100 rep work – Front plate raise, Rope Triceps Pressdowns, Hammer Curls
I felt really going going into this session. I’m working on my technique for getting set up, unracking, and hitting the first rep. It’s that weird thing for me about breath and getting light-headed when I press. I’m finding a routine that works, it’s just a matter of refining and keeping it going.
I felt like I could have cranked out more reps on the last set, but I’m trying to stick to just prescribed reps this cycle to see how things go. I think that set me up for the rest of the session tho, to be pretty good. I’m enjoying the 100 rep work, tho I think it’s a little much for the lat pulldown — my arms fatigue before my back, so I might try dropping down to maybe 50 reps, or 2 sets of 50 or something. Nevertheless, the rep work really is uesful because I find myself engaging my back muscles more than my arm muscles and if that’s helping with technique and growth, fine. So far, I dig it.
That all said…..
I did some thinking regarding my longer term goals. Yes, I still am striving to total 1000. I’m close, but I’m also feeling really beat up. My shoulder is hurting, my knee is hurting, and in a way that tells me I might be in for some major setbacks if I don’t take care of things. I’ve been reading more and more stuff about how the high-intensity low-rep work is truly great for strength, but does beat you up. That more and more guys — especially older guys — are finding greater success in higher-rep work, be it just never going below 5 for strength-oriented work, or things like the 100-rep work to help with some size and recovery.
I’ve also been putting some fat back on, because I’ve been eating like a horse to help with the strength work, and I don’t like it. Longer term goal was to hit 1000#, then scale back for some months to lose fat. It would likely involve not just a major dietary change, but also keeping with a 5/3/1 program but immediately resetting, striving for more reps and structuring the exercises for “more work” (e.g. assistance squats at a “light” weight with only 60 seconds rest during the 5×10). Kinda get a little more bodybuilding in my approach. The goal would be to maintain mass and strength as best I could, while dropping fat — fat loss would be primary goal, and just structuring to maximize that and minimize loss elsewhere.
But you know…. I feel how beat up I am. I know that a reset is inevitable here sooner or later. And I’m just wondering if maybe “now” might be time for the detour. I will not give up on my quest to total 1000#, but I just wonder if I might need to take a little longer to get there… if I need to make a detour for the longer-term health and ability to achieve that goal.
Is it recovery? Is this pushing me? Am I nearing a need for a reset? I don’t know.
I did the prescribed reps and felt good about it. I certainly had some left in the tank. I also felt because I put everything into just hitting the prescribed reps that I did it better (form, technique, etc.). I was reading something the other day about someone that did 5-3-1 for a long time then switched to Cube Method. What stood out in his comments were feeling really beat up from going “all out” on that last set, that it really taxes you over time, and if he did things again he’d just hit prescribed reps. When I think about variations on 5-3-1 (even by Jim himself), about other things I read from other elite powerlifters, and just feeling my own response — especially since I’m not 16-25 years old any more, that well… maybe I should just fall back to prescribed reps. I did this for a while and I didn’t feel hampered by it.
If I did it, it’d be like on 5 week, 5-6 reps striving for 5 (6 if I really felt awesome about it). On 3 week, 3-4 (striving for 3). On 5-3-1 week, 1-3 reps, striving for 3. Yeah, still try to push it, but keep it regulated. Conversely, I also wondered about doing more of a 3-5-1 approach (the powerlifting approach) and letting myself push it a bit on the 3 and 1 weeks, but take it easy on the 5 (and deload) weeks. I’ve been thinking about that for some months now, and while I can’t really switch now, maybe next cycle. And meantime, maybe just stick with prescribed for now. Or to put it another way, don’t really sweat PR’ing on any week but the 5-3-1 week, y’know? Yeah, maybe I’m paying a lot of attention to Cube right now.
Anyways…. today did suck a lot out of me. I went up for that 4th set of assistance deadlifts, grabbed the bar, then stopped. I just felt out of gas. But I stepped back, collected myself, and proceeded to bang it out, and the 5th set too. It was mental, not physical, that was in my way (tho I was honestly feeling physically drained… but I could tell I wasn’t out of gas yet).
We’ll keep on keepin’ on. Got the long weekend ahead. I’m sure I’ll be thinking.
Sometime during my warmups my left shoulder felt funny, like bad funny. Nerve? I felt weak all up and down my left arm, and things just didn’t feel right. I still managed to hit 7 reps @ 205, but it just didn’t feel right. Plus I think because of that I compensated by moving in a different plane and angles. It was rather evident when I did the inclines, so I stopped short on everything else this week because I didn’t want to risk any problems.
Haven’t done incline anything since I started lifting again a couple years ago. I had no idea what angle, what weight to use… so I put it at a 45 degree angle and tried 40’s. That wasn’t too bad, tho it’s kind awkward getting the weight into position (probably worse due to the shoulder issue). 40’s weren’t bad, I think I’ll go 45 and that’ll probably be enough for a while. Since I haven’t done inclines I need to find my right groove and do things like ensure I don’t flare my elbows, which was all to easy to want to do.
Apart from the shoulder tho (which feels much better as I write this), it felt good. I’m getting a better groove with foot placement, tuck/arch, and technique. So here’s hoping this cycle progresses well.
Chuck Rives is an Affiliate Instructor, for Mike Janich’s Martial Blade Concepts. Chuck has been a martial artist for about 30 years. Chuck lives in Amarillo, Texas and is an Emergency Manager for a Federal Government Agency. Chuck teaches knife, and defensive tactics regularly to peace officers and corrections officers.
So, Chuck knows his stuff. Chuck’s been coming to KR Training for a while to host shorter classes, and I’ve wanted to check out his classes for some time but just haven’t been able to for one reason or another. But this class I didn’t want to miss because 1. it was a full day, 2. it was also going to have Allen Elishewitz. Alas, Allen was unable to make the class, but that really didn’t detract much because Chuck ran a great class with much to teach. You may know who Michael Janich is, as he’s been a part of the TV show The Best Defense for some time now. While I’m not a huge fan of a lot of the “training” TV shows out there, I am a fan of Michael’s and what he teaches is solid. What Chuck teaches isn’t pure MBC curriculum, Chuck is an Affiliate Instructor of MBC and is highly recommended by Janich.
The knife work is founded in Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) style and concepts. Consequently, it’s logical, simple, and effective. What Chuck has put together for this 1-day workshop provides a basic foundation of simple concepts and techniques that almost anyone can use to defend themselves with a knife.
The workshop started out with a discussion of self-defense, what defensive knife work is (this isn’t dueling, it’s not Westside Story). Some talk about knives themselves in terms of construction and blades. Then a live demonstration of various knives via “Pork Man”. Watch this video:
That’s Michael Janich, and the first 3 minutes or so give his background, followed by some useful footage of actual knife attacks (close, swift, aggressive, brutal), and finally the “Pork Man” demo. What you can see is that knife attacks can be ugly, even with small/short blades. One thing that Chuck’s demo showed that the YouTube video doesn’t, is how blade shape/construction matters. Chuck had a knife that looks evil and threatening — it’s big, black, looks “tactical” and “scary”. But actual cutting ability? It was pretty poor due to blade and edge shape. Then some smaller, less threatening looking knives did far worse damage, but again it was due to superior shape and edge. There’s a lot one can glean from such a demonstration.
After Pork Man, we had discussions of targeting, stance, deployment, grip, and then angles of attack. Again, if you’re familiar with FMA, these angles of attack are familiar. I won’t give away all that Chuck teaches — you’ll do better to learn from the teacher. But if you’re a student of Kali or Arnis or Escrima, you probably already know what’s going on here. Basic blocks and attacks, all based upon the same/similar concepts. At first, it seems like you’re learning a lot, then you realize as the day goes on that you’re learning the same thing and it doesn’t seem like much, and that’s the great thing about it — it’s simple, it’s less to learn, but yet it’s effective regardless. This means when the flag flies you have less of inventory to hunt through for a response, which means a faster response. Good thing.
What Chuck taught was simple and effective, but there’s no question you cannot just take the class then forget about it. You are going to need to practice these things to get them smooth and reflexive. When practicing these, I found myself a few times with brain fade and reverting to techniques I already knew from past martial arts experience. What was soberingly evident? Chuck’s techniques strive to get you on the outside of your attacker, which is generally a safer place to be, especially when a knife is involved. So much of what I learned in the past? Works to get you inside your attacker and keep you there. Really, there’s no one right place because inside and outside can have advantages and disadvantages, reasons to want to be there and reasons to not want to be there. It was just an interesting contrast to have Chuck’s material presented, which focused on getting outside, and finding myself at times reverting to old habits which want to keep me inside.
Was there anything bad about the day? Well, it was hot, sunny, windy, which really took a lot out of you. In the later afternoon we probably should have taken it back inside, cleared the room, and continued working in there. But Chuck was good about taking breaks, cooling off, getting water. It’s good when instructors aren’t just attentive to material, but also these other realities and necessities of teaching. I do wish there was more way to apply the techniques, like some FoF scenarios. But I’m not sure logically how that could be worked out. I know in past martial arts study we’ve done things like get a red magic marker and white t-shirts, so it doesn’t hurt too much but it also shows the damage done. But that’s also probably too much material for one day (2 day course? Maybe a “Level 2” workshop that starts with a review of this material, adds a few more things, then spends the afternoon in FoF?).
One thing I kept thinking about was my past defensive folding knife training with Insights Training. I thought Insights’ work and Chuck’s work went well together. It’s cool when you have different people with different backgrounds and different courses that wind up in essentially the same place. I don’t think one replaces the other, but they do complement. For example, both came down on about the same side of knife selection (Chuck with a Spyderco Endura, Insights with Spyderco Delica). I still like Insights’ approach of two knives, one in each pocket. I thought Insights did more to cover drawing and getting the knife into play, and discussion of that importance. But it’s interesting how Insights tended to focus more on being in the fight then getting your knife; Chuck spoke a lot about how you can get the knife ready before the fight is on. Insights seemed to have a bit of “gun as your primary” tendency, whereas Chuck acknowledged the knife may have to be your primary and how to treat it in the face of that or NPE’s. Insights focused on a few simple but different techniques. Chuck focused on a few simple but similar techniques. However, application was different. For example, Chuck addressed distance, getting outside, and getting away. Insights had a solution for the clinch and being caught in close. Both focused on targeting to disable your attacker so you can get the fight to stop and/or escape. Insights had a stance where your knife-side was back (thus your “empty hand” was forward). Chuck put your knife forward, so your empty hand wasn’t just a target. On this last point, I think Chuck’s position is more sound, either when attacking with or defending against a knife (so long as you have one too); but that’s going to be very hard for gun folk to learn since so much gun technique is about keeping your gun side away from the attacker. Anyways, I don’t think either group has a monopoly on knowledge and technique. Both present sound solutions, and I think they do far more to complement and augment each other.
Not only did I pick up on direct course material, but I took home some other things. First, I still feel good about choice of Spyderco Delica. They are fast to deploy, solid, and you just don’t have the fumble factor that other folders suffer from (e.g. due to pins; the big hole really helps with thumb deployment). They have good design, and aren’t too expensive such that if you have to lose or ditch the knife, life goes on. Still, a folder isn’t as good as a fixed-blade, and Chuck had a technique that was so simple towards carrying and deploying a folder that I’m going to experiment with it for my own carry. I also picked up on some things for my own teaching (“Tony Chin”). I liked Chuck’s style: very personable and friendly, very passionate about this material, and you can tell he really wants to take the time and care to ensure people learn and grow.
If you care about personal defense, you should care about the knife. If you choose to carry one, you ought to know how to use it. To know how to cut veggies in the kitchen is one thing, but to know how to defend yourself with it is another. But even if you don’t carry one, you’d do well to get some training in how to defend yourself against a knife. Yes, a gun can be an effective defensive tool, but you first need to get your gun out. Being able to perform a few simple movements (again, the FMA-based techniques can work for you if you have a knife in your hand, a club in your hand, or empty hands) to stave the initial attack, get to the outside, and buy you the time to get your gun out… well, there’s much to be said for such knowledge and ability.
I look forward to training with Chuck again.
On one final note, I’d like to give some love to my friend, Shawn Hatcher of Hatcher Knives. Shawn came out and was my training partner for the day. He was kind enough to fashion a trainer version of the REHÂ out of some G10. We spent the afternoon beating each other up, overthinking together, and having a grand time. I must say, Chuck’s techniques are more directly suited for a forward-type grip, so I did use my Delica Trainers for much of the class. But I did use the REH trainer when I could to see how it would convey. Because the REH is designed with a reverse edge and also to typically be held in a reverse-grip, I found myself thinking WAY too much about technique application. But on the same token, most of Chuck’s techniques became even more ugly due to the hooking motion. Yes, some techniques wound up just striking the blunt back-edge of the REH, but as you followed through with the technique… yeah, fun stuff. Shawn took the REH home with him — going to add some “version 1.2” refinements. The joys of custom knives! Shawn’s really evolving as a knife-maker, and if you’re in the market, you should give him a try.
Since I’m doing the same weights as last cycle, the intent is to get rep PR’s this cycle. On paper, I’m not off to a good start because I got 6 @ 265 last cycle. But this was an intentional choice. Yesterday I attended a workshop that had us outside in 90Âş+ heat, windy, and lots of physical activity. And it wasn’t just moving around, but a lot of hitting each other with fists, shoulders, and training implements. So my right side, especially my quads and adductors, are bruised and beaten. Plus, I’m just a little drained from yesterday. I actually didn’t want to go to the gym, and just wasn’t feeling it, so I told myself to get prescribed reps and call it good. When I got under the bar for the last work set, I actually was very fired up and wanted to keep going but I reminded myself to stick with the plan. It’s more important I build up to get that rep PR on the 5/3/1 week, not this week. Let myself recover.
And I must admit, I wanted to save a little for the pause squats, since I didn’t know what that would hold for me. I’m following Paul Carter’s suggestions, which essentially takes the first work-set weight and does it for 5 reps on 5 week, 5 on 3 week, and 3 on 5/3/1 week. How long did I pause? About 2-3 seconds. I didn’t really measure, but I made sure I got down and it was very evident there was a pause. And it’s here I learned a few things.
I’ve been focusing a lot on upper back tightness. It was evident I was NOT tight because I’d keep cuing myself and tightening back up –which shows how tight I was not! I worked on this throughout the squats, but something hit me during paused squats because there it was holding the tightness throughout the movement and really driving the head back into the bar when coming out of the hole.
It was about arm spacing.
I’ve tried to bring my hands in closer, but my elbows don’t like it. So I’m a little further out, it’s comfortable, but I realized that in fact is what’s keeping me from getting tight. No, I don’t think tightness should come from squishing your hands as close to your ears as possible, because that’s not necessarily tight; that’s just squished. Instead, I realized that when I get my lats tight, my traps tight, and everything tight, there’s just a natural place my hands fall. It’s about… oh… 1-2 fingers inside the rings (for me). Something about there. And when my hands are in that position, yes it bugs my elbows a bit, but boy I can sure keep everything tight. Pushing my hands wider, I just cannot be tight due to the mechanics of things.
I didn’t realize this until the last couple sets of the pause squats, but yeah… light bulb. 🙂
Ab work… standing pulldown abs kills my elbows even more. So I went back to kneeling, but it just doesn’t stress my abs as much as the standing ones. I think I’ll just alternate depending how my elbows feel. Who knows, might even combine it some time to get the most for my abs and the least for my elbows.
100 rep work – Lat Pulldowns, Front plate raise, Rope Triceps Pressdowns, Hammer Curls
All I can say is, deload week is done. Next cycle is going to be interesting because yeah… sticking with the same weights, need to get rep PR’s… else, a reset is in the cards.
There are those who look upon Wife differently because she chose to marry a “not-white”. Some look down on her because she married “outside her race”. Some look up to her because she married “outside her race”. Regardless of which way they look at her, they look at her differently because of her choice… or rather, their perception of her choice, because they see her skin color/ethnicity/race vs. mine, see our colors don’t quite match, and thus different regard.
Either way, it’s discriminatory behavior.
It’s curious I don’t receive the same regard. I mean, I did the same thing: married someone “outside my race”. I’ve had people publicly praise Wife for her action, and when I point out I did the same thing, I watch their brain lock up and reboot because they never considered the reciprocal. Is it because I’m male? Is it because she’s “white”? Is it because racial issues (supposedly) only flow in one direction?
That’s more discriminatory behavior.
Even more curious is when people look at me, they only see the half of me that’s Asian. They don’t see that white girl married a white boy, they see white girl married “something else”. Note you can only consider me “something else” if you look at me. My name is rather “white”. My voice is rather “white”. My attitudes tend to be rather “white”. For most people, the only indication I’m “not-white” is the slight squint in my eyes, the slightly darker skin tone, and some other physical features. And somehow in the eyes of some, it’s those few features that wind up defining me — not my mind, my heart, but my squinty eyes. It’s those features that, to some, define at least part of the relationship between Wife and myself.
Why do some people only see part of me? Why did they choose to see that part, and not the other part? Or that they choose to only see part of me, and not all of me?
Again, discriminatory behavior.
I grant, ultimately this is human behavior. We’re all guilty of it. I’ve come to accept it, and in fact sometimes I like that I look different be it due to ethnic background, my long hair, or my choice of clothing — especially because my looks don’t jive with who I am versus the stereotypes and preconceived notions some people have about folks that look like I do. It offers me a chance to see how a person really is. Do they look inward at the person? Do they stop at the shell? Are they blind to race and color? Or do they view the world and everything in it through a constant filter of racism, injecting race into every matter and issue and problem in the world?
If you want people to stop caring about race, you need to stop caring about race — period. The first step is to admit your own prejudices and faults, because you probably aren’t as progressive as you think you are.
Household laundry is behind. I went looking for workout clothing… found no clean, had to dig something out of the dirty clothes hamper, which wound up being damp due to being under wet towels. *sigh* Also, found no socks, so I wore dress socks.
I was annoyed, but tried to not get too mad about it.
As I walked to the gym in my damp clothing… the sky suddenly opened up. Rain came pouring down. My clothing became a lot more damp!
Someone’s trying to remind me to keep perspective on things. 🙂
And the long dress socks were alright. Covered my shins a lot more; good for deadlifting.
It was my first time as lead instructor. I’ve been an assistant instructor at KR Training for a number of years, and I’m happy in that capacity. But now I get to step up and do a little more. While the past some whiles I’ve done segments of the BP1 class, this was doing the whole thing and well… it didn’t go as smoothly as I wanted it. Others thought I did fine, and I know my critique is just me looking at myself and what I can do improve my own presentation and flow. Always looking for things I can do better.
That said, the class itself went really well.
First, the weather was perfect. It always seems the case: weather reports for rain, there’s rain Thursday or Friday, people get nervous… but then, it always clears up and is gorgeous. Rare is the Saturday class actually rained out, and often is the weather agreeable. This was a great day to be outside and on the range.
I always like reporting on demographics. This class was over two-thirds female. Had a couple mother-daughter. Had people from all walks of life, social background, ethnicity/race. I’m sorry, but the stereotype of “old white redneck guy” just isn’t the case.
This group of students was very engaged, asking a lot of questions going beyond the BP1 material. I hope to see everyone back for future classes!
I think the only bummer of the day was the fire ants. With all the recent rain, they were driven out of the dirt — mounds everywhere. Just had to tread carefully, and thankfully not too many mounds on the range.
Thank you all for coming out and entrusting us with your first steps on this journey.
It’s deload week, so nothing much to say. Just get in, do a little work, get blood flowing, don’t put anything too hard, and go home.
I did want to try out pause squats tho, since I’ll be adding them in next cycle. My question has been: how much to do? What’s the right weight? What’s right number of sets/reps? People have been down this road, so why not learn from their wisdom and experience, right?
Quick Question. How would you incorporate pause squatting into a 5-3-1 template?
I’ll run “boring but big” for a few more cycles so I was thinking-
Squat 5-3-1
Squat 5×10
Pause squats (light, but not sure reps and sets?)
Or Do some pause squats on my deadlift day?
Thoughts?
(Paul’s reply):
I wouldn’t do pause squats for 10. Ever. 5 at the most. They really zap you and you have to hold your breathe in the bottom.
If you’re already doing the BBB template, I wouldn’t add more squatting to that. I’d run 531 and do pause squats after with what you used on your first set.
So on the 5 week use 65%x 5
On the 3 week use 70% x 5
On the 531 week use 75% x 3
that’s how I would do it.
So there we go. I saw a lot of Cube Method folks would do a similar thing, but maybe 3 sets of 10. One thing Paul’s reply doesn’t make clear is the number of sets, but from a subsequent comment he made, I get the feeling that 5 sets is where to go. But I could be wrong. My approach will be to strive for at least 3 sets, ideally go for 5, but if I have to work up to 5 then I do because I’d rather do 3 strong sets than 5 half-assed ones, y’know?
Thus today after my last normal set, I left the 185 on the bar and did 1 pause set of 5. My pause? Seems that’s another variable people will manipulate, but if the main point of pause squats is to lose momentum and the stretch reflex out of the hole, then I figured well… go down until I settle in, lose momentum, stay for a “still” moment, then come back up. So that was what? 2-3 seconds? That’s fine. I’m not going to count, just ensure I have come full stop, wait a sec, then back up. And I can tell with the 185 that this is going to be fun. 🙂
Stuff From Hsoi 