Month: December 2019

I stomp the snow out of my workboots, the manner looks like something of a slow motion run, like part of a traditional dance. I mentally think of the haka, and something else…maybe the opening of a cossack dance performance I’ve seen.

I do this at work very very often.

One could go stomp around on hard surfaces, it’ll either build or break you.

It builds me.

There’s a lot of power in this outlook : “that shit don’t break me down, it builds me up”.

Repetitive stress? Say running. If you don’t consider it a thing you won’t be negatively affected.

I don’t consider injury to be a possibility for myself, in my life, in my world. I am resilient. I’m indestructible. Therefore I am.

Persistence & Tenacity

From the archive :
March 2019

If I could go back in time and modify my lineage some I’d learn to train from a drunken mechanic of an uncle who’d been quite the kettlebell lifter in the Матушка Россия, but in Америка did not have kettlebells, but a nephew willing to train that had a 300lb weight set.

Ahh, I can see Uncle Vladdy now…
(Of course I can, he’s a figment of my imagination.)

Moving on.

One of the coolest things I did training wise was high rep barbell jerks.

For whatever reason I wanted to jerk 20×225. I didn’t get to it before OCD switching training, but getting it up to +/- 18 reps did give some serious overall carryover.

(I’m able to use high rep jerk as an indicator for high rep bench.)

The olympic lifts needn’t be complicated.

The kettlebell isn’t the only implement that can be used for high reps.

I say apply the philosophy of Girevoy sport/kettlebell to barbells.

Firstly this makes the movements far more accessible. It’s much more common to have enough barbell access than ample kettlebell access, is far more economical this way.

Secondly the high reps of this style allow any given weight to be stretched further.

For Example :
•Are you hang cleaning the 300lb set for reps?
•Did you jerk 50×225?
Etcetera.

It’s simple really, a poor man’s, less specialized version of weightlifting.
I’m fairly certain Dragon Door/Pavel/StrongFirst uses this as a sell for kettlebells, I say apply it to barbells which is more honest.

You have presses, jerks, snatches, and cleans.

You can power clean from the floor once for a press or jerk set, or you can clean and press/clean and jerk each rep, the first clean from the floor, overhead, then from the hang, overhead.

(Doing both movements is how long cycle is contested.)

Cleans and snatches are done hang power style (dead hang or with the stretch reflex) after the first rep from the floor in power style.

(You could do some one arm stuff, but that makes it more old time strongman while still kettlebell influenced.)

No rack is necessary, but squats are still on the table.

Clean into front squats, snatch into overheads, jerk or snatch and drop the bar for back squats.

Are you paying attention? I’m teaching you how to be a beast with only a barbell weight set.

I know Hackenschmidt did this type of thing. He’s known to have done some high rep jerks.

Super athletes pic
page #

It’s not the implement it’s the effort. You don’t instantaneously become a witch, wizard, or warlock with magical powers the second you get a kettlebell in hand (though that’s how it’s marketed). The effects come from sweat and callous equity. Instead of with a kettlebell use the premise as a barbell system.

Alternate Titles :

Girevoy/Kettlebell Philosophy Is Superior To Powerlifting & Weightlifting

Weightlifting For Everyman : How To Implement The Superior Philosophy Of Girevoy/Kettlebell Sport Unto Barbells

Girevoy Sport With A Barbell

Who Says Ketlebells Are The Only Implement To Do High Rep Olys With

Long Cycle…With A Barbell, No Overpriced Kettlebell Necessary

I like the premise of girevoy sport, kettlebell competition.

However since I’m not Russian, and therefore kettlebells are not as common a fixture as assholes on the body amongst the populace I say use dumbbells instead.

You’re free to use the “wrong” implement for the right movements.

Do dumbbell weightlifting, dumbbell “olys”, for super duper high reps.

Dumbbell brute force wrapped up in a nice package with “conditioned strength”.

Floor to overhead, one dumbbell, two dumbbell, any variation you desire.

Clean, snatch, curl, press, swing.

Mix and match.

Floor to overhead.

Can be done anywhere. At any gym. Commercial or otherwise.
I do this at planet fitness.

Course Title : Training My Way 101

Persistence & Tenacity

As much as the laborer is often looked down upon by a society unable to do it’s most basic of tasks, a lot of common sense can come out in on the job conversations.

About 8, 9 hours on shift, we had a 2 or 2½ hour drive back to the shop. Naturally the three of us talked.

The main topics were brazilian jiu jitsu, wrestling, powerlifting, and diet.

Highlights :

•Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has too much of an “I’m going to lay down” mentality, wrestlers 9 times out of 10, are going to figuratively rape someone equal in years of bjj experience, say 10 years wrestling vs 10 years of BJJ, no crosstraining. BJJ is I’m gonna roll around until something happens, wrestlers on a bjj mat are thinking “I’m gonna break his fucking neck”, and tapping nearly everyone without knowledge of submissions, just wrestling with extra pressure applied and held in wrestling positions. I actually tapped people idiot savant style not certain of where I was hurting them, just knowing that some joint was gonna be uncomfortable. Dude didn’t believe me when I was like “so did you tap because of your elbow or shoulder”. On close to the opposite end of the spectrum another while I was in a bad position, I was pinned, he was mounted past my guard, was dumbfounded that I kept snaking my arm out of his attempts at my left shoulder. I was thinking “dude I wrestled, I’m not giving you shit”, I was pinned, wanting to reset instead of nothing happening on the mat, and clearly recognized that he wanted to control my left arm. Catch wrestling is better than bjj, since you still have to fight off the pin, without wanting to give your back. BJJ is too ground based, you’d be better off in Greco, scholastic wrestling, or judo. I’d rather you go to a judo club where it’s 90% standup randori, not a bjj gym at 4x the cost where it’s 95% ground rolling only. Only on a mat with a ref is it ok to be on the ground. Real world? Let’s say a guy mugs you with a blade while you’re at the pump (we were passing a gas station), you hip toss him onto that concrete, he’s dead, and you’re probably a felon. My problem with bjj is a reality distortion where being on the ground is acceptable, and where you automatically start. You don’t start on the ground, to get to the ground someone was fucked up in the process. It’s a sport, not self defense. The dangerous man? He boxes and wrestles, but in reality is discretely drawing a knife and tearing out your guts at the first opportunity.”

“This is why I respect certain sports, certain athletes.”

•”Dude the amount of raw eggs I’ve drank, salmonella is not a concern.”

•One coworker’s grandfather had a chicken farm ; “you know suck an egg, the expression, was a thing you did, anyone who’s ever worked around chickens will have got hungry on the job, drilled into an egg, and sucked it down”, “vegetable oil? It’s all hydrogenated shit, I’ve been eating butter since I was what like 2 years old, people have been eating butter for ages, that’s real food, real food is what’s really healthy”.

“Yeah man, you don’t need to go all keto, protein and fat only, or anything, but you’ve gotta stick to real foods, on the carb note I find potatoes and corn far more easily stomached than wheat.”

“The Irish ate a bunch of carbs, potatoes, and were fine”

“Yeah man, dairy and potatoes, and it was all good. On that note there’s nothing wrong with meat and potatoes, it was accepted as good for a reason, it had been building robust humans for ages.
Modern society would be healthier going back to such a multi generational staple.”

“Wheat is just grass in a field. You’re a human, not a cow, you’re not designed to eat that field of grass.”

“I have a buddy who I’ve seen eat super strict for around 5 years straight. I could do it, I choose not to. Most don’t realize how disciplined he is on that. He knows, I know as I’ve spent so much time with him. I’ve observed him sleep maybe 2 hours to get all 7 meals in. I’ve seen him go around 5 months, 7 meals a day, no slip ups on his diet. Me? I’ve been at his kitchen table eating like a 16oz cheeseburger with milk on the side, while he’s eating meal 6, consisting of perfectly weighed out meat and sweet potato. I just eat real food, and know in the future I am capable of going super disciplined. Dinner is about 12oz of homemade hamburger. Lunch? Maybe. Breakfast? Something with some protein, a little nutrition, and probably microwavable. At present it’s good enough.”

•”Within the year I want to be totalling 1000 club”

“The fuck dude! 1500. Aim for something that ain’t shit. 1000lbs? What you want to be competitive with the women 148s? Shit 1200 is attainable easily in that time, and to be competitive 1500 is like a male 165. You’re a 220.”

“Besides, 2d, up/down shit is really only necessary for bodybuilders. You have access to all the implements, instead of squats as the main thing I’d yoke walk, push/pull/drag the sleds as my leg training. Strongman style training builds far more strength, real world, than gym style lifting.”

“Think about this job (moving) just carrying boxes around a house for an hour is gonna give you more time under tension than any week of gym back training. It’s a different type of strength. I don’t know if my deadlift is up, horse stance has my leg strength up, but the labor has my mat strength up. Strongman training and labor have a lot of similarities.”

“Yeah that gym’s owner, a lot of gym people in fact hated me for this, but it’s true. I’ve done it, everyone is capable of this. Training with just your body is the best way to get strong, real overall strong while training, and not grappling or working. Horse stance, headstands, and banging out a bunch of pushups…more effective for 99% than going to a gym and lifting a barbell. My ability to do handstand pushups blows people’s minds, especially being nearly 270. That’s a serious amount of strength without equipment. Most don’t want to push bodyweight results to where it truly can bring you. I get it. There’s some amount of community at the gym. Calisthenics? You may just be doing it by yourself anywhere. I’m for doing both if possible. ”

That’s some highlights.

Persistence & Tenacity

I’m stronger right now, real world, with my combination of weird stimulus (horse stance, wrestler’s bridge holds, pushing shit around at work), calisthenics, labor job (carry, stairs), and planet fitness than I ever was in any “real” barbell gym.

I thought back to this anecdote on a now defunct site, where he spoke of boggling people’s minds as he repped out the leg extension, full stack, one legged before he ever “seriously” lifted weights.

I remember having just joined pf, and blowing this chicks mind when she realized I’d repped the stack into an isometric hold…normal two leg style.

I’m nearing this point one legged now.

Obviously I’ve gotten stronger, the forklift at work is a prime example.

But how?

People, “hardcore” gym culture, likes to bag on machines.

In all honesty the level of fitness, and ingenuity I see at the pf location I frequent is higher than at the “serious” gyms I’ve went, at least among the gym’s population of serious trainers.

“But the stabilizers!”
That’s the #1 thing held against machines. It’d only be an issue if machines were all you do.

The only physicality you have.

I do a decent amount of calisthenics. That’s the stabilizer stimulus, and likely more effectively than with a barbell.

Cause I do my pushups and bodyweight squats my barbell bench and squat are moving up just fine with machines as the heavy stimulus. I’ve kept the small muscles firing.

Especially holding that high horse stance in my bedroom at night.

Machines and calisthenics combine to a rather effective bypass of the barbell. Machine for the heavy, calisthenics to hit the stabilizers, keeping you athletic, mobile.

Que sera sera. Stronger is stronger.

From the archive :
10/20/18

~130pm Hack hack hack. Someone’s probably looking, but what’s it matter? You’re doing your work. Hauck a loogie into the trash can, with a paper towel wipe the sweat off your hands and it’s to the next set. You headbang to R-Swift “Awesome God”, Ozzy’s “I Don’t Wanna Stop”, and a few Madball tracks (“Born Strong” fit so well). Your body temperature is fairly high, the Russian blonde isn’t smiling at you today, and the Portuguese chick may be ignoring you and is talking to another guy. Then the hilariousness (see YouTube, she? smiles and you ask…social freedom is so high now), all in all it’s a crazy one movement back day. Bent over rows 3×5 @ 300lbs looser form, then 5×10 @ 250lbs pretty strict which was messing my near fasted (32oz Powerade and can of Jumex juice nector) self up. I was digging life, putting on a show, maybe solely to myself, and kneeling, spitting, drinking water, pacing, and just in general being the caged animal pulling bent rows.

(Portuguese chick is so corny. Smiles and holds up a peace sign. Likely is just a ditz with zero situational awareness. Only friendly in close proximity?)

~730pm Dinner with old friends (more easily called godparents), he talks to you about God, faith, submission to the Lord. Preaching…that felt so right.

While there I stop a girl that looks like my childhood best friend’s sister. Had to take the shot, it’d been a long radio silence, and I was in the right area. “Hey _, _? College blonde, stop, aren’t you _? No? You’re a doppelganger for my buddy’s sister whom I haven’t seen in about 5 years. You looked too similar for me not to ask.”

10pm You come close to puking by gagging on phlegm. It could be heat, dehydration, stress, the 10 eggs blended with strawberry banana Kefir you’ve just drank, how hard you’ve been training, any or all of it. Multi-whammy.

You’re nude, there’s the full body mirror, and you start to move, (I’ll admit humping the air) bouncing, kicking, hopping…it feels like childhood, joy, spontaneous movement. Oddly you don’t whirl/spin in circles, though the dancing gets the same effect.

The nausea disappears, and turns to huffing. This type of movement wipes out a heavyweight’s gas, but is the most natural thing…children do it. Quickly you realize you don’t need to be huffing, the conscious can completely control breath. To a degree you were purposely huffing at the gym. It got you more in the moment, it got you pushing harder. Amusing yourself with show mode, turning 3×10 into 5×10 with all the headbanging, kneeling, pacing, shaking out the arms, and bouncing that entails.

Just move, and dance, and breathe.

For the moment you’re alive.

The world?

It’s yours.

(jason mraz – i’m yours)

You PT a little differently after all that. Super slow bodyweight squat variations. I’d bet that I could add 50-100lbs to my squat primarily training legs like that.

Enough health from movement.

In the past year I’ve mostly lost my taste for junk food. The only time I eat it being a candy bar at work, or maybe a whoopie pie after work or the gym.

I don’t like soda much at all anymore. Recently, I usually don’t enjoy the made with real sugar root beers, which I used to love. It’s been a long while since I’ve enjoyed any soda with high fructose corn syrup, so mostly nix my former advice to use cheap generic soda as a calorie booster (go fatty dairy, heavy cream or egg nog instead), though I will say I’ve been drinking some high quality ginger beers as medicine.

In addition to those ginger beers I eat a lot of spices, rotating sources. My opinion is that a lot of spice in the diet is good for you. Clearer sinuses. Probably better alignment of the hormonal profile.

Dinner for the last few nights has been a first plate of frozen chicken or breakfast sandwiches microwaved, followed by the meat of the day…a homemade burger averaging a tad shy of 12oz precooked weight.

I spice the burgers a lot, and leave them mostly raw.

After the burger I eat enough to be filled. Some guacamole when I have it, and the last few nights it’s been a small bowl of corn flakes after the meat.

You can’t go wrong with meat and potatoes.

For carbs I find potatoes made into home fries, and somewhat surprisingly corn cereal to be the best choices.

Vegetables? This doesn’t go much past onions with my meat (and potatoes), and I’ve very much enjoyed pickles as of late.

Fruit? That’s a small amount of juices.

I don’t eat like a bodybuilder. I’d feel like shit if I was eating frequently throughout my work shifts. It’s a game really, the balance of energy vs sluggishness. I prefer to move without vs move with too much.

I eat what I crave, fearing nothing, no fear of fat, sodium, cholesterol or anything currently in vogue as bad for you.

Breakfast is something light on my stomach with a bit of protein, or not at all.

Lunch? Is usually half a sandwich, a bar of some sort, one, the other, or both, at one or two moments, usually truck time at work. Usually well past lunch hour.

By the evening, after work, after the gym, (call it 10 hours of physicality) I’m ravenous, barely containing myself to eat once home. It’s very possible I’ve had under 500 calories between 4am and 630pm

I grocery shop, and cook pretty frequently, though with the physical work allow myself to splurge some on the occasional quick source of energy, and the fairly nutritious frozen foods.

(Mozzarella sticks, the “meat” sandwiches, the high quality breakfast sausage.)

I look for fairly nutritious at a minimum before I eat it. It doesn’t have to be the highest quality. Thank God for the grocery supply chain.

I drink mostly water, some juice (grape or apple), and milk.

I partake in the good seasonal items like egg nog and apple cider.

I’ve been consistent with the 8+ oz of daily meat requirement, but have slipped on the 6+ eggs daily part, though the eggs mixed in heavy cream is anabolic and testosterone boosting as all hell.

You don’t have to eat like a bodybuilder. You don’t!
You only need to eat reasonably. That is real foods, the instinctive consumption of animal fats, and the following of healthy cravings.

Once your taste buds are good to go, eat everything you crave, and nothing that you don’t.

People quit because they’re trying to either force something they don’t enjoy, something that is unnatural, or both.

For diet go instinctive, enjoy your red meat, center the day’s consumption around that nightly meat, and backfill around it by desire, circumstance, and requirement.

Easy peasy.

Persistence & Tenacity