Month: May 2021

5/10/21
“Oh, did you want to use this”, he says to me.

“Yeah, I was going to do some pullups.”

“I was just doing some abs”, and in a hurry picked up his water bottle, phone, and started to schedaddle.

I sense that he thinks he has to clear out.

I’m seeing him doing so.

So I say…
“Dude, just work in. It’s cool.”

“Oh. You, you don’t mind?”

“It’s fine man, I’m not running you out the spot, we can alternate sets.”

Then we did so, me doing a set of pullups, him some hanging leg raises, then repeat for a second round.

Now two sets in, for me at least, as he had been at the bar first, he told me that he was done on the bar, and thanked me. I thanked him as well.

I always allow the work in. You, I, we don’t own the equipment, it’s a public gym.

I want the place to be cordial, and hate being an equipment hog.

99% of the time five or six people could easily share a piece of equipment.

There’s no need to sit for lengths on a machine, stand directly under the pullup bar, or block the dip bars.

I’ve made acquittances, friends, and training partners by allowing the work in.

Today it blew my mind that I was simply looking for the work in, and the kid (a chubby, 22-25yo, better on hanging leg raises, and grip by extension than I expected) was gonna clear out of the spot simply because I wanted to hop on the bar as he rested.

It blew my mind that he was thanking me for allowing the work in…when I was the one working in.

A funny gym floor happening it was. And I too noticed interesting looks aimed my way as this was going on.

5/8/21
I walk to the pullup bar and run into a dude I know. He asks me if I’m jumping in with him on the trx, I say pullups, and he tells me the couple standing next to us, the woman had just done her first strict pullup, the four of us talk briefly about women and calisthenics, and the couple leaves.

The two of us there, at the pullup bar – he was telling me a few things :

•I need to train for strongman.
•I need to eat like a bodybuilder.
•I need to make it happen.

He’s probably 5’6″, 165, lean, (does flags, front levers, etc), is dumbfounded that I match him on pullups while being 100lbs heavier, and was stressing to me the above plus…

Telling me to have more ego in relation to my physicality, “dude you don’t have an accurate image of yourself – you could be 300lbs like nothing, you’re proportional – like me in leverages but scaled up, 260 banging out 20+ pullups, dudes your size don’t do that, especially when they’re not even ripped, will you go train for strongman”…

Telling me to stir fry chicken breast and white rice as meal prep.

(Aside : it’s my opinion that wheat builds you more robust in stature than rice.)

“Will you please eat like a bodybuilder, you’ll go from very big to like the same weight with abs…and train for strongman.”

(I fully agree with him that I could be 300lbs and “strongman lean”, as what was a lifetime goal of 275 with abs natty is entirely in my sights as realistic and close… TRAIN FOR A DECADE you’ll have serious potential “overnight”, the prerequisite is TRAIN FOR A DECADE.)

Meal Prep/Stir Fry :

He does so every morning at something like 445am before work, told me he has a thing about always getting up early, otherwise he thinks of himself as a bitch for sleeping in.

I asked him if he had come across Wes Watson.

He hadn’t, and I recommended a few videos. He was telling me to “try the Joe Rogan podcast…and train for strongman”.

When the two of us get to talking, having run into each other on the gym floor, interesting topics come out.

We’ve spoken before about living in the real world, not the digital.

We have a good vibe going, where positivity, and expectations of self improvement come out – bouncing off of each other.

He was telling me “next time, and from now on, I’m going to just always say to you ; will you train for strongman”.

Thanks dude.

Fatigue isn’t an excuse.

The way I look at it is that for most of human history a high level of physical activity was the norm.

High physicality was the expectation.

You shouldn’t just exercise, you should have high levels of easy movement in your day.

No one walks enough, and while I make fun of those on a treadmill, at least they’re locomoting.

It’s that the locomotion is better spent outdoors.

You’re not a gerbil on a wheel, nor are you meant to be caged.

This applies elsewhere :

It’s funny that all those “good” office jobs are hell on the body due to inside all day, canned air, and fluorescent lighting.

Everyone should own an empty barbell, or improvise similar weight with a length of pipe and either sandbags hanging off the ends, homemade concrete plates, improvised plates, or actual weight plates for a similar weight.

Do at least one high rep set of overhead squats daily.

It’s an amazing practice for keeping the body in “one piece”, solid, with plenty of useable strength from your legs up your entire back.

I’d like to drop a heavy rock outside for frequency use.

A heavy sandbag is similar.

Or maybe buy a second 75lb dumbbells and treat db c&p with the same outdoor frequency principle.

Weight from ground to overhead, regularly, is the simplest way to be a physical beast.

Everyone could be, and can be brutally strong, it’s a simple matter of a few simple practices done regularly.

Obesity has similar principles.

If everyone had a high energy, high activity, large dog, that they cared for properly (meaning walking with it two hours EVERY day) there would be no obesity amongst the populace.

High activity lets one get away with butchering so called diets.

Eat less? I’d rather do more physical activity.

That’s been my way since high school wrestling.

Earn your food.
Make a demand on your body that makes food a requirement.

I pause to eat dinner.
Then I go to the gym for more volume.

As dictator of earth, the entire world would have a 445 wake up time, with mandatory morning PT at 0500 FOR ALL, burpees every morning for the entire world population.

Burpees.
For.
Everyone.

Persistence & Tenacity

I’ve started doing supersets.

The body will always perform to expectation, performance hasn’t dropped…it has improved.

Rest is overrated.

I get into this mindstate where while tired, fatigued, running around all day…

By the time I’m at the gym psychologically there can only be peak performance.

The mind is the biggest part of the gym, and THANK YOU! pf has forced me to get used to using intensity multipliers, to making things harder, and finding ways to do so.

The 75lb dumbbells are getting light, so triceps superset in with them.

So we do the db press, seated row, pullups, dips – all of them everyday.

My pullup ability has improved being I’m now doing sets of 8 all day, supersetting them with seated rows, dips, or smith machine btn presses.

Whether it’s same/similar muscle supersets or push/pull style, it’s going to make you better overall.

I can press a pair of 100s, I’d bet even 120s. I don’t have access past 75s.

NO MATTER!

What you have. Where you are.

I learn so much at pf!

Stuff that didn’t make sense before does now.

Listen to Ken Leistner and load your dips and pullups to between 8-15rm.

Do so much volume the body has to muscle up.

I hear a lot of “you’re jacked” comments lately. It means what I’m doing is working.

Lift daily. Spend as much time as I can lifting. Train multiple times throughout the day.

Fatigue is nothing.

Oftentimes soreness primes you for better performance.

You don’t need a day off!
You need a month or so on.

Keep training until something clicks.

I mostly do the same lifts daily, that’s part because pf = no barbell, part because I get into a particular movement and do it till I move on.

I didn’t expect this a decade or so back when I was new to lifting.

Funny how mindset changes.
I don’t think limits, I think possibilities.

Demand forces performance.

I tell you ; a decade of honest effort gives the best genetics.

Keep biting off more, and keep chewing it.

I get comments like “how don’t you get overuse injuries”.

Cause to me it’s not overuse!
We’re in a soft, low physicality, modern environment.

I have to push!

Man, as designed, is highly physical. So I expect that of myself.

No matter how much effort I put in, I know I could’ve went harder.

It’s a different mentality.

Fatigue?
I’m loving it.

I’ll be training tommorow.

Having shrugged in the smith machine the other day, seeing as to how my pullup ability is, and how I’m getting stronger and stronger, going heavier and heavier for volume with high frequency seated rows – I realized that after a couple years at planet fitness, and a few years since being at a barbell gym, that my deadlift has grown higher.

Get strong using whatever is available. It carries over, and feeling very strong is a sign that you are so.

When you’ve trained long enough you intuit much, you know without having to test.

I’ve started to powerbuild in the smith machine. I thrive off of expecting strength.

The future is open.

Persistence & Tenacity

I laugh to myself while thinking “I don’t train legs”, and yet my quads feel sore as I shower up, nicely enough the part of the muscle around the kneecap – this part of the muscle generally well developed on hockey players, not gym goers.

I had done a set of standing db press, 15 reps with the pair of 70s.

At the end of the set my torso shook, and obviously my vmo was well activated.

Most of the time I press in soft soled shoes, the difference between doing so between them and a hard soled shoe is staggering.

Doing things “wrong” means you become brute strong.

I essentially just hammer curl every bell to my shoulders. The contrast between myself and whoever is next to me can be quite striking sometimes.

I’d like to play with a pair of 100lb dbs.

The Sig Klein challenge?
I’m capable at this point.
I’ll do it at some point.

I prefer to get the pressing and cardio higher, instead of 12 reps, since I’m far larger than Sig…I want the 75s x 25 reps c&p.

I’d mentally always compared pressing a pair of 75s to pressing 185 on a barbell.

185 while not anything crazy, is respectable especially being pressed or cleaned for very high reps.

Go to planet fitness long enough and you’ll become a girevoy.

CLEAN & PRESS THE 75s ALL DAY

While regularly doing pullups is in part why I’m now capable of 20+ pullups, I think a larger part at the moment is all the seated row that I do.

Machine curl has filled this role in the past, regular pullups have, and so have back isometrics – however lifetime pullup PRs have come this last month having done pullups and lots of seated row.

Back isometrics while weighing probably 60-75lbs lighter brought me to 17-19 pullups as a PR set at 21 years old.

Now, seated row brought me to 20+, a set of 20 having been done on a few occasions in the past week, and 15s being “baked in” at this point.

I’ll hit a couple sets of 15 fatigued now.

10×10 pullups with 1:00 rest periods was a lifetime goal.

It’s practically a formality at this point.

Seated row. Do them.

Pullups can be built with training the muscles not the movement.

However both feed off of each other.

My pf program has become mostly seated row, pullups, and see saw press with a little bit of dips and machine curls.

It’s working well.

I’m tempted to either “seated row odyssey”, “dip odyssey” again, or combine the two.

Mentally I’m getting more and more into bodybuilding…but bodybuilding my way.

Develop a lean strongman build by a focus on performance, not stereotypical bodybuilding behavior.

Grape juice tastes damn good.
Something in it I crave constantly.

I can’t eat enough lately.
I’m wicked strong.

The two correlate.

It’s crazy to think what would happen should I get barbell gym or squat rack access.

Partial front squats while in this state?

I know I could be 300lbs with some abs. Not think. Know.

I could get the same stimulus pushing my cousin’s truck.

Of course “I’m at pf – I don’t train legs”. Not that I truly don’t get any leg stimulus, nor that it would matter regardless.

It’s high testosterone to just do.
Do not think. Do.

That’s how I train.

None of the details matter.
Do not think. Do.

10×10 today?
5×20?
Easy sets of 7 or 8?
Actually doing a set of 50-100?
AMRAPing back offs?
Challenging or going through the motions?

None of the details matter.
Do not think. Do.

(It’s noteworthy that seated rows are what I visualize as I mention most rep ranges – I did three back off sets, 35 amrap, 25 nearly so, and 20… getting closer and closer to the stack when I do this sort of thing, today using 180lbs of the available 260. I’ll get stack for 35+, sets of 35 more fun to me/mentally easier than sets of 50 to me at present, and will in the near future start regularly seated rowing one handed.

Picture 260, the stack, rowed for reps one handed!

One doing that is STRONG!)

Upper body bro am I?
None of the details matter.
Do not think. Do.

Train legs do I?
None of the details matter.
Do not think. Do.

Pushups done nightly.
Maybe eat another dinner.

I love the gym, my only complaint is I’d prefer it be done outdoors – in the fresh air, away from fluorescent lights.

I’d like access to a pair of 100lb dumbbells.

I could clean and press them today.
An overweight Sig Klein challenge will be cool.

Bread and butter, simple, hearty.

I wouldn’t be a vegan, in my eyes their bodybuilding nutrition mostly comes down to two fat sources, coconut and avacado, and one protein source, chickpeas/garbanzo beans.

I’d go fruit sugar, likely drinking a bunch of grape juice, apple juice, and apple cider for my carbs that way.

The high calorie vegan meal?
Maybe noodles and beans.
A vegan can’t have macaroni AND cheese with beans, as cheese is from cows, and cows aren’t a plant

Saturated fat is the most important macronutrient to robustness, health, and vigor.

It best comes from animal sources.

Good old butter.
And it’s in the beef.
Milk

It’s amazing how unhealthy stimulant use is for you, especially when it’s not only habitual, but an addiction.

And let’s face it, most energy drink and coffee consumption is addictive behavior.

Instead of stimming yourself up, only to be stimmed out later, wake up with enough time, and take a shower instead.

Taking a shit, and taking a shower is a good way to wake up.

That’s healthy.

People spend far too much time indoors and seated.

I don’t care what the weather is.
I make a point of going outside each and every day.

Todos los dias.
Todos

I’m finding pullup ability is getting “baked in”, I did a PR set of 22 reps a few days back (on 5/1/21), a set of 20 a couple days ago, and yesterday I did 2×15 only a couple of minutes apart with a good see saw pressing set inbetween, and on each set was getting a solid 1″ of hands coming up off the bar most reps.

It was quite powerful for reps of 15, nearing the power required for muscle ups.

I’m on the border of muscle up territory.

I’ll be doing them soon for reps, with pure power, at a heavier bodyweight than I was here.

The three days in a row a big level up in my pullup ability.

I’ve been snacking, anywhere from 100-500 calories a few times a day, then back filling, trying to eat enough each night.

Immediately before bed I take in something, usually grape juice.

Metabolism is probably speeding up.

Three snacks during the day, two to three dinners, plus the late night snack.

I think this is partially related to the season. It’s now spring.

For a few years now around this time I crave lots of grape juice.

It’s an interesting consideration, tying season to training and diet.

It’s an animal thing, so why not for humans too.

A certain feeling of having used your legs, a mix of fatigue, activation, and strength stimulus is very euphoric.

I get it between life, and for a few days now a set of overhead squats each night with the empty bar.

An empty barbell is great. It’s on you to use it right.

I do three sets :
•high rep overhead squat
•high rep btn press
•high rep reverse curl

The overhead squat activates everything on your posterior.

The btn press heightens the shoulder, and upper back activation.

The reverse curl gets your small pulling muscles in on the party, and I deliberately flare my lats to get them in on it too.

/Flow

walk v calisthenics v lifting
You needn’t train every day, though you can, most especially when you psychologically need it.
However ; you should get activity every day ie go for walks, do yard work, pickup sports, etc.
You should get some muscular stimuli daily or near so, like strength villain wrote years back – treat the “assistance” exercises, the frequency calisthenics as the main training, the lifting as the extra credit, flip your outlook. This has served me very well.
I can pushup, since it’s religion to me, and thrive.
I can do pullups, and “dip odyssey” recomp, get stronger, and BE BETTER than I am when my focus is on weights.
Certain things are very easy to add in on the activity and muscular stimuli levels.
Look for “light” exercises with high carryover, that you can do volume on, and that don’t take much out of you.
Calisthenics often fit this bill, though too can weighted cals, and weights when used this way.
I often speak of the value of the empty bar, and tell you that this same frequency work is not limited to calisthenics, it too can be done with low weight, high effect, high rep weight training.
I love high rep presses, and high rep overhead squats for this, whether it’s an empty barbell, or some weight added.
Don’t struggle.
Do a set or three regularly.
Aim for sets of 50, one or two or three, or even aim for 1×100.
Keep it easy. Don’t struggle.
With that easy set of 50 or 100, then add 5-15lbs, and build up again.
You get SUPERHUMAN doing this.
It can be done with machines, cough machine preacher curl cough cough.
Or leg press is another solid machine choice.
Seated row, though I tend to like aiming for 20-25 reps here as up the pin a notch progress standard.
Back to the barbell, reverse curl, or timed shrugs.
You can train heavy. Infrequent is fine, and may be better than bulgarian for most.
Witnessing a 20 year old benching my squat PRs has shown me the value of the once every 3-10 day lifting schedule, despite bulgarian bringing me from my first 405 squat to 2×455 at 2am having been up for around 20 hours in a roughly six month time frame.
Psychologically I like doing SOMETHING (not nothing) DAILY
So walking a bunch is good.
So muscular stimuli, calisthenics or otherwise, training your 25s, 50s, and 100 rep sets as a true work range, loving them, doing them all the time, but not too much, nor hard, just as a normal everyday thing is an extraordinarily high value practice.
It’s why I’m more jacked than the average… EVERYWHERE I GO

trc – define cocky