I have no idea of those recommendations make sense, so anyone with more experience than me chip in and make other recommendations.
Most immediate question I have when it comes to hardgainers is if you have the means to train the sled portion for the assistance work.
I’m incredibly touched that you read something I wrote to your kid. That means a lot that you held it in such high regard.
LWIWWIW
Low handle TBDL:
68, 108, 148kg x 5
148kg x 3 x 3
Chin ups, dips, hanging leg raises - giant set
10kg x 5 x 5
10kg x 5 x 5
BW x 5 x 5
Seated OHP, GHR, Alt DB curls
40kg x 8, 60kg x 8 x 3 sets
BW x 6 x 4 sets
10kg x 15 x 4 sets
Aimed this session for top end of easy, no straining, that’s what it was and what I’ll do for a little while, until I’ve got my plans sorted.
Speaking of which:
This is why I posted here, I’ve really only original 531 and BtM, I’ll be honest I don’t even understand anchors and leaders, I guess I ought to jump back and read the other books to fully cement the system in my head. Also I’m not a deep thinker on training, so this board is really useful to point out where I (or AI) am being illogical/stupid.
Definitely thanks!
And I’m here for it!
Friggin taxes, not like I don’t already pay stupid amounts of it already! (Wouldn’t mind if we had the tax levels of higher paying European countries but the level of services and overall satisfaction that they have - thinking Scandinavian).
Boring but strong? I’ll check it out.
I’ll probably need something program wise for marathon training, my natural inclination when running is just to increase pace and kill myself to get it over with as quickly as possible, not a great strategy for something 4+ hours long.
Not realistically, I have a sled, but I keep it at the station just from a space to use it perspective, which means I’ll probably use it one a week max.
Same. My husband keeps telling me I need to do an anchor. Once I figure it out I might give it a shot. Let me know if you figure it out.
Forever lays out the concept of leaders and Anchors. Not super clearly tbh, but like with everything Jim does he tells you what to do, so if you just follow his rexommendations you’re pretty safe.
I personally like 2 leaders, 1 Anchor.
I’ll probably need something program wise for marathon training, my natural inclination when running is just to increase pace and kill myself to get it over with as quickly as possible, not a great strategy for something 4+ hours long.
I really like the idea of Brad Kearns and company where the goal is to keep the heart rate in the target zone for either a set distance or time. From there, we can focus on reducing the time to run the distance, or increase the distance we run in the time, but we let the heart rate be the governor. It will dictate walking during some (many in some cases) periods, and allow us to recover better between runs, which allows for more frequent touches. Kinda like Easy Strength for running.
Not realistically, I have a sled, but I keep it at the station just from a space to use it perspective, which means I’ll probably use it one a week max.
I wouldn’t do hardgainers under these circumstances. There is magic in using that sled for the assistance work, and absent that, there are better choices.
Regarding leaders and anchors: I think of leaders as accumulation and anchors as realization.
Funny how the world operates so differently from place to place. Us right leaning folks are the opposite. Personally, I try to just lean in the direction of my beliefs and values. And for awhile, that was the red party here in the US. It seemed to hang on to Christian principles a bit better - mostly the pro-life vs pro-choice debate. I can’t support pro-choice, so that eliminates a lot of people quickly. But I recognize there are bad people in the red party, as well. I feel like we’re kind of screwed from a political standpoint - the people in charge have no term limits and only care about themselves. Could we vote to change that? Absolutely, but that brings up my other problem with the blue/left party - handouts. They encourage a type of living that conflicts with my values, and to top it off, they take my tax dollars to support it.
I love this joke by Ronald Reagan:
I feel like we’re kind of screwed from a political standpoint - the people in charge have no term limits and only care about themselves.
One of the fundamental issues with a representational government is that people, in general, are pretty awful, and our representatives reflect that.
As you wrote: politicians only care about themselves, which isn’t unique: most people do. HOWEVER, in politicians caring only about themselves, what they care about is getting re-elected, and so they’re going to do whatever it is that makes their constituents re-elect them.
If being good, charitable, moderate, kind, etc, was the thing that got them re-elected, that is EXACTLY what they would be.
Our political system is a mirror, reflected our society right back onto us. We’re ugly.
But on that note, I’m not too shocked to hear that a public educator would espouse the values of social welfare programs, as that’s essential what a public education is. And, in turn, when I attended a private education, the message was far more right leaning.
In my short career here in education, I’ve realized that people don’t value free products. Education is free - almost 80% of our students get free or reduced lunch and all other fees. They’re forced to be here, but they don’t want to learn. Many come from single parent homes and their parents don’t want to deal with them, so they rely on the school to take care of them during the day. It’s not uncommon for a student to get in trouble for fighting, vaping tobacco or THC, cussing out a teacher or administrator, etc, and the parent comes to the school and defends their kid instead of siding with the school. They basically want us to raise their child for them, but they don’t support us when it comes to discipline.
I see people talking about free lunches for kids. Kids shouldn’t suffer because of their parents. Well, the sad reality is that kids who already receive a free lunch won’t eat it because it’s not good enough for their standards. They’ll go outside to the food trucks and spend $10 on chicken strips, fries and queso.
We have kids with GPS ankle monitors who haven’t passed a class in two years. But they have to be here, right? They’re a distraction at best. All the classes I’ve taken as part of my transition to teaching talk about how the learning environment is so important. One student should not interfere with the learning of others. Well, we do it every day. One student wrecks the environment for the other 29 and no one will step in and call it how it is -some kids don’t belong in school.
My vision for the future of public education is bleak. Young teachers can’t handle some of the crazy students we have so they’ll quit in the first few years. Older teachers will retire with no one to replace them. The ones in the middle look for jobs in smaller districts where they’re more respected and supported even if it means a pay cut. Eventually the only teachers left will be the ones who aren’t very good and don’t care too much. Because if you care, it will wreck you eventually.
And that will mean the quality of the product will be diminished and anyone who can afford to send their kid to private schools will do just that. And we’ll be right back where we started with cries of injustice and unfairness because the poor people can’t afford the private schools so it’s a collective system of racism and oppression. The reality is that it’s a collective system of cause and effect. There are successful people who come from a bad background and there are failures who come from a great background.
This visual aid sums us up pretty well. I’m sure Trump wouldn’t turn down the offer to be a dictator, but I don’t think he’s the one we should be worried about.
As a police officer and an educator, you’ve been serving the public so much dude.
It’s a fault of mine - what’s my greater purpose? I learned a little too late that I could be a servant anywhere by how I carry out my duties and treat others.
Love the conversation, will reply at some point, time limited and really working hard to get screen usage down, so just getting this down for the moment.
04/02/26 - 201
Bench
60, 80kg x 5
90, 100, 110, 120kg x 3
100kg x 10
Superset with cable rows: 90kg x 8 X 7 sets
High Inc DB bench:
25kg x 12 x 3 sets
Superset
Lat pulldown:
80kg x 12 x 3 sets
Spider curls:
10kg x 15 x 4 sets
Superset
Dec crunches:
BW x 8 x 4 sets
It was work, not too hard, not too easy, probably Goldilocks.
06/02/26 - 203.5
Front squat:
20, 60, 80kg x 5
90, 100kg x 3
60kg x 10 x 3 sets
Cable lying hammy curls: 40kg x 15 x 4 sets
S/s
Dec crunches: 10 x 4 sets
Seated Inc DB curls: 10kg x 12 x 4 sets
S/s
Hanging leg raises: 10 x 4 sets
Reasonably short and “sweet”. Squats were ok, but still bring out the lazy coward in me, I decided on front squats because my back still is tight and I want to keep lower back stress low.
Those hammy curls are evil, the feeling that you get after them, nothing else like it, can’t pick up my legs afterwards.
Keeping up the theme if building consistency and keeping sessions manageable, that and keeping arms and abs in the mix, who knows if it will yield results, but the thought of an arm day is anathema to me, so gotta try something, right?
Phone time is right down (below an hour a day) and whilst it’s too early to say definitively the impact seems absurdly positive, just to keep at it and make my phone a tool that I use for it’s basic functions and none of the other crap that were sucked into.
I will join the discussion and catch up here, but will do it from a laptop generally (I exclusively post on my phone at present).
10/02/26 - 206
Looking soft, no surprise diet has been beyond bad, pulling it back.
531 forever arrived, read the first section now into the programs, will solidify a plan soon.
LWIWWIW
Low handle trap bar deadlift:
68kg x 5
108, 148, 168kg x 3
148kg x 3, 5, 5
Seated OHP:
40, 60, 70, 80kg x 3
60kg x 8 x 3 sets
Giant set
DB seated OHP: 25kg x 8 x 3
DB chest supported rows: 25kg x 12 X 3
Ab rollout: bw x 8 x 3
Superset
Hanging leg raises: 10 x 3 sets
Concentration curls: 10kg x 12 x 3 sets
Getting some work done again. Got a laptop that I can use for the forum, so will be back posting more than just my sessions - but the intention of the laptop is to set a speed bump, designed to slow me down and ensure some friction, so that it doesn’t revert to hours of time scrolling on the phone.
For me, there’s no social media on my laptop which means no reels, threads, or videos to catch my attention. I come here to catch up, post, and then I leave when that’s accomplished. Some days take more time than others, but it really just depends on the forum activity.
Compare that to a social media app and it’s a whole different story. I don’t go there with any intent and end up going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of nonsense.
Enjoy!
I finally set a timer for tnation. Lol. Hopefully this will keep my time here limited and keep me out of too many threads. It already gave me a 15 minute warning this morning so I guess it’s time to go. Have a great day Alex!
On a desktop finally - can’t say I like the look of it compared to a phone, but I guess that will probably help keep things to a less compulsive use!
11/02/26 - 202.75
LWIWWIW
Concept 2 row - 15 mins
Bench
60, 60, 80, 90kg x 5
100kg x 5 x 5
Giant set
Chin ups: 8 x 3 sets
Dips: 8 x 3 sets
Decline sit ups: 8 x 3 sets
Fairly short and sweat - reading 531 forever makes me face a reality which I know but fail to address regularly - the lack of balance in my training, there is virtually zero conditioning, no mobility work, no athletic stuff (throws/jumps), also the work I do isn’t balanced, everything is pushed all the time so no wonder I get injured, I am my own worse enemy.
Jim’s programming just makes so much sense and yet any time I do something on my own I lose any of that and just go full retard. Forever is so far (about a third of the way through) just a lifetime of well constructed balanced (I want to say programming but that’s an undersell) systematic knowledge and programming. Really glad I bought it, plan to use it extensively - maybe jump back to some Alsruhe stuff on occasion, but only when time, energy, recovery etc permit.
With that in mind I’d some rolling around on the floor whilst waiting for a coffee to brew, then before hitting the weights did some very easy work on the rower - I intentionally didn’t note the distance just the time, kept it nose breathing only and didn’t need to remove my hoodie (I sweat like a pig with relatively little exertion so this is another indicator I kept it easy).
I kept the lifting easy and fast and short as I’d trained yesterday and had some minor DOMs all over, I’d normally skip the session altogether but had space in the diary and wanted to capitalise.
Jumping into the political discussion for a second - I think one of the big issues I see at the moment is this rampant party political identity in individuals. Like @Frank_C you noted, you voted Republican because on issues you care about most they were aligned, but as you also noted that doesn’t mean the party and everything they do is right, that’s where it feels like most political discourse is heading at the moment - individuals excusing and defending things that they don’t even hold personally, because “their” party.
We need to be able to vote according to our conscience and then, as objectively as possible, hold those in power to account, for the good and the bad, their role is to serve us, the people, yet I doubt anyone here, and more broadly believes politicians have their interests at heart. However we have been manipulated into a place where everything wrong with the world is the other parties fault. Consensus has gone, collaboration has disappeared, polarised politics is a zero sum game, the other party has become the enemy and the people who really lose out are the public.
I would love to move to a place where our politicians can be honest about their mistakes - we all make them and taking risks is a necessary part of change and progress - why not acknowledge them and learn from them. I’d love politicians across the divide to be able to congratulate each other on their successes. I’d love open dialogue and cooperation, but somehow I can’t see that happening any time soon (I’m talking about politics in general but the UK and USA aren’t dissimilar here).
Anyway that’s a general rant about politics, now for another of the worlds great problems - manipulative technology - for me it’s been my phone and reducing my time on the thing significantly as in a very short space of time been lifechanging. The phones we have these days are designed for maximum engagement (because they’re selling our attention) I haven’t done social media for a long time now (this is about as far as my internet engagement goes) yet I can still waste hours staring at a screen, compulsively checking emails (personal not work) and forums and playing games - all fine things in and of themselves, but it’s that compulsion that’s the issue. Once you start taking stock of quite how often you pick up your phone it’s really alarming, well at least for me it was. Since I’ve cut my phone usage down it’s amazing how much time I actually have, even with a pretty busy life.
I can see the deleterious effect of social media in my immediate family and I know when I occasionally venture on youtube how quickly those shorts grab you and how much time and focus you lose. I’m really grateful for the realisation and being able to tackle the issue in myself. I’m geniunely blown away by the impact, I’m much more present (obviously) but my abiity to focus and do things has drastically improved, I’m a better husband, father, and employee, I’m just an all-round better human being.
I’m hoping to harness the focus into things like improving my compliance on the elements of 531 that I don’t want to do (mobility, conditioning, althletic stuff) but also building other positive habits, reading - I’ve read 5 books in the last 2 weeks (admittedly they’ve been very easy reads but still they’re books that have been on my burgeoning bookshelf and bedside table for years). I’ve set myself a target to have cleared the bookshelf by the end of the year. If I achieve half of that it will be a great result.
I am just generally happier and more fulfilled.
Well that’s turned into a long rambling diatribe, I’ll try and catch up here on logs and things (because that is something I value) but I won’t be quite as active as I have been.
Man, that statement hit home. I’ve set timers on myself for social media in the past. But I don’t really need to be on it at all. I just go numb and mindlessly scroll. Do I see some great stuff? Sure, but there are other ways to find it, too. And if I need it, I should be intentional about finding it instead of relying on my algorithm.
What a great post altogether, Alex!
