I’m going to throw this in here because it is an important note, and I’ll want to recall it in the future.
I am using the EC stack.
I’m not doing heavy cardio with it. I’m monitoring my resting heart rate.
And I have prior experience with ephedrine as a medicinal. It’s a strong and effective drug. It’s a key ingredient in Chinese medicine formulas for treating the initial stage of a cold.
With EC, I’ve tapered it in using 12.5mg twice a day, with some caffeine. Within a medical formula, I’ve used 25mg twice a day, but with no caffeine. The latter is obviously far stronger.
Here’s what the Materia Medica says about Ephedra/Ephedrine. May be interesting to some.
Dosing, Cautions & Contraindications and Toxicity, especially.
Some conversions: “The total content of E and pseudoephedrine determined by UPLC-UV varied between 20.8 mg/g dry weight (E. distachya subsp. helvetica ) and 34.7 mg/g dry weight (E. monosperma).”
In other words, 1.2g of dried ephedra (referenced below) is roughly equivalent to a single 25mg ephedrine pill.
My current measurement is pinching the fat around my navel. That’s what I want to go away. It seems to now be shrinking, the last couple days, but I probably have at least another 5 pounds to go.
My upper and mid-back are definitely leaning up, and I’m noticing more definition in my legs too. I’m seeing changes, but it’s interesting to see the fat distribution, and what goes first. Apparently I store more fat in my back than I realized. Which is actually good to know, because when I’m gaining again, I can use “starting to gain fat on my belly” as a trigger that my back is no longer lean.
I always think it’s funny when people are like “I only need to lose 5 [or 10] pounds”, because they really don’t have a clue. I started at a reasonably lean 160 pounds, and I had 10 pounds of fat to lose…
In other news, I started a race with a friend. He’s around 200 and wants to get to 175. But he’s been doing the same kind of thing lots of people do: make a long term plan, but then fails to execute on a day to day basis.
So, I challenged him to a race to 175. He has 25 pounds to lose, I have 20-25 pounds to gain. Even if he goes off the rails for a bit, he should still win.
The biggest thing it does is get his ego in it, and should keep him focused enough to start developing the right habits.
One of the most accurate quotes I’ve read is “take your initial weight loss goal and double it”. Whatever we think we need to lose, it tends to be twice as much. But part of that is because “weight” includes a lot of water. It’s why I am so big on saying FAT loss vs weight loss.
The back is definitely a surprising holder of fat. The lower back in particular. Tends to be the last place to shed.
Good to see things working out for you so well dude!
Press (85%): 110# x 1 x 3
Press (62%): 80# x 5 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pulls (69%): 305# x 4 x 5
Roman Column: couple attempts at sitting to straight, then backbend and back to sitting
H2H KB Swings: 85# x 20 (10 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 50# x 10 (each side)
High Cable Overhead Extensions: 17.5# x 10 (right then left)
Pushdowns: 17.5# x 10 (right then left)
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 80# x 6
Notes:
Presses were at the end of the cycle, as expected. Got 3 in with 110 (which is fine, my current PR is 110x5, so same ballpark). Reset the cycle. Obviously 80 pounds went up quite easy after that. Short rests then.
Did the math on the cycle itself. 148 reps at 72%. Still a pretty solid cycle.
Roman column stuff in the post above. Calvert said should take a week or two just to be able to go from sitting, to straight to sitting. Then to the ground, and back up. I think he said work up to being able to do that 6 times. Eventually you’d add weight.
It’s actually an incredible “anterior chain” exercise. Quads, abs, hip flexors. I see why it was recommended, and see why it’s worth getting better at.
Had an interesting conversation with my massage therapist while she was working through some spots.
Apparently “adhesions” are a thing that just comes as part of lifting. Something about how the muscle fibers and fascia end up binding together and creating these little spots where they don’t mesh up right. Like if you put tape on something soft, and it gets these wrinkles and parts where it sticks to itself. Massage can help break those up and, well, “flatten out the tape” to use that analogy.
But she was telling me that one of the ways to limit adhesions is to stretch the muscle and fascia after training, so that things knit together better, and certain enzymes get produced to help it heal.
She basically came up with DC training, without knowing it. It was really interesting to see her put those ideas together, and I made the connection immediately.
And really, as someone dug into the old school, you’ll appreciate how “stretch after lifting” is EXACTLY what the pull-over post squat was getting at. You’d maximally congest the chest cavity with those breathing squats, then stretch the hell out of it with the pull over.
Don’t really feel like this should be a full post on its own, but want to keep the training separate. Maybe I’ll throw in pictures to justify it.
Some shakes, some carbs.
Finished off a few slices of that same meat-heavy pizza shared before. Wild boar ragu pasta for Saturday lunch. Caramelized fish sauce ground pork with rice on Saturday night. A bit of salmon chowder, open-face crab cheddar english muffin melt and some shrimp for Sunday lunch. Korean food Sunday evening: most of a whole grilled mackerel, short rib, pork bulgogi, steamed egg.
Weight is up some, as expected with some carbs. Still stayed relatively faithful to the diet.
I think it’s really useful to be fat-adapted. I don’t have any real desire to get too far from it, for now at least.
Some chat with RT Nomad over diet, he suggested (i.e., his experience was) a continual drip of protein/amino acids while gaining weight too. (Obviously useful while losing fat.) He also suggests complex carbs each meal, and zero simple carbs.
He, Lyle McDonald, and Jamie Lewis in their own ways have all talked about cycling the gaining/leaning phases: gaining for a bit, cleaning up a bit, repeating. However all within relatively tight parameters. Lyle’s specific take is “lean out to 10%ish, gain to 15%ish”.
“Stay lean year round” is the idea, but not the same way as the lean gains crowd does it. Not “I’m afraid to put on fat”. Instead, put on a limited amount of fat while building muscle, then get rid of it, and repeat. Stepwise variability within tight constraints.
Roman Column: 5x sit-to-straight-to-sit (no backbends)
H2H KB Swings: 85# x 22 (11 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 50# x 11 (each side)
High Cable Overhead Extensions: 17.5# x 11 (right then left)
Pushdowns: 17.5# x 11 (right then left)
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 80# x 7
Notes:
I think I’m going to progress straight-to-sit, then backbend-to-sit, with maybe an intermediate backbend-to-straight. 5-10. Then add weight at the waist, then chest, then with arms extended. Something like that. Months of work.
I’m just going to run all the accessories at a 6-12 double progression. Maybe someday I’ll play with multiple sets to failure or rest pause, but this works for now.
I ordered an Ivanko Super Gripper. Seems like a fun thing to play with. Doesn’t seem particularly useful, just a hobby within a hobby. Planning on applying double progression here too, since it’s adjustable 3-5 pounds at a time.
I was thinking about the idea of “faith” with respect to training, after @T3hPwnisher mentioned it in the keys to success thread.
It’s not quite the same thing, but a couple beliefs I currently have:
I’m certain I can press 225, and pull 550
I’m fairly confident (but less certain) I can press 250, and pull 600
I can get there by doing enough pressing and pulling. The more I do it, the closer I will get. It might take me 10,000 presses to get there, but it’ll happen.
A couple other thoughts:
I like the “look like a demigod” phrase. I’m not particularly into fantasy, comic books, or mythology, but it’s a strong visual.
I want to look strong
I want to always be stronger than I look
I read one time that “everyone who can press 225 actually looks like they can press 225”. The emphasis was that size is important.
Sometimes I wish there was a way to throw a note in here, or make a quick edit, without bumping the thread to the top or notifying anyone.
I saw a video of Eddie Hall last night who credited a large portion of his pressing strength to doing high rep DB shoulder presses with constant tension; cutting the ROM at both ends. 40-50 reps at ~50%.
It reminded me of the exercise I would now be doing if I was still doing the Calvert courses: alternating KB presses for 10-20 or 12-24.
It also reminded me of something I read long ago that alternating DB presses were the favorite of Melvin Wells, whose results speak for themselves. He would do them with 120s. Reg Park used them too.
I’m thinking of working these in eventually. Maybe after a few more cycles of what I’m currently doing.
As far as other beliefs, continuing the last post.
I believe that if I use Sheiko’s training principles and analysis approach this will bring me closest to my goals, fastest.
Namely:
build up pressure with volume and intensity, release that pressure, repeat. Do this over multiple time periods: day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month.
use large swings of volume to continually disrupt homeostasis and force continued growth/adaptation
deloads are not needed if you manage the above correctly
outside of contest prep, all “offseason”/“prepartory” work sets stay within the 60-90% range, with the average work being somewhere around 72-76%.
use experience to determine what works best, for you, per lift. Many people’s experience shows pressing responds to a slightly higher average.
if progress slows down after doing all of the above, increase the volume
high specificity in terms of the lifts themselves. Everything else can vary, but you should train the lift you want to get better, exactly as you plan on using it. Any ROM variations should still be using the same form.
Some beliefs from the Pavel side:
warmup sets are unnecessary, if you’re training the lift with high frequency. Some general warmup can be useful, and some dedicated potentiation/activation can be useful.
muscles should be stretched, but only after being worked, and for sufficient duration. 20 second stretches are useless.
work sets of 5s is the best for general purposes; they self limit in terms of intensity (you’ll never go above 90%) and can provide both strength and hypertrophy stimulus
Today is the 25th anniversary of when my wife and I first started dating, in high school. We haven’t been together for 25 years, but we’ve known each other that long.
I moved away in high school. It was incredibly hard to have a long-distance relationship in a world of dial-up internet and pay-per-minute long distance calls…
Man, you take me back. Mrs and I met in 2004, and spent MANY a night “together” on AOL Instant Messager with her in Maui and me in San Diego. VERY different era, haha. Congrats to you both!
This week is the same pattern as last week. You leave things to chance, stuff like this happens. Low Volume → High Volume - DL focus → Medium Volume.
Different weights though.
W8D2 - High Volume - DL
17" Axle Rack Pulls (75%): 335# x 3 x 5
Press (70%): 90# x 5 x 5
17" Axle Rack Pulls: 335# x 3 x 5
Roman Column: 6x sit-to-straight-to-sit
H2H KB Swings: 85# x 24 (12 each hand)
Upper-back Meadows Rows: 50# x 10+2 (each side)
High Cable Overhead Extensions: 17.5# x 12 (right then left)
Pushdowns: 17.5# x 8 (right then left)
HB Wide-grip Upright Rows: 80# x 7
Notes:
Back is a bit sore from this one, but everything felt really solid.
Didn’t use a wrist wrap and right wrist/forearm/elbow still feels good. Trying to progress that and see how long I can get away with it.
Second highest tonnage so far on this program. 2,250 (press) + 10,050 (DL) = 12,300. Be interesting to see how well I recover with this deficit. Pressure won’t ease up until week 10.
Speaking of which, over the past 11 days, I’ve lost 0.5 lb per day. Leaner, but not enough yet. Originally figured I’d be done at the end of this week, but it might be a bit longer.
I’m still thinking about accessories. Maybe I should push these harder. Actually try out the 5x10 (sheiko) or 6x12 (chinese). Push them to the point they affect the main lifts, then back off a touch. All this dieting has me thinking “physique” a bit more.
Tricep and rear delt stuff seemed to take a hit today.
I came across an old-school guy I’d never heard of whose physique impressed me. A bit surprised he slipped by since I thought I’d come across nearly everyone at this point.
Gustav Frištenský
Wikipedia says “During his career, he won almost 10,000 fights, the first one when he was just 19 years old and the last one when he was 72. He is considered the strongest Czech and a legendary symbol of strength for many Czechs.”
I get the impression that this is like Rickson Gracie: where they’re counting sparring matches/rolls as fights. It was a bit more common then. Similar to how, in bare knuckle boxing, a “round” was when someone took a knee/fell down, which is how you had fights with like 120 rounds.
Yes I suppose context/language matters, just struck by the thought of someone getting through that many fights, even counting sparring, averaging about 190 fights per year, without being brain damaged beyond being a functional human, gave me pause - no doubt a man not to be tangled with nonetheless.
It does help he was a wrestler vs a boxer, haha. When you think about how many “matches” you could have in a training session, it’s a bit more digestible. Still very aggressive, especially when he’s only counting the “wins” there, but if you are a big fish in a little pond you can pin white belts in seconds.
, nothing new under the sun!