Lessons Learned With a Bar in My Hands

As I went about my daily chores this morning I found myself thinking; “what the fuck do I stand for?” When you have children, these strange introspective thoughts tend to pop into your head every once in a while. “What do I stand for?” that’s an easy question for me to answer because I live my life by what I call the “man code”. It’s very simple by design; “A man lives a life of integrity and cares for & protects his family”. That’s what I stand for. If what I’m doing doesn’t support this simple code, then it’s fucking wrong…period. My son knows and understands the “man code”. Now that’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t exactly lay out a road map to living a successful life for him now does it? As I pondered this idea, my mind kept coming back to training and how the lessons learned in training all cross over into my life. So, in no particular order…here goes.

1. Small goals

Dreams are great and dreams are the foundation of goals, but the goals are the meat and potatoes. You want to live a jet set lifestyle, have a fat pad in the Hamptons and bang supermodels every night? That’s great kid, but maybe you should be focused on learning this math first. You want to be a world record powerlifter and you dream of standing on that platform with your arms raised in front of 3 white lights? That’s great, but maybe you should be focused on adding 5 more pounds to your squat this month. The small stuff isn’t fun and it’s not sexy, but achieving all of those small goals will eventually add up to a tsunami of success in the long run. There are no short cuts in lifting or in life.

2. Compound movements.

To be effective in life, you need to really focus on the big and important stuff. You cannot allow yourself to get wrapped up in the minutia of life. You should spend the majority of your time doing the boring stuff, the hard stuff and the shit that really matters. If you’re hosting a barbeque, “maybe you should cut that knee high grass first…Slick, and make that beer run later”. Same goes for getting stronger; you need to focus on the stuff that really matters.  Build strength and mass with a shit ton of heavy squatting, pulling and pressing, and do some detail work later, as time/energy permits. That’s where it’s at.

3. Consistency

Consistency over time is king. You’re going to have some good and some bad days, but 90% of your days will be boring and average. Whatever life hands you, you’ve got to keep punching that clock. Don’t get down though, because when you string all of those boring and average days together over time, it’ll add up to a shitload of progress. Adding 5 pounds per month to your squat is boring as hell, but if you keep punching that clock, you’ll have added 60 pounds in a year’s time. That’s a solid gain and that’s the power of consistency. Again, there are no shortcuts here; in life and in lifting. Be there for your family, show up on time, finish what you start; be consistent every day. You really can’t make up for lost time.

4. Specialization

We only have so much time and energy; and you can either half ass a lot of things or be really great at a few things. You have to decide what is most important to you and then really get after it. In life and in lifting, you need to balance what you want and understand that it’s a sliding scale. If one thing goes up, another thing will probably go down. You’re getting bigger and stronger…well; you’re probably running slower and putting on some fat. Your squat and bench are going up…well; your deadlift is probably in the toilet right now. Career’s going great and your making money hand over fist…well; you’re probably not spending a lot of quality time with your family these days. Understand? There is nothing wrong with this, and you can “balance” it, but if you want to be really, really awesome at one aspect of your life, then another aspect will suffer.

5. Sometimes, you just need to do some stupid shit

You’ll never really know what you are capable of until you’ve done some stupid pointless shit. My first triathlon was by far the hardest race I’ve ever done. At that point in my life, I had never competed in anything like that…not even a 5k fun run. I signed up for the race about 2 months out and proceeded train, I had to learn to swim first…stupid right! I didn’t get a wink of sleep and the race took about 3 hours to complete, and it took everything I had to will myself to the finish line. The mental toughness that this stupid shit builds, will bleed into the rest of your life. So last month my wife called me and said that the car overheated and she was about 2 miles from the house. It’d been a solid 6 months since I did more than a brisk walk, but “hell it’s only 2 miles”. I dropped the phone and took off running and I was there in less than 15 minutes. There is no doubt in my mind that I could blast out 10 miles to get to my family if I had to. That’s confidence built through stupidity right there.

Every challenge that life throws you is an opportunity to grow, to develop that mental toughness that will serve you for the rest of your life. You should seek it out in my opinion. So work 2 jobs and attend school full time when you’re young. One job and a family will be a piece of cake down the road. Join the Marines and endure boot camp…hell, try out for the Special Forces while you’re at it. A few sleepless nights with a new baby will be a piece of cake after that shit. Go out and do some hard shit, son.  

Undisciplined (or) not Disciplined?

Discipline…this is a huge buzzword around here. “We’re not disciplined.” “They are not disciplined.” “Drivers lack discipline.” Blah, blah, blah….

I have the grave misfortune of being forced to take a class called “Moral Recovery and Restoration”. School has been in session for a month and we just had our first class last week. This is totally normal at my school by the way, and as it turns out, class is cancelled this week too. As it was explained to me, this is a class designed to restore the moral values of the country (AND) wait for it…the discipline. True to the school’s mission statement, this is a class designed to develop “responsible, patriotic and noble Filipinos”.

What they mean by “discipline” is someone’s willingness to follow rules. This got me thinking about the school’s soft approach regarding discipline. They go out of their way to have a full blown class to tell students that they should follow rules, when in fact; all they need to do to accomplish their goal is to…wait for it…..actually enforce the rules they already have.

So what I’m saying is this: if you want disciplined students, then you need to quit treating your rules like guidelines, and actually discipline your students. This is pretty simple.

I honestly believe that the root of the “discipline” problem is that people don’t know which rules are important and which ones are not. Some people are just dishonest and self-centered, but the majority of folks want to do what is right. A lot of this stuff seems like common sense to an outsider; like not cutting in line, not cheating, etc. But you have to keep in mind that you likely came from an environment that actually enforced these rules/norms, and you were conditioned for years and years to conform, so now deviation makes you feel “strange”.

I’ll use myself as an example. There are signs in classrooms that read “no eating, drinking, or smoking”, but I carry a water bottle with me everywhere and drink it all day long.  I consider that rule to be more of a guideline and I’ve justified this “rule breaking” in my mind. “It’s just water, blah, blah, blah”. I’ve justified my behavior in my own mind and no one seems to give two shits about it, so I don’t either. Does that make me an undisciplined person?  That’s a grey area, and the answer depends on perspective.

So here I sit in a college full of “adults” that can’t seem to follow even the basics of social consideration; like waiting your turn in line or not talking at 100 decibels in the library. This basic stuff is rarely enforced via institution or by individuals. Therefore, these self-centered individuals just do whatever the hell they want, as the school sits around TALKING big with no real action.  

Then you have the important stuff. I was in a class where the cheating during an exam was so bad that I literally couldn’t concentrate and I requested to take my exam in another room. The students were talking throughout and exchanging papers and the teacher didn’t say shit. Do you see my point? These students are undisciplined BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT BEING DISCIPLINED. If the institution actually cared about their own mission statement, they would have enforced their own rule and suspended the entire class.

So the message that they are sending with these contradictions is that you will leave this institution as a “responsible and noble Filipino” but cheating is okay. The message is that cheating is a grey area, just like my water bottle example. “Rules are merely guidelines, so justify cheating, plagiarism, and generally rude behavior anyway you see fit, young noble.”

Training Update

I’m wrapping up my semester break and my training has been going very well for the past few weeks. I attribute this to several things. First, since school is out, my stress levels are way down. Second, I’ve been getting good sleep and better than average nutrition. But the main thing is that I’ve pretty much removed the training wheels and started training more instinctively.

"Also...a beard is sure to add weight to any lift"

 

I have been lifting weights (off and on) for over 20 years, but for the most part I lifted to maintain my weight and poured most of my energy into various other athletic pursuits. It wasn’t until I moved to the Philippines that I shifted gears to training with strength as the sole end. In some ways, I feel like I wasted all of that time. But in reality, I spent that time developing an endurance and mass base that serves me well today.

 

I rarely discuss my lifting numbers and my goals, but here goes. I’m 41 years old and I’ll be in the Philippines for 4 more years, and I plan to find a lifting team and compete when I return to the United States. I don’t have any record breaking dreams; I just want to total elite at some point. Even at my age, I don’t consider that to be a very lofty goal, but when you throw out the numbers that an elite total represents, it raises eyebrows, so I just don’t bother. I just tell folks that I’m trying to get stronger, and leave it at that.

 

I could compete here but it’d be a hassle and it’s already hard as fuck to coordinate traveling for necessary things. Telling the wife that I want to roll down to Manila to lift some weights isn’t really going to fly. I’ll just keep getting stronger and do that shit with a supportive team when I get back to Hawaii. It’s not like I’m going to roll in and hit anything big right now anyway.

 

The one thing I do know is that this shit takes time. Once I knuckled down, I went to a 300 squat and 400 deadlift fairly quickly, but it took another 18 months to take those numbers to 400 and 500. That sounds like a long time, but it’s still pretty fast. The next hundred pound increase could very well take 3 years, if I work hard. Granted, I did have a six month setback with a partially torn rotator cuff, but I squatted the whole time. It sucked, but it did help my squat quite a bit because I got a lot of practice squatting every session back then.

 

That’s where I am now; I’m hitting on the 400 squat and 500 deadlift 2 months ahead of my year end goal. I haven’t actually taken the singles because I was saving it for year end, but all of my training numbers indicate that it’s there pretty easily. I’m just plugging away and I’ll try to hit those numbers for doubles at year end. If it’s there it’s there, if not, I’ll still be perfectly happy with the singles.

I’m just starting to reach a point where I’ve tried enough different shit that I have a pretty good idea of what works for me. I’m not really programming right now per se and it’s working, so I’m rolling with it. I seem to make the best progress with a mix of heavy singles, doubles, and triples (and) rep work in a heavy/light format. So on a heavy day, I might work up to something heavy and stay there and do a lot of sets and maybe try to set some kind of a PR if it’s there. On a light day, I’ll work up to something heavy and then drop down and do a bunch of high rep sets and maybe try to set a rep PR if it’s there. I don’t go in thinking “this is a light (or) heavy day”; I determine that when I get to my top set based on how it feels. This is nothing new and probably a Frankenstein version of a dozen programs, but fuck it…I’m getting stronger and it’s working for me.

Random Thoughts

My next door neighbor was recently murdered (shot) at his home and they buried him this morning. My other neighbors are in their front yard popping off firecrackers RIGHT NOW. I’m not exactly Mr. Sensitive, but damn, that seems kind of like a common sense thing to abstain from today. You know…cuz it kinda sounds like…a little like…..I don’t know…..gun shots?

Let's just pop this shit off!

Staying Lean Year Round: Don’t Be That Guy!

I was sitting around at a corner sari-sari store shooting the shit and drinking a few beers with a friend a couple of days ago and he said something that sparked a brain storming session. Unlike me, he’s a friendly guy and actually talks to people in the gym. He said some dudes in the gym were bagging on him because he’s not currently sporting a six pack. Now this is a pretty big dude and although he’s a little smooth at the moment, he still has vascular arms and obvious muscle separation just walking around in a t-shirt. So what’s the problem?

Lattimer was probably a big eater off season

I experienced a similar thing a while back when a guy commented on my work ethic and said one day I’ll be as big as him. I was confused by this comment and thought the guy was delusional, since I probably outweigh him by 50-60 pounds.  What’s the definition of big? There is a bit of a language barrier, but what I think he meant was, a low body fat cut up look. So in his mind, being a 170 pound twink with a six pack, trumps actually being big and strong.

Not big, not strong...all twink.

This is so common. An average guy in my gym is probably 130-150 pounds and a “big” dude is say in the 170-180 range. The common denominator is that most of them are circa 10% body fat lean and although they train diligently, they don’t make any noticeable changes from year to year. They want to get freakishly big and strong, but their obsession with perpetual leanness is holding them back. They will never achieve the “look” they are chasing, because they want to have it 24/7. I’ll let you in on a little secret…those freakishly huge and lean guys in the magazines only look that way a handful of times per year.

The truly sad part is that many of these guys are on steroids. I don’t have any personal experience with steroids, but I can confidently say that they are wasting their money on that shit. If you’re not eating big it’s a waste in my opinion. It’s like pumping NO into a car with an empty gas tank and expecting it to perform. Fucking stupid!

So back to my friend, our ultimate goals are different, but the process to meet our goals is basically the same.  He works on strength to facilitate mass and I put on mass to get stronger. Here’s the conclusion that we both came to; if you don’t compete, to make the best progress, you should still train like a competitor for your given sport.

Think about it, a bodybuilder might do 2 shows per year and maybe just one that they consider to be the big show. How is that guy going to structure his training? He’s going to bulk up and then lean out for the show and see what’s going on. Then he will assess his weaknesses and work on being better for the next show. He will repeat this process over and over and continue to get better and better. Powerlifting is no different except that you’re peaking for strength instead of maximal size/leanness.

This is nothing new…it’s just good old fashioned periodization. So for the guy trying to get that bodybuilding look, I think peaking 2x per year is a decent way to go. I’d try to schedule these peaks around significant events like vacations and such to add a sense of urgency.  So it would look something like this:

6-8 weeks (Strength) get stronger on the heavy compound movements and eat big

6-8 weeks (Mass) coast on the big weights, increase the hypertrophy work and continue eating big

6-8 weeks (Cutting) increased cardio and tighten up the diet to peak

2-3 weeks (Awesomeness) coast, rest, and bask in your awesomeness

So you’ll only spend 10% of your time basking in your awesomeness and that kind of sucks. The truth however, is that you will at least be legitimately strong and awesome. And unlike your gym comrades, you’ll build yourself up to actual man size.

"Chow down"

 

How NOT to squat

I have this thing called Google+1 that I use with the blog, and for some reason I started searching through it today and stumbled across this. When I saw the safety pins I was kinda wondering if they might be set a notch too high, and then I saw this travesty. I'm not some kind of “proper form” or “ass to grass” Nazi, but this is just retarded.

405x8 belt-less at 170, with this fool building it up...man, I thought I was about to see something decent...but then I was presented with this steaming pile of suck instead. I clicked on the dude's link and it turns out that he's a licensed PT, and he's peddling a system called 6 pack shortcuts. Watching him cheer this guy on like everything's cool, and presenting it like this is how it's done had me rolling my eyes so hard that I got a headache. If the dude actually went down in the hole, he probably would get stuck there on a single. After this, how can you take anything else this guy has to say seriously?

Check your egos guys...this lame ass knee bend shit is an embarrassment.

Basic Training Structure: The Foundation

I was in the gym yesterday and noticed that everyone was walking around with, and referencing, the same program. The program was issued to members by the gym, and boy what a steaming pile of dog shit. It was a standard, balls to the wall muscle mag program; you know...body part split, 2-3 body parts per day, 3-4 exercises per body part, 3-4 sets per exercise, 8-12 reps per set, and everything was arranged all randomly. Like I said, a steaming pile of dog shit program. Actually, since there is no progression plan, is not even a program...it's just a shitty printed off “routine”.

Let me hook you up with some programming, Dawg!

To top it off, the plan calls for 20-30 minute cardio sessions done 2x per day, EVERY DAY! For those of you that are math challenged, that's 14 cardio sessions per week. The guy that showed it to me asked me how he should diet. “Dude, you need to be eating like a horse and drinking Crisco.”

As I wrote previously, there isn't one right way to go about your programming, but you should be using your fucking brain and doing your best to go about things logically. There are so many training variables and it can get confusing, and it would take several posts to just cover the basics. So I'm just going to lay out some foundational stuff here. The variables will change depending on your goal, training age, etc., but the foundation of “normal” programming doesn't really need to change that much. Three points.

1. Focus on the big movements, do them first (and) have a progression plan for said movements

This was the thing that really stuck out when I saw the above-mentioned routine. There was no star of the show exercise. Leg day for example was something like; 3 sets of leg presses, 3 sets of squats, 3 sets of extensions, 3 sets of dumbbell deadlifts (I'm not even kidding), 3 sets of leg curls, 3 sets of seated calf raises, and on and on. It was just a random list of exercises with no progression plan. If you have a list of 12 exercises to check off and the squat is number 6 on the list, how much effort do you think the trainee will give to it? That's the fucking star of the day and no one even knows it...they just half ass 3 sets of 90lbs and continue trudging away on the 2 hour “work” session.

1. continued (Choosing the main movement)

This is easy if you want to train like a powerlifter; squat one day, bench one day, and deadlift one day. If you like to train in bodybuilding fashion, your best bet is to choose the full range compound lift that allows you to lift the most weight & it'll usually be the right answer. That pretty much means that the power lifts will make it into rotation quite a bit. But if you really like to drill your shit down to things like specific arm days, that's cool, but the same principle applies. Kick off the session with weighted dips, close grips or straight bar curls, as opposed to press downs, kickbacks, and preachers.

This goes first

and this goes last...got it?



1. continued (Progression plan)

This matters the most, but at the same time it really doesn't matter so much. How you progress doesn't matter as much as the fact that you have a progression plan in the first place. It's all goal dependent. You can progress on weight, reps, density, or whatever else as long as it's in line with your current goal. I prefer to follow a specific system, but it can be as simple as progressing on reps until you hit a specific number, then upping the weight & lowering the reps and starting over.

2. Repeated effort work

You've already done some high end work for your main lift and now you can put in more work (assistance work) on the main lift, a variation of the main lift, another main lift from another day, or something entirely different (depending on how you have your routine structured). This will be another heavy compound movement done for more sets/reps. 5X5, 5x10, etc. Again, selection depends on your goal. There will be overlap as well. Someone working on top end strength might do rack pulls after pulling from the floor, but a bodybuilder might use the same exercise to develop his upper back. Same tool for different goals. It's not as important here, but I recommend to work on progression here as well.

3. Play time

This is where everything else goes. With the main movement and the repeated effort movement out of the way, you've pretty much done 90% of the work to get bigger and stronger. So now you can go have some fun. Use this time to do all of your lighter accessory stuff (single joint stuff, single limb stuff, and the fill in the gaps training). Don't get carried away with this stuff. If your training partner is screaming and slapping you on the head before a set of tricep push downs, you're doing it all wrong. Just get a good pump and split.



The real work is already done. This kind of shit is totally unnecessary at this point.

So a schedule could look like this for a strength oriented guy:

M- Squat

T- Press
T- Deadlift
F- Bench

A bodybuilder guy might roll like this:

M- Quads/hamstrings

T- Shoulders/calves
T- Back/ biceps
F- Chest/triceps

A sample strength oriented squat day would look something like this:

Squat (programmed) say 3-5 work sets of 1-5 reps (+warmups)

Olympic Squats 5x5
Lunges 3x10
Weighted abs (a bunch)

A bodybuilding oriented leg day would look something like this:

Squat (programmed) say 3-5 heavy work sets of 5-10 reps

Romanian Deadlift (programmed) Same as above
Leg press 3x10-20
Leg extension (superset with) leg curls 3-5 sets

The rest of the days would be the same basic structure. Pick the big joint movement to get strong on, pick a repeated effort movement to support the first movement, then do the other pump up stuff. Easy-E. Both of these setups represent a decent amount of work if you are really getting after it. You don't have to hit your muscles from every conceivable angle and grind yourself into dust with 40 set workout sessions to make progress. In fact, unless you are a rank novice, that shit will almost guarantee that you'll end up going nowhere.

 

 "Don't be that guy"

Squat: Elbow, Wrist and Forearm Pain

Elbow, wrist and forearm pain are pretty common for guys that squat heavy and often. When the weight started getting heavy, I was dealing with chronic pain on a regular basis. Everything I tried failed: grip variations, bar placement variations, hand spacing variations, etc. In the end, it was a major injury that ended up fixing it for good.

I tore my rotator cuff and bicep a while back and when I reentered the gym I spent 6 months doing nothing but squats an rehab work. For about the first month I was so fucked up that I literally had to use my right hand to place my left hand on the bar. What I discovered is that squatting with the injury totally fixed my elbow pain issue. Why? Because I couldn't squeeze and push on the bar. Hell, I couldn't even move my arm.

I ended up with a wider grip, but the real fix was my arm's relationship with the bar. I wasn't squeezing the bar, I wasn't pushing the bar, I was just holding the bar and letting it ride on my back. This is so simple and looking back, I feel kind of silly not figuring it out sooner. The reason I had pain (for years) was because I was squeezing the bar and inadvertently pushing up on it. So a heavy squat was not just a heavy squat...it was a heavy squat with a heavy static press (and) a lot of that weight was getting transferred down through my arms instead of my back where it belongs.

I'm sitting around 15 months post injury and my squat has improved about 50 pounds (pain free) in that time. I know that may sound like shit for some of you guys, but gains come slower and slower as your strength increases. You stronger guys will know what I mean.

Here's my advice. First, lower your training max a little and build back up. I think this is important when you are trying to make form changes because if you are operating too heavy, you're just going to end up doing whatever it takes to get shit done. What you are trying to do, is make a specific habit change and you're going to screw it up if you're in the gym bursting blood vessels in your eyes. Don't be a knucklehead, just drop the weight a little and work on developing the habit.

Shit happens when you lift heavy...but don't be in this mode when you're trying to sort things out.

Second, quit squeezing the shit out of the bar. I'm not saying that you need to limp wrist it or anything, but quit squeezing it like you're trying to open a jar of mayonnaise. Take a firm and manly grip, but stop there and quit trying to choke the life out of the bar. The harder you squeeze, the more you will end up pushing up on the bar without even realizing it.

Last, just let the bar ride on your back. You already have control and pushing up on it isn't doing jack shit to help you move that weight. Keep everything tight and let your legs and hips move the weight.

Here's the deal. If you're squatting heavy, it will hurt and it should hurt...that's just the game. It's okay for shit to get sore and “hurt”, but if you are feeling PAIN, something is wrong and you need to fix it. And I know from experience that this shit works.

"Give it a shot...what do you have to lose but some aggravating pain?"

Philippines: Welcome to Bizaaro World!

Here's the thing...if you decide to move to the Philippines, prepare to spend a lot of time scratching your head and wondering if the whole world just lost it's damn mind. Now I'm not saying everyone does abnormal shit here, but there sure is a lot of weirdness going down. The problem is that you'll likely be in the minority when something does seem off, because it will seem perfectly normal to almost everyone else. That disconnect will wear on you after a while and you'll start to question your own perception of the world. What's normal and what's not...at this point man, I barely know.

"Really man, please get off of the car, you're gonna scratch it"

There are too many examples to mention, but here's the one I'm thinking about today. Our town had a parade a few months ago and I had our car parked in front of the office. We are on Rizal Street, so the parade is definitely rolling up our block. I hit the gym and then I took my son to McDonalds for the post training feast. Yeah, my diet is 50% crap, but in my defense, I'm really more about getting strong than anything else at this point and the more calories the better in my opinion.

Anyway, when we returned from said fine dining establishment, we found our car covered with children; standing/sitting/walking on the hood, the roof and the trunk. The parents had placed their children there to get a good view of the parade. “Really, have you lost your fucking mind?” In what bizaaro world is this acceptable behavior?

Remember when Burt said something like "right or wrong depends on where you are standing on the planet at the time"? That's one smart mofo!

In defense of my poor car, I proceeded to tell folks to get their kids off of the car and they looked at me like I just lost my damn mind...crazy. Now here's the good part. After that, we went back to the office and I told the story to our employees. One of them responded and said something like, “oh yeah I saw that...but they were only children”. There you have it...that's the point...folks just don't know any better...it really is bizaaro world, man. It's all good, it's normal. A lot of shit that is totally dysfunctional will fall into this category here. And that's just how it is...you need to learn to work with it and work around it. Because no fucks will be given here...not due to a lack of caring, but due to a completely different outlook on life.

 "Really, I don't know what to say"

Wanna Lift Big Weight? Then Fill Your Heart With Hate!

It seems like I have been telling my kid this so much lately. That's right, I'm going for the father of the year award. I know, that sounds like a seriously negative attitude, but this mantra has served me well for years. When I was a kid I remember playing a game with a guy that I absolutely detested and I smoked him; up and down and sideways. I probably shouldn't have won, but the hate that I had made me focus and really knuckle down because, “I would not let this guy beat me, no matter what”. It really works...that kind of focus can make you almost unstoppable.

This mindset is similar to what you've probably read in books about successful people. They take criticism and negativity and use it it fuel their success. So my advice to my son is, not to get upset and retaliate when people screw with you. Just use that negativity to fuel your accomplishments, because your success is the best retaliation.

Pricks at school? Screw them! Knuckle down and ace every test (feel free to rub it in).
Jerks at work? Screw them! Knuckle down and be the top salesman (or whatever you do).
Ass holes at the gym? Screw them! Knuckle down and put up a stupid big squat.

 "Because sometimes a big lift really means FU"

Going to Jail

I was thinking about a close friend today. Sorry to write about you man, but at least I was thinking about you…hope all is well with the family. Anyway, he spent some time in jail and I was thinking about it and how I’d prepare for such a situation. Especially here in the Philippines where they just toss you in and sort it out later…perhaps years later.

I’ve had other friends that ended up in jail over the years but for them it was different because they were not able to make bail and went in from day one. This friend was a little different because he made bail and ended up with about 3 months to prepare. Before you get on your high horse and start saying it’ll never happen to you, just think about that for a second. We’ve all made mistakes over the years, but really, for the most part we just got lucky. Remember Tequila Sunrise? “we were both sharing a joint on the beach that day…Carlos went to jail and I went home”. Or something like that. The point is, we’ve all done dumb shit in our lives, and just got away with it.

Anyway, back to my friend. I think he was smart in the way he went about it. He was a state wrestling champ and he was already used to scrapping on the street/bars…whatever…check. He just ran some heavy steroid cycles, double downed on his training and walked through the gate sweating testosterone and strength. FYI: I've never done streoids and I'm not say'n it's a good idea, but I probably would in this situation, that's all.

Any rational person would do the same thing in my opinion; you’d program your shit to maximize your time and peak right before you go in. That’s a given…but what would you train? I think it’s easier to say what you wouldn’t do. You would not waste energy on anything that did not make you crazy strong and you sure as hell wouldn’t worry about your abs.

Yeah you can use the can, but you have to pee sitting down...abs boy.

If it were me, all of my training would be barbell and bodyweight based. Fuck training for appearance, fuck high endurance…I want to be all go, now! Really…have you ever been in a street fight that lasted more than a minute or two in your life? Heavy squats, heavy pushing and heavy pulling; supplemented with high rep chins, pushups, handstand presses, jumps and burpees. I’d eat like a horse to fuel my training and let the chips fall wherever. Fuck long runs in the park, fuck leg extensions, cable cross overs, preacher curls and fad diets…just give me a barbell, a steak and a huge plate of rice. The end result might not look “pretty”, but you’d be functional as hell (and) you’d be in better shape than 99.9% of the people walking the planet.

So why am I writing this? I’m really just trying to make a point, but if you are reading this because you are actually facing a prison term, just e-mail me and we can go over some programming.

Back to my point…My aforementioned friend told me once that he felt sorry for a coworker, because he was small and weak. Now this guy was a top producer in our industry and making money hand over fist, but my friend made a good point; that’s great, but how can this guy protect his family? Really, that’s our main function as men…yeah we earn money to put food on the table and so on, but it really boils down to protecting our loved ones. You can buy a gun for protection I guess, but what are you going to do when you don’t have it with you? You should be prepared for the worst case scenario in my opinion.

So when you think about your training, ask yourself this question. What if I was going to jail in 3 months, 6 months, whatever? You’ll be in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth…how would you train to survive…to dominate? That’s how you should be training most of the time in my opinion. Training to be a fucking tank!

 "Be a man...guns are for pussies"

Carb Backloading and Training Update

Screw Carb Backloading, it sucks balls and I want to stab it in the eye with a fork! I gave it a run and everything was great: I was pigging out every night, I was dropping fat, my energy was up and I was having some solid gym sessions. But man...as soon as school started up, it began to look like an intermittent fasting protocol and I started to feel like shit.

"grab a fork and make the first attack...lights out"

I really am happy with the backloading system, but it just wasn't working out for ME due to MY schedule and MY unwillingness to spend the extra time cooking and packing food. I live in a remote part of the Philippines and can't just pick up a tub of protein from GNC at the mall after work, so it's a lot of cooking and dining out for me. Sometimes you just need to make adjustments on the fly. So at this point, I'm just doing my no diet-diet. It's pretty simple; just eat like a normal human and do your best to make wise decisions.

To compensate for that added stress of school, I gutted my whole program after my last cycle. Man...that last cycle and plowing thru all of those heavy doubles during exams really, really sucked ass. I was so happy when I finally wrapped up the last session. Now I'm back to my “go to” program. I scaled down my assistance work to the “bare bones” essential movements and nothing more. I took maxes for my assistance lifts and then cut the start weight to 50%, and programmed them for increases. I also cut my training maxes pretty deep (20%).

My TITANIC ego is taking a major beating right now with all of the weight cuts, but I know I'm being smart about it and it'll pay off down the road. Everything feels light and easy (and) I know that I'll be able to roll past the new year strong without stalling. Side note: isn't it funny how the new year usually represent a goal line for people like “us” (and) a starting line for everyone else?

Yeah, that's about the right size.

School in the Philippines: Culturally Biased Tests (weird stuff)

I'm pursuing a 2^nd degree here in the Philippines and this semester I was required to retake Sociology for some reason...I guess because the course name was a little different. I took “Intro to Sociology” back in the day and the required class for my degree here is called “General Sociology with Family”. It's pretty much “same shit/same smell” in my opinion, but they let me slide on several other classes, so I just bit the bullet and rolled with it. For me it's really a sociology/anthropology class and has some value because I'm re-learning the same thing from a different perspective.

Furious Styles knew about that culturally biased testing shit back in the day!

So we had prelims this week and I did okay, but the Sociology test was actually the most difficult; not because the material was complex, but because the questions were presented from a completely different viewpoint. A whole bunch of shit was weird to me, but I'm going to throw out this example.

Anomic and Egoistic suicide: Now the simple definitions are as follows:

Anomic Suicide: Something happens in you life where you end up with a shitload of freedom and you basically don't know how to act, because the rules all relax over night. The example in the book is a dude that hits the lottery and can just do what he wants.

Egoistic suicide: You feel cut off, alone, isolated and detached from the community,  so you kill yourself.

The question on the test was something like this: (majorly paraphrasing)....Your parents kick the bucket and you're all alone to make your own way in the world, so you off yourself. What kind of suicide is this according to Durkheim?

I'm thinking...”Shit..if Mom and Dad kicked the bucket I'd feel alone and disconnected...it's obviously egoistical, right?

Not so fast Skippy/ Rickey!

RICKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a matching test and Egoistic suicide isn't and option...and Anomic Suicide is the only match in the category, so I verified with the teacher that my test paper was correct. So...yep...strange to me or not, that's how they roll here. Loss of parents would represent sudden freedom, as opposed to feelings of isolation because they are gone. Makes sense?

"They punched the clock on ol' Rick!"

Lazy Guy Programming

I'm probably the laziest mother fucker on the planet when it comes to programming. I use some common sense when I plug in assistance work, but I also REALLY try to minimize plate loading and moving around in the gym when I write my programming. I'm more of a camper guy...I like to unpack my shit, plant my ass in one place and go to work.

Just a leftover photo of Elisabeth Shue that never made it from my CPU to a previous post. My gift to you...lord have mercy....

I was at Pizza Hut yesterday pounding my post workout meal, and thinking about my session and thought...Damn...I didn't leave the rack for an hour and a half and still probably made 10X the progress of everyone else in the gym. To the untrained eye, I just mindlessly squatted for an hour or so. But in reality, I did my work sets and 2 assistance movements: I worked up to a heavy double (maximal strength work...check!), did 4X3 pause squats (addressed my weak spot out of the hole with some dynamic type work...check!), and did 5x10 burn outs at 50% (hypertrophy work to increase my strength ceiling and some extra grove work...check!).

Now I'm 30 minutes out of the gym and everything's pretty fried: quads, hams, glutes, abs, lower back, upper back, and erectors. I'm ravenously hungry and systemically trashed...so what the fuck else do I need to do? I didn't dick about moving all around the gym and I didn't have to load any plates after my top double, because after that I just stripped weight. Now that's what I call training economy.

I do the same crap every session whenever possible. Deadlift day for example; pull, stiff legs, and shrugs. It amounts to the same thing: I do my heavy pulling from the floor, strip it down for stiff legs, then use about the same weight for high rep shrugs. I hit the main movement, hit the assistance I think drives my deadlift, and never leave the platform. Now that's lazy man thinking right there!

FYI: here's my current schedule:

Day 1: Squats, pause squats, high rep squats
Day 2: Chins, abs (at home)
Day 3: Deads, SLD, shrugs
Day 4: Bench, press, row

That small home session floats with the bench session depending on my schedule and when I'm in town. I'm not even close to dead set on a schedule. I hit it when I can, but it usually works out to be every other day or so, and I try to squeeze in lighter daily conditioning. Conditioning everyday? Yeah...why not, a few sets of burpees or skips aren't going to infringing on recovery. Just gotta be smart and go easy.

"Go get big, strong and lazy"

Carb Backloading

I have been chasing some squat and deadlift numbers in the gym and eating with reckless abandon for the last 6 months because I know the weight gain will help me hit my numbers. I don’t have a scale and the gym scale is broken, so I’m just guessing here: I’m probably running at about 230-240lbs. It’s quite a bit lower than you’d expect from a 6 month unlimited bulk, but the local Filipino diet really isn’t conducive to gaining and holding weight.

The plan was to gain as much weight as possible for six months and then start cleaning up my diet to “grow into” that weight. Basic re-composition; put on a little more muscle and lose a bit of fat and try to keep the bodyweight about the same. Yes I know that you can’t put on totally lean weight because some fat will accompany it, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. You can lean out and maintain weight. I’ve done it plenty of times.

By the end of May (6 month mark) I was feeling like total crap and happy to be done. I didn’t really let myself go completely, but my body fat was getting up there. Every lifter with a 2 pack is convinced that they are at 15% body fat but I’m not that guy. I’m not pulling out the calipers, but I’d say I’m easily 20%+.

So here I was just poking around on line trying to get some diet structuring ideas beyond the basic “just eat cleaner” thing (which still works by the way). Several top powerlifters that I respect are running Kiefer’s Carb Backloading protocol with good results in both fat loss and strength, so I looked into it. http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/

What I found was a diet structure that mirrored one that I ran about 12 years ago.  I refer to that time of my life as “the bait and switch” because that’s when I met my wife and I was lean as fuck when we met and then I blew up about a year later.

At the time I was a typical meat head bachelor and besides work, my life revolved around training and paddling. I worked up to it, but by the end of the season my training looked like this:

Monday:              Lunch- Lift           Afternoon-Paddle Practice

Tuesday:              Lunch- Run          Afternoon- Lift

Wednesday:        Lunch- Off           Afternoon- Paddle Practice

Thursday:             Lunch- Run         Afternoon- Lift

Friday:                   Lunch- Lift          Afternoon- Paddle Practice

Saturday:              Off

Sunday:                 Race

This kind of paddling

Despite my steady diet of frozen pizza, frozen burritos and ice-cream sandwiches, at the end of the season, I was super lean with a 32” waist at about 190lbs. I felt strong every day and still kicked ass in practice. I always figured that I managed to out train my diet back then, but since then I have replicated that training volume during triathlon seasons but never managed to get that lean again. Up until now, I kind of figured it had more to do with father time.

Usually 2-3 of these

and a box of these

So when I started researching carb backloading it hit me. The thing that was different about that paddling season was that I was carb backloading and maybe I didn’t lean out like that in spite of my diet…but because of my diet. At that time I was running on protein shakes during the day up until my 2^nd training session or practice, and then I’d go home and pound pizza and ice-cream sandwiches before crashing out.  I was carb backloading by accident and didn’t know it. Hell, the system wasn’t even invented yet.

First off, let me issue a disclaimer here…I did not buy and read the Carb Backloading book, instead I just read, listened to, and watched everything I could find online and oddly enough, there really isn’t that much information out there. If you want the entire fine tuning details you’ll need to buy the book, but Kiefer has freely given enough information to run his system in broad strokes.  Here’s the gist of it as I understand it:

The cornerstone of the system is the manipulation of your insulin levels. Insulin affects everything, but I’m only going to discuss fat and muscle cells here. Your body is most sensitive to insulin in the morning and it tapers off throughout the day. Insulin is an anabolic hormone for both fat and muscle, so the idea is to use it to drive nutrients (grow) muscle and minimize fat growth. Since insulin will grow both muscle and fat cells, you want to keep it low throughout the day to minimize growth in general.

What Kiefer recommends is to skip breakfast (I’ll touch on this later), eat low carb up until training at 3-6 p.m., and then pound carbs until bedtime. The reason for this is because insulin sensitivity bottoms out at this time of day and the heavy training “turns on” your muscle’s sensitivity to insulin. The heavy training does not increase fat cell insulin sensitivity, so you’ll be eating all of your carbs when your muscles can easily soak them up (due to training) and your fat cells are disadvantaged (due to the time of day). That’s it in a nutshell. The caveat here is that it’s a diet for hard training individuals and it wouldn’t be nearly as effective for “regular folks”.  

As for Kiefer’s recommendation to skip breakfast, it’s because of the catabolic hormone cortisol. Apparently, cortisol levels peak in the morning along with insulin sensitivity. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which means that it breaks shit down, which is bad for muscle. According to Kiefer, in the absence of insulin, cortisol prefers to attack the fat cells. So his recommendation is to leave well enough alone, skip breakfast and let the cortisol go to work on the fat stores. I’m majorly paraphrasing of course.

I’m almost 3 weeks in and feeling pretty good. As I said, I don’t have access to a scale so I took body measurements at the waist, chest, thigh and arms. I carry most of my fat in my gut and chest and my arms and legs tend to stay pretty lean, so I figure that this is probably the best way to track progress. As of today I’ve dropped 1.5” on my waist, dropped 1” on my chest and my arms and legs are unchanged. So far so good and it looks like I’m slowly dropping fat and still maintaining my lean mass. It’s not a drastic improvement, but that’s not what I’m after. I initially planned to give Backloading a 3 month run, but I really think I might take it for a 6 month ride now. It’s an easy diet to follow consistently and over time, all of those inches will add up to a decent change. I’m pleased so far and it sure as hell beats out “eating cleaner”.

 

 "Slow and steady"

Flexible Programming: Have a Backup Plan

I consider flexibility to be one of the most important components of a good program. I have heard so many people say that they are not motivated to train and although I really don’t understand that mindset, I can tell you that not having a backup plan is probably a big factor driving that statement. People tend to get off track on rigid programs because it’s all or nothing. My recommendation is to have a backup plan for every part of your program to include both scheduling and the actual training sessions. Figure out what you WANT to do and also what you NEED to do and you’ll have a program with a good backup plan.

Sometimes this is good enough

 I think of it as plan A, plan B, and plan C: plan A is the bare minimum to achieve my goal, plan B is extra work to support that goal, and plan C is reserved for my crazy/stupid side. Most people write out their programming with the best intentions and they leave no stone unturned. They load up their schedule with lots of lifting and then they fill in every nook and cranny with supplemental and conditioning work. When in reality just a few things will get the job done and keep the progress coming. I have no problem with ambitious programming as long as you understand the bare minimum requirements to make progress and are willing to drill everything down when you need to.

The first thing to consider when writing your program is when you will train. Most folks will specify certain days, MWF for example. This might be necessary based on your life schedule, but I think approaching it more like “I’ll train every 2-3 days” makes more sense if you can swing it. Maybe you’ll hit it every other day like clockwork and blaze through a cycle in 4 weeks. On the other hand, if everything goes to crap, what’s the worst thing that will happen? Maybe you’ll end up stretching that cycle out for another week or two. You’re a lifer and you’ll be lifting for 30-40 more years, is it really going to make a difference?  No it won’t…but that built in flexibility will go a long way to keeping you on track.

I also recommend having a full plan on training days, while being prepared to call an audible. This is not a license to be a pussy, but the minimum goal should be to just get in and do your core movement’s working sets. You can have all kinds of crap lined up; extra singles, multiple back off sets, 2-3 assistance movements, post training conditioning, etc. But if all you can manage on this day are 3-5 heavy squat sets, just do that and leave, happy that you got your main work in and that you moved forward. Plus, there is something kind of primal and barbaric about a guy that just rolls in to the gym, squats heavy and walks out. If I see a guy do that, I’m not thinking anything negative at all, just “that guy has his shit together”.

Here’s a sample squat session so you’ll see what I’m talking about:

Plan A:

Squat – (Whatever I have programmed) right now it would be a warm up then my work sets (6 sets of 2)

If I get to the gym and feel like crap or have limited time, I’ll do this & bail and be totally cool with it. This is the bare minimum work that I need to make progress and it earns me the right to move on to the next session.

Plan B:

Squat – Work sets (6 sets of 2)

Squat – Back off sets (1^st work set weight X3X10)

Good mornings – 5x10

Weighted abdominal work: 5 sets

This represents a full session and an average day. There is nothing special going on here…just getting the work in to support my squat.

Plan C:

Plan C is reserved for just getting stupid in the gym and tends to result in a massive training hangover. So it’s plan B, plus whatever else I decide to do: maxing out, tons of back off sets, repping to failure, running around the gym getting a ridiculous pump, stuff like that. Plan C is good old fashioned poor judgment and tons of fun.

I really think that building flexibility into your program is super important. Having a backup plan will keep you motivated to plug away and move forward even in the shittiest of conditions. Sometimes things can get rigid, a peaking cycle for example…there’s really not much that you can do about it so just suck it up and go to work for a couple of months. For your meat and potatoes training though, I strongly recommend that you build as much flexibility into it as you can.

 "Just don’t use it as an excuse to be a pussy"

The World’s Best Training Program

“Is the one you are not doing.” This is just another way to say “the grass is greener on the other side” and there is no magic program. In my opinion, the best training program is to do whatever you want/need to do, as long as you Squat, Press and Pull. For the novice, or if you’re super slow like the kid that ass raped Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas, you should probably just run a pre written program. But in the end, everyone has different goals and everyone responds differently to different training methods, so at some point, it’s a good idea to start organizing your own programming.

He said he wanted to put it in her butt, and well...he did.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what your end goal is, the squat, a press, and the deadlift should be your basic core movements. This is the strength foundation for a good program. It really is that simple. You want to be a bodybuilder? Great…squat, press, pull and body build. Want to be an MMA fighter? Great…squat, press, pull and do your MMA stuff. Want to crossfit? Great…squat, press, pull and crossfit. Etc., Etc., Etc.  

Basic Programming:

The key is to program these core movements for continued strength increases. The method doesn’t really matter; just do what works for you. You can run linear progression, wave the weights, run back to back peaking cycles, increase the reps over a cycle then up the weight, whatever; as long as you follow a logical progression plan.

Frequency and program organization:

Do whatever works for you and your schedule. This is where YOU need to think.

Stalling:

No matter what progression plan you chose, you WILL stall/plateau, whatever you like to call it. Two steps forward and one step back is the name of the game. Lower the weight 10-15% and start over and you WILL continue to make progress. The sooner you accept this, the better.

Conditioning:

A good program has three things: a strength component, enough conditioning to support your sport/training, and sport specific training to get you better at what you want to do. That’s it…simple.

I really don’t think that anyone should over think this part. Just do the minimum conditioning necessary to support your training and to excel at your sport.

Conclusion:

I know that 90% of the dudes that stumble across this are going to have either a bodybuilder or powerlifter mindset. Having said that, here’s my take of the subject. Bodybuilders should train like powerlifters and powerlifters should train like bodybuilders. Stronger muscles will be bigger muscles and bigger muscles will have a bigger cross section with more strength potential. The core movements are the same, and the assistance work should be similar, but the assistance exercise selection is where they will differ…that’s all.

So in a nutshell, get strong as possible on squatting, pressing and pulling, run your assistance in a higher rep range to put on some jack, and just select the proper assistance exercises to accomplish your goal. For a body builder, that means balancing the physique and for a powerlifter, that means driving the main lifts.

Disclaimer: Nothing new here; just getting
bigger, faster and stronger on the basics.