August 2017 - Persistence and Tenacity

The Body Weight Set Point Recomp

Since 17 years old I’ve ranged in bodyweight between 215 and 255, but most often between 225 and 245.

Piggybacking off of the sumo bulk, an idea:

Once you force feed yourself to a large size (a goal weight) why not hold that weight indefinitely, expecting to, and working on recomping?

Unlike sumo bulk I’m talking completely natural here, and long term. Long term meaning a few years at least. (Note that a lot of my life circumstances for training are far from ideal, this could very well be possible in a faster period with better alignment in life.)

If you stay the same size for that long a time, and during the process continue to get stronger and make performance gains don’t you think your body will recomposition at least a bit?

I honestly feel that I will have abs at 225+ never having done a cut, but simply by recomping as I’ve been holding 225+ almost without exception since 17 years old getting better, bigger, and stronger the entire time.

The first time I was in that weight range (17) I remember sitting in class embarrassed about how fat my arms were. Now I look burly and scary, and am on the threshold of getting to yet another level.

I’m close to abs. I am big, generally classified as stocky at 6′, and when the abs pop out I’ll be what you’d call strongman lean.

Ponder this. I say this it’s possible. Why bulk and then cut…if you don’t need to?

-J

High Rep Front Squats

This is something of a survival adaptation, the amount of dehydration and fatigue, the weird schedule, and all that comes with working labor right now makes for interesting squat every day. Originally due to bicep tendonitis I started doing front squats, lately my back has been fatigued in a way that back squats don’t seem like a good idea, so more front squats.

Now 20 rep squats are shitty as all hell, but great for you. Mental toughness, building size, and building a type of strength endurance.

I’d also been thinking about the Ken Leistner stuff I’ve read over the years. Dr. Ken is all about high rep death sets of squats, primarily 20 rep sets, but also sets of 15 and 30 for variation.

Front Squats limit you on upper back more than leg strength, legs and back both already fatigued from work, but this is safety. Even when your heart isn’t in it you can force yourself to do 1 set. A set that mentally you know will suck, but isn’t that heavy. You have fatigue in the legs and back, and the upper back in general limiting you.

I’ve front squatted 225×10 and back squatted315x20 recently, as well as 195×50, and 225×37 far in the past.

The last 2 days were front squat 115×20 and 135×15, and on the 135 day i also did a few heavier singles.

Ken Leistner, his son, and his adopted son all did crazy shit in these rep ranges, at this stage in the game fronts are simply more useful to me than back squats.

I remember being psyched at 17 to hit bodyweight for 20 on a squat, and was just as psyched to hit 315 x 2o recently.

Now 315 is nearing my front squat 1rm, I can most likely hit 335, and feel close to 365.

I want to hit bodyweight for 20 here, which would end up somewhere between 225 and 250 (I let my weight fluctuate as it happens), and then get to 315×20 on fronts.

Imagine how strong you’d have to be to hit that set?

Think about not only the leg strength but the upper back and core strength involved.

There will be abs showing when I hit that set. It’s a massive amount of strain on the abs. That is how you’d rock abs at a higher bodyfat percentage, just have VERY strong thick abs, shout out to Alphadestiny, but I feel front squats (not weighted pulley crunches) work best for this purpose.

Do something crazy and get some crazy gains.

-J

Update :~Feb 2018, 185 x 23ish was great, just rest paused till definitely past 20 reps, and then panted like a motherfucker. High rep front squats may be the hardest lift to breathe with.

Requirements To Perform

Thinking about performance standards and metrics this hit me; I was able to do a muscle up without proper training or the “required” prerequisites that are often stated. I’ve seen various numbers for both dips and chin ups listed around the internet before you should attempt muscle ups, and I know for a fact I do not have the pull up ability, yet I was able to muscle up. Please note I have not been able to hit another rep since that video, in the video I’d been off work for 2 or 3 days, the last 6 attempts have been after work. I want to get consistent at them (preferably while fatigued), add reps to muscle ups, and clean up the form.

I can now hang comfortably one handed from pull up bars…at ~245lbs with either hand. It’s entirely labor related.

So 2 things:

1.”Swingers” – I’d seen this done on CnP, and did them the other day, now that I can, they’re a fun as hell way to do pullups.

2. One Arms Pull Ups- Why not try to get to them despite tendonitis warnings and not having the “prerequisites”? I had an idea, and I feel like running with it.

Training:

Why not simply play with lifting again?

Do monkey bars and swingers. Hang from one hand and attempt to pull up.

There’s the money, one hand pulling.

Could one build a one arm pullup simply starting one handed at the bottom and straining as hard as possible for height?

I’d say its possible, and it’s probably been done before, its just not the commonly advised way to get to a one arm pullup. Hell, its definitely not how I got one arm pushups, I just did about a million pushups and some benching then could do it.

Come up with your own ideas, and experiment. If you fail, its on you, and you move on, try something else. If you succeed, you did it your way and built some pride in yourself, and used your brain and heart to formulate and test.

One arm pullups at ~240. That is going to be sweet. Focus, prioritize, and see what happens.

-J

Heavyweight (Over 200lb) Muscle Up

It was one of those things I never trained for, yet always wanted to do one day.

I’d seen two people do them in person before, a 6’5″ ~165lb black kid in LA at a public park, and a 5′ 7″ 165lb powerlifter. Both were able to hit sets of 5 smoothly.

But really to me the inspiration for them was internet based, first a log on Tnation (Alpha’s log) at 16, and then a little later Kali Muscle, both doing them for reps as big guys. (The video inspiration coming years before the witnessed reps.)

Now i was reading beastskills.com’s muscle up tutorial within the last 48 hours, and walked into the gym yesterday only to have my buddy mention them to me.

I talked about the tutorial saying to pull up to behind the bar, to not just try to do an explosive pullup, how the “bar path”/ line of pull matters, and we both decided to try it.

He went, then I went, we both missed close on the 1st attempts.

The conversation between first and second attempts had us both saying “I’ll get it, you’ll get it, and I’m not bothering with video”(paraphrased).

He got it on his second attempt, as did I seconds later.

Another guy walked over to me and asked me how it feels up there as I held the top for a while and was still there, my reply…. “Euphoric, like I fucked the world”. I felt REALLY good. This was something I didn’t expect to do any time soon.

My buddy kept trying to get a second rep, sometimes with camera, sometimes without. He didn’t, and 5 or so minutes later I decided to go for it one more time after asking 4 of the 5 other people on the gym floor if they saw it, as frankly at just shy of 240 I didn’t expect anyone other than eye witnesses to believe me, I wanted video proof. (Although I could ask for and possibly get security camera footage of the rep.)

Video proof:

This was my third attempt yesterday, my 2nd muscle up ever. Hitting those reps gave me euphoria, an adrenaline dump, and checked off another one on my YouTube idea list.

I am now in the muscle up club, and the heavyweight (over 200lb) muscle up club.

Boom! I think the new found strength for the transition (my main issue on muscle ups) is related to the labor I’ve been working, I can now explode through the transition phase. Pullup almost into the dip. Speaking of labor related strength another one of yesterday’s videos:

Persistence and Tenacity!

J Out!

P.S. Within minutes I had odd soreness in my chest, and amped up arms (bicep and tricep), but this all went away by the time I left the gym.

10 hours later (~11pm) there was decent DOMS in the lats, forearms, and biceps. To be expected from wholly new stimuli.

The Sumo Bulk + Other Testosterone Thoughts

The Sumo Bulk Tweet

This was originally a Mike Cernovich tweet, and it’s something that has stayed in my mind over the years. I’m expanding on it slightly, and would like to see this experiment ran.

The premise:

Take a natural and have them bulk like a sumo wrestler. Have them eat copious quantities of food, and throw reason out the window. Allow them to get big, and strong…. and fat.

6′ seems a reasonable height to base off of, it seems like a height more lifters than not are around.

So what are normal weights for the 6 footer?

~170 if really lean and/or scrawny
185 if lean but normal
200 if bigger and lean
220 anywhere from normal to kinda lean(the kinda lean guy here is huge)
250 if bigger and normalish in bodyfat %, not fat, but not lean
Heavier when fat (Obviously gear changes these equations)

Now the idea here is to bulk past that reasonable 250 mark, up to at least 300. Since we’re talking 6 footers I’m even inclined to say up to 325 (maybe even past 325, I’ve met a 6’1″ 360lber who used to be in pro sumo, was normalish in bodyfat %, and had the largest muscular legs I’ve ever seen on a human). Keep athletic, never quit movement while doing this, but we want to add far more mass (both muscle and fat) than would normally happen in a reasonable manner.

I want you conditioning, training all the time, and eating even more.

Once you’ve got heavy naturally comes the twist. Diet down while ON gear. Run your first cycle as part of the weight cut.

The idea here is to let the anabolics keep your body more anabolic so as to keep more muscle mass (that you built naturally) on you than you would if you were to cut naturally.

The tweet’s premise was “would this allow you to semi-naturally hold more lean muscle mass in a lean state than would pure natural status”. Think for a second, how did you build that muscle? Why would the cutting cycle have you lose that mass?

Being I have no experience with gear past other’s anecdotes this is pure guess work, but my brain says this would work, AND be far healthier for you in the long run, while only needing that one cycle.

Why couldn’t you be a lean 275 or small 308 with 50+ lbs of fat on you, cycle+cut, and end as a lean 275lber+ at the end?

Food for thought.

Other Stuff (semi related)

Could you through mindset and breath work get the effects of anabolics? With or without having been on? The Savage Lifestyle says it can with mindset(although after having been on prior), and Wim Hof with his breathing method says you can tap into the whole host of your body’s CNS capability. My opinion? You can.
When your test is up, you feel better. Hornier, more confident, more capable. Better all around.
Corollary to the last: By going and getting shit done you can quite quickly force the feedback loop to High T.
Masculine endeavors raise your Test levels naturally. Male environments (more rare in this feminine faggy society, but still out there, or something you can build check Operation Werewolf) be they work, prison, a gym, MMA, whatever it may be cause you to damn near overnight harden up mentally…and physically. Since starting the labor I’ve seen some upper body growth that seems like the stimuli wasn’t enough to cause it.
How much of growth is test related? Like I said with the last one, I’ve seen upper body growth that doesn’t fully make sense…until you factor in that life has my test levels up right now. That growth wasn’t from stimulus as much as it was from heightened masculinity, higher testosterone levels.
I’ve heard of guys admit they are on gear or TRT who barely exercise, admit they aren’t that strong currently, yet look damn good, in their opinion purely by the high dose of test in them.
I still don’t give a shit whether you use or not, I’ll always view the work put in as the most important factor, like the above said they’re weak but look good when relying on the test with no training.

-J

When You’re My Age

It seems what qualifies as “old” keeps getting younger and younger.

A guy no more than early 30s telling me how he’s doomed to a lifetime of low recovery and injuries. I told him that shits all mental.

See I came up reading more “old time” lifting sources (and some “crazy” modern ones), no mentions of rhabdo, overtraining, and whatnot, just advice, successes, and possibilities.

Anecdotes such as Bruce Randall’s ULTRA FAST losing of weight, a man pulling either 700 or 800lbs cold in street clothes upon walking into the gym having just jumped off the train he hobo’d his way across the country on, Jack LaLanne’s exploits, and the one that popped into mind talking to that guy yesterday:

The old man squatting with the NFL player.

See that guy in the gym yesterday was saying how he’s doing no lower body due to having strained either his abductors or adductors.

An insane squat story seems relevant.

An old time great (John Grimek) was hanging around inside the gym.

In walked a local NFL player, who being big and strong, yet wanting to lift with a partner asked if anyone would squat with him.

All and sundry replied no, except the old man now in his 70s.

The NFL player laughed but welcomed the old man thinking he’d squat him into the dirt.

The NFL player started off with low reps, but the old man took the first warmup set to 20, and suggested the football player match him.

A testosterone challenge, and thinking how many sets of 20 could an old man really do the next set was 20 reps for each.

NFL player during warmups: “Damn this is hard”.
Old Man: “Up the weight”.

315.
315 x 20 reps.
It’s hard but something I feel all can accomplish. “Natty”, “hardgainer”, “weakling”, or whatever, you can at some point hit 315×20. Hell I just did.

Back to the story: 315 on the bar. The NFL player either didn’t make the 20 or decided no more after one set here. The old man….5×20 at 315.

The NFL player asked him “How can you do that, I’d never be able to and I’m in my prime”

The old man’s reply “Squats are easy”.

Age is no limit. Sure building the base comes easier at earlier ages, but it can be done at anytime.

Just because you’re x years old doesn’t mean you can’t be robust, jacked and injury free. 70 year old men have outworked prime of their life NFL players. What can you do?

-J

Training Your Legs For It All

I’m sure I’ve discussed this before, but I’ll say it again, you can train for all qualities.

Yesterday in the gym amused me. After doing jump front squats (which felt very chaosandpain like) I did a shit ton of box jumps to a 39″ box. I caught a handful of people watching me hit the jumps. Normally I use 36″ as the height, but whimsically I decided to up it, thinking I’d hit maybe 5 total, but ended up doing over 20, and in general resting less than one is “supposed” to for power.

Doing both squat every day, and working labor I want my legs and hips to have all qualities, strength,power, and endurance.

I’m training myself to be able to be on my feet all day, have a good squat, and still have the power endurance after all that to explode well and repeatedly.

Call it insane, it’s what I’m going for though, and I’m already seeing adaptation.

Work, anywhere from 5-16 hours, squat variation (generally low rep and low volume, occasionally higher rep), then power endurance via a bunch of low rest high rep high height box jumps.

It’s still on my mind to add in long runs in the AM, people have done it, so can I. It’s also on my mind to add in more work for the legs and hips after the jumps. Maybe prowler sprints or sprints, followed by roundhouse kicks to the heavy bag and ended with a long run or jump rope.

We can push ourselves pretty far with the necessary mindset and work put in. As humans we’re meant to perform. This is my part in the battle against physical devolution.

Eat a dick should this offend you or be “impossible”. Open your mind and work.

-J

Doble Training

I picked this concept up years ago reading about the training of a Canadian weightlifter:

Doble (Double) Training: To hit the same lift as both the first and last movement of the session with everything else in between.

Personally I’ll do this with squats from time to time. It’s a great way to essentially pull a 2 a day, but without making the second trip to the gym.

It would be silly to do this with some small bullshit, but any big compound will do. Nah, scratch that if you want to do this with an isolation have at it. Training is an individual endeavour after all. Train your way.

Give it a shot. Your mind will deceive you as to your abilities at first. Quickly however you’ll find you can be just as strong with such little recovery.

Frequency by any means. Frequency does work. Most just won’t try it out.

-J

Lifting Weights vs PT

I view lifting weights as icing on the cake. It’s fluff, I enjoy it, but if you took all the gym shit away from me I’d be just fine and keep on getting better.

I’ve done it the past and am fully capable of doing it again.

I started training before I’d ever touched a barbell.

As a 2nd and 3rd grader I did karate and all that comes with it. In addition to the drilling, sparring,and wrestling we also threw medicine balls and did fairly high quantities of situps and pushups.

I can still hear my Sensei, and my mother’s imitation of his voice telling me to do poooshups (pushups).

That pushup ability I maintained over the years. Most can’t imagine how many I’ve truly done .

In 4th grade we moved across the country and being lazy , thinking it was hard I never went back to karate, instead spending the next few years playing PlayStation and getting horrendously out of shape.

However growing up I always thought that I’d be a US Marine.

The summer between my 8th and 9th grade years, my grandfather having just died, and searching for meaning I adopted a fairly intense mentality.

So it’s summer break, I’m at my now Grandma’s house, and am sleeping on a bed roll on the living room floor.

I’d wait until late night and turn the TV to MSNBC. I’d discovered Lockup Raw.

I’d watch an hour or two with the volume real low so as to not disturb anyone, then right there on my bed roll I’d PT having got myself into life or death mentality via amp up by prison documentary.
(Not my first method of amp up,but far more result yielding than metal before middle school baseball games)

All I did were situps and pushups, the only exercises I knew, but the beauty of it looking back was the mentality behind those few daily sets.

I worked it into my mind that not giving my all could be the difference between life and death in the future for myself and/or my comrades in the Marines or for myself in prison one day.

I’d visualize the Spartans at Thermopylae while viewing these sets as life or death.

I’d do as many reps as possible for 3 sets of pushups and 2-3 sets of situps. I’d exhaust myself, pant, regain a semblance of normalcy,then go again. When done I’d drink a little water and pass right out.

Now come freshman year I backslid on this mentality, having quit both football and wrestling while still being horrendously out of shape, but the roots had been laid.

Having quit wrestling was the last straw.

I did PT obsessionally for the rest of that school year.

Lots of pushups, situps, pounding a punching bag, some chins, and riding a stationary bike for 1000 calories burnt nightly.

I’d drop and do pushups practically whenever there was a gap. I still remember this kid saying I couldn’t even do a few pushups and I dropped right then and there backpack still on hitting far more than he gave me credit for, standing up,looking at him and saying something like “your turn asshole”. I still can hear his reaction,his excuses for not dropping, as he knew I won.

Over the years I’ve kept doing pushups, daily.

I’ve went almost as long as 4 years without missing a day. Currently I’ve went more than a year.

I still view exercise through the lens of survival and with a military mindset.

I’ll always PT, pushups I love, Hindu squats are close behind, and I always maintain the ability to hit at least 5 chins.

9 months of no gym in 2015 and I came back stronger from calisthenics, isometrics, and jump rope.

I will always PT.

It’s both a part of me at this point and a life necessity.

PT is my foundation not weights. It is readily accessible to all, and travels with you as it is a part of your body.

Gyms are nice and fun to use.

PT is part of survival and can never be taken from you.

I PT EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Weights? When I feel like it, anywhere from 2x to 10x weekly.
If I lose weight access, I’ll be annoyed that my fun is gone, but I’ll still be hitting the PT.
(Also I’ll be ramping up PT volume)

All would benefit from this mindset shift. You don’t need a gym it’s just icing on the cake. PT is necessary and is no excuses.

Get It.

-J

Adaptation

“Your body will adapt to anything you throw at it, running,weights,swims, keep doing it, and your body will adapt” – Stew Smith (paraphrased as I can’t find it again for the life of me)

The above quote stayed with me over the years and very much sums up my opinion on training, and what is too much….nothing eventually.

Last night after a moderate effort shift (6hrs labor/2hrs truck time), and an afternoon front squat session, I went back to the gym a second time. I was in the area,bored, and figured back squats were the thing to do given my 3 hours of sleep the night before and the slushee + McDonald’s in my belly.

“Let’s see if I can still hit 405” the prevailing thought on my mind.

Warm up, empty bar through 405 using the 25/45 method.

I see stars on the atg 365. Switch the radio to my shit, hit the 405 half asleep and slightly higher than atg.

Finish up with some box jumps, then rowing, pressing, and twists using the landmine.

Hitting the squat under really adverse circumstances lit the fire in me for the rest of the session, but back to the point:

People don’t (generally) pick up a labor job, and start squatting daily at the same time, just like it’s “insane” to teach oneself Russian and Spanish side by side.

Honestly I’d rather overreach, stagnate,grind, and with enough time…adapt, seemingly overnight to others instead of the scientific, “proven”, slow and steady ways suggested to me.

Log books, “reasonable” courses of action, and calculators aren’t me. I haven’t had any protein powder since high school either.

Gotta do it your own way.

As I said I’d rather overreach, and then adapt.

I haven’t overtrained yet. Recovery still is coming along well enough. Strength is improving, and endurance is gaining rapidly both while dropping weight, but the biggest change is acting like less of a bitch about all things physical.

On my feet all day, squatting daily, there’s a deep set sort of soreness in my quad fibers, yet I’m still performing. Sleep doesn’t matter, nor does the diet.

Your ability is 99.9% mental. Physically you’re better off not thinking, but shutting off your brain and just doing. I see it all day long with coworkers. Humans are meant to be beasts.

Lately a perceived lack of strength has been pissing me off.

It’s squat time, then more landmine work, and feast time after.

Kill it!

-J