One of the craziest thing I tried, diet wise, when fairly new to the training game early 90ties:
I realized early on, I was reliant upon sufficient carbs to withstand training (a fact that has been with me up to date). Having the ability to become fixated on details, I somewhat wrongly interpreted this to the sudden idea of using instant noodles as the only food to be consumed (for great results).
Bear in mind this was at a time when the bodybuilding mags were describing and appearantly made a point, of having all these extreme attitudes in terms of diet/training. An article of a danish bodybuilder comes to mind, presenting himself as a busy stock broker during the days, making him rely upon one 4000 calorie meal per day in the evening. Not forgetting Gunnar Rosbo’s diet of hot dogs and booze in ancient times.
This shit got a hold of me for some reason, as I suggested me and my training partner going out on a noodle frenzy. The idea was simple - Just eat as much noodles as you can stuff, until further notice. “Duh! Bro! Brilliant idea!” or whatever he said in response.
We ingested probable 15-20 packs of instant noodles each a day, which lasted for about 5 days when constipation forced us both to give it up.
For some reason I have always loved noodles, and still use them as an evening snack on hungry evenings. A fun fact is I always think about the good old noodle diet whenever I see a pack of instant noodles.
This reminds me of Stan Efferding’s story where he ate 3000 calories of fig newtons as his carb source because they were on sale and then spent the next 3 days on the toilet.
Apparently, sometimes “serving size” should be read as “maximum dosage”
The Newton fig profile is probably better than instant noodles! After all, were talking whole grain here. How about combining the two for a perfect fit?
Craziest Thing, Bad Idea
Flipping a tractor tire back and forth with a buddy in the front yard of my fraternity house until we b basically couldn’t move. Pushed it way too hard and fell down the stairs trying to climb back up to my 3rd story room.
Craziest thing, Good Idea
Marathon Squats. Forgot where I saw this idea but I am pretty sure it was in an old issue of MuscleMag (man, I miss that magazine). Load up a bar with BW (for me at the time this was 265lbs) and then do squats with it for a 2 minute set. Rest 2-3 minutes and repeat until the 26.2 minute timer goes off. This was one of those workouts you don’t forget (or a typical Wednesday for @T3hPwnisher).
Really? If you say so. My metabolism is like a blast furnace. The only way I can gain weight is by adding muscles (and fat then follow). I’ve always been a big eater, and 30 years later I’m still very sensitive to low blood sugar, meaning I regularly eat about 4000 calories a day. My co-workers share daily comments about my eating habits. I would have no problem eating 15 noodle packs a day as I still love noodles. Not that motivated doing it again though.
Adding: If I remember correctly the noodle package size was 85 grams. It does sound a lot with 5700 calories, but on the other hand I have yet to meet a person eating as much as me. Also, back then I was doing high volume training 5 days a week - and the 17 year old me was indeed a hardgainer.
I’ve got a new entry. Something I just did about an hour ago actually. Barbell Squat Drop Set of Death. I detailed it in my log, but this was just part of a random leg day in the Mountain Dog program “Gamma Bomb”. I pyramided up to 315 for a set of 8 with about a rep or two in reserve, then stripped it to 225 for 8 then cranked out 135 for as many reps as possible and I ended up with 25 reps. No rest between sets as my father in law helped strip the weights off. My legs were already pretty fried from 4 very hard sets of leg curls with partials and then a rest pause set of somersault squats (this was written as just working up to a top set of 8 on leg Press, but I’m training in a garage and if I make substitutions, I’m going to make it harder than what is written) and then I still had to gut through two more exercises after. But this leg day is what I’m all about. I live for these sessions that push me to my physical limit. Here’s a peak at what the session looked like:
In terms of Athletic endeavour the craziest thing I have done was a 21.5KM - 13 mile run from the bottom of Mount Buller in Victoria (Australia) to the top. Starts at around 200m of elevation of ends at 1450m (4750 ft).
I saw this ‘fun’ run advertised and thought it sounded interesting. I was running a little bit with my friend but nothing that serious. I mentioned it to my friend who was an Iron man triathlon competitor (So he is nuts) and he just says, that sound great lets do it. Before know it he has signed both of us up for the run. This was only 8 weeks before the run. The training plan that they sent out was 16 weeks long so to say we were behind the 8 ball is a massive understatement. It also didn’t help that the coastal suburb we live in is flatter than a witches tits.
The next 8 week we increased the running including frequent hill running to what I thought would get me prepared for this run. I was so wrong.
The run starts at the bottom of the Mountain and follows the road up to the top. We start early in the morning, there is about 60 people silly enough to do the run. Its pretty cold and slightly damp but that’s perfect for running. The whistle blows for the start and we set off and a OK pace, around 5:15 per kilometer. This feels way too fast and I am already starting to worry. The first 5km (3 mile) are pretty flat or just slightly undulating so whilst the pace feels quick the terrain isn’t too bad. From the 5km mark it all goes uphill (and the performance goes downhill).
At 9KM in after 4KM of continuous uphill running I am not even half way and am seriously starting to question what I am doing and wonder how the heck I am going to do another 12km uphill.
By 15KM I just feel like I am in a daze, I cant really think, all I can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other. My friend is beside me keeping me going and pushing me along. The road winds up the mountain so there are short distances of flat road, but every hairpin bend is so steep its hard to even run.
I don’t really remember the last 3KM, I just know of my friend was not there next to me I would have sat down in the road and waited for a car to go past.
We finished together in 9th and 10th place, in 2 hours and 29 mins, he would have been a lot quicker of he went on his own but we said we would do it together and he was true to his word.
I still to this day have no idea why I even wanted to do it and less of idea how I managed to finish. This really was a crazy idea.
While I read this all that kept coming into my mind was how in the hell does Hannibal cross the Alps in winter time (with elephants) and fight and beat the Romans at the bottom.
