Just. Don't. Suck (Part 1)

Thanks! I’m paying for it. The workout didn’t feel bad at all but my right calf cramped or strained after the 1st run. It hurts like hell now. I poked it with my finger and it’s tight so I’ll be rolling it out as soon as I’m done running errands.

On Monday my quad did the same thing but the pain vanished as the evening went on. I’m hoping my calf does the same thing after working on it. My body is protesting the running workouts!

##7.6.17

Woke at 224.0 lbs.

Yesterday’s Nutrition was not tracked. I’ve kind of enjoyed not logging my food.

##5am Training

Deadlift + RDL’s
135 x 5 + 5
135 x 5 + 5
165 x 5 + 5
195 x 5 + 5

Seated OHP
45 x 5
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
105 x 3
125 x 1
135 x 1
145 x 1
155 x 1
165 x 1

Hip Abduction
2 x 12 w/ black band

Band Pull Aparts
2 x 15 w/ black band

Reverse Grip Bent Over Rows
185 x 10
195 x 8
205 x 6
135 x 8—slow down, squeeze at top and focus on MMC
135 x 8—same as above

Face Pulls
2 x 15 w/ black band

Hip Adduction
2 x 12 w/ black band

I think I’m going to have to throw in the towel with deadlifts and pulling for a bit. It would probably be in my best interest until this hip/QL thing heals up. I was going to power clean this morning but my calf is definitely strained. I could’ve done a deadlift variation but decided against it. As I’m typing this I realize that I forgot to do abs this morning…

Stay tuned for upper body only workouts with a mix of leg extensions and leg curls.

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Have you thought about behind-the-back deadlifts?

They shouldn’t bother your hips at all and they transfer quite well to normal deadlifts

My hip doesn’t really bug me too much. My tight QL is related to the pain in my hip. I’m not sure if it’s the cause or the effect. Dropping deadlifts is for the sake of my QL with the hopes that it will have a positive effect on my hip pain. For that reason I’m going to stop doing things like deads that tax my QL. I’m going back to my chiropractor Monday. I’ll have a chat with him about all this.

What about something to work glutes? Cable pull throughs maybe?

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I might try that. I think I can do single leg RDLs without stressing my back /QL if I let the off leg move like a pendulum.

I might just give my lower body a break until my wife goes back to work mid-August. I’m just run on the track. I won’t shrink in that amount of time. I tested that theory in 2012 (no lifting while running hard 3 days/week).

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Fair enough, how much leg strength can you maintain with track?

I’d have to dig up my old training journals to check my numbers before and after that summer. My experiment was to see if I could maintain my muscle mass (basically my physique) while swapping the lifting for running. It worked.

My vertical decreased so I added plyos but it remained the same. That’s when I added leg lifting back into the mix. Within a few weeks my vertical was back. And if I recall correctly, my go to exercise was the plate loaded squat press by Hammer Strength (done single leg). It’s like the leg press but moves in an arc that’s more similar to a squat.

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##7.7.17

Woke at 221.4 lbs. It looks like I’ve recovered from the 4th.

I didn’t track my nutrition again yesterday. I started to log everything but then I went to Jason’s Deli and hit up the salad bar for lunch and I just didn’t feel like trying to enter all of that. I had two hard boiled eggs, some mini cornbread muffins, and a bunch of veggies.

I plan to run a mile or mile and a half tonight after work. Last week I had a minor disagreement with my wife about training early on Friday morning. We both wanted to train early. The previous week she took Friday off. I’d hoped she would do the same last week but I guess it was as fluke because her usual day off is Monday. She is more serious about running than I am so I let her have the mornings. She slept in today so I could have got my running done early in the cool air. She didn’t tell me that she planned to stay up late and sleep in so I get to run in the heat for no reason.

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That is my kind of day. Nice!!

My experience is that you can maintain a lot/most with just speed work and some jumping. When my vertical and clean were at their best, I only did 1 day of cleans and squats lower body, and 1 day pressing and pulling upper body - so 2 days of lifting, 2 days of sprints (short) and jumps, and 2 days of intervals (20-40s runs) plus throws. Heck, writing this down, wondering if I should go back to that, lol. My bodyfat was at its best then as well. My squat was weaker by probably 50#. The power of fast acceleration sprinting with triple extension is incredible for leg strength.

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##Training

Ran 6 laps at the track in 12:54. The first lap was in 2:06 and the last was 2:00. The other four were all around 2:12 to 2:18 I think. The heat index was 95 and my feet started burning at the 1 mile mark. I didn’t really try to push myself and it felt good.

I’ve definitely settled into a new routine.

Monday - - 100s
Wednesday - - 400s
Friday - - 1 to 2 miles easy

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##7.8.17

Woke at 221.4 lbs again.

Tracked my food yesterday… still didn’t eat enough though.

Yesterday’s Nutrition
3222 calories, 361g carbs, 68g fat, 173g protein.

I’ll attempt to go to our work gym during my lunch break but it’s not looking too promising. I’d prefer to go sooner rather than later because we tend to get busier as the day goes on; however, we only have 5 people answering calls right now. And I’m one of two on my half of the bureau so we’ll be covering any calls that come out on this side. That means that I probably shouldn’t take my lunch break until 2nd shift comes out at 1100 which also happens to be about the time the call load increases.

I don’t think it’s going to matter whether I lift or not. I’ve definitely dialed everything back quite a bit and I’m pretty much in a maintenance phase for weight lifting. I’ll call it a bonus if I get anything done today.

This could be a good thing for me. I’ve spent years working hard in the gym, mostly from a body building approach. Unfortunately, I haven’t changed much over the past 8-10 years. I go up and down in weight and body fat. I might be a little leaner now than I used to be. That seems to be the biggest change as I age. It seems that about twice a year I find myself wondering what the bare minimum approach might be. What is the least amount of work that I could do to maintain my muscle mass? If busting my ass with high volume and long workouts isn’t resulting in any growth, then what’s the point? I’m hopeful that I won’t wither away and die if I only hit each muscle group with 30-60 reps a week over two or three sessions.

The plan for now is to pretty much to Training Maximally for bench, incline, and seated or regular OHP in alternating fashion whenever I lift. I’ll balance each lift with a pulling movement in the same plane, band pull aparts and face pulls. I need to rest my back/QL so I probably shouldn’t do any big pulls but I might do hang cleans.with weights between 135-225.

I supposed that’s enough rambling for now.

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Stuff bodybuilding, you are a cop. Lift heavy, high intensity, full body twice a week than the rest sprinting, running, shooting, sparring and being a general badass :wink:

Although on a completely unrelated topic, you have said that you drop mass when lowering volume…

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I drop mass when I take breaks from the gym. Last year I spent a couple weeks renovating a bathroom and living off of beer and I dropped about 10 lbs. I’d like to think it was all fat or water but it’s not like I was sitting at 7% body fat after that. My definition looked about the same; I was just smaller.

And if I could then I’d add about 20 lbs! I figure if I look like I’d crush you, then you won’t challenge me! But as a 32 year old I think I’m probably unable to add any significant muscle mass so I should really stop pursuing that. I’m not new to the gym so there won’t be any drastic gains in my future. Strength is definitely a priority but I think I can maintain or even slowly increase my strength with a different approach. @ActivitiesGuy’s program seems to contain much less work and his strength is still going up.

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See I just find this a bit naive. There is always going to be someone bigger, stupider or more ballsy. I would prefer to be a smaller bloke who may cop more challenges but can handle them, rather than a big bloke who relies primarily on being big as a defence.

I’m not saying you are either one of these examples but I am saying that as a person in the firing line in an unpredictable environment, I would definitely be focusing on my self defence skills rather than trying to put another inch on my arms.

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The biggest factor in my line of work is how you treat people. Some officers are always in fights and others are rarely in fights. There are a lot of factors such as where and when you work and whether or not you try to find your own work (self initiated stops, hunting wanted people, etc). But the most common factor of people who are always in fights is that they say what we are all thinking—and you can’t do that. You also can’t get easily offended. I’m going on seven years of law enforcement and I’ve used my Taser once to drive stun (like a stun gun feature instead of shooting the probes) someone as pain compliance. Other than that the only use of force I’ve had is restraining mental people. No fights.

Again, it’s how you treat people and respond when they start running their mouth. But being bigger than most of them also helps.

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when I first saw this massive af dude about 6ft 5- 6ft7 probs weighs like 110-140 kg and hes the biggest dude in the gym. The other day i saw him behind the neck pressing 100kg for reps !! Tf. ,anyway He was using the squat rack for curls ,( understandable given hes not the typical gym bro and probably needs the rack for curls. I needed to use it ,so i politely asked if hes done with his sets ( i knew he was but just in case ) I thought for sure id be killed, but no turns out hes a really nice guy and i wasnt gonna die that day. i think being big can be intimidating .

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Oh definitely having a cool, calm demeanour is super helpful. I did high school in a very dodgy town. Not only high school but the extra curricular activities would often result in threats and challenges. More than one occasion, just by reasoning and being calm was I able keep the situation from escalating.

I still think it’s neglectful to assume the worst may not happen and turn a blind eye to potentially strengthening weaker links.

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That is absolutely correct. Luckily for me (at this point, at least) police fights aren’t really fights. We’re either chasing or restraining. We don’t go toe to toe in a match of skill and toughness. I’m going to tackle your ass. My goal is to get you in handcuffs. All I have to do is get you to the ground, lay on you, and stall until my help arrives. And it will arrive. When an officer in trouble call goes out over the radio every available Officer, Deputy, and Trooper come running to help.

If things escalate and a suspect begins bringing the fight to me then that changes things. I assume if you’re attacking me instead of trying to escape then you’re committed. That means I can’t afford to lose. If I lose, then I die. If someone gets me on my back and is on top of me then it’s really time to start cheating. I have some basic ground fighting skills to help me out but I assume that if you get to this point then you want to kill me. I might not wait to find out. If the scales tip in their favor then I have to do something quick. I can’t afford to take a shot to the jaw that knocks me out because if this happens I have to assume that my gun will be used to kill me while I’m down. So in my mind, I’m ready to do what I have to do to win.

I believe my strength and conditioning will help me as much as any combat training in a situation like that. But just because I carry a gun doesn’t mean I should neglect all aspects of training. I’d like to add some sort of combat training to my routine but I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet. The Y doesn’t offer anything and the BJJ gyms don’t have a daycare… I try to avoid training in the evenings.

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