Roxy has made it a thing. Her little paws can only tolerate so much! She’s the perfect isometric-bicep-builder on hikes and snowy neighborhood walks.
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Today’s Workout
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Hip Thrust: 4x10, burnout partials at the top
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Seated Ham Curl: 4 x failure
Superset:
- Trap Bar Farmers Walk: 3 x Out and back
- Lateral Raise: 3 x 20
I spent so much time on the first two and wanted to hit more of everything but time was running out, so the loaded carry + lateral raise combo seemed like an okay idea.
Loaded carries are the best. They make your upper body yoked faster than anything else. If I’m uninjured and able to do them consistently, they will turn me into a she-hulk in a matter of weeks.
Yesterday’s Practical Shooting: Watch Me!
The women of magnum used the same course from a competition held the night before and it was so much fun. I notice the things that need improvement, but overall feel really good about my performance. Just having a certain amount of confidence and being okay with whatever the outcome is made a huge difference.
I flipped a mental switch recently and have been feeling like a completely different person. Nothing about that course raised my heart rate. Nothing about that group of women or the male instructors made me worry about what anyone would think of me.
I felt totally in control of my thoughts and emotions.
The Confidence Switch
Last weekend I discovered a lady who trains women to stop worrying about other people’s opinions, kill your negative self-talk, and become more confident. And then I listened to about 5 hours of her podcast. And then I joined her confidence-coaching group.
I was under the impression that life coaches were all woo-woo, crystals and vibrations gurus. But this lady is not like that at all. She’s practical and down to earth. She’s also a Christian. So I hired her, got halfway through one of her books, and bought a collection of her journal prompts. I’m in. It works.
Anyone remember this? 
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Touché! I mean, on the flip side, most of us were shot a time or two. Maybe I should have had us focus more on moving faster.
I do think male vs female injuries are interesting. Young women athletes have an incredibly high rate of ACL tears, while men have 3x as many shoulder injuries! We also have more heart disease and cirrhosis, but that might be a different issue…
I do remember that Saved by the Bell and that’s hilarious!
Edit: your confidence post is awesome enough I’ll have to come back to it.
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I’m glad you knew I was being silly. When Chris walks around without a jacket in the winter I scream male privilege! Because it’s funny. Or when my thumbs aren’t strong enough to close the Cold Steal Espada knife, that’s male privilege for sure!
Truth be told, I’m turned on when he’s able to do the stuff that I can’t.
WHOA! Sounds like you did an amazing job leading them.
So true. Women have a wider Q-angle too (because of hip width) which makes athleticism harder for us in general, which people these days do not like to hear because it would mean males should not be involved in female sport.
YES!! I think everyone around our age remembers the famous line from that episode:
“I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so… so… scared!”
And then we all worried we’d be tempted by caffeine pills in the future.
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Back in the 5th grade, we were given a comic book about the perils of sniffing glue… something we had never even thought about before. The main character sniffed glue, saw things, and acted generally wonky.
Sure enough, kids were trying it that day on the playground. Probably didn’t work well with white school glue, but they gave it a shot.
Maybe don’t introduce new ideas for “feeling funny” to 5th graders with a really cool free comic book?
It looked something like this:
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Yeah, the basic combat training was pretty lightweight compared to what we did in actual boot camp. 80lb+ packs with 15mile hikes, more than half of which was running. The 5 litre camelpacks simply did not hold enough water to last 2 hours between refills. It’s rather hot in SC mid July.
They very noticeably made MCT (combat training) much easier as it had to be ‘inclusive’.
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Being shot not being the goal, it would be fair to reach a different conclusion.
Obviously we’re all exactly the same, except when we’re not, which really means we are. Duh.
To be fair, I am hopelessly addicted to caffeine. I should have listened!
My wife and I have this conversation every time the school wants to teach the kids something new with which we don’t think they have a great track record. “You kids ever think about hurting yourselves? You will now!”
I don’t want to derail any further. What is it you think is working with your confidence intervention this time?
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That is hilarious. My generation would squirt it all over the palms of their hands and peel it off. I think some might’ve eaten it (clearly) but no sniffing that I can remember.
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HAHA obviously.
Good point. Me too. 
My entire log is an intentional derail from serious training logs so please chat about whatever you’d like!
This time?! 
She basically helps you retrain your brain and replace the thought patterns that aren’t doing you any good.
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Sorry if I missed it, what’s her name?
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I didn’t mean you often sought life coaches, you’ve just mentioned that irrational self-confidence is not your inherent default. I’m glad this is fitting!
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Actually, I see now that we didn’t have snowshoes on that day, haha. It would have been better with them!
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Her name is Trish Blackwell and I mistakenly referred to her as a confidence coach for women, but she has a lot of male clients and followers too. I can’t say enough about her.
She has done more to change my negative self talk than anyone I’ve ever met. And this is a huge deal because it’s a generational problem. I inherited a cyclic negative thinking pattern from one of my parents and never thought it was something that could be stopped. Discovering her has been a very powerful blessing, to say the least.
Here’s the episode I listened to during my workout today:
And here’s the first episode I discovered that made me pause, take notes and replay:
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Today’s Workout
Leg Press
- 100 unbroken reps
- 4x15,12,10,8 ramp up in weight each set
Superset
- T-Bar Row: 4x8-10
- Bodyweight Dip: 4x5-7
Superset
- Trap-Bar Loaded Carry: out and back across the length of the gym
- PERFECT Push-Ups: 3x10
Abs
- Ab-Mat Crunches: 3xfailure
The thing I’ve been using at our gym is actually not the official “Ab Mat,” it’s more like an inflatable cylindric disc, but it serves the same purpose: You get a good stretch in the rectus abdominis during the eccentric and have a greater range of motion where you can actually feel the muscles working. Do it right, and it BURNS!
Loaded Carries
I cannot tell you how delighted I am to be doing loaded carries again. It raises the heart rate, strengthens the grip, and makes your upper body harder and visibly more muscular than any other exercise I’ve ever done.
The only problem is, if you overdo them with either distance or load, you can end up messing up your elbows with a form of tendonitis that doesn’t go away for months. So note to self: proceed with caution.
And I don’t care if puns are lame, I love them!
Also, this.
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Thank you! And also, thank you for always being a voice of encouragement. That has meant so much to me since I started logging here. You are so generous with your positive attitude and it makes a difference.
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I’m in awe of people who are outdoorsy in the snow! We just haven’t been able to make that a habit here.
We tried, but discovered that when you gain elevation and can’t see the rocks or ground under the snow it can be a little treacherous. And I don’t enjoy not having control over where my body goes. LOL. The other thing is, we feel guilty hiking without our dogs, and they don’t do well in snow.
At heart, we are desert people. Chris is a Texan and I’m an Arizonan, so we probably just need some really good lessons from a pro! If you were here you could teach us your ways and help us with snow hiking.
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The lesson I learned from this is to not shower anymore.
Way ahead of you, buddy.
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Then don’t! I’ll support that. 
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Today’s Workout
Hip Thrust: 4x10, then burnout partials to failure
Seated Ham Curl: 4xfailure with pauses
Hammer Strength Chest Press: 4x15,12,10
Seated Cable Row: 4x8
Bentover Lateral Raise: 4x15
More Iron-Related Stuff
Awesomely effective workout but I started to feel a bit of that low-iron weakness near the end. It’s imperceptible through the first half of a workout, but by the last two exercises it feels kinda like you’re catching the flu.
Yesterday @QuadQueen shared some really great info on iron deficiency in Bagsy’s log and I’m sharing it HERE so that if I need to find it again, I can just scroll up.
This is some impressive flexibility.
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