Well, still no gym for me today.
My shoulder/upper back/neck pain is still present and limiting movement. It’s a LOT better than yesterday due to sitting in what feels like exaggerated good posture and doing lots of stretching, but I’m not there yet.
I’ve been here before tho. It just takes time and stretching throughout the day.
This past Saturday was another fine day at KR Training. This time we held Basic Pistol 1 and Defensive Pistol Skills 1. It’s a bit of an unusual combination for a single day, but demand for classes has been high, especially these two classes.
Karl was at the 2013 Rangemaster Tactical Conference and Polite Society Match along with some others, but John, Tom, Greg, and I stayed behind to hold down the fort.
The hard part about both classes? The current run on ammo makes it hard to do things. We had to restrict BP1 students to fewer rounds, merely to ensure we had enough to go around. It’s a hard time to be getting into guns. 😦
Apart from that, Basic 1 went over as it usually does. I ran a station with “small guns” like a Kahr CM9 and an M&P Shield. I also had a full-sized M&P. In the end, it seems the point was made clear: small guns have a point, purpose, and place, but they are not a beginner gun. At this point you are trying to learn how to shoot, so why learn on something that’s harder to shoot? why fight the gun while you learn the fundamentals? Get a full-sized gun, learn to shoot. Once you can shoot, then you can learn a more difficult platform.
Otherwise, BP1 ran pretty smooth.
DPS1 had a few hiccups… the biggest of which was as soon as we got on the line and started shooting, one student’s gun broke. I’m not 100% sure what went wrong, but he couldn’t seat the magazine into his Bersa Thunder. Upon inspection, there were springs inside the mag well, one side grip panel had become detached from the side of the frame. It was gunsmith time. Not sure how it happened, it was nothing obvious, but it was total failure. Honestly, I’ve not been all that impressed with the Bersa’s we’ve seen in class, and that trend continues. I admit I’m seeing a small sample, but I also see small samples of other guns like H&K’s and Sigs and large samples of guns like XD’s, M&P’s, and Glock’s, and just don’t see the same track record as I have with Bersa’s.
At least he found out about it here, instead of when his life mattered.
We offered to let him borrow our M&P Shield (the most similar gun we had), but he said he didn’t feel comfortable making the switch and such, instead opting to reschedule for another time. Fair enough.
Otherwise, class was class. Eyes were opened, old habits died hard, and people got an introduction to what it’s really like and what skills are really needed.
Weather was great. Life is good.
I’m not.
It is deload week of cycle 17, and give my shoulder issues I was going to take things VERY easy this week and go twice. Something like on Monday do 5×10 squats with 50% weight, 5×10 bench with 50% weight, then maybe finish with 5×10 pendlay rows with lighter weight. And that’d be all. Then Thursday the same with 5×10 deads, 5×10 press, and 5xwhatever pullups. Or maybe I’d go Tuesday and Friday. I was going to wing it.
And wing it I shall…
Last night we were over at a neighbor’s house for dinner. They recently installed a zip line in their backyard for their kids, but it’s strong enough to hold an adult… so I gave it a run.
One run.
All I needed. 🙂
I don’t know exactly what happened… or maybe it started on the drive home from my in-laws earlier that day, sleeping in the car, and my head/neck being in a weird position, then the zip line just broke the camel’s back. I don’t know… but there’s some wicked pain when I try to move my head and neck in a certain way. Lifting isn’t going to happen.
But on the same token, I was stretching my head/neck/shoulder area in the car during the drive and finally got my neck to pop and turn in a way I’ve been needing for a while! I’ve just had some poor posture issues for a while, everything tightened up, and I’m slowly working my way back to being normal. I’m sure that is playing a part.
Anyways, I think today is going to be nothing but some stretching and rolling.
I think we need to reframe things.
We’re stuck in this “Democrat vs. Republican” or “Liberal vs. Conservative”, “Occupy” vs “Tea Party” mentality. Both in terms of how we look at things, and how we debate the issues.
It’s making us blind.
It’s dividing and making us weak.
We need to leave that behind.
It’s no longer about that, and cannot be.
Case in point.
There’s a pirate radio station here in Austin, Texas Liberty Radio. For ages I’ve seen the sign on Mo-Pac (a major highway running North-South through Austin) advertising it, and finally I tuned in to give me something different to listen to on my daily commute. The lady was talking about the dangers of the stuff in our food, specifically pointing out aspartame.
At the same time, I saw one of my “liberal” friends post about “Big Dairy’s” current move to put aspartame in milk. And the conversation goes on about the dangers of the stuff in our food, specifically pointing out aspartame.
These are two groups who, according to the old labels, are polar opposites and should never agree: the Libtards and the Teabaggers. But here they are, speaking out against the same thing. There are some minor differences, with the former talking about it more in terms of food supply and how it can mess with your body, and how the government is involved in a bad way. The latter is talking about it more in terms of how bad it is for your health, and the evils of big corporate lobbies having more influence over the government (than the people supposedly governed).
They are far more united than they are different. They both agree about the dangers of aspartame. They both agree that it’s bad for you. They both agree it’s bad to add it to food. They both agree that the government is playing a dangerous game here. They both agree the government cares more about money and power than about people.
Yes there are some differences, but that will always be the case so long as people are involved. But the more I listen to people on “both sides”, the more I see that we’re actually upset at the same thing: the consolidation of power in the hands of a few. These few tend to be involved in government, at the top of particular large corporations, and are more interested in growing their own wealth and power than caring for the people they are supposedly serving — because whether they are elected public servants (*cough cough*) or are CEO’s, they are supposed to be serving citizens or shareholders. Either way, they are to be servants, not greedy, lustful, power-hungry, self-serving.
We may differ on the specifics, but most all of us are in the same boat.
So instead of continuing to be divided along labels, why aren’t we being united by our issues? by our causes?
Are you willing to move beyond the division of labels, and unite in our causes?
Time to start being nice to my shoulders
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3
Despite my shoulder aches and pains, I still Pressed. Getting 5 reps with 145 is acceptable, given I got 5 with 140 last cycle. Looking back over past history, it’s certainly not the best I’ve done, but it’s in line and is progress back to where I started.
Certainly my technique is getting better. “Tight” is the cue I live by here… everything needs to be tight: grip, wrists, torso, glutes, lats, quads, hams… you name it, everything. Helps tremendously.
But that all said, I didn’t do much else today. I did some pull-ups, then a couple very-high-rep sets of pressdowns and hammer curls.
The interesting part? I finished off with a couple high-rep sets with very light weight of lateral raises. Why? Well, again it’s a shoulder thing. I want a little more delt work. I adore upright rows; they’ve always been a favorite, since I was a teenager, because they produce so much in the medial delts and traps (and some biceps and grip too, what’s not to like, right?). But there’s no question that it eventually causes me some shoulder pains. So I’m going to have to give them up, again. And while lat raises haven’t always been friendly to me either, well… I have some greater posture issues that I need to improve upon. If I am standing in a solid and proper posture, the lat raises work out ok. If they start to be weird, it’s a reminder to correct my posture. I think I may well keep lat raises in for a while… just VERY light and VERY high rep.
Next week is deload. Again, I think I’m going to do a heavy-duty deloading. I really want to give my body a rest. I may go only twice, and do like a squat/bench and dead/press thing with maybe like 5×10 with a 50% weight or something… and that’s all…. if even that. Maybe 3×10 or 5×5. Just something for the blood flow and warmth, and keeping the groove. But otherwise, Ir eally want to rest up.
Diet wise too… I’ll be keeping carbs fairly low until the Sunday evening prior to starting cycle 18. I’ll have a little carb after any workout, and I’ll have “normal carbs” with supper. But no splurging or anything and doing “heavy backloads” or the like.
Stuff From Hsoi 