Author: hsoi

2017-07-11 training log

/ hsoi

It’s settled: squat day sucks. 🙂

Even tho it’s “light” week, even tho I’m starting to adapt to the program. This is still an ass-kicker. I actually was finding it pretty good, but the last 3 sets of squats? Killed me. Again, it’s the oxygen deprevation that builds up, because you have to keep moving and you just don’t get fully recovered from the prior set before you have to do the next thing. And the bodyweight work isn’t killer work, but it is just another bout of work that adds up.

But, keep going. All you can do.

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 243
Rest Period (seconds): 85

  • Squat – bar x whatever
  • Squat – 125 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 155 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 185 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 15
  • Squat – 235 x 5
  • Chin-up – BW x 5
  • Squat – 265 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 13
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Chin-up BW x 5
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Push-ups – BW x 16
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 15
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Push Ups – BW x 13
  • Squat – 200 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 12

2017-07-10 training log

/ hsoi

Not too bad.

Starting my 2nd week of the “prep & fat loss” program. I knew today wouldn’t be all that hard, given press day. But was it so much easier because it’s a “5 week” so everything’s as light as it can be? because my body is starting to adapt? Don’t know. The real trick will be seeing how next week goes. 🙂

One thing I’m thinking about doing on my pressing days is reducing my inter-set rest periods, to bump up the work. I’m not sure I want to, because I don’t want to impact recovery, especially in light of caloric restriction. We’ll see.

Speaking of, I’m a little frustrated that my bodyweight is hard to determine right now. Am I fluxuating because of water and other such things? Or am I starting to lose a little? Of course it’s only been 1 week so I shouldn’t expect too much, and I’m likely working at a slower rate than past times I went hardcore with Renaissance Periodization. So I need to be patient, but on the same token I don’t want to wait 3 weeks to start to see results because if I haven’t, then that was 3 weeks wasted. I’m just going to have faith and stick with it tho. Because if I’m hungry — which I am — that’s generally a good sign.

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244
Rest Period (seconds): 85

  • Press – bar x whatever
  • Press – 70 x 5
  • Face Pull – 55 x 25
  • Press – 80 x 5
  • Face Pull – 55 x 25
  • Press – 105 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Press – 130 x 5
  • Pull-up – BW x 5
  • Press – 150 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 4
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 3
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • DB Row – 60 x 20
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • DB Row – 60 x 20
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25
  • Press – 115 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25

Teach them not to rape? Water control?

/ hsoi

Three teens were arrested for breaking into the home of a young mother in Georgia — where they stunned her with Tasers, scalded her with boiling water and raped her in front of one of her sons, police said.

full story

If you want the full, vile, horrid details of what these animals did, click through and read the full story.

But really, the one sentence is all you need.

Imagine if that young mother was your wife/spouse/girlfriend/partner.

Your daughter.

Your Mother.

You.

What is the solution for such things?

Teach them not to rape?

Boiling water control? Ban water? Ban pots and stoves?

Seriously. I’m seriously wondering.

I’m not saying the answer is “guns”. What I am saying is, evil people will do evil things – they will find a way – don’t underestimate the creativity of people intent on doing evil.

When someone next proposes a way to “stop crime” or “reduce violence”, consider if it will actually do any good – I mean, real good, not just feeling good and “doing something” (or that will only abridge the law-abiding and have zero impact – or even empower – the criminal). I’m only interested in solutions that will actually work.

2017-07-07 training log

/ hsoi

Hopefully today is a good sign.

As expected, today was an ass-kicker, but not as much as the squat day. It wasn’t as physically taxing as squats because squats, but it was taxing because I do hope that I’m getting to a point of depletion so my body will be burning some fat. I’d like to think “how could it not?” given my work has increased (the session, plus cardio) and my food intake has decreased, but the body is a funny thing. It’s been hard because my bodyweight has been up and down all week, but I know to not mind daily changes much. What will be more telling is where I am in a couple weeks.

Still, today I peeded out pretty hard at a couple points. Changing plates on deadlifts takes longer than any lift, so by the time I finished the top set change, I had to start dips and my reps dropped pretty bad. The first rep I just collapsed on because I wasn’t recovered enough so I didn’t have the full-body tightness needed. And I stopped at the reps I did not because my pressing muscles were tired but my whole body trying to maintain the tightness was. I found that interesting. And same on that 1-rep chin-up set — I was just out of gas.

I recovered a bit, but the deadlifts themselves got hard. Again, it’s not a weight that I normally have issue with, but boy… just didn’t have it in me.

So I am hoping that running out of gas here is a fair signal that 1. the workload is high, 2. the calories are low (enough) and I should start to see some impacts to my bodyweight here soon.

Next week is a “5’s” week, so in theory it’s an easier week. ha ha ha. We’ll see about that. 🙂 But it will be good to see how my body is adapting to the work. So far yes, I am hating all of this (the gym sessions, the cardio, the restricted diet), but I know where I want to be — and it’s only 5 more weeks. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 245
Rest Period (seconds): 90

  • Deadlift – 165 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Deadlift – 205 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Deadlift – 250 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 13
  • Deadlift – 330 x 5
  • Chin-up – BW x 4
  • Deadlift – 375 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 8
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Chin-up BW x 1
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Push-ups – BW x 20
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 12
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Push Ups – BW x 16
  • Deadlift – 290 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 10

2017-07-06 training log

/ hsoi

DOMS is real. 🙂

I continue to be fascinated by how the day after a new/intense workout I’m sore, but then 2 days after I’m REALLY sore. Going into today was just painful. Note: these sessions are basically full-body workouts, so everything was sore.

But you go through it, because doing the work will make things better overall.

Really, these press days are like a rest day, compared to the squat days (and I’m pretty sure deadlift days too). It’s work, but worlds apart.

Inclines were OK. None of my usual arm pain. I did notice on the heaviest sets that I had a weird pain in my left hand around my thumb — the sort of thing where thumbless grip would have alleviated the pain, but like hell I’ll bench thumbless. Using wrist wraps helped. Interesting.

But otherwise, it was just another day on the program. I expect tomorrow to suck. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244 (had salty Asian food last night, so I expect I’m retaining a bunch of water)
Rest Period (seconds): 90

  • Incline Bench Press – bar x whatever
  • Incline Bench Press – 90 x 5
  • Face Pull – 55 x 25
  • Incline Bench Press – 110 x 5
  • Face Pull – 55 x 25
  • Incline Bench Press – 135 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Incline Bench Press – 175 x 5
  • Pull-up – BW x 4
  • Incline Bench Press – 200 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 3
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 3
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • DB Row – 60 x 20
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • DB Row – 60 x 20
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25
  • Incline Bench Press – 155 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25

My Biceps Tendinopathy

/ hsoi

I still find it surprising how many people follow my workout logs (to Mitch’s chagrin). If you’re one of those fine people, you probably have heard me lamenting over the months about my arm/biceps/shoulder pain.

Over at Stronger by Science, Jason Eure published an extensive article on “Training with Biceps Tendinopathy”. Reading it hit very close to home – it’s my problem.

It’s been interesting for me to observe the things I do, the things I don’t do, what I vary, what I change, when pain arrives, when pain doesn’t. Reading more of the science behind it… well, it just gives me more questions, but also some better understanding.

For example, flat bench press caused the worst pain, but overhead pressing is no pain. I am trying incline pressing, but it’s been relatively light weights and only so much volume. In this new training program, even tho I recalculated my 1RM and took an even lower training max, incline pressing weights are going up for me – because I started so low. It will be interesting to see how this cycle goes with inclines, now using more weight and taking in more volume.

The article reinforces earlier thoughts I had as well, about switching the main movement to something else, like floor press. I guess I’ll see how it goes.

So, I’m not yet sure what I’ll do with this information, but the article was one I wanted to keep and share. I’m sure I’ll have to read it a few more times to fully digest it.

Burglary of Residence Prevention Tips

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

In my neighborhood NextDoor.com, one of the leads of the Neighborhood Watch posts periodic information about the crime in our area of Austin and how it can be prevented. His most recent post was on Burglary of Residence and some tips for reducing your risk.

Here are some helpful tips to help prevent home burglaries. Some of these are common sense strategies but sometimes we as citizens become comfortable in our surrounds and think it will never happen to use. This was my thought before we got broken into. Being PROACTIVE IS THE KEY. Doing these will limit your chances of being burglarized but will not prevent all burglaries. If someone wants to get into your home and they have time/means/opportunity, they will get in. Property Crimes are crimes of opportunity. Criminals have the means, they have the motive but let’s not give them the opportunity to steal from us.

1. Lock all of your doors. This means front, back and the door in your garage at ALL TIMES. Even when we are home. This will not give a potential burglar the opportunity to just walk in when they want when you or your family are home.

2. Dogs are the #1 Deterrent to a burglar. I recommend putting up Beware of Dog signs. Even if you don’t own a dog, put one up. The burglar will never know if you do or do not have a dog. They will just move onto another home. A Beware of Cat sign does not work 😉

3. NEVER open your front door to someone you don’t know. ALWAYS let them know that you are home by talking through the locked door and letting them know you don’t want any or turn of the front porch light when they knock to let them know someone is home. If you don’t answer the door and you just go about what you are doing, the potential burglar could kick in your front door or walk around the side and make entry through your back door thinking no one is home.

4. Put up a No Soliciting Sign.

5. Add 3” + Screws in all dead bolts and hinges on doors leading outside. Should be 3 doors. On the hinges just 1 screw in each hinge should be fine. Replace 1 screw for 1 screw, do not take off the whole door. Most screws are less than 1 inch.

6. Keep your front lights on at night. Motion activated lights are amazing.

7. Add cameras if you can afford. Being able to see what’s going on in front of my house and inside 24/7/365 with my Nestcams has been great. There are plenty of options today this one just fits my needs.

8. Trim your bushes so they are not too high. Bushes next to doors and windows can be hiding places for them. Trim your trees up 7 feet tall so you can see through them.

9. Keep your garage door closed at all times, this means day and night. This is a no brainier but garage doors are let open all the time by mistake. Again, if you accidentally leave the garage door open and you don’t lock that door leading into your home, now burglar has access to your home. Not a good thing at all. Some people leave there garage doors open all day/night because they have an “alarm” in garage letting them know if someone is in their garage. I really really discourage this! Even though you want it open and you are protected, what you are doing is leaving bait out for the burglars basically inviting them into the neighborhood. They just don’t hit one house they hit many. Please stop doing this and think of the whole community.

10. Use your alarm system if you have one. You are paying for it so use it. Put out alarm company sign in front yard and put alarm company sticker by front door and back door.

11. Let your neighbors know when you are leaving for a vacation. So they can watch your home while you are gone, get any packages left on porch, put garbage cans away, get newspaper or any flyers left on your door. All indicators that you are not home. Help each other out!

12. If you are on vacation set programmable Christmas timers you normally use once a year for lamps in living room or bedrooms to make the home look occupied while you are gone. This is easy and very effective.

13. Get serial #’s of everything you can of value and pictures if possible. If something is stolen and pawned now the police department can track that property if it pops up in a pawn shop.

14. Don’t leave wallets, money, jewelry or purses in plain sight. A burglar could walk by and peek in and see the valuables and make his move.

15. Put a pad lock on back gate. Very easy to do. I like using the Word locks rather than number locks. They are earlier to remember and your kids will remember as well.

16. Be wary people who you let in your home that you do not know. If someone knocks on your door and ask to use your bathroom or for a drink of water do not let them in or even open the door. If you do they could be checking out to see if you have a dog, if your door chimed when you opened it which would indicate a security may be active and taking a mental note of what you have of value. Just be cautious of who you let in your home.

17. Don’t leave whole boxes outside that say 75” Samsung TV or anything of value boxes. Just break them down into smaller pieces and put in your recycling container. Don’t put the cut up boxes in the big TV box by the curb. You’re telling the burglar that you got a new awesome big screen.

18. Add a lock you the Breaker box outside on the side of your house. If you don’t anyone can just lift the lid and turn off your power. Never good. See picture.

19. If you are being broken into call 911!! Sleep with your phone next to you so you can make that call. Do whatever you can to stay safe.

To expand on a few of his points.

Point 1. This above all things. Locking your doors and windows is the single best thing to help out. Too many stories of break-ins of homes or vehicles involve the owner leaving things unlocked.

Even if it’s just for a few minutes to walk down to the mailboxes.

Point 3. This is a big one. A lot of people prefer to not answer the door at all; no, it’s better to answer so they know someone is in fact home. But when you do answer, there’s zero need to open the door. If you have one of those new video/audio doorbells, that can be useful to minimize the yelling through the door, but yell away if you have to.

Point 9. People often keep their garage doors open when working in the yard. Does your garage have an electric opener with a remote control? Put the remote in your pocket while you work. You can then easily open and close the door, without leaving it open while you’re in the backyard working.

To that, if you park a car in the driveway or street but keep a garage door opener in that car? Don’t. If they break into your car, now you’ve given them a key into your home.

Point 10. This too. I see numerous people with alarm systems but they never or rarely use them. You don’t get to choose when you will be the victim of a crime, so do use the alarm system and get something out of that monthly bill you keep paying.

Point 12. Not only should you consider lamp timers, but you can go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick up programmable timer for your wall switches. I have these for the switches that control my exterior lights (e.g. porch lights), and they are semi-smart, able to keep the time and self-adjust for the seasons.  Thus they come on “at sunset” and go off “at sunrise”. Works well, and having it fully automated ensures they always come on (and doesn’t matter if I forget).

Points 15 and 18 are things we don’t often think of but matter. Do the cameras, video doorbell, alarm system, your internet connection (router, modem, etc.) that connects all these things so they can work, etc. you have run off electricity? Do they have battery backups? If the power goes out, what happens?

The locks aren’t necessarily going to be high security – I mean, if our fences are just 6′ cedar pickets, it’s not high-security anyways. But it provides additional obstacles and deterrents, reducing crimes of opportunity.

I admit, it’s sometimes a weary thing to have to live by the rules and take additional effort to keep some people from ruining your day. But these are small steps, most of which are “do it once and done”, or just small changes to our habits – but they do go a long way to keeping one’s life overall in a good place.

2017-07-04 workout log

/ hsoi

I knew today was going to hurt. 🙂

I mean, yesterday’s pressing gave me an idea of what this new program was going to be like, but I knew squat-day would be much more difficult.

Oh yeah.

By the time I got to the FSL sets (the 5×5@215), I was kicking into autopilot. Just do what I wrote down, just keep going, don’t bother thinking about it. Just do it. Just keep going. The brain is saying to quit, but only because it’s damn hard work. So no, that’s not a good enough reason to quit. Just keep pushing through it.

I’m expecting in a few weeks, when the work is harder and the diet has kicked in more, this is really going to suck. 🙂

Really tho, I realized why this sucks so hard — accumulation of oxygen deprivation. You do some set, holding your breath for each rep. By the end, you’re a bit deprived. While there’s 90 seconds of rest, it’s not enough to fully recover. Then you something else, maybe for 10, 15, or 20 reps — which leads to greater oxygen deprivation, again not because the work is necessarily hard in and of itself (5×5 @ 215 is easy), but because there’s deprivation, and you don’t fully recover, so each time is a little worse.

But, that will build up the ability to do work. The body will adapt.

All in all, today went well — just had to play the mental game and keep pushing through. To ensure even the last set of squats still was mentally all-in so things didn’t get sloppy.

Chin-ups did stress my elbows a bit, but I’ll keep going with it and see how it goes long-term.

I need a nap. 😉

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

Bodyweight: 244
Rest Period (seconds): 90

  • Squat – bar x whatever
  • Squat – 125 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 155 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 185 x 5
  • Crunches – BW x 20
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 12
  • Squat – 250 x 5
  • Chin-up – BW x 5
  • Squat – 280 x 5
  • Dips – BW x 12
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Chin-up BW x 4
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Push-ups – BW x 15
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 12
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Push Ups – BW x 13
  • Squat – 215 x 5
  • Inverted Row – BW x 10

2017-07-03 training log

/ hsoi

Starting a new program today.

My current long-term goal is “3/4/5 wheels, bench/squat/deadlift”. I know to get there, I have to eat well. However, I’ve been eating too well. I weighed in this morning a 245, and I am not happy with that, especially the last 10-or-so pounds. There’s no excuse; I’ve not had the self-discipline. I don’t want to derail from my main goal, but if I don’t get this under control I’ll be screwed over the long haul. So if I can take a few weeks and drop some bodyweight, great.

My plan? In the new “Forever 5/3/1” book, Jim has a “Prep & Fat Loss Program” that looks different and like it should do the trick. It’s 6 weeks (then a 7th week for deload). The plan is to keep the protein high, fats moderate-low, and carbs restricted — I can have carbs in the morning, especially around the workout, but by noon I need to cut them off. That should be sufficient to keep me going, but also provide enough caloric reduction. Then with this level of work, I expect I should be able to drop 10 lb. or so in the 6 weeks. If I can do that, or even more, great. I also wouldn’t expect this to impact my strength all that much. I don’t expect to gain any strength, but I don’t expect to lose any either.

If I stick to this plan, it should work. I just need to stick to it.

The Plan

I won’t fully rehash the program (buy the book), but the basics:

  • Find 1RM. Luckily my weights from the last session’s 1+ week work well for calculations.
  • Take 85% of 1RM for a training max. Yes that’s low, but it’s appropriate for this work.
  • Runs on a 3/5/1 structure. 6-week cycle.
  • Main work is 5’s PRO
  • Supplemental is 5×5 FSL
  • Additional assistance
  • Rest periods are 60-90 seconds between every set.
  • All work is interleaved. Set of press. Rest. Set of whatever else. Rest. Set of press. Set of other work. etc.

So you get 11 sets of main movement (3 warm-up, 3 work, 5 FSL), then all the other work.

And if you keep moving, all should be done in about 45-60 minutes. This does not count your warm-up, and some other initial work (e.g. 10 jumps or throws). Also there’s some cardio work, which for me will be at least 20 minutes on the elliptical right after the session completes.

It may look easy on paper, but from how Jim tells it, people hate him after the first week, and call him a fucking asshole after the second. 🙂

It’s work. It’s going to suck. It’s going to be hard — especially as my caloric deficit and carbs depletion take hold. But if I stick to it, I expect to be in a better position after 6 weeks. I’m looking forward to that.

Today’s Session

The pressing numbers are calculations. The assistance work is guesses, but pretty close. I’ll fine-tune a couple things, but all in all good.

To do 5×5 at 70% of 85% of my 1RM — it’s really easy for me. However, it’s not physical strength that is the issue here, but just being tired. Those last few sets of pressing were difficult because fatigue was building up. What gets you are the high-rep assistance sets — that starts to take it out of you. My conditioning isn’t all that bad, but it’s not as good as it has been either. I have been noticing some huff-and-puff lately, so for sure I can use this type of work. Towards the end, I wasn’t feeling dead and drained, but fatigue was certainly there. I am curious how week 3 will go, as that will be the “1 week” and 2 weeks of caloric reduction. Pressing wasn’t hard today, but you really have to pull it all together to keep pressing well, as fatigue grows.

Split squats I took a little easy. Instead of elevating the rear leg, I just put one leg forward and one back, both on the ground. My hamstrings are feeling sore for whatever reason, and it’s making my knees hurt and stiff. So elevated wasn’t going to happen. I’ll spend some time rolling them out. They should be better soon.

Pull-ups. I haven’t done these in a while and expected my fat-ass to struggle. Well, I got 4 reps, which I’m not happy about, but for fat-ass me I’ll take. Jim’s layout prefers chin-ups and pull-ups, and while I won’t avoid them, I am going to make sure to do more inverted-rows to get more volume. A lot of what this first week will be is fine-tuning what I do.

KB Swing. There is only 1 kettlebell at my gym, which is 40#, which just so happens to be a decent weight to use. It’s not too heavy, not too light, worked out well. And these are deceptive. Feels so easy, then when you stop you realize how taxing it was. 🙂

All in all, I felt good. Worked, with a good preview of what’s to come. Tho, I am expecting tomorrow — squat day — to be a LOT more painful. 🙂

5/3/1 Prep & Fat Loss Program

  • Press – bar x whatever
  • Press – 70 x 5
  • Face Pull – 50 x 25
  • Press – 80 x 5
  • Face Pull – 50 x 25
  • Press – 105 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • Split Squat – BW x 15
  • Press – 140 x 5
  • Pull-up – BW x 4
  • Press – 155 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 3
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • Pull-up BW x 3
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • DB Row – 55 x 20
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • DB Row – 55 x 20
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25
  • Press – 120 x 5
  • KB Swing – 40 x 25