Old Gold's Greatest Hits

While I am no Stephen King or John Grisham, I have written a few blogs that I am particularly proud of.  If I can modestly say this, some of the messages, if taken to heart, can be life changing.  Some of the concepts were certainly big for me to wrap my head around.  So with that being said here are, to date, a few of my favorite posts.  Enjoy.


Loser Talk
If you are tired of listening to the pathetic sour-mouthed blathering of some in your circle, this is the post for you.  If you are busting your rear, and losers from the proverbial bleachers of life are booing you, you will enjoy this read.


Failure is Worth It
Get in the game without fear.  If you are really going to be successful, you are going to have to try a bunch and fail a bunch.  Study, work very hard, and be a free thinker that is not afraid to look foolish.  This is what makes a winner.


Pull the Trigger
This post is a good addition to the the Failure post above.  Those of you that are frozen by fear of making the wrong decision should definitely give this one a read.

Gratuitous Weightlifting Video

Thing You Should Read/Watch

The CrossFit Open started several weeks ago, and if you like to see fit people in board shorts and tattoos do some amazing physical feats, tune in.  After a few weeks of online competition, they whittle down the field to each region's best men and women.  From there to southern California to find the fittest male and female on Earth.  

Dan Bell is a technical weightlifting coach.  His latest post is entitled Jerk Dip and Drive.  It is well worth a read if you are having trouble with the last movement in weightlifting.   

For all of you Donny Shankle fans, he recently began a Youtube channel of his own.  He is coming back from a freak accident.  He dislocated his shoulder during a snatch (extremely rare).  The series of videos is in essence the story of his ongoing climb back up the hill toward heavy weight.  These are certainly not the type of videos that you watch, unless you are a weightlifting fan... they are not the most exciting.  However, they are educational. 

Lastly, after coming out of retirement and putting on a show at the Arnold Classic, Jon North just hit 160 kg in the snatch for the first time in quite some time.  (352 pounds!!!)  This is how a competition should look.

Jon at the Arnold

Jon hitting 160

Why Me?

If you have been alive for more than a few minutes, you have probably either uttered or thought these words: “why me?”  It usually follows some form of “bad luck” or unfortunate occurrence. You are driving back from a friend’s house in the rain and your tire goes flat.  Why me?!  What about that Christmas-time flu?  Gifts are being opened and you are trying to keep your eggnog down.  Why me?!  Since this blog is dedicated to things related to training, I feel compelled to provide an example from that facet of life.  Last November, I was poised to lift in a weightlifting meet that I had been exclusively training for, for almost a year.  Six days out I was doing some light lifts and strained my hamstring and had to sit it out.  Why me?!  I think you get the point, so I will move on.  There are some fundamental flaws in this line of thinking.  The first mistaken notion is that you have it worse than everyone else… wrong.  We are all engaged in this relentless push through life.  Do some have it worse than others through no fault of their own, sure.  But it is not you.  You were probably not born in the concentration camp that is North Korea, or had to fight off sharks in the Pacific with just a toothbrush.  Someone always has it worse than you.  The second flaw in this mindset is that it is typically used as a one-way street.  Have you ever had something that is “too good” for you?  Have you ever gotten the lucky parking spot, or just missed being in a wreck, or caught Smokey and the Bandit right at the beginning?  Upon seeing Burt Reynolds lying in the hammock, or swerving out of a car accident, did you ask, why me?  You probably did not.  Most of us don’t think this way, but it is a good practice.  You see, in this life (to use a cliché) you have to take the good with the bad.  Unfortunately we all get to share both of them.  Do you deserve the good stuff more than the bad stuff?  Probably not.  So try it on for size, the next time you don’t get a flat tire in the rain, or don’t get the flu, or do get to lift in the big meet, try asking the question: why me, why am I so lucky?