Month: July 2019

Alternatively Titled Long Hours, Strong As Fuck, Overtraining My Ass

If you cut off my ears, shaved the skin off the back of my neck and threw the ingredients in a sandwich you’d have a crispy long pork sandwich with extra skin.

The shift was 11½ hours.

Both at a job site and the warehouse. A month or two back I’d probably call it medium. Now it was light.

Stronger.

The truckers coming through the shop were shocked at what I was doing by hand. No tools, using brute force.

(Moving crates around inside the 53′ trailers via manhandling ie pushing/driving them around in every manner, without a pallet jack.)

I drank a few quarts of Gatorade/Powerade at work, plus at least half a gallon of water. And still I’m struggling with hydration.
Hydration : the only physical issue.
Despite the physicality I’ve started to eat a little at work. I can’t eat breakfast as of late, I feel sick in the mornings.

After shift I got an iced coffee, and two donuts. I no longer worry about my $50/week food budget. I eat. Gatorade/Powerade is all I can usually stomach half the day, so I’ve allowed myself a few a day (and the possible iced coffee and treat) to blow that budget.

Like usual I went to PF and just like at 715am, I blasted shit at roughly 715pm.

Stomach is still off, no matter, I’m a worker.

My manager yelled across the yard to me her thanks for my simply working without complaint. I signed up for it, so I work like a man. The job is means to an end, I don’t mind the work, part I enjoy, and it has it’s other benefits.

At PF I’ve upped the volume.
Loads of dips and one arm shoulder presses. I cut out leg work, then added it back in with sets of 20+.

Volume is high like the reps. My physique is improving.

Today I was strong as fuck.

I was out of breath from the caffeine (the iced coffee was ½ milk, about a ¼ creamer, very little coffee and ice, 5 sugars…I’m just high response to stimulants), hyped up on sugar as well, and in a certain mental place from long hours, no days off, and sunburns.

Strong as fuck.

I took 110 a side on machine one arm presses for 30 reps. Later in the workout the stack (155) for 15l/14r. A set of 30+ dips. 5 pullups without specific overhand work.
I’d already done a grip feat at work. Leg press a couple sets of 25 with a narrow stance. I never did 2 sets of an exercise in a row, it was always switching.

The bands with handles I’ve started using for back/bis. I’m getting benefit.

The difference between labor 2017, and labor now?

I’m still in the gym daily.

2017 : squat every day, underpaid, corn dogs, Quaker Oats bars
2019 : pumps, volume, fair wage, kielbasa and…vitamins.

I take zinc, zma, magnesium/calcium, and vitamin d in some combination daily as well as the massive amount of Gatorade/Powerade.

I feel the minerals are making a physical difference.

Today if I was at a barbell gym would’ve been a clean PR, and a military press PR.

I saw what I was doing at work. I felt the PRs in my bones. I did some ridiculous reps on shoulders.

Persistence & Tenacity

Ahh, a stream of consciousness,

Some Job Conversations :

“So what do you bench?” – coworker

“325, 335. It’s been a while. My best low rep set was 315×3” – me

(Now that I think about it, it likely was x4.)

15 minutes later…

“He’s the perfect guy for this, he benches 365.” – coworker

“325, 335” – me

“Ok then, he’s the perfect guy for this, he benches 335.” – coworker

“Man, that doesn’t matter at all here.” – me

We proceed to get shit done, and with the task finished another coworker, whom I know from the gym, and I have this conversation :

“Dude, all the gym strength, it doesn’t mean anything”

“You did good.”

“Still, there’s almost no carryover”.

“Though you still did good. But sad isn’t it, all those hours”

He seems to agree with me. The gym doesn’t mean much on the job.
I’m stronger lifting heavy weird shit than deadlifting, though I’d murder most coworkers if we had a barbell contest. At the same time a lot of these light and middleweights out perform me with light or medium shit. It’s kinda random, basically you just have to put in effort. The coworker is strong as hell at work not nearly as much in the gym, though he has crazy leanness. I’m I’d define as ok, above average, in both.

I’m saddened that I’m not stronger at work. He’s saddened that he’s not stronger at the gym.

And We Transition To Shoulders :

Now I recently wrote about machine to barbell carryover.

I knew this guy. Probably 6’2″ 320 with weird ass measurements. Giant shoulders and traps. Giant quads. Big triceps.

He trained machine only. I’m not sure how much steroids he took, though he flat out told me he uses, to which I have mad respect for the honesty. He had basically a healthy bodyfat percentage, similar to mine, just HEAVIER.

On a hammer strength shoulder machine he’d be repping with like 5 plates a side. Remember I said massive shoulders at 320lbs.

Now here I am at PF where the stack on their shoulder machine is 155lbs. 3 plates and change.

I’m usually going many sets of 10-15 reps, one arm at a time on that machine.

I’ve already seen the development a shoulder machine pushed hard can give.

I’ve experienced the carryover from the machine to barbell press.

One arm at a time keeps the midsection thick, strong, and muscularly engaged.

By engaging the core via one arm at a time you bypass the possible lack of carryover from machine to barbell. The support is still firing, it’s more similar than expected.

When I’m going 10×10 or better with the stack one arm at a time my free hand out to the side, not as support on my thigh, full range of motion, and firing the reps up…

(I’ll be at this level soon enough.)

My military press will be much stronger. 225, 255, or greater without direct training.

Conclusion :

Manual labor is necessary for men, and the gym is a decent pastime.

Squatting ain’t as functional as it’s touted. Loaded carries, and shockingly a low (not high) step up. Short chopppy steps boys, short choppy steps.

We carried a piano up a sandy hill, me going backwards today.

Persistence & Tenacity

There is no excuse to be an obese beached land whale.

~1205am – I do a quick 25 hindu squats, a little over 40 pushups by the time the mantra reps are done, and following instinct down a glass of cold milk.

See, those pushups are my habitual daily PT, almost being unbroken since 14 years old, since the summer before freshman year I’ve been doing them.

Watching Lockup Raw from ten to midnight, PT with the initial inklings, the philosophising of the “survival mode” mindset, and rolling over onto the bedroll looking for meaning, a kid who’s Grandpa was now gone.

It’s been over a decade now, on the path to 4 years without a miss, and I’m still getting benefit.

I’ve had periods where I did nothing physical past the daily pushups. In a dark place it was at that point where I first broke 90, then 100 reps in a minute, my PR something like 112.

Under 5 minutes of daily physical effort done with intent, is enough.

There is no excuse to be an obese beached land whale.

A slob is a slob because their mind is sloppy, weak, undisciplined.

Daily PT fixes that. Moreso than the physical it’s the mental discipline involved that equals excellence.

The brain going “I don’t wanna” may pop up daily, and fucking Terminator like you end up on your face 15, 25, more in.

Can’t be like the rest, won’t be like the rest.

Get on the fucking floor and bang em out.

Add mantras into the meditation, and that’s what the daily PT truly is
physical meditation.

I don’t understand those fucks…what they can’t do a few minutes of their PT in the kitchen daily?

-J
P&T 7/8/19

I’ve seen enough hen pecked (male) bitches on trt to be nearly convinced that while synthetic testosterone can do good shit for the body…it most likely does nothing for the psyche.

A bunch of roided out bland chicken eating, gerbil like bodybuilders gave me the same impression.

I think in the soul, it knows that you’re injecting your manliness vs doing it yourself and then acts accordingly.

But hey, I’m natural. Probably normal (at least in my eyes, I feel all are capable of being physical specimens) in the physical “genetics” department (though there’s some Viking and/or Highland blood in there), just stubborn, a strong dose of willpower in my genetics…natural, and likely always will be.

My buddy who’s done prohormones, and is into sarms says I’m blowing smoke out my ass here, that you feel far more manly, primal, on shit…

I present ideas, you can think on them. This is my opinion.

Do you really need gear, or is it really that you need to live more manly?

The perfect training, diet, supplements, “supplements” regimes…my opinion? They don’t mean shit unless the solid base of primal manliness/masculinity is strong and in place.

Persistence & Tenacity

Continue reading “A Short Drive”

To progress well you really have to know yourself.

Me personally, I’m impatient when it comes to physical progress. I feel stifled if I do what most think of as methodical, have a set routine spelled out with accountant like preplanned precise progression.

This mental roadblock is entirely bypassed by either/and/or :

•Having no plan past guidelines.
•Milking a few things for all their/they’re worth.

I am zero or one hundred, black and white, passionate or indifferent.

So instead I play.

I need to.

Training is a game.

I’ll do whatever I feel like.

I may hit something daily for nearly a year. I may epitomize “muscle confusion” and seemingly never do the same thing twice.

Training is best by design as fun.

The fun CAN be physically challenging, tough, or whatever.

(Though sports and labor 99% of the time allowed me/had me/force(d) me to push harder than the gym which is really a hobby/leisure/pasttime activity. With that outlook you’ll always enjoy the gym, and never suffer the “gym dread” oh so common.)

When necessary I revert to nothing required past doing some pushups daily.

I internalized the K.I.S.S. principle in regards to the gym.

It may look like a clusterfuck, chaotic, pell mell, grab bag, yet the madness has method.

Randomized by feel…on purpose.

Or entirely repetitive (squat every day, years of daily pushups, etc).

I actually use the gym as meditation where my brain mostly turns off.

I’ve sat on the seated row for over 100 sets of 10 before because because because because because. It’s what I felt that day, and I went til it was time to stop.

I’ve done a single set both as minimal requirement in certain phases, or in others because one set was enough to know that I’d done enough on it and moved on.

I’ve kept a squat every day phase alive with a single meaningfully weighted cold single.

I’ve walked into the gym, took my boots, and hoodie off, pulled a deadlift 20rm cold, put my boots, and hoodie back on, stopped to explain to a shocked buddy that I was in fact leaving (I had far more interest that Sunday morning in the steak on sale at the grocery store, even telling him so), and left.

It’s a very Zen Eastern approach to a Hard Western thing.

The gym is where I have the mind of no mind, the program of not program, the principle is and of itself.

Mind bogglingly simple to me.
Possibly complicated to another.

The randomness makes “complicated” yet I can milk a few movements to a degree that causes involuntary shudders and severe cold sweats in those turning dollars in the gym/fitness industry.

Over The Years :
•A heavy clean and press.
•Pushups
•High rep light overhead squats.
•Clean for reps.
•Jerk for reps.
•High volume bent rows.
•Lunges/Swamp Lunges
•Isometrics
•Jump Rope

(To name some.)

Find a push, pull, and leg exercise and milk them for all they’re/their worth.

There’s bound to be a movement (or a few) in each category that you are high response to.

Don’t think. Just do.

And always be willing to make whatever you have available work.

Your psyche is the only major detail towards your gains.

Persistence & Tenacity

The value I’ve gotten over the years from plain old vanilla pushups is staggering.

I’ve had periods of high volume pushups to near exclusivity, and as a rule have better training results when I have their volume high.

In short more pushups is always superior to less pushups.

While it may not show in your gym strength (though pushups seem to have given me a baked in 315 bench, even done sans warmup), a pushup habit will give you grappler style conditioning and old man type strength.

I do them daily. It’s a sizeable reason that physically I am how I am.

My wind will never be terrible as my nightly set keeps me at a minimum level of conditioning.

(Real pushup sessions give wind even moreso than strength, though both, and to really get it in back and forth them with hindu squats.)

The reps and volume always keeps me building strength (even if at a slow pace), and this type of work gives strength, gains, that become part of you…unlike so many other’s experiences in the gym, my gains stay with me regardless/irregardless/despite/in spite of/etc.

I’d warm up before a buddy and I would spar bare knuckle (a solid choice of red blooded male activity) with pushups, and he swore they amped me up, that they made me hit harder.

“I prefer it when we just box. You fire, lay the hooks in harder when you do that quick set first”.

If I had the requisite bodies and logistics available I’d be alternating rounds on the mat with sets of ~35 pushups til the vicinity of 30 rounds and 1000 pushups on a regular basis. This is how one makes grappling strength.

I need to up the pushup volume. It’s true. At present I’m only doing 40 or so daily. That’s pretty lazy.

There’s no limit to how far the simple pushup will take you. You simply have to put in the effort to dominate them, to milk them for their worth.

It’s summer. Go outside shirtless, get some vitamin d, and pushup to ∞. You’ll be better for it.

Persistence & Tenacity

July 4th, 2019 ~330pm
For the first time in a while I go outside and press.

The entire session :
•Behind The Back Deadlift 3×5 @ 135
•Press 3×5 @ 135
•Bent Row (45° angle) 3×5 @ 135
•Press 1 x 185
•Reverse Curl 5 x bar

I power cleaned the first rep of the press sets.

Weird footing, ill fitting work boots, and shirtless because the sun is good for you.

I took the 185 to see with no specific work how my press was doing.

I got my mind right, cleaned 185 easier than I had the 135 sets, like it was an empty bar, and then pressed it so fast that I was flabbergasted.

It flew up with alarming speed.

Now sure I’ve hit 3×205 last fall in the SoCal bodybuilding gym, nearly was at 225, and have been known to press 185-205 cold on a yoke (yoke presses are the bomb by the way).

But this is off of Planet Fitness pump work (& labor), a total disregard of the barbell, and had such speed I could’ve hit my first 225 press.

It all carries over.

(I do a lot of 10×10 with little rest on machine one arm presses. Close movements are specific enough.)

I know I get stronger anywhere.

I know I could build my powerlifting total without barbell work solely training at PF (an article for another time).

I figured out a good glute movement at PF (glute focus 45° hyperextensions), and accidentally got my thighs bigger (smith squats, particularly narrow stance).

Do what you can with what you have. Train hard, actually train, and it’ll be enough.

Don’t think, just do.
That’s my advice to you.

It may be end up being months before I touch a barbell again, it could be hours. Either way I’ll still come back stronger on it.

Persistence & Tenacity

I trained calves a few days ago, a good amount of effort expanded going 4×35 on a machine, each day since they were more and more sore to the point I couldn’t walk normally.

Extra zinc, magnesium, and calcium weren’t working.

Stretching wasn’t working.

Grinding with a lacrosse ball wasn’t working.

Self massage wasn’t working.

I had no urge to even attempt to figure out if voodoo floss could be an answer here.

After a while (day 2 of not walking normally) a trick I’ve learned hit me.

I first saw this on a defunct blogspot (apocalypse barbell) where the author related how he’d make his legs able to function again as a heavyweight after running 3 miles or better in Marine Corps PT.

His trick?

Drop into a deep atg bodyweight squat immediately after the run.

If my calves are ridiculously tight I drop into that deep squat and bounce around in the bottom position.

Nothing works as well for me and my calves as that.

My (cited) 2¢.

Persistence & Tenacity