Good luck with preparing for all this, and just don’t disappear forever!
Don’t worry mate, just post the odd thing in your own log so we know you are well and focus on getting your work done. It is way more important that reading other people repetitive training logs that are occasions interspersed with encouragement, sarcasm, flaming and wit.
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How can I add you on FB?
Hey man, just checking in. Hope alls going well for you! Give us an update if you get a chance.
I spoke to him last week. He’s still breathing.
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Thanks. I’m sure I understand as well as anyone where he’s at - my log is barely updated as I slog my way through school. If you see this J - keep killin it!
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Things still going well? @simo74 - any updates?
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Spoke to J this week and can confirm he is alive and well. I won’t update on his behalf but will tell him people were asking how he was.
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1.22.22 - Alive and Well
@simo74 hit me up on FB Messenger this week and I really appreciated the check-in. I’ve met a lot of awesome people in my life, but I tend to let them slip away when I move on to a new place or phase in my life (like a career change). There are people on here that fit that description and it’s nice to stay connected even if it’s just through written text.
I’ll try to keep this concise but you know me. I’ll start with the work update. I survived my first semester of teaching. It felt like chaos for many reasons. For one, I’m learning how to teach while also learning my curriculum. For example, I’m currently in a swimming unit. I don’t know how to teach swimming so I’m learning as I go thanks to some great videos from YouTube. I also don’t get in the pool because I need to be able to see all of the kids in the water to make sure they don’t sink.
The other things that made it chaotic was the absence of one or more teachers in our department. I caught the dreaded Covid in October. I was out of commission for about 10 days. At the time, the vaccine for kids under 12 wasn’t out so the kids were unvaccinated. They got sent home from school thanks to me and their isolation period didn’t start until I left the house. That means they were out of school for almost three weeks. The Mrs. stayed home when I went back because she has leave stored up from her nine year career. The physical education department was short a teacher for three weeks during that stretch. Any time we’re short, we combine classes and that tends to kill lesson plans. It’s easy to fall into survival mode and just do a warm-up, fitness (like a walk/jog workout) and then roll the balls out for some free time of basketball and volleyball. I hate it, but it’s tough when there’s a teacher missing.
Our third kiddo, a girl, was born on Veteran’s Day. I took another week off and my wife took off the rest of the semester. In case you forgot, we both teach PE at the same school. Once again, we were short a teacher and back to survival mode. I learned a lot, forgot a lot, and built some great relationships with the students. Apparently they miss me when I’m gone. 
I only have to take one college course each semester so that’s a manageable load. I was an idiot and decided to throw in an intercession class over Christmas Break. I experienced the fun of cramming eight weeks of work into three weeks. That’s a good way to spoil Christmas Break. And speaking of that, being paid to take off work over Christmas is awesome! We were out from December 16th - January 4th. My work days fly by and I feel like I’m cheating compared to my previous jobs. We get one class period off each day as our “plan period”. It’s free time to do what we want - grade papers, plan for future classes, or in my case, lift weights and eat lunch. My plan period is right after lunch so I’m off for two hours straight (we do block scheduling and each class is 80 minutes).
I decided to take on the role of Assistant Bowling Coach to fill in for my wife. She coached last year but wanted to go pick up the baby girl right after work so I stepped in to make sure she gets the job back next year. I love bowling, but I’ve never actually learned anything about technique so I’m learning as much as the kids. I also participate in the drills so I get some free practice and coaching. The Head Coach is a bowling pro so I’m getting spoiled. Our season is basically January and half of February. It’ll get longer if any of our kids qualify for State.
And the reason we all came here in the first place - training. As much as I wish I could say otherwise, I’m still basically living in the world of “Just Don’t Suck”. I was playing in a basketball league right up to the day I caught Covid in October, and I’ve barely done any cardio since league ended. Covid set me back a bit - part of it was real and part of it was mental. I started lifting again (of course), but running just sounds awful. I don’t want to train any longer than 30-40 minutes. If I’m ever pressed for time (even if it’s self-imposed), I scrap cardio and just hit the weights. I did a little running and walking to cover a mile on Wednesday and did my dynamic warm-up Friday. It’s not much, but it’s something.
On the lifting front, I’m doing some OG 5/3/1 with the SST assistance template. I’m weak as usual on most things with the only glimmers of hope coming on my favorites - deadlifts and power cleans. I can’t really expect much because I’m not doing “the right things”. Going back to when I quit using MyFitnessPal and being crazy with food, I’ve basically eaten what I want and drank what I want and managed to stay in my goal window of 225 to 235 pounds (usually just north of 230). According to the science shared by T-Nation, I probably drink too much alcohol to grow. But, let’s be real. I’ve busted my ass for years, over a decade, with little to show for it in terms of progress. I’ve scrapped the OCD behavior and loosened up, and I don’t think much has changed. In terms of return on investment, I think I’m getting close to the same returns with much less investment. It’s not progress, but it’s a win considering everything else.
On the mental health front, I’m still fighting depression. I take medication for it and it helps, but I still have the occasional down day where I’m grouchy for no reason and everything irritates me. Luckily, my wife understands and isn’t too hard on me. We both battle depression so we’re good at monitoring each other and letting the other know when things don’t seem right.
I think that’s enough for now. I can’t say I’ll be back here to reply to anything, but I might. I just know that if I come back, I’ll kill a lot of time here and it usually leads to a lot of less-than-productive thoughts about myself. And to prove I still lift, here are some recent-ish videos and one flattering photo with a shoulder pump back at the start of school.
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3.23.22
Just dropped by to let you all know I’m still in Just Don’t Suck mode. It seems to have a strong hold on me. I’m still doing 5/3/1 - ish training. I’m training every other day and spreading things out. My body actually feels pretty darn good with this approach. I just started week three of 8/6/3. It’s a spinoff of 5/3/1 aimed at getting some more volume in for size. I’ve switched my main lifts and assistance lifts (still following SST there) so I’m doing close grip bench, front squats, and incline as my main lifts. I couldn’t bring myself to swap deadlifts with RDL’s so I kept those as is.
Truthfully, I’m not doing the right things to really benefit from lifting. I’m pretty much in preservation mode. The Mrs and I have agreed to stop drinking for a bit. That should at least let me trim a little fluff off my love handles and stomach. I don’t really know why I’m struggling. Perhaps this is the better version of me. Training is no longer priority number one in my life. It’s just something I need to do to keep from falling apart. I still care about performance, so I have to keep training. Today I had another “Why am I even squatting?” moment. It was sets of 8, 6, and 3 on front squats and it sucked. The set of 6 was close to a 6RM and there was no 3+ set - just 3. I’m doing front squats to strengthen my quads and benefit my power clean. I’m also doing them because a don’t want to do them. I’m not so sure I’m in a place to force myself to do things I dislike. The school weight room has my favorite leg press machine…
I hope you all are doing well. Looks like @simo74 is playing with strongman toys in his garage and @ChongLordUno is still doing enough burpees for every member of T-Nation. I’ve also seen @aldebaran on Insta and it appears he’s on his way to building a business out of this fitness stuff. Kudos to you guys!
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Hope all is well my man
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Really good to hear from you man.
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Nice to see an update in here again.
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Good to see an update man.
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Thanks for the update J, good to see you are still training and life seems to be treating you well .
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Beard suits a lot. Happy to hear about you. Yeah I’m super late to reply, not hanging much around here as well these last few months
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4.15.22
Figured I’d kill some time here while I recover from a pathetic leg workout. My work capacity is shot. I’m weak. And it’s highly possible that although I’m irritated by it, it doesn’t bother me enough to really focus on it. 
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@Frank_C “a pathetic leg workout”
Also @Frank_C deadlifting 475 perfectly
Well done, and good to see you here again!
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I’m still good at the pulls, but don’t ask me to post a squat video!
Here’s the leg workout. The one set of deadlift preceded the RDLs. Bench squats were after that and the bulgarians were done on the Smith.
Prior to lifting I did three rounds of fartleks: 20 sec run, 20 sec slow jog, 20 sec run, 20 sec slog, 20 sec run, rest 1:40. The first set was my warm-up.
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If you’re curious about Easter, here’s the service from my church. Pastor does a great job of explaining this holiday. The service starts at the 23 minute mark.
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