August 8th 2015 – Breakthrough Spotlight – Jackson Boyles
Breakthrough Spotlight:
Jackson Boyles
Weekly News: Breakthrough Spotlight!
This month’s Breakthrough Spotlight is Jackson Boyles! We wanted him to share a bit about his training since he has done great in competing in the Tactical Strength Challenge in the past, and now has started gearing up to compete again and is getting great results in his training!
We sat down with Jackson before one of his semi-private sessions to ask him a few questions about his training.
Breakthrough: I’m here with young Jackson Boyles, aka Jables, aka Jax, aka Young Jackson, thats what I always call you at least.
Jackson: They all work!
Breakthrough: The Osprey! That’s the latest one that you liked. We’ll find the right nickname. You’ve been training with us for years but you just recently added semi-private training to your training diet so now you’re training at least 3 times a week which is awesome! How do you find the difference between semi-private and the group? Do you like the blend?
Jackson: I do like the blend, I like the Metabolic Burn for the group, that one’s a lot of fun.
Breakthrough: Yeah it’s fun, a team environment! You’re a social animal.
Jackson: I am, I don’t like working out! I come here for the social aspect and then the workout is incidental.
Breakthrough: In spite of the fact that you come here for the social aspect, you have some pretty awesome training goals. When we talked in your Strategy Session, you said you wanted to join the thousand pound club, and be lifting a total of 1000 pounds in the deadlift, squat and bench press; which you’re really close to already, based off of the last time we power lifted together. How do you feel that your semi-private training is going so far in service to that goal?
Jackson: It’s hard to tell because I’m doing 6 reps so I don’t know the single rep max, but even the 6 reps is a pretty high weight.
Breakthrough: You feel strong?
Jackson: Yeah!
Breakthrough: You’ve noticeably changed even in the last couple weeks.
Jackson: Yeah there’s been a shift, I’m down to the 2-00’s which happened in a busy weekend when I hadn’t weighed myself, and I didn’t even realize. I was 208 when I was 213-214 before.
Breakthrough: Nice! That’s amazing, and happened pretty quick, so that’s going well!
Jackson: I wasn’t even expecting that!
Breakthrough: As someone who competed in our Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) in the past, and with the TSC coming up, it seems like a worthwhile thing to talk about. That was the first time you had a chance to power lift, right?
Jackson: That was the first time I ever deadlifted, yeah.
Breakthrough: And do you remember what your total was in that meet?
Jackson: That was 325 pounds.
Breakthrough: 325 and it was light as I recall, you had way more in the tank, because we powerlifted again later and it was 405, almost 100 pounds more. You were also just starting with your pull ups back then, but now on the regular you’re doing sets of 5?
Jackson: Yeah, sets of 5 chin ups. Every time I come in I do like one pull up too.
Breakthrough: Just to grease the groove! That’s a good habit, excellent, we’ve infected you with our dogma. As far as the TSC, which is your favorite of the three events?
Jackson: Probably the deadlift.
Breakthrough: Yeah that’s probably mine too, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as trying to pick up something very heavy off the ground and succeeding. What’s your least favorite, the kettlebell snatch?
Jackson: I don’t have anything in particular, I guess the snatch would be my least favorite but it’s kind of like the other two are flat and the deadlift is higher.
Breakthrough: I love this attitude! Excellent, so you don’t have a weakness you just have one really strong event!
Jackson: Yeah!
Breakthrough: Very good! So the last time we did the TSC and you participated, it was well over a year ago, so it will be very interesting to see how much you’ve improved. We already know the deadlift is probably over 100 pounds more, you’ll definitely be able to do more pull ups, what did you get last time, like 5?
Jackson: No, I don’t think I even got my 4th, I couldn’t get my chin over.
Breakthrough: And now you’re getting sets of 5 with chin ups in training! So we can anticipate some great results with that, thats going to be awesome!
Jackson: I haven’t snatched in a while.
Breakthrough: Well we’re going to get to that. It’s interesting you say that, actually, we don’t want to peak too early on snatches so we will be getting that into our programming near the end of August, beginning of September when we start full prep for the TSC. Is there anything else you want to say that stands out about your semi-private training? I know it was tough at first, you were pretty sore the first couple weeks.
Jackson: I’m enjoying it, the soreness has dissipated quite a bit since then.
Breakthrough: Even though we’re doing high volume work we’re splitting it up in a way that works for you?
Jackson: Yeah once we split it up a lot of the problems went away, because the fatigue was spread out instead of just really sizzling one side at a time.
Breakthrough: With the higher rep sets, that makes a lot of sense. In the beginning of a program like this the volume is a little big higher to build a certain type of muscle endurance.
Jackson: Yeah, that was a big shock to me.
Breakthrough: Yeah, it’s much more so than what we mostly do in the group classes. So now you primarily get your strength from your semi-private sessions, your conditioning from the Metabolic Burn, and you’ve got a full meal deal, we just have to get you in martial arts now! Is there anything else you want to add before we get into your training tonight?
Jackson: No, lets get to it!
Breakthrough: Lets get to it! Thanks so much buddy!