Monday, January 10, 2011

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

One thing I did in my early years that worked well was to just train to failure, and when I could hit a certain number of reps with a certain weight, add more weight the next time.  I did this for years and I credit it for building most of the mass I built early on.  So for example if you are going to do incline press, you do your warm ups then do 1 top set of 6-8 reps. When you can get 8 with that weight, add enough weight to limit you to 5-6 reps again.  Stay with that until you can get 8.  It's progression in a very simple form but it does in fact work.

Baboons are big on kidnapping and often steal other mothers babies.  Just thought you'd like to know in case you're ever around baboons and happen to have a baby of your own with you.  Be careful.

will steal your shit!


The Thor movie is coming out and I was wondering how much weight that skinny actor would gain to play the part of Thor.  I found his response interesting........
"I put on a lot of weight — I put on about 20 pounds at one point. It was purely eating, eating, eating, working out and working out, trying to sleep as much as you can — that's the other third of the equation. The eating was the biggest thing"

Solid advice.  Something I have preached over and over again.  If you are a skinny guy and want to gain mass, eat and eat and eat and eat.  If you are not a skinny guy and you want to be a certain size, get in shape FIRST.  Then chase the lean mass and bodybuilder stuff.  There is a two fold problem with both of these people.  The fat guy doesn't want to lose any "size" or strength while his calories are low.  Tough shit.  It will happen eventually.  It really all depends on how much you have to lose, and how fat you are.  

The other person is the skinny guy with abs.  If you want more mass, quit worry about your freakin abs for the love of God.  It's the same bullshit as the fat guy, just on the opposite end.  Look at the big picture and what you are after long term.  

It's really that simple.

I know guys that love training philosophies more than training.  The more thought provoking the training methodology the more erect they get.  Doesn't matter if it's witchcraft or not or doesn't really work, they just like complicated programs.  The more jargon involved, the better it is. 

Look, squat and pull once a week or every other week consistently, press and pull once or twice a week, focus on simple progression and be patient.  

Back off sets have been king with me forever.  Work up to something in the 3-5 rep range that still moves at a solid pace, no straining.  Then take off a plate or a 25 or whatever, and rep it out.  That's your assistance work for your main lift.  If you want to get bigger or want to work a certain "muscle group" pick a second exercise and work the muscle.  Don't move the weight.  There is a difference.  Making the muscle work isn't the same as moving the weight.  Don't confuse the two.  One has to do with hypertrophy and the other has to do with strength, in layman terms.  So benching is about moving the weight.  If you want to have a bigger chest, go do some flyes or pec-deck or incline db.  But leave the ego out, pick a weight that lets you work the muscle.  In other words, FEEL the muscle group moving the weight.  Go look at the mass gains made by Shelby Starnes in the last year.  He did that with machines and focusing on the muscle doing the work.  Know your battles and how to win them.

I love the new As I Lay Dying CD.  Well, it's not really new, but the last one they made.  Solid work.

solid work on last album


Your training log is important.  I mean duh.  Check it before each training session and see what you need to hit.  Seems simple enough but lots of guys walk into the gym with no idea as to what they need to hit for that workout.

I am not anti-supplement, but I am not really pro-supplement either.  With that said, if you want a simple fat loss diet that works well, drink 4 MRP's a day and eat two solid meals.  I usually go with breakfast and dinner, then have 4 MRP's with two tablespoons of peanut butter with each.  This WORKS.  Buy 80 packs, don't cheat, and run it for 20 days.  You will be leaner.

I hate the snow.  It snowed all night and will snow 5 inches over the next day.  Snow serves no purpose other than to drive a virtual javelin into my taint.  That's how much I hate it.

You know why this Snow Leopard is pissed off?  Yeah, because of the snow!


If you sustain an injury, after the pain subsides enough for you to train again use THAT movement to rehab it. If it's an overuse injury DO NOT use that movement.  Simple enough, right?

I love people who do shit like say "don't drink milk, we aren't meant to drink it" then inject test and GH and all sorts of other things into their body in LARGE amounts.  Quite comical.

Drink this.  It's fine.  Unless you're lactose intolerant that is.


Ok let's just get this out there right now.  The Incredible Hulk is the strongest super hero in either Marvel or DC.  Yes I know Red Hulk beat him, however Hulk smartened up and beat him later.

Hulk is strongest!  


Even with all of the injuries and shit right now, I'm very motivated.  I think pushing too hard all year trying to get ready for meets and top single eventually took a toll on me physically and mentally.  Feels good to get back to doing some reps and worrying about how sexy I look, i.e. eating better and doing more conditioning.

Quick movie reviews........

The Hurt Locker - Solid, however it lost some momentum at about the 3/4 of the way spot.

Alpha Dog - Solid as well, and Timberlake was actually really good in it like a lot of people told me.  Sad fucking story, and retarded what people will resort to to make a point or make people "respect" them.

Swingers - I know this was supposed to be a good movie but I couldn't even finish it.  Lame and boring.

Coming up..........The Road and Whiteout.

Hot Babe of the Week!

Bernadett Matassa!

Got nothing left but to pull for the Packers and Pats.  Enjoy your week bitches.  



18 comments:

  1. this is the thing im doing now for the press and it has worked pretty well and is similar of wat you describe

    week 1- 1 set with a weight that allows you do 8-10 reps
    then 2 backoff set

    week2-1 set with a weight that allows you to do 5 reps then a back off set

    week3-1 set with a weight that allows you to do 3 reps then a back off set

    week 4- 1 big single then 2 back off sets

    week 5-deload or a light set of 15-20 reps to the fail with a certain weight

    then repeat but with more weigh each set of each week

    ReplyDelete
  2. As I Lay Dying is a great band. All their albums are solid but their first is the most bad ass.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Road is a great book and the movie is fantastic but be prepared it is a downer. Im not even a father yet but working with kids made my wife and I really emotional from the movie.

    Gotta through out a television recommendation...It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia-the closest to Seinfeld that we'll ever see.

    ReplyDelete
  4. David - Everyone keeps telling me to watch this! I'm a big Seinfeld fan too.

    I have The Wire coming next. I hear it's fantastic, so we'll see bro.

    ReplyDelete
  5. - back off sets are my fave thing ever. I know its too simple to be my favorite training device but it means that I've hit a solid top set and that I will get a good pump from a single exercise.

    - the guy that plays thor was actually decently big (for a tv guy) beforehand and seems to have done a good job of bulking up for the movie, closest we will get to real superhero physiques for a while anyways.

    - you just ruined the red hulk storyline for me! Well not really.

    - do you feel that people need different dietary strategies depending on how much excess flab they are carrying? I know you've talked about fat loss a good bit in the past but if there's an article/post in it perhaps you could do a rundown based on belly size, fat distribution or something.

    - I hate when people say no other mammal eats another mammals milk when dogs and cats do it all the time when people give it to them and any animal would go apeshit for a bucket of milk if they could get it.

    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brian -

    I worked on a dairy farm for years and all the dogs we had drank cows milk like it was going out of style. It's a bullshit theory that animals don't drink the milk of other animals when they use adopted parents of stranded animals to nurse other animals all the time. People are stupid.

    Dieting is still about calories in vs out. That's it. So if you are under maintenance then you will lose fat. I don't care if it's high carb or low carb or whatever. Eat solid meals with 1 serving of lean meat (the size of your fist) and all the fruits and veggies you want for the most part. Eat 3 of those a day with 1 or 2 meal replacements and get in great condition and you will look good and feel good.

    Remember, your function creates your form.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I now plan my assistance work in the same way you outlined (6-8 reps then add weight when you hit 8), as I came to the same conclusion. I switch out the lift when I plateau then come back to it eventually (D.C style really), good idea or? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would go 8-10 on assistance work really. Just to make it even lighter to be honest. But other than that yeah, rotate it out, have fun with it. It's not as important as some try to make it out to be.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Paul,
    Just wondering which meal replacement you would advise or go with? I am going to try that diet. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey Paul. I was having a discussion on what functional strength is with my body. He said the exercise had to "flow", whatever that meant. I don't really know how to define it. Your website is named after it so I thought you could offer up a definition. Wouldn't mind seeing an article written by you on this subject.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am going to. I gave my blog this stupid name because I want to redefine what that term means.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Paul,

    Out of curiosity, if you are working up to failure with a set of 8, would it be a good idea to perform a back off set for reps? Also, you talked about working the muscle when working for size, do you squeeze the muscle at all during a workout?

    ReplyDelete
  13. When I was doing doggcrapp training I did the stretches at the end as he called for. I felt these actually helped a lot in terms of injury prevention and I need to get back to doing them TBH.

    ReplyDelete
  14. i like the mrp and 2 solid meal diet idea - it sounds easy to stick to as it makes sticking to your diet during the day when ytou may be out/at work etc as simple as mixing a shake, and as you always have them with you, temptation is easier to resist.
    just wondering, do you normally eat healthy diet-type meals for the 2 meals or try to have food you enjoy and stick within calorie requirements?

    ReplyDelete
  15. I try to eat solid good meals, but if I want something extra I will have it. I don't limit myself too much, but I also don't overdo it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Paul,

    I know you have written quite a bit about Doggcrapp training, what are your thoughts on using it with compound lifts such as bench and squat. Most of the articles I have read talk about using machines. I really like some of the concepts, i.e. beating the logbook, extreme stretching, 3 lifts per body part spread out, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I used bench and squat in my rotations. I also trained at home for at least 6 months on it. Dante's and his minions BS about needing a whole gym and a ton of machines is just that. BS. I was able to be creative and come up with new exercises all the time to swap out.

    ReplyDelete