And of course...

As soon as I say I am sticking with Juggernaut, I am back on 5/3/1. 

BUT WAIT

I can explain.

It's not you, baby, it's me. It's always been me.

Me, me, me. Mine, mine, mine. 

That just happened.

Anyhoo, the ol' jamesnasium announced the other day that they are holding an unsanctioned meet in mid-July. While I am not yet committed to participate, where I am with Juggernaut just ain't going to cut the mustard as far as getting back under semi-heavy weights in the short term, and there just isn't enough time for a standard block/conjugate cycle. Figured I would run a few cycled of 5/3/1 without deloads (tentatively), should get me approaching maximal weights in the shortest amount of time without completely winging it. 

That being said, I also took last week off because I have been feeling a low back/upper butt muscular pain lately that has only been getting worse, not better. Sure, one could argue that stretching and low back work would help take care of that, but let's face it

and I haven't been keeping up with it as I should. So the story goes. Squatted last night for my 5/3/1 sets, then a few heavier singles and back down to my last working weight for a few more sets, then some yoke bar good mornings. Tonight, Thor willing, I'll get into some bird dogs or supermans to work on that low back. 

Go forth and word to your nearest relative.

WELCOME BACK! 10K! SILLY BUSINESS! HAPPY OSTARA! ET CETERA!

Hey kids!

Yeah, it's been a while. Dear leader has been a busy bee lately, but I hope to be able to get you some content for your grubby little internet paws soon. Some photo updates, maybe a quick do901, etc.

As first order of business, let's talk about a little milestone we hit a few days ago - the ol' bloggety blog here hit 10,000 page views, without the use of a bot or some other silly ass social media thingamajig. I'm sure that some of those are automated hits from searches, etc, but there you have it- we really pulled together and made it happen, so 

thanks

Second, let's talk about training. First cycle of the Juggernaut Method has been wrapped up and in the books- more on that in a minute. Looking at what's going on in the year and where I am with my general strength, I am looking toward trying to do another meet somewhere in the September - November time frame. If the jamesnasium does a November meet, I will probably just call it that one, but the SPF calendar has a good handful of options in that time frame. 

Let's see if we can get a repeat of this moment... That's my bar, silly spotter.

As to how the strength is coming along, I am, of course, not happy with it currently (any lifter should tell you the same thing, regardless of injury status) BUT I feel like it is coming along decently. Taking a look at what has occurred over the last X number of months on Juggernaut, I am feeling pretty decent about how I am progressing- while I think my training max is closer to my actual max, my calculated three lift "training total" (90% of 1RM on each of the three power lifts) is up a little more than 150lbs.

Bonus points if you know where that is from.

Or from where that is referenced. 

Or what have you.

Since I am a person that has access to way too much information (welcome to the internet) AND I am currently coachless, I am feeling the urge to program bounce.

BUT

Did you see what I typed above? 150lbs added to my training total?

Come on, man.

Seriously?

I don't know if that rate of continued progress is sustainable or not, but

seriously.

There is no reason for me to program hop. I will be sticking with the Juggernaut Method for at least one more cycle, then probably move into some good ol' 5/3/1 closer to meet time. In fact, I am already halfway through the second week of the new 10s wave and, while that first week of squatting was still freaking torture, I didn't pull anything or whatever it was that happened in my first week of Juggernaut AND I managed to get an extra rep or two in on the last set.

That's a heck of a lot better than my first week went. That was a shit show.

But I digress.

No, I progress.

Boom.

I should note here that I am not following the Juggernaut Method to the letter - I am utilizing the rep scheme at the heart of Juggernaut, currently on a 3x/week template with deathlifts and OHP on the same day. I am not following the full warm up protocols and I totally forget what the accessory work spelled out was in the book, but there you go.

And I need to do more work to lose the belly. But there you go.

Anyhoo, April Fool's day was the other day. Some of us did this. It's tough to love a powerlifter sometimes.

Then, Easter. Good ol' Ostara. Took some family time off, and combining that Thursday with my normal Friday off, turned into a four day weekend. What I didn't realize was that there would be an egg hunt every day over the Ostara holiday.

Thursday at the daughter's school after their Fun Run, then Friday out east at a favorite spot of the little lady's...

Saturday at the Botanic Garden,..

then Sunday at our place before some family came over for steaks and what not.

So there you have it. That gets us caught up to about two weeks ago.

Stay tuned- more lifty shenanigans and other goodness to come.

Oh- and the Grizzlies are in the playoffs.

Go forth and grit and grind and stuff.

Mostly Metal Monday: A Couple of Covers And Some Not Metal From Members of Revocation and JFAC

Well, hello there, good looking. Hope you had a good weekend, because I did. It essentially started with an oil change, moved on to poutine, then extra curricular activities to include getting that ol' bike up and running - much thanks to my buddy Jim, the Bikesmith, for getting the pedals swapped on it and helping a fat guy get back on a bike. 

Yay!

In and amongst the miscellany of the weekend, however, were also a couple of little hidden gems from the deep mines of METAL. 

First, and let's just go ahead and get this out of the way, one of the scariest non-metal things that involves metal you may ever see. A thing straight out of nightmares. A thing... that cannot be stopped... that should not be stopped... a thingaringading... It's a thing that happens when two (or more) talented people, at least one of which is more than slightly demented, make a video together. 

Yeah. Just watch. 

Background, as brief as it may be - Nick Schenzielos is the bassist for Job For A Cowboy and Cephalic Carnage, two very technical "death metal" bands. You may recall the JFAC song that made a guest appearance in a previous post. Damn fine stuff. Nick is also a bit nutty, as evidenced by more than a few videos on his YouTuber channel- some guys still like to have fun, apparently. Another fun loving young feller, Dave Davidson, is the lead guitarist, singer, etc. for Revocation, another technical metal band whom I also love dearly. These two cats apparently know each other and it appears that ol' young Nick asked Dave to sit in on one of his bass vids, the result of which is what you just watched. They apparently also have access to people that make scary things, and hence, screaming newborns with adult bodies play some sort of world music slash bossanova slash whatthejesusjumpedupchrist for your visual and aural pleasure.

So for that, you're welcome.

The next entry in our sordid tail... hurhurhur... tale... comes, again, from Revocation. This is something apparently long since released to the world, but I only recently discovered (thanks Google Play). It blends one of my all time favorite bands, Faith No More, with one of my current favorite bands, good ol' Revocation, to make lovely noise. As with anything, the original is still better than the newer version, but it made me teehee nonetheless.

Originally released on the as a bonus track on a special edition of Revocation's album from a few years ago, Chaos of Forms, I give you their version of FNM's "Surprise! You're Dead!"

While the original was not, by any means, the pinnacle of FNM's writing, every time I hear it I think of Mike Patton giving the middle finger to mainstream rock and metal whilst cackling and gleefully rocking back and forth during the writing sessions. BUT, metal being metal, embraced it anyway.

The original video was also very serious.

Yeah, I've posted it before. You'll live.

I love that song.

Lastly, I would LOVE to leave you with a little parting nugget of joy, a cover by Sylosis. I just recently discovered Sylosis, though they have been rocking the world for several years now. They appear to be younger dudes, but write music that seems to be a bit ahead of where you would expect them to be- definitely a more mature, riff heavy kind of doomy metal tasty goodness. Their latest album, Dormant Heart, along with scads of other good songs, has a bonus track cover of Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero".

It's been a good weekend for a metal child of the 80s and 90s.

Enjoy.

Juggernaut, The Second Wave: Wrapping up the 8s

ell, here we are. The holidays are now past us and we are well into the new year, resolutions and all. 

Incidentally, I have no real resolutions, personally, other than needing to get everything back on track with diet and lifting. They both took a hit with the holidays- gaps between lifts were longer than normal and diet, well, diet has been pretty wickedly bad the last four weeks or so. 

Part of those gaps was a little whirlwind trip to Chicago with the fam. Should have a bunch of pics from that coming up in the next few weeks.

So many pictures. Such feels. Wow.

That all said, the "8s" wave of Juggernaut is all wrapped up. The first week (Accumulation) of the 8s wave wrapped up right around the first of the year, moved into and wrapped up the Intensification week. 

I think I formerly referred to this phase as "Transformation", which is incorrect. My apologies to Chad Wesley Smith for screwing up the nomenclature. It's called "Intensification" because it's really intense, brah.

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to hurry and keep typing after I posted this image to get it to scroll off my screen. 

Yeah. Like wow.

Accumulation and Intensification squat day DOMS are, in fact, the worst. I have been adding in some light periodic stretching through the day following these, but it has yet to help.

Need to take some Wendler advice and run Agile 8 or similar on off days. Probably a few times.

God bless.

Anyhoo, wrapped up that bidness and got into the Realization phase. All went reasonably well, added weight to all lifts, time to deload and get into the 5s wave.

Metal.

Incidentally, the above track is from Job For A Cowboy's newest album, Sun Eater, which came out in November. It has managed to work itself into my near constant Meshuggah rotation, and it pleases me. If you're into the death metals, I would recommend sticking the whole album in your ear hole.

Back to lifting, etc.

A couple of things feel like they have been helping the process a bit - and it all boils down to back and shoulder work, go figure. Early in the wave, I decided to add rehab work in every session for the ol' shoulders. This consists of band pull aparts with the good ol' EliteFTS red mini Pro band and "Ws" with the orange micro Pro band. Additionally, I am trying to be sure to add in plenty of lat pull downs and T bar rows into the mix.

Diet, etc, have slipped a bit during the holidays/my birthday- turned 37 the other day.

That plus adding creatine back into the supplemental rotation has slowed things down a bit on the weight loss front.

But I'm getting all jacked and tan, right?

Yeah, not enough to make up for the weight gain.

Like next weight class up gain.

That means we must tighten back up and burn some more calories. And that means more things in blogs.

Things like bikes.

Yeah. Mountain bikes.

Through a strange and fortunate event, I have semi-permanently inherited a Motobecane 29er. Nice bike, want to ride it, need to change the pedals out. Thanksfully, a buddy of mine runs a bike repair truck and had a pair of pedals that he rebuilt that I can try before buying, so I am a 6mm hex wrench away from cardio that is more fun than running. Yay!

So that about wraps it up. Till next time, go forth and listen to more metal.