That looks like a lotta fun. Need a vid of you doing the full ninja course.

A couple of years ago, I kept getting these repeated groin strains either with sprinting or squat sessions. Once I started doing that warmup, I don't really have the problem.

The other thing is that my mobility is ****. I just am really stiff when I get in there and it takes about that much warmup (I don't do any thing else) to loosen up.

This would likely be less of a problem if I did more mobility stuff on my non-lifting days. But I'm extremely lazy.

I mean, I'd listen to him before me too, but I did say the exact same thing yesterday.

On a serious note, sometimes I get into the mood to squat by watching some KC videos; the smooth and controlled descent and explosion out of the bottom are nice reminders/mental cues to go into a session as a true power bottom, even if I look like a praying mantis with epilepsy in comparison.

highpraise.gif

It was pretty fun; I had been wunderin', N1 style, about whether I could even do the 12 foot at this advanced age, but given my height/reach, it was pretty easy. As my sister pointed out when she saw the video, wearing something other than jeans and a bit longer runway might give me a chance at 14 feet if I clean up my technique (and find somewhere with a 14 foot wall, obviously).

As for the courses, they're pretty short . . . Just four relatively short obstacles on each track (there are 3 tracks of varying difficulty). I don't go out there with them every time, but I'll try to get some video the next time I do.

Yeah, I know. I'd have been doing it whether KC chimed in or not.

If it works out, I'll assign you the greater share of credit (which I'm sure you'll cherish), for the initial advice and allowing me to sperg up your log.

Four year olds are awesome. They're super psyched about nearly everything and think you're amazing. It's all downhill after that trying to impress kids

if my worksets were 235x5, my warmup would look something like this, inlcuding my "preworkout" warmup:

barbell complex with just the bar:
DL x10
reverse curl/PC type deal x10
row x10
press x10
squat x10

squat sets:
45x5x1-3 depending on how I feel (usually just 1 set)
95x5
135x5
165x4
185x3
210x2
225x1

no rest between these sets other than changing plates. After last warmup, rest a min or two.

235x5 worksets


you can also do 5s all the way up to get more practice in, but just keep in mind that if you do that, I would consider 210x5 and 225x5 as part of your actual work then, and would rest appropriately prior to those sets.


If you want to record your warmups, do it renton style and record them all and only review prior to worksets.

The reason you don't want to sperg too hard about your lifts is it's paralysis by analysis, and it's negative reinforcement that if your form is 100% perfect you're gonna get jacked up or some ****.

Thanks. Interestingly when I look at your squat sets, if you did 3 sets of empty bar that gives you 35 reps before you get to the worksets. I normally come in at 41 (but 30 of those are the empty bar). So it doesn't look like there is a lot of time savings there. But I guess doing more meaningful reps on the way up may not be a bad idea.

There's clearly a lot of time wastage to cut, but maybe I'll start with the videos. Each time I check the vid, it is longer than the time it takes to do the set itself.

I might just go nuts and fast forward to the part where the lifting starts.

I'm accounting for that, obviously. I always do that.

I'd post of description of how I review the videos, but I think the sperge there would cause heads to explode.

It's funny because for the first 1-2 years of my lifting life, I rarely videoed anything. Then after spending some time on H&F, I decided that it had a lot of value. Clearly, I went way overboard.

I'm probably just doing that thing where it doesn't take me much to warm up and I'm generalizing that to everyone. I've also got previous injuries I'm testing for "good to go" feelings during the warmup, so guess I can understand that. I'm lazy too though--part of the reason I've stuck with yoga is otherwise I just never do any stretching. This way it's "taken care of" and I have some fun.

My typical warmup is a little like KCs but less ramping sets (I usually want 3 of those):

*Empty bar complex of 5s; snatch pulls, muscle snatch, partial OHPs, atg paused overhead squats, goodmornings
*high rep curls to pump (~20-30)
*light Arnold presses and/or shoulder circles (6-10)
*GHRs (because there's no leg curl device in my gym)
*box jumps

That's typically 5-7 minutes (depending on if some maniac used the death grip to tighten the GHD)

Squat sets leading to work sets of 5x235
*single 135 with 30 second pause (could also be empty bar or lower weight)
*"Rest" with a GHR and box jump round
*5x135 lengthy pause
*5x185 less lengthy pause
*3x215 no pause

I'll superset a rampup for a different exercise like pullups, so generally 1-2 minute "rests" between those.

Usually starting my first work set around 15 minutes.

If I'm feeling particularly stiff I'll divert to a few minutes on the rower or assault bike, and maybe a quick couple of yoga sun salutations and back openers. In that case it could be a full 30 minutes in before I'm getting to work sets.

Still a bit sick from the bug the minis gave me last week, and maybe a bit fatigued from yesterday. We move on, however.

1/2: Sheilfko C1W5D4

A (11:35 AM)
Comp Bench: wu, 135x5, 155x4, 180x3x2, 205x3x5 (2 minutes)
NG Chins: bwx6x8

B (11:53 AM)
Squat: wu, 165x5, 195x4, 230x3x2, 260x3x6 (2.5 minutes)
Facepulls: 9x12

C (12:22 PM)
Comp Bench: 135x5, 160x5, 185x5x4 (2 minutes)
Lying Reverse DB Flies: 5x10

D (12:34 PM)
Widegrip Bench: 135x10x5 (2 minutes)

E (12:45 PM)
Lying Incline Cable Flies: 5x10 (1 minute)

F (12:52 PM)
EZ LTE: 65x12x3 (1.5 minutes)
EZ Curl: 65x8x3

Got a bit of a late start this morning due to work issues, so had to hurry through this one; took 85 minutes on the button, since I got into the gym at 11:35 and had to pick the boys back up at 1. This was probably a bit harder than it should have been, as I was a bit more out of breath than I'd generally expect, especially towards the end. For Melk's benefit, I've included the start time for each of blocks above.

Last day of this cycle is tomorrow, then I set new training maxes and recalculate. Exciting!

Congrats on going to a ninja gym. They are very hot right now by us too. Fun to watch on TV. When's your ninja tryout? You'd be good imo.

Came for the warm up discussion and squatnittery.

Stayed for the warped wall.

+dt, time to take those skills to television.

Thanks bros, but I'm somehow too old, too weak, too fat, and too jacked in the lower body region to have a chance. I'd have to ditch actually lifting, cut down to 180, and train like some of the climbing bros on this board, which sounds like more work than I'm prepared to do.

There's actually a full ninja gym not far from us that I imagine the boys will graduate to shortly, so maybe I'll give it a dabble this summer or whenever they want to do it. If I wanted to do it for real, I'd probably have to go back in time and get into it 15 years ago. Maybe there's a senior circuit?

Maybe it's better to try than worry about stage 4 in Japan. I do think it's worth trying. Also your kids can be like "oh at least that's why daddy doesn't come home anymore" instead of being like "hey check out this video of me setting up for bench how is my arch do u think son? also please remember when I die this video of 90% RPE7 for a double will be the only thing around to remember me by." That is too sad.

Sometimes the talls do pretty well iirc. In any case, the midgets are always good for a hearty chuckle when they are world class gymnasts, but can't pass the reach-the-top-shelf tests. I think you would do well!

Well, there's that plus it would be orders of magnitude more inconvenient and harder to fit in since I couldn't train during the day or as easily while in the road, but yes, also that. I wouldn't mind mixing it in once the boys started doing it and I'd have to be there anyway.

I'd also likely leave some fragrant knee and elbow sleeves to remember me by, so there is that.

Thanks, Monte. It's good for me to have a frame of reference.

I might be mistaken, but I think the worst part is that unless you are invited (which I guess you can shoot for by writing the producers a compelling story), you may have to literally wait in line for days just to be able to take a shot at the qualifying course.

But that's for American Ninja Warrior. Now that it's more popular, I suspect that there are probably smaller ninja comps that one could take a shot in.

I think Monte would probably do quite well if he approached it with the dedication that he applies to his lifting, but I just don't see that happening unless a ninja gym opens up in is 1 block radius.

1/3: Sheilfko C1W5D5

DL: wu, 225x3, 245x3, 285x3x2, 325x2x6 (2 minutes)

Incline Bench: wu, 185x3x5 (2 minutes)

SS Press: wu, 260x2x5 (2 minutes)

CGBP: 145x10x5 (2 minutes)

Bayesian Curl: 4x12 (2 minutes)
Overhead Rope Tri Ext: 4x12

Discounting the 10 minutes I had to wait for a bench after incline benching, 80 minutes flat. And so ends cycle 1 -- I'm going to re-run the five week prep cycle with adjusted training maxes, then continue on with the competition/peaking block and test maxes after that. Assuming reasonable compliance with plan timing, I should have time to do that again before I turn 40, with max testing on or a bit before my birthday. We'll see how it goes.

On another note, I wasn't feeling especially great going into the gym because I was up late again last night, so I've decided on a New Year's resolution: no watching stuff (YouTube, Amazon Prime, HBO, whatever) on my phone in bed. I'll be sticking to podcasts from now on. Hopefully.

All of this is my understanding as well. I think just continuing to half ass it with the boys up until they decide whether or not it's something they want to do in earnest is probably the best move. Regardless of how well I could potentially do it, there's just no logistical way for me to train that sort of stuff right now unless things change pretty drastically with my life situation. We'll see.

Pro move: Don't take your phone into your bedroom.

Well, yeah, but what am I going to listen to when I'm trying to fall asleep? My wife's snoring?

Operation Only Podcasts has been a success for the last two days, so that's been a mitzah, especially given I had to get up early to fill in for the boys' basketball coach for their only 9 AM game of the season. They're at a birthday party at a rock climbing gym right now, then have another party at 4. Rough life.

1/5: Sheilfko C2W1D1

A
Squat: wu, 195x5, 225x4, 260x3x2, 295x2x4 (2.5 minutes)
NG Chins: bwx7x8

B
Comp Bench: wu, 135x5, 160x4, 190x3x2, 215x3x5 (2 minutes)
Facepulls: 8x15

Squat: 175x5, 205x4, 240x3x2, 275x2x4 (2.5 minutes)

Low Incline Cable Fly: 5x10 (1 minute)

Good Mornings: 115x10x4 (1.5 minutes)

Talked over my training max increases with fakeb last night, and he convinced me to bump squat up by 20, given that it made the 85% and 80% weights so pretty (295 and 275 respectively). Added 15 pounds to the bench training max for a similar reason, in that much of the work is done in the 80% range, and going from 255 to 270 got me from 205 to 215 at that percentage.

85 minutes. This was definitely harder, but still pretty doable. Still have a bit of a mild cough, so my work capacity is maybe at 80%.

Video'd squat for the first time in a while; keyed in on trying to lock in my pelvis in the hole. Depth was borderline, but I think just barely there?

I know everyone is their own worst critic, but describing that as borderline seems weird. That was clearly below parallel AINEC.

I more or less expected that, but I watched it anyway. Definitely wasn't expecting Spice Girls in the background, though.

I don’t know when I grunched but what is the operation only podcasts about?

Also, on your first rep your left foot comes off the ground and moves at the top. What gives?