Month: June 2011

2011-06-20 workout

/ hsoi

Another day, another workout. I tell you tho, my motivation is so high that it’s hard to not want to just go into the gym. I think that’s a good sign that I’m so high on this. No idea if it’s just novelty of it all, if it’s because every workout sets a PR, if the program makes it so easy to see constant improvement and progression. Can’t say just what it is, but I tell you, I like it.

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x2x135 (should have been 130 but the way the gym was this morning it was easier to just slap the 45# plates on and be done with it)
  • 3x5x165

Weight continues to increase in 10# jumps, which is good from all indications of how the program is to progress. Yes, they continue to feel heavy, but nothing about today’s weight felt “scary” — it felt conquerable. When I was done, it felt awesome… and I could only think about Wednesday’s workout going to 175, and that if this rate keeps up I’ll break 200# before the end of the month. I don’t need to break 200# before the end of the month, because if I keep on the program, I’ll break it eventually… and that’s far more important, to just have constant progression.
Bench Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x2x115
  • 3x5x130

I’d be lying if I didn’t say my ego wanted me to just put 45# plates on the bar and do 135#… I mean come on, it’s just 5#, right? But no, greed is the enemy of this program. Be steady. Follow the program. I’ll be doing 135# on Friday anyways, right? So who cares. Long-term results, constant progression.
Chin-ups

  • 1x9xbodyweight
  • 1x7xbodyweight
  • 1x5xbodyweight

If you compare these numbers to last Monday’s numbers, it was an increase of only 1 rep. However, I finally remembered to really focus on the negative portion of the rep. So focusing more on the negative means more work/exhaustion to the muscles, and if even with that I did 1 more total rep than last time? That’s progress in my book.

I did look at the regular chin-up bar today and wondered if I should give it a try instead of doing these “inverted row” things. But no, let’s stick to the program… stick with the inverted rows until I’m hitting 3×15. I’ll get there.

Commentary

Nothing really much to add here. I’m finding my motivation high, my progress good. Strength is going up, my weight feels about steady but my belt feels a little looser. There’s no question I’m gaining strength and also muscle mass (I can see and feel it), so if the scales are about steady and the belt is looser I’m also losing some flab, which is desired. Just continuing to shovel the protein, eating some fruit, a lot of veggies, fat is adequate, and avoiding “empty” carbs (no pasta, almost no corn or potato chips, etc.). A quasi-paleo diet, tho I’m not excluding salt or dairy; in fact, dairy is a primary source for me. I’m not strict about that, but that’s the easiest way to describe what I’m eating.

All in all, going well and really enjoying this journey. It’s a fun ride.

My head asplode

/ hsoi

Yesterday I saw a Prius with both a “Repeal Obamacare” and NRA sticker on it. Couldn’t get a picture since I was driving.

I guess it’s all part of keeping Austin weird, or at least, busting stereotypes.

The Will to Prevail

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

KR Training Assistant Instructor and Houston Police Officer, Justin Galindo, posted the following videos and comments to his Facebook page:

Says Justin:

Interesting dramatized ad for body armor, but actually this a better ad for carrying a backup pistol. Watch the whole thing and you’ll see what I mean.

Then Justin posted this video:

Justin’s comment for the above video:

Contrast the difference between that last video and this one. Body armor is great, but I’d rather have a determined will to prevail and to win.

A good compare and contrast. In the former, she survived through equipment and luck. In the latter, he survived because of equipment, the will to live, the determination to fight and win.

Interesting coincidence. Prior to seeing Justin’s posts I was flipping channels on TV and “American Gladiators” was on. It was the woman’s Eliminator. Both contestants started about the same time, but one clearly was taking the lead and the other was struggling to keep up. The woman in the lead got to near the end where there’s that uphill reverse conveyor belt, and she tried, and tried, but kept failing to get over the top. Despite a huge gap between the two competitors, the other woman managed to catch up and go on to cross the finish line first — she wanted it more, she was determined to finish. Yes the first woman appeared to have physically run out of gas, but you could see in her eyes that she had just given up. Both women were physically spent, but the one that won had the will to prevail and win.

They need education, not ignorance

/ hsoi

An 8-year-old boy was shot by his 12-year-old brother.

 

Burnet Police say the two boys were home alone at the time of the shooting. The 8-year-old reportedly located the weapon involved, a .22 pistol. Police say his 12-year-old brother was attempting to put the weapon away when he accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting the 8-year-old in the leg.

 

 

Two things.

First, there’s the question of safe storage, which wasn’t touched on so I can’t speculate.

Second, both children are old enough and capable enough to operate a firearm (obviously). If you are going to keep firearms in your home, you should not just keep them away from your children — it’s a forbidden fruit issue, it’s a safety issue. You need to teach your children safe handling. We teach our children safety issues with electrical outlets, with water/soap and slipping in the bathtub, and just like any safety issue our children do better to be taught how to deal with it than kept ignorant of it.

Very small children should get the Eddie Eagle treatment of “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.” But older children should receive at least basic safety lessons on storage and handling. Kathy Jackson has a collection of excellent articles on Kids and Guns that I highly recommend you read.

 

More veggies

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

OMG!!!11!1!

Just picked up our second box of veggies from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. Wonderful lot of stuff in there, but the better part? The farm is having a big tomato sale and we picked up 40# worth: 20# San Marzano roma’s, 10# large slicers, 10# heirloom. Why so much? Because we could, and they were running a 50% off sale. We’ll cook the roma’s down for sauce. Kiddos just like eating tomatoes straight up so the slicers are good there. And darn it… I’ve never had heirlooms and thought I’d try it.

Wow.

The moment we got home I pulled one of each out, washed, sliced, and ate. I wanted to see how they all tasted. First up, they of course all tasted so much better than store-bought given how fresh they were and how long they got to stay on the vine. But those heirlooms… I have no idea what exact variety I tried but it was large and had a purple-ish hue to it. Very nice flesh inside. Wow. The flavor was deep, robust, wonderful. You go back to the slicers, which were wonderful in and of themselves, and they just paled in comparison. It was delicious.

After that, Wife and I washed more veggies and made a salsa. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. We will work on perfecting the recipe as we go along; wasn’t perfect, but was still good.

So… so… so… good.

We have 2 more boxes left to go. I’m pretty sure I’m going to renew. I think I’m growing curious to see what will come as the season changes… like in the winter.

Condolences

/ hsoi

Matt Billingsley, owner of the Lone Star Gun Range, passed away today. From the LSGR Facebook page:

FOR THOSE WHO KNEW AND LOVED MATT BILLINGSLEY OWNER OF THE RANGE……HE PASSED AWAY TODAY IN A HEAVY EQUIPMENT ACCIDENT. WE WILL HAVE FUNERAL INFORMATION POSTED SOON. HE WILL BE MISSED SO MUCH.

Terrible news. I used to go out to LSGR in its earlier days, and I really liked how things worked there, especially the 25 yard range close to the office where you could shoot, move, use carbines and handguns to work on movement, transitions, etc.. It was pretty nice. I did stop going because some time ago Matt had to put a policy in place where you couldn’t collect brass — I understand why he did it tho, because it was just after Obama came into office, components were in short supply, so some people were picking up every piece of brass they could find instead of just picking up their own, which cut into the range’s ability to harvest brass to resell to help keep range costs lower. I didn’t blame Matt and probably would have done something similar if I was in his shoes. But between that and the fact the range was growing in popularity so I couldn’t practice there the way I liked to (i.e. I needed a range to myself so I could shoot and move, etc.) well… I stopped going. Never was an issue on Matt’s part tho. He always came across as a good, stand-up guy, working hard to build a business, a successful range, and by all indicators he was doing a heck of a job. He was always nice to my kids when we were out there too. Nothing but respect for the guy.

My condolences to his family, friends, and associates.

2011-06-17 workout

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Remember how I mentioned a mental shift? Just more evident today as I put 10# more on my squat.

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x2x120
  • 3x5x155 (work)

These felt heavy, heavier than ever before and I felt it. But, instead of the brain going “oh shit, this is heavy! what the hell are you doing?! you’re going to kill yourself” the brain was going “Oh shit, this is heavy! That’s awesome! You’re going to pound out those reps and when you rack that bar you’ll have set a new PR (personal record). Hell yeah!”. It starts the same, but finishes in a much better state of mind. I came. I saw. I lifted more weight than last time. 🙂

The bar moved a little slower than the last workout, but not much that I’m going to care (I slept a little crappy last night); I’ll still bump up 10# next workout. It was a little more challenging for sure, but it really forced me to mind form — especially the hip drive, lifting the butt up first, keeping chest up, and so on. It also forced me to think about exploding and driving harder. All good things.

Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x3x50
  • 1x2x60
  • 3x5x75 (work)

These work sets didn’t get much rest between them. I know I’m far from my “potential” in the press, but I think that’s good. I can feel that while I have the gross idea of the movement down, it’s just not wired well into my body yet, but that stands to reason since I haven’t done a lot of presses in this workout yet and furthermore I haven’t done presses in this style well… ever. So my neural pathways are still adapting and adjusting, and frankly, using moderate weights at this stage is good because I’m seeing how it becomes more critical as the weight gets heavier (relative to what I can lift, see my squats). So, slow and steady progress here is fine.

Pull-ups

  • 1x9xbodyweight
  • 1x8xbodyweight
  • 1x6xbodyweight

Someone else was using the Smith machine so I just put a bar on the lower pegs of the squat rack at about the same height as I’d use on the Smith machine (i.e. the lowest I can go that still allows me to hang from the bar and not have my back touch the ground). Not sure if that made any difference in things, but there we go.

Felt good, more explosive on these. I did realize I was exploding up and just “coming down”… forgot to focus on the negative reps. Dang it. Oh well.

Commentary

The workout felt good. Things are getting heavier, but not too heavy. I’m still progressing at what appears to be a good rate. I’m still learning the motions. I’d like to make some time this weekend to watch through the Starting Strength DVD again to catch any form details and refresh myself on some things, especially regarding the press. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some time to do this, but it’s a busy weekend ahead.

I do like my mental paradigm shift. It’ll play well into everything in life.

I like my diet too. Heck, Wife bought me a bunch of steaks, not rib eyes or other top top cuts, but still good sirloin and such. Just a simple seasoning, then cook it, and cut it into about 6-8 oz portions and into the fridge it goes. Won’t last me long, but it’s sure a nice break from shoveling down cans of tuna. 🙂  I’m also wondering if I have lost a little fat weight. I see my weight dropped a bit on the scale, but more importantly my waistband feels a little looser than it was feeling. This is a tough line to walk, where I’m trying to ensure I build muscle and strength but letting my flab be fuel so it gets burned off. I also am needing to find a new multivitamin. I was just taking the store brands, like the Costco general multi and right now Centrum… reason is that before, that’s all that was needed and geez, the Costco bottle is 500 tablets so it lasts you a while.  As well, we were trying to find adult vitamins for the kids to take (i.e. beyond Flintstones, something more complete) but they were hard on their stomachs so that’s why the Centrum was lying around. I’m too cheap to discard them, but coming to the end of it. And I know working like this, I need something more than just your “100% RDA” junk. So I’m trying Universal Nutrition’s Animal Pak (1 packet a day). Yeah yeah, don’t give me any shit over it. The composition is reasonable and the price really isn’t all that bad. I’ve been curious to try their products and so let’s see how this does for me (took first pack this morning). If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll probably switch over to AST 32x or even Beverly’s Super Pak (which is actually kinda expensive). I want vitamins, minerals in doses more appropriate for the workload, I don’t want lots of herbal whatnot gimmicky stuff (e.g. lots of GNC stuff, Opti-Men). We’ll see. No harm in experimenting and finding what works for me. If it all winds up being 6 of 1 and half-dozen of the other, I’ll go with what’s cheapest.

Strong is useful.

Mental Toughness

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

An article by Jackson Yee on Mental Toughness.

Fear is a needed quality to develop mental strength. By facing fear, you learn courage. Being fearless is a misconceived trait. As admirable as being fearless can be, it isn’t realistic nor does it provide any benefit to being a mentally tough beast. Being threatened by fear is the catalyst for you to strike! Confronting fear with brave actions is how you get tough.

Fear is an emotional response. At times, fear is irrational and blown out of perspective. It is not easy getting over any shattering experiences, but with guts and determination, you can get over any painful ordeal. Life is full of disappointments and letdowns. When we don’t get what we want, the consolation is that we gain experience. This doesn’t seem like a worthwhile prize, but see how the adversity can enlighten you. If may not be obvious, but look hard at any opportunity for personal growth. Take in the life lesson and move on.

A lot of wisdom in the article, applicable no matter what the context in life.