The Butcher

My team mate Max Aita trained under Ivan Abadjiev for 5 months before I came to Cal Strength. I was a little too late, but Max has filled me in on the war stories, funny stories, and the hell he and the others endured while training under the "Butcher" (Ivan). Donny Shankle once just shook his head and began to stare off into the distance for a good long while when asked how training under Ivan was. Donny had know words, just a look that made you walk away and never bring it up again. A coach of little words, besides the anticipated "more weight" and "again". Snatch Clean and Jerk Squat to max, repeat 4 to 5 times a day, 7 days a week, no rest, more weight. Hints the Butcher, hints the Bulgaria success, the dream team of the 70's 80's and 90's. The untouchable power house of weightlifting that to this day has not been touched.

One man has finally come out to talk about the training method, programing and mind set of the Bulgarian system. A man who experienced it first hand, My good friend, and my teammate Max Aita. I also want to thank Max for taking me under his wing when I first arrived to my new world of cal strength. He helped me in so many ways, and made me feel right at home. So Max I thank you.

Here is the video below. Salute!!

Squats 2016

The Crossroad

Stay motivated, stay motivated, stay motivated. (repeat)

Just hit 5 years, body hurts more than ever. The 2016 career will be hard, and the pain will grow more each day. My Hell is sunny from the window looking in, like a wide eyed kid glued to the zoo window watching the bears wrestling in their unnatural habitat. My hell is what some call envy, a dream gym, an "if only I lived closer gym". A "bad ass" gym that some even think about dropping their current freedom to enter our invisible caged freedom. I don't want to get burnt out, I truly don't, and I am scared that the dark hole will finally suck me into its sea of normalcy; a land of joggers saying good morning and pick up basketball games at the YMCA. A nine to fiver with friends, drinks at the ball game, a looking forward to the weeker, a non fucken weightlifter is what I am really saying.... and o yes how good that sounds. Yes, its my choice, and I understand I choose this lifestyle because I love this lifestyle. I love being a weightlifter. But I am not going to sit here and tell you that I never think about what lies on the other side of that white fence. I wonder if the grass is really any greener just like you. A man with a mission is what I am, a mission that at times fades away out the front door of the gym as my wide eyes and open mouth try to catch what everyone is laughing about.

They call me for seminars all over the world... Wow, that's a beautiful feeling. What have I created? I have woken a sleeping giant after coaching my first seminar. A smile appears on my face, and a joyful feeling comes over me, like seeing my mom cry from happiness. I skip to training as dreams turn into reality and ideas flood my mind like over pouring my morning coffee. Wave after wave of excitement crashes against me, telling me to go! The world has opened its doors to me from the prison of room 2.... I have finally made it... I am finally free from everyone.

This dreamful blog has been boarded shut, and this unoriginal "you can do it" bullshit blog is not reality. I can't even ride my fucken bike without the "you can get hurt talk", ended with "stop riding your fucken bike" talk. I watch my calendar full of hopeful seminars and weightlifting clinics burn in the fire from the broomstick bar yelling in my ear. His loud voice and sturdy hands overwhelm me with fear as I surrender and listen to him. I have one hand out towards coaching like a small child dragging their parent to the carnival ride they want to go on, and the other being grabbed by the broomstick bar. This life has constant moments of sudden possible change, that never seem to happen. I want to coach; I want to spread my ideas and personal experience to everyone and anyone who would care to listen. The only person I am frustrated with is me, know one else. I say this to you, I express my frustration to you, but then again I want to make the 2016 Olympic team and dedicating my life to training is the only path that will get me there. I am trapped, but then again I don't want to leave.

I will always wonder what the other side may feel like, how much greener the grass is, or if it's really any greener at all. I will endure the pain and do whatever is in my power to stay motivated and positive. I will strive to stay focused and committed to the task at hand even with the many temptations that try to lure you down the..... well not the wrong road, but just the not right now road. I will try my hardest to put coaching to the side for now as I walk down the dusty road called weightlifting. Weightlifting is a mind game, nothing more, nothing less.

Here is the latest Cal Strength video. Talk to you all tomorrow. Salute.


Athlete 2016

Pontypool

A new movie has pushed its way into my top 20 favorite movie list. Of course not in my untouchable golden top ten, but Mr. 11 and on is never too safe. Just two days ago a change happened in my list that even surprised me. This is a very impressive achievement that doesn’t happen too often. The movie that undeniably crowned itself top 20 is called Pontypool, and it’s 100 percent awesome. I have so much to say about this movie, but to be honest I don’t want to say too much about it, for your self enjoyment. I don’t want to ruin the movie for you. I can’t stand when people blabber on about a movie that I made perfectly clear I still haven’t seen and want to see in the near future. This pisses me off even worse than listening to someone eating with their mouth open. I was going to put the preview up underneath, but decided not to. Don’t watch the preview! It doesn’t do the movie any justice, plus it tells you way too much. If I ever do watch a preview it’s only the first 10 or 15 seconds, then I click close. If the movie in the first 15 seconds doesn’t catch my attention like a fish caught in a fisherman’s net, then I don’t care to see it, and I simply won’t watch it. I am very picky about my movies which people make fun of me for constantly, But I proudly don’t care. I appreciate and respect a well- made movie, good acting, and good writing. I love movies dearly. I feel that watching them is a hobby of mine…if such a thing even exists. I think the greatest job in the world would be a movie critic. But then again you would have to sit through hundreds of dreadful movies that would make you want to jump off a building. So I think I will stick to Weightlifting.

I shouldn’t have to be sold to watch a movie; it should connect with me immediately. The best part of this movie is that I had no idea what it was about, or even what the genera was, which made the movie so much more intriguing and fun to watch. I want you to go into this movie with the same blind fold I wore, and emerge yourself into the unknown. So with that said I will now shut up and stop talking about it, and let you experience it for yourself. If you don’t like this movie… then I am sorry! Please don’t be mad at me!

I listed my top ten favorite movie list a few months ago on my blog here. If you didn’t get to read it and want to check it out, then go to the search box on the upper right hand corner and type in the title of the blog called “Truman”. Here is the rest of my list from 11 to 20 (top 20). If you haven’t seen any of these movies then you need to ASAP. Or else I will tell Donny Shankle on you, and he will break down your front door and clean and jerk you!!! Salute

A picture from a new member of the list "Dead Man's Shoes" A very deep and hard movie to watch.
And Now the List!

11.) Drive
12.) Dead Man’s Shoes
13.) Boiler Room
14.) The Illusionist
15.) Blow
16.) Synecdoche New York
17.) Ali
18.) The Family Man
19.) Moon
20.) Pontypool

Truman Show always number one 2012

Jon North vs Spencer Moorman

Lots of coffee......


Fight For Gold 2012

Frankenstein

I am letting the monster out this Sunday, and he is more excited than I am. I have been working on him day and night for four years now, in my brown dusty basement where trial and error has been a consistent fight with much hard work. A crazed mind and an ongoing vision of a perfect monster has kept me poring green liquid and using all of the electricity in my house. A creation that has been perfected, performed, and well tested. Now it’s time to let the monster's impact and teaching spread all over the world, now that he has full confidence and self-assurance of who he his. Starting in San Ramon this Sunday at Cal Strength, the birth of the very first Attitude Nation Certification Seminar will take place. Four plus years of up all nights, blue prints, Gold medals, silver medals, USA teams, bomb outs, missed lifts, American records, great training and bad training have been performed with this project, or better yet this certification. A certification that has gone through the depths of hell to have seen heaven. A seminar that has wear and tear to it, like a baseball mitt that has been broken in. This monster has cries and smiles, scars and pains, success and beauty, hate and love.

I want to take what I have learned in my career and give it to you, and then from there you can toss it or keep it. I have tried everything under the sun in this sport, from different techniques, different dynamic starts, approaches to the bar, diet, recovery, training programs, the mental game and so on. I want to give back anyway I can, and I guess with this seminar I can do that. I would say this blog, but this blog means more to me than just giving my personal advice on weightlifting. This blog is where I can talk to you about anything, this blog is my journal and you are my friend. So yes, I hope you get some helpful weightlifting advice and tips from this dark orchestra, but mostly I am just glad that us gladiators have a place to go and talk while our minds wonder with thoughts and emotions.

I can’t wait to teach my way, to show the world how great the superman pull really is. How beautiful the arched angel can be if done right. How fast those Ali feet can move when the lift just falls in place like the gumball that shoots down the windy ramp into your hand...perfect. I am excited to give you my thoughts about training, give you the proper tools you need to get through the hell before someday seeing the light of weightlifting. I just feel that there is so much about weightlifting that is never talked about. I feel this energy that is pushing me from behind to speak out about the Alice in Wonderland world that seems to be called weightlifting. I want to talk about what I have seen and felt. I want to explain to people how I succeeded and at times why I failed. I might just be crazy, but for some reason I feel I can make a shift in this sport, make it more popular, more entertaining, more fun, more exciting, and more interesting by talking about the lifestyle and mind games this sport puts you through. I admire boxing and how it's marketed and how excitement seems to hit you in the face. I catch myself lying in bed picturing weightlifting like boxing, and all the different things we can be doing to make this sport...well, more in your face.

I write most of my blogs to the A.I soundtrack. I love all the songs very much. Tonight I am drinking hot coffee, even though cold is my lover. I have a soft spot in my heart for miss hot as well. Training was fun today... Wow, I can’t believe I used the word fun. Usually the word that comes to mind is hell or pain, but today really was a blasty. I went head to head with Spencer in the 7 singles at 90 percent workout, which would have been hell but competing on the live stream with money on the line makes it a great exciting battle for everyone. He won, yes I know, damn that kid. Boy he is a freak athlete and a strong Mo fo as well. He made every lift. I made all my snatches at 146kg and four of my clean and jerks at 172kg. After missing some, punching the wall some, and kicking the bench and bar some....I came back making one more for pride, and pride alone. I couldn’t let the Nation down or myself, so I smoked it, spit on it, and then gave it the bird letting the weight know that we won, not him.

Hopefully, some of you can make it out this Sunday. I know it's short notice and you might live far away, but I thought I might as well mention it. I just hate "plugging” shit on this blog. I don’t want to be "that guy” every chance I get plugging a new product on my site, a seminar, or whatever else I am involved in. Some might call this a plug, but I call it chatting about something I am excited about and looking forward to. I have a hand full of seminars set up across the country in the next few months, and I can’t wait to hit them head on, and grow this Nation bigger and bigger.

Here is the newest Cal Strength video below. A good battle is good training. Salute!


The Growth Of The Attitude Nation 2012

2 Minutes

Your hands rub your thighs up and down in a fast motion, not because they are sore, but because you...well you really don’t know. Your mind is tired but your body is in such shock from the training that it can’t help but to constantly move and twitch. You begin to rock back and forth as your head looks all around the gym like a little kid in an orchestra looking for his parents. You smile, not to anyone one person, not even to yourself, you just smile. Not an upward smile, but a sideways smile, a fake smile, a smile that lets you know that you are still ok and not dead from this battle called weightlifting. You watch your teammate attempt a big lift with your head slightly down and facing away, as you watch from the corner of your eyes. Watching straight on will infect you with the pain disease that man is going through.

In the 2 minutes of self-reflecting and heavy breathing you are intimidated,weak, scared,unsure, and nervous for what awaits you when coach tells you to lift. Your mind wonders off into the past like someone rewinding a video tape. You forget you are a weightlifter and that you have been doing the same two lifts for 4 years now, and looking at the same broken white wall just as long. You forget your life consists of chalk,bars,plates,and a big bearded man that never seems to forget that you are a weightlifter…damn. You have a feeling that a minute has gone by, and that you are half way to hell again. Your head drops back against the wall as your droopy eyes still face down toward your Ali feet. You start to count the sweat drops that fall from your face. You don’t wipe your face because you are just too tired, and honestly,you just don’t care anymore. You have surrendered to this lifestyle, you have surrendered to your own imprisonment.

Someone walks by you and says hi all perky and happy. You are suddenly woken from your exorcism of thoughts and silence. You reply with an over the top "hey how’s it going" with wide eyes and a large still fake smile. But once your paths have past you sink back into peace and tranquility. A world with no lifting, a 2 minute world of heaven and peace as you slide down snowy banks with penguins and polar bears. I wonder how my dad is doing. I wonder why Jake hasn’t called me back. I wonder what I am going write about in my blog today. Shit,180kg awaits me,just sitting there loaded and awaiting my arrival. I wish I could just sit here forever and never move. What if I fail and nobody likes me anymore. What if I never win Gold again or even get on the Podium again, then what? I am glad people don’t really know how insecure I am.....I feel insecure right now...so I think on this lift I will yell even louder and slam the bar much harder than usual. I should super glue this mask to my face so it won’t fall off, just in case Donny rushes me with a Shankle hug.

"Jon you’re up"! Fuck, my happy purple dinosaur has run away with another group of kids,and now I am left with a mean broomstick from the movie Fantasia. I can’t wait to get this lift over and return back to memories of wooden skate ramps and 50 cent pop. Let’s go! I am the Champ! Attitude fuckin Nation baby! I will smoke you 180, I will smoke you then slam you then cut your throat tell you bleed your red paint all over the fuckin platform. I am strong,I am fast, and I am fearless. I have the Shankle blood in me, and I will rip this bar like I am ripping the head off a lion. I will win more meets, make more teams, and piss more people off. I will chalk my hands like Russell crow feeling the dirt before battle. I am a cocky, in your face National Champion that will piss on every platform I lift on. Get out of my way rookies, the Nation is about to lift.

Thank you Nicoli Trefil for this blog topic

Love Liza 2012

Hit and Catch Part III

Sundays are beautiful. I love Sundays with all my heart. Food, movies, nap, more food, more movies, hot tub, then bed. Wait….no training either…Sunday will you marry me? Rest that tired body and Dream about PR's, slamming bars, and the rush you get after making a big lift. Dream about eating at In and Out, all hunched over with a three by three like it’s your last meal giving off the vibe that if anyone gets close to you you will rip there fucken head off because you are a bad ass stronger than them weightlifter. Damn...I am rambling again, Here is the new part three "Hit and Catch" video. I hope you like it, goodnight.


Godfather Part III 2012