Persistence and Tenacity

Perspective

Sometimes you may want to get down on yourself.

Maybe you’ve become stagnant in the gym. Maybe other aspects of life are not where you want them to be.

You’ve  gotta put it all into perspective though.

The Circumstance

My strange sleep schedule and inclement weather kept me from going to the gym for almost exactly 48 hours.

Both days I had actually awoke sore. My lower back slightly locked again. (These things are rare, I may be about to receive “beginner gains” all over again)

At this point having barbell withdrawals, and feeling a flush session would make me feel much better, I headed to the gym.

The gym is about a twenty minute drive. The last 15 seconds of which are after crossing a set of train tracks.

I made good time, and at the tracks the rail crossing guards were down. Strange, normally the train would’ve been gone for 5 minutes. There is already a line, I idle for 15 minutes, the gates are still down, turn around and go to the store.

Having killed 45 minutes to an hour walking Walmart for far longer than it takes to get my one item,I figure the tracks would be clear to cross so I turn around and head back.

There was still a line, an inability to cross, and having nowhere to park my car and simply walk the last 200 yards there  I headed home.

2 hours later the barbell withdrawals became worse. I headed right back.

20 minutes later, no cars, but the guards are still down. Damn It!

I turn around, but lucky break I hear a train. I look, barely still in sight, and see the guards going back up. Eureka!

Due to all the BS involved in getting there it seemed like the thing to do would be PR attempt on the fat bar.I mentally flipped a switch from flush session to PR day.

With no BS arrival would’ve 815pm, I didn’t get in until a little after midnight.

Now I love lifting particularly for scream fests between midnight and 1am. There’s no one there other than me. I can jack the radio to anything(people bitch about lifting to country), whoop, holler, and generally have fun.

I turn into the parking lot, and see the lights on, strange, but hey no cars, its still my alone time. Sweet!

As I get closer I see a work truck next to the door.

Shit!

It took me just shy of 4 hours to get to the building. Seeing the work truck made me think the 24hr access keycard may not get me in. Renovations may mean a manually locked door. I swipe the card, beep, yes!

I talk with the workers, my deadlifting is not going to be in their way( One also lived up the street and said the tracks had been like that for 2+ hours). The rest of the session is scrapped though, I can’t use an Airdyne bike thats in their work zone.

Oh well. Time to pull.

Pull Time

I set up for pulls. Due to my weird sleep schedule, actually being sore, and all the BS I decided to play it safe and do some warm up reps. I usually never pull more than singles on max out day, or start below ~300lbs.

The fat bar is 24 lbs, hence the weight increments, the sets were:

1. 114×5
2. 204×5
3. 294×3 attempt overhand, switch to mixed grip
4. 384×1 Easy
5. 474 Fail at knee, !?!?!?!?!, Bar speed had been great til here, drop down again
6. 384×1 Easy (Again) I guess I need more warmups.
7. 434 X3 Moderate, no way I can hit this and not hit 474
8. 474×1 GOT THE BITCH
9. 504, lightest I can break 500 with, I dont have access to those 1.25 I used the other day. Fail,  barely off the ground
10. 504 ( again) Fail…Fuck

Ok, I have to change the plans, lets work on my deadlifts’s dead zone

Isometrics to knee level and pull against pin superset with fat bar speed pulls.

5 sets each, isometrics 135lbs for the first set, 185 for the last last 4. I pulled into the pins for 6-8 seconds each set.

The speed pulls were 294 for doubles

Post Workout

I got a pretty decent pump from the isometrics. I’ll have to do those more often.  I relearned that isometrics help me. Oddly I’ve never done them in the weight room, just when I was equipmentless. I need to mix the methods I know work for me more regularly. This could be the exact way to make some crazy fast progress on my deadlift.

But….

Despite this initially I wanted to get down on myself. I wanted to get pissed that I didn’t PR. I then paused. It had been a decent session. As I said I got a great, but strange pump from the isometrics. The speed pulls felt great. I hit 3 with 434 on a fat bar. I hit 474 as the top set.

Run the numbers here for a second 474/484 is 98%, 474/515 is 92%. On a day where Murphy’s Law was rearing its head I still hit over 90% for a top single on a fat bar based off my lifetime regular bar PR. Although what really changed my outlook and got me to view the session in a good light was the fact that 2 years ago my bodyweight was similar, and my lifetime PR on a regular bar was 425. At that time I sometimes missed 405 on grip.

I went from negative in my head to positive, highly positive simply going back mentally to the old gym at age 20. Two years later I can pull as an everyday max more on a fat bar than I struggled to hold on a normal bar two years ago. Fuck the results of those around you, concentrate on yourself. Stronger is stronger, and shit 8 of those 24 months I didn’t have access to weights, 10 of them no gym. It’s not bad considering all the circumstance, just like the session itself.

What’s There To Complain About?

I had a solid lift. ( And got to take the next day off, due to the construction)

I ran into an old buddy at Wally World.

I’m getting stupid close to the 500 fat bar, and when it happens, it may be for reps.(Which would be a double whammy of a PR)

I can perform well under adverse circumstance, watch and see the shit that  happens as life becomes more ideal.

I am getting stronger. Through all the BS, inconsistency, depression, lack of food,stress, etc. I am still getting stronger.

I keep learning shit in the gym.

Passion, Persistence, Tenacity, Perspective,Intensity

I know these lessons and abilities can be applied everywhere else.

As long as i keep going I’ll always get better.

I got this shit.

Conquer. Rise. Ascension.

-J

And Sometimes the universe sends you a message in song. I heard this on the drive home. 1 in the morning, just happened to hit radio on.Mute the part about dress sizes though.

“If you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle”

 

 

 

 

 

Overtraining: Does It Exist?

In the 1980’s there was a pair of off the wall, hilarious twins called the Barbarian Brothers. Like all things 1980s they were high testosterone. While probably more widely known for corny movies than for thier bodybuilding, their gym feats and antics are stuff of legend. Fully befitting of their barbarian moniker they had this to say on the subject of overtraining: “There is no such thing as overtraining, just undereating and undersleeping”.

I’m wholly inclined to agree.

If one were to read up on the strongmen of yesteryear, one would be dumbfounded as to how far we have regressed.

The average gym goer seems more concerned about contacting rhabdo and getting injured, than about actually making gains.

Plenty of people in the past and now are doing, and have done far more physical work than you. You may have to try harder.

Here’s my experience:

The Mind

First, and most importantly is the mind. It can force you to do more when you’re thinking of bitching out, but at the same time stop you in your tracks if you don’t control it.

It can over come lack of food and sleep to a high degree. You can mentally decide overtraining doesn’t exist, and watch as that becomes your reality.

While maybe not fully, an aggressive, take no prisoners attitude can work wonders.

If you’re mind isn’t in the right place extra eating and sleeping may just make you like any fat welfare recipient.You could become a disgusting fat layabout.You don’t want that.

Some days you may have to back off. But you may find the act of warming up gets you where you need to be physically. Warming up for a longer period can change how heavier work will go that day.

This morning I awoke early and ravenous, but with my lower back locked. My body may have been pointing to an off day, but my mind was fired up, and I decided to train anyway.

Drive + Pumps/Flush The System

With my back locked, and my right bicep tendon feeling off I drove to the gym. On the way there i was cold, and realized to keep from actually getting an injury I may have to back off a bit. Instead of fat bar pulls I’d do lots of bodybuilder style volume for the same muscles.

I started with 10-15 supersets of lat pulldowns and leg curls. Stupid light, sets of 10. I even wore long sleeves instead of my normal wife beater to compound the warming effect.

After 5 supersets I upped the weight slightly on leg curls.
After 10 I decided to add a lot of weight to both and did a heavy set of 8 pulldowns followed by a set of leg curls with the stack. This surprised me  as I’m almost never able to use the stack.

At this point I’m an hour in, and my lats, biceps, hamstrings, and glutes are pumped up. Plus my lower back was no longer locked. I’d moved enough blood around the system. It only took an hour, and now I  felt safe to do the fat bar block pulls as I originally intended.

They went decently. It’s a new movement, and the reps start at my weak point. It takes more effort than from the floor for me. I can deadlift more than I can pull from the raised height. I’m fine with this. Strengthen the system.

If you want to hit a big lift daily or at least near daily you can. I’ve been doing it, and just doing a bit of movement variety, and intensity cycling.

Keep Injury Free

To stave off injury you may have to do some pump work on a day you intended to lift heavy. If you add in more (I’m conditioning daily too) you’ll have to do more to recover. It took a week for the exhaustion to hit me, but I ain’t stopping yet. I just have to keep my mind right, and do what has to be done. These are:

1. Eat more
2. Sleep more
3. Pump blood into sore areas, and more frequently
4. Stay fucking aggressive mentally, if I say I’m pulling 5-7 days a week I damn sure better.

It may seem counter intuitive but I think adding in more will help. Either start every session with pump/flushing work or add some light AM sessions of the same.

This is a blitz to hit huge PRs on my deadlift(fat bar). I conquer my body, not vice-versa. When I was squatting everyday I once did 50+ sets of 5 with 135 one morning to loosen up a crazy tight hip, and only then got into the heavier sets. This is the mentality you need. To pull you may have to do an hour+ of bodybuilder shit to be good to go.

If you’re crazy sore you gotta pump blood and move. Whether you use the same movement and/or the same muscle groups is up to your discretion. Remember I don’t get injured. You may have to take more precaution than I.

Prioritize + My Workout Structure

Choose a lift to prioritize, and just crush it for as long as it takes.

People in the past have done this, and so can you.

There’s no such thing as overtraining. You just have to recover harder.

I have no problem putting in more work, I have to make sure I recover. My sessions look like this:

1. Pump/Flush the system
2. Big upperbody movement(optional)
3. Pulling movement, cleans and/or deadlifts on the fat bar.
4. More Pump/Flush work
5. Abs and/or lower back
6. Forearms (optional, they’re already being blasted)
7. Quad Work( Just added back in, I think its the lagging point for the pulls)
8. Condition ( rotate duration, movement, and intensity)

I simply have to make sure I sleep well, and eat more. Already I’m recomping from the last week or two, and at this point I need to up the calories. I can’t seem to eat enough right now. The physical is strange right now. Mentally I’m fantastic. I want to crush weights, and this is great.

Do What You Gotta Do + Remember It’s All In Your Head

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t-you’re right.” -Henry Ford

 

-J

The Circumstance + Challenge

At one point in 2015 while i had no access to a gym I came up with an experiment, a challenge. An idea to recomp hit.

I was bored one night and brainstorming. On my mind was body compostion and how much of a recomp would be possible in a short period, a very short, concentrated period. How much could be done with no gym access, little equipment, and absolutely nothing resembling an ideal diet? I was left to the brute force method of attack. Not precision, but spread shot style. Overcome by pure volume.

I decided for 10 days that I’d up the PT requirements. I’d do 500 bodyweight squats, 500 pushups, and 500 abs daily. 10 days for an experiment and test of willpower. I decided to start day 1 right then and there. Literally started the reps within 5 minutes of coming up with this, plus had to hustle them in and do the 1500 reps with a bit less than 2 hours until midnight.

Overtraining?

Did I meet the overtraining monster?

Nope, definitely did not.

I did get a bit leaner around the midsection though.

Forced myself to finish the reps, didn’t pussy out, and forced a bit of mental toughness. Even if I didn’t want to do the reps, I still did it. I even added a bit more activities if the mood hit, but for those 10 days I did ALL of the 1500 reps.

Abs were a mix of flutter kicks, bicycles, and crunches.

I mixed regular bodyweight squats and hindu squats. I even did some staggered stance.

Pushups were done standard, but I didn’t pay much attention to the range of motion.

I basically did 10 x 50 of each. Sometimes they were superset, sometimes I did one exercise at a time, and sometimes just spread the reps throughout the day.

I did a set of 50 and put a tally mark on a paper. PT was over when there were ten tallies next to each exercise for that day.

My Diet and The Recomp

My diet was SHIT, with a capital S.H.I.T.  too. The  food sources I used were top ramen and tuna. My weight was in the vicinity of 215lbs for this. I don’t think scale weight moved, the only thing i noticed was I became close to seeing abs, the top row became barely visible around day 6 and more so after a set of ab work. This state was held for maybe 10 days after the fact. I’d assume I was eating around 6 packs of ramen and 6 cans of tuna daily for this. So:

• $4.02 day, 50¢/ can tuna x 6, $1.02 for 6 ramen packs
• ~180 grams protein
• ~90 grams fat
• 300 grams carb
• Calories ~3000

I basically split this into two meals, and I may have drank a small amount of milk,gatorade, or juice on the side. Not exactly clean eating, healthy or particularly low calorie. Basically a normal maintenance or maybe slight caloric deficient. The best part too, this is the type of shit that can be done anywhere. A college dorm, a prison cell. The food prep took all of 5 minutes a day, and the cost was pretty damn cheap. Not ideal, but doable. Hell with less taste buds, and cash it could be done even cheaper.

Imagine

Imagine the results doing a concentrated recomp running something like this but under better circumstances?

Having a well equipped gym.

Eating naught but steak and eggs. Real keto, not high carb.

Or maybe try something psycho and go 10 days tuna and water. Old school bodybuilders did.

Bruce Randall’s bulking and cutting, crazy shit from the 1950s.

Not short term in the 10-14 day sense but pretty crazy.

I’d read a blog once that discussed doing sprints throughout the day, and doing the golden age tuna and water diet together for a short period just to see.

How I’d Do It

This is all food for thought. Come up with an experiment you like, and see what happens.

I’m inclined to eat steak for 2 meals and drink one shake of eggs, oats, peanut butter, and milk, with maybe a banana. The calories? Who cares. The protein? Roughly 200 grams a day, carbs maybe 70 grams. Cost maybe $10 a day, i’d say less though.Especially if you go with a cheaper meat,like ground beef. I think its worth a try.

I’d probably just lift as usual, but throw in a bunch of ab work on top. It’s only 10 days. I just discussed with a buddy how high a BMI could i be and see abs, we laughed about getting abs at well past the “obese” number. I think its possible to be pretty damn big as long as you condition some, and bulk the core up. I’m naturally pretty thick about the waist, my abs are huge, there isn’t much of a fat layer padding it. I’d assume a 10 -30 pound loss would have me there, so ballpark at 6′ 220. So..

How would you go about this?

I love stuff like this, enjoy the theories behind it, the brainstorming, and actually seeing what happens.

Care to try it?

Right now I’m running the lite version of this, some conditioning, some ab work, but not heeding the dietary aspect. Soon though, soon.

Explore, Experiment, Fuck Being Inside The Box

-J

 

 

I had multiple drafts in the works on this subject. Being one of my recent sessions involved a goofball wanting to work in on back extensions, then instead of actually doing sets he just wanted to talk about injuries, and text in the vicinity of, and on the equipment, I’m posting this in his honor. Enter “Snap City”, and give your props to Goofball.

Mental Weakness

It amazes me how mentally weak so many are.

Why in a gym, let alone a fairly hardcore gym, are people talking about injuries?

People talking about not wanting to get injured. Not wanting to mess up their “bad back”, as if they have a back back, one look at them, and you can tell they’re just weak.

Get Your Mind Right!

Has society devolved this much? Are the only  subjects available to mention in public, how you hate work, the recent game of whatever sport is in season, played by adults other than you, or what injuries you have/imagine you have?

Isn’t a gym a place you go to get stronger? Isn’t the physical strength you gain really secondary to the mental strength you gain by pushing yourself, the confidence you gain by being stronger, knowing you’re more resilient? How do these people exist in the real world, and why do they work their way into places meant for and to hone strength?

Unless you are mentally weaker than a spoiled 3 year old girl who didn’t get her 3rd ice cream or just really plain stupid its highly unlikely you’ll ever “Snap Your Shit Up”, or visit “Snap City”.

I rescind the really stupid part. I’ve seen a kid who could maybe bench 185 attempt 315 no warmups with about 14, 14 year olds spotting/watching him. I  saved his ass by deadlift/shrugging that bar off him, the gaggle of Freshman weren’t doing it, but hey in the end he wasn’t injured. In fact he came over to me asking me to spot him for another attempt, I told him sternly another attempt it’s up to him to get out of it, not me. He smartened up, and the next day was back, but using 135-165, and not having a near death experience on the bench.

Hell I just discussed this with my gym’s owner the other day, gym injuries never really happen. I’ve never seen one, he’s never scene one, and he’d been in the game far longer than I. He said to me “If you do get injured in the gym, make sure you get it on film, so we can believe it actually happened”.

Reality

Do you actually know anyone who’s gotten injured in the weightroom?

Exactly. Nope.

Humans are far hardier than what the average fitness enthusiast would have you believe.

Every time someone mentions “Snap City” in a serious manner, and believes their own Kool-Aid, a person gets injured outside the gym in a serious manner. Like ran over by a bus serious. AND most likely has less “back problems” than your run of the mill not so serious lifter.

Have you ever met a person who actually injured thier knees from squatting?

Nope, Every person who has injured a knee had it happen outside the gym. Here’s a list of scenarios I’ve heard:

1. Horrific football knee blowout
2. Freak wrestling accident(on the mat, during meet)
3. Construction site( on the job, winter time)
4. Construction site( as kid, jumping from far higher than is reasonable)

Notice the weightroom isn’t involved here.

Staying Injury Free

Even if weightroom injuries are possible, you can get the percentage of likelihood so low, that it will never happen to you.

It basically boils down to

1. Don’t be an idiot
2. Don’t suck at life

Not being an idiot means taking reasonable precaution, and I’ll let you define that. What is insane for some is perfectly normal for others.

As an example, in the real world do you get warmups? Not that I’ve seen. Now don’t you think you could train yourself to be able to hit near max strength, think 90+% on whatever lift cold. My personal methodology has gotten me really good at this. Lifting cold, sometimes literally, never getting injured, and 99% of the time being able to hit very near my true maxes.

I often will hit a certain number on a lift with frequency until I know I own that weight.

Have I visited Snap City?

Hell, I’ve even once went for a no warmup total to prove it can be done to a buddy. Loaded the squat to just shy of 90%, then the bench to 95%, and the deadlift to ~97%, hit them all, then did the real session.

No visiting of “Snap City”. Honestly getting injured is more likely due to a lapse in mental strength, than physical. Your mind, both conscious and unconscious regulate your physical ability.

Make Your Reality

I often state I never get injured, and look, I never get injured. You might get injured doing what I do, because you think your reality so, just as I do.

Think you got it, and you will.

So choose not to suck at life, and choose to crush it.

I’m not in Australia, but I think Chopper’s message is very apt here:

Harden The Fuck Up!

-J