Thought for the day:
At the base of any tactic or technique should be a robust understanding of a threat’s capacity. The two most dangerous phrases to any tactics development are both four words in length: “That would never happen” and “We can’t do that.” These two phrases typically stem from individuals that have been exhausted by training that places a higher premium on explaining legal consequences instead of tactical efficiency.
Yesterday’s work:
Landmine deadlift / squat : I don’t know the proper name for this movement. Use the standard landmine configuration. Load the plates, step behind the plates, take an off set grip, lower your butt until it touches the bar, flex your legs and use your legs to pull up. Lower the weight between your knees, don’t allow the weight to touch the floor, pause and use your legs to press up. Keep your head level, will burn the hell out your quads, for added measure pause at the apex of the lift, do a couple of shoulder shrugs. Use measured control, ripping up will cause you to overreach and bust your balls.
Close grip lat pulldowns:
Single arm lat pull downs:
Seated rows:
Skills:
Kali stick work on the heavy bag. 5 three minute rounds.
A good source for equipment is : Gear Aid. For times with no power, check this out to keep your communications running.
Thought for the day: (2):
A country boy can survive.
Hunters, fishermen, campers all probably have way more equipment and experience living off grid so to speak.
Everyone can improve (me in medical for sure), but many don’t have even have a single provision. Look at grocery stores every hurricane - amazing.
Funny story. Y2K l sold electric water pumps out the wazoo because “We are going to lose our electricity for no telling how long.” Do you have a generator? “Nah, l got a fireplace, but l will need water too.”
You are right, never amazes be the naivety of the “general populace” . I am thinking about including some “manly skills” in the future .like how to clean a fish or how do built a fire.
I seem to remember when I was young on a summer camp canoe trip one of the counsellors told a story of someone like an investment banker who went camping and threw a match at a green piece of wood in the campfire pit. It didn’t catch. Eventually he exhausted all his matches and had to ask someone for help.
My dear older brother somehow managed to miss almost every “manly” lesson our dad taught us. I remember when he called me to help him change a tire when he was in his early 20’s. He studied engineering too, so it’s not like he couldn’t read the instruction manual. He just wasn’t confident he could do it.
He couldn’t get the fire going last year either. No concept of tinder or air management, just trying to light some sticks that were too big on fire with pocket matches. It’s not like the conditions were bad either. Dry wood in an iron campfire ring with a mild breeze. Just block the breeze with your body, gather up some dry pine cones and needles and good to go. No need for advanced bushcraft. We went camping all the time as kids and he somehow didn’t pick this skill up. I guess he didn’t have the same Beavis gene I did that compelled me to play with fire for hours on end.
He makes about twice what I do though, so he’s definitely got me there. I guess he’s always been able to spend his way through his problems and never bothered acquiring very many “man skills”.
People have different priorities, and I hope he never gets his bubble of safety popped. But he would be virtually helpless in all sorts of dangerous situations, and so would his wife and two daughters. Everything about him says “soft target with nice stuff”, and he is. I love my brother, but that’s just a fact.
Thought for the day:
*“You must constantly be a student, constantly be learning, constantly be challenging yourself so you become stronger overall…If you only do the easy tasks or what you like, you don’t grow. f you don’t grow you are training to fail.”
“Stagnating on those skills that one is good at is an indication of laziness as opposed to continuing the lifetime journey of learning something new and becoming proficient at it.”*
Yesterday’s work:
Parking lot sand bag carries, over the shoulder and two arm carry across the chest
Tire Flips
Tire Throws
Sledge hammer tire swings
Skills:
Tennis ball throws and punishment pushups.
Thought for the day (2):
I will not have open net access for the next 5 to 6 days. Be aware, check your 6, and remember if violence erupts about your person, you must act. No one is coming to save you until AFTER the fact.
“Sledge Hammer Tire”?
So tell me Brother, I have a 10lb sledge here. If I wanted to add these tire swings to my repotoire, what sort of tire do u recommend I get, just like a regular vehicle tire? Or are we talking about an enormous ATV tire?
I love swinging a sledge but historically that has been to destroy some sort of concrete, stone, or similar item that needed busted, not for exercise…but the exercise with a tire sounds fun, sick as I may be…
And oh, here’s a meme with one of my fav actors I feel like sharing here today in case anyone is tempted to be lazy. Ever.
Tire flips are typically done with monster tires from large equipment - as in, laying on their side they are almost as tall as your knees.
For sledge work and tire throws, just get any old vehicle tire. That being said, swings on a taller tire seem to work better, if that makes sense. Sledge head is hitting between mid-shin and knee height, rather than down near your ankles (picture redneck truck tires versus normal car tire). For that reason I would say try and get an old mud tire or similar if you can. If not, another option would be to stack two normal car tires and either tie them together with cord or duct tape the shit out of them.
Tire shops usually have a ton of old ones laying around, and they will usually give one away for free since they have to pay to dispose of them properly. Might consider wearing gloves, as I’ve seen guys develop blisters within the space of one sledge workout. Also depends on how tough/callused your hands already are, and your sledge handle.
Thx - this all makes a lotta sense to this redneck 
I’ll check a local shop where I know a few ole boys lol
Duct taping the shit outta a couple sounds like a probability, but it’s in my skill set!
Wish l had known you guys were looking for some old school conditioning.
This week l dug and made 4 concrete piers, stripped 168 ft of turf, leveled with 2.5 yards of dirt, put in retaining wall/border, 3000# of 2" block which l split with a maul, and topped with 1 yard of gravel. All by hand in NE Texas heat.
About to start lumber cuts for the pergola.
Wife said, l guess you are skipping the gym this week.
Thanks, I think I just broke a sweat AND added some lean mass by reading this!
Much easier than actually doing something too. I appreciate that a lot 
Just think, if I read enough posts like this with that sort of effect I will be ready for the Arnold Classic in no time!!
…now where did I put that Snickers bar?!..
I’ll send my wife.
You should have that Olympic pool dug out and plastered before Aug, under her watchful supervision.
Thought I would present the Hong Kong protests for discussion.
Last night, in Hong Kong, pro-democracy protestors were attacked by men in white tshirts carrying umbrellas and wooden batons and/or steel rods. The news is reporting that the men had ties to organised crime/ were ‘triads’. From what I hear, that is certainly the case. I’m not sure how to embed a video, but a link to a sample clip is here:
https://twitter.com/kinlinglo/status/1152969285200838657
A few thoughts:
Looking around the net at the footage, it is particularly instructive just how pronounced the ‘aggressor’s advantage’ is against an untrained population. Relatively small numbers of attackers, lightly armed and without armour, were able to overwhelm, create panic, and scatter a much larger crowd. That larger crowd was also somewhat primed I would suggest, as they were there to protest specifically, so they were in a situation where they would have anticipated some form of trouble.
Most people will make terrible decisions in violent situations. As most people here know I am sure, there is such a premium on remaining calm. Whether it is combat sports or real world violence, the calm operator is most likely to survive/thrive.
Most of these attack situations are still at their core cases of predatory violence, and attackers will go after easy prey out of preference. By making yourself a harder target (not moving with the crowd, not heading for obvious choke points or obvious entry/exit points, not drawing attention to yourself etc) your chances of navigating the situation effectively go up exponentially.
Avoid crowds.
In this specific situation, I think any trained combatant would be very tempted to take the fight to the aggressors, given their individual ineffectiveness. As ever, the fact that you can beat one or two would not negate the fact that you would quickly end up surrounded, isolated and being beaten by a group. As much as it may go against your instincts when a 110lb man tries to fuck you up, the smart move is still to break contact and try to get clear.
Would be interested to hear the thoughts of others on this.
Multiple attackers with weapons ratchets things up to lethal force levels, both morally and legally (at least in my state).
Get away if you can, fight back if you can’t. Stay away if you aren’t nearby. If you think you can fist fight a group of guys with steel rods, you can’t.
I normally carry a Shield with 7+1 rounds but these are the scenarios that make the case for my 15+1 round Glock.
That’s painful to watch. Using criminals and thugs to strongarm their subjects is a play often made by tyrannies. Those dipshits in the white T-Shirts are only willing to fight for the powers that be because they know it is low risk/high reward. In the US the chance that even one protester could be armed like twojarslave means the thugs would have nothing to do with it. They are cowards, but a pack of cowards is a dangerous thing.
