Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing

Training Training Logs
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Yesterday, as I was making my way to a friend for a tiny Christmas celebration before he and his family depart to visit their family I had some time to reflect. Normally, during December, I’d hear a lot of Christmas music working in an office.

Enough so that, when at home, I wouldn’t be as inclined to listen further. Another thing that’d be normal for me this time of year is spending a lot of time at the jazz lounge. With those two voids on my mind, I wanted to share with you all a tune that for me epitomises the intersection between Swedish Christmas tunes and Swedish Jazz.

I hope you enjoy it,

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Thursday 2020-12-10

Off-day :slight_smile:

Did this for prehab/rehab

Also took the initiative to do it facing the band anchor point which lit up my rear delts. Also had to step some paces closer to where I had attached them hehe.

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Like training, discipline goes a long way in language learning. Of course, a lot of other countries and situations prioritize it by force… but I wish more Americans cared about it.

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Discipline can help acquire any skill, but I don’t think it’s a necessary component in learning but it can be a powerful one. Maybe force is a better label of how I came to learn it, if you mean “necessity”, but I never felt as if the language was forced into my skull. Watched a lot of television growing up, and played every MMORPG under the sun though.

Scandinavians are rumored to be pretty decent at English, so I guess our schools do some things right.

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Friday 2020-12-11

Supposed to be a bench day. I’ve been thinking about my training a tad the last few days, and taking a historical view of it, and somewhat arrived at that doing this,

even though it has RPE prescriptions might send me down the same spin-my-wheels path that I’ve been on for so long since I consistently overdo everything.

Therefore, my intentions are to opt for 531 (again, tried it in the past) and maybe succeed this time at being an adult with my training. The template I’m keen on works for three days per week, as well as four, which is great because I don’t know how many days I should commit per week and still recover. I know I can be in the gym four days per week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best option for anything other than my ego and emotions which guide my “training” more often than not. More often than it should.

Yesterday, I felt inclined to do deadlifts today, and start on SVR II-ish with the press on Sunday. But, I woke up in the middle of the night, did a weird glute bridge to adjust my position in bed, and my hamstring has been giving me smack ever since. Sitting, walking, biking, standing, I feel it all the time. Not swollen though, so it’s probably fine, just not something I wanted to do jumps with or deadlifts with.

Obviously, I figured I’ll just bench instead, no big deal. One day of rest, I’ll be good to press.

Then my endo called this morning, and he’d gotten back the results from all the tests he has run and now he’s swung back around to my idea that maybe I underate/overexercised myself into being on TRT and said that when I feel as if I can stomach another go at it we’ll try going off again. And then I attended the lecture on orthorexia.

Emotionally, it sucked a bit more to hear that idea expressed by someone other than myself, and yeah. I kinda trudged along during the day, ate my pre-workout meal, getting ready to go (although not really feeling it) and then I just decided: I’ll just take today off. I don’t think I’d build myself up physically or mentally today by going to the gym. Felt hungry, so I ate a meal, even though it wasn’t “time”. Been relaxing on the couch, watching a movie absentmindedly.

I’m very fortunate that my sister wanted to have a chat today, and she reminded me that I shouldn’t blame myself, like… the responsibility isn’t mine alone and that an eating disorder is a disease that has an impact on actions taken and remember that.

So, yeah. “rest day”.

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Sorry, “force” is definitely the wrong word here. I don’t think one can force someone to learn a language. But we cannot deny that some countries encourage and push foreign language immensely better than others. Indeed that’s true for Scandinavian countries. But even German schools have good English instruction, yet I can still tell when speaking with those who also put forth the effort to watch tons of English media and practice outside of the classroom or years after their extensive instruction is over, that English isn’t their primary language. So, I commented because I did not get that impression from your video.

Sorry, I find language learning fascinating. And of course, you’re only n = 1, and it was a short clip. I don’t watch clips of Swedes speaking English in my free time, so what do I know, hahaha

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If you’d like, I can @ you if I, in the future, upload anything where I talk even more with your curiosity being what it is.

English is taught so early to kids here, but I wonder if when we introduce a third languages in the curriculum there wouldn’t be room to focus more on how to learn a language as a general practice rather than learning that particular one.

The topic is interesting. Do you know many languages?

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Haha, if you’d like to, then sure.

Not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true. I know most Germans are taught another language on top of English, though I don’t know how much of an impact that has. And I don’t mean to discredit Germans by any means. Their English is nevertheless excellent. I’ve never started more than one language simultaneously or within a short time frame, so I can’t comment personally.

I don’t know many, but I also don’t aspire to become a polyglot. I only started my second foreign language earlier this year, so nothing to write home about :slight_smile:

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That’s true: I learned Latin. Although if a third language is mandatory depends on the level of education (there are three different levels of school you can go to after Elementary school and as far as I’m aware, the lowest of the three levels doesn’t mandate a third language but I could definitely be wrong here). The most popular/ most accessible choice in most schools is French. Other options include Spanish but depending on the school also Russian or Chinese. As far as I’m aware Latin is only available on the highest “school level” (Gymnasium).

I’d say it very much depends. The younger the generation, the better the English. It’s not that common to meet someone in their 50s who is fluent in English but very common among the 18-35 year olds. A lot of people who grew up in the DDR (the German Democratic Republic/ east Germany) don’t speak any English or just the very basics because Russian was the mandatory second language since the DDR belonged to the soviet union.

That being said most foreigners I got to know are generally impressed by how many Germans speak English and are able as well as willing to hold conversations in English. I had a few friends from Australia who were living in Munich. Some of them for multiple years and they never learned German because they didn’t feel the need since everyone was able to talk to them anyways. Also they told me when they tried to work on their German and were having a conversation with locals, the Germans would always switch to English as soon as they recognized their conversation partners were having difficulties. My mates thought of that as very polite but it didn’t help them learn, haha.

Still all Scandinavian countries are MUCH better than we are at speaking English. When I visited the Netherlands this year I was also very impressed by the English skills of most people we came in contact with.

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Yep, I’m familiar with nearly everything you’re saying. I talk with several young Germans regularly and minored in Germanic studies in college

This is what I fear will happen to me. I’ve been studying German for over a decade now and have been told by natives that I speak well. But since I’ve never been to a German speaking country, speech is my biggest weakness. So, I think people would still resort to English after hearing me.

Do you have any idea why this is?

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The Maltese are the best I ever came across. While in was there (albeit as a young teen), it seemed like it wasn’t possible to find a language the locals couldn’t speak.

The English have a …different approach to language.

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Oh wow! Where’s your interest in German coming from?

Well in case that really happens you can always say you would like to continue in German. If someone switches to English it’s most likely because they want to be polite, not because they’re annoyed.

That’s probably a question for @Voxel. The only thing I know is that they’re school system in general is much superior to ours.

You could definitely say the same about the French…

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I could, but they wouldn’t understand me.

Or they would, but just pretend not to.

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That response was perfect :smiley: (meaning no offense, @aldebaran)

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No offense taken :joy: French is very weird, so is english, and I should know, I have a 3 years university degree in english and american literature

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@Koestrizer In junior high school I was trying to choose between French and German (found Spanish a bit boring). Ultimately thought the latter would be cooler culturally, and I stuck with it because, well, I was good at it. And I found German history and culture more and more interesting over time. I love how logical the language seems to me as well. I’m not German at all, funnily enough.

@dagill2 At least you feel there is an approach. It sometimes seems like Americans don’t even have an approach to language.

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I believe it’s compulsory up to GCSE level in Britain (16), it certainly was in every school in my day. My school offered either French or German, with optional extras of Latin, Chinese and Spanish.

Its worth noting that GCSE level is shockingly low. I achieved the highest possible grade at the time in French with next to no ability. I couldn’t have held even the most basic conversation in French at the time, I would have sounded like Joey from Friends.

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It’s definitely going to vary by school district in the USA, but mine did not even require 2 measly years of a foreign language in high school until the class after mine. When I was in elementary school there was once per week language lessons, and my school got Spanish. Thanks to budget cuts, that only lasted a year.

I know far too many people who for some reason made it to AP Spanish by the end of high school and still could not speak the language at a reasonable level by the end of it. How does that even happen? Beats me.

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How easy would it be for you to find yourself surrounded by people who don’t speak English? How far would you have to drive?

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Well, I’ve lived in a couple places. Where I grew up is the least diverse overall (suburban and practically zero Hispanics or east Asians), but surprisingly there is a large Middle Eastern population. Much to my prejudiced mother’s dismay, it was not difficult at all to find people speaking those languages. Then I lived in a place with a large Hispanic population to the point where in some neighborhoods, Spanish dominates over English. There are also other neighborhoods where smaller groups mostly live and often speak their native tongue in the streets.

In general my current city doesn’t have as many of these pockets where English doesn’t dominate. But I work at a university, and there are plenty of Asians in my department, so hearing Chinese is normal. Outside of that bubble, it’s not impossible to encounter people conversing in Spanish at a park or store. No one gives weird looks.

But if I lived in the middle of nowhere, it would be difficult to find people who speak a language other than English. And yourself? I’ve been to London once. My visit was brief, but I honestly think the second place I mentioned is more diverse than London, which is saying a lot.