Vector

8/25/2014 AM Corectives from PFP + a bunch of stuff for my currently awful Anterior Pelvic Tilt. When my back spasm, I revert to this nasty posture...or perhaps I revert to this nasty posture and then my back spasm? Either way, trying a brace of exercises from an article by Elspeth Vaino on T-Nation. I suck at a good number of these moves!

That sounds like a terrific session! I realized my ass has stopped working properly recently, which explains many recent issues.

Weekly Recap: Did well on all strength work, got the guitar in again, slacking a bit on the meditation. As mentioned above, I'm shifting into a split routine to see if my recovery is better. My strength recovery has been fine, but I have been tired a lot and it has effected my work in the shop, which is just silly. Friday afternoon had another spasm (loaded a battery wrong into the truck, ouch!) so lots of stretching, ibuprofen, and Somatics. Feeling pretty good, but I'll likely cut down or out the Mon-Tues workouts this coming week. So now the challenge is 4 strength workouts a week... Ordered 2 25# plates so I can move the deadlift along. I want a spell check correction on the site- every time I write 'deadlift' it self corrects to 'deadliest'.

Nice work!

I am thinking that it is wise to go to a split routine. My recovery isn't great right now, I am pretty shot for the day after my sessions even after adding in some more carbs. So the plan is to do something like this: DAY 1 (PUSH) - Rope & DROM: squat 5x5 hspu 5x5 push ups/dips 5x5 ab work stretch DAY 2 (PULL) - Rope & DROM: deadlift - (alternate light & medium days, work out rep ranges.) pull up 5x3 horizontal pull 5x5 ab work stretch DAY 3 rest DAY 4 (PUSH) - Rope & DROM: squat 5x5 hspu 5x5 push ups/dips 5x5 ab work stretch DAY 5 (PULL) - Rope & DROM: deadlift - (alternate light & medium days, work out rep ranges.) pull up 5x3 horizontal pull 5x5 ab work stretch DAY 6 rest DAY 7 rest See how it goes, but I need to be more functional for work!

Earthquakes are about all I really miss from California, other than friends. Glad you & kitties are all right!

That sounds like tomorrow night....

Thanks, man! I would not have even thought of the invisibility of sigs on phones. They don't work where I live!

HA! Yeah, that was totally clear. I have been in long recovery from getting super jacked up. I am now totally functional, EXCEPT for spasms in my erectors on occasion. So the fact that I can do my bodyweight again for 5's is awesome, but I'l like my 300+ deadlifts back sooner that I probably will get it! Thanks for the kind words on the silver! I love that piece, too.

Those mountains look super fun! Jealous!

Waldo- the house looks & sounds awesome! I have a creatine question. I used it in 2000-2001 during my only serious bulk (165-215). What I am wondering is if you think or have seen anything about it helping with things like muscle spasms? The last nagging issue that keeps grounding me is spasm in my erectors. I've got them mostly under control, but they like to pop up now & again with training. Reading your post made me wonder if creatine supplementation would help with the contract/relax cycle. No clue from over here. V.

Nice work. I want my real deadlift back!

Y'all are onto something here! There's a very popular cultural story called "there's nothing I can do about ________", and it's evil twin "I could never ______". If you actually do make real changes, if you actually do stop doing the things you decide are not in your best interest, it threatens this story. It makes it a little clearer that the stories are really "there's nothing I will do about ______" and "I would never______". It's threatening, and so people try to drag you down. DOn't let them, it helps no one!

8/22/2014 Strength Warm up: rope, DROM. Deadlift to 180#x3, 150x5 BulgSS 7.7.7 Band Assist neutral grip pull ups x6 --- these did not feel awesome, so let them go. Might be time to recede reps again for the sake of the elbow. Feet Elevated Pike Push Up 7.7.7 Parallette L sit 3x5 sec Diamond Push Up 7.7.7 Feet Elev. Row 6.5.5 able to do a slow descent on first two sets. Decline Plank 45 seconds Stretch - yes!

Nice review. That kind of thing helps.

I loved the TPB for deads, but really did not like cleaning with it! Since then I've learned to do cleans with schedule 40 pipe, so I'm sure it would be no issue!

8/21/2014 Conditioning Oooh! I have adjusted my food intake enough to make a mild conditioning workout sound fun! 30s rope alternated with 30s of squats/light rows/face pulls/1 & 2 hand club work Split into two 8 minute chunks with 2 minutes rest between chunks. Not bad. Definitely got some HR increase. I've been shitty about Meditation & guitar this week, will work on getting those normalized. periodically we mess up the netflix queue and end up with nothing but 2+ hour movies and it compresses the end of the day. Some shorter stuff rolling in should make the next bit easier to manage. Meditate & guitar- Yes!

Exactly! We are a very results oriented society, and it's often NOT the way to be effective, at least at the start of things. Most things it's about just doing them consistently. If I hit 150 'pretty good' workouts in a year, I will get better results than If I obsess about making every workout perfect and only hit 90 a year due to disappointment or pushing too fast and getting injured. When I first tried to learn to sing & play guitar at the same time? OMG! SO AWFUL! I finally resorted to reading aloud while I played guitar, doing both badly! I knew it would be terrible, so no stress! A year later I was singing & playing onstage, reasonably well. Same idea can be applied to most things.

8/20/2014 Strength Warm up: chasing turkeys around the woods with the dogs, DROM. Deadlift 150# x5 Looking at reducing the vol. on the middle day so I can do DLs every workout. Maybe 3x med, 1x med, 1x heavy? I don't know, playing it by ear. BulgSS 7.7.6 Band Assist neutral grip pull ups 6.6.6 switched out the black band, so now red/red. Still easy, elbows still good. Feet Elevated Pike Push Up 7.7.6 Hanging Bent Leg Raise 7.7.7 OK, these are getting quite hard. Dips +18# 6.6.5 Feet Elev. Row 5.5.4 Narrow plank, 60 seconds Stretch - yes!

Nice work! GO HIGHER!

The best advice I can think of (and this is in relation to the 'all the things' issue) is to just not play that game. Pick two, maybe three things that you can actually change, that you can actually track, and just work them until they are habits. Then add one more thing, and repeat. Change is almost always incremental, even when it doesn't look like it. It's kind of like when I first learned to jump rope. My agreement with myself was that I would attempt to suck at jumping rope for 3 minutes a day. And I did! It was awful! But I knew it would be, and accepted that up front, so there was no disappointment. I'm not good at the jump rope now, but I can do it poorly for a good long while!

I also IF and I work out about 2-3 hours after I wake up, and eat my first meal a couple of hours later. Up at 6, workout at 8 or 9, eat at 12. See how it works for you, but generally you'll adapt to whatever you choose.

Love the photos!

Although I am shitty at both cleans & snatches, I always felt like the hang snatch just sort of slid into position, where the clean always felt a little forced. I go through sleep phases like that, I find solace in a variety of herbal tinctures when it happens.

Nearly everyone starting out will do best with doing a lot less, more concentrated work. You'll probably get a ton of suggestions for Starting Strength & Stronglifts, but anything along those lines will be great. I think of it like this: am I better off doing 12-16 sets for my shoulders, or putting all that energy & intensity into 3-4 sets? I get better results with the 3-4 sets! Same thing on frequency- I get better results at 3x a week with the weights. I might do other things- run, box, etc, on a couple of extra days. Radical simplicity is usually they key to success in lifting. If you do 3-5 work sets of 3-6 big exercises 3x week you'll be golden. The exercises worth keeping to me are always: a squat a horizontal row a pull up or chin a deadlift a horizontal press (push up, bench, or dips) an overhead press ab work- usually planks or static holds. If you can get someone to teach you, learn to do cleans. Alternate the cleans with the deads. If you feel the need to do work for the arms, do it last, and give yourself a time limit- like 10 minutes of curls & press downs. The key to the whole game is progression in big exercises, frankly. Hope this helps! V.