Author: hsoi

Safety tips

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

I received this list of “Christmas Safety Tips”. But really, these tips are solid all year round.

The original list of tips is in plain text, and my comments follow in italics.

· Always stay alert to your surroundings and the people around you.

Keep your head up, eyes looking around – not looking at your phone.

· Lock your vehicle and close the windows,even if you will return in a few minutes.

There’s mixed data on locking and closing (some say you should, some say it doesn’t matter), but the key remains the same: do not make a tempting target. Do not have things in your car that make it tempting for theft. If you must (e.g. out shopping), locking doors and rolling up windows, keeping packages and “tempting items” out of sight, etc. work to minimize and deter.

· Park in well lighted areas.

Well-populated too. However, don’t be complacent, as stuff happens in crowd in the middle of the day.

· Remember to take your keys with you. Place valuables,(e.g.Mp3players,G.P.S.),and packages in the trunk. If the trunk is full, place the items beneath covered inside the car.

If you can, make trips home to drop off packages.

· If you become separated from your children, teach them to go to a store clerk and ask for help.Try to always have a way of directly contacting people you shop with.

This depends in part on the age of your children as to the actions you take, but fundamentally it comes down to planning and discussing with your children what to do before things happen. While it’s good to discuss well in advance, it’s also good to discuss immediately upon arrival. For example, when you first walk into a store, point out the clerks and how to find and identify them (name tags? uniforms? register stations?). Immediately establish and verify the plan with your child so it is fresh in their mind.

I have found that if the child is too young to remember your contact information, take a small card (business card, index card, etc.) and print your relevant contact information (name, mobile phone number, etc.) on the card such that the child could just give it to the clerk for them to use to contact you. When my kids were really young, I put the card in their shoe or sock, so there was less chance of the card being lost, but the child would know where it was.

· Avoid carrying large amounts of cash.And don’t flash your wallet or money.

Be discrete.

· As a reminder,theft is one of the easiest ways that thieves can steal your identity.

Please remember to review the contents of your wallet or purse before you go shopping.Think about what information you carry in excess.Don’t bring any credit cards with you that you won’t be using.Have all of your personal information written and stored to report documents you lose.

This is a good one. Because if you do lose your wallet, if you are mugged, or whatever, it’s less information to go around.

· If your credit card is lost,stolen, or misused, notify the issuers and credit reporting agencies immediately.

And keep an active eye on your bank statements, eStatements, if the bank and/or credit card has an online account mechanism, watch the account. The recent data breach at Target stores shows that much is possible, even if your information wasn’t directly taken.

· Keep receipts separate from purchases. If your shopping items get stolen, this makes it harder for a thief to cash them in at the store.

· Don’t carry too many packages.It is important not to overload yourself with packages,to have clear sight of your surroundings and a good range of motion.

Distribute the load. Do you have others with you? Let them carry some packages too. Can you request a store employee help you out to your car with your packages?

Wife and I tend to follow a pattern where she carries things and I don’t. I know it looks bad, but it allows me to keep my hands free and unencumbered.

· When returning to your vehicles have keys in-hand.

I don’t like to do this, because it makes my intent evident. However, the point is to have your keys easily accessible and not something that you must rummage around for 5 minutes trying to find. This will cause your head to be down, your eyes to be averted, and be unaware of your surroundings. Just ensure your keys are easily and quickly accessible.

What Predators Look For

· Someone looking friendly, timid, lost, absent-minded, or intoxicated – thus more easily manipulated.

· Someone wearing earphones or distracted with a cell phone – unaware of surroundings.

· Someone unaware their being followed until their isolated.

· Someone parking close to trucks that prevent witnesses from seeing you – predators seek that kind of cover.

· Someone “handcuffed” with both arms loaded with packages or a child.

These are true things, regardless of time of year. The common factor? Unawareness, either by action (e.g. nose glued to a phone screen) or distraction (packages, children). Awareness is your #1 defense, because the sooner you can be aware of potential danger, the sooner you can work to avoid it.

2014-01-01 training log

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Starting the new year off right.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

  • Work Set – Bench Press
    • 45 x 5
    • 45 x 5
    • 90 x 5
    • 110 x 5
    • 130 x 3
    • 145 x 5
    • 165 x 5
    • 185 x 10
  • Face Pulls (superset with the bench press warm-up sets)
    • 40 x 15 x 5
  • Close-grip Bench Press
    • 135 x 10
    • 135 x 10
    • 135 x 9
    • 135 x 6
    • 135 x 6
  • T-Bar Rows (superset with the close-grip bench press)
    • 100 X 10 X 5
  • Barbell Curls
    • 50 X 10 X 3
  • Foam Rolling

Kiddos wanted to ring in the new year, so at 12:01 I headed to bed. I fully intended on still hitting the gym… was more important for me to get to the gym and keep with the program, than to stay up late and drink and party. My priorities. Alas, staying up to midnight is still WAY past my bedtime, so I knew I’d have to sleep a little later than usual… and I slept even later than that. Just couldn’t get out of bed, way too tired (listen to the body!). But eventually things felt good and off I went.

I am glad I did the full reset. I mean, I figured on my bench press that of all the lifts, that would be the one I would NOT need to reset because the way I was progressing there was still getting more than prescribed reps and doing well. I knew if I reset bench then my weights would really drop and my reps would fly up. Sure enough, only 185 today? Geez… that feels like a massive step back from doing 245 *sigh* And once I got to 10 reps, I just stopped. Oh well, I figure it’ll be good for me. 🙂 More reps, more time to work on technique, right? Find the positive.

That said, close-grips were at 125# last time and well… I was to do 130# but 130 is one of those weights I hate because man, I have a 45 and a 25 on the bar, now I have to strip everything off, then put everything on just to get 130. I’m OK with 125, but can I just skip 130 and go to 135? It’s easier to just strip that one 25 off. Yeah I know… lazy. Whatever. 🙂 So I went ahead and jumped to 135 for the close grips. I’m good with that and happy with how it went.

Opted to drop the seated cable rows. While CarbNite-ing, it’s just too much load.

Didn’t bother with any direct triceps work either… just hit some bb curls to continue working on bringing up my biceps.

Not a bad day, really…. but….

I’m still very sore from Monday’s squat session. That kicked my ass, literally. Shows what a difference eating makes when it comes to recovery. I’ll find a groove tho. One bummer is that somehow my old ankle injury reared up again, so it’s kinda painful to walk or put much weight on my left foot. Icing is helping, but you can see obvious swelling. This usually goes away with a little rest, but man… with the food deprivation and such, well… we’ll see. I am thinking if it keeps up like this, an MRI may be in my future… somehow this time around it’s bothering me enough to want to look into that.

Less, in the new year

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

When I started this blog almost 5 years ago, I made a decision that I had to post something every day. I didn’t have to write every day, and often I didn’t because I’d write a bunch when inspiration hit, schedule it, and thus ensure a post every day.

I have stuck with that, and it’s been… challenging.

In fact, it’s grown more challenging as time has gone on. I mean, if you notice a pattern, I now “cheat” 3 out of 4 days a week by posting my training log. That counts, but it’s not content that really brings people around (tho oddly, I do get a lot of people caring about my training logs).

My intent was always to write for me. This blog was never to be anything more than my own place to write about whatever I wanted, in a public manner. And it remains and will remain to that end.

But I just can’t keep writing every day. Life has changed a lot over the past 5 years.

I don’t have the free time I once did.

Blogging is not the priority it once was. There are other things that require my attention, so the blog is bumped down the priority ladder.

I have found that I desire to be less vocal. I’ll still write, but I no longer desire to crusade. Here’s an article about cognative bias. We all suffer from this. Step back and look at your own online interactions, your own behaviors, and yeah, we’re all subject to it. People I wish to engage and convince aren’t reading what I write. And frankly, I’m tired because online interactions tend to lead to people sticking their fingers in their ears and classifying you as the asshole. Truly, the best way to convince people and win them over is to get out from behind the keyboard, look them in the eye with a smile and compassionate heart, and listen to what they have to say.

Now, I’ll still write when I can educate. If I can contribute something to the Google-sphere of information out there that people seeking knowledge and information could find useful, sure, I’ll write.

But daily posting? I just can’t do it any more. I’ll still write, but I reckon the only regular postings will be my training logs. All other postings will come as I have time and inspiration. Heck who knows… it might inspire me to write shorter posts. 😉

It may be the beginning of the end for this blog, but usually when something dies, something else will grow in its place. So let’s just focus on what will grow, shall we?

Children learn from our example

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

“The Angry Coach” at EliteFTS was writing A Sad Commentary on the State of Youth Sports. As I read it, it actually felt like a sad commentary on today’s youth and parenting in general.

He was observing a youth sports practice, and three things stuck out to him:

1. Practice started at 9 AM, but more than half the team showed up at 9 on the dot or later. This kills me. As a coach, 9 does not mean 9. Ideally, it means about 8:30. At a minimum, it means 8:45. When your kid has practice at 9, and you drop him/her off at exactly 9 (or worse, you’re later, which many parents were), what message are you sending? These are not going to be the “first in the weight room, last out” kids, because that concept will always be foreign to them. The good player, when he has practice at 9, shows up 20-30 minutes early, gets his equipment on, then goes out and warms up with his friends, throwing the ball around. He doesn’t show up when practice is supposed to start, stealing everyone’s time while he gets ready. That’s a shitty message to send your kid.

2. I saw multiple parents carrying their kids’ equipment bags across the street for them. I’ve never seen anything like this before, but I guess it’s because I don’t have kids of my own and because I’m not really involved with any youth leagues. For pretty much every other kid on this team, one parent would open the back of the mini-van, take out the kid’s gear bag, and carry it across the street while the kid walked over with his friends. I saw one kid (remember, they were 12, tops) on a cell phone while his mother was carrying his equipment. I don’t think I need to go into great detail on how this will hinder these kids as athletes. What was shocking about it was the number of parents doing it.

3. I saw multiple parents ignoring the one-way signs at the entrance to the parking lot so they could jockey for closer parking spaces. Again, another horrific message to send your kid (and likely one of the reasons why my car insurance payments are so f-ing high). This teaches the young athlete a number of things: 1) Narcissism, i.e., “I’m entitled to a better parking space than all my teammates.” 2) Taking the easy way out. 3) Flouting the rules because “we’re special and they don’t apply to us.” 4) “Nobody else matters but me, and I can do whatever I want no matter how much it inconveniences my team.”

Frankly, I see all three of these things as a more general problem today.

What happened to being early is being on time, and being on time is late? I deal with this every day, where meetings are set for a certain time, and people consider that time to start thinking about coming to the meeting. No, if the meeting starts at 10:00, you are seated and ready to go by 10:00, not that at 10:02 you leave your desk and saunter in delaying everyone until you grace us with your presence. Everyone seems to give service to the notion that time is precious and matters, but yet, actions don’t treat that time as precious.

What happened to kids being kids, and parents being parents, instead of parents being the servants of children? Parents should not be begging their children to undertake some action; the child should be told, the child should do, and if they don’t there are negative consequences. Granted, it’s not always so cut and dry, but the parent is supposed to be the one in charge. Should Mom be stuck unloading the groceries from the car while the kids run into the house and play? Hell no! They should be unloading, putting everything away, and doing their part to help out around the house. They should carry their own bags, their own stuff. Sure, small children are different, but as they get older, they need to start being given more treatment like adults, which includes carrying your own weight.

And #3. Oh, I deal with this one too often. I have nothing more to add above what The Angry Coach wrote.

Really, you want to know why kids are as they are today? Here’s a good starting list. And really, it just leads back to the parents… because they will learn from our example. And if this is the example set, what will their children learn from them?

2013-12-30 training log

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

CarbNite Solution…. I’m drained.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 27, week 1

  • Work Set – Squat
    • 45 x 5
    • 45 x 5
    • 120 x 5
    • 150 x 5
    • 180 x 3
    • 195 x 5
    • 230 x 5
    • 260 x 5
  • More Squats
    • 150 x 10
    • 150 x 10
    • 150 x 8
    • 150 x 8
    • 150 x 6
  • Seated Calf Raises
    • 45 x 10 x 3
  • Crunches (superset with calf raises)
    • BW x 12 x 3
  • Foam Rolling

Today marked my first training session of 2014 (essentially), first of cycle 27, and first time back in the gym after starting CarbNite Solution. It’s been almost 2 weeks of ultra-low-carb… and it showed.

I had no gas.

I figured I would lose some strength and steam without carbs. Since I got a new 1RM (315#) I thought about doing a full-on recalculation of my percentages, full-on reset, and go from there. But I thought no, I should be alright… drop back a little, but I shouldn’t need to drop back THAT much.

I was wrong.

I dropped back 20#, but I just couldn’t go today. I just ran out of gas. I pushed hard, but any time I would stop it was because I didn’t have the gas to keep going. I just don’t have any glycogen. Makes sense, of course.

So I called some audibles. If I can’t do too much, then I better make the best of what I have. Instead of leg presses and leg curls — which were actually really helping — I just fell back to good old “boring but big” and did more squats. I figure that’s training economy here.

As I think about it all, I am going to fully reset everything. In part, one reason for my reluctance was working up to some good poundages, and now I’m going to lose it all and drop WAY back. But you know what? I have to get over it. Right now the numbers that matter aren’t the numbers on the bar, but the numbers on the scale, the numbers on the tape measure around my waist, and so on. That is what I have to focus on.

So, I’m going to do a full reset, and probably change up the routine a bit to adopt a more training-economic approach, which will probably fall back to good old “boring but big.”

That said tho… CarbNite Solution seems to be alright so far. I’ve only dropped around 5# so far, which is less than expected. But I know it’s not all about the scale. I can say I feel a lot better overall. I don’t feel that adominal bloat, I don’t feel so uncomfortable. I overall feel good. I’m working to find some ways to manage my need for sweets (trying out Virgil’s Zero Sodas… not a huge soda drinker anyways, but if popping one of these back now and again helps me overcome things, then fine; also trying almond flour/meal-based stuff too). I know this will be a process, and I have to remind myself that it will take time. Don’t care so much about weight losses and changes week to week, but look more month to month… it’s a slow process, so checking on a larger timeline will make the changes more evident.

Sunday Metal – Orange Goblin

/ hsoi

Inspired by the Orange Goblin show in Austin September 2013….

To finish out my run of Orange Goblin tracks, here’s the full set they played at Hellfest 2012. If you haven’t seen them live, this is a good representation of what you’re missing.

 

Goodbye Sprouts

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

When we discovered Sprouts we were thrilled. So many great products, including hard to find health-type foods. Wife was thrilled, I enjoyed it. Heck, the first time I went to Sprouts I was giggling because of the great variety of foodstuffs they stocked and provided.

But alas, they will receive no more of my money. And for a family of 5 that wound up using Sprouts as our primary grocery store? That’s a fair chunk of money.

Why?

Seems Sprouts corporate decided to start posting “no guns” signs at their locations. I’m not sure how widespread this is across the nation, but certainly 30.06 signs are showing up at Texas locations (many reports are being made). I didn’t see any signs the last time I went to my local store, but it seems the rollout has been happening over the course of December 2013 so who knows. Sign or not at my particular store, it’s evident this is corporate policy.

I didn’t see any formal posting about this, but here’s something from their Facebook page:

Good afternoon Paul, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about our decision to prohibit firearms in our stores. Please understand that we recognize and respect our customers’ rights under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a right that prohibits the government (but not private retailers) from infringing on citizens’ right to bear arms. That right, however, must be balanced with our need as a retailer to provide a safe and comfortable environment for our customers and team members. That’s why, after careful and thoughtful analysis, we have decided to prohibit our customers and our team members from bringing firearms onto our store premises. While this decision may disappoint some of our valued customers, such as yourself, we stand by our decision and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our communities about it.

We hope that you will continue to be a part of the Sprouts family notwithstanding our decision on this issue. We value your patronage and hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Stephanie
Sprouts Farmers Market
Customer Relations Specialist

They are correct, that 2A is about restricting the federal government, not about private retailers. In fact, they do have every right to do this, and we have every right to take our business elsewhere.

I’m just saddened — and confused — by their decision.

They want a safe and comfortable environment. I would appreciate to know their logic and reasoning behind this, but they are getting bombarded with feedback about this decision, and given how they are active in responding to every non-gun-related post on their Facebook page but make no comments on the gun-related posts, they are obviously making no further comment on the issue.

It’s strange.

The 30.06 sign only prohibits law-abiding CHL holders. The thing is, if you look at facts and data, CHL holders are not the people you should be afraid of. In fact, CHL holders are statistically more law-abiding than the non-CHL-holding citizenry! If you want a safe environment, CHL holders are precisely the sort of people you want to have around. They aren’t going to commit violence. They aren’t going to steal.

There are no signs or ways to keep violent, gun-wielding felons out of your store. In fact, today they can still shop in Sprouts. But today, CHL holders — who cannot be felons, by definition — cannot shop at Sprouts.

How is that creating a safe environment?

I know we all want to feel safe, and these days people seem to put greater emphasis on feeling than actually being. But which actually makes you safer? Illusions or reality?

I would like to believe there is sound reasoning behind why Sprouts made their decision. In fact, they might gain support and expand their customer base if they were willing to share their specific reasoning. Furthermore, it’d be great if Sprouts was willing to enter into dialogue that helped guide them towards policies that actually lead to a truly safer and more comfortable environment. One that strove to provide real safety, and didn’t alienate law-abiding customers. I mean, it seems that thousands upon thousands of other businesses in Texas can do this, so I’m sure if Sprouts wanted to, they could as well.

Sprouts donated $100,00 to the victims of the Aurora shooting victims. That’s fantastic! I applaud their generosity and compassion. I just hope they aren’t extrapolating the acts of a madman to the 750,000+ Texas CHL holders that, again, are demonstrably law-abiding, sound citizens. I mean, we’re not supposed to extrapolate the actions of a lone terrorist to all Muslims, so I hope they aren’t committing the same sort of extrapolation.

I’d love to give Sprouts my business again because I appreciate their business model and the products they provide. But it seems for now this is their decision. I will take my money elsewhere, and encourage others to do the same. We will support those that understand the value of healthy living, and that do not treat the law-abiding with dangerous misunderstanding.

Real solutions, please

/ hsoi

Charles C. W. Cooke makes an important observation:

You will notice that in not a single one of the cases [high-profile mass shootings] listed above did a perpetrator buy his weapon through an “unregulated private sale,” through “the Internet,” or in “the parking lot at a gun show.” Not one. Instead, in each and every case, one of two things happened: Either (a) the killer followed the law to the letter, or (b) he broke it spectacularly. That Sandy Hook involved little children made it that much harder to bear. But it did not change the salient fact: that massacrs eand [sic] private sales have pretty much nothing to do with one another.

So are they really wanting to “save innocent lives”? Or do they have other goals, and the death of children is merely a vehicle for them to play on the emotions of the public?

If they are sincere in their efforts to “save innocent lives” then I suggest taking a step back and reexamining priorities and solutions, and being willing and open to new solutions. You know the saying about how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Well, suggesting these same “solutions” to “gun violence” over and over, when they are demonstrated to not work, well… that’s just insane. So if you are sincere in a desire to end violence, then I suggest you start looking at other solutions instead of the ones that don’t work.

Else, we can only think you are stubborn, ignorant, or nefarious.

 

 

Training log – so what IS next?

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

After looking back on 2013, now it’s time to look forward to 2014.

While I’m thrilled with hitting 1000# total and a 315/245/440 on my lifts, I’m not thrilled with all that it took to get there.

Gaining weight.

And not the good weight either.

I presently weigh 250#. It’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life. I wish it was all muscle, but alas I’ve got a nice layer of flab over my entire body, and I’ve got a visible gut. I’m estimating 30% body fat, but that’s just based on some basic measurements and looking in the mirror comparing to some charts I’ve found online. Really, it doesn’t matter what the specifics are because the bottom line is…

I hate it.

I hate how it feels. I hate how it makes me feel. I hate the difficulties it brings. I hate that it stresses my body in ways that it doesn’t need stress. And yes, I hate how I look, even with clothing on, because I just do not like seeing that gut sticking out. I want my shirt to hang from my pecs, not rest on my tummy.

Yeah I know, I’m not all that bad compared to a lot of people. But this isn’t about them, this is about me. And this is not where I want to be. It was a means to an end, and I sure learned a lot in getting to this point. Now it’s time to learn more in going the other way.

So my next goal? Losing fat. Not weight, per se, because I really don’t want to lose muscle (tho I know I will). I want to drop fat.

Exactly how much? I don’t know. It’s not as much about scale weight as it is about how I look and how my clothing fits. I don’t need to get bodybuilder ripped or anything, typical pictures of someone with 12-15% body fat looks good to me. So doing some rough numbers, I figure 40# is a good number to initially target. Again, tho it really isn’t about the numbers, having numbers helps when figuring things out.

How To Get There

I tried Carb Back-Loading in the past, and I’ve also looked at Carb Nite Solution. I’ve read on things like the Renegade Diet, Anabolic Diet, Carb Cycling, Shelby Starnes’ stuff, various Paleo-things. You name it. I’ve looked at all sorts of things. And when you get down to it, it all tends to be similar enough: high protein, “high” fat, (almost) no carb. Stick with it for a while and it’ll work. Carbs are evil, protein and fat are not. Well, carbs aren’t totally evil, but for what I’m doing, carbs are what I do not want.

So what am I doing?

Well, I actually stumbled into Harry Selkow’s version of the caveman diet. It’s a pretty simple protocol. It’s 3, 2-week phases (6 weeks total). Breaks down like this:

Phase 1 – only food you can eat is food that has, or will have, a face (so meat and eggs). Can only drink water. No carbs, period.

Phase 2 – add dark green leafies (spinach, kale, dark romaine, chard, etc.).

Phase 3 – can add all the colors of veggies, and local seasonal fruit after 5 PM.

You don’t count calories. You just eat. If you’re hungry, eat until satisfied. Tho I will say, given some stuff I read from Shelby Starnes about doing very-low carb diets, it seems like if I want to target something, 300g protein and 100g fat per day is a reasonable place for someone like me to start. I do think I keep that somewhat in mind as I eat so I can ensure I am eating enough (even if I have to force it) but not eating too much. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the basic idea. It’s not only there to put you into the physical state of ketosis and get your body burning off that fat while keeping protein pretty high to avoid muscle loss (tho there will be some muscle and strength loss), but it’s also a huge mental component. There’s a discipline aspect, which is critical to any diet success.

And really, regardless of protocol, just about every ultra-low-carb diet starts out with this 7-14 day “recalibration” phase. There’s minor variation in what you do, but it’s all essentially the same. So, protocol doesn’t matter as much as just getting the carbs out and getting into ketosis.

Thing is, as you read this, I’ve already been on it. The day I deadlifted the 440 and got my 1000# total? I started immediately onto Selkow’s protocol. However, after 5 days on it, I had to change gears. In short, the complete lack of fiber becomes um… difficult. I’ve got some medical issues that ultimately all of this isn’t meshing with, so I had to stop for my health. But, all I did was change to CarbNite Solution.

Carb Nite Solution was the protocol I was originally considering, so I don’t feel all that horrible. And again, the first 10 days of CNS are all about ultra-low-carb, so I’m essentially on track. I can just add in fibrous veggies, which is a good thing! CNS has a lot of success stories, and I intend to be another one.

I will say, doing the no-carb thing isn’t as bad thing time around as it was some months ago. I know a lot more, I can manage hunger better, there are better recipes to work with, Wife’s changed a few dietary things herself which impacts what foods we have and eat around the house. And the biggest thing is I’m squarely motivated to drop the weight, which helps with the discipline part of things.

As for exercise, that won’t change much. I’m not going to be bumping up cardio or anything like that. I’m just going to keep lifting same as I have. I am still doing the math on things, but I’m considering resetting my weights (now that I have some true 1RM’s), recalculating all my percentages, and going from there. I mean, keep working hard, lifting as I have, but acknowledge I’m going to lose some strength. So if dropping my weights helps me be a little more in the “mass building” range, helps me get more reps which means more ability to focus on technique, and dovetails with the unavoidable strength loss well… yeah, that might be the way to go. Still figuring.

And will I report?

Yeah. I figure some logging of my progress will happen. Pictures? Well, I am taking pictures of myself, but I’m not sure I’ll share those. It feels a little too personal. So I’m not expecting to share pictures as I go along, but… I wouldn’t be surprised if when I got to the end I shared a “before” and “after”. 🙂

Other Goals?

The body recomp, the fat loss, that’s my main goal. Whatever it takes to get there. But I would expect I should be able to get there before the end of 2014. Frankly tho, I’d like to get there before spring/summer.

After that, we’ll see. I’m sure I’ll pick up on carbs some and try to rebuild my strength and muscle mass.

I keep having thoughts about competing in a powerlifting competition, but that isn’t something I’m counting on because I want my focus to be not on bar numbers but on scale numbers, y’know? Still, right now I’d have to lift in the 275# class. To lift in the 220# class would be nicer. 🙂 Yeah, that sorta sits as some motivation on this too. I just don’t want to focus too much on this thought tho, because I don’t want to have conflicting goals. The fat loss has to be my focus.

I want to look good in some tighter Under Armor t-shirts I have. I want my shirt to hang from my pecs, not rest on my belly. I want to have a flat enough stomach so I can carry AIWB. I want to drop weight that is doing nothing but adding stress to my ankle and knee joints. And hey, what positive effect will it have on my ability to do pull/chin-ups?

Onwards.

Training Log – looking back at 2013

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As 2013 wraps up, I like to look back and see how I did.

I finished up my 26th (essentially) cycle on the Wendler 5/3/1 program. I say essentially because there were some restarts and other things along the way (e.g. caught flu), but 26 is good enough.

How was I looking a year ago? From that post it seems cycle 15 was what I considered the last cycle of 2012.

At the end of cycle 15:

Press – 135 x 7
Deadlift – 330 x 7
Bench – 210 x 6
Squat – 270 x 3

Here at the end of cycle 26:

Press – 165 x 2
Deadlift – 440 x 1
Bench – 245 x 1
Squat – 315 x 1

In terms of absolute numbers, there’s no question I went up. But did I really go up? I mean, it’s hard to compare when there’s different reps. So let’s use some of the 1RM formulas. Deadlift 330×7 estimates at 407#; bench 210×6 estimates at 250; squat 270×3 estimates at 297#. So yeah, I generally went up. Not as much as I would have wanted, but I know why I didn’t.

The big goal I set for myself was to total 1000. I also wanted to do things like bench over 2 wheels, squat 3 wheels, deadlift 4 wheels. Well, I accomplished all of those things. Kick ass!

What’s even better was focus. I had conflicting goals. I wanted to get stronger, but I also was growing tired of the increasing flab around my waist. I mean, you gotta eat big, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t putting in the work at the dinner table (yeah, there’s work involved here). I didn’t eat enough, and I kept trying to lose weight and get strong at the same time. Sorry, you just can’t do that — it’s one or the other, pick one. So that caused me some setbacks, because I dealt with conflicting goals and stagnated. This is the biggest reason my numbers didn’t increase as much as I wanted, and why it took me until the end of the year to hit my numbers, and only through doing some different workups instead of just normal worksets.

But I think overall it was good. I learned a lot about diet, including that if you really want your lifts to go up you gotta eat big. Once I set about that and focused, the lifts came along pretty well. I mean, I could do 10# per cycle jumps on my squat, instead of having to repeat and hope for rep improvements. Eat. It’s that important.

I also came to realize how I was not focusing enough on sleep. I had some burnout issues as a result, but once I got serious about sleeping enough every day, things got better. I’m still not perfect with it because I guess that’s just part of growing older. But at least I put more explicit emphasis on getting sleep instead of it just being something you do when you fall over at the end of the day.

So all in all, while I had some stagnation and setbacks, I learned a lot from those experiences. They will serve me well, so it’s all good.

It also got me more focused on technique. I know my technique improved a lot over the year. Tightness is so important. And I know this was time well-spent. I mean, the 270 squat I did a year ago I’m sure didn’t hit depth and was really shitty by comparison to what I can do now. I know for sure my deadlifts are better (more legs, less stiff-legging). I have a better understanding of where some weak points are and how to hit them.

All in all, it was good and I’m happy with how the year went. It wasn’t quite the path I planned, but I still got there in the end with some side-benefits to boot.

So where to go for 2014? I’ll write about that later.