Believe in yourself as long as other people tell you how.

I've had a tough but rewarding week in the gym, and today's lift was a great way to cap it off. I decided to forgo the box and just free squat for my dynamic effort day because of the apprehension I have been having about my strength level and form. Thank goodness I did - even though DE days aren't meant for big numbers, I still felt good and solidified some small tweaks I have been working on.

Dynamic Effort Lower

Squat
45x10
135x5
225x2x8 - Video

315x2 - This felt amazing. About time.

Rack Pulls

365x8, 8, 6

Reverse Hypers

4 sets of 10

DB Shrugs

80x20x3

Weight 205

Since the point of DE is to move the bar as fast as possible, I think the video shows I have a lot of work to do. Still, I felt more explosive than I have for a few weeks. The major thing I tweaked today is the width of my stance. I have been squatting out wider since I attended a Learn to Train seminar with Dave Tate and his EliteFTS crew earlier this year. Dave works with a lot of equipped lifters, so I think absorbed some of that. I mean, the wide stance is tempting because it shortens the bar path and gets glutes and hams more involved.

However, I think for a smaller, weaker raw lifter like myself it gets to be a diminishing returns thing at a certain width. I am also trying to protect my right knee, and getting the quads out of the lift certainly made sense in that regard. The problem was that my lack of strength and size was causing instability and consequently a rotational force on my knees as I hit the hole. Today I brought my feet in a few inches and I instantly felt more stable, strong and pain-free. I'm still relatively wide, certainly not Olympic squatting.

On a side note, I got to see one of my favorite varieties of gym wildlife: Guy lifting in scrubs. I know very well what life as a resident and attending is like, and there is absolutely no excuse for ever doing this. You can take 20-40 minutes to drive to and from the gym, work out for an hour but can't possibly make time to change into some fucking shorts? It takes everything I can muster to not stand next to him, point and yell "Wow! Are you a doctoooorrrr???!?" The next step above this is "Dr. Scrubs at a Bar, M.D."

Tomorrow could be very cool. I could either go to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival as planned, or I may end up going to a local Celtic Festival to watch some Highland Games. OR I COULD DO BOTH! Life has too many possibilities, it's overwhelming.

Yeah, I'm happily married. No big deal.

Woke up early and got the little guy to school this morning, and I was feeling refreshed and well-rested for once. Ashley and I hit the Barton Creek Greenbelt for a morning hike/run and it was awesome. My wife can always tell when I'm spending too much time inside my own head, and she knows just how to snap me out of it. While enjoying the decent weather, we solved pretty much all the world's problems in between runs. Well, okay...It was more like me spewing out all my goals and future plans and "what-ifs" while she listened.

There are a lot of things I want to do that involve both strength and beer (heyo) that I feel like I'm having problems getting momentum on. Add to that some career uncertainty/indecision and it was a recipe for a brooding dude. Ashley is great about putting things in perspective and reminding me of everything I've accomplished. Plus, she makes me go trail running occasionally so I don't use strength sports as an excuse to become a disgusting lardass, so there's that.

After the hike, we dropped by Austin Homebrew Supply to price out some all-grain brewing equipment. These guys rock, and I love going to a place where I can just look, learn and get prices without being pressured. Honestly, that approach is the best way to make me spend my money with them. They will even tell you which of their items are overpriced and can be made cheaper at home.

I'm going to make the switch to all-grain soon and I think I can build some of this myself. I'm a big believer in the idea that you learn more by crafting things yourself than buying them ready-made. Plus, it makes troubleshooting later a ton easier. I'm trying to decide if I want to go the cheap route and make my liquor tank and mash tun out of plastic coolers like these or just pony up the cash and use steel pots that I have to drill for spigots. Either way, I am going to buy the stuff I can't build, like the burners, valves and false bottom.

Also scoped out a Blonde Ale recipe. I'm thinking that's next.

Because of all the excitement I trained a little later in the day. I hit up the closest Gold's Gym because these kind of days aren't very equipment intensive. I have started digging out of my little pity party about my lifts due in part to the aforementioned wife awesomeness as well as my friend Jay sending a long e-mail about some amazing strength breakthroughs he is having. He keeps shit pretty simple, and that's always refreshing.

Dynamic Effort Upper

Bench Press

45x10

95x10

135x5

155x10x2

Pretty low percentage speed work today (60%). I really feel loose and out of sync on bench, so I wanted to worry less about the weight and more about set-up and bar speed. Found some weak points to work on for sure.

Skull Crushers

80x10, 10, 8, 6

Chins

10, 10, 8, 5

Tate Press

30x20, 13, 10, 7

Weight 205

Had better intensity and more energy for my accessory work today.

Also, this finally came in the mail:

Guess I'm legit now. I have mastered business.