Training -- 30/12/2013

Paused Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x3x72.5kg

High Bar Back Squats

3x8x97.5kg -- First set was pretty shaky, which I think is due to the pause on the front squats. Second set was best, third set wasn't far behind. On both front and back squats, I really felt it in my hip flexors at the start of the concentric. Not something that makes much anatomical sense, but the body does as the body does.

Goodmorning/Calf Raise

3x8x35kg/10x340lb

Glute Bridge/Calf Raise

3x10x30kg/10x340lb

Training -- Tue 24/12/2013

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x15xOrange/15xOrange

Bench Press/L-Pull Up

10x20kg
5x40kg
14x60kg/6xBW
11x60kg/6xBW
10x60kg/4+2xBW

OHP/Fat Gripz Row

10x20kg/15x52.5kg
5x30kg/15x52.5kg
3x35kg/15x52.5kg
4x41kg/15x52.5kg
5x35kg/15x52.5kg
5x35kg

This is probably my second-last training session for the year.

Training -- Sat 21/12/2013 and Mon 23/21/2013

Saturday

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x12xOrange/12xOrange

Bench Press/Pull Ups

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
1x90kg/10xBW -- Attempted a 2nd rep and got stuck.
4x80kg/10xBW
11x60kg/7+2+1xBW

1-Arm OHP/Fat Gripz Row

3x10x10kg/15x50kg
--/12x50kg w/ grips + 3x50kg w/o gripz



Monday

Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
5x60kg
3x5x72.5kg

Back Squats

3x10x92.5kg

SLDL/Calf Raise

3x6x92.5kg/10x340lb

GHR

3x3xBW

Training -- Thur 19/12/2013 and Fri 20/12/2013

Thursday

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x12xOrange/12xOrange

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x70kg
5x80kg

CGBP/Pull Ups

--/6x10kg
3x6x60kg/6x10kg

Incline DBBP/Barbell Row

10x20kg/3x60kg + 5x40kg -- Attempted 60kg and the weight was definitely too heavy for me to do anything useful with it. Sure, I could get the bar from the floor to my torso, but don't let that fool you into thinking my reps at that weight added any value to my training.
2x10x20kg/10x40kg

Friday

Long day. From about 10am-4pm I was out getting in touch with nature or something. After NTE the other week, a few of us got together for what was specifically termed the "post NTE thing." This involved cooking over a wood-fire (putting my totally legit Masters in Barbecuology to good use), lengthy, in-depth theological discussions, and about 2hr45min of bush walking/mountain climbing, occasionally broken up to look at Aboriginal paintings and stone surfaces or kill cain toads. At about 5pm, I finally made it to the gym, where it was so hot that I think I was suffering mild heat exhaustion right up until the sun went down.

Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x70kg
3x3x80kg

Back Squats

3x6x100kg -- What I believe was heat exhaustion meant that every time I walked up to the bar to start a set, I felt no more ready for it than I had felt at the moment of re-racking the previous set.

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
2x140kg
1x160kg
1x170kg -- And then, after this set, the sun made its may over the horizon. Suddenly, in time for my next set, I was alive-awake-alert-enthusiastic, instead of the zombie I had been for the previous 90min.
5x150kg
4+1x150kg -- I did my first 4 reps, and then my chalk failed due to too much sweat, and the bar was like: "lol no, I don't do this whole breaking off the floor thing." So I rechalked and then got right back into it for the last rep.

Training -- Wed 18/12/2013

Paused Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
2x3x70kg -- Between sets, a guy was telling me all about his "scientific" program. He's preparing for a bodybuilding show in a few months, and boasted that he can lift more than bodybuilders who are much bigger than him, which I think was supposed to be proof that his program's working. For him. A guy who'll be competing. In bodybuilding. I dropped him a hint about goal specificity and individuality, then went back and did my last set.

Squat

3x8x95kg

Goodmorning

3x8x30kg -- I should film these for a form check, because they felt awkward as anything.

Glute Bridge/Calf Raise

10x25kg/10x340lb -- People looked at me funny and asked questions. I explained that I'm training to be a porn star.
3x10x40kg/10x340lb

Training -- Tue 17/12/2013

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x10/10

Bench Press/L-Pull Up

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x6x70kg/6xBW

OHP/DB Row

5x30kg/10x15kg
3x35kg/10x15kg
3x5x40kg/10x15kg

Training -- Mon 16/12/2013

Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
5x60kg
3x5x70kg -- 2nd set was technically 4+1, as I reracked the bar due to all my fingers slipping out.

High Bar Squats

3x10x90kg

SLDL/Calf Raise

6x90kg
6x90kg/8x340lb
6x90kg/10x300lb

GHR/Calf Raise

3x2xBW/10x300lb -- I'm surprised by my lingering GHR strength. I was expecting this to have taken a clear step backwards after everything surrounding the powerlifting comp and NTE.

Training -- Sat 14/12/2013

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

2x10/10

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
2x70kg
2x80kg
2x85kg
1x90kg
4x80kg
12x60kg

L-Pull Up

3x6xBW

Incline DBBP/Pull Ups

2x8x20kg/5x10kg
--/5x10kg

OHP/Cable Row

10x20kg/10x5kg
10x25kg/10x50kg
8x25kg/10x50kg
--/10x50kg

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Selecting Starting Exercises

If you've been reading my blog for long enough, then you know there are a few central compound exercises that I prefer for people to have in their programs: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, pull ups and rows. Does that mean I think everyone should start with those exact exercises? No.

The exercises you start with will be determined by a few factors:

Available Resources What equipment do you have access to? Do you have a commercial gym with all its machines at your finger tips? Do you just have a power rack and barbell set? Do you have odd equipment, such as fat bars, logs, kettlebells etc? Do you not have any equipment at all? These things matter, for what should be self-explanatory reasons: You can't do something unless you have the resources for it; you might be able to do something if you do have the resources for it.

Skill/Proficiency How good is your body awareness? Do you have a history of sports, physical labour or other physical hobbies? Do you have a trainer available (plug plug plug) to coach you through the exercises you'll be doing, or are you working everything out on your own? These things make a difference. Someone who has a history of dancing is going to have good body awareness. Someone who does hard physical labour is going to have a certain work capacity, and will hopefully have learned how to do some loaded movements safely (if not, I expect you're living with a lot more pain than you'd like). Someone who doesn't have any physical hobbies, history of sports or a physical job probably has low body awareness. The lower your body awareness, the simpler the exercises you start with need to be. The greater your body awareness, the more complex the exercises you start with can be.

Physical Ability A certain amount of flexibility/ROM and strength is needed for various exercises. The squat is a great example: you need the hip and ankle ROM to be able to get into position at the bottom, and you need the strength to stand back up from that position. If you lack the physical ability to do an exercise (but are able to gain that ability -- if you have no arms, then obviously you're not going to gain the ability to bench press no matter how strong or flexible you are), then it's generally going to be wise to go to a less demanding exercise and build up your abilities with that exercise. If you aren't strong enough or flexible enough to squat, then leg presses and stretches that address your flexibility issues are a good starting point.

So, what should your starting exercises be? The ones you can do. Your immediate goals are to increase your abilities and proficiency within the context of what's available. If you've read any of my technique articles (I haven't posted many of them here, but I did give what was honestly a brief rundown of the squat and deadlift earlier this year, and even that took three articles), you'll know that there's a lot to think about when learning even the exercises that I treat as staples. There are much more complicated exercises than the six compounds I opened with, too. So maybe the ideal is to squat and deadlift, but the reality is to do leg presses and hyperextensions. Maybe the ideal is to do bench and overhead press with free weights, but the reality is a chest and shoulder press machine. Maybe the ideal is pull ups and barbell rows (actually, I don't think barbell rows are all that ideal, but they are more complicated), but the reality is lat pull downs and seated rows.

Training -- Fri 13/12/2013

Hey, it's that day in which black cats let Freddy Kruegar in. Yay.

Paused Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x2x80kg

High Bar Squat

3x5x100kg

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
2x140kg
2x160kg
1x170kg
8x120kg

Feeling lazy 100% of the time.

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Selecting Starting Loads

For the most part, this will apply to resistance training, although the same principles (without the numbers) can be used for cardio. This is a fairly reliable method for setting up your initial working weights. Continuing in the vein of Part 2 of this series, I'll use 12-15 as the target rep range, but note that this same method can be used for anything between about 5 and 15 reps, and the same principles can be used outside of that range, although some modifications may be necessary.

When selecting your starting weight for any given exercise, always err on the side of caution. If you're hyper-conservative and pick a weight that's way too light, you can always add more weight afterwards. If you go the other way, you can cause all sorts of trouble for yourself. If you have a trainer guiding you through this (ahem, plug), they should be able to make some reasonable guestimates about what will be appropriate loads for you to use, but they should still be testing your strength, body awareness and response to cuing, as I'm about to describe, so a good trainer will still generally get you started with weights that are too light, and then work their way up.

After doing a general warm up, you're going to take the lightest load you can practically use for your given exercise. Depending on the exercise, that might be an empty barbell or little 1kg dumbbells, or it might be your body weight, or it might be the lightest plate in a pin-loaded machine, or it might even be some form of assistance.

Having received basic instruction on the exercise, and being aware of your main cues, take that light load and perform a set, focusing on your cues. This set will generally end in one of 4 ways:

1) Despite making a conscious effort to adhere to technique, you find yourself struggling to do so, and your form degrades before you reach 12 reps. This is technical failure, which is distinct from muscular failure, in that you have the strength to continue moving the weight, but can no longer move it well.

2) You successfully adhere to technique, but the load is more than you're ready for, and you reach muscular failure before 12 reps (this is much rarer than option 1 when starting out, although that will also depend on the exercise in question).

3) You complete 12 reps while adhering to your cues, but are not sure that you could do much more.

4) You complete 12 reps while adhering to your cues, and are confident you could do at least 2 more reps.

If 1) or 2) happens, complete the rep you're on if it's safe to do so (if you have a trainer helping you, they can give a more reliable call on this than you probably can yourself; likewise they can probably identify when you're not adhering to your cues more reliably than you can), and then finish the set immediately. Take note of which rep you failed on, and then subtract that number by 2, and that'll be your starting number of reps. So, if you failed on rep 10, start out doing sets of 8 with your starting weight. Progress 1 rep/set at a time until you work your way up to sets of 15 (always putting technique ahead of sets and reps, since the goal of the 12-15 rep range at this stage is to get a lot of technical practice -- reps in which you don't deliberately practice good technique at this stage are teaching you to use bad habits, instead). In this example, you should be using the same weight for at least 9 workouts: workout 1 = test starting weight; wo2 = sets of 8; wo3 = sets of 9; ....wo9 = sets of 15. That's assuming you don't have to delay progressing your reps in order to keep technique in order.

If 3) happens, you've found your starting weight. Again, progress by adding 1 rep/set at a time, provided you get all your reps with passable technique.

If 4) happens, then increase the weight slightly, rest, and then repeat the test with the new weight. Keep adding weight until 3) happens. If you go too far and 1) or 2) happens, take a step back and set your last successful weight as your working weight.

Training -- Thur 05/12/2013

Front Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x70kg
1x80kg
1x85kg
1x90kg -- This was beltless. I know that I've done something like 2-3x90kg with a belt before, but I'm not sure if I've done that beltless before. Felt like I could have gone a little heavier, too, although being the first week after comp, I'm not exactly testing maxes right now (even though today and yesterday I have been coming close to my 1RM).

High Bar Squats

5x100kg
2x3x110kg

Deadlift

10x70kg
5x100kg
2x120kg
2x140kg
1x150kg
1x160kg
1x170kg
1x180kg

Hyperextension

10xBW
2xBW -- This just felt off, so I decided to do some GHR's instead.

GHR

2x1xBW

Hanging Leg Raise

2x10xBW

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Cardiovascular Training Focus

If you're like most people, cardio will fit into your goals somehow. Marketing aside, there is a reason why the average gym has a dozen of each cardio machine, whereas having that many of each item of strength equipment would seem ludicrous. In order to be all-round fit, you're going to have to do some form of cardio (in saying that, you don't necessarily need to be all-round fit, although for most of us the benefits are worth it). Like resistance training, cardio can be broken down into a couple different generic areas:

Aerobic The most common type of cardio performed. Stereotypically, this is a go-to for many and poison to everyone else. If you can do it for more than 5min consecutively, it's probably aerobic.

Anaerobic This denotes high intensity cardio. If you can't keep it up for 5min, it's probably anaerobic. Anaerobic fitness can be further broken down into energy systems that last for minutes down to energy systems that are depleted within seconds.

One key thing I'll point out right now is that cardio is not necessary for fat loss. Ultimately, that comes down to calories in vs calories out, and (to a lesser extent) the maintenance of fat-free mass. Cardio is useful for getting rid of calories, so it contributes to the calories out part of the equation, but so does resistance training, and so does incidental activity. Cardio's a weight loss tool, not a weight loss rule.

As a general prescription, I would recommend that complete beginners focus on aerobic fitness unless they need to improve anaerobic fitness urgently. Much like resistance training, this largely comes down to matters of technique, safety, practice and thinking. It also comes down to the general issue that you need to be able to walk before you can run, and you need to be able to run before you can sprint (there are many other exercises you can do for cardio, but you get the point). Besides that, if you're doing resistance training in accordance with the previous section's recommendations, then you'll be doing frequent bouts of about 1min loaded exercise at a time with your resistance training, which will be developing your anaerobic systems anyway.

You'll notice I mentioned technique in there. In general, people are more or less willing to accept that they need help learning how to lift weights safely, but aren't so easily convinced when you tell them they don't know how to walk 10 feet. Technique does still need to be learned with the movements you'll be performing for cardio. Considering you'll be doing thousands of repetitions of those movements, and 1 bad rep is far less harmful than 1,000 bad reps, I hope you'll see the benefits of learning to move decently up front.

A few general methods of cardio are as follows:

Steady State Also known as LISS or MISS (Low/Medium Intensity Steady State), LSD (Long Slow Distance), or getting off your arse and going for a run. Basically, you'll be doing one activity, and you'll be more or less maintaining the same intensity as you go.

Circuit Training This is a decent way to combine aerobic with anaerobic training. Normally I program circuits with resistance training exercises, but you could program them with more conventional cardio exercises. Basically, you'll be taking a group of exercises, and performing them for a short duration each, but back-to-back with minimal (preferably no) rest between exercises. This more or less causes anaerobic conditioning at a local level (in whichever muscles are being used for a specific exercise) and aerobic conditioning systemically, as your heart rate and breathing will be continuously elevated as you work through each exercise.

Interval Training This is where you'll be intentionally varying the intensity throughout the workout. Most interval approaches that I've looked at or used have intervals lasting for as little as a few seconds through to a couple minutes. As a beginner, the preferred intervals will be at medium and low intensities, so it might look like 1min of jogging alternating with 1min of walking. This style is often used with a progression on the duration of the medium intensity intervals, to help you build up to MISS. As you get more advanced and are ready for it (in terms of cardiovascular function, proficiency of movement, having a good approach to pre/post-workout nutrition, having good joint health, etc), you might move up to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), which will typically mean alternating between intervals at a high intensity and at a low intensity. If regular intervals can be broadly categorised as jog/walk intensities, HIIT falls more into the realms of sprint/walk intensities. HIIT is very anaerobic.

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Resistance Training Focus

So, you've established your goals and figured out you're going to have to move some sort of heavy object/s to achieve them. Excellent.

You won't have to search very far to find information resembling the following as a guide for how to handle your resistance training based on your goal:

Endurance 15+ reps

Hypertrophy 6-15 reps

Strength 1-5 reps

Power 1-5 reps

As someone who's new to training, the above guide doesn't really matter a whole lot. Yep, I just said that. Right now, you could do 50-rep sets of an exercise, and you would get hypertrophy, strength and power out of it. Likewise, you could practice your 1RM (which I don't advise without strict supervision and strict definitions of what counts as a successful lift, basically determining technique degradation as failure) and get more power, muscle and endurance out of it. Heck, you could probably look at a barbell, imagine lifting it 3 days a week, and that would be enough to build more muscle mass.

Instead, the following is what you actually need to worry about:

- TECHNIQUE: This is going to come before everything else right now.

- SAFETY: This comes with both practicing good (or at least sensible) technique and using sensible workloads.

- PRACTICE: It's said that it takes about 300-500 repetitions with deliberate good technique in order to learn a movement pattern. Whether or not that's accurate, the main point is that you want to practice your movements a lot. A LOT.

- THINKING: Or lack thereof. As a beginner, you generally don't know how to move your body very well, which means that to make the above 3 things happen consistently, you're going to need to think a lot about your key cues for the exercises you're doing. You're primary goal is going to be to get to the point where you don't have to think as much about each exercise, to the point that you only need to focus on one cue and everything else just falls into place. Starting out you'll be thinking a lot; you want to get to the point where you're not thinking much at all.

Once you reach the point at which you don't have to think much about each exercise, you've reached the first level of mastery. Now it's time to start thinking about training specifically for endurance, hypertrophy, strength or power; or to advance to a more complicated exercise which builds on the skills you've just mastered.

Referring back to technique, safety, practice and thinking, a good starting point is often the upper end of the stated hypertrophy range, with beginner programs often advising sets of 12-15. If you're doing sets in that rep range, then the weight is going to be relatively light (compared to, say, 1-5 reps), which is relatively safe. The caveat to that is that you want to be practicing good technique and thinking through your cues on every rep. Your mental focus, and your control over both your prime movements and your supporting muscles throughout the range of motion of an exercise, will limit how many reps you can realistically perform. If you can perform 12-15 reps per set with consistent adherence to your main cues, I'd recommend it. If not, don't. Your ability to maintain technique will be the limit of how many reps you do, and of how much weight you use. So you might only be doing 5 reps of an exercise starting out, not because it's heavy, but because your technique degrades beyond that point. Practice those 5 reps, and then progress onto 6 reps, then 7, etc. Keep building up the reps, and building up your discipline with each rep. Now, looking at the estimation on how long it supposedly takes to learn a movement, once you get up to a consistent 12-15 reps per set, doing 2-3 sets you're looking at up to about 20 workouts before you're likely to have reached that first level of mastery. If you're doing a full-body program and you're doing the same exercises each time, 3 days a week, that's about 7 weeks before it might be time to start worrying specifically about strength, hypertrophy, power or endurance. Of course, it could take more or less time than this.

Point is, your primary goal right now is simply to learn movements -- increased strength, endurance, power and hypertrophy will flow naturally from this, simply because you're learning to do more than you could before and exert yourself in ways you're not used to.

An Introduction to Working Out: Part 1 -- Goal Setting

Having been running this blog for a year, I'm going to go right back to basics. This is going to be a brief series on general principles and methods of exercising, and as new year resolutions are right around the corner, this should be a helpful go-to guide. In it I'll cover:

Part 1 -- Goal Setting
Part 2 -- Resistance Training Focus
Part 3 -- Cardiovascular Training Focus
Part 4 -- Selecting Starting Loads
Part 5 -- Selecting Starting Exercises
Part 6 -- Warming Up
Part 7 -- Stretching

Goal Setting

"Yay, it's the 2nd of January, my hangover's over, and I'm going to get fit!"

Excellent, and what does that mean?

"What?"

What does it mean to get fit?

"You know, fit! I'm gonna get fit! You know?"

Okay, and what will be different once you are fit? How is this going to change you?

"Oh, I'm going to be 10kg lighter and I'm going to be able to run 10km and I'm going to be able to bench press 100kg."

Excellent. You've just set your first fitness goals. The first one is body composition, the other two are performance. The two performance goals are going to help with the body composition goal (although ultimately, it's going to take more than just improved performance to get there). These three goals you've just set are Specific and Measurable. This is very good, because we want to set SMART goals.

"Oh yeah, I love being smart. It's my third-favourite passtime."

Very good. Now, when we talk about SMART goals, we're actually talking about goals that have 5 elements to them:

Specific "I want to improve my bench press" is specific; "I want to get fitter" is not.

Measurable A good fitness goal is usually one in which you can observe the results in some objective way. Granted, that's not always the case ("I used to be unable to bend over without pain but now I can" doesn't really have a number to it, but is still a very worthy pursuit), but for the most part, numbers are good.

Action-Oriented The goal can't just be an end result, you actually need to do something to make that goal happen. This is where scheduling and logging workouts, modifying and logging diet, and getting a proper program put together implementing these pieces of the puzzle (there's a plug for my services in there somewhere) comes into play.

Realistic There's not much point in setting a goal that's unachievable. My recommendation is generally to set a goal that's within reach, but is actually going to demand that you reach for it. Something close enough that you can reasonably foresee it being done, but far enough away that you'll have to put in some effort to get there.

Time-Constrained There are short-term, mid-term and long-term goals. Whether your goal is for this week (short-term), this season (mid-term), or this year (long-term), most goals that fit into the rest of the SMART formula work best with a time element involved. This needs to be consistent with the other elements, of course: if you take a realistic mid-term goal and set it as a short-term goal, it's no longer realistic; if you take the same goal and set it as a long-term goal, you've just removed the urgency to take action.

"*nod nod* I see (tell me that once a week for the next 12 weeks and I think I might get it)."

Ironically, your inner monologue has just shown something close to a SMART goal: Specifically, you'll get it; the measurable factor is whether or not you get it; action involves me preaching to you once a week (between the lines, it also involves you listening once a week); it's realistic that through repetition you'll learn and understand the issue; and it's time-constrained on a short- and mid-term basis (weekly and seasonal).

Now, let's translate your fitness goals into SMART goals.

Instead of "I'm going to be 10kg lighter," it's now: "I'm going lose 10kg over the next 6 months. I'm going to do this by modifying my diet, logging my diet to make sure that I'm staying within the parameters of my diet, exercising at least 3 days a week, and targeting 0.5kg of weight loss each week."

Instead of "I'm going to be able to run 10km," it's now: "I'm going to be able to run 10km in 6 months time. I'm going to achieve this with the Couch to 5k program, followed up with weekly progressive overload to get from 5k to 10k."

And instead of "I'm going to be able to bench press 100kg," it's now: "I'm going to bench press 100kg in the next 12 months. I'm going to begin with learning technique on the empty bar (20kg) and practicing weekly progressive overload on a program designed by my trainer (yeah guys, I'm really subtle with this whole plugging myself thing), peaking 3-4 times throughout the year, and setting specific bench press goals for each season."

Training -- Wed 04/12/2013

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x70kg
1x80kg
1x85kg
1x90kg
2x10x60kg

Pull Ups

3x10xBW

Sprints

Several x a distance

In other news, I'll be roughly 1,500km away come the weekend, and then I won't be back until the following Thursday.

Competition: UQ Challenge 1 Dec 2013

Unlike the Iron Fest Open back in April, I didn't try water-cutting this time. If I were a couple kilos lighter already, I might have, but as I'd been sitting around the middle of my weight class, I saw no good reason for it. I weighed in at 70kg, on the dot, but not before some worries.

Weigh-in started at 8am; I arrived at about 8:45. I was immediately told that I'd been called up, and the word "piss" found its way into that memo. I can't remember what was said, so maybe they just meant that I should pee now and get any excess water out of my system before urinating, but as Powerlifting Australia is drug-tested, I put my name and piss together, and assumed some old people wanted to stare at me as I filled up a cup for them. Turns out this wasn't the case, and I was getting worried for nothing. For the record, I'm not worried about failing a drug test -- I'm clean, and if I were using steroids (which I must stress that I'm not), I think we can safely say they're not working, given how unremarkable my progress is. What does worry me about drug testing is the simple fact of having people watching me pee. I'd rather they take my saliva or blood or any other easily accessible bodily fluid. Heck, I think I'm more comfortable with the prospect of having someone checking out my prostate than I am with having to pee in front of someone.

Anyway, I didn't have to do a drug test this morning, or at any other time during the day. I enjoyed catching up with the other guys in my weight class, and meeting for the first time a lifter who I've been in contact with over youtube throughout the year.

And onto my lifts:

Squat

First Attempt: 140kg R

Second Attempt: 150kg R

Third Attempt: 155kg T

First attempt felt about the same as my squats the previous Monday, so not too flash. Second attempt was a major grinder, and I won't know until I see the footage (I assume there is footage), but it felt like I was twisting on the way up. I was surprised to get 3 white lights for it. Third attempt was a real wrestle, but alas an unsuccessful one. Just didn't have the strength in me that I had two weeks ago. So much for peaking :S

Bench Press

First Attempt: 85kg R

Second Attempt: 92.5kg R

Third Attempt: 97.5kg T

Ended up doing the exact same attempts I made last comp. 85kg felt great, and this time I remembered to wait for my calls. 92.5kg felt decent. 97.5kg turned out to be me biting off more than I could chew. If there's anything I can say as far as progress goes here, it's that the pause on the bench didn't feel as long drawn out as last comp (either meaning I'm getting better at stabilising the bar, or the judges were just more lenient), and I felt like I failed more elegantly on the last attempt -- no butt off the bench; just couldn't get it today.

Deadlift

First Attempt: 170kg R

Second Attempt: 185kg T

Third Attempt: 190kg R

First attempt felt better than my heavy deadlifts last Monday, and that was good for confidence.

Second attempt was funny. I thought that there was another lifter between me and the guy before me, so when I realised I was up (probably 30sec after they initially called out that the bar was loaded), I wasn't mentally ready. I rushed out onto the platform, forgetting to add chalk to my hands, and did the lift. The lift itself was great -- despite only residual chalk on my hands and being far from psyched up, the bar came up and it looked (from what I hear) about the same as 170kg. All great, right? Well, not according to the judges. See, my interpretation of the rules about lowering the bar is that if the bar's still in your hands when it hits the ground, it's all good. Now, I don't recall letting go of the bar prematurely, which suggests that the judges unanimously have a different interpretation of the rules.

Third attempt, like last comp, could have been heavier, from what I could tell. I actually suspected that I could go heavier before doing it, but that suspicion didn't arise until after the blood had returned to my head post-second-attempt, which did not happen until after I'd submitted my request to do 190kg.

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Compared to last comp, my total's up 20kg (+7.5kg on squat, +0kg on bench press, and +12.5kg on deadlift). Last comp I got a gold medal. Did my increased strength lead to more gold today? Not even once. I went in knowing that unless something went wrong, I wasn't going to get a gold medal today, because of a certain weightlifter in my class who was going to be opening with more than my best. Knowing that I wasn't going to win actually took some pressure off, and consequently I enjoyed this meet a lot more than the last one. I did still take home a piece of metal, though, this time winning bronze in the 74kg weight class. That's two meets and two lumps of metal under my belt.

Training -- Mon 25/11/2013

The good news is, unlike my last training cycle, I didn't go ahead and break myself on this final session before comp. Also, benching immediately after squatting was not an issue for my shoulders (even though they'll probably have a cry tomorrow), so that sits well for competition.

The bad news is, everything was much harder than I feel it should have been.

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x70kg
3x100kg -- These first 3 sets with the barbell all felt awkward.
1x120kg -- Belt on; awkwardness diminishing.
2x1x130kg -- First set felt awkward, so I did it again before moving up the weight.
3x1x140kg -- I was specifically aiming to be really powerful and drive up as hard and fast as I could. Instead, every rep was a grinder.

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x70kg
1x80kg
3x1x85kg -- I'm sure these must have been easier than 95kg on Saturday, but I don't recall them feeling any easier.

Deadlift

5x60kg
3x100kg
2x140kg
1x160kg
2x1x170kg -- It's like I forgot how to take the slack out of the bar. First set, I actually wasn't even sure the bar was going to come off the ground...and then it did. Second set I used straps.

Training -- Sat 23/11/2013

Rotator Cuff/Band Pull Apart

3x20/20

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x75kg
1x85kg
1x95kg -- Attempted 2 reps, didn't get the 2nd. Still a PB. Looks like 97.5kg will be my top attempt in comp.
1x95kg
1x90kg

L-Pull Ups/Incline DBBP

2x6xBW/6x25kg

Pull Ups/OHP

6x10kg/10x20kg
1x15kg/5x30kg
1x20kg

OHP/Fat Gripz Row

5x35kg/10x50kg
1x40kg/5x60kg
1x45kg/1x70kg
1x50kg/1x80kg

Training -- Thur 21/11/2013

High Bar Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x90kg
3x5x115kg

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
2x140kg
1x160kg
1x170kg
2x180kg -- Big PB. I attempted a 3rd rep, got the weight up to my knees, and then came back down. Oh well.
3x100kg
3x120kg
3x140kg
3x150kg
3x160kg

Training -- Tue 19/11/2013

OHP/Pull Ups

10x20kg/10xBW
5x30kg/10xBW
5x35kg/8xBW
3x5x40kg/8xBW

1-arm DB Press/Upright Row

10x10kg/20x8.5kg
2x10x10kg/10x21kg

CGBP/Cable Row

10x40kg/8x60kg
2x8x60kg/8x60kg

Much less shoulder pain than I've been experiencing previous weeks. I did rotator cuff exercises throughout, which I couldn't be bothered recording. I also spent about an hour walking around this afternoon.

Training -- Mon 18/11/2013

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x70kg
3x100kg
1x120kg
1x135kg
2x150kg -- All time PB. Nick recorded it; will post a link when it's uploaded.

Pause Squats/Calf Raise

3x3x120kg/10x320lb

SLDL/Calf Raise

3x120kg -- DOH.
2x5x120kg/6x360lb -- Mixed grip. How unsurprising that I was able to do more reps this way.

GHR/Calf Raise

3x3xBW/12x220lb

Glute Ham Raise Video

Filmed Thur 14/11/2013

Training -- Sat 16/11/2013

BPA/RC

2x20/20

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
2x3x90kg
2x90kg -- Third rep was a miss.

L-Pull Ups/Incline DBBP

3x6xBW/8x25kg

Pull Ups

2x6x11.25kg
5x11.25kg

OHP

10x20kg
5x30kg
2x5x38kg
4x38kg

Cable Row

3x10x60kg

Training -- 14/11/2013

High Bar Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x90kg
3x5x110kg

Deadlift

10x70kg
5x100kg
2x120kg
2x140kg
1x160kg
2x2x172.5kg
1x172.5kg -- Started a second rep. Got bar 3 inches off the ground and came right back down.

Literature in the Classroom Appendages

Okay, I couldn't resist posting this up. This is one of the originals I worked from: Ania Walwicz's fairytale. Enjoy the most lovely story you'll ever read. The grammar is only my third-favourite part.

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once upon a time there was a king he had three daughters one was very pretty but the others why they were ugly as hell so he preferred the ugly ones because they were smart they were very clever indeed he said to them don't worry about getting husbands i mean all right if you want i'll arrange that no problems but you should think about studying first the beautiful one was dumb you see so he didn't like her at all not at all why don't you like me or something she asked him sorry i don't like you because you are stupid so she cried then this fairy heard her and felt sorry for her she better be sent to remedial classes or something the fairy said so she was to help her improve her spelling and stop paying attention to how she looked and all that so all the sisters were all right with the king after that and all getting good marks and scholarships to university because that's very important but the ugly ones started to worry about just how ugly they were so the king arranged for them to have plastic surgery so they looked a lot better after that and were all all right i think but then they wanted to get married after they got their doctorates only after that so that was a problem because they didn't meet many men because they were too busy at their study so the king had to think about what to do because they were driving him crazy all the time talking about getting married and worrying about being old maids so he advertised to the aristocratic gazette for handsome princes to apply so they did but the princesses didn't like them you see they were much too smart for these princes and laughed at them and so forth so that was worrying the king who was getting old by then you see he married late so by that time he was in his eighties and maybe would die he wanted to see his daughters settled so this time he advertised for very clever princes and they came but the princesses found them too ugly and said these men are very good to talk to but as far as looks are concerned forget it wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole and the thought of kissing them just makes us sick well that was a problem what to do now what was the king supposed to do what were the princesses supposed to do and what were the poor unfortunate rejected princes supposed to do the king suggested maybe you could marry two princes apiece a good looking one for sleeping with and a clever one to talk to but that wasn't such a good idea so the princesses thought we got to think of something to do after all we got doctorates and they decided to produce perfect men for themselves the kind that would cook and be polite and wash dishes and be willing and able to tell good stories and the kind that wouldn't annoy them so they set out in the laboratory to combine all the parts of various princes to make good husbands and they worked all night but they didn't mind you see they enjoyed their work and were used to using their heads so lo and behold they made these perfect husbands by sticking all the pieces of various princes together if one had good eyes then they took his eyes too bad for him they had to do it and that was that and some prince would wake up blind too bad they said or take some prince's legs if they were nice legs they took them they would take them by special force of their minds and they took them and these men would wake up sometimes dead but it was all right for the princesses they didn't mind so they took what they liked and took brains and eyes and legs and shoulders and took hair and took feet a lot of princes died as a result and everybody thought that there was a plague and in the end the princesses had their husbands but they got bored with them and killed them because they enjoyed working in the laboratory more than marriage

Literature in the Classroom Assignments: Part 6

Foreword

Paperman Video

Above is Paperman, a short animated movie void of any script. In my final experiment, I wrote a sequel, and to contrast the lack of script in Paperman, I wrote Sans Paper void of any script. In an unusual twist, I decided not to engage with the dark side, and actually try and write something kind of nice. I think my main motivation to do that was to actually challenge the views that get my so riled up in Boy, rather than to just repeat those views.

Sans Paper

Her: “Oh, you’re here early. I wasn’t prepared.”

Him: “Yeah...sorry about that.”

Her: “Aw, don’t apologise. Come here. Mmm...”

Him: “Huh...I could get used to a greeting like that.”

Her: “Well, come on. I haven’t finished cleaning up, so the place is a bit messy.”

Him: “Oh, no, not at all. Actually, it looks great in here...ahem...like...you...?”

Her: “Haha...oh, that’s so cheesy. Here, let me show you around. Oh, just take your shoes off – Taylor gets pretty uptight about that.”

Him: “Oh, sorry.”

Her: “You don’t have to keep apologising, it’s okay.”

Him: “I’m sorry.”

Her: “Hehe. So, this is the living room. We do living in it.”

Him: “That’s a beautiful painting. How’d you come by it?”

Her: “It was a housewarming present from my parents. I asked how they got it and a very long, boring story followed. After a half hour monologue...monologue? Dialogue? They were both speaking. I wasn’t speaking. Anyway, after a half hour somethingalogue, I think the conclusion was that they bought it at the shops.”

Him: “Wow, that is exciting!”

Her: “Riveting! Here’s the kitchen. We kitch in it. Bathroom’s down there.”

Him: “Whatever you’ve got cooking smells amazing. Mmm, I smell garlic...rosemary...and definitely some kind of roast. Beef?”

Together: “Lamb.”

Him: “So...

Together: “...you had some news?”

Her: “Oh, awkward turtle.”

Together: “You go—

Him: “Mmm-no-no-no-no-no. We’re not doing that cliché.”

Her: “Okay then. I’ll go. So...I got the job.”

Him: “That’s great!”

Her: “Thankyou. After that third interview, I really wasn’t sure I’d get it. The interviewer seemed really cold. But I’m so glad they accepted me.”

Him: “The third interview...that’s the one when I was...heh...trying to paper plane you?”

Her: “Mmm, that one.”

Him: “When do you start?”

Her: “Four weeks from now. That gives me plenty of time to hand in my notice at work. Oooh, I’m so looking forward to it!”

Him: “That’s really great. I’m so happy for you.”

Her: “Uh—urgh, you’re crushing me!”

Him: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to...hm.”

Her: “You...don’t look very happy.”

Him: “...I just...I hope I’ll have news like yours soon. Very soon.”

Her: “I didn’t know you were looking to change jobs.”

Him: “Well, I wasn’t looking, but...apparently – who knew? – throwing all your paperwork out the window and abandoning work halfway through the day is a career-limiting move.”

Her: “O, oh...aww, come here.”

Him: “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Her: “Hey, there are plenty of jobs out there. You’ll be fine.”

Him: “That’s comforting, but I don’t think the world works that easily.”

Her: “You know what? This isn’t the end. This is the beginning of a new story. You told me that you wished for something more meaningful than stamping paperwork. This is your chance to do that.”

Him: “Do what?”

Her: “Change directions. Those paper planes led you to me. I think, maybe, they’re leading you to wherever you need to go. And wherever that is, it’s not where you were two weeks ago. Let’s make one more paper plane and throw it out the window. Wherever it lands, that’s your new job.”

Reflection of Sans Paper

Paperman is a short film without script. Inspired by it, Sans Paper is a short story featuring only script. Using only the characters’ spoken words produces significant gaps and silences, challenging the reader to use intertextuality to fill in the missing information. Likewise, as the writer I found it particularly challenging to allude towards certain actions and scenery without overtly describing it. By developing stories that highlight the gaps and silences, students learn how to evoke meaning through minimalistic language while gaining awareness of their own reading practices and use of intertextuality.

Sans Paper is a continuation set shortly after Paperman. While Paperman provides representation for two people meeting under paranormal circumstances, Sans Paper provides representation of the possible ramifications of the two meeting and beginning to know each other. Experimenting with continuations prompts students to think outside the box. In fiction, stories traditionally have a beginning, middle and end, however by practicing continuations students are encouraged to consider how people are affected beyond the immediate circumstance, which may help them to be mindful of their own decisions.

Contrary to popular gender roles in which the male is the hero and the female needs saving, in Sans Paper I have positioned the female as successful and able to help. Meanwhile, the male, as a direct result of his actions in Paperman, has recently lost his means for living and is in need of the female’s help. Instead of reinforcing a paradigm in which women are dependent on men without men depending on women, challenging gender roles in this way gives students insight into a world of interdependence.

Bibliography

Chiang, C. (writer), Hoyer, K. (writer), Kahrs, J. (director), Lasseta, J. (producer) & Reed, K. (producer). (2012). Paperman [Short movie]. Burbank, USA: Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Kincaid, J. (1992). Girl, (para. 1). In J. Kincaid, At the bottom of the river. New York: Plume.

Walwicz, A. (1985). Fairytale (para. 1). In S. Hawthorne (Ed.), Difference: writing by women. Australia: Waterloo.

Baur, L., Holmes, J. & Warren, P. (2006). Do men and women speak differently? Language Matters. Pp 146-156. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Moon, B. (2001). Literary terms: A practical glossary (2^nd ed.). Western Australia: P K Print.

Literature in the Classroom Assignments: Part 5

Foreword

In an old OSH (outside school hours) club room, I remember reading a list of...I don't know, it kind of blurred between rules and hollow affirmations for the children. At #3 on the list, it said: "You are a good person no matter what anyone says." I've written before about what I generally make of people who announce that they're good, giving my experience that such claims tend to come from people who are simply judging themselves against the evil that they don't count against themselves.

I've noticed that people can do some pretty horrible things, and even better we're really talented at hedging our stories in such a way that the horror of our horrible deeds just doesn't seem so horrible. At our best, we not only hedge away the impact of how horrible we are, but we actually make it sound like our horrible deeds are a good thing, justifying that the things that make us evil can't be held against us, and should even be glorified.

In other news, I enjoyed doing the thing that feminists generally abhor, which is to deliberately reproduce gender differences. Overtly stating this in my reflection, surprisingly, did not appear to cost me any marks from my lecturer, who is a feminist. Really thought I was going to rustle some jimmies, there.

Dear Diary,

Today finally came. For the last three months I’ve been telling myself that I’m excited, but secretly, this whole time I’ve been terrified. What if my sisters were right, that I’ve got no brains? What if the other girls hate me or laugh at me for being stupid? What if the lecturers won’t take me seriously? What if I make it through university and dad still doesn’t think I’m good enough? Dad, I’m only doing this for you – I don’t even get why it’s such a big deal! Why won’t you love me? What if you’ll never love me?

Today finally came. Now that it’s here, I don’t know whether to feel honoured or sick. I suppose I feel a bit of both. My sisters have never respected me, but now I think they’re actually jealous of me. Last month I caught them stealing my makeup and trying it on. I’ll spare you the details on how badly that worked out for them, but suffice it to say it would be polite to suggest that they looked like clowns. Oh dear. Anyway, so, today I caught them begging dad to get them plastic surgery. Why? To look more like me. Me! A big part of me is thrilled, but I’m also kind of horrified. Hehe.

Today finally came. All my friends have been dating since, like, forever, but here I am, 23, and coming home from my first date. I don’t know...after all the hype my friends have made about boys, I guess I was expecting something...better? I mean, wow, he was hot. But then...urgh!!! He opened his mouth and it all went downhill from there! Dad, I think I finally get what the big deal is. I have a friend who’s dating this guy who...he’s nice, but, I’m sorry, he’s not nice to look at. She says that the more she knows him, the more attractive he becomes. Maybe there’s something to this...

Today finally came. Smart guys, dumb guys, sensitive guys, jerks, fat guys, fit guys: I’ve had my share of first dates with them all. Guys, what is wrong with you? My sisters and I have been looking for someone to marry, but no matter who we meet he’s just so flawed. But now we’ve had a Eureka moment: if we can’t find the right guy, why not make the right guy? After all, we are beautiful, educated women, and we deserve handsome, intelligent men. Is that really asking too much?

Today finally came. Today I married the perfect man. He has the perfect body and the perfect mind. He’s perfect in every way, and so he should be – after all I did take the best parts to make him. It’s a good thing there are so many men around – on their own they’re not very good, but their pieces are great! I know he’ll always love and cherish me. And as dad walked me down the aisle, I finally knew that he loved me, too. I can’t wait for my beautiful future with my perfect husband.

Today finally came. My husband was so boring! So...I think it was just time to realise that I deserve better. Oh well. I’m so excited to see what I come up with next!


Reflection of Dear Diary,

Dear Diary, is an experiment based on Ania Walwicz’s fairytale. Fairytale is written without any punctuation and in third person limited narrative. The combination of these elements resulted in me taking a very distant, impersonal reading of the original text. This is fitting, as the characters in fairytale do not appear to value individuality in themselves or others. In Dear Diary, I chose to focus on the naturally pretty princess from fairytale by recreating the story in first person through her eyes. Rewriting a story from a different perspective challenges students to consider the varying motives and concerns of others, which may help students to engage with people they would not normally identify with.

By casting Dear Diary, as a first person narrative, I took an impersonal story and made it very personal. This allowed me to foreground the princess’s hypocritical pursuit of perfection and acceptance. By highlighting this pursuit and having her casually reject others, I have privileged her undue sense of moral supremacy and silenced any voices in the story that might challenge her morals. Through deliberately privileging and silencing certain voices in textual experiments, students develop awareness of how they may be positioned disingenuously in various contexts, and can therefore respond critically to misleading information.

As a male, I encountered certain difficulties in writing from a feminine perspective. According to Baur, Holmes and Warren (2006), feminised language tends to use hedging words to soften the impact of the language. I have worked this into the text with phrases such as “I suppose,” “kind of” and “maybe.” Reinforcing imbalanced gender attitudes, I had the narrator describe herself as “educated” and the ideal man as “intelligent,” hinting at a gendered divide between acquired (or even imposed) knowledge and innate ability. Encouraging students to identify how they modify language in relation to gender enables students to reflect upon and challenge their presuppositions about gender.

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Now that you've read Dear Diary, check out fairytale.

Literature in the Classroom Assignments: Part 4

Foreword

Here's the first part of the second assignment. While the first assignment just had as giving reflections on pieces we'd looked at in class, the second assignment had as doing experiments of pieces from class. By experiment, I mean we had to take the original and fiddle with it in some way. Examples of our options included fan fiction, prequel, sequel, cross-over, retelling the story from a different perspective, using the style to tell a different story, making a script out of it, putting the character/s in a different setting, making a comic strip, etc.

During this first piece, you'll discover that I do in fact say harsher words than "poop," and am not opposed to using them in an assignment. Because I'm sweet and innocent like that. I got really emotional while writing this, and continue to get really emotional while reading it, which, apparently, means I'm a girl.

Boy
Eat your breakfast; brush your teeth; comb your hair; put on your uniform; tie your shoelaces – not that way, this way; take your lunch; class starts at 9:00, morning tea is from 10:45 to 11:15, lunch is from 1:00 to 1:50, school finishes at 3:00; be grateful – life only gets harder after this; do your homework; play with boys; you can play tag, ride your bike, pretend to fight (just don’t let me catch you or when your father gets home you’ll be in real trouble) or use a console; girls are nice so be nice to girls; don’t swear in front of adults; don’t swear in front of teachers; don’t swear in front of girls; if you teach other children to swear you’ll be in real trouble when your father gets home; listen to your teacher in school; listen to your teacher in Sunday school; boy, she sure is pretty; don’t admit that – what, do you want people to think you’re a girl?; don’t be soft; don’t cry; you need to be strong; you need to be tough; this is how you make friends; this is how you get respect; this is how you get power (and boy do you need power); this is how you throw a punch – no, not like that, what are you, a girl?; this is how you take a punch; this is how you dodge a punch; this is how you hit a ball; this is how you catch a ball; don’t drop the ball; don’t be so clumsy; this is how you cut your steak; this is how you chew your vegetables; this food is “junk,” and by junk I mean “treasure”; ignore what they told you in Sunday school – a man doesn’t need God to tell him how to live or repress him; this is how to ask a girl out; this is how to kiss a girl on the lips; this is how to kiss a girl on not the lips; this is how to make a girl kiss you; take your lunch; boy, she sure is hot; that’s more like it; don’t be emotional – you’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to be tough; girls are emotional, men are logical; is that what logic is? are you sure you understand logic?; work hard; work hard; you’ve got to work hard!; women only want men with lots of money; women only want men with impressive careers; women only want men who are tall, dark and handsome; lie to women – do you really think they’ll like you otherwise?; fuck women – fuck lots of women and don’t forget to fuck them over, after all they don’t want you, they only want your money and your status; nice guys finish last; don’t be nice, being nice is weak; this is how to fight your way to the top; this is how fight down those beneath you; this is how to fuck a woman; this is how to love a woman; this is how to fight a woman; this is how to provide for a woman; this is how to get a woman to love you; to love me? she sure is something, but I bet she isn’t even nice enough to give me food or comfort or...; haven’t I told you to take your lunch?

Reflection of Boy

Boy follows the structural style of Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. The diction is generally simple and the instructions are clustered into short phrases in order to make the long, run-on sentence accessible so that the overarching themes would be clear to the reader. The simple vocabulary conveys the central character of a boy internalising the social pressure to adhere to certain male gender roles. Just as Kincaid presents an oppositional discourse in relation to hegemonic femininity in her culture, my central aim in writing Boy is to provide an opposition to what I feel is the hegemonic masculinity on offer to white Australian youth.

Boy is littered with binary oppositions (“be nice to girls” vs “fuck women;” “listen” vs “ignore;” “this is how” vs “don’t;” “junk” vs “treasure”) which occasionally give the character clarification on how to live, but at other times provide only confusion and frustration over what it means to be masculine. By listing the traits of their gender identity, and of the gender identity they feel they’re ‘supposed’ to have, students can gain insight into their worldview. This allows them to identify and challenge harmful or contradictory beliefs.

The phrase “take your lunch” is used repeatedly throughout the text. Through polysemy, the meaning changes each time, beginning as a caring, harmless instruction, but later taking on sexual meaning. In the final use of this phrase, “take” is used in binary opposition to “give,” confirming the social pressure for the boy to prove his masculinity through selfish ambition and treating others as things to lord over. Tasks that encourage students to use polysemous writing would help students to grasp nuance and navigate context in their reading and writing practices.

Literature in the Classroom Assignments: Part 3

Foreword:

This was one of those short stories where I'm not sure you'd actually call it a short story. I seldom read anything with split narration. Even rarer is a piece like this in which the split narration is divided between a consistently inconsistent narrator and a very beaurocratic type who has nothing better to do than to point out the problems with the consistently inconsistent narrative. Glenda Adams, y u do dis?

Reflection: “Reconstruction of an Event” by Glenda Adams

If you desire to read a conventional narrative, Reconstruction of an Event by Glenda Adams is not the text for you. A key element that may cause frustration is the presence of two voices narrating the text. Several interpretations of the voices in the text were offered in class as we discussed ROAE. One suggestion was that both voices are the author: the first voice is her narrating the event; the second voice is her censoring herself. Another suggestion was that the first voice is the daughter retelling the event to an authority (such as the police), and the second voice is the authority figure opposing her claims. My initial reading, influenced by an academic background in creative arts and critiquing creative works, was that the two voices represented a student author and a harsh teacher or editor. In this regard, I interpreted ROAE as a metafiction (Orlowski, 1996).

Between the two voices of the text there is a clear power relationship. The first voice always submits to the correctional authority of the second voice. This is not necessarily a concern in itself, as the voice in power may represent a legitimate authority. What does concern me is how I initially inferred the identity of each role based on power and gender stereotypes. The first voice is obedient, emotive and prefers to use enriching language to bring life to the story. The obedience and emotive focus of the first voice resonated with my socially constructed views of youth. I inferred the focus on the daughter and enrichment as signs of femininity (Cameron, 2005). The second voice is authoritative, objective and insists on purging any enriching language. The second voice attempts to remove life from the story. Because of this, based on socially constructed assumptions about power and authority, I’m inclined to read the second voice as older and masculine (Cameron, 2005). The most frustrating issue I encountered with the second voice is that it never gives positive feedback. Even after the final reconstruction, the second voice replies with a cold: “No.” The second voice consistently objects to anything other than the facts, which makes it ironic that none of my inferences about gender allude to any objective truth about the text. Objectively, the voices are anonymous.

After multiple readings, I started to recognise the jacaranda as a symbol of life, joy and safety (Moon, 2001). The jacaranda is introduced in the first paragraph, in which all is pleasant and there is no hint of danger: joy and safety. It is reintroduced in the tenth construction of the event in which, upon recognising danger inside the house, the mother takes the daughter outside and “leans her against the jacaranda tree”: safety. Finally, in the twelfth construction of the event, the father is taken out to the jacaranda tree where he revives: life.

While the use of suspense in ROAE was clear from my first reading, it took several readings before the use of foreshadowing became clear to me. Adams uses suspense effectively to turn thirteen lines of plain facts in the third-last paragraph into five pages of text (Moon, 2001). In my initial reading, every time the second voice opposed the first voice, I became curious about how the first voice would modify the story. Likewise, every time the first voice changed the story, I became curious about what oppositions the second voice would give. Because each construction of the event contradicts the previous construction, it took a full awareness of where the text was heading before I recognised the clues throughout the text. In the third construction, the father is introduced as a man of unrest, whose daughter is “driving him into an untimely grave” by going out at night. In his only lines of speech, he declares: “They will rue the day...and they will all be sorry when I’m gone.” In my initial reading, I took this as lightly as the family are said to take it. This may be due to personal acculturation into a society in which the Dominant Discourse sees stress in middle-age, middle-class fathers as normal and trivial (Gee, 1991). In the final construction, it is revealed that the father has committed suicide, and the daughter seemingly feels guilt for going out and later ignoring the signs of unusual behaviour the night before.

ROAE could be used in the classroom to generate discussion about how different writing techniques influence reading. Despite this, I believe it could serve more profoundly as a tool for investigating deeper social issues. Specifically, this text can open up discussions about students’ assumptions about gender and power. Sensitivity should be given to students who feel responsible for issues affecting their families, as this text alludes to the daughter’s sense of guilt without challenging or dealing with her sense of guilt.






References
Cameron, D. (2005). Language, gender and sexuality. Current Issues and New Directions in Applied Linguistics. 26(4), 482-502.

Freebody, P. & A. Luke. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: An Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(3), 7-16. Retrieved 2013, from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/49099

Gee, J.P. (1991). What is literacy? Rewriting Literacy: Culture and the Discourse of the Other. 3-11. Westport, Conneticut; London: Bergin and Garvey.

Luke, A. & K. Dooley. (2010). Critical literacy and second language learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.). Handbook of Research in Second Language Learning and Teaching. Vol 2. London: Routledge.

Moon, B. (2001). Literary terms: A practical glossary (2nd ed.). Western Australia: P K Print.

Orlowski, V. (1996). Metafiction. Retrieved September 19, 2013, from http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/metafiction/



Adams, G. (1979). Reconstruction of an event. In G. Adams (Ed.), The Hottest Night of the Century, (pp.121 - 125). London: Angus and Robertson.

Adams, G. (1987). A snake down under. In W. Morgan (Ed.), Border Territory: An Anthology of Unorthodox Australian Writing, (pp. 102-104). Melbourne: Thomas Nelson.

Dove. (2013, April 14). Dove real beauty sketches [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk