It is not in looks.
It is not in physical strength.
The purpose of the gym rightly is metaphysical.
It is in the striving.
It IS the ever purposeful striving.
The truth of the gym is in the mental of the self betterment.
It is not in the physical of the self betterment.
You could work your body.
There is 1,000 times more value in working your soul.
As a Man it’s not about looking pretty, or being physically strong.
It is in the mental of self improvement – the opportunity to slack off and training with passion anyway, the passing on of knowledge gained through sweat equity, the defiance in your eyes at society, swearing to never be just a television watching physical and mental trainwreck, in getting on the floor day after day and doing your pushups because…
YOU KNOW you have value as a Man…
To Yours. To Self. To God.
You a Man.
The gym?
It is physical, yes.
That’s the lower plane, the unenlightened place…
The gym participated in rightly is a journey of the Soul.
Muscling up is easy.
I know it to be true, though a decade ago, at age 15/16, I wouldn’t have believed it.
Researching programs tends to have a hamstringing effect. You leave the lifting forums thinking “what works”, instead of more accurately “what doesn’t work”.
That’s a 20/20 hindsight that would’ve been huge to know at 13 years old.*
See it all works. That’s my experience. It can be yours.
Take any method, put heart into it for a decade, and it trains you into having the best genetics.
As a teenager you may struggle to get big, but by your mid 20s it’s more difficult to not make gains.
At 20/21 something changed in me.
While I credit the million pushups and loads of isometrics I was doing at the time in part, at 20/21 I also gained some man strength overnight.
I’ve seen the same happen with at least one friend. The sarms don’t explain all of what I saw happen there.
A decade of consistency makes you a whole different person… physiologically.
16-21, that’s 5 years. It very well likely only takes 5.
The body is far more pliable than people realize.
Give the body credit. It’s amazing. It has potential without limit.
Once upon a time you’re struggling to get over 200lbs, “dirty bulk” for long enough, with God tier training consistency having good effort, and abs at 250lbs is very plausible.
My lifetime goal of 275lbs with abs is realistic from where I’m at now.
The method of training doesn’t matter.
It’s the consistent effort that does.
-J
*As I was reading up on lifting well before having access to weights via the high school weight room.
Seated Press In The Smith Machine Like Zydrunas Savickas :
Zydrunas Savickas apparently in a vintage photograph.
I’ve only pressed in the smith machine like Zydrunas Savickas a few times.
A couple times heavy months back, and the other day with the thought of either starting 10×10 or working a set of 50 reps on it as a regular thing did 5×10 with fairly quick rest periods and only a 25lb plate each side.
Now I like the movement, pressing away with the smith machine’s angle like in the picture, and like how brute force the movement feels.
I’ll be sticking to volume, and maybe sticking to fairly long rest periods, I have 3:00 in mind.
Burpees :
100 burpees, :12 intervals, I jog up the last 4:00 of the twenty, doing high knees the last :12.
I get one comment that I’ll feel this for the next two weeks – hahaha.
I answer him “it’s an easy pace, see I can talk”.
Truly.
This could be done multiple times daily, it’s just mental toughness.
Burpees being an exercise entirely dictated by one’s mental self talk.
I could’ve quit, I thought that I might puke while jogging it up at the end, something I’ve done twice from exercising in my life. Think that down. I’m not stopping!
1. Wrestling Practice – junior year, sprint repeats – I saw trail mix in the snow.
As a high schooler I looked with disgust on the others speaking of genetics and shit, stuffing their faces, never once putting in any physical effort.
I remember thinking upon seeing and hearing this big dude, 6’3″, 280, BIG BONE STRUCTURE, big hands, griping about the genetics of the kid who played starting running back? on the football team (small, maybe 5’8″ 145), and thinking…
“Why don’t you get your fat ass into the weight room for a couple hours every day, then run 20 minutes of bleachers or stairs afterwards every session, and see what your genetics truly look like!”
See I went from 212 to 178 as a freshman, and ended sophomore year at 174.
By the end of junior year I was around 230 after having went from 195 to 215 in ten days the second wrestling season was over.
Big changes by my own hand.
At 14yo 212lbs I remember showering up, soaping the moobs I had at the time, and thinking to myself all these negative thoughts like “how could I ever even bench 225, more than I weigh, with my arms”, feeling like a disgusting fat body, and thinking my genetics were fucked…
While soaping my moobs I decided that moment that I’d put in the work, and find out if my genetics were truly screwed. I’d put in the work to change it regardless of payoff.
“I’ll train til the day I die! If my genetics truly are that bad, I’ll die happy still a disgusting fat body knowing I fought, continued to fight, and never stopped fighting to change it! Or I’ll change it.”
The shower that evening was a pivotal moment in my life.
Whatever the circumstances, whatever the “genetics”, whatever whatever.
Since doing my pushups is a given, it can become creative how I end up doing them each day.
I’ve taken to on days I don’t go to the gym simply hitting a set every few minutes to a few times an hour while reading.
The reading is the focus, while the pushups involve the body in what would otherwise be inactive time.
This is an approach that would work for the most reclusive of introverts.
You don’t have to go to the gym, you don’t have to go anywhere. You can simply do calisthenics throughout your study periods where you’re at.
Brain and body throughout the same period of time.
You’ll eventually come out of the lair built decently from all the reps.
I’d suggest doing this in the fresh air as much as possible.
At a public library for example take a brief stroll outside every so often, maybe even do a sprint or two or some burpees while outside.
It’s all self betterment.
Looking back all the bedroom video game time was a self inflicted scourge upon myself.
•lack of socialization
•lack of physicality
•lack of natural weather
Video games – the self inflicted health scourge upon introverts.
Video games would nearly be acceptable with an open window, and a heavy bag in the corner hit for a round a couple times an hour.
Moreso if they’re only played against a friend right there with you.
And the two of you just came in from some one on one sport for an hour or three.
In addition to our brain activities we need not only physicality, but fresh air and sunshine too.
And the socialization.
The gym can often fit that bill.
It does for many, and I’m not talking just the news and sports talkers wasting time.
Many teen or twenty somethings teach themselves to be outgoing asking for spots, striking up conversations, giving deserved compliments, eventually giving advice upon being asked…all at the gym.
Much gym acquaintance and developed friendships is centered around the first instance of who asketh for and who giveth the first spot.
The rest is commenting on the world around you. Lose your headphones. People love you for doing so.
I have a million examples.
On days where I desire the solitude however I read and mix in my pushups.
I’ll read outside too.
Fresh air is necessary.
A Man is his own climate control. We don’t need coddled heat and ac making an artificial 70° all year round.
A few days ago it was a set of 13, and I’m consistent with getting a set of 10 each session though the following sets end up being 7s.
I’m growing lats.
Pullups can do it, but for me right now it’s lat pulldowns.
I’ve taken to using them more days than not, and going light while feeling both the squeeze and the stretch of the negative is putting lats on fast.
I use 100 or 120lbs so far depending on how it feels in the moment.
As my lats grow I up the selector pin a notch. This is bodybuilding first – the focus is on the muscle not the weight.
It is growth to progress pump work with good focus on the muscle using heavier and heavier weight.
My form looks horrendous.
Like in this video, that is if this is the video that shows lean back lat pulldown form.
It was a Dave Pulcinella video where I saw it as a teenager. The above link is at least the right subject matter talk by the same.
The “cheat” form involves leaning back 45° or so as you pull, only using a little momentum in the pull, hold the contraction, then feel the stretch on the negative.
Often breaking the rules of lifting is how you progress.
I’m growing lats with regular lat pulldowns with various grips, attachments, and forms, doing some variation(s) about five days a week.
I’m enjoying lat pulldowns right now.
They’re light like pushups, and pushups have served me very well.
The simplest thing you can do for leg training, effectively magic in it’s positive effects, is holding a high horse stance.
Not only a static hold which builds your explosiveness while also giving you staggering strength – combined with tai chi type arm movements and deep breathing it is a meditative practice.
I do a brief hold, no timer running, just deep breaths with arms in, arms out each breathing cycle, standing up after finishing a cycle having clasped my hands in prayer posture.
A brief posture immediately before laying down, then another immediately upon rising.
It feels a healthful practice, so simple, and so convenient – I had went long enough since doing this with regularity.
Easily implemented, the benefits are well worth it.
Legs well rounded and capable in every physical capacity, meditative deep breathing, and a zen mind.
Just because plates are manufactured at a particular diameter doesn’t mean every lift has to be “full range of motion”.
A buddy and I were speaking about the making of concrete weight plates the other day.
He was saying they’d be too thick, I said I’d just make them a larger diameter.
If you’re just lifting in the yard who cares. It’s not a powerlifting meet, and strongman often pulls partials.
“Dude, I’d make them wagon wheel height. I’d just stand on a wicked tall box, probably higher than making it the equivalent of pulling from floor height, should I want more range of motion.”
I’ve pulled a deficit stiff leg at 90% of my deadlift 1rm. I’m stronger lower to the ground, bar at toes, while partials are a muscle builder to me.
Yoke “rack pulls” were great!
↑ Yoke deadlift “from the floor”
The radius of plates was initially settled upon, the design to keep one from crushing their skull should an oly go catastrophically wrong.
I’m not linking that photo, nope.
Certain builds benefit from shortened range of motion.
Dudes built like dwarves, and dudes built like, 6’3″ seems to be the minimum height, elves have very different leverages.
I knew a guy, 6’3″, and he entered college at about 120 – pounds, not kilograms. He showed me photos. Crazy. In his mid to late 20s he had trained himself to classic Arnold, his weight fluctuating between 225 and 245 dependent on how often he ate. Probably the highest metabolism I’ve seen outside of dudes in the 5’8″, 5’9″ 160-170lb range.
He didn’t eat enough and he’d look lighter within the same day.
Not properly hydrated it was the same.
You could see he hadn’t taken in enough food and water!
He’d always have abs, but he was always 2000 calories or a couple water bottles away from starting to appear like a starving skeletor.
Yet…
Doubled his bodyweight in less than a decade! With abs! He put in work!
He could pull all day. It’d be 495 for 4×12 sumo twice a week, a bit less when he pulled conventional, curling 135 for at least sets of 6 strict, good on the leg press, but make him squat? Lol. It’d be maybe 315 maxing, while 225 for 5s was a clusterfuck waiting to turn disaster.
