AAR: ShivWorks AMIS in Americus GA 12/14-15/2013

This was my first trip through the wonderful and scary world of solo structure movement. Before we dig into all this, you should just go ahead and put this on the top of the heap for classes you need to take. It's not up for discussion.

Like I usually like to do, I'll quickly go over the topics of the course, and then get into the useful part. That is, how it made me feel, what I learned (about myself), and what I need to work on.

So my best bro JohnnyK flew in from KY thursday, and he and I car pooled the 3 hours down to Americus, GA. We met the crew at dinner at the worst restaurant in Americus. The forsyth bar and grill. Forsyth Bar and Grill: http://www.forsythbarandgrill.com/.  Seriously, if Shane tells you it's a good idea, know that he's lying. After taking 3 hours to get food for 8 people, we went to pass out at our lodgings.

The venue was an abandoned clothing factory, complete with broken glass, spider webs, mold covering everything, rain puddles, and plenty of clutter to step on and make noise while trying to sneak around. I would have loved to see some stairs. But I'll be taking it again, so maybe we'll find some stairs to play around on next time.

Class Topics went like this:
A powerpoint discussion of the principles of movement in structures. Craig showed us a video of a 9 second shootout in a parking lot, and we discussed all of the issues and mistakes made. The takeaway for me was that there is very little margin for error and things can change in an instant.

We started working some chalk board runs and talked through clearing a fictitious structure and what the best approach was. I made the wrong decisions almost every time, which made me feel silly, but at least I knew I was in the right place to correct myself and learn a better way to approach the problem. 

We then did some dry runs, followed by slowly layering the complexity through the drills until by the end of day one we were hunting 2 movers and trying to avoid a "no shoot" person. My observations for this portion of the day are that it's very scary when someone who knows what they're doing is looking for you, and that violence of action absolutely dominates hesitancy. I slowly learned this lesson as the drills went on, and I found the most success as a bad guy when I absolutely brought the fight to the hunter. This was empowering and a bit scary. The only comfort is in trying to be more aggressive than the bad guy and get him to bitch up long enough to run him over. 

The main principle is to always seek depth when clearing into an unknown corner. That is, always try to be as far away from the vertical/horizontal/diagonal plane as you can, without walking into uncleared exposure points.  The other driving principle was to keep the exposures to less than 45 degrees when possible, and to move when they grew to about 90. Basically, control what you can, as much as you can. When you can't, push through.

There is no such thing as a traditional shooting posture when you're conforming to the plane that you're pieing. I found myself in some hilarious positions and strange one handed bulls eye style shooting positions. It's back to sights and trigger, perfect grip is secondary. 

The staccato speed changes and timing of movement also took some getting used to. I had to see some previous students and Craig move a few times before I started understanding how it should look. The stuff works.  

As with all things Craig, the precision in his instructions is what sets him apart. His emphasis on inches and subtle body positions, where the eyes, muzzle, and hips are pointing, and thoughtful observation and encouragements are what make him so world class.

The lowlight portion of the class was very enlightening (puns, lol). The usual short "lowlight segment" that you'll get in a class usually feels like an afterthought. This was different. The techniques for flashlight use to gain vision, disorient the opponent, and mask movements were all taught and then experienced against opposing wills in force on force. I used to feel that the FBI style techniques made the shooting more difficult, and so I defaulted to the cheek index. This was all done in my head without having done any work.  Well, I quickly learned (experientially) that lights do indeed draw fire, and that the farther the light is from your face, the better. I also learned that the two distinct phases of flashlight use ( hunting and shooting) demand different techniques. Being hunted by someone with good flashlight skills is unnerving. It feels like aliens are coming to give you the butt probe. The opposite is also true, people with poor technique are easy to predict and shoot. 

We learned how to deal with "don't shoot yets". We learned some pins, finger locks, and disarming techniques. Bypassing a don't shoot yet was the last technique covered.

gear: I have one of the kwa air soft glocks made before glock started suing the importers for making unlicensed clones of their design. It performed flawlessly. I carried appendix without a holster. The coolest piece of gear I brought was the klarus xt2c. This light is fantastic. The no click strobe button was invaluable in the low light portions of the class. The guys with inferior lights suffered. I also brought my SIRT trainer pistol. It gave the dry runs more value I think.  I digress, this isn't a gear class. 

Things that standout:

I only remember seeing my front sight in sharp focus maybe one or two times. The task loading involved in managing the flashlight, noise signature, and being aware of exposure points left only a small amount of my attention for the shooting problems. I made good hits for the most part, and credit that to my dry fire practice and having a reasonably good draw index. I need work on it and it will probably take a decade of practice to feel better about it. 

Control of my breathing was lacking. I have a habit of breathing into my chest, instead of diaphragmatic breathing. I remember hearing other hunters breathing heavily as they searched and it helped me pinpoint them. The more you try to breath quietly, the more shallow you breathe and less oxygen you're getting. Deliberate large breaths seem to be the way to go. Keeping calm helps this. More practice and stress innoculation are key. 

The nomenclature Craig uses to describe the good guy is subtle but important. He uses the term "hunter" for the good guy. He mentioned that this nomenclature is deliberate to convey the attitude that one needs when doing this sort of thing. The fight must be brought to them. In fact, the turning point for me was when, after making contact, how much more success I had once I just pressed the fight instead of hopping back behind cover and playing whack a mole with the hunted. It was night and day and a very powerful lesson for me. 

People: 

As usual with shivworks classes, all of my classmates had great attitudes, were supportive, motivated, and made the learning environment conducive to getting the most out of the time spent. It was a douche free zone. 

Thanks for reading,

Mark

UnPossible Goals!

I don't have to be better than my heroes at shooting, I don't have to be stronger than them, I don't have to be the best father or husband, and I don't have to be the best fighter.

I only have to be better than I was last week.

I'll be 30 in 5 days, and I still haven't learned that I don't have to be the best... but I'm trying to learn that. It's a hard lesson for me. It's one of the challenges that one faces when you keep the caliber of friends and mentors that I do. It's constantly facing the fact that "I'll never ever be that good". I think that's OK. Like we were talking about on Fb the other day, if you're the strongest/smartest/or cleverist person in your peer group, you're only cheating yourself out of further improvement. You can't rest on your laurels, and you can't be satisfied with what you've accomplished. Being the biggest fish in the pond doesn't mean a damn thing when there's an ocean somewhere out there.

Reaching that small group alpha status feels good, but as soon as it happens, you better be looking for the next group so that you can be the small-fry again. Try to always be the hardest working, but the shittiest person in the peer group. I think that should make for some really great personal growth. It's what I'm trying to do.

In 20 years, I might be like the monsters I look up to, and I might inspire someone to improve themselves and hold themselves to a higher standard.

But only if I do the work, and there's a lot of work to do.

Next: Mass Made Simple

So, I'm clearly on a Dan John kick. The guy's programs work and I'm a huge fan. Next on the chopping block is his 'Mass Made Simple'. It's a 6 week, intensive 'BULKAN!!!!' program. My start weight at the end of the 10,000 KB challenge was 199 lbs give or take. My goal is about 215 or 220, and as lean as I can do it. I like the fact that it's a short burst of mass gain, so you're not tempted to go on a 10 year bulk and just essentially get fat and not give a shit. The clear finish line agrees with how I like to do goals.

Here's the T-Nation article that gives a taste of the book (which is more detailed)
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/mass_made_simple

The workouts have a nice progression and are based on four 'lifts':

1: Bench Press (and bat wings): for upper body mass and the bat wings for balancing all the pushing.

2: One handed over head press (and bird dogs): for forcing strength symmetry, and to teach the athlete to lock down the body and create stability in the whole trunk. I really am starting to like one hand pressing movements.

3: Barbell complexes: for a metabolic hit, as well as getting some work on the muscles not directly worked in the other parts of the program. It goes Barbell row/clean/front squat/ overhead press/ back squat/ good morning. The bar doesn't leave your hands until the complex is done, and you don't go to the next movement until you complete the prescribed reps.

4: High rep squats: are straight forward. Time under the bar (DJ says) builds mass, so there's lots of squats!


The diet portion is pretty simple too. It goes like this:

1: Eat like an adult. Keep processed crap to a minimum, and lots of meat and veggies. Very paleo in appearance actually.

2: Eat more protein

3: Take more fish oil

4: Eat 2-3 peanut butter sandwiches a day to jam some extra calories in there.

5: Eat more fiber.

DJ recommends adding protein to different spots, adding a new spot each week. Like morning, before and post workout, and before bed. But only says you should add a new protein addition each week so you can track how it impacts you. I like the self learning aspect of that, rather than just throwing it all in at one time.
Training Log:

Workout 1 of MMS: this is the feeler workout to see the starting point for the program. I'm hoping to get to 215 or 220 during the course of the training. Start weight is 199.2
Bench starting point: 165
bat wings - 25#
one handed OHP -46lbs My left shoulder is bitch mode. I did it with 50lb dumbells, but it was too difficult w/ the left so I dropped it back to 45#.
Schkwaughts - 95x30 ouch,,,

Workout 2: Bench 170# 2-3-5 x2
batwings 20# 5secsx10
one hand OHP 45# 2-3-5 x 2
barbell complex 75# first 3 then 95# for last 3.
squat 95# 30rx2sets

Workout 3: bench 170 2-3-5 x3
Batwings 20# 5sec x 10
One hand ohp 50# 2-3-5 then had to drop back to 45 for last two sets.
Complex 95 5reps each exercise x 2 complexes
115# squats 2x30

Notes: Feeling crazy bloated from the breads and peanut butters and volume of good. Been taking 6 fish oil caps and a serving of Metamucil a day per his instruction.

Workout 4:

Bench 185# 2-3-5 x3 and 170x9

batwings 21lbs 10secx5 holds

one hand OHP 45 2-3-5 x 3

Complex 95 (had to skip military press due to cooked shoulders), then 85,85

Squat 115 3x30reps

die.

The one armed press is really showing me how pussy my left shoulder and side of my body is in general. I need to start whacking-off with my left hand.

Wrkout 5 185 2-3-5 x 3

batwings 27s 5sec x 5

OHP 45# 2-3-5 x 3

complex 85# 3x

Schkwaughts - 95, 115, 135 - 30x

Weighed myself this morning.... 201. da fuq. I need to eat more peanut butter or something!!! Maybe another few quadruple quarter pounders?

Workout 6 185 2-3-5-10 failed a rep 7 of the 10 portion. 2 more 235's

Batwings 30# 5x5secs

OHOHP 50# 2-3-5 (7 reps only) 45# 2x 2-3-5

Complex 85# x5 

Squats 95x10 115x10 135x 50. Did the set of 50 in 35,15 rep sets

Workout 7:

heaviest double completed cleanly:EDIT: it was actually 225

batwings 30# 5x10 secs

OHOHP 50# 2-3-5, 2x (failed on rep 7 of second set, so that's a  strength gain)

complex: 3 with 85,95,105 skipped OHP on the last one due to faggyshoulderpower

Squats 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 185x10, 205x5x3sets

The lower rep sets are way easier for me.

Workout 8:

BP 225 x 2 -5 sets

BatWings 30# 5 10 sec holds

OHOHP 45#kb (my sister worked out with me and we needed the extra DB)

Complex: 65,85,95,95,100

Squat: 95x10, 115x5, 135x3, 185x2, 205x50

The squat set broke down lby reps like 15,8,5,10,12

I have forgotten to check my weight.  I'm eating until uncomfortably full most of the time. So I figure I'm eating enough. Doing 75g shakes in the AM/PM and 25g before training. at least 1 PBJ a day.

210# approximately. 

Workout 9 

Bp 205 x 3 x 5 sets

Bat wings 30# 10sec x 5

Oh ohp 50# 2-3-5 x 3

Complex 105,115,125 2 reps per movement 

Squat 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 185x10 205x5, 205x20

Eat all the turkey.

Dan John's 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Workout

From September 30 to November 1, I decided I wanted to shake things up in my training program. I had recovered from my hernia a bit (no pain, but still swollen... :-p ) and up until September 30 I was working on handstands and some basic gymnastic stuff like front levers, skin the cats and back levers. That was getting me some balance, and I was able to progress, but I wanted to get back to some weight training. This article was released at the perfect time for me:

http://www.t-nation.com/workouts/10000-swing-kettlebell-workout

A needed jumpstart to my weight training, some conditioning, and a chance to strengthen my grip and posterior chain. Why not?

I started the program with my homemade 25 lb kettlebell to get the movement down, and grease the groove. I progressed through my 45 KB and eventually moved to my T-bar which I went from 52 to 65 lbs over the final 3 weeks of the program.

I did 4 days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. 500 swings each day. It took 5 weeks.

Here's my particular plan (parts copied from the above article):

Set 1:  10 reps
Set 2:  15 reps
Set 3:  25 reps
Set 4:  50 reps

You've now completed 100 reps or one cluster. Repeat the cluster 4 more times for a total of 500 swings. Between sets, experienced lifters will add a low-volume strength movement.

The Strength Movements

1.  Handstands and Handstand pushups when I was fresh enough (1-2-3 rep scheme)
2.  Ring Dips (2-3-5 rep scheme)
3.  Front Squat 135# (1-2-3)
4.  Chin-ups with some tucked front lever stuff thrown in. (1-2-3)

So it looked like this.
10 Swings
Front Squat 1 rep
15 Swings
Front Squat 2 reps
25 Swings
Front Squat 3 reps
50 Swings
Rest 30 - 60 seconds

My times varied from about 38' to about 44' depending on how tired I was, and what movement I was doing. A few times I would stagger my reps so that I did the high rep sets up front, and the lower reps and movements near the end. This seemed to allow me to get the high reps out of the way early and finish more quickly. I expect it was all mental.

Starting weight was 203. Ending weight was 199.

My times improved as the weeks went on, and my weights went up. I noticed an increase in grip strength and a leaner waistline. My pants fit looser. I was also super ready to start the next phase in my training plan. It became somewhat of a grind near the end, but it was OK if I could zone out and listen to a podcast or something to pass the time. Another thing that motivated me was having a group of peers that I was accountable to. Mike D started 'the swingers club' on facebook, and we posted our times and shared our difficulties and results as we went. It's so helpful for me to have public accountability.

I suggest this program to anyone who is bored with their current program, wants to try something new and challenging, or wants to ramp up for something else to follow after. The program is simple, but it's not easy. I'm glad I saw it through.

Thanks for reading.

Notes from range day with CW

Today I got to have a nice casual range day with my friend and mentor, Claude Werner. If you're reading this, you know who he is. http://www.dryfire-practice.com/

I'll just write my notes down from the day, and get as much out as I can before I forget.

Drill 1:
MQP defensive pistol - Pro Marksman qual
7 yds, 12" circle. Par time 5 seconds. Draw and shoot 1 shot. repeat 20x. Must make all hits.

I passed this drill (thankfully :p ). We did this cold. Claude is doing a lot of good work implementing this in his classes. It's a really well designed COF and test. The high repetition is a great way to get folks who probably won't be doing a lot of self guided practice outside of the classroom to grease the groove of the most important and most missed shot. The first.

Going forward for me, Claude recommended I work towards cutting everything in half.
2 second, 6" circle, repeat 20x. That'll take some work, but it's a nice thing to dry fire towards.

Drill 2:
Dot drill 101

This was a skillset I told Claude I wanted to work, and get some critique on. He obliged with the dot drill 101. This is a non timed drill that makes you work out the pure mechanics of shooting.

Here's my target:

We shot this at 5 yards. I think this is the best I've done on this drill. I usually use pistol-training.com's version on a piece of notebook paper. 16/60 points down. I'll take it, and I'll fix what I messed up.

I asked about the impact of my rounds on the left side of the circles on the top row. Claude pointed out that my trigger finger would tend to be against the frame of the gun, and during the trigger press, my 'finger bicep' would flex and just slightly push the gun to the left.

For one handed shooting, Claude convinced me to get the gun pure vertical in the strong hand, and only have a slight cant in the off hand. As he was talking about it, I was reminded of KStar talking about external rotation, and creating stability in the joint (hips or arms) while doing a lift. Why wouldn't it apply to shooting as well? So I'm going to be practicing fully externally rotating my arm, with the elbow locked and elbow-pit pointed up. It really does lock down. It also removes a freedom of motion, whereas a bent elbow allows the gun to recoil both up and in, making it harder to track during recoil.

For reloads, I was crowding my workspace while doing a reload. Claude recommended just dropping the strong side elbow to index on the ribs, then just roll the gun out until you can see a little bit of magwell. I had a tendency to both index on the ribs AND bend at the elbow bringing the gun really close. I'll be working the new way.

Drill 3:

FAST drill. Another pistol-training.com drill. We worked this about 5 reps each. My draw stroke from concealment was ok, but my split times on the head box were super slow (~.5-.6). My reloads were inconsistent in time, but improved during the course of my runs. My splits after the reload, which was also slow, were in the mid .2's. I wanted to run it one time strong hand only. Before I did, I wanted to learn the way Claude does a one handed reload.

one handed reload:

upon slide-lock, jettison mag as you bring your knees together. Once together, place the slide of the gun into your thighs. A hotdog in a bun. Find and seat fresh mag in the magwell, get FFG, and TILT the muzzle down and rack it through your clenched knees towards the dirt.

Drill 4:

17 yd hostage shot. Just a nice little 3 shot drill, no time, to test accuracy while there's a no-shoot downrange. Based on an actual event. The takeaway for me was 'Focus on the target, not the obstacle'. 

Random tips:

make your weight feel heavy: my default shooting posture is a crappy hips forward, poor posture one. I need to get a good base in an athletic stance. Claude used the cue "get heavy on your feet". Nose over toes. I'll do this during dryfire. It made an immediate difference.

Shotgun work:

Do as much work as you can from the shoulder. For port load, roll the gun port up, flare elbow up, and drop a shell in. Go back around the gun, rack slide forward, and shoot.

Mag load: Keep shotgun on shoulder, and load by feel.

Drills for shotgun:

Started empty chamber, hammer down, safety off, empty magazine. Start by racking the slide, and do a port load, shoot one.

load 1/shoot 1: ec, hd, so,em , rack slide open, port load 1, shoot 1, port load, shoot ....

load 2/shoot 2: ec/hd/so/em rack slide open, port load 1, tube load 1, shoot, shoot, port load 1, tube load 1.

Shoot both

un-chambering a shell. Put pinkie behind slide, rack slide to rear, pinkie acts as spacer. Get shell out w/ firing hand. Put slide forward. This allows you to get back to cruiser ready.

Cruiser ready: empty chamber, full tube, safety off, hammer down (slide is free to move)

Most likely to find a dead chamber in a protracted shotgun fight, so makes sense to work off of a dead chamber.

AAR - Armed Dynamics Defensive Pistol 1

Jeff Bloovman, president and chief instructor of Armed Dynamics, allowed me to assist him during his defensive pistol 1 course in Knoxville, TN on September 21st. I don't really know how to write this or who my audience is supposed to be, so I'll just jabber and try to not give away too much. Understand that if I explain a 'why', that's my opinion, and I have NO idea why AD put it in their curriculum, but only why I perceive they did.

The Summary: This is a fantastic one day (10 hour) relatively high round count (700 rounds) broad based pistol skill primer with some pretty novel neural/visualization based drills that are pretty groundbreaking, in my opinion.

The conditions of the range was just terrible. It rained literally ALL day. This slowed down the pace of the class to allow people to fish their magazines out of the mud and slosh through the muck. That's a reality of outdoor firearms training, so whatever. Jeff also had a wicked cold that left him all but voiceless. I had to step in to run several of the drills because it wasn't prudent for him to yell the 'threat' commands just for the sake of yelling. Now on to the nuts and bolts.

The day started with the usual medical brief and evacuation plan, then right into the gun handling rules. Though a quick note here, I've seen several notable instructors not mention medical plans at all. I don't know if that's because they don't want to scare their students, or because they just don't place a high priority on that. It's generally in lower speed classes, so I guess that might be why. In any case, I always have a medical brief and evac. plan. It's just a good practice.

One overreaching principle that AD sticks to is to not do too many needless repetitions of a certain drill. He gives you a taste of the drill, and moves on. This allows him to get a tremendous amount of information and convey a huge amount of technique in a short time. It gives the students things to think about, and take with them to train later. Mastery can't be attained in an afternoon, but the groundwork can be set for the student to build upon later. People without pens/paper are doing themselves a disservice. Take notes. It's as important now as it was in high school or college or whatever.

The streamlined nature of the class starts to show itself with the unload/load procedure. The emphasis on tactile reference points in gun handling and manipulation, and body awareness is introduced early and continues throughout the training day. Large, gross movement manipulations are the name of the game.

personal note: I  still totally agree with this method of gun handling. That is, leaving the little gun buttons out of the equation for the sake of making the adrenaline dump gun handling more manageable. This is what I practice and what I personally teach. The idea being that you could lose the sharpness of your fine motor movements during an ambush and adrenaline dump. The counter point to this is that fighter pilots perform split second fine motor skill maneuvers during combat, or that we drive 90 miles an hour, mere inches away from other cars on the freeway. To counter that argument, I would point to the high amount of flight-hours, simulation, and stress inoculation involved in being a pilot, and the fact that there is no adrenaline dump happening during a 90 mph drive. To see the effects of adrenaline on driving, think about when you drive over a puddle and lose control of your car. A person untrained in driving in slick conditions will clench their steering wheel, and grossly over-correct and generally lose their minds. Average Joe who gets into a gunfight and has taken a class or two, PROBABLY doesn't have the flight hours to be able to overcome his adrenaline in the moment. Hence gross motor manipulations. But I could be wrong./rant

The draw-stroke was taught next. Jeff encouraged the students to work from concealment (not that there was a choice with all the rain gear) and showed the 4 count draw (a la SouthNarc). He didn't introduce or even talk about the added complexity of shooting through the horizontal line of presentation, but he laid the ground work to do that later in the day. I think this is a smart move. I have a tendency to give people too much to think about at once and should just build the layer cake of skills as I go, instead of laying it all out at once.

Both one handed and two handed grip were covered. So was the best stance to shoot from (when a stationary position is available and tactically sound). An athletic, nose over toes stance.

Basics of shooting followed. There were some good tips about how to manipulate the trigger and some tricks that would allow the students to ramp up their shooting speed. They were able to find their balance of speed and accuracy. These were the most repeated drills of the day, but what could be more important than building the firing grip and getting rounds on threat as fast as possible?

personal note: I'm still trying to work this out for myself, but I'm at odds on the different ways to get people worked into drawing and firing from the holster. I sort of like this progression, and have had some pretty good luck with it in the small classes I've done for my extended family and friends:
1 - Explain the drawstroke by the numbers and rep it with the class, no shooting. Once they have drawn dry, have them load their pistols.
2 - 5 shots freestyle on their time (gives me an idea of who is missing fundamentals)
3 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3 (high compressed ready), with a single shot at the end of this ( work on their line of presentation, and picking up sights)
4 - 5 repetitions of pressing the gun out from 3, with 2 shots at the end (let them feel recoil and follow-through)
5 - 1 rep of 5 shots rapid fire out from 3 (drive the follow through home)
6 - 5 reps of 1 shot starting at the '2' position. (forces them to build the grip consistently and present the gun)
7 - Let them work from the holster.
This reverse engineering method I got from Claude. It gives a lot of repetition of building grip, pressing out, and getting a consistent presentation with a relatively low round count. I think the way Jeff did it works great too. I just would do it slightly differently.

Cadence shooting was used and we saw a lot of quick increase of shooting speed with minimal degradation in accuracy. Their speed limit was in their mind. In the course of the shooting, they were forced to make reloads. As malfunctions came up, we talked them through them. Jeff's reload technique is very good and assures the ground isn't littered with slip inducing empties for when you have to get out of Dodge. Stoppages were covered in detail later in the day. The F.A.S.T. protocol was introduced with verbalization to get people used to un-gluing their feet from the ground, and reminding them that they were learning to fight with a handgun, not punch paper. Jeff's use of a covert ready position during a scan was new to me, but I definitely understand his reasoning behind using this. Less overt than 'up' position, and less technical than 'sul'. It also keeps the gun at ready in case you need to lift it back up and punch it out. I like this.

We did some basic movement drills to start task loading the students, and help them understand the static shooting they're used to just won't cut it. Turns and moving and shooting. This is always a crowd favorite.

Neural based shooting - I participated as a student during this portion. This is one of those things that you really have to give yourself to in order to get the most value from it. It begins with basic visualization exercises to warm up your imagination, I guess you could say. Then a series of exercises are used to burn in a kinesthetic feeling for perfect body alignment, grip, and sight picture. This is supposed to be an accelerated learning technique that seems to get people to get in touch with their body mechanics a lot faster than 100's of open eyed gun presentations. We did some shooting with our eyes closed, and it's amazing how quickly you can build a super strong draw index when you're mindful of it.
The real power of this module was the 'mindset' portion of the block. I must stress that you have to really give it a fair shake and let yourself go. Forget that you're standing there with your eyes closed on a range, and try to put yourself in the moment and listen to Jeff's words. If you do this right, you will FEEL anger/rage/fear/and a willingness to fight until the lights go out. You really will. This is a 3 hour mindset lecture in a 20 minute block of time. I will have to talk with Jeff about this. I want to integrate this into the classes I do with my friends and family. However, if you're a skeptic, and don't want to relent, you'll probably not get as much from it. I personally was shaking and nearly sobbed.

We discussed shooting through the horizontal line of presentation. Jeff's voice was pretty well shot at this point, so he asked me to present this portion. We also did some retention shooting to get people used to having a gun go off that close to them.

We worked some one handed draw strokes, and stoppage clearances one handed. Watching people realize that they can reload one handed and keep shooting is so great. I love this stuff.

Before we broke for dinner, we touched on use of cover and some very basic team stuff. All of the usual items. We covered keeping juicy femorals behind cover, and exposing minimal amounts of yourself to the bad guy. Some tactics were touched upon including the way that rounds striking walls don't bounce off at the same angle they impacted at, and why crowding cover is a bad idea. Good useful stuff.

Low light was the last thing we did. We touched on the four big flashlight techniques, and let everyone try them out, and pick their favorite. We also did some cool scanning techniques that are deceptive to the ones on the other side of the light. It culminated in a flow drill that included scanning and shooting. All the while enforcing weapon manipulation and light discipline. The students really appreciated the non diagnostic and gross motor gun handling when there was no light.

The under appreciated (at the time) training partner was the mud. I really believe it builds some mental toughness and forces people to see how their gear performs in adverse conditions. People either gained trust in their gear, or learned what they couldn't trust.

Thanks to Jeff and Armed Dynamics for letting me come to train and hang out. I love a good day at the range.

Injury

Inguinal Hernia. Going to have to put the powerbuilding on hold, me thinks.

Lots of pushups/pullups/HIIT stuff is the order of business, I guess.

I hate having to change just as I was getting a stride.

AAR: Patriot Nurse Medical Prep 101 - Greenville SC 6/9/2013

I attended the Patriot Nurse's Medical Prep 101 class in a hotel in Greenville last week. I wanted to get this typed up before I forgot all the subtle points. I'll give a quick rundown of the material covered, and then some thoughts and notes on the material and critiques.

Here's PN talking about the class:

So I'll evaluate the class based on the fact that it's supposed to be how to identify, prevent, and treat illness when there is minimal access to medical help. It's a prepper medical class, basically. But the lessons can be immediately applied to day to day life, which is pretty neat.

The class was broken down into modules of physical assessment, respiratory disease, digestive disease, wound care, and post mortem considerations.

Leading into it all was a cool acronym that is a reminder on the basic ideas of medical care. the K.A.T.C.P. protocol. Know, Assess, Take Care Of, Contain, and Prevent. They're pretty self explanatory, but some really nice lessons inherent in this are that you should understand your baseline (so you can see when you deviate from it, indicating disease), and to devote a lot of energy to the prevention of disease, rather than having to count on a (possibly non-existent) medical intervention, depending on your scenario. That's damn good advice that is immediately applicable today. Don't wait until it's E.R. worthy, fix your shit now.

There is some practical time spent learning to take blood pressure with a cuff and stethoscope, pulse, as well as checking the lung fields for breath sounds. Getting the hands on time was very useful. I spent a month in the hospital 5 years ago, and watched my blood pressure taken every few hours, so I sort of figured out what they were doing, but it's always good to get 'trigger time' doing the deed.

Then the respiratory segment started. The signs of respiratory infection and some overview stuff about evaluation, and then some stuff on how to help fix a respiratory infection. I'll give you a spoiler, the aides are the same things that every athlete should be doing. Water, Vitamin D and sunshine, and rest. Following were treatment options. As is my personal philosophy, use of antibiotics was discussed as a last resort. Lastly, prevention was discussed. As should be common knowledge, hygiene, rest, and ventilation were the primary means discussed. This block concluded with scenarios that were discussed in small groups. We even did a cool calculation on dosing antibiotics using the nurses drug handbook. It's another good exercise to actually do.

The digestive diseases were next. The why, how, and when were discussed. The indicators of dehydration were next, and those are useful for anyone who spends time with groups outside during physical exertion. Then a nice home-made rehydration recipe was shared, composed of table salt, sugar, maybe some KCl salt alternative, and a liter of water. Then the super useful method of rectal rehydration was discussed. The details can be googled, I'm sure. The segment was again concluded with a scenario.

Wound care was the next topic. The biggest take away for me was to keep accurate charts, as well as dry heat sterilization temperatures for instruments. Rashes, blisters, punctures, dog bites, and dressing wounds were highlighted as well.

Post mortem care was the last topic. I felt like this section was a little out of place in the curriculum, and could possibly be dropped in lieu of more content on the other diseases, or at least shortened to just the aspects directly related to austere conditions and disease containment, rather than emotional and spiritual aspects. That's must my opinion, as most of the class seemed to be fine with the segment.

The coolest thing I learned was about stockpiling antibiotics in the form of veterinary grade drugs. FishMox, Penicillin, erythromycin can all be had through veterinary supply channels. Good stuff.

That's the course in a nutshell. Next I'll share a few things that I think could be done a bit more smoothly (I realize unsolicited opinions are generally never wanted, but I can't help myself). I think a 'purchase cheat sheet' would have been extremely useful for students wanting to buy the items we used in the class. Instead, every time a piece of gear was mentioned, PN would refer us to her Amazon click-through store. This is fine, but it takes away from time we could be discussing the topics. I'm all about meat and potatoes during a class.

PN kept referencing her 201 level class during the 101 level class. I suspect she's currently giving a lot of brain sweat to developing her curriculum for that course, so I get it. But, I would have liked to have some more depth of the topics discussed, instead of the sales pitch for the next course. If that makes sense.

Overall, it's a cool 1 day class that is a huge step outside of what I've been concentrating on for the last few years. I was immediately able to put the information to use, as my son caught his first virus 3 days after I got back. Runny nose, cough, no fever. This was pretty much exactly a scenario we discussed in the course. I was able to keep my wife calm enough to keep us out of the E.R. in Milwaukee on our trip, and instead convinced her to wait until a local pediatrician opened the next day. So that was pretty nice.

Overall, I would say that the course lived up to it's mission statement.

Thanks to PN for inviting me to check her out.

Later,
M

Dogg Crapp and Me

So, as the noose tightens on my free time (mostly kidding), I have to keep tweaking my training programming accordingly. I realize that MMA is out for now, as is highly complicated training at a big gym like GaTech's. I had to find another way to improve physically. So I begged my wife to let me buy a used power rack on Craig's List. Here's the score:

I'm still interested in getting stronger. That's the primary goal. But since I'm a program-jumper... I figured I'd try something new for 6 months or so. Serendipitously, Paul S. and Brandon S. both mentioned DC training within about a week of each other so I started digging.

Brandon posted a progam, based on an article from T-Nation: It's a hybridization of 5/3/1 (I have 7 months on this program) and DC training. Here's the program. https://www.facebook.com/download/168887719940119/DC%20531.xlsx

Here's the article: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/531_and_rest_pause_a_six_week_challenge

I started this program, since I like the idea of 2x a week training, as well as concentrating on the power lifts. Then I started reading about pure DC training.

I read this http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_50_pounds_of_muscle_in_12_months

this: http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1215471959-DC_Workout_Crib_Notes.pdf

and Paul S.'s thoughts:

I've been getting a few texts, calls and messages about D/C training, injuries and assorted strength training questions. Most guys know I've used D/C training to work my way up from 190-200 to a peak of 290. I walk around at 245-255 now and with one blast phase I can usually go back up to 275. The main thing guys have to know before starting D/C is; Dante is right. Guys will think they should change this or that, don't. Do it by the book, which also includes the part about being honest with yourself regarding whether you're ready for D/C. I wasn't. I was coming off of an injury and my training prior to D/C was a combination of body weight stuff, Oly lifts, plyos and sprint training as I was a competitive MMA fighter. Once I knew I couldn't compete any longer I decided to see how big and strong I could get. I read as much as I could about D/C, talked to friends and my cousin Rick who has experience with D/C and started the program. My first few blast/cruise phases were great, I was growing constantly. I knew how to push myself hard from all the fight prep for MMA so digging in for the rest-pause sets was normal however, i racked up some pretty bad injuries because i didn't have the training history Dante recommends prior to starting. That's an important element. I had a serious training history in MMA fight prep but not in strength training. If you have the training history definitely give D/C a shot, if not though you're better served to put some time into a more conventional program. ..Good find Corey. Essentially I posted; 1) Don't change anything, just do the program as is, 2 way split. 2) base your diet around protein. 2 grams per pound of bodyweight you WANT to weigh. 3) do the stretches. It really helps. 4) Dig deep. You get one set with 3 attempts, make it count. 5) Cardio on the days you don't lift. Just do it. That's 4 days of cardio, 3 days of lifting. You'll be glad you did. 6) Add reps before adding weight. 7) When you add weight add the least amount possible. Don't blast for longer than 6-8 weeks in the beginning. If you do you will burn out, you will get injured. 9) Pick your 3 exercises wisely. Pick moves you can add weight and/or reps easily. Barbell and plate loaded machines work great, dumbbells not so much. 10) when it's time to cruise take advantage of the cruise and give your body a break. I didn't at first and my joints hated me. My cruises would be more heavy lifting just not DC, for example I would do 4-5 sets of heavy bench, incline and dips for chest..., not good. My joints never got a break in the beginning and the injuries and constant pain drove me nuts. Later I learned to cruise properly and my joints/injuries went away and I made better gains when it was time to blast again because my body and mind were good to go.

So I sketched up the lifts I'm able to do in my basement gym. I'm going to do my absolute best to stick to the protocols. Rest/Pause, Beating the log book, Protein intake, carb cutoff after 5pm, deep stretching after the sets, adequate rest, cardio on off days, lots of water.

Here's an early spreadsheet of my plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoCMMYGsnozMdFR3OTZXemF2SG5uYnFwRWFTVnFwLUE&usp=sharing

So my proposed schedule will look like:

M/W/F: DC work

T/Th/S/S : 30 mins light cardio, most probably dog walks with a weight vest.

I can already tell the protein intake will be the hardest part. I'm looking at 400-450 g per day which is a load of whey and eggs and steaks. I'm using myfitnesspal to track protein intake, assuring that I'm getting 450g a day. Without some pretty heavy whey shake supplementation, I'll get nowhere near it.

Starting weight is 192.6 on the week of June 10.
Let the Blast commence.

30 day Ketogenic Prophylaxis

Starting on May 6, I started a 30 day ketogenic diet experiment. I'll let you google if you're interested in what exactly that means, but the gist is less than 20g of carbs a day, HIGH protein and HIGH fat.

My reason for wanting to give this 30 days is that I heard Robb Wolf talk about sort of active cancer prevention on a podcast a while back and I logged it away in my head. He mentioned the glucose dependent nature of cancer, and how limiting sources of glucose/glycogen from the body for an extended period, it might help to augment and assist cancer treatment. Essentially take away the cancer's main fuel source. The rest of the body is really good at maintaining homeostasis, but the cancer needs that readily available glucose fuel source to continue to thrive. He also mentioned how it might help mitigate any fledgling growing cancer in a prophylactic way. He mentioned it might be useful to do a 5-10 day fast, or a 30-60 day ketogenic diet once a year for those concerned with cancer. Well, as you know, I'm a survivor or Hodgkin's lymphoma, so I'm interested in prevention interventions where I can get them.

I made my plan public on May 6th. The BookFaces is a great way to hold yourself publicly accountable. That is, just as long as you're not friends with a bunch of lazy, boring, uninspiring people. I happen to be friends with my role models.

The ketogenic diet is easy. Lots of meats, veggies that grow above the ground, nuts, cheese, avocados, fish oils, coconut oil, and so on. Keeping the carbohydrates to an absolute minimum. Eventually the body switches from using glycogen/glucose for a fuel, and switches modes to ketone bodies. There is a transition period about 3 days in that is probably the worst part of it. I personally got some headache, fuzzy head, fatigue, and grumpiness during this time. No big deal, I just try to limit my conversation time with people so I don't get too grumpy.

I was perfect keto through Friday 17. Sean of CMTT invited the wife and I out for sushi. There should be a rule in dieting that says, "stick to your diet, unless it makes you an unsociable asshole" or the "never turn down free sushi" rule. I'll keep working on that one. Anyway, this dinner threw me out of ketosis (it only takes a little bit). So the next day I had some beers, and tried to get all my carbs into a 24 hour period. I guess the first week was a cyclic-keto week. No big. Back on the wagon.

The way I'm monitoring my progress is with KetoStrips (Amazon Link). You get to pee on a little strip, wait 15 seconds, and see how you're doing. My boy Mike D. turned me onto this last year when he was talking about the luck he had with keto.

Today is the 14th, and I'm back in ketosis after my cheat day ending Saturday. Same symptoms as before.

Observations while in ketosis: I feel a bit buzzy. Almost like I'm wired up on some stimulant. I also feel like I think a bit sharper. It's easy to fantasize about a pizza (beer for me), but if you stay busy it's a non-issue. Sort of an icky taste in my mouth as well. All normal as far as I can tell. I've been doing a food log on MyFitnessPal to try to get an idea of my macro-nutrient intake and total caloric intake. I'm probably running about 2000 Cal a day. So a slight deficit.

Going to Keto from paleo is a pretty easy transition. I had been doing paleo for 5 or 6 months leading into this, so no big deal. It was actually nice to throw some cheese back in the mix.

Weight training is possible on Ketosis, but I wouldn't recommend glycogen depleting jogs/runs/biking/crossfit/BJJ type stuff. When I was doing Jits and MT last year, I was doing the 4hourbody diet, which is a cyclic low carb diet (lots of beans and low glycemic foods), and having a helluva time performing. Turns out I was being a dummy and trying to do highly metabolic work while not having the fuel to sustain that. If you're doing that, you're going to need some sweet potatoes and a banana after training. If you do attempt this stuff on keto, expect your performance to suffer.

I don't expect to get stronger in the next month, but I'm ok with that. I'll go through my movements and maintain what I've got before I hop back onto the paleo carbohydrate train.

EDITS:
Starting weight: 197.6
5/14/13 192.6 (carb depleting will shed 3-5 lbs of water, for me)

5/22/13 190.0
5/28/13 189.6

EDIT:
I've had to stop this experiment in light of some reading I was doing on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Warburg_effect

I don't want to inadvertently cause cancer to grow by giving it fuel (a few kinds of cancer cells use ketones to fuel growth, but they're not the most prevalent kinds).

So going forward, I'm keeping to a paleo gig. No wheat/ Dairy/ Legumes. I will be very vigilant about no wheat. I probably will let legumes sneak in from time to time, since chili is easy to make, cheap, and filling.

The good thing about keto is that you tend to melt fat. I lost almost 10 lbs effortlessly. Granted, probably 4 lbs of it was water (you retain something like 4oz of water per gram of glycogen in your system, but don't quote that number), but you can see how someone who was major overweight could get quick losses using this method. If someone had like 50+ lbs to lose, I think I'd recommend a ketogenic diet with a carb refeed every 2 weeks or so to kickstart the hormonal signalling (cyclic keto I guess). Anyway, case closed on this deal.

Tacticool Father 4/30/13

Wow, I just time traveled 4 months. I apologize to anyone who actually reads this thing. It's been busy on my end.

What's new with me? Let's see.

First, the baby is doing great. he's in the 97% of length, and 77% in weight. So he's long and lean. Like his dad.

I'm still doing 5/3/1 as a base strength program. I still love it. I've finally hit my wall in a few lifts. I missed my OHP 5 reps yesterday. I have been doing a lot of manual labor and not sleeping enough, so I feel like that's probably partially to blame for my misses.

Here's my current progress and maxes (calculated)
Deadlift - 382
OHP - 148.5
Squat - 302
Bench - 221

I started here in early November.
DL - 303
OHP - 126
Squat - 233
Bench - 206

I have been religiously following Dan John's principles for my assistance lifts. My off days are filled with KB swings. I'm doing overhead squats and front squats every workout (w/ a stick), lots of hinge stuff, and weighted carries. A slosh pipe is in my future as well.

I have definitely fully shifted my obsession to lifting. When I first was forced to stop training MMA, I felt the pangs of having to miss nearly daily. Now, I only have that feeling every few weeks. I don't want to lose the desire to return. I know how important it is to the overall game, and I really feel like it made me a better person.

In the shooting realm, I have been given a great opportunity. My friend Sean started a company http://centermasstacticaltraining.blogspot.com/ and asked me to be an assistant instructor. I have creative input in the curriculum, and he's open to suggestions. The second class was held 4.28.13, and this was the first one I was able to attend. My mom was able to take the class, and I'm happy she was able to see what I love doing, and learn to use a gun. It's an unpaid gig, but Sean is a friend and hopefully it grows to the point that I can get some scratch for my time. I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head, great mentors, good access to a wide variety of information, and a mind for it (at least I think). Another upside is that the other instructor owns an MMA gym in Marietta, and offered for me to come train whenever I want. I will take him up on that. Having a baby makes it so I'm lucky if I could get more than 1 day of skills training in a week. Having to pay for a membership to a gym wouldn't be a smart use of money.

I was able to shoot the Shield 9mm during the demos. I love it. It shoots like a bigger gun, minimal recoil for such a small gun, and the trigger is a dream compared to a PF9 or a snub (both of which I could shoot very well). I installed Ameriglo I-Dot orange sights, and the POPPED in the dreary conditions. I made every hit during my demos, which included lateral movement and a retreat to cover drill. Reloads were smooth and I can't complain. I may texture the frame of the shield a bit, but that's just because I like messing with my guns.

I'll stay on my dryfire program. It's a combination of doing Claude's dryfire cds http://www.dryfire-practice.com/ and TLG's dryfire training program. www.pistol-training.com

Lastly, shooting steel is a blast. I recommend it.

The Summary Part 1: The Diet

At the urging of my friend Jeff, I am going to write out a broad overview of some of the ways that I've used to improve myself over the last 3 years. This will essentially be a review of methods and approaches to diet and exercise that I've tried, with success (or failure, which is sometimes more useful). I will include links to the original works and sources so you can read more about the topics that you want to research more deeply. If you're reading this, you know me, so you know my history of losing 60 lbs and maintaining the losses, and so forth, so I won't rehash that. Just know that the original reason I started researching these things was for fat loss, then my interest slowly evolved into sports performance.

The first rule is, be a skeptic. Don't trust what I say. Research it for yourself, and give something a try.

So I'll start off with the fat loss portion of the journey, since that's what Jeff asked about specifically. I'll lay this out in the logical progression I used to structure my diet. Where am I? Where do I want to be (goals)? How can I get there? How can I measure my improvements? How do I look/perform/feel? Then feedback to the beginning of this, and keep going through the cycle.

1) Where am I right now?
First, the only scientifically proven method for fat loss is caloric restriction. That is, eating fewer calories than you're using. You can get deep into trying to calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) based on your activity level and job description. However, what I've found for myself is that I always tend to overestimate my energy output level on a given day, so I like to UNDERESTIMATE my base caloric needs so that when I do train, it's just bonus Calories burned. In order to do that, I use my basal metabolic rate to get an idea of how many Calories I'm using just to be alive.

So just for instance, let's say I'm a 6' tall 29 year old male (and I weigh 220 lbs) and my near-term weight goal is 190 lbs. I will use the BMR calculator and use my GOAL weight to calculate a BMR of 1680 Cal. So, if I'm able to eat at a daily average of 1680 Cal, I will tend to trend downward from my current 220 lbs towards my goal of 190. Easy, right? If you eat less than the amount required to maintain your current weight, then your body can't sustain its current form, and you will trend towards the body that you are eating for. And make no mistake, you can't out-exercise your fork. "Abs are made in the kitchen" is a truism.

2) Where do I want to be?
The single most important key to success in losing weight is to have a goal. Have a metric. Hold yourself accountable to your goal, or ask a friend to hold you accountable. You can make a bet between friends (who can lose 20 lbs the fastest?) This is one of those things that will depend almost completely on your current situation. If you're super inflamed, have a lot of visceral fat, and have trouble getting up the stairs, you are going to take a much different approach than an already reasonably active person who has 20 lbs to lose, or an athlete who is already at the top of the game.   You need to make challenging, yet reasonable goals. Get out a piece of paper and write down what you want in the next month, 3 months, and over the next year. I do this ALL THE TIME, to the point of being obsessive, but it really helps me get what I'm after.

3) How can I get there?
This section is going to be a laundry list of arriving at your caloric deficit. All of the following will assume that you're not changing how you're eating at all. That is, you're still allowed to eat at McD's for lunch if that's what you usually do. I'm going to treat meal composition as a separate section. The meal composition is most important to performance, not to fat loss. You can lose as much fat as you want without having to do without your favorite junk foods. You'll just have to eat a lot less of them, overall.

Very few of these ideas are mine, but I'll lay them out and try to give credit where I can. Despite what method you use, there is no free lunch. You will be hungry at some point, you will be cranky, you might feel brain fog, you might fall off the wagon and eat a large pizza and box of hot wings. This is a reality, and we have to allow for this. If your diet plan doesn't allow for a little human-nature, you're setting yourself up for failure from the beginning.

A few tips, regardless of what method you use:
-Don't look at calories on a daily basis, instead use a weekly overview. This will allow you to realize that a night of beer and wings isn't the 'end of the world and I might as well give up'. Instead, you can make up for the excess of that day by eating less the next.

-Look at hunger as 'fat burn mode'. When you are truly  hungry (and if you try intermittent fasting, you'll learn what actual hunger is) just view it as the times when you're truly scorching through that stored flab, and relish it.

-If you go out to eat, ask for a to-go box when your food comes out, and put 1/2 of your meal in the box right away. Then you can't overeat, and you'll have less to regret later.

Simple Caloric Restriction: This is the classic method of calorie counting. This WORKS. Make no mistake. It requires loads of attention to detail (which some people love and crave) which I personally find tiring. Folks are also prone to yo-yo-ing since people feel enslaved to their daily diet. If they mess up a day, or over eat one day, it's very easy to fall off the wagon. You will also feel a low level hunger almost all the time (Depending on how restricted you're going). One phenomena of prolonged caloric restriction is stalling in weight loss, despite people eating below their maintenance. Here's the LeanGains guy's article about that.  There seems to be benefit from cyclically (once a week or so) refeeds off a calorically restricted diet. This is most needed when the bodyfat is sub 10%, which is already for a very small population. This gives a cheat meal (or day) good merit beyond just helping you keep your sanity. I know I've read lots of theories on why, I just can't seem to find the sources right now.

Intermittent Fasting: This is a catch-all term for the method of using periods of fasting (no eating) to hack out large portions of the day when you traditionally would have been eating. There are many ways to structure this time. If you're first coming to this from a traditional dieting perspective, READ THIS before discounting this method of caloric restriction. I'll outline some of the popular methods and discuss my favorite.

Eat/Stop/Eat -
This is a great method. This method is a 2-3 day a week 24 hour fasts. For instance, eat lunch on a tuesday, and don't eat again until lunch on a wednesday. Go about your life as usual. Train, sleep, work, drink plenty of water, and enjoy your weight loss. Brad Pilon's book is fantastic at laying down the groundwork and the research regarding fasting and it's benefits. Benefits from the caloric restriction angle, as well as some of the purported hormonal and mental benefits that come from fasting. It's for the working man (and lady) who just wants to shed some extra pounds without having to severely alter their meal compositions (only the meal frequency). I love this method, and it's the one I currently use to maintain at my current weight. The trickiest part with this IF method is to eat your fast-breaking meal as if you had eaten the previous meals. That is, don't gorge because you didn't eat breakfast or lunch. That is the hardest part for me. I love the feeling of being really full after a big meal. To realize the most loss with ESE, I have to consciously control that urge to stuff myself. Do this for about 3 months, and you'll notice a change. It will be hard for the first month or so. You'll be learning what real true 'body hunger' feels like. Remember, that's just fat burn mode. It might also mess with your bowel movement timing. So what. poop later. You might get sort of grumpy. Apologize later and hope the people in your life are willing to deal with your mood now so that they can enjoy your healthier body later. You might feel a bit loopy if you're insulin insensitive or a bit obese. As long as you don't get wildly low blood sugar, ride it out, and keep going. As you lose the visceral fat, you'll become MORE insulin sensitive (a good thing), your blood sugar levels will be more stable, and you'll be less affected by the fasts.

LeanGains:
This is a 18h fast/6h fed IF regiment that also has a carb cycling aspect and pays pretty close attention to macro-nutrient timing and composition. It also requires you to do heavy weight training at least 3x a week. To stick to LG very strictly is an exercise in weighing food and calorie counting. It's really for a person who is sub 12% bodyfat, trying to break the 10% barrier.

Alternate Day Fasting:
Eat one day, don't eat the next. Simple enough.

The Warrior Diet
This is a 20 hour fasted, 4 hour eating window method of IF. Get your day's calories in one big epic meal, once a day. It's for the dudes who love stuffing their face. I need to read this book. I only have read summaries online, and want to be able to speak more intelligently about this method.

Measuring Improvements:
A weekly weigh in. Monthly photographs. and a tape measure on the areas you're interested in monitoring (thighs, hips, around belly at navel, around chest at nipple height, and the limbs are all good places). Write it down in a book. Set yourself a google calendar reminder, and monitor yourself.

Maintaining:
It seems that it's easier to maintain than it is to lose. Once the difficult work is done, it logically follows that holding your ground is easier. You can probably throttle back to 1x a week IF  or whatever your method. Just have your line in the sand. If you're maintenance method fails you, and you creep above your threshold, batten down the hatches and go back into loseit mode. Don't let your line in the sand creep, or eventually you'll lose all of the ground you fought for.

How I'm doing it:
This is really the least important thing, but I'll list how I'm currently finding success. I'm maintaining at 190-195#, and currently in a strength building phase. I'm allowing myself a little bit of excess calories so I make sure to max out my strength gains. I have my mind made up that I'll not go over 200#. If I do, I'll diet back down to 185 using ESE protocol and by making my portions smaller. For now, to maintain, I'm using 2 a week 24 hour fasts a la Eat/Stop/Eat. My diet is primarily a paleo (no dairy/grains/legumes) diet.

That sums up the first part of diet stuff. Next I'll outline the foods that I've been eating in order to perform at the highest level that I've ever been able to. I'll also write about the method I use to cycle through my performance goals and manage an infinite list of goals to a finite amount of time.

Thanks for reading,
Mark

My Year in Review 2012

Here's the year in review 2011 - http://getinmyguardbro.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-year-in-review-2011.html

This might be a long post... here we go.

These were my goals:
What do I want t|o do in 2012:
[*]run a 5 or 10k - Why? Since I always feared running and figured I’m not ‘built’ for running. The fact is, I was too fat and out of shape to run. no mas.
[*]Begin 8 week blocks alternating between either running or weights. 2- 1 hour a week sessions.
[*]touch pistol (or sirt) at least 2x a week for 10 minutes with a regimented dry fire session. I still don’t have the time to make it to the range regularly.
[*]Shoot at least 4 IDPA matches. The time pressure is invaluable.
[*]enter a Muay Thai tournament. Even if it’s just an intra-gym tournament, I’ll be happy.
[*]enter at least 2 bjj tournys. Grappling is most complex part of the game I’m trying to play, and tournaments are like compressed training time. Compete.
[*]train more wrestling/takedowns and an integrated MMA game.
[*]continue bjj/mt (duh), and start taking daily notes about training. A log of techniques would be very helpful.
[*]Orchestrate and train with the training group more regularly.
[*]Take ECQC again to see where my game needs improvement
[*]Take AMIS (may be in 2012)
[*]Train with Tactical Response (maybe an hrcc?)
[*]READ for at least 2 hours a week. This can be on the shitter or a dedicated time. Read things to exercise the mind and gain insight into the history of what I’m doing.
[*]Begin doing something related to ‘art’. At least 2 hours a month. Whether it’s writing or taking photos. The samurai understood the need for balance between martial arts and regular art and I’m afraid I’m not balancing myself. Hopefully it will keep me from burning out.

I'll admit that this was a pretty ambitious list. I fell short on a few of the points, but I feel like I was able to complete the most important (to me) ones. Let's start with the failures and missed goals, then work into the success. Finish on a high note.

I failed to touch my pistol for my goal time. I did try to regularly pick up the sirt and do a few presentations and trigger presses. I also tried to dry fire. It's getting harder and harder to get to a range. Plus, the current influx of retards to the shooting lanes makes me want to stay home. There are so many untrained mo-fos waving guns around at ranges. This dovetails into my failure to do IDPA this year. I hope that I can eventually get back into it. It's so good. The financial and time expense is too much at this time. Given the recent madness in ammo and gun prices, I guess I don't feel so bad sitting on what I have. Dry fire will be my friend moving forward. I think I should take the SIRT into the basement in my gym, and do dryfire as a 3-5 minute cooldown. I already have photo-realistic bad guy posters on the walls. I might as well use them.

I didn't get a Muay Thai fight this year. But I did get to spar with some MT fighters, which was plenty... Plenty enough to know that I'm probably not ready for a MT fight! Manu told me on several occasions that I had the best technique of any of his regular students. He also said that if I went to train in Thailand, they'd surely ask me to fight. So that was a great compliment. Since I had to take a hiatus from it in October (until ??), I'll be set back a lot from my MT but it's something I will eventually resume. I have the heavy bag hanging downstairs, so I will put in at least one MT heavy bag workout a week going forward.

I got in only 1 BJJ tournaments this year. The IBJJF Atlanta open. I got crushed. I was going to do the NAGA, but the wife needed my help with home stuff during her pregnancy. All of my classmates were promoted about a month after I left, which is sort of heartbreaking. I should have had my blue belt by now. As long as I don't get fat, and do some floor exercises and solo drilling every once in a while, I should be OK to make my comeback. I miss jits very much, but at the same time, it's great to be able to cycle that to the background and concentrate on other weaknesses.

I didn't get to take AMIS, as the $$$ and timing was off. Nor did I get to a TR class. These were outside hopes anyway.

Those were my failures. Now for the successes:

I actually did run 2 5k's in 2012. On top of that, I was able to run them with my lovely wife. We did the two runs, then shortly after the 2nd one, we found out wife-unit was pregnant. This year I feel like I became a better partner to her. I tried to be less selfish and more understanding of her needs. I also tried my best to find a hobby that we both could do together, and would allow us to get active. The jogging did that for us. This is something that is easy to overlook when you're selfishly trying to accumulate cool guy points. So I feel like this was a huge victory. I'm still not a strong runner, but I know I can run if needed.

I took ECQC in March. Another wonderful learning experience. AAR is on the blog, of course.

I adopted the 8-week training blocks this year. From January 2011 to late October 2012, I was full martial arts mode, with my supplemental training being either a day of LSD running, or a day of deadlifting. I wasn't always super strict about this. After October, I went into lifting weights really heavily. My supplemental training/maintenance training is therefor striking/solo grappling drills, or LSD running. I'm not at a point yet where I'm 'good enough' at one thing to put it on maintenance mode. I know I suck at everything, so I just throw myself into whatever I'm trying to train and just do a little of the other skills until it makes sense to switch my primary focus. I learned a lot about my body this year. Finding limits in nutrition, training volume, intensity, recovery. I am getting better at realizing when I can push through, and when I truly am overtrained and need to take a day off. I learned what foods I can perform well with, and what slows me down. It's a constant evolution.

I trained the martial arts as hard as I could, while I could. I knew my time was limited once I found out we had a baby on they way. I kept good notes that will help me to remember my experiences as well as my techniques. I am VERY HAPPY I kept notes. They are all available on this blog. I did the public accountability route and that worked out for me again. I can't suggest this highly enough.

I read a LOT this year. I read a lot of diet books. 'Wheat Belly', 'The Paleo Solution', the MobilityWOD website, lots of exercise articles, martial arts books, warrior philosophy stuff. Oh, and a TON of baby stuff. I made good on this one.

I think I can count this blog as my 'art'. It made me think about what I was feeling and thinking. I also shared it with the internet, which gives it an aspect of public scrutiny. I think that's the stuff of art. I don't know.

I definitely didn't train with the training group enough this year. We had a great meetup a few months ago, which was wonderful. I guess this was a failure, but since we got to train at least one good meetup, I'll put it in the win column.

OK! so that's how I did on my goals from 2011. How should I move forward?

I think this list will have a lot more body and health items than in years past. I have acquired a level of fitness and health that I do not want to squander or let degrade going forward. It was a lot of hard work to get here, and it would be silly to let myself go. It's very easy to come up with excuses, but I don't want excuses for myself. I want to perform. Here's the list.


What are my reevaluated (self defense) strengths after this year?
1)Mindset
2)fitness
3)empty hands
4)pistol
5)deescalation
6)tactics

I added the self defense parenthesis because now that I have a son, I'll have to add categories like 'family time', 'cooking', and other Mr. Mom stuff. Anyway, here's how I plan on getting better this year. As always, it's a work in progress...

• Care for my body with diet. Minimize Wheat/Grains/Legumes/Dairy. I'll allow myself some wiggle room, but if my main drive is to keep these foods to a minimum, I'll do better overall.
• Keep up the intermittent fasting to keep between 185-190. I'm 191 after all the holiday madness, so I feel like I'm doing OK on that front. I'll be able to tighten back up here in a bit.
• Be a good husband and father. This is not difficult, but I guess I feel obligated to put it down.
• Get stronger. I will continue on with the 5/3/1 program and break PRs. I will also not neglect my cardio and keep up with the road work. I'll have two jogging buddies, so it will be great.
• Try to get back into Jits and or MT at some point this year. If this doesn't happen, I will train solo in the basement at least once a week.
• Practice dry-fire, and implement a regular dry-fire program (this one is important to me). I will also practice lots of one hand work to help me deal with possibly having to hold my son while dealing with a gun problem. Admittedly, shooting has gone down as an interest for me. Now I feel obligated to maintain and improve, but not as much because it's new and exciting, more so because I know just how perishable it is.
• I'll maintain the relationships I've built in the training community, and stay up to date on my information and try to contribute as I can. I still feel like a total newbie on nearly all the subjects I'm interested in, but I love to help someone who is less knowledgeable than me find some light.
• Take AMIS
• Read for 2 hours a week. Any topic, try to make it a book or blog, not a forum. Can't be directly gun related.

Did I forget anything? Thanks for reading, now go write your own!

-M