Month: August 2011

2011-08-26 workout

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Today was mostly good.

“Week 3” 5-3-1

  • 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 220#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x90
    • 1x5x119
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x165 (work)
    • 1x3x190
    • 1x5x210
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 5 x 10 x 75
  • Asst. #2 – Leg curls
    • 3 x 10 x 25
    • 2 x 10 x 30
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

As I said, today was mostly good.

The squats went well. I’ve been reading more about things to improve squat technique, like this article from EliteFTS about “Set Up to Squat Huge“. While I’m not squatting huge, it’s still good for me and technique. Tightening up my whole body, keeping elbows down instead of back (like Rippetoe advocates, tho I see why he advocates it), which then allows me to bring my hands closer in and really tighten up the upper back… tho my elbows still feel a little sore even now at home. It’s all good. No I didn’t set a PR today, but that I’m squatting close to my PR but with MUCH better form is good in my book.

Jump rope? Had to stop. As I started my second iteration some of my leg joints gave me some pain in the bad way, so I figured it was better to err on the side of caution and stop.

Since WordPress.com decided to suck and logged me out while in the middle of writing this post, instead rewriting my original post I’ll skip to the key point: the assistance weight.

I bumped my squat assistance up by 10# and you can see I bumped my leg curl weight in the middle of the run. Even then both weights felt like they were pretty light and not pushing me hard enough. Of course, Wendler said to start very light, but that very light felt right at the time. Interesting that as my work weights are getting heavier I’d expect my muscles to get more exhausted and thus that same weight would feel “heavier” but that’s not the case. Maybe I’m just adapting to the program and workload, maybe I’m getting stronger, maybe it’s all in my head. Maybe something else, maybe a combination. I can’t say for sure. Nevertheless, I’m going to take a less dogmatic approach to my assistance work. I have specific reasons for the assistance work and if the weight isn’t getting me there, up it… don’t just stick to the number because that’s what the workout is to be. If that means I pyramid up and down because I work hard and can’t settle on just one weight, then so be it. Ideally yes I’d like to have 5x10xX weight across, but if that doesn’t happen then it doesn’t… more important is to get the sets, reps, and the right workout.

I may not totally start on that next week… next week is the “deload” week so while I want to work myself, I can’t kill myself. Still, I can start to experiment with greater weight on the assistance work, but I just may be a little conservative about it.

Sad

/ hsoi

A mother and dedicated Scout Leader is forced to resign her leadership position… because she’s gay.

Yeah I know… that’s BSA. They’re allowed to conduct themselves in this manner and that’s fine. But I don’t have to associate myself with groups and organizations that conduct themselves in this way.

According to the article, Denise Steele has been a Scout leader for 6 years. I’ll tell you, getting any parent to be involved as a volunteer in Scouting for more than a couple of years is awesome — 6 years is dedication and hard to come by. So we’ve got a person willing to put in the time, the effort, the love, the work, not just for her son but for all those boys. On top of that, Ms. Steele has been with her partner for 19 years. How many “straight” marriages last that long? So we’ve got a dedicated hard-working parent, and we’re going to throw that all out the door because she’s a lesbian. Heck, it’s not like any boys are in danger here…. *sigh*

Again, BSA is allowed to conduct themselves as they wish, but we don’t have to like it:

The big issue both Steele and Funk have with the situation is how it was handled by Inabinett. They both felt bullied, judged and put through emotional turmoil. “I think it’s disappointing – it’s a sad day for Boy Scouting. I think the actions are really out of sync of what scouting stands for,” Eric Ianson, a friend of Steele’s and an Eagle Scout said.

The scout law says a scout should be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind and obedient, thrifty, clean and reverent, Ianson said.

“I mean, when the leaders of the troop hear that, how does it feel? Were they loyal to Denise? It certainly wasn’t kind what they’ve done to her,” Ianson continued. “It absolutely isn’t brave. The brave thing to do would be to take a stand here and say this isn’t right, this person has been great to our kids and it’s time to stand up for her and be great for her.”

Even other assistant scout masters from Steele’s troop felt it was vindictive, like Joe Leonard.

“I saw that he was vindictive and on a witch hunt because he asked her personal friends what her sexuality was. There’s no business in that. It’s a shame that a good leader for the boys has been removed because of one person who’s eccentric when it comes to his religious belief,” Leonard said. “It’s also a sad not that [Boy Scouts of America] has not or is not willing to entertain what other private organizations have done and their beliefs.”

Like I said before… BSA seems more concerned about avoiding lawsuits and problems than it does about adhering to its foundational beliefs. Sad.

Motivation

/ hsoi

Arnold Schwarzenegger on motivation

Many of us cannot relate to his specific areas of bodybuilding, acting, politics. But it doesn’t really matter the venue because it’s all the same. It’s about what you want, and how bad you want it.

You got to get up and say, “I want to be a champion”.

You have to quest for the pinnacle. Everything you do must strive for that, including the sacrifices you must make. You must try, you cannot be afraid to fail. In fact, you must accept that somewhere along the way you will fail, but from that failure somehow you will grow and you will continue on your quest.

It’s all up to you.

 

Steve Jobs resigns

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Steve Jobs, founder and head of the “rebirth” of Apple, resigns as CEO.

Really, this is no surprise. Steve’s health has been deteriorating for some time, so it’s really never been a question of “if” but of “when”, and now we know. That he’s stepping down from day-to-day operations does make me believe his health is getting worse, so on a purely human (non-business, non-Apple) level, I do feel for the guy and hope things are OK for him.

On an Apple level… it’s really business as usual. One must consider that Apple is full of very creative people, and that folks like Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, Jonathan Ive, are really part of the whole picture. Heck, it’s been Tim Cook that’s been running Apple in many ways for some time now, and yes he makes logical sense to take over as CEO. Apple != Steve Jobs, Apple > Steve Jobs. Folks need to remember that.

Granted tho, Apple won’t be the same without Steve. From the original foundings and his drive for perfection, to his return and how it truly changed the world… sure, Apple in many ways wouldn’t be what it is if not for Steve Jobs. Heck, WWDC is going to seem a little odd without him on stage. But, things will go on. Hell… they’ve been predicting Apple’s demise every year for the past 20-30 years, so what’s new? 🙂

Thank you Steve. Get well, or at least, enjoy life.

Meantime, I’ve got Mac and iOS software to continue writing.

Blackouts coming?

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

ERCOT – Electric Reliability Council of Texas just issued a warning that there’s a risk of rolling blackouts across the state. (h/t Rog)

They are taking steps to avoid that, but it’s possible.

Consumers can help by shutting off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances, minimizing the use of air conditioning and delaying laundry and other activities requiring electricity-consuming appliances until later in the evening.

Um… I’m not so sure about minimizing the use of air conditioning. 🙂

Nevertheless folks, every bit helps. Check the press release as it contains a lot of simple things you can do to minimize power consumption. Every lightbulb adds up.

2011-08-24 workout

/ hsoi

Personal record blown out of the water!

“Week 3 – 5/3/1”

  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (180# working max)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x5x90
    • 1x3x110
    • 1x5x135 (work)
    • 1x3x155
    • 1x10x175 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – bench press
    • 5x10x85
  • Asst. #1 – Dumbbell row
    • 5x10x35
  • Metcon – jumping rope
    • 1 Tabata set – single hops

Wow. This was great! I set a great personal record today of 175 for 10 reps. I was floored. Last big weight I moved was on my last PPNP workout where I did 3x5x170. I felt strong there, but also only 5 reps and around 5 minutes of rest in between sets. Here, I’m just zooming along… all warmups only resting as much time as I need to change plates, and only taking maybe 2 minutes at most between work sets. I said to myself that because I was able to do 3x5x170 that there’s no reason for me to do less than 5 with 175, aim for 6. Well, I just felt like I could do more, so I kept doing more until I truly felt like there was only 1-2 left in the tank. And I just kept crankin’ and got 10 reps.

I was floored. 🙂

But it actually just reinforces to me that yes, I never got my bench press to the level it should be during my PPNP cycle, thus I started here very underpowered. Wendler says when you start a new cycle to bump your deadlift and squat by 10# and bench press and press by 5#. I figure for someone working at their max loads that’s right to do, and of course there’d be no harm in me doing that at this point either. However, I am going to bump my bench by at least 10# and maybe even 15# during my next cycle. I mean, according to 1RM formulas, using 180# as my work max put me at 203# for a 1RM. Using the same formula with today’s performance puts me at 233# for a 1RM and 210# as my Wendler working max. That’s a significant difference. I don’t feel the need to correct my squat nor my deadlift (they’ll just go up by 10#), but I do think the bench needs a bigger bump for this cycle.

Assistance bench… as you’ve seen on my progressions the calculations were really under any weight that allowed me to feel work, so I bumped it even higher today to 85#. That didn’t feel good either, but was better than before. I think 95# may get me there.

Rows was alright. I was tempted to go to 40# today because I was feeling so good, but glad I didn’t as I’m not quite ready for that. But I do think that’ll come in the next workout or two (maybe not next working merely because that’ll be deload week).

Rope jumping tho was ugly… well, not bowling-shoe-ugly, but I was tripping up more than I have been lately. Still a reasonable set tho, because I was working hard on keeping my feet and toes relaxed instead of tight the whole time. I know that may not seem like much, but it’s a quest to have my body as relaxed as possible, only recruiting the muscles that truly need to be involved. I noticed I kept my feet and toes stiff while jumping, and that’s not what I want.

Anyways, I feel good!

Weapon Shock Simulator

/ hsoi

Courtesy of NicTaylor00, the Weapon Shock Simulator from Ascendant Engineering Solutions.

It’s a company located here in Austin and Nathan got to tour their facility. The WSS simulates the recoil of an M4 thus reducing overall cost for testing optics (no need for live fire). Pretty cool.

There’s a video on their product page, along with a spec sheet. They need to make a YouTube version to help people share it, but still… the video’s kinda cool. Go watch. 🙂

Scaling targets

/ hsoi

Sometimes you want to practice shooting at X distance but your facilities limit you to shooting at less than X distances. What can you do? You can scale your target to simulate the distance.

The formula looks like this:

(PTH / ATH) * DTS = DfPT

PTH – printed target height, inches

ATH – actual target height, inches

DTS – distance to simulate, yards

DfPT – distance from printed target, yards.

I became interested in how to do this because I have limited space in which to perform dry fire practice. Where I have things set up, I have at at most 2 yards physically from where I can hang a target. I wanted to practice things like shooting the head A-zone on an ISPC target at 15 yards… but what did that look like? Sure I could guess and just make a tiny target (aim small, miss small, right?), but I wanted something fairly accurate to scale because there’s utility in that. So I found this formula.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say I wanted to scale down an IDPA target, which is 30.75″ tall (30″ shootable area, but we’ll account for the border too). So that means the ATH is 30.75. I only have 2 physical yards in which to work, so my DfPT is 2. Let’s say I wanted to simulate shooting the target at 7 yards, so my DTS is 7. That means my PTH is 8.79″. What that allows me to do is go into a graphics app, scale down an IDPA target to 8.79″ tall (and we maintain proportions), and print it up with my inkjet printer on 8.5″x11″ paper at the correct height to simulate my situation.

Given this, you likely want the formula in this format:

(DfPT / DTS) * ATH = PTH

where you calculate for the printed height. Given my recent work with the F.A.S.T. drill and desire to work on the press out, I wanted to print up a scaled target. A little bit of math later, and I printed up a target that was scaled to 4″ high ( (2/7)*14). Simple!

No, it’s not perfect. There’s still some spatial issues that will mess with your eyes, and when it comes to longer distance shooting you lose factors like effects of wind, gravity and velocity loss (e.g. simulating 1000 yards at 100 yards just isn’t the same as really shooting at 1000 yards). But sometimes simulation is the best you can do.

 

Scout leader fatally stabbed

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A Boy Scout leader was fatally stabbed while leading boys on a hike:

BUNKER HILL, Ind. (AP) — A 76-year-old man has been stabbed to death while leading Boy Scouts on a hiking trip in northern Indiana, and a suspect who battered his mother and killed a dog near the trail is under arrest, police said.

The assistant scout leader, Arthur L. Anderson, had stopped to identify a tree on the Nickel Plate Trail in Bunker Hill Sunday afternoon when an attacker approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck, Indiana State Police said in a statement. Witnesses told police the attack was unprovoked.

Anderson of Kokomo, Ind., died at the scene despite the efforts of medical personnel who responded to a 911 call. Police said he had been involved in scouting for 50 years.

A terrible thing. Seems to have been totally unprovoked.

In my time as a Scout leader I never encountered trouble like this, but there was potential for trouble. I recall camping at state parks with a group of drunken rowdy folks not too far from our sites. I recall pulling into one campground and seeing people working the grounds in black and white striped uniforms – prison work release and hopefully trustworthy, but still.

Bad things don’t stop happening because you’re in a “safe place” or with a “good group” of people. Bad things happen, terrible things happen. They can happen anywhere, at any time, to any one.

This is one problem I had with BSA policies and one reason why I had to walk away from the organization. BSA speaks so much about “youth protection” and keeping the kids safe. Of course, in BSA-speak that’s primarily caring about sexual molestation. Not to minimize that, but certainly there are other areas where Scouts need protection as well. It’s fortunate none of the boys were injured in the above-mentioned attack.

BSA policy formally prohibits the carry and use of firearms unless 1. it’s your job (i.e. a policeman on duty at a Scout event can keep his gun), 2. it’s specifically part of the BSA activity, and then you can only possess and use firearms within the scope of that specific activity. While BSA may have shooting sports, it’s become quite limited. I talk to people just a generation before mine that spoke of how it wasn’t a campout unless you brought your .22 rifle and every Scout slept with his in his tent. Now? No such thing and firearm access and use is strictly controlled. Within the rules that BSA lays down, one cannot legally carry a concealed handgun. In fact, in my last year with the Cub Scout pack I worked with, they changed their official policies to explicitly mention concealed carry and that it won’t be tolerated.

As a Scout leader, one duty I was charged with was the safety of those boys. If the sheepdog’s teeth are taken away, how well can he do his job? What sort of safe environment does that foster? And just how does it allow me to “Be Prepared”?

That’s my biggest beef with BSA. The tenets of Scouting seem to take a back seat to avoiding trouble and lawsuits. Maybe today “Be Prepared” means to have a good lawyer on retainer.