Training Methodologies

One of the most important aspects when deciding how you are going to train is deciding what you are training for. In the end, most people who train want the same basic things - to be stronger, faster, fitter, to put on some muscle and take off some fat, to be more athletic, or more able to do day-to-day activities. But your programming, and the general training method that you follow, should be based off of which of these goals is most important to you. I'm no expert in most of these different fields, but I have tried a few different ways of training, and researched quite a few others as well. So here is a quick overview of some different training methodologies, the reasons you might ascribe to one or another, and some of the pitfalls of that way of training.

So first, stuff I've tried and I would recommend

Powerlifting 

Powerlifting is what I focus on now, so obviously I'm all for it. Theres just something awesome about the incredible simplicity of it: your goal is to be as strong as you can in the squat, bench, and deadlift. Period, end of story. It doesn't happen by overnight, or by magic, or by some great supplement. It's the product of months, years, even decades of hard work and commitment. Because it's focus is so straight-forward, a good powerlifting routine also cuts out a lot of the bullshit that an average person might not want to deal with in a program. Generally speaking, you pick 4 or 5 main lower body and 4 or 5 main upper body lifts, and hammer the shit out of them, heavy and hard. And with a little bit of tweaking and a lot of hard work, you will get stronger. It's a beautiful thing. 

Another thing I like about powerlifting is that it focuses on performance, rather than aesthetics. Personally, I would rather go to the gym and be proud that I hit a new PR, rather than that my biceps looked extra vascular that day. However, I also found that the moment I stopped caring so much about what I looked like, and started caring more about my performance in the gym, the more muscle mass I was able to put on. Not only will you get strong powerlifting, but you will also get big. So don't write off a good powerlifting program, just because you also want to focus on putting on some muscle. 

On the flip side, there are problems with a lot of powerlifting training as well. Although the emphasis is on function rather than form, that should NOT be an excuse for many powerlifters to look like fat sacks of dog shit - which some of them do. Sure, your focus is on 1RM strength, but no one should ignore basic conditioning and body-fat percentage goals either. If a set of ten reps leaves you out of breath, even with light weight, you need to up your work capacity. As I've written about before, lifters like Matt Kroc prove that you don't have to be a lard-ass to be strong. So if you decide to focus on powerlifting, don't use it as an excuse to be lazy and eat like shit. Train to go heavy, but keep in shape and diet hard, and you'll not only be strong, but you'll look like a fucking animal. 

Another issue I have with powerlifting is the equipment. Personally, I feel using a squat suit or a bench shirt is like not being able to see the forest through the trees. The goal of powerlifting should be to get as STRONG as you can at the three lifts, but using powerlifting equipment allows you to simply MOVE weight that you are not strong enough to lift. And although virtually everyone who uses equipment is already crazy strong, that 1000 squat in a suit always leaves me wondering how much that lifter could have done really done, without the help. Even though I want a great squat, bench and dead, I am also looking to be as strong and as fit as possible, and in my opinion, equipment is more or less a gimmick that takes away from the heart of the training - which is the development of your body. I don't ever want to use equipment, for the same reason that I train 95% of the time without my belt, or why I squat to full depth rather than stopping at exactly parallel. I want to have a great total, but I want to do it without losing sight of the bigger picture of strength and fitness, which is something I think a lot of powerlifters do. 

Bodybuilding

Granted, last time I was on a PURELY bodybuilding program is back when I sucked at life in general, and I was too busy counting calories to gain any actual muscle, but since then I've learned a lot about the way to train if your aim is to body build, and used more than a little of it in my programming over the past year or so. 

First of all, I think bodybuilders deserve an insane amount of respect for their insane commitment, and ability to deal with that sort of training day in and day out: lifting like a bodybuilder is HARD. It hurts, more than the vast majority of powerlifting work I have done. Furthermore, bodybuilders have to be much more strict about their diet than even in-shape powerlifters. When they have to gain weight, they FORCE-FEED, and when they have to cut, they cannot afford to cheat. It takes an incredible amount of discipline, and I have a lot of respect for anyone who is able to succeed at it. Training for aesthetics isn't really my thing, but come on, look at Flex Wheeler in that picture - it's fuckin awesome. Congrats to anyone who can make that happen. Furthermore, when you get that huge, you have almost no choice but to get fucking strong as well. Maybe not as strong as if you focused on powerlifting, but still - ever seen Ronnie Coleman squat 800 for 2? Yeah, motherfucker is SO strong. 

Personally, I find the biggest problem with bodybuilding is that most people who "bodybuild" are not educated, not hard-working, and just generally suck at everything. The VAST majority of people who you see in the gym aren't there to get stronger or fitter, they're there to build muscle, or as many of them would tell you "not get huge, just look toned." So they do some bullshit routine, involving reps upon reps of bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, and about 70 sets of benching, and never get anywhere. Here is the truth, for all those fucks out there: bodybuilders work HARD. They start their training with - guess what - heavy as fuck compound lifts, and only after exhausting themselves with these movements do they go to the isolation stuff. And when they are doing high rep work, it's not three easy sets of ten - they go fucking heavy, and every rep between 3 and 17 hurts like a motherfucker. So if you are in the gym, barely breaking a sweat on your 8th set of dumbell flies, you are an asshole, and Ronnie Coleman is going to fucking snap your legs off after he squats 800 a few more times. 

So, to conclude, bodybuilding is great if you are educated and REALLY committed to gaining some muscle. But most average Joes out there who don't know shit about the gym would benefit more from a solid beginner powerlifting program than any Muscle-and-Fitness "bodybuilding" program. 

Crossfit

Unlike most powerlifters, I do NOT harbor a deep hatred for Crossfit. I think it's an absolutely incredible way to train for a number of reasons. First of all, it eliminates a lot of the problems i talked about with powerlifting - you can't lose sight of the whole, in favor of specialization, because then you will get murdered at whatever the WOD is. Focus too much on strength, and the running will kill you. Focus too much on the bodyweight stuff, and you'll get stapled under the prescribed reps. It definitely forces you to become not just strong, or fast, or explosive, but truly FIT - and therefore, I think it is one of the best ways for the average person who is just looking to get in shape, to train. Secondly, for the most part the workouts are very time efficient - great for somebody who doesn't have time for hour-long lifting sessions and a half hour run every day. You can get to the gym, warm up, do a ten minute workout, and be completely spent. Third, a well-programmed Crossfit WOD is a true test of mental strength as well. Everytime I started a workout while I was Crossfitting, I felt nervous. Every time, I wanted to quit before I got halfway through. And every time I was proud of myself for making it. It's not just a test of your physical capacity, but a test of your mental fortitude as well, and I have a great amount of respect for any serious Crossfitter. 

The problem with Crossfit is with is as an establishment, rather than as a training philosophy. Crossfit is a money-making business, and Greg Glassman is raking in the dough. The way he is doing this is by allowing ANYONE who pays a thousand dollars, and takes a weekend-long course, to become a "certified" Crossfit trainer, and open their own gym. Surely, a lot of these gym owners do, in fact, know what they are doing and are great Crossfitters, but there are PLENTY who have their heads right up their asses when it comes to coaching and programming. And their are a lot of problems when it comes to Crossfit programming. Examples: Pullups should not be kipped outside of competition, Olympic lifts and box jumps should not be done for high reps. So, what can happen with Crossfit is that people who are uneducated, and just follow the herd, can go to a shitty Crossfit box with a "certified trainer" who they trust, do a badly programmed workout with potentially dangerous movements, and have shitty form without being corrected by their shitty coach. 

HOWEVER, if you take the time to understand the idea of Crossfit - essentially, do as much work as you can in as little time as you can (power output), and you know how to program a good workout, it can be a great tool for getting in amazing shape. Plus, you can customize it however you want - though I'm sure Jaime Lewis will punch me in my jejunum if he ever reads this, his workout philosophy Chaos and Pain is basically an insanely heavy, strength-biased Crossfit workout. Whatever your goals are, understanding and implementing a good Crossfit program can help you reach them. It's an awesome training philosophy. 

AND NOW, shit I've never done, but I will definitely try, and why

Olympic Lifting

These athletes are some of the most explosive and incredible of all the strength sports. Not only can they Snatch and Clean and Jerk insane loads, but they are also incredibly strong - Pyrros Dimas, in the picture above, competed at 186, and had a 726 raw squat. Holy fucking balls, that is insane. On top of all that, all except the Super Heavyweights are ripped up as well. So basically, Olympic lifting gets you more powerful, stronger, and more muscular than almost anything else. 

The problem? It's incredibly technical, takes a long time to learn properly, and you can easily snap your shit up if you don't know what the fuck you're doing. It's why I haven't done it yet, I've never put in the time or energy to learn properly. But this is DEFINITELY one thing I will learn how to do, and put in my regular training regimen. 

Gymnastics

Absolute body control. I've always loved bodyweight workouts, because there is just something awesome about being able to bang out a huge set of pushups, or pull-ups, or handstand pushups. But these fuckers take it to a whole new level. Imagine banging out a huge set of Planche pushups, doing some muscle-ups into an iron cross, or doing free-standing handstand pushups with ease. A Gymnast has to have a level of body awareness and control that no other athlete has. And on top of that, they are absolutely enormous in their upper bodies. 

Obviously, I will never be a professional gymnast, as I would be starting about 16 years too late, but their is a lot that gymnastics style training has to offer the strength athlete. And although a good coach is awesome, you CAN research and make progress on your own as well. I have a friend now who is experimenting with gymnastics and strength training, and he has been making insane progress over the last few months. So no excuses. In the future, I definitely plan on taking some time out to get good at some basic gymnastics movements, and working them into my strength routine. 

Strongman

If there is ever a time or place when I, for whatever reason, can't get to a gym or have access to a bar and some iron, strongman is my fallback. It's awesome because you can do it virtually wherever, whenever. You develop brute strength by lifting anything heavy - stones, logs, chains, cars, whatever. Obviously, there are specific lifts/events one would train for is you wanted to COMPETE in strongman, but if you just want to get strong and big as fuck, you can literally go out into the woods, pick shit up, and squat/press it for reps. It has a huge carryover to everyday life (need to carry a huge awkward object up stairs? No problem), and generally speaking, strongmen have a WAY better work capacity than a powerlifter would. To summarize, it's awesome. Goddamn, I just want to go outside and throw some heavy shit around the more I think about it. 

So there you have it: some basic information, pros, and cons of just a few of the many different methods you can use to train for... whatever the fuck you want to train for. If one catches your eye, do some reading, watch some videos, and get started. Or, combine a few. They're all pretty fucking awesome. But whatever you choose, do it well, do it right, and do it smart. And get fucking huge and strong from doing it. 

Precursor to arm day?

Rest day today, which means curls and pushups - Both of which I am steadily getting better at. Did three sets of 12 preacher curls with the 25's today, and three sets of pushups to failure - the first, right out of bed with no warmup, was thirty, and the other two bookended my sets of curls: both were 35.

I'm thinking that I will keep my rehab workouts just like this for the next few months, going heavier on Wednesday and Saturday, and lighter with more reps on Sunday. Soon, I hope to get to a point where I'm consistently hitting 50 reps when I do those max sets of pushups, and I'm doing sets of 10 or more preacher curls with 35+ lbs. Obviously, that will take a few months, but once I get there, I'm going to gradually change Wed and Sat from rest/rehab days to arm days. That should be fun, help me get huger, and hopefully even help with my strength on pull-ups and bench.

Because who doesn't want arms like that? 

My bench sucks 1073 dicks

The title pretty much says it all. On a slightly enlightening note, a trusted friend and strong person told me today that perhaps one of the contributing factors to my shit-show of a bench press is the rack height. He pointed out that the bar was pretty low to start, and because of that I was pressing, rather than pulling, the bar out of the rack. A wise observation: problem is, the racks are shit, and the next notch up is so high that I lose even more tightness trying to get the bar out at that height. It's royally boned. But I'm thinking that maybe next week when I get to my heavy set for the day, I'll get my spotter to help me with the un-rack, and see if that will help me keep a little tighter and maybe get an extra rep. Who knows.

Dave Tate always says you have to pull the bar out... 

Sorry I let you down huge, huge man. 

Anyways, here's what today's work sets looked like

135 x 3

150 x 3

170 x 4

Tried and failed on a 5th rep at 170. After the work sets, I had a 5 x 10 bench at 100 lbs - that was incredibly easy, even with 90 seconds rest. On the last set, I rested an extra few minutes at least (that's when I was having a conversation about the my shitty un-rack), and then was able to bang out 16 reps, 6 better than last week. my 5 x 10 row and lat pulldowns weren't easy, but they weren't especially hard either, even going all out on the final set of each. In the end, I left the gym today feeling like I didn't work hard enough, and just generally like a bag of dicks. 

Even she can bench more than me. 

Next week is 180 on the bench for reps. I'm still hitting the prescribed 5/3/1 reps every week, so I'm going to keep at this bench program until the day when I am unable to hit the prescribed reps. That should be at least another couple months away, and hopefully (dear god, hopefully), all this accessory, speed, and max effort work will FINALLY start to kick in and break this horrible horrible plateau. And if not... well it will be time to stop benching all and try some crazy Chaos and Pain bullshit for my upper body. I've tried just about every conventional approach, so if 5/3/1 doesn't start working soon, it's time to try something completely fucking ridiculous. 

SQUATS

Had a great fucking day in the gym today. First of all, it's my favorite day of the week - max effort squats. Second of all, my morning class was cancelled, so I was able to get up, have a delicious omletty - bacon breakfast, a big - ass coffee, and head straight to the gym.

Warmups went well, I did sets of 5 up to 165, then did work sets

185 for 3
215 for 3
240 for 11

I hit that rep max with no belt too, which is awesome. Got little bit soft in the middle reps, though - I hit the first three or four solid, then had my mind set on 10, so reps 5 - 8 or so were a little bit sloppy, my chest was dropping and the bar slid a little too low on my back. But even so, 11 reps well below parallel with 240 would have been unthinkable a month ago. Next week is 250, with the belt, for max reps. I just have to take my time a little bit, not rush through those middle reps, and make every single one perfect. Can't wait.

Anyways, after the set of 11 at 240, I had speed deads, and even though I felt like a piece of shit after that heavy set, I hit them pretty hard and fast. Then, I had 5 x 10 squats @ 145. I wanted to cry thinking about them, but they were pretty easy - I do all the sets with 90 seconds rest, and even so I was fine. So by the time I got to the 5th set, even though I though I was seeing Jesus' eyes, and I wanted to curl up into a fetal position, I put on the belt and banged out a relatively easy 18. A very hard day, but a very good day.

This is definitely how I felt today. Only less old. And my abs aren't that ridiculous yet. 

Also, because I didn't have to go to my morning class, I got to work out with some friends that I don't always get to lift with. One squatted 375 for a heavy single (he max front squatted 345 just about 12 hours before), at 165 lbs weight, and the other benched 345 for a heavy single, and then 320 for a set of 5.

It's great to train with strong people.

Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice


Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.


-Robert Frost

Diet

Diet is one of the trickiest and most important components to good powerlifting. If you don't eat enough, you are not going to get very strong - and there are plenty of skinny and weak people who love their 2 visible abs so much, that they will never eat enough to ACTUALLY put on some muscle. But on the flip side, if you don't limit your huge, huge numbers of calories to better food, then you are going to end up a very strong, very fat, piece of shit. Nobody wants to be skinny and weak, but being strong while not being able to move around during normal day-to-day activities isn't great either.

Heres a classic example: this is a powerlifter

And this is that same powerlifter, dieted down. 

Now, given similar strength levels, who wouldn't choose to look like the latter, rather than the former? And the truth is, in that first picture, he's not even carrying THAT much fat, compared to a whole lot of other powerlifters. 

Furthermore, if you look at a lot of the greats in powerlifting AND strongman, they aren't ridiculously fat. Heres a few examples: 

Mariusz Pudzianowski, looking better than most people who (attempt to) bodybuild

Konstaninovs may be HUGE, but he's not fat by any stretch of the imagination

Captain Kirk: when was the last time YOU squatted 1000 for 2 reps? 

Then there's Matt Kroc, Stan Efferding, even Jaime Lewis from Chaos and Pain... the list goes on. And the truth is, theres just no excuse to be a fat piece of shit anymore, just because you train specifically for strength. All these people have become great, while still looking fucking ripped and manly, so if you can't it's just due to a lack of discipline. 

But ANYWAYS, on to the meat of this post, which is my diet history, and my current diet. I have been fucking around with my diet since well before i started lifting. Back when I was a skinnyfat highschooler, who thought running was all i needed to do to get into shape, I started dieting with the most common and most fucking stupid method out there: simple calorie restriction. Now don't get me wrong, if you're morbidly obese, by all means cut calories. it will make a world of difference. But for any relatively normal human being, who is looking to (as all of us are), try and gain a little muscle and trim a little fat, cutting calories with little to no attention paid to macronutrients is just dumb. Back in highschool, I would try and keep my calories to 2000 or (when I was being extra fucking stupid), 1600 a day. But without eating the right foods at these low levels of calories, I was basically hungry all the time, and I would end up eventually breaking and just eating a shitload. And obviously, I didn't lose any weight. 

Flash forward to first year of college, when I was crossfitting. Here, I started a paleo diet, which I loved, and I discovered a secret: if you eat the right stuff, you can eat a LOT of it, and not gain any weight. Fucking awesome. No more starving myself. I ended up putting on some good weight, and with all the crossfitting I was doing, I was relatively cut up. BUT.... then I started powerlifting spring semester... and the diet slowly but surely went out the window. I basically was eating whatever I wanted to. Eventually, I embraced this, and decided it wasn't a bad idea to intentionally gain some weight. My diet basically consisted of as much food as i could eat, with a minimum of a gallon of chocolate milk a day. And I did go up, as I've written about before, about 50 lbs over the course of a year - and MOST of it good weight. But definitely a good amount of fat too. 

So now this is where I'm at: I have a solid base of muscle, with a little higher body fat than I want. So, the plan is to eat well and workout hard, focusing on strength but paying attention to volume/work capacity as well, until the body fat reaches around 10%.  Then, it will be a slow-but-steady climb in weight, while keeping the body fat % the same. And here is how I hope to do it: 

First of all, eat a MOSTLY paleo diet. That means these foods: 

eggs

meat

fish

milk/cheese

veggies

fruits

nuts/seeds

beans

breaded meats

And on workout days, eat as much of those foods as I can, especially Whole Milk in the post-workout feeding frenzy. Then, on days when I don't workout, I will eat slightly less calories (not starving myself, but definitely being at a bit of a caloric deficit), and cut almost all of the carbs - no dairy, no breaded meats, and even a little less fruit than I might normally eat. Basically, on rest days I'm hoping to  get my body working on digesting those fat stores, without stressing it out too much, and on workout days I'm going to try and eat as MUCH healthy food as I can, so that as many of those extra calories as possible can be stored as muscle, with relatively few stored as fat. oh, and one last thing: once a month, on the rest weekend between my 5/3/1 week, and my deload week, I get to cheat to my heart's delight. 3 nights and two days of pure carbohydrate bliss. It'll give me a chance to refuel and rebuild after a hard three weeks, but is still only 2 days out of 28, so it shouldn't make a very big difference. And I'll need the mental break too, I'm sure

Once a month... you will be mine, bitch

So that's the current diet. I'm not sure how it'll work, but I have high hopes as long as I stick to it. If I don't feel like I'm progressing in a month or two, I might have to try something a little stricter, but until then, I will enjoy my milk and breaded meats as long as I can. 

Rehab, Pushups, and "What the fuck is that guy doing?"

Saturday is yet another rest day, so after a delicious carb-less breakfast of scrambled eggs and more scrambled eggs, I headed to the gym for some elbow rehab, foam rolling, and a new addition to rest days... pushups.

I was doing a lot of reading and some thinking the past few days, and decided to start adding a couple sets to failure of pushups on my rest days. Here is my reasoning: my bench is horrible. And won't go up. I've done just about everything I can to work on my form, and I think it's about as good as it's going to get without Dave Tate just happening to show up to spot me Tuesdays and Fridays. And, in my current programming, I have a SHITLOAD of pulling, to help guarantee that my back isn't the problem. Now, all there really is left to do is wait it out and hope that, as my pulling and pressing assistance work gets heavy, my bench finally starts to grow. However, a little extra pressing volume definitely won't hurt, especially on days when I'm not doing anything else. Pushups are fun and easy to recover from, and doing just two or so sets to failure on two of my three rest days will give me at least 150 extra pressing reps a week. I'm hoping it will help 1) my pressing speed, 2) my chest and arms heal, by bringing  a little extra blood there on rest days, and 3) my pushup max get better. Who doesn't want to be able to bang out easy sets of 50 or 60 pushups? It's fuckin cool man.

Now drop and give me... a fuckin lot. 

So anyway, this is what today ended up looking like:

Set of pushups to failure (33)

Warm up set of preacher curls (10 at 12.5)

Then, with a set of 5 pushups between each set of curls:

25lbs x 12reps

25 x 12

25 x 10

20 x 15

15 x 20

10 x 25

And then another set of pushups to failure at the end (27 this time). 

My elbows feel great, and doing the pushups was fun. It helped break up the curls, and in the end I ended up with around 85 pushups and 116 curls. Plus, if you notice compared to my last rest day, my curls are getting stronger, which I just find fucking hilarious. 

Me, if this stupid rehab bullshit keeps actually making me stronger at curling. 

Finally, I would like to start a new segment on this blog, called "What the fuck is that guy doing?" It's where I see stupid fucking people in the gym, and then rant about them on here instead of punching them in the aorta in between sets of my (soon to be) preacher curls with 100 lb dumbells. 

Today's superman came in the gym right after my first set of curls with the 25's. He asked if i was using the preacher curl (strike one, fuckface, you just saw me on it), and I said yes... and then, because i am a kind and generous and stupid, stupid man, I threw in "but you can jump on in between my sets, if you want." So this skinny, skinny douche grabs an easy curl bar - just the bar, mind you, no weights - and starts doing reps. Now, I was hoping to move through my sets pretty quickly. I was happy to be going a little heavier, but at the same time these are for rehab, not strength, so i didn't want any more than a minute or so rest, maybe two if I really thought I needed it. so I'm standing next to the preacher curl, ready to jump on as soon as he's finished. This fucker proceeds to do what had to be a 5-minute long set of curls. With just the bar. Now, as a general rule I am immediately suspicious of anyone who walks in the gym and immediately starts curling - especially if that person is a skinny, skinny piece of shit. However, since I started curling to fuck my fucked up, sad elbows, I have forced myself to open my mind up a little bit, and not judge right away. But there is NO reason, and I mean NO reason, to do curls so light, that you can continuously do them for 5 full minutes, while I stand over you, wanting to punch you in your fucking aorta. That's like a minimum of 200 reps. Fuck that skinny skinny man and his skinny skinny arms. If you EVER do more than 25 reps of any exercise, and don't feel like you are going to die after, you need to put some fucking weight on the bar, and stop wasting your time and mine. 

On a side note, two crazy fucking elite athletes that made high rep shit worth doing: Matt Kroc, who did a fucking 5 x 20 squats with 415. That motherfucker is CRAZY. The other that comes to mind right away is Rob Orlando, who once put 200 on the bar, put it on his back, set his feet, and did 100 reps straight. Holy shit, I feel like I'm going to die just thinking about that. 

Matt Fucking Kroc

And Rob, being completely insane. 

But anyway, unless you are one of those manimals, please for the love of god, add some fucking weight, and try and keep your sets below 5 minutes. Or I will punch you, in or around your aorta. 

Why I love the Hodge twins

As they were included (in passing) on my last post, I thought I might write a little bit about one of my favorite sources for exercise information, and entertainment. These fucks

Hodge twins, bitches

I love the Hodge twins. Lets get one thing straight: they are definitely NOT powerlifters. And, I don't personally agree with a shitload of what they say. However, I think these two are fucking great. Not only are they absolutely hilarious, but they do one thing that almost NO average gym rat does: they figured out what works FOR THEM. How many people do you see in the gym who are just following a cookie cutter program? The worst is when you see someone actually holding open a copy of "Muscle & Fitness," following one of those "Beach body in 8 weeks" programs. It's horse shit. But even people who are following a classic strength program - starting strength, 5 x 5, 5/3/1 - shouldn't ALWAYS follow it exactly. Jim Wendler would probably kill me and eat me for extra protein if he read that (he always says if you're not gonna follow the program exactly, don't bitch when it doesn't work), but even so, Jim strongly encourages you to feel out the program as well - don't push the last set every week, leave a few reps in the tank more often than not, pick the best assistance work FOR YOU. And most people don't seem to get that. They bounce from one program to another, following them to a T - and never making the gains that they could be making, if they put in the time and effort to find what works best for them. Even worse are the people who do the same thing, over and over, with shitty results, but they refuse to adapt their training.

A personal story about this: High rep  heavy deadlifts don't do SHIT for me. As I wrote in an earlier post, I did 5/3/1 about a year ago. My last month on the program, I banged out 250 for 8 solid reps... then, when I tested my 1 rep a week or two later, it was 265. What the fuck. My squat went up 50 lbs, and my dead only went up 20. I went through a period of three or four months when I was convinced I was just shit at deadlifting... Then I started doing speed deads. Two months later, pulled 305, for a 20 lb pr. Then, two months after that, I pulled an easy 335. 5/3/1 worked great for my squats and bench, but the high rep, heavy deads just didn't work. I had to experiment, and find what works for me.

On the flip side, I started training a friend this summer, who had zero training experience. His legs were pretty strong though - right off the bat he deadlifted 205. So, I started him on a starting-strength type program, where he did 3 sets of 5 deadlifts, adding 5lbs a week. 4 months later, he pulled 285. We went away to school, and he kept up with the same program, eventually changing it to 1 set of 5 deads per week. Over winter break, we maxed out together (when I pulled 335), and he pulled 365. Two 80 lb pound pr's in a row - 160lbs in 8 months. All from higher rep, heavy deads. That didn't do shit for me.

Jerome, after another few months of progressing at the same rate. 

ANYWAYS, the point is, a lot of people talk shit about the Hodge twins because they don't agree with a lot of the stuff the twins say - for example, they hate deadlifts, and never do them (heaven forfend). But the bottom line is, the twins have found what works for them. Clearly, because they're in pretty great shape. And when you watch them, you don't HAVE to take every word as gospel, just like you shouldn't take every word of any training program as gospel. Listen. Read. Learn. Get as much information as you can. Experiment with it all, and find what works for you. Do that till it doesn't work, then experiment some more.

Or, as the twins would say, do whatever the FUCK you wanna do.

Here's one of many gems. Check out their channel, it's fucking great.  

Speed bench with a snapped-up back

As the twins would say, I bought myself a one-way ticket to snap city

Today was actually decent. When i woke up this morning, that upper-left part of my back was ALL snapped up. I think i must have pulled a muscle benching on tuesday, because it doesn't make sense that it would hurt this much, and for so long, just from sitting with bad posture or sleeping on it wrong. In any case, I was figuring today would be a piece of shit. But I forced myself to get under the bar anyway, and it definitely paid off. Speed bench and 5/3/1 overhead press were solid, as were 5 x 5 rows, and my dumbell bench (3 sets to failure) and lat pulldowns (5 x 10) were actually better than I was hoping for. so all in all, not a bad day. Now, I just have to fucking heal the next two rest days, so I can squat like a motherfucker on monday. No more of this "breathing hurts" shit, that needs to be gone.

On a side note, I can't fucking stand skinny, weak people with horrible form, who are actually coaching their dumbass friends in the gym. Everyone should get one thing straight: coaching is REALLY fucking hard. It takes a LOT of experience not just lifting, but learning how to coach and cue the lifts, before you can be an effective coach. I know, because I went through a period where I tried to teach people how to lift, and was fucking terrible at it. I knew how to do them myself, but explaining that to someone who has never lifted before takes more understanding than just how to move weights oneself. In the past 7 or 8 months especially, I've made it a point to try and get more and more coaching experience, preferably paired with a friend who is a MUCH better coach than me, so that I can learn how to properly teach others, and I'm getting a lot better. But anyways, my point is this: if you're new to lifting, you probably can't tell the difference between a jacked, strong friend who is good at coaching, and a jacked, strong friend who isn't, so i understand if you're in the gym with a meathead who isn't the best teacher. but why the FUCK would you be in the gym, taking shitty lessons from this fuck?

The only thing worse than being that guy, is being the guy dumb enough to use this guy as a personal trainer. Don't be a fuck. find someone who at least MIGHT know their shit. Or, better yet, go read something on your own and learn for yourself

www.elitefts.com

Go forth and stop listening to shitheads. 

www.t-nation.com

Chaos and Pain

For anybody who hasn't seen this Blog, Jaime Lewis is one of the reasons I started my own page. He is a crazy fucking smart, smart man. Read and learn.

http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/

The Wasteland

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea	315
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,	320
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

T.S. Eliot, from "The Wasteland

Today was a pretty solid day. Speedwork at 165 off a box was solid. Did two doubles with 265 - the one without the belt was solid, hard work but no problem really. Once I slapped the belt on it was cake though, hit an easy two, could have definitely pushed to three or maybe even four. That's for next week though. 5 x 8 good mornings were very exhausting, but more mentally hard than physically. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

Also, my upper left back is all snapped up for some reason. I think I was sitting with bad posture the other day or something, because it was bothering me yesterday, but today it's worse. It hurts to breathe in deep - not good on a heavy squat day. but I rolled it out with the lacrosse ball, hopefully it'll be better by monday.

Who doesn't love a good, heavy squat day? Assholes, that's who

Squats at 255

This is a video of me, a couple weeks ago, repping out 255. This is after speed work. Ideally, I'm gonna try to make a new video of some lifts every couple weeks or so at least, to keep an eye on my technique and just to have something to look back at. Gotta love squatting.

Jim Wendler

He's the fuckin man. You will never hear me stop saying that. Here are some videos, for those sad, sad people out there who don't know who Jim is. Anyone else, watch again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv_RxROpzfE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXWLI5AjLY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yDq5kHyHwg&feature=related

Goals: A Year Out

As I said, I intend this site to not only be a place for me to keep track of my workouts, program changes, and pr's along the way, but also a way of holding myself to certain goals. I've written down numbers that I hope to hit before (many, many times), but those notebooks and pieces of paper tend to get lost. Furthermore, the goals are always a little too short-sighted. If there's one thing I've learned from Jim Wendler, it's to think in the long term. So here, I'm going to what weights I want to hit by the end of the semester, next year.

I'm basically deciding my goals this way: on 5/3/1, at the slowest, I should be able to put 10 lbs on my squat and dead per month, and 5 on my bench and press. normally, I would give a couple months of buffer room to accommodate small plateaus or injuries or whatever else that might set me back, but instead i'm posting these goals now (at the end of February), planning to hit them the first week in May next year - just about 14 months from now. If i treat those fourteen months like they are going to be a perfect 12 months lifting, that gives me some room for mistakes, injury, whatever. That gives me about 120 lbs on my squat and dead, 60 on my bench and press... however, any lifter knows that your overhead press is almost certainly going to be the biggest bitch to increase (although my shitty, shitty bench sure gives mine a run for it's money), so I'm going to knock a few extra lbs off of my press goal, as well. Also, squatting has been going really well lately... and 395 just wouldn't be quite as sweet as 405. So I'm going to push that one, while backing off of my press expectations a little bit. So here are my official numbers, that I will hit the first week of May, 2013

Squat: 405
Bench: 255
Deadlift: 455
Press: 195

And, I'm going to do those weights without being a fat piece of shit. Right now, I'm hanging out right around 198, and at 5' 10" i'm solid, but not huge by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not at all opposed to gaining weight, but I already did the "gain 30 lb's in a couple months" thing, and I just looked and felt fat and sad. So any weight that I gain, I'm going to have to  gain while eating relatively clean. Right now, at just under 200, my body composition is alright - not great, but better than it has been in the past. My plan is to keep eating clean and doing this high-volume shit until my body comp gets  a little better - hopefully get my body fat between 10% - 12%. Then, it will be a slow and steady weight gain from there, trying to keep my body comp the same while slowly putting on more mass. It's going to be a lot of chicken and broccoli, but I think I can do it.

So those are the goals. Better body comp, maybe 10 lb's heavier if I can manage that, and the numbers I posted above. I have a meet the first week in April, the first one I'll have ever done, so that will give me a better idea of where I'm at, and a better comparison point in May of 2013 for how much my lifts have really grown. It's gonna be a ride.

Rest Day: elbow rehab

I have terrible elbow tendonitis. Or tendonosis. One of those fuckers. Anyway, I think it's a genetic problem, as both my parents have it, and it sucks. I was terrible at pullups, so I started doing them 4 times a week... and then, right when that was starting to work, my tendons started snappin up and causing me a ton of pain. So I started taking way to many ibuprofun, which is never a good solution.

Point is, now I stopped taking drugs, and I need to rehab my elbows a few times a week to keep them from killing me. I found preacher curls work really well for me: I started out going really light, for ton of reps. Now that the elbows are a little better, I warm up, do a few heavier sets, and then drop the weight down a bunch of times, doing sets of ten or 15, to keep my total volume really high. It's a nice way to train my biceps a little extra as well - cause I powerlift, I don't really pay too much attention to my biceps specifically, but curls can be fun (which is why every fucking person in the gym does them), and Jim Wendler himself says that undertrained biceps can fuck up your bench... so maybe the curls will finally help me fucking break this pr. Here is what today looked like.

5 lb dumbell curls x 20
7.5 lb dumbell curls x 15
10  x 10
25 x 10
25 x 9
25 x 7
20 x 10
15 x 10
10 x 10
5 x 20

Not quite like this, but you get the idea.

My elbows feel great. I'm hoping I can keep pushing the weight up on these every month or so, and eventually be curling for rehab what most skinny motherfuckers do work sets with. We will see. If your elbows are fucked up, give this a try. worked great for me.

The Beginning

I'm starting this as a way to keep an eye on myself. It's easy for anybody to make goals, and write them down somewhere, then forget about them or lose sight of them. I've wanted, more than once, a way to keep track of everything - past versions of myself, things I used to love, ideals I used to hold - and to be able to look back on all of that. It's a way to remember, and to hold myself accountable for who I have been and what I have done.

So before I post anything else, I have to post about who I am now. Some history. I am a beginning powerlifter. I'm 20 years old. When I was younger, I was never athletic. Throughout high-school, I tried to stay in shape by running and dieting, but generally failed at all of that. Summer after my senior year, I was lucky enough to inherit, from an injured friend, a squat rack, an olympic bar, and almost 400 lbs of plates. Combine that with my own shitty bench and an old easy curl bar, and I had an incredible garage gym. I trained all summer, doing a terrible bodybuilding program that I dreamed up. Maxed out lifts at the end of the summer:

Squat: 175
Bench: 145
Deadlift: 215

Those are rough approximations because, as I stated at the start of this post, I've never really had a way to keep track of everything that I wanted to.

In the fall, I went away to college, and kept training, adding some serious Crossfitting to the bad bodybuilding I was doing. I had been a fan of Crossfit for a while, and actually got pretty decent at it, considering I was an out of shape piece of shit for most of my life before this. I was doing two days of running, and strength training/WOD's four days a week. My mile time was sub - 6 minutes, I had a 104 400, and I was doing pretty alright at bodyweight WOD's. But my main problem, and the reason I stopped Crossfitting, is that I was still a weak, weak little man. Tested my lifts right before winter break of my freshman year:

Squat: 195
Bench: 175
Deadlift: 245
Strict Press: 125

So I decided to start powerlifting  (temporarily, I told myself), so that I could get strong enough to do the WOD's as prescribed, rather than scaling the weights and staying a weak little bitch. Over winter break, I got a horrible stomach bug, and although I normally hung out around 170 lbs (I'm 5' 10" by the way), I dropped down to 158 lbs. Then, when I came back to school at the end of January, I started my journey with 5 / 3 / 1. That was a fucking magical 4 months. I was high-bar back-squatting (crossfit ingrained it in me), but my lifts increased a shitload. Also, I went up to 195 - definitely not all muscle, but definitely not all fat either. I tested before summer:

Squat: 245
Bench: 205
Deadlift: 265
Strict Press: 145


Here is where I royally fucked up. I was a bit disappointed in my deadlift, but even so, I was making great gains on Jim's program. So I said to myself "Hey, you're doing great! But instead of keeping doing what you're doing, lets do something completely different and fuck up all your progress!" And I did. For whatever bizarre and fucked-up reason, I started running again, trying to take off weight, doing WOD's a few times a week, and doing some kind of dumbass interpretation of starting strength. It was horrible. By the end of the summer, I managed to force my deadlift up another ten pounds, but that was it. The only other good things that came out of last summer are that I switched to a low bar back squat, and I stopped Benching with a false grip (found out you can't do that in some competition, so I decided to stop). I even carried this moronic, fuck-head training bullshit over into the first month or so of my training back at school. Then, finally, I decided to stop - and started to mess around with Westside training.

Speed squats and max effort started to finally get my squat going, and speed deadlifts, without any really heavy deadlifting, actually worked MUCH better for improving my dead numbers than high-rep, heavy stuff ever did. However, my bench stayed stuck, no matter how much I did or didn't bench, no matter how heavy I went. Speed work didn't do shit either. I trained hard, through winter break, and ended up with these numbers at the start of this semester:

Squat: 275
Bench: 205
Deadlift: 335
Strict Press: 150

I started this semester doing the same sort of westside DE/ME work, in preparation for my first competition. However, the competition ended up being moved, and in the mean time my squat gains were starting to slow down, and my bench was still shit. So, I decided to start combining all the shit I've learned in my last year of experience - 5/3/1 worked great for my squat and bench. Westside worked great for my squat and dead. So lets combine that bullshit. Basically, I'm doing a Westside ME/DE split, but with 5/3/1 sets as my ME work. also, I threw in "boring but big" sets as my assistance work on ME days, and 5/3/1 Strict Press as assistance on DE bench day. Heres a typical training week.

mon: 5/3/1 squat, speed deads, 5 x 10 squat
tues: 5/3/1 bench, 5 x 10 bench, 5 x 10 bent over rows, pullups/lat pulldowns
wed: rest
thurs: Speed squats, Heavy double squat, 5 x 5 front squat OR good morning
fri: Speed Bench, 5/3/1 Press, 5 x 5 b.o. row, dumbell chest press ( 3 sets to failure), lat pulldown
sat and sun: rest

So far it's working incredibly for my squat - in the past few weeks, I squatted 245 for 8 with my belt, and yesterday I squatted 225 for an easy 12, without the belt. I have yet to see progress with my bench, but I think it might just take a few cycles for all the back work and the pressing to get heavy enough that it really forces my bench to start to go up. I've been watching as much Dave Tate as I can, trying to get my form perfect. I guess i just have to give it some more time, hopefully it has no choice but to grow soon.

So that's my introduction to this. There will probably never again be a post this long. From now on it will mostly be changes to my programming, PR's, me bitching about a shitty day in the gym, or the odd picture/video/oddity that I feel like sharing and remembering myself. And we will see where it goes.

-N.K.

One of my personal favorites. Stan Efferding, Worlds Strongest Bodybuilder

An Agony. As Now

An Agony. As Now

I am inside someone
who hates me. I look
out from his eyes. Smell
what fouled tunes come in
to his breath. Love his
wretched women.

Slits in the metal, for sun. Where
my eyes sit turning, at the cool air
the glance of light, or hard flesh
rubbed against me, a woman, a man,
without shadow, or voice, or meaning.

This is the enclosure (flesh,
where innocence is a weapon. An
abstraction. Touch. (Not mine.
Or yours, if you are the soul I had
and abandoned when I was blind and had
my enemies carry me as a dead man
(if he is beautiful, or pitied.

It can be pain. (As now, as all his
flesh hurts me.) It can be that. Or
pain. As when she ran from me into
that forest.
                     Or pain, the mind
silver spiraled whirled against the
sun, higher than even old men thought
God would be. Or pain. And the other. The
yes. (Inside his books, his fingers. They
are withered yellow flowers and were never
beautiful.) The yes. You will, lost soul, say
‘beauty.’ Beauty, practiced, as the tree. The
slow river. A white sun in its wet sentences.

Or, the cold men in their gale. Ecstasy. Flesh
or soul. The yes. (Their robes blown. Their bowls
empty. They chant at my heels, not at yours.) Flesh
or soul, as corrupt. Where the answer moves too quickly.
Where the God is a self, after all.)

Cold air blown through narrow blind eyes. Flesh,
white hot metal. Glows as the day with its sun.
It is a human love, I live inside. A bony skeleton
you recognize as words or simple feeling.

But it has no feeling. As the metal, is hot, it is not,
given to love.
It burns the thing
inside it. And that thing
screams.

–Amiri Baraka, 1964