Me

2011-09-21 workout

/ hsoi

Set another PR on bench press.

“Week 2” 3 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Bench Pres (working max: 195#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x5x100
    • 1x3x120
    • 1x3x140 (work)
    • 1x3x160
    • 1x8x180
  • Asst. #1 – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10 x 100
  • Asst. #2 – Dumbbell Row
    • 5 x 10 x 40
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop, tho I did also try running in place

To set a personal record (PR) could be a number of things. If you did more reps with the same weight, that’s “more work” and could constitute a PR. If you did more weight (tho of course slightly less reps), that could constitute a PR as well. If you did more reps and more weight, well, that’s pretty clear. 🙂

On my previous 5/3/1 cycle, the PR was 1x10x175 (with a 180# working max). On this cycle, “week 1” had me do 1x11x170, which one could argue was a PR since I’ve never moved 170 for 11 reps. Well today, I did 1x8x180, which I’ll claim as a PR because I’ve NEVER moved 180# in bench press for any reps, and then to crank out 8 reps with it? Yeah, that’s acceptable. 🙂 Of course, the question then is, am I getting stronger? I think so. Makes me still wonder if I’m under-dosed on what my bench press max really should be.

On the assistance bench, I opted to bump to 100 this workout and that still felt fine to me so… 105 next time. Slow hops.

On the rows I realized that I explode the weight up, but then kinda “drop” it down… not really drop, but there’s not much emphasis on the negative. I need to change that and have a little more work on the negative. I focused on that and the 40# of course worked me harder today. I think I’ll continue with 40 and more negative emphasis before I go up to 45. But this is working nicely.

Jumping rope… I don’t know what gives. It’s like I took a step back in coordination. Geez. But I also tried a round or two of the “running in place” type of jumping… wow, that was a big failure. 😉 So I’m not going to even consider it yet as my workload, but I will try to do a little “running in place” rope jumping every time from now on so I can work out the coordination aspect of it all and get it figured out.

Side note: I’m shopping around for life insurance and of course there’s going to be a medical exam. This should be interesting because my height/weight obviously doesn’t fit the charts, but it’s not because I’m an unhealthy lard butt. As well, what’s my pee test going to look like? For instance, the creatine supplementation. My creatine levels aren’t high because I’m unhealthy, they are because I supplement with it. I’ll probably set the medical appointment out a good week or two then just go off the extra sups, drink lots of water, and try to flush my system a bit so things don’t look too out of whack. I’m not wanting to do this for fear of how it might lower performance, but on the same token I’m looking at it that it could be revealing to see just how much of my performance is in fact coming from the supps. So, it should be an interesting thing to observe.

2011-09-19 workout

/ hsoi

“Week 2” 3 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 275#)
    • 1x5x110 (warmup)
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x165
    • 1x3x195 (work)
    • 1x3x225
    • 1x6x250
  • Asst. #1 – Hyperextensions
    • 1 x 10 x 10
    • 4 x 10 x bw
  • Asst. #2 – Hanging leg raises/curls
    • 5 x 7 x WT
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Today was good. I felt strong on the deadlifts, really keeping my form tighter. Back more flat, no rounding/tucking of the butt at the bottom, chest up, head “straight” (not up, not down, in spinal alignment) and chin kinda pulled back and in. This is making me go a bit deeper, making me use more legs/hips at the start, but that’s all good. I felt strong, and 1x6x250 is good progression.

On the hypers, I started out holding 10# to my chest but something said drop it and just go bodyweight. I did, and glad I did. Oh, even now sitting at home I can still feel the ache in my lower back and butt. I work to go from a hang with some stretch to my lower back/hams, all the way up as far as I can, squeezing and extending myself like a “superman”. That, along with the deadlifts, seems to really make it hurt… certainly after that 10th rep I find myself shaking a bit and needing a few seconds to let my muscles recoup before I can move off the apparatus. So, bodyweight is fine for now.

On the leg raises, I noticed that especially on my first set, there was little swing and I was certainly curling myself up. So, strength here is increasing, which is good. Still a ways to go before I can do 5x15xbw strict, but so long as there’s progress, that’s good.

Oddly on the jump rope today, while I was doing fast hops (about 2 single hops per second), my legs/feet didn’t feel as exhausted afterwards. Not sure why that was. It was an overall hard set, but somehow I didn’t feel as much “burn” in the muscles of my feet. *shrug* Interesting to note.

All in all, a good workout.

2011-09-16 workout

/ hsoi

Set a PR today. Woot!

“Week 2” 3 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Press (working max: 120#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x50
    • 1x5x60
    • 1x3x75
    • 1x3x85 (work)
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x7x110
  • Asst. #1 – Press
    • 5 x 10 x 55
  • Asst. #2 – Wider-grip supinated pulldowns
    • 1x10x100
    • 4x10x110
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

A good day, mostly.

I set a PR on Press, doing 1x7x110. Never put that much weight over my head, and never for that many reps. So, that was pretty cool. I just felt strong today.

Assistance pressing was alright. I think it’s time to bump that to 60#.

On the pulldowns, I’ve been struggling with my shoulders here, finding a grip and position that works. Today, I went back to supinated grip with the hands just slightly wider than shoulder width apart. I noticed if I kept my hands supinated and didn’t let them start to rotate to neutral at the top of the motion, my shoulders were happier. So, there we go. I did one set at 100 trying to back off to be nice, but after noticing that little tweak I bumped to 110 to see how it would go and it felt alright so I kept going. Of course, the real key is ensuring at the top of the motion I do let my shoulders move up/forward and at the bottom of the motion that they’re down and back (feel those shoulder blades pinch) and the bar comes to touch my chest… chest is up, facing towards the ceiling, eyes looking back/up… just like a good chin-up should be.

You know how they say that pain is just weakness leaving the body? Well, jumping rope is just coordination leaving the body… or at least, that’s how it felt today. Just tripping up all over the place. Ugh.

Nevertheless, things felt good. I feel like I’m pushing myself a little harder, certainly striving for more and always trying to increase and do better than before.

A little rifle work

/ hsoi

Slipped away to the gun range this morning.

Hunting season is upon us. Whitetail deer season starts in November (gun), but with the weather cooling down if I wanted to go on a quick hog run I could do that too. Need to get things in order.

The Rifle

My rifle of choice is again my Wilson Combat 6.8 SPC. That’s actually just the upper, the lower is a RRA with their sweet 2-stage trigger; a few other odds and ends on the rifle too. But the key here really is that RRA trigger and the WC upper.

In the past I had shot Silver State Armory‘s 6.8 SPC, 85 grain Barnes TSX, “tac load” and had reasonable success with it. Then I started to hear about Barnes Bullets making a 95 grain TTSX, purpose-built for the 6.8 SPC (i.e. not just another .277″ bullet). Unfortunately, it was only available as a hand-load component, but the handloaders were having great success with it. I fully intended to hand-load for it, but life got in the way and I have been unable to sit at the reloading bench. Since I don’t expect life to let up any time soon, I was hoping someone would make factory loads of the 95 TTSX. Silver State tried it but results weren’t that great.

Then Wilson Combat made one. And the results were excellent.

I was finally able to put in an order for some, had to wait for the backorder to be filled, but a couple of weeks ago 4 boxes arrived. Huzzah! It’s my hope this will be THE round that I can use for all my hunting needs (deer, hog, etc.).

On top of that, the old Burris Fulfield II 3-9×40 I had well… I’ve long been suspecting the scope is broken. I’m no Marine Sniper with my rifle, but I can shoot and hit things, but any time I’d shoot with this scope I’d have problems, but not consistent problems. I loosely poked at it a few times to see, but results were always inconclusive. Still, being convinced that it’s broken I bought a new scope: a Leupold VX-R 3-9×50, and mounted it with a LaRue QD LT-104. While this gun doesn’t (yet) have iron sights on it, I want to get some because well… while it’s still just a hunting rifle, it would suck to have my weekend go kaput because of a failed scope.

I’ve been itching to get her zeroed in and finally was able to do so this morning.

The Performance

Since it’s my hope for the 95 to be my go-to round, but I still had a bunch of 85 around, I figured to start off with the 85 to get the scope roughly dialed in. I was happy to see that windage was centered and elevation wasn’t off by much. A few clicks of the knobs, recheck it at 100 yards and it was good enough to switch to the 95.

Here’s a sample of the Wilson Combat 6.8 SPC 95 grain Barnes TTSX ammo. 3 shots, 100 yards, out of my Wilson upper:

And I’m sure a better rifleman could do better. I’ll take that tho. 3 shots, under an inch at 100 yards. And technically these Barnes bullets aren’t “match” bullets, they are hunting rounds. So, good enough.

I did a little more shooting with the Wilson ammo to check point of impact at 25 and 50 yards, and they were about the places expected. All seems good. AND, everything shot consistently and as expected.

But then….

The Other Scope

I put the Burris onto a 5.56 upper. My feeling was I could at least use that for some plinking… to help the kiddos get used to the form factor of the rifle, the trigger, and so on, with just a simple upper swap.

The ammo was just some Georgia Arms .223 55 grain plinking stuff, so not the best, but it’s not unreasonable.

However, everything was all over the map.

I started at 25 yards for a rough zero, was a couple of inches off zero, so I dialed it to zero and it seemed good. In fact, I figured I should crank it about an inch low at 25 yards to try to have more of a zero impact at 100 yards. Whatever I adjusted it to tho, the point was that I adjusted the elevation so the point of impact would go down.

When I shot at 100 yards? The point of impact was about 4-5 inches high! Eh? And rather a wide spread too. I cranked the elevation down more and shot, and it seemed spot on. I then tried shooting the bottom-right diamond and was shooting a little low right. Then I cranked the magnification up to 9x (from 5x) and shot the bottom-left diamond… and those shots were about 2″ low and made a nice horizontal “line” about 4-5″ wide along the bottom of the target.

WTF?

Now sure, this isn’t match grade ammo, but it shouldn’t perform like that. And this barrel is a nice stainless 1:8 Wylde barrel that every other time I’ve shot it, even with this ammo, has performed excellent. So this?? This makes no sense to me, but it’s continuing to reinforce my feeling that the scope is fubar. I’d really need to sit down and do more scientific-like testing to be sure, but I’m getting more convinced it’s screwed up.

I’m not going to blame Burris or swear off their products because I have no solid knowledge yet if it is a messed up scope and then if it is, what caused it to get messed up. But I am going to go back and look at their warranty again….

And so…

Anyways, I feel the 6.8 is in shape and ready for action. Next up, taking the Kiddos to the range to let them try it out.

And yes… I’d love to see about a quick little harvest/hunt to see how she does in the field. 🙂

Addendum

I posted, then I realized I didn’t mention a few things I wanted to say.

The Leupold scope. The more I look through it, the more I love it. Compared to the Burris? No question, the Leupold is better. Crisper picture, brighter picture. Sure the Burris isn’t bad in this areas, but the Leupold was obviously a step up. Very happy there.

The Wilson ammo… I still need to do some work with it, like I’d love to run it over a chronograph. Wilson reports 2850 fps out of a 16″ barrel. Well, I have a 16″ barrel, and it just so happens I have a Wilson barrel so… I would expect to get 2850 fps, but it’d be nice to know what was really happening. I will say, shooting the SSA 85 grain tac load then shooting the Wilson load? The Wilson load felt like there was a little more oomph at the beginning… I certainly recall hearing more rattle in the buffer spring. It’d also be cool to see some gel performance of this particular load, but I don’t expect to do that myself nor see it any time soon.

2011-09-14 workout

/ hsoi

The only way to get good at the things you hate is to keep doing them until you don’t hate them any more. So with that, today was squat day. 🙂

“Week 1” 5 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Squats (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x5x150 (work)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x7x200
  • Asst. #1 – Squats
    • 5 x 10 x 85
  • Asst. #2 – Leg Curls
    • 5 x 10 x 40
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

I don’t look forward to squat days, but I’m always appreciative of them when I’m done. Certainly of the 4 big lifts, it’s my least favorite, but I know it’s the #1 at making you overall bigger and stronger. So, you do it.

I’m happy I was able to crank out 7 with 200#, since that’s 1 more than the last time I did 200#, which would have been on “week 2” of the previous cycle. So, that’s alright. Form continues to improve, giving myself the cues of “chest up” and “torso tight”. Unfortunately I then realize I lose shoulder tightness, so I have to work on that. I also have been working more on keeping my eyes at a “higher plane”. The issue is, most of the equipment in the gym is up against walls so trying to look at a spot on the ground 6′-8′ in front of you doesn’t really happen, so I’ve been looking further down than I should. When I pick a spot on the wall that’s not as far down, my head still stays down but not as much, and that appears to be helping. Helps with the “chest up”.

I get a good burn (I hate that term) on my assistance squats, and while 85 is pushing me I think it’s time to bump that up. I’ll likely go to 90 next workout. 1 minute in between sets here really gets my heart pumping.

I’m also glad I made the on-the-spot choice to take leg curls up to 40# because that worked me nicely. I do think 45# next time, along with the squat assistance weight bump, should leave my hamstrings good and sore. 😉

On the jump rope… I realized, I don’t need to add a second set. I need to make my 1 set more intense. I worked to jump faster today, averaging about 2 hops per second, which was hard to do after killing my legs on the squats and curls. But that’s what I need. I also think that perhaps I should start to change technique from hops to “running in place”, which will likely require me to back off while I learn the skill, but that’s alright because I reckon that’ll be a better workout in the long run. I may try starting on that next workout.

Anyways, today was alright. Need more red meat tho. 🙂

Supplement experimenting

/ hsoi

I know some people are going to give me flack for this, but whatever. 🙂

If you get into the world of weightlifting, without a doubt you’ll be hit with the avalanche of supplementation. All sorts of promises to help you get bigger, stronger, faster, and shed fat, be sexy, feared and envied by men, and women will swoon at your rippling pecs… if you just take our product.

And of course, most of it is hype and bullshit. I mean, not just the marketing, but the products too.

On the whole, you don’t NEED supplements because they are just that: supplements. They are not and should not be the core of your intake. Eating right, eating a lot (in my case, to gain muscle and strength), is really the core of it. Nevertheless, there are some things one can and should do, if you can, to help that out.

A multivitamin is good, just to ensure there’s no shortage of anything. Plus, you likely need extra to help do all you do.

Fish oil is well recommended for numerous reasons. In this realm, it’s especially recommended due to the anti-inflamatory properties, which is helpful for your joints. I used to take just one or two 1000 mg capsules a day, but once I jumped up to 6000 mg (which gives you a little over 1g of the EPA and DHA), I did notice a marked improvement in how my joints felt. I’ve been experimenting with amounts and taking 3 capsules in the morning and 3 in the evening seems to work for me.

Whey protein. Because it digests fast, so it’s good pre- and post- workout to get some stuff in me. I use it mostly for that, tho sometimes if I’m crunched for time I might just swig some down because it is fast.

Creatine monohydrate. CreaPure stuff. Because there’s enough research out there to say there’s little reason not to do it if you can.

Those really are about the core for one to take. Beyond that, it all gets gray.

I thought about trying some other things, like glutamine or BCAA’s, but reading things like this and some other things well… I’m not sure if there’s much benefit beyond the copious amounts of protein I’m taking in as it is, both from whey and from beef, chicken, pork, venison, fish, etc..

And really… I have to admit that after a couple of decades of being inundated by the more esoteric stuff well… damnit, I think I’m just going to satisfy some curiosity after all these years. Yeah, I reckon most of it is crap because there’s minimal science, a lot of promise and hype, and it’s mostly bro-science. But I’d like to try, and I’m willing to be semi-experimental and semi-scientific in it. I say semi because it won’t be strict, I only have me so there’s only so much “control” and comparison here. But hey, why the hell not. Life’s short and I finally wish to scratch this itch after all these years. It’s the 16-year-old in me, I guess. 🙂  I’ll be honest: if something can improve performance, why not? I don’t want to do anything harmful, but as humans we’re always looking for an edge. I will say there’s a difference between “edge” and “shortcut” and I know there are no shortcuts: you still have to eat well and lift heavy. But if something can help, we humans are always looking for an edge.

After much poking around I figured hey… let’s try a pre-workout supplement, like Jack3d. I do figure a lot will be bunk, but why not.

I’ve been taking it slowly. Start at 1 scoop, see how I feel. Then go up 1/2 scoop at a time and see how it goes. I’ve even been taking it on non-workout days just to see how it makes me feel. I’m certainly not overdoing it, but I am curious to watch and feel the effects and if it’s doing anything for me.

I’ve only been using it a couple of weeks now and well…. I’m not sure I’m sold on it, tho I think it’ll take a few more weeks and maybe a second tub before I’ll feel I have enough personal data. Today I tried 2.5 scoops and well, I think that’s why I felt “odd” during my workout. I did feel like I could move mountains, but then, I put the bar in my hands and felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I was there, but I was out to lunch. It’s hard to describe, but 2.5 scoops put me in a realm that seems like “too much”. But as well, I’ve been a bit off, slept a lot over this past weekend, so maybe I’m just out of it otherwise? It’s hard to say, need more data.

I certainly don’t feel the marketing hype, which I expected. I would have been surprised to get those “sick pumps” where it felt like my muscles were ready to rip out of my skin. Frankly I’m getting good pumps, but it doesn’t feel any more or less than without the stuff. Could I be moving more weight? That’s still to be determined, once I go off the stuff. The jury is still out, but data so far is… interesting, mostly in terms of how it makes my head feel.

Who knows. I am probably a fool parting with my money, but that’s ok. Life’s short and I’m curious. Once I’m done with this stuff, I do plan to try some other things because well… I’m curious. What? I don’t know. Figure that out when I get there.

2011-09-12 workout

/ hsoi

Today was… odd.

“Week 1” – 5 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 195#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x5x100
    • 1x3x120
    • 1x5x130 (work)
    • 1x5x150
    • 1x11x170
  • Asst. #1 – bench press
    • 5 x 10 x 95
  • Asst. #2 – 1 arm dumbbell rows
    • 5 x 10 x 40
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

Today was a little odd for me. I’m not sure exactly where it came from but my head was there but not there today. I felt like I could move mountains, yet when the weight was in my hand it was like I forgot how to move it. That last work set on the bench press felt like the sloppiest damn thing in the world and I could only crank out 11 reps and even that felt like I was going to drop the bar and kill myself. I have some theories, which I’ll discuss at another time.

Nevertheless, the workout was what it was. Not too bad really. I do think the assistance weight on bench can go up to 100# to ensure progressive stress. 40# was good on the rows, as I had to do a little cheat on the last reps of the last sets to ensure I got the sets and reps in.

I’ll discuss the other stuff later.

Another 2 years

/ hsoi

Today’s mail contained an envelope from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

It was my Concealed Handgun Instructor Certificate certifying me to teach the Texas CHL course through the end of 2013.

As noted before, there’ve been some recent program changes for the instructors. I had my paperwork in order, so once DPS got their stuff together, it was no problem on my end.

DPS has had a lot of bumps as they’ve worked to modernize their process for applications, renewals, and other such administrative tasks. It’s still not perfect, but I’ll give them credit for working on it and working in what appears to be the right direction.

 

Being prepared – bug out bag

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

If there’s anything this wildfire situation has demonstrated, it’s that I’m not as prepared as I thought I was.

Sure, we have some preparations in place for sitting tight, like if bad weather rolled through, could we sit tight on the homefront with extra water, food and so on. There are certainly some areas here where we could tighten things up, but we’re alright.

But we’re just not as prepared to bail if we have to. We thought we were, we’re not.

Oh sure, we can get it together, but consider the fires. Here’s raw footage from the Bastrop fires showing how fast a fire can spread:

If a fire broke out in the greenbelt behind our house, we have to leave NOW. Can we do that? Well, we can leave, but we’d be almost empty-handed.

I’ve looked into the concept of “bug-out-bags” for a while, but it was something that always got pushed down the priority list because other things took greater priority. But now? No… it can’t be a lower priority any more: it has to be up at the top.

The helpful thing? Wife has bought into the concept. I have to admit, that it’s sometimes hard to get things going in the household when I’m the only one that buys into it. But if Wife buys into it too, that helps the Kiddos buy into it, and so when everyone’s behind it, things have a better chance of getting done and staying a priority. Plus I think the reality of the fires made things more concrete for the kids, because well… they’re kids, they just don’t have the life experience to put things into perspective, but this sure gave them that perspective.

So, we’re going to be picking up our prep efforts in this area. Building bug-out-bags, and just being prepared. Because well… we hope to never need them, but we’ll be so thankful to have them if we do. It’s just like anything in life: the better prepared you are for when something happens — especially something that catches you by surprise — the better off you’ll be.

2011-09-09 workout

/ hsoi

“Week 1” – 5 reps

  • 5/3/1 – Deadlift (working max: 275#)
    • 1x5x110 (warmup)
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x165
    • 1x5x180 (work)
    • 1x5x210
    • 1x6x235
  • Asst. #1 – Hyperextensions
    • 5 x 10 x BW
  • Asst. #2 – Hanging Knee Raises
    • 5 x 7 x BW
  • Metcon – jump rope
    • 1 Tabata set – all single hop

First deadlift of the new 5/3/1 cycle. Bumped my working max up the prescribed 10#.

My main focus was really working to keep my back straight, and not just straight, but rigid. Keeping proper “flatness” to the spine, keeping the torso very firm and rigid by better use of Valsalva Manuver. It worked well, I feel better, tho a lot more worked. I certainly had to squat deeper too, which makes sense since lacking the rounding in my lower back well… gotta get down there. It was more noticeable when I would lower the weight. It just changes the whole track of the movement, where the bar goes. It’s all good, and likely why I only got 6 reps with 235# because it’s just stricter. All good tho.

Then I moved to hyperextensions. This is my first break from the “boring but big” approach. I wanted to do this specifically to help address my back issues and “posterior chain” stuff. I opted to start with just bodyweight, and that was good because certainly my chain was worked from the deadlifts and bw was certainly a good start. I would let myself go from a total hang (and feel the stretch in my hamstrings) to as high up as I could get and squeeze myself, feeling that in my hamstrings and butt and back. All good. I’ll probably slowly work to add some weight, like 10# at a time. But no rush.

I really missed doing the hanging leg raises. My shoulder felt better, but really what I love? How it works my grip and forearms — they get a nice pump. 🙂

On the jump rope, I certainly think it’s time to consider a second set. My coordination is good and I can make it through without stumbling. My rate is a bit faster, maybe 30-35 skips per rep tho I don’t know for sure — I tried to count on one set and thinking about it caused me to stumble. It’s better when I just skip and don’t think about it, but the point is I’m picking up the pace, able to stay at that pace through all 8 reps, and while feeling worked not feeling so beat dead at the end of it, especially in the muscles of my feet. Going to let this firm up a bit before I go to the second set, but yeah, a second set is in my near future.

Really felt good today. Really worked my back so I may be feeling it come Sunday. Just eat more!