Strength in Interesting Places

[JauntyAngle]

Damn Jaunty. You deep. I prefer the poetry of Andrew Dice Clay and Dr. Seuss, personally. That genre anyway.

Well, I originally started off studying English Literature at University, so I have read a lot of that stuff. And from time to time I still dip into it.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

ee cummings always grabbed my attention in HS. First it was his name, and then I actually read his stuff...

 

[moyy]

Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her.

 

[moyy]

I had to write an essay on "The love song of J alfred Prufrock too". It's so good. You have good taste sir.

 

[scoopj]

Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her.

So beautiful. I'm crying here.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshiped me: surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her.

Porphyria's lover = win.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Woah... no more off-topic posts or pics in the logs? My log is by far the most off-topic of all logs. What a blow. I guess I will probably still discuss my travel because it impacts in a big way on my training, but keep it more in the context of training. I will put stories of interesting places and Taliban attacks in the chat thread, I guess.

 

[ssdd]

You'll just have to find a way to connect training to the pictures of places, and pick other demonstrative pictures.

 

[JauntyAngle]

You'll just have to find a way to connect training to the pictures of places, and pick other demonstrative pictures.

I think it can be done. And it is a big part of my training. So stay tuned!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul: Week 2, Workout 2

Warmup
5 minutes on the C2 rower, some BW squats, BW GMs, overhead squats with the pipe, front squats with the empty bar

Deadlifts
80kg x3, x3, x3, x3 (fairly slow and measured)
80kg x3 (faster)
Bonus calf raises: 80kg x10, x10, x10
Bonus shrugs: 80kg x10, x10, x10

Bench press
Band internal rotations x10, x10
Band external rotations x10, x10
Thirty degree band shoulder abductions x20
10lb DB x5, x5
15lb DB x3, x3
20kg x2, x2
30kg x3, x3, x3, x3, x3 (all paused, medium speed)

Barbell rows
DB 25lbs x10, x10
DB 15kg x5, x5
60kg x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

Assistance
"50/20": Ghetto GHRs and chins- 40 reps of each in 19:20
"Six back" iso-holds, 3 sets (5lb & 7lb dumbbells)


* * * * * * * *
Notes
- Rehab and recovery. All the main lifts feel good including the pressing. there's a tiny bit of soreness in my shoulder but it doesn't come out pressing or doing any of the basic rotator cuff exercises. The main exercises I am doing all feel fine. Of course none of them are heavy, but I am determined to take it easy and work up to heavy weights again very gradually.
- Bonus work. So I am trying to do some shrugs and/or calf raises when I have finished deadlifting. The bar is right there, seems an easy way to do it. Managed to do both today. Go me.
- "50/20". This protocol (50 reps in any number of sets in 20 minutes, add weight if you get 50) is actually tough, at least doing exercises at the same time does seem to be. With some of these exercises (like chins and GHRs) I don't yet have the work capacity to get 50 reps in 20 minutes. And pretty much whatever exercises, this really wipes me out. I am doing this every session at the moment, with the odd effect that the assistance is a lot tougher than the main lifts. I am also doing something for the PC or lower body each time- one day GHRs, one day GMs and one day lunges, and even only in the second week I am starting to feel a difference- and that difference is jakt glutes and hams. I think that this assistance approach in general, and the lower body work in particular, is going to be really beneficial. And also super-sexy. One thing I am not doing at the moment, though, is any work like this on the shoulders- this will come, and I am sure will be really helpful for my pressing, but I have decided that I just want to take them through the Linear Progression process with the presses. Once I am pressing reasonably heavy again, I will add some more shoulder-heavy assistance work.
- "Six back". One of the iso-holds brought out some slight soreness in my right shoulder, but I think this may relate to the secondary injury I gave myself rather than the tear. Doing these today I realized just how hard they are if you are really going for proper scapular depression and retraction. I was very glad to have access to a bunch of foo-foo dumbbells- 5lbs and 7lbs is all I can handle while using proper form. I am so weak at these, I think I need to do this once a week for a couple of months- so that's a target.
- Looking ahead. I am here for pretty much exactly two more weeks, then off back to Thailand. First to Chiang Mai, to see my daughter and soon-to-be-ex wife, then either the beach, or the UK to visit family and friends. Or possibly even both. I will be on the road for 3-4 weeks then back in Kabul. Will probably be here for 2 weeks, then out for maybe another 3 weeks- to where I am not sure yet. As you all know, I have great gym in Chiang Mai, so that means I am now looking at 3 more weeks of consistent training, then things might go a bit McGoo. In the worst case, it is going to be pretty fitfull, with lots of crap hotel or resort gyms for the second half of October and November. That's a bit of a shame because I feel like I am picking up some good momentum, and a few months of consistent effort would be really beneficial. Oh well.

 

[Stonebreaker]

Woah... no more off-topic posts or pics in the logs?

*wanders off to find the source of this information and why anyone would possibly give a damn what gets posted in the logs*

 

[JauntyAngle]

Evening session

1. Warmup- 5-10 mins on the c2 rower
2. LISS- 40 minutes on stationary bike, medium/low intensity
3. Heavy bag- 3 x 3 minute rounds

Not done too many double sessions (i.e. morning and evening) in the last couple of weeks, so this was a tiny bit heavy on the legs. Went easy on the heavy bag both in terms of intensity and number of rounds as it is first time on the bag post-rehab.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul: Week Two, Weights Session Three

Warmup
The usual- 4 minutes or so on the C2 rower until I feel nice and warm in the legs, lower back and shoulders; then some reverse hypers, bodyweight GMs, bodyweight squats and overhead squats with a pipe

Squats
20kg x5, x5
40kg x3, x3
60kg x2, x2
80kg x1, x1
92kg x3, x3, x3, x3, x3

Overhead press
Band internal and external rotations x10, x10, thirty degree shoulder abductions x20
10lbs db x10, x10
15lbs db x3, x3
8kg db x2, x2
9kg db x2
10kg db x1
23kg x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

Chins
+4kg x5, x5 , x5, x5, x5

Assistance
"50/20": GMs (40kg) & Curls (bar + 22kg)- 50 reps of each in about 16 minutes
Girls' pushup pyramid: 1, 2, 3, .... 10, 11, 10, 9 ... 3, 2, 1

Notes
So, I have been battling what turns out to (probably) be an inner ear infection since I have been back, which makes me feel like I underwater somehow, and also can make me feel quite lethargic and out of it. Slept for much of yesterday and some of this afternoon, but perhaps foolishly decided to go to the gym this evening. At the beginning it was an incredible grind, but I got through all the basic exercises, and also a full set of assistance. Some notes.
- Squats and chins both felt heavy, although it was mainly motivation. My knees felt better this time today, though- less clicky and more stable.
- Overhead felt fine again. Strength-wise I know I can handle loads more but I want to take the progression slowly and I don't want to let my overhead get much more than about 65% of my bench for now. So I barely added weight today. Once again, I resisted the temptation of doing some backoff sets with the dumbbells.
- Chins and GMs is by far the easiest of the "50/20" days. I guess it is partly because I have the weight of the GMs set very low. This would probably be a good day to add shoulder raises or something like that, once I am 100% rehabbed.
- My girs' pushup pyramid remains awesome. As I have said before, when I do regular pushups my triceps are the limiting factor, but when do girls' pushups (with knees down) everything gets tired about equally, meaning that my pecs get worked comparatively much harder. The result is swolt pecs, one of the most important of athletic qualities. The pyramid contributes by just eking out extra sets which are just about as much as you can do, even though they are all really light. I like to think that it is giving me a very easy shoulder workout too. But obviously, swolt pecs are the main reason for doing this.

 

[TeddyRoosevelt]

But obviously, swolt pecs are the main reason for doing this.

More pictures. Not of your surroundings, mind you.

 

[JauntyAngle]

More pictures. Not of your surroundings, mind you.

Edit... in retrospect, don't want too many shirtless pictures of me in this log. Those who missed these, just imagine a somewhat jakt management consultant in his late 30s. Got it? Good.

Once I have a proper sequence of weekly pics, I may still put some up though.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Moving on from the topic of how yoked I am (a hard topic to move on from, because I am pretty yoked)... I have become aware that my chinups suck. My trap engagement is not great at the moment, and I think my scapular retraction is terrible.

So I think I will be doing some of these extras (at the end of lifting days when I still have energy, or on conditioning days)

Progression 1: Scapular retractions from the hang

The first thing we must do is get our scapular retractors stronger. To do this, we do a simple exercise called

 

[CRZA]

Jaunty is looking good!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Jaunty is looking good!

When I get on my diving holiday in November, the poor tourist girls aren't going to know what's hit them.

06:00- I've decided I need to do two sessions day more often if I am going to hit my S&C&J (Strength and Conditioning & Jaktness) goals. With that in mind, I woke up early. But I'd only had 6 hours' sleep and motivation was not strong. So I was lying there debating whether to go to the gym. Heard someone switch on the treadmill downstairs in the gym, and decided against it. Bit feeble as I could have found something to do.

Anyway, two days off regular lifting now, so I can make sure I get a reasonable amount of conditioning in, and try to get my extras like yoga and some fun stuff: maybe some power clean practice.

 

[Tosa]

From here:

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/how-to-do-more-pull-ups/

From my cursory reading of that article, it seems like he's suggesting the iso holds for people whose chin-up or pull-up ability is low enough as to make it difficult to train them just by doing reps. Your chin-up ability may not be where you'd like it to be, but it's certainly good enough that you can get better at chins by doing chins or variations there of. If you're looking for extra back work, or chin-up assistance, I think there might be better options.

Including scapular retractions from the hang is a good idea. You could also include a movement where you retract your scapula horizontally. Maybe alternating the two.

 

[JauntyAngle]

From my cursory reading of that article, it seems like he's suggesting the iso holds for people whose chin-up or pull-up ability is low enough as to make it difficult to train them just by doing reps. Your chin-up ability may not be where you'd like it to be, but it's certainly good enough that you can get better at chins by doing chins or variations there of. If you're looking for extra back work, or chin-up assistance, I think there might be better options.

Including scapular retractions from the hang is a good idea. You could also include a movement where you retract your scapula horizontally. Maybe alternating the two.

Scapular retractions from the hang are my main interest. But I also think that iso-holds at the top with good scapular retraction will help me to get the feeling. I am pretty sure that I can do these properly, it is just somehow the motor pattern and perhaps the proprioception are not there.