#libulife

Hello world, and the me of the future looking back,

I’m back into the swing of things after a great winter break! Jing and I drove south to Georgia, then to Florida, and a day in SC on the way up. Here are some of the things that have stuck with me

GA:

Christmas with Mom and the fam. I hadn’t seen them since moving to NY, so this was the ultimate cure for some home-sickness.

Spending time with Trey and Corey. I didn’t get to see as many friends as I’d like, but am very grateful to have gotten to catch up with two close friends.

Awesome day with Mom & Jing. An Australian bakery, the Coca Cola Museum, and time with the two women of my life. Heart

Seeing Eric at the last minute. We were about to head north, and I was kinda feeling bummed that Eric wasn’t there. But on our last day in GA, he came home! We just hung out in the basement, nothing special, but my trip was complete. I’m really glad that happened~

FL:

Jing and I explored downtown St. Pete’s art district, and went to the Dali Museum. Dali was an interesting guy with interesting art.

Playing Eucre with Grandma, Great Grandma, AND Aunt Marsha! Them three together is fun to watch, and even more fun to be with! Jing and I also got to hear some stories from when Grandma and Marsha were growing up. I requested this because I guess I just can’t imagine them before they were my grandmas! It was pretty fun to hear about for sure.

Bullshitting with my dad and Kirk was a definite highlight. Again, I hadn’t seen Dad in years either. We also had some killer pizza at my Dad’s favorite pizza joint in St. Pete. I wish we had gone to see Kayte and her lil’ family in Fanning Springs, but we had to start heading home.

SC:

Driving around Goose Creek was weird. Have you ever returned to somewhere you used to live and just… wandered? That was me.

We spent the day in Charleston, hitting Market Street, walking the waterfront, and wandering the cobblestone streets! We also got paid $75 to listen to a guy for an hour try and convince us to take exciting vacations.

Training: I trained this past month… a little. I was lucky to find a week free trial at a local Anytime Fitness, and also stayed at a motel that had a little gym one of our nights on the road. I had a blast, so no regrets, but I could have made a little more effort to at least do my morning routine of breathing and mobility.

A video posted by Scott Garber (@scottgarberjr) on Feb 6, 2017 at 9:11am PST

And now we are back. 2017 is definitely a year with big changes:

I started my first semester at Queens College, finally taking classes in the Exercise Science major.

After finishing this last months of winter training, I’ll be using my own fat loss program and taking professional pictures for my website at the end.

Hello Everyone

This week has been all about finals. You can see the stress on everyone's faces. The library and cafeteria on campus are crowded with people forcing themselves to put in the time, and many others already crashed, head-on-table, from a 50/50 mixture of study overload and a caffeine overdose that's effects ended all too soon.

It's 6:10 am and I'm at the laundrymat. I brought my computer because if I don't write this now, the day will start and the current will pull me out to the deep waters of final week- I'll be adrift at least another week before I can return to the sandy shores to sleep and write again.

This is a bit exaggerated on my end. If I don't write this now I would definitely neglect it later, but finals aren't all that bad this semester. I've still slept, trained, and gotten things done, I just feel like the curtain is coming to a close rather quickly. It is. But anyway,

Training:

After my appointment at Queens College, I received my ID card. You all know what that means: I can check out their gym.I did a push day, doing

Weighted dips went to 70 pounds for sets of 5 with my make-believe dip belt again

Flat bench I did at 155 for 8 sets of 5 or less. 155 went up way better on bench than it did last time, but I don't want to rush the weight on that kind of exercise.

1 arm dumbbell presses on an incline for 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Flexibility and yoga, followed by pushups and trying out the stuff at the new gym

Wednesday I was back at my current college for a pull day. I did

Weighted pullups with 35lbs (so much worse than my dips haha)

Deadlift for 8 sets of 3 or less. I got up to 275, but after the first set I went down to 265 for form's sake.

Dumbbell rows and curls for 3 sets of 8-10 reps. I love pump-work before

Flexibility and shoulder stability, but it was cut short so I could go pick up Jing

Saturday I went back to the Queens College gym to hit some legs in the new gym. I didn't do a lot of exercises, but I did do

Dumbbell lunges for 5 sets of "to the wall and back" with 45s. Then I did them with one of those small barbells people use for quick overhead press, curls, triceps, etc. I used a 50 for some barbell lunges to see if there was room.

Back squat. I am so bad at back squatting. I used to use more weight, but I didn't go down to parallel. Since the start of this fall I have reset my backsquat and am now trying to up the weight a little. I did 155 for 8 sets of 3 reps.

Flexibility and Mobility, then did the leg extension machine and bodyweight squats.

All the days between I do stretching and breathing as part of my yoga routine. After that I usually do whatever I'm feeling that morning for like 15ish minutes, but I wasn't really feeling anything this week so I didn't do any extra. I'm gonna blame finals here too :D

This Week:

Jing and I went back to the doctors office because they needed to redo some of the sonogram measurements. I also had that appointment with an advisor at QCC, where I picked classes and ran around campus getting papers signed, new usernames, etc. My schedule next semester is Sun-Fri, but with pretty decent hours each day. This means I'll still have time with Jing and Ben every day which is awesome.

Everything else has been about taking tests, and prepping for finals. On Wednesday I took what I'm sure is to be my worst test grade in college, so that's fun. I haven't been that creative with my answers since high school. Busy but boring time of my life, but after finals Jing and I are making the trip to Georgia and Florida for a holiday with the Fam. 

Next Week:

Finals, Strength & Flexibility training, Studying, and vacation planning (woo!!!)

I’d love to talk to you all about your week, about each others’ goals, and what you’d like to see from me! Contact me on Facebook or Instagram, and after this week check out LIBUlife.com!

Hello Hello. Is it just me, or has this week been a busy one? It’s like as soon as life realized that it’s December, there was a scramble to shove things into this and next week. 

This Week:

Jing and I went to a checkup for the baby, and also went and applied for WIC. WIC is turning out to be quite the puzzle to figure out, but so far so good.

In school it’s test-time! This week I had one in Anatomy, and also gave my final speech for Speech class. I chose to try and persuade people to take cold showers xD. Next week is all about Anatomy lab and Chinese, then the following week is finals for all. Game Time, haha.

I did start the blog, though only the Scott and About pages are up so far.

Due to time just not being on my side, I did’t get any videos, and I am just now measuring my kitchen to be able to build the extended counter and shelves I mentioned. I’m glad that I was able to prioritize and get baby and school things done, start the blog, and also get a day in the gym to kick off this winter!

Training:

So this week was a week in between my Fall and Winter training phases. 

I just finished my Fall phase, doing 2 full-body gym days, 3 boxing/conditioning days, and one flexibility/yoga day per week. If anyone wants to know more about this phase or just what I did on those days, message me and ask! It’s been a lot of fun.

Winter is all about getting stronger, while also maintaining (or improving) flexibility. I’ll probably put on size, but I would have anyways since Holidays = Visit Family = Family Dinners = Yesssssss. My goal is to make as much of it muscle as possible. Cross fingers with me!

I only went to the gym once this week, and there just wanted to warm up, get a pump, and find what weights I could lift at the 1-3 rep range. I did:

Conventional Deadlifts: worked up to 275 for 2 reps, did 3 sets like that, then 2 sets at 225 for 5 reps

Weighted Dips: worked up to 70 for 5 reps. I can’t go any higher because I’m not using a real dip belt. Any more than two 35s on this thing and it’ll snap- I can feel it lol. I’ll include an old clip of my using this belt as a dip belt...

Flat Bench: To be clear, I do not barbell bench press. In the fall I did press with dumbbells but I wanted to give barbell a try. I worked up to 155 for 3 and then felt it best for me to stop for my shoulders’ sake

I still need to find my back squat and my weighted pullup 1-3 rep max, but I ran out of time. 

Everything else I did this week was body weight reps and yoga at home. I also took my weight, measurements, and a few pictures to compare with after this phase. As we get deeper into the winter I’ll definitely share more about my winter training and get some footage :D

Next Week:

1. I was accepted at Queens College, so Monday I have a meeting with my adviser to look at what transfers and what courses I can take. 2. Lab and Chinese tests, plus the Speaking final in Chinese class all on Thursday. 3. Prep for finals 4. Post first article on the blog

Hello World

This week I got some cool things done, and had a lot of fun!

Training:

 I finally just drilled a hole in an over-hanging support beam and hung my old striking bag. I really can't help but smile wide as I type this because it's something I've been wanting to do all year and have put off.So yeah my fight training on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday now has a heavy bag to hit- which has effectively left me on my ass. There is just nothing like putting in work on a bag for wearing me out. 

Tip: To anyone who is ever in my boat, and hasn't hit a bag for a while, it's a good idea to gradually introduce the bag back into training by starting small and slowly increasing the number and length of rounds; also having less power-rounds (where your "treat every punch you throw as a knockout") and slowly increasing the number of power-rounds, too. This is making sure that my wrists are conditioned enough since I was only hitting a double-end tennis ball and air when training at home this passed year or so. I'd say that this is a good idea for beginner's especially, but also for everyone way more skilled than I am who have just been away from the gym for a while. 

Week:

 Outside of the grind, I had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. I cooked for Jing and her dad, and it turned out delicious. I cooked like it was for 10 people (of course), and chowed down on leftovers until Saturday morning. 

We didn't buy too much on Black Friday, but we went and checked it out. Deals on kid's clothes are insane on Black Friday. I'll be attacking that head on for lil' Ben next year.

Music wise, I've been listening to: -Training: older Hip Hop like Wu-Tang (ChessBoxin', and Kill too Hard) and Nas (NY State of Mind, and One Mic), plus some Drake (Blessings w/ Big Sean&  Kanye, and Energy) -Work & Study: Spanish Guitar tracks on Soundcloud, and Rodrigo y Gabriela (Tamacun, and Stairway to Heaven) -Randomly been on a Tracy Chapman kick lately, like Give me One Reason and Talkin' Bout a Revolution. I dunno, makes me feel good~

Everything else this week has been about getting the blog started, and studying for Anatomy and Chinese exams. 

Next Week:

1.  Finishing up this training cycle and getting ready to lift heavier and stretch more this winter! 2. Building an extension for our kitchen counter and some shelves above it. We. Need. More. Space. 3. Make a conscious effort to take more picture/videos for the these posts, the blog, and Instagram 4. Pressing the Go button on the blog, no matter how much is ready. That will probably be on Saturday