Author: hsoi

Good fitness is self-defense

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

If you read my blog you may have noticed that I don’t write as much as I used to, but I sure lift weights at the gym a lot. 🙂

I lift because it’s the form of exercise I enjoy the most. Why do I exercise? Lots of reasons, but my main motivator is I don’t want to become decrepit.

Look around you. Look at how people struggle to do basic things like walking up and down stairs, getting in and out of a chair, or picking something up off the ground. There’s no need to start talking about things like running when people struggle to do even basic life functions.

Ever watch videos of self-defense events? They are rapid, dynamic, and to some extent or other involve physicality. Sometimes that physicality could be a brawl, or sometimes it’s just a need to run like a bat out of hell in the other direction.

If you struggle to get out of a chair, if you get winded walking up stairs (or you know you will so you avoid it and always take the elevator), if you can’t bend over to tie your shoes (or you say “fuck it” and always wear flip-flops) – how do you think you’re going to fare when the flag flies?

You don’t even have to be old or fat. Does your job involve you sitting in an office chair crumpled down in front of a computer all day? ClichĂ© as it is, but there is truth to “use it or lose it”, and desk jockeys (and I’m one of them) are losing it.

I see it with students in classes. Shoot the gun, reload and drop magazine on the ground, then it’s a struggle to bend down to pick up the magazine off the ground. And yes, maybe your self-defense incident may be solvable purely by your gun and your wits, but when do you get to choose what your self-defense incident will look like?

This isn’t to say you have to bench press 300 lb., be able to run a 5 minute mile, and be as sexy as Dwayne Johnson. It just means you need to be able to function.

Speaking from personal experience, another useful reason for having some level of fitness is it improves your ability to deal with the physiological effects of the event and the aftermath. Given all I experienced both during and afterwards, I firmly believe a high-level of physical fitness helped me manage the intense stress. Heck, I lost 6 lbs. that day! My event in and of itself was not physical (wasn’t some brawl), but rare in one’s life is such a degree of stress and pressure, and being able to have a physically strong heart and body was unquestionably a benefit.

Or we can just look at it in a simpler way.

Your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack? Supposedly 1 in 20,000,000

Your chances of dying from a firearm? Supposedly 1 in 25,000

Your chances of dying in a car accident? Supposedly 1 in 100

Your chances from heart disease? Supposedly 1 in 400.

Of having a heart attack? 1 in 4.

Regardless of the specific numbers (data varies by source), the pattern remains: you have a far greater chance of death from poor health choices than violent crime.

If self-defense is all about protecting and preserving your life, then self-defense starts with taking care of yourself.

This doesn’t mean you need to stop reading this article, radically change your diet, join CrossFit, and do things that you won’t stick with 2 weeks from now. No, small things can make a big difference.

Season 4 Episode 183 of Ballistic Radio had Larry Lindenman as the guest. Larry spoke quite well about the role of fitness in self-defense, and provides an excellent overview of the topic as well as some good suggestions on how to get started. I was listening to it while doing my cardio at the gym the other morning, and it served as the impetus for this article. Thank you Larry (and John Johnston).

Take care of yourself first, so you’ll be around to take care of others.

 

2017-01-06 training log

/ hsoi

This is going to get brutal. 🙂

Jim has this template set up not to do an AMRAP set, but to do 20-reps. Oye. So I went light, but now I think it was too light. I went with 50% of the training max, but now I think it was too light. It taxed me, but just not enough — 20 should have been excruciating to get to. Of course, I’m still dialing things in as this is only the first week on this new template, so to be expected. I’ll probably go 60% and see how that pans out.

Originally I planned to do lunges instead of the template’s leg presses, but changed my mind on the fly. I hate doing unilateral work, but it’s good for me so I do it. And honestly? I don’t like doing leg presses for whatever reason. But I figure that this week so far has been a pretty good change-up for me in my approaches — and I have the soreness to prove it. So might as well continue to change things up. Plus, it’ll be easier to manage tempo with the leg presses than the lunges.

That was actually the harder thing about today: keeping that tempo to ensure the concentric was fast/explosive and the eccentric slow, likely with a pause in the middle just to let momentum dissipate. Just having to remember to do this, because it’s not my norm. Like on the hypers, I’ve been doing them already and had to remind myself to change the tempo — and boy, that does make a difference.

Hanging leg raises are more like knee raises. I can’t bring my toes up to the bar. Even if I could, the bar is only like 7′ off the ground and I’m tall so when I hang I have to bend at the knees to clear the ground. So I keep my knees bent and work to curl my knees up to my shoulders — well, that’s the ideal. I’m not getting to my shoulders and as you can see I really suck at these. 🙂 My abs still hurt from the wheels on Tuesday, so I reckon this will be another thing that will improve in time.

So this first week on the new template has generally been good. I will make very slight adjustments, mostly in amount of weight, to get things more in the right groove. And I have to keep myself focused on tempo. Otherwise, stick with the program and see how it fares for a cycle or two.

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

  • Squats
    • bar x whatever
    • 125 x 5
    • 155 x 5
    • 185 x 3
    • 200 x 5
    • 230 x 5
    • 265 x 5
    • 155 x 20
  • Leg Press
    • 185 x 10
    • 225 x 10
    • 225 x 10
    • 225 x 10
  • Hyperextensions
    • BW x 10
    • BW x 10
    • BW x 10
    • BW x 10
  • Hanging Leg Raises
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 4
    • BW x 3

2017-01-05 training log

/ hsoi

Today was good!

First and foremost, benching with almost no arm pain is a win. 🙂 There was a little ache in my right biceps at the elbow, but that was there before the session and the session didn’t seem to change it. I think all those body work sessions with Howard really paid off. Plus taking all of last week off, stretching, etc..

That said, working up to 210 actually felt heavy. If I was going for rep PRs I’m sure I still would have hit my 10-rep threshold just fine, but again it FELT heavy. Why? don’t know. Could be that on the cutting diet here yesterday was an off day and I didn’t have much for carbs. Could be benching later in the week now I’m not as fresh. Could just be a random thing. Dunno. But worth noting.

The AMRAP set tho, again I went for 60% and hit 15 reps easily. So I am thinking I MIGHT try changing the AMRAP set to a true first-set-last. But I don’t know — feels like then on 1+ weeks I’d risk only getting 5-8 reps and I’d rather be sure to hit up to 15 reps because volume. But we’ll see. I’ll play around because nothing says I can’t try first-set-last and if it’s not enough reps I go back to straight-weight.

Assistance work is of course what it is. I continue to focus on getting a “3-0-1-0”-ish tempo. I say “ish” because I found if I really want to get that tempo I focus too much on counting and not on what’s important. So I’m more trying to just ensure the concentric is “fast and explosive” yet still the muscle moving the weight (no heaving, no momentum, etc.). Then make sure the eccentric is slower than the concentric was. One thing that came out of today is I may need to actually have a 1-second or so pause at the top/peak. Not because I want that squeeze or anything (tho I’ll take that), but more to stop momentum. As I was doing the lat pulldowns, I found that I’d lose about 1/2 the eccentric to just slowing down the momentum — not really what I want. So if I pulled down, held for a second, then all that energy was lost and the eccentric became nice and slow all the way down.

Still, today kept things “light” to help me find the placement for things and where to work, because again that slower tempo works things harder. 🙂

On the 100 rep work, I’m following that version of “100-rep protocol” where you start with about 40-70 reps, then rep as much as you can. When you hit failure, rest for as many seconds as you have reps remaining (to 100). Then keep going, get more, rest as much as there is left, etc.. I didn’t keep track of where things stopped — not really important. I’ll know over time if it’s time to move up (e.g. if first “set” hits 60-70 reps, up the weight and keep going).

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

  • Bench Press (superset with lat pulldowns)
    • bar x whatever
    • 100 x 5
    • 120 x 5
    • 145 x 3
    • 160 x 5
    • 185 x 5
    • 210 x 5
    • 145 x 15
  • DB Bench Press
    • 55e x 10
    • 55e x 10
    • 55e x 10
    • 55e x 10
    • 55e x 10
  • Chest-Supported DB Row
    • 45e x 12
    • 45e x 12
    • 45e x 12
    • 45e x 12
    • 45e x 10
  • Pushdowns
    • 35 x 100
  • Face Pulls
    • 50 x 100

My part in the ACLDN track record – and what you can learn from it

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Two years ago I had a life-changing experience – one I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.

I’ve maintained wanting something positive to come from the event; to find ways to make good, to make things better. One way has been sharing the event and answering any questions people may have about the event, my experiences, and living in the aftermath.

A few weeks ago, Gila Hayes of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network (ACLDN) contacted me (Disclosure: I am obviously a member of ACLDN, have been, and will continue to be). She was wanting to ask me and my lawyer, Gene Anthes, some questions about Gene’s services to me as a Network member, and explain why and what he did on my behalf and why it was important. As well, Gila wanted to gain some insights into my experiences from a post-incident legal focus, since that’s where ACLDN works. The goal of the article being to educate network members (or whomever wishes to read the newsletter, as the newsletter is freely available to the public) about things that happen post-incident.

Gila and I spoke at length, and the result of our talk is posted in the January 2017 issue of the ACLDN Newsletter, available here.

The article discusses the Network’s track record over the past 8 years. I learned a great deal from the article.

I will also say that reading the article was tough. When Gila sent me a draft for review, it really hit me hard. There were all my short-comings, laid bare for the world to see. Having already been subject to armchair quarterbacks in the court of ignorant public opinion, part of me didn’t want to go through all that judgment again. But that’s actually a teaching point in and of itself! We are human – we won’t do things perfectly, especially during a novel and high-pressure, high-stakes situation. This is why it’s so important to train to a high level, so when things go south and everything degrades, you still remain at a high-enough level to do what needs to be done.

What I hope you can take from the article is understanding that self-defense incidents are quick and relatively simple. But the aftermath is slow,  lengthy, and complex. I cannot imagine what it would have been like for me and my family if I didn’t have ACLDN and a lawyer like Gene Anthes.

You don’t get to choose when bad things will happen to you. But when bad things do happen, the more prepared you are the better you’ll fare both during and after the event. It’s good to prepare for events, but it’s also important to prepare for the aftermath of those events. You don’t have to join ACLDN – they are certainly my choice – just do your homework, and prepare. As I’ve said: the event lasts seconds, the aftermath is the rest of your life.

2017-01-03 training log

/ hsoi

Gah, so much work. 🙂

Deadlifting was fine. Felt a little heavy, but when I think about it it makes sense. Before testing week I was lifting with a training max of 380, but now after testing it’s 410 — that’s a big jump. I’m actually thinking about lowering back (would be 390 in this case). Remember: I did a reset purely out of formality, not because I really needed it. And of all lifts, deadlifting was the furthest from needing a reset. Working light, submax, etc. I can work for longer. I think this will be especially important while I’m cutting. So yeah, giving strong thought to dropping down — even starting it next week.

Everything else was groovy — just a lot of posterior work. 🙂 RDL’s I continue to work on my form.

Rows were interesting. I realized that on this template there’s a lot of back work, but it’s spread over the days. So every day there’s not a lot of back work, but there’s back work every day. Consequently, I want to ensure I “wave” it a bit. The lat pulldowns during my pressing sets will be higher rep, so it makes good sense — esp. since it’s bent over bb rows as well — for the rows to be a little heavier. So the pulldowns might go 8-15 reps, but here on the rows I’ll strive for 6-10 reps, still with good form, full range of motion, good scapular retraction, etc. Not going to go heavy to go heavy, no massive cheating, etc.. Still has to be good, just a little heavier. Given deadlift day is probably the most back-intensive day of all, seems fitting.

Leg Curls. Ha ha…. man, I have to go even lighter on these. When I work that 3-0-1-0 tempo and try to make it just about the hamstrings — keep the hips on the bench (if anything, push them into the brench), no flexing of the calves, and then all the work I’ve already done to hit them, yeah, the weight feels stupid light, but oye, what work.

Ab wheel. I hate this thing. Last time I did it (some long time ago) I actually couldn’t — it messed with my head. I don’t recall exactly, but it was dizzy, pressure, just not good things. So I was a little afraid to do it again. I also had a serious bout of cramping in my abs last night before bed, so I figured let’s just take this light and easy. I kept it from my knees, just try to get my body used to the motion again. No need to kill myself, just work up to it.

Then about 20 minutes of 140-strides-per-minute elliptical. Such fun.

So far, so good.

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

  • Deadlift
    • 165 x 5
    • 205 x 5
    • 245 x 3
    • 265 x 5
    • 310 x 5
    • 350 x 5
  • RDL
    • 165 x 10
    • 165 x 10
    • 165 x 10
    • 165 x 10
  • Bent Over Rows
    • 135 x 10
    • 135 x 10
    • 135 x 10
    • 135 x 6
  • Leg Curls
    • 35 x 12
    • 35 x 10
    • 30 x 10
    • 25 x 9
  • Ab Wheel
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5

2017-01-02 training log

/ hsoi

Felt good to get back to the gym. But I cannot lie that the week off was good for my body.

I’m now taking a different approach to my training. Still working towards my 3/4/5 goal, but I need to take a side-step and shed some fat. Yeah, after the big effort and 66 lb. dropped, I let myself get too big again. Some of it was expected and allowed, but for sure the past couple months I let the holidays get the best of me. I was already planning on doing a cut at this time, just that now I’ve got further to go. Sigh. Oh well, my own fault.

I’m working back with Renaissance Periodization, but instead of 1-on-1 doing the auto-templates to see how they will go. I’ll stay on this for about 12-14 weeks.

My gym work will be primarily hypertrophy-oriented work, since that’s best when cutting. I’m going to roughly follow the “5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass” template, with minor adjustments for me. Keeps the main strength movement in, but everything else is geared towards hypertrophy. And I’m trying to really focus on that.

So for instance, when picking weights for today I really dropped things down because it’s not so much about the weight and the movement as it will be about the muscle and trying to chase that pump. One BIG thing I’m going to try is on all assistance work to move at roughly a 3-0-1-0 tempo — really work that eccentric. Really work to feel and make the muscle work.

Boy, I felt it today. 🙂

The main movement was fine. It’s programmed to have a drop set at the end, with the only guidance being to get 10-15 reps. So I went for 60% and figured to keep that straight for all the weeks to see how things go. Easily hit 15 reps today, so I’ll bump the weight up. I may keep it at a straight weight, or I may do things first-set-last style.

I forgot that during the main pressing movement I’m to superset lat pulldowns — I had avoided the superset because of the arm pains. So after a couple pressing sets I remembered and started doing the pulldowns. I have opted on at least 1 pressing day to do behind-the-neck pulldowns. Why? Because I expect it’ll be good for my shoulders to explore that range of motion. 🙂 I’m thinking Press day I may do behind-the-neck for straight, higher-rep sets (up to 15 reps). Then on bench day to do to the chest and pyramid up to sets of 8. Anyways, I kept it light today just to get the feel and make sure my shoulders would be happy — and at first it was a little awkward, but things loosened up and felt good by the end.

DB Presses were a little on the light and easy side, but again I was aiming for that 3-0-1-0 tempo and ensuring that the pressing was coming from shoulders contracting, not arms pressing. I’ll bump the weight up next session.

BB Curls were loads of fun. Really dropped the weight and worked on being super strict with 3-0-1-0 tempo — Only 50 reps, but that eccentric really became tough towards the end. Very nice pump for what it was.

Then the lat raises were a superset, again dropping the weight down so I could focus on the eccentric. Also really light on the bent-overs so I could ensure I was contracting the posterior delts: no swing, not using back muscles.

My intention is to stick fairly much with the template for at least 3 weeks, then in the 2nd 3 weeks I might up the intensities a bit with say making the main movement back-off set into a couple rest-pauses or maybe a 50% — just add a little something more. But still, try to keep things conservative. Because I expect in the 2nd 6-week cycle I’ll generally keep the same program so to up the intensity I’d do something like say on the curls and raises, end with partials or just something else to help jack things up a bit. Don’t do this all at once, work up to it, give myself somewhere to go over these 12-14 weeks.

Finished with about 15 minutes of fast elliptical work (130-150 strides/minute). My off days will be heavier on the cardio, but I do want to end every gym day with 10-20 minutes of cardio. I mean, if that burns say 100 more calories, then 4 gym days, 4 more sessions, maybe 400 more calories each week burned — over time, that will add up.

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

  • Press (superset with high-rep behind-the-neck lat pulldowns)
    • bar x whatever
    • 65 x 5
    • 80 x 5
    • 100 x 3
    • 105 x 5
    • 125 x 5
    • 140 x 5
    • 100 x 15
  • DB Shoulder Press
    • 40e x 10
    • 40e x 10
    • 40e x 10
    • 40e x 10
    • 40e x 10
  • BB Curls
    • 45 x 10
    • 45 x 10
    • 45 x 10
    • 45 x 10
    • 45 x 10
  • DB Rear Raises (superset with lat raises)
    • 8e x 10
    • 8e x 10
    • 8e x 10
  • DB Lateral Raises
    • 15e x 10
    • 15e x 10
    • 15e x 10

Sunday Metal – Tesla

/ hsoi

Tesla “Caught in a Dream”

One of my favorite songs, because of the message:

Forget color, forget race, and just be one big happy face
Among this sea of people, live among God’s creatures, sharing love
That was sent down from above, here to share with one another
Father, brother, sister, mother, everybody sharing love, sharing love

I’m caught up in a dream, I’m gonna wish for it all
No one’s gonna tell me how, no way, this is my dream now
I’m caught up in what seems simply impossible
I ain’t gonna change a thing, no way, it’s my dream, this is my dream

I close my eyes and everything will be alright
Here in my fantasy, living in harmony
Make my dream come alive

Be love.

A new year is upon us.

And I ain’t gonna change a thing. Because THIS is my dream.

Make this dream come alive in 2017.

Share love.

Have more, be more

/ hsoi

I’m not one for doing things because the calendar turns, I think if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing RIGHT NOW.

So with that: have more understanding, more patience, more empathy, more unitiy, more humility, more love. Not because 2017, but because we’re all in this together and life’s too damn short.

Be bigger. Be better. Be love. Start now.

Lessons from observing 5000 gunfights

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

John Correia of Active Self Protection posted the following on Facebook.

I’ve watched about 5,000 gunfights at this point, and the patterns that emerge are pretty clear. Some thoughts you might want to consider that I don’t think that the training community really wants to hear:

1. Most gunfights aren’t entangled gunfights. Empty-handed skills are important, but very rare once the gun comes out. They’re necessary for LE more than CCW, by a long shot. For CCW, empty-handed skills are critical for the 80% of assaults that don’t rise to the level of deadly force response. So go to your martial arts training.

2. Reloads are almost vanishingly insignificant factors in gunfights. I have seen precisely 2 reloads in a real gunfight that weren’t on-duty LEO. And neither of those affected the outcome of the fight. I have seen about 7 or 8 where a higher capacity firearm or the presence of a reload might have affected the outcome. So 0.2% of what I have witnessed. Don’t spend much valuable class time teaching emergency and retention reloads…at least until your highest level classes where all the fundamentals are flawless. I like Tom Givens’ focus on the PROACTIVE reload once the fight is over. That has value in my opinion.

3. He who puts the first shot into meaty bits on the other guy, wins. Not 100%, but darn near, at least partially because of the FIBS Factor. Therefore, training a fast and reliable draw and first shot in the meaty bits is most important, in my opinion. It is THE critical skill to winning the gunfight. The best cover is fire superiority.

4. Follow-up shots are necessary. Seldom do gunfights END with that first shot, so keep at him until he decides he is done fighting. This is where multiple target acquisition is important, because it simulates a moving target to hit. (unless you have a fancy moving target that can move erratically, in which case you are high speed!)

5. People have a crazy tendency to use the gun one-handed, mostly because they have stuff in their support hand. Training people to drop what’s in their hands and get two hands on the gun is a necessary skill for #3 and 4.

6. You simply WILL NOT stand still while someone wants to kill you. Unless you’re counter-ambushing, when the gun comes out you will move. So training students to move with purpose while #3 and 4 are going on is also a critical skill. They’re going to do it, so teach them to use it.

7. Chasing deadly threats is another bad habit that I see all the time. Teach your students to shoot and scoot. Move AWAY from the threat.

8. Concealment ain’t cover, but it works identically in 99.9% of cases. People won’t shoot what they can’t see, so teach your students to get to concealment, and to shoot through it if their threat is behind it.

9. People love cover so much they give it a hug. Reliably. Like all the time. Teaching distance from cover/concealment is an important skill and one that is necessary.

10. Malfunctions happen. They just do. But unless you’re carrying a crap gun, they’re rare. In all my videos I have never seen someone clear a malfunction that needed a tap to the baseplate to get the gun back working again or whose mag fell out when the gun went click…rack and reassess is necessary though. In a couple of instances, a strip, rack, reload would have helped.

Just some random thoughts…I hope we have met your jimmy rustling needs for today.

John’s pretty spot-on here.

Point 5 I think is an interesting one. Something worth conditioning yourself for. But realize it’s not as simple as “drop what’s in your hands” (tho that is a good place to start). You have to consider what’s in your hands (e.g. a sack of groceries vs. an infant).

Corollary to that, if you have someone in your life that holds on to your hand, it’s worth conditioning them to drop your hand. It’s natural when frightened to want to grab, cling, and squeeze. It’s possible a small child holding your hand will continue to (how will you contend with this?). But your spouse ought to learn to drop your hand and move away.

Point 7 is another that may be worth having more training and condintioning. That is, to condition people to move away (perhaps to concealment/cover – Point 8). So many times you see people pursuing and closing in – it’s very natural (monkey-brain), so building in a conditioned response to get away is important.

Good stuff, John. Thank you for sharing.