Loudwire came up with a list of the top 10 thrash bands of all time. Like all “top X lists” it’s some fact and a lot of opinion. Still, I thought it’d make for a good Sunday Metal theme.
#9 Exciter
“Violence & Force”. I think my first exposure to this album was on a P.M.R.C. “Rising to the Challenge” video. Thanx for the tip, Tipper!
Kari Bird just started law school and continues to work full time. Bird got home at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and when she got out of her car, a group of three or four young guys approached her.
….he quickly pulled out a gun.
“He told me to … give him my keys,” Bird said.
She did turn over her keys, but realizing all her law books and belongings were in the car, Bird made a quick decision. With the gun still pointed at her, she reached into her center console to pull out her own gun.
“(He said), ‘Oh s***’ and then ran,” Bird told Fox 59.
Full story (h/t Brian)
Just one question.
For those of you who wish to ban guns, that wish to deny good people the ability to defend themselves, that seek to prevent people possessing guns in public (in their car, on their person)… why are you seeking to harm Kari Bird?
Which is better? Practicing something for 1 day once a year? Or practicing something for 1 hour once a month? Or practicing 10 minutes each day?
Granted, this depends what we’re practicing, but for many things we do better if we do a little bit of it on a regular basis.
What makes some things tough for folks is thinking they have to do a lot of it often. Granted, if you’re totally in love with the thing you’re doing, if you are driven to some higher level (e.g. to be a world champion), that’s a different context. But for most of us regular schmoes, we just want to not suck at our chosen thing.
Yeah, you have those gym rats that spend 2 hours twice a day at the gym. It’s probably their social thing and that’s fine as far as it goes, but then their goal is probably social and not performance. I have appreciated the basics of Wendler 5/3/1 because it’s gotten me stronger than I’ve ever been, and it’s about doing more with less, e.g. the most basic template, Boring But Big, has you doing just 2 exercises (tho 1 is done in 2 different ways, so I suppose you could say 3 exercises) in a simple scheme, and you ought to be in and out of the gym in under an hour.
Champion pistol shooter, Ben Stoeger, promotes a dry fire practice routine around the notion of “15 minutes a day”. I recently started doing his 15 minute sessions, and some actually take less than 15 minutes. But you see the point that it’s about manageable chunks, not some massive session that you’ll dread and thus opt to never do. But it also needs a “per day” in order to progress. One 15 minute session once a year isn’t going to cut it.
PoliceOne even talks about how police officers can practice the skills of their trade in just 10 minutes a day. This could be things like dry fire practice, handcuffing skills, or even watching the news and visualizing your own response to reported situations.
The P1 article made a good point:
Do 10 minutes of training a day, every day you work the job.
Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is.
Assuming you work a four-day week, and you do 10 minutes of training each day you work, you will have done 40 minutes of training per week. Easy math, right?
Assuming you have four weeks off (vacations, holidays, etc.), leaving you with 48 work weeks in a year, and you do the prescribed 10 daily minutes, you will have done 1,920 minutes of training annually.
That’s 32 hours of training.
Every year.
For FREE.
I hadn’t thought about that. I hadn’t looked at the math.
There are schools out there that you attend for a week. You take a week off work (taking the hit to your vacation time and paycheck). You spend thousands of dollars for tuition, travel, food, accommodations, whatever. You get a week of good training. It’s fun. I won’t discount the value of such things. But the above shows you can get a whole lot out of a little each day.
Tom Givens makes a point that you do far better with a little practice more often. That is, better to practice 15 minutes 2-3 times a week than to practice for 1-2 hours once a month. When skills are perishable (and most are, if you want to operate at any level above rudimentary), when skills are ones that must be called upon at any unexpected time, you do better when those skills are more fresh in your mind and body. If the last time you practiced was 3 days ago, that’s less “rot time” compared to 30 days ago; things will be fresher, you’ll perform better.
I’m not perfect about this, but it is something I strive for. And seeing the above math? That really hits it home. A little each day, and it really adds up.
That’s what I’m talking about.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 2
This was a good session. Worked out quite well. I was happy to crank out 7 reps with 200. I kept things really tight, with the pull-ups working me, and even my incline presses pushing me to my limits. So all was good. Felt focused, driven.
One thing I did differently was instead of benching on the normal bench, I moved a flat bench into the squat “rack”. It’s not a true power rack, more like one of those racks with the inclined rack of pegs and then one large flat “catch” somewhere well below where most people would be at depth. I wanted to see how I would fare and how it would work out. One set of pegs was just out of reach… I could do it if I shrugged my shoulders forward to get the bar out, but that won’t happen nor be good for setup with heavier weights. The peg I have to use is kinda low, but oh well… it will serve as a good peg to fall into if I can’t get lockout, which is kinda the point. And if I get stapled well… the catch rails are 2-3″ below me so I will be rolling the bar on my body, but by the time I get to my legs I can get it onto the rail and well… this isn’t ideal, but it’l be better than the free-standing bench.
I want to do this so if I start pushing my benches with things like Joker sets or other 1RM testing, I can handle possible failure. I’d rather not miss the rep, but shit happens. I’ll work this setup for a while and see how it goes.
There’s just some realities of the world that political correctness and good intentions cannot overcome. “F = ma” is one of them.
In response to my “Little woman vs. big man“, Chuck Rives commented “Good stuff. There’s a reason why even UFC adopted weight classes.”. The above was my response to him, and I think the notion is one that too many people forget.
Only 2. 2 good ones, but still…. only 2.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 2
If I’m diagnosing things correctly, it’s my legs that suck. My back is strong(er) by comparison, so it’s easy for my body to want to keep the bar where it is, let the hips shoot up (and the back/hip angle closes), then basically “good morning” the weight up… ratchet it up. I can do that to move the weights, but that doesn’t make me stronger.
So my squats, I’m really trying to keep upright, press back, and drive drive drive with the legs.
On the 245 set, it was tough. I knew the 275 would be tough, even with the belt on. It was. Maybe I mentally set myself up for it (failure). I know that when the weight gets heavy, I want to ensure I get back up, so I’ll cut depth. No no no, that’s unacceptable. I would rather get 1 awesome rep than 3 shitty reps. I will go all the way down. And I did. Rep 1 went down, and it was hard coming up. Rep 2 went down, and mid-way up I stopped… I just couldn’t go any more. My body wanted to lean forward to let my hips shoot up and then good morning the weight up, but no no no, fought it because that’s not the point. Push with the legs. I just refused to dump the bar. I knew I was on the cusp of dumping it but figured if I was going to then let my body fail and dump, meantime keep fighting it until then. And I managed to get it up there, keeping as upright as I could, pushing as much as I could with my legs. I racked it after 2. I thought about resting 30-60 seconds and going for 1 more rep, but why? What purpose would that really serve? I left it alone.
I am not happy with only getting 2 and missing prescribed reps, but that I didn’t miss depth and that I fought through on form? I’ll take it. But still… we’ll see what next session brings. And this probably means next cycle I’ll keep the weight the same and go for more reps.
Front squats. Oye. I dropped the weight down because I want to ensure I’m getting form right. Feet are just a little inside of shoulder-width, toes mostly forward. Using the bodybuilder-style cross arm setup (anything else really hurts my elbows). Fight to keep upright. Slight pause at the bottom… not of any noticable count, but enough to avoid the stretch reflex. Push back as I go up… almost like I’m trying to lauch myself backwards in an arc. And holy crap…. my quads were killing me. Pumped like hell, and well, that’s what I’m after. 5×8 was good, the last few reps of the last few sets were hard. So it doesn’t feel all that impressive, but it sure knocked it out of me. 🙂 If this helps me out, great.
Someday, the 300# barrier will be broken. I struggled a lot at 230 and broke through that plateau, I’ll get through this one.
I’m trying to emerge from one of the worst burnouts that I can remember.
It happens. It’s the nature of the business I’m in… and I think it’s also the nature of me.
I try to live a balanced life, but by the time I figure out how to balance things, there’s something new in the mix that imbalances everything. And I have enough drive and dedication to things that sometimes I push too much, and it’s… well… too much.
I think to some extent I just have to accept that this is me and how I run. It does better sometimes to go with the flow instead of fighting the current.
It finally came to a head a couple weeks ago. I just cracked. Was really short-fused and couldn’t focus on anything. No motivation for work or other stuff. I made a long Labor Day weekend, taking 5 days to do nothing. And while I did some stuff, the main focus was on sleeping and eating. I slept a lot. Heck, I woke up on Sunday after about 9 hours of sleep, ate breakfast, then went back to bed for another 2 hours. I then took another nap later in the day. Yes, everything was shot. In fact, I think if I could take another week off of “life” I’d come out in really good shape.
As it is, I feel a lot better. And one thing that is most significant that I didn’t realize was an issue? I don’t feel stiff and creeky. I figured it was just being beat up from the weights. I do think it was that, but it was… silly. Trying to just kneel down then get back up? It was a chore. OK so squatting 295×2 isn’t huge numbers, but if I can squat more than my bodyweight, why is it difficult to kneel down and get back up? I guess because I was so shot. After all this time resting, I don’t feel stiff and creeky any more. I can just squat down, kneel down, get up, and it’s no problem.
Crazy.
But it taught me a lot, and gave me a lot of signs to look for in the future. Catch it before it gets bad, because a lot of these signs are new signs.
Sleep is key. I need more of it.
But food is another.
Trying to diet down, seeing how it hurt me, running counter to my true goals. I also believe the restriction on food contributed to things because I didn’t have what I needed to build myself back up. I’ve learned over the years to listen to my body. Sometimes I’ll get a massive craving for something, like fruit. Listen to it. Eat until body says that’s enough. and it’s never really a want to pig out and gorge. There’s a limit and eventually the body says it’s good.
As much as I hate to keep the belly flab, I think I need to just keep eating more. It makes sense. But I do think along with listening to my body more, I can do things to be cleaner and, if I stick to things more long-term, it should work out alright for me. I’ll get there, but it will take time.. perhaps a lot of time.
I’m going to eat well, 250g of protein a day I think is minimal, don’t sweat the fat (tho don’t be stupid about it), and moderate the carbs. For example, if I have a piece of whole fruit with breakfast, fine. But that’s probably all I need. If I can have a carbless lunch, great. Then if Wife makes something for dinner that has some carbs in it (e.g. rice), just roll with it. If I have a scoop of ice cream before bed, fine, just don’t do it every night. I think all the “artificial” program following I’ve done has been good because it’s taught me a lot and shown me a lot; learned a lot about my body. I’m finding my groove, and right now, it’s a shit-ton of protein and moderate everything else… where my body is nourished to the level it needs, and it will tell me.
So, to anyone I’ve ignored or snapped at in the past some weeks (or months), I apologize. I let a lot fall by the wayside because I was burned out but had to keep chugging on key things (e.g. day job). I was tapped out and didn’t see the signs, because a lot of them are new ones. There are no excuses, just asking your forgiveness and thanking you for your patience.
If my blog stats are any indicator, a lot of people spent their Labor Day at the gun range… then came home to research why they couldn’t hit anything. 🙂
My post on “correcting handgun shooting problems” is the most popular page on my site.
Frankly, targets like that might tell you something about what you’re doing wrong, but they don’t really do much to help you correct it. This is where the watchful eye of a good instructor is invaluable. But since that’s not workable for some, here’s some generic advice.
Learn to press the trigger. Not pull, not squeeze, but press. Your flinch, your slapping/yanking/jerking of the trigger is likely your problem. Dry fire is your friend. Wall Drill will help. Then when you go to the range for live fire, ball & dummy drill. Work on accuracy first, speed second.
As well, think about adopting an improved mindset, one where it’s not a miss, it’s an unacceptable hit.
Here’s something I learned from lifting that I’m working to apply to shooting.
When lifting, we look at sets and reps. We think of 3 sets of 10 reps, or 5 sets of 5 reps,. When we perform them, we count. When we count, we think about the string we’re performing, and we’ll often think about them in a relative way, like instead of “7, 8, 9, 10” we might think “3 more, 2 more, 1 more, done”. Whatever we’re doing, we’re doing a couple things:
Somewhere in all the reading I do about lifting, someone said to think about each rep as a single rep. So instead of thinking about doing 1 set of 5 reps, think about doing 5 sets of 1 rep, consecutively. The difference? You don’t think about the reps. You don’t count the reps. You don’t allow any part of your lifting to be focused on not-lifting, so all your energy can be focused on performing the lift itself. Yeah, if you’re lifting the 5# dumbbells it probably doesn’t matter, but when you’re truly pushing your limits, every ounce of energy and focus matters. Furthermore, when we lift with counting, we will start that first rep all tight and ready, then things degrade. If you always think about it being “1 rep, first rep”, you take a moment to reset every time, to ensure this rep is a “first rep” in every and all regards. It increases the quality of the reps.
But for me, it’s often about the mental distraction. I get too focused on where I am in the rep scheme and where that is relative to my goal reps. That loss of focus is bad and something I continue to work on.
And so, it comes to shooting.
When we shoot, we will shoot in a “set and rep” scheme. Look at the “3 Seconds or Less” drill. We’re going to lift (shoot) 20 reps (rounds) total. We’ll start with 1 set (string) of 3 reps (shots), then a 2nd set of 2 reps, and you see where I’m going? it’s the same sort of setup and scheme here, and it allows us to fall into the same sort of counting and mental distraction.
At the A-Zone Range, Karl has a steel “hostage” target (not sure if this is the exact model, but it’s close enough for discussion purposes). The target is set up on “the small range”, and depending where we put the firing line, it’s generally a 25 yard shot. Karl says the flapper is 6″ diameter with probably 75% exposed. So it’s a small target, but hittable. I’ve long had a goal of being able to step up to the line with my carry gun (M&P 9), shoot a full magazine of ammo at the flapper (16+1 rounds), and have 100% hits on the flapper.
I have yet to do this.
25 yards is a humbler for me, and something I’ve long needed to work on. Alas, there’s always something more important to work on, so it always gets bumped down the priority ladder.
The other day I started shooting this and realized what I was doing. I was going along, making hits, doing well. Then I got too mentally excited about things and thinking “hey, I might actually do it this time…. nope… damnit!” I was distracted. I was thinking too much about my count… hey, I got through 6 without a miss, 7 without… 8!! 9… nope. I could see myself getting closer to the finish line, then falling because I was thinking more about the end goal than doing the work required to get there.
I was not in the present moment. I was distracted by a potential future, one that wouldn’t happen if I didn’t live in the present moment and do what the present required of me.
And I thought to myself, this is just like heavy squats. I shouldn’t be trying to do 1 string of 17 shots, I should be doing 17 single shots.
I also thought I should be more progressive and work up to it. You know, start light (huzzah, Jim Wendler). So I moved up to 15 yards and 10 rounds. I did that. Great! It was getting too hot so I called it an afternoon, but there’s where I will resume: 15 yards, full magazine, one shot at a time. When I can clean that on-demand, I’ll back up to 20 yards, and go for 5 rounds, and “work up” (there’s a lifting term again).
Crazy how world’s overlap, eh?
My neck… ugh.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 1
For the past couple weeks there’s been some pain in my neck, truly a pain, not metaphoric. 🙂 Pinched nerve? I don’t know. Swallowing can hurt, and can cause the pain to radiate down the top edge of my left trap. Probably would be remedied with a trip to the chiropractor for a quick neck movement, but I think ultimately it’s due to a lot of muscle tightness which then pulls my neck into funky positions and causes this. I think it’s why my left-hand grip isn’t so good (it’s been slipping on deadlifts), and it really got in the way of things today. But still, press on (pun intended).
I do like supersetting the rowing in here. Went way too light today, but better to start too light than too heavy. Affords me the ability to go strict, letting shoulders pull forward, then pinch the shoulder blades together at the top of the movement. Focus on pulling from the elbows, with the pinkies. This is not a max effort movement, this is a bodybuilding movement. Still, I will go heavier. I do think running my supersets with a movement in the perpendicular plane is keeping my shoulders happier.
I opted to drop power cleans. They just aren’t what I’m looking to do right now, not consistent with the goals I have.
Stuff From Hsoi 