Month: April 2021

April 2021 Flow – When In Doubt… Pushups + Localized Hypertrophy & Growth :

When In Doubt…Pushups :

20 sets, nearly all being 35 mantra reps, a couple sets of 27 mantra reps, I ended the session with
the last set pushed to 51, 52 reps because I didn’t say the last mantra aloud, making around 700 total in about 45 minutes.

Regularly doing this type of thing you can’t help but be strong.

Push the volume high enough on meaningful calisthenics, and you can’t help but realize how true that above is.

When your chest and triceps both are locking up yet still able to continue you intuit that high reps don’t just build endurance.

When the muscle is in that state you’re building strength.

Outside of a powerlifting gym, 500+ pushups a day will build the strongest pressing of anyone you know in your weight class.

Assuming the calorie consumption is there you’ll get BIG, and it’s a different look than from lifting weights.

Many describe it as looking more natural.

Localized Hypertrophy & Localized Growth :

Even without calories being high you’ll get localized hypertrophy with enough volume.

I was 170lbs with a chest that overshadowed the 230lber’s standing next to me.

The body is an amazing thing.

It will grow to demand, defying what is known about the body.

I’ve seen enough large hands on otherwise scrawny dudes…that work with their hands to say that growth isn’t limited to childhood, that the demands placed on the body in adulthood will still force systemic growth adaptations.

Vince Gironda wrote of seeing a man will his bone structure (hips) to change.

What can you think and take action into making happen?

Big Man Cardio : Jumping Rope

Jumping Rope Is Big Man Cardio :

From The Archives :
Late 2017

As a 15 year old lad of 6′  and barely 170lbs I was forced along with the rest of the wrestling team to skip rope for the better part of 10-15 minutes or 500 skips whichever comes first.

Having become self conscious of using a jump rope after age 5 as “jumping rope is for girls” was the general consensus on the playground at the time I now found myself whacking my upper back or skull about 50 times, and catching it on my foot for a similar number of repetitions 4 days a week that winter as I had not practiced the damn thing in about 10 years (with a short aside of being forced to take part in a “girly” activity by a 4th grade gym teacher).

Unlike running which I very much mentally burnt out of, as I grew I continued to jump rope.

Maybe I like the activity. Maybe I felt overly invested in it’s use as after that season of wrestling I spent a solid hour daily the next summer practicing it (and getting down basic tricks, in addition to actually skipping/jumping the rope efficiently) fully expecting to be forced into the 15 minute/500 revolution protocol again the next winter only to have a change in coaches, the new one liking long ass running. (Coincidently this is how a 200lber can get to running ~21:00 5ks. Do it 4x weekly as hard as possible by coach’s command while blaring foreign rap and other music no one else has heard of. This also is how one grows to hate running, another coincidence.)

Humorous forewording aside: the jump rope is a perfect cardio option, particularly for a big man.

Jumping rope provides similar benefits to distance running but without the negatives. It is far more sustainable.

You will not have it affect your system as much. Whereas running will pump up your lower back, often bother some joint or other, and often enough make you feel weaker jump rope doesn’t dip into recovery like that.

Running gets you better at running. Jump rope has in addition to the cardio benefits also trains agility. It can make you more “bouncy”.

Running indoors on a treadmill I find to be retarded. Go outside! (I do in fact enjoy running bleachers.) Jump rope on the other hand can be done anywhere.

(I skipped a ton of rope in 2015 supersetting with pushups, this oddly got me my running ability back while having run at most once every 3 months.)

Training Reps Per Set With Not The Standard Gym Numbers – The #7

I like training sets of 7.

Counted as
1,2,3,4,5,1,2

Easy

Certain numbers of reps per set are the “usual suspects”, and when you do reps that aren’t these numbers you tend to have no mental blocks on performance.

5×7
7×7

Both are good parameters.

The brain doesn’t kick in with limitations.

A set of 10 I’ll often stop focussing on the muscle.

5 is low reps.

7 is mentally a breaze, while still tuned in.

As I continue to train I find myself more and more finding mind-muscle connection to be important.

7s are a good number of reps per set for this.

(edit : 5/2/24 – man, this holds for me – I genuinely like sets of 7 on the 40kg two hand swing)

Flex The Neck Between Sets :

“Bull neck baby!” I flex my neck five times to the right, and five times to the left, looking at myself in the mirror envisioning a muscular 20″ measurement as I do so.

I never lost the wrestler’s ideal of having a huge neck.

You don’t need equipment, you don’t even need to bridge.

Four directional flexing, with an emphasis on side to side will pump your neck up.

I do so in the bathroom mirror, and I do so in between sets at planet fitness when I’m set up near the mirrors.

Supersetting seated rows, pushups, and making my thick neck even thicker by flexing it during “rests” is the perfect thing to do.

You know the difference between cold and pumped measurements?

A few sets in and the flexing has my neck looking an inch larger.

I wonder how long it would take to go from I’d guess the 17″ range to 19″+ simply doing lots of four directional neck flexing to fill in during rest periods.

It goes from 17″ to 18″ with a quick pump, how long to get permanent development.

You can always add training density. I do so by flexing my neck.

A Conversation : “Walk The Dog 7x A Day” :

“I’d be lucky to lose 50 pounds”, he says to me.

“Dude, you could lose 75 to 100 in three to six months.”

“I lost 30 in football, but that was like four hours a day.”

“So? Commit. Go all in. Walk your dog seven times daily, may as well have your girlfriend come with you too/two, when you’re done look at him, say thank you, he’ll look up, say you’re welcome, and be understanding that you’re at the gym for three to four hours nightly.”

“You do know I work right? That she works too.”

“You do know you have a large, high activity dog. Seven walks a day.”

I wasn’t being facetious, maybe exaggerating a bit. I’d say 3×30 minutes walking his dog each day minimally, more being preferable, and if I were him would be at the gym daily for a few hours each day.

20 hours of gym time a week isn’t that much activity, especially considering the sedentary nature of our society.

Only in the modern world do we think a couple sessions at the gym is high activity.

People used to do EVERYTHING by hand – it’s now mechanized.

I should get him to read up on JM Blakley and Bruce Randall.

You can put in the hours, it’s not difficult physically.

Transformations come fast when the commitment is there.

You’ve got four hours for tv each day, imagine if that was switched minute for minute to self improvement.

“I’m coming up on six months, no watching nothing.”

“I don’t get how you do that.”

“I have better things to do with my time.”

Chuck Sipes – Natural Bodybuilder

I read that Chuck Sipes was natty, and frankly I believe it.

He had a very quality physique, and to me it looks attainable.

Being listed at 5’9″ 220lbs surprised me, I figured him closer to 6′ in the 215-225 range.

and frankly I knew a guy who looks like this at 6’3′ 235lbs

He has the classic build in appearance we all can achieve, the look from bodybuilding of yesteryear, from the ages before steroids and when steroids were something you only ran briefly GAINING WEIGHT coming into a show.

Reading of him there are lessons to be gleaned.

He worked hard physically, not just in the gym, but with the gym as an addition to a physical lifestyle.

Time spent as a lumberjack, and a love for hiking lay a phenomenal base in which to bodybuild on.

It’s notable that he’d bring cables and do calisthenics when on long forays into the woods.

Even going for evening runs after hiking all day, and training with cables, and calisthenics.

It’s notable that he’d regularly train thrice daily. The man believed in putting in work.

His freakish strength is explained not only by shear volume, a dedication over years to being strong with work capacity, but the fact he did lots of heavy partials and supports which are like a cheat code for unlocking your body’s true power.

You can go as far as you’re willing to work for.

Don’t accept limits.

Someone like Sipes is considered a freak today, but if you were raised in Sparta BC he’d be par for the course.

The biggest battle, is the one in your mind, the battle between accepting limitations and going as far as you truly can.

You not only have to push physically, but more effort must be applied to pushing mentally, in being able to look at yourself and tell yourself you’re not even going hard, to tell yourself that you’re not getting nearly the results you could be, the ones that others are in worse circumstances with less than you.

Exceeding yourself by applying the beyond the extreme of outward results to the deepest level of your internal belief.

You can do more in every aspect a thousand fold.

Persistence & Tenacity

Soviet Wrestler Style Squat & Deadlift Kettlebell Exercises :

Soviet Wrestler Style Squat And Deadlift Kettlebell Exercises :

4/3/21 – “Ukrainian Deadlifts” :

Recently I found that this movement setup is called “ukrainian deadlifts” online.

Ukrainian Deadlift

I’ve had fun with the movement, originally picking it up from an old black & white training video of soviet wresters, hence “Soviet Wrestler Style Squat And Deadlift Kettlebell Exercises” when I first played with them in 2018 as I too was doing squats, not just deadlift pattern, in the same way to train around a healing twisted ankle.

It was the first squat variation I could do, and recently with the setup possible at planet fitness, I did them again.

Very good for a pump.

I’ve found nothing better personally for a glute pump.

At pf today I was using a 50lb dumbbell held by the end, at the “hardcore?” gym it’s largest kettlebell – the 70lber.

Louie Simmons has written of the movement done with a roughly 190lb t-handle, it dates to at least soviet wrestling, and I’ve come across it reading up in rehab circles.

Heck, the squat variant is like a belt squat in a way, without the belt, the grip still in use.

Now my first write up…

From The Archives :
7/12/18

At some point I’ll get a video of this, I’ve seen video of Soviet wrestlers doing similar and tried it.

Stand up on two boxes. Grab the heaviest kettlebell you can find.

Now you can do a very deep round backed RDL like movement.

Make the boxes high enough that the bell won’t hit the floor when you’re bent over.

Cool exercise.

Here’s another.

Stand on those same boxes and squat ATG, let the weight pull you down.

The kettlebell will be centerline, directly under you at the bottom.

You find that this movement is VERY good for firing the muscles/hard contractions.

It also has a theraputic effect to it.
On a hurt ankle it was the first squat variant I could do comfortably.

It also lends itself to high reps, work capacity development, and has a cardio like effect.

With some elbow tendonitis going I’ll likely do this for a short while.

The KB likely stretches the tendon, which helps, at the very least I’m not aggravating it with the bar on my shoulders.

All the positioning involved makes this a squat variant very easy on the body.

4/2/21 Gym Dream

The Tiny Storefront Weightlifting Club :

Man, this was dream world, not reality.

I had showered up and was driving home from planet fitness. When I noticed a storefront sign…

I’ve heard that name before, I thought it was in a different town probably 40 minutes from here…

It must have moved closer.

I walk in.

Weirdly there was no one at the desk, no one in the office, no staff, or as small as this place was, no owner stopping or approaching me.

A few adults are paying attention to what looks like a weightlifting competition between a few teenagers, probably aged 14, all around 140lbs, all hitting good snatches and cleans.

One dude misses the jerk.
He’s pissed.
Another dude is now elated.

An adult writes down the result, “looks like we know who’s on the team then for the competition in two weeks”.

Seated in front of me, we’re on a three row indoor gymnasium style wooden bleacher, is this I’ll say 6’3″ 330lb 28yo, big dude.

He’s chomping down on a big bag of wendy’s (it was trademarked wendy’s, even dreams have paid product placements lol) and drinking from an open half gallon of chocolate milk.

Those adults who had been officiating that lightweight weightlifting team qualification are grumbling about lacking a heavyweight.

I guess this is a weightlifting club, I only see platforms, and barbells.

They’re trying to fill out a team to send to a competition.

Real old school, no stands as far as I can see. Just platforms, barbells, and bumper plates.

That fat dude introduces himself to me, shaking my hand, and before I reciprocate with my name, he’s hollering to those who had been officiating “I’ve got your heavyweight right here, look at him, I doubt the competition is going to be anything but a formality”.

I get pushed/dragged by all the adults present to the platform. Those teens who’d been competing had left.

They say I’ll open (I’m in street clothes, wearing beat up sneakers), and the other three are changing up in the locker room.

I figure fuck it, it’s an opportunity to max on olys, and I get the feeling firstly since no one has thought to day pass me yet that I make this team and I won’t have gym dues.

Secondly I ask a few questions, and it’s clarified that this is in fact the case. I like hearing this.

The owner, I still haven’t met him, loves weightlifting, and hates to send a team from his gym to competitions while not filling out every weight class.

He doesn’t care if you’re good or not. If he has so much as one member in any particular weight class they’re part of the team. They’re going. Statement. Not a question.

I’d walked in while all present were curious to see who would win the lightweight spot. It’s the gyms most contested/competitive weight class.

I’m told the heavyweights are all weak fat dudes.

Oddly the guy who’d been on the bleacher eating in front of me isn’t trying his hand.

They’re in the locker room.

I’m thinking fuck it, and in my street clothes with torn up sneakers, you know a pair of running shoes ready to sing their death song not to hit max snatches in, halfway between power and squat form I snatch 205, 1st attempt, I haven’t consistently done olys in 2½ years aside from a little yard lifting, and there’s a mix of groaning and celebration.

2 of 3 drop out at that, one takes 165, 185, fails the 205, and drops out.

Four heavyweights, sans the dude still on the bleachers, and I win on a 205lb snatch, and like that I have a free gym membership, located in my dream world really close to planet fitness and it’s showers, and was now expected to train seriously for something.

All gathered looked at my “retarded caveman heave, (← actual quote) and were saying I’ll get good form and shoot up in numbers fast.

Later I find out they have an eight station nautilas setup (partially disassembled, two or three parts set up solitary for space reasons) and one power rack in another room.

There was a really good seated press and lever arm lat pulldown on that nautilus setup.

The resident bodybuilder (50yo, 5’10”, 220, all veins everywhere, complete as per stereotype in string tanktop) was amped up having me on the weightlifting team, insisting I train with him, insisting he’s gonna have me bodybuild to over 300lbs with abs because because because, and to be even better at weightlifting.

His primary reason being because because because.

Growing people into weight classes is why his presence is tolerated at this weightlifting club, which is all weightlifters.

Maybe the dude who’d been on the bleachers in front of me was the one powerlifting exception

Never did meet the owner.

Cool dream.

Thoughts :

It would be interesting to see what I could do at a weightlifting meet, or strongman competition off of calisthenics mostly mostly at planet fitness.

Heck, a bench only meet would go well off of the smith machine. I am smith benching now in reality. I did today. I’m getting strong here.

And on the meets/competitions note – I’ve always been stronger outside of the weight room.

-J

4/1/21 Lifetime Pullup PR – 20 Reps

Pullups :

Under the bar, I hop up, and start.
5,8,10, easy, 12, still easy, hit 15, keep going, 17 I tie recent PR, they’re all strict, 18 strict enough, 19, 20.

I was a little loose with form on rep 20, and maybe on rep 19.

Lifetime PR
age 14 to 26
zero to 20 reps
Pullups

I’ll get it truly strict soon. Making it a solid 20.

I’d be even higher with chins.

I don’t know what I weigh. Screw the scale, it doesn’t matter.

6′, I doubt I’m any lighter than 245, I’m probably 260.
20 pullups.

There is only performance.

You want to be good at calisthenics – it’s commitment, do lots of reps, give it time, you’ll get there.

The first thing I do on the gym floor is a set of pullups. I always get 10, some days more, like today.

I tend to do a couple more sets of 10 throughout my time at the gym.

It’s just something I do. It doesn’t feel like work.

It’s cool to still get the set of 10 immediately after machine preacher curls.

Now I’m at what was the next level. Going up.

Dips :

I spoke about dips with my uncle.
I’ve done over a 100 before.

Recently I’ve done 60 reps on a couple of occasions, and always am good for 50+.

100 for time took just under 3:00 very recently.

They’re the body transformation gone dumb, taking thought out of the equation.

They’re the dip odyssey.

My Fat Friend :

He’s now coming to the gym with me twice a week.

On his own accord he started doing tricep pushdowns, even superset them with cable lateral raises.

I was happy.
He did an exercise on his own accord.

He then suggested leg press next.
I was even happier.

I’ll be writing more about us at the gym.

Very obese, he’s pretty weak, but with his massive size I know the strength comes fast.

Full body, getting him used to higher reps and more sets, he’ll get to dips and chins at some point.

It was about four years ago, maybe even once before that, when he first asked to train with me.

He is now!

I’m committed to helping him.

While I don’t view him as doing enough, he is doing something.

He’s now at the gym twice a week.
He’s started on session two to willingly do exercises. He suggested the leg press and wasn’t mamby pamby about it either.

I saw far more effort today than his session last week.

He put in effort on the leg press.

Now, as training “takes”, I’ll have to get him eating reasonably, going for daily walks, and to drop the booze and smoking/vaping.

With me on his side, he can’t fail.

Today was a great spring day!

-J

On The Functionality Of Isolation Movements :

There is much talk of isolation exercises not being functional.

I have to disagree.

Whenever I’ve done cable chest flyes my bench increases.

I have a feeling that cable lateral raises serve in much the same way for shoulders, shoring up useable strength, and largely contributing to the look of “hollywood muscle”.

Side Delts & Trapezius

Curls, such a blasphemous thing to the “serious” trainer – to them I ask are pullups serious? – as curling, most strikingly on a preacher curl machine very clearly improves the ease in which I do pullups and my rep max at the same.

I say isolation movements are functional.