Persistence and Tenacity

11/15/22
Yesterday was 6½ years of daily pushups.

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.

Arrive. Reach down. Grab. Pull. Explode. Shouldered. Press. Press. Press.

Today’s One Track Playlist :

“so ruff so tuff in la remix”

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”.

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.

Check in. You’re blessed.

Do right. Walk with your head high.

Until we speak again,
Persistence & Tenacity

Frank Sinatra – My Way

11/14/22 ~530pm
With those sets I just completed 6½ years of daily pushups.

Last night I realized I hadn’t done one of these every six months of daily pushup posts for a couple of intervals, almost started to write this while expecting to post, then realized it was a day early.

I type while eating immediately after the two, thus far, sets on the day.

(I’d say 8+ sets, 300+ reps by the time I’ve continued to write at 815pm)

It’s cool to say I’ve done pushups every day since late June/early July of 2012 with only one (possible) missed day.

Even more sweat to be able to say it’s been a decade or longer unbroken.

6½ in, 3½ more to say it.

Active Streak :
May 14, 2016 – Present

I’m still going.

…..

I’ve long wanted to make a video of weighted pushups with a good looking college chick standing on my upper back.

My uncle and I were discussing a possible western road trip a few days back – I’d like to make that same video on four corners.

…..

Dude, I pray you’re out there in cali, doing well, still doing your pushups.

I realize we haven’t seen each other since summer 2012, nor spoke since late 2014.

I still think of you and yours – I wish you all well.

I’ve got my pushups.
I hope you have yours.

In Your Dad’s Memory :

It was really cool that night when we were about 7, 8 years old and your dad did the “family pushups” almost everybody laying on his back.

I still remember his circuit, 30 or so pushups, 30 or so crunches, 30 or so calf raises, 30 or so seconds of shadow boxing, a bunch of times through.

It seemed to me he did it every afternoon.

I know he alternatively swam or jogged before work each morning.

This all stuck with me over the years.

He was a real good influence, both for what to do, and for what not to do, for health and fitness.

…..

6½ years

Persistence & Tenacity

10/28/22
Ain’t no reason I won’t thrive as a “weekend warrior”.

The connotation gets unnecessary negativity. A Man training seriously once a week on the weekend will do just fine.

A once weekly serious lift ISN’T the entirety of your physical activity. Viewing the gym as your only physical activity is a mistake, there’s a whole world, and a whole life for physicality.

There’s daily PT!

It may not be the quickest strength increases, but once a week consistently over a decade is going to beat high frequency for a year or two, which then quits entirely.

I realize a 225lb press is nothing.

With my current plates, I expect to power clean (or heave) and press, if it was a regular gym setup with regular gym math I’d expect 365lbs, but with this setup 335lbs, a pair of 100s, a pair of 45s.

Anywhere in that 335-365lb range.
gym math 🙂 shrugs

Keep it simple.

It’s so few pushups now, not keeping track of daily reps. Around half as many deep knee bends.

If I stay awhile longer at this job, I may starve myself whippet lean. It’s amazing how little I eat on the days spent in the kitchen!

The calorie burn must be at least moderately high standing there sweating.
Combined with not eating, a bit of daily PT, and we’ve got muscle sticking to the frame on WEIGHT LOSS DAY!

I’ve continued to train the mace briefly every night after work. A year of doing so has made it real easy to continue – I wasn’t thinking about stopping.

From the longer, lighter, thinner one, I switched to the shorter, thicker, heavier tree branch.

So far this means harder work for the fingers, while the whole thing is more movement than muscle – it’s pretty heavy, therefore I’m just getting the rotation not yet focusing on feeling the muscles work.

A man could do little else but serious grip work, and thrive!

Do your pushups.
Do your deep knee bends.
Do your neck work.

Do a bit more, squeeze your hands, get your head out of your ass (the gym), and win the physical game in life.

I’d rather a rope in a tree and 300lbs of sand in a duffle bag than a gym membership.

I train in the kitchen and fresh air.

-J

“Yeah, it’s a nice little routine.”

10/26/22
Reverse breathing, out on the down, in on the up, it’s pretty counter to what is the norm.

I’ve been doing so with deep knee bends awhile, and the past couple days started up with the same on pushups.

I stopped counting, reps per calisthenic set of daily PT is by feel now, I broke that compulsion, fuck it.

I’ll just always get a few brief sets in to satisfy the “did I really do it” thoughts.

With this manner of breathing you’re always able to do one more rep, and man do you sound like a freight train coming!

…..

Con o sin pulpo?
Con, with! It’s a sin to be without,
flabbergasting that oj is even to be found any other way.

Oj with pulp mixes well with raw eggs – oj ala rocky, not that I’m doing so right now, I’ve just been enjoying oj a lot recently.

It’s not so bad to have a menu of milk, meat, vegetables, and fruit juice.

A lot of play there, all nutritious ingredients, the next step may be “get hint of abs lean”.

I’m not far from that, and it’d be a good walk around point.

…..

I’d forgotten how good pullovers on the total gym feel.

This barbell layoff period is going to be an interesting body builder.

I’m getting more into using the total gym, a great upper body machine should you have access, while the reverse manner of breathing is making pushups and deep knee bends new to me again, and how much it is that I enjoy neck work at present!

No gym.
Just bodyweight and an infomercial device for the most part, a definite desire to occasionally press and snatch on the barbell (keeping it crisp, never straining – up the #s that way with explosion every rep), and a 50/50 on whether I’ll rebuild a heavy sandbag for shouldering.

…..

Life as a corporate cook is not the way ;

Open your own gym, you didn’t today!

-J

Part I – I Own No Pair Of Heavy Dumbbells For Pressing :

10/10/22 ~230am
“Pressing Engagements” by John McKean – what an awesome article!

That’s an archive.org link, I’ve learned to link that way, as well as note what music/video I’ve linked in posts, but ditillo is a goldmine, and if you’re reading about lifting the site is high on the list, you should check it out.

Articles galore.

…..

I got a kick out of what he called “stacking nickels”, laughing to myself that I’ve come up with similar methodology doing hurry up singles at every 5lb jump from 135 up.

It reminded me of how heavy and full body see saw presses are.
I liked the movement for awhile, did them consistently back winter 2019/2020 – it’s ~$400 on amazon for a pair of “inexpensive” adjustable 100lb dumbbells.

Maybe a ride to a combination of the sporting goods stores and hardware stores would provide a better option.

And that’d be boots on the ground, which is better than online ordering.

I’m looking at how I could have an adjustable pair or dumbbells loadable to ~125lbs, though to 150lbs each would be better and provide a lifetime of brute strength training.

You get to just walking up to a pair of 150s on the ground, yank them to your shoulders, and press them?
You’re pro strongman strong.

Which is where you should be.
Pro strongman strong.

Expect excellence of yourself.

I bet I can press a pair of 100lb dumbbells, I just have no logistical option at present…as $65/month for dumbbells (& powerlifting, but who cares) doesn’t seem worth it.

I’ve thrived this past year doing almost naught but the barbell clean and presses OUTSIDE (in New England).

Mostly just leaving the bar loaded, heaving it to shoulders once, and pressing it a bunch of times.

I don’t vary the way much.
There is opportunity for variety even with parameters as “limited” as “barbell clean and press only”.

It certainly put on shoulders, but more striking is my upper back.

I’ve developed an upper back in 2022, to the point I view it as my best feature, and am becoming a bit obsessed with heaving, cleaning, and pressing my way to it being bigger, more defined, more impressive, stronger.

I like seeing my upper back in the mirror – el narcissismo mi tengo
…..

Today off work I expect to actually strip the bar, hit some overhead squats, press maybe more sets and/or with a lower rep range than usual, fat gripz sldl – maybe dropped a bit in weight and pushed higher in reps (was writing about higher reps in another draft in the last few hours – I’m juggling content creation on two phones, my old deactivated now wifi only one which fits my hand better for typing, and my recently purchased too high tech “smarter” than the first smartphone one which has service, a screen too large to type as well on as on the old one, and is different, maybe better, maybe worse at grabbing screenshots for images to post – #firstworldproblems

Part II – Smashing The Pushups, The Deep Knee Bends, & Getting The Jacked – High Rep Everything As Mandatory PT For You & For Me :

10/10/22 ~530am
Pushups and military press, they feed into each other – no exercise combination, or exercise alone gives me the sheer knowledge that I’ve got some pipes hanging from my torso.

What a great feeling.

Lean 19s is very possible to me.
– move the press up 100lbs, and do some combination of actually curl, do weighted pullups again, grapple consistently again (haven’t done that in over a decade), and/or very high muscular activation total gym pullups.

…..

No one, including those who’ve done so in the past, does high reps, high enough in count, heavy enough in weight, high enough in muscular activation, and with enough effort to truly get a body of type 3 fibers – to have superman muscle with superior strength and endurance.

I’ve flourished on rather high reps fitting the above description.

All would, most never attempt – a huge loss, in it is strength, conditioning, and a vigorous health.

…

I’ve been swinging my tree branch mace after every shift for nearly an entire year now.

Normally a set of 10 each side, the exact movement varied a little, but I’ve never simply taken the main variant and truly pushed the rep count into the stratosphere.

As I did 10 each side twice, double the usual after work last night – the above struck me.

I could be seeing how strong my lats, shoulders, biceps, and hands get pushing that rep count up up up.

I know it’d be freakish.

There is no excuse for me not to be doing sldl into the 30s, deep knee bends past 100, pushups strict past 100, the woody woodpeckers into the sky, pullups for reps (& regularly, and/or weighted again), or a lightened version like on the total gym for as many as possible/with extremely high muscular tension, be back squatting for 50s, front squatting amraps into the 30 reps area, and play with a couple other movements I’ve thought of like zercher deep knee bends and a good morning variant or two.

…

My leverages?
The most useful deadlift variant is sldl, from the toes better than from regular plate height.

I’d have this double overhand on an axle for high reps in an ideal setting.

I’d then have you partial front squat, and do some form of carry.

And I’ve come up with some interesting carry variants…

185lb yoke overhead in one hand…

barbell in front squat position as I walked, forwards, backwards, side to side, in circles, turned, even squatted, deep knee bended, staggered stance squatted (“b” squat)…

deadlift carry, doh, all around the place as described above

I’ve actually paced about the house for LENGTHS of time holding a 10lb dumbbell, a 20lb kettlebell – I’m taking ≥20:00 just to see if I could hold it that long – did it while on the phone with my uncle.

Part III – And The Evening’s Flow :

10/10/22 ~5pm
When it’s time to lift – I don’t recognize the weather outside.

Upon recalling the above I had pulled off the hoodie, barefoot and shirtless the way to be, 50° and wet is warm enough.

It had rained…while I was inside sleeping…which we all do too much of.

Hell, with track pants we’ve conceded to the weather more than necessary, however – pants, barefoot, barechested, the beard growing back, the look is going barbarian again, viking again as it is meant to be.

A thick red beard, and a buzzcut, on my strong, burly, 6′ frame – it’s all coming back.

No matter what is said, it’s easier to feel good in life when you like how you look and when you look sharp.

…..

I just pressed 14x165lbs. With this rep range I’m clearly “only building endurance” lol.

The press reps might go even higher than 15 reps tops being my up the bar weight number, as I’m also factoring in the fat gripz sldl for progression while training with the same bar weight.

The press reps may get ahead of the fat grips sldl which I mostly pull easy low rep sets of while supersetting with deep knee bends.

I just use my empty bent bar for high rep overhead squats – mentally this is easier than stripping the solid bar.

Part of why I train all lifts (other than overhead squat really) at the same bar weight, at press weight is this massive mental hurdle I have about stripping, loading, and carrying plates around.

For whatever reason, lifting outside I have this tick.

I do not have this tick on a gym floor. It’s nothing to me to grab 45s from across the building…

I didn’t film this, though it would’ve been damn funny, I took 7 plates (45s) stacked together off of a 25lb plate (the platform so as to get under the “rock”), and did a rather funny looking bear hug shuffle walk to get all the needed plates to the smith machine.

Taking plates off the leg press for the same walk may have been with 8p, a 360lb bear hug instead of 315lb bear hug.

I do have a pair of 100s, a pair of 45s, and a 25lb plate or bricks to lift off of – I could do this at home up to 290lbs, no stone trainer either.

I’ve also learned plate bowling with cheapo 45lb bumpers, and tend to be able to roll any plate pretty well in a long straight line.

“Plate bowling.” as I nod my head.
“Plate bowling? You seem skilled. Have you practiced?”
“Yes. Though with bumper plates at a different gym.”

↑ a funny gym floor interaction, a year or so ago in a galaxy far far away

I have also in the past been able to punt a rugby ball with precision to you at a distance of around 70yds.

My uncle called my bluff on that back in high school, not having learned when within 5:00 of him doubting I could squat 8×300 at under 180lbs at 15yo I did so in front of him, stopping what I was doing and showing him (I was not lifting), and too that day immediately I showed – we paced off the distance, made it be at an angle, and over the electrical wires, and I dropped the ball right into his chest/hands.

…..

Physically I felt horrible from anger in the last 48 hours, and a bit of caffeine (a large dr pepper with my around midnight dinner last night) introduced into my system far too late at night.

That’s why I lift.

It makes me feel good.
Ain’t no anger when you’ve pressed it all out of your head.

…..

Beef and broccoli every day for about three weeks, it looks like I may “only” have pork today for my meat, but I’m in enough broccoli to be good into next week at my close to mandatory daily serving of 4oz, which I get from work four days a week, and out of a rather expensive 12.5oz “organic” frozen bag at home the other three.

I’ve been learning to not stress these minor things I say I’ll do daily so much.

After 36-40 days of pressing in a row, I didn’t press for two, and then lifted again today.

I’m still banging out what is sustainable for me, while learning to be more chill about whether it truly has to be 100% mandatory daily, which pushups are – years of this being the way, which was ~9 months of squat every day on the longest streak of squat every day, etc.

So I’m not running to the grocery store for 1-2lbs ground beef, and will see instead how long the pork in the house lasts me, as again, I’m in the broccoli for the next 8 days between freezer at home and choosing it as a side every meal at work, and really meat, with fat, is meat, the differences between dead animal being minutia.

Should’ve bought it yesterday when I was at the store before work to solely get a, singular, glass bottle soda lol

Which reminds me, dang am I craving those doritos hard taco shells – maybe next week with ground beef.

I’m eating cleanish right now, regrowing my beard, smashing enough PT and lifting…come winter, new year’s to some point in February at 3-4+ months of beard – I’ll be at some video worthy stuff for presses off of a heave (10+ rep 225+ lb amrap press, off the ugliest brute strength shouldering ever, a “win the gym” # if I do say so), “mace” swings for 100s, smashing deep knee bends in the snow, maybe FINALLY get the “girl pushups” (weighted pushups via cute chick(s) as weight) on video, etc, etc, etc.

…..

I bet I’m good for pressing 10×185 tommorow.

Persistence & Tenacity

Today’s Listening :

Wim Hof on Russell Brand podcast