Strength in Interesting Places

[JauntyAngle]

Couldn't work out yesterday, because the Managing Director of the firm I work for was in Juba visiting the project I am going. So had to talk to him, have beers, dinner, etc. (Today I totally awesomely distinguished myself by getting his name wrong when introducing him to a Minister of the government here. How awesome is that.)

Anyway...

Squats

Resisted the temptation again. Hard.


Bench

Took it upto 85 today, as planned, and as expected it was a bit much of a jump. Got a massive and very friendly Sudanese guy in the gym (who later started banging out sets of 6-7 at 125kg without much seeming effort, and with no leg drive) to spot me, which changed the dynamic. He was a little early at picking them up- he picked them up on the last of the first two sets, probably didn't need it first time, probably did the second

85kg: x4 (+1 spotted), x4 (+1 spotted), x2

Just died on the third set despite a long rest. This was not impressive, but coming even close to 85kgx5 was satisfying. I'll do better next time, I am sure.


Bent Over Row

60kgx5, 65kgx5, 70kgx5

Got to concentrate on drawing my shoulder blades together. I can do it, I just forget. 70 felt like a nice weight. I can still go up form here though.


Random Crap

Uhm...

...20 reps on the ab wheel that the massive Sudanese guy brought with him
...2x10 on the Captain's chair (one twisted, one not)
...2x10 dips with really wide arms (using the things you grip on the running machine)
...2x10 really wide arm paused press-ups
...1x10 paused bench at 60kg
...2x10 barbell bicep curl for the AWESOME at 35kg

* * *

Wanted to do some cardio today, but the workout took a long time because I let the massive Sudanese guy work in. Glad I did- he was super-nice. He seemed to have various military connections and told me he did George Clooney's security when he was here last month. So my plan to meet George Clooney and tell him "Wow, Out of Sight was great... Don Cheadle was brilliant" have taken another step forward.

 

[toonie]

*Makes notes to check back into Jaunty's log when not at work*

I realize the pics are SFW, but I really want to stare so only skimmed through them now.

Oh, and good lifting in here.

And I never did get to thank you for visiting my profile and posting. Thanks!

 

[JauntyAngle]

*Makes notes to check back into Jaunty's log when not at work*

I realize the pics are SFW, but I really want to stare so only skimmed through them now.

Oh, and good lifting in here.

And I never did get to thank you for visiting my profile and posting. Thanks!

Looking forward to welcoming you back.

I was thinking I should probably put more pics of the places I work, too, to back up the 'interesting places' claim.

Sadly, the lifting is a bit 'meh' right now as I hurt my back and am trying to avoid squats and deadlifts for a while. Then prior to that I was experimenting a lot with depth and technique and so on. So it feels like I haven't lifted anything heavy (even by beginners' standars) for ages.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Okay, here are some photos of some actual 'interesting places'. This is Chak district in Wardak province, now a serious hotbed of Taliban activity. Very dangerous place.

This is what the hillsides in Kabul look like

Here's a messed-up part of the city, not rebuilt since the civil war

Here's some mean, terrifying and scary Afghans bent on driving the foreigners out of Afghanistan

 

[MIDMOBOX]

scary afghans got nothing on these people

and my almost all time fav scary internet chick find

 

[MIDMOBOX]

not to make up for that

 

[toonie]

. Hmm, I guess it would be a bit hard to cut granite weight...

I'm assuming you played Pokemon Blue/Red? Back when we lived in Malaysia I friggin owned that game, had all 150 pokemon, even the level three ones that you had to transfer to another gameboy in order for them to evolve (eg. machamp, gengar, etc.).

Never played any after that though.

Wait. But you didn't have Mew?

I know for a fact you can get Mew in pokemon yellow. I did it myself a few months ago (yeah that's right, I was
playing pokemon on my gameboy recently), and I'm pretty sure the same method exists in Red/Blue.

EDIT: For reference, the method in pokemon yellow almost identical to this.


Little known fact, Mew was the first trademarked pokemon.

 

[calvus]

Cool pictures!

 

[Justice 4 All]

^

Playing pokemon yellow is cool man, don't listen to the haters...

Wow, what are the chances somebody would discover that precise combination of events to find Mew? Either the player himself lives in a pokeball, or the creators have leaked it.

But alas, I was never able to find Mew. I remember there being myths about how to find it at the time, but nobody ever came out with a concrete method. I don't think it's possible in blue/red, but maybe it can be transferred from yellow or something.

I will carry this hole in my heart forever. :,(

 

[toonie]

Playing pokemon yellow is cool man, don't listen to the haters...

Wow, what are the chances somebody would discover that precise combination of events to find Mew? Either the player himself lives in a pokeball, or the creators have leaked it.

But alas, I was never able to find Mew. I remember there being myths about how to find it at the time, but nobody ever came out with a concrete method. I don't think it's possible in blue/red, but maybe it can be transferred from yellow or something.

I will carry this hole in my heart forever. :,(

Well I'm pretty sure that video is for pokemon red/blue since the guy doesn't have pikachu following him around and since he's got a wartortle as his main pokemon. I think the reason it's coloured is because he may have it for the PC? I remember having pokemon for the PC, and pretty sure it was pokemon red/blue.

And yeah, the combination of events was most likely leaked by the developers. I was reading up on it and apparently the developers put that exact combination in the game as a secret for the other developers to obtain Mew. It's also similar to that glitch (in the sense you had to do a certain series of events) where you could face that MissingNo. thing. IIRC that glitch was used to duplicate things?

And yeah, I remember the myths about obtaining Mew as well. I remember one where you had to avoid going on to the SS Anne and not to go towards the boat until you had surf and strength. Then, before you enter the boat from the pier, you had to surf off to that small piece of land by the boat and use strength to push the truck and Mew would be under there (it wasn't). Can't remember any other myths atm.

Edit: IIRC, pokemon has experience bars underneath the hitpoint bars during battle. Those are absent in the above video. I may be wrong though. Will check when I get home. I may even start playing Pokemon yellow again.. haha

 

[JauntyAngle]

I just want to emphasize that I firmly encourage the discussion of Pokemon games on this log.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Couldn't get to the gym yesterday, had to go for dinner with our Managing Director. Today I am really exhausted for some reason, so I will skip the workout and go tomorrow. Don't know if I will do the missed Friday workout (OHP) or Sunday's (Bench). I'd like to stick to the basic template of Weds Bench, Fri OHP and Sun Bench, but I don't know what is the best way to do that.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Decided to do the mid-week workout (press), which means that the second bench session of the week will be on Tuesday, and this workout week will be 9 days.

Stretchin'

Did a very quick yoga exercise to open up the hips and rotate the spine a bit, which I find very helpful for when my back is suffering a bit. Then a tiny bit on the elliptical, and some half assed dynamic stretching. Then, while bending backward a little bit, it felt like whatever clicked out of place a few weeks ago clicked back into place. I should be able to tell pretty soon- see if I still have the tightness after sitting in a chair for 20 mins.

Press

Decided to stay at 52.5 even though I know I can do a very ragged and wobbly 55x5. Get my work capacity up, improve technique at that weight, etc:

52.5kg: x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

Depth good on all of them (touched chest just fine), most not too difficult, some a bit far out in front of the head, not quite squeezing it up enough at the end. But overall probably my best ever pressing if you combine technique, ROM, volume, weight etc.


Clean

55kg: x3, x3
57.5kg: x3, x3
60kg: x3, x3

Planed to do 3 triples across at 60kg, but I had got used to cleaning 52.5 (for my press) and 60 seemed hard. So I decided to work up. Learned something very important, which I can summarize as follows:

"Stompy-stompy helpy cleany"

Stomping your feet as you land makes your feet land in the same place as they started from (more or less), eliminating the tendency to widen your feet, and it also seems to encourage me to make the throwing forward of the eblows more explosive. I blame Rip for me not doing it before: in the video he chastises someone for doing it too hard, so I rarely did it at all, but in the book he says something like "the feet will naturally come apart, so we give them something to do- stomp on the ground as they land". Need to study the Glenn Pendlay video again to look at the timing a bit more, but technique-wise I think this was a step forward.


Random Crap

- Bunch of captain's chairs after each set of presses (15 reps)
- 60kg paused bench x10 and 35kg barbell curl x10 (3 sets, alternating)

I am sure paused bench is going to pay off. When I start Madcow/Bill Starr 5x5 I might do all the bench paused for the first few weeks as I work up towards my current weights.


Cardio

30 mins on bicycle, level 9/20, hill setting. On the highest parts of the hill it was a bit tough. Hot in gym, so I sweated a lot. Feel really good now.

Soundtrack was the end of Paul Van Dyk 'Volume' CD3 and the beginning of an old Armin Van Buuren 'State of Trance' radio show.


* * * *

Now one day full rest before a bench/BOR/something else session. If my back is better, I will look at some light squats for the Thursday session.

 

[dinpappa]

Cool pics, nice lifting, and keep it up

 

[JauntyAngle]

Cool pics, nice lifting, and keep it up

Thanks. The lifting is sort of in a holding pattern due to injuries and fatness. So I am losing a bit of weight, getting better at pressing, and waiting until I can lift properly again.

Anyway, thanks for dropping in!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Right. I have decided. I am going to start the Bill Starr 5x5 (Madcow version), after my back is fine again, probably when I am back in Thailand. Some people would say that I should get some more noob gains out of SS, but session-by-session progression just doesn't seem to work for me, I like ramping sets, and I respond to volume.

But, these are not the biggest reason why I am going to switch. The real reason is this photo:

That's Bill Starr on the left. What a guy! Seeing the hair, glasses and band, you totally don't expect the legs. And oh, how his thighs ripple from underneath those tiny 70's style shorts.

I might even get a similar outfit to do his workout in from time to time. Can't get the hair, but the rest should be possible.

 

[Justice 4 All]

Lol. Starr looks like a hippie.
I'm thinking of changing program pretty soon as well, but I suspect it'll be 5/3/1, as it's no too intensive and I have MMA on the side.

What made you choose Madcow (other than Starr's bulging rippliness)?

 

[JauntyAngle]

Lol. Starr looks like a hippie.
I'm thinking of changing program pretty soon as well, but I suspect it'll be 5/3/1, as it's no too intensive and I have MMA on the side.

What made you choose Madcow (other than Starr's bulging rippliness)?

Well, in some ways it because it is like Texas Method lite. The volume day uses ramped sets, rather than sets across, and you ramp up 10% per set until you are at your work set weight. That means that only the last two sets are likely to be tough. The recovery day has a bit more volume than Texas (4 sets) but they are ramped up like the volume day except missing the final set, so probably only slightly tough. The intensity day has a load more volume (4-5 ramped up sets, then a heavy triple which sets the weight you will be ramping up to next week, then 8 reps at a lighter weight). But overall, less intense than Texas Method.

So less intensity, and more volume, which I think I will like.

I also like the simple exercise selection: squat, bench and power clean (or BOR) on Monday and Friday, squat, press and deadlift on Wednesday. I like the approach of three exercises per day (plus optional assistance). I like the overall balance- squat three times a week, bench twice, press and deadlift once. I like that dips and abs are included as assistance. This is another advantage for me over Texas- most templates involve more than 3 exercises on volume day, and with the amount of recovery time I need for sets across, I'd be in the gym over 2 hours that day.

I also like the weekly progression system. I feel that I am more or less doing weekly progression anyway, and I can continue it for a while. And I feel it is too soon for Monthly progression.

I guess in some ways it is basically what I have been moving towards anyway over the last 2 months and really enjopying- weekly progression instead of session-by-session, benching twice a week and pressing once instead of alternating them, ramped sets instead of sets across, 5 sets instead of 3, doing heavy triples sometimes, doing dips regularly... but it means that I can do all these things in a more structured way.

 

[SuperAlly]

Shame that thread on not squatting was closed. Some funny comments on there.

Need to catch up on reading the logs, not been finding time for it.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Shame that thread on not squatting was closed. Some funny comments on there.

Need to catch up on reading the logs, not been finding time for it.

Sadly, the Mods are not too tolerant of silly threads going on a long time. I am not quite sure why... can't see the harm in letting them run a bit longer. But anyway.