Herm's introduction to PMenu'ers

[Herm Blancaflor]

Hello good people!

Long time listener, first time caller. :D

I'm yet another soul who has fallen out of the good graces of CFHQ.

I've lived a very aggressive life with my body for athletics, having played football and thrown Shot Put and Discus for 6 years through High School, served in the Army Infantry as a commissioned officer for 10 years (Ranger and Airborne qualified), was a competitive bodybuilder for 14 years (1993-2007), and an avid CrossFitter and Olympic lifter for 2 years (2007- 2008). All of the stuff previous to 2007 has caught up to me.

This past year, I have been diagnosed with bilateral labrum tears in each shoulder (both were SLAP Type IIa with subscapularis tendon damage), right shoulder impingement syndrome, and an upper Vastus Lateralis (outer Quadricep) tear on the right side. The damage to the shoulders was a gradual thing over the years of wear and tear, and the Quad was torn on a heavy leg press back in 1996. The shoulders started flaring up when I started concentrating on heavy Olympic Weightlifting, and the Quad tear just kept recurring over the years of heavy squats and leg presses.

I have had the left shoulder fixed in February 2009 and the right shoulder fixed in June 2009, both rehabilitated, and will be going in for surgery on Friday, December 18th for the Quadricep repair.

I'm currently working and training at Focused Individual Trainers (focusedtrainers.com) in Los Altos, CA, and will be moving down to San Diego, CA this coming weekend. I will be opening shop down there, and hope to start the ball rolling with Olympic Weightlifting, Powerlifting, and Cross Training for a wide demographic of people.

Going forward, I look to 2010 as a rebuilding year, and 2011 as a competition year. I'm hopeful that I will be able to start into some Olympic Weightlifting competitions, Raw Powerlifting competitions, and maybe even some Kettlebell and CrossFit competitions down the road.

If it matters, I've done one Olympic Weightlifting competition, the USAW NorCal Open in 2008, and the numbers I put up were embarrassing. 70/105/175.

Greg, thanks for having me aboard. Cheers, all.

[Mike ODonnell]

Welcome to the forums and good luck with the new shop down in San Diego!

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

Welcome Herm. A great addition given your very well rounded back ground. Looking forward to your input and hearing about your path to recovery. Best of luck.

Go heavy and go hard (in reason).

All the best,
Arden

[Blair Lowe]

Herm, Blair here. We met at the Norcal Qualifiers but I can't remember if it was the OHS on the hill or the row/burpee/jerk. Think short guy with longish hair.

I have recently read on CF1W that you fell out of CFHQ favor (though I didn't understand why[ maybe you showed support of RW and GE]).

So I guess you're done with CF. I had thought you worked at an affiliate in Los Altos but apparently you didn't.

Are both your shoulders working now? Didn't hear about the quad.

[Herm Blancaflor]

Blair, I remember you well! It was indeed the row/burpee/shoulder2overhead WOD we were both judges for. Fun day.

The shoulders are good, I'm back at heavy shoulder presses and light snatches.

Focused Individual Trainers is the name of the gym, and CF Los Altos is under the umbrella of F.I.T. I was the organizer and coach of our Affiliate Cup team at the 2009 CF Games. I volunteered much of my weekend to staffing the individual competition of the Games, while I was still in a sling for my right shoulder (I was about 2 1/2 weeks post surgery).

I said a few things that questioned the direction in which CFHQ is taking things. Of course, they all got censored, and I immediately got flagged on the message board. Then I got a nastygram from Lisbeth Darsh terminating my process of affiliating with CF.

Where did you see the news on Freddy's site? I feel honored to hear of people speaking of me there! Freddy is tha bomb :)

[Andrew Thompson]

Long time reader, first time poster to this board as well.

Where are you setting up shop in San Diego? I live in Encinitas (North County San Diego).

Would love to be able to work out at a gym like you are setting up.

[Herm Blancaflor]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. I'm anticipating a great 2010 here at PMenu.

Andrew, I'll be in the CV/NC/Bonita area. I promise it will be worth at least a few saturday morning drives per month.

I want to have serious PLs, serious OWLs, soccer moms, corporate executives, strongmen, high school athletes, kids, and crossfit types all training under one roof.

[Andrew Thompson]

Sounds cool. I'll definitely check it out.

[Blair Lowe]

Herm, I heard the news by the writ of your post in support of Freddy's resignation.

I must have saw and talked to you again at the Games. That's what was making me think I might have been up there with you on the hill.

I never saw those posts on the CF board before they were taken down.