Strength in Interesting Places

[JauntyAngle]

Afghanistan!! Boom! Southern Sudan!! Ka-blammo!!! Thailand! Mmmmm, mango! Pakistan!!! Ker-decapitate!!!! Kenya! Watch out for that zebra!!!!!!!! These are some (or almost of) the interesting places I have tried to develop strength. Without success!! Join me for an orgy of travel, exclamation marks and so-so lifting!!!!!!!!

Strength in Interesting Places: JauntyAngle's S&C Log

About me

I'm 38 years old, married with one kid, and although I am originally from the UK, for nearly 10 years I've been living in Chiang Mai, in Thailand.

I am what is called a "development consultant". It's like being a management consultant, except that instead of advising private companies, I advise the governments of very poor and unstable countries. A lot of the time it is on similar sorts of things- how they should be internally organized, how they can manage themselves better, how they can be more efficient and effective in doing what they do. I started out in this field working for the Government of Thailand, but lately all my work has been in Afghanistan, with a short period of time in Southern Sudan. Over the next year I will probably be moving to work in other countries- likely Pakistan at some point quite soon.

I usually work for 6 weeks or so then come home for 2-3 weeks, which is very civilized. I am not sure I could go back to a 9-5.


About my lifting

I actually started going to gyms when I was 16, but didn't learn how to lift properly until I was 37 (about a year and a half ago), so I came to lifting pretty late and my previous messing about in the gym hasn't really helped me at all, as far as I can tell.

Like many here, I started off with Starting Strength, but unlike many, I really didn't get very far with it. I didn't really start making decent progress until around 9 months into my lifting career until I started my own programme "JauntyLifts", using a similar template to Starting Strength but using Keith Wassung's T3 for bench, squat and press, and 5/3/1 for deadlifts, plus more assistance. After I had been running it for a while it started to become too much of a grind and I started to experiment with 5/3/1. The period I was trying to use it was dominated by injuries, but nonetheless I found that I don't like "4 day slit, one main lift per day" type templates. So at the time of writing I was back to the original JauntyLifts template, except using APRE to programme my main lifts.

I am a pretty crappy lifter: it took me about 15 months of fairly consistent training to reach 1x BW bench, 1.5x BW squat and 2x BW deadlift (although some of these came much earlier than others), and a 1,000lb total looks like it could be years away. However, I am good at bicep curls and ab-wheel roll-outs, and have pretty jakt calves. Which clearly more than makes up for being so ho-hum in the main lifts.

I used to have lots of goals, but with getting side-tracked and injured quite often, I have recanted all of them, and replaced them with one new one: to continually progress in all my lifts, measured over multiple months or half years.


About my conditioning

I have a tendency to go easy on the conditioning- I enjoy it much less than lifting, and so it tends to be the thing that gets missed when I am busy. I guess these days, my repertoire consists of incline walks, 3km runs, work on the C2 rower (ether distance or intervals), barbell complex intervals, heavy bag work and occasional burpees. Sometimes I go swimming when I go home, but then immediately after I tend to eat a burger and a plate of fried rice, and down several beers.


About my log

I use my log not only to record my S&C work. I also use it to talk about my work and travels, to post things I like from the internet, to post pictures of attractive women, and just as a forum for random chat. As I always say, you won't find the heaviest weights or most impressive conditioning sessions here (probably the opposite), but good luck finding another log describing what it's like squatting in a safe room during a Taliban attack.

One of the most important features of this log is that it is also the primary location for discussing and awarding JauntyPoints, my own personal award scheme for outstanding achievement for members of this forum. Currently, the holders of JauntyPoints are:


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2 points
MIDMO
belphegor13

1 point
scoopj
squatsquatsquat
DrBdan
VoodooPlata
LitteringAnd
SlaveToTheDark
Dexbot
Dinpappa
MMAjester
Keosawa

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

[JauntyAngle]

Quick catchup: September, October and November.

During this period, I went roughly

Squat: 65 kg > 105 kg
Deadlift: 80kg > 125 kg
Bench: 65kg > 77.5 kg *
Press: 40kg > 52.5 kg

My pullups and chinups (which are three sets to failure) have barely increased in number- typically from maybe 10, 7, 7 to perphaps 12, 8, 8 or 11, 10, 10. But I know that I am doing them with better form and getting much higher above the bar/elbows much lower down the body.

During this period, I missed 3 workouts when I travelled to the UK for a week (in early October). When I got back to Thailand after that (in Mid-October), I reset the weights probably a bit too much, so that I had to spend about 2-3 sessions getting back to where I was.

My first 3-4 weeks of squatting was largely wasted. I didn't understand about hip drive, and was basically doing it entirely with my thighs (really just doing a front squat). Suddenly I figured it out after my UK trip, and the squat went up pretty much 2.5kg per session, all the way from 67.5kg to 105kg (in about six weeks). I did miss 1-2 sessions through ilness, and didn't increase the weight once or twice.

* Bench has been weird. I had my first and only stall on Bench at 80 kilos. I was previously doing singles and doubles on 77.5 kilos, so it seems that my strength has hardly increased at all on the bench. What to do about this I am not quite sure. To be discussed more later.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Catchup: December in Southern Sudan

Left Kabul on Tuesday, 30th November and flew straight to Juba in Southern Sudan. I was pleased to find that they had gym with a bench, bar and about 140 kilos of plates. The rack for the bench extends really high upward, so it is possible to get the bar onto your back from there, although getting it back on requires walking backward into it and lowering it, which is a delicate operation. The floor of the gym felt kind of slippy, too, which is really not good. No pullup bar, so I decided to do regular SS while I was here, which would mean learning to PowerClean properly (although I had been cleaning in order to Press).

Arrived on Wednesday and didn't find the gym, so didn't start until Friday. I missed the Monday workout as it was my last day in Kabul for a while and things were a bit crazy. So I got to my next workout having missed two. I decided to reduce the weight on the squat a bit, mainly because I was concerned about slipping. I knew I also would have missed one deadlift workout, so I decided that come next time I would set my DL back by 5 kilos. Because I had stalled on the bench shortly before leaving, I was coming back from 72.5 kilos, working back to my stall level of 80.

In Kabul I eat 3-4 normal meals per day plus milk, nuts and a daily protein shake. Don't have that here in Juba, so I am forced to go for 3 really big meals per day. Not sure how that will affect me.

Here are my four workouts in Juba

Friday, 3 December:
Squat: 90x5, 95x5, 95x5 (felt very good, slippiness of floor not an issue)
Bench 75x5, 75x5, 75x5 (felt okay)
Clean 50x3, 50x3, 50x3, 50x3, 50x3 (pretty sure I was doing it wrong)

Monday, 6 December
Squat: 100x5, 100x5, 100x5 (felt very good)
Press: 52.5x5, 52.5x5, 52.5x5 (felt okay)
Deadlift: 120x5 (was hard to maitain grip but completed okay)

Thursday, 9 December
Damn guest house! On Wednesday there were VIPs in town and for some reason they were meeting in my hotel. Bastards moved everything out of the gym and turned it into a meeting room. So Wednesday's work moved to Thursday, and my schedule now become Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday
Squat: 102.5x5, 102.5x5, 102.5x5 (felt very good)
Bench: 77.5x5, 77.5x5, 77.5x5 (much harder than expected)
Clean: 52.5x3, 52.5x3, 52.5x3, 52.5x3, 52.5x3 (tiring, but first time I got the feeling of the bar 'racking itself')

Saturday, 11 December
Squat: 105x5, 105x5, 105x5 (felt good)
Press: 55x5, 55x4, 55x3 (repeat next time)
Dead: 125x5 (grip was okay this time, but clearly need to implement hook grip)

With the bench and press, my problem is getting it up off the chest/out of the bottom. If I can get it out of the hole with any momentum, I can lock it out. It is only when I basically stall coming out of the hole that things get tough. Although S&C luminary DrBdan says that I am not at a stage where I need assistance, I feel that wide-grip pause benches (resting the bar on my chest before pushing off) might help this. As an experiment, I did 2x10 of these on a light weight when I finished. I certainly did feel it in my chest, although I am unsure about whether I should pursue this exercise, and if so if so what reps and sets I should do. Quite possibly with the travel and missed workouts, I simply haven't managed my reset for the bench, and with regular training I would have felt better on the 75 and 77.5. For pretty much the first time ever in Kabul, my health wasn't the best in November, and I had quite a few stomach problems. That might have prevented me from getting the nutrition I needed on a consistent enough basis.

 

[pliftkl]

One of the things that most affects my training is my job. I work in international development, advising governments of poor countries. I've been working in Afghanistan for the last three years, although I am writing this in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. Other places that I may work in the next few years include Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Pakistan and Nepal. This means that it is often not clear if I will have access to a gym. At home, in Thailand, I do at least have access to a gym with a bar bell, power rack and a load of weights (nearly 400 kilos) which no one else uses. I am home approximately 2 weeks out of 8.

Cool job. Welcome to the logs. Where do you live in Thailand?

 

[JauntyAngle]

Cool job. Welcome to the logs. Where do you live in Thailand?

Thank. And thanks.

I live in Chiang Mai, in the north. A place I fell in love with pretty much the moment I set foot in it.

 

[scoopj]

Interesting log. Smart gameplan. Good luck.

 

[JauntyAngle]

First proper log entry! Tuesday, December 14th. I've decided that, at least some times, in addition to putting in the weights and reps I will add some comments about technique and other things. It will help me to get my thoughts in order, and possibly anyone who reads this might spot mistakes or something. With that said

Squat

107.5kg: x5, x5, x5.

All felt good. I have noticed that while, in my warmup set, I am doing the exercise pretty much the same each time, with the work sets there is quite a bit of difference- difference in depth and amount of hip drive. These felt reasonably uniform- there was maybe one where I didn't to too deep and one where there wasn't too much hip drive. Anyway, it's something I want to look at when I can film myself. This was a PR, too, and I feel like there will be plenty more of those in the next couple of weeks.

Bench

Ah, Bench. My old Nemesis. I made 77.5kgs last time but felt pretty bad, so I decided to repeat the weight. This time I was trying to get the form right without going really far (I can really arch my back and get my sholuder blades together because of the yoga), getting it up off my chest fast, and following the same short, straight bar path each time. That's really too much to remember. Because of the sucking I did slightly more warmup too (an exta set of 2x5 with 25kg). I got

77.5kg x5, x5, x5

It only got a little tough for the last two reps of the final set, so overall I was pleased. Most importantly, I had no problem getting it up off my chest quickly.

Clean

I spent quite a bit of time practicing the second pull today. First, just jumping with the bar with straight arms, to get the feel of how it wants to come up even if you don't use your arm muscles. Then on getting a bigger jump. Then on trying to get the elbows forward and quarter squat just as your momentum changes and you start coming down from your jump. Result was much better but probably still terrible. I did

50x3, 52,5x3, 52.5x3, 55x3, 55x3

I know, I ramped up to the weight I should have been doing rather than doing sets across. I wanted to give myself a chance to incorporate all the technique.

Terrible going off the programme-ness

I did some bicep curls with the barbell. I did this despite the warnings against because (in order of increasing importance)

- It might help my chins (copyright, Tosa, I think)
- It might reduce my chance of tearing a bicep while deadlifting (copyright Miaou, I think)
- Rip says 'you're going to do them anyway' then tells you how to do them in Starting Strength
- I have no chinup/pullup facililty here in Sudan
- Teh girlz love teh gunz!!!11!1!11!

Once I'm doing chins again I'll probably stop these. Or maybe not. Because the gunz really are awesome.

I also did 2x10 wide grip bench presses with on 50kg with a decent pause at the chest, based on my theory that my problem with the bench is getting the bar off the chest, and that the responsible muscles tire very quickly. I really don't know if this is a good idea or not.

Was exhausted afterwards- probably because I spent a long time on the clean and was jumping much better and higher. Went out afterwards and ate a Chinese meal and a pizza. Nice.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

Welcome to the logs

37 aint old by the way

 

[JauntyAngle]

Welcome to the logs

37 aint old by the way

True, 37 isn't old at all. But things are quite different physically compared to 21 or so.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I won't argue that at all.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Bah! Today was not a good day.

One of the things about working in places like Afghanistan or Sudan is that you get sicker more often. And sometimes you don't quite get sick, but you get tired and weak- probably while your body is going all-in to fight something off. I get it less than many, but yesterday afternoon I had a big crash and couldn't do much for the afternoon. Spent most of the day resting, got about 10 hours sleep, felt about 80% this morning. Which was about 15% less than I needed..

Squat 110kg: x5, x5, x3

I felt bad even warming up with 90. The reps I did do felt bad. Sure I would have nailed 110 2 days ago. Probably could have managed 1-2 more on the 3rd set, but I felt weak and uncoordinated, and like might fail a rep for the first time in ages. So I stopped.

Press 55kg: x5, x4, x1

Even worse- worse than my last attempt at 55. Actually, I struggled a little with the first rep of the first set. That was the giveaway.

Deadlift 130kg: x1, x1, x1, x1, x1, x1.

A silver lining for my cloud- 130 is a PR. I do singles, standing up between each and then re-setting, and today I might have taken a wee bit longer to do that, but I did them. Grip was a bit tough, but I made some progress at implementing the hook grip, which will pay off in the future.

*************************************

A bit bored of the buffet that I normally have in my hotel 2 times a day, so ordered an avocado (that came in a delicious olive oil and chillie dressing) and a hamburger (which was much better and larger than expected).

Just one more workout in Sudan, on Saturday, then I am off back to Thailand on Monday. It's a long journey with bad connections: Juba to Nairobi, few hours in Nairobi, arrive Dubai 1.30am, wait somewhere (maybe a hotel room) until 9.30am, then to Bangkok (6 hours) and then Chiang Mai. About 30 hours from door to door. I'll arrive on Tuesday night, may stick to the Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday schedule, which means I'll probably be good to go again on Thursday, having missed only one workout.

 

[pliftkl]

Just one more workout in Sudan, on Saturday, then I am off back to Thailand on Monday. It's a long journey with bad connections: Juba to Nairobi, few hours in Nairobi, arrive Dubai 1.30am, wait somewhere (maybe a hotel room) until 9.30am, then to Bangkok (6 hours) and then Chiang Mai. About 30 hours from door to door. I'll arrive on Tuesday night, may stick to the Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday schedule, which means I'll probably be good to go again on Thursday, having missed only one workout.

I can sympathize. My wife is from Maha Sarakham, so trips from the US to her village are inevitably about 36 hours, since you get into Bangkok too late to get another flight up to Isan.

Don't sweat the off workout. They happen, and then it gets better.

 

[JauntyAngle]

I can sympathize. My wife is from Maha Sarakham, so trips from the US to her village are inevitably about 36 hours, since you get into Bangkok too late to get another flight up to Isan.

Don't sweat the off workout. They happen, and then it gets better.

That's a loong way. For me this trip wouldn't normally take so long- you can do from here to Egypt in two hours, then eight to BKK. But I have to go back via Kenya and Duabi, as that was the way I cam in.

Once I get back to Thailand I will he happy, healthy, lots of food, and a decent gym with a power rack and safety bars. So I am reckon I'll have plenty of good workouts and will break through all those ceilings.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

I take issue with you listing Snorlax as a middleweight. I am currently checking the offical Pokedex but if I am not mistaken Snorlax is listed as the heaviest of the orginal pokemon

Edit

the offical pokedex lists snorlax as 6'11 and 1014.1lbs, he is also the 143 offical pokemon. Onix is listed or the 43rd pokemon is 28'10 but only 463lbs. Charizad is listed at 5'7 and only 199.5 lbs and he is the 6th offical pokemon. However in the show both onix and charizard appear larger and heavier than that.

 

[JauntyAngle]

I take issue with you listing Snorlax as a middleweight. I am currently checking the offical Pokedex but if I am not mistaken Snorlax is listed as the heaviest of the orginal pokemon

Edit

the offical pokedex lists snorlax as 6'11 and 1014.1lbs, he is also the 143 offical pokemon. Onix is listed or the 43rd pokemon is 28'10 but only 463lbs. Charizad is listed at 5'7 and only 199.5 lbs and he is the 6th offical pokemon. However in the show both onix and charizard appear larger and heavier than that.

You wouldn't believe how often I get comments about my Pokemon weight-classes.

I have two positions.

My official position is that Snorlax is an Antony Johnson/Tiago Alves type weight cutter who brutalizes his body to fight at a much lower than his natural weight class, and that Charizard is a Fedor type who doesn't cut weight at all and routinely fights much bigger opponents, simply because he is a badass.

My unofficial reply is that I know I messed up the weight classes, but that I like that signature, have had it for years and years, and would prefer to keep it exactly as it is, despite its flaws.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

well with that well thought out reply I retract my earlier statement.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Dagnabbit. Got to the gym and there was a guy using the bar/bench (the gym has one bar, some weights and a bunch of super light dumbells). He was pretty strong (benching about 260 comfortably) and so I guessed that he might spend a while lifting weights. The gym had also just opened, so I figured that a decent amount of his workout was ahead of him.

So workout is postponed until tomorrow.

In some ways that's better, as tomorrow is my one day off. I don't have that much to do anyway, and I can take my time.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Jaunty's Totally Off-Programme Day

Squats

Got to the gym, the weights were free, but I couldn't adjust the rack thingy that I use to get the bar on my back, so I couldn't do squats (back squats).

Since today was a clean day anyway, I thought I would do front squats and cleans at the same time, by doing power cleans. Since I wasn't quite sure what weight I could handle, after a warmup(2x5 empty bar, 2x4 with 25kg, 2x3 with 35kg, 2x2 with 40kg and two singles on 45kg), I did

50kgx5, 55kg x5, 57.5kgx5

There was a bit of a rest on the last set. There was just a little bit of effort to get out of the hole towards the end of the second and third set, but that was nice. I can go pretty deep with the front squat (possibly the result of 8 years of yoga) so it was good to practice getting out from what I thought was really deep.

Really enjoyed these. Didn't feel like it was the weight as such that was difficult, more the level of work. With regular practice I feel like I could go up quite a bit. Makes me look forward to doing an intermediate routine where I can do main lifts plus assistance, and use these as assistance.

Bench

Once again, bench frustrates me.

Unfortunately, after the power cleans I was much more tired than normal. That was probably compounded by doing a longer warm-up series than normal. The clue that this was not going to work came on my final warmup singles at 65kg, when it felt surprisingly heavy. Moved it up to 77.5kg, managed a couple and stopped becaue it felt really bad. Changed it to 75kg and it still felt bad.

So I decided to just get some technique and volume and did

70kg: x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

I admit that I haven't been eating too well and have had a lot of interrupted sleep and slightly irregular training over these last three weeks, so this is obviosuly not the best environment to work on my worst lift. Once I get back to Thailand all the conditions will be right, and I will focus on breaking through 80.


Clean

No need to do these as I did power cleans.

At this point I'd gone off the programme so far anyway, what did it matter

Did three sets of barbell bicep curls at 35kg (x10, x10, x6). Gunz, baby. I was also watching the SS video and seeing how rip teaches the press, and realized that I was letting the bar go up too far from my face, and not getting that 'lean back/lean forward' thing. So I did 1x10 at 40kilos and 1x10 at 35 kilos of shoulder presses, just trying to get that aspect of the technique a bit better.

Another thing to do when I get back to Thailand is to get back to following the programme more closely. If I need more volume, I'll do 1x10 backoff sets after the main lift, other than that, I'll follow the programme exactly.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Not exactly a log of exercise, more a log of musing.

I've been doing classic SS here in Sudan because of lack of a pullup bar. I really like it- I really like doing cleans and I like the slightly increased frequency of deadlift. If I go back to practical programming then I'll only doing cleans to set up my press.

However, classic SS doesn't have pullups and chins, which I miss a lot.

Course, I could do Wichita Falls, which is practical programming (and thus has pullups and chinups) and alternate deadlifts and cleans on Wednesday. That at least has all the exercises, but cleaning once every two weeks isn't ideal. And I've found that doing pullups/chinups only twice a week doesn't produce that much improvement.

Now I am thinking about just adding chins and pullups to SS, to get

Day A: Squat, Bench, Clean, Chins
Day B: Squat, Press, Deadlift, Pullups

Hmmm... I am not doing well at controlling my urge to fiddle with the programme.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Thursday, December 23rd: Back in Thailand

Yay. Back home, which is good in so many ways. One of them is that I am once again at a gym with a power rack, which means easy to rack and unrack weights, safety bars, etc. Without further ado

Squat

Went a bit easy because my workouts have been a bit irregular over the last week and when I last tried 110 I ended up backing out on the third set. Probably no need for concern because these were really comfortable. Good depth, good hip drive. Looking forward to 110 and beyond. (Although I said that before.)

105x5, 107.5x5, 107.5x5

Press

Felt a bit of a glitch in my shoulder, and the bar felt really heavy warming up. And also aware that I haven't been getting these right down to my chest. So decided to take it right back and work back up again.

40x5, 45x5, 45x5

Glad that I did, as the last one of the second and third set was tough.

Deadlift

Felt heavy, but in a good way, and nowhere close to failing. No problem at all with the grip today, which was nice.

135x1, 135x1, 135x1, 135x1, 135x1

A new PR.

Chins

The new addition to my routine... haven't done these for about a month, and oddly I am better at pullups then chins, so these were not good

x9, x7, x5

Hopefully these will improve quite quickly with practice at greater frequency

****

Other things.... I am going to slow down with the eating a bit. I've gone from 75 kilos to 90 kilos, and although I am much bigger all over my stomach/gut has expanded about as much as I want it to, and my body fat as about as high as I can stand.