Yeah that is pretty much what it states in the book. When I plugged my numbers in, it spit out something so ridiculously low that I would’ve breezed through it. I just ended up adding weight throughout beginners until it was really hard, haha.
Yeah, I’m not too sure. Maybe a seated OHP without back support?
Also, I had “planned” to run deepwater for over a year and a half. I let myself off the hook every single time I had the opportunity haha. I think you’ll run it when you’re ready to.
@Bagsy by the way, some good news:
Her last 2 weeks have been THE BEST in the past 3 years, both for her mental health, her behavior, and the quality/depth of her relationship with my wife and I.
Its… unbelievable and wonderful, and makes us hopeful for the future.
We changed a few things, and at least one of those changes seems to have been important!
My thoughts here are that most of us lift to get bigger and/or stronger, not to put more weight on the bar. Assuming our technique isn’t causing us any pain or injuries, I don’t believe that maximising the use of leverages offers any significant benefits in the pursuit of bigger and stronger. I’m fully prepared to be proven wrong.
I feel like I’m taking up @Bagsy’s log with what may very well be a digression she doesn’t care for. Do you want to duck into your log or mine? Quote me wherever if you want to continue this. I don’t have any proof either way — just thoughts.
Feel free to share your thoughts in mine.
Regret is a monster. Time is a mother-fucker. I can relate to your sense of urgency. But in my experience, when I look back on my life what I regret more than my failures or missed opportunities is my blindness—my lack of appreciation, my failure to see myself as I really was in that moment.
You’re very physically capable, hardworking, determined.
I hope you find what your looking for and get the results that you want.
I usually eat my biggest meal at night and train first thing in the morning. It’s more about gritting my teeth and getting through it than anything else.
Um, no, not at all. You’re being honest and nowhere near heinous.
The thing is that I don’t feel my physique has improved at all with this approach, haha.
Yep, I think I need to dedicate myself to eating more for a longer period of time to significantly change anything at this point. My hypothesis, at least.
It’s difficult for me to say the least. I don’t feel I am a program hopper, but I see how this year I readily switched focus after only a couple cycles of something.
It’s difficult when I want to do all the things. I’m like this with everything, not just lifting. I don’t want one thing to define me. I know that spending more time building muscle will improve my performance on all fronts, yet I still haven’t allowed myself to do it in a long time.
That’s exactly what I thought when I calculated the lifts, especially as I’m good at cranking out reps already. But I think I will adopt this approach if/when I try it.
It seems like a chest-focused day, no? But I guess that could work considering I don’t have many options. I’ll have to loom over it for a bit, thanks.
Oh, this makes me so happy to read! I hope things stay this way. I appreciate you and your wife’s perseverance through this. It’s not easy, and it seems you genuinely are doing your best. I would be interested to know what you think of the book mentioned in that one article.
I’ll have to think on this, thanks. I feel like I’m in a weird time period of my life, and on top of time itself being weird, the pandemic has made it even weirder.
Thank you, I appreciate that. Reading your log makes me feel like I can keep this up for years to come and continue to improve myself.
Your back still looks better than mine 
Good work!
We bought it. I read some of it, my wife read most of it. Mostly focused on the strategies and methods used rather than the details of the case.
Thanks for the rec! I mean, things are going well just after we finished reading it and rethinking our approach, so… causation/correlation?
How did reading it make you feel?
Is it okay if I parse this answer then to mean “no”?
Disagree
Don’t know how close you are to 30 but as someone that will feel this way, unless 29-30 turns out to be my turning point, I’m giving some thought to and started asking myself what can I do with the remaining part of my twenties so that I don’t end up feeling as if I squandered my thirties as well. If you planned long-term like that, then what would you do in 2022?
Maybe it’s because you pull sumo 
but you’re killing it on squats, so we’re even.
Got it, can’t hurt to read different people’s experiences. I don’t know how many parents make this thing so public by writing a book about it, after all.
I actually never read that book, haha. I’ve only read many anecdotes online. It’s an interesting topic that almost seems like it could be discussed in a scientific way, but I think a lot of people find it doesn’t work out quite like that.
Sure.
Turning point for what?
It’s funny because on my best friend’s birthday last weekend, I told her, who is almost a year younger than me, that she is now closer to 30 than to 16. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy with me when I said that. 
It’s weird for me that I will attend her wedding next year, but I never feel any pressure to follow the Life Script, which probably isn’t surprising.
The biggest thing I fear squandering is training because I feel like my progress in my twenties so far was stagnant. Travel is another big thing for me, but to be fair, the pandemic dictated that. So, in 2022 I want to focus more on these things as if there won’t be any more years.
Well… I can’t judge that but without any other information available I would emphasize the likeliness of maintenance through this approach, rather than improvement.
I share that hypothesis. It’s what I wanted to get at. Not only in regards to eating though. You will probably have to do everything “longer”.
The ideal situation is this: Every input of your training is aimed at improving you at your goal. This obviously is more true for competing athletes whose goal is defined (be better at the sport). Each season is the macrocycle (training year). The macrocycle features a number of mesocycles (training blocks) that have different focuses and with that different layers of intensity but the key point is: They have to complement each other to produce a fruitful macrocycle and therefore bring the athlete closer to his potential and improve his abilities.
Now for someone that hasn’t AS clearly defined goals, this still applies to a huge degree in the sense that each cycle should complement the other. If a strength cycle is always followed by a cycle of caloric restriction and endurance focus, the overall development won’t be as good. Those cycles of strength would need to be way way longer than those of other focus here.
Okay I could ramble on about this for pages (and actually sort my thoughts first and do it well) but I am probably repeating stuff that’s clear to you anyhow and I hope you get the point I was going for, so I’ll stop this train of thought here.
We don’t know each other well enough for me to judge your character but I get a certain vibe of perfectionism from you that very much reminds me of a friend of mine, who also wanted to be good at EVERYTHING AT ONCE and it destroys her. It did in sports and it sadly does in life but that’s a whole other story and nothing I want to portrait on you.
But believe it or not when it comes to lifting I can understand this ambivalence very well. When I’m big and strong, I constantly think about how much happier or content or whatever I would be if I was leaner and “more average” built. I basically think about going on a mega cut and building a killer physique multiple times a day. Here’s the crux however: If I actually did and was leaner and more average built, I would think non stop about the strength I used to have and would loathe myself and want to be big and strong again.
I have a few conflicting goals surrounding my lifting efforts that I don’t share regularly.
My solution is surely unsatisfying: Stubborn commitment (within self set rules). I just tell myself: You’ve chosen, you get to do this and you don’t have to.
I’m not saying this is good and not advising anyone to do the same, I just want to provide a point of view.
Lastly: So you have any desire to compete in something? That would provide more guidance and structure potentially.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with anything you said. It can be good to reaffirm those things, too. I probably jump between things more quickly than I should because I did not have that freedom when I was an athlete who actually competed, though I wish I did. It was restrictive.
This is going to sound defensive, but oh well.
To be honest, being good at very different things gives me confidence. Maybe it seems like I put a lot of pressure on myself, and that could very well be true. I don’t think I’m a perfect scientist, I don’t think I’m a perfect athlete, and I don’t think I’m perfect in any of my other hobbies. If I were trying to be perfect at something, I wouldn’t bother dabbling in so many things. I like being multi-faceted, and I think that’s why my friends like being around me. It’s why I like myself in more cases than not. I feel my mental health would be worse if I were a specialist. As long as I improve in most of the things I like, even only a little bit, I am pleased.
Edit: I realize what I wrote here might contradict my thoughts found in recent posts, but essentially what I am saying here is that I am sometimes confident in myself in real life, and it’s because of this.
I think most people experience a feeling of “grass is always greener.” I face that often with my career choice, for example. I’m sure you’ve felt this in other areas of your life, too. I don’t think it’s always bad though.
With athletics it is interesting. I think the answer is yes, but I’m not eager to do anything soon. I would like to know what it is like to compete without experiencing the performance anxiety I had when I was a kid.
@guineapig we got someone opposing the dark side over here
Lol it’s probably the insane amount of pullups you do
Sumo is cheating can confirm. Got about a solid 40kg / 90 lb difference between my sumo and conventional
I feel like this also is a very accurate description of me, I’m “rangey”
It’s not the popular approach, and I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but it suits me. Seriously, read Range by David Epstein if you haven’t already. It’s refreshing.
Wow, I’m really happy to read that. My closest friend from work is 10 years older than me. She is a climber, skier and swimmer—amazing athlete. Growing older has been less scary for me because of her.
Your best years as an athlete are ahead of you, I am absolutely certain.
I’ve had a friend recommend that to me, I’ll have to actually pick it up!