Just before my 21st birthday I went to a job interview for a gym.
I showed up to a big ass crowd, unbeknownst to me it was a group interview.
Probably 25 seats in the waiting area, I’d say at this point 15 people were there.
Probably 15 minutes before the start she walked in.
5’10”, freckled blue eyed brunette, a tinge of red to her hair, but not enough to call her a redhead.
Wearing heels, tight jeans that hugged fantastic hips, and an attractive yet professional enough blouse for a top, you could see she was extremely fit, yet had good curves, her chest not lost to fitness.
She was pretty enough you thought “model”, but build wise she’d be described better as a womanly curved volleyball player. As I said she had fantastic hips, and a moderate/medium bust.
Medium-large frame, and tall.
I felt that lump of nerves form in my throat, this girl being in every guys eyes a 9, and I was especially self conscious by being clean shaven as per this gym’s employment regulations.
She looked around the room surprised at the crowd, smiled at me and the old timer two seats to my left, asked me the time, “oh good I’m not late”, then politely asked the two of us if she could sit between us.
Very polite, she made conversation to both myself and the old timer, who was kinda grumpy other than talking to her (a 19 yo smoke show), but then she and I – we had an interesting conversation.
Just about a year younger than me (just shy of 20 to my just shy of 21), she told me that she had graduated high school weighing 240, and in about a year had lost 80lbs.
I had found this baffling as she was a smoke show.
It also impressed me how open she was about this. Unashamed to say she had weighed 240, to my surprise open about weighing 160.
Obviously we talked more in depth about it.
She told me that as an air force brat they moved very frequently,
she’d gotten depressed, became something of a shut in, and had gotten fat.
The circumstances for this made sense. Zero friends there, not making any, and getting picked on having landed in the wrong school district. She had been emotional eating.
A little after graduation, she decided to start jogging.
15 to 20lbs down, she decided she could do better, and started going to the gym.
We talked training some, and she basically was doing the high frequency ass, abs, and cardio thing that chicks are wont to do.
By her own admission she loved squatting, and running a hard mile for time.
Taking her at her word, her training effort was very high. That’s a key here, from 240lbs to a 160lb smoke show in a year requires intensity.
Squats and hard mile runs were done regularly and with considerable effort.
I don’t remember numbers now, but remember being impressed with her numbers on both lifts and run times.
Talking she viewed becoming a trainer as “a dream”, I still recall that she had a very pleasant girly personality. And that we were both applying for front desk jobs.
She was really hoping for this to come through as she was working as a seamstress, essentially in a sweat shop, and as requirement to stay living at home her military dad insisted she always have full time employment.
At one point I asked if there were stretch marks from the weight change. She said no, but it’s not like I can confirm or deny this.
After the interview I did call her back over to me, and took the shot. She said she had a boyfriend, but you know ; I’d taken the shot for/with a 5’10” model pretty athletic freckled blue eyed brunette.
I still remember her name. I tend to think of it as a latina name, not commonly as a white woman’s.
You can always train harder. Somewhere out there a teenage girl is out working you.
With my phone on, alarm set, I find myself waking up hourly. Throughout the night I drool and sweat more than expected, and will have very strange dreams.
Whenever I don’t have to set an alarm, the majority of the time my phone will be off.
The further away from me it’s placed, the higher my quality of sleep.
I sleep best with my phone completely outside of the bedroom.
I believe that many electronics nearby is a negative towards sleep, with smartphones being a particularly strong source of sleep nullifying witchcraft/voodoo.
(And yes though I use my smartphone daily, I view the thing as a thing of witchcraft/voodoo.)
Think positive and negative charges, even as metaphysically as you wish.
You can make the electrical current argument alone.
I’ve once had a half asleep/half awake nightmare, where I saw a projection from my phone screen of what I’d describe as a “heroin dragon” dancing in misty air. The presence felt demonic, and I fell back into a deeper sleep before waking up that morning, still vividly remembering this. For a while after this I’d purposefully leave my phone screen down, as in the dream my phone had been off, but facing up.
All things in the universe have their good and bad, their positive and negative.
You have to have the discipline to use modernity rightly.
Sleep issues? Why are you looking at your phone in bed?
I don’t believe age to be an obstacle to building muscle.
There is no male equivalent of menopause where hormones are guaranteed to go bonkers.
Low testosterone in older men may be the norm, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I don’t even see the synthetic testosterone route as being a requirement, a natural lifestyle overhaul can do it.
Dietary wise the older man is not to be eating processed garbage, while carbs in general, and grains in particular would be restricted.
Training wise for the older man I’d go light, high reps, less intensity than all out, and lower frequency than younger men.
A focus on strong legs, hips, and back.
However I’d still have them be physical daily. Walking for everyone, and swimming if there’s water access.
Of course stuff like shoveling snow and mowing the lawn is not to be dodged. The worst thing a man can do to himself physically is to let himself “lose it”.
Bigger than the diet, exercise, and general physicality is the mentality of the man who won’t allow himself to surrender to aging.
I know a man in his 80s who does pushups daily.
It’s bad when you’ve surrendered to being unable to walk normally and unassisted, or even worse… surrendered to being unable to stand.
I remember watching that old timer barely able to get himself up, then the look between husband and wife of “what do we do” when she couldn’t stand and he couldn’t help her stand.
(I walked over, offered to help, and it was accepted. “Thank you young man”, I’d let her hold onto one forearm and softly hugged her up with my other hand on her back. Weirdly the hospital staff member that day had been lost as to what to do. I was just in the vicinity and offered to help.)
I’m going to be the grandfather, maybe even greatgrandfather, that is used in an intergenerational version of “my grandpa/greatgrandpa can beat up your dad”.
It’ll go without saying my son/grandson will win that game for my grandchildren/greatgrandchildren, and they’ll have a physically robust grandpa/greatgrandpa.
It’s fond for me to recall, my grandpa never once didn’t play catch with me.
Up until that last six or nine months he never lost it. And he didn’t let me see him during that period. I visited in the summer, he was healthy, come the end of the school year he was gone. I only knew him healthy, which was til less than the length of the last school year.
Aging in number is guaranteed, but that’s it.
Old age physically decrepit is only for those who accept it.
For God’s sake women, girls even, are out there building muscle. For example I’ve seen a 60 something grandma deadlift 315. Any man out there has the hormonal ability to get jacked regardless of the number on their driver’s license as by the numbers low t in men is high t in women.
You may be all low energy, in that bullshit, but force yourself to get to the gym, do something, the endorphins will start to fire, you’ll come alive.
It needn’t even involve getting to the gym, you can stop what you’re doing, drop right where you are, and do pushups.
Reality is far more easily seen for what it is with a muscular pump, and/or out of breath.
You’re alive!
You get that workout in, and regardless of how you felt before, you’re gonna feel that sense of accomplishment for having done something out of the ordinary in this lazy mechanized low energy modern world.
The difference between living in a low energy depression, and living can be simply a matter of consistently working out.
The inactive are robbing themselves of free endorphins by being inactive.
Get up, go to the gym, do something. You’ll feel great from it, and have a proper perspective.
Back in February, a coworker told me that when he had been dieting hard, low fat, low carbs, and was super lean that the first time he again ate fatty meat that it felt like he suddenly became superhuman.
“It felt like I expect steroids to feel”, he said, “instantaneously it was like my testosterone shot up, I felt powerful”.
Sitting down to a meal of kielbasa, a few bites in, I get it. Good fatty meat is what God intended you to eat. Eating it when you’ve already been physical – it’s a natural anabolic.
The first thing I did was a set of 7 perfect, smooth, crisp, chin ups. It feels like days between sets like that, perfect, smooth reps, not to failure is the way to play it now.
Same principle if weighted.
The incidental training of the same muscles like in the bridge pullovers could be factoring in. It’s quite possible that set of 7 was at over 270lbs, maybe even approaching 280. I’m heavy right now, but haven’t stepped on a scale, and am getting better proportioned visibly.
After the aforementioned and a set of neutral grip I did 50 2 pump burpees at a pace of one rep every 15 seconds.
Big puddle of sweat. Euphoric.
Didn’t talk to anyone during them, just tasted the salty sweat dripping down my face, my glasses a blur.
Rest 3-5 minutes.
I’ve taken to doing half my burpees, waiting 3-5 minutes, then completing them.
Another 50, same protocol. If I hadn’t done it I’d have felt like I bitched out as initially I’d intended 100 2 pumps.
100 2 pumps straight through in 25:00 seems a good goal, and fairly close. Today it was broke in half by a 3:30 song, and maybe 30 seconds in addition to that. Call it 100 2 pumps in 29:00 paced with the break.
The rest was good for my shoulder being tight, bad in that being doused in sweat, I had now cooled off, and was in the gym ac. No matter. Burpees.
Having done not just 50, but 100, I couldn’t help but feel my world is right.
I had the smell of having worked, it doesn’t bother me, plus women notice, and like it.
It’s the smell of testosterone.
You mask that when you use deodorant, cologne, etc.
Rationally I know I’m not the best at burpees, but in my world, my day to day, I’m the only one pushing physically. This pays.
I’ve been going to planet fitness long enough that I make it work.
There’s nothing wrong with planet fitness when you make it work.
At one point in the session I did a set of 50 on the machine curl with 30lbs.
I know you can train 50s, start super light, get massive pumps, and essentially sneak up on using heavier and heavier weight at that rep range, then end up the biggest, strongest man around.
In conversation I said “I tend to like a big ass meal around 1am. You may not be supposed to eat then, but maybe that’s why I’m 270lbs.”
The difference between fat and jacked very well could be just the muscular stimuli. Bulk is pretty easy to come by when taking pages out of what the medical establishment says will make you fat. The medical establishment ain’t expecting the guy eating a big ass meal at 1am to have trained full body, high reps, high volume at 10pm.
The night meal thing was an aha moment for me. Probably playing into why I’m jacked when others can’t seem to gain weight.
I was complemented on having great chest development, and likened to a gorilla. This came from the same 58yo as written about the other night, and he thought I may take the compliment negatively. I laughed telling him that I’ve long realized my proportions do in fact resemble a pale skinned hairless gorilla. I joke about that, and don’t believe I’ve ever posted my “I’m a gorilla” rough draft.
Go do a million pushups, that’s why my chest is so developed, and the massive pushup stimuli is why I am proportioned like a gorilla.
You want a big chest? Go do a million pushups, and eat manly foods in manly proportions.
You’re better off owning what you choose to put in your mouth, than being anal about every little thing, a diet freak.
For me to do the high frequency meals weighed out thing, that’d basically be all into bodybuilding, and possibly require living alone in SoCal.
Earlier in the day I thought to myself : “any training done consistently for over a decade is going to get you jacked, give you functionally the best genetics, and have you levels above all around you”.
It’s not the program, it’s the consistency. Do something you’ll willingly do all the time, do so for a decade, you’ll be Hoss around that time.
10+ years of consistent training, but not eating clean makes you into a big ole country man
There’s definitely truth to a body reflecting the personality. I find myself more laid back in my mind, stressing less, now that I’m in my own eyes heavy, and observing this realized the way I’m acting now is similar to how I’d see big, strong, but not ripped dudes act. For the first time in my life I’m willing to take rest periods on movements that allow for it (ie not burpees).
And this too came up in conversation : “training every day may not be the fastest progress in some cases, but I train daily because mentally I need to for my mind.”
I may be able to take rest periods now, but I never take rest days. PT always happens. And to not go to the gym takes distracting myself, usually doing something out of town.
To me this all makes sense ; I’m the most randomly rigid lifter out there.
Full body daily, the rest of it is filling in the blanks.
PT regardless.
I never know exactly what I’ll do at the gym til after I’ve done it.
This makes it a toss up as to what gets prioritized. For example – I need to be training weighted pushups.
The biggest training goal in my eyes at the moment is to video “girl pushups”, a petite gym chick (or two, or three) standing on my back for a set of 10+ pushups, and right now I’m never weighting the movement.
The power went out at planet fitness today. It was off for maybe 5 seconds. They kept people off the treadmills and stair climbers after that.
The music turned off, they didn’t turn it back on, that was nice.
No one really wants the music anyway, I’ve always thought it funny that corporate gyms insist on 24/7 garbage pop.
Most wear headphones, it’s nice to have gym floor silence. With silence you can always opt for headphones.
The place was earily silent. No music, no treadmills. Forced off the treadmills many looked lost. Funny how people are like that without every modern convenience.
Most of what I did was burpees and pushups.
Overshooting 50 10 pumps, plus the mandatory mantra pushups for the day, all combined I easily did 650 pushups. And ocd wise I hit more at home that night. 725 pushups for the day sounds about right.
Part of the reason I overshot was that I’d reset a few reps in when someone talked to me. This happened to me at the beginning and half way marks. Between reps 6-10 I reset to zero, then at about rep 29 back to 25. Plus a few extras at the end.
I thought about it, calisthenics, build you to your proper size.
Your body is not going to be a size it doesn’t fit/carry around well when you’re doing a million pushups and some burpees.
And burpees are not only euphoric, but primal. Doing enough, creating the sweat pool, it puts you in a good mindstate. Can’t phase me mixed with socially outgoing from physical effort.
My training is mostly burpees/pushups, wall sits, neck bridging, and abs.
I’m occasionally using equipment, but mostly bodyweight.
Today’s session was the aforementioned movements and a few sets (reps per set of 50, 30, 20) of hammer strength machine pulldown.
This has my proportions looking better. The sheer pushup volume causes me to muscle up, while the up/down of the burpees has me steadily losing fat.
I like how even though the burpees are multi pump, I tend to use 50 5 pumps as a guideline, bodyweight squats are still built in.
Enough burpees, ab tension, and leg tension can’t do anything other than spike your testosterone.
I’ve noticed testosterone levels are high, and it’s not like I’m getting loads of vitamin d.
It’s mindset and training.
It’s extremely obvious to me that you can get huge amounts of anabolic stimuli at planet fitness, the barbell isn’t required.
The barbell being required is nothing but powerlifting propaganda.
I talked with this prior service navy dude, about a decade older than me, that I know from the old commercial gym hell.
Interestingly he agreed with me about strict fill range of motion being unnecessary on pushups.
I spoke of my las vegas back isometrics, pushups, and jump rope “program”.
What I’m doing now is getting me freakish like that had.
I noticed he was intently listening to what I have to say works. Everyone defers to me now on gym knowledge. I love this, and I still have a ways to go. I recently leveled up physically, and I can smell the higher levels, so close!
I related a few SoCal bodybuilding gym things, including the hilarious to me coincidence of the redhead dude from detroit that I was training “back day” with there, and my uncle both in a 48 hour timespan saying to me “have you realized you’re the biggest, strongest dude here/there not on shit”.
Even women were on shit there.
It blows my mind to have reached this spot seemingly in every gym i go. I’m not even close to my genetic potential. Higher levels baby!
At the end of the session, having used a 15lb kettlebell to stretch a tight shoulder, I decided to goof around.
With the kettlebell sitting normally on the floor, I would grab the handle, walk my feet into position, and attempt one arm pushups with the extra stabilization factor.
After a handful of negatives and failures, I started to get them with my right hand.
With the right hand I did as high as a set of 3. I don’t believe I got the rep with the left, just a few solid negatives on that side spread throughout the play.
A couple things :
Broomsticks are probably the best option for stretching the shoulders. During the lockdown these were removed from the gym floor, they’re in storage, one of the managers has grabbed them for me upon asking.
I had completely forgotten the idea of stretching it via dc stretches, until I was already driving home.
I’ve written how one arm pushups are euphoric before. They will pop the spine, and the higher tension can help with the shoulder feeling pretty.
I also forgot that I could do shoulder band traction via thick band looped around an upright while still there.
What many don’t know is you can work on your shoulder just driving your hand into the floor in something like a pushup but going for a very different stimuli. Trying to drive the hand through the inanimate solid object. It’s somewhere on the isometric spectrum.
So for trying to stretch a tight shoulder I got something fairly cool out of it, one arm pushups with a stability challenge.
The rep is obviously deeper than from the floor. In the bottom position it started to seem like a bit of a chest fly to get back into the up portions of the press, and I felt my bicep working.
The extended range of motion got bicep into the one arm pushup. If this became a regular movement I know my biceps will grow.
I’ve already thought about how to progress this :
Firstly get it on both sides, then go to smaller kettlebells, then flip it handle side down.
I say this often, basic pushups can be progressed via basically unlimited harder and harder variants if you so choose.
No video of this. I hadn’t felt like grabbing a cameraman out of the three people nearby.
