2015-09-24 training log

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

That wasn’t too bad.

Deadlifting itself was fine. My knee was a little unhappy, but by the 3rd work set things were humming along nicely.

Rows. Fine. I’m doing them more Pendlay-style, but whatever — so long as my back feels it.

Shrugs didn’t work out as I planned. I wanted a heavy/low-rep set, then a lighter/high-rep… but I missed the weight estimates by a long-shot. 🙂 Ah well. I did them Meadows style (3-second hold at the top), and I’ll probably just stick with that.

I do feel like I need a little more volume here, like a 4th set of rows and a 3rd set of shrugs. But I dunno… the deadlifts do a lot.

Anyways, all in all, fine. I think the bigger commentary comes from other things. I’m really feeling it in both shoulders and elbows. I’m going to start taking some Advil before bed for maybe the next week or so and see how it goes. I generally don’t like doing that, but I think I’m beat-up enough I could use a little help. As well, I’ve been a side-sleeper for some years now. Don’t recall why I changed to side sleeping, but I did. I do believe it either is causing or certainly isn’t helping my shoulder situation. So working on trying to get back to sleeping on my back. Feels very strange. 🙂 But hopefully changes like this will help my shoulder situation out.

All in all, things are groovy.

  • Deadlift (Base Building model 1)
    • 185 x 5
    • 210 x 4
    • 250 x 3
    • 275 x 2
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
  • BB Rows
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
  • DB Shrugs (Meadows Style)
    • 80e x 10
    • 80e x 10
  • V-Bar Pulldowns
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 9
  • Hammer Curls
    • 30e x 8
    • 30e x 8
    • 30e x 8
  • BB Curls
    • 20 x 100

2015-09-22 training log

/ hsoi

Today was ok.

First day on the new approach, so a lot was guessing at numbers and seeing how it went. Adjustments will be made.

Already I’m losing some strength. The story of my bench press — if I’m not eating big, the bench suffers. Ah well.

I’m not ready to write it off yet, but I’m also not decided what to do about it:

  • Stop benching altogether. No.
  • Stay the course, see what happens.
  • Stay on model 1, reduce weight.
  • Stay on weight, but go to model 2.
  • Change to a more bodybuilding style (vs. Base Building)

I’m not sure what to do yet. In part it’s a desire to get more reps in, but still keep it somewhat on the heavier side. But as well, more reps, lighter weight, a little less abuse to my shoulder which isn’t getting better. So.. not sure, but I am thinking that lighter and more reps is going to beat me up less so….

Otherwise, everything went about as expected. Will adjust some weights next week.

One fun thing. Instead of hitting the machine flies, I opted to do cable crossovers. I’ve never done them before, but talk about an exercise so associated with chest work. But after doing them, I may not do them again — it was just too much awkward strain on my already hurting shoulder. I might try it at a different height — I did the traditional “pulley up high, cross down low”, because cables do put a different “stress curve” on things. But nothing at the expense of my shoulders. I’m not even sure traditional dumbbell flies would be good for me right now… so it may be a lower-angled machine fly, if anything. I’ll keep playing and seeing what works.

  • Bench Press (Base Building model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 115 x 5
    • 135 x 4
    • 155 x 3
    • 170 x 2
    • 195 x 1
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 7
    • 170 x 4
    • 170 x 4
  • Dips
    • BW x 9
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5
  • Incline DB Press (350 Method)
    • 40e x 17
    • 40e x 10
    • 40e x 10
  • Cable Crossovers
    • 30e x 12
    • 30e x 12
    • 40e x 10

2015-09-21 training log

/ hsoi

Feeling dejected, but hopeful.

I’ve been sitting at a bodyweight of 216 for a few weeks now. I should be down, not steady. The things we changed up didn’t seem to have effect, so we’re upping the ante. Pretty much no more fat in my life, and I’m now hitting the gym 4x/week instead of 3. The gym sessions will be more or less the same as I have been, just minor mods.

I am still following a Base Building philosophy. With 4 days it’ll be: squat, bench, deadlift, press. I’ll give the main work in a Base Building style, then the assistance work will try to inverse pyramid. That is, start with good assistance exercises that are more compound, heavier weight, fewer reps, then progress to more isolated stuff (tho not entirely — no concentration curls here) with lighter weight and more reps. The lighter stuff can go closer to failure, but no pushing past it (e.g. drop sets, rest-pause, etc.). Keeping rest times to about 60 seconds. And just try to move move move.

Thus today’s squat session wasn’t much different than last week, but I did change up a few things.

First, I am thinking if things keep up as they are, I’ll probably bump it to model 2 as the work sets here are already pretty easy. I’d rather try going to model 2 before I increase the weight. I’ll see how next week goes, then judge from there.

Leg presses continue to use a narrower, lower stance. To help with that pressing motion, instead of pushing through my heels I remembered a better tip: lift the big toe. That keeps things “flat” and oh that seemed to hit everything just right. I’m also upping the weight a little bit, wanting to keep the leg presses more on the heavier side. I do hope this will be effective in bringing up my quad strength as for sure that’s my weak point.

Then the lunges… oh dear lord. I hate lunges, but I do them because there’s no question they help my knee. If I keep doing them, over time it’s been a huge help. So I need to keep doing them. Today for variety I opted to do walking lunges instead of in-place stepping out and back lunges. Geez… that sucked. 🙂 I also work to keep good posture, no leaning forward, very upright. That helps the hurt. Yeah, I should keep these up.

Now, I had planned to throw in some light leg extensions at the end, again towards helping my knee. But I couldn’t. My quads were trashed after the lunges. So I did leg curls instead. First, I think that may be a better option overall. Second, what hurt more was my quads! The physical pressure of resting on my aching, pumped quads, the simple pressure against them… that hurt more than anything. 🙂

So, we’ll see how all this goes and where it takes me.

  • Squat (Base Building model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 140 x 5
    • 165 x 4
    • 195 x 3
    • 215 x 2
    • 240 x 1
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
  • Leg Press
    • 345 x 10
    • 345 x 10
    • 345 x 9
    • 345 x 6
  • Walking Lunges
    • BW x 12
    • BW x 12
    • BW x 10
    • BW x 8
  • Leg Curls
    • 40 x 12
    • 40 x 12
    • 40 x 8

Sunday Metal – Megadeth

/ hsoi

Been trying Apple Music (so far enjoying it). A playlist “Best of Thrash/Speed Metal” came up, and I thought it’d make for a good Sunday Metal series.

Megadeth – Peace Sells… (but who’s buying?)

 

NAA Guardian – second shots

/ hsoi

Last month I picked up an NAA Guardian .32 ACP, took it to the range, and had less than perfect results.

Here’s an update.

I got in touch with North American Arms. They couldn’t tell me much. The gun was manufactured in June 1998. According to their website, this model was introduced in 1997, so this – along with the “AA-prefix” serial number, and this is early production. They did say I could send it in to them to have them give it a look over, and I’m strongly considering doing that (read on).

Based on the performance from the first range trip, we figured the plethora of malfunctions was due to weak springs. Based on what I see, I bet these are original springs – all 17 years old, and well worn. On the NAA website you can order various parts, so I ordered a new set of recoil springs, as well as 4 new magazines. Interesting thing on the magazines is they now have an option for a grip extender, but for an early model like mine you have to replace the magazine release (apparently the downward pressure on the extender is too much for the original mag release button). My plan was to start with springs, then see how it goes.

The recoil spring is simple to replace. The new magazine release button is easy to replace as well, once you figure out the locking mechanism (just look at the new one, fiddle with it a couple times, and you’ll figure it out). I put two of the new magazines in storage, and put one extender on one new magazine, thus I could try one new mag with the extender and one new mag with a flat baseplate.

Got the gun cleaned up and oiled up again, and yesterday I got to shoot it again.

Plan

The plan was to run another 200 rounds through the gun, again of various ammo types/brands. NAA said “Any ammo should function just fine in our Guardians.”, and based on my prior experience I figured from here out just get what’s cheapest. That turned out to be a bunch of Fiocchi 73 grain FMJ from MidwayUSA. But I also ran a box of American Eagle 71 grain, 25 of those Hornady Custom XTP, and… 25 Buffalo Bore (Buffalo Barnes, actually).

Since one goal is to find self-defense ammo that will perform well in this caliber, all things I could find pointed to the Hornady XTP bullet being the best. There was a load from Fiocchi with the XTP that performed well in tests, but that doesn’t seem to be available any more. The only loads I could find in .32 ACP with the Hornady XTP were Horandy’s own, and then a Buffalo Bore. Now, Buffalo Bore is notorious for being hot loads, so I double checked with NAA Customer support: “Yes that includes Buffalo Bore.”. OK then. 🙂

I ordered 50 rounds of the Buffalo Bore, with the intention of shooting 25 to see how they did. Because the way I see it, they list this load as getting 943 fps out of a 2″ Seecamp and 1080 out of a Beretta Mod 70 with a 3″ barrel. Most .32 ACP loads, like say Hornady’s XTP load, all list performance out of a 4″ barrel (as is standard) and 1000 fps at that. So for sure, the Buffalo Bore is a hotter load. But what surprised me was that the BB wasn’t an XTP as I had found online, but I guess they (recently?) changed the load to now use a Barnes TAC-XP bullet! I am a HUGE fan of Barnes Bullets and I know they perform well, better than traditional bullets. So with their bullet performance, a little bit more velocity out of such a small barrel, I’m hopeful this could pan out to be the right load.

And the process? First just run through some ammo to see if things run or malfunction. But then, let’s do some tests, like Gila Hayes’ 5×5 drill, the TX CHL test, 3 Seconds or Less.

Results

She ran quite well.

For sure, the problem was springs. Out of 200 rounds I had 3 malfunctions, and 2 I’m going to chalk up to me. For sure I had 1 failure to feed malfunction that was exactly like the others. The other 2 were me shooting weak-hand and I am not 100% sure what I did but it was me because things felt odd. The gun is so small and feels so strange to begin with. Then you add in the grip extender and that feels even stranger because usually extenders let you get your pinky on the gun, but this lets you get your ring finger on the gun, and the extender lip is so long and how it comes out between your fingers just feels funny because it’s a new sensation. So when I put the gun in my weak hand and started shooting, it felt so awkward that I think I probably limp-wristed it and the gun failed. Once I got used to the sensation, weak-hand ran no problems.

The tests I chose I chose because I knew they would be easy enough to run without drawing (I forgot the pocket holster at home). All tests ran no problem. Accuracy went quite well too. For sure tho, you will want to compensate. I found a lot of shots going right, and the explanation is simple: 1 lb gun, 10 lb trigger pull, awkward gun fit (too small for larger hands) and so I’m certainly pulling the gun to the right — I could see it as I focused on the front sight that I was certainly pulling the gun right.  But once you know it, you can work with it.

Shot the 5×5 multiple times just fine (with time to spare). Ran the TX CHL on an IPSC target (and only counting the top-half of the A-Zone box), with no problems and time to spare. 3 Seconds or Less ran from quasi holster (I would hold the gun in my hand in position), and most of the drill ran fine – weak hand was a mess, as noted above.

The ammo? Again, the European ammo (the Fiocchi, just like the Herters) has noticeably more felt recoil (snappier). But what surprised me was the Buffalo Bore didn’t kick as much as I expected it too — the Fiocchi hurt more. But apart from felt recoil, all ammo seemed to run just fine. I will say tho… the Buffalo Bore has awesome muzzle flash:

For sure, this sort of gun demonstrates that small guns are “advanced” guns, certainly not beginner choices in any way. And if you are going to carry such a gun, you better practice with it as it has a whole set of issues unique to itself. You could probably switch from a M&P9 full-size to a Glock 17 without missing a beat, but going from one of those to this Guardian? It’s different enough you’ll want some specific practice.

Sentiments

At this point, I feel good about this gun. It needs some love and care, because I reckon it didn’t have much over the past 17 years. I am pretty sure I’ll send it to NAA to have them give it some love. I’d love to have every spring in the gun replaced, and have them address anything they can see.

One thing that I noticed while I was cleaning it was the screwed in the grips had backed out. I had put some blue Loctite on them, but apparently that wasn’t enough. The grips aren’t just cosmetic – they do help in holding mechanisms together. And the right-side screw feels maybe stripped? Not sure, as I didn’t have time to pull everything apart to see. So I want to have them address what they can here. My “here’s what to look at” letter that will go in the return box will be lengthy. 🙂

Once that all goes through? I would want to keep practicing with it. It’s certainly not a gun I’d always carry, but it handles and performs much better than I would have expected. It’s certainly the skill of the shooter too, but the gun itself works pretty well.

As for ammo, I would love to collect a wider sampling of ammo. Run all sorts over a chronograph to see what “real” velocities are. And then for any potential self-defense candidates, run them through some ballistics gel. But there’s time, money, etc.  But maybe I’ll see about hitting up MouseGunAddict. 🙂

Am I willing to carry this gun? Yes, but not yet. I think she still needs some love from a gunsmith. And I’d like to get a little more data on ammo.

But so far, it’s alright.

2015-09-18 training log

/ hsoi

Well, it was fun while it lasted. 🙂

I am NOT making progress on the fat loss. It’s actually really mystifying to me because after over a year of doing this I have a pretty good handle on my body rhythms and flow of how the weight fluxes happen, and I just haven’t been seeing that same pattern. It’s quite strange and I don’t know what to make of it.

And frankly, I’m annoyed. I was aiming to be maybe 210 by now but I’m not…. 216 still…. still… still. grr….

So yes, going to drop the food intake, and up the work. I have a new plan set up that I’ll start on Monday, so today ends the 3x/week Base Building. The plan is my own, but still trying to be in the mold of Base Building. That type of work, that sort of focus, but 4x/week. Monday bench/chest, Tuesday squat/legs, Thursday deadlift/back/biceps, Friday shoulders/triceps. We will see how long I can keep it up, because with the reduction in food and increase in work (and stress), recovery needs to be on-point. So… we’ll see.

That said tho, today went well. Every deadlift rep I worked that new approach I stumbled into for my setup, to help ease the knee issues. It worked quite well, especially the warmer I got. I shall keep working on that.

And the v-bar pulldowns. Man, I like. Never really done them, and the chins just didn’t happen… but here on pulldowns? I can have less weight, fuller range of motion, and really work the back… I felt muscles working and getting worked in ways I hadn’t before. It was quite cool.

Otherwise, a good day. And while I’m annoyed at my lack of progress, I’m looking forward to where things will go.

Base Building Traditional Split

  • Deadlift (model 1)
    • 185 x 5
    • 210 x 4
    • 250 x 3
    • 275 x 2
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
    • 290 x 3
  • Barbell Rows
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 8
    • 135 x 7
  • V-bar Pull-Downs
    • 100 x 10
    • 100 x 10
    • 100 x 10
    • 100 x 10
    • 100 x 8
  • BB Curls
    • 20 x 100

I’ll just leave this here

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Look, I understand that being a disappointed idealist can make you bitter. But could you stop with the hate?

You can justify it as much as you want, but things like this are hate and propaganda. And they’re making matters worse. This isn’t going to change anyone’s mind. All it’s doing is reconfirming the self-righteousness and anger of your side and inflaming the anger of those who believe differently than you — because IT IS an attack.

More than that, it’s reinforcing a narrative, NOT demonstrating actual history. But who cares? It gives us the jollies of hating our fellow American and feeling superior. Which is halfway to justifying doing horrible things to one another. 

I am terrified with the direction this country is going with our love of our self-righteous hatred of each other. We don’t have to do anything to get along with those rotten bastards. Because they are wrong, they have to suffer the abuse, scorn and hatred we heap upon them. All the will feeling so morally superior because OUR ideology is superior. Or WE were the victims so whatever we do now is justified. Our rage makes us morally superior!

Here’s something to consider. Historically, the reason fascism arises and takes over is because many small groups are so busy fighting each other that things come to a grinding halt. It’s not just corruption, but the fighting and the hatred among the self-righteous takes precedence over — not just getting things done — but even keeping things running.

Our infrastructure is NOT unsinkable. Again, history shows us that when the battle over who runs it becomes more important to the combatants than keeping it going, that’s when fascism (or any other extreme system) takes over. And they can do it on little more than making the trains run on time and giving people jobs. Why? Because the different groups were so busy going at each other tooth and claw that they interfered with people putting food on the table.

If things EVER get to that point in this country, you will see fascism take over. And — at first — people will cheer at brutal suppression of these haters, because it’s their fighting that nearly caused things to collapse.

Right now you think it’s fine to hate and hold your fellow countrymen in contempt and scorn. You think it’s fine and self-soothing to verbally, emotionally, legally and even physically attack them because they are inferior wretches who have caused all the problems.

Try looking in the mirror and see how your hatred, self-righteousness, rage, bitterness, extremism and — not just refusal to reach across the aisle — but pillorying anyone who tries is adding to the problem.

– Marc MacYoung

2015-09-16 training log

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Not a bad day…. but I don’t think these days are going to last.

Overall, today was fine. But what isn’t fine is the rate of my fat loss. It’s just not happening. After some discussions with Nick, we’re seeing how the rest of this week goes, and if there’s not sufficient reduction then we’re going to drop the food down a little more, and I need to pick it up in the gym — 4x week.

I’m totally down with that — I have to remember that, no matter what other goals I may have, the #1 goal right now is The Defattening Project. So all work must be chosen, selected, and done to support that goal.

That said then, I’m not sure what I will do. Will I keep on a Base Building-like approach? or will I adopt a more bodybuilding-like approach? I like the heavier, more reps, approach in Base Building… but it also lacks things like going to failure and other intensity techniques that are good for building (retaining) muscle, which is rather important. Plus with the reduction in food, better is to continue to up the workload, so that even means things like reducing rest, but Base Building supports that too. Plus there’s a level of work I get out of Base Building approaches that I just don’t get from more bodybuilding-like approaches.

So… I don’t know. I’m mulling things over. The bottom line: support Defattening.

Base Building Traditional Split

  • Bench Press (model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 115 x 5
    • 135 x 4
    • 155 x 3
    • 170 x 2
    • 195 x 1
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 8
    • 170 x 4
    • 170 x 3
  • Incline
    • 115 x 8
    • 115 x 8
    • 115 x 7
  • Side Laterals
    • 20e x 10
    • 20e x 10
    • 20e x 9
    • 20e x 6
  • Lying Triceps Extension (EZ-Bar)
    • 35 x 20
    • 35 x 18
    • 35 x 15
    • 35 x 12

Open Carry – Don’t be “That Guy”

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I was on the phone with a LEO friend of mine.

The topic? the forthcoming “open carry” of handguns in Texas.

The main concern we have is the extreme display of derp that’s going to happen on January 1, 2016 when the open carry law goes into effect.

Here’s the thing.

You HAVE to KNOW that EVERY news outlet across Texas (and beyond) are just salivating for January 1. Why? Because they are itching to be the first to break a story of someone open carrying and royally fucking up.

They want to parade it out and show how dangerous open carry is. How crazy gun owners are. To prove “they were right” all along.

And then yes, all the anti-gun groups are going to pounce. Given it’ll be a Presidential election year, they’ll try to make gun control a big political talking point, and if they work their money and media machine right, we could be in for one hell of a time. Don’t underestimate them.

All because someone couldn’t keep it in their pants…

As much as I hate to say it, given the way so many people are talking on Internet boards and comment threads, I’m expecting the derp to hit fairly soon after the law goes into effect. I just hope I’m proven wrong.

Here’s the thing people.

If you really want to open carry, you need to set and live to a high example. You are going to be scrutinized HEAVILY — both by the anti’s and even “our side”. The anti’s want more fuel for their fire. And folks on our side do not want you to ruin everything for the rest of us.

You need to use a good retention holster (like a Safariland ALS). You need a good and proper gun belt. Dress nice. Look professional. Act professional. Carry yourself like you have your shit together.

Even better? Actually HAVE your shit together. Get some proper training on gun retention. Learn about awareness and alertness, and put it into practice. Live up to a high standard, because EVERYONE is going to expect it of you, so expect even better of yourself.

When you got your handgun license you hopefully understood that you were taking on a big responsibility. The fact the gun now can be out from under your shirt doesn’t diminish that responsibility; in fact, it increases it. You chose to carry a gun because you realized your life and safety was precious and important; that doesn’t change on January 1. You understand Farnam’s Law: “Don’t go to stupid places; don’t associate with stupid people; don’t do stupid things. We will add to that, be in bed by 10 o’clock.”  From that you know you shouldn’t do stupid things – that doesn’t change January 1.

Make your decisions upon sound reasoning. “Because I can” is not often the best reason to do something. Remember why you actually carry a gun, and carry yourself in that manner.

I’m not going to tell you to not open carry. But I am going to ask you to not be “That Guy”.

2015-09-14 training log

/ hsoi

A little change-up, but I think it’ll be good.

So squatting itself went fine. In fact, I was feeling good so I worked up to my EDM; still keeping 1 minute of rest between all sets. It was a wee bit slow at the sticking point (about 2/3 way up), but not too bad. It did a couple things: 1. it gave me a good measure of things so next time I try the EDM if it goes up faster then I’ve gotten stronger; 2. it reinforced the need to really push the work sets with C.A.T., especially as I transition through the sticking point. So it was productive, I think.

The work sets tho feel easy. I am hitting the same bar speed and such on that 5th rep of the 5th set. I’m not sure what I’ll do here… I may keep at it another week or two then switch up to model 2, instead of upping the weights. We’ll see how it goes.

Then I tried to change up a few things. I can feel my knee not being happy, so I want to continue to work on strengthening it. As much as I hate the unilateral work, I do believe it has really helped in the past, so I want to stick with it. But one interesting thing is that the other day I was just stretching in my chair and basically did a leg extension. The way things felt lead me to wonder if doing some light, higher-rep leg extensions might be good for me. So I’m going to adjust things slightly to put those in and see how it goes.

I also did split squats today instead of lunges, just for variety. IMHO either split squats or lunges, whichever… just do one of them, whatever keeps me from hating the work too much. 🙂

Another change up was my foot positioning on the leg press. Now when I started doing leg presses again some long time ago I was keeping a “stance” that was trying to replicate my squat stance as much as the press machine would allow. Then some months ago I was reading about going narrower as a better way to target the quads. But tho I did that, I didn’t feel I was getting the work. This past weekend I was reading something that made me think about trying to go a little more narrow and positioning my feet a little lower as well. So I did that. Feet were a few inches closer together, plus I moved them down a couple inches. No impact to range of motion, feet were still fully in contact with the plate. I also made an effort to push through my heels. It’s really easy in that position to have the direction of force basically go through the balls of the feet, but that’s not how it should be. Granted it shouldn’t be all through the heels, but rather evenly spread, just like the bar was over the middle of the foot (in a squat). Still, if I think to press through my heels, that ensures a “whole foot” engagement in the pressing motion, not just the balls of my feet. And so the result? Man, I really felt it in my quads, more than I ever have. That little bit more in, that little bit further down, ensuring a good full-foot press… oh yeah. So that was better than upping the weight for sure. 🙂

Anyways, all generally good.

But what isn’t good? I don’t know what gives with my weight loss. It’s not progressing at the rate it should be. Nick @ RP and I are going to watch things this week. If the rate doesn’t pick up properly then we’re going to drop intake yet again (yes, so soon after the last drop) and I’m also going to up the gym sessions to 4x week. I’m going to stick with Base Building tho, just some minor rearranging of the work. We’ll see how this week goes.

Base Building Traditional Split

  • Squat (model 1)
    • bar x 5
    • bar x 5
    • 140 x 5
    • 165 x 4
    • 195 x 3
    • 215 x 2
    • 240 x 1
    • 285 x 1
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 170 x 5
  • Leg Press
    • 315 x 10
    • 315 x 10
    • 315 x 10
    • 315 x 10
  • Split Squats
    • BW x 10e
    • BW x 10e
    • BW x 10e
    • BW x 10e
  • Leg Extensions
    • 40 x 10
    • 40 x 10
    • 40 x 10