El Exorcisto

Friday karate night The first hour is done with the kids and we ran through the basic basics again to clean things up after the summer off. We finished up with some self defense. The last couple hours is the adult class. After a warm up with a bunch of wall kicks we ran through beginner kata, Taikyoku Shodan and Blocking Set Shodan. We wrapped the night up with similar self defense from earlier but taking it to the point of finishing with a lock and putting our partner on the floor. It was hot as balls in the gym, otherwise it was a pretty uneventful but fun night.

5s Strict Axle Strict axle press, 11@95 and 12@65 (FSL) superset with 5, 5x3 ring chins DB flat bench 3x10 @ 35 SS with BB curl 3x10 @ 45 Circuit: Trap bar shrugs 3x15 @90, incline curl 15,12,12 @ 10, and triceps pushdown 25,20,20 with EFS red band Some good old fashioned pump work...

Two years is a long damn time not to pick up a chunk of iron in any meaningful way. I took a left turn down a career path that stuck me working night shifts for the last couple years, although with the silver lining of getting fuckin' paid, yo! I digress... So after a couple years of lucrative hell, and an existential crisis or twelve, I decided to quit my job in favor of something way less stressful. I also picked up karate last year and made seventh kyu in June when class wrapped for summer break. As soon as I hit cruise control on the work front I couldn't help but get everything else squared back away. My gym, covered in a shameful amount of dust, got blown out and I made some noise last week. Since it seems like this is going to be a repeat thing again, at least for a while, why not drop a log back on here? Last night (September 10, 2018) First karate class of the season. The night was mostly just meant to knock the rust off and get us remembering the basics. I did get introduced to the spinning back kick but by the time we got there my hips were fried and I couldn't get them above knee level. My class includes myself at the lowest rank, three fifth kyus, a couple fourth, and a couple third kyus. The class is too small to break us up so I usually end up punching WAY up at times. It's fun. Karate has kind of become my focus with my fitness goals, which brings us to: Tonight Bench press 5s night Bench press up to a set of 8 @ 135 (fuck me, right?!) superset with DB rows, 5x8 @ 50 DB incline 3x12@25 SS with EZ-bar curls 3x12 @35 Single axle DB press 3x12 @ 15 SS with fat axle hammer curls 3x10 @ 20 Face pulls 3x20 with EFS red band Thigpen Pushdowns 3x20 with EFS red band Wall kicks 2x5 roundhouse chamber and 2x5 side chamber, 20 second hold. "El, wtf?!" you may be asking, "where are the squats and deadlifts?!" That's a great question. The big lower body movements wreck my hip mobility. Since being able to throw a good side kick is on my short list, the squats, deadlifts, and good mornings are gone. I might pick up my trap bar some but that's about it. I should be getting a swiss ball for the GHR soon. As soon as I do, I'll do them a couple times a week. Between riding my bike a couple times a week, class twice a week, and bag work my legs are pretty much always sore anyway. There's no use beating on them any more. I never did spend much time trying to actually get big so this will be a little different. I'm using 5/3/1's progression on bench, strict axle, and log jerk/PP and doing a decent amount of volume on chest, back, shoulders, and arms. Tonight was good. Last week I hit 7 at 135 and this week got eight, so progress. I'm gonna add five to my DB incline and single DB press. I'm not nearly as torn up as last week with a similar workout. Hopefully I'm through the brutal DOMS already.

Yea, alive is very good. I got an interview and offer for the new job today, I start mid-August. My boss isn't going to be happy when I drop notice tomorrow but so it goes.

It's been a rough, dark couple months ladies and gents. I'll spare everyone the details. Suffice to say that I am yet again waiting with baited breath on a new job, and I dropped out of NY Strongest due to not training for a couple months. I have however been spending a lot of time out in my kayak fishing and having a blast enjoying the summer with the family. And so it goes, I found myself in the gym on Monday night and again today. Monday I did bench, chins, strict press, DB rows, rolling extensions and incline curls. I've been feeling it for a couple days. In fact I don't think I've ever felt this ripped up after an upper body day. Today I worked up to 5 at 225 on SSB squats and then pulled 5 plates for an 18" deadlift followed by a few 5s of axle C&P. I'm spending the next three months at least just fucking around in the gym. I don't have any contest to prep for and no real goals in mind until around February. I'm going to be spending a few weeks fishing in Florida and I'll be damned if I don't have a fucking six pack. So that's my story. I'm still alive.

ME Deadlift/Events Deficit deadlift from yellow 15kg bumper plate: triples up to 365, singles at 385 and 405 - PR Farmer's walk at 125 per hand, 75': 4 runs, 13.42-10.26 seconds Sandbag carry 150 pounds, 75': 2 runs, untimed Tire flip: 4x6 at 300ish Kalle Beck does deadlifts on events day in his beginner program so I thought I'd pull that from it and use it. I need a second day of working on my press and the deadlift makes a lot of sense on an event day for me vs. only pressing once. I haven't pulled from a yellow bumper before but when I pulled from a 4" block my best was 365. 4 plates was really slow but not in a "shit I might not make it" way. It was weird. I didn't like the movement but I think it'll have good carry over to my conventional pull from the floor. Farmers started really fucking slow with a shitty pick. I got my shit together through the four runs and cut 3 seconds off my time by focussing and not just going through the motions. Intent seems to be everything. When I can consistently hit sub-10 seconds I'll add some weight. The sandbag is a total dick and I was fried by the time I got around to it. I ended up having to relap and grip again midway through my first lap and decided I need to spend some time getting more familiar with a front loaded carry before trying to go for speed. I'm on the fence whether I want to do switch the sandbag and farmers. My yard has a slight uphill grade so my first two sets sucked a lot worse than the last two on the tire flip. The tire had about 2" of water in it, too. By the last set the tread was soaked so getting my hands on it was becoming a problem.

Bro day Axle bench: 10s at 70, 110, 130; 2x8 at 155 Bar chin: 8,8,6 Slingshot CGBP: 12 at 135; 8,8,5 at 155 3-way raise with fat axle DBs: 3x10 at 10 superset with Barbell curl: 15,15,12 at 45 I forgot what a good pump felt like having been depleted for so long. Axle bench felt totally different than benching with a barbell and I really like it. I could feel everything contracting so much better and it took more focus to keep the bar in the groove and not let it fall out ahead. My arms were so pumped up after axle bench and chins that I needed help getting my slingshot on. Slingshot CGBP felt good but it really showed how fucking awful my work capacity has gotten. Using my extra fat DBs on 3-ways did the same thing as my axle on bench. I could focus on hammering my delts and even using 5 less pounds they were completely fried. I'm hoping my work capacity and conditioning come up to respectable levels quickly. I'm really kind of pissed at how shitty my endurance is both under the bar and fucking around with flipping my tire. Tomorrow is my first events day of the training cycle and I'm really looking forward to it.

Volume squat Squat: 10 at 185, 10 at 190 Front squat: 20 at 95 Suspended SSB good morning: 2x5 at 225, 5 at 245 Kneeling band crunch: 20 with EFS light, 20 with EFS average, 12 with average and light SS with GHR: 7,6,5; hands behind back Weighted RC sit-ups: 2x10 +10 With my deload before and after my contest I haven't squatted in a couple weeks and it just felt awful and foreign. I could have moved more weight but I didn't want to risk fucking myself up this early in my training cycle with everything feeling so unstable. I'm going to be hammering 20 rep front squats weekly for the next six weeks trying to bring my quads and upper back up since they felt like a big weakness. I'll be bumping the weight up quite a bit next week. GMs felt great and I could have moved more but I'm easing back in. It was still 5 pounds of my 5 rep PR from a few weeks ago so I'm not too concerned. Band crunches are going to take some getting used to. The light and average bands were too light and the two of them together were to heavy to get a full range of motion. I'll try with an average and mini next week and see how that feels. My GHR has been collecting dust for a while and needed some love. I was surprised I hit a single rep with my hams already pretty wrecked from GMs and not having done them in so long. I didn't see a lot of carry over from them before but it seems like a pretty big theme of strongmen and powerlifters making them a staple because of what they can do. I'll give them six weeks and see where I am at with my pull. Weighted abs were rough. I'll be sticking with a dime for a while until they start feeling comfortable.

Greyskull LP makes a lot more sense to me as a beginner program than either SL or SS. It has higher volume and a better assortment of movements than either of the two default beginner templates.

How many days do you have to train?

Speed press Log press: a bunch of doubles and triples at 135 and 145... I lost count but between 7 and 10 superset with Weighted chins: 5x5 +25 - rep PR Strict press: 13,4,3 rest-pause at 95 Yates row: 3x12 at 135 Close grip floor press: 3x10 at 135 superset with Hammer curl: 15,12,12 at 20 The log felt pretty good at 135 but started getting slow at 145 after a few doubles. I dropped back to 135 for a few and they were back to being fast enough to catch instead of press. I hit a rep PR on weighted chins with a total of 25 with an added quarter. Rest-pause strict press was really fucking savage. I was just going to feel out 95 and bump up to 105 for the big set but I'm glad I didn't. Everything else was pretty unremarkable. I have all kinds of crap growing around here. I've put in a garden the last seven or so years growing everything from tomatoes and squash to potatoes and beans. This year we're planting 5 different winter squashes, a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers, a couple types of chiles, potatoes, and pole beans. This fall we'll be putting in a garlic and shallot bed which will be a new endeavor for us. The raspberries were growing wild on the edge of my yard so I just transplanted them into a bed I tilled so I can fertilize, prune, and mulch them so I can get a decent yield off them. I planted a couple pear trees and a couple sour cherry trees, too. I have a few wild apple trees in the woods and my neighbor across the street has an orchard that was planted sometime before or around the American Revolution. I want to learn how to graft so I can graft some of these really old apple varieties onto modern dwarf rootstock and manage them. We also have chickens, a dozen at laying age and 30ish chicks. The hens will replace my laying flock and the roosters I don't keep for breeding will be getting caponized and put in the freezer. My dad and I got into bees last year too. We trapped three swarms from local feral stock and hived them, he kept two and I kept one. Hopefully that will be getting expanded out to five or so hives each by the end of the season.

I'd like to get something of a round table discussion going with some of the stronger members here about what good programming typically looks like. The internet is littered with training templates written by strong dudes that have made lots of other dudes pretty strong along with at least ten times as many ad-hoc piles of dogshit written by pencil neck skinny bastards. On top of that you have coaches and trainers writing both amazing and atrocious programs for individual trainees. What works for one guy may not work for another. What works for a man may or may not work best for a woman. At it's core however, good programming seems to have a few overarching themes as long as those programs have a real goal in mind, whether a specialization program like Smolov Jr, a dedicated powerlifting program like the Texas Method or Cube, or more general strength and conditioning program like 5/3/1. Contrast those templates with more nebulous programming like a bodybuilder's push/pull/legs or bro-split and they usually couldn't look more different. That said however, there are high school gym rats with a bigger bench than mine and I doubt it is totally by a lucky mistake. There are also people who have been hitting the gym for years without any appreciable gains following a similar template. What makes one successful and one an utter failure? Besides squatting, pressing, and deadlifting, what makes good programming good and what makes mediocre or bad programming bad?

If you want to get leaner then cut until you don't want to any more. After that come up so a slight surplus, gain until you don't like what you're seeing in the mirror and then do it all over again. The big take home message is that diet and training have a pretty shaky link until you are starting to pile some real weight on the bar. Also, adding lean mass to improve body composition really doesn't work until you are already fairly lean. Getting bigger with a decent layer of fat still covering everything just makes you look bigger, not jacked. With all that said, this all applies to the "usual" definition of aesthetic, meaning quite lean. If being really fucking strong is more important to you than keeping to an ideal aesthetic, then get as big as you can stand and then suffer through peeling some of it away when you can't stand it any more. If strength is really your ultimate goal then your training template is going to have more bearing on it than your diet ever will. I despise Stronglifts and Starting Strength as beginner templates.

Eat to your goals. If you want to get smaller then eat at a deficit. If you want to grow then eat at a surplus. I don't really ever advocate eating to maintain unless you just need an emotional break from a very long diet and then it's at most for a week. If you eat to maintain then you are either leaving gains on the platform or prolonging any goals involving getting leaner. I cut for a good part of three months going into my last contest and hit PRs both in the gym and at the contest. Being in a deficit doesn't mean you don't get stronger, especially if you are a novice trainee. Most gains early on are neurological, learning how to properly contract the muscle that you already have. Any appreciable size gains don't come for a while when you need to adapt by growing instead of becoming more efficient. This counts doubly so for female trainees who will put on a fraction of the lean mass that a man would in the best of circumstances.

Morning weigh-in: 174.6 Fuckaround day Deadlift up to a single at 365 Strict press up to a single at 155 - PR at bodyweight CG Slingshot bench: 10@135, 10@155 Ring chins: 10,8 Tire flip: 2x10 at 300ish I transplanted a wild raspberry patch last week before my contest and got a pair of cherry and a pair of pear trees in the ground yesterday. I finally got around to shovelling out the chicken coop so their shit can compost out by May when I'll need it for the gardens and starting to make a dent in the metric fuckton of wood chips I got from a local tree guy. It's been a busy and pretty exhausting week to say the least. My upper back still hasn't really had a chance to recover from my contest and I really felt it in the gym today. I wanted to stretch my legs and see where my deadlift is sitting but 365 felt a lot heavier than it should have. I went for a 5 pound PR on strict press but missed it but 155 is a PR at this bodyweight. Slingshot bench felt nice on the triceps and ring chins were savage with my upper back being this rekt. Tire flips... Jesus tapdancing Christ. Wendler talks about the Prowler making it feel like you're drowning in napalm and I have to imagine that this is pretty close to the same sensation. My conditioning needs a ton of work.

My footwork is really terrible. I'm going to have all I can do just getting from shit to suck on moving events in three months. I did run a keg at a contest last August and didn't find it nearly as shitty as a Hussafel or sandbag. Hopefully my sandbag will be close enough to a keg to get some specificity to it. Regardless, running with shit in my hands should go a long way to getting me better at it. I had a frame deadlift last August that was similar to a car deadlift, just made out of a pair of big logs and a giant slab of granite. I was the only guy in the lightweights to pull it and a couple of the heavies zeroed it too. I thought going into the car that I'd at least have a single but it just wasn't meant to be. I don't know when I'll see it in contest again but when I do I'll be ready for it. I'm going to be doing 20 rep front squats for at least the next six weeks to bring my legs and upper back up. They both felt like huge weak points.

I just got the videos pulled down from my wife's phone and it's all garbage. Sorry guys.

A guy at my last contest did all five events barefoot. So 160 pound log/axle press, car deadlift, 200 pound Hussafel carry for 50', 300lb farmer's walk for 100', and he loaded a 220 pound Atlas stone over a 51" bar. Your feet can likely take anything you would want to throw at them. Granted, Eddie is pulling in socks and not barefoot, but you get the idea. Even if you're thinking about forklifting a half ton off the floor with nothing but some straps and a suit with straps down, your feet will be just fine.

I got a couple tires today. My wife's tire comes in somewhere between 180 and 200 pounds. It's a little narrow for her to get her shoulders dug into it so she'll be flipping it sumo until she can handle mine. My tire comes in around 300 assuming 50 pounds missing due to tread wear. It's nowhere near contest weight but I can spend some time getting quality technique work without getting too beat up. When I need more weight I'll either hunt down something closer to contest weight or tie some sand bags into it. Tomorrow I'm taking the angle grinder to my farmer's handles so I don't end up bleeding when they tip over again and then shooting another coat of paint on them. I need to drag my sandbag out and get it set up around 150 pounds to work technique on the carry and load event. I have a harness coming sometime early next week so I can train for the truck pull. I'll probably just start by dragging my bigger tire around to start off with and maybe move up to my wife's car with the e-brake barely touching. It looks like by the end of the week I'll have all my implements together to start my training cycle for NY Strong-est.

Report's up. I'll have video when I get around to it.

I just got back home from my second sanctioned contest. It was another great contest run by Hudson Valley Strength. I decided a few months ago that I'd be doing the contest at 165 since I haven't weighed in that light since sometime around when I started growing pubes and I was WAY too weak to be that damn fat. I cut from around 181 down to 172 over the last few months and then water cut into the contest. It was my first time I did any water manipulation and learned really fast what works for me and what doesn't... more on that later. On to the contest report. Friday night: My wife and I got into the hotel at around 3pm. Weigh-ins were from 5-7, about a half hour away. I walked into the room weighing in at 167.6. After one final leak and about a half hour in and out of a steaming hot bathtub I tipped the scale at 165.5. I was starting to feel really shitty and overheated so I called it there. We hopped in the car and drove to Lightning Express for weigh-ins. I was fourth on the scale and I made weight without an issue. We went to IHOP for a giant refeed meal of a chicken fajita omlette, three pancakes, and four glasses of orange juice. I polished off a bag of chips between weigh-ins and before bed along with twoish litres of water. Feeling bloated as shit I passed out, pretty happy about the whole ordeal being behind me. Saturday morning: We rolled up to the venue at 8am and I got checked in, got my t-shirt, and grabbed a picnic table. Just like last year the weather was amazing and the atmosphere was just as intense. They got stations for the first two events set up, rules briefing at 9, and the first event happened right on time at 9:30. The 165 class had 9 guys in it. Axle and Log press medley, max reps in 60s at 160 pounds I was 7th in the order so I got to watch most of the class go first. A couple guys made it pretty obvious that they'd never touched an axle or log and then a couple others were just complete fucking animals. I was hoping for 4 reps but realized really fast how humbling real implements are. The axle had tires for big plates so the pick was higher than I'm used to. I had a dick of a time getting any speed off the floor to clean so getting the axle up to the rack was just pathetic. I hit one rep on each implement and felt pretty light headed afterwards. I tried for a second rep on the axle but I couldn't clean it. Car deadlift, max reps in 60 seconds I got a few cues from one of the guys in the 181 class but they didn't matter. I zeroed on the deadlift along with 7 of the 9 in my class. 3 reps won the event and 1 rep took second. The promoter said if he realized it was going to be that heavy he would have dropped another mat under the rig but it was too late. I spend about 40 of my 60 seconds trying to pull it but I only just broke it off the floor once. Hussafel stone, 50' for time at 200 pounds The signature implement of the contest is a puzzle piece shaped Hussafel stone made by Big Dawgg just for Lift for Autism. It sucks. The scoops are in just the right spot for a low pick but high enough that the bottom of the stone whacks your thighs as you walk and the nub on top keeps you from being able to pull it any higher. I hate the Hussafel stone but this just takes it to a new level of fuckery. I made the run in 15 seconds. Farmer's walk, 100' with 180* turn at 150 pounds I should have been training moving events for a long time and this was what really told me that I'd been fucking off with my training. The weather has been shit for carry work but I needed to get some of it done regardless. It was pretty straightforward and not especially surprising. I was still slow as shit at 22 seconds. Atlas stone series over 51" bar Again, this was a pretty big demonstration of how I've been fucking up with my training. I have the stones but never got the heavies from my other house and it showed. The series was supposed to be 180-240 but ended up being 220-300ish. I tackied up and got my first stone loaded without any problem at all for a 20 pound Atlas stone PR. I tried breaking the 240 off the floor and it just wasn't budging. Since I didn't place we stuck around for the rest of my weight class and bailed. We crushed a pile of smoked awesomeness at a barbecue place somewhere north of Kingston and continued on home. I'm trashed. My hamstrings feel like hamburger and my upper back is a wreck. My abs are still cramping every now and then, too. Lessons learned on making weight I'm not allowed to get over 175 ever again. I like competing at 165 and having to do a big water cut to make weight sucked a big fat dick. I'm sure it impacted my performance, especially on my press first thing. Water loading 2-3 gallons a day didn't do a thing for me. I seemed to adapt too quickly and didn't get any payoff from the misery of it. Cutting carbs worked exceptionally well but doing a PSMF in the week going in was too much of a good thing. I'm glad I did it, though. I lost at least a couple pounds of fat along with the water and it'll make it easier to get myself down to a "real" 169-168 and stay there. Lessons learned about training I'm past the point where just getting stronger is the best thing I can do to perform better as a strongman. I need to spend more time with at least some bread-and-butter implements to get better at moving under load. My footspeed was terrible with both the Hussafel and the farmer's handles. My next contest has a tire flip and keg carry/load. I need to procure a big ass tire and get my sandbag filled up as a keg analog ASAP. I'll be doing farmer's walks too just to shore up having good footspeed and stability. What's next I have NY Strong-est in July. I'll have a max log, 450lb deadlift for reps, truck pull, tire flip, and keg carry/load. I need to spend a little time putting on some size and taking a break from cutting weight but at the same time not get too far away from making weight. Spending a week drying out isn't really possible in July so I won't be able to make up for being reckless over the next three months with my diet.

I took 6 out of 9. I'll get video edited and a proper write-up done when I'm home. It was another awesome contest. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I'll second the EliteFTS P2 belt. I have the lever version and it is really great. It goes from "able to breath" to "OH MY FUCKING GOD THIS IS TIGHT" with a quick snap of the lever and reverses even faster. I was never able to get my single prong nearly as tight and getting a 13mm prong belt on and off is just a pile of ball pain I don't like dealing with. If you have any wants to compete in the USAPL or any other IPF affiliate then get one from one of the approved vendors. EliteFTS isn't and likely never will be. I started with a cheap belt and replaced it with another almost-as-cheap belt. I finally broke down and spent the money on a proper belt and I'll probably be passing it, along with my Teas Power bar on to my daughter's husband (she's 6) in my will. Buying good gear the first time can't be overstated.

I'm going to bed at 169, hoping for high 167s when I wake up in the AM. I'll sweat the rest off in the tub and then it'll be time for a very thirsty 3ish hour ride down to weigh-ins. I'm almost looking forward to the refeed at IHOP than the contest... almost. I've watched about a thousand contest videos on the YouTubes over the last couple days. I'm getting stoked. Some shit is getting FUCKED UP on Saturday. On a more reserved note, I saw my July contest is a record breaker contest for max log and rep deadlift. I thought about not sweating my weight and just competing in the 181 since the weights are the same for both the LWM weight classes. Then I saw that the record on max log in the 165 is sitting at 190. I hit 185 on my wooden octagon log, in the gym. I probably have 200 on a proper log at a contest. There's no record for 450 for reps in USS at 165 and I'm hoping to have a triple in me by then. I'm going camping during my deload going into it so I'll have to be coming in at a pretty honest 169 or so going into that week. I'll have two days to cut carbs but water loading won't be happening. My dream of spending the next six weeks stuffing my face and putting on a bunch of meat is likely going out the window. I always did want to be ripped...

Around 8 or 9 my daughter is going to start training whether she wants to or not. I don't give two shits whether she competes but I'll be damned if I'm going to let my kid grow up to be a weak pussy like I was.