Month: July 2023

7/27/23
A tad after 8pm, the day was off of work – overcast and muggy, an enjoyable leisurely eating period of ground beef and spuds meat slop, cherry 7up, and coffee milk in me precedingly – I’ve finally found the energy to lift.

And I’ve found the music to lift to!

Some stuff never changes ; I’ve a playlist of such things as the irish rovers, korpiklaani, ra ra rasputin going – the same stuff and similar to what I listened to during outdoor night sessions at the end of high school going preworkout…

…..

815pm
Today’s session a mix of freestyle burpees and one arm kettlebell swings, real minimal – just 15 reps each in sets of 5 burpees and 5+5 oas, enough for a quick pump and out of breath euphoria.

I danced around the entire session (maybe 15:00) to one song of trance music on repeat, getting into the moment yet meditating on the future being both with and for me…

Today’s Training Song On Repeat :

wolf totem the hu ft jacob shaddix

…..

No one sets one hypnotic folk metal song on repeat, starts dancing around as if round a primal/tribal fire around their sets, does so outside – with minimal equipment, gets into it, and BENEFITS!

These sessions, this style, extra night workouts after the school weight room were my bread and butter at 17 years old.

Now almost out of my 20s, no gym to go to has me alone and outside with minimal equipment, and…

I’M AT MY ROOTS!

Persistence & Tenacity

P.S. while I have been doing little but a few burpees and kettlebell swings…when you have more equipment access – a great way to get in conditioning with training density is to do a few of both/either between ALL sets.

I’ve simply skipped the other stuff, just doing strength involved conditioning to exclusivity :), which fits as I’m plenty strong, and there’s never enough conditioning when you’re 6′ 280lbs reflecting on having wrestled last in the 189lb weight class now over a decade ago

7/24/23
Work today was ten hours, and by mistakenly only putting a skull cap on at the end – I’m sure I have a nice red instead of chrome dome.

“Why don’t you put on sunscreen?”
“Sunscreen is disgusting liquid gloop cancer.”
“Dude, skin cancer is cancer.”
“I don’t buy it. No one was talking about skin cancer two hundred years ago before sunscreen.”
“Touche.”

My abs are pretty sore. Maybe from rotating to stack all those, mostly fairly heavy, file boxes.

We loaded an eighteen wheeler for a customer moving down the eastern seaboard, him having somehow found himself moving with a no touch interstate driver.

…..

I fasted, more than sixteen hours, only water throughout the day – scratch that, the customer gave me a coconut water with pulp, after 630pm drinking a quart of coffee milk – steak already prepped from the other night, spuds take minutes, that for dinner with a cherry coke AFTER the lift I’ll get to soon.

As I say repeatedly about kettlebells ; it both lends itself to high frequency, and carries over well real world.

I felt good carrying today, a bit sore in the glutes, in a nice, euphoric, well activated way from yesterday’s swings.

I intend to both one arm swing and burpee tonight.

…..

My lift was a play period of freestyle burpees, overhead squats, one arm swings, and reverse curls.

Got out of breath. Got a pump.

Did something that makes it so work doesn’t take it out of me.

John Grimek wrote of this – working out building capacity to do work, so as to not be a sad sack who just slumps over at the end of his work day, it taken out of him.

Working out rightly makes work easy, and gives you energy to live, not just exist in the job-television-nightmare- repeat matrix.

Did something that makes me carry myself real well, be real capable, real world.

Do your burpees.
Do your overhead squats.
Do your swings.
And do you reverse curls for the girls.

Persistence & Tenacity

Primal Dancing Music For Your Lifting Session :

if I had a heart berserker version – pietro gubernari

I was real into it, dancing around the yard – felt really good, pictured that I was moving, in motion to the beat in a circle round the fire – trance movement, you go somewhere tip top and old before time doing so TAKE NOTE

7/23/23
I’ve got plenty of caffeine in me, about a liter of cherry pepsi, a light dinner in me, a medium bowl of buttered rice pilaf, a big bowl of peanut butter cereal…I feel real good, energy got right much hours in the day later after sleeping in and then waking up exhausted, so I’m going to add to the good – I’m not taking the day off after all.

8pm hour, kettlebell one arm swings – a quick 50 reps total a side ; this getting me euphoric, a bit out of breath with a pump from my glutes to my lats, a tad in the hands.

It took under ten minutes from stepping outside to being done with the session entirely, bell away, cleanup/breakdown finished.

I love this aspect of the kettlebell.
I just step outside, do the thing, and my logistics being no concern take little more.

I could take the bell to a park, the beach, a mountain/the woods, but kiss principle (and full honesty laziness) ; I step outside, and never have to take a day off.

Like calisthenics, owning a kettlebell IS high frequency logistics.

Now there’s an issue of hand care with lots of kettlebell ballistics…I bypass it entirely by wearing mover’s gloves as I lift.

They can tear up, but being reversible a ~$8 pair of gloves is ~8 months of usage.
I have a few pairs. Do the math.

…..

The kettlebell is an awesome thing.

It doesn’t take it out of me like gym training has in the past – as far as I’m concerned there is no balancing act necessary between the labor job I work and the usage of the kettlebell.

These brief kettlebell sessions make me feel good, build me up, making me strong everywhere I need to be real world.

With the bell I’m training every property, strength, conditioning, grip, bulletproofing myself…making myself happy, giving myself a daily euphoria.

Only starting the kettlebell in 2023/my late 20s is a hindsight is 20/20 thing for me, as every young man should be planted in front of an amply stocked line of kettlebells (I’d say one bell of 16kg, 24kg, 32kg, and 40kg qualifies as well stocked, maybe with a 20lber to start) with his father or an uncle or someone to teach him real quickly what to do with them before unleashing that youthful angst/energy/drive unto the dominance of the thing…

Uncle Vladdy! If only you were not but a figment of my imagination! What I missed by not throwing the bell around for the wrestling and shot put performances of my youth!

↑ dude, definitely something to take note of here – why am I not at bjj or doing adult track meets

Persistence & Tenacity

guardians of asgaard – amon amarth

While I’ve been mad fatigued lately, today after work I decided to actually touch the barbell.

Twas two half hour sessions spread over an almost three hour time period – a perk of the yard ;

•set it up
•use it
•go do other stuff for a couple of hours
•use it again
•put it away

Today it was two barbells and a kettlebell out.

A 205lb press today’s heaviest lift – I may run bastardized 5/3/1 with high frequency on it – no warm ups, just work sets – aiming to get to a bodyweight clean and press.

I think I’ll work the light barbell in with the regular kettlebell stuff and the burpees, with it reverse curls and overhead squats – starting at 65lbs, moving over time to 95lbs as the effort lowers and reps increase.

You train for long enough and some things happen…

Everything becomes more effective.
You require less time, less effort, less weight.

The human body is a muscle building machine after holding a bunch of muscular bodyweight for a decade or longer – which makes sense when you think about it.

You’ve adapted to having high amounts of muscle on your frame.

I also have it going for me that I no longer care that much. Less expectation. More results…cause the universe presents on a platter that which you don’t needily chase.

I can only laugh about how I eat lately.
This summer has been a real struggle for me to 1. stay hydrated 2. have an appetite when both the time is right to eat and food is logistically available.

I don’t want to have to digest heavy foods with the mover job, and often am rather tired – skipping cooking the steak in the fridge night after night after night.

The frozen food section has been my friend, normally getting in a little meat each day in the form of beef jerky or precooked bacon, but otherwise living on a ration of pasta doused in cheese or mozzarella sticks, some milk to drink, and comically copious quantities of grape juice going down the hatch.

I peaked in late winter at 296lbs on the shop scale, was walking around for months between 287 and 290.

Over the period of a month, now about a week or two back I went from there to 275lbs, and it feels a whole lot better – I have good wind as far as going up flight after flight of stairs with work.

In a word the job has physically become easy, though a far heavier than their norm upright piano (more the 600lb range than 400lb range) reawoke to me the fact that I have serious traps when they are given heavy stimulus…

All this said a 205lb press isn’t bodyweight when you weight 275lbs.

I expect to meet in the middle around 255lbs for this, then pass bodyweight.

I doubt I’d be lower than 235lbs with a full six pack – body composition has been going very well for me.

I realize real world I’m stronger than almost all, though my powerlifts are horrible.

I no longer even train any of the three :)-

I am big, strong, able to work all day – having decent gym strength with good labor strength – it’s a rare combination.

I die inside not being in a gym – an ego thing to either opt out of or get my ass into a gym have myself open a gym, not pursuing barbells all out, not personal training, not helping people with lifting – heck, I’m mad at myself for delaying purchase of a heavier kettlebell and six months in not yet having really went all in on kettlebell usage, the thing requiring a good bit of volume at some point to say you did it all out.

Whatever.

#1 is that I’m not going to mess up. The beard, now in it’s first days…Is. Coming. Back.

I smile knowing this, feeling this, having total confidence in the statement.

Persistence & Tenacity

P.S. half or more of today’s lifting was done without headphones – a friendly neighborhood psa that you can check in, not distract yourself with noise, and properly get it

7/19/23
A coworker, the smallest dude on the crew (5’8″, 160lbs, fairly new to manual labor), was goofing around walking around with ils (imaginary latissimus syndrome) all day.

I thought it hilarious.

…..

Today I actually participated with the numbskulls I work with in actually “hitting the store” – generally working off of the jug of water I never roll out of the shop with less than three quarts in, a tub of honey roasted peanuts, and bag of jerky as backup if I actually take in calories before work is over for the day.

We were real close to the store, some combination of our crew rolled through bunches of times, I cracked jokes about this to the cashier ; “you’ve seen some combination of our crew six times today” – buying soda, candy, jerky – the patented laborer’s diet.

I enjoyed my candy and sodas.
Heck, I also had a couple slices of customer provided pepperoni pizza.

Drank grape juice before work, very rare for me to take anything in before work, pretty uncommon for me to take in any calories at work, generally I back load food (or lately often eat far less than you’d expect a highly physical almost 300lb man to take in).

I ate fried rice from the frozen section, sexied it up (a term defined by my uncle as adding ingredients to the dish) with a bunch of mexican mix cheese, drank a boatload more of grape juice, and a little milk…

This brings me to the story point ;

When you have enough muscle, have held it for long enough, and are high activity enough…your body becomes an absolute machine at processing calories and nutrients.

There no longer is such thing as diet rules.
It’s all energy, especially the simplest of carbs, while all the protein is efficiently used as building blocks, all the fat – hormone precursor, used to amp the body’s hormone production to elephantine.

…..

You laugh at the situation.

Each week it’s generally ;

•~700 pushups
•~3:00 horse stance
•maybe 100 burpees
•maybe 10:00 of kettlebell ballistics
•whatever work entails

That’s the week’s physicality.

There are lots of naps…to make up for a lack of sleep…and you’re still in a lack of sleep.

Dehydration?
Dehydration is a constant.
I run on dehydration.

Caffeine?
Usually zero, but lately I’ve been behaving with a bit of the addict about me when it comes to both iced coffees and soda.

…..

Over the past ~ month I’ve went from 290 to 275lbs, and at 6′ tall…I’m pretty close to getting lean…this heavy 🙂

It’s cool. I’m losing weight on a pretty high calorie average via a wild, at random, instinctive, calorie cycling.

Saying years ago “275lbs with abs” as lifetime goal, and I’m mad close.

With one day at 1000 calories, the next at 6500+. Randomized. Instinctive.

…..

Today’s workout was ;

KB OAC w/32kg & cdc 1 pump burpees
12l+12burpees+12r

this IS the one stop training, one bell, a few ft² – good to go

Doing something, aside from just work, is 1000x better than only being physical from work – no one talks about this.

You train long enough and a minimal thing like this holds you together, nay builds you.

The kettlebell and burpee both help me real world. I don’t need a barbell.

As said above ; my body is on machine status, fucking cyborg terminator mode – only operating on instinct, fasting, then hungering, then feeding the beast…

I wanted to talk about that “feeding the beast” in relation to appetite ; I notice my body, mind – I attribute it to the proper alignment of hormones = I function better when I have a large appetite, not force feeding, but big hunger necessitated by life, and go with it…

Getting that +/- 5000 calorie/day in for days stacked in a row – the longer the better.

Persistence & Tenacity

famous – puddle of mud

7/6/23
We were emptying the customer’s storage unit, old crotchety said “take five”, inside the storage unit a coworker was doing a bottoms up press with a small bell…

8kg

There was a pair, when he set them down I said “I wonder” , found the ceiling too low having stacked the bells, lowered them, stepped outside, stacked the bells, and pressed it about half way up.

I was holding it there just fine, ready to catch the top bell with my free hand, unsure as to whether I’d have zero wrist wobble never having stacked bells before.

It bugged me to leave it at an incomplete rep controlled, half way up and half way down.

Eureka! Another (smaller) pair.

4kg

I stack the two 4kg bells.
Easy. Good rep.

Tell the coworker who’d had the kettlebells before me.

I stack a 4kg atop am 8kg.
Easy. Good rep.

THEN I, with the confidence of successful light practice lifts, lifted the stacked pair of 8kg bells.

When old crotchety came over to add the bells to the manifest “what do these weigh”, started reading them in the stamped weird with fractions poundages I went “there are two 8kg bells and two 4kg bells”.

“I’m logging the poundage.”
“The kilos are stamped atop the weird poundages – they’re kilo bells, not pound bells.”
“Well okay mr weightlifter” as he squatted down into an odd attempt at most muscular, and for the crew’s benefit “look at me I’m mr weightlifter, I know what the bells weigh”.

I laughed, gave him pointers on his posing, and told him he needed “to crab walk away for the complete effect”.

…..

We got back to the shop.

The manager’s son heckled me “can you do this” curling the SMALLER pair of the kettlebells.

“Yeah, can you do this”, jogged over and did another stacked bells bup with the 8s.

Set them down, and a moment later another.

Later old crotchety went “now to see if you really have balls, something I could care about seeing you do”.

“Oh god where is this going.”

He pantomimes “like this”, and another guy there chimes in “I’ve seen him do that before”.

I do.
Anything, pick axe, sledgehammer, 10lbs or less is in the bag.
Maybe I’m good for more now.

Can I stacked bottoms up press a 20lber atop a 16kg?

I almost always can bup a 32kg right, 24kg left.

I have access to a 20lb, 16kg, 20kg, and 32kg bell.

-J