Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Thoughts about life, training, crap and stuff

Denial.  It's a very powerful tool as long as you can keep making yourself believe what you are saying.  

I was hanging out with some friends Friday night and a mutual friend of ours says that she could never be in a committed relationship again.  Then later reveals that she gave an ultimatum to the guy she talks to, that he couldn't sleep with her as long as he kept sleeping with his ex-gf.  Then she also said that told him she wouldn't sleep with anyone else.

WTF?

Basically she had a terrible long term marriage and she refuses to believe that anything she does constitutes a commitment because she fears commitment.  She is so afraid of commitment she doesn't even recognize commitment in her life when she is doing it because she fears it so badly.

I think we all do that at junctures and instances of our life.  We want something badly however we don't want to attach a label to it for fear of that thing becoming something else that we abhor, or have bitterness about.  Our past certain shapes who we are today, but you get to decide if you let it shape you into something bitter or jaded, or if you let it shape you into something better because you learned from it.  We all like to believe we are the latter, but more often than not we carry a lot of the former with us no matter how hard we try.

I would have put up the workout from last night but does it matter that I did 315 x 5 on squats?  I didn't think so.

To break down the last week for you however........

Last Tuesday - squats up to 605
Thursday - Bench up to 315 x 5, Deadlift - 315 x 5 singles as fast as possible
Yesterday - Squats 315 x 5

That's the whole last heavy workout and deload mix.  

My right IT band is a little irritated and I've been on the foam roller and hitting the anti inflammatories.  MY pec minors are getting a little better.  I'm hopeful that meet day this will be minor.  If not, plenty of ibuprofen.  

After the meet I will probably take a week off.  My goal after this will be to shed some of this extra adipose through conditioning and my MRP diet.  That thing is awesome.  Easy and works to perfection.  It's not going to get you bodybuilding stage ripped, but I never have to worry about what I'm going to do eating wise to get lean again.  I but enough MRP's for however long I am going to diet and that's it.  It's the most simple shit ever, and it works.  My guess is, I will end up around 238ish to 242 or so pretty darn lean.  I'm not going to be worried about strength during this phase, because well, that would be stupid.  My goal will be to get into shape (using a conditioning block), then after I am in shape I will go from there.  If I qualify for the USPF worlds I will plan on competing in the 242 class and not the 275's.  So it behooves me to stay at 240 or so.  Even if that is not my completely optimal weight for powerlifting.  I just feel better there.

Movies -

I did get around to watching an old movie this weekend called "Hardcore" with George C. Scott in it.  It was just meh.  I had seen parts of it when I was young and I think back during that time, the movie was pretty shocking.  But we were quite bored and I have found that those older movies like that do a terrible job, for the most part, at setting a good pace, even for character development.  This seems to be pretty common in older movies I watch.  I wonder if now we are so accustomed to something faster paced that we can't enjoy a slower developing story, or if those movies just do suck?  

I had a plan for the meet to end up with a decent total on my second attempts but I talked with Wendler for a while about this and have changed my game plan around a bit.  I'm going to trust Jim with this and be smart.  I could very easily end up with a rather pedestrian total or a halfway decent one.  Either way, at this point, just showing up healthy is going to be nice.  

I should have the first Lift-Run-Bang shirt on for this meet.  Obviously I will get pics and if you guys really have enough interest I will put them up.  It reads "Lift-Run-Bang" ("really?  no fucking way?") and has a screaming Spartan skull with helmet on.  

Short and sweet this week.  I am still fairly tired but will probably have another "thoughts" post later this week as I'm resting up.  

I hope everyone had a "Happy Birfday Merica" day.  

11 comments:

  1. Good luck at the meet and I am already down to buy a shirt!

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  2. Good luck Paul at the meet.

    Tell us more about the MRP diet please.

    Where can we get the T shirts?

    Tony

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  3. You are so right about denial, I see it in people's lives the whole time and I would go so far as to say it is one of, if not the dominant subconscious factor in how a person lives their life. A simple example is that people will never lose weight until they deal with their self-denial/delusions about their size. You see in so many other instances however, especially addiction when it is probably the most obvious.

    Denial and a lack of self-awareness are the two things which I think hold people back more than anything.

    Looking forward to seeing the meet video and what sounds like a sweet ass shirt lol.

    Oh yeah one more thing I haven't bought your e-books yet cause my card is maxed but I want to say in advance, thanks for setting the books at a decent price level. There are plenty of e-books around that I would like to read but are $30-40 which seems insane since there are fuck all overheads involved in e-publishing, I don't know how people can charge more than $15 for an e-book (unless its very large and/or has a lot of pictures that might increase the production cost), it just seems like charging a little less will encourage more people to buy your books, so you'll get the same or more cash in the end.

    Anyways that was longer than I intended, good luck at the meet braheim. B

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  4. B - Thanks man. And great observation on the combination of denial and self awareness. I think they both hand in hand seem to be the two things that emotional egg shell people are made of. Bot I know certain one just like that. I hope that person happens to read this and knows my life is sooooo much better off without them.

    Tony - I have done a write up about it in the past, but I will give a more in depth one next week when I start it myself.

    The shirts will be on sale here.

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  5. Since this is a "thoughts" post, try this on for size when you get back to your conditioning:

    - 3 minutes heavy bag
    - 1 minute rest
    - 3 minutes air dyne as hard as you can
    - 1 minute rest

    Repeat 3 to 5 times through. Try not to vomit. I did this tonight after some lifting and had an average heart rate of 155. Fucking HARD.

    -Rick

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  6. Rick - The first couple of weeks prolly won't be much other than steady state until some weight comes off.

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  7. Also-

    Saw this video the other day, what are your thoughts? Pretty amazing for a 300 pounder!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxR242I-KEg&feature=player_embedded

    Forgot to add this in the first post-

    -Rick

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  8. I discovered this blog about a week ago, and started reading from the oldest post. I finished reading everything yesterday. I just "came back" to lifting this year after YEARS away. I figured out my goals, started doing research, and pretty quickly realized what I used to call lifting was just 15 variations of the bicep curl to very little effect.

    Thanks to guys like you that take a "truth before advertising" approach to training discussion, I feel like I'm much better set-up to choose programs, and to know when to make changes to or switch programs, and when to just keep pounding away at the current program (which seems to be the most important lesson).

    I probably have a million questions I could ask you, or any of the other experienced lifters sharing their knowledge on the internet, but I feel like I should just listen and lift for now, and worry about minutiae later. I'm gonna buy your program so I can have it on the shelf for later if it's time to make a change. Mostly I wanted to contribute something back.

    I'm in Chicago, and if someone hasn't said it already, the family would probably enjoy a few hours at Millennium Park. Make sure the kids bring water-ready attire, because they'll for sure want to jump in the fountain.

    Thanks again!

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  9. Nilster - Thanks for the comments and well written post.

    Good idea on just sitting back and lifting right now. You can't go wrong with that approach. Map out some minor goals and train to reach them.

    If you're in Chicago you should come out and watch the meet if you have time. It's the USPF nationals. You can look up all the info on their website.

    Thanks again!

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  10. nilster - if at all poss get out to the comp and shout out for paul pls!

    geoff

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