Damn dude.. save some improvements for the rest of us.
Feeling pretty good, last month kind of has been a bust. I did hit a lifetime PR of 315x2 on Zercher squats over the last weekend. That’s coming after dropping almost 20lbs since January.
If you are taking a wide grip, try changing to a more narrow. Depending on your build, just outside the smooth center or an inch to two inches inside the knurl.
When you bench, assuming you are arching, bring the bar to a lower starting point (around where the pec meets the sternum) focus on a straight line down and up here, instead of a z. The final thing is try to bend the bar when lifting to engage the lats, and tuck your elbows like doing a close grip for triceps.
At first you may use less weight in this configuration, but you aren’t losing strength. You will be activating triceps more and it will give the shoulder/pec attachment a break. When you need an ego boost, you can go back to your normal configuration, but this time, your triceps will be adding a lot more power.
Lately, i have been only benching once a week as I have been focusing on standing press. Everytime I do this, I see a huge jump in bench strength, because standing press teaches your muscles how to grind. In conjunction with this, you need to be doing a lot of upper back work, ie Yates rows, facepulls, or rear delt flies.
A lot of shoulder pain comes from an imbalance between front and rear delt strength. On the bench specifically though, the wide grip z pattern used often can lead to this problem on its own. I am a front delt dominant bencher, so using these techniques has solved all my problems
I always lose track of this thread for some reason.
When’s the deadline?
As far as status compared to initial goals, here’s where I am:
-I just completed another Spartan 10K, and accomplished my goal of being better/faster than my buddy, who as a kid could kick my ass at everything physical. This turned out to be bittersweet, because - as always - I wanted (and had expected) to be forced to PUSH myself to accomplish this, rather than having to throttle myself back and let someone catch up. I guess the only way I’ll get what I’m really looking for from a Spartan, is this August when I run alone. Just me against me, no excuses.
-Diet’s been cleaner, although not on anything strict. Predominantly whole, natural, unprocessed foods, and sadly much less beef than before and close to zero dairy as my wife has become very sensitive to it.
-Physique: a late-30s piece of pasta. Look, I’m in great shape, I know I am - I just proved it - but I don’t look amazing. Do I look better than last year? Probably not. And to be clear, I’m not - and have not for a LONG time - training in a way that builds show muscles. Or eating in a way that reveals abs on me.
-Lifting: I was doing a remedial O-lift routine for 4 weeks, really religiously, trying to fix some technique issues with the Snatch. Was hoping to pivot from there and really work on the Snatch. However I damaged my wrist in some impossible way and haven’t touched a barbell in weeks. Will pick it back up soon, though.
-Life: Taking the fam to Disney etc next week. So I’ll get one good workout on Friday, maybe one on Monday, and then that’s going to be it for a week or so while I travel. That’s OK too.
-T-ransformation - I’ll turn in a photo for the deadline, but I anticipate looking the same as before.
Accomplished my goal of being better/faster than my buddy, who as a kid could kick my ass at everything physical.
I have a childhood friend like this. He was a year older than me (I started school early), and we met in kindergarten, so he was always physically bigger and stronger than me growing up. This changed in high school, when I got bit by the iron bug and he pursued activities like tennis, fencing and dance, but to this day he’s still “the strong guy” in my mind. It’s funny how these things imprint.
Your update is awesome. Very holistic growth.
Down to less than a month left now…
I bought new jeans yesterday…I was a 36 for years and years for my jeans waist, and it seemed like that never really changed too much regardless of body composition or what training phase I was in. Sometimes sure maybe I was in between a 34 and a 36, but yeah I had been in a 36 for a long time. And now…I’m comfortably in a 32. I weighed 197 this morning, coming down a few pounds the past bit with tightening things up progressively more and more leading up to the end of this challenge. I’ve been this bodyweight before…I’ve been in that 195-215 range for a while now honestly…but this is the smallest waist size I’ve ever had in this sort of bodyweight range. Needless to say, I’m pretty stoked about that. It’s one of the things that’s shown me that my hard work is paying off.
Hell yeah! That’s awesome!
As @Moonflower said, we’re just under a month to go. What’s everyone’s plan to finish strong??
Just started my second of six FBBBB cycles, and I’ve upped my calories, moving away from PSMF—everything works until it doesn’t, ya know?
Anyway, between that and just staying consistent, I’m aiming to give myself a chance to grow a bit before this year’s challenge wraps up!
Keep up the strong work, everybody!
I finished the 10,000 KB challenge and am currently without a plan moving forward. I really need to figure something out soon. At this particular point my only plan is to not backslide. I’m excited to see how everyone finishes this out!
I’ve heard that it is the plan.
Just finished off birthday weekend stuff. Time to buckle down and drop this bloat and hopefully a couple pounds with it.
I am confident that I will look no different. But I will submit a photo nonetheless. And I am absolutely in fighting shape even if I look like a saggy old man. Haven’t touched a barbell in weeks and have also realized that there are so many more ways to be fit. But, the barbell is also important and I will get back to it as soon as I can.
If you plan chaos, does this not mean that it is therefore no longer chaos? 
I am about to do my last session of 531 Morning Star, then I will do the 10k kbell swing challenge.
I am reasonably confident that I have miserably failed to hit “The Standard” in these few months, but in attempting to hit it, I have got a heap closer, so I’m way ahead of where I could have been - if that makes any sense. Shoot for the moon, land in the stars kinda BS.
The whole goal of the 10k challenge is to lose some weight/fat before the deadline, then hope to maintain that leanness with Krypteia for a while
The opposite: it means I embrace chaos. Similar to how fire has always been there, and at first we feared it, but eventually we embraced it. We never controlled fire, but we made it our ally.
It’s much in the same line of thought as Camus “The Myth of Sisyphus”. We can’t fight the absurdity, but we can face it with bravery.
By making chaos the plan, the plan is never disrupted BY chaos.
Question for the group based on this.
I like the superhero look. And I don’t even have to go to actors like The Rock; I think Thor and Henry Cavill’s Superman looked great. You can throw Captain America in there, too.
Like you said, you can absolutely be a beast without having the bodybuilder look, but is “the look” only built by lifting weights, genetics, or a bit of both?
Like you said, you can absolutely be a beast without having the bodybuilder look, but is “the look” only built by lifting weights, genetics, or a bit of both?
Don’t forget lighting, angles, and timing. Quite often that “look” you see in the movie is cultivated over a LONG period of strategic dieting and dehydration for ONE scene just to impress an image upon the viewer that this hero ALWAYS looks like that.
Some folks ARE genetics freaks and will look like superheros no matter what they do. Herschel Walker comes to mind. Some folks are genetics freaks and will look like a melted candle no matter what they do. Most of us are in the middle on that bell curve, and will look better if we lift weights and eat right, but physical structure and outcome is already set.
I like the analogy “genetics load the gun and behavior pulls the trigger”.
Oh yeah, also: nutrition is probably the much bigger lever to pull as far as “the look” goes, compared to lifting that is.
I don’t even care about the level of leanness they display. I feel like those three particular characters look athletic… or maybe they resemble my childhood G.I. Joes.
@jdm135 keeps downplaying his look, so I looked back at his entry photo. Dude, you may not have the striations and lines of a bodybuilder, but you have a thick thoracic build. Your chest and back present a “wide” look and I can tell you love those Olympic lifts. It reminds me of the old timey bodybuilder illustration where he lifts the circus weights.
I don’t even care about the level of leanness they display. I feel like those three particular characters look athletic… or maybe they resemble my childhood G.I. Joes.
I guess what I’m wanting to convey is that the leanness is part of the reason they look that way. Because if they were fatter, they wouldn’t.
Like, here is a world class athlete
And another
And so in that regard, I think I’m more understanding your question of why is is that some athletes look like superheros and some athletes look like THIS. In which case I’d say genetics are the decider. Genetics were the decider in these folks being world class in the first place (with a natural selection process occurring at the junior levels of competition), and they were involved in how these folks LOOKED when they got there as well. Dave Tate talks about this in a podcast on the topic of quads, referencing how the posterior chain is where real power came from for athletes, and how ALL great athletes had a big/strong posterior chain, whereas quads just sorta “happened” if you had the genetic pre-disposition to have them grow as a result of training.