August 2021 - Persistence and Tenacity

8/30/21 Gym Dream :

This dream was quite realistic, other than planet fitness included climbing ropes, a swimming pool, a wrestling mat, and the most villified of things…power racks, barbells, and deadlift platforms.

It was like a good college football weight room was combined with planet fitness, a pool, and wrestling training.

Great place, funny (dreamt) story :

Me, present reality me, was doing chin ups in the various grips you can hit on the assisted chin/dip machine.

I was doing these for variety, the assistance knee pad down (it does adjust down, at least on some models), and pushing the pace.

Running from high rep sets to low rep sets with nearly no rest periods I was down to twos and threes rotating through a few hand positions.

A big dude was making fun of me, he looked quite familiar from real life, making fun of my only doing doubles and triples.

“Okay motherfucker, what we competing on.”

He said to move to the regular pullup bar for a rep out.

Now I’m looking at this dude, thinking “dumbass sees I’m hitting twos and threes, probably can’t do one himself, and wants to lift off on regular grip pullups”.

We walk to the pullup bar, I move the climbing rope out of the way.

“I’d rather do chins.”

He takes no issue with me using chin up grip for the competition.

I hop up.

Perfect form.

Banging them out, getting massive stretch reflex power out of the bottom.

5 reps – easy
10 reps – got the groove
20,30 – flyin
39 – dude interferes with the set, purposefully swinging that climbing rope at me

39 reps.
I dream high rep sets of pullups (chins technically in this dream) on a regular basis.

Persistence & Tenacity

August 2021 Flow – Using An Occasional Clean & Press As A Measure Of Progress :

8/24/21
Zero urge to drive to the gym, so I lifted in the yard, and it turned…meaningful.

Press :
1c+_p style, pressing off of a clean into the first press rep

1×135

That was rather easy, I decide that I’ll see what I can do at 205, knowing ←KNOWING I’ll be able to hit that, not wanting to cut myself short with 185, and not wanting to test 225 which felt possible.

2×205

Yep, I have video at this weight…still haven’t went heavier though.

My PR was accidentally doing bad math and hitting 3×205 (10/10/18 at the SoCal bodybuilding gym, I actually logged while there) with a pair of ancient red york kilo bumpers as the pair of “plates” (standardly a 45 but that day 55s).

I have video for the above paragraph.

Pressing 2×205 is not bad considering I don’t use a barbell anymore. This was simply carryover from everything I do, I figure the biggest piece being having added in ab wheel regularly and recently, to my months of weighted chins, actually squatting again, actually shrugging and high pulling/upright rowing (the three in the smith machine), my years of pushups which keep strength ever creaping up, plus I psyched up well.

To this ;

Despite not bringing headphones to the gym this month, the moment I’m lifting at home I headphone up.

I’ll probably bring them back to pf next month, see if I get more into my head that way.

I then did
Power Snatch (kinda, complex style, as one set) :
1×135
1×135 paused at knee
1×135 clean grip, ugly, “starfish” feet with press out
1 press
move feet to military attention, hold bar at shoulders for a five second count or so
1 press

Fun.

I like an occasional c&p as a metric to judge if your training is meaningful ie working.

Not yet motivated to lift at home consistently, nor to go back to a barbell gym in what has been thus far near to a three year hiatus.

Maybe I’ll pull a Jujimufu soon and c&p 225 in a parking lot somewhere.

I didn’t do that in the empty pf parking lot last year while gyms were shut down.

That would’ve been a great video.

Get to pressing bodyweight man!
A 275lb press (heavier than bodyweight) historically is nothing for my size.

Get the entire 300lb weight set.

Persistence & Tenacity

August 2021 Flow – The 50 Rep Military Press :

You have access to an empty barbell?

Okay, good.

I want you try something.
You’ll learn the value of 50 rep sets.

Grab the bar, now with reasonably good form press it overhead for 50 reps.

Try not to pause.
On the first attempt in a long while, I paused twice, at 30 and 40 reps in.

Try not to pause. Getting the high rep count in one go is a form of progress when doing this.

Okay, you’ve done your 50, or more, or less.

35 is my minimal number, but this is your first time, and I readily admit to being strength-endurance skewed.

Sometimes I like to amrap across one “set” with two pauses.

Presses done drop the bar to waist height.

Don’t set it down.

Shrug x 50.
This’ll fly as compared to the presses.

Shouldn’t need a pause, though I may have shifted the bar from both into one hand to swat a mosquito or two.

I am lifting outside.

Eventually you add more movements, it’s my strange complex.

50 x press
50 x shrug
↑ the base

Sometimes 50 x overhead squat to start or end, and maybe a curl reverse curl, or gasp a btn press.

It’s a pretty simple program :

50 x press, 50 x shrug, as a complex with or without 50 x overhead squat as part of that complex, otherwise it separately as a second lift.

Though you can just do the press or press & shrug to make nasty shoulder girdle development.

Lifting is an individual endeavour.
Do it your way.

I tell you this :

You get to 50×185 on this, really the press and the overhead squat, and you will be the strongest man you ever come across.

Honesty the high rep press, wicked light, is like pushups – it punches far above it’s weight in benefits.

As do high rep overhead squats.

With high reps you are always stronger than the weight on the bar reflects.

This puts on both size and strength, while having pushed high reps makes low reps comically easy from a mental perspective.

Most stop sets too early, and never experience the power of true high reps.

Persistence & Tenacity

8/23/21 Gym Dream – Pullup Bar Handstand Pushups :

The dream set in somewhat of a bizzaro world, picture something batman’s joker would design…

I came across this business half hockey goofy sports specific training, half hockey themed arcade.

I wasn’t impressed :

•knowing I’m a better trainer, that basic strength and conditioning work would give better results than for example electronically measuring the reaction time of shifting weight laterally while on skates.

•with the arcade part, being I have no use for video games, and the ridiculous cost of tokens to play anything else (that mini bowling thing for example) that I might have.

1 token for $5
4 tokens for $19

I remember the price, tokens are supposed to be more like 25¢. The price was inverted.
Outside nearby was a crossfit like competition going, and in front of the hockey arcade building with crowds of event spectators walking by was a high long pullup bar made of pipe.

Speaking with the owner/head trainer of the hockey place near the bar I was saying better results and ability would come from that pullup bar.

He called me out.
I jumped up.

Initially coming close up a muscle up, it was then I started to think I was in a dream…it started turning lucid.

With the urging of a very oddly built (huge muscular upper body, particularly her arms, tiny little legs) and tatted up ranked woman crossfitter I hit the muscle up…and kicked over into a handstand.

I have video for this part.

About 30 seconds into this handstand I told some goofy fat dude, who looked oddly familiar, to take a photo for me with my phone.

Directing him to find my phone while still holding position was interesting to say the least.

He took the photo, and decided to start filming with his phone.

All the while that hockey trainer/arcade owner guy was like “pfft not impressed – it’s just a handstand at 270″…while he himself couldn’t at 195.

Meanwhile a crowd was forming, more cameras were coming on (the flash annoying), and after a solid minute upside down to prove a point…I put on a show!

Freestanding handstand pushups balanced on a pullup bar 8-10′ above the ground.

1.
2.
3. The crowd starts clapping in sync with my rep speed.
4.
5. I zone out, in full flow state.
6.
7. I think, it could’ve been 8 or 10, I return to the ground slow and controlled.

Obviously not the dream.
I don’t have video of a freestanding hspu, though I’ve come close to one before.

I say a grade a one liner to the hockey trainer/arcade owner, thank the fat dude who’d initially photographed me during the long handstand hold, and speak with that woman crossfitter thanking her for the encouragement.

I pick someone out of the bunch who’d been filming in the crowd, give my contact information and say either send me the file or tag Persistence & Tenacity when you upload it.

Fun dream.
Now, the physical performance is beyond what I am currently capable of, but I am inspired by these – I take them as the subconscious giving me encouragement.

I’ve never had dreams where I do things physically impossible.

The performance?
It’s within the realm of possibility.

Persistence & Tenacity

August 2021 Flow – Post Workout Nutrition Tips :

Now you could go all in, bring a cooler, but that’s not always gonna happen.

I’m more likely to hide whey (that was given to me, I haven’t bought any in years) in something, than to drink a couple scoops in room temperature water at the gym.

I have a better answer for a post workout shake, ready?

Wait for it…

Milk

Cue the gasps.

I keep it cold in a thermos.

A 20oz thermos was given to me as a gift a few years back thinking I’d keep stew warm in it to eat as a before gym meal during truck time on the way back to the shop from moving jobs.

That didn’t work out.
Stew wasn’t liquidy enough, it had gotten lukewarm at the end of the day, but it’d work with soup which is watery enough to hold heat.

However I now have a 20oz thermos, and while a quart would be a better size I have a 20oz one, so I’m using what I have on hand.

I fill that amazing little invention with milk, tend to leave it in the car, and even on the hottest of summer days can exit the gym to a nice cold 20oz of milk.

Many really want to be fancy, but a thermos of milk and a pb&_ sandwich is solid enough post workout nutrition.

More enjoyable, costs less, probably isn’t iifym though 🙂

Persistence & Tenacity

8/14/21 Flow

I’ve done smith machine bottom position squats most every day for a few weeks now.

My quads have grown fast, maybe it’s muscle memory, maybe not.

Either way that’s added bodyweight, and that improves the effectiveness of chins.

Yesterday I hit my first REAL grinder rep on the movement (bottom position squats) at 3p25,10, locked it out, but was not going to be able to lower it to the starting position – I racked it at the top.

(Likely the hardest squat I’ve done at planet fitness. It was a true 1rm.)

After that I did upright rows/high pulls, btn press, and shrugging in the smith without straps.

Stronger than I expected on them shrugs, and a ways to go.

You redesign your physique with heavy squats, weighted chins, machine curls, forearm work, neck work, ab wheel, and bunches of pushups.

My appetite is silly high right now, being close to gomad, and in the last few days I may have drank more than a gallon on one of em.

A 16oz container of cream in about twenty four hours over corn cereal ended up an incredibly anabolic thing, and put my mind on Vince Gironda’s “hormone precursor diet”.

I feek good on that high a saturated fat intake.

Must be gaining weight.
You can see muscle being put on everywhere.

275 with abs ain’t far!

I was thinking on getting proper man’s strength looking at myself in the bathroom mirror.

•I could be 270 right now.
•That’s 3p on the btn press in the smith.
•HSPU is a shorter range of motion
•Work to 3p on btn, and hspu for the same reps is a lock.

When realizing you’re nearly at 270 on a shoulder press variation, 315, 365, they don’t sound so ridiculous anymore.

I eyeball this as 365 – not so ridiculous anymore

I’ll bottom position smith squat 6p at pf.

That’s past a 500lb squat, doing so at planet fitness.

Making the place work.
Making the place work.
Making the place work!

You want to be this jacked beast?
You’ll make it happen.

I know how to train, and it’s a superpower.

All those kids I give training and diet advice to?

They tend not to implement, and that’s fine.

There’s more ground beef on the shelves for me, more plates available for me to load up the smith machine with.

I want a house, home gym, and to train clients at the same.

And right now?

Right now I’m at planet fitness getting jacked!

I thought I’d end on that note, but there’s one more thing to write :

On the main movements :

10×1,3, or 5 on some, mostly the smith machine lifts, and weighted chins.

10×10 occasionally for volume.

Stuff like machine curls and pushups you just get the volume in on, not a set set and rep scheme.

8/5/21 Flow – On Equipment Access & Current Training :

8/5/21
“It’d be nice to have access to a prowler, and an oly setup…NO!vanquish the thought, I’m training at planet fitness – making it work.”

My training at pf is a personal challenge, I told a guy this on the gym floor today even.

I was rereading bookmarked tnation articles, I’ve been reading about lifting since…roughly the end of 7th grade, while I didn’t have access to weights until second semester freshman year.

Rereading thinking about equipment I don’t have got to thinking about different gyms, I got a laugh thinking about seeing that men’s physique competitor on the pf gym floor yesterday – the dude who also has been to the SoCal bodybuilding gym, we knew at least one of the same people there, and was laughing to myself about how common ped use can be…even at planet fitness.

I spoke with a short roided out tribal tatted dude last week, and noted his exact wording…”you have a massive amount of natural muscle” – he thanked me for the conversation, I’d told him a couple stories like gaining 20lbs in ten days after junior year wrestling season.

The natty comment made me think to my uncle pointing out to me that at the SoCal bodybuilding gym they all could tell that I’m not on shit, and that the gap is earily close, too close, and that worries them.

You know how cool it is to go to a planet fitness, and be more jacked training there than at a trendy “hardcore?/powerlifting?” gym?

That’s me.
I do that.
It’s a mental thing for me.

PF is a challenge.
Making it work!

Late PM :
25 Pullups – A PR

And bottom position squats are coming along nicely – in the smith machine the frequency is approaching bulgarian.

I’m loving the movement.

The smith machine isn’t so far from a barbell for the difference to matter.

Like you’ll ever be weak doing any variant of squats heavy, and volume on an oly variant (the upright row/high pull variant I do) all in the smith machine.

Plus the rack pulls that I need to do a bit more regularly, and the hip thrusts where I put on a show at 5p-6p.

They’re something if an easy movement for me.

Hip thrusts are an easy movement to load, however they have their place in making pf work.

Recovery work is the hammer strength row for sets of 20-100, and I do a lots of sets of 30 on seated leg curl.

I could do banded leg curls, it can be set up there, and that’s the laying angle which is missing on the machines.

I know from experience that lots of leg curling helps my squatting, and some 45° extensions and maybe some specifically done rom good mornings in the smith would be good assistant work.

At planet fitness I now care about my squat.

Dead serious.

Heavier legs while crushing calisthenics.

20 x bw+45 is close on some pullup variant or another.

I make pf work, at present it’s the best gym for me.

You can train anywhere and have it work.

Persistence & Tenacity

8/4/21 Supersetting Pullups & Dips :

8/4/21
I estimate my bodyweight is at 250.
A week and a half back I estimated it at 240, but I’m either gaining weight or recomping.

Likely both.

Diet wise protein is higher than my norm, but it’s also full of saturated fat. Still mixed macro.

Calories generally are moderate, high some days, but I’m not at that most recent physical job, and I’m getting long hours of sleep.

This is how I started today’s session, and why I’m writing :

Pullups SuperSet W/ Dips :
4×6 at bw+20 ss w/4×15
x3 ugly 4 at bw+60 ss w/ 30
20 w/35

That may have been my first set of 20 in that grip, I had rested a minute or two between the last two supersets, the first four sets were at hurry up no resting pace, I was mostly fasted, and it’s by far the best I’ve superset from one bar to the other.

I felt a few levels up.
I am a few levels up!

In the changing room mirror I’m better looking.

Bodyfat % is obviously lower, and I’m putting on some size.

Killing a large pizza and grape juice as I type, today was actually only upper body – the aforementioned to start, btn press, band resisted pushups, and band presses (pressing the band against air for power) as a triset, wrestler’s bridge for reps not holds, then pushups to end.

I hadn’t done band resisted pushups in a long time, will be doing them regularly again as they’re a way to add weight while easy logistically, and the other band thing was for power – I’ll mix them in regularly too.

The only leg work incidental from the bridging. I realized my potential to get real strong on bridges, adding weight to them, while upside down doing them.

I didn’t bottom position squat today.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s session.

Strong today AND I’m eating up.
Full body tommorow!

It’s a positive feedback loop – the squats raise testosterone, the eating raises testosterone, I repeat.

It’s a positive feedback loop.
Solid session after solid session.

Persistence & Tenacity

August 2021 Flow – A 100g Protein Meal :

8/3/21
100g protein is easy to eat in one meal. I’ve been doing so generally twice a day for the last week. Calories aren’t particularly high, but I’ve been ravenous – I take this as a good thing, and attribute it in part to the daily full body workouts which now entail heavy squatting. Squatting primes the body for growth, stimulating the legs, hips, back, and appetite.

A 100g Protein Meal :
•9 eggs – 54g protein
•½lb 75/25 burger – 36g protein
•quart milk – 32g protein
Total 122g protein, and that’s not including the macros of the big serving of cheesy grits I had alongside.

The hamburger may be swapped out with a similar amount of breakfast sausage.

That egg meal is once or twice daily, I’ll go through nearly a gallon of milk each day, drink a decent amount of grape and apple juice, and generally have something small to eat once or twice as well.

I’m liking the results.
I’m training well while eating big.
You likely don’t have either part down pat, but when you do – big gains come quickly.

Persistence & Tenacity

August 2021 Flow – Eggs Are #1 – Food Thoughts :

8/2/21
Eggs are the superfood.

While bacon and beef are close runners up, and I’d rather eat either than eggs, in the overall standing eggs win.

Cost? Eggs.
Simplicity? Eggs.
Variance? Eggs.

While you can eat raw beef, often you wouldn’t want to, eggs however are easily drinkable.

There’s nothing like a good breakfast at any time of day, and the base is eggs.

Saturated fat is the most important macro, important to hormone production, and brain function – that’s what the yolk is.

Protein?
It’s likely the best cost per gram available ($3 gets you about 200g), AND it’s the highest in digestibility.

They call eggs 100% on that protein use scale – everything else is based off of them.

18 eggs gets you 108g of protein.

Today I split that equally between two meals, breakfast and dinner.

1/2lb of 75/25 beef with the first, breakfast sausage with the second.

66g protein from beef and pork – 174g on the day between eggs and meat, I’ll likely pass 200 with milk, though I’m not stressing it.

(hit about 250g with milk)

Eating could be wholly centered around breakfast foods.

Looking to lose weight?
Eat only eggs, meat, and vegetables.

Looking to gain weight?
Larger portions of the above (12 eggs is easy to eat, even with stuff added), add in milk, juice, toast, donuts, etc.

Not the normal bodybuilding approach, but a simple 1950s style manly approach.

Everyone can cook eggs.
Man can eat well pan frying everything.

On the note of fat – low fat meat isn’t.

I don’t count it as meat.
Meat has lots of saturated fat.

The eskimo mixed fat sources with the lean to make the lean useful.

I added olive oil to the skim/2% “milk” my parent’s bought as a high schooler.

Chicken breast?
Sounds good wrapped in bacon.

I’m big on putting multiple meats in the same dish, for example I love beef and pork stew – AND, they’re in there 50/50.

It’s been a few days of 9+ eggs, I feel better taking them in, whether raw in shakes or fried in a pan.

Eat simply.