Author: J

Jump Squats,Speed Pulls,And Olys

Now I can most likely count on my fingers how many times I’ve done either jump squats or speed pulls, and my Olympic form generally looks like a caveman heaving a carcass so take this for what you will:

When you’re being a lunatic and pushing the frequency of your squat or pulling to asshole like levels of daily or even higher (7+ sessions weekly) at some point you’ll be doing yourself no favors continuing to add in sessions that aren’t light as fuck.

Here’s where the speed work comes in, and that’s what jump squats, speed pulls, and olys are…speed work.

Jump Squats

Squatting? While you can get away with maxing out near it daily the best progress on high frequency seems from just getting under the bar as often as possible and keeping it moderate.

When you absolutely positively should not be squatting there’s a variation for you….Jump squats.

They come in as a God send of a streak extender and seem to allow you to get airborne (barely) with far heavier weight than you’d expect the day after maxing. 435 (regular) at around 10pm followed by 405 (questionable, no vid to tell) but definitely 365 airborne the next morning…on no sleep. No squat variation has ever felt as easy on my body as the jumps, even when I’m in the vicinity of 90% 1rm(that’s regular 1rm), and no variation feels as good on days where you feel as if your ass is crippled.

Speed Pulls

As I preach time and again: Frequency, frequency and fucking frequency!

Before the months long burn out of hating the new gym(since you’re reading this want to know why,ha!), soon after I’d joined I was pulling PRs all over the place.

I got pissed and pulled daily for between 14 and 21 days.

The 1rm came near the end of this streak.

How how did I pull that many days in a row and often 10x weekly without visiting snap city or some other fagged out land of crippled weaklings?

Speed pulls.

The speed work seems to take nothing out of you, primes you to blast your hips, and likely at play here pisses you off as you are gripping and ripping yet it’s light and you have to pull out your hair keeping yourself from maxing again.

Olympic Variations:

Same concept as both of the aforementioned.

Even to fucking 500lb cleaners it’s still light as fuck and explosive in relation to what they can squat (I say there are squat records waiting to be broken by weightlifters that won’t bother due to their not giving a fuck about powerlifting), and deadlift should they care to max.

You can hit Olympic variations daily or more than daily indefinitely without dipping into recovery and while at it muscling up your traps and improving hip pop.

Initial Point:

Jump Squats:

Add them in, actually remember to do them, see how heavy you can still clear ground with and then be amazed at both how “heavy” that is, how you didn’t get injured, and at how good the lift itself feels and how it makes you feel.

-J

P. Fucking.S. I imagine I’ll hit a jump squat with more than my current 1rm soon, and’ll have to get that inch of airborne glory on video. It feels very chaos and pain like.
L O L
END TRANSMISSION

static noises

 

Standing On The Edge

You’re shaking. The view is great, but would be better closer.

You can feel the adrenaline dump, you’re already shaking bad, and the closer you get the worse it gets.

A little closer. “Good enough” you think, then “No it’s not”.

Closer you move and closer again.

You sit on your haunches on the edge, great view, shaking, fear.

You decide to victory pose. Slowly you stand from the deep squat, spread your arms, expanding you look to the heavens. Instantaneously you begin to shake harder,you begin to lose your balance, swaying forward….on the edge.

You step back.

“Good enough”, you say to yourself again, and yet again a moment later, “No its not”.

You go through the process again. It’s better this time, you don’t fuck about on your haunches, you step right up to the edge and stand.

The same again. Victory pose, look to the heavens, shake, and sway.

You begin combat breathing. You’ll fall off if you don’t contain the fear, the shaking.

At the edge, breathe, fight to control the fear.

Hold the victory pose, breathe.

At the moment you’re alive.

Ahh, I stood on the edge. I took a stand….and didn’t fall.

Stand strong, face the fear. We have one life. Live, risk, experience, conquer.

-J

Visualization + Results

A neat trick I’ve been using during calisthenics is this:

While doing something relatively easy like a pushup or a Hindu squat I’ll visualize a similar movement pattern like a bench press or a squat, but with a weight far heavier than my 1rm.

Sometimes every rep has the visualization, and sometimes only the last rep of the set.

Visualizing the harder exercise makes the calisthenic both easier and more effective.

You get into a zen place where the reps fly past easily, yet the pump,the activation in the muscles is far more than if you were just banging out the reps.

You hear of visualization for athletes, I never fully got it until a few nights ago doing my pushups in the aforementioned style.

As far as training is concerned this is esoteric stuff.

It goes along real well with isometric and dynamic work.

This may be part of Tai Chi/ Chi Gung style’s benefits…. Visualization.

I’ve done stuff like this in the past when I had no gym access, and little equipment.

This type of practice allows for rapid strength gain by turning off regulators in our body be they physical or mental.

Think of it this way; it’s been shown that visualization alone can cause the muscles involved in the visualized act to fire, so why not combine this with movement?

Doing this causes a compounding effect.

Think of the uses, and applications.

Landmine work while visualizing breaking jaws with Tyson like blows.

The strength that can be built with little to no equipment.

Hell, you’re so dialed in, and so focused that it’ll even be less wear and tear on the body.

There’s definitely something to visualization. It’s not some looney thing that doesn’t work. It may seem looney, but it does work.

Give it a fair shot. Next time you’re doing pushups visualize benching 405+.

It’s a cool sensation. You’ll like it.

-J

The Fastest Gains

Take 4 Action.

What are the limits?

People have done amazing things. Strength,endurance, willpower, survival.

But I’m thinking bodybuilding here.
Powerbuilding is actually a better term as far as what’s in my head. To be big, fairly lean, and rugged, more like a lean strongman, the type with manhandling strength.

But what would be the natural limit? I say it’s far further than is commonly accepted, and probably further than where a bunch of steroid users are at.

But really what’s on my mind is not just the long term, but the short term.

Take an already built natural with average genetics, how far could they go in say a 12-16 week sprint following the Barbarian Brother’s mantra of ” There is no such thing as overtraining, just undereating and undersleeping”

3 or 4 months of obsessional lunatic training and big eating.

What’s the line you could push til?

The hardest part in my mind is eating the amount necessary here, which brings up another point;

Why is it that you have to get fat?

5000 calories that’s outtrainable.
6000 ditto, remember this hypothetical is looking for steroid like strength gains and recomp, and the starting point is already fairly big.

10000 calories seems ridiculous, but I bet it can be consumed.

8000. I like this number, it is both semi-ridiculous,and far past 5000, yet I feel sustainable.

8000 calories a day for 3-4 months, and training to burn it off.

How to hit 8000 you ask?

~3lbs ground beef,whatever you mix in with the beef(cheese, onion,rice,etc), a gallon of milk, and 8-12 eggs blended with whatever(peanut butter,banana,ice cream,etc) into real protein shakes.

Get all that down to hit 8000.

Now to the training.

Daily or damn near daily marathon sessions, and I’d say multiple sessions as well.

Morning cardio and calisthenics.
Evening weights.

The morning is more to keep healthy and athletic while adding volume in an easy way.

Walking,jump rope, a bunch of calisthenics, then end with some 40s.

The evening?

Oh boy. We have a lot of work to do.

This is about rugged strength so high rep pump work would be minimal, and besides already covered in the morning session.

Full body training is a must here, and giant setting push, pull, and legs would be beneficial.

Lots of sets of 4-8. We want hypertrophy and strength here.
This is a recomp and a mad dash towards scariness, we don’t want to be simply puffy and pretty.

The tonnage per session would be awe inspiring.

I’d say that this experiment breaks all the gym rules. I can already hear the “natty bros” screaming steroids, overtraining,and you’ll get fat.

Why not send a nice middle finger the naysayers way and prove the fuckers wrong.

You’ll be physically far more robust for it.

-J

 

5 Minutes Can Be A Long Time

Before writing to get in some physical activity I swung my 20lb kettlebell for 5 minutes straight.

At the start I was tossing it from hand to hand spinning it in the air (not flips like in juggling), but as time progressed the tosses got less lively.

Soon the transitions from hand to hand became less frequent.

My glutes started getting pumped, and I could feel the insertion between my obliques and lower back.

Near the end I started mixing in squat style swings after having done only hinge style swings prior.

Finally the timer buzzed, and I swung an extra 10 seconds to even out the number of swings with each hand.

I was drenched in sweat, had a decent glute pump, my heart rate was up, and I was feeling euphoric.

About an hour later my glutes mildly spasmed while standing.

Overall it had been great, and I decided to write on time under tension again.

Most people spend very little time actually moving weights. Sets and reps just don’t lend themselves to lots of time under load unless you’re doing sets of 50-100 reps (or more).

I challenge you to pick an exercise, it doesn’t need to be a hard one, and set a timer for 5 minutes and go.

I know you’re thinking that 5 minutes is nothing,so go ahead, do it.

You’ll quickly discover it’s not when you’re actually working the entire time.

Depending on your patience you may expect the 5 minutes to be up in as little as one minute.

Certain exercises will make this one set hellish. A decently loaded leg press for example is one (I can push hard on the leg press).

Some will make it damn near impossible like holding a good low horse stance.

I’d suggest pushups, Hindu squats, or light kettlebell swings to start with. The swings and Hindu squats you can definitely finish, but the pushups will likely hit total failure before the time’s up.

Make the 5 minutes and don’t rest (Unless you’ve hit failure).

Give it a go. You’ll find you respect certain abilities far more once you have.

-J

 

 

You Don’t Need A Pre-Workout

2 cups of coffee should have you set….At most! You don’t need stimulants.
Gym Rituals + Shenanigans

It’s laughable to go to any gym and observe the shenanigans and rituals going on everywhere.

You have the people near the entrance and in the locker room practically snorting their preworkouts. By the water fountain and bathroom sinks you have the people obsessing over their choices of protein powders, and from time to time you get to see the stereotype (thanks Planet Fitness) of the big guy (or even not big guy) carrying around a jug of ominous yellow liquid (comes in red also, most likely BCAAs) in it’s natural habitat…. The gym floor.

(Update : I had to link it, can’t believe I didn’t last year.)

You’ll see elaborate warm up rituals that to your best judgement seem to be part of some long lost and possibly failed mating ritual (foam rolling 20+ minutes, entirely on the ass and hips), or such pleasantries as the gangly fucker walking so slowly on the treadmill texting that a snail would hold it’s own in a race with said gangly fucker.

I’m getting aside from the topic, I can rant about the rest another time.

Today we will focus on the first mentioned:

The methheads dudes using preworkouts.

Dependence On Pre-Workouts

I’ve noticed among the male under 30 crowd that 90% seem to be unable to lift without their preworkout substances in them.

It’s absolutely laughable, completely psychological, and from time to time it seems that they are close to O.D.ing.

The tolerances they’ve developed to their preworkout of choice is often somewhat scary. Doses are routinely doubled and often enough tripled.

It’s a shit ton of stimulants in the system.

I highly doubt that it’s good for you to artificially get UP that much, and that frequently. You should not need that much to get amped.

Getting Amped Naturally

Getting amped can be done mentally. Thoughts, focused breathing, they’ll both work. We can release the chemicals to get amped through more natural ways.

Fuming and pacing should be able to do it for you. Getting into the music playing ie headbanging to metal, or even singing along can work. A fun one is deciding to put on a show for the cute chick staring at you (whether she is or not), or to prove some shithead wrong (whether shit head actually thinks you can’t do it is irrelevant, it helps if shithead is a goof, or someone you actually don’t like though the shithead doesn’t even need to be a shithead, it can be entirely a mental construct of yours).

If you really need a stimulant in you a cup or two of coffee should be enough to do it. I am not saying to drink a gallon of coffee. Milk maybe, I love that shit, but not coffee.

Preworkout Stories:
  1. Of the few times I’ve used a preworkout (1/2 dose) I ALWAYS PR on front squats. My sessions using them involve:
    • Shit my brains out.
    • Proceed to squat rack.
    • Turn into a squirrel.
    • Re-swallow lung, and wonder what that feeling is. It worries me, but I can never place it.
    • Sweat balls just thinking of lifting
    • Hit at most 3 warm up singles. (Note: always wear cotton, synthetic allows bar to slip even more than soaked cotton. Heed my warning.)
    • (Optional) Pull a “Not now chief I’m in the fucking zone”
    • PR
    • Sit down because even breathing too hard may cause death, I am that amped, and sweating that much.
  2. Once to mock my buddy I asked him when he intended to start using meth preworkout. He didn’t find it funny, but that was probably because after having taken roughly 6 servings that day he was puking his brains out roadside on our way back from the gym.

I’m not kidding.  He’d routinely triple the dose. That particular day we did a double session, and in the morning he took 2 or 2 1/2 servings while in the afternoon he took 3 1/2 servings because he “needed” it to be able to lift again. I could only laugh seeing this. In fact getting him to use the Prowler as a finisher may have been evil, unintentional, but still evil.

That shits not healthy, and while my buddy is an outlier on one side of the spectrum with me on the other (I drink maybe 12 cups of coffee a year), most young guys fall far closer to him than I.

It’s All In Your Head

The need for preworkout is not real,you can lift with out it, it’s just a mental want.

Everything it does for you can be done without it.

Overpriced stimulant powder that tastes like ass (oddly tasty in a way that you don’t want to admit cotton candy flavored ass) is not necessary to a good session.

Get your head right. Don’t allow your preworkout to become a training crutch.

Kill It!

-J

 

 

A Simple Strength Trick To Drastically Increase Volume

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go into any gym, and see what is being done.

Routine.

People have their routine. Most are just spinning their wheels, making progress slowly if at all.

Most are scared to ever do something crazy like an iron marathon, or even up the volume slightly.

Upping The Volume

Now to get bigger and stronger you’ll need to do more volume.

Common methodology says to add more reps.

I’m suggesting do something different:

Don’t add more reps,that’s too normal,instead add A TON of time under tension.

I’m not suggesting you do tempo’d out lifting. 4 seconds lower,pause 2,4 up,pause 1. No, not at all.

Leave that primarily for the bodybuilding magazines.

So how to dramatically increase your time under tension?

One word; Holds.

Holds

This is isometric work 101.

It could be against an immovable object, but yielding style(holding a weight) is far easier to track.

Is your grip lagging? If so make sure the bar (preferably an axle/fat bar) spends a lot of time in your hands.

Holding a weight at lockout for time is the simplest way, although you could add movement ala farmers walks.

This method can be done with any muscle group.

I’m partial to using it with shoulders. In fact just last night I did 1 arm axle snatches and held the weight for 30 seconds at lockout. (I used an interval timer, and alternated hands, 5 sets of 30 seconds each hand)

5 x 30 seconds is only 2:30 of tension each side. Easy right?

Not so much, generally our sets and reps don’t equal much time under tension at all.

You’d be surprised the difference in work when you do holds.

It’s quite straight forward, and is an instant intensity multiplier.

Remember it can done with any bodypart, and any movement.

Bench holds for time? I’ve done it, in fact it’s how I first passed 275.
Deadlift holds? Check.
Chin up holds and hangs? Check and check.
Hand and thigh lift and holds are brutal.
Olympic lifts held at the top? Oh yeah, and this applies to EVERY variation.

Remember this can be used for any bodypart or movement.

You’ll quickly see how little work you’ve actually been doing.

Get intense, add some volume,and get jacked!

-J

Dogma In The Gym

Most programming is essentially dogma in it’s application by trainees.

In the back corner you’ve got the powerlifting crew screaming overtraining should you squat more than once weekly, over by the dumbbells and mirrors you’ve got the bodybuilders saying full body splits give you AIDS, and over at platform the small Olympic crew is doing almost naught but the lifts and squats, 7x a week MINIMUM.

I’ll let you in on the greatest strength secret in the world, the one that you ABSOLUTELY need to make great gains,the one that you’ve been searching for countless hours via Google and Bodybuilding.com……

You ready?

All the approaches can work.

But there’s a catch, an if.

IF YOU PUT IN THE WORK, THE INTENSITY.

See methodology doesn’t really matter. Every method has people making gains, AND people essentially masturbating,spinning their wheels for “maintenance” at best.

Generally I lift like I’m a weightlifter doing the powerlifts.

Doing this I almost got injured, as I was flat out ignoring putting in the strengthening the system work that the Westside inspired powerlifters do.

My own training is a testament of proof against the existence of an overtraining Boogeyman that so strongly haunts the mind of both powerlifters and bodybuilders.

Really I’m part of a rarely found in nature species, I’m one of the guys​ who walk into the gym with the no plan other than to go hard.

From time to time I have to evaluate and take ques from other methodologies, like being smart and adding in regular ab and lower back work while still having no plan other than train + get stronger.

You should take a look at how dogmatic you are about both how to train, and what ways of training are possible.

Certain personality types respond better mentally (which is the most important part) to far less rigidity, to a more freestyle “method” of training.

I’m one of them, and our needs in the gym are rarely discussed, as I believe we are a small percentage. I am not the only one however, as I have met one or two others who train similarly to how I do.

Take a look at your programing. If it doesn’t bring you joy, why are you doing it? Don’t be scared to toss the rules out and experiment. Dogma holds many down. Once you’ve found a method that clicks, oh boy you’ll get gains, as you’ll be putting in more effort.

EFFORT IS WHAT LEADS TO RESULTS! You’ll never find the “perfect” program, so just work!

Fuck your dogma and fuck your program, train hard.

-J

Movement: Newton’s First Law As Applied To Human Ability

Newton’s first law states: ” An object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest”

Observe most humans and see how true it is.

Those who are most active are able to stay active, while those who laze around become more and more prone to sloth.

This can even be what causes a huge difference in the health and physical abilities of people with very close genetics. Lots of bodybuilding authors like to use twins for example, but I’ll use what I’ve personally seen; brothers about a year and a half apart.

One brother started doing track in middle school, and by high school was doing cross country,indoor,and outdoor track. This was in addition to PE, and generally staying on his feet both walking everywhere and for fun.

The second brother on the other hand ate the same way (they both eat garbage in stupid high calorie quantity) but didn’t exercise at all. All he did was watch Family Guy and play Playstation. While his brother walked to school he’d generally take the bus.

One could do around 20 chins, was decent at pushups and could run a ballpark 21 minute 5k, the other was a typical American youth, far weaker than young man was intended to be.

They both are 5’8″ or 5’9″.
One weighs 160, the other 220.

Any guesses as to who is who?

Care to predict which one is going to have health problems later in life?

It’s not hard to be in decent functioning health and shape.

It’s Newton’s first law in play.

Any activity will pay dividends down the road.

With my hurt I’ve taken to walking to keep active. Throughout the day I’ll climb my homes staircase for 5 minutes a session to keep on moving. PT is still doable so that is done as well.

I’m frequently testing range of motion and what does and doesn’t hurt.

Whatever your circumstance keep moving. I’m sure you’ve observed someone get injured (or even only hurt) take to the couch,and become part of it. Don’t let this happen to you.

I’ll paraphrase something I read online, but can’t quote as I no longer recall the source: “If you can’t run, walk,if you can’t walk,crawl, if you can’t crawl, blink. Whatever you do keep training.” I’ll add to this that even one in a wheelchair can still train upper body, just look at what Paralympic benchers can do.

-J

Priming Your Muscles For Superior Performance

There is tremendous value in keeping your body,and your muscles primed. By doing so you allow yourself to always be good to go,to be able to constantly perform, and even do so under adverse circumstances.

Now in the past my best squat gains came from daily squatting. However it’s been almost a year since I did that protocol for around 7 months without missing a day.

I decided that as long as I have gym access (iffy, I’m in a tight spot financially) that I’ll start squatting everyday again, and with the intention of building some leg size also do reps on either the leg press or back squat more sessions than not in addition to the low rep squat work.

There’s a feeling of being primed,of the muscle in question feeling “solid” when trained frequently. In the legs this is a feeling of being planted in the ground, immovable.

This feeling consists of a mild soreness, but also grants far higher muscle activation.

You’ll have to play around with protocol, but I can tell you this; when you’ve found the proper daily workload the activation from the frequent work will far outweigh the effects of the mild soreness.

In fact it’s a different kind of soreness, I find that it actually makes me feel better,that it makes me feel stronger. Obviously this is far from the I can’t walk soreness that many urge you to train yourself into.

This is really part of the core of my lifting philosophy. Train yourself to always “be up” physically. This does however require high frequency. If you can’t make it to the gym do bodyweight work to keep the training streak going. It’s like how John Broz says to squat with an empty bar if you have to, that the stimulus (no matter how ridiculously easy) still helps with the adaption process.

What I’m trying to get you to do is even described by Broz when he says that his lifters don’t do mobility, and barely warmup ….wait for it….. because they are already these things from all the lifting they do.

Sadly this experience is not common in most gyms.

I want you to push your limits,and discover that you are not meant to be a soft little pudgy bitch, but actually intended to be big strong vigorous and rugged.

When you understand being primed like I’m advocating for you’ll be far closer to the latter than the former. You can thank me for your gains in awesomeness later, I’ll be squatting most likely when you do.

#everydayislegday

-J

P.S. I feel dirty having thrown that # in.