Author: hsoi

2016-07-22 training log

/ hsoi

It just keeps going. Huzzah.

Pressing doesn’t hit that 10-rep threshold because it was THE one thing that had a true 1RM figured out. But I’m still hitting more weight, more reps, everything going up and progressing. So hey… great!

As well, my setup is getting better. One thing I did today was letting out just a tiny bit of air after I unracked the bar. That was ok and helped, but it was also bad because I did loose a little. Next time I’m going to try the opposite: start with maybe 90-95% air, then unrack, then give a slight inhale. It may be a little tougher to do right, but we’ll see. Point is, I’m finally getting a better setup with Press. I still have work to do on it, but it’s getting there.

A few other changes.

I’ve been feeling some elbow discomfort, so chins are just a problem. I don’t want to stop chinning, so in between sets I would just examine different grips and how it felt against my joints. In the end? Standard pronated-grip pull-ups. I also reduced my reps today, just by a couple per set, so I got some work but didn’t beat myself up too much.

Finally, extensions went back to a prior form. I used to lower the bar behind my head. Then I changed to lower to my forehead. But I’m going to go back to behind the head. To the forehead seems to cause me more elbow issues than behind the head. As well, to the forehead doesn’t give me as much range of motion — nor a consistent range of motion — because I’m trying to not bash in my forehead. When I go behind my head, the range is always the same because there’s a better index point for the bottom of the movement. It also didn’t cause me any elbow issues that I can remember.

So with that…..

To press forward another 3 weeks or deload?

I’m going to press forward, but I suspect 9 weeks will then require a deload before I go again (but I’ll make that call in 3 weeks).

I’m going to make only minor adjustments to the program. Everything’s generally working, so why change? My body hasn’t adapted, things aren’t slowing down, progress continues at a crazy rate, so don’t change anything. The minor changes I will make are like the above: changing pull-ups instead of chin-ups, changing my triceps work slightly, all to avoid aggravating my elbows. But that’s all the changing.

So, onwards!

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

  • Press
    • bar x whatever
    • 60 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
    • 75 x 5
    • 90 x 3
    • 115 x 5 (work sets superset with pull-ups)
    • 130 x 3
    • 145 x 8 (8RM PR)
  • Close-Grip Bench Press
    • 135 x 5 (sets superset with pull-ups)
    • 160 x 5
    • 180 x 5
  • V-Bar Pulldowns
    • 110 x 20
    • 110 x 16
    • 110 x 12
  • Face Pulls
    • 100 x 20
    • 100 x 18
    • 100 x 14
  • Lying Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
    • 60 x 20
    • 60 x 15
    • 60 x 12
  • Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
    • 55 x 20
    • 60 x 12 (whoops! forgot to strip off the 2.5s!)
    • 55 x 12

2016-07-21 range log

/ hsoi

Not only did I hit the gym this morning, but I also hit the range for some practice.

While I enjoy live fire work, I have to remember that the work comes in dry-fire practice and all live fire is is validation. Where am I doing well? Where am I improving? Where do I still suck? Where do I need work? It’s also a time to explore, experiment, and push.

Karl’s been pushing me towards getting my USPSA classification (finally). I’m on the road to “B” class, and I must admit it’s been showing me a lot of things where I just suck and have room to improve.  The particular things Karl’s had me working on have certainly improved my skills already, but much of that’s been doing stuff from a gaming rig (holster, pouches, etc.). Today, I wanted to see how well those skills were translating back to my carry gear.

This past Sunday before class I had a little time so I went to the steel range and worked on my drawstroke. I set up on a 12″ steel plate at 10 yards, set the timer to a random start, and off I went. I was consistently getting 1.4 second draws from IWB holster and concealment (rip up my shirt). I could push and get 1.2 or 1.3 draws, but inconsistent. Sometimes I missed my grip, so while the index then was good, the gun was out of alignment and I’d miss. Or the converse, that I’d realize the gun was off, take the moment to adjust, and then get a 1.5-1.6 draw. And sometimes I just went faster than my eyes would handle it. But really, I’m happy with this because that sort of draw time is something I’ve been striving for — at any distance, on any size target — and just haven’t been consistent in nailing. So I’m getting there. A large part of it is certainly due to working from the gaming rig and getting those 0.9-1.0 second draws at 3-5 yards to the A-Zone. So I’m pleased.

So coming into today’s session, I wanted to shoot drills where points and time affected score. So things like Comstock or Vickers count, etc..

Started with the 3M Test, which is a favorite diagnostic. I actually did pretty crappy here. I was getting OK draws (e.g. 1.6-ish), about .25 splits, about 1.75-ish on the malfunction, but then the reloads would run 3-4 seconds. BLAH. I can do this drill in 8 seconds, but was not doing it today. I spent some time looking at what one could shoot this in, and rough numbers… a 6? I only did rough figuring, but point is that one can do this much faster. Granted, according to Tom’s scoring, shooting it clean in 10.5 seconds (125 score) is “very high skill”, so I’m exceeding the top-end scoring here… but still, I’d like to work on getting this drill down to 7 seconds. While I certainly can work on shaving time off on the draw, the splits, etc., the biggest time-sink for me is the reload.

There will be a theme.

I switched to shoot the Gila Hayes 5×5 drill just to give me some perspective. That was fine, and I did it with the Claude Werner “and do it 5 times”.

I then went on to the Rangemaster Core Skills. I scored a 98 on it (par is 100). But this is a big improvement over the last time I shot it (80). I ran into similar issues here, that I can pick up a little time here and there by getting my draw and splits down a little bit (e.g. I was creeping up on 0.4-0.5 splits as the distance increased, and about 1 second splits at 15 and 25). But more than these little things, it’s some bigger things, like the reload. As well, drawing at longer distances, because I’d take too long to set up at 15 and 25 yards.

Before I called it a day, I shot the Rangemaster Instructor Qualification. Got a 240 out of 250 (25 yards – my nemesis).

So, much to take from this in terms of what to work on:

  • Continue to work on my drawstroke. At shorter distances, continue to reinforce the mental picture of what an acceptable sight picture is. Work more at longer distances to find that sight picture. While I should work some at 25 yards and such, I think right now focusing 7, 10, and 15 yards is enough.
  • As well in the drawstroke, work on nailing the grip, maintaining a crushing grip throughout. When I did the SHO and WHO shooting, I was crushing the hell out of the gun, and while I was a little slow (because I was focusing hard on ensuring sights and trigger), I only dropped 1 WHO shot — grip grip grip. Crush hard.
  • Do more 25 yard group shooting.
  • Reloads. Reloads. Reloads. If there’s any place I could make a dramatic improvement in my times, it’s here.

So in terms of dry work, I think the next couple weeks will focus on draw on various size targets, especially those simulating 7-15 yards. And reloads, reloads, reloads.

BTW I should say, what’s my goal in all of this?

I’d like to get to USPSA “A” class. I could be wrong in this — and please correct me if I am — but my assessment feels like “A” class is pretty good for my situation. What then comes for “M” and “GM” is being able to be consistent, and consistent in playing the game. That is, “A” class has really good skills overall. But now you need to apply them within the context of the game: stage planning, and other “gaming” aspects. Plus the time and dedication to put into developing and progressing towards this very specific end. Nothing against those things, but it’s not my interest right now. Of course I say this and who knows — I get to “A” and then I may just feel the thirst for “M”. I mean, I wasn’t motivated to get my classification at all, but now that I’m on the road for it and seeing what I’m learning from it… gee if I ain’t anything but motivated to get there. 🙂 Either way, gotta get to “A” first, so first things first.

2016-07-21 training log

/ hsoi

It just keeps rolling!

Much deadlifting today. 10RM set.

One thing I’m trying to do with my deadlifting is get “back” more. When I set up, my hips tend to be a little high, because I am stronger at pulling with my back than my legs. I notice when I do this, my weight is forward — I’ll feel the pull more towards the front/ball of my foot than the mid-foot. So I’ve really been working on trying to get my hips lower, start lower, push “through my heels” (which may actually get me mid-foot), and to “pull backwards” like I’m trying to fall backwards. It’s all mental cues, but the goal is to get the weight moving up the mid-foot and to be using my legs more. Yeah, I could probably pull more if I leveraged my back more, but I’m trying to build my legs up so….

And today I did something I hadn’t in ages: used a mixed grip. I’ve been double-overhanding it and been quite happy. But I figure as the weights get heavier, as the gym keeps being so humid and sweaty, I better start to mix-grip it. I only did it on the last set and it threw me a little bit because it was an unfamiliar feeling and I didn’t have my hand placement just right so the bar was a little unbalanced (not much, but just a wee). But no big deal; just tells me to mix-grip it on my work sets from here out, need it or not, to get back to it.

Front squats went well.

But all the assistance work — yeah, this is what I need to reexamine to figure what I’m really going to get benefit from or not. Much thinking.

Anyways, damn good day. And with sleep being better (been napping a lot the past few days, and had a very good night sleep last night), I’m feeling good towards going another 3 weeks before I deload.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

  • Deadlift
    • 135 x 5
    • 165 x 5
    • 195 x 3
    • 245 x 5
    • 280 x 3
    • 310 x 10 (10RM PR)
  • Front Squat
    • 150 x 5
    • 175 x 5
    • 195 x 5
  • Elevated Glute Bridges (superset with crunches)
    • BW x 10 (each leg)
    • BW x 10 (each leg)
    • BW x 20 (both legs together)
  • Crunches
    • BW x 20
    • BW x 15
    • BW x 10 (the isometric from the one-leg bridges takes something)
  • Seated Calf Raises
    • 35 x 15
    • 35 x 15
    • 35 x 15

More car theft in Austin

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’ve been reading about more and more car theft/break-ins happening in Austin.

And with every story of a break-in, so much is the same:

• Doors are unlocked

• Visible valuables inside

The latest I heard was someone lost about $7000 worth of contractor tools and supplies because they were in the car, parked on the street. Smash and grab and away they went. I’m sorry to hear about this, because even if they were insured, it’s still a lot of downtime and trouble to replace everything. That’s someone’s job, that’s someone’s livelihood that was deeply injured.

Fact is, these things are preventable.

Don’t leave valuables in your car. Or at least, make sure they are well-hidden.

Lock your doors. Keep your windows rolled up.

Take garage door openers inside with you. There are thefts of the openers, then the thief comes back later and now has easy access to your house (or at least your garage and all the stuff you keep in there).

Be mindful of your “valet” key as well, to ensure it’s secure.

Yes I agree. It sucks. We shouldn’t have to live this way. Alas, this is the reality of life and often small measures like this is what saves us from bigger pains later on.

Don’t wait until you get burned before you learn a lesson and make a change in your life. Learn from the mistakes of others, save yourself some pain.

2016-07-19 training log

/ hsoi

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The progress continues. Again, the weight goes up, the reps go up, gee if I can’t help but be pleased by progress. And it’s going up across the board — you name it. I’m happy.

So with that, it’s back to two “next cycle” thoughts.

First, to deload or do another 3 weeks. The plan was to just go another 3 weeks. I’ve been feeling good, progress is solid, weights are relatively light (if I’m hitting the 10-rep threshold on my 1+ sets, it’s relatively light), why not? Well, why not is because my sleep has been poor lately, some additional stress in life, so that affects recovery. A little time off may be good for me. Unsure tho. I may still just be feeling beat up from this past weekend’s work. So, I’ll let it ride, continue to focus on my recovery (e.g. naps), and see how I feel come next week and just make the call as I ride along. The plan will be to do another 3 weeks, unless my body tells me otherwise.

Second, to add in “first set last”. Why do it? Because I’d like a little more volume. Why? Because I respond to that. BUT I have to remind myself that my overall weekly volume is up, if not per-session. And let’s face it — I’m making solid progress right now. So really — why change anything? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m making solid progress, so just keep going and milk this for all I can. Eventually progress will stop and that becomes a time to consider changes like this. So, it’s just a change in thinking for me, that I’m still getting used to.

If anything should change, I should certainly reflect on my assistance work. I think the upper body work is alright, but the lower body work I want to continue to look at. We’ll see.

Anyways, just good times, good times.

Music: Crowbar. Because heavy.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

  • Bench Press
    • bar x whatever
    • 95 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
    • 115 x 5
    • 140 x 3
    • 175 x 5 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
    • 200 x 3
    • 220 x 10 (10RM PR)
  • Incline Press
    • 135 x 5 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
    • 160 x 5
    • 180 x 5
  • Cable Rows
    • 100 x 20
    • 100 x 20
    • 100 x 16
  • Shrugs
    • 205 x 20
    • 205 x 15
    • 205 x 12
  • Overhead Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
    • 60 x 20
    • 60 x 18
    • 60 x 12
  • Hammer Curls
    • 25e x 20
    • 25e x 18
    • 25e x 10

2016-07-18 training log

/ hsoi

Good day, but short day.

I spent all weekend teaching at KR Training. Two days, three classes, 100º heat, 110% humidity — yeah, I’m beat. If it had been any other time, I might have wanted to take Monday (today) off to recover, but I actually don’t feel as beat up as I normally would after an intensive weekend like that. Still, I know I’m down so I opted to make today a “jack shit” day: just get in, do the work, set a PR, leave. It’s all about recovery, and my hole’s dug a little deeper due to the weekend so no need to dig it further.

While I am trying to avoid reminding myself of how I did “last time” and thus set expectations for how to perform today, I did know how I had done and did set expectations for myself. I’m finding if I just go in and crank without preconceived notions, I tend to do not just well but better because I don’t have a mental frame that might actually hold me back. Just keep doing “continuous 1 rep sets” and when it’s time to stop, I’ll know and THEN I can assess how it compares out. But I knew going into it that I wanted to hit at least 8 reps today because that would keep the forward progress going. It’s 5/3/1 week after all and of all weeks, this is the week to kick it.

And sure enough that’s what I did. I actually felt like I could have done a 9th just fine (and still left the 1-2 in the tank), but again, I knew what to hit, I hit it, I don’t want to dig the hole deeper, so that was that. And really, hitting 8 is great because it’s continued progress compared to all prior squat sessions. I am happy.

I did a set of hypers, a set of crunches, then spent about 25 minutes on the elliptical.

And now… to go take a nap.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

  • Squats
    • bar x whatever
    • 110 x 5
    • 135 x 5
    • 165 x 3
    • 205 x 5
    • 235 x 3
    • 260 x 8 (8RM PR)
  • Hyperextensions
    • BW x 15
  • Crunches
    • BW x 15

Aghast

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

It’s not right to politicize tragedy.

But after a madman drives a truck through a crowd in Nice, France, killing 80+ people and wounding over 200…

How can you keep saying it’s because of guns?

 

2016-07-15 training log

/ hsoi

Progress continues.

Didn’t hit the 10-rep threshold like I’ve been doing everywhere else, but I attribute that to the Press being the 1 movement I had a true 1RM of before I started (instead of fair calculations). But still, hitting 8 is solid for the 3+ week.

And it continues to be a track record of progressing. Comparing against the past few Press sessions, either weight and/or reps have gone up. So it’s still solid progress; slow progress, but solid. Press has always been a slow one for me.

I also found a couple important tweaks to my setup. The past few Press sessions had a little shoulder pain when I got overhead. I have found my index points on the bar when I set up, but I was being a little too strict about them. Basically the point where my thumbnail ends I line up with the edge of the bar knurling. But I was kinda stretching this. When instead I did it relaxed (brought my grip closer together, just a tad), that made all the improvement. I’ll have to see how it goes next week tho — could be that I just got sufficiently warmed up by the time I made this change.

Another thing that’s constantly frustrated me is my breathing — I always debate where to take a breath. You typically take it at the start of the movement, but here you’re at the bottom. I found myself today unracking, getting settled, then exhaling a bit so I could have a fresh breath to press with. Well, taking that breath blew my setup — my chest collapsed (of course) and I lost a lot. So yeah, I have to take my breath, hold it, unrack, settle, press, then at the top finally take my first breath. I kinda hate that because I get a little light-headed from the oxygen deprivation. So I’m trying to do a bunch of stuff to breathe deep a good 6-10 times or so before I unrack the bar. That prolongs my setup, but seems to be leading to better results.

It’s all still something I have to keep working with, but Press setup and technique is something that’s long frustrated and elluded me, and these two things seem to be progress in the right direction. I’ll see how they fare next week.

Also with my chin-ups. The joint stress comes at the bottom, when I’m hanging and it causes the arms to rotate/torque/twist — elbows don’t bend that way. So today I just didn’t go all the way down. I’m not sure I liked that. I mean, it was certainly less stress, but that full extension and starting the pull from there really provides good work. As well, I am really missing out on the shoulder retraction. So…. I dunno. I may stick with it next week, and then next cycle try something else like close-grip v-bar pullups and doing underhand-grip pulldowns. That may work out. I’ll just keep playing until I find what’s going to give me good results and not damage me in the process.

Otherwise, just a good day.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

  • Press
    • bar x whatever
    • 60 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
    • 75 x 5
    • 90 x 3
    • 105 x 3 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
    • 120 x 3
    • 140 x 8
  • Close-Grip Bench Press
    • 125 x 8 (sets superset with chin-ups)
    • 145 x 8
    • 170 x 6
  • V-Bar Pulldowns
    • 110 x 20
    • 110 x 15
    • 110 x 12
  • Face Pulls
    • 100 x 20
    • 100 x 15
    • 100 x 15
  • Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
    • 60 x 20
    • 60 x 20
    • 60 x 15
  • Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
    • 50 x 20
    • 50 x 20
    • 50 x 15

Mindset and Decision Making

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Once again, excellent insights from Claude Werner.

tacticalprofessor's avatartacticalprofessor

Then I guess it will just be time for him and me to be with Jesus.

Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics related a mind-boggling story recently about one form of mindset. He posed questions to some friends in the context of encountering two burglars in their home. The concept of giving scenarios and asking people questions about their anticipated reactions is often far more effective than pontificating about what they ‘need’ to do.

The friends are a couple who have a 10 year old son. The wife is a petite woman who is a practitioner of boxing; good for her. What Caleb did was to posit a scenario of initial violence and asked her what she would do. She replied she would fight them. Since the scenario was two burglars whose combined weight was three to four times hers, he continued escalating the scenario in his questions. In the event…

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