11/3
500m Row
Squat 45x5x2 115x5 155x5 185x3 195x5x2 195x6
Bench 45x5x3 95x5 115x5 135x5x2 135x9
Curls 60x10x3
Back extensions +10lbs x10x2

First time trying out the bench really and it didn't hurt my chest at all...tho it was a bit of a struggle since i haven't benched in over a month.

11/19
500m Row 2:00
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 165x5 185x5x2 185x7
Ohp 45x5x2 75x5 95x5 105x3 110x5x2 110x6
Cable rows 42.5s x10x3
Curls 60 x10 x9 x8
Back extensions +10lbs x10x2

11/30
500m row 2:06
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 165x5 185x5 200x5x3
Ohp 45x5x2 70x5 85x5 100x3 110x2 115x4 95x7 95x4
Cable rows 50s x10 x9 x9
Back extensions +10lbs x10 x8
Curls 60 x10 x6 x7

WIM was low yesterday, only got like 4 or 5hrs of sleep

12/2
Row 500m 2:03
Deadlift 155x5 185x5 205x3 225x3 245x5
Bench 45x5x2 95x5 120x5 135x5 145x5x2 145x6
Curls 60 x12 x10 x8

12/5
500m Row 2:02
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 185x3 195x3 205x5x3
Ohp 45x5x2 70x5 95x5 105x3 115 x5 x4 x5

Didn't have much time to lift that night so was a little rushed on my lifts, think I would have gotten the 115x5x3 with a little more rest. DFII told me I was taking too much rest in between set which I definitely agree with (especially for such low weights), gonna focus on cutting down rest time going forward

12/7 500m Row 2:00
Deadlift 155x5 205x5 225x3 245x2 255x5
Bench 45x5x2 95x5 125x5 140x5 150x5x3
Cable rows 50s 10x3
Curls 60 x12 x8 x8

12/10
500m row 1:56
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 185x3 205x2 4:00 rest 210x5 4:00 210x5 4:30 210x5
Ohp 45x5x2 75x5 95x5 105x3 4:00 rest 115x5 4:00 115x5 4:30 115x5
Cable rows 60s x10 x8 x7
Pullups bw x 8 x1

Working on shortening my rest time between sets so I started timing it. Everything felt good until my second set of pullups where I think I pulled a muscle in my neck. It's very stiff and hurts right now but I think I'll be fine a day or two with rest

Dude your GF is a massage therapist. 0 sympathy.

Guess I'll do a little life update too, no idea who, if anyone reads this anymore but here goes-

I've been grinding 5-10nl at Foxwoods in ct since black Friday and doing very well in it. I played a bunch of tournaments since the 2011 wsop and didn't cash in one... This was like 25+ mtts, including 0/15 at this year's wsop, the variance is truly sickening and cost me a lot of $ because I always kept 100% of myself. Mtts along with being owed mid 5 figures from poker debts and ftp put me in a really ****ty spot financially. I ended up having to back out of some investments to rebuild my roll which really sucked, but since then I've been doing very well at cash. I've decided to stop playing tournaments for a while and I'm only focusing on cash games.

I also have a new gf, we've been dating for about two months now and things are going great. I think I'm a lot happier since we've been dating (doesn't hurt that I've been on an upswing in poker since we've been dating). The only problem with the relationship is that she lives down in ct so we live about 90 min from each other. Luckily she lives only 10 min from Foxwoods so when my roommate and I go down there every week for 4 days I'm able to see her everyday. The other minor problem that comes from this is that I only get to lift at my good gym in Boston a couple days a week so progress has been a bit slow coming back from my injuries. There's a ****ty gym at the casino hotel so I've been using that to cardiotard and do random lifts.

So that's where my life is right now, living in Boston (Medford) and traveling to Foxwoods mon-fri. 5-10/10-25 live grinder til online poker comes back (fingers crossed).

Haha, fair enough

Congrats on the massages and profitable poker!

Any bball going on?

Thanks yugo. I haven't had much time for bball at all (much to be dismay of bobbofitos), too much poker/gf/lifting and random bdays/weddings/etc going on. I'm hoping to have more time to play on weekends once football season slows down and my entire Sunday's aren't spent sitting on a couch. I played once last week for the first time in almost two months and I was very happy with my play and fitness level

That's pretty awesome. Usually if I haven't played in a while I'm quite disappointed with my fitness level, lol.

I really need to play actual basketball more...not just shooting around crap. Or just join a globogym which apparently has plenty of pickup bball.

I actually know who bobbofitos is now that I'm avidly follow TZ so I assume you guys play together. Who does he play like and/or how high is the level of your play?

A few suggestions:

1. Doing pushups can help keep your bench strong

2. I'd strongly consider buying a kettlebell and taking it with you to do in your hotel room.

3. Do HIIT when cardiotarding. I personally prefer the elliptical machines over treadmills, and if I'm at a hotel I'll just do 30 seconds of all out "sprinting" and then 30 seconds of rest and repeat 10-20 times. Or perhaps do burpees, which are very tough but awesome for getting in shape.

4. Do high rep sets of air squats. As long as you are pushing yourself hard on these air squats, I think its possible to do air squats twice a week and do heavy barbell squats once a week and still be able to add 5lbs each week on your barbell squat.

5. Planks and pullups are other good exercises to get in when gym equipment isn't great.

6. Its all about how hard you push yourself. A lot of people in your situation would go all out on SS days but then give a really half-assed effort when stuck in the hotel gym, and their progress will suck. Make sure to keep effort levels high despite the lack of gym equipment, and you'll be happy with your progress.

Yugo, bobbo is a self described combo of kirilenko and Dwight Howard I think? Anyway, he's an undersized big at 6foot or just over, he has a decent outside shot and is good when we run the PnR. I play pg mostly, sometimes I'll concede that to ball hogs if we get one on our team in pickup. I'm a much better shooter off the ball like most people, but I think I control the game a lot better than most people we play with so I prefer to have the ball. I think I'm a really good passer at our level of play and I have good handle, basically not flashy, not many TOs, solid at the PnR, can spot up and knock down shots when I'm in season and I have a really quick first step so I can get by most defenders. We usually play at the tufts gym with college kids who we're a little better than. We're probably a little bit below D3 school level when we're playing our best

Assani, good stuff, thanks

iirc I'm mixture of LeBron and Dwight*.



But really, my closest comparison is Dante Cunningham.

Pretty much this. Dante Cunningham.

Dubbie ("Gary") is a solid floor general. He isn't that vocal on the floor but he soothes the team, whether it's rec ball (league play) or raw pickup. He gives good balance, plays with solid direction. Like he's not one to push the pace in irreverent fast break tempo, but he also knows when to 1 man fast break for a layup. He's going to hate this comparison but he runs a team a lot like Derek Fisher.

I think Dub has great handle - he never gets stripped, he can penetrate in the lane without losing his handle, and he rarely travels or palms. However, it's more Jose Calderon-esque than Chris Paul - most creation is swing passes.

I urge Dub to shoot off the pnr rather than pass, because Alex is a real good shooter from most spots in the floor. If anything, (ESPECIALLY IN PICKUP) he's too selfless. If he was more shot-dominant, we'd be better, since he's a real good shooter. He has speed and burst quickness to get separation, but he doesn't use it. He also is an excellent spot up shooter but wont shoot vs a light contest - has to be wide open. Has a very nice pump fake because his first step is so quick, so he does punish the kids who over commit.

I'd agree with this

And this. Play varies wildly, both in our leagues and just raw pickup - the best players are D3+ players, some of whom are clearly a tad better than us, others who are not better than us but roughly equivalent.

Dub is pretty solid defensively, but he is more about defensive containment than he is at forcing TOs. Kinda like the opposite of Monta Ellis defense. I'd much rather stick Alex on the point of attack vs a quick guard, since he can stay in front - he really wont let anyone drive on him. Al does fairly decently on bigger players too, since he is deceptive about shot blocking - never any weakside help, but when bigger players try to post him up, he holds his own. (And has earned a bunch of rejections from people trying to just simply go over the top of him)

Derek Fisher kinda sucks in the NBA now though and Alex in our games is one of the better players, so that's a real bad comparison. Maybe Jason Kidd. Maybe fully healthy Luke Ridnour, possibly Goran Dragic, or Devin Harris.

Just mention Bobbo once ITT and I get a full scouting report on your rec team. I especially liked "opposite of Monta Ellis defense".

I'm not really sure what my corresponding NBA player would be. Nick Collison probably? Although he doesn't really have *any* posts moves where I have a bunch of junky ones, kind of like old man post moves that are really junky and off-tempo.

I get emotional when I play and have an anger issue....which isn't very Collison-esque. Maybe I'm really like Ron Artest if Artest took 3 shots a game and hauled in more o-boards than d-boards.

Btw, I can't see him hating the Fisher comparison. Unless you mean he's gotten so old that he plays with cement shoes now. OTOH if you mean GOAT Fisher, then man, compare me to him any day of the week.

It sounds to me you guys would either be better players in the "B" level of the rec league I played in or solid contributors to the "A" level. My college was a consistently good to very good (not great) D3 team and I noticed some members of the team playing in the championship game of the "A" level of the rec league one night.

I played in the "C" division and finally quit my team b/c my usage rate was ~5% and I just got fed up not even feeling like I was part of the team offensively. I touched the ball about as much from rebounds (3-4 offensively, defensively would vary depending on what part of the zone I played) than getting passes on offense. I'd maybe get 2 shots a game and ~3 FTs/game strictly from putting o-boards back up (I'm barrrely 6 ft. tall and can't jump at all, so most I would pass back out).

Anyway, one day maybe I'll play on a real team and/or figure out how to score in 5v5 so ppl pass me the ball. I always try to pass to efficient players but everyone else seems to pass to ppl who shoot and/or get their own shot, whether it's efficient or not.

Bobbo - going to start a bball log (or I think maybe you had an old one you could start up again)?

I think this is the main reason I don't shoot as much as I maybe should and I pass around the perimeter more. We're in it mostly for fun so I don't want people getting pissed off for never getting the ball or shooting so I try to spread it around even though it's not the most +ev play

<3. I'd pay the rec league fees for a PG who played like that on the team I was on.

1/5
500m row 2:09
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 165x5 185x3 200x5x3 2:30, 3:00, 3:45 rest
Ohp 45x5x2 75x5 95x5 105x5x2 105x6 3:30, 3:45, 3:00 rest
Cable rows 50s x10x3 2:30x3 rest
Back extensions +10lbs x10 x8 2:30x2 rest
Curls 50 x15 12x2 2:30x3 rest

Took time off during the holidays to rest the neck and just chill out and enjoy good food. Neck felt fine today, only problem was a little bit of tightness in my back while squatting but nothing serious. Went to the gym at the casino a couple times in between my last update but just doing small stuff and some treadmill running so don't really need to log that stuff. Looking forward to getting back at it and getting in the gym at least 3x week

1/12
Deadlift 155x5 185x5 215x3 235x5x2 3:00x2 rest
Bench 45x5x2 95x5 125x5 135x5 140x5x3 3:00x3 rest
Cable rows 50s x10x3 3:00x3 rest
Curls 50 x15 x12 x12 2:45x3 rest

Haven't DL'd in over a month so wanted to start off light, they felt good. I was there by myself and didn't have a mirror near me so not sure how great my form was. Bench felt ok, a little heavy (lol) since I haven't benched in over a month either.

Hint: if you're doing form checks with a mirror, your form could be better be default, lol.

Glad to see you're still active though. Smart to go with a very manageable weight on DL if you haven't for a month imo.

Have you worked hard to get to the point of being a good ball handler or has it come to you naturally?

I'd say it came pretty naturally but I also played a lot when I was a kid and did standard dribbling drills in bball camps and team practices. I haven't done any skill training since h.s.

1/14
Squat 45x5x2 95x5 135x5 165x5 190x3 205x5x3 rest 2:45x2 4:00x1
Ohp 45x5x2 75x5 95x5 105x3 110 x5 x4 x2 rest 2:45x2 3:15x1

Been battling a cold the last couple days and haven't gotten much sleep at all so I think that accounts for my ****ty performance today. Squats felt ok, the 2nd work set was meh because I was still a little fatigued from the short rest, I had to go let bobbo into the gym in between the 2nd and 3rd sets so I had extra time to rest and the last set felt much easier than the first two. Ohp I was just gassed and knew I wasn't gonna get it when the 95 warmup felt heavy...

Play bball with bobbo after lifting since it felt like half a lift anyway. I was tired from the lifting so wasn't playing 100%, but I shot well and won 1/2 of the games of 3way 21 we played. I wore my new shoes that I've been lifting and running in...never again. They're very comfortable but on about 20% of my jump shots where I was moving sideways and pulled up, the outer part of the shoe would roll over and I think I bruised some bone on the outside of my right foot. Pretty lucky I didn't twist/turn an ankle

Here's a pic for reference, don't play bball in these- Nike Free 3