PaulG Gets Flexy

[PaulG]

7 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

The name of this dish always makes me giggle a bit.  Don is short for Donburi which is a kind of dish in Japan that a number of variants.  Oyako literally means parent (oya) and child (ko).  These refer of course to the chicken and eggs, but I always find it funny that they actually named this food that way.

You can’t help but appreciate the little touch of gallows humor. It does make you feel a little creepy when you taste it and think “oh man, they DO taste good together...”

 

Serious Eats actually has a big series of donburi recipes. I rarely reach for them, but they ARE super easy, maybe I should switch it up a little...

 

If anyone has quick recipes they like, or tips that sped up their cooking, I’d love to hear them too! Speed is something I still struggle with often in the kitchen.

[Mad Hatter]

WOW thank you so so much, this list is amazing!!! 😍I'm in such a food rut, but also so very lazy at the moment, so it's nice to get a fresh dose of inspiration. You also reminded me that I used to make sea bream (which might be the same as porgy) filled with Thai spices but have forgotten about it for years! Thank you!

 

Though I have to admit that I'm a total heathen and use bacon for fake amatriciana. 😛Sadly my fridge does not usually contain a big hunk of meat. Yes it's not the same, yes it's delicious!

[Mad Hatter]

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

The name of this dish always makes me giggle a bit.  Don is short for Donburi which is a kind of dish in Japan that a number of variants.  Oyako literally means parent (oya) and child (ko).  These refer of course to the chicken and eggs, but I always find it funny that they actually named this food that way.

This is great. 😃

[PaulG]

12 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

WOW thank you so so much, this list is amazing!!! 😍I'm in such a food rut, but also so very lazy at the moment, so it's nice to get a fresh dose of inspiration. You also reminded me that I used to make sea bream (which might be the same as porgy) filled with Thai spices but have forgotten about it for years! Thank you!

 

Though I have to admit that I'm a total heathen and use bacon for fake amatriciana. 😛Sadly my fridge does not usually contain a big hunk of meat. Yes it's not the same, yes it's delicious!

 

I had to look it up myself, because no one sells any fish labeled as porgy around Seattle, or dorade (as the recipe writer also mentions). But we do have sea bream, which seems to be either in the same family or the exact same fish. And sea bream is freakin' delicious. That particular recipe is great for just eating straight out of the pan, but I'll also save leftovers and eat them as tacos the next day.

 

I had forgotten about that prep for whole fish! But I've definitely done it for mackerel. Some garlic, cilantro, and a whole lemongrass stalk in the cavity is what I've done. I don't buy fish very often, but I may have to get that back in the rotation.

 

Bacon for amatriciana is legit! Do I like pancetta or guanciale more, sure -- I like the dry-aged funk you can get from a fancy cured pork -- but bacon is delicious. Plus, I'll risk being slapped by a few Italians and say... I think the smoky flavor gives the sauce a nice twist.

 

--

 

Hey, I did a real workout!

 

Workout Log 8/6/20

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 5/-^a-e

- Burned out on leg work early. This week I’ve returned to my habit of walking into the park and doing some rail balance work on my lunch break. The downside: today’s session was a little hard on my knees, so my right knee decided it didn’t want to do any real strength work today. Got a twinge, threw in the towel. It may take a little time to build it up to handling strength work and parkour at once.

Pike Pushup Eccentrics: 3(8s)^b-x

Pushups: 13^a-e, 15^a-e

Ring Rows: 5^b-e, 5^b-e, 7^a-x

Tuck L-Sits: 13s^b-x, 15s^b-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(5s)^b-x, 3(5s)^b-x

- I took some videos last workout and noticed I was arching my back in these a lot. As of this workout, my legs are in front of me to stop the back arch. Of course, now they feel much more difficult.

Assisted FG Ring Pullups: 5^b-e, 5^b-x, 3^b-e

Tuck Dragon Flags: 5^a-x

L (6lbs): 10/10^a-6
Y (6lbs): 9/9^b-6, 9/9^a-7
T (6lbs): 9/9^a-6, 9/9^a-7
P: 20s
Sidelying Can (6lbs): 17/17^a-5, 17/17^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (6lbs): 13/13^a-6, 13/13^b-7
High IR (6lbs): 7/7^a-5, 7/7^a-6

Compression Work: 3x12s

Cooldown

 

- I would have liked to add another set over my last workout, but I effectively skipped the last two, so I figured I shouldn't push it. Then I guess I added a third set of pullups. Oh well, the shoulder feels pretty good, though it was tired by the time I did those pullups...

 

- Shoulder wasn't 100% happy with the pike pushup eccentrics. Overhead pushing work is definitely the a dangerous range of motion for my shoulder right now; I think it may be a good idea to push handstands back into the workout, but as strength work for a little while. They're right in that difficult ROM, but they don't require as much strength.

 

- Leveled up on ring rows. I've gone from doing them on a (small) incline (feet on floor, hands at hip height) to level (feet are now on a bar stool that's also hip height). They felt good; a lot of these basic strength movements that used to stress my shoulder are no problem now.

 

- Cut sidelying external rotations from my PT circuit, I've felt really strong in them now for several weeks, and never had problems with them.

 

 

Dinner tonight is nothing more than some leftover short ribs from almost a week ago. I was considering making a noodle soup, but can't be bothered when I have ready-to-eat leftovers waiting for me in the fridge.

 

Soup should happen soon, and today was a rare opportunity: it's been disgustingly hot all week, and today was the first day that didn't get over 70 degrees in a while. I'll have to take that opportunity later, though.

 

Saturday I'm visiting family, and Sunday I'm going out to sushi with a friend, so I'll be lucky to even slap a meal plan together.

[Mad Hatter]

3 hours ago, PaulG said:

I had to look it up myself, because no one sells any fish labeled as porgy around Seattle, or dorade (as the recipe writer also mentions). But we do have sea bream, which seems to be either in the same family or the exact same fish. And sea bream is freakin' delicious. That particular recipe is great for just eating straight out of the pan, but I'll also save leftovers and eat them as tacos the next day.

 

I had forgotten about that prep for whole fish! But I've definitely done it for mackerel. Some garlic, cilantro, and a whole lemongrass stalk in the cavity is what I've done. I don't buy fish very often, but I may have to get that back in the rotation.

 

Bacon for amatriciana is legit! Do I like pancetta or guanciale more, sure -- I like the dry-aged funk you can get from a fancy cured pork -- but bacon is delicious. Plus, I'll risk being slapped by a few Italians and say... I think the smoky flavor gives the sauce a nice twist.

Ooh good call about tacos!

 

I don't buy fish (other than salmon) very often either, the problem with living in Finland is that fresh fish is quite limited. Not to mention that food is bloody expensive as soon as you go outside of the very basics. But if it works with mackerel it sounds it's worth checking what other fish is available. My version includes chili but otherwise same thing.

 

Haha you always get risked getting slapped by Italians, even if you're Italian.  I have a fond memory of hanging out with two Italians, one from Sicily and one from the mainland, attempting to cook pasta together. It was most entertaining.

[raptron]

13 hours ago, PaulG said:

 

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(5s)^b-x, 3(5s)^b-x

- I took some videos last workout and noticed I was arching my back in these a lot. As of this workout, my legs are in front of me to stop the back arch. Of course, now they feel much more difficult.

Ugh, dip videos are so humbling. Nice call on the form adjustment.

 

13 hours ago, PaulG said:

Compression Work: 3x12s

👏

13 hours ago, PaulG said:

Dinner tonight is nothing more than some leftover short ribs from almost a week ago.

"Nothing more" than your perfect, restaurant-style short ribs. 😜

 

 

[PaulG]

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Haha you always get risked getting slapped by Italians, even if you're Italian.  I have a fond memory of hanging out with two Italians, one from Sicily and one from the mainland, attempting to cook pasta together. It was most entertaining.

More people than just me would pay to see a show based on that premise, I think. 😂

 

58 minutes ago, raptron said:

Ugh, dip videos are so humbling. Nice call on the form adjustment.

I originally took the videos to look at my shoulder positioning... but after you mentioned arching in your thread, I remembered that’s a common shoulder ROM cheat. Well, the bad news is my shoulder hyperextension sucks, but at least now I know to work on it!

 

58 minutes ago, raptron said:

👏

🤢

 

58 minutes ago, raptron said:

"Nothing more" than your perfect, restaurant-style short ribs. 😜

And they averaged out to only three hours of work per meal!

 

—

Parkour Visions, the org I train with, just opened up more adult classes! Two tricking/acrobatics classes, a beginner parkour class, and an obstacle course class. I knew this was going to be a problem... I can’t help but want to do ALL THE THINGS. I have to restrain myself though.

 

I tried to get some fashion reading done early yesterday, but it sort of shifted into looking up sewing videos because one of my (brand new 😠) pairs of jeans popped the stitches on a belt loop.

 

Right now my main point of confusion is whether I should put my money and attention into professional clothes, or more casual pieces. Business attire-wise, I only own two full suits; my last nice tailored collared shirt finally died, cutting me down to a single fast-fashion-quality shirt and a couple polos; and now that I’ve lost four inches in the waist, none of my dress trousers fit me (with the exception of the suit trousers, which were tailored years ago, the last time I was in good shape).

 

Working from home means I’ll hardly ever have to dress up for the foreseeable future. However, I know I’ll have to go full-profesh on occasion, because my new job will require me to occasionally attend trials.

 

The price tag on a new suit would wipe out a decent amount of my spending money, so I don’t think that’s happening too soon, though I eventually would like to expand past my current navy blue and dark grey (maaaaybe a light grey?). But I think a couple good-quality collared shirts and slacks are probably in the cards.

[Mad Hatter]

7 minutes ago, PaulG said:

I can’t help but want to do ALL THE THINGS. I have to restrain myself though.

But do you reeeally?  

 

I'm going to call in @Mike Wazowski for clothing woes!

[WhiteGhost]

9 hours ago, PaulG said:

The price tag on a new suit would wipe out a decent amount of my spending money, so I don’t think that’s happening too soon, though I eventually would like to expand past my current navy blue and dark grey (maaaaybe a light grey?). But I think a couple good-quality collared shirts and slacks are probably in the cards.

You will get MUCH more mileage out of a few nice shirts than you would from a new suit.  I used to live in suits and as long as you have a selection of shirts to swap out, you absolutely don't need to have a bunch of suits.  Two suits is probably more than enough for most people unless you are wearing them quite often because you can just rotate between them and switch out the shirts. 

 

9 hours ago, PaulG said:

Two tricking/acrobatics classes, a beginner parkour class, and an obstacle course class.

Those are all essential, of course

[juliebarkley]

10 hours ago, PaulG said:

Parkour Visions, the org I train with, just opened up more adult classes! Two tricking/acrobatics classes, a beginner parkour class, and an obstacle course class. I knew this was going to be a problem... I can’t help but want to do ALL THE THINGS. I have to restrain myself though.

This is an awesome problem to have! Let us know what you pick (or if you just decide to live there).

 

10 hours ago, PaulG said:

I tried to get some fashion reading done early yesterday, but it sort of shifted into looking up sewing videos because one of my (brand new 😠) pairs of jeans popped the stitches on a belt loop.

If you're sewing this by hand, it will hurt your fingers, possibly even if you use a thimble. You might need pliers. Just a heads-up.

 

I'm trying to remember where you are in your pistol progression. Are these full pistols, or are you still adapting due to ROM at the bottom?

[Rubble]

On 8/7/2020 at 1:31 PM, PaulG said:

Right now my main point of confusion is whether I should put my money and attention into professional clothes, or more casual pieces. Business attire-wise, I only own two full suits; my last nice tailored collared shirt finally died, cutting me down to a single fast-fashion-quality shirt and a couple polos; and now that I’ve lost four inches in the waist, none of my dress trousers fit me (with the exception of the suit trousers, which were tailored years ago, the last time I was in good shape).

 

Working from home means I’ll hardly ever have to dress up for the foreseeable future. However, I know I’ll have to go full-profesh on occasion, because my new job will require me to occasionally attend trials.

 

The price tag on a new suit would wipe out a decent amount of my spending money, so I don’t think that’s happening too soon, though I eventually would like to expand past my current navy blue and dark grey (maaaaybe a light grey?). But I think a couple good-quality collared shirts and slacks are probably in the cards.

 

 

I know these woes! I've gone from a woman's 26/28 to an 18/20 over the last year and a half. It was such a battle trying to decide where/how to update my wardrobe, especially for when I needed to transition to the in-betweens.

Food for thought: do you anticipate staying at your current measurements, or are you likely to lose more inches? Let that dictate your current choices. In my in-betweens, I did a lot of second-hand clothing: there is an upscale consignment shop near me, and I also used Poshmark. I was able to get a few staples for work-appropriate clothing. Not my favorite pieces, but it kept me clothed! For everything else, I decided to fast-fashion and then donate. Target ended up being a favorite over many mall brands. The clothes are affordable and often read as less cheap, surprisingly enough. I was able to get a couple of decent pieces to aid in the transition, and they held up well enough to be donated. 

Also - can you visit a tailor for your trousers? Maybe they could help?

[PaulG]

On 8/7/2020 at 7:41 PM, WhiteGhost said:

You will get MUCH more mileage out of a few nice shirts than you would from a new suit.  I used to live in suits and as long as you have a selection of shirts to swap out, you absolutely don't need to have a bunch of suits.  Two suits is probably more than enough for most people unless you are wearing them quite often because you can just rotate between them and switch out the shirts. 

Ooh, fair point that even if a full suit is required I’ll get a lot more mileage from a few shirts. Sounds like it’s really shirts-and-trousers time.

 

On 8/7/2020 at 8:40 PM, juliebarkley said:

This is an awesome problem to have! Let us know what you pick (or if you just decide to live there).

It’s all really tempting, but given the knee issues I’ve had this week, I am thinking I need to be careful about how much jumping/landing volume I add to them on top of my pistols. It’s tough because back when I was 22 I could and did go 0 to 60 on everything at once, and I basically lived at our old parkour gym. But 31-year-old Paul, not so much.

 

On 8/7/2020 at 8:40 PM, juliebarkley said:

If you're sewing this by hand, it will hurt your fingers, possibly even if you use a thimble. You might need pliers. Just a heads-up.

 

I'm trying to remember where you are in your pistol progression. Are these full pistols, or are you still adapting due to ROM at the bottom?

Already did it! Our work training is just a webex meeting with tons of downtime between exams, so I grabbed a thimble and heaved to. Turned out great for not really knowing how to sew.

 

My pistols are full-ROM, unassisted pistols since about two weeks ago.
 

13 hours ago, Rubble said:

I know these woes! I've gone from a woman's 26/28 to an 18/20 over the last year and a half. It was such a battle trying to decide where/how to update my wardrobe, especially for when I needed to transition to the in-betweens.

Food for thought: do you anticipate staying at your current measurements, or are you likely to lose more inches? Let that dictate your current choices...

 

Also - can you visit a tailor for your trousers? Maybe they could help?

I have used tailors and love them, especially for shirts. Fairly long arms, broad shoulders, and a 16“-ish neck has always meant I need to choose shirts carefully and then take in the waist, which is luckily a fairly cheap alteration. Pants are a little more expensive, especially if you need to mess with the thighs... and honestly the slacks I’ve got right now were probably $30 a pair, they’re not really worth investing more to get them to fit.
 

Yeah, having to throw out and rebuy everything for a newly-sized body is one of those annoying universal-human-condition things for sure. I went down realistically about four sizes in pants (from really needing 34/32 to 30/32), but expectations on men for clothing always seem lower, so I think I got off fairly easy; I just wore ill-fitting 33/34 pants for the last several months. I didn’t really need to buy any in-between sizes. If I had though, I definitely would have bought cheap.

 

Actually, now that I think of it... I guess part of the reason my old slacks were so cheap is that I didn’t want to spend big money for a size I wasn’t happy with.

 

I do plan to lose a little more body fat, and my waist will probably be around 28” at its smallest, but I don’t expect to stay exactly there long-term. If I were to get new pants today, I think I’d be comfortable with just having the waist taken in a bit later on.

 

—

 

Well, this weekend’s been a bit of bust. I saw first family, and then friends. Being social for once was nice, but for some reason on Saturday neither my shoulder nor my knees felt 100%, so I tried to do some pistols, got some pain in left knee, and threw in the towel on the whole workout.
 

Then later on Saturday I tried a full chest-to-bar pullup and pissed off my shoulder a little. Today I didn’t work out but did go to Parkour class; but all our balance and reaction-time drills with vaults seem to have pissed off both the shoulders and knees a little further. So I seem to be a little run down at the moment, and I’m kind of bummed that this week has turned into a crappily-planned deload.

 

This week has actually gone fairly well for my weekly goals though, so I will write up a weekly recap a little later.

[juliebarkley]

50 minutes ago, PaulG said:

Well, this weekend’s been a bit of bust. I saw first family, and then friends. Being social for once was nice, but for some reason on Saturday neither my shoulder nor my knees felt 100%, so I tried to do some pistols, got some pain in left knee, and threw in the towel on the whole workout.
 

Then later on Saturday I tried a full chest-to-bar pullup and pissed off my shoulder a little. Today I didn’t work out but did go to Parkour class; but all our balance and reaction-time drills with vaults seem to have pissed off both the shoulders and knees a little further. So I seem to be a little run down at the moment, and I’m kind of bummed that this week has turned into a crappily-planned deload.

Sorry to hear about your workout woes. It sucks to have gotten to full pistols recently only to piss off your knees. I had a similar (though probably less serious) issue with my handstands recently, where it seemed if I didn't tweak my wrists, I angered my shoulder. Fingers crossed that with a little rest you'll be ready to jump back into it good as new.

[Mad Hatter]

It sucks, but it's only a week. Maybe just scale down the movements instead of going for your max level for a few days and hopefully it will all clear out quickly.  Nice that you had a social weekend. 

[PaulG]

12 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

Sorry to hear about your workout woes. It sucks to have gotten to full pistols recently only to piss off your knees. I had a similar (though probably less serious) issue with my handstands recently, where it seemed if I didn't tweak my wrists, I angered my shoulder. Fingers crossed that with a little rest you'll be ready to jump back into it good as new.

Thanks! And on the handstands, I hear that. Adding volume, especially putting ourselves upside-down, really shows us stuff about what our bodies have been conditioned for, and what we need to work on. I still periodically piss off my wrists too with that work. I’m sure as soon as handstands make their way back into my workouts, I’ll be the one with the wrist problems.
 

For whatever it’s worth... are you hitting up wrist extension movements? Handstands and a lot of other bodyweight movements involve a ton of wrist curl-like movements, and it’s easy to develop a strength imbalance between your wrist flexors and extensors. Simply doing wrist extensor exercises, and a little dab of finger strength training, has helped my wrist problems a ton.
 

The knees have always responded well to a little rest followed by continued conditioning, but I’m starting to think I might need to work in a (p)rehab exercise or two for them, to get me out of the weeds. They are getting aggravated more easily. Between the new plyometric volume from parkour, and the new demands on them from full pistols, I suppose it’s understandable.

 

But I’m not gonna lie... it’s hard not to whine about how nice it was five or ten years ago when just piling new demands on my body was easy, and I didn’t have to think so carefully about it. 

[PaulG]

14 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

It sucks, but it's only a week. Maybe just scale down the movements instead of going for your max level for a few days and hopefully it will all clear out quickly.  Nice that you had a social weekend. 

Yeah, you are probably right on that. It would hurt my heart to take the deload into a second week, but a scaled-down workout for one or two more sessions may be exactly what I need. Thanks.

 

Oh hey, I don’t know how useful it will be, but I was just thinking on the subject of easy fish recipes. Have you ever heard of Aep Plaa?
 

The recipe I’m linking is kind of hardcore old-school — it’s curated by the University of Chiang Mai. I found it originally in Andy Ricker‘s book (the original Pok Pok cookbook) and I made some adaptations to make it in a typical American kitchen — I used a small catfish fillet sized for one, wrapped it in aluminum foil (rather than the banana leaf they call for), and I cooked it in an oven in the style of the french en papillote technique. It’s an unusual way to cook a fish, but since it basically self-steams, all you have to do is monitor it to make sure it doesn’t overcook.

 

The times I’ve made it, I made my own curry paste, but only because I was curious about how the OG Northern Thai mix would taste. You could easily swap the homemade paste they call for with a tablespoon or two of yellow (“kari”) curry paste. Or you could use red curry paste, spiked with a little fresh or dried turmeric. That substitute would push it into the realm of a 30-minute dinner.

[Mad Hatter]

14 minutes ago, PaulG said:

For whatever it’s worth... are you hitting up wrist extension movements? Handstands and a lot of other bodyweight movements involve a ton of wrist curl-like movements, and it’s easy to develop a strength imbalance between your wrist flexors and extensors. Simply doing wrist extensor exercises, and a little dab of finger strength training, has helped my wrist problems a ton.

I'm a little confused here. In handstands you're already working your wrist extension a huge amount. Adding even more load might be counter productive. Wrist extension exercises are generally more useful for people that climb or grip a lot otherwise, where the intrinsic strength imbalance can get excessive. AFAIK. If it helps, it helps, just saying that it might not work for everyone and there's a risk of making it worse. 

 

Another thing to look at is shoulder positioning relative to your wrist. If you're planching your handstands, i.e. if the shoulders are in front of your wrists you're placing a lot more load on them. This is often unavoidable, but it's worth checking if you can push up a little straighter, or shift your weight back more towards the wrists instead of the fingers. Particularly for straight handstands. Sometimes the planching is caused by fear, or limitations in shoulder mobility, in which case working on those aspects will help in relieving some of the stress on the wrists.

 

But mostly it just takes a lot of time to develop strength in the tiny tendons and ligaments needed for handstands, and it's very easy to overdo it when you're doing something as addictive as handstands.  

[Mad Hatter]

8 minutes ago, PaulG said:

Oh hey, I don’t know how useful it will be, but I was just thinking on the subject of easy fish recipes. Have you ever heard of Aep Plaa?

Never had it but it looks good! Thanks.  

[dancezwithkittehz]

Uggggh aging woes. I hope the knees and shoulder get less grumpy soon.

 

I hate the whole having to be reasonable and slowly add things part of aging. I want to DO ALL THE THINGSSSS. I think this is why every time I try to take up running I end up injuring myself because I get impatient with slowly building up 😂.  You would think I'd learn after the first time and take it slower, but no. Every. Time.

[PaulG]

On 8/10/2020 at 1:00 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I'm a little confused here. In handstands you're already working your wrist extension a huge amount. Adding even more load might be counter productive. Wrist extension exercises are generally more useful for people that climb or grip a lot otherwise, where the intrinsic strength imbalance can get excessive. AFAIK. If it helps, it helps, just saying that it might not work for everyone and there's a risk of making it worse.

You make a really good point here. Now that I think of it, a lot of the wrist prehab stuff I know is from other students and coaches who do parkour along with a little light handstand training... and parkour works a ton of wrist flexor strength (you’re constantly catching your weight on your palms and then pushing off, + climbing). I had assumed that handstands also worked more flexor strength than extensor, but you know a lot more about handstand-specific training than I do, and I suppose I was overgeneralizing about what worked for me. If handstands also work a lot of wrist extensor strength, then you’re absolutely right, training it even more wouldn’t be a good solution.

 

And you make a great point about just chillIng and giving ourselves time to adapt to the new stresses we’re creating. Even though we want to do ALL THE THINGS

 

6 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

Uggggh aging woes. I hope the knees and shoulder get less grumpy soon.

 

I hate the whole having to be reasonable and slowly add things part of aging. I want to DO ALL THE THINGSSSS. I think this is why every time I try to take up running I end up injuring myself because I get impatient with slowly building up 😂.  You would think I'd learn after the first time and take it slower, but no. Every. Time.

 

Hey, at least we’re in good company as we slowly run our aging bodies into the ground!
 

Eventually I’ll need to start training a little running, but I’ve also never been able to pick it up without causing shin splints, so I am NOT looking forward to it.

[PaulG]

Workoutz!

 

Workout Log 8/11/20
- Going in: Not feeling amazing. Already planning a deload after my crap-out session on Saturday, so I decided to do one set of most of my upper body work, and two sets of squats if possible. I'd already done a bunch of stretching during my workday, and my hamstrings are feeling super tight and stiff. My right pec minor had also been acting up, tight/sore, all day.

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 6/6^b-e, 5/5^b-x
- Wasn't until I was grinding my way through my second set, wondering why my hip/quad was acting up on the right side, that I realized: on Sunday, while playing around with rail balance with my fellow parkour students, I did one or two pistols while balancing on the rail. Not significantly harder than regular pistols, if you've practiced regular rail balance skills. But the extra balance demands must have tweaked a little something. Luckily it doesn't seem to have been bad, because the work today felt pretty good.

Pushups: 14^a-e

Ring Rows: 8^b-e

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 1(8s)^c-x
- Just playing around with how to place my hands so I can best control the movement without snapping my wrists in half. Hands-backward wasn't working for dips, but hands to the side seems to work. With my pec minor acting up though, any real work on dips seemed like... not the best idea.

L (6lbs): 10/10^a-5

Y (6lbs): 11/11^b-5
- Once the set was done, I felt some pain in a weird part of my right shoulder/neck: not my usual rotator cuff issue, something a little different, like the LS. My pec minor had been acting up all day, so something weird was going on. Given that I was already in the middle of a deload, and I couldn't be sure it wasn't a real Shoulder Problem^TM, I decided to cut off any more shoulder work for the day.

Compression Work: 3x12s

- Gross, but glad I did it. The last set felt very difficult, but I'm beginning to notice: even though my actual pike sitting doesn't seem to be progressing, my compression work is getting much deeper.

Cooldown

[Mad Hatter]

On 8/12/2020 at 6:21 PM, PaulG said:

- Gross, but glad I did it. The last set felt very difficult, but I'm beginning to notice: even though my actual pike sitting doesn't seem to be progressing, my compression work is getting much deeper.

Kudos to you for getting through the grossness.  

[Mike Wazowski]

Ugh, feeling yourself forced to deload always sucks, but it's definitely the right call!

 

Also, I'm waaaaay late on talking about fashion stuff, but a couple things:

• Totally agree with what others have said - you'll get a lot of mileage out of just 2 suits and a handful of dress shirts you really like vs. investing in more suits (BONUS: as a guy, nobody but you is likely to notice that you're rotating through only a handful of dress shirts - I wore them daily to the office pre-pandemic and I only own 4 for the 4 non-Friday work days); you can also wear suit pants without a jacket as regular trousers and they'll likely just look on the formal 
• In terms of stuff I found helpful:
  • Really trying on most of the garments you own, and assessing whether or not you like how you look in it (or if you like some things, but wish others would change) - specifically, how do you like the color, how do you like the fit, how do you like the texture of it - both how it feels on your skin and how it looks both standing still and in movement; how do you like how it looks with the thing you're wearing it with (this can help you determine if you like something in isolation but don't like what you usually wear it with). It's time consuming, I had to do it in smaller chunks (sort of as I would put on an outfit for each occasion, I'd do a quick assessment of it), but it helps you assess what things you really like in your closet, what things need help from a supporting cast, and which colors you really like on you (and just as importantly, which you don't). This has helped me slowly start to pare down what I buy and also clear away some of the stuff I had impulse bought that I just wasn't likely to wear much so that I had a wardrobe I was 100% happy with.
  • Play with how you "style" some things - in terms of accessories you typically wear (like choice of belt) and also how you manipulate the fit (for example, I take liberal advantage of a partial tuck in the front for my T-shirts, plus polo shirts in casual settings - it helps ensure that the looseness of the cut doesn't hide the V in my torso and helps with keeping longer T-shirts from making my legs look even shorter than they are). Obviously, there's less of this in menswear in general, but that doesn't mean there's none of it (especially in cooler weather when we're wearing multiple layers a lot of the time)
  • Looking around, either in pop culture or just in my day to day life, and noting what looks I really liked on other guys, and also what similarities and differences those guys had to me in terms of build / other features and whether I thought that affected whether the look would work (e.g. I might like a look in a vacuum or on a slender 6'2" guy, but that doesn't mean the same look will translate well to my 5'7" athletic frame with broad shoulders - similarly, I may really like how a hat, pair of glasses, hairstyle, or similar looks on another guy, but if my face is a totally different shape or my hair has a totally different consistency, it might not be practical to try and get it for myself)

[PaulG]

On 8/13/2020 at 10:37 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Kudos to you for getting through the grossness.  

 

Thanks! Honestly, I think I would have given up on my hamstrings a while ago if you all hadn't been giving me tips and helping out. Flexibility training just shows changes so slowly, but needing to report back to you guys helps keep me on the ball.

 

22 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

I'm waaaaay late on talking about fashion stuff

 

It's never too late! Glad to have you!

 

23 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Really trying on most of the garments you own, and assessing whether or not you like how you look in it (or if you like some things, but wish others would change) - specifically, how do you like the color, how do you like the fit, how do you like the texture of it

 

This must be good advice, because it instilled in me a sense of mild panic. I imagine this is what people feel when Marie Kondo tells them they're about to throw out 60% of everything they own.

 

Yet... since I read this yesterday I've been thumbing through my closet whenever I pass it, and there are definitely some pieces that can stand to go, mainly everything I thought of as "work clothes" before I started working from home. A sweater or two that I know is unflattering, my one collared shirt (not worth tailoring), and a bunch of company-branded T-shirts that were the only Ts my employer allowed us to wear to the office (ugh).

 

23 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

for example, I take liberal advantage of a partial tuck in the front for my T-shirts, plus polo shirts

 

I keep reading about this partial tuck thing over the last two weeks, must know more.

 

23 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Looking around, either in pop culture or just in my day to day life, and noting what looks I really liked on other guys, and also what similarities and differences those guys had to me in terms of build / other features and whether I thought that affected whether the look would work

 

Man, I am trying! It's hard to train myself to pay attention to this after a lifetime of not caring about it. I am finding I don't often consume a lot of pop culture that has any form of fashion on display... but maybe I'm just not keeping a sharp enough eye out. It's maddening!

[PaulG]

I'm a full two days late posting this workout log. Possibly because it wasn't exactly inspiring.

 

Workout Log 8/13/20

- Going In: Not great. I thought about cutting the workout entirely, in fact. Somehow both my knees and shoulder had felt sore and tender all day.

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 6/6^b-e, 6/6^b-x, 7/7^a-x

- Boom! Didn't feel easy, but I got it. That's my bonus goal for strength. Hopefully I can repeat the performance more than once...

Diamond Pushups: 4^a-e, 3^a-e

- Really just for practice. Regular pushups feel too easy but my shoulder was feeling squirrely in general, so I didn't want to accumulate much volume here. They did feel ok though.

Ring Rows: 8^a-e, 9^a-x

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-x

L (6lbs): 10/10^a-6

Y (6lbs): 9/9^b-6, 9/9^a-6

T (6lbs): 8/8^a-6, 8/8^a-6

P: 20s

Sidelying Can (6lbs): 15/15^a-5, 15/15^a-6

Upright Ext Rotation (6lbs): 13/13^a-7

Sidelying Ext Rotation (6lbs): 12/6^a-5

- Kinda cut the shoulder work short as it was not feeling great. I'm pretty sure that pullup last Saturday must have aggravated it a bit. I decided to let it rest and see how it would feel Friday.

Compression Work: 2x12s

- Phonin' it in. Between every set I do about 6 one-leg assisted RDLs on each leg, and I found that they got much more difficult when I concentrated on all the lift coming from hip rotation. It's hard to describe, but I tried to cue all my movement coming from "pushing" the ground down with my foot, like I was trying to move it in a circle. It was weird, and hard, but I think it activated my hamstrings and glutes more strongly.

Cooldown

 

- As it turned out, by Friday the shoulder DID feel okay. It must not be quite as aggravated as I was afraid of. Still, I think I'll wait till next week to add new volume.

 

- On Friday, while doing some hamstring work, I followed up on some straight-leg RDLs with some (gasp!) actual passive stretching. Not much, just 40 seconds each leg, but it got me into a totally new (and very weak) range of motion that I'd never gotten before. Probably another 10-20 degrees of hip flexion. Maybe a little passive stretching is going to start being useful? I followed it up with a few rather shaky RDLs, to get my hamstrings accustomed to being loaded in the new ROM.

 

Now that Week 2 is coming to a close, let's finally post a...

 

Week 1 Recap

1) Mobility: Stretch every day, with a max of 6 days off. [BONUS POINT: Get to a 90-degree pike on the floor with a flat back.]
I did pretty well with this, actually, stretching a total of 6 out of 7 days in Week 1. OTOH, i felt like I kind of phoned it in, and only did the bare minimum of hamstring active release, femoral nerve glides, and a set of 1-leg RDLs on my non-workout days. And of course, I only worked out once last week.

Maybe the minimum-effort problem is why I don’t seem to be making a ton of progress. I’ve been hovering at about 110 degrees of hip flexion in my pike, and that hasn’t really changed in about three weeks, as far as I can tell.

 
2) Strength: Work myself up to full volume on my leg exercises. [BONUS POINT: Do 3x6 real-deal pistol squats.]
A shake-it-off week for this goal too. I got close to my bonus goal of 3x6 pistols, but never quite made it in Week 1. Rather than raising leg volume, my knee issues actually forced me to reduce it. I’m glad I’ve still got four more weeks to work on this.

 

However, I do have a plan! My ultimate goal is to progress to three leg exercises split up among an AB plan. HIdden in the spoiler for post length.

 

Spoiler

Leg Workout A:
Pistols (3 sets)
Deep Step-Ups (3 sets)

Leg Workout B:
Pistols (3 sets)
Assisted Natural Hamstring Curls (2-3 sets)

 

The leg work will simply switch between A and B each workout. This is the basic leg plan I ran years ago, and it was very effective at strengthening legs in a similar way to a deadlift-based barbell plan.

 

This all fits into the context of my current 3x/week full body routine, though ultimately I will probably settle on a 4x/week upper/lower split routine.

3) Food: When I buy a vegetable, use it in at least 3 different dishes. [BONUS POINT: Clean/reorg the fridge twice this challenge.]
This worked out pretty well! At the start of Week 0, I limited my shopping to two main veggies. The first was celtuce, aka lettuce stem, aka wosun. None of it was wasted: I threw it into a total of four dishes (the two rounds of @WhiteGhost's ganchao dougan in Week 0; yuxiang rousi; and a new sichuan dish I made for the first time Friday, chicken breast deep-fried and dressed in a sauce of pickled Fresnos and Zhenjiang vinegar, called culiu ji).

 

The second was a grab bag of fresh Fresno and Anaheim chiles (#downwithbellpeppers). Those went into several dishes: the ganchao dough, the culiu ji, the yuxiang dish, and a bunch of sides I made over the weekend using a trove of leftover Brussels sprouts from a couple weeks back. There are still a few of these left that I don’t want to waste, so I think I’ll be lacto-fermenting the rest of the Fresnos, and using the rest of the Anaheims in one last stir fry within a couple days.

 

I didn’t clean or reorganize my fridge this week. The point of that bonus goal, though, was always to eliminate waste in the fridge and free up a little space — my habit of project cooking tends to create a lot of scraps that don’t get used right away. I do, however, keep my fridge pretty well in-hand, nothing in there is about to spoil. I just need to actually use all the random crap I've accumulated. So to keep me honest, let's make the first step a list of scraps that need to get used (hidden in the spoiler for now-untenable post length).

 

Spoiler

Tahini-Garlic Sauce
Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa
Massive Tin of Salt-Packed Anchovies (it's like almost a KILO of anchovies guys)
Cream Cheese
Homemade Yogurt
Mint

Cilantro That's Starting To Look Sad

--

In particular, I have NO IDEA what to do with the tahini sauce. I made the original batch for some homemade hummus, and now I don't have enough tahini sauce to make another batch... but what else does tahini, garlic and lemon flavor even go in? Chicken freakin' salad?

 
4) Life: Take ten minutes per day for myself (max ten days off total).

I did well with this; each day, usually on my morning break at work, I set a timer for ten minutes and gave myself time to just decompress a little, and look out my window at the park my apartment faces. At first I tried to keep my thoughts on my goals, but after a day or two, I decided the point of this exercise was to make sure I have some downtime from constant mental stimulation, so I stopped trying to control things.

BONUS GOAL: Dress Yourself Like a Human Being: Take a little time once per week to do some reading on men's fashion/style.

Since my jeans-that-fit situation was locked down in Week 0,  I did a decent chunk of new reading in Week 1, mainly on SHIRTS. Along with a ton of info on dress shirts and how they fit, I saw a decent number of photos that pointed out to me that Henleys are a thing, and I found that I don’t hate the “henley and leather jacket” look.

 

I also got an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone a little: I got invited out to a partially-reopened sushi restaurant with a friend on Sunday (I guess technically that's in Week 2). While picking through my wardrobe for something to wear, I discovered that despite not knowing what a henley was until a few days before, one was hanging in my closet. So I dug out my old brown leather jacket and tried out the look. I think it worked really well — henleys seem to flatter broader shoulders. (Pretty sure I could not have pulled them off back when my bodyfat was 20%+.)

 

I’m on the cusp of purchasing some dress shirts… my main concern is making sure things fit properly in a time when it seems like a bad idea to go to a store in-person. But to push me toward making some purchasing decisions, I worked up a quick list of clothes I need to/intend to buy, ordered by priority... also hidden in a spoiler because this post is TOO DAMN LONG:
 

Spoiler

- Dress belt, narrower, black leather (the only black belt I own is a little too casual/wide for dress pants)
- One normalsauce tie (I only have two, they both have quirky patterns on them, I need a solid navy blue standby)
- Button-down shirts, semi-spread collar x3 (2 white, 1 light blue? Not sure on colors)
- Linen shirts x2 (white, light blue, for more casual wear cuz it’s hot out y’all)

 

- Casual belt, black leather (while I'm at it, lol. My current belt is also too big for me, it was sized back when I had a 32" waist. But it's also lasted for five years now because it's real, high-quality leather that I've kept well-conditioned -- so it's deformed a bit but hasn't cracked. I'd like to get something of similarly good quality.)

 

That about does it for Week 1! And it only took all of Week 2 to write the recap.