Me

2012-09-06 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 4, Day 4, basic routine

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

First… I missed yesterday’s practice. 😦  First missed practice in almost 2 months. Dang it. The day just got away from me. Since it’s a flashlight routine and the days are getting shorter, I wanted to do it before bed but… bed beat me. 😦  I’ll make up the session this weekend.

As for today’s practice, I’m working on pressing out faster and ensuring I get the trigger break just as I get to extension. WHO needs more work in that area. 🙂

2012-09-04 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 4, Day 2, WHO (all drills WHO)

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out
  2. 10 reps draw & fire, slow
  3. 10 reps draw & fire 3/4 speed
  4. 5 reps reload from slidelock, slow
  5. 5 reps reload from slidelock 3/4 speed
  6. 5 reps TRB
  7. 5 reps LRW
  8. 10 reps wall drill from press-out

I’m happy for the additional WHO practice… probably something I can’t get enough of. Makes me think that for the next “monthly cycle” I might do something like throw in 10 (additional) WHO press-outs every session and see what it does for me.

One thing I need to work on is just pressing out faster. I go slower on my press out because otherwise things get too loose and I don’t get it lined up right. Well, I need to press myself a little faster. I do this and things work out, so I just keep to keep doing it and not slow down on the press out. If I need a bit of time at the end, fine but at least get the gun out there and overall compress the time.

2012-09-04 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, Squat 3

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

What is good in life? Setting a PR in your least favorite movement isn’t one of them, but I’ll take it this morning. 🙂

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 290#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x145
    • 1x3x175
    • 1x5x220 (work)
    • 1x3x250
    • 1x3x280 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Squat
    • 5 x 10 x 135

I still don’t like squat. If I listed the 4 main movements in my order of preference, squat is still at #4. But I don’t hate it as much as I used to. If you hate something, keep doing it until you don’t hate it because that’s the only way you’ll get better at it. And so, I keep squatting.

Setting a PR is great. As I got ready for that last set, I told myself how it wasn’t all that long ago I struggled to deal with 230, and now that’s warm-up weight. In fact, I’m doing a lot more than that for warm-up. So yeah, rep 3 was ugly, and I figured there was then little reason to do a 4th rep. But all good. I’m happy.

I will say… an interesting bit on the weight loss avenue. I had lost a few, but over the weekend gained a wee bit back. I’m not sure why. I did eat a bunch more fruit over the weekend. My guess? Either it was all the love of eating lots of Korean food and I may have gone slightly over my numbers, or that I knew being fueled up for my squat 5/3/1 day was vital and I just didn’t want to be down for it. My glycogen was likely just being depleted instead of true fat loss. But who knows. I’ve been saying that until I drop a solid 10# at least, it’s not really weight loss. Still, I shall keep up the work. And hey, the PR is most acceptable given my track record and the reduced food intake. So I’m happy.

Good way to start the week.

2012-09-03 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 4, Day 1, basic routine

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

I practiced last night just before bed… got the practice in, just had to post this the next day.

The press-out felt much more natural. Things just flowed nicely in this routine. I do feel that I need to get to the range and confirm progress with live-fire practice, but time has been tight and I’ll be out to KR Training eventually anyways so I can just wait until then. But it does feel that a month of dry fire followed up with a day at the range to confirm and figure out what to work on (next) would be an ideal cycle.

A year of 5/3/1

/ hsoi

I can’t believe I’ve been using Jim Wendler‘s 5/3/1 program for a little over a year now. In fact, I’m kinda surprised that I’ve been keeping a regular and dedicated schedule at the gym for about a year and a half. I guess getting older does that to you. 😉

So let’s see here.

I’m presently finishing up cycle 13 of 5/3/1. My cycles have been varied over the past year. Some use of Boring But Big, Triumvirate, tweaking things to my own needs, aborted attempt at the BBB 3-month Challenge, going to 2x week. Lots of changes, but the core of course remains the same. I’m presently doing the BBB template but spread into the 2-days-per-week setup (1 cycle spread over 6 weeks, no deload). I must admit, of all the flavors and styles, I like BBB the best. It’s just so simple and straightforward. I like the work, I like the volume, I like the no-bullshit approach. I cannot deny it works because I see the progress in terms of my strength gains and modest mass gains.

I will say, my mass gains aren’t what I wanted. But I can guess at a few reasons there. First, most of my work is on 5 reps or less, which is considered more for strength and less for mass. Second, I’m not age 16-25 and just don’t have that sort of physiology any more. Third, my diet has been the toughest thing to get straight and finally I might be getting there. The past couple weeks with this dietary change — that I’m actually sticking with — is making me wonder a few things and if I’ve just not been feeding myself best all along. Oh sure, I did the 1 – 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight, but if everything else wasn’t in line, how much was I not fully contributing to growth? But we shall see. Regardless tho, strength is what I care about more than mass gains. But hey, we all want to look good… especially as we get older and more things want to sag and wrinkle. 😉

Let’s see… numbers. Looking at my spreadsheet….

Cycle 1
Press — 110# (wm), 8×105
Deadlift — 265# (wm), 5×255
Bench Press — 180# (wm), 10×175
Squat — 220# (wm), 5×210

The first number is the “working max” that you calculate out in the program’s formula. The second is the last set of the “5/3/1” work set from that cycle (reps x weight), so my “max” for that cycle.

I haven’t finished cycle 13 yet, but cycle 12 put me closer to an actual “1 year of 5/3/1”, so let’s look at those numbers

Cycle 12
Press — 155# (wm), 5×150
Deadlift — 345# (wm), 7×330
Bench Press — 225# (wm), 6×215
Squat — 280# (wm), 3×270

So what do I think?

First, I will accept that there is progress. It’s not beginner “leaps and bounds” progress, but it’s progress. For simple math, let’s look at the working maxes. Press went up 45#, deadlift 80#, bench 35#, squat 60#. That’s respectable. Is it quite what I wanted? No… but I think I’m being unrealistic too; I mean, no more “Starting Strength” level gains are going to happen at this point. But also think about this: if you get about 12 cycles per year and go up 5# per cycle on press and bench and 10# per cycle on deadlift and squat, then really, I did alright for 1 year. I have to remember I had some time off, some resets, some lack of focus, and some other things. I mean, squat didn’t go up a lot, but that had the most resetting and work. I think in the end I’m far better off because my technique has improved. Plus, I have to consider my goals.

Second, goal meeting. What WAS my goal of the past year? I may have recorded it somewhere, but I can’t recall setting any true hard goal. I think my main fuzzy goal has been to just maintain or improve my health. The fact I am a gym regular is good. I do feel better overall than I have in the past some years. In fact, get this: just a few days ago I donated blood (I strive for regular donations). There’s a minor bit of health feedback I get from it: blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, hematocrit, and cholesterol. My hematocrit is up slightly, blood pressure still very good, temperature normal, pulse up slightly (trend over time), but the best part is my cholesterol is the lowest it’s ever been since I started tracking it. None of these things have ever been into an unhealthy range by any stretch, but still to go down in cholesterol is awesome — means I’m even further from the danger zones. I do think dropping some of this fat will only help further.  So hey… goal met.

I don’t think I really had a strength goal, other than “get stronger”. I do think I have a general goal that I’d like to join the 1000# club. I’m not too far away from that. I probably could test 1RM’s and join the club, but I don’t care about that. My way of joining the club is just doing my normal workout and when my actual lifted weights on “week 3” allow me to total 1000# on squat, bench, and deadlift, then I’ll have joined. No funny math, no trying to get into the club for the ego boost so I struggle and do stupid tricks just to eek out a total. That’s bullshit. I will bide my time. I will get there. And I figure, after this the next long-term goal might be “plates”. That is, 2 plates for press (225#), 3 plates for bench (315#), 4 plates for squat (405#), 5 plates for deadlift (495#). That’ll take a few more years.

So with all that… what are my goals for the next year?

I think the #1 goal at this point is some body recompositioning. I want to drop the flab. Thing is, I can’t quantify what that level will be. I can’t say X lbs. and I’m there. But the way I can put it is I want my stomach to be flat. No muffin-top, no gut. If I stand up straight with my shirt tucked into my pants, you just see flat, no belly bulge. That if I want to try appendix IWB carry for a gun, I can without my gut pushing the grip out and thus the muzzle into my groin. That’s the goal. Note that I don’t care to have “6 pack abs”. I don’t need to have some vascular roadmap of my veins. I just want to get rid of the excess flab.

If I can join the 1000# club in the next year? That would be awesome. On paper it’s certainly do-able. However, the #1 goal is the fat shedding and that could mean strength work plateaus or even regresses. If I fail to join the 1000# club but succeed in my #1 goal? I’m OK with that.

So onward I go. I do think for the foreseeable future I won’t change the workout itself very much. Just stick with Wendler. I admit I haven’t gone back out to run the tire, because my ankle is just killing me too much. *sigh*  But I have a secret hope that if I drop 20#, that might help the ankle and I can get outside. The weather is teasing cooling off as well, so it’ll be nicer to work outside. But otherwise, just keep on the path.

Thanx, Jim.

2012-08-31 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 5, shooter’s choice.

Given yesterday’s WHO thoughts, I opted to do the basic routine but emphasizing WHO

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H

I’m not sure I can “ride the rail” of the eye-target line here, at least literally. The gun is coming from a different point, NOT under my right eye. It helps that I’m right eye dominant and right-handed, so naturally they’re all lined up and it is truly just a “ride the rail” press-out. But now with the gun in my left hand, bringing it under my right eye and out doesn’t work so well because the gun is also in my hand at a different angle so the front and rear sights don’t align with the “rail”. So, this is a time where I have to remove the literalness of it all. And doing that helped.

But what really helped?

I know how critical a strong grip is to making this work, especially important in WHO because it is the weak hand. I worked on not just crushing my grip, but really involving the pinky in the crush.

What a difference.

Of course, that shouldn’t surprise me. I know this from my years of martial arts training how critical the pinky is for making grip. But it’s just something that gets lost and doesn’t always happen because it’s not normal (still) for me to grip primarily, if you will, using the pinky. While it makes a good difference in any grip situation, it’s especially important in handgun shooting because of the counter-torque it provides against the recoiling gun.

When I did my SHO and 2H, it was even better because of that.

So there’s something for me to fall back on every now and again: crush with the WHO pinky.

2012-08-30 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 13, press 2

/ hsoi

Get into the gym, get out of the gym.

“Week 2”

  • 3 reps – Press (working max: 160#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x3x115 (work)
    • 1x3x130
    • 1x5x145
  • Asst. #1 – Press
    • 5 x 10 x 80
  • Asst. #1 – Wide, pronated grip lat pulldowns
    • 5 x 10 x 130
  • Foam Rolling

Something about today just felt good. Just on a roll. Supersetted the assistance work. And gee… it was get into the gym, and get out of the gym. I liked it.

Originally I was going to do 85# on the assistance, but backed off… always start light. That was reasonable, but I do think I can up it later on. In fact, I started thinking about maybe pryamiding down on my assistance work… go as heavy as I can for 10 reps, drop weight, 10 reps, etc… But I will save that for some other time.

2012-08-30 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 4 (basic routine)

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

Bottom line: grip consistency.

I’m also thinking that tomorrow’s “shooter’s choice” might be working WHO because well… “riding that rail” for the eye-target line is tough with the weak-hand and my right (dominant) eye. Trying to get it all to line up.

 

2012-08-29 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 3, retention

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  2. 10 reps draw and fire from retention, slow
  3. 10 reps draw and fire from retention, 3/4 speed
  4. 5 reps draw and fire from retention while stepping L, 3/4 speed
  5. 5 reps draw and fire from retention while stepping R, 3/4 speed
  6. 10 reps beginning at full extension, draw back to retention, and fire, 3/4 speed, 2H

One thing to keep in mind? On string 6, there’s 10 hidden press-outs in there. Make sure you don’t skip them. 🙂

Quick diet update

/ hsoi

It’s been a week now. Yeah… I decided to just dive in. Why bother waiting?

I’m trying to find something I can stick with, because that’s the hardest part. Really, I can stick with almost anything with sufficient motivation. But what seems to make a difference this time around is data. First, having numbers up front, thanx to something like Scooby’s calorie calculator. Second, keeping track of things somewhere, like here on this blog.

Having the numbers up front is what’s making things interesting. If I know I can have x grams of carbs and y grams of protein and that’s that… boy, it sure changes your perception of portions. And yes, you need to measure it all out. I’ve had a kitchen scale for a while now and boy that’s handy. But also simple measuring cups and spoons. Really tho, using grams for everything is about the best and easiest way. Plus calorieking.com has such a great interface for being able to calculate on the fly. Good stuff there. And yes, I do this. I try to figure out every meal.

It’s kinda tough. You can’t just measure out meat and say “there’s protein” because what if I’m having brown rice? That’s got enough protein in it to matter. I’ve been using Daipoong brown rice (hey, it’s the Korean in me), and 1 cup of cooked is about 50g of carbs but also 5g of protein… and when I have to measure things out, that 5g matters. In fact to show how much it matters, I went back to Scooby’s calculator. I re-entered my calculations from before, then I adjusted it from “moderate exercise” to “light exercise”. It dropped down 300 calories per day, and each meal dropped 5g protein, 5g carbs, 2g fat. Not much, but you can see how 5g can add up over the course of a day!

But the real interesting thing is watching portion sizes. I thought “oh, this is how much rice to have”, but no… 1 cup of cooked rice on your plate looks pretty huge. Then I pack an afternoon snack of some dried fruit, and a portion size to give me 55g of carbs there ends up looking like a handful… something that would have been “one bite” for me in the past. Geez. Enlightening. 🙂

What’s been kinda cool tho is noticing my energy levels feel pretty solid. I don’t feel drained for my workouts or for just getting around in a day, which is great. I do fear in the past I just wasn’t steady enough at bringing in energy vs. my output, so I’d underconsume thinking it was right levels, then my body would scream from being depleted and I’d gorge and get no where. So this is all very good. I did wonder about it in yesterday’s deadlift workout… is the reduction in diet affecting me? Is that why I didn’t get 8 reps and only got 6? Perhaps. I also gave blood a couple days prior, which could still have a mild effect. Hard to really say what’s involved here… it’s only been a week of eating this way.

And in that week, I haven’t seen much affect on the scale. I’m not sure why. Could it be a muscle vs. fat issue? That is, the scale won’t tell me if I’ve both gained a wee bit of muscle and lost a wee bit of fat. Or maybe I just found a static intake. I did wonder that because when I see what I am ingesting for carbs, maybe I am taking in enough but now just spread over 5 meals instead of 3? I don’t know. I probably should have measured my complete food intake prior to this for a baseline.

So given all of that, I am adjusting my intake slightly. Instead of aiming for 55g of carb/protein per meal, I’m aiming for 50g. I do want to keep it at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Again, I expect my strength work will either stall or decline some, but I’d like to minimize it. Workouts will continue forward on this 2x/week BBB-style plan, still increasing weights and moving ahead as normal. I figure when I stall due to diet, I’ll stall and I’ll know it, meantime why not just forge head?

Onwards.