Another “Impossible” Goal Down

Posted by Steven on Oct 16, 2012 in Thoughts | 0 comments

As many of you have noticed we now have a cheap barbell and weight set in the gym. I bought the set years ago after reading “Power to the People”. At the time I was still a physical wreck and the few times I played with my new toy I always regretted it the very same day. Though that didn’t stop me from trying again after enough time passed to forget how painful the pain was.

From the very beginning of being a client at SG Human Performance my goal has always been to use that damned barbell without pain. That goal has taken a little over two years but has finally been achieved. It’s humbling how much less weight is on the bar than what I remember handling almost a decade ago.

While the weight is less the joy is the same. There is just something about a loaded barbell on the body that makes me smile.

Last Saturday I had the most fun I have had training in some time. I pulled out the bar and loaded it up with a light deadlifting weight. Did five repetitions. Put ten more pounds on the bar. Did five repetitions. Put ten more pounds on…and repeated this little dance until weights were scattered throughout the gym and not one plate was in the rack. Knowing how to actually deadlift this time around I know why Dave Whitley says the deadlift is the perfect expression of joy.

It took more work to get here than I care to admit. I have wanted to quit more times than I care to admit. I have not always enjoyed the journey to get to this point.

It was all worth it.

My Current Diet Plan

Posted by Steven on Jun 2, 2012 in Thoughts | 0 comments

I was pretty surprised at how many people at Mark and Nikki’s baby shower were curious about my diet right now. That may have had to do with all the beer, steak, and nachos I was eating… No one can claim I did not go all out. So many great Steven went on a binge stories I could tell here. Anyway with so many people interested and having little to no ability to really flesh out what I am doing in the middle of stuffing my face I figure a post is in order.

The plan is very simple. Two 24+ hour fasts a week. On days I eat I only eat eggs, beef, pork, rarely chicken (some guy says it makes you weak), vegetables, fruit, tea, spices, herbs, butter, water, and fish oil. That’s it. Believe me when I say I have never in my life eaten this clean. Now what is more important than what I am doing is why.

It’s easy.

Not drinking diet coke instead of regular coke easy, but easy. Some days are a challenge but the next day is not bad. If I had started eating this way four months ago I would have failed within a week. This is the right plan at the right time. It feels right so I do it.

When I dropped from 220-225 to 183lb for the HKC I did it just by fasting twice a week and “eating anything I wanted”. The truth though is my diet was pretty much built upon the alter of Hamburger Helper. Seeing as I would only eat once a day and only one box of Hamburger Helper a day I will not claim it to be a healthy way of life. But that is what I normally ate before trying to lose weight and you are supposed to eat normally after a fast so I did.

After HKC things changed

I started changing my diet, but I no longer knew how much or how little food I needed. Binging crept back into my life with stress. I am a horrible stress eater. So while I was eating some better food than Hamburger Helper it’s not like I was eating healthy. -Insert eating 3lb bag of Jelly Bellys story here. -

Leading up to RKC I picked up on a piece of advice from Dan John and started making soup on Sunday to eat the rest of the week. This way I actually had some vegetables in my diet and had a decent breakfast. Then I started throwing fruit into my Vi-shakes. Every day I had fruit and vegetables. Hell could now freeze over.

Going to RKC was life changing, I made it my mission to get as much out of the experience as I could. When I came back to Omaha I knew I could stop with the baby steps and eat like an adult.

So far so good. As for the stuffing myself today, well I am halfway through the twelve weeks and have made this week a bit of an experiment. Basically eating the way I used to. It has not been fun. No you don’t want the details. I respond very badly to sugar now…very badly. Fried food too.

While I am “dieting” and trying to lose some weight, I am also changing the way I eat. Hopefully I also end up changing my relationship with food in the process.

5/1/12

Posted by Steven on Jun 1, 2012 in Training Log | 0 comments

Spent the last week really nailing down my post RKC training. It has been all over the place but I feel like I finally have a good plan.

New schedule is Tracy Rif Swing training twice a week. Snatch training twice a week. With 100 swings on non-training days. Then just add in TGU and presses as comfortable. No plan just getting some reps in.

The progress with the plan has been great, with the snatch training I started with 16kg 15/15 intervals of 5 reps. Wednesday I finished 16kg 30/30 12 reps for 20 rounds. Will be moving back to 15/15 with the 20kg.

Tracy Rif Swing workouts are new this week. Completed the goals for sessions 1-2 and 3. So next week will be the start of 4. I will have a review here of the book in a couple weeks once I have it all read and further into the training. I can say so far this would have been an amazing addition to my RKC training. Just today finishing session 3 I did 305 swings with the 24kg. Can’t remember the last time I did that much volume with the 24kg. Felt good. Very different style of training than I have ever done. Enjoy it.

Weighed 178lb this morning. That is down from 193lb which I weighed before RKC. This is also my big cheat week, being halfway through the 12 week plan. Eating perfectly clean for 6 weeks was not difficult but sometimes a challenge. Good to take a break but I do feel TERRIBLE when eating sugar.

Snatch Test Video

Posted by Steven on May 30, 2012 in RKC | 0 comments

The up side of not completing my snatch test RKC weekend is I have this video to share with you. My amazing team leader Michael Rendle has approved the test so now it is just a matter of finishing out the wait to be an official RKC.

Being able to watch this has been great for my training. You can see a very noticeable difference between the right and left sides. It had been something of a mystery to me why my right side was always fatigued faster than the left. I think it is safe to assume the dead left arm is not helping any. So I have been making that a big focus of my training.

My snatch needs some polish for sure, the arm thing is just the most noticeable. Remember there is always room to grow. Never think you have a movement mastered. Oh and seriously when did I get so bald?

5/21/12

Posted by Steven on May 21, 2012 in Training Log | 0 comments

Home Training
Fasted

TGU
32kg
3 sets of 1/1
1:30 rest

First set was very awkward definitely out of practice with the 32KG, next set was better but still not great, third set was solid. Had planned on going for 5 sets but wanted to be sure I finished polished and not degrading back to how the first couple sets went.

Swings
32kg
15:15
Alternating 5/10 rep sets
2 clusters of 7 rounds with 3 minute rest
100 swings total.

Well I wanted to get through three clusters without going past about 85% effort but the last three rounds of the second cluster took that much effort so had to call off the last cluster. Felt pretty good, not as much grip strain as the last time I attempted this. Some low back tightness. Need to really work on holding the strong ab pressure. Feet may have been a little close too. Will have to play around a little to get everything right.

Fast has been very easy today. Mood is good. Training was good. Committed to spending 10 minutes stretching after training it’s not much but it’s 10 minutes more than I ever do.