Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

Training Training Logs
4309

Hamburger meat is good, no? :wink:

Joking aside, I concede that you have a point but sometimes itā€™s wrong to extrapolate from such statements. And yes, one of my memories from this log happens to be along that thinking pattern wherein he describes himself hobbling up to squats, do squats, and then hobble back again. This in turn served to fuel into my own injury/training philosophy/approach which is that itā€™s alright if it hurts but itā€™s not alright if it hurts more.

At any rate, Iā€™ve come to view @T3hPwnisher as an intelligent individual, and I wouldnā€™t be put it past him then to be concerned with placing uniform load on a moving structure that has pronounced asymmetry during other movements. But, given his choice of words my perception was that it didnā€™t concern him and if it truly doesnā€™t Iā€™d like to ask him ā€œwhy not?ā€

1 Like
4310

Asking that question is kind of missing the point. Or his point. Heā€™s deadlifting high 600s, trap bar deadlifting low 700s, pulling 405 for 60+ reps, buffalo bar squatting, and doing yoke lifts, which are like 99% ACL, with much more weight than the lift that tore his ACL in the first place. Itā€™s of course possible that he could be an anomaly, but youā€™ve also gotta ask yourself, ā€œwhy should I be so concerned with things like symmetry when the body is asymmetrical as a rule and he can lift fucktons of weight and run a half marathon and still be standing?ā€

Most importantly though - disclaimer this is my interpretation of his training and not a reflection of how he thinks - there seems to be a philosophical aspect to his training that directly explores and challenges the limits of the body as well as the limits we set on ourselves before we even set out to do something. As a result, the often-heard ā€˜we should look more into this perceived physical issueā€™ is nothing new in this log. Nothingā€™s going to change, so your best bet is just to enjoy this case study. We may never get another live one.

4 Likes
4311

Thatā€™s a series of excellent points that you make. I admit that Iā€™m betraying how relatively new I am to the log. I have not read anywhere near close to it all.

Iā€™m not trying to be an advocate for change here, but I am trying to understand and incorporate things into my own matrix of thought. Sometimes Iā€™ll ask stupid questions as a consequence. Sorry.

4312

I think we should remember that T3hPwnisher previously stated that he doesnā€™t really care about the longevity of his training. From what I recall, he said heā€™ll keep doing what he does until he canā€™t anymore, at which point heā€™ll find something else to do.

He also has well over a decade worth of training and many of them sound rather extreme (I think he wrote about doing thousand+ push-ups daily, running over 7-8 miles daily, etc). I donā€™t think itā€™s a good idea to try to take pointers from what he does, besides that giant sets are awesome.

4313

I donā€™t think any of the questions you asked here, or have asked anywhere on this forum, are stupid. Far from it. No offense meant, haha.

1 Like
4314

If youā€™re new to the log, you may also be unaware of his blog (google mythical strength), which covers his approach and philosophy extremely well.

1 Like
4315

Thank you, Iā€™ll check it out! Iā€™ve seen a blog being mentioned but donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever visited it.

1 Like
4316

I appreciate that.

1 Like
4317

Holy cow, whole lotta dialogue here. Good stuff.

@Voxel The response from @flappinit did a great job of covering things, but to give a definitive answer, it doesnā€™t concern me. My body can do the things I want it to do, and thatā€™s the important part. I take solace in not being able to do a single leg squat with my left knee as well as I can with my right by being able to lift big weights and also being able to run 13.1 unbroken miles on it. About the only thing I think it could be limiting me in that would be a concern is if I one day decide to return to combat sports, but these days boxing is really the only thing that interests me, and it doesnā€™t seem to limit me there. Would most likely be a mess for Muay Thai.

@mr.v3lv3t Appreciate the link. Most often my knee pain ends up being an inflamed IT band, and when it gets really bad, I roll it out with a LAX ball.

@startingagain I rack the bar for the rest pausing. Both methods have their merits, but I find the racking the bar has an added psychological benefit to it. Itā€™s ā€œeasyā€ to just do 1 big set with the bar on your back, because when youā€™re done, you can just rack the bar an collapse. The hardest part about racking the bar is that you get a break and THEN you have to make yourself get back under it when youā€™ve got a clear avenue to quit right in front of you. Similar to how, with running on a treadmill, you have to choose to take every step, with racking the bar (or rest pausing with the weight on the floor in the case of deadlifts) you have to keep coming back for pain.

@liftangryordie500 If I woke up in the morning and something didnā€™t hurt, Iā€™d assume I died in my sleep, haha.

@Frank_C Itā€™s always worked for me, haha. I let my body know that there will be no breaks given, and that healing needs to happen quickly. But part of that too is that Iā€™m only really concerned about how well it does performing the tasks I want it to perform. Iā€™ll go and do a bunch of heavy presses and then let my shoulder ache while I wash dishes. As long as it does itā€™s job when I need it to, it can slack on the mundane stuff.

@magick Correctly identified. The 1000 push ups only happened a few times, but I was doing 200+ a day on top of 16 miles of running when I was a high school kid. Most folksā€™ goals donā€™t align with mine.

It is interesting though; in my pursuit to break myself, I just keep coming back stronger, haha.

@dagill2 Thanks for sharing the blog dude!

3 Likes
4318

He doesnā€™t live. Heā€™s a robot. The first of the machine uprising.

4319

One of my co-workers used to refer to me as T-1000, haha. When I tore my cornea, we joked that it was the scene when Arnold took out his eye.

4 Likes
4320

I recall this, too. He also says he hates training and does it as a means to an end for strongman. But heā€™s starting to drift from that sport and Iā€™m beginning to think heā€™s enjoying himself. :wink:

4321

To clarify, strongman is a means to an end. My goal is being bigger and stronger, and strongman (for a while) was helping there since it was pushing me past my limits. As comps continue to get lighter and stupid, thatā€™s starting to not be the case, and consequently why I have settled into my own pattern of training the way I want to train. No point getting better at push pressing if the comp weight is something I can strict press.

3 Likes
4322

T-1000 problems, lol.

3 Likes
4323

Been away from your log for a couple of month Pwn.
Good to be back to the insanity like the 60 rep 405 trap bar.
Had a rough time with a lot of shit during december and the log posts just piled up in here.
Happy to see youā€™re strong or might I say even stronger than ever.
Had to scroll back to december to see what book by Poul you were talking about. Found it, might even buy it now.

3 Likes
4324

I was going to offer to lend you my digital copy but apparently the app does not support that.

1 Like
4325

9/10 would recommend.

Any other book recommendations you want to throw out there @T3hPwnisher, Iā€™m all ears. Running out of training books to read shortly.

4326

@The_Myth This is my worst T-1000 problem, haha

image

@mortdk Glad to have you back along dude. Book is definitely worth picking up. Paul has sadly since passed, but his estate/widow may still be seeing some of the kindle proceeds and, even if not, itā€™s just a great publication.

@dagill2 Thereā€™s really not a whole lot of them Iā€™ve ever come back to. ā€œSuper Squatsā€ is a solid read, even if you donā€™t intent to run the program. I enjoyed reading through Stuart McRobertā€™s ā€œBrawnā€ when I did it, but when I tried to re-read it I never realized how MUCH of it was about emphasizing how the training they were advocating was for drug-free average genetics trainees. Itā€™s a bit tedious. Jamie Lewisā€™ 365 days of insanity is a great little collection of biographies and methods, but if youā€™ve been keeping up to date on his site you most likely read it all before.

1 Like
4327

AM WORKOUT

Swiss bar incline bench 265
1x10
1x9
1x7

Axle bench press 281
2x10
1x7

Close grip axle bench 241
1x10
1x9
1x7

Dips
1x41
2x28

Standing ab wheel between sets of bench
8x8

Notes: 3:05 between sets of benching, 2:00 between sets of dips. Work has been crazy and Iā€™m all off schedule, so Iā€™ll be attempting to get caught back up with some pretty silly workout schedules. Hoping to hit some max effort lower work later today. Got to benefit with todayā€™s workout though, since I had such a long rest between previous training sessions. 265 didnā€™t feel nearly as heavy as 260 had been feeling, and the follow up sets of benching were actually very smooth. Had this not been an AM workout, I may have made it through all sets.

Sleep hasnā€™t been super great. May try to get in a few naps along the way.

4 Likes
4328

AM WORKOUT

MAX EFFORT

Low handle trap bar pulls
5x135
5x225
3x315
1x405
1x495
1x545
1x560
1x565

LONG REST

High handle trap bar pulls 405
1x37+2
1x8
1x6
1x8

Notes: 3:45 between heavy pulls. 1:00 between high handle sets. The low handles remain my kryptonite, and most likely something I should spend some more time on. I can legitimately pull more with a barbell than I can with low handles on a trap bar. The warm-up sets were putting pain on the surgical site of my knee, but the work sets didnā€™t have any issues. Trying to get in some press work this evening, so instead of a half day break between main and supplemental work I gave it about 20 minutes. I was moving at a very solid pace on the first set, but right around rep 32 I started bombing hard. That seems to be the make or break point for me, so something to focus on. Wanted to see 61 reps, so I took 1 minute rests until I got there.

Iā€™m practically pausing on the low handle pulls there. Honestly wouldnā€™t be too much of a stretch to do that as supplemental work sometime.

3 Likes