The Week That Was - 3/25 - 3/31

                                             No idea why but this is absolutely hilarious to me.


Mike Tuchscherer on speed work in powerlifting. Also squatting 705x4. Redonk.
Follow-up from Mike
Chad Wesley Smith's response to Mike response to his own article.

I F---ing Love Science Facebook run by a girl, idiots respond with their outside voices. This is why we can't have nice things, you guys.

The best of Ron Swanson...and more bester

3/26
Sots Press + Russian Snatch Balance (2+2) 40x1x3
Snatch + Below Knee Snatch 60x1x3 70x1x2 80x1x2 87x1 92x1 95x0x2 (made first snatch)
Snatch Complex (snatch + abv knee + OH Squat + Snatch Balance) 70-75-80-85x-85
Clean Pull + Below Knee CJ - 60xsome 80x1x3 100x1x2 110x1 115x1 110x1
Klokov Complex (cl pull + clean + pause front squat + push press + pause jerk) 90x1 100x1x3
Back Squat 60x5 95x5 120x4 135x5x2 140x5
Standing Abs + Heavy Reverse Hypers - Five sets
Band Traction

3/27
Muscle Snatch + OH Squat (2+2) 60x1x2 70x1x2
Pwr Snatch up to 87kgx1x2 90x0x2
Pwr Clean to 117x1 120x0
Back Jerk to 100x2x3 110x2x2
Chins and GH Raises - Three sets each

3/28
Sots Press + Russian Snatch Balance (2+2) - 40x1x6 50x1
High Box Snatch (bar just above kneecap) - 40x3x2 50x3 60x3 70x2 80x2 85x1 90x1 92x1 95x1 80x2x3
High Box CJ - 60x2 80x1x2 100x1x2 110x1 115x1 110x1 C+CJ - 100x1 100x1 105x1
Front Squat 60x5x2 90x3 100x3 110x3 120x3

3/29 - Good Friday (day off work, so of course I trained. Just shaking off some soreness.)
Bunch of sled drags
Back Push Press - 50x5 70x5x2 90x5x2 100x3
Chins
Traction

3/30 @ Centennial Weightlifting
Sots Press + Russian Balance 40x1x3 50x1
Snatch up to 185x1 205x0x2 155x2x3 175x1x2 185x0
Clean and Jerk up to 245x1 with two misses
Clean Pulls up to 335x2x5
Light Traction

3/31
Muscle Snatch + OH Squat (2+2) 50x1x2 60x1x2 70x1x2 75x1 (PR)
Back Squat - barx5 70x5x2 100x4 130x4 150x4 160x3 165x4/135x5 140x5 145x5
Front Push Press - bar x5 50x5x2 70x5 80x5 87x5 92x4/80x5x3
Chinese Row 5x8
JM Press 4x15
GH Raise/Hanging Leg Raise/Four-Way Neck/Grappler Abs - Four circuits
Barbell Hip Thrusts
Traction

Second Week Soreness is kicking in big time right now, as evidenced by the shitshow on 3/30. Legs are really hurting units right now. Not banging my head against a wall trying to get lifts when they clearly aren't going, so I did some pulls and called it an early day. Sometimes you'll be able to challenge new PRs, and sometimes you're gonna have to just check the box and keep swinging the hammer.

The basic idea on Sunday is to either make a new PR for a set of five or a PR for 5x5 in both the back squat and the front push press, then get accessory work done. I just go by how I feel as I start working up. If I'm getting up there and things just aren't moving I can go the rep PR route, and if I'm crushing sets then I can challenge a new PR set of five.

3 Gratitudes of the Day

1. I'm grateful for the kiddos at Judi's House, where I volunteer a couple nights a month. This house is full of some of the most joyful kids you will ever meet, as well as some stories that absolutely break your heart. You want to learn about being joyful and full of life in the face of adversity? These kids have cornered the market.

2. I'm grateful that I've had the means to hire people to write me training and nutrition programs. The productivity and time gains from this (not to mention the big improvements I'm already feeling in body comp and performance) have definitely already paid for themselves. I've written about this in previous blog posts and I HIGHLY encourage anyone to look into online coaching. It is affordabe and easy to seek out the best trainers online so as to avoid ending up with Timmy the Trainer from your local 24 Hr.

3. I'm incredible grateful that the biggest concern on my mind, as I sit and type this, is "What the hell else am I grateful for?". 

On Personal Outsourcing

So it’s a New Year, 2012, full of promise and potential. Rather than resolutions, the beginning of the year bring some purging and donating of clothing and other unnecessary things I’ve accrued throughout the previous year. I’m a minimalist guy in the first place, so it isn’t a huge load of stuff. It gives me a sense of renewal and rejuvenation, as well as some extra distance from that Sword of Damocles that always feels just a little too close. 

Along those lines, I’ve taken this a step further by outsourcing my training programming as well as my nutrition. For those who are curious, I’m turning training over to Chad Smith and my nutrition to Michael Keck. This allows me to take two items off my plate and redirect that time and energy towards actual performance, as well as other aspects of my life. With very few exceptions, you get what you pay for. And by “pay”, I don’t necessarily mean monetary. 

Indulge me in a quick,"back of the envelope" math lesson: Let’s say your time is worth $20/hour; this is 33.3333 cents per minute. You spend 5 hours per week reading, researching and writing out your training program and another 10 hours per week training and commuting to/from the gym (no need to factor in vehicle depreciation or gas). In one week, you’ve spent $100 planning to train and another $200 actually training. To extrapolate this further: $100 per week=$400 per month=$5,200 per year in planning alone. Hiring someone sure seems cheap as hell now, doesn’t it?  Spending fewer actual dollars and doing something yourself can get expensive.

One of the greatest aspects of online coaching is your ability to vet the person you are hiring. How many horror stories have you heard about people who hired "personal trainers" from their local gym. The Internet really allows you to do a great bit of research on coaching and find people who are truly top class in their profession. I'll write more on this specific topic in the future but let me say this: this is NOT purely related to athletic training and nutrition.

To expand the idea of outsourcing to other parts of your life, have a look at this blog on Living in the Cloud. These are all fantastic examples of outsourcing aspects of your life and collaborative consumption. Changes in social mood and technological advances are creating what Edward Norton in Fight Club called "Single serving friends", but on a global level and across different services and mediums. Ironically, while embracing the impermanence of possessing "things", this turn in social mood has caused us to emphasize personal networks and communities. Never before in history have the people that we truly want to interact with and build meaningful relationships with been so readily available.

I had to nerd out on that for a minute as it has really been at the front of my cerebral cortex for awhile. I'll write more about collaborative consumption in the future; I only hope I'm not late to that party.

Questions that I've been asking myself as we roll into 2012: What else can I take off my plate and outsource? What can outsourcing and collaborative consumption do for me and my life? And more importantly: what can I do for outsourcing and collaborative consumption?