kwesadilo

Week 1 update Sauna: Nailed it. Right now I can endure a single sauna session of about 15 minutes max. I did two 10 minute sessions and one other session that I cut short because it was Friday, and there were too many dicks on the dancefloor dudes in the sauna. Mobility: Barely squeezed this in. I did a brief yoga session on Saturday and then a slightly longer one and foam rolling on Sunday. Projects: I significantly exceeded this and actually finished the thing I've been working on and delivered it to the person who is going to use it. Now I need a new project. I think I am going to start working through the Wizard Book again. Jobs: I put this off until literally the last minute and was only able to get in about 3 hours before I went to bed on Sunday. I only briefly looked at job postings and then spent a while messing around with my LinkedIn profile.

I got used to it pretty quickly for power clean and power snatch. I at least do not lift very heavy with those, but I think the point there is to allow your forearms to be looser (the tightness of the grip having been transferred to your poor thumbnails), so that you can whip your arms around the bar faster. I deadlifted 325x5 last week using the hook, and it abraded my thumb skin a little bit.

Don't worry, I'm still doing the grippers, even if it's not an official goal anymore.

Wow, just catching up. Good luck on your injury and paint fume inhalation recovery.

Some of us take a week off of work. Others take a week off of challenges. I see you've chosen the former. Regarding squat depth, apparently there is this thing: Every problem has an engineering solution.

No explicit lifting goals this time. Obviously, I'm still trying to get stronger, but I don't think setting specific goals for short time periods will really influence my behavior any more than my regularly scheduled programming already does. I'll again have 2 life goals and 2 fitness goals, because that seemed to work well last time. My fitness stuff is kind of on autopilot, and I need to expend more willpower on other activities. Goals Spend 20 minutes a week in the sauna. I just started going after somebody told me about how it was good for you, and I think I feel better. Right now I can only tolerate spending about 10 minutes at a time in there, so I'll have to break it into multiple sessions. Hopefully I'll be able to build up a tolerance. Today, there was a guy already there when I got there sitting in the lotus position with an undershirt over his head. I left like 10 minutes later, and I don't think he had moved the whole time. I wonder how long he has been using the sauna. Do mobility work twice a week. I've been pretty good about doing yoga and foam rolling on Saturdays, but I'm definitely not as flexible as I used to be. I'd like to do just a little bit more. Maybe an additional brief yoga session during the week. Spend at least 3 hours a week working on personal projects. This is a carryover from the last challenge, and I anticipate it being a goal for the foreseeable future. I like doing technical projects independently of work instead of just watching Netflix when I get home. Spend at least 4 hours a week searching for and applying to jobs. Ideally, it will be a little more than this, but I'll say 4 hours. My hope is to have decided what I want and applied by the end of the month.

Week 4 update PRs: Tonight, I squatted 315x5, which I've never done before. I attempted to bench 185x5, but I only got 4. On Friday, I cleaned 125x3. Today, I was only able to clean 125x2, which is disappointing. Maybe I shouldn't have jumped 5 lbs. I pressed 110x5 on Wednesday, tying a record I originally set 11 months ago. Mobility: Did a yoga session and foam rolled. Grip: Multiple closes with each hand, although progress continues to be intermittent. Projects: Spent multiple decent blocks of time and ultimately got the router I'm messing with working. Jobs: Didn't do anything last week. This goal was mostly cannibalized by my project. That's not terrible, because it's something I can put on my resume, but it's not great either, because I'd like to find something before my lease is up. So overall, I'm 4 for 5, which isn't too shabby. I'm very pleased to be putting weight on the bar again. I need to start making looking for a job the primary thing I'm doing in my spare time. It's been taking a back seat to TV watching and personal projects, in that order.

I guess ANSYS Fluent is the language/framework, then, although you said there is no code. I only vaguely got what it is when I looked it up. It might interest you to know that you could put those three lines in a script in bash to make them 1 line (just run the script when you log in) or 0 lines (it runs the script automatically when you log in).

Nice! What language/framework? From the quote wall in a dorm at my school: Campus cop 1: "What was the description of the suspect?" Campus cop 2: "An Asian wearing a gray hoodie." Campus cop 1: "Fuck, we'll never find him!"

Week 3 update: PRs: I did it! Tonight, I squatted 310x5. I also busted through plateaus on bench (182.5x5) and clean (120x5). As of last Wednesday, my press is at 110x4, and my deadlift is at 310x5. That's two PRs. I'm unlikely to get more before the end of the challenge, but I might be able to get back up to my previous press PR this week. Mobility: One very brief yoga session on Saturday along with just a tiny bit of mobility work on my right arm. I've been experiencing on the outside of my right elbow at the bottom of the press. I wouldn't call it tennis elbow in that it doesn't stay inflamed. It only hurts at the bottom of the press. It gets better if I focus on controlling the descent and not going too low. I'm hoping that there was some abraded tissue and that my lacrosse ball took care of it. We'll see on Wednesday. Grip: Again multiple closes with both hands in a couple sessions. Binge-watch Daredevil season 2: I wish this could have been one of my goals, because I nailed it. Didn't get much else done over the weekend, though. Projects: I didn't keep track of my time, but I doubt I spent three hours. Jobs: Didn't really do anything last week.

Oh yeah, and I squat low bar.

My favorite kind of cocktail! (After Mai Tais, Bahama Mamas, Margaritas, Tequila Sunrises, Gibsons, and Mint Juleps.) Nothing in that article seemed obviously wrong, and some quick Googling suggests that this is not an isolated phenomenon. I guess I'll see how it plays out. Maybe I'm trendy!

I'm always thinking about programming, but I haven't thought much about my push/pull balance. If push and pull exercises are indeed supposed to be balanced, mine haven't been. It's probably closer to even now that I'm doing a pull from the floor every workout (either deadlifts or power cleans), but I'm still doing about two heavy push sets for every heavy pull set. Depends on whether you discount bodyweight chin ups to failure due to low intensity. Is the theory that the negative of a push exercise counts as a pull exercise?

Week 2 update: PRs: Squatted 305x5 today. Attempted to bench 182.5x5 and clean 120x4 but only got 4 reps in each case. Although this is the second week in a row that my bench has stagnated, I hope that the hotter-than-usual gym was to blame for my failure to make progress today. Last Wednesday, I barely pressed 107.5x5 and deadlifted 305x5. In the following days, I wouldn't say that my lower back hurt, but it felt a little loose. I need to watch out for rounding on heavy sets.Mobility: I again did a brief yoga session and a full-body foam rolling session. My flexibility has really deteriorated from when I was doing yoga regularly.Grip: I'm pretty sure I closed the gripper 7 times with my right hand and twice with my left on Saturday. I think a full recovery from these workouts takes a few days. When I did grip work on Sunday, I think I only closed the 200-lb. gripper once.Projects: Worked for an hour on Tuesday and probably like 4 hours on Saturday. Actually got things sort of working, which is a refreshing change.Jobs: Skimped on this a little bit in favor of my project, but I did do about an hour's worth of research on Sunday.

Nice job with the mobility work! Let me know if you figure out how to integrate lifting and running. Now that it's getting warmer outside, I wouldn't mind going for a quick run once in a while.

I could buy green screen for the background, but I'm assuming he's actually lying on a pile of rocks, because that would be more of a pain to edit in than I think the production of a free Internet video could justify. You can hear him slide around on his mat, which made me think body mic, but I can't see it, and I would expect his clothes to rub on it if it were hidden. Maybe they did the whole thing indoors, edited in the whole environment, and edited out his body mic. Maybe that's easy to do these days. I don't know anything about video production beyond 2005-era iMovie.

Week 1 update PRs: Today, I squatted 300x5, benched 182.5x4, and power cleaned 117.5x5. Last Wednesday, I pressed 105x5 and deadlifted 300.Mobility: Did a brief yoga session and a lengthy, uncomfortable foam rolling session on Saturday. I feel less stiff, but my right upper back (possibly rhomboid?) still feels just a little bit stiff.Grip: I think I closed the 200-lb. gripper twice with my right hand yesterday night. I need to stop forgetting to do it until I go to bed. The grippers are a lot more slippery after I've already used moisturizer.Projects: Just barely squeaked this in from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. on Sunday. Actually got some stuff a little bit working for a change.Jobs: No progress attempted.

I go up in weight on Fridays and up in reps on Mondays (Madcow 5x5). Those increases work together, so I wouldn't want to disturb either of them unnecessarily, but if I have a week where I don't advance the squat because I didn't make my reps on Monday, perhaps I will attempt 50/50 on Friday. I watched the first couple of minutes of that video where he's just lying on the ground talking about his feelings, and all I could think about was how they were capturing the audio so clearly even though he was on the beach.

I was curious how much your previous 50/50 attempt would affect your normally scheduled squat workouts. Looks like not much. I've thought about trying it previously, but thought it would mess up my programming. I've been slacking off on yoga and foam rolling for the last month or so, and I've had a hard time getting my back fully extended during lifts and just felt like my shoulders were hunched forward generally. Yesterday, I did a brief yoga session and a long, unpleasant foam rolling session. I guess I'll see what it did tomorrow.

Seems like I've tapped into some latent angst with my grip work. Inadequate grip is only sort of the reason that my deadlift:squat ratio is out of wack, and my deadlift isn't actually stalled. In fact, I don't think I have ever truly stalled my deadlift in the sense of making absolutely no progress in spite of good form, reasonable programming, and adequate recovery. I can't say that of my other lifts. Back in the summer, I was still doing SS, my squat was getting up around 300x5x3, and I was approaching 320x5 for my deadlift, which was still a lame ratio but at least pointed in the right direction. Then I pretty much didn't lift heavy for all of July. I had to deal with detraining when I got back, and having recently read a scary article about biceps tendon tears caused by uneven shoulder loading, I decided to take advantage of my reset to switch my grip on heavy deadlift sets from alternate to hook. Because I was getting used to the hook, I didn't increase my deadlifts as quickly as my other lifts, and my squat caught up. Now, after various unrelated program machinations and setbacks, I'm at the point where my squat and deadlift are both progressing at the same rate and just happen to match. I've thought about ways that I could directly address this, but I'm hoping that my squat will just stall before my deadlift in my current program, and I'll do a squat reset and be back in the black. The grip work started the first time the hook failed me, and I've been keeping it up to help avoid a repeat performance, even though the original issue was solved by the application of more chalk.

My response to that is pending a Google search.

For most of the last year, my programming wasn't effective, and I wasn't making gains. I made some changes, and I've been making steady progress for a few months now. I'm getting close to most of my previous PRs, and it's high time that I start setting some new ones. Fitness goals Set one lousy PR in the big 5 lifts. Here's where I'm at:Squat: 295 x 5Bench: 180 x 5Press: 100 x 5Deadlift: 295 x 5 (Same as my squat, I know. Appalling.)Power clean: 115 x 5 and here's where I'm trying to get toSquat: 305 x 5Bench: 190 x 5Press: 110 x 5Deadlift: 320 x 5Power clean: 120 x 3 (I used to do cleans for sets of 3 instead of sets of 5, which has merit, but I'm not changing things up right now. Technically, my 115 x 5 from today is a PR, but I won't count it until I get to 120 x 5.)Do at least one mobility session per week. Might be yoga. Might be foam rolling. Hopefully both. I've been feeling tight all over lately, and hopefully getting back in the habit of yoga and foam rolling can loosen me up. My elbows have been hurting at the bottom of the press, and it hasn't always been like that. I hope it's just some kind of tissue adhesion that can be broken up.Close the 200-lb. gripper twice with each hand. I did it once last month. Let's see if I can keep making progress.Life goals Spend at least 3 hours a week working on technical projects outside of work. Whenever I come home, I end up just watching TV most of the time, but I want to accomplish things in my personal projects. It will be a bit of a struggle, because new seasons of both Daredevil and Trailer Park Boys come out this month, but all I want is 3 hours a week that I spend actually working on projects at home.Identify jobs that I actually want to apply for. I've come up with a list of companies that seem interesting, although it could still stand to be fleshed out. Now I need to see if any of them are actually looking for people like me.I have 5 goals this time, which I think is a first for me. The gripper one doesn't really involve much psychological effort, so I don't think it will interfere with the others. It just felt weird to drop it on the floor after getting stuff done last month.

Fuck yeah, engineering! Fuck yeah, graduate school... I've been there! During my last semester of school, it was a serious struggle to sit down and work for even half an hour, and I wasn't even exercising. Here you are working out and doing mobility work 5 days a week, and I was eating candy and chips at the convenience store for 2 meals a day and binging 90s TV shows. You're a baller. Keep kicking ass.

Week 4 update Programming: Back to my regular schedule. No signs of trouble so far, and I'm getting close to PRs in several of my lifts. The truck has been kept.Grip: I just barely closed the 200-lb. gripper with my left hand tonight. Success!Router hacking: Didn't do anything this week. This goal has become a casualty.Jobs: I came up with a decent list this weekend. Nothing I've seen so far blew me away, so I'm going to keep looking at other places, but several of the places I looked at seemed like places I could enjoy working.Overall this was a decently successful challenge. My goals were kind of lame, but I got most of them done, and I'm making forward progress.