Deload.
But I opted for a “jack shit” deload. No gym. I stayed home, slept in (!), then just did some rehab-type work. Did my shoulder mobility work, a bunch of foam rolling, stretching, some bodyweight stuff (e.g. a lot of lunges). Just got my body moving, but no major stress on it.
Not sure if I’ll do this all week or just today. Will take each day as it comes.
What’s swirling in my head about where I’ve been and where I’m going.
If you’ve read what I’ve been writing lately, there are things going on in my life affecting my health and my perspective. It’s minorly physical health, mostly mental and emotional health. I continue to grow weary of negativity, of poor perspective. I’m trying to improve some of this for myself, and also culling things from my life that are unappealing, or don’t otherwise aid in growth.
So with that, I think it’s time for a deload. I really don’t want to take one because well… it’s deloading. It’s rarely fun. 🙂  But I think I need it so I don’t get myself to a point where I am forced to take one because something goes too far. Taking a chance to impose some recovery is just how it will have to be. In fact, I wondered if this might be a “Jack shit” deload, and I just sleep a lot, foam roll, stretch, eat protein and fat and minimize carbs the whole time, maybe do some bodyweight work, but basically do nothing else for a week and see how my body takes it.
I keep flipping through 2 books: Wendler’s latest, “Beyond 5/3/1“; and Brandon Lily’s “The Cube Method“. I found myself already doing some of the things Wendler put into the Beyond book, which stands to reason as the book is somewhat a collection of things that he’s already put out over the past year or two. But it’s also got a lot of new things in there. Joker Sets are a good example, and I think I can find a place for them. Because you see, I keep thinking about how Cube requires a (mock) meet at the end of the cycle to retest your 1RM’s and set up for the next cycle. It’s a slight problem for me because I don’t quite have the means for proper 1RM testing. I don’t have training partners, and while the gym equipment is good for most “fitness” needs, it doesn’t quite serve my heavier lifting needs. If I had a real power rack I’d be fine. If I could, I could put safety pins at the bottom of the bench press and also bring up the pins a hair more so dumping the bar during a squat wasn’t quite such a yoga-inducing experience. I have been looking at some ways to maybe make it work, and I think I might get there. But Cube just comes off like if you don’t really know your proper maxes, you may not get the right ends out of the program. But with Joker Sets, I just might find another way to finagle things to help me get closer, given my context.
Of course the flip side is I just start going to Hyde Park Gym because they have all the right equipment, plus strongman stuff. I think I could even use chalk!
But for now, here’s where I remain. I think in some regard I vacillate between wanting to change and wanting to stay the course. It takes time to really know how things are working out, and I cannot deny when I see progress. So if it’s working, do I need to change? And if there’s a need for change or a desire to change, why? Just to be different? or to solve an issue? Gotta examine why I want change.
I think one change I want now is to bring in some sort of dynamic work. It’s not so much wanting to see what things like “dynamic effort” method work can do, tho certainly I’m curious how that would play out since I’ve never done any true DE work. It’s more that all this slow work I think is too slow. 🙂  Here’s an example. When I park my truck, I always engage the parking brake, which is done via a pedal pushed by my left foot. When I push it, I feel some weird achy pain in my knee. But when I started doing work like the farmer’s walks, the elliptical work, that pain went away. I found when I did more with my body than just “slow lifts”, things don’t feel so bad. Remember, my primary reason for this is because I don’t want to become decrepit; it’s about my health and getting around in life, not trying to break world records on the platform. If doing some more dynamic/explosive work can help me out, great! It’s perhaps also why strongman stuff holds some appeal to me, because there’s a lot of practical movement there, not specialized movements of weighted bars, y’know?
Hence, let’s try power cleans. But I must admit, now that I’m trying them I’m not sure they will accomplish what I’m after, so I may drop them after a few more sessions with them. My use of them now will be light and “more”, meaning whereas it’s generally recommended to do things like 5 sets of 3, I might do 5 of 5 or 5 of 8 just to get more reps and more feel for it, especially since I am using light weights. It might be better to do true DE-style work, which then gets me back to where Cube comes in. But Beyond 5/3/1 has a listing that puts some dynamic work in, and that might be interesting to try for a cycle or two.
Anyways, for now I am enjoying some minor changes that simplify things.
I am enjoying going back to a BBB-style template, keeping things simple. Just a couple exercises/movements, hit the basics, be done with it. Adding all the back work in I think is also going to be good for me. I’m still finding the right proportions, but so far so good. I do think supersetting with an exercise that works in the opposing plane is right. So that is, on bench days I bench and row, but superset the bench with pullups. That is, bench and row are both in one plane of movement and pullups are perpendicular (if you will). My shoulders appear to not complain so much when I do this. This also means I can drop some of the additional arm/shoulder/back work, because this should be enough.
The “6 week cycle” I like. That is, you run 1 cycle, skip the deload, bump the weights up, hit another cycle, and 7th week is a deload. Part of the reason I am bummed to deload now is again poking at the Cube. Cube runs for 9 weeks, so how would this pan out for me? Can my body handle 9 weeks? So I wanted to do 3 cycles in a row, but I have to remember that since I only go 3 days a week, whereas a normal 5/3/1 cycle is 4 weeks, mine are 5, so I’ve effectively done 8 weeks. I’m sure I could handle a 9 week Cube cycle since they do lay out differently. So thinking about it now as I write this, well, isn’t so bad now. 🙂
I also think that adding Joker Sets in is good. I’m not sure I can do it regularly. But I think if I make the last sets of my last cycle (before deload) contain Jokers, that would be a lot of fun and quite telling. For now I will plan on them.
As for my fat shedding.
CBL isn’t happening for me. At least, not strictly. I am keeping with a carb-cycling tho. That is, I am keeping CBL-inspired and guided for the most part. But if I need some extra carbs on the weekend to get through because my body is screaming at me? I’ll eat something. I have learned to listen to my body and if it really needs it, I’ll give it. I need to operate on many levels, beyond just lifting. I need to be fully functioning when I’m on the gun range because students count on me and there are safety matters to contend to, so screwing with blood sugar isn’t always a sound thing, y’know? 🙂  I’m seeing very slow progress on the fat loss front because of this, but it at least seems to be happening. So if it takes me many months, fine. If this means I can adopt a protocol that works for me and I can live with for life, great. That’s better than any sort of gimmick diet program, y’know?
So we’ll see how it goes.
When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that starts now.
The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!
KR Training Assistant Instructor Greg Howard pointed this article to me: Why Nine.
It’s a lot of the same caliber war rehash. I’ve said it before, I’ve said it again, I’ve said it a third time, spoken on 9mm and it goes on.
All pistol rounds suck.
I did like one thing from the article:
All other things being equal, the bigger the bullet the better
The problem with that caveat is that nothing else is equal. No other “big boy” caliber handgun will carry as many rounds as a comparably sized 9mm and none of them are as easy to shoot as a 9mm.
Because the “all things being equal” line comes up all the time, but rarely does it follow up with the reality that everything else isn’t equal. So when you put it all together, it’s really hard to make the case for anything other than 9.
Speer Gold Dot 9mm Luger 124 grain +P (part #23617). Works for me. It’s about as good as you’ll get, even if Tom Givens likes to jokingly refer to it as .38LR. 🙂
Now can we move on and talk about more important matters?
I do not live my life in a typical way. Of course, what is “typical”, but here it tends to mean that those around me whose lives intersect with mine in some meaningful way… my life doesn’t follow their same patterns.
I get a lot of grief and backlash because of it.
Overall I don’t mind because I am generally fine with the choices I make for myself and my family. But I cannot deny that it gets old constantly dealing with it.
People cannot accept me as I am (and disagree), they must agree with me (meaning what I do must intersect with their choices, outlook, morals, ethics, etc.)… else somehow I’m the one that’s fucked up.
I do understand this mentality and approach, it’s very human. It’s how we tend to deal with that which is “different”.
I guess what gets really old is where people focus their attention: they focus on what they see as wrong, instead of what they could see is right.
For example, our choice to homeschool our kids. People focus on the “S” word… socialization. Won’t your kids miss out? Won’t they have friends? What about as they get older, prom? Oh, I feel so bad for all the things your kids won’t get to do.
And that’s what so many people focus on, and the only thing they see: what they won’t do. Or rather, what they perceive they won’t do.
They don’t see the wonderful education. They don’t see the options in teachers and curriculum. They don’t see our kids are actually learning, not just learning how to take a test. They are developing, not just trying to pad their achievement list to compete for college entry. They don’t see the lessons they learn in how to interact with people of all ages. They don’t see the leadership taken on by the older children as they help the younger children. They don’t see how instead of spending all day locked in a classroom, eyes front, stop being creative, conform, do as you are told… that they can have freedom, they can efficiently complete their work then spend the remainder of their day exploring other avenues (how else did Daughter get to be such a great artist?). The list can go on.
So many people are concerned about what we miss out on, they don’t realize themselves what they are missing out on in their perceptions. It doesn’t matter who you are and what you do in life, you cannot have it all. You will not experience everything, and there’s going to be far more things you will miss out on than you will experience. Instead of focusing on what you miss out on, why not focus on what you are gaining?
We don’t make the choices in our life because we want to miss out on things. No, we make choices because we see an overall gain. Oh sure, there may be some downsides to the choice, but we only choose to do things if in the end it’s a net gain. Why is this constantly overlooked? Why are we looked at for what we’re losing, instead of what we’re gaining?
We should not overlook loss, negatives, downsides, etc.; these are important aspects of the evaluation process. What needs to be remembered is they are not the only things to look at; you must look at the gains and upsides too. You must remember that if someone makes a choice, they likely did it because they see the most benefit from that choice over all other possible choices. Seek to understand and see their (potential) gains, instead of merely dwelling on your own cognitive dissonance.
I think I like Joker Sets.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 22, week 3
I decided today would also be a Joker Set day. Why not?
One weird thing was on my PR set (145) I wrapped my wrists. Again, feeling a little pressure pain on my wrists, so a little extra support isn’t bad. But this was very strange feeling. I never wrap my wrists when pressing, and the angles were all different. It set up and rested and moved in a very different plane. Threw me off. I wasn’t expecting it, and then all my brain wanted to do was focus on how it was different and analyze it all… instead of just moving the weight. So I racked it at 5 and moved on.
155. Fine. 165 just didn’t happen. I tried, racked it. Tried again. No go.
I did learn something tho. I really really need to work on being full-body tight when I Press. I often don’t get that until after the first rep, and what good is that? I’m thinking the Joker Sets are going to teach me a lot, because heavier weights towards your max are going to demand everything being just right.
On the cleans… I dunno. I put 95 on the bar, pulled from the floor, felt like an uncoordinated doofus. Changed to just do hang cleans until I got the idea. Then dropped the weight at the end and didn’t feel so uncoordinated. I’m not getting under the bar, the snapping of my arms hurts my elbows. I know it’s just my technique having no clue right now. I’m debating sticking with it or not. I’m not sure they will accomplish what I’m wanting… that I might do better just doing pure dynamic work. I don’t know. Mulling things over. I have nothing against cleans and do think I should give them a fair shot before I write them off. But I know what my goals are and just have to see what will get me where I want to be.
I was so close to squatting 300#, but I had to reset my weights and technique because it was time.
Hey, we all have ego, and getting so close to that milestone then having to fall back… it’s a blow.
I’ll admit, part of me wants to squat over 300 because it just comes across better – three instead of two. Because even 299 isn’t as impressive as 300, despite the fact you’ll never notice the 1# on your back. It’s the same mental games as why they price things at $2.99 instead of $3.00.
300 feels like I’m being more serious, like I’ve accomplished more. When you have world-record raw squats over 1000#, when you have elite guys doing 700, 800, 900 pounds. Even when typical squat strength standards for someone of my weight is in the 400’s for advanced and 500’s for elite… you feel like 200? That’s not much, but 300 is just closer.
But I have to stop only looking forward. I should look the other way too.
We have so many people in our society that cannot bend over or squat down to pick something up off the floor. I see people struggle to just go up and down a step. I’m not talking elderly people. I’m not talking people with extraneous physical limitations (e.g. in a wheelchair). I’m talking young people. I’m talking about people too overweight and too out of shape. We sit behind desks all day long and our body goes to crap.
comparatively speaking, squatting 200# is a hell of an accomplishment.
It took me more than two decades of struggle to climb to those numbers. Regardless of how they compare to anyone else’s, they are mine, and I’m proud of them. I put in a lot of time and effort to reach them. I do not apologize for not “measuring up” to what someone else can do. The only person I need to measure up to each day, and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror. That guy needs to be better today, than he was yesterday. And tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.
I do it. I know lots of people do it, and have it done to them. Numbers are looked at compared against the upper echelon. There’s something to this as that’s how (world, national, state, gym) records are made. It also helps us see what we as humans are able to do and how much further we’re able to push ourselves and better ourselves. It shows how long the road is that we can choose to travel down: we can have a life-long journey, if we wish. But sometimes, it’s important to also turn around and look back at where you came from, and realize how far you’ve come.
To follow up on my prior article, “You have to accept you have to wait” comes an article from Jason Ferruggia that attempts to answer the question, “How Much Muscle Can You Gain Naturally?”
I like how the article looks at some guys and does the math on what they actually gained.
It’s a lot less than you think.
My point here (even if all the numbers aren’t exact) is that the guys with some of the greatest muscle building genetics in the world have gained fifty pounds of muscle in their lifetimes. Think about that for a second.
What this means is that if you’re the average skinny-fat guy who weighs 160 at 5’10” with 18% bodyfat you’re never going to be over 200 pounds. If you do hit that milestone you’ll be fat.
I don’t know if I ever really thought about the weight aspect, especially when you factor in trying to be lean. Many of the top pro bodybuilders look totally jacked, tons of meat slabs on their frame, and yet… they aren’t over 200# (often because they’re also short). So while the notion of “heavyweight” tends to mean being over 200-225 lbs. (depending who you ask), most of us just won’t get there.
The article also talks about the speed of the gains, and like anything they come on quickly at first, then really slow down.
So you don’t just have to wait, but you have to realize there’s only so much that can be done. But also don’t let the numbers be unrealistic. To slap 30# of beef on your frame is actually quite a lot of muscle. So tell you what: take a picture and your weight/measurements now. Put in the time and work to take that 30# of muscle. Take another picture and weight/measurements. We’ll talk again then. 🙂
Achievement unlocked: 4 wheels (405#).
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 22, week 3
Walked into the gym feeling fine. I gave myself permission to jack-shit it today, but figured if I felt good enough I would do the deficits because I actually like them and feel they are paying off. Today’s effort was validation.
I was only supposed to work up to 355. My 3rd rep started to break form, but I wanted a 4th so I went for it tho the form wasn’t hot. I wanted to do more and on a whim opted to try Joker Sets. I hadn’t given it a thought prior to that moment, but went for it.
In short, Joker Sets are doing your normal workup, including still pushing for reps on the last set. Then, you add 5-10% and keep going with the reps for that week (e.g. 5 reps on the 5 week, singles on 5/3/1 week, etc.). Add another 5-10%, and just keep going until you can’t make the reps, tho you need to stop just short of failure. There’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the gist. Wendler covers it in his “Beyond 5/3/1” book.
I opted for 20# jumps because that was about right, and easy enough to just throw a dime on each side of the bar and keep going for singles. 375 wasn’t too bad. My PR at the time was 380×3, so going to 395 felt good. Screw it… that close to 4 wheels? Let’s go for it.
Pulled it. And it was awesome. 🙂
I took a video and compared it to how I felt during the lift. No, the form was not textbook pretty. It’s not the form I’ve been focusing on to help bring up my weak points. But the form really wasn’t all that bad and would be a “good lift”. I can say without a doubt that I would not have done this before my reset. My form them was so bad this would have been a struggle and I am not sure I would have broken the floor. But all the work I’ve been doing for stricter form, keeping the back proper and making it more of a push with the legs than a pull with the back, the deficit deadlifts, and probably even the pause squats and ensuring I break depth on squats… I think it all added up and paid off.
So, hell yeah! 🙂
I actually realized I went from 395 to 405, when the jump should have been to 415, but I was really focused on the 4 wheels and felt that was good enough. I’d rather make 405 than miss 415 anyways.
I’m thrilled! I’m still floating on the high from the success.
That said, I am not going to adjust my weights to use 405 as my max and recalc my numbers. I know I got here because of the focus on form, so I’ll stick with the sub-max work and stricter form to bring things up. There’s no question that paid off, and frankly that’s more important to me than a 1RM. But, I’ll still be happy with the lifetime PR!
The KR Training July-August e-news is now out.
Karl makes some good commentary about the changes to the Texas CHL laws and minimum standards.
Stuff From Hsoi 