Month: August 2020

While the body is in motion the mind is receptive.

Your brain goes into the same state as when you watch television, a state very susceptible to programming.

You gotta pay close attention to what you’re brainwashing yourself towards.

You know why I view gyms as mostly a place of weakness?

The music is weak ass garbage!
This holds regardless of commercial, powerlifting, or bodybuilding gym. They all play bullshit over the speakers!

I’ve said before to go to the gym with no headphones, getting into state and ignoring the outside world, here’s another idea ;

Powerful stuff in your earbuds!

Record yourself speaking mantras, listen to motivational talks, motivational music.

Positivity, and power. No weaksauce negative shit!

Whatever I hear when I train, and immediately after, that shit gets in my head!

It’s gonna be the weakest one that the bitch in your mind latches onto, so fucking work with this concept, make the weakest thing piped into your ears something strong!

Persistence & Tenacity

500 Pushups :

500 pushups is pretty easy to do.

I had set an interval timer, and every 45 seconds, I did a ten pump burpee.

(500 pushups in 37:30.)

Burpees To Interval Timers :

For burpees I like using an interval timer. Using it I don’t have to count reps, and I have that psychological aspect of seeing the time remaining count down.

“I’ve already powered through ___ minutes, I can power through ___ more.”

I have noticed that I push faster through volume doing more reps than one at a time and using the tally clicker to keep track.

I could just do a set of a few reps each interval, but pushing doesn’t really allow for an interval timer.

Using the interval timer so far has made burpees closer to steady state cardio than sprint style cardio.

In theory it could progress to very low rest between reps with the interval timer, but at that point it’d likely work as well with a metronome.

The hardest part of high reps and high volume is not the doing, but in the keeping track.

Sometimes I feel that working out would be more effective with zero counting, just doing.

People are often stronger/more effective when they don’t have the numbers in their head.

“One Arm Pullups” On The Assisted Chin/Dip Machine :

Something I did today was “one arm pullups” on the assisted chin/dip machine.

While it’s not free hanging, the core does fire hard, and being a closed chain exercise it’s more effective than one handed lat pulldowns.

Alternating hands I did a reverse pyramid of 5,4,3,2,1 for a long time under tension, and was laughing to myself about how brutally strong you could get running with this style of training.

I can get 7-8 chins at about 270 right now, and pullups are less.

With the assistance stack maxed out, I’m using about 95lbs work weight each side in the pullup pattern.

For the assisted one arms it’s 95x15x2=2850lbs of volume.

The real chins?
270×8 = 2160lbs of volume,

With the assist machine I’m getting more meaningful volume on day 1 of assisted one arms (I hadn’t done this since before lockdown) as compared to my best current chin set.

(7 within the last month, 9 within the last year, for math I split the difference.)

Applying The Pushup Principle To The Assisted Dip/Chin Machine :

I’ve gotten very good results doing lots of pushups. Including my max strength being far higher than my work weights.

Depending on the source, pushups are said to be the equivalent of benching between 60% and 70% of bodyweight.

I generally assume ⅔, and have found the principle holds as compared to bench weight and reps.

For someone who isn’t light and able to just rep out on pullups, I can see using the assisted chin/dip machine to lighten your pullups to closer to pushup percentages of bodyweight, even lower percentages, and to get stronger this way via handling more volume per set.

Starting at say 10×10 at 50% bw is going to build more ability to do reps than me just bombing through 100 reps of real chins but never hitting double digit reps, and mostly doing a million sets of 3-4.

To progress use higher percentages or increase to 10×20.

It could also be treated like pushups and be something you do super high reps on. For example looking to break 100 reps at 50% bw.

I have noticed that I can get good at set after set of chins with little rests, just before lockdown getting 100 chins in 10-15 minutes, but that was mostly sets of 3-4.

At the moment little rest doesn’t seem to be the way to attack chins.

So it’s either playing with the assist machine or actually taking rest periods on the real thing.

The Heavy Smith Machine :

I swear the angled smith machines feel heavier than a barbell.

Due to this, one could get very strong using them. I liken it to being an odd object – machine version.

It’s a hilarious thought to program 5/3/1 percentages into smith machine use, or to run bulgarian squats.

Though not impossible.

Persistence & Tenacity

Great genetics are inside you!

To think anything otherwise is to hamstring yourself from the start.

I don’t like people talking about genetics.

The only time they do it’s to complain, to act like they’re powerless, and doomed to be fat/skinny fat/sadly physiqued & weak (that should be a phrase I ™)

Cause Sadly Physiqued & Weak™ (← Look a trademark) rhymes with
PENCIL NECK GEEK!

I like to go the opposite way :

I personally identify with the “I have the best genetics” mindset.

So many go wrong in the gym with self identification as weaklings, when if they simply looked at themselves the opposite way they’d become juggernauts.

•I don’t get hurt.
•I don’t get injured.
•I don’t get sore.
I hold these to be true.

•Volume? I’m game to do more.
•Frequency? Daily.
•Sleep? I’m good.
•Hunger? I’m good.
•Hydration? I’m good.

Hold the internal factor as none of the minutia being a deciding factor.

(A college age kid recently described my training mentality to me as, in his words ; “send it, always send it, full send, then send it some more”.)

When people talk genetics looking for an excuse I give the crowd what it wants, I’ll state (rightly in my own eyes) “I have the best genetics”, and like I saw on  a billboard recently “what you believe about yourself is the truth”.

State things helpful to yourself.
Delusional? Don’t care! (say it in your best boston accent – it works even better that way) The thing is it’ll come true. Your belief will become your reality.

I view the best genetics as being natural to mankind, the human animal as God intended.

So I view it as inherently being in me, and to those who listen I teach them it’s in them too.

I view every human as having great physical genetics.

Great genetics?
They’ll show with the proper mindset and actions.

Persistence & Tenacity

11pm, to finish off my PT for the day I do a set of 4 way neck work dynamic tension style.

Flexing the neck forward, backward, and to each side.

On days where I do dynamic tension for neck, I’ve started to implement coordinated arm motion.

For front neck and side neck this means pulling in my arms like I’m sucking in an opponent’s legs during a double leg takedown. On side neck I’m adding in body english, my entire torso is leaning in the same direction I’m working my neck. The arm on that side goes through the same motion in opposite direction of a lateral raise, this adds dynamic tension for the lats into the session. The opposite arm is just pulling back.

For back neck I play with both pushing and pulling arm motions, the other three directions solely use arm pulls.

I get on the floor and hit a set of mantra pushups.

Upon standing it’s victory pose for a moment.

Done in the bathroom, without equipment, this is eerily similar to training in a prison cell.

I suggest giving this style of training a shot, you’ll be amazed how good a workout this is.

The neck pumped up is a thing full of vitality.

Pushups are all encompassing.

Victory pose builds spiritual power.

All in a few moments in a few square feet.

Persistence & Tenacity

On this :

I commented :

“Existing? That’s bullshit.
You must LIVE!

Half assed? Cowards go half assed. You’re either all in or you’re not, all in or all out, no middle grounds!

Listless means you’re in a state of negative surrender, that you’re not out there where you need to be… conquering.

Don’t just go about your day!
Don’t just go along!

You’re not gonna sleep right without a day run right. I don’t find workouts, physical training to be enough here. Sleep earned for me requires more than just massive training volume.

I don’t think most realize the inner turmoil I’ve felt at my own perception of not being all in, not going all out, and not making it happen.

I’ve been feeling it off and on since childhood.

How much I tear/I’ve torn myself apart for letting the world stand in my way as I have the self honesty to admit anything other than achievement to be what it is in the largest majority of cases – a case of personal weakness and surrender.

I believe in human potential, so the way I see it there’s a 99.999% chance of there being a way for you to get your personally required achievements.

Failure in the end has the potential to be naught but statistical anomaly.

Some of the “small” things (in other’s eyes) I do –

•daily pushups
•no porn for life – never watching again (this is where this comment came from, way more of a personal perception of public accountability posted to a bigger channel than my own web presence)
•never drinking, never drugs, never have, never will

I couldn’t slip up on these things and look myself in the mirror.

The me that isn’t me wanting to partake or not to (depends on what it is) so bad, and the me that is me overriding that and holding to daily ritual.

On my face, on the floor so many times getting my daily PT in. Regardless.

Failing in the physical plane (money) is one thing, but spiritual failures? No. I’m NOT slipping there.

Daily pushups, no porn, no drink/drugs, I’ve made these things spiritual to myself.

My present financial situation is bad enough. I’m not going to choose to make life worse by self harming on the spiritual plane. That’s unacceptable behavior.

This video spoke to me, I was comfortable existing as a financial failure, someone who’s become used to just training regularly, but not dieting hard, nor going and making MY WAY to earn enough money reality.

@Wes Watson – Thank You!

And though not from this one, the quote/sound bite “create the man you admire so you can give him away” has been helping me (and by extension at least one college aged kid on the gym floor) in my day to day. You’re doing more good work than you know.

@ Anyone reading : I hope posting this helps you.

-J”

From age 16 to 20 from Spring through Fall a buddy and I practically whenever we hung out would play “the game”.

“The game” – a rather odd one for Americans but worthwhile none the less.

See, the contrarian that I am always got into sports more out there.

Whether I played them organized or not, I’d practice with the intent to ALWAYS be better than at least most of those on the team.

At the time I wanted to be the guy who is extremely all around, and underestimated at everything athletic.

Distance running, sprinting, jumping, lifting, calisthenics, a few sports.

I did a good job of getting there too.
All around.

Having thrown the shot, and ran the 400m spring season as a sophomore I planned on playing lacrosse the next year instead.

I bought a net, short stick, and a long stick.

(You mean teenagers don’t only spend money on weights and sports equipment?)

Till the next winter I was constantly playing wall ball, tossing with a buddy, grounded ball pickup drills, shots on net (usually alone, but sometimes with my school’s goalie). I was getting good, and schooled my school’s players during occasional pickup game situations.

Self teaching can work. Especially when you always go for more.

I did the same with rugby. This leads me to “the game”.

I bought a ball, affectionately known as “Gilbert”, and used it with that buddy a lot as well as on my own.

Passing drills, precise punts, punts for distance, precise punts for distance (Once on a bet with an uncle I dropped the ball into his hands from 75-80 yards from middle of the street over power lines into the yard)…and “the game”.

We played this at a playground, on the high school’s football field, but mostly in the yard.

A 20-25 yard length of yard, slightly
narrower in width.

Punts & returns. Sometimes tackle, sometimes touch. The goal to either stop or out juke the other. Try line the driveway, “don’t smash into the car”.

We’d play for hours.

Sore from the weight room, after track practice, before school started, we’d even played in the dark the streetlights barely letting us see the incoming ball.

We’d play anytime.

Hours.

That’s a lot of reps of 20yd sprints and jukes.

Moderate speed… incoming, cut hard, BOOM!

Another point.

My buddy sucked at juking. I got better at it due to the narrow confines.

Me? I was building skill for rugby which I did play later, and making sure I’d get the starting running back or full back slot if I went out for football senior year (which I didn’t).

I should also note this buddy and I often raced 400m and 800m distances damn near nightly at points.

Both of us were building some work capacity.

Similar was preseason for wrestling:

In addition to whatever PT and weights I’d done…EVERY night for about a month prior to the first practice I’d :

•Jump Rope 5-10 minutes
•40yd dashes 15-30 reps
•longer sprints (occasionally, anywhere from 60m-200m)
•400m or 800m ALL OUT (sometimes hard 300m)
•Walk rest of mile
•Jump Rope more + another ½ mile walk (Optional: if I jump roped again I always walked another ½ mile).

This got me decent cardio, and frankly I think I had better work capacity when I was still running hard on a regular basis be it anywhere from 400m to 2 mile distances.

All these years later, now I’m doing burpees. Bring them far enough, especially bouncing between reps, and it’ll have the same effect (among others).

Persistence & Tenacity