mightstone2k answers the call of the wild

[Elastigirl]

I'm never quite sure what to do on variety days. Some of the days I felt like I did to little, and then others I'll push too hard and it will affect my lifting days. 

[mightstone2k]

I'm never quite sure what to do on variety days. Some of the days I felt like I did to little, and then others I'll push too hard and it will affect my lifting days. 

Pavel published two "Enter the Kettlebell Special Reports." Those have given me some decent ideas. I particularly like SR #1, because it pretty clearly tells you how to set up one of your variety days. So does SR #2, but I'm not following its directions for reasons I can't remember, but am sure were good ones at the time.

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[Elastigirl]

17 minutes ago, mightstone2k said:

Pavel published two "Enter the Kettlebell Special Reports." Those have given me some decent ideas. I particularly like SR #1, because it pretty clearly tells you how to set up one of your variety days. So does SR #2, but I'm not following its directions for reasons I can't remember, but am sure were good ones at the time.

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Thanks. I've done a few of those, the bottoms up, and the clean+ TGU. Probably do the clean + TGU tomorrow. The overload stuff is interesting. This is my final week of ETK with the 30# (as long as I'm able to do all the ladders and sets on Friday) so for the final two weeks I think I'll do some overload with the 35#

[mightstone2k]

Thanks. I've done a few of those, the bottoms up, and the clean+ TGU. Probably do the clean + TGU tomorrow. The overload stuff is interesting. This is my final week of ETK with the 30# (as long as I'm able to do all the ladders and sets on Friday) so for the final two weeks I think I'll do some overload with the 35#

Clean + TGU super sets and heavy swings (32 kg 1HS) is my variety day in between heavy and light press days this month. That's my favorite variety day. Challenging without being draining.

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[starpuck]

I want to get into kettlebells so bad... But I want someone who can walk me through doing these things RIGHT from the get go.

[The Most Loathed]

3 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

I want to get into kettlebells so bad... But I want someone who can walk me through doing these things RIGHT from the get go.

It's very likely that you have a kettlebell gym near you. Elastigirl, Machete and others on here can talk you through the RKC schools of thought. I do something slightly different called kettlebell sport but I could also provide some info. 

[Kishi]

12 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

Clean + TGU super sets and heavy swings (32 kg 1HS) is my variety day in between heavy and light press days this month. That's my favorite variety day. Challenging without being draining.

 

Sounds like the way it should be. After all, you need your various faculties to be available whenever you may need them.

[mightstone2k]

I want to get into kettlebells so bad... But I want someone who can walk me through doing these things RIGHT from the get go.

Here you go: http://www.strongfirst.com/instructors/search/ [emoji4]

 

Sounds like the way it should be. After all, you need your various faculties to be available whenever you may need them.

And that was today's training session. That was a much needed way to close out the day.

*break*

I have a confession to make. I'm frustrated with myself. Control your surprise, dear reader; I know that's a bit of a shock, coming from me. I'm frustrated by the fact that I don't seem to see things through to the goal. I get close, and I shy away, telling myself it's good enough.

This goes back to my training. There's a lot in favor of RoP. It has a press, a pull, and a hinge in the main program. It has days to mix things up. It has a clearly defined progression plan with clear goals and it covers all the bases I want covered. But that isn't enough because I walked away from something just as it was getting hard.

That something is S&S. The StrongFirst dogma is simple: achieve Simple. Achieve RoP. Determine next goal. In that order. I didn't finish step one. One-handed swings with a 32 kg bell were just too hard and progress was not quick enough for my liking. So I moved on without achieving the goal. And the overwhelming consensus on the SF boards is that 32 kg is where the magic happens. Once you master the 32 - that is, 100 one-handed swings in five minutes or less and 10 TGU in ten minutes or less - people have seen significant improvement or, at worst, maintenance in other movements they weren't training. And the RoP's snatch test is much easier to achieve once you've hit Simple because you're already used to swinging a 32 kg with one hand.

Those are anecdotes. But there are a lot of them. And I can't help but think I shortchanged myself by moving on without achieving the goal. My fitness increased markedly when I committed to kettlebells. What would happen if I actually dedicated myself to following the program?

My swings today were 32 kg one-handers. They weren't bad. I did two sets of five with each hand. Perhaps that's the trick. I do less reps, but all with the 32, and add reps as I get stronger/more proficient instead of slavishly ensuring that I do 100 swings in a session in sets of 10.

I'm thinking that once I finish this RoP cycle with the 20 kg (six more weeks), I'm going to switch back to S&S and achieve Simple. I'm going to move some real weight and tame a heavy fucking bell. I'm going to stick with it until I achieve the goal. Period. I'll likely try to add push-ups to the program, since I do have a PFT to pass in June. But I'm going to own that 32. I'm going to finish this before I move on, and see what effect this really has on MY GPP.

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[Kishi]

Well, I can't speak to RoP. I can tell you, though, that I personally got a lot of benefit from being able to do my swings and get ups at that weight. I know that rushing about on these things stymied me a lot years ago when I first thought about getting into them.

 

Take your time. Pay the price. It'll be worth it.

[Elastigirl]

I hear you. I'm almost to the Simple, but then I switched to RoP. I did stick with Simple for a long time though, I think about 9 months. One thing that helped was breaking into smaller goals. I did 100 swings  for my current weight in 10 minutes, then 8, then 5. I had the goals written down, and when I achieved them, I rewarded myself with something (t-shirt, tea ) I still did get a bit burnt out a bit and decided to take some time off. I still know it is a goal though, so I will work on the TGU at least once a week to maintain where I was at. And I will get back to it again in  February. If I haven't achieved it by April, I might set it aside for a bit and work on rings. I'd still do swings and TGU once a week. I know that's not the way StrongFirst prescribes, but I also decided not to beat myself up over it if I feel like I need a bit more variety. I'll finish the RIng 1 circuit, and then go back to the Simple, or if I'm done with that then the RoP

[mightstone2k]

4 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I hear you. I'm almost to the Simple, but then I switched to RoP. I did stick with Simple for a long time though, I think about 9 months. One thing that helped was breaking into smaller goals. I did 100 swings  for my current weight in 10 minutes, then 8, then 5. I had the goals written down, and when I achieved them, I rewarded myself with something (t-shirt, tea ) I still did get a bit burnt out a bit and decided to take some time off. I still know it is a goal though, so I will work on the TGU at least once a week to maintain where I was at. And I will get back to it again in  February. If I haven't achieved it by April, I might set it aside for a bit and work on rings. I'd still do swings and TGU once a week. I know that's not the way StrongFirst prescribes, but I also decided not to beat myself up over it if I feel like I need a bit more variety. I'll finish the RIng 1 circuit, and then go back to the Simple, or if I'm done with that then the RoP

The time away from S&S has been good for me.  Two cycles of RoP (16 and 20) and a month of Naked Warrior gave me a decent base in other things.  I know how to clean, press, and snatch, I'm comfortable working one-arm push-ups (but still hate pistols), and ultimately I know that I can maintain strength in my primary program even when I have to do other things.  And I got experience waving the load and playing with ladders.  So it was good for me, and it gives me some things to practice if I have a day where I need to break up the monotony.

 

That's big for me, knowing I can take a day lighter or doing different things if I need to.  I still have the Rippetoe mentality from when I was doing Starting Strength:  follow the program as written, religiously, or you aren't doing the program.

[Elastigirl]

27 minutes ago, mightstone2k said:

The time away from S&S has been good for me.  Two cycles of RoP (16 and 20) and a month of Naked Warrior gave me a decent base in other things.  I know how to clean, press, and snatch, I'm comfortable working one-arm push-ups (but still hate pistols), and ultimately I know that I can maintain strength in my primary program even when I have to do other things.  And I got experience waving the load and playing with ladders.  So it was good for me, and it gives me some things to practice if I have a day where I need to break up the monotony.

 

That's big for me, knowing I can take a day lighter or doing different things if I need to.  I still have the Rippetoe mentality from when I was doing Starting Strength:  follow the program as written, religiously, or you aren't doing the program.

I feel the same as far as time away has been good. I may throw in some snatches occasionally with the S and S instead of swings, just to break it up, and also so I keep the movement. Just don't tell the Strongfirst police 

I think there are good things from following a program. Sometimes you change it up so much, it  no longer meets the goal. But there is also something for making it yoyur own.

[mightstone2k]

Today turned into a frustrating clusterf*** at the very last minute. The boss called M and I into her office at 1615 to drop a suddenly URGENT MUST DO TONIGHT ASAP tasker on us. This was something we could have found out about much earlier in the day. Instead, we were at the office running around until 1800 getting this done. I understand a lot of M's frustration now.

See, this is only incredibly urgent because boss and superintendent are out of the office next week, and we are severely undermanned on paralegals. So the five captains are running around trying to do everything, and boss has a strange mix of micromanaging and laissez faire leadership. So we never know what's right. But what finally broke me down today was knowing that even if I get a guilty plea on the first of my two cases in February, the other one is right on its heels. And the first one - which has thirty witnesses, twenty-two of whom must fly in - is about a guy sending a few emails he shouldn't have and saying "delete my messages, guys!" For that, we're expending an outrageous amount of time and treasure.

The punchline I keep hearing - sorry, motto - is "there's no price tag on justice." Maybe not. But this is not "doing justice," in the best sense of the word. It's punishing a technical violation of a regulation. That's it. There's no real victim here. No damage. Just a technical violation. It's insane. And because I have two cases back-to-back next month, I have been in the office every weekend since Thanksgiving, except when I have been out of the country. Even Christmas and New Year's. With very little guidance, despite these being my first two cases. Meanwhile, my boss has seen fit to tell my coworkers that I feel "overwhelmed and unsupported," to guilt them into picking up my nom-justice work. M actually asked me straight up if that was true, because he thought that was out of character for me. Thank God, or else who knows what kind of dissension that would have sown.

I didn't have it in me to go crank out the heavy RoP day after tonight's mess. So I came home, made a smoothie, and finally emailed the company about the pieces I'm missing from my Serenity Lego set. Hopefully I get no flak about that. That's all I accomplished at home. My townhouse is a shambles. I bought a Brits filter which doesn't screw the whole way onto my faucet despite being as tight as possible and thus still spouting water out the top. I failed at making split pea soup last night - despite the same recipe succeeding at Cassie's - my coffeemaker is still backed up with grounds from a stupid mistake I made the other day - forgetting to empty the filter basket of grinds from the day before and thus overfilling it - and now I've missed my daily sanity check. Wake up, rinse, and repeat tomorrow.

February is going to suck very hard. Very, very hard.

Oh, just a note. I've been experimenting with a sort-of version of the Warrior Diet. Remind me to give a fuller explanation this weekend.

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[mightstone2k]

I was very tempted tonight to call it quits on RoP and move back to S&S without finishing the cycle with 20 kg. But I will finish the cycle. Only six more weeks to go.

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[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, mightstone2k said:

The punchline I keep hearing - sorry, motto - is "there's no price tag on justice."

Oh man, that deserves a throat punch. 

[mightstone2k]

Oh man, that deserves a throat punch. 

Heh... "punch" line

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[Elastigirl]

Ugh, that sounds frustrating, sorry.

 

Good for you for sticking with RoP! Maybe you can choose a reward for yourself for sticking with it the next 6 week

[mightstone2k]

Ugh, that sounds frustrating, sorry.

 

Good for you for sticking with RoP! Maybe you can choose a reward for yourself for sticking with it the next 6 week

Sticking with will be tough. Trial weeks are where it's likely to get jacked up. If I can somehow manage the three pressing days on both weeks, I'll wrap up RoP the week before Cassie comes out. In fact, my final test day will be the day before I pick her up. Good time for a week off before switching back to S&S. But managing to squeeze in that time during trial weeks... justice hacks don't believe in PT the way I do. They seem to think The Trial takes all Holy precedence.

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[Kishi]

Yes, but they clearly haven't heard the precedent that if you can Clean and Press the judge that you win the case.

 

I'm just saying.

[Elastigirl]

4 hours ago, mightstone2k said:

Sticking with will be tough. Trial weeks are where it's likely to get jacked up. If I can somehow manage the three pressing days on both weeks, I'll wrap up RoP the week before Cassie comes out. In fact, my final test day will be the day before I pick her up. Good time for a week off before switching back to S&S. But managing to squeeze in that time during trial weeks... justice hacks don't believe in PT the way I do. They seem to think The Trial takes all Holy precedence.

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And as you get nearer to end the sessions get longer. Do what you can. You could just do a medium and a heavy day if you only have time for two days a week.

[mightstone2k]

Yes, but they clearly haven't heard the precedent that if you can Clean and Press the judge that you win the case.

 

I'm just saying.

I've already got the reputation as the Murder Captain in the office. I've got motions ready to file for trial by combat. Gamble I'm ready to take.

And as you get nearer to end the sessions get longer. Do what you can. You could just do a medium and a heavy day if you only have time for two days a week.

Yep. Longer sessions and more mental strain during the day are the prime motive to switch early. It's tempting.

My favorite variety day was today. Cleans with 24 kg were almost easy, and 32 kg 1h swings weren't bad. I was practically useless at work. My game plan for the weekend is to finish drafting a stip of fact for a guilty plea that may or may not happen and knock out some civil law legal reviews. Three of the four in my hopper. If I can crank that out tomorrow, Sunday will be a day of rest. I was too mentally fried to be very productive today.

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[mightstone2k]

The most pressing thought I've had all night: should I get ramen for lunch tomorrow or do something from the commissary again?

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[starpuck]

Someday, I want real ramen.   But, even at my Japanese market here, I can't be sure how close to real it it.  One thing I've noticed... when I've tried it here, is the amount of nasty grizzle fat, not-beef is in the ramen.   I just can't stomach that.

 

[mightstone2k]

Someday, I want real ramen.   But, even at my Japanese market here, I can't be sure how close to real it it.  One thing I've noticed... when I've tried it here, is the amount of nasty grizzle fat, not-beef is in the ramen.   I just can't stomach that.

 

Then it's probably not really ramen. Every kind I've gotten has thin slices of fatty pork in it, not gristly meat. The Japanese don't tend to mess around with poor quality. It's a cultural thing; when they do a thing, they perfect it. And ramen is delicious. If what you are eating is not delicious, by definition, it must not be ramen.

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[mightstone2k]

@Starpuck THIS is ramen. #postworkoutgainz

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