Month: April 2021

April 2021 Flow – Fat or Fit – Owning It :

Awhile back my cousin, giant fat body that he is, was lamenting to me the sense of embarrassment that he felt upon envisioning taking his shirt off.

(6’6″, roughly 380, I’ve seen his ass at 400+ before)

I recall at 18 having insisted his 13yo, already ~6’3″, already 300ish lb, big blonde ass yell “I am a goddamn viking!’ before jumping off a rock into the water at this swim hole I had taken him and his human sized older brother to that day.

I told him that at the time to get him to stop being self conscious, stop being fearful, get out of his head, and JUMP INto the water, something that is pretty danged fun once you get past the fear and into the moment.

To be a Man in the moment.

MAN IN THE MOMENT – TAKE NOTE! APPLY!

More recently I told him “then either change it, get built in a way you’re proud of, or don’t change it, and change your mentality to yeah this is how I’m built, and rock it”.

(The Beer Gut™) And we’re going there :

Basically I was telling him to rock it, own it, be not ashamed.

And apparently we’re pulling out corny pop country from a decade back. However it popped into my head as “he’s rocking the beer gut”, how different I recalled it lol.

Personally I’m not so worried about appearance. What matters is whether the functionality, and physicality is there or not.

Performance takes precedence to looks, and if you’re not going to be fueled by the self hatred that forces change instead of the one that overeats and/or eats garbage, vapes, and drinks you’re better off looking in the mirror like this :

how long I’ve sat on this pic lol

And making a big ole training habit which will eventually get you from Bean  standing there to in the mirror Bean as in the pic above.

And it will get you there.

Give it time. +/- 5 or 10 years. Commit.

The performance comes first, the appearance a pleasant bonus.

I’ll always train.

Persistence & Tenacity

April 2021 Flow – Rob Greenfield & Grassy Spaces vs Crops :

Back when I was still watching stuff I had a few “guilty” pleasures when it came to things to watch. I had television in all its forms down to nearly zero.

One of the things I did watch however, follow I should say, was watching the progress of Rob Greenfield on his quest to go an entire year without eating anything other than what he grew and foraged by his own hand.

I was thinking about this. Looking around, taking note.

Off the top of my head I can think of one retiree who has a small garden, and one tiny community garden, used little, and generally overgrown with weeds, not put much to use.

I was thinking about the times I’ve been on the west coast, thinking off how much water is piped in to have grass everywhere.

I was thinking about how just about any space growing anything could instead be space for crops.

Commercial agriculture grows extremely high amounts of calories, pretty much as efficiently as humanity will likely ever pull off. You can drive through crops for hours on interstates, the crop changing seemingly with the crossing of state lines.

I doubt that the world is at it’s max calorie production however. There is so much space. Suburbia could be homes and corn. Abandoned urban lots could be lots of potatoes.

It would be a time consuming thing, and it is not how society is set up, nor something that humanity as is is cooperative enough to do.

A utopian pipe dream maybe. Still I daydream.

Imagine all of suburbia being cornfields with intermittent homes and driveways. People would have to forgo the overtime, and audis to do so.

It’d be like that show “world without humans”, but managed acreage of crop mixed with the homes, skyscrapers, highways, etc.

At the least, if wheat is a grass, could not yards be of wheat, and become bread instead?

Instead of something begrudgingly mowed. Obviously photosynthesis is making the green grass grow all around the nation. It could be calories for human use instead.

I imagine a world where all use all their space for food production, it is something humanity really has done in the past.

It would require a far different lifestyle society wide however.

It’s crazy to think only a few generations back that far more land was small farms throughout the land, that a much higher percentage of the populance was involved in food production, and that the majority outside of the cities produced their food in part, not absolute zero like I’d bet 99.9% of americans today to be at in food production.

It seems to me that the country could have a far stronger balance between local food production, and commercial agriculture. The two could coexist, and that would be a very strong position for the nation to be in, health wise, and access to calorie wise.

Bodybuilding would not exist, access to calorie wise, in a nation of small farms.

People, all of them, whether jacked or obese, can thank commercial agriculture for those calories.

Commercial agriculture is why the country is not at WW2 era body mass indexes en masse.

A 50/50 mix of agribusiness and small scale local production would be less calories, but much healthier overall for the nation.

50/50 allowing healthier local foods to be a big part of the average person’s diet, while still allowing for larger height/weight than pre WW2 era BMI via big agriculture calorie production.

It’s not all in the quantity, nor all in the quality of your calories.

Very much produced is wasted, from food thrown out to food scraps thrown out. Food could’ve been eaten, food scraps could’ve been fertilizer or feed.

Think a little about your food consumption.

April 2021 Flow – Training With Negative Or With Positive Internal Motivation :

I recall back at 14 years of age, taking matters into my own hands, by starting nightly sets of pushups, and situps.

The pushups something I’ve done very religiously since.

I recall being on my bedroll in my grandma’s living room that summer, doing two sets of each, and telling myself if I didn’t give my all on any of the sets that it could be the death of me or someone I care about (picturing infantry squad mates at the time) later in life, saying to self that “the effort in the now matters so much, that wimping out here, could be death there”.

It was a brutal mindset, formed in the mind of a fat 14 year old boy, becoming a man, starting to train was a coming of age moment, in the mind of a 14 year old who hated what he looked like (with small limbs, tits on a guy, and a gut), and hated getting out of breath should he require running.

In middle school taking the pacer test was embarrassing, I remember joking about it to down play it at the time. However I was a FAST base runner, 212lbs of middle schooler having stole second and third, about to run the catcher over.

Whoom Bam!

Until the summer between 8th and 9th grade I did no exercises on my own accord, that is what those pushups and situps were, my 14 year old idea of self betterment (the only exercises I knew, could do, and had logistical access to).

It was fueled by hate. Self hatred at appearance, getting winded easily, and wrapping that up with self talk that not putting in true effort on my nightly PT would mean death in a very personal way in the future.

Not PTing right was being viewed as an act of cowardice under fire.

I went from 212 to 178 as a high school freshman, from not being able to run a mile, to almost passing out the first time I ran an 8:00 mile, being made to sit down, rest, and sit out the drill portion of class after by the JROTC instructor, and by the end of the school year running a best of about 6:15, regularly under 6:20.

And I did the pacer test past the first recording as a freshman, cracking jokes and laughing the entire time, cocky, a performance hugely better than it had been in middle school.

Starting out I trained motivated by hate.

I look back, and compare to the present.

Generally I workout because it is what I do, and I enjoy doing so. I enjoy working out, so I do so daily. I still do daily pushups, that has been nearly unbroken from the start.

The pushups are a religious devotion to me, I’ll hit 5 years without a missed day very soon.

However while looking at my working out at present, I realize that I categorize it as working out vs training, and the mental purpose is more for enjoyment than a burning passion of self hate FORCING me to change rapidly.

The 14 year old mindset was raging, intense, burning with desire to change so as to NOT feel self hate. I was forging myself into something to be proud of.

It was more intense by miles.

I reminisce on this frame of mind which I had half my life in the past, and think to myself :

“You’d be better off getting this mentality back, and going 500 burpees a day, done as fast as possible, to be done indefinitely at some outdoor spot or another regardless of weather, going this til you like your lean & mean frame, and doing so daily to earn the dips & chins that you enjoy each night.”

Persistence & Tenacity

 

April 2021 Flow – The Empty Bar Program :

With an empty barbell you can do a lot.

The simplest program is :

•Overhead Squats AMRAP

That covers the entire body well enough.

I’ll pause throughout the squatting, doing the thing somewhat breathing squat style. Don’t underestimate this, give it a try.

Overhead squats have crazy all around carryover.

The multiple exercise, simple, full body program is :

•Curl or Reverse Curl AMRAP
•Press or BTN Press AMRAP
•Overhead Squats AMRAP

4th (optional) •SLDL

Obviously this is all done standing.
You could change the exercise order, but I suggest the order as listed above, because pumped biceps groove the press, and overhead squats stretch the shoulders.

For rep speed I’d curl normally, same with the btn press should you choose that option.

Reverse curls rest pause, never setting the bar down.

Do the press like a timed test, trying to get as many as possible, as quickly as possible, trying not to pause for as many reps as possible.

As written above treat the overhead squats somewhat like breathing squats. As many as possible, then multiple deep breathes, and repeat a few times.

Should you choose to sldl additionally I’d suggest treating it as a tonic, done slow, euphoric, with if possible touch the toes with the bar range of motion, only a few reps, just as a feel good movement.

April 2021 Flow – A Fat Body Using His Fat As Fuel By Hours Of Physical Activity :

Fat fuckers, on a lifetime of fat fucker food, have huge calorie reserves from huge calorie consumption.

That’s what the spare tire, the keg over abs is – stored energy. A lot of it.

I say use it!

I expect a fat body going bonkers for a few hours a day in the weight room would build a ridiculous amount of muscle rather quickly, quite fast.

Fat boy shouldn’t cut calories, he should keep them at 5000, but train past his calorie consumption, do that much work, and run on his fat reserves.

I see this being a way for fat boy to only lose fat, the calories are high for anabolism, the activity is high for fat loss.

Endomorphs, fat bodies, sumo builds, have huge muscle building potential, and may or may not have significant strength already.

What’s missing is the physicality.

The potential for building muscle is just comical for a 2021 fat body vs his bone rack forefathers only a few generations back.

Have their past activity levels with present calorie consumption.

High activity.
High calorie.
Both.

He could recomp to the tune of a couple pounds a week. Muscle on. Fat off.

If he puts in the time.

Endomorphs carry so much more shear mass than mesomorphs.

Linemen are scary muscular when they shed the fat.

The largest of muscular builds.

April 2021 Flow – Becoming A Mesomorph :

8 sets of pushups at the gym.
2 while reading.
2 late night.

12 sets on the day, about 300 pushups, just a few over.

That’s in addition to volume gym lifting.

I can tell you how prisoners get muscular.

It ain’t supplements.
It ain’t drugs.
It ain’t diet.

It’s simply doing volume, building muscle because at some point enough work forces muscle growth irregardless of all other circumstances, and once you’ve muscled up enough your body type becomes mesomorphic.

Training will turn you into a mesomorph.

It’s a positive feedback loop.
As you build muscle you’ll build more muscle.

It gets EASIER as you do so. Period.

I don’t know what I started as, probably endomorph.

I then cardioed myself skinny fat.

Force feeding got me to endo-meso, and as I continue to age and lift (both factor in) the switch to mesomorph comes more and more.

Train for a decade, you’ll make some serious changes, then never stop.

Everyone can, but not necessarily will, become a mesomorph.

Somatotype changes given the requisite stimulus.

April 2021 Flow – Big Push/Pull Results From Planet Fitness :

I was laughing to myself thinking about how big a push/pull I’d have when/if I ever go back to lifting in barbell gym circumstances.

How long does volume at pf take to make a 405lb bench? It’s close.


I’ve calculated weighted pushups to 365+ lbs, and have gotten stronger since.

(The video equivalent to doubling about 330lbs, off camera same “weight” x5-6.)

My back is growing with all the seated rowing, heavy sets getting stricter, and I’ve been transitioning to doing so one handed, as a stand in for heavy one arm db rows.

Factor in weighted dips and weighted pullups/chin ups.

Volume the stack of the lower back machine to keep your lower back in the pink.

With honest work you’ll build a big push/pull at planet fitness.

The place does work well when you make it so.

And I hadn’t even mentioned smith benching or bodybuilding the back with the same.

A lifting partner has gotten me to do shrugs in the smith, I hadn’t shrugged in years.


I was laughing, him thinking 4p shrugs, strapped in the smith machine as heavy. I keep telling him about “pf heavy” vs “real gym” heavy.

(Planet Fitness “Heavy” vs “Real” Gym Heavy – article for another time)

I make planet fitness work for me.

Why not train there til you’re hitting an over 1000lb push/pull.

If you’re not, you’ve yet to maximize pf.

April 2021 Flow – Brain Training :

First I use duolingo, then immediately after I play trombone.

As I rest between tunes, having played a few, I stand like a tree, deep breath, and think powerful positive thoughts.

I play more music, then do more qigong – a few times over.

Qigong is financially free, as is duolingo, and an instrument, I still have my trombone from my youth, can be a $50 investment for a used instrument at a local music shop.

•Play music, be it sheet music, or improv.
•Do tai chi/qigong.
•Learn foreign language(s).
•Have physicality.

You level yourself up doing these things, and they’re all readily available.

There is always an in, something positive to do that is financially free.

Without a dollar, you can sing.

For physicality you can do jumping jacks shirtless in the sun.

Qigong is free.

Self teaching languages can be anywhere from free to a small dollar investment.

There’s always something positive to be done with your time.

Victory pose :

4/19/21 – 300lb Chins & 400lb Dips :

Just about done on the gym floor I was asked if I had my dip belt with me.

I did as half an hour prior I’d been using it with my training partner who had already left.

I had done a 5-10-15-20-15-10-5 pyramid with bw+45 for weighted dips, then by myself did 3×20 seated row (3-5 sets of 20 being up the pin a notch progression time), 5×15 machine curls (progression time), pullups x10, x12, 5×15 see saw press (½ the curls, then a set of pullups, ½ the see saw presses, repeat, and again progression time on the presses), and the majority of my daily pushups.

Being asked about the belt I figured after having done some volume, to go heavy for a few sets of dips, even chins upon the coaxing.

He did a superset of both, I doubled chin ups at bw+45.

2×300+ lbs chins – ✓

He did another superset.

I connect three 45s to the belt.

Dips – bw+135lbs x2
Dips 2×400+ lbs – ✓

Finished my daily pushups, then did a final set of 10 weighted dips at bw+90.

It’s pretty cool to know if I was to wake up a fat body on the morrow, at 300lbs I’d still be capable of a couple chin ups, at 400lbs a couple dips, and at 350lbs a set of 10 dips.

Even fat bodies can have the strength for a couple reps of calisthenics – bro you’ve gotta get to some chins and dips.