Ah, Monday. That most glorious of starts to the week. The year is getting older, the air is getting colder. As we start a new week into this our autumn of... content... let us reflect back on what our weekend held. I think it was a good one.
Saturday we piled in the car, grabbed some Panera for breakfast, and took the little lady down to get her hair cut and headed south to Cedar Hill Farm for some play and pumpkin grabbing. We had gone down last year and Ilse was eager to get back there this year. It's a pretty great place to go hang out for a few hours with the family- petting zoo, play areas, expanses of field for running, pumpkin patches with tractor driven hay rides, etc. Little lady loves the place for the obvious reasons, but she especially likes the big pirate ship play fort. Couldn't talk her into shooting at the paintball "gallery" they have set up and it threatened to rain us out, but a few hours later we had a bag full of miniature and pie pumpkins and a content four year old.
Saturday night brought two observations- 1) it is pretty much a given that you will stuff your piehole at a Mexican restaurant, and 2) Mexican restaurants have the best Dr Pepper. #1 is pretty much a given, chips + salsa and queso + fajitas, rice, and beans = full belly. #2 is only a slight anomaly to me, but it pretty consistently holds true. I am good with it, even if I shouldn't be drinking Dr Pepper. It's anabolic, though, right? What follows is highly scientific, and all proven fact, so bare with me:
+
=
Seriously. It's science.
Sunday morning was deadlifting, after all, so it is only appropriate that Saturday night was fajita and Dr Pepper night. As evidenced by the sheer, raw power imbued by the potent cocktail of sauteed meat and veggies and sugary caffeine-laden syrup drink, this is what occurred:
- Deadlift with hook grip - 5x135, 5x225, 5x275, 2x315
- Deadlift mixed grip - 3x365
- RDL - 5x10x135
- Meadow's row - 5x10x45lbs
- Reverse hyper - 5x10x90lbs
I know, y'all calm down, your towns and sleepy mountain villages are safe. I promise I won't pillage your cities and destroy mankind with my brutal force.
Also, I suck.
Obviously not where I want to be, but I did get the opportunity to play with hook grip. For those not familiar with a hook grip in weightlifting/deadlifting, it is supposedly one of the most solid grips around. To perform the hook grip, one grips the bar as such:
So in practice looks a lot like
Ow.
Versus the "standard" deadlift grips, pretty well illustrated in this pic from justfitness.co.uk:
The hook grip is typically used with an overhand position versus a reverse or mixed grip position. For the uninitiated, the pros/cons of the various grips are, generally speaking:
- Overhand (pronated) grip: symmetrical hand placement, but typically weaker grip for most people. This is the grip that most people will learn with when starting to deadlift.
- Reverse/mixed grip: typically much stronger grip than overhand, but can pose an increased risk of tearing a bicep (I said "can pose", Captain Internet Debater)
- Hook grip: overhand positioning, so more symmetrical and generally "safer" for the biceps, very popular grip with Olympic style weightlifters. Stable and strong, but it is... uncomfortable... to say the least
Having gotten in a grand total of about 17 reps with a hook grip, I can now say that I am one of the internet's foremost authorities on the grip, probably of powerlifting itself. That said, it fucking hurts BUT the bar was absolutely locked in. It doesn't quite hurt like getting soap in your naughty bits or what I imagine childbirth to be like (because those are comparable), but crapola. The lighter sets, obviously, are not a big deal, but I decided two reps at 315 was enough for the day and while I didn't tear anything or shred my delicate thumbskins, my left thumb has largely been numb since then (24hrs ago at the time of this writing), though it is getting better. A couple of buddies, one of whom is one of the only people I know that does CrossFit (tee em) that I will give any credence to, recommended taping the thumb, which I intend to do next time. Time to troll Amazon.
Supposedly the good stuff
Still taking it reasonably light on the reverse hypers, and first time playing with Meadow's rows. Good times.
After a shower and some more leftover fajitas (no tortillas or Dr Pepper this time around), we got dressed and headed out to Kids Play with a trunk full of cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate the tochter's impending fifth birthday with a bunch of her buddies. Madness ensued (one of her friends hit the ground running with the most convincing war face I have ever seen on a four year old), fun was had, treats were eaten. Having been to several of these types of places, activity centers rented out for birthdays, etc, I have to say this is probably one of the best in the area. It was strangely calm- being well lit and not so jam packed as others, there wasn't the feeling of fairly constant tension, like you had to constantly watch your child to make sure they weren't launching themselves from a 20' high ledge or trying to maim themselves. There was also room to do what kids love to do best - run. Big thank you to all of her buddies and their parents for coming to the party, and to my lovely wife for arranging it.
Also, this happened
l'artiste en herbe
And I got to see the future...
Like my wife said, sometimes you can look at her and see what she will become. While it is bittersweet to see her growing up, it is awesome to know that she is doing exactly what she needs to do.
Growing up is her business, and business is good.
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