Curtis and I are back in the saddle again. We are back with the boys at Metal Militia after a long layoff due to various reasons that were out of our control. Learn more about it right here
Back in the saddle again! Yes, after a two-year layoff (shoulder surgery for myself, then both Curtis and I getting hernia surgery done), I think we've had enough of being on the other side of the tracks. Now it's time to get back into serious benching again.

That's why we are now training twice a week at the compound, the Metal Militia compound at Adirondack Barbell club in Glens Falls, New York, home of Bill Crawford and Sebastian Burns - the Metal Militia guys.

At first, Curtis and I were a little hesitant to go up to the compound and get started. We figured that maybe it would be better for us to do a few training sessions in our shirts and make some more strength gains as we did not want to totally embarrass ourselves in front of this crew.


That's easy to do, you know, considering the amount of weight these guys and gals push. But, we could not wait to get in touch with our old friends up there. We took a drive up just to stop in and say hello and there was Bill behind the counter of the gym with a big smile and immediately came around to the front of the counter and gave us both a big hug and welcomed us back.

Sebastian saw us and came up to welcome us back with a big hug and a handshake too. We asked Bill and Sebastian about showing up to watch one of the workouts and they stated that Fridays were the day they did shirt work and for us to bring our shirts and come up to train with the team.

Our response was, "But we haven't worn our shirts since our last meet two years ago!" "Good," was their reply, "then you'll be fresh and ready to go!" They speak and we obey. The drive is nice, actually we only live about 20 minutes away from the compound, and the drive up takes us alongside the Mohawk River and wouldn't you know it, on two different occasions we, Curtis and I, have seen a bald eagle.

I'm telling you, if you haven't seen a bald eagle up close in the wild, they're beautiful and huge! Now, back to the first training day at the compound. Whoa! It was, how should I say: brutal. Our bodies took four days to recover from all the training we did, and this workout was our real welcome back.

Our First Real Bench Workout In Two Years


To start off, I can't even begin to describe how nervous I was about training with this crew again - that is nervous about making a fool of myself. I have not trained with these guys in two years and, of course, the last time I had my bench shirt on was when I trained with them.


So, to summarize in a few short words, it had been awhile since I had done this and to top it off I was going to do it in front of the best of the best. Fortunately, you never forget as much as you think you do.

At first I felt a little awkward only because I had not trained with this crew for quite sometime. But, once I got under the bar, I was fine. When I finally got up to the weights I needed to be at to put my bench shirt on, boy, did that feel odd!

I had forgot how benching in my shirt felt. Anyway, I ended up getting 200 lbs. for two reps on my first day back in my bench shirt since two years ago when I had my shoulder surgery. It is funny, but every week thereafter I kept thinking that I would not be nervous each time we headed up there to work out, yet it took me almost a month before I started feeling less nervous and more focused.

To get back to my statement about how you never forget as much as you think, it is truer than you know. I had some technique issues when I was benching before that I was trying to work on but just never got the chance, because of having to take time off for my shoulder.

Well guess what, those technique problems are still there and I have been working very hard at correcting those issues for almost a month or a little more. Now, finally, I believe I have these issues somewhat under control as I got a "PR" on my last Friday benching day and actually did it while I was still very sick from a cold.
Training at the compound with the team is very different and exciting for me, especially coming from a bodybuilding background. I have not trained in a team environment in a very long time and training with this team is awesome.

There can be anywhere from 6 of us to 10 or 15 of us lifting on any given Friday, and it is truly amazing to see the weights that are getting lifted on a weekly basis and the fun, intensity, and camaraderie that is there.