Me

AAR – BP2 & Skill Builder @ KR Training, 14 July 2012

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Saturday July 14, 2012 was a bit of a different day for me at KR Training. The morning was a Basic Pistol 2 class and the afternoon was Skill Builder. It’s the Skill Builder that made things different, for me at least.

I thought BP2 ran well, and was fairly standard for what a BP2 is. People come to realize how vital trigger control is towards ensuring acceptable hits. They get their first taste of shooting to higher standards, such as trying to get all hits into a 6″ circle, shooting under the pressure of a timer, and realizing that yes, they can do it… they may need some practice, but they can do it.

But one thing dawned on me during this particular class (and note, this was just something that hit me; it is no commentary on the students). This is probably one of the hardest classes we provide. It’s not that the skills a particularly difficult. Rather, it’s a huge mental shift for most people. If they’ve shot guns before, they’ve never shot them like this. We bring a particular focus, a particular discipline. It’s not just plinking tin cans off the fence post, it’s not just aimlessly poking holes in paper until the box of ammo is empty. There’s now a focus, a point, a purpose, a direction. That everything done, every motion, every action, the way to grip, the way to hold, where to hold, how to hold, how to look, how to do, every little movement is intentional, thought out, and with meaning and purpose. Everything is geared towards making you efficient and effective at getting acceptable hits. And it’s a big shift from how people have shot guns in their past. Making that mental shift is difficult.

But it’s great to see so many people willing to make the shift. 🙂

Then came Skill Builder.

I’ve been looking forward to SB for a while. It’s something that Karl’s been working on for a while, and it’s still evolving. I’ve been looking forward to seeing and experiencing the class, given some prior discussed plans for SB’s ultimate direction. But even what I saw was different from what had been discussed, but when Karl explained his reasoning for the refined direction, it made a lot of sense. Read: KR Training doesn’t teach static courses based on 20-year-old material; constant evolution, constant improvement. It also shows why it’s important for you to keep up with your training, because things change.

Another different thing? I shot the class, instead of being full-time assistant. Oh sure, I assisted and did whatever needed to be done, but I was up on the line shooting the drills.

And I shot it with my snub. 🙂

I’ve wanted some more work with my snub, one reason being the Defensive Pistol Skills BUG class coming up in a couple of weeks. But also because I thought it’d just be fun to shoot it this way.

I shot with my S&W 442 as long as I could. That gun is set up with the DeSantis Clip Grip. That means: airweight gun, pinky dangle, and my hand gets to soak up all that recoil. I was using my .38 Special plinking reloads, but even still… the hand got tender after a bit. I’m glad I brought my S&W 640 as well. That means, all steel gun, factory grip which is full sized and rubber, and that means my hand absorbs a lot less of the recoil. I got through probably 40% of the class with the 442 and did the rest with the 640.

I shot respectably. I’m generally pleased with my shooting, given the limitations. However, I had more than a few times where I dropped the hell out of a shot. Even with the improved triggers in my snubs, that’s still a long heavy trigger press. The sights are crappy, and the grip angle is a little more “downward” than is comfortable and typical with my semi-autos, so it’s some adjustment. What it means is: more practice. Especially practice on the trigger press during the press out — given the trigger, it’s a VERY different timing than the press-out with a semi-auto. I admit, most practice I do with my snubs has been dry fire, and that just doesn’t give the same feedback. So again, I’m glad I shot the course and did so with my snub. Still, I can work on improving the timing of my press out in dry practice.

That said, SB is certainly more geared towards semi-autos, and that makes sense given 99.99% of students use semi-autos. I actually can’t remember the last time a student in a regular class used a revolver. But the COF’s ran generally fine, generally organized in a manner that worked with varying capacities, and tho I missed the tail end of a few drills due to low-capacity and slow revolver reloading and given a few drills are really geared towards semi-autos, I really liked what Karl put into the course. I like the evolution, and I think SB is really worthwhile. It’s tough, but it’s tough because it focuses on those key fundamentals that everyone needs, and presents it in a manner that will test you, help you practice, and show you where you need more practice.

Other than coming home totally exhausted and a little sunburned (stupid me didn’t put on sunscreen), it was a fine day.

Trying Trello

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The new hotness in software development is “agile“. At my prior day job, it was waterfall. Sure they tried to adopt agile processes, but it really wasn’t going to happen. Due to the nature of the products and process, it just can’t be agile, tho they could try to adopt a few things and make some improvements. But at my new day job? Agile can make a LOT of sense. Take home: you can’t impart the process merely because it’s the new hotness or you think if you just adopt X process it’ll solve problems. Like any problem to be solved, you have to understand your problem fully and then apply the right tools to solve it, and that includes what processes you use.

However, it’s tough getting folks on board, so I’ve desire to try to sneak in agile stuff as we can. It’s nothing more than a commentary on human condition — we tend to resist change. If all this change is dropped on folks all at once, we’ll balk. I would too. Massive sudden change, especially when you’ve still got daily chaos and stress to manage, well… the change will be rejected. But if we can make little changes here, little changes there, over time we get there.

One thing I can tell is we all need a way to see the whole picture. We’ve got so many things going on at once, and it changes on a daily and sometimes sub-daily basis. I find myself often making lists and (re)telling my todo lists to my teammates merely to help ensure 1. I know what I’m doing and am on track, 2. that we’re all on the same page. By sharing with them I hope that if there’s a mismatch, they’ll speak up and correct. I’d rather be perceived as over-communicating than under-communicating.

But all this talk doesn’t solve the problem for everyone. The dev team is one thing, testing another, production another, sales another, marketing another… there’s so many things. Sure, we could use our issue tracking system, and there’s a lot of sense in that approach. But the issue tracker doesn’t work as well for non-dev folk PLUS it’s harder to get a 1000′ view. Yes, pictures/diagrams can make a big difference.

One thing from the agile/scrum world is having the daily stand-up meetings at “the wall”. Let’s set aside the meeting for now (again, baby steps), and just focus on the wall. I’ve suggested the wall, because I think that would be useful. Pick a wall in the office, divide it up in whatever way makes sense for us, then start populating it with sticky notes to represent all the tasks to be done. I think that’ll be useful at keeping a somewhat permanent record of the state of things (unlike a whiteboard, which will be erased eventually). Plus it allows anyone to just look at the wall at any time of the day to see where things are. CEO wants to know what’s up with Customer X? Just look at the wall. Did we ship Product Y yet? Just look at the wall.

Alas, one shortcoming is 1. we don’t have a lot of free wall space left in the office, 2. the wall is restricted to the physical. I’ve been searching for a digital wall solution and haven’t found much that thrills me. Something that we could access from any computer via a web browser (or even a platform-based app), and it would look good. But then we could also access from iOS or Android devices. In the office. Out of the office. At 3 AM, during office hours. From my desk, in a meeting on the shared screen. Whatever. Something with power to do what we need, but flexibility to work for anyone, not just the geeks.

So… I recently read this article from Joel Spolsky about “Software Inventory”. While I read it, it sounded like it was talking directly to me and our situation. I went looking at their solution:

Trello

I’ve only just started to play with it, but it seems like it could be the answer to my problems. I could see using this in my personal life, for Hsoi Enterprises, and for the day job stuff. Even if the rest of the office doesn’t buy into it, it could be useful for my own management of my tasks and issues to deal with. Being able to SEE everything instead of sorting through a bunch of text notes and to-do lists is sometimes much more useful, even if it ends up being redundant and a little more maintenance to keep 2 data stores in sync.

It’s still preliminary, but it’s promising.

2012-07-12 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, Deadlift/Press 1

/ hsoi

What was I thinking, increasing volume! 🙂

“Week 1”

  • 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 345#)
    • 1x5x140 (warmup)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x3x210
    • 1x5x225 (work)
    • 1x5x260
    • 1x8x295
  • 5 reps – Press (working max: 155#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x5x100 (work)
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x7x135
  • Asst. #1 – DB Rows
    • 2 x 10 x 80
  • Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
    • 2 x 12 x 80
  • Asst. #3 – Dips
    • 2 x 8 x BW (around 235)
  • Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
    • 2 x 10 x 30

I hit it pretty hard today, really went out on the deadlifts. I figure it’s a rep PR. I’ve been looking back over training logs and I see how many reps I did at X weight and I try to at least match tho prefer to exceed. I did that with deadlifts. I matched with Press. I wanted to exceed with press but it just wasn’t going to happen without blowing things out.

Then I hit assistance work and geez… after 2 sets my body said enough. I could have pushed through and done a third set, but it’s about being submaximal, about less is more, and geez… it’s assistance work. Not going to sweat it.

Going to 4 sets on assistance… what was I thinking? 🙂

Why lift?

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

The other day at work, a co-worker asked me if I worked out. It started a conversation about exercise and why we do what we do.

So why do I lift? What’s my goal?

Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.

– Mark Rippetoe

There’s usefulness in being strong. I am still trying to find where it’s useful to be weak. Tho I’m sure there are situations, on the whole stronger is better. If nothing else, you can open jars. 🙂

Yes, being stronger is going to make it harder to kill me. Hopefully it makes me a less appealing target. Most predators want easy targets, and things that look big and strong generally aren’t going to make for an easy target. It doesn’t totally negate my chances, but if it helps sway things in my favor, great.

Plus having some level of fitness works well for things like oh… running away.

If I have to throw a punch, if force = mass x acceleration, being able to move faster and have more mass behind it means striking with greater force. How is that a bad thing?

But all this training just for something that may or may not happen? Well, it’s good to be prepared if it does happen, but I do like to do things that have a wider applicability. So for instance, when I was out hunting this past weekend, we finished the weekend by hauling about 500# of protein pellets around and putting them into feeders. It involved getting up on a ladder, throwing 50# bags from the ground up to the feeder, emptying them in, and so on. Yes, lots of muscling things around, hoisting and heaving. You need to be strong. You need to be in shape.

But it’s more than this.

Every day I’m getting older, and I’m not 18 any more.

I don’t want to live forever. I know that won’t happen. I also know that I don’t have much say in when or how I will check out of this world. There are people that smoke and drink and chase women until they’re 100 years old, and then there are those that do all the “healthy” things and die at age 27. You don’t know how much life you have, but you do have right now, so you should enjoy the life you have while you have it.

But that doesn’t mean to get reckless, because you could live to be 100. Being reckless now could bring a lot of pain and problems down the road.

Much of my exercise motivation has been because I don’t like not being able to move. I recall when Oldest was an infant and I couldn’t get up off the couch without grunting. I wasn’t fat, I just smoked cigarettes and was way out of shape. I stopped smoking and started exercising because I did NOT want to not be able to roll around with my kids. I started martial arts because I didn’t want to sit all day hunched over a computer. And when martial arts had to go by the wayside, I started lifting again. All because I don’t want to become decrepit.

That’s the thing for me.

I do NOT want to be a burden in my old age.

I do NOT want to struggle to just walk.

I do NOT want to have to rely upon others to get me around and to provide me basic care.

I do NOT want to fall and become crippled because of it.

I do NOT want to have to drag around an oxygen tank, or take tons of medications.

I will admit, some of those little motorized chair things look kinda fun, but I really don’t want to have to rely upon one.

I grant that life might throw me a curveball and something like this happens. I could have a massive stroke due to some congenital issue, and that clamps everything down for me.

I don’t exercise to try to extend my life. I know a lot of people are motivated by a desire to stave off death (tho they don’t admit that’s the reason, it’s the reason). Eat “right”,  exercise, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t eat red meat, don’t eat fat, don’t eat well, most anything is apparently bad for you. And in the end, you still die. Death is inevitable for all living things.

What I accept is that I’m going to die, but in the meantime I’m going to ensure I can live my life fully. Hearing about some veteran powerlifters being in their 70’s and squatting 400#… yeah, I’d love to be one of those guys. You know he doesn’t need a walker to get around. You know he doesn’t struggle to sit down and stand up. I want to ensure that while I’m here, I can enjoy being here. That’s my goal.

If along that way maybe I try a powerlifting competition, great. I don’t expect to ever be up there with Andy Bolton or Bill Kazmaier or even Jim Wendler. But that’s not really my goal. I just want to be stronger than most, I just want to be useful… to myself, for myself, while I still have myself.

Random blathering

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I’ve been getting more and more subscribers/followers to this blog lately, and I find it interesting that these new followers seem to be coming more for my weightlifting than my gun stuff… which seems different than I intended, but I’m happy with it all. It says that I write about whatever interests me, and maybe you. And it’s interesting to see what here interests people. Thank you.

I admit… I’ve been struggling to find gun stuff to write about because… what else is there to say? If there is something there is and I’ll write on it, but even when I look at other “gun bloggers” I see different topics and what appears like a struggle to find material. That is one reason I didn’t want to write some “one topic” blog, tho I suppose I could say the one topic here is “me” and whatever interests me.

Maybe it’s just the ebb and flow of things, given I’ve been writing every day for what? 4 years? Some 3000+ posts… yeah, eventually you might run a little dry or just find that some other topics come more naturally.

Or, maybe it’s just being lazy. I’ve got a bunch of different topics to write on, but they require a lot of work to get done. Lots of pictures to take, things to square up, and gee, I’m tired.

The new job affects things too, because I do know that’s changed enough and left me not as much time to write. I used to be able to write multiple articles in a day, and some days now I struggle just to get one written. Heck, sometimes I’m happy it’s a workout day and I can at least post my workout log. Since day 1 I made it a requirement that I post at least 1 thing every day, and I’m happy I’ve been able to do that. Heck, I’m thrilled I’m still coming up with stuff for Sunday Metal (and yes, it’s queued up through the end of 2012… sometimes the “Schedule” feature is welcome).

But in the end, I think it’s just interesting to see the journey. To look back on posts from a few years ago and see where things were then. And in a few years, it’ll be interesting to look back on this post and see where I was now in comparison to where I’ll be then.

I grew up thinking about the destination. So much of Dad being concerned about what I’ll be when I grow up, what I’ll do with my life. So much was geared towards destination. I’m glad I gave up on that and realized it’s the journey that’s the interesting thing. Oh sure, have milestones, have waypoints. You need to have some sort of direction in life, you need some sort of destination to aim for, but it shouldn’t be about the destination… just enjoy what it takes to get there. Live in the moment. Learn from the past. Let the future be with it will be.

And yes… sometimes recording it helps you remember what was interesting along that journey. 🙂

 

2012-07-09 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 12, Squat/Bench 1

/ hsoi

Sometimes you just gotta listen to your body.

“Week 1”

  • 5 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x5x185 (work)
    • 1x5x215
    • 1x7x240
  • 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x150 (work)
    • 1x5x170
    • 1x9x195
  • Asst. #1 – Lat pulldowns (pronated grip, hands just wider than shoulder-width apart)
    • 3 x 10 x 130
  • Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
    • 3 x 15 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
    • 3 x 10 x 120
  • Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 80/70/70

Today was pretty good. I realized that my head wasn’t in it… but it wasn’t somewhere else either. I was just “there” and that lack of too much thinking one way or the other was good. 🙂

While squatting I found myself still falling forward out of the hole. I was trying to get back to thinking about driving my head into the bar but trying not to forget about the big belly breath and pushing hard into my belt, and well… trying to do both I ended up half-assing both. I need to pick one, and I think it needs to be the belly breath since that really tightens up the torso and should have residual help with the head. But still, felt alright with how things went. I wanted to do 7 and got 7. Basically, I wanted improvement over whatever I had done before with 240, and I did that.

Bench was good too. Working on my placement of my body on the bench, for better leg drive. Wasn’t as stable today as I was last week, but I’ll keep experimenting until I find my spot. I set a goal of 8 reps with 195 and got 9, so I’m happy.

Then… I called an audible.

Whatever I did in my shoulder/upper back last week, it’s mostly gone but I can still wake up in the morning and feel something. While I’ve been working on it, it’s still there and I opted to not push it. So I decided to do lat pulldowns instead of chins. But I also opted to vary it and try pronated grip. I took a grip that was natural — drop your arms at your side, then just bend at the elbow. I find my thumbs end up spaced just on the outside of my shoulders. So that’s the grip I took. Just natural grip. I had no idea what weight to use, just picked 130, but that was good enough for my needs today.

I also had been thinking about doing 4 sets, but after the first set thought no, just stick with 3. I think it was a combination of things. First, I could feel it and knew 3 would be enough and 4 would probably be too much. Well, Wendler is about working submaximally so you can have continual gains for a longer period of time. I was also reading a bunch of DoggCrapp stuff this past weekend and you can tell Dante is about doing more with less. Granted, I’m not doing DC stuff at all, but I am seeing fair gains the past few weeks. So what if I don’t feel pumped to the max when I leave the gym? I’m apparently getting good results, so why screw with it? Why risk working myself too much, screwing up recovery, and stalling or regressing? Screw it. Stick with 3.

But I did also opt to NOT do chins while I squat. The only reason I did that was for volume since I can’t do many chins, but again, if I can keep doing what I’m doing, with the assistance work being a “circuit” and really pushing that fast and hard? eh…. the lat pulldowns will make up for it for a bit.

I am thinking after this cycle I might take a week off as as “Jack shit deload”. But we’ll see at the end of the cycle. 🙂 Yes, feeling a little bit beat up. Tossed around the idea before I left for the gym this morning, but no… now is not the time nor proper motivational reason. It should be calculated, not just because I’m dragging.

A bad day hunting…

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

… is just a good day. 🙂

Went out for a 24-hour hunt with Charles of TacticalGunReview.com.

Feral hogs were the target.

We headed out to his place after work Friday afternoon. Headed out to the field and sat over a stock tank for a while. Lots of deer, turkey, and cows moving and feeding, but no hogs. Charles headed off to another location. I sat and continued to watch, hopeful for hogs, but alas never saw any. I did however see lots of calves running around, charging towards the stock tank at full speed… just like any child. Even thankful for a moment that I did not decide to climb down from the stand and sit behind this one fallen stand. It would have been a better vantage point, but at one point a calf ran up to it and started bashing it with his head. If I had been down there, I would have gotten bonked pretty bad. 🙂

Just before it was totally dark, I heard a shot ring out… and squealing. Charles got something. I was hoping if there was a good sized sounder that they’d come running my way, but nothing. Went and picked Charles and his hog up. About 80#, which makes for good eating.

Cleaned the pig, relaxed with a couple cold ones, and hit the sack around midnight. Went back out around 5 AM but didn’t see much of anything. The most excitement I got was playing “will he bust me?” with a spike, and “what’s that rustling in the leaves? oh just an armadillo…”.

I didn’t “bring home the bacon”, tho Charles was kind and gave me half his pig. Thank you, my friend.

I did realize tho…. this was just what I needed. I was able to get my brain thinking about something else. Something other than computers, programming, iPhones, marketing, sales, business, teaching, whatever, anything and everything that makes up my usual go around. I got to think about the woods. I got to think about the wind. About movement patterns. Looking for signs. The hunt. Pursuit. The sounds of birds. The beauty of nature. It was just a wonderful break for my head to think about something else.

But now, I shall think about something else again: cooking. Specifically, throwing the pig in the smoker tomorrow. 🙂

2012-07-05 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 11, Deadlift/Press 3

/ hsoi

Feels so good to set personal records.

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
    • 1x5x135 (warmup)
    • 1x5x170
    • 1x3x205
    • 1x5x255 (work)
    • 1x3x290
    • 1x7x320 (PR)
  • 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 150#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x60
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x3x90
    • 1x5x115 (work)
    • 1x3x130
    • 1x5x145 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – DB Rows
    • 3 x 10 x 75
  • Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
    • 3 x 12 x 70
  • Asst. #3 – Dips
    • 3 x 7 x BW
  • Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
    • 3 x 10/10/6 x 30

They might only be rep PR’s, but they are PR’s nonetheless. On deadlift, 320 is the most weight I’ve lifted period, but I did it for 3 reps back in cycle 8, so today’s PR is pretty good. In fact, what makes it really awesome is last week I could only muster 7 reps at 305… today 15# more and same reps, and I felt like I had a couple left in the tank. What’s the difference? I’m not really sure. I got a lot of rest yesterday (tho last night’s sleep wasn’t too good because of people shooting off fireworks until the wee hours). I’m also putting some more of Andy Bolton’s suggestions into play, the biggest of which is take that deep belly breath then push your abs like hell into your belt… really really push, not just “tighten up”. That seemed to help and the pulls felt really light. That first rep felt like air and I knew I’d be able to zoom along. I’m thrilled, and next cycle it’ll be pure PR’s.

Press was alright, and I’m happy with the performance today, but I continue to have weird issues with getting dizzy. I get under the bar, I get ready to lift it off, I inhale, lift off, step back, and then my head gets all swimmy and vision “blacks out” if you will. It goes away as soon as I stop holding my breath, but it’s scary when you have all this weight in your hands or on your back. But I started trying what I do when I squat, which is get fully ready to lift off, then breathe, quickly lift off (don’t rush, but don’t waste any time), step back, then stay tense and take another breath, then start the movement. That helps, but it’s hard to keep tight during that breath… something to work on.

On assistance work, I think 12 reps is my groove for pulldown abs. It seems to work stuff because I finally felt some ab work today, but it’s not so much that my elbows get ugly with me. I also moved my hand position to have my palms basically facing my shoulders (hands are essentially as supinated as I can get them, on the rope) and that seems to help a bit too. I also changed up the hammer curls. Until today I did them alternating: right arm up and down, then left arm up and down, etc.. Now I’ll do them simultaneously. Just takes too long the other way and breathing is always funky.

Really nice way to end this cycle.

And yes, it also confirmed my desire to go to 4 sets of assistance work because 3 just gets me there. I may regret it, but I won’t know until I try.

12 cycles on Wendler?

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Geez… I’ve been doing Wendler 5/3/1 for 12 cycles now… well, about to start my 12th.

I actually will have been doing Wendler for a year come August, and I’ll look back on that year then. But right now I wanted to look at some current things.

My shoulder/upper back/neck feels better since whatever I did to it on Monday. It’s been a lot of stretching, getting Wife to walk on my back, twisting, Aleve, and every so often getting a pop and crack in my upper back or neck and that makes things a little better.

As I start this 12th cycle, I’m going to bump up the assistance volume a bit, adding a 4th set. I am taking a bit more of a bodybuilder type of approach here, dropping weight down but picking reps up and reducing rest. Yes, work for the pump. I feel like 3 sets just gets me started and stopping after the 3rd set isn’t giving me enough, so let’s try adding a 4th and see what happens. And I think dips are doing wonders for my upper body as I’ve seen an increase in upper body mass from the past few weeks. Sweet.

Because… while I enjoy my strength going up and still wish to primarily focus on that, I think for me to go much further I need to do two things: decrease my fat mass and increase my muscle mass. Increase of muscle mass is primary.

I have been thinking about some sort of increased conditioning, especially since I’m only hitting the gym twice a week. I’d love a Prowler, but 1. the cost, 2. I think running it up and down my street will annoy my neighbors a little too much. So a sled would be cheaper, but I think still have the noise. So I’m wondering about getting a used tire and making my own sled from it, which should be less expensive and while making noise I reckon rubber on pavement will be less noise than a steel plate on pavement. I reckon if I could drag a sled a couple of times a week, keep my diet the same, that should be sufficient.

Just need to see where I can get a good tire on the cheap or free.

I have also been thinking longer term, about switching up the program entirely and trying to have a solid focus on things like purely fat loss or purely muscle mass gain. But, I don’t know. I want to get my strength numbers up higher than they are. I would love to join the 1000# club within the next year — I’m close. And I think I need to stay on that course, and just tweak my program to get me there. So fat loss really isn’t in the cards, just managing it so I don’t pack on the fat and if I perhaps shed a couple of pounds of fat a month, awesome, but that’s more residual than direct goal. But I do think adding some muscle mass will help me get there. There’s been some mass gain of course, but no question the strength-oriented program is making me stronger and not much bigger. I’ve been seeing some mass growth since I changed up to the 2x/week program, and it’s hard to say exactly what of that helped me. But… let’s just keep on the course and see where we can go with minor changes and experimentations to get me where I want to go.

 

2012-07-02 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 11, Squat/Bench 3

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

You win some, you lose some.

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 270#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x110
    • 1x5x135
    • 1x3x165
    • 1x5x205 (work)
    • 1x3x230
    • 1x3x260
  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 220#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x110
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x165 (work)
    • 1x3x190
    • 1x6x210 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Chin-ups
    • 1 x 5 x BW
  • Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
    • 1 x 15 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
    • 1 x 10 x 110
  • Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
    • 1 x 2 x 80
  • Foam Rolling

Today was a mixed bag.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff from Andy Bolton. He said some things that helped me with the need for being “tight”. So today I was really thinking about “tight” as my cue. It was really good. Every set of squats was being really tight, which was awesome.

Until the last set.

See, I don’t have technique something that’s unconscious to do; I have to think about everything, but I can only think about so much. So focusing so much on tight, and being really impressed with how it was working, paying attention to the feedback my body was giving me well…. I wasn’t able to focus on “head back” and driving my neck into the bar. Consequently on that first rep of the last set I about didn’t make it out of the hole…. it surprised me, then it all hit me, and my concentration was gone. I was able to squeeze out two more reps, but I was leaning badly and had blown all my tightness and everything. FML. Later on I realized what I should have done:

1. immediately rack the bar, rest for a couple of minutes, get my head back together, and do it again.

2. stop trying to think about too many things. It was bad form to try to change things up for PR week. I know better, but I did it because I knew it was something I was already working on so I felt this was just reinforcing, but alas, it became consuming and other things faltered.

Iron teaches you many things.

It was my goal to get 5 reps, and I’d have been happy with 4. But I’ll have to take 3 reps plus some good lessons.

Bench went really well. I have already been working on fixing my foot placement. I think foot placement is better, but now I just need to work the drive into it more, making it one smooth motion out of the hole. But this was a rep PR, so I’m happy about that. 🙂

Alas, once I moved to assistance work things went ugly. I opted to NOT work chins into my squats but instead just do it as a circuit today. I took a wider grip than usual and also tried to ensure a more complete range of motion. Well, that doomed something in my shoulder and after the 5th rep I had pain in a bad way. Kept working my way through, but it only took 2 reps on face pulls to say “no mas”. It was pain in a bad way and I figured it was better to take my PR and go home. I’m not sure what I did, but it feels like if I could just pop my upper back… a little chiropractic work, a little massage, and I’ll be alright. After a hot shower it feels better, and I’ll see how it progresses through today.

I’m not totally happy with today’s results, but there were lessons learned and so I’ll take those and move on. The journey is an interesting one.