Dani's Rebel Log

Exactly. Who is still getting away with the same despicable acts?

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I’m saying that him getting killed is getting off too easy.

He (and whoever is getting covered) are the kinds of people who deserve to rot in Kolyma

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I didn’t log last week’s workouts but had some good ones! I tinkered around with barbell bench press, did my favorites (T Bar row, leg press, Arnold press, etc.), and added some direct adductor work for the first time ever.

There was this Nick Tumminello article we published a few years ago on adductor training, and I started wondering if my (chronic at this point) high-ham issue might be related to weak adductors, so I started hitting those along with the abductors. The machines are right next to each other, so why not?

Bonus: between sets of adductor machine, I whispered to my husband about how I’ll eventually be able to crush him between my jacked inner thigh muscles. Not sure if he’s scared or excited about that.

Inappropriately flirting with your spouse: I recommend it. Especially in public.

Today’s Workout

I woke up at 1:30 this morning and never fell back asleep. So despite having the drive to lift, I didn’t have the drive to do extended sets, or push the weight too hard, or be a social butterfly. Today’s workout was all about getting an adequate challenge and feeling the muscles work.

So I ramped up with a weight I could hit for 12-15 reps, then did a few heavy-ish sets hitting failure at 5 reps, then did a back-off set of 10-12 reps. This was for compound lifts. Then for isolation, 2 sets of 15 with a controlled tempo.

• T-Bar Row
• Hammer Strength Chest Press
• Leg Press
• Abductor (booty) machine
• Adductor machine
• Banded shoulder drill

My shoulders and upper back feel kinda wrecked from painting the cabinets in our laundry room over the weekend.

Weekend Stuff

We took these guys for an adventure. Gotta do that as much as possible before the weather gets gross.

That’s Pike’s Peak out there.

Kipper being the goodest boi.

Roxy’s facial coloring looks like she’s wearing the most dramatic winged eyeliner. She’s a Jack Russel mix of some sort with the funniest personality.

So when the story about the Jack Russel – who guarded her owner’s body on a mountain for 72 days popped up – it made me think of our girl. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’d do the same. I get the sense most dogs would.

Here’s that story:

My dad told me a fun fact. He said the name Fido comes from the word fidelity, which explains a lot.

And then on Sunday we did some more stuff: church, matching couples’ onesie pajama shopping, reinstalling the freshly-painted laundry room cabinet doors, and Chris made a dinner that included the best potatoes of my life.

Tall girls are allowed to wear shoes that make them even taller. No slouching.

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When my misses wears shoes like that, I get a sore neck looking up at her. Looks like everyone (doggo’s included) enjoyed that walk.

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My wife is 5’11 and I’m 6’4, and she said she is very happy to be able to wear heels and still be shorter than me.

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I love that you’re okay with her doing so! There are a lot of men who have an issue with that.

We did! The dogs get so much joy from being out in nature and away from our normal neighborhood routes.

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Ah! I love that. You two must stand out.

I actually don’t mind towering over people when the heels are on… including Chris who’s about an inch taller than me when we’re barefoot.

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Long-length partials! This is such a fascinating idea… especially since we see some of the sharpest professionals in fitness saying to always use a full ROM.

Gotta drop this video here because we’ve talked about partials a few times in my log before, but I don’t think we’ve ever discussed long-length partials.

If you happen to be visiting my log, when and how do you use partials, if at all?

Generally I’ll place them at the tail end of an extended set when I’ve already gotten close to failure (1-2 reps in reserve) using a full ROM. I just find the hardest part of a rep and move within that smaller range of motion until the muscle feels like it’s going to bust open.

But this video has me wondering where/how else I can use them.

I recall some science about mid-range partials, so this is where I place the focus. So, the “middle” of the rep with biceps curls, for example. I forget where I saw the studies (somewhere in the T Nation archives), but if you think about it, this is what the old-school pro bodybuilders did. While everyone screamed “bad form” they just focused on the middle of the reps, at least toward the end of the set, and got big. So with overhead dumbbell presses, you’d see them stopping at eye or nose level at the bottom and not locking out at the top.

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Yep, I definitely feel it there too.

When doing 21’s, I’ll do the bottom range reps (that stretched position really feels good) and then instead of top range reps, I’ll just hit that middle range instead. If my biceps are getting fatigued or I used too much weight, I’ll allow the E-Z bar to travel higher up into the top range for a bit of relief.

Bringing the bar up high enough to lose tension is a nice cheat.

That reminds me, we recently posted a video of the best exercise for every muscle group, and one of the commenters criticized the range of motion.

Ummmmm… I’m pretty sure IFBB Pro James Walters isn’t suffering any consequences. But go on, little buddy.

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I’ve seen Dave Tate being told (in a comments section) that he was doing the Tate press incorrectly, John Meadows being told he was doing the Meadows row wrong, and Glenn Pendlay being told his form was bad on the Pendlay row.

There’s a lesson there. :grinning:

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This made me laugh hard.

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I came down with some junk last night, so no workout for me today.

There was a time when I’d lift and do intense cardio while sick because somehow that felt “hardcore” to a twenty-something year old. (Eye-roll.) I realize now how bad that was. I was a pro at digging myself into a recovery hole and wondering why I’d have an ear infection for several weeks.

Friday’s workout was a punch-the-clock session. Nothing spectacular, but the consistency, pump, and effort felt good. Also, I had already spent most of the week on my feet doing odd jobs around the house and painting our front room.

This was a tricky project because I didn’t want to take down my plant stick. So I had to be really careful and hand-paint behind the plants.

A few leaves did end up with a fresh coat of Sherwin Williams, Accessible Beige at 75% intensity. Also, did you know you can adjust any paint color by increasing or decreasing the pigment by a certain percentage? You can!

This project also required taking down all the art and patching the walls. I still haven’t rehung most of this stuff.

Done. Of course this pic was taken at golden hour so the wall color will change throughout the day with the angle of the sunlight.

Regardless, I highly recommend hanging a disco ball somewhere in your house.


And if you don’t frame your dry-fire practice targets, you’re missing out on a weird-art opportunity.

As for Thanksgiving day, Chris was in TX and my parents had to stay in AZ, which was kind of a relief. So when this happens, I just celebrate Thursday and give thanks in non-traditional ways. Like on a desolate mountain top.

Before sunrise I took the dogs to Red Rock Canyon and the place was bizarrely vacant. Usually the parking lot is packed and you have to keep dogs on a tight leash or leave them home.

But on a chilly Thanksgiving morning, with ZERO people around, I allowed the fur-faces to be free for most of the hike.

They led the way, and obeyed when I said, “wait” or “stop.”

These muffin-heads are actually better behaved off leash.

Yes, the ground is orangey clay-like dirt. And no, I did not bathe the dogs after this. This is why our floors are probably gross.

Look closely and you can spot those huge orange rock formations I posted pictures of (up close) a couple weeks ago. That’s Garden of the Gods.

The golden hour (sunset and sunrise) is the most stunning time to take pictures. Because usually this place is a dump.
:wink:

Can you spot the doe? She watched us from a safe distance.

Exploring.

Kipper posing epically.

And again.

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great pictures thanks for sharing Dani.

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Thanks for swinging by and dropping a sweet compliment!

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Warning: Don’t scroll down if you’re squeamish.

There’s a chunk of my back flesh floating in a tiny cup. It looks like a slice of tomato.

This morning’s workout was good but I have one major regret: not hitting back hard and heavy with a ton of volume. Why? Because apparently getting that mole removed this afternoon means no training back for FOUR WHOLE WEEKS.

I mean… just give me the skin cancer, right?

Also no bench pressing because that requires a ton of tension in the back and pressure against the bench. Also no showering for a couple days. Also there is a huge hole in my back.

I’m not actually sure what happened but when the nurse was injecting me with the numbing agent, some part of the syringe (?) exploded and I felt liquid all over my back which for some reason made me laugh uncontrollably.

And here’s the chunk of me that the doc took out. He’ll remove the stitches in a couple weeks. Also, notice that awesome tattoo on my finger tip. Just kidding that’s a birthmark.

Progesterone Nation

So I got blood tests back and my testosterone and free T were super low again. I thought that lifestyle choices (red light therapy, getting plenty of carbs, not over-exercising, sleeping enough, etc.) would be enough to raise it to at least normal levels.

They did not.

Let me know if you want to take a peek at my lab results, and I’ll walk all the way downstairs to the kitchen where I left the paper.

I forgot the numbers but it was low. So were progesterone and estrogen, a bit.

The thing is, I wanted to stop taking T last month because I’d noticed some acne and thought that might be a sign that I’m producing more than enough, so that’s why I backed way off it. But the woman I’m working with said nope, mine was caused by an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone.

So she’s having me bump up the progesterone significantly to balance out the T, and she started me on testosterone again. What kinda sucks is they only give me enough to take half a milligram per day. That’s basically nothing.

But what’s awesome is progesterone.

I’ve written about it before in my log, and I’m convinced it’s the superstar fountain-of-youth, anti-anxiety, sleep-well, be-happy hormone for women. My doc says she’ll even take it sublingually before she sees difficult patients. It works that quickly at preventing stress.

Granted, I want to be aware of signs of excess. That’s a thing too. And it happened to me in Feb, which is also somewhere in this log.

So yeah, I bumped the progesterone way up as per her instructions, and Chris broke the rules last week and injected me with a 7 mg dose of testosterone just to try to get me out of the “deficiency” or whatever you call it when your T levels are crazy low.

And you know what I just realized? My joints feel amazing. Nothing aches except the hole in my back.

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I wish my joints where like this. :slight_smile:

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This will likely be pretty short-lived. We’re on the same page my friend. :joy:

And I’ll take achy joints over chronic conditions or weakness any day.

Hope your recovery is smooth and uneventful!

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Thank you so much! Hope you and your family had an amazing thanksgiving.

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