Bumping this up to the first page
Our chaplain at school once read one of Kingsley’s sermons. I have never forgotten the atmosphere in the room during it. Hope your hamstring heals up man. I agree just started on the deficit deads they are a bitch off the floor. All the best.
Hey Alpha, I just wanted to thank you for the 531 setup on the previous page, I’ll use that one. One question though, when you write “obliques”, what exercise do you mean?
I hope your hamstring is better. Best wishes.
EDIT: I just read through the last two pages of the log again and noticed the “full contact twists” as the oblique exercise in your last training session. Sorry for asking dumb questions, I’m a little slow sometimes.
Alpha,
Do you believe in overtraining, or do you believe it’s just an excuse that weak people make to justify either a weakness or lack of discipline?
I mean, we all have days where we feel less than great, but there are people who think that if you don’t take off several weeks per year you won’t make max gains.
When I feel run-down and the word “overtraining” creeps into my brain, I always take a look at my recovery and nutrition. When it comes down to it, I am usually not getting enough sleep and/or not fueling my body sufficiently. I can’t overstress the importance of getting high quality sleep.
Also, I remember that in one of your rants you stated that 99% of people don’t even have the guts to train as hard as they should. I mean you got guys graduating from BUD/S and other ridiculously demanding training which, in my mind proves that the mind controls the body.
Thanks.
Well, you must not have been lurking in my log the last few days(or have you?) 
I’ve got everything from bulging biceps to skinny jeans going on, hehe.
Hope you are behaving and taking care of yourself…be safe!
Alpha,
Great too see you back – looking forward to getting up to speed on your training, as well as reading your funny and inspiring ancedotes. I put a dent in the thread but have a lot more reading to do.
All the best.
AB
Hercales: Totally agree with you brother, that is why I post them all of the time. I do often wonder, though, just how many people just blow right over them or do not even notice what they are trying to teach us. So thanks for mentioning them man!
Pat: again, same as above brother, thanks for reading them and for the kind words!
Bambi: hey, thanks for getting me back up here man, it is nice to come home and see that people have been checking this thing out while I was gone. And yea brother, I totally agree about the deads from a deficit, they are brutal off the floor. But hopefully that will make 700 break off the floor much more easily!
Enjoy the Pain: No problem man, just glad that it will be useful to you. When I say obliques or abs, it really is determined by what is available to me that day. For obliques in particular though, some of my favorite exercise are, wind shield wipers, full contact twists, decline weighted twists, weighted side bends and different variations on bridges. Thanks for asking man, and I hope that helps!
Animal Mother: Well, this is kind of a slippery slope. It is not that I do not think that overtraining exists, I honestly do believe it does. But much like ADD or ADHD, I think it gets diagnosed waaaayyyy too often. As you mentioned, I believe that ninety percent of the time people need to check their recovery and nutrition before they start making excuses about being over trained. If you take my training for instance, a lot of people think I do way too much and will not get the results I want, and yet most of those people are smaller, weaker, and in worse shape than I am.
We live is such a weakened, take no responsibility for your actions, society that it is easier for people to bash others who ARE getting it done, rather than taking that extra time and energy and applying it to their OWN goals. It is one of the things that I find most disgusting about people as a whole.
David Horton, one of those Ultramarathon, run till you die guys, was quoted as saying:
“The body can always do more than the mind thinks it can. In the first year of the Trans-America (a race where you run straight across America) running from Los Angeles to New York, a young man got a stress fracture in Missouri and for a period of a couple of weeks he had to run the average of forty-five miles a day, and he was just barely making the cutoffs. But he made them. And toward the end, his foot started recovering, and he started running fast again.”
“The first time I did the Appalachian Trial (Running it) I was averaging forty miles a day from Georgia to Maine. On days eight, nine and ten I had severe tendonitis in one shin, and one day, all day long I was urinating blood. For a thousand miles I was dealing with shin splints, icing, and using anti-inflammatories, But then they finally got well!”
When there a guys out there running 50 miles a day for 50 days on broken legs, it kind of puts things like overtraining and being tired into perspective.
Most experts agree that in order to become great at something you need 10,000 hours of deliberate, concise practice to get there. If you are only getting in 5 hours a week at the gym, you will be 300 before you become great. Ask people like Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Dan Gable, or Randy Courture about overtraining and they will laugh in your face.
You do not get better by sitting around, and you do not get bigger and stronger by NOT lifting weights. Granted, too much can be detrimental, but your brain will stop making chemicals resulting in depression, injure your body, or make you pass out. In my opinion, if these things start happening, they you are over trained. If not, well, then I would just have to chalk it up to being lame and making excuses.
Sorry for the long winded response but, you know that is one of the things that pushes my buttons. This may become the topic for a future rant actually. So thanks for asking and getting my brain flowing again brother!
MIM: Say no more, I am on my way there!
Chi Town: Great to see you back around here brother! Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, and do not be such a stranger!
============================================
Thanks for keeping this thing going while I was away everyone. I have not gotten much training in at all due to some factors with work that are out of my control, but I am back in the States now and ready to hit it hard as soon as I can.
I am not home quite yet, but if all goes as planned a workout will be coming tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Again, I appreciate the support and all of you keeping this thing relevant while I was away.
Forgive me for throwing it back to April; although I wanted to chime in on this:
“-5 plates on dips felt pretty heavy, but hit depth easily and felt like I had elephantiasis walking around with all those plates hanging from a chain around my waist…speaking of which that dumnb chain was cutting into me like crazy…I think it was more painful than the dips! I have forgotten what it is like to lift heavy things like that again…but i digress”
I’ve ripped many tees with weighted dips – I’m only using two plates and change, I can’t imagine how five feels. Probably leaves you a nice large mark east of your navel!
Alpha, I’ve realized that I suck at keeping my midsection tight on back squats. I also don’t wear a belt and use a high bar. When you go heavy, how do you set up under the weight?
Keep kicking ass
Chitown: Yeah man, sometimes I even get chain shaped bruises around my hip bones…but it is what it is…thanks for checking back in brother!
EB2012: well, i don’t so a whole lot of high bar stuff so i usually have the bar right below where my traps stop bumping out as much…I keep my index fingers on the rings, and try to keep my elbows as under the bar as possible. a few things you may want to try that would help you out (other chine in also if I am off base or you have more to add) would be:
-Make sure you are taking a huge belly breath and holding it before your reps
-think about sitting “back” instead of “down”
-push through with your heels and drive with your hips
-push under that bar like you are military pressing it on the way up
-push your head/neck back into the bar on the way up
Give some of these a try and see if they help you out. I hope they do! let me know!
“A fighter needs to learn the difference between the truth and a lie. The Lie is that submission is an acceptable option. The truth is that if you give up, afterward you’ll realize that any of those punches that you thought you couldn’t deal with, or those rough moments you didn’t think you would make it through, were just moments…Pain is an illusion.”
-Teddy Atlas
13July2010: Training
Insert: with as few breaks as possible race to 100 Pull-ups
try to get to 100 Pull-ups, but every time you drop off the bar you have to run 200 meters as fast as possible…Mine was rough today and looked like this
30 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
21 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
18 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
13 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
12 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
6 Pull-ups
Ran 200 Meters as fast as i could
This ^^ just about killed me…
Strength: Giant sets:
1a. BB Rows: 225/8, 245/8, 275/7, 275/7 (bar kept slipping out of my hands)
1b. Bench: 285/5, 330/5, 375/5, 365/5
1c. weighted Abs: 4 sets of 8 reps
2a. Bodyweight Chins: 10,10,10
2b. Bradford presses: 155/8, 175/8, 155/8
2c. Bodyweight Chins: 10,10,10
2d. weighted Dips: 90/8, 115/8, 115/8
Extract:
Jogged 1.5 Miles on the treadmill, and it seemed like a WHOLE lot of work just to get that done!
Notes:
-That was a WHOLE lot of pull-ups today!
-Bench felt pretty heavy, probably because I just about killed myself on the insert!
-I was feeling kind of run down today heading into this session, but it turned out okay considering…deads tomorrow again, we will see how that goes!
-Going for a ruck later tonight, just hope it doesn’t mess up my numbers for tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
[quote]Alpha wrote:
EB2012: well, i don’t so a whole lot of high bar stuff so i usually have the bar right below where my traps stop bumping out as much…I keep my index fingers on the rings, and try to keep my elbows as under the bar as possible. a few things you may want to try that would help you out (other chine in also if I am off base or you have more to add) would be:
-Make sure you are taking a huge belly breath and holding it before your reps
-think about sitting “back” instead of “down”
-push through with your heels and drive with your hips
-push under that bar like you are military pressing it on the way up
-push your head/neck back into the bar on the way up
Give some of these a try and see if they help you out. I hope they do! let me know!
=============================================
[/quote]
thank you for pointing the “back not down” thing out.
as training is alot more mental then some ppl think. just that thought process had me not curving my back upwards while going ass to the grass today. that and some hip flexing stuff i’ve been reading up on and trying. (my lower back’s been curving the wrong way lately) anyways, anough rambling, keep it up man!
Read a quote the other day I thought you’d get a kick out of-
“The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing”- Walt Disney
Hope all is well brother. Be easy.
Alpha,
I know how to train for max strength and building up to 5,3 and 1 rep maxes. But I don’t know hot to train for strength-endurance. I figure that you need it for your job and I need to start doing it for my job.
I think you may have mentioned something on this subject in a previous post, but I haven’t found it yet.
Thanks again.
Halfbreed: Glad to of helped brother, and i totally agree about the mentality and training. Thanks for checking in brother!
Flash: Great quote brother! And it came at the perfect time for some stuff that i have been milling about in my mind…Thanks so much for thinking of bringing it here and posting it man!
Animal mother: You know man, I really think that building muscular endurance is simply done by doing it. I know that sounds too simplistic, but a lot of it is about learning how to tolerate the lactic acids build up in your muscles, as well as controlling your breathing so that you have strength for a long period of time…for me, the only way it goes up is by doing more higher rep stuff, but my muscle fiber type seems to be more of the fast explosive type 2b stuff, and my muscular endurance sucks!
Inserts and extracts work pretty well for me, and you should also Check out the website www.sealfit.com, and you will get some good ideas for building up your endurance, but it always sucks…
Good luck brother, wish i had a better answer for ya!
Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in “Notes from the Underground”:
“What is to be done with the millions of facts that bear witness that men, consciously, that is fully understanding their real interests, have left them in the background and have rushed headlong on another path, to meet peril and danger, compelled to this course by nobody and by nothing, but as it were, simply disliking the beaten track, and have obstinately, willfully, struck out another absurd way, seeking it almost in the darkness…And what if it happens that a man’s advantage, sometimes, not only may, but even must, consist in his desiring in certain cases what is harmful to himself?”
14July2010: Training
Insert:
5 rounds of:
10 Chin-ups
10 Push ups
10 Burpees
10 BW squats
10 Handstand push-ups
Strength: Giant sets
1a. Conventional Deads (All dead stopped on the floor): 410x3, 470x3, 520x3
(Switch to hybrid sumo stance) 500x2, 500x2, 520x2
1b. Weighted decline sit-ups: 6 sets of 8 reps
2a. Front Squats: 275x5, 315x5, 335/4 (lost my tighness)
2b. Weighted Decline Sit-ups: 3 sets of 8 reps
2c. DB swings: 75x8, 75x8, 75x8
3a. Rack deads (Pins set in the center of my knees): 455x2, 495x2, 545x2, 585x2 (with a 30 sec hold on the last rep)
3b. BB Shrugs: 405/8, 455/8
Extract:
4 hill sprints
Notes:
-Not a bad day overall…i really wasn’t feeling it today…it seems like if i am not trying to max out on something then i flounder at the gym and it is hard to get me motivated to get through the doors…yet i still get there–and always feel better after I am done…
-I swear to you i am stronger doing deads from the floor than i am on rack deads…I think I might be loosing it!
-Front squats i just do not like much. the bar pushing into my throat for that long always makes me feel like puking…
-Drove to this huge long hill near my house after the gym and did some sprints…but my legs were just spent from the session.
hope all is well out there…i am out of the US for a while again, i am going to try to get a workout in tomorrow but am not sure if I will have the time, if so, i throw it up here. thanks
I’m trying to decide whether to start training again due to having half my right big toe removed in an ingrown toe-nail removal surgery. I thought at first I’d take a day off and recover then get back at it, but when I removed the bandages today It was an awful surprise.
a third of my toe on both the left and the right side is cut away and I get sick every time I have to think about it or move around. I was wondering if you, Alpha, or anyone else following this log, has some advice for me or can relate to what’s happening.
Mackk: Well brother, i have to say i am sorry to hear about your toe. Although I didn’t recently have surgery on my foot, most people I know, myself included, have some bad junk going on right now. Physical or otherwise…
Whenever I am feeling down or am focusing too much on myself i try to put it into perspective. Yesterday i clean ripped off the toenail on my pinky toe…it sucks, but your situation is much worse. Yours sucks, but someone else lost their Mother in a car accident yesterday… Your toe could have gotten infected and you could have gotten part of your foot or even part of your leg removed. or you could find out that you, like me, have a brain tumor…or you could like dudes…You see where I am going with this. things can, and often will get worse.
Suffering and pain is a huge chunk of life, but that is no secret to anyone. What truly separates people is the manner in HOW they allow that suffering to affect them. It is easy for anyone to be happy and motivated when things are good and the sun is shining, but once a little pressure comes on people, you begin to see their true colors. Luckily, this is a choice, and we control our emotions (or at least the actions that spawn from those emotions). This is where you choose the man you are.
All of this to say, i know things suck. but much, much worse things will happen to you before you check out of this life. use this experience as fire that helps temper you so that the next time something bad happens you will be just a little more bullet proof…or at least that is what I try to do.
i hope you start feeling better brother, and I truly am sorry to hear about this.
in 1993 Gerard d’Aboville rowed a very small boat across the Pacific Ocean…Later when someone asked him “Why would you do something involving such enormous personal risk?” he replied,
“Only an animal does useful things…An animal gets food, finds a place to sleep, tries to keep comfortable. but i wanted to do something that was not useful, not like an animal at all. Something only a human being would do.”
15July2010: Training
Insert: Ok, so as i mentioned above, i ripped the toe nail off my pinky toe yesterday, and although it is not much fun to do active stuff with shoes on, I thought i would start out with a 1.5 mile run…and i got about 1/4 of the way through when my toe just felt “wrong”…it was hurting the whole time, but then the hurting changed…i stopped took off my shoe and where I used to have a toenail was bleeding…more than i was comfortable with…so i decided against an insert today…
Strength: Giant sets
1a. Weighted Pull-ups: 100x4, 110x4, 110x4, 100x4, 100x4
1b. Military: 165x3, 190x3, 210x5 (had plenty more in me), 190x5, 195x5
1c. Weighted Obliques: 4 sets of 8 reps each side
2a. DB Rows: 110x8, 110x8, 110x8
2b. BB Incline Bench: 245x8, 275x8, 255x8
2c. Weighted Obliques: 4 Sets of 6 reps a side…I am not sure what you call these but they are humbling as balls…i held an unloaded BB above my head like I was going to do close stance OH Squats, then i simply leaned way down to each side one at a time…as if i was singing, “I’m a little tea pot, short and…etc” but with that BB above my head…They were tough! especially while singing that song!
3a. Standing DB Lateral Raises: 50x8, 50x6
3b. Standing DB Curls: 60x5, 50x6 (my arms are so weak it’s ridiculous!)
Extract: At this point i was running out of time, and my toe was pretty much numb so i decided to do as many Burpee pull-ups as possible in 4 minutes without stopping at all…i was surprisingly nut tickling tough…give it a try, but remember…you cannot rest AT ALL for the full 4 minutes…it is almost like doing tabatas with burpee pull-ups…
Notes:
It was a good day for the like 4th or something day in a row…I’m out of here for a bit, but if I am able to get some lame GPP or energy systems work in, i will try to post it from my Phone…
and remember, it is not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you that defines who you are…Good luck to all of you with whatever you are dealing with today…if you don’t understand suffering, you can’t understand glory…
be easy
Holy shit, I can’t believe that I haven’t checked out this log earlier. You are like the Batman; you train like a freak of nature, insane athlete and fighter all in one and to top it off look like a bodybuilder.
I have to give a big thank you to having this log. The uncompromising attitude and resolve along with the little quotes and occasional conversational snippets on life that you post is motivational gold.
Keep it up, keep kicking ass and God bless.
Mackk, you can overcome this missing toe brother. While i can’t relate, i do know that there are many people out there that are going through much worse and are doing awesome. I found out today that a gal that i work with who is always positive and cheery, that her husband is dying of cancer and amazingly enough she is still positive and moving forward and progressing in life. Even when every circumstance in life points to regression in everything. Wow, that really put things in perspective for me and made me realize all the more just how short life is and to do my absolute best to live each day to the fullest. Carpe diem is a phrase that i think of regularly, means live each days as if it was your last. Good luck brother, and here are a couple of videos of people overcoming great obstacles. It might not be easy, but if you want to overcome the limitation mackk, you can. You just need to do it.
Alpha, i wish i knew you in real life brother, you would be an awesome friend to have. Stay safe wherever you are and try not to rip off the other pinky toenail while you’re at it.
Heracles_rocks: Thanks for the inspiration dude, it really does help.
Luckily, 2 days after the surgery I started doing some upper circuits in my thrown together basement gym. I’ve been able to throw together some stuff pretty easily based off of Alpha’s insertion methods like 6 rounds non-stop of 20 pushups, db overhead presses, pullups, bw squats, sit-ups and pushups.
Thanks for the kind words Heracles and Alpha, they probably are what pushed me over the edge and got me kicking my own ass so soon. Sorry to hear about the toe Alpha, if I have any advice it’d be to wrap up the toe in gauss during the day and use peroxide & Epsom salts when you can.
Heracles: Totally agree with your advice and thanks for the vids brother! And yeah man It would be so nice to meet a lot of you in real life! Thanks again brother!
Mackk: I just hoped it helped brother. Dude keep training around it, you will adapt to that in no time! Keep your chin up and your head in the right place brother.
“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.”
-Franklin P. Jones
5 Rounds of
1 min pull ups
1 min 205lb BB incline
1 min Abs
1 min DB Lateral/front raises
1 min BW Dips
1 min Sprinting
1 min weighted shadow boxing
repeat 5 times…
Me and some guys I was working with made the best of a bad situation, but I got a good sweat going and had fun, so I will chalk it up to some active recovery…
Thanks for reading and commenting everyone…I’m ready to be back home now…
I think my favorite part of this entire thread is the comparison between losing your mom in a car accident and being gay. Awesome.