Calvert and Milo Barbell

Training Training Logs
606

W13D3 - Medium Stress

Some club stuff and mace stuff to stretch and warmup.

Main Work
Press (81%): 100# x 6 x 4
17" Axle Rack Pulls (72%): 330# x 4 x 5

Supplemental Core Work
Roman Column: 8x sit-to-backbend-to-sit
H2H KB Swings: 90# x 26 (13 each hand)

Accessory Work
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 55# x 8 (R then L)

High Cable OH Extensions: 22.5# x 3 x 10 (R then L)
– superset with –
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 85# x 3 x 10

SuperGripper: [5,3] x 7

Workout notes:

  • my baseline overhead mobility seems to be getting much better.
  • finally getting the hang of slowing the press descent. Shoulders, upper back, triceps are all feeling it, in a good way.
  • with the rests, sessions are so long. Sure, I’m doing stuff in between, but still.
  • less volume wasn’t the answer for the presses though.

Diet notes:

  • embrace the hunger!
  • new shakes are finally in. Fun new flavors I haven’t tried.
  • no-fat cottage cheese is all right; it’s filling enough and still flavorful enough

Programming notes:

  • Some weird indecision going on. Sometimes I want to:
    • … squat again. (Now that my knees no longer hurt … from squatting)
    • … go back to Calvert double-progression overhead work. (Which I stopped doing because the single armed stuff was hurting my shoulder, and the BTN stuff was progressing too slow. But I wonder where I’d be now if I just stuck with it.)
    • … go back to doing windmills.
    • … go back to high-rep heavy Jefferson deadlifts. (I felt like I grew everywhere from these.)
    • … do some overhead support, lockout, tendon-strengthening stuff. (But I don’t know the recovery impact, and am afraid to risk it.)
    • … train the power clean seriously.
    • … add in pause and partial work.
8 Likes
607

In at least one way, the press reps are looking all right. Delts and triceps are pretty equal in terms of applying force to the bar.

You can see that in the graph here. The M shape is the velocity. The first peak is the speed from the shoulders, then it slows down at the sticking point, and then picks back up when the triceps kick in. Both peaks are the same.

Ideally it would look more like Π than M.

IMG_2199
IMG_21991170×2532 375 KB

5 Likes
608

Report back on your flavor reviews. I like to try new ones!

1 Like
609

Diet notes:

  • This is getting hard from a psychological standpoint.
  • Good things:
    • I haven’t had a drop in strength.
    • Scale continues to trend down, just some minor bumps on the weekends.
    • I made it through a full weekend without major hiccups, especially considering one meal was at a pizza/sandwich/brewery, and another with a Chuck E Cheese birthday party.
    • Fat around my navel is mostly gone. Feel like a major checkpoint was achieved.
  • Bad things:
    • I feel like I’m so calorie restricted at the moment that there’s almost no wiggle room.
    • I thought I’d be leaner by now, given how much stricter the last couple weeks were.
    • I also feel like I’m running out of time. Mostly from Lyle’s warnings about screwing with my hormones if you run it too long while already lean. Fortunately, I haven’t noticed any hormonal issues though with respect to sleep, libido, body temperature regulation.
    • I’m doubting whether the “thicker skin” – the generalized subcutaneous fat – is going to go anywhere. However, most of the localized pockets of fat are gone.
    • And, of course, just kind of tired of maintaining status-quo with lifting progress.
    • Well, also importantly, I feel like my relationship with food/eating is getting a little screwy right now. First time I dieted down, the food choices weren’t great but I was also semi-obsessively tracking macros. This time I’m not tracking calories, and the food choices are better, but it’s also hitting semi-obsessive levels.

Anyway, the current plan is at least through Friday.

Calipers are reading 9 (abs), 4 (chest), 4 (legs). 17mm total.

(Last time I recorded it was May 22, 12 days ago, with “Abs 11, chest 5, legs 5, so 21 total.”)

I’m not sure how consistent I am at measuring, 17-19mm. It’s down though.

Also, scale weights:

image

General disclaimer first. The Biotest MD flavors are good, they just don’t sit well with me. Also a bit too sweet for my taste. So, considering they’ve run this site for 20+ years, I’m all for supporting them. (And do, with other products.)

As far as the new flavors. These are all from Dante’s site (of DC Training fame):

  • Cafe Mocha is my favorite by far. Not too strongly flavored in any direction, and reminiscent of the Arby’s Jamocha shakes I’d have maybe twice a year as a kid.
  • Strawberry Sorbet is ok. It’s not the strawberry I’m looking for, which is something like the old Carnation Instant Breakfast “strawberry sensation”. But it’s ok.

I’ve gone through a pound or more of each of those, so those are well formed opinions.

The new-new ones. My 5 year old helped pick these out and it shows…

I’ve only had a single shake of each.

  • Chocolate-covered Strawberry. Seems to be the same strawberry, which again is ok. Not really reaching for it, but it’s fine.
  • Lemon Cake. This is weird, but intermittently pretty good? Smells super chemically in the bag but mixes up well, smelling like a lemon cake. I’m undecided whether it’s pretty good or isn’t.
  • Chocolate Thin Mint. I had a lot of doubts about this idea because mints can get weird (and toothpasty). But it smells like an Andes mint, and half the time tastes close enough like it. First shake was decent.
  • Red Velvet Cake. This was 100% my kid picking it out from the picture. It… tastes like red velvet cake. It’s got a bit of coconut undertones, which I’m not a huge fan of. But also has caramel undertones that are good.

So, in short, the flavors are all a bit weird and I’m undecided!

6 Likes
610

On the diet notes, perhaps a cyclical approach to nutrition would suit better. It’s sounding like some diet fatigue is hitting, and the restrictions are showing in a negative light.

I’ve found, after enough time, that a nutritional protocol based around denial is just unsustainable, and often, in my case, results in binging. We can only put off those desires for so long before they finally hit, and the longer we put them off, the harder they hit.

1 Like
611

When you say that, do you mean something like the Feast/Famine approach of alternating week or three of each, or something different?

I was actually pretty ok until the last bit. My diet was already meat + vegetables. Dropping out the small bit of carbs from that was nothing, and swapping out whole milk for shakes wasn’t too bad.

But when I also added in the “strict low fat” restriction it started getting to me. Chicken breast, not chicken thighs; sirloin, not ribeye; eggs, no yolks. Nonfat cottage cheese was a nice addition though.

This is the other part that threw me, because when I started mid April, I though I’d be done by May 1 at the latest. May arrived and I wasn’t where I thought I’d be. Now June arrived.

That said, I’ve shifted the goalposts a bit. I want to get to a lean enough place where it can get a good 9-12 months of gaining before I feel like maybe I need to lean up.

612

That’s definitely one way to do it. Alongside that, like you saw in Apex Predator, you can have cycles within the week (2 fasting days, 1 rampage day, 1 keto day, 2 apex predator days), or you could do something like Justin Harris’ carb cycling approach, or the ABCDE diet, or a Clyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD) or like Marty Gallagher’s cycling between the Warrior diet and the Parrillo principal. Pretty much all of them have in common that you’re not constantly beating your body down with a consistent deficit, but even IF in consistent deficit, the matter OF the deficit changes, but often there is even a brief introduction of a surplus there.

But when I also added in the “strict low fat” restriction it started getting to me.

I truly believe “low carb low fat” was the biggest thing that led to my complete downward spiral in health, so I can see that for sure.

Setting yourself up for a YEAR of solid gaining is honestly not something I can possibly fathom. Think about how HARD you have to train in a gaining phase in order to put on muscle: does that seem like something you can do for a solid year with no breaks whatsoever. And, as a family man, is your family going to want to be around you while you do that? It may be better to set yourself up for an ability to do 6 months, at most, of gaining, with a planned break that could very well turn into a fat loss phase. More cyclical stuff.

2 Likes
613

RFL has the same idea too, whether it’s a full on diet break (i.e., eat at maintenance for 1-2 weeks) or carb refeeds, depending on the situation. He splits people into three “categories” based on your starting leannness going into the diet.

It basically amounts to 3 things:

  1. the leaner you are, the longer you go without any sort of break
  2. the leaner you are, the shorter total duration you can run the diet
  3. the leaner you are, the more protein you need per pound LBM

That’s part of what’s leading to the time pressure I mentioned above. I’m closing in on the “only do it 10-14 days” timeline, and not yet where I want to be.

Sometime between now and Sunday, I’ll be stopping this particular diet. I may stop trying to run a deficit at all. If I continue though, it’ll certainly be far more moderate.

What I’m doing now is like doing the V-diet without any HSMs for 2 weeks straight. Except I can actually eat solid food, it just has to be lean meat and veggies only. That’s the only thing keeping this “family-man friendly”.

I didn’t realize that. That’s a good warning, thank you.

2 Likes
614

Training motivation is nonexistent.

A few things seem to be playing into it: literal low caloric energy, lower mood from dull weather, elbows are still unhappy, and finally, lots of prescribed sets.

I also missed my mid-morning timing when I usually start lifting, so now it’s late afternoon.

W14D1 - Higher Stress - DL

Foam angels, clubs for warmup and stretching. No mace.

Main Work
17" Axle Rack Pulls (75%): 345# x 3 x 5
Press (85%): 105# x 7 x 3
17" Axle Rack Pulls: 345# x 3 x 5

Supplemental Core Work
Roman Column: 9x sit-to-backbend-to-sit
H2H KB Swings: 90# x 28 (14 each hand)

Notes:

  • Skipping the accessories due to time constraints, energy levels, and to let the elbows heal up a bit.

  • Amusingly, by maintaining my strength, I’ve technically been getting stronger from a bodyweight ratio standpoint, lol. Now the question is, can I maintain those strength ratios when I begin to gain weight :thinking:

  • Did you know 15 sets takes awhile to do?

In the story I’m reading with my daughter, the main character and his magical beast sidekick are traveling through the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Multiple times a day, they get attacked by various beasts and fight them off for training.

In this last section, a couple guys asked to tag along. They were part of a large group that managed to piss off some giant Black Panther, and was picking them off slowly one-by-one. They’d met up with a 9th level Warrior, thinking they’d be safe, but this panther took a blow from the warrior head on, and then bit the guy’s head off.

In this world, there are 10 “levels”. The main character is an 9th level Magus and 8th level Warrior at this point, I think. This uncataloged Black Panther is unknown, which means it’s probably a Saint-level Magical Beast.

Anyway, this ties back to training.

IMG_2414
IMG_2414800×450 99.3 KB

  1. Panthers are awesome. Specifically jaguars. Just a compact bundle of muscle and power. Can swim, climb, run, ambush. If there were an ideal animal physique, I would totally be a jaguar.

  2. I was thinking about what “warrior training” would look like, if I were going to be in that world.

While falling asleep, I was thinking there’d be a lot of walking lunges. Zercher walking lunges, or maybe with a camber bar. And walking lunges dragging a sled. Awful stuff.

And of course plenty of overhead and pulling work. Probably lots of high pulls.

But also rotational work. I’m not sure how you could do progressively loaded rotational work. Plant your feet, twist your torso. Hang a barbell end-wise from the ceiling? Some kind of landmine thing?

8 Likes
615

Be careful here - it’s a fine line. I know the plan is for short-term, just don’t let it take over your life and/or become a longer than it needs to be battle. The importance of mental health and sanity cannot be overrated.

Thank you SO much for the flavor review!! I tried a “Fruity Pebbles” powder recently and um, BARF. Lol. I love trying new flavors, but I also really like to have a little background of what to expect going in. So, thanks for taking the time to do this for me!

3 Likes
616

This is one of those BIG things I keep emphasizing when people talk about losing strength on a diet. We’re literally becoming different humans: we have to keep the standard of evaluation consistent, in that, we DON’T expect a 160lb lifter to lift as much as a 180lb one. KEEPING the weights the same during fat loss is amazing: that means you are actually GETTING stronger: not just maintaining. If the numbers DO drop, then you just have to evaluate “by how much” to see if you’re actually getting any weaker.

That story you’re reading sounds interesting: mind sharing the name? I dig you exploring the training that would go into that as well. It’s been a year since I tried out letting my training tell a story, and it was a pretty awesome time.

Regarding the nutritional bit: are you including Flameout or something similar during this 2 week run? Otherwise, I can definitely see some hormonal issues at play running pure protein for so long. I can get away with something like that since I’m getting testosterone replacement, but those without such assistance walk a very thin line.

1 Like
617

Yes. 4-6 Flameout minimum a day. I did try the ‘only 3 at dinner’ per the latest V-Diet guidance, but went back to the 1-2 with every shake approach. RFL calls for 6-10g fish oil a day.

Other things: 2 curcumin in the morning (V-Diet), and extra calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium (RFL). And a multivitamin (per RFL, also @QuadQueen).

A bit surprisingly, Lyle is aggressively moderate and reasonable. A common theme in is that he wants people to develop good habits and lifestyle choices, healthy and sustainable.

So even in the beginning of the Rapid Fat Loss book, he starts out with “you probably shouldn’t do PSMF, but if you’re going to, here’s how to do it effectively”. He spends about half the book explaining how to come off the diet into good eating patterns. Meals of protein, carbs and fats, with vegetables.

One thing he explicitly called out is that he’s not a huge fan of shakes, because they don’t let people develop habits and skills around cooking and eating and food selection. But concedes that shakes do work and work well.

He also made a point that carbs are good, and fats are good, and shouldn’t be demonized. Just that they don’t belong in PSMF, except for a small amount of omega-3s.

It’s called Coiling Dragon by “I Eat Tomatoes”.

It’s a fan translation of an original Chinese story, and it takes a bit to get used to the writing – because of both of those. I wouldn’t say it’s quality reading material at all but is entertaining.

China has a genre of writing called “webnovels”. They’re serially written stories: most authors release a chapter a week, and “subscribers” pay to read that chapter. Because of the financial model, these stories can run on for hundreds or thousands of chapters. As long as there are subscribers, the authors keep the story going. Not high brow literature at all. Much more like SciFi channel series – make it up as you go, with a similar level of quality.

I’d seen recommendations that this is one of the best books to start with in the genre. It’s actually tied off and finished.

It started out with a bunch of kids training to become warriors to protect their clan and village. The main character also happened to have some potential as a magus, so he went off to train at the top school on his continent. That seemed like a good enough basis to start reading with my older kid. Not that I expect either of them to become warrior-mages… but I did like the emphasis on continual physical and mental improvement.

There’s only been a bit of censoring required. The story’s also provided some good openings to talk/teach about several other themes, like honor, loyalty, friendship, betrayal, etc.

However it is long, really long. In ebook form on my phone, we’re only on page 3,000 of 16,000.

A couple snippets that capture the general style:

IMG_2429
IMG_24291170×2532 311 KB

IMG_2430
IMG_24301170×2532 302 KB

1 Like
618

My rating of Red Velvet cake has gone down a bit. Like it’s actually a good flavor, but just too much going on for me.

On the other hand, that Chocolate Thin Mint has gone up. Good flavor from beginning to the end of the shake… and the residual bit tasted really good when mixed into the Cafe Mocha.

FWIW, all of these were with just water.

1 Like
619

You might find this interesting

image
image1606×662 80.9 KB

And it’s only because I was recently listening to a Ketosavage podcast discussing this that it stood out in my mind, but it introduced the idea of taking the calcium supplement separate from magnesium. One in the morning, one in the evening. Might be a thing to consider.

From what I’ve heard about Lyle, he’s a solid dude in general, so I’m not at all shocked to hear your reports on his work. It’s great to have folks like that in the sphere.

Appreciate you sharing the story! I always give my kiddo hell whenever they show an interest in magery. “We are a family of barbarians: magic is mysterious and wicked!” Haha. But I also relent that it’s good to have a magic user in the party. My wife is always the healer, and she’s at peace with that role. As long as I get to be the berserker, I’m happy with that. Speaking of, your kid may dig the “Barb the Last Berserker” graphic novels

image
image722×1000 133 KB

It’s a 3 part series, and I’m not even going to pretend to be ashamed over how excited I was when the 3rd book got released and how quickly I borrowed it from my kid when they were done with it, haha.

Also, on the subject of cyclical dietary approaches, this just popped back up on the radar and is really just an awesome simple way to do things. It’ll resonate with the “Apex Predator Diet” you read about with Jamie.

https://t-nation.com/t/the-5-2-protein-diet/

1 Like
620

I did know that about magnesium and calcium, but like many things, I forget about it when I apply it. Appreciate the reminder.

The story is neat in that it’s a nice hybrid of Western and Eastern fantasy traditions, which I heard someone describe as being a fundamental difference of “you’re born into it” versus “you work for it”. Superman vs Batman, if you will.

Linley’s cool though. He’s trained as a warrior AND had an affinity toward certain magic, where he then also trained and worked hard to develop that. AND, on top of that, he was born into the lineage of Dragonblood warriors. He was the first in a few generations to learn to transform into a demi-dragon, with scales and a tail and stuff, after going through a very painful process. He also became a master sculptor. Warrior, Mage, and Artist.

As a parent, I like that message. You don’t have to pick one, you just work to keep getting better at it all. And you might have some natural talents, but you also have to work hard and you might suffer a bit.

Because it’s not actually a kids story (even if it reads mostly like juvenile fiction), it touches on power and influence, wealth, control, politics, social dynamics, appropriate/inappropriate use of force, etc. Not the kinds of things that typically show up in the more kid-focused material.

(Also, Disney stories are really weird. I didn’t realize how weird they were until reading them to my kids.)

I’ll definitely have to seek out Barb the Last Berserker. That looks fun. I’m sure they’d enjoy it.

Complete sidetrack: My younger kid is all into unicorns (and dinosaurs) at the moment. Phoebe and her Unicorn is a fun read, as an adult. I can read it to my 3 year old, but it’s not quite appropriate for my 5 year old to read without supervision. Somewhat normal-but-socially-outcast kid befriends a highly-narcissistic and sarcastic unicorn. Several clever jokes in it.

IMG_1556
IMG_15563024×4032 3.1 MB

IMG_1558
IMG_15583024×4032 2.84 MB

1 Like
621

Since I’m on a posting spree.

IMG_2420
IMG_24204032×3024 2.73 MB

Not the best photo. Not Food Porn thread worthy. Fish was already half eaten.

But a good family dinner since I can eat the fish and veggies, and everyone else can eat everything.

Seared Ahi, two ways. Salt-water blanched baby/Shanghai bok choy. Whole grain rigatoni in aglio-e-olio.

Basic recipes:

Seared Ahi, two ways

  • shrinkwrapped frozen ahi. Thaw in cold-ish water (like a pot), still in the package. Unpackage, pat dry with paper towels. Add salt and rub it in.
    • first way: fresh ground pepper generously on both sides
    • second way: in a bowl, mix up roughly equal parts of soy sauce and a rice wine: sake/shaoxing. Add just a couple drops of sesame oil. Coat the fish. It could sit in it for awhile, but really just dipping both sides is fine.
  • add a bit of oil to a heavy pan, e.g., cast iron. Just enough oil to keep it from sticking.
  • heat the pan on high, until the oil is smoking
  • add the fish. Cook for 30 seconds or so, just until seared. You can see the fish from the side, so just get a bit of a sear (like the photo above). Flip and repeat. Remove to cutting board
  • pick your sharpest knife, run it across the honing steel and wipe it
  • slice across the grain, if there is one
  • could serve with some dipping sauce, if you want

(Everyone thought the soy/wine/sesame one was the better of the two, but both were good.)

Salt-water blanched baby/Shanghai bok choy

  • usually can be found fresh at almost any Asian grocery store. Sometimes more mainstream places too.
  • boil some water. Add plenty of salt. (Use coarse/bulk/kosher salt so it’s easier to add.) You want the water to be nearly ocean-level salty.
  • rinse the bok choy off with water.
  • slice off the bottom “cap” that holds all the leaves together. Cut about halfway down to separate into the “leaves” vs “stems”. Then cut each of those in half so you have bite size pieces.
  • cook the stems first, since they’ll take a bit longer. They’ll turn somewhat greener, and they’ll get softer. You don’t want mushy, but you want soft. Shouldn’t be more than about a minute.
  • remove them with a spoon or tongs, or if you have a second pot, just strain them out and save the water.
  • then cook the leaves. This will only take a few seconds, remove them.
  • mix them together. You can serve like this, if you want. (Which is what I did above.)
  • alternatively, sauté them further in a pan with a bit of garlic oil. Garlic oil should already be in the pan. Bring the heat to high and just cook long enough to get rid of any extra water.

Garlic Oil

  • chop up some garlic. Somewhere between “chopped” and “minced” is about right. Minced has a higher risk of burning, chopped might be too coarse in your mouth when you eat it.
  • warm up some olive or canola oil in a pan. Should be pretty low.
  • add the garlic to it. It should be bubbling very very slightly. Just let it cook in there for 5 minutes or so. You don’t want any burning, or really much browning of the garlic. Just infusing the flavors and getting rid of the sharpness. You can turn off the heat if you need to let it sit for a bit.

Rigatoni Aglio-e-Olio or any other noodle

  • if you have the salted water from the bok choy, use that. Otherwise, same idea, almost as salty as seawater.
  • boil per package directions, or until your preferred texture.
  • drain and add to garlic oil. Ideally made with extra virgin olive oil.
  • there will be a bit of residual salt water on the noodles. Cook on high to cook off the water and coat the noodles.
  • serve

Options:

  • you can add freshly ground pepper to the oil before mixing. Or pepper it after.
  • you can infuse red pepper flakes into the garlic oil; add it at the same time you add the garlic so it cooks in
  • you can add minced fresh parsley at the end and cook into the noodles
  • and a squirt of lemon juice if you want

Quick, flavorful and simple recipes.

4 Likes
622

Hand to hand kb swings with 90 lbs? Phew. That’s a heavy bell. I got to 10x10 one arm swings with a 28 kg (around 62 lbs I think), but haven’t done them much in a while and am only now starting to build them back up.

I seem to enjoy kettlebells more in the summer, when I can take them outside. It’s a bit much to do heavy kettlebell stuff on top of the barbell program and I don’t like to lose out on barbell lifts, but it’s probably healthy to shift focus now and then. When I only trained kettlebells, I didn’t get injuries. The ballistic movements feel so nice too when technique is good.

1 Like
623

It is, yeah. It was already heavy around 60 pounds, and it just keeps getting heavier! I have a plate-loaded kettlebell handle, which really only works for swings, but that’s what I needed it for.

I’m following guidelines from Alan Calvert’s book Super Strength, where he said to work up to 100 pound Jefferson Curls for 20 reps, and then work up to 100 pound hand to hand kettlebell swings. He said to do these with double progression, working from 10 per hand to 20 per hand, then add weight and repeat. So I’ve just been adding a single rep every session, then increasing 5 pounds, for several months now.

It’s definitely a challenge.

3 Likes
624

Nice work :slight_smile: Jefferson curls are great, I am starting to do them again. Have very tight hamstrings and calves so hopefully they can help there as well in addition to the extra low back «armour».

1 Like
625

Random facts.

Jaguars are roughly humanlike in their dimensions.

Its size and weight vary considerably depending on sex and region: weights in most regions are normally in the range of 56–96 kg (123–212 lb). Exceptionally big males have been recorded to weigh as much as 158 kg (348 lb). The smallest females from Middle America weigh about 36 kg (79 lb). It is sexually dimorphic, with females typically being 10–20% smaller than males.

Interestingly, even upper limb length is similar-ish.

[The Jaguar] stands 57 to 81 cm (22.4 to 31.9 in) tall at the shoulders.

An average man’s arm length ranges from 63 to 76 cm.
An average woman’s arm length ranges from 60 to 74 cm.

Some people compiled a bunch of data, and the average weight of a male Atlantic Forest jaguar weighs 175 lbs.

2 Likes