RoryQ

It's mexican week, baby... Breakfast tacos... We got some smoked bacon, some freshly-made guacamole and some mexican scrambled eggs.... Turned out pretty good for a first time. Meanwhile I have black beans soaking and a mole poblano paste waiting to get started for dinner. I gather that this kind of mole often goes with turkey or poached chicken, but in this instance I am going to take my chances and just roast a chicken (gonna keep it real simple and just season it with salt and pepper). Going to serve it with refried beans and I'm going to barbeque some corn on the cob too, marinaded in lime and some paprika. The good thing about days off is that I actually have the bloody time to waste on this stuff.

A few updates. I've been implementing the DiFranco-inspired 3-day-a-week approach I talked about a couple of posts back, whereby I've got a pushing dominant upper body day, a lower body day and a pull dominant upper body day. Lots of hypertrophy work contained therein. Also been getting in the 10-15 minutes conditioning work prescribed for after each session. More less just resting the other 4 days. My escrima coach has been in the Phillipines competing, so that's been out while he's away (in an organised way, anyway). Observations:- The strength work is subtly different to what I was doing previous to this. I've been biasing towards high volume hypertrophy work for the past few months anyway, but with this programme I'm getting in a few sets per week of higher than usual reps - couple of days call for 20-25 rep sets, which has been interesting. Surprising how close to my 10 rep weight choices I've been able to go, which suggests I was sandbagging before. DiFranco also calls for some other bodybuilding type protocols which I'm going to use - 'run the rack' approaches, drop sets, pauses etc. Going to implement them and change them up every two weeks. The strength work has left me pretty fried for the conditioning, particularly the short distance running (I've been trying to get in relatively fast 1-2 mile runs amongst other things). I'm not too fussed about this at the moment, I have plenty of days in the rest of the week to recover and as long as I am leaning out and seeing some hypertrophy I will be happy enough. Dan John says 'everything works.... For a while' and as usual when I implement a new programme I feel great now, in the first few weeks. I feel the variety and freshness, mentally and physically, makes for good training in the short to medium term. - - - Updated - - - One other thing- My mid and upper back has been pretty prone to stiffness and some spasming since I hurt my neck last year. I think it's a referral of problems associated with the tendency I still have sometimes to lift my shoulders to protect my neck. You do that for a while and your upper back will tell you all about it... I've used foam rolling and trigger point release (using a lacrosse ball) to tackle this in the past, coupled with hot baths, but a week or two ago when it was irritating me I got a massage. The masseuse (sports background) gave me a bollocking about doing lots of joint mobility work but not actual old-school stretching. Been stretching twice a day since, more out of frustration with feeling like someone has put rocks where my rhomboids should be than anything else, and .... Wow ... I think it's really made a difference. Obvious now that I think about it, but for so long I've been ignoring static stretching. I think for maintaining tissue quality we still need to do it, even if it is boring.

@dcostello You mean we're expected to think ahead and prepare healthy meals and get to work on time? That dog rarely hunts. Got some new mexican cookbooks (Dos Caminos / Wahaca). Stocked on various dried chillis grown in Devon. Debating whether to try to make chicken tinga or use this mole paste I've been sitting on for a while.

@dcostello I've had that breakfast a few times.... There's a 24 hour McDonalds on my way to work, and if you're heading in pre 7am no-where else might be open.

Turns out Oliver Peck, Chad Koeplinger and more (I think Chris Nunez and Matt Ariola) are guesting in Ireland before the London Convention. Super tempted to get Oliver to do a tattoo on my other foot to match my panther he did, but I'm already getting my right arm sleeved by Ching from East Tattoo in early September and I'm under the needle again for a couple of days with Tomo later in the year. Already pushing my budget all to hell (got a wedding to put on next year too... Shit...)...

I made the margaritas, she made the taquitos stuff... Not really a fair division of labour but I take the bins out and do most of the driving so screw it.

The only martial arts guy I know in Rochester is Doug Marcaida, who is a pretty well-known south east asian martial arts guy (kali / arnis / escrima). If you google him on YouTube he has a bunch of clips. I think his club might be called Rochester Kali, but I'm not sure. If your interest in training is for the cultural / recreational end of things, he might be worth looking up. If you are primarily focused on physical fitness and things like weight loss, I would echo the earlier comments about something like muay thai, BJJ, MMA or a good sports karate / TKD club. All can be brutally effective at changing body composition if you put the time in. Probably the most progress I made in the martial arts was when I started trying to compete in combat sports (BJJ mainly, white belt and then blue belt, some sub wrestling comps too). It's a good crucible, no place to hide in terms of measuring your progress relative to other people, and pressure-testing your technique.

Nice! I was in London all week. Drank Camden Ink, St. Peter's Porter on cask. Savagely hungover today.

Did a lower body today on Wednesday that included- 5x3 kneeling jump ups holding medicine ball (from kneeling jumping to your feet explosively, no using your hands or cheating etc. This can also be done with a bar on your back). 6x3/3 pistols ...Some bulgarians, plus SLRDLs. The bulgarians were largely redundant I think after the jump-ups and pistols. Wow, I don't think my legs have felt this fried in a long time. This is a relatively low volume of pistols (I've always enjoyed them, but I'm not strong enough to do more than a shaky 2-3 per leg) but my legs are smoked. I don't confuse DOMS with progress, but it's funny how your body reacts to something out of the ordinary.

Interesting to see where people slot the various movies in the trilogy in terms of standing... I really liked Batman Begins. To be honest, though, I have a special love for origin stories- I think they're quite a fundamental plot (Hero with a thousand faces stuff) and BB was well-executed. That said, I don't think BB was the piece of cinematography that TDK was. I'm not sure I got the same child-like low-brow pleasure from TDK as from BB, but I think it felt like something special. Not sure where I would slot TDKR in yet, but I think it's a worthy part of the series. Gary Oldman has commented that the studios may do Batman 4 and 5 in the series, for monetary reasons, but that he and Christopher Nolan won't be part of it. ... Wonder how hard up for money Christian Bale is..? - - - Updated - - - (NWS... Darth Bale mash-up)

I think good tattoos are still going to look good on someone who is very overweight, while bad tattoos are still going to look bad. If you've got great work it's going to speak for itself. I know a couple of pretty heavy guys (tattooers, incidentally) who are pretty much covered, and as with anyone else when you look at their tattoo it's the quality of the tattoo you see, not the diameter of the limb it's on, IMO. As mentioned above a pet peeve is really tiny tattoos scattered around. No pun intended, but 'go big, or go home'. Just to add, Jade1955's post is great: I find it fantastic that someone's love of collecting tattoos could be the driver in taking the steps needed to lose weight ... To get more tattoos, but (arguably more importantly) probably significantly increase their chances of living a longer, more active life.

Saw 'The Dark Knight Rises' tonight. Overall I enjoyed it and it continued the tradition (IMO) established in 'The Dark Knight' of having a villain who is far more compelling than the Batman himself. Thought Tom Hardy was brilliant as Bane... The aesthetic, the several kilos of beef he looks to have gained for the role, the accent.... Very cool. What I wasn't so crazy about:- -The editing did seem bizarrely choppy and almost unfinished in parts. What was up with that? I just don't get it - maybe I'm missing the artistic merit (I'm not being a smartass here, maybe someone else takes something else different from the way some of the scenes were executed). -Seems to me in the rush to get the 12 certificate they neutered the fight scenes. The fight scenes just seemed pretty pedestrian. Bane and Batman lumbering around slugging one another like WWE wrestlers. I know the guys who choreographed the fight scenes (not personally) and if this was the most exciting they could do then I'm dissapointed. -The audio seemed odd. Music seemed to drown out a lot of the dialogue, and not just Bane and Batman's growling. I know they enhanced Bane's parts to try and make them more intelligible, but it seemed to me that even ordinary characters were somehow unaudible. Or else I'm getting old. Possibly I am broken-down and slightly old. I found myself identifying with Bruce when the doctor tells him his knees and shoulders are shot (sadly I lack the billions to accompany the wear-and-tear). That said, overall I liked it. I thought the ending worked.

Going to see 'The Dark Knight Rises' this evening. Looking forward to it - particularly the Bane character. I also watched a trailer for the new Superman reboot this morning - 'Man of steel'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jKWJZsjm5U I've always been more of a Batman than a Superman guy, but I think this could be great. I like 'year one' type reboots, and if this is directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen) and produced by Christopher Nolan it should be pretty well-handled.

Nice video ... I love the readability of that backpiece. - - - Updated - - - Nice video ... I love the readability of that backpiece.

That occurred to me too, but even if someone was carrying, I think they would have had their work cut out for them to return fire accurately at the right person in those kinds of conditions. Shooting in low light is tricky at the best of times, but add in a few hundred screaming people milling around, possibly smoke etc. and lots of 5.56 coming down-range from a guy wearing a vest.. Not great.

I'm ignoring everyone's advice LOL and going to try a programme based around the DiFranco template that I've been looking at. I feel like leaning out a little is one of my priorities at the moment, along with staying injury-free, and I also just want to work in more variety. 3 days a week training combining a lifting and conditioning, and 1 day a week stickfighting / escrima. Should be plenty of rest if nothing else. So it'll look like this:- UPPER BODY DAY 1 -Bench -Supplementary DB bench (2 high rep sets, aiming for about 20 reps on the first set) - Horizontal row / Tricep pushdown 4x12-15 superset - Supplementary shoulder work superset 3x8-10 superset (Bit of rest) -Conditioning 10-15 minutes LOWER BODY DAY -Dynamic leg exercise (kneeling jump ups with med ball, DB squat jumps etc) 3 / 4 sets -Single leg squat 4 / 5 sets each side -Posterior chain (RDLs etc) 4 / 5 sets -Anti-rotational core work (Bit of rest) CONDITIONING 10-15 minutes UPPER BODY DAY 2 -Pull ups (Thinking ladders, max + ascending percentage based number of reps or simply 5x10) -Supplementary pulling / incline pressing superset 4 x high rep sets, as day 1 -Tricep / bicep superset 4 x 8-12 -Core circuit (Bit of rest) CONDITIONING 10-15 minutes I did day 1 on Wednesday and I'll be hitting the lower body day in about an hour. On Wednesday I did a barbell complex for 2 rounds as the conditioning, felt fried afterwards. Overall felt like a good session. In general though my plan for the conditioning elements is to stick to short runs (like a mile or two, pushing myself on times), maybe tabata sprints if I get a timer and probably bodyweight circuits, skipping etc. As staying injury free is a priority for me at the moment I really want to maintain quality of movement even though I will be pushing myself in the conditioning. If the above, combined with eating a bit cleaner, results in me cutting 2 kg or so over the next few months I'll be happy. I feel like I gained some quality upper body muscle doing GVT but I also gained some flab with it. My own fault. Re: The eating, I'm trying to control my carb intake a little better. Crucially I've also banned myself from drinking during the week. Having even 1 beer a night after coming home from work was probably adding up to a lot of empty calories over the course of a month or so.

Chris Smith from Deluxe in Chicago appears to be auctioning a machine he's made in aid also. Photo by chrismiff • Instagram I actually met Jordan briefly when he was visiting Classic Ink in Dublin with Ross Nagle and Oliver Peck. Seemed like a good dude, I remember thinking it was a shame he wasn't squeezing in dishing out a few tattoos on his trip! Hope he heals up quick. It's lousy to be injured far from home.

Petri- I know loads of guys into functional training who look down upon 'cosmetic' reasons for training. They laugh at biceps and triceps work, calf work etc. Bodybuilding is a dirty word. IMO it's silly. Most half-decent bodybuilders are functionally far stronger than a lot of the lean 'functional training' and CrossFit types out there, from what I've seen. I also don't think there's anything wrong with trying to look good naked. Screw it, there are sillier reasons to train things. The way things are going we're going to come full circle sooner or later and all be training hypertrophy and machines to the max... It's already started with some recent Mike Boyle and Dan John articles. Then in another 20 years it'll be back to hating on them. LOL

My Dad died when I was 23. He was just turning 60. Sudden heart attack, which was annoying because he didn't drink or smoke and had been improving his diet and whatnot. The main things that made it easier to bear were the fact that we had never fallen out (in fact, we were getting on better and better the older I got) and the fact that I got to see him about a week beforehand. He'd called up to Dublin with my Mum quite randomly. I can still remember shaking hands with him at the end of that visit. It's a hell of a thing to lose a parent. Really you might think you're doing OK one day, then the next you feel the opposite. The passage of time helps though... I think... So best of luck, and sorry to hear of your loss.

Nice sleeve John. I met Ross a while back, very briefly, when he brought Oliver Peck to Dublin. Keep meaning to make it down to All Star!

DeFranco's Training ..:: The Ultimate Way To Become A Better Athlete ::.. This is the guy - you're right, he prepares a lot of athletes for the NFL combine and I think he has a few other pro athletes on the books. He recently did a very interesting article about how he had trained a WWE pro wrestler through a bunch of injuries Changing 'THE GAME' - Triple H's New Training Regimen - DeFranco's Training I thought it was interesting. I've used his programmes before (his 'Westside for skinny bastards' which is his most enduring open source offering) with good results. I don't think there's anything nuts in there. Kind of marriage of some max effort stuff with a lot of hypertrophy work. And yeah, she keeps me honest!

Contemplating how to approach my conditioning a little differently. As opposed to seperating my strength/lifting days from my conditioning days I've been considering finishing off my workouts with 'finishers' in the vein of what Joe Di Franco suggests in some of his programmes. Basically he'll have his guys lift (for example, on an upper body day they'll bench, row and do assistance work of arms, shoulders etc.) and then at the end of the workout they'll incoporate a conditioning element: Maybe a 1 mile run (yeah, a run, not a jog) or what he calls 'finishers'... Maybe something like a barbell complex for a few sets. On the one hand I think: Great, if I can chuck in some short metabolic work (like a barbell complex) at the end for 10 minutes then that gives me the whole next day to recover whereas as it is I might have to go and do a whole session of conditioning the next day.... It would mean something like this:- Mon - Upper body w. 'finisher' Tues - Rest Weds - Lower body w. 'finsiher' etc on and on Versus Mon- Upper body Tues- Conditioning Weds- rest Thurs-Lower Body Friday-rest Sat- Conditioning Sun - rest etc. My girlfriend (legit athlete) pointed out that if I have enough left in the tank to do the 'finishers' all out after a strength session then that begs the question - 'did I sandbag the lifting sets'. Fair point perhaps. I may try it and see what happens. If anyone is interested in what type of Di Franco programming I'm talking about, check out the rather unfortunately named BLAB (Built like a badass).

Chris Smith (Deluxe Tattoo) did this on me a little over two weeks ago... More or less healed now, bar some of the red on the kneecap still being a little raised up.

I'll be there on the Friday for a couple of hours. No plans to get tattooed (got an onward flight the following day to Cambodia, can't face trying to heal anything in the soupy conditions I'm expecting) but if there's a meet-up I'll have a coffee and shake some hands...!

Just going to throw in here that so far my kneecap is pretty slow on the healing. Normally I'm a fairly fast healer and don't see any scabbing - just some sunburn-like peeling after a few days. Well, around the kneecap has followed the usual pattern but on the kneecap itself it's like things are proceeding in slow-motion. The tattoo is healing, but (presumably because of the location) it seems like the body is struggling with it. Possibly the fact that it's heavy on red ink is a factor. Wonder whether the kneecap doesn't get as much blood as elsewhere or something- could that be a factor? Hopefully by the end of the week it'll have settled down and I can finally get a pic.