It became “do 10, breathe, repeat”. Do you do all 300 unbroken?
Sometimes. Chaos is the plan
2 Likes
Food.
Vietnamese-style ground pork and rice. Homemade pickled carrots.
Beef keema. Beef, potato, tomato, onion, spices. Spinach with garlic.
Pho from scratch (my wife made it). And cherry pie from our fresh picked cherries.
Steak and eggs last night.
Marinated and charred flank steak with homemade chimichurri. Zucchini and herbs with egg.
My kids eat pretty well for school lunches.
1 Like
I almost got a full step-by-step on the steak and egg recipe so here’s that.
Thinly slice flank steak across the grain. Marinate in a mixture of kosher salt and a wine. Neutral rice wine, shaoxing, sake, etc.
Let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then rinse with water, dry, coat with oil and sear in a hot pan (like cast iron). Go for a bit of char.
Didn’t get actual cooking photos.
For the zucchini and egg. Slice zucchini into wedges and fry all sides until tender.
Olive oil in a pan, heat until rippling, then pour eggs in. Once it sets a bit, add the zucchini and herbs. Chopped parsley and basil works well, but I was out of basil. Salt and pepper on top.
Cover the pan if the top layer of egg needs some extra cooking.
Chimichurri of fresh parsley, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Optionally red pepper flakes. I’d recommend proportionally less garlic than I had here.
Food process. Remove, add olive oil and mix.
My wife and I work full time. We have two kids under 5. With activities. We both make it to the gym. We cook from scratch almost every night. It’s certainly doable.
1 Like
food looks amazing mate
1 Like
Thanks.
For as important as diet is to all this stuff, I’m surprised at how people actually eat. Not nearly as much cooking as it seems like it should be.
You’ve got the chicken, rice, steamed broccoli, all day every day crowd. Along with “the only vegetables I know are salads”. And you’ve got the “health foods” kind of eating; throw some quinoa/flax/chia into everything. And then some dirty bulk cooking of ground meat + pasta every day. Not a lot of variation in flavors and textures with any of those.
Plus, there’s really just not a lot of cooking of real foods.
So I guess I’m trying to do my part to help nudge things in a different direction. To show it’s pretty easy to eat “healthy” without eating “health foods”, and not that hard to cook it either.
1 Like
I didn’t realize until later that was a nice round number of squats. Actually not that sore from it, maybe an extra 5-10%, but not bad. (The solution, do this more often.)
However… my body was not ready for the other squats today, so I’ll hold off until Monday. I’m on my last set of this progression: 40 of each, 120 total. Ready to get it over with.
I can’t believe I’m looking forward to finally doing only 60 squats.
Warmup: yellow band dislocates, pullaparts, backward raise. Overhead axle hold. Light curls. Light wrist roller.
Windmills with Toe-touch: 50# x 6 (per side)
Wide-grip Thick-bar Curls: 70# x 7
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 25# x 16 (per side) - perfect ROM
Leaning Side Press: 40# x 4 (per side)
Palm-forward Alternating DB Press: uh, I forgot to do this
Jefferson Squat: 245# x 10 (5 each side)
Backwards BB Raise: 31# x 22
3 Squat Variations: 40# x 8… and skipped
Shrugs: 72.5# x 27
Forward Bend: 88# x 12 - strapped
Straight-leg Situps: 31# x 7
H2H Swings: 45# x 10
Wrist Roller: 32.5# x 2 each way
Pullovers: 31# x 12
Notes:
-
The ROM on those rows felt right, finally. 25 was too light, but a good start.
-
The side press is still cool, but that first rep sucks. There’s a lat shelf to work with for the next reps, but I don’t have it for rep 1. I can’t figure out how to start with that. But if I clean, jerk, and lower it, I can create it. So I’ll probably do that from now on.
-
Curls are getting less painful. Forearm work seems to be doing the trick.
My wife made a ragu from tri-tip yesterday, served over homemade polenta, with roasted broccoli.
1 Like
Dick around in the gym day.
There was a thing long ago called the Roman Column that was a showman stunt but also used for ab exercise. According to some (like Calvert, Sig Klein, Jowett[?]) it was the ultimate ab exercise.
I’ve been fiddling with it and trying to emulate the setup with my own equipment. I keep getting closer but not there yet. I’m still far far away from a strength level.
In less stupid things. Played with presses and press training. Axle bar.
I did some floor presses off of car jack stands because the 25s aren’t tall enough off my mats. Just a few with 70 pounds.
And did a number of press singles and doubles with 90 and 70. A lot more with 70.
Some were clean and press.
Finished with delt stuff. 10 rear raises into 10 lateral raises into 10 front raises with 8# dumbbells.
Shoulders weren’t super happy during the pressing but fine after.
I still have ambitions with the press. Someday.
All of this was while assembling garage shelving and rearranging a mess.
(And some wrist roller. 2 each way of 40#, I think?)
2 Likes
Couple general notes:
-
Bodyweight is still going up but closer to 2 lbs/mo rather than 2.5 to 5. I have 24 days of data now. Lifts are still going up and energy levels are fine. Maybe I’ll push this a bit more, maybe not.
-
Average overnight weight loss is 2.2 pounds.
-
Silly ideas: I wonder if anyone’s actually done a scale-based diet, rather than calories. Aim to weigh at least X amount over your morning weight every night. If not, eat/drink more. If you limit your food to, say, meat/milk/eggs to make that number, it might work.
-
I remembered some stuff from PT and am working on that to improve my overhead range of motion. One exercise is to lay on a foam roller, in line with the spine, put the arms straight out to the side and let them sink to the ground. Work that all the way up to the top of the head like a snow angel. I’m doing that with some 2.5# plates in my hand. Also lying external rotations like that.
-
I’m currently stuck in a rabbit hole of reading articles on the Press. I did this before, long ago.
-
A part of me wants to “press, press, and press some more”. Forget everything else I’ve been doing.
-
There’s no secrets. But maybe some stuff has been hidden by the sands of time.
- Train the press 3x a week, up to 7x a week.
- Don’t train heavy every day. Once a week is good.
- Do lots of doubles and triples. 10x3 and 8x2 and anywhere in between.
- Never deload. ← John Davis said that
- Ab work is critical. You want to be rigid head to foot.
- Do lots of vertical pressing, of all sorts: Alternating dumbbell press. Reverse grip press. Reverse grip DB press, even. Handstand presses on blocks. Behind the neck press. Circle press (Bradford press).
- Non-vertical pressing is useful, for some: bench press, floor press, high standing incline press (lean against a board).
- Lots of strong lifters said seated press was important to train too. Without back support.
- Range of motion training can be useful. Isometrics too. There are basically three phases: the “drive” off the chest, “the sticking point” above the head, and the lockout.
- Lockout supports are also useful to get used to holding a heavier weight. Most lifters used to get this with their Jerk training.
-
My old, long-ago, goal:
230x8 is roughly 290x1. Push press is roughly 1.2x to 1.4x strict press. So that’s a strict press of 210-240.
Calvert said 250 was an average (with a barbell), in his time.
John Davis did a strict 334 lb / 151.5 kg in the 1948 Olympics. He claims to have trained with 375. Pre AAS.
Unless these numbers are all fictional, people today seem to be generally weak pressers. 185 is uncommon. 225 is rare.
A bodyweight press was the standard that you’ve “entered the ranks of the strong”.
That’s the only way I’ve ever known to approach it. I’ve been a weightclass based athlete since I was 14. Number on the scale was always the driver.
These days, I STILL don’t use calories. Mirror and how clothes fit are better indicators.
2 Likes
I tend to think this is gonna vary quite a bit person-to-person. My strict press PR is 200 pounds, but I only push press 215 (1.075x). I’m very unexplosive, and my strict press technique is one that doesn’t carry over very well to a push press.
Big fan of the goals though. Heavy presses are awesome.
1 Like
Lifting part 1
(A few random single, double, triples with 70# axle)
Warmups with same stuff as before.
Windmills with Toe-touch: 55# x 3 (per side)
Wide-grip Thick-bar Curls: 70# x 8 - wraps on right wrist
Leaning Side Press: 40# x 5 (per side)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 30# x 16 (per side)
Palm-forward Alternating DB Press: 20# x 20
Backwards BB Raise: 31# x 15 - fast up, hold 1, slower down
Jefferson Squat: 245# x 12 (6 each side)
Notes:
-
splitting this in two seems to work best in terms of my work and lunch schedule
-
plus, I’m dreading the 120 squats later
-
I forgot I had some Inzer wrist wraps. Right wrist pain curling problem is solved.
-
before I started lifting today, there were many moments where I thought about abandoning this routine for a targeted press/deadlift routine (with accessories). But once I got the 55# windmills, my body remembered why I was doing this. Continual progress in that lift, especially, is what keeps me going. Improved strength and mobility through the kind of awkward stuff I deal with in real life, especially with my kids.
-
also, I’m now fully past 1/3 bodyweight on those
Lifting part 2
3 Squat Variations: 40# x 40; 40; 40 (120 total reps)
Shrugs: 72.5# x 28
Forward Bend: 88# x 12 - strapped
Straight-leg Situps: 31# x 8
H2H Swings: 45# x 12
Wrist Roller: 42.5# x 2 each way - hard, will repeat this next time
Pullovers: 31# x 15
Notes:
-
endurance for the squats was still bad. I mean I did it, but it was weird. Maybe food? Maybe still recovering from those extra bodyweight squats last week? Weird.
-
finally, I can add 5 pounds and drop to 60 reps (lol)
Cool stuff in here.
Pressing sucks and thats why we are obsessed with it.
No time for further comments but i look forward to seeing you meet your press goals!
2 Likes
Do you want to be more explosive? I’m sure you could be, if you wanted to.
Though, I guess I also wasn’t naturally that explosive. Just did the math and I was at 1.17x.
But yeah, there’s a lot of number-fudging with all this. I mostly wanted to get a ballpark for “how strong does my strict press need to be”. Axle clean and press is a different beast anyway, and would require actually training for it.
So it’s more like… once I have a strict axle press of 240+, I maybe have a chance at being able to work toward a 230x8 clean and press. It’s all a long ways off for me.
It makes a lot of sense, and it’s easy to implement. Assuming you’re already eating well, it probably works just as well as calorie-counting with a lot less work.
I actually think a lot of the calorie-counting cult (am I wrong in calling it that?) is really about trying to wrestle some semblance of control in their lives when there isn’t any. None of this stuff is actually very linear, anyway. It doesn’t really work that way.
Anyway, in my case, I basically know that if I want to gain more than 2 pounds a month, I need to be up more than 2.3 pounds every day. That makes for some pretty easy decisioning.
I think I’ll give it a go.
1 Like
It’s not really a big priority for me, honestly. I tend to think (without any real evidence to back it up, mind you,) that explosiveness is an adaptation with a much lower ceiling than general strength. From what I’ve observed, some people are just inherently better sprinters/jumpers/oly lifters, and others are inherently better grinders/endure-rs.
I’m definitely one of the latter, almost to a comical extent. I’ve deadlifted over 500 pounds and never cleaned two plates lol. Sub-six minute mile back when I was running regularly (still pretty awful compared to your times,) and would still get absolutely dusted in a 100m race by just about anyone.
The bright side is that if you get your strict press up to 240 and your push press is still not where you want it to be, you still have an absolutely monstrous strict press lol. And I’ve been enjoying your log, by the way. Not really a way I’d ever consider training, but it’s interesting to see someone buy into it and I’m curious to see where it takes you : )
I mean I think it’s trainable, but I also don’t think it’s that important. If you (not you, you; general you) get your push press from 1.1x to 1.4x your strict press, that’s cool… but maybe that effort would be better spent making your press stronger.
In theory, I guess “explosive lifting” can also help make you stronger, but it’s not something I’ve had experience with. It seems better to use squats to improve sprints than to use sprints to improve the squat. Maybe that’s not a fair comparison.
Same here. Actually both parts of that.
Mentally I want to believe in “do enough work in a few heavy compound movements, and everything else will follow”, but that didn’t really get me where I wanted to go. It’s great that you’ve been able to continue to get stronger (that’s been an amazing run of PRs) without injury. This is just speculating, but it seems like what you got from wrestling has probably helped limit the injuries. (Whereas I was mainly a runner, and spent a lot of time hunched in front of a computer, even before the internet.)
[Edit: I saw your back injury posts in your log; I should maybe read before I speak.]
The other part is I have physique goals, but I don’t want to train like a gym bro or “bodybuilder”. Despite getting stronger, I just wasn’t getting any closer on those.
So, I’m training about as completely differently as I was then, even with the same basic goals in mind. Everything is a bit weird in modern terms: most of the movements themselves, the number of movements (16), sometimes very very high reps, and only a single set. I’m putting my trust in a [long-dead] expert.
So far it seems like he knew what he was talking about. More progress in physique than ever and a lot of my various joint pains (shoulders especially) are the best they’ve felt for years.
I don’t blame you lol, that’s like a solid year worth of posts to dig through. Hopefully the log’s name seems a bit less dumb now. Post #148 in my log is where I give the full context to the injury, if you haven’t already found that. The main thing that has helped me let it heal up (which has take a long time to really start doing in earnest) is not being overly attached to certain movements (standing pressing and deadlifting are both out for now - which sucks because they’re my two favorite lifts lol), and being willing to call an audible if I can tell something feels off with it.
Your training looks somewhat like what I did back during Covid, when gyms were closed. Higher reps, less-conventional movements (I was mostly using KB’s,) etc. I tend to think that it built a good base when I switched into the sort of compound-based stuff I’m doing now, and the results at the time were good too.
1 Like
Since all the cool kids are mixing and matching programs…
Two routines:
- the fullbody 3x a week I’ve been doing. This will always come first.
- press every day. Or 5x a week. Or every day.
Easy Strength is kind of like Power to the People, and kind of like Grease the Groove. Mostly it seems you can do that to cover the strength base, a bit every day, while doing other stuff. Those programs have proved out the concept of strength improvement via regular every day low-intensity low-reps with accumulated-volume per week.
I have a 70 lb axle on the rack. I’ve been doing doubles and triples throughout the day for the past couple days. I’m going to keep doing that, until I feel like making it 75 or 80. And repeat.
This is, I guess, how the best pressers did it too. Walk by the bar? Do a few reps. That’s what the articles have said, at least.
If I wanted to get structured, I guess I could do something like EHOH (every hour on the hour).
Stopping point is… if it affects my “real” program, or injury, or if pain increases significantly.
1 Like
As always, random stuff.
Food adventures.
I made the most complex packaged “ramen”/noodle recipe ever. Some Chinese regional speciality soup, a river snail soup with crawfish. Had lots of seasonings.
Also the funkiest packaged noodle recipe ever. I can handle only so much funk. I’d say it was a PR that I made it halfway through. Got at least 500 calories out of it.
My wife made kalbi beef ribs the other night. Fairly healthy. Delicious.
I made a schnitzel from pork tenderloin last night. A bit less healthy. Lean meat + eggs is good. Breading fried in oil, less so.
–
Equipment adventures.
I set up my DIY cable attachment again in my rack. Loading pin + pulley + rope/cord. First time (long ago) I used cheap cotton rope that eventually snapped when I was testing out how much it could hold. Cheap paracord is orders of magnitude better.
Don’t have any actual plans right now. Tricep pushdowns and extensions maybe. Face pulls maybe. It’s just nice to know I have a way to do these.
I’m also still on my “how to set up a roman column” adventure. I’ll elaborate another time on what that actually is.
I bought some “hanging ab straps” from Spud, that I can use to support my legs. These were much pricier than the budget options, but I feel a lot more comfortable trusting my life to them. Thick, solidly built, naturally cushioned and soft to the skin.
Some online reviews say the stitching is questionable, or clumsy, or whatever. It’s not. They just didn’t trim off the loose ends. In truth, the product design and stitching is really good. Properly reinforced and appropriately overbuilt.
