Month: April 2023

4/26/23
I was in the mood to lift, though I ended up deciding to bottoms up snatch against the clock.

A brief session, just as it were.

Lift :

10:00 timer, I’d been thinking for a couple days of the secret service snatch test – while with what I have, and to put my spin on it I did the bottoms up snatch with a 16kg bell.

This was my first time snatching against a ten minute clock. I got 144 reps, these done evenly left/right between many hand switches.

(this was hours after work, just put preceding in the post – maybe I’ll start doing a real brief minisession before work, the “real” workout in the afternoon/evening)

…..

Work :

Work was at the shop today, mostly crating the past couple day’s job – weighing the crates on the scale (you have to before you hand off military/interstate to an eighteen wheeler).

The big shop scale, we were goofing around weighing ourselves.

“What’s J weigh!”
“Hold on, I’m stepping on.”
295, no 294lbs it read as I held still.

Damn! I was fasted, not even a sip of water or anything. The few months at this job I might’ve put on a few pounds, but I’m definitely in a bit better shape as seen by the stairs on yesterday’s job, bodyweight going up would have to be that a lot of my frequent minisessions are new/newer type stimulus – today’s a perfect example, while protein is high = inadvertently I put on weight.

I could pretty easily force feed up to 308+, but I’d have to restructure my life to be okay with being that heavy.

Honestly I’d have to go deep into powerlifting (or somehow rugby/sumo/american football) to consider those scale numbers acceptable.

“Wait, you step on” I say to one of the newer guys, a big black hispanic, of about 5’11”, probably in the low 300s.

He’s a tad smaller framed than me, and has just enough more of a belly than me (he’s not crazy fat), while saying he thinks he’s about 305, 310 for me to expect him to be barely over 300, a tad heavier than I.

We’re all talking and he doesn’t stand still on the scale – it’s bouncing all over the place from 299 to 312lbs

“Dude, stand still!” I say
“Oh yeah”, he stops moving around, and it
levels off at 309.

The lightest guy, who I’ve seen grow from 130ish at 19 to 160ish at 25, he looks at me saying “you’re gonna have to go home and eat J”.

I got a laugh.
“T, you’re saying I need to force feed – get my weight up.”

Then from the new heaviest mover came “but that’s a bit high – I’m wearing this thick ass hoodie, and I’ve got my phone, wallet in my pockets”… so step back on he did, sans hoodie to 307, now 13lbs heavier than I, the two of us dressed pretty similarly.

Upon relay of the force feeding line, the manager got a good laugh, me saying “I’m not the heaviest mover here now, I might have to”, while making a broken puppy dog type face.

Silliness.
Amusing.

…..

I fully realize that dropping even to as heavy as 265, being that’s a 25+ lb drop, would up pullups, up endurance just from dropping weight.

Some physical performance is like that, you improve solely as the weight is now off – training the capacity isn’t much in play as a factor.

Drop 20lbs and you might be able to run well solely cause you’re lighter.

I know I could still run well in the 230s.

Would PT performance suffice weighing 255-265 after having been 290ish for this length of time.

…..

I’ve now stepped on a scale very close to, if not exactly 100lbs over any official wrestling weigh in from back in high school.

Funny to recall thinking I’d never get over 200lbs again while force feeding to 197 before wrestling season junior year to wrestle at 189lbs.

(then the post season twenty pounds in ten days growth spurt did, 195-215, in 10 days)

Now I’m curious as to if my bodyweight will naturally swing back down to even below the mid 200s from work, new workouts, and eating a tad more clean.

…..

PT :

In the evening I did a set of pullups – 10 reps, the first time in double digits in…what a year?

The cool thing was that as I approached the bar, maybe a minute away from parking at the spot – I decided it was time to bang out double digits again.

10 pullups at 294+, I doubt in the evening after two meals is my lightest point in the day.

PT, pretty happy to get an all biceps, ugly, double digit set – I did some 4ct jumping jacks.

Dilapidated shoes might annoy me with jumping rope, but they don’t on jumping jacks.

No excuses.

Pretty cool to be getting okay again with calisthenics at this high bodyweight.

Do lots of kettlebell, add in more by ear – I’ve only done a set or two of pullups a week at most for a year and a half.

Be well rounded dude.
And start running bleachers on the weekend again.

-J

4/25/23
There’s much said about the kettlebell tearing up the hands, and personally in what is contrary to my barbell sentiments – where I want you to use your hands truly, with the kettlebell I bypass the issue of hand care by simply wearing uline mover’s gloves as I lift.

Wearing them :
•the grip is still trained
•the hands are comfortably warm – again I exclusively lift outside
•the gloves soak up sweat/rain – yes rain
•no chalk needed
•no skin tearing up
•these gloves are reversible – $10 to lift for a year at least (plus lighter warm weather usage, on less kettlebell movements, and no barbell movements – whereas on all in winter)

These gloves are 1000x more durable than any of the random assortment of winter gloves I’ve made homeless looking over the years of winter lifting.

It’s way more cost effective.

…..

The bottoms up snatch is becoming my favorite lift, kettlebell or otherwise.

Today I did three minisessions, totaling about 400 reps split roughly evenly between hands with the 16kg bell, getting a real nice training effect – grip, wind, intercostals.

I’m looking firstly for wind from kettlebell volume.

I chose the bottoms up snatch because it’s easy on the body. The bicep tendon is not a factor to consider at all, and there’s no slamming of the bell into the forearm.

Plus it’s the most grip intensive 🙂

I started light with the 16kg bell.
I’ll rack up some volume building a base before jumping up in size to the 20kg bell.

Base building for a time before making any extra bell purchases, to get some usage of my current tools before putting more money into the outdoor setup – milking what tools I already have.

…..

I want more equipment, but don’t really have storage space, nor do I want to collect more stuff without having a better space to use it/keep it in.

It’d be nice to have a garage to just set everything in, roll it outside as I choose.

…..

In that theoretical I’d powerlift in the garage – have a rack and bench (seriously – I’m meant to be a bench specialist), maybe deadlifting outside anyway, but do all the overhead lifting (which at this point I’m thinking is going to forever be primary) outside, as well as the assorted carries which we all know you should be doing.

…..

For the time I’m enjoying the kettlebell.
I’ll have to go lift it in public some as it turns summer – get out of the yard, to sandpit, parks, beach, mountain, woods, etc.

And train preferably with people.

-J

“The Inflation Of Gas Station Iced Coffee” :

The cheap iced coffee went from 99¢ + tax to (mathematically it must’ve been) $1.49 + tax.

Funny given the guy behind me in line was talking about inflation to me as the massively long line of iced coffee and slurpee purchasers (solidly 12 people buying such things at lunch hour) inched forward.

“How are you today?”
“Good. Just this iced coffee.”
“That’ll be $1.65.”
I laugh, “when did that go up – I had the dime ready and everything”, as I reopen my wallet for another dollar bill.
“March 20th, 21st? Maybe the 22nd.”
“Ahh, bout a month back then.”
“Yeah, bout a month back.”
“Well dang, everything is 30 to 50% up – just as bad as the grocery store.”
She laughs, “yep, as bad as the grocery store”.

I’ve bought a grand total of two iced coffees in the past six months, once here, once somewhere else plus a customer or a manager giving me one a handful of times in addition over the past year.

A decent number of coffee milks as well, which is where I get my somewhat caffeine hit or maybe it’s the placebo of thinking I have drank caffeine.

Shit is addictive. Shit often makes me an easily out of breath, highly outgoing, frequently needing to shit, while profusely sweating, squirrel.

Caffeine while lifting means for me something like if I PR within five singles I PR within five singles – otherwise I gas.

Four years ago a bang energy drink was a never again experience for me.

Despite my size I am a lightweight when it comes to stimulants.

Never having touched alcohol or smoked (anything – which surprises people) I expect the same of these substances if I ever was to partake in any.

Now it’s lifting time.
Barefoot and shirtless in the sun?
Yes. I shall.

…..

Well it didn’t end up barefoot…
and we get to the heart of the thing (the post) ;

…..

“I’m Not An International Level Weightlifter” :

~430pm (post workout(s))
I’m not an international level weightlifter, and realizing this ; I’m entirely okay with doing stuff no international level weightlifter would be doing in this day and age (2023).

Seriously – the bulk of today’s lifting was using split form.

First I snatched singles from 95lbs to 205lbs by every 10lb jump left leg forward, totally pressing out the 205lb single which would never have passed under weightlifting rules.

…there was a half hour gap in time as I spoke on the phone…is this one or two sessions then…

Secondly I split cleaned with the opposite leg/the right leg forward a dozen singles with 165lbs to roughly even out the stimulus.

Attire?
•demolished xxwide basketball shoes that I bought at 16yo and only wore a handful of times that summer never wearing them again til about christmas/new years a few months ago – could’ve been barefoot shrugs
•sun stained/sun bleached sweat pants
•no shirt – in the sun – at least considering I had shoes on ie half a problem
•skullcap pulled over headphones – the needy for music while lifting cossack cap look
•work gloves – to keep my hands clean of whatever grease is on the new bar/new bumper plates and does not seem to just wipe off

That’s competition legal attire I’m sure, channelling Steve Justa (rip) in backyard weightlifting, maybe someday when snatching heavier than bodyweight to “make it official” on the platform lol

…..

Having done split snatches and split cleans, the split clean requiring me to pull absurdly low (just above knee height? it felt that low – rationally it’s probably higher than mid thigh – definitely can work on splitting fast and low so as to pull low – a new step to learn) vs how high I pull during a power clean, with my quads having crazy high tension/cramping…

I bumped the weight to 205lbs and power cleaned into three sets :

•1c+5p+2pp (5p at 205lbs is a PR tie as I recall)
•1c+2p
•3c+1j + ~50yd oh walk

↑ these all done with no splits as was my usual (I’m teaching myself to split snatch, apparently split clean as well), power cleans, strict presses, a couple push presses, and the jerk a push jerk power jerk (my feet jumped, widening slightly).

journaling
the j is pronounced as a y – yournaling, just as the jogging is pronounced yogging – is swedish ya

lol

Persistence & Tenacity

4/20/23 ~930pm
That’s why I bought the kettlebell!

It’s about 2130, I stepped outside, grabbed the 32kg kettlebell, did a set of one arm cleans each side, and a set of side bends each side – fin, done, did it, done did it 🙂

The kettlebell is clutch for minisessions, whether traveling, late night, frequent, or being lazy about setup/breakdown.

(the thing is set weight – just use it for whatever movement(s) and for whatever length of time)

A kettlebell of decent weight is a one stop shop.

And I haven’t yet went hard with the ones I own!

(32kg I purchased recently, 20kg and 16kg gifts from a coworker recently, 20lb a gift from my mom when I was 14yo)

…but, feeling how effective one bell work is, and I’m partial to the one arm clean – I could over time invest in heavier and heavier bells with the one arm clean as my “being diesel one stop training shop”.

I’ve been seriously impressed by how well the kettlebell works the midsection.

To the point I should be on a high volume, hour a day, “odyssey” ala 2019’s “dip odyssey”.

The one arm clean is a bicep builder in disguise, while dropping the bell down is a trap stretch – the thing is full body without you really thinking of it as such.

The implement itself leads to training density, combined with it’s natural tension demands is a great combination for wind.

Muscular stimulus and wind…
See that point again about a training odyssey.

🙂

You’re training wind with an odd cannonball shaped weight!

This is a very good thing.

…..

Every session today, the first clean and press every rep ground to overhead with a barbell, this one one arm cleans with a kettlebell – the lesson is training density, more volume.

I’m badly in need of being in shape.

I like being big and strong.
Lifting density will get me on the path to, and give me much needed wind.

Odyssey, hint hint.

…..

We always have all the tools.
It’s that we must use them rightly.

Persistence & Tenacity

4/20/23
This is becoming a once every week or two type thing for me :

I setup the barbell loaded to 405lbs, and pull it.

So far from actually training the deadlift 405lbs feels pretty heavy, me being mostly unused to heavy full body strain as i haven’t trained that sort of stimuli, while going there at work is somewhat infrequent and often in a different movement pattern ie a piano is a deadlift and carry type thing, whereas a giant mattress often sees me driving into it like a tackle sled as we take it upstairs.

Ten days or two weeks back I pulled a cold single at 405lbs.

Yesterday I doubled it without warming up.

9×405 is my PR at that weight, actually done no warmup, but already sweating from driving to the gym itself…fall 2018, I was in cali, with my body used to new england fall – therefore it felt like summer to me, and I was warm without warmups (not that I need them anyway).

Recently I’d written of only pulling double overhand.

All the bicep curling I’ve done lately has made mix grip feel fine for me again – I like this, and do intend to keep plugging away on an infrequent set with 405 for “what can I get with some still in the tank “, plus holding the last rep for a bit of grip work.

(if people do holds doh for grip work – why not holds with mixed grip – it’s still holding and working the hands)

A little bit of underhand “yates” rows would balance the stimulus should I feel the need.

The olys are my overhand stimulus.

…..

…..

It’s pretty cool how solid a 185lb clean and press is now, a year and a half into the movement around that weight as most stimulus, and it seems that a 405lb deadlift is my “baked in” walk around strength level.

My training philosophy is aimed that direction ; to never peak, but to get stronger with what I can always do – I haven’t much looked for higher low rep maxes, but to get a certain weight to 10, even 15 reps, occasionally higher, then add some weight, and get back up to those reps.

First you see a reps PR banging them out with loose form, then the reps start getting more strictly done, then the amrap #s start coming around with strict form and/or pauses.

You can just build a base of strength forever and be good.

How long to go from 1×405 mixed grip to 20×500 doh?

Doesn’t matter. The journey is what matters, stroll, enjoy the scenery – it ain’t a sprint.

Besides…the start is already “good enough”, you’re just casually getting even better.

There is no program. What exactly I do is on a whim. I try not to do the exact same session on paper twice in a row.

I like lifting weights – therefore I do. Therefore I lift anywhere from most days to every day.

For me it’s sustainable, and frankly I feel that a bunch of short lifts (5-10 sessions weekly, five to forty five minutes each) with the focus on back, legs, and shoulders – the pc&p the easiest answer, even done exclusively would work well for a whole lot who don’t take this approach.

Dude, baseline forever.
-J

4/19/23
The 19th is late enough in the month to discuss how curling most days this month has worked out.

I did not curl every day, but most, and sometimes it was curls, sometimes reverse curls, sometimes both.

I started with reverse curls, then switched to mostly curling.

It may be one challenging set each day, otherwise something done more in the tone of moderation like 5×5 at what would be 12-20 reps had I repped out.

Now I have a different training history than most american males – I’ve mostly ignored direct arm work over the years, so if/when I do focus on barbell curls it’s effectively new stimulus for me.

Just before typing I curled 21x95lbs, a couple days back it was 12x115lbs, the heaviest reverse curl set was 12x95lbs about two weeks ago, though sticking to 65-75lbs is better stimulus there same as 95lbs vs 115lbs on the regular straight bar curl.

None of this may be “perfectly strict”, but it all passes my standard for “strict enough”, while none of it could be called “cheat curls”.

This month as I more and more closely approach 25x95lbs I laugh that I was once on the gym floor complimented for that as a cheat curl set, whereas now – on the opposite end of my 20s, it is in the ballpark of my current strict PR, soon to be passed.

A week or two back, on my roughly once a week set of pullups I hit 9 at a bodyweight of 290lbs.

I’ve long known more biceps = more pullups, which is something to keep in mind for those on the compound lifts only approach.

All those I’ve known to naturally be good at pullups are long armed and heavy on the bicep development with long bicep insertions.

I have trex arms, my natural proportions being a very thick chest, arms that look small to moderate in proportion, with very short bicep insertions.

The opposite of those natural pullups guys.

My best pullup ability came from moderate to high volume on a daily basis with lots of weighted pullups in there.

That was two summers back.

My bodyweight PR was either 27 or 29 reps weighing somewhere between 235 and 265lbs (somewhere on the lower end – I’d estimate ~245lbs – I was losing weight with a physical job and doing an hour of pullups, a good deal of them weighted, every night, with a rotation of three training partners), and in the same 6-8 week period I pretty regularly hit 20+ at bw+20-30lbs, regularly did moderate effort sets of 8, say 3×8 at bw+45 as a training stimulus, know I hit bw+70, and think I hit a very ugly bw+90 single.

Right now pullup ability is coming back, on a set once every 5-14+ days simply cause all the curling surely has me going the more biceps route while weighing my lifetime heaviest.

Again more biceps = more pullups, and this is going to be pretty substantial/dramatically so when you’ve disregarded curls for the half of your life that is your training history.

Persistence & Tenacity

Lifting Music :

nelly – air force ones (on repeat for the bulk of this months lifting)

When you workout for long enough, there are times where you “forget” stuff you know works.

It’s often related to what you haven’t done in awhile or moreso what you haven’t had access to in awhile.

For example ;

I’ve long neglected squats, and have long known how real world applicable high reps done with enough weight make you.

I’d forgotten what high rep front squats felt like.

I’d forgotten what high rep overhead squats felt like.

It doesn’t have to be a regular back squat.

You can train any movement in whatever rep range you desire.

Think about olys for a second.
It’s accepted to do high rep kettlebell movements, but the weightlifting movements and variants on a barbell are for some reason not to be done.

The barbell is more blue collar in america than the kettlebell.

Maybe in russia they’re fairly ubiquitous and just found lying around, but here they cost a pretty penny.

(not that one relatively heavy kettlebell shouldn’t be acquired and put to use cleaning til the cows come home)

In america though, you’ve no excuse to not own a 300lb weight set.

Reality is that one could set you up for life, no gym dues or gym commutes ever required again, though you might have to purchase a higher quality bar at some point (look for good tensile strength at a low cost – or just get a texas power bar following the buy nice don’t buy twice principle).

I practically have forgotten the leg press.

It’s been a year and a half since I’ve had access to one, and about four and a half since I’ve had access to one able to be loaded up.

The high rep benefits of the squat, most of them are there with high rep leg press, but the leg press is much easier mentally.

This can make it better for leg growth than the squat, you just don’t have to dig as deep as when putting a bar on your back for truly challenging 15s, 20s, 50s, 100 reps forces you to go.

You can push the leg press to 75 reps, be seeing stars, hobble to your next exercise, and be ready to do that again pretty quickly – not anguish mentally, stressed out in fear of your next squat session.

Both approaches have their pros and cons, both have their place.

I really find benefit in the overhead squat for high reps.

Wicked light is acceptable, the empty bar.
Weighted too is acceptable.

I’ve gotten to about 20×135 overhead before, and say all amateur weightlifters should ride their first or final power snatch into an amrap.

You might not be able to do that.
If so drop the weight some, and rep that.

If you can leave a barbell loaded to a nice curl and overhead squat weight, side bend too (I love them – it’s an addiction – and don’t forget one arm snatch), that can be your light high frequency bar.

The smith machine is actually real good for going dumb and getting some brute force into you.

All three powerlifts can be done in one, and you approach it not as “the bar path is wonky”, but “I will be one with the machine”, lock into place (moreso than you can with a barbell), and just strain in that line against dead weight.

Being locked in you can actually apply force in a direction the barbell would never allow.

The smith machine may get you to a 405+ lb bench faster than benching free weight.

You just amrap the shit out of a bunch of sets (like 10-15×15-30 at ~200-220lbs benching – yes).

Then just squat in it for moderate reps (heavy – eventually you’ll tip the machine – yes – no joke, tip the machine), and pull in it for amazingly high tension low reps (light to moderate, but damn near failing over from how much your muscles are firing – see being locked in applying force in a direction the barbell would never allow).

Ground to overhead, in bunches, practically exclusively is how I put on an upper back.

Lots of military presses was the best thing I ever found for my shoulders.

More biceps = more pullups.

Get strong at curling, do lots of ugly olys, and you’ll probably be decent at pullups.

Add weight to pullups as often as possible. Even 3s at bw+2½lbs is worthwhile, and six months later doing amraps of 20+ at bw+20-30, moderate/training effort/fairly easy 3×8 at bw+45 leaving a bunch in the tank, heck two years later I hit 9 pullups weighing 290lbs.

That’s likely correlated to the strongest curling I’ve ever done.

12x115lbs recently, with PRs very frequently, like every second day frequently.

Use what you have access to in this moment…
You just gotta lift.

Persistence & Tenacity

4/17/23
When the equipment is at home you’re entirely okay with doing something real minimal, and something is better than nothing.

By all means, spend years smashing serious volume.

But, being able to hit a quick 5:00 lift is nothing to scoff at.

It’s 5:00 longer than most work out for, and to a large degree ; physical success is simply racking up years of wins, just doing something, anything, with heart.

If you buy into the approach you use, it works.

You could lift everyday. You could lift once every week or ten days.

You could use machines only.
You could use nothing but your own body.
Dumbbells? Kettlebells? Barbell? Sandbag?
= All Good

There’s always a way to train.
The details do not matter an iota.

The important part is that you do something, anything.

I’m not going to a gym, you know with people around other than me – I felt bummy about it to a fairy large degree in the work truck as we drove back to the shop.

At home I took a long nap, woke up feeling real groggy, real bummy after that…stepped outside to “do something”, just a good set of curls and side bends, three sets, 115lbs, curl, side bend left, side bend right.

Fin.
Didn’t not lift today.

I don’t see any local gym option to lift that I like.

I’m not particularly digging lifting alone all the time.

Is the answer open my own facility?

I really need to make some money, getting clients, personal training – I’d be able to live on ten clients a week, but would be entirely okay with working twelve hour days every day.

Get that many clients and I’m a millionaire soon enough…that would solve the low end of the american wage scale problems.

I like lifting. I’m good at getting people out of their head, and into real effort.

“Dude, STOP COUNTING, try to think of nothing, listen to me, I’ll tell you what you did after the set is over.”

That works for a bunch of people.
The outside voice saying it bypasses the inner voice.

99% of the physical is mental.
Heck, life is completely mental.
Own your mind.

Persistence & Tenacity