Onions are an emotional stimulant and mushrooms are hallucinogens… Duh 
2 Likes
Steadily growing
I’m working calves every third day (due to the way my training is set up, usually it’s ~3 times a week
The most important thing with calves is pausing in the stretch, I really never got any substantial growth before I started doing that
I do a slow negative, 10-15 second pause in the stretch, semi-fast positive (I try to start the positive pretty slowly to get it on the right track and then I accelerate from there) and I do a hold in the top position (1-2 seconds)
After the last rep I hold the weight in the top position for as long as I can and then I stretch the calves again
Doing all that, using progressive overload and having patience has made the difference for me
1 Like
WHAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA! Duuuuuuuuuuuude. 
As someone who was heavily involved in the pscychedelic/rave scene throughout my entire highschool career, you don’t understand how much you made my morning lol
2 Likes
Aw that’s awesome! Haha my job is done now I can go to bed happy
2 Likes
That’s nice to hear!
To my understanding mushrooms are their own group, but I’m not sure about onions, they might actually be vegetables
Oh yeah, that’s it! How did I forget that? 
Glutes are kind of an double edged sword really.
You can grow them a lot (really, a lot) just by doing compound lifts (mainly squat, deadlift and hip thrust) but you have to know how to activate them.
That’s why rather few guys have big glutes - they don’t dare to ever work them directly so they do not know how to fire them properly when they are squatting and deadlifting (no, they don’t hip thrust)
So for glutes activation is key - if you don’t know how to do it you could start your workouts with 1-2 sets of 10-50 reps (yeah, that’s a broad rep range) of frog pumps (by Bret Contreras) or single leg glute bridges.
If you don’t want to do those you could do Chinese arches (this also teaches total body tension and hits your hamstrings hard - but you give away a bit of glute activation)
It’s kinda hard to explain these in text - and to my reckoning there are no videos online as Eric took his down, but I’ll try
- You need 2 benches or a bench and a no, that is about as tall as that bench
- Place your upper back on the bench so that the edge of the bench is about where you would have a squat bar when you are doing low bar squats
- Grab the edges of the bench (you cannot be perpendicular in order to be able to do this)
- Lift your heels onto the box, now the only things that are touching the box or the bench are your heels, upper back, hands and head
- Pull your back into the bench as hard as you can and flex your forearms, biceps, neck, lats, glutes and hamstrings hard (your hips should rise a bit above the level of your head)
- Hold for 45-60 seconds
- If you were successful, add weight (a partner puts a plate onto your hips)
Damn, I still suck with exercise directions
Okay, now that we have activated the glutes we can carry on and do our training, BUT when we are doing squats, deadlifts and hip thrust we need to focus on form and activating the glutes
So every rep you do, squeeze the glutes on the top and try to load them on the way down
If pre-activation and compound lifts with proper form and enough weight are not enough (or you still can’t feel the glutes working) you can add an isolation exercise to the end of the workout (just ask from about any teenage girl for a glute exercise, they’ll show you some of the most complex choreographies in the history of mankind)
But in reality a couple of sets of the most generic isolation work will do (so glute kickbacks and thigh abductor)
2 Likes
Sweatmachine, on IM, actually noted that low bar, heavy squats target the glutes for women better than any other exercise. I think the issue with women is the fact that most don’t venture into the heavy realm. I agree with the part about guys too.
But I had a dollar for every video I see where the chick is doing some body weight donkey kick backs, or doing abductor stuff for 4 sets of 10 with like 50 lbs I think I’d be rich. I’m not an expert but I feel like I can provide good info because 1) I went from a size 000 to a size 16 in the butt and hips (while still keeping my waist line small in proportion to my height), and 2) the dudes on IM know what they’re talking even if they don’t possess boobs, so I tend to follow them on stuff regarding glute training. It’s actually difficult to exhaust the glutes more so than any other muscle because they are bigger.
I wouldn’t say the Iso movements are completely useless, but if women and dudes for that matter would just work with the empty bar, and develope that feel/activation to fire the right muscles (in this case butt muscles), to get the weight up they wouldn’t abandon it or say it’s useless. For squatting I’ve noticed you just have the pound the movements down until you get it right. Same as swimming.
I think proportions play a big role in this and people need to find what works for them. Sumo deads, and squats hit my glutes all day everyday, but I’m only five feet even, versus my husband who is 6 foot 2, and gets nothing but his quads and lower back hit. Widen the stance up and he can feel it in his butt better. For squat and sumo. All the long legged people need to widen their stance up. Espeacially if their legs are longer than their torsos. At least when trying to target the glutes when training. My torso is longer than my legs as I’ve recently found out, (I thought the opposite was true) so I’m practically built for powerlifting. Namingly squatting.
The hip thrusts, and abductor things work but only to a certain degree. Mostly due to weight restrictions, or the hips getting banged up from what people tell me.
But with freeweight stuff the sky is the limit so long as you keep getting stronger. Too many people (mainly young women), have set the squat down in the corner and for why? Aside from if you’re injured which I can understand, but all the healthy, young, injury free chicks need to get under a barbell and practice and practice and practice and tweak until they have asses to die for lol. Most want a big butt, but with little thighs, and the media has seriously mislead a lot of young and older women. Most of what they seek has been attained by surgery. Any woman or dude who has built their butt in the gym has the quads to show for it and that’s just how the body works. Plus some strong quads coupled with a nice butt will never look bad on a dude or a woman.
3 Likes
It’s kind of funny and sad at the same time that heavy lifting is considered masculine and light, isolated lifting is considered feminine and thus women and men feel obligated to do only one (and both parties miss out on the benefits off the other one)
For example, my girlfriend first squatted double bodyweight when she was 15 years old
Most girls that age don’t even put plates on the bar if they are squatting with weight at at all.
But was that everything she was doing? Of course not, she also did some light stuff and by doing that she reaped the benefits from both.
I’d say you are quite qualified to give advice regarding the subject
I really like IM because it is a no-bullshit zone, which is quite rare
That’s exactly why, in most cases, we need to do some more isolated work for them in addition to the compound lifts
But… But… It’s embarrassing to work on technique with a light weight! I’d much rather do quarter squats with 150% of my real max!
Proportions play a big role in almost everything, but going over that would take a few posts
With correct form and zero momentum they should not feel bad, only limit would be the weight stack on abductor machine
And that’s why they are so great
Amen to that
3 Likes
That’s amazing with your girlfriend. Super strong. And I meant to specify with the abductor machine on the weight stack. I agree.
And no buts! Lol
But I def. agree.
1 Like
It’s kinda funny, guys everywhere want a huge chest and big arms. When I started lifting, the bodypart that got the most admires from women, was my arse! Now I’m not sure if that’s because I never really had one and it grew a lot due to ATG squats but chicks very rarely commented on my chest which has always been decently filled out.
I must say my arms did get positive feedback as well, but I never really worked my biceps directly! They got lots of rows and deads, but only 1-2 sets once a fortnight of curls!
It’s crazy the amount of time guys are willing to spend on their chest and biceps when chicks love a guy with an arse and good legs in general.
3 Likes
Guys love to drool over themselves
In addition to that, nobody asks you for a quad shot if they notice you’ve been lifting, it’s always the same “show me your biceps!”
And when you are talking about strength, bench is the standard
Also, somehow complimenting another dude’s chest or biceps is socially acceptable, but if you tell them they got some thick hamstrings you are suddenly a creep (really, that’s kinda understandable)
BUT this is the case in bigger cities, or so I have noticed
I come from a smaller town, lots of strongman competitors and bodybuilders here, I swear I’ve been asked more about my overhead press than my bench, and I’ve been asked to do a front lat spread more than I’ve been asked to hit a bicep pose
I love this place
1 Like
Honestly, she is one of the hardest and most ambitious workers I’ve ever seen
Really, she’s the type of person that does a lift (or a set) that would get you a national level record if you were to do it in competition and then she’ll tell me she couldn’t push herself hard enough and how she’s weak and small and all that bullshit
Then she hits a front lat spread and the whole gym stops
(She did it once when a friend of ours, who happens to be a priest, was close by and he told her she is “nasty as hell” or something along those lines - kinda funny coming from such a person)
2 Likes
General life update
I should probably write something informative for a change
Oh well, maybe I’ll do that some day
Diet: day 34 (if I remember correctly)
It’s been quite long since I’ve measured my waist or stepped on the scale but to be honest, I don’t even care about those numbers all that much
My vascularity and muscle separation is continuously increasing and I’m maintaining my muscle mass and strength, so why would I care?
I’ll probably push a bit further before refeeding this week, as I am feeling really good physically, we’ll see about that in two days.
Now although I’m feeling good physically, I’m not doing so good mentally - and it has nothing to do with the diet.
You know, I’m kind of an perfectionist when it comes to training.
What I want from training is not only to look good, but also to perform well, that would be rather easy if I wanted performance in the powerlifts. But here is the deal:
I’m from a small town with a huge amount of strongman competitors, so what I want from training performance wise is more geared towards the strongman stuff
And not only that, I also happen to like oddlifting a lot, so I’m seeking ways to improve (for example) my Jefferson, hack and zercher deadlift numbers as well
I’ve been thinking about ways to set this up for days now and I’m just exhausted, really.
I have been close to succeeding with this stuff for a couple of times, but then I look at it and realize it’s not exactly how I want it and I scrap the whole plan
My current plan works fine for muscle growth and strength development for any lift really, as it can be tweaked a lot, but there is just something that messes it up in my head, maybe it’s the diet.
On plus side:
A guy who benches around 375 came to me and asked for overhead press advice because my strict press “is fucking insane” according to him
It is always nice when someone comments on your lift being impressive, it just gives you more confidence and drive to get that lift even higher
What I really want to do now lifting wise is this:
For strength:
1 get my strict overhead pressing strength higher both from the front and from behind the back while at least maintain my current level of pressing strength on incline, flat and decline presses
2 get my front squat numbers up
3 get my no equipment - paused deadlift strength up (just to get back at my girlfriend, goddamn)
Hypertrophy-wise I’d say: (this will be put to effect after I’m done with dieting)
-
Grow my yoke/shoulder girdle area (so traps, shoulders and upper chest)
-
Get the posterior chain thicker (mainly calves, hamstrings, glutes and lower back)
-
If I’m not completely hammered from doing all of the above (I probably am) I’d like to grow some quads and arms and stuff
Yeah, I’ll need to prioritize this stuff, I’ll probably do something like this:
Phase one:
Get stronger on overhead press from the front and front squat in the 3-6 rep range (so develop strength there)
Get stronger on the behind-the neck press and pause deadlift in the 8-12 rep range (so mainly hypertrophy there)
This allows me to not fry myself if I set it up smartly
Then I’ll just have to set up the assistance work so it
- Helps me improve the main lifts
- Suits my needs hypertrophy-wise
So it’ll be a lot of calf work, hamstrings, rows, and stuff
I’ll have to think this trough, luckily I need to get leaner before doing any of the stuff above (so I still have a lot of time to think about this)
The post may be a bit unclear, I can’t think straight at the moment
2 Likes
What are you numbers currently in all the lifts you’re trying to improve?
1 Like
A bit more than they were last week (hopefully I can say that forever)
I don’t like discussing my lifting numbers online, but let’s just say that if I tapered my behind the neck press for a couple of weeks I could probably hit 80kg/175lbs on it (so yeah, I’m quite weak with pressing)
Other than that, I did 20x120kg/275lbs on the no-equipment pause deadlift (with 4 second negatives) today after my pull session, so I cannot really say anything about what I could hit for one rep when I’m fresh (but it would probably be about double that)
3 Likes
Here you go, @Frank_C and @lil.greggy
(Post 27 in this log, Christ that’s a long way to go)
1 Like
Funny thing, this log has gotten around 150 more replies since @duketheslaya came along just a few weeks ago (so it’s length has almost quadrupled)
Thanks man
2 Likes
Remember, quality over quantity 
Why are you OH Pressing in the front squat position? I’ve never tried that myself…
1 Like
“Oh, so you are saying the log has gone to shit?”
hits delete topic
Yeah, I’m trying to keep some kind of standard on what I post
I’m not pressing from the front squat position, I used the expression “overhead press from the front” to avoid people confusing it with the behind the neck overhead press
As you see, mission accomplished, we avoided confusion with the overhead press from the front and the back and now we are just confused
2 Likes