Author: J

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

6/23/23
While I still have daily mandatories to hit, today I decided to get in a good lift, intending about an hour, while judging how it felt as I went to decide the exact amount of work.

A ladder of 1-9, and a pyramid of 1-8-1, both by 1s, both each side, pressing the 32kg kettlebell was what ended up happening, taking an hour and five minutes including both setup and breakdown.

1-9 ladder by 1s = 45 reps/side
1-8-1 pyramid by 1s = 64 reps/side
109 reps/side total = 218 reps total
It’s a decent volume of presses, heck 24 cleans/side as I had to shoulder the bell for each set

I decided on this, wanting 100+ reps/side, and though taking my time, had pushed well enough to be a bit dizzy near the end – I was pretty close to keeping it within an hour, the initial ladder taking about twenty minutes, after which I decided the exacts of to instead pyramid the next portion, and to one rep shy of the ladder.

…..

In a couple hours I’ll get the burpees/snatches/dkbs in, as I don’t miss daily mandatory PT.

…..

A fairly easy ladder to 15 reps by 1s with the 32kg bell could be the 40kg bell purchase point.

All out milking the heaviest bell I currently have (the 32kg bell) in my eyes would be a 1-20-1 by 1s pyramid to earn the purchase of the 40kg bell.

400 reps/side in a reasonable time frame to earn a not exactly 20lb implement weight jump.

…..

As I did this session I realized truly, though I’ve known it well already – today really internalizing/grokking it, how one stop shop, one lift – simple answer a one bell kettlebell clean(s) and presses is for your training.

The kettlebell feels more rugged a pressing implement than dumbbell or barbell, while one arm lends itself more rugged than two handed.

Yesterday’s one arm 20kg & 16kg improvised 36kg pressing, and the three bell two handed presses in addition put me on the “explore kb pressing” note.

It’ll probably, with lunges, be my next month’s training focus.

…..

I threw in a handful of front squats, maybe 5/side as singles on some of the final come down sets.

Bell travel to parks and such, to make interesting video backgrounds – I was meditating on that during the set.

I know of an abandoned car on the woods line, that strikes me as a cool one.

Cemeteries?

There’s probably a clearing in the woods if not many that could be done.

Heck incorporate train tracks somewhere.

Any park really, beaches.

There’s many options.
Especially if I’m willing to put some miles in my car.

A less than a grand purchase would stock me from 16kg-48kg in one bells by the 4kg jump.

I could personal train SOMEWHERE with kettlebells, calisthenics with that I’m sure…in addition to self getting fit and jacked.

Heck, that could be on the side of the moving work I do which is effectively day labor, but a form of gpp for which I am grateful.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again ; my personal workouts are winners workouts in addition to the job.

I’d never quit daily PT just because my physical activity can be pretty high via the manual labor of the job I work.

…..

I still want to do weighted pushups with a chick standing on my back…at four corners = back to the fitness video – will travel note.

Persistence & Tenacity

Lifting Music :

dustin lynch, lauren alaina version of “thinking bout you”

started the session with a handful of country songs that make me cry (sad/reminiscent/hopeful), sometimes that’s where it makes sense to go to get in the zone for putting in work

6/22/23 (Part Two – Note To Self Part One Isn’t Online – they could be combined)
Is it optimal?
Shop scale said 290lbs this morning.

I’ve just eaten, again, almost 10pm, having naught but a larger glass of juice around lunch hour until about 330pm when I had a big meal, plus a reasonably sized glass of juice between then and now.

My day’s consumption looks like ;
•orange juice ~350cal
•corn dogs ~1200cal
•tuna salad ~500cal
•trail mix ~1800cal
•milk ~1500cal
•cranberry juice ~225cal

Ballpark 5500 calories, 6′, 290lbs.
I guess it makes sense, 5500 calories on a fairly usual day isn’t a small human.

Early afternoon we drove by every fast food restaurant – I had no food on me, just my jug of water.

I nearly asked the driver to pull over, but decided I’d rather get back, buy groceries, eat at home right before lifting.

…..

It’s interesting to mostly be doing strength involved conditioning.

Today I mostly played, using a 95lb barbell, and all three kettlebells, going for feel, doing stuff with the implements I usually wouldn’t.

First mandatory burpees and kettlebell.
Then playing with the weights.
Finishing up with mandatory deep knee bends.

I did a standing behind the neck press variant trying to put it in the area of my lower traps.

In a two hands press I used three kettlebells (see below).

One arm barbell rows. Muscle snatch.
Supersetting power snatch with one arm kettlebell clean and press. Kettlebell curl. Barbell curl and press.
Heck I was doing the kettlebell snatches from the dead hang.

Today’s lifting was feel good play.

…..

Okay alluded to earlier ;
Today was fun.

Nearly at the end of my lift, having already done stuff with both the 20kg and 16kg kettlebells I had an idea ; 20kg+16kg=36kg

Though it felt a tad weird, it was manageable to hold both bells in one hand.

I pressed the two together for five reps or so, then switches sides repeating.

Then the fun stuff ; really mismatched bell clean and presses.

I got my 32kg bell out too, put that in my left, the other two in my right.

Got the pair of bells in my right (the weird implements) to shoulder, but failed to shoulder the 32 in the left.

I let it back to the hang, then shouldered it, 1, 2, first then second style (as I originally had when doing 75lb db w/32kg kb a few months back) and pressed the trio/pair for four reps.

32 & 16kg tgu anyone?
That could be on the menu.

What I did today could be filmed, the clean seamed video worthy, especially when it’s done at once and not alternatively (note that mismatch pairs quickly progress to cleaning like that), and with the 75lb dumbbell in addition there’s a bunch of room for sig klein ish mismatch lifting.

…..

No one says your gym implements must perfectly match.

You can get weird with it, let them be mismatched.

You’ll be stronger for it.

Persistence & Tenacity

6/21/23
Work worked out to two small jobs, a delivery to a rather high end seaside place, then a long drive to another small (for us – maybe not for the other crew) job.

When we arrived to the second job, a leaving contractor said aloud “”Ah, you’re here to move the WHOLE HOUSE. The house, not it’s contents – it, with everything in it.”

Now that makes ya feel good.

…..

Fairly late, well I had mandatory stuff to do ;

•kettlebell snatches
•burpees
•deep knee bends

I did em.

And came up with what I’d be typing from doing so…

…..

Now I can’t let that contractor down.
Maybe that is how I present to a large majority of the world ; “big, strong guy”.

Can’t let them down!

And my weakness isn’t strength, I’ve done plenty of gym lifting, I wrestled in high school, I’m working in manual labor.

At 285+ lbs what I need is “conditioned strength”, a higher level of ability to go mixed with my plenty of strength.

So, my back yard training is PERFECT.

See the three again ;

•kettlebell snatches
•burpees
•deep knee bends

What do you notice there?

…..

Full body? ✓
Muscularly engaged? ✓

…..

CONDITIONING w/Strength Component!

…..

And I felt phenomenal doing it.

Throwing myself to the ground envisioning a future.

Smiling as I connect with the feeling of muscular activation in my upper back.

Really pumping the deep knee bends, filling my legs with lactic acid, overshooting the minimal requirement…

Opting to do a few more burpees to love an extra moment of my heart bumping, panting for air – in the moment loving it…

CONDITIONING IS FREE

…..

Working out is something you can always do.

The money cost is free. My session today, I had a financial input of zero as the kettlebell was a gift, and the gloves (kettlebell handcare + keep my hands clean) are from work.

No one can stop you from working out.
You need nothing to do so. You can do so right where you are, right now.

It’s a win, a daily win you can always choose to do.

Persistence & Tenacity

“Can you train the kettlebell every day”, they ask online, and there’s a million “answers” mostly noise…my say?
I say “do it – see what what it does for you”.
Me personally…I’m on my kettlebell journey.

And loving it…

This brings me to ;

The First Minisession :

For the past few days I’ve been doing a real effective, real fun session – the bonus being it’s how I’m getting in part of the day’s mandatory PT in.

With a requirement to perform 100+ deep knee bends I’ve been matching them rep for rep with one arm swings each side with the 20kg kettlebell, each time aiming to keep the thing under twenty minutes.

So in twenty minutes I’ve got 100 deep knee bends in, generally a little over that, and 200 one arm swings split evenly between hands, again – generally a little over that.

Note ; it amuses me greatly how the big neighborhood dog amps up whenever he’s being walked by as I workout.

The Second Minisession :

I rested a while, this lazy rainy saturday basically spent sleeping in, eating a couple easy to prep meals, and doing a couple workouts.

This second minisession is completing to 500+ swings on the day as yesterday I went to bed thinking I’d do exactly that today.

Note : been rained on this entire day’s workouts.

Yep. ✓
Did 310 swings, split – I think, 50/50 each side, did a few burpees (had to – daily PT), and stirred the pot, a fun exercise, holding the bell’s horns.

You can get a lot out of a little when you put in a lot.

I feel real good with the frequent workouts.
The thing too is that I was exhausted when I woke up, had slept a mostly unbroken thirteen hours – after a week of work, workouts, and probably not enough food.

That’s something for me to work on, speeding up my metabolism by eating more frequently – though I’m used to fasting.

…..

Third Minisession :

9 o’clock hour, did 500+ one arm swings – a handful of sets of 30, the largest count with hand switches something like a set of 54 reps (final set – ending strong), though all of it done pretty low in height as said beneath the picture of bud jeffries (who presently I’m similar to in height/weight – rip bud, I never got to meet you) with the 20kg bell, in about 30:00 – completing 1000 one arm swings on the day.

Man the contrast of flashing screens in neighborhood windows as you’re breathing heavy, swinging the bell, getting rained on – listening to wes watson audio, making your self talk right, positive, and most importantly… envisioning a better future, having a life that fulfills and works for me!

Persistence & Tenacity

P.S. It’s amazing how strong I am prepping pushups within a couple hours of a good kettlebell pulling session.

Really primes me, an example of the “what the hell” effect.

I get this “primed” for pushups carryover from the barbell military press, as well as I’ve recently discovered by all kettlebell ballistics.