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Oh look, I'm doing this thing during 0-week. Most excellent! It's almost like my life is falling into some semblance of order. Almost. Y'all what been around a while should know that it never lasts. The big thing that's causing me to change is that I'm dealing with some ongoing gluteal pain that's responding to stretches and home treatment, which is why I'm not going in for PT just yet. It's mostly okay, but there have been some times where it's got to be a bit much. Like, on my recent drive to Gatlinburg, I basically spent 5.5 hours sitting in the car and it got pretty painful, to the point that it actually impacted my mobility until I was able to stretch out some. Also, I'm a little dissatisfied with my current training regimen. For those just tuning in, I've been using Pavel's strength-endurance program The Quick and the Dead for my base and been doing that 3 times a week. For the other four days of the week, I've been rolling 4D20 and scheduling random work and rest days based on the results. Work days have morphed to mean the GMB vitamin program (15 minutes) plus another thing, generally skipping rope or Turkish Get Ups. There are some other minor add-ons based on my specific situation, but even so, everything's done rather remarkably fast and I'm glad. Believe it or not, I actually really like this way of doing things. I think my prior drive to "work every day" was based on old programming principles or else were based in some unaddressed insecurities that I've been working to meet and manage, and I feel like compliance is super-easy and I'm totally not burnt out. But it's not perfect. My dice, it turns out, are very generous to me, and I tend to roll a lot of rest days. (oh no, what a nightmare. 🙄) And based on both recommendations and prior experience, I tend to give skipping rope priority, because if I'm only getting one work day a week, it feels right to give it there. What that's working out to is less time with TGUs. And why does that matter? Well, in the short term, TGUs are to grappling what skipping rope is to striking: a kind of fundamental full body movement with a ton of carryover and benefit to the sport. I don't want to leave that benefit on the table. In the long term, I'm going to want to get strong in TGUs because one day I'm going to want to try to build some muscle with kettlebells and pretty much every source I can find on the matter aims for low reps and heavy weight. Enter the Kettlebell, the Ur-program in such matters, requires a 32kg swing and a 32kg TGU before allowing adherents to begin. What's a boy to do? Well, I feel like the answer to this problem lies in this program here, which I've referenced before. You might notice that he combines Quick and the Dead (QD) with another program, Simple and Sinister (SS), which is a swing-TGU focused program. His setup involves two SS sessions and one QD session per week of training. I think there's something to this for me, so that's what I'm gonna do. As to the other 4 days of the week? Well, there's GMB like I said, which at this point is mostly about movement quality and skipping rope. I did, however, buy their recovery programs, and I feel like I could be using those rest days to actually dig into recovery work and also work on flexibility and stretching. So. Enough navel-gazing. Let's get to the brass tacks. Goal 1: Training Seems appropriate to make a training goal again since I'm switching things around. Also, I have come pretty close to some compliance issues recently, and I want to smooth that out if I can. Goal 2: Meditation This was a struggle last time. I got toward getting better at it, but I really feel like I do better with a meditation habit, and I want to cement this in place. So. We will remain at 8 minutes this time. Goal 3: Clean Goal remains because I've still got a serious lack of floor space and a serious surplus of dirty surfaces. I'm getting better at both, but that's breeding some complacency, and I know me too well to let myself off the hook on this just yet. The prior arrangement of cleaning and moving a box per week (as a boss) worked good. No reason to mess with it now, beyond expanding what surfaces I clean. And that's that. Should be good.

So, the idea after last challenge was to celebrate New Years and come on strong here in the new year. I had every reason to believe I would. The training was fun, molding itself around what I wanted it to be, and I was pushing hard and everything was great. And then last Monday I got a scratchiness in my throat. It spread from there and it's only now really on its way out. I've followed Sickness Protocols, which means no training if it makes your symptoms worse. Well, shock and awe, training did. Even yoga did, although that might have been a case of the wrong yoga for the situation. Wrong medicine, etc. Anyway, the past week's been kind of slow and boring as these things go. I'm honestly feeling kind of stir-crazy, raring to go back to work, which is better than the alternative I guess. Not exactly the start I wanted to the year, but it's not about how you start. The big goal for this year is... ulp, financial. I'm finally in a position to start attacking this thing that's been around my neck for years. With that freedom... man, I dunno what I'd do. What a wonderful problem to have to solve. Of course, can't attack the whole thing in one challenge. This is gonna take a while, and TBH I don't know if I'm going to get the whole thing done or not. But any steps taken are better than no steps taken. Here are the goals for this month: GOAL 1: DON'T GET HURT Not training for a week has been good for one thing - that golfer's elbow is pretty much resolved. I want it to stay resolved. Especially given that my training has shifted over to this practice-based thing. I've been thinking a lot about training and pain and strain and injury and how all of that ties together, and basically there are some places in the body that need to feel something, and there are some places in the body that need to not feel something. I really need to be mindful and get the difference, understand where a sensation is coming from and what it might mean. On those lines... GOAL 2: SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEP Yeah, this has to happen more. I think part of the reason I got sick is that I just got wore down. My sleep schedule is a mess, if I'm honest: I get 6-7 hours when I need 7-9, and I freak out if I try to get more - my body wakes up crazy early if I try to do more, like I'm afraid that I'm going to miss out or something. Goal is to have the screen off by 2245 every night. I don't need the distraction of this thing to keep me awake, and I could be way more efficient than I've been. GOAL 3: WRITE One page a day. I need to do more than what I've been doing. No real blurbs or anything, but yeah. GOAL 4: LINE UP FINANCES So I've got the money going out to all the places. Now the goal is to consolidate as many of them as I can, so that they come out on the same day. I want as few surprises looming in the wings for me as I can manage. I have a feeling life will throw enough of those at me without my leaving myself open for them. By the end of the challenge, the goal is to have as many of my bills coming out at the same time of the month as possible, that time being the 1st of the month. And... that's the game this time. Okay. Let's see what happens.

October 19th (West Rocks Crag, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada) sleep (prev night): 10hrs climb, top rope 5.8, two repeats 5.6 5.8 Climbed with girlfriend and another friend who led these routes trad style ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_climbing ). The weather was a very pleasant surprise, cool but dry after the previous day's chilling misty drizzle (Saturday's weather had been nasty enough that even a pumpkin chucking festival [ http://www.kemblepumpkinchuckin.com/ ] was not much fun ... and this from someone who usually believes "There is no such thing as bad weather, just improper clothing" http://www.pinterest.com/pin/285908276314294274/ ! ). West Rocks is a small disused quarry tucked in very close to residential areas and a high school - a great easy to access treat that can be included into relatively short breaks in daily chores and tasks by Owen Sound-ites who are willing to find a way. I've done a little bit of leading on trad, but considerably easier grades (5.1 - 5.3) and was mostly out to get my blood flowing and joints moving after a gym strength session a couple of days earlier when I did too much deadlifting too early in my current come-back process.

Earlier in the week, I posted in the "Ask A Warrior" thread asking for tips on bulking up as a skinny guy. Evil Midnight Bomber, CoreyD, Choronodon, and MirGSS all said "eat more, lift more, quit running!" So, I dropped my one running day and want to replace it with another lifting day, but the program I'm currently following only has two "strength" days and two "conditioning" days. I'm here to ask for suggestions on what to add on my 3rd lifting day or if I should scrap the current program and try something like StrongLifts 5x5. Here are my deets: Fitness Goals Put some meat on my skinny bones. I'd like to go from 150-something to 175 or 180 with a mid-teens BF%. Exercise Preference GPPCurrent Physical Stats Gender: MaleAge: 36Height: 6'-1"Weight: 154#Previous Training History Started exercising/lifting consistently about a year ago after buying the Rebel Strength Guide I have a bad habit of program hopping. I tried the dumbbell division for about 6 weeks, but have a limited supply of dumbbells. I tried a variety of bodyweight and sandbag lifts for about 6 months, changing the program every 6 weeks. Since March, I have been trying to focus on squats, deadlifts, push press, OHP, and pull-ups. I followed the Barbell Battalion for 6 weeks, but I used sandbags since I work out at home.Current Training My current program is a 10-week beginner program from The Complete Guide to Sandbag Training. It's a mix of power lifts, olympic lifts, and bodyweight with some short runs and CrossFit style conditioning. I'm also doing 100 push-ups a day.I started it at the beginning of June, so I'm on Week 4. Here it is in a google spreadsheet if you want to see it all typed out. I like it because of the variety it provides, but I always hear I should just stick with the basics while I'm building strength. I'm thinking of adding 5x5 bench press and 5x5 bent over rows on my 3rd lifting day.Current working weights: 5x5 Deadlift 110#, Back Squat 5RM 130#, Push Press 5RM 85#, 5x5 OHP 60#, 10 consecutive pull-upsCurrent Diet Normal IIFYMDaily Calories: 3,000Daily Macros: 20P/30F/50C, about 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight ~ 160 g/dayCurrent Resources/Limitations Gym Access: work out at home with homemade sandbags, currently have 150# of sand, planning to get another 100# soon.Work Schedule: 8-5 M-F, work out at 5:30AM to 6:15 AM more or lessTime Allowed 45 minutes (could stretch to an hour with warm-up/cool-down)

...Science? Hey all, I just finished reading "The Protein Book" by Lyle McD. Great read! But in the latter part he mentions that strength athletes who waint to gain weight should generally avoid steady state cardio. And I recall from his website (www.bodyrecomposition.com) the same advice, but for HIIT. Now I wonder why is that? Is it always true? Obviously, both activities burn calories. Additionally, at least steady- state also utilizes BCAAs. But that shouldn't be a real problem considering that you can just increase daily caloric intake and consume an extra amount of BCAAs (e.g.through a whey shake) before training. Next, cardio also increases Protein synthesis albeit the outcome is different tissue (mitochondria vs hard muscle). But again, more calories and Proteins will take care of that. And additional protein stores in the body (very energy efficient ones even) can't be a bad thing, right? All right, maybe the additional exercise does hamper recovery and hence impairs the actual weight training? Ensuring adequate carbohydrate intakes during and after exercise should take care of that issue for the most part. I don't know about muscle tissue damage and as to how much impact it has on actual performance. Iirc it is even a potential stimuli for muscle growth. I don't know of any other issues that could influence recovery (or lack thereof) either. But consider that many athletes manage a high workload and frequency shouldn't be the issue here at all. Remember I'm talking about one hour (if at all) of endurance based training once a day, couple times a week. Am I just oblivious to something here ? Any explanation is welcome, the more sciency the better! (On a side note, does anyone know what impacts hiit training has on the body? In terms of what's going on inside of my body afterwards. Also complexes and field games.) P.S. Did I place this Thread right?