Volume V, Issue 1

Something you should

know
On July 3, 2006, Coach Ralph Maughan
of Utah State died. He changed my life. Here is
the short note I wrote about him on t-nation:
My college coach, Ralph Maughan,
died last night. It is not possible to overstate his
importance in my life. He was certainly my
coach, my mentor and my friend. He was also
the guy we all wished to be:
Played in the NFL (Lions)
Olympian (Hammer)
National Champ (Javelin)
Wounded and medaled at the Battle of
the Buldge
and that is only part of it! He never
wanted any more than to make his athletes, his
Aggies, into better people.
Most of my "tricks," the two day lag
rule, the light/heavy/80% training, the year round
approach, "everything works...for a time," are all
products of his practical mind.
To say I will miss him is an
understatement. He never lost faith in me and
believed that I could be the best thrower in
school history...even as undersized as I was. He
understood "forgive and forget" better than any
person I have ever met.
He died on my parent's wedding
anniversary and all I can think is that the three of
them are in a better place continually supporting
my efforts...in my small way...to make myself
and those I touch a bit happier.
Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Them.
A few Coach Maughanisms to light your day:
Be reasonable. Do it my way.
You throw with your whole body. So, lift with
your whole body.
Become a slave to good habits.

July 2006

Lets remember the mission here:

Our mission? To teach everyone:
1. The Body is One Piece
2. There are three kinds of strength training:
Putting weight overhead
Picking it off the ground
Carrying it for time or distance
3. All training is complementary.

Mid-Year Review
Rick Eklof
Training with Twins. Training with the Olympic
Shot Put Champ. Go aheadfind another author as
broad as Rick Eklof! A good friend of Get Up, its nice
to have him back

Well Im six months into my new

training philosophy, so its time for a
mid-year review. The results have
been mostly positive, but as always there
is room for improvement and
modification.
One of the positive has been lowering
my bodyweight from 265 to 251 lbs. I
really havent made any radical diet
changes. The biggest change has been
replacing most of my consumptions of
sodas and diet soda with unsweetened
iced tea. Id like to be around 240 lbs by
year end, but its really a matter of
overall body composition more than
anything.
My throwing has been going extremely
well this year. At my first highland
games of the year in Odessa, I won 6 out
of 8 events, threw 5 prs and won the C

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Volume V, Issue 1

class. At my second games of the year

in Arlington I had 3 more prs (including
a 4 pr in the sheaf) and missed 3rd place
in the Bs by half a point (finishing last
in the caber killed me). Congrats to
Kyle Speer for winning the class in a
close battle with Jonathan TreeKiller
Irvin. Now get the hell outta my class!!
As far as the testing that my friends,
Chase and Thomas, and I have been
doing the only area where I have made
any real improvement has been in my
sprint speed. Thomas and Chase have
both made improvements across the
board. Congrats to both of them!!!
One of the additions that I had added to
my routine was cardio. At the beginning
of the year most of it came from pushing
my twins in their stroller for 1-2 hours
on Saturdays and Sundays. One thing
that would crack me up while I was
walking the streets of my neighborhood
was how people would react to me.
While pushing the stroller, people I
didnt know would stop me and talk to
me and people driving by would wave to
me. Two or three hours later when I
would be throwing at the school 4 blocks
from my house, nobody would even
make eye contact with me as they
walked or drove past. I would run some
sprints after throwing or do my
modified (this is a PG-rated
publication) Litinov workout. Instead of
front squats, I would hold a WFD
implement at arms length and do as

July 2006

many squats as possible keeping the ring

at eye level, followed immediately by a
20-80 yard sprint.
Most of the changes that I making for
the second half of the year came from
conversations that I had with the pros at
or via email after the Arlington games.
The Friday night before the games I
picked up Greg Hadley and Will Barron
at the airport. I appreciate them sharing
some training ideas with me. It was
interesting to hear how in some ways
their training was similar and how it
differed. Greg has posted some serious
weight room numbers including a 505 lb
front squat, but has not thrown for as
long as Will has. Will threw
collegiately, but has weight room
numbers more along the lines of mine.
Both really emphasized the importance
of really learn the technique of the
events to someone like myself who is
relatively new to the games. Friday
night at the clinic Dave Brown worked
one on one with me on the WFDs.
Hopefully the three months that I have
until my next games will allow me to put
the drills that they showed me into effect
and really improve my throws.
That Friday night I got to go eat dinner
with the pros along with Francis
Brebner, who was announcing the
games. Now for those of you who dont
know who Francis is, he is the seven
time world caber champion and 1 or 3
(or 4) people who have lifted the Inver

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Volume V, Issue 1

Stone overhead. If there was ever a time

for me to shut up and just listen this was
one of those times. To hear Francis tell
stories of his career was memorable
experience. I got a few diet ideas from
Mike Zolkiewicz. Where in the past I
have used low carb dieting to help me
with weight loss, but would generally
feel like crap. Z gave me some ideas on
the importance of consuming the right
type of carbs to make sure that I dont
dehydrate in the Texas heat, but
watching my fat intake.
Speaking of the heat, it has gotten too
hot here in Dallas to take my twins for 2
hour walks, so Ive changed my cardio
to shorter duration, higher intensity
work. Once or twice a week Im playing
basketball at lunch at work. Im also
taking a page out of the Mike Baab
playbook and doing 10 minutes of jump
rope once or twice a week (still cant go
10 minutes without a miss, but Im
working on that).
Since Im focusing on improving my
throwing technique, Im going to limit
my lifting to 2 days a week. The new
plan is to squat and push press one day
and do Olympic lifts and back work
another day. If Chase, Thomas and I are
going to have a testing/strongman day,
then one of the lifting sessions will be
dropped that week.
Well thats the plan for the rest of the
year. The rubber will hit the road when

July 2006

games start picking up again here in

September. Until then its time to go
train!!
The Gary Column
Gary John
Gary is a young thrower in his mid-50s. He is also
the Editors brother and so he gets all what is due to a
GU writer: free parking, mints and almonds!

Since I started throwing in the

middle of 2003, Dan has been
comparing my experience to that of a
new high school athlete. From last
September, he has been telling me that I
would blossom as a thrower, because I
was now in my junior year. Yeah
right!
In Dans world, I would finally
start to get it. All the drills, the
throwing, watching videos,
competingwould jell and my marks
would take off. The hammer and the
weight were new, so, of course I was
going to get better. My discus had
stagnated and I was losing interest in
that event. I could still throw 110,
maybe even sneak in a 114, but I had
stalled out.
Luckily, since I was now
throwing the shot, weight, and hammer,
my enthusiasm stayed high. Throwing is
my addiction. I can go across the street
and throw whenever I want. It gets me
outside, out of the house, and working
out. When the pressure of owning a
company gets too much, there is nothing
like taking 30 throws with the weight.

Get Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page

Volume V, Issue 1

With more throwing, I started to

notice certain symmetry with the
different implements. The need to
engage the hips, grind the feet into the
ring, and extend the arms at the end of
each throw. Less thinking about what I
was doing and just let it happen. My
practice throws for everything but the
discus improved.
In late May, I had a surprise
meet. The open PAUSTTF
championships were about two miles
from my house. I found out about it at
the last minute, so I just went and threw.
I only threw the hammer and discus.
Neither were very good, just wasnt
ready. Sometimes, a bad meet is the best
motivator.
Spent the next month working
hard, especially on the discus. Id
already planned to go to the Hayward
Classic in Eugene, and follow the next
week with the Masters championship for
North California. I kept thinking about
this being my junior year. There was a
difference, I was finding little flaws in
technique and just kept cleaning them
up.
In Eugene, I threw great. Did
five events and got PRs by 5 feet in the
hammer to 1112, by 4 feet in the 56#
weight and a pretty discus throw of
1162. Ended up with 5 silver medals.
The Norcal Masters was July 1st,
so I ended up sneaking in a meet at Los
Gatos on Thursday, June 29th. Only
threw the shot and discus. PRd both

July 2006

with a 325 and a 11910. That was

almost two feet on my discus.
Finished up at Norcal with
another PR in the hammer at 1171.
Threw everything well, but the weight.
We were two hours late with the weight
throw, and I was frankly done. Got five
PRs in eight days.
Nice thing about all this, at each
meet, another good thrower was pointing
out minor technical errors I needed to
work on. The quick feedback, put right
back into practice, resulted in longer
throws. Maybe Dan may have
something about this whole junior
year. I almost know what Im doing.
Instant Discus Camp Review
Editor in Chief
Ill do my best to flesh this out, but this is good stuff
and needs to get out there!

A guy from Kentucky, a guy from West

Virginia and a guy from Vermont are
trying to fix a sewer pipe with duct tape.
I kid you not.
Thats my favorite memory form
campbut formally I learned some
stuff, too:
Keeping the eye on different thinking
is very important. We discussed at
length a hurdle coaching idea of
improving speeddont use every
hurdle. One workout, place these hurdles
on the track:

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Volume V, Issue 1

1-2-3------5-6-7---Next time:
1-2-3----7-8-9Next time:
1-2-3-4-5----(It turns out that you ALWAYS need to
do the first three hurdles.) What you are
doing by eliminating hurdles is teaching
the whole event but reducing the stress
while you improve speeda nice little
combo. So, I think the merit of this
thinking process is not unlike doing 7 on
7 drills one day in football, the next day
do half-line drills, and the third day do
another variationsame, but different.
I also read an article by Dr. Randall
Strossen in Milo where Superheavy
weight Olympic Champion Hossein
Reza Zedahs training was outlined.
Working out twice a day, six times a
week, Zedah has a lighter morning
workout:
Power Snatch
70 x 3 singles
120 x 3 singles
170 x 3 singles (these are all in kilos, but
many of our readers might not be able to
do this in pounds)
Power Clean and Jerks
Singles with 120, 170 and 220 (!)
Front Squats
220 x 2
270 x 2
300 or 320 x 1

July 2006

Afternoon Workout:
Snatch
Singles with 70, 120,170, 200
Clean and Jerk
Singles with 120, 170, 220 and either
250 or 260
Back Squats
Singles with 270, 320 and 370
(Also, 12 hours sleep a day and three to
four times the normal amount of food!)
Bests: PS 200 with Straps, PC 245
Meet Warmups
Snatch
Singles with 70, 120, 150, 170 and 200
(Opens at 205)
Clean and Jerk120 (PC, then C and J),
170, 170, 220 (Opens with 250)
I sat back after reading this (Oh, and
thanks to Mike Rosenberg for donating
ALL the Milo Magazines to the Murray
Institute for Lifelong Fitness Archives!)
and I realized that I was doing stuff
wrong in the weight room. Remember
the two truths of throwing?
Smooth goes far.
Fit goes far.
So, if 12 or so total lifts in the
weightroom are enoughwhy do more?

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Volume V, Issue 1

From Bill Witt: Javelin needs to be

heavy on the thumb, Check the time in
the crossover, and ruin the shoelaces

July 2006

Results of Brian Oldfield

Highland Games 2006

Great discus drill: two powerballs in the

off hand. Do a bunch of turns. Smoothes
out the whole left side action.
You have to Dance with the
Implement. Think of Fred and
GingerFred doesnt get a big lead on
Ginger and yank her aroundthey flow
together. Togetherthey dance.
Quick Idea:
Backwards Farmer Bars up hills.
Backwards sled drags up a hill. Best
quad work I have done in years

AhDiscus Camp! My daughter and her friends

discussing the right foot work with Greg.

Switching sides on the Scottish Hammer

throw is important: throw right, throw
left!
Also, this camp mastered throwing faster
than any in historywhy? Maybe the
next article?

72LB Stone
Lonnie 121
Dan 13 11
Mike P. - 16 2
Dave 117
Mike R 1111
Greg 126
Kara 8
Seth 82
Chris 137
Matt 118
Greg M. no mark

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Volume V, Issue 1

60lb Stone
Lonnie 15
Dan 186
Mike P. 218
Dave 145
Mike R. 1210
Greg -1510 1/2
Kara - 10
Seth 105
Chris 17 1 !
Matt 15
Greg. M No mark

Or crack team of officials attempting to

insure victory for the Editor
56lb WFD
Lonnie 135
Dan 287
Mike P. 365
Dave - 18 4 !
Mike R. 17
Greg 213
Kara 95
Seth 1010
Chris - 128
Matt 193
Greg M. 18 7

July 2006

40lb Stone
Lonnie 172
Dan 19 5 !
Mike P. 237
Dave 158
Mike R. 156
Greg 179
Kara 1011
Seth 116
Chris 196
Matt 166
Greg M. No Mark
28 WFD
Lonnie 34
Dan 608
Mike P. 713
Dave - 445
Mike R. - 398
Greg 487
Kara - 212
Seth - 232
Chris 362
Matt 445
Greg M. 407
Light Stone (17.5lbs)
Lonnie 322
Dan 379
Mike P 466 !
Dave 319 !
Mike R. 27 3
Greg 353
Kara - 194
Seth 189
Chris 356
Matt 319
Greg M. No Mark

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Volume V, Issue 1

July 2006

Down, but Not Out!

Scottish Hammer
Lonnie 779
Dan -114 9
Mike P. No mark
Dave 901
Mike R. 788
Greg 814
Kara 518
Seth 4711
Chris 712
Matt 932
Greg M. 858

Troy Anderson
Troy M Anderson is an strength and
conditioning coach, based in Tempe, AZ. For
more strength and conditioning information
stop by www.liftdragcarry.com . Or you can
contact Coach Anderson by: e-mail
[email protected]

The one biggest fear any athlete has is

getting injured more specifically, getting
injured before a major competition. Of
course I wouldn't be sitting here writing
this if hadnt just happened to me.
In my sport of Australian Rules Football,
its not a matter of if you pull a
hamstring it a matter of when. The
following article will describe my injury
cycle from beginning to end and share a
handle full of tips that helped manage
the situation.

Brian also brought a video of some 8mm

films he had from his Highland Games
efforts. Fun stuff and it is amazing how
important HG is to throwing

Brian
O!

It all started a blazing hot (this is

important) Wednesday afternoon I, was
running a few errands for my business
and actually getting my pre-competition
massage; when everything started to go
down the cramper. To start off the
calamity I had vehicle troubles, which in
turned led to me being late for practice.
When I finally got there, I spent a
decent amount of time warming up, and
"getting into the flow" when it
happened, I made lead out for an under
kicked ball and I felt that telltale twinge
of a pulled hamstring; my first thought
was "I hope its not too bad";
unfortunately it was. Once I realized

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Volume V, Issue 1

July 2006

this problem I mind started racing on

how I was going to get well enough to
play in just 2 days time. I figured I was
along shot at best and would be lucky to
get 5 minutes out of the busted
hamstring; but I was going to give it the
old college try.

All told over the 3 days prior to/during

the competition; I used ice and some
type of stim or ultra-sound treatment 8
times, this consumed approximately 4
hours of time during those 3 days.

First things were first get home and put

of ice on it. (man, if ice isn't the best
recovery tool out there I don't know
what is.)

On Saturday morning I step out on the

field at 8:30 warm-up for our game, and
after working through a few drills I was
pretty skeptical of what kind of effort I
would be provide. However, I kept
moving through the warm-up in hopes
that it would "loosen up". Come game
time I stepped into my position, intent
upon playing and hoping it would be for
the whole game. Much to my surprise
was able to. I didn't have much sprint
speed but I was able to run and cover
ground for the whole game. To make a
long story short with a happy ending, my
injury seemed to be getting better during
course of the 3 game competitions. By
the 3rd game the injury was nearly a
distance memory and was playing a
nearly full capacity.

The next day it was off to my

chiropractor's office to get some
ultrasound and muscle stim. I repeated
the icing and treatment process for the
next two days.
Things were starting to feel better but I
was still very skeptical; but I wasnt
going to be denied. So I packed up my
bags on Friday afternoon and got ready
to hit the road. Thankfully I was able to
borrow a muscle stim unit, and planned
using it along with plenty of ice for
frequent treatments throughout the
weekend.
Just how dedicated to this treatment
regimen?
I was so dedicated that I even put the
stim unit during the six hour drive to
California; and then iced and used the
stim unit again when got into our room
at 11pm.

Was it worth it?

By the time it was all said and done I

had to consider this a successful
weekend, based o the fact that: I was
able to play in all three games without
further injury and perform at a higher
level as the competition went on.
Here are few take home thoughts that
might be valuable to any athlete

Get Up! The Official Newsletter of the Lifting and Throwing Page

Volume V, Issue 1

attempting to deal with being injured and

not having a lot of time to take action:

Just because your down doesn't

mean you are out. I could have
easily given up and just wrote off
the competition but I made
decision to pursue the best
treatment available to me and see
where it would take me.

Theres a lot to you can

accomplish if you are dedicated
to the cause. Were 8 treatments
in 3 days a pain the butt? Yep.
Was it worth it? Absolutely!

I understand that not everyone

has the same resources available
that I had; however at a
minimum everyone has access to
ice and those little frozen water
crystals played as great a role as
any in my recovery.

Here's my laundry list of recovery

tools:
1. ICE
2. Hi-volt/ultra-sound (only in
chiropractic office)
3. Portable muscle stim unit
4. Neoprene sleeve (this was another
lifesaver)
5. BCAA's (branch chain amino acids) I
had some and figured it couldn't hurt so I
started to take a full dose every day.

July 2006

Stay in the game. I could have

easily gone out and push really
hard in that first game and the
blown my hamstring. But I was
smart enough to realize that if I
played within my abilities I could
help the team that game and live
to fight another day. I guess that
is part of becoming a "mature
athlete"

I am nearly 100% positive the cause

of my injury was a result of
dehydration, incurred "running
around" during my hectic day. So all
you athletes need to drink up, (water
that is) especially during the summer
months.

As is the case with a lot of injuries; they

kind of sneak up on you when you least
expect it. My case was no different I had
been training hard and was in good
condition; and one small oversight lead
to injury. I hope all the readers out there
have an injury-free summer; however if
you don't I just wanted to share few
things that worked for me and to let you
know that you can be down but it still
your decision to be to be out.
Published by Daniel John
Daniel John, Editor
Copyright Daniel John, 2005
All Rights Reserved
Any unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

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