A Tale Told by an Idiot

[EricK]

My wife bought me a build your own ukulele kit that I assembled last recently. I'm looking at trying to learn Lava (a song story depicted in a short movie on Disney) because it's a nice little (simple) song that the whole family sings along to in the car.

That was positively fucking heartwarming. (Not joking.)

The story or the song?

Haha the story. Given my musical leanings, I didn’t check out the song, but I’ve got a real long drive to male later so perhaps I’ll check it out.

Definitely not Pantera, but I can't say I wouldn't listen to a good Pantera-style cover of the song.

[MailmanMuscle]

One more training day left to take credit for the first part of my resolution goals. Thinking about moving to 4x a week for 6 weeks or so. At a reasonable progression I still won't be at PR levels but I'll be back in range of decent numbers at least. I don't want to commit to anything long term yet, I just want to make sure I keep training. I just have to remember that sticking to something will leave me better than I was even if I can't reliably predict or control what that looks like.

Does your schedule allow you to train every other day? If so, I’ve found it to be a happy medium between 3x and 4x per week. If my schedule allowed it now, that’s what I would be doing myself.

[platypus]

Notes:
One more training day left to take credit for the first part of my resolution goals. Thinking about moving to 4x a week for 6 weeks or so. At a reasonable progression I still won't be at PR levels but I'll be back in range of decent numbers at least. I don't want to commit to anything long term yet, I just want to make sure I keep training. I just have to remember that sticking to something will leave me better than I was even if I can't reliably predict or control what that looks like.

I actually find it mentally easier to train 4x a week than 3x. I think it's because every weekday except Wendnesday, I just roll out of bed and go lift, so it feels like a basic daily habit with one free day of relaxation. Whereas at 3x a week, lifting starts to feel less like a daily habit and more like an interruption to my schedule.
I'm also single and childless, so my experience might not translate well to yours.

[EricK]

One more training day left to take credit for the first part of my resolution goals. Thinking about moving to 4x a week for 6 weeks or so. At a reasonable progression I still won't be at PR levels but I'll be back in range of decent numbers at least. I don't want to commit to anything long term yet, I just want to make sure I keep training. I just have to remember that sticking to something will leave me better than I was even if I can't reliably predict or control what that looks like.

Does your schedule allow you to train every other day? If so, I’ve found it to be a happy medium between 3x and 4x per week. If my schedule allowed it now, that’s what I would be doing myself.

I could probably make that work, but I like to be lazy on the weekends... I've done 4x per week in the past, it's just that the past couple years or so have been a real shitshow for me exercise wise so I don't want to commit to something that fails before I start building some momentum.

Notes:
One more training day left to take credit for the first part of my resolution goals. Thinking about moving to 4x a week for 6 weeks or so. At a reasonable progression I still won't be at PR levels but I'll be back in range of decent numbers at least. I don't want to commit to anything long term yet, I just want to make sure I keep training. I just have to remember that sticking to something will leave me better than I was even if I can't reliably predict or control what that looks like.

I actually find it mentally easier to train 4x a week than 3x. I think it's because every weekday except Wendnesday, I just roll out of bed and go lift, so it feels like a basic daily habit with one free day of relaxation. Whereas at 3x a week, lifting starts to feel less like a daily habit and more like an interruption to my schedule.
I'm also single and childless, so my experience might not translate well to yours.

Yeah I've made mon-tue-thu-fri work in the past and I even had a lot of success with sun-mon-wed-fri, too. Just trying to take baby steps and build back up to a decent (ideally 5x per week) schedule.

Thu, 2/1/24

201.8

Guitar:
2:00
-really jamming out to Sitting On the Dock of the Bay still can't quite keep it together and sing the lyrics but I'm getting there. The way I'm playing it is a lot of fun and sounds much cooler than the standard straight strumming. I can even transition straight from the little riff into the first verse, which feels cool.
-spent some time on the ukulele working on Lava as well. The neck of the ukulele is boxy with sharp corners so it's a bit painful to play for any length of time. Considering getting a "real" (read: professionally made) one just to spare my hand.

[cgeorg]

Knock down the edges with some sandpaper

[EricK]

Knock down the edges with some sandpaper

That could work. I may just be making excuses to buy a professionally made instrument, though. The general rule is that guitar hobbyists are always one guitar short of a complete collection...

[cgeorg]

GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) is a real thing. You're all acoustic right now? If you want to keep your money, keep it that way.

[EricK]

GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) is a real thing. You're all acoustic right now? If you want to keep your money, keep it that way.

My newest one is acoustic-electric with the plug to connect an Amp but I don't think that counts.

Funny story: my son went to a birthday party at a bowling alley last year and after the bowling and pizza was done we all got $20 pre-paid cards for the arcade. I went down to the arcade with the party and there was this sucker box skill-based prize machine with an electric guitar in it. The "skill" was to push a button that extended a mechanical arm with a crimp at the end of it. When you let go of the button it stopped the arm and closed the crimp. If you timed it right, the crimp would cut a string holding the door shut. It was $5 a try, so I thought, "wow that'd be cool to get an electric guitar for 5 bucks!"

After the second time recharging my card I started to think that maybe it was a steal, just not in the direction I had hoped.

[KarlM]

GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) is a real thing. You're all acoustic right now? If you want to keep your money, keep it that way.

Lol, so true, so true!

[EricK]

Fri, 2/2/24

198.9

Guitar:
-Sitting On the Dock of the Bay
-Someone to Lava

Squat:
135 x 8 x 2, 225 x 5, 315 x 1

Bench:
135 x 12, 225 x 5

[EricK]

Tue, 2/6/24

202.3

Missed yesterday because my 3 year old got up early and needed attention. Although I admit I wasn't going to do much anyway.

Guitar:
1:30
-Sitting On the Dock of the Bay; still can't do much with the lyrics but the strumming is getting more consistent.
-Someone to Lava; I can get the lyrics ~70-80% of the time but outside of that I still screw up the rhythmic strumming or miss chord changes. Still, getting better; I couldn't sing it at all last week.

Squat / chin:
135 x 8 / BW x 8
225 x 5 / BW x 8
[ 275 x 5 / BW x 8 ] x 3

Bench / curl:
135 x 12 / 82 x 8
[ 185 x 8 / 82 x 8 ] x 3

Notes:
I decided to compromise by doing more with the same number of sessions for a few weeks. I'll move to a 4x per week format at some point. These didn't feel great but I may be coming down with something. The little one sounded like a retired coal miner over the weekend, which is why he wanted to sleep in our bed so much. #socialdistancingforparents

[EricK]

I started typing a question upstairs in the stupid question thread as to what the concensus might be on losing weight first versus getting strong first. I realize that it probably doesn't matter and largely comes down to preference, but as I'm basically 40 now and have consistently had bad biomarkers for a few years now (and I'm convinced all of them would improve with weight loss and cardio), I think I ought to prioritize that over getting back into PR territory for my lifts... I'd kinda like to be around in case I ever have grandkids and, the way I'm going that may not be such a certainty right now. I guess this means I'm program hopping, but the upside is that I don't really care. I probably need to lose a legit 20 lbs to see real improvement in my numbers, and at least 30 if I want leave a little room to grow after...

I don't think I need a super complicated plan at this point. Just eating better (primarily on weekends), getting on the treadmill at least a few times a week, walking at work and keeping any lifting light without much hope/expectation of progress should work for a while.

[JohnHelton]

I started typing a question upstairs in the stupid question thread as to what the concensus might be on losing weight first versus getting strong first. I realize that it probably doesn't matter and largely comes down to preference, but as I'm basically 40 now and have consistently had bad biomarkers for a few years now (and I'm convinced all of them would improve with weight loss and cardio), I think I ought to prioritize that over getting back into PR territory for my lifts... I'd kinda like to be around in case I ever have grandkids and, the way I'm going that may not be such a certainty right now. I guess this means I'm program hopping, but the upside is that I don't really care. I probably need to lose a legit 20 lbs to see real improvement in my numbers, and at least 30 if I want leave a little room to grow after...

I don't think I need a super complicated plan at this point. Just eating better (primarily on weekends), getting on the treadmill at least a few times a week, walking at work and keeping any lifting light without much hope/expectation of progress should work for a while.

Yep. Losing excess fat is always beneficial. That just means a calorie deficit. Cardio is pretty easy too. 3 x 30 minutes per week on the treadmill, pushing it just hard enough that you can still carry on a conversation (but it is a bit uncomfortable). Finally lifting with autoregulation and consistency. Forget about PR goals; just follow the autoregulation. That could produce PRs, but worrying about it won't make it happen. My two cents. I'm basically lifting and running for health at this point in my life.

[broseph]

I think you're making the right choice vis-a-vis weight loss before chasing PR's.

You may not remember, but I let myself get pretty fat in the name of PR's, with the plan to start getting healthy at age 35. I lost 40+ pounds of bodyweight over the course of a few cut/maintain cycles and have kept the fat off for several years now (age 41). I've made some decent hypertrophy gainz since cutting down, but I can't seem to get any stronger than ~90% of previous PR's.

My cholesterol, blood pressure, etc were bad when I was fat, and (mostly) fine now.

ETA: Also, if you're looking to make any hypertrophy gainz, it's pretty rewarding to pack it onto a lean frame vs staying fat, cutting down, and realizing you're smaller than you thought.

[cgeorg]

+1 to health-focus.

[EricK]

Thanks, guys. Hopefully the experience isn't too bad, but I think, if I stick with it, the results will be worth it.

Wed, 2/7/24

201.4

Guitar:
1:00
-mostly worked on Someone to Lava play & sing; got a little discouraged because I feel like I've regressed a bit. I kept losing my strum rhythm on the lyrics, but played through the song several times overall. Not really sure what specific area to focus on (the song is really just the same chord sequence x 3 for the verse, the chorus is one chord sequence repeated twice, and that whole thing 3x to complete the song), but I will try to spend some time memorizing the lyrics to help reduce the demand on brain power.

[EricK]

Thu, 2/8/24

201.9

Guitar:
1:00
-Someone to Lava; still not feeling focused, still regressed...I was having a lot more fun working in guitar just a week ago, but I guess that is part of eating through the sticking points learning new skills

The 3 year still hasn't come to terms with mommy going to the gym in the morning and needed a lot of attention, so no workout for me today. I'll try to walk a couple loops around work. A "short" loop can take 20 minutes at a fast pace, a longer one can be 30.

[EricK]

Thu, 2/8/24 (evening)

Asked wifey-pants to pick up the kids so I could go full blown not a lazy-ass.

Press:
95 x 12
115 x 8 x 3
All reps pretty explosive to get the most out of them; I also took short rests so it almost felt like a metcon given my conditioning level. Very last rep was @ 10, barely locked out, ha.

RDL / dip:
225 x 9 / BW x 12
[ 245 x 8 / BW x 12 ] x 3
Kept up the pace and got a nice pump. Probably gonna be sore tomorrow...

Treadmill:
22:00, 251 cal, 1.88 mi

[EricK]

Fri, 2/9/24

201.1

Guitar:
My youngest kinda disrupted normal practice time by getting up early again, but at least he came down to the basement on his own instead of standing at our door crying and waking up his brother.

I was able to run through Someone to Lava a few times but I'm still discouraged that I trip up the rhythm and strumming pattern when I try the lyrics, even though I'm using the exact same pattern as I use on Like a Stone. Just hasn't felt like a good week for guitar, but I'll keep at it. I was hoping to play the song for my family this weekend but that won't happen.

I also played through Like a Stone, Learning to Fly and Sitting On the Dock of the Bay to keep them fresh. I can still do the first two fine, but regressed a little on my G to B7 transition. I think I can get it back easy enough, though so I'm not worried.

If I feel as blah about guitar next week as I did this week, I might find some new, reasonably challenging finger style song to learn, like Operator to keep my motivation up.

I reached out to a music instructor a few weeks ago, he put me on a distro list announcing that he would send out class schedules for open spots soon. After a few days I reached out to him asking if he would release openings soon and he apologized and said that he thought he had but all spots were filled. Kinda lame.

Squat / chin:
w/u - 135 x 8 / BW x 8, 225 x 8 / BW x 8
S - 275 x 5 / BW x 8, 295 x 3 / BW x 8, [ 275 x 3 / BW x 8 ] x 2
H - Front squat: 225 x 6 @ 9.5, 205 x 8 @ 9, 185 x 10 @ 9.5

Bench / curl:
w/u - 135 x 12, 185 x 8, 205 x 5
S - [ 225 x 3 / 82 x 10 ] x 3
H - [ 185 x 8 / 82 x 10 ] x 3

Treadmill:
30:00, 341 cal, 2.55 mi

Hat tip to @alekand @JohnHelton sharing that DDS video. This is a set up I thought might work with the ideas in that video. I don't have a lot of options for hypertrophy movements since I just have a home gym, especially for legs. But who cares about legs, right? I don't think I could maintain something like this while losing weight but it seems like it could be fun. I'll try to write out some kind of plan for my training for the foreseeable future. I don't have a bodyweight goal yet, but, given my height, to get under 25 bmi I need to weight less than 160. That seems like a lot, so I'll just try to take it a week or month at a time and see when and where I think I want to stop.

[EricK]

Some Options for how to structure training. I recognize that I might be overreaching, but as I'm not counting on PRs other than the number on the scale (and the waist circumference) I can be flexible and "autoregulate."

I'd still like to do 4-5 days per week, so I'll start with some 4 day templates.

Option 1	Upper A	Upper B	Lower A	Lower B
Lift Pair 1	Bench/Chin	Bench/Chin	Squat	Front Squat
Lift Pair 2	Press/Row	Press/Row	RDL	Deadlift
Lift Pair 3	Dips/Curl	Dips/Curl	Shrug	SGDL
Cardio	20-30 min	20-30 min	20-30 min	20-30 min

I'd basically do Mon - Upper A, Tue - Lower A, Thu - Upper B, Fri - Lower B.

Option 2	Workout A	Workout B
Lift Pair 1	Squat/Chin	Press/Row
Lift Pair 2	Bench/Curl	Deadlift/Dip
Cardio	20-30 min	20-30 min

This option is simpler, and I'd just Alternate A/B Mon/Tu, Thu/Fri. The "Squat" and "Deadlift" blocks would probably look a little like today's session and only feature some top set strength stuff with more hypertrophy accessory work. This one is more familiar and looks like less, but the downside is that it would hit my lower body a lot harder which will be exacerbated by all the running. I suppose I could pay attention to that and cut back as-needed.