Author: hsoi

Always more than you

/ hsoi

We all like to feel better, to feel bigger, to feel superior. It’s human. It’s some way of saying that we have some worth, some merit, and that we’re not at the bottom… that we’re not last… that we don’t suck. We compare ourselves to others, and we like to put ourselves above others.

Stupid tea party morans.

Fucking liberals.

Yeah… “my superiority” was trotted out a lot the past some months, moreso than usual.

Here’s a lesson:

Be humble, there will always be somebody stronger than you.

– Steve Fredine

It doesn’t matter that he’s talking about powerlifting. Because there will always be someone bigger, better, faster, stronger, smarter, richer, whatever-er than you, and then that means YOU are the stupid fucking moran.

Hell, there’s much that Steve learned that apply to life (and powerlifting):

  • Less is more
  • Put your life on the line on max effort day
  • Eat and get rest
  • Be open-minded
  • If it works, figure out the why later
  • If it doesn’t work, don’t do it
  • Be patient with the uninformed
  • Be smart, but not anal
  • Don’t make excuses
  • Give back
  • Be focused, but keep a sense of humor
  • Train weaknesses
  • Train for chaos
  • A totally safe exercise is probably useless
  • Be patient
  • Be persistent
  • Be creative
  • Talk is cheap
  • Don’t worry about the other guy
  • Be humble
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff

Who knew iron could teach you so much. But you know… 200 pounds is always 200 pounds.

2012-11-23 training log

/ hsoi

Today told me a lot… and brings about many changes.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 15, week 2

  • 3 reps – Bench Press (working max: 240#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x3x145
    • 1x3x170 (work)
    • 1x3x195
    • 1x4x220
  • Asst. #1 – Bench Press
    • 1 x 8 x 185
    • 1 x 6 x 185
    • 1 x 10 x 155
    • 1 x 6 x 155
    • 1 x 10 x 120
  • Asst. #2 – Chin-ups – band assist
    • 5 x ??? x BW
  • Pump superset
    • Flat Bench DB Flies
    • JM Press
    • Hammer Cheat Curls
    • 3 sets, 8-15 reps, enough weight to make it hard; on 3rd set immediately drop weight and keep going to failure

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m now trying to focus on my bench pressing technique. I spent time on squat and deadlift, but hey… we’re guys, benching is just something innate in us, right? 😉 While I’ve done some stuff on technique, I was certainly more focused on squat and deadlift. While I’m far from an expert on those 2 lifts, I’m at enough of a point where I know what I need to know and not just need to do. Plus seeing how poorly my bench form has been… yeah… I’m risking shoulder problems or other issues if I don’t fix things now. So, time to focus on bench.

As I’ve been reading too much Dave Tate and watching too many Dave Tate videos, I see some of my problems, I find cues to make them better. The biggest realization? Benching is not about the chest — it’s about triceps. And my triceps suck. I see it. I press, and as I approach lock-out my elbows no longer point 45º — my shoulder rotates and my elbows are now 90º, perpendicular to my body. No no no… bad. Oh sure, that’s how the bodybuilders do it, but that’s not my goal. So today I was doing all sorts of things to fix my form:

  • grip the bar harder
  • rest on the traps
  • foot/leg positioning should be such that you keep the weight on the traps
  • brought my grip in slightly, so my pinkies are on the rings instead of my ring finger
  • keep elbows tucked all the way through
  • lock out, all the way out
  • keep the whole body tight… especially the lower body… and drive drive drive!
  • ensure the bar touches at the same spot every time, just below the nipples
  • press up, not so much driving back towards the uprights

and the list can go on.

Consequently, I didn’t get as many reps @ 220# as I hoped to. But that’s OK. I’d rather fix my form and bench tomorrow than keep going and blow something out.

In fact, I’m thinking about dropping my weight. Not sure by how much just yet, but dropping weight and allowing focus on form. I might drop my Press too, since that’s so much about lockout.

I mean, when I was JM Pressing, I kept the weight really really light and ensured elbows stayed tucked and I got a true lock-out every rep. I really need to bring up my triceps.

And so, here’s where my head will focus for a while.

As for other things….

I’m going to stop the Scooby-style chinups. It’s just too hard on my elbows at this stage. Sucks to be heavy and weak. But I did dig out the bands at the gym. It’s not an ideal setup because the bar isn’t high enough (I have to bend at the knees and keep my feet back) and the band thing has a loop at the end for a foot to go into. So… I have to work on finding a way to make it go. But I’m going to try band-assist for while so I can get more reps in. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyways…. onwards to a better bench.

A Time To Love

/ hsoi

I haven’t listened to much new Stevie Wonder, but I love his older stuff.

I recall seeing a video earlier this year of Stevie being introduced to the Harpejji, which was really cool. It’s not just the instrument that was neat, but seeing just a talented musician like Stevie Wonder being shown the instrument and seeing him start to work with it… just so cool. So when I saw the above video of him performing with it, neat.

But even more neat was the song itself. I agree with his question and sentiment. We seem to relish being angry and ugly… when will there be a time for love?

2012-11-21 training log

/ hsoi

Since the squats didn’t kill me, I reckon they made me stronger.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 15, week 2

  • 3 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x3x200 (work)
    • 1x3x225
    • 1x6x255 (rep PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 1 x 6 x 225
    • 1 x 8 x 185
    • 1 x 6 x 185
    • 1 x 10 x 135
    • 1 x 8 x 135
  • Asst. #2A – Pulldown Abs
    • 5 x 15 x 120
  • Asst. #2B – Other stuff….
    • Figured my glutes and hams need some additional work… more below

Today felt really strong, really good. Yeah… I still cannot say squats are my favorite movement, but I certainly don’t hate them so much any more — and I don’t fear them so much either. I just got under the bar and moved that fucking weight. My technique is improving, and while I still waver, I’m happy at my progress. Heck… while 255 cetainly isn’t the most I’ve squatted, I never have done 255 for 6 reps. And I’ll tell you, that 5th rep was hard and normally I would have stopped, but I knew I needed 6 to make a PR and I pushed… I yelled… I’m glad the gym was empty. 🙂 What’s the worst? I drop the bar on the rack… oh well. But it didn’t happen, and while it wasn’t the prettiest squat, I was determined to get it and did. I felt good.

I don’t know if it’s fixing my diet to eat more/better… or that I’m back on 3x week and getting a better training effect via the supercompensation curve. But whatever. That was good.

Even the assistance squats were killing me and tough. Good. But I pressed on as hard as I could.

That said, I called an audible. I don’t think doing the chins every single workout is going to be right for me. I think it’ll overtax me and I’m already pushing pretty hard here. Instead, I think I need to just do the chins on my bench press and press days, and instead pick up something else to fix my squat and deadlift issues. The chins “every day” was fine during 2x workout, but I had doubts if it was right for the 3x workouts.

See, I notice my squat problem is I get down to parallel, I can get out of the hole, but then about 1/2-way-ish up I stall. I’ve found some arm drive (i.e. just press the bar up like I’m trying to do a behind-the-neck military press) does help a lot to get over that hump. But what does that tell me is my weak point? There’s an old EliteFTS article that gives a very simple look at determining weak points and how to deal with it. According to that, my weak point is hips/glues, and to fix it I need to “Develop accelerative strength, prolong rate of force production”. Hrm…. I need to read up on that. I’ve been reading all this Dave Tate and Louie Simmons “Westside” stuff and so my brain is thinking about “dynamic day” or using bands, but I really don’t want to go full Westside; I like 5/3/1 and would like to stay with it, so what can I do to overcome it?

So today, I ended up doing some hyperextensions and leg curls to finish things out… just rep out until I couldn’t move the weight (or my body, in the case of the hypers). But I’m not sure if I’ll use precisely those. I’m sure the ideal movement would be glute-ham raises, but such a bench is lacking at my gym, and doing them from the floor apparently isn’t quite the same. So… I dunno. Going to read and research.

Updated: Hrm. Pull-throughs might work. Sure, GHR’s seem to be the best, but need special equipment. So looking at the short-list of other recommended exercises for glutes and hams vs. what equipment I have… it’s either good mornings or pull-throughs. I think I might give pull-throughs a try.

Thanx, Mom & Dad

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The other morning I was thinking that being a programmer was probably where I was headed all along in my life…. and thankfully Apple has remained around that whole time too, since that’s where it started.

I remember being sent to a week-long “computer camp” one summer at Brownell-Talbot. We learned BASIC on Apple II+’s. I kept the 4 books as my “reference bibles” for many years of my youth… carrying them around with me all the time, reading them. I recall being befuddled by GOSUB routines. 🙂

I remember when we got an Apple IIe for Christmas, with 2 5.25″ disk drives, and a 64K expansion card! Top of the line stuff there… and of course, I pulled out my BASIC books. One day Dad took us to a software sales “convention” in some hotel conference room where they sold this “shareware” stuff. I recall pulling out my BASIC knowledge and hacking the games. I didn’t know how to write a full game myself, but I did like modifying the existing ones. Heck, I recall kids at school giving me obviously pirated/hacked versions of games — I didn’t understand what it was I was getting, but I thought it was cool to see how someone had inserted their own name into the game’s intro screens.

I remember going to my Dad’s office and while he worked he sent me over to this one desk to occupy my time. This desk had a Mac on it. I was so fascinated by this MacPaint thing.

I remember needing my own computer in college, being tired and frustrated by the limitations put on me from sharing or borrowing. Dad bought me a Mac IIvx (I should have gotten the Centris 650!). I found a copy of THINK C for sale at the college bookstore, and with a Dave Mark book in hand I started down the road in earnest.

So I was looking back at just how much my parents supported and enabled my efforts… and well….

Thanx, Mom & Dad. 🙂

Her story

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

At KR Training, our beginner-level courses have a lot of female students, which is great. However as we go further in the course curriculum, female enrollment drops off. I’ve often wondered why, because the mid- and upper-level classes certainly aren’t just for men. These classes are arguably the more important level classes to take (by anyone) because it’s in these classes where you move beyond basic mechanical skills to learn how to fight with your gun, which can include the choice to not fight with the gun.

Sure I have some theories as to why, and I’ve spoken with numerous women about this phenomenon. Mrs. Groundhog (obviously not her real name) shared her story with me, and she graciously allowed me to reprint part of it here.

Learning about guns and taking the FOF [force-on-force] classes gives me options to use to never be a victim again.  I fully realize the crime may still occur but the emotional effects will be entirely different because I will have done everything that I possible could to protect myself.

I think that women in general don’t want to take higher level courses because they live in denial that crime could happen to them or one of their loved ones.  If it does happen to touch them that there will be someone there to protect them and that they aren’t capable or shouldn’t take that role upon themselves. The image that many women in our country have of themselves is that they should be the “beautiful one” not the protector. That role belongs to the man. Women are told by the media that they should be concerned about things like clothes, hair, makeup etc..  In generally, they do not understand they need to learn the skills to be able to protect themselves and their loved ones.  They expect their “knight in shining armor” to do that for them.

The gun community is embracing the idea of attracting women shooters if for no other reason than it brings in more money. However, I think the concept of the “pink gun” is the wrong way to go about it. If they want to add color to guns, which I think is unnecessary; make green, red or purple guns too, not just pink. I think it tends to reinforce stereotypes instead of breaking them down.

The best way to attract new women shooters is to treat them with respect.  I absolutely hate going to a gun show and asking a question only to have to clerk give my husband the answer and ignore me even though I asked the question. Yes, there are many things that I don’t know but I should not be treated like a second class citizen because I am a women. I have felt that way at gun shows. Sometimes I prefer to roam without him so I won’t get treated that way.

In all fairest, I have never not once, felt that way with you or anyone else associated with KR Training.  You guys have a class act and I have always felt welcome there.

I don’t know if this has answered your questions but maybe it will give you some things to think on for a while.

Thank you for allowing me to reprint this, and thank you for sharing your story with me. It has answered some questions, and given me things to think on.

To others reading this, take it for what you will. She’s on a powerful, moving, and motivating journey.

2012-11-19 training log

/ hsoi

Today was… there.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 15, Press 1

  • 5 reps – Press (working max: 165#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x85
    • 1x3x100
    • 1x5x110 (work)
    • 1x5x125
    • 1x6x140
  • Asst. #1 – Press
    • 1 x 8 x 125
    • 1 x 6 x 110
    • 1 x 6 x 95
    • 1 x 8 x 85
    • 1 x 10 x 65
  • Asst. #2 – Chin-ups Scooby Step 4B
    • 5 x 1 up, hold, slow negative x BW
  • Pump superset
    • Upright rows
    • Triceps Pressdown
    • Preacher Curls
    • 3 sets, 8-15 reps, enough weight to make it hard; on 3rd set immediately drop weight and keep going to failure

So today was a mixed bag.

The Press work sets were really strong at first, but the last 2 sets were off. I focused hard on keeping tight… grab that bar, squeeze it to death, get under it, tighten everything else up, lift off, step back, retighten lower body (squeeze the glutes), press. I also tried to get at least the first 2-3 reps on a single breath, tho I did take a breath during the retighten phase… but hold it through the first 2-3 reps. That seemed to work really well and the weights just flew up. But then the last sets, I felt shakey…. truly, the body just felt trembly and not so hot. Not sure why… .maybe the Sudafed (yes, still sick but improving… no more sore throat, just some stuffy/runny nose and now hacking up the phlegm here and there).

The assistance Pressing I started too heavy and didn’t pyramid down in large enough steps, so the reps were low. But I pushed each set, sometimes having the last rep be a bit of a push-press.

Chins… I just did one (or towards the end, had to jump up to ensure my chin was over the bar), held for as long as I could (10-15 seconds), then slowly lowered myself to full dead hang. 2 minutes rest between sets here.

Then the final superset. I actually wanted to do Scott Curls (because Larry Scott’s arms were awesome), but just did Preachers. I was upset that I forgot to do one of Larry’s suggestions, which was to fully curl the bar — start by curling up at the wrist, then keep curling at the elbows. My point of these exercises is to work forearms, grip, etc..

As I keep reading a bunch of Date Tate and Louie Simmons stuff, I think my triceps are my current weak point in pressing. So I am hoping that my extra emphasis on some arm work will help me out here, especially those JM Presses. My weights right now on these final assistance sets isn’t quite where it should be, but it’s all initial weights and I’ll eventually find the groove with them.