Yesterday was amazingly fun! (And hard...) I was hired on to perform as an old style strongman at a fun carnival that had a late 1800's-early 1910 feel to it. I was by far not the best act there either-- they had aerialists doing tricks on hoops or silks hanging from the ceiling, floor acrobats, singers, dancers, FIRE dancers, magic shows, and even a bird show. It was pretty freaking cool.
As for my performance, for the first three hours I did barbell curls, Hammer curls, and challenged people to arm wrestling contests and some tried to escape from a hold I put them in. (No one escaped from the hold... and the only person to beat me at arm wrestling was a tiny stone-faced two year old named Troy. When he came up and put his little arm on the table, it was the cutest thing I ever saw, so I am proud to say he beat me handily!)
Somewhere along the way I was asked to show one trick for the crowd. So I had one of the aerialists lie down on the ground and grab my hand with hers while hooking her ankles around my forearm. I then curled her up from the ground with one hand, and then turned my arm over and pressed her up over my head and held her there for a few moments while people took pictures. (she weighs 115 pounds by the way).
Then, after three hours which amounted to something in the ball park of a couple hundred reps of 105 pound barbell curls, 10-15 155 pound curls, another 20 145 pound curls, 1 rep at 195 pounds, and somewhere around 20 hammer curls ranging from 60-100 pounds... it was my turn to perform.
So... we opened up with a big king cab ford f-350, and not the new plastic models, but an old one made with steel. We then loaded the truck with fifteen people. I then ran with it for 50 yards, pushing it as fast as I could. I have to say, it was harder than any kind of sled work or cardio I had ever done.
But, that wasn't good enough. So then we put the truck on a hill and I pushed it uphill for another 30 yards. I am not ashamed to admit that my legs were burning those last several yards.
Then we moved inside where I challenged people to a curl-off. I then curled 105 pounds plus forty pounds of chains, then lifted it up overhead and did reverse grip tricep extensions. I continued working up until I got to 195 pounds. I missed the first attempt, getting it only 2/3 the way up (I was pretty tired.) but then I gave it one more shot and curled it all the way up.
After that I arm wrestled two adults at the same time, and then challenged people to escape from the hold again. It was a ton of fun, but I was pretty exhausted by the time it was over. So, today I am taking it easy. I'll get back on my regular workout routine next week though. In the meantime, here are a couple fun pictures and short video snippets.
