Author: hsoi

Karl Rehn – on grip

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Melody Laurer just published an article over at the Lucky Gunner Lounge: “What’s Wrong With My Handgun Grip?” In the article Melody consults with 4 top instructors — including my boss-man, Karl Rehn:

At the top of my list of people to talk to when I started researching grip issues was Karl Rehn. Rehn is a IPSC Grand Master who started competitive shooting around the time I was born. In addition to taking almost every shooting class available from every major gun school in the country, he’s also an instructor who is well-versed in the history of shooting and technique.

Yeah, you want to click through and read it. 🙂

2016-03-02 training log

/ hsoi

Back over 300… happy about that.

So again, I’m trying to establish some “maxes” so I can figure out programming for the next cycle. Established program would have had me work up to 285 today, but last night before bed I figured might as well go for 300 since I’ll be so close. I want to get back over that mark.

On the way to the gym I changed my mind. Opted instead of 270/275/280 to go 275/295/305. Why not?

And it went quite well. 275 felt easy. 295 had a little slowdown midway up, but I knew it was happening and I could do 305. And the 305 had a little slowdown right at mid-point as well, but got through it without problem. It didn’t feel at all like a grind, just a bit of a sticking point. So I feel fine using 185 (60%) for my 5×5’s on basebuilding. In fact, because I’m sticking at the midpoint, one thing that helps is dealing with pushing through and really accelerating the whole way — that is what Basebuilding (and C.A.T.) directly works on, so this should be good.

And I actually felt like if I was trying to work for a true 1RM, I could have hit 315 and maybe… maybe even a bit more given how the 305 went up. But again, this wasn’t about trying to find a true 1RM, just a good “working max”.

So I’m pretty happy with this. That puts me well within reach of breaking my all-time best squat — the sort of thing where I could probably program out a proper Strong-15 cycle and beat it. That is, if I was in fact able to do that. But with the cut diet starting, again my goal is to just maintain my strength so at the end of the cycle (after a little replenishment), I can get on track for my 3/4/5 goal. I’m pretty happy with all of this, and just have to remind myself for the next few months to keep working towards that and give it my all.

Because that’s something else today (and days like today) keep telling me — especially about my squat. Any time I “get serious” because I’m doing something like going for a 1RM, I find myself getting a little more serious under the bar. Why? It’s not that I shouldn’t get serious, but more that I should be that serious every time I get under the bar. Granted, we might have up and down days, but overall I should approach the bar every time like it’s going for a 1RM, like it’s working to set a new PR. That everything shoul be totally dialed in, tight as can be, all that same intensity. I just don’t always do it for whatever reason.

But hey, today was pretty solid and I’m happy. I’m happy to be back over 300.

  • Squats
    • 150 x 5
    • 175 x 4
    • 205 x 3
    • 230 x 2
    • 275 x 1
    • 295 x 1
    • 305 x 1
  • Smith Machine Hacks
    • 45 x 10
    • 95 x 10
    • 115 x 10
    • 135 x 10
  • Leg Press
    • 135 x 10
    • 225 x 10
    • 315 x 10
    • 365 x 10
  • Split Squats
    • bw x 20
    • bw x 15
    • bw x 15
    • bw x 12

Please understand this about me

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I will not seek a fight, and if possible I will avoid one, but if one is forced upon me I will do whatever it takes to survive.

My sidearm is neither a status symbol nor an emotional crutch. I will not reach for it unless out of dire necessity, but if I must use deadly force to preserve my life or that of an innocent person, I will use it skillfully and without hesitation.

The above comes from Tom Givens, of Rangemaster, but was recently discussed on another website (and is a good read).

This is something a lot of non-gun-owning people – and people afraid of (people with/owning) guns – don’t understand about gun-owning people.

The overwhelming majority of us are not out to seek a fight.

In fact yes, most of us want to avoid fights.

But if you bring me a fight – and a fight that if I do not swiftly and decisively respond to likely results in death or grave harm to myself or another innocent person – yes I will respond.

And that’s all it means.

Furthermore, realize that, at least here in Texas, anyone that can legally carry a handgun “out in public” must be licensed. Amongst other things, that means this person has been extensively background checked, fingerprinted, and isn’t a felon. This person has had more vetting than most of the citizenry that surrounds you on a daily basis.

So understand when people like me hear about the University of Houston, in response to the new “campus carry” laws, telling faculty things like “be careful discussing sensitive topics; drop certain topics from your curriculum; not “go there” if you sense anger; limit student access off hours”, it makes me sad and confused.

These people are supposed to be academics, but they demonstrate a lack of research, knowledge, understanding, and empathy about the issue and people involved. Not just because they keep talking about “open carry” (check the laws; there is no legal open carry on Texas college campuses), but because who are they afraid of?

The only people that would be allowed to (concealed) carry on campus are licensed individuals, who again are extensively background checked, fingerprinted, not felons, not drug users – try saying that about your average college student. In fact, try saying that about your average college professor! A little digging around (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong), but from what I can find about the hiring practices of Texas universities, criminal history is only used when hiring for security-sensitive positions. So that seems that a UH professor could be a felon, a drug user, a deadbeat mom, at some point in their life perhaps committed to a mental institution, subject to a restraining order, and who would know any of that? But if you have – and wish to keep – a Texas Handgun License, you can’t be any of those things.

Who should be afraid of whom?

Are such-licensed individuals people you should be afraid of? Aren’t non-criminal, drug-free, mentally sound, good people the sort of thing our society desires? How will presence and existence of such good people cause you harm? Why should it give you fear? Can you articulate a sound reason for your fear? Note that it’s not unreasonable to be afraid; it’s the difference between having a rational fear or being afraid of the boogeyman.

And then why are you not afraid of your other students? Have you not seen the endless cell phone footage of students in high school classrooms that have zero respect for their teachers, physically accosting the teachers and the teachers unable to do anything about it? There are no guns, just empty hands. Why are you not afraid of any and all of your students? Can you articulate a sound reason for this lack of fear?

It’s funny how a lot of people say “I don’t carry a gun, because I don’t live in fear”. Well, the above behavior speaks to the contrary.

I don’t carry out of fear – I carry out of an acceptance of reality. Just like I keep a fire extinguisher in my home because I understand fires can happen. Just like I wear a seat belt when I’m in a car because I understand brakes can fail. Just like I have insurance because stuff happens. I suppose you don’t do these things tho, because you don’t live in fear.

I don’t carry a gun because of you. I don’t carry a gun to intimidate. I don’t carry a gun to try to “get my way”. I don’t carry a gun for political reasons.

I carry a gun because I love my family, and if someone seeks to cause them harm, I will not allow it.

I will not seek a fight, and if possible I will avoid one, but if one is forced upon me I will do whatever it takes to survive.

My sidearm is neither a status symbol nor an emotional crutch. I will not reach for it unless out of dire necessity, but if I must use deadly force to preserve my life or that of an innocent person, I will use it skillfully and without hesitation.

2016-02-29 training log

/ hsoi

This was a good day.

So I’m coming to the 3rd and final week/iteration of the LRB template. Tomorrow I start on another cutting diet cycle, so I’ll finish out this iteration then change up. More on this below.

But with that change, I wanted to establish some EDMs for the next cycle. So that’s the order of today, and each “heavy” day remaining in this cycle.

Here on day 1-A “Press, Heavy”, I’m supposed to do overheads first, but I opted to bench first. I also opted to take a little more rest between sets (2-3 minutes instead of 1 minute). I did my normal work up, but everything felt good. Tight, explosive, good leg drive. Really, everything felt so damn good today. So while I was originally going to do the programmed work up then just keep going, I opted to just adjust the singles. I figured if I could do a crisp 240, that’d be good enough for programming.

And I did that, no problem. Sure the bar speed was slow, but it wasn’t a grind. Did I have more in me? Yes. I’m sure I could have worked up to a 250-255 for a grinder, and after I got up I actually thought to myself “Man, I should (could) have gone for 2”. And I would have made it. BUT, that’s not the point of what I was trying to do. This isn’t out to establish a 1RM, it’s out to establish an EDM that I can use for the next programming cycle. 240 was solid… and doing some calculations, how I felt, etc… I do feel I got a little stronger based upon the numbers I started out with. Not huge, maybe 5#, but 5# more is 5# more. I’ll take it on this short, non-peaking, cycle.

Thing is, everything continued to move well. The BHP was programmed to be first, totally fresh, but even after benching I still hit the programming here. Granted, I took 2 minute rests, but still.

Upright rows, extensions… they were what they were. What I find cool is the 20 rep stuff. Which brings to me some assessment of this LRB template.

I don’t think the LRB template is ideal for me — at least right now. I like that I do NOT feel all that beat up, yet I still seem to be making progress, just slow progress. It’s programming that serves two masters: strength and size, and while that’s workable, you’ll never progress as fast as if you serve one master. That said, I could see using a template like this when I had no particular goals in mind other than “just keep getting bigger, just keep getting stronger”.

The template also taught me a few things, especially about higher reps. That I really need to push myself further, beyond. When my muscles and brain start to scream to stop, keep going. Maybe take 1-2 seconds to let the burn fade, but there’s still a lot of capability left in there, so keep pressing forward. When truly the muscle fails, THEN you can stop — and that point is much further along than you think. You just don’t get to this when you’re doing sub-10 reps.

I also think that while I may not normally program out to 20 reps, I think 12-20 range may be good for me. Later on in this cut cycle I will go towards more hypertrophy-oriented programming, and there I think 12-20 will do me good. But I will hit it a little different than I have been. Basically if I’m doing 5×12-20, pick a weight were first set hits 20 but second set gets maybe 18-20, and down from there — something a bit heavier. For now to get me used to and up there I’ve been doing lighter stuf and that first set doesn’t kill me: I want the first set to be hard to get 20, and downwards from there.

So what next?

Again, I start a cut cycle diet tomorrow. I’m about 212 this morning — I’m bloated after a (final) weekend of enjoying myself. Been hovering 209-212 depending how much I cheat. The goal is 190 in about 3-4 months, which should be do-able as long as I put the work in.

I’m going to finish out this LRB cycle (this week and next), then I’m going to switch to a Basebuilding model. That should be good for moderately heavy weights, higher reps, more volume — all good things for the cut, and good to start with that while I still have a reasonable food intake. The plan is to stick with that at least 6 weeks, then I’ll decide what to do next depending upon what I need to support the cut. I will stick with 3x/week for now, only going to 4x when/if I need to. I do hope to maintain strength, which should be manageable the shorter I keep the cut — the longer it goes, the more I’ll lose, which is motivation for me to bust ass and drop things quickly and steadily (2#/week would be great).

  • Bench Press
    • bar x 5
    • 125 x 5
    • 145 x 4
    • 170 x 3
    • 185 x 2
    • 205 x 1
    • 225 x 1
    • 240 x 1
  • Behind-the-neck Press (seated, Smith machine)
    • bar x 5
    • 65 x 5
    • 95 x 5
    • 125 x 5
    • 125 x 5
    • 125 x 5
  • Upright Rows
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 8
  • Overhead Extensions
    • 40 x 20
    • 40 x 20
    • 40 x 20
    • 40 x 15
    • 40 x 15

Sunday Metal – Marilyn Manson

/ hsoi

I’ve never been a huge Marilyn Manson fan, but the other day Apple Music gave me a playlist “Intro to Marilyn Manson” and I must admit I rather enjoyed it.

Here’s “Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon”

 

Telling it like it is

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Rifle [Open Carry] is fucking stupid. It’s not done to keep peace, it’s done to get attention and create confrontations. And those of us with actual training and experience, especially those of us who carry concealed pistols to defend ourselves, our families and innocent people around us, have to react when we see someone carrying a rifle ready to engage in public. For those of us with a sworn duty to protect the public, OC creates even more problems. This isn’t about police overreaction; after aaallll the mass shootings we’ve had in America, and after the horrors of the Paris attack, any police officer who ignores Random Guy Walking Down The Street With A Rifle is guilty of criminal negligence.

[…]

Now that we’ve seen, over and over, what kind of damage a murderer with a rifle can cause, we sane 2A advocates have a responsibility. If we want to maintain 2nd Amendment freedoms for ourselves, children and grandchildren, we need to oppose the mindless stupidity personified by OC activism. Scaring the public with rifles isn’t exactly the best way to show why we citizens should own ARs and AKs. The Founding Fathers recognized the right to bear arms for a reason: they didn’t want American citizens to fight tyranny with pitchforks against cannon, as so often happened in Europe. It’s safe to say they didn’t want a bunch of untrained dipshits swaggering around town showing the world they could massacre everyone around if they feel like it.

Once again, Chris Hernandez, telling it like it is. (h/t Greg Ellifritz).

Yes, click through and read his entire article, so you can better understand his context. It’s short, but informative – I promise.

2016-02-26 training log

/ hsoi

After the “adventure” that was yesterday, today is starting off really well.

Deadlifts went well. First set felt like “oh, this is going to suck”, but second set was awesome and it just went well from there. The last pull was a little off, but not really. Thing is, I’m finding myself trying to get a better groove in my pulls — more of that “pushing the floor away from you” sort of thing. I’m finding that I’m doing a better job at being “centered” and pulling whole-body, not just with my back (which is stronger, relative to everything else). The bar path is a bit better, closer to the body, scraping my shins — it’s good. But that last pull kinda reverted to my old form, so it felt like a “bad pull”. And afterwards I realized I double-overhanded it too… which wasn’t my plan but I did and was happy with. Goes to show how much I’ve been away from deadlifting.

Chins were awesome. I got 8 on my first set — I’ve never done that. 10 is within reach.

Good mornings still feel awkward to me, but I might be starting to get it. Going to 165 felt too heavy, but in doing so I got a better feel for perhaps how things should be going. Plus you really do appreciate that there’s a LOT of abs involved here. I’m semi-tempted to keep doing GM’s, just to try to get better at them and see what they can do for me.

So, really a good day. More reps all around, more weight. Geez, I can’t complain.

AND… I start my cut on Tuesday. I’m looking forward to it in terms of the recomp, but not in terms of the forthcoming 3-4 months of perpetual hunger. But I know it’s for a short time, it’ll be awesome at the end, and then at the end I’ll get to start on a bigger path — about which I’m very excited.

  • Deadlift
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 4
  • 255 x 3
  • 290 x 2
  • 315 x 1
  • 320 x 1
  • 340 x 1
  • Chin Up
  • bw x 8
  • bw x 5
  • bw x 3
  • bw x 3
  • bw x 3
  • Good Mornings
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • BB Curls
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 15
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12

The problems with drawing (especially from a SERPA)

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

My boss-man, Karl Rehn of KR Training, with an excellent examination of a piece of video that’s been going around the past few days. Click-through and read: not asking you, telling you.

Despite it being pretty well-established that the SERPA holster is A Bad Idea®, there are still those out there that deny the facts. But then, we have people who believe the Earth is flat and meth is good for you. What’s particularly damning about this video is it comes from a greater video that’s all about the denial, then within the video the guy does precisely the thing that shows why it’s A Bad Idea®.

Facepalm.

What’s extra good about Karl’s article is he not only talks about why the SERPA has yet again been demonstrated to be A Bad Idea®, but also some other general issues about the drawstroke – including some good things demonstrated in the video. Things that many others are overlooking in their commentary on the video.

Look: you’re welcome to (continue to) justify your bad decisions – that’s also your decision. Remember, this is realm where ego-investment really doesn’t serve you well. There’s lots of good equipment out there, that does the same job better. Then there’s you, who can practice and even use video to help keep yourself honest. You carry a gun to keep yourself safe, right? So, make choices that help keep yourself safe.

2016-02-24 training log

/ hsoi

I do like pause squats.

Gah — did I just say I like squatting? I guess the day was coming. 🙂

Simple enough. Did my thing. Pause squats went well — and I really find they help me drill in form and technique more than regular squatting. A hint for myself I guess.

Very high rep sets are killer… painful.

No lunges. Yesterday I started having some foot pains, cramping. Between that and the lack of sleep I’ve been getting, I figured to not dig my recovery hole any deeper and just skipped them.

  • Pause Squats
    • 135 x 5
    • 165 x 4
    • 185 x 3
    • 205 x 3
    • 215 x 3
  • Leg Extensions
    • 60 x 30
    • 60 x 26
    • 60 x 20
    • 60 x 17
    • 60 x 16
  • Leg Curls
    • 25 x 20
    • 25 x 20
    • 25 x 17
    • 25 x 16