A Middle Aged Adolescent (who cannot possibly be the only one)

[Nunedog]

I just have a few practical matters to sort out this week, since I haven’t been out and about enough to come up with any compelling insights on the world around me. We’re still putting the house together after the move, assembling new patio furniture with tiny little Allen wrenches until it’s too dark to see.
I visited my new doctor the other day, and I was pleased by a 90-over-50 blood pressure reading, which is nice and low, and has me wondering if it has something to do with lifting weights. Does the persevering through heavy sets with blood pressure skyrocketing create an adaptation, such as the heart’s being able to pump things along with pretty minor effort otherwise? That’s a subject for research when time permits.

I am following the advice of Andy Baker on the topic of triceps development as a means to driving progress in the bench press. I’ve always done triceps work, but not with the ruthlessness that he advocates in his most recent blog post.
The change for me will be a rotation in the extension exercises on Fridays. This is lifted from his blog:
“I usually set up the rotation like this:
• Week 1: Overhead Extension / French Press (w/ EZ Bar, Machine, or single dumbbell/unilateral)
• Week 2: Lying Tricep Extension (w/ EZ Bar or dumbbells)
• Week 3: Cable Press downs
Not even counting all the different grips for the cable machine, this simple rotation basically gives you 6 variations to work through over time. Each week the shoulder is placed in a different degree of flexion/extension and so the emphasis shifts week to week to different heads of the tricep.”

Baker goes on to stress the importance of moving these lifts along, tracking performance and making improvements each time around, adding weight or adding reps. Something has to be ‘going up,’ he says, in order for you to get stronger.
I’m already doing the dips he describes earlier in his piece, adding weight by way of kettlebells hanging from a Judo belt, along with a pair of mini-bands pinned at ground level and strung around my neck. I just threw out a too-old pair of mini-bands that were getting sticky and slack; the new pair I’ve broken out are WAY stronger, so that will take some recalibrating on dips and the speed bench work.

On the deadlift, my max lifts, which are right at 500, can beat up my lower back if I’m not careful. It’s all in how I set my lumbar arch as I’m about to go, I’ve discovered. I get a big breath, bull the chest, and then additionally, I use that reasonably new Starting Strength cue to push my belly down between my legs.
It works madly - now, but it was little more 90% in prior weeks. I’ve wanted to toughen the area up by adding a little range of motion as well as focusing on my ability to reach that final position. The solution has been a deficit deadlift - but not by much. I have a piece of plywood that’s a half or three-quarters of an inch thick, and standing on that makes it just a bit more of a production to get that perfectly arched lower back.
I hit a set of 3 reps with 450 the other day, so I used the board all the way up through 135, 225, 315, 365, and 405. I ditched the board and hit the 450’s when it was that much easier to lock and load at the conventional bar height. I put the board back for the back-off sets with 405.

Some months ago, I got a set of Captains of Crush grippers, ranging from T (Trainer) to 2.5. These are beefier versions of the classic triangular shaped spring-and-handles arrangement you’ve seen forever. The poundages that each level represents are something you’d have to look up, but in short I do recommend them heartily. They work.
Originally, Captains of Crush came out with four different grippers, Levels 1 through 4. A level 1, the company says, is about what a well trained weightlifter can handle for a single rep max, which I found to be true. The Level 4 has been closed by only a few men in the world, giant Icelandic strongmen, if I’m not mistaken.
Realizing that if they stood on principle, they’d go broke, Captains of Crush introduced Trainers, which are below Level 1. (I think they have Sports, which are even below that.) They also introduced ‘point five’ levels, as in 1.5’s and 2.5’s, for ordinary mortals who cannot bridge the giant gaps between 1, 2, 3, and 4. They also created left hand grippers for T, 1, 2, and 3, which are far friendlier than the leverage created by a spring wound for your right hand.
I can hit reps all day on 1’s now, as well as sets of 4 on the 1.5’s, but I still haven’t closed the 2’s, right or left.
(Captains of Crush has not made lefties for 1.5, a mistake in my view, because that level must be right in the range of most athletes.
At any rate, the progress I’ve made allows me to deadlift using a pretty relaxed grip. I still use a mixed grip, but when the pressure is on for a big lift or some tough reps, I don’t have to grab the bar hard or make any contact with my palm. I can keep 450 or 500 in the crooks of my fingers.

Training the details can make a difference in the big lifts.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 7/1/19 5&2 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5*) Tom 385 JC 160
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 350, 352.5, 350 JC 150 including chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 2* reps Tom 285 JC 115
2. Bench press - back off sets (5 sets of 3) Tom 265 JC 110
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 2* reps Tom 475 JC 230
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 427.5 JC 205
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x5* reps Tom 347.5 bands 5x3 JC 145
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 172.5 JC 72.5
1.5 Dead bench: Week 2 - 8 sets of 1 @65% - 200 - 30 sec rest interval.
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom 62, 72x3, 62 JC 35’s
3. Pull ups (5x11)
4. 4 sets of10 reps triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

We’ve joined a neighborhood swim club, a great place close by with everything you could want: three actual pools, one for babies, one for lap swimming and the swim team, and a big general pool with two diving boards down at the deep end. It has a snack bar and a pavilion, tennis courts, and a big lawn with a volleyball net and even a tetherball pole off in a corner.
Most importantly, it appears to be one of the last few ‘wildlife’ refuges in this busy suburb - for kids, that is, a place where they can tear around barefoot in their bathing suits and rocket through the pool as fast as dolphins, often combining the two in games of chase that roam across the entire property. At the diving boards, they shout at one another to ‘Walk the plank!’ In the grass, when they slow down, they turn the lawn chairs on edge and drape their towels from one to the other, to create little forts and cluster inside.
The other night, however, I saw a mother wreck one of these moments for her son, which got me to thinking about the importance of various experiences, even ones that are largely symbolic.

My wife and I brought a picnic dinner and settled in beneath a table and umbrella. Out on the lawn, three or four 10-year-old boys were commencing a sword fight with sticks. These were pretty basic sticks they had found, as thick around as their thumbs, and not even as long as their arms. The battle started tentatively, as two boys knocked their sticks together, crossing swords (or lightsabers) but really testing whether they’d break. They slowly amped up the action.
We were treated to plenty of STAR WARS styled spin moves and sound effects, as created by the kids blow by blow.
From behind us came voices. ‘Uh, oh.’
‘That’s not good.’
‘This isn’t going to end well.’
These were female voices in the pavilion behind us. A mom called the name of one of the kids, who turned, dumbstruck, his eyes and mouth wide at the sight of her crossing to him on the grass.
She tried to be semi-quiet, but we had a front row seat. ‘You’re not going to do this,‘ she informed him.
The other Jedi Knights did not drop their sticks, but they did fade in the other direction, rounding a row of lawn chairs and a tree to get away before their own mothers noticed.

‘This is a huge mistake,’ I whispered to my wife. ‘Watch.’
The kid was crushed. At first he was incredulous, feeling he wasn’t doing anything wrong. His body language told the entire story. His arms fell along his sides as Mom spoke to him. He dropped the stick. Then he wanted nothing to do with her, so he stormed off toward the open lawn.
Mom headed back to the pavilion.
The kid looked toward the others, who in a separate patch of lawn were still taking swings at one another. He couldn’t go that way, so he wheeled off in the other direction, kicked over a few chairs, and sat on an umbrella table, chin in hand.
This brought Mom back to make things worse. The hisses of their angry words traveled across the grass. The kid had to set the chairs back up, barely able to believe how bad this was getting - which was when it turned into a complete nightmare.
The three others had circled back around to the original battle space. As mother and son argued close together, one of the other boys sauntered past, only feet away, and let fly a savage little ’BOK, bok-bok-bok,’ chicken taunt.
Mom chose to ignore this. Her poor son’s eyes came up in exasperation. He was utterly alone in the universe.
Mom decided it was time to go. As the fierce whispering continued, so did the bok-bok’s from across the lawn.
The poor kid was so undone that he could no longer think. Instead, he could only clench his fists, bull his chest, and bash ineffectually into her larger body, like a fawn who hadn’t grown his antlers.

‘That was catastrophic,’ I said before my wife could come up with some kind of ‘Somebody can lose an eye,’ nonsense, like those busybodies behind us who got the mother so spun up. ‘Watch these others,’ I said. They were still swashbuckling around.
‘If anything, they’re going out of their way to be sure that only the sticks connect. Does it look like they’re really trying to hit one another?’
It did not.
‘There’s something very sophisticated going on here: they’re creating a thousand little instants that are ripe for dramatic interpretation. It’s a completely symbolic interaction.’
The sticks kept cracking together. Nobody got hurt.
‘Now, watch. Any aggression - any menacing growl or epic lunge - is actually an invitation for the other kid to respond in kind.’
The kids were miles ahead of what any Moms could fathom: in an epic lightsaber battle, there’s no value in slaying someone who’s defenseless. You want to defeat a worthy adversary, which attests all the more to your level of galactic awesomeness.
Theatrically it was great stuff, so much so that it fooled those twinkies under the pavilion.

Long ago, my mother told me an important story: I was at the beach with my parents as a little guy, only about three years old. I busied myself digging a big hole in the sand, and as I stood upright, my plan was to jump in.
My mother got up to take my hand, whereupon my father opened one eye from where he was lying in the sun. He said, ’DON’T make him afraid.’
That stopped her in her tracks. She watched as I jumped in the hole about 100 times, wiping out plenty but not breaking any bones.
My Dad, who had fought in World War Two - and won that, closed his eyes and never gave the moment another thought. However, it always stuck with my mother, she said, which was how she bore nearly constant trips to the Emergency Room over the years with my siblings and me, all without any great distress.

My wife did get one thing past me, registering 15-year-old Equestrienne Girl for a talk by a sports psychologist at her stable. All the other kids were going; the parents’ session was two hours later, but I was not invited. That was wise of her.
When my kid came back, I asked her what she got out of it.
She said, ‘Not much. Relax and be confident.’
‘I’m certainly glad we paid for that advice.’
She’s never been one to get too wired about winning or losing - which helps in English Riding, where the judging is even more suspect than that of figure skating.
When my wife came back, she said the shrink spoke about insane parents pushing their kids too hard. We (one of us) happen(s) to be pretty good on that topic, opting for the post World War Two approach of benign neglect.

What does all this have to do with STARTING STRENGTH? Look at it this way: how would you feel if a bunch of little old ladies started tsk-tsk-tsk’ing your workout, and your mother came along and made you stop?

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 7/8/19 2&1 weeks
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2*) Tom 420 JC 180
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 350, 352.5x2 chains JC 152.5 chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 1* rep Tom 300 JC 135
2. Bench press - back off sets 5 sets of 5 with 250 JC 92.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 1* rep Tom 500 JC 245
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 450 chains JC 220
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x2* reps Tom 377.5 bands JC 162.5 bands
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 165 JC 65
1.5 Dead bench: Week 3 - 6 sets of 1 @70% - 217.5 - 45 sec rest interval
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8)kb Tom bb 142.5 JC 72.5
3. Pull ups (5x11+)
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

I saw another great movie Saturday, a good, old fashioned ass-kicking adventure I’ll tell you about, but it’s important to put it into context. This was a big weekend for women, with the US National Team winning soccer’s World Cup and STARTING STRENGTH athlete Julia Avila winning her ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP match. On Sunday night, my wife and I wrapped up the weekend with David Letterman’s MY NEXT GUEST NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION, specifically his interview with philanthropist Melinda Gates about her work confronting disease and poverty around the world.
It’s occurred to me that women are done proving that they can fulfill any number of ambitions. The time has come for them to start supplanting the ‘deciders’ of this world, the male authority figures who still seek to limit their opportunities.

As my wife and I strolled up to the ticket counter, we were shocked to discover we were buying the very last tickets for that showing of MAIDEN, the story of the first all-female crew competing in the Whitbread Round the World yachting race, in 1989. We had just missed the mob fighting to get in. The ticket agent, fresh off a good thrashing, was equally amazed: ‘This has been a monster all weekend.’
I had spotted a piece about it in THE WASHINGTON POST and thought that a documentary might make for a low key diversion - not knowing that the WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE NEW YORK TIMES, ROLLING STONE, and OUTSIDE were among the outlets trumpeting to the rest of the world that this is an ‘epic, thrilling adventure.’
It’s the story of Tracy Edwards, a troubled British teen in the 80’s who backpacked her way to Greece and discovered the world of yachting by working as a deckhand and cook. This exposed her to some pretty fast company, and soon she decided that she too wanted to be part of the Whitbread, sailing’s most prestigious - and brutal - challenge. She talked her way into being a cook during the ’85-’86 race, but being the lone woman aboard brought with it so much grief that she decided she’d field her own team the next time around, one of all women.
A large part of the story is their having to overcome the doubts and ridicule of the male dominated racing establishment, but they did so in a manner in which very, very few men can claim any experience, actually sailing around the world, pushing into the open ocean and pressing on and on into the unknown. Fortunately, much of the film is video footage shot by cameras mounted on the MAIDEN, the 58-foot yacht Edwards and her team bought secondhand and fitted out themselves.
‘The ocean is always trying to kill you,’ Edwards points out. This is especially true on the leg between New Zealand and Brazil, in the Southern Ocean, across the bottom of the world. The shortest distance before rounding Cape Horn is a straight line, or sailing as close to Antarctica as a skipper is willing to dare. The ferocious weather, icebergs, and the fact that no one’s coming to the rescue have had fatal consequences.

The US Women’s National Soccer Team is a long way from any doubt or ridicule, and the tables have long since turned on just who’s dominant in the States, the men or women. Coaches from around the world have expressed their admiration of the women’s squad, whether it’s their ability to attack with any of seven different offensive schemes or their sheer ‘ruthlessness,’ as the British coach put it. The American women were also in superior condition, which became evident in the Finals match, where after a hard fought, scoreless first half, the Dutch team was done in by fatigue as the Americans never let up.
The real news surrounding the heavily favored American women was that despite the fact that they’ve been infinitely more successful and now generate greater amounts of revenue for US Soccer than their male counterparts, the women are paid substantially less than the men. An international audience of both genders found this worthy of ridicule. Chants of ‘Equal Pay!’ echoed through the stadium as the Final drew to a close.

While a principle is at stake, the salaries of a handful of elite athletes doesn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things - so let’s consider the grand scheme of things, particularly the plight of hundreds of millions of women in less developed countries, as they are reduced to poverty through no fault of their own.
Experts have arrived at workable solutions, Melinda Gates informs David Letterman in their Netflix conversation. This is science, not philosophy or theory, from someone to whom we should be listening. Bill and Melinda Gates amassed a phenomenal fortune as they built Microsoft, but their brand of philanthropy is not merely to write checks and send them off toward various causes. Instead, they created a foundation to address the medical and economic challenges facing the Third World, bringing their considerable talents for analysis and creativity to getting real results.
There are probably 30 cases of polio remaining on this planet. Thanks to the Gates Foundation, it will be the second disease in human history, after smallpox, to be eradicated.
One vital factor in combatting poverty is actually quite simple: increasing access to contraceptives. Gates illustrates this with a story: Mothers in poor countries are quite willing to walk long distances with their children when vaccines are offered at clinics. Once the kids are all poked full of holes, the mothers sidle up to the aid workers: ‘Where’s my shot?’
Gates observed this firsthand at one of the clinics. The women were referring to a quarterly contraceptive shot. ‘If I have another child,’ one of them explained, ‘I can’t feed it. I can’t even feed the ones I have.’
During the AIDS crisis, poor countries were showered with condoms, but in a given household a woman’s presenting her husband with a condom is tantamount to accusing him of having AIDS - or admitting she has it.
Therefore, the shots are the way to go. The husbands would surely object if they knew anything about them, but when they’re out working, the wives could hit the clinic and no one would be the wiser.
A nation given adequate access to contraceptives escapes poverty within a generation.

It’s revolutionary stuff, taking the power out of the hands of decision makers who are not doing right by their constituents. One can imagine nobles in 18th Century France, as they were being hauled to the guillotine, realizing they had probably taken things for granted.
Although sneaking contraceptive shots unbeknownst to a nation’s worth of husbands is not a long term solution, it is a first step toward taking an important decision out of ignorant hands. Gates goes on to explain that any initiative, be it medical or economic, has to be embraced and owned by the population it serves. Putting that into effect can be a process.
Whatever process takes place in the halls of US Soccer is bound to be very short. While the women’s team is being feted in parades and on just about every show on television, the fellas around the office are left to ponder the very real possibility that the women could drum up their own broadcasting and merchandising deals just about overnight. What’s more, politicians are beginning to wonder aloud how a tax-exempt organization has been getting away with such discrimination. If the words ‘equal pay’ are not uttered by these guys in the first minute of their upcoming meeting, the women will simply walk out. The men will lose all connection to women’s soccer. They’ve already lost control.

Whether it’s a custom that’s outlived its time or a very deliberate policy, repression is the cause for much the suffering of ethnic, religious, political, and cultural groups around the world. A trip to see MAIDEN doesn’t have to be too profound, but it is great to witness what folks can accomplish once they get offshore and into the unknown.

YouTube

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 8/15/19 8&3 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x8*) Tom 352.5 JC : 142.5
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 352.5 JC 152.5 including chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) 75 - 95 JC
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 3* reps Tom 275 JC 115
2. Bench press - back off sets [5 sets of 3, 75-85%] Tom 267.5 JC 112.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 3* reps Tom 452.5 JC 235
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 407.5 JC 210
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x8* reps Tom 317.5 JC 137.5 BANDS
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 167.5 JC 67.5
2. Dead bench: Week 4 OFF
3. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom 62, 72’s JC 30’s
4. Pull ups (5 sets of 10 reps) 7.5 kb
5. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
6. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
7. 4 sets band flies
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

In my garage gym, along with the ‘Guinness for Strength’ poster featuring the farmer hauling his horse in the cart, license plates from old assignments, a Cleveland Browns flag, and a machete that has handled unwelcome animals in two different hemispheres, hangs a Jolly Roger flag. It’s been to sea - and has its own certificate, also in the gym, for having crossed into the Domain of the Golden Dragon. That pretty much makes it real, in case you were wondering.
I was a pirate decades before pirates were cool, having picked up Thomas Penfield’s BURIED TREASURE IN THE U.S. AND WHERE TO FIND IT at the book fair in Fourth Grade. It’s downstairs on a shelf right now, running the gamut from stories of pirate treasure to lost mines and stagecoach and train robberies in the Old West. Since I was a young sailor in New England, it was the pirate stories that really spoke to me. The skull and crossbones still speak of independence, the idea that that in my own gym I serve no master and sail under the flag of no nation.

In 1717, Captain Charles Bellamy, not to be confused with Captain ‘Black Sam’ Bellamy, whose ship, the Whydah, lost near Cape Cod, yielded a fortune in treasure to divers in the 1980’s, paced angrily one day in front of the crew of a ship he had just captured. Pirates were in it for the plunder and not so much the blood and guts, and despite the fact that Bellamy had no plans to execute anybody, he was furious at those who refused to join him:
‘Damn ye . . . and all those who submit to be governed by laws rich men have made for their own security . . . Damn them for a set of crafty rascals, and you who serve them for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls . . . when there is only this difference: they rob the poor under the cover of the law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make one of us, than sneak after the arses of those villains?’

That’s the reaction I have to a great many events in the fitness world as they cross my screen. A certain celebrity strongman gets on a YouTube show and advises against deadlifts. Westside guys train specific weaknesses. MMA fighters think strength work slows them down.
Let’s not get swayed by these assertions or see any need to challenge them.
ESPN just published a piece on the astronomical injury rate among young basketball players, labelling them ‘ticking time bombs,’ and expanding the discussion into the risks associated with kids’ training year round in one particular sport. I suppose they’re all striving for college scholarships, or they all fear not making the high school varsity and justifying Mom and Dad’s considerable time and expense through the years. That would explain the racket I see all around me in the DC area: sports performance centers full of kids creeping along sideways with bands around their legs - or in one video, doing high rep hex bar deadlifts. (Bellamy would have shot that particular trainer.)
Those reacting to every challenge to their beliefs, here or on Facebook, or those subjugating themselves to systems of overtraining - and exploitation - are the ‘hen-hearted numbskulls’ Bellamy was referring to.

It occurs to me that the STARTING STRENGTH forum needs a thread full of lusty tales of high adventure. Rippetoe, in his marketing efforts, is operating in the stratosphere, documenting with heart surgeons and cancer patients the far reaching benefits of strength training. At ground level, however, folks might have to provide each other some reassurance that we’re all doing the right thing.
For example, back in Cleveland last winter, one of the rowing coaches was walking among my lifters one day, telling them all to drop their hips way down, that they were starting their deadlifts all wrong.
I pointed out to him that their hips all came back up as they engaged the weight, but observing numerous examples didn’t seem to sway him. A few days later, before I had to tell him to get lost, he elected to show us how deadlifts were done, working out during our practice. He banged around noisily with 315 and 335 to get everyone’s attention, and then slapped on 405 for the main event.
He teed up - using straps - dropped his hips away down, and then launched - his arse rising first thing of course, but his back was bending and the bar didn’t want to come along. With a cry he dropped it from knee height. His hands went to his lower back, he stepped off the platform and grimacing, lay down on the floor.
Bellamy would have put him out of his misery. After a few moments in which nobody reacted, I stepped over the body to the 405. Without chalk or a warm-up, I gave it a quick hoist all the way up. I let it sit in my hands for a moment and then drop for effect. The kids went back to deadlifting as before.

I have other stories, such as doing power cleans with the deadlift weight of a special operations dude at a southeastern Virginia base gym years ago, notable mainly because he, like that rowing coach above, was a far larger dude than I. My point is that plenty of STARTING STRENGTH folks will have these ‘running with the big dogs’ stories that validate deadlifting, squatting below parallel, and so on. The best one I can recall from this Forum is from a high school football coach who describes his chats with opposing coaches who’d arrived for games. If they caught a glimpse of the weight room and the subject of training came up, more often than not he’d hear, ‘We don’t bother with all that [squat, power clean, and deadlift] stuff.’
Then, he describes, ‘we’d hang about 50 points on them by halftime,’ perhaps the most fantastic phrase ever penned on this website, and the coaches were a lot less sociable.
Enough of those stories would surely make people less worried about what everyone else is doing or saying about training. Didn’t another guy, a teacher, say he had to bum the key to the school weight room one day? His gym was being renovated. He was minding his own business but piling on the weight at the squat rack when he noticed the entire football team staring at him. He found himself drafted into a coaching position.

‘Plundering the rich under the protection of our own courage,’ would be stealing customers from one of those performance centers or a CrossFit. That would be true piracy, getting the prisoners to cross from one ship to the other. It would have to be a showdown of some type, either in the gym or on a playing field, where strength wins the day.
God, that would be great, the more I think about it, stealing customers from those ‘crafty rascals,’ especially those taking advantage of parents who don’t know any better.
Nearly as awesome is denying them the chance to get their hooks in an aspiring athlete. Thursday’s WASHINGTON POST featured a profile of a collegiate tennis player by the name of Cameron Morra, who ‘didn’t play for her high school team . . . She hardly traveled to any junior tournaments, a path the vast majority of elite young tennis players in the United States take when they look to develop their game and impress college coaches.
‘That route requires air travel, tens of thousands of dollars a year in expenses and “a lot of stress,” Morra said. The pressure, the competition, the workload, the travel, the cost — all of it seemed like a waste of time and money to her family.’
Instead, her father built a tennis court in the backyard, where she and her sister practiced through the years. College coaches had no reason to know who she was, but Morra’s name popped up in occasional tournaments for having thrashed the girls they were recruiting or the ones already playing on Division One teams. She won a scholarship to the University of North Carolina.
‘[S]he said she never felt pressure to do what everybody else was doing, and she never worried about the risk of staying at home.
‘The travel is crazy. You go West Coast-East Coast every weekend,” Morra said of the more traditional path. “When you’re young, I feel like it’s an easy way to burn out, in a sense. I’ve never lost my love for tennis.”

Captain Bellamy would doff his hat in her presence. ‘Well done, lass,’ he’d say. ‘That’s being the mistress of your own fate.’

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 7/22/19 5&2 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5*) Tom 387.5 JC 162.5
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 352.5, 355, 352.5 JC 155 including chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 2* reps Tom 287.5 JC 120
2. Bench press - back off sets (5 sets of 5) Tom 252.5 JC 112.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 2* reps Tom 477.5 JC 232.5
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 430 JC 210
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x5* reps Tom 350 bands 5x3 JC 147.5
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 170 JC 70
1.5 Dead bench: Week 5 - 5 sets of 1 @75% - 232.5 - 90 sec rest interval.
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) bb Tom 145 JC 72.5
3. Pull ups (5x11)
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

It’s been hot in DC - brutally, oppressively so, as a heat wave has strained power grids, buckled roads, and spurred numerous safety warnings in much of the country. For those of us who lift outdoors, or in open garages, the triple digit temperatures are starting to get inconvenient.
The problem is the sweat that runs down one’s arms, almost continuously on the worst days, making for a giant mess any time you have to reach downward for a bar, for deadlifts and so on. Once you chalk your hands, you then have to hold them up in the air as if you’ve just scrubbed for surgery. You don’t tee up a set until you’re absolutely ready, which is when you grab the bar and get started fast. The other day, I needed chalk to keep my straps from slipping during Romanians.
It’s one thing to be frying-pan hot, but the worst day of all was this past Monday, which was only 92 degrees. DC has a capacity for humidity that can put jungles around the world to shame. Sweat practically flies out of one’s body, so between sets I’d go around to the side of the house and spray myself with a hose, figuring I might as well spare myself some depletion if I’m going to be completely soaked.
Squat sets called for a process of wiping the slime off the bar - with a T-shirt I never put on to begin with - and then stretching the shirt across my back for a quick scrub before getting under the bar. The shirt, straps, wraps, and belt are all tossed out into the sun as soon as their job is done. Nothing is put away wet.
DC also plays host to epic thunderstorms, the only force violent enough to shatter the humidity. These are gully-washers and often powerful windstorms: two weeks ago, a minute-long blast had all the trees straining one way to the verge of splintering. Suddenly, they were bending in the opposite direction for another minute of fury. Something preliminary to a tornado must have passed close by.

Months ago, when the ‘Polar Vortex’ froze a large part of the country, I was working out in an open garage in zero-degree temperatures. In fact, for the second year in a row, the same pipe burst, going off like gunshot behind me on one of those cold mornings. Schools were closed; the lifting sessions at the sports complex were canceled - which was ridiculous, since all the kids simply went snowboarding. Weather forecasters were urging people to stay inside at all costs - and practically hide under their beds. I e-mailed my siblings: ‘Am I missing something?’ We went outside in Zero degrees all the time.
In college, I skied from mountain to mountain in -20 degrees for a full eight hours one day, at Killington, searching for my girlfriend, who was horrified when I actually found her hiding in some lodge. I was too tough to give up - and too dumb to realize she was done with me.

This past Saturday, at 11 A.M., it was 97 degrees in the shade. I had 6000 meters to row on my erg. Spraying myself with the hose would not get the job done. The water evaporates in no time, and I’d be sweaty and overheated in just minutes. I had to keep water ‘on’ me, so that meant a T-shirt, but it couldn’t be soaked with just 70 degree tap water. That wouldn’t take very long to warm up to 90 or more.
It had to be 40 or 50 degree ice water, which could absorb all the heat I’d be giving off until I made it to the 4000 meter mark. The plan was to hop off the rower, pull the shirt off, dunk it in the ice water, put it back on, and dump the rest of the bucket over my head. The 15 year old was standing by to replenish the supplies, so at 2000 meters remaining, I repeated the process, this time tucking my shirt inside my pants and dropping ice cubes down the front and back. My torso felt fine, but my legs were hot to the touch, so as I sat back down on the rower, I poured water over each thigh.
It wasn’t a record breaking workout, but it wasn’t bad at all, not anywhere near what 97 degrees promised otherwise.

We strapped on the layers in Zero degree weather, years ago or lifting this past January. You have to be smart to be tough.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 7/29/19 2&1 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2*) Tom 422.5 JC 180
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 352.5, 355, 352.5 chains JC 155 chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 1* rep Tom 302.5 JC 137.5
2. Bench press - back off sets 5 sets of 3 with 270 JC 115
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 1* rep Tom 502.5 JC 245
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 452.5 chains JC 220
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x2* reps Tom 380 bands JC 162.5 bands
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 172.5 JC 72.5
1.5 Dead bench: Week 6 5 sets of 1 @80% 247.5; 90 seconds rest
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom kb 62, 72 JC 30’s
3. Pull ups (5x10) 7.5
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
choir practice

[Nunedog]

‘The hand is quicker than the eye,
but a thousand frames a second don’t lie.’

So said Tom House, the famous pitching and quarterback coach, on THE DAN PATRICK SHOW in 2015. He was admitting that a lot of coaches, himself included, have been woefully wrong since time immemorial in critiquing their athletes by simply watching them. The proof is in motion analysis, the process of capturing motion with computer video technology and having the ability to examine the smallest details.
I’ve written about House before, specifically in a post about Camp Nolan Ryan and the idea of ordinary mortals being coached by the top minds in sport. House’s expertise has become indispensable to baseball and football players from high school to the World Series and Super Bowl, and all he’s doing is anchoring them in sound fundamentals.

House came to mind because it finally occurred to me to film one of my wife’s dreadful power cleans with a cell phone. I had been avoiding that phase of her training because she was utterly beyond coaching.
We reviewed it in slow motion. She was standing on the ground, rowing with her arms, and reeling the bar in late, like a big fish was on the line. ‘You’re supposed to touch your legs and jump,’ I told her for the 56,473rd time.
‘You do it,’ she said, holding the phone up to record me.
I was careful to rake it into my thighs the right way, but I hit the jump, and all was well. Watching it slow motion, she could see the difference in our lifts - but I realized House was right: a coach can’t grasp everything in play without the help of video.

A common drill is to have the athlete practice the jump, which takes place just as the bar clears the knees and touches the thighs at the bottoms of the quad muscles. In the drill, the athlete lowers the bar to this ‘jumping spot’ and then jumps, getting the idea that the legs and hips extend and that they actually get off the ground a few inches.
This drill, if done incorrectly, can be very misleading, the cell phone video reveals.
If an athlete practices the jump by just holding the bar and not letting it rise to the rack position, the drill can become lazy, and the resulting impression is that the bar travels at the same speed as the lifter’s center of gravity and generally hangs around in that area - near the hips - for a certain length of time.
This does far more harm than good. The reality, according to video, is that while the bar touches the thighs, it’s gone in no time, moving three or four times as fast as the lifter’s center of gravity, even when the center is launched upwards properly.

The next drill in teaching the clean motion is where the athlete lowers the bar to the jumping spot and then jumps with a complete motion, racking the bar. The singular cognitive step of jumping, by the way, prioritizes everything in the body’s extensors correctly. In this drill it’s easier to see how much faster the bar moves than the center of gravity - but still, with an empty bar the maneuver is so effective - and consequently violent - that I think athletes consciously or unconsciously slow the bar down, for fear of decapitating themselves.
Again, though to a lesser extent than in the previous drill, the athlete is teaching himself to delay the bar’s arrival.

This is quite possibly how I made my wife’s problems even worse, by breaking the lift down into drills that wrecked the timing, leverage, and force potential of the power clean. No wonder she’s swinging the bar after the fact.
In another YouTube video, coach Tom House puts his thoughts on motion analysis more bluntly, saying something to the effect of, ‘Coaches have been kidding themselves that they can see everything.’

ON A SEPARATE SUBJECT: I found a package store that sells Erdinger, another topic I’ve mentioned before, specifically that non-alcoholic beer has been found to be an effective recovery drink. In the 2018 Winter Olympics, German athletes guzzled gallons of the stuff while winning an impressive number of medals.
It works. I’ve quaffed an Erdinger on Monday nights before my Tuesday double sessions, which have gone just swell, and this past Saturday I had my fastest swim in a long time. ‘I had a brew last night,’ I remembered - after the fact, so I had not gone into the workout with any conscious bias.
This might not be entirely scientific, but the investigation continues . . .

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 8/5/19 8&3 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x8*) Tom 355 JC : 145
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 352.5, 355x2 chains JC 155
3. Power Cleans (3x3) 75 - 95 JC
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 3* reps Tom 277.5 JC 117.5
2. Bench press - back off sets [5 sets of 5, 75-85%] Tom 255 JC 107.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 3* reps Tom 455 JC 235
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 410 JC 205
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x8* reps Tom 320 JC 130 BANDS
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 175 JC 75
2. Dead bench: 4 sets of 1 rep: 70, 75, 80, 84% - 217, 232.5, 247.5, 260 - 2min rest
3. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) bb Tom 147.5, JC 72.5
4. Pull ups (5 sets of 10 reps) 7.5 kb 10, 10, 10, 9
5. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
6. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
7. 4 sets band flies
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

In a coincidence, just days after Mark Rippetoe and Nick Delgadillo discussed Learning How to Fight on the STARTING STRENGTH podcast, I headed off this past weekend for a combatives seminar. It was physically quite brutal, a boxing and Muay Thai fueled study of speed, chaos, and panic - which are the hallmarks of violence. We did not hang around practicing technique in static drills or discussing hypotheticals. The aim was to experience both the disorientation and quick adaptation that result from actual fighting.
As far as strength is concerned, mine was certainly helpful in handling the abuse. Despite not being a CrossFitter or a five or six runs-and-swims-a-week kind of guy anymore, I held my own (in metabolic output) through fights that had athletes of all types - and guys far younger than I, gasping. The greater lesson, however, is that if strength training is based on a few simple truths, the same is true for fighting.

The term ‘combatives’ refers mainly, or originally, to military hand to hand techniques, the quick and dirty battlefield moves that presumably finish a fight in a matter of seconds. This is really ‘in’ nowadays, often referred to as ‘reality based self defense,’ a term meant to draw a distinction from martial arts, which are considered to have a great deal of carrying on with no practical purpose.
My interest in combatives grew from my background in Judo and studying its history, particularly the role it’s played in military training, often in systems that had to be drawn up very quickly in times of war. This involved quite the cast of characters, most notably William Fairbairn, who learned his trade as a policeman on the mean streets of Shanghai a century ago and became an expert on fighting, be it with one’s hands, a knife, or pistol. He went on to introduce the concepts of the ‘kill house,’ stun grenades, and the rapid, coordinated assaults used so often by militaries and SWAT teams today.

This past weekend’s seminar was run by a similar trailblazer, a former Special Operations Marine who trains everyone from civilians and mixed martial arts competitors to government security details and even top government and corporate officials. He’s done it - whatever you can imagine - in the ring or a foreign country.
His central lesson is that violence is unmitigated fury and confusion that has to be experienced to be understood. What happens in combat in the desert or jungle is the same as what happens in a boxing ring: panic sets in, bringing tunnel vision, loss of hearing, and difficulty in breathing and judgment. The only way to understand this is to get in the ring with someone who’s trying to punch your face in - while your only recourse is to do the same to them. Abject failure to function, whether it’s when the bullets fly or the gloves start swinging, is par for the course for everybody the first time around.
I got my ass kicked numerous times over the two days of training. As souvenirs, I’m sporting a nice shiner over my left eye as well as a deep thigh bruise that’ll be with me for a few days. I got a few shots in as well - but really, I was was scoring in the 30 to 40 percent success range.
It was humiliating - not that any of the other guys cared; many were going through the same thing. It was humiliating to face myself with an ugly truth: I’m not anywhere near as prepared for trouble as I thought I was. Beyond that was my self image. I go through everyday life as a pretty competent guy, so such failure was disturbing, unfamiliar territory. The mental component to this class is tougher than the physical.

The good news is that the learning curve is steep, the instructor told us, and this was true. After one bout in which you’ve screwed up and feel like an idiot, you punch like a champion in the next, realizing what’s really demanded. With time, the logic goes, you develop presence of mind under duress. Being ‘cool under fire’ means you understand the physics of it, but you have to keep fighting to do so.

We covered a great many skills, of course, but these are repetitions that will have to be done over the long term, things like punching combinations and knowing how to take an angle in the ring. We studied clinching, head control, and leg kicks by way of Muay Thai, along with the the little plyometric hop necessary to make a knee drive truly powerful. Violence came in a lot of forms and not just fisticuffs from standing in the ring. We faced tackles, takedowns, headlocks, chokes, and kicks. On the ground, we covered a number of essential principles, including one I especially loved. If you’ve managed a takedown, and you’re climbing around to take control, an important part is delivering a good forearm blast to the guy’s cheekbone. Then you keep it there and drive it in with your weight. Two things happen: it’s a nice shot to lay on, but then, pinning the side of a guy’s face to the ground means he can’t move his head relative to his shoulders. This is an old Judo concept I recognized. The guy loses all of his upper body strength.
The instructor had to stop here and laugh. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guys are absolutely undone by this, he said. They tend to swagger in like a bunch of superheroes, ready to take control of any situation. They’ll pull folks down into their guard, their signature move, and find themselves clouted across the face - which their rules do not allow. This is often their moment of personal discovery.

Yes, being strong made me harder to kill than I would have been 10 years ago as a wiry CrossFitter. One guy, who was plenty tough as a fighter but the size I was back then, had to do lots of stretching and mobility styled recovery during breaks. At one point, he needed a blast from the massage gun. Aside of a 285 pound wrestler, who was an assistant instructor, I was the strongest guy there. However, in all the wild thrashes, on our feet or on the ground, I could never bring max force to bear - though when that 285 pounder tackled me at one point, I did have the opportunity. Strangely, nothing happened.

This past Monday’s heavy squats and Romanians didn’t happen either. Epic Mondays depend on pretty restful Sundays, so I knew I wouldn’t have the juice for sets of 8. I hit 3’s just to make sure neurologically I was at the right bandwidth, and also I didn’t want this bruised thigh to lock up, a decision that definitely didn’t do the pain and swelling much good right away, but the worst of it was over in 48 hours. Recuperative German NA beer was also administered.
I did hit 277.5 for a triple in the bench Tuesday, which I think is a record, so the week was not a total loss.

More important than pure strength in a fight is scrappiness, which I’d label as sheer hustle, an ability to move fast and find targets.
Just as focused strength training produces the greatest physical adaptations in the human body, actual fighting best teaches how to trade in violence. Be wary of the ‘experts’ you’re following online.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 8/12/19 5&2 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5*) Tom 390 JC 165
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 352.5, 355x2 JC 155
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 2* reps Tom 290 JC 122.5
2. Bench press - back off sets (5 sets of 3) Tom 272.5 JC 112.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 2* reps Tom 480 JC 232.5
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 432.5 JC 210
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x5* reps Tom 350 bands 5x3 JC 147.5
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 177.5 JC 77.5
1.5 Dead bench: Week 8 OFF
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom 62, 72 JC 30
3. Pull ups (5x10) 7.5
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

It’s been a quietly successful week of training, with 390 in the squat moving well for 5’s, despite giant blue smudges of blood discoloring my left leg, at the back the thigh and top of the calf muscle. This was the bleeding from that thigh bruise I caught in combatives a week before, which hurt like Hell for a few days but never manifested in a dark spot at the impact site, high on the outside of my leg. Instead, the blood sloshed around internally and appeared a few days later.
The other success was hitting 290 for a double in the bench. The significance here is that in the heat of the moment, I didn’t think I could do it. You know the feeling: a few reps into a set or when you first bring the bar off the hooks, your upper body suspension tells you, ‘No way.’
With 290 this past Tuesday, I got that sense after a rough first rep. I wanted this set, though, so I figured I’d go for it. At worst, I’d eat it. The safety pins were in place.
Surprisingly, owing to a strange, magical force, the bar slowly went up.
It was my triceps, I realized, and the magic was in Andy Baker’s rotating assistance exercise schedule. I’ve been through about three rounds of its three weeks, and as advertised, this has become the slow gear driving my upper body strength along. I then did 5 sets of 3 with 272.5, also record territory, where every third rep was gutted out despite the message that I was done.
That triple with 277.5 right after my weekend beatdown I owe to Mr. Baker as well.

Mr. Bryant, as in Josh, deserves credit for progress in my bench, squat and deadlift. I’m following a ‘dead bench’ progression of his, which is hitting a handful of lifts from a dead stop at chest level. I’ve taken to heart his advice on compensatory acceleration, which is the habit of driving a bar up as fast as possible, enforced in some cases by using accommodating resistance. In the squats, I use bands on my 90 percent sets, and chains in my 90 percent deads.
Progress has been slow and steady, though honestly that tends to be in my sets and reps. I should be hitting a big ticket bench - 315 - first, and hopefully I can edge up some squat and dead singles as well.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 8/19/19 2&1 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x2*) Tom 425 JC 180
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 355 chains JC 155, 157.5, 155 chains
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 1* rep Tom 305 JC 140
2. Bench press - back off sets 5 sets of 5 with 255 JC 112.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 25 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 1* rep Tom 505 JC 245
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 455 chains JC 220
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x2* reps Tom 382.5 bands JC 162.5 bands
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 180 JC 80
1.5 Dead bench: Week 9 3 sets of 1 @ 80, 83, 86% - 247.5, 257.5, 267.5
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom bb 150 JC 72.5
3. Pull ups (5x10) 7.5
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile

[Nunedog]

It’s Back to School season, and the news that my daughter will be taking British Literature, which I once taught, has me thinking about an old friend, Beowulf.
In times of political uncertainty or shocking violence, when our leaders or journalists cannot come to terms with what’s happening, go find an English teacher. They’ll remind you that people have faced these moments before, sorted things out, and written everything down. In other words, when you’re seeking solutions to new problems, read an old book.

Beowulf, you might recall, is a warrior of superhuman strength who crosses the sea to honor a family debt and rid the Danes of a bloodthirsty monster, Grendel, who has spread despair and fear throughout the kingdom. This leads to further challenges and greater glory. Written around the 8th Century, BEOWULF is a blood soaked study of violence: ‘ what causes it, the chaos that ensues, and what can be done to counter it.’ A new crop of high schoolers will find themselves surprised by the level of sophistication in insights voiced by warriors who lived in a dangerous and unstable world 1300 years ago.
Scholar Robin Bates makes the case that BEOWULF is about domestic terrorism, as opposed to foreign. Sure, various invasions come up in mead-fueled recollections, but the poem’s monsters are ‘locally generated.’ Denmark is the reigning superpower of its time, Bates says, to the point that they’ve built a magnificent mead hall ‘that would make any invader think twice.’
The monster Grendel dwells nearby in the darkness, ‘nursing a hard grievance,’ and resenting the sounds of celebration and fellowship he has no part of.
“ . . . Suddenly then
the God-cursed brute was creating havoc:
greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men
from their resting places and rushed to his lair,
flushed up and inflamed from the raid,
blundering back with the butchered corpses.

“Then as dawn brightened and day broke
Grendel’s powers of destruction were plain:
their wassail was over, they wept to heaven
and mourned under morning. Their mighty prince,
the storied leader, sat stricken and helpless,
humiliated by the loss of his guard,
bewildered and stunned, staring aghast
at the demon’s trail, in deep distress.
He was numb with grief, but got no respite
for one night later merciless Grendel
struck again with more gruesome murders.”

As Bates puts it, ‘Our own Grendels attack our shopping malls, schools, churches, synagogues, and other places at the heart of our society . . . Grendel is the form grievance takes when it turns to violence . . . [His] mode of attack resembles any number of shooters we’ve seen, storming in and . . slashing left and right.’
A ‘good guy with a gun’ isn’t going to work here, the poem informs us. Remember, if Denmark is the superpower of its day, the mead hall would be crowded with the greatest warriors in the world. They’ve defeated enemy armies but have no answer to the monster that stalks just beyond the edges of the mist. Hrothgar, their ‘mighty prince’ above, the conquerer and great giver of gold, is wracked with humiliation and bewilderment, and his great mead hall sits idle as the seasons pass. Only a new and thoughtful approach stands a chance of working, which is where Beowulf comes in, and his mind is as important as his muscles.
His first battle is entirely verbal. He must handle a challenge from the ‘trash-talking’ Unferth, a Dane who confronts him as the warriors gather in the mead hall. Consider the unlikelihood of this from a storytelling and entertainment standpoint: Beowulf is a friggin’ beast - the bee-wolf - the size of a bear. His strength and military exploits are legendary, and as he and his hand picked crew disembark from their longship on the shore, the Danish watchman stops nearly mid-sentence when he beholds the sheer size of Beowulf. In any other action story, the drunken and offensive Unferth would be swatted aside or disemboweled in a testament to Beowulf’s ferocious potential, but Beowulf stays cool, setting Unferth straight on a story he didn’t get quite right and pointing out that if Unferth were as tough as he let on, Beowulf wouldn’t have had to come handle Grendel. The purpose of this is to create a parallel, a reasoning by analogy which makes Beowulf’s unconventional approach to the battle with Grendel all the more plausible. He ‘disarms’ Unferth rather than destroys him, Bates says, which is exactly how he handles Grendel, figuratively and literally.
The gathering ends, the Danes make themselves scarce, and the night becomes still. Beowulf prepares for the fight by shedding his coat of mail and surrendering his weapons - which is interesting symbolically, as he’s saving a society that lives by the sword, shield, and spear. He lies awake in the mead hall with the plan to study the monster and attack his vulnerability.
Grendel’s great weapon is his taloned claw, it turns out, and Beowulf, feigning sleep until the last instant, grabs it just as Grendel reaches for him. As I’ve always imagined it, a furious game of “mercy’ ensues, their fingers interlaced and Beowulf driving the claws backwards as Grendel shrieks with pain. A wild thrashing ensues, shaking the foundations of the building, and the poem mentions specifically that Beowulf along the way takes a new grip.
It would seem that the poet, singing for a warrior audience centuries ago, knew his wrist and shoulder locks, but the larger point is that despite all the muscle, beer, blood, and guts, BEOWULF’s modern relevance is found in its level of detail. Grendel, the murderous beast whose ‘rage boils over’ at finding the mead hall alive with activity once more, is revealed to be a coward. Upon feeling Beowulf’s crushing strength, his only thought is to escape, ‘to flee to his den and hide.’ This is important, any warrior would know: the collapse to fear in an aggressor’s psychological state is as damaging as the most brutal blows. Furniture is splintered as they wrestle, and unearthly howls echo through the night. Grendel is not fighting, per se; he’s only trying to get away as Beowulf sinks a submission hold. Like a school shooter, Grendel’s preference is soft targets, drunken and passed out partygoers. He is not a warrior; when his weapon is jammed at the onset of an attack, fear and panic set in.
‘Sinews split and the bone-lappings burst,’ as Beowulf tears Grendel’s arm off. This is Beowulf’s doing and not Grendel’s wrenching free, since the pain mounts steadily inside Grendel’s body and his shrieks become more desperate as they struggle. Once the arm’s off, he’s gone, trailing blood - and we see no more of him, only to hear that he dies from his wound, and ‘Hell claims him.’ Interestingly, nobody chases after him. The next morning, as the Danes marvel over the massive limb and the monster’s footprints, they have no fear of the coward or any way to know he’d soon be dead. The important thing to them is that they have his weapon, the arm with which he could snatch 30 men at once. The lesson for us in 2019 is pretty plain.
1300 years ago, despite nearly constant clan warfare, Anglo-Saxons were most terrified by attacks from within their own walls. Honor and loyalty were the first pillars of any hope for civilization, and a close guard had be kept on evil, the marsh full of Grendel’s fellow creatures in every encampment. Savagely dangerous weapons were torn from the grasp of those who posed a threat. This school year, as students conduct their active shooter drills and then flip through the pages of BEOWULF, I wonder if they’ll make the connection.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 8/26/19 8&3 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x8*) Tom 355 JC : 147.5
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 355, 357.5, 355 chains JC 160
3. Power Cleans (3x3) 75 - 95 JC
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 3* reps Tom 280 JC 117.5
2. Bench press - back off sets [5 sets of 4, 75-85%] Tom 265 JC 107.5
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (15)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 20 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 3* reps Tom 457.5 JC 235
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 412.5 JC 205
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x8* reps Tom 320 JC 130 BANDS
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 182.5 JC 82.5
2. Dead bench: 3 sets of 1 rep: 80, 84, 86%: 247.5, 260, 267.5
3. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) kb Tom 62, 72 JC 30’s
4. Pull ups (5 sets of 10 reps) 7.5 kb 10, 10, 10, 9
5. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
6. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
7. 4 sets band flies
8. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
row 6000 meters

[Nunedog]

Two Christmases ago, in Cleveland, my wife and I were preparing to throw a massive party, which involved renting a few cases of cocktail and beer glasses, along with some buffet table pieces. On the morning the rental company truck rolled into the driveway, we were in the garage working out.
A gigantically tall but stooped driver slowly climbed down from the cab, and before we could offer any kind of welcome, he said through gritted teeth, ‘Hang on a second. Let me get going first.’ His first few steps were slow, but he built up his momentum, and by the time he made it to the garage, he was at full height. He read our names from the clipboard in his hand.
The two pallets of supplies could go right where we were, we agreed. (Luckily, the truck had a hydraulic lift in back.) ‘We have to get everything inside ready,’ I told him. Then with a toss of my head toward the rack and all the weights, I added, ‘Of course, this is the most important room in the house.’
He smiled. ‘Oh, yeah. I used to lift all the time, back when I weighed 300 pounds.’
‘Did you play ball?’
‘Yep. Eight years here, and a little bit in Green Bay and Pittsburgh.’ He held up a mangled ring finger. ‘I got this in a Steelers’ practice.’
He looked at the one platform with the rack and bench, the other open for deadlifts and cleans. ‘Nice set up.’
‘Thanks. I have a sled, in case you want to work on your 40 time for the Combine.’
‘Been there, done that,’ he said with a nod. ‘Nowadays, I got two artificial hips and two artificial knees.’
‘Jeez,’ I said. Then, after a second or two: ‘Did they tell you to get lifting afterward?’
He looked at me like I was crazy.
‘Not anything heavy, but just to get things tied back together, get moving again.’
‘Buddy, my days of lifting weights are long gone.’

This past weekend, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck surprised the football world by announcing his retirement. He’s injured once again and hasn’t been able to make much use of training camp. This is a significant loss to the Colts, as Luck has been largely great through the years. Last season, despite a rusty start - after missing all of 2017 due to a shoulder injury - he led Indianapolis to the playoffs.
The reaction in the sports world has been a larger story than Luck’s decision itself. Most commentators are sympathetic, noting that Luck has absorbed a great deal of punishment over the years and clearly has had enough after other major problems like a lacerated kidney and at least one concussion. This is the fault of the Colts’ management, say the most outspoken critics, who fault a long time lack of offensive linemen capable of providing adequate protection.
Players, active and retired, have been supportive, since they know exactly where he’s coming from. Some people have not been so forgiving. The news broke as Luck stood on the sidelines of a pre-season game in a T-shirt and shorts in place of a uniform. When the Colts left the field at the gun, Luck heard boos. FOX personality Doug Gottlieb tweeted that rehab’s being too hard is ‘the most millennial thing ever.’
On the radio, as he addressed the considerable backlash, his reasoning was not entirely airtight, but one key line was, ‘That’s a departure from what our values always were about football players being special.’

Gottlieb is ultimately confessing that he, like the rest of us, wishes that NFL players really were the heroes we make them out to be. The sad truth is out there, as every sports fan knows, but it’s only so often that it comes limping right into your garage. This is the real impact of Luck’s decision: it makes fans confront the fact that football players are ‘special’ only when you ignore what’s really going on.

4-Day Split (8&3, 5&2, 2&1 rotation)
Week of: 9/2/19 5&2 week
MONDAY
1. Squat (3x5*) Tom 392.5 JC 165
2. Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps Tom 355, 357.5x2 JC 155
3. Power Cleans (3x3) light JC 75 - 95
3. 4 sets of heavy shrugs 485 - 535
4. reverse hypers (3x10)
5. abs; banded pulldowns

TUESDAY
1. Bench press: Work up to a heavy set of 2* reps Tom 292.5 JC 122.5
2. Bench press - back off sets (5 sets of 3) Tom 275 JC 115
3. Dips: 4 sets of 8 with red bands (16.5)
4. Hanging Rows: 5x5 vest, 25 lb db
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5

Conditioning (second session)
sled pull 2 miles; 20, 0 (and six 50-yard runs)

THURSDAY
1. Deadlift: work up to a set of 2* reps Tom 482.5 JC 232.5
2. Deadlift: back off sets - 90% of top set; 2 sets of same* reps Tom 435 JC 210
3. Squats: (90% of Monday’s weight) 3x5* reps Tom 352.5 bands 5x3 JC 147.5
4. Reverse Hypers (3x10)
5. abs: hollow rockers

FRIDAY
1. Speed bench press [8-12 sets of 2-3 reps @ 40-60% with mini bands or chains;
with 90 seconds’ rest between sets] Tom 12x3 - 185 JC 85
1.5 Dead bench: Week 11 3 sets of 1 rep: 80, 85, 90%; 247.5, 262.5, 280
2. Barbell or kettlebell shoulder press (5x8) bb Tom 152.5 JC 75
3. Pull ups (5x10) 8.75
4. 4 sets 10 triceps work - ROTATING week to week
-Overhead Extensions, Lying Tricep Extensions, and Band Press downs
5. Barbell curls: 4 sets of 5
6. 4 sets band flies
7. 3 sets kettlebell sit ups

SATURDAY - Conditioning
swim 1 mile