Dani's Rebel Log

[EmilyQ]

@Dani_Shugart

I do believe I irritate the crap out of people inadvertently (even in volunteer settings where I’m trying my best to be helpful and giving hours of my time). And my brain collects these situations as proof of being unwanted and tallies them up like data points.

Same! Hi, I’m Emily, and I’m repellent in some way that only some people can discern, and even though 90% of all people of all stripes like me it’s definitely a real problem and definitely my fault!

You can sub out pretty much any negative descriptor for “inferior” in Roosevelt’s quite. Obnoxious, too much, responsible, irritating, bossy - you have to consent to any of them for them to have power. I do consent to a few of the things that have been thrown my way. I am a little controlling, but this is pretty much a home problem and is mostly to control my own environment. I am something of a know-it-all, but what can I say? I’m a compulsive reader and explorer of ideas and have a job that puts me in deep conversation with others all day long, whose lives and outcomes I get to observe, for better and worse. However, I don’t insist that others agree with me.

People often find energetic cheery optimists irritating, and I suspect that’s you, as it is me. “Toxic positivity.” That’s a them problem, not a you problem, because who wants to be a tired grim asshat? Not me, anyway. I do not consent.

@Dani_Shugart

Maybe I need to just be focusing on what’s good instead of trying to fit into a community.

Pursue your community, and simply refuse to be influenced by the haters unless upon reflection you find something you wish to change, e.g. I’m very happy being cheery and do not consent to pretend not to be for another’s comfort, however I can probably consent to just cleaning the kitchen sink more often myself because it does not appear that my teachings and reminders re: the spray thing that makes rinsing it easy are having any effect on my husband. I do not consent to have the grungy kitchen sink be central to my marriage. Maybe if I die first he’ll look back at the once-clean sink fondly, and begin rinsing it in my memory.

[Andrewgen_Receptors]

@Dani_Shugart

Maybe I need to just be focusing on what’s good instead of trying to fit into a community.

As someone who doesnt fit into any communities, I think trying to fit in is overrated.

It seems like you live the life that most people would want to live.
You’re fit, happy, healthy, have a great marriage, and a seemingly decent sized group of friends.

You know how many people have all of those?
Like 4

I wouldn’t be trying to fit in, I’d just be trying to get along and understand that there are many ways you are fundamentally different from these people, but in *this* area, you find overlap.

Fitting in is for normies.
You aren’t normal

[Dani_Shugart]

@EmilyQ

Same! Hi, I’m Emily, and I’m repellent in some way that only some people can discern, and even though 90% of all people of all stripes like me it’s definitely a real problem and definitely my fault!

Your whole comment made me laugh out loud repeatedly. Thank you! It’s refreshing to discover that someone else – especially someone I admire/respect – can relate.

@EmilyQ

You can sub out pretty much any negative descriptor for “inferior” in Roosevelt’s quite. Obnoxious, too much, responsible, irritating, bossy - you have to consent to any of them for them to have power.

I may need to memorize the quote with a new word. So good!

@EmilyQ

I do consent to a few of the things that have been thrown my way. I am a little controlling, but this is pretty much a home problem and is mostly to control my own environment. I am something of a know-it-all, but what can I say?

What a perfect approach: owning your quirks and being fine with however others perceive them. Yeah, I’ll take a dose of that.

@EmilyQ

People often find energetic cheery optimists irritating, and I suspect that’s you, as it is me. “Toxic positivity.” That’s a them problem, not a you problem, because who wants to be a tired grim asshat? Not me, anyway. I do not consent.

HAHAHAHAHA I have to copy and paste this to my notes app and open it up on occasion!

We’re not for everyone.

@EmilyQ

Pursue your community, and simply refuse to be influenced by the haters unless upon reflection you find something you wish to change, e.g. I’m very happy being cheery and do not consent to pretend not to be for another’s comfort,

I do really like this idea. To be honest, I’m not even sure how much I actually care about shooting competitions and putting holes in cardboard. The positive vibes are a big part of what makes me excited to go back.

@EmilyQ

however I can probably consent to just cleaning the kitchen sink more often myself because it does not appear that my teachings and reminders re: the spray thing that makes rinsing it easy are having any effect on my husband. I do not consent to have the grungy kitchen sink be central to my marriage. Maybe if I die first he’ll look back at the once-clean sink fondly, and begin rinsing it in my memory.

This gave me another huge hearty laugh, a guffaw. I don’t guffaw very often but this definitely did that! And now I need to go clean our sink.

[Dani_Shugart]

@Andrewgen_Receptors

As someone who doesnt fit into any communities, I think trying to fit in is overrated.

I truly appreciate that perspective. I think working from home often makes me lonely. So it feels mentally healthy to be around bigger groups of people. But then often when I do, it makes me more aware of my differences.

@Andrewgen_Receptors

It seems like you live the life that most people would want to live.
You’re fit, happy, healthy, have a great marriage, and a seemingly decent sized group of friends.

Thank you! I’ve been blessed with a lot more than I deserve. I don’t really have a group of friends, just a handful of special individuals from different random parts of life.

@Andrewgen_Receptors

I wouldn’t be trying to fit in, I’d just be trying to get along and understand that there are many ways you are fundamentally different from these people, but in this area, you find overlap.

Fitting in is for normies.
You aren’t normal

Well that made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Thank you for the pep talk.

[Dani_Shugart]

Yesterday’s Upper Sesh

• Seated Cable Row + Light Lateral Raise (Superset)

Every minute on the two minute mark, EMO2M. Did 10 reps with the rows and then went to failure with the lateral raises.

• Dumbbell Incline Bench

Worked up to 45 pound dumbbells. This was tricky. It’s not the exercise that’s hard, its my right hand that hurts when carrying the dumbbells to the bench. But the press movement itself felt fantastic. Pecs felt great. Shoulder was fine. Hand was not thrilled.

• Machine Overhead Press
• Cable Tricep Pushdown

Went light for the overhead presses because I haven’t done them in several weeks due to the weird shoulder. But it felt good enough to keep at it for another couple sets. So, 3 x 10 with the OHP and 4 x failure with the tricep work.

• Dumbbell Bicep Curls

So for this, I held the curl at the midway point for a full minute. Then cranked out 10-15 alternating reps. Then hit another 3 sets of alternating bicep curls. Arms were tightly pumped.

Other Stuff

Is rock music dead? I don’t know where I stole this graph from but it seems true based on what’s been popular over the last decade or so.

True, but it comes in handy. You don’t want to squirt your dog with Windex.

Duck tales, woo-ooo!

[Lonnie123]

@Dani_Shugart

Is rock music dead? I don’t know where I stole this graph from but it seems true based on what’s been popular over the last decade or so.

Not dead but its certainly been replaced as the main form of music by Hip Hop and its various styles.

Partially a change in taste and partially because the barrier to entry is SO low (not a bad thing necessarily, but before you could literally own a microphone and download a backing track off Youtube and upload to spotify you had to buy a bands worth of instruments and learn them and drag all that around the clubs and stuff to get noticed) would be my guess

[Dani_Shugart]

That’s a great point, and it explains why everything seems more homogeneous.

[Friedrich]

@Dani_Shugart

I do believe I irritate the crap out of people inadvertently (even in volunteer settings where I’m trying my best to be helpful and giving hours of my time). And my brain collects these situations as proof of being unwanted and tallies them up like data points.

Welcome to the club!

[Dani_Shugart]

Lower-ish

My coach in high school used to say that if you’re going to train the lower body, sprinkle in a thing or two for the upper body and vice versa. He had no degrees in exercise science, but he had a lot of interesting advice, and I still follow a lot of it 25 years later.

Also, I’m vain enough to want an upper body pump while training legs. ¯\(ツ)/¯

• Walking Lunge

Added some banded shoulder work between sets. But this is probably more of a warm-up than anything else. My goal here is to lube up the knees and pump blood into the quads and glutes before moving onto heavier work.

I like controlling the tempo and adding an isometric hold, like hovering and pausing in the position where one leg is forward and the other is back. This has somewhat of an occlusion-effect where blood gets drawn into the vastus medialis, the “tear drop” that always looks awesome on people.

• Leg Press

Just did 3 work sets and a couple ramp up sets. My joints (hips) don’t feel safe going above 230 on this. (I’m starting to wonder if I have Elhers Danlos syndrome because there are just too many weird things I have to work around.) So instead of adding more load, I control the tempo, use as full of a ROM as the machine allows, and feel the stretch + contraction in the glutes and legs.

• Hip Thrust Machine
• Dip

Did 4 sets of 10 full ROM and then partial pulses at the top to failure for the butt machine. Glutes were on fire today. Then hit 4 sets of 7 for the dips. I thought that would be risky given the stupid hand pain situation, but it was just fine.

Turns out your weight isn’t really distributed on the part of the hand that controls your trigger finger. For me, the weight distribution is more on the outside of the hand.

• Leg Extension

Did 4 sets of a heavier load for 10 reps, then a drop set to about 60% of that weight and went to failure.

Random Things Related to Tulsi Gabbard

A lot of people on X freaked out (in a good way) over her quads. So, here they are:

YAY! Developed female quads deserve more appreciation.

Also, here’s her doing a Tactical Games interview:

Range Day With Friends

More cool stuff:

Tactical Games Training

Tulsi is not an official “influencer” but I have been influenced. I now want to be a Hawaiian politician. Just kidding I want to put holes in things from a distance and be absurdly fit.

[Dani_Shugart]

Upper Body

• Seated Cable Row: 4 x 15, 10, 10, 10
• Lateral Raise: 4 x Failure

I love doing this as a superset because you end up feeling the delts during the last few reps of rows… you can shift tension there when the lats and mid back start tiring. I’m happy to double up on effort in the delts during times when avoiding overhead presses.

• DB Bench: 4 x 10, 8, 6, 6

Pecs felt really good for this, shouders were okay, hands and wrists were not great. What is the deal?! Had to use a wrist wrap for the remainder of the workout.

• Lat Pulldown (Supinated Grip): 4 x 8-10
• Tricep Pushdown: 4 x Failure

The standard pronated grip irritated my tricky scap area, so no biggie. I just changed up the grip and felt better. Still had to go pretty light and move cautiously for the pulldowns. The triceps felt amazing. Awesome pump. Liking the arm definition today.

• Back Extension: 4 x 10 Full ROM, with 5-7 partials

I just used a 10 pound plate for this, paused at the top of each rep, stayed in the ROM that felt tension, and then did the partial pulses at the end. This can’t not hit the upper glute area AND spinal erectors.

• EZ Bar Bicep Curl: 3 x 10 (iso-hold on the first set)

Started with a one minute hold, then repped out as many curls as possible to failure (obviously went light for that but it still burned). Then added more load and did controlled full ROM sets.

Other Stuff

According to my photos app, there are 1,991 pictures and 77 videos of dogs on my phone.

And on that note, here’s the first picture we ever had of Kipper:

We were not planning to get a dog but I couldn’t get those little ears out of my mind.

[Chris_Shugart]

Didn’t the Humane Society originally name him Poseidon? I think I can see it on his collar.

Poseidon: The dog who sometimes wears a raincoat.

[Dani_Shugart]

Yeah that whole litter was named with the letter P, so he had a sister named Penny, which is the only other one I remember. But you’re right Poseidon was the worst name for a puppy who hates getting wet.

[Dani_Shugart]

How Deadlifting is Related to Shooting: CNS Fatigue

I competed last night and am positive now that it has an affect on the CNS. This is where intuitive training comes in handy… I know I can move weight around, but avoiding gripping anything hard feels like the right move on days like this.

One of the things we all learned from Coach Thibaudeau is how the deadlift affects your central nervous system, and how having to grip the bar super hard plays a role in CNS fatigue.

Here’s what ChatGPT says:

“Grip is a sneaky CNS killer in the deadlift. Even if your back and legs could handle more volume, your nervous system often gets drained faster because of the intense, sustained grip demand.”

So, just connecting the dots here, if your CNS is affected by things that require a tight grip, then it makes sense that practical shooting can also affect your CNS. You’re not fatigued the next day because of “the jitters” or having to remember your stage plans, it’s because you were trying to control the recoil by keeping your grip tight while engaging every target.

Anyway, I almost didn’t want to lift today because my CNS wasn’t fired up, but was able to navigate around it and ended up having a fantastic workout.

Lower Body

• Machine Hip Thrust: 4 x 10, 10, 8, 6
• Dips: 3 x 7

This is such a great superset to begin with because your grip doesn’t play a huge role in either, and both things hit major muscle groups without negatively affecting the other lift. So you’re fresh for both but slightly winded. EMO2M.

• Leg Press: 4 x 10, 8, 6, 6

Every minute on the three minute mark for this, EMO3M. Again, no grip requirements here. Ascending load, descending reps.

• Back Extension: 3 x 10 full ROM + bodyweight partials to failure

I used a 25-pound plate for the full ROM reps, then a drop set in load with the partials. You can basically hold the plate in your forearms so again, no tight grip required.

• Walking Lunge: 3 x out and back
• Ham Curl: 3 x 15, 12, 10

I didn’t use any load for this superset but felt pretty exhausted regardless.

Other Stuff

This stuff is AMAZING. Hand and wrist pain goes away pretty fast after a couple applications and stays gone the rest of the day, which makes me wonder if certain types of pain are really real. Like, what if it’s just a hyper-focus on something that wouldn’t hurt if you could distract yourself from it?

Is there Biofreeze for the brain… or is that just what we call drugs.

Cow raisin is delicious.

True but I still wear dresses as often as possible.

[simo74]

Back muscles popping in that shirt. Quality and most attractive.

[Dani_Shugart]

@simo74

Back muscles popping in that shirt.

Ah thank you!!!

It’s funny how lifters just want a lumpy looking back.

[simo74]

Gotta love them lumps

[Dani_Shugart]

Yesterday’s Lower Sesh

• Hip Thrust: 4 x 10
• Walking Lunge: 3 x out and back (quad focus)

Not quite an antagonist superset, since the hip thrust hits the glutes instead of the hammies, but it was effective. Huge lower body pump.

• Back Extension: 4 x 8, then a dropset to failure

Started with a 25-pound plate, dropped to a 10, and then did bodyweight partials at the top.

• Leg Press: 3 x 10

My focus was locked-in up to this point when I noticed a guy aggressively pacing near by and acting unstable. So the sets were good enough, but I didn’t work up to anything heavy. Had to get off that machine. And no, he was not waiting to use the leg press. He wasn’t doing any actual exercises in the gym… just acting agitated.

That is not the behavior of someone I want close by when my body is in vulnerable positions. Nope nope nope.

• Ham Curl: 3 x 8

Legs were pretty much done by this point but I did these anyway.

Other Stuff

Humming birds! They’re so dang cute, and I could swear I heard them make little chirpy sounds.

Have you ever seen one sitting still like this? Its wings and back were a beautiful iridescent green. Chris took this awesome pic.

We did our first escape room! The “Game Master” gives you an hour to complete it, and we barely made it out by about 30 seconds. It was actually the highest difficulty one they had. So, go us!

Our friends only spend a couple weeks in town a year, so we try to squeeze in as many activities as possible. We’ve got a girls hike this afternoon!

[Dani_Shugart]

What happened yesterday is so horrendous that I can hardly stand it. One thing’s for sure though, I need to get back in church. Charlie Kirk’s passing has compelled me – and probably a lot of people – to take our faith in Jesus Christ more seriously. And to have the courage to speak about it.

What an incredible, brave soul. My heart hurts.

[Dani_Shugart]

Upper-ish

• Band mobility work + SMR on the forearms

Why write this as part of the workout? Accountability. I want to start all workouts with more of this junk. And currently, my forearms are so tight that it’s causing some wrist irritation. Ever delt with a ganglion cyst? I’d love to chat if you have.

• Seated Cable Row
• Tricep Pushdown

I like these as a superset because training back already recruits a bit of biceps and rear delts, which would also be fine to hit in a superset if that’s what you’re going for.

Years ago I had a routine that had me hitting back and bi’s on the same day, and it was a blast, but not great for my particular genetics. My biceps would take over on all pulling exercises. And as a result of that, I couldn’t feel the lats and lower traps working. So, a back and tricep superset is fine for me.

• Incline DB Bench

My joints feel so much better when I opt for moderate weights and controlled movement. So today I played it safe and used 35 pound dumbbells, slower eccentrics, and some instinctive pauses. My pecs were challenged, wrists felt safe, and shoulder didn’t feel impinged. Yay.

• EZ Bar Curl

Started with a one minute hold at peak contraction. Then did 3 sets of 10 full ROM with a controlled eccentric.

• Back Extension

Wanted to give this a shot on an upper day because I’ve heard of people doing that. But I didn’t care for it.

Other Stuff

Messy office. Pretty dress.

Went to a wedding of a friend I met at improv. We took 3 courses together and would make each other laugh so hard. This girl is hilarious and she has a heart of gold. Her new husband is a great guy too.

And look! Chris matched me.

We got lots of compliments on being the best dressed guests at the wedding.

Remember the fairytale game I wanted to frame? Here it is in my basement.

Just a reminder, you can put more than art on your walls… like dry fire targets and board games.

Wall Art: Enchanted Forrest Game

I’m actually really excited to have this childhood memory hanging up.

[Dani_Shugart]

Lower Body

• Machine Hip Thrust: 4 x 10, partial pulses and iso holds only on the first set.

If I’ve started the set and it feels too light, I just pause at the top every rep and add a slow eccentric. Then after the full ROM reps go to failure with partial pulses at the top. I think they call these “Kas” Hip Thrusts. Not sure why or if I care, but they’re officially a thing. My butt says they work.

• Leg Press: 3 x 12, 10, 8

Knees felt pretty rusty (always the case during luteal phase) and I had to pause a couple times in that final set to manage fatigue. I am not the same gal from one week to the next. But I was able to increase load more than expected so yay.

• Back Extension Drop Set: 3 x Failure

Vision went black after standing up between every set. No biggie since you can kinda sit on the part of the machine that holds your calves down. So I just took a seat between sets. Electrolytes are up, iron is up, so… I wonder if the blackout dizzy spells are related to time of month. Still got an incredible pump in the glutes and spinal erectors.

• Leg Extensions: 4 sets of distractedness

The husband jumped in with me on this. His quads are much more ripped than mine. I did 3-4 sets and lost track of reps. But as a female with she-hulk leggies, it’s not going to matter much.

Functional Strength and Wrestling with a Belt

In my women’s shooting class I kept hearing the male instructors talk about setting up the Black Scorpion belt rigs for all the ladies. The gist? It’s freaking difficult and sometimes requires wetting the belt or having to get more than one guy working on it. (This was my impression at least.)

But I don’t want to have to ask for help if it’s something I can do. So I gave it a shot and here’s what happened.