That’s a tough one to break for sure. I think cortisol/adrenaline/physical pain can have an effect too… for me at least. I tend to be a stress-cusser. 
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Where there’s a word, there’s a way.
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I took a year-long position as a chef in an estate for the equivalent of that family. Everything - the money, the land, the people, the toxicity, and I saw how much they liked the show and felt like it validated themselves.
It’s just ugly to watch when you can be the 3rd eye. It’s all men pretending to be strong so they can validate doing shitty stuff while blaming other people.
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To be clear, I’m not above it, but I am working on it.
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To remove it or enhance it?
Me and the Misses both gave up on this one, you are not alone.
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With respect to profanity, there is a time and a place. Most of my English Teacher colleagues were very adept at proper deployment of the F-Bomb, and the vast majority considered it their favorite and most versatile word.
As I get older, I find it more and more distasteful, primarily because I find it violent and don’t appreciate it coming out of the mouths of my children. My son almost never uses it, while my daughter is prolific.
I work very hard to not use it, but it is a daily battle.
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Understandable. I did remove the video you posted in your comment. The image it populated was an enormous F-bomb, and I’d prefer that not be in my log. I agree with you here:
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Ah! More people than I thought.
I have to show you that previously slow-growing monstera! It has a new baby leaf, so this will make five total heading into winter.
Now I need to figure out how to add a moss pole or lattice type thing so that it grows upward instead of outward.
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My apologies!
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No worries, you have no control over what pops up on YouTube thumbnails. Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
You know those times when you think you have bad allergies, so you go to the gym and get halfway through your workout, then realize that it’s not allergies and it feels like you’re dying?
That was me this morning. And luckily the gym was pretty empty, so I did not breathe on (or near) anyone.
Workout:
Hip Thrust: 4 x failure with sets one and three using a staggered stance.
Mind-muscle connection was so strong that I had to do some rest-pauses just to hit the same number of reps on both sides of the staggered stance sets. Underrated strategy.
Superset
T-Bar Row: 3 x 15, 12, 10 (slow eccentric)
Lateral Raise: 3 x failure
This was delightfully painful but had to sit down between sets.
Workout ended there. What little I did felt bizarrely effective.
Relatable:
Yes, cow. Me too.
The deceit is real.
Literally me.
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Just stick it in there.
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Today’s Workout and a Brief Diatribe About Biceps
Leg Press: 4 x 8-10
Seated Cable Row: 4 x 8-15 (increased load, decreased reps each set)
Arnold Press: 4 x 10
Drop Set
Meadows Rear Delt Swing: 3 x failure for each weight
30 pound dumbbells, then 25 pounds
Cable Flyes: 2 extended sets
EZ Bar 21s x 3
I prefer these reversed. So traditionally, Arnold would do the first seven reps as a top-half partial, then the next seven reps would be a bottom-half partial, then he’d finish with a full range of motion curl for the last seven reps.
But I typically start with the full range of motion for seven reps, then do top-half partials, and end with the bottom halves. I get a better mind-muscle connection when starting with the full ROM, and I go pretty dang slow for those first seven reps.
Then, right before nailing the top-half reps, I’ll hold the EZ bar in the mid range, move my elbows forward by an inch or so, and just allow that mind-muscle connection to simmer. It’s a brutal isometric contraction and it might even make you a little breathless if you’re using enough weight.
Why do that? Because at the very top of a top-half curl, you actually lose tension in the biceps. So I want to earn those tiny rest periods even though they’re just a fraction of a second. I want to need them. And my biceps are so on fire at that point that it doesn’t feel like there’s any relief. Then the final seven bottom halves are torture, and I use a touch of momentum on the concentric then try to control the eccentric.
How heavy? No clue. I’m not sure how heavy the EZ bars are at our gym… 15 pounds maybe. I add a 10-pound plate to each side. If I were to do these without the pause and controlled eccentrics, I could add another 5 to each side. But the results didn’t pay off and it just caused joint irritation. So, there’s another lesson:
Harder doesn’t always mean healthier. Just because something sucks it doesn’t mean it’s good for you. And I just prefer hard things that have benefits.
Anyway, I’m sure Arnold knew what he was doing. But didn’t he say something to the effect of, “learn the rules so you can break them?” Or maybe that was Picasso or the Dalai Lama or Steve Carrel. The world may never know.
Here’s what my biceps looked like 12 years ago:
The tatas were brand new when that pic was taken. Still have the biceps at least. 
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*or better, IMO.
That’s been my takeaway with 21s, anyways.
The only ways i could see 21s as an effective movement is if it were spider curls, on a machine, or maybe with the Arnold curl bar.
Kind of hard to hit failure with a prescribed number of reps too 
Maybe Full ROM then partials to failure.
Nice guns
Wait, i mean… 
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I’m hitting biceps today, think I will try your variation of 21’s. It makes more sense really if you think about it as you can push that little harder….if you think about it’s like finishing with partials after failure.
I always prefer 21’s on hammer curls though, don’t know why, just always have
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You know what’s funny? (To me at least.) I wrote that harder isn’t always optimal in the same post where I detailed a strategy for making the biceps suffer. Ha!
So I guess the main thing is to figure out which type of suffering you’ll adhere to and then do that. If it’s more load, go with that. If it’s tempo or technique, enjoy it. Use whatever strategy gets you fired up… and oftentimes, it may not be the exact type of difficulty people commonly use.
Whoa! That’s the first time I’ve heard that from any lifter, but I trust you. My biceps kinda get big when I just think about them. This is not a brag, it’s weird genetics. So I could do anything for arms and they’d grow.
But I do enjoy 21s probably because of nostalgia. Joe Pete, my first bodybuilding-style trainer, had me doing them when I was a teenager, (along with hammer curls and a few others), so they hold a special place in my heart. He’d stand in front of me and place his hand at about sternum level where I had to make the EZ bar touch every time during the top or bottom halves because he was such a stickler for form; even the partials had to be long enough range of motion.
They burned like hell but it was so much fun to have a coach cheering me on through something tough. I miss that.
I feel you on this with so many isolation exercises, just not this one… because my tempo is slow enough and the load is challenging enough. So you’re right, maybe if you started with the full ROM and emphasized that stretch at the bottom, you’d start to feel what I’m talking about. Dang! You’re making me want a training buddy. Not that you need any help with biceps. Haha you’re good. But hitting arms with a friend or coach is just a blast.
Thanks! 
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Ah that’s awesome. Let me know how it went! I’ve never thought of doing 21s with hammer curls, so I’m going to try it your way next time. 
Monday Workout And Other Stuff
Today ended up being primarily a back-of-the-body workout. I’m almost afraid to hit chest again because even pull-ups (a compound but mostly back-related exercise) are tricky for my left pec… more on that below.
RDL: 4 x 8 slow eccentric, fast concentric, super gentle touch and go
I took so much time off from doing these that my hammies feel sufficiently challenged right now at 135. Is this light? You bet. Does my body care? No. I’ll add more load next week.
Giant Set:
T-Bar Row: 3 x 10
Banded External Rotation: 3 x failure
Lateral Raise: 3 x failure
Arnold Press Drop Set: 3 x failure → drop in weight, failure again
Superset + Dropset:
Straight Arm Pulldown: 3 x failure
Tricep Pulldown 3 x failure → drop in weight, failure again
Weekend Stuff
I went to a dinner party over the weekend and the host had the coolest, fanciest home gym I’ve ever seen. His squat cage had some pull-up bars at the top, but they were angled in ways I hadn’t seen before, so of course I had to try them out! And I was able to bust out about 10 pull-ups super easily. But later that night my pec was hurting.
Who cares, let me tell you about the pull-up handles. The ones I used were at an angle right between a neutral and pronated grip. And it felt better than any pull-up I’ve ever done. I could do pronated pull-ups all day long with that set up! So the pec pain was worth it.
Also,
I can only wear this orange and black dress once a year in October, so I might as well put it on the internet.
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Did it and loved it. I felt like the last 7 were towards true failure. Definitely be sticking with it 
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