It’s amazing how much this is a product of earbuds and smart phones. When I first started training, the only way to have a personal music player was a portable CD player, it would skip if you moved too aggressively, with those headphones that went over the top of your head. Gyms would play music, and dudes would be chatting with each other between sets, goofing around, talking shop, etc. Now, everyone has their own playlist playing in their own personal ear buds in their own world. To the point that, one time, during an errant floor press, I had a bar on my neck, and was yelling "help!, only to realize NO ONE could hear me.
I ended up sweeping and pulling guard on the barbell to get out. It was one of the 2 times jiu jitsu saved my life, haha.
That’s always been one of my favorite things about CrossFit gyms or serious strongman gyms I’ve visited. No one had headphones, they were just blasting music, and people actually talked between sets. I get that I’m at the gym to work, but if you’re taking rest between sets, the gym has some serious downtime. May as well make some friends.
Once, in a strongman competition, I was trying VERY hard to load a stone of steel over a bar, and I was caught on the lip. I was giving it my all, and eventually gave out. Well, the stone, being a sphere, decided to roll AFTER me after I fell down, so I had to backwards shoulder roll in a breakfall away from the stone to keep from getting Indiana Jones’d.
Yikes! That could have ended painfully. Definitely shows how real mat memory is though, sounds like it was almost instinctual to just fall away like that
Rogue shipment came in! Got it delivered to my buddies apartment, so they dropped the 3 pallets outside… then it immediately began to downpour.
So I got to do my strongman training in the rain as I loaded up my track, playing super heavy Tetris, and driving to the storage unit to stash my very waterlogged cardboard boxes.
Shipment arrived early, got it moved in pretty fast, was happy with that.
And then I blew a tire. Some days, ya just can’t win lol
Raw hi bar squat: 45x10, 45x10, 135x5, 135x5, 185x3, 205x3, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4
Reverse hyper: 90x12, 90x15
Single leg hamstring curl: 35x15, 35x15, 35x15
Decline crunch: 10, 10, 9
Conditioning:
Air bike: 6 rounds
20 sec one, 40 sec rest
Notes:
still just screwing around. Don’t want to start a mesoscale right before the move and Xmas visits, so just some maintenance gym.
I feel like I’m finally figuring out hi bar. Still a very awkward movement, definitely not good for me as a comp lift, but my quads were literally cramping before I even finished warmup sets.
got an idea here. When I push my low bar squat hard, my deadlift gets left behind a bit. Actually my deadlift still goes up, because my low bar has a lot of hinge, but i definitely feel the fatigue from my squats when I go to the hinge. Considering using a lot of hi bar, so I can smoke my quads, while keeping my posterior chain fresh to still smash a heavy hinge workout later in the week. Less interference effect. Maybe.
doing these with no sleeves or belt, because it keeps me more honest on form while limiting the weight I use…. Still crazy that I hit 425, pretty sure I’m good for 435-440, and actually feel smoked from these 225 sets. I know they’re all squats, but it’s basically a different movement pattern for me lol.
I feel like reverse hyper just gets me winded more than anything else. Did get a nice lower back pump. But tbh, my lower back is strong as hell. Probably my strongest (relatively) body part, so I think I’d be better of strengthening everything else in the chain.
the decline bench was kinda insane. Felt like I was basically upside down lol. Very tough, I like it.
cold is starting to let up, wanted to give cardio a go again. Had way too much congestion to try for anything aerobic, so wanted something fast and dirty. These fit the bill. With my cold, I felt like I was wearing an altitude mask, just could not get any air in. Still, got in a few rounds, spiked my heart rate, broke a sweat, I’m calling that a win.
@taylortooswift you ever go to N24 gym? I just found it. I freaking love this place, my favorite navy gym. Identical vibes to my college weight room. Racks, sleds, turf, even a damn yoke. Can’t believe I just found this place lol.
bench feels significantly better on land lol. 225x7 moved well, might have had one more in me, but wasn’t going to go for it without a spotter. Or maybe that’s Smolov actually working for me. Either way, I’m pleased. This puts my estimated 1rm around 280, which is higher than when I left on deployment, and not insanely far from the 315 goal.
dips didn’t hurt me last time I tried them, so repeating today. Sets of 4 instead of 3. Honestly, doing tons of sets of low rep submax work has been the best think I’ve ever done for learning technique, and it’s actually really blown my strength up more than I could have expected.
I do notice that I need to stay very upright on my dips to keep my shoulder happy. It I start learning forward a lot, shoulder gets mad.
felt good to do some cardio again. This cold isn’t gone, but in retreat
Still living on my buddies coach, another week here. He is a caveman who has essentially no cooking options, so I used the one pan he has to cook up a ton of steak and ground beef that I threw in Tupperware, and I just mix meat with microwave rice for most of my meals. I feel like a frat boy haha.
I have been ravenously hungry the last two days. I’m not entirely sure why, but my appetite just really skyrocketed. Definitely can put away a lot more than I’d realistically burn right now, so hit the grocery store today. Loaded up on sugar free jello, pickles, ginger tea, and those weird zero calorie Asian noodles. Never really tried this before, but thinking I may start eating more of this low calorie food in the evenings to fight cravings.
My go-to lazy version;
1/2 package sugar free Chocolate Fudge flavor
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
6oz fat free Fairlife
Mix together and let sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
Nah, Norfolk Naval. 24 hours too. Not as many bodybuilding machines as some others, but it’s got a decent selectorized collection on top of all the free weights.
I’m not going to tell you how to eat, because you’re a grown ass man and that’d be super presumptuous of me, but I’ll say that this led me down a stupidly dark path and took a LOT of digging to get back out of. If nothing else, let me just say, from a digestion standpoint, I’d stay away from the noodles. They’re effectively non-digestible, which is what makes them zero calorie…and also makes it that they come out the same way they went in, and typically in a giant bolus that rips through your colon along the way.
We honestly rarely crave “energy” at the end of the day. It’s typically more indicative of a nutrient deficiency. It just so happens that, when we cut calories, we tend to cut nutrients too. It might be worth examining there.
If nothing else, I’ll throw in a vote for egg whites to be included with the late night cravings. They’re not zero calorie, no, but they’re pure protein, and protein is a poor fuel choice: the body tends to not select it for burning. This typically means it gets used for metabolic functions OR, if it DOES get used, it’s so inefficient that you burn a portion of that protein just to make it useable for fuel. “All you can eat egg whites” at night was something Mark Bell employed in his bodybuilding prep, and it worked well enough.
I appreciate the insight. I agree largely with everything you said, and just have so little experience with any of this that it’s a bit of a trial for me.
I think this hits the nail on the head pretty well right here. I’m eating essentially red meat and starch with nothing else, which is a lot more restrictive than my usual diet. Again, not for health reasons, just some logistics during the move. But I could definitely see myself missing out on something since that’s all I’m eating, which would lead to hunger.
I’ve never had the noodles before. They taste… weird. Not sure if I’d buy again based off of that alone lol. Time to see how they digest.
The all you can eat egg whites is a pretty solid plan. In a similar (but tastier) vein, I also got plain Greek yogurt to mix with protein powder as a quick protein fix. Tastes delicious, and gets some good nutrients in.
I may pickup some canned chili, I’ve used that before when meal prepping was a bit more difficult. A few super macro friendly options out there if ya look for the right brands.
Just wanted to note that you’ve been a major positive influence on me for years now, your advice is always appreciated.
At the end of the day, my final move is in 6 days, and I’ll have a real kitchen again after that, so all in all this is just an experiment while essentially re-creating the college dorm room experience lol. After that? I am BEYOND excited to elevate my nutrition game, but plan on doing so with a complete focus on just solid whole foods and an almost “farm to table” style of nutrition.
On that last note, I have spent a decent amount of time writing out a game plan for how i intend to meet for wedding goals. Borderline manifesto at this point, but I’ll be dropping it here soon!
Worlds most important football game going down today, started the tailgate early and will be containing the celebrations or the sorrow well into tomorrow.
Update: moving is as chaotic as ever. Had my truck in navy storage, came back to a flat tire. Just found out there was wheel damage, probably from sitting flat for so long, so now it’s time for a new set of wheels. Navy movers also said they couldn’t take the motorcycle, despite navy policy saying they do, so now I gotta figure out how to move that. And the phone glitched out and had to be replaced.
Nothing like a move to make the surprise expenses come out. Im more than able to cover it, but dang there goes a couple grand I wasn’t expecting to drop lol
Hit the gym and gone on some runs, sporadic with logging the last few weeks due to life craziness.
Moved into the new house yesterday. Wife and I bought it without ever seeing in person. Had some friends walk through, did some FaceTime calls, but it was still our first time seeing it. Nicer than we thought it would be, we both agreed that we love and place and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it is.
Garage is going to need some work though. Some shelving that needs taken out, and a wildly inconveniently placed support beam. I have no idea where I’m gonna fit these racks, but I’m sure I can find someway.
Leaving for the in-laws today, going to spend a week up there for Xmas. My movers deliver everything on the 27th. Couple days to put the house together, and then the quest for pre-wedding goals will begin in earnest.
So much excitement and happiness in our household about how these past few days have gone, and for our setup on the times ahead. Truly a very blessed Christmas.
So stoked for all the great things and hilarious bad luck i just caught up on here, but…
Am I crazy, or isn’t this like right behind peir 11? I used to go there all the time, how could you NOT know it was there?
Duty days especially.
Or maybe I’m misremembering and this is somewhere else…
