Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday:


Snatch:
up to 198x1
208x 4 misses

Clean and Jerk (2 cleans, 1 jerk)
176x1
198x1
220x1
242x3

Snatch Grip Dead Lift to RDL:
242x 3 sets of five
I did a snatch grip dead lift then did and RDL at the top then returned the weight to the platform to begin anew.  One rep = one dead lift and one RDL.

paired with

L-Sit Chins:
3x6

Thursday:


Chain Squat:
up to 315x3x2
Then did two sets of three paused with 225

Bulgarian Split Squats:
3x10 each leg
w/
Banded Glute Ham:
3x12

Weighted Glute Extensions
3x15
w/
Body Saw:
3x10

Two pretty good sessions in a row.  I really wanted that 208 snatch.  Just didn't have it on Wednesday.  My lower back has been really taking a pounding lately.  I may need to lighten my weights for a few days to let it heal up.  I think my piriformis muscles are just tight and are pulling on my sciatic nerve.  Nothing major, just need to be smart with it, like all things.

Tuesday

Chain Bench:
205+30 lbs of chain x 8 sets of three
225+ chain x 1
245+ chain x 1
265+ chain x .99 (I'll explain)

Hand Stand Push Ups: BW x 8,6,4
w/
Pull Ups: BW x 8,8,8

Fat Bar Cheat Curls: x 8,8,12

Fat Gripz Rope Push Downs: 3x12

2" Rope Climbs: I'd guess about 25-30 feet to the top x 3

I think I'm starting to settle in to a more structured routine.  It's going to look like this:

Monday: Heavy Lower
Tuesday: Upper
Wednesday: Olympic Lifts
Thursday: Speed focused Lower
Friday: Upper
Saturday: Body weight stuff, gun show, and auxiliary
Sunday: off

I'm going to play around with this set up for a bit and see how it goes.  I'm sure some tweaks will need to be made here and there.

About that .99 lift during chain bench.  Every lifter has experienced the feeling of grinding, grinding, grinding a lift and needing that 1% help from the spotter.  The actual help that the spotter gives could probably be measured in ounces.  If you haven't ever experienced this it is one of the more frustrating things in the strength world.  To know that you were a half a pound away from completing the lift is like a kick to the nuts.  You know that if you had it to do all over again you could change a thing or two and get the lift.  But you can't give it another go because you just wasted all you energy and busted a few blood vessels trying to get that last one.  Oh well.  Live, learn, keep moving forward.

The New Year's Resolution Solution

Every year it’s the same old thing.  It’s been going on for generations.  New Year’s Day starts getting closer and everyone gets a shot of confidence that this year is going to be the year.  They’re going to make some big changes in their lives.  They are going to lose weight, save money, build better relationships, get ahead in life and the list goes on.  We all know them and many of us have been that person.  They start out with a bang and three or four weeks later they end with not so much as a whimper.  They just fall back into their usual comfortable routine.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect people for taking a shot to better their lives, but if you are going to wait for a certain day chances are you aren’t too serious about its undertaking.  Big significant changes require a lot of things.  Commitment, consistency, and resiliency (maybe the biggest factor and I’ll get to that in a bit) are chief among them.  But using an arbitrary day like New Year’s as an artificial tipping point is a recipe for disaster.  If you want to do something, do it.  Do it now.  Not tomorrow.  Not in 2012.  Now.   

And don’t give yourself the option of failure.  There has to be consequences for quitting.  If you only tell yourself that you are going to lose 20 pounds and don’t what was lost personally?  Nothing.  You failed your goal but only in your eyes.  And human beings are pretty good at self-delusion so chances are there will be a multitude of reasons why it was impossible for you to succeed.   If you’re going to do something tell people you are going to do it and make them hold you accountable.  Don’t let them let you by on bullshit excuses. 

If you say you want to do something and don’t do it, you really never wanted to do it.

If you’re reading this article the day it’s published and you have a New Year’s resolution why wait?  The world is out there.  And it sure as hell isn’t going to wait for you.  Nor does it care about what day it is.  If you want something, take it.  Don’t wait for it to be given to you because it’s not going to happen. 

Abraham Lincoln said, “Good things come to those who wait, but only the things that are left behind by the people who hustle.”

The scroll says, "Seize the day bitches!" source: sharpwriter

You can sit there for four more days and hope that the pounds fall off, or that money magically lands in your bank account.  Or you can go out and hustle and make those things happen.  Write out your goals and do something every day to realize those goals.  And if you have a bump in the road the last thing you should do is fall off and give up.

Resiliency I feel is becoming more and more scarce these days.  I could, and more than likely will, write an article on this one factor but I just want to get this out there: 

SHIT HAPPENS. 

And it happens to those with the best of intentions.  Business ideas don’t pan out, you have a moment of weakness and binge eat, your car breaks down and have to use your savings to get a car to get to work.  That stuff happens.  But it’s those that have the most resiliency to know that having problems in the short term doesn’t mean all is lost in the long term.

This is where a lot of people fail.  They experience a setback and they can’t throw in the towel fast enough.  Setbacks happen and they happen a lot.  But there are two types of people when it comes to setbacks: those that pack it in and quit, and those that learn from the setback and are better for it.  In the words of the wise sage Mike Tyson, “Everyone has a plan until they get hit.”  But getting hit should only be an invitation and motivation to keep moving forward.  You get hit but you learn how to avoid it and other hits like it in the future.

What's your plan for when you get hit?

To summarize.

1. Pick Your Goal- Pick your goal and look at it every day.  Make it specific as possible.  Losing weight is not specific.  Being at 10% body fat by August 1^st is specific.  Let it sink into you until your pursuit of it becomes a part of everything you do and a little bit of who you are.

2. Start Now- Don’t wait for a random day.  Don’t even wait for tomorrow. Do something right now that will carry you towards your success.  Even if all you do is define what your own success looks like.

3. Be Held Accountable- Don’t let yourself fall into the same old rutted routine.  Make there be consequences for failure.  Could something like if you don’t do what you wanted to do you have to donate money to a charity.  But there has to be a punishment for quitting.

4. Be Resilient- You are going to slip up.  That’s a given.  You are going to make mistakes.  No one is perfect.  You are going to find that your journey is hard, and maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done.  If it was easy everyone would do it.  Concede the small battle but keep winning the war.

There’s your mission.  You only have so many hours left to shuffle around in this mortal coil.  Don’t waste a single one.

The Day After

Clean Pulls
292x2 singles
198x3x2 from the hang

Bottom Up Squats
Up to 405x1

Squat Supports:
600 x 10 singles

I then ran around the block as fast as possible.  Yikes.

My motivation for today's garage gym was that I put it in my head that I binged this weekend and needed to work it off.  Christmas is in all regards National Cheat Day wherein the average person eats 4000-6000 calories during the festivities.  And that's just Christmas Day.  Many people have multiple celebrations over the few weeks before and after the actual holiday.  In any case I was somewhat of a party pooper.

If I had to guess I'd say I stuck to my diet about 90% of the time.  I had a few cocktails and a few unplanned meals but didn't stray too far from what I normally ate.

This isn't really a good or bad thing.  If I wasn't doing this diet competition then all bets would have been off and I would be in a cookie coma right now.  One story kind of illustrates my mentality on the whole thing:

A little background.  The winner of the diet challenge gets to chose the food that Lance and I are going to eat for our Super Bowl get together.  The loser is going to buy.  My girlfriend's three year-old son was picking at a gingerbread house and eating some of the candies and gum drops off of it.  He was kind enough to share one of the gum drops with me.  Once he walked into the other room I went to throw it away.  My girlfriend's mom then said, "Jeez you can't even eat a gum drop?"  I replied, "The way I see it is that could be a $100 dollar gum drop right there.  I'd much rather win than eat the gum drop."

I'm extremely thankful that everyone that knows that I'm doing this is very understanding and supportive.  I don't have cravings so being around food isn't a problem.  I just don't want to offend anyone by not eating what they have prepared.  But luckily it hasn't been an issue.

The moral of the story is that it is possible to diet during the holiday's.  At the very least it's possible to maintain where you are at without gaining extra weight.  It just takes discipline.  A good support system always is a big help too.

Tomorrow I'm going to lay down some TRUTH about New Year's Resolutions.  To be blunt: I'm not a fan.

Hope everyone has had a happy and safe holiday season with one left to go.

Holiday BEAST Mode

At 8 am this morning I decided to crank out a nice little garage workout.  Here's how it went down.

5 rounds of:
Power Clean: 176x3
w/
Seated Pin Press: 185x3

3 rounds of:
Split Squatsx10
w/
Bent Rowsx8

I then re-installed the bed box on my truck.  All told it took me about 25 minutes.  Oh yeah, it's 20 degrees right now.

The satisfaction of being done only comes to those who have done something.  Do something.  And Happy Holidays from 200 Pounds Is 200 Pounds.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday:

Snatch:
up to 198x1

Clean and Jerk:
up to 242x1, cleaned 264 but missed the jerk

Friday:

Squat:
315x 3 singles
365x 3 singles
405x 3 singles

Fat Bar Bench:
255x1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3

Last two days have been pretty good training wise.  I can tell that my ability to recover is a bit diminished with the lower calories.  All about playing it smart and keeping my eyes on the main goal.  I sometimes feel like the rules don't apply to me and it usually bites me in the ass.  Not this time.  Playing it smart and going to keep progressing.

Monday and Wednesday

Monday:

Band Resisted Squat:

up to 405x1

Fat Bar Bench:

265x10 singles

Wednesday:

Fat Bar Overhead Press:

up to 185x1, the 135x5x5

Front Squat:

225x5x2

Pendlay Row:

154x6x3

242x3x3

I was having a discussion with a client the other day who always says that his left side- particularly in his upper body- is underdeveloped compared to the right.  I have the same thing except the two sides are switched.  I was thinking about this a few weeks ago and wondered to myself if it had anything to do with the fact that when I was a freshman in college I got a nasty stinger on my right side.  I had no idea what happened and didn't want to be a wuss and stop practicing so I just babied my right arm through the rest of practice.

If you're unaware of what a stinger is it's essentially a stretching or pinching of the bundle of nerves (brachial plexus) that supply the arm.  The initial symptoms such as stinging, pain, and weakness usually go away pretty quickly.  I'm just wondering if perhaps there is more long term damage that doesn't manifest itself until later.  I don't feel there is a huge difference in strength.  I emphasize "huge" because there is some, but this is normal in most people.  It would make sense that I had a bit of damage to the nerves that supply that side of my body and over the course of years of training I'll accumulate a bit more muscle on the non stinger side due to the fact that it's playing with a full brachial plexus.  The stinger side would then be like the kid that could have been really smart but decided to eat a bunch of paste in kindergarten and turned out average at best.  Maybe we'll never know.

Friday

Clean High Pulls:
264x1x5

Squat:
Up to 385x1, 2 ,3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Fat Bar Bench:
Up to 245x1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Single Arm Row:
4x8 w/ 120s
w/
Inverted Row:
4x8 w/ body weight

Fat Bar Curls:
4x8
w/
Reverse Hypers:
3x12

35 yard sprintsx8

Really good session today.  Squats got a little funky at the end.  I think my piriformi (pl. of prirformis which is part of the gluteal complex near the top and outside of your butt cheek) had had enough by the time I got to the last set.  Since this muscle sits across the sciatic nerve when that little guy gets tight you feel loads of lower back pain.  In fact there are those that would guess that around 90% of low back pain is due to piriformis tightness.  I would tend to agree although I would say it's more just muscle tightness and weakness in general that causes most of it.  I think I've just stumbled upon an article idea.

Wednesday

Clean and Jerk:

198x1x3

10 Rounds of:

Front Squat: 315x1

With

Fat Bar Push Press: 205x1

Front Levers: some sets x some reps

Weighted Slide Board Leg Curls: 3x15

Power Wheel Walks: 30, 20, 20 yards

I apologize for the lack of updates lately.  After I did the meet with Lance and Nic at NX Level a few weeks ago I haven’t really felt like recording my training.  I’ve been training pretty much every day but no two sessions have been the same.  One day I’ll dead lift and bench and the next I might just do seated pin presses.  I’m just going by what I feel like doing when I get started.  I haven’t been going heavy every day and it’s really helped me to keep moving forward without having to take a break.  My light days usually consist of calf raises, biceps and triceps, shrugs, and sometimes neck work.  These exercises require a relatively low amount of motor units to be used and help to keep me fresh.  I’ve also tried to really cut down on my assistance exercises on my heavy days.  I go heavy on 2-3 exercises and get out.  When I do add in assistance it’s usually higher reps with moderate weight.

I’ve also been on a diet since November 14^th.  Lance and I are doing a fat loss challenge and we’ve got a lot riding on it.  The loser has to buy the winner’s choice of food for our Super Bowl get together.  I started at 209 pounds and 13% body fat.  I’m right about 200 pounds now and if I had to guess I’m just creeping into single digit territory.  I’m feeling really well right now.  I’m still as strong as I was before it started and my energy levels haven’t really crashed at all.  I’d post some progress pics but I forgot to take a before picture and bathroom selfies are about the lamest thing a man can do. 

The main reason that we are doing this is that I’m writing Lance’s diet on a week to week basis and I figured he could use some help/motivation to keep him on track during the holidays.  He’s doing really well and it should be a tight race.

With the update out of the way I’m rededicating myself back to the blog.  I’m going to start trying to write everyday even if it is stuff that doesn't end up getting published here.  I’m hoping to be able to consistently bust out 2-3 new articles every month.  I’m also going to shift my Twitter feed back over to training and nutrition tips and info.  Right now it’s just me trying to be funny which doesn’t happen too often.  So click the follow button on the right for some good bits and pieces of advice.  I’ll also be putting up links to some of my old articles in case any new readers haven’t checked them out.

That’s all I got for now.  Stay tuned for lots more content to come.  Keep training hard and if anyone has questions or comments I’d love to hear them.

Exercise and Brain Health

Here’s a hypothetical question for you.  When you get older would you rather A) have a healthy body and have dementia or Alzheimer’s, or B) become extremely physically handicapped while maintaining fully functioning faculties, or C) maintain a robust physical presence while still being as sharp upstairs as you ever were.  The obvious answer is C, but more often than not people will fall into either the A or B column.  The positive effects of exercise in staving off the effects of Father Time on your body are obvious and plentiful.  But the positive effects of exercise on brain health are only recently being recognized.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, affects the areas of the brain that control memory, speech, and thought and can seriously impair a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.  The CDC estimates that about 5.4 million Americans are currently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  The number of Alzheimer’s patients has doubled since 1980 and is expected to be at 16 million by 2050.  In 2011 the total cost of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to be around $130 billion.  About 5% of people aged between 65-74 years are affected by Alzheimer’s with that number jumping to 50% or people 85 years and older.

The exact cause of Alzheimer’s is still unclear.  It probably includes several factors that play different roles in each individual affected by the disease.  Scientists have uncovered several risk factors for the disease with age being number one.  Other factors include family history of the disease and risk factors that are similar to those of cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure and cholesterol and low levels of folate.  Researchers are also starting to uncover some routes for preventing and slowing the progress of the disease once it is diagnosed.

Many studies have begun to show the positive correlates of exercise to brain health, especially in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.  In one study each patient was assigned to either a walking group or non-walking group.  Each patient was administered a mental state examination.  At the end of the study the walking group, in addition to improving walking times, had a much slower decline on the mental state examination (47% for the non-walking group to just 13% for the walking group.)  Studies have shown that exercise increases a cells endurance and resistance to oxidative stress and has positive effects on neurogenesis (growth of new nerve and brain cells) and memory improvement.

Exercise also seems to help improve symptoms in patients diagnosed with depression.  In a study done on treatment-resistant patients, moderate to intense exercise improved depressive parameters and functioning.  Exercise also contributed to the remission of 26% of the patients enrolled in the study.  Although the effects are promising exercise is still only a supplement to normal treatment measures.  In a study that investigated whether or not exercise decreased the risk of post-partum depression in women the only group of subjects that showed statistically significant benefits were those mothers that were not active prior to being pregnant.  In another meta-analysis of the literature on the role of exercise and depression most of the benefits were not statistically significant and more studies were needed.  But just because data isn’t statistically significant doesn’t mean there isn’t something to be gained from it.

Despite what the literature says I can speak from my experience and from the experience of others that exercise can be beneficial for brain health and mood regardless of age or current mental state.  When things aren’t going your way and you feel the weight of the world on you exercise can be there as a way to exorcise (pun intended) some of your demons.  It can be there to be the one thing in your life that you can control.  It can be like a steady ship in a stormy ocean.  Speaking for myself I know that when life throws me a few curves and I can’t get my normal lifts in I’m not the same person I usually am.  Small annoyances go from being mole hills to mountains.  In other words I get a serious case of the Crabapple McNasties.  And once I get back into the gym and hoist some heavy poundages my worries seem to shrink and oftentimes disappear entirely.

The data on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and exercise is compelling to say the least.  If something as simple as walking a few times per week can slow the progression of the disease I would think that being active from an early age on would have a beneficial effect as well.  I would like to see some longitudinal studies done on the protective effects of exercise, but for right now make sure you are getting in some good exercise a few times a week and constantly surround yourself with people you care about.  And don’t forget to break a mental sweat every now and again, too.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/aging/aginginfo/alzheimers.htm

Exercise plays a preventive role against Alzheimer's disease.  Radak Z, et al. J Alzheimer’s Dis. 2010;20(3):777-83.

 Six-Month Walking Program Changes Cognitive and ADL Performance in Patients With Alzheimer.  Venturelli M, et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2011 Aug 17.

Exercise-induced cognitive plasticity, implications for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.  Foster PP, et al.  Front Neurol. 2011;2:28. Epub 2011 May 6.

Moderate exercise improves depression parameters in treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorder.  Mota-Pereira J, et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2011 Aug;45(8):1005-11.

Does exercise during pregnancy prevent postnatal depression?: A randomized controlled trial. Songøygard KM, et al.  Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand. 2011 Sep 1. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01262.x.

Exercise for depression.  Mead GE, et al.  Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jul 8;(3):CD004366. 

A Few Thoughts On A Saturday Morning

Saturday I woke up early (4:30 am early) to train before work.  Since it was just me at the gym I had a lot of time to myself to think between sets.  A lot of times what goes through my head is inconsequential.  But today I actually had some interesting revelations on training in the morning and a few thoughts on the exercises I chose. Here was the workout.

Fat Bar Bench:
worked up to 265x1x5

Zercher Squats from the pins:
275x1x5, 315x1x2

Pendlay Rows:
220x3x5

Wall Walk-Ups:
4x5
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
4x20

If you are someone that doesn't usually train early in the morning getting up and throwing some weight around can be a shock to your system if you don't prepare correctly.  If you are someone that consistently trains early you have probably noticed that your body has become adapted to it.  But if you are someone that only does it once every few weeks here are some things that can help you stay productive when all you really want to do is crawl back in bed.

Get up 1.5-2 hours prior to training: I wanted to start by 5:45 am so I set my alarm for 4:30.  Waking up at least an hour before you start is important to get out of sleep mode and get the nervous system firing.  Getting up and doing some light stretching is a great way to get amped up for the coming lift.

Go through your normal morning routine: Especially if your routine is designed to help you wake up and get ready for the day.  If you get up and have coffee or take the dog for a walk or take a shower try to follow that plan before you go train.  This goes back to the first point in that just getting up and moving is a lot better than rolling out of bed and right into the gym.

Hydrate: If you aren't going to drink at least 24 ounces of water before you set foot in the gym then just go back to bed.  Due to your body's natural rhythm of hormones you are naturally dehydrated in the morning.  This is why you feel stiff and why your morning pee looks like diluted coffee of flat Coca-Cola.  Getting some fluids in will lubricate your joints and get your body's systems going at top speed.

Eat: After fasting for anywhere from 8-12 hours overnight your body is in a catabolic state.  That is it's breaking stuff down, including muscle.  Getting some calories in helps turn off catabolism and gives you some fuel for your workout.  Choose foods that are easy for you to digest and include "white" proteins (egg whites, chicken, fish) and some simple carbohydrates (fruit is my go-to).

Get excited: Getting excited about training the night before will almost ensure that you will get up and get moving and get motivated to train.  Not a lot of people can or are willing to get up and train early while the rest of the world sleeps.  Know that you are doing something that 95% of the population will call you crazy for doing but will get you closer to your goals.  To paraphrase 50 Cent, "Sleep is for poor people."

While I don't think early morning is an ideal time to train, sometimes it's the only time available and I'll be damned if I let some piddly excuse like, "It's too early" get in the way.  With these tips you can make your early morning training sessions as productive as all the others.