Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

[stuffedsuperdud]

LP LP LP
Squat:
20kgx10
60x5
90x5
120x5x3
Both knees kinda sore but no one died

Press:
20kgx10
40x5
50x5
62x5x3
Ugh...marginally less pathetic

Someone posted this on E&P; reposting here for anyone who might have missed it


Really cool to see how things "should" be made, $ and efficiency be damned. The other videos in the series are just as neat, too, esp. the last one, at the Scotch distillery (who sponsored the series). Anthony Bourdain is awesome as usual.

[idlehands]

taking another pass at 200kg squat?

[stuffedsuperdud]

Ha! What do you mean another? This is all part of the same quest. I haven't really kept up with logs, btw; how's your back doing?

Jack and I returned to our mighty alma mater today to help some professors we know with a presentation. While I was there, I stopped to train (and get away from Jack) at the school gym. .....holy fucking ball, all I have to say is, be careful what you wish for. Remember how the last time I was there, lots of people were doing barbell linear progressions? It's completely gone off the deep end now: I went into the main weight room and found that it was dominated by a horde of dumbfucks, which I soon learned was the PL team. Maximum douche, maximum Sheiko. No, seriously: the team members had apparently all gotten juiced to the gills and Sheikoed their way up, and now literally everyone there is running Sheiko and sucking down test. Their leader? A 5'4" 130lb kid in a bb.com shirt telling his 5'1" 100lb friend to bench with a huge arch off two boards. Everyone's 19 years old, mind you. I couldn't even.

In the locker room, I realized I was by far the oldest guy in there, so after I came out of the shower, I spent several minutes moseying around naked for shits and giggles. Had to stop though when another dude showed up while I was on the phone, took off all his clothes, and then just sat there staring at my junk. I was soooooper creeped out, though not gonna lie, it helped to know that I was 1. much larger than he was, and 2. he had no concealed weapons on him.

I did:
Snatch:
20kgx many
40x3
50x3
60x4 (missed one badly)
70x0 (missed 3 tries badly
70x2
75x1
80x0x2 Had both of them overhead, and was actually standing up with the second one when I lost it.

Hang snatch below knees:
60kgx3x3

Squat:
60kgx5
100x5
125x5x3 Easy for some reason so I paused a few reps for fun

Press:
20kgx10
40x5
50x5
60x2
64x5x3

Whatever.

I then had to run to go get CG from the airport. Ended up half an hour late, and she was positively livid, standing inside the terminal with her humongous luggage and struggling with a nasty cold. Hilarious... As punishment, I have to go into work tomorrow wearing a gaudy I HEART NY shirt that she bought for me.


For those of you who don't work in/near white-collar places, Allen Edmonds is a high-end shoe company that prides itself on doing most manufacturing at their base in Wisconsin. They apparently almost died about 10 years ago, but the marketing hires who brought the company back to life absolutely have their advertising on lock:


TL;DR :Buy Allen Edmonds please! Thanks! Also, if you don't, you are not a real man, and you hate America and things such as integrity, family, and hard work! Just sayin'!"

Jokes aside, CG talked me into pulling the trigger and springing for a pair of their shoes when we were wandering around South Coast Plaza. Cheap neurotic bastard that I am, I actually stood outside their Costa Mesa store for over an hour, bracing myself for a high-pressure salesman. Finally, CG came back from her Niemans expedition (welcome to the 1%; it's fun up there....), saw that I hadn't even gone in, and called me a pussy. I finally walked inside, where it turns out all the sales guys were super nice and helpful about picking out the right size, model, and color. Guess for shit this expensive (most of them seem to cost just under $400 a pop YEEESH I feel dirty typing that), no need for the hard sell?? When I told them I'm waiting to start at a federal lab, my first real job, with grown-up features such as pensions and health insurance, they even went ahead and gave me the rather generous student discount even though my ID was super expired. I imagine their historical customer base is white-collar men ages 35-65; never too early to invest in brand loyalty, I guess? A big part of their shtick is that they last forever, so I'll withhold my opinion until a decade from now. In the meantime, they certainly look good and feel good. I'm probably not going to go back to that place any time soon because $$, but if any of you guys are in LA/OC, definitely check them out at South Coast Plaza.

The company CEO's a larf too, btw. He's plays up this "awww shucks dontcha know I'm from Minnesoooota" character for the media but you can tell he's a ruthless salesman of the ABC, AIDA variety. When someone mentioned that Christian Louboutin (some dude CG loves, who sells overpriced heels) was now cornering a sizable portion of the men's market, he nonchalantly dropped for the camera, "Yea they're probably not our kind of men, actually," mentioned that whenever successful men the world over, including the ones running China's factories, want to rock some wholesome Made With Love In The Greatest Country On Earth goodness, they buy Allen Edmonds, and finished by reminding the audience that unlike Louboutin and his Eurotrash friends, AE's customer base consists of "men in corner offices across America and the Oval one in DC." Boom.

I know how silly and appeal-to-Murricaism his little catchphrases are, theoretically, but from a marketing standpoint? Gotta hand it to them. These guys are gooood.

Anyway, here's a neat video they made:

[idlehands]

Ha! What do you mean another? This is all part of the same quest. I haven't really kept up with logs, btw; how's your back doing?

Jack and I returned to our mighty alma mater today to help some professors we know with a presentation. While I was there, I stopped to train (and get away from Jack) at the school gym. .....holy fucking ball, all I have to say is, be careful what you wish for. Remember how the last time I was there, lots of people were doing barbell linear progressions? It's completely gone off the deep end now: I went into the main weight room and found that it was dominated by a horde of dumbfucks, which I soon learned was the PL team. Maximum douche, maximum Sheiko. No, seriously: the team members had apparently all gotten juiced to the gills and Sheikoed their way up, and now literally everyone there is running Sheiko and sucking down test. Their leader? A 5'4" 130lb kid in a bb.com shirt telling his 5'1" 100lb friend to bench with a huge arch off two boards. Everyone's 19 years old, mind you. I couldn't even.

In the locker room, I realized I was by far the oldest guy in there, so after I came out of the shower, I spent several minutes moseying around naked for shits and giggles. Had to stop though when another dude showed up while I was on the phone, took off all his clothes, and then just sat there staring at my junk. I was soooooper creeped out, though not gonna lie, it helped to know that I was 1. much larger than he was, and 2. he had no concealed weapons on him.

I did:
Snatch:
20kgx many
40x3
50x3
60x4 (missed one badly)
70x0 (missed 3 tries badly
70x2
75x1
80x0x2 Had both of them overhead, and was actually standing up with the second one when I lost it.

Hang snatch below knees:
60kgx3x3

Squat:
60kgx5
100x5
125x5x3 Easy for some reason so I paused a few reps for fun

Press:
20kgx10
40x5
50x5
60x2
64x5x3

Whatever.

I then had to run to go get CG from the airport. Ended up half an hour late, and she was positively livid, standing inside the terminal with her humongous luggage and struggling with a nasty cold. Hilarious... As punishment, I have to go into work tomorrow wearing a gaudy I HEART NY shirt that she bought for me.


For those of you who don't work in/near white-collar places, Allen Edmonds is a high-end shoe company that prides itself on doing most manufacturing at their base in Wisconsin. They apparently almost died about 10 years ago, but the marketing hires who brought the company back to life absolutely have their advertising on lock:


TL;DR :Buy Allen Edmonds please! Thanks! Also, if you don't, you are not a real man, and you hate America and things such as integrity, family, and hard work! Just sayin'!"

Jokes aside, CG talked me into pulling the trigger and springing for a pair of their shoes when we were wandering around South Coast Plaza. Cheap neurotic bastard that I am, I actually stood outside their Costa Mesa store for over an hour, bracing myself for a high-pressure salesman. Finally, CG came back from her Niemans expedition (welcome to the 1%; it's fun up there....), saw that I hadn't even gone in, and called me a pussy. I finally walked inside, where it turns out all the sales guys were super nice and helpful about picking out the right size, model, and color. Guess for shit this expensive (most of them seem to cost just under $400 a pop YEEESH I feel dirty typing that), no need for the hard sell?? When I told them I'm waiting to start at a federal lab, my first real job, with grown-up features such as pensions and health insurance, they even went ahead and gave me the rather generous student discount even though my ID was super expired. I imagine their historical customer base is white-collar men ages 35-65; never too early to invest in brand loyalty, I guess? A big part of their shtick is that they last forever, so I'll withhold my opinion until a decade from now. In the meantime, they certainly look good and feel good. I'm probably not going to go back to that place any time soon because $$, but if any of you guys are in LA/OC, definitely check them out at South Coast Plaza.

The company CEO's a larf too, btw. He's plays up this "awww shucks dontcha know I'm from Minnesoooota" character for the media but you can tell he's a ruthless salesman of the ABC, AIDA variety. When someone mentioned that Christian Louboutin (some dude CG loves, who sells overpriced heels) was now cornering a sizable portion of the men's market, he nonchalantly dropped for the camera, "Yea they're probably not our kind of men, actually," mentioned that whenever successful men the world over, including the ones running China's factories, want to rock some wholesome Made With Love In The Greatest Country On Earth goodness, they buy Allen Edmonds, and finished by reminding the audience that unlike Louboutin and his Eurotrash friends, AE's customer base consists of "men in corner offices across America and the Oval one in DC." Boom.

I know how silly and appeal-to-Murricaism his little catchphrases are, theoretically, but from a marketing standpoint? Gotta hand it to them. These guys are gooood.

Anyway, here's a neat video they made:

Rather wear my Gucci shoes.

Back is decent. I'm not deadlifting very much yet, but squats are moving well. Got a new 13mm belt and been taking the inversion table seriously and the chiro. Seems to have put me in a place i can train. Your college story makes me want to go with the recruiters when they go to my school and tear up the gym. Ahh lot of good times there. I remember when i used to be the only one that deadlifted and I was constantly ripping up my shins and bleeding all over the floor. People did not understand

[FuriousE]

One website for you - shoebank.com.

I buy all mine as seconds, and I've never once been able to detect the reason why any were sold as seconds. Currently they are running a 20% off sale on seconds, as well.

[jwagner]

I've never seen an "in-house" repair per se, but you can have them sent back to the factory for "recrafting," which has the benefit of having them re-stretched on the original lasts. I only have one pair that's needed resoling so far, but those I just had a local shop do.

I'll second the Allen Edmonds Shoe Bank as well as the Allen Edmonds outlets which sell seconds. I have one pair of firsts and two pair of seconds and the only difference I noticed was that the seconds didn't come with a velvet shoe bag like the firsts did. You probably already know this, but make sure to invest in some nice shoe-trees and a shoe-horn to keep these around for a while.

[stuffedsuperdud]

One website for you - shoebank.com.

I buy all mine as seconds, and I've never once been able to detect the reason why any were sold as seconds. Currently they are running a 20% off sale on seconds, as well.

Paul Grangaard posts on reddit and other places under the name AllenEdmondsCEO and once said that the direct cost to make each pair of shoes comes out to about $100 so as long as they sell for more than that the company comes out ahead, i.e. they can get away with selling nearly perfect items through the outlets at a steep discount. I'm guessing the discounts also act as a gateway: the kind of guy who wants high-end shoes probably is also the kind of guy who wants many pairs of high-end shoes. Might as well hook him with the black Park Aves on sale and then make sure every non-gym shoe he buys for the rest of his life came from Port Washington, right?

Oh and they're local for you Milwaukee natives, huh? Have you ever done the factory tour? Next time you go out there, see if you can't head up to his office and get AllenEdmondsCEO to start a log on this site. Now THAT would make a loyal customer for life. Inb4 AE enters the barbell market with the York, a fine two-toned calfskin lifting shoe inspired by Bob Hoffman.

[FuriousE]

I do admit to owning more a few pairs of them. I got my first pair 15 years ago. They are still going strong. I had to have them refinished since I didn't take great care of them (some salt stains, etc). but they came back looking good as new. I think that was the only pair I didn't buy as seconds (didn't know about seconds then). As long as you use shoe trees when you're not wearing them, and rotate them (ie, don't wear them two days in a row) they should last many many years. The other great thing is they can be refinished and resoled and will come back good as new!

Never done the tour - but would love to. Paul doesn't look like he lifts - maybe I should get him to start!! My uncle has met him a few times. Seems like a nice guy.

[Dildo Bolt]

Inb4 AE enters the barbell market with the York, a fine two-toned calfskin lifting shoe inspired by Bob Hoffman.

A firm that makes nice dress shoes should actually enter the WL shoe market. There are enough people who are really turned off by the direction the plastic shoes are going in (the new adidas looks especially awful) that I think there's probably demand there. Look at how much the discontinued shoes go for at the hoopgrip website. Same with the asics 727 people are ordering from Japan. I don't know anything about manufacturing shoes but if they're sort of handmade anyway without relying on specialized equipment then it seems like you could make small batches without risking much.

[Cody]

A firm that makes nice dress shoes should actually enter the WL shoe market. There are enough people who are really turned off by the direction the plastic shoes are going in (the new adidas looks especially awful) that I think there's probably demand there. Look at how much the discontinued shoes go for at the hoopgrip website. Same with the asics 727 people are ordering from Japan. I don't know anything about manufacturing shoes but if they're sort of handmade anyway without relying on specialized equipment then it seems like you could make small batches without risking much.

I agree.