GtG 4.4 - Goblet Squats - 20151231

Started the year doing 531, ended it with goblet squats. Not with a bang, but a whimper. Good thing I'm a humble man, here at the end of 2015.

Buy in, no timer
2x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
2x25 Adductor, medium band
-

3x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
3x10-11 RDL @ 133#
14 mins.

Main set, 1 min RI
5x 20 Goblet Squats @ 53#
14 mins.

Antagonists
HT timer
4 rounds, Kips x8ish

3 rounds, Ring dips x7ish
9 mins.

8.5 hours - 2130/0600. 38 minutes total. PE: 7.

GtG 4.2 - Front Squat - 151229

Buy in
5 Rounds, no timer

2x25 Adductor, medium band
2x25 Hip Thruster, strong band
5 mins.
3x25 Hip Thruster, strong band
3x10-11 GtO @ 113#
9 mins.

Sitting on the 16" Hip thruster backrest feels like it creates better activation during adductors than sitting on the 20" plyo box.

Main set
3 rounds, 1.30 RI
Front Squat x9/11/12 @ 135#
8 mins.

8 hours - 2200/0600. 24 mins total. 24 hours, PE 6.

GtG 4.1 - Oly Squat - 151228

AM
6x7ish hammer curl w/ 41# water jugs
7 mins.

Buy in
5 Rounds, no timer
2x25 Hip Thruster, strong band
2x25 Adductor, medium band
6 mins.
3x25 Hip Thruster, strong band
3x10-11 RDL @ 133#
6 mins.

Main Set
Oly Squat, in .30 on 2.00
10x 135/6x 205/3x6 @235
11 mins.

Adding in RDLs today, really feeling the lack of balance with no hamstring work in this squat-focused program, and with all the sitting in the truck for work (6+ hours today). 
Squats were ATG, no messing around. 6's @ 235 isn't anything to write home about, but it's progress from where I've been. Infrequent sessions, crazy schedule, no-watch nutrition, and I'm still moving forward - I'll totally take it.

Did assessment today. Not much movement in a month; see lots of loss in upper body size  with no real upper body work on this program. This misses the GTG week 4.



6.5 hours - 2130/0400. 32 mins total. 5 days, PE 8. 226.

GtG 3.6 - Goblet Squats n' PushPull - 151222

Knees are achy lately. Lots of sitting, but also not stretching the quads or doing hamstring work. Don't want to blame it on the GtG protocol - I'm not working wholistically here.

Buy in, no timer
4x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
3x15 Adductor, medium band
9 mins.

Main set, 1 min RI
4x 20 Goblet Squats @ 53#
7 mins.

Antagonists
4 rounds, double down with a single 1 min RI
Press @ 135# 6/7/8/2
Pull up x3-5's
11 mins.

6.5 hours - 2130/0415. 28 minutes total. PE: 6.

Riven Christmas.

Remember Myst? The Cyan game with Riven and Exile sequels where worlds were created by writing them into existence into special books? Where, in Exile, the villain Gehn was incapable of writing creatively, of understanding how the elements of the worlds interrelated, but still wanted to create worlds - and so, stole fragments and phrases from Atrus the hero's books to create inoperable books and Frankensteinesque worlds of his own? I broke world 37 when I made the ocean warm. All the water is gone. Oops.

Today's wership songwriters cobble lines together like Gehn. 

These were the lyrics to a christmas-wership mashup song today:

Oh come all ye faithful
Bow before our Savior
Come let us adore 
the One Who came for us
Glory in the highest
Praise the name of Jesus
Our King has come

Oh come let us adore Him
For He alone is worthy
Our King has come
Our King has come

This really happened. Someone really lifted taglines from established carols and called the synthesis a song. Someone at the church where I was attending today thought that the synthesis was worth presenting as wership. 

And, someone in the 8th row back, just off center stage, found it laughable, then sad, and finally, an indictment on the substandard state of contemporary christian philosophy.
He can't answer for everyone, but he knows he can do better. And will. And is. Time to write a world of worship inhabitable by God.

GtG 3.5 - Front Squat - 151219

Warm up
Jump rope, 1 min
10x squat jumps
30 sec static hang
12x Y-pulls
3 mins.

Buy in
2 Rounds, loose timer
4x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
3x15 Adductor, medium band
9 mins.

Main set
4 rounds, in .30 on 2.00
Front Squat x10-12 @ 135#
10 mins.

3 rounds, HT timer
Ring Row, max reps
Y-pulls, max reps
8 mins.

8.5 hours - 2230/0700. 31 mins total, PE 6. 4 days.

GtG 3.4 - Oly Squat - 151215

Jumping ahead a week, this is too easy for even an Easy day. Doing the minimum with the minimum time available to give up to the cause. Squats felt strong and good today; down from 245# to 235# though. No knee pain - super cold outside; the bar hurt to hold.

Buy in
2 Rounds, loose timer
3x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
2x15 Adductor, medium band
9 mins.

Main set
Oly Squat - 1 min RI
10x 135#, 10x 185, 235 x5/5/5/5
10 mins.

6.5 hours - 2130/0400. 20 mins total, PE 6. 24 hours.

GtG 2.3 - Goblet Squats - 151214

Do work. Do the minimum, but stay on schedule.

Buy in, no timer
3x20 Hip Thruster, strong band
2x15 Adductor, medium band
6 mins.

Main set, 1 min RI
3x 20 Goblet Squats @ 53#
5 mins.

8 hours - 2130/0530. 11 minutes total. PE: 5.

GtG 2.2 - Front Squat n' PullPush - 151211

Buy in

2 Rounds, loose timer

2x15 Adductor, medium band

2x20+ Hip Thruster, strong band

7 mins.

Main set

4 rounds in .30 on 2.00

Front Squat @ no count/8/10/9 @ 135#

8 mins.

Antagonists

3 rounds, HT timer

Chins x5-3's

OH press x10-8 @115#

… one more Chin.

9 mins.

6 hours - 2130/0330. 25 mins total, PE 7. 24 hours.

GtG 2.1 - Oly Squat, Racing the Rain - 151210

In a rush to pull out the Hip thruster and get it back under the eaves before the rain really started up - and then, it just quit. HPCs felt really nice tonight.

Buy in

2 Rounds, no timer

2x15 Adductor, medium band

2x20 Hip Thruster, strong band

7 mins.

Main Set

Oly Squat, in .30 on 2.00

10x 135/5x 205/4x 225/245 x4/4/4

12 mins.

… last sets felt better than the first sets.

3 rounds, HT timer

Hang Power Cleans @ 115 x8ish

4 mins.

24 mins total, PE 6. 24 hours.

Place of Rest?

Graham Cooke was talking about his place of rest, where the enemy can't touch him. His is a little shower-curtain-of-elvenkind in the plains of LoTR, where the orcs on wargs can't see him and unwittingly ride past. Hearing his story, I wondered what mine could be like - a Tardis? Just a police box that I could duck into and find myself in an impregnable space much larger on the inside than outside? That would be cool, but that was just my mind thinking up a place. I wanted to go to a place of rest like that, to have a place to duck into and remain untouchable for a moment of instant refreshment. 

I don't have my place yet, but I just experienced one that is unworldly.

Last night, I had one of those demonically-induced dreams that are so horrific that I must wake up out of self preservation. Always grotesque, this one culminated with me wandering down a street littered with bloated blood-jellied bodies of friends who'd fallen to the pavement as the hot air balloon they were in crashed, and me trying to vomit but choking on my own tongue, suffocating.

I woke, but didn't wake. Better to say, I broke from the dream - but was unable to open my eyes. I could move my eyes around under my eyelids, but my eyelids themselves were stuck shut. I saw a white room, filled with white objects - everything solid but uncolored, like a 3d model phong shaded white. I tried to look left and right, but moving my eyes didn't shift my view. What I was seeing stayed stuck in front of me. Look left, but the perspective doesn't move left - just static right there in front of me. A strange change in perception, for certain. 

I hadn't been in a place like this before. Not a dream. Not awake. Not a physical place. Not a mental image of a place, or a mentally-imaged place - my mind was in this place, this place was not in my mind - and my mind was trying to comprehend what and where. 

I had to focus on what I was seeing - took me a moment to realize that this was a crib with a mobile hanging over it… CC's old crib, tucked into the back corner of a matte white version of her old bedroom in the back of the house.

I don't really understand how success is measured. I know the world looks at a lot of externals to gauge success. I know that God looks more at internals, and is less concerned with what we do or what we've done, than with the who we are and the who we are becoming. I do think, in this moment, God was taking me to a moment of success for me in the Spirit. 

When CC was tiny, she suffered from ear infections. She didn't sleep much, and screamed and cried much more. This moment hearked-back to those nights when I'd hold her hand and lay on the crib bars, tired and uncomfortable, "wasting" my free evening in the dark and silence with nothing to do but pray for her, and sing as prettily and as gently as I could, and speak blessing into her future until she'd nod off into a sleep deep enough that I could sneak out of the room without reawakening her. 

I thought it was tiring time away from the bigger life I was trying to lead. A father's duty. But here I am in this white room, reminded that this is/was a holy moment - one in which I was like the Father, abiding with the needful child. A moment where I was doing kingdom work simply by praying and singing and blessing and wasting myself in unselfish care.

Back in my bed, I reached over with my real hand and held an imaginary CC's hand through the crib bars. She's been in an unhealthy place these last few weeks. In this spiritual place, I prayed for her and blessed her and watched over her for a little, like the old days.

This may not be my place of rest, for personal use in abiding. But I will use it when I intercede for CC, as my place for her when I watch over her as a father should. A place that is a landmark reminder that I have nothing better to do than to be in a spiritual place of rest for my child.

GtG 1.6 - Goblet Squat - 151209

Buy in

2 Rounds, loose timer

2x20 Hip Thruster, medium band

2x15 Adductor, medium band

5 mins.

Main set, no timer

3x 20 Goblet Squats @ 53#

Super-ed in FtB during the RI (tried rollouts but my lower abs felt like they were tearing they are so sore)

10 mins.

Antagonists

3 rounds, HT timer

Pendlay row, x10 @ 135#

Dynamic Push ups x10

10 mins.

26 mins total, PE 7. 24 hours.

GtG 1.5 - Front Squat - 151208

Strict pull up, chin up, neutral grip

3 rounds each, HT timer (2's-3's, mostly)

11 mins.

Buy in

2 Rounds, loose timer

2x20 Hip Thruster, medium band

2x15 Adductor, medium band

6 mins.

Main set

Front Squat 6/7/8/9 @ 135#

8 mins.

11 + 14 mins total, PE 5. 24 hours.

GtG 1.4 - Squat and Leave - 151207

2 rounds, no timer
Band abductions, medium band x15
Hip Thruster, medium band x20
6 mins.

6 rounds, in .30 on 2.00

Oly Squat 135 x10/205 x5/225 x5/245 x3/3/4

12 mins.

8.5 hours - 2130/0600. 18 mins total. 18 hours, PE 6.

GtG 1.3 - Goblet Squats 234 - 151206

2 rounds, no timer
Band abductions, medium band x10
Hip Thruster, medium band x20
5 mins.

3 rounds, no timer

Ab Wheel Rollouts
Goblet squats w/ 53# KB x20
11 mins.

4 rounds, loose timer 40 secs RI

Press x10 @ 105

Strict Pull ups x4-5

13 mins.

7 +1 hours - 2230/0530. 30 mins total. PE 5.

Bless This Home

Just a prayer of blessing for the home. Well, I say just, but, this was an exercise with a few facets; playing with a chord structure, as a crafted prayer to ask for God to make the home a special, sacred place. And, our enemy is a power of the air, so this is a song to change the atmosphere in the house. And, an exercise in the ability to create blessing through our words. Let this be a place where the peace of Jesus lives.

Radical Together, Chapter One

Lord, we don't want to settle for good things as your people. We want only Your best.

So this theme of Community keeps popping up for me (to be fair, there are lots of themes that keep popping up - trying to whack-a-mole them with study and the codification process into the knowledge-experience category). Read only the first chapter of David Platt's book yesterday.

We must be willing to sacrifice good things in the church (in life, yah) in order to experience the great things of God. Everything needs to belong on the table, available to the axe. We need to ask, What needs to go? What needs to change? What needs to stay the same? What needs more focus and resources?
And then wait for God to answer.

Asking the "What's wrong with..." question is counterproductive in this process. Because the good things aren't wrong. There's nothing wrong with so many of our pursuits - they are, definitively, good ones - but they're not the great, they're not the best, and they may not be God's will at all.

Platt had a list of church-program-related questions to skinny down his new church's activity set, but only a couple bridge into the personal as well:

What good things do we have, or what good things are we doing, that we need to abolish for greater ends?

Amid all the good things we are doing and planning, are there better ways to align with God's word, mobilize God's people, and marshal God's resources for God's glory in a world where millions of people are starving and a billion have never even heard of Jesus?

And the statement:

We will do whatever You want, we will drop whatever You command, we will eliminate whatever is not best, and we will add whatever is necessary in order to make Your glory known, no matter what it costs us.

Processing. Platt's concerned with the church community; their budget, activities, mission, giving. That's a start, but my start starts here in the home. We've been skinnied down to essentials over the last three years - from anywhere but a Lordly perspective, it's been a disaster. But it's been a blessing, really, and a natural training program to eliminate a lot of extraneous wants that weren't needs, some things that truly needed to go but had become lifestyle, and a lot of goods that weren't bests.
Now to be intentional about taking stock of what's left for us in our budget, activities, mission, giving.

Assessment & GtG 1 - Goblet Squats - 151128

2 rounds, no timer
Band abductions, medium band x10
Hip Thruster, medium band x20
7 mins.

3 rounds, no timer
Goblet squats w/ 53# KB x20
5 mins.

Easy day to kick this off. Not every day has to hurt - just force some adaptation, yah.

Baseline measurements for the upcoming month:

Pretty much the same as all year.

For the next um, 29 more days, we'll be squatting every day with one grace day on Sundays; only going for increased volume rather than weight through the month. Base looks like this:

Workout 1                                    MON          THU
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust              2 x 20 2 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 10 2 x 10
Main: Oly Squat (245#)                    3 x 3         4 x 3

Workout 2                                   TUE         FRI
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust             2 x 20 2 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 10 2 x 10
Main: Front Squat (135#)                3 x8-12 3 x8-12

Workout 3                                     WED       SAT
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust               2 x 20 2 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 10 2 x 10
Main: Goblet Squat (all at 1.5 pood)  2 x 20 2 x 20

Today's Saturday, so today was Workout 3 of Week 1.

Week 2
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust             3 x 20 3 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 15 2 x 15
Back Squat increases to                3 x 4       4 x 4
Front Squat remains the same 3 x8-12 3 x8-12
Goblet Squat increases to              3 x 20 3 x 20

Week 3
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust             4 x 20 4 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 20 2 x 20
Back Squat increases to                3 x 5        4 x 5
Front Squat remains the same 3 x8-12 3 x8-12
Goblet Squat increases to               4 x 20 4 x 20

Week 4
Assist 1 Banded Hip Thrust             5 x 20 5 x 20
Assist 2 Band Seated Hip Abduction 2 x 25 2 x 25
Back Squat increases to                3 x 6         4 x 6
Front Squat remains the same 3 x8-12 3 x8-12
Goblet Squat increases to              5 x 20 5 x 20

If the Oly and Front squats are way too easy, I'll increase the weight - but for now, I'll keep it all light if only to get over this nagging knee pain. Movement! Technique! Grease the groove! There's more to get excited about than moving mass.

Every other day when squat work is done and time allows, I'll rotate the three additions:
A: Clean/Y-pulls - Pendlay row/Ring dips
B: DB Thrusters/Deadlift - Weighted Chins/OH press
C: Weighted Pulls - MA Bag Work

Nothing hard, nothing over the top. Squats are the movement of the month.

8 hours - 2200/0630. 14 mins total. 24 hours, PE 5. 228/12.

Off Schedule - All In The Knees - 151127

3 rounds, HT timer
Y-pulls
4 mins.

4 rounds, HT timer
DB Thrusters, no count @ 15#/25/35/45 (15-5's)
Hang power clean, top turnovers @ 95#, no count (6's)
11 mins.

Experiencing persistent patellar pain in the knees. Blocked the heels with the rubber mat, and that helped. Way too much sitting, sitting, sitting without movement or stretching or balanced power work. Note to self: this is how old people get old - better light a fire under something, pal. 

10 + 1 hours - 2130/0730. 15 mins total. 18 hours, PE 7.

Off Schedule - Making Space for Turkey - 151126

Adopting the CF dating system for easier reference - all this time I've posted month and day but not year, why? No good reason.

Just some movement today, getting in a quick session before Thanksgiving supper. Hamstrings and posterior bits are really tight and sore from Wednesday. 

In other news, not going to continue off schedule much longer - going minimalist, movement focused and going to have to keep an eye on leg drive.

5 rounds, HT timer
DB recline presses, 14's @ 45#
Fat bar strict pulls, x3's, mostly
17 mins.

3 rounds, HT timer
Ring Row x max reps
DB hammer @ 35#, 8's
7 mins.

8.5 hours - 2230/0700. 24 mins total. 24 hours, PE 6.

That's Not a Prayer

I don't get people who derive their identity from their devotion to a sports team. The sports team doesn't love them in return, does it? More specifically, I don't get people who root for their team via social media status updates.

Piggers, time to start playing like you mean it! 1:10 left in the 3rd. Piggers, you got this!

Are the Piggers taking time away from the intensity of their focus on the athletic competition to check their devices for fan encouragement? This odd post isn't for the Piggers, and it's not for the benefit of the poster - if SuperFan really needed to get the excitement out of his system, he'd simply yell it at the game. Instead, he's laboriously created a post for the unnamed third parties who might be reading.

What he's really communicating:

1. I'm immersed in the Piggers' game, and you're not.

2. I'm a really, really huge Piggers fan. Piggers define me.

3. This Piggers game is really a good one - did I mention that I'm enjoying the game right now? Awesome game, by the way. One I'm really, really enjoying. 

Hey, the guy likes the Piggers, that's his thing. Just seems off when you read it, because he's talking to the Piggers (who don't follow him on social media), and because the post's not about the Piggers, really, it's about his one-way relationship with the team through a megaphone of self-aggrandizement. 

In the same convoluted spirit of indirect communication, I don't get you people who pray in the third person like this:  

God, I really appreciate Joe, sitting right here beside me, how he took out the trash bags when no one else was willing to take out those trash bags. He's such a good friend to me, I really appreciate him. Help everyone else to step it up when they see things that need to be done, like weeding that nasty West flower bed, or giving to the Saint Piggers relief fund, which, as you know God, is still 400 dollars under budget…

Everyone gets the message. Except God, because you're not really talking to Him at all. The poor Filipinos get the message too, because now they have to survive another natural disaster because God was embarassed for you, and rolled His eyes so hard it caused another tsunami in Asia.

Prayer should be direct communication between you and God - whether it's just you and Him talking, or it's you talking to Him in a room full of people. Prayer is conversation with God, not the others in the room. Prayer's not a chance to get your secret message across to the others congregated in the room with convoluted third-person messaging.

There's a few other pray-isms that peeve me. Might as well mention them here and clear the air.

God, if You're there, … 

The Bible already tells us that 

...without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 

Hebrews 11:6

So, don't even expect an answer if you start your prayer with an insult like "if You're there." God's everywhere; that's a Pretty Big If.

God, be with…

Be with us? Be with Aunt Eugene, who's going through such hard times? We just discussed how God is omnipresent and wherever Aunt Eugene is, He is already there. God, Be Anywhere is dumb. He's already there, He's already with you, them, whoever. 

Why not pray for Aunt Eugene that she can be made aware of God's presence? Better. Why not refer to her as Aunt Gina when you pray it? Better still, because no one of any gender should be named Eugene.

Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies...

If the food's not nourishing, is praying really going to make it so? This is the prayer you pray only if you're at the South Pole, have nothing to eat but styrofoam insulation, and need God to create nutrition where none exists in order to survive. 

If you're sitting down to a turkey dinner, it's Grace-time-better-spent to ask God to protect your intestines from bursting.

Besides, we're not relig-ites who use God to bless inanimate objects. God isn't interested in blessing things. Foodstuffs are things. The Bible shows that God's interested in blessing people, not silver candlesticks, chalices, and not smashed potatoes and gravy.

Why not ask that God bless our bodies to make good use of the food before us? Better. Why not just thank God for the food, like Jesus demonstrated. Better still.

We're so thankful for Aunt Eugene who's with us…

This is rooting for the Piggers again. "God, we're down 2 days with 1 day left in Aunt Eugene's visit. Pigger family, you got this!" 

Why not simply tell Aunt Eugene, before everyone bows their heads and closes their eyes, that you're thankful for her visit? 

Bless you Aunt Gina. God's with you and we're glad you're with us too. And we're glad you're not an obnoxious Piggers fan.

That's not a prayer, it's direct communication. Better.

Off Schedule - No Account Squats - Nov 25

3 rounds, HT timer
Hip Thrusters x10+, Single strong band

1 attempt at light back squats, piercing sub-patellar pain made me quit though.

4 rounds, HT timer
RDL x10+ @ 115#
10 mins.

Step Squats
4 rounds, SB timer, x10ish @ 135#
10 mins.

Still some nasty pain in the knee. Knocked off while I was still ahead.

6.5 hours - 2230/0500. 20 mins total. 24 hours, PE 6.

Traded Out My Cross

I've swapped the cross for the trinity knot you see here. A bit iconoclastic, I know. But I've been thinking about this symbol a lot lately. Let me enumerate a few thoughts, before you consider me heretical.*

*You may consider me a douche because of the Guido chain alone, but at least hear me out regarding the pendant. Besides, Christmas is coming, if you really don't like the chain.

Wearing this instead of a cross, I'm not distancing myself from Jesus. 
I am distancing myself from non-committal christians and rap stars who wear crosses but do whatever they please as if Jesus never existed and the thing around their neck is a squared-off coke spoon. 
Sad that the cross has been watered down from the symbol of radical Christianity it was, to the piece of junk jewelry it is, but that's our world.
  
Wearing this, maybe, as a conversation starter. 
There is a touch of the What The What Is That Are You A Druid Or Something feel to the Triquetra celtic design. The answer to that question is, Wow! Yes, I am a druid, mostly feral spec but with some restoration in the mix. And another answer is that I am a follower of Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, mostly warfare oriented when in cat form, but with some healer/edifier blended in when I look like an ent. 
…Anywhere besides Blizzcon, I guess it could be a conversation ender, too.

Wearing this as a reminder to myself that I need to continue to expand my view of God. 
I am moving out of the shadow of the cross, and into the sunlight shining into the open door of the empty tomb. So, the cross isn't the whole story, just as the cross only represents one of the Three. Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is my Model, Jesus is my focus, yeah! There has been nothing wrong with that at all for these decades. But if one can give Jesus too much attention, I kinda have done that to the detriment of my attention spent on the other personages in the Godhead. God the Father has been Creator, mostly, in my mind - somewhat limited to a role of making everything happen and then stepping into the background. The Holy Spirit has been that Guy you call in to make sure that worship is kickin' or when you want a prayer answered - but otherwise somewhat incomprehensible and unapproachable. 
Now that I'm an earthly father, I am getting a clearer image of all that The Heavenly Father has been all along for me, and what His heart is for me.
And I've been walking in the Spirit lately, in a way that I never knew was possible for me - possible for others, always, but a relationship that I thought was out of my reach. So, at the very least, pulling the chain over my head is a reminder that I'm a living image of God the Father, and that the Holy Spirit is living within me, not merely with me. And, Jesus isn't getting short shrift now, more than ever I'm continuing a detailed examination of Him. Got to - I'm out to replace him. 

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
1 John 4:17

I'm living in this verse right now; the implications echo along the hallways I'm walking, and I'm taking the notion seriously that I'm to be as He is in this world.  

Wearing this because I'm not passive.
There's a dynamism to the design. Does it look like a swirling vortex of spiritual energy to you? All of life, all of the interplay of an inter-relational triune Being, all of my inter-relation with Him/Them, all of the inter-relationships within the family of God that are available to me in Him - all of that love and power and communal feedback and explosive expansion, and lookee there, see where I am, right in the center.
Do I look like a swirling vortex of spiritual energy to you? Soon, maybe? I see myself that way, this merely makes that present-future vision concrete.

Okay. So there's a new/old weerd symbol around my neck. None of it means much if the guy wearing it doesn't live up to all the layers of meaning that he wants assigned to it. 

Made in Your image, Father God. May I walk in that completeness. 
Given confidence and perfect love to be You in the world, Jesus. May I walk in Your footprints. 
Embodied as a dwelling for You, Holy Spirit. May I walk with my heart-of-hearts as Your mobile-temple-and-coffee-house where We can abide together.
Keep me, and keep me as knotted up with You Three as You are one with another.

Off Schedule - PullPush - Nov 24

4 rounds, HT timer
Press @ 115# x10
Strict pulls x5+
10 mins.
- straight into

3 rounds, HT timer
Pulls/Kips x maxreps
DB Hammer doubles @ 35#
7 mins.

Wanted to get a squat mvmt in, but no time tonight.

7 hours - 2200/0500. 18 minutes total. 4 days, PE: 6.

Walking Your Circle, I Am.

Last year, we used this shirt design for Cru, as we talked though Jesus' I am statements on Tuesday nights. I thought I'd take the moebius of this phrase to the next level of incomprehensibility and nuance in an annoyingly circular simplistic song.
And yes, the audio is rocky. I took this as an opportunity to test voice memo as a mic on the iPhone, and to multi-track with Audition for the first time. Think kind thoughts.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.”

John 8:58

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:17

D                     Dmaj7
You are I AM    therefore I am.
D7                   G
I am because   You are I AM.
Gm                  D
Love me, I AM. Like You, I am -
E7                    A
therefore I can love You, I AM.

D
I am walking
Am
Your circle, I AM.
G
Lost in You, I am
A
found in You. I am
D
I AM, walking.
Am
Your circle, I am.
G
Lost in You, I AM.
A
Found in You, I AM.

Off Schedule - Mini Movement - Nov 20

Nothing worth saying about this session.

Front squat
5 rounds @ 135# - no count, in .30 on 2.00
8 mins.

3 rounds, HT timer
Wide platform push ups x12+
Pendlay row x12+ @ 115#
Ring dip x6+
12 mins.

7 hours - 2200/0500. 21 minutes total. 72 hours, PE: 5.

Off Schedule - CNS Squat - Nov 17

There's a lot less to note after a workout when you come in with no expectations, and no plan. What did you hope to accomplish? Uhhhh... Did you hit your benchmarks? Duh...

When in doubt, just work up to a 5RM in the squat. This way you look like you're still forging ahead, and, you can go to bed knowing that you've worked harder and smarter than 80% of most people in the game.

Do you feel better about yourself

Buy in
3 rounds, HT timer
Ab Wheel rollouts
GtO, no count @ 115#
7 mins.

- 1 min -

Hi bar Squat, in .45 on 2.45
10x 135#/6x 205/5x 225/245///x 205/11x 135
20 mins.

245# doesn't feel heavy, it's just a motor recruitment thing. I'm going to have to grow some nerve by hanging out at this poundage for a while - and eschew the reps.

8 hours - 2230/0630. 28 minutes total. 48 hours, PE: 6.

Off Schedule - Movement Minimum - Nov 15

Still off schedule. Everything's in flux for training right now regarding resistance training, but mind-over-matter training continues. Just movement today, testing how fasted resistance training goes when the flesh cries out its weakness, but the spirit and mind tell it to silence itself and perform.

4 rounds, HT timer

Front squat, max reps @ 135#

Straight into

3 rounds, same timer

OH press, no count max reps @ 115#

Pendlay, no count max reps @ same bar

Everything did feel good - Frt Sqts were deep and solid, and stronger as the sets went on. OH press was flimsy, and I got an immediate headache. 90% of all this is mental, the other half is physical.  ;)

8 hours - 2230/0630. 12 minutes total. 48 hours, PE: 5.

Off Schedule - Bounce Back - Nov 13

Took a few days off this week. Praying and listening and trying not to trip over my old dead body. Step Squats felt tight, and I geo-quit after doing them. Walked off, and walked back FTW. Nothing too challenging, just getting in some movement to get back into the swing of things.

Step Squats

HT Timer, 6 rounds

83# x 10ish

6 mins.

- 1 min -

4 rounds, HT timer

Ring Row x10ish

Ez-in x10

KB swings @ 1.5 pood x15+

15 mins.

7 hours - 2200/0500. 22 minutes total. 5 days, PE: 6.

CFFB - Clean 'n Press Lite - Nov 7

Woke up this morning with a song to write, so worked up a song instead of a solid sweat this session. Priorities! I choose creativity over barbarity.

Hang Power Clean, HT timer

No counts @ 85#/10ish @ 113#/////

7 mins.

OH press

4 rounds @ 113# x10-6

5 mins.

5.5 hours - 2330/0500. 12 minutes total. 72 hours, PE: 6.

Seamless, Seems Less.

This TLDR rant in a nutshell: There's no substitute for going the distance. Want to learn some lessons from the Bible? Read the freaking Bible. Seamless seems less than simply reading the Real Book for yourself.

We're in a small group, and for six weeks, we're working through the Seamless book and videos from Angie Somebodyorother. Seamless is a 7-installment overview of the Bible, ostensibly for people who feel inadequate around others who have read and understand the Bible. Seamless is the flavor of the week, finding wide usage in church study groups right now. Seamless is also for people who like pastel pink, glib asides which distract from the topic at hand, and who prefer Cliff's notes to the original unabridged works. The associated videos are for people who can watch a lady with impossibly-whitened teeth talk while pushing the sides of her mouth back and forth into her cheeks. People who can trust the printed promises in the book how in this study, the sweep of scripture will be tied together in one seamless, comprehensible package and it's really hard reading but trust me, it will all make sense as we go through the next weeks' studies and in the end you'll come away with a superduper knowledge that you didn't have before but who are also people who can forget immediately when the survey's over, all of the promises about the whole package making tidy sense never got answered.

I read the first week's portion last week, and hoped that my attitude would improve as we forged ahead. We're going over week two tomorrow night at our group. So last night, I'm pushing to the side the four other books I'm simultaneously ingesting and am really excited about, to pick up the smug non-sequitur-soaked copy of Seamless and do the homework for the week. 
I read a page and half. I stop and I say, "OMB, I can't do this to myself for another month." I determined that I was either going to ditch group for the next 5 weeks, or I was going to finish off this inanity right here and right now.

I told myself and the group that I would do the readings, so I'm doomed. And, when I first picked up the book, I wondered if I was to try to put together a survey study of the whole Bible, how would I put it all together? Curiosity about how she'd made this whole thing work, especially in only 6ish chapters, got the better of me. So I forced myself to sit there at the kitchen table and choke the whole thing down in one seamless session.
L was laughing at me as she overheard my exasperation in involuntary sighs and groans all evening.

Bible lite. Like reading the title page and back cover of War and Peace, and telling folks you read the book cover to cover. Like watching the trailer and thinking you can tell everyone you've seen the movie. Like reading the headlines and saying you've read the newspaper.
It's like a guidebook for christians who are too lazy or undisciplined or disinterested to read the actual Bible, but who want to tell others that they've done a study of the entire Bible. Exactly like that, actually.

So, how did Angie pull off "an overarching understanding of the fundamental layout and meaning of the Bible" as the Lifeway advertising says, in only 7 sessions?
She didn't. Seamless never does follow through on its vows to put it all together into one thread, which was most infuriating. Who reads this book, and then recommends it to others? I wonder if this is all just a wide and elaborate practical joke on me to see if I'd actually read the book through without flinging my copy against the wall. Ha, ha! Got me! You can all come out now, hoo hoo!

The fact that this is popularized as a viable vehicle for group study in the American church is an indictment on the puddle-deep spirituality that passes for christianity in America. Why no one questions a book called Seamless, which lacks seams by omission, the way the emperor's new clothes lack seams, shows that people will buy whatever they're sold.

Postscript: How this does my heart good. L was chiding me as we drove to our small group meeting: Don't say anything bad about the book. Be positive. 
And so, I was keeping silent. The group did the work for me, deciding unanimously and quite immediately that we were going to be studying something else for the next 5 weeks. I like this group.

CFFB - Scaled Conditioning - Nov 4

Working off the site now. No Off Season today, so made mashed potatoes of what was on the schedule:

Strength
Amateur
Squat 3×5 (add 5 lbs to last workout)
Bench 3×5 (add 2.5 lbs to last workout)
Conditioning – Rest

Collegiate
Strength – Rest Conditioning – Complete

Professional
Strength – Rest Conditioning – Rest

Conditioning
Complete 5 rounds for time:
Strict Pull Ups – 10 Reps
Ring Dips – 10 Reps
True Push Ups – 10 Reps
Post times to comments.

So, just did some amateur squatting.
HT timer
135 x11/165 x8/185 x no count///
6 mins.

- 2 mins -

Got interrupted during the conditioning after the first round. No matter, I was spanked flat after 3.
10 strict pulls, 10 ring dips, 10 plyo push ups x3 rounds
11:09.

6 hours - 2300/0500. 18 minutes total. 72 hours, PE: 9. 225/13.