My whole life I have loved strength training. I started out like most - 12 years old with a set of sandfilled weights, a DP bench, some dumbells made out of some wooden closet dowel and a Power Bender that I still have. I even made a incline/decline bench out of an old closet door. Like most home gyms, it was small and in the corner of my parents basement. I loved it and I thought I was cool! I was training for big muscles like the wrestlers I watched in TV and the dream of being a football player at Nebraska and all the glory that comes with it.
When I started High School, I played football and threw shot and disc and spent as much time as I could in the school weight room. It was typicalof most school weight rooms in the 1980's. It had several benchs and squat racks, a couple leg sleds, two incline benches and a few old machines. Most of the equipment was old AMF equipment or stuff built by the shop class during their welding unit. We followed the Boyd Epply play book to the letter. Like all Nebraska high schools did. I reached benchmarks in Squat, Deadlift and Leg Sled and got my name on the wall. I visited 20 years later to find out the club wall had been removed - more history lost.
After High School, I decided not to continue to play football, I had some serious shoulder issues and needed more time to rebuild some strength. A decision I regret to this day. I still loved to work out, so I trained at the college rec center for a short while, then I bounce from serveral gyms for the next couple years. I went to Golds for a while, I went a place called Hardbodyz, that had some great equipment but end up going out of business fairly quick. I spent some time at Omaha Athletic Club which was in disrepair most of the time of was there.
Then I turned 21 and my workouts started to fade and my hours at the bar and beer-league softball games grew. The trend continued for about 3 years or so. I got FAT! I got out of shape! I got a beer belly! Now don't get me wrong - I have never had 6 pack abs. I have also ways had more of a powerlifter body and never like a bodybuilder. Really I was down right FAT! No really FAT, I had more rolls than Rotella's Bakery. My gut got places 2 minutes before I did. I had more chins than a Chineese phone book. Do you get the picture I was FAT!
One day I decided I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired
. I missed training and I missed being powerful. I need strength training back in my life! I had heard about an old school hardcore gym from a guy I played softball with. It sounded right up my alley! I was in the back of the old grainery building in Ralston. When I started there it was called Custom Plus, but it was later renamed Mad Dog Gym
http://www.maddognutrition.com/ . Mad Dog's has been owned by a guy named Gary Moore for years, and it's still there today. Gary is a very talented welder and built alot of the equipment in his gym and I will tell some of his pieces, I think are better than the top brands. I spent several years at Mad Dog's and enjoyed the primal atomsphere. it had no heat or air conditioning! It had big fans and a wood buring stove. Heavy Metal played loud all the time! and I loved it! It was a great place to train! It was also really cool that wrestling ledgend MadDog Vachon trained there. I trained for years at MadDog's. I got my but back in shapee, I started to compete in powerlifting, armwrestling and highland games. I also got interest in strongman contest and competed in events and decided to host an event here.
During my time at Mad Dogs I started to armwrestle. There was and still is an open pratice in Ralston at Mama Bear's Cave - (the garage of a local armwrestling champ). She has 3 armwrestling tables and lots of grip strength equipment. I haven't armwrestled much in the last 8 years but I did stop by last week and practice is still going strong! If you are interest in armwrestling go to
http://www.armwrestle.com/ and contact Mary "Mama Bear" McCounnaghy and she will make an armwrestler out of you.
In around 2002, as I planning the first Heartland Strongman Challenge, I met the woman I would marry. She lived in Iowa and I spent alot of time driving over the river. So I started to look for a place to train over there. I eventually left Mad Dog's and started training at a place in Iowa called Fit4Life. At the time it was still owned by the orignal owners and we worked out deal to swap a membership for me and my girl friend for a sponsoship package at the 1st Heartland Strongman Challenge. It was a good fit for us, I could train heavy and she had plenty of machines and cardio equipment. Eventually the orginal owners sold the gym and the new owners didn't have much interest in working with the Heartland Strongman Challenge.
By this point I had been building strongman equipment and decided at some point to build my own home gym. In the mean while I started to look for other options for a gym to train at. I wandered over to the Depot Gym that I heard was under new ownership and thought I'd make a pitch to them. I guy named Aaron Bollig was running the gym at that time, who to this day we have remained friends. He was leasing the gym from the orginal owner. He really ran a good gym. Tons of weight and some guys training MMA. I learned a ton at training MMA from Aaron and the guys. Monday thru Friday I would take a long lunch, work out with some guys and we would take turns picking up lunch at the Goldmine bar and grill across the street. We ate at the gym counter and talked about training, then headed back to work. This only lasted about a year, and the building owner sold to ConAgra and Aaron was out of the gym business and I was out of a gym. Luckily my home gym was ready. Even though I had mostly strongman equipment, I was gathering other pieces and could do a full work out. We had a extra deep full 2 car garage and I parked outside, so my half was my gym.
At this point I was married and had a baby girl and working out a home was much better. I would ocassional have friends over to train and could work out early in the morning or late at night, with out leaving my family. I had a full strongman package - Super Yokes, Farmers Walks, Logs, Stones, Conan's Wheel, Silver Dollar Deadlift boxes, Sleds, Truck Pull and Tractor Tires. I had Highland Games gear - a Hammer, 56lb Weight for Height and a Caber. I had a power rack and a ton of weight so I could train powerlifting. I had various other gym pieces as well. I had my home gym and it was awesome. I trained hard even though I my traveling to contest stopped, but I did have several small USAWA meets in my gym. As my family grew family grew and my career became more demanding, my workouts became less consistant. The Hearltand Strongman Challenge had become more work than fun and I ended the event. We had started to plan to move out of the country and back to Nebraska into a neighborhood.
We found a great house in Papillion, it was a bigger house with alot less land to maintain, but a smaller garage. Which was ok because I was getting older and wanted heat in my new gym and I wanted to park in the garage during the winter. The house we moved to had a large finished family room in the basement and 2 other good size rooms, one for storage and one was a workshop. The workshop became my gym, but I had a lot less space. Since my Strongman days were behind me, I sold off almost all the strongman gear. I still had a great gym and was very purposeful about the pieces I keep for my new gym and sold off the rest. I do regret getting rid of a few things, but ultimately I feel I did a good job, picking pieces for my new gym.
By now I was working alot of hours at my new career as a Financial Advisors, I had a wife and 3 kids and become less motivated to train. I slowly assembled pieces of equipment and worked out off and on of the first 4 years we lived here. It actually it took my 4 years to get everything put together. Needless to say, I was not training hard anymore. My wife was doing a good job of working out, but she didn't use the gym, she likes the fitness DVD's.
On September 14, 2008 that stock market was in the process of imploding and the company I worked for was hours away from bankruptcy. By the end of the day they were owned by another company and my future was uncertain. People started losing their jobs the next day and by the end of the year I was one of them. Fortunatley for me I was only out of work for 3 weeks, but I bounced around for a couple years, working for bad companies doing things I hated. In February 2011, I decided enough was enough! It was time to figure out what I was going to do the rest of my life. I decided I had reached the point I needed to start all over, I also needed to get healthy again. So I got off my but and made some changes. I finsihed putting the gym together and I started to train again and took it serious! Over the 3 previous years of stress, I gained 30 pounds of fat and lost 30 pounds of muscle. I got high blood pressure and high cholesteral. It was time to start taking care of myself, it was time to make changes in my career.
So that is what I am doing getting in shape and rebuilding my career. I have lost 30lbs and can run 5miles in under an hour and my bench is climbing back to previous highs. I am getting stronger and better everyday!
I also have some new training partners. My daughters are soccer players and ballet dancers and like to train in my gym. They are too young to really do weights yet, but we do lot of running and jumping, stretch bands and work with the medicine ball. I am glad to see them take an interest and start some healthy habits early.
So at the end of the day, I am back where I started. I am back in the basement, this time it is my basement. I am in the corner, but a much bigger corner. I still love to train. This time I am not training for bigger muscles and glory. I am training for a longer healthier life and a better future. I still like feeling strong. I'm NOT doing yoga - I train for strength and power, because that's what I call fun! Bulldog Strength Sports has come full circle and I love it! The gym is really coming back together, but it is still a work in progress, I want to make some improvement and add some equipment but it is still a great gym now! I have to get down there and do my work out but I will leave you with some current pictures.
Check out the home of Bulldog Strength Sports today!
l of Grip4orce for me was that it requires you to supply press to secure the grip. So not only do you have the challenge of the added size but you also have to supply the pressure to keep the handle closed. I have been experimenting with my Grip4orce for the last several weeks and have found there are endless ways to use the Grip4orce. I used it on straight bars, dumbbells, ropes, handles, as a gripper, and have event used it to pinch and hold various objects including my discus.
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