Physical Play As An Adult :

10/17/20 :

The former soviet union must’ve cared more about the average citizens fitness than america does.

The internet shows not only far more pullup bar type equipment built at adult height, but large fully sized outdoor gyms something not here at all with the exception of muscle beach.

The type of things that are gymnastic equipment outdoors, or to be seen on a military base.

However, playgrounds are never very far away, they may be set low to the ground, but they’re free, and generally empty.

You know why kids have better grip strength in proportion to adults?

Firstly it’s less likely that they’re obese, but largely it’s the fact they’re using the monkey bars at recess.

Exercise needn’t be so rigid, nor necessarily thought of as exercise.

Saturday, early evening, I go outside to exercise. I’d been inside, inactive all day, and movement is life.

I look at my barbell, and I look at my bike. Barbell. Bike. Barbell. Bike.

Bike it is, I’ll go to the playground and hit a set of pullups.
Nothing else is set in stone.

A few days ago I realized that there’s a perfect spot at this particular playground for human flags. And I actually dreamt that I was showing off human flags to my father today.

Exercise, the movement patterns themselves, is too rigid.

I do that set of pullups. And as I’m doing so I’m thinking about one arm hangs. I never did video those, I had gotten up to 45 seconds holding onto a 70lb kettlebell weighing about 235-240, and was doing them regularly on the crossfit jungle gym apparatus at that particular gym.

I look around the playground. There’s this tilting balance board, and a spot I’ve pretended to rock climb on.

I roll my bike over there.

My heart was into simulated rock climbing, through I did climb a bit.

I walk on the balance board, trying to go back and forth. The wetness of the ground and my shoes makes this a little more difficult.

I feel my leg musculature firing hard, and remember how effectively balance training builds the cns.

I envision where a slack line would be set up well. “Hey, parallel bar flexed arm hang walks” and I play around with that, going forwards, backwards, hopping forwards, and spinning around to face the opposite way.

Yep, that’s why kids have stronger hands than adults.

I do some more balance walking. I was grokking enjoyment of the feeling greatly.

There’s all these basic activities we don’t do enough of as we grow up until adulthood, that are the most natural of things in our childhood.

Kids don’t have neurotic limitations on movement patterns.

Those who are like that as adults, free of arbitrarily set neurotic limits on movement have a whole lot of mental freedom. Most don’t, but it’s there for all who can laugh, smile, play, and choose it.

I look at the wall and decide to push it. It’s a linemen drill I’ve heard of, and mentally I pictured pushing a truck in preparation to pushing and pulling busses and larger vehicles while doing the isometric. I played around with the angles to feel it in different parts of my shoulder girdle and my legs. Short choppy steps, arms extended.

A wall is not just a wall, a sturdy one serves as a useful piece of equipment.

Now the other day I rode my cart like a scooter to the cart corral, and in the rain ran back to the car. Maybe a 100 yards at a run not a sprint.

It felt good, and I had the feeling that at 260 it looks very loping, or odd to most in some way.

My wind isn’t as bad as it often seems, when I start to ride my bike, or simply go for a walk (this only happens when I’m by myself) I’ll be out of breath fast, as I’m walking very physically tense.

As a mover I’d constantly lift and drop my shoulders in a way that looks like I’m getting ready to fight, but that’s how I stayed loose overriding the tenseness.

When I relax I can still run well. Even if I suck wind after the fact, I’ve stayed able to sprint on a dime at heavier bodyweights, but I was literally talking about running.

When I perceive myself as needing to get somewhere fast on foot I can run well.

However having to be in the right state of mind to not suck wind is an advantage to being lighter of bodyweight.

Those 160lb movnat & ido portal guys running barefoot in the woods, climbing swimming, or setting up a slackline at a playground. Everyone lean at bodyweights of middleweight or lighter, doing “primal” movement – they’re never sucking wind. I respect that.

Bud Jeffries is really cool. He is one thing that makes me think I don’t have to drop weight, all I have to do is play with that primal stuff that’s interesting me lately.

Winter is coming, and that means the outdoors will be mine, in solitude more than in the warm weather.

I may not get to play any tennis this year, though hey maybe I’ll make it happen.

No adults play wall ball like I had at recess. Basketball tends to be available year round somewhere public. Years back I played ultimate frisbee, in this large group that consistently played it pickup style at a park. They’d been doing it for years. I should figure out if they still do.

Physicality, and life needn’t be so rigid. Play makes for feeling the quality that is life.

10/18/20 :

I go back to the playground.

First it’s parallel bar flexed arm hang walks forward and backward. Then the balance bar – forwards, multiple trips forwards, and playing with going sideways both sides, and backwards. If I want to rest from one I go to the other.

I goof around leaping some stuff likes it’s an obstacle course, a rest can be taken by deep knee bends.

Maybe I sit on a bench.

I’m moving, thinking. This is play. This is vitality. I’m one of the few young men who will admit that he wants children. I envision my kids playing on this very playground, me too, my wife too, a happy healthy family at play together enjoying the time, living, far away from the television.

I go to the spot I realized would be good for human flags. Myself open to possibilities, I notice a few spots for doing human flags. One of them, has an easy top hand hold, I’m kicking into the human flag at this spot. I try another spot, the metal sturdy and thick, a good vertical pole, and here too I can kick into a momentary full human flag.

Within the last week I’d read some Al Kavadlo stuff on the flag. I didn’t need to train for it. I possess the strength to have my weak hand at the top, strong side supinated on the bottom and enough core strength to hold the entire thing for a brief moment.

I’m playing at the human flag, play & fun practicing, and figuring out as I go. I realize with the top hand to use the thumbless false grip and to really pull with that side. I was doing a good job pressing with my right on the bottom.

I see myself doing a fun workout at the playground video with all of this on it, myself wearing my own merchandise.

Balancing it out didn’t really work for me. My flexibility to get in a good position wasn’t there. My left hand wouldn’t supinate enough. I did think :

1. Balancing isn’t necessary.
2. I could do it as an isometric, my feet on the ground, to balance the upper body demand. I did this briefly.

Some military press and pullup isometrics.

I attempted to go over the top into another dimension on the swing.
(I wonder who got this reference.)

Top hand vertical, bottom hand horizontal didn’t work well for me on flags. I forgot to try both hands vertical. I went back to the vertical pole I had success on, tried a thin vertical pole, and ended flags on a strong note really locking in my upper body before kicking up on the thicker vertical pole that worked well for the movement.

Thinking I’d leave I realized I hadn’t done a single pullup, riding my bike here to do pullups being how I convince myself to get outside, so I did one strict low rep set. It’s a fat bar, I even had my thumb around.

I enjoyed watching the birds flying around. Watching a plane overhead I thought about life’s truly limitless possibilities. A mangy cat was hunting.

I took a seat and did some freestyle breath work. More like this video than Wim Hof style, though I’ve done Wim Hof breathing for a few rounds most days this last week.

With the breath work i was doing, at one point the world got very bright, and I went from feeling good to even better. There I was tripping myself out on breath work, with good thoughts, after physical play.

Having rode my bike home I grabbed my barbell for some high rep overhead squats and military presses.

That done I took a small dinner back outside, with a water bottle, and can of pineapple juice (tropical juice very much contrasting with the fall air) eating and drinking it all siesta style, relaxed, while typing up another article on the day – a bite, a sip, a few words, breathing, listening to the sounds of nature.

Happy, strong, and healthy is a mindset.

Okay, article isn’t done – I just ran inside to get a skull cap. It’s New England, my ears got cold.

Right now I have a pump in my left forearm.

The parallel bar flexed arm hang walks yesterday made it so I couldn’t close my 200lb heavy grips gripper when I went to bed. I awoke with good bicep activation, the kind of pump that stays with you, and my arms looks bigger in an athletic way to me.

It was the same last night which imspured me to get a good pump on, and I went a little crazy with pushups and dynamic tension style curls and the thing I think of as simulating nail bending.

I did the parallel bar flexed arm hang walks again today. While the hands clearly were worked, the left forearm is a result of the human flag work.

Based on how it feels ; during a human flag the top pull hand gets stimulus very close to a one arm hang as far as grip demand, while the bottom press hand need be locked at the elbow and have shoulder and tricep strength along the lines of balancing one handed in a handstand against a wall.

The Al Kavadlo article was right in chin and handstand pushup work very much being crossover to the flag. For me pulling in general, getting to one arm hang ability, and for pressing to get to be able to do the shoulder tap drill or maybe even barbell military pressing with low reps would work for the flag.

Of course specificity does work. I keep kicking into human flags and I hold the flag longer and longer. I’m looking forward to playing with them again next weekend.

While I may lean out, it’d be hilarious to hold a long flag, and then take off my shirt to show the
stomach fat off, since extra weight, especially fat is supposed to limit one on calisthenics.

However, try telling that to Bert Assirati. He doesn’t agree, and may put you in a boston crab for your trying to tell him his limits, and for your general negativity.

The balance board walking got me to thinking :

Lots of balance work is like a cheat code for future athleticism.

Most don’t have the ability to balance as adults.

While the gymnast has serious balance ability with his upper body, and his lower body, the skater and surfer are building their balance with the lower body.

All three take to sports and physicality well if they so choose having that ability to balance as a base.

You can make quite the athlete out of the bored teenage skater, and there is a surfer to mma track already.

Getting balance is readily available : just teach yourself to handstand, then start hand walking in that position, and for $20 you can get an inexpensive skateboard which for just learning to balance while cruising around serves it’s purpose.

P.S. Five hours after the flags I have the best upper back pump of my life. Wow what a movement! The simultaneous push and pull required to do the movement is an amazing stimulus.

And a couple hours after that I hit a PR with the 200lb Heavy Grip gripper in my right hand.

(5-7 closes/mm near closes, with quick “set” reset between singles, the first rep no “set” and fully closed, the next two or three closed fully, and two or three more within a mm or so. This is a performance PR even if not for reps.)

I attribute this to the flexed arm parallel bar walks.

Duolingo is free, milk it for all it’s worth. Having used duolingo for a few years now, here are some things I’ve noticed that you can do to use it more effectively :

While you can keep an active streak alive with one lesson in the target language a day, it’s much better to do as much as possible. You want to learn the languages after all.

Sometimes I’ll give myself challenges such as “I’ll finish the skill tree this month to level one”, and spent a sizeable portion of my free time over the next, it was less than two weeks, getting just that done.

Psychologically it’s better to force yourself to learn with deadlines. You go from wishy washy about doing more than the minimal amount, to doing lesson after lesson mostly without thinking about how much you’re doing.

Waking up and immediately practicing or going to bed immediately after practicing can serve as a way to think better in the target language.

Even if it’s not the most efficient way, I like to teach two languages to myself at the same time often switching back and forth lesson by lesson as a drill for brain power. This increases IQ, it makes you smarter.

An hour a day is nothing if you truly want to learn the language. Set a timer, go the entire time not paying attention to the clock but practicing with total focus, then when the clock runs out, finish the lesson you’re on, and then stop. Easy peasy. Continue if you please.

Typing the answers up  requires more active engagement than selecting the word bubbles.

Do practice the language outside of just duolingo. Duolingo alone tends to have you learning moreso as a mute.

I saw the directions were in ten languages on the manual for my uncle’s truck. I was blowing his mind reading, telling him what the words I knew meant, and doing my best to sound out the rest in russian.

I’ve taken to when I read and come across an anglicized russian name to translate it back into cyrillic. I feel great when I get it perfectly. A few years ago cyrillic was all greek to me.

Spanish is so easy, though again – outside of duolingo, speak it when you can. The presence of immigrants makes picking up languages more efficient, that or you become the immigrant. Skype or similar can be the answer here.

I tend to attempt naming everything in the grocery store trilingually, sometimes quadlingually. I do the same in the car mostly with russian.

If you’re really sick of practicing the target languages, it’s okay to for a short time stop doing lessons for them, and instead do lessons for another language entirely.

Doing this keeps the brain working on translation, and after a few days or a couple weeks, you go back to the target languages and often find yourself connecting their dots better.

Languages in your bloodline, ie those spoken by ancestors may pick up more quickly than languages none of your great-great-grandfathers spoke. And I’ve retained them more strongly when I cycle back to them as time off from the target languages.

However spanish is still silly easy.

The longer you keep it up the better you get. A few years in I know some russian words just as a part of me. I knew nothing past да and нет coming in.

During hurry up and wait situations at work I have used the app to practice the languages.
Having done this I would tell coworkers that I’m now a professional linguist, just as playing chess and go on my phone in similar situations made me obviously a pro player in them.
When we came across dumbbells or a barbell I tended to curl or overhead them so as to say I must now be a professional athlete. Once did an overhead squat before putting the barbell in the truck, looked my nearest coworker in the eye and told him I’m a professional weightlifter. I was getting paid for them after all, however the coworkers insisted that’s not how status as a professional works.

An app on your phone is very convenient. However the app is not superior to the web version. I leave myself logged in on my phone’s web browser and practice there the most.

Timed practice is fun – if/when it’s available. A unique challenge, but easily abused as a way to just put in little effort towards getting your daily XP.

You don’t have to finish the skill tree, nor progress down it. It can be better to really get/master the above lessons before moving on, and I’ve done this a few times for a few languages – reset the skill tree and start over at the basics.

Cyrillic wants you to do this.

It’s far less lazy to teach yourself outside of the app as well. The app can teach stuff in a strange order.

The cartoon characters are unnecessary, at first I thought them distracting especially once they had become moving emoticons. It’d be a nice option to turn them off, but it’s a free app. I’ve learned to just focus on the translation.

I am thankful that duolingo is freely available. Learning other languages was something that has always interested me, and one day a few years ago I realized the app would be a way to do that. So I started.

Every minute using the app is a better choice than mindlessly watching another minute of television.

It’s 2020! (or whatever year you’re reading this) Everything you could wish to learn is freely available, 24/7 right there at your fingertips, on the the internet.

When You Have Little Interest In The Gym :

When you have little to no interest in the gym I say go with it.

You’re not going to wither away in a month or three. Or even longer.

Continue to eat well. I consider trips to the grocery store to be an anabolic activity.

You get your calories there. You’re doing it right when the cashiers know you as a regular, and know your hauls to be made up nearly to
entirety of muscle building foods.

Right now it’s fall. Apple cider and egg nog are on the shelves.
Drinking those and doing a few pushups means I’ll never drop below being more muscular than over 99% of the population.

Or use the period of disinterest as a time for fat loss. Fast, eat little.
Any stimuli = the body holds muscle.

Both approaches work.

There’s a school of powerlifting that teaches infrequent training.

World record superheavyweights have gotten that way on as little as one session a week.

The dude I knew who had a 500+ bench at under 21, he was eating up/growing into the superheavyweights, and in the low frequency school. He’d bench roughly every 5th day, squat twice a month and deadlift the same, sometimes only once a month.

Even without heavy lifting not much stimulus is needed to keep you muscular.

I’ve been doing my pushups daily, ranging between 50 and 125 a day.
About once a week I’ll hit one set of high rep overhead squats, and once or twice a week I’ll do a couple sets of 10 bodyweight squats consciously squeezing the musculature. I get a lot out of those. On the weekend I may hop on my bike and pedal to a playground for a handful of pullups. Before going to sleep I may squeeze a gripper a few times.

The pullups are the heaviest stimuli here. The rest are all light exercises, but here’s the key :

The body knows it’s still required to be capable of performing.

Light exercises keep the body “in training”, even while doing very few reps.

The body will always be stronger than the training stimuli.

Brief exercise, both throughout the day, and consistently over time keeps the body primed for performance, growth, strength increase.

While not going to the gym I’m still doing this with pushups, and the other exercises that I fit in naturally without changing my day.

The military forces this on one in boot camp via punishment reps. The jacked inmate in prison is related to the same phenomenon. And you experience the same working a manual labor job.

A bunch of light stimuli on a regular basis, coupled with occasional heavy stimuli makes very strong men.

Usually you carry 40lb boxes all the live long day, then next Tuesday you deliver a 600lb gunsafe, or a grand piano.

You do pushups every day, at 260lbs this is the equivalent of benching between 156 and 182lbs per rep. Occasionally you have someone (a middleweight) stand on your upper back for a rep or two, even with added dumbbell & plate weight. That I estimate as equivalent to a 365lb bench.

Homeboys can do THAT in prison.

If there’s ANY muscular stimuli present…

If the amounts going into your chewing hole neither resemble the pursuit of beached whale nor of skeleton rack status…

This experience also really drives home to me the power of food, and the amount of excuses related to training that grocery store access negates.

Who cares if you go to a gym or not. Gym visits end up inconsequential.

It’ll still be there when interest returns, and you will blow the minds of those who both noticed your absence, and that you not only didn’t regress, but progressed.

Eating well and training effectively is easy, so easy cavemen (well the modern equivalents) do it.

I’m gonna go do another 20-30 pushups, and then eat.

The World’s Funniest Case Of Getting A Spotter Ever :

This happened on 10/16/18, two years back, I was in Cali taking care of my grandma.

For context here’s the log of the bench portion that day :

Bench :
1×275
Failx315
1×315
6×275
15×225
27×185

The 40yo stereotypical blonde haired surfer dude who had been spotting me for the sets at 315 and the 275lb back off set had to leave to go pick up his kids.

I had done 15 at 225 without a spot. With a spot it could have been more, and for 185 I wanted a reps PR, I wanted 30 reps, and figured a spot would be useful there, a big part being so I could zone out and still know the rep count at the end without having counted myself.

There weren’t many people around.

Three. One guy, two girls.

The Colombian? :

I’d already interacted with one of the girls, a late 20s 5’8″ or 5’9″ nicely curved t&a thick fit, with 4 pack, light/pale skinned jet black haired latina with a nice smile and a tattoo on the back of her left shoulder. I’d guess rich colombian, but the tattoo was strange for an immigrant latina.

When I had wanted to strip the bar from either 275 to 225 or 225 to 185 she was walking to the leg machines directly behind the bench I was at, literally stopping and texting 3″ away from the end of the barbell sleeve, blocking me from changing plates, oblivious to her surroundings.

I let my rest period run till her being there was slowing down my workout, easily 90 seconds or longer of me letting it be, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her “what is that the arbitrary texting spot”.

She looked at me confused “I no understand”.

I told her she was in my way, that I can’t change my plates with her standing there, and she took a step away from the barbell – mission accomplished.

She walked two or three steps away, and returned to me “what is arbitrary texting spot”.

I look her right in the eyes figuring that with no comprende barrier that I’ll simplify things I’ll tell her exactly what I was doing.

I’m looking her in the eyes, and I flat out tell her “I was teasing you about
texting right next to my bar”.

THAT, that she understood! The look in her eyes, the body language, you could tell she’s now interested.
Reacting to me telling her that initially, a minute or so back, I’d been teasing her, and her instantly reacting like she got that I was teasing her then. That dynamic cracked me up.

She goes to a leg curl machine probably 8′ from me.

The Double Bodyweight Benching Banshee Gangbanger :

15′ to my left is a decline bench.
The work weights on the bar were 225, 235, 245 for sets of 8 by a get this – short probably 125lb hispanic dude with teardrop tats spending his short rest periods fists clenched, staring at the barbell, and SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for 15 seconds at a time. I was impressed with him going practically double bodyweight for 8.

Having had a hispanic gangbanger visibly working himself up to take off on me in some manner over my having accidentally personally affronted him by asking to work in on some equipment a few years earlier – I decided to let the double bodyweight banshee emulating dude do his thing without me interacting.

That left one option. The other girl.

Now this gym floor had tons of immigrants, I remember hearing not only english and spanish, but german, arabic, and portuguese, among other languages there.

The Third Option :

I can tell this girls a foreigner. Looking at her she has a bit of a mediterranean look, a friendly euro vibe, initially I think french.

The colombian? had walked off, I hadn’t stopped her for a spot, as I didn’t want her thinking I had interest in her. I didn’t.

The benching banshee is stripping his plates, and this girl starts to walk off.

“Hey, before you leave. Can I get a spot?”

She stops, looks at me, doesn’t say a word.

I go kinda stupid looking back, nearly repeating myself verbatim
“Look, there’s no one else around. Can I get a spot before you walk off?”

…crickets…

For a split second I’m thinking “really I stopped someone that much of a bitch to just give me the silent treatment and stare”, but before I said anything, the thought had been only split second in my mind, I realized :

1. She’s still here.
2. The look isn’t bitchy, it’s… confusion.

Now I’m thinking “I’d thought this girl for a european, french. All europeans speak english. What are the odds, first a light skinned latina, now a white latina, both probably rich girls, but both no habla inglés – twice in a row”.

Thinking out loud moreso than talking to her, I shake my head then I look her in the eyes, “you don’t speak english do you?”

Her body language stiffens instantaneously, and a lighty accented voice in a tone of horror
“I speak good.” weird pause “English!”

Half playing along, half giving her the benefit of the doubt, “ok you speak good english. What are you not understanding?”

She shrugs, visibly thinks, “you’re asking me for something. I don’t know what”.

“A spot.”

“I don’t know what spot. Where?You’re asking me for something?”

I’m basically just laughing at this point, and motion to the spotter’s spot while saying “you here”.

Her face just lights up “Oh, help. You mean help. You want me to help.” weird pause “You.”

I may have done a real face palm.
And now I’m curious. Her english seems to have everything but the gym slang term “spot”. There’s a clear accent, she has a peculiar pause in a lot of her sentences where it’s an incomplete sentence, a pause, then finishing the sentence. I can tell she’s foreign.

We get to talking. I explain to her that “in gym parlance, it’s called a spot”. She tells me I’m actually the first time anyone has asked her for one, I was shocked that she legit didn’t know the term despite years in america, and based on her build probably always going to the gym but never even being spoken to.

Guys, there are attractive women who go for years with the impression that all guys in the gym are mutes. This girl was a brunette, 5’7″, had a thin but curvy build that’d be called petite curvy if she was short, and looked taller than she was due to proportions, she had the upper two abs showing though that seemed like just how skinny she naturally was. Her build really was a contrast of thin and curvy. Late 20s, really girly, nice vibe…years without any guy saying a word to her at the gym.

The whole not understanding thing had me curious as to where she was from. I told her that I knew she was foreign, and had thought european – all of whom in my experience speak english. The not understanding me thing though made me think white south american. She told me she was brazilian I told her that “my guess would’ve been french”, looked her up and down “no italian”, and she lit up “you’re good at this, all four of my grandparents are italian, all four immigrated to brazil”.

And while this conversation is going I get the feeling we’re being looked at.

That colombian? had walked away just before I stopped this brazilian chick. In my peripherals I see that she’s on the other side of the gym floor staring daggers, death glaring at little miss brazil.

“Huh, I just made this girl an enemy. They’re now rivals.” I think to myself, laughing at the social dynamics

She joked that she’s “too tiny to spot this” as she did the corniest of thin chick awkward looking crab poses, I laughed, then reassured her that it’d be fine and said I’d appreciate her keeping track of the reps.

She counted out loud in english, maybe to prove a point. I didn’t specifically say for her to count out loud. And would’ve expected it to be in portuguese anyway.

After 20 I took a breath, and on 21 she tried to grab it as I was near chest, her thinking I’d just had a catastrophic failure out of nowhere, “I’m still going” I say.

I brought it to failure, telling her now she can help me rerack the bar.
“Thank you”, and she told me the rep count “I helped you on 28”.
“So I did 27”.

She went to a different leg machine after offering her spotting services in the future while smiling, very much proud to use the term spot correctly.

Word of the day “spot” was.

We would speak again a few days later, but that’s not this story. However this from the next conversation is notable :

She had a lot of emotions tied up in speaking english well. In undergrad she was housed with other foreign exchange girls, a couple eastern europeans, and they were very mean to her about being better than her at english. She went from no english to fluent in record time, DROPPING the esl classes entirely within a year. She no longer needed them.

I unintentionally pinged that insecurity stumping her with “spot” the one slang term she didn’t know, and because of that lack of comprehension and the prior interaction assumed ella no habla ingles to her horror.

alternate title :

When Brazilian Chicks Spot You @ The SoCal Bodybuilding Gym

In the field events there are minimal marks, heights, distances, that shorter than are null, no mark, no score.

I had a few years of witnessing that in track.

In a recent conversation I said that I hadn’t competed in javelin for that very reason, the marks may not have been markable, and in my eyes wouldn’t have been worth having been measured if they were in fact just over the minimal line.

If/when I flobbed a discus throw near that minimal line I’d just walk right out the front of the circle, purposefully fouling so as to keep the meet moving.

I’ve never done a powerlifting meet.
I wouldn’t unless I’d be hitting what in my eyes are meet worthy numbers.

(Since I’m a big dude : 405+ bench, 495+ squat, 600+ deadlift.)

That minimum distance/height requirements from the field events would go far in speeding up powerlifting meets if they were to emulate minimal requirements for the lifts in each weight class.

I know people who have official numbers, as opposed to my gym lifts that clearly don’t count, who officially lifted less than bodyweight on the bench, barely over bodyweight on squat and deadlift.

I’m talking guys by the way.
Imagine an under 800lb total in the 275s, “weaksauce”.

I get to the promotor it’s money, though I can’t imagine everyone in the meets is pleased by those “competitors”.

At track meets we weren’t.

No one was pleased when a kid insisted on officially recording 3″ past the minimal discus distance when we all eye balled it as possibly a no mark, and ourselves gentlemanly fouled by walking out the front of the circle when we flibbed with such marks.

The worst athletes always wanted official. The better athletes didn’t bother, often enough on scoring marks that were subpar TO THEM, yet far better than the barely minimal numbers insisted on measuring by those barely able to hit them.

(Even better than the entire heat in some cases.)

I remember the kid that won states in the discus doing this…at a distance greater than everyone else in the heat, but something like 20′ short for him.

People doing this kept the meets moving.

Simple Calisthenics For Reasonable Fitness :

Health and fitness has become an industry, and has been very overcomplicated.

Lifting weights? It’s a practice I recommend for everyone, personally I enjoy lifting, but you don’t have to.

Lift I mean. You don’t have to lift weights.

The other night I did a third set of pushups before showering.

The first two sets had me at either 84 or 93 reps for the day (I hadn’t counted perfectly), and I did the third solely cause in my eyes it would be better to do 100+ pushups that day than to stop so close, but short.

With all the overcomplication of fitness simple things like pushups are very much overlooked.

They’re not given the credit they’re due, and almost no one milks them for all they’re worth.

I keep having this thought : “100 pushups, 100 bodyweight squats, 50 chins daily, eat real food, meat, potatoes, vegetables”.

You could half the rep guidelines, change the choice of exercises, eat real, healthy, nutritious food – it’s all guidelines, with the essence being keep it simple, and if you were to actually do this…

You’d be a great example of sustainable above average health and fitness.

And with how bad the average american is this ends up being even higher relatively.

I said in conversation recently that I haven’t bench pressed in two years. This was a very literal statement as in about a week and a half it will be exactly two years. I’m being looked at like “no way you haven’t benched in two years”, but what I didn’t mention to them was that I do pushups religiously as daily PT.

The simple (pushups) negates any disadvantage from missing the extra credit work.

That’s how I view training.
You have your simple consistency, and all else is extra credit.

I’ve been losing most interest in the gym lately.

Now most would turn into something more resembling jabba the hutt or a skeleton than staying somewhere between linebacker and defensive lineman if they were to go from 6+ gym trips weekly down to quitting.

The thing is though : that’s the extra credit!

The pushups are still going to be done religiously.

Wherever I am.

With what I have access to at the moment, I’d be doing high rep overhead squats, and hammer curl feeder workouts on top of the pushup base if I truly did quit the gym for a time.

Keeping fitness simple and always possible logistically has been my approach, and it works.

For myself training is simple, and entirely free of excuses.

Persistence & Tenacity

Even if it’s only for a minute, at midday take your shirt off and get some sun.

That (direct sunlight), putting a smile on your face, and brief victory poses throughout the day are the quickest fix things granting instant happiness.

Everyday get some direct sunlight, don’t burn, yet get as much as possible.

This is a plus to SoCal, the sun must be nearer to the earth, and it’s sunny year round.

However, even if where you are has/gets snow on the ground aka winter, take your shirt off, and let the rays hit your upper body.

Direct sunlight on your upper body, regardless of temperature, does good things.

I’m known to shovel snow shirtless.

-J