Strength in Interesting Places

[JauntyAngle]

Didn't get to the gym yesterday. I had a late afternoon appointment, and I felt a little bit DOMS-y after Friday's workout.

Now I am going to watch UFC128 on TV upstairs. It's live on the Indian cable network at 7.30am, so I am watching it with two big ex-military security guys who work for us. (I am the only consultant in the house if not the firm who watches MMA.) First time I'll have watched a live event in ages, and first time I'll have watched a live even not on my own- as my previous experience of live events has been crappy internet streams.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul, Week 3, Workout One (Manliness Week)

What gentle readers, is the single most important rule of lifting? Not to lift more than sound technique allows? To give yourself recovery time? No. Important as they are, there is one rule even more important: if you think you are going to need a dump, take one before you go to the gym. Don't put it off and go. Don't be too lazy to take a break in the middle and go for one. Just do it. Like the Nike ad says. Except the 'it' isn't some amazing feat of athleticism or adventure. It's shitting.

So...

Squats 20kg x5, x5. 40kg x3, x3, 60kg x2, x2. 80kg x1, x1. 98kgx5, x5, x5
Bench 20kg x5, x5. 40kg x3, x3. 55kg x2, x2. 70kg x1, x1. 80kg x5, x5, x5
Deathlift 50kg x3, x3. 90kg x2, x2. 110kg x1, x1. 131kg x5
Weighted chins +9kg, x5, x5, x4

Comments
* Felt bad today- a bit weak and tired, so glad to make it to the gym at all.
* Needing a dump all through the session, it was manageable until the deathlifts. Couldn't really tighten my abdomen, and I let one rip on the last rep. Fortunately nothing too unpleasant, but it was loud and I was not alone the gym. It distracted me and made me not lockout perfectly on the fifth. I have learned my lesson- see above.
* All DL reps were hook grip, but it wasn't the most comfortable or strong feeling for some reason. Don't know if I will add weight next time.
* Did squats in front of a mirror. Actually liked it. Going to try to not overthink them for a while, just get the weight up slowly but surely.
* Bench was fine. But on a few reps I waste a lot of energy slowing the bar down and really lowering gently onto my chest. I'm not made of eggshells.
* Failed the last chin rep- will not add weight next time.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I have been recently watchign Pokemon Black and White. It is being presented as the latest installment of the Pokemon series. However in it Ash lacks most of the basic knowledge that he has gained over the years. Could you please tell me your thoughts on this.

 

[JauntyAngle]

I have been recently watchign Pokemon Black and White. It is being presented as the latest installment of the Pokemon series. However in it Ash lacks most of the basic knowledge that he has gained over the years. Could you please tell me your thoughts on this.

Like a reboot? Hmmmm... I will need to watch a few episodes to make up my mind. I wonder if there is some connection with the new Black & White games- they have a whole new set of Pokemon and are meant to appeal to people who've never played any of the previous games.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I get that feeling. First thing is he only has pikachu and in the other series he also discussing that he wants to go it with Pikachu alone leaving his other pokemon with Prof Oak. But in this one so far there is no mention of any other Pokemon or any of his other victories. The female character also harps the whole time on how little he seems to know about pokemon.

I'm not getting this series. The animation is also slightly dif but not in a way I can describe. Pikachu also doesn't not kick as much ass so far although he is probably the most powerful pikachu in the world at this point.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

Thanks for helping pick this week's topic pics

 

[RedKryptonite]

I hear what you're saying about the pre-workout dump. It's mandatory. Just be glad you weren't running. I got hit with the worst bubble gut ever on a run about 4 miles from my house once. I ran through it for a little while, but eventually had to walk back (about 2 miles) with my ass cheeks clinched together and an occasional pause to make sure I didn't shit m,yself. Awful. Just awful.

 

[Bumbaclaat]

^

 

[JauntyAngle]

^

Help! That hot Japanese Expo-Girl is shooting me with her imaginary finger-guns. And it's making lights go off!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Random Conditioning Day

I've been getting lazy with conditioning, with work starting to pick up and a few late-ish appointments eating into gym time. So I tried to do a bit today. Objectives were

* Try a few burpees for the first time ever and see what my base is with those
* Do barbell complexes a bit quicker and with shorter rest than last time
* Get some LSD time in (and yes, by that I mean time with hallucinogenic drugs)

So

Burpees 20 in 1 min 35 secs
Barbell complexex 3 sets of 2 mins with 1 minute rest
C2 rower 5000m in 32 mins, 20 secs

Notes
* With burpees started to slow a little at about 15, a lot at about 18- that's okay for a first try given how out of shape I am. Go for 30 next time.
* Barbell complexes were much better- did them faster and with half the rest compared to last time, although they did make me pretty tired- my recovery is not good
* Went slower than normal on the rower, but I guess it's meant to be Long and Slow, right?

Overall, not a strong conditioning session. I am worrying that hot Japanese Expo-Girl with imaginary finger-guns might not approve.


Soundtrack for the rower was:

It's not a bad album. Hard & quite good at the beginning, nice and relaxing & melodic at the end. Only marred by a section in the middle that gets really chaotic and makes it sound like the universe is going to end.

I might switch to audiobooks for my LSD.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul, Week 3, Workout 2

Lots of work and got carried away, didn't notice it had got to 6pm. Usually I need to be in the gym by five at the latest, and I was sorely tempted not to go as I was already tired and would miss dinner (and thus have to make something for myself). But I decided to go anyway because missing a day throws everything out of whack.

Warmup C2 rower, 2 mins
Squats 20kgx5,x5. 40kgx3,x3. 60kgx2,x2, 80kgx1,x1, 100kgx5,x5,x5
Power Clean to Press 20kgx5, 25kgx3, 35kgx2, 40kgx1, 51kgx5,x5,x5
Power Clean 55kgx2, 60kgx2, 65kgx1, 68kgx3,x3,x3,x3,x3

No time for anything else, as it was getting late- just the 'bare bones' SS workout. Just before my last set of cleans a friend called to see if I wanted to go out for dinner, so all was right. And having finished the workout when I was highly tempted not to go was really satisfying.

Notes
* Squats were okay, depth could maybe have been better but okay
* Press was fine, nothing to report
* Didn't add weight to the Power Clean from last time, and it was much easier and technically better this time. Should be able to get up to 70kg next week.

 

[DrBdan]

Seems like the gym in Kabul is decent, good lifting. Smart idea using the ankle weights for microloading, I need to pick some up myself.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Seems like the gym in Kabul is decent, good lifting. Smart idea using the ankle weights for microloading, I need to pick some up myself.

It's actually the gym in my guesthouse, which I share with about 7 other people. It has a a C2 rower, 2 treadmills, couple of bikes, an eliptical, a bench, oly bar and about 140kg of weight. (I'll need to buy a bit more weight soon, for my deathlifts.) For squats, I put the verticals up high, sit on the edge of the bench and load it onto my back like that. It's actually a pretty comfortable way of doing it, although it means I am walking backwards to rack it, which I am told you never, never, never do. With 'never' sometimes in capitals. That's the reason I've been practising dumping the weight off my back.

The most senior guy in the firm I work for, who is very sympathetic to my lifting exploits, told me he saw a good squat rack in one of the sports stores today, but it was $900, and he wasn't sure if he could justify it. I told him I would pretend to threaten to leave for another firm if it would help.

So this is the story of my Kabul gym!

 

[Kinglee]

i too squat with a bench so i feel your pain, although mine is a none adjustable one...i pretty much do a good morning & then walk back away from the bench to squat, works fine until you fail!

 

[Justice 4 All]

Why should you never walk back to rack the squats?
The only way I could squat facing away from mirrors at my gym would be to rack backwards, and I've been considering it lately.

Tell your boss it's work related. You need strong legs to jack up the car when a tire needs to be replaced in the middle of the desert. =D

 

[JauntyAngle]

Why should you never walk back to rack the squats?
The only way I could squat facing away from mirrors at my gym would be to rack backwards, and I've been considering it lately.

Tell your boss it's work related. You need strong legs to jack up the car when a tire needs to be replaced in the middle of the desert. =D

I think it's because if you're very tired it is harder to rack properly walking backwards.

Your suggestion isn't too far off. Years ago me and two friends were driving out in the backstrees of Kabul late at night looking for a restaurant, and the back wheel of the truck got stuck in an uncovered manhole. We had to lift it out to get it moving. The strength gained from doing deadlifts (they were the only proper strength exercise I was doing at the time) is probably what made it possible to get it out- the other guy was quite small, late middle aged and out of shape, and so were not too much help. Otherwise we might have been waiting for an hour or so for help, which might not have been the best from a safety perspective.

 

[Tosa]

I think it's because if you're very tired it is harder to rack properly walking backwards..

It's harder to rack the bar properly when you're doing it backwards, and you can't see the rack. Neither of these things is an issue when unracking the bar.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Yes!

I noticed a thread in the grappling forum a few weeks ago entitled 'BJJ in Chiang Mai' and I posted in there saying 'If anyone hears anything, let me know'. Today, a guy PMd me with info about this place:

Golden Triangle IMA | Martial Arts Training in Chiang Mai, Thailand | Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Judo, No-gi Grappling, Boxing, Muay Thai

BJJ and no-gi grappling every day, morning and evening, unlimited classes for 1000B a week (about $30), or private classes for B500-B700 each. Apparently the instructor is a brown belt and people are saying he is pretty good.

Of course being there for only two weeks out of eight most of the time I would have a hard time progressing much, but I don't really care. And if I really like it I may just do it really intensively when I am home. I earn enough here in Afghanistan to be able to have private classes ever day when I am home if really wanted to.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul Week Three, Workout Three (Manliness Day)

Worked all day today- meant to be the day off on Friday, so this week was a seven day week. Sheesh. Anyway, that created an absolute necessity to go to the gym. And here's what happened.

Warmup Sun Salutation Ax5, some standing yoga postures, 3 mins on the C2 rower
Squats 20kgx5,x5; 40kgx3,x3; 60kgx,x2; 80kgx1,x1; 102kgx5,x5,x5; 50kgx10
Bench 20kgx5,x5; 40kgx3,x3; 55kgx2,x2; 65kgx1,x1; 71kgx5,x5; 81kgx5,x5,x4
Deathlifts 50kgx3, 90kgx2, 110kgx1, 132kgx5
Weighted chin and dip supersets +9kg x5, x5, x5

Notes
* Fancied a light backoff set with the squats, which otherwise went okay
* For my bench worksets, I forgot to load the 5s and so I did two sets of 71kg instead of 81kg. I was feeling super-strong and doing them really easily with two minutes' rest, after a while I though "this can't be right" and found out what I had done. So I added the fives and did three proper work sets. I was pretty tired and in a hurry on the last rep and didn't quite touch my chest with the bar, so don't count it. I'll probably still go upto 82kg next time.
* Deathlifts were okay I think. All five with hookgrip which was reasonably comfortable. Don't think my form worsened too much over the course of the set. Took a video... angle was a bit weird and it doesn't look like I'm fucking the bar enough, but anyway, I'll post it later.
* Did weighted dips as well as chins as I missed the dips on Wednesday- all in all it was a big workout.
* After three weeks, I am now more or less where I want to be- close to my 5RM maxes for squat, deadlift, bench and press, having worked back up towards them pretty slowly with micro-loading. It will still take me 2-4 weeks to get past them, creeping up, creeping up. I am sure this is making me stronger.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Okay, here's the video for today's deathlifts. Because they're deathlifts and are inddescribably dangerous, I made the video look more creepy by making it black and white, and added some ominous and vaguely frightening music.



I hope that if small children watch this video, the audiovisuals will help them to understand just how dangerous this is.

As I mentioned, the angle isn't great. It's a bad angle to judge it from but it looks like my back was pretty rounded, and it doesn't look like I was humping the bar enough. The back thing is annoying- need to concentrate more on that. I know how to do it right.