Big fat tires and everything!
Sunday Metal – Deep Purple
Big fat tires and everything!
Author: hsoi
Lessons learned, from today’s Basic Pistol 1 class
Just returned from another day at KR Training, assisting with a Basic Pistol 1 class. The class had 15 people, 9 of which were female — a slightly higher number than usual. But due to this, we were able to really demonstrate the importance of gun fit as well as dispelling some myths about guns, especially ones that tend to get directed towards women.
What is gun fit? It’s not just that the gun has this nebulous “feels good” in your hand. To “feel good” is quite subjective: I had some folks in class that thought the big heavy .357 Magnum revolver felt good, and some that thought the little lightweight .38 snub felt good… at least, until they shot it. 🙂 Gun fit is ensuring the gun actually fits well and proper in your hand for your hand size, so you can properly grip the gun and reach the trigger. There’s much involved in selecting a first handgun, and this guide goes in-depth on the topic. The key I want to make is you must try guns and be willing to keep trying more guns until you’ve exhausted a good deal of them to find what actually fits you and allows you to shoot successfully. There was one woman in class whose hands were so small she could not reach the trigger on the .357 revolver. Double-stacked semi-autos could be an issue for her as well due to their thick grips. But a slim, single-stack 1911 with a proper trigger would be no problem.
Another problem that tends to get directed towards women is “small guns”, where the guy at the gun counter suggests they get a little snub revolver, or even the woman chooses the snub because it’s small and cute. Yes, one woman told me that she liked the snub, at first, because visually it was small and cute. What I’ve started doing in the BP1 classes is having everyone that comes up to my station shoot a big, heavy, .357 Magnum revolver: it’s heavy, it’s steel, it has big rubber grips — it’s a pleasure to shoot. I then have them shoot an airweight snub revolver. Both shoot the same ammo, .38 Special practice ammo, but even with “light loads” like that, the snub is still painful to shoot, stinging their hands. The intent is to show them that while little guns have their place, they are not ideal as a first gun. Now they know first-hand, and nothing the salesguy at the gun counter says or does will get them to buy one. Good. 🙂 It also shows them what a difference a heavy gun makes, and while their initial feeling may have been to avoid the heavy gun because it’s heavy, the heavy guns are actually what you want to shoot because they are a lot more pleasant to shoot. If they are fun to shoot, you’ll keep shooting them. If it hurts to shoot, you won’t shoot, you won’t go to the gun range to practice, you won’t take classes to learn and improve your skills… and what good is that? Finally, shooting these revolvers demonstrate another aspect of gun fit, because those triggers are long and heavy, and if you can’t reach them with a proper grip, they’re not for you.
I do hope to see the folks back for Basic Pistol 2 and beyond. From the questions they were asking, it sounds like we had a lot of people interested in learning more about firearms and how to safely and effectively deploy them in a self-defense context. That’s what we’re here for, and we look forward to seeing you at a future class. 🙂
A good day.
Ain’t that the truth
It’s easier not to be awesome.
– Jim Wendler
Found here, part of a Q&A with Jim:
12/15/2009 8:43:00 AM – Scott
Hi Jim, I read that Jason Adams was using your 5/3/1 Training Program BBB for a bodybuilding show, and that you were working on a “bodybuilding” template version of 5-3-1. Any update on that or what mods to BBB do you recommend?? Thanks.
Scott,
I’ve got numerous Boring But Big programs in my new book – but they are all essentially the same.
There is no secret to any of this – You have to be willing to suffer the soreness of the training and continue to get stronger.
And be disciplined as hell with the diet (i.e. NEVER miss a meal/cheat on a meal for months/years) and the training.
That is what most people find hard to do.
If you read my prior workout entry, especially the comments, diet is the toughest thing for me. Reading what Jim wrote above makes it all hit home. That it’s going to take months/years — it’s like everything else, the long haul. Have to be disciplined as hell.
And perhaps if I just keep it in my head that I am seeking to be awesome well…. that won’t make it any easier, but it may keep me on track. “John, do you want to be awesome, or do you want to be a slob like everyone else?” Yes, I’ve got just enough ego that might work. 😉
But it doesn’t even hold for lifting weights or losing weight. It holds for everything in life. Look at people at the top, in professional sports, the Olympics, business, shooting sports, show business, whatever… it wasn’t easy to get to the top, nothing worth having in life is easy, and it’s only through hard work that you’ll get to the top.
So… maybe this posting is just me trying to pound it through my own thick skull. Fixing my diet, and fixing a few other things.
Be awesome. It’s hard, but worth it.
2011-07-22 workout
Today was generally good, but I need to change things up.
Squat
- 2x5x45
- 1x5x85
- 1x3x125
- 1x2x170
- 3x5x215
I did the same setup as Wednesday’s workout because I wanted to fix my bar speed. It was better this workout, smoother. However, I have this achy pain running down the back-outside-right of my right leg. Not sure what it is nor where it came from, but I do feel it affected my lift. Nevertheless, I feel generally good about this and am going to bump up 5# next workout.
Bench Press
- 2x5x45
- 1x5x80
- 1x3x115
- 1x2x145
- 3x5x165
I felt very strong today. I didn’t need to rest as long between sets, and I was just powering them out. Better form? More leg drive I know. Whatever reason, this felt very good. Another 5#.
Pull-ups
- 1x10xbw
- 1x10xbw
- 1x9xbw
And I could have gotten a 10th out if I cheated on that last rep. Is it odd that I feel stronger on pull-ups than chin-ups? Maybe after next week I’ll be at 3×10 across on both chins and pulls and will start on the assisted/negative real chins/pulls.
Other
Not sure what to classify this as yet… but I did some jump rope Tabata style. I don’t yet have the coordination to do this like a boxer so it’s just simple “double-hop” until I don’t feel as uncoordinated. It’s also far from HIIT, but I have to start somewhere.
Commentary
Overall today was good. Felt strong. Felt good.
I’ve been thinking about changing things up. This marks the end of week 7 on this program. I don’t feel a need to change just because of a time-limit, but I am feeling a need to change due to the packing on of fat. Going along with a desire to shed some of the weight, a program designed to pack on the weight doesn’t really work. But by the same token, I really want to get the rest of my lifts up to the same point as my squat. That is, I’m feeling that my squat is at the limits of what I can really do, so the progress is slow and I can accept that and go with that. Presses feel like I could go with a slow increase too… in fact, if I went to a weekly program I could actually even consider going back to a 5# bump on presses and not feel bad about it, but still slow. However, my deadlift and my bench press still feel like they’re progressing at a pretty decent pace and I’d hate to slow them down.
Besides… I know the real secret to things is getting my diet cleaned up. That’s the hardest part for me.
So here’s my present thinking:
Clean up my diet.
Start adding some HIIT in. Right now I’m going to jump rope and do it just like I mentioned above. As I get more coordinated, I’ll bump up the intensity. I will do this at the end of every workout. Will this be how I continue to do things? I don’t know. I was tossing around the notion of doing something like the Wendler 5/3/1 “boring but big” approach and having the 5×10 assistance set be somehow HIIT-like… maybe doing it 5×10 with 30 seconds of rest, more strict to Wendler’s plan… or maybe doing that exercise but pure Tabata-style. I don’t know… it’s just fresh ideas rolling around in my head, not sure what do to with it yet.
But in general, I know that changing the program is going to be necessary eventually so I can keep up muscular and strength gains, or at least, maintain if not improve… but acknowledge this will slow down if I’m trying to shed fat. My recovery will also be affected, thus a program change. But that alone won’t do it, and changing too much at one time isn’t wise either. Besides, like I said, I want to try to keep my bench press and deadlift gains going as long as I can, even if the other 2 lifts have slowed down.
So, work on my diet, add the jump rope, otherwise keep going, and we’ll see where this goes.
Even Imaginarily Armed Gays Don’t Get Bashed
I’ve thought a lot about the turning point of the situation — the fact that one of them thought that I might have a gun. None of them said, “There’s a law against antigay hate crimes!” That wasn’t the deterrent. It was the possibility that I might have had a gun that saved my life Friday night.
Jimmy LaSalvia is gay. He was attacked by 8 thugs for being, as they called him, a “fucking faggot”. Laws, restraining orders, police, none of that did any good to prevent this assault from happening. The only thing that kept Jimmy alive and unharmed was the fact his attackers thought he had a gun. Full story. (h/t Cato)
While there are exceptions (Jimmy himself being one of them), in general you find the same people who want rights for minorities — like women and GLBT — to also hold anti-gun and gun-banning positions.
A weapon is a force equalizer, they allow the user to overcome disparity. When because of their minority status someone repressed and held in a lower and more vulnerable regard, why would those that claim to fight for their rights, that claim these groups deserve equal status, wish to deny them means to overcome disparity?
If you want rights and equality for all, remember the right to life and dignity is the essential first step. There are those in this world that seek to deprive good people of those things — don’t be one of them.
When society breaks down…
I was reading this Quip from John Farnam where a friend of his in the Chicago area told of how thunderstorms hit, the power went out, and some uh… “enterprising youths” decided that the extra darkness afforded to them by the power failure made for an excellent opportunity to break into homes. John’s friend — due to his vigilance, dog, and gun — allowed him to not be a victim. Unfortunately, many others in the area were robbed.
This was something rather typical and mundane — a power outage.
Look at how quickly and easily “society” broke down and failed. What a thin veneer civilization really is.
There are those that question the need for guns, especially “big scary guns” (e.g. AR-15, AK-47). Consider Hurricane Katrina. Consider the L.A. riots of 1992. No, we may not have massive uprising (yet), we may not have war on our soil (yet), but we certainly do have bad things happen, be they on the scale of Katrina or just a neighborhood power outage. Either way, good people need a way to stand strong against those bent on bringing injury and harm. We all appreciate technological evolution (how did we ever manage before smartphones, right?), and when it comes to being able to stand strong, guns are the best technological evolution of tools for this purpose.
Parental Controls, iPods, iTunes, and you….
So I find out the hard way that the Parental Controls for iTunes and iPod’s don’t apply to each other.
That is, in the iTunes.app you can set Parental Controls to restrict the content your children have access to. Well, it seems that only applies to accessing the iTunes Store via the iTunes.app. If there’s a device involved, like an iPod, then you must also set the Restrictions on that device. They don’t apply to each other, which makes sense now that I think about it, but it didn’t occur to me when I was first setting things up. I only set stuff on the app thinking it would carry over… and in a way, that would seem logical to do.
But alas.
And we got to learn the hard way.
All is good tho. Something for us all to grow on.
Why can’t things work the first time?
Bought a Samsung Blu-Ray player. The HDMI port didn’t fully work (no video signal). Had to return it and so far the second one seems OK.
I’m presently hooking up the new printer (Epson Workforce 63o). First document I print it printed at 50% size and I can’t figure out why. Tried to photocopy and it came out horrible. Running a printer head cleaning, print head realignment, but why should a brand new device need that??
Does anyone understand the notion of “quality” any more?
*sigh*
2011-07-20 workout
Better.
Squat
- 2x5x45
- 1x5x85
- 1x3x125
- 1x2x170
- 3x5x215
This felt good, better than the past few workouts. Form felt good, weight went up. Win all around. However, I’m going to keep it at 215# for the next workout. I had a little bit of a sticking point near the top of each rep, and I’d like to smooth that out.
Press
- 2x5x45
- 1x5x55
- 1x3x70
- 1x2x85
- 3x5x105
This felt fine. Keep on truckin’.
Deadlift
- 2x5x95
- 1x3x135
- 1x2x190
- 1x5x225
I cannot lie: it felt good to 1. minimize warmup sets with the 25# plates, since the 45# make for a better back angle, 2. 2 plate work set. 🙂
I fixed some back positioning issues, and again the minimization of the 25# plates helped since it gives me more reps with the better back angle. I also continued to use the double-overhand grip. I figure when it comes time to actually go to mixed grip, my grip will tell me. So until that failure point, let’s just keep going double-overhand. Plus, I’m still feeling good with this, so I’ll keep the 15# jump going for now, but I reckon this will come to an end in the next workout or two.
Commentary
I got more rest between Monday and today, taking it easier, a little more couch potato time. I’ve been running around from sun-up to sun-down every day on my “vacation” doing to-do list things and it certainly wore on me physically and mentally. While I still hate farting my day away, I do need to take more time to rest up else I’m just going to be grumpy when I have to go back to the day job. But the rest certainly helped and I felt a lot better today and it showed in my performance.
And I knew sooner or later my deadlift would exceed my squat. Didn’t quite think it would happen the way it did (due to a squat reset), but it’s all good.
Onwards… slowly, but still onwards.
The truth hurts
Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, had some frank words about President Obama:
…everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.
And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime….
…A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money….
The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don’t invest, their holding too much money. We haven’t heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody’s afraid of the government and there’s no need soft peddling it, it’s the truth. It is the truth. And that’s true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I’m telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he’s gone, everybody’s going to be sitting on their thumbs.
