Month: November 2019

5 for Friends 11/19/19

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote:  “Be a practical dreamer, backed by action.”- Bruce Lee
This is the foundation of my life philosophy that captures sometimes big hairy audacious goals sound nice, but they still need to be grounded enough so I know how to take the first step.

Book currently reading: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
Late to the game this was a refreshing read of the stoic approach to my own life, that has a modern sensibility, well very plainly states how we care too much about matters outside of our own control.

Article worth a read: Stop using public USB ports
That’s right, according to LA county district attorney advised against using the default data cable to charge your phone at these public ports, due to the risk your data could be compromised.
The silver lining to the doomsaying, the comments section did mention you can always use a charge only cable to ensure no data connectivity is an option.

Small Purchase: By no means is this an endorsement of this specific branch, but I took advantage of finally seeing a chiropractor. There was a chain called The Joint that accepted a walk in who commented on there isn’t so much as an apparent skeletal issue, which is a relief, but confirmed I do sit like a goblin while I hack away on my keyboard.
And for $29 for an assessment and adjustment is just the kind of arb
https://www.thejoint.com/

What am I working on:  One more competition down; Critical Fit put on another great annual tournament at Gett-it where the team I drafted got to experience their physical limits and go beyond, in an obstacle course relay race that was my wildest elementary school dreams. The stipulations of the draft with 5 friends who wanted to captain was to form a team with 1 male and 1 female with less than a year of weightlifting/training experience. Mostly to keep from doing exactly what the top 3 performing teams did which is like gamers optimize teams for the challenges.
Moving on with this team work kick in the next couple weeks the gang will be heading down to South Florida for a December Tough Mudder! So to train I broke down the demands and keeping my training geared towards building explosive pulls and stabilizing.

Warm-up 2min bike
5 Romanian Deadlift
5 Hang Power Cleans
5 Front Squats
5 Push Press

Mobility
10 Good mornings
10 PVC Windmills
10 Toy Soldiers
10 WGS
10 Cossacks
10 Scorpions
10 Crash Victims
:30 Pigeon
Weightlifting
Thruster (5-5-5-5-5)
building E2MOM
Metcon (AMRAP – Rounds and Reps)15min AMRAP
4 Bar Muscle Up
8 Deadlifts (135/95)
12 Alt. Pistols

5 for friends 11/12/19

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote:  “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”Henry David Thoreau
With enough years of experience this is far from rah-rah optimism, but an insight to how our minds work. The saying we become what we think about most.

Book currently reading:  Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
A couple years ago the when the book was first released I was hesitant to pick it up, despite not realizing that my favorite genre is Nonfiction with a shot of self aware humor. But, it was recently on an Audible Sale and I had a drive to Tampa I was making. It spoke to the very real and often frustrating experience of rarely ever feeling like you’re being yourself or getting to know a person very well in the initial phase of dating online.
The biggest take away I recall was how in modern friendships making plans somehow requires being your own secretary with the other person scheduling time. Essentially requiring another skill and a degree of luck for people to interact with each other in the physical world.

Article worth a read: You might not actually be middle class [Fast Company]
In this 6 minute read the author highlights how a demonstrably large percentage of Americans (70%) believe they are in the Middle Class, and how that mindset itself impacts higher earners who report do not feel financially secure in their own position. From a cultural perspective this is interesting to me.
Small Purchase: A recent purchase I can’t believe it took me so long to get for myself has been a adjustable monitor arm for my home office desk. Now I do have the link of an Amazon Basic Model that when pulling it up is certainly not the price I paid, so I would like to make a non sponsored recommendation to download Honey as an extension so you can have AI search for the most competitive price of an item. While we live in an age of 6 Sigma reduced variability, spending more for an item really doesn’t make much sense.
Lol, as an after thought the real reason for the monitor arm is because I use my Laptop or Ipad for everything, but when working on a project having a second larger screen off my desk and rotate it with a twist is likely my favorite thing I didn’t know my soul was missing.

What am I working on:  My body has taken a back burner from the open after having a sprain that lasted a few weeks, and taking care to avoid doing anything strenuous as I keep on pace with my larger made up goal: building the stamina and mental toughness to conquer a Spartan Trifecta. Specifically the longer distance races, Super and Beast.
This week going into a Charity Competition that has a lot of demand for jumping, pulling and bounding today’s metcon brings home a lot of what I plan on tuning up:

Metcon (Time)18-15-12-9-6-3
Thruster (75/55)
Power Snatch (75/55)
T2B

5 for Friends 11/04/19

~ Malcolm Flex ~ Leave a comment

Quote: “As long as you’re being a copycat, you will never be the best copycat.”- Dr. Eric Thomas
The more work I do on efficiency and productivity I fully recognize how when learning to do something we’ve never done before we apprentice and copy those who have come before us. You don’t have to change the world; just remember being the best version of yourself is a great goal.

Book currently reading: African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley & Geoffrey Girard
As a history nerd I really did enjoy the accounts of one the most historically significant times in Japanese history, to be clear the unification of Nipon under Shogun Oda Nobunaga, and the many factors that contributed to his rise of power. So kinda like the reverse of the last Samurai, a warlord’s embrace of technologically advanced weapons from the Jesuit missionaries. Along with all of the baggage that we can muster from living in the future, but the context of the authors reminded me the world is still a harsh place. And, how both cultures believed the others to be barbarians.

Article worth a read: How to Send the Perfect Thank you Note a 1 minute read, and the advice isn’t as important as the reminder that first you should be following up with something meaningful. 1. Handwritten is better 2. Use stationary and a pen 3. gifts are also nice
This article summary is longer than the article because of a long conversation I’ve had this week about standing out after a party or investor meeting.

Small Purchase: This week I finally got around to purchase Team Shirts for the an up and coming Critical Fit Tournament, despite my marketing suggestion they did not go with Crit Fit 2 the electric bugaloo, but the more Fantasy appropriate Champion of Legerran to go with their fitness card game being launched. The t-shirts came from 6dollarshirt.com and have to say a pretty nice deal for a shirt I was going to turn into a cutoff anyway.

To go with my rowdy demeanor this 100% Heel for this event lol

What am I working on:  My own crossfit training is continuing to take a back seat while I am writing training plans for my Critical Fit team, and organizing how the team can train together. But, the corporate challenges I have been preparing for in addition to my continuing education work I’m trying to complete before the year ends I have been interested in going further in my lean six sigma training. More because it is a great tool, even though how I’ve seen this tool wielded by non engineers has felt akin to using an oven and calling it a toaster.
So, let’s go a level deeper and see if I can understand where the disconnect is occurring. And improve my own processes.
Anyone that really comes to see what I’m training for the day
Today to match the output for CritFit Challenge 1 we’re keeping it simple with
3 Rounds
1K Row
40 KB Swings (53/35)
20 Pull Ups