Ironburgundy's Log

Training Training Logs
1

Been a long-time reader of the site and used to have a profile but I lost it, haven’t been here in a few years.

Remembered reading Alpha’s log way back when and came back to see he made a new one. His mindset and drive inspired me to create a log of my own.

I’ve been basically out of shape for a couple years since graduating and getting a desk job. In the last 6 months I have:
-Pulled a hamstring playing softball
-Landed badly on the same knee twice, injuring and re-injuring it
-Gotten slower, less flexible, and weaker
-Had a harder time sleeping, more aches and pains, and less libido
-Been pretty relaxed with diet, eating a lot of junk

Sharing a few quotes from Alpha’s logs - particularly profound to me:

“We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win.” – Edward Gibbon

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” --Khalil Gibran

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” --Mark Twain

“All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.” --Scott Alexander

“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand; it never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass

I hope to post some of my own rants sometime on work and goals and such.

06/18/2014 work: (just getting back in the gym)
Warm up - walking for about 10 minutes
Plyometrics arms and legs

Deads 135x6-8 for 5 sets
Lat pulldown - 120x6

Stretches, rolling, squat position mobility work

6-18-14 FEWD:
Coffee with butter
Eggs & sausage
More coffee, water
Trail mix
more coffee
Ground Beef, potatoes, Italian sausage
banana
Ground beef and potatoes with sour cream

2

6-19-14

Rolled out my adductors - sore from the little bit of lifting I did on 6-18-14 - mashed them good, definitely helping today
Took the kids to the Y to climb the rock wall for the first time. They were awesome. LG7 (little girl, age 7) rang the bell on the first try and LB9 did it on his second try after both girls there did it. Girl is a daredevil, treeclimber, most passionate charming kid I’ve met. Boy is a book-type, still active but much more into knowledge that the girl. They’re both awesome and I’m thankful to be raising them every day.

FEWD (did I mention all my meals is homemade? thug life):
Coffee w/butter
Eggs and ham
More coffee
Trail mix (homemade stuff, all good ingredients and no added salt)
Ital. Sausage, California blend veggies and a bit of rice
Coffee with heavy cream, about a mile walk to the coffee shop and back
Asian chicken salad - wife saw this on pinterest and hammered it out - what a champ - 14 weeks pregnant, nausea from morning sickness, still cooks and prepares amazing food for the family
Had some GF bread with natty pb because the chicken salad just wasn’t filling me up - probably more than what I needed but it’s not this moment so I can’t change it

You aren’t broken if you’re sick, you just need to know how to feed and stimulate your body properly. So much can be cured and prevented by understanding your body. Increase your knowledge and do stuff till it works. Never forget the 2nd step, nobody betters themselves without action. Gotta do the work, all the motivation in the world means nothing until you put your wheels on the ground and try something.

You can set your mind and will to your goals but nothing will happen until you take that crucial first action.

Rock on and stay strong!

3

Thanks for the kind words in here man! I will be following; let me know if I can help in any way.

4

Why Do Goals Work?

I’ve been doing plenty of thinking about goals. I know this isn’t a widely-held opinion but I don’t think goals work, at least for the reason we think they do.

Motivation is fleeting, inspiration is a liar. Many men have died never reaching their goals, despite how motivated they were, and how realistic their goals were. Here’s something you might not know: EVERYBODY HAS GOALS. Because having goals is the easiest thing you can do. That Harvard study, they said people who wrote down their goals were more successful. Bad statistics, but makes for an attention-grabbing headline and simple platitude. You see what someone has accomplished, and you say, I want that. That looks a hell of a lot like most people’s goals, doesn’t it? And you feel better after setting that goal, either on paper or in your head. You’ve gotten your high; your psychological trick you played on yourself worked. You even look at/think about your goal every day to get that high.

I’ll wait until the applause dies down.

But you don’t do anything. So we came up with “SMART” goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Now you get to write more stuff on paper and have more ways to get that high. It all feels real nice. It’s actually a great way to feel like you got work done. But still, SMART goals work better than the first type. Now why is that? Is it because you’ve thought harder about your GOALS or is it because of something else? I can think about my goals all day. What are they specifically? What will I measure them against? Are they realistically achievable? Do they matter? What’s the time-frame for achieving these specifically measurable, realistic goals that matter?

Wow, I feel like punching MYSELF in the face after reading that back. Without further ado:

Goals are a psychological mechanism for tricking you into facing the reality of the work that will be required of you.

Our brains don’t like long-term thinking. We have primitive minds - despite how advanced we think we are - that are programmed to be concerned with immediate problems. Predators, food, shelter, sex. You base all of your decisions on those, if you’re honest with yourself.

rant to be continued…

5

900×1667 690 KB

So I pulled my hamstring on Friday night playing softball. I was really bummed, was down and pretty grumpy then I remembered this story about Teddy Roosevelt (credit to Art of Manliness for the comic). We’re all given the decision every day to to make our bodies, and really the same goes with our minds. I will rehab this mother and get even awesomer.

6

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling’s “If” (excerpt)

Work 6-23-14

Walk, plyos to warm up shoulders - still can’t even jog with the hamstring pull but I stretched that some

10x3x150 lat pulldown
10x3x40s DB standing shoulder press
Man - 10x3 sis pretty awesome - I’ve always done a pretty standard 5x5 or 4x4 with heavy weights but I really like this 10x3 stuff. Helps me focus on not breaking down on form but seriously ups the volume. Trying to focus on awesome form and stable spine and hips while doing all this. Can’t wait until I can get my legs to work again.

FEWD 6/23/14

McDonald’s breakfast - sausage and cheese muffin x2, apple pie x2
Lunch - beef and potato skillet - blizzard after
Dinner - Homemade pork fried rice - easy on the rice, heavier on the pork

Didn’t have the greatest day nutrition-wise. I passed up some nutritious stuff for tasty stuff - McDonald’s breakfast on a Monday morning when you’re running late is still McDonald’s breakfast, naw mean? Followed by the Blizzard at DQ in the afternoon - a conscious choice. I know my biggest problem is consistency with my diet - I know exactly what to eat, but the staying consistent (or lack thereof) inhibits progress. I’ll keep working on it and preparing meals ahead of time

7

06/25/2014

Thought for the day: Instead of trying to find the best way to do something – more thinking about our training – let’s start asking ourselves “What can I do right now?” That’s what I did last night. That’s what people who are foolishly ambitious do. And we need more folks like that. We certainly DON’T need more naysayers, critics, and play-it-safers. So be foolishly ambitious, do something that looks crazy.

FEWD: past two days were pretty clean - ate a variety of meats and eggs, some spaghetti squash, a bit of fried rice to fill out some carbs, and straight black coffee. The only slip was when I had some milk duds and popcorn at the theater. (how to train your dragon 2 was pretty cool btw).

WORKOUT:
Standard walking and plyos warmups, still pretty jacked up with the hamstring.

Front squat 6x3x165 - This felt good - I warmed up with some goblet squats

My head felt like it was going to burst, probably too much caffeine, so I cut it short on the front squats. Also I haven’t squatted in a year so I wanted to be able to walk the next few days. Really need to work on some shoulder range of motion to improve my rack position. Hard to front squat when you feel like you’re gonna lose the bar.
Pregnant wife did some bench and squats too. She’s hardcore btw. I think her PR deadlift is 220.

On another note, she complimented my drive to get in the gym the last few weeks. That was really cool.

8

I’m still, here, still working out, haven’t missed a workout. Finally hitting it harder, more exercises per workout. Loving every minute of it.

Workout 7-7-14 10x3
Front Squat 10x3x135
Deadlift 10x3x135
Lat Pulldown 10x3x157
Decline Bench 10x3x115

Workout 7-9-14
Back Squat 10x3x135 (still going easy on the legs, going to ramp it up next week)
One-arm DB bent row 10x3x70
Romanian Deadlift 10x3x135
DB Shoulder Press 10x3x45s

9

I’m still in this, just not updating this log as often as I want to. Been hitting it hard every workout, 2x a week 10x3 workouts. Keeping this log alive until I can update it more often.

07/21/2014 Work:
10x3x225 Deadlifts
10x3x185 Front Squat
10x3x155 Decline bench press
5x3x165 lat pulldown

This 10x3 is pretty hard and I am pretty wasted at the end, but I’m increasing my work capacity and strength. Just looking back a month I’m getting stronger.

10

Apparently my last post did not go through. The long and short is that I decided I wouldn’t have time to workout at night so I started working out in the mornings. Goal: 21 workouts by Dec 14th, the new baby’s due date.

Workout 6 of 21 - 11/10/2014
Squat 3x5x245
Bench 3x5x135
Power Clean 3x5x135

11

Pulling a quote from Alpha’s log:

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” - Mario Andretti

The next few months are going to go fast for me - holidays, having a 3rd kid, changing jobs. I’m game to make the best of it. And I might feel out of control but that’s ok, I’m still headed in the right direction.

Workout 7/21
Squat 3x5x255
Press 3x5x105
Dead 3x5x225

Just slowly adding more weight. I’m not in a sprint here, I want to get stronger and stronger - that’s my only goal in the gym, all else is subordinate to that goal.