The Circus of Mars

Today (5/21/2024), I stumbled upon a wondrous pearl from the depths of my early writing (2010)—a sunken treasure swallowed by the vast ocean of Google Documents. "Monstrous Strength" is a 10-volume series of body-targeted and function-specific strength training programs inspired by fearsome monsters of myth and legend. Written during a time when I was actively pursuing an MMA career and training to be a Circus Strongman, I believed these volumes were forever lost. However, it seems the Fates have conspired to unleash these mythic beasts upon the world once more. Here is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-released Kraken program: --- The original date of writing is 7/9/2010. **Kraken Strength Training Program** Few creatures stir the unconscious mind like the Kraken. This massive, mysterious beast rises from unfathomable depths, feeding on whatever it finds, leaving destruction in its wake. Alien in nature, the Kraken emerges from our darkest dreams only to return to those unexplo...

On this day I dedicate my training to Americans all over the world! By the strength and hard will of Mars do I also give Father Mars honor, credit and thanks. America once ago found the strength and hard will to resist the TYRANNICAL and DESPOTIC rule of the inbreed, incestual and vile royalty of the snake nest called Imperial England. Today I dedicate my training so that America once more will find that same strength. That Amercia will rise from the long spell of sleep and distraction laid over it and with rage and passion of liberty roar and claw like the great lion Leo, Bellow and charge like the great bull Taurus, soar and dismantle like the great Eagle Scorpio and Sing the love of liberty and fight like the great son of the most high, blessed with the weapons of Mars, the wisdom of Jupiter and the brilliance of the Sun. Rise America. You are a sleeping and drugged giant! Look what has been done to you! Your pockets looted! Your hands bound! Your mouth and eyes sewn shut! Your...

Nothing destroys weakness better then strength. Strength is apathy’s natural predator. Strength is the destroyer of depression. Strength breeds courage which puts an end to cowardice. Strength lends it’s self to tactics rather than the folly of despair and lastly strength is the will applied to overcome, to achieve, and attain victory. Nothing builds strength like time under heavy iron. Strength is forged in tension, hammered into the spirit and body by sustained force and fueled by a fiery passion only the strong could know. “Hardship conditions men”. Steel sharpens steel. It the great lesson of Mars. To endure in what is difficult is to earn strength. To place yourself under the great iron hammer of the divine smiths and let the beating of it against you flesh out a better, harder and sharper you while the fire of effort causes your body to purify it’s self through the baptism of sweat. This is a spiritual devotion. Your mind can hold no other focu...

Pre -classical Roman mythology had many variations or "faces" of Lord Mars. It no stretch to see Mars was emerging from a pre -historic spiritual linage where he was viewed as a Lord of the forest, wild, brutal and deeply connected to the dance of life and death, eat or be eaten, hunter and hunted. A primal deity of regeneration, renewal but also the right to survive and will to live, while at the same time understanding that life feeds on life and that in order to get strong... you often are taking from another. My mentor and I have been discussing the spiritual nature of the hunt and how and where you can fall into the category of hunter/predator and hunted/prey and even play both roles simutameously . Like Don Juan Mathas tried to rely to Carlos Castanada , you are in effect "stalking" yourself. You watch yourself from a silent and unbiased third party view . You watch your habits and routines and decide what if any value they have for you. While at the...

De-railed is a bad placed to be. You could argue that inherently comes a chance for reflection and perspective change. That would be true. But lets face facts; derailment is dangerous. Derailment comes often, but not always, as the result of an injury, a hard blindsiding that violently divorces you from you present track. You are not even just off course anymore. You are effectively stagnated. Many people NEVER recover; instead, they embrace their victim hood and allow their derailing to define them. I have been recently derailed. The life I knew changed, caustically and with serious implications. People around me tell me that everything will be " Ok ", that time "heals". I agree with them; but, no offense to Father Saturn, I am not waiting for time to make things " ok ", I am going to MAKE things ok and I am going to actively engage in healing. On the long march home we all are going to collect injuries, all going to get wounded, all going to face ...

I have been through some life-altering adjustments in the last couple of weeks. Lord Mars laid waste to my old life. With a mighty stroke of his spear, he sent me to crawl off and assess my wounds. In hindsight, I intuitively knew it was coming. I knew I required more room to grow than my current situation could afford me. My progress had become stifled. Sons of Mars must always march on. There is only ever forward for us. Without progress, we enter stagnation, and that is death.  A single painful act of compassion, and I was freed. Freedom has a sweetness the weak will never know. The power of Mars has done its work. I am faced again with the lesson of how to carefully select the pieces worth picking up and soldier on. There is nothing left to do but repair.  There is no difference between the physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional bodies. None. Damage to one is damage to all. Healing for one is healing for all. Survival is no longer good enough. My mission is to thrive....

Between the powers of catabolic force and anabolic response lies the grand road called "Strength". Strength is "doing". Strength comes from applying yourself to a task and doing it and doing it better and more with a deeper understand each time you repeat the process. Strength is a practice. The aim to which you diligently apply your will power too will be at length attained in due course; you begin to succeed as soon as you begin to will success. What you will to succeed will succeed. This is the atomic and subatomic. Your will power is the scepter of dominion to bring all your forces under your command and march your collective might without fear down the road of strength and into a heroic destiny. Training 10 60D nails bent in 25 minutes, with a goal of 10 nails in 10 minutes. Front Pull with triple red cables, 8 pulls with a goal of 20.

Is it hard to believe that the Woodpecker is sacred to the Roman God Mars? What about this bird would be so holy to Father Mars? Mars is a grand deity of strength, aggression, and war. Mars is about fucking and fighting: however, long before Mars was the bronze, iron and steel, he was a fierce God of the wild and the virility of life. Mars is seen in the will to fight and survive in seedling struggling to break free from the frozen ground to bask and drink deeply the golden ale of the Sun’s rays. Yes, Mars is the sweeping and caustic change that war brings, the destruction by heavy weapons and the trampling force of a legion of marching boots. But, and maybe even moreso, Mar is the persistent force, the constant “pecking” away, the continual wear and tear, the slow break down that goes unnoticed over long durations of time. We see the lighting of Mars strike down the strong Oak and we marvel at the force behind that wicked line of energy; however, the tree did not fall to one mighty st...

There is a lot in this world geared to tear you down. In today's society the heroes are empty. The models airbrushed and computer enhanced. Society's reality is based on illusions and illusions can't carry the weight of real humanism. What is tangible cannot be support by what is intangible. In your life you are asked to make sacrifices. You do harm to yourself. That is payment, the equivalent exchange, to assume the role or position you where meant for. The danger isn't in the harming yourself. The danger is the continued harming yourself to fit a mold that does not really exist. In that, there is only tearing down, there is no period of being built back up. Mythology is subjective; however, it is subjective for the sole purpose of being subjective. You and you alone are often the judge of your accomplishments. If you assume the role of Hercules you align your Heroic destiny with a being that contains a body of stories but with whom who you represent that character is ...

Discussion with my mentor: The progress of a Circus strongman is measured in the additive function of centimeters and inches. You start with heavy and you end with heavier. Your mind is now goal focused, feat focus, your sole purpose is to accomplish, achieve and attain victory. You start by doing what you can barely do and train yourself to do it with relative comfort. Once comfort is gain, you thrust that back into the field of great difficulty and begin anew. Mastery over one thing leads to high degree of competence over many others. Few people in this world will ever attain high degrees of competence in even one thing, so mastery means a great deal more and will produce a great deal more then what you could understand. You training should be brief, 45 min, but HARD and with purpose. You have a life to attend too. This type of strength training is not you life, but a great and powerful support to it. This type of training as is the the real job of the circus strongman (woman) is to ...

I am now only training in the methods of circus strongman/woman arts. The fitness world has plunged into insanity. As far as I can tell the only sane thing to do is to retreat back to a time where only one thing mattered; performance-execution of a feat. For all the "old-time" training for all its promises, dismal results with a speck of brilliance to show for it. My mentor tells me that strength is action applied. You get better at something by doing it, not only doing it, but doing it better, longer, and heavier each time you do it, even if progress is by a second longer, one rep or half a pound better then you did before. That is true progressive training because you are better then you where the last time and those "betters" add up. It’s NOT rocket science so don't make it into anything more than it is. You want to one hand press a 200lb dumbbell over your head? Then you get to pressing weight over your head. If your dream is to play high level tennis why ...