Craziest Thing, Bad Idea - Not so much an idea as me not reading the programme notes but I had a go at doing some GVT years back and thought the 10x10 weights should have been at my 10rm weight. Never had doms like it before or since
Craziest Thing, Good Idea - Loading up my 10rm Squat weight and doing 50 reps in as few sets and as quickly as possible
These are great (the quail - nasty!), and I love the @T3hPwnisher burger vid. I’m not sure when I saw it first, maybe early summer, but it’s now how I gauge all food effort and degrees of fullness. His face at the end, as he eats the last few bites - epic.
Sixteen years ago I was looking for weight equipment terminology, and Google took me here. I found what I needed, then noticed the line “Sex and the Male Animal.” Obviously, I clicked it. I had questions. I was a bookish runner, working with kids. Now I’m drinking protein and ending weight workouts with 100 KB swings and talking with my clients about their T levels. I think this site is my craziest thing (good idea).
This is major props: thanks for that! It’s funny too: I’m still adjusting to no longer being “the big guy” after dropping about 30 pounds, so people are pretty shocked at the sheer volume of food I can put away. When I rolled up to the resturant, they rolled their eyes at me, and the hostess kept coming by with some snide comments while I was eating, like “saving that peanut butter to the end is a bad move…”, and then when they came by and all I had left was a plate of onions and an order of fries with 20 minutes left, I heard “Oh my god he’s actually going to do it!”
That 10 minute wait was SO miserable. My hands REEKED of onions and kept triggering a gag response, because after spending 10 minutes eating a plate of onions like the world’s worst pasta dish, I could just feel them like toxic sludge in my guts. I’ve certainly had enough onions for one lifetime. And then, the worst part was I had to drive me and my kid home after all that! We went about 20 miles below the speedlimit and avoided EVERY speedbump. Next time: I’m hiring an uber!
@EmilyQ I love that I can be that barometer there! Haha. I tell people I’ve only ever been full 4 times in my life, and this was one of them. Folks don’t realize the difference between satiated and full. Satiated means comfortable: full means FULL.
I really like this. In that spirit, my “craziest” good idea was probably running CT’s programs back-to-back for a stretch: look like a bodybuilder, I, BB, and 6 weeks to superhero. That was crazy because that’s simply not how lifting was done! I learned a ton and really was able to branch out.
Craziest diet, definitely good idea, was the velocity diet. It looked like a slim-fast commercial on first glance (which I’ve also done), but I got a lot out of it and think of protein as more than just a minimum amount of amino acid intake now.
I’m LOVING my meathead diet, and in fact have to start a log this weekend because I want to gush about it all and I can’t keep spamming the T-ransformation thread with it.
I love TN for too many reasons to list. But for me, it was definitely a crazy thing, particularly back in 2007, when social media was still suspect for adults. My best friend and husband are used to me talking about “the bodybuilders” (and my bf listens closely), but in general I keep it on the deep DL.
It has absolutely changed my life.
Yes you can! That’s what it’s for - we are all in that game together, as athletes, coaches, and fans.
This is so true. I owe this place SO much. The team at Biotest itself is amazing, and the community here on the forums has been incredible. And we’ve all grown through out as well. I got here in 07 as well, after lurking for a while, wanting to be able to hold my own amongst the “bad boys of lifting forums”. My very first post was in response to how much milk we drank a day, and I had JUST finished my run of Super Squats so I was proud of myself to be able to say “A gallon”, haha.
This is an interesting thread, but I never considered anything that I tried to do concerning bodybuilding (or powerlifting) would fall in the “crazy” category.
I did take a challenge that I wouldn’t repeat. It had been a position that I took that nothing tasted so bad, that I wouldn’t try it if I thought improve my physique. And I strongly criticized anyone who had to eat only food that tasted good. On one of my food rants, a gym member heard my claim and offered me a challenge.
His wife worked at a hospital and had told him that they tube fed some patients with predigested liquid form protein. He said he tried it and that it tasted like vomit and claimed that I couldn’t drink the entire bottle (which was either 12 or 16 ounces, or maybe in milliliters. I just don’t remember). I took his challenge and dared him to bring me a bottle.
A couple days later he brought a bottle of pre-digested protein to the gym. After my workout I set at the counter that was in the gym “office” that was just a location on the gym floor. I began the attempt to down what I came to call a “bottle of pus.”
He did not exaggerate to taste being that of vomit. It was rough, but I drank it all. It would have been very easy to “down a shot” of “pus”, but a full bottle was no picnic.
As to bad tasting supplements, one of the worst I tried for a few months is powdered ornithine. Supposedly, at that time, it was believed that ornithine released growth hormone. I put a teaspoon of ornithine powder in enough water to get it in suspension/solution and downed it in one gulp. It had a strong, bitter, metallic taste.
The biggest bench press during my 20s was done with a standard bar, and weights (some of them Orbitron), on a standard bench from Sears. I am not sure it was crazy, but it was stupid. Looking back I am amazed I made it to my 30s.
In my 30s I came across Dave Draper’s tuna fast. Eating just tuna. Well, in there, amidst eating tuna, was the idea of a tuna shake. Two cans of tuna blended in water, hence, the tuna shake. There was an option to use tomato juice or V8 instead of water. For some reason that sounded unappetizing.
I drank my tuna shake. Twenty five years later I still have a strong aversion to the Chicken of the Sea.
Not so successful:
Sprint tabata…only managed to get 3.5 rounds in and then more less had to walk lol and this was even when I used to run 2-3 times per week, makes you realise just how super-fit you need to be to run 400-600 meters etc in a really great time.
Modifying my barbell into a ‘fat bar’…this just didn’t work for me, I think, maybe if I did fat bar work with just arms exercises they may be beneficial, but the fat bar changes the emphasis on the big money movements too much.
Interesting and a wee bit painful…eventually!
Normally, at the end of the year I like to set my self a bit of a mad/one off work-out challenge (so, a few years ago I looked up obscure max tonnage per hour lifted records…I decided to see how many times I could squat 75kg in 1 hour) I got up to 300 reps in about half an hour or so and then had to drop the weight back to 62kg (my upper back was spazzing out!)…I think I managed about 600 reps in total in 1 hour.
The weird thing about this is the DOMS took an extra day to kick in…so for the best part of a few days after I was ok then…so…maybe I got away with it…and then three days later, I felt like i’d been jumped on by a rhinocerous!
Most effective:
Using wrist weights to micro-load on heavy db movements.
Using wrist straps and a no hands grip to do lat work when I gave myself tendonitis.
So now we have raw quail in the walk in freezer, a plate full of onions like the world’s worst pasta dish, a bottle of pre-digested tube-feed pus, and a tuna shake.
Is it any wonder I love this place? It’s like the most magical place on the internet!
Well, let’s just add another one…
Back in the early 90s, I picked up some Met-Rx, then sold in individual pouches. Since I was pretty broke, I’d only use half a pouch at a time. One day, I made my half-shake, then remembered that I had some boiled eggs in the fridge, so into the blender they went!
It was disgusting, but it was also protein, so I chugged it. Probably not as bad as tube-feed pus.
This is less a disgusting shake story and more a “true meathead” story.
But I had a buddy that was trying to come up with the most ANABOLIC meal possible. And so he figured “What do bodybuilders eat to get jacked?”
And so he mixed it all in a BIG bowl. But then he thought to himself: “How am I going to cook this monstrosity?!”
The oven! Of course! It was all so simple.
…it broke my heart to inform him that he had, in fact, discovered meatloaf.
I didn’t think I was doing anything crazy, but anyone who might have seen me doing it might think I was crazy. It was the morning of prejudging for the Mr. Florida held in Miami, either the 1979 or 1980 contest. I woke up rather early Saturday morning in my motel room and just didn’t look as sharp as I had expected. It looked to me that I had a layer of water under my skin.
Being very familiar with osmosis, I saw a possible quick solution. I remember on a few trips to the Seaquarium in Miami that the causeway from Miami passed numerous places close to the Atlantis Ocean. I decided to take a drive down there before prejudging. I found a quiet spot to pull off and lie in the shallow water with no waves.
For those that understand osmosis and the human body, our bodies are isotonic and the sea water is hypertonic.
Osmosis: a process by which molecules of a solvent (water) tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane (skin) from a less concentrated solution (my bodily fluids in my skin) into a more concentrated one (the ocean water).
The longer I laid in the ocean the more water I could pull out from under my skin. I had some time before weigh-in. I stayed there about 15 minutes and went to weigh-in. I looked a little better and because I competed in the Heavyweight Class, I had time to get back into the hypertonic solution a little longer. I drove back there and stayed about 15 minutes or so more. I got back with plenty of time to relax a little and to get a nice pump before prejudging started for the Heavyweight Class.
I feel like I significantly improved sharpness. After that I travelled to my contests with a 26 ounce tub of table salt, that I could make a hypertonic solution in the bathtub if I needed to drop some water from under my skin.
That is cool as shit.
Not sure if really “crazy” but when I was 14 I tried to follow Arnold Schwarzenegger six day training split. Who better to learn weight training routines from?!
It was the “beginner” routine but an insane amount of volume. I just remember the “chest portion” was 5x10 bench 5x10 incline and 5x10 pullovers, shoulders the next day and all muscle groups were twice a week.
Back was after chest and started with 50 pull ups. If you could only do 1 at a time … sorry Charlie you’re doing 50 singles…
Legs, shoulders etc also had crazy amount of sets/reps
Also followed the same diet as during wrestling season so “all the gain will be muscle”
Naturally this lasted about 2 weeks…
I tried doing the Smolov Jr. workout for bench but just ended up overtrained - mainly the shoulders couldn’t recover and benching became painful. Never tried Smolov for squats - ended up with Knee Tendonitis when I tried 2 heavy squat workouts a week so 4 was definitely a no go…
I think Dan John’s 10,000 KB swing workout challenge was a pretty productive workout, I quickly adapted to the workload and it definitely improved lower back, grip and core strength. The only downside was after the novelty wore off the workouts got REALLY monotonous
Ah yes I too have blended cooked eggs, tastes like liquid farts, not easy to get down!
Training, but not lifting related.
In high school I used to run “middle distance”, so 800m with the occasional 400 or 4x400 thrown in there.
Our distance training coach would structure a few workouts as “go out and run 5-10 miles at x pace, then come back and do the track work”. The run was unsupervised, and the coaches were watching the stuff on the track.
So a few of us just did the math and reinterpreted that as “we have 45 minutes to do whatever, as long as they see us running away and running back”. We did a bunch of stupid stuff, but not a lot of distance running.
On a few occasions we’d run into the woods, climb trees and swing on vines over ravines like Tarzan. On others, we’d loop back into the school and climb into the storage area where they kept the wrestling/gymnastic mats. Climb up to the top of the stack and then do various jumps down to the bottom mat. Jumped off the gym bleachers.
One time a couple of us got locked into the school courtyard had to climb up the door jambs and over the building to get out.
The stupidest one by far was when there was 6" of snow on the ground, and who really wants to run in that? We ran over to one of the new neighborhoods under construction, and tested out the idea that it’s warmer underground than above ground. (It is.) We spent a half hour crawling through the concrete water drainage pipes, like a bunch of treasure hunters.
But we always made it back on time, we always did the track work, and we always placed well in our respective events.
Looking back on it, I now realize we did far harder training than they ever asked from us. I wonder if the coaches actually knew and just kept their mouths shut…
A pal of mine decided to train for a marathon. He trained well. For a pre marathon primer he had a pal drive him to Idaho Falls which is about 25 miles froom where we live. This was before cell phones as well. Off he went. About half way he had a major systems failure. He just sat, cried a bit, and apparently someone stopped, and offered him a ride. He made it home, thanks to an old farmer.
@Friedrich. Lol! I grew up in Challis! About 2 hours from you.