My sister lived 30 minutes away in from Portland in Washington State. She enjoyed being away from the craziness but having all the nice nature features and cultural stuff of the pacific northwest. Then again, she was a paramedic in Portland during the covid times so she got to see some real craziness!
@freshyfresh Yeah I’m actually across the river in Washington. It’s nice to be close but far enough away 
Covid times in Portland was pretty crazy. There’s still some of that, but nothing like what was happening in the tent cities of before.
@alex_uk Thanks for the sympathy. On the plus side, we got her calmed down AND the teacher was ok with her going back to class, and she finished out the day perfectly normally. Which meant the rest of my day almost went normally too.
In the event that it wasn’t actually obvious, I don’t actually think staff/sword/spear training is at all relevant to my life. I can’t think of a single situation that isn’t artificial (HEMA) or outlandishly improbable.
Just that if I’m going to put some interest into something, I ought to try and do it well.
On a different note, I have a plan. My plan is to come up with a 4-6 week training block focused on my press and deadlift goal, using everything I know about what should work best.
I don’t know if I’ll ever actually do that training block. The plan is only to come up with it, like it’s a puzzle to solve.
Which should keep me on the actual goal of “see where Calvert’s stuff takes me”.
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I figure you could steal from “Power to the People” here for inspiration.
Out of everything I’ve done, this is by far the most effective focused program for both of those.
But I can’t shake the feeling that there’s some “magic” in Sheiko’s programming that makes it even more effective; something I haven’t actually experienced myself. I think it’s in the constant wide-swinging variation of volume, intensity, ROM, overlayed on a simple 3-4x a week 2 lift-a-day setup.
There’s definitely this itch to test that out. (Ultimately the real secret, of course, is just lifting regularly week-in week-out.)
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Barbell Curl: 70# x 7
Z Press: 80# x 8
Flared BB Bent Row: 90# x 8
BTN Press: 90# x 8
Bent-knee Pullovers: 31# x 16
Backbend Situps: 35# x 8
V Squats: 100# x 16
Jefferson Squats: 100# x 16 (8 per side)
DB Side Press: 55# x 4
H2H KB Swings: 70# x 20 (40 total)
[break for lunch and to digest it a bit]
17" Axle Pulls: 200# x 10+ ← I did 20
17" Axle Pulls: 250# x 10+ ← Also 20
17" Axle Pulls: 290# x 10+ ← 15
Workout Notes:
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Some form notes, for record-keeping. Rows are to my neck, and if I hit my chin sometimes, I’m doing it right. BTN press is from the middle of the back of the head. Jefferson squats are only down to the knees. Pullovers don’t use an inflated chest.
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I tried to pull 3 pps (plates per side) with the axle pulls and it seemed like too much. I don’t have any uncommitted smaller plates at the moment, so 2 pps seemed like an ok starting point.
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But it was light. I did 20, got bored, stopped. Borrowed some plates from the other bar, increased to 250 to try again.
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And I did 20 with that too
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So back to 3 pps. Could have probably pushed it to 20, but 15 felt like a fine stopping place. I’ll start with something like 315 or 320 next week.
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After 32 squats, 40 heavy kettlebell swings, and 55 deadlifts, I think I’m probably good for today. If I don’t grow from that, something’s wrong. It’s not quite a high-rep squat set like I talked about with @T3hPwnisher but probably close enough.
Programming Notes:
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Friday is going to become my “actually lift something heavy” day. The chain yoke circle walk idea seemed cool, but I may never get around to that. I have more specific goals.
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I am actually doing a lot of pressing these days, but not a lot toward the deadlift goal. Not that strength has suffered, it’s just not direct work. But without doing much setup, I can do 17" rack pulls. So that’s what I’m going to do once a week.
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I thought about a lot of ways to program this. Double progression makes sense if I was training it more frequently. Sheiko and Pavel stuff also needs more frequency, and %-ages are kind of weird with this. There are once-a-week deadlift programs, but nothing seems to be the right fit either. Most are peaking programs.
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But I think I have something that will work. A single 10+ set after everything else. Minimum 10, but otherwise AMRAP. Based on prior week’s performance, adjust the weight to the new estimated 10RM, and repeat.
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It’s submax, but a high enough % that it should drive up the max. (Anything between 10-20 reps averages to ~68%). It’s auto-regulating upwards so it continues to get appropriately harder. It’s not enough volume on its own, but that’s what the other stuff is for. And the goal is 540# x 10, so obviously that requires higher reps.
Anyway, high hopes.
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“Safety” is always an interesting thing. There’s been a bit of discussion around the SLDL and it’s close/overlapping variant of the Jefferson Curl over in @T3hPwnisher’s log.
I was always taught that spinal flexion under load was a bad thing and should be avoided at all cost. As evidence, people presented lots of overall weak/untrained people that got injured. However, as contrary evidence, there are lots of really strong people that use spinal flexion and don’t get injured.
Is it that “spinal flexion” leads to injury? Or is it that “people who are weak in spinal flexion movements” get injured?
I did Calvert’s exercise as he wrote it, starting light, slowly progressing and got stronger with it. For awhile, the only muscles that were growing on my body seemed to be my spinal erectors (photos evidence in this log, even.)
And now I’m doing the kettlebell swings, working those up slowly as he wrote them. I can say with 100% confidence that I’m not keeping an entirely flat back on those.
I did those 55 rack pulls Friday (so, what should be fatigue), carried a kid on my shoulders for a long time that night, and on Saturday I bought a few hundred pounds of sand in 100# sandbags. Spent the weekend doing yardwork and doing some drainage and leveling work with the sand. I felt perfectly safe in all the awkward angles I ended up in.
I feel entirely confident saying that getting stronger in “unsafe” movements, has made those movements far safer than, well, not getting stronger at them.
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One of my “go tos” when it comes to the matter of spinal rounding is this
Go ahead and TRY to pick up a stone with an arched back. I’ll wait. Somehow, in THIS context, we’re all fine, but when we change the implement to something SAFER because it it uniform in weight and stable, THEN we think it’s unsafe?
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Haha @ myself. That phrasing is triggering. My gut reaction is to try and prove you wrong, even if we’re making the exact same point.
I was almost completely unaffected by those rack pulls, so that was weird. Just noticed a bit in my hamstrings here and there.
Forearms however were sore from moving all the sandbags. Like sore in the bone.
“Nines day”
Barbell Curl: 70# x 8 - PR
Z Press: 80# x 9
Flared BB Bent Row: 90# x 9
BTN Press: 90# x 9
Bent-knee Pullovers: 31# x 16 ← forearms and elbows weren’t having it
Everything after this I’ll do tomorrow. Ran out of time today. Had other priorities.
Backbend Situps: 35# x 9
V Squats: 100# x 18
Jefferson Squats: 100# x 18 (9 per side)
DB Side Press: 55# x 4
H2H KB Swings: 75# x 10 (40 total)
Notes:
- Per a photo, my right biceps are seriously lagging my left. Definitely need some unilateral work. Fortunately that’s coming up soon:
I’ll wear pants though.
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So Monday I ran out of time because I got a new toy (a whetstone) and wanted to teach myself how to use it. I got a couple kitchen knives to a level of sharpness I’ve never experienced in a knife. I’ve “sharpened” them in the past, and I’ve had them sharpened at a store too, but nothing like this. The weight of the knife itself is enough to cut through a bell pepper with a tiny forward thrust. Neat stuff.
But then I had to actually do my job, and it just got messed up timing wise with kids and life, and training fell to the wayside.
Tuesday morning I woke up in a daze, went back to bed for an hour or so, and still was mostly out of it. No appetite and very little energy for the rest of the day. Maybe sick? No physical symptoms though.
Today I’m feeling a bit better, but still tired and generally unmotivated, mentally, physically, emotionally.
I’m speculating it may be all that extra work with the rack pulls and sandbags pushed my recovery past the limits, so now my body is a bit more open to illness. It’s possible, but feels like I’m reaching. But I’m logging it. This was the first major deviation in workload for several months.
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Sharpening is a whole thing, man. I’m not into knives, but I am into woodworking, and have been down a few sharpening roads. Good stuff.
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Thinking on my “optimize for press and deadlift” programming.
Things I’m pretty settled on:
- 3 days of training
- Core lifts:
- 18"-ish axle pull
- Barbell standing press (or clean once, press away)
- Accessory lifts:
- Ab work (as I’m currently doing)
- KB swings
- Rehab lift stuff: thoracic mobility, external rotation, scapular alignment.
- Volume:
- fluctuates daily, randomly between high, medium, low
- Press volume above 60% is between PttP volume (50 lifts a week) and Sheiko bench volume (103 with #37, 75 with #30). 75 sounds pretty good.
- Pull volume above 60% is around 50 lifts a week. PttP volume (50 lifts a week) and Sheiko deadlift volume (47 with #37, 49 with #30)
- Intensity moves into high-80% (true 5RM) at least once every couple weeks
Things I’m rolling around:
- ROM variation:
- maybe with the deadlift (mostly just lower than 18")
- probably with the press (top half, bottom half, 1 and 1/2s)
- rep/intensity range:
- use a mix of reps in the 2-6 range, with corresponding intensity changes. Could just pull from Sheiko’s programs.
- straight sets of 5s, and the volume variation controls the number of sets. Intensity uses linear progression with resets (like PttP). Keep adding weight to a new 5RM then reset to 60-70% of it; a reset should happen every 2-3 weeks.
- use a weekly or bi-weekly plus set. For many reasons, but also to reset maxes. 10RM is ~75%, 20RM is ~60%.
- accessory programming:
- keep using Calvert’s single set double progression
- use something more like Sheiko or Chinese Oly programming: 5x10 and 6x12, respectively
- ramp up/backoff sets
- maybe train the power clean again for real?
- accessory lifts:
- presses: BTN press, Z press
- squats: v squats, jefferson squats
- sides: windmills, side press
- shoulders: lateral raises, wide grip upright rows
- upper back rows: bent-over flared to neck, unilateral flared landmine
An amusing result from this. 75 presses a week, split evenly across 3 workouts, using 5s… is 5x5. I’ve never heard of that pattern before…
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“Nines day” – take 2
Barbell Curl: 70# x 8
Z Press: 80# x 9
Flared BB Bent Row: 90# x 9
BTN Press: 90# x 9
Bent-knee Pullovers: 31# x 16
Backbend Situps: 35# x 9
V Squats: 100# x 18
Jefferson Squats: 100# x 18 (9 per side)
DB Side Press: 55# x 4
H2H KB Swings: 75# x 10 (20 total)
Notes:
- Just redid Monday’s work, but finished it this time.
- Side presses aren’t going well. May want to move these to a higher rep range like he calls out in Super Strength. My defective elbow (the arthritic one) doesn’t like this much. Windmills + other presses is probably a better combination.
- The V Squat + Jeffersons is actually pretty good for my balance and strength. May want to keep these. Makes everyday life things better.
- The now heavier swings were more taxing on my grip. I guess this is my grip training. Right now the idea of doing swings with 100# seems nigh impossible grip-wise.
On a personal note, negative emotional stuff just paralyzes me. Some work stuff happened today and the anger/frustration just shut me down after that point. Both at work, and away from work. It’s something I need to figure out.
If I’m in some immediate situation and SHTF, I can navigate that fine in the moment. But when it’s a vague existential frustration, with no clear path, I have a lot of trouble.
Unfortunately, anger doesn’t make my lifting go any better.
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I hear this.
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This is echoing back to the summer, where there’s a lot of typing and math. I’m trying to hold off the posting, but it’ll be a bit frequent as I sort this out. Sorry.
My current progression is nearing the end. Mostly everything is 10 reps on Friday.
I’m going to switch to the new programming on Monday, and run it for 3-6 weeks. Maybe just March. We’ll see.
Physique and joint stability goals were being met by the Calvert routine. Strength goals were slower than I like. Going to bias toward strength for a bit.
I’m going to build everything with 5s for now, like I did with 3s before. Before I did an Easy Strength x Sheiko blend. This is more of a Power to the People x Sheiko, but a generation or two removed.
5s worked for me with PttP in the past, and if I can get strength progress using 5s, no real reason to use anything less.
2 lifts: Press, 18" Axle DL. 3 volumes: Low, Medium, High.
Using the “sandwich” workout idea, that becomes 4 different training days: Low, Medium, High-DL, High-Press.
- Low:
- Press 3x5
- DL 3x5
- Medium:
- Press 5x5
- DL 4x5
- High-Press:
- Press 4x5
- DL 4x5
- Press 4x5
- High-DL:
- DL 3x5
- Press 5x5
- DL 3x5
I’m trying to balance variation of per-lift volume and per-session (systemic) volume, and that’s what I ended up with. Press averages to ~25 lifts a session, and DL 20. Press varies between 15, 25, 40. DL varies between 15, 20, 30. Daily volume between 30, 45, 60, 55.
Volume changes daily, so there’s never High → High.
Will start with “add 5 pounds each session” with the Press, “add 10 pounds each session” with the DL. Reset to 70% 5RM. Target is 8-10 sessions to build to a new 5RM, so those steps may change.
I may take every Friday session and switch something out to a 10+ set.
Abs and Swings every session, same progression I’ve been doing. Other accessories TBD.
Also TBD: rep-range variations, ROM variations, pauses, chains/bands. I know how to do it, I just don’t know if I will.
I hope it doesn’t take too long to do, but longer sessions should split well over my work day at home.
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Week 1: Medium, Low, High-DL
Week 2: Low, High-Press, Medium
Week 3: Low, Medium, Low
Week 4: High-DL, Medium, High-Press
Week 5: Medium, Low, High-DL
Week 6: Low, Medium, High-Press
Used the same randomization process as the old chart. Just will do it the new set x rep schemes.
Accessories, I probably still need to hit rows hard.
I doubt I need any dedicated tricep or shoulder work; there’s probably enough pressing volume and I don’t have any specific weak points yet.
If I were to focus specifically on press and deadlift only: Biceps work drops out. Unilateral pressing drops off. Squatting probably drops off. “Accessory” pressing (BTN/Z) drops off.
It actually feels wrong to say all that.
But… 3-6 weeks of ignoring “size” and “nonspecific general strength” might be ok.
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2 months into t-ransformation.
Woke up at a not-bloated 159 today.
7-day average bodyweights.
Jan 10: 152.6 (I didn’t have 7 days of data until this date)
Feb 1: 154.9
Mar 1: 158.4
If I can keep this trend up, I should be at least 165 by May 1.
Here’s the chart since I started keeping track last year.
Vacation + Vasectomy recovery was a good chunk of the unrecorded data. Some weight loss from the latter.
“Tens day”
Barbell Curl: 70# x 9
Z Press: 80# x 9
Flared BB Bent Row: 90# x 10
BTN Press: 90# x 10
Bent-knee Pullovers: 31# x 17
Backbend Situps: 35# x 10
V Squats: 100# x 20
Jefferson Squats: 100# x 20 (10 per side)
DB Side Press: 55# x 5 ← 5 left, 4 right
H2H KB Swings: 75# x 11 (22 total)
17" Axle Rack Pull: 310# x 10+ ← 15
Notes:
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Had an interruption during my first Z press set, and only got 9 instead of 10. BTN press went fine though. Side press was affected by my right elbow so only 4 instead of 5.
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Motivation still sucks whenever the everything-high-reps day comes up.
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Back was pretty fatigued before I did the rack pulls. Only maybe a 10 minute break between the swings and those. Still did 15, so new estimated 10RM is 342.
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So I don’t trust this at all, but that means my estimated 1RM is 454. And 5RM at 404. Since I want to start the cycle at the low end, I’ll probably start at 70% of that, which is 283 (62% e1RM). That sounds pretty reasonable.
I’m so used to 1 set per exercise now, sometimes with all-out effort. Going to be weird to switch to multi-set training again.
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A bit of fiction.
Main Quest: massive overhead press and deadlift for reps. Specific targets: 230x8 press, 540x10 18" deadlift
Side Quest: ancient warrior / imperial guard / bagua master.
Main quest progress
I went back and reread some pertinent parts of the Sheiko book. If my posts seem wordy and overly analytical, Sheiko’s stuff makes mine seem like a kindergartner scribbling with crayon…
Mostly though it seems I’ve got the same principles. He also made some comment about the 10-20 double progression: it works, but it’s very slow, and you can do better.
He almost gives away the secret sauce when he talks about “reps per intensity zone”… but not quite. It does give me some new direction to re-evaluate his templates. He introduced a 7 zone model: 50-60, 61-70, 71-80, 81-85, 86-90, 91-95, 95-100+. In contrast to the 5 zones breakdowns pre-Sheiko.
Side quest progress
My training swords came in from China. They’re clunky looking but have authentic handling characteristics as the 2000 year old jians. They handle really nicely.
I had also ordered spear tips from them (they were add ons with the free shipping). These are 1:1 recreations of Han dynasty spear tips (again, 2000 year old).
These are really nice, but I didn’t expect them to be as sharp as they are. These are going to stay in a locked box.
For the spear stuff, I’d been training with a 7’ waxwood staff. I was waiting for the spear tips, but now they’re here, I’m not going to put them on. I think there’s some conduit fittings I can use and get the same weight on the end of the staff.
The sword handling feels a lot more natural to me than the spear. That’s fine. Good to work on my weaknesses…
Bagua standing and circle walking are good to do alongside the lifting. In fact I’d almost argue this is about the most important thing I’m doing outside lifting. I’m getting a lot more manual control over releasing/controlling the tension in my body.
Life stuff
I’m a bit sick.
I also took a couple progress photos. Still quite lean. But progress.
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Is there going to be any context around that slide rule or is it just an easter egg for those who know what they are, and appreciate them?
Kinda weird juxtaposed against a spear head. But then we are all weird here aren’t we.
Edit to add:
I actually have a deeply personal slide rule story, which I have never shared or even really thought about for years.
Around ~18 years ago, when I was a junior or senior in high school, I went to stay at a friend’s house.
The friend’s dad, whom I had never met before, was an engineer. He either deduced or had heard from his son that I was a “smart kid”.
That night, without any real context, the dad gifted me his slide rule. I’d never owned one before, but I knew what it was and deeply appreciated it. I’m confident I sufficiently expressed that appreciation at the time, so I have no regrets, but only years later did I fully appreciate the gift.
Unbeknownst to me, and possibly to my friend, the dad had cancer.
A few years later, while I was in the Navy, the dad passed away.
(His son - which was his only son - was, to be candid, a layabout. A decade later - and to this day I imagine - he worked the checkout at a grocery store. That’s not super relevant but it shapes the story a bit in my mind.)
I eventually realized that him giving me that slide rule truly meant something to him, way more than I could have known at the time, and it means something to me now.
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Wow that’s quite a story and an incredible gift. Did you learn how to use it?
One of my grandpas was a bomber navigator in the European theater in WW2. My other grandpa was a ship radio operator in the Pacific theater.
Between that, my hiking stuff, and actually the questioning of the why the calendar works the way it does, I ended up learning some celestial navigation stuff. Made myself a couple astrolabes, started working through an 1800s nautical navigation book, learned about the Gunters rule (sort of a precursor to slide rules, but specialized to navigation) and ended up buying a slide rule since I haven’t found/made a Gunter’s rule. Also bought a cheap “toy” sextant and then bought a real one from a guy who sailed all around the Pacific with it.
So I have a slide rule mostly for the trigonometry functions. No story behind it.
If I knew more when my grandma was working through the estate sale, I probably would have gotten my grandpas. I do have his rotary flight computer and compass dividers.
I occasionally use the slide rule for pound/kg conversions on this site though.
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Just enough to understand how it works and appreciate it.
I noticed yours has trig. I’d have to find mine (packed away) but I don’t recall it having trig functions… maybe it does.
I know back in the day, slide rule people were FAST. It would take months of dedicated practice (IE, using one while going through school) for me to get fast enough to make a slide rule useful. So it’s packed away as a curiosity.
That’s really cool. On the subject of the bombsight, but not to get too derailed, I recommend a Malcolm Gladwell book called The Bomber Mafia. The audiobook is great, has original radio excerpts.
You and I are really similar. I’m the same way. To be fair I haven’t been down that exact rabbithole, but similar enough.
If I had “more free time” (LOL) I would go down even more rabbit holes than I already do.
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