FULL CIRCLE by Sean T.

This is a workout I just wrote up for my father. It doesn't take a lot of effort to whip up a workout for him, but I still love to do it.

I've trained/coached a decent amount of people over the years (only recently have I been doing it professionally), and none of them have been a better athlete than my pops.

No one gets after it as hard as he does. No one checks their ego and is as willing to learn as he is. He has total faith in what I'm telling him, and he makes sure to leave it all out on the floor.

I fucking love my father, and I'm a god-damn lucky man to be able to say so. I'm fully aware of that. And I count it as one of the biggest blessings in my beautiful life.

When I was a kid, my dad went out and bought a squat rack after he saw me get excited while watching World's Strongest man on TV. He was the first person to introduce me to weightlifting. I remember loving it. I also remember faking sick sometimes to get out of it.

Never did it cross my mind that I would one day be training him. Never did it cross my mind that one day my life would be centered around strength training. Life's funny like that.

So before this drags on any longer, here's to you Pops. The man that taught me what hard work is. I love you, and I'm forever in your debt.

Enjoy the deadlifts.

STRONGMAN = REAL LIFE

There's no disputing the fact that here at TCS, we fucking love strongman! I'm sure that is abundantly clear at this point, right? 

I've previously written about all the reasons we love this training method, but let's just cover all the bases by restating that strongman provides a massive ROI and is an absolute blast! So if we have this training style that's extremely effective and delivers big on the fun factor, why don't people jump all over it?

Intimidation. 

Strongman gets a bad rap as being "extreme" or "unsafe" because until recently, the only exposure the sport/training method got was from the TV show, World's Strongest Man. And, of course, if someone is sitting on their couch watching a 400lb man pull a fucking jet, they automatically discount it as "not for me". 

Nothing could be further from the truth. The real truth is that Strongman can be for everyone.

What you see on WSM is the very pinnacle of the sport and does not accurately represent what Strongman is on a basic level. Strongman, simply, is movement. Push, pull, drag, squat, carry, throw, etc. It's really that simple. And because Strongman is movement, it then places itself squarely on top of the list of "functional training methods".

Strongman is the shit that you do and encounter in your daily life. 

A sack of groceries in each hand is a farmers carry. Picking up a box of old books is nearly identical to picking up an atlas stone and moving it from A to B. Pushing your lawn mower up the steep hill in your back yard might as well be a heavy sled push.

Get it? You already do Strongman, you just didn't know it. 

Here at TCS, our contention is that if your life is going to demand these things from you, why not get really good at this stuff and have some fun along the way? You'll be amazed at the correlations you'll draw between the lifts and tasks programmed for you in class and the shit real life throws at you. To say that you'll become a more effective and efficient human being is an understatement. 

So, besides being informative(I hope), I guess this is all just a big long invitation for you to come experience Strongman at Travis County Strength. We have a passion for this stuff and love sharing it with people. Your next opportunity to join our Strongman Saturday is 3/25/2017 at 10am. You can reserve your spot today on the Class Calendar.

And, if not, I at least hope that you'll see those correlations we spoke of earlier. 

Hope to see you there!