7/13/21
“You don’t like that the job is making you lose weight do you?”
The guy asking me is someone that I’m friendly with at the gym, he’s my parents age, and has the same name as my father.
I often end up friendly with someone at the gym who fits that description – gives me a laugh, and it’s happened at multiple gyms.
I told him “while I still might not be liking the job, I’m entirely okay with the weight loss. I feel more comfortable at 240 or whatever I weigh than I did around 260. The last time I weighed this little was 2017, and I got freakishly athletic there, right now calisthenics are getting ridiculous. About a week and a half ago I hit 25 chin ups.”
2017 at under 240
I’m basically getting paid do do hours of cardio – I like that aspect, and I do feel myself adapting to the job’s physical requirements.
Staunch refusal to do less at the gym, so with today off of work it ended up a three hour volume fest after sleeping in wicked late.
Sick of unweighted chins, I’ve been doing so many weighted chin ups.
And I love it.
Here is where I’m dropping some knowledge – I’ve clued a few people on the gym floor onto this already :
You don’t need a dip belt when there are kettlebells present.
This pf has three 30lb kbs, and one or two at each smaller size going down to 5 or 2½lbs.
30lb kb hooked rope climbing style over your shoe is close enough to dip belt at bw+25 plate.
But most importantly it’s easier set up wise.
If you want a heavier set well then you hook two 30lb kbs, one on each foot, and make sure you don’t point your toes down.
I ain’t setting off the lunk alarm!
The kid who always does weighted pullups with me said verbatim ; “I consider myself pretty smart, and I never would’ve thought to use the kettlebells like this”.
Out of laziness I’d been doing this for the last four or five days.
I too am the king of improvising for training.
It’s pretty cool being 240, hooking two 30lb kbs, and hitting a set of 4.
300lb chin ups in the bag!
Now for 400lb chin ups.
I’ve done it with dips.
Pressing work is just pushups, I should be working handstand pushups again, and weighted pushups (person on).
I’ve been doing leg work, and have been going bonkers on pull.
A buddy was saying awhile back “J, will you please train for strongman”, I realized I’m inadvertently doing so with just hours of back volume – seated row, the hammer strength machines, weighted chins, and now actually using the smith machine for squat/deadlift similarities.
You can get very strong at planet fitness.
My two main lifts have become weighted chins, and smith machine hip thrusts.
That’s a solid program!
On a cutting diet (via physical job, and fasting at it) while performance says I’m putting on muscle while losing weight!
That lift focus – lean, strong, powerful, and athletic.
The longer you run a program the better you get.
I’ll be maxing out the smith machine for HIGH REPS, with perfect form, squeezes, and varied rep/negative speed.
You can’t be fat with enough chin ups, and the added weight just means a bigger stronger back.
After the gym I ran to walmart to price check protein powder.
Plague Of Strength’s recently published “two protein shake a day” thing resonates with me right now.
I’ve said similar about egg shakes, and am scrambling on a low level to eat well with present job circumstances.
(Edit 7/14/21 – a quart of milk in the lunchbox via refilled gatorade container made work go far more smoothly.
Milk is a great hydration tool, I’ve known and said so for years, like how bacon is the best preworkout.
The principle is that both have nutrition, and are easily stomached when your body needs it.
I’ll expand on this soon.
Two quarts a day out the refilled bottle would be simple, and helpful, and in the vein of two shakes a day.)
I look at the cheapest stuff “Body Fortress”, remembering keeping strawberry flavor premixed with whole milk in the fridge as a high school senior.
It comes out to just over 30g protein per dollar based on the 2lb jug, and while there’s a 5lb jug that’s less per pound it’s chocolate, and with 30g/$1 I can get the same with chunk light tuna, while milk gives you more, as does meat.
You get more from food at the same cost, protein powder would be solely for convenience.
I’m drinking milk with dinner as I type.
Multitasking.
Persistence & Tenacity