Fear

20 years old and has
more cohones than me.

The above picture is criminology student Marisol Valles Garcia. She is now a police chief in Mexico.

Why her you ask? Apparently the article states no one else is willing to take the job because of the danger it poses. Not too hard to understand why when their police force officers are abducted and murdered.

Marisol is not afraid. She won't be scared. She will not use aggression to take down the criminals, but instead aims to use knowledge and education to give confidence to the citizens and empower them.

She is not scared.

This is an important lesson that far too many people I see fall victim to in their lives. Fear itself. It typically takes the form of the unknown and that which hasn't been experienced paralyzing many in their actions and choices.

If that happens, you're a coward. There isn't any other way to put it. Sure we get scared, but is it ever that bad? What's the worst that can happen? And is what you envision really going to happen?

To best sum up my point, let's quote Dave Chappelle on his first time getting booed off stage:

"And that was the best thing that ever happened to me. Best thing because before that time I had never bombed, let alone get booed off stage. And bombing was horrifying. Nobody wants to bomb.

So that night was liberating because I failed so far beyond my wildest nightmares of failing that it was like, "Hey, they're all booing...my friends are here watching, my mom - this is not that bad."

And after that I was fearless to get into the New York comedy circuits."

We can't let fear get the best of us. What if Dave Chappelle felt so humiliated from that single experience he never did comedy again? He would never have been successful.

Yesterday in my class, coincidentally a topic on fear came up.

• Cowards run away from it.

• Those who don't know what to do behave & are irrational towards it.

• Those unafflicted by it act unphased.
  

I think the above summarizes how we react to fear quite well. We should strive to develop the mentality of the last bullet point.

The greatest upset I see is the potential individuals miss out on because they are afraid.

This is very true to training and diet. The missed gains, time saved, happiness, efficiency, and complete experience.

What if an exercise looks different from what everyone else is doing? What if you're warming up with light weights? What if you pass on dessert? What if you decide to try something new?

The safe zone is the boring & dull zone.

Have a good weekend everyone.

New Look

If you haven't seen already, I chose a different template for the blog over the weekend. I thought it was an upgrade to the previous default layout. Although there will be a day when there's a complete overhaul to make it more customized to my liking, hopefully you all like this one for now.

I don't ask for user feedback much. This appears to be an instance where I could use it. If the majority of folks aren't feeling this new look, I can always revert back to the other style.

Along the top are the previous pages [contact, resources, all that good stuff] and to the right-side I added a new widget that displays the most popular posts in the last 7 days. Aside from those two things, everything else appears to be the same.

So this isn't a complete waste of a post, I can give an update on the training goals I set in late August. November 7th was a perfect week to test my 1-rep maxes but due to being sick last week, I'll be pushing everything back 4-5 days later to finish my current cycle and deload sufficiently.

1) Front Squat: This is #1 priority compared to the other two. I originally planned 200, but I think I'll be able to do more.

I did front box squats previous month and now I'm debating on whether to do cluster training, wave loading, or one & one-quarter reps. Isn't so much as to which will prove effective, but rather the question is "do I want to use this now to achieve the goal sooner or wait until I stall when I really need it?"

2) Dragon Flag: I bumped this up over the deadlift because I feel like I should be able to do it by the time I'm ready to test. Currently using various RKC planks, front squat holds, and dead bugs.

3) Deadlift: 2 years ago I was deadlifting amazingly. Ton of weight and form was spot on. I then switched to Romanian deadlifts for around 6 months and when I went back to conventional pulling, I was all types of off on my set-up.

Right now I'm not sure if I want to keep this as one of the goals. It wouldn't hurt to try, but I also have tons of ideas to use in my programming for upcoming months. I won't fully know until 2-3 weeks later.

That's all from me today.

Anyone else have some goals to hit? How are they going?

Chipotle

Or as my roommate pronounces it, "Chipottle."

Posts are slims in these parts I reckon. Being sick (twice in 2 weeks) and exams put a downer on things, but here's a quick and easy one for today.

Often enough, I hear Chipotle touted as either being healthy or unhealthy. I presume the healthy part being the beans, meat, and/or peppers & onions whereas the unhealthy is the white wrap, tons of rice they add, and the huge portion.

But fear not! We can fix this burrito into a more manageable item. Take a gander at what I do.

Step 1

Have a big bowl and brown rice.
Frozen is easy to microwave up in a jiffy.

Step 2

Unwrap or gut open your burrito.
Optional: Bake it to get it warm again.

Step 3

Toss the brown rice into the massive bowl.

Step 4

Cover the rice with your burrito's fixings.

And there you have it. I tend to get a burrito without any rice, chicken, black beans, peppers & onions, mild salsa, cheese, and lettuce.

The benefit of doing this is you now have a crap load of food for 2 servings. Alternatively if you have your own wheat wraps that are similar in size to the Chipotle ones, you can simply do a transfer.

Have a good weekend everyone. I'll be spending mine trying to recover from whatever it is I have.

1-Rep Max Testing Protocol

Most likely, that's
his warm-up set.

Around 3 years ago, I made the switch from trying to get "big" - which most guys still pursue - to focus on building strength.

So how do you measure strength? Typically you see what your 1-rep max [1RM] is for a lift. Although, I did little research on executing that. Instead I did a few sets and kept packing on the weight.

It comes off as sound in practice. However, the trick is the amount of sets you do. Too many sets and you become fatigued when you finally try hitting your personal record. Too few and you're not prepared enough to lift the weight you decided on.

From my internet perusing over the years, I haven't seen any set formulas or guidelines to go about testing 1RM's besides do a good number of sets and increase the weight accordingly. But, 2 years ago I asked over at Precision Nutrition and got great feedback.

The most helpful reply was from Coach Mike who provided the following response:

"When I certified with Poliquin, we used the following protocol:

4 @ estimated 40% rest 10 s

4 @ estimated 40% rest 10 s

3 @ estimated 60% rest 30 s

2 @ estimated 75% rest 60 s

1 @ estimated 80% rest 120 s

1 @ estimated 85% rest 120 s

1 @ estimated 90% rest 180 s

1 @ estimated 95% rest 240 s

1 @ estimated 100% rest 240 s

Rest another 240s before testing each successive max single

Fast twitch fiber types may end up doing another 5-6 singles before "maxing out," so limit to two lifts/wkt

Test quarterly max."

This isn't the only way to test your 1RM. This is the only written out formula I've seen to date.

To avoid fatigue, other users suggested to limit testing to 2 lifts per week with exercises that don't work the same musculature. When I checked my deadlift (hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull), I tested bench press (horizontal press) 2 or 3 days later. There's little hamstring involvement in the bench press and almost no pec usage in deadlifting.

Now if someone decided to do bench press one day then standing overhead press a few days later, they wouldn't perform to the best of their abilities due to the same muscles - delts & triceps in this case - used earlier in the week.

Now, go hit some PR's and then some.

3-in-1 Today

Posts have been a bit light hence today's title.

Update

I think it's most appropriate to start with what this past month of college has been. Besides being gone for the majority of the day Monday through Thursday for class, there are days where I have to do lab work, write various emails, volunteer here & there, and other things I can't seem to recall.

The last 3 weeks of my current program have been interesting since everything has appeared to be easy. I'll sweat and feel a bit tired from the training sessions, but there hasn't been much lactic acid buildup or serious fatigue for whatever reasons.

Lastly, I discovered my university's sports clubs website. As a result, I contacted a few of them to take part in their classes. In hopes of attempting to learn something from the various sports, I started attending practice sessions. So far I've gone to mixed martial arts, ballroom dancing, and kend (Japanese sword fighting). I have yet to go to eskrima (dual-stick fighting), fencing, aikido, judo, taekwondo, and I think that's enough for now. It's amazing to see what you learn through their warm-ups and drills. I'll most likely write up a chart describing various aspects of each that can be trained in the weight room.

Alas enough about me, let me share a wee bit of content.

Conspiracies?

A common thread I noticed this week.

1) All time high with farm workers, but Americans eating less vegetables than ever

A bit perplexing, huh?

2) American Diatetic Association, who are their sponsors?

Candy bar and soda companies? Really?

3) Tailoring for the unfit?

If clothes are made for those out-of-shape, shouldn't there be fitting sizes for individuals in shape?

Compassion

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably quite aware of this story spreading like a wildfire the last day or 2. Yes, that is my university. I'm almost confident there are no positive stories that have come out of it in the 4 years I've been here.

I tend not to comment on events like this since people become so emotionally-charged. This seems to be especially true if I were to mention it to another Rutgers student. However, I do feel like it is an opportunity to shed like on a situation where everyone is being quick to judge.

First, let me state my firm view:

1. This should not have occurred. The 2 students should have not done this.
2. If Tyler did not commit suicide, there would not be such an outcry from the public & media. Likewise if Tyler was heterosexual. Do I have any evidence to back this claim? No.
3. The students involved in this case did not foresee him killing himself.
4. I do not believe they should receive any jail sentence. I will explain this further below.
5. To an extent, I believe this has spiraled out of control.

Now to explain myself before I get torn to shreds from various students.

Point #2: My roommate informed the rest of us there was another suicide at the university. I don't ever recall it receiving any attention. It's not a great argument to use, but it does illustrate this falls under the same category to an extent. I also remember reading an article where an elementary school child was bullied and he himself committed suicide. I don't remember an outcry there either.

Now possibly because I am a Psychology major, I have read a couple of cases of suicides. Whether it be in textbooks, news articles, or professors' own accounts, suicides don't occur all of a sudden. All cases I have encountered recall the individual taking their lives due to a number of factors compounding at once with a moment in time where the individual "breaks" (for a lack of a better term). I believe this was the tipping point in Tyler's life, meaning there have been instances before where he was affected.

Next, I'm under the assumption everyone's exclaiming their judgment in view of the suicide more so than the actual act of privacy violation. Like I stated earlier, I don't have any evidence to back up my claim. As I just mentioned, there have most likely been numerous instances affecting Tyler. From what? I'm not sure. He possibly could have been having romance issues, social anxiety from being a first year student/change in environment, or something else altogether. The bottom line is we do not know his personal life. We have been presented with what the media has given us, which tends to err on the side of being skewed and is thus insubstantial and insufficient.

Lastly while I appear to be discussing this objectively and logically, I'm not. I'm trying to view this more critically. In the sense that there has been a loss of life, which I understand, but there is also the ruining of others' lives. I'm sure there are a huge number of people who want them to go to jail for life or at least the 5 years.

What will that accomplish? Did we put away a homicidal serial killer? Hardly. I bet this entire situation has the students scared straight already. The prison sentence seems a bit excessive.

If they aren't incarcerated, how will their fellow student body treat them? I don't think kindly. Will they even be able to remain at the university? Would they be able to gain admission elsewhere?

The Clementi family has suffered, but is it equally right to cause suffering to the families of the students responsible at hand? Are they not mothers and fathers too?

Tyler's family released a statement, of which the last line is most important in my opinion (bold my emphasis).

"Regardless of our legal outcomes, our hope is that our family's personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy, and human dignity."

I don't see enough of these three qualities. Rather, I am unfortunately coming across the opposite: hatred, anger, and irrationality.

Along with logic, compassion, empathy, & human dignity are what distinguish our human species so well.

Instead of lecturing any further, I'll end with a story from a text my professor was explaining to us recently.

A son of a great warrior killed five sons of royalty. The mother of the sons was stricken with great grief and sadness. Another warrior of royalty sought this assassin and would bring him back to her to avenge their deaths. He succeeded in capturing the murderer and returned back to the kingdom. The mother, out of great compassion, commanded that he not be killed. Despite her overwhelming sadness from the loss of her sons, she also understood that he too had a mother and she would not be responsible for causing his mother the same grief she has experienced.

Be compassionate and caring to others in life. Not hateful.

Have a good weekend everyone.