Search the web! the dance mafia’s coverage is really impressive. Floor barre as such is probably a bit harder to find. That said I lucked-out by starting in London.
The message at church tonight was about being healthy. We’re covering an eight week series about all aspects of health - financial, mental, physical, etc.
A couple of things that stuck out to me tonight. First, the message bullet points were:
- Be your best
- Do your best
- Give your best
They kind of go in order.
The big thing that struck a cord with me was that being unhealthy shrinks you’re world. The pastor even talked about an injury to his Achilles tendon a few years ago. I could definitely relate to that. My nagging injuries are reducing the number of things I can do and it has a domino effect on my life.
I can’t wait to hear what the hip doctor has to say. I’m ready to be healthy again. I’ve had pain going up the stairs and getting off the toilet today. It’s getting worse.
I’m not upset about it, but it’s getting a bit silly. I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but I’m trying to be more positive. It’s only been four days though! 
. I’m starting off by trying to stop griping about things. It just makes me relive whatever negative moments I have in my life. I just need to move forward when things don’t go my way. I have a long ways to go!
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Now that you mention it, yes.
That is some good bullet points the good pastor puts out J.
I will send a little prayer that you won’t need any more surgery, that you can heal yourself J.
2 Likes
1.6.18
Woke at 237 and change.
Rest day before legs tomorrow. I have a feeling leg day is going to result in some serious DOMs since I’m only doing them once a week.
Thanks, Mort! The only thing about surgery that is a negative thing is the time away from work (again). I don’t mind the time away from work but I feel guilty when I think about being off the streets for three or four months since I just did that last year. I don’t enjoy being at work when we’re understaffed and I don’t want to be one of the reasons other people are working in those circumstances.
It might be inevitable though. My hip was hurting this morning when I got in the patrol car and I even stretched when I got out of bed. I felt pretty loose after that but I still have a dull ache in the joint.
We get to put in a wish list for new days off when our recruit class is nearing graduation. Our current class will graduate in mid-February so they’re doing the process right now. They post the openings on each shift and seniority rules. It gives us an opportunity to get better days off, change shifts, or even change Bureaus to work in a different part of the city. My shift had four openings and we filled them so we shouldn’t be so understaffed when the changes take effect in May. If I need to go under the knife again then I might plan it for that time period. That would also let me work with Detectives on light duty full time. I could work 8-5 with weekends off and it wouldn’t interfere with daycare since my wife will be home for the summer.
Hmmm… when I think of it that way it sounds like a good plan 
(But working in Investigations isn’t guaranteed for light duty. I could get a crap assignment.)
3 Likes
1.7.19
Woke at 236.6 lbs.
Leg Day
LIMBER 11 WARM UP
AIR RUNNER FARTLEKS
Run/Walk
30/30, 20/20, 10, rest 2:10 because it put me at 4:00 to start round two
3 Rounds of this, 9:50 total time, 102 cals, 0.92 miles
Speed was better this week. I kept all of the runs between 10 and 11 mph, mostly 10.5 +. Last week I did 20/20 three times per set and only hit 92 cals and 0.83 miles. It’s the exact same total time of running so I think I improved. I either ran faster or walked faster during my rest. Either way, it’s an improvement.
REVERSE LUNGE
95 x 5 ea x 5 sets
RDL
155 x 10 x 3 sets
Caused hip pain so this is out.
SIDE TO SIDES
2 x 10 ea side
superset with
24" BOX JUMP
2 x 8
SIDE PLANK + ABDUCTION
2 x 10 ea side
2 MINUTE LEG PRESS
270 x 80
Ow.
I went to the chiropractor right after this and he put the hurt on me. My hip still hurts and everything in the general vicinity is tight. He also dug into my biceps tendon and left visible bruises.
It’s like 60 degrees outside so I finally forced myself to clean up some of the leaves. There are so many! I have a leaf blower that doubles as a vacuum so I use that. It mulches the leaves so I can get more into each trash bag. I spent two hours outside and filled four big bags. I got fed up with it and used my rake to move the leaves in my driveway to the edge by the street. Maybe they’ll blow away. At the very least we should stop tracking them into the garage now.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = I absolutely love doing it) I’d rank cleaning up leaves as a -7.
5 Likes
1.8.19
Woke at 240.0 lbs. Whoops. I guess the pizza I ate last night had a bigger impact than I thought.
I regret doing RDLs…
1 Like
Training (Shoulders & Chest)
STRETCH & ROLL CLASS (30 MINUTES)
SEATED SMITH OHP
65 x 10
85 x 10
105 x 10
125 x 10 x 2 sets
Drop Set
125 x 8
105 x 6
85 x 5
65 x 8
PUSH PRESS
135 x 5 x 3 sets
superset with
NEW REVERSE HYPER TOY
3 x 10 with no added weight
MACHINE FLY (21s)
115 x 10F/10T/10B x 2 sets
MACHINE BENCH (1.5 reps)
90 x 8 with the extra half in the stretched position
90 x 12 doing double contraction–extra half at lockout
LEAN AWAY LAT DB RAISE
20 x 10 ea x 2 sets
superset with
LAT CABLE RAISE (PULLEY AT KNEE)
20 x 10 ea x 2 sets
Got that from this and it was great.
CABLE PRESS DOWN
80 x 50
90 x 10
90 x 10 + 10 first half reps
These are workouts that I enjoy! No heavy breathing or circuits. Just good work. Every exercise hurt in the right places. I really don’t see any reason to do straight sets on this type of stuff. I fully intended to do a drop set on the Smith OHP so I started with a 25 and just kept adding 10’s like an asshole until I hit a weight with which I couldn’t do 10 reps. Pec Dec/Machine Fly hurt like hell. Machine OHP after that was a great choice with the 1.5 reps. The shoulder superset from today’s article was great. I really just can’t understand knocking out multiple sets of the same weight mindlessly anymore (on upper body stuff like this). The goal is to get bigger so I’m going to continue to use these intensity techniques and cut out the fluff. Two sets on each exercise and I’m spent.
8 Likes
I like it. More work less time super effective. Win/win.
1 Like
1.9.19
Woke at 240.4 lbs. I worked a side gig at a basketball game last night and ate a hot dog. It was good and salty. It might be time to track my calories again. I’ve been pretty loose with the treats.
Exactly! According to the research (and my muscle’s inability to do more work in the set) hitting failure is the key to growth. The weight can have an effect on strength depending on if you fail at 8 reps vs 30 but the hypertrophy gains are the same.
I think most of us have done a high rep set of squats and found our legs to be sore in new and tender places the next day. Sometimes you gotta feel the burn to recruit all the muscle fibers. I think that’s when you finally hit the smaller muscles in a movement (like the adductors and hamstrings on a heavy set of 20 squats).
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Back Day
2 LAP DYNAMIC WARM
PULL UPS
10, 8, 8
superset with
LEG PRESS
180 x 20 x 2 sets
My legs are so sore that it hurts to sit down. I had to do something to loosen them up.
CABLE ROW (1.5 reps)
140 x 12 double contraction
140 x 10 w/ extra half on the first part of the pull
120 x 10F/8T/8B (21s style)
INCLINE DB ROW 21s
40 x 10F/10T/10B x 2 sets
LYING LEG CURL
80 x 15 x 2 sets
REAR DELT MACHINE (MYO REPS)
90 x 12
100 x 10-3-3-3-3-3-3
SA LAT CABLE CURL
40 x 20, 13, 8 ea (alternating arms w/no rest)
BASKETBALL
1 game that took about 12 minutes. This wasn’t nearly enough conditioning work but I didn’t have time to sit around to wait for my turn again.
I started tracking my food today. I’m pretty sure I’ve been severely underestimating my food portions. This happens every time I stop tracking. Once I come back to it I’m severely disappointed in how little food I get to eat. Lunch was 831 calories and I’m still hungry.
4 Likes
1.10.19
Woke at 237.2 lbs.
Rest day. First work day of a short work week. I still have near crippling leg soreness.
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1.11.19
Woke at 236.2 lbs.
I was supposed to get off work a couple hours early yesterday because I took our promotional exam in the evening. I ended up working my full shift and getting a little OT due to an officer involved shooting.
I’m a walking contradiction today and yesterday because I recently stated that if a diet has a name then I’m out; however, I’ve been doing the intermittent fasting thing. I like to call it “starving myself”. Some mornings I don’t get hungry til mid morning so I figured I could just put off eating a couple more hours and maybe it’d help me with my portion control. I could eat a bit more when I finally eat and it won’t kill my day. Unfortunately, I woke up hungry the past two days so it’s been a struggle.
If I’m lucky then I’ll sneak down to the work gym for a brief chest session but I won’t be doing any conditioning. I’m covering someone’s part time job tonight after work so I gave up my window to go to the gym. I’m off at noon tomorrow though so I might be able to hit the gym before church.
3 Likes
Lunch Break Session
Chest Day!
WARM UP (2 rounds)
Push Ups x 15
Lying Leg Curl 80 x 15
DB BENCH
65 x 10
70 x 8
75 x 6
80 x 4
85 x 4
So this feels incredibly difficult compared to where I thought my strength levels were…
LYING LEG RAISE W/ PULSE UP
2 x 10
INCLINE BENCH (1.5 reps in the bottom half)
115 x 8, 6, 5
LEAN AWAY LAT DB RAISE
25 x 10 ea x 2 sets
superset with
CABLE LAT RAISE
20 x 10 ea x 2 sets
I think my delts were shot. I pretty much only felt my traps working. I even got a trap pump out of it.
OH ROPE EXTENSION
100 x 8F/8T/8B
100 x 12 1.5 reps (extra half at lockout)
3 Likes
1.12.19
Woke at 234.8 lbs thanks to three days in a row of starving. At night I find myself with more calories to eat to hit my goal of 3000 but I choose to suffer for the sake of progressing faster. I ate 2243, 2022, and 2274 over the last three days. I’ve almost shaved an entire day of calories off my week!
Conditioning
2 LAP DYNAMIC WARM UP
AIR RUNNER FARTLEK
run/walk
30/30/20/20/10, rest 2:10, repeat for three total rounds (no rest after round three).
9:50, 98 cals, 0.88 mi
I came up a little short compared to Monday’s session but just barely (102 cals & 0.92 mi). I’ll take it.
I’ve been looking through 5/3/1 Forever and I like Jim’s running suggestions. I might start doing those on the Air Runner.
7 Likes
Carbs! I looked at my carb totals for the past three days and it’s been under 200g every day. That’s low carb for me.
Well, I made up for it tonight. My wife made vegan banana bread and it’s delicious. I’ve supposedly eaten 340g of carbs and stayed under my 3000 calories for the day. Man, I’ve been craving that bread tonight. My workout should be good tomorrow!
1 Like
1.13.19
Woke at 233.8 lbs.
Training
WARM UP
Jog 1/4 mile + some of the stretches from the Limber 11
HANG POWER SNATCH
115 x 3 high pulls + 3 power snatch
125 x 3
135 x 3
145 x 3
HANG SGHP
155 x 3
165 x 3
175 x 3
185 x 3
195 x 3
205 x 3
215 x 3
225 x 3
PULL UPS
10, 8
I had a mirror right in front of me and I saw that my right shoulder elevates drastically on pulls ups. I couldn’t stop it and it annoyed me so I quit doing them.
superset with
PLATE CRUNCH
45 x 12
45 x 10 x 2 sets
LAT PULL DOWN
140 x 10 (1.5 reps, double contraction)
180 x 7 + 7 top half
THAT UPPER BACK THING @losthog SHARED
aka SHIRLEY ROW
70 x 15
85 x 15
INCLINE REV DB FLY
10s x 15 x 3 sets
REV CABLE CURL (350 SET)
60 x 35, 11-2-2
Training Notes
I trained at a different Y today and it has mirrors in front of several of the racks. I noticed that I immediately lean to the right on lower body movements — even on the hang power snatch I could see the shift. My left side is clearly not pulling (or in this case, pushing) it’s weight. I don’t really know what to do about it. I’m pretty certain is a coping mechanism for the pain I feel. I’ve shared before that my pre-surgery MRI’s showed muscle atrophy in the affected area. I’m pretty sure the same thing is happening again. I was getting close to writing out a 5/3/1 program but it’s probably not a good idea to exacerbate an imbalance like that. Dang.
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I call that move the Shirley Row. After David Shirley ex-pro powerlifter here in Arkansas. He claims it is his move. I’ll call it by his name 
I am starting to use some machine to help me with my weak leg.
Works for me. I just need a name for reference in my training log. Shirley Row it is.
1 Like
I’ve been doing single leg work for quite a while and I don’t notice a big difference between legs. It was very obvious today though. It was kind of surprising. I wasn’t even feeling any pain.