Ben's Review of 2008

Ben pretty much kept things to pictures and video, so far. Who knew he had something to say?

JP Fitness Summit 2008 @ No Magic Pill

Hmm... How'd I miss that?

No Small Talk

No Small Talk

I've been trying to come up with something to say about the '08 Summit and it's been really hard. I've been home almost a week, and the melancholy feeling is still hanging on a bit. But, that's okay. I have great memories, feeling, and friendships to drive that feeling. I wouldn't give that up.

Here goes...

Hmmm... "Friendship" is the primary word. I can't say fitness is secondary, because fitness is why we were there, directly or indirectly. The forum is the why and the how of knowing each other. Friendships that are, for some, closer ones than we have with many or our local friends. This technology of the internet is a true blessing in this respect.

I flew out from Orange County by myself. I figured I'd get to Little Rock, and Erika would swing by, as planned. I'm sitting in Dallas, and Rob strolls up. "Hi, Rob." "Hi, Roland." I move my bag and Rob sits down. Two years it's been since we've actually seen each other and we pick up pretty smoothly. No small talk, it's right to an actual conversation. Rob's my friend.

We get to Dallas (I'll admit it felt odd that Rob and I weren't seated together on the plane to LR) and gather up with more friends. Nick's there, as is Craig. New to the Summit is Doug, but he's sitting there with Craig, hanging out for a few.

Realizing that I've got ride space galore, I get on the phone with Erika; give her some of her time back. "That's nice of Nick, but I'll come say "hi" anyway!" ...and she does come, just to say "hi" to us. Pretty soon, we've got a little crowd in baggage claim, chatting away, skipping the small talk, and having a great time -- Erika's youngest, even! Our bags are quick to come down the chute and we all take off for the hotel. So far, a strangely fun experience in LR, so far.

The whole weekend went like that airport meeting did. Afternoon at the hotel, the group got larger. JP and Erika's house, larger still. My friend Shannon, who I'd never even seen was there to greet me when I came back to the hotel. We picked up verbally, right were those emails left off!

Friday was no different, as more and more folk showed up at the gym and the hotel. I'm afraid I'll leave too many great people and details out if I drone on too long; this is about the reasons for being there and friendships. Details be damned, it's the whole of the people who were there that's important.

Friends came from all over the country and all over the world to see each other in Little Rock. You don't hop on a plane in Canada, Bulgaria, or England unless you have friends to greet you at the other end; Little Rock, Arkansas.

When you're there, you never want to walk away from the conversation you're having, because it's going to be a year before you see your friend again. Yet, if you don't move on to another friend, it' might be a missed opportunity until next year. Jeez! There's only so much time. Never enough.

People who haven't been to a Summit before might have scoffed at the build up that we had to this thing on the forum. A countdown thread. Anticipation posts. Packing updates. Man, it was like a kid trying to get to sleep on Christmas Eve for most of us. But, next year, you go, too! You'll feel it. You might feel silly, but it'll be the best silly ever. Trust me.

When the end came, it came too quickly. There were, seemingly, many ends, though. We had an end party in the hotel lobby, blogging, drinking shakes, and laughing until late in the evening. We said our goodbyes to the people that were leaving early the next morning. Despite that, there were even more goodbyes the next day, as we met in the lobby to see each other off. A goodbye workout, as the group got even smaller. A smaller goodbye lunch. A smaller goodbye coffee. I've lost count. Finally, I was the last one out. At least until Galya leaves in still a few more weeks time. Airport time for me...

How many of you have missed a plane flight? It might have been canceled, you got there too late, oversold, etc. It had never happened to me before.

When she dropped me off, Erika had joked, smiling, that the flight might end up being canceled, but I'd scoffed. Late, maybe. Not canceled.

Later, when the gate attendant made the announcement that some people weren't going to make it on the plane because they needed to lighten the load, I perked up and secretly wished for it to be me. One more day with the friends that were still there in Little Rock? I tried to appear as heavy as possible. ...and I got my wish.

Karaoke Video

If you want to see the discussion over at JPFitness, CLICK ME!

Plan W(affle House)

The little known, and rarely implemented, TNT plan W.

You gotta be super experienced to get to Plan W...



















Nick, Rob, Doug, and Shannon.


Plan W is where you only eat protein, fat, and veggies, except when you're eating waffles, toast, grits, syrup, and Buttery Spread™.








I was happy to be included in the customary pilgramage to the Waffle House.

A Few Post Summit Pics

I know they don't look good. Just try one.









































Galya learns to flip food without a spatula.

Finally, I got something I can teach her.





















Galya explains to Bill that Bulgaria is a country and not the
name of an Armenian CSCS who came up with a cruel split
squat.
















Nick (on right), training. Neil (on left), watching.

The Group

Back to front, left to right

Michael, Rob, Craig, Roland, Chris, Bill, Jason
Terry, Lou, Greg, Ben, JP, James, John, Neil, Russ, Brad, Steve, Manuel, Alan, Doug
Jaime, Kaytee, Galya, Kim, Christine, Shannon, Kathy
Nick

Fireflies

Erika & Galya watch fireflies. Aren't they beautiful?

Friday morning

Amen.

There...

This is more like it. They travel from all points of the compass to gather on a hotel bed and gawk at Nick's, um, laptop.

A representative picture...

...of--well, no, no, not really. This one is pretty tame, relatively speaking.

14.5 hours...

...is about how long it takes to ride from Charlotte to Little Rock under moderate overall conditions. A good experience. I never want to do that again. Ever :)

More Cowbell!

I've got a fever!

And the prescription is MORE KETTLEBELL!!!

Blogging Invitation

I hope you like the new blog about all things Summity. I'd like to post a poignant and touchy-feely little blurb here, but instead, I won't...

Once things sort of "start" on Thursday or Friday, there should be some almost real-time blog posts, thanks to JP's thoughtful PC placement and the magic of the cell phone camera!

At the very least, it's one place to look for all things related to the Summits of the past and future. We've got a bit back to 2006, but photos and details of all of them would be welcome.

So, as JP's post over at the forum alluded to, we'd like to invite anyone attending, presenting, hosting, or waiting on our tables to blog all about the event.

Here's JP's intro...

JP Fitness Summit BLOG!

---

Thanks to the efforts of Roland, Galya, and Nick (ninja), we have a blog for the summit. It is full of important information about the summit... Schedule, special events, fun anecdotes about past summits, and so on.

It is going to be posted on live throughout the duration of the summit. If you are interested in being one of the live bloggers during the summit please contact Roland or Galya and they will get you permission to post updates. We'll have a computer out during the summit just for that purpose.

Here's the link: http://jpfitnesssummit.blogspot.com/

It's already pretty full of fun posts, and lots of pictures from past summits, along with some funny captioned stuff (a la Red Lefty).

So go read up and get excited about the weekend... It's really going to be a blast!

So, if you're a blogger already or would like to blog with us, even if it's just once, please let us know and we'll figure out the best way to get you included. Post a comment, shoot me an email at rdenzel@gmail.com, or PM Galya or me (Lost Dog) over at JP's.

Can't wait until Friday!

Roland

ТHE ESSENSE OF THE JP FITNESS SUMMIT

Telling your family and friends that you’re traveling to Arkansas to meet a bunch of dudes that you communicate via the internet every day with is both incriminating and oddly liberating.

Sure, you open yourself up to the inevitable “OMG! You’re gay!” jokes—but remember, this is Arkansas; Mike Huckabee would have us hung from the capitol if he found out we were a gay convention—and those jokes take on an added dimension when you tell people that it’s a “fitness retreat.”

Thankfully, 2006 was the first year that JP used “Summit” instead of “Retreat,” so there was only one word in the official title that could be code word for “things you don’t want your family to know why you’re traveling to Arkansas.”

And Summit sounds more manly anyway. What gym-going dudes go on a retreat anyway? (OK, you get the point. I’ll stop)

But also, it takes a special type of confidence—ok, not confidence, just brass balls—to tell your loved ones that A) you talk fitness on a message board, B) you want to meet them, C) you are meeting them, D) you’re doing it in Little Rock, Arkansas, and E) that there is no hidden agenda.

The stigma of meeting people on the internet has certainly lessened as the internet has become a part of our daily lives, but it’s still weird, and the looks and reactions that you receive are priceless. But fuck it, we like each other and fitness so much that we’re willing to travel from all over to have a weekend of debauchery. Once you’re there, you completely understand, and wonder why you would ever miss out.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how I got to the hotel from the airport. I guess I took the shuttle in, but it’s escaping me. But that’s not important anyway.

The 2006 Summit was a one day affair featuring the incredibly smaht Ahnold Hahtman. Ahnold, err, Bill, was fantastic. I learned that I was incredibly fucked up (physically. I’ve known for quite some time that not every screw is tightened properly upstairs) and I’m still working to fix those problems today. (Isn’t fitness great? By working out, I kept screwing up my body. I’ll stop with the parentheticals. I promise)

Until then, I had no idea that the shoulder and the hip were interconnected, and that a shoulder injury could be an indicator of a problem in your lower body.

Besides all the fantastic information that I learned during the 2006 Summit, including the ways the scapula functions and the numerous ways that you can test yourself for imbalances, the Summit was a turning point of sorts for me.

As a former fatty, fitness until then had been a hobby. Sure, I wanted to look good nekkid and I wanted to lift a lot of weight. Did I know how to do that? I mean, sure; the stuff that I had been doing since I was 17 had worked until then, so why wouldn’t it continue to work? But as Bill told me that I had glutes that couldn’t fire, hip flexors that were tight and shortened, shoulders that were screwed up because of the two aforementioned problems plus my tendency to want to keep playing baseball, something clicked in my head.

I learned more about my body that weekend than I ever had until that point. Fitness stopped becoming a hobby and it became a passion. Since then, I’ve soaked up every bit of information that I have been able to, learned that there are very few absolutes when it comes to training, just broad outlines. (What I love to use as an analogy—and I’m claiming it as my own until I find that I stole it from someone—is that fitness is a map of the US in which the border is the only thing outlined. Inside the continental US are the 48 states, but those state borders aren’t present because they’re constantly being tweaked and redrawn. Yeah, that was a parenthetical. Blow me)

But, I would be completely remiss to talk about the 2006 Summit and neglect to talk about the people that made it so great. Most importantly and sadly, it was the last time that the Summit had people strictly from North America, so we had to make sure to have as much fun as we could before we were invaded by Europeans. Don’t get me started about how much of a drag those stupid Europeans are. Talking about how weak the dollar is; how jetlagged they are; how much better Europe is than North America. I just want them to shut up and go back across the pond.

(If you thought that preceding paragraph was in any part serious, please stop reading and go see a doctor)

In fact, despite all the fantastic information that you learn, the extracurricular activities outside of the Summit are the best part of the weekend.

Our first night, Friday night, we all went to the Flying Saucer, a bar in Little Rock that boasts 400some beers from all over the world, and their famous “Beer Goddesses,” which are basically stupid waitresses dressed up in slutty school girl outfits wearing way too much makeup. (I apologize for offending any Beer Goddesses, but if anyone has a better and more apt description, I’d love to hear it.)

We were served by a good-looking waitress who had an anatomical problem; she had the appearance of a gut, yet was by no means fat. No one had any idea what her problem was (although many offers were made to correct it) until Saturday, when Bill told us what an anterior pelvic tilt was. AHA! The looks on our faces said it all. That’s what the Beer Goddess had. Sadly, we didn’t go back to the Flying Saucer Saturday night, so we couldn’t offer our newly found expertise in case she wanted to correct her APT.

Instead, we had a private party in a suite at the top of the La Quinta. The suite will forever live in infamy as the site of the Spooge Towel incident, which might be the most laughter inducing evening in the history of the Summit. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, you must, and even if you have, you must read it again. It doesn’t sound nearly as funny without being there, but it was soda-out-of-the-nose and scotch-spilling inducing.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “I just wasted five minutes of my life reading that and I still don’t want to go.” Trust me, yes, you do.

Nothing ever sounds as informative or funny unless you’re there. The JPFitness Summit is no exception. If you enjoy the chatter on the message boards, or simply enjoy fitness, the Summit is for you. Odds are, you’ll learn some great information, and more importantly, gain friends for life from around the globe.

You owe it to yourself. Come join us.

Nick, a.k.a Ninja

Summit -- A Definition, A Ramble, and Finally, A Point.

Summit

sum·mit (smt)
n.
1. The highest point or part; the top.
2. The highest level or degree that can be attained.
3a. The highest level, as of government officials.
3b. A conference or meeting of high-level leaders, usually called to shape a program of action.

v.
sum·mit·ed, sum·mit·ing, sum·mits

v.tr.
To climb to the summit of (a mountain).

v.intr.
To climb to the summit.

That's the definition of the word, and based on my bolding, I think that JP did a great job naming the event. The Summit is more than a place to come and learn from the experts, it's a place to come and learn from each other, the experts do have a little influence, sometimes...


One Week Out!

I could not be more excited about the Summit coming up. It's one week from today! I'll be in Little Rock again with tons of friends; some I've actually met, some I've spoken to on the phone or via magical internet technologies, some I know via email, and some I've known only through posts on the JPFitness Forum.

I remember walking into JP's gym that first day, two years back and not knowing how to introduce myself. I didn't know if anyone actually knew my name. I was Lost Dog on the forum and it had not even occurred to me until the first person stuck out his hand and introduced himself that I had to decide... LD, Lost Dog, or Roland. If anyone remembers what I said, clue me in. After a few minutes (and all the intros were done), I was Roland for the weekend. Although, I distinctly remember answering to a few callouts of "LD" in the new few days. There are worse things to be called. I might like it, anyway.

The friendship aspects aside for a minute, and let me talk a little bit about the presenters. In 2006, Bill Hartman was the presenter. In the past, he'd answered my posted questions and helped all of us out. But, in person, he helped me out in ways that still amaze me. Since 2006, my training has changed, my body has changed, my training philosophies have changed. All because of the hands on time with Bill.

I'll nutshell things, just to let you see what Bill did for me...

• Taught me to touch my toes (sometimes you don't know how to control your own body)
  
• Squatting (I was moving wrong, and very unmobile).
  
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome/Ulnar Neuropathy (stretching and massage vs surgery? sign me up!)
  

These were the things that Bill directly addressed for me. Doctors, trainers, and physical therapists had all given me help here and there, but nothing ever changed. Bill took care of it in a weekend, and since then, my grip has improved, I'm able to squat deeper and safely, deadlift more weight, and I even walk on my toes less. A good weekend investment.

Is Bill really the only guy that could have helped me? No. The key is that I got hands on help from an expert. Not just some Doc, PT, or CPT, but an actual expert. And, that's the chance that JP give you at his Summits; some real hands on time with the guys that know their stuff.

That year it was Bill. This year it's Alan Aragon and Steve Cotter. Two experts in training and nutrition.

You all know by now that I was fat. I have food issues to this day, and I'm looking forward to Alan's presentation and the chance to have a conversation with the guy (probably over food, too (my food issues aren't THAT bad)). What you get from a man's posts and emails is one thing, but a dialog will really open things up, I hope.

I'm always amazed at the feats of Steve Cotter. I hope he does tricks in person, too. Even if he doesn't, the guy knows so much about areas that I confess I've neglected. He's got the physical and mental sides of training and living figured out. Something called Qigon, which I hope is something sorta Force-like, explaining so much about Steve's extreme feets of strength. I do of course remember Qigon Gin from Star Wars I, so I'm hoping for the best.

So we've got a gathering here; professionals presenting, professionals here to learn from those presenters, laymen here to learn more about bettering themselves, and people there for the fun (I'm told LR is like a mini-Orlando?).

I can't claim credit for noticing that our traditional post-Summit Sunday hikes were to the top of a place called something like Pinnacle Peak. The summit of Pinnacle Peak. Hmm... is it at the top? I wonder?

I don't know if JP named the event after this place, or if it's all a cosmic coincidence, but it all comes together quite nicely.

In 2006, I got to take dozens of pics with all my new friends. You can see me in a few on this blog site, and I can't wait to take even more next week. In the meantime, here's another from 2006, from that Summit -- and from the summit of Pinnacle Peak.

John, Nick, Lou, JP, and Roland