There is a park by my accommodation so I went for a jog then did hill sprints today. My plan is to do hill sprints regularly while I’m here. There isn’t an oven in my accommodation, just an oven, so I’m, struggling to eat well. Hopefully hill sprints will keep that in check. My knee still hurts today, but I just pushed through it.
Going to an AFL game tomorrow, very excited!
FYI, don’t visit the NY Thug thread on GAL.
The anti-european sentiment regarding universal health care and other matters will most likely get you pissed.
Wow, that guy is massive.
Sounds like you having a good time in Melbourne. Make sure you hit Lygon street and have a pizza.
How are you doing your hill sprints? All out sprinting? Distance? Rest periods?
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Imagine if people had access to the healthcare they needed regardless of their income? That’d just be silly
[quote]MaazerSmiit wrote:
Imagine if people had access to the healthcare they needed regardless of their income? That’d just be silly[/quote]
Universal health care systems of France, Italy and U.K ranked better than the U.S.A even with considerations of wait time. However, it was only the World Health Organisation who ranked them, not exactly a credible source…
I love how Bauber keeps blasting European healthcare systems yet won’t address that point of contention lol.
I love how he entered a race to 90kg press, 140kg bench, 180kg squat, and 220kg dead.
With reading comprehension that bad, he probably just didn’t notice the point you were trying to get across.
Christ I’m in a foul mood today.
Furo, this Easter I’m probably only gonna have a 24kg and 40kg kettlebell to work with (squat rack/bench are all folded up in the garage). What would you recommend? I quite like the look of the 5000 swing challenge thing, and was just going to go at it for as long as I had the kettlebells available, instead of the full 4 or 5 weeks it’s meant to be. Thoughts?
[quote]MaazerSmiit wrote:
I love how he entered a race to 90kg press, 140kg bench, 180kg squat, and 220kg dead.
With reading comprehension that bad, he probably just didn’t notice the point you were trying to get across.
Christ I’m in a foul mood today.
Furo, this Easter I’m probably only gonna have a 24kg and 40kg kettlebell to work with (squat rack/bench are all folded up in the garage). What would you recommend? I quite like the look of the 5000 swing challenge thing, and was just going to go at it for as long as I had the kettlebells available, instead of the full 4 or 5 weeks it’s meant to be. Thoughts?[/quote]
Chin up big guy.
Go watch my front squat fail vid if you want a larf.
Ah too late Rattle!!! I just read that thread before checking in here!!! I have no words lol. I lost a tonne of respect for Bauber in that thread, a metric European tonne haha. He came across as incredibly ignorant and narrow minded and just plain angry lol.
I feel like gun control and healthcare are 2 massive no-go topics on this site lol. I can’t handle those types of discussions lol, I just have to stay out. Ah don’t even get me started haha, I’ll end up posting a 10,000 word rant. Some of the things he said though, really aggravated me.
I hate that American view about WW2. I believe he said “we saved your asses from the Germans”. I’d love to hear specifically what Bauber himself did to save me, once I know I’ll be sure to send him a thank you card. And the whole view that if you are against guns you’re automatically a massive pussy. I think our gun laws work very well, although I believe that an ideal gun control system does not exist. And I also agree with Csulli’s view on firearms - they are an extremely unmanly way to fight haha. As if having the ability to kill a man from a kilometre away makes you tougher, but having to do it with a knife makes you a pussy.
And the idea of lumping Europe together as a unit, and judging it in one fell swoop. What exactly does Serbia have in common with Ireland? Or Norway with Italy? Albania and Wales haha?? Not far short of a billion people, it’s like judging the Americas as one: assuming that the same gun laws and healthcare systems exist in Chile as the US. It’s just plain ignorant.
I am not a patriotic man by any stretch, but healthcare that is free for all at the point of entry makes me proud as hell to be British.
I don’t want anyone to read this and think I’m anti-American. I’ve been there, and I loved it: there are many wonderful things about America. I’m just anti-ignorance.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Wow, that guy is massive.
Sounds like you having a good time in Melbourne. Make sure you hit Lygon street and have a pizza.
How are you doing your hill sprints? All out sprinting? Distance? Rest periods?
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Yeah he was very impressive! Ok I will do!
Australia is absolutely incredible. I’m ashamed to say I really didn’t know much about it before I came, just the Steve Irwin stereotypes lol, but this country is just amazing. I went on a road trip to the Grampians National Park on Fri/Sat, I had a great time.
The hill sprints have been a flop so far lol. I thought they’d be a great idea, but this heat just kills me. In the Grampians I did a lot of hiking and today I went to the gym (see below) so I’m getting work done.
[quote]MaazerSmiit wrote:
I love how he entered a race to 90kg press, 140kg bench, 180kg squat, and 220kg dead.
With reading comprehension that bad, he probably just didn’t notice the point you were trying to get across.
Christ I’m in a foul mood today.
Furo, this Easter I’m probably only gonna have a 24kg and 40kg kettlebell to work with (squat rack/bench are all folded up in the garage). What would you recommend? I quite like the look of the 5000 swing challenge thing, and was just going to go at it for as long as I had the kettlebells available, instead of the full 4 or 5 weeks it’s meant to be. Thoughts?[/quote]
Hahaha I know! I was quite amused when I saw that.
Ah awesome. You’re absolutely sorted for upper body. 24kg is probably a really good overhead press weight for you. Horizontal pressing is a weak point for kettlebells, so if I were you I’d prioritise the overhead stuff, and afterwards do floor presses to keep the horizontal pressing ticking over. Or you could just drop horizontal pressing, you won’t lose strength in 2 weeks. For pulling you can do standard one-arm rows with the 40kg and pull-ups if you have a pull-up bar.
I honestly believe that heavy kettlebell swings are the best hamstring exercise in existence. I believe in terms of size and strength barbells beat kettlebells any day of the week, with the single exception of kettlebell swings. I’d recommend doing them for 5 sets of 10, and work on being as explosive and tight as possible.
Squatting is where kettlebells really fall down. 40kg goblet squats would be decent for doing higher reps and improving general squat technique, but they won’t do much for you in terms of max strength. Having said that it will just be 2 weeks, so you won’t lose any strength.
The 10,000 Swings routine is an option, you could use goblet squats, weighted pull-ups and overhead press as your strength movements. However, my problem with the 10,000 Swing routine is that it neglects the main advantage of kettlebells: heavy low rep swings. As your priority is strength I’d be tempted to use Easter as a specialisation phase on the 2 things kettlebells do best: swings and presses. It would be really interesting to see the effects that has on your deadlift and barbell OHP numbers.
If you wanted to do that you could split it into push days: press and goblet squat and pull days: swing and row. I’d structure it like this: push-pull-push-pull-rest.
You could split it into upper and lower body days but the issue with that is that both swings and upper body pulling hammer your grip, so it might not recover.
Simple and Sinister Day 21
Single Arm Swings (5x10): all 5 sets with 24kg
Turkish Get-Ups (5x1): all 5 sets with 24kg
Neutral Grip Pull-Ups: 8-6-6-6-6
Bench Press (5x5): 80kg straight sets - Holy moly, I haven’t used 80kg for work sets in 4 years.
Hammer Strength Low Row (3x10): 40kg each side - Incredible, if I were a bodybuilder I would use this machine a lot.
Face-Pulls (3x15): ?
I hit up Doherty’s again - I didn’t realise last time but it has a wall signed by loads of pro-bodybuilders. It had messages from Dorian Yates, Kai Greene, Rich Gaspari and Rich Piana to name a few.
The Simple and Sinister portion of this session was great, but then I faded somewhat. The bench press was a huge low point lol, but I was holding back quite a lot, I think because I’m so out of practice with the movement.
Ok so I’ve decided what to do training-wise for my remaining 3 weeks in Australia. I’ll keep basing it on Simple and Sinister, with pull-ups and bench press, but I’ll focus my efforts on the bench press, because it has slipped unacceptably. I hope to get back to an easy 100kgx5x5 before I leave.
Thanks for that, I like the split idea. I’ll probably add some form of conditioning (higher rep swings or sprint intervals) just so I don’t fall apart in my first rugby match in a year. Bit of band shoulder stuff an I should be sorted.
[quote]MaazerSmiit wrote:
Thanks for that, I like the split idea. I’ll probably add some form of conditioning (higher rep swings or sprint intervals) just so I don’t fall apart in my first rugby match in a year. Bit of band shoulder stuff an I should be sorted.[/quote]
Ok great, glad I could help! Yeah that would be a really good idea.
Simple and Sinister Day 22
Single Arm Swings (5x10): 24kg
Turkish Get-Ups (5x1): 24kg
Bench Press (5x5): 80kg - Horrific
Dumbbell Chest Press (3x12): 22kg
Dumbbell Row (5x10): 40kg - Volume PR!
Neutral Grip Pull-Up (3x5): BW
I joined the Anytime Fitness beside the hospital, it’s great.
Today’s session perfectly illustrates my findings with my experiments with minimalist training. I haven’t trained horizontal pulling in months, having focused exclusively on vertical pulling - yet today I hit a weight/volume PR on dumbbell rows. BUT, dropping ALL pressing for a month caused my pressing to plummet. That last part is unsurprising, but the message has hit home and I won’t ever do that again. The first bit is very cool though.
This is my summer tune, absolutely loving it:
Glad to read that things seem to be going well for you. Simple and Sinister seems like it’s been a pretty good fit.
Yeah, that thread was (is) stupid. I really wouldn’t make anything of it; everyone’s ignorant about most things (by definition), just some are more vocal about it. But I’ve learned my life goes smoother if I really only care about the things that directly affect me. Getting worked up about things rarely does anything to change them; better just to redirect that energy into more productive things. Meh, rambling.
Anyway, thanks for sharing that video of that Calum guy. Finally now I know of someone who’s trained for the same basic “look” that I like. Serious genuine thanks for that.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Glad to read that things seem to be going well for you. Simple and Sinister seems like it’s been a pretty good fit.
Yeah, that thread was (is) stupid. I really wouldn’t make anything of it; everyone’s ignorant about most things (by definition), just some are more vocal about it. But I’ve learned my life goes smoother if I really only care about the things that directly affect me. Getting worked up about things rarely does anything to change them; better just to redirect that energy into more productive things. Meh, rambling.
Anyway, thanks for sharing that video of that Calum guy. Finally now I know of someone who’s trained for the same basic “look” that I like. Serious genuine thanks for that.[/quote]
Thanks a lot for that comment LoRez, I appreciate it. Yes Simple and Sinister is a working well, I just need to make sure I supplement it with upper body work.
That is a great attitude to have, I completely agree: you can’t focus on the crap, you’ve just got to concentrate on yourself and what matters to you. This site is incredible if you focus on the positives: logging, articles and chatting with you good guys, but it can become a huge drain if you get sucked into those kinds of threads. In my experience anyway.
Yes he looks awesome doesn’t he! Definitely a great physique.
What’s the deal with Turkish getups anyway? Like, where do you feel those helping? I’m genuinely curious, cuz a lot of people like them, but they’ve always kind of mystified me lol.
[quote]furo wrote:
I joined the Anytime Fitness beside the hospital, it’s great.
[/quote]
You should of sticked with Dohertys. You should not support corporate businesses.
Can I suggest Brunetti’s on Lygon St for your weekly cheat meal?
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[quote]csulli wrote:
What’s the deal with Turkish getups anyway? Like, where do you feel those helping? I’m genuinely curious, cuz a lot of people like them, but they’ve always kind of mystified me lol.[/quote]
Lol I don’t think I’m getting the full effect from training them yet - I have too many weak points along the chain. For all of the main movements I can handle the weight quite easily eg the overhead lunge is easy, the press at the start is easy, the actual sit-up bit is reasonably easy. I’m being let down by stabilising the weight and transferring between stages. I think once my balance/stabilisers have caught up and I’m actually pushing myself strength-wise I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on haha.
Right now I’m just doing them because Pavel told me to. lol.