It feels like I was in semi-cold weather (think -15℃) constantly, no matter how much I’m wearing. My nose, feet and fingers are ice cold and doing stuff with my hands feels similar to doing stuff outside with no gloves in the winter feels like - it’s slow, uncoordinated and at times even painful.
The greatest part about this is that it gets worse as the day goes on. Luckily I can battle it a bit by going to the gym, as that gets your body temperature up. Also eating helps.
But on the positive side; it’s not half as bad for me as it is to my girlfriend - I’m not the one being touched with cold hands once again after I’ve said “motherfucker don’t do that” a million times.
I wouldn’t put a TON of faith into what was said under the influence. Sure, the comments likely stemmed from truth but can often be a gross exaggeration. Who knows, your Dad may have just passingly said “I wish Danteism work as hard as Danteism Jr., he would be much better off.” Then partner drunkenly communicates that as you being a failure.
I’m so anti-family drama it’s not even funny. My wife’s family loves drama, and they often try and pull me into it. Them: “OMG, can you believe that Aunt Jane didn’t go to little Bobby’s 2nd birthday?..like she must not even want to be part of this family”. Me: “She was probably busy and little Bobby is a brat.”
I say shit I don’t mean all the time but I’m working on the whole “think before you speak” thing. So I wouldn’t take it too personal.
Yeah, that’s true. I’m not one to hold grudges so I’ve already forgotten about the whole incident, it’s not like it was that big of a deal. It’s just that I wrote about it pretty much am hour after the incident so I hadn’t really processed it yet and maybe I gave (and had) bit of an exaggerated image of what happened
I hate family drama too, luckily I haven’t had to deal with it too much. Usually what u do is I just shrug my shoulders and go on with the day, which can irritate some people even more
Weight went up a bit again, it should stabilize and start coming down soon
Nutrition:
1200 Calories
190g Protein
40g Carbs
30g Fat
Training:
Conditioning:
150 Calories worth of cardio
Circuit 1:
3 rounds of
10 reverse hypers
10 Kneeling lat pulldowns
30-45s plank
Circuit 2:
3 rounds of
10 “snatches” from hang
15 hanging leg raises
30s all out on the rowing ergometer end of circuit
150 Calories worth of cardio
Notes:
Pretty good session, I kept the overall stress in terms of weight training on the lower side here so I don’t interfere with tomorrow’s session.
You see kneeling lat pulldowns there, that’s not magic, it’s just me figuring out how to actually get a lower back stretch out of the movement. (I’m too tall for that to happen in the regular version) really almost every movement I did was for lower back health.
Now my “snatches” are something an olympic weightlifter would kill me for doing. Imagine someone doing a snatch-grip upright row/power clean hybrid and then pressing it out when it reaches eye level. Yeah, snatches. I was doing these purely to get my heart rate up, hence the long sets.
Lower back is feeling pretty good, I’d say it’s about 80% back to what it was, and I’m really happy about that. Today nothing hurt my back, it just feels a tad bit tight. I think that I’ll be able to do pretty much anything by next week.
Not to be a downer but it probably will happen again, everyone goes through injuries in their lifting career. You can take steps to bulletproof it more of course.
It’s apart of it and really when you train hard bumps in the road will happen. No successful lifter got strong as heck and said it was easy lol
Not everyone really, most people? Yes, but that just means I got to be smarter than most people. But yeah, let’s say we hope not to get injured
What I’m really surprised about is the fact that I got tweaked now when my training is, on paper, safest it has ever been. Why now and not two years back when I was doing cheat rows, round-back deads and stuff like that?
Could it be that back then my system was more used to awkward positions and I’m proportion my lower back was stronger?
Well not everyone, i guess when i think of people who haven’t got an injury of sorts in there career from pushing themselves to the limit they never really end up achieving much. (IMO)
When you think of the strongest men in the world like Big Z who’s gone through a bunch of injuries over the years, theres alot of factors. But for the most part if they traned like bitches they wouldn’t get injured. Have you heard of someone that trains like a weakling with the pink dumbells injure themselves much? I haven’t lol.
That’s really interesting but it makes alot of sense. I guess the only way to find out would be to go back to training like that again.
I feel that in strength sports this is really true; strongman and powerlifting especially.
That’s because there is a need to push the weights really high. But bodybuilding, on the other hand can be very safe - natural bodybuilders (from what I’ve observed) usually don’t get any major injuries really at all if they train smartly. Usually it’s more overuse injuries and tweaks.
But when we think professional bodybuilding, it’s a different world. I don’t know wether or not Phil Heath has been injured but I’m inclined to think he hasn’t. But that’s just one dude - there are a lot more Olympias that have been injured, think Ronnie or Yates for example.
But yeah, it’s more likely than not to get injured at some point, and I’d say it’s more likely in strength sports than bodybuilding.
One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that I’ve become more hesitant to push through pain (the kind that tells you you’re about to get hurt) during the last two years. Like, a few years ago I could feel my hamstring being just about to snap on a squat and I’d still go on for another five reps or I could feel my back being about to snap on the deadlift and I’d still push through. But man did I feel indestructible back then. Now I’m not feeling nearly as tough, sure, I’m stronger than I was burning also feel more fragile.
This is very true. Every single guy who ever got to the world class level, with injuries or without them pushed themselves really hard. I feel that if you don’t push yourself and still think you’ll ever amount to anything worth noting (in sense of muscular development or strength) you just have a huge ego. Someone with world-class genetics may he able to do that but assuming you (I don’t mean you by this, I’m just talking from a different perspective) could do it, that’s just selfish really
Always push yourself. No matter how good your genetics are, taking it to the limit and over it won’t hinder your progress.
The pink dumbbell crew may not get injured in the gym much, but in the real world they are a lot more vulnerable to injury. One sudden movement and that doughy bicep will snap.
To quote Mark Bell; “Strength is never a weakness”
But I’m the gym the injury risk does really go up as the weights do.
I’ve been thinking of implementing some of the stuff back in, such as cheat rows. But some things I did, like the round back deads, I don’t feel like I could do in a safe enough manner. (I may have just gotten lucky in the past)
But all in all, once I’m somewhat into the bulk and out of the bf zone where the plain dryness and lack of cushion makes you vulnerable to injury, I’m going to teach you guys the meaning of intensity. 120 kilos bodyweight is the goal. Hard work is the key.
It does. I like being really lean and being and stuff, but being just a mountain of meat is something different. Last time I loved it and to be honest, I wasn’t even all that muscular - if I can be a not obese 120 kilos I’ll be in heaven
With the amount of pushing hard work I do in this log I better be good at it
Just wanted to point out that last year Phil Heath had two hernias lol.
Anyway i completely agree, bodybuilding is safer than strength sports.
Maybe you have just gotten more aware of injuries and preventing them I’d say.
Such a good message right there. Heck even if you have elite genetics, and you don’t have to do much to be better than everyone, if you train hard then you’ll pretty much just be immortal haha.
So you’re never really truly safe from injury either way
But being stronger is wayyyy better.
If you introduce that kinda stuff back in then who knows. I mean you got guys like Dr Deadlift out here cheat rowing 500 pounds and not having problems so you’ll just have to see i guess.
You won’t be in kindergarden anymore
Looking forward to hearing about the bulk and all the progress!
I was just wondering, and i know you’re not particularly interested in strength sports like powerlifting, but what about Strongman?
I know you like different unusual lifts like jefferson deads and such, and i know that’s not in strongman but theres so much cool different stuff in Strongman compared to something like powerlifting.
You have a Tall, Solid build
An awesome work ethic
You have massive amounts of potential
( 100 Kilo dumbell rows comes to mind and that was after a little focus on dumbell rows, it didn’t take you long )
Being big and solid is almost always way cooler than being medium sized and shredded, being big and fat on the other hand; not so cool.
I’m sure you can get to at least a solid 90 kilos with time and effort.
Did he? Whoops.
Oh well
Many guys actually switch into bodybuilding after being injured doing powerlifting/strongman, which tells us the exact same thing about safety
Probably yeah, there’s this Finnish saying that goes pretty much like this; “every man is immortal until he turns 23” that’s quite true even though I’m not 23
Agreed, it’s far better being strong
Yeah, we’ll see, I actually did some bent over rows today. (Not cheating) they felt really good
Really excited about getting out of kindergarten mode, I’ll make sure to keep ya updated with the bulk!
As per your second question, I’ll get to it in a couple of hours, I’ve got to work now.
That’s kind of good though, they would have built a solid base just not really the V taper look yet.
Well enjoy it until then
That’s good, is it just me or sometimes do certain lifts feel kind of therapeutic then another time it trashes you?
Alot of people live there life being content with physical weakness, but in my opinion it just isn’t right. You need to maintain some kinda level of fitness because it really does improve quality of life.
Yeah haha, i understood your point though.
Well being massive and not deprived of food is funner
Yeah it is, and if the guy doesn’t have a clearly visible injury they can usually be very competitive in bodybuilding
I’ll certainly do that
Definitely, I’d say that -apart from load used - it has a lot to do with how you slept, what have you been doing all day etc. If you’ve slept in a weird position and you’ve been slouching over for the whole day, something like incline bench probably won’t feel too good.
Yeah, and in addition to that there’s this culture of binge drinking, eating shit and overall being unhealthy. Like, if I ever mention that I’ve never been drunk 80% of the guys within hearing range offer to buy me enough beer to pass out. It’s crazy really
Definitely, although there’s a certain level of excitement with pushing your body to the limit by losing fat as well
I’m on a break now, expect a post in 10-15 minutes.
Yes, powerlifting and weightlifting are not things I’m really interested in, mainly because of the fact that it’s just the two or three lifts you’re competing in. In bodybuilding, every show is different; different posing routines, different guys that have different weak and strong points. You’ve got to think strategically there, more so than in weightlifting or powerlifting where you’ve really only got to think about wether or not it’s worth it to go for another 10-20 pounds in terms of injury risk and your total.
I love oddlifts. Really the only reason I’m not doing strongman is the limited equipment I have. The only things I have are my sandbag and the most basic stuff you can find in a gym. Sure I could put together a yoke and get some tractor tires but I don’t have room for that kind of stuff (damn freezers taking up all the space)
If I had the opportunity to train for strongman specifically it would be a really tough call between that and bodybuilding. (I’d probably end up doing some kind of hybrid program)
Thanks man
In terms of my build; I’ve got wide shoulders, a huge ribcage, thick tendons and all that, but my hips and ankles especially are rather small, (which means less potential for growth there) plus I got somewhat of a swayback, so the absolute strength in my midsection will be a bit limited. (A belt would help with that obviously) but I do think that overall, I could make for a decent strongman competitor.
Yeah, on stuff like rows and pull ups I’m really strong and I do recognize the potential I have. Also stuff like good mornings and SLDLs I’m pretty strong at and gain strength easily. (Really any sort of pull) pressing, I’m not so good at, but I’m pretty decent still. My biggest weakness would be stuff that forces you to use your quads a lot (which isn’t a thing in strongman I think). I have some weak-ass quads really.
Potential-wise I think my best feature would be the ability to adapt. My body is really adaptive - a bit over a year ago I was very good with 1RMs, like, the most I could triple was 70% for the most part. Now I’ve been focusing a bit more on reps and density and I can do stuff with minimal rest for higher reps with decently high percentages. For example, my last bench day I did 5x8@85% of my max with about 45 seconds between sets (the time it took to do one set of pullups). That’s some real density there.
But yeah, short answer - if I could do it, I most likely would do it.
Nutrition:
1470 Calories
220g Protein
80g Carbs
30g Fat
Training:
Upper body: back health stuff
1a Clap pushups
3x3
1b Explosive sternum chins
3x3
2a Paused bench
3x8,7,6
2b Weighted pull ups w/fat grips
3x5 decrease weight
2x8
3a Bottom half overhead press
5x8-12
3b Bent over row
5x12
4a Skullcrusher
5x12-20
4b Reverse curl
5x15-20
5a Rear laterals with head support
3x25
5b Side laterals
3x25 more lower back stuff
Notes:
Multiple medium:length sets of paused bench is somehow very beautiful to me. Also it’s pretty exhausting done with no rest.
The “pull ups are getting hard” was fake news, they are easy as ever again.
I decided to try both overhead press and bent over rows, both felt pretty good. Only problem was that I really only feeling my traps working on OHP even though I tried to battle it by only doing the bottom half. Also on the laterals later on it was harder to do the movement with my delts. That’s how effective trap movement bent over rows are, and that’s part of the reason Quynh dropped them before - I don’t need too much more trap development, and it hinders my delt growth that is very important for my physique. If I do take them back in I’ve got to work them in a smart manner.
I got to say that my rear delts and upper traps were screaming during the movement, and I didn’t even go heavy. I went with strict form and really an upright position to take pressure off my lower back. With more weight and a bit looser form I bet my upper back and lays will get the same feeling.
After this it was just isolation stuff for arms and delts. Had no time for cardio as I had to get to work, this session as a while took only 40 minutes so it’s not like I didn’t get my heart rate up a bit even with no cardio.
