After The Flood: JDM135 Powersnatching In Paradise

Training Training Logs
441

5/31/2024 Friday
“legs”.
I really really need to orient my training around GOALS. I also need to go on Do Not Disturb at the gym, because I was corresponding with multiple people throughout the session (it’s working hours in Houston, and pre-dawn where I live, so you can see the challenge).

Leg Press: 6 good sets - 20, 10, 5, 5, 10, 20 going up and down in weight, and a different foot position between the first 3 and last 3 sets.

TBDL - this simply didn’t work. My spine was pissed. I can deadlift, but starting at the height of those handles really messed me up. Somehow even when I grabbed the low handles I was still way off, weird.

Leg Curls
Leg Extensions
Glute bridges (bodyweight, single leg and double leg)

Couple sets each for shoulders, bis and tris.

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442

Most of my team (both old and new) are also Central time. I pretty much stay in some variant of Do Not Disturb until around 8:30 Pacific. Almost always, things can wait.

Your hiking and traveling looked pretty great. It amazes me how much of that forest looks the same from Oregon all the way up.

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443

It’s beautiful up there. I wouldn’t want the cold, or the extended winter darkness.
But yeah it’s a great area to visit in the summer!

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444

Goals Therapy.
If you read my log feel free to ignore this one or chime in with suggestions, this is me thinking through the keyboard.

It’s become apparent to me that training for the last several weeks has become an afterthought. I still go, and I still put out effort, but a) it’s not the focused effort that brings about significant change, b) it’s not the kind of effort I leave feeling proud of (except 16 Tons a couple weeks ago), c) Each session is not a step on a path towards an ideal destination.
In this situation, I’m still proud of myself for going, for not just giving up, letting the rest of my life take over my training and saying “screw it, I have too much going on to be fit”. But I can do better, and I would like to orient my training toward something more meaningful.

I was on a 5/3/1 program for 6 weeks not long ago, frankly I was miserable on it and couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Earlier in the year I was on another 5/3/1 variety, IIRC I had an injury or two which prevented much progress and I dropped the program after probably 6 weeks ago.
At some point this year I tried a hypertrophy program, really truly enjoyed it - I remember posting in my log “what a great session, feels amazing” multiple times! Maybe that’s a clue there…

But in exactly 11 weeks I’m running a Spartan race with my wife.
I’m going to use that as a goal to orient training around for the next 11 weeks.
After that I need to do another goals-therapy session and pick a new approach, but for now:

Thriving in a Spartan race means:

-Running ability.
-Stamina
-Grip
-Carry
-Pull
-Odd, inconvenient position strength
-Crawls

Last year I ran a Spartan race with some friends, it went well and I had a great time - and was definitely in shape to do it. At the time I was doing a lot of sandbag work, olympic lifting, and had structured a LOT of my training like this:
-1.1 mile run
-20-30 minutes lifting at home gym
-1.1 mile run.

Lifting included long sandbag carries, bear crawls, and other odd things not usually part of anyone’s training.

Another thing I did a few times while getting ready for the race, was a several-mile trail run with a set of pushups or burpees every quarter or half mile. That is really analogous to the spartan race, in terms of conditioning to switch between muscle and running.

Of course now I’m in a new location, with no garage gym and no accessible running trail, but I can run down the street. (It’s not the same - running on concrete tears up your feet.)

So there’s every Friday’s session planned:
1 mile downhill run
20 minutes ish training at the park (to include monkey bars and pullups)
1 mile uphill run

And I have filled the 100lb sandbag, so I can do some sessions with that - picks, carries, squats even.
I could try to bring back weight vest walks.

In the gym I can do:
-10 minutes stairmaster every session
-DB loaded carries
-Burpees
-Pullups
-DB C&P
-Toes to bar, leg and knee raises - the more time hanging from a bar the better, and need some ab strength

OK, just remembered a session I used to do. I’ll have to find it in my log.
-Goblet Squat
-C&P Left
-C&P Right
EMOM or something like that. IDK the reps or weights I used. I’ll try to find that and remind myself.

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445

Some gems from my previous log: Here’s race day:
5/20 Saturday, Race Day:

Before the race:

and many more with that structure. The middle part varies from 10 light snatches, 10 clean and jerks, 10 monkey bars, some sandbag work, etc.

Here’s a good one:

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446

Reviewing that old log, I’m impressed, but it’s also clear that the fat I lost in the first half of 2023 was primarily due to prioritizing a run every session. I could have tried that this year huh?
And I get in my feelings pretty quick when I read anything from that period. None of you would know everything about my move but it’s a sensitive subject, I can’t explain this, but reading that part of my log feels like walking through the ashes of a home you used to live in that burned down. Nothing is left, yet everything you see is a reminder of what it used to be like.
Jesus.

447

Please don’t take this as a criticism, I know how busy life can be especially when moving to a new place. Heck when i moved to Australia I pretty much stopped training for the best part of 5 years, so you are doing a lot better than me.

The comment you made above about training becoming an afterthought and the changes in your training this year. It really feels like you could do with a coach to lay out a program and hold you accountable to something. I’m not talking about a PT who is there to tell you how good you are doing. Something like @wiseman83 has done for me, which is essentially building a program aligned to either longer term of mid/short term goals.

Having a program and having to essentially report back daily / weekly on that training has been so helpful in terms of keeping me accountable to myself and disciplined. Whether you call it training with purpose or intent, for me it changes the way I approach training and how I feel about the time I spend in the gym.

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448

Your goals seem to align with that of strongmen… just putting max effort into random shit so you can carry a fridge up a set of stairs by yourself one day.

Ever consider doing competitions to help you align with progress/goals?

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449

@simo74 Not taken as criticism at all. In fact I was thinking of tagging you to ask for advice. @Andrewgen_Receptors thank you as well.
The root issue is this:

that I don’t have defined goals right now.
I’m using the upcoming Spartan race (not strictly a competition, but close enough) to give me performance-related “goals” - I want the race to be easy. But beyond that I don’t have goals that I could ask a coach to guide me toward, or find comps that align with.
Further, in this very difficult period of my life I have no expectation that I could dedicate enough time and energy to training to take a competition seriously.

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450

I think you may be thinking too long term or even too specifically here. You don’t need to have a specific lifting goal or a competition to have goals.

Lets assume for a minute that you want to be stronger, more muscular and in better condition than you are today. Does that sound good. Well a good coach will help you build a plan that works towards this but takes into account your current life situation and how much time to give to your training. They will break the training down into more specific blocks focusing on one or more of these aspects and give you something to achieve each block. This may help you to train with more intent and track some improvements over the journey. There are probably enough good brains on here for you to do this yourself with some help. But having someone write t for you may just take away some of the time needed to think about it and plan it out.

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451

Weekend training update:
6/1 Saturday, not much in the training dept. Had maybe the hardest upwind paddle of my life on a doomed attempt at family paddleboarding, and due to a jellyfish incident didn’t have the chance to enjoy the downwind paddle back. Had to run barefoot back to the car instead haha.
But the paddle was, no kidding, like spending 30 minutes one-arm rowing a dumbbell on the right side, while one-arm bench pressing another dumbbell on the left side. Nobody would do 1000 reps at 30lbs, yet when you’re paddling and it’s the only way to go where you need to go, and it takes how long it takes, you just DO IT. There’s an insight in there but I can’t quite see it.

6/2 Sunday was a hell of a day, in a good way. Painted a deck, which involved moving the furniture back and forth several times, and bending over at the waist a lot as the paint roller extension pole broke at the beginning. Bicycling hills, training the kids to ride and trying to build their endurance. They are learning quickly. And running/carrying/climbing at a playground, including hill sprints and pullups.
And a beach trip for surfing, which was a hell of a lot of fun and also very physical, swimming out against some serious surf.

And work, too, of course - got plenty of that done over the weekend too.

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452

6/3/2024 Monday

10 minutes stairmaster

20 rounds EMOM: 50lb Dumbbell
-Odd rounds are 10 goblet squats
-Even rounds are 10 floor-to-ceiling, 5 per arm.
-Floor-to-ceiling alternated between power snatches and clean-and-presses.
-This was absolutely brutal and exactly what I need to build work capacity.

1 mile run on treadmill.

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453

Thanks @simo74 I can see the benefit of that! Would you recommend anyone?

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It’s definitely character building when failure is not an option.

But it’s also exhausting and will take its toll. Like it’s important to know you can do it (and maybe to occasionally challenge yourself and build that skill), but at the same time, it’s also important to make sure most of your life isn’t like that.

Between all the things you’re doing, you seem to have some pretty amazing work capacity these days. Life-wise.

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455

Thanks @LoRez
You have brilliantly analogized my upwind paddle to my actual life. It’s a valid comparison.

And as in upwind paddling, you just DO IT…
I’ve always been like this though. I earned two degrees at night while climbing a career ladder, making, adopting, and raising children, building furniture and working on my home. If anything my capacity has diminished last couple years.

456

I thought you might ask that and unfortunately when it comes to lists of good coaches I don’t have that knowledge. I have worked with @wiseman83 for a while and it has been great but my goals may be different to yours. I am sure if you put a question on here and tagged enough of the usual minds there would be some options.

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457

6/5/2024 Wednesday

10 minutes stairmaster.

20 minutes EMOM:
-3 double-pump burpees
-3 pullups

Couple sets of chest-supported rows

Was going to do a heavy DB farmer’s walk but - not joking - too many pretty women were lined up in front of the heavy dumbbells (because nobody uses them) so I couldn’t get over there without feeling weird.

1 mile run on treadmill, under 10 minutes.

Very happy with that session:
-The stairmaster was a warmup and the time flew by
-I felt so spry jumping from all those burpees - 60 burpees and 120 pumps - and not like an old man at all. It was great
-60 pullups no big deal, I do them like walking lol
-The run was easier than last time.

Satisfied.

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458

WTF. Just puff the chest out, say excuse me and then mad handle the biggest dumbbell you can.

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459

Rofl yeah and maybe drop it on my toes while I’m at it!
I’ll elaborate on the situation when i get a chance.

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460

yer just so you can have three women see if you are OK.

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