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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
JOHN CULLEN

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man whose struggles off the ice and improbable comeback to NHL hockey earned him the Bill Masterton Trophy, awarded to one player in the league each year for perseverance and dedication to hockey.

In 1999, it was pretty hard to think of anyone but John Cullen for that award.

In the early 1990s, John Cullen established himself as one of the premier scoring talents in the NHL. He followed up a 92-point season with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1989-90 with an even more impressive 110-point campaign the next year, while splitting the season between the Penguins and the Hartford Whalers.

He scored 550 points in only 621 games in his NHL career, and this followed an outstanding season in the minors immediately after being drafted – a season that announced quite loudly that he was ready for NHL action.

In 81 games with the Flint Spirits of the IHL in 1987-88, Cullen recorded 157 points and won the IHL scoring title and a mantleful of league awards at the end of the year.

But despite his scoring talents, it was his perseverance that would become the hallmark of his hockey career.

John Cullen was forced to miss the 1997-98 season due to a battle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, joining the likes of Mario Lemieux and Saku Koivu as high-profile NHL scoring machines stricken with cancer during their playing prime.

Cullen beat cancer and came back to play for the Tampa Bay Lightning the following season, earning him an inscription of his name on one of the most revered awards in the league and a permanent place in the hearts of hockey fans.

TODAY: SHOULDERS (Fast Tempo, 90 Second Rests)
and BICEPS (Fast Tempo, 90 Second Rests)

ARNOLD DUMBBELL PRESS (5 sets)
40 x 10
60 x 6
60 x 4
60 x 2
50 x 7

DUMBBELL SHOULDER PRESS (3 sets)
50 x 8
50 x 7
50 x 7

DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE (5 sets)
25 x 8
25 x 7
25 x 7
20 x 10
20 x 9

DUMBBELL FORWARD RAISE (3 sets)
20 x 10
20 x 10
20 x 10

HORIZONTAL GRIP REAR DELT FLYES (PEC DECK) (4 sets)
115 x 12
145 x 10
160 x 8
175 x 8

PREACHER HAMMER DUMBBELL CURLS (5 sets)
40 x 10
50 x 10
60 x 4
50 x 6
50 x 4

PREACHER UNDERHAND DUMBBELL CURLS (5 sets)
40 x 8
40 x 8
40 x 8
50 x 4
50 x 4

OVERHAND BARBELL CURLS (3 sets)
45 x 15
45 x 15
45 x 15

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Shoulders): 20
Total Sets (Biceps): 13

Not bad, not bad. It’s nice to go back to faster reps.

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
JEAN LABONTE

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man who has overcome both cancer and the loss of his leg to become one of the worlds top paralympic athletes.

Jean Labonte, the captain of the Canadian sledge hockey team, lost his left leg when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma as a teenager.

Now 40 years old, he is entering his fourth Paralympic Games, having played a central role in Canada’s gold medal at the 2006 Torino Games, following which he became the team captain.

He also won a bronze medal in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.

He also also accumulated four medals (two gold, two bronze) at the IPC World Championships.

TODAY: CARDIO

5K RUN
- 25:05, 7.5 mph

5K RUN
- 24:45, moderate pace
- 7:34 for 1st mile
- 8:14 for 2nd mile
- 8:00 for 3rd mile

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (TBD): TBD

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
SANDRA SCHMIRLER

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a woman who achieved the greatest heights possible in one of the most mentally and focus-demanding sports at the Olympics: curling.

Sandra Schmirler inspired a generation of small-town Canadians when she rose from Regina, Saskatchewan to win Olympic gold at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

Schmirler consistently performed at the highest level, winning three Canadian Championships (the Tournament of Hearts).

She would later inspire even greater numbers when despite a fierce battle with cancer, she continued to help grow her sport by serving as a commentator for CBC at curling events.

In 2000, she died far too young at the age of 36, losing her battle with cancer. She was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and to this day, the Sandra Schmirler Foundation honors the importance with which she viewed her family and raises funds to assist babies in need of medical care. Its slogan: Champions start small.

TODAY: DAY OFF

The back and aching body parts have spoken. Today is a rest and recovery day. My body has told me that this one is not up for debate.

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Body): Zero

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
CHAD CIESLIK

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man who was inspired by an ill loved one and whose manner of utilizing that energy has, in turn, inspired many others.

Just a few days ago, Chad Cieslik participated in the Walk to End Breast Cancer, and in doing so, completed his 33rd such event in what is turning into a very impressive fundraising / charity walking career.

Cieslik first took part in the event to honor his mother-in-law, who was battling cancer. However, in the several years since, he has come to know and inspired numerous cancer fighters and survivors, as well as their relatives.

In his events to date, he has covered 1,980 kilometers and raised $210,000 to fight cancer, including one occasion where he completed the distance while pushing an empty wheelchair to pay tribute to a friend who had, only days ago, succumbed to the disease.

Another example of everyday people doing extraordinary things…

TODAY: BACK (Fast Tempo, 60 Second Rests)

WIDE GRIP FRONT PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 12
Body x 7
Body x 6

WIDE GRIP REAR PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 10
Body x 6
Body x 6

CLOSE PARALLEL GRIP PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 10
Body x 6
Body x 6

CLOSE GRIP CABLE ROWS (3 sets)
120 x 10
150 x 10
180 x 5

SUPINE ROWS (3 sets)
Body x 10
Body x 10
Body x 9

BENT OVER BARBELL ROWS (3 sets)
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10

BACK EXTENSIONS (3 sets)
Torso x 20
Torso+45 x 10
Torso+45 x 10 / Torso x 10

TRAINING NOTES

Tri-setted the three variations of pull-ups.

Total Sets (Back): 21

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
YUSAKU MATSUDA

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man who may well have set the standard for courage and dedication in the film industry, and he did the majority of his work not in Hollywood, but in Japan.

If Yusaku Matsuda is known at all to North American audiences, it will be as the psychopathic villain Sato across from Michael Douglas in Black Rain, but he is revered in Asia for a comprehensive and inspiring work prior to his death from cancer at the far-too-young age of 40.

Matsuda became something of a cult icon in Japan with his performance in Yomigaeru Kinro (The Resurrection of the Golden Wold) in 1979, and a long string of quality performances led to his being cast across from Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia in Ridley Scott’s 1989 film Black Rain.

Fittingly, Matsuda joined Japanese screen legend Ken Takakura as the key Japanese actors in the film. Prior to filming, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer but due to his dedication to the project, performed his role and did so with a high degree of intensity.

The cancer spread and worsened throughout this period of time, and Matsuda died only a couple months after the film was officially released, though it was fitting that he lived to see its completion and the success it achieved in bridging on screen two cultures that were at the time quite alien to each other.

Much as Patrick Swayze kept his commitments and worked through cancer to complete his series The Beast, so did Matsuda fight through and overcome a devastating illness and, in the process, inspire others and leave behind a meaningful legacy not only in life but in his profession.

TODAY: BACK (Fast Tempo, 60 Second Rests)

CLOSE GRIP UNDERHAND PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 15
Body x 8
Body x 6

WIDE GRIP REAR PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 8
Body x 6
Body x 6

WIDE GRIP FRONT PULL-UPS (3 sets)
Body x 7
Body x 6
Body x 5

CLOSE GRIP MACHINE PULLDOWNS (3 sets)
- 3-3-3 Tempo, 90 Second Rests
150 x 7
200 x 4
250 x 3

BENT OVER BARBELL ROW (3 sets)
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Back): 15

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
TERRY FOX

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is someone who has taken many of the qualities I have advocated in my training advice, and attempted to emulate in my own training…and elevated these qualities to levels simply unattainable my most mortals.

Pretty much everything I would advocate for your workouts or aspire to in my own was captured in the short life of Terry Fox: endurance, pain tolerance, breaking through the pain barrier, going out swinging in the face of a guaranteed loss, making the most of opportunities, turning catastrophes into opportunities, focus, determination, pacing…

When Terry Fox undertook the Marathon of Hope, a Cross-Canada journey on one leg, he was on borrowed time with a malignant tumor in his lungs. He had already lost a leg to bone cancer and got around on a prosthesis that was obviously primitive by today’s standards. By the time he was forced to halt his fundraising journey across the country, the bone cancer, having metastasized to his lungs, had him at death’s door.

That did not stop him, however, from having run virtually a marathon (23.3 miles) per day, every single day for 143 days (a total of 3,339 miles) and beginning a movement that still stands as the single most effective annual fundraises for cancer research.

Did I mention that he ran a marathon a day, for 143 straight days, while dying of cancer with a circa-1980 prosthetic leg?

Terry Fox died short of reaching his coast-to-coast goal. He had covered all of Eastern Canada (the second largest geographical country in the world) and was making his way through Ontario into the Western part of the nation.

But needless to say, his efforts and spirit have inspired the generation that followed and will do so for generations to come. If you can take just a couple of Terry Fox’s qualities and incorporate them into your workout and health regimen, you will be well on your way to a very impressive program.

TODAY: TRICEPS (Fast Tempo, 60 Second Rests) and ABS

UNDERHAND CABLE TRICEP EXTENSIONS (5 sets)
50 x 20
70 x 6
70 x 5
80 x 3
80 x 3

OVERHAND CABLE TRICEP EXTENSIONS (5 sets)
50 x 10
70 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 3
80 x 3

REVERSE CALF PRESS (SEATED LEG PRESS MACHINE) (5 sets)
- 3-3-3 Tempo, 90 Second Rests
“7″ x 10
“10″ x 9
“13″ x 4
“13″ x 3
“13″ x 3 / “8″ x 6

ABS
Crunches x 60
Crunches x 50
Lying Single Leg Raises x 50
Lying Single Leg Raises x 50

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Triceps): 10
Total Sets (Abs): 4
Total Sets (Other): 5

Well, it sure wasn’t Terry Fox-worthy, but I was forced to improvise and make something out of nothing today. When I got to the gym, I found that they had closed early, so I had to put together a basement workout with the sparse equipment available.

I finished off yesterday’s calves and did a cursory tricep workout. It was pretty slim pickings but I didn’t let the circumstances kill the day.

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
FARRAH FAWCETT

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a woman who was inspirational in many ways other than remaining an excellent example of physical fitness well into her 50s.

When Farrah Fawcett passed away a week ago, it provided an example to take measure of a life in which much was achieved and from which a great deal of inspiration can be taken.

Having burst onto the scene with a famed bathing suit poster and a lead role in Charlie’s Angels, a series not known for the artistic challenges it provided for its actors, Fawcett worked diligently to build a reputation for credibility as an actor. This was unquestionably achieved in the mid-1980s with her starring role in the television movie The Burning Bed.

The film about domestic abuse is not only widely regarded as the best television movie ever made, but it also was instrumental in getting laws changed in several states in order to better protect women from spousal battery.

Her appearance in Playboy magazine at the age of 50 not only indicated a commitment to and achievement of a high level of fitness and physique at an age where many women are covering up more and more of their bodies, but also helped usher in and lend credibility to such expressions as “50 is the new 40″ and similar slogans.

Farrah Fawcett succumbed to cancer after a long battle with the disease that covered several years. As she deteriorated physically, she allowed herself to be the subject of a documentary, Farrah’s Story. The fact that a woman who had been synonymous with physical beauty for decades and had rarely been seen in public looking anything but pristine and flawless, was now allowing herself to be documented while looking anything but pristine, showed an impressive lack of vanity and a strong measure of courage in her willingness to do what was within her power to strike back at a disease that was attacking her as it has attacked so many others.

Ultimately, her participation in the documentary could only serve to increase cancer awareness and share the brutal realities of the disease with those who have not experienced it firsthand, meaning that she left the world having contributed significantly to the causes for two crucial issues in today’s society. Just as importantly, she went out swinging.

TODAY: SHOULDERS (3-3-3 Tempo, 90 Second Rests)

ARNOLD DUMBBELL PRESS (3 sets)
30 x 7
40 x 5
50 x 2

SEATED MACHINE SHOULDER PRESS (3 sets) (per arm)
50 x 7
70 x 4
100 x 2

DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISES (3 sets)
15 x 6
15 x 5
20 x 4

DUMBBELL FORWARD RAISES (3 sets)
15 x 5
15 x 4
20 x 2

HORIZONTAL GRIP BACK FLYES (PEC DECK) (3 sets)
115 x 6
145 x 4
175 x 3

VERTICAL GRIP BACK FLYES (PEC DECK) (3 sets)
115 x 5
145 x 3
175 x 2

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Shoulders): 18

A decent workout. It didn’t feel too challenging but I wasn’t deficient in effort or focus.

I supersetted the two grip variations of back flyes on the pec deck, with 60 seconds of rest between each set.

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
CINDI HART

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a woman who has achieved great things in both cycling and speed skating, but has achieved even more in the fight against cancer.

While undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, Cindi Hart continued to compete in her sports, itself an almost unthinkable feat. What makes her accomplishments even more astounding is that she won a National Championship in cycling, less than three weeks after her last chemo treatment, and a mere eight days before receiving a bilateral mastectomy.

She was back on a bicycle two days after the surgery.

She also won the Indiana State Championships Track Cycling Championships during the course of her treatment, as well as a 17-mile team event in Ohio.

Beyond her strong cycling resume (of which I have listed a mere fraction), Cindi Hart has also enjoyed a strong speed skating career (including a Bronze Medal at the Speed Skating Nationals) and served as a highly successful Special Olympics coach (leading the U.S. to its best medal total ever at the Special Olympics Winter Games).

She was also named Volunteer Coach of the Year in 2005 by U.S. Speedskating.

Regardless, Cindi Hart displayed a commitment to showing that all obstacles can be overcome, and is one of the strong examples of backing your commitments up with action.

TODAY: LEGS (3-3-3 Tempo, 90 Second Rests)

LEG PRESS (INCLINE MACHINE) (3 sets)
200 x 8
300 x 6
350 x 4
400 x 3
400 x 3

SEATED QUAD EXTENSIONS (3 sets)
120 x 7
150 x 5
180 x 4
210 x 4
240 x 3

SEATED HAMSTRING CURLS (3 sets)
150 x 6
180 x 4
210 x 2
210 x 2
240 x 2 / 150 x 3

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Legs): 15

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
ROGER NIELSON

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is one of the few men who could be turned to for training inspiration for his work from the coach’s bench.

Roger Nielson was a young and moderately inexperienced NHL assistant coach of the Vancouver Canucks when head coach Harry Neale was suspended for the 1982 playoffs.

As the coach of a team that finished below .500 and had never enjoyed any playoff success in its history, expectations were low for Nielson and his band of hockey everymen that included Stan Smyl, Harold Snepsts, Tiger Williams and Richard Brodeur, a goaltender that would go on to have the playoff run of a lifetime.

However, it was Nielson’s spirited work behind the bench and his innovative tactics that were equally responsible for the lowly Canucks making a run to the Stanley Cup finals, only falling short when running into the New York Islanders in the midst of their dynasty and string of consecutive Stanley Cups.

Much like goaltender Richard Brodeur was up against the goliath of goaltenders in future Hall-of-Famer Billy Smith, so was Roger Nielson up against the goliath of coaches in Al Arbour (the man who would ultimately retired with the 2nd most wins in coaching history).

Nielson himself would eventually be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002, after a string of coaching stints that also included the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators.

Even more than his improbable Stanley Cup run in 1982, it is for his work with Ottawa that Nielson inspires us today. In 1999, Nielson was diagnosed with bone cancer, which spread throughout his body and eventually took his life in 2003. In the midst of this all, however, Nielson remained in coaching and in his final year in the NHL coaching ranks (as an assistant) stepped away from death’s door to show up for the team in the playoffs and do his utmost to instruct and inspire the players.

The team made it to the Eastern Conference finals, and while they didn’t manage to win a cup for Nielson, his heroic attempt to go above and beyond the call of duty and loyalty remains to this day one of hockey’s great stories. And there are a great many of them that involve Roger Nielson…

HAMMERING THE ANVIL…

Today we are targeting the back. It is also one of the focal points of this program. Today is back punishment…

TODAY: BACK (5-1-5)

WIDE GRIP LAT PULLDOWNS (5 sets)
- Fast Tempo
150 x 10
180 x 10
210 x 8
240 x 4
240 x 3 / 180 x 5

WIDE GRIP PULL-UPS (3 sets)
- Fast Tempo
Body x 10
Body x 8
Body x 7

SUPINE ROWS (5 sets)
- Fast Tempo
Body x 10
Body x 8
Body x 9
Body x 9
Body x 9

CLOSE GRIP LAT PULLDOWNS (MACHINE) (5 sets)
150 x 8
150 x 8
180 x 6
210 x 5
250 x 3

CLOSE GRIP PULL-UPS (3 sets)
- Fast Tempo
Body x 6
Body x 6
Body x 6

HORIZONTAL GRIP BACK FLYES (PEC DECK) (3 sets)
85 x 8
100 x 7
130 x 4

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Shoulders): 24

Not bad under the circumstances (forgetting my iPod). It was actually a real pain walking over to the wall clock to time my rests but hey, if that’s your biggest problem…

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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
SANDRA YAWORSKI

Well, I had it all worked out as far as training inspiration went for the next day or two, and then I learned that yesterday was the international Vancouver Sun Run, one of the premier 10K events in the world and a huge event in terms of raising money for charity. And these sorts of things always have a way of inspiring me. As it turned out, tens of thousands of people showed up to compete, or just to make it to the finish, depending on their fitness level.

So I decided to look into the top finishers a little bit and see if they were inspiring individuals…and they are. But then I came across the journal entry of a woman who, though very fast and competitive, is not really a threat to win the event, is a guaranteed upper-percentiles finisher and one of the most inspiring participants in yesterday’s festivities.

Our inspiration today is Sandra Yaworski, a woman who managed to complete the 10K run in 40:00…at the age of 47. Just as impressive, she ran it in 38:45 at the age of 45, and as you may recall if you read any of my training entries from by brief foray into medium-long distance running, this makes her faster than yours truly.

While her good attitude toward floating personal bests as age progresses is an inspiring and well-adjusted philosophy in itself, what may be the most inspiring about this woman’s history on the pavement is that she took up running as a proactive way to deal with stress when she was diagnosed with cancer in her 30s. Her site lists a number of her impressive finishes, times and athletic achievements, but it is difficult to be anything but impressed with the attitude and approach of someone who takes a cancer diagnosis and uses it as a catalyst to be a paragon of good health almost 20 years later.

So consider me inspired by the thousands upon thousands who partook in the fundraising athletic activities yesterday, the first place finishers, the “last place” finishers for whom finishing itself was a monumental achievement and a personal battle of will…and of course, today’s above-named training inspiration.

REBUILDING THE MACHINE…

Pretty simple chest day. The weights may be a little embarrassing because I’m spending so bloody long on each painful rep.

TODAY: CHEST…5 COUNT UP, 5 COUNT DOWN

FLAT BENCH PRESS (5 sets)
115 x 10
155 x 6
155 x 5
155 x 4
155 x 3 / 135 x 2

FLAT DUMBBELL FLYES (5 sets)
25 x 10
30 x 10
35 x 6
35 x 6
40 x 5

LYING OVERHEAD DUMBBELL RAISE (3 sets)
25 x 10
30 x 10
35 x 8

INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS (3 sets)
30 x 7
30 x 7
40 x 5

PEC DECK FLYES (3 sets)
115 x 7
130 x 5
130 x 5

TRAINING NOTES

Supersetted Flat DB Flyes and Overhead Raise as usual.

Again, five tempo up and five tempo down on everything.

I have to say, I felt a little silly because it’s been a long time since I lifted weights this light. But it’s what the tempo called for if I was going to get any reps in, and I also have to admit that my five count was really slow…more like an eight count to some of the fast-counters in the gym. In the end, despite controlled reps and good form, I felt like I’d worked out my arms more than my chest after some of the exercises, but I’m not too concerned, since my main focus right now is just holding ground in my strong areas and bringing the weak ones back up to where they belong.

Total Sets (Chest): 19

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