Category: Lifting Mindset

Ok background, the above picture struck me as I randomly came across it on Google one night. I screen grabbed it, and figured I’d write an article off it.

“Odd that a random photo of a tiny Chinese man pressing struck me so much. ” (picture that as a Brian Alsruhe video greyed out aside.)

I know that I’m one of the few since 1972 who actually cares for the military press, and am just now getting consistent with 200lbs (which I most recently pressed using a yoke) while clearly a heavyweight weighing in the vicinity of 260lbs.

Between Bill Starr, Chaos And Pain, and a hatred of weakness, my (and everyone elses’) lack of press strength is pissing me off.

“If only I’d focused on pressing in high school…” (another Alsruhe style aside) “shot put would have been better.”

Read some Starr articles, he frequently stresses how many pre-1972 were pressing bodyweight plus, it used to be COMMON, and now…do you know anyone who can press bodyweight?

Chirp chirp chirp…crickets…

“Weakness” (while shaking head, picture the aside) “Damn those who butchered the form, and damn those who got the press dropped from the Olympics.”

So speaking as a heavyweight, or anyone for that matter…like the photo of Howe’s file upload title…will you let Howe Lin Tan … “or is it Tan Howe Liang” (you should know what to picture by now)…out press you?

I fucking hope not.

-J

Now for music…

a debate…

this or…that…

Fuck it, both. (Mickey voice, pronounced faack it, bothe)

and

 

 

I recall watching some black and white video of Soviet paratroopers.

(found it)

In it they did some impressive PT, gymnastics, and what is likely sambo as it looked like karate drilling.

One could easily watch the video and think “Damn, that entire unit must be made up of elite athletes. Some of that shit is superhuman.”

It’s when you hit that thought you need to stop and think for a second.

Likely that video was a paratrooper unit of, wait for it…elite athletes.

The Soviets had units like that, units made up of elite athletes. They were often Spetznaz. A Spetznaz Colonel that defected touched upon this in a book he wrote, forgive me for no link, or title. I don’t remember it, but do remember I’d read it after looking up the PT standards of Spetznaz. Use your own Google Fu.

(Update : Google Fu is no longer necessary, I found linkage for the book.)

Back to the real point:

You should never view another’s abilities as superhuman.

Claiming genetics is mostly a cop out.

I was looking at track and field events and noticed a couple of events that I thought were dominated by black/African athletes, are in fact won by them, but the #2, the silver medalist is often an Eastern European.

Don’t just say it’s cause they’re Russian.

While growing up I recall kids going to the now cliched fat white kid cop out of “he can dunk/run fast/whatever cause he’s black” excuse and thinking “why don’t you hit the weights hard, run your bleachers and see if you’re capable as well you lazy fuck”

Some are born gifted, and some become gifted by years of hard fucking work.

You won’t know until a year or two, maybe five or ten down the road, but that’s only if you try.

It’s NFL strong to clean 405+, yet there are high schoolers hitting in the 300s, maybe even the 400s.

My PR is still 275, but I know I’ll hit 405 in my lifetime…and jerk it overhead. I was stuck at 205 for years, then one day I finally hit 225, and it’s still getting better.

(Inspirational, yep I’ve linked this video before.)

As I high school freshman I was told I’d never bench 225. That took me till around the end of my junior year. 315 didn’t happen until 21. I feel very confident saying 2018 will see 405 should I pursue it. That would make it about a decade from sub-135 to 405+.

I’m 50/50 on whether hearing I have good genetics should be taken as an insult or as a compliment. I’ve been hearing it a lot as of late.

-J

(The link to rosstraining where I first saw the vid because…Google Fu it can work wonders. I watched that vid almost 3 years ago, and at the time of rough draft writing I didn’t know where I’d seen it. This was almost linkless…the horrors!!!!)

As I go about eating breakfast I’m racking my brains as to why my traps and neck are fairly sore and stiff.

One side mildly sore and not so stiff, the other side more sore and fairly stiff. Call it 30% on the mild side, 50% on the higher side.

(Semi-arbitrary #s, I’m trying to show not dehabilitatidly sore, but noticeable enough.)

I’d done one arm snatches into fairly long overhead carries…again ONE hand.

I did no reps on the opposite side, and yet the unworked side had roughly 60% of the soreness that I had on  the worked side carried. The soreness and work had carried over across the center line.

Somewhere on Chaos And Pain a study was referenced where a 70% carryover was found to an injured unworked limb by training the healthy side.

(I’d like to read that study.)

This percentage is similar to what I observe myself as an experiment of N=1.

(Emevas at Mythical Strength has at least alluded to similar experience.)

Two things:

1. Life is imbalanced.
2. Like i was saying above, the body naturally wants to stay relatively balanced.

It’s why I’m not worried if I do more reps on the strong side. It’s called the strong side after all, and to the horror of at least one lifting partner I’ve purposely left rep count uneven.

On a wacky note of imbalance, my weak side has slightly better grip strength in certain capacities.

I just don’t believe we need perfect symmetry and balance. In fact I think the body naturally prefers slight IMBALANCE as life is not perfectly symmetrical.

The body is rugged. With the right mental it is hard to get hurt and easy to recover if you do. The body will adapt to anything and function
well enough and accordingly.

And so you know, about a week ago playing around in the backyard with a light barbell…I pulled 285 with one side loaded 55lbs heavier than the other.

Peace,

-J

It’s all mental.

I repeat, it’s all mental.

When the mind is in the proper place YOU WILL GET BETTER. It’s a given. Your body can’t help but grow in spite of everything.

We can have access to a great gym, all the fancy machines and unnecessary specialty bars…and stagnate for long periods of time…

Yet on the other hand, there are times where circumstance is far far far less ideal…and we progress like we never have before, or after unless similar circumstance happens.

While living in Las Vegas I recorded a video that I’d entitle the same as this article. It was discussing how I’d been training…with no gym, barely any equipment, basically just calisthenics and isometric work at and around my apartment and despite this lack THAT I WAS MAKING THE BEST PHYSICAL PROGRESS OF MY LIFE.

As aforementioned my training was 85% covered by pushups and isometic back work. My pullup bar was a thick tree branch that I had to hang from open handed, thumbless, and with one hand on each side side of it, an open handed neutral gripped fat bar in gym parlance.

As far as equipment I had a neck harness, a 20lb kettlebell, one elitefts light band, and a doorway chin bar that I never installed instead using it as a length of pipe to loop the band around. I had a pillow for bridging and headstands, and a jump rope.

I made the best progress of my life.

Initially I was freaked out that I’d shrivel away to my former skinny fat self.  I immediately decided to do 1000 pushups a week, and got the idea to do some form of back isometric quickly finding a deadlift and a one arm DB row simulation.

I often overshot the pushup requirement, never doing less (I broke it down as 100+ reps on weekdays, 250+ reps on weekend days). I did loads of back isometrics, and often superset the pushups with jump rope sets. That was my main schedule.

(10 x 100 supersets of pushup + jump rope was a favorite.)

Often it’s hard to kick ourselves into this survival mentality. You can get yourself there as I did when I first started doing my PT at 14, but external circumstance seems to force you into it far more quickly as everyone seems to be a bitch unable to harden themselves through the mental alone in this piss weak culture.

Fighting and hunger, likely each alone, but definitely combined will get you there.

(Backstory: I was going to a church where one of the pastors had used to own a karate dojo, deciding to “retire” he sold off the dojo, but kept a small adult + invite only class in the back room of the church. After about 4 months the 5 men involved invited me seeing use for another body.

Also of note my diet came out to $5 daily, though I qualified for them I refused to get food stamps and learned to get enough for a buck. I ate 3 cans of tuna at $1.50/day, 6 packs of ramen at $1.o2/day, drank some milk, and had some potatoes at 99¢ per 10lb bag, pork at under $2/lb or chicken at I SHIT YOU NOT 49¢-69¢/lb by buying from a ghetto mexican grocery store and another more corporate Hispanic supermarket.

Food was either calories per dollar or grams of protein per dollar though I was eating around 4000 calories per day, this was still “cutting” quantities.)

See even fighting for a short period will get you into this state of mind.

• Backroom Church Karate- ~2 months- This kicked my progress up, and every day I was circuiting pushups, jump rope, and doing TONS of dynamic Sanchin kata like movement + isometric kick holds.
• Amateur Sumo- ~1 Month- I was doing  my Hindu squats  in the aforementioned pushup manner of 1000 a week, in addition to the pushups, and was doing rep after rep of 10 yard bursts across my relatives not much bigger than 10 yards wide tiny LA backyard, and daily sets of freestanding headstands. I realized crashing headfirst often into those larger than me that I needed to make my neck strong. The headstand was the best variant I found.
• MMA- 1 free sample week- The first wrestling class I went to I was gassing, not terribly, but to the point I knew I had to get that shit back. One day my buddy and I went to the high school to run bleachers, set a timer for 7 minutes and quit at 3:30 to 4 minutes in. The next day I went back alone and made damn sure I went hard for something like 3 x 5 minute runs. If I didn’t bleacher, I skipped a ton of rope, and in that week time span I went from moderate gassing, sitting out one 2 minute period, to rolling an entire live BJJ class like a wrestler.

(That style of dynamic/isometric movement for punches, blocks, movement, etc.)

Survival mode forces conditioning up in a matter of a week, and other properties very soon after.

If I want good wind, good conditioning…jumping into some form of combat sport gives me it back in a manner that EFFORTLESS mentally, it becomes something you must do, and when you get into this place of survival mode YOU WILL GET STRONGER regardless of what you have or don’t.

Survival mode could make a 300lb barbell and bodyweight turn you into a juggernaut.

Survival mode could get you rugged strong lifting a cinder block or a sandbag in your yard.

For fuck sake survival mode could make Planet Fitness into the place where you get strong as hell.

IT’S ALL MINDSET!

I repeat : IT’S ALL MINDSET!

-J

Yes.

You can become a genetic freak.

Firstly a large part of being a genetic freak is in the mind.

Are you limiting yourself by thinking too much?

Have you internalized beliefs saying you must be small,weak, frail, or some such related affliction common to EVERYWHERE?

The “dumber” may simply not be smart enough to internalize such “common” knowledge, while others may have come up in environments conducive to beastdom.

Don’t scream genetics at me here : An old lifting partner had played D1 linebacker on a half ride athletic scholarship, most would scream “he’s black, genetics!?!?!?!” while frothing at the mouth. One time we were sprinting and jumping and while I held my own on the sprints he was destroying me on the jumps. We were talking about this and I said “genetics” to which he took mild offense and went “the kids I played high school ball with had genetics, I had to work”…and you know what, he was a half ride D1 athlete, BUT there were around a half dozen teammates from his high school at that point in the NFL. Think about that for a minute. To some degree genetics may be perspective, but it’s likely excuses.

Start off as a skinny fat runt, or as a sloppy fatass, then through sheer WILLPOWER and ACTION… reevaluating again in 5 years or so, and…you’ll likely be considered a genetic freak.

-J

My buddy laughs at the absurdity of my statement, then goes “The thing is though, that I know you’re serious.”

What had I said?

I paraphrase : “I will be bigger, stronger, leaner, more explosive and more enduring than EVERYONE, while doing breaking every single “rule”. By in the words of common gym knowledge “overtraining”, eating too much and far too “dirty”.

(It can be fun to talk lifting with a buddy that doesn’t lift, but does calisthenics generally alone and by instinct ie without the paralysis by analysis plaguing gym culture. These convos would be hilarious and hilariously offensive to many if recorded.)

I want to do way too much volume, train around the clock, and get all of the aforementioned while eating loads and dirty.

“It’s a lifetime goal to have a six pack while eating a diet heavy on donuts and soda, but sadly some part of lifting culture HAD to ruin the donuts by making tank tops stating donuts and deadlifts”,

(Donuts and deadlifts…that’s me but without the goofy crossfit culture vibe. I unironically will pull with high frequency and buy a dozen donuts with a frequency scary to most.)

Success By:

• “overtraining”
• “bad diet”
• etc

And why do I say this?

Because my strength always goes up the closer to 3 hours in the gym DAILY I average, and my leanness…

Because my leaness gets better ALWAYS when I’m doing the above and my diet includes an ever increasing amount of cherry pepsi and glazed donuts.

Seriously my leaness seems to be corellated very closely with how much cherry pepsi I drink (though that 21ish hours of mostly back and legs must factor in, the diet is like that because my body BEGS for the calories).

• You can train far more than EVERYONE will tell you.
• Dietary murder can be your friend.

Peace,

-J

Lifting Music:

Those who have known me since age 15 practically can’t believe that I am the same person physically.

It’s amazing the difference that a bit shy of a decade can make.

So you’re a hard gainer. Yep, there are hard gainers. It’s gym common knowledge.  Ok? Lets move on.

This memory still is in my mind vividly…

14 years old. August, just before the school year starting. The shower (at home) after an afternoon 2 a day practice.

I’m washing off the body wash looking down at my man tits. 5’9″ or 5’10” and a sloppy 212lbs, put that into kilos or stone if applicable. I feel an intense disgust…at myself, my genetics, basically the world.

See I’ve read on prepping for the NFL combine, I was reading about lifting weights at 13, 2 years before I ever touched a weight. I’m showering thinking about the leanness and cardio many/most of my teammates possess, and I’m this weak fat fuck always gassing. Wondering how the fuck I’d ever survive anything hard (remember I want to be infantry at this point), and how the fuck could I ever bench 225 once, let alone for reps.

Drying off these thoughts consume me. What if I’m always fat? Always weak? Always gassing? Thinking I have bad genetics. Barely eating watching kids leaner than me chow down at lunch, the thoughts are consuming me.

What if? On and on and on.

Then it stops and I see…

“I’m going to fucking fight for it” the thought taking over my mind, the power growing as I think it more and more. “If I am in fact doomed genetically at least I’ll fight, I’ll see if I’m really doomed. After all isn’t it better to fail giving a true shot, your all, than to not try? Fuck rationality! I’ll fight for this, and either find the facts were wrong or fail and proudly die a fat weak slob having fucking fought heart and soul to change it!”

Drying off from the shower that day was major life philosophy moment.

That first semester was shitty. I ended up quitting football and wrestling that year (they were too haarrddd) and then got angry and started to train.

It was very misguided, but there was effort behind it.

(Related story: My female gym teacher saying to the football coach and someone else “This would be the easiest job ever if I had a class full of students working like him” as I was hauling ass on some step up intervals, and the coach going “Yeah we could use a team of guys training hard like him”)

The best thing of this misguided self applied intensity of the early days was I learned to get mean. As you go, no mentors, self taught you’ll iron out the right way and wrong way.

You’ll likely find a lot of the common knowledge, the “facts” are in fact very very wrong, limiting to say the least.

You’ll  realize that perfect diet, training, etc are far overblown.

A random internet comment on a YouTube video of a UFC fighter circuit training will plant a surprisingly strong seed in your mind as to overtraining. In a sea of comments going “drugs!overtraining!good genetics!” One voice of sanity states something along the lines of “have you ever stopped and thought he ran himself into the ground long enough wrestling K-College that this is something he is able to recover from easily?”

Oh how that planted a seed. “If he ran himself into the ground and eventually adapted, can’t I?”

You’ll have good days, bad days, there will be burnouts, but through it all you’ll realize…probably on some day where every weight felt like the world on your shoulders…that now all these years later…

“You’ll never bench 225” (said by a football playing classmate, and a different football player, different incidences) and 8 years later 225 x 19, with 225 x 15 on a regular basis.

“I bet you can’t even do 10 pushups” and you drop right there backpack on for a bunch (50+), stand up, brush the dirt off your hands and reply “your turn asshole”. He didn’t know you were almost a year into daily pushups at that point, and now you have done them daily for the large majority of a decade.

My point here being if you’re a hard gainer in all eyes, and with all “rational” reason agreeing…throw that shit out of mind and give yourself time.

5 years later (with effort) you’ll be getting strong. 10 years even better.

At that 10 year mark (I’m getting close) commit another decade and watch how everyone else but you got dehabilitatedly injured, or quit, and how you with years of effort destroyed all notions, including your own, of what you were physically capable of.  Now being a god damn beast!

-J

 

 

“Boo Hoo Hoo, I’m a hardgainer guys. Everyone making gains clearly has good genetics and is using steroids” – Everyone on the internet

It’s an interesting thing to be, the hardgainer, but it’s not at all like what you’d read on any internet forum.

It’s very very different.

Spend anything over 0 seconds reading lifting forums and you’ll be inundated with information telling you what percentages to worry about using, how fast you can progress, how much volume and frequency you can handle…and the thing is it’s almost all shit.

(I read a few sites/blogs, and a few usernames on forums that actually inspired coming up that very much shaped my views on training. And I’m thankful for those voices of reason + strength in a sea of weakness, mediocrity, and handholding.)

I was the hardgainer.

I’m fairly certain that everyone I’ve trained with over the years consistently made better gains than me. Body comp changes came faster, and strength would come faster to them.

(Of course: maybe I was simply lifting with those stronger and more athletic than I. Of the three kids I lifted with during one period, one had been a D1 linebacker, another was squatting 495 for 4-5 sets of 10-15 at around 230 at about 6’3″, and the third was simply a kid I was buddies with.)

I didn’t take this as a reason to cry, quit, or start posting on forums about my lack of gains. I simply went back to the reading that inspired me, compared to common knowledge, and realized…

1. I don’t respond well to bodybuilder style bodypart splits.
2. Frequency works better for me (almost) EVERY SINGLE TIME.
3. I enjoy the shit out of full body training.
4. I don’t like set variables, just guidelines.
5. A base of calisthenics is VERY important for me.

Knowing the “normal” and common knowledge did jack shit for me, I started experimenting and more and more discovered the above.

I found that I recover quickly, don’t get as sore, can generally handle more volume (spread over my entire body), but need at least some stimuli for everything daily. I also found that I get very consistent at a given weight, then can push my numbers up.

(If only you knew the ability I’ve developed to hit 90%+ of my 1rm, cold, for volume, half asleep, completely fasted…in  every circumstance one shouldn’t be able to.)

If you’re a hardgainer you likely are training the wrong way. Full Stop.

(Don’t use the last sentence as an excuse for finding the “perfect” program on forums either. It’s a matter of effort.)

Yep, I was the hardgainer, but I found ways to make shit work for me.

A 405 deadlift took about 2 years. It was another 3 to 495. My lifetime deadlift PR (515) was at the end of a 21-23 day bender, pulling daily (heavy roughly every 3rd), with a few double sessions thrown in for good measure. My squatting basically doesn’t move up unless I’m hitting them 4x weekly at a minimum with more (even past 7x weekly) being better.

If you seem to be a hardgainer…Do more work! Not less, those with better genetics or steroids or whatever the in vogue excuse is can do less and gain.

YOU NEED MORE WORK!

This is just a fact of life people. Don’t cry over it, look forward to it.

Eventually (assuming you actually did those YEARS of more work) you will out work capacity EVERYONE, and be able to do quote “stupid shit” like the aforementioned cold, asleep, fasted, etc sessions. You may still have a shitty total too. Keep working.

View hardgainer status as a test of your willpower. Will you let slow and often enough not steady gains to stop you?

Since I’ve made gains so can you.

It’ll be disheartening to see people your age or younger stronger. Ask yourself : “Will he be stronger than me in 5 years?” and get to fucking work. View the long haul as a challenge. Eventually you will get strong, it’s unavoidable (again assuming you keep working.)

You don’t need an ideal diet.

You don’t need the supplements.

The perfect program isn’t real.

For God’s sake you don’t even need a gym!

You simply need the MINDSET to keep fucking working, even in the face of slow gains, self comparison that makes you seem physically inferior, and EVERYTHING else that’s in your way, psysically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Setting : While curled up in fetal position : “WAAAHHH! I’m a 15/17/21/whatever year old hard gainer. “ -Everyone on the internet

My response?

Keep training hard and evaluate again in 5 or 10 years. Do it right and you’ll be very surprised.

Boom!

-J

 

 

 

 

For a while forget the scale, and don’t give a damn about what you weigh.

Unless you have to make weight just go by look and feel.

For a while I’m done stepping on a scale (I haven’t in a few weeks now), I’m done caring about 1 rep maxes, and will be doing far more reps and volume. A shift towards bodybuilding, conditioning, and work capacity.

I realized cardio is a weakness.

It’s pretty bad to be gassing from multiple low rep sets, even if I’m taking short rest periods.

It’s called strength and conditioning.

I’d forgotten the and conditioning part.

Sometimes you need a change, need a different approach.

Pound for pound I was stronger ~40lbs lighter, and at that weight I had cardio. My absolute strength was similar.

For life cardio is necessary, I’d become far too much the one trick pony, lifting weights but not doing much else. It’s time.

-J