Author: hsoi

Quick diet update

/ hsoi

It’s been a week now. Yeah… I decided to just dive in. Why bother waiting?

I’m trying to find something I can stick with, because that’s the hardest part. Really, I can stick with almost anything with sufficient motivation. But what seems to make a difference this time around is data. First, having numbers up front, thanx to something like Scooby’s calorie calculator. Second, keeping track of things somewhere, like here on this blog.

Having the numbers up front is what’s making things interesting. If I know I can have x grams of carbs and y grams of protein and that’s that… boy, it sure changes your perception of portions. And yes, you need to measure it all out. I’ve had a kitchen scale for a while now and boy that’s handy. But also simple measuring cups and spoons. Really tho, using grams for everything is about the best and easiest way. Plus calorieking.com has such a great interface for being able to calculate on the fly. Good stuff there. And yes, I do this. I try to figure out every meal.

It’s kinda tough. You can’t just measure out meat and say “there’s protein” because what if I’m having brown rice? That’s got enough protein in it to matter. I’ve been using Daipoong brown rice (hey, it’s the Korean in me), and 1 cup of cooked is about 50g of carbs but also 5g of protein… and when I have to measure things out, that 5g matters. In fact to show how much it matters, I went back to Scooby’s calculator. I re-entered my calculations from before, then I adjusted it from “moderate exercise” to “light exercise”. It dropped down 300 calories per day, and each meal dropped 5g protein, 5g carbs, 2g fat. Not much, but you can see how 5g can add up over the course of a day!

But the real interesting thing is watching portion sizes. I thought “oh, this is how much rice to have”, but no… 1 cup of cooked rice on your plate looks pretty huge. Then I pack an afternoon snack of some dried fruit, and a portion size to give me 55g of carbs there ends up looking like a handful… something that would have been “one bite” for me in the past. Geez. Enlightening. 🙂

What’s been kinda cool tho is noticing my energy levels feel pretty solid. I don’t feel drained for my workouts or for just getting around in a day, which is great. I do fear in the past I just wasn’t steady enough at bringing in energy vs. my output, so I’d underconsume thinking it was right levels, then my body would scream from being depleted and I’d gorge and get no where. So this is all very good. I did wonder about it in yesterday’s deadlift workout… is the reduction in diet affecting me? Is that why I didn’t get 8 reps and only got 6? Perhaps. I also gave blood a couple days prior, which could still have a mild effect. Hard to really say what’s involved here… it’s only been a week of eating this way.

And in that week, I haven’t seen much affect on the scale. I’m not sure why. Could it be a muscle vs. fat issue? That is, the scale won’t tell me if I’ve both gained a wee bit of muscle and lost a wee bit of fat. Or maybe I just found a static intake. I did wonder that because when I see what I am ingesting for carbs, maybe I am taking in enough but now just spread over 5 meals instead of 3? I don’t know. I probably should have measured my complete food intake prior to this for a baseline.

So given all of that, I am adjusting my intake slightly. Instead of aiming for 55g of carb/protein per meal, I’m aiming for 50g. I do want to keep it at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Again, I expect my strength work will either stall or decline some, but I’d like to minimize it. Workouts will continue forward on this 2x/week BBB-style plan, still increasing weights and moving ahead as normal. I figure when I stall due to diet, I’ll stall and I’ll know it, meantime why not just forge head?

Onwards.

Priorities

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

A blog posting at JW Enterprises, while a little on the ranty side, hits the nail home about priorities in firearms use.

In short:

  • Find gear that works, then move on to master that gear.
  • Get a mentor
  • Focus on fundamentals, even if you’re an expert (but then, an expert knows to focus on fundamentals).

Again, the posting is a little ranty and disjointed, but it’s point is a solid one.

2012-08-27 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 1, basic routine

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

Today I was really working not just on the eye-target line stuff, but really ensuring my grip was strong and consistent. That front sight isn’t allowed to move!

I did about my usual on the 2H, but on both SHO and WHO I did a lot better than usual. It’s there that I can really forget to clamp down on the grip, and it just shows me what I need to keep working on.

2012-08-27 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, Deadlift 2

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Ooof.

“Week 2”

  • 3 reps – Deadlift (working max: 355#)
    • 1x5x145 (warmup)
    • 1x5x185
    • 1x3x215
    • 1x3x250 (work)
    • 1x3x290
    • 1x6x325
  • Asst. #1 – Deadlift
    • 3 x 10/8/10 x 185/185/135
  • Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs (kneeling)
    • 5 x 12 x 110
  • Foam Rolling

Oof…. that’s a lot of deadlifting.

The work sets went fine, but when I hit into assistance oo… that was a lot. I got through 1 set, hit the second set and knew it wasn’t going to happen. My lower back was rounding bad… just too much. So I dropped down the weight and then left it at the 3rd set. I want to get 5×10 so I think maybe I’ll try 5x10x145 and see how that goes. I cannot allow form to be sacrificed to make this work… .because it’s a LOT of work.

I’ve been working on my diet too, but I’ll write about that another time.

Are guns really the problem?

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Downtown New York City, right in front of the Empire State Building. Man brings the crazy and executes a former co-worker he had a major beef with. As the man runs off, a construction worker notifies a couple NYC Police Officers standing nearby and the officers pursue and eventually shoot the killer.

And 9 innocent people were injured in the shooting.

All by the NYPD.

It’s been interesting to watch this one unfold in the media. The initial accounts wanted to make this into yet another rampaging bloodbath, but that media ratings frenzy was brought to a halt once it became evident the innocents were injured by the NYPD.

Awkward moment for the media and those who wish to profit from ratings or agenda pushing. They aren’t ignoring the fact all 9 injured were injured by police bullets, but it’s being relegated to a footnote. Gotta make it fit the agenda and grab the headlines somehow.

I’m still waiting for Mayor Bloomberg to holler for more gun control. As if all the onerous anti-guns laws in NYC did any good in the first place, so I fail to see how making it more illegal will accomplish anything. Once again, it’s as if criminals and crazy people bent on destruction don’t follow laws… funny that. Of course, maybe the sort of gun control needed in this situation is to use two-hands when shooting.

It also demonstrates that just because your job requires you to carry a gun doesn’t mean you can shoot it well. Heck, here’s a study from 2008 on the NYPD’s training, including many problems with their training setup. An article discussing the RAND study, from 2009.

Granted, this is some arm-chair quarterbacking. It’s hard to be mindful of “the rules”, like being sure of your target and what’s behind it, when you’re in the middle of downtown Manhattan and people are around you in every direction. Really, is there any one direction that’s going to truly be safe, without something innocent downrange? One can argue the safest direction is into the bad guy and stopping him as quickly as possible, which is what the NYPD was ultimately working to do. Still, from the video surveillance footage, it does appear some better technique and training may be in order.

But how can NYPD cops get that? Where can they go train? And train in a realistic environment, not just on a static firing lane. Something involving shooting on the move, perhaps force-on-force training. Mayor Bloomberg, shouldn’t it be a priority to have a well-trained staff?

Inevitably, some are saying this is proof that even cops shouldn’t have guns. But that just shows further ignorance and lack of understanding about reality — the author’s assumptions and lack of understanding and awareness show through.

The sad part is, people are only looking at the guns.

Why?

Is the gun evil? If the gun is evil, then that means the NYPD is evil. But that’s not the case. The gun is merely a tool, and it’s the one that uses that tool that matters. One man used the tool in an evil way. Two men used the tool in a good way. In either case, it was the man and his actions that are ultimately being analyzed and judged.

And so, why are we not focusing on the man?

What has changed in our society that we feel “shooting everyone dead” is the way to solve our problems? Why are we not looking deeper at root causes that drive such behavior in the first place? Instead of focusing on symptoms, maybe if we focused that same energy into root causes, maybe we might actually be able to manage the problem better. Else we just keep taking cough medicine, but the flu wears on.

on the Eye-Target Line

/ hsoi

When we teach people how to shoot, one thing we talk about is this notion of the “eye-target line”.

The “eye-target line” is a (imaginary) line that connects your eye to the target. What should intersect that line are the sights of the gun. So what you have is eye, rear sight, front sight, target, all in a perfect line and all properly lined up in their respective manner (e.g. using your dominant eye, the sights are properly aligned). Kathy Jackson’s CorneredCat website has a great graphic to show this. In fact, Kathy’s article has a fine discussion about sight alignment and aiming in general — highly recommended read. I’m wanting to focus on some specifics about the “eye-target line”, especially as it’s come up in my dry fire practice.

While the above is a good general notion to introduce the concept, it really has to be more precise and specific. Your vision should be focused on a specific target, a precise point. Instead of focusing “on the bullseye”, how about that X in the center? Or even better, how about the spot where the 2 lines that make the X intersect? Or even better, how about the pin-point center of that spot, since the lines have some width? It’s the same problem with having aiming points like “center of mass” because all too often people envision COM as “torso”. Instead, get precise, like the top button on the shirt, or maybe if it’s a button with 4 holes in it, right in the center of those 4 holes. This is important to ensure you aim where you need to aim. That eye-target line needs to go somewhere specific.

From Karl I learned to imagine there’s a string going from my eye to the target. When pressing the gun out, bring the sights up to that string. Literally imagine a string and that the top of the sights comes up to touch the string, to ride the string like a rail.

While I’ve always known to do this, I haven’t been doing it. Or if I did do it, it was too general or I’d lose it somewhere along the press-out. I guess I could say I wasn’t as rigorous with it as I should be. Perhaps I didn’t realize, until now, just how increased rigor at adhering to “riding that rail” would improve my ability.

I’ve really worked to focus on this during my dry practice — to really “ride that rail” when I press out. And there’s a few things involved in this, that I’ve discovered in my practice.

First, you really have to ride that rail all the way. From the moment you start the press out, your eyes and brain have to think about “the rail”. You have to see the rail, it can’t leave your imagination, it can’t leave the “imaginary projection” into your visual field. When you press out, the gun needs to come up to it, and both the front and rear sights need to click into the track, stay in the track, and ride the rail all the way out. When I do this, when I have this sort of mental look and discipline about things, the gun goes right out to where I want it. Yes it’s a lot of thinking about it right now, but I figure a few thousand more reps and it should drill home and become unconscious.

Second, shifting point of visual focus. When you start (no gun out), your eyes are going to be target focused. What has to happen during the press out is your eye focus switches to the front sight. I found I wasn’t doing this soon enough, or that I’d try to find the front sight early in the press out and keep my vision focused on it as I pressed out, “riding” the front sight with my eyes. But that usually wouldn’t work because the speeds would be different, I’d be visually chasing the sight or trying to find it, and losing time. What’s working better? Know the point in space where my front sight will end up when I’m at full extension and just shift my focus there. Thus, everything will converge. But I still have to be careful, because it’s still easy to lose focus and have my eyes just generally staring into space. This is where that precise target focus matters, because it makes me truly visualize the string from my eyeball to the target and “ride that rail”. My body then works to index the movement up to and along that string, really bringing everything to meet at the right spot.

Third, I have to ensure to set this all up before I start, else it’s a “false start”. For example, during my dry practice on reloads, I would click, bring the gun back, do the reload. If as soon as the magazine seated and my hand was back on the gun I started pressing out, I’d likely fumble things. If instead as soon as my hand was back on the gun I took a moment to set myself before starting the press-out, things worked better. Basically I had to force myself to make a distinct reset, both physically and mentally. To get the gun back out wasn’t a part of the reload; the reload ended when the mag seated. Once I finished the reload, then I needed to start the press-out again, and that required a moment of reset. I’d rather take that 0.1 second to reset and get things right, than to skip the 0.1 second and blow it. I believe in time this will consume less time to become almost unnoticed.

These are just my observations from my regular dry fire. It’d been a month and a half of dry firing once a day for 10-15 minutes, 5 times a week. In some respects I don’t feel actual improvement, but I know it’s there because I’m paying more attention to my technique, identifying problems, working to correct them. Next time I’m at the range I want to do some live fire experiments to see how this dry fire is progressing. One thought is to do something simple like the basic routine but from the holster, and time to see how long it takes to get the shot off. It’s a simple measure. My goal tho is to combat a problem I’ve also identified that I need to overcome: dry practicing one way and live practicing another. That dry should have just as much intensity as live, and live should be as laid back as dry. Fundamentally no disparity between the two sessions, but mentally I have to think to ramp up my dry and pull back on my live — to shoot each like the other. If I don’t, it means one needs to be fixed (probably that dry needs to pick things up).

Whey – (almost) final word

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I haven’t been making regular postings about my TrueNutrition.com whey experience.

I’ll just say this.

I cannot do the artificial flavored whey. The Luscious Peach, the Wild Berry, whatever… all the artificially flavored stuff is just way too sweet. Candy sweet, kid cereal sweet. It’s just hard for me to take. Part of me really loves it, and wants to keep loving it, but it’s just not doing it for me.

I just ordered 10# of unsweet chocolate whey isolate cold filtered. Yes, unsweet, and then I’ll add a teaspoon or two of raw sugar to it. It’s not enough to make it candy-sweet, but enough to take the edge off it. That should work for me.

I like it better too. I’m getting pure isolate (i.e. more agreeable with the digestive tract), and the price is quite competitive with other brands like say Optimum Nutrition’s 100%, which has a lot of whey concentrate and other things. I have noticed to keep costs down True Nutrition is pretty no-frills, but that’s fine… I’m not buying packaging or marketing.

So here’s where things end in my exploration… at least, for now. 🙂

2012-08-24 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 2, Day 5 (malfunction clearances)

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 10 reps of TRB, 3/4 speed, 2H
  3. 5 reps of LRW 3/4 speed 2H
  4. 10 reps of wall drill from press out, 2H

After yesterday’s bench press workout… I’m really sore, and working the press out is really hard. 🙂