Waldo's Log

[Waldo]

1.21.2014

Upper Body Dynamic - Volume

Standard Warmup/Mobility/Prehab

- Made a couple of changes:

- Switched from doing a seated straddle hold to holing a straddle L (firefly pose in yoga) on the PB's. Epic cramps after 15 sec.

- At the end of the PB L-Sit I tried to straddle press into a handstand. Failed. Going to keep doing that.

- Put on my gloves for the one arm dead hangs. Had a big impact, time jumped from 15 sec to 20, they felt much easier. Biggest thing is that the foam grips on my bar aren't meant to support that much load, they pretty much disappear, and I'm holding on to a small bar, not comfortable and conducive to long one arm holds.

Handstand Pushup - 2y++, 3y++, 2y++ reps

Headstand Pushup - 10y++ reps

- Finally got rep #3 again. Hoping to start seeing progress on these again soon.

Assisted One Arm Chinup - 3x/3x, 3x/3x reps

- Definitely felt a little easier. Couple more reps and these will be a damn good bicep workout.

Wide Grip High Pullup - 10x+, 10x+, 10x+ reps

Wide Grip Pullup Pyramid - 1,2,3,4,5,6-6,5,4,3,2,1 reps

- The usual on the pyramid, 5 breaths between sets, 30 sec at the top.

- Finished all the reps on the pyramid, barely. Moving to 7 steps next week.

Pseudo Planche Pushups - 8e++ reps

Tuck Planche Pushusp - 8x+, 8x+, 9x+ reps

- Wowzers, after a long time with virtually no progress, I'm starting to make some headway on these things. Eventually I'm going to need to rework my form and slow the reps down, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Concentration Curls (35 lb) - 11y++/11y++, 7y++/7e++ reps

- Too short of a break between the first and 2nd set.

[Baralien]

When you first started out on high pulls did you use a kip or just try to pull as high as possible and just improve over time? I only just get over the bar without kip. But with a knee lift and small swing I can get much higher. Which method is best to work on do you think? I've been mixing it between the two but haven't really seen much progress.

 

Great to see you're progressing across the board again buddy, awesome as ever!!

[Waldo]

Do what you can to put in time above the bar.

 

You height will grow and the assist needed to get your chest up there will decline.

 

The ultimate goal is to strengthen it so much that there is no need to even pull explosively; to be able to do a high pullup rep slowly.  Chances are you can get your chin to the bar already doing that, so the top of the pullup is where your weakness lies.  

 

Put in the time above the bar and don't worry so much about what it takes to get there, strengthening the top reduces the assistance needed from the bottom part of the pullup.

 

My pull height improved very, very slowly.  It took several months (6+) of dedicated work to go from chin over bar to pulling high enough to do a muscle up.

[Hermione Gainser]

How have I not been here yet?  This answers the, "Does Waldo have a thread this challenge?" question. 

[Waldo]

1.22.2014
Twas a cold one today so I decided to use the ol 'mill, skipping my weekly muscle-up and flag work in favor of some handstand, press, and planche work.

45 minutes-ish handstand/press/planche practice
A very freeform workout. The things I was doing:
- Momentary tuck planche holds. Get into it for a second then out. Working the motor pattern.
- Tuck handstand press, positive and negatives
- Tuck planche pushups on the floor (limited ROM, but harder than on the PB's)
- Freestanding handstand practice
- Momentary straddle handstand press holds (lift feet for a second and go back down)
All pressing work. Did a couple of hands free wide pullups as well (no grip on the bar, bar resting on the wrist, hands in fists).
- One of my focuses this bulk is going to be on upper body pushing/pressing in general, the chest specifically. I feel it is one of my main lagging parts.
- Holy hell did this workout every fry my forearms.

Run 2.66 miles in 25:57 @ 1% incline
- Walking for a little bit while I was getting the movie (Star Wars) going on my tablet really killed my time. Whole run was at 6.2-6.4 mph.

[Waldo]

I'm not sure why I feel the need to day this now, but....

 

[rant]

 

Having been around this fitness and weight loss game for a while, with a ton of exposure to total noobs (and having been one myself), I can say with a fair amount of confidence that we all start out with more or less the same goals.

 

Noobs care about physique, noobs care about health.  This noobs ideal could almost be a masterpiece from a great artist, because it is so similar person to person.  There has to be this inherent ideal burned into the human psyche that is so strong that even without a true single concrete representation, everyone would recognize it if they "saw" it (saw in quotes because I mean more than just physique).  But this ideal is very difficult to describe, words never truly do it justice.  Even to ourselves, attempts to rationalize and describe what me mean to ourselves are often poor and haphazard.  Descriptions of what what noobs want could almost all be grouped together into one big conglomerate.

 

But then there is a loss of innocence.  At the start of the journey, just about everyone is open to just about anything.  Various plans/paths are weighed and tested, though usually a very small and limited subset.  Many retain a healthy skepticism, though not equally applied.  Walking the walk has the side effect of eroding the ideal.  The ideal can become so eroded by the journey that it turns to dust.

 

Very few people accomplish what they set out to do.  Even among those that believe they accomplished their goals, rare is the person that actually achieves what they set out to do.  That said, goals change for a reason.  Perhaps it is an inherent weakness in people (this is especially strong in modern politics), but people have a way of joining a movement, which becomes a belief system that ultimately cedes personal decision and beliefs to the collective decisions and beliefs of the movement.  Unfortunately few among the movements ideology actually walk the walk.  Sometimes, noone does (the all too common blind leading the blind situations).

 

The ultimate goal of course is happiness, the physique and health goals so many noobs have are little more than proxies for this, perhaps the changing path that many find themselves on does lead directly toward this ultimate goal.

 

That said, there is a lot of benefit to occasionally revisiting those initial goals and letting them ultimately be your guide, since you know that your initial goals, your ultimate designation, is the one that was created solely by you, without the interference of the locals on whatever road you choose to take.  Deep down often your first impressions are right, they do not lead you to a destination you don't want to go to.  Too often we let others convince us that that is in fact not where we wish to go.

 

[/rant]

[nordentipwel]

I just saw the picture of you when you started and what you look now. This is incredibly amazing.

Great and awesome work.

You're now officially a motivation and an inspiration !

[Waldo]

I just saw the picture of you when you started and what you look now. This is incredibly amazing.

Great and awesome work.

You're now officially a motivation and an inspiration !

Thanks.

One of these days I've got to get around to updating my sig pics, adding bulk/cut #3.

[Waldo]

^^^ Well I decided to stop being lazy and make that day today ^^^
 
Also worked on this pic I had in my phone from a couple days ago.  An angle I never really take.



Shows my serratus pretty good. Biceps are starting to not look pathetic.  Plainly obvious that I need to focus on the chest more.  Lats are looking good.
 
1.23.2014
Leg Day B - Volume
 
Lunge Matrix x5
Kick Circuti x5
BW RDL - 10 reps
BW Squat - 10 reps
Standing Leg Raise-Hold - 15/15 sec
 
Pistol Squat (BW) - 5e++/5e++ reps
Pistol Squat (+30) - 3e++/3e++ reps
Pistol Squat (+30) - 9y++/9x++ m{3,3,3,3,3}(10 br)
- Added a rep to the activation set and another rest-pause set this week.
 
Shrimp Squat - 10y+/0 reps
 
Assisted Natural Ham Curl - 5e reps
Natural Ham Curl - 5x++, 7y++ reps
- Progress?!?  I've been in a dance between form and difficulty for almost a year now, not really adding reps.
- Today was the first time I really went for it form wise and still had more than 5 reps in me.

[rocky555]

You probably wrote about it before... but I must ask - how are family, friends and coworkers handling your transformation? Are there annoying and jealous comments or they are all supportive? Did you motivate some of them to start on the fitness path?

[Waldo]

You probably wrote about it before... but I must ask - how are family, friends and coworkers handling your transformation? Are there annoying and jealous comments or they are all supportive? Did you motivate some of them to start on the fitness path?

 

Its all a matter of perspective I guess.

 

Immediate family: Wife eventually joined in.  She's going strong, closing in on a year and a half now.  She's past her first 2 goal weights, starting to get into the fine tuning area.  In many ways her transformation is even better than mine.  Noone really cares about what I did/do, they focus more on her.  She does things her way though; we have a shared diet and both use MFP; she does the lean cusine type stuff (and other traditional diet foods like oatmeal) when she makes stuff for herself, and is a video master (currently doing P90X3 doubles).  Kiddo is an active kiddo in part due to active parents; he's in gymnastics as well.

 

Wider family: This is one place where perspective really varies between people.  Wife's dad was a gymnast/gymnastics instructor when younger and still is active and lean.  Her mom lost a lot of weight decades ago and has kept it off; she also stays very active.  Her sisters are all fairly thin and in reasonably decent shape (I think all of them can do a pullup), and their husbands keep in shape (one was an ex minor league pro baseball player).  In my family noone but my sister is overweight, she's yoyoed and been a lot smaller; I don't see her much and we don't talk much.  My mom stays good and active.  My brother lost a bunch of weight in HS, then swtiched gears to bulking and sports, was a star FB player and went on to play in the big 10 (LB/FB), nowdays he's a runner mostly (though still a bit bigger than me), his wife is a yoga instructor.  What I/we have done is less impressive to the wider family, and while maybe a little inspiring, helping to keep themselves in shape a little harder, that baseline is already there, our transformations more or less made us normal.  

 

Friends: We don't have many at the moment, at least that are close at all.  Live in a different part of the country from all from college and before, and we're sort of in-between the singles/newlyweds group and the parents group.  I don't think neighbors and whatnot have been inspired enough to do anything.

 

Coworkers: There are a couple of age clusterings at work, not a gradient.  Among each age cluster there are those that stay active and those that don't  Among my age peers, most of my coworkers keep in shape and I'm merely one of the guys and really nothing special.  Most of the people that don't stay in shape are older.  For a short period of time a lot of the women were interested in what I did, but that didn't last long.  Its worth noting that being an engineer, work is a sausage party.  I don't exactly walk around with my shirt off at work, so the difference between when I reached skinny in clothes status (almost 2 years ago now) when losing weight and now isn't all that great, the inspirational effect of a transformation is long gone.

 

LIS, perspective matters a lot, what I am doing now, while I do go the extra mile, is fairly normal, what I was doing before I started was not.  From that perspective it is a lot less impressive; I finally got off my lazy ass and am doing what everyone else already has been doing.  For a transformation to be impressive, you have to start in a profoundly negative state, that isn't necessarily something to celebrate unless most of your world is filled with others who reside in that profoundly negative state as well.

[Flex Luthor]

LIS, perspective matters a lot, what I am doing now, while I do go the extra mile, is fairly normal, what I was doing before I started was not.  From that perspective it is a lot less impressive; I finally got off my lazy ass and am doing what everyone else already has been doing.  For a transformation to be impressive, you have to start in a profoundly negative state, that isn't necessarily something to celebrate unless most of your world is filled with others who reside in that profoundly negative state as well.

 

I disagree. Transformations are impressive when you do things other people think are impossible. You are well above and beyond the fitness level of nearly anyone your age and that is a fact.

[Waldo]

I disagree. Transformations are impressive when you do things other people think are impossible. You are well above and beyond the fitness level of nearly anyone your age and that is a fact.

 

I don't think so.  When I take kiddo to the park, a significant % of the other dads clearly work out (a state I've only recently reached).  A few of my coworkers can hang with me on many things (and the runners blow my doors off running).

 

A pretty good chunk of people keep themselves in shape; while I've gone from 0 to 60 pretty fast, I don't have a decade long head start doing 45.

[Flex Luthor]

I don't know where you live Waldo but those people don't exist around me. At my gym there's maybe 5 guys your age at any given time that even look like they workout and I'd be surprised if any of them have abs. You must be in some sort of fantasy fitness land.

[nordentipwel]

I don't know where you live Waldo but those people don't exist around me. At my gym there's maybe 5 guys your age at any given time that even look like they workout and I'd be surprised if any of them have abs. You must be in some sort of fantasy fitness land.

I would say the same. I can probably count on my right hand how many people I see with your shape a week.

[Flex Luthor]

I would say the same. I can probably count on my right hand how many people I see with your shape a week.

 

Including guys 10 years younger.

[rocky555]

Waldo, thanks for the elaborate reply.It is very good that you live in such surroundings with a lot of people who understand what you are doing and are not making a big deal out of it.

I would say the same. I can probably count on my right hand how many people I see with your shape a week.

Same is with me. Among all of my friends, family and coworkers there is less than handful of people who are active.Actually there is only one who is seriously into fitness. One of my friends is into hill and cross running, also biking long distances and mountain biking.When he had a night 50km cross running race in the middle of winter, everyone was in awe and respectful to that acomplishment, but he is still considered to be somewhat a weirdo. Which is kind of sad when you think about it.(damn you tapatalk for removing my spaces and rows)

[Waldo]

1.24.2014
Upper Body Static

Standard Warmup/Mobility/Prehab
- Hit 25 sec today on the one arm dead hang. Adding the gloves has been a game changer on that.

One Arm Wall Handstand (15 sec) - 4/4, 5/5 reps
- No progress, but I'm cool staying here for a while. This exercise really kicks my butt.

Slow strength circuits (circuit number in parenthesis):

(1) Planche Lean - 15 sec
(2,3,4,5) Tuck Planche (PB's) - 25, 25, 8+7, 10 sec
- Started out great, then I just totally petered out. Not dissimilar to hitting the wall, but it didn't feel like that at all. I had the energy, muscles were just done.
- Wed's workout was clearly the culprit. My shoulders have DOMs, they never have doms. That was really the muscles that petered out.

(1) Tuck Front Lever - 15 sec
(2) Advanced Tuck Front Lever - 15 sec
(3, 4) One Leg Front Lever - 6/5, 4/4 sec
(5) One Leg Front Lever (1 sec) - 3/2 + 1/1 reps
- Numbers would indicate going backwards, but my form took a step forwards.
- Last set instead of pulling up, lowering, holding, then pulling back up and switching sides, I pulled into an advanced tuck, then shot out a leg, held if for a second, then switched sides doing the same.

(1) Advanced Tuck Back Lever - 15 sec
(2) Half Layout Back Lever - 15 sec
(3,4,5) Back Lever - 8, 10, 6 sec
- Faded toward the end with these as well.

(1) Floor L-Sit - 15 sec
(2,3,4,5) Middle Split Hold - 12, 12, 10, 10 sec

Tuck Planche Pushup - 5, 6 m{3}(5 br) reps
- A test to see if I could do these rest-pause style.  Test worked well.

[Waldo]

Fascinating weekend.

- I'm holy hell sore. There's just something about a calorie surplus, I just don't know what, but the first week of it I always get extremely sore and really beat down, almost the opposite of what you'd expect from having supercharged recovery. Shoulders, arms, chest, back, legs. Even if I don't really increase the training load all that much, it just hits like a whallop. But if the past continues to hold true, I should be fine by next weekend.

- The waves have begun. Whereas my weight is very stable and fairly predictable when maintaining or cutting, when bulking I get huge weight spikes that ebb and flow. Most of the week I maintained pretty much exactly where I was, I was actually getting a bit worried, but a big time spike has set in this weekend. So much so that I'm second guessing my calorie levels. Ahhh bulking, never ceases to be a mindf***.

- Strong movement on the tape measure today. Mostly getting back to where I was at the end of my last bulk, though my biceps and calves are still 1/8" low.

- The foot injury I got a week and a half ago came back with a vengeance. Its so odd, it doesn't hurt at all unless touched (strongly). There is no bruise or visible sign of any kind. I doubt it is muscle or tendon related as I have not discovered any sort of movement that causes so much as an ache. Whereas press the spot and damn it hurts. My theory is that its broken/cracked, but on the side and things are for the most part structurally sound. Given the way I hurt it and what causes pain, very little bothers it, force is rarely ever applied to the foot in that location at that angle. Running on Saturday probably jarred it a bit much, making it extra sensitive.

 

- Raised my calories another 200, starting tomorrow.  Full speed bulking now, at 3100 net cal/day.

1.25.2014

Run 5 miles in 47:30.05

- Odd. I was almost as sore as I've ever been on a Saturday night. My hams especially were really sore. Yet this was the 4th best time I've ever posted on this run, oddly enough I wasn't trying uber hard either (though I knew my splits and knew I was flying).

- Slowed a bit toward the end, first 2 miles were as fast as I've run them.

1.26.2014

60 minutes yoga

Planche Lean - 15 sec

Tuck Planche Rotations - 7, 7 reps

Tuck Planche Pushups - 6, 7, 7 reps

Tuck Front Lever - 15 sec

Advanced Tuck Front Lever - 7, 7, 7 reps

- Was beyond sore during yoga.

[Hermione Gainser]

Wow! Great work, Waldo!  Very cool. 

[Flex Luthor]

Fascinating weekend.

- I'm holy hell sore. There's just something about a calorie surplus, I just don't know what, but the first week of it I always get extremely sore and really beat down, almost the opposite of what you'd expect from having supercharged recovery. Shoulders, arms, chest, back, legs. Even if I don't really increase the training load all that much, it just hits like a whallop. But if the past continues to hold true, I should be fine by next weekend.

 

I'm going to hazard a guess and say the extra calories allow you to exert your muscles to a greater degree, causing more soreness. Just a guess though. You're crushing it as always.

[Waldo]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say the extra calories allow you to exert your muscles to a greater degree, causing more soreness. Just a guess though. You're crushing it as always.

That has been my guess as well, but it doesn't seem like the little differences would add up to so much soreness. But, its definitely a real effect, given now that it has happened each of my 4 bulks. So odd though.

[Waldo]

1.27.2014
Handstand practice - 15 min
- Also included about 5 tuck press positive and negative reps.
- Also did a couple of second long tuck planche holds.

Leg Day A - Intensity

Lunge Matrix x5
Kick Circuit x5
BW RDL - 10 reps
BW Squat - 10 reps
Standing Leg Raise-Hold - 15/15 sec

Pistol Squat (BW) - 5e++/5e++ reps
Pistol Squat (+30) - 3e++/3e++ reps
Pistol Squat (+50) - 3e++/3e++ reps
Pistol Squat (+70) - 2y++/2x++, 1y++/1x++, 1y++/1y++ reps
- I was going to wait until I got 3 good sets of 5 at +50 to bump up the weight, but I decided to ditch the wait and go for it.
- This is actually the 3rd time I've worked up to +70. The first time I held the weights like I was curling them. That form is very easy. Then I switched to one end of the DB on my shoulders, went back down to +30, and worked up from there. However the 2nd time I allowed my nonworking leg to shift from front to back coming out of the hole, which also makes them easier, very similar to a step up in difficulty. Then I switched to doing them with my nonworking leg held parallel out in front of me, one end of the DB resting on my shoulders, went back down to +30 and worked up from there, which is where I am now.
- I've been at +50 for quite some time, almost a year. Was about time to move on up.
- Tried to do a 5 breath cluster rep after the final set on my left, failed.
- Been a long time since I've done heavy singles/doubles on the pistol squat. Felt good.

Deep Step Up (+70) - 8y++/8x++ reps
- Again just one set.  Added a rep though.

[Waldo]

Today was nuckin futs. It started snowing at about noon, creating Snowjam2014, which has to be without a doubt one of the worst city-wide traffic jams in modern history. A state of emergency has been declared, shelters have been set up for stranded drivers, the national guard is helping, some stores are opening up to give people a place to stay. People just ditched their cars on the highways and walked home/to a hotel/to the bar. I left work just as it started snowing, what is usually a 30-40 minute commute in afternoon rush hour took me just over 3 hours. Saw dozens of accidents. Only way I made it is because I navigated through residential streets, neighborhood by neighborhood with the GPS, across the whole city. Major surface streets were no better than the interstate. People that left later in the day had to be absolutely doomed.

We got about 2" of snow....

One the bright side, I don't have to go to work tomorrow, and kiddo is having a blast.

1.28.2014
Upper Body Dynamic - Volume

Standard warmup/prehab/mobility

Handstand Pushup - 2y++, 2y++, 3z++ reps
Headstand Pushup - 9y++ reps
- Peeved that I made no progress this week. I was expecting strong progress.

Assisted One Arm Chinup - 4x/4x, 4x/4x reps
Wide Grip High Pullups - 10x+, 10x+, 10x+ reps
Widge Grip Pullup Pyramid - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 - 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 reps (5 breath pauses)
- Added a rep to the AOAC's. Tried an unassisted rep with my stronger arm, I was able move a little bit at the bottom of the rep, a step up from being able to hold the elbow at 90 degrees for a couple seconds.
- I have no idea how I finished that pyramid. Did not expect to at all. Adding another step next week.

Pseudo Planche Pushups - 8e++ reps
Tuck Planche Pushups - 8y+ m{3,3,3,3,3,3}(5br), 6y+, 6y+ reps
- Added a bunch of myo rep rest-pause sets after my first set. I wanted to crank up the volume to really hit my chest good. If I don't get notable DOMS in the chest from this, I'm going to start doing ring dips again.

Concentration Curls - 10y++/10x++ reps
 

[Waldo]

Today was nuckin futs. It started snowing at about noon, creating Snowjam2014, which has to be without a doubt one of the worst city-wide traffic jams in modern history. A state of emergency has been declared, shelters have been set up for stranded drivers, the national guard is helping, some stores are opening up to give people a place to stay. People just ditched their cars on the highways and walked home/to a hotel/to the bar. I left work just as it started snowing, what is usually a 30-40 minute commute in afternoon rush hour took me just over 3 hours. Saw dozens of accidents. Only way I made it is because I navigated through residential streets, neighborhood by neighborhood with the GPS, across the whole city. Major surface streets were no better than the interstate. People that left later in the day had to be absolutely doomed.

We got about 2" of snow....

One the bright side, I don't have to go to work tomorrow, and kiddo is having a blast.

Here's a good blog post about this madness:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/jessica-blankenship/2014/01/9-unbelievable-photos-of-what-2-inches-of-snow-is-doing-to-atlanta-right-now/