I have wiped the slate clean. Rid of people who were negative, life sucking drains in my life. Everyday it feels better. I feel better.
I have no idea why people won't let go of family or friends who shorten their life span. I learned to do this with people a long time ago, but haven't put it into effect enough lately. But I'm good again. I know that everyones breaking point is different, but it should be measured in months, not years. Certainly not decades. I know people who keep friends around that do nothing but take, take, take. That's not a friendship. A friendship, whether that be your spouse or your buddy, should be that compliments your life and theirs. I'm not saying you don't endure bad times together. You do. That's exactly what friends are for. To help prop you up when you are at your weakest.
However there comes a time when to cut ties, when all your friend does is drain you and create a constant negative in your life. Put in the effort to help them get over whatever it is they need to get over, but at some point everyone has to help themselves. If they aren't willing or can't do that, and it's a drain on your own life, they have to go. And you have to be willing to let them go. It doesn't make you an asshole. It means you realize you have gone more than halfway, and they aren't willing to meet you the rest of the way. I said MORE than halfway. A good friend does go the extra mile, however that friendship should be reciprocated. And in time of weakness the other person still have to take some steps to meet you.
When I realized I had gone about 3/4 of the way, and the last 1/4 wasn't going to happen by those other people, I knew I had to cut them out. At that point, it wasn't hard anymore. Because I could look at myself in the mirror and know that I gave as much as I should have given, and had no regrets. I let one of the two know that if they ever wanted to really be my friend again, just call me and learn how to meet me halfway.
I am at peace.
Training wise I am also at peace.
I have managed to hit a 605 squat, 430 close grip bench, and 650 deadlift in the last 3 weeks. Only one is a PR, however I exhaled last night after the 605 squat, knowing all the work was over and that outside of some nicks I am healthy. My shoulders and elbows are a bit irritated, and my pec minors are as well. However I think some rest will help fix those quite a bit and so will some anti inflammatories. My right IT band is also slightly irritated but not enough that I was bothered in squatting. I am still thinking about my attempts because I talked to Wendler last night and he's drilling me about going really conservative on my openers and second attempts. I had some different thoughts in mind, but I respect what Jim has to say so we'll see. I'm not a egotistical lifter and never have been, so I know I'll be smart about this.
I am friends with this female that was in Playboy (I'm not kidding and I'm not dropping her name). I grew up with her in the small town I lived in. Anyway, she asks shit like "who wants to mow my yard?" and like dudes show up with lawn mowers, ready to mow. She asks who wants to take her out to Victoria Secret for shopping? And dudes will show up and take her shopping.
Let me let you in on something right now fellas. If you do that, you will not EVER get to hit it. Fact.
Her and I had a laugh about it actually. I said "you know that you don't respect any of those guys that bow down like that. You're never going to bang any of those guys, even though they think they are getting in your good graces by doing that shit."
She laughed and said "you're right." I know I'm right. I had two sisters growing up and have been surrounded by women my whole life. Guys don't get this shit, and I don't know why. The guy that tells her "Uhhh, I'm not mowing your yard. I'll loan you my mower, but you gotta do your own work." is the guy that has a better chance. Because she'll respect him. Guys are generally pretty pathetic when it comes to working with women. Giving in to everything they ask and stomp around for is a sure way to make sure they never respect you. And if a woman doesn't respect you, well you're just kind of her bitch.
My 4 year old has discovered He-Man. So I've been watching it in the afternoons with her. I love it because I laugh so much and she thinks it's so awesome. I think the show was created by a bunch of gay dudes because every guy is totally jacked, and Prince Adam (wouldn't it have been awesome if they had named him Prince Albert?) wears a pink shirt and purple tights. Man At Arms has a total pornstache, and every dude has tight crotched pants. The one thing I laugh at, is that Prince Adam doesn't even change when he turns into He-Man. He just has on less clothes. But no one recognizes that it's Prince Adam. And of course Adam is never around when He-Man is. These cartoons are filled with idiots. Better than that is just the random silliness of it all. And even better, is that I get to spend that time with my 4 year old laughing and talking about it all. The bestest!
If you didn't see that Pat Berry - Kongo fight, go watch it. Un-flippin-real.
I still have not caught up on any movies. If you've been reading here long enough you'll know that I go in cycles of watching a ton of shit for a while, then nothing for a while. I have to let the queue build up with shit I want to see. Right now nothing really excites me.
Not a ton to write on this week. I just feel elated to be ready for the meet. After the meet I am going to get my run on, do my shake diet for about 6 weeks, and lean back up to 240. Can't wait.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
RE: Pat Barry v. Kongo...I was damn near jumping up and down, yelling "why isn't he stopping that???" b/c Kongo went out COLD at least twice. Then....WTF JUST HAPPENED???? LMAO
ReplyDeleteGreat fight.
Somehow I missed it, and then was told from 10 people "OMG how about that Barry Kongo fight!!!!"
ReplyDeleteI finally watched it last night. Amazing.
paul,
ReplyDeletespeaking of friends,
i was having a argument, well more of a "heated discussion" with a "friend" of mine who is thinking about taking the juice. he's not a big guy to begin with(yes this is a REAL FRIEND).
So yeah, he is not a big guy, he has potential and has worked out in some way or another for years.
He does some form of MMA, i think he said wrestling and muay thai 3 times a week and now hes been into weight training for a couple of years too. anyway, what we were "discussing" is that he tells me,
"i came into some TesT Cyp 200 and im gonna take it to bulk up to another weight class. It wont make me too Big or Bulky if i keep doing my MMA training and hitting the weights."
Then i tell him,(which i could be wrong about)
"but wont that defeat the purpose , because its MY understanding that if u run something like that, it will only enhance whatever charachteristics u work at. as in, if u are a cross country biker, it will enhance those charateristics, if u are a bodybuilder, it enhances those, so in general it wont really "bulk" you up to another weight class without losing your "athletic" attributes. and besides u dont eat enough for that.
so then he basically tells me that hes going to adjust calories for extra expenduture and growth etc etc.
the question is, if he does that, will it or will it not change his "athelete look" and or performance, or neither of them or BOTH? or will it only enhance his strength, agressiveness and performance while hes ON THEM and then return to normal after hes done, even if he does PCT.(he says he will do PCT, but idk how reliable that is lol).
Anyway, were not looking for a DEFINITE answer, just your thoughts and opinions on it because clearly u have been around / known more about the game than either of us, and what i mean is im sure u know of more guys who have done it with at least SOME of those certain criteria.
Thanks,
New Reader,
Frank T.
Frank -
ReplyDeleteA few things you left out is how much he plans on running and for how long. A guy running 250mg a week for a year is different than a guy running a gram a week for 3 months. Two different animals obviously. You also didn't tell me how big of a jump he needs to make in weight. That matters as well.
Either way, to give you and your friend a generic answer, test will make you bigger and stronger. However when he comes off, no amount of PCT will keep what that test gave him. When the hormone has run its course and no more is coming in, he'll go back to what he was before that eventually. He might keep a very small %, but nothing note worthy.
Second, he has no idea what kinds of side effects he will experience. Lots of guys low back pumps, gain water weight (which KILLS conditioning), and have other issues.
If his love is MMA but he wants to move up a weight class, then his best bet is to just up his calories (clean, or as much as possible), and reduce MMA down to 2 days a week and concentrate on lifting and getting larger.
The key principle in progress is always defining the main goal, and then setting other things on the back burner until it is accomplished. So in other words if he just wants to move up a weight class, then concentrate on that. Because doing that will be difficult. If he wants to use to test to do that, he has to be aware that when his cycle is over eventually the gains from the test will dry up. It has nothing to do with PCT. No matter what anyone tells him. PCT just gets his system back to normal. And normal is what he was before the test cycle.
His quantity is also hurting him. 1 bottle isn't really enough to do anything but get you by for a while. Mixed with good solid workouts and good there will be some gains, but enough to move up a weight class? Not sure. Depends on how far away that weight class is.
paul,
ReplyDeleteoh i see. his weight class now is 135 and he wants to fight at 155, so theoritcally it would be beneficial to him to "walk" around 10 to 15 heavier than the 155 to maintain his strength etc etc after his "cut", so hes not a SMALL 155.
as far as how long he was planning on running it, he said 12 weeks. and he just told me 200mg / week. and the time limit hed like to try and accomplish this within is 6 to 8 months, Test he says is just to give him a "headstart" because realisitically he says he KNOWS that its not possible to gain all that weight and have some of it not be fat, sloppy, etc. which apparently he isnt concerned with.
Damn Wrestler. lol.
p,s- u said "low back pumps".....what is that?
thanks,
Frank T.
So he needs to gain 20 pounds of lean mass.
ReplyDeleteTry 2 years or more.
Think of it this way. You can't just gain 30 pounds of lean mass. With lean muscle comes more water and more glycogen. If he wants to be the same body at at 165 that he is at 135, you're talking a 18-20 pounds of lean mass. With 18-20 would come the 10-12 of glycogen and water storage for that mass. This probably isn't going to happen in 6 months.
There is a world of difference in a guy that is 135 lean and 165 lean. Since he's not a rank beginner he isn't going to get those nice beginner gains.
Again, if the new weight class is his goal, set aside a year to do it in, cut the MMA back to twice a week then get to 170+. The reason I say that is, when he goes back to MMA 3+ times a week, he will flatten out a bit and lose some mass he gained from hypertrophy based training. Maintenance will have to be done, so have a base to train down to.
It's kind of like this. If a client tells me they want to weigh 150 down from 180, I get them to 142-145 because once "normalcy" sets back in, there is a bit of a gain. So then they sit perfectly at 150. Same here, if he wants to be 165 then train up to 172ish, scale training back to MMA, then he should balance back out around 165ish.
paul,
ReplyDeletethats sound and logical advice, im still confused as to what a "low back pump" is. is that something he needs to be concerned about or a typo?
Frank T
Just do a search for "low back pump" and anabolics and read about it a bit. It's brutal to say the least.
ReplyDeleteok wow, that sounds horrible, i called and made him read up on it to , he reads one "article", probably a message board and says " fuck that, ill pass" . lol. he said say thanks and he will be sure to check out your site/ blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Frank T
LOL! The low back pumps do suck ass. Not everyone gets em from test however. It's generally an oral thing.
ReplyDeleteAnother good Post Paul. Hopefully you can detail your "leaning out" methods. I'm also looking to lean out (once I get to 245) but dont want to lose too much muscle or strength...
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteLove the thoughts today. I think it is worth mentioning that not only should you cut out negative friends and family but in general anyone who is a negative person. I have completely avoided coworkers because I don't want to associate with their bullshit negativity. May not make you popular, but it helps you sleep well at night.
It certainly does.
ReplyDelete