Month: April 2019

Maybe I’m just a big guy, or maybe it’s the pushups.

While I’ve mostly done vanilla pushups over the years occasionally I vary the movement.

Sometimes the reps follow a path more analogous to an incline press or a triceps extension than a bench.

Maybe you work on handstand pushups with a partial range of motion building the range top to bottom, or rep out on one arm pushups since you have the ability and it’s euphoric as it loosens the spins.

You could do Hindu pushups as you do them so infrequently that you still find them a challenge. Dive bombers the same but pushing back through, not just raising the ass. Pikes for a bit more shoulder.

Side to side is an option a floor based emulation of what the internet calls ghetto pullups.

I’ve done Superman pushups in the past.

Folks I’ve done so many pushups over the years that my torso, particularly the chest is too big.
I’ve allowed pushups to become an obsession, an addiction, it’s been nearly 3 years of them daily without a miss, my record so far is almost 4. I intend to keep going at least to 5 years.

High reps will build strength.

You can do low reps focusing on it like it was a heavy ass bench press, visualizing a bench with many wheels, and get a max strength effect.

I’ve been exploring pushups for over a decade.

I’ve leaned out on them, I’ve gotten big with em, I’ve even done them to the exclusion of all other physical activity.

The pushup will bring you far.

I know more about pushups than most ever will, and I’ve not milked them out yet.

You wouldn’t believe some of the stories :

Dropping onto my forearm with a hurt hand before I’d found the ability to one arm.

Dropping down for 50ish in class backpack on to prove a point to a trash talker.

That time at camp backpack on.

Public bathroom as punishment.

Sensei’s Latin American accented voice announcing “pooshups”.

The time some asphalt embedded into my hand, a week later hearing a plink in the shower, it had worked it’s way out.

500-1000 rep workouts.

The year of 1000+ weekly, split 100+ weekdays, 250+ Sat & Sun.

The over 1000 set (somewhere I’ve said the exact number).

Partial range of motion, full range, a million variations. I’ve not yet maxed em out.

I’ve seen a feat : a friend’s dad did reps with his wife, me, my buddy, and his sister all laying on his back.

(Mind you 8yo boy, 7yo boy, 6yo girl, but still 360+ in added live weight, on top of a guy 200lbs max. My memory is 8-12 reps chest to floor. It’s the strongest thing I’ve ever witnessed. He may have been drunk while doing it, a former boxer he did rounds of pushups, situps, shadow boxing, and calf raises daily.)

As I said I’ve not yet maxed em out, weighted pushups are as of yet still unexplored. I’ve put maybe a 100lb kid on my back and a 100lb plate on the few occasions.

Pushups are simple. They’ll bring you as far as you’re willing to take them. It’s been mostly vanilla reps for over a decade of…

Persistence,

J

How you look is a byproduct of how you train.

A body built working will look different than by calisthenics which will look different than the gym which will look different than by sports, etc, etc, etc.

Many don’t consider this, particularly girls (whom are misled by gym culture to do stuff not in their best interests).

A few times in my life, on both the East Coast and West Coast I’ve been mistaken for an ex-con.

Factoring in my buzz cut, my (usual) beard, how in the past I ate ridiculous numbers of ramen packs (chicken sodium pack bro, chicken) and tuna cans, and a “look” built by a million pushups this actually makes sense.

I had the diet and training down pat via being broke with the right general look.

That was years ago.

I’m not eating like a convict now, though the training…yep.

A calisthenic built body looks more “sleak”. More lumps of mass here and there, than separation between muscles. You have no isolation exercises, everything is compound. You move better, calisthenics don’t wear the body down like lifting often seems to.

Lifting is the quicker path to being built like an animal, to looking like a beast.

An Example :

Giant (arguably overdeveloped) traps practically require some heavy ass heaving strapped up (Spud Inc straps ← my recommendation) shrugs inside the power rack.

Pushups, and jump rope will build your traps, just not to the touch your ear gorilla trap size.

Jump Rope :

The jump rope is highly underrated.

With a similar cardio effect to running and the ability to vary the intensity from “long slow distance” to “sprint”, the jump rope does not give wear and tear like running does, nor is it a muscle waster.

In 2015 I made frequent use of pushup & jump rope supersets. I was all the better for it.

For a couple weeks now I’ve been getting in 500+ revolutions of the rope daily. Over the last 3 days I’ve taught myself the “Mike Tyson squat jump rope” trick, which hilariously amazed a kid that happened to witness it.

(Kids in awe, nods from those jogging or riding bikes, and even a thumbs up from some big dude in his SUV seeing me skip are all possibilities. I’m usually either skipping in the street or at a playground.)

People don’t realize the muscular effects of the jump rope :

•Calves – It builds their size.
•Thighs/Glutes – It gives a sleek, springy athleticism.
•Lats/Traps – Some size depending on form.
•Biceps – Size from form with arms locked to sides around a 90° angle, and with fast revolutions.
•Forearm – You can really get the wrist into it by back choking the hands high up on the handle, and rotating them like so (the handle will be only between thumb, pointer, middle, and possibly the ring finger).
•Triceps – By flexing them while going for speed revolutions.

Jump Rope mixed with calisthenics only heighten the muscular effect of the calisthenic.

Yep, the jump rope builds muscle.

I picked up labor work again. On (at least most) days off I’ll be deadlifting mostly light with PERFECT FORM as a way to keep activity up.

I have this apparently rare knack for never losing strength.

(Hush hush secret…I always train even if it’s down to naught but pushups.)

My calisthenic experience over the years says to me that light not only will maintain strength, but will BUILD IT.

I had this thought a while back that a daily set of squatting 20 reps with 135-185 would be a really quick way for one in the gym to always have decent legs in a general fitness kind of way, always maintaining enough work capacity as a reasonable jump off point.

(I’d scale this to 95-135 for females and make the same statement. When I thought it I had males in mind, those who don’t give a shit for any gym clique, but who wanted a good solid base at all times in their pocket.)

My non labor day deadlift idea is an experiment in my eyes…

I’ve been thinking for a while that a bunch of reps in light deadlifts via either many perfect smooth Pavel approved sets and reps or very high reps (not Pavel approved) would end up building my deadlift quite well.

Just every so often jump 20 lbs or so of bar weight. You’ll never even need to go past 60% 1rm.

(Maybe come winter I won’t be working labor and will experiment with this alone 4-7+ x weekly.)

Anyone else ever thought it strange that girevoy sport is high rep olys/weightlifting with a kettlebell, but high reps on barbell olympic variants is considered a no no?

My (imaginary) Uncle Vladdy takes issue with this. In my imagination he taught me high rep olys in his back yard when I was 12, warning me of the dire consequences that would befall me should I hit his not yet running Trans-Am with the bar as he critiqued me in a mix of Russian and English while drinking his vodka and Pepsi (from separate bottles, never mixed, nor in containers other than the bottle, the vodka was in his left always… ALWAYS) and occasionally stupifying me by lifting cold high rep sets loaded with significantly high amounts of weight while himself mostly disinterested in the lifting of weights. He was not even trying.

(That vodka stipulation may say that he did all his lifting right hand only.)

I respond extraordinarily well to building up my work capacity. My strongest is always at when I’m capable of doing the most work.

Bodyweight Military Press :

I insist on pressing off of a clean…
(Everyone should, it’s better that way.)

The clean though ugly is a given. I can still hit 255 after a layoff, the clean is a given.

I’m going to quite possibly hit this goal soon while NOT TRAINING FOR IT!

Handstand pushups…I’m working on handstand pushups. Get to reps touching head, then throw cinder blocks into the mix to get (actually past) full military press range of motion.

The clean is a given.

I’m likely still good for 205 which I once tripled or even 215 which I’ve either hit or calculated as a max.
6 months ago I felt close to 225.

I’m now working labor…which SERIOUSLY strengthens the grip.
(Labor the #1 way to build hand strength. Hand strength…how the necessary clean is a given.) And labor, which tends to have me lose weight…

I may very well press bodyweight (probably over bodyweight) because of labor related weight loss and progressing on handstand pushups.

I feel I won’t even need to be doing handstand pushup reps from cinder blocks to press bodyweight. I catch cleans almost at jaw height, and the press sticking point is in the forehead to top of skull area…top of skull is regular handstand pushup height, and strength carries over further than the exact trained joint angles.

Outdoor > indoor
ALWAYS! I’d love to open an open air weight room facility. Fuck canned air conditioning air!

My favorite pullup variation isn’t! A long flexed arm hang held arms at roughly 90°. It often ends up solid ab work too.

I like frequency, but get variety by changing what exercise(s) that I do daily.

Pushups have been done daily for nearly 3 years since the last missed day.

Labor is about as masculine an environment you can get.

Masculine environments and being around attractive females both shoot your testosterone levels sky high.

Relatedly ; erections are a sign of all being right in the world.

When debating Natty or Not always choose NATTY!

Choose to have the best genetics, and you will.

So many people choose to be sad physically, as if injury and shitty recovery is a definite thing. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I don’t feel like finding a picture of Nelson to put here.

Mental weakness causes physical weakness (mostly).

Mental strength will correct physical weakness eventually.

“I’m Not A Certified Personal Trainer”….THANK GOD!
(This’ll be hilarious if I post it, see below.)

I’ve never uploaded video of this, but I can Cossack dance. I’ve been able to for years.

If “gym knowledge” says it’s crazy/impossible/negative buzzword here DO IT, prove gym knowledge wrong.

Short range of motion can be quite beneficial.

Fat grip is superior to normal barbell skinniness.

Callouses can become smaller while one lifts outdoors in winter gloves!

You may see a lot of this repeated on here eventually, some of the topics here already have unpublished articles fully written, some topics are just being dumped on “paper”. This is that kinda post.
I felt like publishing something.

Persistence & Tenacity

Psyche! No music link. And since I wrote this yesterday, it’s dated yesterday. It’s not a typo.