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Joshua |
| Josh Fallis and the NPC |
| 02.03.2012 00:10:22 | |
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Wow, I'm sitting here filling out my NPC registration and Ecup entry. This is blowing me away as I haven't competed since the early 80's. Yowza! Am I really gonna do this??? Having "died" twice in May of 2010 and having more injuries than Evil Knievel this is a little mindblowing for me to even conceive. What a long strange trip it's been. I remember the first Emerald Cup, I remember seeing Brad for the first time in the late 70's and Elaine at Howard's gym in Marysville. C'mon, where did the time go??? I remember seeing Arnold for the first time with his greasy hair and gap toothed smile, super thick accent and that over the top laugh he used to have before they coached it out of him. Man, you could hear that laugh a mile away. I remember winning the first time Kim Kong handed me my first Emerald cup team trophy and how GOOOOOOOOOD that felt, (sorry Shake, RIP brother). I remember stepping on my first bodybuilding stage and even tho I didn't place, when the crowd cheered as I posed it literally was the greatest experience I had ever had. I remember placing second a year later and smashing my trophy onstage in my usual display of good sportsmanship that my mother instilled in me from my high school sports daze. I remember all the Arnold Classics and Olympia's I went to and I remember Elaine's surprise visit to me in the hospital right after they told me I wasn't going to make it and how she smiled at me thru the haze of drugs and weirdness I felt thinking I was going to die and everything that I had yet to accomplish and how she held my hand and gave me hope. Well God brought me thru all that and now I'm stacking out a bunch of the machines at Gold's in Kirkland. I'm tredging on the freakin' treadmill and I got pictures of Ashton and my father up on my wall next to my calender where I track my weight every day. Every drop of sweat and every drop of blood I shed and every extra rep I do after every fiber of my being tells me I'm done, but I ain't. No, not by a long shot. My wife has never seen me like this. At first she didn't know what to think about the snarling, slightly psycho, BEAST that comes out when I'm getting ready for a show. The same one that got me on stage even after I ripped muscles off the bone and when I tore my bicep doing weighted chins and my strap broke, the same beast that wakes me up in the middle of the night to hit pose, after pose, looking for another vein or another cross fiber cut to come out. Literally willing the $hit to POP when I pose. For those of you who know me I do NOTHING half assed. It's all out and I've got 11 weeks plus to tear up the stage. I'm battling a possible hernia right now but unless the Doc tells me that I'm gonna die if I keep going I'm going get ripped or die tryin'. Take that to the bank. Josh out, Live in the light and live with PASSION. Time to forge and carve baby, time to burn. Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and 80 days |
| 02.01.2012 22:16:24 | |
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80 days left to the cup. Yeeeeeesh. I'm no where near where I want to be at this stage but ready to put on the blinders and do this. Our business really took off and this dominated my time for the last few weeks and then I've got a double hernia scare thing going on so I'm training a LOT differently than I want to but I'm going to get it checked and work around it and pray and just go for it. With Kimberly, Elaine, Jennifer, Mark and Kelsey in my corner I can't help but give it EVERYTHING I've got to make it onto that stage. Yes Ken, I'll post progress pics here and on FB starting March 1 and weekly thereafter. My father's 86th birthday would have been yesterday so I'm going to devote my prep to him and Ashton, both of who we lost last year. I'm going to take that and own it and make them proud. I'm going to go to two hours of freakin' cardio a day and lift the lighter weights I hate so much as otherwise I may be singing a different song and I really don't want to ever go under the knife again. Enough is enough. Ok, I'm going to be posting a lot over the course of these next few weeks as I get up on my grind and see what these old bones can endure in my quest for the cup. More later pilgrims and til then live in the light and live with PASSION. Josh out baby. Time to hit the dreaded treadmill. Why don't they make beer holders for treadmills??? Now there's an idea! Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and 96 days and counting. |
| 01.17.2012 11:35:14 | |
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Yowza! 96 days left to the cup. Crushed legs today with the Kiminator. Diet is dialed in and Nino has got my shoulder up to about 70% range of motion. I can do a freakin' double bi pose for the first time in two years!!! You have no idea what that means to me. I have literally not been able to raise my left hand past shoulder level for going on two years. Man, dis guy iz da magic man. Thanks Nino. I weigh in tomorrow and hope to make my goal of over 20lbs lost in the past 8 days on the Advocare 24 day challenge. I'll keep ya posted. Hit arms yesterday at a little gym by our house and it was so funny to watch people's expressions as Kimberly pumps up the beeeeg numbers. I never tire of that. She's a rockstar training partner and I know how lucky I am to have her in my corner. Mama can crank out reps with the big boy toyz. Oooooooyeeeeeeahhhh. I'll be on road with work next few daze so will pump out a few nostalgic blogs to go back to the roots of what Elaine asked me to accomplish with this blog in my unofficial capacity of Ye Old Chronicler of Northwest Bodybuiilding Lore so stay tuned for that. Meantime it's time for white fish and broccoli and a bottle of Neuro Bliss. Ahhhh, it don't get no bettah. Til next time pilgrims, live in the light and live with PASSION!!! Josh out Tags: |
| Josh Fallis vs Fiber |
| 01.11.2012 01:45:17 | |
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I'll make this quick and blessedly so. I'm going to try to blog several times a week as I get back in the groove with 102 days left til the cup. We were in Gold's Kirkland a couple weeks ago and there was this mondo buff chick lifting and Kimbo was drooling over the woman's crazy delt and arm development. She was really intense and we didn't want to bother her but she looked strangely familiar and when we got closer she stopped and said, "Kimberly?" and lo and behold it was the lovely and exciting Jennifer Blundell so that was a reunion. She had been reading my blogs here so we caught up and she turned us onto the Advocare 24 day challenge which both Kimberly and I started yesterday. We signed up under our beloved little sis Kelsey Fleming-Hollenbeck and YOWZA!!! I'm down two pounds in one day and Kimberly is down 4. I'm not going to go into detail here about the "wonderful" fiber drink and the cardio I did running back and fourth to any nearest bathroom or open container nearby during the process but needless to say I'm psyched to do day 2 today. Back on cardio and training today and I'm got 92 more lbs to lose before the show and I wanna get down a couple weeks early to tighten the skin and fill out. More later pilgrims, so fiber up and fiber on. Josh out, As always, live in the light and live with PASSION! Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and Back on Track |
| 01.10.2012 15:12:50 | |
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Ok, as promised to Elaine I'll post briefly here and then get back in the postin' groove this week. I had my wonderful son up for three weeks for the holidays and while the workouts went good the diet came and went. I put back on 9lbs instead of losing the 10 I wanted so Kimberly and I started back today on the 103 day diet and I'm ready to do whatever is necessary to rock the Ecup stage at the end of this run. Focus and determination baby. Ok, so there you have it in brief. Bill, can you feel me brother??? And yes Ken I'll be posting progress pics on FB Feb 1st and hopefully by then I won't need the wide angle lens for my obliques, just my capped delts baby. Live in the light and live with passion! Josh out Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and short morning blog pump up. |
| 12.09.2011 22:51:40 | |
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My training is rockin', the weight is comin' off and my delt is getting bearable. I'm ready to tear the freakin' roof off the gym today. Chest was tore up yesterday and it's back attack Friday so step off or get stepped on. Let's do this Kimbo. Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and Wreckin' it!!! |
| 11.28.2011 08:11:05 | |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DxzmsH9t2k&feature=related I'm so on it. Just crushed chest with the Kiminator. It's so good to be back. Thanks Nino and Mark for letting me train. Did 35 mins of cardio today and 200 reps of abs in addition to chest. The grrrrls went thru their orientation today so they can train when we train and they were so cute doing lunges and leg presses (one small tear runs down my cheek). They were lifting way heavier than Bill Rainaldo lifts and at 10 years old this was their first time so double proud. My son comes up for Christmas and at 13 years old and almost 6 feet and 215lbs can't wait to get him in the gym. The family that lifts together and all that. Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh bbbbbbbbbooooooooyyyyyyyeeeeeeee. Ok, just wanted to rant here a sec as I'm all jacked up after training and wanted to instill a lil' of that in a blog. More later. Live in the light and live with PASSION! Josh out Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and Manning up |
| 11.27.2011 10:55:44 | |
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Ok, been a loooooooonnnnnnnggggg while since I stepped in heah and exposed my feelings. Gotta man up here and say I had lost my hope in competing in the Ecup for the last few weeks. My shoulder was getting progressively worse every time I trained til it felt like broken glass grating in the joint and I couldn't sleep. Deep depression set in and I kept goin' but it wuz pretty obvious that it wasn't going to let up so I started checking on going under the knife........AGAIN. Gotta hold the record for hospital stays in a year by now. Then I ran into Andy, the grrrlls pe coach at Carl Sandburg elementary and he suggested a cat named Dr. Nino Pribic in Kirkland who does a voodoo called ART (active release therapy). So I want to see the good doc and after about a half hour of him working me over (he had me screaming like the beeeeyyyyaaatttccchhh that I am the whole time), I had a tremendous improvement in my range of motion for the first time in a year and a half. After three sessions (and an equal amount of ear plugs), I can finally almost hit a double bi pose without doubling over. This guy is the magic man. Kimberly just went in with me and had her wrists worked on for just 15 minutes and half her pain is gone. Ok, shameless plug here for the doc, if you have any kind of weightlifting or sports injury go see Nino NOW~! 425 828 3804. Tell em Josh sent you. You'll thank me fo sho. Allrighty then, back on my grind. Training heavy, 500 lb shrugs two days ago and I actually did leg presses for the first time since the whole hip dislocation thang. Feelin' good. I'm on the new BPI supps and they feel almost like the real thing if you know what I mean. I'm yoked and jacked, stacked and racked and ready fo whateveah. Oooooo yeah. I got Dre on the Ipod and I'm all RAWR and stuff. Kimberly is in my korner and I'm feelin' it. 21 weeks from today to the cup and I've got a lot of ground to make up so it's Nino twice weekly for the scream and dream sessions and then 5 daze on da weights and 7 days of cardio. Hold on to your chocolate shoe Elaine. pappas back in the hizzouse. Much, much, more later. Til then, live in the light and live with PASSION. Josh out. Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and the Dragon Slayer |
| 10.11.2011 00:58:30 | |
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Short one today. First of all congrats to my lil sis, Tanji Johnson for rocking the Arnold Euorpe. Well done Tanj. So proud of you. Secondly just want to give a shout out to Rich Gaspari (see below vid) for bringing me back to life with his new dedication and inspiration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LjmkcVSudIc#! I just did my first workout after re dislocating my hip and I gotta tell you I wanted to just give up after the horror of that little santanic chrio appointment but Rish's vids brought me back to life and now I'm just gonna tear it up (the workouts, NOT the hip, pilgrims). Anyway, hats off to Tanj and Rich and i'm gonna go destroy the gym. BOO-YAH, and stuff. Live in the light and live with PASSION. Josh out.
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| Josh Fallis and Elvis Pelvis |
| 10.04.2011 10:44:44 | |
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AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! I dislocated my hip replacement this weekend by being an idiot and not going thru PT when I did this in March. When will I ever freakin' learn??????? I'm so angry at myself right now. No cardio or legs for 6 weeks and then weeks after til I can lift "normally" again. Apparently I'm still in my Job phase. It was nice to have to have two fire trucks take me down two flights of stairs, out of the house, down more stairs and then the lovely ride to my second home, Evergreen Hospital, where I have a designated parking space and a star on their boulevard. Yahtzee. Every time I get up to a level of intensity in my training something vital falls off. Ya gotta love the way they put the hip back in, three docs and a crowbar. There's gotta be country western song about this somewhere. I can hear the chic with the squinty eyes that keeps getting dumped wailing all about it now. Oh, yeah babe, number one with a BULLET! Speaking of bullets..........Nah, too easy. Gotta just gut my way thru this and man up and do what I can do and do it with style. Stay on my grind and not let ANYTHING beat me down in my quest for the cup. Speaking of which I want to thank Bill for being one of by biggest athletic supporters thruout all of this. You're such a jock William. Ahem. Allnighty then, on that note I think I'll load up on Met-rx, BCAA's and vicodin and hit the rack. Sweet dreams pilgrims. I'll detail more of my painful journey back into the gym next time and til then, as always, live in the light and live with PASSION! Yeooooowwwwwww. Freakin, low chairs. Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and Washington State Gym History |
| 09.26.2011 06:51:47 | |
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It all started with European fitness. This was a small chrome spa where women lifted on Tues/Thur/Sat and men on Mon/Wed/Fri (hence the term "u r a peeein" with the same sex as there was only one locker room. i am SO funny, go on admit it!). Dumbells went clear up to the 30's and only chrome fixed bars and NO "free" weights, only machines. I cracked my freakin' sternum at the one in Mt. Vernon where my brother worked cuz you had no idea how much the chrome "stacks" weighed and I stack out and pulled it off the racks and "WHAMMY!" Oh yeah, that one hurt. Specially since it was wrestling season. Next up you had the YMCA's. No, not what you're thinkin', these were actually the best gyms of the day. The one in Everett rocked and I was totally in love with the receptionist who I could never get to go out with me. They actually had olympic weights and benches and stuff so that rocked. Not a lot of choices but the basics worked. Then you had the Metorpolitan Health Club downtown Seattle which was the only hardcore bodybuiliding gym in Washington and we used to drive to it from Mt. Vernon just to train legs. John Burkholder, the founding father of Washington bodybuilding owned it and it reeked of hardcore, especially since Arnold would show up now and then to train and kabish with his good fiend John. Then came the Family Fitness Centers and the Pac West's and then Howard's and then my chain of clubs. The Gold's and Sport's Pluses and then Ironworks and Rondo's Gym in Everett and a bunch of others. There were the good clubs and the not so good clubs. I trained back and forth in Venice during and before all this and man, there was sum weird stuff a goin' on at the beeg clubs back then. I'm not going to go into any detail but back in the day bodybuilding was definitely a CULT sport and there was madness everywhere as not only did we not fit into society but the fringes of society tended to prey on the naive back then. It's so awesome to see how we've grown as a sport but it's also hard to know some of the top pros and realize haw little money there is for the second tier of athletes especially the women and know how much they dedicate and sacrifice to our art and sport and how much the supplement companies and magazines make off them. Yeeesh. Time for a revolution brothers and sisters of the Iron, let's take our sport to the next level. Anyway nuff for today. Big hugs to Tanji for dominating the Olympia and taking home another 2nd place in fitness. Yay to Jay for taking it to the nines even with a torn bi. Been there, done that and I know from personal experience how painfull it must of been to have been up there flexin' it out with big Phil. I'm pickin' Kai as the next Mr. O, so let the battle begin. Lot's of love to Bill Rainaldo who continues to hope against hope that he will beat me in the Cup in 2012. You gotta hand it to the little guy, big bank will take little bank but he's all heart and delusion and that is what our sport was built on so aim for the stars, end up getting mooned and all's well that ends well. Astalapasta and lights out til next time pilgrims. Let me slide, let me ride, just another competitive homicide. Live in the light, LIVE WITH PASSION!!! Josh out Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and the "O"!!! |
| 09.14.2011 08:20:41 | |
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I don't watch a lot of sports, I'm a tennis fanatic but bodybuilding, especially the "O" just drives me. We got to watch the podcast live last year and our kids loved it. They were cheering on Jay like it was the superbowl and I dig that. Can't wait for this years battle. Wanna give a shout out to my sis Tanji Johnson who will DOMINATE the fitness category at this years context. Go get em grrrrrlllll. I got big Jay for the win but Heath may take him down. I dunno, I'm a width guy and Jay has that and sum. Kai is the wild card but just don't see him getting past the beeg 2 dawgs. We'll see. My training and diet are really coming together in my quest for the cup. The only snag is I can't really raise my arm up past shoulder height so practicing my poses is a pain, literally, but just gotta take in one degree at a time. Gonna try acupuncture and see if that helps. Kimberly is hopin' that it punctures my inflated ego. har-har. Gotta get back on the cardio train. I'm not anywhere where I should be with that so gotta get on my grind if I wanna beat Big Badd Billy. Dun n dun! Wish I could make the Ironman but gotta work, good luck and best wishes to all you warriors who are brinin' it. Bring it HARD! It was big Kim Kong Farrison's birthday a little bit ago. I love me some Kim. What a great guy, what a local legend who just is ON all the time. He and I go WAY back. I gotta dig up some pics of Kim''s competition daze. Man he rocked the posing. I trained a guy who competed against Kim and Kim blew him away with his incredible shape and posing skillz. My guy was a poor sport about it but Kim was a lot like Flex Wheeler back in the day. Tremendous shape and full muscle bellies and his presentation......well, you've all seen him dance on stage, nuff said. Since I'm on a nostalgia roll here might as well cap on Mikey O'Hearn here for a sec. I owned a gym in West Seattle where Mike started training back in high school. What a God given talent. Talk about the total package of strength and natural build. Mike would NEVER drink so much as a beer or even take an aspirin, never mind the other "stuff" we tried to get him on, a-hem!!! No, Mike was a total natural in every sense of the word. Gotta give him credit, he never took the easy way and he has earned everything he has achieved. I wonder if he still cruises in that red jeep from way back when. Just don't ask him about his date with Tonya Knight tho......LOL! I ran into Mike a few years back at the Arnold and then had the pleasure of watching him destroy the comp at the natural Mr. U two times. He was just as fun and cool as he always wuz. Go big Mike. I heard he has a couple movies coming out to add to his accolades. Right on. Ok, lights out pilgrims. Time to watch Sam and Dean kick sum demon butt!!!! Til next time: Think Jay for a fivepeat and give Kim Kong sum luv next time you see him. He REAAAAALLLLY digs a good birthday spank or two, not that I would know of course! Asta.
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| Josh Fallis and 9/11 |
| 09.12.2011 12:31:14 | |
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Posted on facebook how mixed up my emotions are about today. Losing a father and a daughter the first three months of this year really drove home the losses that people must endure and that one two punch really tested my faith. Much to my surprise I chose to forgive instead of turning toward anger or bitterness. This turning the other cheek stuff is alien to how I've lived my life and I was amazed at how easy it was to let go and let God in these devastating situations. I learned how to hold onto those I love harder and tighter than ever, cherishing even the little moments and things that used to annoy me. I saw my daughter and my father in my son's face when he came up to visit and heard their laughter in his voice. The circle completes itself and goes round again and God is good even in the worst of times and all we can do as humans is to strive and be better in spite of what happens or more importantly, BECAUSE of what happens. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones at ground zero years ago today and all those who are holding onto the hurt instead of giving it to God. I urge you know to let it go. It's ok to mourn but do those you lost want you to give up or to honor them by doing more and better? I know it's hard, Lord knows I didn't even want to get out of bed for weeks after Ashton died. How do you get your head around a beautiful 14 year old in the blush of life being literally cut in half by a drunk driver who had been arrested just days before for driving under the influence? You can't and even trying is futile and leads to more pain. The better question is what would Ashton want me to do to honor her? Get off my freakin' butt and get out there and do good. That's what. She was a warrior, a doer, not someone who ever let a challenge or negative defeat her so I refuse to let it beat me either. Please join me in saying a prayer for all those who died and for those who lost and let's join hands and do something incredible to honor them. Let's use this to move forwards and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Sorry, didn't mean to give a sermon, I'm just very emotional today and feel like using this as a way to express that into words so that even if I reach one person who is hurting and can help then I have accomplished what I state here and that is a start. Rock on pilgrims. Burn a little brighter and train a little harder and love a little more and dance when no one is looking and laugh for no reason other than we're alive and this moment is a gift. The Olympia is next weekend and my plan today was to devote my blog to that but I had to get all this out so now that I've done that I'll go on record as saying that it's gonna be Jay, Heath and Kai, one two three in the O. It could go to any of them but I'm banking on Jay to do the golden boy wide delts thang and hang on for a fifth Sandow. I'll get off my soapbox next time pilgrims and will levitate y'all with my brand of levity then but til then live in the light and live with PASSION. Josh out baby. G'nite Ashton. I love you and miss you more than I can say Baby boo. Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and the world's WORST haircut! |
| 08.29.2011 04:30:54 | |
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Those of you who know me know how truly vain I am, especially in regards to my hair so God taught me a serious lesson last week when I went into a strip mall shop and asked the young Russian girl to take a quarter inch off the top and zero out the sides and then suddenly she attacked my head with the shears and took ALL BUT A QUARTER INCH OFF THE TOP! I now am in hiding and look like a lopsided radish. YEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH! She even cut it in different lengths all over so the stubble sticks out like Alfalfa from Spanky and our gang. Thank you Lord for teaching me this important lesson in humility and may you Job up my wife and children just a lil' if they don't stop laughing uproariously at me every time I enter the room. Yeeeesh. Bill Rainaldo has DARED to challenge me for the old man Ecup trophy so let the trashtalking begin: Firstly although Bill has a great build he doesn't have my flair or soon to be rectifed hairstyle and I am basically his mentor so ala Arnold and Franco in Pumping Iron, when he comes to me for advises, knowing that he likes to "enhance" his appearance by posing trunk sock stuffing, I will simply advise him to put the socks in the back this time for added impact which will give a whole new meaning to the term "back double biceps"!!! Heehee. Game on William, let's dance!!! Look for progress pics postings from both of us Nov 1. I'll be the one in the "depends" posing trunks! Was reminiscing with fellow high school athletes the other day and doin' the glory days thang and talk got around to my mom who was the hit of our high school athletics. Want to share a short story here about her as she taught me to play tennis when I was very young and she was just a tremendous terror when it came to sports so when I smashed one of my rackets on the court after I lost a close match and the coach reprimanded me she came out and asked him if he was teaching me to be a good loser and when he replied yes then she screamed at him that he was basically teaching me to be a loser and her son was no loser. I got a tshirt made up with that slogan and that pretty much explains where I got my incredibly poor sportsmanship from. Ok, pilgrims, lights out on another OUTSTANDING blog post from yours truly, if I do say so myself-lol. Ok, gonna put a hat on and venture out into public. Live in the light and live with PASSION no matter what your hairstyle. Buh-BYE! Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and Gramma jumps out of a perfectly good airplane |
| 08.26.2011 00:17:19 | |
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Gonna give up on trying to do a long blog and just do short daily ones for a while until work calms down. I'll do the Bill Rainaldo blog as requested by Elaine tomorrow but today wanna celebrate my 70 year old mother in law surprising us all by going skydiving last week. Saw the dvd of the whole thing and I gotta say "wooooohooooo" grannie! Yahtzee, what a woman. My "death" last year and the death of my father and daughter this year has driven home the universal truth that there truly ain't no tomorrows and we must create as many moments as we can with those we love so up in da sky I will go and see if I got the kahunas that gramma does. Ok, tomorrow we'll roast Billy over an open flame for Elaine's personal amusement. Stay tuned pilgrims, ti's gonna be a roast. Live in the light and live with PASSION! me out Tags: |
| Josh Fallis and the Prodigal Son |
| 08.03.2011 12:54:38 | |
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Tough day to get thru. Had to take my son, Vercingetorix (yes, that's his real name! Tori for short), to the airport so he could get back to Cali. Great visit tho. Got three workouts in with him and at 13 years of age, he's just shy of six feet tall and some 200 lbs. A definite future Mr. O just waitin' to happen. I'm known for my wide shoulders but Tori's are just sick! Yowza. Love the looks he gets. His birth mom is just over 5 feet so I'm wondering how tall he's gonna end up. I'm just over six foot one so I know he's going to top me. Love you Tori. Can't wait to see you again. I actually stuck to my diet thruout the visit which was tough as we went to the Spaceneedle for lunch and had a BBQ which featured giant marshmellow smores. I toughed it out tho and gorged myself on steak instead. Thank the Lord for BBQ sauce!!! My training is going into a new level as I'm getting acupressure on my trigger points to release my frozen shoulder. Really helps and I'm almost up to some .00000000001 percent of mobility now so yippie skippie, I'm actually able to some pressing movements. Hold the phone chief, don't call it a comeback! Wanted to say congrats to Mark Sindayen on his USA showing. I got really excited when during the first callouts RXmuscle pegged him as a possible winner in his class but top 5 in that field is a huge victory in itself. Mark worksout in the same gym as Kimbo and I and there is no nicer guy there. Just a sweetheart with a monster work ethic and family guy with a pro build. Way to go Mark. To the top baby, to the top! It's tough to even pose with my injuries but trying and really working to get full range of motion back. When I used to workout with Platz and the gang back in the day they would literally pose and hold the flex until it hurt, in between sets, and that is why I think so many of the bodybuilders back then had that "look" that so many are missing today. Yah, they're more ripped nowadays but they don't have that SEPARATION that they used to have. You can train for it but you'll never get that DEEP line in between the muscles without flex training. Try it, it hurts but it does the job. Few nuggets from the past and then we'll call it a nite. Missing my son so bad right now, writing this is helping, so I'll trip down memory lane witcha and then it's lights out baby and back to da grind (cardio that is, my least fave thing on the planet to do). The deadlift used to be my lift (it's the reason I've got two hip replacements and a torn biceps!). With my long arms the bench was the hardest for me even tho I got good at over the years, deads just came easy. One of the guys that used to train with me back in high school moved to Oregon and started training at Doyle Kennedy's gym and he raved about Doyle so I packed up and headed down south to get my lift on at the legend's gym. Doyle was a monster and he always used to dead with straps tho and he could move a grand so that was amazing. I remember a time when he loaded up a new bar and went over 900 without the straps and the knurling peeled the skin off his hand like an orange and being Doyle he wrapped some duct tape around the gaping wound and continued to lift. Didn't phase him in the slightest. My friend Billy Wright and his partner Brad Bowland used to psych themselves up to deadlift by headbutting a telephone pole outside the gym. They would run screaming at the pole and smash headfirst into it and then go in and lift with the blood pouring down their faces and shoulders, (hey, I didn't say we were sane did I?). It got to the point where they cracked the pole and a newspaper reporter came out and did a story on them. Billy ended up getting a calcified "horn" protuding from his forehead and one halloween painted it black and went as a unicorn. That cracks me up to this day and when I try to tell others about it I get the frightened look that I get with most of my lifting stories as so many literally involve blood and guts. Back then there were no supplement sponsorships or anything and we were all looked upon as odd anyway so we just constantly looked for ways to take it to another level. No pain no gain wasn't just a phrase, it was a lifestyle. I got my wisdom teeth yanked without novacaine just to see if I could do it. The dentist thought I was nuts but that is why the good Lord created whiskey isn't it??? I'm constantly amazed that I lived thru those days. So many of my good friends didn't and I morn their passing and thank God that I can teach my son and daughters that maybe there are some envelopes that don't need to be pushed and life is a marathon not a sprint. Hard lessons to learn and as crazy as we were back then and how much "fun" it was to be wild I definitely don't want them going thru any of that. I remember watching Fred Hatfield squat a grand and wanting to do that so badly. We all had aspirations of doing a 1000 lb dead, squat and bench and since there were guys getting close to those numbers we had to believe that it was possible and felt like we had to get totally crazy and go for it. Of course none of my gang ever got close to a grand in any of the big three but it didn't stop us from trying and we ended up putting up some big numbers anyway so the journey was the thing, not the destination. I once saw Zane squat 405 for 20 full reps to parallel and so I had to try it and so I took a huge plug of chew and stepped up and about rep 13 swallowed the chew and ended up puking up things I had eaten in the 60's. Good times, good times. Well this truly ended up being a "blood and GUTS" blog, LOL. Maybe the mood I'm in made me go there so we'll do the opposite next time and I'll tell ya some of the funniest old skool stories from back in the day so til then pilgrims, LIVE IN THE LIGHT AND LIVE WITH PASSION. Laugh with the angels and wrestle with your demons and never let em see you fear. Fear is the Lord's domain and not to be given to anything of this world. Tear it UP! Gnite TorBor, daddy loves ya! Tags: |
| Josh Fallis: Facebook ate my brain! |
| 07.21.2011 08:32:14 | |
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My daughter asked me the other day: "Daddy, what was the greatest thing BEFORE sliced bread?" I think facebook is one of the greatest things since sliced bread and I have no idea how to answer Star's cute question. FB provides ways to share pictures and reconnect with old friends but it can also be a pain in the butt. They keep changing it, and in my opinion making it worse each time. I also spend way too much time on it. Ever since Ashton died I feel drawn to her page and her memorial page like I'm waiting for her to post something. It was one of the special ways we stayed connected as she lived in Cali and we actually FB messaged two hours before her death so it's just weird and kind of comforting. What's this got to do with training or diet? Zilch, just letting you know the state of mind I'm in as I'm dedicating my Ecup prep to her as she was a warrior in life and everytime I feel like giving up I can feel her always smiling thru whatever challenge she faced and overcoming. I feel ya Boo, and I'll never quit, never give up, never surrender. Time to ruuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbbbblllllllllllllle. Exercise of the week: Incline Pec Deck. Take a much higher than normal grip on the handles and start leaning back then as you bring the handles together lean forward and contract before leaning back as you stretch back. Keep your elbows high. Both Kimberly and I really felt this on upper inner and outer pecs. LOVE IT! I'm starting all my chest workouts with this one. It's tough to train chest/back/delts with my freakin' frozen shoulder but the molten goo my good friend Mark sends me really helps and all I can do is gut thru it and try to come up with new exercises that don't kill me to do and keep pushin'. It's what baby boo woulda wanted me to do. Bring da pain. Aren't we all weird in that as bodybuilders the place that we call home (pain) is the place most people do anything to avoid? I was with some friends at the mall the other day, some of us lifters, some not. This amazing girl walked by in even more amazing shorts and she obviously lifted. We all checked her out and one of my lifter friends said, "Those are awesome calves and hams!" I nodded and out other friends asked us when we had had our last mental health checkup. I think for those who fight for it, life has a different flavor than for those who are sheltered. The way I see it you either stand for something or you'll fall for anything. We are modern day gladiators and warriors and we just see things a different way that others not only can't understand but appears muy loco to them. I remember my mom trying to tell her friends what I did when very few people knew what bodybuilding was, back in the pre pumping iron era. I cringed as I overheard her saying, "Well, he puts on these itty bitty swimtrunks and rubs oil all over his body and then flexes his muscles in front of people and makes really weird faces while he does it." They never let me date their daughters again! Yeesh. We've come a long way baby. Tasty tidbits from the past: i remember training at a World Gym in Lake Forest, California that Kal Szkalak used to own. Kal was CRAZY! but fun. Very passionate about EVERYTHING to say the least. Possibly one of the greatest upperbodies of all time with no leg genetics. I was riding one of the archaic exercise bikes warming up and waiting for my partner when a young blonde giant sat down on the bike next to me. My shoulders are WIDE but this dude was way shorter than I am and had a giant towel over his shoulders and they freakin' almost touched mine!!! My training partner showed up and introduced me to the young buck beside me who was none other than Jay Cutler. Jay would come in once in a while to Kal's gym and even then you could see the potential and he trained HARD, never a bad thing. Another time I was at the original World's and I was doing leg extensions and I felt a "presence" next to me and when I glanced over I about fell off the machine. This was my first sighting of Vic Richards. Holy gym shorts batman, he was the largest muscular human being I had ever layed eyes on and I thought I had seen them all. I was some 260 at the time but he was just crazy big. His skin tight sweat pants were stretched to bursting and the enormous ripped up sweat shirt he wore could not disguise the sheer monstrosity that was his delts, pecs and arms. Let's see, first time I ever saw Arnold train was at the pit on Venice beach. We were down training and taking in the sun when Arnold and Franco showed up and started doing very wide grip behind the neck chinups. Arnold did about 10 and fell off the bar and puked and Franco gave him heck for it. It turned out Arnold had the flu but he kept doing a set and puking, doing a set and puking. This was somehow both disgusting and inspiring all at the same time! I tell ya, I certainly have never forgotten it. Want more? Lemme see........ there used to be lots of celebs that would train at Gold's, one of my favorite actors was also the worst member of Gold's. The one and only Mickey Rourke. If someone looked at his girlfriend, I think her name was Carrie who starred with him in the sequel to Nine and a half Weeks, then Mickey would go ballistic and ATTACK!! I think they finally kicked him out for fighting as he would just drop some guy with a very good right hook and then dump money on him to keep from being sued or something. It was never a dull moment back then, either at the gyms or on the beach. Allrighty then, time to feed the machine and by beauty is a cookin' up one of her fabulous lo carb feasts. I am a lucky man and as much as I kid, don't ever think I don't know it. That's it for today pilgrims. Wanted to say thanks to Elaine for letting me tease her in the last post and next time I promise to bring more local stuff to tickle and titillate (yes Bill, it's a real word!) ya'll. Til next time live in the light and live with PASSION! If it's worth doin' it's worth doing full throttle!
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| Happy 4th by Josh Fallis |
| 07.04.2011 02:48:43 | |
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Happy 4th y'all!!! I gotta stay on track now that my trainings finally going well and I'm working thru and around the injuries. Loved the comment by my good friend Ken Ralston, that we gotta invent exercises to be able to do some things as da ol' bones don't move the way they used to. I did incline db presses for the first time in a year yesterday. I turned my palms inward and kept the dumbells touching together the whole way up and down and it really got my upper inner chest in a whole new way. I had Kimberly try it and she felt the same burn so there ya have it. Age conquers beauty! Arms today and since they don't hurt anything much I can really tear them up and now that they fixed the freakin' music at my gym I can train insane. Diet right now is fun: breakfast is pro powder and egg pancakes with dietetic syrup, then proshake after workout, lunch is tuna salad with almonds and different oils, snack is the new Supreme PB&J bar-yowza they got this one RIGHT!, dinner is salmon and veggies with more oil and if super hungry at night glass of red wine and almonds. Hey, it's good for your heart so I only drink it for medicinal purposes! Supps are too many to mention and that might be a whole separate blog in and of itself so we'll do that one later. Couple "cheat" meal ideas for the 4th etc.: Low carb/hi fiber tortillas topped with shrimp, salsa, low fat sour cream and homemade guacomole and low fat hamburger. Baked yam fries drizzled with olive oil. Egg white and protein powder angel food cake with strawberries or cherries and no fat whipped cream. ***I once heard that Arnold used to mix vodka with Reo H. Blair protein powder blended with fruit for smoothies. Gott try that one /;+\ Ok, I promised the lowdown on how I met Brad and Elaine so enuff teasin' and let's get down to the nitty gritty! My first ever contact with Brad was when I saw him at the old European Health Spa in Everett. The men got to use the spa on Mon/Wed/Fri and the ladies on Tues/Thurs/Saturdays. Brad was big and strong and you couldn't help notice this quiet giant with the shy smile and mop of dark hair. Howard ran the place and he was the energy. It was a spa so all chrome and steam but me and my brother used to come down from Mt. Vernon and workout there as there were no other gyms with machines like leg extensions and standing calf raises as the only other choice was the Y and we all know how that song goes! I had one heck of a free weight setup in my parents garage but we'd drive to Everett once a week and just kill ourselves with tons of machine sets. I remember the time we did an hour and a half of standing calf raises after reading an Arnold quote on how you could NEVER do enough calf work. Yeah buddy, our calves were so pumped for two days and then we couldn't walk for the next 3! Good times. Anyway it wasn't long after that Howard opened his own gym in Marysville in a commercial garage with and equipped it with a full bodybuilding gym ala Cali style and we were in heaven! Brad was there and they would open up the garage doors on sunny days and we would just shake and bake. The place was filled with the faithful and it became a northwest mecca of sorts and the atmosphere was fun and jumpin'. The only other "real" gym at the time was Burkholder's Met downtown Seattle and that was just too far to make the trek so we'd hit up Howard's every chance we got. It was very rare to see women in the gym back then. Sure you'd see em in the magazines but they seemed like otherworldy mythical creatures. I mean chick's with muscles.......we didn't know how to feel about that. Half or more of the reason we trained was to impress girls not compete with them, c'mon! Most of the training that women did back then was the whole leg warmer, sweat band, stuff anyway, ain't nobody wanna lift no heavy weight. Nosir. If you were a woman and lifted weights even one time you'd INSTANTLY get muscle bound. That was the word. So imagine the fellas surprise when we went down to train and here is this amazon warrior queen in a pink and black striped tank top and a Olivia Newton John hairdo (Elaine!) puttin' up some impressive numbers while we stared in amazement at the muscles rolling and popping in her arms, back and delts while she lifted. She was way cute, feminine AND muscular! WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, hold the phone brother! Brad just stared at her with these big puppy eyes and you could tell love was in the air. We were all jealous and even though none of us dared approach her we would all lift around her and grunt and flex and try to catch her attention. She was unaffected by all our preening and after I got to know her and Brad well I was horrified to learn that they were these great, kind, GENUINE, people, as they still are to this day. I really admire the Craig's and hear this about them from everyone that knows them. They have always been there for me and supported me even during my darkest times. I gotta admit they are part of the reason for my faith in that they like very few others, walk their faith and that is inspiring to say the least! Ok, enough buttkissing, onto more dirt! Elaine was training for a show and her back and legs were just standouts. She was no slouch in the delts/arms/upper chest either but her back was SICK!!! (I can't get a pic of her to load on this blog for some reason so go to mine or her facebook page and I'll post it there until she forces me to take it down, insert evil laugh here as she's really shy when it comes to these pics!). Anyway we used to copy her back workouts without her knowing it. We would pretend to be doing something else and when Brad (the ORIGINAL contest guru) would finish taking her thru an exercise we would casually repeat the movement and then stalk her to the next exercise. More guys started bringing their girlfriends to workout because Elaine was there and after a while we had a good mix of hot bods rockin' Howards and that just made everybody train harder and have more fun. I remember sunny summer days there when we would move some of the benches outside and train in the sun. I think that's where Craig Productions really was born. I feel that same camaraderie whenever I'm around Brad or Elaine or at their shows. It's love, plain and simple. It was so much fun when Elaine hosted Kimberly's quest for the cup video shoot. I almost expected her to break out the headband and start showin' us how it's done. I also gotta say how much it brings a smile to my face when I see Brad giving Elaine the puppy dog eyes look when I see them together after all these years. Takes me right back to those days and makes me wanna break out the Van Halen eight tracks and JUMP!!! Lights out pilgrims, til next time, train like you mean it, love without fear and dance like no one's watchin'. Live in the light and with PASSION. Josh out.
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| Happy Father's Day by Josh Fallis |
| 06.20.2011 12:49:30 | |
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Ok, got up this fine father's day to a hot breakfast prepared for me by an even hotter blonde (I LOVE my wife-how did she ever get so lucky? LOL). Then it's Scripture followed by lunch with the in-laws who are incredible people and close friends who walk their talk. Ahh, no kids for a while, things going great and then WHAAMMMYY! As we get home and drive past my car I notice the convertible top is cut wide open. This doesn't look good. Sho' nuff, I DUN BIN ROBBED! Out of everything they could have taken what do you think they took? My freakin' gym bag! Not a great financial loss but my ipod, my belt, wraps, straps, gloves, my favorite drink bottle. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! What kinda scum cut open a man's car top, and on father's day? Y'all know a lifting belt is like a baseball mitt. It takes years to break em in proper. Same goes for straps, you get some good pulls with a pair and they feel good and others feel weird. AUGH! Alright Lord, it's another test in a long line down my Job path so I'll just man up and "buckle" down (even without a weight belt). So Kimbo and I head off to the gym and hit back hard. Put my rage into the poor helpless weights and machines and pummel them into submission. It was strange day at the gym today with this one 100lb guy running around in a fully loaded weight vest and tiny shorts jumping from machine to machine at hyper speed but that didn't top the girl who was dancing thru her workout. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen, she literally dances in between and during exercises. Why is there no gym based reality show? Best people watching other than Venice Beach is any gym. Love it! And hey, at least they're in there exercising which is a heck of a lot more than you can say for most of our couch potato nation. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what they say about me in the gym....................................................... Saw Mark Sindayan and Gabe Wadt in the gym as well. Mark looks AWESOME!! Great detail coming in. Go get yours Mark! Gabe is a prodigy waitin' to happen. He looked pretty leaned out and said he'd been doing a lot of running but I also hear he got engaged and that'll do it every time. Congrats Gabe, literally could not happen to a nicer guy. I remember when he trained delts with me and the Kiminator and she just flat put us both in the dust. We taught him how to do "delt destroyers" where you do underhanded laterals with light-med dumbells and raise them all the way above your head and then lower them to your shoulders and then press them back above your head and then lower them with arms straight palms up back down to your sides and repeat. Basically a combo underhand side lateral raise all the way up into a press and then lower as a lateral raise and repeat. Do these last in your delt workout and go until you can't even raise your arms. Three sets of 12-15 should do it if you're "pressing" yourself-thank you, I'll be here all week. My focus and diet and training are kicking in. Bout 10 months left to the cup and I'm feelin' it. A little of the old GRRRRRRRRRRR is creeping back into my workouts and man did I miss that. Did any of you see the Toronto Pro yesterday where Frank Mcgrath who a year ago was hospitalized for MONTHS and just took 4th in a pro show. Dude this guy is my INSPIRATION. Check out below for the craziest delts and arms this side of Dillet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xU4CHtHueA I'm watching this before every arm workout. His calves are sick too. Rare on a big armed guy. He's trying to pull down his O qualification after missing it by one place in Toronto so LOOK OUT! We injured guys can still break out a can o' whoop a$$. Now where's my tylenol and icy hot. See ya got me all worked up. Alright, just a short one today and then next week I'll tell ya all how I met Brad and Elaine and how everyone at Howard's gym was jealous of Brad when he first started dating Elaine and some other golden nuggets you just don't wanna miss. Til then pilgrims, keep yo chin up, Spirits high, and give your dad's a HUGE hug and tell em how much they mean to you. Live in light, live with passion! Tags: |
| How NOT to pose by Josh Fallis |
| 06.16.2011 11:51:00 | |
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