pig-monkey.com - physical training

Further Fingering

2025-07-08T00:00:00-07:00

Since jumping on the variable resistance train a few years ago, the number of bodyweight exercises I do has steadily diminished. One thing I do still practice – pretty much daily – are pull-ups.

I’ve never owned one of those pull-up bar contraptions you install in a doorway. But I live in San Francisco, where we more-or-less stopped building housing after the reign of King George V. This means I have crown moulding along my walls and above my doorways. I just hop up there, hang from my fingers, and do pull-ups from that. Another application of finger strength.

The first time I tried this, the sharp edge of the moulding was rather painful on my fingers. A bit of padding was wanted. I remembered I had some old pot handle covers that I never use. I put those between my finger tips and the wood, and it worked great. It gives a little padding, and increases the surface area I’m gripping on just a skosh. These have since lived near my bathroom door. My morning routine after getting out of bed is: piss, pull-ups, ablutions.

I can’t remember the last time I did a pull-up from a bar, so I’m not sure how the difficulty of my practice compares. But pulling myself up using a small ledge is a better analogue for any sort of real world activity.

Fingering

2025-07-07T00:00:00-07:00

I may have given the impression that the Harambe System is the only muscle building equipment I use, but there are two exceptions to that. I’ve been using a Gripmaster Pro for the past 10 years, and a Captains of Crush Gripper for a bit longer.

Back in 2015, shortly after I first met Ed Calderon, he was using my body to demonstrate for Mark Denny a selection of the BDSM techniques he had learned from Japanese prostitutes.¹ In the moments of clarity between pain, I was impressed by the strength of his individual fingers. Later, when we were decent, I asked him about it and he pointed me to the Gripmaster Pro. I bought one.

I keep the Gripmaster at my desk at work, and the Captains of Crush Gripper at my desk at home, and use both the way The Youth use their so-called “fidget spinners”, rather than as part of any sort of purposeful program.

Notes

↵ You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle.

A Machine for Building Muscle

2025-07-04T00:00:00-07:00

Back in December I wrote that I was very happy with the Harambe resistance bands but intended to keep using the X3 bar and plate.

That last part didn’t age well.

In March I bought the Harambe CyberPlate. This was great and lived up to the hype. Encouraged by that, about a month later I bought the bar-previously-known-as-Manhattan and rods and black ropes. This too proved to be a significant quality improvement over my previous equipment. Two months after that I was back for the blue ropes and foam block.

My original Harambe purchase of the bands is, I think, still the most valuable. The reduced length of the bands and the intelligent assortment compared to what I’ve used previously directly contributes to a better, more efficient workout. The other components of the system, when compared to the X3 equivalents, are less about improving efficiency or functionality and more just quality of life improvements.

The rollers on the unfortunately named CyberPlate do make all the movements much smoother. After experiencing it, I find it hard to go back to a plate without rollers. But I do not think the that CyberPlate lets me lift heavier bands, or build more muscle faster, or anything like that. It should increase the service life of the bands, but that’s not much of an argument when one considers the price of bands compared to the price of the plate.

The bar is similar. I appreciate the greater width. I have come to prefer its independent bearings, rather than the X3 bar’s approach of having both sides move in unison. My deadlifting calluses have mostly gone away, despite the fact that I’ve progressed to heavier bands than what I was lifting when I was still using the X3 bar. (Partly this is because I’m using heavy enough bands that most of the time I need to use straps, but mostly I think it is because of the better knurling on the Harambe bar.) But, like the plate, this is more on the order of quality-of-life improvements rather than the Harambe bar being somehow more effective. The one exception is that on some movements – overhead press being the main one – I do notice my abdominal muscles being hit much more than they ever were with the X3 bar. I suspect this is due to the greater width of the Harambe bar and the independent bearings both requiring greater stabilization efforts on my part. I appreciate this. A strong core is important, and I hate doing sit-ups.

The sling system that Harambe uses offers some functional advantages over the hooks of the X3. The ability to change rope lengths and add spacers can help with progressive overload, but I feel like that advantage is pretty minor – especially if you get their orange band, which mostly replaces the contribution of the spacers in helping to progress to heavier bands. (Did I mention that I also ended up buying the orange and black bands at different points? I regularly use all six bands – individually or in some combination – for different movements.) The only area where I really take advantage of the modularity of the slings is when I put on the blue ropes, which allows me to back squat with a doubled band. I like doing back squats, but I do them after front squats. If I could only do front squats, I’d still be happy. So I don’t think the hooks vs sling question is worth spending much time thinking about. Both are fine, slings offer greater modularity, hooks provide a built-in stand, but ultimately it probably just comes down to personal preference.

If I’m home and bored and have a few minutes, I often find myself pulling the Harambe bar and plate out from their home under my desk and doing some exercise for a few minutes (this in addition to my more structured daily workouts with the system, which usually happens in the evening). I never did this impromptu work with the X3. I’m willing to accept that the responsibility for this failure lies more with me than the X3, but I think it also speaks to the difference in the experience of using both systems. When I get on the plate, grip the bar, and start pushing or pulling, it just feels like I am using well-made, top quality, professional equipment. Because I am.

All of these components cost a good deal of money (after my third order I made the mistake of asking ledger for my total spend with Harambe). Yet I don’t find myself regretting any of the purchases, and I think I would happily purchase all of them again (despite recent price increases meaning that most components are now more expensive than what I originally paid). That’s usually a good metric to assess an item’s value. But of course part of the point with a machine like this is that except for the bands, which are ultimately consumable, I should never have to purchase any sort of muscle building equipment again. I’m set for life.

I’ve noticed Harambe start to use the word “luxury” in some of their marketing. While I think that word does not properly apply to what they’re doing – “premium” would be more appropriate in the official lexicon – it implies a basic strategy to differentiate themselves from their competition that I agree with: their product is expensive, it may not complete the task more efficiently than more affordable offerings (except for the bands), but the extra thought and polish that goes into their components do craft a superior user experience, and once you use it everything else will seem less than.

The disadvantage to all this is that my shirts and jackets are all shrinking and I don’t want to replace them.

Harambe Resistance

2024-12-22T00:00:00-08:00

Back in 2007, the International Man of Mystery designated codename 503 told me to read Never Gymless by Ross Enamait. This was my introduction to the resistance band, which is one of the tools mentioned in the book. Enamait recommended bands from Iron Woody, so that’s what I bought. I replaced them periodically over the subsequent seventeen years, sticking with the same brand. The Iron Woody bands are 41”, which is the default length for loop bands across the market, though my understanding is that this is more a fluke of history rather than due to any considered reasoning.

This past Fall it was time once again to replace a couple of my most frequently used (and thus stretched out) bands. Iron Woody was out of most bands, so I looked around to see what was hip and cool on The Internet. The consensus seemed to be that Serious Steel Fitness and Harambe System had the some of the best bands. I was particularly intrigued by these two because the Harambe bands were 38”, and Serious Steel offered a handful of lengths, including 37”. The more I thought about, the more sense these shorter lengths made.

I ended up buying the Harambe band bundle. They are the nicest bands I’ve used. When I opened the package, I first grabbed the light green 1” band because this looked to be about the same width as the blue Iron Woody band that is my go-to for a lot of exercises. I was shocked by how hard it was. Part of this is the difference in length (and the difference in age), but it turns out the Harambe bands are also thicc. The width is deceptive. I’m using narrower bands now, but getting a better workout. The narrower width make it easier to do side-by-side band stacking to tune the load, which is great. Initially I thought that the yellow 1/4” band would be too light for me to use for much of anything, and that is true by itself, but I have found myself frequently stacking it with one of the other bands.

The shorter length is great, and my motto is now 38” or GTFO. (I’d probably be just as happy with the 37” length offered by Serious Steel, if their bands are of similar quality.) I can use the 38” bands for all the exercises I previously used the 41” for, but I get more resistance sooner, which is much more better. The way I visualize it in my head is that the force curve is flatter, but vertically higher. There are other exercises that were never an option with the 41” bands, because I would only get resistance for a small part of the movement, but are now possible with the 38” bands.

About three years ago I was given a Jaquish X3 Elite bar and platform. I was skeptical of these at first, but both have grown on me, and I have been using them regularly with my Iron Woody bands. (I borrowed a set of the X3 bands for a month, which were fine, but nothing special, and I decided I preferred my Iron Woody bands to them.) I still do some things with just bands, but most of my resistance band use involves the bar and platform. I’m now using the Harambe bands with the X3 pieces, and am pleased with the setup. I also use my zafu in place of the cork block for the Harambe-style bench press – which is one of the exercises I couldn’t really do with longer bands.

The Harambe bars and platforms look objectively superior to the X3, but not enough to make me want to spend money to replace my existing equipment. I’d likely go with Harambe if I was starting over. (I also appreciate that Harambe has a decent website, and the guy behind it seems like just a normal dude in his videos. The Jaquish website feels like some sort of multi-level marketing cult and I need to perform ablution after I look at it.) The bars and platforms from both are expensive – probably unnecessarily so – and I hear there are a bunch of cheap knock-offs of the bar-and-platform idea that probably work fine. But I am smitten with the Harambe bands, and feel like that piece was money well spent.

But the main takeaway is: try bands shorter than 41”.

Night Run

2024-07-06T00:00:00-07:00

I began running at night last autumn. I referred to them as “night runs” but this phrase was mostly aspirational, as I would usually take off around 18:00, or shortly thereafter. But it was dark, and that was the point.

I found that I enjoyed running through the dark, sometimes through city streets, other times down wooded trails, solitary in my small forcefield of light. I’ve seen all sorts of wildlife: raccoons, coyotes, Donald Trump’s motorcade. I once ran by a guy valiantly attempting to blow on a didgeridoo while playing death metal on his phone.

This year, as the days lengthened, my late afternoon runs started to become light enough to not require a headlamp. That was no fun, so in the spring I rescheduled my runs to start around 21:30 – sometimes as early as 21:00 if I’m heading up Twin Peaks and want to catch the metropolitan alpenglow. Now they are actually night runs.

Zensah Leg Compression

2021-01-07T00:00:00-08:00

I purchased a pair of Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves in 2008 after reading about them at MilitaryMorons. This was when minimalist running was beginning to take off – Born to Run was published the following year – and I found that the sleeves ended up being a valuable part of my transition to less supportive footwear.

The story I was sold in various wilderness medicine courses was that compression aided recovery because it constricted the blood vessels, raising the percentage of oxygen delivered to the area, which in turn speeds muscle regrowth. I understand there is some debate about whether this explanation is accurate but, whatever the reason for it, there seems to be no debate that compression aids recovery and performance.

I still use my 12 year old pair of Zensah sleeves. They’re not a piece of equipment I reach for frequently, but they’re invaluable when I do use them. If I’ve been pushing myself on runs – or, in the Before Times, if I had a hard training session at the boxing gym – there’s nothing better than the immediate comfort I get when sliding them on. Because I don’t use them often, sometimes I’ll forgot that they’re buried in the bottom of my sock drawer and I’ll go a couple days with discomfort in my calves that I can’t get out with a roller or massage ball.

Prior to buying the Zensah sleeves, I would occasionally accomplish the same thing with 3M Vetrap. It works, and is worth having around for splinting (the self-adhesive property makes it superior to the classic ACE elastic bandage), but wrapping and getting the tension just-so is more of a hassle than just sliding on the sleeves. Vetrap is also not as comfortable as Zensah’s material, which is both breathable and moisture wicking.

It's been a while since I've regularly run with a weighted rucksack.

2020-03-29T00:00:00-07:00

In the past two weeks I’ve been getting back into the practice. To setup the bag, I remove the Control Panel 1 and Transport Sleeve that I normally EDC in my FAST Pack Litespeed and replace them with an internally mounted Transporter Tail. This is used to secure a 30 lb Hyperwear Steelbell. On the outside of the bag the only change I make from my normal setup is the addition of a prototype FAST Stability Belt. With the bag weighted down I lash on my sandals, fire up my antisocial activity tracker, and it’s almost like it’s 2011 again.

Tightening the Bedrock Cairn

2019-03-02T00:00:00-08:00

I bought a pair of Bedrock Cairn Adventure Sandals when they were released back in 2016. They are my favorite sandals. In addition to being great everyday and hiking footwear in the warmer months, the Cairns are my preferred running footwear year round.

My only complaint with the Cairns was that the adjustable strap would occasionally slip, loosening the sandal. The webbing would only slip a couple of millimeters over a handful of miles. If walking or pedaling I wouldn’t notice it, but when running this allowed just enough movement of my foot across the bed of the sandal that I would eventually develop a hot spot if I didn’t reach down to tighten the strap every 6 miles or so.

I mentioned this in one of Bedrock’s customer surveys. They reached out to me and suggested that when tightening the strap, rather than keeping the loose end of the webbing inline with the part connected to the wing, I kink the webbing slightly forward. This allows the buckle to get a bit more bite. The added friction from this adjustment has eliminated any loosening of the sandal on my runs.

Last month I mountain biked Cotopaxi.

2018-11-15T00:00:00-08:00

I mounted the saddle at 15,000 feet. Thin air for pushing pedals – everything feels like uphill, until it is, then it feels like something worse – but I like to think it might have prepared me somewhat for the oxygen deprivation of my recent respirator trials. Integrating some sort of hypoxic training into a PT regime may be worth considering.

Antisocial Activity Tracking

2015-08-04T00:00:00-07:00

A GPS track provides useful a useful log of physical activities. Beyond simply recording a route, the series of coordinate and time mappings allow statistics like distance, speed, elevation, and time to be calculated. I recently decided that I wanted to start recording this information, but I was not interested in any of the plethora of social, cloud-based services that are hip these days. A simple GPX track gives me all the information I care about, and I don’t have a strong desire to share them with a third party provider or a social network.

Recording Tracks

The discovery of GPSLogger is what made me excited to start this project. A simple but powerful Android application, GPSLogger will log to a number of different formats and, when a track is complete, automatically distribute it. This can be done by uploading the file to a storage provider, emailing it, or posting it to a custom URL. It always logs in metric units but optionally displays in Imperial.

What makes GPSLogger really stand out are its performance features. It allows very fine-grained control over GPS use, which allows tracks to be recorded for extended periods of times (such as days) with a negligible impact on battery usage.

For activities like running, shorter hikes and bicycle rides I tend to err on the side of accuracy. I set GPSLogger to log a coordinate every 10 seconds, with a minimum distance of 5 meters between points and a minimum accuracy of 10 meters. It will try to get a fix for 120 seconds before timing out, and attempt to meet the accuracy requirement for 60 seconds before giving up.

For a longer day-hike, the time between points could be increased to something in the neighborhood of 60 seconds. For a multi-day backpacking trip, a setting of 10 minutes or more would still provide great enough accuracy to make for a useful record of the route. I’ve found that being able to control these settings really opens up a lot of tracking possibilities that I would otherwise not consider for fear of battery drain.

Storing Tracks

After a track has been recorded, I transfer it to my computer and store it with git-annex.

Everything in my home directory that is not a temporary file is stored either in git or git-annex. By keeping my tracks in an annex rather than directly in git, I can take advantage of git-annex’s powerful metadata support. GPSLogger automatically names tracks with a time stamp, but the annex for my tracks is also configured to automatically set the year and month when adding files.

$ cd ~/tracks
$ git config annex.genmetadata true

After moving a track into the annex, I’ll tag it with a custom activity field, with values like run, hike, or bike.

$ git annex metadata --set activity=bike 20150725110839.gpx

I also find it useful to tag tracks with a gross location value so that I can get an idea of where they were recorded without loading them on a map. Counties tend to work well for this.

$ git annex metadata --set county=sanfrancisco 20150725110839.gpx

Of course, a track may span multiple counties. This is easily handled by git-annex.

$ git annex metadata --set county+=marin 20150725110839.gpx

One could also use fields to store location values such as National Park, National Forest or Wilderness Area.

Metadata Views

The reason for storing metadata is the ability to use metadata driven views. This allows me to alter the directory structure of the annex based on the metadata. For instance, I can tell git-annex to show me all tracks grouped by year followed by activity.

$ git annex view "year=*" "activity=*"
$ tree -d
.
└── 2015
    ├── bike
    ├── hike
    └── run

Or, I could ask to see all the runs I went on this July.

$ git annex view year=2015 month=07 activity=run

I’ve found this to be a super powerful tool. It gives me the simplicity and flexibility of storing the tracks as plain-text on the filesystem, with some of the querying possibilities of a database. Its usefulness is only limited by the metadata stored.

Viewing Tracks

For simple statistics, I’ll use the gpxinfo command provided by gpxpy. This gives me the basics of time, distance and speed, which is generally all I care about for something like a weekly run.

$ gpxinfo 20150725110839.gpx
File: 20150725110839.gpx
    Length 2D: 6.081km
    Length 3D: 6.123km
    Moving time: 00:35:05
    Stopped time: n/a
    Max speed: 3.54m/s = 12.74km/h
    Total uphill: 96.50m
    Total downhill: 130.50m
    Started: 2015-07-25 18:08:45
    Ended: 2015-07-25 18:43:50
    Points: 188
    Avg distance between points: 32.35m

    Track #0, Segment #0
        Length 2D: 6.081km
        Length 3D: 6.123km
        Moving time: 00:35:05
        Stopped time: n/a
        Max speed: 3.54m/s = 12.74km/h
        Total uphill: 96.50m
        Total downhill: 130.50m
        Started: 2015-07-25 18:08:45
        Ended: 2015-07-25 18:43:50
        Points: 188
        Avg distance between points: 32.35m

For a more detailed inspection of the tracks, I opt for Viking. This allows me to load the tracks and view the route on a OpenStreetMap map (or any number of other map layers, such as USGS quads or Bing aerial photography). It includes all the detailed statistics you could care about extracting from a GPX track, including pretty charts of elevation, distance, time and speed.

If I want to view the track on my phone before I’ve transferred it to my computer, I’ll load it in either BackCountry Navigator or OsmAnd, depending on what kind of map layers I am interested in seeing. For simply viewing the statistics of a track on the phone, I go with GPS Visualizer (by the same author as GPSLogger).

Rucksack Run

2011-04-30T00:00:00-07:00

Yesterday I felt that I was becoming too complacent on my runs. I needed something to increase the challenge. So, this morning I tossed 20 lbs. into the FAST Pack and strapped it on. That made things interesting.

Dry heaving is a measure of success.

Motivation

2010-05-14T00:00:00-07:00

Occasionally I get asked what motivates me to run on a regular basis. For me, running is fun. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t. During the run, I take pleasure in partaking in an activity that I believe Homo sapien sapien was designed to do, and after the run my body feels better.

If that’s not enough, try this: In his autobiography Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, Sir Ranulph Fiennes said that, now in his late sixties, the only way he can manage to keep up a decent level of fitness is to run at least 2 hours every other day. I’ll not be physically bested by an old man, even one such as Fiennes!

Mailbox Redux

2010-02-21T00:00:00-08:00

Remember Mailbox Peak? The mountain that was supposed to provide one of the most difficult, thigh-burning day hikes in the region? When I climbed it last October my reaction was a cocky “Psch. That ain’t no challenge! Maybe will a full pack it’d cause some pain.” Yesterday, I climbed it again. This time with a 60lb rucksack on my back.

Reaching the summit took three exhausting, slow hours. I allowed myself only one 10 minute break each hour. For the last quarter of the hike I was just stumbling along, slowly plodding my way up higher and higher (thinking “Whose bright idea was this?”). The trail near the top was too covered with snow and ice to make it smart to attempt without some sort of traction device, so I opted for the neighboring boulder field. Scrambling up that required more leg power, balance, and mental facilities than I had left at the time, but I managed to make it.

Upon reaching the summit, I immediately dropped my pack and sat down. I could only relax for a minute before realizing that I was freezing. And so I had to exert myself further by grabbing more layers from my pack and tossing them on.

I realized that I was dizzy, shaking, and – despite having been constantly sucking on my hydration hose on the way up – not sweating as much as I felt that I should have been, so I took a packet of Emergen-C from my first aid kit, dumped it into one of the 1 liter water bottles I had been using for weights, and forced myself to drink it all down before starting my descent.

I felt better after that and, munching on some granola, wandered around the summit, enjoying the view. It had been a spring-like day, with only a few clouds and temperatures around 50F at the bottom. Gazing at the other peaks with their light dustings of snow, I decided that the hike had been worth it.

There was only one mailbox up there this time. The black one must have blown away.

I decided to head down. The boulder field was tricky going, but, afterward, it was just a slow and steady plodding down the mountain. Near the bottom I had to poo, but, upon assuming the position, discovered that I didn’t have the length strength left to squat.

Finally, I made it back to the trail head, around two and a half hours after leaving the top. That night I had energy only to shower and eat a double serving of oatmeal before crashing. Today, I am stiff, but not as sore as I thought I would be.

Goat Lake

2010-02-01T00:00:00-08:00

I wandered into the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness this morning, taking a 10 mile walk with full pack to Goat Lake. The lake is a popular destination for day trippers in the summer, which has always caused me to avoid the place. I figured the warm winter might give me a chance to enjoy the area with a few less bipeds around.

The trail was deserted, making it an enjoyable jaunt. As per usual for this unusual year, no snow nor ice was encountered. There was quite a bit of blow-down and a few land slides, most likely from this year’s storms, which caused me to misplace the trail now and again, but it was otherwise uneventful.

I’ll say one thing about old Hank: he’s got some big cedars in his country. I mean, big. Some looked like they may almost match a sequoia. The going was slow, as every 10 feet or so I encountered another that required a pause, a bend of the neck, and a moment’s consideration. There was also evidence of past logging, such as Tree On a Stump. A nice little “fuck you” to humans from the forest, I thought.

From one particularly aged and gnarly specimen, I cut a branch of needles. I planned to make tea later and perhaps infuse some of that 1,000 vitality into myself.

The lake itself had no ice, but Cadet Peak above was topped with snow. It was difficult to tell where mountain ended and sky began, for all the white clouds in the afternoon sky.

Lunch was intended to be couscous with a bit of curry, but ended up being curry with a bit of couscous. Afterward, I washed it down with warm cedar tea and a few chunks of dark chocolate – a combination most pleasing to my tongue.

Then: a walk back home as the sun set.

I don't know what the answer is. In time man gets used to almost anything, but the problem seems to be that technology is advancing faster than he can adjust to it. I think it's time we started applying the brakes, slowing down our greed and slowing down the world. I have found that some of the simplest things have given me the most pleasure. They didn't cost me a lot of money either. They just worked on my senses. Did you ever pick very large blueberries after a summer rain? Walk through a grove of cottonwoods, open like a park, and see the blue sky beyond the shimmering gold of the leaves? Pull on dry woolen socks after you've peeled off the wet ones? Come in out of the subzero and shiver yourself warm in front of a wood fire? The world is full of such things. - Richard Proenneke, One Man's Wilderness

Lake Twenty Two

2010-01-29T00:00:00-08:00

I tossed another 10lb weight in my pack and headed out to the Mount Pilchuck area. I ended up walking out to (the creatively named) Lake Twenty Two at the base of Pilchuck and bushwhacked around the research natural area a bit.

There was very little snow. It’s going to be a dry summer.

Lake Serene

2010-01-28T00:00:00-08:00

I’ve been doing a few training hikes lately: loading the old rucksack up with 55-60lb, walking through forests and scrambling up peaks. The winter has been unusually warm, which has allowed me to access places that are usually off-limits this time of year without technical equipment. Yesterday I ventured out to Lake Serene, at the base of Mt. Index (just the other side of the Skykomish valley from Baring Mountain).

At a little over 7 miles (round trip) and only 2,000 feet elevation gain, this was a relaxing walk; a bit of an award to myself for completing the other, more difficult climbs.

The trail was snow free till about a mile or so before the lake. After that, there was a dusting of crusty snow – no more than an inch – and quite a bit of ice.

I ate lunch at the frozen lake, watched an avalanche on Index’s north peak, and raced the sun back home.