The road to weakness is paved with good intentions

Despite the best intentions I only trained on Monday last week. So yesterday I was back at it and feeling the lay off.

Toe touch, leg lowering, thoracic rotation with arm sweep.

Get-ups - 46.5# globe BB, singles for 5/5 total. Didn't do these for time. This thicker bar and long bar really fries my grip.

Pullups - bw x 2 reps per :30 x 10 ; last set was only 1 good rep and a partial. 19.5 reps total

Arm bar - 16kg x 1/1 x 3

Lessons from Rocky IV

Sitting here watching Rocky on Christmas day and observed a few good tips from his training in Russia.
Thick-bar training both on pullups and presses using a wagon.
Rotational training - chopping wood and a chop/twist pulling a bag of rocks.
Sled dragging
And though they didn't show him drinking raw milk, they showed a cow being milked so you can guess he was drinking this high quality beverage.

A new experiment

Over the weekend I came across something called "oil pulling", which involves swishing oil in your mouth sorta like a mouthwash. It's an old practice and numerous,"miraculous" results have been attributed to it and some unlikely mechanisms explained. But Bruce Fife has a more believable explanation, that the oil removes bacteria from the mouth. Research on root canals find that bacteria from the mouth can find their way into other parts of the body and cause dis-ease. So I figured I'd give it a try and see if it improves my health. It sure can hurt anything and it's basically free. Swish 1 TBS oil in your mouth for 15-20 mins. Dr. Fife recommends coconut oil because of it's other health properties. More traditional approaches recommend sunflower or sesame oil. I'm using coconut, because that's what I have. I'm on day 3. The oil is worked around the mouth, tongue and squished through the teeth. Then spit out, so as to expel the bacteria it has gathered. Further details found here as well as links to an interview with Dr. Fife.

Fine Dining

Today's training.
leg lowering and toe touch, thoracic rotation and R-phase
Swings: 24kg , on the minute for 10 minutes. 6 reps/min

Bent Press: 46.5# 1/1 x 5

came home and made a delicious dinner.
Pasture-fed beef tenderloin seered to perfection, oven-roasted asparagus with a balsalmic butter sauce, washed down with a frosty Boddington's pub ale and topped off with some dark chocolate truffle. It doesn't get better than this.

juggling act

Finally got 3 days of training in this week.
Today was get-ups and pullups again so I decided to add some variety by way of intensity and endurance.

Get-ups : 16kg 3/3 x 2 , focused on good form with crisp movements and trying not to let hip flexors take over.

Pullups : 5 singles with bw + 16kg

that's it because I had to go see my new niece.

Gotta stop slacking

I've only been training 2 days/wk. Time to get back on track with 3 days.
Today-
get-ups: 46.5# x 4/4 in 6 mins - added a total of 1.5 and it made a big different. I was really feeling it.

pullups: 2 every :30 for 5 mins, total 20

working on 1/2 deck of cards

Good Calories, Bad Calories

The above is the title of a book by Gary Taubes. I just recently learned about this book and haven't had the opportunity to read it yet. I understand it is quite lengthy and goes into great detail and contains 200+ pages of references. The premise is what I've been saying for a couple years. Weight loss has very little to do with calories in vs. calories out. Watch his presentation on the material and decide for yourself in this hour long video. I would love to hear what you think about this. For additional info along these lines check out "7 Principles of Fat Burning" by Eric Berg, any book by Diane Schwarzbien, or even ole Doc Atkins himself. It's about using food and the proper exercise to manipulate the hormones that regulate fat storage and fat burning.