2015-08-14 training log

/ hsoi

Nothing much to report, really. Just felt really solid.

The deadlifts went up fast and easy. All good.

I will say, on a whim I changed and instead of chin-ups opted to do pull-ups. Well, I wanted to… been wanting to for some time to see how I fare. The trouble tends to be grip width then in relation to not causing shoulder problems, so while I sat for a moment to figure it out I just stopped thinking about it and grabbed the neutral-grip handles and went (less thinkie, more do-ie). Felt just fine on my arms/elbows/shoulders. In fact, I found I could actually go to a dead-hang, which I can’t do without shoulder problems in chin-ups (supinated grip). But then, in that dead-hang, yeah… because I can’t work that portion well, it’s obvious I haven’t — it was tough for me to get from dead-hang to even start. 🙂 But that’s good… tells me where I’m weak and need to improve. So, I’m going to go back to chin-ups for the rest of this cycle, but after I’m done with this Strong-15 Short Cycle and switch to whatever I do after it (probably 4-6 weeks of Base Building), I’ll go with the neutral-grip pull-ups and work on improving there.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

  • Deadlift (goal: 405)
    • 160 x 5
    • 200 x 4
    • 245 x 3
    • 285 x 2
    • 315 x 1
    • 335 x 1
    • 345 x 1
    • 285 x 3 (backoff)
    • 285 x 3 (backoff)
    • 285 x 3 (backoff)
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlift
    • 255 x 8
  • BB Shrugs
    • 255 x 10
    • 185 x 20
  • Neutral-grip pullups
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 3
    • BW x 1
  • BB Curls
    • 60 x 10
    • 60 x 9

Sooner, not faster

/ hsoi

I love it when I can refine and improve, especially when it enables me to become a better teacher since that enables others to refine and improve. Such a joyous cycle of betterment. 🙂

I often talk about how to “go faster without going faster“. It’s built upon concepts like performing simultaneous actions, being able to “change gears”, efficiency and economy of motion, and so on.

John Mosby (h/t Greg Ellifritz) makes a great refinement on the point of “going faster”:

The purpose of the snap drill is genuinely not about shooting “faster.” In the real world, shooting faster actually tends to have rather deleterious effects, like shooting the wrong fucking person, because you shot before you recognized that it was your 12-year old, and NOT a MS13 gunslinger.

Our goal is to shoot “sooner.” What’s the difference? Shooting sooner is about working the problem correctly, and only making legitimate shots, as soon as possible. That requires more than a fast target acquisition and a quick trigger finger though. It involves knowing and understanding what the parameters are that allow for a legitimate shot, in your circumstances, and then—and ONLY THEN—breaking a FAST, ACCURATE shot. Being able to recognize what is “precise enough,” and then delivering it “fast enough,” wil allow you to shoot sooner, AFTER the decision-making process has allowed you to positively identify your target as a legitimate target.

The time metric just forces you to accept “accurate enough,” instead of pushing for “precision.”

That’s an excellent distinction.

Granted, sometimes discussion has to be about “faster”, but “sooner” is a related concept with overlapping but also unique qualities.

Well-worth understanding the difference, and when each should be called for.

2015-08-12 training log

/ hsoi

I don’t know what to make of it.

The singles feel heavy and unstable. But the reps? Just keep crankin’.

I think it’s a question of set-up. I feel pretty good with deadlift setup, just have to remember to do it. Squat setup is getting better and better. But bench setup… every time I think I’ve got it, something demonstrates that I don’t. I do think I’m getting better about planting my feet in a good position for me (not too far in, too far out, too close together, too far apart, that gives me solid footing and ability to get leg drive AND keep my butt on the bench). Good grip, etc. But well… I just have to think more about whole-body tightness I guess. I dunno. Just going to keep “studying” it and trying to figure it out — all I can do.

I will say I am also working to have a slight pause at the bottom, at least on the work sets. The AMRAP is certainly touch-and-go. Who knows, maybe that’s it, because I’m not used to that. It might also be figuring out my descent… the speed there.

Ah, there’s always something. I know what’s going through my head, it’s just hard to put into words. 🙂

That said, it was kinda cool to have a slightly heavier workup here (it’s only week 2 of the cycle), and then more weight for the AMRAP set than last week, but then hit more reps this week than last week. That was cool. And then on the inclines to hit the same as I did last week too. Plus whereas dips felt totally out of whack for me last week, this week it was alright — it didn’t feel foreign to me. So I’ll just chalk up last week to one-off weirdness.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

  • Bench (goal: 265)
    • bar x 5 x 2
    • 135 x 5
    • 155 x 4
    • 180 x 3
    • 200 x 2
    • 205 x 1
    • 220 x 1
    • 225 x 1
    • 170 x 16 (AMRAP)
  • Incline Press
    • 105 x 15
    • 105 x 12
  • Dips
    • BW x 8
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 4
    • BW x 4
    • BW x 4

Data regarding U.S. concealed carry permit holders

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

John Lott, Jr., John Whitley, and Rebekah Riley just published a paper examining Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States.

The abstract contains relevant statistics:

Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year [2015]. Among the findings in our report:
— The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits.
— 5.2% of the total adult population has a permit.
— Five states now have more than 10% of their adult population with concealed handgun permits.
— In ten states, a permit is no longer required to carry in all or virtually all of the state. This is a major reason why legal carrying handguns is growing so much faster than the number of permits.
— Since 2007, permits for women has increased by 270% and for men by 156%.
— Some evidence suggests that permit holding by minorities is increasing more than twice as fast as for whites.
— Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.2 (preliminary estimates) per 100,000. This represents a 25% drop in the murder rate at the same time that the percentage of the adult population with permits soared by 156%. Overall violent crime also fell by 25 percent over that period of time.
— States with the largest increase in permits have seen the largest relative drops in murder rates.
— Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors or felonies at one-sixth the rate that police officers are convicted.

One thing to note is the number of carriers is likely higher, because with no permit required to carry in 1/5 of our states, there’s no means of tracking and collecting such data. In a weird way, it’s one reason I like the permitting process, because data like this is useful.

Other things that jump out at me:

The largest growth is with “minorities”, that is, racial minorities and women. Just a few days ago I touched on the rapid growth of gun ownership and concealed carry amongst blacks in the US. Those who wish to see improvements in civil rights and equality for minorities must understand the vital role gun ownership has always played in that movement.

Permits go up, murder (and violent crime) rates go down. States with the largest increase in permits also see the largest drop in murder rates. I’m not saying correlation equals causation, but it’s sure something to think about.

As a permit holder in Texas, I’ve known that we permit holders are generally more law-abiding than the un-permitted citizenry. Since 1996, the Texas Department of Public Safety (who oversees the Texas Concealed Handgun Licensing process) has released reports of the number of CHL holders with convictions versus the entire Texas population with convictions. CHL holders are quite law-abiding. Which should be no surprise given the great lengths we have to go through to obtain and maintain not just a gun but the CHL itself.

But all this data probably doesn’t matter. These days data, logic, and reason aren’t as important as someone’s feelings.

Unconventional practice

/ hsoi

What do you do when you practice?

Do you practice the good stuff? The easy stuff?

You may be wiser and realize the best thing to practice is the stuff you suck at; to address your weaknesses because that’s the only way to convert them into strengths.

But how much time do you put into the unconventional?

This hit me the other day.

I’ve been fairly regular with my dry fire practice, but my dry practice has been “conventional”. I practice Wall Drills. I practice the press-out. I practice drawing from my concealment holster. I practice reloads and malfunctions. I practice two-hands, strong-hand-only (SHO), and weak-hand-only (WHO). I do all the conventional stuff, especially what I suck at (WHO).

But then the other day I realized I haven’t been practicing the unconventional. I realized this because I found myself in an unconventional situation (nothing bad, but just enough of a situation to make light the bulb above my head).

For example, my concealment draw typically involves my left hand reaching around to my right side, yanking up my shirt, then my right hand goes to draw.

But what if I don’t have my left hand?

What if I have to use only my right hand to make everything go?

Or… what if I only have my left hand to make everything go?

Unconventional.

Now, this isn’t to say we need to make addressing the unconventional a staple of our practice. However, it’s worthwhile to consider and work on these things every so often, at least so that the first time you have to do it isn’t when you need it.

2015-08-10 training log

/ hsoi

Stay tight. Go down. Come up.

That’s what I had to tell myself today. Repeatedly.

The squats are getting harder, but not really. Physically it’s still under what I can do, but the weights are technically heavier and call for tighter adherence to form and technique. My brain is distracted by work, so I had to really clear my mind and focus on one thing: squatting.

“Stay tight. Go down. Come up.”

Too many things going through my head, and on the double I found myself wobbling — just simple balance problems, keeping the bar path stable. So I stopped thinking about work, and thought only about the squat; and then, only about the next set/rep.

Stay tight. Go down. Come up.

And that’s all I thought about.

I’ve played around with my descent speed. Sometimes it’s nice to dive bomb because there’s a lot of momentum coming up, but that technique really doesn’t work for me because I lose all tightness then have to suddenly achieve it at the bottom. Nope. But I also can’t go too slow on the descent. I’m telling myself to go as fast as I can that still allows me to retain tightness, so it’s really not that fast, but it’s certainly not super-slow. Tightness… it’s magical when you utilize it fully (and I still need to work on that technique).

Still, all in all a good day. I realize how much I actually like pause squats. Don’t ask me why, but I find myself looking foward to them.

Oh and leg curls. When I do them I tend to keep my ankles locked, so the calves are all tensed up. Why I do this? I don’t know. But I’m trying to stop doing it, because when the feet (and calves) are loose, it’s harder (so that might be why I do it…). I end up feeling it a LOT more in my hamstrings. So I’m going to lower weight and really try to keep the feet (and calves) loose and see where that gets me.

It’s fun being on a cycle again like this. It sure beats going in, doing the same weights/sets/reps as last week, hoping I can break a rep PR but failing because diet isn’t supporting it.

Speaking of diet, weighed in at 220 yesterday. So the downward trend is happening, but I don’t really think much of it until I’m at least about 10 lb. down because then I know there’s some actual tissue loss and not just water/bloat.

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

  • Squat (goal: 315)
    • bar x 5 x 2
    • 155 x 5
    • 185 x 4
    • 215 x 3
    • 235 x 2
    • 245 x 1
    • 260 x 1
    • 270 x 1
  • Pause Squat
    • 205 x 3
    • 205 x 3
  • Leg Press
    • 315 x 20
    • 315 x 20
  • Leg Curls
    • 50 x 15
    • 50 x 12
    • 50 x 9
  • Calf Raises
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 10
    • 90 x 10

The changing face of gun ownership

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Did you know African-American support for gun ownership and carrying firearms for self-defense is at an all-time high?

Members of Larry Cook’s church in Minnesota, an all-black congregation, carry guns and provide protection to the pastor and church members. They’ve had threats, and Charleston provides a reminder.

Detroit’s Chief of Police, James Craig (who is black) tells NPR:

Police chiefs usually don’t like the idea of citizens carrying concealed guns for self-defense, but Craig says he had to be realistic about the situation in his hometown.

“It was a well-known fact here in Detroit,” he says. “People didn’t have a lot of confidence that when they dialed 911, that the police were going to show up. In fact, we know they didn’t.”

So he endorsed a trend that was already well under way — the trend toward more people carrying legal guns.

The same NPR article reports:

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That’s up from 29 percent just two years ago. In places like Detroit, more African-Americans are getting permits to carry concealed weapons.

And again, more pastors are encouraging carrying in vulnerable places like churches:

Detroiters are even taking their guns to church. When Rosedale Park Baptist had trouble with drug dealers and car thefts, Pastor Haman Cross Jr. told his congregants from the pulpit that they should consider getting concealed-carry permits.

“I love the Lord; I’m a Christian,” he says. “But like I told the congregation, let’s send a message right in front. I want the word out in the community, if you steal any of our cars, I’m coming after you.”

At another black church, Greater St. Matthew Baptist, Pastor David Bullock points out the pews that where his armed congregants usually sit.

“The chairman of my deacon board, he carries,” Bullock says. “And then on the west side, there’s a middle-aged woman who also carries.”

Self-defense is a basic human right.

2015-08-07 training log

/ hsoi

I miss deadlifting. 🙂

It’s either been no deadlifting, or some variant like stiff-legs or sumo or deficits. It’s been ages since I truly did conventional deadlifts. And it feels good.

Today was very light, as to be expected from week 1 of the cycle. In fact, shrugs were silly…. 135 was so light, I got to 30 and just stopped because it was ridiculous. 🙂

But otherwise, just felt good. Kept a double overhand grip the whole time; I won’t go mixed until I need to. Worked on being explosive and really getting my hips to push-/follow-through at the end.

Feels good.

For my notes, BB curls are with a straight bar and a wide grip. Not excessively wide, but basically if I hold my arms (with no bar) down at my sides with my hands fully supinated, where do they rest, that width apart… grab the bar there. Before I was doing EZ-bar curls with my hands on the “inner” camber, so I figured for a few weeks let’s go straight bar and wider, giving more supination.

And in weight-news, yesterday weighed in at 221 (down 2 since Sunday). Too early to really tell, but so far that’s the preferred trend. 🙂

Strong-15 Short Cycle, from LRB365

  • Deadlift (goal: 405)
    • 160 x 5
    • 200 x 4
    • 245 x 3
    • 285 x 2
    • 305 x 1
    • 315 x 1
    • 335 x 1
    • 245 x 3 (backoff)
    • 245 x 3 (backoff)
    • 245 x 3 (backoff)
  • Stiff-Legged Deadlift
    • 255 x 9
  • BB Shrugs
    • 255 x 7
    • 135 x 30 (stopped, got silly)
  • Chin-ups
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 5
    • BW x 3
  • BB Curls
    • 60 x 10
    • 60 x 8

Open Carry and Handgun Retention

/ hsoi

Leslie Buck of Tactical Arts Academy writes a good primer on the open carry of handguns and the importance of being able to retain your gun.

The article covers both issues such as holster selection (more votes for the Safariland ALS system), and actual in-hand retention issues.

Well worth the read.