Most programming is essentially dogma in it’s application by trainees.
In the back corner you’ve got the powerlifting crew screaming overtraining should you squat more than once weekly, over by the dumbbells and mirrors you’ve got the bodybuilders saying full body splits give you AIDS, and over at platform the small Olympic crew is doing almost naught but the lifts and squats, 7x a week MINIMUM.
I’ll let you in on the greatest strength secret in the world, the one that you ABSOLUTELY need to make great gains,the one that you’ve been searching for countless hours via Google and Bodybuilding.com……
You ready?
All the approaches can work.
But there’s a catch, an if.
IF YOU PUT IN THE WORK, THE INTENSITY.
See methodology doesn’t really matter. Every method has people making gains, AND people essentially masturbating,spinning their wheels for “maintenance” at best.
Generally I lift like I’m a weightlifter doing the powerlifts.
Doing this I almost got injured, as I was flat out ignoring putting in the strengthening the system work that the Westside inspired powerlifters do.
My own training is a testament of proof against the existence of an overtraining Boogeyman that so strongly haunts the mind of both powerlifters and bodybuilders.
Really I’m part of a rarely found in nature species, I’m one of the guys who walk into the gym with the no plan other than to go hard.
From time to time I have to evaluate and take ques from other methodologies, like being smart and adding in regular ab and lower back work while still having no plan other than train + get stronger.
You should take a look at how dogmatic you are about both how to train, and what ways of training are possible.
Certain personality types respond better mentally (which is the most important part) to far less rigidity, to a more freestyle “method” of training.
I’m one of them, and our needs in the gym are rarely discussed, as I believe we are a small percentage. I am not the only one however, as I have met one or two others who train similarly to how I do.
Take a look at your programing. If it doesn’t bring you joy, why are you doing it? Don’t be scared to toss the rules out and experiment. Dogma holds many down. Once you’ve found a method that clicks, oh boy you’ll get gains, as you’ll be putting in more effort.
EFFORT IS WHAT LEADS TO RESULTS! You’ll never find the “perfect” program, so just work!
Here’s somewhere that my mindset significantly varies from most gym goers:
A lift done no warmups at 80 or 90% of max or even more, maybe done outdoors with out the best footing is far more useful than a true max in the gym with nice plates, perfect footing, and a pristine Olympic bar.
Power cleaning 225 in running shoes outdoors in 30 degree temperatures on frozen dirt with no warmups is a better lift than 275 with an Olympic bar at the gym on the platform with every circumstance in your favor.
The latter is pristine. The former useable on demand, functional strength.
This is similar to my thoughts behind hitting the bag bare knuckle.
Like you get to say “Excuse me, will you wait a moment, I need to put on my gloves to hit you” Ha!
The majority of gym goers have this obsession with always warming up, and needing to follow splits.
It fucking hilarious. It’s like almost none have ever played a sport, or held any job involving manual labor.
The gym is the ONLY place people obsess over this shit.
You want to know what perfect form is?
It’s whatever finishes the task at hand. If you’re in a powerlifting meet obviously use legal form, but otherwise it’s open fucking season, have at it.
One time a storm brought down a tree in my neighbor’s yard. My buddy and I were helping him clear it. He chainsawed it, and we brought it over to his truck. He was cutting BIG pieces ~300 lbs. We picked it up and dropped it a few steps later, “Too big” he asked, the 70 yards it had to move looked far at this point. I thought for a second and flipped it like a tractor tire. Boom, easy. The job was far quicker cutting + flipping vs cutting + carrying.Flipping those pieces happened to be perfect form.
Gym goers need to get out of the common gym mindset. They need to get uglier, this is where the functional strength lies.
Both test the ability of, and train for strength in non-ideal circumstances.
How close to your deadlift max could you pull cold? 70%, 80%,90%, 95%+?
Same for your power clean.
What about tired, sore, and/or hungry?
What can you do with a giant sandbag or a heavy rock?
Get some of the ability that a strongman or a labourer has. That’s where functional strength lies.
Chrome and fern land (Brooks Kubick term) overall is rather faggy. Don’t get caught in it’s weak mindset. Get rugged, that’s what functional strength is.
It can be very easy to fall in to “down” streaks. Having day after day of bad luck, bad days, and having life in general just feel like shit.
It does not have to be like that though. Life does not have to be bad. Read that again, and say it aloud. Life does not have to be bad. In fact it can be as great as you want it to be.
While many rely on exterior circumstance to feel good, or try to escape the bad with various substances, how life goes really boils down to one thing.
That one thing is your state, your frame of mind, your thoughts. Basically the thoughts you allow to be inside you, and even moreso the ones you speak make HUGE impact on your life, your day to day.
While I’d suggest reframing any negative thoughts in your head to a positive, or saying how the negative is unnecessary/ridiculous/etc, here’s a nifty little trick that works wonders.
Never voice a negative aloud.
This practice will naturally make everything more positive for you.
Looking back a high percentage of “natural” charisma is doing just that.
How many charismatic men do you know that are whiners, complainers, or that voice any such negative nonsense?
Exactly, they are all a mix of happy go lucky, and stoic.
No matter how bad, or boring/mundane, or hopeless a day may seem whenever someone asks how are you or any of its variations I always respond in a strong positive, trying to light up as I say it.
I always put on a real (or faked) happy ass front, with the intention of meaning what I say.
Notice how any acquaintance you make with that initial mannerism goes well.
Also when you have the stronger frame watch the awesomeness of your world rub off on all around you.
Why put bullshit negatively out into the world when you can Put On a Happy Face? Doing just that will work wonders. Even if at first it is “fake”.
The faked front with good intention behind it will become real.
Never voice negativity, and watch how your world gets better and brighter.
Only allow positive things to come out of your mouth.
The Black Pilgrimage was published in January 2016. I must have read it in February or March of the same. It was one of those books you don’t put down until it’s over. Instead of sleeping, I read it straight through. I suggested my buddy read it that very afternoon.
A handful of times I’d wanted to reread it. Last night was one of them.
I needed to read it. Yesterday had been horrible. It’s words, the sense of adventure,the yearning for more, I had to read it again.
With a dedication like that wouldn’t you read it?
I check my google play books, not there. Check the laptop, no file. Odd, I must’ve accidentally deleted it. I realized it had been on my phone, and I did just that once when it was low on storage. I didn’t realize it hadn’t been backed up. Okay, I’ll download it again. Shit, the site has been down for awhile. Run the Google search for it. There are only a few sites linking the PDF on the invictusforsenate site, which is down. I check his YouTube channel, and it lists the same website.
Unwilling to not read it, I thought about throwing up comments on the blogs reviewing it asking if anyone had the file.
Then it clicked on me. The Internet Archive, and The Wayback Machine. I’ve read down sites using it before, why not see if it has a live PDF link stored?
The Black Pilgrimage by Augustus Sol Invictus PDF:
It does, here is the PDF of The Black Pilgrimage by Augustus Sol Invictus.
The chronicle is romantic, and I’d highly suggest not only the romantic, but all read this.
Doing so will stir something inside of you. It does for me.
Maybe I’m an artist, a romantic,yearning to be a warrior, yearning for the war. Maybe you’re another, and it will strike you as well.
Read the book. You have the link. We all could use an awakening to spiritual experience, adventure. After all, we all die. Best get inspired, become epic, and do great things while here.
They do not truly believe, they only say that they do.
A true believer is fearless. The true believer may be steadfastly pacifist, or actively making war in his Jihad. Either way they are warriors. Fighting in their holy war the way in which they see fit.
After much meditation, reaching a deep abyss, this struck: There is nothing worldy to fear.
I believe in God. I was not giving him all of my faith. I was simply paying lip service.
There is nothing in life to fear. Nothing in this world worth fearing.
We all die.
The manner in which we do is irrelevant. Hopefully though it be an honorable one.
A death right in God’s eyes.
Be this by slow torture, a bullet,a beating,or asleep after 100 years on Earth.
Become alive in your life.
When you are at peace with, and right in the eyes of God everything is good. All is on the table.
This may be a grokking (deep understanding) of ego death. The concept feels as if it has clicked.
Dead is alive.
Could quit but can’t.
I’ll say it again: be right in the eyes of God, and all is on the table.
The Empire doesn’t build itself.
The human experience isn’t so different from era to era,age to age.
You could give it eons, and the base experiences would still be the same.
What are rules,laws but man playing a game of simulation?
A futile attempt pretending to be God.
When this is seen, what problems could be had?
All will become a joke. Everything a laughing matter as you quickly will find you possess all of the tools needed in abundance.
With God as a partner what could possibly get in your way?
There are no obstacles. There is nothing to fear.
We all die.
God is with all who choose it,who opt in,who allow his partnership.
What struggles?
Only the path.
Every age is the age of legends. One only has to see it.
I’m wholeheartedly inclined to believe, nay I know that there is no such thing as physical limits.
Before you joker’s comment about gravity, I mean as far as human performance is concerned.
There is no reason that a person couldn’t build up the work capacity and develop all aspects of performance to the point that they could move big weights,ultramarathon,and be explosive as hell; on a daily or near daily basis.
Look at history. There have been some amazing feats of labour,not even training. Simply men working with their hands,thier backs, and the sweat on thier brows.
A large percentage if not the majority of our abilities are rooted in our mind.
Former Navy SEAL Stew Smith had a quote paraphrased ” the human body will adapt to all you throw at it,running,calisthenics,swimming, weights do it long enough and the body will adapt ” This path of reasoning always resonated with me.( I wasn’t able to find the exact quote through Google or the notecard I wrote it on at 15)
It’s the weak thought that adaption won’t happen where so many gym goers go wrong.
I’ve been doing Olympic lifts near daily,and am treating March as shoulder specialization month.
The two and some extra back work are very synergistic.
I fully expect 225×20 jerks or better before the month is up.
Less than a week and I got it to around 10. I didn’t record that set so I’m unsure of the exact count. It was 9-11 reps though.
For the 3rd or 4th time in my life I power cleaned 255. I put it overhead,and barely missed stabilizing the 2nd jerk rep.( 1st time I overheaded that much.)
8 days in, and you can see a visible difference in traps,neck,and shoulders. Hell, all the heavy jerks have my abs thicker, closer to showing despite the highish bodyfat %.
I purposely am running myself into the ground with these. 5 days in a row of heavy and/or high volume. I know from past experience , like the quote says that if I do it long enough the body will adapt. I’m looking to not only up the power clean but lock in that new number as an everyday max.
I wasn’t supporting this with calories or sleep, just a strong dose of anger and never say die attitude.
Not eating enough. Train to light headedness, recover,next set the same. 50 reps of shoulders as a requirement, but I was closer to 100 heavy reps + 50-100 light reps each session . Far past required, and the hour minimum of Olympics + decent volume on rows.
The hunger was great for being aggressive and sttacking the bar, but after feeling very low I decided yesterday was calorie re-up day. I ate over 5000 calories, I’d estimate 5800. You know you need to eat when you zone out at the grocery store staring at a 10lb bag of chicken while contemplating what you’d like to do to it.
Today is going to be more of the same, tomorrow ditto. Training that is. Olys and shoulders. I need to hit some legs as well. Isometrics on the leg extension, some squats, maybe some inverse curls. Food no clue, I may keep low calorie for a few days . I am enjoying the aggression that is tied to it.
My gut says continue running myself into the ground,that adaption is close. I woke up mentally not wanting to do shit. Wanting the day off,and all that weakness. You know what I’m doing though? All the shit I have to. The closer and closer to gym time it gets the more I’m looking forward to a jerk PR attempt, on film, because I haven’t uploaded in a few days.
Holding the path always holding the path. Time to start cultivating the aggression again. Push the limits.
I first heard about Wim Hof from a post at Danger and Play back in 2015. I watched the short clip, and ended up watching the full 2hr episode. About a week ago I found out there was another Joe Rogan Podcast featuring Wim. I added it to the watch later playlist intending to give it a listen once I had the alone time for a quiet listen.
Now its been roughly 18 months since I first tried his breathing. I will start by saying I have not done it as religiously as I should have. I generally did it when the time felt right, or I was in a bad place.
Sometimes I seem to have trouble getting the method of breathing down pat.(I’ve found shirtless helps get the pattern)most of the time I do it laying comfortably, occasionally I’ll do it standing . Whatever position you use, posture is key for the belly breathing that is required.
With all that said, listening to the second feature of Wim Hof last night/this morning inspired me to finally put these words on paper publicly. I’ve written multiple rough drafts on this subject.
Up until about a month ago, all I had experienced was the euphoria that the method causes you to feel from the hyper-oxygenation. I rarely if ever went more than 1 or 2 rounds. Here’s what I would do:
How To Do It:
Breathe in ~30 times, full belly breathes, and let go. Not exhaling fully. At first the whole thing will feel odd, for me the let go part felt off. It was a shock for my body, I had never sans a couple of times breathed this manner. Within a couple sessions it was natural though. I was feeling something I’d only felt a couple of times prior, but had never attempted to learn/teach how to access.
You hold for as long as possible, not forcing it, and when you feel the need to inhale, simply inhale. I’ve found putting the tongue on the room of my mouth and/or swallowing allows me to hold more comfortably and longer. The times will be astounding, especially if you go multiple rounds.
Now Wim may have explained this differently, but what I do is hold the inhale for a 15 count, ~10-15 seconds, and then fully exhale again.
At this empty point I tap my side of my stomach twice, my neck twice, and my forehead twice. This was mentioned as helping tap into the central nervous system in the first feature. I was intrigued, had long thought that we could access such things, and could see Wim had gone further into this subject than I.
After this empty I start the cycle over should I feel the urge, or move on with my day.
Now one night at most a month ago, I decided to pull an all nighter due to only having the opportunity to sleep for an hour or two before I’d have get up shovel snow, and then be able to attempt to sleep for real.
It Clicks
Unable to sleep, and not wanting to sit around I decided to give multiple rounds of WIm Hof breathing a shot. It ended up being 90 minutes of the method. My mind seemed to go to another, clearer, simpler place. The clutter seemed gone. I seemed to both be, and know. As I was breathing I had the letting go somewhat click. Here’s what it looked/sounded like for me:
Individual Variations
I found this method of breathing to be what works best for me while I lay on my back and go about doing it. Keep in my mind this was the second round where the letting go clicked.
If I do the breathes standing up due to the difference in posture the letting go phase is a little different.
That’s probably why seemingly every video where someone does Wim Hof breathing seems different from the next. Same premise, but different effects on different people. Experimentation, and individuality is how I see it.
Last night I listened to the second feature, and while listening did the breath work again. It clicked far faster this time, and I don’t recall having done this more than once since the night the letting go clicked.
Fired Up+ The Method Works
Hearing motivating stuff always gets me fired up, I ended up taking a cold shower, drying off and sitting outdoors in a wife beater,shorts, and flip flops for about 10 minutes just taking in the world. Keep in mind it was 20 degrees where I’m at, so I should have been bothered. But going in with belief, and the right state of mind it was simply rejuvenating.
Most likely I will have to add additional Wim related posts to cover all my thoughts. I’m couldn’t possibly cover it all in a 1000 words.
Give it a shot, try his methods. I’ve not put near the effort I could/should have and I can see/feel the benefits practicing it very nonchalantly.
Belief is a powerful thing. So is an open mind. The one willing to learn, and dive into esoteric subjects, even the thoughts that were/almost beaten out of them, vanguard stuff, will reap the rewards. Open minds learn vast amounts. It can pay dividends.
Breathe is free, you can do this at any time(best try it in a safe environment first i.e. not driving/operating heavy machinery for example). Give it a shot.
As Wim himself has said in an interview “Breathe Motherfucker”
Have fun with it. It works wonders.
-J
An Update 5/13/17 : Lately I’ve been doing the fully in, letting go without the breath holds as a way to get aggressive. Particularly for crushing power cleans, but it has other uses along with visualization. For example: visualizing sex while doing so for gets me fully erect. This usage gives me blood flow to my dick even while lifting. This usage feels damn good and very primal.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe you’ve become stagnant in the gym. Maybe other aspects of life are not where you want them to be.
You’ve gotta put it all into perspective though.
The Circumstance
My strange sleep schedule and inclement weather kept me from going to the gym for almost exactly 48 hours.
Both days I had actually awoke sore. My lower back slightly locked again. (These things are rare, I may be about to receive “beginner gains” all over again)
At this point having barbell withdrawals, and feeling a flush session would make me feel much better, I headed to the gym.
The gym is about a twenty minute drive. The last 15 seconds of which are after crossing a set of train tracks.
I made good time, and at the tracks the rail crossing guards were down. Strange, normally the train would’ve been gone for 5 minutes. There is already a line, I idle for 15 minutes, the gates are still down, turn around and go to the store.
Having killed 45 minutes to an hour walking Walmart for far longer than it takes to get my one item,I figure the tracks would be clear to cross so I turn around and head back.
There was still a line, an inability to cross, and having nowhere to park my car and simply walk the last 200 yards there I headed home.
2 hours later the barbell withdrawals became worse. I headed right back.
20 minutes later, no cars, but the guards are still down. Damn It!
I turn around, but lucky break I hear a train. I look, barely still in sight, and see the guards going back up. Eureka!
Due to all the BS involved in getting there it seemed like the thing to do would be PR attempt on the fat bar.I mentally flipped a switch from flush session to PR day.
With no BS arrival would’ve 815pm, I didn’t get in until a little after midnight.
Now I love lifting particularly for scream fests between midnight and 1am. There’s no one there other than me. I can jack the radio to anything(people bitch about lifting to country), whoop, holler, and generally have fun.
I turn into the parking lot, and see the lights on, strange, but hey no cars, its still my alone time. Sweet!
As I get closer I see a work truck next to the door.
Shit!
It took me just shy of 4 hours to get to the building. Seeing the work truck made me think the 24hr access keycard may not get me in. Renovations may mean a manually locked door. I swipe the card, beep, yes!
I talk with the workers, my deadlifting is not going to be in their way( One also lived up the street and said the tracks had been like that for 2+ hours). The rest of the session is scrapped though, I can’t use an Airdyne bike thats in their work zone.
Oh well. Time to pull.
Pull Time
I set up for pulls. Due to my weird sleep schedule, actually being sore, and all the BS I decided to play it safe and do some warm up reps. I usually never pull more than singles on max out day, or start below ~300lbs.
The fat bar is 24 lbs, hence the weight increments, the sets were:
114×5
204×5
294×3 attempt overhand, switch to mixed grip
384×1 Easy
474 Fail at knee, !?!?!?!?!, Bar speed had been great til here, drop down again
384×1 Easy (Again) I guess I need more warmups.
434 X3 Moderate, no way I can hit this and not hit 474
474×1 GOT THE BITCH
504, lightest I can break 500 with, I dont have access to those 1.25 I used the other day. Fail, barely off the ground
504 ( again) Fail…Fuck
Ok, I have to change the plans, lets work on my deadlifts’s dead zone
Isometrics to knee level and pull against pin superset with fat bar speed pulls.
5 sets each, isometrics 135lbs for the first set, 185 for the last last 4. I pulled into the pins for 6-8 seconds each set.
The speed pulls were 294 for doubles
Post Workout
I got a pretty decent pump from the isometrics. I’ll have to do those more often. I relearned that isometrics help me. Oddly I’ve never done them in the weight room, just when I was equipmentless. I need to mix the methods I know work for me more regularly. This could be the exact way to make some crazy fast progress on my deadlift.
But….
Despite this initially I wanted to get down on myself. I wanted to get pissed that I didn’t PR. I then paused. It had been a decent session. As I said I got a great, but strange pump from the isometrics. The speed pulls felt great. I hit 3 with 434 on a fat bar. I hit 474 as the top set.
Run the numbers here for a second 474/484 is 98%, 474/515 is 92%. On a day where Murphy’s Law was rearing its head I still hit over 90% for a top single on a fat bar based off my lifetime regular bar PR. Although what really changed my outlook and got me to view the session in a good light was the fact that 2 years ago my bodyweight was similar, and my lifetime PR on a regular bar was 425. At that time I sometimes missed 405 on grip.
I went from negative in my head to positive, highly positive simply going back mentally to the old gym at age 20. Two years later I can pull as an everyday max more on a fat bar than I struggled to hold on a normal bar two years ago. Fuck the results of those around you, concentrate on yourself. Stronger is stronger, and shit 8 of those 24 months I didn’t have access to weights, 10 of them no gym. It’s not bad considering all the circumstance, just like the session itself.
What’s There To Complain About?
I had a solid lift. ( And got to take the next day off, due to the construction)
I ran into an old buddy at Wally World.
I’m getting stupid close to the 500 fat bar, and when it happens, it may be for reps.(Which would be a double whammy of a PR)
I can perform well under adverse circumstance, watch and see the shit that happens as life becomes more ideal.
I am getting stronger. Through all the BS, inconsistency, depression, lack of food,stress, etc. I am still getting stronger.
I know these lessons and abilities can be applied everywhere else.
As long as i keep going I’ll always get better.
I got this shit.
Conquer. Rise. Ascension.
-J
And Sometimes the universe sends you a message in song. I heard this on the drive home. 1 in the morning, just happened to hit radio on.Mute the part about dress sizes though.
“If you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle”
