[quote]Alpha wrote:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” --Apple Inc.
[/quote]
This is where I’m at right now.
Alpha Dude! A huge thank you for the article on your site, I don’t think of it as a rant, it’s a bada$$ speech more people need to listen to it not just “hear” it! And I’m disgusted with that front squat…you made that look to easy!
Regev: Really great points man, I will have to look into this more. Thanks so much for the advice!
Roran: That would be awesome man! I hope it is sooner than later!
gvaldes: Thanks so much man, I really appreciate the feedback on the article and yea I have considered oly lifting. I recently put up a vid of me squat cleaning 350. That was the first time I had ever really tried the lift heavy at all. I would just need a coach to help teach me the movements. Thanks for asking man!
Spar4tee: You and I both brother. But I’d much rather be there than the alternative…
FarmerOwen: Thanks brother! Just trying to get better everyday!
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“Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.” --Thucydides
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” --Vince Lombardi
FRIDAY, 24OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
CONDITIONING - 6 Rounds
10 Bumper Plate Flips (Each Hand) :45’s for most of the time, 35’s when fatigue really set in. (Vid below of one of my sets)
150 Foot Bumper Plate Farmer’s Walk 55’s and 45’s
20 KettleBell Goblet Squats: 150lb Kettlebell
STRENGTH
Took 20 Minutes to find a 3RM Overhead Squat. (Snatched all weights on first rep to get into position)
115x3
135x3
155x3
185x3
205x3
225x3
Then Every Minute On the Minute, Completed 3 Traditional Snatches With 135lbs on the bar. Did this for 12 Minutes
NOTES:
- Normal Rucking first thing in the morning.
- Overhead squats felt good, I actually like doing these now.
- The snatch work at the end was just trying to get a lot of reps dropping under the bar and catching it in a full squat position. i am getting better at this, but still have a very long way to go.
- I watched a video of Mike Jenkins at the arnold a while back where he was doing some promo for rogue where he was flipping a 45lb bumper plate and challenging other guys to do it. He and I used to do that with regular plates a log time ago when we trained together. I had forgotten all about it until I saw the vid yesterday. So i did some for fun.
Here is an unbroken set of 8 flips with a 45lb plate:
“The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.” --Vince Lombardi
SATURDAY, 25OCTOBER2014 - Work for Today
CONDITIONING - 3 Minutes Work / 1 Minute Rest for 5 Rounds
20 Kettlebell Goblet Squats
8 Sprawl Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
5 Kettlebell Clean & Press (Each Side)
5 Burpees
50 Double Unders
STRENGTH - 6 Rounds, Adding weight every round
3 Weighted Pull-Ups
3 Push-Presses
10 Glute Ham Raises
15 “V” Sit-Ups
-dieEMPTY-
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“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” --William James
SUNDAY, 26OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
CONDITIONING - Tabatas: 20 Seconds Work / 10 Seconds rest for 8 Rounds
8 Rounds of Hand over Hand Sled Pull
Rest 1 Minute
8 Rounds of Medicine Ball Throws/Burpee Broad Jumps: 50lb Ball
Rest 1 Minute
8 Rounds of Full Body Sled High Rows
Rest 1 Minute
8 Rounds of Dimel Deadlifts @ 315lbs
STRENGTH - As Many Rounds As Possible in 20 Minutes
3 Deficit Deadlifts (3" Deficit): Worked Up to 545lbs
3 Stone Over Bar (54" Bar): Worked up to a 300lb Stone
NOTES:
- Everything Felt Pretty good today with the exception of the stones. I struggled on them today but it was definitely a technique thing. I’ll work on it.
Haha! Literally tossing weights around, I haven’t seen the before.
Roran: Hahaha yea man, give it a shot. It is a lot harder than it looks!
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“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.” --Jim Rhone
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” --Stephen Covey
MONDAY, 27OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
EVENTS - 6 Rounds
1 - 15 Foot Rope Climb
50 Foot Keg Carry (225lb Keg)
100 Foot Farmer’s Carry: Worked up to 275lbs each hand
STRENGTH - 6 Rounds, Adding Weight Every Round
5 - 2? Axle Bent Over Rows: 225, 275, 315, 335, 365, 365
5 - 2? Axle Floor Presses: 225, 275, 315, 365, 405, 435
10 Seated Barbell Landmines: 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50
300 Meter Run Carrying a 50lb Medicine Ball
CONDITIONING
15 Rounds
3 Barbell Floor Presses @ 365lbs
15 Seconds Rest Between Rounds
NOTES:
- Pressing felt good today, I like pressing the axle better than a barbell. It seems to be easier on my hands and wrists.
- The EVENTS portion was a good one.
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For those of you who didn’t make it over to my site for the last rant I posted, you can find it here: http://www.neversate.com/wrath/2014/10/21/it-has-never-been-about-the-weights
I’ll just copy and paste it for the lazy folk out there…Hope some of you will find it interesting…
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It has never been about the weights.
In the past week, I have been told to remove the daily workouts from the site because they appear too challenging and intimidating.
In the past week, I have been told that I should remove all of the “self-help” / inspirational content from the site because it takes away from the gym’s business.
In the past week, I have been told to change the homepage on the site because it is too intense for people and that NEVERsate will fail because it does not cater to a large enough population.
In the past week, I have been told to include treadmills and ellipticals in my gym or it will never create enough memberships to sustain costs.
In the past week, I have decided to say, “No” a lot of times.
But one of the most surprising emails I received this week was from an individual who stated that they enjoy reading the website, but they don’t understand why it’s content is so obsessed with “hard workouts and lifting heavy weights”. My response to the email was a laconic, “It’s never been about the weights.”
I think what people fail to realize is that the concepts of NEVERsate and dying empty are not about working out…they never have been. These ideas are not about making money, not about capitulating to other people’s wants, and they are not here to make people feel good about themselves. NEVERsate is here to act as a vehicle to help people break through their preconceived glass ceilings in whatever field or passion they desire…it is an attempt at building better people and a better society… it sure as hell has never been about the weights.
In my experience I have found that physical exertion is the fastest way to find the answers to the questions inside of each of us that we didn’t even know existed. I believe that emotional breakthroughs that would normally require years of therapy can be solved exponentially faster through excruciating periods of exhaustion and breathing fire. When engaging in extremely strenuous activity, I think you can face mental and emotional challenges daily that you may only get the chance to see a few times in your life. Even better, if you fail in the face of such a challenge, instead of beating yourself up for years over it, you will have the opportunity to act differently the very next day when you bring yourself right back to the point of panicked exhaustion, again and again, until your resolve begins to strengthen and you overcome your fear instead of shying away and crumbling in front of it.
Working out day after day in this manner makes you stronger. And stronger people are harder to kill, hurt, victimize and abuse. The strength I just mentioned has very little to do with your muscles or how much you squat. It has everything to do with your mind, confidence and how you view the world.
When you push yourself to and past your previous preconceived limits on a daily basis, you learn something about your mind and soul that few in our modern time understand.
You learn that time moves on, with or without you whether you want it to or not. 30 seconds does not care about your feelings, it stays the same, only your perception can change in that relationship. You are forced to learn that pain is a lie and can only hold the power over you that you choose to give it. You learn to drown out negative self talk. Sometimes you learn to shut off your brain completely or break things into smaller, manageable parts so that, no matter what, you will come out of the the other side of the fire tempered and new. You learn how to push yourself when things get hard and you learn to focus on one step at a time when the odds seem impossible. You learn that you are not a victim. You learn that whether you fail or succeed, 99% of the time you can directly trace the result back to your preparation and the choices you made. You learn how good accomplishment feels and how nothing tastes as sweet as a reward that took every last ounce of your fortitude to earn.
You learn that you won’t always win and you learn how terrible loosing feels. You learn that nothing can hurt you worse than quitting because you let your own mind beat you and doing so burns a scar inside you that never completely heals. You learn that nothing comes for free, anything worth owning is worth earning, and that an extraordinary will beats age, genetics and talent most days of the week.
You learn to own your mistakes. You learn when to listen to experience and when to listen to your gut. You learn that basic things are usually pretty complicated and complicated things are often very simple. You learn that you truly only have THIS very moment to live and that whatever is going to use up your time better be worth it. You learn that shortcuts are never worth it and are never as short as you originally imagined. You learn you will always have more to learn and that anything worth doing, is worth doing right.
You learn that there are things out there to love.
You learn that there are things out there to stand for.
You learn that there are things out there to live for.
And you will learn that there are things out there to die, completely empty, for.
And eventually you will come to the realization that all of this hard work, never was, and never will be… about the weights.
Thanks for reading.
Strong rant!
One of my favorites.
One of your best rants yet!
“You learn how good accomplishment feels and how nothing tastes as sweet as a reward that took every last ounce of your fortitude to earn.”
So true!
Regev: Thanks brother!
Roran: Thanks boss! It is good to know I haven’t lost my touch!
Ironwarrior: Thanks man, you know that lesson better than most!
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“The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy…but where are they.” --Plutarch
TUESDAY, 28OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
CONDITIONING
20 Pull-Ups
20 Deficit Handstand Push-Ups
20 Dimel Deadlifts with 275lbs
100 Double Unders
15 Pull-Ups
15 Deficit Handstand Push-Ups
15 Dimel Deadlifts with 315lbs
100 Double Unders
10 Pull-Ups
10 Deficit Handstand Push-Ups
10 Dimel Deadlifts with 365lbs
100 Double Unders
Then Got a mouthful of water. Performed 10 Minutes of sprints (:20 Seconds Work / :10 Seconds Rest for 20 Rounds). Spit out the water when all Sprints were completed.
NOTES:
- Normal Rucking first thing in the morning.
- I am really liking dimdl deadlifts. I am really hoping they get me closer to that 700lb deadlift.
- Sprinting with a mouthful of water is always mentally tough as hell. If you have never tried it, it forces you to relax and control your breathing and panic. Give it a shot.
***For those of you interested, I just posted a new article about equipping a strongman gym on my site.
Thanks for those of you who head over there to check it out!
Congrats on the competition, i know you’re disappointed but that’s still impressive in my book. You worked damn hard you should be proud of yourself.
Have you read this article? How to Fix Special Forces Training if so, what do you think of it? Be interesting to hear your opinion.
Been doing some of your cardio things too, they’re great but now I’ve got extremely tight hips. Any advice there? Thanks.
I’ve also just been sucking it up and eating my avacados, but I’ve also found that some balsamic vinegar really helps.
Thanks for your time brother.
Interesting strongman article man. Do you have guys in your gym who want to train strongman with you but have a low strength base on the barbell lifts? I imagine it would be tricky as some of the implements even unweighted can be quite heavy. A lot of the strongmen come from a good background in the weight room first. Without giving away secrets, how would you deal with this?
Tim_Tom: Thanks brother, I am just trying to get better every day! And yea, I read that article. I agree with everything the guy said about PT problems in the military and how they could be improved. Especially with regular blood testing to check their levels.
When you say you have tight hips, what do you mean exactly? Like do you need mobility stuff? If so i would recommend Kelly Staret’s stuff. He runs mobilitywod.com and has a great book called “becoming a supple leopard”. If you mean like your lower erectors get tight during the conditioning stuff, then it is most likely because of tight hamstrings or getting a little sloppy on form. This happens to me sometimes but usually a few minutes rolling on a LAX ball in the pockets around my hips/pelvis usually yeps to unlock me. I hope that answers your question boss, if not, just clarify some and I will do my best to help. Thanks again for posting man!
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“No matter how you feel, get up, show up and never give up. Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass.” --Anil Sinha quotes
WEDNESDAY, 29OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
CONDITIONING - Worked up to 600lbs
Every Minute on the Minute for 10 Minutes
50 Foot Yoke Walk in Front Rack Position
50 Foot Yoke Walk in Regular Rack Position
STRENGTH
Every Minute on the Minute for 10 Minutes, Completed 2 Back Squats @ 525lbs
GIANT SETS - 5 Rounds
10 Barbell Walking Lunges @ 225lbs
8 Reverse Hypers @ 90lbs
8 Glute Ham Raise Sit-Ups
4 Sandbag Get-Ups: 120lb Sandbag
NOTES:
- Normal Rucking first thing in the morning.
- First time ever trying carrying the yoke in front rack. It was a lot harder than i thought.
- Squats felt good today. I think I am finally beginning to understand what I have been ding wrong here.
- Walking lunges with 225 on your back is no joke.
Alpha,
Could you possibly give me some insight on how you program workouts? Allow me to give you an introduction of where I stand so you don’t find yourself repeating certain things that I’ve come to learn. From what I’ve gathered from reading and trial and error on myself I understand that first and foremost your training should always reflect that in which will help you achieve your currents goal and that strength is always primary. But at the same time I want to be able to perform at high levels of conditioning.
Before anyone says anything let me preface this by saying that I have no interest in being a crossfit athlete or anything of that sort. I just want to be able to lift heavy loads (I.e. My Current goals are 2.5x body weight dead, 2x body weight squat and c&j 1.75x body weight) and still have that gpp that I believe every male should have. I don’t know if you know of these but outlaw crossfit (I know I kind of contradicted myself by stating a crossfit box but their methods are different than the majority of the others.) and gant grimes hybrid protocols are kind of what I’m leaning towards. Just thought, since you obviously know a thing or two about getting strong and still being able to outperform most 160 lb cardio masters despite your size, I’d ask the man himself.
Also, I understand that what I ask isn’t some kind of 12-16 week program but rather a lifetime commitment. And in the end nothing will beat hardwork and dedication but in the same sense there’s always a smart way to do things. Thanks in advance for any input you have, it will not fall on deaf ears.
Alpha, I had I different sort of question set for you whenever you’ve got time.
I’ve been reading a bits about the military, survivalist stuff, and even some of Le Corre’s stuff from movnat, and was wondering what your views were on endurance work. I remember reading that you used to run and hike a lot with your other job and was wondering how practical high levels of endurance are, how does it affect strength, training etc.
The thing that really got me thinking was learning that Kelly Starett has run an ultrmarathon at over 200 lbs with a 400+ squat and 500+ deadlift. I still have my main strength goals, but have never felt that excluding things is the way to go for me personally.
Tim_Tom: I used to have tight hips, and second what Alpha said. The LAX ball for my gluteus and “couch stretch” have done more for them than anything else.
Whilst I was doing the conditioning I only felt tired and a bit of lactic acid - to be expected. But since my hip flexors have been tight and painful. Forgot all about Kelly starret, gonna look at his stuff again. Thanks!
c
Cheers roran, didn’t see your comment till just now. I suspect tight hams and glutes aren’t helping.
law8: Well man, I fortunately do not have anyone like the example you gave. Usually someone needs to build up a decent base of strength before they can even attempt a lot of the strongman implements. But that said, we DO have a lot of just ordinary, every day people who like training with the strongman stuff because it is different than traditional gym lifts. And all of the movements have HUGE carryover to real life functional strength. If you can carry a 250lb keg anywhere, just about anything you encounter in normal life seems fairly easy.
Almost all of the movements are scalable though. I have lighter tires for people of less strength or I have them flip in teams of two. I keep an empty keg around, have lighter sandbags, and farmer’s handles are only 20-25lbs each. I even start a lot of the ladies in my workouts with the axle instead of a barbell because it only weighs 20lbs and the fatter grip seems to build up their wrists and forearms faster than traditional movements. I have 14 Stones, the lightest of which is 73lbs, but I also have slammable medicine balls @ 20, 35 & 50lbs. Honestly though, I usually ask the women or less strong men if they can pick up an eight year old kid. When they say they can, and the weights are put into perspective for them, most implements lose their sense of intimidation and they are able to complete the movements.
Good question, thanks for asking!
Gvaldes: Well man, that is a tough question but I’ll give it a shot.
I break my programming into 10 week blocks. After the 10 weeks is up it is time for some PR attempts. Most of the time it looks something like this:
CONDITIONING: Approximately 12-15 minutes of hard conditioning with a focus on a skill or prepping the muscle groups that we are going to be focusing on for strength that day.
STRENGTH: Something similar to the cube method in that the exercises rotate “heavy, rep, explosive” days and based of percentages of your 1RMs. I try to keep this very short though (10-20 Minutes) and keep a clock on the movements to control the amount of rest taken.
GIANT SETS: More accessory stuff for the strength exercise we did that day. I always put Pulling movements before pushing on upper body and some sort of conditioning movement at the end of the Round.
EVENTS: Anything goes here. Sometimes these come in the form of conditioning, sometimes they are a finisher. Lots of medleys and whatever sickness my mind can conjure up.
So a basic week would look like this:
Day 1:
Conditioning
Strength: Deads Heavy, short rest intervals between.
Giant sets: Stiff legged deads, reverse hypers, and ab movement, run 400 meters holding a med ball.
Day 2:
Conditioning (Lots of pulling motions in here to prime the shoulders)
Strength: Bench Reps, Core movement between sets
Giant sets: Bent Over row, Incline log press, Oblique movement, tire flips
Day 3:
Events: Strongman movements. Primarily Conditioning
Day 4:
Conditioning
Strength: Squats explosive. Usually EMOM stuff here
Giant sets: Walking Lunges, GHRs, Ab movement, Grip conditioning
Day 5:
Events or conditioning alone
Day 6: Conditioning
Strength: OHP Heavy
Giant sets: Weighted Pull-Ups, Press Medley, oblique work
Day 7: Off
That is a little idea of how I program. I hope this answers your question brother, if not, just clarify a little and i will answer the best I can. Thanks for asking!
Roran: Well man, I think it depends on what you are training for. If you are looking at spec ops stuff, endurance under weight is king. If you want to run 8 Marathons a year then I would probably look at losing mass or your joints will hate you.
As far as isolated events like a marathon or a tough mudder type race, i think you can suck it up and get through it at any body weight as long as your mentally tough enough. Just imagine if you weighed 250lbs of lean muscle but your family was in serious danger 25 miles away and you had no other way to get there other than to run, you wouldn’t just give up and let them die. You would suck it up and get there as fast as you could…It is no different. If the end goal is desirable enough for you, you will find a way. If it isn’t, you will give up. It is all about your mindset and learning to endure pain.
I still ruck 2 Miles every morning and according to my phone, average close to 5 more miles everyday just in my normal moving around. that is 7 miles every day, 5-7 days a week (25-35 total miles) and it doesn’t effect my strength or size.
That said, the body will adapt to whatever stressors you place upon it. If I was running that every week, I’m sure it would start to shrink me down a bit so that the movement would become more efficient. But walking under load and then just moving around seems to hold onto muscle and burn body fat.
I think people too often impose limits on what there bodies are capable of because of what they choose to read and ingest. Modern medicine would tell us that running a ultra marathon while keeping a 500lb deadlift probably isn’t possible. It also tells us that you can’t burn fat and gain muscle at the same time…Which is BS. And less than 100 years ago it was telling us that if you ran a sub 4 minute mile, that your heart would literally explode. Now top marathoners run entire races at that pace.
Your body is the greatest thing you will ever have the chance to play with. Don’t place limits on it or sell it short. It is only bound by your own thinking. If you can endure, you can achieve. It is all about what you are willing to sacrifice to get there.
Read the book, “unbreakable” about a WWII pow/plane crash/survival guy. (they are making a movie about it also). That guy endured more in a lifetime than most could ever even imagine. He credited his training as an olympic athlete to his survival. People who live in the suck day after day are familiar with it. So when things get bad, they know how to focus on nothing but the next step. 99.9% of people lose their minds when their cable TV goes out. Hard people weren’t born that way. They are tempered.
I hope that answers your question, brother. Thanks for asking!
Tim_Tom: Yea man, Staret is the man when it comes to mobilizing what needs to be mobilized and stabilizing what needs to be stabilized. Honestly though, once I cleaned up my form on all of the movements, my lower back/hip tightening ceased. I would speak more on how to increase your mobility but would just sound stupid with all of the other experts out there and would just be repeating what I have learned from them. Wish I would more of an expert on such things so I could help you out more man.
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“Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you’re not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.” --Dean Karnazes
THURSDAY, 30OCTOBER2014 - Work For Today
CONDITIONING - 3 Minutes Work / 1 Minute Rest for 5 Rounds
10 Goblet Squats
5 Left Side Bulgarian Split Squats (Kettlebell Held in Left Hand Suitcase Position)
5 Burpee Box Jumps
5 Right Side Bulgarian Split Squats (Kettlebell Held in Right Hand Suitcase Position)
5 Burpee Box Jumps
Then At the top of every minute, complete 5 Burpees. For the remainder of the minute perform as many front squats as possible (Clean first rep From the Floor). Continue to do this until you have reached 100 Total Front Squats. 135lbs on the Bar.