Lifting Archives - Page 23 of 25 - Persistence and Tenacity

Natty Recovery Ability

The other day at the gym a guy similar in weight, and strength levels softly accused me of using steroids. He was saying I train too much, and that i should recover more. I told him when i train crazy like this that i just start eating far more, and from dirtier sources.He was trying to tell me upping the calories wouldn’t work, that the only way what I do is possible is if i was upping a steroid dose. Firstly that makes me wonder, does he use? But it also begs the question of why are so many scared to do more work. Many seem to think overtraining will strike, and they’ll lose ALL of their gains should they do any more than their low volume program calls for.

Shit like that frankly irks me. You see I quickly outgrew that mindset, and started getting far better results when I stopped doing a written program and simply trained hard, often on the same lifts over and over. If something went stale, I’d switch it up, hit the same part with another lift, or simply use my PT to hit that part for a while.

It seems like gym goers are always afraid of doing too much work, but never look for ideas of what is physically possible at elite levels i.e. at Westside Barbell, the Chinese weightlifting team,any NFL team, or simply stop and think about how much work the average construction worker does. Many place limits on what/how much can be done in a manner that’s ridiculous. Wouldn’t it be better to ride to the edge,and once you start losing your pop, back off and find yourself far more capable than if you had simply done a program as written?

People think nothing of a high schooler having football 2 a days, or of a kid lifting and playing hours of basketball daily. I personally did PT in class 2-3 days a week(JROTC) played basketball every Friday, wrestled/track, and still lifted 2-4 days weekly. I ran myself into the ground while in high school, have squatted with very high frequency, and have done pushups almost daily for about 9 years. I’d done so much work when I was a teen that my recovery is simply very fast. Was running myself into the ground the best for my athleticism? No, I did overdo it in school somewhat,and was not as successful an athlete in high school as i could’ve been. Doing all this built a great work capacity though. In my mind that’s a fair trade off. I’m reaping it’s reward years later.

Simply you recover as much as your work capacity allows. It is easier to build when younger, but hey, everything is possible. You can do more. You may simply have to eat a bit more, and/or sleep a bit more. Not rocket science. Eventually your body will adapt. It will adapt to anything you throw at it for long enough. Hell it can even adapt to low sleep, low calories. Life happens, your situation will always include snags.

Know any laborers who outwork just about everyone? I do. My father is a prime example of this. He’s never lifted weights, but can comfortably be on his feet and active all day long. Why? It was his job for a significant part of his life, and he never thought that he’d go too far, if he had to take frequent off days he would’ve lost his job. Eventually he adapted, and the work isn’t near as hard as it was the first day. Again, adaption is not rocket science.

Basically the standard gym thinking about physical ability is wrong. Too many are scared to stray from their program, and truly find out what they are capable of. The human body is far more capable than most would realize. In an ideal world where you can sleep, train, and eat as much as possible the amount you would become capable of is staggering. Look to history, there are many examples of break back all day work building juggernauts. The gym has become far too comfortable for most.

Do More Work, and don’t accuse those that are capable of more as having to be on steroids. Naturals are capable of far more than standard thought suggests. But only if they change their mindset from “I’m Natty, that’s why i suck,steroids!?!?!?”, to “I train hard, and will outwork you bitch!”

Does doing 500 pushups one night then benching the next morning seem unreasonable to you? How about impossible? Trust me it’s not. In fact it’s pretty easy.

If you want to train for hours have at it. The worst that can happen is you’ll need to back off. Be smart and don’t get injured, not that you can in a gym anyway. Recovery and ability are far more mental than physical . I love training and therefore do lots of it. If I can, so can you.

Train hard, become a beast. No excuses, push the envelope.

-J

15 Foods That Will Get You Jacked

Obviously gaining weight involves taking in more calories than you are burning. Some people like eating clean, personally I like eating dirtier, and found that it was far simpler to eat so called “dirty” foods and get big. Every time I’ve bulked it hasn’t involved the cleanest of food sources. Here are some of the foods to use:

15 Foods That Will Get You Jacked

Milk- If you can handle it, a gallon of while milk packs 128 grams of protein, a ton of fat, and a ton of carbs, and 2400 calories. Cost $2-3, drink a gallon daily, and you have half your nutrition requirements.
Ground Beef- High In Protein and Fat, you’ll get ballpark 1300 calories and 70 grams of protein in the fattiest, cheapest cut per lb. A solid meal is an entire pound mixed with cheese, and rice( if you want the carbs).
Eggs- can be consumed in 1000 manners, my favorites being fried in copious amounts or drank raw as part of a shake.
Top Ramen- just shy of 2400 calories for $1, lots of carbs, some fat, 60 grams of protein. Quick to make, you may want to toss the flavor packets though.
Rice- I prefer white over brown, I stomach it better, similar in cost to ramen, but healthier, and can’t be consumed in as high quantities( less calorically dense). I’ll mix this with cheese, ground beef, eggs, peas. Basically as the carb base for a meal. If I can’t stomach anything a bowl of white rice mixed with Mexican mix cheese is my go to.
Chicken- fattier cuts, just as high in protein, are cheaper, and taste better than breast meat. You have no idea how unlikely it is for me to want chicken breast.
Frozen Pizza- Lots of calories, generally around 70 grams of protein here. The laziest way to eat 5000 calories, without it being too terrible is a gallon of milk and a frozen pizza.
Peanut Butter- by the spoonful, as part of a shake, or as part of a sandwich. Cheap and easy, there’s a reason we grow up eating it.
Shakes- Not your lame whey in water shake, but a blended mix of everything but the kitchen sink. Milk and/or eggs as the base, peanut butter, bananas, olive oil(yes I’ve drank it in shakes), oats. Anything that sounds good to you and passes the will it blend test. Have fun here.
Soda- Need calories, and have a hard time eating? Drinking them is your friend, like it is with milk or a nutritional shake. While soda is straight sugar, and has no nutritional value, we’re here just for the calories. It’s not hard to drink a 2 liter, and it’s an extra ~800 calories if you do.
Oats- Already mentioned as part of shakes, but they can be eaten as oatmeal, or raw mixed in with fried eggs(before you fry it). Very versatile, and a very “Clean” food.
Junk Food- Too many options to name one in specific, they are an easy way to get calories in. Often cheap, and somewhat addicting a sweat tooth can make it much easier to pack in calories. For example a 6 pack of Honey Buns is roughly 1200 calories. That can be demolished in a minute. It’s not hard to eat a bag of Doritos, a dozen donuts, or really any junk food for that matter. If you’re trying to get bigger they can be a godsend. Don’t worry about the fact you’re eating the whole pack, that’s the goal here.
Mozzarella sticks- like the frozen pizza, similar in calories, and slightly higher in protein, they’ve been a staple for me as of late.
Any Food You Love/Works For You- If you like it, and it can be eaten in copious quantities have at it.
Canned Tuna- due to the vagueness of #14 this makes at least my list. I personally love it. I will eat as much as I can get my hands on to the disgust of most around me. Haven’t died of mercury poisoning yet.

Conclusion

Now you don’t have to treat my list as the be all and end all of bulking food choices. I put #14 Any Food You Love/Works For You there for a reason. You have to find what works for you. Some foods I list may disgust you(tuna), be overpriced ( eggs, they highly vary in cost by locale), or you may not be of European descent and would shit yourself if you drink milk. Do what works for you.

-J

How To Do A One Arm Pushup

It never ceases to amaze me how few people have the ability to do one arm pushups. Over the years I’ve only met a couple that can.
I’ve personally had the ability since January 2015.

My First One Arm Pushup

I was with a buddy doing calisthenics one night, and the idea to try a one arm pushup struck him.

Hilariously he fell on his face,and then again a second time.Then it was my turn. At first I too fell on my face,but felt like it was due to not knowing the technique,not because I couldn’t do one. I tried again and got it.Took a rest period. Then tried on the other side, and hit a couple reps there now that I knew the technique. I went back to the first side and repped out. I believe I went 8 with my right arm,and 4 on my left arm that first night.

Requisite Strength

But how did I get the strength for this?

I’d been doing pushups practically daily since 2008, and had a roughly 300 bench at 235. The strength required for this isn’t hard, it’s more of a gymnastic skill than a strength feat.

Run the numbers, a pushup’s resistance is roughly 60% of bodyweight being pressed. Factoring in twist, and comparing my max reps with bodyweight on bench to max reps of one arms I’d say it’s closer to 50% bodyweight on one hand. ( Range of 10-20 reps depending on how/whether I train either) The strength required is a bodyweight bench press. All men should be able to do these.

Round Up

Give it a try,if you fail but have the requisite strength give it another shot, realize you have to twist towards your hand. They’re a fun party trick, and a great tool to have should you ever lack equipment. Build the skill, it’ll come in use.

Once you can do a one arm pushup, it opens your mind to more,to better like a one arm chinup. (Update : or the one handed bar hangs I’ve very much enjoyed doing since summer 2017.)

Get after it.

-J

The Sandow Method/Use Light Dumbells

Now if you’re like most people you immediately write off the use of light dumbbells. You most likely view such things as the Sandow Method as malarkey.

You’ve seen many things stating how old time strongman couldn’t possibly have become strong using light dumbbells, people stating thier opinion, saying things such as the light work was simply used to sell courses. But what if it wasn’t?
What if it does work?

Bodybuilders often try to get the most they can out of a certain weight. They may squeeze the shit out of each rep,and/or push the # of reps quite high.

If you’re trying to come up with what is physically possible it’s best to drop most sources and look to the elite. Be it current or past. The book The Super Athletes by David Willoughby is a great starting point.

(Page 195 The Super Athletes by David Willoughby)

Look closely at #17 (Highlighted). Are you telling me you don’t think the man accomplishing that would be wicked strong,despite using a light dumbbell?

Run the #s there. 12lb 1.5oz is 12.09 lbs. 16000 reps in 2hrs 58 minutes. The poundage is 193440 or 96.72 tons in under 3 hours. 16000 divided by 178 minutes is just under 90 reps a minute. I’ll use 89 for the math. 89×12.09 is 1076lbs, that’s over half a ton. He moved over half a ton every minute with his upper body for almost 3 hours. Obviously he had strength endurance, but I’d venture to guess he’d have a least a decent 1rm simply due to hypertrophy and all the volume.

I know from experience feeder workouts using 10 lb dumbbells for hammer curls improved my max curl. It’s reasonable to beleive the same would apply here.

Try this: Grab a 10lb dumbbell, And set a timer for 5 minutes. Your goal is to press 500 reps.(one hand only,no breaks,you stop you’re done) I can almost guarantee you won’t accomplish it. I hit failure near 200 reps. Now imagine doing this for 3 hours straight, and successfully.

You can become stronger using anything. Get it!

-J

Bodyweight Circuits

PT for me consists of pushups,bodyweight squats,and calf raises.

I just did them for the day, roughly 100 of each. Now normally each exercise is done one after the other finishing one at a time,but I was bored and decided to mix it up a bit.

I mixed the exercises, no rest circuit style, 5 of one,15 the next,25 the third. I’d do 5-25 of each,then switch. I mixed my stance for bodyweight squats,doing Hindu, regular,and staggered stances. I did some of the pushups very slow and controlled.

By doing all 3 exercises mixed with no rest I got out of breath. I also managed to get a pump over most of my body. It’s snowing,the roads are shit. This is how I can always exercise. This circuit requires no equipment and can be done anywhere. I did this session in the bathroom.

Many would say this isn’t effective, but they’d be wrong. I got cardio work from this. In 2015 I was able to run well at 215lbs simply by doing bodyweight circuits and jump rope. I lost weight and got stronger from all the reps.

I’ve been doing the pushup, bodyweight squat,calf raise PT for 44 days now. My quads are gaining size, and the mind muscle connection is growing. If I do it circuit style most of the time I’ll regain my cardio.

If you’re ever gymless there is always a way to build strength and stamina. Give my,or your own bodyweight circuit a try.

Strength through adversity!
-J

Chest Feeder Workouts

Hilariously my most visited post keeps getting hits for the keywords “chest feeder workouts”, the topic of that post is not about chest specifically but feeders in general. In that one I mostly talked about improving my shoulders.

So taking the que from Google results, here you are chest feeder workouts:

Pushups Daily

Like I’ve said before I’ve done pushups near daily for almost a decade. My chest was always my most developed bodypart, but whether this was genetic, or from all those early in puberty pushups I do not know. I’d assume that it’s both. Regardless for anyone looking to bulk up their chest I can not recommend doing daily pushups highly enough. They are an essential part of a balanced day.

Start easy 10 a day, and over time ramp it up to any big # you like. 100 is not many, 250 is a decent # for this, 500 even better. Take those into consideration, and know this: I’ve done roughly 1000 in an hour before using perfect form. Depending on your structure and your leverages cutting the range short to even as little as say an inch for very high pumping reps may be the best for you. Nothing works my chest better than ultra high rep (250+ rep) sets at the very bottom of the pushup’s range of motion.

Bench Frequently

Growing has to do with both volume, and getting stronger. Pushups cover your volume, and benching is where you build the raw strength.

Bench( rotating through variations is acceptable, incline,flat, dumbells) as frequently as your shoulders will allow you to. The # of times per week can vastly be improved by doing shoulder health work such as plate external rotations, shoulder dislocates, and face pulls. It is smart to add in pull work to balance this pushing work.

You will want to treat your reps the way a Russian powerlifter would and keep it low rep, and only moderately weighted. Focus on power here, using your 5-8rm for multiple sets of 3 daily is the ticket. Add weight when it gets far too easy, but keep those protocols. This has been one of the ways I can bench all the time without issue, I keep the volume low.

If High Frequency Benching is Not An Option

If no matter what you try your shoulders act up to an unacceptable level, despite low volume speed reps,rehab work, and balancing out with pulling work it’s acceptable to not bench that frequently.

You’ll be fine with the pushups. In fact the volume can be just about infinite here. Do to the nature of closed vs open chain exercise, I’ve found balancing with back work isn’t that necessary with pushups. For bench it is.

So if benching is out of the question simply do lots of pushups, in any range of motion, daily. Simple. It may not be easy though.

Flexing/Squeezing

Simply flexing/squeezing your chest can be highly beneficial. Most positions are fairly hard to describe, I’d have to video them, so I’ll leave it up to you to find what method/position of contraction works.

Quick hints though :

Push your shoulders downward
Push your hands together
Slowly push your hands outward

You can also focus on the contraction during the pushups you should be doing.

Dips

This really depends on your leverages, and what places/bar you’re using. If this works for you great, if not pushup.

Others

You could do flys, pec deck work, anything that hits your chest really, but this isn’t where I’ve put much if any of my time. Play around here, my other category may be exactly what works for you. An idea, light ultra high rep db flys laying on the floor( from Apocalypse Barbell Blogspot, site no longer available)

Recap

Pushups Daily- build up the volume, use any range of motion
Bench -For low volume, as frequently as you can allow, if your joints can’t take this it’s acceptable to drop
Flex/Squeeze/Contract- Squeeze the shit out of your chest
Dips- Like bench are an option
Others- Whatever you come up with that works for you

Volume, and getting stronger. That’s how you build size.

Really if all you take away from this to apply to your chest feeder workouts is do lots of pushups every day I’ve made my mark.

Get It, And Do Pushups Daily. Build that Arnold Chest!

-J

Curl Every Day/Bicep Feeder Workouts

Yesterday was the 12th day that I curled in a row, about 3 of the days were regular barbell curls, 1 day was preacher curls, 3 were moderate to heavy sets of 5-8 hammer curls, and 5 of them were feeder workouts doing a set of 100+ hammer curls with 10lb dbs.

I decided to do this after hitting a strict curl with 135 about 14 days ago. I wanted to see if I could force the 1rm to become a 5rm.

Yesterday was supposed to be test day, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be going to the gym so I did a feeder set in the AM. That night I ended up going and testing after all.

I did an easy set of 3 with 95 to feel the movement, then got to it. I ended up hitting a hard 2 and failed the 3rd rep.

12 days of extra work for my weakest bodypart, and I turned the 1rm into a 2rm. Yes I fell short of making it a 5rm, but that was purposefully aiming high. All in all I’d say in spent less then an hour doing biceps in that time. A few sets or a feeder take little clock time.

For the rest of the month I’m going to curl every day in some capacity.

For the most part I will be sticking with hammer curls for sets of 5-10 at the gym or feeder workouts with the 10lb dbs at home. I don’t generally like short curl bars, and using a regular barbell can be hell for the wrist. Hammer curls cause no problems, so hammer curls it is for the most part.

Roughly 3 more weeks of this. I’d like to not only get the 135×5, but surpass it and hit 155×5. This short term progress opened in my eyes to the possibility of much more impressive feats like a curl of 185+ or 135×20+ reps.

Honesty forcing bicep improvement will make me have to get better at chins too. In the past my biceps were carried by my ability to do a moderate # of chins regardless of bodyweight. Improving one would improve the other, and doing both would compound the effects.

Now I’m thinking get chin endurance to 20+, and be able to 1rep with at least 1/2 my bodyweight added. The curl improvement really opened up possibilities in my mind.

I’m going to get crazy strong on these. Diesel biceps, and diesel back strength here I come!

Dirty Bulking aka Getting Jacked

It makes me laugh how much mental effort some put into the idea of getting big, bulking up.

The science involved isn’t rocket science. It’s quite simple really. You have to eat more than you’re burning. Yes there are times when you will recomp,but that’s not the topic here.

Bulking : How To Do It , The Pluses And The Minuses:

How:

Eat more. You’ll want to get more protein in, but carbs will be how you really up the calories. They can cost pennies and are easy to eat in copious amounts.

After wrestling season ended my junior year of high school in ten days I went from 195 to 215. How you ask? I ate everything I could get my hands on, and wasn’t running 3-5 miles near daily.

During spring track I was between 225 and 235.

Over that summer I force fed up to a little over 250 (253lbs), again eating everything I could get my hands on, and in large quantities. I’d drink a gallon + of whole milk daily,often eat ground beef mixed with cheese by the pound, eat every available home cooked meal, and lots of junk food. Yes I got fat, but after dropping down to 225 I looked fine. I honestly feel at the time this was the only way I’d get bigger.

Pluses:

You can radically change your homeostasis point for size.

You can become far larger than nature sans force feeding and weights would have you. For me to get past 185 at 6′ I had to force feed. 185 to 195 , was olive oil mixed into chocolate milk/protein shakes. 195 to 215, everything, 215 to 250 even more so, 225 to 245 slower,with conditioning, but with the same diet approach.

Minuses:

Doing it dirty/Sumo wrestler style , you will get more fat. This isn’t the end of the world. If you keep in conditioning work this can be mitigated, and give it time and you will lean out at a new bigger bodyweight set point.

Foods:

I know some who eat only “clean” foods. That’s not me. I got bigger with milk as my staple. Often when I want size or faster strength gains I add in more dirtier sources such as frozen pizza, mozzarella sticks, or straight up junk food like soda,honey buns, Doritos etc.

I don’t believe you really need gram+ of protein per pound of bodweight. You can make do with far less. The more important part of the game is calories. Hit a minimal amount of protein say 150 grams day and then get to 4-6k calories daily. This guarantees that you’ll be big. If you train hard enough, and condition hard you won’t be fat, you may have a normal level ie not particularly lean level of bodyfat,but not fat either. Train long enough and as you get stronger you’ll slowly recomp.

Recap:

Dirty bulking and big compound lifts are how I was able to get far past 200lbs, and stay there.

Keep in calisthenics and conditioning with this though. This keeps you from getting sloppy. A minimum level of performance in each is very useful to maintain.

Get It.

-J

Small Technique Change

Last weekend I wrote about how I was given some technique pointers on power cleans by our gym’s highland games competitor. It dawned on me that I didn’t say what the main advice was.

He suggested I try hook gripping the bar. Now I’ve tried hook gripping on deadlifts once, and immediately wrote it off. Keeping an open mind I jumped back in and was instantly better at cleans.

Since then I’ve been playing with some Olympic lifts every session.

With that one little suggestion I’m now much better at the lifts.

I’ve now hit 225 power cleans in a wicked fatigued state. It’s now a weight that I own. This means I’ll be hitting PRs very soon. Hell 255 was very close for a couple misses that same day, so I was near hitting PRs on a day where I had little “pop”.

I’ve hit a power snatch PR using it already.

Simply changing how I hold the bar has made a ton of practically instant improvement. I couldn’t tell you if my bar path is better, or if I’m now using lower body power instead of arms, hell my cleans still look like in the word’s of an old coach “retarded caveman heave” form. The effort involved is less though. I have improved.

The last few days of them brought me to the realization, one that I’ve been having frequently as of late, that I will hit some crazy lifetime numbers. I just have to keep going.

Never quit, and you’ll progress quite far.

-J

Train For Yourself

What You Need To Hear

It’s strange and amazing how the universe will put something you need right in front of you at the right time. Yesterday I was reading Lift Run Bang, a solid lifting blog, and came across a comment.

Here it is screencapped:

( It’s from this post)

While I may not agree entirely with that blog or the comment, you can glean ideas from anyone, I very much agree with that commenter’s mindset, do what you want, it works for you.This has worked well for me.

In the past my deadlift was maintained through shrugs. Heavy cheat form,body english heaving shrugs. With straps, and using weight well past my deadlift max.

I haven’t done these in a long time.

Yesterday I got my 495 deadlift back, and decided to shrug at the end.

I had intended to go 5×5 with 495 here, I always found deadlift 1rm+ for any rep range to be beneficial.

I was mentally checked out at this point, and the first 3 sets were hard. Not doing shrugs may just be what was missing from my deadlift. The retarded back strength they built may be what my pull was missing.At that point not wanting to be in the weight room any longer I got pissed and combined the last 2×5 into a set of 10. It was easier than the first 3 sets. Anger can still help with shrug strength.

Still I was not happy to see one of my pet lifts regress.
Hopefully partial squats aren’t in the same boat. I’ll have to test, and readd those too.

As I said yesterday I want to live at the gym.

It’s time to get back to my basics, crush it in the manner that was and is truly me, and truly mine.

How I Trained In The Past

I used to be ribbed for squatting everyday. I squatted most weight sessions between 2011 and 2015, and I did so every day for the first 6-7 months of 2016. Those 6 months saw my squat raise more than it had in years going from 405×1 to 455×2.

Shrugs were done 1-3x a week. Always on Saturday which were in essence retard strength days. Saturdays were partial squat and shrug days. I generally shrugged mid week as well. The partial squats were started at the bottom from the pins, and the heavy cheat shrugs often turned into max out hand and thigh lifts. These movements gave me a lot of core thickness, and more physically resilient.

I’ve gotten away from them.

My Mentality and “Split”

I don’t compete, or particularly identify with any strength sport. Lifting is, and probably always will be me just about me getting stronger.

I should be gaining the strength then by whatever means I like.

I need to get back to training in the way that’s me.

So each session would look something like this:

Legs- Squats :Front or Back mostly, Partials 1x wk, sometimes a non squat movement.
Push- Rotate through movements, normally I bench with the most frequency.
Pull-Rotate through movements, I’ve been liking fat bar work, and lat pulldowns.
Assistance Work- Whatever I feel like, or needs work( Can cover any of the 3 parts)
Condition- Rotate through movements, lately this has been incline treadmill sprints.

I am not wed to any order for covering all aspects either. If I want one prioritized, or am dreading one I’ll most likely do it first. I almost never do pull before legs unless its light for both. I will however squat and then deadlift.

Become Hardier, Do More!

Honestly doing full body sessions makes it hard to lift with a partner.

I got a laugh out of a buddy the other day saying to me “I like training with you, but I really can’t, cause I never can tell what you’re actually training.”

While bodybuilding splits can work for people, those that use them are losing out on a lot of physical ability that bombing a part once a week and being sore for days keeps them from realizing.

My recovery allows for decent amounts of full body volume on a daily basis. The frequency gives me far better results, and mentally I like doing lots of whatever I like doing. I imagine that most who would actually give this a fair shot would find the same thing.

I can’t imagine that God or evolution would intend for us to be anything but enduring, easily recovering powerhouses. We in the past were far hardier than we are now. Don’t be one of those that have backslid. I know that it took me years,and seemed like it wouldn’t happen at the outset, but if I can do it so can you.

If I lift with a buddy I still tack on the other two movement parts (legs,push,pull) that I didn’t just do with them, and I don’t feel sore in the part we trained together either the next day. Also I make sure to condition.

Train how you want, but evaluate, are you really just doing as everyone else does? Are you where you need to be, and are you in a shape that says robust? Are you not an embarrassment to all the strong individuals who have come before you? Make sure you’re not, and if you are, change it. It’ll take as long as it takes though. Live for the journey.

It’s 2017, a new year. Fuck compromise, it’s my year, my time. Make it your year too.

-J