Cowboys and Aliens - I liked this flick . Everyone told me it wasn't very good or was just "ok" but I actually enjoyed it. Mainly because, it was about Cowboys and Aliens. Just like the title told me it was.
Seriously, I am a big sucked for character evolution in a movie. And I really liked Harrison Ford's character and the way he changed throughout the flick. Also Olivia Wilde is hawt. This was enough for me.
Ride of the Planet of the Apes - Good, but not anywhere near as great as I had heard. I will give my reasons, and yes spoilers mother fucka. So if you're one of those little bitches that whine "don't tell me, don't tell me!" because of spoilers then skip over.
When he had to give up the monkey, he didn't shed a fucking tear. I mean, seriously that ape was like a kid to him. He had raised it for 5 years and kept him hidden and everything but he dropped him off and was like "well, I'll make it back when I can!" This disconnected me from the flick a lot. Then, he actually did come back and the monkey was pissed off at him because he couldn't take him home, even though he explained why. The so called "super smart monkey" then turned his back on his "father" because of it. Completely unrealistic to me. Yes I know, it's a movie about talking monkeys, but you still have a certain reality bubble that any movie sits in, and once it is shattered, I lose interest. It didn't shatter in this one, but I lost some connection with it. Still, a solid flick. Just a little overrated for me.
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| "Sorry about jail, brah" |
True Grit - Loved this flick. Mattie Ross' character was worth the movie alone, however the dynamic's of Rooster (Jeff Bridges) and LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) really put it over the top. I watched this with the girls and I think we laughed for 10 straight minutes when the lawyer asked him "what direction were you going?" to which Rooster replied "I'm always going backwards when I'm backing up." Man I laughed till my stomach hurt. Good times. And good flick. I highly recommend it, and I do not like westerns.
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| Razor tongued and smart as a whip |
So Whitney Houston died. I may or may not ruffle some feathers with this but here I go..........
I'm sure we're going to be inundated with shows and all sorts of shit celebrating her life. I think it's bullshit. The truth is, I think we should make an example of people who have it all, and throw it down the fucking drain to smoke crack or do hard drugs. Why do we make martyrs of people like Kurt Cobain or Houston or any of these assclowns that live like royalty, then shit all over themselves with their own decisions? I don't. I am not "happy" that Houston died. I didn't know the woman. But I don't think it's some kind of terribly unhappy day either. She has led a life of hard drugs for a long time now. It's not like we don't know the pitfalls of such living. No one ever thanked crack for giving them such an awesome life. No one ever thanked heroin for putting their life back on the right path. I get tired of our society putting the lives and then deaths of these people up as something to behold. We should be making examples of them of how NOT to lead your life once you obtain a measure of success.
"Look at this woman kids, enough money to own her own country. She died at 48 after living off a diet of crack and Bobby Brown for a few decades."
If the autopsy says she had no drugs in her system, I MIGHT retract all of this about Whitney, but my overall point still stands.
I picked up an old school chain wallet at the Wal-Fart yesterday. Love it. Wife hates it. Not sure if I love it because the wife hates. I'm not driving a semi yet though......
Ok so I'm sure I'm covered this but my layout for the meet is like so.......
Saturday - Squats
Squats
Pause Squats
Adductor Machine (optional)
Calf Raises
Monday - Bench
Close Grips
Incline
Curls
Wednesday - Deadlift
Block Deads
Deadlifts
Shrugs
Abs
That's it. I may or may not even do the shrugs. I just threw them in there because I might do some from time to time. Saturday's squat session wasn't as "clean" as I hoped in terms of speed but that's kinda to be expected after not squatting for two weeks. The pause squat down sets felt really good though. I may back off some of my expectations a little bit as to give me the best chance of hitting 1800 beltless. I may dial it back to 650-450-700. I'm pretty sure no one else has gone 1800+ beltless at 242. I don't want to end up missing it because I got greedy. So we'll see. That's what calibration is all about.
I may also add some chains to the pause squats on certain workouts. I do not like bands for raw guys but I think that chains can serve a raw guy pretty well if implemented correctly. And I'm not talking about my wallet either.
I'm happy to report that I have a graphics designer, and am working with her on a new shirt design, and I will be able to offer shirts in a few weeks at a very discounted price in comparison to what I have now.
I also happy to say that I have fitness competitor who will be getting on board the Lift-Run-Bang wagon soon, and contributing articles and talking about her contest prep, training, diet, and all sorts of other shit as well. I have quite a few things in the work that if they pan out, are really going to add to the quality and quantity of the content I have here. Expect a transition into a full website in the very near future.
It snowed about 3 inches here today. Oh well, it's the first real snow of winter here in KC and it'll be gone by tomorrow. I could deal with these kinds of winters no matter where I lived. Been pretty f'n nice.
Zack is doing a nice job on the MMA blurbs don't ya think?
My 13 year old is training with me for this meet. She's 105 and deadlifted 135 for two doubles this past week. I knew her deadlifting would be pretty good because she's got monkey arms. She sure as hell didn't get her deadlifting ability from dad.
It is Monday, so I hope everyone had an adventurous weekend and I hope your sucks if mine has to.
"Look at this woman kids, enough money to own her own country. She died at 48 after living off a diet of crack and Bobby Brown for a few decades."
If the autopsy says she had no drugs in her system, I MIGHT retract all of this about Whitney, but my overall point still stands.
I picked up an old school chain wallet at the Wal-Fart yesterday. Love it. Wife hates it. Not sure if I love it because the wife hates. I'm not driving a semi yet though......
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| Old School, bitches..... |
Ok so I'm sure I'm covered this but my layout for the meet is like so.......
Saturday - Squats
Squats
Pause Squats
Adductor Machine (optional)
Calf Raises
Monday - Bench
Close Grips
Incline
Curls
Wednesday - Deadlift
Block Deads
Deadlifts
Shrugs
Abs
That's it. I may or may not even do the shrugs. I just threw them in there because I might do some from time to time. Saturday's squat session wasn't as "clean" as I hoped in terms of speed but that's kinda to be expected after not squatting for two weeks. The pause squat down sets felt really good though. I may back off some of my expectations a little bit as to give me the best chance of hitting 1800 beltless. I may dial it back to 650-450-700. I'm pretty sure no one else has gone 1800+ beltless at 242. I don't want to end up missing it because I got greedy. So we'll see. That's what calibration is all about.
I may also add some chains to the pause squats on certain workouts. I do not like bands for raw guys but I think that chains can serve a raw guy pretty well if implemented correctly. And I'm not talking about my wallet either.
I'm happy to report that I have a graphics designer, and am working with her on a new shirt design, and I will be able to offer shirts in a few weeks at a very discounted price in comparison to what I have now.
I also happy to say that I have fitness competitor who will be getting on board the Lift-Run-Bang wagon soon, and contributing articles and talking about her contest prep, training, diet, and all sorts of other shit as well. I have quite a few things in the work that if they pan out, are really going to add to the quality and quantity of the content I have here. Expect a transition into a full website in the very near future.
It snowed about 3 inches here today. Oh well, it's the first real snow of winter here in KC and it'll be gone by tomorrow. I could deal with these kinds of winters no matter where I lived. Been pretty f'n nice.
Zack is doing a nice job on the MMA blurbs don't ya think?
My 13 year old is training with me for this meet. She's 105 and deadlifted 135 for two doubles this past week. I knew her deadlifting would be pretty good because she's got monkey arms. She sure as hell didn't get her deadlifting ability from dad.
It is Monday, so I hope everyone had an adventurous weekend and I hope your sucks if mine has to.
Hey Paul, curious about your adductor machine work. I know you blew it out a while back, now that it's healthy though why not toss in more single leg work (split squats, lunges, reverse lunges)? IE. Squat, pause squat, light hi rep split squat. I find they have a tendency of bulletproofing groins. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI do single leg work quite a bit, and when I am training at home I will probably throw in speed skater squats for this very reason. I just didn't Saturday.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteWhen you pare down your exercise selection like this for meet prep, I notice you cut out extra upper back work (chins/rows). Do you find these exercises impede you from peaking on DL? And when you go back to doing them later, are you any weaker? Sometimes when I'm pushing DL hard and doing pause squats (which always burn out my back hard) I find I just don't have much left in the tank for rows and chins.
Adam
Adam - Spot on.
ReplyDeletei cut down to 3 days a week too. i actually like it, i feel a lot stronger.
ReplyDelete3 days a week, limited or no assistance. I have joked for years that eventually I'd just squat, bench, and pull and I'm pretty much there now.
ReplyDeletemy layout is almost exactly like yours. dont mean to ride your nuts but, as soon as i started to follow your advise my lifts shot up. i'm not a very smart man but i know when something works. i have told the younger(teens-i'm only 34!)guys that work out at the Y i lift at, that their Flex inspired workouts will not work for them. if they want to get ripped it's all about diet and conditioning not a 20 plus set workout. but they do not listen, and mean while i bench and pull the most in the gym.
ReplyDeleteThe older I get, the more things become full circle. These are the kinds of workouts beginners always get recommended and as a guy that has been training 23 years now, I know that less is more.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the the approach to training outlined on Tim Ferriss's website written by Pavel. Basically just train the 3 the main lifts using a modified 5x5 approach. The apparent author of such a philosophy of training is an enigmatic Russian powerlifter named Alexander Faleev that has achieved the distinction of Master of Sport.
ReplyDeleteI just no longer see the need for anything else now really. Some curls to keep my elbows feeling good, the adductor machine to keep me from pulling anything. Otherwise I can't see what else I need to be doing. The offseason is for shoring up weak muscle groups.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everything in this post....but how about that chaos and bang part II??????????????????????????????????
ReplyDeleteTold ya dog. It was on megaupload. I will need to find a new site for large audio files to share it on.
ReplyDeletePaul, just a quick recommendation for C&B II -- you can have audio files transcribed for a pretty low price these days. Google it if your curious.
ReplyDeletePaul, I gotta tell you this post has helped me quite a bit. The beginning of Feburary I stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall type gym that is having a meet in May. It will be my first. I spent the last two weeks bouncing around in my training and planning trying to devise the best strategy that will make me a combo of Arnold and Pudz. Stupid I know. After reading this I'm just going to do Squat/Bench and on another day Deadlift/Overhead. Top set with back-offs like you recommend. I mean really what else would you need? Once I realized this I feel a lot more energetic regarding my training. I might even throw in one or two sessions of sprints because I've been meaning to work on my conditioning as well.
ReplyDeleteSo I am saying thanks for the advice.
Robbie that's all you need man. Throw in some work for pipes now and then for the ladies and you're good to go.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI really liked this piece from an article I read:
"Only in the world of powerlifting, when one is asked how to improve one's lifts, are we encouraged to try this new routine, or asked, "What is your routine?” If I was a baseball player, I might ask what technique do you use to swing the bat, increase bat speed or shorten the distance the bat travels? I would not ask what routine you use to become a better hitter. If I was a football player, I might ask what technique should I use to throw the ball more accurate or faster/harder? Surely I would not ask what routine would I use to accomplish it. If I was a shot-putter, I would surely ask what form and style do you use to throw the shot 50-60 foot or more, not what routine did you use to accomplish the feat. So why in powerlifting is the first thing asked and the first thing offered is a routine?"
(From: http://www.joeskopec.com/squatform.html )
It reminded me of some of the things you talk about, just wanted to share in case you haven't read it, thought you might like it.
I had my first day of Strong-15 with the new numbers last Monday by the way, was much better, thanks for that. Tomorrow is Bench day :).
My brother also decided to start lighter after I talked to him about your comments on my question, glad he did the smart thing.
LH