Nice morning walk, Pat Flynn podcast and lots of work.
I am just doing MD for a few days instead of Surge. My bodyweight won’t tick down and that weird feeling, thanks Andrewgen for the info, just bugs me. I just used Metabolic Drive the first time and it worked well. I will give a few days.
Tonic workout, lots of walking and backward walking I got in some nice backpedaling too. I watched the Minions movie, Rise of Gru last night. I really enjoyed it.
Waistline is down…a lot.
This snuck in quietly, I absolutely didn’t expect to open this log and it’s @Dan_John!
Thanks for logging here - this is great to see.
Thank you. It’s an honor to be allowed the opportunity again. I like 4.0 a lot better. Chris can sleep soundly at night without the fear of my rage and wrath.
Don’t tell him that. It’s best to keep him on his toes
So…swapped out the Surge for Metabolic Drive and I feel better. Maybe I just need a little more adaption on this before I figure out the Surge.
Waistline is coming down fast…at this rate, I won’t have a waistline in three weeks. Bodyweight has NOT moved. Honestly, I think it was my reaction to the drinks.
Today was walking and mobility. My discus thrower, Emily, tied her clean and jerk with 165 today and looks good for a lot more. She threw well, too.
So, moblility work, two walks and a bike ride…played with grandson (teaching him hide and go seek) and some housework.
Big whoosh today. Down five pounds…waistline down again.
Big workout today. Snatch pulls up to 170, Clean pulls up to 210. 5 x 5 Front squat with 170.
Did sets of snatch complex to get going five sets of 3 with light weight:
Snatch RDL
Hang Snatch
Overhead Squat
Back Squat
Long calls today. Feeling okay.
Crazy how that happens, isn’t it?
Mobility work, but a few issues with back to school and grandkids. I’m down another pound weighing in late at 4:30 in the afternoon…still down.
Feeling good overall. This approach is a lot easy but the results are going well.
Down another full pound this morning…maybe more. Great meditation and made a new morning route (one mile). Lifting was an easy total:
Snatch Complex and Hanging Bent Knee Leg Raise
Three Rounds
Snatch
Lots of warm ups, easy top end 145
Clean and Jerk
Lots of singles, finished with 165
My legs are clearly stronger.
1.6 mile walk. Off to grandkids and Lagoon.
Three miles, at least, of walking yesterday. Nice dinner at Mint.
I’m thinking the evening protein shake is the biggest lesson so far. I skipped it a few times, simply forgot, but the protein dosing seems to help with body comp.
I will probably keep doing the morning and evening shake after I finish this. That’s like Lesson One here.
Feeling good. Looking actually good.
Excellent day today. Weight came in higher this morning, but that happened last time, too. I train M-F and I don’t do much on weekends.
Good meditation to start the day, good walk.
Shake before training (I need to do the second one soon).
Snatch complexes to warm up: five sets of three with hangs (and bent knee leg raises)
Jerks: 170 Four Sets of Two
Front Squats: Five sets of two (with 170)
Heavy hands walk with five pounds (ideal for this diet).
Walking total as of this typing: 2.5 miles (most with HH)
A good weigh in today. I’m seeing a pattern on my weigh ins:
Weekends: it bumps up. Monday, I want to cry, Tuesday trends down to where it was, by Friday, new low.
I lift M-F and take my walking more seriously (Heavy Hands, too). Weekends are not drunken parties or anything, just more social stuff and no real training.
Moral: daily weigh ins can show trends.
Lots of walking, and walking backwards, today. Did a fair amount of Original Strength and I did that Hip Thrust/Clam shell thing with the BC Glute Loops…15/15, 14/14…down to 1/1. Fired up my ass! Ouch!
Extra walks and bike rides. One hour nap after my second meditation…hit the wall.
Amen. Almost everything else is falls into place, probably due to auto-regulation, if anyone does that.
I do a variation. I call it the Super Bowl. Basically I have two scoops of Metabolic Drive mixed into a small amount of water so I can eat it with a spoon. To that I add all the powdered supplements that are health-related or goal specific for me, then berries and walnuts.
I figure if I eat that one meal, every day, then pretty much every need I have is taken care of. Currently, my Super Bowl looks like this:
• 2 scoops Metabolic Drive
• Wild blueberries, frozen (keeps blood pressure in check + other health benefits)
• Walnuts (the healthiest nut)
• 1 serving of Superfood (18 veggies and fruits I’d never be able eat in one day)
• Pycnogenol or maritime pine bark extract (lots of health benefits, but let’s be honest: it gives you great boners)
• 1 serving sugar-free Metamucil (cholesterol control, appetite control)
• 1 serving collagen (joint health, fewer wrinkles)
• 3-5 grams creatine (brain and heart health + gains, bro)
Believe it or not, it tastes great to me and I look forward to it.
I may steal this, Chris…
Heavy day today. Snatch pulls up to 175 for singles, Clean pulls up to 220 for singles, Front Squats 180, four sets of four.
Lots of work and walking.
Coach–what dose of pycnogenol are you taking?Thanks.
I’m not taking it, Chris is…
Weird day. Woke up and meditated and was about to leave when I got an urgent text. So, took care of that. Then, I got a text that the podcast was starting. I thought it was a noon podcast…it was RIGHT NOW. Into the gym late, backed out my car…flat tire. (I’m getting four new ones…if you were a car, you would want me to own you).
Snatched 155. Clean and Jerked 195. I was smooth but my head was in my car and a few other things.
That’s one thing about the V-Diet: you lose a bit of wiggle room emotionally. Flat tires suck. Flat tires on V-Diet makes you sad.
Well over halfway. Bodyweight is trending down, I expect tomorrow to be a good weigh in.
My friend, John Powell, died last night. His wife asked me to post this:
John Powell will be remembered by most Track and Field people for the multiple national championships, Olympic medal, World Championship medal, and a host of other accomplishments. He set the World Record in the discus and had a career that spanned, at the highest level, for decades. In any serious conversation on the best and brightest of the throwers in history, John’s name is always in the first wave.
Like most discus throwers, I have my own John Powell stories. I was a small sophomore in high school when I went down to the College of San Mateo for an all-comers meet. John and Tim Vollmer, fresh from the 1972 Olympics, were both there to throw, too.
I took third. There were only three of us.
I asked for help after we competed. John did something I would see countless times in the next almost six decades of our friendship: he took me aside, gave me some general concepts, showed me the keys to throwing, and told me to get to work. Years later, when I got stuck as a thrower, I contacted him and, once again, he opened his time, treasure, and talents to help me throw farther.
I just figured out that those events were twenty years apart: 1973-1993. In that time, I grew up in the usual ways and John had transitioned from San Jose police officer to full-time discus personality. The number of things that John essentially “invented” still amazes me.
His book, attributed to someone else due to the amateur rules at the time, is still the perfect “go to” for coaches. When videos first became part of our entertainment, John hired professionals to film his discus throwing video which remains the gold standard…and most logical…up to this day. With Bill Witt, they started the discus camp at Denison University and later at many other sites. John was also one of the first on the internet coaching remotely. His training, both in throwing and lifting, was always comprehensive in all the little details for success.
His coaching and professional life reflected this, too. He was always the first with a new idea, concept, or system. His discus camp movies, made during the week of camp, still delight me decades later. Watching my daughters grow up on these videos might still be my greatest sense of joy.
I learned from John, and later his good friend Brian Oldfield, the contrarian approach to life. If everybody is walking to the left, it might be worth your time to look over and see what is missing from walking to the right. If “everybody” was doing “this” in training, John would consider stopping it altogether and try “that” instead. He ran and sprinted probably more than any discus thrower ever, he searched old magazines for pictures to get insights into throwing farther, and asked questions of everybody, in every field, to improve his throws. He would quote Zen masters, Dale Carnegie, and business leaders to outline a subtle point about turning in the discus ring just a bit smoother.
One of my favorite memories of John is his response to a Facebook page dedicated to him. Basically, the title was something like this:
“Those of us who have asked a question of John Powell and walked away more confused than ever.”
When I showed it to him, he loved the page and the posts. He laughed out loud with his Big Laugh and then did his “Huu…huu…huu,” other laugh, as he read our campers stories about asking questions. He then turned to me and said that almost all their questions were posted on the signs that Bill Witt had put up on the first day. John always emphasized this with all of us: life is simple; discus throwing is simple. You must follow the rules, stick to the basics, and build the foundation.
I’ve told this story endless times, but I always come back to it: John was at a camp and told everyone that discus throwing is simple. He had them “Stretch-Twist-Lift-Twist” or “Stretch-1-2-3” as we did literally countless times daily at our camps. If you think 1,000 times a day, you would be around the right number on a normal day. We did more many times.
So, this young man tries, probably too hard, the motions and trips and falls down. He looks up to John and says, famously: “You said it was easy.”
John replied:
“No, I said it was simple, not easy.”
This phrase, “I said it was simple, not easy” has become my coaching mantra. I use it every aspect of my life from saving for retirement to lawncare to raising daughters.
Bill Witt added this:
I always appreciated John’s passion for teaching and sharing his skills. He would strive to equip others with knowledge and insight with a single purpose of having others achieve their personal best. His gift of simplifying complex movement of all the throwing events into easy, concise systems. If you spent enough time with him and gained his trust, that is when one had a chance to see his compassionate side. He’d offer kids equipment or partial scholarships when the need presented. A man with intense drive and competitive spirit for certain. Yet, also one who could show deep concern for others.
Most people never knew how much John donated equipment, shoes, time, coaching, and spaces at his camps and workshops. There was always more room under his arms…held out wide in the STRETCH position.
There is a cliché that one should never meet their heroes. John was my hero and I am better for knowing him, working with him, and spending time with him.
For me, loving John was simple.