TLDR: I Shall Finish the Game

Too Long Dad Recap

In the 1990 classic (to me) film “Young Guns II”, there is a great monologue that Emilio Estevez delivers. I want to want to open with it this week.

I put that monologue up there, because I wrote a post recapping the 15-week weight loss phase I just wrapped up.  Read to see what the plan is from here, but (spoiler alert), I’m going to try to get even leaner.

Things I Read this Week: Mobility

• I caught a little flak on Twitter for suggesting that stretching and foam rolling was a waste of time.
• I think for the purposes of lifting weights, 1.5-hour sessions are already long enough without having to add stretching or rolling routines into the mix
• My lack of interest in stretching was enabled by the smart folks over at Barbell Medicine, Jordan Feigenbaum mostly
• They wrote an article explaining their nuanced view of the topic of “mobility” that spells out their views on the matter
• It’s worth a read if you haven’t heard their take, and also if you still spend lots of time smashing, rolling and stretching things.

Things I Watched this Week: Hypertrophy and Garage Gym Build

• A year or so ago, there seemed to be endless hours of worthwhile fitness YouTube content to be consumed, but it feels like the quality and quantity of what’s out there has massively declined.
• Having said that, I did find a couple of videos to watch this week that I enjoyed:
  • MattDoesFitness bought a house and commissioned a home gym, which he filmed being constructed.  I recommend the gym build videos because they are something different than extremely repetitive eating videos he usually posts these days.
  • Joey Szatsmary posted a video with his full hypertrophy training block outlined on a whiteboard, and I am a sucker for videos featuring training programs on white boards.

Things I Ate this Week: Ice Cream & Cereal

• I was on a “diet break” this week, as discussed last week
• That meant that I was searching for my new maintenance calorie level after eating 1800 calories a day for a few weeks prior.
• It also meant that I binged a bit, mostly on ice cream and cereal, two easy to consume foods I tend to have on hand because of others who live in my house.
• I have 1 more week of being on a break, then I have a new nutrition plan, which you can read about here.
• I also tried the Buff Dudes chocolate protein bowl cake recipe, which was really good and easy to cook in the microwave.

Things I Lifted this Week: Turn up the Volume

• Week 2 of my 12-week strength program went pretty well.
• The extra calories mentioned above were helpful for the higher volume at the beginning of the program.
• Bench press is coming along, I put 5 pounds on my e1RM
• Squat form is always inconsistent but improving. I did hit my first 300+ pound squat in a few months on Tuesday, which felt smooth.
• Deadlift is feeling very good.  The program calls for test of beltless pause deadlift variation I’ve been training for a few weeks. It will be a PR by default, because I have never gone all out on that variation before.
• The daily 400 walking lunge streak stands at 38 days, not even massive rainstorms could stop me this week.

Dad Report: Boys of Summer

Coaching little league baseball has been a challenge, but it has also been so great.  I cannot imagine what I would have done with the boys this summer without baseball.

The challenge of it has been how unreliable some of our better draft picks have been.  One went to sleepaway camp for 5 weeks (and counting).  One decided not to play at all.  One is in town but only showed up to a few practices.  And the best player who shows up has not been delivering as expected.  But, it’s all good. We have called up some younger kids, my kid gets playing time and the feeling of being the best player. Maybe at some point we can win a game, maybe.

As frustrating as it’s been, seeing the boys so excited and motivated has been the best part of the pandemic.  Every Sunday for 5 weeks, I’ve taken the two boys for our own little practice. We take infield and batting practice for a few hours, followed by a slurpee at 7-11.  This slice of normality and routine is peak #DadLife, and hopefully it’s what they’ll remember most about 2020.