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.

Off Schedule - Step Squats & Smaller Circles - Nov 1

Just messing around today. Last day off schedule. 6 weeks to Maxmas, not going to float any more. These two down weeks have been great though. First I needed the break, second, I needed the Holy Spirit more. It's all been rest, it's all been training, rock the house.

Messing around with movement today. Not about the weight, these are a fun variation mixing the symmetrical squat and asymmetrical lunge. Just keep the pressure on the lead heel and the knee out, and all will be well.

HT timer, no count, Red bar only
1 Squat x12 @ 33#

6 Lunge x12 alternating @ same

4 Step squat x max reps in .30

11 mins.

MA Bag work

Working smaller circles, jab mostly

15 on, 15 off, 19 rounds

6.5 hours - 2130/0400. 20 minutes total. 48 hours, PE: 6.

Words and Phrases.

When you're learning how to hear the Lord, He doesn't speak to you in whole sentences, but in key words and phrases. - Graham Cooke

I'm seeing how I'm only catching singles and snippets. Like a toddler, am I only capable of words and phrases as I try to understand my Father? Maybe.

Last week, I was struck by the need/desire to pass on a prophetic word for someone at church. During singing, I was completely murdered by the song "No Longer Slaves" - so much win in it for me as I relished my newly re-found release (which, to stay on track, was signified by a simple query - Who Watches the Watchmen? if you recall). Just got myself cleaned up from a soggy mess, when I saw the back of someone's head, and asked, "What God? What is your message for them?" And he told me, "Receive." 

Then, like I've been told one will experience, I got linked emotionally to the person; feeling all the hopelessness and defeat, yearning for wholeness and discouragement that the person was going through. Slain again. 

Receive. Had to hold onto that during the course of the hour, thinking what else do I have to say, what else do You want to say, God don't let me trip all over myself and get in Your way in this as an inadequate messenger, yadda yadda. I wish I could have had a chance to simply walk up and deliver the word without all the intervening wait. I think there was a lesson in that for me though. 

No need, and no reason, for me to add my frosting to God's cake. The cake is spiritual food; one word of manna is enough. Adding sentences of Man will only make for indigestion.

Anyway, in conversation and crafted prayer, I'm hearing more. But in the prophetic, I'm only in pre-school, catching only words and chunks. Do I need to hear more? Dunno. One can get a lot out of one word directions:  

North. 

Warmer… 

Shhhhh. 

Abuse.

Generational. 

Stop. Wait. 

Putting the pieces together is going to mostly involve listening harder. Better comprehension through concentration, onward into fluency.