I agree
I doubt he’s having canned whole chicken, I doubt anyone eats canned whole chicken.
Yup. It’s why I specified it was chicken breasts.
With correct load management, “quad” squatting is the best way to manage and prevent pain and inflammation (btw, not a thing) of the quad tendon
Guys, come on.
4 Likes
I’d eat it if they didn’t throw out the feet, head and innards
Note: I’m a living Chinese food meme 
Dahmer once said that exact line at a funeral
2 Likes
Short list:
-
Use common sense…if something is too good to be true…then yeah it probably is.
-
Prehab, warmup (not over warmup) and stretch/soft tissue work. This is big for me now and I assume will only be more prevalent the older I get. I have bum shoulders, knees and ankles, but I can handle that if I just prehab, warmup and stretch.
-
Have a goal and give it time to ruminate. Being a former fatty when you see scale numbers go up don’t lose it! Especially if it means you are gaining strength. Don’t dive into a mini-cut just to save 3 or 4 pounds. Keep the path for a good reasonable amount of time. Don’t freak out.
-
This echos the last principle a bit but patience is huge part of training. Nothing is gained overnight…work. Keep your nose down and grind.
2 Likes
This was a good idea for a topic.
It’s interesting to see how many guys are into training for “general readiness” instead of lifting the biggest weight or trying to be the best at a lifting sport. I feel like we’re surrounded by such specific information, from such intensely focused people that it’s easy to get caught up in thinking about training in a narrow minded way. Like “I listened to some squat tips from a powerlifter now I live for my total and train like a powerlifter,” even though I’ll never enter a meet.
It’s refreshing to see other dudes saying other stuff matters too, and that it’s OK to have more general goals like being ready for anything. Or that it’s OK to train for “Fuck Off Scary” size and muscles without having train to a bodybuilder getting ready for the stage.
Old ideas turning up again with new names is interesting to me too. I love to see stuff that worked once, resurface. I love when Thibadeau or Josh Bryant drag something good out of the past and put a little modern spin on it. Some stuff that seems like a fad may actually be really effective and widely used.
Louie said something like “when I read something I put my brain in my gym” and think about training like that. I love that idea, or principle guess. Try stuff out in your brain and see if it’s like anything you’ve ever done or heard about. PHA is a good example. It seems like it must be nonsense with that silly name, but when you think about it, it’s just like “circuit training” or “giant sets” or “boot camp style.” So it’s not a fad, it’s a solid idea that been around forever, used by lots of different people/coaches.
8 Likes
I even like the knee flexion/quad use in the squat conversation. Squatting uses quads, so should we emphasize and build up our quads? Or build up and emphasize our hips and hamstrings to bring them up to the level of our quads, which already gets tons of work and involvement because it’s a squat?
Or is it ok to do “Deep Knee Bends” using any implement that’s handy, or do you need to barbell back squat?
It’s like a case study where people’s answers kind of reveal their underlying principles.
1 Like
Principles I’m in to:
Build your lifts, and get bigger to get stronger. I’ve always like the idea that I could build big arms, shoulders, traps and chest or back to look muscular and as a result my lifts would increase. Or maybe my potential to increase my lifts would increase. In the past I just wanted to be brawny. Like I could do lots of triceps, get huge arms and it would help my bench and military press. Now it’s more like a preservation thing, too many big barbell lifts beat me up but I can do “directed hypertrophy” work and not be totally all show no go.
Use different weights or reps or speeds or intensity zones. I’ve always liked heavy/light or undulating systems where I can lift some heavier weights and some lighter weights, or some slow reps and some explosive reps to feel the difference. Or clearly separating the low reps and the high reps to make sure they are both included. Or if I’m lifting weights as a brief, intense “burst” workout I like to do longer duration stuff like dragging the sled for 1-2 minutes to work that “energy system.” My cardio these days is mainly walking my dogs but sometimes we go on long slow walks for steady state and other times we walk up and down a steep hill for intervals.
Everything works, nothing works forever. Another stolen one. All the work you do develops what it develops and misses what it misses. At some point it all gets less effective. So after awhile you kind of train yourself into a corner where some is strong but some stuff is weak and progressing is getting really hard. From there it’s effective to make some adjustments, do some new work focusing on what you missed and make some new gains.
I guess it all goes back to the idea that your General size, strength, speed and endurance + your Specific skill and technique = your results. And by building yourself up, “getting a better body” you can be ready for stuff you didn’t specifically train for.
6 Likes
This one took me a LONG time to figure out but having done so has been huge for my growth. Great principle for sure. Really dig what you laid out there.
2 Likes
I gotta say, one of the most eye opening things is that I’m the only one that employs some sort of nutritional superstition to navigate things. I genuinely thought there would be a fair amount of that among us ironheads.
The one weak point I’ve always had was nutrition. I “got away” with eating like a dumpster fire by having a high activity level.
I put got away in quotes because I no longer believe that one can outrun bad or careless nutritional habits, for some reasons I’ve discussed over the past year.
I can’t have any real principals on something I suck at.
But dude: that IS a principle right there. And a great one too! I tried doing the same thing. One high school summer, I dedicated myself to the task of getting six pack abs. My plan was simple: I was going to do enough cardio to burn all the fat around my midsection. I had unlimited free time and very little social life, being a reclusive misanthropic nerd that attended an all boy high school.
I ran 16 miles a day, every day.
I also lived off a diet of In n Out combo meals, giant Costco muffins and cookies, Jack In the Box curly friends and tacos, and anything else that was delicious and not nailed down.
I did not get my abs that summer. I showed up for wrestling in phenomenal cardiovascular shape, but still pudgy around the midsection. There’s a fair argument to be had that I was eating so awfully to SUPPORT the 16 miles I was running a day, but, in turn, it showed that I wasn’t going to use activity to undo the damage of poor nutrition.
And actually, this has been a great dialogue, because it ties into something I should have used to summarize the whole “train more in weight gain and less in weight loss” thing: nutrition supports TRAINING, not the other way around.
2 Likes
Glad I could help in some way then!
And to your point (I think), I had a long sweet spot of about 10 years when I was eating and training to gain, wherein I was also in very good all around condition.
I guess if it can be turned into a general principal I’d say “Don’t pretend that you can get away with bad habits through training. It’s fools gold.”.
1 Like
It’s the best time to get in shape for sure. Calories are up, recovery is good: take on more tasks. I put on 7lbs training for my half marathon. Meanwhile, the Mrs and I have been going on 2 mile walks after our respective workouts, and while bodyfat has been dropping, they’re like death marches for me.
1 Like
This is an interesting one and one that often has a polarizing opinions. I am in the same mindset as yourself and generally want to enjoy training. Others tend towards only liking the results and are happy to have training suck!!
1 Like
can you clarify what you mean here ?
My whole “don’t mix carbs with fats” and “only eat carbs around training” are very specific rules about nutrition rather than something like “eat a variety of non-processed foods”. The latter is great, general advice that will set people up for effective nutritional habits, while what I employ are very specific rules that could be based around some manner of science but are still just superstition ultimately.
There’s other ones out there that I’m just surprised to see aren’t being used. “Carb cutoffs” are a classic, where people stop eating carbs at a certain point in the day, with an opposite being carb backloading. There’s the classic “don’t eat after X time of day”. Phil Heath was notorious for his comment about tilapia having qualities for thinning out the skin. Pavel Tsastouline says chicken makes you weak and advocates for red meat instead. Louie Simmons had the quote “you ever see the neck on a chicken?” to express a similar sentiment. The necessity of a post workout shake is another classic. Etc.
It seems most people that posted just exercise a very basic and holistic approach to nutrition, which, don’t get me wrong, is awesome, but not what I expected.
1 Like