5/19/23
For a couple days now, realizing the other day that I must ; I’ve started a new daily habit, another no excuse thing with many payoffs.
I’m now doing burpees and kettlebell snatches each and every night.
It’s not a huge amount, just getting some in during a fifteen to twenty minute time span, in about 1% or 1.5% of the day, but it’s enough to have a pump, get out of breath to a small degree, and to feel good, real good.
What I’ve loved about burpees in the past is how when you’ve done at least a minimal amount, enough to get a pump and get out of breath – how you become your true self for a time, you are how humans are meant to act be.
real uninhibited
You feel good. The world is your’s.
Inhibitions? What are those? They don’t exist. You’re ideal you.
Like you were as a god’s honest, loving life, child.
For a brief time you’re the you as god designed.
No inhibitions.
No fear. No pain. No mental baggage.
Love. Seeing Brightness, All Existence.
Just ideal being.
In the moment, joyous.
I needed that vibe in me, that vibe as my life, so I’m shirtless, barefoot, in the evening sunlight – doing my daily burpees, doing my daily kettlebell snatches.
Life’s good. For this time after.
Then you carry that mood over to more and more of your twenty four.
-J
P.S.
cold world – snowgoons
(rediscovered the track yesterday after years without hearing it)
5/13/23 730pm
With today’s pushups I marked seven years of daily pushups, my habit you know, without a single missed day.
This is my longest confirmed streak, the record ever extending.
A habit done for fully half my life having started at about the time I entered high school – I have now gone about a quarter of my life without one miss.
At times the daily pushups, usually done nightly, functioned as my rock, something I could always count on in this world.
Something I could always control.
…..
Honestly it’s such force of habit now that it may not be the same to me psychologically anymore.
I just do them. There is no reason. It just is. Is.
how I am now about doing pushups – they are their own purpose
5/5/23
There are now two youngsters working at the moving company.
One’s average height, average weight, the other is a tad taller than his buddy, and skinnier.
The customer (I’d actually had him as a gym teacher in both middle and high school – the first time I’ve known the customer having done this off and on for years) bought a couple pizzas, told us “don’t let it get cold”, which saw most of our ridiculously over manpowered crew have a slice or two.
16 big slices from two larges plus a real tiny pizza for 12-14 people all in all in the house ya can only have one, a couple two.
I had two.
I believe the first youngster had two.
You know I’m me, 290ish, “not fat”.
In fact I was hitting some pullups, note : not chin ups, in the doorway bar after work as something said in a Wes Watson video amped me up.
Immediately I went to the doorway bar, got an ugly 7 reps first set, ugly 6 reps second set vs an ugly 10 reps on a proper height bar.
“We were amped just to have the ability to do pullups on lockdown, yeah we had to bend our knees – they were designed as towel rack, but we could do pullups!” – paraphrase
That clicked for me.
And back the the work anecdote ;
I don’t know entirely what they said, I without thinking remarked off hand in passing “two years to 250”.
The two went “what”.
I paused, turned to them ; “two years to 250lbs. whatever you’re at now – if you really wanted to, you could force feed to 250. In. Two. Years.”
They faced each other, arguing amongst themselves a moment as to the possibility of the skinnier (and weaker – he may not cut it at this job, coaxing him to curl an empty bar on his first day was a struggle for him) of the two having the possibility to get that heavy.
“Maybe I could get that big” he thought aloud smiling facing me oblivious for a moment to the other – the asshole “alpha” of the pair for a moment unable to verbally cut the daydream off, and tear his friend down.
I probably just opened the kid’s eyes to the possibility that he, skinny, around average height, full of nervous energy, could in fact get jacked.
He saw possibility. You saw it in both the eyes and smile on that acne and scratch covered teenage face.
Possibly planted the seed for both of them.
Just an offhand comment.
Realistic? 250? More like 200.
But whatever. Planted a seed (albeit unintentionally).
10/14/22
If you asked me “do you workout”, the answer is “no”.
I don’t workout.
I haven’t stepped foot in a gym in about 10½/11 months, a day pass at a place I may never go to again (it changed owners, who got rid of it’s strongman equipment – what incentive now), haven’t had a gym membership in a year less a week and a half.
I don’t workout…anymore.
Yet, pushups are done daily, I’ve been into wrestler’s bridges and deep knee bends for weeks of daily mini sessions, and after every work shift in this no gym membership period I have swung my tree branch mace in the yard.
I’m sure the neighbors, should they turn away from their flashing television to look out the window, think I’m nuts.
I swinging a tree branch around my head with a purpose.
Regularly.
Heck, I’ve lifted some this year at the “Cold Air Barbell Club”, where I hit my first 225lb+ military press.
But I had the option to lift today, twice, and skipped it both times.
Wasn’t feeling like a lift by the time I was at home and had the time to.
Left work early hyped up to power snatch after a rinse the smell of kitchen off of me shower, then let it get dark before bothering to, and moved on.
My mental configuration is changing entirely as to “working out”.
Fuck it, done enough of that shit.
I’ll lift if I feel like it, consistently enough even, but…
DAILY PT!
mandatory.
mandatory – young dopey
That’s not an unhealthy compulsion.
I broke myself of the “I have to lift” compulsion! I’m no longer a “lifter”, a “meathead”, I’m. Just. Me.
mandatory PT – the pushups have been like this for forever and always.
I’m liking that wrestler’s bridging and deep knee bends have shifted into that outlook.
Probably long term, though I let everything be free to change aside from the mandatory pushups.
There will be a solid deep knee bend video, bare chested at least, in the snow this winter.
I’m putting some focus on it, one of the simplest of movements.
Could go get good at pullups again, heck there’s even a pullup option or three that would be simple to include on a daily running routine.
Route? Routine.
Routine.
But we don’t workout anymore. And fuck “training”. Who gives a shit?
There is only PT.
Connotations? Definitions?
We PT. We do not “workout”, and it’s no longer “training” in that lifting sense.
PT
Big biceps from all the mace swings?
Side effect of PT.
STRONG AS SHIT!
Side effect of PT.
It’d be to go box or get some mat time if I bother to pay gym dues again.
Heck, even a rock climbing gym over being a mentally unhealthy lifter (though I may join a powerlifting gym to film myself lifting – it’s a different mental approach, I’ve moved on, I’ve become free).
We’ve thrived this past year with a barbell and tree branch in the yard, pushups in the kitchen!
“Before we eat we do PT, before we eat we do PT”, though this wasn’t the mantra repeated all night by the half of the instructors who napped during the day so as to keep all participants at the summer camp from hell I chose to go to at age 15 – I can hear it in one of their voices…
Presenting :
BEFORE WE EAT WE DO PT
find & utilize your own personal inner cadre
I’m on a bit of a writing mania, typing this up immediately after the last post, the inspiration while hitting deep knee bends after neck bridging before the bowl of broccoli topped with ground beef topped with a slice of pizza and a tall cup of eggnog.
Okay, the microwave is angry.
Another set of deep knee bends.
…gets food out of microwave…
Now I type ; intuitively, and scientifically – the body is better at nutrient partitioning with higher levels of activity.
At 19 or so I watched a documentary/docu-drama/reality show where americans as contestants went to a stone fort in the north african desert, and with former french foreign legionaries/legionaires (which is right!!!) as simulated cadre had the simulated ffl boot camp experience.
One thing that stuck out to me was that before entering the chow hall, right next to the chow hall entrance in fact, was a pullup bar where a set of 10+ was expected, the contestants expected to “PT before we eat” by an angry little napoleon of an american who had been an nco for a while in the legion before a brief us army enlistment.
…..
Now, I eat – having done some PT right before doing so.
And we know it’s another set of deep knees bends after plus the night’s pushups.
You’re better off with a mini session before every meal.
-J Persistence & Tenacity
hey, at least it’s a bunch of calisthenics instead of a run + there are people who walk a mile after every meal
However, with this being my viewpoint
I’m lukewarm as to whether I am okay with the level of effort or not.
On the plus side obsessive tendencies have me doing this much.
On the minus side I could be more conditioned, leaner, stronger.
In physical training at some point you go full circle and find yourself standing as either a very strong crossfitter and/or as a highly conditioned strongman.
The emotions of not socializing along with my training hurts, though I’m close to past caring.
Lifting at home, alone, forces me to get back to my roots, to where I was in headspace exercising from my junior year of high school til a few months after my 21st birthday immediately preceding when I rejoined a gym after what was a 10 month hiatus.
Music choices even reflect this.
It’s a weird time.
That headspace combined with an extra 7-11 years of experience, well I know that I don’t need to push to have a 405+ squat and 495 deadlift alongside an ever increasing bench.
I also know the ways I can push with what I have.
I could stop doing mostly 3s on overhand fat gripz sldls, and really push the reps per set here looking for a 30rm, bump it 10lbs, continue [as a 30×275 deadlift is a strong person however you swing it – speaking from experience here 🙂 ], or I could go hog wild, full retard, mix my grip fat gripz or otherwise, and aim for 30s as heavy as possible every 4th or 5th day or so.
I even know the value of all the light stuff done right.
the mantra “a human crane” with the original blue fat gripz – I definitely have this in a rough draft somewhere
You really don’t know how much I don’t need to bench.
I pushup religiously.
If I had people standing on my back regularly I’d be getting pretty specific heavy bench stimulus, but I’ve been getting good at grinding on high rep military press, which is increasing that 1rm should I decide to test it (as I did recently)
My foot just fucking cramped!
,and lately I’ve been doing what I call the “york combo” a clean, into some presses, widen my grip, drop the bar controlled like to my back, do some squats, then btn snatch grip push jerk it back overhead, catch and hold it at lockout, then lower controlled – this, even for minimal reps, covers both the “press & squat daily” requirements I’ve been holding myself to, particularly lifting real hurry up style immediately before work.
My progression standard here is a good 10-12p+~10sq with a solid catch and hold of the btn jerk, then up it 10lbs.
205lbs, for at least 10p+≥10sq if not 20p+20sq is not far, the combo a kinda “stronger than you think” thing easily underestimated.
Which is somewhat the reaction I’d expect to video of this (better yet with a walk and turn) which feels on the table this winter – yes I expect to continue lifting outdoors this winter, unless I leave the area, as the localest strongman gym recently changed ownership meaning it lost it’s 1.5x life sized murals of crossfit games champions (a good thing I say), and IT’S STRONGMAN’S EQUIPMENT (obviously bad), so it’s outdoors that J continues to c&p in varied permutations.
But hey – lift outdoors, by yourself for awhile.
You get some answers.
A simple one being that centering your physicality about picking something up off the ground, pressing it overhead a bunch of times, and nicely setting it back down (sometimes after going for a walk with it) is simple and solid.
I realize with eggnog on shelves again something I felt instinctively as a high school wrestler “I’d rather up my activity and eat, than diet”, while actually eating around dead end job in the kitchen may be my nemesis at that moment, moreso than having to do the york combos before work.
I’ve lightly started food prepping, ground beef and broccoli on the menu every day, at present having no intended end in sight (this is good).
I think my ideal would be to have the bodybuilding or strongman lifestyle without a day job while activity and downtime are balanced at a level of 6000-7000 calories as maintenance consumed every day.
I genuinely debate buying a second 300lb weight set solely to stash at work and get more pressing in on lunch break.
Hmm, a pair of kettlebells or dumbbells may make more logistical sense here.
My 75lb dumbbell could become my car bell 🙂
Another direction would be ez curl bar and plates to ~100lbs as a work stash option.
yep
Some who work there bring in food and drink cause they don’t like what the restaurant has to offer, while I’m thinking about creating a little courage corner in the area where everyone aside from myself takes smoke breaks – L O fucking L
Where is my head at?
In this moment, I’m antsy for tomorrow’s york combo – I’m really looking forward to it, whereas now it’s to the kitchen to finish a pizza with a side of ground beef & broccoli/cauliflower/carrots/mushrooms, and open my second half gallon of eggnog in under 36 hours.
“Comrade ; in soviet military every base from rat infested and shelled out afghanistan fob to luxurious comrade general’s headquarters in moscow, every base, every base has courage corner – in luxurious comrade general’s headquarters in moscow “courage corner” is many full sets of kettlebells set collecting dust amongst 10,000 ft² of capitalist dog machines to in rat infested and shelled out afghanistan fob “courage corner” is three kettlebells set in only corner of building still intact covered in sweat of heroic soviet soldier’s glorious efforts plus the blood, guts, gore, and fur of rats smashed with same bells – every base has courage corner for strong soviet soldiers to build themselves ever stronger for greater glory of soviet union.”
(maybe I took some liberties summarizing)
pictured : a courage corner setup while on field exercise
I realize with my total gym, pushups, deep knee bends, and a pillow or mat to bridge on – I have a nice little courage corner for myself.
20:00 a day, giant sets of wrestler’s exercises and that bicep heavy total gym pullup = awesome me
I realize with the fat gripz sldl and deep knee bends – I have a nice little courage corner for myself.
20:00 a day, supersets of fat gripz sldl and deep knee bends = awesome me
Find your courage corner.
-J Persistence & Tenacity
P.S.
You don’t need to deadlift heavy, you can treat it as a builder of wellness.
I’m only pulling light, sldl, with the fat gripz double overhand…and it feels great.
300lbs is the standard weight set, there’s also 500lbs, and one in the 200s, maybe 210lbs which strikes as very old school – a pair each of 35s, 25s,10s, two pairs of 5s, and a pair of 2½s.
210lbs, that’s what I left the bar loaded with (had pressed singles 115-205 by 5lb jumps earlier in the day), convenient for setup/breakdown for presses, snatches, the two lifts I regularly do, and around my 1rm in each…
But how many times can I deadlift it?
Repping 30×275, I’ve done it before when not going to a gym.
It was simply pull 30 reps ever third day, do it in an few sets as possible, contentedly wait til the time felt right to join a gym again.
Simple. Freeing.
100?, 100+, 100s x 210lbs – you’re blessed to have access to the equipment you have.
Who is making excuses?
…..
Your challenge as a person…is to be as happy, confident, friendly, helpful – positive as you can be, in spirit, in vibe, everywhere as you go about your day.
The environment is negative?
The circumstances are “against” you?
Perfect!
It’s for you.
It’s your personal challenge to be as positive as possible as you live your day – every day, everywhere
I came across the concept while reading today “the fighter had a broken hand so he was working his kicks”.
It got me to thinking of other articles I’ve read stating the same principle, and I believe it’s a Winston Churchill quote ;
“If you can’t run – walk. If you can’t walk – crawl. If you can’t crawl – blink.”
All can do something.
The bedridden can study, and often could do arm and grip work, besides tense any muscle you can!
Imagine if the seriously disabled flexed with a purpose for years. Some would stop being disabled!
Oh, it’s an upper body injury is it then?
Train legs.
You hurt your what?
Dude, that’s lower body, train upper. You’re managing to walk, so walk between upper body machines.
All must train. There are zero excuses.
You are all the gym you need.
Boo hoo I don’t have a gym membership.
Lunges are free. Step outside.
I do so many pushups in the kitchen!
More coming up…
Limp around between upper body machines! I felt complimented that no one felt the need to ask why I was limping, they knew it didn’t matter – I train irregardless!
I’ve seen a dude in a wheelchair dip himself into and out of the chair, and onto a machine.
Completely paralyzed legs doing dips on his wheelchair. And at the gym doing what he can!
I’ve seen a dude with mostly paralyzed legs, crutch himself to the lat pulldown – where, as a gym floor regular, he spent significant time.
He had a big upper body, and talking with him he had powerlifted to a ~600 pull before a car accident. It looked to me that he still had his 181lb weight class upper body despite shriveled legs, if not having bodybuilt it larger since!
People have told me my consistency inspires them, I’ve heard this from everyone from late teen beginners to a rather upper body strong 50 something who you wouldn’t guess to be past 40 smashing pullups and dips.
What I do shouldn’t be inspiring!
My consistency should be the norm.
There are people making it happen in spite of way worse!
There are disabled gym floor regulars with significant upper body development, while I’m about to step outside and power snatch.
I’ve got it easy.
-J
6/8/22
And the strongest legged girl I’ve ever met, 19yo, squatting mid 300s, was doing this with cast over a broken forearm.
5/16/22 955pm
Oakhurst coffee milk, going full bro – straight from the jug I take a swig of maybe 8oz.
Doing my pushups for the day, 110 is the number of reps in this set with which I play.
The range is not full, touching neither floor nor lockout – a smidge further than the woody woodpecker hence sayeth the internet nerd “ZERO REPS NO LOCKOUT”
I hear such from many, these are useless or something else – such as I am just cheating though it is I who by riding on the gains train it is them whom I, I am beating…
I am not greedy, come on in, join in the fun – pushups are a treasure…
THERE ARE REPS TO BE DONE!
grabbing the music link I accidentally deleted the poem, immediately rewriting a very similar second take on the thing – there was no internet nerd nor gains train mentioned in the first
I remember the word count – this take came out about 30 longer with similar pacing
