I'll give it a look see what its all about.  Thanks for info.


Uh realistically, I've been tryin to lose weight since my Soph/Junior year college (off top of my head '04, now 27), 3 separate occassions I've lost 16 lbs getting down to 222lbs, and at the number I feel like I'm absolutely starving myself and my workouts suffer real bad, and the way I had done it in the past was impossible to keep up, also at that point the weight just kinda jumps back on me without me even realizing it, and its as if I can't do anything about it - the most recent time I lost weight I legitimately don't know how I lost the weight I woke up 1 morning and was significantly lighter (about 6 lbs if I remember) and I kept it off for a summer, and then while trying to cut even more cals to lose more weight I magically started gaining weight faster than I could've ever imagined.  That's why basically since just before last summer I decided that the next time I "lose weight/diet/lifestyle change" will be for the long term goals, make small progress the correct way like I know how, not be hardcore 1 day and starving.

Of course last summer I had the "never ending ankle sprain" that now is "osteochondritis dissesans" or from what 1 Dr told me it meant torn cartildge, and I had to cut way back on cardio for long period of time, hardly able to play any bball (if I do I play 1 half-assed game in pain the entire time, and quit), so I knew/know that in this state it will be most challenging to lose weight/stick with a diet. /rant.

I'll start with the good and move on to the uncertainties.  Yesterday I did my legs day, starting of course with my warmup/activation/foam roll.  Jump Rope/Skipping/Box Jump, Box Squat (more of just a warmup) squats 10/12/15 reps, with the weight I used I expected to get only 10-12, instead it felt pretty good the whole time.  KB Swings 3x10.  Bulg Split Squat 2x10.

The bad/uncertainties - This was sort of the start to my new phase and I'm second guessing the style of routine I want to use, basically because the time is here to start doing some cutting to prep for summer and the 2 weddings I'm going to this spring/summer.  Also because I was talking to a med-student regarding my ankle, he broke it down by saying the term "osteochondritis dissecans" is surrounded by uncertainty, because it means that when an injury heals it heals incorrectly, it doesn't form bone or cartildge but it is a growth that causes issues, a lot of Drs will recommend micro-fracture surgery, but they'll all tell you its really 50/50 if it will actually make it better, and a lot of cases it will make it worse.  So he said his recommendation was to deal with it, live with it, until it starts affecting your every day life.

So apparently surgery isn't an option but I'm going to try and work around it, I'm still going to want to hit my strength goals but the only focus is going to be on losing weight, so basically I'm here saying that at this very juncture I haven't been quite this confused towards my own routines in quite a long time.  As fun as the "bodybuilding scheme" is/was I know/knew that its not quite for the long term and there are no real results from it at all.  Circuit training and interval training seems to be the logical thing to do, but saying that I know that at different points I may end up sacrificing some strength, but as I'm at work today and I have a relatively easy going day I'm going to work towards putting a circuit training style routine together that I would feel good about and try and attach it here and get opinions on it.  But just for some clarification at this point I really can't fully fathom the idea of hitting my vert jump goals, but hopefully the supplementation (fish oil/glucosamine) helps just a little.
The other thing I wanted to mention as far as diet goes, this time around I'm going to be making sure not to take an "All or nothing approach" which I had hammered into me a while back by other trainers - aka, going to eat a grilled chicken sandwich, people telling me to lose the bread, and have a salad cuz the sandwich is just as bad for you, which is incredibly false, but gave me the idea, well if its as bad for me then why don't I really enjoy what's really bad for me and say fuck it, and went to McDonalds or BK, and had an 1100 calorie meal.

To start I've been reading/listening (audiobook) to Tom Venuto's "Bodyfat Solution" which so far has been great, a lot of stuff I already know, but it puts things in perspective.  If I had to give a Cliff's notes version I would say, he says (paraphrase) its never 1 issue/1 nutrient that's the cause of us being overweight, its everything all together, nutrition, lifestyle, habits, psychology -"synergy".  I'm right now trying to hope to focus on the psycology of weight loss and breaking some of the habits.

Based on having a few things put in perspective, I do owe a couple of trainers/S&C Coaches through various forums - here/VF/BB.com, a slight apology, for a few reasons.  (Terms I heard from the above mentioned book) I've been very bad with using "confirmation bias" - distorting information on personal preferences and biases to avoid information overload, and tending to search out things which will confirm our beliefs (being very closed minded, hearing what I want to hear) and at points that has lead me into arguments.  I'll refer back to this below just want to get another definition out of the way from the book (1 thing that stuck with me).

Habitual thinking and appeal to tradition - basically we all have habits, many of us repeat daily and never ask why.  "If you've been training consistently a certain way someone years ago may have told you that was the 'correct way' and you've done it that way since." "tradition - just because you've always done it that way, doesn't mean its not incredibly stupid"

"Wishful thinking" - quick definition as it relates to me, its really easy to blame other people, other things rather than taking the blame.

"Law of attraction" - Focus your thought on and emotionalize the particular goal while remaining open and expecting to receive it, then you will get it. "Positive thinking, affirmations, visualization are methods to re-program your thinking and your unconscience mind, the link from thoughts to results is action."  "Sitting around thinking about what you want and daydreaming about wishing you could have it doesn't attract anything to you, but dust and cobwebs.  The tendency to indulge in any wishful thinking will only lead you to a path of inaction, bad decisions, and poor results."

Alright now that I got those out of the way, I'm gonna mention how they apply, and what my next step might be.  I am very "confirmation biased" with decent reason, I got half decent (better than any other method I've used) results from "circuit training" and "functional training" and even though those terms seem to be frowned upon with a lot of true S&C Coaches, again many arguments with others regarding this, it worked for me just enough, and (1 kid I trained saw good results from a style like this) and I do believe that if I were doing this style of training back in June and last Spring that I wouldn't have the ankle issues I have now.  Based on this above I'm asking that if anyone who trains or trains others can take a small step back, and see if this applies to them and try and see things from my side.  That being said right now I don't have the slightest concern about trying to dunk or vert training, I want to make my ankle a little bit healthier and I want to lose some weight for bro's wedding (in July), now that I can say that my 'bulking' phase can end whenever I'd like, so I am going to put some circuits together for myself (will post as attachment here) and do more interval style training.

Habitual thinking for me, when I finish my workouts I inevitably eat something crappy and usually drink something that's high sugar many times some version of soda, at this point it literally doesn't even phase me and I don't even think about it, just a habit.  Same thing with waking up in the morning and making a "bad decision" for breakfast foods (muffins/pastry/donut/whatever else you want to throw in there).

I've been "wishful thinking" for quite some time just kind of wishing things would click (I've said that in my nutrition posts), but never taking action, by me posting this here definitely not going to make me take action, but its something I need to do.

At some point down the road whenever I do decide to get my website squared away and start blogging a bit, and putting out some Youtube's I want to put out an article about "The things I've learned" and the reason I mention that now is because in the past year I've learned a lot about a WestSide Style training routine (powerlifting in general) which I didn't know before and a lot more about muscle activation, mobility, stretching, but that being said I know I have a long way to go.  I think that's 1 of the reasons that I get annoyed when trainers/coaches that I've talked to again between forums, have "shut down" and said its my way is the only way, cuz I'm sure there's a lot others can learn from me, and I know I can learn a lot from others but it doesn't/can't happen by anyone becoming closed minded (again reason for above apology).
I've learned that with these 'circuits' that I was following were a few 'loaded' exercises, and a bunch of functional stuff, some of that functional stuff being simple mobility/activation work, that was placed there as a circuit as opposed to doing it before the workout.  Example -- Walking (unweighted) SL DLs, and its part of the reason why I look for more exercises to be included and have asked in the past about Sports Science Lab, cuz maybe they have an exercise (Ball Scorpions) that could help the routines.
/Rant

Asking for input for anyone with any video (for Youtube) knowledge, with my next 2 pay checks or so I'll be buying a digital camcorder to upload training videos, not sure what I should be looking for, if I'll be trying to film some basic lifts (for analysys and informative purposes) and stuff like Olympic lifts/plyo's/golf swing.

Figure I had to bump this, just got a new laptop since comp crashed a few weeks back, liftin a lot these past few weeks, but I feel really dumb because they haven't neccessarily been geared towards anything very specific, kinda what I tend to see from "amateurs" I'vd been doing BP splits still, but its been a lot of higher reps and haven't been paying too much attention to progressions, and progressive overload, just lots of volume.

Figured I needed to update this a lil bit as I haven't lifted in just over a week, hadn't really been on for long in over a week, (just a lot going on in my life).


Yeah I like to complicate things a lil bit, I actually just got a 5/3/1 program earlier, so I just started reading through it, 1st off seems almost overly simple, 2nd I'm not tryin at all to max out on my military press, and don't want or need to be setting up my days by lifts + assistance lifts (just my opinion).
When I finally do get to lift again (with any kind of luck I'll get into the gym on Wednesday) I'll do lower body routine, and try and go from there, at least have a couple of days to jump start my routine, but not sure, gotta look for a gym to join and actually pay for and get some measurements and pricing if I'm gonna put a few things in my basement to lift (power/squat rack, DBs, free bench). try and go from there.