What is that cake thing?
Your forum birthday. It’s the day you signed up.
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Happy birthday to me…
Gotta say, that was one fast year.
If you haven’t noticed, time in general tends to go by pretty fast
But really, think about it - a year ago I came here, telling you guys that it’s possible to gain 70kgs on your squat in a few months, then I started writing about things that I think are valuable, and then, somehow this turned into the laziest blog ever - yeah, I’ve got to fix that at some point.
It feels like just yesterday I was yelling at the squat dude to get it, even though I haven’t even seen him in 8 months. After army I’ve got to pay him a visit.
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This moment marks that I’ve been awake for 48 hours in a row - doing military stuff mainly, but I did do a GPP/semi-volume session 30 hours ago and a max effort session about seven hours ago. During that time I’ve also only ingested about 2000 Calories. I also didn’t have access to any caffeine during the time, so it was pretty grueling.
That’s stupid, yeah?
Yeah.
Why am I telling this?
To show you what human body is capable of.
Well, during last week I’ve had no other opportunities to train than those two, and I won’t have time to train during the next couple of days.
You see, sometimes your circumstances are not optimal - during the last 48 hours I’ve had about 5 hours of free time and I couldn’t sleep, so I did the next best thing.
Now you’re saying that training is catabolic when done under circumstances like that!
And you’re totally right.
A smart guy would’ve skipped the training and he would have maybe done some stretches and then tried sleeping again.
But here’s the deal - going almost two weeks without even once getting really intense and pushing it to the limit? Not for me. I’ll get depressed as hell. - Pushing myself mentally and physically with total four hours of training with no food or rest? A lot better for me mentally. And apart from that, I did set some pretty good PRs during my max effort session, so what gives?
If you feel like you’ve got to do it, don’t hold back. Go and train like a maniac.
You’re tired?
Doesn’t matter.
No coffee to block the tiredness?
Doesn’t matter.
Only had a fifth of your usual Calories?
Doesn’t matter.
Already killed yourself with another workout?
Doesn’t matter.
You’ve been doing something physically demanding for 40 hours in a row?
Doesn’t matter.
It’s not the logical choice?
Doesn’t matter.
If the mind wants it, the body will follow.
Right before my max effort session I straight up fell asleep while walking, I was just so exhausted. But still I progressed on every movement I did. So really, if you run out of coffee and only get one cup instead of two, it shouldn’t matter. If you forget to add carbs to your intra-workout drink, it shouldn’t make a difference.
Or let’s say it this way - it won’t make a difference if you don’t let it.
It’s a mindset.
I want to clarify that I was not the one to “invent” that quote. I got it from Eric Bugenhagen.
Now I’m off to bed.
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If I may paraphrase: getting things done right is important. Getting things done no matter what is essential.
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That’s a really good way to put it
Glad you think so. Sometimes things make more sense in my head that outside it.
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I guess that’s pretty common - sometimes I have trouble understanding my own posts that I wrote when I was tired
It’s starting to look like I’m not going to be able to train before next Monday - that’s two weeks off from training (apart form the gpp and max effort sessions I wrote about last time)
Oh well, I won’t stress about that. Last time I was forced to take two weeks off getting back to the gym felt really good, and even if I lose some strength it’ll come right back.
My next session will be a 8x8/4x15 volume workout, so it may be a bit tough - actually I’m certain it will be pretty damn tough.
But that’s that, tomorrow is going to be a long day (~21 hours of work) so I’m going to sleep now.
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I don’t know what it is but I really feel like doing conventional deadlift for high rep sets now. Actually I’ve felt like that for almost a week now.
I haven’t done conventional deads for a couple of months now so that could be it
Weird
I also really want to do bench press, and that I cannot understand - I never really liked the movement and haven’t done it in years.
I’ve probably just spent too much time reading @MarkKO 's and @littlesleeper 's logs
Jesus guys, you’re trying to lure me into powerlifting
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Translation: “I really feel like torturing myself now.”
I spent too much time reading @MarkKO 's and @BOTSLAYER 's logs. Heavy weights excite me.
You might as well jump on the powerlifting band wagon!
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Think conventional deads with a pause 2 inches off the floor - for sets of 15-20
That’s just what I need right now. Yes. Pain. Torture.
It’s a vicious cycle
B-B-But I’m a bodybuilder!
But to be honest powerbuilding has always been the thing for me. I don’t like being focused on only aesthetics or strength, and the combination of both seems to work quite well.
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TOP SECRET:
A good offseason Powerlifting program and a good body building program are almost identical.
Both are built around about 5-7 compound lifts and work in the 5-15 rep range.
Philosophies are even the same. Build a base and attack weaknesses.
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This is what I have discovered. Glad it only took three years…
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That is true, yes, it has actually been discussed briefly here earlier.
I was using the term “powerbuilding” just to point out that I don’t like the traditional 5 day split - isolation focus - squueze type approach nor the 5x5 squat, bench, dead three times per week.
Powerbuilding, for me, means progressive overload on mainly big movements, with a bit of isolation and squeeze for the muscle groups that don’t respond as well to training.
So, as I said, a combination of both.
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Scrolling through old programs I’ve had people on, I came across the one that took squat dudes squat to the next level. (Yes, that’s the one that made everyone question wether I was being honest or not)
Man, I’m proud of that program.
But guess what?
That’s also one of the most simple programs I’ve ever written. It consists of only six exercises for the lower body/midsection. And from those six only one was grueling at any point of the program - that would be squat.
I love simplicity - why make something complicated on purpose?
I’d love to test the program out on other people as well, and luckily there have been a couple of guys who have expressed interest in training under my guidance. Man they don’t know what they’re getting into.
If they are serious about lifting I’ll hopefully have a couple of new success stories to tell in a couple of months.
In other news, I now have access to a pull-up bar, so at least I’ll get to do chin ups. (Did over a hundred total yesterday)
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I don’t know what it is but I’m feeling a bit sick once again - clogged up, maybe even a bit warmer than usual. (I’m suspecting that it’s the lack of protein and minerals as military food isn’t exactly the best option for health)
So yeah, woke up with no appetite, are a rather small breakfast - a pound of quark, five eggs, muesli, liter of milk and a cup of coffee (because I’m doing military police stuff at the moment that’s possible, sadly we don’t get to do this all the time) My mates made fun of my breakfast - how I eat so much all the time. I told them I wasn’t feeling too good and decided to go on the lighter side this time - for them that was funny too - they do know that usually I eat even more, maybe it was funny because it was true -
I realize that for a “regular” person that may seem like a lot of food but for me it’s just something light to snack on. - You know you’re doing it right when you’re eating hilarious amounts of food and not getting fat.
I do hope that I don’t get really sick now. I was in a place where I could’ve caught HFMD (hand, foot and mouth disease - it’s pretty nasty) about 3 days ago (the disease starts to show within days 3-6) but that’s really unlikely. I’m telling you this just so that if I start talking about losing fingernails you’ll know to remind me.
Apart from that, I haven’t really got anything to report. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to the gym next week, I don’t really want to have a three week break just now. Last week I was feeling good, well rested and ready to do anything. Now I’m just feeling weak and lethargic. Of course part of that is being sick too.
I hope you stay healthy and are able to train regularly - always train hard just in case something happens
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Get well soon man. Cant wait to hear when you’re better and crushing workouts with three days of being awake lol.
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Thanks man!
You won’t have to wait for too long
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So I was ordered to go to the doctor (I’m kinda notorious for never going there by myself) and the doc told me to stay inside for two days and to not do anything physical for three days
So that means I can’t train before the weekend even if Iget better.
Which mean three weeks without training - I had three weeks of this mesocycle left when I last trained so I’m just going to change up the exercises and start over. That’s because I had calculated my training so that I’ll get the maximum benefit from it for the bench press rep test, and if I wanted to complete this mesocycle it would mean I had to do the test when my fatigue levels are at their peak. (We have to remember that fatigue masks fitness)
So yeah, a close-grip bench/front squat/chin up/deadlift cycle is coming up
(That may change a bit but close grip bench and chin ups are there for sure)
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