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Phil800101
03-08-10, 9:03 pm
Thursday

Got up nice and early to get ready and finish packing. I think I slept about 3-4 hours or so, and even then it was a light sleep...what can I say, I'm like a kid at Christmas when it comes to The Cage. Anyway, we (Poptarts81, Nixor, Razor) met up at my house, packed (or should I say stuffed) my car, and headed out of town. To set the mood, we were blasting some "Austrian Death Machine" as we rolled down the highway...what better music to put one in the mood for the Arnold than music that is all about Arnold, right?

I drove all the way there, tired, but jacked up and excited. We only stopped twice, once for food and another time for gas. Car ride was as fun as all hell...well, as fun as a 5-6 hour drive can be anyway. We rolled into our hotel around 4:00 or so, checked in, and hung out for a bit. Before long we were back on the road, heading into town to try and get some burgers at the world-famous Thurman cafe. Upon realizing we would be waiting for hours, we opted instead to get some Mongolian Barbecue. After eating we headed out to the gym to train. Walking down Long Street we could see most of the Animal crew training through the windows of Metro Fitness....what a sight!

We headed in and went downstairs to get ready to bang some iron. We ran into Big Ant and Enforcer in the locker room, and caught up with the rest of the crew upstairs. It was great to see some familiar faces, and to meet some new ones. There were several Animals from the Forvm there training as well. Most of them headed out for some grub while we started to hit it. Nixor, Poptarts81 and myself opted to train legs, and grabbed ourselves a squat rack. After doing some warm-ups, none other than Higa Monster himself came over to help spot and offer advice. It was so fucking cool of him to do that, talk about motivation! He gave us some really valuable feedback, letting us know what we were doing right, as well what we needed to work on. After squatting, we continued on and blasted out one hell of a leg workout...I was feeling it all weekend!

After the gym we headed back to our room, stocked up on food at Meijer, chilled in the hot tub, and then crashed.

Friday

After getting as much sleep as we could, we got up, ate, and then headed for downtown Columbus. We parked and headed into the convention center. We got our wristbands, and then hooked up with some people from the Forvm (mjsef88, Mr. Dead, firsthorseman97, and a few others I think (sorry if I forgot, it was a LONG weekend, ha ha) while we waited to be let in. As soon as they opened the gate, we made a beeline for The Cage. We got our shirts and Box passes, and then dropped our stuff. G came over and asked me to keep an eye on the Box and to distribute the passes while they got everything up and running, and I was more than happy to oblige. I did my thing, and after awhile things settled down and some of the interns came over. I headed out to try and make a lap around the Expo, but after walking around for a little bit I quickly decided to head back as it was just too damn crowded. I missed pretty much all of Nick Winters' exhibition, as I was asked (along with Nixor and Razor) to help mjsef88 bring in ghost's chains for Nick to lift with. It was awesome as all hell to walk into that Expo hall with chains draped around my neck weaving around people as we hauled ass over back to the Cage as fast as we could. Somehow I missed the rest of his demo, I'll hafta check out the videos when I get a chance. The rest of the day I pretty much hung around The Cage, shooting the shit with people and checking out the demos and seminars. It was great to see old faces and to meet some new ones, and the Cage events were as bad-ass as they always are.

Before we knew it the day was almost over. Myself, Poptarts81, Razor, Nixor, and mjsef88 went to grab food, and afterwards we metup with ghost to help him carry stuff to his car. We split up and went to relax in my car before we hit the gym. Before long we were back in the locker room getting ready, saying hi to our fellow Animals as we readied ourselves to go out there and kill it. That gym was packed! Wall to wall people were in there busting ass, a good number of them were fellow Animals. Due to some poor timing on my part, I had to wait around for my supps to kick in while my boys went to work blasting chest. When I was ready I grabbed a bench and started working. Soon enough, J-Dawg and Dannynb came over and worked in with me, which was awesome. I blasted through the rest of my workout, hooking up with Gavin from Indiana (I don't remember his Forvm name) as I did so. Afterwards we just hung out and shot the shit with our fellow Animals. We hooked up with J-Dawg, CB, deanna7272, Stolzenator, as well as the boys from Southern Indiana and headed out to get some grub. We had a great time refueling and talking, and later on naturalguy came out and met up with us. Tired and full, we went our separate ways to get some rest for the big day that lay ahead...


I'll be back on later with part 2 of my Cage experience. As our friend Universal Rep would say, stay tuned...

Phil800101
03-09-10, 12:02 am
In my write up, I forgot to mention the seminars and demos that I was able to catch on Friday.

Big Ant and Big Al put on a good one as always, sharing some really useful information....I learn something new each year.

It was really cool to see the seminar/demo on HRT training. I've read about it some, but it was great to see it in person. Rage and Rev8ball really are onto something there...

Higa Monster on his boy Tyler (I think) put on a really cool demo. That stone is awesome, and it was really interesting to get a glimpse of what they do for strongman.

The pros vs bros was really cool as well. It's always inspiring to see people giving it their all and pushing themselves until they can do no more, which everyone did.

mjsef88
03-10-10, 10:10 pm
Phil, it is ALWAYS a pleasure hanging out/talking/lifting/shooting the shit with you. Your help this weekend shuffling boards/chains/boxes really saved my ass.

Phil800101
03-10-10, 10:30 pm
Phil, it is ALWAYS a pleasure hanging out/talking/lifting/shooting the shit with you. Your help this weekend shuffling boards/chains/boxes really saved my ass.

Same with you bro! No problem, glad to do it. Plus, it was totally badass to get to walk through the expo hall draped in chains!

Phil800101
03-10-10, 10:32 pm
Part 2: http://forum.animalpak.com/showthread.php?t=30199

twoheadedboy
03-10-10, 10:33 pm
This is great! How many times have you been to the Arnold? I'm already blocking off this weekend mentally for 2011.

Phil800101
03-10-10, 10:40 pm
This is great! How many times have you been to the Arnold? I'm already blocking off this weekend mentally for 2011.

Thanks Chris! This was my fourth year. Third year in my mind though, as back in 2007 I was only there for part of the day on both Saturday and Sunday. 2008-2010 I barely left the Cage all weekend.

HIGA MONSTER
03-11-10, 9:45 am
Thursday
Nixor, Poptarts81 and myself opted to train legs, and grabbed ourselves a squat rack. After doing some warm-ups, none other than Higa Monster himself came over to help spot and offer advice. It was so fucking cool of him to do that, talk about motivation! He gave us some really valuable feedback, letting us know what we were doing right, as well what we needed to work on. After squatting, we continued on and blasted out one hell of a leg workout...I was feeling it all weekend![/b]

Phil, I was glad to help. I really believe in walking up to people and helping them with form when they squat. That is the king of all leg exercises, and if you don't do it right, you can get hurt.
I'd rather take a chance to suggest my help with your form so that you can get the full benefit of the lift and not get injured. Sadly, alot of guys in the gym would get offended by that in this world. There ego gets in the way and they wonder why their knees hurt and shit.
Good job, and you guys have a tight knit workout group. Keep doing what you do, cause you got some sick strength.



Higa Monster on his boy Tyler (I think) put on a really cool demo. That stone is awesome, and it was really interesting to get a glimpse of what they do for strongman.

Bro, Tyler is still on Cloud 9 from being to lift the stone that he found in the CAGE! He is so glad that he flew out from Seattle, cause this was his first Arnold experience too.

HIGA MONSTER

Phil800101
03-11-10, 2:38 pm
Phil, I was glad to help. I really believe in walking up to people and helping them with form when they squat. That is the king of all leg exercises, and if you don't do it right, you can get hurt.
I'd rather take a chance to suggest my help with your form so that you can get the full benefit of the lift and not get injured. Sadly, alot of guys in the gym would get offended by that in this world. There ego gets in the way and they wonder why their knees hurt and shit.
Good job, and you guys have a tight knit workout group. Keep doing what you do, cause you got some sick strength.



Bro, Tyler is still on Cloud 9 from being to lift the stone that he found in the CAGE! He is so glad that he flew out from Seattle, cause this was his first Arnold experience too.

HIGA MONSTER

Thanks Grant! Will do bro.

Cool! It was great to meet him, and I'm glad he had a great time.