Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Thoughts about life, training, crap and stuff

Well as noted, OBL is dead.  I still think it's funny that we have aluminum hat wearers that think that our own government was behind the WTC's coming down when OBL took credit for everything, and the fact that scientists and engineers have debunked every conspiracy theory there is about it.  But some people just want to hate the government I suppose.  I wish we had less government for sure, but anyone that believes our own government was behind the towers coming down needs a straight jacket.  And please don't send me any links about the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theories.  I've read them all.  They are retarded.  I wonder how many of the tin foil hat wearers will also say that Bin Laden is not dead?

My musical taste lately has softened a bit.  This is not unusual for me.  I go through phases where I prefer shit that sounds like someone threw baby goats into a blender and times where I prefer almost "rock radio" type shit.  So what I'm saying is right now Foo Fighters and older Disturbed and shit like that is more appealing to me right now than my usual cache of speed/death/black metal.  I have a fairly wide and eclectic range of musical tastes so what I'm digging at the moment can REALLY vary.  I can't imagine just listening to one genre almost all the time.

Training is really going awesome.  It's been refreshing to back off the weight on the bar, and get a lot of reps in.  I also feel like this may keep me injury free for a while.  The last week or so the lighter lifting got me to thinking about my doggcrapp days and I realized I was pretty much injury free during that time and my reps were always high.  On pressing my first set was usual failure at around 15-18 reps.  On legs it was higher.  I gained a ton of mass like this, and I was never beat up like I have been the last couple of years.  The only thing I am going to stay somewhat heavy on will be the triples I am doing with the deadlift at the moment.  How heavy I am going to push them I don't know.  I will probably go off of PI (perceived intensity) and if it gets too high, I will back off.  I am mainly using it as a primer for the stiff legs off of a box and those are doing nicely.  I think that 500x8 could be doable for stiff legs in the next couple of months.

The other thing about this training is that I haven't worried so much about weight on the bar in comparison to working harder than I had been, and busting out rep PR's.  I have a great feeling about this transferring over to my top singles after I am done with this phase.

I'm not really a George Carlin fan but I love this bit by him because I hate the Go Green/Save the Planet bullshit I have to hear about now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ed-IMeV5E

UFC 129 was a great card, until the main event.  After GSP took that eye poke/gouge you could tell he wasn't the same.  And Jake Shields as the best guy GSP has ever fought?  I've seen plenty of Jake Shields fights and I've never been impressed with the guy.  Yeah I know he beat a lot of guys but his stand up is beyond atrocious and unless he can get a guy to the ground he really has no way to finish anyone.  BJJ guys with no stand up ability bore and annoy me.  You know the saying about BJJ guys getting hit right?  So true.

I can tell you that I didn't watch 1 minute of the NFL draft this past week/weekend.  I think the league is full of the greediest MF'ers in the United States outside of the people involved in the fall of the bank and mortgage industry.  You have 100 million dollars in your bank, and your gripe is what?

I've had some discussions on boards about some of my takes on things pointed out to me, and I find them all very interesting.  The most common one I hear people bitch about is my dieting advice.  This has to be from people who don't read my articles or thoughts with any kind of context.  If I am talking about eating everything under the sun, including candy bars and chocolate milk and shit like that, that's for really really skinny guys with super fast metabolisms that cannot gain weight.  This is also not some shit I made up.  This is something I have used in real life on real life super skinny guys that couldn't gain weight.  Getting a guy to learn how to eat like there is no tomorrow is hard.  It's pretty much impossible to do with clean foods.  If you've ever tried to get in 4500-5000 calories clean, then you know what I'm talking about.  It's a fucking chore.  And guys who don't eat enough as is, aren't going to eat bland food all day long.  They won't.  And they won't gain weight.  So you take a guy like this, and you feed him everything he likes to eat that has enough protein, carbs, and fat in it, and you go from there.  On the flip side, if it's a guy/gal that is lean, but has a solid foundation of muscle,  I do go with mostly clean eating for mass gain.  So I'm not sure what the bitching is about.  That I myself am not lean enough?  My pic below is current and I'm 250 pounds at a legit 12% bodyfat.  I am not a bodybuilder.  And even if I were, my conditioning in the offseason would be about what it is now.  So again, I don't understand the complaint.  I will never get to that ultra shredded state because there is no reason to.  What would that do for me?  Not a damn thing.  It won't make me stronger, and I will never step on stage and do a bodybuilding competition.  So getting below 9-10% bodayfat doesn't serve any real purpose for me.

I've also come across lots of the "weak point brigade" people bitching, and well, I just laugh.  Guys were setting records for decades doing side laterals, pushdowns, and leg extensions as their assistance work.  Now guys that are weak as shit spend all their time trying to find every perfect weak point fixing exercise.  Then wonder why their main lifts don't move very much.  I do think it is important to get strong as hell on 5-8 basic exercises but getting specific about weak points isn't really required.  If you can stiff leg 500x10, do t-bars with 300x20 and chin with 100 pounds around your waist you don't have any "posterior chain" weakness issues.  If you can overhead press 300 for reps and do dips with 200 extra pounds, you don't have shoulder or tricep "weak point" issues.  So then guys will say "oh it's about weak points within the movement".  Here is a fucking news flash from the city.  THOSE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO EXIST.  You can't get rid of them and they will be there every single time you fail at a weight you aren't strong enough to lift yet.  So guess what?  Get stronger.  Yeah, it's that simple.  If you used a movement that helped you make a lift you had been missing, all you did was get stronger.  You didn't fix a "weak point".  It's like some people can't get their head around this.  If you put enough weight on again, you'll miss a lift in that SAME SPOT again.  Sheesh.

When my wife graduates from radiology I'm getting a Viper.  Like, that day.  I'm just sayin.

I still haven't figured out why I see raw guys doing box squats.  And I've heard every excuse under the sun as to why, and none of them still make any fucking sense.  As I have said before, if you do them low to where you don't pause on the box but barely touch it, fine.  But sitting on the box and taking the quads out of the squat is utterly retarded.  I love it when I see some article titled something like "Learn how to squat" and it's nothing but box squatting.  Well, when the fuck do you learn how to squat?  I agree that the box squat is a decent tool for a beginner trainee who needs to learn how to squat, but I take the box away after three or four weeks.

Getting strong with your bottom strength is where its at.  I still see so many guys utilizing geared training shit for raw training.  If you are a freak and can run with that by all means, more power to you.  But if you're not, you're going to find out eventually, that protocols based around geared lifting aren't worth two shits on a rainy Monday for raw lifting.  I feel the same way about Chuck Taylor shoes for squatting.  Who the fuck came up with this?  My foots slides around in that god damn shoe like I'm ice skating.  Not only that, if you squat with a medium or close stance, there is no heel.  There is a reason virtually every Olympic lifter in the world uses shoes made for squatting, uh, and they all have a heel.

And speaking of squatting, I usually squat in cargo shorts or something like that to give my hips a little support.  Last night at the gym I sunk that 455 for the first rep and totally blew out the back of my short.  I mean Incredible Hulk ripped em.  I did the second rep and racked it.  Thought about it for a while, and said screw it and finished my squat workout with my ass hanging out the back the whole time.  I'm not sure if anyone even noticed.  I don't know if this is good or bad.

50 comments:

  1. I've ripped my shorts a few times on a max squat set. The last time I ripped the damn things right the way through, it just so happened I was going *commando* on that day. So I finished the set with my balls hanging down at the bottom of each rep.

    Good or bad, I got my reps!

    Fazc

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  2. These are the kinds of things that get your man card back.

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  3. You are the best! Thanks for the blog!

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  4. The best? I dunno about that, I think I'm slightly above average.

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  5. Your gaining weight advice applies directly to me. I have to work very, very hard at eating. I think about it and plan it. I follow your non-clean eating advice, chocolate milk, snickers, little Debbie type shit at work, etc. and it works. I have gained weight for the first time in a very long time, keeping it on, and I am loving the strength gains that come with it. So F all the haters. The shit works.

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  6. I blame Westside for everyone wearing Chucks. It's probably not their fault, but let's face it: if Chuck V. wore ballerina slippers and a triple ply tutu, PL meets everywhere would look like a fat, sweaty version of the Nutcracker.

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  7. no doubt bigdipper.

    Zacv - add in peanut butter and jelly with whole milk too man.

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  8. Good post.

    WAR HOMINICK!

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  9. So Paul, your r/p reps in DC training where b/w 20-30? I tell ya, I might give the two way split another shot!

    Greg

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  10. Hominick, tough as fucking nails. Mad respect for that guy.

    Yeah Greg, I kept everything in the high rep range. Never got injured and got really strong during that time.

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  11. Do you have any links or could you post anything showing your overhead press? I love to overhead press and reading your blogs I've renewed my love for it. A year ago or so, I started to shy away from it from fear of getting hurt but I've actually moved up as of recent and would be interested in any technique help.

    Also I love your ideas about the weighted pull ups. I have a back back that I wear backwards and toss in a 30 lb dumbbell. I can only do 6 at 200 lbs before I start with the headbutting of the bar but I'm working up to it! Any tips on these too?

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  12. do you like any rap/hip hop?

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  13. Not really. I have listened to some DMX and it wasn't bad. But not sure I'd lift to it or just listen to it in the car.

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  14. i wear chucks when squatting/pulling. i just do because i was advised to by somebody stronger than me. i'm not attached to them. i know a shoe with a raised heel would be better, but i can't come even close to affording a pair of olympic type shoes. given that, what would be an affordable alternative?

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  15. Lots of shoes have heels. Yes a squat shoe is better, but if you look at some of those shoes that look kinda like work boots, they don't seem too bad. Hell, you will laugh, but dress shoes would be ideal but they usually have a slick sole. In fact some of the guys from the 70's squatted in dress shoes.

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  16. I think deadlift stance box squats are legit for that deadlift "starting strength", but there are alternatives

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  17. Here are some for $55

    http://www.maxbarbell.com/products/wei-rui-weightlifting-shoes-black?utm_source=google-product-search

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  18. You'd be better off.............deadlifting. If you are weak off the floor go for mid-shin deadlifts and it won't be a problem anymore.

    Box squats don't really have any purpose in a raw guys arsenal in my opinion.

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  19. I think that most musicians or hardcore music fans have very ecclectic taste. This year alone I have been to see Rise Against, Vomitory, Allison Krause and Union Station, and U2. My wife thinks my IPOD is hilarious because of the different music I listen to.

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  20. No doubt. I will make a CD to play in the car and my wife will do the same. "How the hell did you follow up Elton John with this screaming death metal shit?" I like both. Some people don't get it, but yeah every musician I know worth his salt has eclectic taste and is all over the place in what they like.

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  21. Paul, in regards to the tin foil hat theories, one that caught my eye awhile back was the thermite and molten steel that was supposedly found in the WTC remains + building 7 "being pulled". I never really looked into it beyond that, but was there any proof that came up later on that proved those findings/theories attached to those findings to be invalid indefinitely? Not trying to start some massive conspiracy discussion or open a can of worms so if it does so, delete my comment.

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  22. This covers pretty much everything that has ever been tossed out there.

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/1227842

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  23. how about ex cia Steve Pieczenik (the person Jack ryan in patriot games was based on) saying he thinks 911 was a setup? is he a tin foil hat wearing idiot too?

    love ur blog , just agree to disagree on this ;^)

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  24. Great link Paul, I haven't seen that one before. Thanks.

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  25. Anon - Yes he's an idiot. See the popular mechanics link.

    Glad you like the blog. :)

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  26. read it, im still not convinced to be honest

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  27. Well some people just love them some conspiracy theories.

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  28. yeah some do :^)

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  29. somethin else of interest. is this lady a conspiracy theorist. she is ex fbi and says she'll testify under oath.



    Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).

    In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11."

    These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies.

    As Sibel has previously described, and as she reiterates in this latest interview, this process involved using Turkey (with assistance from 'actors from Pakistan, and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia') as a proxy, which in turn used Bin Laden and the Taliban and others as a proxy terrorist army

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  30. Oh lord. This shit is for people who like tin foil hats.

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  31. Tin foil hats or not, many valid questions about 9/11 remain to be answered.

    The link from Popular Mechanics explains very well HOW the attack worked and does away with theories about wired explosives, etc. This part of the 'conspiracy theory' I never believed in. It does not delve into WHO stood behind the attacks. And now the only guy who could have shed more light on it is conveniently dead... if he ever really existed.

    Certainly the then-administration was immoral enough to do it - consider the lies they told that precipitated the aggression on Iraq. If they had no respect for millions of civilian lives abroad, why would they have cared about 3,000 people at home? For me this remains the central question.

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  32. With every war, assassination, covert operation that gets leaked, and every policy that gets passed there will always be questions. About whether or not those things are on the up and up or if there is a political agenda or ulterior motive.

    I tend to fall back on Occam's razor over and over again. I think most often than not what we are told is true, but it doesn't mean that our government and our politicians don't use these things for political and monetary gain. With that said, there still isn't any place in the world I'd rather live (other than New Zealand).

    I mean take Nigeria for example. A few years ago their political climate settled and stabilized for a while. You know what happened? The price of machetes dropped.

    Lemme say that, anytime the price of machetes is directly coordinated with the political environment in which you live, that's a bad fucking deal. So I'd rather take what we have, over some shit like that.

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  33. lol your only comeback is repeating "tin foil hats/conspiracy theories" - how do you explain an fbi whistleblower (sibel edmonds aboe) who will swear on oath bin laden was working for the US up to 911?

    that popular mechanics link is 6 years old there is lots of new info since then such as the thermite residue found in the wtc dust. time to start studying!

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  34. you mentioned occams razor

    how does occams razor apply to wtc7. NIST claim it fell from fires on 2 floors, that is their official reason. (on "debunking" sites u will see debunkers claim there was damage from the towers falling, ok, but that is NOT NISTs reason)

    so as an intelligent person using OCCAMS RAZOR do you really think wtc7 fell uniformly looking like a demo from fires on 2 floors? REALLY????? REALLLLY????? ;)

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  35. strong comeback :^)

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  36. serious man - wtc7 - you cant tell me you believe that building fell just from fires so uniformly?

    give me your honest thoughts i know you've seen the videos :^)

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  37. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/4278874

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  38. i've read the NIST report, did you even read that? it said what i said abocve

    what i'm saying is the NIST report that ur pals at pop mechanics are quoting there are saying the building fell purely from fires on 2 floors creating "thermal expansion" ( a new term they just invented )

    what i'm asking is do YOU (not pop mechanics YOU) believe that just from watching the videos? does it look like a building falling from fires on 2 floors?

    lots and LOTS of architects & engineers DISAGREE with nist so lets not get into posting links or we'll be here all day there are plenty that support both sides

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  39. Well I'm not going to argue about this all day anyway, because you're not going to change my mind and I'm not going to change yours. Make sense? :)

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  40. man i dont think were argueing just discussing like i said i love your blog!

    but u are avoiding my questions abt wtc7 coming down... please just give me your honest opinion about what you think it looks like. dos it look like a building falling from fires on 2 floors? :^)

    i see what u are saying its easy to mistake tone over the internet im not trying to argue, i dont wear tin hats and dont think the moon landings were fake ;^) but i dont think wtc7 fell down so neatly from fires on 2 floors

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  41. I think it's a case where I'm not avoiding, but I've had this discussion a million times before and no one changes their mind.

    The best part about the moon landing is trying to figure out how the government put american flags in everyones telescope!

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  42. so what is your opinion just from how it looks about wtc7? if u already had it a million times humor me with one more!

    do you think it looks like it's falling ( at free fall at some points ) from fires on 2 floors as the NIST conclusion suggests?

    http://11syyskuu.net/video/wtc7collapse.gif

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  43. Yes. But the two main towers fall like a controlled demo too. But we know better. So that's my opinion.

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  44. ok thank you

    like you said its a discussion that goes nowhere and we ultimately will never know anyway.

    regarding the twin towers i would point you in the direction of the paper by harrit et al which was published in a peer reviewed scientific journal (not a conspiracy magazine ! ;^) where they found traces of nano thermite in the dust from the wtc. of course there are attempts to debunk this too which i have read and some are interesting. but the mere presscence of such a technologically advanced explosive in the dust IS suspicious to say the least !

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  45. Paul,

    I can't believe how many posts you are getting. (Old man voice) I remember when your blog posts would get 20 responses at most, now 46! Thats awesome, congrats!

    Now to my question, I am curious as to what you think about using dips (weighted and bodyweight) as my only pressing accessory movements. I use 5/3/1 and have had great progress with only using bodyweight dips. I would like to add weighted dips as well. Maybe weighted on OHP day, and bodyweight on Bench day. Thanks!

    Dave

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  46. dips are awesome if you don't have any injuries they aggravate.

    If you are doing them as an accessory what I did was vary the resistance and reps. I had PR's for bodyweight, 45, 90, and 135 pounds. So I'd rotate them in there.

    What I liked doing was chasing PR's for each. So a PR for bodyweight, PR for 45, PR for 90 and 135.

    I have found that pressing movements for me, tend to respond well to low volume with high PI sets. For my chins and stuff, they like more volume going lighter, then trying for a PR every now and then with weight.

    Either way, throw them in once a week. If you go twice a week just make sure not to go heavy twice since you are already pressing heavy twice in one week (possibly).

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  47. cargo short for support while squatting?




    gearwhore. ;)

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