Category: Lifting

Pushups :

A pushup isn’t just a pushup.

You can apply this to any exercise.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I count as I lower.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I count my nose touching the floor.
Explode up.

The entire set I’m visualizing a cute college chick sitting on my upper back.

The visualized weight equivalent to a “moderate” weight bench – call it 10 (ish) x between 275 and 315 (accurate math).

Visualizing mid 300lb equivalent it’s going to be a taller chick or a smaller dude standing on my upper back.

For a visualized 405+ equivalent we’re talking a 200+ human standing on the upper back – here we’re either talking a giantess (do they exist), or what is real easy to visualize, one of my training partners as I’ve done a pushup with him standing on my upper back in the past.

…..

There’s a lot of play in the strength effect of an exercise based on rep speed, pauses, and visualization.

…..

Front Raise Holds :

Front raise holds, it’d be cool to be able to hold a 45lb bar on outstretched arms for 5:00.

I have had periods of consistent usage of the movement with a 10lb dumbbell one arm at a time, however this isn’t one of those periods.

The pump feels good.
To maintain good posture your glutes fire hard – I like the stance to something out of martial arts.

Good for posture. Potentially magical as is horse stance.

The trap is pulling to keep the arm high, pulling to keep the now over 10lb hand attached to an arm parallel to the floor.

For the time this is a late night movement.

When the whim strikes causing what is just about the only time I touch the pair of 10lb dumbbells set down near my bed.

There too is a rusty 15lb dumbbell which I saved 3½ years ago seeing it about to be thrown in a dumpster at work, no longer wanted as door stop.

That requires a coke bath and/or a paint job before becoming the bedroom’s light shoulder bell.

I recall these brief holds setting my mind right before approaching the day.

I have olympic plates, I’m sure I could improvise something from the hardware store, pipe, clamps, possibly tape for an adjustable bell between 10-15lbs and 45.

Remember that the goal is two handed is 5:00 with at least an empty barbell.

The one arm dumbbell stuff is the prep.

…..

And now it is ravenous eat everything in the house time!

With that last set of military presses, done today after work, I’ve pressed every day this month.

From my first 225+ lb press on the 19th, to just doing an amrap with somewhere from 135 to 165lbs most days.

The way I’ve found best to get stronger has always been frequency.

Daily pushups, squats, deadlifts, power cleans, pullups, benching, pressing – high frequency with a lift works very well for me.

Day to day your strength varies, but as John Broz says, you’re looking for getting stronger on any given day consistently over the long term.

My most current 1rm is far from my genetic potential.

I’ve pressed 205 cold before, done it here and there over the past few years – when 205 was the heaviest I’d ever pressed and at best for around a triple.

I’ve been repping 185 cold for a couple years longer than that.

There’s no reason I can’t press a daily max/have regular walk around strength heavier than I can press now.

Have a “struggle” day (like today’s or yesterday’s set) move from 6-7×155 to 6-7×205 or 225 or heavier.

That’s a good indication of strength – what you can lift after being on your feet all day.

I’m continuing to press daily, it’s been the 30 days of September plus I believe the last day or two of August.

As is I have an optional stop date in mind in late October, but hell, maybe I’ll press indefinitely as long as I’m near my weights.

Travel is the main headache for a rigid squat every day protocol for instance.

But a dumbbell could substitute for the barbell out of the car as far as pressing 🙂

I know that I’ll always be stronger than my training, yeah about two weeks ago I pressed 230, whereas 6-7x155lbs has been a moderate challenge after work (10+ hours in kitchen heat on my feet) and somewhat dehydrated the past couple days – so I know I’m stacking the strength gains by putting in effort regardless of what the weight is on the bar.

High frequency with effort will put your training in alignment.

Inadvertently I’m training to be a solidly built 220 or 242 powerlifter – I’ve pressed daily for a month, been eating broccoli and ground beef daily for a week and a half, and now sweat in the kitchen full time.

Sometimes chasing gym shit is the wrong approach.

Just do work. A bunch of small steps in the right direction, and stuff starts lining up.

Probably a couple weeks now of daily deep knee bends – my quads are larger.

Daily neck bridge = thicker, stronger neck

All the clean and presses is really giving me a moderately sized, nicely shaped, thick front to back, dense traps.

more pressing = more shoulders

Broccoli is doing my body good.

I say man in his natural state labors 10+ hours a day on his feet, or has little activity lounging days where he lifts heavy things.

The more naturally you live, the more optimal you operate.

I’ve been working myself towards doing a 20:00 density lift every morning, and after doing some weighted bridge reps inside I had an epiphany, “there’s a bunch of lifts I have access to and never do/never do anymore”.

Yard Lifts I Don’t (And Could) Do :

Continue reading “September 2022 – Brainstorming – Note To Self – Yard Lifts I Don’t (And Could) Do :”

Heavy lifting.

My experience now is that it’s entirely unnecessary.

Lift heavy upper body, then train legs with the same weight.

Heck, the training effect, you can get it at just 70-80% 1rm, even less, meaning you don’t have to lift heavy most of the time for upper body either.

Dude, you respond stupid well to FEELING the muscles fire (to the point you think you’ll fall over/look woozy/drunk/out on your feet) with silly silly light weights.

Say you REALLY want to do a heavy squat…

Well if you’re limiting yourself to bar weights you can clean and press, better be able to press it.

500+ lbs has been done.

You want to squat 405?
Earn it by having built yourself to living beast mode by only doing it after you’ve cleaned and pressed it.

Press a number, then you’re allowed to hit some back squat 10s or something with the same weight.

Bro, get to the 300lbs weight set like this, THEN evaluate what equipment you “need”, what gym you would “possibly” go to, etc – you’ve won the big & strong game.

Persistence & Tenacity

Deep knee bends, I like em, in the past I’ve used them to build work capacity quickly – like pushups they’re zero excuses, able to be done anywhere.

Kaz was said to view himself as a hydraulic piston while smashing the weights – lifting that shit EASY!

The deep knee bend is old timey, and here’s a trick I’ve found – with this particular movement I’m breathing in and out every rep, but the out is on the down.

With deep knee bends I’m breathing out as I descend.

In this manner the reps have speed to them, and I’m getting into the zone seeing myself as a human hydraulic piston as I pump away, losing myself in the moment, and doing, not counting reps.

(Video Placeholder)

I’m doing deep knee bends with my hands generally in a peek a boo boxer’s guard (cause I don’t like the arm motion of hindu squats, and that’s what I’ve found comfortable), sometimes supersetting with pushups or total gym pullups, and doing the movement daily.

Do whatever bw squat or lunge variant you prefer regularly, it’s a simple way to build work capacity, and get some athleticism, some spring in your step, into your legs.

Bodyweight squats keep you young physically.

With deep knee bends, breathe out/down – I’m lost in the moment, getting another mini session in.

Persistence & Tenacity

Today (9/19/22), during a rather press centric period – I military pressed 225lbs (230 exact). This had been a long time coming, considering how long ago (10/23/17) it was that I pressed 205 for the first time.

I have video of that 🙂
Not today’s though :)-

I started this as a rough draft eight days early.

What works for me, for the military press, has been high frequency. To not give the body the opportunity to get away from it’s strength.

Mostly high reps, high frequency, some volume.

A normal day would be a set or two of 8-12 reps with 155-165lbs.

I’ve pressed everyday this month, and today after running some unexpected errands, breaking an almost 18 hour fast with a bag of snyder’s of hanover cheese pretzel sandwiches, the cheese version of why I was a fat middle schooler in peanut butter flavor which to my chagrin no longer seems to be made, in the mist and light rain – I pressed.

(only a couple hours after I intended to lift, an earlier pump session of total gym pullups and deep knee bends getting my mind right and in the mood to do so – and then finished the lift an hour before it downpoured, good timing)

The Session :

Overhead Squat
21×65

Press 135-180
singles at every 5lb jump

4×200 = PR, a rep or three in the tank, had I approached this set right it could’ve been an 8-10rm, an easy one became four with more in the tank

1x…230, I decided to simply put all the plates I had outside on, as after an easy PR set I realized “fuck it” it’s guaranteed regardless of 220, 225, or 230.

= PR !!!

I had been debating hitting 220lbs/ 100kg to save 225lbs for another day, then I flipped the reasoning, and went +5lbs to goal, set up for a good clean, hit it, and with only moderate effort, pressed 225+ lbs for the first time in my life.

Some 12yo kid was walking a yellow lab, and was totally gawking looking/hoping/wanting to watch as I was at around 170lbs – overhead lifting really fascinates people.

Through 175 were just heaves, real easy/felt real light, which probably should have been a hint towards the end of the session.

180, and 200 were basically perfect power cleans.

230 my feet went slightly wider than perfect form in the catch, and slightly back, I stepped the inches forward, recentering myself on the particle board “platform”, steadied myself – motionless, got tense, and pressed.

The press was barely moderate, a little slow about ¾ of the way to lockout, but easier than some of the 155lb presses I had grinded out two nights back.

Funny to note ; shirtless, wearing soft soled ancient cheapo skateshoes [instead of barefoot – cause rain (sorta)], track pants, in misty to a light rain, the session from about 545pm to 610pm.

A 225lb press was something I’ve long wanted, probably since I first hit a military press, a lift I’ve been looking for for a decade or longer.

At 20yo I could jerk anything I could clean, never past 205.

At 21 I got my first 225 power clean, 4 (!!!!!) gyms (plus a few no gym periods) back.

205lbs press at 23
225+ press at 28

I lifted with my mouth guard in. The thing is $2 performance enhancement.

I did not scream in celebration, no “ric flair” (WHOO!), simply held the bar at lockout for a LONG time, lowered it under control, then decided to leave the session on that note instead of hitting any back off AMRAP presses or curling.

Funny that I almost didn’t lift today.

Noteworthy that it was on day 19 of military press everyday, whereas my lifetime 515 deadlift PR was on something like day 21 or 24 of deadlifting daily.

Frequency really works for me, a moderate amount of work gets you strong, though that moderate approach can be highly varied. It was a whim to do low reps today instead of 155 for amap like would be the usual. I got here quicker than expected, I had been expecting to press daily for more than another full month 🙂

Cool.

Persistence & Tenacity

Now, I need to focus more on the power clean on my trip to a 255lb press

Today’s PR Music/One Song Playlist :

mr criminal – based on a true story

For a couple days in a row now I’ve pressed both before and after work.

Lazy two a days, one set, no warmup, just getting in a good set each time.

At one gym I went to there was an 185lb yoke – I’d press it on the way in and out.

The current isn’t without precedence.

With whatever the bar is currently loaded to, it’s nothing to simply press a set multiple times throughout the day.

And we all know that I generally get my best results with high frequency – because that’s what I buy into most.

Right now every set is in PR territory.

If I’m not mad unhappy and burnt out [or lacking a gym membership :)- ] I’m lifting daily, multiple sessions when simple logistically and/or the mood strikes.

A chance urge as I drove home from work kinda early the other day saw me press twice.

Leaving the bar loaded, ie no warmups, bypasses my stressing setup/breakdown.

I’m wholly in useable strength this way too.

Days on work a set on the way out the door, a set upon arriving home.

I could go back to moving in addition to the kitchen.

Days off work – probably 5 sets twice a day, give myself a good gap between sessions, and get some clean volume in on one or both.

With the c&p at present I am not ready to rejoin a gym…though one that has stones?

That could happen anywhere from November to January.

It’d be a good spot for making lifting youtube content.

Without content creation, I’m pretty content as far as lifting to just keep pressing, pressing, pressing as I am now.

I’m digging the military press, and with the oddity of how I train – my quads are getting larger.

with zero leg work lol

Somehow this is happening from driving the bar into the sky to shoulder it from the dead hang or via the higher momentum uglier heave.

Heaving the bar is different than any form of clean. There are various degrees of prettiness to the cleans as well.

You can yank the bar from the floor.
You can slowly leg press it to around knee height then explode with or without the pause there.
A bunch of manners to shoulder the bar.

I know that a c&p focus is a godsend for trap and shoulder development.

I actually can not tell you why I am doing this, this madness of c&p right now past an explanation of because.

Why do this?
Because.

It sets me up for life better.

I approach the world better having done my lifting, than had I not.

#1 reason to exercise right there

At work today (9/11/22) I was in the best of moods, call outs/staffing issues meant I was solitary at my station a good part of the time – the manager would check, realize I had it handled, and well, the shift just went smoothly (in my little slice of line cooking, not necessarily for the entire kitchen)

I was telling the fit, kinda into the gym, manager that lifting before work, while new for me, makes all the difference.

Not stressing anything right now, I pressed today, I’ll be pressing tomorrow, and you know what?

Today I’d woken up from dreaming about handstand pushups.

Persistence & Tenacity

blake shelton – honey bee

You’ll get brutally strong with nothing but a barbell.

No one, and I mean no one (outside of maybe Klokov or similar), has truly maxed out a 300lb weight set.

It’s better to think outside of the weight room, and realize that hard labor has made more men strong through human history than the gym ever has.

The barbell deadlift carry is a wonderfully awful thing, as is how the forearms are trained with high rep hang cleans.

I pressed 150lbs for 10, then did a couple sets of hang cleans.

“Only 150lbs” many would say, I’d up the ante daring them to match my sets.

Most aren’t going to overhead press worth a damn, which is a shame, as the iron game was a better place before I was born when people regularly put weight overhead.

As dictator of earth I’d make everyone clean & press.

At present my #1 training goal, and possibly #1 thing in life is to press 225lbs.

It’s a weight room goal I’ve long long long had, still unachieved.

It’s close.

The approach is working ;
One set of presses each day at a minimum, more than one set when the mood strikes, and to tack hang cleans on when that mood strikes.

Heck, I could do a set once in the morning, once in the evening easily enough.

A major perk of having weights at home.

The pressing is getting easy.

Since I do everything from the ground, it’s actually more important for me to diesel up my power cleans.

I am built to press.

Thinking labor strength, thinking brute force, the answer here is hang clean for reps.

I keep it simple, just doing some with whatever weight I happen to have pressed.

If I am to feel really fancy I’ll have done some plate pinches before the olys.

That works for me as a serious primer for the grip.

To all who think one weight across all barbell lifts is not weighing it down enough, I raise you the fact that ANYONE with a 300lb c&p is going to be strong enough to get away with never going past 300lbs.

They won’t need it.

Realizing this, suddenly a 300lb weight set, and some ground anywhere is a gym with unlimited potential.

Blend that barbell with old time weightlifting, girevoy, and you’re really onto something.

bigger #s on video soonest

Persistence & Tenacity

Notes To Self :
•every lift feels 10% easier while chomping down on a $2 mouth guard
•dude, you lift like a fucking caveman, you’re brute upper body strength, try actually squeezing your ass and thighs
•hang clean – more, more, MORE! bro
•this pointedly eating thing is working nicely, this typed up, it’s time to cook some delicious delicious red meat with, if we’re being honest, pierogi.

I feel like a ground beef, onions, and gravy poured over the stuff.

6/6/22
I’ve been enjoying getting a bicep pump every 5-10 days, in a way doing curls for the girls since as of late I have little investment mentally in actually lifting.

Bryce Lane’s 50/20 sounded too heavy and too long for such a small, generally pump, movement.

Initially I figured 50/5 as 50 reps in 5:00 made more sense on curls.

Pump them up, and it’s not to say I stop at 50 reps either as my last session of them (yesterday – I did some one arm presses followed by sets of 10 on overhead squat today) saw me get a few reps shy of 70 (67) with a distraction in the final seconds keeping me from hitting those 3 reps, but my approach has me now thinking 75 or even 100 reps before I up the curl weight.

The goal can float. The higher the reps before jumping weight the easier the next weight heavier will be.

Bryce Lane’s writing has taught me.

100 in 5:00 is 20 reps a minute, a bit too pump in my eyes, 75 in 5:00 is 15 a minute, a bit more hypertrophy than 10, but not as pump as 20.

Very quickly this is turning to a 75/5 density curling protocol.

I expect and look forward to hitting 115lbs for 50/5 within months/by the end of summer.

It’s reasonable.

I’ll write this again, setting a timer for 2:00 to 20:00, doing one lift, then moving on with your day is a simple way to keep you from quitting lifting, which would be very odd to do as everyone views you as the gym guy despite your spending naught but ≤60:00 a week outside actually lifting a barbell – without any gym membership, or even much motivation to lift.

Of course it’s me, so you never know – the motivation may strike anytime, and then I’ll be outside daily (probably using a one lift a day density training protocol) lifting again.

I’ve got a lot of room to grow on power cleans, whether heave style or crisp style, with or without the press(es), power snatches, and overhead squats.

It’s not unreasonable to turn myself into, effectively crossfit, with a barbell outdoors losing weight to 225 and improving my power snatch and overhead squat for reps to 20×225 to beat that Dan John internet standard of “overhead squat 15 x bw – it makes you one piece, an animal”.

It’d be interesting to see what I deadlift at that point as I’d love to deadlift 600+ at ~230 off of power snatches, power cleans, overhead squats, and the sandbag I should rebuild.

Get a 300lb weight set, look at weightlifting, look at girevoy, buy into density training, and soar!

Persistence & Tenacity

“Woody Woodpeckers” – the name my buddy bestowed upon the extremely short range of motion pushups he’s witnessed me do to infinity

Now see, I get shit from many for the woody woodpeckers, I do them anyway – they’re a part of me, my daily pushups, and though “cheating” according to many, as if in a bad way, they are in a way “cheating” in the best of ways…

I get a serious pump in my pressing muscles, generally two to three times a day – all the mini sessions of pushups which keep me sane via feeding the high frequency beast, that animal locked away inside me.

My bench increases always and forever since for always and forever I’ve been doing daily pushups.

You push to where you’re starting to gas, a quick 100 clip, banged out, and that 100th rep YOU HAVE TO LOCK OUT – this rep is the strength effect, everything else the pump, the preparty, the base building, the I’m about to make it worthwhile AND DOING SO

You do millions of sets of 30, of 50, over the years, and the body gets used to sustained effort while building power.

The 100, earn it earn it earn it, the 100th a sweat taste on the daily – 10 supersets of 100 jump rope and 100 woody woodpeckers – freakish ability ;

built anywhere (in the public eye)

A million reps and you can put people on your back.

A million reps and you don’t EVER need to warm up the upper body – it’s there, ready to go, maintained in the state of readiness.

I amp up via pushups.
AMP UP! AMPED UP! Arroo!

The kitchen floor sacred space – where I get most done.

The beauty in how it travels, the perfect logistics, the kitchen, the bathroom, rest stop, beach…hotel, motel, who needs a gym – use it when you’ve got it AT THE HOLIDAY INN! lol

The “woody woodpecker” always with me.

Persistence & Tenacity