Fitness

Albany Strength USAPL Powerlifting Meet

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deadlift

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of doing something I never thought I would: competing in an honest-to-goodness powerlifting meet! Background For the uninitiated, a powerlifting meet typically consists of three main lifts: barbell squat, barbell bench press, and barbell deadlift. The competitors are divided into various weight classes, and each is given three (one rep) attempts at each exercise to move as much weight as possible. Winners are picked in each weight class based on the total of the heaviest successful attempt in each lift. The Results Since it's what most will want to know, might as well go over it first: how did I end up doing? The Squat I was very happy with my performance in the squat. To kick things off, I [Read more...]

Take Your Workout Seriously

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Reinventing The Wheel Over the past ten years I have had a very on-again, off-again relationship with working out. As a complete novice - lacking knowledge, experience, and proper guidance - I fell into the trap of the "build your own program" abomination, instead of doing my homework and finding one that was battle tested. Before I learned how to workout effectively, I would spend my time running on the treadmill and using the plethora of machines my gym had available. For years, my go-to "program" looked much like this: 10 Minutes of cardio for a warm-up (either treadmill or elliptical) 40 Minutes of weight training Monday - Chest and triceps Tuesday - Back and biceps Wednesday - Legs Thursday - Shoulders [Read more...]

Tales Of Being Less People, The Sequel

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The Recap On August 3, 2011 I wrote about the beginnings of my journey to stop being a fat-ass. At the time I felt that the post was a little...premature as I was only down 20 pounds, but I desperately needed something to write about for the day, and I was otherwise out of ideas. This post on the other hand, is a bit more justified. We Can Rebuild Him, We Have The Technology For people looking to lose weight there are so very many options out there. Pills, diets, and exercise programs in every combination; the best depending on your goals, interests, equipment and facilities you have access to, and most importantly what you can actually stick with. In my case, I was not specifically looking to lose weight, my actual goal was to [Read more...]

Downfall of Society: Sitting

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After working so hard to try and achieve the "American dream," seems that it's killing us. This is some bullshit and really grinds my gears, since it means once you hit grade school you are completely boned. Unless I am some sort of crazy abnormality (which in this specific case I highly doubt I am), the game plan that is driven into you is that you: study hard in grade school, go to college, study hard in college, find a comfy "middle-class" office job, work hard, then retire. Want a non-office job that allows for a more active, hands on day-to-day routine? Don't want to go to college? What's wrong with you, are you an idiot!? Anyway, the end result of this life you are indoctrinated into wanting, is that you do a serious amount of [Read more...]

Being Less People

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I figured I would hold off on writing up something about my drive to turn my health around until I achieved my goal but what the hell, I can at least discuss some of the things I have accomplished thus far. I have always been a "bigger" guy, luckily in height, but less luckily in weight. I decided to change that, setting an insane goal of losing 100lbs in the span of a year. I have seen so many accomplish that and more, so I decided to really push for it once I hit my all-time high of 335lbs. After spending some time on the fitness sub-reddit something the peaked my interest was a "lifestyle program" I guess is a good descriptor, called Cheat Mode. I am not going to go into any great detail on the specifics of Cheat Mode, for that you can [Read more...]