Category: Mindset

I do a set of military press daily.

#1 in life right now is to get my first 225lb military press.

When I have to, I lift before work, just as I’ve done pushups before work for the better part of the past year.

Over the years when I felt like nothing was going for me, generally I had the gym.

This past, almost year, it had been a struggle to get to any of the right headspaces lifting outdoors alone.

Now, it’s “can’t wait to press tomorrow morning! Thank you! I’ve got olys!

Upbeat, I scream it to God in the sky!

“Press time! I’ve got olys! Thank you!”

That is the bulk of my thoughts, “can’t wait to press tomorrow morning! Thank you! I’ve got olys!”

Yes. I am dodging bigger things by #1 in life being a barbell lift.

This dead end job I’m working?
Head down, it’s nearing the year, press tommorow morning.

Days of stubble?
It’ll be months of beard soon enough, I am not fucking it up -press tommorow morning.

I’ve given myself something tangible, within close reach, not a hard to see ways off to get out of bed in the morning for.

I had needed that.

The rest?
I’ll figure it all out as I go.

It’s gonna be sweat hitting 225.
So close. I taste it every time my hands grip iron.

Follow the method ;
No warmup, press the weight for amrap, once it’s 10-12 reps, up it 5lbs, repeat tommorow.

300lbs on video soon after.
Trust the method.
(Press. Hang clean.)

I’m doing what is necessary for that.

Building that strength!

Eating for it.
Lifting for it.

(military press amraps, hang clean amraps)

Into lifting outdoors, in the moment, just me and nature, my spot a piece of particle board and a pair of rubber patio tiles, chomping down into that two buck mouthpiece, headphones blaring, press time!

Get some! Whooo!
Ric Flair baby!

Live the passion. Love it.
Have purpose.

Persistence & Tenacity

P.S. Damn does cold turkey no television make a difference. I advise anyone to cut that shit out. You’ll have other things to do, the brain will find you better.

aslan – street gladiator

This is approaching 5k

8/27/22 ~1215am
I have had an epiphany ; for the better part of a year I had struggled with the motivation to lift, to workout, to train, which to me is strongly correlated to my general mood with life.

•I had been depressed.
•I had looked at all the bad.
•I had done my version of falling off the wagon, and in all honesty expect to continue the lite version – watching television, likely with strawberry milk and restaurant food as soon as I have finished this flow write.

I hadn’t been looking at what I have :

•I have a doorway chin up bar.
•I have a good barbell.
•I have plates to load it on the ground to 500lbs.
•I have rickety stands safe to load to at the very least 300lbs for front squats and back squats.

That’s a better setup than afforded to many. Hunger is what accomplishes, excuses are bogus.

When I arise, technically today, I have already given myself an extra hour before work with my alarm.

I shall power clean & press.

As I sat outside the shower, alternatively thinking and praying, I realized a session each at 10×3, 10×5, 10×8, 10×10 then add weight, makes sense to me for military press, every 3rd to 5th day, occasionally throw in a rather light ≈50 rep press set on an off day, do an amrap hang clean after the 10 sets of presses, something for squats either that day or alongside curls on a day sandwiched between the press sessions…

Maybe this new outlook shall see me start to lift daily again, as I have in the past rigidly said low frequency, while allowing myself to up it as motivation grows, and have done so.

Though a non barbell rigid – start and end each day on the doorway chin up bar.

I PR’d last summer at either 27 or 29 reps with some grip or other (on a different bar,  I do not recall the exacts other than it was under 30 and not 28 reps lol), I shall do 1 rep before laying to bed, and 1 rep to start tommorow.

This very well may be done adding a rep per set as slowly as every 7-14 days.

•I am okay with this.
•The doorway chin up bar isn’t ideal. You can’t hang completely.
•I have it.
•This keeps me from being detrained.

If I was to go to socal, rejoin the gym there I actually liked, take a shot at “fitness lifestyle” (or however to define it as) it would be wrong to go there depressed and detrained!

Therefore :
•have a pullup (technically chin up) base, 2×8 daily with the aforementioned approach is easy peasey and a base to jump from
•military press better, I want 10×225 as a solid “I’ll rock the gym floor with this” metric/level (el narcisismo – mi tengo lol)
•curl 8×165, same rationale
•even if it’s something I’ve easily done in the past like a 20×275 squat or whatever – have a squat base built, then if I’m in cali (or az, nv technically again, nm, or wherever) go psycho on the actual sets for high reps

Note : losing yourself in high rep squats, 20-50 reps in a set, is the best thing you’ll do for yourself in bodybuilding, and possibly athletically.

A high rep squat makes a difference. In all of it.

I have decided to stick with this job for a full year.

That means I have ~8 weeks to go before I, may or may not, leave the job and or/region.

I looked at the socal bodybuilding gym in instagram around 1130pm last night.

I realized that if I’m going west in 8+ weeks that I should not, and will not be going there depressed and detrained.

The only reason to go to morlock is to lift, personal train, and do fitness youtube, (likely instagram as well).

I’d have to make it $50k/yr as a minimum just as a single man.

Cali is nuts expensive, and living underemployed while answering to those corporate america deems above you is no way to live.

Thank you!
Yesterday’s shift, between the manager, younger than I, who in no sane situation, nothing outside of corporations in this wacked out age and nation, I would ever answer to (this applies to all of them) annoying me via mannerisms, then the zen I felt during a bonkers dinner rush as everyone around me was stressed, the managers eating their hilarious incompetencies as they had to cook the entire time too (saving labor too much lol, food prep an issue lol)

Thank you!
I saw something.
Something shifted.

Ten months ago I felt something in the air. Yesterday, today (now), now I feel something inside of me.

Internal vs external

…..

I was a cali kid, a certain area of socal will likely always feel like home to me, but I do not want to raise children in the heart of moloch.

Regardless of how much my father and I do not see eye to eye I can not hold the fact my childhood was 50/50 split between cali and new england against him.

There were a bunch of advantages to the way it was.

There’s that mantra “life happens for me”. Nothing is going to happen that shouldn’t!

You’re gonna feel pain for a reason.
You’re gonna feel hopeless for a reason.
You’ll see no way out as long as is necessary.

I don’t feel like success here is a guarantee.

Maybe having no doubts and knowing is another step.

Maybe not.

Either way. Something beautiful clicked for me, in my mind.

In the moment, beauty in every moment. Mmm ahh – breathe in, breathe out.

Bask in, it, everything.
Living.

A chin up before laying.
A chin up upon rising.
A lift with the hour I gifted myself via wrist watch alarm.

Work. Smile. Set up in positivity.
To not be depressed. To not be detrained.

And my beard will be back. Red, long, awesome – being a Man.

That’s all it comes down to. Being a man.

-J
Persistence & Tenacity

Glamorous – Fergie

“hard work pays off just as much as good genetics”

What a premise! I’d go so far as to say hard work is more important than good genetics.

Besides, who’s to say exactly what good genetics entail?

The phrase “good genetics” as applied to the physical is thought of in the physical sense, how quickly your body responds…but what if you looked at characteristics of the mind such as stubbornness, tenacity?

Somewhere out there a dude who naturally benches 405, power cleans 365 is sitting on his ass playing call of duty while a less physically gifted teammate goes apeshit every day – running 20 40s every night in the middle of the street, wrestling in the winter, playing rugby in the spring, getting up at 345am to go to the gym before school, eating 6000 calories daily, and is amped up that he almost hit his first 300 bench, is now power cleaning 250, and can taste the victory of mauling that big lazy fucker come fall.

You see it yet!

I’d rather you have work ethic than good genetics, yes both is preferable, but hard work comes first!

Persistence & Tenacity

Write it.
Shrug. “Fuck it.”
Post.

No other steps.

I had a revelation just days ago.

I feel better having a million mini sessions every day.

I like, not just training, but how I feel from training.

At the very least I get a momentary respite from inner pain, while on the opposing end of the spectrum I go back to the 5 year old HIGH ENERGY, OUTGOING, ZERO INHIBITIONS version of me.

The natural state of Man!

Do whatever amount of burpees gets you there ; they will get you there.

Training always ends up a mental positive with the physical benefits as a bonus.

You keep training, and you keep racking up gains, but the gym – whether it’s a boxing gym, wrestling room, a barbell in a garage/basement/shed/yard, a commercial gym membership, lunges & pullups at the park, or pushups in the kitchen the benefit is it’s mentally saving a young man.

THE BENEFIT IS IT’S MENTALLY SAVING A YOUNG MAN!

My writing’s word count has gone up. I’m posting more.

I realized – the world, how I feel interacting with it, is my choice in my mind.

My choice. My mind. My control.
To act otherwise is a bald faced lie, and to choose weakness.

A man is as strong as he choose be.

That clarified.

Persistence & Tenacity

Where The Cellphone Sleeps :

Overnighting my phone on the kitchen table was a good habit I’ve recently resurrected.

When I went from October 2019 to January 2022 without watching porn it was a measure I instituted, daily, from the 2020 lockdowns when those urges born of loneliness were there – a practice I held to for about a year and a half – a practice that made the vice impossible to immediately hit (watch), as the paraphernalia (cellphone aka witchbrick) was not readily within arms reach.

I use drug terminology in relation to porn purposefully.

Holding to a positive regimen is easier when you set things up in a way that the temptations are more difficult to access.

As often as possible, instead of testing your willpower, simply be away from the temptation.

Penance :

This is the 6th year in which I’ve felt “if I cave, I shave”, and held rigidly to the sentiment.

It is a discipline challenge I’ve held to without exception.

Over time it varied, nay, gained stipulations.

It changed from shaving after watching porn to shaving 24+ hours after watching porn to signify a new day, a new start, a new period – A NEW ERA

At some point “with a fresh new razor” was too added.

You’d find me shaving at odd times throughout the day, basically asap, whether this was when the 24+ hours later was yet implemented or not, because I want my awesome thick red beard back AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Another stipulation, one I have not kept to without exception…

30 days, you go 30 days of discipline, of penance, without shaping, trimming, neatening, straightening up, or establishing lines.

I know where to establish the beard line. I’ve been shaving since 7th grade, growing a beard since 11th. I could establish that line as early as day 3 on the undergrowth…

But the discipline, the penance is to go 30 days…

So I’m going 30 days, not touching it once…

And this time another stipulation has been added –

nor am I buzzing my scalp in this period.

It’s gonna look real bummy before I look real good, and I may end up going 40 for the biblical connotation vs the 30 I initially expected.

What is another 10 days?

Persistence & Tenacity

The greatest aspect of calisthenics is that wherever you are, anytime you can do them.

This is frequency.

Frequency for some is necessary to keep negativity out of mind.

As the laundry runs I shadow box, putting power into it.

In mind I’m emulating Mike Tyson, I’m similar in height and proportion, and feel that’d be my style should I box.

So I’m trying to bob, weave, and uppercut in something that resembles it visually.

The movement patterns are likely off, a coach would say so I’m sure, but this is me, alone, getting myself out of breath because it improves my state of mind.

I’m not going to be focussing on the little that is bad.

Out of breath, now enjoying some chocolate milk, and typing up my thoughts – I feel good.

I’m on two to three times daily pushups and bw squats.

I’ll probably be joining the gym my friend goes to, but on a once or twice weekly program.

I’m very strong.
I feel it, and I visualize it as I’m doing my calisthenics.

I was repping 405 in mind as I did pushups earlier.

This practice builds even more strength.

Let’s rewind ;

I look in the bathroom mirror and resemble a pale king kong.

This effect is only amplified with a pump, and after driving home shirtless I did some squats and triceps heavy pushup variants before going indoors, during rests I drank chocolate milk.

In the bathroom before the night’s shower I did another couple sets of vanilla pushups…but visualised heavy benching, a bench rep during each pushup, seeing myself first repping 315, 345, 365, 405, then on the next set 345, 365, 405, all powerfully executed, all for reps.

I look like king kong in the mirror.
My neck is thicker.
My traps have grown recently.

I have serious upper body development.

The comical thing is my calorie burn is quite high from work.

I’m barely eating.
Without the chocolate milk I’d be on starvation rations.

I am however pretty good about getting in some beef and some bacon each day.

Working in a restaurant has its perks.

My bacon cheeseburger grilled cheese sandwich with a root beer or dr pepper near the end of shift is what keeps me in the food.

I’ll usually eat something really small, cheese or chicken outside of work.

I stopped drinking whey again.
It was causing an even higher rate of…weight loss? fat loss?

I felt warmer, which makes sense as protein speeds the metabolism.

Don’t really want to feel even warmer working in a kitchen.

The coworker who wears a hoodie sometimes is nuts.

I could toy around, see what happens going back to up to 6 scoops daily.

Caffeine consumption is up.
I don’t dodge the soda fountain every shift.

However, instead of water or soda I mostly drink ginger ale at work.

It has taste, keeps some calories in you, and doesn’t have caffeine.
This was something I learned to do as a mover one summer.

At a point water bothered the stomach and didn’t have the necessary taste, while gatorade/powerade was too sugary.

Ginger ale hits the spot in this situation, while high quality ginger beer is downright medicinal.

I get little bits of free protein from mess up items.

I’m in a good place eating wise.
Leaning out is just what the time calls for, and I’m very strong right now.

My buddy will be happy if I join the gym he goes to.

I filmed there the other day, and the place would work for infrequent big lift training.

I can see myself just specializing on push/pull for a while there.

A man would be set training just back and shoulders.

Doing that right involves plenty of leg work.

You’re not going to clean & press nor deadlift without leg work happening.

If you’re worried about it throw in some heavy 10s or 20s on front squats, partial front squats, or do something meaningful overhead squatting for reps.

I know the type of programming that works.

•deadlifts
•partials
•c&p
•bent row
•front squats
•overhead squats

Any man would thrive on this.

Frequency?
Anywhere from multiple times daily to once every 10-14 days.

That’s the beauty of lifting. Whether high frequency or low frequency – all work.

Do what works for you, mentally, logistically, whatever.

I’d rather see you getting it in the gym than to not train.

The “weekend warrior” gets a bad rap.

A man could hit the big three or something similar on saturday or maybe after church each Sunday, not stress lifting or even waste a single thought about lifting the rest of the week, and be set.

It’s better to lift than not to lift.

Maintain a 405+ deadlift into your 80+. Aging needn’t be bad.

I know the path of aging I’m on.

I’m 27. I’ll never be weak.

37 will be stronger than 27.
47 will be stronger than 37.
etc, etc, etc, etc, etc

I’ve read accounts of the germanic tribes during the time of rome.

All the men were able bodied, all aged roughly 15 to 80 strapped on shields, picked up spears, and marched to battle joyously.

Heck, the roman legionaries served a 30 year enlistment term, aged 20 to 50.

A 50 year old roman was marching 18 miles a day under load, then building fortifications each and every night.

These were the norm.
Humans are meant to be awesome.

Aging in the modern world is a travesty.

In one of the icelandic sagas, one of the men became feeble in his 90s, was mocked by the women for his being feeble, and within a year or two was dead.

Feeble only came about on one’s deathbed.

This says that for many in modern times, their living is naught but a slow death.

The fuck are you waddling around slurping down naught but bullshit for?

WITH NOTHING FOR EQUIPMENT YOU CAN HIT YOUR PUSHUPS AND SQUATS TWICE A DAY!

An hour or less at minimum wage will feed you a gallon of milk and pound of ground beef each day.

The squats and pushups take 5:00 to 10:00 tops each day.

Aging is a choice.
I know the path I’ve chosen.

That “dad bod” thing is disgusting.

Hit your pushups and squats, your kids will love to be on your back for both.

“Dad used to duck walk considerable distances with me/us riding on his shoulders.” – my kids in the future

Yes, I envision and plan on doing calisthenics with my kids.

(Both with them as weight and doing them together.)

There are no excuses.

Your health and fitness is a part of you, it’s entirely under your control – always has been, always will be.

I refuse to be one of those looked at in disgust, for being…disgusting, a disgusting human body.

It’s not just physical, it’s spiritual.

Your spirit is reflected in your appearance.

Your spirit is slovenly?
Why!
THERE ARE PUSHUPS AND SQUATS TO DO!

Persistence & Tenacity

The idea of thinking yourself fit, healthy intrigues me.

Through the mind to be the Wim Hof mantra of “happy, strong, & healthy”.

I’m not convinced of the sheer necessity of physical training.

Conscious thought is the difference between gym development and labor builds generally.

A gym built body is more aesthetic as thought was aiming for that.

Yet on the flip side I’ve seen and done many things on the job, on the mat, and on the field where it was beyond my perceived, or my estimation of them based on, gym “limitations”.

I’ve known laborers stronger than gym knowledge says they should be, far stronger, and that’s a matter of not thinking the limitations.

I’ve done a few things like that myself.

The mind is working towards something, that’s a given.

The above examples show it goes both ways – the thing is to control it, and guide it.

The “necessity” of warm ups comes to mind.

Plenty of experience tells me that you only need to warm up as much as you think you do.

Once the mind accepts this as truth you’ll be set to, or soon will be, able to hit 90+% 1rm performances essentially on the spot.

I ask you this ; did the rugged workers of yesteryear warm up?

The answer is a hearty no.

There’s freedom to, not shine – that’s the wrong word by definition, do as thou wert designed when you don’t have any conception of what “proper” ability is.

“proper” the result of societally imposed limits.

Without having been raised by wolves in a cave, without being the nature boy – it’s best to look at only the elite, the top, the record performances, and systematically, until it is your genuinely held belief and instinctive expectation for these to be the norm, more especially the norm for yourself.

You have the necessary genetics.
I have the necessary genetics.

Why are you saying someone has better genetics than you!

That shit is just a cop out for being, fat, lazy, but worst of all resigned, and apathetic.

I hated seeing the fat kid say the school running back was in shape because of “good genetics”, while I barely kept the thought inside, my thought ; “you fat motherfucker, why not try lifting hard, and running bleachers every day, and see where you truly stand”.

I’ve put in enough training time that good results are a given.

I have the best genetics.

In martial arts there’s the concept of hard and soft.

Both work!

It’s just not the typical western way to practice muscle control and meditation, thinking yourself to the image of health you desire – from the start.

But going the “hard” route (note the quotations, as doing what you must is anything but difficult), moving that weight, brute force, like a bull in a china shop…eventually you actualize the power and validity of the “soft” (thinking) route.

Everything works!

You must believe.
You must take the actions.
You must give it time.

Frequency doesn’t matter.
What you eat doesn’t matter.

There’s plenty of precedence to individuals of humanity shining beyond what “science” says is limit.

Go build muscle barely training, barely eating, on little protein.

I guarantee it’s been done before!

Every so called limit is thrown out the window by, note this is an and/or proposition, a zen state and/or a madman state of “fuck it, you can’t stop me”.

What is called lunacy and zen are two sides of the same coin.

It’s all in the perception, and what works for you in the moment.

Go train.
Or don’t.

Eat clean.
Eat dirty.

Barely eat, fast.
Smorgasbord, feast.

It’s all in the choice, the belief, and having the tenacity to own these fully.

Self ownership, knowledge of rightness in all that you do.

Accepting both the hard and the soft styles, having them both work for you.

Persistence & Tenacity

I’m flowing off of a combination of things I said to a guy my age on the gym floor, and a conversation I had today with the pastor’s wife (both today 7/4/21) :

You know why I’m in the gym daily?

My uncle said to me eventually I’ll be like everyone else, tired after a “hard day” at work, and eventually I’ll plop down in front of a television.

Saying to me that eventually it’ll happen.

Fuck that!
I don’t have a minute for that shit!

I’m despising that my life is perceived (by me – it’s all choice, we control our lives) as job, ot, gym with little else fitting in, but you know what?…

I am not taking a day off from training.

I do my pushups everyday.

I get to the gym daily a little past what would be considered within reason.

One day without exercise?
That could spiral to ten days, to ten weeks, to ten months, to ten years…to longer than you’ve currently been alive, and someone is sitting there on the couch the screen flashing, life wasted, spent not going where one needs to be.

I’m trying not to word that including myself in it. The idea of doubling my age, to only job/television/repeat horrifies me.

I have nightmares on it.

Yet that’s the common average day in this society!

Not for me.
I’m not that.

You see that?
Yes.
It’s the chip on my shoulder.

I ain’t turning on the screen ever again.

There isn’t time.
There isn’t!

My life, your life is not at 100% of it’s God given flying high potential.

There isn’t a second for vices.

Heck, even that jacked former marine old timer ranted to me in the locker room today about “how can people be so lazy”, and we agreed a brief calisthenics habit would serve for all.

Persistence & Tenacity

I’ve had some very varied influences go into my training philosophy, and personally I prefer making physical training about more than just the physical.

I’m sure you know the concept of mantras, positive phrases that become belief through repetition.

In 2017/2018 I had good results repeating mantras to myself as I drove.

Around the summer of 2018 I started to do the majority of my daily pushups, saying a mantra each rep.

The mantras mostly being repeated to myself inside my head, though not always.

Stated aloud with pride and volume can have a much needed and powerful effect.

“And for good measure!”

I came up with sets of my own personal mantras to say, you’ll have yours.

I have a set of mantras I’ll repeat in order, but I do vary it some.

Choose YOUR mantra(s) to rep.
They’re a personal thing.

Physical activity is a time where the brain, conscious, subconscious is all very open to suggestion – repeating mantras to myself while doing my daily pushups was mixing the physical with the thinking of positive affirmations.

The Physical & Positive Thinking Works Wonders :

A great blend.

Three years since I started mantra pushups it’s how I do the daily pushups to the tune of nearly 100% of my reps.

-J
Persistence & Tenacity

He hung with me for a bit past 15 sets, me doing 20s, him 10s.

He tapped before 20 sets in, and went to use the cables. I’m not holding it against him.

I expect any dude could do 20×20 pushups with me.

400 reps.

*could

It’s a heart check.

I learn about you when we do so, I’m judging you – your work ethic, your mental, the self talk I pick up on, I’m judging.

I can talk anyone past their perceived limits.

Some you get out of their heads, and immediately they get a 300-500% performance increase.

It’s way past the PR sets you hit putting on a show for the cute chick staring and trying not to be obvious about it.

That there’s maybe doubling the effort.

“Baby, you’re about to watch a 240+ man hit 20+ chins”.

And I do so!

He and I talked later – I went past the 20×20, I did over 500 in the gym, plus another set at home on the day.

He was saying to me “500 pushups, that’s why you’re jacked”, and that’s the truth of the matter.

Everyone could be jacked, big, strong, fit.

Genetics don’t matter 99.999% of the time.

The .001 where it may matter is at most in the olympics, and at the top level of professional sports.

Even then I don’t buy the hype.

Do the work. You’ll get jacked.

Who’s to say there’s a difference between you and him!

So many google prison fitness, jacked inmates, and similar – it’s a famous topic among gym circles and in the lifting corner of the internet.

How do they do it?

It’s not a secret.

Go be physical all day long, eat so that the body will only be at it’s peak.

“Starving” puts you into pure instinct.

“Survival mode” is where the true transformations and peak performance is at.

On my feet all day, rocking the day after day sunburn, NOT EATING – oh man! am I making gains.

The body is just sucking the fat off, while I’m getting stronger.

Physical all day + gym daily + a few liquid calories (gatorade, fruit juice, milk)+ one evening meal = leaner and leaner, stronger and stronger, properly outgoing, social, deep voiced, short sleeping – peaking/improving performance AS IS NATURAL! Natural – as God & nature intends.

Go do a few hundred pushups.

Go hit chins daily.

Work on your feet in the sun.

I see the error made by those inside for work, who go straight to the remote or the console!

Get outside, get physical.

You’re not even pushing.

All I do is a medium effort.

How I started my pushups at 14?
That was life or death in mentality!

You can go at least 5x harder, do 5x more, and make 5x the progress!

Persistence & Tenacity