MUSCLE CHURCH: Our Father, the Iron

  John Skyler's Store at Pro Wrestling Tees  RAW AUDIO Episode 1... John Skyler AKA "The Southern Savior" has been red hot on the independent wrestling scene and is fresh off an appearance on WWE TV. He is a regular fixtures in WWE's developmental promotion NXT and have competed for various wrestling promotions all around the globe. I've known John since before he first entered the squared circle and we've spent countless hours dissecting the wrestling business but this is the first time we've recorded it! And this is as RAW as it gets, featuring some cogent discussion about the future of independent wrestling, his hectic schedule and a visit from a surly and unprofessional parking attendant! The Official John Skyler Twitter Feed! RAW AUDIO Episode 1 John Skyler...Click Here!

...something else! I had good speed squats and deadlifts (keep in mind me week begins on Saturday) around 405 and 500 respectively. Poundages moving up like I plan so I'm well pleased. My goal is to pull 650-ish at the contest in July as its a single rep event and the squat portion will be for reps so I'm not the least bit worried about that, I think the weight is about 450. Maybe the other guys should be worried... Got my harness in from the fine folks at www.prowriststraps.com who have the BEST customer service in the world, so there will be lots of truck pull practice coming along! Planned to post more this week but I got busy and then tonight I was going to add one or two posts but I started watching the Eddie Hall documentary (available on Vimeo) and it brought me to tears. I'm definitely a big supporter of his but now having seen his life a little more intimately...well, it got to me. Some of his struggles really hit home. Instead of being sad, I'm gon

I love the sled leg press. With a burning, intense passion! No shame in my game, I love it and as I have progressed in terms of strength over the years I’ve found it to be an indispensable part of my leg training routines. My latest trip to the sled leg press, 1288lbs for 9 reps. Now there are some among you, general the less hardcore or perhaps those nursing injuries, who sing the praises of the leg press over the back squat because it is easier on the knees…allegedly. On the other side of course you have the hardcore strength athletes who never met a machine they liked and think the leg press just takes away from your squat time. Well to be clear I’m not advocating ANYTHING over the back squat, which is the 2nd best exercise known to man, after the deadlift of course, but I am advocating for greater inclusion of the leg press to the hardcore lifters and perhaps a reevaluation of leg training for the squat-less. My focus these days is strongman and will be for the foreseea

Few characters have inspired me during my life as the fictional slugger Clubber Lang. Made famous in Rocky III, the iconic character was heavily based the actor that made him famous, Mr. T. (Don't forget, the T stands for "tough!") Lang's tenacity and braggadocio spoke to me as a kid who was bullied and alone but as an adult the character's behavior had a deeper meaning to me that I've had to revisit in the last few months. "I live alone. I train alone. I'll win the title alone." In the movie Lang said those words to a reporter while calling out the champ, while Rocky's nervous compatriots watch on. One day in the distant past I was watching Rocky III for the millionth time and realized that those words are true and they apply to me and many others out there trying to make themselves champions. Look, training is a solitary endeavor and there's really no way around that. Even if you have a dedicated training partner and you

How's it going out there everybody??? I want to talk a bit today about specificity and why it's important to you as an athlete and how you communicate certain things to a non-athlete. It's important to make that distinction here because A) I don't know how many people come here who compete and who doesn't and B) I think sometimes we get tunnel vision when we talk to non-athletes and alienate people who would otherwise be interested in what we're doing. For instance, I give you the King of Exercises, the deadlift! And by 'deadlift' I mean 'Conventional Floor Pulls with A Standard Bar.' I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago (link is to your right, btw) that I failed at this weight which is 485 and why I thought that was and how I planned to not fail the next time I tried this exercise. Now, to the average person they might think I 'deadlift' every week, and they'd be right, but I won't be doing these again for a

So there's no way to make my Social Media posts just post on here, and those are updated a lot while I'm at the gym so be sure to check out the links on the side, okay? Thanks! Stay strong!

Dig, if you will, a picture...of iron and steel so cold! That was my terrible homage to Prince (RIP) while I welcome you to my inaugural post here and talk about things being HEAVY! Now that might sound a bit silly considering this blog is about weightlifting and bodybuilding, specifically my journey into the world of strongman, but allow me to elaborate... What you see below is a wee bit over 900 pounds situated on the wonderful Nautilus branded deadlifted platform. I love this machine when I'm getting ready for a contest because the handles mimic how one would deadlift a car and they are about mid-shin level, so not too low and not too high. The day this picture was taken I was working deadlifts, specifically THESE deadlifts. My goal that day was to work up to as much weight as possible. That's about as much programming as I do these days, but I digress... The most I'd ever done on this apparatus was about 630 I think, so this day, I wanted to push 700