Author: hsoi

2014-02-24 training log

/ hsoi

+10% day

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

  • Incline Press
    • 45 x 5
    • 45 x 5
    • 95 x 5
    • 115 x 4
    • 135 x 3
    • 165 x 2
    • 185 x 1
    • 150 x 15
    • 150 x 6
  • DB Bench Press
    • 50 x 10
    • 50 x 10
    • 50 x 8
    • 50 x 8
    • 50 x 6
  • Behind the Neck Press
    • 80 x 8
    • 80 x 8
    • 80 x 8
  • Seated DB Press
    • 30 x 10
    • 30 x 10
    • 30 x 10
    • 30 x 10
    • 30 x 10
  • Rope Pushdowns
    • 20 x 100
  • 20 minutes on the elliptical

It’s said that 80% of your sessions should be “good”. That they are what they are, you do what you need to do, all works out well. That’s good. Then 10% will be crap, and 10% will be stellar. That you shouldn’t judge by the 10%’s because they are exceptions. True enough. Today? Felt like a +10% day. It was great. Since last week, I’ve been rethinking some of my diet approach, made some small tweaks, and I think today’s excellent session was directly related to those tweaks. It’s too soon to comment much more — need a lot more time. But we shall see, and I’m hopeful.

I intended to go up 5# across the work-up on inclines, but knew due to the changes I could do more. So I went for 10 across the board. That 185 was easy. I even opted to stay at the 150 for the reps, and that was a LOT more reps than I did last week. So yeah, this gives me some good feedback.

Everything else got adjusted too. Some weight up, some weight stable, but just trying to keep it so it pushed things. Actual weight doesn’t matter, so long as I’m getting proper work. and work I did.

What was great was feeling worked and running out of steam because the muscles were actually exhausted — my triceps were peeding out. It was great! This is as opposed to everything not being worked, but just being flat out of gas due to dietary choices.

And yes… I feel like a loser for continuing on the elliptical, but I gotta say that I’m kinda liking it. First, the regular session goes pretty quickly because I’m resting maybe 1 minute between sets. I just move from one thing to the next and keep going. Helps keep things short, and I find it’s keeping my heart rate “up”. And then the elliptical seems to keep my heart rate in the same zone (if I take strides at a particular rate). And you know… the reading I’m doing to pass the time is nice. I’m reading the magazines at the gym, and because they are things I wouldn’t normally read but are still intellectually stimulating (i.e. I’m not reading “People”), it’s kinda nice for the old brain. I may keep this up because a little mental break like that is kinda nice. And if 20 minutes of this is going to help me, fine. I will say, it does hurt a fair bit… the plantar fasciitis gets aggravated pretty heavily. But well, we’ll just see how this goes.

Anyways, time will tell.

Sunday Metal – Top Metal Albums 1990-2000 – #23 Savatage

/ hsoi

When Metal-Rules.com posted their Top 30 Metal Albums 1990-2000, I thought it’d make a fun list for Sunday Metal.

#23 – Savatage – Edge of Thorns

“Edge of Thorns”

Lessons from jaywalking

/ hsoi

So there’s been this hoopla going on about a woman arrested in Austin for jaywalking.

When I first saw the story it seemed sufficiently weird from either side, so I figured there had to be more to the story. But you know our modern media and “always connected” society… it’s not about being right, it’s about being first, “going viral”, and if we can be outraged, even better. Right? Oh, and we can be outraged at fucking pigs cops? Even better!

So I waited. More information has come out, as tends to happen.

The story (at least as it stands now) appears to be that folks from the area had been complaining to police about pedestrians not following laws in that area. So naturally after all those complaints, the police start patrolling the area and issuing warnings and citations for violations. This young woman was jogging, with earbuds in and I’m sure music loud. She violated the law right in front of the police. The police attempted to verbally contact her, she didn’t hear them. Eventually she did, used a profanity towards the officers. When they tried to grab her, she pulled away, and that was that. And yes, once you are put under arrest you do have to identify. That is the law of the land (not saying it’s right or wrong, but that is what it presently is).

Of course, everyone wants to be outraged.

Here’s the thing. And note, I’m saying this based upon what I’m reading about this event, and my reaction to all the outrage going on. I wasn’t there.

From the jogger’s perspective? She was right.

From the police’s perspective? They were right.

Yes, both were.

As a jogger, she had her earbuds in. She was jogging. She was going about her business. She couldn’t hear the police. Someone touched her, and it’s quite natural, especially when you’re oblivious to your surroundings, to pull away if someone unexpectedly grabs you. I do not blame her at all for reacting as she did, and I’m sure anyone would have done the same (even APD Police Chief Art Acevedo).

As police, they were called by citizens to come and enforce the law. They were doing so. They saw someone violate the law, they went to do something about it, because that’s their job. This person failed to comply, this person amped it up, and so they had to escalate as well.

Through their own eyes, both were in the right.

Neither are looking at it through the eyes of the other.

Should they? Well, it’s possible that could have saved a lot of grief. But in the moment, well, we’re human and it’s tough to view things through any eyes but our own as events unfold.

What gets me tho is the outrage.

People are outraged at Austin Police because they “took down an innocent jogger”, a “small defenseless woman”. She was doing nothing wrong. No, she did something wrong. Yes jaywalking isn’t the worst crime in the world, but we all know it’s still illegal — that’s the very definition of jaywalking. Furthermore, the police were in the area due to complaints about problems. If the police ignored the complaints, if they didn’t come to enforce the law and work to improve behavior, you all would be outraged at the lack of response from the police. So you’re outraged if they don’t enforce the law, and you’re outraged when they do. WTF?

Furthermore, why is there no outrage at the jogger? She was oblivious to her surroundings and activities. She violated the law right in front of a police officer. Was she not aware of the police presence? or was she just blatantly disregarding? Her ear buds were up that she couldn’t hear their commands. What else did that cause her to tune out? I mean, that area of campus has so much pedestrian traffic, so many students get hit by cars and buses. And then when someone grabs you? Geez, for all the talk about “rape prevention”, I would think you might want to be a little more aware of your surroundings! To me, this sort of obliviousness, this “condition white”, is just not a smart condition to put yourself in. Who cares about the police here, I’m talking just general personal safety!

And then the ad hominem attacks about the physiques of the officers, or how it took 4 of them to handle this one little woman. When I hear that, it demonstrates how little you know about control and situation management. You just want to be mad at the police.

It’s funny too. So many of the people who get mad about these behaviors of the police? They’re the same people who want to give more control to the government, or at least take freedom away from the citizen. Furthermore, they tend to be people that believe “only police should have guns”. What an inconsistent thesis.

Look, I am no fan of Chief Acevedo. I also think APD has a lot of problems, especially in the public relations side of things. I am not going to defend them. Could they have handled this better? Yes. Do I think Acevedo came off like an ass during the press conference about this? Yup. I think the way they are handling this could have been a good teachable moment to help the public understand what happened, why it happened, and to perhaps mend some of the public’s distrust and hatred for the police. But instead, Acevedo came off pompous and arrogant and I fear only served to further sour relations; again, folks are failing to look at this through the eyes of others. They’re failing Persuasion 101.

But ultimately, fault lies with the jogger. And to me, it has nothing to do with “avoiding arrest”. It has to do with basic personal safety. She engaged in behavior that put her in “condition white”, she was oblivious to her surroundings, and endangered her life. She’s lucky all she got was arrested, instead of hit by a bus. We go on and on about how stupid it is when people have their noses in their mobile phones and walk into fountains or walls or doors. And certainly people have had their noses down and walked into traffic or other dangerous situations (see? and from HuffPo too!). Instead of everyone being angry about this, hopefully we can find something positive from this so we can learn and grow and not make the same mistakes.

 

What would you do?

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Watch this video.

Here’s intro story (not much text, watch the video).

Here’s follow up.

Now let’s take in a few things.

The people in the video have no respect for the law.

The people in the video have no respect for (your) life.

They understand how to do what they want, that suits whatever makes them happy and don’t give even half a fuck about you — unless you get in their way, then they’ll hurt you (evidenced by the guy that got run over).

The people in the video understand gang mentality, in the sense of strength in numbers.

They have no fear of the police. In fact, the police feared for their own safety and left.

They don’t fear repercussions from “the system”, given they aren’t hiding their faces on the video and in fact are uploading these videos to YouTube.

Granted, you may not live in Oakland, but that doesn’t mean where you live is immune from people who celebrate their disregard for you. People like this, obviously, exist in this world. Heck, just a couple weeks ago a nasty beating was caught on tape in downtown Austin.

What are you doing to keep yourself safe in the face of this reality?

Do you leave it to others to manage your safety? Again, the police didn’t and couldn’t deal with this and left (I don’t blame them one bit). According to the follow-up article:

“This has been going on for years,” said Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. J.D. Nelson.

“The powers that be in Oakland have depleted the Oakland Police Department, so, this is the kind of activity you’re going to get.”

(Oh, and that Austin beat-down? Happened 2 blocks from APD headquarters).

So what can you do? The police can’t save you. The government can’t save you. Tell me, what can you do? Tell me how constructing a legal system that abridges the law-abiding from protecting themselves from such animals creates a better, more peaceful, more enlightened society? Tell me how banning guns, knives, and other useful self-defense tools is a wise course of action, given what you saw in that video. Tell me how not getting education, training, skills, and knowledge on how to keep yourself safe is not worth your time or money (because just having a gun isn’t enough).

You must accept there are animals in this world.  You must accept there are horrible people who do not hold the same standards as you. That because you cannot fathom behaving in some savage way doesn’t mean such savagery doesn’t exist. Once you overcome denial and ignorance, then we can start talking about real useful solutions to these problems.

2014-02-21 training log

/ hsoi

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

  • Chins
    • BW x 1
    • BW x 1
    • BW x 1
    • BW x 1
    • BW x 1
  • BB Rows
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 6
  • Shrugs
    • 145 x 20
    • 145 x 20
    • 145 x 20
    • 145 x 20
  • Close-grip Pulldowns
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 8
    • 120 x 8
  • BB Curls
    • 20 x 100
  • 20 minutes on the elliptical

Today went well. I’m finding a groove with this workout. I still feel like I need to do more, or something different. I dunno… I don’t necessarily feel like my back is getting worked heavily. I’m not sure what it is. I do recall t-bar rows really felt productive so who knows, I might switch to those. I will say the close-grip pulldowns kinda hurt my shoulder sockets… not sure why. Maybe I’ll switch to a wider grip, ligher weight and more reps, or just dump ’em and do t-bars or something. 🙂

But all in all, good.

Spyderco

/ hsoi

(h/t Shawn)

Every day I carry 2 Spyderco Delicas and use them regularly.

And the Triangle Sharpmaker is just a fantastic sharpener. It’ll never be like the real artisans can do with a Japanese whetstone, but it’s so easy for anyone to use and gets things sharp enough for most needs.

I like hearing about his beginnings and how he slowly built, experimented, innovated. Awesome success story.

AAR – Paul Howe’s Civilian Response to Active Shooter

/ hsoi

Karl Rehn and a few other KR Training assistant instructors recently attended Paul How’s “Civilian Response to Active Shooter” course.

Karl’s AAR can be found here. Good stuff.

Diet frustration

/ hsoi / 25 Comments

Frustration is where I’m at right now.

*sigh*

I haven’t been losing. I’ve been eating an unpleasant, unsatisfying diet. Not that CarbNite Solution is a shitty program, but rather I’ve got to force myself to eat particular things, and mostly not eat a lot of particular things. And the shit is getting old.

I could deal with it if I was seeing progress, but I’m not.

I was, but even then it was an unsteady progress.

I know my strength will go down. I know I’ll lose a bit of muscle mass. And I can live with that, if I also see myself losing the flab.

But I’m not.

One thing may have been a reduction in activity, due to my ankle injury. Thankfully that’s healing pretty well (probably a few more weeks before I’m ready to really get back to working hard with it), and I am ramping things up. And finding things like kettlebell swings I hope will be helping me too. I’m going to keep working my way up with those and try to jack up the intensity even further. I hate slow “steady state” cardio, so it’s gotta be HIIT-style stuff. I’ll get there. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I didn’t get this gut overnight either.

I know all of this. I’m dedicated to shedding this flab, and I won’t give up even tho I’m frustrated as hell.

But when things aren’t working, you can’t keep doing the same thing. You have to change something.

Right now the best I can think of? I’m eating too much. I overestimated what I needed and/or started eating too much because I was trying to follow the vague protocols outlined in these dietary programs, but I just need to adjust it more downwards for me. I sit behind a computer all day, I’m getting older, etc. and so I probably need more adjustment.

I did a little math. I may not remember the exact numbers here, but you should get the point.

A popular CarbNite thing to do is have morning coffee with cream. The intent of the cream gives you fat, but also helps you stave off hunger. I am not a coffee drinker, but I started drinking it just because of the protocol. I also was having a steady stream of breakfast as 6 scrambled eggs and 2-3 of these Purnell’s Old Folks Sausage. I mean, gotta have fat, right? Well, in doing this I discovered a few things: 1. overall my macros profile did seem to be about right for the whole day, but it was very front-loaded on the fat (as you can see); 2. that’s a lot of fat.

Here’s where it started to dawn on me.

One of those sausage patties? like 110 calories. 10g of fat, 4g protein. Multiply that by 3. The cream? I don’t recall the exact values I was using, but there was like 5-10g of fat in the cream I was using. And the eggs…. 30g fat. When you do the math, sure that gets the fat I’m supposedly supposed to get, but it’s still a lot of calories.

I made a small change. I went to 1 sausage patty, skip the coffee, and now have 3 whole eggs and 3 whites. That dropped me like 450 calories right there!

Now granted, fat is important to consume on keto-style diets. But the problem I keep reading is, no one tells you how much. It’s all rather vague (probably good from a liability and legal standpoint; but not so useful to the dieter). But look right there. I bought into the “eat fat” and boom… that’s a damn lot of fat. Because in many respects, calories in calories out still matters.

So this is what I’m doing, cleaning things up. It’s too soon to say if it’s made any difference, but it’s the change I’m making.

I think another thing I have to accept is something I read from Paul Carter. That you just have to accept you will be hungry. Deal with it. So many of the “low/no-carb” guys talk about eating to control hunger, but I think given my past history, that may have been part of the mistake. I just have to deal with being hungry at times.

But to help me further?

I got the MyFitnessPal app and am going to track all my eating with it. I’m not really thrilled to do it. It feels weird, wrong, unnatural. I should just eat, not keep tedious records of all my eating. But, if it’s going to help. if it’s going to keep me on track, and ensure I don’t slowly creep up, things don’t creep in, and that I just keep things managed well…. that’s good. And if it also helps me remember to keep adjusting downwards as I drop weight well, that’s good too.

So, this is what I will try now and see where it gets me.

Fingers crossed.

2014-02-19 training log

/ hsoi

As the ankle improves, so will the program change.

Based upon Paul Carter’s LRB-365 and Base Building – dealing with ankle injury

  • Squat
    • BW x 10
    • BW x 10
    • 45 x 10
    • 45 x 10
    • 95 x 10
    • 115 x 10
    • 135 x 10
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlift
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
  • One-Legged Bulgarian Split Squats
    • BW x 10 (each leg)
    • BW x 5e
    • BW x 5e
  • Leg Press
    • Empty Sled x 20
    • Empty Sled x 20
    • Empty Sled x 20
    • Empty Sled x 20
  • Standing Calf Raises
    • 20 x 15 (straight)
    • 20 x 15 (out)
    • 20 x 12 (in)
  • Elliptical
    • 20 minutes

My ankle is getting better, no question. It’s not out of the woods yet, but I can see progress.

So, I opted to try modifying the session to be closer to the LRB template I’m ultimately wanting to follow.

Squat was fine. It feels better at the bottom, the dorsiflexion is improving.

I switched to stiff-legged deadlifts. Again, this is from the proper template. No idea what weight to use, and I’m not going heavy on things yet. But there was 135 on the bar from squats, so I just put the bar on the floor and did that. Certainly could go up, but this was good.

Then…. the one-legged split squats. GEEZ! I wanted to do some one-leg work because I think that will be a help for the ankle. While the template says lunges, that’s going to be a little too impactful on my ankle yet. But these? Holy crap! First set I held onto something for balance, but found I was using it too much to help me go up and down. So the other sets were me just sticking my arms out for balance and dealing with it. I like that better, because it’s my legs that must do the work. I also think the balance work is going to help with the ankle. Make the ankle area work and get stronger. I’ll increase the reps and sets over time. These really suck, but they should be good for me. The goal being 100 reps (I think 50 per leg).

The leg press is again from the template proper. I left the sled empty (it’s still somewhat heavy) just to see how it would fare on the ankle. Not bad. There was a little more issue at the bottom, the dorsiflexion, but I think if I keep this light for a bit, it should help in that area.

Finally… no KB swings. My body said “no”. All the other stuff I did did take enough out of me, and something about the positioning on the leg press left my hips feeling funny. The swings wouldn’t have helped my situation. But I’m going to do something every session, so 20 minutes of slow steady on the elliptical. Not proud to have done it but I’m going to do something, durn-it!

KR Training – 2014-02-15 – BP2/DPS1 Quick Hits

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

What a gorgeous day we had at KR Training (2014-02-15). Unseasonable warmth — while my friends elsewhere in the nation were commenting on how much snow they were digging out from, I was out in the sun enjoying a fantastic day on the range. I’ll enjoy these mild days while I can, since July and August will be here soon enough.

Classes were Basic Pistol 2 in the morning and Defensive Pistol Skills 1 in the afternoon. We had a great number of students enrolled in both classes, which was useful because we could press on and not have to do so much remedial work in DPS1. Of course, that makes for long, information-overload days, but no question the students progressed well and were better at the end of the day than the start.

Quick hits for those in class.

  • Trigger control was the biggest issue across the board. Yanking and slapping, slapping and yanking. Really work on the “slow, smooth press” of the trigger. Dry fire will be your friend. Wall Drill. It’s just about learning it and getting used to it.
  • Speed matters, but correctness matters more — especially at this stage. I’d rather you be slower but correct, smooth, accurate. Speed will come.
    • Note that speed doesn’t always mean “go faster”; sometimes it’s about using what time you have more efficiently. Consider if it takes you 1 second to press the gun out and 1 second to press the trigger. If you do these consecutively, that’s 2 seconds to complete the action. If you do them simultaneously, it’s only 1 second. In fact, consider you could go even a hair slower, like 1.5 seconds, yet it’s still less overall time.
  • Habits are hard to break. I saw many working to break old habits, which is great!
    • Don’t beat yourself up over old habits. Don’t tell yourself “don’t do that”. Tell yourself what new habits to ingrain; what TO do. Instead of saying “don’t yank the trigger” say “slow smooth press”. Instead of saying “don’t rush” say “slow down”.
    • Again, dry fire helps with this. Be sure when you do anything and everything with your gun to do it correctly. Everything is a rep, everything is a chance to ingrain the right way to do things. Even things like unloading your gun before dry fire, do the unload correctly (how you hold the gun, safe direction, how you rack the slide, etc.). Training economy is about using every opportunity to do things right and ingrain the right way to do things.

 

Updated: Student Tracy Talbot wrote up her experience in the classes. Thank you for sharing, Tracy!