PaulG

I’ve been working out almost entirely at home — even more so since my dumbbells finally came! — so I just put a couple inches of water in the tub and in my largest mixing bowl, and I hang out with my feet in the tub and my hands in the bowl on my rest breaks. As long as the water is cool to the touch (not freezing cold, as you don’t want your vasculature to constrict) it’s theoretically still giving benefit. If the water goes up more than a couple degrees, I just add some more cold water to bring it down. Yeah, before this heat wave it was all about eking out a little more performance. And it did seem to help to some degree! A few of my exercises took big steps forward. Yesterday I just wanted to be able to do SOME work but not die. I’m still sold on it, sort of. I’m listening to it every week. I’m also taking a look at some of the resources Huberman draws from in his episodes. All the recommendations Huberman makes seem to be based on something, but I’m finding some of it is “one new study showed this might be a cool thing,” not necessarily “this has been replicated in ten studies and we know this is an effect people should be paying attention to.” I am most inclined to trust him when he’s talking about his areas of expertise, but it turns out some of the things he said in his episodes on exercise and nutrition weren’t as well-founded as his comments seemed to suggest. Even though it’s not exactly a final word though, he is definitely listening to and referencing some really great people I had never heard of before, like Dr. Andy Galpin.

Keeping that tip in the back pocket for sure... I guess we all need a statement piece somewhere in our wardrobe. -- In case anyone started thinking this West Coast heat wave is more fake news from the dang liberal media, I can certify: it is hot as balls in Seattle. That's my sole excuse for not updating in nearly a week. I'll update my goals in a bit, but for now I have a workout log to post. I took all last week off from strength training (except for a little PT here and there), thinking I'd give myself a chance to rest, catch up on work, and not have to deal with the heat. Buuuut it's worse now than it was last week -- yesterday seemed to be the apex, 115 degrees -- so I slouched back into my workout routine today. Workout Log 6/29/21 - Going In: The left shoulder was a little sore going in -- did lache work in last Friday's class, and a lot of tossing and turning while sleeping in the heat the last couple of nights. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 20sa-e, 27sa-x, 25sb-x (Hybrid Set A) Pistol Squats +20lbs: 4/4a-e, 5/5a-e, 6/6a-x (Superset A) Barstool Pike Press: 4b-x (Superset A) Barstool Knee Pike Press: 7a-x, 7b-x FG Bar Pullups: 4a-x, 3a-x - The left shoulder didn't feel amazing while doing pullups, so to cut off the possibility of aggravating it, I cut them short and switched to rows. Wide Ring Rows: 12a-x Supine Scap Protraction in Flexion +2lb: 8a-x, 5a-x, 6b-x Shldr Abd+ExR OHPs: 4c-x, 3b-y, 3b-y Knuckle Wall Slides: 3b-x, 3b-y, 4b-y Cooldown - I've been experimenting with a technique I picked up from the Huberman Lab podcast on performance: spending my rest breaks with my feet and hands submerged in cool (75-80 degree) water, the idea being to lower my core temperature faster so I can perform more work. I've been messing with it on and off for a month, but working out in 85-90 degree heat prompted me to do it just about every rest break today. It's far from a scientific experiment, but I really do think I notice a difference when I do it -- my later sets are just easier to perform. Today, I have no doubt I'd normally be a sweaty mess within my first set or two, but it took until the end of the workout for my energy/motivation to really flag, and I didn't actually sweat very much. - I still didn't do a ton of work, figuring I'd hold back since I'm not acclimated to this heat -- and also figuring I should err on the side of giving my shoulder a break.

Thanks!! Hoping to have a little more time to devote to the flow work next challenge. I had not heard of Displates — they DO look very expensive, but would be a fancy pants way to display the right art piece. I will definitely keep them in mind, though I’m not sure they’re in the budget just yet… (I’m secretly holding back some money, hoping to get a hardwood walnut dining table ) This is a really good point, and thank you for saying it, I had totally forgotten about the fact that most of these artists likely have their own sites where I can get pieces fee-free. I see no reason to give the curation sites a big cut if I can get something from the artist directly for a reasonable price. I will keep this in mind too. Do you happen to know if they still sell glass frames? I’ve heard a lot of complaining online about the plastic frames they started selling… That is the lodestone that we’re all aiming for, so sounds like you’re doing great Yeah, those kinds of weird loading tricks are why I’ve grown to like rest-pause training and hybrid sets so much for bodyweight training. It’s rare that we’re able to manipulate loading very finely, so when you find a way to manipulate the other variables in a way you can track reliably, you’ve found a tool that’s worth hanging on to. — Life Better - 🍞 - Actually, I do NOT have a great plan for this for Week 1. There’s no volunteer events this week, and I think my Saturday is going to be filled showing a friend the local Italian market (Big John’s PFI, for anyone in Seattle). My secret ambition is to find some good preserved lemons hiding out in Seattle; I badly want to buy some instead of making them myself, but I don’t know my city’s Middle Eastern/Turkish markets nearly well enough. ANYWAY. I am going to have to come up with something to help a buddy out, and SOON. Strength - 💪 - This week the West Coast heat wave is getting even worse, it’s now 85-90 degrees every day. Work is nuts, so I’ve been thinking this week would be a good “deload” (meaning I would rather get caught up at work than spend energy on strength training). Mobility - 🧘‍♂️ - Still stretching daily, though I have not been great at hitting my hip flexors every day. I really like the stretch I have, but I need to actually do it. Art - 🖼 - Deep in underpants-collecting right now, plus I’m reading a strange book on clothing style to give myself some oblique inspiration. Plans: Figuring out how to make myself useful to a friend. I either need to come up with a decent idea, or just bake something by Friday. And yes, I think it’s about time to start buying art. Food: I haven’t been very inspired this week, so here’s a photo from Friday before last. It’s a simple filet of catfish, steamed with Chinese parsley, scallions, cilantro, oyster mushrooms (which mostly obscure it in the photo), and a simple sauce of soy and oyster sauces. It’s funny how the simplest preparations push you to appreciate the small things: this dish took all of twenty minutes, but I absolutely NAILED the fish cookery, steaming it to a perfect, juicy medium, just before the flesh would start to tighten up and flake.

Love the sleep challenge! Reading your goal is slowly wearing down my resistance to tracking my own sleep... I'm curious what your supplement regimen is!

I actually have a lot of large space to fill, but this is SUCH AN AWESOME IDEA that I want to use it anyway for some of the smaller walls! Thank you! Awesome! I wish I'd known more about how to program drop sets back when I was doing barbell work, I probably would have stuck with it longer. It seems especially useful for heavily-disadvantaged moves like OHPs, where even an itty bitty plate can kill your volume. I use Steven Low's progression charts as a base resource... but ever since @Mad Hatter made mention that his stuff is based around the recovery of teens and young men, I've started to freeform a little more with progressions. Especially the handstand pushup progressions. I now realize that area of Low's work is somewhat underdeveloped and will require a lot of gap-filling. Even the first exercise jump -- from pike press to box headstand pushup, with your feet on a box -- is a monstrous leap for just about everyone. If you're curious about something, feel free to shout it out! I'm really happy with my program right now, but I'm not sure it's always clear from my logs what I'm doing, or what I'm trying for. -- Life Better - 🍞 - I helped build all the things! And then I spent a good two hours playing around on them with friends. And I got viciously sunburnt in the process. Even reapplying sunscreen every two hours was no match for this West Coast heat wave. I was pretty beat after all of the running around -- I thoroughly wore out my wrists playing with kong vaults to precisions on rails. I also spent a long time working on trying a variation of the last part of my flow line where instead of the underbar and (crappy) cartwheel over the rail at the end, I swung through my underbar to land on the rail itself. It's one of the things I am worst at, and I never quite made it, though I entertained everyone several times by getting stuck while stretched halfway between the two bars. Mobility - 🧘‍♂️ - Redid the pancake benchmark photos. Must post.

For sure! The reason I mention anatomy is that none of the videos I’ve seen have been very clear on exactly what knee issues he’s trying to solve. Thank you for the links! I’ll watch a couple more of those videos. — Friday’s evening parkour class was lovely, though I was still pooped from Thursday’s workout. We did some flow practice as a group, which I forgot to record, and I got to work on some dive rolls through railings. Afterward, we grabbed noodles from a Vietnamese joint, which was the first time I’d eaten out all week. Life Better - 🍞 - Volunteering at the Waterfront today. (If you happen to live in the Seattle area — come out! There will be PLAYGROUNDS. There will be SWINGING BARS. There will be WAIVERS OF LIABILITY. The idea is to increase access to parkour for kids and adults. This is parkour for the general pop.) Strength - 💪 - Dips Tuesday and Thursday caused no problems, but my wrists have just felt a little too sore for handstands — like they’re sort of on the edge, though I’m not having any nerve symptoms. I’ll have to be cautious. My dumbbells were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but no dice. Mobility - 🧘‍♂️ - I took benchmark photos this morning, before heading into town. I think I may need to retake the pancake one, I am not sure how folks track progress on that. Art - 🖼 - More poking around society6’s website — the quirky little artworks are bringing out my inner college kid.

I actually watched a couple videos after following the link in your challenge, but I haven't found much about anatomy or any explanations as to exactly what knee issues he's trying to solve. Do you have any suggestions? For my part, my plan has been to transition from archer rows to front lever row progressions, so I'm hoping to avoid the weight vest (haven't bought one yet, though I'll probably have to break down eventually for pullups and working toward slow bar muscle-ups). Let me know how it goes for you! It seems to work pretty well, though the transition to incline archers has felt like a rather big jump. Sure. Hybrid sets are basically what folks in the weightlifting community call drop sets, but ordered differently. It's meant for bridging a progression jump that you're having trouble with, like from wide ring rows to incline archers. In weightlifting, there is a culture of drop set-loving folks who like to do three sets of, say, five reps at a heavy weight. Then they move down to a lighter weight and do one or more sets there. (I think in many cases weightlifters are using drop sets improperly, but that's another rant.) For bodyweight, they're great for making a tough jump between progressions -- for example, as I'm trying to jump from wide rows to incline archers. For the last couple workouts I've been able to do 11-15 wide rows in a set without reaching failure, but I could only do 3 archers before my form starts falling apart and I can't get my chest to the ring anymore. The solution is hybrid sets: a low-volume set of the archers, not quite to failure, and I immediately follow with a set of wide ring rows. That's one hybrid set; after that set, you take your normal rest time, thenrinse and repeat for 2-3 more sets, doing the harder movement, immediately followed by the easier. So you end up with a row workout like I did on 6/7/21: (Hybrid Set B ) Incline Archer Ring Rows: 5/5b-x, 5/5b-x, 4/4b-x (Hybrid Set B ) Wide Ring Rows: 4a-y, 5a-x, 6a-y I suppose it's not that revolutionary, but for some reason I never thought to switch off between the harder and easier movements. It's been a great way to start incorporating work that I can't do much of, like incline archers, without having to worry that I'm doing too little volume to drive a strength adaptation. I'm also finding it really useful for transitioning to weighted pistols without aggravating my knees. -- Another day, another potentially-excessive workout! Workout Log 6/17/21 - Going In: A little stressed due to being behind at work, a little distracted, but able to keep on task during my warmup. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 30sa-e, 30sa-x, 30sb-x (Hybrid Set A) Pistol Squats +20lbs: 4/4a-x, 4/4a-x, 3/3a-x (Hybrid Set A) Pistol Squats: 5/5a-x, 5/5a-x, 6/6a-x (Superset A) Barstool Pike Press: 5a-x, 5a-x, 6a-y (Superset A) FG Bar Pullups: 8a-x, 8a-x, 8b-y Incline Archer Ring Rows: 6/6b-x, 6/5.5b-y, 5.5/3.5c-y (Superset B ) Asst. Natural Hamstring Curls: 5b-x, 4c-y (Superset B ) Adv. Tuck Dragon Flags: 9b-x, 9a-x, 9a-x Dip Ecce.: 3(7s)b-x, 3(7s)b-x Supine Scap Protraction in Flexion +2lb: 7a-x, 7b-x, 7b-y Shldr Abd+ExR OHPs: 4b-x, 4a-x, 3b-y Knuckle Wall Slides: 3b-x, 3b-y, 3b-y Cooldown - Warmed up feeling okay... then got extremely tired after the first set of pistols. Had to mentally push myself through the next couple exercises. - Weird how even when you're fighting tiredness through a workout, you can put up a really good performance. Every exercise showed some degree of progress, especially pistols, pullups, pike presses and dragon flags. Plus, good show with the ring supports. My guess? I'm going to be wrecked tomorrow and Saturday. I've probably mentioned that food-wise, I haven't been very inspired. An example, you ask? Well, suffice to say that fried rice has become my crutch -- I either make it with leftover meat and veggies from the fridge, or if my fridge fails me, I use the delicious Eagle Coin-brand cans of fried dace and douchi that I was recently turned on to. Another example? Well, I finally got my hands on that new pasta you may have heard of. You know -- cascatelli? The brand new pasta shape invented by Dan Pashman, who hosts the excellent Sporkful podcast? When I finally got a five-pound bag of this pasta in the mail on Sunday (this is another thing I ordered in March), I celebrated by cooking a huge pot of pork-and-sausage ragu (which was my first time making ragu in over a decade, btw). Since then, I've eaten that same dish, over and over, five nights in a row. If you haven't gotten cascatelli yet... get some. I heard about it through the podcast, but if I had been fed this stuff blind, it would still have instantly become one of my favorite pasta shapes. They did an excellent job creating a really toothsome shape, which satisfies my lust for that al dente texture in spades. Plus, sauce clings to it like nobody's business. I'm especially proud of the ragu, because I made it from essentially fridge scraps: Chinese celery wilting on my counter, and a half-box of king oyster mushrooms that had nothing else going on in their lives. The sausage I made myself, by just cutting up half the pork shoulder I'd bought and grinding it in a food processor, salting it, and letting it sit a couple hours. The only thing I needed to buy to make this was the pork shoulder, a cheap bottle of white wine, and a single carrot.

This video was the best cat-related thing I've seen in weeks. Also, the shrimp reminded me of that fried whole-shrimp recipe you suggested months ago. MUST MAKE. Did you make the mapo tofu??

Time for a quick Workout Log Backlog Dump. Warning: I'm not 100% sure that the logs are 100% accurate. I might have cut an exercise or skill thing here and there, and forgot to delete the entry. Should be mostly accurate though. Quick recap of what's happened with my strength routine, broken down by vertical push, horizontal push, pull... etc. Skill/Ring Work: I was doing it pretty consistently, but it dropped off over the past two weeks or so. Need to get this consistent soon. I want ring dips, dammit! I need a great ring support for that. Anterior Leg (Pistols): At some point, I realized I was leaving some effort on the table with pistols. I was probably holding back because of the knee pain issues I've had in the past with them, but it's been a long time since I've actually had significant knee pain. So I decided to go all-out and go right to the point of failure... and found I could hit 8, 9, 10 reps. I had been spinning my wheels, waiting for my dumbbells to come in the mail, but when I realized I could do 3x10 reps, I broke down and started going into my apartment gym to access the dumbbells there. Now, of course, I am getting occasional knee pain issues again. Posterior Leg (NHCs): Still working them, and they feel stronger all the time, but it's very difficult to track the level of assistance from my hands. ⬆️ Pull: Very soon after I dropped out of my last challenge -- mid-April -- I went from pullup eccentrics to full pullups, and now I'm hovering around the 3x7 range, where I've been sort of stalled for a week or two. I'm not terribly worried about it because I've been doing a lot of PT and parkour, which has sapped some recovery from the lower traps and back; I think I just need some rest. ➡️ Pull: Pretty simple progression from ring rows -> wide ring rows -> incline archer rows. Next step is real archer rows, or perhaps tuck front levers, but I think incline archers will take a while to work through... my range of motion is not yet perfect on them (not yet getting the ring all the way to the pec). The step from wide rows to incline archers felt like a BIG load difference, so I started off with some hybrid sets the first few workouts, which worked really well. I've been excited about hybrid sets ever since. ⬆️ Push: I've used a progression that I've never, ever seen before, but was inspired by my PT. I'm hoping it works out. Most folks start with pike pushups; instead I started with a "box" headstand pushup, with my knees on the edge of my bed, which gave me the perfect amount of load. Next I switched to my knees on a barstool (roughly 37 inches high): first eccentrics, then the full pushup. Finally, I got cleared by my PT to move to headstand pushups with my toes on the stool; which is the second level of progression in Overcoming Gravity's charts. I'm really happy with the homegrown progression; it seems to have moved me well on the way to headstand pushups, and with none of the injury issues that used to crop up with my earlier tries at pike presses. ➡️ Push: This is definitely my lowest-priority movement right now. I've gone from decline pushups to dip eccentrics on a stool, but I've been quite cautious about it, since my wrists have had some nerve issues. Core: This might actually be even lower priority. I like dragon flags but I just don't care that much about getting to any particular goal. As long as I'm getting some core work in, I'm good. Workout Log 6/15/21 - Going In: no pre-workout meditation today, tried to jump straight in to finish faster. Warmup STILL took half an hour. Warmup (Hybrid Set A) Pistol Squats +20lbs: 3/3b-x, 3/3a-x, 4/4a-x (Hybrid Set A) Pistol Squats: 5/5a-x, 6/6a-x, 5/5a-x (Superset A) Barstool Pike Press: 4a-x, 5a-x, 4n2(4s)a-y, 3a-x (Superset A) FG Bar Pullups: 7a-x, 7a-x, 7a-y (Hybrid Set B ) Incline Archer Ring Rows: 6/5b-y, 5.5/5a-y, 5/4b-y (Hybrid Set B ) Wide Ring Rows: 0-, 0-, 5b-y (Superset B ) Asst. Natural Hamstring Curls: 7b-x, 5c-y (Superset B ) Adv. Tuck Dragon Flags: 7b-x, 7b-x, 7b-x Dip Ecce.: 3(7s)b-x, 3(7s)c1(5s)b-y Supine Scap Protraction in Flexion +2lb: 5a-x, 7b-x, 6b-y Shldr Abd+ExR OHPs: 3c-x, 4b-x, 3b-x Low Trap Wall Slides: 4b-x, 3b-x, 3b-y Cooldown - Seriously, have you heard about hybrid sets? I didn't know about them until last year sometime. They are MAGIC. They worked so well for my rows that I thought hey, I seem to be having problems stepping up to fully-weighted pistols, let's try to bridge the gap with hybrid sets for those too. For getting me some weighted work without risking any knee pain, they were an A+. - OTOH, I think I'm getting to the point with rows (4+ reps per set) that hybrid sets are no longer very helpful. - I didn't think I'd do dip work today, but my apartment gym just added a weird, portable bar dip station! So I did a little practice. - This workout is starting to get really geographically scattered. I warm up in my apartment; I walk four floors down to my apartment gym for my pistols; back to the apartment for upper body work on the pullup bar/rings; I walk out to the lake to do NHCs and dragon flags on an outdoor railing; back home for PT; and then BACK OUTSIDE to view the sunset while cooling down with stretching and compression work. I need to pare this down somehow, because right now it takes like 3 hours.

Thanks! Welcome to the thread, there will always be snacks!! Lord knows. The reputable adjustable dumbbell manufacturers seem to have had a lot of problems with supply chain/shortage issues, more than most companies. Whatever the hell is going on with the post-pandemic economy has affected shipping all over the place, though. At least in this part of the US. Lately even Amazon packages will TELL you they’re delivered within the two-day limit, and then they will actually show up a day or two later. And let’s not even talk about UPS and USPS… actual delivery four full days after they claim they gave it to you. I missed you too! Maybe this challenge will get me more inspired on food, lately I’ve been in a rut… Thanks! Good to be back! Where is your challenge at?? I’ve gotta track all y’all’s challenges down. Thanks! I tried to nab another video this Sunday, but was 1) exhausted by a full weekend of exercise and 2) rained out by a crazy monsoon-style storm. I still did roll practice in the puddles, but bringing out the phone was not an option, sadly. — Every time I come back to my thread, I think of something else I should post. For example: I’ve made some progressions to my strength routine that I should really recap (and a huge backlog of workout logs I should dump in a spoiler, for posterity). But my evenings have been a little too full for long posts. Life Better - 🍞 - Parameters of this goal are a little specific. Rather than just giving myself credit for any social appointments, I want this to be focused on donating my time, or giving a small gift to someone (though I’m inclined to count feeding someone as a gift). This should be in the bag for Week 0. First, on Sunday I got contacted by a friend who had gone to a baby shower in town and got a little too tipsy to drive; so while I made dinner, I had them over to hang out for a couple hours until they were okay to drive, and fed them pasta before they went on their way (though I’m not sure this counts for full credit, since I got to see a friend). Second, I got the email to confirm that this Saturday, I’ll be volunteering to help set up a temporary parkour playground at the Waterfront in Seattle. I’ll be helping to set up scaffolding! Strength - 💪 - Two weeks ago, my PT cleared me to start practicing handstands. Not long afterward, the median nerve issues with my left wrist cropped back up — since then I’ve been holding off on handstand or dip work. Hoping to restart dip negatives toward the end of this week. Mobility - 🧘‍♂️ - Still need to get benchmark photos done. Planning to do that tonight during my workout, right after I warm up. Art - 🖼 - I spent some time poking around the website society6.com, just to get an idea for the kinds of things I’d like to have on my walls. There’s lots of oddball hipster stuff there that looks fun or entertaining.

It’s a WhiteGhost challenge!!

I’m back. A combo of physical training, a suddenly-burgeoning social life, and (mainly) work kept me from properly finishing up my last challenge, and then I missed another challenge entirely... but I promise I've been busy! (Apologies for the vertical format.) The coach for my main parkour class recently moved on to new things, and she said goodbye with the parting advice that I should start filming my techniques more often. Soon, I'd like to run a whole challenge based on skill learning and an intensive focus on flow work. BUT I think I need one more challenge to gain some strength first, and to get back into the swing of updating. Goals: 1) Life: Make someone else's life a little better one time per week. This is still here. It’s the only goal from last challenge that I didn’t do a great job with. My secret ambition behind the goal was to reboot my bread-baking and/or bagel-baking hobbies, and do a few delivery drops for coworkers and some friends. Ultimately, that didn’t actually happen — I just did my best to set up fun things to bring friends when I made social plans. But it felt good, and having the goal helped me keep in mind a simple truth: people like gifts. So I want to keep the goal for now, and find a way to do it a little more consistently. 2) Life: Post here at least once a week. The combined stresses of my work, physical training, and a burgeoning post-vaccination social life have made it reeeeall difficult to post here with any regularity. I’m not sure I’m going to have the extra time or energy to write any long-winded theses on the thought going into my strength training or diet, as much as I’d like to. This time around, I’ll turn to the update formats championed by lots of folks around here — the emoji-laden listicle. I’ll get out the essential updates with maximum brevity, and any other tidbits I have time to write down will be gravy. 3) Strength: Do a Handstand, Do a Dip. My shoulder is getting better, and I’m doing pullups and ring supports with no problems. The next step is to get back into some hyperextension positions, shore up strength in that range of motion. That, and really start nailing handstands — I’ve always wanted to be truly decent at them, at least get a good fifteen-second hold. For this challenge, I’d be more than happy just to be able to start practicing both moves without danger to my shoulders. 4) Mobility: Pancake, Glutes, and Hip Flexors. Last challenge I wanted to focus on hamstrings. I didn’t take a good benchmark picture at the end of the challenge, but I at least knocked it out of the park for consistency — I stretched them every morning, without fail. Glute work, I didn’t track as well. HOWEVER. I was just as consistent with hip flexor/pancake work as with hamstrings, and managed to train myself out of the FAI-style hip pain I’d been dealing with. Now, I’m a convert to the benefits of hip mobility and pancake compression, and I’d like to see if I can get visible progress in the span of a challenge. BONUS GOAL: ART. So my apartment is starting to look much more livable than it did when I moved in. In the month and change since I updated my last challenge, I have added: A new, real-boy pullup bar to replace my DIY galvanized-pipe number (which was starting to chew the edges of my doorway trim a bit) A real set of adjustable dumbbells (which were only JUST SHIPPED after ordering them in March. Not pissed about that at all.) A couple of new lamps to the living areas A bed frame suitable for an grown-ass man (rather than the upholstered number I used to have) Blackout curtains for the bedroom Enough money set aside for a decent dining room table My nesting budget is now down to its last few hundred bucks, and it’s gotten real clear that more than furniture... my place needs some crap hung on the walls. The only problem: I am a thirtysomething dude who has never been good at decorating, and I have no idea how to go about it. I feel there must be a way — a few challenges back, I managed to tackle and get some basic schooling in clothes, which I’d always had similar problems with. Maybe it’s like tattoos, where you just have to dive in until you find some artists you like? So the bonus goal is to 1: find some art that's not crazy expensive, and 2: hang those suckers. Current Stats: Height: 6’ 0” Weight: 181 lbs Age: 32 Waist Measurement: 29 1/8 inches Bodyfat: 14-ish% Current Injuries: Left Foot/Big Toe Tenosynovitis: Mostly a non-issue, but occasionally resurfaces with a lot of high-impact jumping. Left Shoulder Impingement: PT in progress; now asymptomatic since February. Left Wrist Median Neuropathy: A recent problem, controlled with nerve glides. Currently moderating my high-impact vaulting and climbing as needed. Workout Log Legend

Many historians say the softness of his features was also a consequence of his enjoyment of ham.

I’m beginning to understand why visionaries such as Gandhi had whole journals dedicated to tracking their BMs.

Seriously! I’ve been kind of bummed the last couple of days — I really HAVE been feeling like I’m coming apart at the seams. The wrist is already feeling much better, but I can still feel it there, in the background, when my wrist is in its extreme ranges of motion I wish I knew more about wrists and hands. I’d like to learn some more about nerve entrapment at the wrists, because that’s about all I can tell about what happened. I am not sure where to start though. I probably shouldn’t be surprised how much my recovery can be shot just from two or three weeks of extra work stress and a little less sleep, but clearly my full routine is too much right now.

I am with @raptron on poetry — lots of poetry I’ve liked hasn’t needed a ton of cultural context to enjoy, and I like the aesthetic of a carefully-created phrase. And listening can be a great way to get into it (though personally I hate listening to most people reading their poems aloud, almost everyone seems to go into a slam-poet voice that annoys the crap out of me).

Agreed I think there is! But the video is a bit delayed for reasons I’ll go into below... Your shame was effective at getting me back to the shoulder PT, whenever I wasn’t working Me too. For what it’s worth, I haven’t had any other episodes. I also may have been a touch dramatic in my retelling. It wasn’t a total loss of consciousness. It waaasss a moment of wooziness that almost hurt my face, and freaked me out. It was definitely vasovagal in nature, but nothing else remotely like it has happened, so I’m a little reassured. — All right, it’s been far too long since I’ve updated and this must be fast. I am writing this as I sit in my car, in line for my first drive-through vaccination dose (yay!). However, I haven’t been training since Sunday, because on Sunday I somehow injured my wrist (boo). I was warming up, messing around with low-impact thiefs and lazy vaults on low obstacles while I waited for parkour class to start... and then I put my hand down and discovered that putting weight on the wrist in extension was EXTREMELY painful. It appears to be some sort of median/radial neuropathy, and it only occurs with that positioning of my wrist, but I’m not really sure what caused it in much detail — there was no warning. But this was kind of the final straw — it’s pretty clear I’ve been pushing myself too hard, so I decided to take a whole week off of training this week, to give myself a chance to focus on catching up at work and healing.

We’ve Got You Bro.

Look, WG, it’s going to be okay. Should you have fleeced Baskin Robbins of their stock? One could make the argument. Should you have bought Baskin Robbins China outright from its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway? No question. Should you have, motivated by this challenge, helicoptered into New York and crushed a 90 year-old Warren Buffet under several duffels of cash, just to preserve your access to a frozen treat? Any reasonable person would say, absolutely. So you failed. You FAILED, and it’s okay. We won’t forget. But what makes this community great is: we WILL forgive.

Me neither! Wish I had a good place to practice the move near my home... I have lots of rails in my park, but they're all either on walkways over a lake or regular handrails that have crossbars (like this or this), so I can't do underbars on any of 'em. I might sneak back to the park Sunday before class, though. @DoubleTrouble's vids are a constant source of inspiration for things to practice! We've all gotta get in the same town for a minute so he can run a clinic and show us how it's done. That was my thought exactly for most of this week... but then I forgot. Is that a bad sign? Thanks! It feels good to see myself starting to get back some of the abilities I was proud of back in the day. But what I really really want, is a nine-foot jump. Must find some dumbbells for the legs... -- Have I really not posted since Tuesday? Jeez guys. Most of the week can be summed up thusly: I worked a lot. In order to work a lot, I started getting up an hour early (at 5:30 AM) to have some time to work without interruptions, which started messing up my sleep. I tried to get to bed early, but I kept finding myself eating food at 10 PM and falling asleep at 11 because... I was working a lot. So rather than the 8 hours of sleep I've been coveting lately, I was getting 6.5. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that's why my workout logs show me starting to recover too slowly and dig myself into a hole. But I didn't reflect and realize this until today because... well, I've been working a lot. Also, spoiler alert, I ran myself ragged enough that I maaaay have fainted during Thursday's workout. Tuesday! Workout Log 4/6/21 - Going In: Tired from waking up an hour early the last couple of days. I was feeling really good earlier today, but after my NSDR, my shoulder is suddenly a touch sore — not sure why. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 12sb-e, 15sb-e, 13sa-x Foot-Assisted German Hangs: 10sb-e, 6sa-x, 8sa-x (Superset A) Pistol Squats: 7/7a-x, 6/6a-e, 7/7a-x (Superset A) Knee Pike Press: 8b-x, 8a-x, 8.5a-y (Superset B ) Bar Pullup Eccentrics: 3(7s)a-x, 3(8s)b-x, 3(7s)a-x (Superset B ) Feet-Elev. Pushups: 15a-x, 13a-x, 11a-y Prone O Extensions: 4b-x Wall Slide & Flex w/ Step: 3a-x Kong Pull: Knuckle Wall Angels: Cooldown - Everything line of ground to a halt in my second superset; my rep numbers started to falter in push-ups, which is not an exercise I would have expected to wipe me. Maybe it’s the rough-and-tumble weekend, maybe it’s the dip in quality sleep. I originally meant to round everything off with NHCs and ring rows, but I decided to pack it in. - ... Yeah. I barely did any PT either. My bad. Wednesday I worked from 6 AM until 9 PM. Is there anything else to say about that?... Hmm, I guess not. Thursday I finally returned the hand cart I borrowed from my supervisor to move. It was good to see him! I also ran another focused learning bout of thief vaults during my lunch break. It was nice to get outside and do something other than just walk. Workout Log 4/8/21 - Going In: Definitely feeling a little tired from work, even though I didn't start working out until 2 hours after I finished work for the day. Warmup Foot-Assisted Ring Supports: 10sb-e, 10sb-x, 10sb-x Foot-Assisted German Hangs: 12sb-e, 10sb-x, 10sa-x (Superset A) Pistol Squats: 8/8a-x, 7/7a-x, 7/7a-x (Superset A) Knee Pike Press: 7.5b-x, 6n2(5s)a-x, 4n3(4s)a-y (Superset B ) Bar Pullup Eccentrics: 3(8s)a-x, 3(8s)b-x, 4(7s)c1(5s)a-y (Superset B ) Feet-Elev. Pushups: 13a-x, 13a-x, 10a-y Asst. Natural Hamstring Curls: 6b-y, 5c-y, 4c-z - Here's something fun. At the end of my final set, I had a vasovagal episode and started to collapse. I had a thought that it would be really nice to just lie down, wouldn't it... and a split second later, I realized I was pitching face-first toward the ground WAY too fast. I couldn't see very well -- I think my eyes had rolled up in my head -- and I caught myself with my hands right before I hit ground, but it freaked me out. I've never had a fainting episode, ever, as far as I can remember -- I'm not prone to them at all, and it makes me a little worried about what caused this one. It was a tough three sets (usually I just do two), but it seems like a stretch to say it was just exertion? I don't know. Ring Rows: 12a-x, 12a-x, 13b-y Prone O Extensions: 3b-x, 5b-x, 4b-y Wall Slide & Flex w/ Step: 3a-x, 3b-x, 5b-y Kong Pull: 7a-x, 5a-x Knuckle Wall Angels: 2.5b-x, 1b-y Cooldown

Let’s be real here, the true success condition for this challenge would be WhiteGhost walking into Baskin Robbins on their last day open and buying out all their excess stock. And if you had, you could have gotten them to throw in a good ice cream machine with the deal, since clearly they’re not using them anymore. I see recipes for no-churn ice cream from recipe writers I respect all the time, I keep meaning to try them! But all my buddies who worry about things like how many microns the ice crystals are tell me I’m wrong. I think it’s probably easier to get a pro-style product out of sausage using home techniques than ice cream. I have no intention of ever attempting aged cheese. Some things, you just have to leave to the people who own the cheese caves.

It just can’t, ok?!!!? Not unless it’s approved and vetted to release at least eight out of ten chakras!!!

Psst, folks, is WhiteGhost’s birthday coming up?

Would you call it a bittersweet moment?