I’m considering getting a vacuum sealer and sous vide setup. Just haven’t pulled the trigger yet. I want to make sure I’m not being impulsive. It seems like a good buy, but I’m not sure how much I’d use it. Do you just use it for steak type cuts? I’ve seen you cut steaks out of a roast. Does the sous vide work best with that type of thickness?
Do you just use it for steak type cuts?
Pretty much everything you see me posting in my log is cooked by sous vide these days. Steak, ribs, burgers, roasts, pork chops, chicken thighs, brisket, etc. There’s a great youtube channel called “sous vide everything” which is…exactly that, haha.
1.5" is a good thickness for sous vide steaks. 2" excellent as well. You don’t want to go too thin.
And even in the absence of a sous vide, a vacuum sealer is just awesome for food preservation in general. Combined with a freezer, you can do a lot of good with meal prep. And in that regard, you can actually COMBINE the two: sous vide it in the vacuum sealed bag, throw it in an ice bath to stop it from continued cooking, and then freezer it. Thaw it out when you want to eat it and it’s ready to go: you can either sear it and give it a finish or just eat it as is.
2 Likes
It definitely sounds like it’s time to expand my kitchen skills. Thanks!
1 Like
Absolutely dude! Which, on the topic of freezers, I forgot. One of my favorite recently discovered features of a sous vide is you can cook from frozen with it: you just add an hour to the cook time. It’s awesome in situations where you haven’t had time to thaw anything out.
1 Like
That’s exactly what I need! It’s like I thaw something out and then run out of time to cook it and run the risk of it spoiling, or I have the time to cook it but forgot to thaw it out. I know I can pressure cook frozen things, but it definitely hurts the final product.
1 Like
Strength & Conditioning
C4 W1 D3 (which is really week 2 weights)
Warm-Up
Stretching, jump rope, 36" box jumps x 5, 5
Main Work
(no supersets)
Front Squat
95 x 5
125 x 5
140 x 5
160 x 5
125 x 5 x 3 (FSL)
Bench
165 x 5
185 x 5
210 x 5
235 x 5
210 x 5 x 5 (SSL)
Assistance Circuit
FFESS
30 in one hand x 10 ea x 2 (foot on bosu ball which was weird)
Side Crunch
50 lb DB x 10 ea x 2
Press-Down
70 x 12, 12
EZ Bar Curl
85 x 10, 10
DB Crunch
55 x 12, 12
Assistance Totals (fail)
Push: 24
Pull: 20
Single-Leg: 20
Core: 44
This circuit was meh at best. I’m worn out - delts are sore, upper and mid back are sore. I decided to do the easier assistance and it was a mistake to do them all on the same day. I need to mix in a curl or press-down on days where I’m doing other multi-joint movements. Oh, well. Live and learn. My preferred game of basketball was canceled due to lack of players. I’m still undecided on whether or not I want to get up at 5:45 on a Saturday to play with the other group.
5 Likes
4.18.26
Woke up early to go play basketball. Logged about 55 minutes on the court. Didn’t play particularly well, but got in some running and didn’t get hurt. Burned over 700 calories according to my watch.
I also weighed 225.0 this morning. That’s my goal weight but I’m disappointed in myself since I saw 222 a few days ago. Poor decisions in the evening.
5 Likes
A victory in and of itself.
It happens. Do better this week. 
1 Like
That doesn’t include today, right? 
Getting up early means lunch is early, but then you need another lunch. My daughter had softball practice from 12-2 so I took the other get kids to Braums for lunch to kill time. I may or may not have had a double 1/4 lb cheeseburger, fries, and a double dip fudge brownie sundae. I have the rest of the week to clean it up. 
1 Like
Oh goodness that sounds delicious! And yes, obviously it doesn’t count today. My food was meh today. Not great, but it could have been worse. We will be better tomorrow.
1 Like
I was going to have a piece of cheesecake tonight but my husband reminded me that it would be a bad choice. I was going to eat it anyway, but I’m making Chicken Tikka Masala tomorrow night with naan and I would rather have that. So no cheesecake for me.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing your discipline with me! I need it. There is frozen pizza in the oven as I type this. But it’s almost 1pm and I’ve eaten a protein bar, double serving of cottage cheese, and worked out so I’m okay overall. I can survive the day!
1 Like
4.19.26 Strength & Conditioning
C4 W2 D1?
(4th workout out of 6)
Warm-Up
Foam rolling, goblet squats, swings, jumps.
(Edit to add:)
Hip Adduction Machine: 100 x 20
Hip Abduction Machine: 100 x 20
Leg Extension: 100 x 20
Lying Leg Curl: 100 x 20
(figured I might as well take advantage of all the toys and did this as part of my warm-up.)
Main Work
OHP
85 x 5
105 x 5
120 x 5
135 x 5
120 x 5 x 5 (SSL)
superset with
Pull-Ups
BW x 8 x 4
BW x 7
BW x 5 x 4 sets
Power Clean
175 x 2 x 5 sets
Hang Clean Pull
245 x 3
Back was unhappy, so called it. I also think I figured out my problem with cleans from the floor. I was getting my hips too low at the start. The same thing can happen in the deadlift. I’ve seen all the short Olympic pros drop their hips and get their chest up so I’ve been trying to do that. But it doesn’t work for me. Higher hips puts me in a better position to hinge.
Assistance Circuit
Split Stance Squat + Goblet Squat Combo (everyone should try these! The first time I did them I used this same weight but did 8 per leg and two sets about killed me.)
50 lb DB x 5 ea (10 goblet squats) x 3 sets
Lying Leg Raise (Rounds 1-2)
15, 15
45 Deg Back Ext (Round 3 + 1 extra set)
50 x 12, 12
Push-Ups
BW x 20 x 3
Extra Work
Incline DB Curl
25s x 15, 12+3 regular
I work with an Asst. Principal at lunch and he’s much shorter than me, but he takes good care of himself. I know he has an arms day or at least does way more arm work than me, and his guns were poppin’ this week so it motivated me to do a little extra work.
Assistance Totals
Single-Leg: 45 (15 single leg + 30 double leg)
Push: 60
Pull: 89
Core: 54
I really like this style of training and I’m not sure how to proceed. I think I’d like to spread the days out so that I’m not doing “Week 1” weights on Monday and “Week 2” weights on Friday. I’ll double check my list of possible upcoming templates and see how they work with this style. It’s the main work and then doing an assistance circuit that I’m loving. I feel good. I felt great playing basketball yesterday. My upper body strength is great even at a lower weight, and I’m targeting weaknesses with everything else. Not a bad way to train. But I am wondering about the volume disparity between upper and lower body…
6 Likes
That’s disgusting.
Nice work!
3 Likes
I guess I kept my reps ‘low’ but still hit 20 total per set. There’s something about that setup that makes it suck less than my usual single-leg work. I got it from a guy on Instagram (everygotdamdre). Of course, he’s freaking huge and lean and posts tons of KB stuff.
3 Likes
4.20.26
Probably going to be a rest day so I can run some errands after school. I had to move my training around this week. Full body doesn’t really do well with back to back days. My weight loss goal was met, and then lost. I’m not sure what happened. I didn’t overeat by 15,000 calories, but I weighed 229 this morning. Whatever. Back to work.
3 Likes
My weight loss goal was met, and then lost. I’m not sure what happened. I didn’t overeat by 15,000 calories, but I weighed 229 this morning. Whatever. Back to work.
You had a period of “forced fasting” there. Body is probably rebounding.
1 Like
Yeah, I’m not worried. It is a bit disappointing. I still look pretty good in the mirror. My gut has rebounded and I’ll take it. I’ve been craving foods I haven’t eaten in a while and I’ve actually given in to eating them - like a slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly. I know it’s all sugar, but it feels like it makes my stomach feel better (maybe it’s that microbe you talk about). I’m not going to succeed long-term by restricting things I enjoy. I just need to have balance throughout the day/week. I’m also hoping the rebound means my next squat and bench workout feel good because they’re the heaviest in the cycle.
3 Likes
I rested in terms of training but had a good time playing softball with my daughter during my son’s baseball practice. She’s been playing outfield and no one can catch a fly ball in her games. They can’t read it off the bat and they’re scared. So how do you fix it? Lots of practice! I’ve never hit fly balls so I had fun figuring it out. It was even more fun watching my daughter track them down. She did everything right and missed quite a few but she also caught quite a few. I’m hoping she learned a lot, too. I talked to her about how the ball slices or hooks differently off the bat of a left or right handed hitter. Things you can only learn through experience. She doesn’t want to play outfield so we’re going to make her the best outfielder on her team!
4 Likes
4.21.26 Strength & Conditioning
C4 W2 D2 (one workout left in this template)
Warm-Up
Stretching, rolling, pipe dislocates, squat jumps, A skips.
Main Work
(superset)
Bench
135 x 5
175 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5
250 x 5
225 x 5 x 5 (SSL)
with
Front Squat
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
150 x 5
170 x 5
135 x 5 x 3 (FSL)
(Main work completed in 30 minutes. I was moving slow between sets today messing around with equipment in the weight room. I put two Titan Lat Pull-Down / Cable Row machines on my list of “Needs” and they actually bought them! Put one together and tested it out with the assistance work.)
Assistance Giant Set 1
Split Stance Squat / Goblet Squat Combo
50 x 5 ea + 10 goblet squats x 2 sets
45 Deg Back Ext
BW x 10 R + 10 L x 2 sets
Lateral DB Raise
35 x 10, 30 x 10
Wide Cable Row
160 x 12, 10
Assistance Giant Set 2
DB Swing
60 x 10, 10
Lying Flutter Kicks
BW x 20 ea x 2
Skull Crusher
90 x 10, 10
Wide Cable Row
160 x 10, 10
(Assistance took about 18 minutes + a seven minute delay when a couple people came in to check out the weight room. They’re “coaches” someone has hired to work with some of the out of season athletes after school. Nothing builds buy-in an culture like telling the athletes their teachers suck.)
Assistance Totals
Push: 40
Pull: 40
Single-Leg: 40
Core: 80
Note to self: the split stance squat + goblet squat felt great after OHP and cleans and felt awful today. That’s going to stay on clean days from now on. The single DB swings were interesting. I felt like I could get some great distance if I just let go on each swing. I saw Lee Boyce do a version with two DBs and he let them go outside the legs. Might have to switch to that or just do swings on days where I have access to heavier KBs.
That concludes workout A aka bench and front squat for this template. I’ve gone through the weights twice over four weeks. I know I laid it out way up above somewhere, but I’m still undecided on the next phase. Spinal Tap the H.S. Years uses Spinal Tap reps and I’m supposed to superset the two main lifts of the day. That’s best done in my school weight room but I could pull it off at the YMCA if I could get one of the platforms close to the benches. Con Clavi Con Dios is a repeat of what I’m finishing now - 5s PRO followed by 3-5 sets of FSL. It’s unpleasant on front squats but I’m surviving. The benefit of both is that I only have to do each workout once a week so that might lesson the misery with the front squats. As of today, I completed all three weeks of reps for front squats and bench in a total of nine days. Either way, both templates have the main lifts done on one day and the other stuff on different days. Guess I’ll decide by next Monday.
Edit:
Just revisited Spinal Tap the H.S. Years in the book and the assistance was an at-home assignment for Jim’s high school athletes: 100 BW squats, 50 push-ups, 25 pull-ups, and 100 leg raises or crunches. I could set that up like Cindy, but do lunges instead of bodyweight squats to keep the single-leg thing going. 5 to 10 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 lunges. Well, I guess it’d have to be 6 to 10 rounds in even increments if I did 15 total lunges. That’d be 8 with one leg and 7 with the other on each round.
The assistance is done on the same days as conditioning (even though Cindy is conditioning). That’s definitely an easy template to follow and complete… Since I stopped viewing assistance as hard sets that result in DOMS and things that fill in gaps and compliment the main stuff, it’s really opened up my programming. I enjoy setting up the circuits and I think those are money for my goals - to be strong, fit, and conditioned for life without being in pain every day.
4 Likes