Eli Maynard

Husband and father, loving life!

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@muscleforlife I can't even pay with my HSA account, which I think is crazy. I can buy PWO with it, but not my gym membership.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@Jainadave_ 49 and would bury the 25 year old me at pretty much anything except operating without sleep.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@DeanTTraining Never get the shaky legs from really any type of barbell squat (front, zercher, back, etc), and left the gym barely able to walk due to the pendulums, quads were smoked. That anyone would argue that barbell squats are superior for hypertrophy is silly.

[Jon Root @JonnyRoot_]

“I trusted in Him not just in the good, but in the bad [this season]. I understand that suffering is good for us, as followers of Jesus. I’m taking that into my next route in [pastoral] ministry - Just leading people by example, as a servant, like Jesus was.”
- High Point Guard Chase Johnston after their loss vs Arkansas

Johnston was wearing a “Jesus Wins” shirt too 👏

[ESPN @espn]

DARIUS ACUFF JR. WINS SEC PLAYER AND SEC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR! 🏆🏆

Coach Cal with another elite guard 🔥

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@BowTiedOx Happy birthday! 3 is such a fun age, enjoy every minute of it.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@BowTiedYukon Surely this is parody.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@ShadowW3lch Zerchers and SSB, my quads suck.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@DeanTTraining I'm a barbell guy, but I can't argue with this. I saw much better pec growth when training in the gym on this kind of machine (now garage gym). When I'm out of town working, this is the type of machine I look for, and the pump from this is exponentially better than the barbell.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@will_ratelle When are you going to put it out for purchase, or is it going to available soon on Concurrent?

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@JamesBryantWX Freezing rain in the Donaldson area.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@zachhomol_ Merry Christmas and epic stache!

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@AJA_Cortes Some Bells of Steel deadlift crash pads, want to start doing some cleans and snatches.

[RedditCFB @RedditCFB]

Wow! Rece Davis is pitching the Battle of the Ravine on November 15 between Ouchita Baptist and Henderson State for GameDay. It would be GameDay’s first ever trip to a D2 campus. The schools are literally right next door and it’s a fun rivalry.

[mason pennington @masonpennington]

My chevy Silverado high country duramax was stolen from Dallas at 1:13 early this morning.

The Airbnb shows a white Nissan frontier pulling up at 1:08. By 1:13 they were both pulling off. Tracking services were disconnected immediately. #dallas

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@DavidAlGregory @JoshPateCFB Lifelong Razorback fan and this is true.

[Eli Maynard @ebmaynard21]

@WSWayland @Physical_Prep 3 sets of 4 exercises full body 5 times a week with a different emphasis each day all at 1-2 RIR has been my go to and I enjoy it. Fairly quick workouts (45min or <), progressing, and very little overall fatigue.