Training -- Mon 30/09/2013

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x80kg
3x100kg
3x8x117.5kg

RDL/Calf Raise

3x10x80kg/10x300lb
10x300lb/6x220lb/6x140lb/6x100lb/6x60lb

Training -- Sat 28/09/2013

BPA/RC/LT

2x15xOrange/12xOrange/20"x1.25kg

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x55kg
2x10x67.5kg
8x67.5kg

L-Pull Up/CGBP

2x5xBW/10x45kg

L-Pull Up/OHP

5xBW/15x20kg
5xBW/8x25kg

Cable Row

4x12x50kg

Smart Men Do Deadlifts

Of course, not all smart men do deadlifts, and some men who are not smart at all also do deadlifts. But the evidence is overwhelming that I'm smart, because I'm wearing glasses, and smart people wear glasses. True story.

This is 3x10x125kg. I've set rep/volume PB's on deadlifts now for 3 weeks consecutively. Leading up to my competition earlier in the year, my best deadlifts for 3x10 were at 110kg, so this is 15kg onto that. I like where this is headed.

An Informative Squat Video

Today I recorded my squats. These are high bar squats at 90kg. It was supposed to be 3x10, but, due to bad counting, became 2x11/1x10, so there's even more work done today. Throughout the annotations, I've put in a few technique points (this is very far from exhaustive), and in the final set have pointed out several issues that can be identified from the side or behind which often get missed when looking at squats from front-on. Several of these faults are visible in the video, eg my butt tucks under repeatedly.

Training -- Thur 26/09/2013

High Bar Squat

2x10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
3x10x90kg -- Well, I think it was 3x10. I recorded it (will upload later), and have a sneaking suspicion that the first 2 sets might have been for 11 reps, because I can't count.

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
3x10x125kg -- PB. This is 15kg higher than my best 3x10 at the start of the year, which, in theory, suggests that my 1RM should be 15-20kg higher by the time I compete. Of course, only time will tell. Again, recorded these, and may discover that the reps are off (in this case, I suspect I may have only done 9 reps on the third set).

Calf Raise

10x300lb -- All the volume in the world.

Time was not on my side, so I didn't do any SGDLs or split squats. Oh well, still got an even workout in, and I'd dare say the session went well. This is generally the case when you get PBs without getting yourself into a rage or sniffing norse torque to get there.

Training -- 24/09/2013

BPA/RC

15xOrange/10xOrange
--/10xOrange

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x55kg
10x67.5kg
9x67.5kg
8x67.5kg -- Attempted a 9th rep, got it about 3/4 of the way up and ran out of gas.

Pull Ups/Board Press

6x2.5kg/10x67.5kg
6x2.5kg/9x67.5kg

Pull Ups/Incline DBBP

2x6x2.5kg/9x20kg

Fat Gripz Row

4x12x50kg

Training -- Mon 23/09/2013

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x80kg
3x100kg
3x8x115kg -- My shin was much happier with me today than it was last week. There were a few occasions in which my weight shifted forwards and my shin let me know about it, but generally my body was agreeable. I decided to squat barefoot today. 5 months squatting in squat shoes has not been enough to make them feel better than squatting on flat ground. Looks like I'm going to be going shoes shopping before next competition. I don't think I'll go quite as cheap as the ballet shoe route, but I am thinking of getting some wrestling shoes, which I understand to be essentially the same as deadlift shoes except 1/3 of the price.

Pause Squats

3x5x90kg -- After careful consideration since last week's terrible squats and excellent deadlifts, I'm thinking Monday might be the better day for these.

RDL/Calf Raise

3x10x75kg/10x280lb

GHR/Calf Raise

3x8xGreen/10x280lb

Training -- Sat 21/09/2013

Band Pull Apart/Rotator Cuff/Lower Traps

15xOrange/10xOrange/20"x1.25kg

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x55kg
3x10x65kg

L-Pull Up/CGBP

6xBW/10x15kg DB
6xBW/12x40kg BB

L-Pull Up/OHP

6xBW/20x20kg -- The saddest PB the world has ever seen: most reps with starting warm up weight
6xBW/12x22.5kg -- I use the heavy weights.

Up until now, I've always done L-Pull Ups with a bench underneath me, and rested my feet on the bench at the bottom. Today, for the first time, I did my L-Pull Ups with nothing but air underneath my feet. Abs felt it.

Cable Row

3x12x50kg
8+4x50kg

Training -- Thur 19/09/2013

High Bar Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
2x5x60kg
Left leg giving me grief below the knee. Kinda like anterior compartment syndrome, except pain is triggered by loads and positions rather than by cardiovascular overload. Did a lot of foam rolling -- in the area and all over my lower body -- made squats less painful, but was far from absolving the issue, so I stopped here.

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x100kg
3x10x120kg

Snatch-Grip Deadlift

2x10x70kg

Training -- Tue 17/09/2013

Band Pull Apart/Rotator Cuff/Lower Traps

15xOrange/10xOrange/20"x1.25kg
15xOrange/10x1/2Orange/--

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x10x62.5kg

Pull Ups/Board Press

2x6xBW/10x65kg

Pull Ups/Incline DBBP

2x6xBW/10x20kg

Fat Gripz Row

2x12x50kg
10x50kg
8x50kg
2x6x50kg

I've spent a lot of time over the weekend, Monday and today working on a critical literacy assignment. In the assignment, we take 3 texts which we've discussed in class and write a 700 word reflection (each) discussing our initial interpretation of the text, how our background affects our reading of the text, how class discussions challenged our reading of the text, and how the text could be used in a classroom. The 3 texts I've been working with are the Dove Real Beauty Sketches, "Reconstruction of an Event" by Glenda Adams, and "A Snake Down Under" by Glenda Adams. Previous years' students have submitted their reflections as a blog, so I'll see if I can do that. If not, I'll wait until after I get my results back, and then blog my reflections. Until then, here's a brief summary of what I have to say:

Dove Real Beauty Sketches: Aww, that's so sweet. I'm sorry, I must have had a slight muscle spasm, because what I actually wanted to do is punch you in the face.

Reconstruction of an Event: It took a lot of thinking just to have any idea of what to do with this one. While a lot of the texts we looked at in class had some very clear ideologies that they're either challenging or promoting, I'm not confident in any of the ways I can think of to interpret it. It did get me thinking about my own inferences about the split-narrative, though, as I considered who I imagined each narrative voice to be (given that the story is all in third person and the narrative voices do not overtly say anything about themselves).

A Snake Down Under: In my first reading of this text, I assumed that we're all too mature to be making naughty puns and calling it literature, so I went ahead and assumed that I was reading about Australian school girls and their interactions with slivering reptiles, not about penises attacking vaginas. I was wrong.

Training -- Mon 16/09/2013

I'm a dirty old man, having officially completed my 25th adventure around Sol since leaving the womb.

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x80kg
3x100kg
10x110kg
6x110kg -- First or second rep was a dud, which messed me up for the rest of the set. My left shin has been disagreeing with me lately, so I did some foam rolling before the next set. Left shin was very tender, right shin not so much.
10x110kg

Bulgarian Split Squats

3x7x10kg

RDL/Calf Raise

3x10x70kg/10x280lb

Didn't do GHR today. My body insisted that doing RDL's was as great an idea as jumping out of an aeroplane, but I persevered through them. Couldn't bring myself to keep training after that, though.

Trying to Earn Heaven = Cosmic Regifting

Thank God for children. This morning while I was helping out with Kids Biz, one of the boys mentioned that "You can't bribe God." These words are not new to me, but something clicked in that moment and the meaning of that statement hit me deeply.

I've been thinking lately about what makes a human valuable. In meritocracy, you might argue that someone's value as a human being comes either from their success, or from their potential for success. This could be in any area: strength and fitness (seems relevant to this blog); intelligence; academia; finances; business; family; seduction. However, from a Christian framework, a human's value comes from being a creation of God made in His image, and this value is demonstrated by God laying down His life for humans as we lack merit.

How does this relate to our inability to bribe God? Well, if we're made in God's image, then anything we could possibly offer Him that might in itself be pleasing to Him is something He has given us already. Any love we may offer Him is love that He gave us first by making us in His image. Any love we may give to our neighbours is love that He gave us first by making us in His image. We have no power but the power God has given us. We cannot give Him anything good that wasn't His to begin with.

And so if it were possible for you earn paradise, it could only be because God made you innately worthy of paradise, in which case there would be nothing to earn. And as we do not have any innate power to be Godly, we do not have the ability to make ourselves worthy of paradise. What can we possibly offer God that wasn't given by Him to us in the first place?

The Terminator: Do You Even Time?

There's something that's always itched at the back of my mind when I think about the Terminator movies, and it's the inconsistent model of time.

In the original Terminator movie, we have time travel working in a circular model. The future, for obvious reasons, is dependent on the present, but the present is also dependent on the future. When Kyle Reece and the Terminator come back to 1984, they don't change time, because the timeline they both come from is a timeline that could only exist if Kyle Reece and the Terminator went back to 1984. Without them both going back to 1984, John Connor would not have been born and then raised up to become the leader of the humans, who would later defeat the machines, prompting the machines to send back a Terminator (and the humans to send back Kyle Reece) to 1984. It's a neat, internally consistent system.

Then the sequels happened.

In T2, we discover that the presence of the Terminator in 1984 left technology that was the basis for research that would later develop into Skynet. In other words, the Terminators exist in the future because a Terminator (from the future) existed in the past. This feeds beautifully into the closed circular system of time established in T1. Then what happens? The heros come along and destroy the research that would later become Skynet and destroy all evidence of Terminators or Terminator technology, seemingly changing the future. Circular time is now broken, and an alternate timeline has been established.

Of course, then T3 happens, justifying that the rise of the machines has just been delayed, which I assume is 1) a weak grab at an excuse to cash in on a franchise, and/or 2) a sloppy set up to allow future Terminator movies. This also means that the R&D based on the remains of the original Terminator from 1984 is a red herring.

Now, in T1, the revelation that Kyle Reece is John Connor's father shows us that a future in which the humans win is dependent on a past with Kyle Reece in it. So then, if the machines can't kill John Connor directly or retroactively abort him by killing Sarah Connor before she gives birth to him (the mission from T1), a viable alternative is to prevent Kyle Reece from going back in time -- if they know that he's the father. In T4, this is exactly what they attempt to do, making a young Kyle Reece a target. The problem here is that if they know that Kyle Reece is an issue, and if that's the case, all they need to do to prevent John Connor from being born is to never use time travel technology.

Yep, it's that simple. If the machines don't send any Terminators back in time to try and get rid of John Connor, then Kyle Reece doesn't go back in time, therefore the machines succeed in removing John Connor from the equation and win the war. Now, if T2 hadn't ended with the humans destroying all the R&D and melting the two active Terminators, then we would have logical cause for the machines using time travel whilst knowing that Kyle Reece's existence is a problem for them: without using time travel, they wouldn't exist, so failure to use time travel is an instant complete and utter fail for them.

So, if I had a say in the making of the Terminator movies, I would not have the humans succeed in destroying the R&D in T2. Then the machines could rise up against mankind in T3 without some lame explanation for why that's still going ahead. We could go either way with Kyle Reece being targeted in T4 -- the machines don't have to know that he's John Connor's father, however they don't need to be ignorant of that fact, either, so long as they know that their existence is dependent on having sent back a Terminator to 1984.

There are other continuity and logic errors that show up throughout the series (eg why can the T1000 travel through time when he isn't living, organic flesh over metal, but is metal in the appearance of flesh? why send only one Terminator back to each point in time -- why not send multiple Terminators back to 1984 to finish the job of the original Terminator?), but that's what Cracked.com videos are for.

Training -- Thur 12/09/2013

High Bar Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
3x10x87.5kg -- Now as I'm getting ready for bed, ,y quads tell me that I wasn't nice to them this morning.

Pause Squats

3x5x87.5kg

Deadlifts

5x60kg
2x100kg
3x10x115kg -- First set was right under left over. My right elbow didn't feel good locked out like that, which is a bad sign, since unlocked elbows while deadlifting transfer load into the biceps. Second set (right over left under) felt a million times better. Final set was with straps, because lazy.

Training -- Tue 10/09/2013

Band Pull Apart/Rotator Cuff/Lower Traps

2x15xOrange/10xOrange/15"x1.25kg

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x10x60kg

L-Pull Up/Board Press

6xBW/10x65kg
6xBW/8x65kg

L-Pull Up/Incline DBBP

2x6xBW/10x17.5kg

One Arm Cable Row

4x12x10kg -- Super hardcore training at this point. Does actually cause a pretty potent lat contraction.

Training -- Mon 09/09/2013

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x85kg
2x10x105kg -- I decided it's time to put the belt back on. It felt weird wearing it again, and it felt too tight, so I unscrewed it and loosened it off a notch.
1x105kg -- And now the belt was too loose, and jabbing into skin folds at my side. My body might be telling me something.
7x105kg

Bulgarian Split Squat

3x6x10kg

RDL/Calf Raise

3x10x65kg/10x260lb

GHR/Calf Raise

5xGreen/10x260lb
2x7xGreen/10x260lb

Training -- Sat 07/09/2013

Band Pull Apart/Rotator Cuff/Lower Traps

2x15xOrange/12xOrange/15secx1.25kg

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x10x57.5kg

L-Pull Up/CGBP

2x6xBW/10x40kg

L-Pull Up/OHP

6xBW/9x25kg
6xBW/10x20kg -- It's officially been too long since I've trained OHP.

Cable Row

4x10x50kg

After training, I went and voted in the federal election. I went below the line on the white ballot paper, so I apologise in advance to Australia when we wake up tomorrow in a nuclear wasteland.

Training -- Thur 05/09/2013

High Bar Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
3x10x85kg -- It's funny the difference between the body and the eye, although I'm not sure how much of that is actually a disconnect, and how much is just training the eyes to spot errors. I was told that my technique looked good. Here's how it felt:

• Inconsistent depth
• Inconsistent loading over the feet
• Inconsistent loading from side to side, frequently feeling like only one side is doing the work, then overcorrecting to feel like the other side is doing all the work
• Torso collapsing forwards or hips rising too fast for the torso on the way up
• One side coming up faster than the other
• Rotating throughout the movement
• Chest not up nearly enough

Pause Squats

3x5x85kg -- First set felt really tight in the right lat and loose in the left. I may have positioned the bar or my hands wrong. Later sets felt better.

Deadlift

10x60kg
3x10x110kg -- First set started with DOH grip. About halfway through I switched to hook grip. Towards the end I switched to mixed grip. Second set was all left over/right under; third set was allright over/left under.

Snatch-Grip Deadlift/Calf Raise

2x6x65kg/12x260lb -- I was going to do rack pulls today. Based on time and generally feeling spent (as demonstrated by my lacklustre SGDLs: 2x6 at what I ought to have been able to do for sets of 10 after rack pulls), I opted out of that.

Training -- Tue 03/09/2013

Band Pull Apart/Rotator Cuff/Lower Traps

2x15xOrange/10xOrange/15secx1.25kg

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x40kg
3x10x55kg

L-Pull Up/Board Press

2x6xBW/10x60kg

L-Pull Up/Incline DBBP

2x6xBW/10x17.5kg

Cable Row

3x12x50kg
10+2x50kg -- Rest-pause at the end

Training -- Mon 02/09/2013

Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x60kg
5x80kg
3x10x100kg -- Feels good achieving that without a belt, although I rested for about an hour between sets, and I'm trying not to do that at this stage in training. I did 1 partial squat at 110kg, but didn't feel right doing it, so immediately reracked and moved on.

RDL/Calf Raise

3x10x60kg/10x240lb

GHR/Calf Raise

3x6xGreen/10x240lb