Tag Archives: weight lifting

Weekly Linkage

This week’s internet cruising:

  • Seriously? – bitquabit –

    [H]e identified the Three “P”s of entrepreneurship:

    'Profits, people and…you can figure it out.'

    [Muttering amongst the audience.]

    'Women. People, profits, and women. Or men. Whatever. People, profits, and women.'

    No, no. He really means "Profits, people, and pussy." That shit's not funny.

  • BBC World Service – Outlook, Neda Soltani: mistaken for a dead icon – Heard this story on NPR on an early, early morning drive to work. This was fucked up; it ruined her life in Iran and sent her fleeing to Germany to avoid (further) persecution by the Iranian government. Continue reading Weekly Linkage →

Rawr, I’m a Warrior

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My 2012 Warrior Dash medalI don’t really feel like a warrior. I mostly just feel a little beat up.

The Warrior Dash was terrible. It hurt, it was embarrassing, it was gross, it was filthy, and it was wet.

I think this is where I’m supposed to swoon and say I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Screw that. Maybe in a year, once I’ve properly trained up and can do 25 weighted pull ups with only my bad arm, but going in after a month of not training was 10 kinds of shenanigans.

I flipped the hell out on the first obstacle. Seriously. A measly balance beam took me minutes to cross. I was so embarrassed (and terrified) that I burst into tears afterward getting down. I really don’t like having my feet off the ground.

Once my pride was thoroughly out of the way, the rest was both easier and harder. The running was straightforward, although I could have used more stamina overall. I clambered up a slanted wall with rope easily, but skipped two straight walls on account of my shoulder. Every yoink on the rope wrenched at my shoulder, and it totally wasn’t worth a months’ long setback to climb two walls.

Plus, I’d already had all the one-on-one time with heights that I wanted, thank you.

The rest was bullshit, but didn’t trigger much terror for me. I even handled being kicked during the water escapade rather well. That consisted of a muddy “lake” with a ring of floating plastic cases/boxes in it. You swam out, climbed over one edge of the ring, swam through the center, climbed over the opposite side of the ring, then swam out. The water was at least 6 feet deep, because I ended up dunked a few times and never touched bottom.

That was obstacle 9 or 10, I think, and by the time I got to the center, I had run out of upper-body strength to heave myself over the second set of boxes. I’d also swallowed cups of this icky water, and been pushed, splashed on, and kicked by others who were climbing.

With some help, I got over to the other side and swam on out. I found the swimming easy, but Deana’s later mention of me “paddling along” (with doggy paddle motions) suggests that I may not have this breaststroke thing down very well after all.

I have no pictures of us before the race because I was sleepy, and none during and after because I wouldn’t let a camera or phone near that much mud unless it were already in its death throes.

And we did, in fact, swim and crawl through pools of mud.

All in all, I was quite disappointed (but not surprised) by my performance. Part of me still thinks I should have stayed in bed that morning, but the rest of me is trying to plan how to best be ready to do it again, only better.

A Month of 5/3/1

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Back in December, I ran across and fell in love with the idea of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program. After my weights arrived, I wasted no time crafting up a plan spreadsheet and getting rolling.

Again, wow.

As a refresher, the program focuses on four main lifts–military press, deadlift, bench press, and squat–one per day. Add assistance exercises around those to complete the workout.

Core Lifts

I’ve had to make some interesting adaptations over the month. I have no bench and no squat rack, so those are the two exercises I’ve had to be the most careful with. I hunted for a way to avoid learning how to do a power clean in order to do the squat, but I haven’t found a good way around it. And really, it’s not that bad (scary picture aside), although I still worry when the weights come off my chest a bit in the process of doing a front squat. I think my elbows aren’t high enough, resulting in a lower and less stable bar.

Continue reading A Month of 5/3/1 →

5/3/1: First Two Workouts

I’ve done my first two workouts (bench and leg press) of the 5/3/1 program, and wow.

Just… wow.

I included lat pulldowns and rows as the assisting exercises in the bench workout. Mmm, balance. Wonderfully, my shoulder gave me no guff at all, even in the ensuing soreness.

(And oh, the delicious soreness.)

I think this might be a serious way for me to finish rehabilitating my shoulder. I’ve been stalling for weeks with all the light-weight, high-rep rehab exercises, and the pain levels were staying the same. I iced heavily after the bench workout, and suffered no bone spur-specific pain in the following days.

Continue reading 5/3/1: First Two Workouts →

Setting up for 5/3/1

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Have you gotten your recommended dosage of sexism lately?

I have.

I bought an ebook containing a very smart, simple, sensible weightlifting program, and in the process of reading it and surrounding articles, pushed my sexism meter about as high as it would go without me punching someone in the face.

Even if punching Jim Wendler would likely get me snapped in half. Look, the dude can bench press over 400 lb.

(Although I suppose that being able to bench 400 lb isn’t a true indicator of his infraspinatus strength, so he might not be able to just rip me in half…)

If you haven’t gotten your daily dosage of sexism, let me give you a hint as to the kind of advice you can expect from 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength:
Continue reading Setting up for 5/3/1 →