All I can do is train

The more and more I read other forums and things online I notice that California has all kinds of home built Ninja Warrior training courses and stuff. On the upper east coast we've got nothing except a few rock climbing gyms.

My hands hurt today, this is why.....

See those lumps under my figures? Ya they are sore. Those are call calluses. I train my grip strength with everything I possibly can, but at some point your hands are just plain tired (that's mine right now!).

I've been looking around playgrounds lately looks for the monkey bars and other things that will help me with Ninja Warrior, I just really and truly think that if you can hold on long enough with either your crushing grip, pinch grip or finger grip that the rest of you body can do just about anything.

In terms of strength, in 2010, the most amount of pull ups I could do was 20 something, wide grip, all the way down, all the way up pull ups, and with some considerable speed. I stopped training for a while and when I started training for Ninja Warrior earlier this year I could a whole 4 and they hurt. Today I'm happy to report I busted out 12 without an issues and that wasn't even really pushing that hard. What I'm trying to say is, the strength is coming back and its only been 4 weeks!

I've been thinking about the doubling up on the daily workout program design and I've got a plan. I'm going to create a program that can be done either 2 a day or 1 a day, but plan it as if I was working out six sessions a week. That way if I feel like only working out once in a day, I can, if I feel like doing two, I can, I have stuff planed out and have the flexibility to just keep training. The most important aspects of the training will be in the beginning of the week, the extra stuff will head later and later on in the week. Which the double phase of my program will begin.... next week!

Is it bad that when I'm training I repeat to myself, "don't break your fingers, don't break your fingers..."

I watch some of the old submission videos for Ninja Warrior and I see how AMAZINGLY strong some of the people in those video are and I think to myself "this guy is so strong and he couldn't do it, what makes me think that I can do what he couldn't!?"  And thats when I had a very unique thought, maybes its the same kind of idea that people who hold world records have, that deep down they believe that they are capable in doing something no one else have, that inside they have a faith in something that no one else can see, no one else can do, but believing in themselves that they can conquer anything. Perhaps that is the true definition of a champion. Saying to oneself, without ego, that I can and will accomplish what those before me have not.

I'm not training against an obstacle course, I'm training against myself. Everyday I workout, every piece of food I eat, every hour of sleep I get, I training to conquer myself.