June 2012
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May 2012
24 posts
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Friday
Friday was classic lifts workout A in the ultra-boring but ultra-effective Five by Five program:
5x5 back squat @ 180# (sweaty)
5x5 bench press @ 95# (easy)
5x3 deadlift @ 235# (easy)
This took an hour and a half, including all the warmup and mobility work. Warming up for the squats in particular takes me about 5 sets at increasing weight all on its own. And no matter how much I warm up,...
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In which I log a workout or two.
Monday: minor rollback on weights after last week’s rest.
5x5 back squat @ 170#
5x5 bench press @ 90#
5x3 deadlift @ 225#
Today:
5x5 back squat @ 175#
5x5 OHP @ 65#
5x3 power cleans @ 100#
Squats easy as far as leg strength goes. The challenges are with endurance (making it through that fifth rep with good form) and upper back strength. Also, my shoulders are really starting to...
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Squat hazards they don't tell you about.
There are rough calluses forming on my shoulders where the bar rests when I’m squatting. This even though I wear an ordinary t-shirt to lift. Note to self: use the worn-down bar instead of the new one with the pointy painful knurling next time.
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HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS →
The hot new framework for summer 2012.
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Workout log catchup
Monday’s workout:
5x5 back squat @ 190#, success!
3 rounds of:
12 hamstring curls in the wussy machine, 50 units
20 lunges, alternating legs
12 hack squats @ 90# + whatever the sled weighs
12 95# stiff-legged deadlift
Wednesday’s workout:
3 rounds of:
bench press lockouts, top half, @ 100, 3-5 reps
dumbbell chest press, 30# each, 5-8 reps
plyometric (aka explosive)...
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Concussions in football
A quick roundup of links on whether tackle football can ever be safe to play.
RIP Junior Seau, an NFL player who commited suicide this week. This leads inevitably to discussions of long-term brain damage that seems to be caused by football’s constant stream of sub-concussive impacts. Seau wasn’t the first.
Football, Dogfighting, and Brain Damage Malcolm Gladwell writing in 2009...
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The 5x5 report.
5x5 back squat @ 185#
5x5 OHP @ 75# fail
5x3 power cleans @ 115# didn’t even try
My left shoulder started acting up in the second set of overhead presses. My upper trap started cramping up. Very painful. So I bailed on the lift and did some stretching and low-trap activation work, trying to get the shoulder to let go of itself. This is lingering fallout from my pec minor injury back in...
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Last two 5x5 workouts
Friday:
5x5 back squat @ 180#, failed at 4th rep of 2nd set, got at most 3 reps from the next sets
5x5 OHP @ 75#, failed in the third set
5x3 power clean @ 110#, bailed early from exhaustion.
A weak workout overall. I was tired going into it because my Thursday had been exhausting for unusual reasons.
Today:
5x5 back squat @ 180# crushed, last set was the best set
5x5 bench press @ 95#...
April 2012
23 posts
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Solar Fields @ Glade Festival 2012. →
Not really a mix, but a definitely a chill unwinder after a long day.
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Mother Jones on the brogramming thing →
Sounds like Path has a real prize of an exec in Van Horn. Seriously, why is that guy allowed to speak in public representing them? He’s a serial offender.
The writer unfortunately gets the Siri search for Planned Parenthood story 100% wrong, as did the original complainer. (The vast majority of Siri searches are algorithmic. It can only find Planned Parenthood under terms that PP chose to...
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Logging today's sweat.
5x5 back squat @ 175#
5x5 bench press @ 90#
5x3 deadlift @ 225#
In the books. The deadlift is still a boring weight. The squat leaves me sweating and breathing hard. It’s all about mental toughness.
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Programmers Being Dicks →
Now following this, which also includes examples of programmers being dicks and then fixing it, with excellent pull request comments like this one.
Though I did like the “I expected you to just CNAME this to Hacker News” comment.
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In which there is logging.
5x5 back squats @ 170# in the books
5x5 overhead press @ 75# not in the books, oh man, total failure from the 2nd set on
5x3 power cleans @ 105# in the books
Tinkering with my breathing on the squats. Trying to release a little breath at the bottom of the squat immediately before driving up. I dunno about that. Might have to practice it on the warmup sets.
I don’t drop those cleans on...
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Brace yourself: it's another workout log.
5x5 back squat @ 160#
5x5 overhead press @ 70
5x3 power clean @ 105
Strong on the squats! Good depth, good acceleration on the way up. So satisfying. They leave me dripping with sweat at this weight, though. Man, I notice it.
Also, I completely crushed the OHPs, and this after failing so badly with that same weight on Friday. It’s like my shoulders got stronger or something.
Will...
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5x5 continues its thrill-ride.
Yesterday:
5x5 back squat @ 155
5x5 bench press @ 85
5x3 deadlift @ 205
All lifts straightforward. The squats are making me happy. This is a high-volume program and I’m finishing every exercise strong.
It makes for a very boring exercise log, though. I can mention that I did the deadlifts barefoot again, I guess, and report that barefoot really is better than even the flattest of...
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bootstrap-dropdown.js clearMenus() needs ; at the... →
epicpullrequests:
@fat and @douglascrockford discuss semicolons :-o
Awesome smackdown by Mr Crockford.
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5x5 day whatever.
back squat @ 150#
overhead press @ 70# (failed on rep 5 of set 4, failed completely through fifth set)
power cleans @ 95#
The OHP was disappointing because I did 24 out of 25 reps on Monday, so I expected to do fine today. But my delts just quit on me.
The power cleans are getting better. I have been prepping myself mentally for the cleans by swinging The Beast(tm) kettlebell, which is the...
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5x5 day 11, I think.
5x5 squat @ 135#
5x5 bench @ 70#
5x3 deadlift @ 185#
Solid squat sets, with the last set better than the first. Bench and deads still light. I did switch to mixed grip on the deads midway through. Wanted to concentrate on perfect movement without being distracted by the pressure on my thumbs. I am told my gym has ordered a women’s bar. It’ll help because I’ll finally be able...
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New shoes. →
Merrell Pace Gloves, a fairly normal-looking minimal shoe. Not sure I’ll be lifting in them— I really like my flat-soled Innov-8s for lifting. And most of the time I swear that bare feet would be better than pretty much any shoe for power lifting. But these seem like great kicking-around or wearing-to-work shoes. The sole is burly enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to run on cruddy...
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More posts about lifting & food.
5x5 low-bar back squat @ 130#
5x5 overhead press @ 65#
5x3 power clean @ 80#
cable face pulls
barbell good mornings @ 80#
The squat weight is finally heavy enough that I have to work to keep my right knee doing the proper thing. The power clean weight is still a technique-tinkering weight.
Now I spend the rest of the day not eating nearly as much as I want to, because it’s time to...