Me

2011-06-13 workout

/ hsoi

Got to the gym early this morning, lots more people (to be expected at that hour). A quick look around and everyone was either on cardio machines or weight machines. The squat rack was collecting dust. Excellent! 🙂

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (empty bar warmup)
  • 1x5x50
  • 1x3x80
  • 1x2x105
  • 3x5x135 (work)

OK, silly male ego time, but it felt cool to be squatting with the 45# plates on the bar. 🙂 Rest between warmup sets was just enough to change plates. Rest between work sets I didn’t time, but was around 3-4 minutes… not much but still a little more than I usually do. For me, to consider a 5 minute wait between sets is difficult to do because geez… what do you do during that time? I don’t go to the gym to socialize, I want to stay in my mental zone, I do poke a bit at my iPhone to check Facebook or Twitter or something, but that’s “light” and doesn’t bug me much. One can only pace the gym so much or just sit and stand around… but I guess I’ll learn to get over it. 🙂  I mean, I’m making it to 3-4 minutes now so I guess that’s progress. 😉  Just not used to it, just breaking old habits.

Press

  • 2x5x45 (empty bar warmup)
  • 1x5x45 (formula calculated this to 35# but that’s not going to happen, so I just used the empty bar again)
  • 1x3x45
  • 1x2x55
  • 3x5x70 (work)

I couldn’t remember if I did 2 or 3 work sets, so I just pounded out another to be sure. In doing the presses I found not only better form than last time, but I also was exploding upwards. That pointed out to me that I wasn’t as explosive as I should have been during squats.

I’m noticing in both my squat and my press that I was favoring my right side. Stands to reason, but being aware of it I can work to stop it and work to have my form more balanced.

Chin-ups

  • 1x8xbodyweight
  • 1x7xbodyweight
  • 1x5xbodyweight

Since I’m still doing the inverted rows hanging off a low-pegged Smith machine bar, I’m finding better body positioning. That is, in that setup the body doesn’t have much room to move or adjust itself since you have hands on a bar that doesn’t rotate and feet (heels) in contact with the floor. But I’m working on the mechanics a bit, finding a better position that works through the whole range of motion. So that said, I was able to get just about every rep with my chest to the bar and chin above the bar, save the last rep of each set which I just pushed out because, as I mentioned previously, I’m remembering the negative… when I go down it doesn’t need to be uber-slow, just a bit slower than the up and that I’m still focusing on the muscles during that motion.

Overall, the workout felt good. Yes, squat weights are feeling heavier and there’s some mental games going on in my head saying “whoa… you shouldn’t be doing this… that’s fucking heavy!” but it’s only heavier than I’ve done before and in the end my body can handle it. It’s all in my head. I need to ensure I keep focused on form, especially during the warmups. I know when I came into the gym I was a little distracted because on my walk to the gym I was thinking about my day ahead and didn’t start thinking about the workout until I was almost there. But once I got into things I was there and good and frankly, if I hadn’t figured out my day that would have nagged and distracted me during the workout. It’s just me, so I got it out of the way up front.

I keep feeling like I could do more weight, more sets, more reps, but that’s not the point of the program. Just be slow and steady, slow and steady. Hell, if I can keep up this 10# increase per workout in my squats, I’ll be squatting over 200# for reps by the end of the month. No idea how I will progress and if that’s a realistic expectation, but even if not by the end of the month, it’s not like it’s years away or even months… maybe month or two. So, just stay slow and steady, in into the gym, do my business, get out of the gym, feed myself well, and lots and lots of rest.

Next workout… deadlifts. Can’t wait!

Veggies bought

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Earlier I wrote about our new veggie experiment.

We just returned from picking them up.

I have mixed emotions. 🙂

First, we see the box. It’s full. We open it. The smell of fresh basil overwhelms you.

Bliss. 🙂

Then you start to look through the box and… I felt a little disappointed. I mean, when you look at the pictures it seems like this bounty. And well, it is… but there’s no size reference, and so, everything’s small.

There’s no way this box will last a family of 5 for a week. Maybe a couple of days?

But I think I’m jaded by huge commercial, massive fertilizer, hormone pumped blah blah blah… so I’m expecting huge stuff. I mean, we’ve got a cucumber in the fridge from the HEB and putting that next to one of the cukes we picked up? It’s David and Goliath.

Then… I cut into a tomato.

O…M…G….

But this I knew. The flavor was wonderful, so much better than you’d get at the big store. But again, I knew this would be the case. If in fact the veggies were picked this morning for pick up today? Heck, can’t get much fresher than that.

I want this. Yes I do. Honestly tho, we’d probably need 2 boxes to feed the family. But wow… $66/week on veggies ($33/box)? Granted, Wife does the grocery shopping so I’m detached from the cost of such things, but it just seems expensive.

But at least now we KNOW what comes in the box. Wife needs to go to the grocery store tomorrow for some stuff anyways, and she’s been tasked with trying to do as much of an apples-to-apples comparison of what we got in the box vs. the prices of stuff in the store. It’ll have to be a guesstimate, since say I doubt HEB will have purple bell peppers. But, we’ll do the best estimating possible. If it comes out to being say $10 for all that? IMHO that’s not worth it since that’s a huge amount of money per month. But if it’s say $28 or more at HEB for the same? I’m fine with that price because it’s close enough, it’s better quality produce, better flavor, and all the other joys of it.

Hey… I’m head of the household and the money man, so I have to worry about these things. 🙂

Still… that tomato was sure yummy. Wife’s preparing supper as I type this. I can’t wait to see what she makes. 🙂

2011-06-10 workout

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Back from the gym. Good day. Gym was a bit busier than usual, but it was no problem for me. Most people there were using machines or cardio stuff. Squat rack and bench were all mine. Works for me!

Here’s the breakdown:

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (bar only warmup)
  • 1x5x50 (warmup)
  • 1x3x75 (warmup)
  • 1x2x100 (warmup
  • 3x5x125 (work)

Set felt good. I remember on the previous workout that I put the bar on my back and felt “whoa! that’s heavy”. This time, yes I felt weight up there, but it just didn’t feel “heavy”… no dialogue in my brain going “oh shit! what are you doing!”. 🙂

Form is feeling good. I’m getting more comfortable with the form and style, especially the low-bar squat. I still have a way to go on form, but I’m getting there. Will watch the DVD again to pick up on things I missed the first time around, refine, etc..

Bench Press

  • 2x5x45 (bar only warmup)
  • 1x5x75 (warmup – I screwed up, should have been 60 but my “plate math” wasn’t working)
  • 1x3x75 (warmup – Should have been 80, but I couldn’t get to the 2.5# plates and at just 5# of difference and this was a warmup set? Meh… just went with it)
  • 1x2x100 (warmup)
  • 3x5x125 (work)

My first work set wasn’t kind to my right wrist. I’ve banged up that wrist pretty bad over the years (martial arts), but I know what the problem was: I wasn’t setting the bar correctly in my hand. I corrected and was just fine on the last 2 sets.

Another habit to break? You’re supposed to hold your shoulders back, like the shoulder blades touching as if trying to hold something between them. Well, I used to try to push my pecs forward, like doing a shrug, in an effort to really work the pectoral muscle. That’s not desired here, and while I wasn’t working on doing that, certainly my arms and body are used to pushing further out (there’s range of motion still in there, technically). Of course, with heavier weights this will stop on its own. 😉 Still, it’s a form issue that I am aware of and will just have to work to break the habit.

So: mind bar position in the hands, squeeze the bar with the hands, keep shoulders back.

Pull-ups

  • 1x9xbodyweight
  • 1x6xbodyweight
  • 1x5xbodyweight

Note: Monday was chin-ups (palms towards you) and today is pull-ups (palms away). This is intentional.

These actually felt a lot easier than Monday’s chin-ups, not sure what that says. One thing I noticed was how fast I was moving. I need to slow down… at least, going down. When I pull/chin up, sure, explode up there. But on the way back down, I need to go slower than I did going up. If I focus a little more on the negative motion, that’s going to help build the strength. I’m not dropping down (my shoulders and elbows would hate me), but I should slow down more.

And again here, squeeze the bar with my hands.

So that’s really the big thing from this workout: form is becoming more comfortable, but still a long ways to go. I’ll watch the DVD again and re-read the relevant pages from the Starting Strength book to mind my form details. I’m aware of my grip, but not aware enough… squeeze the dickens out of the bar, leave fingerprints in it. And don’t forget the negatives on the chin-/pull-ups.

Feel good!

2011-06-08 workout

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Today’s workout was another “first workout”. The exercises were squat, press, and deadlift.

While Monday’s workout didn’t have me leaving the gym feeling exhausted, I did feel worked. And no question, I worked something given the muscle soreness I had. 😉  Worst? my thigh adductors. The form Rippetoe describes for the squat brings those into play, which is good. But walking to the gym helped to warm things up and the first set of squats helped further warm and stretch things out. Felt fine after that.

It felt kinda funny today to spend it all at the squat rack, but that’s how it goes. 🙂

Went like this:

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (bar-only warmup, every exercise starts this way)
  • 1x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x3x65 (warmup)
  • 1x2x95 (warmup, calculations should have been 90, but “plate math” was easier to just go 95)
  • 3x5x115 (work)

This was my second time squatting, so now I can actually follow the routine. The pattern will basically be like this, where I figure out what the work weight will be (right now, I’m going up 10# each workout, so Friday I’ll be doing 125# for my 3×5 work sets), and then the warmups are basically: 2×5 bar only, 1×5 40% of work weight, 1×3 60% work weight, 1×2 80% work weight. Those warm ups are good. Using the bar only helped me to get stretched and limber (esp. given my soreness) and also to just remember to work on form. I did recall the last warmup set thinking “ok, this is a little heavy”, and that’s what it should be: that it’s easy to do, but it mentally prepares you for the heavy that’s about to come. And sure enough, I put the 115 on my back and my brain went “whoa! cool!”. 🙂

I’m still getting used to the low-bar position, but I did much better with it today. The flexibility will come, just have to keep remembering to pull my elbow back to make the padding/pocket for the bar to rest on.

I felt worked, but not exhausted. The work sets weren’t killer, so I know I’ve still got big progression in me for a bit longer.

Rest? I didn’t rest much during the warmups… just enough to figure out the plates I needed and put them on. I don’t recall how much I did rest between the work sets, but probably 2-3-ish minutes. I just recall making sure I felt fresh and like I could do it.

Press

  • 1x5x45
  • 1x5x55
  • 4x5x65

This was my first press, so I started with the empty bar and went up 10# each set. When I hit 65# I thought that was good enough to start with. I did feel like I could have done more, but I realized as I was going along that I was forgetting some key things about my form, like moving back under the bar as soon as it clears your head. Just a lot of points to remember and I didn’t remember them all, tho that one was probably more key than any others. Basically by the 4th set I’d remember it on my 2nd rep and finish out the last 3 reps properly. That also got the squeeze at the top, like you never stop pressing. I opted to do a 4th set just to help reinforce the movement and form.

The weight is conservative, but that’s fine. I need to get form right. Weight will come.

Deadlift

  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x105
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x125
  • 1x5x135

This was my first deadlift, so again it was just a basic 10# progression. I started at 95# tho because of the nature of the deadlift: needing to have the bar somewhat off the floor. The gym has 25# and 45# plates, so I figured to just start at 95# and that’d get me going. I probably should have put some risers underneath the plates to bring them to 45-plate height, but meh… I’m not sweating it. Yes I noticed form was a lot better on the 135 due in part to the height of the bar, and if the gym had bumper plates I’d use them. But, I’ll manage. Besides, it gets me to stretch my hamstrings a little more, which is good.

Another case of feeling like I could have done more, but again, let’s be conservative. This is one where I need to spend more time working on my form. I wasn’t bad, but I betcha a video of the lifts would have been ugly. 😉  I got better as I went along, but basically I need to review the DVD and book again on press and deadlift form, do more “dry work” at home (I have a 6′ rattan staff from my Kuk Sool days, which offers no weight, but it’s a bar and enough to help me work on form). I’ll get there.

Overall, the workout was good. I’m trying to be conservative, focus on form, and that weight and such will come in time.  I do like the utter simplicity of this workout plan. And that it’s so proven and tested gives me a lot to look forward to.

 

2011-06-06 workout

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Finally! Back to the gym. I can’t remember the last time I looked so forward to going to the gym (any gym, be it weights or martial arts). I’ve been really looking forward to starting Starting Strength. And today I did.

I’ve been reading the Starting Strength book and watching the DVD. I haven’t gotten through all of it yet, I wanted to focus on what was needed at the time: squat and bench press, as that’s todays workout. Between now and Wednesday I need to read and watch press and deadlift. But it was evident that the true SS program wouldn’t work for me, primarily because the gym I go to just doesn’t have the space nor proper equipment setup for doing power cleans. Shame. So instead, I’m doing Rippetoe’s Practical Programming novice routine. You can quickly see the programs at the SS wikia. But as well, I can’t do the PP routine exactly as-is either because I can’t do chin-ups/pull-ups because I’m just not strong enough. So instead, I’m doing inverted rows, which are a recommended exercise for building the strength needed to do full-fledged chin/pull-ups. I put the Smith machine on the 3rd peg from the bottom, which is just enough to allow me to hang with my back just off the ground, feet on the floor. Once I can do 3×15 of that, I’ll reevaluate my strength and determine from there what to do.

Today, being the first day, is about determining weights. Start with an empty bar, do a set of 5 reps, move up in 10# increments, lather/rinse/repeat until the speed of the bar slows down, there’s your weight, do 2 more sets and you’re done. Next workout will move up from there.

Here’s how things went for me (hrm… wordpress.com’s nested list support seems to be screwed up… even if you edit in raw HTML mode it reformats and screw things up).

Squat

  • 1x5x45
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x95
  • 3x5x105

Bench press

  • 1x5x45
  • 1x5x55
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x105
  • 3x5x115

Inverted rows (chin-up position)

  • 1x7x0 (bodyweight)
  • 1x6x0 (bodyweight)
  • 1x4x0 (bodyweight

One thing to note is rest periods: I didn’t do much. If I’m reading Rippetoe correctly, there isn’t any sort of hard line about how much rest to take between sets: it’s whatever is necessary. During the warm-ups sets you may only need enough time to change the weight on the bar then get back to it. During the work sets, you may need 3 or 5 or 7 or more minutes between sets. The bottom line seems to be, take whatever rest you need (within reason) to get the 5 reps. Since this is my first workout, I don’t really know where things lie, so I just kept moving: do 5, change the weight, get back under the bar. Once I got to a point where I felt “ok, this is the work weight” I took a little more time between sets, but never more than 2 minutes. Is this too little rest time? Well, probably. At this stage of the game, no it’s not. It’s constantly pounded into you to be humble, don’t let ego drive you — realize that on this program, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be lifting heavy ego-satisfying weights, so just be patient. It’s better to start too low than too high. So I figured the worst that could happen from too little rest between sets is I might not get as high a weight as I could, but I saw no harm in this. I’m trying to be conservative. That said, things will change now that I know my starting weights.

Yes, my squats were less than my bench, which isn’t how it should be, but not unheard of for a n00b. I actually felt like I could have done a lot more, but again, let’s err on the conservative side. Plus, Rippetoe keeps saying that 85# is a typical starting point for most people, and kinda pounded on getting too far from that to start isn’t good. I wasn’t sure if that was for pure novices or what (because before my layoff I was doing 105 for a lot more reps, so certainly I know I could do more), but again… screw it, be conservative. I’m going to go up 10# a workout and you do squats every workout, so I’ll get up there in no time.

I did my best to stay with form that Rippetoe lays out. Makes a big difference! Of course, I still have a lot to refine and work on, but boy…. I could tell. It did feel odd in some respects, but it felt better in others. For instance, I’ve been doing high-bar squats and having a dog of a time getting the weight off the balls of my feet. Trying low-bar squats now feels so much better, so much more balance, but it’s also rather awkward since it’s a new movement. Plus, it’s going to take a few weeks for my arms and shoulders to get more flexible to have them pulled closer together and further back; wasn’t bad today, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.

I also need to get used to the Valsalva Maneuver. Spent all my life doing the “exhale on the exertion, inhale on the return” and I need to overcome that habit. There was a lot of stuff today to have to think about, so I tried to focus on the main things e.g. in squat to lift with my hips, but then I’d forget to do things like stare at the floor in front of me. I’ll get it all eventually, which is another good reason for not just warm-up sets but also starting light.

I got in and out of the gym pretty quickly too. I liked that! I know that won’t last, that workouts will get longer, but still it’s nice to get in and get out.

Anyways, I’m digging this. Progress should be slow and steady, but I’m sure will get more interesting in a few weeks.

A few random notes to myself:

  • on the bench press, putting my ring finger at the “groove” in the knurling gives me the best range of motion
  • watch your head on the squat rack. 🙂
  • 3rd peg from the bottom of the Smith machine for the rows
  • I might want to find out an iPod solution, because I’ll need something to do in between those long sets. 🙂
Can’t wait for Wednesday.

Too much marketing

/ hsoi

I mentioned I’m changing my fitness goals. At first I thought doing the StrongLifts5x5 would be good, but then I changed my mind and I’m going with Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. I mentioned “less hype-y bullshit” and given what came in my inbox I want to expand upon that notion.

In order to get the SL5x5 program you have to give the guy your email address. That’s the first sign of marketing. But, I bite and give it to him. I then get an email with a link to the “Secret 5×5 report”. When I download the report it’s a 211 page PDF. And boy, when you get it, it’s a lot of marketing chaff and not a lot of wheat. Heck, starting on page 66 and going to page 207 is nothing but testimonials. Page 2 to 33 is a lot more marketing hype, which isn’t all crap, but just read how it’s put together and he’s being a total pitch-man as to why this approach — and his approach — are awesome and the be-all-end-all. Do the math there on page count and you can see there’s little wheat amongst lots of marketing chaff.

Each day I’ve been getting an email, and it’s always trying to be a tidbit of information, but then a P.S. with some sort of tease about what’s yet to come. I did wonder where his promised tracker spreadsheet was, and the emails finally started to say “it’s coming”. And so this morning I get the “here’s the spreadsheet” email (which of course has a P.S. about more information still to come, just stay tuned!)

And what happens? You go here and it’s a big survey. Yeah, you can’t get something for nothing… you want his spreadsheet, you need to answer his questions.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The StrongLifts.com website is a decent website with some good information. There are lots of articles, there’s even a forum… but why is the forum closed to new members? Oh I see, because if you want to join you have to give him your email address. Plus, it makes it seem more exclusive and somehow better. Marketing crap. I see nothing wrong with how someone wants to run their business. He’s doing nothing wrong, I just find what he’s doing annoying. This style of marketing bugs me because well… it doesn’t come across as genuine, just as some guy trying to pitch and sell and make money. I see nothing wrong with making money, but there’s an air of “slime” in this approach that just doesn’t sit with me. Front Sight does this as well, and it bugged me there too. USCCA did it too, but I hear they’ve gotten better. Heck, even some of the marketing stuff done by my day job company bugs me. It doesn’t mean the product vended isn’t good, but the way it’s gone about doesn’t sit well with me. It comes across like their priorities in life are backwards, but they’re just backwards from mine.

But that’s me. Here I am writing on my blog about lots of topics, and I’m more than willing to give a lot of good information away for free. Why? I’m more a teacher than a marketer. I’m more out to educate people than to get rich. I don’t feel a need to charge people or that I always have to get something that benefits me before I’ll give you something that benefits you. Some people would probably call me stupid for doing that, but I know what I’ve reaped based upon what I’ve sown and the yield is high.

Starting Starting Strength

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

I’m glad I opted to not do much “work” over the long weekend, because it gave me a lot of time and ability to read, to think, rethink, and reevaluate.

I am changing my fitness goals and I do believe a more straight-up strength training program is in the cards for me. No matter what, it seems that route will lead me closer to where and what I want. My goals may change again later on: maybe I realize I didn’t want this, that I don’t like it, that I want something totally different, or this is good but just needs refinement or has a hole that I need to fill. Either way, the bottom line is to shut up and lift.

Before I can lift, I need to figure out how.

While originally I was leaning towards the StrongLifts 5×5 method, I’m thinking I may instead do the “original” system of Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”. I ordered his books and DVD, and since he’s up in Wichita Falls I reckon the should get here within a few days. Meantime, I’ve been reading through the SS wikia. Why his? Frankly, there’s more information and a lot less hype-y bullshit. It’s old-school, proven, and straightforward. Plus, there’s a lot more support and resources for learning how to do things right, which is key. Just watching some YouTube videos of Rippetoe discussing proper form on squat taught me a LOT that I didn’t know, and apparently a lot of people don’t know since I’ve obviously gotten a lot of wrong advice over the years.

The one catch? I will not be able to do the original SS program (A – squat/bench/deadlift, B – squat/press/power cleans). Instead, what I’m going to have to do is his Practical Programming Novice program: Mon – squat/bench/chin-ups, Wed – Squat/press/deadlift, Fri- squat/bench/pull-ups. Why? There’s just no way at the gym I go to that I can do the power cleans. Not enough room, consideration for other patrons, etc.; if you saw the gym, you’d understand. Kinda sucks, but there we go. I’m actually not even sure how deadlifting will work out given the room factor. Regardless, I think things should work out alright.

Another thing I’ve decided is to fully track my progress here, including weights. There’s an ego thing involved for sure because hey… we’re men, we’re supposed to be strong, and lifting weights less than 3 digits (or really, 135#… meaning a proper olympic bar with 2 45# plates) is a hit to the male ego. To post that today I only benched 85# is like proclaiming to the world in a tangible, measurable way how wussy I am. But… screw it. We all have to start somewhere. My strength is what it is. The difference? I’m doing something about it. If this program works out as it should, I’ll be putting on more weight every workout, I’ll be growing stronger by the day, and it won’t be all that long before I stop working with “wussy weight” and am moving around more weight than I ever imagined. But I have to be humble. I must check my ego. I must remember the long-haul. In the end, it will all pay off.

Getting concrete…. I may stay out of the gym this week and instead work on form and movement at home. Why? Well, one simple thing is I just gave blood so I need to wait a few days to let me arm heal up. But more importantly, I still have a lot of information to digest. Plus, it’s difficult to refer to my laptop while in the gym. Instead, I can watch videos, read instructions, and work on the basics at home so I’m not wasting time (mine and of others) in the gym. Mental. Visualization. Preparation. Get it right, get form down. That’s been my biggest issue so far, so why continue to fuck around and do it wrong?

Onwards and upwards.

Lack of fitness, but a change of goals?

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I must like going to the gym because I hate that I haven’t worked out in over 2 weeks. I caught something (I’m thinking when I went to the Lazarus A.D. show), sore throat, then turned into a wicked sinus infection. It’s taken 10 days of antibiotics and finally I can breathe normally (take my last tablet tonight). Still a bit of hacking up crap, but geez… this sucked! Anyways, I finally feel well enough to go to the gym. Thing is, I won’t be going back for a few more days as I’m going to donate blood tomorrow so I’ll need a few days off. I think it’s a worthwhile trade.

While the time off has sucked, it’s also done me well. I was doing a very simple full body routine. It was a good routine to get me back into the groove, but I knew it wasn’t a routine I could stay for the long term, just enough to get my body used to lifting again. I was thinking about what to do and was thinking about taking a traditional 2-day split working 4 days a week, doing something like upper body Mon/Thu and lower body and abs Tue/Fri. I’d keep with the same basic compound exercises I’m already using but then add in an isolation exercise per bodypart, like keeping bench press and add in dumbbell flies, or expanding to hit other muscles in the group, like keeping barbell rows and adding in lat pulldowns. That was my plan.

But I’m not so sure I want to keep on it.

I was flipping through old bookmarks and went to the Beast Skills website. There was a video of the guy in a powerlifting competition and he mentioned how he used the “Wendler 5/3/1 method”. Never heard of that before, so off to Google I went.

Very interesting stuff. I like his approach, simple, no bullshit. You can Google for all the information you want, or pick up his eBook. I bought the eBook, it’s a quick read, but is full of a lot of useful information. Found a bunch of other useful information out there too.

So I tossed around the notion of trying his method, but the more I read the more I realize no, it’s not right for me. I’m still a beginner (some classify a beginner as anyone that can’t yet squat 1.5x his bodyweight; so, I’m a beginner); it’s a routine meant for later. But as I dug around I started to read about guys like Mark Rippetoe and his “Starting Strength“, and even found this StrongLifts 5×5.

I got to thinking.

All my life whenever I lifted weights I did it in a bodybuilding manner, so naturally when I started up again here I was taking that approach and mentality.

The more I think about it? I don’t want to do that. Well yes, I do want to look good… I don’t want to look like a fat blob that can move a lot of weight but can’t tie his own shoes without getting winded (Jim Wendler’s whole reasoning for coming up with 5/3/1 resonates here), but I also really no longer care about worshiping Joe Weider. I want functional strength. And yes, I want to move a lot of weight. Sorry, CrossFit doesn’t appeal to me (sorry Dave!). For the first time, powerlifting holds some appeal in my book.

So I think I’m going to throw it all out the door and start over. From what I can read, the SS or SL5x5 would be a good place to start. And really, SS would be THE place to start, but I’m going to start with SL5x5. Why? Because they’re both based upon the same theory, but SL5x5 is actually better for the pure rank beginner, especially since I don’t have a strength coach to help me out. Even the SS wikia promotes this approach (it’s a wiki so take it for what it’s worth, but still. Updated: apparently that blurb comes straight from Olympic Coach Glenn Pendlay, so I reckon that’s some sound backing). In trying to sort the wheat from the chaff, the only real downside to the SL5x5 is that I’ll probably stall out faster and want to back off to SS (e.g. from 5×5 to 3×5) or SL does have a “SL3x5” and “SL1x5” sort of deload progression so, there’s something to it all. But either way, they should get me going. Then once I truly stall out on these, then something like Wendler’s 5/3/1 can come into the picture. When will that be? Who knows… everyone’s different.

But I think I want to give this a try. I’ve been rolling it around in my head for a few days and while initially it’s going to feel like a big step back, the ego check will be good because well… I think reading Wendler’s book gave me a lot of perspective, to consider the real long term goals: on his system you’ll only go up 5#/month on bench/overhead and 10#/month squat/deadlift, but that’ll add up to around 50# and 100# at the end of a year, and over the long haul, that’ll amount to some amazing gains. But it’s all about the long-term, not about the instant ego gratification. I’m older now, I think I’m willing to accept that. 🙂

I’m also going to order some of Rippetoe’s books.

We’ll see how it goes.

Microsoft Office Mac 2011

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I finally caved in and upgraded to Microsoft Office 2011 for the Mac (Home & Business edition, since I need Outlook). I figure it’s been out long enough now that any major initial issues have been shaken out (it’s version 14.1.0… I rarely do x.0.0 releases any more; I’m a software engineer… I know about bugs).

Yes, I use a Microsoft product. Quite happily too. It’s difficult to escape Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in today’s business world; yes Apple has their own stuff and it’d probably work out fine. But to be honest, for me it’s all about the email client.

Many many years ago the best email client for Mac was Eudora, but there were a lot of competing mail clients out there. Then one day, along came Claris Emailer. Hands down, it was the best email client. From message composition, to filtering, powerful features, just amazing stuff. Off on the side, Microsoft had this “Outlook Express” that was there but really sucked. Well, one day Microsoft basically hired all of the engineers that wrote Emailer, and Microsoft Entourage was born. It was wonderful, but not surprising because you took the best engineers that wrote the best email client and now put tons of money behind them and what else would you expect? Over time, everything else fell by the wayside as it just couldn’t compete with Entourage. But, no question Entourage was getting long in the tooth and showing limitations (as was the rest of Office), especially when it came to things like integrating with Exchange (vital in the corporate world) and heck… even dealing with HTML email. I’ve long toyed with the idea of converting to Apple’s Mail.app, but every time I try I hate it because it’s just not powerful enough. Oh sure, it’s good for most people because it does all the basics you need, and a bit more. But once you work with something as powerful and customizable as Entourage, Mail just feels weak in comparison. So, struggle as I might, I just could never make the switch to Apple Mail.

And finally now, I upgraded to Office 2011 because it was inevitable to have to do, and I felt enough time had passed. Friends that had already upgraded told me how smoothly the upgrade went, how good life was going. So I wanted to, but just wasn’t ready to overcome my inertia. But here we are.

First impressions?

It’s the same, but different. It looks much cleaner, much more modern. I know Microsoft was all about this ribbon thing and well… it’s a little overwhelming, but I think they did an OK job at keeping it reasonable. Things are mostly the same, which is good, just modernized and updated.

I am getting used to Outlook’s default approach, which is left-to-right putting folders on the left, the folder’s messages in the middle, and the message on the right. I’m not sure I’ll stick with that, but geez… the reality is that our screens are more wide than tall, and this approach makes better use of that horizontal real estate. Some of my browsing habits are going to have to change, but I think they may change for the better.

The install, upgrade, and import process was amazingly smooth. Just ran the installer, it walked me through a few questions, and that was that. Launch Outlook, start the import process from my old Entourage database, then went to have dinner. I figured it might take all night, but it was done by the time I came back (I have extensive email archives). Quite impressed with how smoothly things went, but honestly, I’m not surprised. For all of Microsoft’s shitty business practices, they do hire some of the best and brightest engineers. The MacBU has always worked hard to balance the world of Mac vs. the world of Microsoft and has really done a great job with things (wild applause!).

I’ve only really used Outlook at this point because that’s what I mostly care about and use on a daily basis. Over time I’ll use Word and Excel and see how they go. Light poking around with them was pretty positive.

So sure… it’s a Microsoft product. But who cares. I got over that crap years ago. Yes, I think Windows is painful to use, but I’m not using Windows, I’m using a Mac… and I’m using a Mac product, MS Office for Mac 2011. So far it seems to be a well-written Mac application. If it allows me to get my work done without getting in my way, if it’s going to “just work”… well, I can’t ask for more. 🙂

Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun – AAR

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

I spent yesterday as a student in Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun course, hosting at KR Training. This is my After Action Report (AAR).

Background

I’m mixed on the use of a shotgun for self/home/office defensive purposes. While there’s no questioning the brutality and lethality of a shotgun, there are numerous limitations of the platform. I still tend to lean towards an AR for home defense, but I’ve softened my stance towards the shotgun. Consequently, I’ve wanted to learn more about the “fighting shotgun”. I picked up Magpul’s Art of the Dynamic Shotgun. Last time Tom Givens was in town I picked up a copy of his new Defensive Shotgun DVD. Naturally, when I heard Tom was coming back to town to teach a shotgun course, I had to take the class. Not just because of the subject material, but I hate missing opportunities to train with Tom.

The Class

This is a “level 1” course. Everyone in the class was familiar with shooting to various levels, so there wasn’t a need to get rudimentary about all things shooting, but the class was focused on shotgun background and shotgun skillset foundations. Note: the skills presented were in the context of fighting shotgun use. This was not about sport, no clays, no skeet, no duck nor dove hunting. It’s important to understand that context.

The background part was quite useful. Tom covered history of the shotgun, different types of shotguns, different types of ammo, nomenclature, modifications and accessories. Tom’s been around and involved in so much for so long, and while he may not always focus on history, if you pay attention to the things he says and the experiences he tells about, you wind up with a greater understanding of how the gun world came to be what it is today. This is part of the reason why taking classes with Tom Givens is so worth the time and money. Sure this isn’t “tactical”, but it’s good and important to know.

The other main portion of the class was focused on basic skills of manipulation. We all know how to shoot a shotgun and make a hit, that’s not a problem. Where is the problem? Manipulating the shotgun. That was the focus of the skills portion of the class.

We worked dry for a while, on basics of stance, ready positions, moving from ready to a solid firing position. One of the biggest things we had to learn was how to deal with a pump-action shotgun. See, we’re all mostly handgunners, and whether you shoot a semi-automatic or a revolver, we press the trigger and the gun goes bang… then we don’t have to do anything to chamber the next round in order for us to make the gun go bang again. With a pump shotgun, we have work to do! So when we shoot, pressing the trigger is NOT the end of our work cycle, we must also pump the gun and THEN we’re done. The mantra for the day was “click-chunk-chunk” (or “boom-chunk-chunk”) — I named it the Tom Givens Waltz. That’s what has to happen every time you fire that pump-action shotgun: click-chunk-chunk, click-chunk-chunk, click-chunk-chunk. That must become habit. Chances are you won’t have to fire again, but then there’s a chance you might — you need to keep the gun running and ready for action.

Keeping the gun running is really what it’s all about. So we have to learn how to keep the gun well-fed since the magazine doesn’t hold much ammo. Shoot one? load one. Shoot two? load two. Techniques for keeping the gun loaded and ready to go were taught, and you do come to appreciate shell carriers on the shotgun (e.g. butt cuff, side saddle).

Tom had us run a great drill called “Rolling Thunder”. Groups of 4 or 5 people stepped up to the line, each loading 1 round in the chamber. On the go signal, the leftmost person started and shot one. As soon as that person shot, the person to their right shot, and so on down the line until reaching the last person. When the last person shot, we went back to the start of the line and now this person fired 2 shots, and so on down the line 2 shots each. Then 3 shots. Then 4 shots. Note, this meant as soon as you shot, you had to get your gun reloaded with the correct number of shells for the next go-round. The goal was to have a constant string of “boom” going off, so you had to not only pay attention to what was going on so you didn’t miss your cue, but then you had to hustle and get your gun reloaded in time to not break the string. That pressure really tells a great deal about how you need to work and function, what equipment can work under pressure, what what won’t. And if you’re going to fuck up, you’ll do it here. 🙂  A great drill for not only working all the basic skills, but pushing you and putting you, your equipment, and your techniques on trial.

Another important skill we learned was dealing with “cruiser ready” as the proper mode for keeping a shotgun. It’s simple: shotguns are not drop-safe. Mossberg told me their shotguns are drop-safe, but I’m wary. Even if theirs are, others are not. Thus, storing a shotgun with one in the pipe is dangerous and should be avoided, so cruiser-ready is the way to go. We worked on how to set this up, how to get into action, and how to properly unload and restore cruiser-ready condition. Proper unloading technique isn’t as easy as you think.

We ran mostly birdshot because — birdshot is for birds. But it’s also good for practicing basic skills because it’s inexpensive. We did run some buckshot and even did Rolling Thunder once with buckshot so people could see how bad their stance was as the recoil pushed them backwards. 🙂  Oddly, we didn’t run slugs, tho we were supposed to bring some. Not sure why we didn’t.

One great thing about being in class with a lot of other people and guns was being able to see what worked and what didn’t and how other choices worked out. This was most evident when we spent time patterning buckshot, which I’ll talk more about later.

The skills presented were the fundamentals. No, we didn’t shoot tactical courses, we didn’t get all high-speed-low-drag. In fact, most of our shooting was done standing at the 5 yard line. What we did do was learn the foundational skills necessary to run the shotgun in a defensive context and run it well, to enable us to fight and to keep fighting. Upon these skills everything will be laid.

My Takeaway

I’m happy I took the course because it addressed the key thing that I needed: manipulation skills. Whenever I tried working with a shotgun, I struggled with one key thing: reloading technique. I mentioned in my review of the Magpul shotgun DVD that the best thing I liked about that DVD was learning good reloading techniques. I took some things from the Magpul approach (e.g. first 2 shells in my side-saddle were brass up, last 4 shells were brass down), then went with Tom’s approach. In the end, I’ll probably have a hybrid of the two. But again, this key bit of manipulation is so fundamental to fighting with the shotgun and keeping it (and you) in the fight.

Another thing that that I improved upon was my grip and stance. I’ve been putting my head on the comb of the stock. No, I should be bringing the comb to my cheek. Keeps my head up, straight, and I’m not banging my thumb knuckle into my face any more. I still need to work on keeping my thumb from wrapping around the grip (that’ll be a hard habit to break), but I may not break that habit since if we’re talking “commonality of technique” across firearms well.. I keep my thumb wrapped with my handgun, why break that habit? Keeping my head up and back, bringing the gun to my cheek instead of my head to the gun, seems to have made a big difference and enough to keep me from getting whacked in the face along with the other advantages of that technique.

My shotgun is mostly factory stock. It’s a Mossberg 500, thus 12 gauge, pump action. It’s a field model (i.e. wood furniture), so it came with a long barrel, but I replaced it with Mossberg’s factory 18.5″ “security” barrel, which has a fixed cylinder choke and a simple bead sight. I learned a bit more about how to use that bead sight correctly and my confidence in using it improved. Frankly, I think the bead is pretty darn fast, due to its simplicity. Now that I know better technique, I’d like to now check out how accurate I can be with slugs; I wouldn’t be surprised if this is why Jay and I had some accuracy problems with slugs during our shotgun ammo trials.

It did make me think a bit about gun modifications. The only “true mod” to my shotgun is putting a side-saddle AND a buttcuff on it (why both? because the only ammo you’re going to have is the ammo on the gun, and is there any such thing as too much ammo?). Tom talked about decreasing the length-of-pull, and we all got to try his shotgun with a 13″ LOP. Big improvement, especially in terms of mounting the shotgun from the high-ready position. I’m going to look into doing that. Do I want different sights on the gun? Not sure, and probably not. The bead is quite sufficient, so it seems. I still tinker with the idea of putting an Aimpoint T-1 on it, mostly so I can shoot with both eyes open. But I’m really not sure. Part of the appeal of a shotgun is that it’s an inexpensive solution. Almost everyone in class had “black tactical shotguns”, save for (fellow KRT asst. instructor) Tom Hogel and myself, who both had wood furniture (Brian Brown, another KRT asst. instructor, ribs us for our use of “grandpa guns”… tho since Tom’s has an EOTech on it, it’s a tactical grandpa gun 🙂 ). When you start down that road, it’s just more and more money. Is it worth it? Perhaps. But I can tell you based upon what I saw that my almost-factory wooden Mossy did quite well, and it’s more about the person running the gun than the gun itself.

That said, I still think about getting a more “tactical” gun mostly for the extra magazine capacity and more steel parts (and less plastic). But really… there’s lots of frills and trinkets out there, whose purpose is mostly to separate you from your money.

But in the end, I’m happy with the class. I’m happy with my gun. I’m happy with how I did, and what I got from the class. Lots of practice ahead, and thankfully just about all these skills can be practice dry at home with a good set of A-Zoom snap caps.

Observations

  • 18 people in the class. All male. Ages ranged from 20-ish to 60-ish.
  • About half the people in class I recognized.
  • 15 pumps, 3 semi-autos. I think most were Remington 870’s, then Mossberg’s of various pump flavors, at least one Benelli, a Winchester. I didn’t get to directly survey every gun out there.
  • Semi-autos are going to have problems, be ammo finicky. Manual of arms may be simpler, but everything else is much more complex than a pump. Pump may require more manipulation skills, but it’s a simpler machine and should run almost anything.
  • When choosing a pump, make sure when the forend is pulled all the way back it doesn’t cover the loading port. If it does, replace it.
  • It’s important to label shotguns in class, esp. when you have a whole bunch of black Remington 870’s on the line… whose is whose? But when you have a wood stock, you don’t need a label. 🙂
  • Side-saddles and butt-cuffs are important.
  • Sling? In this context, more of a liablity than a help.
  • Rifled shotgun barrels have one specific application context, and this isn’t it.
  • If it screws onto the gun, it will screw off the gun. There’s a lot of recoil going on.
  • When it comes to buckshot, Federal’s 00 buck with FLITECONTROL, low recoil (if it’ll cycle in your gun… again, pump no problem) is going to run amazingly well. While shotgun ammo patterns can vary from gun to gun, this stuff was amazingly consistent out of any gun it shot from. Really, when it comes to choosing buckshot for your shotgun, this is the place to start… and try both the 8 and 9 pellet versions to see which works better in your gun (Tom made a good case for 8 pellet and I’ll probably pick up some eventually and see how it does in my gun vs. the 9 pellet in my gun).
    • Read my post on Shotgun ammo and patterns, with a lot of buckshot pattern pictures. If this doesn’t convince you to use Federal with FLITECONTROL….
    • Also read the Addenda because it has some good links to things like ATK’s brochure on their shotgun ammo.
  • If you pick up Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun DVD, it will cover a lot of what we did in class, without the shooting or helpful instructors. It’s certainly a good place to start, but I’ll tell you… I watched that DVD before I took the class. It was good, but taking the class made it come alive — you just can’t beat actually training with Tom. The DVD will be quite useful now as a reference resource, and I know watching it now that I’ll “get it” a lot more. Point? Train with Tom if you get the chance.
  • Speaking of DVD’s, the class gave me a different perspective on the Magpul shotgun DVD. I think Tom’s a little more focused, a little more no-nonsense. I’m not going to say what’s in the Magpul stuff is bad (a lot was consistent with what Tom said), but it’s a matter of the presentation. Tom’s is very honed and focused on one topic. The Magpul attempts to be honed and focused, but it doesn’t quite succeed as it’s attempting to mostly be able fighting but there’s some gaming and other presentational aspects to it. I think both are good, and them along with live-instructor training would be useful for anyone interested in using a shotgun in a fighting context.
  • And I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it a hundred more… people, sunscreen is your friend. Use it.

A big thank you to Tom Givens and his crew for coming down here to teach us. Always a pleasure and always a highly educational experience. Plus hey… it’s a lot of fun. 🙂