Lift, Train, Fitness

It is more about people squatting and deadlifting in runners, the cushioning in runners which is good for running make you unstable in squat and deadlift which leads to injuries. If mobility is not a problem then cons are fine for squat :)
 
Weather has been awful for weeks, but wind and rain could get worse with TC Linda sitting off the coast.
 
Sometimes I deadlift barefoot. Well, in socks at least because no one cleans my gym and I'm pretty sure I'd immediately get a staph infection in my bare skin touched the floor. Stay safe in the weather!
 
Great bug/bunny pic subject matter and execution. Maybe you could sell Warner Bros. on a cartoon theme. Canon 100 L is great glass. Are you looking at the Canon 65 F/2.8 1-5x? Perhaps the recently announced Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X which should be available for about $400 USD in the near future. The focal length won't give you much working room but much depends on the type of subject. Back in the days of film, I used to use bellows on a 35 mm SLR with reversed lenses and had to do the exposure calculations manually. Focus stacking was never an option back in the day and diffraction limits sure killed depth.
 
Unfortunately my budget doesn't stretch to more glass at the moment but I have finally got my stacking software set up. It has been a long time since my film SLR has seen the light of day lol.


My tolerance for BS is at an almost all time low after a tough couple of days. so this is a bit of a vent.

When asking for advice, don't expect gushing praise for what you are doing unless it is perfect, we don't learn anything from only listening to people who confirm our already existing opinion. When asking for lifting advice I will give it in accordance to my training, study and experience as both an elite athlete and coach of elite athletes but if your relative who has a big person at the gym who knows better then by all means take their advice because y'know just because they happen to be big they must know lots of stuff.

Does this mean I think I am always right ? no, and I am willing to look at studies and to always keep on top of current knowledge but when that advice is to lift light weights (less than a good sized bag of groceries) for lots of rep for fat loss and muscle growth or to do heaps of crunches or sit-ups for a flat belly then I feel that advice is worthy of nothing more than trash.

This is the same contempt I hold for personal trainers who should and probably do know better but still feed people with "common knowledge" programs designed more to make the client think they are going to achieve their goals when all it achieves is leading the client to spend a lot of money for training which will never achieve results and simply make the personal trainer easy money. In the same way a lot of gyms rely on the new years resolution crowd each year to just stop showing up a few weeks in but never actually cancel their memberships.

I have lost count of the number of personal trainer I have met who have never lifted a free weight in their life including trainers who have attended PL coach accreditation training, expecting to learn how to coach without actually being able to lift, needless to say they got a course certificate and some continuing education training points but they did not make the grade to go on to become fully qualified coaches. Fully qualified coached need both the book training and have actual ability to demonstrate, coach in and out of competition and to write effective programs that achieve results. I had to undergo many many hours of supervised coaching before I could be accepted as a National Coach, and each year I have to show why I deserve to keep that accreditation.
 
feeling a bit less bitchy this afternoon, have not had any appetite and ended up not eating for 3 days but back to normal now. my cycle has been playing havok with my mood and is not yet regular after the birth.

on the up side currently working on the logistics of running lifting classes twice per month at the gym on alternate weekends to the ladies self defence classes. Learning in a group seems to make for a more relaxed environment for ladies to learn in rather than 1 on 1 coaching. The aim is to teach the major lifts safely and how to incorporate lifting into their regular workout routine for achieving their goals. The weights room should not feel intimidating.
 
I like the idea of group lifting instruction. The weights room SHOULD not feel intimidating, but it often does for people who don´t look like they lift a lot. I´m sure it helps to start out with a group of people and know you´re all beginners.
 
My brother and I have spoken at length about how inconsistent the knowledge that PTs have regarding both nutrition and strength building. ESPECIALLY when it comes to free weights. It feels like they pretty on people who don't know better because there's a really intimidating amount of information out there with hugely varying degrees of scientific background and proven results. I was so thankful to have my brother around when I started, or I could have been one of those people who eats shit from my PT and doesn't know the difference. It's not even always about lack of progress or lack of real understanding on how to build strength. I've seen some PT's encourage their clients to do some outright dangerous stuff. One in particular was telling this woman in the leg press to lock her knees out at the top of every rep. What? What???? What?????????

I think the group class is a really great idea. That's partially why I tried a Crossfit class: to try and learn how to lift in a social setting. I pretty quickly determined that I pretty much disagreed with their entire training philosophy, but I think the same idea for a program that actually makes sense could be a wonderful thing.
 
I've seen some PT's encourage their clients to do some outright dangerous stuff.

Very much so, there is one PT in town here that has been fired from almost all the gyms in town for injuring clients but is still popular because he can talk a good line and has the "Look" of a PT, he also claims to be a powerlifting coach with no such qualifications (when he was at the gym I go to he only ever used machines) and posts up videos online with some of the worst form you could hope to see, however to those who know no better think he is Mr wonderful.

The Gym I am associated with is definitely not a fan of the Crossfit philosophy because of the way most boxes push high reps at at the cost of good form but I think the theory of making lifting a fun group exercise is a good one for many. There are far to many gyms in town for the small population so in an over saturated market gyms need to offer quality and differentiate themselves.

In a region with only 20000 people there are 2 crossfit boxes, 3 chain gyms, 2 family owned gyms, 1 gym as part of the council owned swimming complex, 1 training studio specialising in obstacle races (Spartan), 3 other private training studios, and another half dozen trainers who run classes in local parks. All that in the largest town, not counting those in the smaller surrounding towns.
 
That's really awful. Does he cat back his deadlifts? That drives me nuts. It's a shame that he's been able to get away with injuring people for so long just because he has the right look and can talk a good game. Admittedly, I've been somewhat out of that world for the last year because I joined this hole in the wall gym that literally just exists so the owners can use good equipment and not have to deal with the bull crap typically associated with gym chains. It's basically just a garage with a couple racks, a platform, a couple benches, and some other stuff in it. No PTs. No cardio equipment. No one there who doesn't already have at least a little bit of an idea of what they're doing.

No one at my gym Crossfit much either. It's a mix of powerlifters, strongmen, and Olympic lifters and the Oly guys in particular are pretty against it. They make their opinion on Crossfit very clear. When people want to try it, I hate to steer them away because I think a program that gets people interested in lifting is a good thing and it's a lot more approachable than just starting from scratch with the barbell by yourself. But I also can't say I would ever recommend it either because it just seems like a recipe to get hurt, burnt out, and stall hard after the newbie gains are done.

That is a lot of gyms for that small of an area. Do you think a group barbell class would be able to stay alive in an environment that's so oversaturated?
 
It is a way to differentiate from all the other gyms, all of the chain gyms and the other family owned gym concentrate on just the most common classes if any at all. I have been friends with the gym owner of my gym for over 10 years and they don't normally target the "health club" crowd and this class will run on weekends when the other gyms have nothing on (this is a typical regional town that basically shuts down on the weekends) and should appeal to those who want a class and don't want to take on the frantic pace of crossfit. The competitive market is very cat and mouse, often with gyms copying each other but being the only qualified powerlifting coach in town will make the class hard to copy. To be honest not all the gyms here will survive but this gym also has the martial arts school which is well respected and has a junior world champion training in the senior class. Many of the existing members are there to build strength and fitness for their main sport, but often they have no idea where to start and a class will help with that.
 
lots of cramping today, prior to the C section I never had serious cramps during my cycle but last night and this morning has been horrible.

however I have ticked off one major task this morning, uploaded all of my coaching compliance documents to the new tracking system so all legal and insured for another year.

I have still have to get into town today to get a new tyre for the car, it has been a week since I blew out one of my rear tyres and need to get a new spare.

I have 1 less chicken this morning in the yard, there was a beautiful large snake stretched across my driveway plus what I couldn't see of it in the grass either side, however there was a chicken sized lump in the middle as he was leaving the general area of my chook yard.
 
Our neighbour rang yesterday to see if we knew if our son was working or not as he's a registered snake handler & can relocate them safely. He had a Tiger snake stuck in some netting. Was yours a Python?
Well done on gaining compliance once again. It's always good to get things ticked off the list. I have paperwork strewn all over our second dining table that is meant to annoy me so much I deal with it. It hasn't worked yet!
 
yep, big carpet snake, only snake I have seen all season, I am not too concerned about his meal, better than browns and taipans that show up if their are no carpet snakes or red belly blacks around.

Today's Chores

Tyre - done
Grocery Shopping - done
Animal feed purchased - done
get precision torc screwdriver to replace polar HR monitor watch battery - done
Get phone plan changed - done

time to relax a bit before changing battery and spending time on the bike
 
Feeling a bit numb, watching both online and on TV as the town I was born and lived for 20 years and the surrounding areas are burning out of control, houses lost and spreading, heading for more houses and national park.
 

70 homes destroyed at last count
 
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