Great training advice Steve. I am going to take the liberty of forwarding this
to the group minus the phone numbers. I think a lot of the group will enjoy
reading through this set of emails because you have some good ideas on training.

I am not sure what the rep record is now--well over 200, I would guess. I will
attach a copy of a spreadsheet on top 10 all time and age group performances I
put together in early 2004. Sorry, but I haven't updated it for 2004 or 5.

If anyone else wants it, contact me at jcar75@...<mailto:jcar75@...>

Later JC

----- Original Message -----
From: stephen wilber<mailto:stevie720@...>
To: JOHN CARMONY<mailto:jcar75@...>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: Re:


Well John, now I know what you mean.. So 1 day a week I will do the entire
test,,with a day rest before..but I will also do a small workout after it...But
I have a way which will help you with your bench reps...to increase..
The one thing about muscles is that they have to be trained to do either reps
or power..( i like to incorporate some of both with certain muscles...especially
squats) But for bench,you can trick your body into the amount of reps it needs
to do by taking away as much weight as you need to do the amount of reps you
want...for example in bench. if you did 17 reps on bench and you weigh
160..then bench with 130 at the beginning of each of your workouts and do 25 if
you can...then after that do some heavier reps..but I found with pullups and
dips I did this,,,I started out with negative weight to increase my reps..then
added pounds later... The muscle fiber for endurance (the white ones) can be
increased if you shape your workouts towards that end..But the only problem is
that you actually weight 160...so spend a few weeks getting the reps no matter
how low the weight and your body will adjust..then start adding pounds. It
worked for me in dips and pullups. its justlike when someone wants to get strong
they lift heavy reps for 2-4 ...the muscle fibers sort of adapt..Same with my
running..I kill myself with repeat 1/4 miles with shorter rest cylces of slow
jogging to force my body to adapt.
But I will have to do like you and work on my bench..and military.
you really have made me interested in this workout and test..I cant wait to do
it.
I am sure i will have a long way to go..if I can even make 100 reps I will be
happy I think. I never do military behind the neck.
what is the most reps ever for the 5 total?
well I am dying to go work out..but have to wait..
talk to you later
steve

JOHN CARMONY <jcar75@...> wrote:
I am in Littleton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. I will call some night
early--two hours time difference.

I was a farm boy in Ohio, so I started moving hay bales at a very young age.
Started running and vaulting in about the 5th grade (1963), ran and vaulted
through high school and college, then marathoned for 10 years, then 10k's and
trail runs, then STREND, and now back to vaulting. The circle of life!
Vaulting is a great workout--just have to be well rested as it requires a lot of
speed and your shoulders and legs can not be sore.

Your workouts are very extensive. To be real honest, it is hard to judge
how you will do in a strend. . Why don't you do a couple of STREND workouts,
and then lets talk about it. Many people are very strong but don't do well with
the reps, although I do not think that will be problem for you. Part of STREND
is pacing --do not go to failure. Learn to stop before you fail and maximize
your rest. There is a real strategy here. That failure rep will cost you 4
dips on the end! For me, I do twice as many military presses as I do benches,
and four times as many dips as I do benches, so struggling for the extra bench
is just not worth it. That is the cool thing about STREND -- it does have a fair
amount of strategy. Just pleasing the judges with your reps can be a challenge.
You have to learn to listen and adjust accordingly.

Try a couple. I would really just do one all out STREND a week with a day
of rest before so your arms are fresh. We did a double strend as our other
weekly workout--twice through with two minute cycles on the second go around.
Great workout! How you work in your other exercises will depend on your
recovery time, etc.

Have fun.

JC



----- Original Message -----
From: stephen wilber<mailto:stevie720@...>
To: JOHN CARMONY<mailto:jcar75@...>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 9:48 PM
Subject: Re:


Great advie John but what do you mean train the strend routine for a few
months? I was thinking of cylce of 6 weeks beginning with strength (ie reps of
4-8 for the major lifts) and each week increasing the reps until I am around 15
for each...Then trying for a max of reps in each lift. I have tentatively
planned a 3 days on, 1 day off routine.. And by the way, I ALWAYS do my run
immmediately after lifting and nooooo rest at all. so I am use to this,,but I am
sure my workouts are just as stressful but the difference is that I dont do all
these excercises to failure for high reps..but to my plan...Chest and shoulders
day 1, Back and legs day 2, Tri and bic day 3 and I always do abs after..Each
day 1-3 has 2 power or strong lifts,,day 4,5 and 6 would be the same muscle grps
but concentrating on a different lift and different goal BUT with ONLY 1 STRONG
LIFT for each of these day .Day1 Power or strong lifts are Flat bench and
military press with dumbells. day 2/; squat and pullups. day 3: Heavy dips and
St bar curls..
Day 4-6(same muscle grps but after 1 day rest of the first 3 days and only
1 strong lift) Day4: Clean and jump presses over head (combination legs and
shoulders/upper chest ) day5: cleans to chin day6: Skull crushes.
I think this will increase strength in my core but the auxiliary lifts
will be focusing on endurance...Day 1 flys, shoulder raises and inc dumb bench,
Day2 Rows, knee ext and leg curls and st leg deadlifts (for flexibility) day 3
pushdowns and cable bicep curls, day 4 incline bench, upright rows and shrugs.
day 5 chinup for reps, light pull ups, lunges, day6: dips light, ..
and of course running...I have been doing this 3 day on 1 day off for 3
months but with different emphasis,...its worked great but I just hit a "wall"
this last 2 weeks,,,
with running I may have to increase from more than12 miles a week,,do you
think I will have to??? what is your thoughts on this running? will too much
make me weak as I think it will?
I drink 2-3 protein shakes a day..I eat pizza ice cream and beer too but
my metabolism is very high allowing me to keep 30 waist pants...but what do you
suggest about diet and running...and tell me about the lifting as you said for
the strend...do you mean just test my self every other day?
well sorry to write your eyes off..
what state are you in? i will call you when I get to atlanta to visit my
parents..I live in DC suburbs...you can call me too if you want

How many yrs have you been working out? and does pole vaulting help keep
you fit? I would love to try it..
thanks for the info and time
steve

JOHN CARMONY <jcar75@...> wrote:
OK, Now I am really impressed. And a concert pianist to boot!! Heck,
you could take Strend to a whole new intellectual/artistic level!! Ed is jungle
shotgun trained, you are concert trained--our horizons are expanding!

Seriously, yes, from what you have written, I would say you are made for
Strend! Generally, the little guys do a little better just because they do not
have to lift so much, but it sounds as though you are plenty strong and very
fast! It sounds like you have a great build for sports.

Everybody has a different way of training for this. It sounds like you
are in the Matt mold--ie train with a lot of extra weight. I have tried that,
but I guess I am a big believer in "train for what you are going to do"--ie
STREND is about reps, so you train that way. Another thing that I have found as
I get older is that I have to be very careful of my joints. So I have avoided
the extra weight and just train with the old body weight.

I would recommend that you try the STEND routine for a couple of months,
keep track of your scores, and see how you feel then. Your body is going to go
through some changes as you adjust to the timed and rep part of this, not to
mention the transition to the run which is a lot like a triathlon transition. I
think you will like what happens to you, but you will just need to try it. I
think the routine will fit very nicely with your habit of setting goals. When
I started, my goal was to do a 5 in a competition. My first two competitions, I
did poorly (inexperience and heat), but I eventually figured it out and in my
last outing (at 50) scored an 8 (17-25-30-19-58 18:36), which set the 40+
record, but then Greg came along and beat that. Oh well, I still have the 50+,
for a while at least! I have really gotten back into pole vaulting in the last
year and train with a vaulter named Pat Manson, who is one of the best in the
world. He just set a world record for making 18' 20 years in a row. He is a
hell of an athlete and a great guy. In vaulting, I am one of the top vaulters
for my age around--mostly due to the conditioning that the STREND workout has
done for me.

Bench is my weakest event. I would like to say it is because I was a
runner for so many years, but then I watch Matt and he can flat knock it out. I
would guess with your weight and natural strength, you would be very
competitive. Most of the competitors are 20 or less in the bench. From what
you say, you should be right in there.

My phone number is . Feel free to call anytime if you want to visit.

JC


----- Original Message -----
From: stephen wilber<mailto:stevie720@...>
To: jcar75@...<mailto:jcar75@...>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 12:14 PM


Hi John, thanks for the nice letter. that is quite impressive that you
train so hard all these yrs.. I realize I will need advice to train smartly for
this strend thing. Maybe if I give you some background on myself it will help
let you know where I am coming from.
I am 39, 5'11'' and now after running 12 miles a week for the last
3months about 172 lbs.. I spent most of my life in sports. High school soccer
was my best sport when I weighed 128,,I also played basketball, wrestling,
baseball and then in college at I did basketball and football. (wide receiver
)..I started lifting weights in college and in 4 months went from 135-155..just
so I could be big enough for a wide receiver. Then after in my graduate school
yrs I lifted a lot..did some power lifting coupled with body building but always
having sports as my mainstay. I eventually played on a semi pro football team In
wahsing DC and a small farm league baseball team in Baltimore. Training for
football was great for me,,, I did plyometrics a lot, sprints and many sqauts
and cleans etc,, I was really better at sprinting.. doing the 40 under 4.4 and
could easily do 1/4 miles under a minute...so I finally got my weight up to 195
when i was working on power and then my best fitness was during football in DC
when I was about 175-180...
But because I am a concert pianist I had to stop football and tailor
my workouts,. often time not lifting for long stretches at a time. BUT last yr I
started running.. real running..not just these sprint workouts..but I did 3-5
mile runs and an occassional 8 mile or 10 mile run which i hated.
I was really getting into great shape last summer ,,meaning my idea
being balanced between strength and speed/endurance..I was able to do 10 repeat
1/4 mile runs at 1:25 with a slow 1:25 jog between...Or a pretty good half mile
at 2:15...and my body weight fell a lot..close to 165 because of the
running..and I was lifting a lot too..trying to keep the strength with heavy
lifting. But just before the summer started (in may) I had surgery on my nose to
breathe better. a deviated septum) and then I had concerts and recitals to do in
Europe..so the mandatory 1 month rest to heal my nose went from May-and
continued on until about MARCH!!! I had never inmy life gone so long not working
out..I did the occassional run or pushups etc..but between traveling and
practicing I got out of shape..at least for me. So got back into it in the end
of march and am mostly fit now..I do a modified body building/running workout
and have been unknowingly molding my workouts to look similar to strend. I make
goals every 2 months.. I did for my first goals at the end of april for my b-day
75 dips, 22 pullups and a 6:30 mile and did 75 lb dumbbells in each hand for
incline bench press 8 times...that was my first goal after just getting back
into some basic level of fitness of about 5 weeks of training and believe me,. I
was sooo out of shape after that 10 month layoff.!!! I hated myself..
So I wrote down more goals for July which incorporates pullups, dips,
incline dumbell bench press, mile run, and weight assisted 1 arm chin ups on the
gravitron. (my one big goal is to do 1 arm chin ups which I guess most of those
guys inthe group already do ,I use the gravitron and it takes away weight so I
can do reps with one arm, I am getting close) so I have to do thise test next
week..my goals are 50 dips with 50 lbs on my waist, ( I workout with up to 135
lbs on my waist), 30 pullups, 90 lbs incline bench dumbells 6-8 times, 6 one arm
chinups minus 30lbs, and the mile in 5:20......SO I will see how it goes..the
only problem is that i have been lifting and running immediately after so hard
for 3 months now that I am starting to hit a wall and progress slow... I will
have to totally change after this test next week,.,,
Now for the real question. I saw your Strend info this week and really
think this is what I needed and want to do,, BUT how do I workout for it? I dont
really do benchpress which is the only issue, I usually do lots of cable flys,
incline press and some flat bench dumbells..
should I start to workout only like the routine you test on? I would
think I should do a routine that increases endurance on the 5 lifts,. but need
to get stronger also....I need to experiment and think about it,,and of course
ask you and others what is best..you know since you havebeen involved so long..
do you think I have a shot at this and am I at least in the ballpark
for doing this?
thanks alot for your time and advice.
take care
steve
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Sports
Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy
Football<http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=33539/*http://football.\
fantasysports.yahoo.com?ovchn=YAH&ovcpn=Integration&ovcrn=Mail+footer&ovrfd=YAH&\
ovtac=AD>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]