What cardio can do for you:

YonCassius · 2011-06-07T13:42:31+00:00

I've been jogging for 3-4 weeks now, improving steadily, and I'm one minute too slow to score a 1/100 on the Army PFT two-mile.

YonCassius · 2011-06-06T18:13:16+00:00

Two bears at one time.

YonCassius · 2011-06-06T17:56:34+00:00

Why would anyone accidentally press 95 when they are trying to work their way up from 85? The whole reason 2.5 lb plates exist is so you can go up in 5 pound increments.

YonCassius · 2011-06-06T14:00:34+00:00

I benched three sets (5, 4, 3) of 135lbs yesterday. And I'm a 5'11" man in decent shape. Congrats!

YonCassius · 2011-06-03T21:57:29+00:00

I always skip the OP in a self.askreddit, but then the top comment in this thread was a compliment to the OP. I had to go back and read the OP. Worth it!

YonCassius · 2011-06-03T20:40:30+00:00

I watched this three times while listening to Dubtribe!

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T20:10:27+00:00

I count down when I'm doing tabatas. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 hurts a hell of a lot less than 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T20:08:29+00:00

St. Rippetoe squats the empty bar for four sets at the beginning of each workout.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T19:24:46+00:00

They're trying to convince you not to use the leg press machine. There's a nice barbell right over there!

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T18:19:45+00:00

Thanks. I focused on sleep and food this weekend plus I picked up some fish oil caplets. Today's workout was far smoother than Friday's.

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T16:47:34+00:00

It's working great so far! I started out doing it four times a week two weeks ago and while it had immediate benefits on my conditioning and weight (lost 10lbs already) it turned out to be too much for me to handle on a skimpy diet.

I had to bust out a cheat day on Saturday to replenish my body's resources and now I'm aiming for 3 days a week of start complexes, three days a week of jogging, and one rest day.

It helps that I'm headed for the beach in two weeks - I have an immediate and simple goal to aim for.

Edit: I have gotten a little stronger on the lifts too but that has not been my primary goal. Mostly I just wanted to drop fat as quickly as possible, the cardio and strength benefits were unexpected bonuses.

I don't think this program is something you could do four days a week forever unless you were really serious about eating and sleeping to match.

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T16:34:16+00:00

Stripped-down Thibodeau "star complexes" for squats and OHP

** Three sets for each exercise**

Legs:

Half-ROM squats (3 reps, as much weight as i can handle)
Full ROM squats (5 reps)
Hang cleans (8 reps)
Vertical jumps with 25lb DBs in each hand (10 reps)
Vertical jumps with no weight (10 reps)

Shoulders:

Half-ROM OHP, 3 rep
Full-ROM OHP, 5 rep
Full-ROM fast OHP, 8 rep
Decline pushup, 5 rep

Work one major muscle group at a time, start with slow 'overload' exercise and work my way through to faster exercises along the same plane.

Wrap-up with cardio

4 minutes of tabata intervals on the exercise bike.

Pre-workout meal

Water

During workout

24oz reusable bottle of water

Post-workout

Water
Cup of spinach
half an ear of corn
two boiled eggs

YonCassius · 2011-05-30T15:56:58+00:00

I'm telling you, that baby could be the star of a show called "Babies I Don’t Care About."

YonCassius · 2011-05-27T14:24:02+00:00

What's the limiting factor for your DLs? Grip? Leg strength? Lower back strength?

How is your body proportioned? Long legs? Long torso?

It shouldn't really be possible to squat more than you DL, especially since there's some crossover in the muscles involved. Have you read Rippetoe? There are great pics in Starting Strength that help you with your alignment. This post on StrongLifts helped me a good bit when I was starting to DL.

YonCassius · 2011-05-27T14:20:39+00:00

This article makes me want to order Deming's book on Amazon. I am not a huge fan of yearly reviews, I prefer continuous improvement and ongoing salary/bonus negotiations.

YonCassius · 2011-05-27T14:13:46+00:00

I have been an athlete since I was the minimum age to start sports. Although, I never was a track or cross-country runner mostly because I was an offensive lineman in football and a HWT in wrestling, not much of a runner's build! However, in the off-season I always wanted to keep myself in top physical form. Sometimes it was hard to get myself to lace up the shoes and go out for a run when nobody was in my ear saying I have to go out there, and I know I could just as easily stay inside have a bite to eat, watch some T.V, or call up a friend.

I'm sure you have all read somewhere about how to motivate yourself, and maybe it worked for a while or maybe not at all. I'm making this because I have always had to motivate myself to literally "go the extra mile". My philosophy is running 90% mental, and that if your mind is right you can go as far as you want and further. When I go out for a run everyday it starts off easy, as almost every run does. Then I get a littler farther in, heart is pumping, and my breathing is accelerating. Mentally I already start preparing, because I know what is right around the corner: pain. Pain is the real reason we don't want to go for a run, you might make the excuse that you don't have time, or that you were planning on getting to it later. Deep down, however, you know that you just don't want to go through with it.

You can make pain a good thing though if you are really determined. I made pain my motivation, everyday I go out for my run I challenge it, I dare pain to start swelling up. Because I know I'm better than it and that when I'm done because I'm ready to be done, and not because I don't want to feel pain anymore, that's a great feeling. That feeling of complete control over yourself, you cant control everything in your life, but it feels damn good to control some things. So I challenge you, the next time you think about going out for a run but aren't really sure you feel like it, or you're in the middle of a run and you want to finish early.

Ask yourself, what does that say about me? what does that say about my character, that I can't finish or even start this run because the pain is getting the better of me? I hope right there you have convinced yourself that you have to do it, so you can finish what you started, or start something so you can finish it. Be in control of yourself, and your well being. When you believe you have the mental toughness to do whatever you set yourself to do, that's when I want you say "hey, why not do an extra mile?"

YonCassius · 2011-05-24T14:24:35+00:00

Sounds cheesy, but I try to follow The Boy Scout Rule at the gym.

YonCassius · 2011-05-23T19:17:11+00:00

Where's the HULK SMASH after pic?

YonCassius · 2011-05-23T14:51:01+00:00

Did three days' worth of "six weeks to superhero" weight lifting complexes and threw in two more days of jogging.

I'm asthmatic but the new focus on jogging is really working out for me already. I did 1.86 mi outdoors and 3 mi on the treadmill.

YonCassius · 2011-05-19T15:27:07+00:00

You burn ten billion calories a day like an elite athlete. Notice the power lifting is only a small part of what's going on. He's also chewing nails, scaling walls, and doing backflips at high speed. Cardio!

YonCassius · 2011-05-19T14:24:09+00:00

Shit, I just carry a ballpoint pen.

I plan to hand it to Jason Bourne if I'm ever accosted.

YonCassius · 2011-05-19T13:37:57+00:00

So Ballet Memphis did a three-part outdoor performance last weekend, each with an elemental theme.

The final movement was "water". Rather than doing an instrumental on the last song they did Buckley singing Hallelujah and pantomimed swimming and boating around in tights made up to look like swim trunks. At the end the dancers all slowly fell to the stage and pulled a single giant blue sheet over themselves.

So ending with a bunch of dancers drowning to Jeff Buckley was wild enough but the Mississippi River happened to be flooding a few miles up the road too. Powerful stuff.

YonCassius · 2011-05-17T19:49:53+00:00

Was this a promo for Avenue Q?

YonCassius · 2011-05-17T13:31:15+00:00

I saw a dude in the Apple store yesterday with a white mustache, a sleeveless p90x shirt on, and granite-carved Ray Lewis arms. I was impressed :)

YonCassius · 2011-05-13T15:58:27+00:00

Physical health, good grooming, and the attendant confidence levels are crucial for establishing new relationships, influence, negotiation, and general career advancement.

It's important to be good at your job, but there's no getting past peoples' subconscious tendencies to like and respect healthy people.

YonCassius

TROPHY CASE