Ho-Ho-Hernia Incision!

Ho-Ho-Hernia Incision! Because you asked for it loyal fans! I did decorate it for you! Just saw Dr. Baccay today and he says I am doing juuust fine. He is the man! And yes, as I was about to be put under I looked up to greet Deven Lombardia who I went to high school with. She's a hell of a anesthesia nurse and only left her Rolex in there...nice gift, kiddo. It keeps perfect time!
Thanks to all of you who sent your prayers and best wishes! Happy New Year!

Cap

Happy 2011 Holiday Retrospective

Was going to do a fun photo retrospect on the hernia...but I decided to do it on 2011 instead. What a wonderful year it has been. My "family" has doubled this year and I am so lucky to have all of you. (Used some old photos of some of you because you were a big part of my year but missed you in pix. Sorry if I missed anyone, I am doped up on Perks still, you all know how grateful I am to have you all as part of Cap's crazy planet. All the best as we turn 2012.

xoxo
Cap

Home for the Holidays and Healin' Fine...(Pop! part 4)

Hey Gang! I am finally out of the hospital after a 3 day 2 night stay. Big Strongman shout out to my Surgeon Dr. Francis Baccay who put enough pig skin in me to wrap all of the NFL's Post season footballs. And to my buddy Dr. Dan Zelazny who hooked me up with Doc B and made sure that I had a solo room and all the gym equipment to get my big carcass up and down from my hospital bed. You are the man! And of course the biggest shout out to my poor wife Susanne who has been nursing me this whole time. I ain't an easy patient. But she's been a saint! Anyway that's all the energy I have left for now, perks are kicking in, so thanks too to all of you who have been sending your prayers. It has been a rough road. Never imagined such pain existed, but with the help of you all it has been much easier to endure. And soon we'll be back stronger than ever! Never quit, never surrender!   CAP

Happy Holidays!

Goin in! See you on the other side of my... (Pop! part 3)

Okay, goin in for the surgery tomorrow. Coming out with even more animal parts sewn into me. I'm like Ol' MacDonalds farm.  Will show you all the scar when I get out as a XMAS present. Something to think about as you are hanging balls on your tree.

Cap

"Pop" Part Blue (2) -- No Strongman for a while

Okay, the shirt Miske and Bren gave me for my birthday sums up my situation right now.  I will be getting cut on Thursday the 15th, and in the hospital for a few days. 4 to 6 weeks recovery gang. Sorry. So after that though, right back at the tires! So find Santa and lift his fat arse for reps, or add weights to your menorah and drag it around the yard while spinning a 200-pound dreidel, or find a good size ChiChe Buddha and drag his Big Mac-eatin self around while practicing your Wing Tsun... Whatever you do...don't stop just cause Cap and the tires aren't there for a bit! Get out there and have a Strongman Holiday! I'll show you the scar when I get back.   CAP

No FLIPPING UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (Boo-Hoo!)

Okay...The Big girl just gets his back better and then goes and decides..."Hey, it's been 3 days since my month-long back injury is healed ...lets put 14 plates on the squat machine and give it a go." Well somethin in my nether region went: "POP!" I will leave it at that. Going to get checked. Pray to the gods of metal and some more standard deities that it ain't tooo bad so we can get going again!

Mayhem V. Miller

I wrote this to my old roomate Mark G. from Syracuse U, who is also a big UFC fan, in response to the Bisping v. Miller UFC fight on Saturday night.

Mark had written:  I have to say, VERY unimpressed with Bisping. He looks so damn slow. He should have ended that fight in the first round. That Mayhem is a joke. He has a black belt in Jujitsu? Why didn't he use it?

I wrote:
I miss vintage Randy Couture! The rest of the TUF season and most of the prelim fights were amazing--it has been a while.  The little guys can fight (bantam and feathers). Bisping has never been a finisher...ever. He's a point fighter with no knockout power. He could be a knockout fighter if someone would light a fire under his British @#$%. He is a bully, shame Mayhem didn't use that--hello, Bully Beatdown! He even said it on TUF. If you hurt Bisping, he caves, if not he just beats you up enough to not loose. And he always punches flat-footed. Afraid to "Go for it". Guy works like a dog just needs a better coach and a bigger pair of.... Mayhem, whom I love as a "character" must be so busy being a personality that he forgot to EVER take a stand-up lesson or do any cardio. What the hell? I guess he just thinks being crazy will get you through? Not at this level. Shame though, he would be fun to have around and be in the running cause he is a good guy. More fight less face-time. Again...needs a good coach. Guess they gave them five rounds knowing neither one of them could knock out a 6th grader and 3 would be too damn dull. Coaching, Coaching, Coaching. So important. (Ironic considering they were coaches on the TUF show). But I guess at the end of the day when the cage shuts. All of it is up to the man. How you doin', kid?

For Those of You Looking for the Definition of Strongman...

For those of you looking for the definition of what a "Strongman (or woman)" is...this is how I define it, baby! Watch this young man standing before the Iowa government, speaking out against them trying to amend their state constitution to make it illegal for same sex marriage. This is a powerful individual. Hell, yeah.

By the Way...Sunday Flippin 12/4

By the way...I couldn't go to Jersey this weekend to see Brendan's Karate Shi-i (sp?), he should be getting promoted! Go kid! Suuuper bummed. My cars are a bit like the spelling of tire in this photo to my left here, at this particular moment. That's the bad news. The good news is my car will not make it to Jersey but will make it to SHS. So there will be flippin' this weekend on Sunday!

3 Conversations with Shi-Shi and Shu-Shu

Five Chickens Shu-Shu and his Husky companion Shi-Shi, If You Please were having a deep discussion about Bodhidharma under a shade tree during a rain shower (while eating a few hundred dumplings they "procured"), when their discussion strayed a bit to the left...

"To know. To stand in supreme confidence of knowing. Ahh."
"Knowing what?"
"That I know!"
"I don't...um...know."
"And that is the beginning of wisdom, fat man!"
"Ooooh!"
"You don't get it do you."
"Mmbmble."
"Chew your food, pig-man."
"(gulp) Nope, don't get it. (munch-munch)"
"Then you got it!"
"Huh?"
"The Wise Seek and the Fool Knows."
"Well, I tend to be a fool, but I don't know."
"Ahh...Nirvana."
"I think I'm gonna throw up..."
"I'll be over here."
-----------------------------------
"False alarm."
"Okay, try to breathe in between chickens, man."
"Good tip. (munch-munch)"
"Try this one..."
"K. (munch-mummble)"
"We all stand wet in the rain...but to be the rain means you are no longer wet."
"Um but my socks are still squishy, monster."
"Not if you are your socks too. And it's Shi-Shi If You Please."
"Great, I'm a wet sock, now."
"And now everything is bliss. Pass me a dumpling, ChiChe."
"It's, fat man."
"Wet-squishy-fat-man."
"Riiight. Huge-babbling-blue-eyed-monster."
-----------------------------------
"So, a giant clam was gulping its sustenance when it swallowed a fish too big to go down."
"(muble-chomp-munch)"
"Try as it might it couldn't make the fish go down. But it also wouldn't let go."
"(mm-mumble-munch-munch)"
"And so the giant clam became a tiny helmet for a whale."
"(gulp) O-kay...o-kay. Wait just one minute."
"What?"
"That was (chomp) just silly."
"What (munch-munch)?"
"Silly---with the giant (munch-chomp) hat and cat thing."
"Um (gulp) giant clam and tiny helmet."
"That too. (slurp-crunch)"
"Well?"
"Well (chomple) what?"
"So, you get it?"
"No, it's (munch) stupid."
"Don't bite off more than you..."
"Yeah, yeah. ...Or you'll be a helmet...(gulp)"
"Yeah is right. (gulp)"
"Oh yeah? You better get a helmet cause I'm gonna--Whoa!"
"(Chomp!)"
"Ow. This is embarrassing...and gross...can you let go?"


This series of kōan conversations (which came to be known as: The Three Conversations in the Rain While Eating a Tremendous Amount of Dumplings) was not from one of Shu-Shu's scrolls but was actually from a book of their transcriptions that the pair's followers took down. Yes, somehow this gruesome twosome would be seen traveling with anywhere from 5 to 500 followers at any given time in their height. So odd how most of their writings and even their fame was lost to time. A story for another day perhaps.

Flipping Today 12/2 -- Went Swimming Yesterday on the 1st Day of Dec.

Yes we are flipping today...yes, I went for a dip yesterday to commemorate the first day of December (Susanne was at work so no video...I know how disappointed you all are...learn to live with it...by swimming too!). It was the first day that when I got out of the ocean, I was colder than when I was in this year. Craaazy weather. (That's me on the left...with the nice white coat.)

Wing Tsun practice was fun. Learning roundhouse kick defense. Can't wait to try it and see if I can make a grown man fly. If you don't get that...come down and give the class a try at Club Kung Fu in Springdale! Clubkungfu.com.

Fight Authority Website and Ironmind.com

Hello Cap-strong viewers (all 3 or 4 of you). Wanted to give a heads up on 2 good sites for fighters and tire flippers:
1. fightauthority.com is a decent website for collections of workouts, both MMA and strength training. It also has a lot of great Martial techniques and examples of different styles. Not the slickest site on the web. But a good one-stop.

2. is a great site from Coach Kevin Jones (Rhino) who is one of my dearest friends and one of the original 4 Black Knights Strongmen. The site is Ironmind.com (Captains of Crush) and it has everything to do with strength and GRIP training. I will include a good grip training video as soon as I am able. If you don't know about grip training, boy are you missing out on an essential part of being a fighter or athlete of any regard.

So check em out instead of looking at what you"normally" look at on the web. I made a joke here about grip training but decided better about it. Fill in your own.