Shawn sent me this video “Le combat en armure au XVe siècle”
I was surprised how agile and nimble one could be in plate mail. The level of mobility was not what I expected. Quite cool.
The one thought that kept going through my mind was how deaf the combatants became over time. All that clanking must have been hell on your eardrums. 🙂
Time to change things up.
Since my priority is diet and fat loss, that drives all decisions.
I’ve been officially with Renaissance Periodization for 9 weeks, but on the “defattening” front for about 10-11 weeks. At my worst I was 265 lbs., 261 when I started with RP, and this morning weighed in at 245 lbs. So about 20 lbs. in a little less than 3 months? I’ll take it.
That said, things are slowing down. There have been diet adjustments to keep things on track, but now it’s getting a little extreme. My body has lost enough and been deprived for a while now, and it appears it’s starting to revolt against me. 🙂 So before we take a break from the fat-loss (and go maybe a month on “maintenance”), we’re trying something else. I can tell my body is craving carbs bad… not just in a “oh gee, this is miserable” way, but in a “man, you’re not functioning correctly” sort of way. I can tell I’ve got brain fade, some memory issues, and sometimes I just can’t focus. The way my body is screaming at me is something I’ve experienced numerous times before, and it’s craving in a particular way because something is seriously lacking that my body says “I need!”, not “I want”.
So to try to help manage this, we’re changing things up slightly.
Instead of lifting 3x week and thus having 4 “off” and thus “no carb” days, I’m now going to lift 4x week, which gives me another day of carb consumption. It’s still relatively low on carbs and caloric intake overall, but hopefuly having a little less overall depletion will help. We shall see.
So that’s the diet part. Now the exercise part.
On the whole, things remain steady. I went back to Paul Carter’s Basebuilding eBook to look for a 4x/week template. There’s only one in the book, and it’s actually pretty close to what I was doing anyways. It adds another day that is a “shoulder” day, and shifts a few things around a bit. But because things are mostly the same well… I’m keeping most things on track, just making minor adjustments. I’m also not following the template exactly. For example, I’m keeping lunges in because I do feel I need more single-leg work to help with my knee, etc..
Today marks the first day of this.
Benching was fine. I actually may bump this up after a couple more weeks because the bar speed is doing well, and the AMRAP set continues to increase. I’ll see how things go.
Inclines are 350 method. I felt like a wuss only putting 85 lbs. on the bar, but that wound up being more than enough. After the AMRAP set, my triceps were spent, so the inclines were worse. 🙂
Paul’s template finishes things off with dips, but that wasn’t going to happen due to the aforementioned spent triceps. So I just did some flies instead. That’ll probably be how it will be. Tho perhaps in time as my body adapts I might try going back to dips. We’ll see.
Anyways, changes changes. So long as progress continues, I’m happy. Time will tell.
Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding
Oh this one is easy for me.
Sure, “Institutionalized” is an institution.
“War Inside My Head” is such a great anthem (and who’s that young kid on bass in this video?)
“Don’t Give Me Your Nothin'” has such a great groove.
There really are so many favorites.
But without question, my #1 Suicidal track is “You Can’t Bring Me Down”
The whole song, but especially the rant at the end:
Just ’cause you don’t understand what’s going on don’t mean it don’t make no sense.
And just ’cause you don’t like it don’t mean it ain’t no good.
And let me tell you something… before you talking a walk in my world, you better take a look at the real world, ’cause this ain’t no Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Can you say “feel like shit”?
Yeah, maybe sometimes I do feel like shit. I ain’t happy about it, but I’d rather feel like shit than be full of shit.
And if I offended you? Oh I’m sorry, but maybe you needed to be offended.
Well, here’s my apology, and one more thing: FUCK YOU!
‘Cause you can’t bring me down.
I know people who desire some sort of tool to aid in their personal safety, but seek non-gun options. So the notion of a TASER comes up a lot.
Here’s a great summary from Kathy Jackson (posted to her Facebook page) on the use of TASER’s and other such tools.
A few days ago, someone asked me what I think about using Tasers instead of firearms for personal defense. My answer: It’s complicated.
1 – If I had access to a nice little Star Trek phaser that could be set to “stun” and would work without fail to drop attackers in their tracks with no possible negative consequences to either myself or the attacker, so the criminal justice system could grab them and choose the appropriate disposition for them with no risk to my own life, I’d hang up my defensive handgun and never carry it again. But that reliable, effective, no-consequences tool does *NOT* exist in this world. No matter what the ad copy says.
2 – Most “tasers” sold to ordinary people are *not* Tasers at all. They are simply low-power electric shockers that require physical contact. And no matter what the packaging says, most of them are about as powerful as the handheld buzzer your joker of a big brother used to use to make his buddies jump when they shook hands. Waste of money.
3 – A true Taser — which comes from the TASER International Inc. and costs about as much as a firearm — will in fact lock up the attacker’s muscles by blocking signals from the nerves back to the brain. Having one used on you feels about like a full-body muscle cramp. Not pleasant! Despite this, it’s *not* a pain compliance tool; it actually functions by blocking the nerve signals. That’s the upside.
The downside: You get exactly one shot, and it fires two projectiles at once at a relatively slow speed. Both probes have to hit. If they hit too close together (as they will if the attacker is too close to you) the signal isn’t blocked that well and the attacker will likely keep coming. If they spread too far apart (as they will if the attacker isn’t right on top of you), one of the probes may miss the attacker — which means you might as well have missed entirely.
Taser advertises that many of their products have a “drive stun” capability, meaning if you miss with one or both probes you can just shove the end of the Taser gun into the bad guy’s body and disrupt the nerve signal that way. This is painful for the attacker, but … it won’t get the same solid lock up and he can fight through that pain.
If you do hit him with both projectiles, the Taser will keep the electrical pulse going through the wires for a short while. The company suggests you leave the pulse going, drop the Taser product, and run away at this point while the attacker’s muscles are still locked up. Better hope you can run faster and farther than your attacker can follow in that amount of time, because as soon as the current shuts off, he’ll be able to follow you.
And finally, there’s this: because Tasers fire projectiles with wires attached, stuff like what happened in the news report below, can and does happen. That’s why law enforcement officers always have access to deadly force whenever a Taser may be deployed.
4 — Bottom line? A Taser can be a good tool for some situations, but it isn’t magic. The products can and have saved lives, mostly lives of law enforcement officers, or suspects being arrested. When LEOs use these things, most of them have backup officers on hand who can and will immediately use deadly force if the Taser fails to subdue the suspect. For us, who don’t have that kind of backup on hand, it’s more dicey.
Not much to say. Just a back workout.
Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding
I like to give credit where it’s due, especially when it winds up being a good customer service story. IMHO good customer service should be the norm, but alas these days it seems it’s the exception. Still, it’s good to share the success stories because I think it helps us see who is worth doing business with.
This time, it’s Freedom Munitions.
I learned of Freedom Munitions via my work at KR Training, because some time ago Karl switched to them as the bulk ammo provider. I mean, when you have to go through thousands upon thousands of rounds per year due to classes and student needs, you need ammo that is available, reliable, and cost-effective. So Freedom Munitions ammo fits the bill, and thousands upon tens-of-thousands of Freedom Munitions rounds have been fired at the KRT range.
I needed to buy some .223 ammo for myself, so of course I turned to Freedom Munitions given the past track record and of course no one could beat their prices. Ordered 1000 rounds of .223 Rem 55 grain remanufactured ammo. No problem to order, no problem to ship… but there was problem to shoot.
Oldest and I were out shooting and the AR was malfunctioning quite a bit. Long story short? The primers were coming out of the fired rounds. Shoot, enough pressure to cause the primer to come out and basically stick to the bolt face, chamber next round, but firing pin strikes the old primer still stuck to the bolt face. Fix the malfunction, keep going… but then sooner or later it would happen again. I forget the failure rate, but it was pretty bad. We only shot 170 rounds in total, and if I remember correctly at least a dozen, tho I think a bit more, failed in this manner. It was pretty bad. And we know it’s the ammo and not the gun because anything else we fed the gun ran without a hitch.
I contacted Freedom Munitions about it. Another long story short? They offered to take the remaining ammunition back and offered me either a full refund or replacement with new (remember, I purchased remanufactured). The way it was worded I thought I’d get a 1-for-1 replacement, but no… I wound up getting a full 1000 rounds of new .223 Rem 55gr. FMJ.
As well, the lady handling the issue for me, Brenda Carrier, was very helpful. She apologized for being short staffed and that it took a while for her to respond to me, but she saw everything all the way through. She was responsive, straightforward, and worked to ensure I was satisfied.
I haven’t shot any yet, but I’m sure it’ll be good. Plus it’s all Lake City brass. Nice.
Am I bummed to have gone through all of this? Sure. But the reality is, it happens. When you crank out enough rounds of ammo, inevitably there’ll be issues here and there, so it happens. No big deal, and Freedom Munitions worked to make things right.
Chuck Rives shared this story about a man open carrying a handgun, and getting robbed.
Investigators said the 21-year-old victim bought a handgun earlier in the day and was openly carrying it while talking to his cousin.
They said a man approached them and asked for a cigarette. Talk eventually turned to the victim’s new purchase, before the robber pulled his own gun from his waistband and said, “I like your gun, give it to me,” according to police.
The victim handed over his gun and the suspect ran away.
There’s numerous things we can learn from this.
First, with the growth of open carry, this sort of thing is bound to happen.
Second, if you are going to open carry, it involves a lot more than just sticking a gun on your hip and thinking you are good to go. You need to greatly improve your awareness and mindset.
Third, someone approaching asking for a cigarette? A classic way for a mugger to make contact and breach your space, to get close, and then mug you. If I can use SouthNarc parlance, the victim here failed to Manage the Unknown Contact. It’s critical to understand such things and how to deal with it so you don’t wind up in trouble.
Fourth, why was the victim engaging in conversation with this random stranger in the first place? Fine the cigarette, but after saying “no”, that should be the end of it. Even if you HAVE a cigarette, and I totally understand the social implications to a fellow smoker (I was one, I know how it goes), don’t let someone encroach on your space. I know it seems wrong to be selfish, but look at what the consequences were for not doing so.
Fifth, I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the victim was selected precisely because he was open carrying. And I would say it wasn’t purely because of O.C. but likely the victim also displayed other mannerisms and behavior that demonstrated to the mugger that he’d make good prey. There’s lots of study out there on victim selection, and chances are good the victim was selected because he demonstrated all the traits of being a good victim.
Which… isn’t something you can afford, if you’re advertising that you have things on your person that others might want and would be willing to take, be it a gun or an iPhone or whatever.
To me, this isn’t reason to say “open carry is bad” and “we should ban open carry”. No, I still think from a purely legal and legislative standpoint there’s no reason to deny/ban open carry. But it does provide illustration that you cannot blindly go about this process. That to open carry brings great responsibility, some risk, and you had better have your head on right and some education into the realities you could face, then prepare, practice, and carry yourself accordingly.
I’m not sure I like sumo deadlifts. 🙂
Today was the second time trying them out. Last week was pure freeform experimenting, and today was about trying to actually do something. I still went light and easy, just start at 135 and go up by 25’s and 45’s doing a couple sets of 3 at each level. The goal was to try to do some actual work, but not any serious work because I’m still trying to understand it, make sure I have technique, etc..
I am allowing myself to bend forward probably more than you should, but in exchange I’m also working to get my butt down and back more — it’s purely flexibility for that position, and that will just take time.
I did find that not having the widest stance in the world is probably more suitable for me, but that too may change in time as I gain more flexibility. I also happened to play with my grip today too, finding that a slightly more narrow grip might work, but might not. It takes my hands off any knurling, and the bar felt a lot less balanced — less stable, teetered more. But it also gave me more of a straight drop to the bar. So, just more things to play with.
In other news, the past couple weeks were not focused on squatting properly according to Base Building principles — it was trying to just be very sensitive to form because of perceived imbalances favoring my right leg due to left knee issues. But today I felt I could keep that in mind, but get back to using C.A.T. with every rep. That felt good to do. Thing was? I’m not sure I really did 5 sets. I was so into things, so focused, and just ran on auto-pilot. I just remember scrolling up on my phone in the tracker app I use and was like “oh… that was the last set?” I honestly couldn’t remember if I had been properly recording stuff or what. I was that much on auto-pilot. So, it was what it was.
Plus I was a bit distracted by the eclipse! I was awake at the prime time, able to watch the whole thing. So I’d do a couple sets then step out and look at it. That may have been too much distraction.
Or mayabe it was because I was listening to the new Orange Goblin album, “Back From the Abyss” while lifting. 🙂
I also did some lunges. Again, this is a change to try to help with the knee/imbalance issue. I did just 3×10 with bodyweight only to try to see where my knee was and how it felt. It actually felt ok. There was some discomfort, part of why I only did 3×10, but overall it went OK. I think it will be a good thing for me. The fact I’ve been doing bodyweight squats every day at home I do believe has helped my knee situation. I am pretty sure there is something actually wrong or worn down/out in my knee, and it’s just a matter of time before I have to go under the knife. But until that time, I reckon the best thing I can do is work to strengthen the area. If lunges and other single-leg work will help me get there, then that’s the best thing for me to do.
Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding
Our friends at Lone Star Medics now have their own YouTube channel!
Check out the first video, where Caleb Causey talks about an every day carry (EDC) option for a med kit.
A couple years ago I was working with Caleb on trying to find a way to carry a tourniquet on-body. Caleb has long been partial to the ankle method in the video. That just won’t work for me, because the Texas summers are hot and I like to wear shorts. 🙂 I’ve been meaning for quite some time to write up my exploration of this effort. Stay tuned.
I’m pretty simple when it comes to meat: give me beef.
I do like pork from time to time, fish on occasion (especially sushi). I can deal with game meats, turkey, and so on. But if there’s anything I just don’t like, it’s chicken.
Of course, every “weight-loss” or other types of “healthy” or “low-fat” diet out there involves… chicken.
My dislike is pretty straightforward: chicken meat has no flavor, and it’s dry. Of course, this all comes from the lack of fat (which is, in part, the point in consuming it). So to give it any sort of flavor, you always have to dress it up, but often dressing it up runs counter to the low-fat protocol. Dark meat is passable, but again that doesn’t really jive with the diet protocol. So chicken breasts it is, but ugh. I know, first world problem.
However, I’ve found a way to make it manageable. Thankfully it’s pretty simple.
The grocery store sells bags of chicken breasts. It’s 5 lbs. of de-boned breasts, and they are fully frozen and “ice glazed”. It also seems they brine them, which helps plump them up and meet that 5 lbs. without having to actually be 5 lbs of meat. Sneaky, but whatchagonnado? But in a way, it’s a positive.
All you have to do is throw them — still frozen — on the grill. The grill is at about 350º-375º, and I throw on some oak wood chips. There’s your flavor, from that wonderful smoke. 30 minutes, turn them, 30 more minutes, and done. The brining actually helps because the breast meat is moist with a touch of salt throughout the meat. And the way they cook, they get a good “crust” (not a true crust, but the exterior does “harden” a bit) which helps to seal in all the juices so a lot of the brine is retained within the meat.
And yes, this works out great.
I get about 5 lbs of meat, which lasts me a few days. It’s dead simple to cook. It fits the diet protocol. And best of all, it has flavor. 🙂
Have to find ways to keep the taste buds happy.
Stuff From Hsoi 