Atlas13 Burning the Boats

Training Training Logs
2195

Random completely lifting unrelated life updates because I’ve come to accept this log is basically my equivalent of a journal (which is much manlier than saying diary).

  • I am planning my wedding. Very excited for that (which I fully believe is the correct response lol.) I know I have alternately said wife and fiancee. To clear any confusion, in true military fashion, my fiancee/wife got married at a courthouse 3 days after I proposed, but are planning an actual wedding for next fall. I like to joke that my marriage is in limbo. The wife/fiancee (or fife, as I call her) is less amused by this pun.
  • Idk how to say this without being slightly conceited, but I have always been popular. I wouldn’t say I’m extremely extroverted, but I know how to play the part, and I quickly make a ton of friends in pretty much any social situation. (To include several decade long friends from airplanes lol.) That being said, planning the wedding guest list, I have like 3 friends I want there. That’s really it. I can think of tons of people who would come if invited, but when I really think “who do I want there?” It’s only a few people. My fife, on the other hand, is inviting approximately 27 million people. So I need to invite a few extras to even out the pews lol.
  • Why are weddings so expensive? Jesus Christ, let’s start a marriage by financially ruining the couple.
  • In direct contrast to the above post, my fife and I had a realization this weekend. We are low key set for retirement. I know that sounds like an odd realization, but hear me out. I check my investments like once a year, when I pay my taxes. And even then that’s only on the taxable accounts, the rest I honestly haven’t looked at in forever. My fife is kind of the same. I have had my investment accounts since I was 16, when I got my first real job. She’s had one since 18 in college. We both had lived well below our means. Well shit, we realized that together we are pretty high 6 figures in our retirement account, probably breaking 7 in the next year. For 27? I could never save another dime and still be pretty secure for retirement at 65. I knew I had saved a lot, and she’s matched me almost dollar for dollar, but honestly we were both a little shocked when we actually looked at our accounts. Very good problem to have, especially for 2 kids who put themselves through school and have earned themselves every dollar they’ve had. Really happy with our financial situation, and marginally embarrassed by how little I was tracking my own progress. I automated everything so I didn’t have to think about it, and I guess that worked lol. Im honestly still a little shocked, and it’s kind of thrown some life plans into question, because I’ve hit some goals I wasn’t planning to touch for years. But also relieved a lot a stress, because while we are still planning to invest as we have been, it’s not something I really need to worry about anymore.
  • my fife used to be on the army 10 miler team, and talked me into doing the race with her next year in DC. So I’m not going full marathon mode, but definitely working up the miles until I’m sure I can knock out 10 without trouble.
  • Fife visited last weekend, will be at least 5 months until I see her again, maybe longer since getting home from deployments always a gamble. I’ll be honest, I miss her like crazy. Really wasn’t expecting to go on this deployment, and I think mentally I’m still coming to terms with it. I’ve spent over half my 20s at sea at this point, not excited to continue that trend, but very much ready to see what’s on the other side.
  • Not saying I don’t care about nutrition right now, but it’s not my priority. As in, I will eat healthy most days. But if a friend invites me out to the bars, I am going. I can be strict on deployment, I’m going to enjoy my time while I can.
  • Have mainly planned out my home gym build. Remember when I said no expense spared? Let’s edit that to “higher than moderate budget” lol. It is way, way to easy to build a 20k home gym, and I have absolutely no business doing even half of that lol. When did gym equipment get so expensive? It’s literally heavy circles
  • moving out of my apartment in the coming weeks, throwing everything into a storage unit. Should save some cash for deployment, but will definitely keep me busy outside of work.
  • Once I get to my next job, I’ll have 2 years left in the Navy. After that? I’m so torn. No bad options, just so many good options that I’m not sure which I want to pick. Part of me wants to go to law school. Feel I’m most qualified for that route with my educational background, and objectively I think I’d be good at it. But I am a bit of a workaholic, and worry law will only further that. Part of me wants med school, I’d love to work with athletes or military, not in a sports performance perspective, but in a general health and wellbeing perspective. I have zero academic background for that, other than some impressive resumes that convey “hey, idk shit about this, but I’m good at learning things.” Part of me wants and MBA, just because I feel like that leads to the best work life balance and financial gain. Then part of me wants to stick with government work and look into some kind of federal law enforcement or intelligence work… so yeah. I have some figuring out to do.
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2196

So absolutely stoked for all of this. No sufficient emojis or words are available.

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2197

Atlas,

I gotchu buddy

Look into JD/MBA programs like the one Harvard has, which I believe is a total of 4 years and you have to be accepted into both the law school and business school.

Now you can do both lol.

2198

06sep24
trap bar deadlift: 155x5, 245x5, 335x5, 425x5, 475x5 (PR), 515x3

Leg press: 5.5ppsx12, 5.5ppsx12, 5.5ppsx12, 5.5ppsx12

GHR: 15, 15, 15

Cable crunch: 50x25, 65x25, 80x19

Conditioning: 30 minutes concept 2 bike LISS

A couple sprints on the concept 2 bike to see how it feels (still experiment for home gym equipment)

20 minutes of lite wrestling/bjj.

Notes:

  • this one was rough. Had the day off work, some coworkers and I shut down the bars last night. Had an absolute blast, but I was feeling it today. Not really hungover, just felt sleepy in the gym.
  • Happy with 475x5, beat last week, and still managed 515x3 afterwards.
  • Added a 25 per side on leg press, still feeling good.
  • Conditioning felt good, I like the concept 2 bike. Feels good for LISS. Felt awkward for sprints though, very uneven strength curve. Torn between an assault bike or the concept 2. Gonna play around with them some more.
  • I was leaving the gym when I ran into a few guys I know from the ship who were going to roll a bit on the BJJ mats. I haven’t been on a mat in years. Technically, I have my blue belt in BJJ, but honestly I’m not very good at BJJ, I’m just very good at wrestling and that gave me a huge advantage of the couple of competitions I signed up for in college. I knew like 4 submissions, and other than that it was just all ground control for me. Well the guys offered/shamed me into rolling with them a bit, and honestly it felt great. Some healthy competition, and I was surprised but happy over how much of my wrestling I maintained. Now to be fair, I’m probably at least 20lbs heavier than any of these guys, but even so, I was just picking them apart on the mats. Double legs, fireman’s, and hit a guy with a sick ball and chain that doesn’t really do much for me BJJ wise, but god it was satisfying to flip him lol. Good to know all the years of wrestling didn’t just die away. I may try to really dip my toe into BJJ one day, or maybe find an adult wrestling club, but those are all plans for another time.

@jdm135 thanks man! It’s been a hell of a road here, but things are really going better than I could of hoped.

@tlgains lol, remember that little part I wrote about being a workaholic and trying to avoid that? You’re not helping hahah. Though to be honest, I have thought about that, and it does seem a promising option.

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2199

nice work

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2200

Congratulations again on the TBDL PR.

I mentioned the tuna story, finally got some time behind the keyboard with nothing urgent, so here goes:

We were prepping for deployment, and my friend was engaged with a date set for after we’d return.
He wasn’t out of shape but wanted to look his best for the wedding.
He brings in cases of tuna. Cases and cases. You know, the classic flat cans of tuna?
There’s nowhere to store them, so he pull the mattress out of his rack, and stack them two high in the bed frame. Puts the mattress back down on top of them.

No kidding, this guy ate nearly straight tuna for months. Dropped a ton of fat. We hadn’t heard of “Keto” back then but a pure tuna diet is basically that, I guess.
I think after a few months he had dropped enough and was able to relax the diet a bit, and was in great shape for his wedding.

If you’re gonna be absolutely miserable, smell like tuna, cranky, etc, might as well do it when you aren’t near your fiance!

This has brought back so many memories, here are a couple more related to the cycles of marriage and divorce:

I knew a guy during Power school. He was an MM so we weren’t particularly close. I saw him the first day of prototype, when we were getting crew assignments, and he had just gotten married during the break.
He had tattooed his ring on.
I didn’t see him again until 6 months later and…
He was divorced.

Another guy got married about the time I did or a bit after probably about 6 months before our real deployment started.

Before we got to the Gulf, he had called his wife from the payphones we had on the messdecks…

He wanted a divorce.

(Side note: my wife and his wife were friends, and continued to be for years until we moved away. I now regret treating him with disdain after that, which I definitely did, and which I felt was right because he betrayed the values that mattered to me; but now I realize that everyone’s situation was different, and an early divorce is better than years of misery on both sides…)

2201

8sep24
Bench: 155x5, 155x10, 155x10, 155x20

Db bench: 70x8, 65x10, 65x10

Db fly: 30x12, 30x12

Rope pushdown: 42.5x15, 42.5x14, 35x13, 35x15

Db overhead ext: 75x12
Quit.

Notes:

  • came across a video on bench from Steve Shaw. Some of yall may have no idea who that is, but any high schooler reading bodybuilding .com websites in 2010-15 definitely does lol. Had a 5-10-10-20 thing he recommends for bench, thought I’d give that a go on my volume day since I hit my 5x10x175 goal.
  • I did NO warmup today because life’s crazy and honestly I just wanted to wrap the gym up as soon as possible. Mistake lol. Maybe I’m just sore, but I swear it felt like my pecs were about to rip out my chest.
  • remember how I was like “man, do incline felt so strong today? I’m smashing last week”…. I was comparing Inc bench to overhead press. That makes more sense now.
  • My head wasn’t in it today. Stress is kind of eating at me. I know for a fact I’m 6 months life is gonna be awesome, but damn if I don’t have one hell of a hurdle left to get there. Fighting some unhelpful tendencies to get everything needed done in the time available, but it’s mentally taking a toll. Mentally just started thinking about everything coming up between sets and just sort of spiraled, ended up just ending the workout to go handle some errands.
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2202

One day at a time.

It’s like climbing a mountain - don’t look at the whole mountain or how far away the summit is, just focus on the next step you have to take and before you know it, you will have the beast conquered!! You’ve got this!!!

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2203

I really appreciate the kind words, thank you.

Looking back, my post was a tad bit fatalistic lol. Stress is definitely high, but I have always been good at handling high stress loads. It’s never doing the hard things that get me, it’s me in my head thinking about them. I don’t do well with the down time knowing I have some thorn coming, feel like I should be doing something lol. Action relieved anxiety

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2204

I’ve wanted to comment on this post for days and just haven’t had the bandwidth to sit down and do it, but hearing about how things are going for you is so awesome dude! You absolutely deserve it. And the part later on about that feeling alive doing some grappling is too true: it’s why I keep signing up for comps rather than classes, haha. Great just to see what the future has for you.

2205

@jdm135 I legitimately laughed out loud imagining this dude getting off the 22-2 and rummaging around below his rack for a tuna can haha. Definitely something I could see my sailors doing. And also, now that I think of it, maybe something I will do. Not that that extent, but maybe a little tuna to break up the protein shakes. Keep the whole PSMF aspect while actually getting some food in my belly.

As for the marriage and divorce, I have a story for you that I’ll send when I have more time. Gunnersmates…. Never boring haha,

@T3hPwnisher appreciate it boss! It’s almost a weird feeling, I’ve spent so many years with this idea of delayed gratification that the idea that the gratification is almost here seems foreign lol. And I feel you about the grappling. I’ve said this before, but I’ve always considered myself more of an athlete than a lifter, and the lifting I do is largely because I don’t have sports anymore. I’d love to get involved again. Hell, in my ideal scenario, I would go all in on MMA, but my concussion record suggests I stick to the weights lol

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2206

10sep24
Db row: 110x12, 110x12, 110x12, 110x12

Cybex Lat pulldown: 90x15, 130x15, 145x15, 160x15, 180x9

Chest support t bar row: 135x10, 135x10, 135x8

Straight arm pulldown: 45x15, 45x15

Cable curl: 50x12, 50x12, 50x9

Db curl: 30x10, 30x10, 30-25-15 dropset

Conditioning: 24 min run 5.3 mph

Notes:

  • Splitting headache today, like the 3rd I’ve had in my life. I think it’s a combo of dehydration and sleep deprivation, all nighter at work yesterday.
  • Db rows felt great, but my left elbow had a stabby like pain that stuck around the rest of the workout. Not bad, but noticeable.
  • Lat pulldown was broken, use some machine at the gym, actually felt amazing, though the resistance was lighter than I was expecting.
  • My run felt AMAZING. I went to a running store this weekend, and they had me run on some pressure sending treadmill to tell me what kind of shoe I needed. I’ve always gone with the biggest most padded shoe I could find lol. They said I had a natural stride with high ankle stability (idk anything about running, but in my mind that’s good), and recommend a shoe with less padding than I was used to. I used it today and my knees felt FANTASTIC. As in, mid run I legitimately thought “is this how running was supposed to feel?” Maybe buying the cheap running shoes was not my best move lol
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2207

Stoked to hear about the running shoes! I owe myself a pair of running shoes as well. Mine are at least 2 years old and are also just my everyday wear shoes. Hell, my lifting shoes are 10 years old (but they don’t take the same beating).

Running shoe companies only make a shoe for a limited time. Because of this, my wife (who has special foot needs) buys 2 or 3 pair at once once she finds a good shoe, so she’s set for years. I recommend the same if these shoes are really doing it for you - it may be hard to find a similar match by the time these are worn out.

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2208

Missed a planned training day because of a medical thing. Turns out I’ve got something called a pilonidal cyst. Google it if you like, but maybe not anywhere where someone else can see your screen lol. Must of had it for a while, but I seldom look at my own rear end, and it has caused literally zero pain or discomfort, so I never noticed. Well it popped, and I was bleeding like a stuck pig. Bled straight through my uniform, bloods was dripping down my legs and onto the floor from my pant legs, it was pretty gnarly. Which is actually kind of funny, in a gross way, because all I felt was wet and I legitimately thought “oh shit what did i sit in?”

So, gotta see the surgeon next week. May need surgery to get this thing removed. Google tells me it is painful, month long minimum recovery, and moderate success rate. Great.

Side note, my doctor is on my ship. This isn’t a stranger. I eat with this dude, we’ve gone out drinking together, I consider him a friend. Which made it both more and less awkward when I had to go to medical and get this checked out, BUT gave me some opportunity to ease the tension lol. I checked in, he came into the room and asked what was up, and I go “man, you’re not gonna believe this, but I think I just got my period.” The look on his face? Priceless. But then he made me drop my pants and bend over a cold table without even buying me dinner first, so I suppose in the end he got the last laugh.

Moving out of my apartment since the ships gonna be my permanent residence. Was taking some loads out to my truck, had my headphones in listening to a podcast. I walk back into my apartment building and see this absolutely gorgeous looking German Shepard. Without hesitation I say “hey there gorgeous!”…. And then looked at the other end of the leash at the very surprised and mildly offended 20 something year old gal holding the leash lol. I quickly popped out my headphone and said “oh god I was talking to your dog!” And we both had a pretty good laugh over it. She did let me pet the dog, and she rolled over to get belly rubs, so honestly a pretty awesome day despite leaking blood out of my ass

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2209

Lolol

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2211

Read this whilst eating breakfast:

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Didn’t Google pictures till I’d finished, most of the images were pretty tame, pretty sure my breakfast looks worse, just a lot of dudes bare cheeks!

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2212

I wonder if this cyst can explain some of the bloody bowel movements you mentioned experiencing earlier. Be interesting to see how this whole thing resolves. Also wonder if you could get this connected as “service related”. Either way, glad you got some resolution.

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2213

Leading cause for the cyst is prolonged sitting, and my watch station has me sitting in a chair for up to 16 hours continuously, so I’d say yes. Fun fact: they used to call these cycles “jeep drivers disease” because they showed up so commonly with the jeep drivers in WW II

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2214

I dealt with a pilonidal cyst about a decade ago. Got so bad I couldn’t even strain too hard when lifting and when driving to the gym I had to keep my butt elevated off the car seat (I considered that leg training, haha). I was speaking to a surgeon about it and it eventually subsided on its own (whole ordeal lasted a few months), but it feels like it’s coming back now for me. So you might not need surgery now but to permanently rid it, that’ll probably have to happen eventually. Hope everything works out for the best in dealing with it. It’s particularly common for us hairy bastards of Middle-Eastern or Greek descent.

And you pretty much HAVE to joke about it like you have, lol.

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2215

13sep24
Squat: 45x15, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1, 345x1, 375x1, 405x1 (HELL YEAH, PR), 425x1 (LETS FUCKING GO)

Press: 45x10, 95x5, 135x5, 155x1, 175x1, 185x1

Hit some lat pulldowns, ab wheel, and got out of there.

Notes:

  • went completely off program today and decided to go for a squat PR. Had no plan to do that until after my 135 set, but then I thought “depending on when I get this surgery, this may be my last time squatting in a while, let’s see what I go.”
  • My PR was 390. I’ve failed 405 twice, but haven’t tried it in probably close to a year. Blew through it today, 405 honestly moved so fast that I had to see if there was more in the tank.
  • I SEVERELY regret not recording my 425 set, because I hit it, lost control of my legs, fell forward to rack the bar, and then spent a legitimate 15 seconds or so where my legs were just spamming out of control while I held a death grip onto the barbell so I didn’t fall.
  • What’s so interesting about this, I haven’t squatted over 305lbs for months, and even that is the HEAVIEST I have gone on squat. I’ve stuck to the submax work only for about 3 months now, had concerns that I wouldn’t be able to handle the higher weight just because I haven’t worked at a heavier percentage. Evidently that didn’t freaking matter. Literally never going above 75% of my max and still hit a major PR. My squat just loves this submax work, lesson learned.
  • Decided to hit some press. Prolly won’t be able to bench for a decent while after the surgery, so may be going back to the press for awhile (even if it is pretty sketchy on the ship). 185x1 wasn’t a true Max, but a good heavy single, and shows me my overhead strength hasn’t dropped hardly at all despite not doing barbell overhead in 3 months.
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