Beards, Barbells, and Beer

[MilkManUK]

Muay Thai has been on my mind lately but I don't really have the time or money to put into it. The idea of training again is appealing but then I think about how it would take up 2 or 3 nights/week and I'd be really rusty and out of shape to begin with. Plus I wasn't too enthused about the trainers and the classes they ran when I was there in early 2013. Plus last year I built up more debt than I'm comfortable with due to a very sick cat and a bunch of unexpected plumbing work so I'm trying to be more frugal this year.

So basically I'm pulling a GSP. I'm not fully retired but I don't know if/when I'll return so I'll call it an indefinite hiatus.

For all that asked, there will definitely be beard and beer updates throughout the year. Thanks for stopping by and for the words of encouragement.

I hear you on that. I went back and did a session with my old club just before Christmas and really enjoyed myself, I considered the possibilty of going again more frequently in the new year. However, I still cannot justify 2 or 3 evenings a week (when I am able to, depending on my shift pattern), a 1 hour round trip, fuel in the car, and then paying for the training - it all adds up and I'm also trying to be frugal this year as a single income household with 2 kids.

 

[Da Beard]

Beards are mandatory. I too shaved mine for Movember and instantly knew it was a massive error in judgement. I will leave the moustaches to the scrawny hipster people who do not even lift. Im seriously considering growing my hair super long and doing some Ragnar Viking braids. I am for sure growing a Viking beard and will trim only for my wedding in August then regrow hopefully in time for Whitetail Deer hunting season.

Anyways good luck, and get that bench up. We have spoken a few times before I got bansihed by a certain Green Bay Packer obsessed Mod.

Peace

P.s if you go back to MT remeber to

 

[MilkManUK]

Beards are mandatory. I too shaved mine for Movember and instantly knew it was a massive error in judgement. I will leave the moustaches to the scrawny hipster people who do not even lift. Im seriously considering growing my hair super long and doing some Ragnar Viking braids. I am for sure growing a Viking beard and will trim only for my wedding in August then regrow hopefully in time for Whitetail Deer hunting season.

Anyways good luck, and get that bench up. We have spoken a few times before I got bansihed by a certain Green Bay Packer obsessed Mod.

Peace

P.s if you go back to MT remeber to

I like this guy, and I think I may know who he is.

 

[DrBdan]

I hear you on that. I went back and did a session with my old club just before Christmas and really enjoyed myself, I considered the possibilty of going again more frequently in the new year. However, I still cannot justify 2 or 3 evenings a week (when I am able to, depending on my shift pattern), a 1 hour round trip, fuel in the car, and then paying for the training - it all adds up and I'm also trying to be frugal this year as a single income household with 2 kids.

Oh yeah the trip is another factor that I didn't mention. I used to live a 30 minute walk from the gym (or 10-15 minutes by public transit) but now it takes me close to 60 minute to get home via transit.

Beards are mandatory. I too shaved mine for Movember and instantly knew it was a massive error in judgement. I will leave the moustaches to the scrawny hipster people who do not even lift. Im seriously considering growing my hair super long and doing some Ragnar Viking braids. I am for sure growing a Viking beard and will trim only for my wedding in August then regrow hopefully in time for Whitetail Deer hunting season.

Anyways good luck, and get that bench up. We have spoken a few times before I got bansihed by a certain Green Bay Packer obsessed Mod.

Peace

P.s if you go back to MT remeber to
[..URL=http://s765.photobucket.com/user/Baconator1975/media/HANGBANGSHIRT.jpg.html][IMG...]http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx291/Baconator1975/HANGBANGSHIRT.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Based on the image link I think I know who you are

The first day that I shaved my beard was pretty cool but the novelty quickly wore off and by the second week of Movember I wanted my beard back. I've kept the stache/chops but they are on their way out.

From the age of 18-20 I had awesome long hair, it was pretty thick and wavy. Sadly a decade later my hair is thinner and straighter and is thinning on top so when it gets too long it makes me look like a middle-aged guy that doesn't realize he's not 20 anymore

Mon Jan 6, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
155x5
175x5
200x5
225x5
255x5

Solid. 225 felt kinda tough but then I smoked 255.

- Bench
45x10
65x8
85x6
105x4
125x10
130x8
105x5
105x5
105x5

I did everything up to 130x8 in the power rack with an adjustable bench like this:

Which was annoying as fuck because you can't get a good setup. I think I've also mentioned that the hooks are either too low or a bit too high. Anyway, after the two main sets I went to get water and noticed that the flat bench was free so I moved their to do the 3 back-off sets and rows.

- DB Rows
25x10
50x10
75x10

Totally slacked on these because I was tired. I'll do lots of rear-delt flies tonight while I do laundry.

My body is still on holiday time so I'm lacking energy but I think I should be back to normal by next week. I might skip LISS on Thursday, depending on how I feel.

 

[DrBdan]

Wed Jan 8, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
315x1
345x1

After the rep at 345 I bent over to change the plates and felt a shooting pain in my back. The rep felt fine but I'm thinking I didn't keep my core tight enough. I've felt a similar pain in the past for that reason. Anyway I shut down the deadlifts.

- Facepulls: 5x20
- Push-ups: 5x10

Woo.

 

[DrBdan]

Fri Jan 10, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
155x5
175x5
200x5
225x5
260x3

No back issues today, hurray for that. If you missed the conversation in the Pub I ordered a belt today. I got the Rogue econ weightlifting belt. Their warehouse is in Columbus, Ohio which is only about 6-7 hours from Toronto so I'm hoping it will arrive next week.

- Bench
45x10
65x8
85x6
105x8
105x8
105x8

Benching in the power rack again which kinda sucks but my form felt alright.

- BW Inverted Rows: 4x10. I supersetted these with the bench since no one was using the smith machine and it's right next to the power racks.

 

[DrBdan]

Sun Jan 12, 2014

Hockey
The last two times we played this team the games were back and forth and ended in ties. This week was no different except we couldn't score and ended up losing 4-2. Most of the team was pretty flat tonight and we didn't get many quality chances early in the game and it didn't help that they had a rent-a-goalie who was really good.

I had no jump in the first two periods and wasn't very effective. In the third I picked it up a bit and had some good chances and setup a few good chances but nothing went in. I figured out that the goalie gave up rebounds if you shot the puck low and hard so I started cutting into the middle of the ice and blasting slapshots into his pads but we couldn't put a rebound past him. I also drew two penalties but they didn't lead to goals.

The most frustrating part about this team is that they have one guy who plays in about half their games who is way too good to be in our division. You can tell that he's holding back but whenever they needed to regain momentum he'd score a goal or at least create a few chances. In this game and the last game against them he was the difference maker.

 

[DrBdan]

Mon Jan 13, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
150x5
175x5
205x5
235x5
265x5

Squats felt really good today. Good speed out of the hole.

- Bench
45x10
65x8
85x6
105x4
130x10
135x10
115x5
115x5
115x5

Again form felt solid on these so I banged out two extra reps of 135.

- DB rows
25x10
50x10
75x10

Again my lagging work capacity caught up with me and I was dragging ass at this point. I'll do more at home tonight.

 

[DrBdan]

Wed Jan 15, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
(+belt)
315x1
315x1
345x1
345x1
365x1
365x1
365x1
365x1

The belt definitely made my core feel more solid though it was a bit awkward. The belt has 9 holes and I had to use the 8th one (i.e second largest) where it was snug but not super tight. I've read people saying that they prefer the belt to be a bit looser for deadlifts so on Friday I'll see if I can squeeze it down to the 7th hole for squats. I think I might need to lose a couple pounds before that happens but we'll see. I'm planning on losing 10-15 lb this year so by the end of the year I'll hopefully be using the holes in the middle of the belt.

- Facepulls: 4x25

Quickly banged those out. I had to meet with my co-op's supervisor today and it ran a bit late. I'll do more tomorrow after conditioning work (yep I'll actually do some of that tomorrow!)

 

[DrBdan]

Thurs Jan 16. 2014

Conditioning

- C2 rower: 15 minutes
- Stairmill: 15 minutes + 2 minutes cooldown

30+2 minutes total. Average HR around 140-150. My plan is to increase the length of time every few weeks. Did a bit of stretching afterward.

 

[DrBdan]

Fri Jan 17, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
150x5
(+belt)
175x5
200x5
235x5
270x3

I added the belt after the first set of 5 to get in more reps with the belt on. I was surprised that even at that low weight I could feel the difference, it makes staying upright much, much easier (duh!). I totally forgot about doing the back-off set, lame. Should have been 200x8

- Bench
45x10
75x8
95x6
115x8
115x8
115x8

Solid.

- Inverted rows: 5x10. Used 3 peg on the smith machine, supersetted with bench.

 

[DrBdan]

Sun Jan 19, 2014

Hockey
Terrible game last night, our worst game as a team in a few seasons. We were pretty unorganized the entire game but the pace was slow in the first period so we were able to get away with it. We ended the first period tied 1-1. In the second period the other team started to pick up the pace and we didn't respond at all. We weren't on the same page and everyone was getting frustrated. They scored twice to lead 3-1 and took control of the game.

In the third period things continued to get worse. They scored early in the period to make 4-1 and that seemed to be the end. After that everyone was trying to do everything themselves, guys were out of position and missing passes. It was ugly. Later in the period they scored 3 goals in two and half minutes to blow the game open. We scored with about 1 minute left to make it 7-2 but it obviously didn't matter.

We haven't played a game this bad in a few seasons. We didn't play well in our last two games but we were at least competitive. Last Friday I sent out an email to the team with some articles talking about small fixes that we can make to play better as a team. Before the game everyone said that they thought they were a good read but no one really followed them. It didn't help that we were missing some of our regular d-men which probably contributed to our disorganization in our own end, though it doesn't really excuse people from knowing basic positioning.

I actually felt like I had a decent game last night. I scored the first goal of the game, had a bunch of chances, and setup a few more. I also wasn't on the ice for a goal against until the 5th or 6th goal. Our top line had a really bad night and you could tell that our top scorer was frustrated and didn't have his head in the game. He kept getting shutdown on offense and wouldn't hustle back to help out on D. Oh well, it's just rec hockey right?

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Conditioning. Man, Doc I was just speaking to the wfey over the weekend about adding a day of running or swiming or something. Great work in here. And for the back off sets, do you only to the prescribed8, or do you bang out as many as you can?

 

[DrBdan]

Conditioning... I know right? lol. I was looking through my old logs a few weeks ago and I realized that I used to do a lot more conditioning, both with Muay Thai and Floor Hockey and conditioning work in the gym. I'm hoping that this extra conditioning will begin to pay off by my hockey playoffs (March).

For backoff sets I just do the prescribed reps. It worked well last Winter at getting in more quality reps without being too taxing. I've considered repping out the last set (for bench at least) if I feel like I need some extra work.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

I;m thinking of goig the opposite route and repping sets of 10 or as may as I can do beyond 5 until my work set (top set of 3 or 5). My work capacity in the squat is pretty high right now.

Plus I need the extra volume without aking too much more time in the gym. Dem legs is skinny.

 

[DrBdan]

Wouldn't it make more sense to do the extra reps after your work sets? I guess it would take longer but you would be fresher for the work sets.

Mon Jan 20, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
155x5
(+belt)
185x5
215x5
240x5
275x5

I did 275 instead of 270 because I think the bar is only 40 lb so really it was 270.

- Bench
45x10
75x8
95x6
115x4
135x10
140x8
115x5
115x5
115x5

- DB rows
30x10
60x10
90x10
90x10
90x10

I checked out a new gym location that opened close to my office.

Pros:
- It saves me about 10 minutes of walking time (5 minutes each way)
- More power racks and flat benches.
- Ridiculous amount of cardio equipment.

Cons:
- floor covered in squishy tiles (softer than horse stall mats). You have to be careful not to setup with your heel on a seam otherwise you feel unstable because the edges of each tile are tapered
- bars are possibly less than 45 lb and have non-standard markings on them. I feel like they will easily bend if I try to use them to pull 405+.
- benches are crappy two piece benches and the gap is right where I wanted to put my shoulders (http://www.lifefitness.com/static-a...iesbenchesracks/CS-SigBenchRack_SOFB-hero.png)

I'm not sure if I'll make this my regular gym. It's nice that it's closer and has more equipment but the shitty bars and squishy floor might be deal-breakers. I'll give it a few more tries before I decide.

 

[MilkManUK]

That gym sounds alot like the second gym I was using closer to home when I was off work. It was fine as a backup gym, but wouldn't want to base the majority of my workouts there. I stopped my membership in December, after they put the monthly fee up.

 

[DrBdan]

The good thing is that all of the various gyms that I've mentioned are all part of the Goodlife chain so they are all included in my membership so it's not like it cost me anything to try them. The worrying thing is that I think my regular gym will eventually replace the current bars with the crappy bars that probably aren't 45 lb because they seem to be becoming the standard bar.

If anyone is wondering about the floor thing it's like this:

So you can see that they have uneven seams between the tiles. It's not a huge deal but I'd much rather have plain, hard floor to squat and deadlift on. It just feels more stable. The one nice thing is that it provides a bit of cushioning when you lower a deadlift. There is another location downtown that has the same tiles but they also provide big pieces of plywood with a non-slip coating on them that you can place in the squat racks to provide a harder, more even surface.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Wouldn't it make more sense to do the extra reps after your work sets? I guess it would take longer but you would be fresher for the work sets.

I feel like my work capacity is very high right now and I feel like I will be able to handle it, for the first four weeks, at least. I can tone it down as I progress into later weeks. I'm just following the Madcow spreadsheet.

 

[MilkManUK]

Looks almost identical to the gym I was talking about. That padded floor used to drive me crazy on squats.