Author: hsoi

There’s an app for THAT?!

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Well, maybe not yet, but apparently there will be: (h/t Breda)

Today the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, with the Department of Health and Human Services, announced a contest to develop a smartphone app to help students better protect themselves in risky situations. The effort is dubbed Apps Against Abuse.

The competition calls for developers to build an app that lets women designate friends or emergency contacts and check in with them during at-risk situations. The app would also provide fast access to information and resources for dealing with sexual assault or dating violence.

Um… OK. Sure. I guess that’s not horrible. But it also doesn’t seem to be that effective in stopping anything. This app would only be good after the fact and uh… that’s of little comfort in my book.

“Everyone has a role to play in the prevention of violence and abuse,” Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services, said in a prepared statement. “This application can be another way to encourage young women and men to take an active role in the prevention of dating violence and sexual assault.”

My role?

I teach women how to shoot guns and effectively defend themselves. I teach them how to recognize potential bad situations and get themselves out of them or avoid them in the first place. Taking classes like this, getting a concealed handgun permit and always carrying, that’s a more effective active role in the prevention of violence and assault.

Somehow I think 124 grains of 9mm hollow point is a lot more effective at preventing rape than an iPhone app.

2011-07-18 workout

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Today was so-so, progressing, but not great.

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x125
  • 1x2x165
  • 3x5x210 (work)

Yes, I opted to do the same thing for another (third) workout. I’m not feeling it. I’m not sure if it’s recovery or what. I could hypothesize on a lot of things, but I opted to not push myself too hard… let’s see how it goes, then fare from there. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. That said, I felt good about how this work set went. It didn’t feel light of course, but it didn’t feel horrible. Next workout I’ll go to 215.

Bench Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x110
  • 1x2x140
  • 3x5x160 (work)

This felt good. I’m getting more comfortable with the “whole body” involvement, finding better foot position and getting good heel drive. I feel my progress here is still doing fine.

Chin-ups

  • 1x10xbw
  • 1x10xbw
  • 1x8xbw

I don’t know what gives here but since my body just doesn’t seem to want to do high reps fine…. I’ll go with that emotion. I’m going to shift my goals slightly and work to 3×10 across. Besides, I’m tired of doing these “inverted row” things. The way to get strong at something? Do that something. I’m not doing that something, just something close to it. No question it’s helping me get closer to being able to do that something but… I tried today. I tried a dead-hang chin-up. I was almost there, but not quite. *sigh*  Well, I’m weighing about 240# right now (estimated 20% body fat)… if I can keep up with some weight loss too, that’ll help. 😉

But I’ve decided that once I get up to 3×10’s of these inverted rows, I’m going to start on real chin/pulls, even if I can’t do one. My current thinking (and this may well change) is to work to have 3 sets of 5 reps. But what those reps entail will vary. I will always start with a dead-hang and work to get a full chin/pull in. The rep only counts if my chin goes above the bar and/or chest touches the bar… missing it by 1/2″ is still missing it and doesn’t count. I will get as many full reps as I can. If I cannot get a set of 5 full reps, then the remainder of the reps will be done as pure negatives. It’s my understanding they will help towards getting full reps so hey, I’ll try it. So that means if I struggle on the first rep and can’t get it, I then have 5 negatives to do. Once I get a full rep and then struggle for rep 2, that means 4 negatives.

We’ll see how this goes.

And I guess, consider it also motivation for dropping down to maybe 15% or 10% bodyfat. 😉

Commentary

I’m still feeling a little worn out. Recovery? Diet? Not sure what, but I wasn’t feeling gung ho so I opted to do the same squat workout as before. I did feel alright with that set, so I will increase next workout. Trying to figure out why I feel worn, but that will come.

In the end, still happy to be going to the gym tho. My body generally feels good. 🙂

Draw comfort from discomfort – part 2

/ hsoi

A couple days ago I posted about drawing comfort from discomfort and how it’s through discomfort that we grow and become better at whatever we do in life.

Flipping through my Facebook feed and an article was posted on the very same topic. The article itself is a couple of years old, but it dovetails nicely with what I wrote previously.

Discomfort is a good thing. It toughens you up, and it’s often a sign of good things to come. For example, discomfort in the gym when trying a new exercise leads to new muscle growth.

When I feel all that weight across my shoulders when I’m squatting, I feel like it’s going to kill me, but I know it won’t. I know it will make me stronger. Heck, yesterday I had to pick an awkward, bulky, heavy object off the floor, one that I’ve picked up in the past and struggled with. When I picked it up yesterday it was no problem. Once it was up in my arms I said to myself “…and that’s why we deadlift”.

 

By avoiding discomfort you miss out on some of the best things in life. There’s an old saying about critics that goes like this, “If you want to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” The same can be said of discomfort:

If you want to avoid discomfort, do nothing, experience nothing, be nothing.

You won’t be uncomfortable. But you won’t really be alive either.

Seek discomfort. Do front squats. Talk to that girl.

Take risks.

Live.

 

2011-07-15 workout

/ hsoi

Today was not a good workout. But you drag yourself to the gym anyways, because that’s what discipline is about.

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x80
  • 1x3x125
  • 1x2x165
  • 3x5x210 (work)

I opted to keep my progression the same this workout as last workout since the bar speed last workout was very slow. This session it was faster, but I could tell my form wavered a little bit. I’m debating if I want to do this again on Monday or go ahead and jump to 215#. That will depend how I feel. See the commentary section below.

Presses

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x3x70
  • 1x2x85
  • 3x5x102.5 (work)

My first microload! Decimals! 🙂  The odd thing here was feeling suddenly strong. Whereas on Wednesday I felt I struggled with 100# work sets, today only a couple of minutes after set 1 I felt this burst of “go” and pounded out set two. After only a couple more minutes of rest, set three. Odd that I didn’t need so much rest, that I felt so much stronger, and I did not feel at all like today was a struggle. Stressing sure, but not a struggle.

Chin-ups

  • 1x11xbw
  • 1x10xbw
  • 1x8xbw

I don’t know what happened here. I feel like I’m stalling out. I’m debating if my body lets me get to 3×10 across that I should just go ahead and go to real pull-ups and chin-ups, even if that means things like 5 sets of 2 reps, or maybe 2 sets of 2 reps then 3 sets of 3-5 negatives. Whatever, but no more of these “inverse row” things.

Commentary

Today was not a good day.

I didn’t want to go into the gym. I had no motivation. I felt worn, I felt tired. I tossed around ideas of skipping today, but that would just start down the slippery slope of skipping. I thought that maybe I’d do a light workout instead, maybe just do the warmup sets and not the work sets, but no… what good is that? If the work sets aren’t going to happen, my body will tell me and I’ll listen to that, not listen to my brain and lack of motivation.

My guess? While I’m off work this week, it’s been nothing but work. Whittling down a huge to-do list, lots of running around, lots of doing things, and it’s rather non-stop. I’m tired! I haven’t gotten as much sleep either. So I do believe it’s just that creeping up on me. So how will this affect Monday’s workout? I don’t know for sure, have to wait and see how I feel when I get there. But it does tell me that I need to chill out this weekend, nap, and get some good recovery time in.

It also makes me think about how much longer I’ll be able to stick to this program. I’m not 18 years old and can’t recover like one. I cannot eat like a horse; in fact, I’m actively working to trim back on that because the fat gains are too much and I do need to lose. Consequently, that does mean my recovery ability will decline and I may in fact lose some strength or at least I may stick at a certain point for a while. It does make me think that after a couple more weeks of this program I might switch to something like the Wendler 5/3/1 to see how that fares for my body (and even in that, maybe pare it back a bit, like instead of 5 sets of assistance, only 3). We’ll toy around and see. It’s not so much to care about progressing with how much weight I lift, but progressing with putting a constant growing stress on my body so it will improve and adapt and work towards my goals. My goals have shifted slightly (e.g. the fat loss) so I need to adjust accordingly.

But in the end, my body will tell me what’s what and when to switch. My brain is eager to switch, but I need to force it to wait until my body says it’s time.

XS Sights – No

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

New Jovian Thunderbolt tried some XS Sights on his gun.

I wish he had read some posts from me before he bought them. 🙂   I tried them. I replaced them. Todd Louis Green agrees. Here’s a report of a real-life situation where XS Sights could present a problem. It’s a problem because of long distance, and John Farnam talks long distance shooting.

I bought them because I was hoping the big dot front sight would be usable should I lose my glasses. Didn’t work for my eyesight. While the big dot certainly draws the eye, the resulting sight picture is very coarse. Sure if your need to shoot fast (self-defense in this case, we’re not dangerous game hunting in Africa, which is where this sort of sight came from) these sights can help, especially if you fall within that typical range for self-defense shooting, under 5 yards. But since we understand that if you are in a self-defense situation, you are in a situation not of your choosing, which means you didn’t get to choose the distance you’d need to shoot at. Can you make that 25 yard shot? Your skill level is one thing, and you can improve on that with practice. But your choice of equipment is another, and if your equipment makes it difficult for you to get a precise, longer-distance shot, well… you can improve upon that too by buying different equipment.

I remember having the XS Sights on my carry gun, sitting in a Jason’s Deli having lunch with Daughter. We sat about as far as you could get from the cash register, and I remember thinking to myself if I had to take a shot from here, there’s no way I could make it, not with these XS Sights. You just can’t get a precise enough sight picture.

It’s not even distance, it’s also precision. I found it extremely difficult even at short distances to shoot tight groups exactly where I wanted on the target. There’s just not enough crisp feedback from the sight picture to do so. Why might you need to shoot a precision shot? Let’s take everyone’s favorite example: the hostage shot, where some dude is holding your loved one hostage and you need to place one right between the scumbag’s eyes. Can you do that with these sights?

I’ve seen some people in our classes with the XS Sights and they always have a difficult time with them. Try them on a different gun with better sights, and immediately their performance improves. I’ve only seen one guy in classes that has done reasonably well with the XS Sights, but you can tell it’s still not as good as it could be with better sights.

Here’s something to think about. If these sights are so awesome, why isn’t everyone using them? Top action pistol competitors are people who need to shoot very fast and very accurately. Why aren’t these sights being used by the top IPSC/USPSA competitors?

Let’s look at it from another angle. The people shooting the fastest and most accurate are the top IPSC/USPSA folk, so what are they using to allow them to be so fast and so accurate? They’re using setups like from Dawson Precision, with a 0.100″ front with a fiber insert or black, and a plain black rear with a 0.125″ notch. The red fiber is enough to draw your eye (useful in low-light too), the plain black keeps the sight picture uncluttered, the narrow front sight is enough to see and minimizes target coverage, the wider rear notch allows for more light-space around the front post so your eyes receive better visual feedback about having the post centered in the notch.

So if you really want to shoot fast and accurate, at targets of any size or distance, look at what the people who are shooting that way are using — use what they use, and it’s not XS Sights.

If XS Sights work best for your eyes and situation, then by all means use them. I would ask you to consider your point of reference. If you are going from factory sights to XS Sights, no question things will be better because it’s rare to get good sights from the factory. However before you settle on XS Sights, keep surveying what’s out there. Try a setup like I mention above. I’ve yet to see that setup, or minor variants of it, be anything less than top performing. And I’ve yet to hear of someone going from a setup like that back to XS Sights, saying the XS were somehow superior.

Draw comfort from discomfort

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Only people willing to work to the point of discomfort on a regular basis using effective means to produce that discomfort will actually look like they have been other-than-comfortable most of the time. You can thank the muscle magazines for these persistent misconceptions, along with the natural tendency of all normal humans to seek reasons to avoid hard physical exertion.

— Mark Rippetoe

Granted, Rippetoe is talking about weightlifting and exercise, but it really holds for anything and everything in life.

You watch those ice skaters during the Winter Olympics, and they look so effortless; that’s only because you haven’t seen how they have to train all those years prior to that one performance. Someone that is comfortable in front of a crowd, speaking in public… they had to do a lot of work to get up there and make it seem so natural. When you watch someone shooting a gun, like top competitors such as Rob Leatham or Julie Golob, they look so cool under pressure because they’ve put themselves under a lot of pressure. That’s how they got to the top of their game.

When it comes to self-defense, like Mark alludes to, people are unwilling to seek discomfort. Can you think of a more uncomfortable situation that being attacked? How do you think you can overcome this discomfort? You have to put yourself into it.

Try competition shooting, or at least, take shooting classes and realize that everyone else in class is watching you, sizing you up, and comparing you. Hopefully that class might have some drills or activities that put pressure on you, like having everyone shoot a drill solo while the rest of the class looks on, or doing “shoot off” elimination drills, etc..

Take some boxing classes… no cardio boxing, but something where you’ll actually get hit in face and gut.

Take some Force-on-Force training classes, where you get put into life-like scenarios and have to decide when and how to use your gun or other defensive skills and tactics.

Life is full of discomfort. Sometimes you can ignore and avoid it, but many discomforts will hound you. The only way to rid yourself of the discomfort will be to become comfortable with it.

Texas man attacked by feral hog

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“He came to me, and he was literally flying, and I jumped up on the gate,” Fox said. “But I did not jump high enough or fast enough, and he hit me.”

The hog’s tusk dug several inches into Fox’s calf. A doctor later closed the wound with more than 100 stitches.

 

 

Full story. (h/t to CHLGuy’s Twitter feed)

Hard to say exactly why he got rushed, but with water and thus also food being so hard to come by right now, critters are wandering further, getting more difficult to deal with. They are also showing up in urban areas.

Your pepper spray and cell phone and “self-defense clinic” aren’t going to do you much good here… even a good pair of Nike’s won’t help you for very long. A .44 Magnum on the other hand….

 

on Prototyping

/ hsoi

We prototype so we may fail and learn from our mistakes. There is little point prototyping if you have no time/budget to iterate.

— Andy Budd, Twitter post.

He’s right, and it points out why prototyping is important — because we’re going to make mistakes. It’s rare that the first draft of anything is perfect: you will do things wrong, you will make mistakes, you may not fully understand the problem and may actually come to understand it better due to that first pass.

It’s also true that if you don’t have time or budget to do more than one pass, you can’t prototype because your first draft will be what you deliver.

What’s not directly stated in this is that if you can’t prototype, if you’re unwilling to budget the time and money and resources to prototype, then what’s the point? That is, unless you’re willing to accept shipping something half-assed. Unfortunately so much of the computer software world is willing to do so, and that explains the sorry state of software today. *sigh*

It’s rare to find a company that gets it and is willing to invest what it takes to get there. That means many iterations, code review, and a willingness to not ship until it’s ready.