Wufkar Goes Steady.. -ish

[Sabretooth-Kitty]

Good luck with your new challenge!

[CourtnieMarie]

nice challenge! you seem to already be killing it with getting into a lifting schedule! I was gunna say that's something I'm working on this challenge too (getting back under the weight) but you're totally rocking it.

[starpuck]

[Raxie]

Starpuck I literally just watched the episode that gif is from last night hahah. I lol'd.

 

Wuf you're doing awesome! As always, kicking ass & taking names with your crazy lifting.

[Hermione Gainser]

[Wufkar]

Sorry guys, the week got away from me with training. (I passed.) Training was effectively from 730-6 from Tuesday - today. Except I got today as a half day because of test day.

Nov 14, 2014 Workout log
Front squats
45x10
75x10
95x5 x2
115x3 x2 started feeling these more in my back than my legs, so I called it.

Bench
45x10
75x10
85x10
100x8
~110x5
~110x4 pretty sure when unloading that the bar was unbalanced. Whoops

Deadlift
SG 135x5, 3,5
RDL 135 x5, 5, 5
Conventional MG 155x7, 165x5

 

Total: #17,320

Putting conventional last is a much better idea for my grip.

Tomorrow I'm going to be helping a community build the interior of a tiny house here in Austin. Kinda like habitat for humanity, but not. My ass is probably going to get it's revenge then

Side note: walking up hill to my car was.. Interesting. 

[nightlight]

 

amazing.

[Wufkar]

So the weekend didn't go according to plan, the tiny house building got cancelled. However it did allow me to go out with some colleagues who were in from out of town. Much fun was had I didn't go to the gym today either, I don't FEEL under the weather but still lacking in appetite. Friday/Saturday I ate more than my maintenance but mostly because other people were eating. However, I did do some body-weight stuff. Flutterkicks, leg raises, planks, hanging knee raises, dips etc. messing around stuff.

 

My apartment is becoming more like an apartment and less like a storage unit, which is a plus. 

 

For the first time in a very long time my headspace is very good. Really the drive back from Chicago allowed me the opportunity to reflect and just think. You can do a lot of thinking on a 18 hr drive. So far it's stuck, which is very nice.

 

One of the things I thought about was how we have a tendency to look outward for approval. A "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality if you will. Instead of validating ourselves from our own internal morals we look towards others. I heard it at the gym Friday. A woman was trying to do snatches for the first time and asked for my help. I'm not good by any means there, but I watched and gave her the tips I'd gotten from Ursula, then told her to go to Ursula's course here. What she said was "I saw this Russian guy, (Klokov) snatch 400lbs, if he can do that I should be able to do 55 lbs." There's a fine line between ambition and goals, and attaching our self-worth to what another person can do.

 

Everyone has gotten to where they are, exactly where they are by what they have done and what has happened to them over the course of their life. It's unfair to them and to ourselves to assume we have the capability to do something - like snatch 400lbs - without also doing what they've done to get there. We work so hard to improve ourselves physically that we often forget how long it took us to get where we are now. I'm overweight because of 26 years worth of bad habits. I'll know where I want to get to, and have a loose plan on how to get there but it's not going to happen overnight. Comparing myself to someone who is now "where" I want to be is a recipe for failure, and not the kind that comes with success. I don't go to the gym for the body I have today, but for the body I want in a year, 2 years and 10 years. I do it for the way I feel after lifting, and for knowing what it will allow me to do down the road. 

 

We have to give ourselves the permission to work systematically towards our goals one step at a time from wherever it is that we are, not regardless of where we've been but because of where we've been.

 

So, there. Have a brain dump.

[starpuck]

 

from wherever it is that we are, not regardless of where we've been but because of where we've been.

 

Man.     So simple and so profound.   And something I could use hearing today.    So thank you.

[Sandylion]

So much intensity! Brain-fail!

[maigrey]

And there it is.

 

 

[but seriously, great post]

[Wufkar]

Nov 18, 2014 Workout log

 

Still something wonky up with my appetite. This workout was effectively fasted.

 

Food: 

Oatmeal + Protein

Green Pepper

Hamachi - 6oz

 

Workout:

 

Hang Cleans

45x10 x2

65x10 x3

 

Hang Snatch

45x8 <-- fugly. It was done before loading the cleans for 65.

 

Pendlay Rows

65x10 x2

75x10 

75x8 

 

Deadlift - Form only really.Practicing the hip hinge after watching a youtube video on DL form.

75x10

 

OHP

55x10

75x8

80x6

 

Front Squat

75x10

85x9

105x5

 

Total: 10,280#

 

Notes:

All the cleans were much better than last week, really focusing on the hip hinge instead of muscling it up is helping a LOT. (Go figure, right?) the last couple sets I shifted to focusing on active receiving since Ursula kept telling me I had a sloppy receive.

 

Considering how little energy I have right now, I'll take it.

[Wufkar]

Made sure to eat a free bird burrito bowl tonight. It's like chipotle but less rice.

~580 kcal.

[raptron]

I really like your most recent brain dump and I've been thinking similar thoughts lately. A friend of mine has just started working out and seems to feel entitled to quick progress and quick body changes because of it. This shit takes tiiiime. Time and time and time and time. Sure, there are freak occasions where people pick up things really quickly, but it's so much about the work you put in, the tiiime you need to put in, the steps you need to take on your own path to travel toward where you want to go. 

 

And the idea that you "deserve" something or "should" be able to do something because you're going to the gym or because other people can do it. Nope, buddy. You measure you on your OWN metrics, against your OWN self. 

 

I like your phrasing about working toward what you want in 2 years or 10 years. I'm going to use that on people.

 

Also, mwah. Sorry you haven't been feeling super great. Might be a self-perpetuating cycle of "I'm tired -> I'm not hungry = fatigue -> too fatigued to eat" that kind of thing. 

[Sabretooth-Kitty]

Good work on the improvements, especially with the lack of energy/food, hope your appetite improves soon 

[Wufkar]

Interesting article for the ladies here:

 

Hormone Cycle and Female Lifters

 

Also, hellooo appetite. It's back. Now I can't think of anything else, a nice middle ground would be greaaat. On the plus side, it came back in time for Deadlift day, so there's that.

[Wufkar]

November 19, 2014 Workout Log

 

Bench

45x10

75x10

85x10

105x7

100x8 x2

110x3

110x2

 

Deadlift Medley

Snatch Grip

135x5 x3

RDL

135x5 x3

Conventional MG

165x8

165x5

135x5

 

Total: 11,805

 

Notes: Bench volume + Dead volume = not the best for grip.

Definitely still felt the cleans from yesterday.

 

There were four ladies in the power-lifting room tonight. Naturally the conversation turned to the troubles of large chests while lifting and devolved into a giggle-fest.

[wildross]

There were four ladies in the power-lifting room tonight. Naturally the conversation turned to the troubles of large chests while lifting and devolved into a giggle-fest.

Naturally

[Raxie]

Loved that brain dump, as usual. 

 

Also thanks for that link! Really interesting, I've actually been wondering about stuff like that lately, since I've been seriously starting to plan my first adventure into barbel land sometime soon-ish.

[Wufkar]

Nov 25, 2014 Workout Log
Paused Bench
45x10
95x10
115x5
125x2

No pause bench
115x5
115x3
105x5 - Paused
100x5 x2 - Paused

Seated dip
95x20
125x10
140x10 x2

Bicep curls
20x5

 

Total: 10,820#
No racks available for the duration, and all bars taken.

My arms are soooo swole I couldn't even really do curls. What's the opposite of t-rex arms? I has it.

[chammy]

#swolepatrole

[SevenFootGeek]

[Wufkar]

R'okay. Some updates that aren't straight lifting numbers.

 

The Ruck was cancelled due to low participation numbers, and it's very likely I'l be doing a Bench Comp in Florida while I'm there, because why not? Hence why yesterday turned into bro-pause bench day.

 

There is a Red Hat test I need to take, however I just got an extension on when I have to take it by. It was Dec 19, now it's Feb 1.  I've also managed to build my benches and clear out some stuff I don't need any more. (read: car parts to a car I don't have any more). 

 

Regardless, I'm going to Florida for a couple weeks on 12/6. Fun fun fun!

 

Lifting progress notes. I haven't been noting it, but I've been working on Knees-to-chests on my pullup bar and doing random stomach vacuums throughout the day. I can honestly say that I feel as though my core is getting stronger and my bench last night was a lot easier than I expected. Despite not having lifted as much as I wanted - which I blame on a vicious cycle of no appetite -> no energy -> volume workouts - I'm still making progress. Monday and Tuesday I basically force-fed myself and the energy I had yesterday showed that. 

 

It was a conscious decision to not do progress photos or measurements this round as I'm heavier than I mentally think is right, and bigger than I mentally think is right. That's not the important thing for me right now though, so we'll work on fixing imbalances first. That being said, my gym is closed tomorrow and Friday - something about a holiday or whatever - so today is deadlift day and I may - emphasis on MAY - try to run on Friday.  

[Hermione Gainser]

My arms are soooo swole I couldn't even really do curls. What's the opposite of t-rex arms? I has it.

 

 

Christmas Story arms?

[wildross]

/me runs off to the family photo archive for real wufkar winter photos...back in a bit