Anything you can pull sldl you can, by default, pull conventional.
I prefer the sldl, and am all for using it as the primary.
To me the deadlift is best done, in no particular order, as an sldl, a snatch grip sldl, or as a snatch grip deadlift.
I too prefer an axle to a barbell.
Treat the movement as a health lift moreso than as a lift.
I suggest only pulling double overhand.
Deadlifting in the smith machine, when I hit my power clean PR, and a 30 rep deadlift phase all have taught me the value of light to moderate loads.
In the smith machine with just insane levels of muscular activation, really locked in – letting the frame work for me – going with it – allowing me to pull firstly backwards and secondly upwards, again just locked in being one with the machine…I pulled my first 495 deadlift in years (raw, mixed, conventional) after anywhere from 3-15 sets of 2-4 reps at, I kid you not, generally 2p, maybe 2p10, sometimes 1p25, firing everything so hard that I’d be damn near falling over, looking punch drunk, appearing out on my feet from the thing.
Power cleaning 275 for the first time was done after lots of crisp singles at 225lbs, a moderate load.
Firstly I pulled 30 reps at a weight in as few sets as possible.
Once I pulled it as a straight set I upped the weight a little.
This is an amazing approach all around – strength, endurance, work capacity, fitness.
A guideline for what I’m starting with a 205lb sldl right now.
I’d been needing more pulling than just a clean into my press sets.
There is no reason not to have pull centric lifting programing.
As I intend to be sldl centric, the front squat is a good idea as the sldl is a more posterior chain deadlift variant – conventional makes use of more legs.
And again – pull double overhand.
though when you’re as strong as paul anderson you can pull however you damn well please
The first set is loose form going for PRs, the second set, is following a Paul Carter suggestion – the 50% set, bout a minute rest, looking for bout half the reps, but my spin on it is go from loose to strict form.
…..
I’m in love with the press.
Yesterday I could’ve lifted and didn’t, even thinking that I may take a week off from lifting, at points this year I was lifting once every week to ten days at best, and plenty of world class lifters will take a season off yearly…
I took Monday, yesterday, one day, and lifted real minimally today – the two sets aforementioned.
Did my lunges a couple hours later, and really dug how they alongside a bit more bw leg movements really pumped up my legs.
If I was to take a season off, well I’d probably have to travel – some beach somewhere, or maybe make it the simplest thing ever logistically (like live next door to) a boxing, bbj, muay thai, or mma place.
As is I lift.
…..
It amuses me to know that many make a power clean out to be a complicated thing needing a coach.
If you were to start with a 300lb weight set thrown in the yard, massive desire to be strong as fuck, big as fuck – you’d eventually figure the shit out.
Does it really matter if you’re using textbook form?
Shit, the international oly girls way out pull me, and I’m known in my day to day life as being bullishly strong.
Go the Mario Martinez route, fuck the form – be strong instead.
It’s amazing how much being strong enough overrides little things like technique, the right attire, perfectly level floors, heat/ac (I lift at The Cold Air Barbell Club), etc.
It’s an open secret that effort, not programming, is what makes awesome results.
You can put me in any circumstance, and I always get stronger.
At present it’s c&p, for whatever reason ducking just about any other lift I do have floor based access to, and just talking about joining the current sports performance/powerlifting (trendy), admittedly well equipped local facility.
The answer for me really is :
•open my own gym
•fill it with people worth being there
pictured : a strongly built tatted asian with nice thick thighs and boner inducing butt
12/4/22
I’ve got a Wim Hof podcast playing, the title of this post sparked by something I was thinking last night – the day off of work, a buddy cancelled on me for us working out (he’s gotta hook up with a stripper – lol – hoe before bro in this case), and what I just lifted.
Press Ugly :
On today’s best set, a new 8rm of 195lbs (two and a half years since 8×185 which was only recently beaten for reps at the same weight), the form is UGLY!
I won’t be letting the bar go below my chin, it’ll be down to chin height at best, I lean back a little (rippetoe approved mind you), and something I noticed in research of old time austrian and german strongmen – I stagger my feet slightly.
This is more stable.
lessons from Karl Swoboda – the first man to jerk 440lbs
Fuck strict military form, none of us use strict military form anyway – have you pressed with your heels together? Zero layback, only the head angled (if that) backwards to let the bar pass the chin.
(Funny gym memory – a chick wearing a forward facing ball cap as she pressed – I recall looking over and saying “lose the cap, at least spin it around, you’ll be getting the reps again”.)
No. It’s better to use the looser form (still a muscular challenge), and be fucking strong!
When you put people’s benches overhead you can press however you want.
Emevas at mythical strength is right, Dan John is right, this past year+ I’m right – you can do nothing but the clean and press and thrive!
Ideally you’d have every sort of implement to press overhead, atlas stones, strongman logs, natural stones, sandbags, heavy dumbbells, a barbell, people, random heavy objects, EVERYTHING, etc.
I’ve got a barbell.
I intend to keep pressing overhead, outside, with my barbell.
Like I did today, you can use perfect form on light sets – the 10rm, the 20rm, the 15 rep maxes – today’s set of 15 probably a tad shy of a rep PR at that weight (155lbs – I was looking for 20 reps, as the 8rm of 195lbs was looking for 10 reps).
For heavy, reasonably get ugly, and be the strongest around for it.
I love the clean and press.
Though I no longer military press, it’s now the press, king of lifts.
Eat Pizza Like A Ninja Turtle :
Lifting big, to a degree you’re going to have to eat big.
Pizza.
It’s so easy.
There’s probably no other way to eat a bunch of calories as easily as pizza allows.
Maybe those 90s cartoons were trying to teach me something…how to build myself the muscularity of a 80s cartoon (He-Man obviously).
I’ve got the power!
pizza power – the bulking power of mixed macros – tmnt teaches eat pizza, eating pizza + lifting like you mean it = becoming he-man
Drink Milk Like The Tiniest Of Babes :
Arnold is quoted as saying “drink beer, milk is for babies”.
Mark Rippetoe is quoted as saying “babies drink milk, and look how they grow”.
Arnold might be more famous…fuck his outlook, I’m in agreement with Rippetoe – drink your milk!
A half gallon a day is nothing!
At 17 years old I was getting close to two gallons a day for a good six months.
I remember people thinking I insane when I described milk as my hydration drink in the sense of gatorade.
Funny, science caught up with that just now…a decade later.
While I’m not at gomad right now, I’m solidly at about 5 gallons a week.
Lately I’ve been running on apple pie heated up, scoops of vanilla ice cream over it, milk drinking with it.
Pizza may be easy high calorie mixed macros to eat, but milk is your easy high calorie mixed macros to drink!
Calories are easier to drink than eat.
Milk is sold at every gas station.
Hilariously, there is stuff online saying some bodybuilders are drinking breast milk, an article comparing ice cream and breast milk, all the word written about chocolate milk post workout, comparing eating ice cream vs drinking whey…
hilarious…and contradictory – raw can’t be pasteurized and homogenized
Drink your milk!
Eat your dairy!
Like the tiniest of newborn babes.
They grow!
I’m 200 something pounds of jacked from milk!
Thank God for the Irish blood in me which blessed me with full lactose tolerance!
12/3/22
The fuck would you not do daily workouts for!
I swing the mace, tonight it was 2×10 each side, after work – it’s been after every shift for over a year now.
Yes, I’m a bit compulsive about my workouts.
I lunge down and back, getting about 30 total/15 each side.
Inside, another set of pushups before I shower. This is two sets before work, one after, probably another still before bed.
It’s so simple.
Just do daily workouts and eat real food.
As I drove home I felt this instinctive thing – my life needs to be harder.
Fuck the job, fuck whatever job it is that you’re working – you need to PT daily, which I do, but that’s not enough.
You need to rigorously study, and rigorously apply.
Run your own business, have a few hobbies, speak more than one language, have a social life too.
You know many muslims memorize the koran?
It’s always struck me every time I’ve heard of it. I’ve little heard of this being done by christians with the bible.
Read motherfucker!
What have you got to lose with vigorous study?
…..
An ideal day is run walking the line of your limit, study, work, PT – NO DOWNTIME, every moment budgeted into the maximum use.
I lived like that as a sophomore in high school. Live that way again – and make it build something grand!
…..
As I drove I felt it…”have no mental blocks”.
Get that 300lb clean and press.
It’s not even elite, yet in all likelihood stronger than 99.9% of those you’d ever have to come across.
Have I fucked up in that I’ll never be a professional strongman, never hold a world record in powerlifting?
I’m definitely not on that path right now, just cleaning and pressing in the yard.
…..
Timed deadlifts – one hour.
…..
Why not see if I can press 20×155, then work on that rep range briefly.
…..
I remember this from when I started lifting. Once even came across the chick pictured being interviewed about her photo going viral – at the time she was something like a nebraska (or whatever the colors are) undergrad who stated her quads really took off when she started lifting, that she wished her ass grew more, and that the photo was snapped on a whim before heading to a football game
Now 9¼ hours of food prep isn’t exactly ideal for lifting, you’re dehydrated from standing next to the oven, but in circumstances unideal you get a solid litmus test for where you stand.
I started daily lunges about a week ago…
Tonight’s cleans had horsepower!
Being out of position in all sorts of ways, and getting the rep anyway – exploding too early, managing to bump my thighs against the bar, GRABBING THE BAR OFF CENTER, etc.
My quads and glutes firing to press through the sticking point.
Tonight likely the first time this had actually been an efficient thing.
I swear my ass is more dense, more easily activated/often activated throughout the day, and in a week my thighs are bigger.
Why wouldn’t walking lunges quickly out thigh size back on?
They’ve been larger at 20-30lbs of bodyweight less (back when I did squat every day – highly recommended), so this could be muscle memory, and too – I respond really well to reps.
Lunges are a forte type movement for me.
It’s good to be back.
I’d not much trained legs these past few years.
…..
He who hath the biggest ass lifteth the most weight…while dem thighs provideth forth thy base from which thy press burst forth skyward.
12/1/22 – Walking Lunges After Work :
17x/side, after the tree branch mace swings, when I get inside it’ll be another set of pushups, then shower up.
Tonight instead of down and back I went in something of a square around the yard.
Mentally I need daily workouts, they can be the one win, the one thing that keeps you going – “I worked out today! I workout tomorrow!”, and that’s you.
Teary eyed as I drove home.
My voice breaking as I state “no porn tonight!”
I’m not running to the vice like a bitch.
You have to trust that God will put the opportunities in front of you, and that you have the ability to take them.
…..
The manager who’s kinda a fitness dude gave me props, as occasionally I brag of my press numbers to him.
He said to me, roughly, “you’re pressing overhead what many are happy to bench – you’re getting into the territory of my max bench”.
I have no doubts I’ll clean and press 300lbs before 2024.
10×205, 5×225, and 255 as a 1rm are all numbers that are close.
The clean concerns me more than the presses.
It’s not exactly your best approach to hitting heavy cleans to do one per amrap set of presses, however lots of moderately weighted, crisp reps have in the past improved my max clean.
I’m actually very into this program of clean and press, with walking lunges.
It’s following the k.i.s.s. principle nicely, and enjoyable to me in the moment.
…..
In April 2017 I lunged 400m.
It makes sense to me to density train these with frequency.
…..
I just shot off a challenge text to a buddy, see if he’s gonna race me lunging 400m on new year’s day.
11/29/22
I prefer sldl to conventional, and with this setup I’m not really going to pull sumo, which I never used much anyway.
An axle is preferable to a barbell for everything, though with pulls it should all be double overhand anyway.
Boiled down I’d make the same argument for straps as for double overhand – you’re not in a powerlifting meet, you’re training.
So mostly don’t mix grip whatever your approach.
My preference is to skip warmups.
Personally I don’t much need them.
Occasionally I’ll purposely use them, but it’s not my regular manner of doing things.
Today I pressed 10×185, a PR, on the first set.
As far as labor, I’d be happier than a pig in shit throwing hay bales.
fun as hell + man’s work
The question is what path do I take out of the kitchen.
I like lifting, wrestling, being physical, and outdoor barbell has been far better than indoor lifting.
I don’t much like working indoors, though I’d like to try bartending (moreso than waiting tables), and sales would likely be the best pay outside of making something happen self employed.
My problem is wants, not musts, not needs.
Personal training out of a barn would be an enjoyable blending of many worlds for me.
…..
A plus to gyms is all the available equipment – you can hit many angles.
A quick, little equipment, full body session covering enough angles is power clean & press plus walking lunges.
I’ve started to press a little more volume, a little heavier, add in some minimal volume deadlift variation, and some walking lunges.
It bugs me to only lift half the days each week.
…..
I prefer pulling snatch grip to regular on the sldls I’m doing, but it’s worth doing both, as well as an occasional conventional (usually regular grip) for the full body tension effects.
Funny to prefer snatch grip deadlift variations, but never power snatch – just lots of presses off a power clean.
…..
When you honestly approach deadlifting, you get to reasonable pretty quickly.
I’ve been tacking on an sldl set of 10 or so at the end of each lift’s barbell time, and genuinely know it’s not a long time to 30 x the 300lb weight set (probably conventional).
From there I can start looking for double overhand 10s adding weight.
I have 500 available lbs. I can get to the strongest around without ever buying another piece of equipment or ever stepping foot into a gym again.
Freeing this notion.
I like the outdoor lifting sessions.
As dictator of earth I’d have proper height pullup bars, proper height dip bars, and lifting platforms everywhere for the good of the proletariat.
Fitness trails and parks are far too few, and crummy, when found in real life.
As dictator of earth I’d remedy this.
And have (mandatory) “optional” 0500 burpee PT for the health of the people and glory of the nation.
Prowler sprints for many too.
…..
I miss concept2 rowing machines.
the woman in front is that happy since she’s on a concept2 erg
$1045 shipped to the continental us – they’re awesome big man cardio.
…..
The “dip odyssey” is a far cry from the “press outdoors” of this period, and both work.
There’s a commonality…
“Effective training comes from passionate effort. You use passionate effort when the training method feels right. Design your own program, those always feel right.” – me
“You were on a mission, I didn’t want to be in your way” the cashier, a cute though flat chested brunette of between 18 and 21, said to me when I came back to checkout.
(One of my food packages was open, I noticed at the last minute, and had turned around to get a new one.)
I mention this being said to me to the girl manager at work (25yo) who replied “I can see that, you always go around like that, you’re always like that- you’re intense”.
They must see this just cause 6′, muscular.
I don’t see it – especially now as I progress into my old age, the senior citizenship of 28 lol – whereas I feel like I’ve visibly chilled over the past few years.
Heck, one buddy said he saw that happen in the year from 26½ to 27½.
Reality?
Mine that is…
I’m a jokester, a big light hearted goofball, and I flip a switch somewhere from introvert to outgoing when I’m anywhere but alone (50% of the time, it has been, and needs be higher – talk to everyone, especially the cute college chicks).
Flip switch. Click. ✓
When my buddy and I moved to vegas everyone thought I was the one who was prior service.
I wasn’t. He was.
20 vs 22
People just notice that I’m wired, squared away, often easily enough on “up time”.
Up time!
Cali can be funny.
First it’s “what branch were you?”
“Marine Corps? Oh, you were army.
No? Neither?” They’re surprised.
Then it’s…
“When and where did you do time?
No?” They’re surprised again.
Big islander with airborne tats, fit black dude compton and crip tats blasted all over him – just respect nods as I pass.
Don’t know the vibe I have.
The gym out there, this GIANT black guy, 6’8″+, probably 400lbs, muscular (I don’t think it was Shaq, yes I’m confident it wasn’t Shaq) – we’d nod and fist bump.
Him leaving, me entering the gym floor.
Never spoke, just nod, fist bump, as the gym floor “crew/shift” changed.
Got a spot from one of those crips, broke “prison politics”, it visibly blew his mind, but I’m a civilian – in the civilian world.
All the blacks there gave me respect, watched me power clean -respect for that too.
A conversation with one chick, another chick witnessed, and seemingly ALL the chicks there became interested.
“Hey! Yo! We’re not done talking. Get back here.”
Gave her my #, “text me your name in a bit”, THEN she left.
That deliciously hipped and naturally blonde latina witnessed me doing that which was more exciting than her and two guy friends taking instagram photos for each other, decided she was smitten, and it snowballed.
“Dude, do you know her?” The redhead dude from detroit training with me asked.
“Nope.”
“Well that wasn’t for me.”
She had walked the entire way across the gym “to grab a plate” (either 2½, 5, or 10lb) from right next to me, an accented “excuse me”, with a huge smile up at me as she squeezed by before I could initially move, just radiating a smile as she came back by instead of going around the other equipment “thank you”.
We both recognized that as her making an obvious, chick hitting on guy, pass at me.
Cops tend to be tense around me.
It’s 50/50 on whether dudes who’ve been to prison will be chill or tense.
…..
Occasionally I do my daily pushups as 4ct reps.
Did so today, bout 1245am.
Got them out of the way still up after midnight.
Worked bout 8am to 930pm yesterday – a long weekend restaurant day.
Our reserves, our energy – it’s as high as we want.
I laugh as I hip check the doorway.
Yeah, 12 hours in the kitchen. Dehydration. Affects balance.
The mace workout. Last night’s extra pushups. Today’s early pushups.
4ct militant.
4ct Militant :
I count off the reps 1, 2 , 3 ,1, sometimes in my head, sometimes aloud – the whole set but the “and for good measure” 4ct, those words ALWAYS aloud.
AND FOR GOOD MEASURE!
aloud
I get more out of these reps, and sometimes will sound off.
Like picturing benching 405 for reps as I do pushups, the 4ct makes the vanilla pushup more valuable than just repping, done in these styles they’re done strictly vs what form police would forever “no rep” – the “woody woodpeckers”.
Being the king of improvised training every night that I wasn’t able to get to the gym during the brief period it took me to get into a used car – for that month or six week every night not at the gym I’d swamp lunge down and back, down and back, enjoying the fresh air – knowing NOTHING CAN STOP ME
I’ll always train.
…..
I’ve realized thigh bulk would be the #1 assistance to my pressing.
one is built to press…
At present I’m just not getting under the bar for high bar or front squats, really doing the clean and press to the near exclusion of all other lifts.
I intended to snatch grip deadlift today after pressing.
All I did was press.
Which by itself, I always press off of a clean or heave, is enough for most purposes.
…..
At present state of mind I’d have to get into a gym again to truly get into regularly doing other lifts.
Later in the day, outside enjoying the fresh chilly air – I realized walking lunges, swamp lunges!
Eureka!
Then did 20 total, remembering the joy of the thing in the past, recalling how even further back lots (60-150 total) of lunges 4x a week built me solid p4p squat strength for 8 reps.
Maybe this is going to be habit for a time.
I enjoyed it.
And there is an answer here :
Not able to logistically, or are unwilling to squat?
Walking lunge, or swamp lunge instead.
It builds good pound for pound strength taken seriously.
And it’s always there with you.
That’s the simplest way. Use what is always with you.
Today, off work, waking up real early (am I a werewolf affected by the moon?) I went to the kitchen and had a small meal of polish-mexican fusion (I just wanted to write that lol – kielbasa sliced thin into corn tortillas with melted cheese), then going back to bed to sleep way in – early afternoon I lifted.
Press
2×210
6×195
6×185
2×200
I’m guessing I was done in under ten minutes, the right aggressive attitude as I approached, cleaned, and pressed the bar fueled by mexican gangbanger rap and walking with purpose to grab the bar – no dillydallying at the bar either.
Whatever the official start date, and though there’s no snow yet, the past few lifts have been cold enough to break out the little black winter gloves.
Lifting in cheapo beat up soft soled skate shoes, wearing those little black winter gloves, the platform a piece of particle board and pair of rubber patio tiles = ideal gym.
It does, as lifting matters to me.
Right now I’m on a kick of “what can I clean and press no warmups”.
even if he did warmup – many anecdotes imply he didn’t need to
Then I’ll hit a few more sets, maybe all back off, maybe waved in weight.
Today it was pressing 2×210.
Tommorow I’ll hit 215, or maybe not.
There’s a commonality between the grocery store and gym for me…
I never walk out with exactly what I expected to.
No list, I always forget something.
No program means the lift happens as it happens.
The session NEVER ends up being exactly the session I walked in having planned.
Ha, walked in. Right now it’s technically stepped outside!
I own 500lbs of weights.
Plenty have cleaned it.
Through 1972 it was pressed by a bunch too.
I could milk yard lifting to elite international weightlifter level.
The bar and plates are there.
…..
The #1 thing I could do to greatly improve the press would be to build a massive pair of thighs.
I realize handstand pushup work would be great shoulder work, but it and the press are not exactly the same.
Pressing big overhead, it’s a plus to have massive superheavyweight thighs.
Handbalancing would prefer little skinny jeans legs lol
I’m still more into “press big weights”.
However I’m also still unlikely to do that requisite high bar/front squat work in the yard, and still leaning a pretty strong no as to joining the local powerlifting gym.
So it continues to be a half week each week of americanized bulgarian training for the press.
No thigh size building… 😉
Three days in a row, all the days off of work, occasionally a fourth lift some weeks before work on the day of a short shift.
This winter I may experiment with lifting in those thick outdoor yard work type work gloves.
Any glove is a grip strengthener, and I bet that thicker leather will last as opposed to tearing up pair of gloves after pair of gloves as they disintegrate with barbell use.
Those gloves will build grip with those fat leather fingers.
I can only laugh at how awkward deadlift style picking up a bar is right now.
I’m used to setting up for cleans.
It’s not the same positioning.
…..
“The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must.”
The above quote, I apply it to my ugly catches, my not bothering to warm up, etc.
Because I can.
And it’s not without precedence. Occasionally you hear stories.
Not that you need precedence.
Go out, do you.
Do you. Always.
That’s it.
I lift because I choose to.
I enjoy pressing. The fresh air is nice, even better with the winter’s chill to it.
I suggest you do it right – there silly disclaimer mentioned lol
Whereas I’m nobody, yet a damn good one at that, forever running a never ending n=1 self experiment in what is my interpretation of bodybuilding.
My interpretation of bodybuilding in the way I choose to run it.
Which means clean and press broski. Lots of press.
Far from lab settings, barely, often not, logging, doing this thing in my real world.
IN MY REAL WORLD
My way, though guided to a degree by present circumstance.
I’m willing to press some to every day each week, and am pleased… tasting the nearness of a 255lb c&p upon the back of my tongue.
It’s cool to just grab a 210lb bar as it’s 40° outside, easily clean it, press it for two – maybe call the warmup being content in the knowledge that the tacquitos and apple cider I’d just bought would taste good being ready to eat after my brief lift.
…..
A reoccurring thought today was “all american day”.
That was what kept popping into my head.
I’ve had a good vibe recently – I attribute this to 6+ weeks of heard growth, the same porn free, the same masturbation free.
A real good walk around vibe.
This was carrying over to :
A nicely thick college chick clearly double taking on me, the plain though rather friendly college aged cashier having a pretty good, enjoyable conversation with me (next time should I ever end up in her lane again I’ll have to tell her she should waitress – as bubbly as she is in conversation she’d make much better pay than cashiering which to my understanding is about as low paid as it gets), an older cashier who views me as a regular smiling and waving…
And that’s just today.
I even really enjoyed the taquitos and apple cider.
My one meal, kinda.
I function better leaning towards fasting, eating if necessary earlier, but stacking the majority of my calories as late as possible.
Be big and strong.
Have a beard.
Don’t masturbate ever.
Never watch porn or anything else for that matter.
Approach the entire world with an honest appreciation for/enjoyment of EVERYTHING
BE THANKFUL FOR EVERYTHING
Do what others won’t.
Part of that is to enjoy it.
