What I’d been calling “flow” is more aptly titled “journaling”.
…..
Work :
short, worked about 2¾ for 3½h (4h?) pay, the only challenging item the base of the bed going upstairs (due to dimensions), the reclining couch on the ground floor not really an issue
at the shop I saved a strap being tossed out from the garbage – one of those infomercial ones, “forearm forklifts”, just one, not a pair as sold
that’s all there was, and that’s enough…
“fuck that, those are mine”
“the shovel?” he asks
“nah – this strap”
he’s looking at me funny, doesn’t know that this, intended as I’ve seen done online for isometric training, is a toy for me…I’m giddy
today at work I got a toy!
I’m going to incorporate it into my lift too
….
Pullups
3×4
so much for no pullups while running the total gym pullup experiment lol
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•meatball sub
•quart coffee milk
meatball sub – quite possibly my favorite food
and this being out of pocket mover’s food, not customer provided
at ~$8 it’s worth buying out, as it’d cost me about double in ingredients to make about two or three for myself – this way it’s “here you are”, while not taking up freezer space with meatballs you’re never gonna finish, nor having a bunch of the rolls go stale/moldy in the cabinet
man, I smell like coworkers’ (plural of them, plural of each of theirs) cigarettes – I hate that smell
still moving vs kitchen…
MOVING
much better for the soul
I’ll take moving any day
…..
These are both old anecdotes – years apart actually, one around my 21st the other around my 27th birthday :
I once had a girl, just shy of 20, a 5’10”, pretty, freckled brunette (nearly a redhead) proudly tell me she was 160lbs, that in the year and a half since high school she’d went from 240 to 160, first starting to jog, then adding in calisthenics, by then time we chatted about the gym waiting around at a job interview she had some FAST mile, 800m, 400m, and two mile times, and BIG squat numbers in the 10 rep range.
She just kept adding work as she could, and upping the intensity of the work from jogs to sprints & hard runs, from no strength training to calisthenics to hard leg sessions.
The girl went hard.
Turned herself into quite the athlete deciding that she was out of school, no longer was going to eat cause of having been picked on (and out of school no longer around the bullies), and did this around a hard full time job and living in a rather strict household.
I once had a girl, just shy of 19, about 5’8″ proudly tell me she was 130lbs, that during the end of her senior year and all this freshman year of college she’d decided enough was enough, and got healthy.
This girl telling me the same story in the opposite direction.
She had been anorexic, started strength training to gain weight and be healthy…
AND WAS
Two college girls I met through the gym in some capacity who looked good, but more importantly were healthy, which they hadn’t been even a year and a half earlier.
Spoke these anecdotes the other day, kinda had them on my mind, and came across body transformation stuff on reddit.
Which brings me to ;
The personal trainer isn’t there to get someone good at the gym…they’re there to get people, other people, healthy.
To speed up THAT process.
I remember typing one day, seeing both a man in his 60s, retired navy, who had initially spoke to me about calisthenics finding it odd that I at 6′ 250+ seemed in his eyes to only do pullups and burpees when he read me as “powerlifter”, and of a college girl, short and fat, RACKING UP burpees, high reps, pushing the pace, sweat puddle forming, not stopping to change the song GOING HARD.
That memory motivates me!
Seeing both a retiree and a fat college girl SMASHING burpees at the same time (though not together).
…..
FREEZING RAIN – HELL YES!
•quart coffee milk
Strap Isometrics :
bunch of positions/play (with new toy)
•tug of war
•deadlift
•one arm press
•pullover
•pulldown
•more
Lift :
Power Clean & Press (Every Rep Style)
2×2 w/185lbs
Fat Grips Deadlift
3×3 w/185lbs
…..
The pulldowns, particularly the one arm pulldowns with the straps – I can feel the cramping.
This is going to be a strength builder, what a thing to mix with total gym pullups to build pullups without really doing any!
…..
Having done an isometric tug of war, I realize this stuff could be done with others as a group.
Buddy carries are actually kinda fun, and I recall in the inuit/eskimo olympics there’s an event where, like a yoke, you walk carrying a few people.
Movement can be fun, it needn’t all be the gym.
…..
listened to another half hour of the Scourby reading of the KJV Bible, been doing that more and more lately
a solid thing to have playing in the background
…..
work was so easy, and tomorrow is mostly truck time so we train – a few sessions throughout the day
and note : the shoveling was so light – it doesn’t count as exercise, just fresh air
the total gym pullups felt really good last night, and we’re running them as an experiment in pullup ability without really doing pullups…alongside isometrics with my new toy
…..
•frosted animal crackers
•milk
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Total Gym Pullups :
x26
we’ve aways to go to 10×30
yeah, I REALLY like this movement right now
it’s giving great euphoric pumps
I try to slow and feel the negative in my lats, while this is #1 for biceps in my eyes
….
•split pea soup
•milk
…..
Training is going really well, I intend as the ground gets hard again (sure footed) to train power cleans heavier, make a push for the 300lb clean and press which mostly needs more power clean in the tank.
…..
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•three cheese sticks
•frosted animal crackers
•milk (in chilled glass)
…..
thinking as I eat the above “how calories are more important than protein for size”, all the reps and the increasing work volume lead me to believe my body wants a lot of food right now
…..
to keep logging food or not
as is I’m expecting to lean out as I increase activity
…..
Persistence & Tenacity