Thank the stars - cardio week ho!

WOD 9/27: e-squared wod

• back squat 335lbs x 1 rep x 1 set

whoo! 20lbs below my all time max. but again - the all time max was set at a bodyweight that was 10-12+ lbs higher than mine now (165). so happy to have set a double bodyweight squat - ass to grass baby. ass to grass. i could have gone higher - but something told me to be satisfied with what i got. liz hit 135!! ass to grass as well! way to go :)

WOD 9/29: e-squared wod

• thruster 115lbs x 5 reps x 4 sets

last workout before the last week of the month - cardio week. whew - this was a tough 3 week set. we had heavy singles in the dead, press and squat. remarkably tho i'm not that sore. all workouts were done fasted, of course. so i can officially say that there is no need to eat before a workout. also - we can hit big weights well into a fast and be completely fine. this has been a serious exercise in learning and defeating old ways of thinking. just wow.

Let the rebuild process begin!

WOD 9/22: e-squared wod

• overhead squat 95lbs x 5 reps x 4 sets

this gave me a neurological beat down. was pretty fun.

WOD 9/25: e-squared wod

• snatch push press 95lbs x 5 reps x 4 sets

interesting couplet?

i got certified!!! i'm now an ACSM certified personal trainer! this has been a goal a long time coming. it's on now - time to rebuild people - one at a time.

There is always another day

WOD 9/20: e-squared wod

• press 165lbs x 1 rep x 1 set

struggled to get this up, but i got it. my max ever was 175lbs - but this was done at a bodyweight of 175. now i'm 8-10lbs less - so i still pressed my bodyweight. whoo! and again, as with the deadlift, we rarely train the actual press. liz hit a new press max - 85lbs! don't worry - you'll get 90lbs another day. :)

Twisted masochistic fun

WOD 9/18: e-squared wod

• deadlift 345lbs x 1 rep x 1 set

excited to have hit 345 - 20lbs under my all time max of 365lbs. i believe when i set that max i was somewhere in the neighborhood of 177-180lbs bodyweight. i was also training deadlift quite a lot. today i hit 345lbs with a bodyweight of 166-167lbs and we seldom train the actual deadlift. we were also fasted at the time. booyah! liz also set a deadlift record: 175lbs!!! my guinea pig is getting stupid strong.

this wod starts out two weeks of working heavy singles in the deadlift, back squat and press. these are the big three powerlifting moves (with the exception of bench - but we rarely if ever bench as its functionality is questionable).

we seldom work heavy singles anymore because we tend to focus more on athletic functionality with submaximal loads. however, it is good to work heavy singles every now and again so that you can gauge where your upper limit strength is at. plus they're plain fun in that sick, twisted masochistic kind of way.

Fed up!

WOD 9/11: e-squared wod

• back squat 225lbs x 4 reps x 3 sets
• front squat 155lbs x 4 reps x 2 sets

the wod starting out the new 3-week set. wow i was sore after this one!

WOD 9/13: e-squared wod

• deadlift 235lbs x 4 reps x 3 sets
• straight-legged deadlift 235lbs x 4 reps x 2 sets

the 235 went up surprisingly easy.

WOD 9/15: e-squared wod

• press 105lbs x 4 reps x 2 sets
• push press 135lbs x 4 reps x 3 sets

135 went up easy as well! this is ramping us up for the next 2 weeks of moving heavy weights.

so yesterday i almost lost it. well that's an exaggeration. we have been systematically eliminating "bad" foods from our diet and bad chemicals we come in contact with - and yesterday it was almost enough is enough. bye bye vanilla coconut milk, EC stack, tacquitos, stick deodorant, flouride toothpaste and gum. those were the latest victims in an ever-increasing list.

why? they are chock full of artificially produced chemicals that our bodies simply can not process. food colorings? no no. aspartame? no! mono-sodium glutamate? hell no! and speaking of MSG - did you know there are a million different ingredients that contain it? hrm - rice syrup? that's msg. yeast extract? msg. natural flavors? you got it - msg! what is msg? a neurotoxin! what does it do? it makes your neurons get so excited that they speed up to the point that they self-destruct. yes. all that food you eat is literally killing your brain cells, as well as causing you to have metabolic syndrome and then cardiovascular disease. yum!

and damn - i am pissed off. i am truly pissed off. we are literally inundated with chemicals that we can't process. they get you from every angle. it's in your food, your toiletries, the water we drink and the air we breathe. doesn't it make you feel super healthy when you think of the amount of diesel smoke toxins that you currently have in you? and how is that candida fungal overgrowth that most americans have? yea that's what happens when you take too many antibiotics. it kills the good bacteria in your gut, people! your GOOD bacteria. so with no good bacteria, a fungus starts to grow inside you that methodically makes you sicker and sicker.

but nobody fucking cares! nobody! i can't mention this to anyone - not my family or my friends either. i'm automatically labeled some new-age hippie type and no one believes me. oh i'm not a doctor. the same doctor that only knows conventional medicine and prescribes you a pill to cover up the symptoms while the disease is never fixed and you continue to rot away.

yes. your body is rotting from the inside out. it's disgusting. first off your colon is plugged full of pounds upon pounds of rotting feces. and then guess what happens - it forms on the walls of your colon and the nutrients from the food you eat can't get absorbed. so you become nutrient deficient as well.

awww...you have a cold today. gee - that bacteria you picked up at work was the last straw that knocked your overworked immune system out. your body is trying to fix itself! so what do you do - take more artificial chemicals to make it go away. now you just delivered a 2-punch combo to your own body. you made it worse! oh the cold eventually goes away - but the next one will be worse!

but that is the american way, isn't it? mommy will put a band-aid on it, kiss it and make it all better. gee that sounds like the economical crisis we're currently in. thanks NAFTA, outsourcing, over seas tax havens and insidious demand for bullshit toys from china. after years of little to no regulation and easy credit thru monetary stimulus, quantitative easing, low interest rates, the printing press, the fiat dollar as the reserve currency, no backing with gold, wage stagflation, and the dollar losing over 90% of its purchasing power, the big guys start to fail. but they're too big to fail! so whats the solution - just print more dollars to buy up the bonds that foreign nations no longer want to buy.

yea. that's right. they are laughing at us americans over in asia. LAUGHING AT US. they don't want the dollar anymore. washington is making it worse. did you know the dollar is at a year low? do you know it's been in freefall since march? lost over 15% of its value? does that concern you at all? no because they keep you distracted while they debate this bullshit health reform bill. gee you think we can afford that right now? we already owe over $1 trillion in medicare and social security obligations. but fuck it. let's push the health care bill thru - and for the heck of it - why not cap & trade too? hell these corporations are doing so well - let's truly pulverize the small businesses into a nice fine powder - why do we need them anyway - oh they are the spirit of america? let them go the way of the constitution and bill of rights. bye bye! down the drain you go.

does it concern you that the american populace is so chemically intoxicated that they can't think straight? why is it that mainstream news can be understood by an elementary aged school kid? because it's dumbed down for us? could it be?

oh everything is great - the american okie doke - look the stock market is back up. could that be from the trillions of dollars the feds have pumped into the system? gee. who are the movers in the S&P 500? oh the big banks that got billions of our tax-payer dollars. do you know who the big names in the dow jones are? does walmart and mcdonalds ring a bell? could it be that people are going to those businesses because they can't afford anything else?

i am absolutely fed up with this sytem. it is a sick, grotesque, evil system beyond anything ever seen in history. we are executed slowly and slowly - strangled economically and from the inside-out with poisonous chemicals that dumb us down to a population just smart enough to slave away and produce profits for their greedy, disgusting, ammoral corporate masters while their families fall apart and their kids get indoctrinated with a rockefeller funded agenda that makes them think all this is actually normal.

a stroll to the library

WOD 9/9: cardio wod

today we are walking to school and back (~3 miles total).

i am currently sitting here in the UA library with my acsm book. it was a nice walk - sun was going down with a slight breeze at the back. it's been a long time since we've walked at night - the return home should be really nice. tucson is charming in its own way...the desert cacti and flora are things i should really appreciate.

Celestine Butterfly

WOD 9/6: hiking

today was our first cardio workout for the template cardio week. we headed off to the butterfly trail on mt. lemmon. this has proven to be our favorite trail in tucson (thus far). we stop at one of the summits and then turn around and head back (~1 hr of actual hiking). this particular summit has a wonderful energy to it. there is a small clearing with a log that we like to sit on - from that seat you have a panoramic view of the mountainous country side. we are always filled with great energy for the trip home. it is majestical in a lot of ways.

No power walking for us!

WOD 8/28: e-squared wod

• snatch pull 155lbs x 5 reps x 4 sets

i liked the way i set this up - snatch push press and two days later - snatch pull. nice little couplet.

WOD 8/30: e-squared wod

• front lunges 95lbs x 6 reps x 4 sets

this is the first time that we've done front lunges with weight. this is a must do exercise. the individual legs get blasted. we went up to 6 reps so that each leg would get 3 reps.

WOD 9/1: e-squared wod

• jumping squat 185lbs x 5 reps x 4 sets

great combo plyo/barbell exercise. builds the "T" like whoa. also a great ending workout to lead into the next week - which is cardio week *says with dread*!

i built one cardio week a month into the template. there were a few reasons for this. first of course it is nice to get a break from our standard exercising. even with the ramp-up template - it still takes a toll.
second, it gets us out of the gym environment. that in itself can be a relief. breaks from the gym are good for the mind.
third, cardio still has its place. so while this can be interpreted as a recovery week - we still must get our 3 standard workouts in. these will simply be cardio workouts. even if its walking to school and back (~3 miles) - it counts as a workout for our purposes. there really is no reason to do intense cardio - at least at this time while we are working on gaining strength. in fact - intense cardio may slow the recovery process. easy walking it is!