Atlas13 Burning the Boats

Training Training Logs
2319

That’s one of those you have to build slowly with. It’s one of my favorite ways to use the hack squat. We have one guy who trains it like that so he can lean super far back when he presses (specifically log. He does that old Olympic style press with a 350 log). The other good way is close stance heels elevated but not locking out

We have a bells of steel one at my gym. I could never get it to feel right and just gave up on it lol

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2320

My understanding is that a dietician actually has a properly defined requirement to earn the title, whereas there is no regulation required to deem yourself a nutritionist.

On the topic of basements, I will be a voice of dissent here, just because I had the traumatic experience of my basement gym flooding with sewage…twice. And by flooding, I am not being hyperbolic: we had plastic tubs that were floating 4’ high along a sea of feces. This was in very northern North Dakota, where extreme snowmelts would overload the sewer system and cause these back ups, but ever since that time, I don’t put precious things in basements.

BUT, we didn’t have a sump pump back then, and have since made sure that EVERY basement we have has one of those.

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2321

The differences between a dietitian and a “nutritionist” are big. To be a Registered Dietitian you need a Master’s Degree, have to complete a 300 hour internship and pass a board exam. At the end of all of that you can then provide medical nutrition therapy (clinically and you can work with and make recommendations to people with complex needs and disease states), you also are licensed in/by the state(s) you practice in. The education is a lot more detailed and your skill set is much more advanced.

A “nutritionist” is kind of a hokey term and pretty much anyone can call them self one. There are a few really solid certifications that do provide some good knowledge, but in terms of giving recommendations, a nutritionist is much more limited in their scope.

My recommendation would be that if you don’t go the full RD route, do the CSCS and a solid nutrition cert just to have a little deeper understanding on the nutrition front. If you run into a complex client - refer them to an RD to keep yourself out of trouble and within your scope of practice.

If you want to talk about all this sometime, just shoot me a text and we can figure out a time to talk!

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2322

Wow. Thanks for the awesome reply!

Dang, I saw the masters degree component, I didn’t realize the internship requirement as well. Dieticians no joke lol!

So the rub of all this is, I have pretty much no interest in coaching anyone lol. At least not anytime soon. Hell, idk if I’m qualified. Certainly not yet, and I’d like to use myself as a Guinea pig for a few more years before I’d ever try it with someone else lol.

I really have interest in this stuff because I want to know the knowledge for myself. Be able to apply it to my own training, really learn the science behind it all and better make my own programming. Same on the nutrition front. So it’s not like I need to do any of this for clients or a job, just for my own hobby.

Which maybe getting a CSCS for the hell of it is a little extreme. Then again, my dad has 7 college minors because he was just interested in stuff, so it’s in my blood lol

Excuse me as I go update my IG bio

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2323

I wonder if you could audit some courses without actually pursuing the degree.

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2324

Check out “The Science and Practice of Strength Training” by Zatsiorsky and Kramer. It’s like a textbook of strength training. It will teach you all the jargon and it’s well organized so you can take it in in sections that make sense.

From there, find a coach who gets down with science, and check out his approach. Now you understand all the strange terms, and you can see they apply the fancy stuff you just learned about. I liked “Hardcore Bodybuilding: A scientific Approach” by Fred Hatfield. And “The Poliquin Principles” by Charles Poliquin.

For nutrition , “Sports Nutrition: A Handbook for Professionals” by Karpinski and Rosenbloom doesn’t get too far out onto the weeds.

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2325

Uh, yeah. We’re hardcore. Lol

Never stop learning. They can take everything away from you - except your education. Soak it all in!! And if you ever want to geek out on nutrition - call me, I am always down. lol

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2326

Here in Idaho everyone has a shop. The house we bought 20+ years ago came with a 1200 sq ft shop. My girl and her husband are habitating it until they head off for his start of law school.

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2327

As is a place to buy and sell ? Or as in a workshop like a tooling place ?

2328

Workshops. Or to store ATVs, etc.

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2329

Down here we call that a shed. LOL

2330

The guy building behind me, his shed is about 2600 sq ft.

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2332

Hey man, not sure if this will be helpful, but some thoughts on the CSCS…

Up until this last summer, I was a high school strength coach for a little over a year. I was suppose to get my CSCS within a couple years of being there, but kinda knew I would leave before then so I never forked over the $300 (I think?) for it. But I did study for it for quite sometime. Honestly, I didn’t think it was all that useful. For my own training, I’ve went through phases of hybrid style training like you seem to be undertaking, regular lifting/srength training/bodybuilding, some sprint/plyometric focused training, CrossFit…pretty much everything, and the only one that I thought all the knowledge for the CSCS benefitted was the sprint training. Which makes sense since the CSCS is geared towards athletics, but if you’re in a different realm it might be of limited use. With that said, having the cert does add a lot of credit in most people’s eyes, so it could be worth it just for that if you’re looking into starting some kind of online thing for yourself. I just don’t know if I’d get my hopes up of learning a ton for your own training. Hope that helps a little bit. Happy to chat more if you have any questions!

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2333

11oct24
Bench: 135x5, 165x3, 185x3, 205x10(+), 240x1, 170x16. 150x15

Db Inc bench: 70x8, 60x12

Assisted dip; 105x12, 105x12, 105x10, 105x13

Db fly: 30x12, 25x15, 25x13

Chest machine: 60x15, 80x15, 100xmany

Conditioning: 40 min treadmill run, 5.3mph

Notes:

  • bench moved well, happy with this lift. Recent memory PR with 205x10. Should add weight next time, but my surgery is next Thursday, so not sure when I’ll be back in the gym after. Called the 240 set at one after we rocked pretty hard, lost my balance. I’m learning my bench actually responds well to everything except 531 and any programming I make myself lol.
  • Dips felt good. Super short rest, probably like 30 seconds in between sets, except a solid 90 before the last set. Slowly decreasing assistance has my shoulder not angry at me yet.
  • I am getting significantly better at running on a ship, which is its own unique skill set lol

Replies to follow!

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2334

Running on a ship is cool, but start swimming on land and I’ll really be amazed.

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2335

12oct24
Lat pulldown: 190x12(+), 160x12, 145x11, 115x12

Underhand grip cable row: 145x12, 130x12, 130x11

Straight arm pulldown: 30x15, 40x15, 50x12

Cable upright row: 40x20, 50x20, 60x20, 70x20, 80x17

Barbell curl: 55x12, 55x12, 55x12, 55x12, 55x15

Conditioning: 40 min run, 5.3 mph

Notes:

  • feeling strong. Happy with lat pulldowns. I kinda smoke myself on these, and then focus on pump work for the rest of the lifts.
  • Upright rows with the rope on a cable machine feel 100x better than doing them with a barbell.
  • Crazy sea state today. Had me leaning all sorts of ways during my run, sometimes damn near on the side of my feet, sometimes doing hill sprints, other times super choppy little steps that put a ton of pressure on my knee. Shins feeling a little sore after. It was remarkable how much more difficult this was.

I still owe replies. Work got unexpectedly overwhelmingly busy very quickly. Currently running off enough caffeine to kill a bull moose. Hopefully have some free time tomorrow to catch up!

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2336

Alrighty, long overdue replies and a life update:

@quadqueen definitely hardcore. I am a bit of a nerd at heart, my most impressive feature of any house I’ve ever had has always been my library/study. I’m a firm advocate for lifelong learning, and accredit most of my success I’ve had in any endeavor to my own studying I put into it. (Also my wife bought me a kindle because we are running out of room for books.)

Side note, but I think it’s funny the “persona” I give off to different groups of people. At work? I’m surrounded by a bunch of STEM academics who were always the top of their class, and I am 100% the jock. No one thinks I’m dumb, and our required monthly testing shows I’m damn near the top despite my polisci degree, but my “image” is definitely jock. Compare that to when I’m with my old friends I played sports with or some of my gym buddies I’ve made, and I’m very much viewed as the “academic.” Thing is, I’m very much the same guy in both cases, but the context leads to such different views.

@flatsfarmer going to buy all of those on my kindle and give a read, thanks for the recommendations! Having a coach is actually something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, but for fear of repeating myself I’ll hold off saying more for my update below.

@Friedrich my wife has already bought into building a shop out back whenever we settle down. As in, like 40 foot by 30 foot entire gym complex. My ultimate man cave haha. Granted this is all based off the assumption we end up buying some property with land, but that’s a real goal for the both of us post military.

@traditionalelk I very seriously appreciate you giving me the heads up. I’m pretty serious about this hybrid deal, definitely a newer focus for me. I want to work on endurance, I want to really learn the science of strength, I want to learn a baseline amount of physical therapy to be able to treat myself somewhat, and I want enough nutrition knowledge to go from “eating healthy” to “tailored performance diet.” About the only thing I really don’t care about is sprinting lol. Just not a training style that supports either my strengths or my health goals. The “credibility” aspect is nice but, well, I don’t need it lol. I’m not a coach, only people I help are friends and family who come to me, and that’s usually for weight loss more than anything.

I like the idea of becoming certified in that it gives me a goal to work towards. I’m very goal oriented as a person. I don’t do well training for the sake of training, I need to train for something. Similarly, I feel the same about a lot of learning. I don’t want to study finance books so I can know my finances better, I want to study so I can hit XXX invested by XXX date. I want to learn more about the science of fitness, and I just feel like a certificate or something similar could be a good avenue to channel my energies through. Maybe not :man_shrugging:

@T3hPwnisher challenge accepted haha

Now to the update part. Sporadic stream of consciousness style.

  • I spent some time reading through my logs, particularly the last few years since I got to this ship. I’ve made some serious progress in that time. My cardio has improved, my physique looks better, and my strength has gone up on most of my lifts. That’s nice, but not too helpful. What is helpful is looking at HOW I have improved. And largely, it’s been in spurts, either occurring after a month long at sea time, or an extended vacation.
  • This led me to question, why? For example, why is my training going so well right now? I’m kind of winging my programming, and my nutrition is basically living off of protein shakes. But I’m crushing it, hitting PRs, even got my bench moving for the first time in forever. And the answer is honestly recovery. I’m getting a relatively consistent 6 hours of sleep a night, it’s uncommon for me to get under 4. Looking at the past 2 years, that just hasn’t happened, I’ve had to pull all nighters every couple of days for months and months on end… except when at sea or when on vacation… each time leading to a PR.
  • I don’t think I’ve been “overtraining.” I’m not sure if that’s even exists tbh. But I think I’ve had some “under recovery” issues going on. Just redlining it for so long that my body struggled to make growth.
  • And that excites me. Because my progress has been GREAT with even this little boost to recovery, and with my current equipment, sea state, and nutritional considerations. Imagine what I can reach in a few months when I am working (for the first time in my life) a 40 hour a week job vice a 100+, getting 7 hours of sleep a night, having full control of my diet, and training in my decked out home gym.
  • On that note, we put an offer in on another home, again a one car garage, but a basement I have full permission to make into a gym. My wife gave me permission to get a Sorinex Apex rack. Now I’m absolutely not doing that because Jesus Christ they are expensive, but she has pretty much made it clear that she is down to let me go as crazy as I want to building this home gym. Actually pretty sure she is trying to buy me a power rack for my birthday lol, she was asking some oddly specific questions about racks.
  • Back to training talk. I’ve been thinking a lot about the progress I have made, the progress I want to make, and some goals moving forward. I said I didn’t want to make deployment goals, and that’s true, I don’t. Just too many variables, so as long as deployment is going on, my biggest goal is just effort and consistency. I also wanted a change to start implementing some “hybrid” style training prior to making goals for it. But I get married November 2025, and I think that’s works up to just about a perfect timeline for some intense training goals.
  • For the first time in a long time, I feel hungry. I don’t mean for food. I mean that fire in my gut to crush my goals. I’ve had motivation most of the time, and discipline on the hard times when motivation fades, but it has been a long time since I felt hunger like this. I want to take my training up to the next level. I believe I have it in me, and think that a year of concerted effort may be enough to take me from “in shape” to “dangerous” levels of fitness.

Without further buildup, Atlas’s goals prior to Nov 14th, 2025

  • deadlift: 585 (current PR 500)
  • Squat: 495 (current PR 425)
  • Bench: 315 (Current PR 265)
  • Press: 225 (current PR 195)
  • 10 mile run: 8:00 pace
  • 12 mile ruck with 45lb pack: 3 hours

Alright, so let’s break this down.

  • Are these goals unrealistic to hit in 13 months? Yes. 100%. It’s a bad plan. And now I’m gonna justify why I’m going for it anyway.
  • I think I have a little more in me on both my squat and deadlift. I hit both those PRs in less than ideal conditions, kind of on a whim. A nice peaking cycle, some more intelligent sets leading up to it, and I’m sure it would move better. So the weight increase there is still steep, but probably not insanely so.
  • Press I’m not terribly far off, and haven’t really tried for 1 RM strength. Least concerned about this lift.
  • Bench is going to require the most effort I’m suspecting. I need to add some upper body mass, and just flat out figure out what’s been holding my bench back. But I’m making good progress on the plan I’m currently doing, and hope to carry that forward.
  • The two conditioning goals are probably slightly easier than my lifting goals. I think I can get more bang for my buck out of conditioning, just because I’m still such a novice to endurance work, so hopefully that will carry me a ways. I’m also not terribly far away from either of these as is. I can probably knock out 10 miles at a 10 min pace if needed right now, plan is just low and slow increasing distance while slowly adding speed.
  • Honestly I might be able to hit the ruck goal right now if I wanted to, but keeping it on there as a means to make sure I still get some rucking in, as preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb.

Okay, so how the hell am I going to do this?

  • well starting this week? Nothing. Ass Surgery the Sequel on Thursday, this one may have me down for the count a few days. So nothing there.
  • But post ass healing, my plan is to, well, continue my current plan. Because currently, it’s working. Bench and press are going up, squats at an all time best, and I’m committing to my theory of building the deadlift without actual deadlifts.
  • Now over time, this will change. I will cut down to likely 4x a week lifting when I am back on land, simply due to the extra effort I am able to exert on my lifts on a stable surface. Likely cutting back slightly my endurance volume, doing 1x a week ruck, and swapping one of my long runs for something along the lines of intervals or a tempo run.
  • “Alright Atlas, cool, so you’re gonna be consistent and work hard, that’s still pretty idealistic goals.” Yep. And I’m very aware that I may be over reaching. But if I overreach, and end up only getting 75% of the way to all of these, well that’s still a damn good bit of progress.
  • And then of course, I am going to cheat.
  • Now what do I mean by that? I mean this is a competition with myself, which means I can break any rules and that other bastard can’t do anything to stop me. So, I plan to “cheat” my own way.
  • First way I’m cheating is with brains. These goals are ambitious as hell, I gotta be smart to accomplish something this stupid. So I’m going to throw myself into the science of strength building. I’ve mentioned above maybe getting a CSCA (now leaning against it, but still looking for a good alternative). I don’t want to follow a cookie cutter plan, I want to know at an expert level what the hell I am doing so I can plan and adapt as needed.
  • On this note: PLEASE GIVE ME ANY AND ALL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEARNING MORE ABOUT NUTRITION, STRENGTH, AND ENDURANCE TRAINING. The recommendations so far have been great, and I plan to use my surgery recovery time to dive into the books.
  • Now, could I just get a coach? Yes. And honestly, I might. But, I have two reservations. One, while a coach no doubt is beneficial, then I’m just following someone else’s plan, and it’s not furthering my own ability to really take control of my own training. I’d prefer to do the work on my end to be my own coach. Second, I don’t know how many good “hybrid” coaches are out there. I can find a powerlifting coach or a running coach in a heartbeat. Finding someone who cares about both is a bit harder, and I haven’t come across with great impressions from some of the ones I’ve seen available. Similar to how many “hybrid” plans are based off of 2x a week lifting and 2x a week running. It’s a good plan… for less ambitious goals. But for what I’m trying? Nah, I need to train a lot more than that.
  • With training a lot more than that, I need to recover like a champion. And here’s how I will cheat my nutrition. I’m going to eat like a horse. Maybe slim down a bit, maybe not, but I want to absolutely pound food. If TB Base Building taught me anything, enough cardio can make up for eating a ton. I plan to leverage my higher workload to allow myself to eat a ton, and flood myself with as many macro and micro nutrients as possible to keep myself fueled. On top of that, im going to make a rigid sleep routine when I’m on land, and stick to it.
  • Then I can cheat my form. Does this mean high squats and partial rep bench? No. But I’ve always lifted with form to feel strong and target the muscle. I’ve never cared about shortening my bar path, maximizing leverages, anything about that. I figured I wanted to add weight to the bar, I’d add muscle. And obviously that’s still going to happen, but I’ll also start focusing on “optimizing” my form ALA powerlifter style.
  • Cheating my mobility with go a long way to help on bench. My upper back mobility is crap, and it leads to a nonexistent bench arch. Could also use some work on my hip flexibility to support the bottom of my squats.
  • We will see how far I go with cheating with equipment. Likely begin using wrist wraps, possibly some knee wraps for testing my squat, we will see what else. Deadlift bar? Sure. I do have some lines drawn here (I’m not about to use a slingshot and call it a PR), but I’m down for maximizing my advantages.
  • How else can I cheat? I don’t know, but I’ll definitely be looking for advantages throughout the process.

So this is it. Staking my flag in the sand, and committing myself to what I view as some next level fitness goals. I’m nervous, I’m excited, and above all I’m fucking hungry to chase these goals.

Let’s get to work.

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2338

My largely unhelpful tongue in cheek suggestions above . @wiseman83 might have summer better tips for your strength goals.

2339

14oct24
Squat: 45x10, 45x10, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 335x1, 355x7 (Big PR), 385x1, 405x1

Single leg curl: 40x17, 40x15, 40x13

Zercher squats: 95x10, 115x10

Conditioning: 45 min treadmill ruck

Notes:

  • with surgery Tuesday, wanted to go for a PR before hand. My 5rm squat PR was 350, so thought I’d add 5lbs and see if I could hit 6. Ended up getting 7, and it the ship wasn’t rocking would have tried for an 8th. Freaking elated with that. Last 7rm was 340, and I dug a lot deeper on that set than I did this time.
  • Really happy with that 405 squat. This weight was an elusive goal for so long. I hit it today AFTER my PR set, using a smooth Olympic lifting barbell and bumper plates, while on the ship. Feeling pretty damn good with that.
  • First time trying zercher squats. A couple notes. First, ouch. Second, these feel very good. Super upright, lots of quad activation, lights up my core. May start playing with these more, honestly seem like a good deadlift day secondary movement. Third, and seriously, ouch. Idk how tf people load these up.
  • Rest of the workout moved well. Just feeling fantastic in the gym.
  • Going off vertical diet/ keto for a week or so. Also not going to eat in a deficit. The idea of being in a calorie deficit leading up to/recovering from a surgery just seems like a bad idea, and I want to be firing on all cylinders for the recovery front. Probably just 1-2 week break from the nutrition plan, erring more to the 1 unless I recover worse than I expect. (I am placing a lot of faith on me basically just shrugging off this surgery, which the surgeon has told me is very unlikely and that this is known for being very painful, but that’s also painful by sedentary office people standards, not someone whose gone under the knife every 1-2 years for the last 10 for some sort of sports injury)
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2340

nice work

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