Work

The mustache says, "I kill wild animals."  The mutton chops say, "I ain't got time to shave."

To continue the conversation from yesterday regarding inherent ability versus how hard work goes into success, take a look at a Teddy Roosevelt comic (note the manly sideburns).  TR was also the New York City police commissioner, just like our friend Jim Gordon.  If you didn't know, Gotham was modeled after NYC.  This isn't biography of our 26th president, so I won't recant the whole wikipedia article.  He was simply a man's man who did big things.  That being said, it's probably easier to do big things when you are born into a wealthy family in New York City.

Along with aptitude vs. work, "Do what you love and the money will come." is another work related motivational phrase that is counter intuitive and maybe overused.  But maybe the part of that phrase, "what you love" doesn't have to be narrowly defined.  I like eating chips and watching movies, but it might be tough to get paid to do that.  Maybe I can be passionate about or willing to work hard or lead in another, perhaps similar area.  Marcus Brotheron talks about this idea in this post.

Similarly, Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame and an Eagle Scout) talks on TED about doing what you love.  He meets with some sheepherders and helps castrate some of the sheep (there's no video).  What he really talks about is the idea of loving what you do and that this doesn't really make sense to most people.

Read some of the page stronglifts and an infographic that combines paleo with leangains and stronglifts.  Stronglifts recommends 5x5 workouts, like I have been doing, but combines three of the exercises on one day.  I used to feel that that is too much on one day, but if I remove my warmup and cooldowns, it would be reasonable.  Also, rather than trying to increase on each set (my ego getting in the way of proper muscle and ligament development), I can be okay with doing 5x5 of the same weight during a workout.  So, tonight I planned on doing 5 sets of shoulder press at 160 and 1 or more sets of 5 reps of 315 deadlift.

Ok, so I actually got more than 1 set of deadlifts and barely got through 5 sets of presses.

Shoulder press: 5-160, 4-160, 4-155, 4-155, 4-155
Deadlift: 5x5x335

I'll save those of you with squeamish stomachs the image of my bloody right shin from the last set of deadlifts.  My form has improved, but I still need time to heal.

Decided to add a few carbs into my post workout meal.  We'll see how long I keep that up.

We'll see how long I keep up the tater tots.

Saw this video at the coffee shop.  I don't speak Polish, but I think I want to shave my head and dance by an abandoned train station now.