexico, so comment replies may be very slow.

Summary

That is the update on all the crazy updates from here.  What is new in your life?  Any good wedding stories that you wan to share? Post away in the comments

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Inside Look at Grip n Rip 2.0 from Swager Strength

If you missed Grip n Rip 2.0 this year, you missed out.   I unfortunately was noly able to stay there for about 3 hours in the AM and since Jodie and I were hopping on plane that early afternoon to Baja Mexico (more details on that soon too).

Great stuff and the guys from Swager Strength were there in full force too. I picked up one of their 2 inch solid axle thick bars. SWEET!

This is about twice the diameter of a normal bar and there is absolutely ZERO flex to it. I love it so far.

Check out the video below of Adam Glass, Brad Nelson, and the guys at Swager Strength for an inside look at Grip n Rip 2.0

Summary

Great stuff and I will hopefully make it to the next one for sure!

Be sure to check out the fine folks at Swager Strength for some amazing products that you will not find anywhere.

Tell them I sent ya. I get nothing to promote them. Not one cent, but they are stand up guys who make excellent products at very fair prices.

If you went to Grip n Rip, drop me a comment on how it went and what you thought of the event.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

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Inside the RKC Certification

If you are interested in the RKC certification, here is a video of the recent one in San Diego CA.

Find out why over 100 people showed up for this certification to train with kettlebells! What are you missing out on?   Find out below.

If you think you want to sign up and have questions, drop me a line by going to the “about” tab above and sending me an email.

If you are already signed up and need some help with your kettlebell form (which I would HIGHLY recommend), drop me an email also.  First come, first serve.

Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) in Minnesota this Sat Oct 3

Who is going to be at the TSC this Sat at Kinetic Edge in Minnesota?   If you are already did the TSC, drop me a comment and let me know how it went!

Time to step up and compete!  I hope to see you this Sat.  I will be competing in the TSC Elite style, but I will have to buzz out very early since Jodie and I are off to a wedding up north of Duluth.  Nothing like a max deadlift, weighted pullups and 32 kg Snatches for 5 minutes all done with almost no rest! ha!  Such is life.

My training has been going well, but cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF aka “cardio”) has just not been responding as well as in the past.   A big reason is that I decided to put more emphasis on strength and put CRF on maintenance for a bit too long.  I was hoping to make up for lost ground over the past 10 days, but my body was just not having any part of it!  In the past I would have said “screw it” and tried to force too much bad quality work on it which is not good.   Keep in mind that everything has a cost and the cost of too many piss poor reps is bad movement and potentially injury.

Too much coffee and too little sleep is the big culprit as I’ve slept 10 hours last night and the night before. I feel almost human again now.

This Sat should be interesting and that is what makes the TSC such a great event to train for as you are training for

• Max strength (deadlift)
• Relative strength (strength to body weight ratio via the pull up)
• Strength endurance (KB Snatch for 5 min straight)

If your main goal is to look good naked, the TSC is a great event since training for strength is a signal for your body to not loose muscle and keep your metabolic rate up a bit higher.  Having less dead weight (read: fat) for the pull up is key and kettlebell snatches are an excellent way to burn a crap ton of calories in a very short period of time.

Drop me a comment if you did the TSC or you will be at the Minnesota one this Sat!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Happy July 4 to everyone in the USA.   To my foreign friends, it is just another day.  Either way, I trust you had a great weekend.

Jodie and I along with my parents and sister went to see the latest Cirque De Soleil Kooza on July 4 outside here in Minnesota.  WOW, is all I can say.  If you get the chance, you MUST see them-amazing performance and I will have more details soon.

Tactical Strength Challenge Fall 2009

Check those calendars and  the Tactical Strength Challenge is about only 8 weeks away!  Wow, time is flying by.

Are you ready?

Do you have a plan to be ready in 8 weeks?

Heck, are you even going to SHOW UP?

Your goals need deadlines and you need to be held accountable (that goes for me too).

Who is holding you accountable?

I will be there and I want to see all of you there too.

If you need a plan, drop me a line at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com and I will set you up.

Using some great techniques I picked up (thanks Frankie), I went from 39 reps with the 32 kg KB for the 5 min snatch test to only 4 weeks later cranking out 75 in 5 minutes.  I had managed to fall in a broomball game and bruise my sciatic nerve in mid January and was unable to do any snatches for about 6 weeks.

That is almost DOUBLE in 4 weeks and I can show YOU how to sky rocket your numbers too.  There is nothing special about me, just some well applied knowledge.

You would be shocked to learn that other than a few test days, my max number of snatches with the 32kg was about 8-10 reps at a time per hand.

Enter the Assisted Pullup

The common question is “What if I can’t do even one pull-up?”   No worries, as B-Rad, Adam T Glass, Mark Wilson, Myself and friends are here to the rescue with an exclusive video on some options for you.

Technique Note

Keep a nice tall/long spine and no crazy chicken maneuvers at the top just to get your darn chin to the bar.  Bring your body to the bar.  If you need another cue, think of bringing your elbows to your waist.   I would rather have athletes only go to the top of their head, eyes, nose and then chin rather than do some crazy-ass neck cranking at the top.

Find out what we really do with our free time…..

Rock on

Mike T Nelson