Category: Uncategorized

To progress well you really have to know yourself.

Me personally, I’m impatient when it comes to physical progress. I feel stifled if I do what most think of as methodical, have a set routine spelled out with accountant like preplanned precise progression.

This mental roadblock is entirely bypassed by either/and/or :

•Having no plan past guidelines.
•Milking a few things for all their/they’re worth.

I am zero or one hundred, black and white, passionate or indifferent.

So instead I play.

I need to.

Training is a game.

I’ll do whatever I feel like.

I may hit something daily for nearly a year. I may epitomize “muscle confusion” and seemingly never do the same thing twice.

Training is best by design as fun.

The fun CAN be physically challenging, tough, or whatever.

(Though sports and labor 99% of the time allowed me/had me/force(d) me to push harder than the gym which is really a hobby/leisure/pasttime activity. With that outlook you’ll always enjoy the gym, and never suffer the “gym dread” oh so common.)

When necessary I revert to nothing required past doing some pushups daily.

I internalized the K.I.S.S. principle in regards to the gym.

It may look like a clusterfuck, chaotic, pell mell, grab bag, yet the madness has method.

Randomized by feel…on purpose.

Or entirely repetitive (squat every day, years of daily pushups, etc).

I actually use the gym as meditation where my brain mostly turns off.

I’ve sat on the seated row for over 100 sets of 10 before because because because because because. It’s what I felt that day, and I went til it was time to stop.

I’ve done a single set both as minimal requirement in certain phases, or in others because one set was enough to know that I’d done enough on it and moved on.

I’ve kept a squat every day phase alive with a single meaningfully weighted cold single.

I’ve walked into the gym, took my boots, and hoodie off, pulled a deadlift 20rm cold, put my boots, and hoodie back on, stopped to explain to a shocked buddy that I was in fact leaving (I had far more interest that Sunday morning in the steak on sale at the grocery store, even telling him so), and left.

It’s a very Zen Eastern approach to a Hard Western thing.

The gym is where I have the mind of no mind, the program of not program, the principle is and of itself.

Mind bogglingly simple to me.
Possibly complicated to another.

The randomness makes “complicated” yet I can milk a few movements to a degree that causes involuntary shudders and severe cold sweats in those turning dollars in the gym/fitness industry.

Over The Years :
•A heavy clean and press.
•Pushups
•High rep light overhead squats.
•Clean for reps.
•Jerk for reps.
•High volume bent rows.
•Lunges/Swamp Lunges
•Isometrics
•Jump Rope

(To name some.)

Find a push, pull, and leg exercise and milk them for all they’re/their worth.

There’s bound to be a movement (or a few) in each category that you are high response to.

Don’t think. Just do.

And always be willing to make whatever you have available work.

Your psyche is the only major detail towards your gains.

Persistence & Tenacity

The value I’ve gotten over the years from plain old vanilla pushups is staggering.

I’ve had periods of high volume pushups to near exclusivity, and as a rule have better training results when I have their volume high.

In short more pushups is always superior to less pushups.

While it may not show in your gym strength (though pushups seem to have given me a baked in 315 bench, even done sans warmup), a pushup habit will give you grappler style conditioning and old man type strength.

I do them daily. It’s a sizeable reason that physically I am how I am.

My wind will never be terrible as my nightly set keeps me at a minimum level of conditioning.

(Real pushup sessions give wind even moreso than strength, though both, and to really get it in back and forth them with hindu squats.)

The reps and volume always keeps me building strength (even if at a slow pace), and this type of work gives strength, gains, that become part of you…unlike so many other’s experiences in the gym, my gains stay with me regardless/irregardless/despite/in spite of/etc.

I’d warm up before a buddy and I would spar bare knuckle (a solid choice of red blooded male activity) with pushups, and he swore they amped me up, that they made me hit harder.

“I prefer it when we just box. You fire, lay the hooks in harder when you do that quick set first”.

If I had the requisite bodies and logistics available I’d be alternating rounds on the mat with sets of ~35 pushups til the vicinity of 30 rounds and 1000 pushups on a regular basis. This is how one makes grappling strength.

I need to up the pushup volume. It’s true. At present I’m only doing 40 or so daily. That’s pretty lazy.

There’s no limit to how far the simple pushup will take you. You simply have to put in the effort to dominate them, to milk them for their worth.

It’s summer. Go outside shirtless, get some vitamin d, and pushup to ∞. You’ll be better for it.

Persistence & Tenacity

July 4th, 2019 ~330pm
For the first time in a while I go outside and press.

The entire session :
•Behind The Back Deadlift 3×5 @ 135
•Press 3×5 @ 135
•Bent Row (45° angle) 3×5 @ 135
•Press 1 x 185
•Reverse Curl 5 x bar

I power cleaned the first rep of the press sets.

Weird footing, ill fitting work boots, and shirtless because the sun is good for you.

I took the 185 to see with no specific work how my press was doing.

I got my mind right, cleaned 185 easier than I had the 135 sets, like it was an empty bar, and then pressed it so fast that I was flabbergasted.

It flew up with alarming speed.

Now sure I’ve hit 3×205 last fall in the SoCal bodybuilding gym, nearly was at 225, and have been known to press 185-205 cold on a yoke (yoke presses are the bomb by the way).

But this is off of Planet Fitness pump work (& labor), a total disregard of the barbell, and had such speed I could’ve hit my first 225 press.

It all carries over.

(I do a lot of 10×10 with little rest on machine one arm presses. Close movements are specific enough.)

I know I get stronger anywhere.

I know I could build my powerlifting total without barbell work solely training at PF (an article for another time).

I figured out a good glute movement at PF (glute focus 45° hyperextensions), and accidentally got my thighs bigger (smith squats, particularly narrow stance).

Do what you can with what you have. Train hard, actually train, and it’ll be enough.

Don’t think, just do.
That’s my advice to you.

It may be end up being months before I touch a barbell again, it could be hours. Either way I’ll still come back stronger on it.

Persistence & Tenacity

I trained calves a few days ago, a good amount of effort expanded going 4×35 on a machine, each day since they were more and more sore to the point I couldn’t walk normally.

Extra zinc, magnesium, and calcium weren’t working.

Stretching wasn’t working.

Grinding with a lacrosse ball wasn’t working.

Self massage wasn’t working.

I had no urge to even attempt to figure out if voodoo floss could be an answer here.

After a while (day 2 of not walking normally) a trick I’ve learned hit me.

I first saw this on a defunct blogspot (apocalypse barbell) where the author related how he’d make his legs able to function again as a heavyweight after running 3 miles or better in Marine Corps PT.

His trick?

Drop into a deep atg bodyweight squat immediately after the run.

If my calves are ridiculously tight I drop into that deep squat and bounce around in the bottom position.

Nothing works as well for me and my calves as that.

My (cited) 2¢.

Persistence & Tenacity

The easiest way to get in neck work is dynamic tension.

Though I write 4 way, personally I usually only go 3 ways (back, left, right), and do “around the world” circling with my head and static stretches in all 4 directionsto stretch.

I’ve taken to admiring myself in the mirror all narcissistic like between sets, doing my dynamic tension for the neck at this time, 5-10 reps in each direction, therefore pumping, and getting to admire my thick neck musculature.

Neck is my favorite bodypart. Call it wrestler’s mentality. Most dudes obsess over chest and biceps, for me it’s neck, pushups, and legs.

There is no such thing as a neck too strong, nor is there any such thing as a neck too muscular.

My neck while decently developed is the same size currently at 255lbs as it was while wrestling at 189lbs back in the day. It was disproportionate back then…as it should be.

See : There is no such thing as a neck too strong, nor is there any such thing as a neck too muscular.

Most don’t train neck.

I find looking at frail little pencil necks (on males) to be an offensive sight.

(Girls however are generally expected to have frail little necks.)

And I have finally posted in June.

Persistence & Tenacity

While my record is nearly 4 years of pushups done daily, yesterday I successfully hit the 3 year mark.

I may continue this for life, maybe at some point I’ll move on. However I’ll say this, I’ll hit 5 years without a miss just to be able to say I did it.

In 10, 11 years of this I’ve not yet made 5 years without a miss. I’m going to make it.

May 14th, 2021 and I’ll have done it.

The cool thing is May 11, I dropped and did a set at about 1115pm hanging out with a buddy therefore keeping the streak alive. My last miss (May 13, 2016) was under similar circumstances…this time I made sure to get it done.

Persistence & Tenacity

I dreamt of heavy smith machine bench lockouts to near failure using 4 plates for into the 30-40 rep range over 5-6 rests at the top with deep breathes (so not exactly rest pause, more like breathing squats).

Near the end a coworker jumped into the spotters position.

(He and I had been talking about the gym the night before. This must’ve stayed on my mind.)

My triceps may have been firing in real life. I felt similar to the pushup dream.

The range of motion wasn’t perfect.
It was lockouts from middle range/halfway to as the set went on further and further from full lockout, ending with an inch or so of bend in the arms.

The dream world has given me a cool idea to try.

How much range of motion and how many reps can I smith bench 365-405 for?

It sounds like a serious arm builder.

My gym dreams almost always seem to be high reps.

Persistence & Tenacity

5/7/19 ~820am

I’m standing around the office as farmed out labor for the day. Not where I usually work but my manager said works available there, so I took the shift. I don’t know the office staff or crew past a brief introduction a few weeks back when we sent a large crew down in a similar manpower situation.

The manager, maybe late 20s, average height (5’8″) and a well built medium size (~200) sees me (the big guy) and asks if I want to arm wrestle, and if I’d put $20 on it.

“Seeing as we have down time, yeah I’ll arm wrestle, I’m not betting though. I don’t even have 20 on me.”

He has a slightly devious look about him, I figure I’m about to be card sharped, especially when he agrees he hasn’t arm wrestled since high school.

(I legit hadn’t since then, it seems so much physical things we did as teens stop in adulthood, like pickup tackle football. This is a problem.)

He has a leanness to him, athletic. Firstly he’ll be strong for his size, probably came up through the labor force to the office. Secondly he looks like this dude (build scaled up from 5’5″ to 5’8″, even facial features and personality) I know who did tree work for a few years, then carpentry for over a decade, and had a shocking strength of hand. Very similar look to their builds.

I expected the same.

“Left arm” he goes half statement half question. “I’m right handed” my reply. “Me too, but my right arm is still sore from…” the thought drifts out.

He must be a lefty, I’m being card sharped.

The other workers have an interest.
Yeah, pool shark, whatever. The time has to be passed in some way, as some late workers have us all standing around twiddling our thumbs.

We sit. Same side of a round table. Left arm.

Lock hands… stalemate.
I’m thinking he’s not trying.
In some psychological game we both talk, while straining, not acting like it, stalemate.

At some point I realize to move my elbow closer towards him, it had slipped back. I gain maybe an inch in advantage. He verbally gives at this point, 5, 10 seconds after advantage to me, though in my eyes we’re only 30 seconds or maybe a bit more into what’ll most likely end up a multiple minute isometric grind.

Quote unquote “I won”. He insisted, said when “this happened” as he showed what’s called a top roll (I watched Pulling John) and said at that point he knew I had him.

I didn’t realize I had top rolled.
I just noticed to move elbow closer, and a slight gain past total stalemate.

I’m uncertain whether he got bored, decided not to slam me (pool shark), or legit wasn’t going to beat me.

It was a long isometric.

Fun though, and on a five minute delay my arm was shockingly sore. 30 minutes after that as we arrived on the job site it was back to normal.

I like doing this kinda thing, I’m betting it was a tie, and that his right arm was sore…from arm wrestling.

What a weird pool shark experience, weak side, terrible table option, stalemate “win”.

It’d be cool to go strong side, good table against the kid. I wonder how it’d end up going.

-J

The other day, off from work and catching up on sleep, I took a few hour nap…mid way through while drifting in and out of sleep I fell in and out of a dream of doing pushups…

I awoke on my side, chest sore, arms straight out like the top of a pushup.

No way.

Was I doing pushups in bed… asleep?

My body definitely was firing the muscles.

(In the past I’ve woken up having headbutted the wall, right after I headbutted a guy in a dream world fight.)

Fascinating. This could be advantageous when harnessed. If one could direct their dreams…the sleep could be an effective practice/rehearsal. After all visualization is said to big for elite level performances.

Persistence & Tenacity

Maybe I’m just a big guy, or maybe it’s the pushups.

While I’ve mostly done vanilla pushups over the years occasionally I vary the movement.

Sometimes the reps follow a path more analogous to an incline press or a triceps extension than a bench.

Maybe you work on handstand pushups with a partial range of motion building the range top to bottom, or rep out on one arm pushups since you have the ability and it’s euphoric as it loosens the spins.

You could do Hindu pushups as you do them so infrequently that you still find them a challenge. Dive bombers the same but pushing back through, not just raising the ass. Pikes for a bit more shoulder.

Side to side is an option a floor based emulation of what the internet calls ghetto pullups.

I’ve done Superman pushups in the past.

Folks I’ve done so many pushups over the years that my torso, particularly the chest is too big.
I’ve allowed pushups to become an obsession, an addiction, it’s been nearly 3 years of them daily without a miss, my record so far is almost 4. I intend to keep going at least to 5 years.

High reps will build strength.

You can do low reps focusing on it like it was a heavy ass bench press, visualizing a bench with many wheels, and get a max strength effect.

I’ve been exploring pushups for over a decade.

I’ve leaned out on them, I’ve gotten big with em, I’ve even done them to the exclusion of all other physical activity.

The pushup will bring you far.

I know more about pushups than most ever will, and I’ve not milked them out yet.

You wouldn’t believe some of the stories :

Dropping onto my forearm with a hurt hand before I’d found the ability to one arm.

Dropping down for 50ish in class backpack on to prove a point to a trash talker.

That time at camp backpack on.

Public bathroom as punishment.

Sensei’s Latin American accented voice announcing “pooshups”.

The time some asphalt embedded into my hand, a week later hearing a plink in the shower, it had worked it’s way out.

500-1000 rep workouts.

The year of 1000+ weekly, split 100+ weekdays, 250+ Sat & Sun.

The over 1000 set (somewhere I’ve said the exact number).

Partial range of motion, full range, a million variations. I’ve not yet maxed em out.

I’ve seen a feat : a friend’s dad did reps with his wife, me, my buddy, and his sister all laying on his back.

(Mind you 8yo boy, 7yo boy, 6yo girl, but still 360+ in added live weight, on top of a guy 200lbs max. My memory is 8-12 reps chest to floor. It’s the strongest thing I’ve ever witnessed. He may have been drunk while doing it, a former boxer he did rounds of pushups, situps, shadow boxing, and calf raises daily.)

As I said I’ve not yet maxed em out, weighted pushups are as of yet still unexplored. I’ve put maybe a 100lb kid on my back and a 100lb plate on the few occasions.

Pushups are simple. They’ll bring you as far as you’re willing to take them. It’s been mostly vanilla reps for over a decade of…

Persistence,

J