This is definitely the way to get ripped abs and raise a sweat…

…and you might have your mates check them out once they’re there (but be careful: Houdini died from a gut punch!):

Before leaving our Welsh haunt for what will be quite a long while I think, we spent some happy hours assisting all the local sporty young farmers with their weights ambitions in our ‘barn gym’. It is just free weights, but there are a lot of them (thanks, Neil, for spending our money so wisely on second-hand equipment!)…

Hard to beat the bench press for developing the chest (we often use each other as a bench and get a share of each other’s sweat, but then we’re a bit bit weird I suppose – great feeling though as your mate strains, his back tense against yours…). Also you can always find a bar to pull up on to develop the chest further, and the shoulders and arms too:

Just one word of caution; don’t EVER lift a heavy bar like this next guy seems about to, unless you want to wreck your back:

Bend your knees and lift with a straight back, OK?

Still with the shoulders, but thinking of your oblique abdominals too, see if you can achieve the ‘human flag’ – it’s tough, but you’ll get there:

…and one more for those abs again – hanging leg lifts:

…but try to keep the legs absolutely straight.

That’s enough preaching.

We’re out of London Heathrow tomorrow just before noon headed back to Oak Ridge TN via Chicago and – guess what – Oak Ridge has SNOW! Arrgh! Fortunately, the weather prediction suggests a change to rain by Tuesday.

My son Leo is probably doing this, right now:

…it’s hard to keep a shirt or shoes on Leo, ever. I guess that’s his fitness-feak parentage on both sides of the gay divide. Dave’s daughter Jaymee, however, although a willing skinny dipper in the Clinch River, will probably be watching Leo from inside the house and just snorting ‘Huh!’ His best mate Chris will almost certainly be copying him, too.

Their mums mentioned in an e-mail that the youngsters have made a den in some derelict old barn nearby where they live. That probably has snow in it, too. And shirtless boys…

Whilst Dave and I (and our fitness friends) pride ourselves on our endurance of cold and wet as part of our training, because of the satisfaction it brings, we’re looking forward to warmer spring weather and meanwhile we’ll be training indoors:

(what clutter does that guy have on his wrists?)

Anyways, we can’t wait to get ourselves back into acrobatic training with all the guys after a month more or less on our own…

and, as soon as we get the chance, we’ll be lining them up and checking out their abs too:

So, as we get ready to head over the Atlantic courtesy British Airways and then south from Chicago with American Eagle, I’ll leave you a few more abs guys to admire and a suggestion for further reading which might enlighten you a little on our gay fitness-freak activities!

…now that’s ripped. Something for us all to aim for!