To be a good husband to my wife, son to my parents, and brother to my sister.
To be a good steward to my land.

And if I manage that:
To read a book every two weeks.
To stay strong.
To get leaner.
To eat even less poison this coming year than this year.
To go a full 30 days -- sequentially -- without milk and cheese.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 04:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm archiving the Texas Method program here just in case the Testosterone Nation link dies someday:

Monday — Volume Day

A) Squats, 5 x 5 @ 90% of 5RM

B) Bench press or overhead press, 5 x 5 @ 90% 5RM

C) Deadlifts, 1 x 5 @ 90% 5RM

Wednesday — Recovery Day

A) Squats, 2 x 5 @ 80% of Monday's work weight

B) Overhead press (if you bench pressed Monday), 3 x 5 at slightly lighter load than previous 5 x 5 OHP weight, or bench press (if OHP on Monday), 3 x 5 @ 90% previous 5 x 5 weight.

C) Chin ups, 3 x Bodyweight

D) Back extensions or glute-ham raise, 5 x 10

Friday — Intensity Day

A) Squats, warm-up, then work up in singles or doubles to one single, new 5RM

B) Bench press, (if you bench pressed Monday) or overhead press (if OHP on Monday), warm-up, then work up in singles or doubles to one single, new 5RM

C) Power clean, 5 x 3 reps or power snatch, 6 x 2 reps (dynamic effort is what counts here)

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not really a novice lifter any more, at least not in the sense that I can reliably add 5lb to a lift every workout, or even every week. I'd hoped to get further before I was forced to consider myself intermediate, but there it is.

Time to consider new programs, so here are my candidates:
The Texas Method
Reverse Pyramid with the Big 3
Madcow's 5x5

If I go with the Big 3, I may just drop bench press and do the standing press exclusively for awhile.  Benching at any kind of real volume seems to tweak my golfer's elbow, and re-injury would utterly suck.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 08:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm considering actually counting calories (they way we calculate them is horsefeathers, but the values are relative, so it's not totally awful). This looks like a handy tool for planning that kind of thing.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 02:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Monday (12-19-2011)
deadlift 335 lb 5, 3, 2
bench 215 lb 3, 3, 2, 2
pendlay row 185 lb 5, 3, 2

Tuesday
squat 285 lb 4x3
squat 225 lb 3x5
press 120 lb 4, 4, 3
press 100 lb 3x5
chin-up 12, 7, 5
cable pressdown 160 lb 3x8
dumbbell curl 30 lb 2x8 each arm

Thursday
deadlift 335 lb 3, 3, 2, 2
deadlift 275 lb 2x5
bench 215 lb 5x2
bench 185 lb 5
bench 165 lb 2x5
dumbbell row 100 lb 4x5 each arm

Friday
squat 295 lb 4x2
squat 275 lb 3
press 115 lb 5, 3, 4
parallel-grip pullup 11
wide-grip pullup 6
pullup 6
farmer's walk 60 lb kettlebells 1 lap, 0.7 lap, 0.3 lap

Weight (Friday): 180 lb

Notes: Overdid it this week.  If I'd stuck to the template, I'd probably have been fine, but I threw in way too much volume work.  Every bit of me is sore right now.  I'm considering a programming change come Monday: switching back to 3 barbell workouts a week (Reverse Pyramid method), with 1-2 conditioning workouts on non-barbell days.  I definitely need to reduce my overall barbell volume compared to this week and last.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 12:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 204 words, total size 2 kb.

Monday (12-12-2011)
squat 245 lb 5, 3, 2
press 115 lb 5, 3, 2
pull-ups 10, 7

Tuesday
deadlift 315 lb 5, 3, 2
bench 195 lb 5, 3, 2
farmer's walk 60 lb kettlebells 2 long laps

Wednesday
squat 255 lb 5, 3, 2
press 115 lb 5, 3, 2
deadlift 135x3, 225x3, 275x3 (hook grip practice)

Thursday
deadlift 325 lb 5, 3, 2
bench 205 lb 5, 3, 2
chin-ups 11, 7
deadlift 135 lb 10
bench 135 lb 10
squat 135 lb 10

Friday
hanging leg raise 20
squat 275 lb 5, 3, 2
press 120 lb 3, 3, 2, 2
pull-ups 11, 8
squat 135 lb 20
pendlay row 135 lb 3x5

Weight (Sunday): 180 lb

Notes: Wasn't sure how I wanted to change up my training when I got back to the gym, so I just went with a variant PTTP training week.  I also joined fitocracy this week, so there are some random extra things tacked on to the end of Thursday and Friday's workouts to meet quest requirements.  There were also some extra exercises I did at home away from the gym that aren't recorded here, for the same reason.  I'm not sure if I want to go to the trouble of logging everything twice, so for now I'll maintain this log for the work done at powerhouse so I can track my barbell lifts consistently.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is the standing desk.  Minimal wobble, good height, should do the job if I don't lean on it or try to use it for playing FPS games.



The riser to put on top of the desk I can't move.  It's too short to wobble.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 10:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

Sitting is death, and I sit 10-11 hours a day, mostly at work.  I have been trying to stand, but I have two standard-height desks, so I end up leaning over or taking a wide stance (SYWM), which isn't ideal.  One desk I can replace entirely, the other I can add a 6" riser to, but after that, I think I can easily stay on my feet much of the time.  So, this weekend: build a sturdy 6"x36"x30" riser box, and a 36"x36"x20" table.

Photos to follow.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 04:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Choffy.  Cocoa beans roasted and prepped like coffee.  I've wanted to try and make something like this for years, like the Aztec xocoatl.  I've tried chicory as a coffee alternative, and it's pretty good (good enough that I'm considering trying to grow my own next year), but I gotta try this.  Possibly with added cayenne.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 01:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 62 words, total size 1 kb.

Saturday (12-10-2011)
squat    225 lb 3x5
deadlift 315 lb 5, 3, 2
bench   185 lb 3x5
press    105 lb 3x5
chin-up 10, 7, 5

Weight (Sunday): 183 lb

Notes: I took the first part of the week off because I was still recovering from my gum surgery and couldn't eat normally.  Took the latter part of the week off because I expected to spend the weekend helping a friend move and didn't want to be sore going into it.  The friend's closing didn't happen, so I did a long, light workout on Saturday to get back into the groove.  In total, I was out of the gym for 11 days, so I have some make-up work to do.  I've also lost that belt notch I was using as a bulking barometer, so that's gotta stop.

It was, by the way, a total failure.  My lifts went nowhere and I got fatter.  Short days and cold weather are driving my appetite, and muscle growth doesn't seem to be happening.  I have heard some anecdotal evidence and even a few small studies of strength athletes suggest that winter strength gains are rare for anyone but a novice.  I don't want to use that as an excuse, but it makes a degree of evolutionary sense.  Winter is a time for conservation and defense of life, not a time for growth.  There are bound to be some hacks around that, but it might be better to just focus on maintenance and GPP for now, maybe shifting into a full-ketogenic diet for a time to encourage some healthy catabolism.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, really.  If you gotta run, sprint, then walk.  Steady-state running for long distance just isn't good for you.  I'm not hatin', it's science.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 09:32 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Tuesday (11-29-2011)
deadlift 325 lb 5, 3, 2
deadlift 265 lb 6x5
press 120 lb 5, 3, 2
press 100 lb 5x5
hammer curl 40 lb 3x8
tricep pressdown 130lb 8, 140 lb 8, 150 lb 8

Weight (Friday): 180 lb

Notes: I got a call Wednesday night from my periodontist asking if I'd be willing to do my surgery on Thursday rather than weight 'til the 12th.  My schedule was flexible, so I went ahead.  I haven't been able to really have solid food since then, and my post-surgery recommendations were to avoid strenuous activity.  Between the two recommendations, hypertrophy training and eating were essentially off the table, not to mention that the medications from the surgery and the painkillers afterward had left me feeling a bit weak.  Hoping to get back into the gym sometime later this week when I've got my sutures out.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 01:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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