Still here

I haven’t quit or anything. I am just taking some time off to show my family around the city,

I’ll be back at it before long. Check back in after the 4th of january.

Monday Morning Weigh in: 234.6

meh, running high. I know exactly why, I made some bum choices (all of my own accord) this weekend. C’est le vei (or however you spell it). I’m not gonna fret. I’m going to try and do a better job of regulating my diet at home over the week and we’ll just see how it goes.

Happy holidays all, make sure and enjoy it.

Merry Christmas to me

I’ve been thinking for a couple months that I am capable of cleaning my bodyweight but whenever it came time, it just wasn’t there. Under Henry’s (The Oly guy from a couple weeks ago) I definitely felt I could but I wanted to continue to focus on learning rather than getting caught up in trying to hit PRs. So I told my Ben (my brother-in-law) that I felt like yesterday was the day. I rounded up my gym bag, camera and headed to the gym.

Clean
60K X 5
80K X 5
100K X 2(yep, that went easy)
105K X 1
107.5K X 0
80K  X 2
100K X 2
105K X 1
107.5 X 0
107.5 X 0
107.5 X 1 (PR/Bodyweight)

Just to make it as official as I could I weighed myself 234 fully clothed.
107.5 X 2.2 =236.5
234<236.5
Sure enough, a better than bodyweight clean, Merry Christmas to me.
In fact, the 105K matches this morning’s bodyweight

Sadly, I left my camera in the car so I still have to video it for  posterities sake. The one I finally pulled was so hideous, I’m not sure I wanted to preserve it. I stood up with it and muscled it into place. For some reason I just forget that knee bend up around 100K. I have to get better at that.

Thrusters 60K (Front squat to jerk) 5
this is a crossfit favorite and I have done it with kettlebells but I have to say that it is one of the more retarded barbell exercises I have tried. Don’t expect to see this again.

Front Squat 80K 5 X 5

Pull up (working on quality, getting the entire chin over the bar) 5 X 3

Dips +25lbs 5 X 5 (more weight or more reps are needed)

Situp + 10lbs behind the head 3 X 12

Thank goodness that’s over

I had my last session with my PT last evening. I’m glad to be done.

Clearly he didn’t really know what to do with a relatively healthy person. In his defense, I didn’t go in with a lot of specific complaints. I had a few annoyances and more questions and we discussed those. I figured that every profession I had ever been around complained that no one would come and see them until they had a problem, there was no prevention going on. I figured the same was true of PTs. So I figured I could go in with a few little issues, he could do some diagnostics and just have a ball trying to tune me up. Make me the poster child for “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Nope, I was wrong.  The first day I was there I gave him a run down of what I do. Clearly I had lost him. He didn’t know what a kettlebell was or understand the difference between Strongman, Powerlifting and Body Building. He assumed I press overhead to get some kind of shoulder definition. Hardly, I press overhead for the sake of pressing overhead. I’m short, I have heavy crap and high shelves. Pressing overhead is a fact of life when you’re 5′ 8″. Even yesterday, he just couldn’t see any reason in the world why a person should be strong from more than a quarter squat position. Well, if everything I ever pick up is more than two feet off the ground, that would be super.

I have to admit that learning the PT way of things has given me pause to think. I don’t think the specifics of it are right. I do think you need to squat all the way, I do think you need to press overhead, I do think you need to be able to do pull ups (yes, he was against those too). However, there may be something to working more partial ranges of motion than I have. Having gone through the powerlifter and strongman stages that most of us do, I came to shun partial ranges of motion as “pumper crap” but maybe there is something there. I mean,  walk outs are a great way to prepare for a full squat. You just have to make sure you don’t slip into the quarter squat habit either.

All in all, my experience gets a thumbs down. I blew $100. I learned some things and I think I’ll get me some stretching an mobility DVDs over time and see what else I can learn for myself.

Speaking of which, Chris, your DVD arrived. Thanks. I haven’t tried it yet, it’ll be a weekend project.

Slacker

Well, I haven’t been working out, at all. I’m not very good at getting in and doing my thing unless I’m going all the way. It just seems like such a waste of effort to go to the gym, go half speed for 30 minutes and go home. I’d rather jog with the dog or something. So that is what I have been doing when I have done anything. I have kept my diet pretty strong, my weight hasn’t really moved since Monday, up or down. I figure that is a-ok.

I’m thinking about going hard tonight at the gym. I feel good, I feel tuned and rested and wouldn’t mind putting in some effort. I know, I have no patience. I figure I have a week of few commitments from now until next Friday. A few hard workouts could be a lot of fun: One in the weightroom, one on the rower and one with kettlebell. Sounds like a treat.

Monday Morning Weigh in: 232.4

Yep, managed to take off that road weight pretty well. I’m happy about that. Now the final drive to 225.

I think I may do the low carb thing in February.

My mother-in-law sent me a link the to the Discovery Health Body Challenge. One of their stations is near here. I may do that too. I have considered moving my low carb experiment to coincide.

Hurt so good

I took a crack at Power Yoga, the Bian Kest one, today. Yep, waaaay above my level. Halfway through I was just hanging out waiting for something I could do. So I’m ordering the the Beryl Bender Birch version right now.

Get bent: DU

Slow to act

Thursday I was set up to row, easy, for 30 minutes. I just wasn’t feeling it so I came home and jogged with the dog instead.

Friday, Dumbarton. All day I was having an internal argument. I was having trouble convincing myself to keep it light. Ultimately, my resolve to go light won. I’m happy about that.
Jump Rope 3 minutes
Goblet Squat 20lbs 3 X 20
DO Deadlifts 100K 3 X 20 (I had to stop briefly a couple times on the later two sets, mostly to reset my grip which did get tired on this)
Standing Press 40K    3 X 20 (I had to take breaks on about every 5, just to keep going)
Pushup 3 X 10
Situp + 10lbs (Plate Behind the Head) 3 X 15
Seated Row 70lbs 3 X 15 (probably too light)
Leg Extensions 80lbs 3 X 12
Standing Leg Curls 70lbs 3 X 12

…and that was an hour. I ended up spending the next hour talking with a powerlifter at the gym about everything I know about powerlifting, which turned out to be more than he knew prior to his recent competition. It was a good time.

Nothing so far for today, maybe a few bends later, maybe not. Probably yoga tomorrow.

Gripmas leftovers

I love leftovers.

2″ Dumbell Farmers hold 50lbs
50 seconds
50
25
25

Outer Limit Loops (I could only find the right one so I did both hands with it)
0 lbs (loading pin only) 10 seconds
2.5 lbs 10 seconds
2.5 lbs 10 seconds
0 lbs 10 seconds