Strength in Interesting Places

[JauntyAngle]

Hah. This made me smile.

And damn, seems no matter which log I go, everyone's doing so much volume! Soon I'll get to join the club (for 3-4 weeks) when I try out smolov for my squat, and smolov jr for my press! I'm scared already.

You're certainly making consistent and solid progress. Keep up the good work Jaunty.

Glad you appreciated that!

I agree- volumeamania is running wild in these forums. You have any number of people who have done Smolov and/or Smolov Jr, BBB assistance for 5/3/1 and a number of people doing the ever-awesome T3.But I think what really tips the scales is Juggernaut- that's what causes us to see 75kg*16 and such like in so many people's logs.

Are you going to do Smolov for squat and Smolov Jr for press at the same time? That would be pretty hardcore. Chia did Smolov Jr for squat and bench at the same time- but he is a cyborg.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Boots.

Boots are important. You wouldn't send guys out to build a suspension bridge wearing flip-flops. Combat soldiers don't rush through the battlefield in hush puppies. They wear boots. Boots are the footwear of work, and as such should be respected and valued.

And that's why I've prepared this short homage to the boot, most practical of all of the types of footwear:

 

[JauntyAngle]

I don't feel I can properly honour boots in just 4 pics:

Boots. Recognize.

 

[toonie]

Yeah. I followed chia's progress. He is indeed a cyborg.

I do plan to try to both of them together. Besides that, I'll be doing a bit of technique work for the cnj and snatch. With the squat, I plan to use the introductory cycle to help me out, further I feel I am being conservative enough with my squat max.

I think with the press I'd be adding at most 10 and 5 lbs, or simply 5 and 5 so it's nothing too crazy.

 

[DrBdan]

Good lifting and excellent tribute to boots.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

tall boots



short boots




white boots



black boots



boots for everyone

(I'm wearing boots right now in fact)

 

[dinpappa]

Wich boots, i dont see any boots!!?

 

[JauntyAngle]

Jaunty News!

So, one of my uncles and his family are coming over to Thailand in a couple of weeks, for a beach holiday in Hua Hin. Hua Hin is Thailand's oldest beach resort- people have been going there for decades and decades, even before Thailand became very popular. Because I am a contractor and the company I work for is awesome, they are letting me go back for a week even though I am in the middle of a rotation (have only been here for three weeks). The only downside, other than not earning money during that week, is that they are only giving me an Economy Class ticket... but Emirates will almost certainly upgrade me anyway.

Really looking forward to it as my uncle is like a second father, and has always been a mentor for me with in my career, and his daughters (he has 4) are all like sisters. I haven't seen them for ages.

I also haven't been to the beach for ages- it's probably 4-5 years or so. As a plus, we are staying somewhere that I have wanted to stay for a long time: what is now a Sofitel but was originally called the Railway Hotel. I read about it in the Lonely Planet when I first visited Thailand in 1996. The guidebook said that it was constructed in the 1920s, and that ever since then it has been preserved exactly like that (I guess at least in the common areas). Apparently parts of the movie 'The Killing Fields' were shot there. It's pretty luxurious (read- expensive) but we are only staying for three nights.

Will take some pics (no, not including my wife, fellow internet pervs).

 

[Tosa]

So only pictures of anonymous women at the beach then?


Also, I might be jealous of your job, except for the bit about Afghanistan.

 

[JauntyAngle]

So only pictures of anonymous women at the beach then?

I'll see what I can do. I don't know what the anonymous women at the beach will be like- possibly middle-aged and older foreign tourists, which probably wouldn't be great. Thai women don't usually wander round in swimming suits (a lot of them even go into the sea in shorts and t-shirt).

Also, I might be jealous of your job, except for the bit about Afghanistan.

I do have great conditions, but the firm I work for generally gets contracts in the more messed up places. The big aid bureaucracies (like the World Bank and the UN agencies) tend to have offices in almost every country outside of the G20, and often have head offices and regional offices in developed countries, so if you work for one of those you can end up in some very liveable cities. But then the chances are you will basically be a bureaucrat, and even though you will be pretty well looked-after it will be a lot more like a regular job. I really appreciate working in chunks with decent breaks- next year, for example, after my current project is finished, I am hoping to take three months off.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I think you should vacation in South America

 

[MIDMOBOX]

and I thought you Brits were the only ones with a fucked up hat fetish

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul: Week Two, Workout Three

Warmup
c2 rowers for 2 minutes, various dynamic stretches

T3 Squats (5s day)
20kg x5, x5
40kg x3, x3
70kg x2, x2
90kg x1, x1
107kg x5
105kg x5
103kg x5
101kg x5
100kg x5
Timed Total Tonnage = 2.58 tonnes in 21 minutes

T3 Press (5s day)
20kg x5
30kg x3
40kg x2
53kg x5
52kg x5
51kg x5
50kg x5
50kg x5
Timed Total Tonnage = 1 to.28 tonnes in 20 minutes

Chins
bw x5, x5, x11

Operation: Weak Spots
Assisted GHR x4, Dumbbell tricep extensions 20kg (both side) x4
Assisted GHR x4, Dumbbell tricep extensions 20kg (both side) x4
Assisted GHR x4, Dumbbell tricep extensions 20kg (both side) x4

* * * * * * * *
Notes
- Squats were good. Reasonably hard, but once again not so hard that I am not very confident about adding weight again. Had my new gym partner check depth on the top set- 4th was only parallel, the others were well below. Some of the later sets were going really nice and deep.
- Oh, and I realized that my starting max of 105kg was a 3RM not a 5RM. I got it during a session over Christmas where I did a bunch of triples in increasing increments of 2.5kg, and the heaviest with respectable depth was 105kg. So this time last week I was +6kg on my squat. Expect +8kg on Saturday!
- Press wasn't too easy. But I haven't even completed three full cycles yet, just need to concentrate on doing each workout well, let the progression take care of itself.
- Upped the weight for tricep extensions to 20kg. Once again, they were all over the place. Just a few reps with this, and not too many on the GHRs as my legs were feeling a bit tired.
- Note to self; do a load of chins and dips, as well as cardio, over the next couple of days.

 

[LitteringAnd]

Nice squatting.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Nice squatting.

Thanks! The weights are still light by pretty much anyone and everyone's standards, and the pace is somewhat slow- at the current rate only about 6-8kg per month. But after 7 months of not improving in my squat at all it feels great, more than great, to be finally improving, and to feel that I might actually be able to maintain this for some time.

 

[JauntyAngle]

and I thought you Brits were the only ones with a fucked up hat fetish

Didn't notice the hats initially.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Just a quickee:

50 burpees in 5:51
Alternating dips and chins: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (didn't get to 8 on the chins)

My first try at Burpees since the April conditioning challenge. I went for a slow and stead pace that I knew I could complete without destroying myself. I'll be trying this again, going a little faster. Very little rest between the dips and chins, so I was getting reasonably fatigued. I probably could have got to 8 on the chins, and definitely had more dips in me, but a friend was waiting for me so I had to cut it short-ish.

 

[toonie]

Thanks! The weights are still light by pretty much anyone and everyone's standards, and the pace is somewhat slow- at the current rate only about 6-8kg per month. But after 7 months of not improving in my squat at all it feels great, more than great, to be finally improving, and to feel that I might actually be able to maintain this for some time.

It's all relative. You'll be saything the same thing when you're squatting 20kg more, and then 40kg more.

And seeing improvement in the personal log is always a wonderful thing to see.

 

[dza]

Nice work Jaunty. I'm about the same place as you with squats so that doesn't seem light by my standards. Good pace for the burpees too.

 

[LZD]

Sweet log! Good to see T3 in action! How are you finding recovery? I lift two days per week and have considered giving T3 a run for the Squat and Bench.