Physical Subculture

Jump to Comments

TODAY’S WORKOUT

Squats. Heavy. Max? Okay.

Goodmornings/farmer’s walk. Heavy, especially the farmer’s walk. 3 sets, 6-10 reps/100 feet.

Sandbag clean and throw/squat hops. Clean and throw the bag bag across the gym and back (100 feet) then squat hop in a full circle around the gym. What’s a squat hop? Squat down and stay low as you hop forward. A couple sets of this and you’ll be done.

.

Welcome Jim Schmitz and Don Weideman!

How wonderful is the world of strength sports when you can contact some of the best names in modern physical culture and learn directly under their watchful gaze without having to rob a rock star for the honor. Jim Schmitz, US Olympic weightlifting coach for a good chunk of the 80’s and a trove of iron sagacity, brought his brain (and some of his iron), to the Tribe to show us neophyte’s how this shit is supposed to be done.

He brought with him local strong guy Don Weidemen and the two of them lit a fire under our collective butts, imparting tips, philosophy and some wonderful ideas for our continued quest of grokking the sport of weightlifting. Jim even brought a copy of a video of the Polish Weightlifting team from the 70’s that I used to watch at Mel Siff’s place whenever I made the journey there, which I’d been wishing i had since Mel died, but never knew how to get ahold of. I no longer wonder.

So, my original idea of competing in October has been slightly modified. Although that meet is still on the itinerary, there seems to be too many signs that I should compete in the Tommy Kono Open in August as well. I’ll have to blame Veronica for initially putting this bug up my butt, and now Don and Jim have cemented it.

.

Jordan (above, center) and Tara (above, upper right) were the only non-trainers who attended the clinic, and they should both consider doing a competition in the near future as well (Hawaii in October, everyone?).

We will probably be working with Jim again in the near future, possibly even hosting a USAW coaching certification in the not-to-distant future. Although we parted ways at the end of the day, it was far from a goodbye. Our tribe has extended a little further, and we’re thankful to have Don and Jim share with us whatever bits of history, wisdom and strength they can.

In other news:

We’ve partnered with local MMA management group Devastation Co. to support grassroots MMA. Bodytribe will be working with DevCo’s fighters, creating conditioning programs for upcoming bouts. The company’s egoless DIY attitude is appealing to work with, and the fighters are genuine, friendly and VERY eager.

For the sake of posterity, education and motivation, I’ll be posting a bit of what their program looks like in upcoming blog posts. I have some strong beliefs about MMA conditioning, and, together with DevCo, we’re going to show how to make a strong fighter.

My fighting friend in the bay, Cody Fielding, recently wrote an article about the mental game. The art of fighting begins between the ears, and anyone who steps in the ring knows that, but that rarely means they’re completely prepared.

Speaking of which, congrats to the local Sacto boys who fought last night. Ultimate Fitness, just a few blocks from the Tribe, is home to Urijah Faber, who proved why he’s the best again last night.

In other other news…

I’m in cahoots with the corporate world! Needing to balance the DIY yin with the capitalist yang, I’m whoring myself out to the media again, but, as always, for the good cause of spreading the self-empowerment gospel. Local talk show Sacramento and Co. has showed some true grit by teaming up with yours truly to promote this little fitness thing we do by training two of their employees for a month and chatting with them on air about it every Monday in June. So if you’re near one of those teevee boxes around 9-ish during the a.m., then catch a few of my 15 minutes of fame.

Again, I’ll be blogging their program as well, since it will give a good behind-the-scenes look at how we take newcomers and embrace them Bodytribe stylee.

Word.

The participants, Michelle and Kevin, are both great to work with so far, and we’re going to have a wacky good time. So future blogs may be packed full of training info, from two different, yet not entirely unalike, training spectrums. Stay tuned…