Love to hear that! I’m excited to try it with a hammer variation.
I’m glad you did! I love it and now I want one too! Lol
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Only buy something this impractical if it’s on a massive sale. It takes up closet space and will look like Halloween no matter what. 
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Lol. Noted.
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Wednesday Workout
Superset (every min on the 3 minute mark):
A1. Kettlebell Walking Lunge: 4 x out and back
A2. Ab Exercise: work until 30 seconds before the next round
So for the lunges I kept the kettlebell in a racked position, one arm at a time. Periodically moved to an overhead position. For abs, I alternated exercises or sides (obliques). This brought back fond memories of what Coach Thibaudeau once had me and Gen do during the Indigo workout days. Also brought back the vague feeling of needing to vomit.
B. Leg Press: 4 x 8
Thought my legs would be toast after the lunges but these felt great. I like to place feet higher up on the platform to emphasize glutes.
C1. Seated Cable Row: 3 x 15, 12, 10
C2. Arnold Press: 3 x 12
Went significantly heavier for the rows; moderate for the Arnolds.
D. Machine Lateral Raise: 2 extended sets, super light
E. Neutral Grip Pull-Up: 5 x 5
I set the timer for every minute on the 2 minutes. This gave me over 90 seconds of rest between sets. If I’d done an all-out set of pull-ups, I would’ve been able to hit maybe 8 reps… maybe not since this was the end of the workout. But breaking them up into smaller sets allowed me to accumulate 25 total reps, which is 3 times more work. I think doing it this way is what’s been allowing me to hit more reps when I do attempt those all-out sets.
Important
Roxy is now in the Squid Games. She will dominate red-light green-light, but probably lose the honeycomb game when she accidentally eats the whole cookie.
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I’ve never really got into the habit of doing 21s, but your way makes a lot of sense and maybe I’ll try it. I like doing EMOM pull-ups too; figure I get way more out of it.
I find heavy preacher curls good for my ego, but doing Kroc rows makes the biggest difference in the calibre of my (upper) guns.
Roxy! You don’t have to put on the red-light! 
(Perhaps you are too young to be a fan of The Police?)
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Puhleaze!
Both my kids, 18 and 21, are fans of the Police.
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I guess that means everybody is a fan of The Police.
Sorry! Didn’t mean to Sting! 
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If I recall correctly, Coach Nick Tumminello wrote an article for us about reversing 21s and using them for all sorts of exercises. Might have to find that.
Oh that’s cool! Love it when a compound lift ends up having a big impact on a smaller muscle group. Pull-ups and chins tend to do that for my arms.
Okay now we are best friends. Haha yes, I actually have sung out her name like, ROOOOXANNE, the way Sting did when he was in the Police!
And here’s a meme just for you.
I was born in 83, but really got into “classic rock” (whatever that means) in high school.
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You’re an awesome dad! That is some good parenting right there.
It kinda makes me sad when teens and twenty-somethings have zero awareness of musicians of the past. They grew up listening to Kidz Bop or whatever the hell, and then only hear what’s trendy/current, and then pretty soon they’re like Jim who? Is Jim Morrison an athlete?
No workout today but I did sleep from 7 pm till 5 this morning and ten straight hours is a thing I’ve never accomplished as an adult. So gold star for me.
Also there’s something pretty magical about Theraflu and weed. It felt like I was coming down with something again, so I combined those two things and had the best night ever.
Also, I installed a sconce in my walking desk jungle closet.
It’s dimmable and rechargeable, so you can actually take it off the wall and use it as a light source if electricity goes out. The hanging part comes right off.
The one awkward thing about this closet is getting in and out. It’s better to push both doors to the side with the desk before you exit… otherwise it’s a tight squeeze.
I need to paint the trim in the closet and that little strip of the wall that’s still white. Details matter for this part of the house that likely nobody in real life is actually going to see.
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does my youngest liking Iron Maiden count as musicians from the past. 
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Heck yeah! Oh my goodness he’s adorable and so talented! 
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takes after his mum. LOL
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Yeah! I can do heavy preachers, but for me chins and pull-ups are a better bicep exercise. I find weighted dips the best triceps one. Our gym has a “climbing machine” which is good for the brachoradialis - you sit down and pull an overhead looped rope downwards against resistance.
Lifting weights makes muscles bigger, but doesn’t change their shape or your genetics. Kroc rows seem to preferentially affect the “peak” of my biceps and made the biggest difference. I didn’t expect that at all. I started doing Krocs in the hope of improving my deadlift; maybe adding some back thickness.
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My body agrees. It’s just as much an arm exercise as it is a back exercise. I’m sure that admission might outrage a few chronically-online fitness influencers, but I don’t care.
I want one!
Absolutely right. However, the emphasis of certain muscles over others can give the illusion of a change in shape. My legs are a good example of this.
My rectus femorus used to be disproportionately large and it made my legs look incredibly stumpy. But changing the type and amount of exercises I do for lower body has decreased mass in one area and added it to another. So you’re right, it didn’t change any muscle’s shape, but it changed the overall proportionality by growing certain areas and de-emphasizing others.
Now that is pretty darn cool. I love a good biceps peak, so you’ve got me wanting to try it now too.
Friday Workout
Superset:
Hip Thrust: 4 x failure
Pull-Up: 4 x 5
Giant Set:
Straight Arm Pulldown: 4 x failure dropset failure
Tricep Pulldown: 4 x failure
Bicep Curl: 4 x failure with burn-out partials
Superset:
T-Bar Row: 3 x 8-10
Band External Rotation Thing: 3 x failure
Kind of a quick workout. Then went to the store.
Also, can we just talk about this phenomenon? Because I feel like there are shenanigans at play when we donate during the checkout process.
So, I did the bulk of the grocery shopping at a cheaper store and then went to Natural Grocers (we call it “natty grows” in our house) for the stuff I prefer to get from hippies. Anyway, during checkout I was asked if I’d like to donate a dollar to such-and-such food bank, and I said no.
And the cashier was alarmed, kinda like this South Park clip, the awkwardness was palpable.
The thing is, I’m all for generosity. But I get the feeling that businesses are actually benefitting from our donations in a sneaky way. Sometimes I’ll donate anyway, but I wanted to practice feeling the discomfort of saying “no” to something I’m skeptical about.
But there’s something so bizarrely psychological about it because a part of me also feels like I need to list out all the ways in which I’m monetarily generous so that a cashier I’ve never met doesn’t think I’m a monster.
So, the girl said, “are you sure you don’t want to donate to the food bank?!” And I said, “nah, my church donates to the food bank and I give at church.”
Then more awkwardness.
Then she asked, “Have you always been a Christian?” And I was like… uh oh where is this going?
So I said, “That’s a really good question. I was raised in a Christian home but wasn’t taken to church as a child, and then ebbed and flowed in faith, so it’s complicated. But I found a really good church that made it all make sense, and now I definitely am a Christian.”
She seemed fine with that answer. But as I left Natty Grows, I got the feeling like, I need to invite this person to church. So I got one of the invitation cards out of my gym bag in the car and went back into the store, but she had left for a break, so I gave it to her coworker and asked her if she could pass it on to the cashier.
I am the worst at this kind of thing. And I also look like a giant turd for not donating to the food bank. I suspect it’s deceptive, but am not sure how to explain that in the checkout line without sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
Anyway, 'tis the season for feeling socially pressured to donate to charities on behalf of businesses.
There’s also this from the memes only thread.
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It’s because they use your money to donate to charity so they get the tax write off.
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That’s misleading. How do you respond to them during check out?
Try saying “no” and nothing else.
Itll be awkward and uncomfortable for a bit, but youll get better at it.
Then it gets freeing.
It’s basically exposure therapy, but using strangers to help you with it.
I promise you it’ll be less awkward than having to answer to a cashier about your commitment to your religion.
Its a scam. Exactly like the meme you posted.
Does it hurt anything by you donating? No. But you’re freely giving a corporation a tax break so they can continue to profit off of you.
It only works because they know people will feel like they’ll have to deal with judgement the way that you did.
It should say “thank you for letting us peer pressure you into paying our taxes with money you’ve already paid taxes on”
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