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When you’ve become strong enough you can focus on other things.

Since you’re self taught, since you didn’t grow up in another country’s athletic system, you can spend a good deal of your time on other qualities. Building what basic attributes you didn’t coming up.

What if you focused on posture, and stretching?

What if you look at your development and decide to overhaul your proportions?

At the moment I know I’d be better heavier on ass development, lighter on chest, and heavier on shoulders.

Balance pushups with prone scapula retractions.

Cut pushups to low rep, strict, “heavy” feeling sets.

Walk everywhere. Move in general and in animalistic ways, plus a bunch of fast and loose drills.

I believe that the human body is meant to be well developed AND a super athlete.

Powerful, limber, et al in addition to just strong.

A stiff body is no way to live. Bounce around, it’s good for ya.

If you’re not a high level gymnast there’s always room for improvement.

The observant young man has many examples of the aging process in which to observe and learn.

The quality of life as far as aches and pains in men in their 50s and 60s is greatly improved by a moderate amount of low impact cardio and as little as 40 minutes of strength training weekly.

Lifting weights as intended is first and foremost prehab/rehab, an instrument for quality of life.

You’re doing weights wrong when it’s breaking you down.

You don’t need to do much for it to be a net positive to your life.

It needn’t take much time, all you need to do is watch one hour or so less of television weekly, to have quality of life improve tenfold.

It’s worth it. How much does the tv truly mean to you?

Dinner last night was an inexpensive cut of steak pan fried with potatoes on the side.

The potatoes initially diced, spiced, mixed with onion slices, drizzled with olive oil, put in the oven to cook most of the way, and finished by frying in the pan with the remaining steak drippings.

I think back to about age 12, watching television, it was probably that show called “The Doctors”, either that, or it was something similar.

A man, a stocky rancher in his 50s, was being berated for his diet consisting of three squares of, to near exclusivity, meat and potatoes.

A bunch of females and the effeminate were nagging him over his saturated fat and cholesterol intake on national television complete with canned noises while talking up his wife’s thoroughly with the times low fat salad based diet.

He said something along the lines of “the meat and potatoes is always what I’ve had a taste for, like my father, and grandfather before me, I’ve never had a taste for no vegetables”.

My instinct then was the thought “but it sounds and tastes so good” hearing of his go to meal of pan fried steak with home fries while the so called “authorities” berated it.

Sitting there as a youth thinking “how could the instinct not be so”.

Looking back I knew, the instinct was there, correct as it always is.

Now, more and more, I’m going back to that instinct.

What the establishment puts out on health invariably is to make you dumb, weak, and unhealthy…a slave.

Follow it’s advice with the above in mind.

(Most follow it’s advice.)

A man won’t go wrong on meat and potatoes.

My ancestors thrived on such simple fare, modernity does not make it any different for me. The human condition is one and the same.

If we’re being honest, who was healthier, you, or your grandfather?

How were your ancestors, even in recent memory eating? Prior generations were of more stout stock.

My grandmother once related the story of a neighborhood father, a “Mr. Murphy” every Thursday walking home from work whistling (I don’t remember the tune) while bringing home to his family of wife and ten children, slung over his shoulder, a sack of 50 or 100lbs of potatoes like clockwork week in, week out.

With all the so called advances in dietary and medical knowledge, has humanity gotten healthier?

(No.)

Me? I’ll stick to my meat and potatoes, heavily spiced, with some dairy, and fruit.

(For example : I melted some cheese on the home fries, and drank grape juice.)

Hearty and simple fare, what instinct knows, and another time knew to be the true health foods.

You can listen to the mainstream, I’m not. Make your own decisions, no one is forcing you either way.

I choose to be robust, eating hearty foods.

Persistence & Tenacity

A flow :

Leverages are hilarious. Bodyweight is a tad shy of 270.

By widening my pushup hand position just slightly (a thumb length on each side), before I know it I’ve done my 46 mantra reps seemingly without effort.

Caring not one iota for bodybuilding type aesthetics, I’ve developed into an uncommon blend of builds…something of a defensive lineman built by military PT type calisthenics.

I feel the best way to build up truly is with full body, high rep calisthenics, done daily.

That’s your base of stimuli.

Food is eaten normally, a little more, or less based on what you want to see happen on the scale and factoring in activity levels.

I like the 1950s approach. It ain’t a special diet. It’s the wholesome foods you’re already eating just in a variable amount.

I’m not going to limit myself to chicken breast and rice. I’d rather be more normal in a prior time’s sense.

This shows in my training style.

Calisthenics always are accessible. I like that. You can’t take the tools away.

Calisthenics are the full body base. Other tools are added in as available to add variety to and/or to speed up the process.

5 or 10 minutes of physical work, even a moderate amount will be enough, alongside reasonable eating to be good physically.

Men don’t need to be lean and pretty, nor comically large.

Training and eating reasonably will have you built like a man. Built like a man unconcerned with minutia or the opinions of others.

Instinct. Its comical really how so much of this is embracing and acting by instinct.

Aesthetics? Grow your beard if you can. Have body hair. Be strong. Eat hearty. Train consistently.

#planetfitnesschallengeforhardcorelifters

I’d challenge anyone who self identifies as a lifter to get out of their “hardcore?” gym, go to Planet Fitness for a length of time, and make it work.

To make it all gym culturey we can officially dub it “The Planet Fitness Challenge For The “Hardcore” Lifter”, make it 180+ days, and have it be a viral thing complete with hashtag.

(Example above.)

Too much is wasted searching for perfection of program and diet, thinking a certain piece of equipment is needed, and in general making something physical that is truly child’s play out to be rocket science!

I challenge you to stop screaming while you max out, to always set the weight down quietly, to not touch a barbell…and to get stronger, bigger, better whilst doing so.

It’s possible.

I’ve always done better that way, done better when the world blocks access to the weights that I love.

It comes down to you wanting it.

Persistence & Tenacity

Done right the gym is euphoric.

You don’t need to go heavy. You can take a light to moderate weight, and essentially play while getting in a good workout.

There are certain states of mind where you are top of the world, where you function better.

When Arnold spoke of the pump this is what he was implying.

A good pump, and/or good muscular activation gets you into that state.

Balance the session out right and you’ll walk out of the gym happy, your best you.

While there do the weirdest looking stuff that feels good.

Do your thing, get into show mode, yet ignore the rest of the world.

In reality only what you think matters.

You’re there for you.

(You are noticed though.)

For example : no one uses the lat pull down like I was, it was one armed arm wrestling and pullovers, but damn did it feel good. The prior exercise I was flexing traps and biceps between sets…showy, but for me.

The physical benefits of working out are not the primary benefits.

The value of the gym truly lays in the mind.

A euphoric session is like a dose of magic, allowing you to walk the world with cheat codes activated for a few hours post workout.

You don’t need to go heavy, you don’t need to chase performance standards.

It’s entirely ok to go and just use the gym to feel good.

Baby I was on cloud 9. Whatever pheromones I was throwing off…..

Everyone sensed it.

The gym chicks? I noticed the staring, the unnecessary walk by after walk by, the standing in my vicinity for “no reason”.

(Chick versions of hitting on a guy.)

Go to the gym, do you, and enjoy it. It’s all you need to do there.

Persistence & Tenacity

12/2/19

Carrying a loaded c-bin at the end of the shift I wasn’t joking when I told my coworker “if I can’t hold it you’ll know it if my middle finger gives out”…

My right middle finger was legitimately near failure from the repeated carries. I actually clarified this to him, in my mind it having been an ambiguous comment possibly implying I was going to flip him off when the ponderous thing was placed back down.

We didn’t have to carry it, but did in his words “because testosterone”.

The manager had recently given us work gloves. The warmth is nice, though it makes the work even higher on level of grip demanded.

The only pump or muscular activation I felt was in my forearms.

Just forearms, it was like nothing else besides popeye forearms attached to the vessel of my consciousness.

The whole body may not be a certainty to a brain in a vat, but at that point the forearms and hands most surely were certainties.

They were there alright, they were there alright.

I’m not sure if the items were that hard grip wise or if it was the result of labor work after a day of peak activation one arm lat pulldowns and a bunch of dumbbell curls at the gym.

Either way. It is what it is. The job got done. My right hand was only momentarily a claw.

I enjoyed the challenge.

Gym hand strength is not nearly as challenging as labor hand strength.

There’s a lot of bitch in gym mentality. Labor you’ve just gotta keep going, and those who pussy out or are lazy don’t last long.

I don’t like that I regripped. The carry while tough was something that physically I could’ve pushed through. The carry was within my physical capabilities, I didn’t truly need the regrip.

Man is meant to labor. We’re built for it, the gym is mostly a preening simulation (not that I don’t enjoy it too).

One or the other usually isn’t all that healthy. Combining the two in a smart manner gives you the best of both worlds.

When I’m making good money, I still intend to do part time labor. Men need it always and forever. In the future it won’t be for the cash, as a labor job’s primary benefit is the physicality built. Oil field hands were called “roughnecks” for a reason.

Hay delivery may be the most fun I’ve ever had on a job. That type of strength can be built using a kettlebell in non traditional manners.

Simulate throwing hay, the throwing events, chopping trees, or swinging a sledgehammer.

With hay work in mind, a 20lb kb in hand, that’s why my ribcage was cramping while shoveling.

As I’ve said ; mix the worlds to build a superior you.

Not gym only. Not labor job only.
Both in a smart manner.

I’m not for using the gym in bland generic ass cookie cutter ways.

Creativity is the spice of life.

Strongman competition may be the closest I’d ever get to identifying with a strength sport. To a degree it’s labor but made shorter timed, and closer to max strength.

Truly though I have to do my own thing.

I’d rather quit than follow another’s program. Training is how I express my individuality. It is an individual thing after all.

I’m the only gym I’d ever need.
You’re the only gym you’ll ever need.

Persistence & Tenacity

At the SoCal bodybuilding gym there were a bunch of pros, male and female, all divisions.

I never saw any of them drinking whey or any other shake for that matter.

The pwo shakes? It wasn’t pros drinking them.

(That’s the only gym I’ve ever seen a female drink one too for what it’s worth.)

I did see the pros eating meals in the gym lobby all the time though.

Honestly I’d walk by thinking to myself “rabbits, they may be more muscular than me, but fucking rabbits” as every single one, across divisions, both male and female were eating chicken breast and white rice, a few having broccoli in addition, and a few with barbeque sauce.

Mostly bland, but nutritious.

It says something that those who bodybuild seriously, complete with the steroids that go with it, didn’t bother to drink post workout shakes, but religiously took tupperware containers out of giant lunch boxes for real food meals.

Heed the lesson.

Persistence & Tenacity

There is strong enough.

A lot of unnecessary mental anguish is spent by those who compare their gym numbers to others, be it the freaks they see online, or in comparison to world class competition.

I’ve worked off and on as a mover.

If the labor world has taught me anything it’s that gym numbers don’t mean shit.

I’ve seen a scrawny alcoholic support his half of a dresser overhead. Me, with my ~225lb military press, dumbfounded that his end didn’t drop as my end was rough to support.

I have countless examples of junkies who are strong as fuck.

It’s amazing what no mental blocks can allow for.

There isn’t enough visible muscle on a lot of them to pull some of the shit off according to gym development standards, and yet the work gets done.

(Hips. The answer is hips. No gym goer uses them to high animalistic efficiency. Bone alignment too.)

I’ve come to not care an iota over my barbell numbers.

For everyday life, even my supposedly hard labor job…I’m strong enough.

A sizeable percentage of civilians view my strength as superhuman. Naturally hard on myself, I’ve come to realize…rationally that this view is more the truth than viewing myself as average, normal.

“Dude, you’re strong! You’re not normal!” – A coworker to me when I said I view myself as average/normal physically.

In the grocery store little kids gauk endlessly, and it’s become comical how routinely petite college girls, white and hispanic, throw themselves at me.

You don’t need to care what you can squat, bench, deadlift, clean, or whatever.

Health is first and foremost.

Muscular development is second.

The two combined allow for as high levels of strength as you could ever need, while allowing you to go even higher than necessary.

Be healthy, and get muscular.
Don’t bother chasing numbers.

Trust your gut, your instinct.
How. You. Feel.

When you feel strong and athletic…

You are!

How you feel? The correct answer, by living right…is well, feeling well, which is sustainable.

A dehabilitating level of soreness is a sign of something not being healthy.

Numbers don’t truly reflect your true strength. A lot of ability is mental.

I often joked how I sucked at gym back work, but put me in a wrestler’s stance and at that angle my back is freakishly strong.

I’m fine at work carrying everything.

I’ve found that I’m strong when and where it matters.

You’re strong when and where it matters.

I’ve had deadlifts slip out of my fingers, yet I’m the “piano guy” at work. Layoffs have ended for me personally due to my being handy on piano jobs.

“Ring Ring, Piano.”

You don’t need a gym. Honestly “man strength” is best developed working with your hands.

Being healthy is tied to living healthy.

A labor job combined with sensible muscular gym work is not often discussed, but is a great combo for physical development.

Calisthenics, labor, and “fru fru” machine work.

“Bum” shoulders, knees, and backs mean you’re not working/working out/training in a healthy manner.

Certain things beat you down too much.

Find the sustainable exercises.
Milk them for all they’re worth.

If it hurts, creates dehabilitating soreness, etc – why are you doing it?

(ego)

You don’t need to be the strongest.

Your numbers don’t matter.

Is it stagnation, or is it continued practice?

In the gym “spinning your wheels” is still making you stronger.

You only need to be strong enough.

And when you are, oh boy.
Sky’s the limit.

I’m strong enough.

Persistence & Tenacity

Squat Or Deadlift?

We all have our proportions.

The body’s proportions dictate our natural leverages.

It’s a spectrum from being built to pull or built to press.

While they’re not the exact same stimulus the squat and deadlift have similar enough training effects.

If you’re on the natural built presser or natural built puller ends of the spectrum one lift or the other is going to be far less demanding on your systematic recovery.

You can easily specialize on this, without much soreness, as high frequency training and big numbers come naturally.

Which will muscle you up more?

This is arguable. One allows more frequent stimulus, a hypertrophy plus. The other works the body harder, a hypertrophy plus.

If you’re going to do high frequency the one you’re built for isn’t a thing. This is natural bulgarian. The one you’re not designed by God’s hand for is best done at moderate weights if you’re going high frequency.

I’ve come to see that you don’t need both lifts. Full body training and one will carry the other.

Persistence & Tenacity