Grumpy Plane Ride

Kevin and I got very bored on a long plane ride to Nationals, so we pulled out our phone recorder and started bugging coach with questions.  Let's just say he wasn't too thrilled sitting between us.  Salute.

The interview 

Pendlay 2016

Hot Water

I felt the need to repost this older blog from all the questions I have been getting lately about hot vs cold baths for max recovery. Plus the new Attitude Nation video is below that my lovely and talented wife put together. She has been working on the jerk like crazy........well shit, we all seem to be trying to tackle that damn Jerk. The Jerk is a Jerk, and you will see the battle below. Hope you enjoy it. Salute and see you back soon in our Dark Orchestra.   

I say "no" to cold baths. I say "yes" to hot baths. Hot water is the key for not getting injured, being able to train to max every day, and a world of relaxation that every weightlifter needs. I have no science behind me, just my own experience that has proven me right every time. I have taken three ice baths in my career, and it will stay at three for the rest of my life. There are five things wrong with an ice bath.

1) Its damn cold
2) Makes me feel like the tin man going into training
3) Did I mention that it’s freaking freezing!
4) The week I started taking the ice baths I felt injury around the corner
5) Felt down, tired, no energy – hard to move like Ali

Five reasons why to take a hot bath over a cold bath.

1) Its hot
2) It feels amazing
3) It will keep you loose as a goose for big PR's
4) Great conversations
5) A great time to relax your body and mind from the hell of training

This is my daily hot water schedule for Americans 6 months out, to Win back my title, and the World Championships next year.

1) Hot tub in the morning before training
2) Hot shower right after first training
3) Hot bath before second training
4) Hot tub at night in the cool air after training
5) Hot shower or bath before bed.
6) (Repeat)

I truly believe more weightlifters should use hot water for their training, it works for me, maybe it will work for you. But The Attitude Nation is all about doing what you want to do, doing what works for you, and giving the rest of the "know it all's" the bird. So feel free to give me the bird, and live your life the way you want to. Here is the New video below. JERK THAT DAMN JERK BABE!

Hot Water 2016

My Black Hat

A week in a small and far away Country called Siskiyou County.  A local bar is where I sit, writing to you while I occasionally ask the bar tender for more coffee......please of course.  Everyone is bent over the bar drinking their bud light, as I take out my ear piece from time to time to catch small parts of their “when I was a kid” stories.  They all know each other, and they all are probably wondering who the city guy in the corner is drinking coffee on his liberal Mac computer.  I smile and nod when we catch eyes, some nod back, and some just turn away.  A parking lot full of trucks outside surrounding my little black on black Audi, as if the trucks are about to kick my car's ass.  It’s almost embarrassing.  I love my car, but a truck is much needed right now.  I stick out like a sore thumb.  I envy them, I envy their lifestyle.  I wish I was a Country man, a farm owner, a bucking hay and riding horses guy,  a hard working man, a Cattle hand man who meets his buds up after work and grabs a beer or two man,  a go home to the wife after a long day man,  a do it yourself man, a kids these days man, a move boy I don’t have all day man. Wranglers, like it wasn’t even a choice. Camo hats and cowboy hats line up straight down the bar like music notes.......Awesome.  Chew spitting, unshaved face rocking country music dancing mother fucken bad asses.  Attitude Nation soldiers, and they don't even know it.  I think I might order a beer so I don’t look like such a pussy.  Some of the cowboys are quite, and some are loud.  Even though they are all mysteries to me, I would love to hear some story's from the quiet cowboys.  I bet I could learn a few things from them.  I guess in a way me and all these Cowboys are the same.  We both work hard in our own profession.  We both love the down time with friends after a hard day’s work.  They wear jeans, I wear adidas sweats.  They lift bales of hay, I lift bars.  Their hands are rough and callused, mine are as well.  They wear boots; Donny wore boots in the war.  Salute Donny, thank you for serving this great Country, in weightlifting and with a gun.  They dosey doe, I do the cat daddy.  They rope cattle, and I like to rope up Coach when he gets grumpy.  I love this place, I love these people.  But this is their world, not mine, and visiting their world makes me miss mine.  The air is crisp and clean. The stars at night are bright and loud.  The sea of rolling hills and flat land goes further than the eye can see.  No freeways, no buildings, no Starbucks, no Priuses, shit........no weightlifting for miles.... Heaven. 

Five hour drive to a whole new land.  Every hour that went by, my body seemed to become more and more weightless, my eyes lids drew like shads, my heart slowed down, and my worries and stresses seemed to catch the wind from the half rolled down window, taken away by the air never to be felt or seen again.  I have never been more relaxed.

I have been in a weird place lately, and you will soon figure out why.  That’s all I can say at this point.  It’s good to get away and visit my wife’s family for a while.  A place where we met, a place I played football at and graduated college from, (aka) my associates degree.  A great achievement for me.  How I got my AA, I still don’t know. Seeing my old football coaches and teachers is something that I needed to do for some time now. A place that brought me friends for life, and memories that will stick with me until the day I die.  Pause my life for a second and go back to what made me the man I am today.  Take a breath of fresh air, and try to figure out what has happened to me the last few years. I look in the mirror not recognizing the face looking back at me.  It seemed like yesterday I was just a punk college kid flipping burgers part time at McDonalds to pay off a high school DUI.  A kid who watched weightlifting videos and dreamed of becoming a National Champion.  Day dreams in class of representing my Country in this sport.  Dreams of meeting Coach Pendlay, and hopefully getting an autograph and picture with Donny Shankle.  Wow, now this has all happened and I have no idea how.  It still has not set in yet, and I have trouble comprehending it.  Now I write blogs with Donny and get hugs from coach if I do well in a meet or in training.  What?  This is crazy.  I need more coffee, one sec. 

Yes I will still train.  Don’t worry coach calls, texts and even seems to pop up in my dreams at night asking me how the workout went and what numbers I hit in training.  I swear I can still feel his presence all the way up the windy road of I-5.  I can still feel the famous Pendlay look staring through my soul wondering why I just missed the lift.  "Hey coach what happened?"  "You missed it".   "What do I need to do to make it"?  "Make it"  "Yes Coach"   

I will be training with the man who got me into this sport, the man who saved my life from going down hill, and down hill fast.  A man who was really my first coach before Jackie Mah.  A man who I look up to and admire.  He is Eagle football, he is the best football coach, strength coach, and linemen coach in the world.  His name is Coach Tim Frisbie.  I will be here training away with him in the football weight room.  Coach Frisbie is the mad scientist who invented the crazy, man in black, champ, most hated man in USA weightlifting, slamming bars, jumping Jonathan North, Attitude Nation soldier, me……Jon North.  Thank you Coach Friz for everything.  Thank you Siskiyou County for the peace you have brought me on this trip.

I bought a black Cowboy hat at the local thrift shop in Mt Shasta.  You ask why?  Why, I have no idea, I have no care in the world right now.  I just walk around wearing my funny hat with a smile over my face.  No cameras, no live feed, no one on one coaching, or weightlifting classes.  Just me and my black hat. 

Here is a video of yours truly performing a clean back in College at College of the Siskiyou’s under Coach Friz.  Go to 1:20 to see my clip.  I was even more crazy back then!  Arnold! 

Coach Friz 2016

Odyssey

The Song I Wrote This Blog To

The day is sunny, while the air is cold and crisp. The early morning orange glow has seeped through your blinds, covering your body with stripes of black. The weightlifters rise out of their bunks with stretching arms and achy backs. A warm shower hits your back as you bow your head towards your feet. Your eyes are wide open, as your mind races through the checklist of who you are, what you have accomplished, what you still need to accomplish, and flashing images of the hell coach will cast upon you once this quiet early morning comes to a close. You choose to drip dry as you brush your teeth bare naked, which goes against your usual routine of drying off thoroughly with a towel.  Your blood starts to pump though your body a little faster the more you wake. You throw up a bicep pose while the tooth brush takes a break to admire your strong muscles.  Fox news is in the background as you pour a bowl of cereal. The peaceful chatter and the sound of the cereal hitting the bowl could make a grown man cry from its simple beauty.

Quiet before the storm. Peace before war. Heaven before Hell. You gently rest your hand over the coffee maker's left cheek, while singing a random Christmas song to her. You are excited for Christmas even though it's only May.  You are excited for what she will give birth to in the next few minutes, and how happy it will make you feel inside once you have her in the palm of your hands. The coffee drips with rhythm, as each drop has its own personality and desires. You look up to see coach standing on your living room table, waving his hands in the air while his eyes are closed shut, and his head tilted back. The strings connected to his fingers are casting a web all over the house as you try to maneuver closer to him.  No, you can't touch him, for he is in a glass bottle. Coach is connected to everything this morning has had to offer you. The small little red dots all over your naked body are from the strings attached from coach to you. You are a puppet, and everything you think you have control over.....well, you don't.

When I watch our videos, another video is watching me. I then watch that video of me watching the first video, only to feel the presence of another video watching me watch the second video. Time and reality seem to be slipping away. The red eye has lit up the morning from orange to red, and my front door has turned from wood to a glass lens looking out into the gym.  My teammates wave me in from the other side as I stand there drinking my coffee, naked, and in complete peace. I have surrendered to the whys and how’s. I have let down my conscience and I now just dance when things don't make sense. This sport doesn't make sense, and how coach went from standing in my living room to playing the violin on the other side of the lens has confused me. I guess what all this means is that we must train. We must train no matter what. You know what I mean? It doesn't need to make sense to be understood. No matter what is happening in our lives we must train through it, by it, and right over the top of it.  When life doesn't add up, the training will.  Over time, all the training will pay off like a bank account you have been growing for years and years. At the end of the day, I guess the most confusing things in life are really the most simple. A peaceful morning is only peaceful because of the pain you and I endure during the day.  I feel that weightlifters appreciate down time more than anyone else. We are at war in the midst of the hardest sport in the world, so we must train.

Coach, coffee, and shower 2016

React

The song I wrote this blog to



Seeking to find answers in this sport will only lead you to a snowy bank that falls hundreds of feet below.  The strong wind behind your back seems to be pushing you further and further toward the edge, no matter how hard you dig your heels into the white ground.  The big bear behind you is a certain indicator that you must just jump, jump or get eaten by the once black now white frosty bear that has pulled up a seat behind you and is starting to write a weightlifting article.  He looks up at you with those low glasses and a know it all sigh.  Now your imiganation is playing tricks on you.  Now you have entered the wonderful white world of lost.  Your ongoing search for answers has led the pitch black horse to nothing but more white sand.  The water seemed to be there, but now your lips will stay dry and chapped as you continue to look for the secret that you think the wishing well has to offer.   Oh wishing well, wish me the correct understanding to reach my goals.  Wish me the wish for all the answers I so desperately feen for.  The long rope that you have been pulling on for some time now has ended with an empty let down.  The well is out of water, and the hollow barrel echoes your cries of a frantic obsession.  

The day you know it all, is the day you know nothing.  The minute you try to figure out this sport, is the same minute you will lose your mind.  An odd idea if you think about it, but so true.  Fish and catch fish.  Love your mom, and well……. you will love your mom.  I didn’t miss the weight, I simply am a weightlifter.  It has taken years and years of learning how to not use my mind. A much harder task than technique.  A task that seems impossible, but if mastered could be fantastic.  The minute I think, is the minute I lose.  I could say the unoriginal line over and over that many use on a daily basis that makes them think they have some sort of clue or grasp on this sport, the line used with so much confidence, "this sport is so mental".  This sport shouldn’t be mental, it should be a fact.  It should be art, that at times is just splattered on the canvas with nothing but pure emotion.  You should make the lift like 1+1=2.  Is it possible to shut your mind off so much that making a lift is nothing more than a reaction?  Coach’s eyes coach me, not his words.  The horse needs to keep running, not trying to find water.  You must jump to not be eaten.  "Training must become a reaction". - Donny Shankle.   You can think all you want while resting between reps, but when it’s time to lift the barbell you must just react.  Just like a lion in the woods that looks as if he is going to attack you, I promise, you will just start running.  Grab and go, jump and run, slam the bar with no thought process at all.  My celebrations are 100 percent true and real, 100 percent me.  You are witnessing true emotion coming from my soul, not my mind.  God rips out of my chest wearing a USA singlet and throws up a "I am number one finger".  Well because shit..... God is always number one.  Get em God.  I love God and what he has given me.  I thank him every day for the emotions that I am allowed to spread all over the world to help motivate not just me, but others all the way from garage lifters, to top lifters.  You must react.  The dog must sit with just one look.  You must stop looking for water because the minute you stop you will find it.  Yes, I know this is a common dating line, but it’s so true in training as well. 


How is your coffee?  Mine is strong and powerful.  The Dark Orchestra is extra dark tonight.  I love it.  I love how we really don’t know where we are, but we feel at home.  This feeling has always interested me.  Why is it that some places make us feel good, and some bad?  It’s like a dog that likes some people, and viciously barks at others.  What is that dog’s reason?  Don’t be afraid to miss.  Nothing upsets me more than a weightlifter that always gets down on their selves when they are faced with the reality of missing.  Even when they make it, if something felt wrong they proceed to hit themselves over the head, followed by a check list of what they did wrong.  No! Stop!  If you made the lift.... then good.  If you missed the lift.... then good, you are a weightlifter.


Goodnight and salute to you all.  I fucken love you.     

God 2016

The Old Show

Shankle 2016

Aramnau

Best technique in the sport.  My favorite lifter.  Fastest athlete in the sport.  Best superman pull in the game....well Klokov is my second favorite.  Klokov also has a superman pull from heaven, and looks as if Brad Pit and Ben Affleck had a kid.  Down right sexy. If you don't have a man crush on Klokov, then you are simply lying to yourself.

The video below of Andrei lifting is the greatest video to watch for learning and helping you better yourself in the lifts.  I personally watch this video at least three times a week to improve my lifting and stay motivated for what I want to look like.  Yes, every athlete is different, but this man in my opinion is amazing.  I love sitting down with a client and watching this video.  The slow motion clips, combined with the close ups make this video hands down the best technique video in the world. Add the gladiator music behind the video, and a cup of miss brown eyes, and you got yourself a love affair with the legend, and Olympic Champion, Andrei Aramnau.

The bar does not touch Andrei until it strikes his hips aka Pendlay step one, aka belt line, aka Tyson hips.  His shoulders stay back on the first pull (from floor to knees).  Then his shoulders get over the bar beautifully on the second pull (from knees to finish position).  His knees almost fully extend before he releases his hips.  He brings the bar BACK throughout the whole pull, creating amazing force when bar makes contact into hips, giving that bar a half second of float time for this beast of a man to pull himself under.  He always puts a slight bend in his arms right before the bar makes contact with his hips, just to add more collision for the finish.  Arm bend is something that I get a lot of shit for, but every great lifter does it.

A man that knows how to defy gravity.  A man who knows how to use his body to lift big weights over his head.  He doesn't just make contact with the bar, but he drives his hips through the bar.  Just like Tiger Woods swinging through the golf ball.  The little white ball will not go as far if Tiger did not follow through his swing.  The same applies to a weightlifter.  You must not just hit and go under, you must hit through the bar, getting into what I call the Arched Angel.  Arched Angel meaning full extension before going under.  The athlete should be on their toes, hips in front of their body, and shoulders back behind their body right before he or she drops under the weight.  Meanwhile keeping their balance and making sure their eyes and head are still facing forward, not up toward the ceiling.  This will give the bar that full half second of not being taken down by gravity, letting the athlete pull himself under as if the bar was connected to a wall.  Then the Ali feet come into play, (fast feet).  He does not jump into the air, and this is very import to see and understand.  The only time the feet move is when he is going underneath the bar once the Arched Angle is complete.  While he is pulling himself underneath the bar, his feet are in the air dropping down fast, just as if someone cut the cable holding the elevator above ground.  The elevator is dropping with amazing speed because of the weight it carries.  He is guiding the bar BACK behind his ears while going under.  This is so important.  Many people miss the weight out in front because they are pulling themselves under the bar completely vertical, catching the bar right over head.  No!  You must catch the bar back behind your head!  Up in this sport means back.  Let's put it this way, if you never went under the bar, the bar should hit you right in the chest.  That's why if I ever do snatch pulls I make sure the bar is striking my chest, leaving a bruise for the next day.  A common expression coach says in training is, "if your going to miss, then miss behind".

The Arched Angel right before going under 

You will see at times he will sit in the hole for as long as he needs to catch his balance.  This is so crucial. The hole in the snatch is your best friend.  Sit down there and watch a movie.  Then when you and the weight have an understanding of one another, stand up.  You should never have a problem standing up in the snatch because the weight is light compared to your squats in training and your clean.  If you do have this problem standing from a snatch, well then its time for more squatting.

Why is it that I keep beating athletes every year that out squat me by 20 or more kilos?  I have very weak legs compared to my competition.  but the reason why I keep beating these rookies is because I have masted the art of using my body as a catapult system.  Yes strength is king, but because of my speed and technique I am able to snatch 160 plus.

Back in the day the bar wasn't allowed to touch your body.  So pulling and shrugging the bar to your eye balls is and was a great way to lift!  Because it was the only way to defy gravity for that split second.  Now that rule doesn't exist,  thank the Lord because I am not strong enough to snatch 166 that way.  I would be taking 8th place at nationals, and never would have gotten the great privilege to represent my country twice.  It amazes me that there are still coaches out there all over the United States coaching the old pull and shrug way of lifting.  But then again, there is more than one way to get to the top of the hill.  Attitude nation = do what you want, and what works for you.  This blog article is very broad, I will go over more in-depth details and other great tricks to lift more weight in both the snatch and CJ in the near future.  Hope this has helped!

Here is another great video of Andrei completing a faster than lightening double in the snatch.  Listen to the bar, and then the feet.  This is how the snatch should look, feel, and sound.  This is the superman pull.

Andrei 2012!  I know......I still like Klokov, but I am rooting for Andrei!