@kdjohn if I can normalize insanity, my job is done, haha.
@ChongLordUno definitely tag me when you start it up. Be excited to follow along.
Went on a leisurely 5 mile run with the Mrs. Her back/hip is having some issues, and I was still pretty bombed out from the trap bar and yesterday’s adventure, so we took it easy.
I’ve been lurking on this log and just glossed over the high reps, although I was impressed. Tonight I decided to watch this insanity and see how anyone could do 301 reps of anything. Bro, you are a one of a kind specimen. You take that any way you want, but I mean it as a compliment for sure. Even if I was so inclined to try this, with a suitable weight, my brain would immediately shut it down. My question is at what point did your brain first say “we should probably end this soon”? Great work
This might make me a few unfriendlies.
I don’t remember who prompted this, but someone was talking/writing with @T3hPwnisher and hid behind the genetics card. Not an unusual affair, mind. This prompted me to start paying attention to how I myself have at times expressed self-limiting beliefs. Shortly thereafter, I became very cognizant of others doing the same thing as well.
In an effort to make sense, let us generalise and consider someone, anyone, seeing a performance such as 301 reps on the trap-bar deadlift and expressing “I can’t do that” and the implication being “I can never do that”. As long as that remains the belief, that person is
I hate that I’ve done this myself, but I have. However, I’m starting to see now that with learning, with performance, those self-limiting beliefs become my cage.
There are so many things that I’ve seen people do where my immediate reaction isn’t to resign and surrender to the idea that if I cannot emulate it here and now I’ll never be able to do it. But it sometimes is, and that irks me. Why? Because, a handstand, a somersault, a X pound lift, or an N number of reps at a lift is an expression of the effort and hard work someone has put into being able to do that.
By honing in on that, that time and effort was invested into doing any given thing, it becomes possible to determine where on a journey to that as the end goal and destination one lies currently and make an effort to traverse that distance.
With tremendous respect, there was presumably a time when @T3hPwnisher couldn’t do what @T3hPwnisher does now. He trained to get here.
And, granted, we all have our different sets of goals that we strive towards, and maybe a person isn’t invested enough in the idea to pursue equivalently heavy pulls as our resident Juggernaugt have showcased his ability to do, and therefore 135 lbs on the trap-bar high handle would be too high a number relative to our ability to express and use our strength but if what we are in awe of and want to claim for ourselves is an equal relative work capacity then I believe the first step on that path (assuming access to a trap-bar) is asking @T3hPwnisher what he lifts for 3-5 reps and calculate whereabouts 135 pounds relate to that and find their own equivalent for 135, shoot for 301 reps, and learn what their discrepancy in their work capacity is to his.
And then start working to improve that.
Even if they never get to 301 reps at that weight, they’d get more awesome.
Performance enhancing hair
Iove this from you dude.
Peers, not idols 
We’ve all seen the pictures of Pwn as a teenager. Dude has obviously worked very, very hard and smart (although he won’t admit that last bit), to get where he is.
@bctx1981 Much appreciated dude. Around the 150 rep mark I had to start playing tricks on myself to get through. I counted up to the first 100 reps, and then after that I started over at 0 and counted up to 50, and from there I started counting 10s. It’s like distance running, in that you set small milestones to build up to one big one. At 150, I had told myself that it most likely wasn’t going to be a PR day, as things weren’t feeling great since I was still beat up from working on the truck, but once I got to my first rep PR of 212 I knew I could get to 251 again, and once I got there I told myself it didn’t need to be 300: just get in what I could until I was done. But once I got to 270 I told myself I wasn’t going to come that far not to get 300, because I did’t wanna have to do it again, haha.
@Voxel no unfriendlies at all: it’s what I keep telling people when they say I have some sort of gift for this. It’s like poison: you develop tolerance by constant exposure to small dosages. I’ve spent YEARS subjecting my mind and body to challenges like this, starting off small and eventually building into something grand. A 301 rep set today may have been simply me getting 40 push ups done when I was 15. Anyone can do it: they just have to spend the time cultivating it.
@dagill2 Much appreciated. Regarding the “smart” thing: I’d be willing to accept that term, so long as it’s understood outside of an academic meaning. I apply a “savage intelligence” to the approach. I definitely “know” things and can apply them and can even explain them in terms I understand, but the biology and physics of it all is well beyond me, and, unforunately, that’s all people seem to care about, haha.
AM WORKOUT (0645)
SUPERSETS (Chin-press)
Angled NG chins
5x50
5x75
5x85
5x95
5x100
DROPSET
5x75
5x50
6xBodyweight
Axle strict press
5xAxle
5x66
5x136
5x156
9+3+2x176 (rest pause, no belt on first set)
Log clean and strict press away 130
1x16
GIANT SETS (press/dip or BTN/dip-raise-pull apart)
Axle strict press 145/dips
1x10/failure
1x9/failure
1x8/failure
BtN Press 120
1x10/failure
1x8/failure
1x9/failure
DB lateral raise 20s
5x11
1x10
Pull aparts
6x15
Weighted dips stripset
5x130
4x105
4x80
4x55
5x30
6xBodyweight
CONDITIONING
Strongman Fran (100lb log push press/strict chins)
21
15
9
Done in 7:05
Notes: 90 seconds rest between giant sets. That topset of press was a trip. I was so focused on nailing it I forgot to cinch up my belt. Noticed it midway through the set, as my core didn’t feel tight. Hit a helluva grinder at the 9th rep and was pleased to look down and see the belt was undone. Means I got a lot in me. Things seem to be moving well. Rest of workout was a bit taxed as a result, but I’ll take that.
Fran at the end continues to be an amazing ball buster.
Run later today.
I think this has potential as a future TN article. Soon everyone will start doing the 301 rep trap bar workout.
Bingo.
Back when I coached martial arts, the word “can’t” received a greater punishment than anything else, because, as you said, you’ve shut your brain down before even trying. In most cases, there’s no such thing as “I can’t”, it’s just a rebranding of “I won’t” or “I don’t want to”.
Was going to write a long reply, trying to better articulate my thoughts on what I said, but I don’t disagree with you. This is the old argument “can anyone get to a 600# deadlift” or other such arbitrary strength feat. I certainly feel it’s possible, just very few are willing to push/sacrifice hard enough to get there.
I had to re-read the NG chins because at first I didn’t realise 5x50 was weighted and thought you did 5 sets of 50 and then 5x75
It was the first time in a long time I’ve been in legitimate stunned disbelief reading your log haha.
I’ve found your new goal…
Didn’t mean it as a slight to you bud
When I was training at a strongman gym (not as a a strongman myself it was just a dope small gym) we did a version of Grace
30 reps for time, 60kg dead all floor to over the shoulder toss. It was brutal but I think you’d like it.
Medical ball?
Yeah whoops, deadball. It’s like a floppy medicine ball so it’s harder to pick up. Closer to a sandbag I guess
@Iron_Condor Oh man, it’d be a short article. Pull 1 rep, then just pull 300 more, haha.
@kdjohn 100%. “Can’t” is a forbidden word in my household. I joke that it’s the worse 4 letter C word, haha. The reframing is HUGE. You re-take power that way too.
@kleinhound you aren’t the first person to make that mistake, haha. I don’t have a 60kg bag, but the stone of steel shouldering I have been doing has a similar effect.
Got my 5 mile run in with the Mrs.
AM WORKOUT (0645)
MAX EFFORT
High Handle Trap Bar Pulls
5x135
5x225
3x315
1x405
1x495
1x585
1x635
3x585
Deficit deadlift ROM progression dropset (12 deep breaths between sets of straight weight, no rest between weight strips)
(4)12x325
(3)8x325
(2)7x325
(1)6x325
(Floor)7x325
7x255
10x165
20x95
Neck harness 55
4 sets
Chins (all the angles, resting long enough between sets to put away plates)
8x10
2x7+3 (rest pause)
Axle rows against light bands (1 minute rests)
3x13
1x12
Axle shrugs against bands
1x52
Kroc rows 115
1x20
Band pull aparts
1x50
Notes: The max effort performance showed me I’m most likely not fully recovered from the 301 rep set I did 2 days ago. I crammed in a week’s worth of training in 5 days due to having to work this weekend. I was pleased with the effort put forth, just not the outcome, but such is life. Rest of the training was awesome. Really digging that deficit set, and that’s the furthest deficit I’ve ever pulled from before. Making them touch and go makes this an insanely long time under tension, which should bode well for growth.
Kroc rows are becoming more natural, as are the rows and shrugs against bands. This is shaping up to be a solid back day. I wanna try the progressive pulls I read about in “Purposeful Primitive” sometime, but I suppose it will need to wait.
LUNCHTIME WORKOUT
Log Viper Axle Grace (135lbs)
6:00
40 bodyweight reverse hypers
15 stone of steel extensions in 3:30
Notes: Mrs had to cancel the run, so went and did a quick conditioning workout.
Got in a fasted weighted vest walk this morning with the dogs, and then did all my daily work on top of that.
Hips finally feeling 100% again. I think breaking from the daily KB swings was the right call. Replaced them with reverse hypers.