PaulG Gets Flexy

[PaulG]

Workout Log 8/15/20

Warmup

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

Diamond Pushups: 7^a-e, 8^a-e

Ring Rows: 10^a-x, 10^a-e

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-x, 14s^b-x

Assisted FG Ring Pullups: 5^a-e

Tuck Dragon Flags: 6^a-x

 

Deep Step-Ups: 5/5^b-e

 

- Had to cut the workout short, since a friend had invited me golfing, which I had never done before... and while I was testing myself swinging large clubs around, I found that throwing (not so much swinging, but throwing) seems to aggravate my shoulder a significant amount. D'oh.

 

 

Workout Log 8/16/20

- Going in: no big crazy plans, I just didn't get a chance to do my PT on Saturday and I wanted to hit it today. I was a little tired from my Sunday parkour class. And those dragon flags yesterday gave me a just a touch of abs DOMS. Not a ton, just a tickle.

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 22/22^a-5, 22/22^a-6

Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 22/22^a-7, 20/20^b-7

Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 15/15^a-5, 18/18^a-5

Compression Work: 3x12s

Cooldown

[PaulG]

DINNER TONIGHT! I wasn't feeling very excited about food all last week, though I tried out a couple of recipes, mainly dry-fried chicken with peppers (ganbian ji). This week I'm a little more excited because I managed to get hold of something very special: sake lees, or sake kasu.

 

See, I've been getting a little tired of stir fries day after day, and wanting something a little lighter and salad-like. While poking around looking for chicken salad ideas, I came across a recipe for sake lees-cured roast chicken in a Japanese cookbook that's been collecting dust on my shelf for a year or so. Sake lees, of course, is the rice-and-koji mash that's left over once you ferment sake and strain off the liquid, and apparently it creates some VERY interesting pickles in Japanese cuisine. However, I've never heard of anyone using it in the States. So I figured it was out of the running, but on a lark I called the nearest Japanese grocery, Uwajimaya, and asked if they had it.

 

I was instantly told they didn't, although their deli sold fish that had been cured in the stuff... but their headquarters in Seattle's international district made it regularly! A quick phone call to the main branch and I'd secured a pound of the stuff. Incidentally, it seems we're extremely lucky in the PNW; Uwajimaya is apparently the only place within the nearest couple states that even makes it.

 

My spending money for the week was already rather depleted, but I went a little nuts and stopped by on my way back from parkour... and now I have a huge chunk of this rice paste sitting in my fridge. It looks exactly like cement-colored playdough, but when I popped the top on the plastic deli lid to take a whiff, I found it definitely doesn't smell like it. It's sour, funky, a little sweet -- it's clearly been used in alcohol fermentation. It will take me five or so days to get everything else I need together and try this stuff out, but I'm really excited to play with this stuff.

[WhiteGhost]

5 hours ago, PaulG said:

I'm really excited to play with this stuff.

I'm very excited to see how it works out

[raptron]

INTRIGUING. I'm also looking forward to hearing about how you wind up using it! 

[DoubleTrouble]

What do you do in parkour class?

[PaulG]

2 hours ago, DoubleTrouble said:

What do you do in parkour class?

NUTHIN.

 

Jk, but honestly, it’s a donation-only class and only 60 minutes, so we don’t wind up doing a lot. I usually show up about half an hour early and do some roll practice, rail balance, and rail quadrupedal movement practice on my own. Then as a class, we warm up and pair a basic vault or balance move with a technique that edges toward self-defense. For example, on Sunday we worked in partners, one of us doing balancing (with just our toes on the edge of a stair) while trying to catch tennis balls our partner threw. We also ran some obstacle courses where we took turns chasing each other through them. I tap out of the more sparring-heavy drills because of my shoulder, but aside from that, it’s a good way to get in some light skill practice without stressing myself too much.

 

I’m used to 90-120 minute classes where we choose a skill, drill it, then run a big obstacle course. And eventually I’ll return to those classes, once my shoulder is bulletproof enough.

 

Your parkour gym reopened recently, right? What kinds of classes do you guys run?
 

19 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I'm very excited to see how it works out

 

9 hours ago, raptron said:

INTRIGUING. I'm also looking forward to hearing about how you wind up using it! 

 

ME TOO!

 

A little setback there: the recipe I found also requires shio koji, another koji/rice-based ferment-y... sauce? (You just take rice koji and mix it with salt and water.)

 

Shio koji is one of my secret weapons when I want to marinate meat in something that makes it taste like I put more work into it than I did. The koji have this magical effect on pretty much any protein or fat: they start to break it down a little, making it taste cured, and they also turn some proteins into sugars as well. What you get in the end is meat that’s a little punchier, more meaty, and has just a touch of salty-sweetness to it.

 

On a regular basis, I’ll grab an odd pork chop or chicken thigh out of the freezer, and before I roast it or whatever, I rub it in shio koji. I throw it in a bag, I let it sit in the fridge for a day or two... and what comes out is something way more interesting than what went in.
 

Anyway, I used up the last of my shio koji a couple months back, so I had to make some more. Making the stuff is dead easy — grab some rice or barley koji, mix with salt and water, and let it sit on your counter for 5-7 days. But it’s going to delay my plans a little. I might get lucky and, with the crazy heat wave in Seattle, the bowl full of moldy rice and water currently sitting on my kitchen bar might ferment properly in just a few days; but best case scenario has me making this sake-cured chicken (or pork?) at the end of the week.

 

I was also gifted a sourdough starter by a friend on Saturday, so I have been doing a lot of reading on that too, trying not to screw it up. Turns out, bacterial cultures are sort of complicated. But I think I’ll be ready to bake my first sourdough loaf around Wednesday or Thursday.

[juliebarkley]

On 8/15/2020 at 1:17 PM, PaulG said:

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?

It would have gone well with the supper I made yesterday: little Greek meatballs with mint and parsley, mixed with coarsely chopped cucumber, tomato, and red onion, and wrapped in some leftover flour tortillas.

[Mad Hatter]

On 8/15/2020 at 7:29 PM, PaulG said:

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.

Aww thanks, but I've hardly been helpful! All my advice these days seems to be along the lines of everything might work, you just have to figure out what works for you good luck thx bye.

[Mad Hatter]

 

Spoiler

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?

I almost don't want to suggest it after dissing the chicken salad haha, but I quite like this salad as an easy meal https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/warm-butternut-squash-and-chickpea-salad/ (it also works by substituting squash with sweetpotato, tahini with peanut butter, and lime instead of lemon)

[raptron]

 

14 hours ago, PaulG said:

I was also gifted a sourdough starter by a friend on Saturday, so I have been doing a lot of reading on that too, trying not to screw it up. Turns out, bacterial cultures are sort of complicated. But I think I’ll be ready to bake my first sourdough loaf around Wednesday or Thursday.

Awww, yeah. I am surprised this is your first foray into it, given the other things you're into cooking!

[PaulG]

14 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

It would have gone well with the supper I made yesterday: little Greek meatballs with mint and parsley, mixed with coarsely chopped cucumber, tomato, and red onion, and wrapped in some leftover flour tortillas.

 

That sounds EXTREMELY tasty. My freezer is packed with 100% chicken and pork cuts right now, but I have everything else sitting in the fridge. Maybe I'll grind some meat and try something similar out...

 

26 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

 

  Hide contents

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?

I almost don't want to suggest it after dissing the chicken salad haha, but I quite like this salad as an easy meal https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/warm-butternut-squash-and-chickpea-salad/ (it also works by substituting squash with sweetpotato, tahini with peanut butter, and lime instead of lemon)

 

Hah, I actually enjoy a good chicken salad, it just turns out it's really hard to find any recipes that use tahini that aren't some kind of salad-like thing (or falafel).

 

I like that recipe! The winter squash is an interesting twist; usually you'd see a summer squash in a recipe like that. I'm going to keep that in the back pocket, maybe for next week.

 

25 minutes ago, raptron said:

 

Awww, yeah. I am surprised this is your first foray into it, given the other things you're into cooking!

 

I've done a few loaves of bread, and they've mostly been in the same lean French/Euro "artisan bread" style that has become synonymous with sourdough ever since quarantine -- I really enjoy that style of bread. But I've always done it yeasted, never really wanted to mess around with feeding a starter every day. But now that this starter has been dropped in my lap, I guess I can finally decide whether keeping a starter around is worth the PITA of maintaining it.

 

35 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Aww thanks, but I've hardly been helpful! All my advice these days seems to be along the lines of everything might work, you just have to figure out what works for you good luck thx bye.

 

For 85% of people, I feel like this is actually the most helpful advice anyone can give. It certainly seems to be true, especially with flexibility training. But what everyone seems to miss when they're frustrated with their flexibility is that they just aren't paying much attention to how they react to the training. Most flexibility programs seem to take a particular difficult body part (like hamstrings), then stitch together a 45-minute-a-day plan that throws every possible technique at the problem. But at the end of the day, people may not have done much of the training that actually works for them, and they certainly haven't gotten closer to discovering what actually helped. I think we can all use an occasional reminder that we need to thoughtfully study ourselves as much as we study everything else we want to learn about.

 

What I'm trying to say is your advice is great!

 

--

 

Another week down, and you know what that means...

 

Week 2 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 stretched 7/7 days! Still plugging away at this one, though it’s hard to tell how much progress I’m making. As I mentioned in a workout log, I started to see much deeper pike compressions and some good results from adding in a little passive stretching toward the end of my routine.
 

2) Strength: Work myself up to full volume on my leg exercises. [BONUS POINT: Do 3x6 real-deal pistol squats.]
I reached the bonus goal! I even repeated it Saturday, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Progress with the pistols has been a little shaky over the past two weeks, but my legs seem to finally be adjusting to the output and they are feeling a lot stronger and more controlled, with very little complaints from the knees.

The volume goal is going a little slower than anticipated. But now that pistols are getting easier, I expect I should be able to be up to full leg volume before the end of the challenge without problems.

 
3) Food: When I buy a vegetable, use it in at least 3 different dishes. [BONUS POINT: Clean/reorg the fridge twice this challenge.]
I sort of accomplished this goal. Mainly because… uh… I didn’t buy any extra veggies in Week 2. 😅

Just to clarify, so folks don’t think I ate nothing but bread and lunchmeat, I do still have veggies floating around the house. I used some more of the peppers I had left over from Week 1. I also continually use aromatics like garlic, green onions, ginger, etc. in all my cooking. And I have tons of pickled chiles and sauerkraut that I keep at the ready for my meals — I got in the habit of pickling lots of veggies during the early days of quarantine. So I still ate pretty well; I just didn’t purchase anything extra.

I’ll go ahead and call this goal a qualified win for Week 2. However, I am switching it up for Week 3: my fridge was newly loaded over the weekend with gai lan, Napa cabbage and Persian cucumbers!

 
4) Life: Take ten minutes per day for myself (max ten days off total).
Another good week for this goal, 7/7 days. Mostly I’m catching time during either my morning break at work, or right after work before I start exercising. Not much else to say; the downtime is welcome, but not exciting.

BONUS GOAL: Dress Yourself Like a Human Being.
Lots more reading in Week 2, mainly on dress shirts, which I’ve zeroed in on as my next purchase. Finally, I pulled out a tape measure and with much awkward twisting-around, I got some decent measurements for my shirt size:

 

Shoulders: 19”
Sleeve Length R: 35.5”
Sleeve Length L: 35.0”
Chest: 41-43”, depending on where exactly I measure
Neck: 16.0-16.5”, depending on my posture (better posture = wider neck)

 

I even intended to hit a clothing store on Saturday to try some shirts on, but I ran out of time. However, I am tentatively planning a run for tomorrow, so I can test these measurements out on some real shirts before I make any final purchase decisions.

 

I know I also need to find some decent belts, but on that I really have no idea where to look. Most belts sold in department stores tend to be pretty crappy, and I’m not sure where would sell better leather.

[PaulG]

Workout Log 8/18/20

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 6/6^b-e, 7/7^a-x, 8/8^a-x

Diamond Pushups: 8^a-e, 9^a-e, 8^a-e

Ring Rows: 12^a-e, 10^a-e, 6^b-e

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-e, 17s^b-e

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(8s)^b-e, 3(8s)^b-e

Assisted FG Ring Pullups: 5^a-e

Tuck Dragon Flags: 6^b-x

Deep Step-Ups: 5/5^a-x, 5/5^a-x

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 23/23^a-5, 23/23^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 20/20^a-5
Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 12/12^a-7
High IR (4.5lbs): 9/9^a-5

Cooldown

 

- I cut the PT short -- the shoulder started feeling a little strained, and I wanted to keep an eye on how it feels tomorrow. I already added a decent amount of volume today, no need to push it.

 

--

 

Dinner tonight was going to be an easy chicken salad, but I had chicken thighs thawed and all the breasts were still frozen. Plus, I still have some chiles hanging around in my fridge... so, dry-fried chicken was the order of the night.

 

 

What I made was a little different from the recipe I linked -- I learned it from Fuchsia Dunlop's book, The Food of Sichuan, but she's updated it a bit in the book's second edition and the new version isn't published anywhere online. The principle is the same, though -- pieces of chicken thigh slow-fried over medium-low heat with chiles, Sichuan peppercorn, and pixian doubanjiang (I broke out the good, chocolatey-tasting one-year-aged doubanjiang for this dish). I made it in my wok, but it occurred to me that this would actually be a great dish for a cast-iron pan -- it doesn't require super-high heat.

 

It didn't make the photo, but as an afterthought I threw together a quick cucumber dish with a soy-vinegar dressing. I can't remember its name for the life of me, but the recipe was one @WhiteGhost was kind enough to give me last challenge (thanks WG!).

 

This week has been my first week out of training at my new job, so I haven't had a lot of extra mental energy for crazy projects. I'm trying to keep things chill and on autopilot, at least when it comes to food. Except for the sake lees. And the sourdough starter, which I am still feeding, trying to figure out when it should become bread...

 

I did come up with a loose-ish meal plan, just to take some pressure off coming up with something to eat every night.

 

Spoiler

Monday:
Phat Si Ew

 

Tuesday:
Dry-Fried Chicken w/ Cucumber Salad

 

Wednesday:
Cabbage-Chicken Salad w/ Tahini Dressing
 
Thursday:
More Chicken Salad Probably
 
Friday:
Sake Lees-Cured Pork Chop or Chicken (+ cucumber salad?)

 

Saturday:
Kaeng Hung Leh w/ Chicken Thighs (+ more cucumber salad?)
 
Sunday:
Fridge Raid!

 

[Mike Wazowski]

Oooh nice, knocking it out of the park with your flexibility consistency!

 

FWIW, I'd definitely err on the side of your better posture measurements for dress shirts - the last thing you want is clothes that encourage worse posture through being a little too tight of a fit!

 

Oh, and I hear you on not noticing much about men's style / fashion* in pop culture - even as a gay man who's actually paying more attention to men's appearances in whatever media for the obvious reasons, I still couldn't say that much about things I've noticed.

 

*I came across this distinction at some point (can't recall the source) that I really liked (though, pedantically, it's more reflective of the word "fashion" having two definitions, only one of which is a synonym for style):

• Fashion is more trend-focused, and things come in and out of fashion all the time
• Style is particular to a person's taste in how they like to dress, and can be evergreen

I personally aim more for style than fashion in how I dress, both because I hate buying new clothes constantly (and feel wasteful doing so) and because I don't have a build that most fashions suit all that well.

[DoubleTrouble]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:49 PM, PaulG said:

Then as a class, we warm up and pair a basic vault or balance move with a technique that edges toward self-defense.

 This is a regular thing? Sounds more like martial arts mixed with parkour

 

On 8/17/2020 at 10:49 PM, PaulG said:

Your parkour gym reopened recently, right? What kinds of classes do you guys run?

 

I've never been to a class. I just know there's flip classes and parkour classes

[WhiteGhost]

23 hours ago, PaulG said:

I can't remember its name for the life of me, but the recipe was one @WhiteGhost was kind enough to give me last challenge (thanks WG!).

It's called Pai Huanggua (拍黄瓜)   The "Pai" part of that means slap or hit with a broad surface, naked because the cucumbers are typically pounded apart with the flat side of a meat cleaver  

 

 

[dancezwithkittehz]

I need to remember not to look at your thread when I am hungry. 😂

[PaulG]

WOAH FOLKS, it's been a while. I promise I have been doing stuff -- much of it challenge-related -- I've just been a little too tired to post much.

 

On 8/19/2020 at 1:03 PM, DoubleTrouble said:

 This is a regular thing? Sounds more like martial arts mixed with parkour

 

It's more a quirk of the class itself, they're calling it "Parkour Fight or Flight Club". I joined mainly because it was simply the first adult class to reopen, but it's a pet project of one of our coaches who's into self-defense. Most of the classes are a little more traditional in format: warm up, learn progressions for a technique (like a vault), drill the technique a bunch, then start working on obstacle courses that incorporate the technique. Then, of course, some obligatory strength training and cooldown. Most of the students don't do their own strength training for some reason.

 

On 8/19/2020 at 11:16 PM, WhiteGhost said:

It's called Pai Huanggua (拍黄瓜)   The "Pai" part of that means slap or hit with a broad surface, naked because the cucumbers are typically pounded apart with the flat side of a meat cleaver

 

Yes! That's it. I definitely also pound the cucumbers with a bench scraper (I don't own a cleaver). And I also don't own red vinegar, so I use zhenjiang. -3 lore points

 

On 8/21/2020 at 5:30 PM, dancezwithkittehz said:

I need to remember not to look at your thread when I am hungry. 😂

 

You're doing better than I am, not looking at it at all.

 

On 8/19/2020 at 8:58 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

FWIW, I'd definitely err on the side of your better posture measurements for dress shirts - the last thing you want is clothes that encourage worse posture through being a little too tight of a fit!

 

It's gotten even more fun now that I'm getting acquainted with the ways different brands all have slightly different fits even within the same size... le sigh.

 

On 8/19/2020 at 8:58 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

• Fashion is more trend-focused, and things come in and out of fashion all the time
• Style is particular to a person's taste in how they like to dress, and can be evergreen

I personally aim more for style than fashion in how I dress, both because I hate buying new clothes constantly (and feel wasteful doing so) and because I don't have a build that most fashions suit all that well.

 

I hear you on the build issue! It's the apex of first-world problem syndrome to whine about it, but I've been kind of surprised how few brands make any clothing at all for men with an "athletic" build. The clothing industry doesn't seem to do a much better job serving that market than for any other unconventional body shape.

 

The fashion/style dichotomy is something I'm coming across in reading too. The idea of style being "evergreen" definitely seems to be a guiding principle in men's fashion, at least the part of the clothing/fashion industry that any male consumer is expected to take part in. I find it interesting on a philosophical level because it highlights a gender divide: we've decided that we expect women to value novelty in clothing, and to spend their money on novelty (a lot of money), in order to impress the people around them. For men, though, novelty is not usually highly valued; simply clothing themselves in as much money as possible is sufficient. Viewed from that angle, it all feels a little icky; but of course it's something we all participate in to some extent.

 

Thoughts like this are why I was not popular in high school.

[PaulG]

So I'm probably going to post a couple of updates over the next day or two, since I've got so much to catch up on. First things first, let's get some workout logs up!

 

 

Workout Log 8/20/20

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 7/7^b-x, 7/7^a-x, 9/9^a-x

- BOOM! SICK! Etc.

Diamond Pushups: 10^a-e, 10^a-e, 10^a-x

Ring Rows: 11^a-e, 11^a-e, 9^b-x

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-e

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 2(8s)^c-e

FG Ring Pullups: 6^a-e

Y (4.5lbs): 15/15^b-6, 12/12^a-7

T (4.5lbs): 10/10^a-7, 10/10^a-7

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 16/16^a-5, 16/16^a-6

Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 14/14^a-5, 14/14^a-5

Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 13/13^a-5, 13/10^a-7

Compression Work: 2x12s

Cooldown

 

 

Sunday Parkour Class 8/23/2020

60 minutes, including:

- light jumping/precision work

-10 minutes rail balance and rail quadrupedal movement

- Falling drills (backfall/sidefall)

- Bar drills, with a focus on more falling drills (mainly the dreaded slip-out from a lache)

 

 

 

Workout Log 8/23/20

- Notice how I pushed this workout back a day? Saturday I felt like trash, I had been up late the night before hanging with a friend I hadn't seen in months. Lots of fun, but a few cocktails plus a 1 AM bedtime = not good times on Saturday. Along with just general crappiness, for some reason my hands and fingers also went nuts. The muscles in the heel of my palm were super tight and sore, my fingers were sore, and my right middle finger* was acting up. Sunday I felt much better, but still cut the normal hand/grip part of my warmup.

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 8/8^b-x, 2/2^a-e, 9/9^a-x

- Knees didn't feel so hot, possibly because I did this workout after my parkour class and they'd already gotten some light pistol and jumping work.

Diamond Pushups: 11^a-e, 12^a-e, 12^a-x

Ring Rows: 12^a-e, 12^a-x, 12^a-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(8s)^b-e, 3(8s)^b-e

FG Ring Pullups: 6^a-x, 4^b-x

Tuck Dragon Flags: 6^b-x, 6^b-x

Deep Step-Ups: 5/5^a-e, 4/4^a-e

Y (4.5lbs): 15/15^b-5, 16/16^a-5

T (4.5lbs): 14/14^a-6, 14/14^a-6

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 22/22^a-5, 22/22^a-6

Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 18/18^a-5, 18/18^a-5

Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 15/15^a-5, 16/16^a-6

Cooldown

 

- I didn't seem to be getting anywhere doing PT with the 6lb weights, so I moved back down to 4.5. I think the volume I'm getting with that weight is going to be better for tendon strength -- really, I should ideally be going for 30-50 reps per set with these movements, and I have always skirted around the edges of that by using unusually high resistance and low volume. Some PTs do advocate that method, so I'm not going totally off-track, but I think I was pushing it a little too hard before.

 

- Continuing to (slowly) add more consistent volume to the upper body.

 

- No compression work on Sunday because boo.

 

 

*I haven't mentioned it in any of my challenges, but somehow, about a month ago I sustained some kind of minor muscle/tendon injury in my right middle finger. I'm still not sure how it happened... I don't remember doing anything to aggravate it, but one morning I woke up and suddenly the finger was killing me, and couldn't curl around anything or resist side-to-side force (like you'd get holding a teapot or dumbbell in a hammer grip, with your thumb facing up) without pain. It went away within a couple of days, but since then it has come back, seemingly randomly, on two or three mornings since. It's tempting to think I'm doing something crazy in my sleep, like grabbing stuff off my nightstand, or rolling over and sleeping on my hand funny. Or maybe it's being overstressed somehow by my workout routine... but I think I would have noticed something if that was the case.

[PaulG]

Still more workout logs, because I didn't do as many updates as I'd planned to yesterday. Oops!

 

 

Workout Log 8/25/20

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 8/8^b-x, 8/8^b-e, 9/9^a-x

- These are starting to feel difficult, in a good way. Because of the balance component, I go back and forth between these feeling like an all-out strength movement and feeling like a technical/balance movement. But on Tuesday, after the first set, I pretty much just cranked these out. I stopped short of a Y exertion in the last set, but I was pretty close, there was a little grinding in that last rep -- something that hasn't happened often.

Decline Pushups: 5^a-e, 5^a-e, 5^b-x

- LVL UP

Ring Rows: 13^a-x, 13^a-x, 13^a-x

- These are also starting to feel kinda difficult, but I'm also adding lots of reps every workout. I think, just to be safe with my shoulders, I'll work them up to at least 15 reps per set.

Tuck L-Sits: 15s^b-x, 17s^a-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(10s)^b-e, 3(10s)^b-e

- First big step forward with these in a bit!

FG Ring Pullups: 5^b-x, 5^a-e

- These felt a little dicey for the shoulders, but I don't think they're aggravating me as long as I am careful about how I build up volume. (My shoulder felt fine the next day.)

Tuck Dragon Flags: 7^a-x, 6^b-x

Assisted Natural Hamstring Curls: 5^c-x, 5^b-x

- FINALLY! I've been wanting to work these back in for ages. I went outside to do them in the park next door to my apartment, and I used the underside of a park bench, with a rolled-up work T-shirt underneath my legs juuuuust down the shin from the kneecaps. If I'm getting rid of some of my crappy Ts, I might as well put them to good use! Oh, and these were hard as hell, big DOMS in the calves the next day.

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 26/26^a-6, 26/26^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 25/25^a-6, 25/25^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 20/20^a-5, 20/20^a-6
High IR (4.5lbs): 15/15^a-5, 15/15^a-5

Compression Work: 4x10s

Cooldown

[PaulG]

LET'S TALK FOOD.

 

I've had three projects ongoing for a little while now. Let's check in.

 

Sake lees: Last Friday, my koji mixture was finally fermented enough to use. I eventually chose to make pork chops, which had been defrosting for a couple days in the fridge. So I threw the pork and koji together in a bag to marinate (though technically, since koji is a friendly mold, it was fermenting). And then... I admit I forgot about it for a couple days in my fridge. It was supposed to cure in the koji in its plastic bag for two days, but I definitely left it in there for four.

 

Tuesday evening, I FINALLY pulled it out, rubbed off the rice koji/salt mixture, and gave it a sniff. (Wouldn't you sniff four-day-old pork before you used it in a recipe?) It smelled great, with a little sweetness redolent of sake, and a strange kind of extra-meaty scent that I've come to associate with koji. The next step in the curing process: smash together a couple tablespoons  each of miso and sake lees, and spread the mixture on every surface of the pork. Then put it on a sheet pan, top it loosely with plastic, put another sheet pan on top to weight the curing pork, and put it in the fridge like that, with the top faces of the chops covered but the sides open to the air. Another two days.

 

So I finally cooked the first chop tonight. I'm happy to say that it was delicious, just not very photogenic. Koji-curing breaks down the surface of the meat just a touch and in turn, the broken-down protein creates a little sugar, so koji-cured meat tends to brown quickly. So essentially it was a well-browned but not very exciting pork chop on a plate, which I served... to myself... with a little cucumber-tomato salad dressed in rice vinegar and soy vinaigrette.

 

The other big win for marinating with koji and sake lees: it preserves meat in the fridge for a lot longer than it'd otherwise last. Turns out, rubbing the meat's surface with a bunch of friendly bacteria crowds out any nasty bacteria that would rot your food. Who knew, right? So cooking a six-day-old pork chop was no problem. I wouldn't trust the method to preserve meat forever, but I am sure the other chop will keep for another day or two.

 

Sourdough starter: It’s been a fun little research project keeping this thing alive. In fact, it’s gone well enough that I’ve baked two loaves out of it, one Friday and another on Monday. And of course, it’s involved a lot of reading of the kind only interesting to the sorts of people who would make a hobby of studying microbes.

 

 

I kind of want to pretend I'm a humble sort and talk about how I could improve for the next time... but the other half of me is screaming "See that blistering on the crust? THAT'S PRIMO CRUST PEOPLE."

 

This photo is of the first loaf, which came out my favorite. I was trying to score it with a thin asterisk mark on top, but there was so much gas in there that the scores burst wide open, making the whole loaf look kinda like an egg out of the Alien movies.

 

The loaves have both come out pretty mild-tasting, which seems a result of mixing the starter into the dough at a relatively early in its feeding cycle. I liked them both, but in the end, feeding this little jar of microbes more flour 1-2 times per day is kiiiiiind of a pain in the ass. For now it's still on my counter, being fed regularly, but I plan to dehydrate the starter as soon as possible. Once the water's out of it, the bacterial culture will be dormant, and it should last for at least a couple months in the pantry.

 

Tahini chicken salad: this was actually my favorite thing I've done over the last 1.5 weeks. Chicken salad with cabbage and onion; dressed with that leftover tahini-lemon-garlic sauce and a heaping spoonful of kashmiri chile powder. And at the last minute, the move that made me feel like a genius: I mixed in a chhonk of olive oil, mustard seeds for some extra sharpness, and curry leaves for some citrusy zing. And then more kashmiri chile powder. And then a fresh slivered Fresno chile for good measure. Oh, and the whole fried mustard seeds gave the salad a nice crunchy element. What's not to like?

[PaulG]

Workout Log 8/27/20

- Going in: more energy than I've felt I had in a while, and the shoulder feels good to boot.

Warmup

Pistol Squats: 9/9^a-x, 9/9^a-e, 11/11^b-x

- Knees felt okay while I was doing that last set, but with a twinge or two toward the end. Today, though, the knees are on the sore side.

Decline Pushups: 6^a-e, 7^a-e, 6^b-x

Ring Rows: 14^a-x, 14^a-e, 14.5^a-y

Tuck L-Sits: 19s^b-x, 18s^a-x, 14s^a-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(10s)^b-e, 3(10s)^b-e

FG Ring Pullups: 6^a-x, 5^a-e, 4^a-e

Tuck Dragon Flags: 7^a-x, 7^a-x

Y (4.25lbs): 16/16^a-5, 16/16^a-6
T (4.25lbs): 12/12^a-5, 12/12^a-6
Sidelying Can (4.25lbs): 25/25^a-6, 27/27^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (4.25lbs): 25/25^a-6, 26/26^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.25lbs): 22/22^a-5, 22/22^a-6
High IR (4.25lbs): 19/19^a-5, 19/19^a-5

Compression Work: 4x10s

Cooldown

 

--

 

In other news: I looked through my daily calories for the last couple days and realized something. I had been eating a little less than usual since Tuesday, but what I figured was just an ebb in my usual daily appetite led to me undereating by at least 900 calories every day. So I figured, as long as I'm already undereating, why not go on that cut I've been planning and knock it out a little early?

 

I have decided to take the reasonable person's route: I know I need a total two weeks of cutting to approach my 10% bodyfat goal, but I don't feel the need to stress myself by doing it all at once. Instead, I'll stagger it out over the next three weeks, with a week-long break at maintenance in between. So right now I've cut my goal to 1100 calories under maintenance, but I'll only be maintaining it until this coming Tuesday, which should give me a solid 2 pounds of fat loss. That should finish up my planned cut right around the 12th or 13th of September, just in time for me to to go on a planned vacation on the 17th.

 

I don't intend to track calories on vacation until I get back on the 21st, so I will probably gain some fat back, but I still expect it to be a net win.

 

On Thursday, I also cooked the last sake lees pork chop, and used my gai lan in its third dish.

 

 

 

See what I mean? Not terribly exciting to look at, just an unusually well-browned pork chop and some veggies. I have to admit, though, despite its shortfalls in the food styling department, I think the idea of curing pork in sake lees is a keeper. Along with the extra sweetness and meatiness it adds to the lean meat itself, the lees also infuse the fat cap with this crazy, nutty flavor... the kind of thing you usually only get from aged meat, or really high-quality stuff like heritage breed pork.

 

The gai lan was dead-simple, blanched served with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, and some chile powder -- another recipe from Dunlop's The Food of Sichuan. But I think I'll be keeping it in the rotation. It barely takes any thought to slap together, and I can think of a lot of different riffs on that dipping sauce to change things up.

[PaulG]

Sunday Parkour Class 08/30/20

 

- More rail balance (there is always rail balance) and quadrupedal movement (QM, as we refer to it). Also, drills on transitioning from QM to vaulting movements, such as a step vault. All, of course, on a handrail.

- Drills for escaping from wrist- and choke-holds

- Obstacle course requiring us to break an attacker's hold and get chased over a couple of waist-height railings. I felt like I made a good showing, at one point I pulled off a (short) dive roll straight through the arms of someone trying to tackle me.

- 2nd obstacle course, similar (running through railings) but with us starting from supine on the ground as someone started to run at us. It gave me an opportunity primarily to work deep underbars. No one ever expects you to go low!

 

After class, it was a quick trip to the grocery store and then time for a truncated workout.

 

Workout Log 8/30/20

- Going In: real tired, and knees were still sore from overdoing it in Thursday's workout. Saturday (golf with a friend, running across the whole damn course) and parkour today probably didn't help either. Even though I haven't been cutting for long, I know I'm more vulnerable to injury right now, so I made the conscious decision to cut leg work for the day.

Warmup

Decline Pushups: 7^a-e, 7^a-e, 7^a-e

Ring Rows: 14^a-e, 14^a-x, 16^b-y

Tuck L-Sits: 19s^b-x

Half-ROM Stool Dip Eccentrics: 3(10s)^b-e

FG Ring Pullups: 4^a-e, 6^a-e, 4^a-e

Tuck Dragon Flags: 6^a-x, 7^a-x, 5^a-x

Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 26/26^a-6, 26/26^a-6
Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 25/25^a-6, 22/22^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 20/20^a-5, 18/18^a-6
High IR (4.5lbs): 15/15^a-5, 15/15^a-5

Compression Work: 4x10s

Cooldown

 

- I 100% forgot my scapular exercises (the Ys and Ts), only remembered them after my rotator cuff PT was done. Too risky to do them at that point, as my RC is pretty worn out, and I can't trust it to stabilize my shoulder in any other big movements.

 

- Parkour was harder on my shoulders than I'd thought -- probably all that quadrupedal and slow vaulting from my transition drills. I did a little L-sit and dip work, but it just felt a hair too sketchy, so I ultimately cut those short. Pullups and dragon flags felt better than I expected, though, so I did a full 3 sets.

 

--

 

Didn't take very long this time: I'm already feeling the effects of the cut. Yesterday I was so exhausted after golfing -- which is not a normal pastime for me, but a friend I've been hanging out with recently is very into it -- that I fell into a nap that was supposed to be two hours, but turned into four. I was hit pretty much immediately with low energy, and I suspect that if I weren't cutting, my knees would have recovered quicker from Thursday, too. It's kind of crazy how much difference a couple thousand missing calories can make.

 

Also, hey, it's the 30th! Now is as good a time as any to update the progress photos. Today and one I took from the 15th (but didn't post) have now been added. I'm curious to see if there will be much of a change once the cut is over.

 

[PaulG]

Heyo, it's past time for a good recap.

 

Week 3 & 4 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 wish I could say I’ve made tremendous progress since Week 2... but in weeks 3 and 4, I admit I kind of phoned it in. I did mobility for 12/14 days, but it was bare minimum effort, not much time spent on it.

My compression drills, though, got significantly better. I’m now laying my hands right along my lower shins, starting to approach ankle level. The compression is remarkably difficult to hold for sets of 10 seconds, though.

I now wish I’d taken a good benchmark photo of my pike sit at the start of the challenge, because I have a feeling my progress might not look very impressive without one. Oh well... I have just one week to go, and I can miss one more day maximum.

 
2) Strength: Work myself up to full volume on my leg exercises. [BONUS POINT: Do 3x6 real-deal pistol squats.]
I hit my bonus goal way back in week 2, and since then I’ve been working toward my main goal. I’ve also had, in the back of my mind, a super secret double-bonus goal: return to regularly incorporating natural hamstring curls (meaning 1 workout per week) into my strength training.

The main goal has gone really well! Though my leg volume overall has bounced around due to parkour placing some extra stress on my knees, it’s much rarer that I have to drop a leg workout than a month ago. I’m pretty sure if I weren’t in the middle of a cut, I’d be working out all through Week 5 at full leg volume. Given the cut, though, I’ll be playing the week by ear so as not to cause any injuries.

 
3) Food: When I buy a vegetable, use it in at least 3 different dishes. [BONUS POINT: Clean/reorg the fridge twice this challenge.]
Week 3 saw the introduction of gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and Persian cucumbers into my veggie drawer. And they did get used in at least three dishes! It just... took the full two weeks to do it. I’m starting to realize I don’t eat a ton of vegetables. I think that’s fine — my diet is varied enough that I don’t concern myself with any servings-of-veggies-per-day rules. But maybe I should branch out a little from my never-ending plates full of brassicas and cucurbits.

I gave myself a somewhat throwaway bonus goal, especially given that almost everything in my fridge winds up fermented, one way or another, and thus lasts forever. But I did tackle it midway through Week 3! When I pulled everything, though, nothing was actually bad. In the end, I got rid of a jar of old sourdough starter and homemade sour cream — not because they were unsalvageable, but because I just didn’t want to worry about using them.

 
4) Life: Take ten minutes per day for myself (max ten days off total).
Not much to say on this one, because after Week 2 I fell off the wagon HARD. I am 0/14 days on this one.

BONUS GOAL: Dress Yourself Like a Human Being.
Lots has happened on this one!

FASHION WEEK 3 kicked off with a Wednesday after-work trip to the local Nordstrom’s, to poke around and try on some dress shirts. I had a couple of brand names in mind in particular. Of course, it turned out Nordstrom didn’t carry any of them — it seemed they’d pared down their stock to basically just Hugo Boss and their store brand.

My size measuring game appears to be strong, because anything with a 16.5-17” collar and 34/35 sleeve length fit acceptably. Different brands, though, fit wildly different in the chest and waist. I figured I’d probably be getting any shirts I buy tailored, and my trip only cemented this idea. In theory I like the idea of tailoring all my shirts; in reality I hate the process of finding a tailor. But once these shirts are bought I won’t have a choice.

Although dress shirts started out top of my list, they quickly fell by the wayside. By the end of Week 3, it really started to heat up in the Seattle area and I realized I badly need some pants that are lighter than jeans, and some shorts that aren’t crappy-looking athletic shorts, which has been another glaring hole in my wardrobe. Around the same time, I was invited by several good friends to go on vacation with them out for a long weekend at Lake Chelan, where it will be 96 degrees every day — not remotely jeans weather. So I set out to fill that gap ASAP.

Now, I never thought of myself as a guy who wears something as preppy as chinos... but I really don’t have any pants that are both less warm and a little nicer than jeans. And wasn’t the point of this whole challenge to start dressing up a bit, rather than down? So, chinos it would be. I spent an evening running around a few stores, trying things on... and ultimately found, once again, that nobody selling out of brick and mortar stores makes inexpensive pants that fit a big ass and a small waist. In the end, I had to return everything I’d bought. I finally ordered more pants and shorts from Bonobos in their Athletic fit, which I’d had good luck with when I replaced my old jeans a few weeks back. Once again, the fit was near-perfect. Bonobos’ stuff is expensive as hell, but I can’t help liking their pants (and the materials/construction looks pretty decent too).

After knocking that out, things snowballed a bit. I found a good leatherworker in Seattle, Marakesh Leather, and sourced a high-quality dress belt; I even found a couple of linen shirts and a non-patterned black tie (which for some reason I did not have). In the end... I actually have checked off everything on my original list except the button-down shirts. Go figure.

Next steps: we are really down to just the button-down shirts. I almost pulled the trigger yesterday on a couple from Mizzen & Main, which seemed to be well-reviewed... then I realized that M&M does not sell cotton shirts — they’re all polyester/spandex blends. And over $100 for a polyester shirt seems... high to me, no matter how high quality it is. So I’m back to square one on these. If anyone has any recommendations on shirts they like, I’m all ears.

[WhiteGhost]

17 minutes ago, PaulG said:

I badly need some pants that are lighter than jeans, and some shorts that aren’t crappy-looking athletic shorts

Cargo pants, my dude.  Military surplus camo ones if you can find 'em   Buy extra and cut them in half for all your shorts needs.

 

18 minutes ago, PaulG said:

If anyone has any recommendations on shirts they like, I’m all ears.

Most of my button downs are Brooks Brothers but I have also been happy with most of the Joseph Abboud ones I have.  If you can find a good tailor you may want to try getting some tailored rather than adjusted to see if the price/fit is worth it.

 

[PaulG]

27 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Cargo pants, my dude.  Military surplus camo ones if you can find 'em   Buy extra and cut them in half for all your shorts needs.

 

Funnily, although I've always enjoyed cargo shorts, I've never dated a woman who didn't confess she wanted to burn every pair I owned.

 

27 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Most of my button downs are Brooks Brothers but I have also been happy with most of the Joseph Abboud ones I have.  If you can find a good tailor you may want to try getting some tailored rather than adjusted to see if the price/fit is worth it.

 

I'm not totally clear on what an adjustment is vs. tailoring. I kinda thought they were the same thing? Or are you talking about a tailor making a full-on custom shirt? 😯 Seems like that would be...

 

 

Thanks for the tip on the Abboud brand, I'm checking them out now. Brooks Brothers are one of the brands I have been looking at... I have bad childhood memories of being taken by my father to get BB shirts, back when I was a ten or twelve-year-old beanpole. He got me several standard fit... well, cotton circus tents that the cashier, for some reason, called "shirts", and he thought he was doing me a favor.*

 

These days BB seems to have more options, but I think I'd need their slimmest or second-slimmest fit -- and then I'd still need the waist taken in a good five or six inches, lol. I've been reluctant to pull the trigger on them due to price, and their one Seattle store is closed due to covid, preventing me from trying anything on. But I think they're becoming a frontrunner, a cotton shirt just seems like a safer bet than poly.

 

*But let's be real: at ten years old, I was not going to show gratitude to my dad for anything he did, no matter how well-executed. Sorry dad!

 

--

 

Recaps of Week 3 and 4 (plus FASHION UPDATES) are above. This is just another (yawn) workout log.

 

Workout Log 9/1/20

Warmup

Decline Pushups: 8^a-e, 8^a-e, 8^a-e

Ring Rows: 15^a-e, 15^a-x, 15^a-y

Tuck L-Sits: 19s^c-x, 23s^b-x, 20s^a-x

- Big breakthrough on these, what the hell. All of a sudden I'm gaining the ability to push my hips forward of my arms, so they aren't resting on my forearms. With the hands backward, it's much more difficult than it sounds. Not a high level strength move, but it shows that I have a lot more strength and control in the shoulders than I did when I first started working these.

Paused Stool Dips: 3^b-x, 3 ^a-x, 3^b-y

- No longer doing negatives. However, I'm still doing them very slowly with long pauses in the bottom, to biase mobility and strength in shoulder hyperextension. I'm being very careful not to let my shoulders cave in... though I should really do a form video just to check.

FG Ring Pullups: 5^a-e, 5^a-e, 6^a-y

Tuck Dragon Flags: 8^a-x, 8^a-x, 7^b-x

Y (4.25lbs): 13/13^a-5, 13/13^a-5
T (4.25lbs): 12/12^a-6, 12/12^a-6
Sidelying Can (4.5lbs): 16/16^a-5, 16/16^a-5
Upright Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 15/15^a-5, 15/15^a-6
Sidelying Ext Rotation (4.5lbs): 16/16^a-6, 17/17^a-8

Cooldown

 

- This is finally a full volume workout for the upper body. And as I'd have expected, my shoulder (especially the supra area) felt just a bit tender by the very end. But the only thing I cut in the end was High IRs.

 

- No leg work, my knees are still feeling a little tender. I think I overdid it for real that last time.

 

--

 

I kept my cut going through the end of today just to make sure I make some solid progress, so it's an eight-day cut... but tomorrow morning it will be over! It's funny, just as @dancezwithkittehz mentioned she's seeing visible progress, I'm seeing the same in myself, for the first time in a while. For men, the mid to low teens in bodyfat percentage are known as a bit of a wasteland, where you lose lots of fat but see very little visible progress. Then all of a sudden, boom! You lose a bunch of those fat deposits you've been living with most of your life, and your physique changes quickly.

 

I think I'm finally hitting that band. And the interesting thing is, even before I took a progress photo and confirmed it, I felt it coming on. One of the most stubborn fat deposits in my body, the teeny little pudge around my lower two abs, got strangely warm and very soft/squishy last Wednesday -- usually it's fairly firm, and the skin is rather cool to the touch compared to everything around it. I've heard that "stubborn" fat in areas like that gets especially soft right as the body is tapping into it for energy, just before it starts disappearing, but I'd never really experienced it myself before. But a few days later I've felt it start to shrink; it's noticeably thinner than it was just last week. It's not as noticeable in photos as other areas, but my stomach fat certainly feels much thinner than it did. I have a feeling if I kept this going another week or two, it would disappear almost completely.

 

As interesting as this change is though, I have more important goals than fat loss. The reason I'm staggering my cut out a week at a time is so that 1. I don't go crazy -- hormonal starvation effects came on strong and fast this time -- and so that 2. I don't injure myself, or backslide a bunch in strength. Frankly, I don't see a great reason to be very lean if my training suffers, and I'm in no hurry. So this cut will be a fun detour, but the real goal comes after: getting back to higher-level pullups, muscle-up training... maybe, once my strength is really locked in, it would be nice to run a bulking cycle and gain some real muscle.