TLDR: The Fitness We’ve Chosen

Too Long Dad Recap

Another week down of consuming fitness content, strength training and trying to be the best dad possible, while also holding down my white collar desk job. This was a strange week that included minor meniscus surgery (that was successful).

Anyway, here is the recap, thanks for reading and supporting my mid-life crisis!

Things I Watched This Week

• Renaissance Periodization put out two really good videos with technique tips for pull-ups (YouTube) and dips (YouTube)
  • Renaissance is run by Dr. Mike Israetel, who is local here in Philly (although apparently he is moving soon) and often collaborates with other local fitness celebrities like Joey Szatmary
  • Really great tips in these videos

• Speaking of Joey Szatmary, the National Champion Strongman and local gym owner, I watched a quick video he did with a few sandbag workouts (YouTube)
  • Joey has lots of good sandbag content on his channel
  • Sandbags are pretty popular these days and they are surprisingly versatile, especially if you have a bag with handles, like these here at Amazon
• My kids and I have watched a few Titan Games episodes, which have been entertaining in the absence of actual sports
  • This may come as a surprise to you sophisticated cord-cutters out there, but I still have cable, really only for my son to watch live sports if baseball or basketball ever come back
• Someone I don’t follow closely, but who is a well known YouTuber and Instagramer is Stephanie Buttermore, who posted a video this week recapping her “all-in” journey (YouTube)
  • Basically she was so fed up with restricting calories and her inability to satiate herself that she decided to try the “all-in” approach of eating whatever she felt like.
  • This long video was her recap of doing that approach for a year.
  • Basically she ballooned up, then her weight settled back down (but still higher than where she started) and she eats intuitively still.
  • I’m always interested in the potential for something like this to work where someone eats whatever they feel like and reach a physique they like.
  • It seems far-fetched for someone like me to try at my age, feels like it would lead to a ton of fat gain.

Things I Listened to this Week

• Iron Culture pod, featuring Jonnie Candito and Russ Orhii 
  • These two guys are very high level powerlifters and very popular on social media
  • Russ’s story was great to hear, because he’s a Texas guy like me and went from trying to walk on to the football team at Texas Tech to dominating his weight class in powerlifting
  • Its always fun to hear their perspectives on the sport of powerlifting and on social media content related to powerlifting
• Barbell Medicine’s Jordan Feigenbaum does a weekly Instagram Live Q&A on Wednesday night that sometimes he will record and put up as a podcast.
  • If you follow him on Instagram, you can also find his live Q&A’s on his Instagram TV channel
  • Jordan is a thought leader in the strength space, has strong opinions that seem grounded in science (he’s a medical doctor) and experience (he lifts a ton and coaches people who lift a ton)
  • I checked out his live this week on his podcast stream and its something that is easy to passively listen to and pick up information as you go

Things I Read this Week

• I didn’t read much this week to be honest. You’d think a week that included a ton of sitting around post-surgery would include at least some reading. But, you’d be wrong. I watched a lot more than I read this week
• I have been listening to an audio book on the Tate and La Bianca murders, which I was interested in after seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
  • That time in the culture and the various icons that were active in Hollywood at that time (Bruce Lee, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, etc.) is very interesting to me.
  • A few years ago, I was very much interested in the space race, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and Houston in the 1960s (basically the Right Stuff), and learning about what was happening at the same time in California is equally fascinating.

Things I Lifted this Week

I squeezed in as much training as I could in the days before surgery Thursday.  That meant two different sessions with limited accessory work on Sunday. First session was at 7:30am Sunday morning. I worked up to heavy triple on slingshot bench. I thought I’d get up to 285lbs, but I only got 2 reps. 

Later that afternoon after a long walk with the family, I felt like going for round two, which was to work up to a heavy single on block deadlifts. I thought 405 was in play, because I had hit 375 for a triple the week before. But I was feeling great when warming up, and hit 415 lbs without too much trouble.

I figured I would go for 435lbs.  A month or two I hit 435 deadlift with grip assistance after struggling to hold the bar when I hit 425lbs. I was really happy this week when I was able to hot 435 without the grip failing and without using any chalk even. 

Monday I did both upper and lower dynamic work, using EMOM format. Tuesday I did incline bench max effort and Wednesday I hit one final session with squats.  I did manage to squeeze in lunges and a long walk before surgery Thursday.

For the next few weeks, the focus will be on doing what I can without training lower body given the knee recovery. That means upper body, core focus with a little single leg work. 

Things I ate this week – “I think he can figure out how to sit on his ass all day and watch TV.”

• Earlier I posted my thoughts on nutrition at times of sudden sedentary behavior. You can read that post here. 
• I have now been pretty inactive post surgery for 3 days, and I can report the plan of eating just 1700 calories while sitting on ass is going pretty well 3 days in. 
• I haven’t felt the need to overeat because I’m not really moving much, so it does feel intuitive.

Dad Report: Fathers Day Well-Earned

This year for Fathers across the world has been exceptionally challenging. Working from home and the lack of outside activities for the kids (school, sports, camp), plus the general uncertainty in the world has made being the traditional “man of the house” tougher than normal. But, it’s also been really rewarding.

Fathers have had to be strong in the face of uncertainty we’ve never faced in the past. Being able to act like its no big deal to not have little league baseball, spring break or birthday parties has been tough on Dads. Also, Fathers have had to calm anxiety and project security in the face of fear mongering (even more than usual) in media.

My favorite part of 2020, though, has been the need for Dads to be fun, to play, and to keep passing along their accumulated wisdom.

The kids and I have fixed things around the house, worked on our sport-specific skills for baseball and basketball, mowed the grass, and (of course) lifted weights together. We’ve also read about and discussed history, science, psychology, etc. through books they’ve chosen.

In addition, in these crazy times, I’ve made sure to model respectful behavior with people providing services to us and to model good manners.

It has also been important that I model creativity and always trying to figure out ways to create rather than just consume, even if only a few people end up consuming it.

So, if you held it together this year for your children, your wife, your family, good for you! Pat yourself on the back, and enjoy a well-earned day in your honor

When is The Godfather OK? “This is the Business We’ve Chosen”

One question about fatherhood I have struggled a bit with recently: when is it okay to show my kids Godfather I and II? I decided around 12-13 is fine.

If they can sit through these 3+ hour movies without being bored, then they should be able to. My wife’s knee-jerk reaction was not to allow my daughter to watch it because of the “violence”. But like 95% of the film is very slow drama that builds to emotional climaxes and yelling, there actually isn’t much violence. Especially if you compare it to films featuring CGI battles among robots, dinosaurs or aliens.

I watched Godfather II with my daughter this weekend and she loved it.

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