9/16/2023
Starting a new log as I’m starting a new life.
I’m 35, 180lbs, mediocre shape in terms of physique, strength, and conditioning. Have been training and logging consistently here for over 3 years.
In the past month, I’ve moved my family (wife and 4 kids) from our wonderful home in Texas, with my wonderful job, to Oahu, Hawaii, where I’ve secured a new job. On this adventure, we’re going to change all kinds of things about our lives, most of which are beyond the scope of this log but will probably make its way into here anyway.
For now, though, here’s the gist of the diet and training shakeups.
Diet first: I’ve had a consistent healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner most days for years. However, I’ve developed a severe habit of nighttime snacking which has gotten completely out of hand. It stops now. That one change (which may sound insignificant, but for me is huge) is going to be the main driver of transforming my body in the next several months. I’ve known it was a problem for months, but haven’t had the strength of will - and have used the excuse of all the stress from this radical life change, which has been brewing for months, to condone it. It stops now.
Training:
My training has been “fine” for a while. Various goals have driven it, including 1/2/3/4 plates on the “big 4”, training for a Spartan obstacle course race, and a desire to learn the O-lifts.
Now, I live near a beach, which provides certain training opportunities and certain incentives; and for the next few weeks don’t have access to any of my home equipment, which presents certain limitations and which can be freeing; and have joined a gym called Powerhouse Gym Aiea, which is great for powerlifting and BB but not for the O-lifts due to floor conditions.
Monday I’ll start Wendler’s 5/3/1 Beach Muscle Challenge, 5/3/1 for Beach Muscles For no particular reason other than I’m a big believer in jumping onto a decent-looking program so I have something to hold myself accountable to. Further, this program fits pretty well with what I have available while presenting a couple equipment challenges which will, again, likely be freeing. (Fat grip curls, neck training, and rope pullups are in the program - and I intend to improvise at the gym and look like an idiot doing so. Embracing that will be freeing.)
Linked the article but in short:
Every day you squat, press, and do either (deadlift or hang clean) and (curls, rows, or pullups). So it’s full body and hits all the main movers. I think the mandatory neck work will do me (a pencil-necked engineer) a LOT of good.
Then the day-to-day and week-to-week variation will give me something to track and keep it interesting, little goals to hit every session, etc.
In the short term, one challenge is that my right shoulder is currently “injured”. It HURTS to strict press. Not sure what’s going on there, but I’ll plan to a) incorporate a lot of lightweight shoulder movement and b) set a low TM on Press (JK… It was going to be low anyway!)
I’m excited for this.
Big shouts to @T3hPwnisher for inspiring the title with an epic blog post and providing us all with such amazing training insights for free for years, @simo74 for leading by example, and just being an absolute unit while also being primarily a dad and provider, @Andrewgen_Receptors @atlas13 @alex_uk @wiseman83 @Bagsy and so many others on here - please no offense for me not tagging you - this forum is full of amazing people!
Update a little late - November 21 - to humorously adjust the log title to “powersnatching in paradise”.
I moved gyms, to the local marine corps base gym, because they have an O-lifting area; got a coach for a few sessions; and have been focused exclusively on training the O-lifts for the past couple months.
Obviously powersnatching is not the goal, just a jab at my default non-squatty catch.
