Worked out for the first time today in about 3 weeks. Got real busy at work, had a deadline for a project and was working around the clock. Felt pretty weak, but that was to be expected.

For the summer I think I am gonna try to live up to my log title and lose some mass, probably get to 175 or so. I weighed myself today and was a soft 185, which is as light as I have been since I started working out 2+ years ago. Considering I just went three weeks of no exercise, only sleeping 4-5 hours a night, and eating nothing but junk food and coffee could be worse.

For my diet, my advanced strategy is to just eat less total food and keep my activity levels up. It is a pretty advanced strategy, so hopefully it is not too much FPS.

While I am dieting I think I am going to try to finally get good form in some lifts I have been sucking at forever, namely deadlift, power clean, hang clean, front squat. So if I get through the summer and I can do all these lifts with decent form and have not lost too much strength, I will have considered it a success.

I don't know how much I will be updating my log, as I don't know how often I will do anything log worthy, but not sure anyone cares anyways. This is what I did today, it was easy but my endurance was weak. Also, my grip strength is pretty negligible, which made some of the things at the end hard.

Squat
225x5x3

Front squat
135x5x3

Hang clean
-worked up to some triples at 145 lbs

Power clean
-worked up to some triples at 165 lbs

-prone bridge thingies (forgot the name)
3 x 1 minute each

Workout 5/23/12

Did this workout in the outdoor rubber mat area with no rack, so had to clean everything up.

Deadlift to Hang clean to Press
135 5x3
-Because I have to do these from the rack position my hands are wider than I am accustomed doing this out of a squat rack. So is a little harder. That and I am small and weak right now.

Power clean to push press
-started at 135 and worked up to a couple singles at 185. I really need to work on getting my body under the bar for the catch. Once the weight started getting heavy (around 165 or so) my form basically turned into a football player power clean where my legs flail out wide and I catch it on my wrists around my collarbone. Definitely needs some work. Still, my goal is to get form down solid by the end of the summer, so I have time.

Deadlift
-Worked up to 315x5. Pretty easy. Concentrated on engaging my lower body. For me, this actually makes it harder right now, because my back is so much stronger than my legs, but I guess this will be good in the long run.

Pullups
10x3

Workout 5/27/12

-Took a few days off because I am lame. Also, I seem to have already quit my "diet." Did a lower body workout.

Squat
245 5x3
-easy

Front squat
155 5x3
-was easy on my legs, very hard on my wrists and shoulders. Definitely need some more flexibility in the rack position.

Leg press

prone bridges

Pretty sure we just call them "planks" bro.
(the "prone bridge thingies" obv)

Yeah, had a senile moment and just could not come up with the word. I do not remember that ever happening at 23, but at 33 it happens every once in a while. Sigh.

Workout 5/29/12

-Only slept 3 hours last night. LOL live poker. Had an ok upper body workout, which is probably good all things considered

Dumbbell bench
80s 8
95s 7,6

Incline dumbell bench
75s 7,7,7

Hang cleans
-Worked up to 145 3x3. Feel like I am getting more comfortable getting under the bar.

Pullups 10,10,9
-really wanted that last rep, but all the dolphin kicking in the world wasn't getting my chin above that bar.

More scream imo

Are you sure? I feel I've heard other people say this but imo that happened to me when I was 23 plenty, I just never thought "oh man I'm retarded b/c I'm getting older" but now that I'm > 30, that type of thought can sometimes sneak in. But I don't want to be thinking that b/c it's probably BS and I'm still super elite smart.

Btw, I just started The Way of Kings via audiobook (43 hours of epicness brodock) and so far (still I think in a prologue of some sort) I think it's going to do nicely for me the next 234234234 car rides I take.

Yeah, that would be one long audiobook, but it is a pretty easy read and isn't too many characters so would be doable.

I am 16% through (Kindle doesn't do page numbers, just tells you % through) the latest Malazan world book that just came out, Orb Sceptre Throne. It got bad reviews, but seems good so far IMO. One of the point of view characters is Selugeh, which is pretty cool, because I always thought they were an interesting storyline that wasn't elaborated enough.

Workout Thursday 5/31/12

Did a light lower body to loosen up the joints

Squat
Front squat

-Lots of squat clean practice, I really suck at these. Much harder than power cleans for me.

Hang clean to press
140 5x3 -Very hard, had to scream to get the last rep

Deadlift
335x5
-easy

Yeah, there seems to be a ton of back story there. I would love to read the account of Rake become Selugeh #8 or whatever he ranked (I don't remember at all what # he was except he randomly got a ranking).

The audiobook also has two readers - there is a male one (he did the Mistborn trilogy b/c I recognize his voice) and the other is female and is narrating the female characters perspective. I'm only a few chapters in, but already I am looking forward to when I have to go drive somewhere, lol. I am ready a different fantasy series at the moment and will move on to something else (maybe not fantasy, I'm not sure yet) - I think even though the female reader isn't necessary amazing (maybe I'm not used to her yet), listening to The Way of Kings is working really well.

I saw that book was out. I still haven't read ROTCG or Stonewielder (is that the name?) yet. They are finally at my library so they may be up soon to read.

Rake was #7. One of the plotlines in the current book is that the current #8 is actually traveling around looking for Daseem (cause technically Daseem is #7 now cause he killed Rake) so he can challenge him for #7.

I would recommend ROTCG. It is actually my favorite of all the Malazan books. The other author does not write as good as Erickson, but he doesn't do all the philosophical rambling either, so it is a more straightforward read.

If you wanted to completely understand all the storylines in ROTCG you would have to read Night of Knives first, but you could follow 90% of ROTCG without doing so. Night of Knives is actually more of a prelude to Gardens of the Moon, and goes more into the history of the Empire under Kellanved and Dancer.

Stormwielder is more of a stand-alone novel that goes into the Koreli. I liked it, but you could skip it without missing too much.

Hey, I was pretty close with my #8 guess! Yeah, that makes sense that he'd have to find Daseem. Gl with that. Those Seguleh are so Fing hardcore. Seems like there are 20 other series worth of secondary characters/races that could be spun off though too.

Night of Knives is the only Esselmont book I've read so far - I agree he's not on the same level as a writer, but it was a very welcome departure since he has a much more to-the-point writing style and I definitely enjoyed it.

What happened is somehow my library got Night of Knives in ok, but then ROTCG was "pending shipping" or some BS for like 2 years - but I didn't want to skip it and read Stormwielder. I originally had planned to read everything in chronological order of when they got published but said "F it" b/c I didn't want to wait for ROTCG or purchase the book outright (what am I gonna do with owning 1 book of the series, lol).

I think I mentioned it b4 but I also read all of the ummm, Korbalain and Bauch (sp?) books. I enjoyed them, but glad they were short - I think they needed more Quick Ben - those two weird guys on their own without mainline characters to interact with are a bit too weird imo.

Yeah, I haven't read the Korbalain and Bauch novellas. On the too do list, but definitely not too far up. I definitely agree if there was one book it would be a bad idea to skip it would be ROTCG.

Haven't noticed anything like this. Either jdock has sucky genes, selective memory/sees non-existent patterns or is joking around.